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she like oh Lisa this time year so I'm going to call this meeting Bo Regional School District to order it is not on the agenda but let's please stand and United States America for it stands na indivisible andice right so tonight we're just here to talk about our superintendent search we have Trac from MC tell us a little bit about next steps yeah so thank you um it's good to be with you all um so let me just preface this by saying that um everything that is on this piece of paper is for your discussion like this isn't that I've decided anything this is entirely to sort of outline um as I've been thinking about where you're at and kind of moving forward um this is what I would suggest um but all of this is open to your discussion so um you know please please take that in the spirit in which it is given um so as I've been um considering where you're at right now um and sort of the um the work that you've been doing over the past number of months um sort of entering the school year and then um over the past couple of months with Mr gam um what seemed to me and if I am misreading the committee please tell me because I want to make sure that that we're all on the same page on this it seemed to me um that there was a level of comfort for the committee in continuing with an interterm superintendency for next school year okay now if you were to do that what the department has said is that um Mr gron would be eligible to do that however um because you were in the sort of emergency situation you were in um earlier this year where you kind of just needed a superintendent yesterday um and you know we all understand that um what the department would require is that you actually do a sech now this does not have to be a full extensive like we do input sessions and uh multiple rounds of interviews and everything else um for an interm superintendency what um often happens um is that the position gets posted um get in that case if you get posted on school spring um we certainly can post it on our website as well I would come to you before then um with a an outlined a position description potential which you then would deliver and decide on um it would be based on kind of where you all are at in terms of governance and the district um you know your work on the things you're working on the um the feelings you have in terms of needing stability and wanting to make sure you continue um we would open the application process have it open for maybe three weeks or so um I'm happy to receive the applications that's often what happens I don't have to um we would stress that the applications would be public which isn't what happens with a full full superintendent search usually the first run is confidential um that in and of itself does tend to sort of restrict the field a bit in terms of who's willing to actually do that um also the messaging you'd be giving in terms of what you're looking for at that point matters as well um I would give you all the applications you would have a deliberative process depending on how many you have um you may well want to Simply call in all of the applicants and do public interviews you do interviews in public um and then actually make a decision um sometime in the late spring um about moving forward um now having spoken to the department my understanding is that if you just if Mr ganam who I as far as I know is is interested in being part of that um if he were the person that you were to select the department would be willing to Grant a waiver for you to be able to retain him for another year um but again this is sort of outlining based on my read of where you all are at so if that's entirely not where people are tell me that because you're also not too late to do a full search you know for a permanent replacement starting sort of immediately either so I'm going to stop there that's the top half of the page uh so I don't know how anybody else feels uh I know the idea has been floated around have we done enough to recover from last year yet is it fair for someone to come walking into a halfway three quarter however whatever you percentage you want want to sign a corrected mess let's just call it um so that that is an idea that is just one idea but has anybody questions anything you want to say I mean I think this is the first I've heard of it suggested so I that's caught me a little off guard I mean it's good to know the information but I honestly it's the first time I've it's been suggested so it is the first time Jess nobody's like okay I was like all right something I think we talked you know all of our previous meetings we asked Al we ask Aaron what's the status where are things looking are we cleaned up are we ready to go are we a good District yet are we are we and all the answers are you know work in progress basically and there's I mean effectively three months left of this year right so yes so one of the things that I brought up to Tracy when we've had our conversations is my concern for who we're going to attract to our district um you know um superintendent Costello had mentioned that we you know through the Mas we didn't have because we were kind of in flux from our previous superintendent we didn't have the best um reputation and that's concerning to me because I want to make sure whoever we get that comes in is going to want us he's GNA coming is's coming here for the right reasons and wants to stay here and you know when Al Al has come in he does not have a desire to come out of retire reement and be a full-time superintendent and he's come in and he's really writed a lot of wrongs and found a lot of things where we could be better which I truly appreciate and I one of my concerns that I mentioned to Tracy was we're in the middle of kind of fixing a lot of things and and what are our options because you just explained to the committee what our options are going forward so we we're at a point where we're kind of like a Crossroads where do we think is the best is the best way forward for our district to get the best applicant to come yes I mean W wion's looking for a new superintendent and they have one from 30 years so right so that was a big concern that you we're competing with them right I saw that too yeah like and I think they started their they they like announced it right around when we were but I think they already started their search I believe so yeah we're not doing that search but I think they're much further along yes no that's not to say you you do still have time to do a full search like I as I was mentioning to a couple of VI I was coming in I'm doing a search in mson I'm doing input sessions with them on Thursday like that that still can be done before the end of the year so I want you to feel comfortable about what you're doing I don't want you to feel rushed in in sort of either way um I um it usually I mean I will say that you know in general um interm superintendencies do tend to be a single year but also interm superintendencies are usually foreseen um a little bit more rather than sort of the situation that you all found yourselves in earlier this year I think Al is doing a spectacular job cleaning everything up you know like you said and I'd love to keep him for another year um just to complete his work so like not only not to be unfair to the new you know permanent superintendent but just to keep keep working on it and making everything more efficient and I guess I'm just wondering why if the department um agrees that we can keep L um why do we even have to go through the process because it's a waiver so you would be getting um Al under extended I you won't be able to explain this better than I in terms of this um but because he's retired and it's it's essentially kind of an exception in the mass teachers retirement system that allows a superintendent to come back um and earn a particular amount of money over the course of a retired year um and in order for them to do that they essentially need to recognize that there's some sort of a shortage so essentially what You' be doing is you'd be going to the department and saying you know we've looked given the circumstances that we're in it isn't as if we have a long list of people who aren't um needing this exception in order to take this position so actually right when um I spoke with you over the summer you were super helpful I called Tracy just so everyone knows this was when I was sharing the summer Carol gave me the resignation letter I think the next day I called masc and they gave me Tracy's personal cell phone number and I remember she was driving and she was like I have one person um there were some other people that kind of stepped forward but Al was definitely the best candidate or the the best fit for our district um but I looked extensively into that waiver process and we lucked out we didn't need it for uh I think it goes by calendar year and we didn't need it for like September October no it was like August September so like we were able to bring Allen and at that point it like to Tracy's point it was like crisis mode because school was starting in four weeks and Carol was like my last day is before school start so it was like crisis mode then so I looked into that waiver and it's like a a formula of the salary and um so if you're retired my understanding is you can't just come out of retirement because you collect a pension from the state yes and so there's no way that Al could just be like yeah I'm done I'm not retired anymore and like give here's my pension back I'm gonna go make more money like you can't do that but you have to show to the state and one of the things that you have to show is that you posted the job so I was actually freaking out in like August September I'm like do we need to post this do we need to post this but then I calculated it out and because it was only like four or five months of salary we didn't meet there's a threshold and his what we were paying him didn't hit the threshold of that we needed a waiver for 2024 well now we're in 2025 so we definitely need a waiver if we want to keep them I think through August I like kind of did the math out I think it and it's by hours or by salary so again you have to at least show the state to get this waiver you posted the job and if you get no if no one applies for it that's it it ends but if people apply you have to show that you've looked at their applications and then you have to show like okay well the person we have here is more qualified because X Y and Z so I did like a ton of research on this waiver so I think like doing that going back to this whole question of do we do an interim search or a regular search I guess in my mind to so two questions one for you Tracy number one if we do this interim search is it going to cost us more money than are we going to have to pay for an interim search and then pay Mas no okay so it's like one price we're hiring the you're G to help us fire the interim superintendency kind of advice is the sort of thing that I would be talking to you about as your field director anyway um right because you helped me we yeah we you're in the you're you're in the what are we doing next kind of position right yeah what are we doing next position is that's what you've got a field director for so I'd be having that conversation with you anyway um and it doesn't honestly on RN I went to my boss and said they're talking about whether they want to do it now or next year and I he Shrugged and talked about when we would be claiming it in which calendar year anyway it doesn't make any difference from the masc perspective in terms of finances either okay so it it it's a from our perspective it's really it is entirely what you all want to do and then I guess the other thing I agree I think Al's been doing a great job I'd love to keep him on for another year for stability but I feel like one misstep and I'll kind of say it because I was on the committee then and I was one of the people that partook in this one misstep we made was you know we had Carol was this candidate and we were told oh like she's great let's just keep her and it worked out like it really did it worked out she was what we needed at the time but I just worry about input from the community in the public and I think that is important um and so I guess my question is if we're doing this inim search can we get is there some way to have some type of input from the community and I'm not saying I I acknowledge that the community doesn't know everything and we are the final decision makers but I think it's important to acknowledge that that is a voice out there that we want to listen to because I don't think anyone in this room is saying we don't want to hear that voice we want to hear what they have to say so Megan maybe one way to address that we don't have a vote or anything on tonight's schedule so not making a decision tonight one way or another if you put your subcommittee together this week do something people are hearing about it right now for the first time in a lot of cases we can discuss it and you know maybe make a decision next week or yeah Jess actually brought up a great point in our subcommittee meeting about having like maybe doing the subcommittee meeting at like a time that people or doing a zoom I I feel like I know I hate Zoom but like I feel like when we have a zoom people can call in or doing it at a time when more people instead of doing it like 10 o'clock in the morning when nobody's available Maybe maybe doing it like we could do it at 5 o'clock or six o'clock or 7 o'clock or something like that and and have it open to the public that's a great idea and then take that feedback whoever shows up and makes comments and and take that feedback into the meeting before we vote so Tracy could you so you got the second half of your here and I know the dates on this sort of assume we're doing the first half but can you just walk us through that with dates both if we were to start now sure and if we were to start later um so if you were to start if you were to start for to start a permanent superintendent search now um let's see school vacation week starts Friday um so you lose a week um we could probably put a public survey out by the end of the week that something that we could do um and we would be asking the district to share that widely with staff students parents the community um I would be working then to um get into schools the week after February break um because my standard is that I want to make sure that I make a staff meeting um at every school um in order to give you that feedback also I always meet with Central Administration um in person and try to meet with the student council at least um obviously that depends on what the staff meeting schedule actually is and I will say that that tends to be the thing that is um kind of maybe least flexible in terms of this because calling staff meetings that are optional means that people don't come and you don't get the same kind of input so that would be the one thing that I would say is um less um kind of flexible in terms of of time time um spent assuming that that's possible um I could let's see you have the position you'd have the survey out for those two weeks um I could potentially be back with you the first week of March to approve a position description now that would also require that you all would um put together the district profile which is a multi-page document that we require the school committee with administrative support to fill out which talks about the um the towns it talks about the district um gives a bunch of information of that kind that becomes part of the brochure that we put together um I would then be back with you with that and also with a potential position description that were possible to schedule it um that first week of March we would then probably be posting by the second week of March um in which case we usually leave positions posted for five weeks for that so then we're running up against well we're not quite to April vacation we're probably into Holy Week um which is tricky so if the position were up for five weeks we'd be closing on April 11th it would be tricky to probably schedule interviews that following week for semifinalists um just because of both my own schedule and and also what I know potentially be other people's schedule it would be impossible for me I'm just going to come out be for it would be for semi-finalists it would be for a search committee that you had appointed um but I know that's not un but that's but I know having tried to schedule things that we previously you end up like losing know all um then next week then is April vacation so you'd be scheduling semi-finalists for the last week of April beginning of May um assuming that they make their decision that week you could be announcing your finalist the first week of May um if you did that then you would probably have the next two weeks for visits in the district and visits back out of the district and you'd be scheduling interviews um probably for the last week of May and maybe be making your decision the first week of June um the one thing that I would think would be a little tricky there is that you lose your 60-day window so many admin rators have a um they have to give a 60 days notice for resignation um you considering that you're your contract for the next superintendent would start July 1 um you would be unable to provide them that window now on the other hand I have never in my 10 years of doing this I've never run into a district that's actually made a fuss about that so um you know take that for what it is um but yeah that would be kind of more now that makes a couple of assumptions that means that's assuming that we can I could actually get to staff meetings and staff meetings even exist um within sort of the next couple of weeks um and that both you and I can actually meet on those days that I've um outlined um yeah and of course that we don't lose any time first s which we never can [Music] tell is great and all but when you start doing like you know visits and that sort of thing like sometimes you just have to you just have to deal so that's the yes it's doable there are probably some things that are less than than ideal but that doesn't mean it's not doable and then all of that same thing if we were to do an inter term and start next year it looks like we'll be starting over the summer right so I did have a a quick conversation with Mr Gan about this because that's one of those where I kind of want to have um the agreement of the the chief administrator to say that make this part part of your kind of back to school launch right so um you know you know staff comes in ahead of students um if I can grab you know a half hour during whatever that time is with them then you've got your staff input before the students even walk in the building um if I can have the same kind of thing with your opening PTO meetings like then it's sort of like I will also say that's something that's nice and this is not to in any way sort of disparage spring searches um it sort of is that this is now the the project we're taking on for this year one of the projects we're taking on for this year as a community is finding our next superintendent um it usually gives me a chance to um get in front of the student council without too much of a problem I mean also you know how people tend to think in terms of things right it's like back to school it's things starting it's a little bit more where people's brains are um again not to say right you're sending out a flurry of communication to families already there's a link to the survey and all the paperwork you're filling out please make sure you fill this out too um that then usually means that I can by mid-september be getting back in front of you with a position description um and then we're sort of into it's posted for five weeks um applications are due before Halloween um a meeting with your your semi- with your search committee and they're doing semi-finalist interviews during November which is always a surprisingly short month um they announce but for you break for Thanksgiving and then you're doing insert of the date the weeks that are remaining in December then you're doing the search you know the visiting their districts they're visiting your District you're doing interviews um and it can be I mean I've done more than one search that has sort of closed on this timeline um kind of like you know you've then got at least a POS the person selected before you break for winter break and then maybe you're doing contract negotiations still in January but you sort of are starting off the year and then the other thing is that it does make for a nice sort of long transition for the new superintendent and you know for your interm superintendent to do the handoff of like they're there for like most of the budget right they're there for whatever Town meetings and deliberations and um the conversation about what work is happening over the summer and all of that kind of stuff so I will say that that's one advantage of the fall searches is that if you actually do have the person on you know by January signed on then there's sort of an easy back and forth between the current superintendent and the incoming superintendent of you know do you want to come to this and do you want to you know be part of this and here's when we're meeting on this and um you know assuming that it is Mr G who's still there I know that he's he's been very good at that sort of thing before too so um yeah that would be what I would say that would happen on if you were to do it on the um in the fall end I'm curious so you meant so so there's how long is a typical overlap then for like a new and the old superintendent or well yeah so I mean how uh I don't know that there is a typ difficult because it entirely depends on whether or not you've done your search in the fall or you've done it in the spring um and I mean I think and you may have you have more experience in this than I do um I think the level of communication entirely varies and of course some of that has to do with why it is that the previous superon is leaving um but in an ideal situation um there is plenty of communication that's going back and forth I don't know if and just if I could just say a couple things so whatever you guys need to do that's what you've hired me to do as the inter superintendent for this year or for this year or next year my job is to make sure um I I do what's necessary and and that will certainly be part of it will be transitioning the the next superintendent I think that's a huge piece um I did that in hon wam respectfully I I've been there done that as a superintendent retired so my job is to make sure I leave this District in the better place than what I found it um and that's the work that I'm doing uh I go back to last night watching the Super Bowl and the the Philadelphia quarterback saying Excellence is only surrounded by the people that are excellent as well too and and that's sort of my role what I'm trying to do is bring some Excellence around everything that we're doing here um so that we become more of a viable candidate and district for people to apply I'd be lying to you if I didn't say to you that we as superintendent all talk right whether it be snow days whether it be anything right we're having conversation and like everything that's going on in the world right now we're having even more conversations but there they're they're asking questions right they they've heard some of the the the stuff that took place previously in this district and but they're also hearing that things are finally getting in place and that certainly is just not me but it's all everybody now working in the same direction I I'll I'll I'll say one last thing one of things that any good superintendent whether a veteran especially is looking for strategic plan they looking like what direction is this District going in so I can come and sort of make it my own and finalize and have a launching pad so don't spend another year doing a strategic plan as a new superintendent coming on what we already have it and say here it is take it and run with it instead of having to spend another year doing that so the one thing I would ask and again whatever you guys decide please don't know I'm not my feelings I've hurt right this is family conversation whatever you guys challeng me to do I'll do um but being able to get a strategic plan in place to be able to work with a new superintendent say here it is let me walk you through this let me walk you through the budget process let me walk you through the world of special education let me walk you through all of that because it really is a different District we have right there's a lot going on here I feel like if I got a little more time to get more things in place I think we might interest more valuable candidates and that's an important piece that Tracy walking what type of candid are you looking for you looking for someone that has some time in as a superintendent or you're looking for someone that's brand new right that's not even been a superintendent yet so those are conversations that you'll be having when they do that looking in the community like big part of Tracy's work that she's done before it's great work but you I think you'll entice a larger group of candidates right if you have more things in place and I think we're starting to get them business ERS business offic is getting in place get a strategic plan in place get some of other world in place I think people feel better applying and looking at this District it's a good District I said it when I first interview you guys we got work to do become a better District to become great we really do J calls all day long but we're getting there slowly so whatever you guys decide to charge me with I I please know that I I'm completely comfortable and support the the process whatever you guys need from me so I guess so it's extending his contract well his contract from August to like hypothetically January I mean that's kind of what year the whole year okay but someone like say we found someone come January then it would be transition period because I'm sure that it's possible they might be leaving a place they might need to transition some they are more time to talk so the new one would be a question mark to what the like we could find someone that's unemployed yeah or June there's nobody the office yes I would say it would be difficult to find someone who's going to be willing to start in January February it's just just noty off yeah probably June but when I did yeah usually July 1 is when contracts when I did that with superintendent when I retired he and we went to school visits together we started going to the town meetings together we went to school Comm meetings together went to budget meetings together so it was completely so it wasn't him alone going to those meetings by himself for the first time it was me making those Transitions and that would be part of the job that that I always child to do as well yeah to do so Tracy I um I actually have the the little pamphlet that we gave incoming superintendent when we hired um Mr Z and we reviewing this we actually interviewed him almost the same way like it was in the ball it says your applications are due by like September 22nd um and I remember we had a really big this is before Co so the world's a different place I remember we had like like 18 20 people that appli do you find that in the fall you get a substantial like would we would we have a good pool of applicants or are people settled at that point um so I am not seeing a big difference between between spring and fall in terms of numbers of applicants they're varying a little bit more in terms of districts lately um so I had the first search that I've had that had less than 10 applications this year um but most of them are still bringing in the high teams okay in terms of the number of applications and are like all the applicants licensed because I know like when we did the principal search we had like 20 applicants but like only three were actually so we only put forward applications if they're licensed or eligible for licensure so they're like qualified okay so that's good to know which is one of the perks that I liked about masc that you go through in double check and triple check which is extremely helpful Amry Martin in our office is great at that yes there's a lot of emails that go back and forth saying I seem to be missing not a lot but there are some yes y she checks everything make sure that they you know they checked all the boxes on the application but did they actually give us all the things they checked off yes anybody other questions for Tracy I don't have any questions I just I like the idea of a more slow deliberate picking of the next superintendent what's the point in like writing the ship to just rush now it would be very rush I agree my only concern I think Jess and I we talked about this about the community and just so I don't I think it's a great idea what Mike said is just have we'll have a subcommittee meeting and have be like kind of like Forum I and just see who comes and see what people have to say and if no one comes then I agree I think just kind of the timing of doing it right now is so I don't even know how you'll get to the PTO and like the staff meetings like this time of year it's crazy you're not going to do anything this week and then they come back it's mcast it's just seems very rushed so but I get it yeah and I have a different concern than you I feel like even if we had all even if this is perfect timing I feel like we are a district in flux we are write like writing the ship someone said used that term and I think that that was a great way to say it we there's a lot of different things like we were two rural districts that used to do a lot of Word of Mouth like oh here's oh let me just train you on the do job and there were not necessarily job descriptions and Al is coming through and he's saying oh wow we have to have a job description for this we have to have and he's I think the next person that comes in if we had one more year of an interim whether it's Al we have to interview out could be someone else someone to come in and say we have to get these things in shape so that someone walks in and says okay here's what my vision for the district and oh here's here's a strategic plan so it's not just their Vision it's also our district Vision that's already there um I just feel like we're we're in there's too much flux right now um You Want who's going to want to come in and feel um like it's changing and that's because of the hard work that all is doing along with the administration and the teachers are are are working hard too I just I think my concern I just keep thinking who we have work to do I totally agree with you lari I can just say one other so sorry just there's some good people that are now on board that we brought in final world Treasurer business office right accountants all of them um I I think they're do great work technology doing great work I think the the more time we give them to get stable in their job and secure right a new boss sort of comes in sometimes and and again I've been there done this job right so please appreciate that comes in and then they want to make some changes I think we just need to keep some stability what's going on and keep the work for not only for our school district for our staff right but also for our communities that they know this inst stability that we're getting this through getting things in place I also said to you the very first time I met you a good instructional leader should be working himself out of a job right so that's my job is to be making sure that everybody else is in play and can do their job well and I can just sort of walk away and and that's really I think that's what you HDE me to do yeah so what um Lisa J Jess you had something to say sorry I no I just like when I opened the item and I saw West Bon was looking and how long their superintendent was there and we're going to do the same timeline that was m not great news and um yeah so no I appreciate the work you're doing to get our district stable and um new qualified C you know people coming in for different positions and so I you know yes I appreciate the work you're doing and the stability you're bringing to our district what if we did something like this so next week school vacation right nobody's gonna be around can't do anything but we could do something Thursday okay Thursday the we so just hear me up of this week yeah because let's say we something Thursday the 13th yeah people who want to have a say can come have a say if they can't get to it so be it next week's February vacation the week after that we have a budget hearing can we put something at the front of the budget hearing about this we put that on the agenda so if people didn't come Thursday they can say something or a public comment we can make a decision whether we want to do option a option b then we can do our and then if we decide we want to go with option b that that still gives us time to get started because you know like we the rest of this week's was next week is vacation would that be something interesting y or or not what are you looking to do on the 13th it's supposed to snow oh I that's right it is but we if we did Zoom May th it's we're gonna get a yeah we might get some weather on Thursday but I feel like if you I feel like you get more people in a zoom it would have to be you want do a zoom that's the perfect way to do it if it's going to snow but you have to do it like it has to be in the manner whoever's running it it's going to have to be like everybody gets to turn to spe it can't be chaos it's like everybody has a turn to say their peace do you know what I'm saying that uh you're def you're talking about chaos if you're doing I mean you there's the raiseed hand function right I mean there is I how you'd have to I hate Zoom myself but I feel like you're you get more people and I I don't know I'm having a hard time articulating you're talking about doing the meeting at night though yeah the storm looks like it's ending in the afternoon they should have the roads cleared that night yeah I mean I'm fine with it I'm people might not you know Ro out of their own places you know what I mean what about so like the online public survey is there any way that we could incorporate like that now into this like or could we BL blast out a survey instead of actually having what what would that do what what what would you be asking asking to vote you know so I think that's the question is I mean so we you certainly could use I could certainly um create recreate the survey that we would usually put out although arguably you potentially would be doing that twice um but we could certainly um put send out the survey that we usually do for superintendent searches which does things like ask um you know what are the biggest needs in the district at this point um what is the district most need in terms of District leadership um for their next leader um and and those sorts of questions that's what I mean that's what that survey looks like um yes that's kind of but what you're asking for you're not asking for what do we see in our next leader you're asking for are you comfortable not going for a permanent person right now that's what you're asking yeah that survey is only good right before we're gonna be usually so yeah what what we're discussing right now is do we want to consider focusing on an interm search right now correct or you know we're not asking the community who do we want or what do we want in the next leader do you want to do an inm search or you know I I think I oh sorry L I know I just want to say this before so so when you're a little kid and you say to your parents just write a check which no one my kids don't even know what checks are anymore just write a check and you're like no no we I know I have the money but we we can't spend it on that I care deeply about what the public thinks and I do not want to misstep here however we have an insight into things that are going on that the public doesn't that we can't share we all of us here at this table all different backgrounds all different thoughts all different approaches know what is what we have to fix what is going on what needs to be done at the end of the day if the public comes back and says we absolutely should do a superintendent search I personally do not feel that is in the best interest of this District because I do not think we are going to get someone um I don't we're going to get the best person that's just my feeling um so when I when when we're asking whether we want to do an interim search or if you're going to do a survey and then we're going to vote we have to vote responsibly with our conscience and if we go against what the public wants they might take that offensively so I'm just throwing that out there as like a like we we have a birds we have a we have an inside look that they don't have and so that's why we have this that's why it seems like we all kind of feel like Al would be the good the ne good next choice the only thing that's holding us back is that we did it wrong the last time um we were misinformed we we made the best decision at the time and it it it was good in some ways and not so good in others and we're in this situation um I just wanted to throw that out there because so when I asked you to get together Thursday and talk about it I I kind of meant within your subcommittee talk about pros and cons of doing it this way right sell your case right rather than ask I'm just saying if we're talking about throwing out if we're talk about throwing out a survey so a survey is not to capture what you're looking for for an opportunity to explain to everyone why we think that we're prioritizing stability over a permanent superintendent right now which we don't necessarily need to do a subcommittee to do that we can do it's more like Outreach is what we're we're just letting everyone know and make sure that everybody understands that why not so much asking but so basically we're just going to do this again On th no it's maybe we don't maybe we do it so for me it's about giving the public and I know again I know we put it out there that we were meeting today about this and we have there's one person sitting here and I applaud you because you've been sitting here the whole time quietly um but it's putting it out there and like we've done forums a few times right we did it with masks we did it with an SRO what else do we do it for we did it for a few different things it would be kind of like come say your peace and if you don't show up and you don't say your piece then don't complain this is decision we're making and it would have to be you know to L's Point yeah survey right now I agree because you're getting too many cooks in the kitchen there's people that aren't are just like oh yeah whatever I don't care check the box um but I think if you have a form and somebody's actually taking the time to come out and to say hey this is why I think we should uh and I I actually think the public is gonna say we love Al can can he stay can you know what I mean but it I think it's going to give everybody and I'm saying not just the public the union the teachers everybody you know and it's it's just an it's just it's trying to do right by the public and saying here's your turn to have your to say your peace we're not saying we're going to make decisions based on this but we're having a forum and we want to hear what you have to say say that that's I think the point I feel like that was where people were angry with us about the whole Carol thing we just went right in we're like all right we're interviewing her and we're gonna hire like we didn't have other people we never had a forum people didn't not get to ask her questions but she was the permanent one though I mean this is just more interest correct we did H we just hired her as permanent but some people might be thinking why when we have the interim when we have the interim interviews the public could be a part of that as well I understand we could also have that have the inum interviews be a part of the public because for what has to be how about how about how about what about this do we so we have to do a whole commit Meg what if we talked about it right now which way are we leaning and then we can we can certainly ask people for their input personil like you said one person showed up today the news is coming this agenda's been out there for three weeks yeah I mean I told people about it so I guess you're right Lisa what what are your thoughts well I already said yeah just of keeping Al for as long as we can keep them same they with an interim wait Jess I am having conflicting feelings because I am immensely appreciative of all that Alice had done for our district but I think there's that lack of input piece that we have been criticized for so I I think having that Forum if weather allows I think would be would be a good idea um all right to just again like not everyone listens to our meetings to again explain our position why we think this is good in the short and the long term um and and then people have a have a chance to say their pece so I I completely understand what um Jess is saying and I I don't I don't disagree um however I feel like we're just I feel like with what I know I I don't see how if everybody says you should go out and hire a superintendent I just don't I just don't see that working um so I it's just with with what with what we you know so yeah I do agree um the timeline is ridiculous to hire a full-time this year um but I still am I feel like I've taken a lot of heat for not for you know what I'm saying I mean the position you're in yeah yeah you're right um but I can we do a zoom can we do something on Thursday I'm happy to run it or be there or whatever just if for nothing more than to check the box but I I do agree I think even if everyone came out and was like yeah let's do a full search I I don't see in my mind how that would be feasible right now um and side not because I haven't said this enough I think you're doing a great job Al like I I hope you know that I mean I talk to him all the time not about me it's and it's not and it's not about me it I I'm trying to I don't think the public knows that he's he's here till 78 o'clock at night well beyond what because there's so to do and that's that's where the concern is and I you know I don't ever it matters to me what what the people want but at the end of the day we're in charge of giving these kids the best education they can have and it starts at the top and I I just don't think that I it's tough It's it's I mean I guess to your point or to Tracy's point or everybody's point we have to do a search for an intrum yes so I I don't want to make a unilateral decision here but it sounds like Jess you're a little more hesitant but everybody else is comfortable with doing an interm search I'm open to ideas how you want to move forward but we should probably decide something tonight so one option is do nothing right now have something on THS today whether it's in person or Zoom I don't know does anybody have another idea I think we can also just it doesn't we could State our case it's not really feasible to go do a full search right now interm is the best way to go if you want and then in the future you're G to have your opportunity to voice your concerns about who the best interm person is that's still on the table for them so if I just I think that takes out what you're talking about Lori is that we can't feasibly do this right now we wouldn't most likely wouldn't vote to just start a search right now so no matter what we're doing an interim The public's comment will be in terms of who the interim should be yeah I agree well and you know another good you when you were talking you made me think of something we're not delaying the search for a new superintendent a whole year we're actually just delaying it like six months because we'd be starting at the end of the summer or during the summer so we so it's not like it's even that which isn't it's crazy to think it's not that far away do you know so um and I also like the idea of if we had someone you know buy the end of 2025 then Al can say hey I'm going to a budget meeting do you want to go and meet you know the Boon fincom the Berlin fincom come meet these people let me introduce them so it's like it's a little bit softer versus in the middle of budget season which is already crazy trying to get all of this done and you know to to the people that are going to say well why didn't you start this sooner we didn't we were trying to make heads or tails like we walked into you know someone's going to say it it was the the chaos that Al has sorted through from the beginning of the year again it's Mom and Dad knowing what's going on in the checkbook or in the or in the like in the family that aren't telling the kids because you just you're going through you're fixing this you're fixing that it's not you don't need to know we're just do we're getting it done and so I just think of the the fixes that you've done now that have got us to the place that we need to be um so Beth it sounds like maybe are you suggesting we put out we don't necessar we don't yeah we don't necessarily do like a a for but more of a presentation of why yeah just like and put out a timeline and then make it clear that like we're not just rubber stamping through 2026 we're just like we're like you said it's the process is going to start this summer which is not right not that far away I think if we put it as a timeline and sold our case as to why we're doing this and then this is the piece where we're going to pull you in we're going to pull you in for the interm superintendent search and then we're going to pull you back in for the permanent okay that Thursday or maybe should we wait or we make is I don't even know is this something you need to do in a meeting or is this something that you blast out a timeline a really we talk that good timeline of date of like time of where what happens at each event we can certainly put that out with a link to this report um yeah I mean I think including certain parties like you know PTO members or the Union um and different people within the committee to review those applications for the inum I think is super important because the fact of the matter is we have to do an interview no matter what and it's not like we're gonna if we're gonna interview for an interim as much as we think Al is doing a good job if someone else comes along who presents like they can do better we have to give that person a fair chance and that might be all right so so a it sounds like we want to do the interm search does anyone disagree no we have to do the does anyone else disagree no I agree I agree yeah yeah sorry yes we have to do no no yes I I know I know Jess you're hesitant but are you getting more comfortable with what everybody's saying yeah I I don't think we could attracted a good candidate right now that we would want long term or who would want to stay long term so I mean ultimately yeah so it sounds like maybe you do agree more that I thought I feel like Jess and I are on the same page yeah I just it's hard like I you know input needs to be taken and parties need to be involved okay so what if we did this then forget if there's gonna be weather Thursday forget doing something Thursday really hard yeah it sounds like we want to do the interm search okay so we'll just we'll we'll put something together which basically summarizes what we've all said tonight um and put out the timeline do we have to get rid of the Forum idea even like I mean could we like put out this and then say Come Share your feelings about that or on Thursday or not Thursday Thursday is going to be a tough day yeah right break so if we're not gonna so if we're not pushing to get something done before school vacation just timing wise then yeah we could definitely once we come back great we can put this out now people can talk about it while they're line at Disney for three hours you know whatever come back and we can put something updated do we vote on this Mike like do we vote in this at a future meeting and then if people I'm not sure what the next step is I didn't put a vote on the agenda and I don't want to break any rules so we're meeting tomorrow we have meeting tomorrow Tracy this is something we would have to vote on as a committee correct that we want to do an interim rather than it would be wise to yeah so we're meeting tomorrow we do that tomorrow because more people will be paying attention tomorrow probably have on the agenda tomorrow any business unforeseen by the chair within 48 hours and this would be considered that and you could amend it and make sure Nicole puts the date on it and put it out tomorrow morning sir could time stamp it right away time stamp it I want to make the same mistake twice right want to do that is that is everybody comfortable with that I think we need to reiterate what was discussed tonight though yeah do that probably one of the toughest jobs right you have three major roles as a school committee so tough right policy budget and and hiring them this next question right that's one of the toughest jobs and you want to make sure you do it right this time and and yes I I I appreciate that and like I said I I'm not please I don't take this personal at all but you've hir me to do a job and I'll do whatever job you ask me to do just know that so I'm not taking a personal but I enjoyed I've done a lot of jobs for you guys I have to tell you I I I really the doing I really it is definitely been um probably the hardest job I've ever had in my career even being a principal and all those other rols I've had but I think I've I've enjoyed is probably the most it really has been a challenge and and I've enjoyed seeing the changes and and I'm not just saying this because it's publicly and with you guys but you guys have been a great school Community to work with you really have right it's like I've appreciated that and I've said that to Tracy as well too like I've enjoyed working with you guys as school committee you guys have definitely um helped me clear the way so I can make the changes that I believe as the instruction leader need to be made to make this in better District so I thank you for that as well too and any superintendent that want to come here in the future I would say that as well too so I thank you for that as well too and I've worked with a lot of school committies so thank you for that all right uh I think that's it we'll we'll put it on we'll get the agenda updated we'll vote on it tomorrow we'll reiterate everything we talked about tonight if you have any other questions you can bring them up then as well yeah no I think that's good all right could I have a everybody good any last minute questions comments anything I think the last comment I just want to make is that I I think we're we're we're way better today than we have been in a long time and so when I say like we're a district in flux and that's why we should consider an interim I don't want people to think that I don't think we're a great District I think we're an awesome District but I think we're gonna we're headed towards greatness and just takes a little bit of time there's a lot of balls in the air still that's exactly it yeah I totally that point I 100% agree with it would be nice to have the continuity right okay a motion to J this meeting so moved second La J all in favor I I against all right meeting is over thank you thanks everybody do back so is Nicole going to do these
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[Music] good evening everyone I'd like to call this meeting of the Dartmouth school committee to order for Monday February 10th 2025 would you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance 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 please be seated well good evening everyone it's so wonderful and great to see such a large crowd here tonight for some of our awards that recipients uh this evening I'm sure you're all not here for the budget presentation um so welcome all we're happy to have you uh just a reminder that this meeting is being videotaped by uh our dmouth high school media program and it will be rebroadcast on dmouth Community television uh DCTV channels 9 on the following days Wednesday and Thursday at 5:00 p.m.
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on announcing number 14 Billy Dy [Applause] [Music] [Applause] before ding his hands hands on career in the trades the future is bright we can't wait to see where his hard work and determination Tak number 14 Billy [Applause] our last senior celebrating John Parker number 22 [Applause] [Music] [Applause] basketball Now set sing journey is just beginning we know he's destined for greatness number 22 John [Music] marker continue five more minutes of warm-ups and then do the lineups [Music] Bur e e e [Applause] ladies and G gentlemen welcome to e long metal High School this is Grace mwy and tonight we're bringing you an exciting boys basketball Bar City game between your very own e me Spartans and the long meow Lancers the tip off is underway John Parker with the ball passes it to McLoud Dom Rodriguez heck of a player he has been over the past few games long meow gets the ball bringing it down the court the Spartans right now are four and four- N in their record and Long Meadow is three and six long meow gets the first John Parker for three Too Short Long Meadow is bringing the intensity with a bullet that [Music] three Spartan's taking the timeout L Meadow is with a 5 and0 lead with about seven minutes left in the first coach Abad of the eastling meow Spartans is working out a game plan because right now the Spartans don't have any intensity Gavin in the corner passes it to Billy Delaney Spartans are hustling for the ball and it is a jump ball I think it is going long mows way the Spartans have been doing really well on their zone defense in previous games hopefully they can keep this up M passing the ball around Brandon McLoud retrieves the [Music] ball conclaves passes it to McLoud back to Billy Delaney Don Rodriguez has been definitely a sharp shooter for the Spartans recently Spartan loses the ball long Meadows [Music] ball H meow bringing the ball down ball passes it up to Joe Martinez Joe Martinez is slinging the ball around he shoots and makes it in what a nice three Spartans triling 8- Z with five minutes and 30 seconds left Don Rodriguez shoots what a bullet that was SP cut the lead to five Martinez brings the ball down Marcel backto back threes for both [Music] [Applause] [Music] teams the Spartan shooting too Brendan McLoud is on the line for McLoud this is the first free throw with one remaining and he makes that [Music] [Applause] [Music] one Martinez brings the ball [Applause] down slings it around to Daniel wheeler the ball has definitely been loose in this game D Rodriguez conclaves with a sharp three almost made [Music] it Daniel wheeler with that sharp three Rodriguez the Spartans passing the ball around the court try to set up their Zone what a handle on do [Applause] Rodriguez Lancers Reeve the ball the lances have been hot on their threes lately Jack serapini 4 three six out one this SPS have cut the lead to seven Lancers passing the ball around in the zone spans by Brandon the cloud blocked that shot continues to be lancer's ball [Music] oh that rimed right out lter still have the ball [Applause] though still L's ball I think there was a tip on that rebound Gavin gaves gets the ball for the [Music] Spartans Jack serapini passes it to Gavin golay [Music] friend in the cloud almost got the rebound for those part but they come up short flancers have been on fire with their threes John clay brings up the ball Shane Gray comes to get the ball from gonay sarini brenon McLoud now gets the ball drives in and draws a foul the Spartans are losing by 10 points with about 1 minute and 50 seconds left remaining G plays with the [Applause] three L passing the goal around [Music] K gets the ball too much on that three and draws a [Applause] foul Spartans will have possession of the ball [Music] Tom Rodriguez look the [Applause] ball and makes it in drives in for the layup and makes it in [Applause] Spartans get possession of the ball serapini passes it to gon claves gaves to Rodriguez step back fader oh just short good Martinez try to make a move on Rodriguez spon game possession again D Rodriguez bringing it back up oh just short Spartan's basketball with good defense by Billy [Music] and that is the first half or first quarter [Music] for [Music] per Dom Rodriguez gets the [Applause] ball Jack serapini makes a move passes it back to Dom Rodriguez Tom Rodriguez doing a little one-on-one that looked like a foul there [Applause] Rodriguez brings up the [Music] ball lances have been doing a really good defense definitely locking in on Rodriguez Billy Delaney with the ball passes it around Jack sarini to Rodriguez passes it to Billy Delan for three sinks that one what a [Applause] [Music] bullet J Martinez swipes that one in for a bucket FR McLoud sets a pick for Don Rodriguez but then jump ball Martinez bringing the ball down for the Lancers L is passing the ball around Daniel wheeler to rile misses that one Billy Del gets a hold of the ball trying to make a move and there is a foul drawn gong glaves gets the ball passes it to B Delany Delany makes a move oh gets blocked wheeler Rell PS out servman with the three [Applause] BR McLoud with the ball drives in passes it to Billy Del for the [Applause] three Martinez with the ball Marcel to Wheeler back to Martinez jump ball Spartans will take over sparts 18 laners [Applause] 24 conclaves brings the ball down passes it Ro Rodriguez Rodriguez back to Delany her the cloud and gets it in he has such a big body which makes him really hard to walk nice c o stting to draw a [Applause] [Music] foul sparton bringing in down sprs have cut the lead to [Applause] four Rodriguez makes a move rims out for the [Music] three h Murphy passes it to Nolan [Music] Rell SPS get a hold of the ball lers actually to doel to Wheeler L for the [Music] pick SPS got a hold of the ball put JB calling out a play for the Spartans Dom Rodriguez to McLoud Delany wide open Kicks out and Nails the three what a shot by Billy Delaney now be down by one wheeler SS that one and 43 G caves trapped Dom Rodriguez helps back to gaves McLoud drives in and there's a foul on the play [Applause] McLoud and draws the foul he will shoot too [Applause] McLoud and makes it Spartan's only down by three with two minutes remaining in the second half second quarter McLoud and this is the second [Applause] one Joe [Music] Millet Daniel wheeler back out to Rell nothing but that VES have been great with their threes this game CH CL passes it to thecloud [Applause] [Music] thecloud Spartans feeling their moment now the intensity has been high [Applause] Spartan draw the foul and it's Spartan's ball D Rodriguez with the ball passes it to the Corner Brandon McLoud is there McLoud in conclaves too much [Applause] Martinez bringing the ball up passing it around the perimeter Martinez still have the ball and Spartans foul on the play they F snow adus snow for two [Music] [Applause] and he makes the first bucket [Music] in vce is ahead with a four-point lead and he makes the second one too Spartans Bringing Down the [Music] ball Tom Rodriguez trying to milk the clock the shot clock has turned off Tom Rodriguez making a move [Applause] and tried for a halftime shot didn't make it in spart e e e Flor [Applause] welcome back to the second half of the E Long Meadow Spartans versus long meal lers basketball game Long Meadow will take the ball first Martinez with the ball passes it around gets back to control of the ball and a careless pass SP [Applause] basketball gaves will bring the ball down passes it to Dom Rodriguez passes it to Jack serapini back to gon claves Tom mriz back to Brandon Cloud drack sarini makes the fake Spartan's trying to set their zone offense [Music] again gaves with a slick pass to Rodriguez ch clock at 10 caress pass glances basketball stays Spartan ball actually I guess there's a tip shot clock at nine Lancers get the ball from a careless pass and make the [Applause] bucket L is leading by six sarini back to Don Rodriguez friend in the cloud passes it to Jack sarini sa sair looked like he was going to shoot it Brandon McLoud for the three sinks [Applause] it Martinez brings up the ball to Daniel wheeler for the for the shot and makes it in McLoud with the layup and one I guess it was a charge L's ball coj bad would like explanation on that call Martinez bringing up the ball trying to get into the Zone Spartans blocked [Applause] [Music] that Martinez Spartans basketball no no point Billy delini took that charge Spartan's only down by six 30 to 36 with five minutes left remaining in the third jaing to gon claves to Billy Del fakes it passes it around d Rodriguez for [Applause] three three-point laad only for laners snow passes it to Wheeler wheeler jump shot three bounces off the [Music] rim L's trying to bring back their offensive zone no back to Rell ryel rims it in for a [Applause] three Rodriguez trying to make a move passes it out to McLoud McLoud for three hits it off the backboard weird bounce right there [Applause] wheeler gonna shoot for two Billy Delaney got the foul Daniel wheeler shooting two first shot right off the [Applause] r didn't have a lucky bounce Spartans only down by six with four minutes and 30 seconds left the third wheeler this is a second one too sparts have a chance to recover Tom Rodriguez with footwork Fade Away jumper just off the backboard delini gets fouled Spartans will shoot too Billy Delany has been on the ground recently in about a minute he's been both offensive and defensive for the Spartans this is the first one a little too hard on that shot [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Miss is the second one too Lancers get the ball [Applause] [Music] back son with a hard shot SPS will take over the ball con with the ball passes it to Dom Rodriguez Dom Rodriguez no foul on the play SC STP the ball away Don Rodriguez and makes it in sherson tried to block it but it's too late Spartans cut the lead down to four SP out a 40 run time out Lancers [Applause] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] the Spartans have cut the lead to Four Points 3539 with about 3 minutes left remaining in the third quarter it is a full house tonight on senior night for the East metal Spartans Spartans have had three seniors playing [Applause] tonight lers will have control of the ball in their Zone wheeler in for a three too much on that one Rasel in the corner and there's a foul on the play Spartans will get the basketball Don caves to Rodriguez Rodriguez to John Parker to Brandon McLoud Brandon McLoud trying to make a move passes it to Dom Rodriguez in for a three Dom Rodriguez has has been making threes for the Spartans which helps them only one point away from tying with Lancers SPS block it Brendan McLoud bringing up the [Music] ball his friends lost the ball on that one lers with more offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds than Spartans have been doing the Spartans need to be harder on the boards getting more rebounds D Rodriguez John Parker pass out to to McLoud and draws the foul McLoud will be shooting too [Music] MCL misses the first [Applause] [Music] one McLoud and makes second free throw subs for the Spartans the Spartans sub had at 3939 with the a minute 40 remaining in the third Martinez brings the ball [Music] down passes it to ryel to Wheeler back to ryel out in the corner Daniel wheeler runs out the three there's a foul on the play Martinez was wide open on that one I don't know where the Spartans defense was thinking SPS got the ball back those are the rebounds that you need to win this game Tom Rodriguez Billy Delane sets the pick fade away oh so close Daniel wheeler with the layup makes it in 40 seconds left remaining in the third only a two-point game SP can definitely handle that joh Rodriguez pass it to Billy Delany for the three oh so close Billy Delany with that epic [Applause] BL V is get the ball the Sams are surprised about that one they thought it was going to be spart and small you can definitely hear the deafening Boos [Applause] [Music] 15 seconds left Lancer is going to milk the [Applause] clock that basket does not count [Music] like f the Spartan's only down by two and with the start of the Spartans the Spartans down by two with the start of the fourth quarter lers get the ball and there's a charge going Spartan way Billy delady with so many taking charges [Music] [Applause] [Music] today Rodriguez brings down the ball Jack serapini loads up for the three and makes it [Applause] [Music] Martinez Daniel wheeler sinks that [Music] three G claves brings down the ball [Music] [Applause] [Music] Harrington with the steel and makes the layup the Lancers are starting to put pressure on The Spar ends they want to keep this lead going Jack s looking for an outlet Brandon McLoud for two [Music] [Applause] the cloud the first one took a weird bounce on the rim turn M clouds for two missed that one too free throw can really win a game I've learned that from a few games in the past with the Spartans Martinez looking for an outlet to pass toel Millet air balls at Spartans take over D Rodriguez oh he gets blocked by a bunch of Lancers Lancers could do nothing with that sp's basketball play delini for three oh that's blocked on the floor foul he'll shoot one Dani makes that one in timeout [Music] Spartans L is with the seven-point lead five minutes left remaining in the fourth quarter [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] spon's down 4942 five minutes left remaining in the fourth quarter Spartans will have the basketball wrong flaves passing it to McLoud to Don Rodriguez Brandon McLoud and shooting two [Music] McLoud has been to the line for three times today just short of the first shot hit the middle of the rim Cloud shooting the second free throw same thing again Martinez brings the ball down slings it out Martinez back at the top of the key nails that one [Music] Billy Delan will shoot two the L with already three fouls in this four fouls in this quarter SPS only with one makes the first one Billy D makes the second [Applause] one 5244 with Lancers ahead of the Spartans with four minutes left remaining in the fourth that shot got tipped Billy Delaney wide open with dom Rodriguez handling the ball play Delany with a mysterious pass to joh Rodriguez [Music] John Rodriguez CL making that three def def def def def def def L's passing the ball around Martinez trying to make the move and gets it time out [Applause] Spartans lces with 10 points ahead with three minutes left remaining in the fourth [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] Spartans will get the basketball in their offensive zone ch playes hard on that move Blan drives in shoots out to McLoud 4 three sinks that [Applause] one Spartan fans cheering defense wheer passes it out to Harrington Harrington no that three D Rodriguez back to back threes for both teams cuts it to a seven-point lead Harrington passes it to Martinez risel back to Martinez Daniel wheeler for the two timeout Lancers with two minutes remaining e [Music] Spartan's only down by nine with two minutes left remaining in the fourth [Music] quarter Spartans will have the ball [Applause] John claves gets the first touch passes it to Dom Rodriguez Dom Rodriguez tries to make a move Martinez in his way back to D Delany close Spartan's foul stop the clock Spartans only have two fouls this [Music] quarter Martinez with the ball r f again with a reach on that one [Applause] [Music] J will the ball fouls again now Spartans are tied with fouls for Lancers the Delaney fouls again I'm minut it and 17 seconds remaining Daniel wheeler will be [Music] shooting makes the first one and he makes the second one [Applause] [Music] [Applause] too D Rodriguez brings down the ball makes a move post up and makes it Spartan SW [Applause] [Music] again will be shooting to makes the first one [Music] and makes the [Applause] second B playes passing it down to Dom Rodriguez under a minute left remaining air balls that one he looks for a foul there sp's basketball bounc it off one of the Lancers Burns time out [Music] [Applause] Spartan's down by nine with under a minute left 50 seconds remaining [Music] Spartans will have possession of the [Music] ball bil dely with the small basket cuts the lead down Lancers will have the ball Daniel wheeler Spartan foul again LS will be shooting Daniel wheeler will be at the line [Applause] makes the first one he has been sharp on the line today [Music] and makes the second McLoud pass the D gon CL risky pass right there Spartans will be shooting too Brandon McLoud will be at the line McLoud makes the first spr's down by 10 with 30 seconds left sp's basketball [Music] Don cles to Jack sarini oh tough angle almost makes it Spartan foul Martinez will be shooting too makes the first one [Music] [Applause] and makes the [Applause] [Music] second Tom Rodriguez in for the left and makes it time out Spartans SP down by 10 with 14 seconds left remaining in the game [Music] War [Music] wies will have the [Music] ball SP got the ball L Delaney makes a move 8.5 seconds left Billy Delaney will be shooting too makes the first one cuts it down to a nine-point game [Music] drains the second one as well 5 seconds left SP fouls the long metal makes it in so in one [Music] [Applause] long M will have the ball again 1.8 seconds left remaining in the game what a game folks thank you for coming out to support boys varsity basketball tonight both teams left it out all on the court and it's been a senior night to remember congratulations to long metal lancers and great effort from East long metal Spartans this is Grace mut signing off drive safe take care and we'll see you next time good night y'all
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
I will go ahead and call to order this community engagement subcommittee meeting on Tuesday November 19th at it is now 6:04 p.m we are all meeting on Zoom again because the johnon was locked but we do hope to have fully hybrid meetings moving forward um I'm going to go and call the order I'm Stacy I'm the chair of this subcommittee I'm here member Den here member Goodwin here all right all three of us are present and we have a quorum um we so I think we just all consented to for right now since there is no public present um we're going to go ahead and move forward to item three which is the approval of the October 22nd subcommittee meeting minutes uh can I get a motion for that so moved second any disc discussion all right so let's go ahead and take a vote um and I think because it is online we do have to do a roll call vote um remember Goodwin yes M Den Eve yes and I am also a yes so that is unanimous we have approved the minutes of the last meeting all right now to the main meet um main meet of our of our meeting today is to start setting some goals for the remainder of this Academic Year related to community engagement and I know that we've seen some suggestions come through email from the public about topics that we could take up um or at least I think we have and I would also love to hear from each of you some of the ideas that have been percolating in your brain since the last time that we met well okay I'll go um I think that I think that we should revisit having Child Care at our meetings at the uh main school committee meetings I think that we should revisit the time I think 6: PM is not conducive for Community engagement with so many Working Families in our district um child care I know is a barrier from people coming to meetings uh it was a barrier for me um when my child was younger and I've heard that from many people um I know that we talked at one point in time and tried a few meetings when we were working um pretty hotly with redistricting on having meetings in other places uh we had a meeting at Oak courts we had a meeting at lien woods and the community centers there and I think the general feeling was well we had a meeting and not that many people showed up so clearly this was a bad idea but I kind of think that that you have to give it more than a few chances to see if it's a good idea people may not know that it's going on they may not know what we're offering and so I feel like we need whatever we do we need to give it some time to get the ball rolling and we shouldn't just assume that people don't want to access what we're offering um so I would like to revisit those meeting outside of our normal area ideas and it doesn't have to be for a full school committee meeting but it could be as listening sessions like quarterly listening sessions but I definitely think that the time that the our larger meetings are at and the child care issue would really enable people to be more involved that's my current two cents I'm complete thank you yeah yes maam I was thinking along the same lines but attaching meetings to whether it's listening sessions to things that I know large groups come out like I just put the high school band performance on my calendar that's usually a large group of people who come out would they come earlier if they knew there was somebody there um willing to listen um about engagement or anything that they want to talk about um right now this time of year is kind of hectic and the things that parents come out for is usually something with children performance or either the hockey rink or Sports um kind of attaching some meetings or some times for them to talk to a school committee members at those events um right now I know Turkey trots are big uh parents will come out to watch the Turkey Trot having somebody sitting at a picnic table that they can chat with might be a way to do that um so you know the things that are happening during the holidays that people come out for were kind of what I was thinking of especially for this time of year um because it's a hard time of year for people um but the band concerts are big turkey trots are big um in sports and the hockey rink um I'd have to have double sweatshirts but I can hang out at the hockey rink um so I I think there are just places where even if it's like like Community Action does this really well they have a table and they put a table up at every event um as as a principal I got used to just shooting them an email and they would come and they would have free goodies like free books or something and people would just sit down and chat with whoever came from Community Action they would be there for um so I got invited to community readers that's a a family night in December um and I think you all got the invitation as well so that's a good place to have a table where somebody's reading and then somebody's sitting and listening uh Community Action usually is there as well um but those informal conversations sometimes tell us more than the formal I like that we're brainstorming about different ways that we can be available in less formal settings perhaps um that not everything I think as Elizabeth was saying not everything needs to be a big full school committee meeting um although there might be times when that is appropriate um a question that I'm having that I'm not sure if either of you know the answer to um or I can make it you know my job to go find the answer is do we as school committee have a budget besides for Prof I know we have one for professional development that's what how we got you know to go down to the cape but I'm thinking you know you mentioned free goodies and such in the community action table I'm thinking what what would be relevant that we could distribute I know that the schools themselves like and I see Karen all over place with a table with like Title One um bookmarks and little books and other like stuff but I don't know if there's something that we could distribute that would actually be relevant to us in our position and also meaningful you know what I mean or if we even have a separate budget that would allow us to do it I mean I think it would still potentially be valuable for us to just show up and be at a table um but that's sort of my one and I I like this idea of of really encouraging I don't know if it's a I don't think that it's a stated expectation that we as as school committee members have something like an office hour kind of thing I don't I don't know if that's a I know it's not a mandate but I don't even know if it's an expectation we've created for ourselves as a group but I do know that some members of our school committee do hold office hours and they've got them listed in their email signatures and that sort of thing but if we could put together perhaps a schedule and have folks sign up um one thing that I would like to be very clear about with our other committee members uh with the larger committee is that it is actually not just the three of us who are responsible for enacting these things we come to them with policy suggestions that is our entire committee's responsibility to to um do um so those are sort of my thoughts um I am also wondering along the same lines as like do we have a budget what would it take to get child care at our meetings and we can we can brainstorm this a little bit and as far as revisiting the time I do feel like that's something we can just propose we can make a motion and see if we get a vote about it um that that is 100% something we can we can do relatively easily as long as we get the other members to agree um all right both of you have your hands up but I saw Elizabeth's first and then no okay okay hold on I'm trying to remember what I just had in my head um we were talking about a budget oh what we could hand out the budget calendar and the yearlong agenda uh also uh meetings a calendar of meetings for all of the PTO cpacs L packs and such although I don't think we have I don't know if we have an lpac but the the packs we could have a handout for that I think that one thing that's um I think one thing that we have to keep in mind is that the public is going to come to us and think that we're the people to ask about all of the things that they're having trouble with at the school but that's not our mission um so we're so even if we're sitting at a table we're still referring them to the superintendent so I think that part of the community engagement piece is letting them know what we can do and what we are there for so telling them how we can take their concerns their budgetary concerns to heart and letting them know the packs that are available for them to join letting them know where the superintendent is going to be when family nights are these kinds of broader things um I think are really important and as for Budget I I've been through the charter so many times and the only thing that I've seen set aside for us at all is our stipend and our professional development money but um one of the things that came up not that I'm saying it's valid because we never went down the road of discussion but one of the things that came up because I did ask about this child care issue multiple times was that they were afraid the old committee was afraid of there being liability issues it wasn't so much a budgetary issue it was more who is watching the children are we taking responsibility for this and we never discussed it further but I do know that for many events the superintendent will put in their mail out information let us know if you need transportation and or we will have child care available so there must be something in place I just don't know what it is or what the route for funding is if that makes sense oh whoops sorry I hit the wrong one but I'm complete thank you Mel uh the child care um is usually provided by um the high school Honor Society they're usually children um in the past schools and when they did events would contact Tara cluder and she had the Honor Society and there were kids who had to do community service and so there were usually three or four children who would would come and do Child Care um so that was one one source of a child care provider um but that was within a school setting So within a school setting there's less liability because you're covered insurance-wise because it's a school um so that would be one of the things and that would be one of the other things is just attaching ourselves to PTO meetings um that happen so that you know we would be having child care in addition to the PTO having Child Care um so that might be something we can do sometimes it's small things um like movie theater tickets are raffling off something um you know stickers that said I talk to a school Committee Member something silly that gets people motivated to um just chat about different things one of the things I know is parents don't know who to call they don't have the phone numbers that is half the problem with communication in Greenfield they don't have a phone number or people don't answer the phone and then they get frustrated so I think it's really even a contact list I mean we used to have magnets years ago with like all the phone numbers and the names of people who to call if your kid missed the bus that kind of it was a magnet and we gave them out to parents and that stopped um you know because the the people kept changing so I I think just phone numbers and contact information if you're having a problem with your child's IEP here's the phone number this is the person you should call if you're having a problem with your child you know this is the person you would call I think that's really something that's kind of there's stuff on websites but a lot of people don't have access to websites um or don't know how to use them correctly so just something concrete even on a bookmark um so I just think that's a big thing I feel like all I've done is give give out phone numbers um to people okay um yeah and I'm hearing what you're saying about uh going back to child care I'm hearing what you're saying about attaching ourselves to different other meetings that are already happening in a school setting but I don't think that that addresses the fundamental when our monthly full committee meetings happen like we can choose to hold different kinds of sessions that are that are like that but that it won't work for our big ones I am wondering if there's an opportunity for more partnership with GCC and their Early Childhood educator program um because that's literally what they're going to school for and I don't know if they're required to get any practicum hours in um but that could be that would that could be something to look into I don't know who is the one I don't know who to contact a GCC I mean I could look it up and just find the director of their program and do a cold call but I don't know if it's us well I'm actually pretty sure now that I'm saying it that it's not us alone for certain that Karen would need to be part of forging that partnership and the whole committee would need to vote in order to expend the labor to pursue it you know what I mean I don't think that's something that we can just go Rogue and start doing on our own that was my other question was on your list of questions so if we like do tables at different places does that have to be post did yes um well so if we it depends on how we label them right for best practice if we want people to come talk to us yes they should be posted that people need to know that we're going to be in places but if it's not a public meeting per se and there is not a quorum of us present then it's not a meeting that is beholden I think to the open meeting law in that kind of way um so it'd be more of a do we actually want people to come talk to us if the answer is yes then we should let them know we're there but as long as there's not four or more of us um then that should be fine and I wouldn't imagine that we would have you know especially if there are events multiple events happening on the same night we wouldn't want a bunch of us all at one you know these tables would probably be one or two of us ah two would be best practice or we could buddy up and go you know one of us with Karen if Karen was also having tables um something like that um all right Elizabeth um I think I I love all of these ideas but I think that there there's a path that we have to follow where we start at making the large meeting as engaging to the community as possible and we sort of fill those seats first like get get out into the community with that meeting first so like starting by saying you know this is these are the actionable steps that we can do to make our large public meeting as accessible as possible with the child care or the transportation or whatever we deem the time all these changes and make them really concrete and make them in January like do it as part of our organizational meeting and say like these are the changes we're going to implement and I'll vote on it and then give it like five six months and then start to add other things and start to say like okay now that we had we've done this the next step is to make sure that we have a Committee Member at least one Committee Member at all of the school events that we can possibly attend and then like really make a calendar of what the events are and everybody gets assigned you know sort of like the subcommittee of one or whatever or two you know under Quorum so that we can go so that there is somebody at the graduation and at the band concert and at the like that's part of community engagement just showing up because I hear from so many people that oh well we invited you and you know we're hoping that you would come and see what the kids have been working on and then you know you show that presence for a little while and so you're constantly upping the Annie so that by the time we get to the end of the year we're so involved in community engagement that when that organizational meeting hits because we don't know what's going to happen all new people may come in if you don't have like this foundation for that it can just get swept right away and just be gone um if you don't have the right people in place to do it and that's I mean that's an unfortunate reality of the very difficult and enterprising new work that we're doing as a group is that it could just all go away if we don't you know make it sort of set it in stone um because there are three of us that are going to be you know changing out or staying or whatever and um Melody too I think you have to do it next year too right um um so I don't know that's a separate topic for discussion but I actually don't know if mads need to do it next year or if it's until the end of the person whose term she had filled the vacancy for I think it's just to the next election but yeah but that but neither here nor there the the I just worry that you know if we don't have things set and like stepping stones in place and a staircase up to full efficiency it can very easily be swept away um I'm so sorry I forgot to do this can we hold a vote to suspend the normal rules of procedure so this can feel like more of a discussion and I don't have to call on you I mean I'll facilitate and still happy to manage but um yeah can I get a motion for that so moved second all right any discussion uh remember Den how do you vote Yes good one how do you vote Yes and I'm a yes all right so we've suspended the normal rules of procedure for the meeting so this can feel like an actual discussion okay a I just feel feel like I needed to actually do that um please continue um I that's that's all I really wanted to say I just I want to make sure that it's not um let's discuss this as a possibility but as in let's enact this starting in January and then just ramping it right up the ladder of efficiency and making it so that when new people come in they know that this is how we do business we engage the community and this is what's expected of you instead of it's you know June or July and we haven't decided yet do you know what I mean okay so if I'm thinking about the amount of time we have between now and the end of the year we have seven months um and a good chunk of those months like really we have six months because a good chunk of those months are eaten up by holidays um you know between February break and Christmas and New Year's and like the whole there just there'll be a good chunks of time that we're really not going to have to have to to work with um if we we have this Clear Vision of I think where we're trying to go and the ethos that we're trying to embody of just this is a norm this is just how we operate as school committee members we are super involved or we would like to be super involved um I think that some of our current members even might be less on board with that than others or we might need to negotiate like what is a reasonable number of events to sign up to as a sing individual like that's something we can have a discussion about maybe in the full committee cuz I don't think that we should be overextending any of ourselves you know um we do need to prioritize our lives and being full happy humans because that's how we continue to be good functional school committee members is by maintaining like boundaries um it's good and I also you know I see where we're trying to go and I don't know if we're going to get that in six months you see what I mean by The End by the end of the school year I don't know if we can be fully where we're trying to be at that time and so I'm wondering is is the good is like the solid singular goal then to if we wanted to make it a smart one by the by the end of the school year we want to see a 25% increase in the number as of parents and other community who attend our full school committee meetings regularly like I'm throwing that out there and I want to hear M which what are you thinking about that I don't know if that is something you know it's it's not just school committee meetings it's PTO meetings it's it's all of it's parents showing up is is hard um because they're working and they're you know they're doing all these other things and their kids are involved in different things so I was thinking of more like an engagement goal of okay my there are two things I'm hearing is we want to be visible we want to be approachable we want to be present and so even if we could set a goal that we attend you know 80% of all School District activities between all of us um and then if we could increase the invitations to attend um that we get 90% of all District activities we're invited to because I think there are things happening that I don't even know about and I used to work in the district but I know there are activities that are happening that we're not invited to so if we could increase that because then we know it's taking place and we can be present um and then communicating those things I mean the superintendent is doing a good job with putting things out on the media but the more events that are out there that people know about um the more likely they are to participate in things um so you know we get invited to the band thing we get invited to I get invited to the turkey truck because I'm the only one who remembers how it ran I get invited to uh pajama knighter the community readers because again I'm the only person who remembers how it ran and so it's sort of like but there are things going on in every school that we you're probably getting invited more to more Federal Street things because you're there so I think that's part of it is even um being ined more yeah um I've been jokingly in my head wondering if each of us school committee members should adopt a school like I just I go to pH street because that is my neighborhood school and I walk when I do the volunteering right and that that makes sense for me there are six schools and there are six of us and I don't count the mayor because she's really really busy got other things to worry about um but I don't know like is that and because it's also like one point of contact one you know and just like you're you're going to go to those events and then maybe every year we can rotate and try out a new school so that it's but I don't know that's just like an idea um but I I think yeah oh I'm sorry no um there's something there is something in our policy that states that once you're on the school committee you will do you are expected to attend all the meetings and to attend and work on the subcommittees so I feel like this would be like to me it doesn't really matter what the percentage number is because I think that no matter how engaged we are no matter how successful we are with Community engagement there are going to be a whole lot of times when nobody wants to engage with us like it's just gonna happen where nobody's there and we're the only ones and nobody cares and it's fine um but I think that it might be worthwhile to put an to change the policy to say that you will work on your subcommittees and that you will also be available to attend school functions and then if we have a a calendar of the functions I like your Adopt A School idea although I know some schools are quite a bit more active than others but if we make a really clear expectation that you will you know that you'll look at the calendar and you'll reasonably be available to go to an event you know once every other month or every month or something like that and that if you have to travel to an event like sometimes there are ban events that require you driving down to Amherst or something um that you're you know expenses would be reimbursed if you had to go far a field things like that I don't think people would be um against that as long as it's parceled out you know and everybody knew as long as you knew in the policy so when you sign up for this gig you know that that's what's going to be expected of you I I would have been absolutely willing to do to do that from the start but that involves us really reaching out to all of those pto's and all of the packs and making sure that we have all that information but then the second part of that is we have to I think one one of our main goals um I've been really thinking about this like what would be a main goal is to and I don't know how this falls into our purview but we need to make some statements about how the website is put together because it is not Community oriented for example there's no way to navigate to the CPAC meetings there's a broken link there so you can't even find out when they are unless you use the search bar the other pack meetings aren't listed easily if I was a parent navigating the site I wouldn't be able to find the things that I need um and I don't think that it's the design that's bad but we're missing a lot of the information that the community needs right off the bat um so I I don't know how we navigate that as a as a subcommittee that might not be tou would say write a very clear and concise because I did this as well very early before I was even a school committee member with the volunteer information because a was like it's it's yeah it was hard to find um it's better to find now but if you are like hey this link here needs to be active or this you know because it's with the turnover that we've experienced in our Our IT department I can understand how some links didn't quite make it um but as a first as a first approach I would say send an email very clearly this needs to be this this needs to be this I need to be able to find this from this you know and lay it out and then give it a little time month couple months yeah the it folks to do it and then if it's still not then we can revisit it but I for now I don't think it's our committee's perview to do anything about it but as a public a member of the public like you are well within your right to be like I want my website to be functional and a lot clearer right right but it is a piece of community engagement and I'm just thinking that we might bump up against that in some way yes and we can certainly make recommendations about ways that we think that it could be a more inviting and easier to navigate resource um I'm also hearing now that we're thinking about recommending a policy change that would be something that I think our subcommittee would need to vote on if we would we would need to agree before we would forward that um I am just wanting to also be clear about the boundary for our committee like I I I'm hearing about we also want more people to be involved with the PTO and we want want more parents to be involved with the packs and we want more people to be just generally engaged but we can't take on the community engagement responsibilities of the PTO and packs themselves at a certain level like we can be supportive and we can help cross list all their events and we can be CH like we can be out loud and remind people that they exist that they should go check them out but at the end of the day it's also they they have a role in themselves like we don't own those bodies for really good reason right it wouldn't actually be proper for us to own the the parent organizations um and they also have a role to play in their own Outreach so I don't want to take that away from them and I don't want to make it entirely our responsibility um because that's a that's a big job and I do think that it were a first set of goals like maybe that's a longterm that's a stretch goal is having having a way more robust connection with those groups to the point that we are able to help boost their engagement and they're able to help boost our engagement where it becomes a reciprocal relationship but for now I do think that we need to set our sights a little more manageable we need a bite-sized Chunk we can't eat the full meal right now um just thinking about time and capacity and fighting against historic precedence you know what I mean like we there there's a bit of a an inertia battle that we're we're going to have to try to win um so I just wanted to remind and that's not to say no I'm not saying I'm not saying no to any of these I'm not outright I don't have the power to vet to um but I am just trying to remind us that it's okay to small consistent steps are a lot better than trying to make a giant leap right now yeah that's what I was thinking where we like start with the foundation with the larger meeting and then kind of really move up as we see the need really but if we want to start mandating people going to events we will probably have to make a policy change right as just to State the responsibility that's expect that's expected and I that's something that I would like to to just double check our for that part of our policy is that a legally mandated definition or are we are we do we actually have the authority to change the expectations for members of school committee in our district alone that might be out of step with what expectations are for other school committees that's a question that I have that we can we can work on asking I will be I will be seeing our our legal council tomorrow for the committee or the bargaining rules session um so I can you know try to get five minutes either before or after with her to ask that question yeah that's a good idea because that it is yeah I don't know about that there are policies that we can definitely change quite easily but then there are other ones that you know might be sort of Tangled in with the town Charter right right um okay so I want to return back to something that Elizabeth said very first and early on which is this issue of potentially changing the meeting time for our large school committee meetings right now to date we hold them at 6m other Town meetings like um city council happen at 6:30 and um I think I would have been in favor of changing just for the purpose of making them consistent so you don't have to remember oh yeah one starts at six the other starts they can both just start at 6:30 and I think it gives an additional half hour for families to eat dinner or pick kids up from their after school programs or whatever it is that they're needing to do that might enable them to come um but but if we are going to make that recommendation at the next full committee meeting in December that we should take a vote on it just to you know make sure that it's like coming from us as a United body but I would um I would entertain a motion to that effect to bring a policy change or is that technically a policy no it's just but it's it's not we don't have to have a policy meet uh vote on it in policy because it's something it's housekeeping okay so but didn't vot on it last we didn't vote on it when it came up last time it was just handed down okay um I think unless I don't know do you guys remember voting on it because I got an email saying that the times weren't going to change but I know that we were sort of surveyed um I remember being surveyed I don't remember we were like asked um I would entertain a motion to bring a recommendation forward to the full committee that we change the time to 6:30 so second great all right discussion on that what are we all an agreement about that or just makes sense that all the town meetings are at the same time I mean that yeah yeah I don't think that some toown meetings happen during the middle of the day which is something I will not entertain um because that's um but okay so all right then I guess if there's no actual discussion on it then let's take a I just I guess the only discussion point that I would have is that we we make sure that it's on the agenda for December because these oftentimes we want to change things it ends up taking a month longer than we think and if we want to have that conversation ready at the organizational meeting in January we had better put it in the minds of our fellow committee members in December is my only thought on that good otherwise it'll be March right and our rationale just so that when I'm presenting this to the committee our rationale is that one it makes it consistent with City Council meetings and that we would like to try this as a strategy for boosting Community engagement because we think that more parents will show up okay are there any other pieces of rationale that we could give that are not a stretch and it's okay if the answer is no that's fine I just wanted to be sure that I was capturing all of our thoughts okay all right let's uh take a vote on that um motion member Den yes member Goodwin yes and I am also yes so that bringing forward that recommendation is a unit unanimous vote from us and we shall see what the full committee does with that um okay I am also mindful of the fact that it is 6:46 we have about 14 minutes so we're trying to keep this meeting to an hour um okay so that's one thing that was that the next sort of item on the agenda we have some due diligence to do about child care and what that might entail at full committee meetings so that's just homework um part of that may be the Senior Center policy you would have to run that by hope to see because I know this was a problem because they wanted to um a robotics class wanted to use the senior center during the summer and that was a big deal um okay so I think it may be a that would be the first question yeah that's a good place yeah um yeah my other question was you is there so there's our main room where we are and then there's the room where we usually go for executive session is there another room off to the left there's a fitness room does it there's a tiny there's a tiny office off to the right of the um room that we use for executive session and that is like a little office that they use when the legislators come to have a open business hours yeah um but it's really small it's it's it would be large enough for us to have executive session if we all squeezed in but it's not comfortable right I again that and that's kind of my point is there's there's a bigger room they use it for fitness and that's where we ended up with robotics um so um it just there there were rules that had to be followed to use that space um that were very clear okay cleanliness and supervision um so I think that's just something to check into but it's it's yeah that's where they do the aerobics and stuff and that's okay but that's not where we have our full meetings no no okay no okay okay so I will look into that um and also ask if we have the authority to change uh expectations for ourselves that um made that is Scooby Scooby I'm not sure what he's up to singing the songs of his people it sounds like or Major's doing something he does not like got it um okay and so the next sort of thing and we've we're we're circling around this and this um think we still need to set a very so we have these these items which are a great start I for us this shows that we're trying to do stuff um trying to make this a more accessible meeting space for people um is I think we also need to figure out it's we've got these sort of two varieties of goals one is related to um you know is the goal for people to come to us and to get more people to come to us or is the goal for us to go to more people and they're they're not at odds necessarily just two different flavors of achieving the same goal you know which the overarching goal is more Community engagement overall um and so I think that that is where I'm noticing that that our discussion sort of Teeter totters around um the next item on our agenda is setting topics for the December meeting and so I'm wondering if we need another meeting to have this discussion out and so that we can actually get clear and set some real targeted goals for ourselves I would rather have a longer meeting right now and nail down whatever we need to do than have another meeting before now and the next meeting because I'm about to leave for Canada for a week and I'm not gonna be around and my schedule is just really full so I'd much rather just do it tonight if you guys are amenable okay um so to be clear I'm saying our our December meeting which is on the 17th I was not thinking to try to squeeze in another meeting before our regular school committee meeting on the 11th I don't think that we need to come to the next school committee meeting with like the best goals in the world we can tell them these kinds of things take time because we're trying to be really thoughtful about it um so when were you thinking we're our meetings are the third today is the third third Tuesday of every month and already pre-registered it with with um Becky high tower so for the 17th of December and then I believe that's the 21st of January so what is this extra meeting time that you were thinking of I'm not thinking of an extra meeting time I'm saying we have uh we need to set topics for our December meeting on the 17th and I'm saying is this are we continuing this discussion for that topic oh okay I understand now sorry given knowing that do you would you still prefer to just have a longer meeting and do you have a suggested item for December um no then let's let's just continue it at our December meeting okay yeah because you're right it doesn't have to it's doesn't need to be discussed it with the larger Committee in December right um and the other thing is like clearly we had no members of the public and part of that is possibly due to them not knowing about it in time or or what have you but I do think it would be nice if we got some Community feedback on what they think our goals should be um uh and we can I can ask and write a little blurb that goes in Karen's parent updates just to say hey our next meeting is the 17th this is the question we have for you send us an email or come to that meeting to let us know your thoughts and the question that I have for them is would they rather us come to them more like are they going to be at these events would they value us being at these events is that the goal that we should be pursuing or would they rather us make these meet these other meetings more enticing to come to us sort of getting their feedback on these two different approaches to meeting the goal that we are that we're sort of coming up with and by then I will also have followed up with um hope and Becky about is there something that I missed or I need to do to make sure the johnon is open um I don't think so but you never know um okay I know that we did receive at least one email from a parent specifically discussing the redistricting um Outreach related to that with a suggestion to actually send put flyers up or hold meetings at the affected addresses or the affected communities so I mean that's at least one parent that I think would be in favor of going out more um I think for for for that one um that's that's where it gets that's where it gets a little tricky where the boundaries between what we can do and what are the is the school's responsibility or what is their purview to make decisions gets a little blurry because we're hearing this ask for a particular type of Engagement um but that is also not our issue to take on specifically I thought the superintendent at the last was it the last school committee meeting said that she was going into those Comm ities great then I hope that she repli par and says that yeah that's what she said great yeah I just took that email as a thank you for doing that um when I read it okay um all right are there any other topics aside from continuing this conversation about our goals with the aim of having something pretty concrete for now through the end of the Academic Year um for December is there anything else that that folks wanted to have on the agenda well I'm fine no I think I think we're shaping something so we're starting off small and it's going to get bigger I mean just attending things and finding out what activities are out there that's the start yes I will be on Thursday the Federal Street PTO and I think it's a combined PTO activity actually but it's occurring at Federal Street they're putting the last as they called it The razzled Dazzle on the display that'll be going like the fairgrounds there's a great video they did a great video I saw it very very sweet video so um I will be going and and putting as much rasle Dazzle as I can to the situation um okay great are there is there is there any anything else coming up for folks right now before we move to a journ I don't think so thank you all for this very productive discussion I really app have a question that's not to do with the committee that the two of you may know the answer to okay do you want it on the recording sure it can be so there's the our school committee meeting our next school committee meeting is also the same time that um the collaborative has their their meeting so is there something in the policy does our meeting Trump a a collaborative meeting it's like you can't be in two places at once is the collab what what's going on at the collaborative meeting is it a it's their normal like meeting like that that we're all invited to I think that our large committing our large committee meeting is more important than the collaborative meeting right okay because the collab sometimes has like 50 people there right and it's more of a tuning in I mean unless you were the chair right no which you probably could be next time yeah I mean in general I would probably say that our meetings do take precedence over these other meetings but I also that's what I thought but I just wanted I knew I knew Elizabeth had been on the part of the collaborative before okay I have missed collaborative meetings for regular school committee meetings and then caught up in their minutes okay thank you all right well um with that then it is now 6:59 p.m and I do want to affirm that no members of the public um they were never in the waiting room or anything like that so hopefully next time like I said we'll put out a little notice in the parent updates that go out and ask for them to show up and give feedback or to send us emails about our goals um but in the meantime I would entertain a motion to adjourn so moved second all right roll call I'm a yes goodwi yes den yes all right this meeting is adjourned at 6:59 PM November 19th and I'm going to stop the recording [Music]
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
thank you all welcome to this the first meeting of our community engagement subcommittee um I'm going to read now the chair's statement uh this meeting is being recorded if any other persons present are also recording you must notify the chairperson at this time is anybody else recording great excellent seeing none um I would love to call this meeting to order at 6:02 p.m.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
e call this meeting to order at 7:30 we'll dispense with the pledge again and um is there any comments from the audience for our budget Workshop um all right hearing none I guess I will turn things over to Kristen for our page by Page prop budget review great and before we do that I just want to go over uh what is in your uh budget um packets that I provided to you uh and that included uh the superintendent's recommended budget for FY 26 uh FY 26 uh Q&A for the budget projected grants for FY 26 recommendation of new open Choice seats for FY 26 new and enhanced dipen requests for FY 26 area superintendent budget requests for FY 26 which you saw in my presentation this evening and BHS current and projected AP and ECE courses all right so we are going to start with um instructional technology is there a way to make that bigger or no Joe I can make it bigger on my computer with my okay that yeah that's great thank you um any questions on instructional technology I can't see you all so you're going to have to unmute and say I have a question okay all right uh hearing none we'll go on to Art hearing none English language arts okay on to World Language okay on to computer instruction please onto mathematics please sorry Christian I actually had a question for uh computer instruction okay um it's actually probably less of a question and maybe more of a suggestion for the program description um which only explains why we're spending money in grades 4 through eight but maybe include what happens at the high school and why we're spending $110,000 at the high school good point or at least the offerings that we have at the high school and computer instruction right for the um yeah for well it's for it is there pen Foster fees um for the distance online learning I was thinking more more that the program description implies that we don't have a computer instruction program at the high school well we don't it doesn't say anything oh we don't okay so the computer courses at the high SCH School aren't counted under this program like AP Computer Science and whatever other no computer Tex no this is just for virtual High School um computer instruction is really yeah yes y but not for grades four through grades eight correct because we don't offer virtual High School in grades 4 through eight so the the AP courses and the things like that would you would see like for example in the math budget AP Computer Sciences in the math budget of high school correct yes because it's considered under your you know under our board policy it's it's one of the areas within math um so it falls into the math budget okay so it's is there a reason then it seems like we're combining two different types of programs here because the pen Foster is not for computer program for computer programming right that's for any online course can I offer could I offer a suggestion um think of this not as computer instruction as computerized instruction this is online subscriptions and those kinds of things to provide instruction as opposed to teaching in robotics or teaching AP Computer Science which are in their respective departments okay and I I think I understand that I I'm just asking why is that type of course why why are these you know courses that are instructed over the Internet or via computer which fall into history and you know Social Studies English math under this program along with the courses that are taught at the center school that are actually on how to use a computer it just it seems like you're bundling it's because we're paying a subscription to one company we right for the opportunity for students to take these specific online courses and we never know until scheduling is done what students need to take what if any online courses based on their schedule um and and we're paying the online service for the ability to do that so we'd have no way of being able to put it into the various English social studies math science buckets for the high school ah okay that makes sense that makes sense so it's kind of here by as a there's no better place to put it sort of thing well correct and from like an accounting perspective if you will in terms of our uh unified uh accounts this is where it's supposed to be okay okay so we are going to go on to math right hearing non on to science all right I I don't hear any questions so on to physical education and health all right hearing none on to social studies all right hearing none on to vocational education which just a reminder that's paid for out of the choice Grant but we still have to keep it in our book business education hearing none on to family consumer Science question oh go ahead no you first um the by anual fire inspection and the repairs is that um contracted through John Joe you know the answer to that corre correct Cassel okay yes okay no I just saw the large increase um just from experience my job um a lot of those companies all like merged and they're super expensive right they they double their price but there are some more like local companies but I could always touch base with John about that and also for the instructional supplies I know the teacher travels to go pick up supplies correct yeah um have we ever looked into like I don't know if it's possible because I don't know how the cafeteria gets their deliveries like Piggy backing off of that for bulk items we can't do that okay yep because that comes in from USDA and you have to order you know through certain consortiums and whatnot and we can't um we can't like in the buckets it's like mixing apples and oranges and not allowed right thank you yeah good question though great if we could so my my question is sort of similar on the first part about the repairs and maintenance increase um what are the fire suppression Services is that just like a hood or do we have like a full sprinkler like what is the so yeah good question the entire building is fully sprinkled but in the both kitchen areas both the one in the cafeteria and the one in the family consumer science there is a hood with a full anel system as well as required because of the stoves in there okay that's what I was sort of assuming and the increase Ashley's comment sort of makes sense that there would be a huge increase if there's consolidation and I guess I was curious if that ever goes to bid like if uh like we say we switch out companies like if they have a 50% increase like this is for the same thing then well John always looks right John goes and certainly looks like when we have you know big increases but we've had a lot of big increases in a lot of areas um and certainly um you know I would encourage Ashley and I think I have already right to reach out to John and and and connect with him you know if she knows of somebody else maybe we could be using that would cost less money uh sounds good thank you all right great thank you guys uh on to music I got a quick one here also there's a note about um decrease in repairs and maintenance due to decrease number of instruments to be repaired but it seems to me that we have bought a lot of instruments in recent years and I'm wondering if the new instruments don't need to be repaired or if why are we saying there's a decrease in the number of instruments so as a parent who had kids um play musical instruments the older uh the instrument is um the more repairs that are often needed over time uh just due to use um you know it's sort of like the anything like in somebody's house kind of so to speak so we do we have done a good job of replacing a lot of instruments so one so we don't have a lower number of instruments we have a lower number of instruments that need to be repaired we have more instruments yeah okay that's what I was I thought because as I'm saying decreased number of instruments but it's decreased number of instruments to be repaired which is what it says but I just wanted clarification on that yes that is correct cool thank you okay on to technology education we right hearing none on to continuing education right hearing non anra library media all right hearing none onto Athletics yeah Chris a quick question for me on the online services I think the Q&A references wait for which one like Ashley for athletics on uh online services so of 3400 the Q a references Arbiter registration what does that relate to Arbiter Sports is the system that we um have to use for families to go on and register their students electronically with um all of the information needed to play a sport so the increase is this new or is it just every couple years no we so we we we've had Arbiter registration for online Sports there was just a natural increase in that the the big uh ticket item is for the did swap video Services um for volleyball as well as boys and girls basketball and this uh new service provides player analysis for improvement and uh the coaches and the players love it okay so it is something incrementally new that we that we're paying for the the vid swap video yes is new okay yep I two questions have one oh go ahead Chris think that um so uh chrisen can you confirm that 0% of this program goes to classroom instruction yes correct Joe okay right none of this yes and do we budget any funds for any other types of extracurricular activity or do we only support our Athletics extracurriculars this way oh no so in in the teachers contract right we have stipend for all kinds of um additional um activities that are not sports related um it's just that the a lot of those activities um aren't as don't cost like Athletics cost because you don't require to have officials and things like that um at them um but like for example we robustly support um robotics right um and and and different things like that another really good examp sorry are you saying that the the funding for those extracurricular activities supplies and whatnot that might be used as part of those activities come out of the regular instruction budget no um oftentimes we support well yes and no right it depends right some of the things that they're doing in robotics if they're doing that in class we're supporting that through the right budget um for extracurricular type things like they need more robotics kits or whatever the case may be um we often use the choice grant for things like that because we're never really sure what it is they need till kids demonstrate um right their interest in something particular or they want to make a different kind of robot or or whatever the case may be I'm just using that one as an example Joe also wanted to add to that I was um and then just two other quick things remember the alltown fresh donation Chris like that $2,700 that went to a good chunk we b a new field for robotics uh the PTA loves to uh support some of our clubs in enrichment so yeah we get money from a variety of sources and we've also used title four grants as well year after year for um different types of enrichment whether it be to be used for example like uh uh I don't know we bought something clay clay something but then the kids were also using it for presenting you know putting together their art show which was happening after school right as part of the art Club so Joe also wanted to add yeah another really good example would be the drama which is a you know because you know if you look you'll see it in my administrative budget you'll see funds in there for the licensing fees which are EXT oridate you know a couple of microphones each year those kinds of things come out of that um that line as well to support that okay thank you so then my second question was do we offer waivers for students whose families might not be able to afford the $75 payer playay yes we do okay thank you and the fact that we have waivers is regularly communicated to students so that they are and families so that they are aware of that or is it something where they have to come forward and ask no it's actually right on the registration page when students go to sign up for a season it's right there and and a shout out to the um the athletic booster group that actually sponsors scholarships or however you want to label it for most of that y yes great thank you thank you I had a question on the uniforms are are we replacing them for every team every year or like it's not all that specific but um I don't see my kid getting a new uniform every single year so I'm just trying figure so we don't so for example when you look at the uniform ement cycle we'll use the high school boy soccer for example um we purchased them in 2019 2020 and the replacement year will be next year so soccer team will get new uniforms next year um same for girls soccer um you'll see cross country and track um softball um th those uniforms were purchased in 2122 and they're up for replacement in 2627 so we usually have like a fiveyear rotating system on it is how it works okay per sport so so maybe last year was one sport and then you say oh well it'll be about the same amount next year and yeah years ago we put this replacement cycle into place because to be honest with you when I first got here uniforms just weren't being replaced and and we kind of like look like rag tag uh system here and so we put a uniform replacement cycle in place so that it's about the same amount sometimes you know it's a little more different years depending upon the uniforms and how many kids um but it's why you see different years listed for when we're replacing them because we're on that 5year cycle all right all right thanks yeah it seems like then I mean k through eight I guess is not nearly as expensive as the high school uh but the high school has a lot less people so is it just a difference in the number of students that play sports or the expect the are there just much more expensive uniforms for bigger kids well we have a lot of kids that participate in athletics um at the high school um and it's I don't know we have a lot of kids that participate and the bigger uniforms cost more money for bigger kids sure sure okay thanks yep all right my was about the Professional Services out of curiosity the CPR first aid research which went from 0 to 1500 is this like uh every other year cost or is this a new rule or was this somewhere else perhaps $1,500 from zero it says resert and I know I haven't been certified in a while in first date or CPR but CPR used to be in every other year or an every year thing yeah so originally that Professional Services line was the athletic trainer and the athletic trainer could do the CPR and and the other piece research um we took the athletic trainer out of this year's budget but we still needed monies in there to be able to do those recertifications and we really need to keep it in there every year because sometimes coaches change but we have to ensure that they have those certifications because otherwise they can't coach so the zero was just an unusual year it'll be 1500 going forward it should be yeah okay I was just curious why it went from zero to 1500 yeah because like the year before you would have seen $21,000 in that line for the trainer yeah correct yep so it was embedded in there and I we just we didn't think that through all the way so that's why it's there okay yeah okay so we are just one I have one one more question that the um the plaques and the banners and everything um we have to hang up the banners I mean is is that cost included or is that like um you know having somebody hang up the banner is that in a different bucket of uh of no we hang the banners ourselves once we get them back from once we send them out get them back um our our maintenance and actually Joe and probably a custodian are the ones that hang them okay yeah cuz I I mean I know like some of the some of the plaques right I mean the kids get them if they win the state meet or whatever it is but then the stuff that we make ourselves for sure you know I love that you walk into the you know into the high school there on way the gym and you just see all the records up on the right um all the students yeah okay thank you you're welcome okay we are on to special ed so I'll just say that um special ed um also continues to be a hot button issue um at uh the state capital um area superintendents from small districts met with a number of legislators um and we also had uh the commissioner of Education there with us several weeks ago uh where we um presented um a number of ideas and changes that we would like to see made with regards uh to how special education is funded in the state of Connecticut some of which uh if you heard anything about the governor's budget you may have heard there and you can probably expect to see even more and some bills that I believe are going to be coming forward so this is where we are for right now yeah I had a question um so we're showing a significant reduction in tuition for out placements but not a corresponding decrease in the transportation which I would have expected if we're not transporting as many kids to different schools so what's going on there Beth yeah I think trying to find my questions my question I do have a question why is there an increase in student transportation out of District you wrote it's based on an anticipated 5% rate increase right right but if we're not transporting as many kids out of District shouldn't there be a but okay reduction from current years if if that um student um who's out placement or students um and we weren't providing Transportation say their parents were providing Transportation then there would be no change and there is no change there's a $20,000 increase I understand that because that's that's I understand that by change I mean no decrease right because Transportation not being provided not that it's not provided if parents choose to not accept the transportation and them then there is no cost to the district and therefore there would be no reduction okay so that makes sense however the increase that is shown is I believe more than 5% so if it's just a 5% overall increase in cost cost of Transportation where where at an increase is more than 5% right so you looking down here at the the 159 is that where you are yes be yeah yeah so it shows a $20,000 increase which 20,000 divided by 139 is definitely more than 5% there's a I believe it's the student there's a student who may be needing Transportation next year which is why there's an increase from this year to next year a child who's curling does not get Transportation but who is outplaced who is out well who reques Transportation yes requires Transportation okay we're anticipating may need it next year it doesn't currently but yeah so that's the part about additional students requiring transportation and her answer right so I have the 5% increase in additional students requiring transportation additional students okay so you could have additional students requiring Transportation but still have fewer students overall going out of District correct I know that's a little convoluted but that is in fact that's the case yeah it is would it also be because maybe students are traveling farther or no I think it's just it's just based on the need right now it is based on the need okay anticipated um also under the $90,000 increase for pupil Services um so I know we have a 5% rate increase but then IEP needs for individual students so is that 990,000 in additional needs for current students or is this projected needs based on what you know students you know are coming into District that's that's a huge jump it it is a huge jump I not sure how to answer Chris without being identifiable yeah so um so we have actuals for this year that came in higher than anticipated then maybe we were originally quoted this time last year number one for that line so that's issue number one that we have to account for right and then can I jump in right there Chris I'm also a student that when we were doing planning we didn't know about as a particular student correct so it's twofold there right so that's um a significant amount of the cost there that we need to take care of um as well as um the cost um for the teacher of the deaf um coming in higher um and we have a number of students that we service that need those Services um and we have um added evaluations at BCS based on the number of evaluations conducted over the last few years because we are seeing an uptick in evaluations sure sure can you talk a little bit about the increase in costs for the teacher of the DEA was that because their services were needed more or because it was confusion over what they were going to charge us Services change from year to year based on a student's needs okay fair enough y great question thank you and we also have the services of the teacher of the DEA and an audiologist and depending on the age and abilities of a student and the needs they may need more or less of an audiolog audiological services from year to year okay thank you oh uh also just a I think a typo in your Q&A the last question under special ed why is there a decrease in excess cost reimbursement I think it should say fewer students will meet rather than will not meet am I correct in that think you no so I think it's I think they will not meet so if fewer students meet it that would mean we would get more money all right yes of course that's how yeah it's how excess cost Works yes I had to think about that one too when we wrote a Chris C all I go back and forth on it every year and I had to think about it when I reviewed it like three times I think I went back to them so and I didn't think long enough about it so thank you for clearing that up all good all good all right other questions on special ed all right we're going to move on then to extended school year I'm hearing non on to tutorial in home instruction all right hearing none social work okay uh hearing none guidance I had a question um I was curious what we currently pay for navian and is that amount in the budget plus the cost of the new system no we just have the want me to answer Kristen sorry do you want to we just put the cost of the new system in here for this year and we're pretty sure that's the way we're going based on the last conversation I have with the school counselors we're going to be moving to school links that better suits our needs they've had a lot of meetings with other districts who are using it um the the transition from navian to school links will be seamless and has been seamless in other districts um so we've just included the cost of School links in the budget it is higher because there's an initial startup fee as well ah okay but you anticipate that it will provide increased services for or allow us to provide increase Services yes both school counselors think yes it's going to be a lot better for the students and an easier platform form to to access and they've been really researching it since we first started talking about it a year ago and they've been in groups with other schools for that was like we tasked them Joe and I tasked them with talking to other districts to find out pros and cons and um when we first started doing budget this year they were kind of still well we're thinking School LS but as my last conversation like last week the week before and they're like it's School links is what they want so I think it's going to be really good for the kids and just a much better platform thank you welcome okay uh moving on to nursing I had some questions I think I did uh oh if you want to go ahead first Ashley yeah I was just trying to understand the increase the the 10,000 increase there I know it talked about external costs but I wasn't really following the root of what was driving that significant increase based on the explanation so that was my question too so it says if if I have to be careful here um if a district were to have a student with significant medical needs that need to be addressed say by the nurse and that has to be a oneon-one one situation then the nurse cannot be providing services to all of the other children in the building during those times of day when that has to happen so that being said you need to hire uh someone to either come in and do sort of the um additional needed medical piece say it might be feeding or breathing types of thing I'm just giving you examples specializ into interventions yes thank you Beth and so this is based on student need for specialized interventions okay so forecast medical forecasting for a higher need this year well yeah we anticipate yeah yeah yes so is this purely an on call position or is it scheduled Services certain times of the week kind of thing is it is it is it like a student might need a Specialized Service but the nurse is busy with other people and so they call somebody to come in or so it is really dependent on the particular needs of the student or students who we looking for the interventions for so we've projected and to be quite honest cassol and I really struggled with this because it is a projection for how many hours we will need so we're hoping that this is going to be the accurate and appropriate number but to be quite honest it may be not enough or it may be too many because it really is dependent on um the health needs of of uh the children who require the service and it would be it's an agency that we've contracted with a pediatric nursing agency who can come pretty much um like on call we can call them that morning if we need them and say we need you for the morning or we need you for the afternoon and they'll come and support the nurse's office and either provide the interventions or cover the office so that the nurse can provide whatever intervention she needs to provide I see okay um and are those Services um put out for bid or you comparing services to find the lowest cost provider or the necessary lowest cost but are you shopping those Services when I was shopping for this to get it in the budget um there weren't a lot of I didn't find a lot of options so this particular year I I did not I went with recommendation on somebody who can do pediatrics there are a lot of nursing subservices that we've kind of used in the P early on many years ago um many of those nurses had experience in nursing homes and other places but not school or with Pediatrics so we were really looking for somebody and some agency with pediatric experience and that's what this agency is and they were able to meet our needs very quickly like right now if we need them that they were able to come on board immediately okay and so just final question I we also have separate budget line for substitute nurses at $115,000 why why aren't we pulling our budgeting this under substitute nurses because it sounds like that is what it is it's it's not though um okay the substitute nurse is if the nurse at the high school is sick or the nurse at Bolton Center School is sick we have more of a an on call correct yes correct okay thank you yeah so what was the historical Trend prior to 2024 2025 was it did it ever significantly fluctuate it just seems to be fluctuating a lot going into 25 26 what this Professional Services line here corre because this is based on student needs of students we have today needs right right so have we ever had this level of of need or is this a unusual this is the level of need we have now there okay I'm sorry that's that's fine okay um moving on please to Psychological Services all right hearing now onto speech and language please all right hearing none on to program Improvement and evaluation oh yeah I had a question here um do I see that the the inservice the first line uh is decreasing and the explanation is because we're not sending as many staff to national conferences um if that is the case Would we not also expect to see a decrease in the travel line I believe that um travel line is um M that's Monica's contractual travel yeah line by contract yeah okay and honestly if we if there were a local um relatively local East Coast um National Conference again we would have budgeted for it so um this is because this year we sent five teachers to Boston it was very easy for them to get there we didn't have to incur uh any flights um just hotel and registration so it was a great opportunity for them if something comes up again in the near future then we will budget for that but there is nothing pending for fiscal year thank okay on to Central Administration okay hearing none onto School insurance so there are some fairly Hefty increases there um do you feel that we are getting good value for the insurance products we have and what is what is our claims history do do you track that I mean I don't know if it's helpful to do so but we're paying an awful lot of money and just curious if we are get any getting anything back that's something that we can take a look at this is a this is also a joint effort it's not just us this is both us and the town um and right now the cap the the rate stabilization that we entered into so that we can at least budget for is 5% this is year three of that rate stabilization um contract with them so in this budget I've got that maximum of 5% plus a 3% exposure so there's 8% increase in there um which it may come in lower you know 5% may come in lower and there may not be a rate exposure but we won't know that so yeah but but we don't know that I mean it's typically come in lower there's it's it we've only had higher than um projected it's rare usually when they're giving us that rate stabilization that's kind of like the cap and and then it can go down from there but we have to budget the cap yeah I budget for that because one year I didn't and um it came in higher okay moving on to building Administration all right hearing none moving on to fiscal Services can you explain the answer to the first question on the Q&A I not sure what a biannual Actuarial valuation is and why evaluation would increase our costs so this is for the um the postretirement um disclosure on the financial statements for the audit so that happens um every two years so we have a regular one that we incur every single year and then in the biannual every two years we also have a bigger more extensive review for th that disclosure so this is also in combination with the town and this is kind of our guess and what our portion might be I see I see we're required to have it yeah I'm not following the every two years versus the year I'm familiar with the every in you know year requirement and the disclosures there um is it a different set of disclosures or it's uh the same just a more granular level I believe it's the same but more okay maybe we could chat offline about about what that is I'm just curious but I do know that they are expensive so understood yep and then I also wondered um the business office membership is that would that be like my Amazon Prime subscription that I can use to I used to be able to get free shipping whatever we absolutely we we utilize Amazon Prime we we we order a lot of things that's that's what that fee is for correct because it's a lot cheaper than oftentimes ordering from other places we save a lot of money yeah okay okay on to systems management I just like to note again how invaluable noice has been um in spite of this increase um I want to thank them and I want to thank Monica for uh managing the uh our school breach U Monica's done a great job um and been right on top of it and novice has as well and been very helpful um we did um I'm not sure if the town did but we have done our tabletop exercise we had done it um earlier um to go over if a breach happened or whatever and I'm thankful that we did that in quick order with them because we were far better suited to respond to this than we would have been had we not done that um so they're also assisting Cal and looking at e- rate uh potential projects and eate money not sure where e- rate's going to lie um com the end of this year but they're still on top of it so all right hearing no questions there contracted salaries and wages all right I have a couple questions um so the extent of school year teacher salaries uh granted is only up I think a tiny amount $354 however uh I noted that the extended school year program budget was cut by 33% so if the program budget is being cut by 33% but you're also but you're still anticipating the same number of teachers that will be needed how does that work so it's based on student needs so if we have students from a myriad of grade levels um that even though we may not need the supplies per se because maybe we have them or whatnot um for the program part of the budget um we still need the Staffing to meet the IEP goals and objectives for these students okay and I guess to be fair the bulk of the decreases for transportation and in the program so correct okay uh the other thing I wanted to ask is is it possible to get a census of employees with our budget each year broken out by you know Administration teachers Paras that sort of thing so can you be more specific on what exactly it is you want before we do that work how many teachers are we paying how many how many of each type of staff are we paying got it how many people do we employ got it you got it I just wanted to be sure I was clear on what you were asking before we work Cal are you clear on what we're he's looking for there okay thank you I think when I first started on the board you provided me something like that and it was really helpful so I think if you can just refresh that sure yeah we can do that and we'll get that out to you guys for next meeting okay any other questions here Qui question um why is the administration and the business salaries going up like uh roughly 14% And then the teachers are only two and a half so administrators are down that's that's the first line yeah that's that's a decrease yeah sorry administrative business for I guess yeah oh wait where are we business sorry um so you may recall that um the board made a change um in the compensation for a business person uh so between that and and the contractual um pieces that the board approved that's that okay I just wanted to clarify thank you you're welcome good question okay hearing no other questions we're going to go on to Personnel benefits then again we're you know go ahead Chris did we ever did we ever come to any sort of uh agreement with the town about the dental the self-funded dental insurance and there was like1 $200,000 in that account and we were trying to figure out what to do with it was that ever resolved uh no that is up to the selectman to resolve because that account sits with them so that may be a question that U members of our finance committee may want to ask but it's our money right or I mean not our money but it is collectively for board employees not just board employees it's also Town employees but certainly board employees are the bulk okay of that however the board of Selectmen are the owners of that account we'll ask Chris it has come up a number of times and I think there's some investigation that needed to be done there um and we'll see where they are with that thank you I asked Jill every uh six months and she says we don't know I get the answer so okay not for lack of trying Chris I appreciate the effort sure maybe Ashley will have more luck Andria okay uh on to operations and maintenance the Q&A mentions that you're adding maintenance to the HVAC management system does that mean that you've purchased a contract for maintenance or is this an estimate of Maintenance costs with maintenance costs okay just based on things that happened this year oh and then also uh Q&A Q&A mentions anticipating needed repairs to zone valves I thought we were already doing that didn't we just approve well you transfer to take care of those you well you did for the ones that we know we need to take care of for this year John's concern is is that because of the age of the zone valves they're going to continue to fail until the whole system is replaced or or until those pieces are are taken care of so he feels that it would be very prudent to have money in there for others that he anticipates will fail next year make sense we really don't want to be in the place we we are this year to be honest any other questions on operations and maintenance oh uh could you explain what we are using tractors more of or why we are using tractors more that would account for the increase in diesel cost I think it's it's just for to be honest with you maintenance of the facilities right trying to it's almost a it's almost a doubling of the fuel cost are we doing double the maintenance or I just think we're doing more of it in more of a timely fashion than maybe we had done previously um as well as the cost of diesel all right hearing no other questions moving on to transportation next year will be the last year of the current Transportation contract so that will be another thing that uh the new superintendent and the board will need to tackle oh long awaited meeting of the transportation committee yeah does the transportation program does that include transport for our magnet students or is that part of the D that we PID to magnet schools it does not include the cost for the uh Kracken Hartford magnets that's provided by Hartford okay good question though all right hearing no other questions here uh moving on to appendix a again that's our Kappa request moving on to appendix B these were all the reductions that took place all right hearing none moving on to appendix C this is the Revenue page does the ECS estimate does that include the proposed budget cuts or the proposed Cuts in the governor's proposed budget or is this based on last year's budget or I mean what we what was passed by the legislature last year Mel this is not based on the current budget that just came out this is um an older number based on information that we'd been given previously about where we would be this year correct correct and do you typically adjust it based on the governor's proposed budget or do you wait until an actual budget it depends um if the governor's budget um once we get it out I do usually go in and adjust it if it's in time like we find out now I'll change it so that well on your budget you'll have the governor's proposed budget number okay but prior during the superintendent budget we don't know that I don't have it before then yeah of course yeah but it will get adjusted for yours all all the pages will get adjusted for any new information when when it's the board's budget if it's known before we publish thank you all right moving on to the next appendix which is D hearing no questions appendix okay hearing no questions moving on to the next one okay I'm hearing no questions there um Joe I'm GNA have you close that out because I now need to share my screen please give me just a second here to get organized okay uh what you see here are our um projected um Choice numbers and our projected Columbia enrollment for next year and just for new board members um if we have sibling requests we do our best to try to honor those um as well um so sometimes siblings are in different grades and they're at different schools and the parents want them all at one school or whatever the case may be so we do try to honor those but we don't know about those sometimes until very very late in the school year any questions here okay stop sharing that let me pull up my next one Kristen is are the choice numbers stabilizing I know that they were they were going down for a while yeah honestly Ria it's really hard to say I mean they seem to sort of be somewhat steady at this point in time um but it's a guess from year to year to be honest with you it just is because I know that they have more options than they've had they have a lot more options than they've had previously that is absolutely true yep all right sorry I'm looking for my next piece here um okay what you have here are the um stipend uh enhancement requests um the first is for the athletic director to increase from 22 to 24 points uh the reason for that is is Cass CAC uh approved having allowing for um summer practices to occur with coaches um in the past that was not allowed um at all um so now it's going to require some quite a bit more coordination and work in the summer um and this was just a stab it what it might be we really don't know until it happens uh this coming summer so that's the first request the next request is for the AP coordinator to increase from three to four uh points uh because this position is now uh fracturing afternoon exams um after school time the next one is for the drama club director to go from four to six points uh we have a lot of kids involved in drama uh there's increased licensing responsibilities that just don't seem to ever go away they just keep keep piling on um so that's the request there uh robotics um at both schools um robotics is a hot thing in the Bolton public schools which is awesome um but we have increased number of events and and looking for uh they're looking for you know a small increase there um as well for their point values and then um we have two new ones one is the chemical hygiene off officer um at the high school um and this person is responsible for the inventory and maintaining all the SDS um paperwork um that comes with that and then the last one is the BHS portfolio coordinator um the our portfolio program at the high school now encompasses all grades um and that was formally uh one of the pieces that um the dean of students also um had a large role in as well so looking for support there questions on these what's the athletic director summer right off the right off the bat the first one I'm sorry what's the athletic director going to be doing over the summer I mean summer day is not required I I don't know I mean they have summer practices but I I don't really don't know what the athletic director is going to do for practices there's no competitions or anything I can't imagine there's any coordinating Joe you want to speak to that because you were on yeah sure um so there's a lot of paperwork health forms registration and everything done prior to any season and with the season basically starting earlier all the registration coordinating with the nurse and all that kind of stuff has to start sooner in the summer so the athletic director has to work more in the summer plus you know scheduling gym times and field times and all those kinds of things oh well okay I mean all all that same stuff maybe is done earlier I get it um I I guess I still don't understand what they're going to do they're going to they're going to schedule opening a gym this is this is for the summer months it's like what is it maybe 10 [Music] weeks well it's usually closer to 12 14 weeks um you know kind of depends on when we get out of school um but a lot of those things that Joe described will be taking place after the year ends for the athletic director currently but those things that were described were not additional work they're just done at a different time so you know that I had a lot of reservations about this when we discussed it in the Personnel committee and we agreed we would discuss it here so what I was arguing at the time is we have a rule now that allows a thing to happen we don't have any evidence that any additional work is going to happen we just had some testimony that some things might have to happen earlier but what I said was at the time was why are we speculating about what additional time is going to be spent when we have no idea what time is going to be spent we don't even know if anyone's going to do like do we really need to schedule field times when there's two teams that are practicing like a couple of weeks before school is this really worth a thousand dollar more well don't we have anything to measure they had summer practices this past summer so did we have any EV did this happen this last summer and did we have a significant additional time expenditure for this Joe are you able to answer that from the stien committee discussion um you know his requirements for being in over the summer were limited to a few days of registering kids because practices started really that week or so before school but now the stien committee felt that if he was going to have to spend more time in the building things start up earlier outside of you know the the basic contracted time um that's why we felt a small increase was required I also don't think that the athletic position stipend um points have gone up in many many years as some responsibilities have increased um but to Kristen's point it is kind of an unknown the stien committee landed on this as a a starting thing and they did ask that you know if it does go forward that the athletic director track this summer to kind of see you know whether this made sense or not so we did ask uh that that take place as well so my argument at the time was why won't we see what actually happens and then adjust accordingly in the future yeah that would make more sense to me that agree you know have him track this summer and yes if there's an increase okay so do I hear consensus around that one so I know how to proceed with that one can we take them one at a time I think I'm hearing consensus does anybody disagree that there's consensus okay can we go on to the AP coordinator any issues there okay the drama club director okay uh robotics for the high school or Center School okay I can't see you all so I'm I'm looking I'm listening for voices I'm going with no issues there uh chemical hygiene officer this was another one I had asked questions about at the time um so the SDS paperwork as you may recall I discussed like those are data sheets so what I was wondering is if we're maintain maintaining SS paperwork for instance at two roads where we use a lot of really harmful chemicals is a binder that has not been changed in years of time so I was questioning what the maintaining of SDS paperwork time requirements are and I think that I remember hearing that we have new art chemicals that weren't previously being used um and then the other justification is about inventory and I was curious about who had been doing this before and whether or not a lot of it was for art I believe and the rest mostly for Science and who was doing this before and whether or not [Music] um it was a shared part of their job responsibility or if somebody is sort of taking on a new role for this yeah I can I can address both of those so we update our inventory and re uh update that binder so there's never anything in that binder that we don't have in the building that's how we work it out that's kind of the the best practice for schools so that's why every six months or so that binder does need to be refreshed um that is something that I had done for a few years uh the previous chemistry teachers had done some of we finally got a really good software program that lets us update the inventory but with no chemistry last year uh no chemistry teacher the chemistry teacher of the year prior to that was doing some of this but did not wanted the you know to take on the official responsibility of the entire building um we now have somebody who is willing to do that so we really haven't met the level of chemical hygiene officer um efficacy that we probably should have been because we didn't have the right person for the role uh but we now do so this is just BHS what happens at BCS with I mean do we have most of the same chemicals probably lesser yeah good question they they have far fewer chemicals um the software that we did purchase um several years ago we did configure so their inventory could be added to it as well and one of the things that I'm going to ask the chemical hygiene officer to do next year if this is approved is to reach out to Center School staff and say Hey you know here's this here's the software keep it updated you know how can I help that kind of piece of things because the software lives under the high school account but we did make accommodations to make sure that required Center School chemicals could be inventoried there as well why um like why if it's in art why can't the art teacher just quarterly however often because the SDS binder and and all of that requirements and the liasing with the fire department to make sure everybody knows where it is and everything is like it's one binder so we wanted one person to be responsible for it so yes the art teacher has to tell the chemistry teacher what's coming and going but the actual updating of the software um and as regulations may change with what needs to be printed and not printed that one individual will be responsible to making it happen okay and is this I mean I guess is the fire department they did they promote the this software that we use or no like Andy we I work at a our restaurant is just a binder also we update it quarterly gets checked regularly same same idea so the the the software we purchase is actually through I believe it's Flynn who is our chemical supplier so it a software spe specific spefic to schools to keep an inventory that also generates the current SDS sheets okay Kristen can I ask a question sure so what about the SS sheets for like all the the maintenance things that for John's guys because those have to be included in the book too so and don't and I in the fire department I know I do our SDS book and we get the sheets in we get chemicals that come in they can come in with the SDS sheet so I'm just wondering if that's been looked at or or My question is what about John's chemicals if you're doing chemistry and art what's happening to all those that are in the building that would be a question for John we're just looking at the instructional side of things but it should be one binders should be for in the school for it's one physical yeah it is in one location it is but we don't maintain that side of things the the types of chemicals that we have especially in chemistry vary so much year to year that it's important to keep an updated account how much chemical and print only the current items that we have not just keep adding SDS sheets that's what used to be done new chemical would come in you throw a sheet in it and you may not even have that chemical in the building anymore okay so I need some guidance here on on this one I don't necessarily have a problem with it I just was sort of trying to understand what we were doing before and why yeah we now needed to pay someone yeah it's you know you're and I get that the really the bottom line is the previous chemistry teacher was doing most of this but didn't want the title didn't want the responsibility didn't want the stipend but the science chair and I really have been looking at this and really thinking that that it's a lot of work and it's some responsibility and so we thought it would be appropriate to create a stipend for it it wasn't that the work was never done it was just that we weren't compensating somebody for that extra out of you know instructional planning time that was taking place okay certain better have person in charge of it and organizing everything rather than a mishmash of things but I suppose best question is a good one because those are chemicals that are in the building yeah I mean I know John is responsible for the SDS sheets uh for all the pieces you know on his part so we can certainly look into seeing if this program I I don't even know if it you can look into that piece yeah I guess the other piece other than the inventory and the SDS is the management you know having somebody the chemistry expert know what should be stored in one place versus another make sure everything is labeled and all that kind of stuff that's all part of that same responsibility okay all right and then um the portfolio coordinator any issues there all right so what I'm hearing then is we're GNA decrease by the $1,054 and take that out of the budget so we'll have a a new uh updated version for you um to send out to you before our next meeting on the 20th okay decrease not increase yeah but it'll be a decrease in the number that we the actual number that you'll be voting on that's true then as a vague generality on this whole topic as part of our conversation that we started in Personnel I had asked so every year we kind of go over the stien changes and I don't recall ever having stiens removed but we continue to add them and we have in the last 10 years like what 100 less people at the high school but we've never reduced any stipend but we keep having programs that have more involvement so are we having more kids involved total than has historically been happening or are like are does the stien committee review stiens to be cut ever I mean when does that that ever happen yeah so what has happened with that in the past is like we've had some stipend like for a while we had a dance team then there were a number of years that we didn't have one and although it didn't come off the list because we've had interest at times and then we go for for several years and we might not have interest I'm using that one as an example so the money is appropriated but it's it's not used right but it's there should students you know we've had kids come it's December hey we want to have a dance team you know what I mean so if there's that kind of Interest we've we've kind of hung on to things if you will right um but there may be times when like I'll use that one as an example few years back like we had a ton of kids in indoor track well we had a coach and an assistant coach but we needed another assistant coach because we had three different sets of things happening at any individual meet and we needed coaches at different spots because there were so many kids so instead of using the dance money because we weren't having dance group we use that for an additional assistant coach to support the needs of the program that year okay so basically that money is still budgeted for but not necessarily being spent but it's not cut from the stien budget correct because we just because a lot of times like I said it's just based on student interest yeah right we don't want to say like a few years from now all of a sudden the running Community decreases in bold and the indoor track team doesn't need the assistant assistant coach and maybe doesn't even need the assist so then is that money also not being spent or do we ever reduce like from five so that money would be spent three points Etc no that money wouldn't be spent and it would be money you're returning to the town if it doesn't happen Okay so it still appear in the overall stien number but just not be ever spent okay correct yep thank you I was just sort of seeking Clarity on that whole thing no problem a good question all right so the next thing I have to share are our rejected grants uh for next year and again this is our best guess right now uh things are a little in flux right now so this is our best guess any questions here nope no questions for me thank you I can't see everybody so thanks all right I'm not hearing any so I'm going to stop sharing okay so we'll um make fixes to the proper Pages based on that one um enhancement that isn't going to happen um any else if you know if we have um an update about insurance and it gets better we will certainly provide that update at the next meeting although I don't think we're going to have anything in time for the next meeting I think the next time we're going to have something is probably um around the time that the board will be presenting a budget to the finance committee and we may not have it in time for that meeting and and we shared that uh re can speak to that we shared that um at Kappa the other night I just want to clarify that two points for the athletic director um C is only going to be $944 because that's the 472 time 2 that thousand you saw was to change from current year to next year so was a bigger number because each point is 472 in the current budget so you'll see a decrease of $944 okay close enough yeah thanks all right anything else tonight oh overall it was a very easy budget to follow so thank you Kristen all and team as always um you know a lot of it we we don't have a lot of control over a lot of it is contractual salaries and wages I think it's a a good starting point and um you know look forward to the discussion with the finance committee thank you yes thank you for the Q&A it was very detailed as always we still managed to ask some questions but headed us off on a lot of them I know which is great we appreciate the questions we try our best to anticipate but we can't possibly anticipate them all and we appreciate the fact that you're very thoughtful in your process so thank you for that all right you don't have anything else I'm sorry go ahead Ashley no I was just gonna say thank you thank you um so you'll need um yeah motion to ad I'll make a motion right time to go up this so I heard Ria make the motion second thank you AB any questions or comments all those in favor please say I I I think I heard everybody um all right well thank you Administration for being here for our two meetings
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meeting of the committee on education welcome to the senate committee on education today is Monday February 10th 2025 this is our 3:2 pm. agenda and we are in hearing room 229 this meeting including the audio and video of remote participants is being streamed live on YouTube you will find links to viewing options for all Senate meetings on the live and On Demand video page of the legislature website this Zoom meeting and YouTube live stream events will be will include the 3:2 p.m. agenda for this committee on education in the unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearing due to Major technical difficulties the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on Wednesday February 12 2025 at 3:00 p.m.
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it's just we won't have an administrator's report yeah you can have a report you give the report yeah she's going to have some parents coming in maybe so we could do two things if we want to keep it there we could schedule it and then I can take you guys on the tour up there if I need to and then if Miss Moore is able to step out we can have her lead us on the tour as well if that's what we want to do as the board clerk I prefer not to change it but I don't Yeah March 10th okay 6 o'clock at Wilson okay so no changes on that okay uh weather moving in Tuesday into Wednesday so I might be sending some texts out tomorrow to you guys um we did get the information packet from wiah today and it looks like that the heaviest part supposed to start at like 2:00 a.m.
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50% and without passing grades is 5.5% so this is this is something we're really proud of we did create a different form where it now requires parents to understand what the requirements are um they have to sign off purpo we worked heavily with Dean at um Yi College to streamline our enrollment because kids were sometimes just enrolling on their own and we didn't really know until grades came out and we're like we love the initiative but we also want to help guide them and get them to if they earn an F they can if they reimburse the school get that grade removed from their High School transcript but it won't come off of their college transcript but um this is where that dual enrollment piece comes in so they may not get the college credit but they'll if they earn a d they could technically earn high school credit um D or above earns credit but we really do strive and encourage kids to get to see for better and many of them have to get better any questions on [Music] thatw okay the next one I'm not going to talk at all it's a nice clip that Matt Santos captured for us from CH Chino night that we had on January 21st so our goal is to make sure that our our we know we're not perfect but we really are striving to do better and be better and make sure that our community knows that Chino is a very unique school um it is probably one of the most comprehensive schools I've had the pleasure of being a part of I come from a very large District we had CTE schools and we had a a college where it was du and low 100% of the time it was high school on a college campus we get to offer all three it's a public education um that all students are afforded but they also have opportunities in vocational which you'll hear from when Brian Pera comes up um in our CTE programs and Partnerships with my Ted but also with Yavapai College it's such a sweet spot that um I we just wanted to capture it put this on the website and make sure parents knew all the cool things that we have is the video going to play we're about to find [Music] out maybe after Mr Pera goes I can we can show it because I could share it in a different way yeah okay any questions before Mr goes ladies ladies all right no thank you thank you good [Music] evening I'm G give these here to you because there's a lot of information and our great District administrators they're fully aware of this information I C you guys miss Daniels Miss wol if you like to talk see what I have left good evening I'm Brian Pera I've not met you before so thank you for having me this evening I get to be the um the Chino Valley High School's Career and Technical education director which um some folks may know it as vocational trades but [Music] um so I'm gonna give a kind of a brief overview um not going to do like last year I think last year I got CED by some of my colleagues who was up here for like 30 minutes talking so try not to bore you guys this time um so in general just overall between Chino Valley high school and what M Institute has to offer there's over 30 programs available for our kids and that's everything from um manufacturing Fields uh health career Fields um agriculture Health Sciences um and the digital art so there's a huge span of what we're able to offer on our campus specifically we're able to offer six great programs I see my numbering is off of there so I apologize but we got six programs um The Culinary Arts the agriculture the welding the bioscience sports medicine and a digital animation um I'm not going to go into anything in depth with each of my programs um but just some of the big Bell ringers right um three of our programs offer gai College completion certificates with with credits um we start with culinary Ys there's four different classes that they'll have an opportunity to take so earning 16 credits and the you're a completion certificate through them agriculture brand new for next school year is the certificate is available currently we are we are offering all five classes with um agriculture giving us 18 total credits through you have by college but next year is when the certificate will will kick in and kids will be eligible to earn n welding we have actually um 24 college credits and three different completion certificates with them so that's very exciting that three of our six programs are offering college credits as well as completion certificates um certifications each program if you were not aware each program has to offer some sort of Industry certification might be as simple as an OSHA 10 but then it gets um Advanced as with a digital animation one this will be the first year they're attempting it so fingers crossed for them um the Adobe certified associate right there each program offers those certifications um each program offers the ability to compete at the state level or compete at the national level if they do well enough U but each year we do have students going across the state whether it's in the Phoenix or down to Tucson or even into Camp birdie for competitions as well but we have kids traveling all over the state all year long either for competitions or some sort of little leadership conference just the same um Mountain there and wow I thought it looked better than that before but for does itose good um and with them what what you see right away is they offer 29 programs available to our high school students some of these and I didn't list them all in this one have a different page with any information um most of them all excuse me most of them are 100% in person most of them offer Yi college credits 100% of them do offer industry certifications as well some is a a hybrid some is has online work as well as inperson work as well um but very exciting that we have these 30 programs these 29 programs to offer to our kids um some of the high ones that we have high enrollments in is are automotive as you would imagine very very exciting for the kids construction is growing um the medical program the certified nursing assistant and the medical assisting one those programs always have high enrollments um but they they stopped offering that to sophomores uh last school year because they just had so many sophomores coming into these programs not ready for it ended up failing these classes and not been able to progress so Mountain Institute put on a um qualifier for a sofs and I'll will talk with you in just a few moments about what we did as well for some eligibility criteria Brian when they get a certificate yes they can also walk up life SE graduation ceremonies right yes they can and a lot of our kids do that because some of our kids have no intention of getting an AA or a bachelor's degree and we always have phenomenal pictures every year of a lot of our certificate earners in their YC cap and gown with their shirts which is encourages them to go on because they found out they could already accomplish something it's really cool we get the question that what's the certificate what's it good for well first off you know for some of the families you know college education isn't a thing so I like to describe it as a many ree it's not a diploma it's not an associates degree but you're earning a mini credential from you from a credited college right there so that speaks for itself right there and that's very much a great Resume Builder right there so um we really I I'll definitely use that verbage when I talk with families who I have notion that doesn't have much college experience but um these are just enrollment numbers over the over the years um and we started tracking this this could go back further but we basically started at the 21 school year um with covid in place the numbers you see are represented of how many kids were enrolled with yava Pike excuse me with mountain institute there's a fall semester and there's a spring semester of data you'll see with each year um it does drop off um that's because some kids they maybe literally will fail out some instructors drop the kids sometimes for non attainments maybe it's they're not doing well maybe it's not a good match um some of it is students dropping themselves from the program realizing this is for me um but we started tracking this data right here um with Mountain Institute as well um there's a whole bunch of data that goes into this one of the things that we do for our kids though we didn't have it in place um earlier on in Mountain Institute infancy as we do have an academic academic support person and they have the ability to meet with kids they receive direct alerts from yoc college if the kid is struggling with classes or attendance and that gives her the ability to talk with the kid and kind of create a a correction plan of how to move forward so we do watch this data right here and um I use it with my academic support person to help these numbers level off and not to drop too far you can click through um right here this data right here this is a cool one um this is a survey we do a follow-up survey with students after they graduate um if they completed a program so most programs are two-year program so if you completed two years of a program you're going to be put on the list for a survey right there um up through these years of 21 22 23 um we were having our teachers complete this um these surveys and they just were not successful in reaching out a lot of kids so then last year just put in a small little sipon for a couple of personnel and we went after students just with them specifically instead of my teachers and you'll see the numbers Dro you know they jump what was that 50% any up to 55% what those numbers represent is the percentage of students who took two years of a program um and are working or studying in a corresponding field to what they study so that's good placement data right there um this not going to spend a lot of much time on it it's just this is the different amounts of data we're looking at here for the 2425 year these are the four different areas we're looking at student drops per grade level how many academic we get from y College how many kids are being dropped from by instructors and how many kids are failing and we do break it down by grade level across the county most school districts are not sending sophomores so keeping a close eye on our sophomores and want to make sure they have the support that they need and two to make sure that they are um uh academically ready and mature enough to be able to take these classes um for a couple of years can you go back to slides for me really quick I'm sorry more Y in our drop offs one of the things that we realized is um especially the 22 school year we had pretty significant kids amount of kids drop so we started thinking about criteria not every kid is academically or mature enough to be able to take these classes so we started to put some little criteria pieces in to make sure we're putting kids in position to be successful so some of that attend some of it dealt with attendance making sure they have good attendance and making sure their grades were at a certain level as well so we did put that criteria in place um and one of the best things is as you see just from um uh the number of kids dropped from 22 to 23 the percentage is similar but the number of kids total dropped there's a bit of a difference there so in we feel it's useful and we feel it's putting more kids in position to be successful that way fast forward one more one more and then this is our graduating data right here um this comes straight from our school report card data that we have to submit each year um and three big things that each of our classes who take of each of our uh programs is we always look at how many college classes are being offered or taken uh we look at how many certifications have been earned and then you'll see the blue line which is a TSA which is an assessment at the end of each program students have to take an assessment um and so that's our data the number of kids passing this is the percentage of kids percentage of graduating classes is earning these credentials here so last year um almost 60% of our kids took two college classes specific to CTE uh two college classes specific to CTE um and almost close to 50% of our kids earned a certification 50% of the graduates and then likewise that similar number um almost 50% of the kids passed the Ender program assessment the Ender program assessment is an important piece that the state utilizes to make sure that we are Teaching Standards and as you might may or may not know we get a lot of extra funding for uh CTE specifically so they are measuring our teachers to make sure they're teaching the standards and and doing well with that so any know data heavy information but please keep that with you and any question how many how many students are enrolled this year coming hardest one to get is uh we have a lot of kids who take two CTE classes or more on campus so we get a lot of duplicates right there um % yeah close to 50% of our kids are taken some seats eClass or not and as it's in indicative right here 50 almost 50% of our kids are earning certifications right there from a graduating class so I would say we're close to 50% of our kids are enrolled in something I have a question yes um do other high schools in the Chic City area offer this as well yeah this is available to every High School um I don't know what charter schools look like so I can't speak to them very well but they're able to enroll with Mountain Institute and they're able to have CTE experiences right I know that pres and Bradshaw have these CTE programs on the campus as well as some of the outlying districts of liman ashort Mayor back the districts in this area [Music] but of the big schools [Music] thisa it's that Co you see that steady climate there so um I'm sure it's coming I'm sure there's a plateau somewhere in there but we're going to keep cranking and this summer we're going to be rewr curriculum and rebuilding scope and sequences the CT teachers um so is there is there a cap to how many students could participate or not really def see as cap we have class sizes that get capped like there's some sometimes like welding class from time to time we like we have too many too many requests we can't honor everybody but like with welding specifically we can try to push them into a program with Mountain Institute because they welding never had too many any other questions no good job thank you did up can we have her do her presentation then I'll do the video after oh so I have a minute to get it off of email okay cool all right so as you heard we have some very wonderful things happen in our world of CTE and one of the funniest things I always think is you know people at church approach me or people in community and they're like yeah you know high schools need to offer home AC and auto shop and I'm like you know they're like the vocational traits and I always say well today CTE is not our CTE vocational education now is so much more and a big part of vocational education is we're preparing kids for a world and jobs that don't even exist yet but we're setting them on the path so for example when we started our Network our networking program years ago we didn't have like AI wasn't even a thing and so we're working to prepare kids for that stuff so I wanted to share share that with you um I also included an article in your packet feel free to rip it out um it was an article that was it's my turn to write an article for The Courier like every third month or something like that and I wrote about um preparing kids for the future and compared it to high school education in general as a good solid commuter car but we're also helping kids build cars that are like that can fly and that your education is a pathway to lots of kinds of things so you guys can feel free to take that um Brian has set up for us I I gave you a short notice thing about the kids were going to um CC last week for a tour if you wanted to hop in the tour um inger's given the T her in Spanish so she's really familiar with it um but Brian also arranged if we have interest that prior to our board meeting in March um at three o'clock that we said yeah at three o'clock we would do a tour at CC just for our governing board so all you need to do is communicate with me or communicate with Becky if you want to go even if two of you can make it that's fine we can I think it's Wonder careful for everybody to experience what we have to offer at CC and if we have administrators that want to jump in the tour that would be good too who haven't had a chance to go but if if we have at least two people then we'll for sure do it and you kind of get your own private behind the scenes tour [Music] um make have posting for the adequate transportation and it's only seven miles down the road off the road right there kind of by the airport so um I truthfully you will be blown away by what you see and Brian we have there's a um because Chino has done this for two or three years now the Spanish speaking T I apologize for not bringing that up yes now they're going to do one for all the schools that belong to Mountain Institute because they've seen the interest and the need level so now we don't have to have just our own solo tour anymore and iner doesn't have to lead it and learn all the technical words she didn't know for like diesel mechanics or whatever so um that is Al that will also be going on so if anybody really wants to take the tour in Spanish March 12th March 12th is the tour in Spanish which is yeah so that's a Wednesday so just want to let you know about that and then I wanted to talk to you a little bit about things that you may have seen on the news lately because you know education seems to be the lead story on the 6 AM news quite often and so a couple of things I want to talk to you about are um there was the auditor General's office one year ago was tasked with auditing school safety plans we attended a mandatory webinar about the audit process and what would be looked at and they were informed we were informed at that time that every school district in the state of Arizona would be audited on their school safety plan we were not selected for round one but we have fabulous administrators out there and Brandy is like the school safety plan writer machine and so she really was like you know she's overachiever so she want hers to be perfect so it's awesome so we are um they just released information that most of the schools they looked at in Arizona in round one were found to be non-compliant so we don't know if we'll be selected in round two I attended a webinar last week there was a mandatory webinar from the auditor General's office um I attended that they didn't really change any other information to say you might be selected in round two so they're just working their way through um the 240 some school districts in the state of Arizona and the 250 plus charters of the state so it's going to take them a long time to get through everybody but sooner or later we'll be selected and I will tell you I am confident that our plans meet the standards they are phenomenal they're detailed every single piece is in there that's supposed to be in there every attachment is with them and we have them electronically ready to send to the auditor general should they request them at any time the other thing that you heard about on the news was from the auditor General's office as well was the Financial Risk report that's a new report um I really think that part of that was born out of the fact that districts had access for three years to co relief funds from the federal government so we know them here locally as Esser one two and three and you'll remember that in that Esser process um school districts had more money to spend than they typically would have to spend because those were direct funds from the feds what what they did was they audited districts to find out are they out of Financial Risk because you've also heard about a school district in Phoenix that was $12 million or 20 million or 30 million like the number kept growing um in the hole and so they do this risk report to see is your District at um Financial Risk and in this District we were found to have low risk for financial trouble the only area that was noted on the auditor General's report is that we were transferring money from Capital to m&o as a potential risk but you'll remember during the covid relief years we squirrel extra M money like we needed we had a deadline to use the covid money so we used the covid money put some of our regular money into Capital to like a savings account and then as we've needed that money now without Co relief funds we've moved some back to M&L so they don't consider that a risk they just noted that we're moving money from capital M but in this District that's what we planned to do so that wasn't because we didn't plan for it that actually was the plan so we were found to be at low risk and I would tell you and I I told John this this morning he doesn't like to hear this but in 34 years John is by far the best business manager I have ever worked with and our fin our low Financial Risk is due in part to his fastidiousness about paying attention to the budget and making sure that we're following all the rules John's one of those people who like is not only a rule follower he's like a rule follower on steroids he like he doesn't like gray area is not in his vocabulary he is very this is the lane we got to stay in it and that has served us really well another report on the news because it's always good about schools right um another report was that schools have not rebounded their test scores haven't rebounded since Co I would just like to point out that that we actually take a different test now so of course they're not going to rebound or match because it's two totally different tests and so it's misleading in fact one of the things I wanted to share was when Arizona Arizona has changed their state test at least five times in the course of my administrative career which is 19 years every time Arizona changed the state test Statewide student Pass rates went down every time so it's got to make you wonder every time you change the test student Pass rates go down what's up with that that it seems odd but I wanted to I've got theories but we won't go there um but the thing that I want to share with you is of course scores haven't rebounded because it's two totally different tests so you can't compare scores preo to scores postco because the test changed during covid and then we had a year where we didn't take it at all and then one year was a um like the test like the year where they like work out the bugs so then those scores don't count so it's very Mis that information was very misleading um many of us here wish we could turn return to the very first test which was aim the Arizona instrument to measure standards was very accurate it was very tightly aligned to the Arizona State Standards in this school district our pass rate ranged between 72 and 84% when we had that test that was most tightly aligned for example now the high school takes act as their state test that's not tightly aligned to Arizona standards that's a national test so you wouldn't expect that a test that's for everybody in the nation would tightly match arizonas we have longed for the day when we could have a test that was more reflective of Arizona standards the other thing was you received an email from you regarding the water main break at HMS and we did send the students home early that day because um the water we did not have water to the office the nurse's office which is crucial the gymnasium the cafeteria and two of the pods so when Chris is here he could we'll just bless his heart right now um any of you had water leaking anywhere no it's never where you see the water is never where the leak is it's like far away so we already had kids on buses headed to schools for Del Rio and Heritage we have one big valve over so we'll find here that shuts off Heritage Del Rio and the teacher housing because we're on well over there we're not hooked up to chinaa water there and bless Heidi she started getting frantic text messages from people who were like mid shampoo in the teacher housing had no water she's like put on a hat and go to work you'll be fine and so what happened was when I told Chris hey we got kids on the way to school he made a great decision which is I'm just going to turn it back on and let it roll until we figure something else out if we had turned those buses around remember that they have territorial kids on them as well who would have been late for school we also have lots of houses where parents have already left for work so sending kids back would not be a good idea so we waited till we had a chance to assess the situation ation we had about 50 yards of visibility in the fog that morning it's about 20° so it was pretty chilly we're all outside with bubbling up water and um eventually Chris was able to find a valve that just sectioned off where the leak was so Del Rio and the housing were back to their you know they had water so that was good but we made the decision at that time to send HMS home um because there was no way to prepare lunch or any of those things and the other campuses can't pivot quickly and provide all that and bring it we don't also have authorization um with our health department um licensing to transport food from one campus to another to have like way to keep it warm and things like that so Chris ofus crew got to work and what they found was probably 20 to 30 yards down the bus lane they found the leak um they dug up some asphalt and determined that there was a sinkhole under the asphalt which as it turns out is about as big as my office so I'm really glad that we did not thankfully the asphalt is pretty thick there it's about six inches thick there um I am really thankful because um we could have easily had a bus going through the asphalt into the sinkhole um the water been clearly bubbling up for a bit in order to make that size sinkhole so they went ahead they got some parts to do a temporary fix to get school back in session um from The Following Monday and over the weekend we're able to get more parts and they dug up the whole thing there's a giant piece of asphalt missing now and they're letting it dry out they've got AB in there so they can compact that and then get the asphalt laid back down we're running against the clock since there's rain coming in Thursday night it looks like but they're on track and I just want to kudos to our crew we did not have to call out any any outside plumbers we didn't have to call out any out out side we you know rented some equipment and blessed their hearts the asphalt saw was that they had to go back for a better one a bigger one um but they were able to handle it inhouse and will be able to fully make the repair which literally will save the district tens of thousands of dollars so kudos to to Chris and his crew yeah they told me it was like the size of a VW Bug then Chris came in the next's like actually said it's almost as big as your office and I went and looked over the weekend and it is as big as my office um one of the really cool things is we've been wanting to do a campus evacuation and so this was urgent but not an emergency so we had all the buses come we kept the once we knew that we were going to send Heritage Home Selena kept all the drivers and we got all the drivers over to Heritage got everybody lined up um Matt got all the sro's there and so people could direct traffic we told the kids to get their back open their backpacks get their cell phones out turn them on so they then we sent the message to the parents so the parents could communicate with their kids if they wanted to pick them up instead we directed traffic I figured so the call went out slightly like 9 11 9:12 in the morning I figured the campus we would pretty much have it evacuated within 30 minutes 34 minutes which was really impressive so super kudos to Caitlyn and her staff um about that the teachers were super heartbroken to have to go home early on a Thursday the kids oh they were so sad they're like can we please stay no it worked out it was great um other Katherine's here tonight I think I sorry back there yeah she's do talk um we've had a lot of influenza A in the district and we've had a lot of it through the community um Katherine did a really good job she sent out some information to all the staff about good health practices what the policy says about attending work and if you've had a fever how long you have to sit out and all that so super kudos to her um the last two things are we've been working hard on our budget for next year um John created three budget scenarios for US based on enrollment projections one at Flatline one at 4% which is what we've been averaging and one at a 10% reduction um we' built budgets and worked with Administration you'll hear some things later about staffing recommendations since we do have fewer students that changes our need for Staffing so you'll see some of those in your report here from Heidi and then the last thing is um I hope you've been watching our district social media Pages if you haven't subscribed to them um I encourage you to because you'll get to see the brand ambassadors who we've been honoring those are employees who are nominated by their peers um who are doing great things in representing Chino Valley well and remember the three things that came out of our strategic planning Day last year was that that um students were prepared when they leave our school to meet the challenges in front of them whether it be the workforce or furthering their education that our schools are safe and that we work together to accomplish those things for kids so that's what helps um us move forward and it's how brand ambassadors are recognized when I picked up joke from the day Le he opens door why could the leak been in my school what he's like have to go I'm like wasn't leere obviously traveled into school that kids got to go home oh yeah yeah they were really um the February goals and strategies right February goal and strategies so you have all of your updates from all of the Departments I know you had a chance to look at them one of the things I wanted to point out was that um our food service has been serving more meals than ever one of the things that you've heard about on national news is what what happens if US Department of Ed is disbanded and um there was a temporary pause put on um all federal spending which included free breakfast and free lunch and the pause was lifted the next morning but there are some potentially some some big things coming forward that could affect our nslp our national school lunch program so as we um have more information about that I'll be sure to provide to you because these numbers in that sedexo report um which is I think the very last one in there really show you how valuable having access to free breakfast and free lunches for our students um you also have all kinds of other updates in here from facilities from CTE from Special Ed and if you have any questions about any of those um I invited admin and directors to the room except Selena loose who's Transportation if you have any questions about what's in the report they are prepared to be able to answer for you um sometimes what is a mirror our reading platform so used to be now we've changed and air the kids also read with an every's and then that's testing can go back to sedexo yes ma'am so right now all kids get free lunch we are under a program called the community eligibility provision that is one of the programs on the federal chopping block so if the community eligibility provision is eliminated at the federal level we would have to go back to collecting free and reduced lunch applications which would exclude about 40% of our student population from access to free breakfast and free lunch um when we had um during the Obama Administration there was a change in the rule about Federal breakfast and lunch programs and if a kid couldn't like if a kid couldn't pay then we had to give them the same lunch that everybody else got in the olden days before Obama um we used to be able to give them an alternate lunch like a you know like an apple and a peanut butter sandwich or a cheese sandwich if they're allergic to peanut butter and you know access to the you know fresh fruits and vegetables um under the hunger free healthy kids act that was changed so we so schools couldn't lunch shame anybody by giving them a different lunch what happened once that law was enacted um the district was carrying significant debt on the books from kids who had weren't paying for lunch who weren't eligible for free lunch or who hadn't turned in the applications and we had to give the same lunch to because we still have to pay for the food right so um we had we were running between 35,000 and 55,000 a year in lunch debt the district has to absorb that lunch debt and so one of the things that should the community eligibility provision be on the chopping block um the district will be working with the lobbyists that our forest speed management association pays for to work on lobbying to roll back to the rules prior to the Obama Administration um because if we have to um you know is the economy worsens and they're talking about changing eliminating SNAP benefits too for people that means that more people will need and rely on free breakfast and free lunch if they don't qualify or because here's why they don't qualify in Arizona anybody in the room know what federal minimum wage is seven bucks 735 an hour is federal minimum wage or 750 in Arizona it's 14 we just looked at up 1475 so if people are making minimum wage in Arizona their kids do not qualify for free lunch because it's an hour uh is Arizona's minimum wage the federal is like 750 so if they're making Arizona's minimum wage then they're making too much to qualify for free laun and that is how we rack up big big lunch de so so we're talking 60% of our kids could qualify but with the minimum wage and everything literally like a 100% of our kids could change it could change it definitely so it's definitely one of those things where um decisions made at the federal level have a huge impact locally in our school district even though it seems like it's far away that one's a really big one that potentially will cost the district um and remember that 35 to $55,000 debt that was being accured was five years ago the prices that we pay for lunch food now of course like you all know the funniest meme I saw this weekend was an egg in a ring box and it said he went to Kroger um you know we're all paying more for food which means that the lunch debt that was accured before would probably now look more like 65 to $85,000 the district would have to absorb that cost so those are just some interesting things about how National decisions affect us locally anything else for superintendent Daniels video so choose Chino night is designed to help parents know what we in community because anybody can come to know what we have to offer at our high school so because we want them to send their kids to cbhs instead of somewhere else that [Music] must e for for for thank you that was good we had a good turnout that evening on too right yes I I'm kudos to my team I'll admit I was not able to make it I was I was at home sick uh for four days and I tried I called a do two doctors and tried to get a different opinion um but they both said the same thing and I I just was I wasn't able to be there but my team really filled in um it it's a testament to it really took a village to make that happen but yeah we went across town we tried to put flyers up and lots of media posts worked with the Middle School U Marty campitelli was able to come up and help supervised and chaperon they got to go to the farm um we showcased as much as we possibly could because I just don't think that people know yet I mean they know but do they really know the robust offerings not yet so that's something we're working on as marketing that's wonderful thank you the food was a big hit too speaking of sedexo they did a great job all right item sixc is our financial reports for this evening thank you of the board M president administrators staff ladies and gentlemen a real quick look at our month end June January 2025 uh two main funds just to take a quick look at we mentioned earlier that been transferring funds between these two main funds our operating fund and our Capital fund for the last four years our operating fund last year was $20 million and we spent 18.8 this year it's not quite that robust but it is 19.4 as of the end of January we spent just over 11 million 30,000 in that so I always like to look at the percentage of the year gone which is 58% uh versus the percentage of the budget spent which is 56% so you know you're you know you're in a little better place uh if you're 58% of the Year gone and you haven't spent 80% of your budget uh then if you have spent 80% of your budget at that point so we're we're in good shape there our Capital fund is 610 budget 1.13 million spent 303,000 spent another 330,000 encumbered our goal is to sit on that fund as much as possible and everything that we are going to spend is probably already on purchase orders and that gives us an opportunity if there are some emergencies that come along we have some funds this case I think we've had our last Water emergency with that be right Sher don't talk about it too much so so we're in pretty good shape there with 303,000 spend and another 300 SU ready to be spent and the good news is all those other expenditures are Debt Service so they're not really open for just new purchases that we might we've been able to pick up several vehicles from our Co over the years in pretty good shape major purch any questions on those those funds cash beginning cash started the month of January all funds 7.7 million and all fund I did for your information a little document that's got one GPA on it I like just that really quickly and just to I was talking to Daniel just recently it's come to my attention that you may be asked questions on the street other school board members or parents and they may say something like this uh did you know that you bought this very expensive Capital item and you may say something like what was it is it l j for $38 million or something and they may say no but it was a $192,000 bus you know and they may ask you know did you give approval to that specifically and I've Got a Friend down in Mesa District and they have a a policy and if a million dollar purchase has to be made the governing board doesn't want to hear about once it reaches that certain threshold they want they want to get information discussion [Music] we don't have specific policy preventing or allowing that but for for just for discussion it I'd like to present a few things and get some feedback from you I think it's a wise idea anytime anyone in the district whether it's Transportation whether it's facilities whether it's a business office just whether it's a school anytime we foresee spending 100,000 at least we want you to know I think that's a wise then you can answer that question if it does come up well we consider doing things or we think there might be a need to replace this old vehicle or this old bus uh or this Wing in this this school uh and then we'll hopefully if that's going to be on the agenda to do that at some point we'll be able to say well we have limited local funds but we've been saving them for a while or one of the reports I've given you here is the state will pay for this but your school facilities board fund and then everyone's temperature and concern level should plummet quite a bit if the state is really aware of what our needs are for our schools so so just to that if you go to about the fourth page in and you take a look at what I call the state funds the school facilities board and we have this FR back copy if you just go to page two there take a look at it U and it's still kind of upside down you get the second time there's four numbers on that page that are pretty interesting uh the first number is halfway down and it's 4.2 million halfway down right or 4, 288,000 that's the page one projects that are all closed and payment all paid for by the state number two is up above that 27.5 million that's the projects on that page that we've been able to get funded since August of 2022 so you've got the 4 million that's paid done and everything's closed you've got the ongoing 22 million for eight back throughout the district that comprises the 27 million you go to number three which is the 31 million together that's what's been approved and that's what we're spending then we go to the bottom of the page you see another 17.9 that's in progress that's weatherization that could easily be 7even million for all buildings combined fancy for pain yeah pain and we'll leave the other adjectives out of that one uh but uh those are funds that we believe could be awarded in the next six to eight months there's a funding trough that the school facilities board is in right now they don't really get their 250 to 300 million until usually the end of June till the beginning of August that's when they're refunded and they have money to hand out so we have some projects we think that will be including the four million for our schools over here to the east that will be removed and replaced but we can't say much about those but at least it gives you something if someone says well where's all this money coming so so that's a quick summary and then there's a page I'd like to just back up and you back up the beginning here because I made a little cover sheet it's about the third page in and at the top it says Arizona School District procurement and nice big gold letters and then behind those pages with the school facilities board there's about 12 pages in the front and back of details and our policies so I'll just go through those for just a second here so we don't use the word purchasing very much we know that if you purchase a sandwich you pick it off the deli line you say sandwich number three with am sheets in school districts there's four words that we use and it's at the top of that page with a nice b letter shop it cost it and then well the first one is Define it it's kind of getting behind there we have to Define it we get things once in a while when our when our we have eight eight people that I call buyers they're the ones out there shopping on websites sometimes I got one two years ago called Iron Man one word wanted to purchase an Iron Man now I do triathlons and I wasn't sure if I Triathlon ticket was being bought there because an Iron Man Triathlon that's probably $2,000 to enture one of those if it was a weight machine if it was a tire a remover what it was so sometimes we don't have a lot of information so we Define it then we try to be competitive and get the best price and the best deal for the district and Shop it then we cost it and we try to nail down to what the benefits are what the long-term and short-term operating cost might be and then we to and then we use 20 digits to put that into a Cod so that's the so that to me is more we have to research it see how it fits the school district uh and then do the best thing for the school district so then we look at some codes there own Administrative Code R 72100 we have the federal code that are behind all these things so there's a couple parts here and we just have some threshold so we want something under $10,000 uh I've got to the point now because our budgets are no I try to let Daniels Miss wolf know here's what's coming we want to buy bu a $800 printer over here do we want to buy now this was interesting because our casa program about a $800 filing C with gifts and donations funds so if any of you know our new Kasa director Miss sovia over there those funds aren't quite as critical it's a really secure fireproof uh cabinet and if you want to go see it you can be there in a few weeks $0000 and it's really secure has all the excited stuff so so there you go but but that was a different fund that was a gifts fund it's really our operating funds that I'm talking about that are really scrutinized for big purchase so under 10,000 if we want it and it's approved then it's in the budget we have a valid quotation and they have a W9 we don't buy stuff from mainland China we just don't do it we can't get proof that it's it's legal for us to buy so we don't do that they have to have an American agency here and they have to have an American Sales Outlet we don't have to manufacture it here but we have to get a w so that's 10,000 if you need it you buy it 10,1 $10,001 up to 100 we have a little bit different a little bit more formal we can't just copy a web page somewhere uh we have to get formal quotes and we we do those and sometimes there's exceptions if we get one formal quote and we get two then we really get after it and our facilities Department knows all about this they're always buying things like heavy lifts and you probably got eight pieces of equipment you take the the lift that we have the cherry picker you take the what's your 12,000 pound unit there a big lawn mower that was $96,000 there's a a little you got a skid steer what's the one that's hold the the forklift forklift the forklift is so heavy that what is it 12,000 pounds 10,000 it's it's really really have so when we buy things like that we want to really research it and get the very best time so with that if we get one uh forklift bid and then two other companies have been contacted we really put pressure on them to say okay we understand you don't want to sell us a fork clip you don't want to service it you don't want to come here send us a no bid response the Auditors look at it you got one bid here you got two no responses you met the criteria for the statute you've got three people that you've reached out to could meet your need and give you a b so you're in you can't force people to provide you with a good or a service now you you can almost force them if you get Suzanne there in the facilities Department almost force them to send you a no bit so we could get a lot of those um that's for up to the 100,000 then if you hit the 100,000 you're going to spend more now you need to do formal seal bids now you need to say on this day uh this is when this bid closes and there's a timeline on the bottom of that if you go down to competitive sealed rfps and services I'll go through a 4-day timeline just to show you how everything thing we do is one two three four so you go down to the bottom of this page under competitive sealed rfps number one issue the RFP this is what we did for our Asphalt Services that we're going to be talking about later and hopefully we can do a b award the name of the company we've done this so fast we didn't even have the name of the company last Thursday when we put this together uh so we issued RFP in the newspaper after you approved this at the January 13th board said can we issue a propos proposal for asphalt maintenance services Bo said yesing that getes us a green light that was the 13th of January the 17th we had it in the carer that's when the bid date started it closed February 4th that was a Tuesday at 1:30 we collected four bids and we bring a name to you tonight that we think met all the criteria so that's how it goes for these these procurements uh the due date was again February 4th then the award date will be February 10th tonight then we'll call do award that U bid for Asphalt Services we'll call the vendor tomorrow he'll send us a bid for 100% of the project a bid Bond and then he'll be able to swing in and schedule a date and based on a discussion I had with superintendent Danel as Thomas back in about May of 2024 we decided that we have these funds and our 620 fund for things like fire lanes and Paving but we wanted to get on their schedule as soon as possible because Sunland asphal is the company we're talking about they are in six states and they could have Crews of maybe 20 or 30 people but they fill up real quick for some project so that's the best time to do so that's the the procurement once we hit that $100,000 any any questions so far there's just a couple month and you can take this with you um John made it separate so you can take it with you in case you have insomnia there are lots of pages of policy too but Don wanted to be especially because we have new board members really wanted every everybody and he asked you know I like can I provide um kind of a a little study on how school districts per your stuff especially for the just just a couple more things because it's nice again to be in your position and have as much information as possible so if you go to the very front page and then we'll go to the back in a minute you look at this 1 GPA say that is a state approved purchasing cooperative and if we wanted to to duck and Dodge and not do all this work to go to the January 13th meeting to get your approval we could buy things from them these these vendors without any procurement at all because they've already been pre-bid and pre- awarded by this cooperative and then they can sell things like buses we bought a bus for $217,000 for Canyon State they're a big bus vendor they're by the way the only bus vender in the state that can sell a Boer bus that's new anyone can use but they're the only so that puts me in a in a bit of a Selena I think was here a minute ago still it puts us in a bit of a way to to not share information with the board we got three old buses we want to replace one we say well we just go buy off this contract don't have to do bids we don't come to you and say pleas bid but I want to come to you and let you know that we're thinking of doing it just so you have that information so the four companies here Cactus Road Runner Sunland and we that are mentioned right here on the 1 GPA contract all gave us bids for our asphalt every one of them and that's part of what they sign up for when they get awarded these pre bid contracts that they will reach out even if it's m unified with 59,000 or Chino Valley Unified 2100 students they have an obligation to to service the bids went from 460,000 down to 360,000 we and we reviewed them last week but that's the way it works we but we still want you to know that we're going to do this then if you go back to page six right towards the end of your document page six of 11 there's just some statements that that I would like to feel like we're kind of like Partners so when we do need something you know so if you go to page six and you go to the second paragraph and then you go down to the last sentence in the second second the successful bidder must present performance and payment bonds for 100% of the bid within 5 days after notification so if you approve Sunland tonight to be the the company that gets to do these projects that facilities described and we did the bid for by our our bid is even tighter we said we want this proof of this Bond of the 360,000 in two days after it's awarded tomorrow so to speak we want it by Wednesday this polic is a little more relaxed 5 days but then that really ensures us if there's a problem with either the heat temperature how many things can go wrong with an asphalt install he's jinxing us yeah we've gota got to get some reality here so so here we go go to the third paragraph and second second from the bottom policies related to outside Professional Services apply only to Services required by law to be on the bid even those policies may be set aside if there's an emergency so we've had four floods since I've been here I've been here four years two at the high school throughs if there's an emergency some of this is suspended a little bit we want safy for the stent safy for the buildings and reduce the impact of the emergency even to say how many fires we so we do have an exception when there's an emergency because we want to save and preserve property the very last paragraph I'll just read a couple sentences the board reserves the right and this is where I wanted it to be real quick to reject any or all bids so if we come to you and we say we got a a C over here their company one and you can go to the regist our contracts and they will tell you if they don't pay their subs if they don't pay their employees and over here we've got a person whose home office is in you know France and they're never here and they they submitted a bid but we think it's you know phony we can advise you to reject all the bids and then stve the procurement so there's no award you reject any or all bids or you can accept the vid that appears to be in the best interest of the district that's what we we push to get the one that's in the best interest uh and just just the last thing I'll say and uh chis you might recall this one it was I was here about eight months and we have a really supportive person at the school facilities board she's arais on and she knew we needed new bleachers two new ones for the high school gym over in the main high school gym and one at the middle school well I won't mention any but the person that represented the only bleacher company in the state that could sell us ble leachers work for two cooperatives AI up pingman and one GPA down to and he was not attending to his duties so he sent us two bids and he works on commission so bid number one was the one he thought was the only one he sentenced well he made a mistake that he sentenced the other one which was $133,000 cheaper for the same bleachers so then I'd already got the award from the state and I would put in the got both for the lowest cost the best because it's the same set of leers and then he calls I think he calls you the next day said can't you just change what you put in for the grant award and make it the one that's 156,000 instead of 143,000 so I'll get 4,000 more commission basic what he said and you remember what we said we said we said so so we're looking out for the district as best so that's kind of the way these goes you get to know people you get to know motivations and I don't know what this person's motivation was but but we got involved that now if you would have been really tricky he would have only sent us the one that was the highest but he's under an obligation if he's both Cooperative to represent both so cooperatives are they're they're helpful and that there's pre- bids going on but sometimes you still have to manage them so and the cool thing is about the last thing I'll say cool thing is when you look at all these awards that I think we've got you said 21 we said four we said 17 every one of these are done by myself I write up the application and then they say here's the terms and conditions the terms and conditions are really simple what the state's paying for of this Pap they will provide the funds because we've documented with assessment from an engineer we've documented with the design concept from an architect and we documented with construction bid from a construction company that we can do these projects for this amount of money the terms and conditions say we will accept this amount of money and also we will follow what the procurement was for whether it's bleaches whether it's for beback systems for $8 million in high school we will follow exactly what we said we wanted and then after that super superintend Daniels would sign off I would sign it and then board president Thomas would sign it then I resubmit it back to them and then the terms and conditions are go and then it takes a while to get the contractor set up and on site but that's how simple this is so I I can even if you want to certainly let me know where we're at with these every time there's an award coming for over1 just so you can I'll keep you updated that makes that makes us more accountable to give you a right to reject approve reject you have on the board an information item a discussion item on the same agenda and approval item to enter into these school facilities Bo it's unusual for us to with these dollars U have instant approval that at least you'd be able to do and then it might take six months like the last one we did here the fire alarm the fire alarm at Del Rio took 11 months from the time we applied for it till the time that state approved 131,000 for but if we have your approval in front at least you know you can say well when's that going to get approved what's the status but does that work if we just put it on the agenda as an information discussion appr for tonight and it's not approving the purchase it's approving us pursuing the purchase the transparency and then and maybe at some point in time we can look at the procurement process just a little bit more in depth and look at policies y so you have them so you can take them too and then that way at any time if we want to revise our own policy manual to include you know for permission at a certain dollar threshold or whatever I do have a question if you don't mind when you do get like a cont it's like 11 months have they ever went up on the price because of great question gr that's a great question so we're in a situation like that right now the whole south end of one of our campuses has a $4 million project put in air conditioning and that price that 4 million is going on six months months old going on October of 2024 and we're getting some some I guess you could say feedback from the the vendor that's supplied that price hey things have gone up and then six months later U but it's not fully awarded yet that's where the school facilities board is quite careful so this is the way I'm going to respond to that if they have awarded the project it's taking time then for the vendor to mobilize get the resources here uh get the products built in some sweat shop in some other part of the country and materials are rare like busers are usually eight months out the time you order till it's here uh Canyon State buses stand by that price but some of these other contractors have other price increases I've never had the school facilities board there's 53 projects on this list from them I've never had them not fund those inline production cost price increases I've never had I've had it reduce the scope a little bit or go from X to xus 1% or something but I've never had them back away once we sign a a purchase order and give it to those vendors and we know the full faith in credit of the states behind them it might again take 11 or 12 months to get the project project done and on and finished at 8 but they will either reduce it in scope or they will increase it with without change order we had a $355,000 change order for things like this ceiling grids and ceiling tiles and lighning ballast the whole bit 355,000 here and they increased it with with change order and now the project went 7.3 million for high school H to 7.7 it's all it's all for the state but it it does get well I think we're on our 36th month with our HS so they've seen some price increases and we just know they've got a deeper part we do and they've never seen them turn back from the district you as long as they're aware of the change order and why we need the extra and that's okay Student Activities report so we do have a $99,000 encumbrance and I'm going to say it's for Mile High wring at the high school and it hasn't been completely paid yet so that's that's my report for student AC did the money was in the account I think there's what 16 different high schools that show up there I talk to she show about this he was your ceremonies that's your big on your Student Activity that's the only thing that to me kind of stands out because it takes a while for those bills to it's in the account it's managed Student Activity is always for students raised by that's all fantastic thank you all right and we're going to move on to item eight a through J is our consent agenda if I can have a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda I make a motion to approve tonight all in favor I thank you item 9A is our fiscal year 26 position recommendations School M chair and board members I just want the resource department is looking at um requesting the F changes for 25 26 school years for next year and the reason why we're asking this is that we are adjusting our staff to meet our student enrollment numbers so um we have some um some suggestions that we would like to be um um you to approve um we have some positions that we want suspended unless we can't can find grant funding for them so if we found grant funding we could go ahead bringing those positions back but right now we not with um so we have have two um5 instructional coaches at Heritage and cbhs and Miss Bry will assume these responsibilities um we have two custodian positions um that will still lead to two custodians at each site and um the IP coordinator position um with sped this person is going to transition to the assistant um special services director because she's retiring um a five art position at cbhs that's a retirement five physical education position at HMS that was temporarily for this year um computer professional at Tech and that person has resigned athletic secretary at cbhs later on all you talking about we're looking at getting an athletic director position full-time so that would be um be taken care of that half of the position um 1.33 certified positions at Chino Valley High School um they're not sure exactly where that will come from right now because we're waiting for um to see um the certifications and also um some of our staff members and where we need and if somebody's going to resign or retire we we're not sure um and then par professional positions if no longer needed and then the positions we would like to add are an occupational therapist and this is going to replace contracted Services which will be a savings for us and Dr Berg has been working very hard on this a aim teacher at Del Rio um and that's because it's program expansion we have kids coming from Tech to Del Rio and it will just be a revenue neutral um and then a psychologist replace contracted Services again at savings for the district and and then we're looking at changing the the athletic director to be fulltime from A5 FTE to a 1.0 FTE I have some questions sure okay um one I think our athletic director should have been fulltime a long time ago but I'm glad we are going there so are we eliminating the athletic director secretary so that will be secretary his own secretary this person this position will be non-administrative meaning it won't have any Administration roles at the high school because in the past we had athletic director also be maybe um assistant principal or whatever so at this point um that position would not take any administrative role they would just be straight athletic director okay yeah that's a great question and are we are we keeping the that position is open to anyone it will be ed tomorrow and anyone can apply inside or outside of the district an application process yes there's an application process and hiding it's on your table but is the job description that that yeah okay um do we have an atic director at the middle SCH question psychologist is that for us [Laughter] what psychist um a lot of times it's testing in within the special um Ed area so they have they do this the testing a school psychologist is different than a than a psychologist that I might go to but I'm gonna get our sped director to give all the details oh thank you um so a school psychologist uh what oh stand up sorry come to the all right so a school psychologist is the one that um tests students to see if they qualify for special education services so they do cognitive testing for IQ academic social emotional adaptive autism all the different testing that procedures that you have to do and so then um they can also help with a little bit of mental health background they have also been educated in that area as well but their primary job is to test to see kids qualify for needing special education services or not that's just for T and you get the parents permission oh yes that's requ not just ucor problem they can sit in as a team member but their primary focus is testing and um when a student is in special education every three years they have what we call a trianal review where we're required by law to review to see if they continue to qualify or not so they assist us with those meetings as well as reviewing all of the data and then um they also do all the initial testing and there's a lot of paperwork that goes along with this so there's a lot of legalities to it all and they are experts in that and knowing what the legalities are all the paperwork how it's supposed to be filled out and all the different types of evaluations when and where and how and why and all of that but yes it's it's geared towards special ed okay thank you very much you're welcome only Psy all psychologist we have a contracted school psychologist right now and then we have an intern psychologist right now who who is training under the school psychologist and then we have a remote person who is assisting with some additional testing and then I'm also helping okay thank you remind us what how far down our ADM is um we're down 100 students we're actually down a few more um this last week um we and wellard our student data manager provide that data to me we usually drop a little bit in the beginning beginning of spring semester because of early grads at the high school so um but we're down a little over a hundred students which as you know depending on the weight um because student the funding that we get depends on the needs that the students have um it the cost the cost that we need to eliminate in order to stay neutral in the budget is was 682,000 minimum um that was the Baseline um it was over 800,000 so these positions all align with the ability to um maintain appropriate Staffing levels for the number of students that we have and the types of services that are required one more question um the physical education position that we're eliminating at Heritage do we still have two physical education teachers or just one we just have right now one we're one and a half right now we have a really small class moving up so we don't need um 12 sections of P anymore okay okay ladies any questions see none in no further [Music] discussion entertain a motion to approve agenda item I'll for approval psychologist all in favor thank you item 9B culinary arts par professional Mr had to run so in our culinary arts program culinary arts teacher is responsible for a lot of stuff outside a normal work day which includes shopping for all of food DRS all that kind of stuff it's a very labor exensive job I see Mar green she's done that job um and then we also because like different classes do different things like the teacher teaches one thing but then can't be set up for the next class to come along and so um the culinary arts program is um Brian's proposing a a pair professional that works 18 hours a week to help with all that shopping the setup and all the things that go along with it it is not um costing our regular budget any money this is coming strictly from CTE funds and so this is for the rest of the school year and it will continue into next school year and Mr Livingston has verified that they do have the money in their account to pay for this coms for sure anybody wants to you know work for 18 hours a week doing shopping and food set up at the high [Music] school all right then again I'll entertain a motion to approve tonight's agenda for approval and a second all in favor item 9 C it's coming around okay passing item 9C is tonight's Personnel Report with [Music] supplements you're [Music] good so we have Personnel report and we also have a Personnel report supplement um we're looking for um we have I apologize we have two new certified positions one new classified position four new classified substitutes slbs driver trainees uh five resignations three retirements five classified changes two coaches and only 60 time [Music] sheets didn't the action request isn't fil [Music] in motion for appr the person report with the thank you all in favor thank you very much you're welcome that is easy item 10A is cougar Camp 2025 Miss gr hello okay for those that may not know me my name is Gina Graham and this is my nth year in the school district last year I why do I get so nervous now I know um last year I initiated a summer program Co Camp which is for our uh District students ages 5 to 11 and one of my parents is here and she can account it was very successful it was in fact it was absolutely amazing um it basically all the tuition that came in for the fees came in to the campers went to pay my staff salary and I came out in the positive so we had an amazing Camp fully St I I work really hard with that very very hard with that um so I'm asking if I can go ahead and get approval to have the camp again this summer I have done a couple changes um one thing is a payment plan because some of the parents were like oh they huge cost right up front so if we can get the ball rolling I'd like to set up a payment plan to where they can pay equal payments up until the camp time um we did lower it to two weeks mandatory for registration for the camp anything that's two weeks basically they have to pay up front there's no payment for it 3 weeks plus they can set up a payment plan um field trips I got the approval that I can do field trips um I talk to the town and we get um can get some discounted swimming pool tickets movie theater I've talked to them um talked to Transportation kind of got a cost and all of those costs I included into the tuition or the fee for the campers which we raised to 165 from 50 from last year um what else I think that's oh the location is still undetermined because it's not I learned today that we have to have it at territorial okay the only place we can use summer Foods the feds um have this little map that has a slow green circle on it and they determine which of our schools are WHL and which aren't no kidding um and not all of them are considered we half are half aren't um I got nothing to offer that the school they don't think his RS one of the cows across the road so struggling with it but you know it's the FED what do you say so um we will be doing summer food at territorial this year and we just found out late this afternoon so which means cougar Camp will be at territorial because that's where the food will be this year and so then you can walk to the park and walk to the pool and not have to worry about getting on the bus for and we have new Turf on the playground we have new Turf on the playground that works that works um the other additional um I had a couple campers that were amazing last year and we only do ages 5 to 11 that um I would like to bring them on as Junior counselors under under supervision of of the staff for sure but to be role models for the other campers um Sports because I can't go kick a ball like these guys can so like that helps out but it also I'd like to see if I can't incorporate them into some of the junior National Honor hours get some you know get some things under the belt and give us something to look forward to um so that is about the end of what I'm adding to it I'm looking forward to another successful Camp um definitely more campers I've already had several inquiries on when are you going to start this when can we get a contract you know please don't forget our kids so do you guys have any questions I'm sure it says somewhere is there a cap on students on kids there's there's not basically I have it broken down up to 40 kids right now and how many hours it would TR everything's balanced like if I had this many kids I need this many Staffing hours in so forth if we go more depending on what you know Brandy will allow me to have on the campus but um just manageable my ratio is about one adult to every 10 kids and you're looking ages 5 to 11 I teach three and four year olds all day so it's like the ratio is a perfect ratio um so we don't really have a cap on it it's it's whatever we can do and what we noticed last year is there was a fluctuation like some of the campus yeah they came for the four weeks but it was two weeks here and then two weeks here and then we had you know a couple so it wasn't like all at one time but um the more I the more cameras we can bring in I think the better the the program is going to be because these kids had no place to go I could hire more staff absolutely all the staff members are District employees already perels run through the district office um so it's the transition is nice it's like and I have a wait list of people that are like call me if you need me type thing so I do have a good question it sounds like a great program um what is your break even what happens will you have any problem getting the 40 kids or whatever the break even number of kids you need in order to pay and what happens you don't get um then I cry um it didn't it doesn't have I'm watching like as far as the tuition for the kids what's paid I base my my Staffing on that it's like okay you guys are going to get 25 hours this week because this is what I have in if we get more campers then you get 35 hours and I'm bringing back the same stuff that I had last year and they they're familiar with it but I was down I was talking to the business office almost every week like where's my numbers like where where am I on this so I kept really close range on a lot of it um it is nice because the more campers the better for sure we have a goal but as soon as something like that happens and with having this pre-registration in the payment plan I'm aware of how many campers I'm going to have already so as soon as something red flag hits then I'd be like okay which one do I not like here you're not working anywhere but so before you like P the trer you'll know right and then my my employees know or my girls know that they're only a lot I can only offer this many hours for the amount of campers that I have and they're great to work we're rolling to an new online system for Ping um which allows people not only to pay online but Spar a card so that'll be huge because that's those are always the hiccups for us are they capacity for somebody to show a pay on site you know whatever so G's gone through training or having assistance have gone through training and che's managing and my budget in there includes anything like any of the fees that go with that I've included that in that budget for the staffing hours also this is my ninth year and would you tell the Lord what you just no because I'll start crying I really um I have been teaching preschool and I came to this District I'm like oh this is a fun part-time job I was like no I fell in love with preschool I fell in love with the district I fell in love with at territorial um I started a little well about five years ago I started on College and got my bachelor's degree and um because I truly believe in what we do and I think that we can make difference and you know and definitely did it for the money my gosh it's like that salary increase I'm like yes but um I'm telling you it's it was worth it it was I've learned a lot of things I love what I do and bringing being allowed to do the summer program also because this was like a total fluke I'm like I went to miss last year and I was like can I do this and she's like I was not for sure I was G know she goes yeah let's talk about it I'm like oh my gosh you know and and not that I would have stopped if she told me no but I think good easier to let people don't usually tell me no that often but um it's and then not only that I've been our P president for um seven years I think I don't even have a kid at territorial I've been the P president um and then I'm also like on different boards like the grad Knight boards and you know soccer booster club and all that stuff too so I like I said it's it it it's it's definitely I love this district and I love the people that I work for and I'm G to keep going forward so well I always say that we have the best teachers I and I really proud of you your mom your teacher and the fact that you did that that's really awes thank you thank you I would be glad to approve this absolutely go for all right I the motion to and all in favor and for that price you're going to be full I I think so I think so thank you so much ulations thank you all right item 11 a use of alternative funds for Teacher Insurance okay good so I wanted to start with um it's the district's intention and commitment to um fully fund teacher insurance premium so I want to start with that I worked with our attorney um on some language so we have the capacity to use alternate funds to help pay for Teacher Insurance we're expecting a large increase in our insurance premiums this year across the district it's not just us um other districts in the area too insurance premiums are based on something called a loss ratio which means we pay this number of dollars into insurance they like to see us use 80 to 84% of what we spent on premiums and claims right now our claims for last year are running about at 160% so we're almost double what the ideal expenditure is so we know that our insurance um health insurance rates are going up um different funds can be used for different classifications of employees to help pay for those premiums um with our attorney's advice we're going to cap what comes from our maintenance and operations fund for Teacher insurance only and ask you to approve the use of alternate or special funds to make up the difference and so those could be different funds every year depending on what kind of things we have but we have um so we you know we have something like 93 different funds in the district and so um John and I will work together so we always fully fund um you going into next year for sure I know some of our neighboring districts are looking at not fully fund not fully funding employee insurance premiums anymore um and our commitment um at least for next year is that we continue to fully fund all um insurance premiums but teachers are in a special classification so we're just asking for permission that going forward any premium for Teacher insurance right now um our health insurance per employee costs 924720 th000 almost $10,000 a year so we're asking that we'll cap what we spend from M at this year's cost any increased cost will come from funds other than ml most's important have those benefits very important I mean that's one reason why people take the job absolutely go ahe on insurance1 9,242 with affirmation that the additional cost of teach favor thank you item 9 B asphalt maintenance contract award approval MERS of the board we have reviewed and brief the January 13 to the office February responses actually we got resp believe it or not one of the companies that we looked at on my little sheet here that's on a procurement Cooperative contract emailed us their response that's not acceptable put that right in the right in the documents but sometimes when they go back to their office and there six or eight of these things going on so that was a knock out for them um the company that we're proposing is the exact same company we had here the fall of summer and fall 2023 aware open the doors on our mini houses that was October of 2023 this basketball company had been here I think the first time November of 2022 and they got a little bit sideways with the town because there was a a street that came right up over 2 I guess it's two North and one West right there and there was a stop sign coming up and they wanted to back up from that stop at about 30t and make a turn in and they thought they had some permission and some approvals from the town to do that design and there was some gate issues so that stopped them for about two months and then they came back in January of 23 March of 23 and they did a huge project in the South End of Delio and they did the fire and they worked on that for about two and a half months put drains and everything else and that's when we saw just how gifted they were so I had the opportunity Friday to talk to the three references and references Sunland and the one I've never heard this before as a reference from a school district school district that when the salesperson or the account representative would come to the school district he would walk the SES his name Scott Hamilton that he MaDee years and he would tell the school district you don't need to slurry sealed coat that surface at this time got three more years and he was right so you can't imagine any any references higher than for some as bid came in lowest by about 80,000 and they've got a tremendous rep reputation I suppose it's probably their strongest reference in addition School dist facility director what they did over there we' no drau there goes belongs I guess and we're so comfortable with them if we have some money left over in our special fund 620 if you we may have them do a couple more small projects just based on again us being strategic with with our bid but now that we've selected them and we can purchase off of the one GP contract we might not open it up nice to when we have a company come up here from the valley keep people there for two weeks or more it's nice to get as much them as possible that's that's a recommendation Sunland ask don't [Music] so that's that's a really question so five companies that did four of them I mentioned they on this one GPA have one local company and one local company did come to our pre-bid meeting these pre-bid meetings are really cool if the company does see it in the newspaper that the bids are due for Tuesday February 4th at 1:30 p.m.
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to 8:00 p.m. our very own Coalition students are planning to lead students Educators and community members in sessions that address important topics like sensorship gender identity and psychological safety students will share their stories and experiences as students in our diverse District please mark your calendars for an inspiring and impactful event and then the black Excellence ball hosted by iGo High School BSA is happening at o on February 22nd doors will open at 6:00 p.m.
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work G to try to do in the future is obviously beautification of our campus like Isaac talked about when people come here if the school looks you know really cool then that's going to be better than the latter if it doesn't and then also privacy factors so something that we've also envisioned and talked about is doing projects between us and the highway so that's going to increase privacy for the school so that's going to be another benefit that's obviously way down the road but it is a benefit that could eventually occur and then space for mental health benefits so a common denominator in all the discussions between us and administration for the strip of land beautification is that we want it to be a space for all students to go outside and enjoy for various classes and we know that being outside of nature is often healing so we know that it's going to be a great place for mental health benefits that's a definitely a vision that we would like to have for that and then engaging other young students to continue the program and be environmental stewards that's one of our main goals because like Isaac also said previously we don't want this to just fizzle out once we're gone and graduated we want it to continue on and we want not just for the school but we also want that for the environment so teaching others how to be environmental stewards environmental benefits the list is long but those are the big ones carbon sequestering sound barriers water filtration air filtration and reduced runoff but like I said there's a lot more Mr Park could probably go into lots of detail about that and then connection between us and the other High School classes and also other high schools so we've talked about pairing with FFA and other science classes we have a greenhouse here so we envision maybe pairing with other a classes to grow some of our plants because that would be a great way to involve other students and just to make them proud of what we're doing so it's not just like oh yeah you know the green team made that pretty cool like give them a sense of Pride that they put work into it as well as us and then other beneficial Partnerships we've talked about those previously so yeah there we go perfect thank you so there's obviously lots of benefits to our goals and our ideas um but there are a few challenges we don't see these challenges necessarily as uh one side wins and one side loses I'm sure you guys see that all the time where a policy is proposed and one group is really upset because they might feel taken advantage of or they might feel like they're Los something but something we firmly believe is and we can elaborate on this going forward much more but there's we don't believe that there's an aspect of this where someone is hurt or where anyone is uh at loss and in fact we believe that everyone will benefit greatly um to some extent or in various ways from the uh ideas that we have but there still are a few challenges we might run into the first one is sustainability of the group so how do we make sure as we've noted previously that this does not fizzle out um we've talked with h hnhs Administration and there are a few safety is uh concerns there are electrical lines in this strip of land that we uh specifically talked about also puming and water lines so those could potentially be an issue but we're um as we plan this more directly we're going to work around those things precisely and then we also have to make sure that we plant the right stuff as McKenna talked about native plants as um Jake Wyatt presented to our group those are hugee so um obviously all plants are good but native plants are even better in this regard and then this would also take some uh maintenance but we believe with our group and as we continue to grow it the maintenance aspect would not be much of an issue because everyone in our group is super excited about it and they're all willing to put in the the little bit of work that it would take to maintain this uh funding is another issue but that again I don't we don't see that to be as much of a challenge as you could you would anticipate it being uh as McKenna mentioned with Earth Charter they they could help fund us and then there's also lots of private donors throughout the community that are very on board with our ideas and then finally uh Max's picture noted there's potential for as well we live in Indiana he said snow comes and if we fill this area with trees there's um that's taking away an area that they pile snow um but we'll have to be conscious of that and potentially leave some space untouched for the snow and at this time that's the conclusion of our presentation so thank you all for your uh attentiveness and your time but I would also like to ask that if anyone has questions or comments um please let us know or share those with us now questions comments from any of you um I'll start um thanks for bringing this in front of us I think it's a great initiative I I'm like you I don't see many U negatives to this at all um I do have a question um so how big is your team right now uh currently we have 12 um and that's without any advertising um and so uh as we continue to uh have our Apes class AP environmental science class um that's where we see the sustainability of of the group coming from um and because one of the things that uh we want to ensure is that um looking long term that it's it's not a burden upon maintenance you know it's not um a burden upon you know the custodial staff here what have you um one of the things I uh and Mr Hamill who's been really active in this as well uh really wanted to impress upon the students is the fact that um this is how things get done um you throw ideas out there uh people make comments on them uh people ask questions and so um I am super proud of this group for uh kind of stepping up and saying you know this is we're going to go through the right right procedure um and take it step by step and kind of set the foundation for for what's to come next which they probably will never see which I think is kind of exciting that they you know all good ideas start with a dream and and that that's where they're at right now and so the purpose of this was to make sure everybody's on the same page um and because you know and we were super excited to be at a work session because that's that's where ideas get thrown out um and so any questions any comments that any of you have uh are greatly appreciated okay other comments questions from anybody thanks for bringing to us early because I think you're going to run into a stumbling block that we need to help take care of help you guys take care of uh if I remember correctly Mr trout we don't own that whole strip yeah so Cindy if you would go back um to the slide with the red line right there so Bard what you see see the two so this is popler Street I call it popler Street extended all right and it's ironic the mayor and I were just having this conversation today so see Cindy's cursor right she goes up that there right there about half that red line is owned by the city to about a little further right there and then the rest of that line to Viking Lane is owned by the school district and so um this is your lucky day guys is because um we were just getting ready in the next month with two new St two new school board members to relook at this piece with the city okay because on the right side of that is are signs remember and the city had some concerns regarding code issues with it's technically their property but our sign is on their property but if we own the property it wouldn't be a problem blah blah blah we right now as a district do all the maintenance of that entire red strip there the problem is from that cursor down about halfway it's pretty swampy in there because there's some Summers we can't even get a tractor across there to mow and so if you remember right the five of you that were on the board we're just starting to have these conversations last year the pros and cons of us taking over that uh property um along the way and so uh students if the school board decides to move forward welcome you can join the party so to speak and I mean seriously you can see how that entire process works um uh within that but no I don't think that's any reason for us not to continue to support this program other than the fact is was we have to work out those details with the city yet yep and I I do know that that's I just happened to remember that Bren keplinger had also re recently talked about that and just reminded me that hey you guys ever going to move forward with that yes because the difference is with two new school board members I was waiting for them to get their feet on the ground and get and get going and then um when somebody wants to gift you something you always have to stop and think about the pros and cons and you guys are exactly right we've done the study with what's underneath the ground there and you hit the nail on the head of everything that's running through there um right now uh the history lesson is when this property was bought back in the mid 60s late 60s for whatever reason this parcel right here has never been addressed and so uh you give us a little extra motivation to address it at this point in time and that's what we got coming that's what we have as a board coming forward okay so I I would also say uh it could be a great science project at some point for the AP class to maybe help us figure out some of that wetness there and figure out if there's plants there that could help us improve that as well so you it's been uh it's been a huge benefit to have Katherine as a l on to the to the mayor and to the city um and we knew that there was um kind of a gray area I guess with ownership and you know is it these three feet is it these six feet um and as soon as we had uh Jake Wyatt out there um he saw the um he saw all of the Swale the the swamp as a huge benefit um and he immediately rattled off a dozen if not two dozen plants that um could easily be uh put in there not only for uh to to help remove the the runoff but uh for the pollutants as well that we all contribute to uh in that process so it was interesting how you know those of us who want dry land and for some people that's that's not um the the most beneficial thing and so um we we're actively looking into those types of issues so board what we will do is it's to prong here is a um if you're in agreement to move forward and for their documentation purposes we could easily place this on the 24th board meeting under consent agenda since we're discussing it this evening to support their progress moving forward which is just another level of documentation they would have two is that um I will reach back out to Mayor strick but to get more information and as us as a board maybe coming up in an you know at the board meeting or a future work session is discuss this about half that property there is what's in question um within that lastly uh the tailgating goes on on just at the farthest reaches left um knowing if you notice the last couple of football games they moved that and I think that would even give you some more space there to do what you wanted to do because I think in the future the tail gaining aspects will occur as you can see at the top leftand corner here uh those areas are what's being used and then at the Gate entrance and so on and so forth so I think that could be easily done Mr Park I'll stay in touch with you if we're working with the city and the school board through this and you guys want to with your students watch how that process works um we would um gladly incorporate you into that into those steps so we would appreciate that yes little uh government action to ready to go but I want to tell you you three are very impressive um I I I'm not sure at 18 the time that all three of you were talking I could sit there in front of all of us as adults and do that you're you are impressive uh people and I am grateful for each one of the three of you you're incredible credible students and we're very proud of all three of you and Mr Park anything that you touch anything that you have your hands in and leading students is always topnotch and again this is just another example of you and working with kids and students and the impact you're having on students is amazing and so thank you for what you do too uh the smiles on their three faces say it all about that but we are grateful for you also thank you board any other comments questions so we'll bring this to consent agenda and then I'll keep Mr Park a breast of what we're doing with the city with the rest of this and we'll keep kind of include you in that process also okay thank you thanks so much for your time thank you um next up uh DOD thank you for your patience you can come up and join the table uh Pat we'll turn this section over to you then okay so this evening we have DOD cman with us from mkm uh architecture regarding the possibility of some parking lots and tennis courts that need to be done uh hopefully this summer if all goes well and the bids come in and uh we're able to do that and there's actually a fourth lot depending on what bids come in at if we can uh fit that in the project as well so I'll turn it over to dot um thank you and Mr President is there anything that you would like me to focus on otherwise I can give you a bit of background of who we are and what do yeah well let's do this okay um you're new to us I am uh not new to me necessarily we've met a few times let's we just need to do a little backtracking here um to bring you up to speed here um as all of you know uh we are keeping uh Mr thornsbury enormously busy and quite frankly have just about maxed him out here with the high school the restrooms the salamony You Name It We we've got Terry and his entire team um very very busy so in a conversation late fall uh Terry and I were discussing a little extra an extra set of hands so to speak to come in and help us with parking lots so he can remain focused on some of the other pieces and so um Dodd uh was suggested to us as that person who could potentially help us Terry is not going anywhere vidiian is not going anywhere but um mkm is another level of supports with Mr thornsberry that we're using here right now Terry's somewhat got his fingers in on this too but um dot is really helping us make sure we can get this to the finish line so um we thought we would take just a couple minutes to have you explain who you are uh your company the work that you've been doing just so they have some familiarity with you DOD okay perfect and thank you for having me tonight um again as you've heard my name is Dodd katman our firm is mkm architecture and design uh we've been around um for quite a while now we're a firm of about 30 people based in Fort Wayne although we have some roots in Indianapolis and um another city soon um we are a firm of Architects interior designers and planners so when we work on um most projects or larger projects we'll bring in mechanical electrical um engineer low voltage systems um we we have a whole gaggle of team members that we're working on currently at Homestead High School between theater consultants and data consultants and food service consultant you name it uh you've probably all had similar experiences on some of your projects um I personally do quite a bit of community work I I do work with school systems I do work with Civic organizations um I do work with Life Plan communities in fact several years ago just up the road at Heritage Point um we did a large expansion right across the street from cresview and perhaps my most important quality is I am married to an educator so they they rank very highly in my my um my thoughts and in fact for years uh Deb was a teacher at ronoke elementary school and then from there moved on to Early Childhood learning after that so I have a lot of connections there we do quite a bit of libraries across the state and in fact across the Midwest and years ago we uh did the library here in town as well as other projects um schools we do everything from um capital projects summer maintenance work um have worked with different School syst systems uh doing um some work now with um Rochester uh done work with Fort wi Community with steben County um Easttown County uh and and quite a bit of work actually at Southwest Town County so between new schools Renovations additions and the current monster that um we're on six years of the hostage crisis here going it's a very long drawn out uh process of of new construction and renovation that'll amount to about 3/4 of a million square foot uh when all said and done this fall and I hope I don't have to take that back so we're counting on that um I guess I I probably have a lot of um values that are consistent I think with teres who you know very well I know and that uh we're Believers on um doing what we say will do and I I wasn't going to go through the brochure in detail I'm not sure that's important to you but I'll say it's either the last page or the second to last page uh I've included a copy of our um Quality Control process which we take very seriously on every project so um currently as um superintendent trout mentioned were um helping you out to um work on um Crest viiew Riverview Salamon and Lincoln hopefully all four of those schools get your parking lots back up to speed questions for uh DOD comments questions um I appreciate your you taking the time to to come and introduce yourself to us um honestly it was really just kind of about that we've been very comfortable obviously Mr thornsbury and uh had had a chance to to meet with you or hear from you so taking the time to do this is important to us I really appreciate that so much um I see with the with the homestead project you got time to do anything else I mean I've been by that thing a while so that's uh that's been a monster uh and we're actually we're teamed with a a firm from Indianapolis named CSO so we each have close to half of the architectural plus all the specialty Consultants that are involved on that so it's we're just to um at the end of construction now going through progress meetings you know every week and trying to keep that one on TR yeah Terry asked for some extra support and help just from the sheer standpoint of timelines coming up here and trying to get bids in and doing all those type of things um as you know this right now he is very busy just here at the high school with that and for us to get these parking lots in out bid and do that um when Terry and I were having convers ations like I said late fall this is a suggestion of his and one in which I gladly supported with that too so other comments questions that you may have at this point in time for mkm as an as an architect uh what are your qualifications in looking at pavement and parking lots um we have we also have a civil engineer on our team I mean I've work almost every project we do um has pavement of some type um and we have a civil engineer that we're also working with um I'm not a person going out and doing core samples okay of the pavement and going through specialty testing um who's your engineer um gensi Engineers Pete gensi is the civil engineer that's teamed with us Ju Just U my name is Aaron Carl I'm actually a civil engineer and L I build parking lots a lot okay so I was just questioning no thank you well and in this case for the most part it's it's Milling off an inch and a half and and putting a surface coat back on and restriping but as you can imagine as you know there are a lot of areas where that need more intensive work done so um the art is trying to decide where to start and stop oh and and by the way the project includes uh tennis courts also at cret view so I just getting ready to bring that up yes too so not at the high school at both the middle schools I thought yes okay thank you for your question any other comments or questions for mkm well dot it's good to see you thank you for spending a few moments with us and for them to get to know you we have so much trust with Terry um that we just wanted an opportunity to spend a couple minutes with you with that uh with this process also okay my pleasure thank you for having thank you thank you um next um when we met uh a couple months ago uh it was discussed about the possibility of having Mr Stevenson come in um hi Matt hello how are you all right good uh before Matt starts Matt is a teacher here at the high school uh has been with us for a couple of days uh how many years have you taught Matt 22 years 22 years teach here at Huntington North High School and he's also the president of our insurance trust and does an absolutely outstanding job and I appreciate you and your leadership in that uh Endeavor Matt that's not easy uh and so what he's going to do this evening is spend a few minutes with you uh sharing about our employee benefit trust and then you'll have a ample time to ask him any comments or questions that you may have about this too so Matt we'll turn it over to you all right thanks John um as John said I teach here at the high school and about I feel really loud um probably about 4ish five years ago I was elected to be the president of the trust I had been on the trust for probably 7 or eight years prior to that um so just a little information about the trust uh the trust was established in agreement with hccsc and the employees of uh Huntington County Community Schools basically exactly 30 years ago um the trust is made up of 10 voting members there are five administrators and there are five teachers um we have four um non- voting members um and if as you look on the screen up there our trust administrator is Julie Shear um and Julie is responsible for writing all the checks for claims and everything um so Julie does a great job I am eternally grateful for Julie work she is great at what she does um and just another part of our team is lhd benefit advisors specifically Ben fuel birth we have been working with lhd advisers for over 10 plus years and we have a great working relationship with them and um prior to that we had a gentleman named prior to Ben we had uh Jeff Haden from lhd advisors and he's since retired so you can go ahead and move on um I think one thing I just wanted to mention here as we're discussing this is um I guess I don't want to say it's misconception necessarily but mainly just a misunderstanding of how the trust works I think a lot of times people think the trust excuse me that our claims are paid like currently we are going to be working with uh Anthem working starting in this year we started in January 1 um and I think a lot of people think that Anthem pays are claims but that is not true we're a self-funded plan uh and so all of our claims that go through um are paid through the premiums that hccsc pays and that the employees pay for their part so all of that gets deposited every I don't it's every two weeks now um every paycheck and those go into the checking account for the trust and then Julie she takes the time to write all the checks for all those claims that come through that are processed through uh currently Anthem and so I've also included the breakdown of premium collection for the general classifications of all the employees um and how much each classification pays um out of their paycheck and how much HCC hccsc pays so you can go ahead thank you um so I guess the big biggest thing that we I need to address here is the plan performance of the last several years that has been the largest nugget that we've had to struggle with over probably since even two years before I was the president here it's just been um rising cost of insurance has just been outlandish so as you take a look at this graph and I will tell you these graphs have come from lhd they supplied those to us um this is the most recent graph we are going to be meeting actually Thurs day of this week um and I'm sure we will have a new updated graph for 2024 U but as you take a look look um those bars are just showing the budget and the plan the expenses and you can see since basically 2018 it has been a real struggle and we've we've continued to um although we've not been meeting the goal here in terms of um matching the budget here we've still maintained staying under kind of the trend um I suppose you could make an argument that we're not staying under the trend but in terms of maintaining costs as best as we possibly can at this moment uh we're doing decently so you can see up in the upper right hand cor or leftand corner there uh the trust is over 10 years have been increasing by about 4.4% but the trend is 6% so um here's similar graph um and the top line at the top is showing our reserves um and you can kind of see what is that about 2013 2017 we had some relatively High reserves we were sitting pretty and then um again the inflation of in medical costs have really hit us hard um and you can see over there on the far right hand side um after the ibnr um that's the incurred expenses that just haven't processed yet um we were estimating at the end of 2023 again please understand that there's there's data out there for 2024 but just hasn't totally compiled and as a trust we haven't gotten all of that just yet we will hopefully have that on Thursday though um but at the end of that year we were sitting at about 22.3 million and again you can see those you know since 2015 we've had struggles to stay under budget so um this is 2024 this is the best I have for you at this point and in terms of what the 2024 year looked like um and this has been pretty typical the last few years as we kind of get to the middle of the year you can see that gigantic light blue Spike uh those are claims and you can see we're at um at that point in the year we were at 103% of the budget um so we were over budget at that point um and then we dropped back below the next month and then it kind of kept trickling up and then what happens every single year happens every year not to be un expected there um but come December everybody's getting those last things done having those major surgeries um a lot of people have met deductibles um the the plan just takes a real hit at the end of the year and the hope is is that we've stayed under budget enough throughout the entire year by the time we got get to December that um we can stay under budget with December um but it just hasn't happened the last few years um so the primary driver of our our uh you know not staying under budget here our high claims um if you aren't aware um being a self-funded plan we have stop-loss coverage in the tune of $175,000 so we pay all those claims up until $175 the trust does and then once we reach $175,000 is essentially our insurance R our insurance so um we will get reimbursed for everything that goes over $175 $175,000 per member so um last year you can see we in 2024 we had seven members reach stop loss now I I don't have the Actuarial chge to know exactly what the expected number is but through numerous meetings um usually for a group our size they usually say around five five to six so I talked to Ben um he's again our adviser and he said you're running running high in terms of the number of people who've reached stop loss um now that's not the only issue we also had 12 members that their claims exceeded $90,000 um and I was looking at the data that we had received and of the of the 19 of those people that were at a restop loss or getting up really high 18 of 19 are still actively enrolled um some of those things kind of fall off because they're just like onetime things but you know some of them might be cancer or you know whatever else that just are that never go away well hopefully go away but um those things are just some of those things are just continuous and they'll be on our they'll be on our books for a while potentially um so last year we had 775 $755,000 of reimbursements from stoploss so I me you think about $755,000 that's more than a month of claims that we would normally expect we ideally we would expect to see about 550,000 in 550,000 is in claims I shouldn't say that $550,000 in expenses in a month and you know we're talking 750,000 in sorry about that in uh stop-loss reimbursements for the year so we're talking over a month of reimbursements that we had to get back we had to we had to pay them but then we get reimbursed for those Matt Matt talk a little bit about if you just elaborate why that $90,000 figure so important why we Mark that because it that could be easily lost this uh yes um so the $90,000 obviously is a large number okay so when we're talking about those people that are reaching stop loss when when they're accumulating claims when they get to 175 it's kind of like okay we don't have to pay for those anymore but then those people that are over $90,000 you know something else happens for them we still are paying those claims that's a large amount that they're not reaching that stop loss but we are still responsible for everything that they have until they reach that so that 90,000 when when I was sent this information um that was kind of the C off that they use like these are your really high claim amounts that haven't reached stop loss at this point go ahead thank you um so this this data is not completely accurate at this point because it's obviously been two weeks and we're constantly every week paying claims and everything so as of January 31st um the checking account that Julie writes uh claims checks from had $251,000 in it um now we do have a I do have a qualifier to say on that in just a second um now back in the late fall I guess early winter um hccsc has dedicated to make bu monthly payments um we were only getting premium payments into the account um one once a month um and that sometimes disrupted cash flow we'd get we'd get it get a little low and we still had to wait a couple weeks or wait a week before those uh claims got into the checking account so having that those premiums come in every two weeks um The Hope is that that will help with cash flow as we're writing checks uh the PNC there's two PNC accounts the PNC operating is basically a money market account um that's funds that have been taken out out of the reserve account the reserve account is an uh investment account um and so we have to keep some money in that operating account for um essential emergencies if we have a a claim run that is just too big to bless you um if we have a claim run that's just a little bit too big to cover with what's in the check account then we can use that operating fund to transfer over um so as as of the end of January we had approximately 999,000 that is the lowest I've seen it okay now that two 251,000 again that was at the very end of January since that time obviously more claims have come in we are working on the runoff of UMR I'll talk about that in a moment um and now we're also starting to get some new claims from the new insurance year so um so we've we're kind of finishing up the previous year and starting to work on the beginning of this year um and I I will address that a little bit more as we move I think you can go ahead thanks Cindy is is that actually January 31st of 2025 oh sorry that's a thank you that should be 2025 thank you so um the biggest issue is how do we try to mitigate those those costs how can we find ways to um try to keep ourselves under budget and try to grow our reserves um so twice in the last 5 years we've explored moving to Parkview Signature Care um we've looked into that closely we've been been right on the doorstep two different times um and both times it was just and again I want to remind everybody that this is a 10p person team this is not a me decision um the team decided that it just didn't make sense at that time uh the primary reasons um I've written up there is that the verifiable savings were minimal um I think the first time we looked at it it would have maybe saved about 2% if I recall correctly that's been about four years four or five years ago um was about 2% and we didn't feel that at 2% it was worth the disruption and care for everybody um and so um that was part of the reason and the verifiable savings and again I'm I want to be careful about what I say here but the the information that Parkview will give us is what they say but we have to go by what we know in the factual numbers that we can fully evaluate um and so while they say this is not completely accurate we can't prove that um through the numbers so we can do have them do um repricing on everything um and like I said there there's just things that we can't verify um the other reason that we've we haven't moved to a part viiew Signature Care is because of limit limitations of network accessibility um people have their opinions about Park viw and we just try to keep our Network as broad as possible um and then as you may have heard in the last year or so um actually longer than that is there's concerned about part viiew pricing so I'm not going to get into that any further because I'm sure we've all heard that so um a couple years a well it was a couple years ago yeah we started a paid health program we did that for two years essentially that was uh looking for alternative sources of specialty drug funding um so that that was one of those programs that kind of run its course and paid Health was kind of running out of options on finding that Alternative Care so it wasn't as beneficial as it was when we first started um last year we tried to work with Garner Health we did that for a year um what that was doing is sending trying to send members to Preferred providers and if they went to those preferred preferred providers they potentially could have been reimbursed for their uh for their care um so that I had talked to several people that had done that and they were very happy with that we just couldn't get people to use it uh the main thing I think they were just not happy with um their choices of people they we had a there was an app that they could use they could get on there um but I just I just think that was the main issues they know though the doctor I want to use is not on the app so we just had low utilization um so that was the reason we W walked away from that um The Wellness incentive um The Wellness incentive oh probably five years probably before I was president was $800 we had um members could get their blood drawn um there's lots of different requirements but out of the trust funds um so again hccsc isn't paying this it's coming from the trust funds um we would offer a wellness incentive of $800 to uh the HSA accounts of our members that was a drop down we dropped that down to $700 I think my first or second year on um and then I think the year after that we had to drop it down to 350 because it became obvious that we can't afford to do that um so we're still trying to give them something um and then this year we we did away with it partly because we also had to deal with do away with hsas in general so we were in the process of eliminating that anyway um but it's kind of a moot point at this point with our plan um and then the last thing on that list I think I had one more that I wrote down was a we also explored the idea of using a preferred Clinic provider and working with Cardinal Family Medicine we were really excited about this opportunity um working with uh Cardinal Family Health over there beside Starbucks and we were excited about the opportunity of having direct Primary Care with them our members would have had access to to that Primary Care care hopefully working with Dr Fleer over there would have given the opportunity to catch some of those things as they were experiencing health issues and he would be kind of on part of our team to um help them explore and get to providers that he he or we deemed as quality providers um unfortunately again the cost risk of that was too high I think we were talking somewh around $500,000 to do that and again with the position that we were in it it just wasn't feasible um so we're hoping that if we can get ourselves back on solid footing we can try that again because again we without the guarantee that people are going to utilize that essentially that's just money flying out the door with no guarantee of the savings coming back to us um so essentially you know we've we've tried a lot of things we've explored a lot of a lot of options but essentially the main thing um that we have control over that we can try to do because obviously people using their insurance is what we want them to do but we can't control how much that costs necessarily um is through plan design so uh you can flip this slide there for me a couple times I suppose so let me give you an idea of what the plan looks like as of today and the changes that were made for 2025 so before I start this um there are significant changes for 2025 so we've made some serious plan design changes I've talked to sever several people um I've had several people come to me and said they're very happy with what's going on right now in fact Mr Park just said something to me as before he left um he said he really likes how this new insurance plan is working so uh we have been on a high deductible healthcare plan for many years I I can't even tell you exactly when how long we've been on one but it's been for many years so we've switching over to a PPO plan so um we're moving from UMR to Anthem health sync Network Health Anthem health sync network is a PO um and what that does is it makes Lutheran Health Network the tier one provider for us um essentially what that means for members is that's lower co-pays for them and lower deductibles for them Park View is tier two okay and that's always been a struggle to think about that because they are in our backyard um but unfortunately they are the highest cost healthc care provider um one of the highest in the state un unfortunately um so going to park viw will cost our members higher co-pays and higher deductibles um now I think there's been some misconception from people um it's been communicated out numerous times but even then still there's still misconception um and so I want to clarify that with all of you that members have full access to both of those networks there is no limitation on going to Parkview or going to Lutheran so I think sometime some members were confused about oh I I'm signing up for Lutheran or Parkview that's not the case um they have both options available to them at all times it's just Parkview will cost them more um and of course when they go to Parkview it's going to cost the plan more so that's why we have to do that um for the first time in uh geez years I couldn't even tell you again when was the last time we had copays um so our members will be paying co-pays when they go see the doctor and it's on one of those later slides we'll get to in a second uh dedu deductibles are now embedded um just kind of explain what that means embedded deductibles mean that there is a each member of the family has their own deductible so what that's really good for it's really good for families that have like one particular person in that family who uses a lot of the health care so that person only has to meet the single deductible whether that be2 or $3,000 depending on the plan they signed up for and then they're moving on to you know the insurance is then covering everything with the co- Insurance before it was a non-embedded deductible meaning you had to meet the entire uh deductible for the entire family so even if this one person was the one using all the healthare with they that one person had to get to the inductible before insurance kicked in so again that is that is good for families especially um so I mentioned earlier about hsas um hsas are not supported under this plan and the reason are is legally we can't we can't provide them and the reason is we can't provide them is because when people go see their doctor and they're paid with a co-pay um the insurance is paying the rest of that visit so the insurance is paying first dollar coverage for that visit and so because of that just legally we can't allow employees to have an HSA now they still have the option of um opening an FSA if they choose to um with American Fidelity but that's their decision um we have TR scrips is our far Pharmacy benefit manager we've been working with him for a couple years um and that seems to be going really well um our premiums for this year increased 11 and a half% um with this switch we were actually looking at a 177% increase if we did not switch switching to this plan we also increased that bottom line to try to help the reserves to try to build those reserves a little bit um so we're hopeful that that amount right there that's 12 and a half% increase will get us more on stable footing help us build some of those reserves as we work through the rest of this year so uh I think that was all I need um on this screen are the monthly premiums that members pay um so that there's two Colum well there's two main columns that there's poo plan one and PPN poo plan two uh poo plan one and two are essentially the same thing the only difference is po plan two is a little bit more little less expensive but the deductible is higher so um so there's a little bit of difference I think I said that right there's a little bit of difference between those in terms of the premium that the members pay um so I don't know that there's anything else I need to say about that screen uh I know this is maybe a little hard to see unless you have it in front of you but those are the co-pays that um members would pay um you can see they're essentially the same thing from poo plan one and two um you can see at the top under deductible uh po plan two does have a higher deductible so let again let me just try to clarify this if you just focus on PPN poo plan one that's tier two or excuse me tier one on the left side of that kind of redish box so that's if you were to go to Lutheran providers your deductible would be $2,000 if you were in tier two so if you're going to visit uh Parkview or any other tier 2 provider your deductible for that would be 5,000 U but again members have access to both but it's just a higher cost and you can see the uh deductibles and Co insurance for those two how they compare um and one of the questions that I had been receiving from from Members um one of the concerns that they had had seeing that there was tier one and tier two and knowing that hey we're sitting in Huntington and the closest emergency care is Huntington Park View um they're they were concerned about that and I said understandably but the thing is that all emergency care is considered tier one so if you get admitted to the hospital um because of that emergency that is supposed to all be under tier one care so under the the cheapest amount now if they admit you to the hospital for something not really related to that um whatever they deem whatever the hospital deems however they code that it could slide into tier two if you're at Huntington Hospital but um emergency carry is tier one so that again I think that alleviated some concerns that some of our members had about that thank you um these next few slides are going to be pretty quick um just Delta Dental um we this year we bundled this is interesting because uh Delta is also offering Vision as well they're partnered with vssp which we've had for a while so by partnering with by bundling Delta Dental with Delta Vision which is also vsp's Network um there was a little bit of savings there but um the savings for Delta or for dental and vision are usually pretty pretty minimal so you can go ahead and move on there um oh hello so there was the vision again I don't think there's too much a need to say about that uh and the last thing I just want to mention here is one of the things that is always a struggle is making sure our members understand how to use their care and what is available to them and what they can find and the information that they have available to them um so this year um lhd our again our benefit adviser has provided to us a service free of charge and that's creating a hub for us that we have linked on our benefits page this is not really what it looks like I just took some snap some screenshots of what that looks like but allows them to go in and see our the benefit guide very very easily it's right there at your fingertips it's much more organized than it has been in the past um so there's a I think if you click one more there's another yeah so this is just clicking on one of the the links there we've got some uh 2025 frequently asked questions so those are things that have been there since the fall when we first did open enrollment we had those frequently asked questions um so they can get all that information that they want um there's also an AI generated question and answer thing on there as well so if they're looking for something specific they can type that in and that should give them a a decent explanation what that is um so I've been working to when I meet with people or when I meet with people and or try to answer their questions uh through emails which I usually how to get those things I always try to steer them toward the Hub say this is is the best place you can get their answer your answer I will try to answer their questions the best I can but then try to steer them toward the Hub so um so that is my presentation so if we have questions concerns Mr trout no uh questions for Matt comments nice job Mr Stevenson very detailed I do spouses on our our coverage if they're covered by another plan I'm sorry even if they're covered by another plan so let me let me talk about that just a little bit that is another thing we've looked at in terms of we've talked about that I won't say we looked into it too deeply um and there's a reason we haven't um but that has been one of the things we've we discussed in terms of trying to find some ways to save the plan the struggle that you have with that and our adviser said he's he's seen this go both ways is when you say okay we're going to carve out spouses then is he seen it you know pay off well and he said it's been a disaster at times and the very difficult part of that is to get that information from members and to know who really has insurance or who whose spouses really have insurance and who don't um the other issue is that when you start eliminating people how many of those people are going to be your cheaper members and who's not are we eliminating people who are high cost members are we eliminating people who are essentially not costing us anything and obviously when you're talking about carving people out you'd want to keep the people who are cheap for you so but again that's that's very difficult data to to get to and to really know for sure um because that has to come directly from the members without a for sure knowing what we'd get into it's just really difficult cliff to jump off of at this point so especially in the situation financial situation we're in if we were in a little bit better financial situation maybe we could explore that a little deeper but yeah just concerns yeah I mean we have um looked at a variety of specific pieces like that that we could do and what Matt has done a great job is the data that we have provided that we gave you the evening is our is our best plan moving forward to ensuring that we get to their bottom line right um and so we want to provide highquality Health Care uh for our employees at a reasonable cost um you know I'm not thrilled about on a personal level on the Park View piece but as a whole we felt like this was our best option moving forward for long-term sustainability quite frankly and so we're still giving our members two you know they can they can go either either Direction with that obviously um there's one better than the other but we're still open to that and so when I first came in I'm one of the first ones that brought out uh spous of carv out uh within that but Ben has done a tremendous job with the data saying I'm not so sure that's going to get us to where we want to go with that and so um Matt's spot on on with that good what else Deb um are mental health needs covered under the insurance policy um yeah we also have um employee assistance program so that's also linked on the The Hub as well so that's helpful as well very good and do you have a relationship with any of the um Wellness facilities around the area like the or some of the others where they will give a discount to members who are participating in your insurance plan I'm sorry I start speaking before you quite done I didn't catch the very end of what you said I apologize just wondered if if any of the any of the um facilities around the county offer a discount for your members like why or well I I think usually those things are usually discounts for the employee way of hunting County Community Schools when they offer those not just specifically for the insur for the insurance off but they do have the they have in the past I currently don't know what I couldn't tell options they have at this point yeah they usually if the Y approaches us they'll do it as the entire uh School Community right so it's not I don't want to mislead you it's not linked to the insurance plan it's more done so hey there's usually the why with the Y quite frankly they send something out very early in the year we have we have staff to takes advantage of that but it's not linked to the insurance ins right bership drive thank you thank you very much yeah other comments questions uh Matt thank you um I'm sorry did you have one Aaron just a quick one on the the co-pays and stuff does that come out of the deductible or is that additional so a a co-pay does not count toward your deductible but they do count to your out-of- pocket maximum at the end of the year so or whenever if you get to that it would count toward that so deductibles do not count as a general rule again pretty much any copay wouldn't count so others sorry Aaron didn't see you others well Matt thank you it's very detailed incredibly informative we'll try to put you out here about this time every year excuse me the update was spot on I'll see you Thursday afternoon but it's good to see you thank you um up next um we are really excited to share this with you um Tiffany has just been almost jumping up and down for the opportunities to do this I've seen a couple of these couple weeks ago and so I'm not going to steal your thunder Tiffany I'll let you take it from here okay okay well good evening thank you for letting me be here tonight I am really excited to share some new marketing materials with you um last spring The Learning Center was contacted by the donwood foundation and asked if we would like to participate in a marketing campaign centered around Advanced manufacturing um we happily accepted their invitation and anchor films out of Fort Wayne produced two videos for us the first focuses on telling the story of one of our welding students and why she chose to participate in our program uh we are thrilled with how this video turns out um we have put this on our Facebook page the district website we've sh it to every eighth grader in the county and then we have a second video also that anchor films did that talks a little bit more specifically about the Learning Center so I'm going to show you both of those now I'm Jasmine Shephard and I'm a welder before welding I I wasn't a very motivated kid like at all I would do my assignments and everything it just if something wouldn't click with me was like too scared to ask about it so I just kind of didn't but like after welding being able to see it firsthand it was just so much easier I think it was either seventh or eighth grade I had a class that was for college careers and stuff they showed like a slideshow thing of a bunch of different things they offered with the high school and I saw the welding video and the thing that stood out the most was just the fact that you can be creative with it and also I I just like playing with fire the first time I welded it was I was really nervous I think as soon as like I put the hood down and I got a bead down I knew immediately that I would be doing this for like ever so definitely found my passion so I have a chronic illness it's called cyclic vomiting syndrome a lot of teachers thought I was either trying to get out of class or just wanting like attention but here instead of just send me home or brush me off it was like acknowledging it and like redirecting me cuz there was a time where I thought that I would have to like file for disability and everything I didn't think I would be able to get a job so it's really nice to have a job where it's got like flexible hours and everything so when I meet people they'll like tell me I'm lucky that I found it so early because they struggled a lot with what they wanted to do or like went back and forth between different things they wanted it's really cool to me that I have found this like so early I think in about a year I'll still be getting educated because I think my goal with this is to learn as much as possible I kind of just want to learn every type of welding there is start something big learn about career exploration opportunities at your child School visit ignite Advanced manufacturing.com for more information my name is Tiffany Drummond I'm the principal of the Huntington County Community Learning Center the Huntington County Community Learning Center is a collaborative partnership between our local school district the community and the industry and we are here to provide that foundation for students to make really good choices for their future we offer a variety of programs in advanced manufacturing as well as health care Public Safety and Automotive here at the Learning Center we really stress the importance of transferable skills we talk with our industry Partners a lot about soft skills and what skills the students need to be successful because typically those are transferable skills so it's important to know how to program a machine but it's equally as important to show up to work every day and to show up on time and put forth good effort and that looks the same no matter what industry you're in I think there's a perception sometimes that advanced manufacturing is dark and it's dirty and you're going to do the same job over and over when really in a lot of areas it's evolved and it's clean environments it's climate controlled it's collaboration it's integration of Technology you can do a variety of different things throughout your career and that's something that we work to help our students understand and to show them that you can have so many different jobs within Advanced manufacturing Advanced manufacturing it just really involves a lot of technology and I don't think everybody realizes that so our students they've grown up in a tech environment right they're very very comfortable with technology that's such a bonus for them going into advanced manufacturing because it does involve so much technology and so many Hands-On skills and our students are natural fit for that if there's one thing I could tell people about our programs here is that they're an amazing opportunity for their students they get to explore while still in high school they're going to get some valuable industry knowledge some dual credit some certifications The Learning Center is really for everyone and it's a great opportunity start something big learn more about opportunities in advanced manufacturing at ignite advanc manufacturing.com so both of those were completed last last summer and we're very grateful to the Don wood foundation for their support with those uh then last fall the Community Foundation of Huntington County came to me and they were actually piloting the ignite your future um campaign program for hunon County and they asked how they could best support the Learning Center and we are constantly looking for new and better ways to connect with our students and to show them the opportunities that are available to them um and so where we landed was doing a series of um three kind of promotional trailers that show the programs that are at the The Learning Center and so those are the three that we're going to take a look at now every day we make choices that will determine the rest of our lives let us find our way together craft a stable path forward [Music] and ignite your future [Music] what path will you choose and how will you be remembered join us in this journey [Music] and ignite your future [Music] I want to see you make it to your destination I want to see you build it and I want to see you ignite your future [Music] so February is National Career and Technical Education Month um so as part of our Facebook campaign for public awareness those are being unveiled each Friday so if you go to our Facebook page we're actually highlighting all 19 of RCT Pathways this this month um but we dropped the first one of those trailers this past Friday and then they'll roll out each Friday and then on the 28th we have one more video that's almost done it's about two minutes long and it's a compilation um that the trailers are based off of so um those are all coming out this month and those were all filmed at the Learning Center and at our construction site this year um so those are all our students our staff um and we hope to use those in a variety of ways so to educate our community to educate our students those will be available to our guidance Department we'll pushing those out on canvas for students to have access to them um but it's just a way to really show students what they can do because we know that they engage with media differently right like the shorter videos um tend to be more appealing so we're just excited to share those on Facebook and Instagram do you have any questions comments questions Tim um those are fantastic I I mean I just told Mr child was like watching a trailer for Lord of the Rings I mean that was um really really impressive and well done um anxious to share those when I see them on social media thank you you're welcome and I feel to mention those were produced by spyy face media here in honeyton um they did the the shorter trailer ones but they did a great job right I was just gonna ask how is everything going with Area 18 and getting that transition I know it's not quite what you're talking about yeah but could you just brief update on that while you're here absolutely I actually had a great meeting with the state this past Thursday um and we have been Advanced to the final step of that process so it looks looks like they're going to do an on-site visit on the 20th um they're confirming the agenda but they'll actually come into our programs and then that would be the last step before we get official approval so things are looking good so far good letter letter went today as a matter of fact uh to the superintendent on Area 18 uh from that process also so we are um with an agreement on um purchasing our own equipment back that we got from per dollars through Area 18 we have an agreement on both sides with that and so we're close to getting that all finalized then so a letter I submitted a letter today with that with that agreement piece if they accept that we'll be bringing that back to you as the board uh for final approval then so we are really close um in this process right now and one thing I clarified with the state is um could we go ahead and do the local application to secure our own Perkins funding for this year and it looks like we're going to be able to so and I hesitated to think but do Deb and Aon know what I was talking about when I saying that do you guys are you aware cool just want to make sure I some of us have been around for a while and we know that but I just want to make sure you guys are up on it anything else for Tiffany Tiffany well done these are extremely well done um I'm excited for our students to see that and see these um I think it's a great opportunity for them to get a little different look into the Learning Center but you're doing a tremendous job so thank you thank you okay thank you thanks Tiffany all right next I just wanted to bring to your attention that the calendar committee uh which is made up of teachers and uh administrators in the district will be getting together soon um we'll be bringing you a set of three-year calendars uh for your consideration um we are going to be or I'm going to be proposing that next year's calendar uh we which you've already approved we're going to remake it taking off the two-hour delays okay and so matching that also um we have some request uh from some of our staff that if we would consider uh moving the fall conferences back a couple weeks till after the first nwe grading period I've even had some parents reach out to me to see if that would be possible I think think that makes a lot of sense also all this to say we're just letting you know that we're going to begin starting that process here is in the next I think it's week yeah I got a cal I got an appointment coming up here whe we're going to get the calendar committee back together but Our intention is is to work off of this current Year's calendar uh and try to follow that as close as we can maybe some minor adjustments I bring this to you this evening is there anything else that you would like for me to take in into consideration at least initially in these rough drafts um to consider like I said we'll take the two-hour delays off for next year possibly moving back to fall conference dates a couple of weeks uh anything else that you would like to see um before I launch into this with the committee anybody got anything that you would like to see I know there was questions about graduation at least last year has any further discussion been we really haven't um I'm that's on my that's on my list I got a folder full I know that's in there um that's a tough one because I have just as many people telling me to leave it on a Sunday for family as I do people telling me that Sundays don't work if you remember I look back history-wise the reason we did that is for um our students who qualify for the state track meet as allowing them the opportunity to participate in graduate and we always seem to have a several that uh make it to that level so that makes sense to me too but that's one of the things that we can talk about too I just I just know that there were some seniors that seem to want to have a conversation but they I think we need to at least reck them know that this is when we're having those conversations so right absolutely the only other question is I did actually just recently got asked over the weekend we don't have the 2026 calendar out there anywhere to find I didn't see it on the website so Cindy the 2526 calendar was up there on the website but with it having one two hour delay a month in it we felt like it would be best to pull that down so as we don't cause confusion with the public um I can certainly share other dates with people I've had a couple people ask me on some dates and I shared those I I found a draft that was in our board doc so I shared that draft and I said I thought this is what we did but uh they were just looking for some specific things to not cause too much confusion for the only difference for next year is going to be just the two-hour delays coming off so that's good yep anything else okay uh items from the board uh School Board any items that you would like to bring forward this evening uh Mr wall I was just gonna give you a brief update uh on the uh board leadership uh board president leadership sem seminar that we both Tim and I will able to attend January 31st I had to think about what the date was it was a couple weeks ago um it was a fun time um a lot of interesting ideas that came out of there but a couple of things that both Tim and I have been talking about since then that I thought would be good to get on the board's uh radar uh one of the first things was we one of the topics that we talked about with superintendent evaluations made me remember that we had two new board members uh here that are going to have to do their first superintendent evaluation in June so I thought it might be a wise thing to maybe get together before June and maybe kind of get you caught up to speed on that give you the idea of what how we do that process here and then also then just open up the conversation of is do we want to continue that process or do we want to look for move forward on that um one of the recommendations that they did bring about about that was even having a midyear so this is a little late for a midyear kind of check-in but it may be a good thing to start and then we can maybe even discuss about having a calendar of check-ins and stuff like that in the future but just want to get that on your radar um I know my very first year on the board I I came in in January and then June they said here fill this out and I'm like huh so I'm just trying to give you guys a little bit of a heads up uh and I I know that's just one of those things uh out there that we were talking about so um I know Tim has talk to to John about that I think we may just choose another night out of that and have an executive session to just kind of go over that as far as a evaluation process and how that goes and just get in that and just get you guys get your feet wet so you're not completely shocked in June it is a requirement that we do evaluate superintendent every year uh it is uh statute wise that we have to do that evaluation and we have to turn that in so that's why it's important to to kind of go over that and take care of that um the last thing it came up and it was interesting then we we had these conversations about that and then lo and behold uh it kind of slowly happened uh one of the things that they talked about uh down there is just having a superintendent um succession plan not so much as as he's gone and we have that process it's more like he's out of the town or something along that lines and just giving that ability to have the board have something approved about that um and it does kind of fall in line with the policy that we have if he's unavailable how that goes and that's policy 1260 it actually talks about incapacitation but you know I just look at that so um just another thing to just maybe document you know if John's not available and Chuck sick who do we talk to and stuff like that and just have that something that we review on a on a yearly basis undo that type of thing uh just of things to do that so those were kind of very high level things um as you can see that the book was rather large and it was a good good day session uh with a lot of different interesting ideas there were some recurring themes and I'm just going to end on the recurring theme that I actually took away that was actually kind of stuck with me in that and uh it was something that I've heard but it just really hit hard at that conversation and it was and it was mentioned a BN a couple of times but it it was reminding us that as board members we should focus on the why and not the how that the we as the board should focus on the why and the administration should focus on the how and that should be our guiding principle going forward so that's how I'm going to leave it for the day uh and go from there so on that note have a great day thank you Mr wall uh yeah the one of the things you always have to worry about if you send a couple of board members to a conference down in Indianapolis we're going to come back with a lot of cool stuff so um yeah we got ideas and so as as Ryan said we would like we're going to try to set up a a um a meeting executive session with the board uh to review some of these things particular the evaluation part of this um it's it is very important it literally is our most important job um so U we'll we'll be talking a lot about that over the next four to six weeks for sure um anybody else I have something Mr trout do you have an update on the property at salamony yes uh Joe uh would you want to give us uh if you want to come forward here and have a seat at the table can you give us the latest as of this afternoon about the property at celemony well as Tiffany indicated the area 18 is getting very close and just as I was sitting there I got I received the last piece of information from the town of Warren's attorney attorney um so we are very close um if you recall there were two Parcels at salamony where the school and the track sets and then there was another piece that kind of wrapped around it so there were two separate legal descriptions the end result of what were selling to the town of waren is two Parcels but they don't match the original description destion so we had to go through a survey process uh the town commissioned that paid for that it didn't cost us anything and that survey had to go through the DCd process approval of a a subdivision split and a lot line adjustment that occurred last Tuesday the 4th that uh the DCd approved that the survey they hold it for the survey for seven days and so it will be released tomorrow we are very tentatively set for a uh possibly a Thursday closing however these restrictive covenants that I I could show you my phone I just got uh half hour ago I'll have to review those to make sure that complies with what we want to have as restrictive covenants so uh certainly I would say by the end of the month at the various latest but it could occur as as early as this week or the week following so I think we're sliding into home we're not there yet uh but the the governmental approvals came last Tuesday and uh that survey will be released tomorrow comments questions for Joe that answer your question question Tim thank you Mr Wy I'm sure you'll keep us updated as things pro progress thank you anything else from members of the board I will entertain a motion to adjourn make a motion that we adjourn thank you Mr wall and do we have a second thank you Mrs Heim any questions or comments all those in favor I I I we're adjourned
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at the ashin Historical Society at two martle Street Dive Into the fascinating yet tragic history of the early English colonies in Massachusetts this presentation covers the arrival of the pilgrims the Lesser known Weston's men settlement in West auset which is now wayth and the violent conflict of 1623 free and open to the public coming up also is the Ashen Education Foundation casino night this will be held on Saturday March 8th from 7: to 10:30 p.m. at the Warren Conference Center join the Ashlin Education Foundation for an exciting casino night featuring the Metro nonprofit Network enjoy classic Cino games live music dancing food drinks and auctions all while supporting local schools and nonprofits you can register online the open space and Recreation plan Forum this will be held on Thursday February 15th at 700 p.m. at the community center help shape the future of Ashen open spaces and Recreation areas for the next seven years share your thoughts in person or via Zoom happenings at the Ashlin Public Library are you looking for something fun and engaging check out these upcoming events at the Ashlin public library for adult and teen events we have make your own dark chocolate dip with Heidi mendu this will be Wednesday February 12th at 6:30 p.m.
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at the ashin Historical Society at two martle Street Dive Into the fascinating yet tragic history of the early English colonies in Massachusetts this presentation covers the arrival of the pilgrims the Lesser known Weston's men settlement in West auset which is now wayth and the violent conflict of 1623 free and open to the public coming up also is the Ashen Education Foundation casino night this will be held on Saturday March 8th from 7: to 10:30 p.m. at the Warren Conference Center join the Ashlin Education Foundation for an exciting casino night featuring the Metro nonprofit Network enjoy classic Cino games live music dancing food drinks and auctions all while supporting local schools and nonprofits you can register online the open space and Recreation plan Forum this will be held on Thursday February 15th at 700 p.m. at the community center help shape the future of Ashen open spaces and Recreation areas for the next seven years share your thoughts in person or via Zoom happenings at the Ashlin Public Library are you looking for something fun and engaging check out these upcoming events at the Ashlin public library for adult and teen events we have make your own dark chocolate dip with Heidi mendu this will be Wednesday February 12th at 6:30 p.m.
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at the ashin Historical Society at two mytle Street Dive Into the fascinating yet tragic history of the early English colonies in Massachusetts this presentation covers the arrival of the pilgrims the Lesser known Weston's men settlement in West ausset which is now wayth and the violent conflict of 1623 free and open to the public coming up also is the Ashen Education Foundation casino night this will be held on Saturday March 8th from 7: to 10:30 p.m. at the Warren conf Conference Center join the ashin Education Foundation for an exciting casino night featuring the Metro nonprofit Network enjoy classic Cino games live music dancing food drinks and auctions all while supporting local schools and nonprofits you can register online the open space and Recreation plan Forum this will be held on Thursday February 15th at 7 p.m. at the community center help shape the future of ashen's open spaces and Recreation areas for the next seven years share your thoughts in person or via Zoom happenings at the Ashlin Public Library are you looking for something fun and engaging check out these upcoming events at the ashleen public library for adult and teen events we have make your own dark chocolate dip with Heidi mendu this will be Wednesday February 12th at 6:30 p.m.
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Friday at 6:00 a.m. Saturday at 8:00 a.m. and Sunday at 2 pm. the meeting will be rebroadcast on DCTV channels 18 on Monday and Saturday at 12:00 pm and Thursday at 3 pm and as always we thank Mr parate and his students uh for providing our Television live stream this evening could we have a roll call please miss gner Kathleen amral here John Nunes yep Mary Beck here best Coughlin here Chris Oliver here thank you very much good to see everyone at this time I just ask everyone to please if you have a electronic device cell phone anything else please silence it and I'm happy to turn the uh recognition over of our green apple Awards uh to Dr sa McGuire and we're going to go right up to the podium so um first wow look at all the people that we have here I bet our green apple recipients weren't expecting to see this many people uh see them get recognized but how how much I think it's even better to have all these people here and to have some of our students in the audience to hear about your teachers and other staff members in Dartmouth who've been recognized by their colleagues and they received an award tonight the first ever in Dartmouth we had what we call a green apple award ceremony the Green Apple award is actually presented to any member of the Dartmouth Public School Community who's nominated by a colleague for exemplifying one or more of dartmouth's core values in other words Green Apple award recipients exemplify what it means to demonstrate Dartmouth pride pride personal excellence and responsibility respect for self and other other s inclusivity diverse opportunities and ethical commitments and we wanted to take a moment to publicly recognize the four people that we awarded the green apple to tonight with a certificate from the school committee in conjunction with the superintendent's office and so I'm going to ask Mr Oliver to call up each recipient we're going to ask you to stay up here because we're going to take a picture uh right afterwards so we start with good evening everyone once again we will start with our first recipient Michael [Applause] Capello yes I know so we told them this is our inaugural time doing this so that any of the Kinks that need to be worked out we're going to figure it out tonight um so next we have Mr Daniel [Applause] lafab don't worry the teachers um students you're going to be up here in a few minutes so you know you could you'll be able to stand up here in front of all these folks yourselves in a minute Hillary [Applause] Souza and last but not least Cheryl cam so we're just we're going to take a quick picture but before we do it we just want to say um again how grateful we are to have the quality of Educators and staff that we do here in Dartmouth and this is a way for us to take a moment to honor them and one of the best parts of this is that these folks were nominated by their own College colleagues these are the people that are working beside them every day we have some honores that we're actually going to publish on our website because there were other folks that were also nominated but these are our first actual Green Apple award recipients so one more round of applause for them and we'll take a picture and if I if I could ask my colleagues to come up all of us and we'll take a picture with them and then we'll turn it on want that can we be back here yeah I guess we're still working out the king so mdle there we [Laughter] go guys got roll on over there we go thank [Applause] you I will just say on behalf of the dmouth school committee congratulations some of you my my my daughters have had in the past um I've worked with so congratulations and I don't know if any of my colleagues would like to say anything well done congrats well done what a great what a great program and a great way to recognize some of our staff here at Dartmouth Public Schools so thank you for those of you who are with the uh the Green Apple award recipients we have a few more uh recogn we have at least one more recognition we do uh we're going to uh recognize right now so it would be nice right to have this big crowd and I'm sure um Kathy Thorton who I know is here I saw her I know I caught sight of her if she could come up um so we we wanted to recognize uh Kathy this even you don't you this evening um because she was recently recognized as the MIAA that's the Sports Authority that governs all of Massachusetts High School athletics as the athletic trainer of the year and we wanted to make sure that the committee had a chance to recognize and just so I I've seen Kathy in action I don't know if any of you have but I have to say um she is one of the most Vigilant folks that I see out whether it's at at the football field um whe whether the students are playing soccer field hockey basketball um I any actually anything where a student might be in need of help and and I I've said this about Kathy before Kathy has what I'd like to call an Eagle Eye meaning that you don't think she's noticing what's going on from a hundred yards away but she in fact does and you can tell when she immediately responds by jumping in her tractor and racing across the field to um make sure that she's taking care of our kids and that's what is so I think remarkable about the work that Kathy does every day and and you hear it in the students and the coaches that you work with and just the Educators who are around you so we can't thank you enough for your service and it is certainly a welld deserved award and we are happy to hear that thank you so [Applause] much yeah take a picture with the Comm I'll I'll just say congratulations it's a great honor to represent this the state level to be recognized as the trainer of the year so yeah any of my colleagues Mr Nunes or yeah I'll just again congratulations and like Dr Sab Maguire said you know sitting up in the Box I watch her in that and she's right on top of it I see the Rapport that she has when I'm down on the field pregame you know talking to the coaches and getting lineups and the Rapport she has with the students you know fixing you know ankles and whatever else needs to be done and she's got a smile on their face and the students are real comfortable and that's that's what the big thing is and keeping an eye out for the students and for that we thank you thank you thank you thank you and now she goes back to work because we've got a basketball game that's right okay all right moving right along at this time the committee has allotted 10 minutes for anyone wishing to comment on any of tonight's agenda items uh we have public comment so as long as it's on the agenda are you're more than welcome to come up and um share any comments that you have with the committee regarding tonight's agenda items speak to Mr Silva hello um Nathan Silva um want to talk about the budget uh so I was able to sit in on the budget subcommittee meeting on Monday and I've spent good part of the past week uh thinking about it and and processing it really and uh I understand that the schools uh exist within a broader ecosystem of the town of Dartmouth right we're one one Dartmouth but what I keep coming back to is that I feel that our kids have done enough right our children have done enough to Bear the burden of the town's Financial pressures and and I think we we got to we got to turn that tide uh right now you know we've lost what 15 positions over the past two years or so and with the current draft budget and Jim I don't want to steal your thunder too much but it's looking like we're going to be down at least another two positions but at the same time we're significantly reallocating the resources within the schools where we're cutting a number of uh standard teacher positions and shifting them over to special education and support services right uh to account for the increasing needs of our student population right and I'm not saying that we shouldn't do that we ask absolutely should do that we need to meet our kids where they are um in order to provide for the maximize in order to maximize their educational experience but what I'm saying is that we shouldn't have to pick and choose between doing those things and I think as I shared at the last meeting it's not that the town doesn't have money you know I think the town has to better prioritize the way that we're spending our money um and just to give a couple more examples for consideration and in last year's budget when the schools had to lose 9 and a half positions not a single other department in town had to lose any position on account of the budget right and you know it's not that I want other Town departments to lose budget or lose positions right because I appreciate them and all that they do for us in this town but I think it's unfair for us to expect our children to bear that burden alone I think it's time for us as adults in this town to also stand up and help shoulder that load um and just another example and it's kind of a silly example but again it speaks to priorities right in the last town meeting we uh voted to increase the salary for our beach raker to $50 an hour right because we couldn't fill the position um and don't get me wrong I love roundhill the sand is pristine and it's a great place to spend some time in the summertime right but if you would ask me if I would rather have my beach sand r or have a teacher's assistant in my daughter's classroom that is now grown to 22 students I'm picking the teacher's assistant all day long right so I think we need to rep prioritize the way we are doing things in this town and give more priority to the schools because they have dropped so far on the priority list and and again I know I'm preaching to the choir and I appreciate all that you do so please understand you're not necessarily my audience uh unless of course you are in which case I hope you listen to what I'm saying but again in closing the the the kids have done enough right it's time for us as a community to help BD uh bear that burden right so that's all I got to say thank you very much thank [Applause] you anyone else all right moving on uh next up we have approval of minutes at this time chair will'll entertain a motion to approve the regular session minutes of January 27th 2025 second so moved second motion by Mr Nunes second by Miss Beckwith on the motion any further discussion chair hearing none all in favor I I opposed abstentions motion pass passes unanimously thank you uh next up we have our student representative report so we have Elizabeth from Dartmouth High School here to present our student rep report all right well good evening and semester 2 has been in full swing and February vacation is quickly approaching to honor and celebrate Black History Month Dartmouth High students black student union members have been working on amazing artwork and visuals to display throughout the Bowden as well as coordinated movie series for students to come together Catherine cheesebro shout out has set the new leading alltime basketball scoring record last week which has not been broken since 1995 darmouth High indoor track teams are sending multiple student athletes to compete at States we wish those athletes all the best of luck the after prom committee has put together a very exciting fundraiser set for March 22nd at the Vault New Bedford this night will be full of Live musical performances by current dmouth high students as well as dark M High Alum aluminums I don't know tickets can be purchased online Flyers are posted around the building and were sent out via parents Square last week we also celebrated National School counseling week the student council created cards for each of the guidance counselors we are so grateful for all of their support and everything they do for us student council attended their first C mask conference while they learned about leadership and networking darmouth high and Dartmouth midle School are also teaming up for music in our school's month there will be three different shows hosted March 4th for the band March 10th for the chorus and March 12th for the orchestra all shows will begin at 700 p.m.
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on Tuesday October 22nd 2024 um and do a quick roll call of the members present uh I'm Stacy seon I'm the chair of the subcommittee um Elizabeth and Mel would you say whether or not you're here I'm Elizabeth and I'm here I'm Melody Goodwin and I'm here and we are also joined tonight by Karen patno superintendent of Greenfield Public Schools um and by it looks like several members of the community which is wonderful um on our agenda tonight we have just done item one which is the roll call call to order uh we have an item here for public comment so I hope that many of the folks who are here with us will will join and weigh in on perhaps what they see as the Mission Vision ideas they have for this body um then we're going to turn turn together and just start drafting preliminary descriptions of our what what our purpose is and what our Duties are um our responsibilities and think about maybe some goals that we might set for ourselves um I would also love if today we could set a regular meeting schedule I think it's very helpful for not only ourselves and our schedules but also for the community to know how a regular Cadence when they can expect this body to reconvene um okay so that was just a AP of what is on the agenda for those who might not be looking at the PDF directly um with that I would like to open it now for any members of public comment um to keep it organized write your name in the chat and we will just call on you in order on the chat you will have three minutes and you will need to state your name and your address so I will open that now if anyone is here for a public comment please put your name in the chat and we will call on you okay I understand sometimes you know I want to give it an extra minute because sometimes Zoom takes a minute to find all the buttons so I can't find how to to get in the chat just saying all right well then um if if you are here for public comment I'll take that as our first sign up sure I can go I have a child in the tub but sounds great uh Melissa Webb I'm a resident here in Greenfield I'm also the PTO president for Newton Elementary School and I've also been actively involved in our community for the last 11 School community I should oh I think you have accidentally REM muted yourself or perhaps a child started screaming which does happen um I'm sorry I I'm on my phone and I'm usually on the laptop so that's part of my technical issues um I walked in 11 years ago into Newton and said I want to volunteer and I remember filling out a Corey with Miss Goodman Goodwin and she said yes we need more people like you um and I've been very involved ever since so for me I'm just trying to figure out what this Comm committee is about I can say personally I have invited members of the committee to several things ranging from come to an all school meeting to um come to strings for kids come to this event that's happening here or event that's happening there um and I usually get a no thank you responses so for me I'm just trying to figure out what type of community outreach is going to happen for people who aren't really involved in our school Community but more on the political end of our schools more of the making the policies not seeing the policies implemented not seeing the fact that there are only three people volunteering for a book fair for 175 kids this week um so I guess for me as a community member I see lots of frustration seeing people who are not actively community in involvement um and like I said we have three volunteers at Newton like three who are actually able to help if if it's a good week other than that and that's with people moving their schedules around and taking time off so I guess for more Community engagement I would love to see that happen I don't know how to make it happen um I know right now we're struggling with some commity Comm unication issues that are happening and that affects your community involvement as well thank you for that Melissa there's anyone else for public comment and you are also experiencing difficulty getting in the chat you can also raise your hand and I can call on you all right James you go for it you've got three minutes and please restate your name and your and your address and your location hi my name is James Shippy I live at 338 Deerfield Street I have two sons in the Greenfield Public Schools one's in middle school and one is in Elementary uh I'm not sure what this meeting's about tonight but I wanted to kind of touch base on uh the resource officer stuff that was from the last meeting I believe uh my son was in an incident off school property where he got beat up by three high school kids and there was a video going around because somebody took a video video and if there was a resource officer in the schools I think it could have been dealt with a little quicker uh we do have the police involved and everything now uh but it took me a week to get the video because somebody videotaped the whole incident uh like I said I'm not sure what this uh meeting is out but I just want to express I would like to see resource officers back in the schools I have an autistic son my youngest he loves officers uh when we were dealing with the incident with my son uh my youngest the autistic one kept interrupting because he wanted to talk to the police officers but I don't think it's a bad thing to have them in the school system uh my wife had them when she was in school I didn't I'm a little older than she is but uh yeah I guess that's all I have I knew at this talking at meetings thing so thank you really sorry that that happened to your son James that's unfortunate but I appreciate you coming and sharing sharing with us tonight and um I hope that this is one of many times that you get to practice speak at Mee um thank you um art a I see that your hand is raised would you like to be next for a public comment thank you can you all hear me yes good thanks for doing this absolutely we need your I'm sorry we need your your name and your address please art artt ases 75b Wells Street Greenfield thank you you got three minutes I will only need one how's that um maybe it's one and a half by the time I'm done um I am a strong supporter of resource officers I would be very much in favor if the police department expanded the program trained more people I love seeing them going out on calls many of our calls are not Lauren enforcement they involve social issues like drug dependency and um uh domestic violence and uh resource problems and homelessness and resource offices are a heck of a lot better with the different kind of training let me set that aside for a minute let's talk about the schools now which takes a different level of focus we're dealing with kids in a school setting when we're not dealing with out in the street we're not even dealing with their homes they're already in another environment okay if the superintendent and all the school leaders have identified that there are increased problems in our schools which wouldn't be a surprise it reflects what's going on in society then I'm all in favor of seeing in the budget an increase in not resources but we already do it with student counseling let's bring counsel into the schools let's get more teachers in the faces of our students whether it be during school or after school and increased training but the kind of training we need to deal with these issues at the school is very different than a resource officer that the police department would put out I don't want to see police in the schools let me rephrase if they're called I respect the job that our local police force does and I think with more counselors in the school specifically trained to deal with children some of them are young adults is more effective they have the training they can call the police I recognize there's a two or three minute Gap in response from having one in the in the school but that's not the environment we want for our kids we know it's a dangerous world let's not throw it in their phases at school let's approach it differently as a community all right and well see I probably took three minutes so I'm done thank you for sharing your perspective are there any other I saw you know a few PE few more people have joined the zoom are there any other people for public comment you can put your name in the chat um or raise your hand and by by raise your hand I mean use the hand raise function on Zoom I can't see everyone in everyone's face so if you raise your hand physically I might not be able to see that okay I'm not seeing any additional names and I'm not seeing any hands raised and I've not heard anyone come off of mute with a desire to contribute to public comment and I give it another 10 seconds just to be sure so I don't want to leave anybody out okay um with that we have concluded the public comment portion and now we're going to turn to what I suspect will be the the bulk of our um meeting this evening um James it's no surprise that you were a little unsure of what the purpose of this meeting is or what the purpose of this body is uh and Melissa as well because we haven't really created it yet um this is a brand new subcommittee that we voted to instill ideally with with I think the intention to develop more community relations between the school committee and to create structures that enable more participation um one of the questions that we have and and one of the boundaries that we can be very honest with you as community members about is that there is a separation between the school committee and the kinds of things that we can do and the school system and School administration and the kinds of things that they do and the ways that they are trying to engender Community engagement that's one of the reasons why we have Karen here tonight is to help talk through that what is the relationship between our two bodies how do we want to work together um and and really how can we delate what kinds of community engagement or what topics for Community engagement we as a subcommittee can take on versus is what might be more appropriate for the schools and school administration to to try to put together um so with that um I will say that we did receive a just preliminary draft for our consideration from the chair of the school committee um overall Glenn Johnson mad um and I will fully admit and it's my May aopa that this did not make it into our materials for people to read in advance but I will be reading it aloud to you just to make sure it's captured in the recording and I'll be sharing my screen so that you all can read it as well and it will be included after the fact for consideration as well um but I want to be clear that what we are re responding to right now is not necessarily what's the final form again it was presented to us for our consideration so that we could ask ourselves the question does this Encompass all that we want this body to do um or are there other things alternative things more things um does this actually meet the need as we see it coming from the community um so with that I am going to go ahead and share my screen or at least share that tab okay are folks seeing a Google Docs document yep great thank you so I'm just going to read it as well for accessibility purposes um for those who might not be able to see the document on whatever screen or medium they're engaged with so it says this is a draft committee description Community engagement subcommittee that's us function enhance communication and Foster strong relationships between the school committee and the community by sharing achievements challenges and updates through a strategic communication and Outreach plan duties attend school and Community forums events and other activities to actively engage with stakeholders and provide opportunities for input and dialogue develop and Implement a comprehensive communication plan to effectively reach and engage stakeholders through various media channels gather and analyze feedback from community members to assess the effectiveness of communication strategies and identify areas for improvement and collaborate with District administrators and other stakeholders to align communication efforts with District goals and address emerging issues and again I will reiterate that this is a draft that we are reacting to that we are actively workshopping right now this is the main purpose of this meeting tonight is to try to come to um a more concrete understanding of what the subcommittee is that we will then present back to the full committee for their input as well um and so at this time I would invite the other members Mel and Elizabeth to weigh in to give your reactions your thoughts and maybe share what your vision was for when for becoming a member of this subcommittee um I would also invite Karen to to show these as well if you have thoughts Elizabeth I see you came off mute yes I'm reading um I'm also going through I had a list for myself um when we first discussed at the full meeting whether or not we should have a community engagement subcommittee and I had a list sort of ongoing about what that would mean because I've been very interested in increasing our community engagement since I first came on the committee and have been sort of campaigning for that since day one so I already had some ideas in mind about what that would look like for me um and I feel like the draft covers a lot of the bullet points that I have which are just um collaborating with organized groups in our community that work with our district um going to inperson events doing more digital engagement with parents and families and stakeholders um creating community-driven assessments increasing our communication skills creating like a a nice Clear Channel for the community to utilize to have their voices heard and also encouraging members to do to community engagement so I feel like a lot of this draft really hits all of those points that I had already in my mind um I think that the trickiest part is what you said before we really have to have very clear communication about what it is we can do as a school committee because we're not the administration and we're not in charge of day-to-day operations and and sometimes that can be difficult like I'd like to participate and go to events but in the past that it wasn't available to us but now we have seven members who are interested and we've already made plans to go to different PTO meetings in November and we've made a sort of a agreement as a group to try to have one person go to each event but we are all workers now none of us are really are retired at the moment except Mel maybe I don't know how you feel about that um so I like while I'd love to do work with the PTO that's also not something that like that's not really something we have a ton of time to do so if we could encourage if we could find clear channels where we could work to encourage more family involvement um and sort of help facilitate a way for the family to get more involved along with Karen's considerable efforts and new ideas that she's brought about this I think that would be great um I just want to be clear that we ourselves do not do those particular events um so that's all I would say I think that this hits most of the points and so if we started here I would feel like this is acceptable and a good place to move forward from apologies for being longwinded Mel I see your hand I think the one piece this is a good start I think the one piece that's missing for me is is we represent the community we serve for the community is I would like to create an event where we could find out exactly what the community would like to see um we are challenged with making goals as a school committee and I think those goals should reflect the voices of our community and we all talked to this certain individuals but we don't have a broader picture of everyone who's involved with the schools and the stakeholders so before setting goals kind of want to hear the voices of people or let them have a chance to have input into our goals um I don't have a clear set process for that but you know um but there are different ways to get that kind of information um from people um so that's the only because it says attend school and Community forums yes I think we all have really committed to that as much as possible I always find out um always feel like I I don't find out early enough about events I usually find out on Facebook that an event is about to happen so I need a calendar that says like everything is there um because there is a lot going on in our schools um and you know Melissa Webb thank you for putting everything on Facebook because it does help me um and so I think it's everything is there except that one it's well I guess it's gather and analyze feedback from the community but it's also to set goals uh as a school committee you know we're you know we all have specific things we're interested in for goals but we also want to represent the people of Greenfield and what they're looking for in their schools and I I feel like that a lot of times I think the one thing I've learned by stepping into a school committee is it I feel challenged um because I I don't feel like I get to hear from the whole Community I hear from pieces of it um so I would like to figure out a way through engage engagement this subcommittee to get a broader perspective of what parents are looking for from their schools and I don't know the process for that but that's just the only piece I really feel like and I'm not sure where to add that um or maybe even just gather collect and analyze you know I mean but it's not just feedback about communication it's what what are the things they would like to see us um setting for goals because every time I've ever set goals I'm supposed to in my head I'm supposed to collect you know the people I represent um whether it's families or Community uh so I'm just not sure where to put that but I know the two of you and you will help me figure that out and I appreciate both of you being here [Music] Elizabeth did you want to respond to that and then after Elizabeth I want to make space for Karen to give any comments that you yes wonderful um yes Melody we did try to have well we tried to make some baby steps with this um sort of using the redistricting ad hoc committee as a platform to finally have some meetings in spaces where the community could come and talk to us and give us their feedback about that specific issue and I think that some of them were successful and some of them weren't and that could have been for all kinds of reasons could have been just the time of day I'm not sure but it felt really good as a Committee Member to be going out and starting to engage with people and that's something that um that we really pushed for because we wanted to make sure that everyone could have a a place to speak and let their ideas be heard and to contribute to the process of making this happen because this is something that is affecting everyone and one of the things that I thought when we did that was that this is sort of the kind of Engagement that we should be doing several times a year so one maybe path for that is that in addition to if people were interested in that in addition to attending as many events as we can um and also setting regular meeting times for this subcommittee to work on this process we could also maybe talk about a commitment to having CommunityWide meetings every six months or once a semester once a quarter however we wanted to do it where we're there specifically to listen in sort of a town hall listening format to what the families would like to see happen in their District um but now is you know the moment that we may have the the push to do that and I'm very excited that that could be possibility thank you Elizabeth thank you Mel um M I'm gonna give Karen did you have do you have any comments or especially thoughts about how you would want a body like this on the school committee side to interact with the structures you're setting up on the school administration side yeah I think we've seen some um positive shifts already um with all of the attendance by a member or two here and there at different events and I think um when the community starts feeling that accessibility Comfort to approach and engage that that will continue to grow when um you're trying to have maybe bigger events like Elizabeth said I've also found that um just in so many different opportunities and you know I know your schedules are busy as Elizabeth said but I think um some of the best engagements I've had with families or um about their kids and about schools and what they are interested in or what they hope to see um have happened um just because it's a constant um I'll give you for instance I went to visit twice as smart a couple weeks ago Gloria Matlock invited me to a Wednesday night supper with them and um I was helping serve supper and I was serving supper with a parent who was volunteering and then she started telling me about her high school student and then started talking to me about school and what she would like to see and so then you know what I thought was just me um making myself available at an event turned out to be a really meaningful um engagement with a parent who felt good in the moment because we were serving supper together and it didn't seem as formal so I know the the excessive opportunities to put yourself out there is sometimes timec consuming and hard but um I think it's definitely worth it to try to give as many venues as possible for people to give their feedback um and really feel honest about you as a listener and um we obviously can't fix everything all the time but I think people want to be heard and I think people um appreciate that at least if we listen and try to communicate and collaborate that's a positive for um not only the work that we're trying to do um in the schools but also for the school committee to support that thanks Karen um Mel did you still want to comment and then after Mel I I would like to to interject and say some stuff as well I think I was um you know was listening to Elizabeth and you know that town hall or even you know we're used to doing um you know monthly like all school meetings and you know and I've learned to get people to come out the kids always have to be somehow involved um whether it's sports events or you know band or anything anything else um if the kidss are there the parents are there um and sometimes that's the way to have the best conversation um so I agree I think the more dialogue there is the better uh I just you know in reality feel like as a school committee member um in many ways you know I'm carefully listening and trying not to step over a line um and but to make real goals that are going to be powerful that we can work on we need to hear the voices of our community about what they want for their schools and I think that's really an important the only way I know how to do that um so I am subbing at Franklin Tech um where I was today and um but after school um being places um is not not a problem and if there's something important during the day I can always not sub um but many schools are short Subs um today I was a calculus teacher which was kind of a stretch of my memory so I think I think this is a good start um and the more we information we get I think the the broader our our goals are going to be that and more effective for every body we hear little bits and pieces um and sometimes we hear from the same people but we don't hear from um all the stakeholders just a few and so I think all the stakeholders I think is you know going to different meetings of different groups of people who are trying to support the schools as well as just meetings where people are trying to support the community um is important so that's all I had to say great thank you for that um yeah when I I think was first reading through this this draft description um Mel the point that you had made about not only wanting to attend forums and events but also host and sponsor or co-sponsor forums and events was an element of what I would like to see and what I plan when I when I when I make draft two uh draft version two I would like to add that in um as as something that we are able to do as a body um and I think that when it comes to this sort of compreh comprehensive communication plan um a mindset that we might have to adopt are is being a little bit of a scientist um and an experimentor because to several points that have been raised is we there are a number of ways that we sort of um have in our tool belt number of tools that tool belt to do communication but it's sort of unclear how effective any one of those um approaches has been particularly if we are not if we are if we are seeing the same folks time and time again I mean that's great please if you're a person who has come time and time again keep coming we love having you here and we would like to see all you know much many many more of our community members our parents parents or families represented in the in the voices that we're hearing and so I think as we're thinking about how to get that um we're probably going to try a lot of different things and then we're going to have to be the ones responsible for did it work why or why not and what can we do differently in the future to try again um and I I hope that the community will be part of that letting us know what works what doesn't what lands for them what is what's going to be the best way that we can hear from you um um and not just hear from you but a second point that I want to figure out a way to include in here is that particularly as it relates to the purview of the school committee which is largely budget and policy um I have heard from a number of community members either through email or individually while I'm talking with them that it's hard to know what our policies mean where to find them um how to interpret them like what what exactly they are and so another function that I could see us potentially playing and I would love to you know hear your thoughts on what what I'm about to say but of being a body that can actually help teach and inform the community about how to interact with us better and what what we actually do do what we are actually responsible for what our policies actually say um as a for instance I've um you know I know Kate over in budget and finance that subcommittee of ours um was interested in potentially doing another Forum co-sponsored with this one uh that might look slightly different than our standard monthly meeting but that would go through that budget calendar that was created as just another way to get the word out that we have this new resource and we want our community to use it but maybe we need a little bit of a here's how to use it kind of a thing um I could see something you know as a as potential and full full transparency I'm saying this out loud without having talk to Karen first but I'm just going to throw the idea out of we could be a partner here to talk through what our policies related to volunteering are so that if we're trying to get more parent volunteers we can more clearly explain how to do it what's the process where do you go and just have it you know have more of those kinds of informational sessions as well of like what's going on maybe helping to promote a little bit more you know transparency and just knowledge of how to engage with the school uh schools and with the school committee itself so those were those were two things that I think I would like to figure out of a a way to word those into to the blow points here under our duties and description um yeah and as far as the actual sentence of our function goes um I don't just want to and I think this goes back to everybody's points honestly is that we're not just a a group that wants to share things out um and push out information but also being a a body that gathers and that that does listen that really wants to deeply listen and hear from you all and and be with you and be in this community with you because we are we are your we are your neighbors um so those were I think those were my points to anyone uh have any thoughts or reactions to things that I just said and I also want to be mindful of time we technically only schedule this till 7 I think that we could go longer if needed um but also wanting to be respectful of folks who might want to eat dinner all right uh Elizabeth I see your hand I'm sorry I may have um a barking dog going on at the same time I completely agree with you um and I'd like to see an added bullet point that says something maybe like uh maybe something along the line of our guiding principles of effective Community engagement could include increasing citizens knowledge and encouraging the community and the citizens to co-create knowledge with us um and to use that to improve the community because one of and and also maybe add a bullet point about we will collect what the community shares with us and use that as a report to the full committee about the direction that the district goals could go in in the future because I think if we're really thinking about how this games out in the long term if we go and we have many meetings and community members say we feel very strongly about this this one thing we want this one thing to change we'd like to see this it's very powerful for us to come back to the full committee and say we've had these meetings we've engaged and we've been told that this is what they would like us to focus on as a goal and that is how the needle will get moved in reality instead of well we've heard from one person we've heard from somebody else and maybe a couple other people kind of like this we need to have that scientific playing scientist data point that we can say we've uncovered based on the work of the subcommittee so I'd like that to be part of our end game is to report the goals that the Comm that the community have set for us to bring back to the full committee because I'd like them to feel as involved as possible in this and they should be part of co-creating these goals and desires and policies or whatever however it ends up coming down the pipeline does that make sense I think so um I do want to just do a quick check for understanding from what I'm hearing from both you and Mel Elizabeth when you when we're talking about co-creating policies and or co-creating goals Etc are we both are we talking about the goals and the duties and function of this sub committee or the broader school committee as a whole or both I would say both um we because well we have two duties we have to create goals for our committee work and also goals that we would like to see as long-term go goals for the District so it would be the same for this subcommittee we'd have goal goals for our subcommittee that we're looking at in the draft but then some of the goals need to be engaging the community and taking their feedback and then moving it Forward up the ladder so both all right so any other feedback about this draft Mel I saw you on mute so one of one of the key pieces of this is that as a taxpayer we all we all pay high taxes and if you don't have children in the school system you often wonder like what am I paying for so I think enging in communication and engagement um with everybody so everybody knows what's happening in the schools and feels like they have a voice of what they'd like to see and I know um I worked somewhere else where the school committee like did a big event um but they also did it with an Educational Foundation but it was the school committee and the Educational Foundation who did a big event every year and and they actually I forget what it was called it was like a ball or something and then there was the golf tournament there were two big events every year one in the fall and one in the spring and it was on the calendar and it was always the same day every year and everybody in the community would look forward to that um it was also a way they raised money that way as well but it wasn't just people who were involved with the schools it was community members you know there were challenges going on golf challenges there were all kinds of things but it was Community coming together so creating it's it's like our and you know if in our schools we have events that happen all the time um and they're at the same time of year so creating something that allows people to know that this is coming and it's a place where you can be heard is something that I think they will respect and and grow to enjoy a lot of our Sports parents you know they share all kinds of points of view at games um but I think something that brings people who are also um not involved in the schools on a regular day-to-day basis um into a community event would be special great thank you I have taken that note um okay so I'm looking at the time and I'm also being mindful of what I've just been hearing about wanting even more Community input into helping this subcommittee create its goals so I would entertain a motion to table that next agenda item that is about creating goals because it seems like we've just done a lot of work even to figure out what what our function and role is and we I think need to get that um solidified through the full committee and then we can start setting up some more specific thoughts about events Etc like that but I would entertain a motion to table that goal setting one until our next meeting and move to scheduling a more um permanent consistent time for this body I would make that motion second right um all in favor I think we have to all say I if we're all in I excellent thank you um I'm gonna stop sharing my screen now since we're done with that and that way we can the remainder of us can see each other if we'd like um and this is the everybody's favorite part where we get out our calendars and we look and we see um and I think again for the purpose of this I would love for us to set up a regular what is this the third Tuesday of the month oh October special gets five um but you know does does roughly this time work for folks in in the moving forward you know thinking about things moving forward so I would love to be able to set it of like a every fourth Tuesday or every third Thursday or whatever it ends up being I am fine with Tuesdays until the time change in March so I can commit to Tuesdays through spring but then I have no idea okay I'm fine with Tuesdays great so you're thinking the fourth Tuesday of every month that is what I'm thinking okay which I think gives us a good that gives us roughly two weeks but before the full school committee meeting of the following month so we'd be sort of like two weeks out and two weeks until kind of a deal um I think that that gives us time to actually do events and so we're not doubling up or overburdening people in the same like crunched week or week and a half of time you know what I mean kind to also thinking about when we might want to do things because we can have our meetings but if we're also saying we want to plan events then we probably are not going to plan events always at the exact same time that our meetings would be happening okay when this is set when you feel like this is set I can add it to the calendar to the main calendar as a standing subcommittee meeting date so that other subcomittees don't start crashing into each other exactly yes great um I'm hear if I'm hearing that Tuesdays right around this time do work then I think that we should just go ahead and set it for the fourth Tuesday of every month at 6 pm November 26 oh is that that is Thanksgiving week I think that we can still hold it um with the understanding if it becomes uh oh yeah yeah because then it's Christmas Eve on December yeah I I can I yes I could do that one I could do November 26 but it's getting awfully close to Holiday time that's that's what I'm saying is if it's it's the 26th in November but it's the 24th in December and that's just not going to work and this is why we have a whole agenda item to do this do we want to go back a week maybe the thir instead of the fourth Tuesday let's look at the calendar and see where that falls it'll be the 19th of November and the 17th of that would work for me and then it looks like January is just a plain old 14th and February is the plain old 18th okay so the third Tuesday all right third the third Tuesday of the month at 6 PM third Tuesday of the month okay I'm going to add that to the to our school committee group calendar thank you um I do think in the future it would be nice it would be actually quite nice if we were able to find a place to do hybrid meetings um that way there could be an in-person option for for folks as as well uh I think that that just promotes a different kind of community building and I want to recognize that even still in this day and age 2024 not everyone can access only online things so um okay easier than I thought that was great I believe that that was the last item on our agenda for now and so I would entertain a motion to adjourn unless there are any last and final comments or thoughts that me uh committee members work hereen has really appreciate your time tonight thank you all right um motion to adjourn so D second in favor say I I I hi great thank you we are adjourned at 6:55 p.m. [Music]
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in this room 229 and a public notice will be posted on the legislator's website i' like to to take this time to remind our testifiers that due to time restrictions on on our hearings we will be limiting testimony to 1 minute per testifier per bill for people participating remoted please remain muted and video disabled until shortly before it is your turn to testify when I call your name unmute yourself and your time will begin after your minute is completed staff will mute you so that we can move this hearing along in an orderly and efficient matter first on the agenda is Senate Bill 894 sd1 relating to education appropriates funds to the Department of Education to F to fulfill the local Farm to school Farm to school meal goal requiring 30% of the food served in public schools to consist of locally sourced products do we have any testif sorry okay to testify superintendent Kei aashi please good afternoon K Vice chair Kim Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony and support this measure thank you for opportunity testify thank you Brian m mamoto executive director Hawaii Farm Bureau thank you chair the Hawaii Farm will stand on his testimony in support thank you we also have Janine Mariano Hawaii food policy in support not present Nancy Red Feather testifying in support for Ohana onapa Nancy D Moser also an individual in support members are there any additional test is wishing to speak members any questions please so the funding that this bill asked for is for what purpose the Department's not asking for the funding the bill has a blank for funding there General funds blank amount of money to modernize the kitchens in the um the different cafeterias so that's what the money is for correct not to purchase or not to no it's more for equipment cuz um hasn't been a lot of scratch cooking in the kitchens which um do we know which schools uh no we we trying to figure out that right now so how do you know how do you estimate the amount of money that that's going to be required um we're going to have to provide that at a later date because we're still in the process of trying to determine which cafeterias need what kind of upgrade so where are you in that evaluation process um there was a study done a few years ago so we're trying to update that right now find out where we are on the cafeteria okay the um the mandate to reach 30% locally sourced products by 2030 uh was passed back in 21 so since 2021 to now only now you're trying to figure out the equipment and what is needed if I may Senator I I I believe that this bill also is to um is to look at the the regional kitchen that uh we are developing in Central District um and to look at um funding for that same uh same type of kitchen in various complex areas across our state uh which includes a Hawaii District Mai district and Kai District in addition to in honu and and the four districts in h this bill doesn't say anything about Central kitchens don't we have a separate bill for Central kitchens I believe it all just one second it is um related to the regional kitchens don't we have a separate bill for regional kitchens after sen kak Department of Education so this the way we're reading the bill it's very akin to that bill about Regional kitchens but the way we're reading it and the way the both the Preamble and the way the funding is uh parceled out to these different areas our our understanding of the build is that is for funding for regional kites well it doesn't say anything in here about that so just a preamble related to giving uh uh buying the required um equipment that would allow for as uh Deputy UA said earlier about doing some of that scratch cooking that's what would be happening at those Regional kitchens right but the regional kitchens is a huge investment a huge amount of money which I understand has a different budgetary and a different bill this bill seems to be to improve the different School cafet areas so that they can have equipment in there to warm up the foods and so forth so not necessarily these are going to be Regional kitchens in these four areas that is noted in the bill so you need you guys need to get your message clear and straight because you can't talk about Regional kitchens here when we have Regional kitchens there so we're putting funding here and funding there and then the money comes together we don't know what happens to that money money there's no accountability we appreciate that y yeah but you guys keep coming up with these bills that are just I'm sorry it's very difficult to because if I add up all all the amount of money that that Doe is asking for all these different programs and and and um proposals is huge and then there's no accountability for that so it should be made clear exactly what you folks will be spending the money on should the monies be appropriated cuz it just say necessary for these years and it talks about meeting your 30 2030 uh Farm to school meals it doesn't really and it mentions some equipment but it doesn't mention anything about Central kitchens so can we get a can we get a list of what the schools and what complexes and what needs to be upgraded so we can know what the cost is I mean shouldn't that come first before you come in and ask for something this General and again we are actually trying to read into the Preamble of the bill and understanding what's happening with the bill itself um so we were more than happy to continue this conversation with um other fellow fellow legislators your fellow legislators to figure out what exactly is being asked for that but we are just trying to read into both the Preamble and the way the funding is um being appropriated in the bill but we're happy to continue having those discussions so this is not your bill correct right but you're supporting it correct because anytime the legislature willing to give you money you guys will take it right correct well it is driving us towards our our goal of trying to increase our our 30 by 30% so we're open to you guys whatever have this goal back to 2021 when we passed it right and so it's like didn't you have a general plan on the whole thing instead of coming in Peace by peace Me by peace me I think we keep developing that as we move through yes we would love to have had all everything in place and I I think all our ducks are line but um we are trying to figure that out now and move more towards that um we do apologize for not having that completely fleshed out as of then but moving forward now I think we have a good team in place that are trying to get towards that you members further questions thank you moving on Senate Bill 187 relating to a library in Eva Beach requires the Department of Education to transfer the Eva Beach Public and school library from the state public library system to James Campbell High School testify superintendent afterno chair kidani Vice chair Kim din uh Deputy superintendent with the Department stands on it written testimony offering comments on this measure the department wishes to support the desire of the School Community to transfer the ever Beach Library to James Campbell High School but acknowledges the challenges that this could entail such as Staffing and library library outside of school hours Staffing the library outside of school hours thank you for the opportunity to testify MERS questions thank you and huchi Department of Attorney General good afternoon chair kidani Vice chair Kim members and huchi Department of the Attorney General um a couple of items that we noted in our testimony one um it's our understanding um well from reading the Preamble it lists the hours of the library but it's our understanding that those hours have recently been changed so that information should be updated in the Preamble of the bill um also the bill states that the doe shall transfer the library from the State Library System to the school but it's unclear from our reading what this transfer entails one if the intent of the bill is to transfer operation and management of the library to the school so that the school has authority to change the library's hours or to otherwise operate and manage the library then this should be stated explicitly in the bill um if the intent though is to transfer ownership of the library property and that Authority is actually with the Board of Education and not the State library system or the Department of Education um finally the section three of the bill talks um speaks to the transfer um relating to the employees and we noted that the State library system and the Department of Education are separate entities for purposes of employment so to ensure Clarity that section should be revised to transfer employees from one agency to another rather than transferring employees within an agency thank you I'll be available for questions I know you probably didn't see the principal support so the reason why I say that is because the operations and the maintaining of the school would follow under the school Campbell High School two the property is actually doe property it doesn't belong to the State Library if you look at the um actual map of the school is on school campus that's the reason why it says Public School library not just public so it's on the school campus and with the jurisdiction of uh transferring of workers uh we have a very shortage of librarians right now and there's other areas that is closed because of lack of a Librarians so the suggestion was that the school would um I know you got the current uh Library hours 12 to 7 12 to7 12 to 7 p.m. Monday 12: to7 p.m.
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till 6:00 a.m. so we might be forced to kind of make a decision Tuesday night on what they're predicting is going to happen rather than seeing it ourself before that time um so yep and then other than that the only other thing is no League forensics on April 9th that we've talked about that'll be a normal day of school so questions concerns thank you uh board member reports so I didn't know if I should put it in board member reports or up agenda items but uh to give you guys a little bit of information so the rough neck reinforcers and part of that um the formation of that group was multifaceted so to support recognize um all of our teachers our athletes our students and um also with facility upgrades and then the people that we have on that board was also to try to help facilitate communication um members of centr plan's Junior Senior High School area communities and with the board so I am president of that board also um so that being said we are having our first big fundraiser on the 22nd and we're getting really pumped and super excited it's all coming together um one of the things that we would kind of like to do is be able to say some of our big project ideas CU obviously you know whenever you're asking people to donate money they are more willing to do so when they know what the money is going to so I wanted to keep you all on the loop get some feedback um and thoughts on some of our big project ideas um so I'm going to give you a brief rundown and then I can go into more detail so all options are exciting and will have direct and indirect impact on the central plan Junior Senior High School students and the usd112 community um updates and upgrades will definitely present a positive and expanding impression of the central plan Junior Senior High School to surrounding um districts and visitors and all of the upgrades um except for maybe the gym uh would definitely allow us to do more things as a school would allow us to host bigger events um bring more people into the community those type of things so our four large project ideas are um upgrades and updates to the main gym including bleachers the automatic bleacher system drop down net between volleyball quartz and new volleyball standards and maybe some lighting upgrades um the one good thing I guess if we did that we could kind of break it down into smaller chunks um the second one is a track renovation uh third one is that has been brought up most recently probably is an auxiliary Gem and the fourth one is tennis court expansion uh so like I said with all of those like right now our tennis courts um I'm going to go in order that I have so with the volleyball cords um this year I went to a few more volleyball games I have always so I haven't been to too many so this here I saw it more firsthand that when the ball goes into the opposite to play disrupt play so definitely the drop down Nets or net would be great to have but our current standards don't allow for a drop down net in between so those two would definitely have to go hand in hand um and I don't know we did talk about um if we actually got all new bleachers we talked to Harland seating who recent recently did a forget which area gym but it was around 250,000 um I don't know that we've looked into if we could just get like a hydraulic system to push the ones that we have in and out cuz I know that's the biggest thing is that they're just heavy and hard to move um I was telling Mr Murphy how many work complains we had on Stans trying to push those bleachers in really cuz they have to do exactly the same time you know not recently but we've had claims on back injuries for pushing bleachers which you could just push a button and have them go would be amazing was that $250,000 for top bleachers and bottom all no I think it was just the bottom theot wow that's I think but I've actually heard people say that ours are more comfortable than a lot of the plastic ones that they've sat on so it's like I don't know if we could just get a and put a new middle or add some steps in between I don't know so yes I mean and I don't think you're going to have any argument that all of this is needed it's just where do we go umal seven numbers Yeah well yeah and so then obviously the track historical but one of the very few grapple tracks still in use does not support the size requirements for hosting large track meets CU we only have seven Lanes you need to have eight Lanes in order to do um big Regional meets or anything like that for linary estimate uh for that was 915,000 um they said that was likely on the high end but I mean I would thought were well and that's not the football field so that's just the track um that include like your jumping pits and things like that yeah I think it did it said just leaving them the same size yeah um and so these numbers are not necess to ask the school to it's just letting everybody know what they are so then the third one was the tennis court expansion um that honestly has had the most footwork on the back end by Michael by Mr Ryan um because with the numbers growing so much on our tennis teams both boys and girls he said before like he can't give them quality um practice or anything they're having to send kids down to the park and so you divide the team and same thing you have to have at least five courts in order to host regionals um so it would just be very beneficial uh he has like I said done a lot of work on the back end and knows where he can have people who have said they would donate um for different Pro parts of the project they work concrete um there's some grants out there for resurfacing and lines um that would be 90 to $1,000 per quart um or9 to $100,000 sorry yes that's not what I said I don't think uhuh nope that's what I meant do they C do they move I'm not well versed on tennis but do do they move the state competition ever from which you talk is it well they do it's but City usually they have I say at least eightt but they moved regionals right regionals moves I just didn't know if the state me was ever moved like football mve Tob this past year 321 yeah but I don't it's always that they they rotate classifications um another thing with that was pickle ball lines with pickle ball becoming such a a big thing I mean man you can find the bags and the rackets and stuff for pickle ball as my in-laws go to tournaments and that's crazy but that would be another thing it's a pretty common practice anymore to put pickle ball lines on tennis cour so that would be a use for the community in um and then the auxiliary gym preliminary estimate that we got on it was around 600,000 um there are new gem floor materials that require a lot less maintenance than traditional wood floors um but I have not I don't know if you would know Mr Murphy do you know like Casa requirements as far as any tournaments or any of their play does it have to be on certain boards or anything like that most of them no I mean most of them are going to have some sort of wood or synthetic means well there there's a new like plastic worn out yeah Taylor was telling me that his brother was telling him about that I think a lot of the elementary schools it's more durable it just has the the basketball design like buil into the plastic I don't know I'll have to look that see um but we as they kind of alluded to the heater has been going out in that building and that's been an issue for several years but it's getting worse and worse um we are fortunate that we have the Hollywood in the bush and gyms and we utilize that for junior high practices but I know the girls have been having to or have decided to go in the morning instead of to have practice at the wreck because it's been so cold my only thought with and I didn't ask I didn't ask you or if the um estimate included any bathrooms or not cuz I feel like if we add an auxiliary gym you would be silly not to add bathrooms yeah so so I didn't ask if that estimate included that or not so with that being said I also bring that to the board because obviously any of these things directly impact the school and it's going to be something the school will have to maintain or we'll have to make sure that they have a portion of the MS so that being said what are your guys that yeah I I like all the ideas uh some of the ideas we already have an extra expense uh I think some of them would be phenomenal you know a track would be awesome so we wouldn't have to host our own track meet at another place you know number one and all the funding off of that track meat goes to that school doesn't go to us [Music] uh and and there is a lot of kids in track um you know and sometimes I kind of wonder about our own facility is it safe enough for them um you know you practice on a gravel field but then you go play on a mhm an asphalt or whatever it is um rubber rubber but I I think a lot of them would be very phenomenal for our facilities uh yeah the girls and boys tennis and they've done great you know getting better and better every year um it'd be nice to see us host more yeah for a good of a I mean we're going to State you know repeatedly and we aren't able to host any of these nice tournaments that yeah in every event you know every year we've always had somebody in track go to State uh and we can't host our own really um I remember years when the Twins were there we had it at Barton County and Barton County funded you know had all the funds off of it um you know uh better facilities and stuff you get more and more people to come to your place too y that's kind of the thought well I'm excited that after your fundraiser you're going to be able to pay for all of that I know just well I have high expectations now if you would have seen the cake grapple at St John oh my gosh oh going for thousands of the last C we have yeah could you could like auction auction it was forther after she said they made $6,000 [Laughter] less work too go real quick real quick when you guys went to the league meeting and you discussed the league high school basketball tournament was there any qualifications to be able to host that like you had to have two gyms on premises have two gyms so what they're doing is they're buddying up all the schools so and I I have to go back and look and see what my notes say um but we are buddied up with a school that has two gyms and we would we would never be able to host the main events we would have like the seventh and eighth place games at our place because we only have one gym so we'll never we'll never be the host s of the championship gam because the league tournament will start next year as a league tournament adding those three games to our basketball schedule so so with the rec gy because I mean I know they've had C te games there and stuff in the past there we won't be considered for we're we're the considered one with the one gy um so yes we would and I care for who sorry off the top of my head I can't remember which one we're buddied up with But whichever one it is they have two fullsize gs it might be ell no Ellen WS with Chase I can't remember they have it all they had a whole plan so next year is in Kins it's in Kinsley next year and I think the whole thing's in Kinsley because it's the first year and they're not sure how it's all going to go but um we would only we might be able to host like the playing games and then the fifth six seventh eighth place games are place but then all the rest of them would be at whatever because there's five there's five schools that have two gyms and there's five schools that have one gym so wouldn't be considered for that any other direction or comments from board members like a prioritize list I I think they're all great things I see pros and cons to each of them being the first project you do it's I don't envy the decision to come to one yep is that helpful yeah that's where I'm at like you said I the the main gym is very simple because it can be get broken down to certain little things instead of humongous things you know and they're all needed that's been the nice thing it's been nice to be able to like show the show the paint show that we are doing stuff so would I don't know I see I talked to some of the coaches and they're talking about on the back side of the north side of the other I didn't say it would about have to be off of the waight room or the reason why they're saying that is it's a lot easier to connect them with a hallway so if you're having two games you don't have to travel you know all right I don't think you're going to get anywhere on that huh any other board member reports so did you want that under board member reports or under wherever it is okay any open Agenda items okay so it for next month's agenda so we have um we'll bring open enrollment back to you guys again 25 and 26 sure to get that approved to get that documented and put on our site and then also we'll have certified staff and we'll include um what we talked about tonight on the superintendent side as well with the certified staff moving forward as well um the other thing we could have done depending on how far basketball goes is there could be a chance we have winner coaches evaluations as well just depend on how fortunate we are I hope not so yeah I would entertain uh before I do that I guess does the world of fun trip need to be back on meet like that close she's not they're not going till next year right so we just need to make a motion this call she'll do that [Music] wer okay I would entertain a motion who a motion by Alison second by Kayla like all right all those in favor say I motion passes 7 zero [Music] hold everybody thanks
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it wants to submit a bid but didn't come to our preit meeting we don't accept those bids so this company was local they came to our pre-bid meeting uh I was reviewing the bids last Tuesday the 4th of February with with our facilities director and one of my staff mirer and we noticed that half of one of the high school projects over here wasn't even included in their price oh so I called it Fell's name it's it's APS Local Company Clyde was the first C you know this is John at the school district part of my duty whether it's Authority Duty I'm the bid protest person so if there's a bid award and someone has a problem with the way we explained it or the way we outlined it they could come to the board and I explained this to I said you can come and present to the board if you think it wasn't clear in our in our bid document what we were asking for he said no no no you were clear he just forgot the last half part of it is just cealing just sealing the area part of it is going down three inches removing and then reming and then replacing and then compacting and forgot so said you're certainly willment was done right and then the board might side with you and stay the pement want us to reissue it or they might decide with us and say you know it's done and he just said sorry I forgot it so that's the benefit of doing a local bid even though four of the respondents are on state contract we did get one local and we're just thrilled to death that he put in did it just wasn't complete so we do want to have open procurement because yeah we could we could get some companies that do come up here frequently from down below we have the law of large numbers because they have bigger GRS bigger projects but we do like to favor like the one we favored a lot I think we've done nine POS with is TDK Comfort System when we put in h units and they're very competitive and very responsive and we definitely like local support we do have a a contractor is it Sunstate is Sun St out of pres yeah there's one there but we use CH if Cho doesn't have Cho rentals or Sunstate we're renting right now a $1,600 compactor Daniels talked about this this hole that we had water and and washing filtered away and we're going to compact it with something from Sun State and it might be more expensive to do that a couple hundred dollars then bring one up from the valley where it might be a lower price but we we' like to favor our local contractors to the extent we can look you in the eye and say sign off that it's the best deal or the most responsible reement for the district probably 40% of the time it is and then some of these really big projects uh we think sometimes there's some advantages to going really big companies they they can order it because they they sometimes with the state wait six months to get paid sure these projects are there but sometimes so we we can't have the local small companies hanging on to payroll for that long so we try to balance it as much as possible and just again to recoup we could have purchased from any one of these with without any procurement at all because they've got the preit already done these these four companies we open it up to anyone local there's a h Brook asphalt and there was one up in Flag they put in the paper so we catch everyone that's interested and then we call and send bid packets to these ones plus a local one then we hold the meeting and invite them and [Music] the estimator staff always talk to the field staff questions discussions motion motion to approve award main contract request proposal January thank you all in favor well hello there let's see what is this I'm kidding propos preschool tuition increase you do this when I have a k I know I thought about you like question okay we have an increase to price of tuition so it is that time that due to minimum wage and incre in everything I have to but only by $10 when was last last year no five it's been no um Kasa did raise our prices um and I did do a cost comparison we're still way cheaper than anybody else we like Discovery Gardens right Futures Valley Learning Center is more of a daycare uh child care and so trying to figure out exactly where their preschool fits into that is a little bit different and most people do it by week but um Bright Futures and Discovery Gardens do do it by the month it's the same as us that we're going to do raise it to 210 I'm sorry 205 uh $10 increase and hopefully that'll get us through so John's not knocking on my door for our our new board members and those possibly streaming can you explain the difference between a tuition preschooler and a special so um we have both so our tuition based preschool is for our typically functioning preschoolers they all everybody has special needs and uniqueness but are ones that have IEPs that have been identified through the child through the school psychologist then they can come for free because that is part of ID that we provide free appropriate public education starting at age three and do you have like a child find for that or uh we do child find once a month every 30 uh every 30 days we do one and it's always the first Thursday of the month and and the preschool is it we are always we hold spots for our three-year olds because as they turn three We Roll three-year olds in but yes we are we are full now we actually have I have numbers we have 57 paying full tuition we have 53 on IEPs and six who get scholarships for um United Way Valley of the Sun and these were numbers um before last week's child fight so I handed out six new enrollment packets on Thursday do you get um more special needs every time you do a child find that's all that the child find is for is looking for special needs I know that but I'm just saying yeah so you have slots open for children we hold spots for those we have take special needs or not yeah yeah so it's constantly our preschool's constantly growing it starts out smaller in the fall and then we're up to how many preschool classrooms we run eight classrooms four in the morning the afterno and when will you open up enrollment for your tuition we for next school year February next two seconds I'm you February 27 20 next Thursday no the 13th this THS how about the 20th feary 20th I think is it the 20th thank you jth it is on the 20th and that is for preschool and kindergarten we do our um Kindergarten Roundup preschool Roundup so we can kind of start banking on numbers I need yes you're going to come see me and I'll have a and the [Music] price it is I'm very blessed you saw Gina who works in there and I'm I'm very blessed with the staff we have so they do we call it Disneyland down there do a great J even though I don't want to but thank you all right I will make a motion [Music] approval item addition to regulation jlc R burner so I'm Katherine burner I'm the district nurse I'm also house over at HMS right now um and back in April I believe of last year I got approval from the board to participate in a research study put on by um the national school nurse Association and it is specifically for the development of a curriculum for school personnel so teaching staff support service nurses God willing that take care of our students that have type 1 diabetes so part of this is that we have to be up our policy procedure regulation that we already have a policy in place for caring for children with chronic any child really but children with chronic health conditions so because I'm not by myself and I have a second RN in our disc District now um we were able to work together and she actually did most of the work in beeping up our regulation taking what was already there that was pretty generic and generalized on how health office staff School staff will manage the administration of medication and taking care of children with a chronic health condition and put in a lot more detail on what's actually going to happen and give us framework for how we're going to implement this um with the idea being that yes we're here we're not going to always be here so whoever is coming in behind us we have a really robust program to just step into and then any new staff that are coming in there's going to be training and very clear expectations also for parents who have a newly diagnosed child who has Type 1 diabetes it will give them something in writing that they can actually see this is what we are going to provide for your children this is what you can expect from us so that's what this whole beautiful document that you have is mular is the um registered nurse she's our second registered nurse she's over at territorial um she really is the one I had the skeleton in place and she put the meat on the bones so I am very grateful for that we're asking typically regulations and Exhibits don't need governing board approval we're asking for it to help support Catherine in her research project that was authorized by the board so she can do that part any type one di we have right now um over the for campus well nobody at Tech right now although we do have a kiddo that we monitor but we have nine over the other three and they're like every level like brand brand new we've been doing them forever and this is for the diabetes but does this also what other chronic oh in the in the district yeah but how many more would this cover other than the diabetic oh this is specific to type one diabetes because there is not another chronic disease that requires so much management throughout the school day there are lots of chronic diseases that I'm aware of that I want to have going in the back of my mind through the school day but there's not I mean even asthma you're not going to see those kids as much as your type 1 diabetics because every single time they consume something they have to have insulin and so it's a constant thing it's all day long um we have CGM which is continuous glucose monitoring a lot of that is managed on cell phones so children aren't supposed to have cell phones at school however kids can and so this gets everything clarified so that there's clear patients on both sides both for school staff and for families um oh oh oh um with grant money we were able to purchase um it's called sugar pixel it was actually developed by the mom of a type one diabetic um it's Anonymous screening so a lot of times if we're monitoring a kid at school um if it's on your personal device you have a students personal information on your personal device we don't want that not everything works with Google um and we're a Google based school so with sugar pixel it's just you have internet and it's just going to show you numbers you can color code your kids so that you can have multiple children on a monitor and you'll have a key my you know red is this kid blue is this kid and that takes out the um ethical and legal repercussions of wanting to know what your student is on campus like where they're at with their blood sugar and not having to break down and use your personal device because school platforms don't always integrate with the um continuous glucose monitor so sugar pixel it's Bridges the gap which is why it was developed so we have everybody all the type ones information on our so this and this again it's going to give us clear expectations for all staff because as a teacher you're going to spend a lot more time with a student who has type one in the health office and instead of saying hey teachers this is a single page document that you're going to follow it's going to be hey teachers you have this student here is what we're actually going to do and what we as the health office me as the district nurse this is what you can expect from me so far as train you so that you are comfortable in your classroom and things that you you can do to manage to decrease the interruptions to the school [Music] day item 12 B is our y Library Network related La of Interest so all you're doing this is waving the conflict of interest you're not while membership make thatle so the yaai library Network is for multiple campuses across jaai County multiple libraries across jaai count one there are two different Library districts in yaai County y Library Network and ya Library District so YN our students can request books through in library loan things like that they're all vetted by our school librarians to make sure kids aren't requesting and receiving something that we would not normally put on our school shelves I appreciate because there are um because there are lots of school districts who are part of YN in the county like pretty much all of them um 25 school districts um they're all part of YN if the um agreement went through the county attorney's office because the County Attorney represents PN and then all 25 School District Attorneys to make sure that we all agree on this this um this document it would take like an ice age to get through 25 different attorney's offices and the county attorney's office so there are some things where we have shared services this is one of them where every school district governing board decides we're willing could the County Attorney potentially have a conflict of interest because they represent YN yes every school district says we're willing to wave that conflict of interest in the in order to make the process quicker so the abaay county attorney reviews the contract that later on will enter into or not to share shared Library Services just just gives us one attorney for 25 districts and the county and so all we're asking tonight is that we allow the County Attorney to be the one that writes the contract and that it doesn't have to go through every District's attorney I just appreciate the books being screen because I know that there's libraries that have books that we don't want our children to hold well material that's not age appropriate right point that way yeah between the college and and some of the other libraries I'll make the motion to approve labor of conflict interest attorney all in favor item 12 C exhibit change for policy k okay um governing board policy Ki is about visitors to the classroom and I want to distinguish between visitors to the classrooms and Volunteers in the classrooms this has nothing to do with classroom volunteers this strictly has to do with people who are requesting to visit a classroom could be a parent who has a child in a particular classroom could be a parent Guardian who is interested in learning more about our schools and wants to visit the classroom our policy says that an administrator has to accompany um those visitors to the classrooms because our volunteers are fully vetted there's an application process a background check and fingerprinting process people who just want to visit the classrooms aren't vetted because they're just there as a temporary visitor in the past our policy has been nonspecific about the quantity of visits that an individual May request and the length of time and so we're asking that we be more specific in our um regulation and that we have in our exhibit which is the paper that someone fills out when they want to visit it so um people will be able to visit a classroom once a semester for 20 minutes at a time and remember I just want to remind everybody that's different than volunteers who when you do your volunteer packet and you those people could be unsupervised because they've had background check and their fingerprint cleared this is strictly a a Time bound visitor to a classroom that has to be compy by administrator we talked about this before but this is parents but what happens if somebody wants to come in and visit a classroom and you find out shouldn't be around children that way that's why they're with an administrator why they're alone and a parents the same way yes y if a parent is having an issue with a child in the classroom and wants to visit the classroom they can come just once a semester they can once a semester for 20 minutes at a time if a parent has a child who's having a problem in a classroom their first course of action will be to visit always with the classroom teacher about the situation if they feel that unresolved to visit with a school administrator who can work toward resolution with that and then if it's um something that the parent thinks no I really need to observe my own kid in this environment and they'll they can be accompanied by an administrator to do that thank you yeah thanks for doing that all right see no other discussion I'll entertain a motion to approve item 12C I'll make the motion to approve to 20 visit for semester a second please second all in favor fantastic [Music] next look at you good job
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
so we should come together celebrate and experience and honor black excellence and culture I've also heard wonderful feedback about the success of BSA Buddies the BSA board members from both high schools were eager to Mentor younger students hoping to instill pride and a strong sense of identity early on helping to prevent the insecurities they once experienced themselves they are truly enjoying the opportunity to empower these students boost their confidence and ensure they feel seen and valued thank you thank you great L and now we'll have our board committee reports we'll start with the finance and Facilities committee who would like to give that report legislation yeah I do actually so basically the the two main things that we talked about or well first of all an update on the master facilities planning process um we are are up against a situation where the rooftop units at broa have come to the end of their natural life so we have put together or there has been some quick bids put together to replace those um we do need a long lead time to get that done generally it's about 16 to 18 weeks because they need to be ordered so in order to have people in place to get that done um over the summer while students are out um we did need to process that now so that's underway Qui I'm just going to add to so broa is not going to be hosting extended school year this year um but they were already not going to be because of the parking lot so it kind of so the timing is important that we get both done over the summer this summer okay so how does how do quick bids work versus regular bids oh I think quick was just my [Music] oh there is an agenda coming up right on there is we do have an item where I can cover that okay thank you thanks for the plug Mary Joel no problem um the other main thing that we talked about speaking of bids there was there are bids in on the um pavement and we have projects um across several of the schools including broka uh Grand Park Grand Park and Murphy um asgo and ASO East um I think that's here for information today correct it's not here for information today are we not doing anything we're doing a lot but that's not today it's not coming well anyway those are in the works obviously that wouldn't be until uh till the weather gets warmer which it won't be in the next few days so um based on the um bids that have come in so far it looks like the lowest bidder is Abby Paving who we've used in the past and has done some done some good work for us so anything else you'd like to add no okay you want you want to add something to that or you want to wait until your presentation okay all right and then our policy and legislative committee who would like to speak to that okay um we uh we were provided a highle review of the methodology and revisions to the review of student rights and responsibilities for um uh 2526 school year and I think we're um bringing that here to the board not this meeting but next meeting is that correct 24th on 24th thank you um so great job to the team uh very um informative loved some of the the changes that we've we've made and kind of some of the updates so appreciate that um definitely um um answered all of our questions so I look forward to that on the 24th there also also the vision 2030 was briefly discussed as it was covered in the finance facilities meeting uh was mentioned that Vision 2030 30 is aligned with our strategic plan there are a number of bills that were discussed uh that impact K through2 education that were passed in 2024 I'll highlight one oh sorry go ahead I I think that was probably after you left yeah and from I was going to highlight one is that okay okay I'm sorry sorry uh Public Act 103-0 771 this one's fascinating right uh actually goes into effect June 1st 2025 and that listen all of us Educators out there are excited that fellow board members that you will uh now in part of your training will be to uh be inducted if you will into training on how to improve student outcomes uh the training will be uh will regard uh improving student outcomes required by um uh the state in the scope of the duties of a school board member so that happens and goes into effect June 1st 2025 as I said uh many of us educators are now I'm just kidding most Educators don't even know that that's happening but I happen to be excited that that's that's going to be a part of new Schoolboard train uh training if you will and hopefully that will help so I'm going to tag on to that we also had a discussion um about Title 9 uh because there have been some changes based on the new Administration um T Title 9 basically deals with um sex-based discrimination in school or education program that receives funding from the federal government um it's historically been pretty fluid um there were changes made during the 2020 administ uh during the 2016 Administration and then during the 2020 Administration and there were some rules that we adopted and added to our policy based on that uh the new Administration is going back to the changes that were made before so at least that's the latest news and and because I am not the expert on this Mr Bell I am throwing it over to you for the latest update thank you for that so yes there uh we were operating prior to the start of the school year on the 2020 Title 9 rules those regulations were were impacted as of August one or the first day of school if you will um through January um when the new Administration took over they have since vacated um through V various legislative acts uh many things and have gone back to the 20 rules um uh and so what we have learned is that uh iasb and press will be issuing guidance on that in their uh April issue of press we did update several of our policies according to the 2024 rules and so we will look at the Press guidance as those uh updates come out and then bring those back to the board for um a first read and action accordingly thank you thank you J okay mam president thank you all right um any board comments I got wine go for it in my uh spare time right I uh I'm Moonlight as the uh Vice chair and commissioner for the Grand Army of the Republic War Museum uh War Memorial Museum that we have in Aurora it's a true Gem and um they kicked K off um Thursday night we had a a little dinner and uh kicked off um Black History Month with um a new um exhibit there called um war on two fronts or the two fronts I think it is man now now I'm now I'm now I'm bothered but it was uh it was uh talking about many of our African-American uh Aurora veterans and what they faced uh after uh coming home from such Wars as World War I World War II and uh some of these other Wars as well which was fascinating and here you go I want to embarrass somebody I learned something this is what I learned sorry you know I'm going to do it this is what I learned in in the conversation I learned that our president right president similton that her mother was the first Clerk of Aurora the first African-American clerk African-American female on top of that clerk in Aurora so that was uh I went there and uh that was what I learned on my way out she tell you I called her right away and I was I said listen I want to tell you what I learned tonight right oh they learned some other things too but that one I got the the most excited about so uh it runs in the family yes he proceeded to tell me that exact same thing yes first yeah yeah but uh if you get a chance definitely check it out it's uh it's uh it's pretty cool and it's awesome that we have that in Aurora um so yeah I'm going to tell my mom that you brought her name up CU she'll be excited I have a comment it's just it's regarding the whole like um Boulder Hill situation but I just wanted to start off by saying like as someone me and cie and ssac as we talk about building teacher and student relationship I think it just goes far beyond just high school students and Junior High it also reaches down to Elementary and Kinder Garden Preschool like those are also important age groups as well and fostering uh safe and nurturing classroom for all ages and all grades up until high school and even in college it's very important for all students so I'm not going to lie I kind of broke my heart to hear those types of stories and hear how unsafe these classrooms are becoming and these are students too regardless of the aggressors or the people who aren't being aggressive there are students that also need to be nurtured and come down and find that reason why are they acting out or why are they misbehaving in the classroom not to just like throw them off on the side but to understand where they're coming from where cuz these are kindergarteners these aren't even like high schoolers these are children and you know like everything starts at home and fostering a very healthy safe environment without disregarding the situation and making it seem like it is okay because it's not okay not for students that are getting injured and not for the person who's acting out it's not okay either way so for and I know Callie's not present here but she did tell me she was watching online like being someone who is advocating for a healthy teacher student relationship it also goes beyond just what me and Cali do in high school or for our Junior highs also for our elementary also for our kindergarteners also for our preschoolers because it starts young and if we can build preschoolers and kindergarteners to have a really good teacher student relationship you don't have those issues of self-efficacy coming on early on in middle school you don't see those issues coming in high school cuz now they've grown into it so we start at a young age you teach and you Foster an ability to learn and be in a positive environment at a young age so that you don't have these issues in the future you don't see them in junior high you don't see them or reduced in high school so that's my only comment on that issue thank you for that and that's why you're here and um it is it is it is um the role and responsibility of us who sit on this board to make sure that our students um they deserve and they we expect for them to have a learning experience that is safe um where they feel belong you know where they feel a sense of belonging and that they um that no harm comes to them I mean so you know as part of our as part of what we do to monitor ourselves as a board um I wrote on here that um I was heartbroken to hear it and so this kind of stuff will not happen on our watch and we will make sure that things are taken care of and I know I'm speaking for this entire board um when I say that and so um we will things will be taken care of and they will be taken care of because they are you guys are our future and um I can't imagine um the types of experiences if they're having these types of experiences how that's impacting them um and you know every one of them are our children they belong to us and we would not want anything any harm to come to them so it enough said right enough said Can can I lighten it up a little bit oh yeah unless anyone else has any comments and and I agree with everything that you said um I just want to as I usually do just highlight a few things that I've been to and done since since the last meeting um first of all I want to I want to highlight OIC was at as here at asigo East last Friday um which is basically a multicultural gathering with um oh my gosh let me let me just say there were so many tables with food different ethnic foods um there were so many people there um celebrating so many diverse Nations and through food and through song and through dance again I want to stress that it's really important that we keep uh um we keep our diversity alive and we celebrate everybody else's culture so if you didn't go this year you had better go next year because I totally blew my diet and yeah but it was well worth it um did get a chance to catch some wrestling between um as we go W Bonzi Valley um I want to highlight that especially with winter sports um you know regionals are going on sectionals are going on not only in wrestling uh but but other winter sports so I want to congratulate all the successes so far and wish good luck moving into for those that haven't finished yet moving especially wrestling move into uh sectionals and finals um did go to a couple meetings at the weights and southberry and it is amazing how much you can get from teachers and staff at 7:45 in the morning before their second cup of coffee um I do want to thank them for all of their contributions and all of their hard work across the board but at those two schools in particular I was at the black history job fair also here at OE In This Very Room where there was an honor given to the lovely Dr Waller who is who is my highlight for this particular meeting um I would also encourage more people to go to that it could have been a lot better attended but um and then finally and then I'll be quiet um this Saturday was this past Saturday was the 15th annual Hoops for Hope um which is where Yorkville High School and asigo High School come together and play a lot of basketball and do a lot of things like have um they do blood donations they take uh um Registries for bone marrow um there's food there's Raffles um I was only able to catch the um the sophomore boys it was a really close game but we won um so that was good but but I also uh was able to catch the ceremony of the survivors and what was really cool about it was all of the student athletes got together from both schools and everybody gathered in a circle in the middle of the court and everybody held up a certificate which basically had the name of someone whose life someone that they knew whose life had been touched by cancer whether they whether they passed or whether they were Survivor so it was there were also cancer survivors there some of whom have been there multiple years um this was all at Yorkville this year so um again it was a great Community experience and next year it's over here at asgo so I would encourage you and to to attend and that's it for me I forgot one thing uh February 22nd for those that don't know speaking of blood blood drive you want you want do go for it um for it so we have talked or or many of you know um Robin Vickers in the community and and her son Andy who uh passed away last year there is a blood drive on February 22nd um it's kind of posted all over the place see me if you need um it's on our website it it is on the website okay um we are trying to get actually we have a pretty good turnout so far but we are accepting blood donate me too blood donations um in honor of Andy which is something something that um something that he would want so it's a great Comm another great Community gesture and um you know Robin does a lot for the community so if you can make it and if you're eligible to donate please come by well make an appointment first thank you Jared here to help all right 8.1 consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda make a motion to approve all items under consent including 8.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on January 27th 2025 open and close session 8.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district and 8.3 to approve the field trips for overnight end or over 200 miles second I have a question before we approve yes did you second I did okay go ahead Jen um Dr conade when it comes to um adults that are as chaperon if you will are those necessarily School Employees are they parents who can they be so typically we can have a mixture of both um we always have School Employees um present as chaperon um but for some of our larger field trips we do also utilize some parent chaperon okay thank you very much [Music] go ahead Mr ploger hi Dr Maria hi Miss venoth hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson I motion passes 70 okay 9.1 uh this evening I invite Dr Paul and Mr Owen to a presentation bringing to the board for information some work that's been done um to really think about our platforms and vendor platforms for our career and college readiness um always recognizing the career involves the trades and other um career involvement so this is a expansive term um want to make sure that's clear as we think about this work tonight I want to thank you all oh you have other guests here so I'll let you all inv introduce yourselves thank you yes hi everyone good evening um Ben and I are very excited to also share some additional staff members who were part of this process to highlight the journey we' been on this year in exploring a College and Career Readiness platform uh so I'll give them a chance to introduce themselves as we begin our presentation good evening I'm Kate libl I'm the assistant principal of student services at ASO High School good evening I'm Ben Owen I'm the director of career and college readiness and before I hand things over to John I did want to point out that as we go through the information tonight you're going to hear times when we will say college in career and you're going to hear times that we will say career in college that's not a mistake that's intentional and the reason for that is when we're referring to legislation will align with the language that is utilized which is typically College and Career however when we are referring to the district goals and future Readiness for all of our students we put the term career first because we want to ensure that we're preparing all students regardless of what that future path is so I did want to call that out that that's not misspeaking so just thanks Ben uh and I am John Francis the executive director of schools here in 308 uh so just kind of a history of how we've gotten where we are today uh this this work really started with the vendor review process back in the fall of looking at different vendors including the one that we are currently using and what is going to serve Us best going forward um the reason we really needed to do this is getting feedback from the people who use these services at our buildings that we needed something uh that was better for us in prep preparing our students for their future Readiness uh and just something better than what we are currently using this lies within all of the work we're doing with the strategic planning it it is grounded in the foundational practices specifically high quality instruction um and you know on this slide where is developed an aligned this is part of of the the plan develop an aligned rigorous curriculum and support for ambitious instruction and practices to ensure all students are actively engaged in learning growing and achieving and then the two bullet points underneath that are really the success indicators right first that it's integrated uh that we have an integrated scope and sequence that aligns with the pace framework for students in grade 6th through 12th and that we can provide two College and Career pathway endorsement sequences within the plan and one additional call out there is when we refer to the PACE framework um the pace framework stands for postsecondary and career expectations framework if we not familiar with that which kind of takes me to to my next Point um so obviously we had a lot of considerations wrapped around looking at a um College and Career Readiness platform um we do in District have navian uh that is a platform that is used to greater or lesser extents across our Junior High and high school buildings um what we felt like a need in considering whether it's Naviance or any other platform was to look at first and foremost some of those legislative demands that we have on us um for that career in college readiness particularly as Ben mentioned that pace framework that post-secondary and career exper expectations framework um will go into effect for us this summer um the state is looking for all of our schools 6 through 12 to be able to have either adopted or created a pace framework that will kind of outline our work that pace framework really lays out the experiences the knowledge um and the learning that our students need to have at each grade level 6 through 12 in three different areas financial aid and literacy postsecondary education um planning and selection as well as that career exploration and development so that framework can actually kind of create that scope and sequence for us when it comes to that um career uh exploration and post-secondary planning part of that pce framework legislation of course is also that College and Career pathway endorsement which Ben mentioned um with the goal working towards having two of those available to our students at least as a starting point those uh pathway indorsements really create experiences for students particularly at the high school level where there's a course of sequences that they take aligned to a career pathway um there's embedded team and Project based learning there's opportunities for uh dual credit within the end of that pathway there's workplace learning there could be opportunities for internship and more of those experiential types of things um we already have coursework in our buildings that allow students to earn industry credentials those are all things that get wrapped up into some of those um pathway endorsements so anything that we wanted to look at as far as a platform we wanted to make sure would align with those legislative uh requirements then a few other considerations that we had as a team just from a practicality standpoint and making sure we had the best services for students was something that would give us some powerful Data Tracking um something that not just in terms of those indicators that we have to keep track of for the state but also um some of the things that we're doing with students to keep track of their day-to-day whether that's volunteer experience or work experience that they're having that would fit into that uh pathway endorsement we would want something that's not just looking at is what are colleg is available to me or what careers are available but all of that um including military experiences and trade uh and uh uh internship opportunities um academics post-secondary supports um community and alumni connections this piece was really important to us that alumni connection we do keep track um of the outcomes for our alumni sometimes that's hard to do we lose track of our students what platforms might exist that we can better keep track of our students but more to the point can we build an alumni support network for career Readiness for college readiness and connect our current students with alumni and then I just also wanted to highlight highlight the K5 expansion capabilities right now that expectation for us legislatively is 6 through 12 um but we recognize that it's never too early to start talking about what are your dreams and how can we connect kids with the information that they need to start planning um and so would a platform provide us that opportunity all right I do want to highlight obviously I am here today but um I want to thank all of our colleagues for their work and participation we were able to tap staff um from the district office from our Junior highs and high schools um Administration and student services staff um and I want to thank everybody for their time we wanted to be sure everybody was represented including our special education programs um and special populations so a little bit about the timeline um at the beginning of this school year the work got underway and um began to flesh out what were the questions what were the needs some of those considerations that I just went through um and then also identifying who are the vendors we want to look at and what criteria um do we want to evaluate them through and then as we got into this semester um we were able to have some of those meetings with vendors um our team that you just saw had time with the vendors got to see each of these different platforms um and then we had an opportunity to pull students um from each of the high schools to spend some time working in each of these platforms and get some feedback from the students because while we as the adults in the room might see hey this looks nice or we get good information from it we really if we want our students to be invested in the process and use the platform then we needed to get their feedback all right so I'm going to talk a little bit about the actual vendors that were part of the review process the selection criteria and then into our recommendations so there was three vendors that took part in the vendor review process and they were selected based on the extent to which they are engaged in thisk Market in supporting schools and future Readiness for students so the three vendors that um took part in the vendor review process were navian which is the current College and Career platform that we have implemented in School District 308 School links and Zell and the platform considerations or evaluation criteria so as Kate mentioned when we started this process there was that list of things that she initially referenced that were really important to us to help ensure that we were providing these opportunities for all of our students but also to ensure that we were really being reflective of how comprehensive this work is and to do it right we need a platform that is going to provide a lot of layers of support um for our staff and for our students as we move forward with this work so these uh criteria that were developed for the evaluation process are really based off those considerations and I'll call out a few things from each kind of bucket here but the first one is Data Tracking and as Kate mentioned it was was really important for us to not only have the ability to track those things that are going to be legislative requirements or are currently such as our College and Career Readiness indicators the components of the post-secondary and career expectations framework but also to be able to customize and pull the data that we need to be able to kind of adapt and best meet the needs of our students so that was referred to um previously when we look at career and post-secondary exploration this is really important because we are not just focusing on a single path for students it was really important for us to ensure that the platform offered a robust offering um in resources and supports for all of our students regardless of what that path is so as Kate mentioned for some students that might be college for some students that might be um entering the workforce and the trades it might be the military but we're really focus on that career preparation for students regardless of what that path is um for the students getting into the next component is uh academics and postsecondary what we're looking at there is how the platform can either further enhance what we're doing for our students or increase opportunities through a variety of different things I want to call out a couple specifically so from feedback from our student services department it has been identified that the the need for a comprehensive course planner that can be utilized by our student services staff by students and families as our junior high students are planning and moving into high school to be able to interact and kind of engage in that planning process for four 6 years um whatever that looks like for them at the time proactively through the platform so kind of growing the the abilities that we currently have in place here um that also allows for like streamlining and efficiency to free up some of the time of our student services staff to be able to serve students in other capacities also um really important obviously that we maintain the Common App or the the college integration application components as well as uh like just the simple tasks that students need to complete like obtaining transcripts and those types of things in terms of interface support and network I'll quickly summarize this into a couple key points the first one is how userfriendly um is the platform for our different stakeholder groups looking at our staff looking at our students our families our community members and really focusing on all those stakeholder groups that could engage and the level to which they could engage with the different platforms when we look at support in network it was what support does each vendor provide us through the implementation process through the roll out of features through the professional learning aspect um to ensure that we are implementing with Fidelity and that we are going to be successful um as we move forward with um a platform regardless of what that is and then the last thing here is network of support so beyond what that vendor can offer um because we know there limitations and those relationships aren't necessarily forever it was important for us to look at that network of support beyond the vendor itself in terms of other districts um that are similar to us neighboring districts um similar in size that we could partner with and learn from their experiences um and how they've utilized these platforms also and then the last column here um other features this list could be extremely comprehensive because there's a lot of things that can support this work um as Kate mentioned the community uh and Industry partner component was really important so we want to make sure we wanted to make sure that the platform that we were going to recommend gave us the ability to increase our interaction with our Community Partners in terms of being able to more effectively communicate in terms of career and college uh activities for our students but also to invite them in when it's appropriate to be able to come into our classrooms uh support that career exploration attend different events and really enhance those uh Community part Partnerships that are in place for our career exploration currently um the last thing I'll mention here because a lot of these were already mentioned is we wanted to ensure that there was the ability for um parent or family involvement also so what did it look like from a a parent account access how could parents and Guardians support their students and be involved in this process also so that brings us to our recommendation for a College and Career platform moving forward and based on the process that we went through we would recommend School links as being the College and Career platform for School District 308 beginning in the 2526 school year um with implementation starting this spring as you look on the screen here you can see that this is the different components that really of the platform that really align with the criteria and the considerations that we had so from the core access and accounts adding the graduation and academic success component adding the uh data suite and then some of these other components also it creates a comprehensive package through the school links platform that allows us to address all of those things that were identified by the team and as we look at The District's uh goals moving forward to ensure that we have a comprehensive platform that supports this work um we did re uh received some intentional feedback from members of the equity learning and Innovation committee and there was a couple questions that came up as we were discussing the different components here that I did want to address to make sure that we had those answers also so the first question that came up was through this platform is would School links be the place that students in addition to utilizing common app that college integration tool is it the platform where they could also accumulate letters of recommendations for that process and we did confirm that yes this would be the same platform that they would do that work in an additional question was would we have the ability to onboard alumni or is it just limited to current students um and we did receive confirmation from school links that we do have the capabilities to onboard alumni also uh through this process if we choose and what uh determine what that looks like and then the last question was uh in regards to the HBCU Common App um asking if that was integrated into the platform also and it is not directly integrated um in essence like the Common App itself is but they School links did confirm that they have processes in place to support students through this and that they have experienced no issues in other districts with students um completing that process so a couple key advancements when we look at school links that really align to the work that we have ahead of us in uh District 308 is that industry partner management so we talked about being able to grow and enhance those relationships that is one key component another feature that was U kind of really shined through the school links vendor process was the student opportunity board and you'll see a screenshot of this in just a moment but what this does is it gives students um the ability to search through the school links platform and look for um job opportunities and other opportunities so internships career opportunities and different things of that nature that they can filter based on specific criteria that they put in and this is housed through not only Our Community Partners but also Community Partners who may be involved with other districts and have posted opportunities within the platform for students also um looking at some of those academic enhancements such as course planner and the ability for a public facing digital course catalog those were uh advancements over where we're currently at alignment to the legislative requirements and career exploration for all students was crosswalk resources that really directly support the requirements looking at scope and sequencing the ability to uh customize what's already there but Al things that we may want to modify to best meet the needs of our students and then um the accessibility features to make sure that all students in uh users have access we talked about the network of support in one advancement I'll say with School links is that when you look at the Chicago and Chicago um land suburbs 90% of high schools um are utilizing School Lings so when we look at that Network that is available to us there is a um a deep well that we can reach to to kind of learn from other districts but also to partner with and ensure that we are moving forward with intentionality and Fidelity as we Implement and then the last point is the parent uh and alumni access we did briefly talk about the parent access I do want to call out that when our students become alumni so we have our students who have accounts when they become alumni they uh retain their School links account through uh School District 308 for life so it gives us that ability to continue to engage our graduates and really help with tracking but also start leveraging them as Community Partners to meet the needs um as we move forward also um on the previous slide these are just some screenshots there is the accessibility features um here and down on the bottom right is a scope and sequencing these are very brief uh images it's much more comprehensive on the next slide this is just a preview um really zoomed in on what the industry partner management looks like so this is where we have the ability to list partners that we currently have uh collect information at different events and include these Partners in our database and Target specific audiences that we want to reach out to to engage in different capacities in addition once we are up and running in the platform Community Partners have the ability to request to be a partner with the school district also those do have to be reviewed and approved but it's a two-way communication where we can directly input um or Community Partners who see that we are in the school links platform because it is becoming very commonly used and they maybe the support surrounding districts can also choose to engage with us to kind of grow that also and then this here again I said this was a great feature for our students this is a screenshot um from a demo account so everything here is not going to be completely accurate of the student opportunity board just showing how this will increase the opportunities for our students to really be able to go in and search based on specific criteria that they input and uh and see additional opportunities for internship ship and potentially full-time jobs as they're going through that career exploration process um as Kate mentioned we did uh we know the importance of getting student feed feedback through this process so we as staff we support this but students live in this uh the platform dayto day if we do this right so um we did uh engage students in demo accounts to be able to go in and explore and kind of provide feedback on what that looked like for them in the board memo you will see that there is a document link that has um much more extensive um highlights from the student feedback but I did want to call out a couple here um some general themes from student feedback was that that the platform is very userfriendly it's easy to navigate and they like the level of the interactiveness as they were looking through different resources and trying to find some of those things we ask how easily they could um Locate uh the longer the third quote here um I thought was a great call out also so this is student feedback uh specifically calling out the accessibility features and access that School links provided and how it makes the platform more accessible to all students so I thought that was important to CL uh include also all right so coming to our projected budget when we uh talk about the budget I do want to talk about the reach that the platform would have so that core access component which is in essence the uh Apples to Apples with our current platform um when implemented 6th through 12th grade would reach approximately 9100 students when we look at some of those add-ons that support the the high school uh requirements really with like the academic enhancement as well as some of that Data Tracking those add-ons would reach approximately 5,400 students in grades 9 through 12 so the anticipated cost and this is detailed um in uh it's included in the board memo in additional uh detail in terms of historical cost projected cost and funding recommend commendations um is outlined here but I also want to mention that historically in the recommended funding is um a split between local funding and CTE Grant funds so we are not really see we're remaining relatively constant in the local uh funding requirements and any additional cost that would be incurred um is able to be covered with our CTE Grant funds um which are coming into the building so the projected cost are up here there is a onetime implementation cost of $6500 year one um is listed as 65,7 and you can see there's a slight increase each year and School links indicated all platforms did see an increase and when they provided multi-year quotes but School links talked about that as being they are investing millions and millions in dollars to um continue to grow and enhance the features and really meet the needs of districts within the state of Illinois so I will hand it over to Dr Paul so one of the biggest areas we wanted to pay attention to is our implementation plan of how we start transitioning into um with your board approval of this platform um with School links and so we've already started conversations both with our building leaders as well as School links about what that looks like for the remainder of this year as well as planning for the future so you can see just some highlights here um how we're also working with our technology team with doing a data data transfer from our current platform to um the recommended platform uh so we don't lose that information that our students have already provided us um in our current platform um in addition providing ongoing professional learning for the users of our staff such as our student services teams at both of our high schools as well as paying attention to how we can support our students and our parents learning more about this platform and what does that look like for them um I don't know if it was mentioned but schoolinks does have an app for parents to be able to access the platform as well so providing easy access not needing to go to a website to go to find out more information so more details to come as we work with our building leaders um and our students and our parents for um ongoing professional learning um again additional documentation that was highlighted today is in the board memo including our current costs with our current vendor um as well as all three vendor proposals for your review um and we are here to answer any questions you might have based on our presentation this evening I hit two and I'm sorry I didn't POS these earlier um multiple languages yes or no yes so um it has I do not remember off the top of my head the exact amount but it does have the ability to translate into um several languages do you remember Kate what it is a lot is good a lot is good yeah um but yeah it was it was a lot more accessible from a language aspect okay um and then the other thing is um does this also you know help kids uh or actually adults you know coming from our transition program um you know the services that they might need or uh you know things like you know what I'm saying um or is that something that would be a different platform so I we have the ability for any of our students to be in the school links platform so I think it would really be navigating through with our our staff and those programs and identifying the resources that best align and tailoring that experience uh for those students and I think um so I guess so yes appropriate yes okay uh I think part of the benefit of that um Community partner feature in the platform is that we can kind of tailor that the way that we want to so I think that gives us an opportunity when we think about some of those special populations to include some of our Adult Services connections and those contacts so that we have that in student services so that our special education teams have that um as well as help provide our students and families with that access thank you I have a couple questions um first thanks for getting the questions that we did ask answered and I think the parent access is a game changer so I love that um my my question is actually for Hope um cuz then it'll lead to my second question it's okay don't be nervous nervous not her I know she made a face so do you currently use navian and um well I'll just ask that question do you currently use naviant but what should they do or plan to do in order to ensure that students are leveraging this new program okay so my advice okay first answer your question yes I still do use navian I really do love navian and the whole like clever program so for this new program School links my only advice would be just make it um I don't know the word to use but let it be cohesive like with the counselor and um the students I had a really good time when it came to applying for colleges and requesting transcripts through navian with my counselor and she was able to communicate with me like through the app so I thought it was really cool that I didn't have to do too much work in the like requesting it did not take that long it didn't take too long to get that information instead of just getting the paper and doing all that so that would be my only advice for seniors or Juniors that are graduating early to have a really good system between counselors and students using this new app um I think that'd be my only also another thing is um I hope it's easy when it comes to like putting in information for like what colleges people want I think Navia does a really good job of narrowing down but not just narrowing down like finding what fits you like do you like a roll area how like how big do you want the campus to be what do you want to go into here are the schools that um are really good for the major that you want to go into I really like that aspect about navian as well so that's my only thing that I would say just catering to people that do want to further their education in college having it easy especially your freshman year freshman usually don't know what they want to do with their freshman year so I liked how the app would give me ideas I loved how the app would also like help me figure out a career I wanted to go into they had a quiz they would allow me to take a little quiz answer a few questions and then give me a bunch of careers from what they think that I'll most likely want to do to what hey is this something that you think you might be interested in and then giving me colleges based off of that navian did a great job with that so that's what I would say on that note that's great so does this do that yes it does and and I if I can speak for our counselors I think they would agree with you that they they want a big piece of irritation to our student services teams right is the amount of data entry and plugging things in and we don't want to be spending time doing that we want to be spending time in meaningful interactions with our students so the more we can streamline and automate some of those things so that you can have more meaningful conversations with your counselors about career interests about college um will be helpful to us so they totally agree they want it to still stay as easy and streamlined and that was important to them yeah that's great and yes um this plat this School links platform does offer a lot of those things that you mentioned in terms of the interest inventories alignment suggested matches um being able to search for colleges based on uh specific parameters that are of Interest those are all Incorporated here also so the one the second caveat to that is that it's an AI generated program that it does extract data and I don't expect you necessar haven't answered when I'm about because I didn't give it to you beforehand but it extracts data and my assumption is of course it's Predictive Analytics is based on what we put into it and so it said that it it's it's the little research I said it said it predict is Predictive Analytics to improve outcomes so my thought thought is what outcomes um what specific outcomes will this program help us in the district to to improve or identify etc for the students that's a great question um one of the things that was kind of touched on is what do we what happens when students graduate what Pathways do they take for careers in colleges um that they might be selecting or trades or vocational schools and this platform we are hearing can provide us that additional data beyond the high school experience um and we're eager to learn more as we more about this platform and the capabilities it can offer us yeah I think that's important especially for Data Tracking cuz if it's if it's saying that it's going to provide that my hope is that it'll provide you with a dashboard so that you don't have to disaggregate the data as we were just talking about and because it's saying that it does it but I want to make sure that it does it for you because otherwise we'll be doing the same exact thing know export of data into spreadsheets so then figure out how to exactly um from talking with other districts and I don't know that this direct like is a direct correlation but through that process um and part of the kind of customized reporting that it shares will kind of it will indicate what those top careers are like so we can assess our programs against it our offerings for students and we can really see student interest student skills and what our offerings are and how we're able to support that at our varying schools and across the district also okay and I'll add a couple more outcome related pieces that I think are are of value to us and what we're considering is um in that course planner feature if we're able to be better more efficient more comprehensive in students creating course plans that allows us to better project course enrollments several years down the road so speaking to Ben's point about not just do our programs match what students are interested in but do we have the capacity to offer those programs as we go one two three four years down the road um and I also think that more of an immediate kind of outcome we want to look at is when we at least speaking for o when we look at our five Essentials data and how students are responding in terms of the importance of high school for their future those responses are fairly low and I think what we would look for as in a near-term kind of outcome is if we're better able to connect students with what their why is that we're going to see a better understanding of why High School is important what I'm doing on the dayto day is going to lead to something and better investment in that instruction dayto day that's good the the one piece um so we had in in Valley viw we had Naviance and um now we're School links this year and to your point hope um or maybe this makes you feel better or not I will tell you that the um recommendation letters that I've written this year through School links number one it's it's actually easier than Aviance number two the students seem to know that they were in there in place quicker than under navian I know there were a lot of times where students came came up to me like and they said oh did you get that done I was like yeah I did that like a few days ago and they didn't know that whereas in School links it was like I don't know why or how and I'll get to that in a second but but they they knew pretty quick the one caveat and warning I have about School links is don't do what my district did which was pretty much train nobody on anything and uh so we're sitting here learning things on the Fly I don't I don't care man I'll air it out I don't care I don't care the truth is the truth and set you free at some point right um so by but that's important to your point because I I fear that there are students out there who because quite frankly the the teachers haven't necessarily had the training to help them there are students who are kind of in these systems and the danger is it becoming a checkbox for that report card piece right because what what I think people don't realize is some of these things are in place because the state is expecting us to have certain criteria when it comes to the state report card and this definitely is a tool that can help as long as right we do that work up front and so then to Hope's point then she doesn't have teachers who don't know what they're necessarily doing with the system either so that's my one warning and just I don't know just a little from from my own experience if you will from both navian and School links I actually have a question on that note does this um app help uh students and parents learn how to fill out a fast good question because I know that it can be really really difficult for parents that are immigrants that don't know how to fill out a FASA or I've never filled out a FASA or have a student that's going to college for the first time so and it was hard for me I'll say that so does this app help students and teachers no students and parents learn how to fill out a fast bu so we will ask them that question thank you so much for raising that okay this just something that's always interested me uh I'm sorry were you no I said any other questions okay um was you know if we're going to have more insight potentially into our alumni um I've always been interested in how much we are our students are getting in scholarships and grants um I know it's Millions dollars a year um but uh I'd really like to know and I think the community should know um or would like to know as well so um shows the value you know so I don't know if that does that or if it's um some way of tracking it we will find out if they can do that as well these are really great questions so we appreciate your your questions keep them coming and that's good to know as well because I know we do try to collect that actually coming up here shortly from our graduating class what scholarships what awards have you gotten so that just so that we know and can recognize students but that could be something that we share back as well from each of our high schools yeah whatever we get um I would like to know yeah and I will follow with schools to get like a definitive answer a definitive answer on that we do have the ability for some of that customized Data Tracking so like again an example of that is like our industry certifications or credentials that students are earning we have the ability to track that through School links um if we Implement so I will see like what that looks like in these different capacities also thank you one there's a question from Jen Jen go ahead Jen um this might be more for Dr katti but I think one of our Al large area of opportunity for us is with our Alumni network and shed our strateg plan um call for it and this be a another tool for the alumni um networking and Outreach do we have someone that can actually input that information and be responsible for that currently within our staff or is that something that would be something we would have to look into outside of our current Staffing it's a good question so did you hear so yeah I did hear okay you want to build and then I'll build on what you said yeah and um so I can speak a little to that in each building we do have our College and Career Center um which is staffed by a secretary position um part of what they do as we close out each year with each graduating class is try and collect that contact information for our alumni so that we can utilize them um not just for metrics but also we're really starting to build that program of of an Alumni network so there are some staff that are trying to do that work it's always been a challenge um but I think that there's some capacity there absolutely and in year one of our strategic plan we've identified uh formalizing some partnership opportunities and also sponsorships to be able to build on what you've just shared um Jen so thank you for raising that and um I would say that um it's a I think the a lot of times it's really not even the the human power to do the work it's also the vision and the coordination of what we do with that information and sometimes the first step is to gather the information so thank you for that recommendation and maybe there's some coordination and I know um having uh Mr Owen and his role will help us get there and we have a lot of projects already on the burner but let's let's put that on there as well I think that's a worthy especially we have so many local community members who are alumni of our district um who would be so excited for this of opportunity one last followup for the HB um HBCU uh Common App if I I know for example with navian the the common app link was listed but if the HBCU Common App it link is not listed it sounds like School links has a process for doing it and just so that we have access I would I would ask them if they could at least list it on the page or somehow have information inform within the system so that students know that it's available for them if they would like to follow that process but if it's not available to you know to school link I just want to make sure we we mention it and that it's not if it's not listed there some students may think it's not available so I just want to make sure that it's at least listed thank you what would uh what would graduates access School links for like I graduate from myo School District next next year why would I go back to this tool there are times where graduates need transcripts and so they would need to be able to access this platform to to locate them um I think that there might be some information in there that might be useful Ben could probably speak to that a little bit more because in his former District he use School Lings so um I can say in addition to being able to put in res uh request for transcripts and additional things when we onboard our students and throughout their process and their time in our our school district they'll also uh create individual learning plans they have the ability to in essence create some portfolio um components like resumés and other things to highlight their accomplishments so they can access those things and then we can again use the the platform to um kind of increase that intentionality about how we're connecting with our alumni to um kind of transition that from their time as a student to as they continue on in their Journey coming back and being a partner to support our currents who um are in the district after them thank you okay thank you team for your due diligence and uh there been a lot of steps to get here and so um just as a reminder for the public this has come tonight for information um so in this interim period There's an opportunity for more questions to come in from either the board or for the public about this and so we thank you and we thank you for your your attention and for everybody coming out tonight I appreciate you uh next I want to invite uh Mr Queen uh to speak and Mr OA to speak to our two RT un units we heard some earlier discussion um we did so I would like to elaborate a little bit more on that um the approval tonight is to replace the two bro call rooftop units at bro call Early Learning Center uh we we would look to do this purchase through a co-op such as Omni sourcewell these are purch purching organizations that allow government agencies and educational institu institutions to access pre-negotiated contracts um the bidding is already done for us um the second reason we would like to do this is for the timeline uh we got a crucial date that we're trying to make for this summer where we're potentially closing this building down where we've collaborated with teaching and learning and several other departments to uh get that building empty so we can tackle this project with some parking lots and this is ample time for us to nail these two rooftop units that have been failing us all year um they've been a struggle to keep going my crew uh time and time again have been over there keeping them up but uh it's time to replace them they're over 20 years old and with the purchase of two units it would be 365 with an additional 35,000 for the curbs pushing us to 400,000 to replace these units now this is just to replace the units we would still be going out to RFP for the labor after after we purchased Securities units so if we were to purchase them on the next board meeting for the 24th we would get these in about 17 to 18 weeks putting us right in timeline for July when we would look to install these um any questions bill can you share with the board how these units specifically you could normally fix Parts but because it's all one unit what I'm referring to she said explain how you can typically fix the unit but because this is all one unit you couldn't fix it explain that process it is well it's two units one two units to supply the building half for one bu half of the building half for the other side of the building so the BAS system is shot we can't communicate with it like we should be doing on a regular basis um so my guys are using trades of to tricks and we're opening Valves and we're moving water just to fluctuate through that building so there's a lot of things that my team is able to do but that time is running up on us those those fixes will only work so long and we really need to address these units like I said they are at 20 plus years um the non-communication is a big piece for me and my team did that that get you Jen thank you so much I think it's just another reminder that um our buildings are getting older right and um we we are still paying on many of them um through through our uh bonds getting closer we're getting closer but just a reminder that like for some people to think that broa is over 20 years old that might be a shock to the system but um those buildings are are aging and and it's not the only one so I think it's just a reminder to to all of us on that front Okay other questions thank you okay that's it okay moving on to our action items um action item 10.1 approval of bills for payment can I have a motion please make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 37 milon1 18,5 2410 as presented second Miss vmou hi Dr Mario hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson hi Mr pler hi motion passes 70 action item 10.2 approval of resolution can I have a motion please make a motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the abatement of a portion of the working cash fund and directing the transfer of $7 million to the capital projects fund second Mr Cerone hi Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson hi Mr ploger I miss vmou I Mr Gatewood I miss Simon I action I'm sorry motion passes 70 action item 10.3 approval of antivirus replacement can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the five-month contract with crowd strike in the amount of 23,31 uh6 second Miss Simon hi Miss vmou hi hi Mr poer hi Dr marel hi Miss Johnson hi Mr Cerone hi Mr Gatewood hi motion passes 70 action item 10.4 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as discussed and presented second Dr marel I Miss Johnson hi Mr Gatewood hi Mr bloger hi Miss Sim hi mron hi Miss ven hi motion passes 70 um action item I'm sorry 11.1 can I have a motion to adjourn I make a motion to adjourn second all in favor I
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