Reader

Tuesday January 21st 202 2 and I call this meeting of the Board of Education to order Cindy would you please call the role Thomas present AR here Meadows sler present mat here Nick kilberg present here next I'd like to invite Mr RJ manthis to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible withy andice for all Mr Kim are there any items to remove or add to the agenda this evening no there is not all right then we are going to begin by celebrating success this evening we celebrate the success of the red carpet reads program at Rolo Middle School I would like to welcome to the podium Dr Diana wolf Learning Resource Center Director at RMS and Dr Nikki Woodruff language arts teacher at RMS red carpet reads is an incentive program that encourages students to read and we can't wait to hear all about it right well good evening I'm Dr Diana wolf I'm the lrc director at Rolo middle school and I'm here with my colleague Dr Nikki Woodruff who teaches 8th grade ELA we are excited to highlight our red carpet reads program a schoolwide reading program that has been running annually at Middle School since 2007 since the original startup the program as well as the enthusiasm for reading has continued to grow each school year a list of Highly engaging diverse books is curated to reach the specific needs and identities of Middle School readers at their Leisure students try to read as many of these books that they can to win prizes for themselves as well as a whole class through grant money and a strong partnership with the bavia public library we are able to supply multiple copies of each book on the list to do our best to keep everyone involved reading is a social activity and when we can when we can apply Supply a common set of books to our students they can talk to each other about these stories pass them along and use them for group assignments and of course become more proficient readers it is with this philosophy that has made the red carpet reads competition a successful springboard for a positive sense of community between students and staff at RMS while also giving students confidence in Reading as they explore and read books together we spoke with a few RMS students and here is what Mara had to say once you start reading the books you realize how much you actually do like to read Molina said it influenced the kids to go out and try new books like get out of our comfort zone so far this school year students on team 81 read books ultimately through programs like red carpet reads the partnership created between the lrc and the classroom exhibits the importance of reading to our students Dr Wolf made weekly announcements updating students and staff on the status of progress for each grade level which created consistent awareness a buzz of motivation and authentic discussions based on reading around the school the red carpet reads books were on display as soon as the students entered the lrc and the collection provided extremely engaging and relatable titles as well as seasoned authors such as Jason Reynolds and Alan grats this sparked their curiosity and transformed students into seeing themselves as readers for these specific books Argo they began to discover they liked certain authors which prompted them to seek out additional titles and keep reading thus solidifying their reading identities once they experienced success and form this identity they veered off the list and read more books just last week a student came to me after completing Refugee by Alan Gratz a book not on the red carpet reads asking for additional title by him I slightly supplied a pile of several titles by various authors he chose the one and only book by Gratz the excitement behind this book Choice can be attributed to his reading identity which was enhanced by this program many ELA teachers are regularly visiting the lrc for book checkout book Hooks and various activities connected to reading independent reading time is built into our classroom schedules and in Bulldog block for ELA classes in addition to in-class reading time students are responsible for reading 10 to 15 pages a day from a self- selected independent Choice book they are held accountable for the completion of books but their time is incentivized and rewarded as well with our book chain competitions students are allowed to triple dip by getting Credit in class for their finished books as well as competing in earning prizes in the library and classroom for their responses to these books despite the numerous students competing in red carpet reads there were just as many kids in my classes that were reading the books while not necessarily submitting the forms for the prizes undeniably red carpet reads builds and bolsters a community of readers due to the carefully curated titles highly talented authors and the buyin from teachers and staff members throughout the whole school in close closing the success of the red carpet reads program is a direct reflection of the collaboration passion and dedication of our students staff and Community it's not just about the books we read or the prizes that we win it's about cultivating a love of reading encouraging students to step outside their comfort zones and helping them form lasting identities as readers when students connect with books authors and each other they are not only growing as readers but as individuals we are proud of the work that we have done together and we look forward to continuing to inspire and Empower our students to read learn and grow thank you thank you thank you for that uh now we'd like to move on to section 4.1 for the public I'd like to welcome everyone here to the meeting of the board of the education if anyone wishes to address the board this evening please see our recording secretary Cindy Rodriguez and purple over there to submit a form for addressing the board please put your full name and address on the form in general the board will not answer questions or engage in dialogue during public comment this does not mean that we do not take your concerns or comments seriously the board values active Community participation in the district's Endeavors and encourages people to engage with the district using the appropriate channels and systems designed with your input in mind board members are not involved in the day to today operations of the district and cannot engage in District business individually if you have specific questions or would like to further engage with the district you may submit your questions using the link on the website and the appropriate staff member will communicate with you our BPS 101 communications director hly dman will now explain the procedures for public comment and call up the speakers thank you vice president kilberg speakers will be called up in order of form submission we have three forms today so the first form received is the first person invited to speak when your name is called please come to the podium so that you can be heard all individuals speaking will be limited to 3 minutes the three minute timer will be displayed on projected onto the screen and we'll start once you are settled at the podium at any time during this meeting written comments may be submitted to our recording secretary Cindy Rodriguez speakers should conduct themselves with Civility and respect towards others our first speaker is Laura hefley I am here tonight as a member of this community a parent an aunt on of children in the district and on behalf of a friend who cannot be here this evening mental health is a crucial aspect of a student's overall well-being and academic success tonight I'm talking about the mental health of our students suffering at the hands of a bully I have observed incidents of bullying being downplayed dismissed or not addressed with seriousness and urgency it deserves teachers cannot have a productive curriculum and worry about babysitting students who continue to be a problem these students are disruptive and detrimental to the learning of others failure to intervene in a timely and meaningful manner only perpetuates a toxic School culture where victims of bullying feel isolated powerless and unsafe I have spoken to Dr Brad newerk and I trust he will share with you my email and our resultant conversation if you have not been informed there's a student whose life was threatened by another student who is a known bully in the school my friend and their child were forced to miss work and school for court today to file a restraining order a step that unfortunately is not just to protect themselves and their family but it is because they cannot trust that our school is doing enough to protect our children while I appreciate the school's due diligence in a fair process if history repeats itself the student will return after only a short punishment and our children will not be safe from the very concerning and escalating behavior of this bully if there was a toxic substance leaking into our school affecting the health and well-being of those at the school you would immediately act to R remedy the problem however when the toxic substance is a bully it is allowed to infiltrate the halls of the school with students not feeling safe and mental health concerns overflowing we as parents can only do so much to help our children and the mental health issues we see at home that come from The Bullying atmosphere that is allowed in our schools I pray for full transparency from the school board regarding prompt and meaningful conversations interventions and reform for zero tolerance anti-bullying policies to keep our children safe in our bavia [Applause] schools our next speaker is Molly Conelly uh hi there my name is Molly Connelly I live in bavia I'm a parent I'm a business owner and I'm a former bavia Park District commissioner uh I'll start by saying I appreciate your service and the opportunity to share my concerns with you um in the interest of privacy I've written separately with the details of the incident this weekend uh that prompted me to come before the board I'm working with the dean of students to ensure the students involved are safe what I'd like to say is that both of my children have dealt with issues of bullying intimidation and physical violence for the past four years with bavia Public Schools based on my experience I do not think Pavia has policies and education in place that serve the mental health and wellness needs of our students our community is at risk I will continue to Lobby to the school the board and the police to implement better policy and training I'm here to volunteer my time and effort to support policies and training and create a healthy safe environment for all of our children I'd like a direct response from the board and I'll be continuing to follow up via email thank you for your time and our next speaker is Josette Mo good evening when our fathers and mothers were kids they used to walk up and down the hill to school barefoot in 3 feet of snow in The Frigid code it is now 2025 and I do not think in the 21st century our children should be subjected to the same Z degree weather during recess are the parents of bavia aware that recess is still to be held during the cold winter months as long as the temperature is above 0 degrees and per the discretion of the principal that is what I was told by Kristen Stevens the principal of AGS when I questioned her on Wednesday January 17th about why my six-year-old kindergarten was outside for not for not one but two recesses in The Frigid Cod she told me it was the state regulations for elementary schools to go out as long as it is above zero degrees and under principal discretion and that herself and other Elementary School principles have a conversation each day to determine if recess should be held Outdoors Not only was this information false but she made me feel my concerns for my child were not valid in a very condescending way during a lot of research on the BPS 101 District website it amazed me that there are no regulations for the outside temperature at which children go out outside for recess when I searched other school districts the guidelines were clearly stated Illinois does not have a state regulation for recess temperature but schools use guidelines to decide when to have recess indoors or Outdoors these guidelines consider the temperature and windchill unfortunately unfortunately BPS 101 does not follow these standards I want to know why and I think it is time for a change the Illinois State Board of Education Child Care weather watch considers even 20 de with 10° wind chill to be dangerous the colder the air temperature the higher the wind speeds the colder it will be on your skin if you're outside nearby school districts in Illinois have regulations on when to have recess indoors how come we don't to list a few Orland Park below 20 Chicago below 15 planfield below 20 Bartlett 35 Warrenville 35 let's talk about school age children for a moment during this time of year illness is at Peak cold weather can increase the risk of pneumonia by making it easier for viruses and bacteria to spread by weakening the immune system let's not forget about frostbite children tend to take off their gloves and want to feel the snow even if you send them to school with the proper gear every few weeks bavia households are faced with their children having runny nose cough fever diarrhea respiratory infections and now foot hand foot mouth and mouth disease for which spreads through saliva and mucus School AED children cough sneeze and invade each other's person personal space all day long during the school day my husband and I have three children who grow up in this District my children as well as other children in the community deserve better let's do the right thing to protect these precious Souls by starting by having regulations on a cut off temperature as quoted by nelon Mandela children are our greatest treasure they are our future thank [Applause] you that's the end of our public comment all right thank you our speakers we'll move on to our BPS Partners we'll start with Bea vice president Sarah Barrett good evening I am here representing uh Drew Ray who is um home sick along with his whole family so good luck to all of them so this is actual Drew's writing I'm just delivering it so pretend I'm wearing a hat and I'm a social studies teacher happy New Year Board yesterday was important for two reasons number one inauguration day and two Martin Luther King Jr Day first regarding MLK day I'm often reminded of the profound impact that Dr King had on our country through his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement I often discuss with my AP Government students how the Civil Rights Movement use the principles of nonviolent Civil Disobedience to advance their cause direct action created tension which led to negotiation and negot negociation resulted in policy changes that advanced civil rights it is a fascinating blueprint and countless social movements have followed this blueprint in the footsteps of King we also discussed in class that Dr King and the Civil Rights Movement leveraged the judicial system primarily through the litigation using the 14th amendment's equal protection Clause I share this with you because number one Drew I a social studies teacher and I can't help myself number two the Civil Rights Movement was able to utilize equal protection challenges due to the precedent set in 1954 and Brown versus Board of Education in the majority opinion of brown chief justice Warren highlighted the importance of education is the very Foundation of good citizenship and that education was a right which must be made available to all on equal terms that view is something that is fundamental to understand the importance of public education especially when you consider that 20 years after Brown versus Bor the Supreme Court ruled on plyer versus doe that all children in the United States have an equal right to enroll and participate in public elementary and secondary schools without regard to their or their parents or Guardians immigration status the court cited Brown to highlight that education is a fundamental right essential for the preservation of individual ual freedoms and societal benefits unfortunately this quick history lesson is very timely in regards to the other big news of yesterday the presidential inauguration we know that there will be changes to federal policy over the next four years it is the nature of our system we know that some of these changes will impact public education and I think it's safe to say that there will be policies affecting our students particularly our migrant population to the Board of Education know that you have a partner in Bea there are steps that we can all take together as a district so let's proactively work to ensure that all of our students including our most vulnerable populations are cared for and have equal opportunity to receive the benefits of public education as Dr King said Darkness cannot drive out Darkness only light can do that hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that in the face of this uncertainty let us be the light to every student in this district and on a lighter note the Bea trivia night fundraiser will be held on February 27th at the bavia Moose we invite the board and the administration to join us for a fun evening raising money for our scholarship fund for two graduating seniors pursuing careers and education or vocational traits um Tom Kim and Tony and glacy will be happy to know that there will not be car karaoke this year if you know you know and we hope all of you can join us so from Drew go Bulldogs solidarity forever with our brothers and sisters in Besa good night and good luck thank you Sarah I hope Mr Ray is feeling better soon his family is as well um our friends from Besa will not be reporting this evening so we will next up are our student ambassadors in the front row here all right hi everyone um so we weren't here last week be or last month because it was finals um but all was well just for our update but instead we wanted to give like a little 2024 recap so um this last year was a big year for bavia public schools and so we wanted to go over some of the the general things that were happening um the music department was huge there was a lot of music engagement and then we had the Japanese students come and perform and stay with our students which was super fun and was great for engaging uh student life and then additionally our clubs and activities have been just getting huge and super fun so pictured we have the math team on there uh we had some people win 7th place in state which was big and then we have the theater Department in the bottom right corner so PE the students are having a lot of fun and getting engaged in what they're passionate in um additionally student life has been really big we had our prom and homecoming and then we also have a Winter Dance coming up so students have been very engaged with that our teachers have also been getting involved in making these students uh more involved in their community on the bottom left corner uh in December there was a teacher race where they all dressed up as snowmen uh the candidates and they ran around the school so that was really fun and it made a lot of people like more engaged with school and then on top of that our Sports were super successful so we've seen big moments for our football team cross country team basketball team and more um and I also want to start to give a big shout out to miss wolf because I know I was in her middle school classroom for reading and I honestly felt like that helped me thrive in my love for reading and I know I honestly did the Red Carpet reads program and it's amazing to hear how it's helping feature students so shout out to that and then for like sports that are happening at the high school lots of big things actually I know we matavia always dominates so it's never disappointment presenting on this but um we had recently wrestling girls wrestling just had a tournament um they had the tournament I think last Friday and of course they dominated they took second place and guys wrestling also recently had their Clint arless Invitational um they actually had eight athletes in the top six within their division so that's amazing and basketball um girls basketball has been doing great they had um a game against sville North uh we took it home of course and then guys basketball has been going on as well and soccer is starting up and a big shout out to track and field is starting up personally I'm biased I'm part of the track and field team but come out to some of the meets it's really fun and entertaining and um I also wanted to give a shout out to the uh student photographers at the different sports events they've been doing an amazing job with all the photography videography like if you go to their Instagram Pages they have like different like edits of the like basketball teams and all the different sports teams it's super cool to watch the student Spirit life come to you know be so popular so big shout out to that and then first off I wanted to talk about an amazing event that happened last week at amnesty club called write a letter Save a Life I personally went to this uh event and it was honestly um lifechanging uh for this event we wrote letters to uh support to fight for basic human rights that was happening around the world and I really like this event because it was meaning really meaningful and um it showed me how much Injustice that's there are around the world and I got to do this with a lot of my friends and it was really fun and then we also had freshman nights where we welcomed a lot of freshman and their parents to come and see all the different activities and clubs that we present at BHS there are all different kinds from Sports academics um creative and even Swifty Club so I think there's really everything for everyone and to top it off if even if you didn't find something there there was also much more stuff you could also find that wasn't represented that night so yeah a lot of stuff we also have an an exciting event uh the Winter Dance that's coming in February 8th I think the theme is a mixture of turnabout and Valentine it's a really exciting way to celebrate the second semester and I think a lot of students are really looking forward to it so that's really nice and then we also I went to celebrate the mck trial club that started off today uh I know they did really good last year and the year previous to that so we're really excited to like uh see their achievement this year as well and then we also have an exciting play coming up called The Odd Couple I think it's a play about um it's a com a comedy play about two opposite roommates and um it's coming up and I think the tickets are out now so go check that out because honestly any thing that BS students do was amazing so yeah okay and then last we got a little bit of RMS insights this this month so next month actually they are putting on the production of Beauty and the Beast which is supposed to be really good I don't know I am sure it's amazing because again BHS is awesome um there's a so obviously chromatics is an AC capella group at the high school but this year we have vocal gold which is starting up at the middle school as their little Acappella group to kind of get them ready to come into chromatics there is a jazzband concert with the entire grades going on right now actually at the BAC um they could probably tell you about it better but Battle of the books and there's a book fair coming up girls basketball tryouts happened I think this past week and the boys basketball ended in December oh the entire music program went to Main Event last week so you know they had a lot of fun with that maths testing was last week and girls flag football is just now starting up so you know that's RMS thank you all right I think that's all we got that's a [Applause] lot thank you there's so many events we need four speakers to get through all of them thank you appreciate it thank you uh next we'll move on to board liaison committee reports so I guess we'll start so you have nothing to report okay um stien committee we I don't see Steve here we I don't believe we met um I'm I'm sure we didn't we didn't meet um so um and then the our uh resource responsibility committee um we did meet um just went over the budget calendar and uh an operation survey that I think the whole staff and administration so and review those results I'm not sure if that was planned to be discussed here or that was more internal those results internal yeah yeah so but uh that's about it all right thank you uh so we had a plaque meeting that was last Thursday um and that we talked about some AI learning um going to go do some drafting policy incorporating AI it's not going to be commit the before Bea for admin um along with that they went over um bpsu items um kind of did a rough draft of bpsu um attendance policy and so forth like that uh they're waiting on some litigation and some proper wording to do uh to in order to get into that um after that that was about it all right and then I don't we didn't have a policy meeting in January we we're going to have one in February yep all right thank you any questions for Raquel when you say bpsu attendance policy You Mean So like um like I think there's for the attendant to bpsu yes okay so I don't think now there's one and they they're trying to get it to like maybe so people don't miss like more than three sections okay um and then like sure just just make sure but they're trying to also like if somebody has FMLA they want to make sure they can include them and the regulations and so forth anyone else Danielle U I did have CAC and Equity but I didn't make it to either so if I could lean on Brad and um Tom whichever wants to go first you good if I go yeah please all right um I'll start with Equity committee uh the equity committee completed a data walk through of our new Panorama um social emotional uh screen data sets and tool that we use now in the district uh we were reflecting on strengths and weaknesses in the area of student belonging and discussed uh implications for District's policies and structures committee also prepared to review District over identification data uh for our February committee meeting um this will be the first time our Equity committee is joining another commit standing committee of the district and we're bringing people more people together to review things that are happening under uh the district's roof and both data points and the and the meeting itself will serve as references for advancing uh various aspects of our Equity work within the district and um one of the other things that we are looking to do is uh use the equity committee's uh kind of human power on the committee and begin at some point reaching out to different stakeholder groups and holding meetings in in various uh community centers around the BPS communities um any questions regarded regarding that can you elaborate that last point a little bit more so we want to reach out to stakeholders that might be able to give us specific feedback as to how we can help engage them more into school culture and climate and what are some things that we can look to do to implement specific strategies so with the curriculum assessment advisory Council we met a bulk of our discussions for the meeting were around our different subject area leadership team or salt committees which are groups of teachers and administrators from throughout the district at different levels that are doing curriculum work uh throughout the course of this year we have a math salt team which is um basically like grades five through grade nine and um pending uh Mr Kim's approval we might be bringing to the board some different changes uh especially impacting RMS mathematics it was mostly RMS teachers and they're really excited about some of the work that they've been doing so we'll move that forward and get ready for um those changes next year we have a really big um English language Arch Sal team that's been looking at the Illinois comprehensive literacy plan um which is there's always kind of reading debates out there and right now it's the science of reading and balance literacy is kind of pitted against one another so the state came up with a plan for for our state and it really is a combination of the two it's not one side or another so in looking at that and what we're currently we doing we did a gap analysis and we know we'll be looking at some different resources to kind of fill some of those gaps our salt science team is um more active this year which is really good I'm I'm happy for the participation we're doing a a lot of learning together actually tomorrow we're attending um an ascd session on the new science standards they're not that new but they're actually really complex science standards they're really do that so we're attending as a group tomorrow in neille to to learn more about that with John Spencer who's actually done some work with us um he's from down state a little bit and has a really great perspective on how to tackle some of this really difficult work and then we did an elementary social studies pilot update about the different work that we're doing at our uh grades one through five level looking at some social studies resources so a lot of salt work happened at our meeting all right I think that's it so next we'll move on to section five our consent agenda according to board policy we designate a portion of the agenda as a consent agenda for those items that usually do not require extensive discussion before board action these items generally are routine recurring and can be grouped together for efficiency Brad Would You Walk us through it sure so 5.1 is the approval of the December 17 2024 meeting minutes 5.2 is the close session minutes for that same meeting 5.3 is the approval of our January 6 special board meeting 5.4 is the Personnel report I do want to recognize Cara Schuster she's currently at the middle school she's a long time she's worked at her high school when I first started in this job she was a great service she was our employee who worked at moart she has a real heart for kids and I want to recognize that she put in for her retirement 5.5 is our normal payroll and bills 5.6 is the destruction of the Clos session recordings as time has elapsed on those 5.7 is the acceptance of the donations thanks to uh Ken morami for donating $1,000 for the Japanese exchange with the music program and big thanks to the bavia wrestling club for Their donation as well 5.8 is the approval of the consent agenda all right at this time does the board have any questions or comments I have a quick question so with the staff hiring I see that we hired a district registered nurse is that one that we um that that we outsourced for was that or is that just was that different um for the registered nurses did we were we like like I know we had a district like each the school's one and then there's the district one right yeah the so so each school has an RN placed at it I don't know about the answer to your question so I'm going to talk around it I think oh there's an RN at each building and then there are we have two District nurses so they hold both a teaching license and the nursing license and they do a lot of our work about coordination of nursing services but they also do like IEP services and and health reports through that and last year did we Outsource that one though I want to say we out I thought we outsourced one of them I don't remember for a short time we did and then I if by my recollection serves we also did for the first term of this year and then one of the staff member I think earned gonna replace that yeah that's what I was asking I thought like we did I thought we outsourced one and so we actually now have a replacement okay that's my that's my recollection but these are the kinds of things that I don't playay close attention to this is yeah this is definitely a Steve question yeah that's it as I was curious if we actually um BR just down that all right any other questions or comments all right then I will entertain a motion to approve all items in the consent agenda as presented second RJ second Cindy will you please lead us in a roll call Vote Yes Thomas yes yes gilber yes ma yes sliger yes all right we'll move on to se section six of the agenda we'll start with item 6.1 foyer requests Tom yes um there were three requests since the last board meeting and as you can see on the report all three were granted all right uh any questions on that we then move on to item 6.2 the treasurers reports Dr engl nothing out of the ordinary to report with our Treasures report any questions from anyone all right all right then we'll move on to item 6.3 an update on operational departments and functions Mr Kim yes so board um at last month's meeting we had we spent a lot of time together talking about various uh status of our operations you know curricularly um social emotionally at that time we agreed we would bring forward uh other specific areas of our District's operations for an update for you so I'm going to turn it over to Tony so that he can introduce his teams uh that we'll present to you tonight thank you yes we have a few departments and what I would call a few key functions that are paired with those departments that we're going to give you presentations oners are Josh buac Dave thurlby and Mark Anderson and they are going to walk us through the respective areas and we elected Josh to go first all right all right so all things business office to start let's see if the clicker works it does all right so it's very important to first understand the term business office tax easy we all know what technology is facilities is pretty straightforward business office sometimes has little add-ons thrown in so you'll see that how we support BPS there's the expected the payroll the accounts payable but there's a couple things that we highlight in here like food service our employee benefits and enrollment that don't always fall under every business office but fall under the business office here what we're going to do tonight is we're going to go through four major areas that we're looking to improve on and what you'll notice is on these some of the years are a little wonky because the business office likes to go forward in time so a lot of these goals are talking about next year some are still talking about this year but it really gives us that chance to work in the now and also for the future so we're going to look at Payment Processing Food Service benefits and enrollment and the first one payment processing I don't want to talk a lot about because we talked about it last month but it's very important that you guys know the work that's going into this um and we're going to this new payment system the my school Buck system and we've already had two implementation meetings uh one with our building administrative assistance and then one with my department and Dave's Department technology to work on those Integrations so we're already moving ahead to get this process started uh just as a quick reminder one of the reasons that we're doing this is we want to help schools not focus on money collection teachers need to focus on teaching not getting all those little IUS and turning into a big cash box like that so we're going to take that $1.5 million that's been turned in envelopes and make it easier for parents to to pay and to not worry about that little check going home with a little kid and then it's got to go to school we're going to streamline that process so that is underway in the current year we're really focused on food service so if you remember back in believe it was may we approved organic life as our new food service provider and one of the things that I'm committed to with our new food service provider is holding them accountable I spend more time in the lunchroom than I ever thought I would in this role not as much as I did at RMS when I was in the lunchroom every day but I actually eat the food more now in this role than I did as an assistant principal so K8 wise we're doing really really well we've got a 12% increase in participation that equates to about 90 meals a day at our K8 I'd like to see this at 20% um we'll see how the next semester pans out but I think the most important thing that we're doing this year is we're getting student voice to learn yes is it okay to ask of course it is why do we want it up I mean well I I think this is a good and that we want it up because then we're providing a better product now this is where it's a little different than uh Brad's Department right if it stays at 12% and doesn't move to 20% that's okay but if you're providing a better product more kids will take advantage of the service that's the hypothesis but if I I'm sending a lunch with my kid every day that's your choice that's great so I mean it's not to any benefit or detriment correct that's all I wanted to try yeah no no that's a really good question yeah to is meals mean breakfast and lunch or just strictly Lun very good question this is just lunch okay and then the second thing is I see jbn is just a little is the most is that right is jbn the most actually the biggest growth is at Rolo well I'm sorry uh out of the elementaries is uh it's right there with uh Grace MCU but yeah they're all pretty we're talking percentage Yeah you mean yeah like like uh the most like who's I guess out of the schools jbn bought the most yes jbn also has the largest population that's what I was going to ask they have corre population yeah so I guess is ratio wise they're all about the same yeah and I think that's what's nice to look at this just that uh Big Picture level every single School the red bar is a little higher than the blue bar so that's a good thing and so Everyone likes organic life well I don't want to say everyone everybody no no that's look like you led right into this so um back in May back in May I got to hang out with a bunch of kids and go to different um schools and test food so I met with those same kids those same 12 kids and I said how do you like the food well here's here's the results so there's one student does not like the food and that is that student's choice and he gave me a lot of good examples as to why and we're going to work on that but everyone else is you know it's it's going okay it's going good ask them some other questions but I also met with another group and I said hey how can we improve this and that's the question I asked these guys too and this is what they came up with at the different levels so at the K5 level uh one was as simple as we want reusable lunch trays it sounds very reasonable so when school started back in the second semester there were reusable lunch trays for them it's really nice to be able to get the kids what they want um and then I'm also working with Organic life to get more cultural options into the lunch menu and that was a theme at all three levels at Rolo Thursdays are stir fry day we have a made to order stir fry station now that we do with the kids and it is a blast and it's actually gotten more adults to order food which that saying something um the high school was very very focused on protein and I I felt like they came right from the waight room to my focus group um so we're going to look to get better breakfast options uh again they want high protein after their morning workouts um and another thing that was really important and we ordered a new panini press a bigger one so the lons could move faster but again we only get that information from students so it's was great to sit down with them and talk about their experience all right I have a question go for it uh and this might not be the right framework but like what I'm really concerned about is that that kids that are hungry are getting food so I mean either they're bringing it or they're accessing me so people I know we have access for people that may you can't afford a lunch I just want to make sure do we know like our penetration of like percentage of kids that are qualify that are taking advantage qualify or they're taking advantage they're taking advantage of off top of my head I don't know the advantage yeah um I can find that out for you I'd be interested sure but one of the great things that we have to review with all the uh workers is no matter if a kid is on some sort of Assistance or they're paid or they don't have any money in their account we give them a meal so no student has ever turned away from a meal now if they want ice cream and they don't have money on their account that's a different conversation but every student gets breakfast and lunch if if they need it that's what I wanted to hear so thank you yeah no problem before we move on to benefits any more food service questions all right let's talk about benefits um this is this great crossover between a budgetary item hence the business office part of it and we want to make sure that our employees are getting quality access to health care and retirement pieces because if they're not worried about those aspects they're able to focus more on what's important which is instructing students so our employee benefits are broken into two committees so these committees have uh representation from all different stakeholder employee groups in the district and we make decisions on medical Vision dental and we're also doing more with uh 403b 457 retirement pieces want to spend more time on the actual insurance and benefits part today so we offer two plans in bavia we've got a PO and we have a high deductible plan and what this is showing you is the maximum amount of money that an employee pays if they're single or if they're on a family plan so you can see that and I'll show you the next example in a second but for all of them our maximum out of pocket will be lower than the group of the Midwest or all governmental districts so our employees are getting quality benefits and on average paying less than you know those groupings here's the high deductible plan which is is what most of our employees are on um so you can see here you've got what comes out of the the darker ones what comes out of payroll and then the blue that is the deductible and then once you meet that deductible it's a high deductible plan so everything is then covered uh so again it's a lot less than those other groups on the contrast this is our fiveyear spout so the this is showing like thousands of dollars spent per employee for medical so what you'll see is we're the blue line and there's this big drop off in 2020 and that's when we implemented the high deductible plan so we were spending less money per employee than we were previously it actually brought us down to that national average but over the last couple years we've been creeping up and now our spend is starting to become back to where it used to be and significantly more than the national average so our employees are spending less but their costs are more so just wanted to kind of point that out to the board because this is something that we're talking about in the insurance committee because you can't have the contributions be very very low but the spend be very very high you have to find that balance point any questions on that one you miss Insurance commit I was on that for two years I would just be curious what the headwinds are you're working with because it's always a fight to control to provide the best benefits but also control costs and I was just wondering what the topics that you're discussing on a way to the leverage you're talking about well actually at the last committee meeting our insurance broker presented the committee with lots of levers lots of them and said think about it and then we're going to meet in February and then drill down and and get to more specific ones so there was a lot of discussions about ways to save money but I don't know which Avenue the committee is going to decide to go on um but one thing that we started this year and we're going to continue doing is focusing on consumer spending of healthc care so when you're on a high deductible plan it's important to be a informed consumer just like when we all go to the grocery store and we want to get the best price for eggs it's important to do the same thing with medical insurance so we've implemented a newsletter to try to get more information out to um all the employees about how to access benefits in a good responsible fiscally way while also getting your Quality Health Care we're working to align you know our coverage for radical and for RX with industry standards to make sure we're you know not offering something that's way out of line with the the industry norms and then we implemented a new um benefits management system which was very successful with open enrollment so people can see exactly what they're signing up for and know how that coverage affects their family all right my last area is about enrollment and residency so really there's two things here enrollment is when a student you know joins us they're coming on board they have to prove residency first so there's a lot of layers to this but basically what we want to do is we want to ensure that we're servicing the kids that we're supposed to be servicing here at BPS so every spring we look at all the data that we get and we get data from a couple different ways um the one here that means the most explanation is this clear score what we do is we run transitional grades so 5th to 6th 8th to 9th prek to K we run them through a database and it says the likelihood that Josh buac lives at the residence he said is 95% great the likelihood that Mark Anderson lives at his residency 56% okay we need to we need to reach out to Mr Anderson and and actually get some information from him so that's where that score comes from we've been doing that with those transitional grades um it's something that I'm looking at is this something that's worth doing for all grades on annual basis I don't have enough data to determine that yet so that's something that I'll be looking at next couple years um this is how those cases broke down so we had 20 of the 50 potential residency questions they were um unenrolled that's a big savings that's you know $358,000 now could all 20 of those families un enrolled on their own of course they could have but I don't know sometimes it's good to just check and make sure I have a question go forward so 20 of the 50 you said the family so you don't know if like they had a child in third grade and then one or like in the transitional right like you only did like well there were this is a multifaceted so if you look at the low clear score that's the transitional ones you'll get staff reported or mail returned there's a lot of different like indicators for when we ask for paperwork well the 50 student residency is everything correct okay so then of the 20 of the 50 do we know if they had multiple kids in the district that you know some of them did I could figure that out if you wanted to no I was just curious if it was all like just 20 individual no they're you know what I mean okay all right and then things we're looking to improve for next year I alluded to reviewing the clear process this will be the third year that I'm in charge of it so that'll be enough data to determine if it's worth expanding um one of the biggest things and hly helped with this was we had 250 families in September who had not verified their contact information um this is alarming because if we need to get a hold of a parent we want to know that the information that we have is accurate in the system so we've whittel that down to 121 students so uh Holly has been a great help with that sending out Communications we're working with the buildings to get that down to you know everyone um checking off that this is their address or their contact information um one of the things to not is 60% of the case left are at BHS just find that kind of interesting um so we're also going to be working with the buildings to see how we can make that process a lot faster for next school year so making sure we're asking the right questions getting the right information and a lot of that goes to improving Communications with the buildings making sure that they're getting the information that we need making sure that we're you know clearly articulating that to them to make this process uh a little better for families questions what happens if they don't complete registration this year well they're basically just I use the Mark Anderson example it's just him saying that he lives at the address that we have all the paperwork for so right now nothing we've never done anything with that uh that's something that we have to talk about is at what point do we ask them to reestablish residency so there's 121 students that we don't know that they their parents have not like verified that that is their address we have on record that that is their address when they enroll but they haven't checked the Box saying yes that is my address I'll got this year we asked them to do it every year right I did it you did it you do it the students are still coming to school just they haven't gone but we don't know that they necessarily live in the district right those students or are we saying no these are not ones we're questioning the residency we're not questioning the no we're not questioning residency we're okay we're reaching out to the parents because they haven't done all they have to do is check a box check a box yes any other questions for joshh all right well thank you thank you all right Mark I believe you're up next Josh are we facilities or Transportation looks like we're starting with facilities first because that's what came up on the screen but we're going to start with facilities first um so facilities uh the first slide here is just the department just kind of I'm not going to read everybody in the department but just some of the things we do and um being in the winter season we do take care of all of the grounds as far as snow plowing shoveling snowblowing things like that and as far as checking to make sure the buildings are you know suitable for students to walk in and they were warm and yeah that wasn't just this morning but that was a whole weekend process so um all of these individuals right here have been walking the buildings a lot in the last two days um turn to Summertime um we take care of all the grounds as far as mowing all the grounds trimming trees bushes things like that that's all in this department so we don't contract anything out um there are a few things that we do as far as building wies go things as far as that are very unique skill sets we will um each building as you can see um every building has a codian so there's always a maintenance person at that building during the day with um students in the building some of the metrics that I look at and the department really looks at um the first one is there's a work order system so if something needs to be fixed or done in classrooms around the building we look at just what does that look like as far as on time goes um other things how many work orders per maintenance worker some square footage and um the last two I'll get into a little bit more but just as kind of overview of what um my team looks at first one about on time work orders um if you look at this graph um there was names on the bottom of the top graph I took those off but this is um the individuals in uh the facilities Department this is where their percentage is as far as there's a date on that work order of when it should be done and as you can see on the far left obviously that's where we want to be um let get the ones on the far right and move them towards that you know 90% 100% obviously would be really good but overall you can see the one on the bottom is currently so this is through the end of December we are at 88% of ontime work orders some other um metrics is um through December again this is so this is just basically the halfway point of the year so each average worker is 56 work orders in a month so you know if it's a custodian at AGS they're about 56 month now that person could be more could be less depending depending but on average it's 56 work orders um just some data points I'll stop because I saw a hand what's a I know what work orders but mhm give me an example so an example could be anything from the copy room is out of paper to my heating is not working in my room um to light bulbs or light bulbs to changing of Bas anything yep okay any type of work order so some could be 10 minutes some could be over an hour okay who determines how are do you determine how long it should take to as far as the individual work order put paper in the copy machine or well do you know what I mean what's the criteria for so basically the criteria is is they log all their time is there some industry standard or I'm just trying to paper on a copy me I don't know that I don't know I'm just trying to determine how this is figured I well this one right here as far as how many work orders there are it's just the work order so it's 56 total work orders it it could be no I get that yeah I'm just wondering about the time to do it I just yeah so basically in the time is they're in like high medium and low so that goes into the time too is like that makes sense you know some things like you know if you don't have heat in the room that's high I work order it's emergency you have to get there no I'm just curious y I'm not trying to be difficult I just no the others down here um square foot per custodian just kind of shows you really all the buildings we serve so it's just shy of a million square F feet um and the breakdown those are just custodian those aren't all maintenance workers some goals so this kind of relates to where we're at the metrics so earli you saw it was 88% by the end of this year I'd like to get to 95% on time and then um as far as some backlog maintenance you know what is there a way you can click on that one the one at the very bottom so I can explain this a little bit so in 2020 this is where the data was from when um we did the facility Masters plan on the architect did so if you can scroll down to the bottom please h yeah that would be the fifth page one more right here so this is a breakdown of all of the buildings and basically the work that needs to be done at those buildings some of you might have saw this Sue I'm sure you saw this um but if you can look over to the far right that's an in that's an index score so the lower the index the less work that needs to be done at those buildings so when I'm talking about a goal it's those percentage on the right is to lower that percentage so overall it's a 28% we want to continue to lower that percentage but each year you go along there's more work to get done so it's one of those things is you want to try to take one step so you always want to be ahead of that and right now we there is a backlog so we need to and and that's part of the warm safe drive plan okay thanks Al so that goal is to reduce that by 5% now the major factor in that is the work that we're going to be doing at HC Storm this summer so that will that will help that percentage um the other one is Sport indoor air quality initiatives um basically really looking at temperatures in classrooms and air flow those are the two things that um we'll focus on and then the last one is uh streamline facility operations so Tech Dave correct me if I'm wrong last year correct about about a year ago right um they went over to incident IQ um for their help desk we're basically on two different well we call them work orders they call them tickets but we're on two different we're going to have that be one so as a staff member they have to click one all they have to do different is Click either tech for technology or facilities for facilities so it'll be one platform instead of two different ones some of these projects you know about because I've already talked about them through the project plan that I presented um and the design and bids for HC Storm you've already approved those um one that you haven't seen are um updating the evacuation shelter and safety placers in each classroom so every every classroom has to have an exit route um most classrooms right now will have some different information the goal here is to put all information into one spot one location in every single room throughout the district and I found out those are done from the printer so now it's the installation piece that a state law well it's a law that you have to post that but you don't have to do it exactly how we're doing it but I think it'll be much easier for everybody to have it in one spot and it it's going to look the same if you're at the high school compared to Augustin some other things um uh the high school and RMS Learning Centers are going to get a nice update and so so is the floring at guson and JB Nelson not all the flooring just um hallways cafeteria and gymnasium and then obviously continuing to work the warm safe drive plan currently working on and I think I talked about this when I was talking capital projects but you know what's next after the warm safe drive plan so that comes into with a facility Masters plan and then I also mentioned the air indoor air quality some challenges and opportunities obviously um you know getting towards Capital Improvements instead of just doing Capital maintenance construction schedule is always very difficult when you're in a school system because really you have eight weeks you might have a little bit over winter break and spring break but for the majority you have eight weeks to do this work um just you know Recruitment and Retention of skilled facility maintenance the maintenance World um there's less and less younger coming out of high school with that have trade and we're starting to see that more and more and then just really maintaining the systems and the buildings that are aging but there's also some success um I think one of the significant ones is the partnership with the GSF our uh nighttime cleaning service um we have really seen a vast Improvement in that and so that has been a great success um appointment of a new HVAC engineer and also facil facility manager that's really helped it's really helped this past weekend I can tell you that and then just continuing that progress for warm safe dry that's facility so before I move on other facility questions mark could you talk about that facility manager role and how that was an asset because that's a new role right well we had a facility manager so that facility manager um promoted to assistant director so then we brought in another facility and that person really um concentrates a lot on the um K8 buildings um so overseeing those buildings making sure operations are getting done inside those buildings he's in those buildings um um a lot he has I was lucky because his knowledge is vast so he has a knowledge of all the trades um and managing uh people as well thank you m all right H switch over to Transportation so this next slide is going to look much different than the facility slide yes there's only two people under there but you have to remember we contract out our um bling service so day-to-day coordination is really with h the the transportation coordinator and that's D um I really oversee that um I oversee all of the operations as far as Transportation um a few things with Transportation um this is what we have we have 193 routes 55 buses and 55 drivers now this is mainly the Illinois Central piece there are some others that we use for specific um routes but this is the majority currently we're at a 9 8% on time rate there's a couple ways we look at that one using GPS and another one that um all buildings have access to is if a Buff's showing up late or they're getting a parent phone call because you know hey it's supposed to be my stop it's not at my stop um each building can go onto a spreadsheet and then record that information and so that way we can see very more specifics and then we can pull up the GPS and see what's going on there's 54% of our student bust and as of the end of December or Just sh have 200,000 miles traveled that's only to and from school I didn't go into Charters at that point so Charters is even even more than that the mileage is a little more difficult to grab now there has been six total accidents so far this year now what that accidents are is I can tell you this is I've only had to go to one so when I have to go is it actually happens when the police are called and things like that so and that was somebody let off the the brake and rolled into the back of the bus but it was an accident you have to report it you have to go through all that um other of these are minder one of them was a bus you know going too far and another bus with no kids on board one was um clipping a mirror so those so no major accidents no injuries nothing like that would you say that's average it's pretty typical yeah typical yeah I say few goals here that 98% would love to get it up to 99% obviously 100% um route efficiency I know this looks kind of odd why I would put decrease the number of routes well to be most efficient you have less routes so less stops and things like that obviously you you you know we need the amount of Stouts that are safe for kids to get to and things like that but to get the most efficient in routes you actually want a fewer number of routes now there's a lot of factors that go in there obviously enrollment where students live and compared to the schools most of our schools are neighborhood schools but there are still those spots that they do need to get busted um the last one is is it's pretty lofty goal but um I would like one accident per 100,000 so we'll more than likely get over 300,000 miles in a year it'll be more than that so really we're past that already but again striving towards that this isn't just this year but you know kind of an that you talk about industry standard that's really kind of an industry standard right there just some things that we're continually working on here um I would say the big one right here is a Student Activity bus implementation um that's been going now in the second year at Rolo and the first year at the high school um again more and more students you know depending on the season kind of depends on how many kids are um taking advantage of that um but we're seeing pretty consistent numbers at Rolo actually the most at Rolo is the springtime we have numbers on that yet or we do um we don't really at this point the high school we don't because we're just through two seasons yet um but like I said at um we have during the springtime so we do an east side and a West Side route at the middle school um the west side I just looked from the spring we were at between depending on the day between 35 and 45 students taking advantage of that East side's a little less because it's at Rolo but yeah again you know costs to continue to go up for transportation service so that's that's always a challenge for for us um enrollments changing trying to do that recruitment of drivers is definitely getting better um this year we're where we where we should be past years we were down a lot of drivers but we're we're at right where we should be for that um the other one is the complexity of serving students that experiencing homelessness because that can change honestly sometimes on a daily basis is trying to figure out exactly in working with other districts and making sure those those students are getting to where they need to be S right why would you have to work with other districts on that because they could be living in another District but still at our school and then correct you so it could be something that happened in the middle of a year or you know I mean it really factors depend it could happen unfortunately tomorrow and then you're trying to figure out where they're at but you're working so if they're in a different District you're also working with that District because they have more buses in the area or more transportation to even get them to hear so we do we do split that responsibility success um having Illinois Central for both regular and uh special education and the other one is that improved retention of the number of drivers especially on our uh special education routes because a lot of those drivers are staying with those students for I mean some all the way through I mean literally from grade school to Middle School SCH to high school and they know you know exactly what their needs are and you know what time they need to be there and um things like that so and they're requested by parents all the time I mean every year we get a list of emails and then we request that from the from melois Central and then we talked earlier about the Student Activity bus questions on Transportation do you have any plans or you do it already have any type of feedback from the bus drivers students parents um on their as far as survey data at this point no it's mainly it's mainly really well we did do a survey um about transportation to the staff recently but most of the um parent feedback is in the form of um really emails and phone calls and requesting those drivers I have a question mark really it's just more kind of explaining it but could you explain for the board and the people in attendance you know our relationship with Illinois Central as far as how that relationship works yeah we've had a long relationship Central um really in special ed since we do when we go out to bid we do a special ed contract and a regular education contract so we've had I mean it's been a number of years with Illinois Central um the one thing that we I put in here is a little bit of a um kind of a growth opportunity for us is the communication piece you're always trying to work on communication and you know because really if you can let the parents know before the students let their parents know it's always better for everybody and so just letting them know that if it's going to be 15 minutes late don't say 10 minutes and come back and say five just tell us 15 minutes so those type of pieces um we've started a number of things but just as simple as a text group between the dispatch myself and my transportation coordinator so that way it's kind of a quick response because parents sometimes are trying to call Illinois Central trying to figure out whatever it is and then we can't get through so just a simple text that's helped a lot um and they're doing things on their end um they've just hired another um dispatcher just to kind of help with that too and they're trying to streamline a lot of their process with GPS they're rolling out um the parent portal piece of that so the parents can see which not all but most parents know exactly where their kids are anyways but um this is just another piece that'll help um so we've been testing that out as well and just trying to get um everything there and the other piece that's helped with elois Central is they're in District they're right off you know well actually redant and Wilson Street I would say what has that been probably prob two contracts ago they were north of 64 in St Charles that made it a little more difficult it's much easier for them being in town so just so people know we contract the service out it's not y bavia doesn't own buses don't never own buses we don't have our own buses and then my other question would be I would just be curious um in the creation of these goals I would think there would have to be collaboration like there has to be buyin from their part so they've said yeah these are reasonable goals I've talked to them about that especially the really the one is is Route efficiency that's just that's a kind of a standard goal every year you're looking at getting those routes better um but it's really the on time one because it's very difficult if you any of you don't know this with one bridge in the town I'm sure you've heard it a lot but um it is difficult especially in the transportation World um and people say oh use Fabian use 56 it's not not that easy when you're you know trying to get kids from point A to point B um so we're we're looking at you know especially the furthest west School in Grace mcgrain that's the most difficult because really most of those buses are coming from Oro so we're looking to add you know maybe you know not add a bus but reconfigure out how the routes are um so then because it's very difficult to take kids from Rolo get them dropped off and get to Grace MCU so that is something we've been looking at um and we will continue to look at what makes the most sense thank you any other questions for Mr Anderson right right thank thank you good evening everybody evening so I'm going to talk about a bunch of our statistics and we're calling them key performance indicators or kpis that we monitor in our department um as you know technology has a lot of different pieces so this is kind of how our department is laid out um I basically have three main branches of the department that all do specific things so information service or the is team uh they basically are the people in the buildings that take care of the teachers and whatnot um I have team leads as well on each of these departments so an Information Services uh the guy that runs that handles we've got six people now that he manages at that location at that uh level um essentially it's kind of helping triage it may escalate a ticket up to the top of the chain and then he lets these other two departments know hey we might have a bigger issue um so the network operations team uh there's two guys on that team that currently handle all of like your servers and internet access and all that kind of stuff uh and then management information systems uh that team is a team of three uh they handle a lot of our data Integrations uh data management and whatnot uh with all of our students systems and things like that as well also providing like access to specific things uh part of their process um some quick stats that people may not realize how big we actually are um we watch on a given day our Peak amount of devices uh this is around our average of 14,000 plus devices on a given day that we see come on and off of our Network throughout one day not a week literally one day um that does include all of our student home books but it also includes every kid's phone staff phones other devices things like that as well um throughout all those devices uh this is from January to December of 24 our Peak bandwidth we hit was 7 gigabits so to put that in perspective most of your homes have like one gigabit maybe and you'll probably never hit that we hit seven on occasion it's quite a bit more um throughout all of that as well uh being a school district we have a lot of threats that hit us um um on a given day uh this was our Peak over a million almost a million and a half um pretty high but we do have quite a bit of a web presence as well but a lot of our security systems and things that I'm always here talking about manages a lot of that stuff so just kind of wanted to share some of our Peaks and things um first slide that I've got for as far as statistics this is our actual ticket counts per month um so I've got a team of 14 people roughly uh that's including me um that we manage tickets with um and you can see you know I bet no one can figure out what August is that's our Peak um so generally uh we try to adjust major projects and things uh based on our average ticket loads uh I'll know like okay maybe March and June July is when we'll start doing some of our larger stuff just because the ticket load is actually lower at that time so we can kind of figure out ahead of time where we want to do it we've actually geared up some stuff even over Christmas break in December there where she kind of comes down a little bit too um so we use that data to kind of plan ahead um if we take that data then and I take it divided by 14 texts uh you can see kind of like our monthly average ticket per person um August again our Peak is 113 um love to get some of these down I would say our average like 5560 is fairly common uh from what we've seen in past years um it did obviously go up and we went one one with our Chromebooks here now 10 almost 11 years ago um but it's it's a lot of stuff to deal with um but we actually then dig a Little Deeper on this to verify okay we've got a lot to do but are we actually hitting that on time rate that uh Sue had asked Mark about as well we judge ours based on priority as well so there's like critical high medium low and we've kind of assigned a time frame that's somewhat acceptable uh if you're dealing on a customer level you know if it's critical I want it done now so you get like an hour or two tops to like find the solution if it's something that's like a medium it might be a day or two or a low might be a week um we kind of Judge it based on that and so far everything that we've got Set uh we're doing very well um obviously August another dip but you can tell like with our previous slides that's your Spike so we've got a lot to do your on time close rate will fluctuate um but on average this year we're about a 92 almost 93% average um that's really good um so all of that in mind we break up all of our tickets based on an incident or a request so kind of to explain this in a nutshell incidents are something that's happened I need to fix it it's broken something's wrong things like that requests are you know I need a laptop I need a charger you know whatever else um so we kind of break those up to show okay are we doing more break fix type stuff or are we actually providing things to staff quickly and responsibly fast you know so far we're doing pretty well um we've had you know a fluctuation here and there but on average this is this is about where we usually are um I break this down a little further uh to kind of say okay what is actually taking our time um so as you can see devices Hardware that actually is Chromebooks staff laptops other pieces of tangible Tech that people have in their hands um apps and software is kind of like hey I need a website unblocked or I need to put this app on an iPad whatever else networking website stuff that's actually changed dramatically in the past few years you guys approved uh the new wireless upgrade that we did has it been three years now that changed dramatically that was probably closer to like a 10% a few years ago it's a lot better now because we actually fixed a lot of our issues we had with Wi-Fi so a lot of our Network requests have gone down because of that account management is like hiring letting people go retirements things like that or turning on accounts off accounts students moving in coming out that kind of thing we do a lot of back and forth with that uh that is quite a bit of a chunk for the Mis team that's a lot of what they manage um so but you can see it's almost a quarter of the amount of overall so it's quite a bit other requests are more like completely random things happen where we actually have to spend a little more time troubleshooting I like to watch that number because it's stuff that we really haven't account wanted for um we use that to kind of plan ahead like okay maybe we need to look at this type of an issue and why are these coming in well you know this thing's broken or we have an issue with something that we can try to focus on so again I use a lot of this data to try to plan ahead um this is a graph of uh requests for changes um essentially in the network and uh management uh Information Systems teams a lot of their work is based on changes either there's an issue or someone's requested something we've had an incident there's a problem that exists where we need to resolve it um this is how I Leverage is how much work the teams have downstairs here at this building that are managing the very large scale stuff um so we do you know like routine changes we do minor things so generally the minor stuff honestly is not bad that's stuff that we know we're keeping up like say Windows updates come out every month that's a minor change um certain updates to different things in the CST system minor change um you can see we did have two emergency changes one I'm sure you heard about crowd strike uh that was one of those and we had another one something to do with some phones but this year it was literally only two so that that's really good for us um so overall uh that's kind of how I manage the teams as far as things that get assigned and whatnot yep I'm clueless here yeah is this like 2011 last year y okay yep 200 minor changes yep yep the pending stuff is stuff that we still have to do so stuff we're planning to do to roll out a project things like that I roll in projects into this as well because like Mark was saying some of our stuff could take a day it could take a week it could take a month I throw these in here as well because we try to track all that those are complet so some goals um right now uh we're floating around that 92 to 93% for their ontime ticket resolution I want to bump that to 95 and try to hold it there I think honestly if we're able to to adjust our dip that we had over summer that could help a lot and we've actually done some optimizing to help with that like for example we're giving staff laptops out now in may instead of doing it when they get back that saves a ton of time for us because they get their new toy and they're able to get everything prepped before they come back in August it's helped a lot um so that's one scenario our help desk has also helped a lot with us optimizing our Chromebook rollouts so we literally went from I don't know couple hours of work when we collect senior Chromebooks at the end of the school year down to less than 15 minutes it's literally just scanning barcodes and swapping stuff out so it saves us a lot of time trying to optimize um so that helps our on time rate dramatically um ticket volume um I have a goal of 5% decrease it'd be nice to get our tickets down just a little bit just to kind of help some of the load on some of the teams um that number very hopeful I think we can do it uh based on some of the stuff we're planning to do over the summer and trying to optimize again more things um as part of our security compliance stuff every year I do a security security audit uh very different ways of doing different systems and different audits that we do every year but we had some stuff done this year by March we'll have everything in place that we need to change um pretty acceptable goal there I try to get that done at a minimum every year we want 100% but um we did two actual audits this year for two different systems uh and it actually added a little bit more more work uh so staff will see some security change emails come from me recommending certain things for accounts and whatnot uh just adding more protections for our staff and students um our uptime this year we actually hit 99.9 so that's a 39 average uh that's really good I want to try to get to the 49s uh we're well on the way to that um we actually found uh some minor math issues in some of our systems um that I think we could correct a lot of things uh based on that too so it's looking good uh a few challenges and opportunities um I'm sure everyone's heard of AI um that is a massive uh influence on our department uh there's always interdependent systems that are talking to each other as well a lot of our Integrations that we have to make things a little more efficient and also providing information to everyone uh takes some work on the backend to make things talk to each other not everything can speak the same language so a lot of our Mis team does a lot of work doing just that um security risks obviously that's everyone's usually a top priority as well um cyber threats are out every day you can see the 1.4 million we hit on a given day for the peak um so we're always looking at new things that we can try um new systems to test out and obviously auditing I'm just verifying everything works as it should um on top of all that the dollar amount on everything has just climbed dramatically and every year it's it's gone up um so I'm trying to figure out budgets and phasing things and how we're trying to afford what we need to get to to keep everything smoothly as we have it right now um the financial piece I also try to get a lot of grant funding and state type things that I can try to apply for to try to help afford some of these things I know like one example is eate this coming cycle they're starting to talk about covering cyber security things that could help quite a bit it's still not official like what we can get covered yet but I definitely watching um strength and successes there's a pick of the team so again 99.9% uptime we got a very robust infrastructure this year we've actually hit it pretty good with a lot of our Chromebooks uh we've actually uh rolling out some of these higher level Chromebooks uh at the uh 5 through 12th grade and the touchscreen Chromebooks in the elementary like K through 4 uh it actually has allowed a little more bandwidth to come up a bit uh in the building so the network took it very well um we got a lot of integrated automated things that happen on our ecosystem and then obviously my staff I would not be here without any of them so it's been a wonderful experience we love everything we do um that is it any questions could you talk and this you touched a little bit about but for some of the people that don't know maybe that are out there listening y each school is it each school that has like a help desk for the Chromebooks or is it just Rolo or the high school so I have how does that work I got get this right there's the middle school and the high school have their own dedicated right um I have six techs so I don't have enough to cover every building so I have a primary base of jbn and one side of the river and I believe it's GMS on the other side I'm sorry AGS I think AGS um so we have some flot rotation that happens to where I'll have like a floater follow the full time well now we're all fulltime in the building so I have one Tech that'll either be on one side of the river or the other as like his primary base for the week and then we have three of our other full timers that rotate between the Middle School the high school and the elementary level just so they get experience in other areas of the department um but that helps us kind of show them like okay High School may do it a little bit differently because there's a lot more kids compared to an elementary but you're managing six or three and three uh we try to split it to where especially if you're at the elementary level I'll have someone on one side of the river someone on the other just so we can split that load if there's like an emergency that comes up or something like that but there is like you know when your Chromebook is down like for a child at school there's ability to get it yep we've also we've added a really nice enhancement into this incident IQ that Mark mentioned our help desk um teachers can now actually put tickets in on behalf of their kids so literally if you're teaching the class and your kid drops their Chromebook she could put in a ticket that literally says Little Tommy broke his Chromebook here's the ticket it gets ass signed someone will come over and grab it pick it up get it sent out give them a laner that same day so they're not out with a Chromebook at all we get it sent out for the repair under the warranty and we're done so the spare pool has honestly helped us as well because no kids left without a device they always have some sort of a device so and I appreciate what you said about getting grants since I know you've done that on multiple things we've been very lucky these past few years with the Chromebooks especially but adding cyber security to this mix I'm hopeful honestly because that's where the money is so hard to afford good stuff you know yeah thank you any other questions comment and then a question so one just comment on I I like the alignment of your goals to our strategic plan I think that's that's key for us to um kind of communicate that that what we're doing here is really backed up by that um strategy plan that we got out there so I like I like that thanks our district plan um and then any issues with retention and recruitment of Staff we've been very lucky honestly um it's it's been hard to you know sometimes keep them I've had a few folks in turnover over the past few years and we had one guy that was working for us before we finally approved the full-time positions that we got rid of the part times that was where it was very difficult the full time was a win for us that that has helped dramatically I haven't had any issues since we've done that and you're so you feel like your department is where it where it needs to be right now I think at the at the building level was the biggest need at the time yeah I think in the future we're going to have to look at some other areas just because of the growth of things and requirements for AI and stuff coming you know we'll have to Pivot at some point I have a question inspired by a n and a halfy old that I happen to know at HC Storm um regarding cool math games uh oh about Cool Math yeah I'm just curious um so cool math games is something that's been available for quite a few years and is now blocked yep I'm just wondering how something like that is decided upon and if there's collaboration with the faculty on things that are historically used by them yeah so I I have a committee we do every week basically we we review certain apps and things like that and at one point we actually went through that website it was fine we approved it um we got to the point where now re in recent events I was getting phone calls from a lot of people parents staff other folks uh they had changed their policy on their advertisements so we had to re-review that as a group I've talked to curricular folks as well like trying to figure out okay they have changed something kids are getting very inappropriate ads I can't control that they're not blockable kol math games wants money so they're trying to make a change here to make you pay for that subscription so what we ended up doing is blocking it literally due to the ads they were bad okay so that's the main reason great thank you y anything else any other questions or comments all right thank you Dave thanks Dave thank you to all of you for the is that do it ports right yes yes I just had a general question about it was with the goals that everyone was giving what's the timeline for the goals I would it's a annual basis for Progress monitoring so so next year this time uh we'd like to come back in in May and June okay and give that final that's what I was kind of wondering like if it's like half year Yep this is the next half of the goal okay you got it thank any other General comments about the presentations all right if I could just one last thing is I just want to say thanks to our leadership teams on this um you know I expressed last month the difficulty and what they've put together is that the state doesn't require any District to report some of the things that uh these teams have created and it's again to Rob's point in reaction to making sure we're in all aspects of our district living to our strategic plan and holding ourselves accountable whether it's the teaching and learning side of things and obviously you can see the volume of work that they're doing from the operations facilities transportation and business side so I just wanted to say thanks they've spent a lot of time working on this um to develop these kind of data points that's it all right so thank you thanks for the presentation thank you uh we'll now move on to item seven our Act only action item of the night uh special education Services IGA Brad yep so this is slightly unusual because um in this instance we would be sending a student to an out placement but it's at a public facility in this case Hinsdale District 86 so it's a high school district in Hinsdale and um as the IEP team is planning for students they look at what options are available to meet that particular student's needs um sometimes placement sometimes it's a program within our own schools or a Continuum of services within our own schools in this case the I team felt that uh the program that's housed at Hinsdale 86 would be the most appropriate program so we are uh need an intergovernmental agreement with hin stale and then it'll go to their board for approval and then the student will have access to that program uh to meet their particular needs so we typically in an outplacement situation are Contracting with u a private group in this case it's just another governmental group my only question was the duration um I like is it immediately and is it because it says with the option for Renewal based on student needs so is there how often is it going we're going to need to improve it I just don't want to want to approve it and then cause delay for the child again because now we have to approve it again I was just kind of curious what the duration looks like it would be this would be IND duration for that particular student's needs or if we were going to send another student okay so it's like indefinite we just have to have this agreement between between the two government bodies okay and the the student progress and everything would be reviewed just like every other student on an annual basis to make sure that that particular situation is still meeting their particular education needs thank you so if the IP team changed their mind I wouldn't come back to you and say he's not there anymore but that team would make that decision and the transportation has worked out yep I believe that's already worked out okay any other questions for Dr new nerk or comments just one other comment I I love the idea of this I don't I don't remember seeing anything like this before and I've been here we're working with another District to help us to so yeah it's kind of a situation I I don't know what led to it and brought to it so I mean maybe there's unfortunate circumstances but I love the idea that we're collaborating with them so thanks for doing that I agree anyone else all right then I will entertain a motion to approve the intergovernmental agreement with Hinsdale Township High School District 86 to provide a BPS student access to specialized Education Services second who was a sue motion RJ second Cindy will you please call a roll vote Yes sler yes yes AR yes mat yes gilber yes all right now we'll move on to section eight board man Ms Tom will you lead us in this discussion yes um so board this is a followup from December's conversation just looking for any general feedback the board might have about how the November and December presentations went is there anything that you as a board would like to see changed in delivery format of presentation um I realize I I want to say it was the November board meeting with eight buildings and then a regular agenda that was a rather longer night for the board I didn't know you know do you want these conversations to be done through and presentations on a special board me that has come up by a couple of individual board members so I wanted to put the opportunity back out here for you all to have a discussion and give us any feedback and we'll make note of it because we have May and June so it's kind of two discussions one uh if we like the reports in the format and then if we agree we like where we're headed when we would have those presentations made or if they would be a SE SE meeting or included in a general board meeting is that accurate yeah well then I'll open it up to the first question what people General thoughts on the reports good bad different format I like them they're fine I like the formats I think it was good to have them consistent um between the different uh schools Danielle the formats were good um I think the only hard part I don't know specifically with November or December um and maybe if we had a special meeting it'd be a little easier but there's not really any there's it doesn't it feels really rushed so like as far as questions or just any like discussions around them it doesn't I mean we get it and then it's kind of like there's nothing else that we can do with it um because I think because it really makes the agenda a little heavy um so maybe that's where a special meeting would be good but the format of like what's presented is nice and I think with everything else it'd be nice if we could get anything ahead of time just to kind of look at kind of like what we've been doing we got these ahead of time so it's nice to look at it and just kind of have that if we do want to take a look at it before coming uh to the meeting RJ yeah I'm sorry I I'm actually was looking at my notes um I did uh put down that I think it would be nice to have a deeper reflection on the past and present meaning like what the school challenge has been over the past years um and the what the future kind of looks like as opposed to just what was going on during that school year so if there's some sort of reflection of the past five years and what the future looks like um I also thought if there's any any information about the PTO involvement to the schools would be nice along with any parent participation um let me see and if not given the chance before I'm not sure how it worked out this time but if if possible to give members of The Faculty facility anyone that's working at the school to give them an opportunity to uh be aware of the presentation and provide feedback that they have if there's anything that they feels necessary that they want them po to be aware of otherwise amazing awesome and wonderful are those in your notes that yeah no matter what the content I love the relationship that this is building so I uh I would agree a lot with RJ I mean I think we talk a lot about transparency and over the last three months we've kind of had a building level view a district level view now organizational and so I think that really is how we can communicate transparency um I think one thing I would like is uh I'm always looking for context on how you know so you say like 97 98 I'm like I don't know that's that good is that bad I'm always sort of like we have some peer districts that were I know everybody's a little unique but I'm always kind of wondering like you know how are we doing compared to our peers I want to be the best we say we are but let's challenge ourselves to you know again I know it's not always Apples to Apples but I'm always sort of interested in that and then I think to Danielle's point I do think that um this is really important and we want to give it the importance it deserves so um I know everyone has very busy lives but I do think um I'm not sure what it would look like especially when we had all the buildings in that was a lot um I think at least one of those meetings should be uh presentations should be broken out into a separate uh event a separate meeting so then that's the sole focus of the evening so it has a little more breathing room because I think at one that meeting I felt like once we got to the end of the lineup they felt a little rushed maybe or people are running out of gas reverse the order the next time so that no it needs to be two separate like yeah that way the person who went last can go first oh yeah yeah yeah I think someone made I wasn't there yeah not to go into not fa to them really quick because I before something you guys kind of touched on too is um I I do recall that when we were doing I think it's the presentation you all did there was one part that I'd asked about if we could get the numbers that were um kind of gave us like the contacts behind it I think I don't know if Holly I think you were talking about um God I'm trying to remember exactly what it was we were talking about like here are the percentages for students but I wanted to know you know is that breakdown um how in like relation to all the students so when we're saying that like you know our Latino students well like that percentage is that five Latino students or is that this many like if we can have a little bit more um I guess I forgot the the phrase that was used that day um um you're I remember this I'm sorry I'm asking you to like read my mind no no no you're not I remember this uh we're talking about like ratios of student population proportionality right right right yeah because I think sometimes a numbers can be a little misleading positive and Ne or negative where we're not really sure because um you know 100% of students how many of those make up those different classes and like what does that apply to each of those demographics I will look back at my notes maybe if you need a followup I can go back to that data and I'll drag my memory sorry sorry and it kind of cut you off no you didn't cut me off um I've always got more comments um I'm sure you've gotten feedback Mr Kim from the people that have given presentations I'd be curious what you heard was it this process was it beneficial for them to go through it um you know what was their feedback did did they like the format uh I'm always curious it's a two HD here so we want people to feel comfortable and feel like they have enough bandwidth to tell their story while also being concise enough that we can understand it you know so have you gotten any feedback yeah we had some general conversations with everyone and I think at the end of the day what I what I think and what I heard in like the rehearsal the dress rehearsal we did um and and just some of the conversations preparing for the for the presentations people were just in general excited to talk about their buildings um I think you know having that plantform with you and having a a member of their SLT be part of that conversation and planning uh RJ to your point uh several principles did tell me that they were able to share what they were going to be pushing out at the board meeting prior to they did share it with their teams in the buildings um I don't know I will admit I don't know if that was done in all eight buildings I know a couple of the principls did tell me that that was no um but those presentations um I think people in general were just excited to do it and you know I think what we're all looking for is just feedback on if that was in general hitting the mark with some of these uh feedback points I've just taken down you know we'll work on that tweak that that's it I think the bigger thing will be determining for the board what you want to do you know is it just the building night that you would prefer to have a special meeting because I think the district night went a little faster when we just did The District overview in December um but that you know again maybe another conversation or some reflection on that some wait time on it you know to the next meeting anyone have any thoughts on that I agree with the school night being a separate I think it needs to build own one with the buildings I mean I felt like tonight I mean every meeting is its own animal but this kind of felt like within the flow for the three presentations I guess the only other feedback I would have is now that we've got this new strategic plan when we're creating the presentations it would be nice to like Mr arandu brought up a tie into like how these goals like that's the theme like this is how it ties into our plan I mean I think everybody's getting there but it's sort of I have to kind of get hit over the head with it sometimes so that's like while we're creating the presentations like that's the goals are all set to hit that that's a nice I think they did it but just yeah I was going to say is there something specific you're thinking about no I'm just sort of saying I think we did a good job with that just keep reinforcing that all right okay so do you have clear Direction on where we're at yeah so if I hear correctly format in general is solid good to go we will need to look for a separate evening between May and June for the buildings to do their presentations so that can there can be a deeper discussion not be comingled with other business of the district on that evening yeah which then means um I will need to um canvas with the board a common date but then also ask our principles and slts what might be a good date for all bodies too would admin be able to do theirs the same day or is that too much I just felt like it when I I mean I came oh like a district yeah I came in a little bit late but it it felt like and again because we had a lot to get done I think we had close to it was very quick and I don't feel like there was a lot of ability to kind of ask questions and go back and forth what do you guys think I Holly Brad Tony yeah Tony what do you would we be able to do the buildings and the district on one night if we were doing a special board meeting so we put all on one night is that a still a midnight type of thing I wouldn't but I think that's a lot to like process him I think it's a lot of information it is a lot of information the other thing I was thinking too is we'd have to be careful about the date because staff typically when junal is around say that again I didn't hear you what about staff may not be available um when are the new board members sworn in April so I believe it is the April regular so you'd have to figure out the meeting after that point so it be after so it would really be kind of um an introduction yeah for anyone who's being newly seated yeah probably have a lot of groups in one meeting then that's why I'll bring that up May's the end of the year you you got graduation and any other type that's not a great time to add there's too many things going on in May yeah what do you think there's so much and it seems like every organization that my kids ever been a part of has the yearend celebration well July like you said like you might be going on vacation Jun July I mean I you could probably discuss this right figure it out we kind of identified that the buildings we want I don't think you need to pick a date right now no I don't think we need to pick a date right now is everyone comfortable with that we'll figure yeah but do we still the district one do we want to put in with the regular meeting or make a special one for that regular meeting it worked fine where they were that was the one we did in December I don't feel like there was a lot of ability to go back and forth really I feel like it was a little rushed I would say maybe the district one or yeah the district one could maybe be in the summer like the July or maybe the August like a slower meeting right yeah that makes sense yeah because Li have a lot on the agendas that's yeah yeah we're not having a closed session there's not a bunch of action I yeah I'm comfortable with that for sure so I have two breakout separate sessions for building and District level right is that what we're saying well they're saying maybe making sure oh it's in that meeting when it's a little lighter agenda is on a summer meeting okay sure so agenda is not as full typically our are are lighter they are a little lighters L's going on I mean given my year and a half here my fast experience BPS yeah I I feel good about that how's has everyone else in agreement with that I see all the head nods saying everybody's doing a roll call there's a consensus what I'll do is uh start pushing some thoughts on dates for the building uh building version uh this will give a chance for Holly Brad Tony myself to talk to our principes as well to get some feelers from that and get their feedback as well because they'll they'll probably have a good pulse on what their SLT reps can do this okay and I'll how about this I will send something back in a weekly update maybe uh to the board or just a separate item as as we prepare for a future agenda we have a little bit of time since it's not like we're talking about next month all right we okay to move on awesome all right then we're going to move on to 8.2 Vision 2030 and again I'll hand it off to you Mr Kim yes so um uh you have been receiving materials from the Illinois Association of school boards and then also some materials that I have been sharing with you um Vision 2030 is an initiative that is being launched by a collaborative of various State associations such as the Illinois Association for school administrators the IB that I just referenced the Illinois principales Association etc etc um Illinois Association for school business officials is another big player in supporting this Vision work um 10 in Vision 2020 was passed um it was the first time that the state was trying to create a collaborative in moving forward public education initiatives and kind of pillar principles to support public education in Illinois Vision 2030 is looking to do the same thing um and we'll talk about that now in that there are four overarching themes behind this plan and the plan is very much aligned to our strategic plan when we break it down so taking a look um this is talking about advancing public education Illinois the goal is to try and ensure that the plan will meet the future needs of our students um as we continue to move forward um and some of the factors in that will be talking about accountability and and funding all right so if we can move next slide please that's just some of the associations I just referenced uh one of the things that we've talked about in my updates to the board has been the mandates that the state of Illinois pushes onto schools and one of the things that Vision 2030 is looking to do is try and create a system that more cohesively brings those things together so that schools aren't left trying to figure out which initiative ends up pivoting to another right between the last two years or a year and a half school districts have had to respond to 35 new curricular only based initiatives um and and a lot of those have come through the form of a bill that doesn't always talk to each other and so it feels sometimes really stressful to our systems because they're not necessarily always congruent with what they're asking school districts to do um no sorry all right so one of the things that you have constantly heard from cni presentations um from me is the overall ability to provide a safe learning environment for students both from a physical sense a social emotional sense but also providing experiences that are preparing them for a future exploratory uh Pathways after they leave BPS the state is Broad in the expectations they have on school districts we are going to be asked as each year comes uh passes us we are going to be asked to reach to younger and younger grades in preparing them for career exploration and postsecondary exploration and preparation so um an example I'll give you is the Aurora education commission and our Pathways to Prosperity work and the valiz group that we belong to that's our region and we are looking to um help support a regionwise career Expo um which would bring in uh several thousand freshmen from our region together and listen and engage with experts in the fields of different um careers potential um College you know Pathways of study but in all of that work this is a huge initiative that the state's requiring a year and a half ago you heard Brian Gamlin present to you the state expanding the requirements on Career pathway programming here and so those are some of the things that we're why Vision 2030 uh meets the mark on what we're also supporting because you've seen in our strategic plan our goal is to try and create a path uh for every student right we want we want to help find uh help students find a path somewhere within the offerings that we have um go ahead m the accountability piece is again something that I've that we've just probably gone over uh way more times and you want to hear about because we just talked about it is accountability one of the aspects of vision 2030 focuses on District's accountability it also focuses on our school and district report cards and the reform efforts that ISB will be making over the next two years to realign our our standards uh for proficiency benchmarking so that we will be matched evenly and fairly against other states um right now when the state rolled out its accountability system they used a different standard than the rest of the states around us and so part of what Vision 2030 wants to do is realign our measurement system um our accountability systems for school reporting and that that's one of the goals here um I talked about mandate flexibility and how they planning on trying to U help streamline the work that districts are doing and being responsive to with any of our mandates that come through ISB or through Springfield Springfield all right um and then as you know our assessment systems they are working on trying to create constantly more of a responsive way of giving feedback to districts um and that is the hope that the state has with the switch back to act and our move from sat along with um you know I and the Science assessment you know we're trying to ask the state to give us that Fe feedb back faster so we can make adjustments sometimes we don't get these results until the following school year is already started all right um I think Tony and his team always do a great job of providing you with annual reports about our our budget and where the state of finances are in the state of Illinois and so I think one of the things that we are um looking to do in supporting Vision 2030 is to protect the evidence-based funding formula that has been uh a part of what Vision 2020 was and we'd like to make sure that that stays there it's it's the fair and and uh Equitable lens in funding schools in state of Illinois while we may not be one of the biggest recipients of ebf funds in general this is a goal of ours to protect for public education um and then uh secondly we do see this as or I see this as a way to provide traditional funding but an ability to potentially look at flexible ways of funding schools with through other options and vision 2030 is a push to continue to do that without always leaning on our um traditional lovers in Illinois which would be property taxes right so in support of vision 2030 it gives us um some ideas as to how we might be able to pursue some alternative funding for schools um how go go and turn the next page so one of the things that um is also mentioned as part of all this is our ability to retain uh our ability to retain and recruit high quality highly certified teachers and encourage the growth of our pipeline of future Educators right so you know in our district we already have our um educator preparation and credit program we want to continue to grow that and you know the state of Illinois is also launching its own initiatives to kind of push and encourage uh students into the field of Education um I don't know if you've seen isby has spent multi uh uh a huge effort in trying to uh promote education and promote the idea of students becoming teachers they have billboard ads up now on the highways they're doing some digital ads so they've gone kind of all out and trying to uh push push education as an option career field here in Illinois right um that is a really quick primer I gave you I I went with this slide deck was prepared by the associations for all districts to use as a consistent talking point with boards across the state of Illinois um boards are approving resolutions at their speed of comfort you know based on the presentations and discussions they're having so this is kind of our first opportunity to talk about it publicly uh there's no action on it tonight but eventually um you know if you have questions anything here that made you go deeper into some of the resources and materials and you want to talk further about it I know we as Administration would welcome that um and if I've missed anything Tony is there anything critical that you'd like to talk about uh Tony's been on some of the boards that have reviewed Vision 2030 work in its development no I think you did a great job of covering it thank you yeah okay never gives me that kind of compliment all right all right um I know you've hit a lot of information again thrown at you um are there any general questions from the board is there what is would there be so you were going you were saying is at some point we're going to vote something related to Vision what would it be is interested in doing that there is a resolution that these associations are asking School boards to consider pass it's just a resolution of support there's nothing that happens financially or anything like that it's just a matter of a district representing its support for vision 2030 um as a member district of iasb that's part of why you're receiving those emails trying to inform board members about what Vision 2030 is so I looked at the deck that you know on the email so I click here um so I guess my question question is is how did we do for 2020 like the state you know on that one deck it said their out their goals and outcomes I mean they didn't really to I guess they didn't really lay out their outcomes very well I mean that was you know so I don't really know like in a sense of 2020 goals right the very first one is highly effective Educators so I guess we didn't meet the state didn't meet the goals of recruiting and retaining high impact Educators so it's often again for 20 30 I mean I'm just kind of curious if that's true um you know and I guess if if that was their goal and you guys voted on it how did we do then as a district in maintaining those goals like did did we meet those goals or did we not um and um it's always like you know I understand that's how they want to do it but I guess always the question is is well how do you plan on doing it you know like how it's great to have these goals but how do you plan on doing it you know yeah no I I I think that's a good question um I know you can't answer it because it's the state but I mean those are just the type of goal like or the questions that I have you know um one thing I would say to that if I may yeah go for it I would I I would just my experience I remember being at the triple ey conference I think it was 2014 when they released Vision 2030 I remember coming down the steps to the the escalator to the to the exhibit all and seeing the first placards about what 20 Vision 2030 was and vision 2020 excuse me yeah 2030 20 anyway I just remember seeing the placards and seeing what they were trying to accomplish in their vision and thinking oh my gosh that all that stuff makes a lot of sense and what it did was it became a platform for all 850 school districts around the state to start having a conversation about what was important now they didn't come close to actually actuating everything that was in that Vision but one of the key components of it was as Tom mentioned was the evidence-based funding formula we as a state had a conversation about what acad world funding needed to look like and how to make that happen with the legislature the general assembly so that we could do it that was the the big key piece that we saw come out of vision 2020 but in terms of your question specifically in terms of Highly qualified Educators if you recall we were coming off of the Obama eror where was race to the top and a lot of different expectations about what qualified Educators and Par professionals look like and evaluations and those sorts of things and we realizing at that point what worked and what didn't we were having conversations about what needed to change in the school code so that schools had the right flexibility to meet changing needs and then of course our labor market Market is completely different now like it's as if the the goal posts are always moving but the takeaway here is that we as a state are having a kind of an intelligent and cohesive conversation about what the issues we face in Illinois are and ways that we can address them it's going to be impossible for us to actuate all these things but there's 850 school districts in the state and they all theoretically have local control but the volume of mandates that are being passed every last straw that is passed kind of leeches that away and it makes it harder and harder to meet individual student needs and we have to have a conversation in the state about what that looks like and what is in now and in the future so that we can do our jobs effectively it's becoming harder and harder to do that with every last bill that passes I have a comment H would it be possible to put that last slide back up on the screen nine I think it was um the thing that just struck me as I was reviewing this is uh yeah right there key goals is um and I don't know how this happened but when I was reading those I'm like wow these really seem like they align with our strategic plan which sort of happened organically I believe so uh I mean I think sort of where we're at right now if this is where the state's at we're sort of in step with what the state has identifi they want to be us is what you're saying probably but I mean that was just something that really struck me I mean I don't know if we have something about enhancing postsecondary success but the other three for sure were spending a lot of time would you agree with that Rob I mean everybody I mean we worked on the that committee together but um so that made me feel like well we're if everybody you know greater minds in the whole state came to this conclusion it's like maybe we're on the right track a little bit I don't know that was just something that really popped out to me so I guess my question to you Mr Kim is so like where does this discussion go from here oh um if the board I we can bring it back to the board meeting in February and ask for authorization of support for the resolution and you would just vote on that and that resolution then what IB and IA are asking for is uh when districts vote in support of the resolution to support Vision 2030 um school districts are submitting that on a Google survey form after the vote has been passed by the board do we have any so was like Tony representing on this committee or this Vision 2030 like are you a I had the team member I had the privilege of participating in fact I was working on the accountability work group so I wasn't working on the whole plan but I was assigned to accountability and we had some pretty intense conversations about what accountability looks like now and what it probably should look like so that we can better meet the needs of students and you'll continue that on going forward the hope is that as we're bringing this work product to school boards and all the stakeholders across the state that we can have a more cohesive conversation about what the issues we Face are and how we might address them particularly from a policy standpoint so there are a lot of interests that are at play and uh there a lot at stake and you know like my comments earlier it isn't that any one of the changes that the general assembly makes is bad they're all good and very well intentioned it's just you know we have to have it's not just necessarily about control it's about making sure that all the pieces work together so that the kids get the very best product that we can offer to them I think the big thing too is is that just so you know you know it wasn't too long ago when it was common for the state of Illinois to be the kind on its checks to school districts right Vision 2020 and now Vision 2030 is advocating for the state to continue funding on the front end public education in the state of Illinois and to me that from our organizational level that's one of the big pillars that we should be continually pushing for from this from a state you know we're part of that Collective State and I say that's kind of one of the big things we ought to be advocating for so that we have the ability to continue to do what we do I'm sorry ra you were going to say yeah that was a quick question so the four you know even the 2020 goals or these goals do they um try to work at them together or do they say okay this right now we're going to tackle keeping kids safe and let's get that done and then they move on or is it just like okay we're going to try to tackle all of them at the same time yeah there is is n a um an action plan this is more along the lines of a kind of a vision statement to say here are the issues and here is what we see is being some potential Solutions now we need to work together as stakeholders across the state to find something that works for all of us uh and some of this is um serendipitous like there might be a particular issue that might engender a certain conversation with the general assembly or others are you know the states economy and it's changing we they're looking at massive deficits for the upcoming fiscal year here in Illinois and that's going to have a profound effect not just on education but on all services the state offers and what is going to be the priority and what pieces need to move pensions are becoming more and more of an issue that are chewing away at that deficit and the state budget how are we going to address that you know what what do we need to do so that we are putting all of our dollars at its maximum effect especially for students but Health and Human Services and uh you know Medicare and all the rest of the services that the state of Illinois roads it's just it's an endless list what's going to produce the best common good public good I I just reiterate I think it's pretty cool that we have someone from our district that's involved in this process so all right so can you just reiterate Mr Kim again what next step is on so is there a consensus for the board uh from the board excuse me that we bring this back to you in the February board meeting for potential action of support on Vision 23 that's my feedback sure yes okay all right great thank you we'll put that on the agenda for February for Action okay all right then we'll move on to uh the next section of the agenda nine I've noticed that usually Mr Kim gives his comments first and the board speaks but you know what I think we'll keep it as is so Mr Kim can finally get the last word so uh Su nothing are all on you what nothing nothing if you have nothing to say that move along let's go let's go um just one quick comment it seems like it's ages ago but it was uh about almost a month ago December 20th but uh did have an opportunity to go to Grace mcain and actually Tom Tom and I both had the opportunity to go to Grace McQueen participate in their fourth grade charity Carnival Mrs Barrett's sitting back there miss Anderson they put on a great event uh was very well uh organized and executed I'll say um and uh Tom taught me a couple lessons on a throwing I think so a throwing and uh but it was a great event and uh main point though is they uh they raised a lot of money for specific Charities um I know Special Olympics I forget the other two but um but it was a great uh great event for that and the kids as as they won contests um these games they were able to put it into one of three buckets three different charities and then that money went to obviously went to those those Charities um so it was a great event um we did also have a chance to talk Tom and I both talked to a student uh Lexi um cams um and U she gave us a a little bit of explanation of uh her involvement when she was in fourth grade she's currently a freshman I believe in high school and Miss Anderson had us talk to her and she explained how she started getting involved with Ronald McDonald House and this was part part of this event and um just a great example of a a student you know um doing some good within our district so uh shout out to her for for that work um that's it thank you um I don't have really anything just welcome back even though it's been a few weeks and I hope everyone stays warm and uh just first just uh want to give recognition and thank you to the all the facilities team members that major schools were ready for today I know there's a lot of work and um extra hours so thank you Mark to you and your team for doing that um if there's anything that I think is important that the students have a place to be it's warm safe and dry so thank you um and then to you three uh thank you for those reports it was really great I I appreciate the deeper insight to what you all have going on so thank you for putting that together that's it yeah I definitely Echo that thank you guys you did a great job and it was nice and informative and a nice little package that we can understand it I appreciate it um I guess like on a little bit more of a serious note um I just want to recognize the speakers who came out today and um it's it's kind of hard to show up when there's a lot going on a lot of uncertainity and I guess I just want to say that every student really does matter um we see in different ways and I know that we have a lot of work that we need to continue to do um but I just I don't know I just want to take this space to recognize that I mean the lgbtq plus Hotline Crisis lines had more calls I think than any other day um you know we have a lot of um people at different immigration statuses that are coming into our schools their families are here and the kids are showing up and it just it's it's really a hard place and I I I just feel that we're going to have to have some hard discussions that are going to come up but I think that we can handle them together I just I just kind of want to recognize our diverse students and just um just recognize everybody and I just hope that everyone is safe and I am grateful for our warm safe try so that people have a place to come to regardless of what's going on but um you know you have a board that is I think committed to all of our students and everyone's safety um like I said we have work to do but I think in all we we recognize that every single person and every single um situation matters so I don't know that's just kind of sitting with me so yeah all right I don't have too much to add for once but uh I do want to thank everyone who came and participated for sharing their voice it's important our uh Bea partners for speaking again their reports outstanding thank you for that um I do want again thank you know uh not only on the days when it's cold out but uh I'm an early riser and I see the people out getting ready to be open for business and also recognize people in the community if they're on a route where kids are walking the people that take the time to shovel and de ice and make sure that everyone can get their safe that's kind of a community effort to make sure that we all can get them home and uh there and back safely and then I'll just share one personal story um I got a chance to participate uh in an event at HC Storm I got to go and read for some students and I didn't really know what class I would be or who I be who's uh what grade level and I went in and I found out that the class I went into was Jody BD who was my daughter who's now a freshman in college was her kindergarten teacher and I think she's still a kindergarten teacher maybe first grade I'm forgetting but uh kind we had like kind of a moment like oh but what was really great was like she's like exactly the same energy that she had and uh so that was really kind of like a full circle moment to see her doing her thing and see her still just as passionate uh as she was you know I won't say how many years it's been but uh a while um so that was just it was great to reconnect with her and again to see like whatever we're doing in the our culture uh for someone that's got a little bit of tenure to still have that enthusiasm with that age group um was pretty cool to witness so I was appreciative with that opportunity um so with that I think does anyone have any else where everyone's got their word and we'll let Mr Kim get the final say all good all right here we go 12 Pages um as we return from Break um and dive into the remainder of our school year I wanted to take a moment to reflect and and share some gratitude uh once again I wanted to thank the Fine Arts and Music Department and the BAC team for hosting such a remarkable music musical experience that led us into winter break um I thought the event was truly inspiring and I know left a lasting impression on everyone who was able to watch that concert both from the recording or in person um want to also thank uh all of our families who so graciously hosted over 150 people uh our guests from Tokyo um your kindness and effort made their visit not only possible but very meaningful U the conversations and friendships that were created over such a short time was no small feat and truly showcase the generosity and warmth of our community um so as we begin the New Year we're presented with countless opportunities to continue growing and improving together um I would agree with that sentiment that um you know we we have the ability to do a lot of great things and do things for our students and that work is lying ahead of us um the work is being done within our district committees and I believe that is a testament to our shared commitment to Excellence and collaboration and I'm confident that we are going to continue to making strides towards meaningful progress uh so recently I've been asked several times about my thoughts about the future of public education um and what does you know a changing of the garden our Administration for our country look like um I've been thinking a lot about tonight's discussion and presentation surrounding the guiding principles of vision 2030 and to me it serves as a powerful North Star for our work um I agree that I think it aligns beautifully with our strategic plan and helping us focus on what matters most the success and well-being of all 5300 of our students stud at the core of it that's what we're here for so to close in thinking about the future of our students and given the the uh importance of our holiday weekend that we observed this weekend um I'm reminded of a quote that's um shared in honor of Dr King which was also shared this evening um Darkness cannot drive out Darkness only light can do that hate cannot drive out hate only love can do that I believe firmly that if we continue to instill hope in our students students and help them recognize their own inherent value they will not only see the light within themselves but I also believe that their light will shine into others I think together we can create an environment in this District where every student feels inspired to love what they do grow in their own Journeys and support one another so with that I'm looking forward to the work we're going to tackle this year and that's it all right thank you Mr Kim for those words so now we we move on to the last item 10.1 uh motion to adjourn for Clos session uh well I got to read my little paragraph here uh I like the enthusiasm though the board will go into Clos session we do not have any action items after the Clos session uh but the people in attendance you are welcome to stay here if you like if you decide to leave we want to thank you for coming out this evening the time is now 9:28 and we will entertain a motion to move to a close session as allowed under the open meeting act for the purpose of exceptions 5 ils1 12-2 C1 and C2 so second so motion by Raquel seconded by RJ Cindy will you please call a roll call Vote Yes Thomas yes yes gber yes yes yes okay he

roll call Mr secretary Please Mr Al here uh Mr gagos is a here Mr swales here miss zit stumbris absent and Miss Wolk here Dr Hall here and president Brown here let us stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and mission statement Pledge of Allegiance led by board secretary Mr gyos and mission statement led by our vice president Dr Hall 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 we do have a reason to go into close session but I would like a motion to move item number five public comments ahead of close session as well as item number nine Bravo following public codes I move to move public comment up before close session a second so do we do we do we need a any comments any comments on that motion that was so we're going to have do we need two motions for that just one do we need two motions to move 9 B we want to move 9B up two motions okay so that's one motion to move close session back right yes that's public comments forward in front of Clos session okay so that's one so that's one motion Nelson moved it or he he he moved it and did we get a second on that yes Dr Hall okay do we need a roll call yeah okay all right Miss wolf F hi Mr swales hi Mr gagos say an i Mr Albert I Dr Hall I and president Brown I motion pass I also would like a motion to move nine Bravo one and two right after public comments and before session I'm move move by Dr Hall second second by board member guyos any questions or comments on that okay if not roll call Mr Al I Mr gigos is an i Mr swales I Miss Miss wolfolk I Dr Hall I and president Brown I motion carry all right so we are at public comments at this point we do have two sir we have two and I ask Dr koganes to read those for me I certainly will thank you these emails were submitted uh prior to our meeting this evening and the first email is from Jennifer Smith um it says hi I hope this email finds you well I wanted to express my opposition in removing the word Talala from the Talala Elementary School name this is my first year teaching in the 201u and I work both at CSK and tala I am also a parent of students who currently attend CSK and in the Middle School furthermore I am an alumni of the CT oneu including tala Elementary I attended tala School in the 90s where we were a Titanic Community I remember each of my teachers and the impact they had on me the friendships I made at tala have lasted over 35 years to this day those friends and I call ourselves # tala kids the name of the school became part of our identity I was so excited this year to return to my alma mater as a teacher I know many of the current teachers who have many many years vested into alala who would be disappointed to see it fit under a different name I urge you to thoughtfully to be thoughtful in this process as T is a special place for many people please take careful consideration as your decision affects many sincerely Jennifer Smith and then we have a second email from Amy Girt and she writes dear members of creeton School District board 2011 you School Board I hope this letter finds you well I'm writing to express my concerns regarding the proposed renaming of tala elementary school as an Alum of both two one new school district and having attended tilala Elementary myself I believe it is important to consider several key factors before making such a significant change tala Elementary School carries a rich history and a tradition that is deeply rooted in its Community the name tala is not just a label it represents the Legacy and the values that have been upheld by generations of students teachers and families 30 years later former classmates and I still refers to ourselves as tala kids renaming our school could inadvertently erase this historical context and the sense of identity that it provides to both past and current community members in addition to the impact of both present and past stakeholders renaming tala incurs costs for updating materials that could be better spent on enhancing student learning and well-being I urge the bir board to take the funds and spend them on things that will directly impact both students wellness and their academic growth and achievement lastly it is essential to evolve stud students parents and faculty Alum and residents in a transparent decision-making process before moving forward with this decision please seek Community input and ensure that all voices are heard and considered while I appreciate the intention being behind the proposal I urge the board to reconsider due to the historical cultural and financial impacts preserving tala's name honors our past and sustains Community Spirit we saved tala once before please help us Pres preserve tala's name and allow the tala kids identity to live on for generations to come thank you for considering these points Amy Gert thank you superintendent as far as other public comments principal um we'll wait till the discussion of it okay all right all right so we want to thank you and I I must say I did uh submit a response to those emails that was sent to me and the board as well all right we going to number nine that was pulled out of our action report number n9b Board of Education one and two can I have a motion to approve the name change of ketta Scott King magnet school any discussion make the motion first okay move by Dr Hall second uh I will second you got second MH okay second by board member uh secretary Mr gu angos open up for discussion so so I've got a couple of questions first what what would prompted this or what was was our ground swell to contemplate the name change um again I had brought in I know Alex U kind of brought it up the last meeting but I had brought it out a couple times I think in the in the past old business or new business I can't recall and it just was something I looked at to have a school connected with the village itself because we have mon Elementary we have Creed Elementary and both of the schools in University Park is not equated to a name of University Park as well as tala and I said you know I you know me since I've been sitting here and and not in this seat that and I hate to use the word inclusive these days but togetherness you that there be a connection with the school as well as the village not to change the names itself just to add that component of the village with the building do we know how much I mean we see we've seen this in some of the feedback and emails sure but how much it would cost or or what would be entailed changing sign age letter head what there there's very little all of our letterheads done digitally so that literally is a keystroke okay um we don't send out letters everything is done electronically so there's no cost there as far as the signage most of our signs are all electronic so there'd be very minimal uh number of that and maybe I can ask Keith on that do you recall on the signs themselves the hard part of the signs is there lettering on those signs there on the sign okay so that would need and probably then at tala's school as well okay so that would I think would be the only place on the hard signs if we were going to add of University Park on there yeah and the intent again wasn't to stir the name up of the building just was to add that little small component to associate the school with at least the village so it just so we are on the same page I've known you for six years MH and you've always talked about that you've talked about that and and more honoring or recognizing The Village to have an association of something it was never in in in effect of changing or being disrespectful no not at all which is crazy of what we're getting yeah and you know we had a 4minute conversation and I assumed we were going to have more discussion on that the only drawback I have with what's going on is why are we moving so fast but we had a four-minute discussion we didn't even have enough time to talk to the principles to see what they think because then they can go to the staff we didn't have time to talk to the the Mayors to figure out what the tax like yes it is a decision but I just don't understand the emails and and everything and then I got text that that the staff at CSK is upset and the staff at why we're trying to them in their V in the village to have something that that that Moy and cre have right and you've talked about that a long time yeah and it's just very concerning that that's where they go with the csk's upset staff and the tala we haven't talked to the principles yet we haven't even ask God any input to figure out how we can make a decision to help benefit or honor our Villages and our taxpayers I it's not about taking the name yeah do we bring up the word Park Forest Elementary and yeah we did we talked about it that's what you do you talk openly you you have a discussion and I talked I called Dr Ken I go like have we talked to them to the principles and she said she you know reached out and talked to to principal like we want that input so we can make a decision that's right so we're not but then we get these emails and I get a text that no one comes to the building the board members don't come to the building the administration doesn't come to the building and it frustrates me because three years ago when we started the construction in this District we felt Nelson you can agree because this before your time the three of you the three of us were here and we knew that toala sometimes are we always always on the front talking to them no and we felt like hey man let's this construction process let bring them up to the front and we had them go first with LC and now three years later it's like we're we're we've done something wrong as a board and when we're just trying to honor or give a little respect to the Village that's it that that was it and again it it it's it's got to just we have to have a discussion to come up with a solution yeah and and and that's my frustration of this whole thing is that and I'll be honest I'm just it every email that comes in I just get more frustrated because we didn't do anything wrong but have an open four minute discussion yeah and when I brought it up I brought it up in old minutes or uh yeah old old news and um I just asked have we gotten any feedback from the schools nothing nothing else and uh yeah and besides the name change I get you know no one comes there and no one does this you know let's be realistic no one here is retired right we all have jobs the only person that was retired was your predecessor Janine and then the public voted and she was removed and Alex was is put in that spot and he has a job and and and I was honest on the text and I said you know what I haven't been to one school this year because my business I'm busy and I feel bad for that but I'm volunteering here and even if I can't make it to a school every time a board a packet comes out I give it the attention and I look it through to make sure that at least when I'm giving a a decision it's thorough right I'm I'm doing the work but if I don't make it out there I have other people that I have that rely on me and their families and I have to make that work and when you get that it's just like 4minute discussion and we get emails like we're dishonoring tala and CSK I mean well I said it clear last week I I we can do whatever name but we don't change kesa King Magnet School right right I said that right yep it's not about changing that it was just how do we figure out how to draw University Park in a little bit so they feel like hey man that's it and we want to park Force to feel the same way yeah and that was the legist of it and just just minimal part maybe I downplayed it or whatever I didn't think it was a big deal when I saw consensus I said wow we can move forward get this you know our policy says that we can do it and it was not and I am so engaged and all of us are so engaged I'm so proud of this board of all we do reaching out to the community yeah I I felt a little slapped around on some of those emails you know I'm like wow and you know Brian is here and we got board members going out and the superintendent is going out to all of these schools for us to be saying that we don't do this and that I felt a little you know but that's okay I responded back to those emails saying how proud I am of this board and just that small component that we was adding we wasn't taken away just of University Park I talked to the mayor he said it's been long overdue to have that school included with some verbage that says University Park and and Park Forest we want them to be engag both and we want them to be part of it because their taxpayers help fund us there taxes come here and and I'm sorry Brian maybe that topic didn't uh did not come up we had a good talk Janine and and Alex and I and the principal we just had a good talk with Brian a couple weeks ago you know just how was things going so we're doing all we can do to be out there in the community be out there at the schools we got two schools left to go to and talk to the principls and I really didn't and I you know what I'll take the blame I'll take the hit on this if it wasn't verbalized correctly I'm here sitting in the seat and everything stops here the bug stops with me so I'll take the blame if it wasn't communicated right because I really felt that it wasn't that big of a deal but I was wrong and I think maybe the name of kalala been taken away you know we had we had a very small conversation on that yeah I can see that and I understand and that was never my intent Mr Brown let let me say this I I I I don't think that you should anybody on this board should feel bad about considering changing a name first of all people say all the time that people are upset I could have a conversation with him and I can tell everybody the board's upset and I ain't talk to nobody else so we don't know if everybody's upset we just know that those two people are upset and it's all and I'm not saying anything negative about those two people but that's just the reality of maybe three with the text it's just the reality of life now we have to decide as a board what we want what we think is best for the communities that we serve not the three people that have emailed us and again I'm not downplaying their feelings but the three people who emailed us that are speaking for everybody and there's a number of people who probably like I don't care I don't you know I we don't know but we make those decisions and we try to listen to the public the public has spoken obviously our meeting went and then how that got into the community do does anyone know I can tell you I in fact that's why I invited the two principles here today after the board meeting I called each of the building principles because I assumed anything that comes at the board I make sure that they were aware of that discussion and I said this was discussed at the board could you go ahead and talk with some of your people to start getting some gauges for me so I can bring the input back to the board and that's what they did and um and I've invited Mr Main and Mrs shoko here tonight and if they want to come to the to the microphone you know and they can maybe give some input you guys can come on up yeah I mean we hear what they found from their staff so you can hear it from the actual principles right and again when we had that discussion last week it was just about throwing it out there and then let's figure out how to you know like everything else all right well uh first of all um as I listened to the conversation of the board um thank you uh for your volunteerism uh on the board um I have been a volunteer for uh over 30 years and I know that it is often a thankless job you put in so many hours and every time you check the mail there is no pay check uh so thank you I I do appreciate that um as Dr Kagan said uh she reached out uh uh last week uh and asked if I would solicit some feedback uh from some of our school community members uh and and I did that uh in a pretty quick fashion I I spoke to uh approximately 20 to 25 of our school community members uh I will tell you that uh the roles uh range uh so we are not just talking about teachers uh we're talk talking about multiple positions uh within our school Community uh and we're also talking about uh members that live uh within several of the communities that our school district serves uh including University Park um the what what I found first of I should say that this is uh kind of an informal PLL uh and so uh it was it was very quick and informal uh you know maybe 5 to 10 minute discussions with with each individual um it is not representative of the entire School Community uh nor is it representative of of my own personal opinions but what I did find uh is there were a few things that that that really uh resonated with me uh that were common Trends uh amongst all of the individuals that I talked with um the first and foremost uh was um are we going to have to answer the phone like that do we have to say you know uh thank you for calling Kisa King Magnet School of University Park um and I I said uh in my conversation with with Dr koganes um probably not uh that this was going to um be on our signage letterhead Etc um the the next couple things that that came about um are maybe of of a bit more substance um Kisa King magnet school is is is a unique Elementary School that serves members of of of all of our communities uh obvious viously namely uh Creek Moni uh University Park and Park Forest but we also do serve a small portion of of Beacher and Frankfurt as well uh and so in in the communication that I had they said well if we say of University Park um are we being inclusive of of all of the students that we're serving within our building and so I think I can make comparison to uh our middle school and our High School uh who whose names are cre Moni middle school and high school yet we're serving all all of those those communities as well um so there's there's a bit of a precedent there I think my greatest concern as as the principle uh of of something that came up is you know we are a magnet school and we we do our best to try to encourage all the members of the communities uh who who could be sending their students to our school uh to fill out an application uh we want to fill our seats we we want Max enrollment and over the years sometimes we struggle with with that enrollment and and we've done a lot of great things to to to solicit enrollment um one of our concerns is that uh if if we did modify the name um that we could potentially be sending a a message that this school is for students only of University Park and so if we if if if you do make the decision to change the the name um I think that we just need to be very conscious uh in our marketing of our school uh to ensure that uh everybody knows that they have an opportunity to attend our school regardless of the community that they live in and I think that question sorry is this your op your thoughts or is this what you're getting from staff um so again uh this these were the uh the the three or four items that really were common amongst amongst staff um that is one that that that did kind of resonate with with me a little bit more um but again I'm I'm here to share really the collective responses of our of our staff rather than my own opinion um no matter what happens uh we we are an international Balor at school who um really lives and and and believes our our IB learner profile um two two phases of our IB learner profile um we are Risk Takers and so we are not afraid to try new things uh and we are also a very open-minded School community so whatever the decision is uh we are going to make it work so Brian if I ask you the question just as you socialize with us create Elementary so from that you would think that school teaches all students from Creek that's that's kind of what you was alluding to when you said people may say hey University Park R Scott King you put the verbi at University Park that they would think that only University Park kids are taught there right um that that's yeah that's that that could be um some messaging that we' need to work on with the community but yes uh as well as as well as Moone Elementary you would think that only the kids at mon attends that school that yes is that true but is that true I'm sorry is that true that only the kids that lives in mon attends mon no no is that true that only the kids no sir okay so we have kids without within the whole school district attends either school right yes sir you got kids from University Park attends tala in Park Forest okay yes yeah and and again these are not my opinions but I can this our M see how it's proceeded yes yes and again this is the the feedback that that that was given to me um these are not necessarily my my opinions or or My beliefs um but yes that that that there there could be um an a a misunderstanding uh among community members that because of the name of the school yes uh that it that it was only um uh open to those students who lived in that specific Community yes and and when we came came to a school not being named the two schools not even though they are in University Park being the Sixth Grade Center or no it's sixth grade Cent the middle school right and CSK both schools one is Creek mon Creek Moni middle school and the others Keta Sky King Magnus school and we said you know because of what you alluded to about the high school that everyone goes in our district goes to the high school and everyone goes through the middle school so we looked at the middle school and we said between the two schools because the history of Keta Scott uh Scott King was Hickory that was a neighborhood school and because that school was lost because of a failing school was not achieving the ayp that that school was basically revamped renamed restructured the whole n yards to become the school that it is where all kids from the district May attend so there is a I know tala spoke highly uh a lot of things was the history of tala which I didn't know had it not been some for some of the emails that came in so I can see definitely why tala would feel the way they feel by having their name changed not just a Park Forest but tala in it of itself so thank you uh Brian anybody have any more questions well just a reminder for the board too the middle school and high school or cre mon because it's cre and mon townships that's correct that's correct like Bloom Bloom Township correct we don't have the word Township in our school names but it's not representing those Villages it's representing those townships that's correct but at one time that middle school was named a different school right correct and this used to be the middle school here at one point so yes absolutely and again University Park was not part of a Township because there was a new Village back came about 1969 1970 where Moni and CIT had been well established so you got two townships CIT and Moni Township again so I was just again myself looking at it when I brought this to the board as giving some representation for those two schools being tala and CSK to equate them to the Villages that's what I was looking at nothing more nothing less and and realistically in every Elementary School we don't have straight from that from that um Town that's correct I mean 20% of University Park kids go here and then they go here and then we have overflow from here and it's it's really made up all the schools are made up of a little of everything which is great that that's great yes thank you Mr M okay you're welcome and again uh this was the feedback that that that I solicited uh that was the that those were the those were the common themes amongst the number of individuals um if if anybody wanted to have a further discussion with me I'm I'm my door is always open well feedback is helpful and and brought up some things I probably wouldn't have thought of so I appreciate it so you yourself on a personal note asked the principal do you see any quals with adding the verbi of University Park I I I think I think uh in in my personal opinion um that that I really really do appreciate that we're not looking to change the name of our of our school namesake uh we we we've done a lot uh with our school culture uh within uh the The Village uh as as well as our our school district and our uh and our students um that Keta Scott King uh must stay uh if you were to tell me that uh we were planning and changing that name um I I would definitely have a much stronger let let me go back and ask the question only adding I think no to University Park everything stays the same as as long as long as uh as long as we are communicating with families uh that it is a school for all um I personally have no problem with it thank you okay thank you any other questions for Brian thank you Brian I really appreciate you coming out on this cold day and I'm sure you rather be here than somewhere else it's cold thank you Brian thank you I appreciate the opportunity thank you Stacy schoko good evening I'm Stacy schoko principal at tala I too was asked by Dr koganes to uh for lack of a better word test the temperature after the board meeting minutes and the agenda came out last week and here are some of the things that I received now again not a formal um survey uh these are uh sidebar conversations with small groups of people um they many of the constituents within my building felt um they didn't have an opportunity to have input they felt the decision was made whether it was correct or not based on the agenda um that they saw they shared things with me aside from what um Mr Maine said they were worried too about cost the rich history of tala we do have students of course from other um Town um areas within our district um they were worried about the confusion with Park Forest itself because we have a neighboring School District while they do not have a parked Forest Elementary School um named in their District they felt that if we call theirself Park Forest we will um add to confusion and have um inadvertent students trying to sign up for school becoming frustrated when they actually weren't our students um they were concerned about the mascot were we going to stay the Tigers they were worried about the colors of our school we were going to keep our school colors um I have some students uh some staff members whose parents were actually Educators within the building and they're very proud that they are following in the footsteps of their parents as well as uh former graduates of tala the one thing I asked them what if it stayed tala Elementary School and of Park Forest was added of those that I spoke with they felt it was more palatable that talo would stay Rich they are proud to wear their tala gear out in public they're proud to say that they are a tala teacher and they felt that that would be a better option again not speaking for all um then completely changing the name of tala elementary school that's what you need that's how that that that's how we make decisions as we get the information we ask the people that's in at the head and I appreciate all that's exactly what we were looking for and I mean after a 4-minute conversation I can't believe what how it turned the way it did I think it comes from a good place I think it comes from love um and um what they feel attached to from even childhood I don't it's not necessarily I don't know from a a bad place it's just from having strong uh feelings of comfort um around the building itself and the in atmosphere that we provide um I think additional conversation would probably um uh provide opportunities for people to share those those feelings and sometimes that's what they need to do but I think keeping tala in the name is um something that many many feel um uh would be very beneficial to our school district and our school Community thank you yep thank you okay thank you and again I did speak to both Mayors and both Mayors was elated that there was a connection with either school to their Villages and they had no quals about it and the mayor of Park Forest who we had such a tough time he said bring it out bring it out in Open session of trying to connect with him last year he said that would not be the issue this year and I'm waiting for his call next week that he will connect with us to be moreor involved with our school district he said move forward if you want to provide any if there's any more input that we need from him please solicit him okay so again both our Mayors was in favor of just adding those small words of the village per particular School uh any more questions with the board on this so go ahead yeah I just to let the board know I'm not going to support either of these and mainly um even if the cost is minimal I don't I don't think now is the right time because as we'll talk when we get to the consent agenda we're running pretty significant budget deficits this year and I think it sends the wrong message to the community even if we're GNA send spend anything on something like this so anyway just so you know where I stand anybody else so uh the motion that is out is to just add we're only doing one right now right that's the motion is 91 yeah okay both both of we have spoke on both but the motion is one at one at a time one discuss and so that one is just adding of University Park at the end of it correct that is correct okay of University Park okay H I tell you this is a tough one to be honest with you I was looking for just me personally a unanimous uh decision on this and I and I'll be totally honest with you like Nelson I'm not voting no or yes I'm saying I I I didn't do I didn't give it the the thought cuz I was so aggravated and frustrated that what what and I'm not going to give a vote if I haven't done the work for it I mean I just don't understand why it went with that way sure I just don't think it's the right time so sure and and again I'm about if you would like I can move to table the item and then we can bring it up any other board members Phil how do again I not I don't want to ask you how you want them vote but I I don't want to split on this been so together uh this is an item even if it was voted down doesn't mean you can't bring it up again in the future yeah yeah it's we're not we're not committing money outside you know to a contractor or something that where we can't reverse it right that's true is there something else that we need to know to give it a yes like is there some information that we don't feel that we have that we still need cuz from what I heard I feel like I have all the information I need so I'm just curious is there something else that you need to know before you running a positive budget variance so if we were in a positive you would have been I'd be more supportive okay um so so I know you can't give specific numbers but can you just reer reiterate the cost factor involved that would do this you said something about Electronics the logos and all of that will not not change if we go think it's the dollar amount right now I think it's the public perception okay that we're doing something that will cost something when when you look and we're running a $4.2 million projecting a $4.2 million deficit this year I think I think we need as to get the message to the public that we know that this is going on we're going to try to address it we're looking at the root causes and so frankly that's that's my opposition to it I think it's Optics as much as the perception really is not reality here you know you have that phrase perception is reality so from you look at it and and definitely get it uh Nelson so from your point of view we're talking about minimum cost all right uh correct the only cost I would be looking at is probably changing the hard signs of the two Vics a hard signs yeah and I don't have okay are we tbling it or voting on it uh again my position as board president has always been is to be unified as best as we could as as a board and I don't get that here with with these two items here so okay want to make a motion to table I put forth a motion to table or uh actually think the better phrase is postpone table you put it aside to kind of come back with us today so I say postpone well okay so I put forth a motion to postpone action item 9b1 and two so move second I second all right hold on hold on uh I actually I actually second I said so move I moved it I second no no I moved it no you moved it I second it nice nice second okay cuz he proposed okay okay so to postpone 9 V1 and 9b2 roll on that correct you yes all right no further discussion okay uh to table it that's correct postpone postpone it poon it yes okay Mr Alber I uh gagos as an i Mr swales I miss Wolk nay uh Dr Hall n president Brown hi the eyes have it so it will be tabled or postponed to a future uh future date future meeting so no changes to school names all right we do have a reason to go and to close session for the purpose of the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals can I have a motion to go into close session for reasons reasons just spoken so moved second moved by Bill second by Todd any questions and comments All right we should be in close session 40 minutes or so and we will take action after we come out of call S are we taking roll call for the yeah all right all right we got a lot of roll calls so far Miss Wolk hi Mrs swsh hi gyos say an i Mr Albert hi Dr Hall hi president Brown hi we are in close session well for e e e okay we are back in to open session and we are on item number six we have any board updates uh just a reminder and um Cheryl uh you sent something out regarding the iasb and the dinner right the dinner yes and I believe you had made 4th and an email but I think the a the F yeah did I say what did I just say may you said May March March 4th and I think in FYI it has March 3rd okay okay just check that I believe so so I would like all board members if they can make it you know we're going to get recognized as a highly perform performance organization board and I really look look forward to everybody gun and going there attending that event and board member jine I will hope that we all wear a shirt of similar color and not size but similar color and I don't know if Janine Janine have a shirt or any not yet but personal we GNA get it together yes Jason SW okay so if you can look at your calendars I would really really appreciate if you guys can go and we can get recognized so we can promote ourselves and let Cheryl know right Cheryl yeah I think that's in Manhattan junior high too yeah relatively close relatively close are we wearing our baseball jersey that would that would be great the baseball jersey you have that yeah there you go yeah good good that's awesome that was good that's a good that's I know hey you're a that good spring spring training would be Highline is going to have to send out an email reminder to all of us when we get a little closer to that yeah no kidding okay so love to have everybody there so did you say fora third or the fourth it is the fourth it's the fourth it's the fourth it is the fourth it's the fourth okay I thought I saw FYI and speaking of FYI this last FYI and I think most of them are it was very very detailed it was very well put together I just really thank you Cheryl and Dr koges for putting it very well detailed FYI I out so that's all I have any other board updates if not administrative updates yes um I have some really good news to share last time we talked we uh shared a little bit about our health uh Wellness fair that was done January 6 I believe Upon Our return so today what we wanted to do is we invited Dana hullman and Jessica Ellis to come they are our extraordinary team that really put most of this together so we wanted to share the video with you and Dr Hall you can uh see I think You' got a cameo in here as well so pay attention face yeah so here's here's the video that we put together on this day so this is our first annual Wellness Fair we're really excited about this event we are hoping that it will bring the staff together a sense of comaraderie for each of our buildings to come together as one and participate in healthy activities and events this Fair aligns perfectly with our new strategic plan which is focused on engage Empower and impact for our staff so our Wellness spere our first time doing something this large for everybody is really to highlight all of the uh vendors and providers that we have in our wellness program I am hoping that our staff will become more Vigilant about their health hi am Shannon Bruns I am excited to be uh in the sound bath today it was just nice to be in a calm dark space and have some of the sound we're excited to be starting to do more at our building using the wellness and I know teachers are appreciative of the uh Wellness room we've set up and some of the incentives that we've been using through the district so hey everyone I am Dr Todd hos and I think this is an awesome thing that they're doing for the students and staff I say students because if the staff is ready the students will be fill that energy from the staff I thought it was nice you get a chance to see people a little out of their element kind of relax a little bit and then kind of make plans to do better or try to be great throughout the year so I think it's a nice event was that's good I was looking for 10 push-ups from so this is our first annual Wellness Fair we're really excited about to see J could you come up to the microphone come so I'm I'm just going to have you share a little bit about um how this all came about and um and share about the survey that we gave to staff we uh had a follow-up meeting today with our staff to kind of hear how this all went so I want to give you an opportunity to kind of share the story that went behind thisa I'm the benef coordinat for the district can you guys hear me better that way um I'm Dana homman I'm the benefits coordinator we um worked with Dr Cara Dr M to put on our first annual Wellness fair just some history from my perspective I've been with the district since about 2016 um and one of the first things that I got tasked with per um Mr surma was putting together a wellness fair at our opening day so imagine my surprise to figure out that um The Wellness fair that they wanted me to put on was mainly a financial fair just for our 403b vendors um and so I kind of went back and talked to Mr Sera about how we can build a better mouse trap on that as the benefits person and and what we could bring in and what we could do and some of our thoughts um and there wasn't really room for that at that time uh nor the budget nor the time um to expand on that during opening day and it kind of got tabled um and then when uh Co hit obviously we became a lot more concerned with the well-being of our staff and a mental state um and through those efforts and the initiatives with Dr Cara and the hiring of Dr M and now Jessica to assist me we were able to move forward with implementing some of the wellness things that we wanted to do for the district and so that's kind of how that was born um you want to talk about how we got the vendors hello everyone my name is Jessica Ellis um I've been with the district um just shy of two years and Dana often calls me like a spy because um she goes if anyone can find anything on the Internet it's Jessica and so I I will tell you all of this took place honestly we talked about it but we actually went into action 6 weeks prior all of this happens in six weeks so lots of stand up at night lots of bouncing ideas off each other's heads tex texting at 11:00 in the morning I'm texting her at 5 she's like are you crazy why why are you doing this I'm like I just thought of something else but to find a wellness vendor is hard you can find vendors anywhere but a vendor that is a wellness vendor those are very hard to find so I actually went on Facebook and I looked at all all of the different Villages who have like um farmers markets and they always have a list of vendors where those vendors don't have their information so now I'm writing down their names and then I'm doing Google searches and then I'm texting everybody I know like hey do you know the jelly lady or do you know trium or do you know so it was it became it became like a part-time job like even you know after hours just trying to find vendors in addition to the ones that we actually that actually service us on the daily um all of our vendors have like reply back they posted on social media that we were by far like the the most fun District um our our cardio they actually went to bloom that morning and we were nervous that they weren't going to be able to come to us but they went to bloom that morning because they heard of our Wellness fair so they got them to come before they came to us but the feedback was that your staff was 10 times more amazing than balloon like they were like no pun intended but we actually have fun with you guys so we're actually looking forward to um you know next year's making it bigger better we just need some more funding hopefully so we have Wellness Champions at each of our building now and so we've been tasking the wellness Champions with going back getting feedback um from the fair we've um got about 250 responses so far so we've urged them today hey see if you can do that last little push based off of how many people our um Auditorium says it holds we think that we had about 500 to 550 people that actually attended the wellness fair and so far the feedback has been extremely well people like the day um they didn't really like the time of the year they would have preferred for it to be warmer but um we can't win them all we've um discussed doing something in the spring maybe in the future but so far the feedback has been overwhelming with people that have been happy we'd offered um everything from candle making to painting with no sipping um although we did give them some nice sparkling uh cider apple cider to do with their painting uh we offered cardio drumming yoga um everything uh healing paw um next year I think staff said they would be interested in having Bingo they'd like us to do goat yoga I mean the ideas that they've come up with are insane um but you'd also be surprised people are saying hey we we'd like a therapist to be on site we'd like to have um be able to sit in a room and just have someone pray with us so there's all kind of things that we touched on that um really have opened up our staff and and we think this is a good offering for them so um did anybody have any questions on things maybe we didn't touch on about the fair I know some of you got to attend um Mrs Jessica gave some people The Grand Tour of the fair and everything that we offered and some people got to experience the food truck so hopefully those of you that did I want to say you all did a great job um it made me really proud to see what what was going on um to know that you put it together in six weeks is amazing um and we only had to call the ambulance for Alex and you know no we didn't have to call did the cardio cardio Dr he complained the rest of the day about how he got tricked yeah I got I got I Got U someone someone handed me a uh a schedule and said pick something off you talk to Miss Griffin huh yeah and she said pick something off of there and then go do it and so I enjoy drumming you know I do drum circles and stuff like that okay and uh that that's another thing that could be uh I know we did it at the uh Jun juneth celebration right um so I thought we were just drumming right and then this guy's like no we got to pick up this ball we got to hold it over we got to do a squat we got to be in the squat the entire time uh so yeah this was uh it was it was amazing uh there was a lot of participation um I got there a a little bit after everybody moved into the auditorium and there was a crowd of people that didn't want to look for seats and I'm like there's seats there's move out of the way I got to sit like right up front and there was a bunch of seats up front you know but uh they were like yeah we're going to sit back but uh it was it was great fun uh I had I had a lot of uh uh teachers and and employees that were like hey I'm glad you came out and so like just having our faces as board members Janine was there um it was it was important to uh to show our faces and and be part of that so it was it was a lot of fun thank you very much yeah thank you thanks for we appreciate it I love the enthusiasm go ahead no go ahead oh um I also went and it was fun thank you for my tour um question is that video going to be published is it going to be on social media yes ma' um I love the fact that you said we were kind of subtly competing and taking mental note of feedback especially compared to other districts and so I thought that that video would help with that because why not look like the premier school district for these vendors because they're going to start coming to us and you probably won't have to be up till 5: in the morning looking for them I don't know about that though so let me share with you as you noticed we are using uh local vendors videographers to come in start showcasing what we have because video as I shared with you before no one's reading anymore but these videos say it all right so we wanted to share the video with you first and then what we're going to do is we are going to push it out on our website on our social media this will also be used in adaptation when we go out to ATT track staff this is what we're saying about them because it is about our strategic plan how we are attracting staff retaining them and how we are investing in them we want people to know we we put our money where our mouth is we spent a whole half a day letting staff work together um talk and they just they loved it and instead of making them sitting there working in their classrooms we invested in them and you know I think there's a lot to be said with that so uh yes we are going to be pushing that out and because I think and again I put this out on my social media with my LinkedIn and I'm getting hits I have a lot people Nationwide that are beginning to see this so that they are beginning to see what cre mon is doing doing here and so that more and more people start taking a look at us differently great job yes thank you guys you did an amazing job yeah thank you thank you so much appreciate it don't worry about that 5 o' and 11 o'clock hours that's 24 hours in a day All is fair games okay all right if I could just lend a little additional context to this uh Jessica Dana and I had an opportunity to visit um Kell Park 132 last May um because within our our HR Group here um they put on o Wellness Fair they have 100 staff members so for Dana and Jessica to put this on times seven is just uh tremendous and I just wanted to publicly also say thank you for all of your your work in in this and I'm looking forward to working with you for for the next one all right good job good job you can leave now because you stayed so long you can stay it's cold outside you got get back to we were impressed with with you all for staying yes I thought you cared about the board meeting I don't know yeah I don't think so all right thank you doc okay um so I just have a couple informational items um so as you know uh yesterday uh we had an e-learning day uh we were expect in the cold weather and thankfully the forecasts you know were were right on uh we were in uh negative temperatures so we had e-learning today which I believe everything went well um when our team started meeting again today we started learning and hearing from the Transportation that we could not get our a lot of our buses started because of the a lot of the the what was it Jason the gel was freezing and the fuel gel was freezing the diesel fuel froze notified us that noon that at the time 25 buses were uh would start they got the number down to about 12 by about 3:00 um but we made the decision or Dr KAG made the decision to have another e-learning day tomorrow due to the cold temperature is supposed to be5 with windshield around uh arrival time tomorrow morning and overnight so my concern is I did not want uh our children at these bus stops waiting for buses that didn't come I we just couldn't do that so we tried to keep some of our programs up and running like our um students we're going to keep it go to Prairie State in ki we're going to have bus services for them because we just need fewer buses but to keep things consistent and to not lose any of instructional time I thought it was our best decision so you're e-learning tomorrow yes sir yes so do you know Jason if you can ask them are they plugging them in in at the end of the day because technically a diesel vehicle should have some sort of a heater like I have a diesel vehicle that has I can plug it in in case it's left outside yeah when I spoke with our transportation coordinator they did have some Vehicles plugged in they pulled about accordingly at the according to her at the Glenwood location they have room to pull in about seven of the buses it's just not all the buses were plugged in and I don't know if it's something that they didn't anticipate you know given the holiday weekend but uh like I said we were notified at noon today and you know they were going to make efforts working through the night we just couldn't ensure it due to them not being able to get the buses inside all right and we did get notification out this evening to give our families the most time so uh just as you were walking in tonight I did for that email to you and it went out uh it's on our website and so forth um we did have a couple things uh as you know uh Pam and her team are uh reporting for work and they're giving food away uh for our families our students that don't have it um so her team will be in tomorrow at each of the buildings Distributing food again for those families as well um unfortunately we had a problem over at the high school with when was it the refrigerator that went down uh the refrigerator and the freezer we were able to get a service technici out uh late this afternoon um and we'll be continue to monitoring that and work on rectifying that issue uh tomorrow to ensure that we have a functional refrigerator and freezer at the high school your backup loose anything right any food or anything no P was able to pretty much get all the expensive stuff into box trucks and then she also made arrangements with one of our vendors from Wilkins food and they made a freezer available for us sounds good thank you thank you yeah you can always put stuff outside well that's yeah that's why we have the two maintenance box trucks so there you go using that and um that is some the resources we're using right now you'll be good this week uh any any news about extra extracurricular activities are those canceled as well so I believe we're keeping them going at the high school but not at the middle school did talk with uh Mr Ki and we talked to both of the building principles to find out what was going on so again it's about buses it's not about the cold in this particular case so we wanted to try to keep as many of the things that we could I was going to say by tomorrow afternoon I think it's going to be 206 so so yes so those will be still take place okay I'm going to go on to the next item uh very short just website changes so this is just an update as we're continuing to work on communication our internal communication as well as our external communication we are knowing that we need to start kind of switching out the website um I started looking into this uh with our team and we are going to be building out an intranet so we're taking off everything for the staff on the website now and building an inonet and it's going to be all about what the staff needs so everything's going to be at their fingertips we're hoping that when they turn their their laptops on or whatever their home internet will come up up so everything's at their fingertips as far as uh the queue or putting in a work order or anything like that so we're working behind the scenes Stacy as our uh vendor Web Master she's kind of outlined that already so we've uh are working on that and we're also working to uh with the Donovan group to try to get some other kinds of uh training videos on there to start working on staff chat Bots as well so that we don't have to tie up uh the emails and the phones of Jessica and Dana especially with for services and so forth so we're beginning to really move in this I area of ai ai is everywhere um we are going to be one of the Front Runners in this which I'm really excited about but in going through this um and working with our own technology folks what we've discovered is that many districts and I've noticed this too are taking down their directories the directories would have our pictures on it as well as our emails and um it's very difficult when you go to see their website you can't find anything and I started noticing more and more of this but what I found out from our Tech folks is there is so much um hacking now with um they're taking the faces off and they're taking the uh the web uh their emails and they are doing just more and more hijacking when we went behind the scenes to see who's looking at our director we did see that a lot of them are from overseas so we are going to be moving quickly to disassemble our um directory I went ahead and talk with all the principles to said you know is that going to be an issue for our families elementaries like no we use Dojo classroom teachers are talking to them same thing with middle school as well as the high school so I'm going to be working with that we will socialize that out there quickly to let families know but I do think for our own cyber security it is in our best interest to get this stuff off so we're going to be making uh information on that and then socializing that on social media as well so I just want to make you aware of that um and that's all I've got for there okay all right and that moves us to number eight consent agenda approved can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda is there anything anybody wants to take a not is there anything anybody wants taken off before we get the motion I guess uh that was coming next so but thank you anything someone would like to take out the consent agendas before we just a good motion do it before you get the motion I guess yeah cool if not and have a motion so move second move by uh move by Nelson second by Dr Hall any questions or comments yeah I've got some questions for uh Jason and Brian looking at the financial report the right now annual forecast shows a deficit of 4.2 million and I'm the more I look at it I'm concerned about I know you use forecast five right to yes sir but it looks like you know year to date so this is through half the year we've got a surplus L of 2.2 million and then projecting a deficit of 6.4 over the last half of the year so scrub that make sure we know what's going into that that forecast yeah I can uh speak to that right now um and I can look into it more detail and provide any updates in the FYI um forecast 5 analytics Works basically off of a cash basis okay and then our accounting method is AC cruel so of that uh expenditures that you're seeing year-to date 2 million let see here 2,419 785 were accured back to FY 24 you will not see that in the forecast the way it's presented because it's on a cash basis um on a page previously to what you're looking at you can see the actual expenses for July and August were much higher than the historical trend of mounts uh on a bar graph uh on a page previous to what you're looking at you scroll up see how high July and August were yeah a majority of those expenses or a good amount $2.4 million were acred back to FY 24 uh we did that because we know the importance of having the financial recognition score for the district so um for fy2 24 our operating budget or our operating Surplus in terms of financial profile score was just $22,000 where the previous year was in excess of a half a million dollar so Brian and I have paid par particular attention to that so we are able to maintain the financial profile score of the district and balance between reporting on a cash basis and then also reporting to ISB on an acrel basis but regardless just on a cash basis is this telling me we're going to spend $4.2 million more than we bring in this year um on a cash basis yes okay so that's a problem and we've got to look at you know where can we we've got six months to go in the year figure out where we can cut expenses or find more Revenue um well that also that Financial projection does not include the first installment of the uh Tiff funds that will be receiving from University Park um that will help out this year but I know the board has had discussions about how to use that money and the money from Monique going forward portion of it is allocated for the alternative revenue bonds uh portion also for preventative maintenance and it's kind of leaving us towards a third that we were undecided with and I've be actually been having conversations with Keith about maybe lowering the preventative maintenance amount but I agree with you going forward over the next couple years we are going to have to analyze our spending so that we can utilize that those funds you know for new projects or they will be have to be they will have to be used to maintain the operating budget and a surplus so real quick to on the transportation when are those payments start coming in we received one in September and then we received one in December so they come in March and also June um this year hold on one second I can tell you and those payments are from last year yes they're from what was filled out on the transportation claim so part of the budget is going to reflect a little bit of change too that it like if our transportation numbers are up this year we're going to be spending more and we're only getting money from last year correct and then this year in fris the through the state of Illinois we've received uh comparing you know I'll say September and December's categorical payments this year we received $289,200 more this year than we did last year so that number will also be higher next year when we fill out the claim for this year is there a possibility in the FYI you could probably I think Nelson and I talked about a little bit but can you give us up and through January roughly maybe the first week of February where our transportation numbers are last school year from the beginning of the year to January 31st and then from this school year to January just to see if we're still on Pace or is the cost more like we is transportation higher well yeah I I could tell you the transportation expenses are higher um just due to the the amount that we've been expanding on our mckin vento transportation and we've put some places put some procedures in place with that we've began invoicing districts for the cost sharing portion um that has been met with some hesitation from districts because ideally you should have the cost sharing agreement filled out by both districts and then Transportation should be arranged to the beginning part of this year we were kind of arranging the transportation so we put an end to that and then we're working with the districts we've also uncovered a new vendor that could provide transportation for those students at a cheaper daily rate and we've been able to use that vendor too to try and leverage and renegotiate with some of our current providers is is the issue with the mckenny vento students is that they were in our district when they enrolled old and now and I I'm assuming most these were newcomers that are now not living in the district they've moved elsewhere but we have to because they started the school year here we have to continue to provide education for them um I let Dr melan chenko speak to that um I just kind of got involved with the expense portion of it but his Department oversees Min Kenny the the transportation is more or less not related to the newcomers because the newcomers are here and we're not finding that they they are leaving if they are leaving going somewhere else and then still claiming uh MVA um it's for our existing families and uh the Registration Department over the last last year and this year have put some new procedures in place to make sure that we're not just you come once you're here forever as as mckin vento um there's a recertification process every year that a mckin vento family will have to do um and they're they take they scrutinize everything that does come into their office to make sure that we are you know we're following the law of the right questions that we have to ask we're not going above that but also are you truly falling under this criteria and do all of these these types of Transportation expenses qualify for the 80% reimbursement from the state I'm pretty sure but I'm going to look into that and I'm pretty sure we include those in the transportation claim but I'll include that accurate answer in the FYI for you and when you do that with the FYI can you just attach just to C are we on Pace with what you calculated in your budget or does it seem like transportation's higher than what we anticipated um yeah I'll sure be sure to include that and I do want to say that you know of the expenses the 2.4 that was aced back to last year um second at my notes 1.3 million of that was Transportation expenses accured back to last year so I mean and I understand why we did that because it gives us a better chance of hitting our financial ratios for this fiscal year but regardless I mean if you look at it doesn't change our cash balance was here when we started our cash balance is going to be here when we end and if we're onun a deficit of 4.2 million it's going to be $4.2 million lower at the end right regardless of where you acrew it yes and you're almost financing the transportation for a year too right so if our deficit is 4.2 million but you're going to get 1.2 million back from Transportation but not until next year it does create a looks like 4.2 but we really could be a $2 million deficit yeah it does create a cash flow problem right okay um i' like to also point out that um you know the 600 objects are are trending above that is our out of District special education tuition so we're going to look at that um and also uh the 7,000 uh object line that's primarily due to uh the stem Labs that were included in the grant funds and those funds will be re reimbursed to us through Title One and title two and I think you mentioned before that the out of District students that that money was trending up earlier like there was more of it yes it is uh it has been trending uh currently this year we're at uh let's see here 9 127,000 and last year for the full year we were at 770,000 so so last year you were at 770 total for the full year yes and now we're at 927 through half a year yes sir yeah so but like I said we've been now that we've got we put some place things in place working with other districts that have their own transportation um we've been able to negotiate better terms uh with our current providers and bring on new providers that are less expensive so well I don't expect that number to double for the second half of the year because we're putting those mitigation measures in place and Will some of that come back then right we're trying our hardest through through cost sharing and and getting money from other districts but since those agreements weren't put in place at the beginning of the year we are reaching some hesitation from them in worst case scenario as I provide an FYI I'm pretty sure that we can get some of it reimbursed next year okay okay thank you you're welcome thanks guys yep okay good conversation okay so Dr cogin it is up to you if you so choose to read no you don't have to it's up to you are you reading everything for the consent yeah you don't just one last question so they started the construction over there on the Athletics I can see bear and uh bernon Jones is that for all the survey and the groundwork is that right 437 seems survey ground workor um I believe that may even be some of the initial design work too okay yeah I think it's a breakdown U for this prices in our somewhere in there I saw did they get any Concrete in before it got gold we couldn't time it up so and I was hoping for a mild winter yeah I didn't think so yeah which is good it's a good thing they didn't long as it doesn't hinder the completion date that's right right all right should I start you can say AB b c and d it's up to you uh under superintendent report number one approve regular meeting minutes of December 17 2024 two approve regular meeting close session minutes of December 17 2024 item three approved Committee of the whole meeting minutes of December 10 2024 item four approved Committee of the whole meeting Clos session minutes of December 10 2024 and number five approved press uh plus 117 revisions underneath business approve Board of Education financial report item two approve a payment of$ 56,000 $76.79 to Bare construction for work completed at the high school item three approve a payment of $437,500 item uh for D teaching and learning it's going to approve the um Creek Mooney High School show choir overnight field trip and item two is to approve the 2526 school calendar and that concludes the consent thank you Dr K coges if there's no further questions or comments have a roll call please Mr secretary Mr Alber I Mr gagos say an i Mr swales I miss wolfolk I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion carry on number nine action report a alpha business number one approve the bid results submitted by first student for regular education student transportation services can I have a motion to do as what I saw read uh moved Bill yep he moved it mhm any second second second by Dr Hall any questions or comments if not roll call please uh M Wolk hi Mr swales hios is an i Mr Albert I Dr Hall I presid Brown hi motion carried number nine Bravo was already discussed and it takes us over to number 10 any old business I have a question um and maybe we covered this before the uh for the superintendent the property you were talking about possibly purchasing and bringing our um our student special needs students back um is that still on the table or is that something you're looking at or the building in cre that's oh okay there you go yeah they bought that that's the township yeah oh okay and okay any other old business do we have an update on the on the Mec building yes I can provide an update I spoke with uh Mr gleon today um we''re having trouble getting a accurate legal description to put in the uh sale documents um he reached out to a title company they weren't able to do it so they're working with a surveyor to get the accurate or appropriate legal description uh for the property okay okay thank you Jason thank you Bill good question any other old business new business I got one here if no one else have anything on new business here's some conversation Dr cognise and I talked a little bit about this about potentially short cycling our committee as a whole meeting to not have it once a month possibly have it as needed maybe three times a year uh when the when it constitute or necessitate having discussions on things so what do you guys again for the longest maybe the first 10 years eight years that I was on the board we did not have a committee as a whole we just had a regular board meeting we had sub committee meetings prior to uh trying a committee as a whole as a pilot but just want to know your thoughts on it my only thought on the committee of the whole is it gives us opportunity to have a conversation or discussion on things without rushing to to vote on it because if you get to the one meeting and you're going to have a discussion if you have a question then it tables to another meet to another to the next month and that for me I if we were doing the short term I didn't mind but if we're doing talking about permanently that I'm I believe that's going to lead to longer meetings and I think the reason that it's good now is because we have committee the hold it may work a little bit and for a while but it's I can see it snowball because and then when we start well I'm sorry we used to have if we have subcommittees go back to that now they're going to be here more every people say go back to that but my point is we got to we're going to have to do something to get the information out then if me and Nelson are on and we can't get the information to everybody to you know then somebody's not going to have something then it goes back to well we didn't know this and then and if we get to a meeting where we got to have a discussion we're going to be here trying to figure that out and then table it and then unfortunately like the finance stuff we cannot delay we have to vote on that otherwise to pay to pay the bills it's just my thought I I agree is that I think it makes the other meetings go by these are a lot smoother there from years past because we're Lael to have that discussion talk about it then they can get their information put in the FYI by the time we get to the next meeting we should have enough information and if we don't we can send an email and get that on Monday from from you to get that from your team and I think it just gives gives us that s-day window to have any questions answered that we need that's my opinion too I mean yeah I mean again Dr cogn he knows and whoever's in this position who works with Dr cogin need to determine the agenda some agendas are very light some agendas are very light there's not much to discuss so do we use that and let Dr cogn Le say you know a judgment call this month we really don't need a commit as I definitely think July is we stay with where we're at with one because there's nothing going on but August is important because I think Dr M would would agree that we need hires at a certain time so that has to be is crucial then you in September the school starts what if there's something going on that issues we got to get on before you know it you want to get to dece like there's I think when is the the umce yeah December is the levies and all Levy the budget like you got to turn all that in October March August September December tend to be our heavier meeting months July is Light June is light January is light so you know we have we have some heavy liting months like you talked about we making major decisions I'm almost thinking August through April is your heavy months right I mean for sure um November is not too triple do we do we publish the committee the whole schedule or are we only bound to to publish the regular board meeting uh I Cher I think we we and that's why I'm saying that's why yeah yeah that's what I mean are we required by law to do that or we'd only have to publish the annual calendar for the regular board meetings and then can if we needed to if there's nothing to discuss nothing to prep for the it's going to be voted on the following meeting you know we could cancel them but cancel the committee of the whole yeah do we take a case by case you know month by month yeah you know I think the July one is pretty much understood that I think in the middle the summer that's forgiven there's nothing going on but I still think he gives us opportunity August September October November December and then you go in the break and then you come out of January I mean that was great to hear it's January we heard about the wellness right and and mind you we do slip in some special meetings there here and there to vote on action items whatever we need to and those sometimes those for lack of a better phrase those meetings Trump the committee as a whole so we don't have committee is the whole we have a special meeting just because we're voting on like a personel like in August we do the two voting I just think it allows your team to not be here as much and allows them time to get the information to us to make the decision that's all I think he's right on that is that it allows them to to if we have questions like we just had questions for Jason you know like hey man just in the next FYI or in the next month we want to just know the trans it gives them time to do that when without if we're doing this on a night we're voting I got to have that information like right now I don't want to make a decision or or or vote on anything that I'm just not aware of and then wasn't there wasn't there like a training thing that you were trying to put forward and stuff like that is that is that off the table now well I I I didn't feel like there was a huge push for it and then you know also with you know I think in April like I said when we have our new board at the table like I said that's a good time like okay may or I think we go back CU then we have to start for everybody and I think freshen it all up yeah all right so what I'm hearing is that kind of keep the community as a whole on the table but it does lens itself for some type of maneuvering here and there it's not that you want to be here that extra time but I think it just allows us to have that open discussion and I think it just makes then the next meeting realistically these meetings are a lot in my opinion they're a lot smoother from years past because we come in we have a lot of the information we have time to digest it those committees subcommittees was brutal I and you've been here long you know better than anybody else when you had subcommittees and that was before my time but my understanding is subcommittees can meet you'd have a budget committee that or finance committee that would meet it would totally get rehashed at the regular meeting anyway so it was a redundancy definitely there it definitely was a redundancy because you got five other board and you only had two yeah you had two board members sometimes just one that attended those meetings every month so but okay doc you heard I did okay follow peace with all men all right next up can I have a motion to adjourn so move second okay move by Bill second by Nelson all in favor say I any NS we are a journ thank you public I appreciate you watching in the privacy of your own warm home thank you have a good evening

in order to participate in the talent show students must attend an audition or make other arrangements staff may contact organizers CH Le and to have their app included access testing and by literacy during the week of January 5th to January 11th English learn learner student took the access test as required by the Massachusetts Department of Education to evaluate the progress they made in speaking English during the week of January 25th to February 1st bilingual students will be taking the AAP to show their Prof Proficiency in a language other than English students who meet the requirements will be awarded the Massachusetts state of bi literacy which will appear on their High School deployment NHS peer T tutoring initi initiative the GS National Honor Society has started a new program where members will help their fellow students with tutoring during wind blocks and doer School the goal of this program is is to provide individual support to struggling students and create a collaborative environment end of quarter two quarter 2 progress reports became available on January 2nd they can be viewed on both the student and family quarters quarter two ends today January 21st and quarter three ends starts tomorrow January 22nd jts connection game contest jts is hosting a NY connections Game Challenge that students and staff can participate in to win prizes the first winner was Armani ASA in grade 12 our first stop winner was Miss gji there will be a live connections competition on January 23rd MSPCA fundraiser the MSPCA fundraiser will continue into February donate towels and treats for animals at the MSPCA in the blue bin at room 4048 winter workout sessions varsity baseball coach Christopher Seer is holding optional workout sessions every Sunday from 2 p.m.

five is 50% of that that one position that was used to be fully funded yes so by so next year it'll be covered by the grant 50% of it will be covered by the Grant and I'm looking to cover 50% of it in this budget okay um the uh you gave a statistic on your outpatient cost uh right I'm sorry outpatient out of District uh cost was was that a typo or was that that say $150,000 per student was that correct it's like it said 122,000 and then 12275 plus Transportation plus the $ 37,3 for transportation that was that's average per student per student okay just making sure um and then um lastly the uh you're asking for an additional 215,000 for out placement tuition out placement so that's well I guess now two students I guess so is that anticipated for next year or is that a precautionary ask oh it's anticipated we have we have um we have some students right now that we're looking for out of District placements but the process of finding an out of District placement has um become a lengthier process um in some cases it it it takes us more than half the school year to um find uh an opening of a placement that we feel is appropriate and going to meet the needs and parents are happy with too we try to work in collaboration in determining what that placement is um it's many of our placements for students that have um behavioral needs are full um I called a couple places about a week or so ago and was told that they were starting their waiting list for the 25 26 school year because they had a waiting list for this year already so there that's an anticipation of knowing that we have needs is a you know point of comparison too Adam that you know Vin mentioned that we were reviewing some of the outplacement data today uh all this stuff is dated because anytime you're pulling State data uh there's a lag yeah but it's been you know uh viewed and vetted and you know it's legit so um looking back to 223 school year which is the most uh recent comparative data that we have of all the durby school systems we had the second least outplaced students at nine at that time um Rocky Hill which is a a smaller District had eight um Rocky Hill has 2 200 students at that time and at the time we had um 4198 so you know we're very sensitive and we that's why we've Divi designed you hear that sticker price and it blows your socks off and we said with that same money we can give an in town experience to kids at a which is better for them uh not just from a traveling perspective but from a belonging perspective we can do it better uh in many cases uh at a more cost effective way so we design internal programs to do that there's a cost to that but it's it's substantially lower than what we're paying on the average outplacement cost um and for our students who are outplaced their needs are certainly more significant and we wouldn't be doing right by them uh in District so those are students who who certainly need outplacement cost but you look at you know another comparable District in terms of size to chesher like simsberry you know they had 31 outplay students at a cost of uh 4 million plus so you know I think what we've done is strategically uh for the benefits of our kids but also economically tried to provide high quality in-house programs you're going to see cost one way or another but I think this is a better cost uh better expenditure cost for kid outcomes and for uh and for economics um when when we explore that one more question so Robin I'm sure you know there's a special ed task force that was empowered last year and they've come out with a bunch of recommendations in one of them is they want districts to look at their neighboring districts and see if one District could provide a program for and someone else could provide you know and then you would share those students have you had an opportunity to look into that yet because I I think we'll be asked um and and the task force report is out and available it's brand new um and I don't expect you have to with everything else on your plate I downloaded it I mean it might be something in the future to think about yeah um because do have a good recommendation um you know yeah um you know the quu program the quu transition Bridge To Life program um when it uh was originally designed it was um with the intent that we would um have students from other districts uh pay tuition into it and and be part of that program what I have found is we have a cap on how many students quu gives us a cap on how many students we can have in that program and that cap is 12 next year we'll have 11 students in that program and the following year we'll have 10 students that so it's we've been filling our programs um but you know if it came to a point where we weren't filling I absolutely would work with another district and see if there was a way we could share cost um at one point uh their W wallingford's transition program was utilizing some of our space at quu and we did collaborate on that and share cost um but then we got to big and we couldn't host them anymore so I think it's a little bit as we sit here today A little bit of a catch22 because we're trying to design right siiz programs right for the students in our population uh to your point uh Miss Cullen and I think we're going to collaborate more with other districts as we forecast what is that right siiz population knowing our strengths um all right well we could add another section here uh potentially avoid an outplacement and collaborate with Southington and wingford for example and pull in three students and then now it's right sized for that whole population um so it's right now we haven't been designing programs with openings in mind per se aside from the qu option that we delivered the other thing is that um I know superintendent and PPS directors have been clamoring for uh the state department of Ed to review some practices adopted by other states to help kind of contain costs on outplacement and uh just today uh commissioner Russell Tucker announced that they were going to undertake that so um you know I I know this has drawn the attention of politicians across the state it's been a a long growing challenge for PPS directors districts uh and so we're uh optimistic hopefully that uh the legislature will do some things to help alleviate some of the stress that is caused right now Financial stress and parental stress and professional stress right it might be a good time for us to look into it too because there is supposedly some Financial backing for a district that would undertake even if it's you know a program that we we just you know try to start up and um invite other districts to participate with us but yeah right now we'd be looking at you know even Middle School is probably a little bit tight High School uh space is a little bit more available our biggest problem right now is space at the elementary K to K but um you know as we move uh there could be some space freed up which would be real really nice uh for programming and economics um this question really is directed to Jeff so you're off the hook for a minute um so when do we find out because I have been seeing a lot of emphasis from the state legislature um for funding more to the municipalities for the special ed programming and um I'm wondering when we when do we find that out that'll be a while um so it's it's going to be more like when our budget gets to the town right um it's not going to be something we're uh going to be apprised of until we can build into thisd yeah spring no this is spring you know um uh I'll I'll address that a little bit more when I make remarks later thank you Robin thank you very much I always appreciate your in-depth um analysis and presentation I just have a point of clarification um the request for the transportation does that not go into the transportation budget though for the vehicle that you stated yeah it does it's budgeted in a transportation line but it's still identified as a cost of specialed no she's talking about the van the van that was the 2016 that wasn't included in the budget no yeah no that wasn't included in this it's not included at this point right okay um and I think to uh miss Colin and's point if we can kind of get the um delineation of um I was looking at kind of year over-year first thing was to try to see how many kids without being identifiable um how many kids transition out versus them you know coming or being identified for special ed services so if there's some sort of um report that you can kind give us at all I think you gave it to us a couple years ago but I might I when we were seeing a lot of that growth um as the the housing developments were coming open and being occupied we were seeing a lot of that growth but um in looking at it we're also noticing that or at least I remember from that that we're not just growing in special ed we're growing in the Gen Ed population and it was pretty commensurate with that yeah I think when we're looking at the special cost year-over-year we're we're just looking at the increases and within that number from 675 to 680 this year or projected for next year where in between how many exited versus how many you know entered through that system so there's some way again without being identifiable I totally understand that aspect of it um and the percentage of spending uh like Miss gullin had asked in the regular Ed setting as well too if we can get that information um I I put that qu because I I somebody had already asked you but I think we do a great job trying to you know keep our kids in District as much as possible and I re recognize that you know a lot of things are driven by the IAP um which we can't control necessarily at all so um outside of that you know I love the theory and I again Express that it's theory that it's nice to collaborate with our neighbors but I also feel as though I don't want other districts to be dependent on us you know we have come up with some really innovative ideas and so forth so I I'm looking forward to see exactly what the state has to offer um because you know I think our services and our programming is pretty top-notch MH I agree y Mr gripple sorry I did have one more question um your predecessor used to give us a report on the mental health of the general ed students so we've talked a lot about special ed tonight but um in your professional opinion uh how is the uh mental health of our general ed students I think that our students are very well versed in coping strategies I think you know we've done a lot with mindfulness and talking about the different strategies taking space I think they have increased their understanding of when and how to ask for supports um I think that also um they you know our staff is getting better and better at implementing strategies um they're always looking for new ways to support students um I think their collaboration with outside providers is um they do a really great job of doing that as well um one of the things that we are we've been working on I mentioned to you are at risk assessments that we do so the data that you're talking about that um the previous director would often provide is our at risk data on threat assessments self- injury and suicide ideation and um I so I've been doing some work with our counselors and our school psychologists and our social workers um because in looking at that data and if you begin to drill down and tease into it um I was finding that there was first of all I think there was a misunderstanding as to when it's the time to pull out that assessment and to begin to go through that with a student um identifying those times um for those situations um some of the what I was Finding is is that students especially of the younger population will throw out and say things like uh out of anger out of losing on the playground out of being upset with their friend because they wouldn't share something and these um making statements that are concerning um and then you know we conduct our assessment so I think that some of that really um if you didn't know that that's what some of what was increasing some of those numbers if you didn't drill down into that then um you in some cases I think you would you would be concerned about the numbers are they really growing are they really growing or are we assessing more and more students um more frequently um even in cases where that student may be demonstrating some anger management struggles coping Str you know how to how to cope with with disappointment um so some of our training that we're doing this year is looking at those assessments we revised them our our suicide ideation form we revised it um regulations came out that uh we needed to have a screener one of which was suggested it was the Colombia screener for suicide ideation and so we've Incorporated that into our forms now and we're working with the staff on how do you go about using that form um what what are the situations that you would bring that form out and in using that form too we're able to quickly assess what's going on and determine this is not a viable um risk so we can then follow up with the student in a different way than I would if a student was at an extreme risk risk or something so that's where that that I felt like that data is it's it's really difficult to say it's the pure data you know what I'm saying it's clean data um and so now I'm hoping that with working with the staff in understanding when you're going to pull out those assessments under what circumstances how can we clean it so that we know yes we filled this out but it's not a viable situation that we need to take further steps with and yes this is a situation where we need to take further steps with um so that's what I'm hoping to do before I start looking at those numbers again so thank you you're welcome no more questions I think that's it okay up next sorry vny you told me to be quick I'm sorry nice work [Applause] so we're still on instructional expense that was part a of instructional expense and now I'd like to introduce Marlene Solano our assistant superintendent who will take you through curriculum and instruction see worked are we ready for curriculum in the back so I'm here tonight to highlight for you a little bit about my small part of the budget which we're terming curriculum and instruction so let's break it down into a couple of different parts first is overall our curriculum which includes English language arts reading and writing Math Science Social Studies all of the general music instrumental music I won't read the slide but you get the picture it encompasses everything that we teach here in the schools it also encompasses curriculum development which includes a lot of research and finding out about best practices and keeping that really at the Forefront of any new um educational instructional practices that are out there and then of course there's curriculum writing and selection of resources another part of that is implementing the curriculum which is all about professional development our own professional development the administrator's professional development teachers paraeducators and this includes a lot of time and it also includes compensation the other is curriculum resources and that includes not just textbooks but it also includes boring things like subscriptions that hold are the holding place for for a lot of the work that we do and then finally there's assessment so I know especially my folks who are here from the curriculum uh committee we do a lot of talking about the five-year curriculum review process and part of our curriculum Team Works on listening to those reports we have an entire CCC team which is the chesher curriculum Council of which we have members from across the district sit on this committee and they hear from subcommittees of folks let's say in um social studies or in math people who have done an evaluation of the program so they're evaluating that program and they're surveying parents and students and staff teachers and they're looking at Best Practices and they're doing some research and they're looking at our curriculum to see what about it needs fixing cuz it's very good but we want to keep it fresh and we want to make sure that we're changing with the times the other thing that we do when we pull people together is talk about what's the next textbook that we need to be looking at this year we're looking at a US history textbook and that in in incorporates um time and getting people together around a table to do this research so for example if we have um our eure curriculum that we that we looked at a number of years ago we had to pull folks from all the grade levels kindergarten through fifth grade we had to get their opinions about it we had to research different programs that were out there so sometimes that can be done during school hours and we can get subs to cover that work that we do other times it's a little more difficult if we have a middle school and a high school curriculum that we're looking at let's say Algebra 1 it's taught in two places so in those cases we might need to pay folks to come in after school when they are you know outside of their contracted day and that might cost us a small fraction of $40 per hour doing that research the other thing that we have is a curriculum library and I wanted to show you that library today because it's something that we've been working on and I'm going to show you the elementary because the elementary is where we're really strong I must be logged in is Vinnie and Vinnie doesn't have access to our curriculum library this is so sad if you went through this and if I was able to have it working properly you'd see that all of our curriculum documents are internal documents for teachers if we hire a new teacher tomorrow they can come in and they would have access to this library with all of the lesson plans generally and links and access as to what our standards are what we're teaching what we need to be teaching from month to month week to week when our assessments are given Etc we're trying to build upon this and make sure that we have this available for Middle School teachers and high school teachers it exists in some fashion but it doesn't look as as slick as this should have looked when I pulled it up there for you then I'm having trouble getting out of it help me out yep okay there we go and then the last thing which I won't go into you've heard me talk a lot about the curriculum writing Institute that's one place where we write curriculum but we also can't always do everything there so there are some um pieces that need to get done outside of those spaces so the next part is curriculum resources and I don't list them all here but I wanted to give you a little a little bit of a flavor of what the money in the budget that's targeted towards instructional expenses and curriculum resources goes to so the first one that we have listed here is the one I used as an example it is Eureka Math Eureka Math is the resource the program that we use in kindergarten through grade five as an example that's one of our bigger ticket items it's $135,000 when last we paid for it another example is I ready for seventh and eth grade that's running at about the $40,000 Mark so then we have things like TCI bring science alive that we've had for too long now we're looking for other solutions to that and that's one of the reasons why we've engaged our science teacher coaches another is what you approved this year which is the human anatomy and physiology textbook which also exists within an online platform so and many of these resources which were in the past just the textbook that you lug back and forth every day are now just part of a platform that exists so students can go online they don't have to take the textbook back and forth they could click on videos and and other resources that are within that platform as you call it another is zern zern is a math resource our teacher of the year a few years ago used to use this partially in her classroom and partially for homework it was a great activity a great platform for students to get some extra practice to deepen their skills or for students who had some um intervention needs to practice it give them an opportunity to practice at home or to self- select to do that so that's zern we also have that World Language lab up at chesher high school that runs on a special kind of um subscription so that it keeps updated and that it's a nice resource that the high school has that they can practice and hear and speak to the voice in the in the in the computer and they have headphones there we had a showcase there many years ago so we're continuing Al though that was new years ago we're still continuing to support that resource for students others are um Capstone which is a virtual book resource so it's again practice for reading both at school and at home fact site which is sort of um a a relatively new subscription that we've been using that sort of is um along the lines of the Old World Book Encyclopedia and then our classroom libraries which I know you and our Town Council have heard me talk about because we've tried to defray some of that cost by going and using some of the PEC Jones money so then we have our library books that are in individual School libraries and we have lots and lots of consumable materials and I only highlighted a few here that were um for Science and this one happens to be science at the high school so they're needing to buy chemicals and dissecta bles and mineral and rock samples and then in fifth grade I believe it's still fifth grade we have owl pellets owl pellets for whatever reason and however gross that might sound are expensive and their kids like to use them but they always hit principal's budgets and people are always clamoring for the need of more owl pellets [Laughter] so then we have our instructional subscriptions and these are um less sexy to talk about but this is like the SMART Notebook software that's loaded on every computer in the district that enables students to go up to and touch the Smartboard so it becomes more interactive it's where the teachers create all of their lessons it's what they leave for the sub when they can't be there it's what they use on a daily basis and they're constantly um revising those then there's power school I know we've heard a lot about Power School lately but Power School is where so many of our things live it gives you the contact information and birth dates and grades and absence notifications for every student within our care we it's also where we pay for an add-on that enables us to do report cards in the way that we in chesher do report cards which looks different from elementary to Middle School to high school and also in kindergarten lastly under that same umbrella for power school we have something that's called performance matters and that's a a silly name for a data warehouse that takes all of our students assessment data so when they take a Eureka assessment or they take um a um um a reading assessment all of those things are housed in one place so that when we sit down and data teams and we look at how students are doing we're able to get a holistic picture of exactly where they've been and where we think they're going and we're able to Target our interventions whether those are teacher to student interventions whether there's those are coaching needs of of teachers but we follow those Trends and so performance matters is you know something you probably would never hear of or kids would never even know about but it really supports all of the work that our teachers do every day another one is School links School links is something that the high school uses this actually I give credit to Michelle KUSI up at the high school she was able to look at navian and didn't like the service that we were getting from them and so she did this lovely presentation to Jeff and I about how School links would be better we were one of the first um high schools in the state to Pilot this and now lots of other schools are coming along it's a better price point this platform allows teachers to make recommendations College recommendations for high school students it's also chalk full of career videos and different Pathways for students to learn about and it's where students apply for colleges so it's connected to the Common App we video is a video editing software where when we're not asking students to write their examples in this very Savvy age of of that we're all living in that students need to know how to navigate they can create these videos movies to represent the things that they're learning they have a lot of fun with that and that is something that can be used in library media classes it can be used in science classes research classes the Adobe suite which I'm sure many of you are familiar with such as photosop and illustrator and then um kind of a a nonf fun one is Destiny Destiny is a kind of the digital card catalog for our library it's a library management software where we can pull histories of books and find out which ones are in circulation and helps us to weed them out and also um keep track of of lending not All Is Lost some of the things that we use are actually free so the Google Suite Google workspace for Education that is something that comes free to us also another tool called canva canva is an online design platform it's a place where students can create visual content they can do presentations make posters create Graphics so a lot of this we're asking them to um make models of things that they're learning about and it's a fun way to do that so these are some of the Hands-On ways that students are really utilizing some of these um instructional resources that we have um clever is a digital learning platform that provides single sign on so if you think about all of the passwords that you have and all of the logins we want to make it super quick for kids to log on to all of our resources and so clever is one of the ways that we're able to expedite that also free so you had asked a question earlier about other sources of funding and while there these are certainly not to the same extent or the same amount as some of the funds that Miss kriy takes care of the title grants do give us some additional funding to pay for things so title one is about $153,000 that really helps us with intervention and student support a lot of that is salaries a little bit of it is supplies and a little bit of it is um either Consultation Services or other supports for teachers um title two which is not in there is very small at about $57,000 title three right now is 177,000 and that is to um support our multilingual Learners with support our teachers with professional development vment and coaching we have this great summer enrichment program for our youngest Learners where they visit the post office and they um know how to buy a stamp and address a letter and they visit the the um fire department and the library and get a library card so it really acclimates them to our town the Perkins career in technical education grant is another that we use a lot of that money goes towards transportation and field trips we bought equipment with that particularly to help defay the cost of the manufacturing equipment in the CTE lab we also pay for curriculum revision out of that and um club stiens and then pet Jones which we we've talked about before and the Cheshire Education Foundation which graciously helped us purchase robots for our fourth and fifth grade stem units this year those we were so grateful to have those two science teach coaches that were employed this year where the need was in fourth and fifth grade so our next slide brings us to curriculum implementation and here's where I'd like to talk to you a little bit about professional development all of our professional development is geared towards improving instruction and increasing student engagement so everything is around hqi high quality instruction and we use high quality instruction to get get to what you have approved as our our focus on social emotional learning and complex thinking and so that for this past couple of years has incl included ongoing reading professional learning all related to the science of reading or all the way back to the National reading panel it's include a lot of work I feel like a broken record whenever I'm talking with all of you about professional development and Consultation Services through the Connecticut Science Center because that we've done so much with Next Generation science standards both for our administrative team for our elementary coaches and then with a particular Focus as of late on chesher high school and DOD teachers it's also been a focus a satellite Focus dedicated to implementing or implementing curriculum writing the curriculum around those standards that's what a big lift it has been so that is a continued Focus for us um in addition is math you know that we um are now using I ready so that there's been some focus last year and this year on I ready professional development we've also engaged with a coach through partners for educational leadership who's done individual and group coaching with our Math teachers at DOD and um my goodness I'm totally forgetting what the conferences was oh we've sent people to conferences specifically on instructional strategies I know some of the folks in this audience audience also have been to Peter Lil jal's strategies about um making thinking visible teaching math it applies not just to math but we've certainly been there and been present for his wonderful sessions on um making thinking visible um in addition we've focused a lot on instructional practices we've trained significant number of our teachers in coaching and we have sent them to a 3-day training through partners for educational leadership on that they also have gone to building thinkings classroom training and we're bringing another group at the high school to Next Level instructional leadership and that is going to be our core for Department chairs for ELA math science and social studies Along with Dan tardelli and Moren Reed and myself in February and then coming up in March we are having a um full day on artificial intelligence and how teachers can be using that as a tool and how they can best make durable tasks using AI so that kids can't snap a picture of it on their phone and answer the questions but they're durable not vulnerable um to cheating but actually help support our initiative to make students complex thinkers so that is another place where our our time energy and money is going so a lot of times I get um emails about money that's going towards assessments and so the assessments that we're paying for are wrapped up in our I ready program uh PSATs at the high school for 9th 10th and 11th graders pass which you've heard us speak on frequently which we implemented last year which is really helping us Zone in on those needs those social emotional learning needs of students in kindergarten through 12th grade especially a support for our teachers gives them information gives our principes information on which they can then write school-based goals and also gives our school counselors lots of information to really accurately pinpoint either their individual counseling services or their group counseling services not to mention looking at tier one supports where the counselor goes into the classroom and provides instruction to the whole class edulastic is part of our Eureka assessments for Math and then I was thinking of other things such as when students apply for the Seal of biliteracy the um dependent on their language and the assessment we also pay for that for them to take that exam and then the others that I listed here those are all free they're all you know because they are required in mandated assessments by the state of Connecticut so now let's talk a little bit about Staffing so you know we we you've heard how much work we do and how significantly and seriously we take looking at what are the needs in our in our district at every level and So currently for curriculum Staffing we have Mr Kevin hanin who is our K8 curriculum coordinator and Kevin is an administrator and he is an evaluator of a significant group of teachers as part of that he oversees curriculum coaches and in our district we have one reading consultant for all of our elementary schools and we have one math consultant again districtwide for the elementary students and we have six curriculum coaches or Rams we have one at each Elementary School we actually have two at Highland because of its size and one of those women actually heads over to Darcy and is um assisting Kim desert over there with some instructional practices at the teacher level and I want to stress that our curriculum coaches are teachers but those that middle group that I just listed there they don't have a teaching responsibility meaning they do not teach a class every day rather they are spending their time working with teachers coaching teachers supporting teachers helping teachers find materials they are working with students who are need are in need of intervention sometimes giving the teacher those um strategies and those materials that the teacher needs to instruct that student in class they also over see our literacy our learning support teachers who are typically non-certified so they are have oversight over that and making sure that those intervention plans are carried out they are incredibly hardworking and incredibly busy and so while they don't have a class their days are chalk full it's just not in the same way that a teachers day is full because of their range of responsibilities so then we get up to the the Middle School and the high school and with those those curriculum support folks they are people who are teaching every day so they're in the classroom teaching math and teaching Ela and they are there as a support but they are less available to provide support to teachers and students simply because they have a group of students that they're accountable to every day so at the middle school they are released one period of the day and then um they are given a stipend and at the high school they are released two periods of the day and also receive a stipend excuse your battery's about to die ah thanks vny so it looks a little bit different based on the grade levels so if you take a look I'm going actually show you this in three different ways just to give you an idea and and Visually show you this differently so prek through six if you think about the support that Kevin provides Ides plus the support of those Rams and coaches looking at seven grade levels and four subjects plus making sure we're addressing the needs of MLS the FTE is about 8.15 if you look at grades seven and eight and you look at the two grade levels with four subjects and taking care of the needs of MLS you're looking at an FTE of about 1.125 grade nine four grade levels for subjects and here I only put in the math and and science because that's related to the ask tonight plus you're talking about not just those subjects but you're talking about all the elective courses all the AP courses the ECE courses which are for Yukon credit so you're talking about in science 25 unique courses math 23 unique courses so even if we say an extra 20 each in social studies and and Ela it's a significant number of courses if you're thinking about curriculum and textbook to go with each of those courses so here's another way of looking at it if you look at this slide you could see in blue are the core courses light blue are the core courses and then those curriculum leadership people are next to that in the dark blue so we clearly I mean it kind of speaks for itself the thing here is that we know that we've been very successful with our elementary model we see it in all of the data that we have we see it in the state standardized testing that comes back we see it in the quality work samples that the the students produce on a daily basis and we know how those teachers feel and we know that about the access that they have to supports when they need it supports and coaching here's just one more way to look at it the green is Elementary on the left are the course offerings and the content areas and then you have the curriculum leaders I'm sorry the green is the high school forgive me it's really tiny up here and I my my uh progressives aren't the best I guess so um on the left hand side are the courses Elementary in Green Middle School in blue in red high school and green so there's definitely a need here in our opinion so for the budget request for next year the money that is put into this piece of the pie will go towards a new United States history textbook at the high school it will also go to a new Algebra 1 Resource which we are in the process of vetting it will hopefully be used towards a replacement screening tool a universal screener for reading which we've talked about in curriculum and additional science supplies now that we have the science coaches at the elementary school they have been so excited about the new aggro science unit that um one of of the the women actually dragged her husband out and they went out and dug up soil samples loaded them into their car and brought them here when we turn this when we turn this unit over to the teachers next year I don't know that every teacher is going to be able to go and and you know procure different soil sources so we might have to look um look to one of our local nurseries to help us um with that and and and figure that out but um those are some of the the new things that we'll be using the money in this request for next year as far as Staffing you know that we have a request on the table for a 9 through 12 science and math coordinator and the reason for that is we are looking to alleviate some of the evaluation burden on the high school teacher High School administrators some of them today are evaluating up to 28 teachers it's just not sustainable and to spend the kind of time that you need to with a teacher and give them the support they need when you have 28 the way it's set up it's ch it's a challenge we're looking at this science and math coordinator to do all of the things that Mr hanin does k through eight that is to be coaching teachers to be coordinating the curriculum planning professional development along with myself and Mr hanin what running point on textbooks that are selected in math and science the way Kevin and I work that K through 8 we're looking at curriculum revision to help the teams prioritize what those needs are we're looking that to them to help Implement that curriculum and give feedback we're looking at for them to attend data team meetings the way our current structure is set up if you're teaching every day you can't be at all of your colleagues data team meetings and provide that support we're looking for them to keep up with the latest research and best practices and we need them to collaborate with Middle School on the all of this programming and to keep an eye out for the needs of our multilingual Learners so that sort of concludes my slice of the pie on all things curriculum I'm happy to take any questions that you may have go ahead um a quick quick question um do we see a future for a 9 through 12 social studies and what's what's Ela yeah curriculum coordinator ideal an this would be a part of that grand plan to have a humani counterpart at the high school to handle the others the other those other pieces at this point the reason why we're asking for the Science and Math First is we've been working really very hard on trying to make some shifts um at the high school regarding Math and Science and we've seen some really great progress um particularly in in science but we're not where we need to be and and really when we look at that the the hole in the support system seems to be this piece thank you yeah hi Marlene thank you for the presentation you're welcome um so help me understand what this coord Ator will be doing as opposed to what uh chairs of departments do sure that's a great question analysis and teacher evaluation yeah so our department chairs don't do evaluation that's all done by the administrators and so some of some of the um place we see this person being instrumental is as a Content area expert and as someone who can be in the classrooms observing as a as as a support as a coach as someone who could be at their what they call plc's or personal um professional learning communities those data team meetings that's someone who can be who can be present for those and provide that support the reason it's different from our department chairs is because the department chairs they just physically can't be in all those places number one they're not evaluating the staff and number two they're teaching so if you want our colleagues you know I might be we might be free at different times you might be teaching while I'm teaching I can't get into your classroom to really shoulder-to-shoulder with you help and support I can't know your students right because I'm getting to know my own I sorry I just had to follow up um so how is so this coordinator is evaluating what the teachers are teaching as because like earlier in the year we talked about self-evaluation for teachers and how you know and all of that and how they have to to coordinate that sort of thing that's different than what this is no that that is one and the same so we we have evaluations which are not a teacher going in and raiding you so if you came into evaluate me you would wouldn't be saying I was a certain number rather this person this curriculum coach going in is going to be able to give you some feedback you're going to reflect on on your feedback you're going to set your own goal but that coaching piece is a a piece that is missing in the in the breadth of the way we'd like it to happen because of the logistics and being able to take some of that responsibility the meetings the the goal setting meeting the midyear meeting the reviews of practice um the sitting in on those data team meetings is something that the administrative team could use some relief from and it's something that the the teachers would like someone who has a depth deeper despite the fact that we know that instruction is instruction and you don't need to be a Content expert to evaluate someone it is helpful particularly in the area of math and because Math and Science are tied together it it's it's more of bouncing ideas off one another as to how you can do this and how you can get better and so having someone who knows that is is I think um a breath of fresh air for a teacher and um have you evaluated um uh uh using a consultant versus a permanent position yeah so we've been using consultants in various capacities I you've heard me talk a lot about bringing in folks coaches from the Connecticut Science Center and the year that we had those coaches come in and they spent a significant amount of time shoulder toosh shoulder with um the science teachers at the high school not saying that was the only thing because we did a number of things but that's the year we saw the biggest bump in growth in our ngss scores so why not continue that versus a permanent position well because we still want to continue to grow and because th that resource is no longer available to us we actually hired one of the people who used to work for them as our science coach at the elementary school okay thank you and just finding someone who can who can do that they can't do the evaluation they could do the coaching piece but they can't do the evaluation they can do the coaching piece the science center who who we had used but they're not doing the they're not running point on our curriculum they're not running point on the resource that we're going to select next they're not you know in the room selecting the textbooks with them they come in for these um brief periods and we were able to to get them for a a significant amount of time but it's it's not a sustainable path if it were we would be doing something different but they don't they don't plug all the holes I was kind of surprised when you had the if I understood it correctly when you put the numbers of science and math courses up there oh which is probably about what six yeah six courses per year and normally when I and I'm no expert on this but I just think of you know algebra geometry trig calculus this sort of standard for math science has its counterparts with chemistry physics art Science Biology but we have that many so that seems like a lot to me I'm curious across all those courses yeah how often are they taught annually and what's the enrollment on the lower end of some of those courses so the numbers on the courses that I listed here came directly from the program of studies for this current school year which I have in front of me okay um typically a class that has less than 10 students is not set to run okay some that that's in general sometimes it will but those are often co-listed so if I have um a biology honors biology class or let's say an AP class is more than likely and I also have a Yukon ECE class we might bring those students together and co-list them so there may be 12 kids in that class with a teacher even though it's two separate classes CU because of where the material overlaps okay okay it's still it's still tricky and the teacher still has to make sure she's meeting the AP needs of these students and the ECE needs of these students sure okay all right thank you that's it for me so a couple more questions um are these positions these curriculum coordinator positions they're central office it's a central office position oh the one that I'm requesting would be a central office position yes is that pretty typical of I mean do most schools districts in Connecticut have these positions yes so it varies right they are they are typically central office positions and their administrative positions so in a place like Glastonberry they have a director of art World a director of World Language and elll a director of health and PE history and social studies language arts and reading math Music School counseling science career and tech ed and those positions you know are are in their budget as an administrative position for between you know like the salary that I saw in their contract from the one I got from a few years ago was about 142,000 we have local neighbors like in Southington that has a a science and math of exactly almost this job and actually um our our very valued uh math consultant who worked with us actually left to take that position next door a few years ago um and in Southington they also have a Humanities person who oversees the humanities part so West Hartford is another District that has something similar um Farmington does not but they have almost double the number of Elementary coaches that we have so everyone has something a little different and I think it is driven by their needs um I got a call from from a district because they were struggling with Ela and trying to increase their SAT score um and yet ours was in the 80s and their math was much better than ours so they they didn't need any support with math and science um whereas it's just this is our house this is what we need and this all brings to mind for me when we're talking about um teacher evaluation the learning walks are we still doing those I've heard really good things about learning walks we are as a matter of fact Jeff and I are doing learning walks with two cohorts of teachers um the last one we had to cancel because it was on one of those days we were supposed to be at DOD and there was a lot of people out and absent when they were going through that virus but um yes it and we've got probably we've got the two cohorts I'd say 20 plus teachers involved in that but in addition to that and this is where Kevin's position is so um valuable Kevin does regular learning walks with the coaches at the elementary and middle school so he goes over he takes a teacher they walk into all of the classes and talk about the instruction so we're hoping he can do a little bit of that while he's you know up at the high school we'll see thank you I do have a couple clarification questions if you don't mind I'm going to go back to title grants yes um regarding Title One um and if you can clarify some misconceptions Title One is it specific to a certain school that's identified as a tile one school and those funds go directly to just that school or is it dispersed amongst or throughout the district this year it is only uh for one school and that's typically what we've had actually no it switched to do little this year thank you um and I do also recognize the Perkins Grant I know one year it shot up pretty high across the state but I also saw a pattern that there's a decrease in funding support so if you can kind of get us kind of the year-over-year as to how much we've been obtaining through the Perkins Grant because it is a supplemental yes I think that is on page one of the state and federal grants it will give you a year over-year of exactly what was in Perkins and it will give you that supplemental year as well so it's 37,000 is projected for next year next year the last time that we received the supplemental Grant was in 2021 and that was in addition to the 30,000 base grant for $7,000 um I want to say we bought the CNC machine was that the year we bought the CNC ma it wasn't CNC it was something else but it was significant yeah it was a major piece of equipment that we bought for CTE that year um I appreciate the uh conversation about AI I think that's a critical piece in that you that you guys are tackling this in March um because it it will impact like you said um especially the ELA side um so I'm looking forward to seeing how that our strategic planning committee that's made up of teachers has been um wrestling with this and juxtaposing that with the anxious generation and our administrative administrators as as well have also been an audience for Matt mvis at Ed Advance who came and met with both groups and will be here in March I'll just add that awesome um I don't know if you intended to leave this blank but in the IAB section just says in I don't know if you were trying to oh I think I was going to write interim assessment Benchmark my apologies okay my editor didn't catch that spell out the acronym sorry Vin is that you I was working on the churs um so there has been some Buzz about exactly what coaches do um and maybe this is a conversation later for curriculum um but I you know I'm going to speak from the lens of having been a coach myself um exactly you know how critical that role is to support the classroom teacher and I don't know if we want to dig a little deeper into exactly what they do I me we have one reading consultant one math Consulting that's case six um and then we have the six Rams for the elementary schools personally I feel we provide a lot of support and professional learning for our elementary um but do we do lack in the secondary as you said earlier um and then as far as in the you know the teach the department leaders I think one of the questions that always comes up and you said this um they teach yes but then they have two periods off so can you kind of identify like exactly what their expectation is with those two periods that they have off yeah I mean they're looking at um ordering for their department they are looking at uh Department schedule that's been something hot this year that they've spent a lot of time doing they are um also they deal with a lot of parent concerns and they support any new teacher in their in their department so if they have a new hire they're really spending a lot of time with that person in the first one to one to three years on making you know helping them acclimate um but when I talk to them I hear that it's significant amount of time to help plan for a department meeting um attend their own plc's is part of what they're doing I hear a lot that they are trying to get into as many plc's as possible and the frustration with not being able to extend their reach into all of them it's I think it's a frustration that they want to be doing more but they also are wanting to meet with their students and wanting to you know do those teacher things they need to do so they're sort of always um there's always a a tug I think also if if you would permit me to talk about the coaches what we did a number of years ago was to send all of the Rams the reading consultant the math consultant the division leaders and the department chairs to coaching training and so Kevin and I went with them and we attended and we have subsequently provided coaching support um started out monthly it was a CO coaching community of practice where they could talk about problems of practice and the way the elementary we we Kevin and I Come Away scratching our head every time the way the elementary is set up because they're not teaching it's sort of easy it's kind of flawless the way they're able to um integrate all of that and the rub always with our middle and high school folks is sort of this I'm trying so hard to do this like I'm I'm trying to do it I just marleene I wish we had the time I I wish I could do more you know the teachers would like more coaching it's caught on but we're I'm limited and so a lot of this stems from hearing what the teachers have been saying over the years and identifying that with the other needs can can I go sure just um to continue with that line of thinking how much time do you think the coach is like the Rams and the coaches do they actually spend in the classroom with with the teachers they're in the classroom a lot okay I know that's not very quantifiable a lot no but yeah because it sounds like when you were explaining it it sound more like they were uh accumulating the theory behind it but I was wondering how much of that is they're certainly doing some of that work and the best practices work and and training they do a lot of the planning for grade level meetings along with the the principles I think the principles really heavily rely on those Rams um to to help and support the classroom teachers um they're also significantly involved in keeping tabs on the students for an intervention and you know that gets harder and harder as you are having a classes and you only see the student student for a a a finite amount of time so having someone to coordinate that and look more closely at those students to help and support them and them through the teachers I I just think makes a lot of sense thanks for clarifying I think that's one of the misconceptions is that the people might assume that they don't see students where there is some intervention support that they provide as well to aside from you know assisting with the uh teacher capacity building there um sorry I I think my last question really might help to kind of clarify um as somebody who does 37 evaluations myself in my day job um I I recognize the need for this particular position but is there something you can give the board where it spells out exactly um what the evaluation um if it's equitably distributed right now amongst the administration yeah sure that we have that I could get you that y great thank you um and then lastly do we have any articulation with tctt state in any of our courses I know we prioritize Yukon a lot but are there any courses that have CT State yeah that would be um we do have at the uh Valley ngat Valley courses um manufacturing pathway with ngat tuck um some classes also the business department are um are aligned for credit great if I just real quick um I guess close this section by bringing everybody back to what uh Miss Solano opened with in the sense that she talked about our constant effort actually I would I would call it a Relentless pursuit of improving instruction at the classroom level um for the last decade we've been deeply committed to that if I were going to point to anything uh that is at the heart of our uh rapid Ascent Improvement whatever you want to call it success over the last decade the focus on complex thinking social emotional learning in Relentless pursuit of improved instruction that is not a discredit to the the staff that we have the professional profs that work in our district uh to the contrary it's a credit to them that you know people who are successful get successful through hard work people who are exceptional don't stop there they keep working on improving their craft and that's what our system has been built around and the reason that this is being proposed is through our professional assessment over the last couple of years we've identified that this is the next step that we feel would substantially help uh the people at the secondary level level improve their Craft um that our department chairs uh given their uh current roles our Administration given their current roles have kind of carried the ball as far as they could and they're you know Tapped Out uh and they've done a a great job and as marene has mentioned we made some improvements and this is what gets us to the next level that's uh you know I don't know if there's anything you want to add to that Marlene or amen thank you Miss Lano and that concludes that portion right V are you up next yeah nice work you guys could Robin all right so I'm just going to have one more slide here on instructional expense and this will wrap because it's the end well that's not up to me I'd keep going but um let me just get to it okay so this is just um you know the final slide and instructional expense just to show like we've shown in the other portions of the budget instructional expense as a percentage of the budget you could see has stayed relatively flat since 2006 this year's request brings us in at about 5.7% we vacillated anywhere from around six to 7 so pretty consistent and obviously this is the non-payroll instructional expense but this supports everything that the teachers and the administrators do in our classrooms so that wraps up instructional expense um and I did want to go back to one item and that is the owl pellets because when I first got here I as as board members know I have to approve all the purchase requisitions and one came through for Al pellets and I didn't think we owned any owls in the school district so why would we be buying owl pellets thinking that that's what we fed the owls only to learn that's after you feed the owls we pay quite a bit of money to buy these owl pellets but the kids certainly do love them and you know as we were sitting here you know Emily sent me an article about this Al pellet farming um family so it's fascinating so Emily you could pass that you know along to everybody so the next section is Support Services and I'll ask uh the chair um and Dr harrian we could do support services in about 15 minutes do you want to keep going I would like to keep going can we keep going so I know majority of this is you VIN uh and I feel like we did cancel the planning meeting today and we would like to reschedule before Thursday if at all possible which then could help to support the remainder of the presentations that are on here so I would propose that we reserve all this for Thursday night's conversation instead if you don't mind I it's your call and wants to one to one with you precursor to Thursday but how do you feel about this I'm fine continuing to Thurs you want to continue I'm out I'm out voted I remain I Iain you obain I can explain later my only other concern is we have two board members also not present um so and they're likely to be here Thursday yeah that's it's warmer at home so I guess we're going home if there are any questions my dad has a I don't know what time I'm going to get here on Thursday my Dad's getting inducted into the Connecticut veterans hall of fame congratul yeah thank you got to take PR yeah that's at five o'clock so I'll be yeah are there any so if you want if you want to add like the capital budget before 7 o'clock like six o'clock I guarantee I would not be here for that yeah for Thursday night but that canel the delayed meeting I'd like us to tap a 10 if at all possible because the majority of this again you know could be had in planning and Tim yeah Ju Just One Last point that um I my my feeling right now is that I would prefer to uh not vote on the budget on Thursday right I'm guessing that's where everybody is right now um okay I just want to put that on the table because Jeff had posted it as possible vote but that's not going to happen right this would potentially push that off the table on Thursday and then we'll reserve it for um you know a full Tuesday yeah next week or something okay yeah just to be clear on that so I think to kind kind of um accommodate the two that would love for you to continue moving forward if we can end this at 10: somewhere here and then we'll pick up on Thursday the remainder so I don't know how many slides you have 40 minutes to well I mean Support Services I'll just jump right in and you know we can pause whenever you're ready so support services this year I think is pretty straightforward this is about um 8 and a half% of our budget the total Support Services budget being requested is 8.15 million Support Services though if you look at the top three categories it's the vast majority of the 8 million 59% is transportation Fuel and insurance and I'll go through that in a minute um other Professional Services that 11% that's primarily um 650,000 of that is all our technology related Services it's Power School it's munice those are over $100,000 each per year it's out contract with Apex technology that serves as the chief technology officer and it also includes legal medical U expenses um you know bord of AD and audit so this 688,000 that's for our energy performance contract that we did 10 years ago those are the payments that we owe and we uh you know those are recurring payments probably for about about another four years and then that will go away and then the rest you could see is is smaller items as I advance to the next slide I'll just highlight this is the um 81 million being requested if I just focus in on this line You'll see that the vast majority of the $450,000 increase 331,000 is for Pupil Transportation we've got a couple of things going on in Pupil Transportation One is that we have a contractual increase of 4% that Deco is our service provider um we also had to add an additional route this year just because of student enrollment and in the budget for next year we're anticipating adding another type one route you know and each route costs about $80,000 that's running the the bus for 180 days you know beyond that the um number of runs that we do for special education even though we're not adding routes we're adding time to those routes so that cost us additional funding so that's what's that's what's built in to the $331,000 for Transportation uh couple of other things I want to point out this other services line that's increasing 35,000 um 11% most of that is for our student accident insurance we have student accident insurance that we pay for as a district so that if any student you know gets hurt on the athletic field if they're participating in sports or other curricular activities or in fizzed or at school that policy covers any losses that we would incur that policy this year is going up 43% it's about a $20,000 increase um and that's based on actual claims that we've received and that's mostly from Athletics so we did have that shopped by our provider and the premiums that we're going to be paying about 55,000 are pretty close to the claims that were paid out so it is what it is I just pulled a plug on it Mike sorry [Music] come on I know Mike's very nervous right now because he's been having trouble with this particular there it is all right sorry I know that cost us like 30 seconds um so what I was saying is that the student accident insurance is what's driving you know most of that increase in the line we just looked at and then uh we do have an increase in in office supply it's just based on historical expenditures and there's some inflationary effects certainly in there um and then we do have a pickup in Transportation Supply this 23,000 you know that's based on fuel consumption that we've seen recently and you know we think that fuel prices have leveled off so for next year we were able to actually decrease the budget um so that support services as a whole just quickly if you look at the transportation line again it's 59% of this our Public School uh general education routes 2.5 million of the 4.3 million special education about 1.1 million we do provide very specialized doorto door transportation for our special education students that's a function of their IEP their individualized um their individualized education plan so we don't have a choice transportation is mandated as the board members know and you can see the rest of the lines this 400,000 is fuel Student Activity those are the athletic and extracurricular runs uh private school routes this 105,000 we have to provide um bylaw transportation for St Bridget students and then you'll see there's a v vag Wilcox another and transportation insurance so that that's an overview of the the transp Transportation costs in more detail um really went through everything on this slide you know we you know even though enrollment is growing and we have to add routes we do everything we can to try and consolidate you know bus stops you know it's much more efficient from a logistics point of view to have students walk to the bus stop and pick up a lot of students up at one stop and you know we we work really hard to do that um within you know certainly safety standard s and what's reasonable um everything else are are things that we've been doing and the board members you know we've talked about this in the past and then you know in this line we talked a little bit about the the technology cost so uh I did want to point out that we only have about 30 smart boards that need to be upgraded to Smart flat panels we've been doing that from our operating budget for the last several years so we've only got about 30 remaining at chesher high school to upgrade the um PC Fleet is in good shape we um this year went to a new you know PC technology we moved away from Acer from a Dell desktops that you would either put under your desk or on your desktop we went to these um devices that mount you know right in the back of a monitor so that's the footprint um and this is important for the teacher as you still see there's a lot of wires there but that connects the Smartboard and speakers um and the webcam on our devices um we did launch some new software this year to we came off of school dude and went on Master library for maintenance and Technology work order ticketing we upgraded our building use software as well so we're doing all the things that we need to do to advance technology and we have a strong technology capability in District um so you know that that budget allocation is well spent uh so Support Services you could see you know even though we had this big spike um a few years back you know we're still at around 8.5% of our budget is for support services and I will pause there to see if there are any questions related to U the items we just covered next section is maintenance and operations yeah just a general question you had mentioned St Bridget I'm not sure if you would know this off the top of your head but just the general trend line across the last say five or six years maybe even sort of exclude covid if that did anything um private nonpublic school will say I don't know I'm wondering about costs or maybe enrollment has it fluctuated I'm not sure if you include homeschooled kids St Bridget cheser Academy well for the transportation budget that line is just for the St Bridget student transportation that we provide you know homeschool students they what yeah they wouldn't be covered by that well but we also cover books and stuff like that that would be instructional Supply I'm just wondering sort of a general Trend among I mean we do they do are entitled to some of the grant funding that we receive but okay so it's yeah yeah I guess I'm just wondering like is the enrollment sort of fluctuated over the last few years as has been relatively stable for St Bridget enr or from us I I can't really impact impact on chesher public schools like have been kids been leaving to go to chesher academy or St Bridget's yeah no okay we um or coming in from or coming in from yeah I wouldn't necessarily consider us competitor with either of those schools like we don't yeah it's not it's not so much as a competitor we don't lose yeah not a competitor I mean we certainly have very collaborative relationship with both but it's not something where we're fighting each other for enrollment okay but it's not just happening okay no thank you yeah that's it okay good maintenance and operations I will go through the first part of this very quickly because I know that as board members you've seen this but our schools are aging out and I always like to remind everyone that our schools are in use constantly not just for school but they're used as community activities so you'll see you know after school events at cheser high school is 2500 those are the ones that are actually recorded through our building use system there's probably more uses than that but this is just what we've recorded So buildings are in constant use and that speaks to you know the cost of not only running the buildings and keeping the lights on but also maintaining the buildings things wear out so we need to keep investing in the maintenance of our buildings um the good news here as you know that these three schools will be cut off and shut down Norton will be demolished when the two new schools are open and Darcy and Chapman those build bus will go back to the town to be repurposed or sold or demolished or whatever will be done that decision has not been made yet so you know the good news here from a maintenance point of view is that when you have a new Norton and a new North End School you will not be making investments in the the maintenance of those buildings for repairs obviously you'll have utility costs and you'll have preventative maintenance but you won't have any maintenance repair cost for those with those two buildings for years but these buildings obviously that will remain with us those five buildings will need to keep you know investing in in not only preventative maintenance but dealing with repairs as they come due so as a total um $5.2 million is being requested that's about 5.4% of the budget um and you'll see that the categories though in which that five .2 million is spent a good portion of that is just utilities and heating about 36% cleaning services 900,000 so that's about 177% which leaves about 36% for the maintenance and repair uh maintenance supply is 390,000 and the remaining portion of this budget is equipment maintenance and repair um just to give you a little bit more detail as we look at utilities and heat again 36% of the budget electricity takes up a large portion of that um but our electricity bill is lower than it would have been if we didn't have the energy performance contract where replaced Highlands Heat and the uh High School um the west side of the high school with natural gas heat um heating for you know the buildings is about 31% of utilities and heat and you can see the rest um occupy a small but not insignificant portion of that 1.86 million so that's 36% of the budget 64% of the budget is spent on what we're calling you know Building Maintenance and repairs again 900,000 of that is to clean the buildings we use um a third-party uh service to do that that building cleaning um at night um which leaves about 1.1 million for building repairs and improvements and you'll see there's other categories in here such as snow plowing you know maintenance services ground maintenance that we do across the district the um the request here for U maintenance repair and buildings you know is is 485,000 21% um I will note that you know point one is that our cleaning service contract we had a two-year contract we went out to bid awarded to um a company that is doing an excellent job however when we signed that contract was before minimum wage increases you know took hold the last two years uh and also they um had to um they were they're basically the employees of theirs that work here in our schools organized so that they're covered by Union contract so we've increased uh the budget about 10% just for the cleaning services because that's what we expect the increase to be and we will be coming before the board in February at the at the board meeting to present our recommendation to extend the contract for an additional year with the service provider and beyond that we are looking to increase that line because we believe that um we can expend those funds you know to do not only only building repairs but get ahead of some of the work that we need to do in terms of um preventative maintenance yes Adam when we signed or when we awarded the contract for the cleaning service did they have non-union employees at the time uh well when we went out to bid they did um when they provided their proposed number it was non-union but as the company that had the contract previously was exiting there was a an organization of their labor that was done so before they exited it was performance environmental their group unionized um so for the company that took over the service they had to accept those employees as Union employees however we already had a an agreed upon price that we accepted so they couldn't raise out price they incurred the additional cost and there a lot more detail to it I can explain it when we present it to the board but you know all these larger cleaning companies have um Master agreements with the Union that covers those employees and so the the short answer is when they bid out this contract they bid it nonunion they honored their price for 2 years but now their employees um are under a Union contract how long do we agree how long is this contract two years so we reup the contract well that's what I'm going to present to to extend it for an additional Year we We won't do better if we go out to bid so um I think that the leave that discussion point for another time yeah all right thanks y um do we have revenue from the usage I know our buildings get used all the time and there is a fee associated with that does that come to us or to the town it's budgeted as Revenue so it goes to the town it's $10,000 is what we budget okay thank you and that's that's not a money maker for us we're offsetting our cost when when collect those fees yeah um you have uh $200,000 in here for garbage and recycling does that include the composting program that you still no we didn't budget for composting because right now the additional cost of composting is being paid um you know through the nip reimbursement um funds that the town receives so we hope to continue that we went back to the Town Council for this school year and they agreed to provide additional funding so that we are composting um at du little now as well as Chapman like we did last year so I did not budget for composting as I guess in my mind just I'm thinking that whether it's Grant funded or not I'd still put the grant revenue and the expense in here but um I'm just curious does that have any impact on the cost of garbage and recycling the composting Yeah by having the composting has that had any benefit to reducing garbage because I'm not even sure how do we get charged by ton we do pay I believe it's it's um a pickup of $100 um per ton okay no I'm sorry that can't be right it's less than that um but there is a a a small offset most of what we pay for the trash is the hauling yeah it's not the weight of the garbage but there is a a bit of an offset when we compost but the cost of composting far exceeds the offset no I got that I was just curious if there was any offset and I'll I'll firm up the number for the next meeting yeah I was I wasn't sure if it I don't even need to know the number that's fine I just wasn't sure how Our Garbage Contract worked it could have just been $200,000 and we pick up everything for the year No it's it's more precise than that per Pi per ton per pickup okay so there is some sort of benefit there okay thank you you're welcome okay um the rest of you know what I'm going to talk about pretty quickly here is the capital budget which um is used to um help support our buildings right so we know we have a a maintenance operating budget line to provide for repairs and and preventative maintenance but our capital budget that's what we use to make investments in our buildings of $110,000 or more so the planning committee of the board uh is going to be taking up the capital budget at when we agree upon a date but you know by the end of the month the planning committee will begin to deliberate on the capital budget um the only reason I put this slide in here is to show these are the general categories that we expect to make uh recommendations to the planning committee and ultimately to the board where we'll need investments in our buildings for items like hbac and window replacements and Roofing and cafeteria improvements um again the numbers are not on this slide because we don't have them yet uh I did want to point out this is the same idea except broken down by school but in our capital budget we don't expect to be making any recommendations for Investments in the buildings that are coming offline Chapman Norton and Darcy um and we also have not made a recommendation for central office or humiston because what we will do with that building long term really needs to be um decided before we make Capital Investments that are significant um in 23 24 the capital budget that was approved by the Council was 3.7 million and you could see the major line items were HVAC windows and uh Paving and and Roofing and that actually decreased last year to about 1.5 million um and you could see the the general categories changed a little bit with roof rep placements and emergency generator at Highland but last year the Town Council really was was pushing to get a capital budget as low as possible in anticipation of the increased debt costs associated with the new schools so what happens in 25 26 remains to be seen But it becomes a problem if we don't keep investing in our buildings uh so you could see this is historically what we've requested over the last 10 years has been about 2.7 million what's been approved is about 2.1 million um so we've done well relative to the requests but we need to keep those Investments up if we're dropping below 2 million like we did last year we're really not keeping up to the building needs so again more to come on the capital budget uh this is just a recap there is a an emergency fund is the the working name we have that mer that emergency fund uh that balance remains intact at 233,000 we haven't used it since 2019 so on the event we have an unexpected repair cost that we can't cover through our operating budget we go to the Town Council and we can get it funded that way last um last couple of slides here these are just some of the things that we deal with through our operating budget these are repairs this top picture actually happened just this weekend um after we had that snowfall three cars were seen on this band practice field doing donuts they weren't seen while it was happening we saw it on the videotape afterwards there's probably damage to the field so we'll have to deal with that um but the the three cars were identified and it has been reported to to the chesher PD so these are the types of things that we covered through our operating budget this is a a DOT boiler that um needed to be repaired somebody crashed into the Darcy School sign again got it fixed up it actually looks much nicer now but types of things that happen and this is the uh Highland fire alarm panel that um we were really concerned that it was going to fail um but we were able to get it repaired and a lot of this type of work we do inhouse so those are some of the items that you know we need to continually repair our buildings I know you know that capital budget is a little bit different and the important thing to note here is that you know when we invest in a capital budget item you you can't look at it as just an expense you have to look at it as an investment for the future and the long-term benefit of the building uh this is the lockers these are the projects that we completed this past summer uh or the fall these are the the new West gy lockers at chesher high school they came out really really great you know the lockers that were there were probably about 40 years old maybe older um but they'll be there for the next 40 years so you know this investment unless we do something with the high school this is a long-term Improvement uh I know that the already familiar this is the refrigeration equipment we replaced at chesa high school we kept the old stuff running for probably 25 years new boiler at DOD uh and this is part of that West JY Locker replacement so maintenance and operations very steady about five uh 5 and a half% of our budget traditionally it's 5.4% this year uh and that concludes maintenance and operations so if there questions Tim thank you um yeah uh with regard you mentioned that there would be no additional Capital costs anticipated for the two new schools and that makes total sense to me but I'm wondering about the uh the new North End School um the capital budget the the budget for the North End School I'm assuming it stops at the parcel boundaries yes so first of all are we thinking about putting sidewalks in there around Marin and J uh yeah Maran and Jarvis well definitely on Jarvis in fact uh I believe well not I believe there was Capital funding approved for sidewalk improvements um and they'll likely take place this summer so you talking about town funded ones oh yeah I'm sorry okay that that's the point that I just wanted to make about it being separate two separate budgets just so people are aware because I think the logical thing to do if it works and there's obviously you know pluses and minuses but generally speaking I think adding sidewalks uh over to at least Courier Woods if not up to Dundee I think on Jarvis and also further down to all these new developments that are being built on Maran Road um I I know that we talked about and I'm fairly certain that it's been approved to add sidewalks along Jarvis from the new school entrance down to past strollo I forget what the other streets are but they will uh okay run down that side of Jarvis yeah yeah yeah and there's already some sidewalk there but it will you know continue down as far as as reasonably possible okay um and then my uh second question is that Robin and Carrie earlier tonight had brought up a new vehicle not for this budget but so we didn't include it in this in this budget because we're looking at are there some other ways to um deal with that vehicle request and the 2016 vehicle that we provided was a transportation vehicle that you know it was there was nothing wrong with it it wasn't being being used and when it was being used it was being driven by one of our bordered bus drivers well and this worked out really great there was someone on um Robin an's staff that teaches the students that was willing to get certified to drive you don't have to have a full you know CDL to drive that van vehicle and so it gave them quite a bit of Freedom you know an ability to move these students around to get them to different job sites or to places where the students needed to be for some type of presentation so it worked out really well for everybody we'll figure out a way to fund that we just didn't think we needed to you know put it in this budget no yeah no I so what I'm wondering about is uh what happens with the uh old B the existing B the 2016 yeah we haven't gotten that far I mean I think Robin's looking for a second vehicle stud y okay and when you mentioned yeah when you mentioned Luther you're just talking about the transportation director I'm not sure what his title is but the trans the bus Luther Miller he's a transportation manager so we have to work out the logistics and details of this but you know we we understand what the need is okay and we always figure out a way to address the need so okay thank you questions from board members wow Vinnie eight minutes to spare well we got through it so I assume that Dr Solen you want to do your conclusions please tonight or would you rather wrap it up yeah I think Dr senen could probably do do this in eight minutes or seven minutes in yeah no warm up well sorry before I leave I just want to uh thank the board members for you know your patience and listening you know I do also want to acknowledge and thank all the administrators that put a lot of time into their portion of the development of the budget you know Heather Santi our finance manager working behind the scenes with me to put this together I really appreciate that and Emily as well who's you know served and and helped get this budget pulled together um so thank you everybody for all the the work that you know went into you know doing this and I just get to stand up here and talk about it but there's a lot that does go on beyond Behind the Scenes to get here so with that thank you thank you Mr maiana um what might possibly be a last budget Harrah uh at least at the board of education level so uh hard to think of the Cheshire Public Schools budget I appreciate the amount of time that our people have already put into reviewing this the board the administrators uh our professional staff I mean there a lot of time and energy that our folks put into this and uh what people who maybe just follow the minutes on YouTube or review or whatever they they don't recognize the the budget book that we provide is so comprehensive there's so much information in there that the board reviews and um that our team puts together so uh this uh is a is the culmination uh at least presentation wise of a lot of effort um and so in conclusion really with our board of education budget obviously our community is growing and it's driving and you drive around the community and you see that construction everywhere and it's not just two new schools uh we're growing together um and that you know we are an attraction for the community and an anchor and I think it's uh an investment worth protecting and this budget is designed to maintain the level of service that uh We've provided and that our community expects uh there aren't Frills in our budget um as a matter of fact I mean we were just talking about the the uh van as being one of those things that I don't think people would argue as a frill to replace a 9-year-old van um but we have to make really difficult decisions and uh we've tried to adhere to that in the face of inflation uh that's impacting every school system across Connecticut um there are a lot of factors still yet to be determined some of them were addressed this evening whether it be uh Grand list growth whether it be the state budget whether it be um our enrollment uh as that continues to climb um there's a lot that you know we're asking you to kind of consider as we sit here in January that won't be much clearer until April um um and with that in mind I think about you know what is my responsibility as the superintendent of schools and we've talked about this I opened with this slide it's to present you a budget um that is developmentally appropriate meets the needs of our students and is balanced across the district but also allows for the advancement of our district goals which we talked about here tonight um kind of the unwritten uh but lived daily goal of improving our instruction every day focused on complex thinking and social emotional learning the loan advancement request that we had um was around that science and math curriculum coordinator position um it represents 0.2% of our overall budget um but we think the return on investment there would be dramatically more than that um nevertheless I mean I I don't sit here thinking oh it's just easy you know it's just throw as another $200,000 every penny we spend we are very conscious of and um think deeply about the leverage and uh the benefit that it provides so uh I'm not I'm not suggesting that it's so it's just to $200,000 because it's $200,000 um but I shared here you know basically what what does school-based Administration look like on a per pupil expenditure basis across um Connecticut across Durk B uh some of our neighbors uh were pretty conscious about how we spend that money I have a different chart if you want to look at all different sorts of how to districts spend money um in every measure we are Beyond competitive um when we look at that return on investment we produce great results uh very economically and that's you know I guess leads me to my next you know kind of request of you and um that you know this is the Board of Education duties is outlined in Connecticut General statute which you know I I'm not suggesting you Sher your responsibility as representatives of the community and just say I pass it on to the Town Council um but I I am cognizant of the broad number of variables that are to be determined and I would hate to put ourselves in a position where we're making really significant Cuts uh at this point in the year only to find out that well gez you know the legislature infused a a legitimate amount of money into the uh specialed excess cost Grant and come to find out it would have been really nice to have that uh that stem support person uh when they could make a real difference for our our kids so I'm just asking that you know you be conscious of that um we always respect and value your feedback um we appreciate your questions uh Vin Marlene and I we certainly Marshall in the team as we need to we'll be happy to answer any questions you have if you think of something now we've already taken down several questions throughout the night that we'll come back Thursday ready to hopefully put out some answers for you and and respond to make you uh better informed in a better position to vote on the budget um but if there's anything between now and Thursday certainly don't hesitate to reach out call me text me email me um we're happy to respond to those questions we appreciate your your involvement and your engagement and don't take that for granted so uh please do share that with us um if if there's something that's you're just wondering about all right um the public budget review uh we have you know obviously gone through several now uh iterations we've done a number of of presentations and I look forward to engaging in dialogue I did send out an email to our parents through parents Square last week I think it was I don't even know what day it is but uh yeah I think it was last Thursday or Friday um certainly the public is welcome uh just as a heads up we will have open house here on Thursday night uh so there will be parents Milling about anyway uh hopefully some will stop by make a a little bit more of a date of it um and and certainly we welcome any public feedback if people from the community want to email me and reach out call whatever uh we're happy to respond to that too so that'll kick off Thursday night here at 700 pm.

Vancouver M check 1 2 three e e e [Music] are you I'm fine thank [Music] you you're special just like everybody else so you're good with this [Music] you guys aren't waiting for me are you just finishing up our convers sttion up here we're so glad you're here we'd like to welcome everybody to our regular board business meeting Tuesday January 21st 20125 uh and I realized after our last meeting that I forgot to uh recognize and welcome our new board members I know that they will recognized later on but I personally just want to uh welcome uh all of our new board members we're excited that you've uh made the decision to uh serve the school district and your community and uh look forward to uh uh many great experiences with with each of you so thank you very much we're going to start off our meeting with a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance led by uh board member Shaina Murray thank you everyone please stand um I'd like to start with a moment of silence and tonight I'd also like to just ask all of you if you could keep in mind um Wally deluy and Ariel Thomas um unfortunately we lost both of them and I just want you to keep them in your thoughts 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 thank you Miss Murray uh and if I didn't do it I officially call this meeting to order uh and now we'll go ahead and move on with with roll call Miss Wilson Mr Chad Thompson here miss Shana Murray here miss Jill humre here Dr Blake Robinson here Mr Jesse Brainard here Mr President all board members are present you have a quorum thank you very much moving on to agenda item number two approval of the agenda is there a motion to proove approve tonight's agenda as it is outlined so moved thank you Dr Robinson is there a second second thank you Mr Brainard uh all those in favor of approving tonight's agenda as outlined say I I any opposed thank you very much moving on to agenda item 3.01 our superintendent recognition Awards Dr McCord thank you Mr President board members if you could join me in front of the dis to recognize some people in our room tonight I'd appreciate it thank you good evening I always say it twice cuz the first one's like oh we're at church good evening thanks for being here so tonight we have um two people and a group to recognize and so we'll get going um first of all can Lynn jordanson please come up from Gilbert High School give her a hand you don't even know why yet than hi Lynn so Lynn has received the national ftec did I say that right ftec Teacher of the Year this award recognizes a teacher as an exemplary physics teacher by the American physical society and the American Association of physics teachers which is AAP these organizations jointly lead the physics teacher education Coalition which is ftec Project to meet the growing demand for highly qualified physics teachers in US School and guess what we got one of the very best right here L I'm going to ask you a question and I so it's question answer I'm not going to make you give a speech how long have you been teaching this is year 10 year 10 all of them at Gilbert High School at Gilbert High School are you from Gilbert uh no my husband my husband actually went to Mountain View I'm from California Bay Area well we' like to thank Lynn for coming tonight I was a Mesa highr tell your husband that I'm a jack rabbit so no that's all right we you know it's okay we're really really proud of you and really proud of the things that you've accomplished and more than anything we're proud of the skills you give our students at Gilbert High on a daily basis so please give Lynn a hand thank you ly if you come back to the middle we're going to get a group photo conratulations and Lynn congratulations to your daughter who's leaving tomorrow on her mission to Vancouver Washington congratulations to you give her a hand next up from mosquite high school we have Christy Peterson hi christe thanks for coming so chrisy has been awarded the presidential the presidential award for excellence in Math and Science teaching the P MST in education we love our acronyms this is the highest recognition a K12 teacher in the United States can receive for outstanding teacher in math or science considered the top honor for stem Educators at the primary and secondary level it is awarded by the White House and administered by the National Science Foundation give her another hand so christe and I were talking about this a little bit before the meeting it was almost a year and a half ago that Rod Houston the former principal of mosquite and here's the current principal Mr Sean Lynch thank you for being here um he tells me hey christe's up for this award and I just want you to know cuz she's got a really good shot at getting it right and then I saw Rod I don't know last week or somewhere around there he goes hey Christy got that award and I was like what award are you talking about cuz that was a year and a half ago this is how long that process is taken but it is awarded by the White House so you know a lot of things go on down there uh but we're glad they didn't forget about our good friend Christy would you like to say a couple words so I just want to say first of all I am very thankful that um I chose a career that is one of my two passions I have one passion is my family number one my second passion is helping and challenging students learn and that's through my students and other teachers that I impact and so I'm just been blessed to be in this profession but Dr McCord I want to make sure you all know um the history of this award in Gilbert public schools in 2019 every other year is secondary in 2019 Len balm from Camp verie who's now the current math um coordinator at The District 1 and in 2021 Karen Moss from GCA was a finalist and then me in 2023 um we are well represented in the math department in this community so and and the people she just named off including herself are not just well representatives of our district they're phenomenal Educators and so Christie you're obviously you always have been but now you're being formally recognized for being right there with them so congratulations again thank you [Music] awesome thank you and last but definitely not least if I could have the members of the Daughters of the American Revolution please come up Dar do you like your acronyms too yes give them a hand so I'm going to say a few words then I'm going to turn it over to an and she's going to give us some more information um this is a book donation from the Governor George WP hunt chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and this year in preparation for the America's 250th anniversary in 2026 The National Society is awarding Grants to each chapter that applies for a grant to promote their 250th birthday their chapter applied for a grant and received it to supply 100 books on the American Revolution to elementary schools in Gilbert public schools and an I'll let you talk but if everybody before I'll pass it down if you guys can introduce yourselves that would be great to everyone I'm an fiser and I am the vice Regent Diana Hines Regent Mara mckowski past Regent Judy Maris chap Kathy Panella Treasurer and chair of service for veterans and americanism Patty Zur and I'm the registar well an I know you got a prepared statement you can come up here and read it if you want or you can read it wherever you'd like all right well anyways I think you covered a lot of it so with the upcoming 250th anniversary um The National Society was awarding grants to any chap that applied for a grant that would um celebrate in our communities uh the anniversary so we did apply for a grant of uh it was $500 and we received it and then our chapter also donated some money um and we were our goal was 100 books we ended up with I think 126 books that we were able to donate so these books um are on the American Revolution there's uh they're grade appropriate for elementary schools and uh they will help educate children about our country's history the Patriots that fought for our freedom and we look forward to continuing our relationship with the Gilbert public schools and the town of Gilbert both thank you we give her a hand we truly appreciate the fact that you keep us in mind and that you want to make sure our students have great materials as it relates to the American Revolution the book titles I have here are guts and Glory the American Revolution history of the American Revolution black Heroes of the American Revolution I survived the American Revolution and Phoebe the Spy um so again these books will soon Dawn our bookshelves and for our students to enjoy so please give them one more hand if you guys would shake hands with the board and then we'll do a group photo F in I think you're supposed to be and you can take photos whenever you like everybody stand because Jonathan is only Roger you can see me I can see you we here three two one all right thank you governing board members that concludes our recognitions for this evening thank you so much thank you so much for Jo us all right thank you very much moving on to agenda item number four our superintendent report Dr McCord thank you Mr President governing board members good evening and Welcome to our meeting for this evening our well kind of our first full governing board meeting our last meeting was an organizational meeting and uh we're just glad to have like you said Mr Thompson all of our new board members we're ready to roll and take on this uh second semester of the 2425 school year coming up we have a spelling be we will hold our annual District spelling be this Thursday at 6 p.m.

we are hiring for all positions certified and support staff so if you know somebody that's looking for a position who wants to work in the very best school district in the state of Arizona go to Highland High at 400 P p.m.

person that will be out there he's usually always out there yelling e e e and good food too you can teach me edgy not right now are we waiting for Tom they have that at high school guess we'll wait for Tom they have other station yeah not locked in there there he is here he comes we're creeping up I should brought a heating bed oh jeez masser for time you massage my shoulder sure don't worry yeah I got you I take water we're about to be a minute late time for water start the meeting all right time's shutting every door in the house here something going on to save the energy he's trying to save energy all right now he's SE it is now 7:01 p.m.

e testing 1 two 3 testing 1 two e e e okay I would like to call this meeting to order for Creon School District 2011 regular board meeting today is Tuesday January 21st 202 5 6:30 p.m.

e e I'd like to call a meeting to please we do the Pledge of Allegiance in a moment of silence pledge alleg to the flag United States of America stands one nation God indivisible you please keep in mind all of our service men and women overseas and in country especially our former students thank you m FIS M Mr Jones yeah Mr Mia Mr Mercedes Mr T here Mr Hen here this time we like to start off with the students reports we have Mia and Lea who January 21st district comme meeting student presentation by Jason and the first page happy New Year happy New Year glts students return to class on January 2nd after a hard after Al on January 14 seniors attended a glts alumni panel coordinated by this School counseling department where they heard about our former Reggie's post High School experiences the presenters included chn marmo from classic 2023 biotechnology she's now studying microbiology at UMAS am W MC from classic 2023 metal fabrication he working fulltime at Boston medal and studying mechanical engineering at midle Community College an Alex Hernandez from class of 2022 who is studying who from cosmetology she is studying biology at um schol Jeremiah Adams from class 2022 electrical he is studying psychology atas L and is getting in EM certification T tal talent shows trials talent show trials will be held in the pack on Tuesday January 21st and Thursday January 23 from 2:40 to 4:30 p.m.

to 4 P.M in the small gym these sessions are extra workouts for baseball students but anyone who is interested can participate Reggie's read win winner congratulations to miss Caitlyn nardy for winning the staff Reggie's read challenge for December she won a regie cafe gift card by encouraging students to read as part of a class activity Al teachers can encourage students to paste more sticky notes on their class Reggie reads for for chance to win MC retakes starting this year students will no longer have to achieve a passing grade on the mcast to graduate however if students still wish to retake the mcast to improve their scores retakes are available on the following dates science February 4th and February 5th Ela March 6 and March 7th and March 11th and March 12th CDs which are required for students to graduate and were previously given to students who pass Mast will now be earned based on course work looking ahead February is CTE month daily announcements students share CTE facts and opportunities during morning announcements announcements emailed to staff and shared on social media CTE student of the month career area students nominate peers who embody GTS core valleys one student per career area will be recognized with a certificate and a special J CTE month gift industry guest speakers career area programs host professionals to share insights and reinforce the value of CTE includes a green job speaker panel for construction career areas leadership visits the superintendent and CTE director will visit career areas on the week of February 24th to 28th all set very well done thank you ladies always a pleasure uh before we get to the uh the minutes I'd like to call your attention to a new item on the agenda under new business committee roles and thank you very much all those in favor I morning to approve the minutes for December 17th meeting make motion to approve the minutes a second thank you discussion all those in favor I opposed Finance report Mr cash balance report please thank you cash balance report as of December 31st 2024 balance on November 30th is 4,559 4524 we have deposits for the amount of 4,206 9818 transfer in from mmbt uh net at 6 652 445 we have pay roll um less payroll on December 5th and 19th um and warrant number 112 and 13 leaving us with a balance um at the end of the calendar year of 4,525 8835 um in the mmdt account we started with 8 million 47 uh we transferred out that 65244 net to operations we had a healthy um interest for the month of 37316 leaving us with a an ending balance in mmdt of 8 million 374 86554 in a total operating cash balance a healthy one of 12,974 in9 thank you very much can I have a motion to accept the uh make motion accept second any discussion all those in favor opposed consolidate cash involving fund hand packet on the revolving fund any questions on those budget report anybody has the pack packet on that anybody's missing anything please say so Finance report M marel update the committee on the excess and deficiency account yep so this is just an informational update um we filed our excess efficiency report by October 30th and it was certifi at 1.1 mil 5,991 any questions on that Communications see any Arles see any participation that brings us to Isabelle is Joy administrative student Information Specialist um going to tell us about incast um I've got a question before you even start maybe you can tell us where incast is going to what is changing I can you a report let have this question you want to start and I can fill in this question we'll go the report after you want to do that if it's in the report we can just keep going no that's not in the report the first thing came to my mind so mcaps in general I I'll leave it is off the hook no uh previously obviously the vote happened uh on Election Day uh where to no longer have mcast be that state requirement um for graduation um we received some guidance from the Commissioner's Office uh from desie um basically saying that um schools will follow their local requirements for competency determinations I think on one of the slides uh the student sent out uh talked about CDs that was compet competency determination um so basically now all of our students have to pass what's in our program of studies for graduation requirements if that's fulfilled you can earn your diploma now without mcast um that's why um on the retest that had those three dates for those subject areas um we actually sent something out um basically saying it's not needed as a requirement anymore for our current seniors or Juniors um and no one replied back to opt in to take the test because it's no longer a requirement so we actually won't be giving it um it's not needed for our students to be in a graduation um requirement for the seniors and juniors the Commissioner's Office did say we do have to have our sophomores take it um it is tied to the John and Abigail Adams scholarship and another I think one other award or maybe two other Awards um but we have we're all awaiting guidance from the Commissioner's Office they're going to put in a another type of requirement with the competency determinations for local school districts but we have not received anything from the commissioner's office yet and just to add to that the account the mcast in the spring the big test for the sophomores is also going to be included in participation and the accountability reporting continuing they're continuing that factor so it's going to be included in accountability and we're going to be responsible for providing it to the sophomores thank you very much I didn't want to throw you off track it's the first thing that came to mind no that's good that's separate going to do that separate to start off I'm going to start off Oscar if you want to pull that up too that'd be great um on it um just as an intro um we're excited to be here uh first and foremost to give our presentation on mcast and accountability in our data uh driven initiatives uh I'm joined by two very talented administrators uh to my left as you already talked to Isabel Joya she's our administrative student Information Specialist and to my right is our director of teaching and learning panota aelis and I apologize if I made a mistake with your name she's going to present on our database uh uh data driven initiatives um uh great to be here I can't speak the previous years but since I arrived in August um we finished putting together our admin team um with a clear goal of building relationships with each other and with our teaching staff uh in our students um we're working together to build a culture of we um here where our team is providing our staff and students with any of the resources um structures ongoing support that they need to be successful um we've been working to provide high quality instructional materials uh to our departments panota will speak to that a little bit later um um we have a clear focus of getting out of the office uh one of these things that John talked about when I first entered in on our first team meetings um was having uh our team be more present uh to support our teachers and our students in the classrooms um so we've been doing that following our evaluation system trying to get in and have uh those conversations those pre-conferences evaluations observations post conferences and uh provide our teachers with the feedback and support that they need to be successful um we've also been conducting several nonv valuative learning walks um I mentioned them a lot in um those Reggie Happ newsletters where you know I'm picking an area just about one a month a couple of month to go out um and meet the teachers and see some kids in their Career technical areas and different academic areas um it's been very valuable for our team to have conversations about what we see um and what's going on in the school and how we can better support again our teachers and students so um in summary um we do have a collective commitment uh to the correct work we want to be working on our instruction um improving um proving what we do for students um we encourage you to save any questions or comments until the end of the presentation uh Isabelle is going to have a lot of our accountability uh data and then panota is going to have some of the work for doing data so we're happy to be here turned over oh yes all right so um the first data point we're going to go over is m has hopefully you all have a chance to review the information in your packet I know there is a lot of information there um so I'm going to kind of go over it high levelwise and then um as Mr Jackson said we can answer some questions at the end so this is the um Ela fast for the past five years without 2020 obviously it was a covid year um so still have some room for improvement in um Ela mcast we want to see those numbers on um exceeding and meeting expectations get a little bit higher and decrease the not meeting expectation aspect um so this was in English um this is the average student growth percentage um again over the past five years this is just related to Great lawence technical school um so the student growth present percentage is the measure of how much a student individual individual's performance has improved compared to other students of the same grade on previous mcast tests um it's just an average because it is going to be different for every student this next slide is just a comparison um of our Ela student grow percentage to the state and then to our four other sending districts again um with our math mcast um still significant room for improvement um we have made some changes to the current schedule this year where math and English is um being taken every day by students in grade nine and 10 um so that means they take it on the shop week as well as the academic week um panota will go into a little bit more detail on some of those um changes but we are doing that for grades nine and 10 for Math and Ela again you have the average student growth percentage for math for the past five year comparison um and this is the grow comparison again to the state and then the four spending districts this is the biology mcast um they did not offer this science or biology mcast in 2020 and 21 so we only have the past three years um and again we can make some improvements here in both exceeding and meeting um by trying to raise those scores and there is no SGP for bi biology because they take a variety of Sciences so they can't do a comparison because some people are taking physics some are taking biology um so now we'll get into the accountability data um so the accountability data is put out every year by the department of Ed um this is actually the second full accountability report since 2019 um it uses multiple years worth of data um there are five indicator groups so they're looking at achievement which is basically our mcast scores in all three subjects they're looking at growth student growth percentage so that is only an Ela and math they're looking at our high school completion rate so they're looking at our graduation rate our five-year graduation rate and our dropout rate um they're looking at our progress toward attaining English language proficiency which is for ML students and taking the access scores and then the additional indicators that they're using are chronic absenteeism so that is any student that is absent for more than 10% of their days in membership um so we have to be in school 180 days so any student that has 18 or more would fall into the chronic absenteeism bucket um and then Advanced course work completion um so this only applies to students in grades 11 and 12 and unfortunately if you're in for honors classes you're only counted once in this bucket um so you're not counted four times so um but that includes our honors classes our dual enrollment classes anything of that sort that is indicated um so there are two overall classifications um either districts and schools are requiring Assistance or intervention or districts and schools are not requiring Assistance or intervention um this is the overview of the target criteria so the department of Ed sets these Target for each district in each School based on past Performance Based on assessment attendance Etc um and then each school and District earns points based off of how we've done on these targets that we're supposed to be attaining based on the department of Ed's expectations um so again easy enough to if we don't make any if we're declined we earn zero points if there's no change we earn a point if we improve but we're still below Target we earn two points if we meet our Target we earn three and if we exceed our Target we earn four points so our overall classification for 2024 is not requiring Assistance or intervention our progress towards Improvement targets is 45% so we're making moderate progress towards these targets and then our accountability percentile is 38 um which is basically our overall performance relative to other schools that are administrating um similar assessments so this 45% was based off of 2023 and 2024 so they do a percentage so the um criteria Target percentage is worth 40% and then the 2024 is worth 60% so that's where they're getting the 45% um these are are the indicators that I briefly talked about at the beginning um so as you can see here um it indicates the points earned out of the total possible points so for example under achievement for El on the mcast so we didn't earn any points for that um because we declined in our path forward we earned two points in math because we improved but we're still slightly below Target um so I don't have to go through all of these I was just kind of wanted you to see where those targeted numbers were coming from um we're killing it in our high school completion I just thought I'd throw that out there um so we are exceeding our Target in the four-year graduation rate and the fiveyear graduation rate um basically we're above 95% in our graduation rates for both of those categories um the dropout rate we're exceeding that Target we're below well below the 1% that the um state has set as our Target um chronic absenteeism has come down for us between 2023 and 2024 and um we still have some work around our Advanced course work that we need to look at which again penot will touch base on um so then I just had the 2023 data up here as well um just as a reference point for you to look at that comparison um so these are our progress towards Target that we have earned um from 2019 to 2024 and this is our accountability percentile again the same 2019 to 2024 comparison this is just a comparison again from our school glts to our four sending districts for 2024 in the same for the accountability percentile just comparing us to the four sending districts and now I'll turn it over to P you have all right okay so um data driven initiatives before I get into talking about the what what our initiatives are um it's important to talk first about are why and the how we're going about it um so when it comes to educational initiatives um for those of you here who have worked in education you know that initiatives tend to come and go very quickly um and so we have a commitment to really looking at um all the data of getting input from all stakeholders and making really specific plans that we stick to um growth is and change does not happen overnight um there's so much research out there to to to show that yet schools are constantly changing what they're doing and reversing track so um we are committed to making sure that we stay the course that we are looking at Lots again lots of different data points and not just making quick decisions um so we just talked about mcast but um just like in any thing we want to make sure that we're looking at multiple data points um you look at just one thing one test on one day and make all your decisions based off of that you're missing out on a lot of different perspectives um so there are three kind of big areas of data points and I have some listed up there there are plenty more um but we of course look at our district and local assessments just like mcast and then some others that we have schoolwide and others that we have for specific subjects um we look at get external reports and feedback um we have um multiple organizations that we partner with um and the Department of Education of course um and they come in and we we look at what what they have to say um and then we also do internal ongoing data collection um which is so important right that's like what we're actually seeing on the ground so it's um The Learning walks that Mr Jackson was talking about um we have multiple Focus teams looking at um these very important different areas made up of Administrators and teachers um and we're also collecting data from students because of course you cannot forget the student perspective um when you're making these big decisions um so we have I know this looks a little bit um I might say wild what are all these different things that we're focusing on um a lot of times teachers will say what we we're doing so many different things how are these all connected um these are sort of the big initiatives projects that we're working on they're all connected under mtss what is that really multi-tiered systems of support it's basically it's a framework to look at um what are all different levels of support that we want to give our students um and from there we're looking at where do we have gaps to fill and that's where these projects grew out of um so given that um I want to kind of zero in on a few specific categories within that happy to talk about any other specific ones later but um these are really the big ones so one is what we're doing with our Core Curriculum um that's what we call the tier one um intervention and extension opportunities that's what we call the tiers two and three we have a multipronged approach to literacy because that is something that um our students along with students across the country are struggling with um based on multiple factors but of course coming out of a pandemic is is a huge one um and the other one is having structural supports and resources because you can give teachers um curriculum and resources and different things but if you don't have the structures and supports in place to help them um do what they need to do then it's not going to work so that's another big area of focus for us so with the first one again the tier one supporting learning through the Core Curriculum um if you look at the bottom here this little house with the three levels that's really when we're talking about mtss really what it is is tier one um that's what all kids get and you might remember years ago kids who needed extra support would be pulled out of the class and they'd be given another remedial class instead what researchers School found was that by taking them out they're missing the grade level work and so the Gap just keeps growing so tier one that's what everybody gets um tier two that's targeted support so there might be specific things that kids need help with right they get help in that area and then they're fine and then tier three that's when you're looking at more intensive like special education services um so again right here we're talking about our tier one um two things we're really focusing on one is um high quality instructional materials we have a process going on right now in math and Ela they're at different points of implementation so we've adopted core resources um and given teachers professional development next up um we're going to have science we're actually starting that work tomorrow in our professional development day um work in the career areas and social studies um and then we're also providing support within the classroom such as through co- teing and Par professionals um the second piece um that we're really looking at is academic intervention and extension so that's the tiers two and three we have two blocks that occur during the academic where these interventions and extensions happen um targeted support and enrichment um we have some key things that happen there reading intervention English language development for our multilingual Learners and then during the Wind Block what I need you can see there that we have an array of different offerings and support again for some kids who might need extra support and other kids who might need um extensions um for example in the library there's a a writer unite group for kids who um are very into writing and want to do extension work there um the other thing that happens during that time is also that social emotional support counselors run groups the third area that we're really focusing on is literacy I know I touched on it beforehand um but it's so important uh we thought it would be important to talk about separately so three main approaches here one is adding reading intervention so um we have two reading Specialists that have joined us this year and we have a reading program these are for kids who are not on IEPs um but are struggling with reading um and so they get that um targeted support with those teachers we also have a new program this year for kids who are on IEPs who have reading goals um we brought in a program um and train teachers to help them really really Target the the reading skills that they need um help with we're also part of the D tier literacy Academy this is through the Department of Education it's a multi-year um process we have teachers and administrators who are part of this team we have academic and career areas represented because we're looking at literacy um across all areas because it's not just what happens in English class um you know reading writing speaking listening is important um everywhere in life um and a lot of that work happens with the career areas actually and um it's it's the real life application of it um so we have that group um we are right now working on assessing the needs we've established our our goal that's going to be driving our work is focused on informational text we found um in the data that kids really um that is their biggest area that they need help with is reading informational text so like you're non-fiction um and we're in the CR of developing a multi-year plan we're also we also are offering um different courses for teachers in online formats um that teachers can just simply log on and and get that support the fourth part structural supports and resources we have these are all of the different groups that we have in place that are working on not just putting these projects in place but also um developing them seeing what's working what's not working how can we make it better um so from our admin team to our um we have administrative Focus teams we have teacher teams that we're putting in place um our external Partners so we make sure that we have all perspectives included in the work here right um no that's a lot um on behalf of my team or our team we just want to say thank you for your support um in the budgetary process I know John comes uh and repres presents us uh with needs and may ask for positions such like reading Specialists uh or or people to put in place to help our school and help our community um they're very important we know we wouldn't be able to work with um all these people and all these teams without your support so um we we want to also acknowledge that and say thank you um looking ahead please know our team is committed to continuous progress on these items um we're happy to return to a future meeting or meetings uh to provide updates on any specific initiative share progress or to discuss outcomes uh that may be happening uh we'd be happy to invite teachers to join us uh if there's a particular um department or group in there as well um again we believe we can continue to improve uh in in the educational experience and the outcomes that we provide obviously the accountability data there's there's room for growth um all these things that we're kind of working on and starting to put teams together um you know through time and support we hope to really be able to come back in those future years and show that grow so thank you for listening um Hopey hope you guys all got the packet ahead of time and had a chance to go through it uh and we're open for any comments or questions thank you thank you any questions please show I don't have any questions so relax um but I I you know I'm Glad You Came I'm glad you were invited here and you and and you put forth this um um uh demonstration of um what you guys really do and I know it's a lot and you've done a great job I just have a couple of questions not questions um comments tier two just help me understand this um tier two Happ I see on you know what I need and I know that there are several areas where they can get the help that they need but does this happen in the classroom the interventions is that in the classroom you do you target certain kids that need need assistance in the classroom in the classroom so there and so there's a teacher and then there's a par professional maybe or another teacher there could be depending on what the class is so like the English language development class is for the multilingual Learners so they are in there it's a small group class maybe eight to 10 with an English language learner teacher and then the reading the reading students are in with a reading specialist um and then the language live students are in with their a special education teacher that was trained in that um so kind of what you're referring to being in with a co- teer or a professional is the tier one where those supports are happening tier one so tier two they're they're separated out and they're getting that additional targeted support okay all right and does anyone find that the classrooms are crowded too many students in a classroom so I would say that they are crowded some at the tier one level does that cut down on um learning or I mean is that something that can be looked at yeah and I think we we are I think when we go through the process and kind of looking at how we schedule class sizes um what the number of honor students in the class looks like what a number of College Prep students in the class look like if there's more students in a college prep class where we're targeting needs and on that we should have those classes should be smaller than our honors classes uh that wouldn't have those needs that could be bigger um so we look at that we looked at that kind of going into our scheduling for next year and if there's any recommendations or it's really overcrowded in a particular subject area we would be working with John and Melissa to put that in uh for a potential need for another teacher so but everything is okay so I just don't want just on our classroom over crowding we had several meetings to look at the schedule and how students moving forward uh the impact of uh classroom crowdedness and what we would need in terms of reducing classroom sizes in terms of personnel so you'll see when you get the budget we've added new uh teachers in almost all our academic area in our budget for next year to help uh relieve some of that but in some classrooms some of things have we have a lot of inclusion classes so when you think about student teacher ratio it's not always as large as it might look but uh so that there's always the inclusion teacher who's now having a much bigger impact on planning and organizing curriculum and planning lessons than they've ever done in in the past which is helping to Target those kids who have specific needs better and so that the curriculum is uh the lessons the delivery of the lessons is including in uh lessons that will have a positive impact on kids who have greater needs even though it's not tier two it uh it still has big impact on helping kids who have special needs because of the the way the curriculum and the instruction is being delivered is different I believe than we've ever done with our inclusion classes I think the work is much better this year than I've seen in the 15 years I've in this Ro and uh I think you're going see that that has a huge impact on kids uh uh growth and achievement no I mean I just had that concern because there's such an increase in enrollment um and I know that I mean we have the ever say no to Personnel um but I don't know where all these kids are going so as long as you people have a handle we're working on it so you have a finger yes anyone else just on your graph what's the e oh that's exceeding expectations sorry is exceeding expectations m is meeting expectations partially meeting expectations and then not meeting sorry I I should have put that little all right is is any of the extra help happen out of the Korea time like would they get pulled out in Korea right now no not during the current schedule okay I mean I do want to comment I mean EXC I'm sorry go ahead no I just want to throw a Kudo about the 109 John and Abigail Adams y I mean I think that exceeds the area and I was pretty impressed by that that yeah uh just a question so is is this framework you guys presented a line with the plan that's submitted to Desi every year I know we we presented a plan regarding ntss I think it's a three-year plan um it's what we're doing related to ntss I don't know if it's aign to that yes so it is yeah when we go through to kind of go through there um one of the things we meet Miss Richardson on also is kind of going in making sure we're connected to with that plan um as we go forward I think the big thing to add to that is um know you have the plan but we're continuously progress monitoring and making those little adjustments as we need to um so being flexible but structured at the same time so I I do want to uh thank this team that's here today for their leadership since the beginning of this year um particularly P CH work very well together in terms of organizing our uh our goals and our uh our uh plans for weekly Tuesday meeting where we do educational uh planning with the educational administrators and we've had they've had a a a plan from the get-go in terms of where we need to grow what we need to introduce in terms of professional development and so it's been very organized been planned well and have been much more collaboration with themselves and all the other administrators I'm seeing across the board people working very well together respecting each other and when you get out and about the school you see administrators throughout the building putting into place the plan that they had uh anticipated implementing this year and has worked very very well in terms of cooperation and has caused a culture in the building I think that is right now very positive with regards to teachers belief that they're getting the support at least from people that have spoken to me already this year that it feels different it feels good to have the kind of support that they're getting from the administrative team uh this year so I I do want to publicly thank uh the work that you guys are doing to make a big turn around I believe in on School this year anybody else Isabel one for me how do we relate to our sister schools the uh location schools and I'd have to look at that so I can look at that and share that yeah okay so we would just a question yeah I want to thank you all for being here tonight Mr Jackson you hand yourself all I want you to know I'm trying to get the principal's report back our agenda be coming more I thank you all you taking time away from your family to be here with us thank you very much thank thank St uniform I give I thought I pr must put the back side in anyways uh we have had some meetings uh these are some recommendations uh that if we are going to go to continue to uh pursue the idea of uh uniforms um for the academic uh week uh the recommendations at this point is to have uh short sleeve or long sleeve polos or t-shirts with glts logo on the front white or black um glts sweat shirts that match the colors of the T-shirt no hood and black or khaki pants uh cargo a regular Dicky style of any color uh in terms of well black or khaki uh color two colors so the black pants or khaki pants and uh I think the majority are leaning towards t-shirts for a shirt black or white t-shirt with the welcome that's what they would recommend to the committee for a uniform it's a committee so be still would like to consider uniforms um I'd like to see a copy that can we have someone make us I myself but I don't access sure thank so if you have any questions get the question um so how many people were on this committee that you well you'll see there their roles so there was uh I think we had three administrators two teachers and then the uh the city I mean the school council parents wait in on as well uh so and who also has students on it so they wait on and you'll see that they wait in on it that document printing you'll see that who wait in on it I see what was your question did you have the hand I'm sorry I don't know first please um I I I actually what was your question yeah my question to the superintendent was who was on The Who was appointed to the committee and their roles in this process and he indicated that paper like being printed out it's going to get no names but just the roles and and what the what the roles and other committee as well those teachers administrators doesn't say on that sheet okay so what was the total number of members on that committee five five Mr yeah did I read the question might go up to the students to say on well they were students on the council okay so go to part of the student part just the student input from the council okay can I just speak to that Mr H I'm sorry Speak to that so um one of the I can't see your hand so please pray to interrupt uh one of the recommendations was um to get more input from more parents and students like if it does come down to you know something sort of identified that's about making a choice between you know A or B that there should be more input put um you know some of the team members of the committee members um they wanted to be clear they weren't necessarily endorsing a uniform but it was more like if we needed input they provided the input but it didn't mean that they were really on board with it at this point I think uh because it came to a vote rather quickly I think there were maybe more questions than we were able to even answer in these smaller meetings when you think we might be able to Well here here's the thing I mean I don't know what you're thinking about a uniform you talk about uniform give me a what are your choices give you a polo shirt t-shirt or a long sleeve shirt C shirt I don't know what else you can pick for a uniform and then whatever color and then pants either khakis there was also the idea of a lot of people think we should have blue jeans as our pants um so we said either so it came down to uh black khakis or khaki colors so uh color so other than that I don't know other kind of selections the committee has in mind that you think the UN form should be I don't know what other what other ideas you might think that you should we should have okay pair pants you got a shirt yeah no the choices are fine okay so I would prefer the college shirt the T-shirt little more formal so then you're talking a a polo shirt or a button- down shirt most 90% of the people think po shirt with a button shirt I I would agree with that yes else again personally for me I always want to go more uh prend and you know I think in the summer it's a different story when it hits when it hits June and uh or May and June we probably start becoming warmer probably would prefer the polisher but I would love to see but and down long sleeve sh that would be my suggestion long sleeve long sleeve and Cains very percent they can go from here to any uh interview if they need to because they're already well dressed um and the least the option that we that they have the better because the more option that we have do this called this color then they start coming everybody start coming different and um and I also um since we're already getting into that probably uh on on the teachers part the dress code for teachers as well what you know should they look at should they look apart that would be something again I don't know if we had an issue in the past but if if I think it would also be uh something to look at so they they also will have their expectation and what the expectation may be so that they can look every everybody can look the same and we don't have question whether they have title a shirt or skirt or a or C um so then if we're all going to be on on on unifor I believe that we should also consider uh how the teacher dress code may be as well if you like we can put that under new business right now we're discussing student uniforms anybody else as far as do you please so this is to both of you through you um there are some questions here that were asked in the feedback so I mean personally I mean I'm one vote but you know these recommendations are good for the committee to consider but there are questions here that are that have gone unanswered that I'm assuming they're asking in terms of you know shop uniform during academic week and allowing students to choose from multiple colors so I don't know if you guys can talk a little bit more about that well those were questions that came up um Can the students wear their shop uniforms Journey academically um my personal opinion from what you guys was discussing would be no and uh can we allow students to choose for multicolor fla uniform have G to logo and as uh again I would say no based on what you gave us from the beginning so those are questions that came out so um it doesn't leave us a lot of options um but it's uh relatively simplistic in terms of what you can wear can't wear po so if you're saying polo shirt long sleeve in the winter short sleeve in the summer in the spring or when the weather's warmer with uh khaki type pants whether it be black or khaki color um and U and any other I mean that's basically the recommendation I would say that's being made if you think that that's not acceptable and we can send it back to the committee for other ideas um and I mean once you've said yeah we want to go with polo shirt and khakis we can send it out to the the parents that this is a if you want to give us any feedback what are the issues or problems you see uh on their you know themselves we can do that if you want but uh I don't know if you want this to get into that kind of a discussion anything else thank you this I mean here's the problem I have and this is after after being here and knowing the population here you have sharp uniforms 99% of the shops maybe 100% have a t-shirt it gets incredibly close to a polo shirt and then you're gonna open it up to kid wears the T-shirt good Lord You're Breaking the Law I mean you know if he comes in with a t-shirt doesn't have the polar shirt I mean even I couldn't try to you know discipline that kid for not having the right shirt on so I think he going to run into more problems if you don't need at least if you're going to do this you got to make a distinction I mean other schools don't have sharp academic so you know you you go to La high or say you I I know it's not compar comparison But Central Catholic they have a they have their polo shirt they have their khaki pants but we have career areas here that the shirt is a t-shirt with the logo I don't know I'm going to I personally I find it difficult to enforce I I don't know I mean even I with you know my stringent whatever could not can I CH in El yes um you touched on it last meting before you touched on it this is a great expense to our students don't want to burden the parents buying more uniforms you touched on we have a policy now enforc the policy as far as winter versus t-shirts you can buy sweatshirts or the t-shirts I think the policy we have now is adequate if it's enforced that's something that you know more than happy to look at I'm more than happy to look at different options I just like to keep that in mind well you know I I I don't think U buying five uniform if they need to buy five un they going to cost less than dressing up for nine months of school so I think that would be more costly effect you know cost more money when you have to buy to wear five different clothes for every different day of the week and then you don't want to repeat a week after that because you're a kid and you're self-conscious that they remember that shirt that I used last week whatever right so that with that said I believe that if we decide on a dress shirt they can always buy the logo of the school and just as long as it's a white dress shirt you can put in the logo and probably print the logo of the school and put it on that pocket and that will differentiate um where they don't have to necessarily buy the shirt at particular place where it's probably more money but you buy that white longsleeve shirt and you get the T the the School logo and just put it on that that's how I went when I went to Dominican Republic that's what my you know we used to buy from the school the logo is to be sold into into the shirt as long as it's sold into the shirt it shouldn't be an issue and then again you know um if it's long sleeve for academic it's long sleeve if he short sleeve because it's summer and it's hot nobody wants to wear long sleeve shirt I understand that just wear you your color polish shirt is shirt shirts it's not not a a t-shirt I think again we we want want we want to start teaching these kids how to dress and a t-shirt you can go in a t-shirt to to get a an interview for for work um I just want them to start visualizing because a lot of times is that I think as parents they just allow kids because they're kids and kids and they just grow up in 25 years old they still kids oh yeah is their kids no I think we need to start showing them that this is school and you come in stuff like really nice we can differentiate anybody in the in the hallway and we know that they're part of the school and look at the shirt and they don't have that we need to make sure that they something happen so that that um that doesn't happen I just that's my opinion I know we're seven of us here everybody has their opion on that's where I stand John do some kids spend half the day in shop and half the day in academics at all were they just they split that at all the ninth grade and the 10th grade so how does that impact the dress code so they uh the ninth and 10th well the ninth graders are um they could wear their academic outfit I would say uh because they're not in a particular shop no I know and the 10th grade are in a particular shop so you'd have to allow them to wear their shop uniform I guess something y question good question anybody else to finalize which one first did C graders have a split day too well they're um yeah they they're not in shop all day they're in shop and then they're also have English and they have math on academic week I mean on their shop week they have two they have two academic classes okay in F to I believe all right well again being being a student ex- student when we had gym we had to bring our Gym close because we couldn't go on academic clothing to the gym so they need to bring you know their their their boots because you can still wear your academic clothing to to the shop you may need to wear boots but they can say you know you can bring your shoes if you need to change your gear you boot gear from from shop to go into you can bring your shoes and change them afterwards I guess me thinking I'm very fashionable so trust me when it comes to clothing I I I I can relate to the kids but I also uh understand the parent and I understand what I like to see our kids look like um and I think that if if they are um a shop and they need to wear certain kind of boots they can bring their shoes so they can change it if they choose and trust me if they want to change it they'll bring it on the on the in the book bag or they leave it on the locker to swap when they need to swap and put their proper here to go into into the shop last question for is it only the seniors that do like Monday Tuesday or is it the whole school whole school all right so I'll really be looking at three shirt investment as opposed to five because Wednesday Thursday and Friday then they they got the whole weekend to watch the clothes and they get them back money Tuesday it's not about five days straight part of the uniform or they regular clothes anybody else um I suggest we send this back to the council um to be cleaned up this is this isn't really much of anything for us well I think you got to make a decision do you want a uniform you don't want a uniform I mean why are we sending it back we're not going to go with a uniform let's make a decision we going uniforms if we are you've got some choices here if you're not going in uniforms for that's fine put it the rest but we got to we got to make a decision one way or the other before we move it anywhere else in my opinion I think we making agenda that we were making decision to now if you want opinion and you wanted I mean we had talk about this for several weeks already we understand and I know you made a you um mention that we have a uniform over is not being enforced and we already we already got the lawyer here telling us that there's complication of enforcing what we have because of breaking some laws we don't want that so I believe the uniform is the way to go we just need to you know know what it is um and I I I agree 100% with Eris Edison when he said let's make it simple let's make it um professional and a shirt with a logo and cocky pants for academic and the chop had their uniform whatever that is and let's just go with it because that takes away the whole complication and kids are are learning to be professional and everything else that we already said so we understand have Poli up but it's not going to be enforced and it's going to create legal so that's my um go ahead I'm sorry I no it's okay well since we are making that decision I think we should also look into the shoes or sneakers or whatever we the color we should be very specific so we don't leave too much gaps because that's what happens you know we com in black but then you have a black but wi the bottom and you comeing you know like with with whatever shoelace color and so when we make when we make a decision on uniform we need to be specific so there's no options so think we need to see physically see them before we voted on it I want to see what exactly what it is for see pants I won't see the shoes all right what that's the thing I'm sure we have companies that will come in US yeah um that's what I just wanted to bring up the fact that um we are talking we only talked about the shirt and the pants but um a belt should be also included on that must where belt you are dressed because you you don't have a it's like having it's like having a putting a tie but not closing the tie it's like you know what I mean if you're going to put the pens the pens should go with the belt um and the shoes had to be a color specific whether it's brown or whatever so we can nail it down and not leave little gaps for somebody body to modify the dress code which is where we are this point it defaulted because it started slacking with little whether it's a t-shirt or or polish short or maybe a slack on the the kind of clothing is a fit or too too white or whatever you know we should be specific that this is what we want so then when the student doesn't look like that they know they're out of uh Contex that's that's all put yeah I was going to put a motion to accept the um recommendations put forward unless there's other discussion I'm putting a motion this is decision on the Pres this isn't definite though they're asking us this je or khakis or I think that goes back to the committee not to us yes so this is a recommendation and you could you folks could correct problem this is an official recommendation from that committee without the opinion of the or without the endorsement of this that was presented this was the feedback that was collecting the committee recommends more parental involvement um an involvement from students survey on the options yeah I no I understand that that's why I'm accepting this so that we can move forward with that not with the policy but it is asking us to recommend for more inut yes I think if you're going to start surveying parents and all these other people I mean you there are some options here what are you going to ask the parents do you want a t-shirt or a polo I mean what do you what do you think they're going to give you like I don't understand the giving the parent and other people like we're going to get aund different opinions and it comes down to do you want a uniform it's pretty simple you're either going to have some kind of simple shirt one kind of simple pants why are we trying to complicate things here for you either want a uniform or you don't and what are the options we not going to you know what kind of pair of pants do you think they're going to tell you to wear what does the committee want you said you want something simple if they come back and say oh we want this this or that you may not like it what is it that you want that you think is acceptable and then you tell them what you want it's your decision you can send out all the surveys you want you're going to get a 100 different opinions from 100 different people just in doing this every every meeting we have this one wants this so how about we do it this way it's like no one comes to terms with what is it that you want you said you want something simple to me you got two simple things either t-shirt or polo with long sleeve short sleeve pair of cak black T what other options do you think you're going to get or what I don't know I'm confused by it all you're just making it comp something complicated it doesn't need to be complicated either want a uniform but you don't you want there's a simple option my motion is to accept this because it was not put into record I I just saw this today this is like this is what I'm talking about I'm putting a motion to accept this into the record because it has not been accepted into the record this was just printed and it was just given to us this is brand new to me so you know you can't come to the committee and push us to make a decision we're the ones that need to decide that I'm reading this now is what I'm trying to help the committee understand so we are seeing this now now we need to come to a decision what I am simply putting forward is we're accepting this into the record so we have this in record because it was not given up front to the committee motion's on the floor do I have a second second second all those in favor I oppos oppos tost let's call a vote please before we continue motions on the floor Mr Tabo no Miss Ferris yes Miss TLA if this opinions we need to hear them first I mean there's a motion on the floor is second but there people still have further discussion I'm sorry I believe that we already agreed on WE wanteded uniform so this this is there they there was a a group of people who got gathered together to decide this now we should just decide what we want and just pass it forward and close the chapter now if we don't all agreed on something then we should find out what you know further information in regards to to to the um to the unform but I believe we already ordered for uniform last time now is what kind of uniform are we are going to have the kids wear is what should be discussing because I believe we already voted on yes we want a uniform unless I'm wrong just the committee look into just to clarify the motion this is to accept it into the record they're not making on the accepting into the record because it was just G us so with that said what I believe we should probably be doing is just making an agreement on what we decide it proper from these recommendations are we already have them here we should all come together whether we believe it's a long leaf shirt or t-shirt or po shirt or whatever we should all come so that we may close the chapter so we don't continue for another how many meetings so um thank you for the opportunity I know so I don't want to to be no no so accepting this into the record is that because you want more time to look at it and next time it come to the next meeting you'll vote on what we have here is that what the idea is no what's the purpose the issue is is we were just given this docum no no I understand that so these are the options that you were given do you want to make a decision based on this or you want us to do something else with this that's up to the committee options from from a committee am I right and you're asking for more input from parents and students who's asking that the bottom line black school council oh school council is recommending that why are they are here okay well if I could speak to this so This doc this was just a meant to be note for uh Mr La boy for updating the committee um compiling Notes From The Faculty faculty committee that met and then the notes that I was given from the school council which I wasn't even in that meeting so I just wanted to share the information that we had so far um with some options and sort of opinions so to me this is just like there there are a lot of questions on here right we have like people talking about three different styles of pants three different colors one person thought we should offer you know every color you know in the rainbow that they could choose for a shirt as long as they had the GL logo so to me this was just to update the committee on the discussion so far um and not clearly it's not at a point where people can just vote on something sort of yes or no um and then to share that feedback about from the um school council um and the faculty committee that they felt that there should be um more feedback which I understand what Mr leoy is saying to his point there will be that many more opinions um so this is just sort of where this came from it wasn't meant I think to be sort of an official document but it's you know you can see there are a lot of different opinions and course we still don't have Clarity and I feel like the other thing is um at this point we haven't U reached out to any vendors to get pricing I have no idea what this would cost I was looking at some different companies online that have school uniforms and there seems to be a a wide variety um I don't know what the quality is but um M Martell could probably speak to that process if were to have a contract with a company that would be a lot of money so I don't know what that next step would look like and how that would impact the committies decision as well okay anybody else I would make a motion that we accept the polo shirts cocky pants um color to be chosen after we have a couple of vendors approach us with some options right now we work with the vice chair's motion you're going to pull a motion or you want to stand on the motion motion was to accept this into record yes so I'm getting clarification this is meeting us okay I'm going to withdraw the motion okay motion's been withdra you want you accept accept the option of AP polo shirt cocky pants uh and it should it should also list belt I'm not sure about shoes but uh all right just to be sure we're sending a suggestion back to this Council yeah we would prefer yeah we defined it down no jeans no t-shirts we've defined no that's not his recommendation the recommendation is that we accept polos and khaki pants that's the recommendation you're making yes it that's the motion you're making yes it is colors there's three questions down here jeans over khaki t-shirts over polos color options design a recommendation motion has nothing to do with that so why don't we why don't we start ning it down one second you made a motion first of all we got to vote on motion again please you have it do you want me to repeat what I have move to accept the polar shirt cocky pants belt colors to be chosen after we have some options all right that's the motion do I have a second second second discussion I think we should all the committee should vote for whether it's a short short uh polish shirt or a long sleeve shirt and we all agree to whatever we agreed on and then we move to the pens and then color the pant so that will be close because that's his recommendation so I have my own everyone so you're going to record every recommendation because we should vote on whether we want po shirt or we want long sleeve shirt and then we go to want pant and what color pant do we want to go with a c shirt that's that's what I think we because that's what it's going to determine the uniform and then obviously we agreed on the Belt part and with somebody else doesn't agree with the vot then we vote on that and then that's the finalize should be that should be presented to be voted to the uh to the U what's it called to the committee who proposed us this proposal so unless I'm wrong if I'm wrong please what's up Mrs okay so what real difference does it make so we we've agreed that there's a uniform correct correct what real difference does it make if you have a polo shirt which has a collar or a long sleeve shirt I think you have to give parents kids some options what difference does it make it has eliminated t-shirts that's that's key so there's no t-shirts there's polo shirts long sleeve shirt with a logo black aaki pants with a belt that's my proposal just uh knowing some kids work outside it's cool it gets colder the sweatshir could be part of that one fure oh of course I'm sorry I know I'm just saying yes yes they really want to look good they can buy those v-neck sweaters I mean give them some options if you want what you don't want why don't we tell them what we don't want no t-shirts no jeans I'm a business owner and I'm thinking again I'm trying to give the kids and I know we don't want to spend the whole night talking about one topic but what I pricture is the kids that they need to start thinking about dressing that problem um I do understand the weather changes and therefore maybe longly Shir in May June the last dates may not be what they want be wearing because it's a different story in the middle of the winter and again I don't want to get stuck to that but I want if you show up on my work looking for a job on on a on a on a polisher I mean 90% of of that maybe not because I don't think is is appropriate to go and that's what I want them to picture themselves to dress up to go for for potential interview if they choose to I mean to look apart but again I'm not going to make make it a big deal on a Polish shirt or long LEF shirt because they're going to end up needing a Polish shirt because of the weather as well so if you guys have the Polish shirt or long sleeve shirt as an option I'm I'm I'm good with that as well it's not like I'm stuck on no polish shirt you know what I mean I believe the polisher is going to be used in the time appropriate for for the web but then again I don't have a problem with a polisher once long Le shirt so if we all agreed on that we just vote on that and we'll go on the pants I mean when I first well I just want to simplify the motion uh give Clarity to the motion so all you making a motion is that we go to a polo shirt whether it be short sleeve or long sleeve depending on the weather and pans uh uh khaki pans and then once we've and belt once you've said okay to that we'll bring in different combination Colors by a vendor and you guys can decide the color because now you have a shirt and the pants we'll bring in the colors is what you had said basically is that the motion that you were making that's I mean it's pretty simple that's the motion any further discussion you want to read back the motion just soes yes move to accept the polo shirt cocky pants belt and belt colors to be chosen after some options are presented Mr Mercedes yes Mr tarox yes Miss Ferris yes Miss tisler yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mahia yes Mr ha yes all right beat that one [Music] Aviation update Mr it's going to be an easy one easy one right now uh far as Aviation is concerned in April the FAA is coming in to inspect our space uh the C they've gotten the curriculum and all other documentation they want they verify that they have that uh they're going through all that information and they come in April or before April they'll notify us if there's any changes needed uh when they come in April they just need to look at the space the equipment the airplanes all of that stuff uh the spaces that they're going to be inspecting is the new shop space over by the field which is completed it's equipped with equipment workbenches it's all completely done need some uh maybe space adj uh equipment moving around and adjusting and then the new building that's going to be done on February 28th is the targeted date right now that we should have occupancy permit right near that maybe beginning of March without the AR permit but we're supposed to be able to actually start to move stuff and even before February 28th looks like they're running pretty good I uh I was in there just uh about a week and a half ago uh it's moving along well uh they're B for the most part the outside building itself is pretty much close to done uh so that that's looking good and uh the uh space out at the uh airport The Hanger uh where having ACAC company go out and look at heat is the main thing we got to get in there Heating and uh bathroom facilities what we looking at portable bathroom facilities try to wait for a year then redesign instead of putting a loft in we're considering maybe put a small addition it might in the long run be cheaper to just to throw three two bathrooms in instead of doing a second floor so uh that's in in terms of FAA all they need is to heat in there and the facility which we'll have for them when they come in in April and uh once they come in they approve that they approve it then uh Department of it will come in shortly after that and then if they approve it ready to open in September it's looks very good at this point any questions on the aviation update uh what type of planes going to go in the new building uh the uh two uh a single prop plan and a two plane that we have that's out at the airport we have to transport them here by taking the Wings off and transporting them here those are two plane the jet will right now the plan is to keep the jet out of the airport in the hanger at the airport and the helicopter as well we may move the helicopter here depending on at least not the first year but depending on the curriculum and when they're needed will determine when they come to the school any else I would suggest Mr set a time for the school committee to take a viewing of the buildings yeah next school committee if you want to start a half hour early we can tour the buildings the the aviation buildings the cafeteria and the barn you can get an idea of where they all what they look like and um what stage of construction they're in so um that be we can do that if you want start a half hour 45 minutes a half hour is probably long enough to do a tour it'll be a little warmer hopefully by then if we late Tak can startop with us yeah all right budget update Mr L with the uh Governor's numbers so at this point we expect the governor's numbers to be here tomorrow uh and then what we'll do is once we have the numbers we'll look at what the uh allocations are to us and what we have in the budget see if we either have to make some Cuts or we're in good shape know what that looks like uh and if we need to start making Cuts go back to our existing budget that we put together we'll make that and then uh is it February we bring them the presentation so February U make pres give a presentation to everybody based on the budget so that's the next step is to wait for the Governor's numbers which we hoping to get tomorrow thank you next up the network breach update please include the website update all right so uh to give you an idea what actually happened is that uh The Intruders uh came in uh through our um sonic wall which is our um all that prevents uh Intruders from coming in so they come in and they check they check our our our um our all our opportunities to come in through the sonic wall through uh our WIP which allows different ways of coming in into the into the network system they find an opening and once they find that opening they're able to get through the sonic wall once they get through the sonic wall then they can penetrate Quality Service in the building and that's what happened they came in to that opening protection that wasn't one little spot in our uh system that wasn't protected once they found that they're able to go into all our service that's basically what happened um and so um at this point here we are waiting tomorrow we're meeting with a uh a IT company we're in the process of getting three quotes to get a network audit done uh which they'll uh audit our whole network system and then make recommendations to improve the quality of our uh security systems uh and uh give us a price on what we can what what has to be done and what kind of cost we're looking at to get that done uh right now we have one quote we're waiting for another quote from a company out of Alabama and we're looking for another another quote from uh Wall-E another company which we're meeting with tomorrow to talk about uh the U project itself and hopefully after tomorrow we'll be able to select the little bid or hopefully be the low bid but we'll we'll look at the three quotes and pick a a company to figure that' be uh high quality and also hopefully it'll be the low price that we get um we're looking for someone closer than Alabama but the company from Alabama I actually saw when I was out at uh last week at the conference uh has um highly recommended in that part of this uh country but doesn't do much work here but uh because of their recommendation I said let's get a quote from them and I I met with them last last week and then I met with them again this weekend on the phone to talk about the project itself so we're hoping to get three quotes uh to do that audit and then once that's done and then get to work on uh a lot of it's been upgraded already some of the servers have been upgraded but not a complete audit we believe we need a complete audit from a security company it security company that'll make Engineers that'll make sure we have the utmost secure network system we can have so we don't get into this issue again employes that have been affected what's that employees that have been infected uh so as far as employees letters uh I was told that letters were out are going out this week I'm not sure if anyone got it yet or not but they're getting they should be get everybody should be getting a letter this week which uh explains to uh the staff that their uh personal information was compromised and that they're receiving safety protection uh to uh help them cover prevent anyone from obtaining any uh use of their uh credit so uh they each will be getting what's called Life Lock for two years uh to uh oversee their credit and notify them if anyone attempts to utilize their credit in any way over the next two years um that's being paid for by the insurance company to cover all employees all the way back as far as 15 years any when that work for us who information might have been compromised uh they will get a letter and explaining that uh so everybody be covered is that website update I'm sorry do that go from the insurance companies that why they haven't from the attorneys the attorneys are supposed fir because I know well they hired a company that does this experience Experian yeah so yeah another company that does it no just but they get the information from the attorneys it's just that I've had several inquiries about about this yeah and I know that we've talked about it before and you keep saying that they're going out so I I didn't know where they originated from my well I they kept telling me it was going G to be out next week G to be out next week it wasn't out next week wasn't out next week but they now have all the information I feel pretty confident that it's going this week at least in my conversations both with the attorney we had a conversation both B and I had conversations with the attorney last week and she's was pretty convincing to me anyway that it was going to go up yeah they shared the actual letters that are going out they were looking for um approval and fin they had to wait till they collected all the information because there were previous employees as well um and then there are also different guidelines depending on the state that somebody's living in so I think that took number as well but we did actually see the letters yeah so there's about seven different states just has to go out and the regulations are different for every state so the letter had to be changed a little bit based on what the what state it was can we speak to the web design frienders can give you a little update on we so we are still working on it we do have the new um the new site uh but it's not up and running so it's um we basically migrated our old site over to this new format it's um final site which is basically the same company Blackboard has um now been acquired by final site so the format's all there but we still have to work on updating the content we don't want it to go live with old content um so a lot of work has been put in over the past year year and a half um with getting new content when we were working with another company um so some of the content is on that other website that we actually didn't launch and then we have a lot of information in the drive so the IT department uh we're going to be working closely with them to try to update as much of the content as we can as soon as possible um we may not have all of the information on there um prior to releasing it but we definitely want to have at least sort of the basics and make sure that what we do have is not outdated um so I really if I feel comfortable giving an exact launch date um I would hope it would be let me make you uncomfortable what do you think for when will we have our website up and I won't hold you to it I just we're not running down I'm GNA Hope by the end of February but again with like having to still add additional content um after it's up right yes absolutely and the um I guess the benefit I am not a website person um this is not my area but the benefit of um having final site and the reason we went with this Platform One of reasons is because it's supposed to be more user friendly and you don't need to have like one um specialized Web Master so different administrators can go in and update their own content if they need to as things come up and it's not all going through one person so it's supposed to be U more accessible and user friendly um and we do have a few few administrators now updating content on the previous site so that would be my hope but the one thing about uh different people putting together content that's going to go on the website different people can put together content that they want on the website but it still has to be cleared by one administrator which is going to be Brenda is going to approve anything that goes on the website she doesn't have to develop it or put it together she's just going to see the final product and say yeah that's okay to go or no that's not okay though so we don't have so we keep in in not only consistent with the language consistent in the way we want it to look and stay professional so we haven't had that kind of uh oversight in the past and we want to make sure the information is correct as well that's why it's going to work questioning on legis a date the legislative breakf going to be February 28th in the Four Winds Restaurant 8:30 a.m.

hello okay good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome to the second session of the public budget review um this evening's agenda will cover instructional expenses for special education services um curriculum overview Support Services maintenance and operations including capital budget so um at this time if you would please uh Miss jinsky roll call here here thank you can you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God and with liberty and justice for all if you can remain standing um I'm going to ask Dr Solen to give us some words for a moment in silence um good evening everybody uh over the weekend we learned of the passing of a member of the treasure High School class of 2025 her name is Adana Donovan she um unfortunately was diagnosed with cancer in September and uh fought valiantly throughout the school year here uh unfortunately succumbing to that illness um this past weekend um so it's obviously with a heavy heart that we start our meeting this evening but I'm going to ask you to join me and keeping Adana and her family in your thoughts this evening uh and prayer for their family thank you thank you okay I am going to um pass this over to Dr herrian Who will begin our budget review thanks for coming everyone one I assume you're all here to cheer on Robin an excellent uh as um as Sam said we are on our second uh public review public budget review session and uh I'm GNA pass it to Mr Mariana to get us started here he has all the Powerpoints so he's in charge thank you Dr harrian good evening welcome ladies and gentlemen uh yes so tonight we're going to just jump right in you know I do have a goal tonight to complete the presentation of the budget it's a little bit aggressive so the agenda for tonight I'm going to jump right in here it does include uh instructional expense there'll be a presentation by uh Robin an Cary on special education services Marlene Solano will present curriculum instruction and then we'll go through Support Services maintenance and operations and then uh Dr Solen will conclude the uh presentation of the workshops so just to um review and and highlight the budget assumptions that we have built into this 2526 budget includes a projection of net enrollment growth of 70 students we know that special education along with that en growth the needs are growing so in this budget which you'll hear a little bit more about tonight we are adding a uh 05 school counselor and two positions for speech and language pathologist assistance and then on the certified side for curriculum and instruction there's a Grade 9 through 12 s science and math coordinator and a K8 healthed District art wide teacher and a 05 t- Sal teacher we talked about medic IAL benefits at a meeting last week at length I do have some follow-up items that were questions that I'll be talking about in a minute and then an increase in our operations and maintenance budget which you'll be hearing more about so the assumptions obviously haven't changed the budget request is here as you see this year's budget request is 7.09% an increase of 6.35 million to the 95 million 892 631 that is the superintendent's recommendation so we're going to go backwards a little bit to respond to some of the questions that were asked at our meeting on the 14th uh this what you're seeing on the screen is a page from a report that Signum made in November it's called a total health Insight report this is combined for the town of chesher and the chesher Board of Ed and this is just one page of a you know very extensive report that gives us all types of statistics and Analysis on our medical claims and the spend that we had this is for the um 23 24 plan year so one of the questions that came up and you'll see that it's circled you know here on the top right is the average age of our um the people that are being served by our by our medical benefits and this is town and bard of Ed combined and you'll see that there's a total of 1814 members so that's not employees but that's also spouses and dependence and you'll see the average age is 36.2 years that Norm 39.7 is for similar size municipalities and Boards of Ed so we do skew younger I will tell you from the report that we received the previous year the average age was closer to 37 uh and the norm age was 40 so um our enroles are moving and trending towards a younger age so that was one of the questions that came up um the next question had to do with gop1 um Pharmacy prescription claims and um just coincidentally in the report that siga made to us in November they did highlight OIC which is one of the gop1 uh drugs there they are prescribed primarily to to treat diabetes although there is a a trend to move this class of drug to treat obesity which improves overall health you'll see in the next slide which is I'm not going to spend a lot of time on but the reason that this was highlighted by Sigma is that there was a significant increase in the number of prescriptions from last year to this year from 174 to 309 we had 26 enroles that were prescribed that drug last year it increased 42 in the current year so it's a 77.6% increase and here is uh the Highlight that that prescription drug is $872 71 so it is a high cost pharmaceutical and this is just OIC there are other drugs in this uh drug class but that is an increasing Trend that we've seen inside our medical claims and it's not surprising it's happening all across uh the country and this is I just put this in here just as a piece of information but you know siga does have a program um that's dedicated to address the demand and the growth for gop1 drugs um so the stats here I I thought were interesting and we're in 42% of adults in the United States are obese um because of that obesity the average claim is about $1,861 higher per year um and just a 5% weight loss can decrease the risk of chronic diseases related to obesity which includes diabetes so you know there is a you know Trend to prescribing this drug because it does help improve People's Health Health you know especially those that are in the obese category so that's just some some information that's above and beyond what was asked at our meeting last week the other question that came up had to do with our per pupil spending so we added some additional information this evening this is our durby right this is all the school districts in Connecticut with the same socioeconomic U factors um you see chesher here is on the you know lower end at 20,158 uh up at the top is reading with a per pupil expenditure of 28,000 again these are looking at it from a durg b perspective if we look at it and I believe this was part of the question that was asked if we look at it instead of by dur B if we look at it based on the enrollment of the school district so this is not just dur B this list is STO sorted by enrollment has treasure at students again this is as of 2324 um here has Darian at 4600 students nogat at table are within about a thousand students of chesher yeah so just eyeballing it it looks like the low is about New London at 3,100 and then on the upper end Milford 5300 but again if if it's sorted by PPE but these are all similar size enrollment Cheshire Trends towards the lower end you know based on that type of a of a view um and then kind of moving off a little bit from the uh per pupil expenditures you know one of the um other questions that came up had to do with you know budget and how we rank related to other school districts this is again dur B this is this year's actual budget for each of these districts so um chest's excuse me uh South wind's adopted budget was a 7.21% increase you see cheser is right in the middle of the pack at 535 and on the low end is New Town Public Schools so you know we rank right in the middle in terms of budget increase this year did you want to add something to that Jeff generally speaking the districts toward the top not surprisingly are those that are seeing more growing enrollment I think New Towns enrollment fell by 72 students or something last year so th those at the bottom are seeing a little bit of a decline in enrollment generally speaking and then this is really early data this is the districts that have reported superintendent recommended budget increases um in dur B so you could see there's probably about half of durg B is reporting their budget increases so far you know chesher is at 7.09 the average excluding chesher is 5.33 but there are districts that you know will continue to come in so you know I I would expect that all these districts are dealing with the same thing we are from the point of view that inflation has increased the cost of of everything we do and that includes wage inflation um but also Cheshire our enrollment is growing which is another Factor that's putting um you know requirement for us to increase our budget a bit further maybe than the other dir be districts that may not be growing um you'll notice that South Windsor is not on here South Windsor you know has been one of the fastest if not the fastest growing district from an enrollment point of view so we'll see you know what they look like when their numbers come in teacher contract to the other factor that we just settled our teacher contract that'll impact us next year where others may have already settled and aren't seeing the they saw the jump last year um where we're experiencing it for the first time this year okay so that wraps up the questions from last meeting we're going to just move right into instructional expense and again as in the past you know members of the Board of Ed if there are questions as we go along um just go ahead and fire away uh so this budget section that we're going to review next is instructional expense and instructional expense is our non-payroll instructional expense just to be clear obviously the cost of instruction and and salaries for administrators and teachers and other staff we covered that on at last week's Tuesday night meeting so our non-payroll instructional expense the budget request this year is 5455 million you could see from last year it represented 5.7% of the budget and the request for this new budget also was 5.7% of our budget in total uh 64% of this instructional expense line is for special education outplaced tuition for students who we cannot serve their needs within our district um or the cost of Consulting and related services that we provide to those students um when you get Beyond those two items 11% of the budget request or 11% of this this total budget line is for for instructional Supply another uh 8% or so is for textbook software curriculum and then new and replacement equipment is about 6% in total 300,000 and you could see the rest of of those lines are a smaller percentage of this particular budget line I'm going to just highlight this is a page right out of the budget book so just to highlight quickly the the larger dollar cost items um our outplaced tuition is expected to grow based on you know increasing enrollment in those students who we cannot serve in District and you know as Miss Carrie will point out we do a really good job in District of of keeping our students here if we could provide the services that we need and Dr Solen and I we're we're looking across a list of other districts today and you know on a relative basis we do have very few students out plac as compared to other districts of similar size so that's a good thing um the uh reason it that it needs to increase again has to do you know with the number of students and also the cost of those outplaced facilities um you'll see that the next largest increase is for our replacement and new equipment line we're requesting an increase from 18750 to 150,000 again we know that we need to you know invest more in in furniture and equipment in the schools that were you know um going to be keeping we know that in two years we have a couple of school buildings you know Chapman and Darcy in particular as well as Norton they're going offline but we believe that we've been a little bit short in in funding this budget line because of budget pressures the last couple of years so we'd like to increase those line items you know back up to the levels that they used to be the 150,000 so as a total increase request is 6.57% we're going to now start to focus our attention on special education costs what this um chart represents is the total special education cost including our teacher salaries our par Professionals for the 2425 this budget year the total cost for special education is 22.3 ion we're looking to increase that to about 23.3 million next year you'll see that the uh special education cost as a percentage of our budget is between 24 and 25% historically so that's not changing on a percentage basis for next year um and right here you could see that our growth as our enrollment has grown um our special education enrollment has grown actually more rapidly on a percentage basis than the general education population so um about 16.1% of our students next year are projected to be special education students and to give you some more detail about that I will ask Miss Carrie to come forward and present you ready Robin get you going here forward and that's the the little zapper zapper okay okay good evening uh I'm happy to be here tonight to present to you our special ed budget um it also gives me a great opportunity to highlight some of the wonderful things that we're doing in District and all the hard work that our staff has um been doing to support our students with special needs so I want to start off with just recapping some of the things that have happened in our um Department um some of the enhancements that we've had in our department since 2020 um most of you are aware that we added two intensive education classrooms at Norton school over the past two years those classrooms traditionally hold about eight students they work one to one majority of the students are on the autism spectrum and require that intensive support in order to make gains we have three classrooms at Highland School that were chalk full um and we really did need these um additional classes and it also allows those students to be uh closer to their neighborhood uh and their School of of their original School of origin um so we have a program on one on both sides of town um so we have the five elementary intensive Ed classrooms that feed into the dod classroom and then there are two classrooms at the high school and then we have our transition programs for our 18 to 22 year old students that all um address the needs of our more more intensive students we did add a speech pathologist in 22 um the majority of the funding for that speech path just comes out of the Ida grant our Ida Grant funds you most of those funds are something like 90% of the funds go towards salaries there's not a lot left over um to then you know add some additional things um because it is majority of it is dedicated towards salary and that was how we were able to add that speech pathologist in 20120 we added a halftime board certified Behavior Analysis you'll hear me refer to that as a b CBA um we had two in the district and with the growing numbers and the growing intensive population uh we really needed to increase the um increase the time of uh and adding that more time of a bcba in 20123 we adjusted some things at the high school and we implemented our new program called the Aspire program uh that program it has four special ed teachers dedicated to it of which each one covers uh a a a grade A grade level and then there's a full-time dedicated social worker that works with those students the Aspire program at the high school is really an extension of our bridges program if you've heard me speak of that before it's our therapeutic uh program that helps students that may be impacted by anxiety or by trauma they're having a very difficult time in functioning in a school setting and in some cases being in that classroom and so um we extended that into the high school with our Aspire program and we're seeing really great results from that um we did add a transition coordinator in 2023 that was required by state regulations we had to have a transition coordinator uh that had to be in place by last July we already put it in place knowing that we had a need there and she has been helping to support our students in the high school as well as in our transition programs and this year is shifting a little Focus down to DOD because we do need to provide transition services for students 14 and older that have um special needs and identified with a disability at the high school we expanded our integrated academic enrichment program this program is great for um allowing or helping our students with intense needs that need to practice their social skills um many of them have lots of interest in various topic and by being part of the integrated academic enrichment class they have that opportunity to work with um gened students and while also studying and participating in various tasks and various um activities around science topics social studies topics and things like that um and then we have our specialized transition programs uh we have our two programs um one located at the high school it's the Community Life program and the bridge to Life program which is located on the Q U campus the quinia campus um those programs really focus on building our students um employment skills and giving them opportunities to go out into the community and practice those employment skills um so that they may someday be uh once they leave us and they're being supported by DDS they can be in a supported employment um position um also we focus on our community Life program not just on building daily living skills uh but also working on um their Community skills so they spend a lot of time going out into the community visiting various um businesses practicing at restaurants working in some in some cases working or completing tasks in various businesses in town um so those are our two specialized transition programs and in those programs our students are 18 uh till 20 to 22 so would you believe if I told you that this is one of my favorite nights it might not look it on my face but it is one of my favorite nights because it's an opportunity for me to really um uh thank our staff our administrators our parents and um and our the people in our department um for all the hard work that they do because I wouldn't be talking about celebrations um if it wasn't for all the hard work that they do and so I just really like to this opportunity to be able to share in their accomplishments their accomplishments that they um you know are able to do every single day those small accomplishments getting someone to do something or to finally Master a skill or or even performance scale um independently um but these are some of the highlights that we have that are more on the bigger scale so both chesher high school and Highland were recognized nationally for the Unified sports program our DU little best buddies program was recognized as an outstanding chapter across the United States um and our ESA scores continue to be very impressive um we were 14th best overall espa performance in Connecticut for identified students and fourth best of all in our durg dur be so that's really uh exciting exciting news so for the past couple years um we have aligned our focus with the overarching district focus on complex learning and social emotional but we're looking at it through that special education lens um we started off really focusing on Executive function skills um and if you don't recall what those are um we're looking at those organization time management self-regulation attention and focus task initiation working memory flexible thinking and impulse control so all of those skills are very important to a student being successful and independent um we have also added um looking uh deeply at specially designed instruction um specially designed instruction is designed to Target specific skills that are identified as deficits so it's really honing in and targeting in on those skills that are preventing our students from being successful in the gened curriculum um we have also added to our Focus on increasing time with non-disabled peers and we're doing this very uh thoughtfully it's not just putting students into classrooms we know that doesn't work there's lots of things that um we have to look at in order to make that successful so we're targeting we're looking at those students with disabilities that typically we find they have average to above average intelligence uh average to above average cognitive skills and um we know that allowing those students to have access to the gened instruction and focusing on not modifying the curriculum or the tasks but placing more emphasis on accommodations and providing specialized instruction that's going to Target the gaps so part of the reason one of the big um pushes that we we've tried to help our staff to come along and understand is we don't want to modify the task we don't want to modify the um information that we're providing for students because when we then are asking them to perform on a state mandated test we haven't given them the tools or expose them to the skills that they need in order to be successful on them so what we have to do is look at what are the barriers that are getting in the way for them provide them with the appropriate accommodations um that they may need and then Target The Gap so that we can give them the skill to be independent in performing on those tasks we're actually already seeing some promising results in our benchmark assessments some of you may recall this uh slide that I took out uh basically the the saying or our Mantra I guess you would say um you can't teach a child to swim by taking them out of the pool and that's really something that's near and dear to us uh on how important it is for students to be able to have access uh in the gened setting okay so when we started looking at increasing time with non-disabled peers we all agreed that the majority of our students are average to above average cognitive abilities we all agreed that General Ed teachers are the experts in curriculum and that special education provides targeted specialized instruction to address the barriers that get in the way of learning and we all agreed that the important pieces we need as special Educators is that we need to address the gaps so students can master all standards so we started to ask ourselves some questions and we and we work a lot with staff in looking at these questions and developing our ideas and our strategies so what Universal supports and accommodations can be provided in the classroom what is specialized instruction who can provide it how much time is specialized instruction actually taking place and what accommodations can we use that are not person dependent so these questions have kind of helped guide us as we look at and develop our programs and develop our IEPs and look at um providing the necessary supports for our students these questions and these thoughts tap into the true me the true idea behind the special education law idea it was the law was never intent for us to take children out of the classroom and and move them into separate settings there are always going to be some students that need that but the majority of our students should not have to or require that type of intense um intense instruction or intense um taking them out of the gened setting for that instruction there are lots of ways we can support them okay challenges I you know I know we're all dealing with a lot of challenges um so some of them that are impacting Us in special education is the Staffing shortage um and I want to point out that the shortage I know we had a conversation at last week about Paras but we're not only shorten Paras we're also shorten certified staff um lots of districts currently are struggling with finding certified staff um to fill their open positions we're fortunate no we still have a position that's wide open since September um have not been able to find um a a a a candidate for that position um but I think that one of the things that I'm F we're finding is that there isn't a pool of people to choose from there's a puddle and we're all vying for the people coming out of that puddle and so you have some staff that is moving from one District to another in some cases we've lost staff because they're moving closer to home they've been traveling for a time now for 45 minutes to an hour to come to chure and something has opened up closer to home and they for their families they've made those choices um since 2020 as pointed out in Vinnie's slide just a few minutes ago we have seen an increase of about 150 more students with IEPs um so we've gone from 12.7% in 2020 to around 16% of our student population is students with IEPs we've seen an increase in the volume of students that U requiring 504 plans um that is around 10% of our population has a 504 plan we're seeing that increase in the outof district um not necessarily so much the number of students cuz we've varied we've hovered around 20 but the cost of that program has gone up tremendously and the trends that we're seeing are any different than any of the other districts in the state it's taking us much longer to find staff um and so you know you know it's a it's difficult to then try to meet the needs of the students we're we're filling in with subs or we're shifting case loads um but hopefully those positions will all be filled we're seeing an increase in student needs so as I said about 16% of our students have IEPs um and part of why that number may have gone up along with the fact that we have more General Ed population so we're going to have more special ed population it's growing around the same rate but in July 1 of 2023 the new regulation came out that we now had to educate our students up through the age of 22 so prior to that once a student turned 21 they were a they were then um they then left the district they were wed their their diploma and they went into um Adult Services then they changed the the age to 22 and as soon as that child turned 22 on their 22nd birthday they would then exit the program and then they changed it that no they're going to stay for the remainder of the Year and that starts in July so if they turn 22 in the month of July they are entitled to another full year of Education transition Services if they turn 22 in May then they're done on the last day of school so that impacts Us in the numbers of students that are still under our umbrella and that we're still providing services so that may contribute to some of that increase as I said earlier 10% of our students have 504 plans and H because 504 is a gen a general education plan that supports students with accommodations there are times though that the recommendation may be that the student receives a support service like counseling and um there are uh students who have 504 plans that have counseling and some may even have like OT on their 504 plan um so now our special eded staff our support service staff is providing Services providing that counseling piece um so it does have an impact on on the department about 4% of our students are in out of District placements um as I said that usually hovers around 1920 students but um the average cost has risen to about $122,000 plus ,000 per placement um and the transportation is another $ 37 plus, thousand um for that student um we have also we are seeing an increase in students at the prek level so students are coming in with needs um from birth to three which we've always received students from birth to three but what we're also seeing is that our students that are coming in as our role models our peer models at some point during the course of the Year may be identified as a student in need of special services and so what we are seeing is that tipping uh in the classroom of we're not 50/50% which is what we ideally would like to see 50 % Role Models 50% students with um IEPs but we're now seeing an increase in the students because they're getting identified or referred during that prek year um we are also seeing an increase in the types of needs of those students um recently I had to contract for um consult consult services for a teacher the deaf because we have we're see seeing a growing population of students with cular air implants and needing that teacher of the deaf in direct instruction and also um working with the students and their their equipment so based on all of this we're requesting a0 five school counselor um as was discussed previously this school counselor is currently in place it was put into place two years ago through the ARP funds and through the me um through the ARP mental health grant that Grant expires in June of 26 so the first two years it covered 80% of the cost of the counselor and now this coming year it'll drop to 50% so that's why I'm looking for a 05 school counselor to supplement those funds don't be surprised when you see that in there next year okay so um and it's really important for us to hold on to that position because first of all the size uh with the size of dood dittle and how it's growing um there is a definite need for school counselor there the additional school counselor to help with that classroom instruction so the school counselors go into the classroom they develop they present that developmental um uh curriculum um to each classroom and um various units they also provide IEP counseling they also may be providing 504 counseling um they take in small groups whether you have a IEP 504 or not you can still be part of a small group if there is an identified need um they complete risk assessments so if our students are um vocal uh verbalizing um concerning remarks or or engaging in concerning actions then we want to be able to pull the student in to do a risk assessment to make sure that that they are safe um and also to share out that information with parents and they are also there to consult with parents and with gened teachers um in help and again helping to support those students so it it they this year they've engaged in um revising some of our our um assessments that we've been using using for those risk assessments and um an additional training in conducting those the other uh request is for the speech and language Assistance or slpas as I mentioned last week when we were getting some questions around this so an slpa is a person who is in the midst of studying to become a full bone speech path pathologist you have to have a m a bachelor and master's degree in order to be a speech and language pathologist a speech and language assistant may only have the bachelor's degree but they're working in many cases they're working towards that master's degree so they are able to provide small group instruction under the supervision of the speech and language pathologist they're able to push in Services into the classroom and they're able to um support the speech and language pathologist so that that pathologist can then focus on assessing students writing IEP goals and objectives attending ppts without sacrificing the time in missing their students for their direct instruction so that's what we're looking for those slps to do is provide that instruction when the SLP is not available majority of our students that come in with i that have IEPs also have speech and language needs um on so they many of them still require that we have 10 full-time school um speech and language Pathologists in the district right now um and some of them are shared amongst buildings based on the numbers of students requiring that um support service in their IEP um having the two speech and language assistance will allow us to place one part-time at my plan is to Place one at dittle part-time so that our Darcy speech pathologist that is helping doitt will be able to focus on Darcy we'll have two full-time speech pathologists at Darcy um then um the other one oh the other half of that person's day or week would be at Norton school when we added the two um intensive Ed programs of which many of those students get an hour week of speech and language Services we didn't add any speech time and so we are in need of having a speech pathologist assistant at least halftime there the other full-time speech and language pathology uh assistant would be at Highland school because I don't have to tell you about Highland you already know what's going on there very very large population um you know part of my other reasoning for looking at a speech and language assistant is that we know that speech and language pathology just are really difficult to find um it's been a shortage for quite a while um I think that if we can tap into these very talented um uh assistants who have training in in communication disorders um and in in the process of getting their master's degree um I think that um it would really benefit and be able us to kind of spread some of those um those people out a little bit um to help our speech and language Pathologists we're seeing a a very huge increase in use of what we call AAC devices those are augmented communication devices so most of our students use an iPad it takes a lot of time for that speech and language pathology to program add new vocabulary in there train people on using it train the student help the student um make progress on that um so with that increase of AAC devices um there absolutely is a need for more support and then I'll go back to our students with hearring impairments um they have lots of equipment that they use FM systems sound systems some have cular air implants that do need some monitoring um hearing aids a lot of This falls on the speech and language pathologist and so when you're seeing an increase in that number in that intensive population um it's it's really um impacting our um Pathologists okay there's one other need that I is not in the budget but I thought I would mention it our community Life program spends a lot of time out in the community um they currently they go out at least once a day you might see the van driving around town and then see a group of kids and adults getting out of the van um they do go into town to the various businesses and the various entertainment um recreational places um to meet their goals in the areas of employment training and living skills it also is to enhance their social skills and their generation generalization of these skills to other settings um currently they're using a 2016 Ford that seats 10 passengers um we were looking hoping to add a um at some point a Vian that seats 12 to 15 uh persons right now some of our Paras travel to the site they're not on the van with the students because we have we're full of students on the van um this will service our 18 to 20 year olds 18 to 22 year old students and then um the 2016 Ford would be re what I would say recycled and used within the district if we have a replacement van so I mention that because I think it's something that if we can um find a way to fit that into our budget once the numbers all tease out it is something that I think will enhance our programming so that's my presentation do you have any questions for me okay so my first question actually might be for you Jeff uh and this might just be a rhetorical question right now but uh you had mentioned the idea funding and I was thinking about Federal funding and the potential for the Department of Education to just get eliminated fund to get cut so just to um I don't think we've gotten that I mentioned it but I don't think we've gotten that information from you have you sent that out it's fine if you haven't it's just it's just a placeholder as a reminder like what money do knowledge it wasn't one of the executive orders that was signed uh to my knowledge defunding idea or anything like that wasn't one of the executive orders signed on the first day so um I mean I know that the legislature is aware of that in artford and cognizant of what those ramifications might mean mean for Connecticut and other states yeah I guess I guess my question is just at some point if you could tell us what the total dollars are we got for federal funding this year that's in the uh budget book under Revenue yeah right on the revenue page is one of the grants of budget b 93 state federal grants so for uh estimated 256 Ida would be $1 million yeah it's a significant amount of money yeah but that's there's there's other F there's other funding Federal funding sources Beyond idea right but that's by far the biggest gr the others are much smaller than that and I will tell you that the federal government would eliminate idea you know while the impact of ches is a million it would crush get a lot more money than and that's a Federal grant that the state it's passed through the state so every school system in America for the mo nearly every school system in America would be substantially impacted by that decision yeah and I'm not putting anything out of the realm of possibility right now right so anyway that was but all the all the grants that we have are in that Grant section of the back of the book on page one there it's got the history from 2016 to projected for next year thank you um oh so you had mentioned you were talking about how the age for students had increased over the course of a couple years with the dates changing I'm just curious you also mentioned Adult Services yes who funds Adult Services is that TR Public Schools or state no that would be the state okay so that's like um DDS and BRS um and I'm I'm sorry about the acronyms the Bureau of Rehabilitation Services and the Department of Developmental Services um so our students that might have intellectual disabilities or on or on the autism spectrum would qualify for services um through DDS and many of them and then many of uh our students that um require more support in the employment looking at more like employment would BRS would be an area that would um support them but parents have to apply for that and we do a very very good job of I think of um educating our parents on how to access those funds we actually just um just put up our transition page if you on the website that highlights um what the law says and then what are some resources there that um are helpful for parents in being able to access um those Services once they leave us and we also um Jessica mbaka our transition coordinator um has been putting on um parent information nights where we've had um those Adult Services come in um and have we've had um an agency Fair where parents could come in and speak to various agencies that provide Adult Services across the state we've had um attorneys come in and speak about how they can um set up trust funds for their children um and um and any kind of other legal um advice that they might need um so we're we're doing what we can to help ease that transition into the Adult Services thank you thank you for that I am you just were talking about it you know moving from Adult Services out of a state budget into the CPS budget I'm just curious would if that was a choice that you were making is that a choice that you would have made over the last couple years to be moving it from the state budget to the town budget you mean like the age changing the age so that services that are provided by you versus provided by the state because I'm a little cynical and I'm thinking oh let's just reduce the state funding and ship this over to the town I'm but I don't know that that's the case that's why I'm asking you from a professional perspective is that a choice that you would have made take the budgetary impact out of it I I I'm hoping I'm understanding what you're asking um but um I think that chure provides phenomenal services for our students and I think you know um that when parents do move into Adult Services because they don't have a choice but it they students leave us at some point um they um find it difficult first of all to maneuver through that process it's a it's a very cumbersome process it's um it's new to them so that makes it difficult um and um and I think that you know they experience some frustrations in finding just the right fit of a program and um they may find a program they really like and then find out it's not available because it's full so and I think when they CH in my opinion when they change the um exit date to for everybody to be on the last day of school now you've got a pool of people all trying inv vying for placements at the same time whereas before it was kind of staggered so you turned 21 you turned 21 you went to Adult Services if my birthday was in December December 15th I was in Adult Services December 16th if everything was in place for me whereas now everybody goes in June okay thank you thank you um and two other points that I think are um kind of related that I've I've asked about in the past which is um the percent is increasing and I'm wondering why is it you've said in the last couple years you said better identification special but so I'm just speaking generally about about that and then also in general about kids moving in and out so is this just you know a continuous increase with kids moving in or there kids who are moving out of special ed services I didn't hear you mention anything about that tonight well yes we do have students that um exit from special ed okay um and but I think that um we always start lower in October okay so like when we Comm in in October we've had our now our seniors have graduated our students that have reached 22 have left there may have been students over across of the school year that have mastered their goals and objectives that no longer qualify for special ed services and are exited we come in we do a count in no we're required to do an October 1st count by the end of the year that count has increased because now there are additional students being identified additional students moving into the district um so there's various reasons but you also you also do have kids who move out of the move out of special ed on a regular basis throughout the year and yes we do have students that exit what is I'm curious what's the what's the percent of kids who exit and I'm just saying real generally just a guess I I I think that's really hard to say okay I think I I really um I mean you said you have you have what the numbers in my mind we've got 4,500 kids in the school system right now give or take and you said I thought you said we have about 500 kids with IEPs which is the broader number the more expens 600 600 plus so of of those 600 kids would it be like two or three or a few dozen a hundred and just a sort of a general number like across years um well we always lose you're going to lose that graduating class which is typically Mar could probably help me out in this 4550 students graduate that have IEPs typically yeah and then we we can lose anywhere uh we can graduate anywhere from 1 to five in our transition programs it varies year to year um and then students exiting um because they've mastered their goals and objectives um you know typically we see they might start out with uh more intense services and then we okay start to reduce those Services as we see them become more independent and then um and then it's a matter of whether they're able to meet meet standards whether they're they're scoring in the average range they might still have a disability but they're not showing that Gap yep so then we're able to then then they don't need the specialized instruction anymore and we're able to exit them um I don't know how many that would be a year our supervisors attend most of the ppts and so to our um administrators our building administrators principles thank you yeah no and I appreciate you explaining the part about how it's not necessarily exiting but reducing reduction yeah for some disabilities um we may get there or some cases where a student might no longer requireed specialized instructions so they don't need the IEP but they move to a 504 because there's still a disability that's impacting them but they just need accommodations which they can get through a 50 plan thank you okay I that hope that was clear as mud no I I think I I I got out of it what I was hoping to get out of it thank you okay any other questions um you had mentioned about obviously the need to have our students with disabilities mainstreamed or in the gened as much as possible would you know out of the 16% and if you don't you can just let me know what percentage spends more than 50% of their day in special ed that is a very good question and I try to look that up because um it's really important because that's our Focus that's one of our focuses to increase that um I wasn't able to find any updated numbers but what I did um what I what did um happen was recently in the springtime uh the supervisors Marie and Christina and I were at a um workshop and we were um identif ified as one of the districts that was um recognized as increasing their time with non-disabled peers so it is something that I need to dig deeper see if I can get those numbers um what's on the website right now only goes up to 2023 he just pulled it up did he pull it up it's old though yeah it's 234 and it's uh you asked for more than 50% the state identifies the percentage 79 spending 79% or more time with non-disabled peers for all disability counts the um prevalence is 66% of students do that's that's the Statewide average uh the chesher average is was around 6667 I think for the 234 school year uh is 65.9 y so when that came through and we saw that the state average was 66 and we were at what 63 65.9 65 just below we didn't like that so so that's when we shifted and added that time with non-disabled Focus the pool yeah exactly learn how to swim by being in the pool exactly um and uh so um you know really looking at all of of those you know factors and and how can we support them in the classroom what is it that we need to change about our practice so that we can increase that not a lot yeah I'm good thank you yep Mr good evening hi um so to start um the uh five uh councelor dittle that is a cost recovery of a current position that is a position that's being supplemented right uh by a grant and that Grant will expire next so next year so ramping down it's right it's ramping down so next year it'll be 50% and that's what that's what's in this Bud that 0.

so when you see the cars here don't think wow we did a masterful job of soliciting the community to come out and speak on the budget they may just be here for open house so not open house but parent conferences anyway with that that's that's it for me I don't know if there are any questions now that people want to raise no but thank you Dr soly think you know you pretty much outlined it if if four members could please um provide the additional questions that you may have in advance of Thursday um that would help to at least hopefully um allow us to come to some sort of consensus is on Thursday on the budget um and if you can get us the response in return um I think one of the lingering questions that always gets asked is and I apologize if it was asked on the last session is the retirement projections Dr Sol um if there's any indication of retirements early on I know we have to meet that April deadline as well so yeah the history the history is available in our budget book but um to date I'm not really aware of any nobody's like formally sent me a letter uh indicating that they were going to retire at the conclusion of this year we did have uh retirement already so I mean we'll we'll calculate that in and and certainly share any information we have great any question no thank you everybody for staying past 10 o'clock um and hopefully we will see you on Thursday like Dr senen said at 7 pm right here um and again I want to reiterate you know I I think we're all well versed in this process having um been on the board for a few years here um and congratulations Miss Taylor for going through your first year with us here so thank you for your work as well um and with that I would like a motion to adjourn if at all possible Mr White Mr gripple all in favor of adjournment unanimous thank you everybody have a good night

at Camp over verie high school students from elementary and junior high schools will gather to see who is the best speller this annual event is always very competitive and I wish all the participants the best of luck we look forward to seeing who will represent GPS in the regional spelling be comp competition Junior High orch uh honor Orchestra so this past Saturday I had the pleasure along with some other board members of attending the annual District junior high honor Orchestra performance students tried out and were selected for this honor and they truly represented all the great things about our GPS music programs they get together at 600 p.m. the Friday evening before the actual um concert and that is the very first time that they get to see each other and actually play together and they practice for a couple hours they come back the next day and continue practicing and get ready for that 2PM performance and when you hear them and they get together um it is it's truly unbelievable how well they gel and how well they play and they sounded phenomenal so um if you don't get the chance to to go see those it's every year right around the same time please check it out and again thank you to the governing board members that were able to attend uh tomorrow night everybody in here's got a job because I know most of you but if you don't and those online we have a job fair tomorrow night at Gilbert High School from 4:00 to 6: p.m.

tomorrow afternoon and we will definitely give you some great consideration to become part of our team so and thank you to otm for putting that all together all of our schools will be represented uh represented there and the principles and we'll we'll get ready to sign people up isn't that right Mr Macintosh correct I love it when you talk so much at a board meeting next we have a very special honor uh governing board member Jill humph has been chosen to receive the Arizona music educators associ assciation Raymond g van award at the upcoming AA Conference this award named for the longtime music consultant to the Arizona Department of Education is presented to someone outside of the music education profession for Extraordinary efforts made in the area of advocacy so that will be held uh Friday the 31st at 115 in Mesa at the Mesa Civic Center and Jill will be awarded then so congratulations to you Jill we're very happy for you and I know you definitely deserve that recognition so thank you well thank you I just want to say that's what started my journey for um Public School advocacy is getting involved in understanding the music program well we have phenomenal programs and I'm glad that um so many people enjoy it and I'm glad that you recognized because you show up and you support them as often as you can um on a on a Saturn note as you heard Miss Murray talk about a couple people to be remembered I want to talk about them uh briefly this past weekend we also experienced the loss of one of our students uh Ariel Thomas who was a third grader at Patterson Elementary she had been battling aplastic anemia and sadly on Saturday the battle came to an end uh we want to express our condolences for AR's family teachers support staff and friends please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers I know they will be putting out service information uh once that's available so uh please keep their family in your hearts additionally Gilbert public schools in the town of Gilbert lost one of the most amazing human beings to walk this planet and that is Dr Walter Dei Dr Dei passed away early Monday morning after spending a few days in the hospital Dr Dei came to GPS in 1978 as an assistant superintendent 3 years later he was named superintendent of Gilbert Public Schools he served as superintendent from 1981 to 2001 um leading the district through its most remarkable growth and successfully opening 20 plus schools in the Gilbert and Mesa areas in those 20 years in his years as superintendent and ever since Dr Dei positively influenced the district culture and students academic achievements in immeasurable ways always putting people first he'll be greatly missed and always remembered do Dr Dei represents everything that is great about Gilbert public schools there never has been or will be a better and more beloved superintendent than Wall-E he was the pride of GPS in the town of Gilbert and a dear friend that I love tremendously and we lost an icon that will never be matched so please keep his family and friends in your thoughts and prayers as they navigate this difficult time uh again we will very close to having Services Arrangements uh completed for for him and once that is out we will publish those so please be on the lookout for that Mr Thompson that is my report for this evening thank you thank you Dr McCord thank you for your words uh in regards to uh Dr deluy and also R Thomas thank you thank you uh moving on to agenda item number five request of the speak to the request to speak to the governing board which we don't have any this evening but I do want to mention that we received two comments online and we want to thank those uh folks for uh taking the time to do that and address the board so we will move on to agenda item number six uh 6.01 fiscal year 2024 annual comprehensive financial report Dr McCord thank you Mr President board members if you'll notice Miss Betts will be going down to the Podium to present the AER um and um she'll do a tremendous job but uh thank you Bonnie again I think it's working okay good just take just took a little while okay so good evening um president Thompson governing board members Dr McCord um this is our annual um report on how we did a year ago so we're talking about school year 23 24 and the financial results associated with 23 24 so um as we go through this you did know that it does say it's the draft annual comprehensive report and we did post a draft of the entire report um for you last Friday I want you to know that we're just finalizing typographical errors but the substance and the the financial statements are all complete and if we find something that is not um we will bring it back to you for your acceptance so we are asking for you to accept it at the end of the board meeting tonight during the action items okay okay good so just to begin uh this is what we're going to talk about today the audit process and results uh fiscal year 24 government-wide financials the governmental and proprietary fund financials other funds and then a few items to note so to begin I wanted to hand over the podium to um Miss Jennifer Shields from hfield meech and they are our external Auditors and she will share um information about the audit process and the results good evening um president Thompson Dr McCord governing board members um thank you for allowing me a few minutes to speak with you tonight I know um a few of you on the dis are um newer board members so this will be a little bit of an education session for you this evening um but I'm here just I don't have slides this time around um perhaps When I visit with you next time I might bring some slides but um my um my job is to um just present information to you from perspective as external Auditors so the way the audit process works is we are um contracted we go through the procurement process the district does you know an RFP and all of that kind of stuff so we are in fact um contracted to perform the audit Services every year um I don't know what year of the contract we're in but um we have worked with the district for quite a number of years and so the way the audit process begins is each year we start with an engagement letter so for your District that occurs usually in the spring sometime so usually in about the April time frame we issue an engagement letter and then that allows us to start performing audit procedures and we do in fact perform audit procedures from April all the way up until essentially right now when we are out here giving this report to um you all so the um the audit procedures are per performed in a series of events so some of our visits um are what we call remote visits where we work with um the business office and they kind of coordinate getting us a lot of information electronically through a secure portal that type of thing and um we perform some of those audit procedures remotely not on site and then other procedures we do come on site and perform those here so when we are on site you'll see us kind of running around the district as well as at your school sites there's a number of different um departments that we interact with um the business office is of course the largest um take the largest lift of coordinating all of the audit um there are some very specific things that as the independent Auditors that we communicate to you all you are in our world you are those charged with governance that's the sort of the terminology that we use in our world um and I'm going to go through some of those right now one um some of those involve going over the timeline which I went over with you um it's reporting whether or not we had any significant deficien I'm sorry significant difficulties that we encountered with Management in um the performance of our audit procedure procedures there's a lot of procedures um we I'm happy to report that we actually did not have any difficulties with Management in the performance of those procedures there were no significant audit adjustments that were required to be reported in order to get these financial statements in this draft um format that is before you this evening we also had no disagreements with management about accounting practices or principles so no disagreements and then of course as you're internal or I'm sorry as your external Auditors we are required to follow our um Professional Standards which require us to follow um various ethical responsibilities and to maintain our independence and we had no violations of any of those things on our side um in terms of the financial statements um Miss bets is going to go through them with you um I'm here also to answer any questions that she may have one of the services that our firm provides is it's actually not it's wrapped up with the audit but it's technically a non- audit service and that's the compilation of the report so what we do is we take um essentially all of the accounting records that are coming out of the district's Erp system and we make adjustments to convert um the the cash basis records into to both acrel and modified acral which again um Bonnie will go go through some of those adjustments with you and and kind of how you get from essentially the reports that you're used to seeing every month as a board member how you get from those reports into this um particular fashion so um when it comes to Preparing the financial statements um in the manner that's required by generally accepted accounting principles there are always estimates that occur with in the financial statements and so that that remains true with Gilbert Public Schools as well there are probably three main estimates um that have to do with your Capital assets generally in terms of depreciation expense so how long we expect to use our assets for there are um some estimates as they recur um as they relate to um what's called incurred but not reported expenses for claims which in your case is really like medical um claims for your self Insurance Fund so that is an estimate of how much we expect to have as a liability for future claims and then also um and I believe bnny will talk about it a little bit as well but there are um estimates as relate to um pensions so every District employee participates in Arizona State Retirement System Pension Plan and the pension information goes into this draft financials and ultimately it contains a lot of um estimates that are actuarially based that happen over at asrs um so there are some estimates while they are significant in terms of um dollar amounts perhaps um we we don't don't have any concerns with the application of the estimates um and then I think that concludes I like I said I will be coming back there's another part of the audit um that is not yet completed we're still working on that um and it relates to it's What's called the single audit and so it um it covers uh like the federal portion of the audit um probably one thing I should mention about the actual financial statements that are before you tonight although they are in draft form we have complete um completed enough of our procedures that we are expecting to issue an unmodified opinion so that's that's what we like to hear um you know it's called the clean opin it's a clean opinion but it's technically called unmodified so that is what we expect to issue when this report is issued um and I believe we're targeting for about you know in the next probably four or 5 days to finish up with all those typographical type double checks make sure all the eyes are dotted and the t's are crossed so with that um I will turn it back over to Bonnie but I will be here if or I can take any questions if you have questions now all right thank you thank you I was afraid she wasn't going to let us know what the audit audit opinion was okay um so to move on into the financial statements so first I wanted to share with you uh the government-wide financial so this is the highest level of how we report out to you and you're only going to see these one time a year because generally speaking when we present to you monthly we're showing budget to actuals which is really more of that cash basis that um Miss Shields mentioned so in this particular case this is what we would call a full acral so all of those adjusting entries that Miss Shields talk talked about are all within the government-wide financials the most important thing about the government-wide financials is it gives an indicator as to the financial stability and the status of Gilbert as a financial institution as it relates to our bond buyers and anyone who gives us a a credit rating and all those types of things so it does give the reader an idea of how we're doing so to share this is our government-wide net position so you can see year-over-year from 2023 to 2024 we've actually gained in net position by $28 million which is really good news so generally speaking um this net position indicates that if we have spent some money and so we've drawn down cash we've put it into say a capital asset which has increased its value and so therefore it's actually posted to the government wide the note that that we have at the bottom there um that ending uh net position of $45 million that is net of a six about a $ 61.3 million negative restricted um fund balance and that's a very odd thing that we have a negative fund balance but that's related directly to our Arizona State Retirement net pension liability and that liability only appears at the government-wide level so if we did not have that net pension liability we would not have that negative $61 million restricted fund balance so to get into a little bit more about that so this is our Arizona State Retirement and this is that net pension liability that Jennifer mentioned and I'm sharing with you now you can see that year-over-year our net pension liability has increased by about $2 million from 276 million up to 278 when this was first required back in 2012 all of us as Finance professionals throughout the nation were very upset by it because it's not really our liability G Public Schools does not own that $278 million that we have to pay Arizona State Retirement owns it gasby the government Accounting Standards Board really wanted to make sure though that the public knew the shape that our Arizona State Retirement Systems not Arizona but all State Retirement systems were in and so they needed to have something posted at the highest level at all the school districts and other municipalities throughout the nation so I don't want you to get confused that we're going to owe $278 million we don't this is the only point this only this is the only place in which it will appear throughout this entire financial report okay so before I go on are there any questions about that yes this just a requirement I do have a question um so when we're talking about the net pension liability this is taking um the people in our district who are working for our district and then figuring out in the future how much they might um draw a pension how how you know estimating how long people will live and how long they would draw a pension and that's what makes our liability and makes it such a large number that's an estimate act actuarially determined by Arizona State Retirement staff members um but it's not just Gilbert Public Schools it's all of the school districts in Arizona and our proportionate share is based upon our annual contribution so it's likely that our net pension liability went up because our contribution went up year-over-year leading to that increase in that net net pension liability right before or right after that table you can see that there is a sens a sensitivity analysis that that um our Auditors complete for us and you can see that that so much of the net pension liability is about the interest earnings that the Arizona State retirement fund can earn so generally speaking this actuary Actuarial determined number is based upon a current discount rate of 7% so expecting a 7% return on your investment if this was decreased by just 1% you can see that our net liability would go up gosh $140 million so significantly but conver verely if the discount rate went up by 1% our net pension liability would be sizeably decreased so it's very much dependent upon what is expect what the expected return on investment that these retirement uh pension systems are are going to get okay so also at the government wide sorry about that also at the government wide this is where we do a functional spend analysis and these are the numbers I'm going to show you a p here shortly but I wanted to to show you the numbers because between 23 and 24 we increased instruction spend this is directly in the classroom by over $18 million either in salary increases um later you'll you'll have um Len and Crystal talk about the implementation of the math uh and math adoption so um over $8 million was spent on the math adoption in 2024 all that is direct and construction expense uh same thing there's a little bit of an increase in Support Services students and staff that's generally um probably due to Arizona State Retirement and um our pay increases that were awarded last year and then finally one thing I wanted to point out and we'll talk a little bit more about this later but if you look at Support Services Administration you can see that there is a $9 million increase on support service Administration so that's your executive support that's all of you the superintendent's office all of the superintendent leadership team um so that is the the highest level Administration but it also includes all of our principles Etc at our schools but we had this Quasar uh judgment that was passed down to US during 2024 which was a judgment where um somebody basically sued the county assessor's office and said you overstated the value of my property and so that was back since I think 20 5 to 2022 so our proportionate share of that is just under $6 million which is part of that 9 million we were obligated to post that at the highest level now we're at the government wide we were required to post that here in this particular functional spend analysis so I wanted to make sure that that was clear with everyone okay yes sir why does that fall under Administration versus reflected somewhere else and I I think it's just because because it's it's not even a spend really we we had to well it's a spend but we didn't decrease our budget capacity um for it I I don't really know the answer to that but let me ask Jennifer maybe she can help us with that oh it's based upon the usfi chart of accounts so that's where any judgments like this have to be accounted for is under that 2300 function okay okay thank you okay so miss that'ss the the 6 million or so that was uh the Judgment in this lawsuit so you're saying so Gilbert Public Schools isn't responsible for the entire amount that's you're saying that's spread out between across the state or that is just Gilbert Public Schools that's just Gilbert Public Schools however as part of the legislation uh part of the legislative session last year um they required that the department of Ed recalculate the state aid calculation because that means also that state aid was under under allocated in all those years so right now we're expecting that of that up roughly $6 million that we're going to get back about four from the state of Arizona so the actual liability is just over a million doll for us but it's ours it's truly govern Public Schools not related to any other and this is specific to Maricopa County okay and when we receive 4 million or so of those funds back where will that go it's going to go into cash so right now we have a situation in in our maintenance and operations fund where if we are earning interest we're not allowed to spend it so it just grows and we don't have any spending Authority on that so because we had what we call excess cash we were able to easily let them take that $5 million or $6 million we didn't have to incur any debt service charges or anything with the county treasur measure they we had the cash available and they just took it but it did not impact our budget capacity or our budget limits that we are able to spend to it's a strange thing in Arizona thank you okay great so this is the expenses by function year-over-year comparison so you can see if you look at the big blue um piece of the pie it's a 57% and 57% so that is in in instru spend Jackie and I like to share this uh this graph because it gives us um an indicator of how our district spending report will come out so last year our instructional spend was 57% when the district spending report came out it ended up to be 58.7% it's not the same basis of how they're looking at it the the auditor general takes are are are spend on more of a cash basis not on this a cruel basis um but because we are at least at the same at the 57% we're expecting our district spending report will also be very favorable for go public schools and we plan on sharing that with you late March early April I think yeah okay okay any questions on that great okay the governmental fund financials so now we're going to take a step back and we're going to do a modified acrel treatment and again you're never going to hear me say these words again again throughout the remainder of the year until next year when we're presenting to you so it's very it's very different than how we normally present so governmental balance sheet these funds included in here are general fund federal and state grants Debt Service Bond building non- major governmental so if you look at these funding groupings we try to do that in our monthly report so that we're kind of um uh estimating what our AC for presentation might look like when we group them in the way that we do when we share the monthly report with you and then internal service funds the employee benefit trust is the largest there's about 28 $29 Million worth of activity in there annually so it's a very large internal service fund and then District services like The Print Shop there's a technology component and one other little component that I forgety just Tech mostly technology so internal service funds if you the reason that they're separated out we don't want to duplicate the to spend so as an example in maintenance operations our general fund we're putting premium we're we're charging premium benefits to both GT Public Schools as well as premiums to employees that becomes a revenue for the employee benefit trust and it doesn't matter what fund it comes out of it just kind of goes out of payroll and it's charged to the fund in which those employees are working and then it goes into the employee benefit trust as cash and that's our funding source so if we duplicated it you know we would be we'd be duplicating 30 $30 million of of activity every year so that's why it's an internal service fund so to go to the next uh summary so this is our balance sheet the governmental funds balance sheet in in in whole so all those funds are included within this summary but note at the bottom the fund balance you can see that the fund balance was drawn down year-over-year I just shared with you that the net position went up by $28 million but now you can see that when you look at the governmental fund summary we've actually drawn down fund balance so the largest component of that draw down and fund balance was the bond fund so we spent over $22 million out of the bond fund to put back into our facilities so that $22 million of spend went back into our facilities which increased our assets which went into the government the government wide so that's the the easiest way to consider how you can navigate from government government wide down to cover governmental okay that's just just one simple example so general fund definition so our general fund includes maintenance and operations unrestricted Capital the school plant School Plant is where when we sold Neely to the town of Gilbert we were able to put those proceeds into school plant eate Medicaid indirect auxiliary operations gifts and donations litigation insurance and advertising all that is in our general fund so the general fund that we share with you we call it an operating fund that we're that giving you an idea when we present that are these are the funds that we have the most discretion over that that the rules are not so stringent in all these funds we're very close to this um definition but not quite exactly the same so um in this particular case what am I looking at oh this is the general fund I'm sorry so this is the general fund summary now just that highest level just so the general fund that included all those little funds if you want to summarize it it's sort of like a balance sheet of our operating funds that we will be sharing with you monthly so you can see that um our fund balance has grown on on our general fund and that's that's mostly due to very careful spend um always trying to maximize fund balance at the end of the school year um by putting ex uh expense in the appropriate funds as an example when you look at our federal grants our federal grants are what we call reimbursement grants as an example we just got $9.1 million back from sr3 we spent all that money last year so we have to spend it out of Maintenance and operations first and then we get reimbursed so in this particular case um the um the fund the fund balance uh is is positive because all that money that we got are going to go back to offload maintenance operations expense which allows us to increase the fund balance in m so that's just an example of how all that works so you can see uh the other thing we wanted to point out here is that the restricted cash and Investments so I've shared with this in the in the governing board report for the last probably six months and of course you as new board members have not been privy to that but back in at the end of 2023 we actually prepaid our um Arizona State Retirement um contributions so we prepaid $20 million at that point in time when we prepay a dollar amount and it goes into Arizona State Retirement we cannot use that money for anything except for future contributions but at the same time we are able to take advantage of the investment policies at Theo State retirement and earn interest on that I just shared with you that in maintenance operations we can't earn interest but we were able to move $20 million into a prepay and you can see it was $20 million and now it's 22.3 million so we've gained about $2.3 million in that fund available to us to offset future Arizona State Retirement contributions so that's the biggest story on this one any questions before I move on okay great that's what I'm just pointing it out for you that I should have done that before I love those animations too darn okay and this is the operating fund grid that approximates the um the the um general fund in the aord this approximates the general fund in the AER the biggest difference is that the classroom site fund is not in the general fund in the AER we always include it under the operating fund because the classroom site fund contributes a great deal into our teacher salaries and benefits so that's why we include it but I just wanted to you guys will see this every month now um for the remainder of this fiscal year and so I just wanted to try to tie in a little bit with how we're presenting our monthlies to that general fund treatment in the Acer okay so internal service fund financials the only reason we're going into a little bit more detail on the internal service funds is because we're going to be talking about the employee benefit trust a great deal in the next month we have to set new medical premiums for next year and so wanted to make sure that you are aware of the status and how we're doing in the employee benefit trust so to start these are the two major internal service funds so the employee benefit trust you can see on the left and then you can see the district service so you can see that most of the internal service fund lies in the employee benefit trust you can also see from this that uh nope you can see it from the next slide so the next slide is just showing the employee benefit trust and the difference between last year and this year so you can see that at the end of 2023 when I say this year I mean last year two years ago versus last year right it's difficult um but at the end of 2023 our fund balance was $25.3 Million roughly and at the end of 2024 it was 24.1 so we definitely Drew Down fund balance in terms of that operating draw down it was over $2 million so our expenses were greater than the level of funding that we received into the employee benefit trust however fortunately when you look at this particular grid again this is looking at both employee benefit trust and the district Services trust but you can see the operating income loss let's look at 2400 the employee benefit trust you can see the operating loss of the 2.2 million but then you can see the nonoperating uh revenues so back in um 23 we also came to the governing board and redid the policy regarding investing our employee benefit trust funds and so we have been very conservative in how they're invested but we're taking advantage of the environment right now so we're earning five 5 a half% on the money that's just sitting there and so you can see that that 2.2 million uh operating loss was actually offset by just over a million dollar in that Revenue gain due to investment okay now other funds so are we okay there just keep going okay great thank you all very much um so the Food Services fund we always like to talk about Food Services the last three years um so back in 2021 and 2022 Food Services was under what they called a a universal free breakfast and lunch program at that point in time the nutrition services fund was doing really really well um at this point in time in in 23 and in 24 now you can see that we're drawing down fund balance you can see the $1.8 million draw down in 23 and the just about $1.3 million draw down in 24 want you wanted to share that that's a little bit per purposeful we have requested increases in meal prices the last two years but small increases in meal prices purposefully drawing down fund balance to try to to draw it down over time so that we're not um impacting our families too quickly by increasing the the meal prices in Gilbert we have a very we have a relatively low earth free and reduced lunch population so much of our revenue does come from families um buying our breakfast and lunch versus students that are on the national uh school lunch program for free and reduced so that's kind of why we've been trying to do that we have plenty of fund balance so we wanted to make sure that we're judiciously using it and helping out families at the same time as we draw it down so this is what happened on the Food Service AFR that's the annual financial report so you can see that the beginning cash balance was 8.76 million and then the ending cash balance was 7.37 Million so again doing that carefully um we we are not sure if we're going to request food price increase from you this spring uh we're deliberating over that right now but it it could happen but I will share all that information with you in a board report before we actually present it to you at a board meeting okay so before the national free and reduced breakfast and lunch program that we were the universal free thank you um did Food Service operate at a negative did they always have a negative balance at the end of the year or we did not in fact it's not not allowed so let me show you the next slide so you can see we always keep 2019 in there because that was the first or the the let's see that was the last real true year in nutrition services prior to covid so you can see that our total revenue was just above our total expenses in 2019 so therefore we were were navigating the cost of Labor the cost of food and supplies and keeping and keeping our um our spend below our Revenue so that we can always have a little bit of a positive fund balance and that was true since I've been here which was the year before so you can see in 2020 that was when we started drawing down a little bit of fund balance it's a little bit above but if you remember in 2020 we W in operating the last half of the uh the last quarter of the school year so that's what that impact was but then quickly um the federal government turned around and said okay we're going to do Universal free breakfast and lunch until we're out of this covid pandemic and you can see how in 2021 the revenues went quite a bit up above the expense and then in 20122 even higher the reason is is that when we get reimbursements from the federal government it's about $4 and 30 a meal and we're charging about $3.80 so we get a greater reimbursement than what we're charging and so that's what happened in 21 and 22 and so during that time you can see that if you look at the graph you can see that in 23 our expenses did outpace our revenues and then again in 2024 so in talking with um Natalie Tenny our director we're constantly monitoring okay well we have to reduce staff make sure that we're feeding the kids we're watching our numbers um so that we can we can slowly get into balance um and without having a huge impact on our families so that's the goal so I notice um a big jump in total expenditures from 21 to 22 and then those expenditures stay I mean rough it looks like between four and5.5 million do we spent more in 22 23 and 24 than we did in 21 20 and 19 what what do you know what we can attribute the increase in expenditures to I mean it just seems like a a big year-to-year jump and then it stayed high after that do you know what that jump was so in 22 our participation rates at all of our schools were huge because nobody had to pay for it so everyone participated so there were many many more meals being served and so therefore the expenses were higher we had more staff we had more product more food product Etc in order to meet the demand now if you fast forward to um 23 inflation is hitting Us in 2023 where food prices begin to Skyrocket we were competing for Food Service Personnel bus drivers teachers so salaries were going up significantly those two things led to the increase in costs going in 23 and 24 even though our participation did significantly come down but I wonder if I have nope I don't have it here um we did share with you that the participation is a little bit above 2019 right now so our families are choosing to eat breakfast and lunch at go Republic schools even though they have to pay for it but not at the same level when we had Universal free breakfast and lunch y okay the bond fund uh this is notable as well uh this has been the largest component of the draw down in the governmental right because we spent over $22 million and we don't have any new Bond authority to sell bonds so there's no more Revenue coming in but you can see at the end of the year we ended up with $5.5 million but about 2 and A5 million of that $5.5 million was encumbered as we did the the year-end rollover so largely already spent so to date we are we had truly for new projects in the current year about $2.3 million all of which has been encumbered to date so um and then you can see at at the uh end of 2023 we had $27 million in fund balance but that was because we sold Bonds in May of 2013 which infused that bond fund with another about $18 million so that's the big change there and at this point in time as you know there's no more bonding Authority and no more Bond dollars so all of our future Capital spend will have to come out of unrestricted capital or out of the school plant other items to note I already shared a little bit about Quasar to you this is a a few other details a total GPS judgment 5.85 million estimated correction to state aid so getting about $4 million back a little bit higher than I said $1.8 million coming out of our cash again we were very fortunate we had the cash available we did we do not we are not going to have to increase our tax rate going into the next school year in order to compensate for that and then Capital assets same story regarding the bond fund versus Capital assets you can see where the value went up um in our Capital assets and then note though that the non- depreciable went down so we didn't have quite as many projects still outstanding at rollover June 30 than we did a year ago so um that so that that $10 million was just due to projects that they're called Construction in process or in in yeah Construction in process so they're not completed so when they're not completed they're not depreciated against so that's what that that story is and then outstanding Geo bonds this is also a positive we we are very fortunate here in G public schools because we're drawing down our debt very quickly so you can see um that our outstanding Bond principle to date is 131 so we dropped it down by $20 million we will continue to draw down unbalance and you can continue to see reductions in our tax rate because because of that at the same time our sist value is is still growing so we're still a very viable growing um area in the in Maricopa County and then finally uh compensated absences this is another item that goes at the government wide that various very high level so in Gilbert Public Schools as most school districts we have what we call compensated absences that means that if you don't don't use your sick leave it has a value because if you were to retire or or leave the district you are to get some money back so that calculation is done thanks to um Jackie and Lauren here my friends every year and transmitted to our Auditors to include in the government-wide level so you can see that to date our compensated absences does continue to grow largely because we have seen um uh salary increases over the last 3 or four years so it has been growing because of that so therefore the AB is has a higher value and then Arizona State Retirement this is the CPP this is the contribution prepayment that I was telling you about so the in 2024 the um weighted average return on investment at Arizona State Retirement was 9% remember that I said that the discount rate that's used to calculate what a net pension liability is was only 7% so they're doing better than their discount rate right now the reason that we wanted to sh share this with you is that before we invested um back in in 20 at the end of 23 we wanted to see their history and I did because we are we are actually putting our principle at risk because they have different um investment policies than we do so I wanted to make sure at any point in time in the last like 8 to 10 years have they lost any principle and so because of this record um we opted that it was a a very very good bet and it's Prov proven to be with a $2.3 million increase in that value since we invested a year and a half ago and then this is our contribution rate what's exciting about this is in 24 we contributed $27 million this is this is Gilbert's portion not our employees portion so we now have $22.3 million so we nearly have a Year's worth of contributions that are put aside to be used whenever we so need them you know one of Theon reasons that we did this was because we were unsure about whether we'd be successful on the override in November fortunately we were um and so now we have an ability to use that that prepayment dutifully over the next 3 to four years and that is all of my report so I'm so hopefully I went slow enough for those of you that are new but there's lot lot to grasp for sure okay do any board members have any questions for Miss bets I don't have any questions but I would like to um share appreciation to Miss Betts and the team for all the hard work I know there's a lot involved and I really appreciate that we're in on a good Financial footing and and we're earning interest and our audit was clean and I think those are all really positive things and our overright did past so we're in a very good shape and that that just feels really good y great thank you all very much thank you very much moving on to agenda item 6.02 teaching and learning academic Spotlight Dr McCord thank you Mr Thompson governing board members I will turn it over H to Mr Jared Ryan he will introduce his team who's going to give us a presentation this evening thank you so much Mr Thompson governing board members Dr McCord we appreciate the opportunity to present to you this evening uh just a quick background on academic spotlights and where they came from for those of you um uh joining the uh governing board um probably for the last two or three years there's been discussion about uh requests coming to the governing board uh approval is being given and then we go about our work and sometimes we don't hear back about how it's going how's the implementation look in this case a curriculum implementation uh but all types of topics and so on a monthly basis we break a a different group to present on the work that's going on on our campuses or in the district it's in some way shape or form and report back on what we're seeing in terms of student outcomes most importantly in in teaching and learning and so um I'm fortunate I'm surrounded by incredibly talented people uh four of which are here tonight two will be presenting um as Dr Cox likes to refer to herself as the director of the CIA at the secondary level curriculum instruction and assessment uh she is here this evening in the audience along with Mr Robert burer the Elementary uh CIA director um but presenting to us this evening are both of our coordinators from the secondary and Elementary level uh lene Bal who you heard about earlier and her uh Awards and recognitions and then Crystal Udall who's absolutely just an amazing asset working with all of our elementary campuses in the in the area of mathematics so turning over to you thank you good evening governing board and Dr McCord I want to start by saying C and I are excited to be here tonight to share with you the K12 math curriculum update um as the academic [Music] Spotlight it went it went there we go all right so at the elementary level we have implemented I ready which is a K8 curriculum so Elementary k6 we have have that implemented we um have implemented this curriculum with four different waves wave one began with our pilot teachers and looking at what they were um doing and implementing and how things were going that came through as an adoption wave two began in July that's where most of our teachers um were trained on the day before school began and we had lots of um teachers joining us we then went into December so wave three began in December we have a total of 435 teachers trained up through December and our fourth way save will be beginning in April May time period so we've kind of done a slow roll the biggest piece is that we wanted sixth grade tying in with Jinger high so you'll hear about J Jinger high in a minute but we're kind of assimilating them together in total today we have 83% of our elementary teachers trained and fully implementing I at this time we have 13 campuses that are fully implemented that means K through six the way their waves rolled out that they are fully implementing so it is an exciting time to have 24 of our campuses implementing this program and I have been out to visit every single one of them and there's so much excitement on those campuses for the junior high we did train all of our teachers on the day before school in July of 2024 um and we are fully implementing I at the 7eventh and eighth grade levels um in addition to the teacher trainings um I wanted to make sure that I mentioned that we've completed multiple leadership trainings on the IR curriculum and that's included our principles our math evaluators instructional Specialists and instructional coaches um our GPS Junior High teachers I'm happy to um tell you have done an excellent job of implementing the new resource and it is in our classrooms and in our students usage so all right all right so this is a district snapshot of how students are progressing toward towards typical growth we have assessed 16,000 students approximately and the graph on the left would line every single one of them up and you would hope to hit around 50% at the median GPS is hitting above that our median average is 55% so that is a trending that we are super excited about the graph on the right has some data that I want to um pinpoint on in the green sections we have growth that is happening at the on and above grade level percentages this happens after they have taken their second diagnostic which just finalized in December and we have an increase of the on grade level percent by 5% and the mid to above grade level percent as of 10% growth that means all the other areas were decreasing by 16% which is indic in indicative of the green growing larger and larger so we're super excited about that next we have our high performing and High um growth areas in schools question can we actually go back to the last slide please do thank you so much so can you tell me on the so progress to annual typical growth that's a lot of words is that we're expect like 100% would be the growth we're expecting throughout the whole year that's a full year yes 100% would be a full year in the middle of the Year being December time point we were looking at about that 50% out of 180 days about that 50 halfway point about 50% is what they the company had said was average to make and with us making it 55% meeting growth our trajectory is looking really good for that so that's exciting and then who sets The Benchmark as far as what's what's the expected annual growth like what what's 100% growth that is nationally normed by the company not us it's nationally normed throughout the company's uh program okay and on uh previous curriculum was that uh they have a similar measurement is this very A Lot Company by company um this last K5 curriculum was about 12 years old and didn't have this data to go into so um we're bringing this data to you now as we have it and can continue that forward look and progressing with this curriculum we did not have that in the last the 68 area that we um had adopted and just the changes and more data that is available these newer programs versus what we had back then terrific and are there are there National Norms like is there something we can compare it to as far as what the progress is yes this is nationally normed so the 55% yes and there is further data that can drill down into more National Norms yes but through the just from the company though is it people that are using the same curriculum or how's the company developing their it's Norms across all states and um all the different districts that are utilized it that us this curriculum correct so that gives me a question can you explain for our community when you say nationally normed what that means to someone who may not be familiar with that terminology it's putting all the nations um regardless of State regardless of District size regardless of income and those kind of things putting those communities together and looking at what that data says at grade level um composures to to then um know how much growth could be expected for the students correct okay thank you and if you're interested Mr Robinson we can further and give you further information if you need thank you so I've got a little bit of Confusion by the chart on the right is this the current placement distribution is this also on an annual basis because this is I mean this is showing if you add up one grade below two grades below three or more grades below we've got 58% of the of these 16,000 students that are one grade below or more and so is this also on an annual um is this compared to where they will be at the end of the year can you just explain that this is a snapshot in time of December it is not anything more it's not saying this is what the next um outcome will be by may this is just a snapshot like kind of C camera picture of what they what it looks like right now so yes do we know we have students who are struggling yes are we identifying them yes can we name names yes teachers can drill down with that data and there's some further um slides that will help indicate some of those needs for those tier instructions and teachers can identify who needs intervention and who needs enrichment with those composures so this is about 16,000 students right now and that's just their picture and time of what that looked like this can change as more and more students take um any Diagnostics so if we get brand new students in the district those Diagnostics also will be uh changing those percentages as well so it's just a snapshot in time okay that that makes sense so I I think the the thing that is is concerning is that this chart on the right includes only those students that are participating in the new I ready math curriculum and 58% of them are performing at this snapshot in time are performing one grade below or one one grade or more below um is that is that concerning it all is this is this what we would expect how does this compare to you know other math curriculums that that uh that we've used in the past I know you said we don't have this data in the past but this 58% seem like like it's on track with with implementing a new math curriculum we have known and over the past years that I've followed um aasa data and the other Summit of Assessments we have had gaps here in the district is this alarming what is celebrating is looking at the green growth we've been able to increase those um two categories a 5% growth and a 10% growth that means that came from those areas that were struggling into on and above grade level so that is exciting to see here at the December time Point versus where we started and the percentages down below at the bottom is where we started from that was our first diagnostic lens look so we have decreased the um more grade levels below than we have the above and beyond so we are super excited that those have increased I thought it would be a smaller increase just a brand new program kids getting used to it it is something else if you've never seen a kindergarten TR take a test online it is something else to try and work with that and see with those Dynamics our younger grade populations are doing a phenomenal job in getting them tested and working through that so there's some little kinks in there I know we're working through um waves just began here in January where they were trained in December the wave just began in January for those kids to take those Diagnostics that is a learning curve for the teacher and a learning curve for the students so do I know that we need to dive deep in this yes but also I want to be say that we're celebrating what can be happening by the time we start school next year too so the growth areas is where we want to take that lens and look and make sure those other areas are decreasing those are decreasing and by the um end of the year we really hope those are decreasing even more so so what what this chart is showing is that the kid the the students that are performing well are performing better on the IR curriculum and the students that are performing below gr there's there are start there are more students performing better on the I ready math curriculum and there are fewer students performing poorly on the I system is that that's kind of the snapshot here yes that have gone down okay thank you uh just one comment uh Mr Thompson is that this this is the first year that the teachers have gone through that curriculum so as they become more familiar with it and are able to teach it again next year you know hopefully they can focus and say well you know maybe I need to work on this section A little bit more CU last year we didn't quite cover it in the way that students needed or something because you know this is brand new and uh so I think that considering that it is a new curriculum that we're just implementing that these are very good results I'm super excited to say that our district has risen in those areas where we are at the on and above level so that is exciting and watching those scores grow means the other ones decrease so it is exciting to see what that third diagnostic will have for us in the uh end of the year if I can and I'll try to be brief and I I'll take you up on your offer I'd love to talk more in depth with this um outside of the meeting sure um but first I I did just want to say thank you so much for those numbers as far as the training 83% 100% in the last 6 months I mean that's amazing so I know implementing a new curriculum is is a huge undertaking so we appreciate all the work in doing that with this current placement distribution is this is this again based off I's Norms this is like the numbers this is like a test that I is giving us of what they think grade level would be and that's what these results are correct and so and that's the GPS lens on the right hand side correct so I I do think like the the trend is amazing but I I think it it is obviously concerning just the level so we want to keep seeing that Trend going that direction for sure thank you can I just ask how many students are not so 83% you said were are fully implemented with the math curriculum correct correct so how many other students in Gilbert Public Schools who are not using this math curriculum currently I think about 20,000 is our total so about 4,000 remember we still have W4 which is about 115 teachers and their class full classrooms have not gone through the training so they are not not even on the program yet they will start um next July when the school year starts so we also have eighth grade honors students who are taking the above so those numbers are in there because they're an eighth grade student however their mathematics is they're taking as higher mathematics okay so wave three those teachers will be done being trained by the end of May and then there's a the fourth one is after that wave four yeah is in April May time period okay so last wave is at the end of the year yeah just from my experience one of the things as a teacher um when it comes to new curriculums uh I'll second what what Blake said yes it's true you know the the trend is great um the concern I have is just when it comes to training teachers we have those 4,000 kids who are we're not quite sure what's going on with them where are their percentages how are they going to do on ASA so um it was just something to consider I don't know if there's a way we can look at that as far as training teachers is concerned and maybe helping them get up to speed and get it implemented faster so that we can maybe get really solid numbers come May on how this is well all of our testing um grade level areas are now implementing as of January third through sixth grade are fully implementing so it would be the grade levels below so our K12 is that wave four is kind of where that oh that's good yeah lack of students in it okay thank you for clarifying so yes we're preparing for testing this was this was the beginning of your test they took and then the middle of year test they correct and is there a cost to administer those tests it was all included in the math adoption okay so um one of the things that the pilot teachers heavily recommended was how much the diag itic helped support them it helped uh look delving into the standards for the units that the students were about to um go into what are the weaknesses what are the strengths how do we layer what the um interventions and scaffolds are that they need so that is a huge piece of what was suggested by the pilot teachers recommendations were and um I tell you what from the implementing of the wave two and three the teachers are super excited about both components because we do have the Hands-On components the workbooks the teacher additions as well as well as the um online components as well that's great to hear so we have so then we have our traditional student students as well who are using a different curriculum is that correct is it possible to have them take the same assessment so we can compare or do we're going to have like a different cohort that we can't really compare across the board the traditional students are working in the math and focus uh program and that is um done with a growth measure similar to this and it's on a their own platform so two different platforms compar we will be happy to bring a spotlight implementation um further in the springtime to share more about what that program looks like for the traditional students is it is it possible to have them take the same assessment so we can compare how they're performing um at this point in time that's the ASA mimics or Benchmark District benchmarks is the piece that they take that is most aligned so that everybody has like the similar components great versus the programmatic type pieces for the curriculum thank you we do do the district benchmarks and i' I've got one last question about this graph and then I promise we'll get past this slide so there's so wave four 115 or so teachers that are still waiting to be kind of onboarded right and that's going to happen April May could you just talk for a moment about what the what the plan or procedure will be for July when they returned to school after having a summer off and not having looked at this and not not having and having been trained a few months ago certainly what's it what's it going to be to get get those teachers since they haven't done it for a year already or for a number of months already I know that if it was me and I learned about it in April May and then you said you wanted me to implement it in July I would need a a refresher funny thing about teachers are teachers are always learning and always looking for ways to advocate for their students um principles are already asking instructional coaches are asking what can we do to help support our K12 teachers that are coming in that last wave what are some things that they're going to need um principles sometimes give the summertime hours to teachers to come in and plan and prepare and I'm highly advocating for that for the principles who have asked and are working towards that coaches sometimes want to sit with those teachers and help them prepare the unit overviews that have been created are making materials for students uh teachers available more readily for them as well so I'm doing things behind the scenes also to make them as close to their fingertips as possible and utilizing those resources so um there will be further trainings next year so even though this train onboarding is happening in April May time period there are continuing trainings that those teachers will be having so there is a recall to the memory of what are some of the components of it so we realize that the onboarding with number one training is not enough our teachers this year that started in July have had three touch points of those PDS and it has absolutely been fabulous to recall and remember a lot of those things that happened on that first day and so those will be provided for those teachers as well and and like with anything if we recognize that there's a need to retrain or refresh we just go to it we did the same thing with ready Jen we implemented ready Jen and then all of a sudden Co hit and people went in every direction so we had bring everybody back and retrain them to get everybody back on the same page so uh it's not a problem I was going to share what we learned in some other adoption processes and and kind of the rationale for the slow roll out and the phased approach um was to be able to support through implementation and so what um they've been able to do an incredible job of is coming back to and continually training a couple months later let's come back what did we learn what did we see a couple months later let's come back another training administrators involved evaluators walking in rooms what's the feedback and so I think one thing that's really stood out with this implementation that's made it a bit unique is kind of the all-encompassing planning of it um strategically so April May then they have materials and access before they go to summer historically we would train a couple days before a school a school year starts in some cases and teachers now who have planned all summer are left to kind of scramble and so we wanted to make sure that didn't happen um but they're never just left they're never just left to walk in their classroom the other thing is now phase four happens well phase one two and three teachers already on their campuses who have been trained can now be leaders in that area instructional coaches instructional Specialists and our coordinators supporting them um so I I feel like we're in a great spot as far as what teachers would need coming back and hopefully alleviate some of the anxiety nervousness of of something new so MH all right there we go it was it was a kind of test Char or anything all right here I'm excited to share with you um our Stu our schools that are highly perform our grade levels that are high performing you can see all grade levels are high performing and we have some exceptional with high growth as well we have sixth grade that kind of is standing out right now and they are the grade level that full districtwide has implemented this year so that was to align with what Junior High was doing the junior high was doing full implementation and we wanted them to be able to bridge from sixth grade to seventh grade and have a full year of the curriculum so that when they go to seventh grade they know what the system is and how it works and what the expectation for it is um we are super um pleased and optimistic at that 71% for sixth grade and are looking forward to what the next Benchmark will show what that looks like any questions on this slide all right so we were looking at red yellow and green earlier here is another example of red yellow green the triangle is a district representation of where those 16,000 students are and what are their needs for support and for intervention the Box on the right defines the tiers by grade level with the colors continuing to represent the same as they do in the Triangle the triangle tier one would be your classroom instruction tier two is support and tier three is additional support you'll notice that the sixth grade here has the highest percentage of students in tier one which is indicating that they are showing adequate growth and adequate performance it's really interesting the trend here that it seems like there are more more students struggling as it gets closer as as the grades continue on um is is that because there's a there was a a more ABR not abrupt that's maybe abrupt transition between the old curriculum and the new curriculum for those older grades or what do you attribute this to why is why are there so many more students that are one or more grade levels below in eighth grade than in third grade so I would like to address that because that that does stand out um that there are fewer in the tier one in eth grade and more in the tier three um for seven this diagnostic is given to entire student body in grade eight we have our highest performing eighth graders that are using another curriculum because they're taking a high school course that are not included in the data and so that to me is the reason the biggest reason for grade 8's data distribution to be so different and then we we will get the data at some point though do we have a again a districtwide test that will include those students that we can see these numbers yes thank you our district benchmarks perfect yes what when does that happen when do we see those three times a year we take them at beginning of the year middle of the year and end of the year so there three Benchmark points is that Benchmark fast Bridge um for 3 through six it's our aasa mimic is what we call them District bench marks at third grade up are called the mimic test so it's to assimilate like the actual Summit of assessment at the end of the year from ad right okay M um and just realize kindergarten is our starting point there is no below level so you will not see red on that so it does look really good right there if we could all be there right okay so that all to say that we have 18 High performing elementary schools and 17 high growth schools from that data for the junior highs five of our Junior Highs are high performing and two are high growth these results are super exciting to share with you at just a halfe implementation some teachers just a few weeks couple of weeks of implementation so we are still with that ball rolling this is super exciting and a result of the progressive I ready trainings for teachers and for leaders that we've had like I said we've had multiple this year for teachers to continually go to and leadership as well just one question on this when you're how do you define high performance schools versus high growth schools what are what is the there the um data is put onto a scatter plot instead of having all guessing points I pulled this information out from that and so it's done in high performing high growth so I just pulled those numbers from it so just a four quadrant squ scatter I know but I need a definition of what high performance Means versus high growth I I already has cut scor and so they cut the score that shows low growth versus high growth and the same thing for um performance they they are they're the ones who set that cut score okay okay thank you yes not us all right so that has been our I ready program with that we have also gone with the personalized instruction we're super excited to have the personalized instruction added on you might hear it be called my path that is the online component and this data reflects just the first week back and as a whole our district should look at that 30 to 49% or above of how many minutes the students are on it in order to in enhance their individualized learning the um as a district we are meeting and exceeding the number of minutes per week as well as we are completing at least two students are completing at least two lessons a week which is the encouragement of the company and they are passing 90% of their lessons that they take so that is super exciting data to show and that is K8 shown can I ask what why is such a variance in the time on task like why why do we have 8% of students that are 1 to N9 minutes it depends on how long the students the teachers have working into their program how many minutes the students are able to be on the program it suggested that green area is that area that they they suggest that way they get about two lessons done in that time period a week and that attributes to their growth and their um next diagnostic that they have the lower amount the students aren't really having as much time to work with their weak areas and enhance what those needs are in fact it was kind of neat I was talking with a teacher earlier this week a brand new teacher to our district and she said oh my gosh my path is amazing I had these two students and they been working all of a sudden I start teaching and they jump up and are super excited going I just learned that oh my gosh and I know what you're going to do next I know and so that excitement that they had just learned it but if a teacher had just given them a blanket assignment to do that would that a connection have been as great I don't know but the students had excitement with it and they were older students which means oh my goodness our kids who are in the 456 area are attributing learning those skills to classroom performance Dr Robison if I may um I was reminded to mention as well these classes and I think that's where you see distribution such as this this is every student so accelerated um honors level self-contained special education elll you name it so student schedules all look completely different and so the time that they may have built into that schedule specifically for specific enrichment or specific remediation may look different and so I know as we've talked with teachers how they're able to access it and some of them are still working through within a schedule when I have a student pulled for resource support and then I have a student pulled for EL support or something different how do I fit that into their schedule and so I think over the course of time I know over the course of time you'll start to see that balance out a bit more um but all the data that's being shared tonight remember it's every student and so where you may see some red students may be coming in in 3 years behind academically um as well as you may have some students starting two years ahead academically and so um I think that the growth measure um and Miss Humphrey to your point in your question earlier that growth number is so important for us because regardless of where each student begins when when they enter the building as a second grader third grader fourth grader where we take them becomes incredibly important some students are going to be proficient um regardless and how far can we take them and some students are as I said are going to be well behind uh when we begin U we believe all students eventually will will get to that performance level so just remember that as we're looking through this it's every student thank you and is this can you go back one second thank you is this um I just want to make sure I understand what we're looking at here is this only the amount of time spent in class on their Chromebooks in this personalized instruction area or is this out does this have nothing to do with the online portion of the this is the online portion okay and usually spent in the classroom so only about 30 to 49 minutes a week so okay and and at what grade do our students start working with Chromebooks isn't it fourth grade kindergarten kindergarten they start working remember that bench that diagnostic I said our kindergarteners were taking this program has kindergarten first grade second grade on up working on a computer okay so this this includes so maybe it's you know it's our our kindergarten and first and second grade that are not spending a lot of time online very much it could be and uh the situation as um Mr Ryan said absolutely applies to it's that depending on where those students schedules have and where they can pull that time to support them thank you MH okay we're going to transition and talk about the high school's uh math curriculum and this includes those eighth graders who are taking Algebra 1 um at the high school level we adopted the hooton Mifflin har courts into a we did train all teachers for full implementation beginning with the 2024 2025 school year we've also completed multip multiple leadership trainings on this curriculum and the data it has provided us so that those trainings have included principles math evaluators instructional Specialists and instructional coaches these charts that you're looking at are from the growth measure these show the grade level equiv equivalencies for students using the hmh into a resources as given by the growth measure assessment which is similar to the diagnostic assessment in I there has been from the beginning of the year to the middle of the Year an exciting 18.2% increase in above grade level students and 68% of our students are performing on or above grade level according to the middle of the Year growth measure AG is for Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 so it is the a large portion of our high school population that is using this curriculum we will have one more as you can see end of year that those are great Trends again um do we have so this is District test right is this this isn't this is the this is the hmh growth measure just like the I ready diagnostic okay but but this includes all of our did you say eth grade and above all of our eighth grade and beyond that are taking Algebra 1 geometry or Algebra 2 of any kind so our resource our honors our gened do we have and is this a test that they just took starting this year did they do these same tests last year they did not this is our first time okay okay no hisorical dat no histo yes we need historical data yes yes this graph shows student logins per week and so this is indicative of the usage by our students of just the digital platform okay this curriculum has more components than the digital platform but we are at or above 15,000 student logins per week for the majority of the weeks displayed so each bar is indicating on for a week how many student logins there were you can see fall break and winter holiday our students weren't getting on right um from November of 2024 to January of 2025 I was able to visit classrooms on all Junior High and high school campuses utilizing the hmh into a um program I observed that 89% of those um were obviously using the adopted resource I will say as a disclaimer there are teachers in our district who work very very hard and they like the the platforms and the worksheets and everything to look the way they like and so they're they're doing a lot of work they're taking the resource that we have and putting it into something that makes them happy and joyful so there are instances where I go in and it's not obvious they're using and I try to take every opportunity to say tell me about what I'm looking at um and in in most instances they said this is this is right out of hmh I just don't like to do it that way I want my kids to look at it this way um so it's not always obvious so that 89% number by the way is an increase from the beginning of the year where it was about 70% so there is a trend of utilizing it more and more which is very very positive and also teachers just need a little time when you implement something new and so we're getting there and and everything is is moving in the right direction and I believe this can be attributed to the consistent messaging from district and school leadership including instructional Specialists and instructional coaches about the importance of using the research based curriculum so those were student logins and now we're going to take a look at teacher logins and again this is just the digital platform logins um you can see initially in in that fifth week it was very very high I'm sure at that point we were all getting in to that and we were looking at it more as we got comfortable um with our students as the year was progressing so we are at our above 6,000 teacher logins for the majority of the weeks and you can see teachers are logging in over breaks so I want to say that our GPS Math teachers both Elementary and high school have worked very hard and persisted in getting more adept at using all of the components of the resources that they have been provided we Crystal and I would like to say thank you to all of them as we are aware that the student growth data we're seeing is in large part due to their efforts any questions I just want to thank you for um humoring me with all my questions I know I had a lot I just don't want to get lost like our appreciation I know how much work this was so I do applaud your team and like you said the teachers and students cuz the the the trends really are very promising so and I know that's a lot of hard work and um just we're grateful for for all the work that you and teachers are putting in to implement this thank you thank you I just want to say thank you I mean I think it's wonderful that we can afford a really good curriculum that um we're not using some of those free resources online some of those are okay but you know we have something that's really stellar and I know it's a lot of work to to help everybody to get that under their belt and and be able to use it well and I think um it's been a little hard work but looks very promising and I'm excited to see where we go from here so thank you just want to say excuse me thank you for the presentation um really informative I've heard from a lot of teachers about this program already and I think it's there's some really interesting stuff on finding out particular issues where students need to grow and the data that is provided to them through that and so I'm excited to see more data as it progresses and thank you for your time to present this to us thank you thank you very [Music] much take it easy back [Music] there all right that was a great presentation uh moving on to agenda item number seven our cons agenda uh items is there a motion to approve our consent agenda items as they are listed on tonight's agenda so moved thank you Mr Brainard is there a second second oh sorry thank you Miss Humphries all those in favor of approving the consent agenda items as outlined on our agenda tonight say I I opposed thank you very much moving on to uh agenda item number eight our action items uh 8.01 minutes for the December 17 2024 regular business meeting uh this says it you want me to explain this yes please in parentheses it says Mr Thompson and Mrs humph vote only the reason why is because you were the only board members that can approve those minutes that are still on the governing board and so this has happened in years past and so um it it actually hasn't happened since I've been superintendent um but Gabby informed me that it happened before I came so uh it is unusual but that's how it's supposed to be done okay so everybody else except uh Mr Thompson and Miss humph should vote okay uh would you like to so I'll make the motion that we approved the the regular business business meeting minutes for December 17th 2024 perfect and I'll second that um would you like to have a discussion no they were good I looked at them and um everything's fine so we can vote perfect uh then all those uh Miss humph and myself in favor of approving the minutes for the December 17th 202 for regular business meeting say I I I any opposed all right thank you very much 8.02 uh fiscal year 2024 AER I wanted to say that that's fun annual comprehensive financial report and this is a roll call vote and so I will ask uh uh we need a motion we need a motion we we have a motion to approve fiscal year 2024 annual comprehensive financial report so I move that we approve the annual comprehensive financial report excuse me can I just make a com um it's just an acceptance of it you're not approving it can you just if you could use the acceptance word that would be great I approve we accept the annual comprehensive financial report thank you very much Miss humph is there a second second thank you Dr Robinson uh at this time we will uh well is there any discussion regarding the fiscal year 2024 annual comprehensive financial report seeing that there is none we will call for a vote and I will ask Miss Wilson to help us out with the roll call vote Miss Jill humph how do you vote I Mr Chad Thompson how do you vote I Mr Jesse Brainard how do you vote I Dr Blake Robinson how do you vote I Mrs Shaya muray how do you vote I Mr President all board members voted unanimously thank you very much all right agenda item number nine request for future agenda items do any board members have any requests for future uh agenda items that we want to discuss or add to a future agenda of a future board meeting all right seeing that there are none we'll move forward to our board reports so at last month's board meeting we uh we volunteered and we uh took responsibility for these different areas um and so we'll go through these one at a time we'll start with the town of Gilbert leaon Dr Robinson anything to report tonight uh nothing on the town of Gilbert is this where did we we changed this is where you can report take yes well Tri I I just wanted to take a quick minute just to again congratulate and thank everyone from the 25 year anniversary um breakfast that was last week I thought that was just an amazing event it was uh so great to see people that have dedicated and and really a a a lifetime uh career of work dedicated to Gilbert public schools and I I think it spoke a lot to their dedication and also to Gilbert public schools and how it's a great place to to work and and also thank the administration and all the staff who did a great job putting on that event I think it's a great theme I will say that I have heard uh sugar raise every morning a couple um times on the radio and so now when whenever I hear that I will think of all of our 25y year uh employees so I'm grateful for that and and for the for for our audience out there uh who's in the press that was like one of the most popular songs back in 1999 she's like what is he talking about yes and uh and then in 25 years from now I look forward to celebrating everyone who attends the job fair tomorrow so thank you thank you very much Dr Robinson uh I don't have anything to report from for the audit committee tonight uh Gilbert Education Foundation Mr Brainard um I have nothing to report but you know just like Dr Robinson said um the 25 year breakfast was a really amazing event you know I got to see um some Educators who were at my high school and I attended Gil high school and you know I think a part of Gil Public Schools the hard of gu Public Schools is a staff we have and so I'm just extremely grateful for their dedication through the good time and bad and you know excited to keep you know growing as a district and uh you know being great to our employees making a good place to work all right thank you very much city of Mesa liazon uh Miss Murray um nothing to report on the city of Mesa I did get a chance to attend the orchestra concert on Saturday and that was a really great event I really enjoyed um listening to them and I thought it was really unique that they hadn't played together before that Friday night so um I was impressed with them to begin with and then knowing that fun fact I was really impressed so thank you very much and last and certainly not least uh legislative representative and employee benefit trust Miss humph so I did want to talk a little bit about the legislature because they have started they're in session the governor has put out her budget um and couple of issues that will be prominent in this legislative session is prop 123 it expires in July of 2025 um it adds $285 million to school districts across the state just to give a little background in case people don't know prop 123 was a settlement of a lawsuit filed by asba oh I think it was like in 2014 or 2015 because um school districts under proposition I think it's 201 um were supposed to receive inflation every year and during the Great Recession they didn't receive inflation um only on Transportation so that was um that was a settlement that Governor Ducey helped to move forward um but it does take more money from the state land trust uh so that is a big issue that we're going to be watching um if if they don't get a special election um the state is supposed to cover those expenses so we shouldn't have to cut our budget but we also have to think about renewal of the aggregate expenditure limit so those are kind of the things that are top of mind right now in the legislature and that is the end of my report but um I will say the breakfast was awesome and any opportunities we have to attend something in our schools it's always reward for um seeing how great our students and staff are doing thank you Miss humph uh let's talk about meeting dates Dr McCord thank you Mr President govering board members on January 31st in this room from 10 to 3 we will have a our very first board retreat so looking forward to seeing you all there February 4th is our board work study and brief board business meeting uh February 10th is our board policy committee meeting remember those start at 4:30 p.m.

in order to participate in the talent show students must attend an audition or make other arrangements staff may contact organizers CH Le and to have their app included access testing and by literacy during the week of January 5th to January 11th English learn learner student took the access test as required by the Massachusetts Department of Education to evaluate the progress they made in speaking English during the week of January 25th to February 1st bilingual students will be taking the AAP to show their Prof Proficiency in a language other than English students who meet the requirements will be awarded the Massachusetts state of bi literacy which will appear on their High School deployment NHS peer T tutoring initi initiative the GS National Honor Society has started a new program where members will help their fellow students with tutoring during wind blocks and doer School the goal of this program is is to provide individual support to struggling students and create a collaborative environment end of quarter two quarter 2 progress reports became available on January 2nd they can be viewed on both the student and family quarters quarter two ends today January 21st and quarter three ends starts tomorrow January 22nd jts connection game contest jts is hosting a NY connections Game Challenge that students and staff can participate in to win prizes the first winner was Armani ASA in grade 12 our first stop winner was Miss gji there will be a live connections competition on January 23rd MSPCA fundraiser the MSPCA fundraiser will continue into February donate towels and treats for animals at the MSPCA in the blue bin at room 4048 winter workout sessions varsity baseball coach Christopher Seer is holding optional workout sessions every Sunday from 2 p.m.

right now uh um the letters should be going out they will be going out for week we going to our state uh Representatives our state senators are are the mayors of the city our two cities and the town managers of our two towns and uh right now unless the committee doesn't want this but we would like to invite all the city councilors and all the town Selectmen as well so that they can get an update on everything that's going on at gos and then yourselves as well you'll be invited good this next one I will need to vote for boys and girls lacrosse Mr super so uh we're looking to we've had some interest in some of the students wanting to play play lacrosse but not enough to have our own team we've tried it and it we haven't gotten enough kids that want to be that want to participate in it so we're partnering we want to partner up with the cha Valley Technical High School and the innovation academy charter school which we already have one partnership for hockey with the SHA Valley Tech and it's really worked out well so we'd like to do a athletic Cooperative team agreement with Thea Tech OVA Valley Tech on this as well but we need a approval of the school committee to move forward in uh putting in making that happen so I just need a a vote from the committee to go ahead and go uh go into a contract to uh allow our kids and and this board happens in the spring John there's a number of schools in the capan area that don't have the numbers to make up so they Co-op as well yeah maybe our students coming from Lawrence area say never had played lacrosse before do we have a designated how many play will be on the team for uh I'm not sure at this time how many just that our athletic director has said there is sufficient interest that we should uh we did try to uh start a program uh on for the girls and we didn't get interested we did a club but I'm saying I'm looking at where the other schools are located or you know Innovation whatever they have already feeder programs in those communities Y which gives these kids an upper shot at playing yeah so I just wondering how does that impact our kids learning the game yet get being part of the well we'll have an agreement how many of our kids will be a part of the team okay yeah that's what we have that's fa yeah that's what we have so else I'd like you to note that letic director was already signed for this and uh our principal is already signed for this I think they like it okay so I make a motion to accept the coop team agreement a second please second second Mr any further discussion all those in favor opposed thank you soer field lease I will also need to vote on um I had brought this up to the committee uh in the past um know if was the last meeting or meeting before about leasing the last uh field we had phase four field uh which will be done uh well it's almost done now but uh it should have be completely done and ready for play next fall but um i' like to put it out the lease because we have some programs in the area they very interested in leasing uh in particular program Lawrence is very interested but we have to put it out on R because all programs have the right to to seek the opportunity to release the field so we're this gives you an outline explains to you what uh the proposal is that we're looking for from uh youth programing can outlin to it needs to be a youth program um and it has other criterias in this uh proposal you'll see here um but I'd like to put us put this out uh in order to lease that field uh um it's not a field we anticipate using much but if there is any free time we could use it uh we're looking for start times on the field at six o'cl so if we need the field for practice every day after school we still have access to the field uh and the use of the field will be on weekends and after schools uh after we're done using the fields then it becomes available for the lease whoever wants to lease it I think this says 5:00 but it's actually going to be 6:00 change the 64 goes out and um we also set um might have one change a decision whether put a minimum least number can I get a motion please can I ask a question oh sure I mean ra your hand um John this is the field beyond the artificial on the softball field it's yeah way out there it's not a turf field it's regular grass field y I just want to clarify that and I can make a motion too if you okay motion I have a second second all those in favor I opposed out ofate travel two of them I'm going to put them together for one vote they cost us nothing Mr those you want me to sure you can read them ter Cohen school counselor is requesting travel to the Marine Corps education Workshop Paris Island South Carolina April 1st April 4th 25 no cost to school second one M Rebecca Webster and Mr uh Jacob L uh 2025 class advises and students of the class of 2025 are requesting outstate travel to Cleon leing New Hampshire for an after school F trip to visit prom venue on January 24th no cost to the school can I get a motion I'll make a motion second second any discussion all those in favor iOS again I can't see your hand so say something here throw a cookie at me how about that next up admissions report is M Richardson it's just a conf where we're at with the numbers for admissions at this time nothing speaker EXC any questions on the admission report i' say the admissions is going well I think this one thing I would say is that our admissions ends has an end date this year I believe it's the the end of February so we have February 1 as the priority obligation deadline and then June first is final we're in P we've G longer so that we can get the process going quick sooner get people students notified sooner by closing up uh that doesn't mean kids can't still apply up until June yeah um on these uh transfers are these applications are they really coming in yeah these are just applications this nobody a question I have questions from residents ask me what is the process for a mission what are they based on on and obviously I don't know what to tell um and they say because my niece a by she have as good grade as my son and my son didn't get through and she got admitted and my son didn't get admitted do you know what exactly procedure for the admission is or you know what they expect I don't know what to say like I said I really don't necessarily know because if it hasn't been presented to me this is the Great I that we look for like I I don't so just I don't know so I don't know if we have it so that I can look into it I at least I can answer the residents you know that asked me this question and I used to get a lot of a lot of that the beginning of the you know when when you know people were apply so I I didn't know what to answer so asking for a copy of the mission policy it is on the website uh you can direct people to the website you they go to the admissions tab um there's a copy of the policy there out it lays out the whole policy the criteria how many points they get in each area um the the policy is looked at each year by the district committee it has to be approved every year and I think it was approved at the September meeting this year um so yeah the whole policy is there but do you need a a copy can I request copy be sent and and in Spanish as well so in Spanish yeah thank you if I can get I'll be appreciate excuse me please the transfers for 2027 is that full daytime or is that after yeah this is just regular so they be coming join us okay we don't take many but we do once in a while an opening District committee priorities Cory Sor brought to yeah so I think I know Janice came in earlier to uh give anyone an application and um it hasn't filled it out yet and and take a picture of your license I don't know some of you may not been here but she'll come again next week I mean the next meeting she'll come up uh few minutes before the meeting starts like 10 minutes or six and you can fill out the neighor with her she'll take proper your license we'll be on set so if you haven't had a chance to do that yet she'll come in next meeting and get that done any questions new business voted on committee roles in [Music] negotiations uh yes I mean I know there might be multiple people talking about this but I asked for clarification at the last meeting of the committee's RO in negotiations I already know what the role is I don't got to get told twice I already know what that role is but but there's some miscommunication on on what the role really is um and just to be quite honest before this meeting I sent an email asking for a former School Committee Member to come to the meeting to confirm to me their role in Union negotiations I was told by the superintendent through the chair that that we have no participation in Union negotiation unless we are asked now I have a problem with that because I feel like I was lied to there was dishonesty in in that play and I I don't appreciate that very much um so I want to ask what what is it that was communicated to me in the last meeting that's different now um um because to my understanding is we do have a role in negotiations in all at all negotiation tables one way or another um and at the last meeting I was told that we do not have a role that is a lie so I need that to be clarified um because that's not that's not what I'm understanding through Union perspective and that is not um that is not what was told to me in the last meeting and not only did the super not through you chair superintendent not only did you deceive the chair but you deceive me and other members in the body in this body by indicating that we do not have that role in negotiations and I just want that clarification first of all let me say that nobody lied to you if that's what you're getting from somebody on the outside they don't know what they're talking about I'm not getting well you wanted to invite somebody here to clarify what they do which is inappropriate in my mind because whatever he told you might be a lie I don't know but this is what I told you I told you in nego what we typically do in negotiating is superintendent negotiates has in the past negotiated contracts with the U typically it's been uh in the last few years it's been the HR Director has always been involved along with myself and sometimes the principal depending on what we're negotiating typically the committee did not get involved in the actual negotiation of the contracts when they when there was a inative agreement then we would bring it to the school committee I would explain it to the school committee that definitively agreed upon and I will give them updates which I have an update for you today in fact in an executive session and you would vote on contract now we have had some difficult uh negotiations in the past where the school committee then did get invite did come and if not me inviting anybody to be part of it it's the school committee's decision if they decide that they want to be participate so we had some uh negotiations in the past where the school committee felt as though they wanted to part participate because it wasn't getting done quick enough but they didn't feel comfortable with where we at so they voted to allow themselves to be part of the process that did happen that's the exact truth of the whole thing and that's what I told you if anyone told you something different then they're lying as far as I'm concerned but I'm not calling anybody a liar like you just did okay that's inappropriate and I personally don't like it because it's not true that's the bottom line so to sit here like I'm gonna just calm myself because it's inappropriate and it's just wrong that's what I told you if you interpreted something different that's on you but I can show you minutes of people when they came in and what they did I have no negot for the last 15 years I've negotiated at least every four every three years I've negotiated and until the last time around we had very few problems and never had to bring the committee in the last time was difficult with the administrators and also with the in the situation where um there were times when the committee invited themselves to which is fine it's their prerogative just like right now if the committee decides they want to be the PE they want to be involved in it they can be involved in it that's the truth of the matter and that's how it all fits okay just to clarify I'm not getting information from outside of this buy well I don't know where you get information that I li what again what you said is I li but where's your information coming from if you look at the meeting minutes from the last meeting it is clear well then maybe it's not written properly I don't know you have the clerk here recording I don't care who's here I'm telling you what I told you well what I what I am indicating to you superintendent is I feel like I've been lied to in the committee's role in negotiations I have a clear understanding were you talking about Li what was lie to you indicated in the last meeting that the committee does not have a role in negotiation no I never stated it that way I never St I was never stated that of course you have a role in negotiation I said you don't negotiate the contract with when I negot when we negotiate contracts with the other side that you that the committee typically didn't get involved in that that's what I said that's not a that's not saying you don't have a role you have a role at the point when that's when there's a tenative agreement that you have to agree that's a role in the negotiation you have the final say that's what that's the bottom line but that's not saying you don't have a role yes you have a role I said you don't have a and I never said you don't have a role I didn't even use that term you don't have a role because I wouldn't use that term I said that typically I negotiate with the uh HR Director that's what I said typically and that's true typically I do negotiate in since I've been in this job year after at every negotiations that can change any time if the commit wants to change it and I said the committee has come in at times and help finish up a negotiations which is true and that's what I said and when you said in the last meeting that no school committee member has joined negotiations and the chairish is there well I disagree with you I never said that I never said no school committeee no I absolutely told you that I know I told you that there has been time I know for a fact that I told you when there are when we had difficulties a Committee Member joined that I absolutely said that because that's the truth and I know what the truth is and that's what I told you when there is an issue negotiation but regardless we have when there was an it doesn't matter when when there's an issue or not we have a role in negotiations I never said you didn't have a role in negotiations I never said that whether you have an issueing negotiations or not we are to be at the negotiation table that's that's okay if you want to be but I never say you don't have a role that's absolutely wrong I never said that superintendent you have the right to disagree I'm telling you I'm telling you I never said that is that what the language says that you have no role that I said you had no role in it it might not be the exact words but minutes let me put my two cents in I might have said the last meeting that there hasn't been a Committee Member on the board I did it for 16 years and I was in part of the process to not have a committee man there because every meeting we had and I think there were 15 meetings we had a different School Committee Member there they weren't bothering they weren't listening they weren't doing anything we had agreed not to have them there and do direct negotiations with Mr Lavo now my contract I think I I got sick and I was out of here in 2020 so what have happened after that but it was common practice not to have a school Committee Member there that we would deal directly with Mr ly that being said if local 1707 contacted us and says Tom I'd like to have a member sit in on the committee I would respect that and I would take votes on who might want to go but you'd have to do all the meetings that's one thing I'd insist on a designated person and that's what I'm looking for is a designated person from the committee because I of right now there's no school committee M at that negotiation table I don't know what's going on in there and yes the superintendent is responsible for being that negotiation but who from the committee is in there there's nobody and it is clear in the training if you have done Charter in the courts it is clear that we have a role in collective bargaining and that's not what's happening right now and that is why I mentioned the fact that I was not told the truth in the beginning how many meetings are we into for the teachers of we're into for two meetings and there are no ground rules am I correct there was no ground rule meeting that's right there have no ground rules can I make a suggestion because we're into it for two meetings that we get in touch with the president the local 1707 and uh request a presence of the school committee you you don't need do that you don't have to ask them you can just come but because we're into it for two meetings doesn't matter I would like to ask them you know L to there's no Brown news they bring they can bring people in they've done it in the past they don't ask me they just bring them that's you can I can ask him I can tell him I'll tell him what I'm not going to ask him I'm going to tell him we don't need to ask him we'll tell him that we if a school committee wants to be part of the negotiation that's fine all they have to do is vote that they're going to do that and I'll let them know that the school committee will be attending but I don't have to ask them I don't we don't leave their permission motion motion to designate a member of the committee to Union negotiations a second second I'm sorry I I got a motion I got a second do we have any more discussion I mean just a piggyback on what jul had said I it didn't happen last last week so because I didn't bring it up because I got an answer and my answer was both of you is that um it hasn't been done in the past and any issues that occurred that needed school committee input would be brought here that's basically what I was told when this all started about negotiations so I left and I was on everyone so I mean I didn't pursue it again but I am reading there are things here the last meeting mean certain words that we use that were not are not in here okay all those in favor or you want to do a separate vote separate Mr Mahia yes Mr Mercedes yes Mr tbox no Miss Ferris yes Miss TLA yes Mr Jones yes Mr Hayden yes moving on table matters before you move on who's going to be the representative good question before we move on who's going to be the representative keep in mind I'm going to insist on somebody goes to every meeting or we have an alternate that will go I mean everybody has a life something happens some some don't know can I na it nail it down to Chairman Vice chair nobody wants to volunteer we vote on who he's going to go so are you indicating having an alternate or one person just in case if it's you and something happens in your family you can't make that day okay I just want to leave it open I'm not saying you don't want to go just saying life happens is good I think I like that somebody else as long as we agreed on requesting if I'm if we get him he calls STS call you call me and I don't know anybody as long as one of us is there I guess all right so let's make a motion thr any name it that the Hat Vice chair and Marie Edison and I'll throw my name in how going take a vote on show um let's who did first one wants uh who wants to vote for uh Julio he was first you're second so we we're going to appoint a principal person and one alternate correct okay we're going to appoint all right you raise your hand first all those in favor for uh Vice chair to be on it all going take a v write down chair Mr Jones yes Mr Mahia yes Mr Mercedes yes Mr toox I already said no but also yes M yes M tler yes Mr Hayden yes second hand up was I'm sorry Mrs F just take the vote see m dler yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mahia yes Mr Mercedes yes Mr TX yes M Ferris yes Mr Hayden yes Mr Mercedes M Ferris I said I'm not voting on four individuals to be on the [Music] people raise their hand let's narrow down in case in case you guys can go we we'll be able to we're g go from second so this is for Mr Mercedes Miss F yes Miss dley yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mia yes Mr Mercedes yes Mr tab Mr yes myself please Mr yes Ferris yes M dla Mr Jones yes Mr Mia yes Mr Mercedes yes Mr yes so now we got four of us back where we started suggestion it would be that way because we're voting for and nobody wants to say no I mean those were all exactly the same so you can go round and round all night they're all going to be the same that's why they am confused theide by the four of us I mean I'm open for suggestions or the chair is going to pick it I mean we at the stem the che sorry I thought we were voting first place second place third and four as alter that's what I thought then if she can go then I that's what I thought you voting for people who wanted the position we're accepting the position the four of us accepted the position chair's going to pick it chair's going to what the chair is going to pick it if we can't decide Mr I I thought when we decided when you suggested it I thought you were you know for him but it said you said what if the four got accepted for the job okay but we only need two you went wrong you accepted us for the job Vice chair any suggestions I'm suggesting to be the principal and Adar to be the alternate make a motion to steal me I want to move on this doesn't make any sense what's going on I'm sorry you want a presence at the local 1707 table and you make this is serious we made four mushrooms right now and we all confused about the musroom this is doesn't make sense let's make a motion that makes sense so I agree with I think you mentioned that that we were voting for who's going to be first and then the second so we did four vote and I thought that it was for the principal for the second and then the other two that are going to be open and we're done I thought that we were done that's what I was voting for votes I was doing was to accept the four people who want to accept and and that's same sequence the sequence where there was voting for principal then who the the second person and the two that are going to be out I think we already did that that's what I thought I was I was Voting but then he say Mr Sher saying that he's going to out the side what is what is the decision for I have a mo on the floor I don't have to decide Sugg chair I think we decided that was be the Principal we selected three alternates that is what we moved up to my understanding it was my understanding we accepting the four people who were running for the vote that was the vote now we got to accept who's going to be the primary and who's going to be the secondary so one there down to two now we only want the two okay do we want more than two people on the Comm to go are you looking for is a set ofas as I said I was F being the principal person all right so we're going to vote you want to be the principal and the second as the alterate make the motion yeah a motion for myself for the vice chair to be principal U the principal person for negotiation and and Marie feris say alterate second second thank you follow those uh any discussion Please Mr Mercedes yes Mr TBO yes M Ferris yes M TLA sure Mr Jones yes Mr Mia yes Mr sure all right that t m personel consideration report resignation Mark Advanced manufacturing instructor effective 22825 Victor Wood director of Technology effective 1325 Cassandra aella clerical designer specialist effective 3125 leaves of absences n retir none appointments we have two Kathleen B H multilingual instructure effective 225 John horen konian licensed effective 1725 job postings visual design and production coordinator non rep position 60 to 70,000 effective immediately new position see attached this position is to replace Cassandra aella design that's to replace the clerical design it's a new it's it's a different title and it's not a union all right um I'm going to put the three of them in there for one vote if that's all right if we have a problem we stop there instructor for science of reading professional development courses this is a stifen position for 4500 per course it is funded by Title One Grant from January to May 2025 see attached new position LTS which is uh longterm sub physical education January through June 2025 daily sub pay assistance PE teachers with large classes assists with supervision to ensure safety of all students cover PE classes when there is an absent teacher position can I get a vote on all three of those please can I get a motion for three of them or do you want to break them down and have questions no can I just ask one question first one visual design production coordinated I have a motion for that motion to post accept second sir all those in favor all right any discussion the next one is instructor of science reading professional development course it's a Sten position can I get a motion for that one I'll make a motion accept second Mr Tom got the second discussion all those in favor say I I opposed uh the long-term sub position for physical education can I get a motion on that one can I ask a question sure is it strictly for or exclusively for all physical education and this long-term sub may be used someplace else as times when they're not doing anything is um yeah so I don't see why we couldn't do that if there's a a need somewhere that's desperately needed and they're not covering the class so they can go support that okay okay in that case I make a motion to accept I got a motion on the floor let's get a second then I'll open discussion second we'll make the uh job description reflective of that that's not in the job posting but we'll make a change in the posting what you just said discussion yeah where is this January to June is this like temporary that it's cover somebody out on the maternity or well we've had yeah some maternity yeah we have somebody out on maternity long term right now yeah so that they've been covering yeah okay anybody else yeah well again I know that he Mr already said he's going to put in job description because we want to make sure that they don't try to say they want more money because they're doing something else that's no we have a set we have a set pay for long-term Subs it's a set pay it's not a it's in it's already determined in our contract I just want protect us they for is for physical education something else but already put in words that they can do something else be great and the salary be posted so with that language so if they not in it and they don't apply all in favor opposed and I get a motion to uh go to exec [Music] discussion all those in favor I session e e e all right an open session I like to make a motion not to accept the Personnel proposal proposal by the administration second second discussion all those in favored so there a motion to accept the proposal okay okay hi let's call a vote now let make Mr Mia yes Mr Mercedes yes Mr Tabo yes M Ferris yes m dla yes Mr Jones yes Mr yes pleas stand motion toour all those in favor I second

five is 50% of that that one position that was used to be fully funded yes so by so next year it'll be covered by the grant 50% of it will be covered by the Grant and I'm looking to cover 50% of it in this budget okay um the uh you gave a statistic on your outpatient cost uh right I'm sorry outpatient out of District uh cost was was that a typo or was that that say $150,000 per student was that correct it's like it said 122,000 and then 12275 plus Transportation plus the $ 37,3 for transportation that was that's average per student per student okay just making sure um and then um lastly the uh you're asking for an additional 215,000 for out placement tuition out placement so that's well I guess now two students I guess so is that anticipated for next year or is that a precautionary ask oh it's anticipated we have we have um we have some students right now that we're looking for out of District placements but the process of finding an out of District placement has um become a lengthier process um in some cases it it it takes us more than half the school year to um find uh an opening of a placement that we feel is appropriate and going to meet the needs and parents are happy with too we try to work in collaboration in determining what that placement is um it's many of our placements for students that have um behavioral needs are full um I called a couple places about a week or so ago and was told that they were starting their waiting list for the 25 26 school year because they had a waiting list for this year already so there that's an anticipation of knowing that we have needs is a you know point of comparison too Adam that you know Vin mentioned that we were reviewing some of the outplacement data today uh all this stuff is dated because anytime you're pulling State data uh there's a lag yeah but it's been you know uh viewed and vetted and you know it's legit so um looking back to 223 school year which is the most uh recent comparative data that we have of all the durby school systems we had the second least outplaced students at nine at that time um Rocky Hill which is a a smaller District had eight um Rocky Hill has 2 200 students at that time and at the time we had um 4198 so you know we're very sensitive and we that's why we've Divi designed you hear that sticker price and it blows your socks off and we said with that same money we can give an in town experience to kids at a which is better for them uh not just from a traveling perspective but from a belonging perspective we can do it better uh in many cases uh at a more cost effective way so we design internal programs to do that there's a cost to that but it's it's substantially lower than what we're paying on the average outplacement cost um and for our students who are outplaced their needs are certainly more significant and we wouldn't be doing right by them uh in District so those are students who who certainly need outplacement cost but you look at you know another comparable District in terms of size to chesher like simsberry you know they had 31 outplay students at a cost of uh 4 million plus so you know I think what we've done is strategically uh for the benefits of our kids but also economically tried to provide high quality in-house programs you're going to see cost one way or another but I think this is a better cost uh better expenditure cost for kid outcomes and for uh and for economics um when when we explore that one more question so Robin I'm sure you know there's a special ed task force that was empowered last year and they've come out with a bunch of recommendations in one of them is they want districts to look at their neighboring districts and see if one District could provide a program for and someone else could provide you know and then you would share those students have you had an opportunity to look into that yet because I I think we'll be asked um and and the task force report is out and available it's brand new um and I don't expect you have to with everything else on your plate I downloaded it I mean it might be something in the future to think about yeah um because do have a good recommendation um you know yeah um you know the quu program the quu transition Bridge To Life program um when it uh was originally designed it was um with the intent that we would um have students from other districts uh pay tuition into it and and be part of that program what I have found is we have a cap on how many students quu gives us a cap on how many students we can have in that program and that cap is 12 next year we'll have 11 students in that program and the following year we'll have 10 students that so it's we've been filling our programs um but you know if it came to a point where we weren't filling I absolutely would work with another district and see if there was a way we could share cost um at one point uh their W wallingford's transition program was utilizing some of our space at quu and we did collaborate on that and share cost um but then we got to big and we couldn't host them anymore so I think it's a little bit as we sit here today A little bit of a catch22 because we're trying to design right siiz programs right for the students in our population uh to your point uh Miss Cullen and I think we're going to collaborate more with other districts as we forecast what is that right siiz population knowing our strengths um all right well we could add another section here uh potentially avoid an outplacement and collaborate with Southington and wingford for example and pull in three students and then now it's right sized for that whole population um so it's right now we haven't been designing programs with openings in mind per se aside from the qu option that we delivered the other thing is that um I know superintendent and PPS directors have been clamoring for uh the state department of Ed to review some practices adopted by other states to help kind of contain costs on outplacement and uh just today uh commissioner Russell Tucker announced that they were going to undertake that so um you know I I know this has drawn the attention of politicians across the state it's been a a long growing challenge for PPS directors districts uh and so we're uh optimistic hopefully that uh the legislature will do some things to help alleviate some of the stress that is caused right now Financial stress and parental stress and professional stress right it might be a good time for us to look into it too because there is supposedly some Financial backing for a district that would undertake even if it's you know a program that we we just you know try to start up and um invite other districts to participate with us but yeah right now we'd be looking at you know even Middle School is probably a little bit tight High School uh space is a little bit more available our biggest problem right now is space at the elementary K to K but um you know as we move uh there could be some space freed up which would be real really nice uh for programming and economics um this question really is directed to Jeff so you're off the hook for a minute um so when do we find out because I have been seeing a lot of emphasis from the state legislature um for funding more to the municipalities for the special ed programming and um I'm wondering when we when do we find that out that'll be a while um so it's it's going to be more like when our budget gets to the town right um it's not going to be something we're uh going to be apprised of until we can build into thisd yeah spring no this is spring you know um uh I'll I'll address that a little bit more when I make remarks later thank you Robin thank you very much I always appreciate your in-depth um analysis and presentation I just have a point of clarification um the request for the transportation does that not go into the transportation budget though for the vehicle that you stated yeah it does it's budgeted in a transportation line but it's still identified as a cost of specialed no she's talking about the van the van that was the 2016 that wasn't included in the budget no yeah no that wasn't included in this it's not included at this point right okay um and I think to uh miss Colin and's point if we can kind of get the um delineation of um I was looking at kind of year over-year first thing was to try to see how many kids without being identifiable um how many kids transition out versus them you know coming or being identified for special ed services so if there's some sort of um report that you can kind give us at all I think you gave it to us a couple years ago but I might I when we were seeing a lot of that growth um as the the housing developments were coming open and being occupied we were seeing a lot of that growth but um in looking at it we're also noticing that or at least I remember from that that we're not just growing in special ed we're growing in the Gen Ed population and it was pretty commensurate with that yeah I think when we're looking at the special cost year-over-year we're we're just looking at the increases and within that number from 675 to 680 this year or projected for next year where in between how many exited versus how many you know entered through that system so there's some way again without being identifiable I totally understand that aspect of it um and the percentage of spending uh like Miss gullin had asked in the regular Ed setting as well too if we can get that information um I I put that qu because I I somebody had already asked you but I think we do a great job trying to you know keep our kids in District as much as possible and I re recognize that you know a lot of things are driven by the IAP um which we can't control necessarily at all so um outside of that you know I love the theory and I again Express that it's theory that it's nice to collaborate with our neighbors but I also feel as though I don't want other districts to be dependent on us you know we have come up with some really innovative ideas and so forth so I I'm looking forward to see exactly what the state has to offer um because you know I think our services and our programming is pretty top-notch MH I agree y Mr gripple sorry I did have one more question um your predecessor used to give us a report on the mental health of the general ed students so we've talked a lot about special ed tonight but um in your professional opinion uh how is the uh mental health of our general ed students I think that our students are very well versed in coping strategies I think you know we've done a lot with mindfulness and talking about the different strategies taking space I think they have increased their understanding of when and how to ask for supports um I think that also um they you know our staff is getting better and better at implementing strategies um they're always looking for new ways to support students um I think their collaboration with outside providers is um they do a really great job of doing that as well um one of the things that we are we've been working on I mentioned to you are at risk assessments that we do so the data that you're talking about that um the previous director would often provide is our at risk data on threat assessments self- injury and suicide ideation and um I so I've been doing some work with our counselors and our school psychologists and our social workers um because in looking at that data and if you begin to drill down and tease into it um I was finding that there was first of all I think there was a misunderstanding as to when it's the time to pull out that assessment and to begin to go through that with a student um identifying those times um for those situations um some of the what I was Finding is is that students especially of the younger population will throw out and say things like uh out of anger out of losing on the playground out of being upset with their friend because they wouldn't share something and these um making statements that are concerning um and then you know we conduct our assessment so I think that some of that really um if you didn't know that that's what some of what was increasing some of those numbers if you didn't drill down into that then um you in some cases I think you would you would be concerned about the numbers are they really growing are they really growing or are we assessing more and more students um more frequently um even in cases where that student may be demonstrating some anger management struggles coping Str you know how to how to cope with with disappointment um so some of our training that we're doing this year is looking at those assessments we revised them our our suicide ideation form we revised it um regulations came out that uh we needed to have a screener one of which was suggested it was the Colombia screener for suicide ideation and so we've Incorporated that into our forms now and we're working with the staff on how do you go about using that form um what what are the situations that you would bring that form out and in using that form too we're able to quickly assess what's going on and determine this is not a viable um risk so we can then follow up with the student in a different way than I would if a student was at an extreme risk risk or something so that's where that that I felt like that data is it's it's really difficult to say it's the pure data you know what I'm saying it's clean data um and so now I'm hoping that with working with the staff in understanding when you're going to pull out those assessments under what circumstances how can we clean it so that we know yes we filled this out but it's not a viable situation that we need to take further steps with and yes this is a situation where we need to take further steps with um so that's what I'm hoping to do before I start looking at those numbers again so thank you you're welcome no more questions I think that's it okay up next sorry vny you told me to be quick I'm sorry nice work [Applause] so we're still on instructional expense that was part a of instructional expense and now I'd like to introduce Marlene Solano our assistant superintendent who will take you through curriculum and instruction see worked are we ready for curriculum in the back so I'm here tonight to highlight for you a little bit about my small part of the budget which we're terming curriculum and instruction so let's break it down into a couple of different parts first is overall our curriculum which includes English language arts reading and writing Math Science Social Studies all of the general music instrumental music I won't read the slide but you get the picture it encompasses everything that we teach here in the schools it also encompasses curriculum development which includes a lot of research and finding out about best practices and keeping that really at the Forefront of any new um educational instructional practices that are out there and then of course there's curriculum writing and selection of resources another part of that is implementing the curriculum which is all about professional development our own professional development the administrator's professional development teachers paraeducators and this includes a lot of time and it also includes compensation the other is curriculum resources and that includes not just textbooks but it also includes boring things like subscriptions that hold are the holding place for for a lot of the work that we do and then finally there's assessment so I know especially my folks who are here from the curriculum uh committee we do a lot of talking about the five-year curriculum review process and part of our curriculum Team Works on listening to those reports we have an entire CCC team which is the chesher curriculum Council of which we have members from across the district sit on this committee and they hear from subcommittees of folks let's say in um social studies or in math people who have done an evaluation of the program so they're evaluating that program and they're surveying parents and students and staff teachers and they're looking at Best Practices and they're doing some research and they're looking at our curriculum to see what about it needs fixing cuz it's very good but we want to keep it fresh and we want to make sure that we're changing with the times the other thing that we do when we pull people together is talk about what's the next textbook that we need to be looking at this year we're looking at a US history textbook and that in in incorporates um time and getting people together around a table to do this research so for example if we have um our eure curriculum that we that we looked at a number of years ago we had to pull folks from all the grade levels kindergarten through fifth grade we had to get their opinions about it we had to research different programs that were out there so sometimes that can be done during school hours and we can get subs to cover that work that we do other times it's a little more difficult if we have a middle school and a high school curriculum that we're looking at let's say Algebra 1 it's taught in two places so in those cases we might need to pay folks to come in after school when they are you know outside of their contracted day and that might cost us a small fraction of $40 per hour doing that research the other thing that we have is a curriculum library and I wanted to show you that library today because it's something that we've been working on and I'm going to show you the elementary because the elementary is where we're really strong I must be logged in is Vinnie and Vinnie doesn't have access to our curriculum library this is so sad if you went through this and if I was able to have it working properly you'd see that all of our curriculum documents are internal documents for teachers if we hire a new teacher tomorrow they can come in and they would have access to this library with all of the lesson plans generally and links and access as to what our standards are what we're teaching what we need to be teaching from month to month week to week when our assessments are given Etc we're trying to build upon this and make sure that we have this available for Middle School teachers and high school teachers it exists in some fashion but it doesn't look as as slick as this should have looked when I pulled it up there for you then I'm having trouble getting out of it help me out yep okay there we go and then the last thing which I won't go into you've heard me talk a lot about the curriculum writing Institute that's one place where we write curriculum but we also can't always do everything there so there are some um pieces that need to get done outside of those spaces so the next part is curriculum resources and I don't list them all here but I wanted to give you a little a little bit of a flavor of what the money in the budget that's targeted towards instructional expenses and curriculum resources goes to so the first one that we have listed here is the one I used as an example it is Eureka Math Eureka Math is the resource the program that we use in kindergarten through grade five as an example that's one of our bigger ticket items it's $135,000 when last we paid for it another example is I ready for seventh and eth grade that's running at about the $40,000 Mark so then we have things like TCI bring science alive that we've had for too long now we're looking for other solutions to that and that's one of the reasons why we've engaged our science teacher coaches another is what you approved this year which is the human anatomy and physiology textbook which also exists within an online platform so and many of these resources which were in the past just the textbook that you lug back and forth every day are now just part of a platform that exists so students can go online they don't have to take the textbook back and forth they could click on videos and and other resources that are within that platform as you call it another is zern zern is a math resource our teacher of the year a few years ago used to use this partially in her classroom and partially for homework it was a great activity a great platform for students to get some extra practice to deepen their skills or for students who had some um intervention needs to practice it give them an opportunity to practice at home or to self- select to do that so that's zern we also have that World Language lab up at chesher high school that runs on a special kind of um subscription so that it keeps updated and that it's a nice resource that the high school has that they can practice and hear and speak to the voice in the in the in the computer and they have headphones there we had a showcase there many years ago so we're continuing Al though that was new years ago we're still continuing to support that resource for students others are um Capstone which is a virtual book resource so it's again practice for reading both at school and at home fact site which is sort of um a a relatively new subscription that we've been using that sort of is um along the lines of the Old World Book Encyclopedia and then our classroom libraries which I know you and our Town Council have heard me talk about because we've tried to defray some of that cost by going and using some of the PEC Jones money so then we have our library books that are in individual School libraries and we have lots and lots of consumable materials and I only highlighted a few here that were um for Science and this one happens to be science at the high school so they're needing to buy chemicals and dissecta bles and mineral and rock samples and then in fifth grade I believe it's still fifth grade we have owl pellets owl pellets for whatever reason and however gross that might sound are expensive and their kids like to use them but they always hit principal's budgets and people are always clamoring for the need of more owl pellets [Laughter] so then we have our instructional subscriptions and these are um less sexy to talk about but this is like the SMART Notebook software that's loaded on every computer in the district that enables students to go up to and touch the Smartboard so it becomes more interactive it's where the teachers create all of their lessons it's what they leave for the sub when they can't be there it's what they use on a daily basis and they're constantly um revising those then there's power school I know we've heard a lot about Power School lately but Power School is where so many of our things live it gives you the contact information and birth dates and grades and absence notifications for every student within our care we it's also where we pay for an add-on that enables us to do report cards in the way that we in chesher do report cards which looks different from elementary to Middle School to high school and also in kindergarten lastly under that same umbrella for power school we have something that's called performance matters and that's a a silly name for a data warehouse that takes all of our students assessment data so when they take a Eureka assessment or they take um a um um a reading assessment all of those things are housed in one place so that when we sit down and data teams and we look at how students are doing we're able to get a holistic picture of exactly where they've been and where we think they're going and we're able to Target our interventions whether those are teacher to student interventions whether there's those are coaching needs of of teachers but we follow those Trends and so performance matters is you know something you probably would never hear of or kids would never even know about but it really supports all of the work that our teachers do every day another one is School links School links is something that the high school uses this actually I give credit to Michelle KUSI up at the high school she was able to look at navian and didn't like the service that we were getting from them and so she did this lovely presentation to Jeff and I about how School links would be better we were one of the first um high schools in the state to Pilot this and now lots of other schools are coming along it's a better price point this platform allows teachers to make recommendations College recommendations for high school students it's also chalk full of career videos and different Pathways for students to learn about and it's where students apply for colleges so it's connected to the Common App we video is a video editing software where when we're not asking students to write their examples in this very Savvy age of of that we're all living in that students need to know how to navigate they can create these videos movies to represent the things that they're learning they have a lot of fun with that and that is something that can be used in library media classes it can be used in science classes research classes the Adobe suite which I'm sure many of you are familiar with such as photosop and illustrator and then um kind of a a nonf fun one is Destiny Destiny is a kind of the digital card catalog for our library it's a library management software where we can pull histories of books and find out which ones are in circulation and helps us to weed them out and also um keep track of of lending not All Is Lost some of the things that we use are actually free so the Google Suite Google workspace for Education that is something that comes free to us also another tool called canva canva is an online design platform it's a place where students can create visual content they can do presentations make posters create Graphics so a lot of this we're asking them to um make models of things that they're learning about and it's a fun way to do that so these are some of the Hands-On ways that students are really utilizing some of these um instructional resources that we have um clever is a digital learning platform that provides single sign on so if you think about all of the passwords that you have and all of the logins we want to make it super quick for kids to log on to all of our resources and so clever is one of the ways that we're able to expedite that also free so you had asked a question earlier about other sources of funding and while there these are certainly not to the same extent or the same amount as some of the funds that Miss kriy takes care of the title grants do give us some additional funding to pay for things so title one is about $153,000 that really helps us with intervention and student support a lot of that is salaries a little bit of it is supplies and a little bit of it is um either Consultation Services or other supports for teachers um title two which is not in there is very small at about $57,000 title three right now is 177,000 and that is to um support our multilingual Learners with support our teachers with professional development vment and coaching we have this great summer enrichment program for our youngest Learners where they visit the post office and they um know how to buy a stamp and address a letter and they visit the the um fire department and the library and get a library card so it really acclimates them to our town the Perkins career in technical education grant is another that we use a lot of that money goes towards transportation and field trips we bought equipment with that particularly to help defay the cost of the manufacturing equipment in the CTE lab we also pay for curriculum revision out of that and um club stiens and then pet Jones which we we've talked about before and the Cheshire Education Foundation which graciously helped us purchase robots for our fourth and fifth grade stem units this year those we were so grateful to have those two science teach coaches that were employed this year where the need was in fourth and fifth grade so our next slide brings us to curriculum implementation and here's where I'd like to talk to you a little bit about professional development all of our professional development is geared towards improving instruction and increasing student engagement so everything is around hqi high quality instruction and we use high quality instruction to get get to what you have approved as our our focus on social emotional learning and complex thinking and so that for this past couple of years has incl included ongoing reading professional learning all related to the science of reading or all the way back to the National reading panel it's include a lot of work I feel like a broken record whenever I'm talking with all of you about professional development and Consultation Services through the Connecticut Science Center because that we've done so much with Next Generation science standards both for our administrative team for our elementary coaches and then with a particular Focus as of late on chesher high school and DOD teachers it's also been a focus a satellite Focus dedicated to implementing or implementing curriculum writing the curriculum around those standards that's what a big lift it has been so that is a continued Focus for us um in addition is math you know that we um are now using I ready so that there's been some focus last year and this year on I ready professional development we've also engaged with a coach through partners for educational leadership who's done individual and group coaching with our Math teachers at DOD and um my goodness I'm totally forgetting what the conferences was oh we've sent people to conferences specifically on instructional strategies I know some of the folks in this audience audience also have been to Peter Lil jal's strategies about um making thinking visible teaching math it applies not just to math but we've certainly been there and been present for his wonderful sessions on um making thinking visible um in addition we've focused a lot on instructional practices we've trained significant number of our teachers in coaching and we have sent them to a 3-day training through partners for educational leadership on that they also have gone to building thinkings classroom training and we're bringing another group at the high school to Next Level instructional leadership and that is going to be our core for Department chairs for ELA math science and social studies Along with Dan tardelli and Moren Reed and myself in February and then coming up in March we are having a um full day on artificial intelligence and how teachers can be using that as a tool and how they can best make durable tasks using AI so that kids can't snap a picture of it on their phone and answer the questions but they're durable not vulnerable um to cheating but actually help support our initiative to make students complex thinkers so that is another place where our our time energy and money is going so a lot of times I get um emails about money that's going towards assessments and so the assessments that we're paying for are wrapped up in our I ready program uh PSATs at the high school for 9th 10th and 11th graders pass which you've heard us speak on frequently which we implemented last year which is really helping us Zone in on those needs those social emotional learning needs of students in kindergarten through 12th grade especially a support for our teachers gives them information gives our principes information on which they can then write school-based goals and also gives our school counselors lots of information to really accurately pinpoint either their individual counseling services or their group counseling services not to mention looking at tier one supports where the counselor goes into the classroom and provides instruction to the whole class edulastic is part of our Eureka assessments for Math and then I was thinking of other things such as when students apply for the Seal of biliteracy the um dependent on their language and the assessment we also pay for that for them to take that exam and then the others that I listed here those are all free they're all you know because they are required in mandated assessments by the state of Connecticut so now let's talk a little bit about Staffing so you know we we you've heard how much work we do and how significantly and seriously we take looking at what are the needs in our in our district at every level and So currently for curriculum Staffing we have Mr Kevin hanin who is our K8 curriculum coordinator and Kevin is an administrator and he is an evaluator of a significant group of teachers as part of that he oversees curriculum coaches and in our district we have one reading consultant for all of our elementary schools and we have one math consultant again districtwide for the elementary students and we have six curriculum coaches or Rams we have one at each Elementary School we actually have two at Highland because of its size and one of those women actually heads over to Darcy and is um assisting Kim desert over there with some instructional practices at the teacher level and I want to stress that our curriculum coaches are teachers but those that middle group that I just listed there they don't have a teaching responsibility meaning they do not teach a class every day rather they are spending their time working with teachers coaching teachers supporting teachers helping teachers find materials they are working with students who are need are in need of intervention sometimes giving the teacher those um strategies and those materials that the teacher needs to instruct that student in class they also over see our literacy our learning support teachers who are typically non-certified so they are have oversight over that and making sure that those intervention plans are carried out they are incredibly hardworking and incredibly busy and so while they don't have a class their days are chalk full it's just not in the same way that a teachers day is full because of their range of responsibilities so then we get up to the the Middle School and the high school and with those those curriculum support folks they are people who are teaching every day so they're in the classroom teaching math and teaching Ela and they are there as a support but they are less available to provide support to teachers and students simply because they have a group of students that they're accountable to every day so at the middle school they are released one period of the day and then um they are given a stipend and at the high school they are released two periods of the day and also receive a stipend excuse your battery's about to die ah thanks vny so it looks a little bit different based on the grade levels so if you take a look I'm going actually show you this in three different ways just to give you an idea and and Visually show you this differently so prek through six if you think about the support that Kevin provides Ides plus the support of those Rams and coaches looking at seven grade levels and four subjects plus making sure we're addressing the needs of MLS the FTE is about 8.15 if you look at grades seven and eight and you look at the two grade levels with four subjects and taking care of the needs of MLS you're looking at an FTE of about 1.125 grade nine four grade levels for subjects and here I only put in the math and and science because that's related to the ask tonight plus you're talking about not just those subjects but you're talking about all the elective courses all the AP courses the ECE courses which are for Yukon credit so you're talking about in science 25 unique courses math 23 unique courses so even if we say an extra 20 each in social studies and and Ela it's a significant number of courses if you're thinking about curriculum and textbook to go with each of those courses so here's another way of looking at it if you look at this slide you could see in blue are the core courses light blue are the core courses and then those curriculum leadership people are next to that in the dark blue so we clearly I mean it kind of speaks for itself the thing here is that we know that we've been very successful with our elementary model we see it in all of the data that we have we see it in the state standardized testing that comes back we see it in the quality work samples that the the students produce on a daily basis and we know how those teachers feel and we know that about the access that they have to supports when they need it supports and coaching here's just one more way to look at it the green is Elementary on the left are the course offerings and the content areas and then you have the curriculum leaders I'm sorry the green is the high school forgive me it's really tiny up here and I my my uh progressives aren't the best I guess so um on the left hand side are the courses Elementary in Green Middle School in blue in red high school and green so there's definitely a need here in our opinion so for the budget request for next year the money that is put into this piece of the pie will go towards a new United States history textbook at the high school it will also go to a new Algebra 1 Resource which we are in the process of vetting it will hopefully be used towards a replacement screening tool a universal screener for reading which we've talked about in curriculum and additional science supplies now that we have the science coaches at the elementary school they have been so excited about the new aggro science unit that um one of of the the women actually dragged her husband out and they went out and dug up soil samples loaded them into their car and brought them here when we turn this when we turn this unit over to the teachers next year I don't know that every teacher is going to be able to go and and you know procure different soil sources so we might have to look um look to one of our local nurseries to help us um with that and and and figure that out but um those are some of the the new things that we'll be using the money in this request for next year as far as Staffing you know that we have a request on the table for a 9 through 12 science and math coordinator and the reason for that is we are looking to alleviate some of the evaluation burden on the high school teacher High School administrators some of them today are evaluating up to 28 teachers it's just not sustainable and to spend the kind of time that you need to with a teacher and give them the support they need when you have 28 the way it's set up it's ch it's a challenge we're looking at this science and math coordinator to do all of the things that Mr hanin does k through eight that is to be coaching teachers to be coordinating the curriculum planning professional development along with myself and Mr hanin what running point on textbooks that are selected in math and science the way Kevin and I work that K through 8 we're looking at curriculum revision to help the teams prioritize what those needs are we're looking that to them to help Implement that curriculum and give feedback we're looking at for them to attend data team meetings the way our current structure is set up if you're teaching every day you can't be at all of your colleagues data team meetings and provide that support we're looking for them to keep up with the latest research and best practices and we need them to collaborate with Middle School on the all of this programming and to keep an eye out for the needs of our multilingual Learners so that sort of concludes my slice of the pie on all things curriculum I'm happy to take any questions that you may have go ahead um a quick quick question um do we see a future for a 9 through 12 social studies and what's what's Ela yeah curriculum coordinator ideal an this would be a part of that grand plan to have a humani counterpart at the high school to handle the others the other those other pieces at this point the reason why we're asking for the Science and Math First is we've been working really very hard on trying to make some shifts um at the high school regarding Math and Science and we've seen some really great progress um particularly in in science but we're not where we need to be and and really when we look at that the the hole in the support system seems to be this piece thank you yeah hi Marlene thank you for the presentation you're welcome um so help me understand what this coord Ator will be doing as opposed to what uh chairs of departments do sure that's a great question analysis and teacher evaluation yeah so our department chairs don't do evaluation that's all done by the administrators and so some of some of the um place we see this person being instrumental is as a Content area expert and as someone who can be in the classrooms observing as a as as a support as a coach as someone who could be at their what they call plc's or personal um professional learning communities those data team meetings that's someone who can be who can be present for those and provide that support the reason it's different from our department chairs is because the department chairs they just physically can't be in all those places number one they're not evaluating the staff and number two they're teaching so if you want our colleagues you know I might be we might be free at different times you might be teaching while I'm teaching I can't get into your classroom to really shoulder-to-shoulder with you help and support I can't know your students right because I'm getting to know my own I sorry I just had to follow up um so how is so this coordinator is evaluating what the teachers are teaching as because like earlier in the year we talked about self-evaluation for teachers and how you know and all of that and how they have to to coordinate that sort of thing that's different than what this is no that that is one and the same so we we have evaluations which are not a teacher going in and raiding you so if you came into evaluate me you would wouldn't be saying I was a certain number rather this person this curriculum coach going in is going to be able to give you some feedback you're going to reflect on on your feedback you're going to set your own goal but that coaching piece is a a piece that is missing in the in the breadth of the way we'd like it to happen because of the logistics and being able to take some of that responsibility the meetings the the goal setting meeting the midyear meeting the reviews of practice um the sitting in on those data team meetings is something that the administrative team could use some relief from and it's something that the the teachers would like someone who has a depth deeper despite the fact that we know that instruction is instruction and you don't need to be a Content expert to evaluate someone it is helpful particularly in the area of math and because Math and Science are tied together it it's it's more of bouncing ideas off one another as to how you can do this and how you can get better and so having someone who knows that is is I think um a breath of fresh air for a teacher and um have you evaluated um uh uh using a consultant versus a permanent position yeah so we've been using consultants in various capacities I you've heard me talk a lot about bringing in folks coaches from the Connecticut Science Center and the year that we had those coaches come in and they spent a significant amount of time shoulder toosh shoulder with um the science teachers at the high school not saying that was the only thing because we did a number of things but that's the year we saw the biggest bump in growth in our ngss scores so why not continue that versus a permanent position well because we still want to continue to grow and because th that resource is no longer available to us we actually hired one of the people who used to work for them as our science coach at the elementary school okay thank you and just finding someone who can who can do that they can't do the evaluation they could do the coaching piece but they can't do the evaluation they can do the coaching piece the science center who who we had used but they're not doing the they're not running point on our curriculum they're not running point on the resource that we're going to select next they're not you know in the room selecting the textbooks with them they come in for these um brief periods and we were able to to get them for a a significant amount of time but it's it's not a sustainable path if it were we would be doing something different but they don't they don't plug all the holes I was kind of surprised when you had the if I understood it correctly when you put the numbers of science and math courses up there oh which is probably about what six yeah six courses per year and normally when I and I'm no expert on this but I just think of you know algebra geometry trig calculus this sort of standard for math science has its counterparts with chemistry physics art Science Biology but we have that many so that seems like a lot to me I'm curious across all those courses yeah how often are they taught annually and what's the enrollment on the lower end of some of those courses so the numbers on the courses that I listed here came directly from the program of studies for this current school year which I have in front of me okay um typically a class that has less than 10 students is not set to run okay some that that's in general sometimes it will but those are often co-listed so if I have um a biology honors biology class or let's say an AP class is more than likely and I also have a Yukon ECE class we might bring those students together and co-list them so there may be 12 kids in that class with a teacher even though it's two separate classes CU because of where the material overlaps okay okay it's still it's still tricky and the teacher still has to make sure she's meeting the AP needs of these students and the ECE needs of these students sure okay all right thank you that's it for me so a couple more questions um are these positions these curriculum coordinator positions they're central office it's a central office position oh the one that I'm requesting would be a central office position yes is that pretty typical of I mean do most schools districts in Connecticut have these positions yes so it varies right they are they are typically central office positions and their administrative positions so in a place like Glastonberry they have a director of art World a director of World Language and elll a director of health and PE history and social studies language arts and reading math Music School counseling science career and tech ed and those positions you know are are in their budget as an administrative position for between you know like the salary that I saw in their contract from the one I got from a few years ago was about 142,000 we have local neighbors like in Southington that has a a science and math of exactly almost this job and actually um our our very valued uh math consultant who worked with us actually left to take that position next door a few years ago um and in Southington they also have a Humanities person who oversees the humanities part so West Hartford is another District that has something similar um Farmington does not but they have almost double the number of Elementary coaches that we have so everyone has something a little different and I think it is driven by their needs um I got a call from from a district because they were struggling with Ela and trying to increase their SAT score um and yet ours was in the 80s and their math was much better than ours so they they didn't need any support with math and science um whereas it's just this is our house this is what we need and this all brings to mind for me when we're talking about um teacher evaluation the learning walks are we still doing those I've heard really good things about learning walks we are as a matter of fact Jeff and I are doing learning walks with two cohorts of teachers um the last one we had to cancel because it was on one of those days we were supposed to be at DOD and there was a lot of people out and absent when they were going through that virus but um yes it and we've got probably we've got the two cohorts I'd say 20 plus teachers involved in that but in addition to that and this is where Kevin's position is so um valuable Kevin does regular learning walks with the coaches at the elementary and middle school so he goes over he takes a teacher they walk into all of the classes and talk about the instruction so we're hoping he can do a little bit of that while he's you know up at the high school we'll see thank you I do have a couple clarification questions if you don't mind I'm going to go back to title grants yes um regarding Title One um and if you can clarify some misconceptions Title One is it specific to a certain school that's identified as a tile one school and those funds go directly to just that school or is it dispersed amongst or throughout the district this year it is only uh for one school and that's typically what we've had actually no it switched to do little this year thank you um and I do also recognize the Perkins Grant I know one year it shot up pretty high across the state but I also saw a pattern that there's a decrease in funding support so if you can kind of get us kind of the year-over-year as to how much we've been obtaining through the Perkins Grant because it is a supplemental yes I think that is on page one of the state and federal grants it will give you a year over-year of exactly what was in Perkins and it will give you that supplemental year as well so it's 37,000 is projected for next year next year the last time that we received the supplemental Grant was in 2021 and that was in addition to the 30,000 base grant for $7,000 um I want to say we bought the CNC machine was that the year we bought the CNC ma it wasn't CNC it was something else but it was significant yeah it was a major piece of equipment that we bought for CTE that year um I appreciate the uh conversation about AI I think that's a critical piece in that you that you guys are tackling this in March um because it it will impact like you said um especially the ELA side um so I'm looking forward to seeing how that our strategic planning committee that's made up of teachers has been um wrestling with this and juxtaposing that with the anxious generation and our administrative administrators as as well have also been an audience for Matt mvis at Ed Advance who came and met with both groups and will be here in March I'll just add that awesome um I don't know if you intended to leave this blank but in the IAB section just says in I don't know if you were trying to oh I think I was going to write interim assessment Benchmark my apologies okay my editor didn't catch that spell out the acronym sorry Vin is that you I was working on the churs um so there has been some Buzz about exactly what coaches do um and maybe this is a conversation later for curriculum um but I you know I'm going to speak from the lens of having been a coach myself um exactly you know how critical that role is to support the classroom teacher and I don't know if we want to dig a little deeper into exactly what they do I me we have one reading consultant one math Consulting that's case six um and then we have the six Rams for the elementary schools personally I feel we provide a lot of support and professional learning for our elementary um but do we do lack in the secondary as you said earlier um and then as far as in the you know the teach the department leaders I think one of the questions that always comes up and you said this um they teach yes but then they have two periods off so can you kind of identify like exactly what their expectation is with those two periods that they have off yeah I mean they're looking at um ordering for their department they are looking at uh Department schedule that's been something hot this year that they've spent a lot of time doing they are um also they deal with a lot of parent concerns and they support any new teacher in their in their department so if they have a new hire they're really spending a lot of time with that person in the first one to one to three years on making you know helping them acclimate um but when I talk to them I hear that it's significant amount of time to help plan for a department meeting um attend their own plc's is part of what they're doing I hear a lot that they are trying to get into as many plc's as possible and the frustration with not being able to extend their reach into all of them it's I think it's a frustration that they want to be doing more but they also are wanting to meet with their students and wanting to you know do those teacher things they need to do so they're sort of always um there's always a a tug I think also if if you would permit me to talk about the coaches what we did a number of years ago was to send all of the Rams the reading consultant the math consultant the division leaders and the department chairs to coaching training and so Kevin and I went with them and we attended and we have subsequently provided coaching support um started out monthly it was a CO coaching community of practice where they could talk about problems of practice and the way the elementary we we Kevin and I Come Away scratching our head every time the way the elementary is set up because they're not teaching it's sort of easy it's kind of flawless the way they're able to um integrate all of that and the rub always with our middle and high school folks is sort of this I'm trying so hard to do this like I'm I'm trying to do it I just marleene I wish we had the time I I wish I could do more you know the teachers would like more coaching it's caught on but we're I'm limited and so a lot of this stems from hearing what the teachers have been saying over the years and identifying that with the other needs can can I go sure just um to continue with that line of thinking how much time do you think the coach is like the Rams and the coaches do they actually spend in the classroom with with the teachers they're in the classroom a lot okay I know that's not very quantifiable a lot no but yeah because it sounds like when you were explaining it it sound more like they were uh accumulating the theory behind it but I was wondering how much of that is they're certainly doing some of that work and the best practices work and and training they do a lot of the planning for grade level meetings along with the the principles I think the principles really heavily rely on those Rams um to to help and support the classroom teachers um they're also significantly involved in keeping tabs on the students for an intervention and you know that gets harder and harder as you are having a classes and you only see the student student for a a a finite amount of time so having someone to coordinate that and look more closely at those students to help and support them and them through the teachers I I just think makes a lot of sense thanks for clarifying I think that's one of the misconceptions is that the people might assume that they don't see students where there is some intervention support that they provide as well to aside from you know assisting with the uh teacher capacity building there um sorry I I think my last question really might help to kind of clarify um as somebody who does 37 evaluations myself in my day job um I I recognize the need for this particular position but is there something you can give the board where it spells out exactly um what the evaluation um if it's equitably distributed right now amongst the administration yeah sure that we have that I could get you that y great thank you um and then lastly do we have any articulation with tctt state in any of our courses I know we prioritize Yukon a lot but are there any courses that have CT State yeah that would be um we do have at the uh Valley ngat Valley courses um manufacturing pathway with ngat tuck um some classes also the business department are um are aligned for credit great if I just real quick um I guess close this section by bringing everybody back to what uh Miss Solano opened with in the sense that she talked about our constant effort actually I would I would call it a Relentless pursuit of improving instruction at the classroom level um for the last decade we've been deeply committed to that if I were going to point to anything uh that is at the heart of our uh rapid Ascent Improvement whatever you want to call it success over the last decade the focus on complex thinking social emotional learning in Relentless pursuit of improved instruction that is not a discredit to the the staff that we have the professional profs that work in our district uh to the contrary it's a credit to them that you know people who are successful get successful through hard work people who are exceptional don't stop there they keep working on improving their craft and that's what our system has been built around and the reason that this is being proposed is through our professional assessment over the last couple of years we've identified that this is the next step that we feel would substantially help uh the people at the secondary level level improve their Craft um that our department chairs uh given their uh current roles our Administration given their current roles have kind of carried the ball as far as they could and they're you know Tapped Out uh and they've done a a great job and as marene has mentioned we made some improvements and this is what gets us to the next level that's uh you know I don't know if there's anything you want to add to that Marlene or amen thank you Miss Lano and that concludes that portion right V are you up next yeah nice work you guys could Robin all right so I'm just going to have one more slide here on instructional expense and this will wrap because it's the end well that's not up to me I'd keep going but um let me just get to it okay so this is just um you know the final slide and instructional expense just to show like we've shown in the other portions of the budget instructional expense as a percentage of the budget you could see has stayed relatively flat since 2006 this year's request brings us in at about 5.7% we vacillated anywhere from around six to 7 so pretty consistent and obviously this is the non-payroll instructional expense but this supports everything that the teachers and the administrators do in our classrooms so that wraps up instructional expense um and I did want to go back to one item and that is the owl pellets because when I first got here I as as board members know I have to approve all the purchase requisitions and one came through for Al pellets and I didn't think we owned any owls in the school district so why would we be buying owl pellets thinking that that's what we fed the owls only to learn that's after you feed the owls we pay quite a bit of money to buy these owl pellets but the kids certainly do love them and you know as we were sitting here you know Emily sent me an article about this Al pellet farming um family so it's fascinating so Emily you could pass that you know along to everybody so the next section is Support Services and I'll ask uh the chair um and Dr harrian we could do support services in about 15 minutes do you want to keep going I would like to keep going can we keep going so I know majority of this is you VIN uh and I feel like we did cancel the planning meeting today and we would like to reschedule before Thursday if at all possible which then could help to support the remainder of the presentations that are on here so I would propose that we reserve all this for Thursday night's conversation instead if you don't mind I it's your call and wants to one to one with you precursor to Thursday but how do you feel about this I'm fine continuing to Thurs you want to continue I'm out I'm out voted I remain I Iain you obain I can explain later my only other concern is we have two board members also not present um so and they're likely to be here Thursday yeah that's it's warmer at home so I guess we're going home if there are any questions my dad has a I don't know what time I'm going to get here on Thursday my Dad's getting inducted into the Connecticut veterans hall of fame congratul yeah thank you got to take PR yeah that's at five o'clock so I'll be yeah are there any so if you want if you want to add like the capital budget before 7 o'clock like six o'clock I guarantee I would not be here for that yeah for Thursday night but that canel the delayed meeting I'd like us to tap a 10 if at all possible because the majority of this again you know could be had in planning and Tim yeah Ju Just One Last point that um I my my feeling right now is that I would prefer to uh not vote on the budget on Thursday right I'm guessing that's where everybody is right now um okay I just want to put that on the table because Jeff had posted it as possible vote but that's not going to happen right this would potentially push that off the table on Thursday and then we'll reserve it for um you know a full Tuesday yeah next week or something okay yeah just to be clear on that so I think to kind kind of um accommodate the two that would love for you to continue moving forward if we can end this at 10: somewhere here and then we'll pick up on Thursday the remainder so I don't know how many slides you have 40 minutes to well I mean Support Services I'll just jump right in and you know we can pause whenever you're ready so support services this year I think is pretty straightforward this is about um 8 and a half% of our budget the total Support Services budget being requested is 8.15 million Support Services though if you look at the top three categories it's the vast majority of the 8 million 59% is transportation Fuel and insurance and I'll go through that in a minute um other Professional Services that 11% that's primarily um 650,000 of that is all our technology related Services it's Power School it's munice those are over $100,000 each per year it's out contract with Apex technology that serves as the chief technology officer and it also includes legal medical U expenses um you know bord of AD and audit so this 688,000 that's for our energy performance contract that we did 10 years ago those are the payments that we owe and we uh you know those are recurring payments probably for about about another four years and then that will go away and then the rest you could see is is smaller items as I advance to the next slide I'll just highlight this is the um 81 million being requested if I just focus in on this line You'll see that the vast majority of the $450,000 increase 331,000 is for Pupil Transportation we've got a couple of things going on in Pupil Transportation One is that we have a contractual increase of 4% that Deco is our service provider um we also had to add an additional route this year just because of student enrollment and in the budget for next year we're anticipating adding another type one route you know and each route costs about $80,000 that's running the the bus for 180 days you know beyond that the um number of runs that we do for special education even though we're not adding routes we're adding time to those routes so that cost us additional funding so that's what's that's what's built in to the $331,000 for Transportation uh couple of other things I want to point out this other services line that's increasing 35,000 um 11% most of that is for our student accident insurance we have student accident insurance that we pay for as a district so that if any student you know gets hurt on the athletic field if they're participating in sports or other curricular activities or in fizzed or at school that policy covers any losses that we would incur that policy this year is going up 43% it's about a $20,000 increase um and that's based on actual claims that we've received and that's mostly from Athletics so we did have that shopped by our provider and the premiums that we're going to be paying about 55,000 are pretty close to the claims that were paid out so it is what it is I just pulled a plug on it Mike sorry [Music] come on I know Mike's very nervous right now because he's been having trouble with this particular there it is all right sorry I know that cost us like 30 seconds um so what I was saying is that the student accident insurance is what's driving you know most of that increase in the line we just looked at and then uh we do have an increase in in office supply it's just based on historical expenditures and there's some inflationary effects certainly in there um and then we do have a pickup in Transportation Supply this 23,000 you know that's based on fuel consumption that we've seen recently and you know we think that fuel prices have leveled off so for next year we were able to actually decrease the budget um so that support services as a whole just quickly if you look at the transportation line again it's 59% of this our Public School uh general education routes 2.5 million of the 4.3 million special education about 1.1 million we do provide very specialized doorto door transportation for our special education students that's a function of their IEP their individualized um their individualized education plan so we don't have a choice transportation is mandated as the board members know and you can see the rest of the lines this 400,000 is fuel Student Activity those are the athletic and extracurricular runs uh private school routes this 105,000 we have to provide um bylaw transportation for St Bridget students and then you'll see there's a v vag Wilcox another and transportation insurance so that that's an overview of the the transp Transportation costs in more detail um really went through everything on this slide you know we you know even though enrollment is growing and we have to add routes we do everything we can to try and consolidate you know bus stops you know it's much more efficient from a logistics point of view to have students walk to the bus stop and pick up a lot of students up at one stop and you know we we work really hard to do that um within you know certainly safety standard s and what's reasonable um everything else are are things that we've been doing and the board members you know we've talked about this in the past and then you know in this line we talked a little bit about the the technology cost so uh I did want to point out that we only have about 30 smart boards that need to be upgraded to Smart flat panels we've been doing that from our operating budget for the last several years so we've only got about 30 remaining at chesher high school to upgrade the um PC Fleet is in good shape we um this year went to a new you know PC technology we moved away from Acer from a Dell desktops that you would either put under your desk or on your desktop we went to these um devices that mount you know right in the back of a monitor so that's the footprint um and this is important for the teacher as you still see there's a lot of wires there but that connects the Smartboard and speakers um and the webcam on our devices um we did launch some new software this year to we came off of school dude and went on Master library for maintenance and Technology work order ticketing we upgraded our building use software as well so we're doing all the things that we need to do to advance technology and we have a strong technology capability in District um so you know that that budget allocation is well spent uh so Support Services you could see you know even though we had this big spike um a few years back you know we're still at around 8.5% of our budget is for support services and I will pause there to see if there are any questions related to U the items we just covered next section is maintenance and operations yeah just a general question you had mentioned St Bridget I'm not sure if you would know this off the top of your head but just the general trend line across the last say five or six years maybe even sort of exclude covid if that did anything um private nonpublic school will say I don't know I'm wondering about costs or maybe enrollment has it fluctuated I'm not sure if you include homeschooled kids St Bridget cheser Academy well for the transportation budget that line is just for the St Bridget student transportation that we provide you know homeschool students they what yeah they wouldn't be covered by that well but we also cover books and stuff like that that would be instructional Supply I'm just wondering sort of a general Trend among I mean we do they do are entitled to some of the grant funding that we receive but okay so it's yeah yeah I guess I'm just wondering like is the enrollment sort of fluctuated over the last few years as has been relatively stable for St Bridget enr or from us I I can't really impact impact on chesher public schools like have been kids been leaving to go to chesher academy or St Bridget's yeah no okay we um or coming in from or coming in from yeah I wouldn't necessarily consider us competitor with either of those schools like we don't yeah it's not it's not so much as a competitor we don't lose yeah not a competitor I mean we certainly have very collaborative relationship with both but it's not something where we're fighting each other for enrollment okay but it's not just happening okay no thank you yeah that's it okay good maintenance and operations I will go through the first part of this very quickly because I know that as board members you've seen this but our schools are aging out and I always like to remind everyone that our schools are in use constantly not just for school but they're used as community activities so you'll see you know after school events at cheser high school is 2500 those are the ones that are actually recorded through our building use system there's probably more uses than that but this is just what we've recorded So buildings are in constant use and that speaks to you know the cost of not only running the buildings and keeping the lights on but also maintaining the buildings things wear out so we need to keep investing in the maintenance of our buildings um the good news here as you know that these three schools will be cut off and shut down Norton will be demolished when the two new schools are open and Darcy and Chapman those build bus will go back to the town to be repurposed or sold or demolished or whatever will be done that decision has not been made yet so you know the good news here from a maintenance point of view is that when you have a new Norton and a new North End School you will not be making investments in the the maintenance of those buildings for repairs obviously you'll have utility costs and you'll have preventative maintenance but you won't have any maintenance repair cost for those with those two buildings for years but these buildings obviously that will remain with us those five buildings will need to keep you know investing in in not only preventative maintenance but dealing with repairs as they come due so as a total um $5.2 million is being requested that's about 5.4% of the budget um and you'll see that the categories though in which that five .2 million is spent a good portion of that is just utilities and heating about 36% cleaning services 900,000 so that's about 177% which leaves about 36% for the maintenance and repair uh maintenance supply is 390,000 and the remaining portion of this budget is equipment maintenance and repair um just to give you a little bit more detail as we look at utilities and heat again 36% of the budget electricity takes up a large portion of that um but our electricity bill is lower than it would have been if we didn't have the energy performance contract where replaced Highlands Heat and the uh High School um the west side of the high school with natural gas heat um heating for you know the buildings is about 31% of utilities and heat and you can see the rest um occupy a small but not insignificant portion of that 1.86 million so that's 36% of the budget 64% of the budget is spent on what we're calling you know Building Maintenance and repairs again 900,000 of that is to clean the buildings we use um a third-party uh service to do that that building cleaning um at night um which leaves about 1.1 million for building repairs and improvements and you'll see there's other categories in here such as snow plowing you know maintenance services ground maintenance that we do across the district the um the request here for U maintenance repair and buildings you know is is 485,000 21% um I will note that you know point one is that our cleaning service contract we had a two-year contract we went out to bid awarded to um a company that is doing an excellent job however when we signed that contract was before minimum wage increases you know took hold the last two years uh and also they um had to um they were they're basically the employees of theirs that work here in our schools organized so that they're covered by Union contract so we've increased uh the budget about 10% just for the cleaning services because that's what we expect the increase to be and we will be coming before the board in February at the at the board meeting to present our recommendation to extend the contract for an additional year with the service provider and beyond that we are looking to increase that line because we believe that um we can expend those funds you know to do not only only building repairs but get ahead of some of the work that we need to do in terms of um preventative maintenance yes Adam when we signed or when we awarded the contract for the cleaning service did they have non-union employees at the time uh well when we went out to bid they did um when they provided their proposed number it was non-union but as the company that had the contract previously was exiting there was a an organization of their labor that was done so before they exited it was performance environmental their group unionized um so for the company that took over the service they had to accept those employees as Union employees however we already had a an agreed upon price that we accepted so they couldn't raise out price they incurred the additional cost and there a lot more detail to it I can explain it when we present it to the board but you know all these larger cleaning companies have um Master agreements with the Union that covers those employees and so the the short answer is when they bid out this contract they bid it nonunion they honored their price for 2 years but now their employees um are under a Union contract how long do we agree how long is this contract two years so we reup the contract well that's what I'm going to present to to extend it for an additional Year we We won't do better if we go out to bid so um I think that the leave that discussion point for another time yeah all right thanks y um do we have revenue from the usage I know our buildings get used all the time and there is a fee associated with that does that come to us or to the town it's budgeted as Revenue so it goes to the town it's $10,000 is what we budget okay thank you and that's that's not a money maker for us we're offsetting our cost when when collect those fees yeah um you have uh $200,000 in here for garbage and recycling does that include the composting program that you still no we didn't budget for composting because right now the additional cost of composting is being paid um you know through the nip reimbursement um funds that the town receives so we hope to continue that we went back to the Town Council for this school year and they agreed to provide additional funding so that we are composting um at du little now as well as Chapman like we did last year so I did not budget for composting as I guess in my mind just I'm thinking that whether it's Grant funded or not I'd still put the grant revenue and the expense in here but um I'm just curious does that have any impact on the cost of garbage and recycling the composting Yeah by having the composting has that had any benefit to reducing garbage because I'm not even sure how do we get charged by ton we do pay I believe it's it's um a pickup of $100 um per ton okay no I'm sorry that can't be right it's less than that um but there is a a a small offset most of what we pay for the trash is the hauling yeah it's not the weight of the garbage but there is a a bit of an offset when we compost but the cost of composting far exceeds the offset no I got that I was just curious if there was any offset and I'll I'll firm up the number for the next meeting yeah I was I wasn't sure if it I don't even need to know the number that's fine I just wasn't sure how Our Garbage Contract worked it could have just been $200,000 and we pick up everything for the year No it's it's more precise than that per Pi per ton per pickup okay so there is some sort of benefit there okay thank you you're welcome okay um the rest of you know what I'm going to talk about pretty quickly here is the capital budget which um is used to um help support our buildings right so we know we have a a maintenance operating budget line to provide for repairs and and preventative maintenance but our capital budget that's what we use to make investments in our buildings of $110,000 or more so the planning committee of the board uh is going to be taking up the capital budget at when we agree upon a date but you know by the end of the month the planning committee will begin to deliberate on the capital budget um the only reason I put this slide in here is to show these are the general categories that we expect to make uh recommendations to the planning committee and ultimately to the board where we'll need investments in our buildings for items like hbac and window replacements and Roofing and cafeteria improvements um again the numbers are not on this slide because we don't have them yet uh I did want to point out this is the same idea except broken down by school but in our capital budget we don't expect to be making any recommendations for Investments in the buildings that are coming offline Chapman Norton and Darcy um and we also have not made a recommendation for central office or humiston because what we will do with that building long term really needs to be um decided before we make Capital Investments that are significant um in 23 24 the capital budget that was approved by the Council was 3.7 million and you could see the major line items were HVAC windows and uh Paving and and Roofing and that actually decreased last year to about 1.5 million um and you could see the the general categories changed a little bit with roof rep placements and emergency generator at Highland but last year the Town Council really was was pushing to get a capital budget as low as possible in anticipation of the increased debt costs associated with the new schools so what happens in 25 26 remains to be seen But it becomes a problem if we don't keep investing in our buildings uh so you could see this is historically what we've requested over the last 10 years has been about 2.7 million what's been approved is about 2.1 million um so we've done well relative to the requests but we need to keep those Investments up if we're dropping below 2 million like we did last year we're really not keeping up to the building needs so again more to come on the capital budget uh this is just a recap there is a an emergency fund is the the working name we have that mer that emergency fund uh that balance remains intact at 233,000 we haven't used it since 2019 so on the event we have an unexpected repair cost that we can't cover through our operating budget we go to the Town Council and we can get it funded that way last um last couple of slides here these are just some of the things that we deal with through our operating budget these are repairs this top picture actually happened just this weekend um after we had that snowfall three cars were seen on this band practice field doing donuts they weren't seen while it was happening we saw it on the videotape afterwards there's probably damage to the field so we'll have to deal with that um but the the three cars were identified and it has been reported to to the chesher PD so these are the types of things that we covered through our operating budget this is a a DOT boiler that um needed to be repaired somebody crashed into the Darcy School sign again got it fixed up it actually looks much nicer now but types of things that happen and this is the uh Highland fire alarm panel that um we were really concerned that it was going to fail um but we were able to get it repaired and a lot of this type of work we do inhouse so those are some of the items that you know we need to continually repair our buildings I know you know that capital budget is a little bit different and the important thing to note here is that you know when we invest in a capital budget item you you can't look at it as just an expense you have to look at it as an investment for the future and the long-term benefit of the building uh this is the lockers these are the projects that we completed this past summer uh or the fall these are the the new West gy lockers at chesher high school they came out really really great you know the lockers that were there were probably about 40 years old maybe older um but they'll be there for the next 40 years so you know this investment unless we do something with the high school this is a long-term Improvement uh I know that the already familiar this is the refrigeration equipment we replaced at chesa high school we kept the old stuff running for probably 25 years new boiler at DOD uh and this is part of that West JY Locker replacement so maintenance and operations very steady about five uh 5 and a half% of our budget traditionally it's 5.4% this year uh and that concludes maintenance and operations so if there questions Tim thank you um yeah uh with regard you mentioned that there would be no additional Capital costs anticipated for the two new schools and that makes total sense to me but I'm wondering about the uh the new North End School um the capital budget the the budget for the North End School I'm assuming it stops at the parcel boundaries yes so first of all are we thinking about putting sidewalks in there around Marin and J uh yeah Maran and Jarvis well definitely on Jarvis in fact uh I believe well not I believe there was Capital funding approved for sidewalk improvements um and they'll likely take place this summer so you talking about town funded ones oh yeah I'm sorry okay that that's the point that I just wanted to make about it being separate two separate budgets just so people are aware because I think the logical thing to do if it works and there's obviously you know pluses and minuses but generally speaking I think adding sidewalks uh over to at least Courier Woods if not up to Dundee I think on Jarvis and also further down to all these new developments that are being built on Maran Road um I I know that we talked about and I'm fairly certain that it's been approved to add sidewalks along Jarvis from the new school entrance down to past strollo I forget what the other streets are but they will uh okay run down that side of Jarvis yeah yeah yeah and there's already some sidewalk there but it will you know continue down as far as as reasonably possible okay um and then my uh second question is that Robin and Carrie earlier tonight had brought up a new vehicle not for this budget but so we didn't include it in this in this budget because we're looking at are there some other ways to um deal with that vehicle request and the 2016 vehicle that we provided was a transportation vehicle that you know it was there was nothing wrong with it it wasn't being being used and when it was being used it was being driven by one of our bordered bus drivers well and this worked out really great there was someone on um Robin an's staff that teaches the students that was willing to get certified to drive you don't have to have a full you know CDL to drive that van vehicle and so it gave them quite a bit of Freedom you know an ability to move these students around to get them to different job sites or to places where the students needed to be for some type of presentation so it worked out really well for everybody we'll figure out a way to fund that we just didn't think we needed to you know put it in this budget no yeah no I so what I'm wondering about is uh what happens with the uh old B the existing B the 2016 yeah we haven't gotten that far I mean I think Robin's looking for a second vehicle stud y okay and when you mentioned yeah when you mentioned Luther you're just talking about the transportation director I'm not sure what his title is but the trans the bus Luther Miller he's a transportation manager so we have to work out the logistics and details of this but you know we we understand what the need is okay and we always figure out a way to address the need so okay thank you questions from board members wow Vinnie eight minutes to spare well we got through it so I assume that Dr Solen you want to do your conclusions please tonight or would you rather wrap it up yeah I think Dr senen could probably do do this in eight minutes or seven minutes in yeah no warm up well sorry before I leave I just want to uh thank the board members for you know your patience and listening you know I do also want to acknowledge and thank all the administrators that put a lot of time into their portion of the development of the budget you know Heather Santi our finance manager working behind the scenes with me to put this together I really appreciate that and Emily as well who's you know served and and helped get this budget pulled together um so thank you everybody for all the the work that you know went into you know doing this and I just get to stand up here and talk about it but there's a lot that does go on beyond Behind the Scenes to get here so with that thank you thank you Mr maiana um what might possibly be a last budget Harrah uh at least at the board of education level so uh hard to think of the Cheshire Public Schools budget I appreciate the amount of time that our people have already put into reviewing this the board the administrators uh our professional staff I mean there a lot of time and energy that our folks put into this and uh what people who maybe just follow the minutes on YouTube or review or whatever they they don't recognize the the budget book that we provide is so comprehensive there's so much information in there that the board reviews and um that our team puts together so uh this uh is a is the culmination uh at least presentation wise of a lot of effort um and so in conclusion really with our board of education budget obviously our community is growing and it's driving and you drive around the community and you see that construction everywhere and it's not just two new schools uh we're growing together um and that you know we are an attraction for the community and an anchor and I think it's uh an investment worth protecting and this budget is designed to maintain the level of service that uh We've provided and that our community expects uh there aren't Frills in our budget um as a matter of fact I mean we were just talking about the the uh van as being one of those things that I don't think people would argue as a frill to replace a 9-year-old van um but we have to make really difficult decisions and uh we've tried to adhere to that in the face of inflation uh that's impacting every school system across Connecticut um there are a lot of factors still yet to be determined some of them were addressed this evening whether it be uh Grand list growth whether it be the state budget whether it be um our enrollment uh as that continues to climb um there's a lot that you know we're asking you to kind of consider as we sit here in January that won't be much clearer until April um um and with that in mind I think about you know what is my responsibility as the superintendent of schools and we've talked about this I opened with this slide it's to present you a budget um that is developmentally appropriate meets the needs of our students and is balanced across the district but also allows for the advancement of our district goals which we talked about here tonight um kind of the unwritten uh but lived daily goal of improving our instruction every day focused on complex thinking and social emotional learning the loan advancement request that we had um was around that science and math curriculum coordinator position um it represents 0.2% of our overall budget um but we think the return on investment there would be dramatically more than that um nevertheless I mean I I don't sit here thinking oh it's just easy you know it's just throw as another $200,000 every penny we spend we are very conscious of and um think deeply about the leverage and uh the benefit that it provides so uh I'm not I'm not suggesting that it's so it's just to $200,000 because it's $200,000 um but I shared here you know basically what what does school-based Administration look like on a per pupil expenditure basis across um Connecticut across Durk B uh some of our neighbors uh were pretty conscious about how we spend that money I have a different chart if you want to look at all different sorts of how to districts spend money um in every measure we are Beyond competitive um when we look at that return on investment we produce great results uh very economically and that's you know I guess leads me to my next you know kind of request of you and um that you know this is the Board of Education duties is outlined in Connecticut General statute which you know I I'm not suggesting you Sher your responsibility as representatives of the community and just say I pass it on to the Town Council um but I I am cognizant of the broad number of variables that are to be determined and I would hate to put ourselves in a position where we're making really significant Cuts uh at this point in the year only to find out that well gez you know the legislature infused a a legitimate amount of money into the uh specialed excess cost Grant and come to find out it would have been really nice to have that uh that stem support person uh when they could make a real difference for our our kids so I'm just asking that you know you be conscious of that um we always respect and value your feedback um we appreciate your questions uh Vin Marlene and I we certainly Marshall in the team as we need to we'll be happy to answer any questions you have if you think of something now we've already taken down several questions throughout the night that we'll come back Thursday ready to hopefully put out some answers for you and and respond to make you uh better informed in a better position to vote on the budget um but if there's anything between now and Thursday certainly don't hesitate to reach out call me text me email me um we're happy to respond to those questions we appreciate your your involvement and your engagement and don't take that for granted so uh please do share that with us um if if there's something that's you're just wondering about all right um the public budget review uh we have you know obviously gone through several now uh iterations we've done a number of of presentations and I look forward to engaging in dialogue I did send out an email to our parents through parents Square last week I think it was I don't even know what day it is but uh yeah I think it was last Thursday or Friday um certainly the public is welcome uh just as a heads up we will have open house here on Thursday night uh so there will be parents Milling about anyway uh hopefully some will stop by make a a little bit more of a date of it um and and certainly we welcome any public feedback if people from the community want to email me and reach out call whatever uh we're happy to respond to that too so that'll kick off Thursday night here at 700 pm.

we are hiring for all positions certified and support staff so if you know somebody that's looking for a position who wants to work in the very best school district in the state of Arizona go to Highland High at 400 P p.m.

and February 24th is our board business meeting that's it thank you very much and moving on to our final agenda item for this evening is there a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting so moved thank you Miss humph is there a second second thank you Miss Murray all those in favor of adjourning our meeting tonight say I I any opposed and we are adjourned thank you very much

to 4 P.M in the small gym these sessions are extra workouts for baseball students but anyone who is interested can participate Reggie's read win winner congratulations to miss Caitlyn nardy for winning the staff Reggie's read challenge for December she won a regie cafe gift card by encouraging students to read as part of a class activity Al teachers can encourage students to paste more sticky notes on their class Reggie reads for for chance to win MC retakes starting this year students will no longer have to achieve a passing grade on the mcast to graduate however if students still wish to retake the mcast to improve their scores retakes are available on the following dates science February 4th and February 5th Ela March 6 and March 7th and March 11th and March 12th CDs which are required for students to graduate and were previously given to students who pass Mast will now be earned based on course work looking ahead February is CTE month daily announcements students share CTE facts and opportunities during morning announcements announcements emailed to staff and shared on social media CTE student of the month career area students nominate peers who embody GTS core valleys one student per career area will be recognized with a certificate and a special J CTE month gift industry guest speakers career area programs host professionals to share insights and reinforce the value of CTE includes a green job speaker panel for construction career areas leadership visits the superintendent and CTE director will visit career areas on the week of February 24th to 28th all set very well done thank you ladies always a pleasure uh before we get to the uh the minutes I'd like to call your attention to a new item on the agenda under new business committee roles and thank you very much all those in favor I morning to approve the minutes for December 17th meeting make motion to approve the minutes a second thank you discussion all those in favor I opposed Finance report Mr cash balance report please thank you cash balance report as of December 31st 2024 balance on November 30th is 4,559 4524 we have deposits for the amount of 4,206 9818 transfer in from mmbt uh net at 6 652 445 we have pay roll um less payroll on December 5th and 19th um and warrant number 112 and 13 leaving us with a balance um at the end of the calendar year of 4,525 8835 um in the mmdt account we started with 8 million 47 uh we transferred out that 65244 net to operations we had a healthy um interest for the month of 37316 leaving us with a an ending balance in mmdt of 8 million 374 86554 in a total operating cash balance a healthy one of 12,974 in9 thank you very much can I have a motion to accept the uh make motion accept second any discussion all those in favor opposed consolidate cash involving fund hand packet on the revolving fund any questions on those budget report anybody has the pack packet on that anybody's missing anything please say so Finance report M marel update the committee on the excess and deficiency account yep so this is just an informational update um we filed our excess efficiency report by October 30th and it was certifi at 1.1 mil 5,991 any questions on that Communications see any Arles see any participation that brings us to Isabelle is Joy administrative student Information Specialist um going to tell us about incast um I've got a question before you even start maybe you can tell us where incast is going to what is changing I can you a report let have this question you want to start and I can fill in this question we'll go the report after you want to do that if it's in the report we can just keep going no that's not in the report the first thing came to my mind so mcaps in general I I'll leave it is off the hook no uh previously obviously the vote happened uh on Election Day uh where to no longer have mcast be that state requirement um for graduation um we received some guidance from the Commissioner's Office uh from desie um basically saying that um schools will follow their local requirements for competency determinations I think on one of the slides uh the student sent out uh talked about CDs that was compet competency determination um so basically now all of our students have to pass what's in our program of studies for graduation requirements if that's fulfilled you can earn your diploma now without mcast um that's why um on the retest that had those three dates for those subject areas um we actually sent something out um basically saying it's not needed as a requirement anymore for our current seniors or Juniors um and no one replied back to opt in to take the test because it's no longer a requirement so we actually won't be giving it um it's not needed for our students to be in a graduation um requirement for the seniors and juniors the Commissioner's Office did say we do have to have our sophomores take it um it is tied to the John and Abigail Adams scholarship and another I think one other award or maybe two other Awards um but we have we're all awaiting guidance from the Commissioner's Office they're going to put in a another type of requirement with the competency determinations for local school districts but we have not received anything from the commissioner's office yet and just to add to that the account the mcast in the spring the big test for the sophomores is also going to be included in participation and the accountability reporting continuing they're continuing that factor so it's going to be included in accountability and we're going to be responsible for providing it to the sophomores thank you very much I didn't want to throw you off track it's the first thing that came to mind no that's good that's separate going to do that separate to start off I'm going to start off Oscar if you want to pull that up too that'd be great um on it um just as an intro um we're excited to be here uh first and foremost to give our presentation on mcast and accountability in our data uh driven initiatives uh I'm joined by two very talented administrators uh to my left as you already talked to Isabel Joya she's our administrative student Information Specialist and to my right is our director of teaching and learning panota aelis and I apologize if I made a mistake with your name she's going to present on our database uh uh data driven initiatives um uh great to be here I can't speak the previous years but since I arrived in August um we finished putting together our admin team um with a clear goal of building relationships with each other and with our teaching staff uh in our students um we're working together to build a culture of we um here where our team is providing our staff and students with any of the resources um structures ongoing support that they need to be successful um we've been working to provide high quality instructional materials uh to our departments panota will speak to that a little bit later um um we have a clear focus of getting out of the office uh one of these things that John talked about when I first entered in on our first team meetings um was having uh our team be more present uh to support our teachers and our students in the classrooms um so we've been doing that following our evaluation system trying to get in and have uh those conversations those pre-conferences evaluations observations post conferences and uh provide our teachers with the feedback and support that they need to be successful um we've also been conducting several nonv valuative learning walks um I mentioned them a lot in um those Reggie Happ newsletters where you know I'm picking an area just about one a month a couple of month to go out um and meet the teachers and see some kids in their Career technical areas and different academic areas um it's been very valuable for our team to have conversations about what we see um and what's going on in the school and how we can better support again our teachers and students so um in summary um we do have a collective commitment uh to the correct work we want to be working on our instruction um improving um proving what we do for students um we encourage you to save any questions or comments until the end of the presentation uh Isabelle is going to have a lot of our accountability uh data and then panota is going to have some of the work for doing data so we're happy to be here turned over oh yes all right so um the first data point we're going to go over is m has hopefully you all have a chance to review the information in your packet I know there is a lot of information there um so I'm going to kind of go over it high levelwise and then um as Mr Jackson said we can answer some questions at the end so this is the um Ela fast for the past five years without 2020 obviously it was a covid year um so still have some room for improvement in um Ela mcast we want to see those numbers on um exceeding and meeting expectations get a little bit higher and decrease the not meeting expectation aspect um so this was in English um this is the average student growth percentage um again over the past five years this is just related to Great lawence technical school um so the student growth present percentage is the measure of how much a student individual individual's performance has improved compared to other students of the same grade on previous mcast tests um it's just an average because it is going to be different for every student this next slide is just a comparison um of our Ela student grow percentage to the state and then to our four other sending districts again um with our math mcast um still significant room for improvement um we have made some changes to the current schedule this year where math and English is um being taken every day by students in grade nine and 10 um so that means they take it on the shop week as well as the academic week um panota will go into a little bit more detail on some of those um changes but we are doing that for grades nine and 10 for Math and Ela again you have the average student growth percentage for math for the past five year comparison um and this is the grow comparison again to the state and then the four spending districts this is the biology mcast um they did not offer this science or biology mcast in 2020 and 21 so we only have the past three years um and again we can make some improvements here in both exceeding and meeting um by trying to raise those scores and there is no SGP for bi biology because they take a variety of Sciences so they can't do a comparison because some people are taking physics some are taking biology um so now we'll get into the accountability data um so the accountability data is put out every year by the department of Ed um this is actually the second full accountability report since 2019 um it uses multiple years worth of data um there are five indicator groups so they're looking at achievement which is basically our mcast scores in all three subjects they're looking at growth student growth percentage so that is only an Ela and math they're looking at our high school completion rate so they're looking at our graduation rate our five-year graduation rate and our dropout rate um they're looking at our progress toward attaining English language proficiency which is for ML students and taking the access scores and then the additional indicators that they're using are chronic absenteeism so that is any student that is absent for more than 10% of their days in membership um so we have to be in school 180 days so any student that has 18 or more would fall into the chronic absenteeism bucket um and then Advanced course work completion um so this only applies to students in grades 11 and 12 and unfortunately if you're in for honors classes you're only counted once in this bucket um so you're not counted four times so um but that includes our honors classes our dual enrollment classes anything of that sort that is indicated um so there are two overall classifications um either districts and schools are requiring Assistance or intervention or districts and schools are not requiring Assistance or intervention um this is the overview of the target criteria so the department of Ed sets these Target for each district in each School based on past Performance Based on assessment attendance Etc um and then each school and District earns points based off of how we've done on these targets that we're supposed to be attaining based on the department of Ed's expectations um so again easy enough to if we don't make any if we're declined we earn zero points if there's no change we earn a point if we improve but we're still below Target we earn two points if we meet our Target we earn three and if we exceed our Target we earn four points so our overall classification for 2024 is not requiring Assistance or intervention our progress towards Improvement targets is 45% so we're making moderate progress towards these targets and then our accountability percentile is 38 um which is basically our overall performance relative to other schools that are administrating um similar assessments so this 45% was based off of 2023 and 2024 so they do a percentage so the um criteria Target percentage is worth 40% and then the 2024 is worth 60% so that's where they're getting the 45% um these are are the indicators that I briefly talked about at the beginning um so as you can see here um it indicates the points earned out of the total possible points so for example under achievement for El on the mcast so we didn't earn any points for that um because we declined in our path forward we earned two points in math because we improved but we're still slightly below Target um so I don't have to go through all of these I was just kind of wanted you to see where those targeted numbers were coming from um we're killing it in our high school completion I just thought I'd throw that out there um so we are exceeding our Target in the four-year graduation rate and the fiveyear graduation rate um basically we're above 95% in our graduation rates for both of those categories um the dropout rate we're exceeding that Target we're below well below the 1% that the um state has set as our Target um chronic absenteeism has come down for us between 2023 and 2024 and um we still have some work around our Advanced course work that we need to look at which again penot will touch base on um so then I just had the 2023 data up here as well um just as a reference point for you to look at that comparison um so these are our progress towards Target that we have earned um from 2019 to 2024 and this is our accountability percentile again the same 2019 to 2024 comparison this is just a comparison again from our school glts to our four sending districts for 2024 in the same for the accountability percentile just comparing us to the four sending districts and now I'll turn it over to P you have all right okay so um data driven initiatives before I get into talking about the what what our initiatives are um it's important to talk first about are why and the how we're going about it um so when it comes to educational initiatives um for those of you here who have worked in education you know that initiatives tend to come and go very quickly um and so we have a commitment to really looking at um all the data of getting input from all stakeholders and making really specific plans that we stick to um growth is and change does not happen overnight um there's so much research out there to to to show that yet schools are constantly changing what they're doing and reversing track so um we are committed to making sure that we stay the course that we are looking at Lots again lots of different data points and not just making quick decisions um so we just talked about mcast but um just like in any thing we want to make sure that we're looking at multiple data points um you look at just one thing one test on one day and make all your decisions based off of that you're missing out on a lot of different perspectives um so there are three kind of big areas of data points and I have some listed up there there are plenty more um but we of course look at our district and local assessments just like mcast and then some others that we have schoolwide and others that we have for specific subjects um we look at get external reports and feedback um we have um multiple organizations that we partner with um and the Department of Education of course um and they come in and we we look at what what they have to say um and then we also do internal ongoing data collection um which is so important right that's like what we're actually seeing on the ground so it's um The Learning walks that Mr Jackson was talking about um we have multiple Focus teams looking at um these very important different areas made up of Administrators and teachers um and we're also collecting data from students because of course you cannot forget the student perspective um when you're making these big decisions um so we have I know this looks a little bit um I might say wild what are all these different things that we're focusing on um a lot of times teachers will say what we we're doing so many different things how are these all connected um these are sort of the big initiatives projects that we're working on they're all connected under mtss what is that really multi-tiered systems of support it's basically it's a framework to look at um what are all different levels of support that we want to give our students um and from there we're looking at where do we have gaps to fill and that's where these projects grew out of um so given that um I want to kind of zero in on a few specific categories within that happy to talk about any other specific ones later but um these are really the big ones so one is what we're doing with our Core Curriculum um that's what we call the tier one um intervention and extension opportunities that's what we call the tiers two and three we have a multipronged approach to literacy because that is something that um our students along with students across the country are struggling with um based on multiple factors but of course coming out of a pandemic is is a huge one um and the other one is having structural supports and resources because you can give teachers um curriculum and resources and different things but if you don't have the structures and supports in place to help them um do what they need to do then it's not going to work so that's another big area of focus for us so with the first one again the tier one supporting learning through the Core Curriculum um if you look at the bottom here this little house with the three levels that's really when we're talking about mtss really what it is is tier one um that's what all kids get and you might remember years ago kids who needed extra support would be pulled out of the class and they'd be given another remedial class instead what researchers School found was that by taking them out they're missing the grade level work and so the Gap just keeps growing so tier one that's what everybody gets um tier two that's targeted support so there might be specific things that kids need help with right they get help in that area and then they're fine and then tier three that's when you're looking at more intensive like special education services um so again right here we're talking about our tier one um two things we're really focusing on one is um high quality instructional materials we have a process going on right now in math and Ela they're at different points of implementation so we've adopted core resources um and given teachers professional development next up um we're going to have science we're actually starting that work tomorrow in our professional development day um work in the career areas and social studies um and then we're also providing support within the classroom such as through co- teing and Par professionals um the second piece um that we're really looking at is academic intervention and extension so that's the tiers two and three we have two blocks that occur during the academic where these interventions and extensions happen um targeted support and enrichment um we have some key things that happen there reading intervention English language development for our multilingual Learners and then during the Wind Block what I need you can see there that we have an array of different offerings and support again for some kids who might need extra support and other kids who might need um extensions um for example in the library there's a a writer unite group for kids who um are very into writing and want to do extension work there um the other thing that happens during that time is also that social emotional support counselors run groups the third area that we're really focusing on is literacy I know I touched on it beforehand um but it's so important uh we thought it would be important to talk about separately so three main approaches here one is adding reading intervention so um we have two reading Specialists that have joined us this year and we have a reading program these are for kids who are not on IEPs um but are struggling with reading um and so they get that um targeted support with those teachers we also have a new program this year for kids who are on IEPs who have reading goals um we brought in a program um and train teachers to help them really really Target the the reading skills that they need um help with we're also part of the D tier literacy Academy this is through the Department of Education it's a multi-year um process we have teachers and administrators who are part of this team we have academic and career areas represented because we're looking at literacy um across all areas because it's not just what happens in English class um you know reading writing speaking listening is important um everywhere in life um and a lot of that work happens with the career areas actually and um it's it's the real life application of it um so we have that group um we are right now working on assessing the needs we've established our our goal that's going to be driving our work is focused on informational text we found um in the data that kids really um that is their biggest area that they need help with is reading informational text so like you're non-fiction um and we're in the CR of developing a multi-year plan we're also we also are offering um different courses for teachers in online formats um that teachers can just simply log on and and get that support the fourth part structural supports and resources we have these are all of the different groups that we have in place that are working on not just putting these projects in place but also um developing them seeing what's working what's not working how can we make it better um so from our admin team to our um we have administrative Focus teams we have teacher teams that we're putting in place um our external Partners so we make sure that we have all perspectives included in the work here right um no that's a lot um on behalf of my team or our team we just want to say thank you for your support um in the budgetary process I know John comes uh and repres presents us uh with needs and may ask for positions such like reading Specialists uh or or people to put in place to help our school and help our community um they're very important we know we wouldn't be able to work with um all these people and all these teams without your support so um we we want to also acknowledge that and say thank you um looking ahead please know our team is committed to continuous progress on these items um we're happy to return to a future meeting or meetings uh to provide updates on any specific initiative share progress or to discuss outcomes uh that may be happening uh we'd be happy to invite teachers to join us uh if there's a particular um department or group in there as well um again we believe we can continue to improve uh in in the educational experience and the outcomes that we provide obviously the accountability data there's there's room for growth um all these things that we're kind of working on and starting to put teams together um you know through time and support we hope to really be able to come back in those future years and show that grow so thank you for listening um Hopey hope you guys all got the packet ahead of time and had a chance to go through it uh and we're open for any comments or questions thank you thank you any questions please show I don't have any questions so relax um but I I you know I'm Glad You Came I'm glad you were invited here and you and and you put forth this um um uh demonstration of um what you guys really do and I know it's a lot and you've done a great job I just have a couple of questions not questions um comments tier two just help me understand this um tier two Happ I see on you know what I need and I know that there are several areas where they can get the help that they need but does this happen in the classroom the interventions is that in the classroom you do you target certain kids that need need assistance in the classroom in the classroom so there and so there's a teacher and then there's a par professional maybe or another teacher there could be depending on what the class is so like the English language development class is for the multilingual Learners so they are in there it's a small group class maybe eight to 10 with an English language learner teacher and then the reading the reading students are in with a reading specialist um and then the language live students are in with their a special education teacher that was trained in that um so kind of what you're referring to being in with a co- teer or a professional is the tier one where those supports are happening tier one so tier two they're they're separated out and they're getting that additional targeted support okay all right and does anyone find that the classrooms are crowded too many students in a classroom so I would say that they are crowded some at the tier one level does that cut down on um learning or I mean is that something that can be looked at yeah and I think we we are I think when we go through the process and kind of looking at how we schedule class sizes um what the number of honor students in the class looks like what a number of College Prep students in the class look like if there's more students in a college prep class where we're targeting needs and on that we should have those classes should be smaller than our honors classes uh that wouldn't have those needs that could be bigger um so we look at that we looked at that kind of going into our scheduling for next year and if there's any recommendations or it's really overcrowded in a particular subject area we would be working with John and Melissa to put that in uh for a potential need for another teacher so but everything is okay so I just don't want just on our classroom over crowding we had several meetings to look at the schedule and how students moving forward uh the impact of uh classroom crowdedness and what we would need in terms of reducing classroom sizes in terms of personnel so you'll see when you get the budget we've added new uh teachers in almost all our academic area in our budget for next year to help uh relieve some of that but in some classrooms some of things have we have a lot of inclusion classes so when you think about student teacher ratio it's not always as large as it might look but uh so that there's always the inclusion teacher who's now having a much bigger impact on planning and organizing curriculum and planning lessons than they've ever done in in the past which is helping to Target those kids who have specific needs better and so that the curriculum is uh the lessons the delivery of the lessons is including in uh lessons that will have a positive impact on kids who have greater needs even though it's not tier two it uh it still has big impact on helping kids who have special needs because of the the way the curriculum and the instruction is being delivered is different I believe than we've ever done with our inclusion classes I think the work is much better this year than I've seen in the 15 years I've in this Ro and uh I think you're going see that that has a huge impact on kids uh uh growth and achievement no I mean I just had that concern because there's such an increase in enrollment um and I know that I mean we have the ever say no to Personnel um but I don't know where all these kids are going so as long as you people have a handle we're working on it so you have a finger yes anyone else just on your graph what's the e oh that's exceeding expectations sorry is exceeding expectations m is meeting expectations partially meeting expectations and then not meeting sorry I I should have put that little all right is is any of the extra help happen out of the Korea time like would they get pulled out in Korea right now no not during the current schedule okay I mean I do want to comment I mean EXC I'm sorry go ahead no I just want to throw a Kudo about the 109 John and Abigail Adams y I mean I think that exceeds the area and I was pretty impressed by that that yeah uh just a question so is is this framework you guys presented a line with the plan that's submitted to Desi every year I know we we presented a plan regarding ntss I think it's a three-year plan um it's what we're doing related to ntss I don't know if it's aign to that yes so it is yeah when we go through to kind of go through there um one of the things we meet Miss Richardson on also is kind of going in making sure we're connected to with that plan um as we go forward I think the big thing to add to that is um know you have the plan but we're continuously progress monitoring and making those little adjustments as we need to um so being flexible but structured at the same time so I I do want to uh thank this team that's here today for their leadership since the beginning of this year um particularly P CH work very well together in terms of organizing our uh our goals and our uh our uh plans for weekly Tuesday meeting where we do educational uh planning with the educational administrators and we've had they've had a a a plan from the get-go in terms of where we need to grow what we need to introduce in terms of professional development and so it's been very organized been planned well and have been much more collaboration with themselves and all the other administrators I'm seeing across the board people working very well together respecting each other and when you get out and about the school you see administrators throughout the building putting into place the plan that they had uh anticipated implementing this year and has worked very very well in terms of cooperation and has caused a culture in the building I think that is right now very positive with regards to teachers belief that they're getting the support at least from people that have spoken to me already this year that it feels different it feels good to have the kind of support that they're getting from the administrative team uh this year so I I do want to publicly thank uh the work that you guys are doing to make a big turn around I believe in on School this year anybody else Isabel one for me how do we relate to our sister schools the uh location schools and I'd have to look at that so I can look at that and share that yeah okay so we would just a question yeah I want to thank you all for being here tonight Mr Jackson you hand yourself all I want you to know I'm trying to get the principal's report back our agenda be coming more I thank you all you taking time away from your family to be here with us thank you very much thank thank St uniform I give I thought I pr must put the back side in anyways uh we have had some meetings uh these are some recommendations uh that if we are going to go to continue to uh pursue the idea of uh uniforms um for the academic uh week uh the recommendations at this point is to have uh short sleeve or long sleeve polos or t-shirts with glts logo on the front white or black um glts sweat shirts that match the colors of the T-shirt no hood and black or khaki pants uh cargo a regular Dicky style of any color uh in terms of well black or khaki uh color two colors so the black pants or khaki pants and uh I think the majority are leaning towards t-shirts for a shirt black or white t-shirt with the welcome that's what they would recommend to the committee for a uniform it's a committee so be still would like to consider uniforms um I'd like to see a copy that can we have someone make us I myself but I don't access sure thank so if you have any questions get the question um so how many people were on this committee that you well you'll see there their roles so there was uh I think we had three administrators two teachers and then the uh the city I mean the school council parents wait in on as well uh so and who also has students on it so they wait on and you'll see that they wait in on it that document printing you'll see that who wait in on it I see what was your question did you have the hand I'm sorry I don't know first please um I I I actually what was your question yeah my question to the superintendent was who was on The Who was appointed to the committee and their roles in this process and he indicated that paper like being printed out it's going to get no names but just the roles and and what the what the roles and other committee as well those teachers administrators doesn't say on that sheet okay so what was the total number of members on that committee five five Mr yeah did I read the question might go up to the students to say on well they were students on the council okay so go to part of the student part just the student input from the council okay can I just speak to that Mr H I'm sorry Speak to that so um one of the I can't see your hand so please pray to interrupt uh one of the recommendations was um to get more input from more parents and students like if it does come down to you know something sort of identified that's about making a choice between you know A or B that there should be more input put um you know some of the team members of the committee members um they wanted to be clear they weren't necessarily endorsing a uniform but it was more like if we needed input they provided the input but it didn't mean that they were really on board with it at this point I think uh because it came to a vote rather quickly I think there were maybe more questions than we were able to even answer in these smaller meetings when you think we might be able to Well here here's the thing I mean I don't know what you're thinking about a uniform you talk about uniform give me a what are your choices give you a polo shirt t-shirt or a long sleeve shirt C shirt I don't know what else you can pick for a uniform and then whatever color and then pants either khakis there was also the idea of a lot of people think we should have blue jeans as our pants um so we said either so it came down to uh black khakis or khaki colors so uh color so other than that I don't know other kind of selections the committee has in mind that you think the UN form should be I don't know what other what other ideas you might think that you should we should have okay pair pants you got a shirt yeah no the choices are fine okay so I would prefer the college shirt the T-shirt little more formal so then you're talking a a polo shirt or a button- down shirt most 90% of the people think po shirt with a button shirt I I would agree with that yes else again personally for me I always want to go more uh prend and you know I think in the summer it's a different story when it hits when it hits June and uh or May and June we probably start becoming warmer probably would prefer the polisher but I would love to see but and down long sleeve sh that would be my suggestion long sleeve long sleeve and Cains very percent they can go from here to any uh interview if they need to because they're already well dressed um and the least the option that we that they have the better because the more option that we have do this called this color then they start coming everybody start coming different and um and I also um since we're already getting into that probably uh on on the teachers part the dress code for teachers as well what you know should they look at should they look apart that would be something again I don't know if we had an issue in the past but if if I think it would also be uh something to look at so they they also will have their expectation and what the expectation may be so that they can look every everybody can look the same and we don't have question whether they have title a shirt or skirt or a or C um so then if we're all going to be on on on unifor I believe that we should also consider uh how the teacher dress code may be as well if you like we can put that under new business right now we're discussing student uniforms anybody else as far as do you please so this is to both of you through you um there are some questions here that were asked in the feedback so I mean personally I mean I'm one vote but you know these recommendations are good for the committee to consider but there are questions here that are that have gone unanswered that I'm assuming they're asking in terms of you know shop uniform during academic week and allowing students to choose from multiple colors so I don't know if you guys can talk a little bit more about that well those were questions that came up um Can the students wear their shop uniforms Journey academically um my personal opinion from what you guys was discussing would be no and uh can we allow students to choose for multicolor fla uniform have G to logo and as uh again I would say no based on what you gave us from the beginning so those are questions that came out so um it doesn't leave us a lot of options um but it's uh relatively simplistic in terms of what you can wear can't wear po so if you're saying polo shirt long sleeve in the winter short sleeve in the summer in the spring or when the weather's warmer with uh khaki type pants whether it be black or khaki color um and U and any other I mean that's basically the recommendation I would say that's being made if you think that that's not acceptable and we can send it back to the committee for other ideas um and I mean once you've said yeah we want to go with polo shirt and khakis we can send it out to the the parents that this is a if you want to give us any feedback what are the issues or problems you see uh on their you know themselves we can do that if you want but uh I don't know if you want this to get into that kind of a discussion anything else thank you this I mean here's the problem I have and this is after after being here and knowing the population here you have sharp uniforms 99% of the shops maybe 100% have a t-shirt it gets incredibly close to a polo shirt and then you're gonna open it up to kid wears the T-shirt good Lord You're Breaking the Law I mean you know if he comes in with a t-shirt doesn't have the polar shirt I mean even I couldn't try to you know discipline that kid for not having the right shirt on so I think he going to run into more problems if you don't need at least if you're going to do this you got to make a distinction I mean other schools don't have sharp academic so you know you you go to La high or say you I I know it's not compar comparison But Central Catholic they have a they have their polo shirt they have their khaki pants but we have career areas here that the shirt is a t-shirt with the logo I don't know I'm going to I personally I find it difficult to enforce I I don't know I mean even I with you know my stringent whatever could not can I CH in El yes um you touched on it last meting before you touched on it this is a great expense to our students don't want to burden the parents buying more uniforms you touched on we have a policy now enforc the policy as far as winter versus t-shirts you can buy sweatshirts or the t-shirts I think the policy we have now is adequate if it's enforced that's something that you know more than happy to look at I'm more than happy to look at different options I just like to keep that in mind well you know I I I don't think U buying five uniform if they need to buy five un they going to cost less than dressing up for nine months of school so I think that would be more costly effect you know cost more money when you have to buy to wear five different clothes for every different day of the week and then you don't want to repeat a week after that because you're a kid and you're self-conscious that they remember that shirt that I used last week whatever right so that with that said I believe that if we decide on a dress shirt they can always buy the logo of the school and just as long as it's a white dress shirt you can put in the logo and probably print the logo of the school and put it on that pocket and that will differentiate um where they don't have to necessarily buy the shirt at particular place where it's probably more money but you buy that white longsleeve shirt and you get the T the the School logo and just put it on that that's how I went when I went to Dominican Republic that's what my you know we used to buy from the school the logo is to be sold into into the shirt as long as it's sold into the shirt it shouldn't be an issue and then again you know um if it's long sleeve for academic it's long sleeve if he short sleeve because it's summer and it's hot nobody wants to wear long sleeve shirt I understand that just wear you your color polish shirt is shirt shirts it's not not a a t-shirt I think again we we want want we want to start teaching these kids how to dress and a t-shirt you can go in a t-shirt to to get a an interview for for work um I just want them to start visualizing because a lot of times is that I think as parents they just allow kids because they're kids and kids and they just grow up in 25 years old they still kids oh yeah is their kids no I think we need to start showing them that this is school and you come in stuff like really nice we can differentiate anybody in the in the hallway and we know that they're part of the school and look at the shirt and they don't have that we need to make sure that they something happen so that that um that doesn't happen I just that's my opinion I know we're seven of us here everybody has their opion on that's where I stand John do some kids spend half the day in shop and half the day in academics at all were they just they split that at all the ninth grade and the 10th grade so how does that impact the dress code so they uh the ninth and 10th well the ninth graders are um they could wear their academic outfit I would say uh because they're not in a particular shop no I know and the 10th grade are in a particular shop so you'd have to allow them to wear their shop uniform I guess something y question good question anybody else to finalize which one first did C graders have a split day too well they're um yeah they they're not in shop all day they're in shop and then they're also have English and they have math on academic week I mean on their shop week they have two they have two academic classes okay in F to I believe all right well again being being a student ex- student when we had gym we had to bring our Gym close because we couldn't go on academic clothing to the gym so they need to bring you know their their their boots because you can still wear your academic clothing to to the shop you may need to wear boots but they can say you know you can bring your shoes if you need to change your gear you boot gear from from shop to go into you can bring your shoes and change them afterwards I guess me thinking I'm very fashionable so trust me when it comes to clothing I I I I can relate to the kids but I also uh understand the parent and I understand what I like to see our kids look like um and I think that if if they are um a shop and they need to wear certain kind of boots they can bring their shoes so they can change it if they choose and trust me if they want to change it they'll bring it on the on the in the book bag or they leave it on the locker to swap when they need to swap and put their proper here to go into into the shop last question for is it only the seniors that do like Monday Tuesday or is it the whole school whole school all right so I'll really be looking at three shirt investment as opposed to five because Wednesday Thursday and Friday then they they got the whole weekend to watch the clothes and they get them back money Tuesday it's not about five days straight part of the uniform or they regular clothes anybody else um I suggest we send this back to the council um to be cleaned up this is this isn't really much of anything for us well I think you got to make a decision do you want a uniform you don't want a uniform I mean why are we sending it back we're not going to go with a uniform let's make a decision we going uniforms if we are you've got some choices here if you're not going in uniforms for that's fine put it the rest but we got to we got to make a decision one way or the other before we move it anywhere else in my opinion I think we making agenda that we were making decision to now if you want opinion and you wanted I mean we had talk about this for several weeks already we understand and I know you made a you um mention that we have a uniform over is not being enforced and we already we already got the lawyer here telling us that there's complication of enforcing what we have because of breaking some laws we don't want that so I believe the uniform is the way to go we just need to you know know what it is um and I I I agree 100% with Eris Edison when he said let's make it simple let's make it um professional and a shirt with a logo and cocky pants for academic and the chop had their uniform whatever that is and let's just go with it because that takes away the whole complication and kids are are learning to be professional and everything else that we already said so we understand have Poli up but it's not going to be enforced and it's going to create legal so that's my um go ahead I'm sorry I no it's okay well since we are making that decision I think we should also look into the shoes or sneakers or whatever we the color we should be very specific so we don't leave too much gaps because that's what happens you know we com in black but then you have a black but wi the bottom and you comeing you know like with with whatever shoelace color and so when we make when we make a decision on uniform we need to be specific so there's no options so think we need to see physically see them before we voted on it I want to see what exactly what it is for see pants I won't see the shoes all right what that's the thing I'm sure we have companies that will come in US yeah um that's what I just wanted to bring up the fact that um we are talking we only talked about the shirt and the pants but um a belt should be also included on that must where belt you are dressed because you you don't have a it's like having it's like having a putting a tie but not closing the tie it's like you know what I mean if you're going to put the pens the pens should go with the belt um and the shoes had to be a color specific whether it's brown or whatever so we can nail it down and not leave little gaps for somebody body to modify the dress code which is where we are this point it defaulted because it started slacking with little whether it's a t-shirt or or polish short or maybe a slack on the the kind of clothing is a fit or too too white or whatever you know we should be specific that this is what we want so then when the student doesn't look like that they know they're out of uh Contex that's that's all put yeah I was going to put a motion to accept the um recommendations put forward unless there's other discussion I'm putting a motion this is decision on the Pres this isn't definite though they're asking us this je or khakis or I think that goes back to the committee not to us yes so this is a recommendation and you could you folks could correct problem this is an official recommendation from that committee without the opinion of the or without the endorsement of this that was presented this was the feedback that was collecting the committee recommends more parental involvement um an involvement from students survey on the options yeah I no I understand that that's why I'm accepting this so that we can move forward with that not with the policy but it is asking us to recommend for more inut yes I think if you're going to start surveying parents and all these other people I mean you there are some options here what are you going to ask the parents do you want a t-shirt or a polo I mean what do you what do you think they're going to give you like I don't understand the giving the parent and other people like we're going to get aund different opinions and it comes down to do you want a uniform it's pretty simple you're either going to have some kind of simple shirt one kind of simple pants why are we trying to complicate things here for you either want a uniform or you don't and what are the options we not going to you know what kind of pair of pants do you think they're going to tell you to wear what does the committee want you said you want something simple if they come back and say oh we want this this or that you may not like it what is it that you want that you think is acceptable and then you tell them what you want it's your decision you can send out all the surveys you want you're going to get a 100 different opinions from 100 different people just in doing this every every meeting we have this one wants this so how about we do it this way it's like no one comes to terms with what is it that you want you said you want something simple to me you got two simple things either t-shirt or polo with long sleeve short sleeve pair of cak black T what other options do you think you're going to get or what I don't know I'm confused by it all you're just making it comp something complicated it doesn't need to be complicated either want a uniform but you don't you want there's a simple option my motion is to accept this because it was not put into record I I just saw this today this is like this is what I'm talking about I'm putting a motion to accept this into the record because it has not been accepted into the record this was just printed and it was just given to us this is brand new to me so you know you can't come to the committee and push us to make a decision we're the ones that need to decide that I'm reading this now is what I'm trying to help the committee understand so we are seeing this now now we need to come to a decision what I am simply putting forward is we're accepting this into the record so we have this in record because it was not given up front to the committee motion's on the floor do I have a second second second all those in favor I oppos oppos tost let's call a vote please before we continue motions on the floor Mr Tabo no Miss Ferris yes Miss TLA if this opinions we need to hear them first I mean there's a motion on the floor is second but there people still have further discussion I'm sorry I believe that we already agreed on WE wanteded uniform so this this is there they there was a a group of people who got gathered together to decide this now we should just decide what we want and just pass it forward and close the chapter now if we don't all agreed on something then we should find out what you know further information in regards to to to the um to the unform but I believe we already ordered for uniform last time now is what kind of uniform are we are going to have the kids wear is what should be discussing because I believe we already voted on yes we want a uniform unless I'm wrong just the committee look into just to clarify the motion this is to accept it into the record they're not making on the accepting into the record because it was just G us so with that said what I believe we should probably be doing is just making an agreement on what we decide it proper from these recommendations are we already have them here we should all come together whether we believe it's a long leaf shirt or t-shirt or po shirt or whatever we should all come so that we may close the chapter so we don't continue for another how many meetings so um thank you for the opportunity I know so I don't want to to be no no so accepting this into the record is that because you want more time to look at it and next time it come to the next meeting you'll vote on what we have here is that what the idea is no what's the purpose the issue is is we were just given this docum no no I understand that so these are the options that you were given do you want to make a decision based on this or you want us to do something else with this that's up to the committee options from from a committee am I right and you're asking for more input from parents and students who's asking that the bottom line black school council oh school council is recommending that why are they are here okay well if I could speak to this so This doc this was just a meant to be note for uh Mr La boy for updating the committee um compiling Notes From The Faculty faculty committee that met and then the notes that I was given from the school council which I wasn't even in that meeting so I just wanted to share the information that we had so far um with some options and sort of opinions so to me this is just like there there are a lot of questions on here right we have like people talking about three different styles of pants three different colors one person thought we should offer you know every color you know in the rainbow that they could choose for a shirt as long as they had the GL logo so to me this was just to update the committee on the discussion so far um and not clearly it's not at a point where people can just vote on something sort of yes or no um and then to share that feedback about from the um school council um and the faculty committee that they felt that there should be um more feedback which I understand what Mr leoy is saying to his point there will be that many more opinions um so this is just sort of where this came from it wasn't meant I think to be sort of an official document but it's you know you can see there are a lot of different opinions and course we still don't have Clarity and I feel like the other thing is um at this point we haven't U reached out to any vendors to get pricing I have no idea what this would cost I was looking at some different companies online that have school uniforms and there seems to be a a wide variety um I don't know what the quality is but um M Martell could probably speak to that process if were to have a contract with a company that would be a lot of money so I don't know what that next step would look like and how that would impact the committies decision as well okay anybody else I would make a motion that we accept the polo shirts cocky pants um color to be chosen after we have a couple of vendors approach us with some options right now we work with the vice chair's motion you're going to pull a motion or you want to stand on the motion motion was to accept this into record yes so I'm getting clarification this is meeting us okay I'm going to withdraw the motion okay motion's been withdra you want you accept accept the option of AP polo shirt cocky pants uh and it should it should also list belt I'm not sure about shoes but uh all right just to be sure we're sending a suggestion back to this Council yeah we would prefer yeah we defined it down no jeans no t-shirts we've defined no that's not his recommendation the recommendation is that we accept polos and khaki pants that's the recommendation you're making yes it that's the motion you're making yes it is colors there's three questions down here jeans over khaki t-shirts over polos color options design a recommendation motion has nothing to do with that so why don't we why don't we start ning it down one second you made a motion first of all we got to vote on motion again please you have it do you want me to repeat what I have move to accept the polar shirt cocky pants belt colors to be chosen after we have some options all right that's the motion do I have a second second second discussion I think we should all the committee should vote for whether it's a short short uh polish shirt or a long sleeve shirt and we all agree to whatever we agreed on and then we move to the pens and then color the pant so that will be close because that's his recommendation so I have my own everyone so you're going to record every recommendation because we should vote on whether we want po shirt or we want long sleeve shirt and then we go to want pant and what color pant do we want to go with a c shirt that's that's what I think we because that's what it's going to determine the uniform and then obviously we agreed on the Belt part and with somebody else doesn't agree with the vot then we vote on that and then that's the finalize should be that should be presented to be voted to the uh to the U what's it called to the committee who proposed us this proposal so unless I'm wrong if I'm wrong please what's up Mrs okay so what real difference does it make so we we've agreed that there's a uniform correct correct what real difference does it make if you have a polo shirt which has a collar or a long sleeve shirt I think you have to give parents kids some options what difference does it make it has eliminated t-shirts that's that's key so there's no t-shirts there's polo shirts long sleeve shirt with a logo black aaki pants with a belt that's my proposal just uh knowing some kids work outside it's cool it gets colder the sweatshir could be part of that one fure oh of course I'm sorry I know I'm just saying yes yes they really want to look good they can buy those v-neck sweaters I mean give them some options if you want what you don't want why don't we tell them what we don't want no t-shirts no jeans I'm a business owner and I'm thinking again I'm trying to give the kids and I know we don't want to spend the whole night talking about one topic but what I pricture is the kids that they need to start thinking about dressing that problem um I do understand the weather changes and therefore maybe longly Shir in May June the last dates may not be what they want be wearing because it's a different story in the middle of the winter and again I don't want to get stuck to that but I want if you show up on my work looking for a job on on a on a on a polisher I mean 90% of of that maybe not because I don't think is is appropriate to go and that's what I want them to picture themselves to dress up to go for for potential interview if they choose to I mean to look apart but again I'm not going to make make it a big deal on a Polish shirt or long LEF shirt because they're going to end up needing a Polish shirt because of the weather as well so if you guys have the Polish shirt or long sleeve shirt as an option I'm I'm I'm good with that as well it's not like I'm stuck on no polish shirt you know what I mean I believe the polisher is going to be used in the time appropriate for for the web but then again I don't have a problem with a polisher once long Le shirt so if we all agreed on that we just vote on that and we'll go on the pants I mean when I first well I just want to simplify the motion uh give Clarity to the motion so all you making a motion is that we go to a polo shirt whether it be short sleeve or long sleeve depending on the weather and pans uh uh khaki pans and then once we've and belt once you've said okay to that we'll bring in different combination Colors by a vendor and you guys can decide the color because now you have a shirt and the pants we'll bring in the colors is what you had said basically is that the motion that you were making that's I mean it's pretty simple that's the motion any further discussion you want to read back the motion just soes yes move to accept the polo shirt cocky pants belt and belt colors to be chosen after some options are presented Mr Mercedes yes Mr tarox yes Miss Ferris yes Miss tisler yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mahia yes Mr ha yes all right beat that one [Music] Aviation update Mr it's going to be an easy one easy one right now uh far as Aviation is concerned in April the FAA is coming in to inspect our space uh the C they've gotten the curriculum and all other documentation they want they verify that they have that uh they're going through all that information and they come in April or before April they'll notify us if there's any changes needed uh when they come in April they just need to look at the space the equipment the airplanes all of that stuff uh the spaces that they're going to be inspecting is the new shop space over by the field which is completed it's equipped with equipment workbenches it's all completely done need some uh maybe space adj uh equipment moving around and adjusting and then the new building that's going to be done on February 28th is the targeted date right now that we should have occupancy permit right near that maybe beginning of March without the AR permit but we're supposed to be able to actually start to move stuff and even before February 28th looks like they're running pretty good I uh I was in there just uh about a week and a half ago uh it's moving along well uh they're B for the most part the outside building itself is pretty much close to done uh so that that's looking good and uh the uh space out at the uh airport The Hanger uh where having ACAC company go out and look at heat is the main thing we got to get in there Heating and uh bathroom facilities what we looking at portable bathroom facilities try to wait for a year then redesign instead of putting a loft in we're considering maybe put a small addition it might in the long run be cheaper to just to throw three two bathrooms in instead of doing a second floor so uh that's in in terms of FAA all they need is to heat in there and the facility which we'll have for them when they come in in April and uh once they come in they approve that they approve it then uh Department of it will come in shortly after that and then if they approve it ready to open in September it's looks very good at this point any questions on the aviation update uh what type of planes going to go in the new building uh the uh two uh a single prop plan and a two plane that we have that's out at the airport we have to transport them here by taking the Wings off and transporting them here those are two plane the jet will right now the plan is to keep the jet out of the airport in the hanger at the airport and the helicopter as well we may move the helicopter here depending on at least not the first year but depending on the curriculum and when they're needed will determine when they come to the school any else I would suggest Mr set a time for the school committee to take a viewing of the buildings yeah next school committee if you want to start a half hour early we can tour the buildings the the aviation buildings the cafeteria and the barn you can get an idea of where they all what they look like and um what stage of construction they're in so um that be we can do that if you want start a half hour 45 minutes a half hour is probably long enough to do a tour it'll be a little warmer hopefully by then if we late Tak can startop with us yeah all right budget update Mr L with the uh Governor's numbers so at this point we expect the governor's numbers to be here tomorrow uh and then what we'll do is once we have the numbers we'll look at what the uh allocations are to us and what we have in the budget see if we either have to make some Cuts or we're in good shape know what that looks like uh and if we need to start making Cuts go back to our existing budget that we put together we'll make that and then uh is it February we bring them the presentation so February U make pres give a presentation to everybody based on the budget so that's the next step is to wait for the Governor's numbers which we hoping to get tomorrow thank you next up the network breach update please include the website update all right so uh to give you an idea what actually happened is that uh The Intruders uh came in uh through our um sonic wall which is our um all that prevents uh Intruders from coming in so they come in and they check they check our our our um our all our opportunities to come in through the sonic wall through uh our WIP which allows different ways of coming in into the into the network system they find an opening and once they find that opening they're able to get through the sonic wall once they get through the sonic wall then they can penetrate Quality Service in the building and that's what happened they came in to that opening protection that wasn't one little spot in our uh system that wasn't protected once they found that they're able to go into all our service that's basically what happened um and so um at this point here we are waiting tomorrow we're meeting with a uh a IT company we're in the process of getting three quotes to get a network audit done uh which they'll uh audit our whole network system and then make recommendations to improve the quality of our uh security systems uh and uh give us a price on what we can what what has to be done and what kind of cost we're looking at to get that done uh right now we have one quote we're waiting for another quote from a company out of Alabama and we're looking for another another quote from uh Wall-E another company which we're meeting with tomorrow to talk about uh the U project itself and hopefully after tomorrow we'll be able to select the little bid or hopefully be the low bid but we'll we'll look at the three quotes and pick a a company to figure that' be uh high quality and also hopefully it'll be the low price that we get um we're looking for someone closer than Alabama but the company from Alabama I actually saw when I was out at uh last week at the conference uh has um highly recommended in that part of this uh country but doesn't do much work here but uh because of their recommendation I said let's get a quote from them and I I met with them last last week and then I met with them again this weekend on the phone to talk about the project itself so we're hoping to get three quotes uh to do that audit and then once that's done and then get to work on uh a lot of it's been upgraded already some of the servers have been upgraded but not a complete audit we believe we need a complete audit from a security company it security company that'll make Engineers that'll make sure we have the utmost secure network system we can have so we don't get into this issue again employes that have been affected what's that employees that have been infected uh so as far as employees letters uh I was told that letters were out are going out this week I'm not sure if anyone got it yet or not but they're getting they should be get everybody should be getting a letter this week which uh explains to uh the staff that their uh personal information was compromised and that they're receiving safety protection uh to uh help them cover prevent anyone from obtaining any uh use of their uh credit so uh they each will be getting what's called Life Lock for two years uh to uh oversee their credit and notify them if anyone attempts to utilize their credit in any way over the next two years um that's being paid for by the insurance company to cover all employees all the way back as far as 15 years any when that work for us who information might have been compromised uh they will get a letter and explaining that uh so everybody be covered is that website update I'm sorry do that go from the insurance companies that why they haven't from the attorneys the attorneys are supposed fir because I know well they hired a company that does this experience Experian yeah so yeah another company that does it no just but they get the information from the attorneys it's just that I've had several inquiries about about this yeah and I know that we've talked about it before and you keep saying that they're going out so I I didn't know where they originated from my well I they kept telling me it was going G to be out next week G to be out next week it wasn't out next week wasn't out next week but they now have all the information I feel pretty confident that it's going this week at least in my conversations both with the attorney we had a conversation both B and I had conversations with the attorney last week and she's was pretty convincing to me anyway that it was going to go up yeah they shared the actual letters that are going out they were looking for um approval and fin they had to wait till they collected all the information because there were previous employees as well um and then there are also different guidelines depending on the state that somebody's living in so I think that took number as well but we did actually see the letters yeah so there's about seven different states just has to go out and the regulations are different for every state so the letter had to be changed a little bit based on what the what state it was can we speak to the web design frienders can give you a little update on we so we are still working on it we do have the new um the new site uh but it's not up and running so it's um we basically migrated our old site over to this new format it's um final site which is basically the same company Blackboard has um now been acquired by final site so the format's all there but we still have to work on updating the content we don't want it to go live with old content um so a lot of work has been put in over the past year year and a half um with getting new content when we were working with another company um so some of the content is on that other website that we actually didn't launch and then we have a lot of information in the drive so the IT department uh we're going to be working closely with them to try to update as much of the content as we can as soon as possible um we may not have all of the information on there um prior to releasing it but we definitely want to have at least sort of the basics and make sure that what we do have is not outdated um so I really if I feel comfortable giving an exact launch date um I would hope it would be let me make you uncomfortable what do you think for when will we have our website up and I won't hold you to it I just we're not running down I'm GNA Hope by the end of February but again with like having to still add additional content um after it's up right yes absolutely and the um I guess the benefit I am not a website person um this is not my area but the benefit of um having final site and the reason we went with this Platform One of reasons is because it's supposed to be more user friendly and you don't need to have like one um specialized Web Master so different administrators can go in and update their own content if they need to as things come up and it's not all going through one person so it's supposed to be U more accessible and user friendly um and we do have a few few administrators now updating content on the previous site so that would be my hope but the one thing about uh different people putting together content that's going to go on the website different people can put together content that they want on the website but it still has to be cleared by one administrator which is going to be Brenda is going to approve anything that goes on the website she doesn't have to develop it or put it together she's just going to see the final product and say yeah that's okay to go or no that's not okay though so we don't have so we keep in in not only consistent with the language consistent in the way we want it to look and stay professional so we haven't had that kind of uh oversight in the past and we want to make sure the information is correct as well that's why it's going to work questioning on legis a date the legislative breakf going to be February 28th in the Four Winds Restaurant 8:30 a.m.

tomorrow afternoon and we will definitely give you some great consideration to become part of our team so and thank you to otm for putting that all together all of our schools will be represented uh represented there and the principles and we'll we'll get ready to sign people up isn't that right Mr Macintosh correct I love it when you talk so much at a board meeting next we have a very special honor uh governing board member Jill humph has been chosen to receive the Arizona music educators associ assciation Raymond g van award at the upcoming AA Conference this award named for the longtime music consultant to the Arizona Department of Education is presented to someone outside of the music education profession for Extraordinary efforts made in the area of advocacy so that will be held uh Friday the 31st at 115 in Mesa at the Mesa Civic Center and Jill will be awarded then so congratulations to you Jill we're very happy for you and I know you definitely deserve that recognition so thank you well thank you I just want to say that's what started my journey for um Public School advocacy is getting involved in understanding the music program well we have phenomenal programs and I'm glad that um so many people enjoy it and I'm glad that you recognized because you show up and you support them as often as you can um on a on a Saturn note as you heard Miss Murray talk about a couple people to be remembered I want to talk about them uh briefly this past weekend we also experienced the loss of one of our students uh Ariel Thomas who was a third grader at Patterson Elementary she had been battling aplastic anemia and sadly on Saturday the battle came to an end uh we want to express our condolences for AR's family teachers support staff and friends please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers I know they will be putting out service information uh once that's available so uh please keep their family in your hearts additionally Gilbert public schools in the town of Gilbert lost one of the most amazing human beings to walk this planet and that is Dr Walter Dei Dr Dei passed away early Monday morning after spending a few days in the hospital Dr Dei came to GPS in 1978 as an assistant superintendent 3 years later he was named superintendent of Gilbert Public Schools he served as superintendent from 1981 to 2001 um leading the district through its most remarkable growth and successfully opening 20 plus schools in the Gilbert and Mesa areas in those 20 years in his years as superintendent and ever since Dr Dei positively influenced the district culture and students academic achievements in immeasurable ways always putting people first he'll be greatly missed and always remembered do Dr Dei represents everything that is great about Gilbert public schools there never has been or will be a better and more beloved superintendent than Wall-E he was the pride of GPS in the town of Gilbert and a dear friend that I love tremendously and we lost an icon that will never be matched so please keep his family and friends in your thoughts and prayers as they navigate this difficult time uh again we will very close to having Services Arrangements uh completed for for him and once that is out we will publish those so please be on the lookout for that Mr Thompson that is my report for this evening thank you thank you Dr McCord thank you for your words uh in regards to uh Dr deluy and also R Thomas thank you thank you uh moving on to agenda item number five request of the speak to the request to speak to the governing board which we don't have any this evening but I do want to mention that we received two comments online and we want to thank those uh folks for uh taking the time to do that and address the board so we will move on to agenda item number six uh 6.01 fiscal year 2024 annual comprehensive financial report Dr McCord thank you Mr President board members if you'll notice Miss Betts will be going down to the Podium to present the AER um and um she'll do a tremendous job but uh thank you Bonnie again I think it's working okay good just take just took a little while okay so good evening um president Thompson governing board members Dr McCord um this is our annual um report on how we did a year ago so we're talking about school year 23 24 and the financial results associated with 23 24 so um as we go through this you did know that it does say it's the draft annual comprehensive report and we did post a draft of the entire report um for you last Friday I want you to know that we're just finalizing typographical errors but the substance and the the financial statements are all complete and if we find something that is not um we will bring it back to you for your acceptance so we are asking for you to accept it at the end of the board meeting tonight during the action items okay okay good so just to begin uh this is what we're going to talk about today the audit process and results uh fiscal year 24 government-wide financials the governmental and proprietary fund financials other funds and then a few items to note so to begin I wanted to hand over the podium to um Miss Jennifer Shields from hfield meech and they are our external Auditors and she will share um information about the audit process and the results good evening um president Thompson Dr McCord governing board members um thank you for allowing me a few minutes to speak with you tonight I know um a few of you on the dis are um newer board members so this will be a little bit of an education session for you this evening um but I'm here just I don't have slides this time around um perhaps When I visit with you next time I might bring some slides but um my um my job is to um just present information to you from perspective as external Auditors so the way the audit process works is we are um contracted we go through the procurement process the district does you know an RFP and all of that kind of stuff so we are in fact um contracted to perform the audit Services every year um I don't know what year of the contract we're in but um we have worked with the district for quite a number of years and so the way the audit process begins is each year we start with an engagement letter so for your District that occurs usually in the spring sometime so usually in about the April time frame we issue an engagement letter and then that allows us to start performing audit procedures and we do in fact perform audit procedures from April all the way up until essentially right now when we are out here giving this report to um you all so the um the audit procedures are per performed in a series of events so some of our visits um are what we call remote visits where we work with um the business office and they kind of coordinate getting us a lot of information electronically through a secure portal that type of thing and um we perform some of those audit procedures remotely not on site and then other procedures we do come on site and perform those here so when we are on site you'll see us kind of running around the district as well as at your school sites there's a number of different um departments that we interact with um the business office is of course the largest um take the largest lift of coordinating all of the audit um there are some very specific things that as the independent Auditors that we communicate to you all you are in our world you are those charged with governance that's the sort of the terminology that we use in our world um and I'm going to go through some of those right now one um some of those involve going over the timeline which I went over with you um it's reporting whether or not we had any significant deficien I'm sorry significant difficulties that we encountered with Management in um the performance of our audit procedure procedures there's a lot of procedures um we I'm happy to report that we actually did not have any difficulties with Management in the performance of those procedures there were no significant audit adjustments that were required to be reported in order to get these financial statements in this draft um format that is before you this evening we also had no disagreements with management about accounting practices or principles so no disagreements and then of course as you're internal or I'm sorry as your external Auditors we are required to follow our um Professional Standards which require us to follow um various ethical responsibilities and to maintain our independence and we had no violations of any of those things on our side um in terms of the financial statements um Miss bets is going to go through them with you um I'm here also to answer any questions that she may have one of the services that our firm provides is it's actually not it's wrapped up with the audit but it's technically a non- audit service and that's the compilation of the report so what we do is we take um essentially all of the accounting records that are coming out of the district's Erp system and we make adjustments to convert um the the cash basis records into to both acrel and modified acral which again um Bonnie will go go through some of those adjustments with you and and kind of how you get from essentially the reports that you're used to seeing every month as a board member how you get from those reports into this um particular fashion so um when it comes to Preparing the financial statements um in the manner that's required by generally accepted accounting principles there are always estimates that occur with in the financial statements and so that that remains true with Gilbert Public Schools as well there are probably three main estimates um that have to do with your Capital assets generally in terms of depreciation expense so how long we expect to use our assets for there are um some estimates as they recur um as they relate to um what's called incurred but not reported expenses for claims which in your case is really like medical um claims for your self Insurance Fund so that is an estimate of how much we expect to have as a liability for future claims and then also um and I believe bnny will talk about it a little bit as well but there are um estimates as relate to um pensions so every District employee participates in Arizona State Retirement System Pension Plan and the pension information goes into this draft financials and ultimately it contains a lot of um estimates that are actuarially based that happen over at asrs um so there are some estimates while they are significant in terms of um dollar amounts perhaps um we we don't don't have any concerns with the application of the estimates um and then I think that concludes I like I said I will be coming back there's another part of the audit um that is not yet completed we're still working on that um and it relates to it's What's called the single audit and so it um it covers uh like the federal portion of the audit um probably one thing I should mention about the actual financial statements that are before you tonight although they are in draft form we have complete um completed enough of our procedures that we are expecting to issue an unmodified opinion so that's that's what we like to hear um you know it's called the clean opin it's a clean opinion but it's technically called unmodified so that is what we expect to issue when this report is issued um and I believe we're targeting for about you know in the next probably four or 5 days to finish up with all those typographical type double checks make sure all the eyes are dotted and the t's are crossed so with that um I will turn it back over to Bonnie but I will be here if or I can take any questions if you have questions now all right thank you thank you I was afraid she wasn't going to let us know what the audit audit opinion was okay um so to move on into the financial statements so first I wanted to share with you uh the government-wide financial so this is the highest level of how we report out to you and you're only going to see these one time a year because generally speaking when we present to you monthly we're showing budget to actuals which is really more of that cash basis that um Miss Shields mentioned so in this particular case this is what we would call a full acral so all of those adjusting entries that Miss Shields talk talked about are all within the government-wide financials the most important thing about the government-wide financials is it gives an indicator as to the financial stability and the status of Gilbert as a financial institution as it relates to our bond buyers and anyone who gives us a a credit rating and all those types of things so it does give the reader an idea of how we're doing so to share this is our government-wide net position so you can see year-over-year from 2023 to 2024 we've actually gained in net position by $28 million which is really good news so generally speaking um this net position indicates that if we have spent some money and so we've drawn down cash we've put it into say a capital asset which has increased its value and so therefore it's actually posted to the government wide the note that that we have at the bottom there um that ending uh net position of $45 million that is net of a six about a $ 61.3 million negative restricted um fund balance and that's a very odd thing that we have a negative fund balance but that's related directly to our Arizona State Retirement net pension liability and that liability only appears at the government-wide level so if we did not have that net pension liability we would not have that negative $61 million restricted fund balance so to get into a little bit more about that so this is our Arizona State Retirement and this is that net pension liability that Jennifer mentioned and I'm sharing with you now you can see that year-over-year our net pension liability has increased by about $2 million from 276 million up to 278 when this was first required back in 2012 all of us as Finance professionals throughout the nation were very upset by it because it's not really our liability G Public Schools does not own that $278 million that we have to pay Arizona State Retirement owns it gasby the government Accounting Standards Board really wanted to make sure though that the public knew the shape that our Arizona State Retirement Systems not Arizona but all State Retirement systems were in and so they needed to have something posted at the highest level at all the school districts and other municipalities throughout the nation so I don't want you to get confused that we're going to owe $278 million we don't this is the only point this only this is the only place in which it will appear throughout this entire financial report okay so before I go on are there any questions about that yes this just a requirement I do have a question um so when we're talking about the net pension liability this is taking um the people in our district who are working for our district and then figuring out in the future how much they might um draw a pension how how you know estimating how long people will live and how long they would draw a pension and that's what makes our liability and makes it such a large number that's an estimate act actuarially determined by Arizona State Retirement staff members um but it's not just Gilbert Public Schools it's all of the school districts in Arizona and our proportionate share is based upon our annual contribution so it's likely that our net pension liability went up because our contribution went up year-over-year leading to that increase in that net net pension liability right before or right after that table you can see that there is a sens a sensitivity analysis that that um our Auditors complete for us and you can see that that so much of the net pension liability is about the interest earnings that the Arizona State retirement fund can earn so generally speaking this actuary Actuarial determined number is based upon a current discount rate of 7% so expecting a 7% return on your investment if this was decreased by just 1% you can see that our net liability would go up gosh $140 million so significantly but conver verely if the discount rate went up by 1% our net pension liability would be sizeably decreased so it's very much dependent upon what is expect what the expected return on investment that these retirement uh pension systems are are going to get okay so also at the government wide sorry about that also at the government wide this is where we do a functional spend analysis and these are the numbers I'm going to show you a p here shortly but I wanted to to show you the numbers because between 23 and 24 we increased instruction spend this is directly in the classroom by over $18 million either in salary increases um later you'll you'll have um Len and Crystal talk about the implementation of the math uh and math adoption so um over $8 million was spent on the math adoption in 2024 all that is direct and construction expense uh same thing there's a little bit of an increase in Support Services students and staff that's generally um probably due to Arizona State Retirement and um our pay increases that were awarded last year and then finally one thing I wanted to point out and we'll talk a little bit more about this later but if you look at Support Services Administration you can see that there is a $9 million increase on support service Administration so that's your executive support that's all of you the superintendent's office all of the superintendent leadership team um so that is the the highest level Administration but it also includes all of our principles Etc at our schools but we had this Quasar uh judgment that was passed down to US during 2024 which was a judgment where um somebody basically sued the county assessor's office and said you overstated the value of my property and so that was back since I think 20 5 to 2022 so our proportionate share of that is just under $6 million which is part of that 9 million we were obligated to post that at the highest level now we're at the government wide we were required to post that here in this particular functional spend analysis so I wanted to make sure that that was clear with everyone okay yes sir why does that fall under Administration versus reflected somewhere else and I I think it's just because because it's it's not even a spend really we we had to well it's a spend but we didn't decrease our budget capacity um for it I I don't really know the answer to that but let me ask Jennifer maybe she can help us with that oh it's based upon the usfi chart of accounts so that's where any judgments like this have to be accounted for is under that 2300 function okay okay thank you okay so miss that'ss the the 6 million or so that was uh the Judgment in this lawsuit so you're saying so Gilbert Public Schools isn't responsible for the entire amount that's you're saying that's spread out between across the state or that is just Gilbert Public Schools that's just Gilbert Public Schools however as part of the legislation uh part of the legislative session last year um they required that the department of Ed recalculate the state aid calculation because that means also that state aid was under under allocated in all those years so right now we're expecting that of that up roughly $6 million that we're going to get back about four from the state of Arizona so the actual liability is just over a million doll for us but it's ours it's truly govern Public Schools not related to any other and this is specific to Maricopa County okay and when we receive 4 million or so of those funds back where will that go it's going to go into cash so right now we have a situation in in our maintenance and operations fund where if we are earning interest we're not allowed to spend it so it just grows and we don't have any spending Authority on that so because we had what we call excess cash we were able to easily let them take that $5 million or $6 million we didn't have to incur any debt service charges or anything with the county treasur measure they we had the cash available and they just took it but it did not impact our budget capacity or our budget limits that we are able to spend to it's a strange thing in Arizona thank you okay great so this is the expenses by function year-over-year comparison so you can see if you look at the big blue um piece of the pie it's a 57% and 57% so that is in in instru spend Jackie and I like to share this uh this graph because it gives us um an indicator of how our district spending report will come out so last year our instructional spend was 57% when the district spending report came out it ended up to be 58.7% it's not the same basis of how they're looking at it the the auditor general takes are are are spend on more of a cash basis not on this a cruel basis um but because we are at least at the same at the 57% we're expecting our district spending report will also be very favorable for go public schools and we plan on sharing that with you late March early April I think yeah okay okay any questions on that great okay the governmental fund financials so now we're going to take a step back and we're going to do a modified acrel treatment and again you're never going to hear me say these words again again throughout the remainder of the year until next year when we're presenting to you so it's very it's very different than how we normally present so governmental balance sheet these funds included in here are general fund federal and state grants Debt Service Bond building non- major governmental so if you look at these funding groupings we try to do that in our monthly report so that we're kind of um uh estimating what our AC for presentation might look like when we group them in the way that we do when we share the monthly report with you and then internal service funds the employee benefit trust is the largest there's about 28 $29 Million worth of activity in there annually so it's a very large internal service fund and then District services like The Print Shop there's a technology component and one other little component that I forgety just Tech mostly technology so internal service funds if you the reason that they're separated out we don't want to duplicate the to spend so as an example in maintenance operations our general fund we're putting premium we're we're charging premium benefits to both GT Public Schools as well as premiums to employees that becomes a revenue for the employee benefit trust and it doesn't matter what fund it comes out of it just kind of goes out of payroll and it's charged to the fund in which those employees are working and then it goes into the employee benefit trust as cash and that's our funding source so if we duplicated it you know we would be we'd be duplicating 30 $30 million of of activity every year so that's why it's an internal service fund so to go to the next uh summary so this is our balance sheet the governmental funds balance sheet in in in whole so all those funds are included within this summary but note at the bottom the fund balance you can see that the fund balance was drawn down year-over-year I just shared with you that the net position went up by $28 million but now you can see that when you look at the governmental fund summary we've actually drawn down fund balance so the largest component of that draw down and fund balance was the bond fund so we spent over $22 million out of the bond fund to put back into our facilities so that $22 million of spend went back into our facilities which increased our assets which went into the government the government wide so that's the the easiest way to consider how you can navigate from government government wide down to cover governmental okay that's just just one simple example so general fund definition so our general fund includes maintenance and operations unrestricted Capital the school plant School Plant is where when we sold Neely to the town of Gilbert we were able to put those proceeds into school plant eate Medicaid indirect auxiliary operations gifts and donations litigation insurance and advertising all that is in our general fund so the general fund that we share with you we call it an operating fund that we're that giving you an idea when we present that are these are the funds that we have the most discretion over that that the rules are not so stringent in all these funds we're very close to this um definition but not quite exactly the same so um in this particular case what am I looking at oh this is the general fund I'm sorry so this is the general fund summary now just that highest level just so the general fund that included all those little funds if you want to summarize it it's sort of like a balance sheet of our operating funds that we will be sharing with you monthly so you can see that um our fund balance has grown on on our general fund and that's that's mostly due to very careful spend um always trying to maximize fund balance at the end of the school year um by putting ex uh expense in the appropriate funds as an example when you look at our federal grants our federal grants are what we call reimbursement grants as an example we just got $9.1 million back from sr3 we spent all that money last year so we have to spend it out of Maintenance and operations first and then we get reimbursed so in this particular case um the um the fund the fund balance uh is is positive because all that money that we got are going to go back to offload maintenance operations expense which allows us to increase the fund balance in m so that's just an example of how all that works so you can see uh the other thing we wanted to point out here is that the restricted cash and Investments so I've shared with this in the in the governing board report for the last probably six months and of course you as new board members have not been privy to that but back in at the end of 2023 we actually prepaid our um Arizona State Retirement um contributions so we prepaid $20 million at that point in time when we prepay a dollar amount and it goes into Arizona State Retirement we cannot use that money for anything except for future contributions but at the same time we are able to take advantage of the investment policies at Theo State retirement and earn interest on that I just shared with you that in maintenance operations we can't earn interest but we were able to move $20 million into a prepay and you can see it was $20 million and now it's 22.3 million so we've gained about $2.3 million in that fund available to us to offset future Arizona State Retirement contributions so that's the biggest story on this one any questions before I move on okay great that's what I'm just pointing it out for you that I should have done that before I love those animations too darn okay and this is the operating fund grid that approximates the um the the um general fund in the aord this approximates the general fund in the AER the biggest difference is that the classroom site fund is not in the general fund in the AER we always include it under the operating fund because the classroom site fund contributes a great deal into our teacher salaries and benefits so that's why we include it but I just wanted to you guys will see this every month now um for the remainder of this fiscal year and so I just wanted to try to tie in a little bit with how we're presenting our monthlies to that general fund treatment in the Acer okay so internal service fund financials the only reason we're going into a little bit more detail on the internal service funds is because we're going to be talking about the employee benefit trust a great deal in the next month we have to set new medical premiums for next year and so wanted to make sure that you are aware of the status and how we're doing in the employee benefit trust so to start these are the two major internal service funds so the employee benefit trust you can see on the left and then you can see the district service so you can see that most of the internal service fund lies in the employee benefit trust you can also see from this that uh nope you can see it from the next slide so the next slide is just showing the employee benefit trust and the difference between last year and this year so you can see that at the end of 2023 when I say this year I mean last year two years ago versus last year right it's difficult um but at the end of 2023 our fund balance was $25.3 Million roughly and at the end of 2024 it was 24.1 so we definitely Drew Down fund balance in terms of that operating draw down it was over $2 million so our expenses were greater than the level of funding that we received into the employee benefit trust however fortunately when you look at this particular grid again this is looking at both employee benefit trust and the district Services trust but you can see the operating income loss let's look at 2400 the employee benefit trust you can see the operating loss of the 2.2 million but then you can see the nonoperating uh revenues so back in um 23 we also came to the governing board and redid the policy regarding investing our employee benefit trust funds and so we have been very conservative in how they're invested but we're taking advantage of the environment right now so we're earning five 5 a half% on the money that's just sitting there and so you can see that that 2.2 million uh operating loss was actually offset by just over a million dollar in that Revenue gain due to investment okay now other funds so are we okay there just keep going okay great thank you all very much um so the Food Services fund we always like to talk about Food Services the last three years um so back in 2021 and 2022 Food Services was under what they called a a universal free breakfast and lunch program at that point in time the nutrition services fund was doing really really well um at this point in time in in 23 and in 24 now you can see that we're drawing down fund balance you can see the $1.8 million draw down in 23 and the just about $1.3 million draw down in 24 want you wanted to share that that's a little bit per purposeful we have requested increases in meal prices the last two years but small increases in meal prices purposefully drawing down fund balance to try to to draw it down over time so that we're not um impacting our families too quickly by increasing the the meal prices in Gilbert we have a very we have a relatively low earth free and reduced lunch population so much of our revenue does come from families um buying our breakfast and lunch versus students that are on the national uh school lunch program for free and reduced so that's kind of why we've been trying to do that we have plenty of fund balance so we wanted to make sure that we're judiciously using it and helping out families at the same time as we draw it down so this is what happened on the Food Service AFR that's the annual financial report so you can see that the beginning cash balance was 8.76 million and then the ending cash balance was 7.37 Million so again doing that carefully um we we are not sure if we're going to request food price increase from you this spring uh we're deliberating over that right now but it it could happen but I will share all that information with you in a board report before we actually present it to you at a board meeting okay so before the national free and reduced breakfast and lunch program that we were the universal free thank you um did Food Service operate at a negative did they always have a negative balance at the end of the year or we did not in fact it's not not allowed so let me show you the next slide so you can see we always keep 2019 in there because that was the first or the the let's see that was the last real true year in nutrition services prior to covid so you can see that our total revenue was just above our total expenses in 2019 so therefore we were were navigating the cost of Labor the cost of food and supplies and keeping and keeping our um our spend below our Revenue so that we can always have a little bit of a positive fund balance and that was true since I've been here which was the year before so you can see in 2020 that was when we started drawing down a little bit of fund balance it's a little bit above but if you remember in 2020 we W in operating the last half of the uh the last quarter of the school year so that's what that impact was but then quickly um the federal government turned around and said okay we're going to do Universal free breakfast and lunch until we're out of this covid pandemic and you can see how in 2021 the revenues went quite a bit up above the expense and then in 20122 even higher the reason is is that when we get reimbursements from the federal government it's about $4 and 30 a meal and we're charging about $3.80 so we get a greater reimbursement than what we're charging and so that's what happened in 21 and 22 and so during that time you can see that if you look at the graph you can see that in 23 our expenses did outpace our revenues and then again in 2024 so in talking with um Natalie Tenny our director we're constantly monitoring okay well we have to reduce staff make sure that we're feeding the kids we're watching our numbers um so that we can we can slowly get into balance um and without having a huge impact on our families so that's the goal so I notice um a big jump in total expenditures from 21 to 22 and then those expenditures stay I mean rough it looks like between four and5.5 million do we spent more in 22 23 and 24 than we did in 21 20 and 19 what what do you know what we can attribute the increase in expenditures to I mean it just seems like a a big year-to-year jump and then it stayed high after that do you know what that jump was so in 22 our participation rates at all of our schools were huge because nobody had to pay for it so everyone participated so there were many many more meals being served and so therefore the expenses were higher we had more staff we had more product more food product Etc in order to meet the demand now if you fast forward to um 23 inflation is hitting Us in 2023 where food prices begin to Skyrocket we were competing for Food Service Personnel bus drivers teachers so salaries were going up significantly those two things led to the increase in costs going in 23 and 24 even though our participation did significantly come down but I wonder if I have nope I don't have it here um we did share with you that the participation is a little bit above 2019 right now so our families are choosing to eat breakfast and lunch at go Republic schools even though they have to pay for it but not at the same level when we had Universal free breakfast and lunch y okay the bond fund uh this is notable as well uh this has been the largest component of the draw down in the governmental right because we spent over $22 million and we don't have any new Bond authority to sell bonds so there's no more Revenue coming in but you can see at the end of the year we ended up with $5.5 million but about 2 and A5 million of that $5.5 million was encumbered as we did the the year-end rollover so largely already spent so to date we are we had truly for new projects in the current year about $2.3 million all of which has been encumbered to date so um and then you can see at at the uh end of 2023 we had $27 million in fund balance but that was because we sold Bonds in May of 2013 which infused that bond fund with another about $18 million so that's the big change there and at this point in time as you know there's no more bonding Authority and no more Bond dollars so all of our future Capital spend will have to come out of unrestricted capital or out of the school plant other items to note I already shared a little bit about Quasar to you this is a a few other details a total GPS judgment 5.85 million estimated correction to state aid so getting about $4 million back a little bit higher than I said $1.8 million coming out of our cash again we were very fortunate we had the cash available we did we do not we are not going to have to increase our tax rate going into the next school year in order to compensate for that and then Capital assets same story regarding the bond fund versus Capital assets you can see where the value went up um in our Capital assets and then note though that the non- depreciable went down so we didn't have quite as many projects still outstanding at rollover June 30 than we did a year ago so um that so that that $10 million was just due to projects that they're called Construction in process or in in yeah Construction in process so they're not completed so when they're not completed they're not depreciated against so that's what that that story is and then outstanding Geo bonds this is also a positive we we are very fortunate here in G public schools because we're drawing down our debt very quickly so you can see um that our outstanding Bond principle to date is 131 so we dropped it down by $20 million we will continue to draw down unbalance and you can continue to see reductions in our tax rate because because of that at the same time our sist value is is still growing so we're still a very viable growing um area in the in Maricopa County and then finally uh compensated absences this is another item that goes at the government wide that various very high level so in Gilbert Public Schools as most school districts we have what we call compensated absences that means that if you don't don't use your sick leave it has a value because if you were to retire or or leave the district you are to get some money back so that calculation is done thanks to um Jackie and Lauren here my friends every year and transmitted to our Auditors to include in the government-wide level so you can see that to date our compensated absences does continue to grow largely because we have seen um uh salary increases over the last 3 or four years so it has been growing because of that so therefore the AB is has a higher value and then Arizona State Retirement this is the CPP this is the contribution prepayment that I was telling you about so the in 2024 the um weighted average return on investment at Arizona State Retirement was 9% remember that I said that the discount rate that's used to calculate what a net pension liability is was only 7% so they're doing better than their discount rate right now the reason that we wanted to sh share this with you is that before we invested um back in in 20 at the end of 23 we wanted to see their history and I did because we are we are actually putting our principle at risk because they have different um investment policies than we do so I wanted to make sure at any point in time in the last like 8 to 10 years have they lost any principle and so because of this record um we opted that it was a a very very good bet and it's Prov proven to be with a $2.3 million increase in that value since we invested a year and a half ago and then this is our contribution rate what's exciting about this is in 24 we contributed $27 million this is this is Gilbert's portion not our employees portion so we now have $22.3 million so we nearly have a Year's worth of contributions that are put aside to be used whenever we so need them you know one of Theon reasons that we did this was because we were unsure about whether we'd be successful on the override in November fortunately we were um and so now we have an ability to use that that prepayment dutifully over the next 3 to four years and that is all of my report so I'm so hopefully I went slow enough for those of you that are new but there's lot lot to grasp for sure okay do any board members have any questions for Miss bets I don't have any questions but I would like to um share appreciation to Miss Betts and the team for all the hard work I know there's a lot involved and I really appreciate that we're in on a good Financial footing and and we're earning interest and our audit was clean and I think those are all really positive things and our overright did past so we're in a very good shape and that that just feels really good y great thank you all very much thank you very much moving on to agenda item 6.02 teaching and learning academic Spotlight Dr McCord thank you Mr Thompson governing board members I will turn it over H to Mr Jared Ryan he will introduce his team who's going to give us a presentation this evening thank you so much Mr Thompson governing board members Dr McCord we appreciate the opportunity to present to you this evening uh just a quick background on academic spotlights and where they came from for those of you um uh joining the uh governing board um probably for the last two or three years there's been discussion about uh requests coming to the governing board uh approval is being given and then we go about our work and sometimes we don't hear back about how it's going how's the implementation look in this case a curriculum implementation uh but all types of topics and so on a monthly basis we break a a different group to present on the work that's going on on our campuses or in the district it's in some way shape or form and report back on what we're seeing in terms of student outcomes most importantly in in teaching and learning and so um I'm fortunate I'm surrounded by incredibly talented people uh four of which are here tonight two will be presenting um as Dr Cox likes to refer to herself as the director of the CIA at the secondary level curriculum instruction and assessment uh she is here this evening in the audience along with Mr Robert burer the Elementary uh CIA director um but presenting to us this evening are both of our coordinators from the secondary and Elementary level uh lene Bal who you heard about earlier and her uh Awards and recognitions and then Crystal Udall who's absolutely just an amazing asset working with all of our elementary campuses in the in the area of mathematics so turning over to you thank you good evening governing board and Dr McCord I want to start by saying C and I are excited to be here tonight to share with you the K12 math curriculum update um as the academic [Music] Spotlight it went it went there we go all right so at the elementary level we have implemented I ready which is a K8 curriculum so Elementary k6 we have have that implemented we um have implemented this curriculum with four different waves wave one began with our pilot teachers and looking at what they were um doing and implementing and how things were going that came through as an adoption wave two began in July that's where most of our teachers um were trained on the day before school began and we had lots of um teachers joining us we then went into December so wave three began in December we have a total of 435 teachers trained up through December and our fourth way save will be beginning in April May time period so we've kind of done a slow roll the biggest piece is that we wanted sixth grade tying in with Jinger high so you'll hear about J Jinger high in a minute but we're kind of assimilating them together in total today we have 83% of our elementary teachers trained and fully implementing I at this time we have 13 campuses that are fully implemented that means K through six the way their waves rolled out that they are fully implementing so it is an exciting time to have 24 of our campuses implementing this program and I have been out to visit every single one of them and there's so much excitement on those campuses for the junior high we did train all of our teachers on the day before school in July of 2024 um and we are fully implementing I at the 7eventh and eighth grade levels um in addition to the teacher trainings um I wanted to make sure that I mentioned that we've completed multiple leadership trainings on the IR curriculum and that's included our principles our math evaluators instructional Specialists and instructional coaches um our GPS Junior High teachers I'm happy to um tell you have done an excellent job of implementing the new resource and it is in our classrooms and in our students usage so all right all right so this is a district snapshot of how students are progressing toward towards typical growth we have assessed 16,000 students approximately and the graph on the left would line every single one of them up and you would hope to hit around 50% at the median GPS is hitting above that our median average is 55% so that is a trending that we are super excited about the graph on the right has some data that I want to um pinpoint on in the green sections we have growth that is happening at the on and above grade level percentages this happens after they have taken their second diagnostic which just finalized in December and we have an increase of the on grade level percent by 5% and the mid to above grade level percent as of 10% growth that means all the other areas were decreasing by 16% which is indic in indicative of the green growing larger and larger so we're super excited about that next we have our high performing and High um growth areas in schools question can we actually go back to the last slide please do thank you so much so can you tell me on the so progress to annual typical growth that's a lot of words is that we're expect like 100% would be the growth we're expecting throughout the whole year that's a full year yes 100% would be a full year in the middle of the Year being December time point we were looking at about that 50% out of 180 days about that 50 halfway point about 50% is what they the company had said was average to make and with us making it 55% meeting growth our trajectory is looking really good for that so that's exciting and then who sets The Benchmark as far as what's what's the expected annual growth like what what's 100% growth that is nationally normed by the company not us it's nationally normed throughout the company's uh program okay and on uh previous curriculum was that uh they have a similar measurement is this very A Lot Company by company um this last K5 curriculum was about 12 years old and didn't have this data to go into so um we're bringing this data to you now as we have it and can continue that forward look and progressing with this curriculum we did not have that in the last the 68 area that we um had adopted and just the changes and more data that is available these newer programs versus what we had back then terrific and are there are there National Norms like is there something we can compare it to as far as what the progress is yes this is nationally normed so the 55% yes and there is further data that can drill down into more National Norms yes but through the just from the company though is it people that are using the same curriculum or how's the company developing their it's Norms across all states and um all the different districts that are utilized it that us this curriculum correct so that gives me a question can you explain for our community when you say nationally normed what that means to someone who may not be familiar with that terminology it's putting all the nations um regardless of State regardless of District size regardless of income and those kind of things putting those communities together and looking at what that data says at grade level um composures to to then um know how much growth could be expected for the students correct okay thank you and if you're interested Mr Robinson we can further and give you further information if you need thank you so I've got a little bit of Confusion by the chart on the right is this the current placement distribution is this also on an annual basis because this is I mean this is showing if you add up one grade below two grades below three or more grades below we've got 58% of the of these 16,000 students that are one grade below or more and so is this also on an annual um is this compared to where they will be at the end of the year can you just explain that this is a snapshot in time of December it is not anything more it's not saying this is what the next um outcome will be by may this is just a snapshot like kind of C camera picture of what they what it looks like right now so yes do we know we have students who are struggling yes are we identifying them yes can we name names yes teachers can drill down with that data and there's some further um slides that will help indicate some of those needs for those tier instructions and teachers can identify who needs intervention and who needs enrichment with those composures so this is about 16,000 students right now and that's just their picture and time of what that looked like this can change as more and more students take um any Diagnostics so if we get brand new students in the district those Diagnostics also will be uh changing those percentages as well so it's just a snapshot in time okay that that makes sense so I I think the the thing that is is concerning is that this chart on the right includes only those students that are participating in the new I ready math curriculum and 58% of them are performing at this snapshot in time are performing one grade below or one one grade or more below um is that is that concerning it all is this is this what we would expect how does this compare to you know other math curriculums that that uh that we've used in the past I know you said we don't have this data in the past but this 58% seem like like it's on track with with implementing a new math curriculum we have known and over the past years that I've followed um aasa data and the other Summit of Assessments we have had gaps here in the district is this alarming what is celebrating is looking at the green growth we've been able to increase those um two categories a 5% growth and a 10% growth that means that came from those areas that were struggling into on and above grade level so that is exciting to see here at the December time Point versus where we started and the percentages down below at the bottom is where we started from that was our first diagnostic lens look so we have decreased the um more grade levels below than we have the above and beyond so we are super excited that those have increased I thought it would be a smaller increase just a brand new program kids getting used to it it is something else if you've never seen a kindergarten TR take a test online it is something else to try and work with that and see with those Dynamics our younger grade populations are doing a phenomenal job in getting them tested and working through that so there's some little kinks in there I know we're working through um waves just began here in January where they were trained in December the wave just began in January for those kids to take those Diagnostics that is a learning curve for the teacher and a learning curve for the students so do I know that we need to dive deep in this yes but also I want to be say that we're celebrating what can be happening by the time we start school next year too so the growth areas is where we want to take that lens and look and make sure those other areas are decreasing those are decreasing and by the um end of the year we really hope those are decreasing even more so so what what this chart is showing is that the kid the the students that are performing well are performing better on the IR curriculum and the students that are performing below gr there's there are start there are more students performing better on the I ready math curriculum and there are fewer students performing poorly on the I system is that that's kind of the snapshot here yes that have gone down okay thank you uh just one comment uh Mr Thompson is that this this is the first year that the teachers have gone through that curriculum so as they become more familiar with it and are able to teach it again next year you know hopefully they can focus and say well you know maybe I need to work on this section A little bit more CU last year we didn't quite cover it in the way that students needed or something because you know this is brand new and uh so I think that considering that it is a new curriculum that we're just implementing that these are very good results I'm super excited to say that our district has risen in those areas where we are at the on and above level so that is exciting and watching those scores grow means the other ones decrease so it is exciting to see what that third diagnostic will have for us in the uh end of the year if I can and I'll try to be brief and I I'll take you up on your offer I'd love to talk more in depth with this um outside of the meeting sure um but first I I did just want to say thank you so much for those numbers as far as the training 83% 100% in the last 6 months I mean that's amazing so I know implementing a new curriculum is is a huge undertaking so we appreciate all the work in doing that with this current placement distribution is this is this again based off I's Norms this is like the numbers this is like a test that I is giving us of what they think grade level would be and that's what these results are correct and so and that's the GPS lens on the right hand side correct so I I do think like the the trend is amazing but I I think it it is obviously concerning just the level so we want to keep seeing that Trend going that direction for sure thank you can I just ask how many students are not so 83% you said were are fully implemented with the math curriculum correct correct so how many other students in Gilbert Public Schools who are not using this math curriculum currently I think about 20,000 is our total so about 4,000 remember we still have W4 which is about 115 teachers and their class full classrooms have not gone through the training so they are not not even on the program yet they will start um next July when the school year starts so we also have eighth grade honors students who are taking the above so those numbers are in there because they're an eighth grade student however their mathematics is they're taking as higher mathematics okay so wave three those teachers will be done being trained by the end of May and then there's a the fourth one is after that wave four yeah is in April May time period okay so last wave is at the end of the year yeah just from my experience one of the things as a teacher um when it comes to new curriculums uh I'll second what what Blake said yes it's true you know the the trend is great um the concern I have is just when it comes to training teachers we have those 4,000 kids who are we're not quite sure what's going on with them where are their percentages how are they going to do on ASA so um it was just something to consider I don't know if there's a way we can look at that as far as training teachers is concerned and maybe helping them get up to speed and get it implemented faster so that we can maybe get really solid numbers come May on how this is well all of our testing um grade level areas are now implementing as of January third through sixth grade are fully implementing so it would be the grade levels below so our K12 is that wave four is kind of where that oh that's good yeah lack of students in it okay thank you for clarifying so yes we're preparing for testing this was this was the beginning of your test they took and then the middle of year test they correct and is there a cost to administer those tests it was all included in the math adoption okay so um one of the things that the pilot teachers heavily recommended was how much the diag itic helped support them it helped uh look delving into the standards for the units that the students were about to um go into what are the weaknesses what are the strengths how do we layer what the um interventions and scaffolds are that they need so that is a huge piece of what was suggested by the pilot teachers recommendations were and um I tell you what from the implementing of the wave two and three the teachers are super excited about both components because we do have the Hands-On components the workbooks the teacher additions as well as well as the um online components as well that's great to hear so we have so then we have our traditional student students as well who are using a different curriculum is that correct is it possible to have them take the same assessment so we can compare or do we're going to have like a different cohort that we can't really compare across the board the traditional students are working in the math and focus uh program and that is um done with a growth measure similar to this and it's on a their own platform so two different platforms compar we will be happy to bring a spotlight implementation um further in the springtime to share more about what that program looks like for the traditional students is it is it possible to have them take the same assessment so we can compare how they're performing um at this point in time that's the ASA mimics or Benchmark District benchmarks is the piece that they take that is most aligned so that everybody has like the similar components great versus the programmatic type pieces for the curriculum thank you we do do the district benchmarks and i' I've got one last question about this graph and then I promise we'll get past this slide so there's so wave four 115 or so teachers that are still waiting to be kind of onboarded right and that's going to happen April May could you just talk for a moment about what the what the plan or procedure will be for July when they returned to school after having a summer off and not having looked at this and not not having and having been trained a few months ago certainly what's it what's it going to be to get get those teachers since they haven't done it for a year already or for a number of months already I know that if it was me and I learned about it in April May and then you said you wanted me to implement it in July I would need a a refresher funny thing about teachers are teachers are always learning and always looking for ways to advocate for their students um principles are already asking instructional coaches are asking what can we do to help support our K12 teachers that are coming in that last wave what are some things that they're going to need um principles sometimes give the summertime hours to teachers to come in and plan and prepare and I'm highly advocating for that for the principles who have asked and are working towards that coaches sometimes want to sit with those teachers and help them prepare the unit overviews that have been created are making materials for students uh teachers available more readily for them as well so I'm doing things behind the scenes also to make them as close to their fingertips as possible and utilizing those resources so um there will be further trainings next year so even though this train onboarding is happening in April May time period there are continuing trainings that those teachers will be having so there is a recall to the memory of what are some of the components of it so we realize that the onboarding with number one training is not enough our teachers this year that started in July have had three touch points of those PDS and it has absolutely been fabulous to recall and remember a lot of those things that happened on that first day and so those will be provided for those teachers as well and and like with anything if we recognize that there's a need to retrain or refresh we just go to it we did the same thing with ready Jen we implemented ready Jen and then all of a sudden Co hit and people went in every direction so we had bring everybody back and retrain them to get everybody back on the same page so uh it's not a problem I was going to share what we learned in some other adoption processes and and kind of the rationale for the slow roll out and the phased approach um was to be able to support through implementation and so what um they've been able to do an incredible job of is coming back to and continually training a couple months later let's come back what did we learn what did we see a couple months later let's come back another training administrators involved evaluators walking in rooms what's the feedback and so I think one thing that's really stood out with this implementation that's made it a bit unique is kind of the all-encompassing planning of it um strategically so April May then they have materials and access before they go to summer historically we would train a couple days before a school a school year starts in some cases and teachers now who have planned all summer are left to kind of scramble and so we wanted to make sure that didn't happen um but they're never just left they're never just left to walk in their classroom the other thing is now phase four happens well phase one two and three teachers already on their campuses who have been trained can now be leaders in that area instructional coaches instructional Specialists and our coordinators supporting them um so I I feel like we're in a great spot as far as what teachers would need coming back and hopefully alleviate some of the anxiety nervousness of of something new so MH all right there we go it was it was a kind of test Char or anything all right here I'm excited to share with you um our Stu our schools that are highly perform our grade levels that are high performing you can see all grade levels are high performing and we have some exceptional with high growth as well we have sixth grade that kind of is standing out right now and they are the grade level that full districtwide has implemented this year so that was to align with what Junior High was doing the junior high was doing full implementation and we wanted them to be able to bridge from sixth grade to seventh grade and have a full year of the curriculum so that when they go to seventh grade they know what the system is and how it works and what the expectation for it is um we are super um pleased and optimistic at that 71% for sixth grade and are looking forward to what the next Benchmark will show what that looks like any questions on this slide all right so we were looking at red yellow and green earlier here is another example of red yellow green the triangle is a district representation of where those 16,000 students are and what are their needs for support and for intervention the Box on the right defines the tiers by grade level with the colors continuing to represent the same as they do in the Triangle the triangle tier one would be your classroom instruction tier two is support and tier three is additional support you'll notice that the sixth grade here has the highest percentage of students in tier one which is indicating that they are showing adequate growth and adequate performance it's really interesting the trend here that it seems like there are more more students struggling as it gets closer as as the grades continue on um is is that because there's a there was a a more ABR not abrupt that's maybe abrupt transition between the old curriculum and the new curriculum for those older grades or what do you attribute this to why is why are there so many more students that are one or more grade levels below in eighth grade than in third grade so I would like to address that because that that does stand out um that there are fewer in the tier one in eth grade and more in the tier three um for seven this diagnostic is given to entire student body in grade eight we have our highest performing eighth graders that are using another curriculum because they're taking a high school course that are not included in the data and so that to me is the reason the biggest reason for grade 8's data distribution to be so different and then we we will get the data at some point though do we have a again a districtwide test that will include those students that we can see these numbers yes thank you our district benchmarks perfect yes what when does that happen when do we see those three times a year we take them at beginning of the year middle of the year and end of the year so there three Benchmark points is that Benchmark fast Bridge um for 3 through six it's our aasa mimic is what we call them District bench marks at third grade up are called the mimic test so it's to assimilate like the actual Summit of assessment at the end of the year from ad right okay M um and just realize kindergarten is our starting point there is no below level so you will not see red on that so it does look really good right there if we could all be there right okay so that all to say that we have 18 High performing elementary schools and 17 high growth schools from that data for the junior highs five of our Junior Highs are high performing and two are high growth these results are super exciting to share with you at just a halfe implementation some teachers just a few weeks couple of weeks of implementation so we are still with that ball rolling this is super exciting and a result of the progressive I ready trainings for teachers and for leaders that we've had like I said we've had multiple this year for teachers to continually go to and leadership as well just one question on this when you're how do you define high performance schools versus high growth schools what are what is the there the um data is put onto a scatter plot instead of having all guessing points I pulled this information out from that and so it's done in high performing high growth so I just pulled those numbers from it so just a four quadrant squ scatter I know but I need a definition of what high performance Means versus high growth I I already has cut scor and so they cut the score that shows low growth versus high growth and the same thing for um performance they they are they're the ones who set that cut score okay okay thank you yes not us all right so that has been our I ready program with that we have also gone with the personalized instruction we're super excited to have the personalized instruction added on you might hear it be called my path that is the online component and this data reflects just the first week back and as a whole our district should look at that 30 to 49% or above of how many minutes the students are on it in order to in enhance their individualized learning the um as a district we are meeting and exceeding the number of minutes per week as well as we are completing at least two students are completing at least two lessons a week which is the encouragement of the company and they are passing 90% of their lessons that they take so that is super exciting data to show and that is K8 shown can I ask what why is such a variance in the time on task like why why do we have 8% of students that are 1 to N9 minutes it depends on how long the students the teachers have working into their program how many minutes the students are able to be on the program it suggested that green area is that area that they they suggest that way they get about two lessons done in that time period a week and that attributes to their growth and their um next diagnostic that they have the lower amount the students aren't really having as much time to work with their weak areas and enhance what those needs are in fact it was kind of neat I was talking with a teacher earlier this week a brand new teacher to our district and she said oh my gosh my path is amazing I had these two students and they been working all of a sudden I start teaching and they jump up and are super excited going I just learned that oh my gosh and I know what you're going to do next I know and so that excitement that they had just learned it but if a teacher had just given them a blanket assignment to do that would that a connection have been as great I don't know but the students had excitement with it and they were older students which means oh my goodness our kids who are in the 456 area are attributing learning those skills to classroom performance Dr Robison if I may um I was reminded to mention as well these classes and I think that's where you see distribution such as this this is every student so accelerated um honors level self-contained special education elll you name it so student schedules all look completely different and so the time that they may have built into that schedule specifically for specific enrichment or specific remediation may look different and so I know as we've talked with teachers how they're able to access it and some of them are still working through within a schedule when I have a student pulled for resource support and then I have a student pulled for EL support or something different how do I fit that into their schedule and so I think over the course of time I know over the course of time you'll start to see that balance out a bit more um but all the data that's being shared tonight remember it's every student and so where you may see some red students may be coming in in 3 years behind academically um as well as you may have some students starting two years ahead academically and so um I think that the growth measure um and Miss Humphrey to your point in your question earlier that growth number is so important for us because regardless of where each student begins when when they enter the building as a second grader third grader fourth grader where we take them becomes incredibly important some students are going to be proficient um regardless and how far can we take them and some students are as I said are going to be well behind uh when we begin U we believe all students eventually will will get to that performance level so just remember that as we're looking through this it's every student thank you and is this can you go back one second thank you is this um I just want to make sure I understand what we're looking at here is this only the amount of time spent in class on their Chromebooks in this personalized instruction area or is this out does this have nothing to do with the online portion of the this is the online portion okay and usually spent in the classroom so only about 30 to 49 minutes a week so okay and and at what grade do our students start working with Chromebooks isn't it fourth grade kindergarten kindergarten they start working remember that bench that diagnostic I said our kindergarteners were taking this program has kindergarten first grade second grade on up working on a computer okay so this this includes so maybe it's you know it's our our kindergarten and first and second grade that are not spending a lot of time online very much it could be and uh the situation as um Mr Ryan said absolutely applies to it's that depending on where those students schedules have and where they can pull that time to support them thank you MH okay we're going to transition and talk about the high school's uh math curriculum and this includes those eighth graders who are taking Algebra 1 um at the high school level we adopted the hooton Mifflin har courts into a we did train all teachers for full implementation beginning with the 2024 2025 school year we've also completed multip multiple leadership trainings on this curriculum and the data it has provided us so that those trainings have included principles math evaluators instructional Specialists and instructional coaches these charts that you're looking at are from the growth measure these show the grade level equiv equivalencies for students using the hmh into a resources as given by the growth measure assessment which is similar to the diagnostic assessment in I there has been from the beginning of the year to the middle of the Year an exciting 18.2% increase in above grade level students and 68% of our students are performing on or above grade level according to the middle of the Year growth measure AG is for Algebra 1 geometry and Algebra 2 so it is the a large portion of our high school population that is using this curriculum we will have one more as you can see end of year that those are great Trends again um do we have so this is District test right is this this isn't this is the this is the hmh growth measure just like the I ready diagnostic okay but but this includes all of our did you say eth grade and above all of our eighth grade and beyond that are taking Algebra 1 geometry or Algebra 2 of any kind so our resource our honors our gened do we have and is this a test that they just took starting this year did they do these same tests last year they did not this is our first time okay okay no hisorical dat no histo yes we need historical data yes yes this graph shows student logins per week and so this is indicative of the usage by our students of just the digital platform okay this curriculum has more components than the digital platform but we are at or above 15,000 student logins per week for the majority of the weeks displayed so each bar is indicating on for a week how many student logins there were you can see fall break and winter holiday our students weren't getting on right um from November of 2024 to January of 2025 I was able to visit classrooms on all Junior High and high school campuses utilizing the hmh into a um program I observed that 89% of those um were obviously using the adopted resource I will say as a disclaimer there are teachers in our district who work very very hard and they like the the platforms and the worksheets and everything to look the way they like and so they're they're doing a lot of work they're taking the resource that we have and putting it into something that makes them happy and joyful so there are instances where I go in and it's not obvious they're using and I try to take every opportunity to say tell me about what I'm looking at um and in in most instances they said this is this is right out of hmh I just don't like to do it that way I want my kids to look at it this way um so it's not always obvious so that 89% number by the way is an increase from the beginning of the year where it was about 70% so there is a trend of utilizing it more and more which is very very positive and also teachers just need a little time when you implement something new and so we're getting there and and everything is is moving in the right direction and I believe this can be attributed to the consistent messaging from district and school leadership including instructional Specialists and instructional coaches about the importance of using the research based curriculum so those were student logins and now we're going to take a look at teacher logins and again this is just the digital platform logins um you can see initially in in that fifth week it was very very high I'm sure at that point we were all getting in to that and we were looking at it more as we got comfortable um with our students as the year was progressing so we are at our above 6,000 teacher logins for the majority of the weeks and you can see teachers are logging in over breaks so I want to say that our GPS Math teachers both Elementary and high school have worked very hard and persisted in getting more adept at using all of the components of the resources that they have been provided we Crystal and I would like to say thank you to all of them as we are aware that the student growth data we're seeing is in large part due to their efforts any questions I just want to thank you for um humoring me with all my questions I know I had a lot I just don't want to get lost like our appreciation I know how much work this was so I do applaud your team and like you said the teachers and students cuz the the the trends really are very promising so and I know that's a lot of hard work and um just we're grateful for for all the work that you and teachers are putting in to implement this thank you thank you I just want to say thank you I mean I think it's wonderful that we can afford a really good curriculum that um we're not using some of those free resources online some of those are okay but you know we have something that's really stellar and I know it's a lot of work to to help everybody to get that under their belt and and be able to use it well and I think um it's been a little hard work but looks very promising and I'm excited to see where we go from here so thank you just want to say excuse me thank you for the presentation um really informative I've heard from a lot of teachers about this program already and I think it's there's some really interesting stuff on finding out particular issues where students need to grow and the data that is provided to them through that and so I'm excited to see more data as it progresses and thank you for your time to present this to us thank you thank you very [Music] much take it easy back [Music] there all right that was a great presentation uh moving on to agenda item number seven our cons agenda uh items is there a motion to approve our consent agenda items as they are listed on tonight's agenda so moved thank you Mr Brainard is there a second second oh sorry thank you Miss Humphries all those in favor of approving the consent agenda items as outlined on our agenda tonight say I I opposed thank you very much moving on to uh agenda item number eight our action items uh 8.01 minutes for the December 17 2024 regular business meeting uh this says it you want me to explain this yes please in parentheses it says Mr Thompson and Mrs humph vote only the reason why is because you were the only board members that can approve those minutes that are still on the governing board and so this has happened in years past and so um it it actually hasn't happened since I've been superintendent um but Gabby informed me that it happened before I came so uh it is unusual but that's how it's supposed to be done okay so everybody else except uh Mr Thompson and Miss humph should vote okay uh would you like to so I'll make the motion that we approved the the regular business business meeting minutes for December 17th 2024 perfect and I'll second that um would you like to have a discussion no they were good I looked at them and um everything's fine so we can vote perfect uh then all those uh Miss humph and myself in favor of approving the minutes for the December 17th 202 for regular business meeting say I I I any opposed all right thank you very much 8.02 uh fiscal year 2024 AER I wanted to say that that's fun annual comprehensive financial report and this is a roll call vote and so I will ask uh uh we need a motion we need a motion we we have a motion to approve fiscal year 2024 annual comprehensive financial report so I move that we approve the annual comprehensive financial report excuse me can I just make a com um it's just an acceptance of it you're not approving it can you just if you could use the acceptance word that would be great I approve we accept the annual comprehensive financial report thank you very much Miss humph is there a second second thank you Dr Robinson uh at this time we will uh well is there any discussion regarding the fiscal year 2024 annual comprehensive financial report seeing that there is none we will call for a vote and I will ask Miss Wilson to help us out with the roll call vote Miss Jill humph how do you vote I Mr Chad Thompson how do you vote I Mr Jesse Brainard how do you vote I Dr Blake Robinson how do you vote I Mrs Shaya muray how do you vote I Mr President all board members voted unanimously thank you very much all right agenda item number nine request for future agenda items do any board members have any requests for future uh agenda items that we want to discuss or add to a future agenda of a future board meeting all right seeing that there are none we'll move forward to our board reports so at last month's board meeting we uh we volunteered and we uh took responsibility for these different areas um and so we'll go through these one at a time we'll start with the town of Gilbert leaon Dr Robinson anything to report tonight uh nothing on the town of Gilbert is this where did we we changed this is where you can report take yes well Tri I I just wanted to take a quick minute just to again congratulate and thank everyone from the 25 year anniversary um breakfast that was last week I thought that was just an amazing event it was uh so great to see people that have dedicated and and really a a a lifetime uh career of work dedicated to Gilbert public schools and I I think it spoke a lot to their dedication and also to Gilbert public schools and how it's a great place to to work and and also thank the administration and all the staff who did a great job putting on that event I think it's a great theme I will say that I have heard uh sugar raise every morning a couple um times on the radio and so now when whenever I hear that I will think of all of our 25y year uh employees so I'm grateful for that and and for the for for our audience out there uh who's in the press that was like one of the most popular songs back in 1999 she's like what is he talking about yes and uh and then in 25 years from now I look forward to celebrating everyone who attends the job fair tomorrow so thank you thank you very much Dr Robinson uh I don't have anything to report from for the audit committee tonight uh Gilbert Education Foundation Mr Brainard um I have nothing to report but you know just like Dr Robinson said um the 25 year breakfast was a really amazing event you know I got to see um some Educators who were at my high school and I attended Gil high school and you know I think a part of Gil Public Schools the hard of gu Public Schools is a staff we have and so I'm just extremely grateful for their dedication through the good time and bad and you know excited to keep you know growing as a district and uh you know being great to our employees making a good place to work all right thank you very much city of Mesa liazon uh Miss Murray um nothing to report on the city of Mesa I did get a chance to attend the orchestra concert on Saturday and that was a really great event I really enjoyed um listening to them and I thought it was really unique that they hadn't played together before that Friday night so um I was impressed with them to begin with and then knowing that fun fact I was really impressed so thank you very much and last and certainly not least uh legislative representative and employee benefit trust Miss humph so I did want to talk a little bit about the legislature because they have started they're in session the governor has put out her budget um and couple of issues that will be prominent in this legislative session is prop 123 it expires in July of 2025 um it adds $285 million to school districts across the state just to give a little background in case people don't know prop 123 was a settlement of a lawsuit filed by asba oh I think it was like in 2014 or 2015 because um school districts under proposition I think it's 201 um were supposed to receive inflation every year and during the Great Recession they didn't receive inflation um only on Transportation so that was um that was a settlement that Governor Ducey helped to move forward um but it does take more money from the state land trust uh so that is a big issue that we're going to be watching um if if they don't get a special election um the state is supposed to cover those expenses so we shouldn't have to cut our budget but we also have to think about renewal of the aggregate expenditure limit so those are kind of the things that are top of mind right now in the legislature and that is the end of my report but um I will say the breakfast was awesome and any opportunities we have to attend something in our schools it's always reward for um seeing how great our students and staff are doing thank you Miss humph uh let's talk about meeting dates Dr McCord thank you Mr President govering board members on January 31st in this room from 10 to 3 we will have a our very first board retreat so looking forward to seeing you all there February 4th is our board work study and brief board business meeting uh February 10th is our board policy committee meeting remember those start at 4:30 p.m.