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also coming up we have the women's wisdom Circle women in Anger which will be Thursday February 13th at 6:30 p.m. gallon Valentine's Day for teens will be held Saturday February 15th at 12:30 p.m. for children's events we have the graphic novel book club Junior for first and second graders which will be held Wednesday February 12th at 4:15 p.m. and Pebble Pals make your own pet rock for kids and teens Friday February 14th at 3 p.m. don't miss out on these fun community activities that is all for today thank you to our town staff for putting together this newsletter and thank you all for tuning in today my name is my name is hi silver good night and go clockers [Music]

also coming up we have the women's wisdom Circle women in Anger which will be Thursday February 13th at 6:30 p.m. gallon Valentine's Day for teens will be held Saturday February 15th at 12:30 p.m. for children's events we have the graphic novel book club Junior for first and second graders which will be held Wednesday February 12th at 4:15 p.m. and Pebble Pals make your own pet rock for kids and teens Friday February 14th at 3 p.m. don't miss out on these fun community activities that is all for today thank you to our town staff for putting together this newsletter and thank you all for tuning in today my name is my name is hi silver good night and go clockers [Music]

also coming up we have the women's wisdom Circle women in Anger which will be Thursday February 13th at 6:30 p.m. gallon valentin's day for teens will be held Saturday February 15th at 12:30 p.m. for children's events we have the graphic novel book club Junior for first and second graders which will be held Wednesday February 12th at 4:15 p.m. and Pebble Pals make your own pet rock for kids and teens Friday February 14th at 3 p.m. don't miss out on these fun community activities that is all for today thank you to our town staff for putting together this newsletter and thank you all for tuning in today my name is name is hi silver good night and go clockers

at the Dartmouth High School flyer was made and sent out view uh parents square and thank you for taking the time to recognize us this evening respectfully the darath high steam Representatives [Applause] you thank you very much for your report any comments or questions good job thank you lot going on there is a lot going onk as always you're welcome to stick around and see what else is on the agenda or we certainly understand if you have some homework or something else that needs to be done unfortunately I do have homework thank you for thank you all right next up is my in my humble opinion the best part of the evening uh it's our Spotlight on kids and uh we have the representing the Dartmouth Public Schools this evening we have James M Quinn Elementary School and I'll turn it over to our superintendent of schools Dr Sab M I'm excited to um actually to introduce to you Dr udre Thomas our new principal of the Quinn School official principal so and I think that's Mrs y back there but I can't see it is yeah yeah there she is okay um so all the students out here tonight it's been nice to see you out here it is as Mr Oliver said the energy that you bring into the Space is really what is why we do this work so thank you for being here and we're excited to hear what you have to share with us we really are I like your shirts what do they very colorful mhm TI diey [Laughter] there we go we're gonna talk about Comm we are going to talk about Community Partnerships even everyone thank you so much for this opportunity for Mrs why and I to be here this evening to talk about Community Partnerships and also we save the best for last but our students that are here tonight we're very excited to be here so thank you so of course um we need to talk about our district strategic plan because that's what guides all things things and I'm sure you've heard of it before and we've been very lucky to have Dr Sabre Maguire and Katie poo come to our PTO meeting as well as to one of our staff meetings so we're very well versed in our four Focus areas um this evening we will be focusing on Focus area three uh specifically under fce 2 which is to establish and strengthen relationships and opportunities to engage with the school and our greater community and when we talk about the four the parts of community we kind of are focusing on or highlighting four parts of our Quinn Community one of them being local community programs in Dartmouth and New Bedford um our University right down the street the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth um Dartmouth High School of course and then we have our amazing fifth grade peer leaders who are here this evening so when we talk about local community programs I want to give a shout out to Dolores Joseph who's our town youth Advocate um our Outreach workers at Quinn talk a lot about how she really communicates with our school Outreach workers and gives them a lot of um resources for our families um in our school and then some of our local community programs that you see on the screen here we have Prince Henry Society of New Bedford uh the Mass state troopers the Dartmouth Barrack specifically St peters's and St Mary's Church in Dartmouth who really help support our families this year both for Thanksgiving and Christmas in supporting 15 families and 36 children this year with boxes of food toys gift cards um and that was really wonderful for our families at Quinn I'm gonna have to move this down we all know um so another amazing thing that came to Quinn this year we wanted to highlight is we were um so a professor from UMass Dartmouth she reached out to see if we could have a couple of our classrooms play with a 3D stem toy that they were creating so in this event we obviously were so excited we had two um really excited teachers that wanted to bring this on you can see a student here um so what she did is she came in and she gave them the parts and they had to put it together and they created in a group grou of three a 3D project projector with light and if you see it it's like a fish tank that goes behind um and if you just look at the little boy in the middle he is like beaming they love 3D stem activity so this is something that was very engaging for them um and this is just a little snippet of the our first grade classroom who was um had the same great opportunity and they were all very engaged and the feedback was wow this was so fun could we do this every day like well no but today again um at Dartmouth High School we have an amazing Early Childhood Program it's run by Mrs paully Gilbo she actually has been running this program for 25 years teaching this program and has been nine years additional teaching in the unified arts program so 34 years she's been teaching um and we have 13 high school students that come two to three times per week to Quinn to work specifically in our kindergarten classrooms uh depending on the high school schedule um with a curriculum that is approved by the department of Early Education and Care um and it's really such an amazing program that we never want to give up um we think that paully Gilbo does an amazing job and the students that come in are fantastic working with our littlest Learners um and at the end of the semester it's actually a performance-based class so they have to create a portfolio um and it's it's standards based so our kindergarten teachers as well as Mrs Gilbo um are the ones that grade the students that come in from the high school um this is I don't believe that this is a program that's been highlighted before um and I think that it's something that um Mrs Gilbo does such amazing work they're there to work she knows um the kids know that come in the students from the high school that this is a job and they take it very seriously working with our like I said our youngest Learners so we wanted to make sure we highlighted that program this evening we also wanted to just make sure that we recognize the positive impact that these high school students have on our littlest Learners as Dr Thomas said they are amazing they provide Role Models they take groups they get to watch um the kindergarten teachers do what they do and they they get to be a teacher in a small group and it's really it's a really great thing to see to watch students connect with different people other than just their classroom teacher or us and they make positive connections they depend on them so it does it's a mutual benefit and I don't know if many of you know but um these teach these students these high school students that come in um there's actually a partnership with BCC that they get three um credits so that if they decide to go to BCC it get that those credits get waved for them um and they also earn a preschool teaching certificate um through the Mass Department of early childhood and Care um where they can leave high school and be able to teach in a daycare program right out of high school which is really great for them um and I think the the best thing is that they're getting firsthand real life experience in the classrooms which is really really important and I just want to say we have many teachers um in the district and at Quinn who have been in um this program at the high school and they've come back to us to be our teachers um so it does benefit us because they come back which is great and we know that they've they've learned a lot through this program the right way so it's it's really a positive experience for both sides this is some of our high schoolers working with our our kindergarteners sitting on the floor in kindergarten they're always on the floor John and we have our Save The Best For Last our fifth grade peer leaders we have 42 fifth grade peer leaders this program is about a decade old and it is run by Tiffany Martin one of our Outreach workers who is here this evening Tiffany can you please give a wave thank you and she has been running it this entire time this process for these students who you are going to hear from is a rigorous one the application process process yes let's see their pictures the application process they have to interview they have to get signatures from their peers they have to get signatures from staff so really they know that this is something that is they need to be dedicated to which they all are um and it's something that they work really hard because they want to make the Quinn community and the Dartmouth Community a better place so so some of the places um that we have that benefited from this program they do the Super Bowl caring um of caring in February um and these are just some of the places that they've donated to this year and in the past um The Humane Society they've given animal food toys monetary donations Scholastic all for books donations have gone to St Luke's uh Hasbro Boston Children's Hospital and the best thing is that these ideas come from the kids so they meet monthly before school once a month and they also give up their recess time which is a very big deal especially in fifth grade to come together and brainstorm ideas both for the Quinn community and also the Dartmouth community so we're really really proud of all 42 of course we couldn't have all 42 here this evening so we did pick out of a hat and our 12 students that are here today are very excited to share about this program so I think we should hear from them because that's what we're all excited about um so we're going to ask our fifth grade peer leaders Mr gashaw is going to help because he knows how to set you up and we're going to have you come up and the students have prepared something on their own about either why they wanted to be a peer leader things that they're proud of and I think you're going to really enjoy some of the all the things that they say so if you are a fifth grade peer leader you can stand up turn around you got it you got it and they're all rocking their Quinn Lions Roar tie-dye shirts are you ready okay okay hi my name hi I'm Olivia Francis one thing I love about being a peer leader is the opportunities when you're a peer leader you get opportuni like being a role model getting to make posters and hang them up and represent the Quinn school if you want to be a peer leader all you need is a positive self and a good attitude that's how I got selected being a peer leader is fun if you think about the awesome things you can do that's why I love being a [Applause] pator hello my name is Juliana tamas and one thing I love about being a peer leader is helping younger kids in the school I also had a great time with the Martin Luther King Jr speech I could not wait to be a peer leader because I love helping kids in my classroom and in my school I canot wait for all the fun projects we will continue to do this year I believe that with peer leaders it really does make our school a better [Applause] place hi I am Alana Mado one thing I love about being a peer leader is the opportunity such such as giving back to the community and helping little kids I also love that I got to be a part of the Martin Luther King Jr speech I hope I Inspire younger kids to want to be a peer leader I couldn't wait to be a peer leader because I wanted to help our school become a better [Applause] place hello hello my name is Bennett crook to start I love being I love being a peer leader it's a great way to spread kindness throughout the school and be a role model as a peer leader comes with a lot of responsibility but it's great to to build mature adults it's difficult to get in but it's great prer leadership has H has been a great experience for me and I'm looking forward to the [Applause] future hello my name is Isabella Silva and being a peer leader is more than just attending meetings and helping with food drives you have to know what you signed up for and really care about it when I found found out I was a peer leader I was thrilled to be able to help my school and my community it really is an honor now I get to be here with all of you expressing my love for this opportunity to make change so I guess in conclusion being a pure leader is a privilege and honor and awesome thank you for your [Applause] time good evening my name is Sam Vargo Sam you got it go ahead Sam being a peer leader is about giving back to the community whether it's helping with a food drive for the needy or just doing a kind act such as picking up someone's backpack if it falls or complimenting somebody's shirt being a peer leader is about lifting up those around you being a peer leader is being a role model for those around you being a peer leader is what I love to [Applause] do hi I'm Stella cahan I being new to Quinn loved and still do creating new bonds and Friends through being a peer leader I also like being a peer leader because I love seeing my peers happy and joyful hi my name is Payton Morris what I love about being a peer leader is that I am a role model for my peers and all the opportunities you get to work with other students and help kids in younger grades I also love helping the community grow I also loved making the Super Bowl posters in the kindness posters for kindness week I loved helping the first graders with holiday activities hi my name is lo Logan Nunes I became a peer leader because I wanted to help other people and the community I also want to become a leader so far I have done all of that I had the amazing opportunity of helping first graders and I got to uh participate in the Martin Luther King Jr speech thank you and have a good [Applause] night hi my name is pel I like being a peer leader because I get to lead the school and learn leadership skills and while H and have fun while learning I had to fill out fir forms to become a peer leader I had I had to do an interview and a whole process to become a peer leader I'm thankful that to be a peer leader I knew that being a peer leader was going to take a lot of time so now that I am one I'm very thankful thank you for listening got it hi my name is abig year when Miss Martin asked people to become peer leaders I knew I wanted to do it to become a peer leader we had to write an essay get teacher signatures then we had to get into an interview I thought it was impossible I tried so hard now I'm here we talked and helped first graders and it was a blast now we have so many opportunities to come good evening my name is Victoria Roa When Miss Martin came into my classroom to ask who wanted to be a peer leader I immed I IM immediately wanted to be one mostly because I love helping kids then I saw how many people wanted to be one I thought it was going to be impossible it did not help to look at the essay I had to write it caught me off guard my dad helped helped me worked through it and calmed me down and well now I get to be here today with you guys nice job nice job everybody you did a great job do we want to take a do you want to to take a photo I mean yes we would love that I just saw Dr T camera yeah maybe here he comes come behind again so you want the kids to come behind you we can stand up okay to God okay great let's get in absolutely either way either way on room [Music] [Laughter] hang on we still got hang on guys we still got people still taking pictures hang on all right all right we good looks good thank you thank you I don't know if the committee wants to ask anybody questions before anybody goes okay is that out there anything I well I I'll just make a statement I won't I won't put you all on the spot but I I'm sure you would rise to the occasion really incredible um at your age to be stepping up and taking steps and you know making decisions about um uh committing to uh the incredible responsibility of being a peer leader is just awesome uh and I was listening to each of you and all of your reasons really exemplified what leadership is and you talked about being kind and about helping your community about helping your uh classmates pick up their backpack or giving them a compliment um making change and being an inspiration um all those things I I can only imagine in a best case scenario that as you grow up and you um decide what you want to do for Life perhaps you'll come back all of those things you could be educator uh maybe you'll sit at this table and you'll help shape the future of our school department in our community um or a million other things you could do but it really brings me joy to hear all of you um uh it tells me that we're going to be okay and the future is bright with all of you in it so thank [Applause] you yeah wow I'm not sure how how I can I one of the things I did is I sat while they was speaking and I was writing I was writing notes as to what the students were talking about and you know what they talked about and you know between an attitudes Role Models creating friendships leadership responsibility opportunities helping younger Stu younger kids helping students giving back uh and you know they all wrote them themselves and you know and they did a wonderful job of uh articulating that and I congratulate you and uh congratulations to the parents for uh doing a wonderful job much imp much much success thank [Applause] you being a leader is hard work but it also takes great courage and so I applaud all of you for having the courage to step up and do this um and I hope that you will um that this is just a start for you and you will take opportunities at every school you're at at every level you're at to be a peer leader because there's always opportunities to be that both formally and sometimes informally uh so I um I'm so glad that the Quinn school has you and that the broader Dartmouth and the Greater Community has you so thank you so much for the work you did and are doing this year I think they were all very eloquent all I can add personally is um well and for all of us we're very proud of all of you and we know you will do great things and I will be very brief because I think my colleagues have said it all however all of you should be very proud of yourselves for coming up here and speaking uh on camera in front of all these cameras in front of all these people you should all be very proud of yourselves it's great to hear about our peer leaders in the program at Quinn it's so wonderful it's also great to hear about Paulie Gilbo program it's it's been around I know that um my daughter is a perfect example she graduated from Dartmouth High School last year and she is a certified Early Childhood teacher and she's working part-time while going to school so it is there's it's great opportunities that the Dartmouth public schools have and I have no doubt that maybe some of you will be uh going back to Quinn to visit some of the kindergarteners there someday uh when you're in Miss gilo's program and parents and caregivers you should be very proud of your students so thank you all thank you thank you thank you it was a minute to yeah and at this time everyone is welcome to stay we have a budget presentation coming up however but please do watch it later yes thank you good nightone thank you you good night there goes our audience all right next up on the agenda uh we have some consent items uh Dr sa Maguire is recommending approval of the following requests the at the Dartmouth High School WGI World Championships indoor colard April 1st through the 6 2025 in Dayton Ohio and DHS World Championships indoor percussion April 18th through the 13th 2025 ail April 8th you said what did I say 18th thank you April 8th through the April 8th through the 13th 2025 in Dayton Ohio you should have all received uh these requests in the packet y any questions motion to approve second both both items both items take them second for both items thank you we have a motion by Mr nun second by Mrs Amaral on the motion any other discussion good luck yes looking forward to hearing how they do yeah all in favor I opposed motion carries unanimously thank you very much at this time uh much anticipated FY 26 uh budget presentation a proposed budget presentation I turn it over to Dr sea McGuire thank you so much Mr Oliver um so we are going to present the uh FY 26 proposal budget tonight and what I hope you hear from us as we present is that it is um a reflection of our commitment to Student Success responsible resource management and alignment with our district improve um strategic plan this $55 million plus budget was developed with a focus on meeting the evolving needs of the students while maintaining fiscal responsibility we have carefully prioritized investments in instruction student support services and curriculum materials and we are working diligently to ensure that every dollar spent directly benefits teaching and learning and at the same time we have taken steps to realign Staffing and resources to reflect the changes and the challenges in student enrollment and educational demands so some of the key budget High highlights that you're going to hear this evening in detail is that you'll hear and look for the fact that instruction remains our top priority it represents 75% of the total budget at a little over $41 million and that is a 4.6 increase from FY 25 we have considered class from Staffing adjustments including adding to full-time special education teachers two full-time Special Education team facilitators a 0 five halftime Elementary adjustment counselor and addition and possible additional work days for specific positions to ensure more substantial support for our students there is a significant increase dedicated to high quality curriculum it's at 70 a little over 76% and this reinforces our commit commment to academic Excellence we have looked at administrative restructuring including the addition of a human resource director and a stip in for a website and social media liaison and this reflects a focus on staff retention Recruitment and improved communication all again part of our district strategic plan other services you'll see in this budget include Transportation Health Athletics extracurricular there's a 5.3 % increase and this does account for projected Transportation costs and also at the same time realizing some savings from reducing one bus route again working diligently to make adjustments where we believe we can tuitions for out of District special education placements um this is a 4.9% decrease which Devon Straits our ongoing effort to enhance what we're doing in District and you've heard presentations and you heard us talk about making the commitment to improve and to strengthen what we are able to offer our students in the district um this supports our district strategic plan which focuses on improved teaching and learning I think it's important to say that because that's what our work is regardless of everything else that we talk about at the core of the work we do it's about teaching and learning and at the same time making sure that we're paying attention to student well-being and that we're fostering Community engagement because we need the community beside us and in this work with us the Investments made in this budget support key areas of our district strategic plan including enhanced academic resources expanded mental health special education support and access to extracurricular opportunities and I'll just add here we're still not where we need to be we have a ways to go uh for example The increased funding for curriculum and expanding Mental Health Services demonstrate our commitment to the comprehensive support of our students the focus on administrative and instructional Staffing is designed to build a supportive learning environment to ensure that every student has the resources and support that they need to thrive in school the need for updated curriculum this has been something that we've been talking about now um and I think again I know it's the the broken record but it's really important important that we recognize that we have evolved into a digital age so the the days of the traditional textbook as the core of classroom instruction is outdated it's becoming increasingly more outdated and yet as we walk through some of our schools we see some of these very old textbooks on the desks of our students uh we have and you we all know this we're experiencing a rapid pace of techn technological advancement and students fre require access to Dynamic interactive and up-to-date learning resources that go beyond a printed page the funding for curriculum materials in this budget is not about replacing textbooks it's about investing in current relevant educational content that can be tailored to meet individual student needs provide real-time updates and offer engaging learning experiences digital platforms interactive resources and online learning tools are ESS essential to creating an environment that Fosters critical thinking of our students allows for creativity and adaptability skills our students need to succeed today this shift in curriculum and learning materials is vital for ensuring that our students are equipped for the future it all Support also supports our District's Vision our vision for providing a 21st century education that be goes beyond traditional models empowering our students to be Innovative engaged and lifelong Learners and the budget reflects our dedication to enhancing the goals of our strategic plan focuses on our four areas of teaching and learning safe and supportive schools family and Community engagement and budget and Capital Improvements and you'll hear that in great detail in Mr Kylie's presentation we do believe that this positions us for our schools to continue to progress and we want to see continued progress and at the same time growth and that is where we are really going to be looking to the community for support in our budget so Jim is going to walk you through the details of the budget highlighting key key changes areas of investment and the rationale behind some of our financial decisions and so Mr Kylie I'm going to turn it right over to you it thank you Dr s Maguire I appreciate that and um you've obviously VI ly um you know explained a lot of what we're trying to um achieve in this in this plan so we have um as you know a new strategic plan Dr sa McGuire talked about it I I think from a budgetary perspective the importance of it is that it was designed to be an actionable plan in which we could set our priorities um and find a way to align our budget goals to those priorities um so I hope that uh I know we've made an effort to do that um in this budget as Dr s Maguire said we're definitely not there yet um and we have some work to go uh to to Really achieve um the goals of the Strategic plan but we are hoping to start that Journey uh with with this proposed FY 26 budget um going to start off by just mentioning about our enrollment um it it is expected to be slightly lower than it's been in the past 5 years we've seen sort of a a very slow decline um but uh it should be um slightly lower um at 3282 right now um which is about 100 students less than where we were last year at this time um I do have the the average class size on the right hand side of this slide uh so with this budget proposal K5 Elementary class average class size would be 21 students Middle School average class size would be 20 students High School is a little more complicated because of the breadth of offerings and um so you know to calculate an average class size at the high school um is somewhat different but um we believe we'll they'll remain manageable um with this budget proposal student to teacher ratio is 11.9 um students to one the state average is um I'm sorry the state average is 11.9 students to one we're at 12 and a half to one so slightly larger than the state um let's see but what I think is particularly important uh to recognize about our students is that they're becoming needer um dartmouth's percentage of high need students has increased from 29% to 40 more than 43% in the last 10 years our lowincome students have increased from 175% to 30% over the last 10 years our students with disabilities have increased from 122% to over 21% for the last 10 years um this year alone our increase in students with disabilities is 7% from last year so our students are continuing uh to become a you know a needier population year after year um as you know during that stretch our budgets have only increased modestly um primarily cost of living increases um so that leads us to where we are today um and really is an important factor to consider when we're talking about you know needing resources to support kids this is sort of how we spend the money and in comparison to other um to other communities in the state we're $2,752 per student below the state average in per pupil spending so of the 322 districts in the state school districts were 270th uh we're $276 per student below a average in uh the teaching category we're $16 of 322 districts in that category we are 38% or $1,264 per student below average in insurance and benefits we're 30 8 out of districts we're $239 or 33% below average in administration we're 296th of 322 districts we're $671 below State average in operations and maintenance 39 that's 39% below average um we are 310th of 322 districts and in P Services uh we are just $9 below State average 148 out of uh 322 districts so you'll see the trend that we're below average in every category we're um we're way below average in many uh and you know I I think that um with student needs increasing dramatically it's an unsustainable pattern to be spending at the level that we're spending um so we'll talk a little bit more throughout this presentation about that and how we're going to what we're going to propose so staff per 100 students also another um interesting indicator that we've looked at in Prior years um dartmouth's in the green you'll notice Dartmouth has less staff per 100 students than in in every um than State average in every category um you'll also notice that Dartmouth has less staff per 100 students than the dart the darts are comparable districts in all categories except for teachers and it's pretty close in that category um again this pattern of support for our kids when they have increasing needs is really not um you know not a good plan to succeed moving forward um we I think know that we get a lot for our money here and that we invest our money wisely but there just simply isn't enough of it so what's the plan for FY 26 this is what it looks like um instruction includes funding for contractual obligations um it also includes the reality that we've shifted instructional dollars to our school choice budget um we'll talk a little bit more about that but our school choice budget right now and the savings that we've accumulated in our school choice revolving fund is really what's keeping our keeping us afloat um the administration portion of the budget we'll talk more specifically speically about the proposal but includes a proposed Human Resources Director position maintenance and utilities reflects level funding I I will say that we've been fortunate that for the most part with a little blip um fairly recently we've continued to receive Capital Improvement funds from the town um and town meeting has been supportive um in that regard and we continue to try and be more efficient and uh save money where we can so we're continuing those efforts and that has paid off uh other services budget reflects contractual obligations um and increased cost of Transportation uh we're going to again try and reduce another bus route in uh fiscal year 26 we've reduced two years in a row we've reduced one bus route from 201 9 to 28 um in fiscal year 26 I I don't know how I'm going to do that yet but I'm committed to figuring it out um can I just ask you Jim Mr I'm sorry Mr Kylie yeah what's the cost of one bus route about $880,000 okay thank you um but costs are increasing in that area and there's you know we can be as efficient as as possible and that's the only way way we can you know make an impact in that area um that's you know significant increase Statewide with that regard in terms of Transportation um tuitions reflect uh special education out of District tuitions so um in total here you'll see that we have a $55 million budget proposal 55 55 million 306 558 before Medicaid and uh Medicaid of 46953 for a total of 55 M 35351 um I will I will show you on this on this next slide that school choice though is funding in the FY 26 budget proposal 1, 6732 120 worth of expenses I personally never thought we would be there um it's significant uh we receive if you recall we we receive and we shared when at our at our school committee meeting in which we had our um school choice hearing uh that we receive approximately $700,000 of Revenue so we're almost a million dollar in in terms of spending uh over the revenue number so really what we're doing is using a million dollars worth of savings in uh fiscal year 26 so when we look at um the changes that we proposed and we'll look at the individual recommendations coming up um instruction as Dr sa Maguire mentioned increasing 4.6% Administration with our proposal for human resources directive there which we'll see in a mo in a moment 14.3% again maintenance and utilities level approximately almost level funded um other services meaning Transportation Student Activities um and our health services and a few other things increasing 5.3% tuition's slightly down 4.9% medicaid slightly up 2,200 36 but 5% um for a for a total budget increase of 4.1% proposed in FY 26 so what are the specific things that we're we're um asking for that are not currently um you know in in the fy2 budget so we have an adjustment counselor at the elementary level this um would create create an equitable um Staffing level amongst the elementary schools um by with the addition of a halftime adjustment counselor two specialed teachers at Dartmouth High School um again attempting to address those increasing student Needs school psychologist at Dartmouth High School we have a part-time school psychologist at Dartmouth High School 0 6 three days a week on average um we really need a full-time school psychologist here and this will address that Special Education team facilitators to staff members so those folks would be U participating in um the entire special ed process and supporting our students with special needs high quality instructional materials $150,000 this is will also be supplemented by the use of school choice funds 150,000 sounds like a lot of money but unfortunately it doesn't go that far um when we're looking at districtwide improvements um in that area the Human Resources Director position that that we mentioned um the Ed an education support professional at the kushman school really just an identified area of need uh in order to support our youngest Learners art music health and wellness coordination stiens we in our process of um gathering information and identifying um ways in which we could support our students we identified weaknesses that we would like to correct with um some stiens in those areas um music advisors this has been a chronically underfunded um under funded uh part of our part of our budget and really we're just addressing we're not adding anything we're just addressing something that is already there and finally funding it uh appropriately and what the website and social media L on that Dr sa Maguire mentioned so unfortunately in order to do that um we've had to make some decisions and I I'll say that um it it's a significant um decisions that we've had to make in terms of reallocation of resources our focus in doing so is to attempt to do so through attrition if at all possible um I I will say that right now uh we have um a plan to reallocate the following positions elementary teachers four ele Elementary teachers two Middle School teachers two High School teachers and one high school education support professional position of um those positions we think at this point in time seven would be covered through attrition there's nine positions there um now there may be additional attrition along the way we're not you know it's fair still fairly early in in the school year but um we don't know that yet so those are the reductions that essentially were reallocating um positions in order to support the district with our recommendations there's nine there there's seven positions that we've um proposed on the recommendations page so we would be reducing as uh Mr Silva um mentioned um still my thunder there uh two positions net so um in this proposal we are funding the following through school choice We are continuing to fund the Esser positions that were are critical and have um you know we're funding currently in in fiscal year 25 through school choice so special education teacher occupational therapist reading Specialists speech language Pathologists adjustment counselors education support professionals instru instructional technology specialist and nurse we also committed in fiscal year 25 to utilizing uh school choice funds for curriculum materials so again we would supplement those curriculum materials that we've built into the budget with um school choice funds here and as we've always done um we've used a portion of school choice to support our technology uh program and and uh to make sure that we have current um you know current uh Chromebooks have been the primary use of our technology funds from school choice um again that that was so important to um get us to the one: one um ratio that sort of carried us through the pandemic so we'll continue to use use the school choice funds for that and this is what that would look like so at the beginning of fiscal year 26 we're projecting to have $2.2 million um in the school choice revolving account we'd be using almost a million dollar of reserves um through this budget plan and that would leave us at the start of fiscal year 27 with approximately $1.3 million um and you'll see that in fiscal year 27 if we continue the pattern that we're currently on we would be spending a little over $1.7 million and uh would end fiscal year 27 with a little under $300,000 in the school choice revolving account and obviously that is where it ends and um we no longer would have the funding necessary to continue that for another year Beyond fiscal year 27 so I'll go back to any these and we can talk in detail of course and we'll have more school committee meetings to to talk about this and digest and you know as always I'm available for any questions you might have um I just wanted to fill you in on a couple of other things uh I did receive a invitation um from Gary Carrero uh the town's Finance director or co- interim Town Administrator um to attend a finance committee meeting on March 6th so we have a school committee meeting on March 3rd in which um that's our next school committee meeting in which you all will have another opportunity this will be on the agenda and we can um you know discuss it at in more detail of course um and answer any questions you might have tonight and on March 3rd and then present to the finance committee on March 6 that would be before you'd have a public budget hearing will be the second meeting in March so we'll have a public budget hearing here and then uh a vote of the budget at the following meeting um so um the just for your information too the finance committee has sort of have requested a different format from this so I'm going to I'm going to attempt to pull that together I know I we did send you the entire budget packet um which obviously the presentation is just a piece of um but I'll I'll share with you what the finance committee is looking for and we can figure out how we're going to present that to them what type type of format Mr Kylie I only ask because there's only so many hours in the day for you and those types of requests that require an absorbent amount of human capital really should be going through this committee so so the the finance committee has created created sort of a standard set of information that they're looking from all for from all the Departments um so I I'll share it with you and we can you know we can talk about how we're going to how we're going to address that obviously the how many pages is it 99 uh the one you said this afternoon was 99 page 99 page budget presentation budget packet has a lot of the information that they need it might just not be in you know so well in the format so we'll we'll figure that out yep so um any questions that you might have we'd be happy to begin talking about yeah would anyone like to start you want to start I guess gosh I can certainly start I have plenty to say no I I um you know it's just it's it's disconcerting I um um you know what what is in here is what we need um and you know we're not alone in this I think this is sort of a systemic issue in terms of funding for um but uh Mr Silver's Point um and and have you had any um of recent like conversations with the town to kind of gauge um appetite to be more mind mindful about the young families that might want to move in and be part of our community and versus uh forgetting about public education yeah um as a town as it seems like yeah I mean so I I do think that I have been uh encouraged by the dialogue that I have had with um particularly with with Gary Carrero um in that I think uh I I can't commit to anything on his behalf he's working you know with With The Whole Town's budget and obviously that's a balancing act but I do think that he is very willing to consider um our needs and and it's not going to I can tell that it is for sure not going to be the situation we were in um in the previous year in which there was a number that was given to us and there was no discussion about it um and you know so I I think there's the willingness to to consider our requests um not to say that the 4.1% budget will end up being um fully supported I may not um but I I do think there's a recognition that they need to be mindful of what we need to um support kids that's encouraging and I and I do believe it speaks to the collaborations that have been happening and the conversations about you know decades worth of planning for more cap you know larger capital projects and and us bringing these presentations every week um and if anyone is listening for the first time you know it's really important to really call out that when you're talking about school choice funds that is those are funds that are really contingent upon a yearly vote as a yearly vote um but also uh res resulting from the capacity of a district to to even entertain the thought of you know the committee might you know depending on our enrollment yes it's going down but what do all these reductions um proposed reductions uh if they were to come to fruition what does that look like for how we can support students and um so we're we're it's it's it's a little overwhelming to um so I don't have any additional I I mean I have other questions I'll let my colleagues move on I just it's a lot to sit with and digest and um think about so thank you my turn Mr no all right thank you Mr chairman uh through you Mr Kylie uh on the budget recommendations the school psychologist the point4 um is that the same person just making yes that person full-time versus yes the 6 okay okay that's that there uh on the reduction side you we had a wonderful and thank you in all seriousness for everything here uh but on one of the SL one of the slides you had uh the school enrollment and class sizes type of deal what do these you know nine check that eight because one is an ESP but still the nine position what is that going to do to the class sizes between yeah uh specifically middle and elementary I mean high school again depending on what class Etc yeah so these class sizes on this slide reflect those reductions oh okay so okay I tried to be clear about that but I was worried that I wasn't uh you know I didn't make that clear but um yeah so those those are those will be the class size the approximate average class sizes now you know that's projecting kindergarten incoming kindergarten enrollment and it can vary a little bit but in general that's that's what we would have could I just piggyback off of that question well since it's fresh pleas Mr Kylie said could the committee actually get actuals for this year for class sizes sure um in k through eight um I think that'd be helpful in making making our budget uh yeah no that's great considerations problem actuals would be helpful thank you course sorry Mr n no no please that's that was a great question uh Chris uh and I guess couple of more things here uh with the school choice the way I look at this you know we're out of money in 28 so we've got two years to get Iraq together but there is no this budget at 55 plus million do there's no wiggle room okay and when I say that if somewhere down the line in their Infinite Wisdom uh Town fathers and such reduce Us by 1% we've um aside from draan Cuts we've got to go back to school choice and take another $553,000 which at that point chokes Us in 27 correct if I'm if I'm reading these right correct correct I mean you you technically speaking have $291,000 of wiggle room in fiscal year 27 but I mean that's that's it but if we move yeah I mean there is that kindergarten stabilization fund still has not been used 250,000 I think 300 okay so yeah but and again but that's again that's a one-time shot and it's gone right that's right it's not the way we need to operate yeah and and again as I said at the last meeting school choice should be handling incidentals and things you know agree extras type of deal not buying a box of paper clips or a box of pens and and such well we literally are doing paper clips and pens like so you know in in our budget cuts in fiscal year 25 we moved yeah some Supply in order to balance the budget we moved Supply money um to school choice it's there it's one of it's the third line down on expenditures so go Ahad Chris Kathy's good a question Y and I'm actually I'd like to approach the the budget discussion a little differently this year because I'm it seems as though we're this is a an ongoing concern year after year so I just like to go back to your point Mr noones uh around town fathers who are you Ju Just so every this is a televised televised meeting who who are we referring to when we say Town fathers I want to be you know I want to be transparent I want to be you know collaborative but as do as as do I for the parents and those those people watching Final the fin decision on the budget is basically going to come down to the finance committee and the board of Selectmen thank you okay just for everyone watching at home just so we're clear you know so it it's just simple it's as simple as that uh you know when you go back and you look at the 66 page one type of deal and I you know wasn't I wasn't going to do this but well the one I printed was 66 the 99 came out this afternoon I didn't have time my my my printer ran out of Tona so but uh in all seriousness the U I wasn't going to but then it I I figured I had to I mean between what the state average is and what we are is $9 million mhm short type of deal I mean I'm not trying to look a gift o in a mouth I'd be happy with half of that okay and we wouldn't not have to have a lot of these discussions as to what goes on and everything else and my last comment is and I don't know what the I know Mr Kylie was talking about what the the fincom was looking looking for I mean Mr Kylie you did an unbelievable presentation um last year and the year before with the F with a lot of these graphs and everything else uh you had them you know you put a lot of work and a lot of effort into it personal opinion I think the high you know the basic budget type of deal sent to the finance committee this wonderful pres presentation here that's that I think is going to basically answer any question they've got I mean I'm not sure what they're looking for but I don't think we have to reinvent the wheel it's here it's already been reinvented personal opinion and I good at the moment thank you Mr Nunes going back to you Mrs am yeah um so I I was just curious uh so this budget proposal is before us um in past years we've we've sort of um received those items that and maybe I'm missing it but items that uh are really needed but didn't um make the final cut and and that also can provide a really um you know that visual paints another picture to say we are not um asking for all the pretty little things these are the things we need to function you know for our school district to function um is there a list or is this inclusive or are you being creative uh no it's a good question it was actually page 100 and I just didn't get to it no it's it it belongs there and uh I recognize that I just was scrambling that's okay to get you what I got you and yeah I will get you that we can certainly have that I know I know we have aging buildings and I can't imagine that there aren't no there are quite a few requests that obviously you know obviously couldn't be incorporated into this budget um with you know within the limit that you know we were trying to work with so and can you talk a little bit more about like projecting T tuitions um yeah we are a district that serves students who have a variety of needs and there are occasions throughout the course of the Year where um I noticed the decrease I'm assuming that's sort of somebody aging out or no longer needing the service um in the OU of District uh tutions but then there are students who who move here um who uh we do what we can to support their needs but then they may need something more that would require us to then um we can't ask for it it's we're we're Bound by law to do it and so um at a high expense but at a important need to accommodate for can you talk about that sure yeah it's the most volatile area of our budget in terms of potential impact right because um you know an outof District tuition can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $250,000 in Ju Just in the tuition and then depending on Transportation costs you know it's it can be quite a bit uh more than that we do receive some reimbursement from the state depending on how much it it costs um to provide that service for for a student so um we factor that in hopefully that's fully funded um by the state because they're Bound by law to participate in that process um sometimes through the years the legislature has not fully funded that program um which is pretty despicable but anyway they've they've done that uh so but of late it's it has been fully funded um we are factoring in a 3.42% budget um increase in terms of the operational services division inflation rate on our tuitions um so what we do in the budget in in the budget process as it relates to tuitions we we know a lot of the kids that are you know going to need to receive services and um budget for them um we have because we have a historical pattern of understanding and data that tells us okay how much is it going to how how much do we not know right now um we build in a very small amount for that um and then obviously if if a student happens to be aging out or graduating and um and will know longer you know be our our programmatic and financial responsibility then um obviously they come off the roles and we do have a few cases of of that so in all in all um we're careful uh W with this because it is so volatile and it and it can be so costly with just a very small change that um it's a concern we the the sources we use to pay for tuitions are the this money in the operating budget the um specialed Grant Federal grant funding funds a significant amount of tuitions for us um hopefully that doesn't get hung up in Washington I don't think it will but you never know I guess um and then uh and then the state reimbursement for um what they call the Circuit Breaker funding so we're careful when we do that budget thank you very much uh continuing off from Mrs Amaral I think we asked for this last year and please no worries at all could we see and I think it would help everyone the finance committee as well as everyone watching in this committee uh a slide with our offsets for uh circuit breaker 240 uh Title One all of our all of our grants um just to just so we can show you know our offsets and what that money is actually funding we'll do idea thank you Mr Kylie problem have that for you at the next meeting Mrs Beck don't have anything right now actually I do um Mr Kylie um when when you talk with the town finance committee and the board of Selectmen um how do they look at our need to use the um school choice funds yeah yeah I mean I well I I don't know this year how they look at that I mean I haven't met with the finance committee I haven't met with the select board this year um so I I wouldn't I don't want to assume that they feel any certain way about it right now but in the budget process and which we sort of struggled the most the last um you know the last couple of budget processes I think the feeling was that we had this money here why don't why aren't we using that to solve our problem and I mean the answer is that like right so we're using it but it's not Sol it's not solving a problem it's just pushing a problem down the road for another person you know and know somebody maybe you know to solve and as it turns out it's not very long in the future that we're going to have to solve it so um I mean that's that was their approach I don't I don't know what to say about that I mean it works for the moment as long as there's a solution coming which good answer for the moment yeah yeah yeah um and also are there other Town departments that have a sour source of funding similar to school choice that are expected also to spend um good question um you know I'm I don't want to speak for all the town departments there are some different mechanisms there are um Enterprise funds in which they um you know they they charge fees and um we school choice is essentially us charging a fee for the service um and uh in terms of them using those reserves I don't know I know that they use current revenues I don't know if they're spending in deficit um in those programs I I don't I'm not sure okay thank you great question thank you spec with so tagging along on that um yeah uh other departments like DPW when they are running short of cash they up the amount you have to pay for your yearly transfer station sticker and for your trash bags and they they feel it out but they just do it because they need the money and and make no mistake about it it's not a tax yeah another tax that you don't have any say on um when the school department needs more money we can't just get more money we have to go through the select board and the finance committee we have to get um the backing of the town meeting we have to get the backing of the majority of the Town those who have a direct stake and those who have an indirect stake so um I mean I think Mr Kylie makes quite clear that we run a tight ship um that we do a lot with a little um so our school choice funds are picking up the slack um and clearly it won't last um so when we look at our school choice fund spending and I think this has me been mentioned before there are certainly things that we shouldn't be funding with that money um specifically the 11 full-time positions um that is not something those are people's jobs and they shouldn't be dependent on students coming from out of District to be paid um so either I would hope that the town would find money to fund those positions positions and if the town can't I mean eventually we have to come to the public and ask for funding it's just interesting how some Town departments get their money they need it they get it they take it and we have to carefully negotiate and ask and um so I just hope that the town residents fathers um understand it is a tight ship and we can't keep going like this this year will work next year will work but um think about the students our most important asset agreed thank you everyone I have uh a few things I'd like to just share and some thoughts on all of this so looking at the uh the slides with the um where Dartmouth ranks out of all the all the districts with uh insurance and benefits with total comp total per pupil expenditure um I think this is important uh because I have it in my notes here this District well so first of all I want this District to be great I don't need it to be the best I don't think anyone needs us to be the best in the state I want us to be great in the state and I think we deserve that for our students we deserve that for this community we deserve that for our faculty and staff and the only way that we're going to be great in this state and with our Dart districts across the board is with increasing our total per pupil expenditure we are going to have a significant problem with Recruitment and Retention pretty soon when you look at insurance and benefits 308 out of 3022 the data doesn't lie it's pretty specific insurance and benefits and then when you look at the total salaries across the board compared to other districts we are historically slowly falling behind we've talked about this before and it's continuing to happen it's not okay I'm tired of it this is my 12th year on the school committee I think we have a responsibility to this town and to the students in this town to do better let's talk about our power profession profs we 1.1 FTE per 100 students less than the state that's our our esps our education support professionals or our teaching assistants what they used to be called 1.1 less than the state we all know that with a ESP that classroom teacher can do more with their with their students y we're significantly below our power professionals our teacher ratio per 100 I would like to comment a little bit about that because just to in full transparency I'm just tired of talking rhetoric I want to talk data and specifics on the slide Mr Kylie with the uh School enrollment K through 12 class size and that's why it asked for actuals but just to be clear our 12 for everyone watching and those of you in the audience are 12.1 students to one teacher I'm going to have to assume that that number includes our coaches our um Specialists our reading and math Specialists does and our special education teachers so they're being all lumped in to which is fine but just for transparency and for clarity that that number our our classrooms don't have 12 point it says it the average class size is 21 and K through 5 and 20 and 6 through eight but it it's just a little bit deceiving the 12.5 students to one teacher so that lumps in all of our support teachers U on you could say go back to my notes Mr Oliver again with that 12.5 the state average is 11.9 so that's not a good thing to be 12.5 with the state average 11.9 we have we have more kids per staff member than the state average um um not where we want to be providing support to an increasing you know High needs population so just no absolutely and going back to the slide with the increasing I think I have it here somewhere our high our high needs population increasing from 29.3% to 43.5% over the past 10 years those High need students have they need more support and with more support comes more money it's it's pretty simple so one of the things as far as your new positions uh that were presented in Miss coflin and I uh were at the budget subcommittee meeting um and I think I can I'll speak for myself I certainly support all these budget recommendations um however I think once again speaking to the data and full transparency that this committee has an obligation to share with the finance committee in this town um what we're doing compared to comparable districts so I would just ask if it's okay with the committee and if the committee is on board with it do we have comparable districts uh for Special Education team facilitators I know there's two different models that are out there um there's the model that we currently have which we don't have Special Education team facilitators and we have our assistant principles uh chairing many of these meetings um so I would be curious as to what type of um model uh comparable districts that Dartmouth has as well as the uh $120,000 Human Resources Director we have a fiduciary responsibility to make sure that we're spending this money accurately and correctly so I would just be curious a district with the amount of staff that Dartmouth has um do they indeed have a human resour ources director um or is it a shared position with the town or city municipality um I'm curious about that um in last uh I got a couple more things just bear with me um I think the time to act is now I don't want to wait it's making me very nervous I don't want to wait till when what is it 28 FY 28 where the money runs out for school choice yes I would like to see at least sometime some type of informational nights maybe we could break up as a committee or may I'm happy to do it with either Dr Sab Maguire Mr Kylie and the building principles that we hold some informational nights at the schools to get the word out there that we we've we've got to start acting now and getting putting the gears in motion because if not we're going to get to FY 28 without a plan so I think the time to act is now and need to just Advocate and educate our community members our parents and caregivers uh we owe that to them because I am personally not comfortable with continuing to take from the school choice fund to fund these ft these 11 FTE I'm I'm just not um if it was up to me I would say put it in put it into the regular budget yeah but I want to I'm trying to collaboration amongst the other Town departments but I'm not going to jump through hoops and I'm not going to ask Mr Kylie and I don't think any of us are to jump through hoops to break the budget down 100 different ways for other people to digest the school department reports to the school committee not to any other department they Mr Mr afternoons no I'm fine I'm sorry I apologize nope I'm I just have a lot to say tonight that's all right GE usually it's [Laughter] me um so I'm ready to put in some work yep I'm happy to meet at the school level I don't know if anyone else has anything else to share Mr NES yeah thank you Mr chair when you look at the 11 FTE in school choice that are part were part of verer okay and again broken record we said from day one this committee said from day one when we put the 16 positions on with the UR of funds because they were needed we knew that September 30th we were walking off that Cliff we knew that we've talked about it but in this day and age these positions are needed did not they're not Pie in the Sky these are needed these are needed for the students as the the way Society is and everything else and the needs of these students so we need these positions adjustment counselors reading specialist OTS s you know that that type of deal so this is this is not pie in the pie in the sky you know not with 43.5% high need students no not at all okay and the lowi income and and such you know and such the other thing is uh you know I talked a little bit earlier with school choice about the wiggle room and you know and all it takes is the town to say his you know no when you look at 27 FY 27 and $291,000 it's only going to take the town to cut as half a percent yeah and choose it up and then we're sitting at this time next year not knowing which way we're going so you know somewhere down the line there has to be a root Awakening and you know I like your idea going out to the to the schools and presenting this to you know PTO or information kns and things of that nature probably is going to be the right way to do it thank you for that support anyone else I think the more oh sorry go ahead I I think the more uh conversations we can have about it and um you know reiterating or restating or reframing how we're saying something um is important um because we're not you know this this is the numbers don't lie I think somebody said earlier uh and and something's got to give um you know we yeah I won't say any more about that but I'm no I just um certainly would love I would love for us to to get those positions out of school choice and you know we we we uh I I don't think if we were to come back to the table and really make a a strong statement to say that we weren't going to do something the way that we had done it last year I think we still have done our due diligence and being very um generous because that's not money we were right that's not money we were piling away a pandemic happened and we had some grant funding that came in that allowed us not to have to utilize that money but we were planning to spend it um remember we didn't have onetoone initiatives we didn't have students bringing their laptops home or their Chromebooks home to do their homework and to access their their um their Google classrooms um the way that we like that was remember that was just so quickly happened um and that money that that in school choice was meant to fund those things not the people um in the rooms and uh that are doing the the critical and important work so um I would be I am so supportive of revisiting that if that's the committee's pleasure or and and at a minimum uh having dialogue um in person in the schools collaboration perhaps with our our uh DCTV to get it out there in as many any ways as we can so very supportive of that thank you Mrs Amaral I'm at I'm really not and I first of all I appreciate the thoughtful budget presentation that you Dr Sab Maguire as well as Mr Kylie uh has have put together I think it's very reflective of our needs I would be remiss though if I would if I were to say that I am thrilled with cutting 4.0 FD at the elementary level and 2.0 Middle School teachers FTE for me I'd like to see more Elementary School teachers we all know that the data speaks to Higher Achievement with lower class sizes I think what you've put together what we've put together what you presented with us is you know reflective of the restraints the of the constraints that the school district has so thank you both a lot to think about thank you very much for job well done thank you out of the bo thank you thanks all right where are we ah new business Massachusetts school building authority statement of Interest by the way I I thought the pattern was you know you start an agenda item and everybody just starts applauding you know that seemed to be the way things were going tonight the room has taking a turn that didn't happen with my budget we'll see about this oh thank you thank you no that's too kind too kind um so um I'm sorry can I you can just can I just say one thing though because I know you won't say it okay um is that the work that Mr Kylie has done and meeting with and preparing for the um statement of interest for the msba has been absolutely exemplary to the point where he was able to condense six or three full day visits into less than a day and a half I think and what's more impressive is just the sort of response from the folks that they're sending out to us the Consultants I happen to be on a call and watched um and listened in as Mr Kylie uh skillfully answer answered every question um with precision and you could absolutely tell how impressed the folks on the other end are and I'm sure that was what happened in person too so I know you wouldn't say that so I'm saying it thank you that's very nice very nice thanks um so we did have the msba uh come and visit um I spent the snow day on Thursday uh with them uh they they were scheduled to come in and wanted to come which which worked out actually great they you know we got around the schools a little quicker than we would have otherwise um and they did visit all our buildings they're going to they are we're we're here to talk about the the this statement of interest but they um were also working on assessing our buildings and the condition of our buildings for further discussion so hopefully something comes of that um they were impressed with our knowledge and level of Maintenance to the buildings but not blind to the fact that we've got our work cut out for us with you know these aging facilities so they recognize that so did you Kylie did you show them some of the pictures like you showed all the finance committee or the uh CIP committee type you know so in some instances you would have a a before and after yeah I show I showed them in real life like actually walked them around and showed them identified all those all those deficiencies that we have um you know we went up on roofs we looked at you know every Boiler Room every electrical panel every you know Plumbing uh situations and heating a lot of heating equipment we we went in quite a bit of detail it was a whirlwind for a day and a half but it was um in I I'd also like to thank John Bernard our facilities manager he and I went and around uh with um with the msba folks and um our principles were also very prepared to to to support with they actually ask a bunch of educational related questions too in terms of um course offerings what we're doing and um how we're um how we're using our spaces educationally so yeah it was it was a good process um the what we have before you and I I know this um we provided this to you this math School building authority statement of interest for the Dartmouth High School roof um and window replacement here at Dartmouth High School um so it took a bit to put this together and make sure we're stating our case the best we can um the building was opened in 2001 the roof was installed in the year 2000 um you know as they were constructing um you know the building it um is it's several years past its useful life um it's a the bulk of the roofing material here is is black rubber what they call EPDM um it shrinks and contracts with the heat when it does that it cracks and eventually deteriorates to the point where we get that where we get water in the building and it leaks down through into the ceilings and there's a lot of it in this building um we're at the point where it needs to be replaced hopefully msba has the capacity to help us um and ranks our project high on the list I I do think that that um the msba took a year off of The Accelerated repair program maybe good and bad they didn't have the money to run it so they stalled it in one way they I think they have a larger pool of funds as a result but they also probably have a glut of projects so I don't know how we'll rank in in terms of those um but we won't know either unless we submit the statement of Interest so the other thing that we included on the statement of interest is Windows the library windows are kind of sheltered and there're some of the better ones to be honest but almost every room that we went in with the msba has cloudy uh windows in this building that that have broken seals and condensation issues [Music] they're probably probably were fairly inexpensive Windows when they were installed um you know it was a low bid project sometimes you get what you pay for and they're you know now 25 years old um so they're failing and we're experiencing um related issues where we get moisture from the windows and moisture from the roof uh in the building this building's a great building this building can last you know I don't know at least another 30 years um if it's taken care of but you got to go longer than that right right right it should but if you if you did a roof and windows and HVAC work on this building you'll get you know out another 20 years before you need to readdress the HVAC stuff and you probably get 30 years on a roof if you do better material than what we have up there now so so I you know I think it's obviously would be money well spent for the msba money well spent for us and I and it's been a few years since we've done an msba project so I hope they consider it there's question yes just quickly regarding the roof yes um you talked about the material so the newer roofs like Potter Dello the middle school have the the white membrane so is that what we're looking for so what we're looking for is msba to say we'll work with you that's it I would strongly suggest that we look at maybe a PVC roof similar to what we so all of our other school buildings um in I'm in year 15 we've done um with the first one being in 2011 and at the Quinn school and that was uh the first time we had a PVC roof in in in Dartmouth um all of the roofs are PVC expected to last 30 plus years you don't have glued seams you have melted material together um which inherently just makes it a stronger material longer lasting and it doesn't react to the weather like the like rubber roof does so it's a better product it's also more expensive and this is a huge roof and um so we'll see how that works out but we'll have that discussion and I think that the msba would likely support it they supported it at Dartmouth Middle School um they supported it at um the Potter school project that we did and the Quinn school project Dello and kushman were not msba jobs we did those without msba funding um but I so I I feel pretty confident that they would you know support a high quality product I would think um so you have the statement of Interest before you I guess the first thing I would I would say is just like offer up if you have any questions about the statement of Interest or the material um that's included all this language and things that I wrote um on the roof I guess we should probably address those first before we go to the next part of it which is voting hopefully the uh questions no questions just very concise and and and excellent I mean yep the in I mean no disrespect to msba they're looking for a lot of information to make sure I think it's all been provided you know that's an an excellent job thank you agreed agreed okay so if there are no comments the msba has very stringent requirements as to um how the how how the votes take place the school committee needs to vote the select Board needs to vote then need we need to have a series of signatures which I think are now being done electronically which I was happy to see um and then uh and then it gets submitted and we need to do all list in the next month okay so I've already alerted um the select board uh that we hope to be on their agenda it'll be the day after um the day after February vacation 24th yeah okay um so hopefully that that happens so what you have to do is if you support this um read this in its entirety and I know it's clunky language I I don't doesn't read very well but um it needs to be read it needs to be in the minutes in its entirety and your votes need to be recorded the 24th selman's meeting would be the 24th 24th my fault I'm little ahead of the game I apologize Mr chairman yes I can read this if you'd like that'd be great there we go resolved having convened in an open meeting on February 10th 2025 prior to the S SOI submission closing date the school committee of the town of dmouth in accordance with its Charter bylaws and ordinances has voted to authorize the superintendent to submit to the massachusett school building authority the statement of Interest form dated February 2025 for the dmouth High School located at 555 Bakerville road dmouth which which describes and explains the following deficiencies in priority categor for which an application may be submitted to the Massachusetts skill school building authority in the future priority five replacement renovation or modernization of school facility systems such as roofs Windows boilers Heating and ventilation systems to increase energy conservation and decrease energy related cost in the facility the following are identified deficiencies as required to be described for priority five the fully aded EPDM roof has reached the end of its serviceable life through wall flat through wall flashings have been determined to be compromised leaving paths for water infiltration Stone caps and bands on the above roof line walls are exhibiting signs of failure allowing water infiltration ther expansion and building settlement has led to cracking and damage to surrounding masonary at the control joints perimeter sealant at the windows is failing most windows are foggy and filled with condensation rooftop unit curbs are severely rusted duck work and pan flashing within the rooftop units are source of water infiltration and hereby further specify acknowledge that by submitting the the statement of Interest form the Massachusetts school building authority in no way guarantees the acceptance or approval of an application the awarding of a grant or any other funding commitments from the massachusett school building authority or commits the town of dth to filing an application for funding with the school Massachusetts school building authority do I have a second second so we have a motion by Mr noes a second by Mrs Amaral on the motion any other discussion do we need a roll call get hurt wouldn't hurt roll call please Kathleen Amal yes John Nunes yes Mary beckworth yes best Coughlin yes chiver yes motion passes unanimously thank you all thank you Mr Kylie for your work on this uh next up we have superintendent update great thank you um so under teaching and learning I am pleased to share that um we have started the professional development for our teachers our elementary teachers for the new literacy curriculum and I want to thank again Mrs uh Katie Pavo for her efforts in leading this work uh our Educators as you know and we continue to share with the public and with the committee have done a tremendous job this year engaging in the science of reading PD and that we are really excited about the number of of our teachers who participated in piloting this resource and we are confident that it is going to be a resource that truly makes a difference for uh outcomes student achievement outcomes in our schools uh on January 31st uh at at Dartmouth High School we had a group of students who traveled with Mrs Wier to Bridgewater State University's new state-ofthe-art cyber security range and they got to participate in some Hands-On activities related to cyber security and this opportunity was led by Bridgewater State University professors and uh senior computer Majors from from um Bri Jor State University and this really gives our students an opportunity to explore as we've said you know areas of interest that they might not have had the opportunity to do so without having these kind of connections um to some of the higher ed organizations higher ed in in the state and so we'll continue to explore those Partnerships last week our secondary level Spanish team met and they continue to um they continue to collaborate right on the new resource SOS and that's the Spanish curriculum that is piloted at both Dartmouth middle school and the high school and we're excited to announce and I know this has happened um several times where we're hosting uh March 5th and six the two-day Regional Workshop right here as a matter of fact one of our Green Apple award recipients Hillary Souza is instrumental and bringing that here to Dartmouth High School but it does give us a chance to be um sort of the the model for the work that's happening around supporting World Language the district has once again registered for the Civic showcase if you remember we were selected to participate last year so we're waiting to hear our students did Reser receive Commendation last year when they participated and this year we're hoping to bring in Dartmouth middle school and Dartmouth High School so these are the efforts that we're making to exp so to um kind of try out Partnerships and then expand them as we see start to see success uh the first Playbook initiative Workshop is going to be hosted at Dartmouth High School on Wednesday and if you remember this from last year we had a few students who were involved in that and then connected with the middle school students we have tiad again and Audrey kerser who have develop along with Dr TBO and um and Senor please I think I have to call her that Chamberlain have worked to review an agenda they've developed material materials and they are actually planning and will facilitate this workshop and so again gives our students a chance to be to be really out in in front of other students and to take on leadership roles but at the same time we also have DH uh Dartmouth High School mentors who are going to be providing tours of Dartmouth High School to the 30 students who will 30 middle school students who are here so that serves a dual purpose gives us a chance to have the the middle schoolers in our high school and give them a chance to see what Dartmouth High School has to offer and that is Again part of our district strategic plan and how we're um making sure that we're highlighting what we do have to offer under we you heard a lot about budget today um and not much about Capital Improvement but I oh no that's actually what we just did that's not true msba so we're we're not going to spend a lot of time on that tonight um but under HR which I if you remember I said that I'd report out on HR under in this Focus area uh we have been able to hire a special educator at Dartmouth middle school so we're excited about that the person will be coming on board within the month and we're continuing to se seek applicants at Dartmouth High School and as you can see it's much needed and in fact we've added additional uh positions special ed positions for the high school for your consideration in this budget um we're also really excited to announce and we got to see one of our principles here tonight at the podium our new principles of the Quinn and Potter school that has been finalized I want to thank Katie Pavo and her entire team she put together a great process um in putting together a thoughtful approach and including participation in the process we continue to do that uh kind of process I'm especially though pleased to announce Dr UD Thomas and I see Melissa McKenry is here as our you you know you're here so you might as well stand up and and [Laughter] wave I [Applause] know so we are and as uh we had an opportunity to talk to both Melissa and with audre last week uh we're so excited to have them on board in those principal ships they are uh no doubt are going to be phenomenal leaders for the those elementary schools and and I know that they have a lot of support amongst their staff students and families so we're excited about that um Stephanie ricardi has taken the Reigns at the kushman school I was able to visit there and by all accounts and everything I'm hearing she has been warmly received by the kushman staff by students by families um and as a matter of fact I'll just mention now even though it's under Community engagement there will be a a preschool uh family information night and that will be Wednesday February 26th from 6: to 7 and that will be about for parents to learn more about what we offer for preschool and also to meet the new Early Childhood director so that's perfect timing Mrs denisio shared this with me and I think uh again a way for us to be connecting as often as possible with the families especially when our families are coming to us uh brand new so in the coming weeks you can expect to hear more about our search for the assistant principles now we shift to uh hiring for assistant principles at both the Potter and the Quinn and I think that's wonderful by the way that we look at the pipeline that we had and again the process that we went through and we clearly had strong internal candidates that most deservedly are uh now appointed as the principles of of their schools and I would just like to thank you for a transparent inclusive process uh for these searches and and I can promise that you'll see that that will um be repeated it'll look different depending on the position in terms of who will participate but there will be an open transparent process with lots of opportunity for voices to be included in that process um so as far as family and Community engagement we released our first edition edition of the Dartmouth Compass did you get to see it oh that's great thank you and that's a newsletter a quarterly newsletter for our staff it's really an internal uh newsletter and we'll talk about the way that might look moving forward but we thought it was important for us to establish some communication from central office to staff and faculty really highlighting not only the work happening through offices at Central but actually highlighting what's happening out in the schools as well so that was another inaugural Edition so we expect to see that grow and we look for any uh recommendations for you know things that uh people think might uh be should be included in this newsletter so that was our first chance at it um as you know we hosted the first green apple awards ceremony this evening again we look to make these things part of our Traditions so they're not just one-offs they're things that we're looking to really embed in the climate and cult culture of the school district I'll mention that the Dartmouth High School orchestra is headed to Spain for February vacation as you know as you uh approved it but they are going to be visiting Barcelona acente hope I said that right in Valencia and I know they're very excited and in fact they're going to be presenting a performance their tour performance on Friday night right here at 7:00 and admission is free but they not sh that they they will take donations but the concert will be about hour and then under safe and supportive schools I want to point out the most recent decision to close schools due to impending snow because as much as we joke about this and when I met with students last uh the year before when I was interviewing for this position they asked me about snow dates like that was important to the students and I know that's students love a snow date I also know some adults who are In This Very Room who also love snow dates and they know who they are um but as much as we joke I want you to know that the decision really doesn't come easily it's not something that we just sit and around go you know what we're going to call off school um you know we Jim and I I know he's talking to the his the you know people here in town DPW I'm talking to almost every superintendent in this area um as a matter of fact I had several phone calls that night with a few of them um and we really do try to work together to make decisions but decisions are unique to every community and we consider multiple factors the most important being that we guarantee the roads will be safe for the travel of over 3,500 staff students and families on their way to school and when you're not knowing exactly when some the timing of a storm is to me I'm always and with the support of of my team who are you know really super supportive because I want you to know like not easy and I woke up the next day praying for snow I was looking out the window saying please snow please snow um and it did so I was okay with that but I just want you to know like here in Dartmouth what's unique is you have lots of roadway to cover um it's it's very different when you have kids who are driving to school you have families who are driving to school and you have 29 buses on the roads and that is something that we have to take into consideration that is I think unique to Dartmouth but and by the way we always want to have school you don't have a superintendent out there who wants to cancel school you wanted me to cancel no no may I okay sure it's just related so I just want to say that I I I have a child who um does require some significant um extra help and does attend one of our you know out of District placements and they called School much much earlier than you did good um so my ah love him but was uh ear in the day when when Dartmouth came through I thought oh why not let's make some popcorn party and I'm just hoping that there isn't any more snow um that's but I'm hearing there might be more but you know we're again we're going to ear on the side of caution and that is really Under the Umbrella of safe and supportive schools because it is about getting people to their workplace safely and we are talking about a large number of people and humans and little ones and high school kids who are just getting their licenses and all those things so so I thank you for the committee for your support on that I know I I know I called the chair and said this is what we're doing was the right call thank right call so that's all I have for you tonight thank you thank you so next up I believe it's the report of the chair uh just a couple of quick things um just wanted to just circle back to the budget in the the newly formed strategic plan that I think it's important that we really also recognize and I know it was part of the budget uh packet um how this new strategic plan that was recently approved by this committee and all the work through the stakeholders in town um ties into the budget and how the the close connection between the two and I think you know that should be the driving force moving forward as well you know to go C come back to the Strategic plan that's the all the time and effort that you and your team put in um I think that's that's important to know especially when we're we're presenting to other um other folks around town um i' just like to say you know thank you uh for the greenle awards presentations as well as the monthly staff newsletters I I don't know about any of you I find the uh the parent Square information emails uh helpful and keeping us up to date so and and we have a new um we have a new symbol on our backpack weekly backpack Karen Scorpio would definitely love you to know that if you noticed the D1 so she's updated it hadn't been updated in quite some time that's great no thank you for that I I just think that it it certainly helps to build staff morale around the district um these types of initiatives great thank you that's all I have any of my colleagues Mr Nunes yeah thank you Mr chairman um couple of things uh I know our student rep talked about it but again congrats to uh cat cheeseboro I was at the game and it was really was really nice you know you could everybody was feeding you know the way she went about it and you know the nice ceremony that took place when she you know they stopped the game when she uh she scored her uh career point so now let's see if she can you know no pressure but see if she can make two tip type of deal uh uh color God uh kicked off their weekend uh their compet comptition season this uh this weekend up in Melrose uh they were the only one the only group in the Scholastic open so they came in for with a score of 719 which you know looking at the other scores was about on the ballpack with the first place team so that's good uh we do have uh and I know I mentioned it uh Saturday uh March 1st uh we've got a nesba competition here starting at 11:00 and going through till probably quarter 9 9:00 um both color God and uh percussion uh our Middle School color guide will be performing at 11:40 um our Varity is at 4:00 with Awards uh right after type of deal and then the percussion the percussion part of the night kicks off right after that and uh dmouth is on at 8:26 and uh all things being considered and they'll be out and we'll have Awards right after that so I will be sending out a email asking for help for uh for uh trophies and awards uh the following week is a big big week we've got uh a WGI percussion here uh starting at 8:00 um and the way that runs is there's preliminaries that's going to run from basically uh 8 to 2:30 dmouth is on at 2 o' I'm sorry 10:00 a.m.

on Tuesday 9 to4 Wednesday 9: to4 on Thursday 11 to4 on Friday Saturdays and Sundays close so the community was asking and for a while while on weekends when it's supposed to be more utilized for students that cannot utilize the library during the weekdays because of the scheduling that they have here school is on session at 7:45 they cannot be in a library till 12:00 p.m. okay and then they restrictions that they they have to bring their own librarian to utilize the library when I was going to school not too long ago um we used to go in there lunchtime before school after school hang out there I never used to study I used to just go watch my friend study but the bottom line is it was accessible and and it was accessible by the school on the school side it's lock so transferring those things I understand what you're saying but there is a lot more to that and I understand you guys concern but it it would be more utilized in a sense it's not taking away Community Access and that's what the principal highlighted and the students that came see me that wanted me to reintroduce this bill so it's not taking away anything from from the public is just transferring ownership maintenance because the library hasn't been painted for 94 years um there's no grass no grass is being cut maintainance of the parking lot is really bad so there's a lot of things that the school was willing to take over not telling the public that they couldn't use it and probably the public would have more access if the school maintains it and have the operations to run it because they would open it up from 700 a.m.

to 2:30 dmouth is on at 2 o'clock and then uh finals kick off at 5:30 and dmouth is on at 8:15 in the finals uh you know I'm not sure what the awards are or uh what is needed you know I'll let you know as soon as I find out type of deal uh I do not have a cost of admission for uh for the nesba show that's not up on the website yet um for uh the WGI percussion uh the uh for preliminaries is $14 for ref finals is $18 or you can buy a ticket for both for $24 so and they will take uh cash venmo or credit cards and it's all these all benefit the uh dsma the Music Association so couple of long days coming up but that's all I have Mr chairman thank you thank you Mr Nunes for that update all right at this time chair we entertain a motion to adjourn into executive session pursuing to Mass General Law chapter 38 section 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining where an opening meeting would have a detrimental effect on the school committee's bargaining position Dartmouth Educators Association so not to not to reconvene so moved second motion by Mr new second by Miss Beckwith on the motion any discussion roll call please miss can Kathleen Amal yes John Nunes yes Mary Beckwith yes best Coughlin yes Chris Oliver yes have a good night everyone meeting adjourned Happy Valentine's Day

in the morning so when the bell rings the kids can go go to um class so those are the things that little bit what people not understanding on the bill thank you thank you Senator thank you thank you for the questions thank you Stacy alge State librarian chair and vice chair members of the committee um Our Testimony uh highlights multiple errors within the bill and I urge the um committee to really listen to the voices of the community that feel very strongly about this Library um I would also like to address um some of the things that Senator faella has brought up the library is open to students at 7:30 a.m.

and it is available to the students of the high school um when there is a school person present um the library is again the hours have been changed and we're very excited about that and we did get input from the community on those hours um we do know that people would like to see weekend hours and we'll be analyzing the system hours across the state to review how we can better serve and have better hours across the state but this is a library that is utilized by the community and it does matter Mahalo I'm happy to answer any questions you might have thank you MERS questions yeah did you get to see um principal Le um support letter no I did not so just to let you know um students teachers and the principal that attends Campbell High School I understand you guys saying it's utilized by the community a lot but it's not Monday through Friday when they do open the library parking lot is empty and I and I and I brought this up before so the amount of public that use it not saying that they're not going to get to use it doesn't weigh out on the fact that the students need to have access not because the school going to hire a librarian why does the school have to hire a librarian when did that change it hasn't changed it did when I was going to school in 1986 school did not have a librarian it was a librarian that was at the at there that was run by the state and we could utilize Campbell High School never had the own librarian that's why want to ask principal Lee I wanted to know when because when I was going school we didn't have that we didn't have to have a librarian all we needed was a note from the teacher go to the desk over there punch them in the time we went there and then when we leave we punch the time when we go out we never had that and then you guys had a security where that security gate St that don't work anymore used to be there just just to let you know the library hasn't changed since 1986 everything is there and most of the things are not working we cannot utilize the area that used to have the planting and the greenery and everything you guys have storage with chairs and Des in the back so the library is not being utilized in a in a capacity that is not only uh um accessible to the community and in a in a safe way it ain't everything is old in there you know what I'm saying so we had all of this time to upgrade a lot of stuff in the library and and we didn't and you know the thing is I understand you guys concerned about their jurisdiction but that's all it is is and then you guys have a shortage you guys have a shortage of liberians on our neighbor Islands yes yeah I thought you told me when the last time I talked to you told me we had shortages of libraries the last time islandwide across the state but mostly neighbor Islands okay no that's not what you ask ask I ask you if we have a shortage of liberians you said only on the other islands and mostly mostly on the neighor on the neighbor Islands but you guys have one statewide right yes okay but our but our hours are then some of you guys ours operation is according to that accessibility from Librarians and that's why a lot of libraries close across the state because you guys don't have enough staff well they're not closed across the state but they'll have fewer hours depending on they have staff available okay so when these hours are open and Clos um the question I have 12 to7 from 7 in the morning to 12:00 who's in the library the library assistant who serves the like the students okay so the library assistants in there from the reason why I concern is because we just not too long ago the librarian just the Librarians that I seen you on the librarian across the state had a pay raise that nobody in the states said anything about you guys getting one pay raise but with the pay raise that was introduced then we had lot then after we introduced the pay raise or you guys got the pay raise we had Cuts in our libraries because of uh a lack of Staffing so shouldn't we had concentrate on not giving everybody one raise and try to figure out get more Staffing so we can actually have the thing open on Saturdays maybe not Sundays but Saturdays I believe those are determined by the union negotiations I don't determine how much salary are our St not saying I saying we understand that you guys would get have the raids coming in whatever not saying they don't deserve but nobody came to uh body to tell us that reason why these libraries are not on Saturdays and certain communities don't have it that many hours is because of Staffing if we could help you with Staffing to staff these libraries so that they can be open at the time when the students should be using it not I mean I'm not saying 7:00 in good p.m. is it's all good but the Staffing hours um you're talking about some of them is 8 hours some of them is less 11 to4 is Less close on Saturdays the the hours that you have there are not correct so they're eight hours they're eight hours a day so it's uh Monday and Tuesday it's 12: to 7: and then it's uh them down down so Friday you guys open up earlier than 11 to4 Friday is 11 to 4 so staff can um can catch up and we also do training for our staff okay Thursday 9th to floor I believe so I have it here so when when the 7:00 to 8:30 or 8:00 those days days that you open later 12:00 12:00 9:00 9:00 11: a.m.

you don't think you can put in your guys training for your library or the people at the library on those days because you take you on whole day right from 11: to 4: all these hours from 7: to um 10:00 11:00 there's nothing happening there so you guys couldn't C andate better to have training for your staff on those days that you're not open early well the staff only worked can only work 8 hours a day so they can only come in at 11:00 to work till 7: so it's say to 4 the 11: to 4 they're they're that's where we do training on Fridays 11 that's what I'm saying so the days that you comeing in what I'm saying is that you guys are training um every Friday uh yes sometimes and then other times we're using it to for staff to catch up because they are working on materials they're making orders they're moving materials I just think no used to do before okay thank you appreciate it question so can you clarify again what are the hours Monday is 12: to 7: it's actually 7 hours so Monday to um uh Monday and Tuesday are 12:00 to 7: uh Wednesdays are 9: to 4 Tuesdays or Thursdays are 900 to 4: and Fridays are 11: to4 it's 33 hours a week and what about on weekends um they currently don't have weekend hours no weekend hours but we know the community would like to have weekend hours so again we're doing an analysis Statewide of all of our hours to see what we can do to better the hours across the state so the school shares the library because they don't have their own Library they share this Library we share the space so the library is the public so um in the 60s and 70s they built 12 public in school libraries uh when the department um Ed and the libraries had a divorce we took those libraries with us so we've been responsible entirely for those spaces and we've continued to provide Library services not only to the community but to students out of the 12 libraries in the beginning there was a school librarian in every Library along with any other assistants so that they could provide services directly to the staff today we have one librarian in one of the schools um there is a position at Campbell she retired one or two years ago and they're not filling that position so if they had a liian they could do more for the students because our focus is on the P patrons but also supporting all all patrons but also supporting the students so the remedy is for the school to hire its librarian then they can alter the hours accordingly that you you don't already do absolutely okay do you well you probably don't know I guess D needs to needs to ask answer this question thank you thank you yeah so is there funding for this position Li librarian I have to get backy on it I don't know right now so or was the money taken out of this and used for something else and then the position is there but no funding I need to get back vacancy savings I can get back to you I'll go check on what the status of the position and the funding so the um Senator Kim the school would bringing out their funding to fund the position that she's talking about but they don't get to go there far as I know they don't get the key um and they only can go when the library is open no I don't think so I think she said I think so so they can get the key so they have the key right now if they want to go in the library they can open the library they have an employee who has a key that can help them get into the libr right now yes during the school hour is it's open to the to the to the students then it contradicts what sen um what um principal Lee is talking about about the current un utilizing not being able to have access um to the students the teachers who utilize it we have an impact significant impact on students and teachers being um unutilized cannot use it so so whose requirement is it to have the librarian the school or the Li Li I I was looking to see where that actually started but I think the idea when they built it was that you would always have a school librarian who could work with a students in the public library to work with the public as a whole so it does help because students have particular needs and you're talking about critical thinking skills and reading um that our public libraries are focused on everybody so not just students so it's to Campbell's benefit to fund this position because they don't have the cost of a Library within their school like other schools have that cost for full-on library right Absol be able to partner with the State library and then have somebody that's specifically there for the students benefit yes and we didn't have problems before when we had a librarian because our Librarians work together and we continue to make the meeting rooms accessible for um weeks of testing that have to happen so it's just a two years since that librarian retired that they haven't filled that position M so can you get back to us immediately I'll check on that so Stacy um on all the other school libraries do you guys have any issues yes we do with um there are challenges because of um sometimes the campus is closed down because of um uh they can have a a lockdown so then the library won't be available to the public during that time um there are issues with um when projects are happening during when school's out sometimes we don't know when electrical is going to be cut so we lose power and our internet for the public so we we try to work why is that why can't that be relay to you by the school it's just misfiring of communication so we've been working on actually we have an Mo MOA that a draft MOA that has been written with Eva with Eva Beach and Campbell and we're waiting for the principal um to have to give us more information he's been asking for a key directly for himself and we give keys to the people who work in the library I finally don't don't know why this has to come to our attention why the do can't work with the l h the position can you guys figure it out yourselves thank you very much it's done thank you thank you okay sill 757 relating to libraries requires reasonable terms in license agreements for digital literary materials between libraries and Publishers defines prohibited items for license agreements between libraries and Publishers declares offer of a license agreement with a prohibited term and un and unfair or deceptive act makes a license agreement with a prohibited term void and unconscionable creates right of action by libraries Library officers and bers Department of Attorney General good afternoon Cher kidani Vice Jim members and herui Department of the Attorney General um in our testimony we've offered some clarifying amendments um one is to ensure consistency with a federal law that provides libraries with certain rights to reproduce copyrighted Works we've provided um a suggested Revision in our testimony also um to clarify that the bill doesn't restrict the Publisher's right to choose whether or not to distribute we've provided a suggested Amendment as well and also um uh to we've suggested a non non-impairment savings Clause to make sure that certain requirements in the bill would not be interpreted as impairing existing agreements thank you I'll be available for questions members questions thank you an Stacy Aldridge thank you chair um we stand on our written testimony I would just like to re reiterate that this issue is of particular importance to the state of Hawaii because digital books help us to create more access to materials across all of our islands where we cannot buy physical items for every branch and every Library I'm happy to answer any questions you may have thank you members questions yes St I you have questions why would this measure needed so U with ebooks so we have digital we have digital books I mean physical books the Publishers have created a whole new model for um digital books and so when we buy physical books it's a onetime fee we own the book we can use it circulate as many times as we want to with digital books um they have decided it's a separate kind of item and they have different models that they use so we have to pay over and over again for the same title so instead of being able to buy multiple copies of a digital um book and circulate them one at a time we H we buy them but we have to pay $50 a minimum of usually $50 to buy access to one book and we're only leasing that book we don't have rights after it depends on the model and the publisher in some cases it's 26 circulations and then we have to buy it again um if it's another another model is you have it for one year so um it's it assumes that libraries have these unending pits of money that we can keep buying these digital books over and over again to make sure that they're accessible and it's not a a model that is viable for any library and we're facing this issue um across the United States questions so so Stacy if you guys are facing this across the United States what are other states libraries doing several states have tried to pass similar bills um uh to um create an opportunity to have books uh be more affordable for libraries to purchase and make them available um most of them have not passed um in the neighboring states so Maryland has tried to pass um Washington state New York uh right now Rhode Island and Connecticut are trying to pass um uh rules to allow um to to try to get the Publishers to allow libraries to be be able to afford digital materials thank you so is this what this bill tries to do for our library yes thank you thank you sty how do you get the authors to agree I mean this is a bill that we're sting but how do you know why would they agree to this so um there are different um there are sub authors who agree that the book should be affordable they're usually the the authors who get a nice amount of funding they're usually the more popular authors who do get money um there is a challenge for authors who are not as well known they do not have um as uh good of agreements with their Publishers on how much they get per ebook that gets circulated so it's more of a challenge for them but to me that's a issue between the publisher and the the author but how does this affect them because we we cannot legislate to them right I mean this is legislate within the government and the state of Hawaii so how would all these authors abide by this so most authors have a publisher and the Publishers are the ones who create the um agreements with libraries in order to have access to the materials so it would have to be a three-way conversation about what's the best way to make sure that there's access but to also honor the the um authors because we're not trying to take money out of the author's Pockets we support authors every day we're advertising them every day in all of our libraries okay so you have to excuse me I'm not that up on how you negotiate with Publishers but because this is purpose of this act to ensure that Hawaii's public libraries can acquire and lend digital literary materials on reasonable terms and preserve the ability to serve as vital public resources I agree with that I I listen to ebooks but I'm wondering how does the how does this law change the publishers how they how they deliver or get the authors to give it to us at a lower price is this a mandate them to do it it's not a mandate but it is to encourage them to create pricing that is Affordable for libraries and how does that how how does this do encouraging um BEC because it requires that they don't put certain stipulations within the the way they lease their books or sell their books to us and if they don't agree if they don't abide by the restrictions then what then they can choose not to provide access which is a challenge that would be a challenge for us right so that currently is the is the process right I mean either we negotiate with them and they agree or they they they don't they don't lend us their books or whatever so I'm not sure how this bill changes that that's what I'm trying to I think find out the bill is trying to make them play nice yeah but it doesn't mean they have to right it doesn't mean they have to yeah right so that's why I'm saying if they decide not to how does this SCH change that that because they have the same ability now to walk from letting us any of their books right I mean and you get to say no this is too expensive I'm not going to I'm not going to allow my readers so people like me who want to get all the new best sellers are not going to have that but you know that's I think it also um hopefully Begins the conversation that other states have tried um to pass um I've worked with Publishers at the national level I talked with overdrive overdrive is a company that can consolidates and they try to get better pricing for libraries but we're still in this model of uh either pay I think what they're doing is they're also heading towards payers sip which we've seen there's another uh product called hoopla and you can download any book that's available but it's we pay every time somebody downloads something and so my concern is if we don't start making the Publishers aware that this is a problem and we really need to do something they will they're not going to work with us ideally we probably need to work at the national level the Copyright Act of 1971 I believe it is or or 73 hasn't been cracked open in a long time and that copyright determines ownership and how things work so it gives libraries fair use so when we buy a book it's ours we can sell it lend it however many times I'm also encouraging that um certainly but again I know we're passing something that really has no no effect of Law and are you working with the Congressional Delegation on the federal level would have more impact than us I have been talking with Senator hono um and um I'm working at the national level with other libraries um there are libraries that are State libraries I just saw New Jersey um the state Librarians sent to me their law that they're trying to pass they're actually trying to gather a committee to do a study on all the issues around ebooks and bring together all the players to have a conversation so we can find a find a resolution and I think that's a very that's a good way to go actually so when you buy a paperback are there restrictions on how you can utilize the paperback no fair use lets us we own it so we can give it to the friends to sell we give it you can give it away it's it's sort of can you have somebody read it and create our own eBooks from the paperback no that would be copyright infringement yeah but you can you take the books you can give the books once you buy it away but you can't do anything where yeah and so digital books we can't we can't uh lend out more than the times they let us lend them out I I think the argument too is their assumption is um if they don't charge a lot for an ebook then um authors will lose out but the reality is we buy multiple copies of everything already in paper we would buy multiple copies of digital books um and we do now we try to but they're at $50 a hit it's a lot when I go on it say three copies 50 people waiting you have a three Monon wait on it exactly and and then it's not uh the investment is the leasing of that book because after a certain amount of time we don't own that book anymore so we've lost an investment but we created access questions members thank you thank you is there anyone else here wishing to testify in this Mission please come forward oh chair Vice chair members of the committee my name is John Clark theii and I am a published author of Five Books some of which include ebooks uh I stand in support of this bill uh libraries are a public good the use of their books are good and I believe is the state's responsibility to protect that public good uh to your point Senator Kim uh things may not go the way we want them to go but I believe in a matter of shall we say negotiation uh it's best to set that standard and let the Publishers rise to that level so I am disappointed I could not provide testimony on 187 earlier I spent quite a bit of time typing up comments thank you thank you anyone else here wishing to testify this anybody else no all right Embers forther question okay moving on did you submit your your written testimony for the previous I did not can you can turn it in if you have it Senate Bill 799 freedom to read this bill requires the Department of Education to select materials for inclusion circulation and exclusion in school library collections according to certain criteria requires a Depart of Education to upold the freedom to read prohibits the Department of Education from excluding books based on search and criteria requires the state Librarians to select materials for inclusion circulation and exclusion in school library collections according to certain criteria requires the state librarian to uphold the freedom to read prohibits the state Librarian from excluding books based on seting criteria okay to test ify Department of Education Department of Education I'm sorry thank sorry aloh Cher kidani Vice chair Kim and members of the committee a Terry usima assistant superintendent of the office of curriculum instructional design I'm testifying on behalf of the Department of Education the department stands on its written testimony which provides comments on this measure the department has some requested amendments to ensure that all staff including non-certified Librarians have access to clear standardized guidelines specific to school library collections thank you for the opportunity to testify thank you Stacy alridge hello long time no see um hspls stands on its written testimony in support of s SP 799 with amendments our mission is to inspire curiosity and create opportunities for everyone to read learn and connect um the hoi State library is dedicated to building collections that consist of accurate information and tell the stories and create voice for everyone and um public libraries have the responsibility to support the freedom to read and to ensure access to materials that individuals and families want and need to support their um information educational and creative needs we are aware that values and acceptance of materials vary and we continue to support individuals and families rights to choose by checking out only materials that are most appropriate for them thank you I'm happy to answer any questions you may have thank sty Kim Cy Aloha my name is Kim Cordy I'm testifying on behalf of Aloha Freedom Coalition 20,000 followers this bill is unbelievable um I think it is the term that's used for the bill itself is very interesting the freedom to read this these graphic books that are going to be allowed to be introduced to the library I think is a an absolute um travesty on our children I'm not sure if you have children I have children and I have grandchildren and if you've seen the graphic pictures of these books every person that I've shown them to has been just appalled if if people want to go that direction in their viewing there's other places to to find those types of um those types of books this this is absolutely an assault on our schools this is not education and with that a yield members question members questions next Savannah Mandola good afternoon chair afterno good afternoon cherish Kim afternoon cherish um so for me uh with this bill being passed again like what she has shared if you had seen the graph graphi of this literature um that is about to or it has been fluctuating throughout the community public school or public libraries you would be appalled yourselves for me it I oppose it it's just it's where I'm at right now um with that being said if that's the Le if that is the rightful way of get giving it to um sending it out to our children you might as well give them the pornography books you know what I'm saying I mean everybody here in this room I mean can can actually say would you give that to a child and call educational um from a background that I grew up in to where I'm at today they only see the auto show this is from trauma trauma abandonment all of that but to give it and place it upon innocent lives that that's what un called for he's setting one he's setting an example for the Next Generation for do whatever you please to help with everybody else that's exactly what we're going to show share with them if this bill is pass so I oppose thank you for your thank you [Music] questions please next to testify Tara Gregory aloh Al Aloha kak I'm Tara Malia Gregory umala for allowing me to speak on S SP 799 I have an education and background in child development and Neuroscience and as a former Middle School teacher current coach and Mentor I strongly oppose this bill as it stands due to concerns about age inappropriate content although it may have not been the int ition of those proposing the bill various overtly sexual material has found its way in our school curriculum and Library shelves I advocate for the freedom to read but we have to protect our Ki I propose three amendments on page two lines 10 and 11 or page five line 18 if you could Define age appropriate content with a tiered system according to developmental stages to prevent premature exposure to explicit material secondly insert mandatory parental consent on page four line six to involve parents in their child's reading choices not limited to the Department of Education alone and finally establish a local review board on page five lines 10 through 20 to include Educators psychologists Librarians parents and community members in material evaluation prior to materials being submitted that's sexual in nature as you may be aware peer-reviewed studies such as the one just done August 2024 by the American College of pediat Pediatricians they found that premature exposure to overtly sexual material has been directly linked to developmental emotional and psychological dysfunction violent Behavior teen pregnancy suicide and child trafficking uh Mahalo for considering these amend ments to safeguard our children while preserving educational Freedom if these amendments aren't possible I strongly oppose this bill members questions Mahalo is there anyone else here wishing to testify proceed okay um first I'm a child of God and I'm here to you know represent some small voices my name is Nelson sua um I oppose this bill SB 977 um I come from a family that has done over 230 years of prison time I've witnessed my mom at a 10 years old punched over the second floor rail broke her neck and her back the murdered law was dropped because of my brother so I'm not sharing this just to edify or glor glorify anything but it's to let you know I understand what the darkness looks like and this bill is dark and my concern as a parent as a grandfather is that this will be a gateway to something even worse where someone might introduce a big bill that allows adults to have sex with underage kids and that needs to stop you know the teaching of sex should be left to the parents and I feel like those things are trying to be taken away now so I oppose s SP 977 and I just wanted to say that in the name of Jesus Amen 799 sorry so um testifiers I'm going to ask you to stick to your one minute because we have a number of testifiers end it and we're ending in 14 minutes hi my name is Francis apilando when I looked at the pictures in this book the picture content reminded me of when I was a 5-year-old child it back brought back childhood memories of when my grandfather stuck his penis in my mouth that led me to have bad grades in school which led me to start doing heroin intravenous drugs which led me to heepsy which led me to prostitution which led me to prison time this book inhibits those pictures to let a 5-year-old child see those pictures would not be in the best interest of our future generation what are we trying to do confuse them because that is exactly what it did to me I oppose this bill please wait till I call your name did we hear from Jamie deer zoom zoom on Zoom please Aloha chair kidani Vice chair Kim members of the committee Jamie deweer Hawaiian Islands Republican women in strong opposition of SB 799 while our membership supports the freedom to read um we oppose the contents of SB 799 for the following reasons it violates the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution where parents these are where parental rights are held so you're violating parental rights um as spoken earlier children's brains are not fully developed to the age human brains are not developed to the age of 25 um also I do have a suggested solution and recommended Amendment on pages three and four section 2 chapter 302a um to add to that because right now it says the department shall select these materials for kindergarten through 12th grade I want to add access to libr and materials excuse me other people went over a minute thank you your time is up wow please read by testimony thank you um in the interest of Time how many are you here in the audience are in opposition to this please oppose oppos yes okay in the in the interest of Time how many here are wanting to testify in support in support okay thank you is there anyone online whose testimony is in support Madam chair okay is Michael golu Junior please go ahead Michael oh I thank you madam chair I'm Michael goo Jr Vice chair of the Hawaii state lgbtq plus commission we stand in strong support of this bill it we cannot let anybody and one group of people dictate what we are allowed to read uh this is a very I'm I'm sorry we actually need a bill like this because Banning books is not what America is about we encourage you to um amend the um the bill to include sexual uh gender identity and gender expression to the list of prot classes especially seeing what we're seeing coming down from the federal government when it comes to trying to erase our mahu uh intersect and non-binary f um Ohana members so on behalf of the um Hawaii State lgbtq plus commission we encourage you to pass the bill with those amendments Mahalo for hearing this bill and thank you for your leadership thank you um if you guys want me to clear the room I can do it otherwise please refrain from speaking and let the testifiers testify Carolyn go you on Zoom not present nichos Len on Zoom Aloha Madam chair Vice chair members Niko slin on behalf of hav health and harm reduction Center in strong support of this bill we ask that it be amended along the lines of what uh commissioner goyu just said we also raise the fact that when we're talking about F freedom to read book bands on the continent have included books like Mouse Color Purple the handmaid's tail The Perks of Being a Wallflower and the blueish ey so uh Mahalo to the authors for for introducing this and for you to for hearing it today Mahalo thank you Dean hammer and on Zoom not present chair Gary cordor cordary are you can you hear me yes okay thank you for hearing my testimony I testify and test against this bill and strongly oppose it it is an absolute travesty and attempt to normalize deviant Behavior this is not education you cannot find any educational component in these books these books are picture books designed to to it to uh normalize homosexual Behavior it's not a place in the classroom or in the library this is a place for the home this is violates parental rights and I also asked for an amendment on line four that parents must opt in to have this uh educational material if it makes it to the classroom parents must be notified and they must opt in for their children to see this material in closing there is there has never been a time when the nuclear family has been under such attack and yet we see in our society the crumble of Moral Moral values sex crimes trafficking hate crimes thank you your minute is up next okay okay what happens when we run at a time measures get deferred recess Sarah are you there I am here but it's not letting me turn on my camera but I'll will just go ahead and and start the conversation so I am here um with HSA the Hawaii state Teachers Association I am the teacher lobbyist I'm also a middle school teacher who's taught for 19 years I am standing with the 13,700 teachers that cannot be in that room today I hear it's quite a riled up place I will say of the books the 1600 books most often banned on the continent and in the last year they were brought by only 11 people groups like moms for Liberty train parents on how to object to books being in the classroom and it's really scary as a teacher to see how this is has spread um throughout our classroom as a teacher I don't feel safe I feel like I going to be attacked by these parent groups um for doing my job that is developmentally appropriate I will also say in the history of of the world the people who ban books are never the good guys which is why we need this rule today I have a friend in Ohio who actually put on leave for reading a book to her little kids in elementary about crayons trying to get along so this really makes me nervous that that we that we need this bill in the first place but clearly testimony today says why so please support this teachers need to know that you support us and that we have the freedom to read in our classrooms and so to our students thank you okay questions going to questions yes going straight to question members questions yeah can we have the librarian is this your priority is this the librarian's priority this do I think it's important um uh there across the country we have Librarians now who are being put in jail they're being picked up for um making Books available to people who have different values or have different needs or informational needs and it's important to make sure that that everybody everybody in this room also has access to the resources that they want and need so what is this your priority um we I was told this is a librarian Library priority no it's not a library okay thank you yeah thank you thank you doe doe so is doe Banning books right now no we're not Banning books you're not Banning any books no we have um selection criteria and it's aligned to um our national um Professional Standards okay thank you so question does the Board of Education get involved in any of your selections or NOK you [Music] um questions Stacy thank you so Stacy has the state librarian um had any comments to the department about banning books in the schools public libraries uh in public libraries we have had people request to have books taken off of the Shelf yes so but has have you required that do remove the books from the shelves no thank you questions sure Department of Education thank you Heidi for being here um I know that this is more than likely going to be a librarian selection uh but do you feel that this would increase the literacy in our students uh do you feel like this would help with graduation rates do you think that it would help with teacher shortages I'm just really trying to find um the ground on why would we be maybe not necessarily prioritizing as she had mentioned but find it to be important so would this help us uh would this help our stud students um right now we do as aushi gima mentioned we do have a criteria um and we do take the maturity of the child in mind anything sexually overt um would not be um a material that we purposely put on our shelves um we do serve children from a variety of backgrounds um we are public education and so it is not our um our koliana to promote or not promote a particular ideology a particular religious de um belief a particular family value that that's that's at the home what we do have to do is welcome children in our schools as they are and educate them in English Math Science Social Studies Etc sure um who determines at the Department of Education uh the level of maturity as you stated that is is um professional judgment it is not explicitly um written out um but the department does not promote um overtly such that that doesn't have a place in k12 and that's not something that we would support and we also want to honor the diversity of our families and at any time a family can inform the school that they do not want their CH child or children um K12 exposed to any particular um type of book or a book that has a particular content and the school will honor they'll put that in the system and we'll honor that request sure so if a student says and request a particular book maybe it's not necessarily under the guidance or recommendation of the parent does the school end up making the decision for the parent on what the student is mature or not mature enough to um we have our grade level standards and our um understanding of um ability and social emotional stability at certain at different ages um we are Educators um but there is not we don't have explicitly said out in kindergarten X Y and Z do you have anything else to add to uh yes we have um some systems that we utilize and it's separated from elementary and secondary so um The Librarians they use these resources as they build their collection and um it's really important that um you know the resources that they do add to their collection is aligned with curriculum it's relevant it's of quality materials it promotes critical thinking um it represents diverse perspectives and cultures and also that there's different access um digital as well as hard copies sure okay uh recess reconvening the committee on education we are on Senate Bill 249 relating to local agricultural products modify certain Benchmark goals and timeline for the Department of Education to provide locally sourc Agricultural and food products superintendent stand just good afternoon ch ch chair din Deputy superintendent with due the department stands on its written testimony which provides comments on this measure the department appreciates the Bill's intent to separate the local food purchase goals from other state departments by clarifying gold targets Additionally the department is continuing to assess opportunities to work with our food distributors to reach the slated goals closest being the 30x30 uh goal for purchasing of local products thank you for opportunity to testify thank you Sharon herd Department of B hello chair Vice chair M of the thank you thank you Brian mamoto executive director Hawaii Farm Bureau thank you chair the Hawaii Farm buau will stand on testimony in support Nancy Moser individual in support Hunter hel helin advocacy director Hawaii Farmers Union in support are there additional testifiers present wish to testify on this matter members questions okay going to recess reconvening the committee on education for decision making members recommendation of the chair for Senate Bill 894 sd1 is to defer for Senate Bill 187 to defer for Senate oh I'm sorry for Senate Bill 894 defer with no objections Senate Bill 187 defer with no objections Senate Bill 757 relating to libraries recommendation of the chairs to pass with amendments to include the testimony of the AG to clarify the purpose of this bill and defect the date to July 1 2050 okay recommendation is to pass Senate Bill 757 with amendments uh Cher kidani I Vice chair vot I Senator Hashimoto Senator kuha is excused Senator the court I Four Eyes one excuse recommendations adopted thank you for Senate Bill 799 defer without objection 7 Senate Bill 249 pass with amendments but defecting the date to July 1 2050 chair votes I okay chair votes are Senate Bill 249 uh pass with amendments any member voting no any member voting with reservations hearing none four members present one excuse recommendations adopted thank you members that concludes our hearing was deferred

good afternoon i' like to call the committee a Joint Committee hearing on the committee of higher education and the committee on education to order uh today is Tuesday we are in room February 11th room 229 uh we are on the 3:00 agenda uh we have Senate Bill 426 relating to An Early Learning apprenticeship grant program and uh before we call up the testifiers this meeting is being streamed live on YouTube and in the unlikely event that we have to abruptly end this hearing due to technical difficulties the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on Thursday at 3 P.M in this room 229 and a public notice will be posted on the legislator legislator's website because of the length of the agenda and the fact that we do have a hard stop at 4:30 uh there will be a one minute time limit per testifier uh and I'll be reading from the list of individuals who submitted written testimony as here in person and then I will go to the zoom people on Zoom so I apologize if U the close caption don't accurately transcribe your names uh we do have all testimonies uh that has been submitted so we have been reviewing them and and with that I am going to start with Jordan Ferrero from this testifying from the City and County of Honolulu on Senate Bill 426 chair marado Kim chair kidani members of the Committees um my name is jordina ferm with the city in County of Honolulu on behalf of director KY with Department of Community Services we stand on our rich and testimony and strong support of this measure and we're happy to answer any questions M okay thank you following Jordana is Ryan Yani from Department of Human Services uh let's see Lena Al Le office of hawaian Affairs uh from the early learning office you call hi CH C CH kidani Senator Hashimoto I'm Yuko Ado across director of the executive office on early learning we support SB 426 and defer to the University of hobai on implementation and funding many people entering the Early Learning field are non-traditional students who really benefit from the additional wraparound support and mentoring included in this model EOL welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with uh on the grant award criteria and appreciates the legislator's continued investment in Ari and their families thank you thank thank you very much see Nathan morato support hi CH Cher Kim good good afternoon Cher Kim Cher kidani members of committee Nathan marad de College of Education uh Mano we stand in support of this particular measure and I'm available for questioning thank you thank you very much see Candace Park Deputy Attorney General I just want to point out that um we recommend identifying the bill as the law of Statewide concern got it thank you that's the best kind of um amendments okay Vivan etto [Music] Vivan Aloha chair Kim Aloha chair kadani and senators um I'm Vivian etto with Early Childhood action strategy um and I'm here to stand on our written testimony in support of this measure and I'm available for any questions thank you so much okay chevel Davis H chair Kim chairani and Senators My Name is shal Davis and I'm with Hawaii children's Action Network speaks and I stand on our written testimony and support and Mahal you for hearing in this bill and I'm available for any questions thank you Terry lock Aloha chair Kim chair kidani and members of the committee um I'm Terry lock I work at the University of haai I'm the director of the Hawaii Early Childhood educator excellence and Equity project was able to support um the the first registered apprenticeship program in our state and I just stand in support of this measure and if you have any questions please let me know thank you thank you we have k k on Zoom Kiana hello thank you for allowing me to testify on Maui my name is Kiana I've been a longtime doe educator as well as a recent Master's of early childhood education graduate from uh Manoa I'm currently at home taking care of my one-year-old baby I strong I stand in strong support of this bill because we must begin to invest in early childhood high quality education it's not babysitting it's brain building and research shows that 90% of the brain develops in the first five years so making a well-trained educated educators are essential um this program removes Financial barriers by providing paid Hands-On training while ensuring high quality professional development I myself have stayed in the field of Early Childhood because it can be stressful and it is complex but I've stayed in the field because I've had a strong support system and been involved in professional learning communities so thank you so much for hearing me thank you Kiana uh we have approximately 28 other testimonies in support uh so is there anyone in this room wishing to testify that I didn't call your name anybody on Zoom that we didn't call on okay with that members we're open to questions any questions for any of the testifiers I do have a question for uh the the bill is blank on the cost what is the estimated cost for the program estimated thank you chair for the question estimated cost is 50 for the first year 15 sorry 14.5 million in the year 2025 26 26 27 another 15 mil and then you're going to need this appropriation on a on a Continuum is that it or once you have this then it can proceed without this kind of funding this level of funding for oh for the future yeah um well I think uh we may have to look at Future funding as well because as part of the apprenticeship program unless there's some kind of way to generate These funds outside of a apprenticeship type model will require future funding as well okay so something that might have to go into your base budget at some point in time yes along with everything else yes okay members any other questions Senator kidani thank you thank you Nathan so my question is have you been working with eoe and um do you have someone in mind to head this program uh yes we have and we're also working very closely with our colleagues k k too but yes we do have someone in mind on staff at the college to help administer this program thank you okay anyone else wishing to take the measure um if not we'll into decision making the recommendation is to amend Senate Bill 426 uh with technical non-substantive amendments and that we defect the date to July 31st uh 2050 uh and that we add in the concern of the AG with this bill as a law of Statewide concern uh we will note some of the um estimated cost and the committee report any discussion members not uh the chair votes I Senate Bill 426 recommendation is to pass unamended no with amendments with amendments chair votes I Vice chair votes I Senator fukunaga hi Senator Hashimoto hi Senator favella excuse measures adopted Madam chair thank you and now for the vote for education I have the vote sheet I have the vote sheet oh you have the vote sheet okay for Education okay same recommendation Madam chair yes so for the committee on uh education chair's recommendation is to pass with amendments uh chair kidani I uh Vice chair Kim I Senator Hashimoto I I vote I Senator D Court I chair recommendations adopted okay and that adjourns our i' like to call it to uh order the committee on higher education jointly with the committee on labor and Technology I have I do have the chair of the labor committee thank you for being prompt uh and we on the 305 agenda we have Senate Bill 1622 this is relating to artificial intelligence it establishes an appropriate funds to establish the Aloha intelligence Institute within the University of Hawaii to develop support and advanced artificial intelligence initiative Statewide uh we do have testifying vilus there he is all in black like a Bandon you're going to come in to take all our money huh this is my favorite committee good afternoon cherim chero uh my name is Vil I'm the vice president for research Innovation VI system we stand in strong support of this Bill thank you thank you Christian Fern in support uh Sher Manor in support Jacob wck support John Shepard and support anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure anyone on Zoom not members questions Senator fukunaga um I guess for vice president siros the only one here um you know for this particular bill it was uh very exciting to see um your office in strong support can you give some background on how Senate Bill 1622 um developed I understand that there was um a a large group of town meetings and campus involv last summer so the subject of AI has been very exciting on all campuses uh we conducted two large Town Halls that included over 10 campuses and actually uh external stakeholders uh so the bill itself uh was designed uh with input from all our 10 campuses uh everybody is in strong support it has five pillars one pillar is governance and policy uh and that has to do with the use of AI another pillar is Outreach and engagement of how the university can will or actually will develop a a strategy of uh doing Outreach with the business community and also other stakeholders the third pillar is the research and development and that's the R&D piece of the AI Manoa will take the lead on that clearly the fourth piece is the Workforce Development within Ai and that includes students and also our faculty because it is very important that our faculty are very uh cognizant of the use of AI in their teaching and then the fifth pillar of that is AI tools and how we insert AI technology in the hubs of uh interest for the state and the university and those being healthc care creative Industries Advanced manufacturing data science astronomy and climate change do you have some sense of how the positions and funding are going to be distributed among the campuses at this point yes we we do uh uh we're going to have one person within each of these five pillars and we're going to have a director each campus or cluster of campuses will take a lead on each one of these five pillars so we're looking for couple positions in monoa two three positions in monoa couple positions at Hilo and then three to four positions at community colleges and one of us West and the director so we're looking for those 10 positions the positions we're looking also they're not your typical faculty positions we have a new classification for faculty beyond the the faculty classification we have also faculty of practice which are actually faculty that can join the University from the industry and teach our students so we're looking for those type of Faculty as well because AI is a fast changing field and we're looking to to bring faculty within from the industry okay what um sounds really kind of exciting especially you know with a lot of the background of our new University president I did did want to kind of focus a little bit on uh uh the campus where as you know we do have a lot of space and you know in our recent um discussions you know a lot of the opportunities of AI as you've talked about are really something that I think we can do a lot more with in and around um uh campus lands as well as business development so I'm particularly hopeful and hope that um you will also allocate um a fair portion of your Staffing to the uh West aaho Campus and and you have some good Representatives here you had Frankl Franko who it is actually on the business Enterprise of of the campus and so AI is exploding on that field we have cyber security and intelligence so absolutely the answer is yes to that thank you thank you sen foror yes thank you for that also because um funding would probably be depend on you know how and uh how many students are going to be reached so I appreciate that you guys are considering uh West to Wahu which was built with Mind by the way um what will be the um tuition cost you guys have an idea yet I think the the tuition cost for the the courses we're going to offer for that are going to be the normal tuition cost that we have for uh for U so whatever we charge for their certificates and also for our tuition of West a Hilo and Mano okay so when and how will they be able to enroll uh they will be able to enroll as uh students and then that would be through the academic programs and then that we're going to have the certificates through the Outreach or the certificate programs that the community colleges offer so and what's the time frame for enrollment to begin uh so we're looking to start soon so if there is an appropriation actually I had talked to to chair Kim also and as I told her we're going to put some of our own internal resources uh this is very important for the university is very important for the president it's a good thing to do we ask you to be a partner for this endeavor but we will put our resources so we're thinking sometime next fall next fall y that soon that soon thank you any other questions um where you know similar to senator for Gago where might this be housed where would the the main yeah head of the Dragon so so administratively right now it will it will be housed under the office of the vice president of research and Innovation but under me yes uh we're going to se it out of that office uh we're going to provide uh initial funding uh and as I said uh we that's where it's going to start I don't know that's where it's going to end because it's much bigger than just research and Innovation it includes a lot of other different things there is a as I said government and data the policy so uh in a perfect world it would see outside my office maybe would sit under the president and that probably would be the right place to to be but you got to start it somewhere small and then expand it and move it up are you was looking at how you reuse uh facilities that are not being used to its ultimate purposes or you know and then also looking at you know this is the future ai's future versus diminishing type programs and at some point uh has to make those tough decisions because as we add on all this funding to the base budget as we did for education and so forth College of Ed um you know there comes a time where the fiscal resp responsibility uh sticks out his ugly head right like we seeing in the cancer center so um what are you FOC doing in that because to me it's all encompassing right I I believe and I'm not in the academic area but I believe Mano has started pulling some of their vacant positions from all departments and then uh re redeploy those positions in departments where we see interest in strategic areas whether it's data science AI so that in a way actually I don't want to say uh minimizes but it does minimize the presence of programs that they're not IR relevant and actually deploys those resources in programs that they are relevant uh we were told I'm sorry we were told that in the previous meetings that uh looks at these um programs that maybe the missing are not relevant every 10 years and things work moving so fast that are you folks have a shorter shorter time frame that you be looking at all of this I I do believe and we have the vice president for academic strategy here I think that we're looking at programs every year and we do review of small programs every year and uh we do a presentation to the board of regions uh can you share that with the legislature uh this committee as far as what are the each year what are you looking at and what's the results looking at is one thing you know the result is another right yes yes sir okay um and then finally he says you're not an academics yet this is eventually an academic program so uh whether you're H academic is that my unit my office does not offer programs it's more on the Innovation the economic development the use of AI to actually uh push the envelope in areas like healthc care like astronomy like or phography so in order to do a good job you're going to have to have both right I'm a faculty I teach I used to do research so one is not decoupled from the other they go hand in hand but my my own uh personal preference is on the research and economic development Innovation piece of AI I just don't want to see what happened with uh ACM oh we have a we have a we have a solution for that too and then finally you mentioned spec specialty faculty would these faculty be permanent at some point and would they be tend as well uh actually The Faculty of practice are not uh permanent are temporary positions and I do believe personally I do believe uh that in areas like this uh it's not a bad idea to infuse tenure faculty with faculty that they come from the industry that they're not tenur and they're temporary in those positions okay thank you members any other questions not thank you very much thank you Sher members we go there no questions or discussion we go right into decision making recommendation is to amend this chair okay okay amend this uh with an sd1 uh we'll blank out the appropriation amounts we'll affect defect the date to July 31 uh 2050 we uh will put into the Comm report the discussion regarding uh concerns about housing and possibly West aahu um and I think that's all the and any technical amendments that may need to be made any discussion chair okay if not um Senator ke chair sign for Senate Bill 1622 with amendments to pass with amendments for higher education chair Vols I Vice chair Vols I senator Senator Hashimoto hi Senator F hi measures adopted Madam chair thank you Laban technology committee is waiting for Quorum not yet almost might have it maybe they have an AI replacement okay labor and Technology committee same recommendations SD yes sd1 okay Senator Yar for the vote please labor and Technology will be taking a vote on Senate Bill 1622 um with a uh recommendation is to pass with an std1 Cher Kino hi Senator Lee excus Senator Hara is I Senator Mur is excused Senator flla I the recommendation is adopted he thank you with that we will adjourn the committee Joint Committee I'll call to order the committee on higher education again we are in room 229 uh it is about 3:26 on February 11th and we will start out with Senate bille 1488 uh this is relating to the University of Hawaii Conference Center revolving fund establishing uh the conference center revolving fund and accounts under the fund to facilitate administration of res revolving fund for Conference Centers in various campus I thought we passed this last year but apparently it didn't make it to the final is that it why we here again so with that I'm going to call on Calbert young if he's here oh he's hiding in the back okay thank you chair Vice chair members uh you have the testimony the university university supports this measure can stand on the testimony just real fast this is kind of a housekeeping measure there's currently in the statute two Conference Center statutes already for the University of w one at Hilo and one at the community colleges all this bill seeks to do is to consolidate those two sections of Statute and just make it simply the conference center uh fund for the university did we we had the similar bill right last year yes and it didn't get it didn't make it through the legislature oh we passed it out right I don't remember the status I think it made it to the end though yeah we did pass it out cu very familiar okay anybody else um wanting to testify on this measure anybody on Zoom hearing none we are going to move to the next agenda item we are on Senate Bill 636 relating to University of Hawai at Hilo appropriates funds for one retention coordinator position one internship coordinator position and a student enrollment management initiative at the University of Hawaii at Hilo um we have okay sorry about that we have uh Kay Raposa yes good good afternoon chair closa from the University of ho Hilo U here to stand on our written testimony and I am available to answer questions if you have any okay support you are in support yes he is definitely in support of this uh anyone else I only have one testifier on this measure anyone else wishing to testify anyone on on Zoom if not I do have a question regarding your enrollment so you need this position you're saying a retention coordinator position intern coordinator position and a student enrollment management initiative pos position is that correct you looking at three positions or is it just two uh there's actually more than two positions the uh internship and student retention coordinator are identified very clearly the remaining part of the build at 432,000 is for enrollment management initiatives that includes uh positions as well as um operating funds to support enrollment Management on the campus so what is your enrollment like on in um Hilo uh this spring we're at about 2500 so we've uh unfortunately been on the decline which is why we feel investments in these areas will help us uh to increase enrollment on our campus now on the 2500 you include the high school how many high school students you have taken um early courses oh um I can get back to you on that I don't have it readily available how many online on are you talking all all sorry are you asking about all students or just high school students online no oh your your enrollment your enrollment number is about 2500 so the 2500 how many online um sorry I don't have that information right now but we can get that to you okay yeah and if you can include part-time and then the high school students we've asked that of other um campuses like West aaho so um be um only fair that you have you show us that information as well um do you have a retention coordinator now uh no we don't have one person that's the retention coordinator the I think the function is um spread amongst different offices so you don't have any any retention that's devoted directly to retention that's correct and the internship coordinator does that is that related to this it's retention sorry it's related to retention um because internships provide uh experiences for students to um Hands-On learning experiences for students at our campus what is your retention rate now so our retention rate [Music] um it's at about 72 per 72.8% and that would be for the fall 23 for didn't hear yeah we didn't hear the number can you repeat the number oh I'm sorry uh for the fall 2023 cohort that numbers 72.8% from 1 to second year do you have an idea of what what the level of percentage of retention is uh usually acceptable is that correct what I'm saying Target is 80% so our targets sorry our targets uh 80% 80% wonder what is it what is a Manor you know at West know perhaps we can get that information on there um okay members any questions Senator um Asim so I guess the question is is what efforts have you made from the University side to implement these type of positions using tuition funds um we have use Reserve funds to um for an injection of so we use Twi and reserve for an injection of funds help Provide support for these positions but we see a a more long-term need for them but what so so what is your enrollment growth though looking like you know when we asked West aahu their enrollment growth was only a couple percentage points what is What is your enrollment projection well unfortunately our enrollment trend has been down uh so we are trying very hard to reverse that uh we feel that uh these positions will very much help us in that respect so so what what has been the trend though are you looking for an exact percentage or you know Wahu I guess I could look it up but you're supposed to have an enrollment plan assume kilo does the same thing as West aaku so I would hope you have the number well yes I'm just asking real specifically are you looking for our past enrollment Trend or are you asking about our future plans for enrollment growth well because I I think what we're trying to understand is what is what is the bigger strategy right in in terms of okay so you're going to get you know a a person that helps with the enrollment management initiatives but what is what is the goal that you're trying to achieve so so is it you know this will person will help you achieve higher enrollment you know what what is the percentage that we're trying to achieve like I I think we're just just trying to understand where this all fits in like we have this bill which is okay you have a standalone bill that's great I I do the same thing but part of it is we kind of need to understand where you're trying to go with all this I think kind of unclear to me at least all right thank you I I I understand your question n so our plans are for we're targeting an enrollment growth of 3 to 5% uh we have just imple um implemented a strategic enrollment management plan on our campus and that is our Target for growth three three to 5% 3% 2500 is okay and then that's so so you're not so you when you look at the tuition revenues that you you raise through that 3 to 5% that doesn't that doesn't get get you anything out of that uh it does yes but but you're not using any of that additional tuition revenues to then invest into retention or like I I think what what what's the broader what's the broader plan of trying to incorporate all that okay so if I just I just want to make sure I understand your question correctly is how are we looking to invest uh tuition Revenue growth over the next several years with a planned growth of 3 to 5% right okay so uh the tuition revenues would be reinvested back into the campus it may not just be in the areas of um that these positions would cover but looking overall at our strategic plan our strategic enrollment plan we'd be reinvesting those revenues into areas of growth on the campus okay like like where so that could be an academic programming uh these positions that we uh that are being requested in this bill would sit primarily in our uh division for student affairs okay well see see I I think the question that you know both you and West aaku faces you both are are facing declining enrollment right and so I think what we want to understand is how do you reverse that trajectory and and part of it is I bet part of it is that you aren't offering the things that people need to entice them to go to to Hilo and so and and to enroll and so I think you know great you have these one-offs but I think part of it is is this really going to drive that expansion I think that's the question that we're we're trying to understand because if if that if it is then great but if it's just oh I just want these three positions G funded and there's no broader strategy then that that's what concerns us at least it concerns me okay so the internship position coordinator will help to provide uh connect students with Workforce activities so we feel we feel that investing in that area would provide meaningful opportunities for students and give them something more tangible uh in their in their academic um progression student retention coordinator is more of an overall position uh we'd be identifying at risk students looking at different types of interventions to allow them to continue to persist and remain on our campus the overall enrollment management strategy uh so that's at 432,000 includes looking at a um customer relations manager that ties together the different functions of our Enrollment Services uh how we integrate data to boost enroll and retention uh that also includes uh data analyst positions and IT Tech Support to look at basically take all this data and help to drive um decisionmaking for enrollment um strategies uh part of that ask also includes or included looking at veteran services coordinator well I I guess the point is is is the the thing that you have to really tell us is is it worth that you ing your enrollment by 3% by adding these three positions I know that for that one position at least but you know I I think if you ask Wahu they said in their enrollment strategy it wasn't just 3% it was it was they were they're guiding they they were shooting for 10% but you know so I think we we got to really understand because if if if you're not going to achieve these results without what what you're doing now without tweaks to what you're doing now I feel like you can achieve 3% by just with your existing staff I would hope that if you want additional positions it would be way more than 3 to 5% okay well we're looking at 35% per year in targeted recruitment yeah you better it's it's really small right now you're smaller than High School some high schools but yes I I get your point okay well thank you chair okay let me just let me just mention that um the tuition funds and the revenue from the tuition funds given over to the university many years ago right and they were to use that tuition funds and you would think that tuition funds would be use for your retention because these are the students that are there paying tuition and if you want to keep them that's the one of the reasons to use your tuition funds I know tuition funds are being used for a lot of other things that don't have students like the cancer center like other other areas in which there's no students and yet millions of dollars are being funneled from the tuition funds I'm not saying that is happening on the big island but that's the whole purpose of you keeping your tuition funds and you are now encouraged to use those funds to help you retain and get enrollment so again you come to us asking us for these positions and stuff so I think there's a concern and I share that with um senator from Maui about you have a need to have a better plan and it's just not at the big island but also at West aahu and we've been asking these questions U for a while now Senator Kon you have a question yes so um if this bill is for Staffing what percentage or what more number of students do you expect to enroll in these programs saying 3 to 5% uh overall uh enrollment on the campus we're targeting 3 to 5% yeah what's the number per year no not in percent in numbers roughly a 100 students per year and that number would increase as the overall um enrollment increases because 3% gets bigger you know based on the overall enrollment and why does the cost double for fiscal year 27 uh well we typically ask for six months of uh funds for positions uh for the first year and that would increase for the second year when they're fully funded and was there any funding this year no uh funding this year we utilize the tuition Reserve which Reserve tuition tuition reserve and your tuition Reserve is depleted no how much more you have in your tuition Reserve uh i' have to get back to you on that one we can submit that with our other what else is the tuition Reserve used for uh tuition Reserve can be used for well we use it uo uses it for you know onetime expenses um if there's like large equipment purchase I think this year we used it as an example for um a vehicle purchase to expand uh field experiences for our geology department so that's an example thank you okay but if you don't have enrollment and you don't have students you're not retaining it you're not going to have tuition to do anything right we'd have less tuition to do things yes yeah so shouldn't you that be one of your number one uh priorities for to use of your tuition funds uh well I think our number one priority would be to increase our enrollment um we're seeking assistance from the state doing that through this bill well you have tuition funds which is what we gave to you guys tuition funds years and years ago so that's the whole purpose of your tuition funds is to use that to continue to get enrollment right and retain because every time you come in and what happens if the if your enrollment goes down you get give you these position it goes down then what because we do give you folks um performance performance um measure not measure what is it incentive uh for performance and none of the campuses hit the performance and part of it is your enrollment so it would beho you not to use your tuition funds continually then you would get the bonuses that we put into the bill um for performance measures okay I I think it's campuses have to think that you canot every time there's a sh for that they're going to come into the legislature without utilizing or showing us that you you really need these These funds uh and that you've exhausting the funds that you already have so um encourage you to do that members any other questions okay if not thank you we will move on to and then please don't forget to give those numbers to to us um cuz this measures will go on to Ways and Means and um we will make the final determination at that point we are on Senate Bill 1489 and this requires the University of Hawaii to Grant the resident tuition fee for enrollment at any University of Hawaii campus to individuals who have graduated from Hawaii high schools and are enrolling in an undergraduate degree program under certain conditions we have k haash from Department of Education Aloha chair Kim uh Vice chair kidani and members of the committee Terry usima assistant superintendent from the office of curriculum instruction design um we support this measure the department defers to the University of Hawaii as to the Bill's implementation uh affordable College tuition is an investment in our state's future that Fosters social mobility and drives economic growth securing the resident tuition fee for Hawaii high school graduates will increase accessibility for students who are deterred from seeking an undergraduate degree due to perceived high costs and will provide a competitive choice for students considering out ofate options the department is supportive of any effort to smooth the pathway for our students to continue their education as well as provide opportunities to learn and enter the workforce in Hawaii thank you thank you uh Deborah Halbert good afternoon chair Vice chair member of the Committees uh vice president of academic strategy Deborah Halbert we stand on our written testimony and we have associate vice president Fair Marine Gomes on Zoom for any questions regarding the technicalities of the Bill thank you okay great uh we have Ronald sergis um anyone else wish to testify on this measure anyone on Zoom wishing if not questions members I do have questions for um university what's the current process now I thought that if you are in high school and that you get and you know you're resident that you get the resident tuition Am I Wrong yes this is more about those who've moved out of state and if uh ABP goms is online she can Prov Prov a little more detail about why we were asking for this and some of the issues that we've encountered with students okay well before I get to her so you're saying that say somebody in their sophomore year moved to the mainland and then as long as it's within four years they come back they would still be considered a resident and therefore they would be able to get the resident tuition that's that's the idea and I know that over the years we've tried different numbers of years for this particular bill so four gives us a we were thinking more reasonable number of years thought we passed one but said two years I think we didn't it also didn't make it to the final process okay um was I going to ask so when these students come back in um can't you folks do it on your own do you need a a bill a law um well that is I I mean depending on how this plays out we may look at trying to revise the admit the heart and seeing if there's a way we can reinterpret some of the language there uh ABP GS would you like to elaborate on that sure um the way the har is currently written it um does require 12 months of physical presence so as this bill is written um there is an or statement uh for item number three so it does allow the the student who may have moved out of state to reenter and prior to the 12 months of physical residency be able to qualify for the resident tuition rate are you not able to do that now without a bill I thought uh could wave and do whatever they wanted with their with their um tuition and acceptances yeah for for admissions we do follow the har and that is not allowable as it's currently written I see what about waivers you have to follow something for waivers when you give tuition I mean when you give scholarships or waivers to aut state to pay in state is that all part of yes so tuition waivers are written into policy and so we would need to go through the process of adding that into um an executive policy and we would need to be careful because that exemption would still need to comply with um thear yeah so your border of regions could change a could change a policy or or adopt additional policy right within the boorder of regions can pass a policy but it cannot be contradictory to the har right and so have you folks embarked on that at all before coming to us with the bill we have not embarked on that um the what we are looking into um if we don't get the bill is to go back and revise the har as the alternative because even a policy at the board level wouldn't allow us to execute the change okay so this measure came has come before us a couple years now right and in a couple years you guys haven't gone in to see if you can amend the heart H part of the right part of the part of my understanding for that is the har was just recently updated um and like within the last two two years um and we were not planning to go in to make those adjustments but if that is necessary we'll go in soon or rather than later okay well I hope you folks would be proactive in looking at this especially since this is not a new item this item has been I think this is the third year going on that you're waiting and waiting for this bill if it doesn't pass you that many years behind so I would imagine that this would be on the top of your list that you would be pursuing that in addition to if that didn't work then you'd come in but again you know it's like putting the horse before the cour cart the cart before the horse Okay members any other questions if not thank you okay we are moving on to uh senate bill9 senate Bill oh I believe that was that was 1490 correct yeah we're on 1559 no 1490 okay just that the same people testified I guess okay okay we are on 49 you're right Vice chair thank you uh Deborah Halbert this is on the relating to uh relief funding good afternoon again Deborah Halbert vice president academic strategy we stand on our written testimony this is something that emerged to came to attention during the Maui wildfires last year so hopefully we can remedy the situation associate vice president Gomes is also online to discuss the technical details okay Ronald Sturgis also in support uh don't go away we're going to need for questions any members with questions okay so tuition funds now where do they go to did they did it go to uh 900 and collect tuition the tuition funds I think so it goes to okay so any laps of funds as this bill says that in fact if you don't um use the entire amount it goes back into the tuition fund but it says it goes back to uh 900 on page five of the bill line 16 the end of each fiscal year the monies in the University of Hawaii tuition and fee special fund for each campus shall lapse into the credit of program identification number uh 900 I'm looking at the wrong one I'm sorry so we're technically creating a special fund right for this for this appropriation I believe that well I'll defer to um AP Gomes on the special fund but the intent is to be able to provide students who are caught in the kinds of problems that we saw with the Maui Wildfire from having to return their financial aid their federal financial aid because of the ways in which which the rules exist but if we can create this kind of under the opes of a a specific emergency as St stated by the governor then we can provide additional funding to them without them losing their Federal fund so the way I read the bill is that the Border regions would be able to create this fund and move money move your money current monies right is it current monies or [Applause] yeah you would able to University of w would be able to move monies into this fund specifically for an emergency right to help the students but then it says that those funds then will lapse to the credit of 900 and that's why I'm wondering got does the money originally come out of 900 and that's why it laps back into 900 or do it come out of another fund um thank you since this is the original text of the the bill this wasn't our recommended changes am I reading the bill correctly uh so this um we're on um senal 1490 right so um the concept of this bill is not to uh for the legislature to appropriate money into this fund it is also not for the University to put money into the fund but the bill does allow for the creation or the authority by border regions to set aside and identify three up to $3 million yeah okay and so so the money doesn't really because when it says Laps on that page it kind of threw me off on page five line 16 yeah so so the the concept of this um approach is not in appropriated General funds this is funds of the University that would be made available as funds from the University currently are made available for student support financial aid but you can do that now right I mean so we could we could already do this this statute is actually or this bill is actually necessary out of um advice from US Department of Education prior yeah prior to November um but it stemmed out of the um activity from the Maui wildfires when the University made funds available to certain students but you did it without a this kind of Bill right right but the US Department of Education asking it would have if we had a state statute that would authorize the university to do this that Aid that the university could provide would not count against the student for federal financial aid purposes so so this is kind of um uh got it more of a bureaucratic approach uh requirement for the St for the creation of the STA okay M any questions no thank you for that explanation okay um moving on to 1559 okay this is relating to Dune restoration appropriates funds to the university Hawai C Grant college program for D restoration at hanaka beach park and testifying is Michael Kan for dlnr good afternoon chair committee members Michael Kane on behalf of DLR uh we stand in support of this project uh the developers did consult with us to see if it was feasable idea and we believe it is and um I am here for questions if you have any thank you Tara Owens on Zoom Tara are you on Zoom he's not present on Zoom chair a hard time okay kishiki for maii resilienc in person right here um that's all that I have in person we do have about oh I don't know 20 other people who have testified in support of this measure anyone here wishing to testify that I didn't call your name anyone on Zoom waiting to be called okay if not members questions um I'm not sure if who to ask the question of so who gave the projected cost of $500,000 for restoration the the know why don't you come up um so this is not our project so this is what I know please identify yourself I'm sorry I'm Michael Kane again Department of land and natural resources um I believe that the project proponent K Shiki approached Senator melie to discuss uh the project parameters so I don't know how they came up with this exact number I assume it's based upon other projects that we've invested in but it's an assumption and and so the state is in support of someone else doing this restoration I'm correct and who supervises they just do it on their own I I wish the project proponents were here so do I um but I know that Tara Owens with seant did not receive the link um and I was about to text kind of Shiki so I don't know I'm surprised okay he's not um I'm sorry I don't know much um let me just ask according to the testimony provided it says a more more fiscally efficient approach might be appropriate to appropriate the funds directly to the county and allow them to seek the expert advice from cant and other programs needed that's your guys's comment right so that's how I run my projects it's much easier for me to give money directly to state parks out of our beach restoration fund um and then cant is available as consultant and we have C Grant on our staff um so that was a comment I would pose okay to the okay thank you and then uh we have someone from uh um Calbert so according to the the comments made by uh system it says while Hawaii SE Grant supports this measure appreciates the opportunity for funding that uh we would like to ensure that this effort is aligned with the priorities of Department of pares and Recreation additionally a multi-year funding structure is important to enable acquisition so are you saying that um the city then the money should go to the the city and to parks of recreation and then utilize the University of Hawaii similar to what DNR is saying uh I I I I think so I'm not the the testifier but I think what the university would desire is we think the program is important so where the funding actually ends up is not as uh critical but then to make sure that it the program itself can be funded and if it's directly funded to the university we know what we would do it but if it's funded through the counties um eventually they'll all be working with the university yeah because if we fund the university then you supp have to go out and get the county right um C Grant can depending on how the state would appropriate monies through to the grant um through the county process um and eventually have that money come back over to the state through the university okay question so what's the easiest way to get this project funded to the right people instead of going from agency to agency which probably delays the project your thoughts oh well I'm going to be biy that the funds go directly to the university and we can figure out how to distribute to the other how would that take you to do um well we we do do it for other um programs and other grants that originate out of the University so it can be done within the fiscal year um we also we also do have other grants that we are we get monies from other jurisdiction other counties and those can be faster or can be longer it can be done I mean we have a process that gets this done it really doesn't answer my question I mean I'm trying to decide do we give it to you guys or directly to the county or whatever you know who can do it faster yeah I I don't know what the county processes are on disregards but is the County's County's land right it's the County's Park yeah so there's a way um sorry Michel K Department of land and natural resources um both Tera and Kos Shiki are available if they can get the zoom link they're texting me that they didn't receive it well you yeah but we have have a time limit so we're going to have to move on sorry thank you but yeah they can send us send us anything in writing and this measure has to move on to another committee and we can make that Amendment okay thank you okay anybody else any other questions members if not let's move on to uh Senate Bill 1585 and this is relating to Workforce Development establish and implements evidence-based performance metrics for the P20 Partnerships for education to allow better evidence-based assessments of the P20 Partnerships for Education advisory council's Workforce and pathway development programs requires reports to legislature uh and we have K Hayashi justifying for hello again uh chair Kim Vice chair kidani and members of the committee at Terry usima assistant superintendent from the office of curriculum instructional design testifying on behalf of the department uh the department stands on its written testimony which provides comments on this measure our comments are related to the federal Perkins funding that we received from P20 and in the hopes that this bill would not affect any of that fun funding thank you for the opportunity to testify okay I didn't see anything in the bill that refers to your funding so um next we have um Brena Hashimoto from the Department of Human Resources development not here any relations James toyoka from debed hello chair Kim Vice Cher kidani members of the committee my name is Thomas chalk I'm with the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism uh on behalf of uh director toyoka dbet stands on his testimony submitted with comments and I'm available for questions okay thank you Del teroka University of Hawaii or Denise chair Vice chair members of the committee I'm Dela Tera Oka interim vice president for the community colleges um I didn't know I was going to speak on my testimony but I did submit written testimony with comments so always be prepared yes thank you okay Candice Park good afternoon chair Vice chair members of the committee Deputy attorney general cace Park we recommend I identifying the bill as a law of Statewide concern we also have some concerns with the appropriation the uh purpose indicated in the bill does not seem to match the purpose of the bill and we are also concerned as to the federal funds we the federal funds aren't identified so we cannot tell whether the this bill would be consistent with whatever funds the the bill intends on using thank you okay Ste Steven Shotz hello chair Vice chair members of the committee Stephen Shotz executive director of Hawai ap20 Partnerships for education I stand on our written testimony offering comments and happy to answer any questions you may have okay don't go anywhere uh that's all that I have in person people wanting to testify any body here wishing to justify anybody on Zoom if not members questions I guess for you the concerned about um the funding and um that was raised by the AG you want to comment on that so the um the fund I think the funding that's being referred to in this bill is the federal Perkins allocation that we as the State Office of Career and Technical education receive and um that money is essentially split between the University of Haw community college system and the Department of Education and their and their high schools um 15% remains in Reserve at our office um but essentially it ends up getting split across those two entities okay so that's why the doe testified that they don't want their portion of the monies taken for this or reduced from them it it definitely the the money that is being I I think that the money that is being alluded to in this bill is the federal Perkins grant that we that we receive which is around $7 million a year but of the 7 million you said it's split between uh and doe yes so I guess doe is concerned that their 50% would go down with this spill I I don't want to speak for their concerns in particular I think um one of the things that we've been discussing with the OE and uh is using some of that funding a little bit differently than we have in the in the past and um and and doing some of what we think is is intended in this bill which is aligning a little bit better with Workforce needs so instead of just formulating out all the money um getting a chunk of it and you know doing grants which would require Partnerships between community colleges and high schools who want to work on a pathway that's an area of need um either regionally or for the state so that's a that's a conversation that we've been having as a team as we we're right in the midst of our um of creating a new Perkins plan for the state a new CTE plan for the state so you don't have you don't have objections to the AG about clarifying the purpose of the appropriation and then also being more specific as to the federal funds sorry sorry I'm sorry could you repeat the question so the office of Attorney General raised concerns regarding in uh the to clarify the purpose of the Appropriations because apparently you want to come forward andice so I don't have to say what you said and get it wrong so in the bill the purpose of the fund is for the Career and Technical education program but that program is not mentioned anywhere in the previous language of the bill so and we don't know that much about the uh programs but it it just not it's not clear to us what the funds are for but these are federal funds and federal funds usually come with restrictions already we're not sure what federal funds this bill is talking about correct and so we don't know whether these federal funds could be used for whatever purposes this bill is proposing I I'm I'm trying not to be a lawyer here but that that makes sense to me when we read the bill there was um our one of the first questions would be does do the conditions that are laid out in this bill align with the the federal Perkins act they think the response from from us at at P20 and and maybe from doe and uh might be a little um a little more positive or less lukewarm if there were a general fund appropriation to say oh everybody want yeah well okay so first time I've asked okay okay thank you members any other questions did do yeah they did they support but do doesn't want their funding to be reduced yeah okay we're running out of time guys so let's go so I'm not sure um how to um change the bill to address your concerns did you guys have specific amendments um well we we're also not clear on um what the consequences would be if this were adopted and so we're here to advocate for our students in our schools so that they continue to um benefit from what this um the funding is intended to do so the the funding goes to the school programs and the schools itself um the doe we get about 2.9 Million uh each year it kind of varies but around that much and our schools the larger schools they might get about 140,000 is um but our smaller schools get about our smallest school gets about 7,500 from the Perkins so um they you know do a lot to make this money stretch and it's very related um to work Force development and our schools count on it a lot so we will have our attorneys look at this and um come up with the languages that we need to clarify this and as we move on okay thank you if there are no other questions members I'd like to uh move on to Senate Bill 5022 I'm sorry 1502 appropriates funds for the establishment of Faculty position student programs and facilities at the colleges of social sciences the University of white Manoa and the University of West aahu for Workforce Development in defense sector of the state's economy uh with that Hawaii military Affairs Council and support okay Denise Conan Frank Kudo in person who's coming up all three of you or was one are they coming up no okay Denise what proceed Aloha um chair Kim and vice chair kadani and members of the Senate here um we are um coming before you to ask for support for uh faculty and operating funds for the College of social sciences to advance a program that has been in a pilot phase uh to support um Workforce Development in uh intelligence studies in the Asia Pacific we stand on our written testimony we are also here with uh West aahu and happy to answer any questions okay any from waho want to come up please identify yourselves aloh chair Kim Vice chair kidani and members of the committee my name is Harold barov I'm the vice Chancellor for academic Affairs at the University of Hawaii West Oahu and I'm joined here by Dr Frank Kudo our business cyper division chair and we stand on our joint testimony in support of s sp52 and are available to answer any questions you might have Mah thank you Mr Kuro did you want to add to that no okay okay we might have to ask you a question when you come back uh Christian Fern in support here Shi Manor in support um um for the Chamber of Commerce afternoon chair Vice chair members of the committee Chamber of Commerce and support any questions okay thank you Mark uh perilo in support on Zoom anybody on Zoom no Annabelle darthy okay I was here sorry oh okay you want to proceed all right um um there we go there we are um helloha chair Kim Vice chair kadani and honorable members of the committee uh thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony in support of sb52 We Stand by our written testimony as submitted on this matter as you know kawhai plays plays a unique and significant role in the state's defense sector primarily through the Pacific Missile Range facility the world's largest instrumented multi-environment range prmf is a major economic driver for the island providing direct military civilian employment um and supporting local businesses s sp-502 takes meaningful steps towards preparing Hawaii's Workforce for careers and high demand sectors we appreciate the legislators legislator's leadership in advancing this initiative um and it's important um to ensure that residents across the state including those on Kwai and other neighbor Islands have Equitable access to these new opportunities strengthening online learning options and expanding Outreach to neighbor Island high schools and Ka Community College will help ensure a Statewide Talent pipeline that supports local job growth thank you for time to thank you for your time thank you Annabelle uh Aloha chair Vice chair and members of the committee uh my name is annabal dhy I'm a current undergraduate student at uh monola asking for your support for S sp-502 to strengthen programs that provide Hawaii students critical access to participate in local opportunities and Industry I decided to I decided to study at uh monoa because the school's unique strategic location in the Pacific region a technical program such as the one provided for by sv502 which equip students to use modern Technologies and respond to emerging issues would make uh a much more competitive option for students like myself hoping to understand Security in the Asia Pacific region my experiences participating in the current programs offered through the College of social sciences have provided direct experience and trainings to students greatly increasing myself and my peers confidence and competency to apply to local Industries and work in Hawaii after graduation supporting these programs is an investment in local students who are eager to contribute towards National Security initiatives and Future Leaders informed by the community of responsibility care and stewardship Foster in the uh system I ask for your consideration of s sp5 NO2 thank you for your time thank you for being staying to your time uh Steven Sasaki welcome hi chair Vice chair members Steven Sasaki I represent industry in the Department of Defense uh just want to I stand by my testimony and uh and again I want to emphasize that our workload in the next 5 years 9 billion dollar in construction we need all the we need all these people coming out to support our industry I'm retired now so I'm speaking on behalf of my own small business the smallest of small businesses uh I do want to share some of the the the industries uh or the Technologies we're supporting Advanced Materials space technology AI hypersonics directed energy um integrated sensing integrated sensing and 5G plus up up in the X and again uh we're supporting 20,000 DOD employees averaging of about 148 ,000 in pay as well as uh entry-level engineers at 61,000 uh average average pay for after 3 years about 108,000 and again uh top level pay 120 to 100 $214,000 time is up and again thank you for your support on this thank you very much Stephen U we have Jus Victor glove or was it gyus jarus okay uh thank you uh Senators Kim and kadami and the rest of the Senators uh my name is sherff Grove uh I'm a professor in the College of social sciences and I'm the human face of the intelligence program um I work with the students U broadly I've submitted written testimony which I stand on but I'd also want to add um that in addition to the advantages I think it has for the Hawaii economy um it's really about Hawaii residents um these jobs are coming to Hawaii no matter what we are going to be the tip of the spear for you us Chinese competition for likely the next 100 years uh whether or not that's a competition of cooperation or a competition of conflict is still yet to be seen but whether or not the leaders and analysts are made up of Hawaii residents is something that we can actually do something about and make sure that our residents are the ones who are leaders in these rooms um these are life-changing experiences for our students um they come from all over the state at the high school level uh we work with them at the University level and also at The Graduate level and we make sure that they can get the clear es that they need to compete for jobs that mean they can stay home and still have a direct impact on International policy thank you thank you for your testimony anyone else wishing to testify on this measure anyone on Zoom if not we're open for questions members questions I guess uh um yeah start with Manoa so you're asking for two full-time positions in international economics trade and one full-time equivalent um Professor practice in intelligence studies so two positions for or three positions for manol and then one and a half for Wester is that correct there's four and a half positions for yeah four and a half right three for Manoa one and a half for West so that's total of four and a half so do you have any vacancies in these areas that you're asking for in the College of social Sciences we have very few vacancies we've had an increase in growth in enrollments in the college and um and at the same time our um resources have not expanded and so uh for us at the college level um we have been trying building this program in part by redirecting our faculty Talent you see jarus Grove here he's a faculty member um as well as with a um support from the Chamber of Commerce through a federal pass through and so that has given temporary support for the question is do you have vacant vacant positions currently not in the College of social sciences so not that any of these positions correct because I know there's a lot of vacant positions that there that would be above my level okay how about for West Wahu can you come up West wo do you have any vacancies please for this program there are five positions faculty positions two are currently searched um because they left but there is no one these 2.5 positions of one is for the center the coordination Center and the other one is for the lab but you have two two vacancies right they're on the way to search what you mean on the way to search that means they're posted and as full-time faculty who mostly do the uh the teaching as well as the research how these positions been vacant um I think just last summer so they're in the regular you you start the search again the person left last summer and then then we start again the search and usually they're filled within one academic year so um from me looking at the at the vacancies I understand that it's 18 months these two positions have been vacant for 18 months one was just last spring right what is 18 months Matt Chapman left August of 2023 and um Boris uh was a instructor level uh he contract wasn't renewed in October or November of 23 so we haven't replaced them yeah so they're over a year over a year what's taking so long to place so usually it takes about an academic year but in um cases when a permanent person like I think Chapman was leading that was before I came on board but was leading this unit you really look at the job description and see should there anything be changed did the profile change over time because this is a rapidly growing program did you get approval for these positions already yes appr when was it approved I mean for the for the two vacant positions for you to go out and and get they already posted yes okay when did you post it I don't I can get you that information do you know when it was posted I don't know okay I'm just concerned that you know you guys come in for these positions and yeah it might be warranted but then you have these vacant positions and then you've drag your feet in in filling them and then you come in for new positions so you know I have a fill date on all of these positions that's going to be filled this year and then next year come the same position is going to be filled again it was never filled so I'm sure we asked about this last year then we're told it was going to be filled but yet I sit here today and you're just telling me now it's posted so what guarantees we have that you're going to fill those positions before we give you new positions I I think this is a very valid point sometimes positions are not that easy to fill you know in in that area but I understand ask for one and a half more it's the same area that you cannot fill the other two this this one it's the same area yes absolutely they're different in profile these are 05 FTE positions that coordinating that Center and the other one the research lab so they're not the typical Professor position in that way understand but I would like to urge you that absolutely have only five positions and you have two that's been vacant for 18 months or you know over over a year and it's not been filled and you come in for new position so we want to hold you accountable for these things okay understood members any other questions if not thank you thank you thank you okay we are moving on to C 1624 relating to the University of Hawaii border regions to expend funds appropriated to renew improve or modernize existing University facilities on the per for only purposes and not for current or ongoing anticipated Capital Improvement projects required reports to the legislature so basically this is the rim rim budget that we give aump some um to the University of Hawaii that have been used for other things other than than just Rim so testifying on 1624 Jan goil I mean 1604 no I'm sorry did I jump ahead okay I'm sorry do that one yeah why don't we stay on 16 24 sorry these numbers are too close together so Jan good afternoon uh Jan Goa on behalf of the University of Hawaii we stand on our written testimony which offers comments okay and Candace Park stay there Jen don't have questions for you me the department has the uh same recommendation to identify the bill as a law of Statewide concern thank you okay so um members questions from Miss goil okay so this has come up in ways and means right the concern about coming in for a lump sum for Rim yet Rim was used for Ching field Rim has been used to the overfunding for Sinclair um and I'm not sure you supposed to get us a list of how what else Rim has been used for that was asked in the world okay I apologize if we didn't get that to you we I have seen the list um yeah so uh you know maybe to even just take one example to walk through how uh the university uh you one example of how the university utilizes room funding uh so for example at the Student Success Center that was um a you know a CIP line item project so from a project standpoint that's been approved and appropriated by the legislature um it's also been um authorized as a as a authorized project at the board of regions uh so when we go out to Bid And if there is insufficient funding just to fund the the minimum lowest bid um then we as one example we'll utilize Rim funding um because in the Student Success Center case there was quite a bit of deferred maintenance in the building um it it was a renovation it wasn't a like a brand new construction so we did deal with deferred maintenance we did deal with modernization it just all got included into one project and generally speaking I mean we it's been it was a previously approved recognized and authorized project so we didn't see it as being um disingenuous on on on any Jing Feld the there were portions of I don't know what the extent of the funding for Ching field was um but there were that that was um to the extent it was a recognized project by the board of region we we one thing we're saying that's recognized by the border of regions when you come in for Rim that is to take care of a lot of the backlog of r&m right as well as emergency situations you emergency situation but at the same time we get this lumpsum we give you the lumpsum to give you that ability to use it and and then you come in for CIP projects specific projects and you give us an amount and we W that and then and then you guys go over and then you just dip into rim and then come back and say oh you know we have this backlog again and we have because all of the monies that we give you have been not all but a portion of the monies have been diverted to to areas that we we as the legislature feel that you know it should be for Rim so I don't know why you would have a problem with this because if you want continue lump some cuz if you don't want it then maybe we should on rim give a specific project you're going to work on and then we'll give you the money for that well I think the way want that right well I well I do think the the intent of Rim is to bring that flexibility it is understanding and recognizing that when we do identify a list of prioritized projects that we that's our best guess of what the funding can cover and we I think we've almost never we've never gotten fully funded on any of our CIP requests and so as a result um that type of flexibility does allow uh the university and the board to proceed with projects that you know are are a priority and sometimes they pop up like in the case of the Ching field situation that was an emergency situation um was it was there Declaration of emergency made well it was it was to it I know not that like a not like a procurement emergency but or like a natural disaster emergency but for the program um I think there was a decision made that that there needed to be a place where they can compete um and so we have you know the University was uh stuck with a situation that it really had no contribution in getting to that point um out forces outside of its control uh landed the university in a in a pretty dire situation so that is uh it is an unusual and limited circumstance and we do appreciate the legislator's um recognition that the flexibility does um allow us to proceed with maximizing the use of all the funding in the prioritized areas so how what what's the percentage of time that you folks have come in with CIP projects that the money you work pretty much on budget I mean for the estimate yeah the M that we appropriate okay let me finish that yeah because I mean there's a lot of projects that you folks we give you the amount you ask for and it runs over you have cost over runs you have change orders you have all of that right I mean and so it seems like and I don't know when you go under where that money goes does it go into Rim if you if the project goes under no I don't um it's we we it would be used as fully we we can only use it for the project once it's encumbered for the project or if it's appropriated specifically for that project we can't use it for any other purpose so um in terms of when I can't think of an instance where uh any line item appropriation um uh stayed that the entire uh length and time of the project where it ended it ended below the original appropriated amount so I can I can research that I think one example was the ACM facility that you know I think the legislature authorized back in what 2016 2017 and I think the amount that was appropriated was less than was originally requested and so they had to build the building a little smaller but they did everything possible to stay within budget and on time and so perhaps the remedy for this type of problem is to um ask the University to report you know annually as to areas in which you know the appropriation may not have been um sufficient to cover the cost of a project you know over time and then just identify those and where you have used um Rim types of Appropriations would that be something that University could do yes absolutely thank you thank you if you're going to do that I think that the um you should also report reasons was it the University's delay of the project or you know was it the contractor's delay project that would help us yeah understood okay any other questions if not thank you thank you we're going to move back to Senate Bill 16004 relating to the University of yoi Community College Workforce housing uh Lena Allah Le in support Kevin Keith Hayashi for the DOE deloka uh and we have like 10 minutes so you're given 15 minutes leeway so oh okay Aloha um chair Vice chair members of the committee I'm Dela terara Oka interim vice president for the uh community colleges and we stand on our testimony and I also have um Chancellor Margaret Sanchez from Kawai Community College and my associate vice president Denise yoshimori Yamamoto if you have any questions okay thank you Christian Fern not here anyone else wishing to testify on this measure hear none questions I just had a really quick question [Music] um so this is to renew and improve modernize existing University facilities those that are on Kawaii correct I believe it's to build housing sorry on the community col funds for okay for Force housing okay sorry I looking at 1624 okay thank you no questions no other questions we will move on to 1530 Senate Bill 15:30 relating to the uh University of Hawaii performance base budget and we have lisis saliva um Calbert young CH uh yep testimony uh from the University we stand on our testimony but we have provided a number of areas of issues and concerns and so uh vice president Halbert and myself are available for any questions thank you thank you we have anyone else wishing to justify of this measure anybody on Zoom not on Zoom any questions members are these um new projects are just adding to current projects uh no this is on the performance-based budget remember we gave them 6 million currently currently we give you $6 million and they have a performance measures for each of the different campuses and if they meet those requirements then they get a per percentage of that money if they don't meet it then it was to encourage to meet it but the money doesn't come back to the state it goes into the systems fund right which system goes to UA systems whatever is there's there's 6 million um that's identified in the budget annually uh from within the base that's specified as performance funding all campuses have um academic programmatic performance targets if they hit the targets then they earn the portion of the 6 million for whatever amount they don't earn um the the statue actually the monies have to be used to help br uh perfor Student Success throughout the system so it's it's a system level but it's um all of this funding performance funding is actually in uh System Program ID uh 900 so that is system so here's the question if that money is there for performance and all go across and why haven't you usen those funds to give those positions to pilo and to westero for their um retention and their enrollment MH yeah Earl um so when the concept of performance funding was originally established in in the budget it was for specific U metrics so those metrics are the ones that are applied to the to the campus but they don't meet it so the money goes to system but you just said that you folks use it to help the success across the board and isn't that helping the success instead of coming to us for more so the funds that get distributed at system have actually been used in more um General and Broad ways rather than for specific um academic programming okay but that was intended to help on some of those metrics so you know this either going to come back to us or you're going to use it for hopefully what intended to help instead of us giving them more funding okay any other questions if not thank you our final measure is Senate Bill 1487 and Calbert you're uh on this one as well um thank you so we can stand on our testimony in support this measure actually is um to authorize the university to issue revenue bonds um this is this authorization is required by Statute there are no projects of the University that have yet been identified as candidates for revenue bonds however um there are projects that are potentially on the horizon um so in future years and at that time the legislature would have to do this authorization anyway so this bill is preemptive um to create the authorization up front and we had this bill last year and you told us the same thing you didn't have any any um projects on the horizon and so again wouldn't it be more PR for you to come in when you get it because you have to have those projects approved by the board of regions as well right yeah so I I think what's different this year is these projects that are on the hor they are on the horizon now that's what I'm saying so they are moving closer in time then what are they they want us to Grant this to you what are they so there's um a research facility a repurposing an existing facility for research on the monoa campus how much is that uh anywhere from $ 30 to $50 million um there's the student housing issue which um a plan for addressing the broader student housing at uh Manoa as well as one specific project at uh Manoa h Milani those are um in the works of identifying the potential funding stack revenue bonds could be part of the solution um then there's also projects um on other campuses such as at West aahu um for student housing opportunities and but those are all far away I mean that that's not like been the next year or so right the only project how long research is that the only one that's really ready to go um I actually don't know if it's ready to go but I would I for all of those I think that there would be at least be a plan within the next 12 months for student housing if the funding can be identified um it's a big it is a very big ticket item that's the reason why again I'm asking for the and that's the reason why we want to know before we Grant you the we Grant you a blanket 800,000 800 million chair it's not it's not a blanket because the other component that is required of the legislature is the actual appropriation of the re of the project via revenue bonds so at that time the specific project will have to be specifically known and identified and then you can ask us for the for the bond right authorization yeah but we will have to do it at that time anyway so I'm I'm bringing this because you can get it done earlier right it also helps with the planning process because these projects when they are big ticket items funding stack is critical to identifying how these projects can get done okay thank you members any other questions if not um okay that was our last item we will go into decision making okay we do have quum so mbers for Senate Bill 1488 uh relating to the Hawaii Conference Center revolving fund for the University Hawaii recommendation is to uh have an sd1 Technical and non-substantive amendments and we will defect the effective date to July 31st 2050 I believe there is no funding in this me measure uh so any discussion members any objections so we will take the vote Senator kidani Chim chair votes I Vice chair vot I Senator Senator Hashimoto excuse Senator excuse thank you on Senate Bill 636 relating to University of Hawai Hilo appropriates funds for one retention coordinator position one internship coordinator position student enrollment the recommendation is to do an sd1 we will do technical non-substantive amendments we will blank out the appropriation amount will defect the date and we will also recommend in here that the monies that is provided that you are able to retain the retention monies that those positions and while should come out of that fund if we if the bill passed to make the retention to go back to the uh legislature and the general fund then we have to revisit this um again any questions any discussion hearing none chair vot sign Senate Bill 636 to pass with amendments chair VI Senator Senator hasimoto Senator excuse Mees aded thank you Senate Bill 1489 um relating to University of Hawaii resident tuition fees um recommendation is to do an std1 with Technical and non-substantive amendments and I I think I want to put uh I want to put in the committee report that the university will try to exhaust doing it um on their own at this point because there's a chance that this may not pass through so any any um discussion members any no discussion chair V V Vice aded thank you for Senate Bill 1490 this is the University of Hawaii releas funding uh recommendation is to make uh technical non-substantive amendments in an sd1 and I believe that's all the Amendments there's no discussion chair votes I chair votes iot I Senator fukunaga hi Senator Hashimoto hi Senator excuse Mees adoped um I I want to go back to Senate 1489 to put in a defective date sorry if I forgot to put that in there doesn't change thank you okay Senate bill um 1559 I just did yes relating to the restoration um for the dunes doing the restoration recommendation is to blank out the Appropriations def the date to July 31 20 um 2050 and to appropriate funds well we'll put in the committee report to that perhaps it's more appropriate to put the funds directly to the county and that um we need to make it clear what the intent is uh for this and to ensure that U priorities align with the Department of Parks and Recreation so we'll put all that in the committee report and uh this matter goes to Wham so hopefully we can talk with the author of The Measure from Mai and see what the true intent is meant to be any discussion hearing non share V ey Senator hasim excuse okay Senate Bill 1585 this is relating to the Workforce Development uh the P20 partnership uh recommendation is an sd1 we will blank out the appropriation will defect the date to 20 uh July 31st we will put in the committee rep concerns about uh the funding for the doe and uh put in a law of Statewide concern that the AG recommended Also to clarify and make clear uh the purpose of the funds and the specific uh federal funds which this appropriation is being U made for uh so we will make those amendments in the bill and in the committee report any discussion members hearing none chair vots I oh one more sorry one more Amendment uh it says 20 days before I am recommending we do a 30-day that the report is due 30 days before the legislature we are inundated with so many reports in 20 days uh I think this will give give us an opportunity to look at these reports um without having a whole slew of reports any discussion not chair votes sign four members presents any objections any no votes Mees adoped thank you Senate Bill 1502 appropriates fund for the establishment of Faculty position um students at the College of social science university of w Manoa and also at the West Wahu recommendation is to uh do an sd1 blanking out the Appropriations defecting the date to July 31st 20150 and to put into the community report concerns about the filling of the VAC vacant positions in discussion hearing none chair votes I members present any objections any no votes hearing none measures adopted Madam chair thank you Senate Bill 16004 relating to University of Hawaii f funds for the development of Faculty staff teacher housing at kaii Community College um recommendation is to blank out the appropriation and defect the date to July 31st 20150 any discussion hearing none the chair I or members present any no votes any objections did not measures adopted Madam chair okay recommendation for Senate Bill 1624 uh that requires the border of region to expend expend funds this is for the rim um projects uh recommendation is to uh defect the date to July 31st 2050 to um have the report due 30 days before the due date any discussion hearing none Chef sign four members present any objections any no vote reservations reservations for Senator okay thank you on Senate Bill 1530 uh this is the uh performance right performance base uh Bill uh recommendation is to uh pass as is any discussion hearing nonch votes I four members present any discussion any no votes measures adopted thank you um Senate Bill 1487 relating to the univers revenue bonds my int my tendency is to not pass this measure however if they can show us by the time it gets to Wham a specific project that is ready to go uh will blank out that amount and uh allow perhaps that one or two projects that we could um find finance that um with the bonds so I don't want it to say that they had a project to go through that but I don't think a blanket amount of u $800 million should be um proceed at this time so with that uh recommendation is to uh defect the date to July 31st uh 20550 um and make any um technical am necessary any discussion hearing none cheerful sign four members present any op any no vote is adop thank you and that is the end of our agenda so

e e e everyone it is 6:04 PM my name is Gabriel harp chair of the an arbor energy commission and as chair I'm calling this meeting to order and part participating from my home here in Ann Arbor um this is the February 11th 2025 Edition electronic meeting of the energy commission and we'll conduct this meeting like inperson meetings Commissioners during roll call please indicate your current location also during the meeting please remain remain on camera just as you would be visible during imp meetings and finally mute your microphone when not speaking public comment will be by telephone only to speak during any of the public comment opportunities please call one of the following to two toll-free numbers 877 853 5247 or 888-788-8086 on your phone this information is also available on the published agenda in the Public Notices section of the city's website and on the broadcast of this meeting on CTN Channel 16 AT&T channel 99 and online at a2gov.org slatch CN Joe would you mind please reading the land acknowledgement I acknowledge that the city of an arbor occupies is the ancestral traditional and contemporary lands the anab including Odawa muj and bod wadm and why not peoples I further acknowledge that our city stands like almost all property in the United States on lands of obtained generally in unconscious ways from indigenous peoples the taking in Islam was formalized by the Treaty of Detroit in 1807 knowing where we live work study and recreate does not change the past but a thorough understanding of the ongoing consequences of this past can Empower us in our work to create a future that supports human flourishing and justice for all individuals thank you and would you mind do taking the roll call please yep um commissioner Bur wtz president here at my home in an arbor council member Briggs here in an arbor um commissioner coven Garcia said they're running a little late um chair harp here and an arbor Vice chair Hans not seeing at the moment um commissioner Leven uh here in an Harbor council member Malik here calling from an second Lord commissioner mki here in at my home um in an arbor in War I then commissioner overc was unable to make it so but uh chair you have a quorum thank you okay is there a motion to approve the agenda as posted in a second see commiss mki and Comm council member Briggs um Commissioners please raise your hand if you'd like to make any changes or discuss an issue seeing No Hands raised all of those in favor of approving the agenda as posted raise your hand and say I hi all those posted please say no okay the agenda passes thank you um we'll move on to the approving approval of or the minutes is there a motion to approve the minutes as posted so so moved Comm mki and a second second confer quits thank you um Commissioners please raise your hand if you'd like to propose any changes or discuss an issue seeing No Hands raised um all those in favor of approving the minutes as posted please raise your hand and say I I all those opposed please raise your hand and say no okay the minutes are approved thank you uh next we'll move on to public input this is an opportunity for people to speak for up to three minutes if you're watching on CTN please call 888 78899 or 877 853 5247 and enter meeting ID 5 956 7876 this information is also on the meeting agenda in the video feed City staff will select callers that have raised their hand one by one one using the last three digits of your phone number to electronically raise your hand to indicate your desire to speak please press star9 on your phone you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so that we may hear you clearly and please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments I do not have any callers at this time okay well then if there are no callers we will move on to tonight's agenda um which is a presentation and discussion of the home energy rebate program um and I think we have some guests this evening Joe would you mind introducing our guests and and uh kicking us off for the presentation yep yeah we're joined tonight by Jamie uh from Elevate and Brandon from Michigan en energy options who are folks on the rebate team and I will turn it over to them to give a presentation I believe you have sharing abilities but if you don't let me know great let me give this a try oh I think that's the wrong screen one second looked okay on our end okay there we go yep perfect wonderful great well um good evening everyone I am Jamie Simmons I am from Elevate and Brandon I'll let you introduce yourself good evening everyone Brandon kallik with Michigan energy options and of course as Joe mentioned we are here to talk about the um newer home energy rebate program here in the city of an Harbor to give you an overview of today of what we're going to go over tonight um of course our introductions which we check the box on uh we'll be doing an overview of the program as a whole um going over the structure some available the available rebates um we'll be talking about the funding availability um of the program and application process program impact um of course and talking about some of the Les learned as uh many of you might notice there has been some new adaptations to the current program so we're really excited to launch um to tell you about some of those new upgrades and um also show where we are in the program so far so what is the home energy rebate program as you know the office of sustainability innovation has partnered with Elevate and Michigan energy options to uh to offer over a thousand sustainab ility related rebates this program um is actually has a budget of $1.9 million for the first year to participate in this program you must own or rent in the Anarbor City Limits all equipment installed must be at the eligible property and meet the program requirements all equipment must be meet the program guidelines which are clearly outlined on the website uh the programed website and you must be of 18 at least 18 years of age to apply for rebate in this program we talk about home Energy rebates uh and how the program is set up we do offer two types of rebates to an arbor residents one would be the market rate rebate and the other would be income eligible rebates market rate rebates are open to so anyone who is 18 living in an arbor because the owner rent can apply to that market rate but if you're a person who uh makes up to 100 20% area M area median income in the city of an arbor you are actually eligible for an income eligible rebate which is a rebate at a higher amount that helps uh folks who could not regularly afford to go through Energy Efficiency projects make it a little bit more real for them and also help uh cushion the cost uh and move the market uh these rebates uh amounts uh the income eligible rebates are actually based on household side so for example if you look at the chart on the right side of the screen um you can look at if there is a three-person household if you make $134,000 or less you qualify in this program for the income eligible rebate now that is definitely higher than some of the Ami you might see in other rebate programs and that is because NR is a very special place as we know um and often the medium area income here is a little bit higher than usual so we definitely all wanted to cater to the folks in in our community and personalize to the program so we can have the most impact for an arbor residents that we can so um speaking of rebates uh let's talk about a little bit of the rebates that we offer so of course we uh this program is really designed to Target Energy Efficiency and electrification as you all know with an Arbor's uh mission to being carbon neutral by 2035 this program was design in mind of that with that you will not see any dual fuel options uh listed within this program because we really want to push and drive the market to full electrification Energy Efficiency within the city of an arbor some of the Energy Efficiency program measures that we offer rebates for are the attic and roof insulation wall insulation rim and band joist insulation Coss space basement wall insulation and air ceiling something is that is very new that we actually launched on the 29th of January is a new Duckworth rebate which we will be um Inc incentivizing more people to look into whether their duck work is uh up to standard and if they need to make any repairs for their duck work uh we do have a rebate for them again these rebates were identified and selected to help push the market of Energy Efficiency in an arbor when we think about how much of a rebate a person can get back for Market rate rebates under this Energy Efficiency tier those are $500 each um for income eligible folks that would be $11,000 each something that is also new to the program is instead of the bundles that we actually rolled the program out with we have moved to ins insulation air sealing bonus and that means if you complete two or more insulation measures and air sealing you qualify for either the marketweight $1,500 bonus or the income eligible bonus of $2,000 and again you only get that bonus if you complete two or more insulation measures definitely would love for you to do all those things if your house needs it um and air sailing for electrification Again incentivizing full electrification of homes um and not necessarily dual fuel we offer cold climate central air source heat pumps we Al offer a rebate for heat pump water heaters and electrical panel upgrades that's actually extremely popular rebate for us at the moment and something that is new that I'll talk about a little bit uh in a couple of slides is our new appliances uh we are rolling out in 2025 a list of appliances that will qualify for a rebate under this program the breakdown for the amount of rebates that you can get or the number attached to the rebates that you can apply for as an nrb resident um for electrification we do have these rebates not necessarily a set rate so that you will see the market ratees for some of these go from 1,000 to 4,000 and for income eligible ranges um and rebates it goes from 2,000 to 5 5500 uh on the an arbor website for the home energy rebate program you will clearly see each one of these measures outlined um of what they are the program requirements and what that exact amount for the market rate and income qualified rebate um is we do offer battery storage we do not offer rebate for the actual solar panels um but we do offer for battery storage and those rebates are $22,000 for market rate and uh $3500 for the income eligible so speaking of new things um that was referenced in the slide previous slide is the cooking appliances so uh and to help folks uh choose Energy Efficiency and energy star appliances we thought it would be a great addition to the program to include a rebate for the heat pump washer SL dryer and induction cooktops so um if you are a person who wants to uh get one of those really fancy energy star two in one washer and dryers you can get a market rate rebate for um for $300 were um income eligible rebate for $500 the heat pump washer and dryer must replace the existing dryer and it has to be energy star um and we do ask for that um proof of that uh when you apply and we'll talk about the application process in a few slides for the induction cooktops [Music] um it must be at least 30 Ines with four burners uh market rate rebates are $500 and the income eligible rebates are $750 we are not offering a rebate for the portable units um only for the actual uh exchange of cooking tops uh and you see for uh we don't offer portable because we don't want to necessarily offer rebates for recreational things we'll talk about that a little bit with the the ebikes as well so we want to actually help folks move forward to decarbonization and within their homes so so that's why we're really leaning towards the full cooktop with the four burners so ebikes this has been an extremely hot commodity since the program launched in July of last year July 1st of last year uh we do offer rebates for standard and cargo ebikes um we only allow one ebike per household a must be UL 2849 certified and we do not offer a rebate for retrofits um retrofit kits um we do understand that an arbor has a lot a of students um and we have seen some folks show interest and um multiple folks within the household uh receiving an ebike rebate but for right for now um our program is only allowing one ebike uh rebate per household um originally when the program launched uh the ebike uh rebate was limited to folks in one to four unit that has been expanded to include more than four unit households do qualify for ebike uh rebate in this program and for both the market rate and um income eligible uh rebates for the ebikes we do have kind of a up to 50% of the cost standard for Market rebate it's 50% of the cost up to 500 and income eligible is 50% of the cost up to 1,000 currently um we have maxed out of all of our ebikes uh for rebates for the 2024 2025 year but we will be reopening applications in July 2025 and I will pass it over to Brandon to talk about fund availability and applications thank you Jamie go on to the next slide there so how to apply to for the program uh we realized uh pretty quickly um that uh the rebit application there was a few confusing parts to it when we launched back in July um so we tried to simplify the process a little bit uh make it a little easier for the resident to understand uh what qualifies for a rebate um how to uh Reserve that that rebate and then how to uh submit final documentation to receive the the rebate application or to receive your rebate dollars um so we still have uh an income eligibility application available on the website this is where a resident if they're interested in receiving the income eligible rebate amount they can get pre-qualified for that level so they'll know that they do in fact qualify for the larger incentive and um can then uh plan accordingly and um that income eligibility is good for an entire uh calendar year uh so customers can fill out that income eligibility application once they get approval for income eligible they can submit a reservation application um we have online and printable applications on the program website uh by uh online app is incredibly popular and very easy to use um that allows customers to reserve the rebate funds uh our team will then review that application provide the resident notice of the uh reservation and then the uh resident has 90 days to submit uh complete the project and then submit the required documentation showing you know the final invoice uh any additional documentation we need to approve that uh rebate and mail a check to the resident um contractors can also claim the rebate onal of residents um they so they can uh apply the rebate amount as a deduction from the total cost of the measure um making the process even easier for residents um and also allowing the contractor to use the rebate as uh you know um for marketing purposes and to help make that sale push that customer towards making the um energy efficient choice we still have uh quite a bit of funds available uh for the 2425 program year um the graph here on the right of the slides is actually a interactive graph that is on the program website and so that uh these graphs show the committed and available funds for each of these three programs uh that Jamie just walked us through um this will help customers excuse me residents um understand kind of what funds are available and kind of what projects to maybe um you know prioritize if we're running low on some funds or um really help them plan and help them um know that there are funds available um have the confidence to know that that they can do the project and receive the rebate um these are large incentives um and these are very costly upgrades to homes so we know that residents kind of want that um want that kind of verification that they will receive those funds and that is why we have the reservation process as well um to to Really set aside those dollars for each resident um we are working with OSI uh to kind of improve the marketing strategy and kind of re-engage residents now that the program has changed pretty significantly um trying to get both residents and contractors kind of now you know re-educate them on these these rebate levels how the program is designed um and we would you know greatly welcome any kind of inputs and ideas around increasing engagement uh that that you as the commission have uh so program impact uh since July uh when we launched to um about to through January um we've provided 222 total rebates to 173 households across San Arbor of those rebates uh that we've processed uh about 44% of those households uh are Income qualified and 37% of the measures uh were were um uh installed in income qualified households uh 58% of all rebates uh paid were completed via the reservation process and we'll speak a little bit more on uh the reservation process and in a few slides here um but we are expanding as Jamie mentioned to increase you know increasing those rebates adding new measures including all property types to help try to boost the that participation level even more in the final six months of this program year uh and then just give you insight as to where we stand right now right uh current reservations we have about 40 uh in uh Reserve status with a potential rebate value of $84,000 um those are not included in this table on this slide uh and I do want to just quickly mention that the uh program impact data that's mentioned in this graph does differ from what was given to you guys in your packets uh the impacts were calculated incorrectly using outdated estimates rather than current participation um so those are um now calculating correctly in the version of the uh gra uh table here that you see and I believe Joe will be providing the updated version as well um at a later time here um so with these 222 measures uh we've paid out $324,000 roughly to Residents and we estimate that uh the those measures will have a uh impact of reducing about 163 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent um that's rough that's roughly equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of about 38 vehicles um to give you just put that into perspective a little bit um um or it's about the carbon dioxide emissions of 22 homes energy use for one year um and then over the full life cycle of those measures that were rebated through the program uh we estimate the um carbon dioxide equivalent reduction to be about 2500 metric tons next slide so what are we doing to move more rebates um and Jamie touched on just some of those measure improvements um or increased rebate amounts previously but um we've made a lot of additional changes administratively to improve the program accessibility uh make that larger Financial impact for residents offer more diverse rebates and further incentivize the Energy Efficiency upgrades so um we move to a full reservation uh system where we no longer have separate budgets for reserved and unreserved funds if you recall from the uh from program launch in July um we had situations where the reserved budgets were fully exhausted for certain measures and unreserved funds just weren't moving at all customers excuse me residents um clearly did not want to kind of take that risk of applying for the unreserved uh rebate um they wanted to have that reservation know for sure that they were going to receive that that rebate um and then move forward with the project so we've completely eliminated the separated budgets for for reserved and unreserved and went to a full res reservation system um this will simplify the process for the customer too it makes it easier for our team to um to show what's remaining uh what funds are remaining um if you recall the the graphs that were on the on the website from a couple slides ago there was only you know we we've we have three bar graphs basically two tables you know six total um bar graphs now previously we had four different graphics with 12 bar graphs each trying to show residents you know if you wanted a storage rebate and you're income qualified well here's that amount that you have we've gone completely we've simplified it gone away from that um so now the customer knows okay I electrification budget it's available we can reserve um and it will hopefully allow us to allocate more dollars to to Residents and get more project across the the uh the threshold and and being completed and getting money into resident's hands um we simplified the application as well by just consolidating some measures um for air source heat pumps we used to have four different measures available for an air source heat pump we've not simplified that down into a single rebate measure customers weren't sure what they needed when they were filling out the reservation application so they were were either selecting everything or they were selecting the the standard um air source heat pump and then realizing oh I actually wanted the high efficiency version simplifying that to a single measure a single rebate amount will just help make it easier for the customer to know exactly this is the rebate amount I can get and move forward with making that decision what's best for them um so we're happy to to simplify that for everyone um and then we've expanded the reach of the program by adding more measures to the program such as the heat pump dryers and induction cooktops we've also increased the eligibility by removing that 1 to four unit property limitation and now residents have all in in all types of Residential Properties are eligible to participate in the program um so uh you know again just removing those barriers simplifying and just expanding Outreach expanding the reach uh next J and then just a couple Lessons Learned uh through those processes kind of mentioned a little bit of of all of these here um probably throughout this presentation but I'll just quickly go through a few of these here uh multif family as we said we have now removed that that one to four unit uh requirement um now residents in uh buildings with uh five or more are are eligible to receive um rebates um this works in tandem with these additional um measures such as the heat pump dryer um and the induction cooktop these are things that rental you know people in rental uh units could take advantage of but so um that's uh one of a a big kind of program design update and then the reservation process as I just mentioned that was very confusing for people so by simpli in this just going to a straight reservation process um it will um remove that uh that uncertainty and and improve participation um and by moving to a fully reserved uh reservation based process uh you can still apply if you don't have a reservation and as long as there's funds available on those budgets the you'll receive your rebate so by no means you know like if you didn't reserve and you get into an know like let's say a break fix situation or something and you decide to make that change you can still receive the rebate even though we've kind of gone to this full reservation process we'll still process that rebate for you as long as there's funds available in the program one of the big issues and concerns that we had with uh contractors and residents were notifying us was our 60-day deadline for project completion um just supply chain issues uh the you know contractors being very busy busy 60 days was uh a challenge for some projects to get over that uh from from reservation approved to project completion um so we extended that out now to 90 days and we provide additional flexibility um to now extend that even longer as long as the resident or the contractor can show kind of that project's moving forward um by no means will a project be rejected or um a reservation be rescinded because uh you know the they over the deadline but you know as long as they're still moving forward will process and allow that reservation to continue um and then by simp and then the complex rebate structure that we started with just again led to confusion among residents unsure of what rebates to apply for push people away simplifying the rebates into single measure tiers and increasing Clarity in the project requirements um helped greatly will will will help greatly in in simplifying uh this process and and hopefully increasing resident participation next slide Jamie now we're moving into the questions but I did want to know um in addition to um the things that Brandon mentioned in the last slide we also did have a website redesign um and that is thanks to uh us working with OSI to really Envision how we can simplify the website not I'm pretty sure some of you might have visited it a few months ago and it was a little bit overwhelming because we were trying to make sure that folks had all the information that they needed and but now we F figured out a way to give them all of that in a more seamless design so thank you to grace over at OSI for supporting on that initiative so um we're open for questions at this point thank you Jamie thank you Brandon that was super helpful um why don't I pass it to um council member Briggs yeah um thank you so much it's always great to hear about this and I I love the rebates I well say that I was I got my use won myself to get a ebike last last summer and um it has done everything that I had hoped and more I'm now an ebike evangelist and I cut out more trips that I and um getting around more so that is that's great and I was already a big biker so um it's I think you know I can see it influencing my own behavior um just a few questions around um that one which has been a popular incentive um you noted that I know we just shifted the rules around this and you mentioned something about there being um there's only one ebike um per household um and I'm just curious how how household is defined um for for apart you know for apartment situations is it by address or you know like if there's an apartment building that has multiple units in it how does that how that being defined now great question um so for the purposes of the program um we we defined a household as as a a single address um that um you know all residents residing in a in a single address right so if it's an apartment it'd be each unit right so if we have an apartment with three people in it three unrelated people that would be considered still a single house hold uh for the purpose of the [Music] program and I'm just I'm just thinking about an apartment complex and so just making sure that that's not I know that we're kind of tweaking and and understanding how this works the we had gotten some concerns around the multi family housing um situation and the lack of Eligibility and I know we're trying to open this up and all that and I'm just making sure that we're not um just trying to figure out if we if it still needs some modification or if it's yeah it's it's we're still talking internally with with the OSI team and and our program teams because um it definitely causes a a a problem right with unrelated people living in the same um apartment unit um you know they're they're both still going driving their vehicles right if only one person get an ebike we're only eliminating one vehicle travel right so so we are we we do understand that and we are still talking about that and we're working with OSI the OSI team to kind of take a larger a deeper look into multifamilies um and see whether that means it's a new multif family program or we make some uh changes specific to multifam um but yes we we are aware of that and and are working on on that okay and then the other piece um I appreciated hearing what the impact is a little bit uh of these all the rebates that have been used um I'm curious how some some of this feels like you'd be able to identify what the greenhouse gas you know make do that accounting a little bit easier on the biking side I could imagine that being a little more difficult and so I'm just curious um maybe this is too detailed but I'm curious how that um how we're doing those calculations Jamie do you want to chime in there I know that's um not really either of our uh expert and I can ask I can ask that as a follow-up question I know that's a super detailed question and I am fine with just saying that is that I can I can send in an email about that that is not it does not need to be answered right you have the answer to that it's just going to take me a little bit to pull up exactly what calculations we use for ebikes but yeah if that's something that we can um offer you and yeah that's fine um I'm happy to get that you know after the meeting or now whatever whatever seems better um and then oh one of the questions that you had was just how to increase the you know knowledge of this I was just looking around this on the city's website a little bit I have a lot of thoughts um even about our new website but um I think one piece is just going to having the rebates be um prominent on osi's homepage um would be a good thing to be able to see that I think that's one of the things that's most you know folks might be looking for the most and at least for me I'm not seeing that easily on the homepage of OSI so I would say that that would be an easy lift thank you so much for that note council member Malik hi thank thank you so much for this presentation it was great to see um the results you know and it's still early in the program we're not even one year into this so it's great to see kind of this impact already um I think I've mentioned to this commission before that I am also one of the rebate recipients from a few months ago um I took part in the home insulation bundle and I'm thrilled both with the rebate process um as well as the insulation work now that we're well into winter and I've been able to see some of the you know very tangible effects of having that insulation work done um one thing I did not realize in you know getting the work done or during the rebate process is that there are rebates available from other sources that can also stack with the an arbor rebates um this includes you know from like GTE which uh our contractor filed on my behalf um the rebate from GT in our case was you know not huge by any means uh very small in comparison to the an Aral rebate but you know that's that's still money back uh and still makes a difference so uh I guess my question is would the home energy rebate program consider uh advertising the possibility of some of these other rebates from other sources uh to further incentivize getting some of this work done I know Dr staltz in the in the past has said for instance the insulation work in particular is kind of difficult because it's it's not exactly a sexy item to talk home insulation but you know when you you factor in possible federal tax credits DTE rebates and it's my understanding that there could be some rebates coming from the state level as well through the IRA uh assuming you know things work out there uh just wondering if that could help incentivize some of this work absolutely um I think that is uh a really good point this program was actually designed to be stackable with the other uh rebates that are available um currently we are also uh working on a partnership with pearl Edison um based out of Detroit well offers a platform for folks to kind of get the assessment sign up um uh sign up for their assessment help them along with their process and also it shows which um rebates that they would be eligible for within that platform so we are working with OSI around how we can more Market the full inent of impacts that are offered not just with this Reb program but with the other things going on as well great thanks so much commissioner mki thank you um I have a number of what will hopefully just be one or two sentence responses to questions um first of all let me start by saying um I really appreciate the program the design of the program I appreciate um what OSI and jam Elevate and also Brandon and Michigan energy options have demonstrated in terms of sort of a continuous Improvement mindset on the program that's that's really that's really great to see um so my first question um is um real quick I think Jamie said carbon neutrality in an Iber by 2035 I assume I did I hear that wrong or is it 2030 and nothing has changed 2030 thank you for correcting that good okay great um second question um I think U you said that the total available funds were 1.9 million um I understand that all of this was funded by the climate millage in Anarbor and none of it is dependent on for example federal funds that potentially could evaporate is that correct yes that is correct great um question related to that um if I add the figures that were shown by Brandon at the End 323,000 plus another 8 83,000 or so in the pipeline it seems like we will have used about um 410,000 or maybe 25% of the available funds for this year is that correct correct okay good good good quick short answers um will those funds um and maybe this is something that Joe has to answer will those roll over into the next fiscal year or do they evaporate um if they're not used I don't know that answer on my end but I can get an answer on that yeah I think that's important I mean we're talking about you know 1.45 million doll or so that really could be significant um I know that um with the uh continued growth of the program we are exploring a few Co-op and multif family um uh properties in N Arbor who are interested in piloting something through this program so we expect that to take up a super super um then another um question that I have there was several um or mostly the references were to um residents and there was a mention of renters but I never heard the word landlord um If a landlord is renting a building and says I want to do some of these actions are is the landlord eligible or is only the renters in that building that are eligible I can take this one Jamie yeah the landlord is eligible uh actually we in the um very beginning of the program a couple landlords took advantage and had many of their properties um uh install heat pump water heaters and and other measures so great excellent um let's see um if I understood correctly the the extra bonus for efficiency with insulation and sealing the important word there is and in other words you got to do sealing in order to be able to also get the extra money for insulation is that right yes excellent that's really good because we really want incentivized gum ceiling um a comment about batteries um I would ask that OSI look at what we want to do with batteries um I think most of us know that um there is going to be um Vehicles there are already vehicles um on a li very limited basis with um biral charging and vehicle to home and event and there's some Pilots going on here and elsewhere in the world where you can do vehicle to grid and if we just use sort of the generic what we all know Tesla power wall capacity of a battery um a vehicle electric vehicle has roughly three to four times that capacity so if um vehicle to home and vehicle to grid um comes to pass and I mean you have a limited version of that that I actually have a vehicle that has a plug in it where I could in the case of a um power outage run an extension cord and power you know a space heater or my refrigerator um but as that comes to pass I my recommendation is is that we really look at driving bir directional charging and um vehicle to home or vehicle to grid because the there's just so many benefits that are going to flow from that so that's just a comment um and that's something to put in a parking lot for future future use um energy star was mentioned for heat pump dryers was there a consideration of requiring energy star for all appliances just so that we're making sure that we're really pushing the most efficient uh appliances um I believe the we are essentially for the appliances that we offer rebates for um the energy star certification I don't quote me on this but I don't believe that um induction ranges have an energy star certification yet um I don't know either so yeah I'd have to double check that um but um for um everything like we um we are offering energy like having the energy star um requirement for the um dryer I think covers the rest of the the equipment so maybe just again another thing for future consideration putting the parking lot is um look at all of the other uh rebates and consider adding energy resty requirements either as they exist now or as they um are are provided um you sort of connected um to my next question and that is uh the slide on induction reference cooktop you just mentioned range I assume they're available also for ranges yeah yeah we we just refer to it as a cooktop but yeah so if it's just a standalone cooktop or a range as long as it's induction y y and that's clear on the on the website that okay good and by the way that's really attra um I in a different capacity I was just looking at induction ranges you can get a 30in frigid a uh range induction range for like 899 bucks so $750 is really attractive so that's great um I'm almost done sorry um let's see um you asked about how to really Drive uh people going to this program um our next presentation is an update on herd and um that that uh policy where we have home energy scores that are going to that are basically posted at the time of of marketing of a of a unit um I can't remember I I glanced through the report but I um afterwards I didn't think to look at whether or not there's any mention of the rebate program in the form that goes um with the herd um the home energy score print out is that is that in there so that we're telling people hey by the way it looks like um you know you you could do this um and by the way here are um the various options even for things that may not be tied directly to um some of the things that are pointed out in the in the report yeah that's part of the updates um for herd is having both that um those wraparound services that are mentioned in there yeah right exactly people connected to that and in the um both in terms of like you said that that report that you get from it we're also going to have that a20 version of the report that similarly can can mention all that okay okay great um and then the last thing is um Can is is there any I know I know the city budget is approved you know like in May every year for the next fiscal year but it would be really nice since this is tied to a 20 year millage um could could people just simply over subscribe to something that's in the budget and have it simply delayed and go into the next fiscal year and do that automatically so that you we don't have to worry have people re Reserve or anything like that is that possible you understand what I'm saying so right now I understand if if we exceed what's Reser available for the current year um it wasn't clear to me whether I could go ahead and reserve with the understanding that um that has been used up for the current fiscal year but given the 20-year millage um that that would automatically then my reservation would go over till the following fiscal year um it's my understanding Brandon of how the system works is that that reservation would be continued if you as if a person makes a reservation in June like say June 15th um and then the fiscal years up in July would still continue their reservation that is true um to I um John I think what you're um getting at though is if like for ebikes for instance like all the program year ebikes are the r that those funding is exhausted exactly could you reserve an ebike now and then still then yeah that goes through you can then do it on July 1 I'm essentially first in line if will going into the next fiscal year so we currently don't have like a weit list or like a kind of a list kind of like that that designed into the program um if you applied for a ebike reservation we would tell you unfortunately you know that those that the funds are exhausted and direct you then to come back at in July to then reapply it would be nice if that could be streamlined maybe that's a a continuous Improvement opportunity so that's it thanks for bearing with all my questions thank you commissioner 11 uh yes first of all uh thank you for the presentation both of you uh very very informative um I guess I'll start with myh suggestion for publicizing and then I have a couple questions um it'd be cool like I think you know word of mouth and like what neighbors do is like very helpful so I would suggest like using the ambassador program to publicize this um as well as maybe even like you could get like a like a yard sign kind of like you know a construction company would do to be like hey I got Energy rebates for this that I just did or whatever and maybe there could be like a small incentive for them to do that like I don't know exactly if it'll be like a few dollars or they get like a cool like cup or something something like you know nomal but um that would give them a little incentive to do that possibly something similar like like where if they after they do it if they do like a post on like next door or something to say like hey I just did this like you know and then again maybe like a small nominal um kind of incentive to do that um anyway uh so a couple questions um just about making sure we're like you know using the money as efficiently as possible um ebikes are cool I I'm I do have concern about how efficient that is in terms of like are we going to get like a bunch of college students that are like applying for this and then they could be like biking without like an ebike like are we are we tracking like surveys in terms of like hey is this like how are you using your ebike like are you just going for a Joy Ride Like that's cool like they're fun to do that with but is it really replacing you from using a car that that I do have a concern about that and also like how are we measuring the impacts of I know that was a question that came up and you were GNA get back to us on the the impacts of it I guess if you want to answer that first I'll uh I guess it's more of a comment but if and maybe it's more directed at city than you guys but go ahead um well well that that is kind of a concern in general when designing that for the ebike uh program and that's why the ebike budget is much smaller than the insulation and air ceiling budgets and electrification budgets the they wanted to be able to offer that incentive for KNE bike for people that are actually eliminating travel um but again the main focus of the program is the electrification and the insulation and air cealing um weatherization kind of rebates cool cool that's helpful um another point would be like the batteries like how are we considering batteries because like in theory batteries don't save us like carbon at all unless are we using these are they have to be like backup batteries that you're going to use instead of firing up like natural gas as your backup system um how are we like thinking about batteries as a way to be more carbon neutral I guess well when the program was first designed we didn't include solar panels and B because the voting measure that was on the table around the utility so that's why we focus more on the PV storage um but we do incentivize folks who do participate in the Solar for all or um will participate in the um utility to uh apply for the PV storage to be that storage unit U to be that Excess power um when it's an outage or something like that so and sorry go goe oh I was just noting that it it is to conserve and rely more on the the energy that you're capturing okay so yeah I would be interested and if you're also looking into the information on uh ebikes as to how you're like calculating the the impacts of someone buying batteries um and then just one more thing it's kind of I guess more of a comment than anything else is just well I guess it's sort of a question comment but um relating to like the whole contract like allowing contractors to do it I do have a little bit of a concern like how do we know they're not just like quoting a price that's like more than it would be normally and then they're like oh but now we're giving you this rebate like people do that on like Groupon and stuff like that I mean this is obviously different but do we have any way to like look into making sure that they're not doing that I can take this step both um of of those questions but just to really touch go back to your last question about storage in the um carbon impacts um storage and uh electric panel upgrades do not have any um any kind of carbon um savings associated with them um the electric panel upgrade is included because it's a necessity when electrifying to to upgrade um and storage as Jamie mentioned uh the reasoning behind behind um adding that so I just want to touch on that um and then in terms of contractors yeah raising prices and stuff um obviously that's a concern we do tell residents you know get multiple bids when you're going out working with contractors don't just go with the first one um and then Jamie alluded to the OSI collaboration with pearl Edison um and that platform once created will actually provide number of bids from different contractors um to help residents identify you know what works best for them pricewise and system wise in their homes so we we have a a a little bit of that and working towards you know additional things cool thanks that's all I had Joe um two quick notes one just also on the again I don't work directly on the rebate program but do UNS solarize and got to say like that was one of the number one questions we got in every solarize group is oh there's a there's a battery rebate now so helping you know filtering from solariz where there is group by discounts into this um can be helpful um since we don't necess have those discounts on batteries through solar eyes um the other thing just want to say got clarification on the um the funds if they're not all exhausted in a year um they they can be rolled into a future year or if there's a pressing need with in the budget we can shift around a little bit to take care of something there but they they are able to roll into future Years thank you Joe council member Briggs thanks I have turned a bit into an ebike evangelist over the last six months and so I just want to take that opportunity to do it again um which uh you know I I agree I want to make sure that we're you know account that we are um the ways that we're reporting on it are are as accurate as as possible but I um I think there's a temptation to think oh folks could just um get out on a an acoustic bike as I here is the the way to refer to him now um instead of an ebike and I absolutely agree I love love biking um but I will say that uh it is they can be transformative and I think that that's one of the the reasons that we're providing providing these rebates is that um you uh even for the Hardy cyclist um which I bike in the the Subzero temperature so I I I count myself in that in that group but um you know I never before had gotten kitty litter for example on a bike um what you find is that you can just um it makes it easy to do a whole bunch of other trips and we see that um you know students are um should have this benefit just as much and and they are the ones paying for the uh the exorbitant housing prices in our community and she be benefit fting off of this as well so I want to make sure that we have we make this available to everybody in our community um especially making those trips back and forth from Central to north campus there's a big hill so let's make it as easy as possible to to get around without a car in our absolutely and we'll definitely take that note back into our conversations with OSI as we're contining to grow this program and as a former Wolverine definitely understand that truck I'm jump in real quick I'll I just want to ask a make a couple comments and and add a a question or two quickly um with respect to the stacking of the federal and the state uh roll out of some of the federal funds but also the an arbor ones um just to note that rewiring America does have a a calculator so it might be a fairly straightforward ad to the rebate program to provide a link to the calculator which has all of those rebates sort of bundled up for each zip code um and that might provide an easy way for folks to sort of see the whole range of things that are available um without doing a whole lot of extra work um to make that visible um so that was just one comment there um it sounds like you were saying also that there is some this was my main question was going to be about one of the biggest challenges of this which is finding the con you know finding the contractors comparing the bids understanding the tradeoffs of different appliances and and things like that and it sounds like you were describing some of the plat the platform um Pearl something I can't remember what it was that might provide some of that um help and support and I know for a lot of folks that sort of for example understanding whether not you need 2 in versus 3 in of air seiling and insulation on a rim joist and what that means when you know one bid is $1,200 and one is $1800 and where the difference is and what kind of they're using and all that kind of stuff you know I think that's a lot of times where some of the friction can come in in terms of um doing some of this work and the the sort of um complexity of the choices and the architecture of those choices so um you know I was just wondering if there was anything um it might be out of the scope of your remit but if is there are there things that folks might be able to do to sort of better understand these particular areas you know aside from going and doing the research themselves online which which is challenging um I'll say yeah absolutely um the home energy rebate program was actually designed to complement the home energy advisor program that the office of sustainability innovation has so that's definitely something um a program that we try to push folks into like if you're someone who are just starting your decarbonization journey and you need that one-on-one support that program was designed for you and cases in which that program is exhausted I I know when launched it was a million bookings that they had um that's when Pearl Edison will come into play where here is a um platform that you can engage with to get that contractors to get those assessments to get those bids to make this process easier um even though it's not necessarily what our program program does folks can call in and if they have general questions we will try to guide them and point them in the right direction but uh city of Van Arbor is trying to build up as you all might know the infrastructure to support those new decarbonization Enthusiast uh in the community thanks and if I could ask one one last sort of followup is are there are there insights that we're able to gain out of the rebate program itself such as like the various costs of installations and the various costs of things that we're able to fold back into sort of how we learn and design the program itself or you know are there types of types of information that we're capturing that we're able to learn from over time absolutely yeah we we are capturing as much information we can um in regards to the equipment cost installation costs and we're we're compiling that um and hoping to to you know learn from that too so you know we see um you know we see the maybe that installation costs are much higher for certain equipment and our rebases really aren't doing what we want them to um you know that's that's what we're kind Gathering that info to learn about and then update accordingly um so you know we are still you know couple hundred rebates in the door um obviously we like a little bit more info coming through and um you know also then with the um additional things we've just mentioned I think that'll help us um get a good understanding too of what contractors are charging um for this equipment and help better educate everyone so yeah thank you uh commissioner sorry go ahead jump in um also one aspect of this program we didn't focus on too much is our contractor engagement um uh prior to launch we met with contractors in an arbor area several times to kind of gauge uh what they thought about the program how they might want to engage with the program um those kind of type of uh kind of development aspects and we are uh planning on now that we have the program launched to continue that contractor engagement of getting feedback from contractors getting an understanding from the data that uh we're gathering in the program why certain costs are some are the way it is or why there are con continuous delays as we can predict especially with all the stuff that's going on the world of the cost of things and getting things from that we will see a couple more delays so that's something that we'll have to think about within this program as as well as it comes to timeline and working with the contractors thank you um think want we take one more commissioner mki do real quick things you don't even have to answer them maybe just just to um Park them away um it would be great if all of the city's programs advocated for all the other programs so if I enter in the door through solarize then solarize tells me oh did you know we have this home energy rebate um system did you know we have home energy advisor if um I'm a landlord and I'm working with green rental housing program did you know we have um you know all these different things if all of them would advocate for each other Pur we talked about um in the reports that would be really great um and the other thing is um hopefully we're doing something at some level to ensure that um spray foam insulation that's being used is low um global warming potential because some of those old blowing agents and they I don't know if they're still really being used much but the the global warming potential some of those old agents were like a thousand or more and there's um several of them that a lot of them that now just have a global warming potential of one so um hopefully somehow that's that's being captured or pushed or whatever so that's all thanks okay um there is anything else I I want to thank uh Jamie from Elevate and Brandon from Michigan energy opin thanks for your presentation this was super helpful and we appreciate all the work you've been putting into the program and making this work and I I know I've been hearing a lot from folks out in the community and and that they're noticing it and I think it's starting to to get a lot of awareness so hopefully this is going to catch on and and people be doing quite a bit in the next the next few months so thanks for spending time with us tonight yeah thanks for having us and um thank you for all your input in your questions definitely we'll be taking a lot of this back and as we continue to re-envision and grow the program I think um inputs from you all will definitely be welcome yeah thank you and hi Mike I just have to say that great well what we will leave you to it sounds good have a great evening next we're going to move on to um the staff report um maybe what we can do is just take a two-minute Break um really quickly and we'll come back at um 7:15 on the dot and and we'll just get started with the the staff report out and and move on from there e e e in just a second we want to turn back to um the agenda and next on the agenda is the staff report um and Joe do you mind I think we've got a her update um for the energy commission as well well as possibly some other items yep yeah just going to do the normal staff report but yeah as part of that I know a couple folks had asked um some questions about the herd program um we hope to do a broader update at some point soon just because the the one-ear portion of herd is um what March 12th I think is the the Oney year anniversary but just had some questions so just wanted to note um kind of in response some of it and just give a quick update um you can see all of the information in the um the attachments to it but just to run through some of just the the quick overviews of kind of um what is coming up next some of it's like what what we talked about a little bit during that for instance um but just noting uh some of the big things they're focused on right now is figuring out what is you know the next step of herd to connect everyone to that so um The Herd team is working on what we're calling a wraparound service program which basically just provides all the information to folks who end up buying those homes uh with the inspiration and the ability to kind of take action based on that report um so that way they got you know they have information on all the programs and incentives we have both here um with OSI as well as you know some of the other ones around there um just so they're aware of it they can figure out what they need and they can get connected to resources for you know actually making those improvements rather than just seeing a number on a report um like I also mentioned where they're working on creating a new um a20 recommendations document that will be part of it um what we've been using so far is that the home energy score report which is a great thing it's developed as part of the um as part of the tool itself the only issue is just kind of with with some of the stuff we have here in an arbor it it makes some of the it has a certain criteria for what recommendations it recommends um so sometimes that makes it difficult to apply in an arbor for instance so it says there's nothing for you to do even though there's clearly things um that can be done which again um making sure we can connect people to those um to those different resources um additionally working on building an online searchable map of all of the you know all the um properties that have gotten a home energy score um again these these reports are already publicly available there you can get them through the the stream which is our our public parcel database um it's a great tool but definitely not the most userfriendly and requires you to search for everything instead of just having it all kind of laid out so that that online map will have a a better user interface for it all um and we've also been working to ramp up the different permissions we have around enforcement so that way we have better um you know we've been able to enforce but now we'll have a better ility um to do that so we can have a more robust compliance um you can see with the numbers there we've been doing um as it's been going it's been you know ticking up we've been getting better numbers overall uh so this will just kind of help um G get those last little bits across the uh across the Finish Line as we go um like I said those are just kind of some of the quick updates be happy to you know at some point if if folks are interested if we want to do a more you know a deeper dive into it um we could we could certainly do that at a at a future meeting with with folks from the herd team um happy to go into the rest of the updates but just want to check if there are any quick questions on that I I don't work directly on herd so I won't NE maybe have the answers but happy to relate them back so yes could I just ask a quick clarification for who might be watching at home which is the relationship between herd and the home energy advisor program and the home energy score um and and and I think my understanding is the home energy advisor program is something that might come and give you a home energy score which you may or may not be able to use for the home energy rating disclosure um I don't know how accurate that is but maybe you could just yeah they're they're different the the home energy advisor is um depending on I guess who you ask is more in depth um with the sense of one it's available for everyone um and it's it uses the um the energy assessment that you know we helped um we piloted and you know worked with residents in Bryant for instance and um you know goes through and creates that customized path to zero uh so it goes through it has a um you know the the energy assessment framework which can be done in person or virtually um some similar things some different things but the you know the home energy assessment then goes gives you your path to zero of decarbonizing uh whereas the home energy score goes through the the regular home energy score process developed um by the doe in them which gives you that score the home energy assessment does through the home energy advisor does not give you a one to five score so it can't be used for um for that purpose but it has more education as part of it um similarly you know you can get so many acronyms apologies but if you know you get a home energy score you can then go transition that into the home energy advisor home energy adviser will better help um you know make again make that more actionable of being like you got a five here's some of the items it recommended here's the you know here's who you can reach out to here's how you can get connected to those resources so they both kind of are stronger in different ways but they're designed to connect to each other to help everyone get along that path thank you um cool um in terms of updates the first I just want to do a a meta update outside of here just because I know everyone's kind of asking about it and wondering about it as you know everything relates to the federal landscape um and I'm going to give the annoying answer of just right now there's a lot that we don't know um there's a lot of things happening it's changing rapidly and you know just everything with these Federal programs their funding and their impact is just constantly changing uh we're in an Uncharted Territory with many of this a lot of even what we're seeing is likely to be tested in courts in various ways so you know at this time the simple answer is just we we don't know um how this is going to impact things how this going to impact incentives how it's going to impact all of our programs and everything like that um for folks who are you know considering things whether that be incentives or programs or anything like that um you know the best recommendation is to consult with any financial advisers you might have with your family friends things like that to be able to make that decision because again we just we don't have enough information to make a blanket statement on what what folks should do at this time um yeah I'll pause for a second for questions there yeah um I had heard through third hand fourth hand Maybe um that things like District geothermal is sort of on hold in Bryant that solar on anabor Housing Commission properties is on hold I mean to is that true and I mean when when do these things that we have any idea um how and when these get resolved I mean this this is really putting a monkey wrench into all kinds of things potentially right yeah Federal um Federal programs all have a 90day pause to evaluate their efficacy how they fit in with everything and yeah until it could happen sooner than 90 days but um that that's that's what we have and until then we we are where we are commissioner mki uh something that was aligned with what I was hoping to ask um but I'll ask kind of different details about it um so Bryant neighborhood I recall recently um Joe I think you actually specifically worked on getting like A10 million grants if I'm getting the amount right from I think it was the department of energy um I'm curious if um if that also falls in the uncertainty if there's um uh any intel around that and I was also curious do you know like um uh like where where the funding came from for that I was just Googling it and I was curious if it was like bipartisan infrastructure law if it was the inflation reduction act if it's just Doe's discretionary something different I'm just kind of curious because that might impact the context or status too yeah yeah same thing there it's that the 10 million is from the Department of energy it is for the geothermal um same same deal we're in that 90day pause for the time being um I'm almost positive it's the inflation reduction act if not it's the infrastructure and jobs act but I'm almost positive Ira yeah thank you Joe appreciate it council member Briggs yeah and obviously there's a great deal of uncertainty all across the country we know that this is not climate is um say it generously is is not a priority of the of the current Administration um the impact um to us locally potentially is 30 um my understanding it's $32 million in grant funding um that is uh potentially on hold right now and so um obviously there's a lot of different other other areas um that's just uh climate funding um through SI um there's other transportation funding and and things like that but um you know we're monitoring this um we have to continue as a city to and as a community to um continue to make the case for for why these grants are important and I think a lot of them are being reconsidered and um hopefully you know we'll see how see how things turn out but umly a big impact yeah we are again everything's where it is but we are constantly monitoring constantly constantly looking at all the things and looking for you know all sorts of Alternatives where we can so more to come soon hopefully sooner rather than later but lots of uncertainty at the moment um as for the rest of the updates um with you know with the leaf blower um ordinance that went into effect uh we now have a program that's designed to help lower the cost of transitioning from gas to electric lawn care equipment in accordance with that um there are now or there's going to be um discounts for electric lawn care equipment and rebates for electric leaf blowers uh that will be available beginning on March 1st um more information on that including the the rebates and specific discount information as well as all the eligibility you can go to OSI a2gov.org leaf blowers um we also have the uh the next recipient of the sustaining an arbor together grants or s2t um is Sun bundle uh they are nonprofit with the goal of empowering Fitness and fostering Wellness education within underserved communities by upsite clean athletic gear um using the grant they're going to be establishing Branch organizations and five different University campuses across Michigan and uh to build and deliver 10,000 care packages in the next calendar year um if you're interested in learning more about the the sustaining an arbor together grants um you can visit a2gov.org s2t um with everything around the sustainable energy utility or seu uh we are continuing to current uh to register interest in the uh sustainable energy utility um if you or anyone you know is interested in enrolling or getting more information as it becomes available uh you can go to a2gov.org a2u and fill out the wait list form um maybe not relevant for everyone here but just for the broader audiences uh the Michigan Department of environment Great Lakes and energy or eagle has announced the first in a series of requests for proposals offering $5 million and initial funding to support the deployment of non-public level two alternating current electric vehic vle charging stations at existing multif family housing units uh grants are capped at 300,000 and applicants will be accepted in Pro process on a first come first serve basis until that funding is exhausted um for more information you can go to the clean fuel and charging infrastructure program web page um by uh the department of environment Great Lakes and energy um we have our upcoming our next upcoming sustainability Forum will be at the downtown branch of the an arbor District Library on Fe February 26th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

folks we'll call this meeting to order and we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance which I asked Michael Gil to lead his win I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all thank you for everybody that come out this evening I'd like to excuse Margaret gobby she couldn't make it this evening we uh first items on the agenda are some recognitions uh which we do on a monthly basis let turn that time over to Dr Wright for those recognitions thank you Mr Merill we'll start with the students of the month and we'll go in order from the elementary school then Mrs hofm and then Mr web perfect our student of the month is here tonight it is Miss lla Henry come on down [Applause] so laa is a so lla is a sixth grade student um at the elementary school she is in Miss uh alak in Mr wagon fear's class Miss alak nominated yla for student of the month and she said lla is an outstanding student who works who consistently demonstrates a strong work ethic a bright mind and a willingness to help others her enthusiasm for learning is evident in her eagerness to explore new Concepts and she goes above and beyond to support her peers and understanding them well also so we're grateful to have yla on campus um she does not talk much until you get to know her and then she talks a lot um so like I said very deserving Layla Henry all right I'd like to call up Zeppelin broseman [Applause] please Zeppelin is uh uh seventh grader on our campus has been just an incredible addition to our school um and when we put out requests for nominations for students um we get lots of different names but we got a lot of the same name um and it was amazing I think this month might be the most I've ever had written about a student um and sent in so I just want to read a little bit of what some of the teachers said about Zeppelin Zeppelin is an awesome student he is respectful to others has a great work ethic continues to ask questions if he doesn't understand something he's friendly kind and caring he's an exceptional young man who sets his own goals and pushes himself to achieve them he is also a very thoughtful kind and patient person with everyone and brings Positive Vibes wherever he goes he is an absolute pleasure to work with and I would go so far as to say this is my favorite part Zeppelin that just by virtue of who he is often gives more energy to the adults around him than we give to him and so that says quite a bit he is such a positive energy on our campus um and a fierce soccer player as well he always makes sure that his table is the very first table cleaned so they can get out there and start playing soccer um so we love having him at BL Junior [Applause] High all right the high school's turn kayn and Indian come forward [Applause] please so kayn is the high school student of month for the month of February I'm going to go and hand you that um and read a little bit about K kin so she's a student of the month for February we've seen kin grow over the last two years she's joined the pickleball team last year and was part of their Championship season and she's also stepped up to help out with student council newly rein stated bluid High School indigenous Society organization she has taken honors in AP classes and currently has a 4.0 weighted GPA this year she made a larger leap into challenging herself by applying and being accepted to study with the school for ethics and Global Leadership in Washington DC this is what the staff said about her journey with them during the last this first semester Ken is a quiet soul with a heart of gold whose kindness shines through in everything she does she attended the school event ethics and Global Leadership a prestigious institution known for its rigorous curriculum during her semester at Seagull she not only excelled in Spanish but also developed her skills in global global leadership gaining valuable insights that she has eagerly shared with her peers after she came back to Blue Ridge her experiences at Seagull have profoundly shaped her worldview reinforce reinforcing her commitment to making a positive difference in the world and we're super happy for kayin and the experience that she had and that she's willing to share that with all of the other students here at blidge so thank you Kaylin and [Applause] congratulations okay it's my privilege to present this next award which is our BR Star Award and this month's BR star is Miss Kimberly dougo come on down Kimberly straight tens across the board that's what they said Kimberly in addition to being where are you going she's got energy she's got a lot of energy okay Kimberly in addition to being preminent in her field and an example of that is she was elected as the Arizona School business officials Treasurer this last year that's a a Statewide and a nation wide organization in which she and I participate um Kimberly has a lot of energy she also above her Acumen in business and as a CFO she's an outstanding human being she's fun to work with she's done an outstanding job of making sure our resources are maximized and then we put them to the classroom and to our students and closest to where the great work is happening and so she's been a joy to work with I think it's been almost three years and uh she's the finest CFO I've ever been around Kimberly thank you very much I'm going to take a mic so I want all our team to come up so that we can take a picture together with you sounds I'll put this here thank you everyone I couldn't do it without my team shiny day [Applause] all right I'm up next I guess uh Mr wock could we have Mr wot come forward so I will start this off by saying I'm a little biased as I present this award but I'm going to put my bias aside come on over so the board members can see it too so Mr wat Cott he's um he's actually teaches at the high school and the junior high so this is a shared teacher that we have between myself and Mrs hoffmeier um I've had the privilege of working with Mr wat Cott in the capacity of you know principal and teacher for the last I don't even know how many years since 06 so do the math 19 years math guy yeah sounds good so it's been a long time so we actually were in this building here and and he's moved around wherever we went he is the one that's always going to step up and do whatever needs to be done if there's anything like there's new classes that we created he jumped in he's I know he's done the coding at the Junior High um he's he sponsored our Spanish club trips when the junior high went to California to the valley anybody that can be on a train with Junior High kids all night long like deserves some kind of recognition and and he's done that for years and now I get to finish my career at the high school with having Mr wat cot again with me so it's been a treat and a pleasure having him back at the high school or back with me and to see him continue all the the great things that he does with the kids with the staff he's our one of our Tech experts so he helps the other teachers just a a fabulous teacher and very welld deserving of a be Star Award so congratulations Mr wat Cott for those of you that don't know he he's my nephew so that's why I'm a little so um he doesn't call me Uncle Lauren at school and in chance to there's another nephew great nephew thank you and we have another teacher of the month um award for Mr lefrant so Mr lefrant could you please come [Applause] forward Mr lefrant is uh man of many trades he can do so many different things um and he's been game for everything that's been uh asked of him and so uh coding and Robotics and engineering and he's uh running our Fab Lab like a champ he's got so much going on out there um the Star Wars solar car if you haven't seen it that is something to see um and hopefully we can display that pretty soon but he is constantly getting our kids engaged in um in Innovative uh competitions and getting bluid recognized for a lot of different things and so we're so grateful that he has taken on that role and all the different roles that he is doing with the high school and the Fab Lab and so Rob lefrant thank you and we'll get a pi [Applause] Bridget would you like to bring your group up here for recognition looks like they're prepared [Applause] okay good evening I'm grateful to be here Dr wri and president Merill and the board thank you for inviting us here so I'm Bridget Blake I'm the fbaa adviser and FBLA is a student run organization so I'm actually going to turn the time to Jack so he can take this we like to take opportunities for our students to lead so I'm going to turn their time over to Jack so um for if any of you guys don't know FBLA is the student run Organization for the business program um and it is the largest business ctso in the world with over 230,000 students um throughout the world there's kids in China and Canada and all across the United States and our mission is to inspire and prepare students to become community minded minded Business Leaders in a global society and we do that through um relevant career preparation and Leadership experience so on January 22nd we took 18 students down to the valley we competed at ASU and in a lot of different events and this competition had 642 competitors and eight of our students brought home 11 medals so we we thought that was pretty cool um diari Ivan placed first in Computer Applications Jesse Str placed first in Human Resources management I placed first in client services and future business leader Candace Cabrera placed second in intro to business communication Ellie Lawler placed second in intro to parliamentary procedure Gian gerardi and Elliot Woods both placed third in broadcast journalism Cooper flake Place third in future business educator and Elliot placed again third in intro to FBLA and then we also had um a like a second place award that we did down there for the whole chapter um that was business graphics and Jesse stop and Aspen misola did that for our chapter then um out of all of these high schools we were actually able to play second in the online testing tournament which we did that in October November and that was really Mrs Blake she encouraged Ed us to take lots of tests and prepare for those and so that's a reflection of her success as an adviser and um upcoming April 1st through 3rd we'll be traveling down to Tucson and we're taking 13 members and we'll go up against all the high schools in the state so we're excited for that and expecting to have a few National competitors so we'll probably see you again if we need to travel out of state and um we're grateful for your continued support of fbl [Applause] would uh anybody else like to speak and express your opinion of what uh you felt this year a spokes I'll speak okay In fairness I have um two freshmen we had three freshman place at regionals which that's amazing that's amazing and um of our eight people that took medals away um only one was a returning competitor so I've got a lot of new students so they're just doing amazing um so very proud of them they're not quite ready to speak yet but they will be next time thank you job well done appreciate it you represent us very well thank [Applause] you all right looks like the next item on this agenda is the consent agenda so are there any items in the consent agenda that you'd like to take out or any questions or comments about anything from 2.1 to 2.6 if not we have a can we have a motion to uh I'll move to uh the consent agenda approve yeah approve the consent agenda as presented thank you I have a motion from Michael gral I have a second from I'll second it sylvana um any further discussion not we need to vote all in favor I that appears to be unanimous thank you okay item 3.1 recommendation to approve new hires are there any of the new hirers here that we could be introduced to yeah want you introduce oh M um oh Megan and McKenna are here um so we have two new ladies in the front in the front in the district office so McKenna is doing um the front desk and helping Mary and um Megan is doing our accounts payable and they're a great um asset to our team and we're enjoying working with them and we hope they stay for a very long time I hope so too welcome we're glad to have [Applause] you any others that we have if not can we have a motion to accept items uh item 3.1 the new hires as stated in the agenda I move to recommend the new I have a motion from Sylvan I have a second from Michael all in favor I that also appears to be unanimous so item number 3.2 recommendation to approve early graduation for one of the high school students um Mr Webb do you want to explain that thank you we had a student who um at senior early planning early in the year they knew that the family was going to be moving down to the valley after Christmas she wanted to be able to finish here at Blue Ridge so we allowed her to be able to complete some classes in order to finish all of her credits to to finish up with with blidge and our academics so she could be a blue Rich graduate and and still move down to the valley not have to worry about checking into another high school and she completed everything that was required will she'll she want to come and walk this fall I mean yes she she does want to come back and walk with her peers and we'll we'll let her do that good deal any questions or comments about item 3.2 so can we have a recommendation to approve item 3.2 the early graduation one of our high school students I will recommend to approve uh early graduation for that high school student that's pretty awesome thank you can we have a second second second from all in favor say I or raise your hand I raise my hand thanks I just making fun thank you that also appears to be unanimous uh item 3.3 recommendation to approve out ofate travel for um coaches to attend the Glazier coach Clinic Dr Wright or did would you like Mr uh or Kimberly or uh Dustin or ad is would you come and explain what's going on there thank you thanks for having me so um one of the professional development things that we offer um for football is Glazier is a renowned uh business that runs across the United States and they they put coaching clinics throughout several major cities from the period of like February through late April for coaches to go and receive professional development opportunities so we provided ways to where we work for the Glazier Company to pay for our rooms and our food so we can be there we introduce speakers we set up technology we interact with other coaches we're able to sit in on these and get ceu credits we'll be able to get 24 uh SE hours uh throughout the course of Friday and Saturday and uh Thursday evening so something that we do uh we try to offer for our coaches any questions on that any questions or comments I think it's a great idea especially not having to pay yeah free is good is always good it's it's awesome that they offer that for us and you know we get to meet the coaches that are there that are doing the presentations the clinicians that come in and we get opportunities to set up their equipment see a lot of things that they do with their programs we almost get a little more inside information and uh get personal contact information from them so it's it's a neat opportunity so you and who else is going Eric helmerson and uh Chris Johnson those are the two and then some of our other coaches are going to try to to do it on their free time over the they're going to leave Friday and go that evening and Saturday and come home Sunday morning so on their own I believe Brandon newom and uh Brian White are both going to try to do that for the Friday Saturday part of the clinic great yeah free is great yep appreciate that any other questions not we have a motion to accept item 3.3 the out ofate travel for um the Glazier coacher CL coaches clinic on February 20th through 22nd in Las Vegas we have a motion I would like to recommend that have a motion from Michael have a second from sylvana all in favor say I I thank you item 3.4 recommendation to oh this is pretty neat kimly you want to explain your out of state travel I know this is quite an award sure thank you explain what's going on there president Merill and governing board this is a a Leadership Retreat with the association that Dr R just mentioned that I'm the Treasure of all expenses are paid by them I'm just asking that I be allowed to go it's very exciting in Tampa and the hotel did not get uh demolished from the hurricane yeah I think this is quite a honor and uh got to say we're going to really miss you both uh when you retire at the end of the school year we'll carry on we'll carry on we might have to call you every now and then to hold our hands right so we have a motion to recommend item 3.4 that is the out of state travel for Dr Wright and Miss dugdale to go to the um what is it the Arizona School business officials board uh conference leadership Forum I got it there we so we have a motion to accept item 3.4 yeah I so move I have motion from Michael second from Sylvan all in favor say I I I all right that also looks to be unanimous next item is 3.5 a recommendation to approve the lease agreement renewal Dr Wright do you want to explain that I think it's the same as we've had in the past with this great partner it is it is and I think there's a representative here tonight would you would you like to say a few things I've got a coin we'll flip it okay I I'll I'll say this on the organization's behalf it helps and their Head Start program helps a good number of children every year get prepared for school it is a federally funded program uh this does not cost us anything to provide the space the space was already there uh they provide their own food they've probably invested 150,000 into the facility or more maybe closer to a quarter of a million over the last four years or so they've been an outstanding tenant anytime that we have uh drill they cooperate snow days they cooperate in short anything anything we need they've been an outstanding partner so I would ask the board if we could please renew their lease under the existing terms and that they're over in the old elementary school that yes sir multi-purpose the old Elementary yes sir been a great partner I appreciate you have any questions or comments from the board so can we have a motion to uh approve the the lease agreement with the uh Northern Arizona Council government n hog head start for the upcoming U period of time that this lease I don't have the dates on this but just as it's been submitted uh can I have a motion to accept I move that we accept I have a motion from sylvana I have a second I'll second second from Michael all in favor say I I all right that also looks to be unanimous Dr W we'll turn the balance pretty much the balance of this meeting over to you for a district update thank you sir uh one point of clarification I wasn't invited to go to Florida so I don't get to go with Kimberly she she she's going on her own as a treasurer no I'm just teasing I just let you know you want to be around the be counter no I don't well you're my favorite be counter though but several thousand of them that's too much so a couple of things we have just generally in the district update we're in the testing phase in March next month we'll begin testing March and April uh our teachers have been working hard to make sure these students are prepared it and others are are preparing to make sure that we have these tests administered appropriately it's quite an undertaking that begins next month spring break will be the 10th through the 14th the district office as always will be closed during that time and we have spent significant time with local and I would say local and County Law Enforcement and fire departments preparing for the AAL a wildfire event and so we've we've kind of landed on three different types of status that we would operate under one is if there's a clear danger there's a clear danger in our region and it's very likely to make it to our campus we're going to go on our itm schedule we won't congregate we won't have kids come to school and we'll do itm as long as it's needed hopefully that'd be a fairly short duration the next status would be we arrive at School everybody gets settled in and the fire begins and it's close enough that we're worried we do an early release and that would be an orderly in orderly fashion take us about an hour and a half hour and 45 minutes to perform and to execute that fully to get kids home that's the second option the third would be there's not time to evacuate there's not time to have an early release in the evacuation in the appoint of evacuation in general we're going to go to the community of snowflake there they have numerous school buildings and large Church facilities with restroom facilities kitchens and they could serve as a a place for people for a long period of time if we had to and the geography and Landscape lends itself less risky for fire I mean obviously anything can become a fuel I've learned way too much about F fire wildfires and fighting them the last three or four months it's been principally what I've been worried about so if we evacuated that's where it'd be we'd have more information on that the our key term and most important is to keep our students and staffs safe the fire department felt confident that if we had the shelter in place and there wasn't time to dismiss or to evacuate that the junior high is the safest facility All Things Considered there's a bit of a natural barrier there there is a large forest in the back but it's a block construction and there's not immediate folage around it we're reducing a couple of trees that are near that kind way to say we're taking them out and we could have this campus the East Campus the main campus the district office the high school and all of the surrounding preschool naog the church anybody that needed shelter could congregate we would hold up to 2,000 people at the junior high again it has the facilities that we need to be there if we had to be there for an extended period of time we could get that accomplished and done in a quick hurry and so that will be a drill that we'll have in the spring once we're done with testing we're going to move everybody over here to the Junior High in an orderly fashion and then we'll meet back and we'll determine how can we do that better then the next phase will be let's work on a an organized evacuation what does that look like there's a couple of things that are tough uh that we we don't have enough buses to evacuate everybody at once not with 88 kids on a bus but if there's danger you can put 125 kids on a bus if you had to and in that instance uh everybody agrees the job is to get everyone out safely I think it is most probable that we'll have an early release I think that's probably the most likely thing that could happen because we won't start school if we have a worry of fire but right across the street is a lot of fuel behind us is a lot of fuel to our North to our South there's a lot of fuel and so if uh if it continues if the dryness persists if it continues to be dry and we get a lot of wind and we had a lightning strike or some other form we would we would have to evacuate and that's our very last choice because we have reunification a lot of other things that we have to kick in please to for the board's edification we've been working on this for probably a year and a half on reunification everybody that has done it that has practiced it said a couple things one the goal is to get everybody from A to B and to do that in a safe and orderly fashion we are we have identified that we need additional supports for our exceptional students Megan's been working tirely lessly to formulate a plan to make sure we have all the students identified and the level of support required for each students some students will require three or four adults a couple of whom are strong enough to lift the student and transport them physically others need medical items and they we have children with feeding tubes we have children that have you know pretty significant medical needs we want to make sure these are met and we're having we'll have further talks about how to have those children evacuated safely and orderly and then the next phase is to get everybody else safely on a bus and out of here part of that effort has been Kimberly's been working with transportation and Justin and others to make sure that we have enough drivers um and people that are trained to drive a bus in the event of emergency and they're qualified to the extent they won't they won't have a certification but in an emergency situation it's let's save lives they'll be able to operate the bus and get the kids to safety once the children are there that kicks in a whole new plan and uh we're we have a fairly good idea of what that looks like it's organized chaos but kids are safe and we want to divide them along needs and grade level and then the reunification process would begin after the law enforcement and fire say it's safe to come in and all that sounds like it's going to be real organized uh I pray we don't have to do that if we did it it would take a long time and it would be really tough and parents are can be very frustrated but if we get everybody back alive and well they'll be fine and they'll be glad when the dust settles in this case fire but uh we are prepared and we're getting we're not going to just stop there we want to go to the next iteration to make sure that we can make it as organized and comfortable as we can for the kids and our staff are there any questions on those I think that's the the main thing I wanted to make sure that the board had that information and we're free to talk about this or to ask questions as it's on the agenda are there any questions or concerns or comments okay did you have Mr grenal did you have some uh just just are you you're going to practice the evacuation to the junior high but not the one to snowflake correct okay correct yeah that'll that'll learn you'll learn a lot from that yeah yes sir we and we have had a we did an evacuation drill with staff without students from the main camp Camp us to the elementary school to get organized and kind of learn what we learned and we did and even without students it's a it's a bit of a trick so yes sir that's correct we will use the shelter in place before the evacuation I would imagine uh in the uh fall I'll give a gift of Jonathan he'll be able to probably do an evacuation in 2025 26 at some point probably without kids at first identifying the area and W staff and then we'd be more prepared in the event that that occurred and we'll take all this information too and we'll make sure that Jonathan is on boarded and any new staff members are on boarded to this on the 4th of April Jesus via Hermosa is going to come back um I know Michael's had that training many of the staff members out there has had Jesus's training before he's an exceptional presenter will post a possible Quorum which invites the board to come um without any worry of violation of open meeting laws if you'd like to participate it is uh it's a very engaging three and a half or four hours he is the best presenter I think I've ever I've ever um been able to see or participate in the crowd he does a great job that will be at the church and the church by the way provides that space at no cost to us and they are terrific partners and we'll have that on the 4th that evening we may have a community meeting in the past we just haven't had those very well attended but because of the fire season we might actually get the participation our firefighters and law enforcement has invited us to have a community meeting to just share information and say please please if we're in evacuation please do not rush to the school traffic is going to be horrible and you're just going to make it more desperate for everybody just UST us that we have a plan and your child is safe where they become less safe is when they just start driving home and taking off and not even sure where the fire is or in the event of any kind of um critical incident at any of the schools truly the worst thing to do is for a parent to get in their vehicle and Rush down there it's the first normal response but that's where the teachers training and the staff their training kicks in and these are people without an exception that will risk their life to protect children and they will they will are those kids will be protected and taken care of that I know I just know that about Educators and so that is the safety Focus that we'll have in the spring we also yes sir yes yes thank you Kimberly for pointing out our safety school safety officer safety resource SSO for eight years we've been making an effort to acquire an a school resource officer we've had the grant twice and couldn't hire the person that hiring process is a participation between the district and the city or the town the town hasn't been able to find one now we actually have a resource where the state allows off-duty officers to work and for the grant dollars to be used for those officers that is a blessing we have three and so we'll have and we have had a presence at each of our school each of our schools and it is uh in addition to the other things that the town does by the way on the passing periods before and after school and a presentent during the school there's they're not here always because there's a problem normally they're here because they I told them any you know anytime you can park and do paperwork or come over please come in so we've partnered very well with the police department locally but this grant an effort through Kimberly and her team will allow us to have these officers and provide another level of protection and First Response are there any questions with that think it's a good thing yes sir I don't have any other items but if there's anything that I left out there anybody would like to ask a question I would I would say as a general update go ahead I just have one is it the same SSO and SRO at the at the schools that they stay there the whole year or do they or do they rotate through I um so when it's an SSO it's an off-duty officer um right now we've only had officers from Apache County and Navajo County they're the people that have contracts with the Department the Arizona Department of Education um but they they're pretty much the same people but they're not always the same people they kind of rotate through because they're working on their off day this is overtime for them um but it sounds like we had we meet we talked about it this morning it's essentially the same officers over and over and over again which is great um if we do get an SRO through Pinetop Lakeside PD that will be the same person um they are working on that now diligently um but in the meantime we'll have these like essentially revolving officers I've got great feedback um from the principals about how they're interacting with the students and Junior High kids really like it yeah that that was the reason I mean if they can if they have relationships with the students then they know if something's off or something like that so yeah incidentally Mr grenal the presence of our Law Enforcement Officers has been consistent enough the older kids are fairly much aware of who they are because they've seen them around on campus and those that have been assigned to work with our students with our staff they really are exceptional humans I mean you you read in a very you know in a real rare incident where the officer didn't step in and protect these children these officers would they are amazing they're amazing people and our principles have worked very closely I I want to commend Chief Dan for his help uh Chief Barnes has just done an exceptional job of getting us resources and so have the officers they really they make every effort to get out here and provide help for us and they cooperate during we have large scale events they're always here so the town's been a very good partner in this aspect of our of our support I just wanted to bring that to the board's attention and that uh concludes my report Mr Merill thank you I know this isn't on the agenda but I'd like kind of an update on spring Sports if we're having good participation in baseball track softball if we were having good student participation this year so yesterday was our first day February 10th we we start competitions uh coming up here the the last week of February we we actually start track meets and baseball games our our baseball softball scrimmage is actually next week against Pac numbers right now track we had about 67 kids today um and we're still waiting on some kids from the play some girls that are in basketball some boys that are taking some time to come out from basketball uh baseball I want to say they're up in the mid 20s 25 26 and last I checked girl softball I want to say we were 12 as of today so we're trying to boost our numbers with with girls softball right now um off to a pretty good start we had great weather last week and then this week it decided to change on us a little bit so we're excited about that out there having fun together freezing um winter sports can I do a quick report on winter sports real fast how we how we kind of finished up boys were 2 and 15 on the season they you know had some adversity this year struggled with some injuries and sickness and some other things that they dealt with they started off really hot played great in some tournaments and then as they got into region play uh experienced some difficulty they did have a great game uh one of their last home games of the year against sholo here where we won by 30 plus points and we had a player go off in the third quarter and have nine three-point uh three-point shots so it was it was quite the quite the night for that our girls went 5 and 13 on the year they made the playoff they're the number 20 22 seed uh they're going to be traveling to Yuma Catholic on Thursday for a playing game so um if we had a private plane we would Charter that but they're going to take the bus and head down there to play they play 700 p.m.

pledge aliance pleaseed algi to the of the United States of America and to rep Sorry Miss here Mrs Mr M Mrs Allan here Mr here so with that we're going to have our study session with the honorable Greg [Music] schuber okay so every year the auditor General's office issues a u a Financial Risk analysis for every District it's based on about nine 10 different factors um this year we brought it to the board's attention this year because there are some things in in the report that are rather unpleasant and things that we are going to have to have serious discussions so that we can correct these um I'm sorry so one of the categories is change in weighted student count um our one-year change over the previous year was 0.4% and our average over the last four years is 1.3% so what this basically means is we aren seeing any growth we aren't seeing any um loss of students we are basically a FL yes when those new houses be built south of can be our school district where do we get there'll be 400 houses going in there and it's non AG restricted south of Cano where where south of Cano um off the interstate on the West Side the we 400 homes built there towards mon distance between um model and re it's really going to depend on exactly where because our lines and sural line is yeah it really depends on where the development actually is but yeah open they become I just 400 do you know specifically you know where Montana is I can't answer I can find out for sure is the development going to be to the east of that road if that's the east of that road then that's in our district if it's the west of that road then seros remember goes around our district and then incorporates araka and Amada so that's kind of where that cut off is but then you get to the end of monana V Road and draw a line imaginary line right Road straight back to the interstate and that's our that's our District boundary in that it's going to be based off of Madera Highlands kind of specs is what they're wanting single family homes in there which so be non AG restricted and a lot of those people will be working for South 32 in pagonia that's kind of their their housing District going be have the permits been negotiated yet I mean it's been in the newspaper it's been I don't know think in rooftop just I'm just thr that out there that there could be possibly some kids hopefully from that District so the the good news is though is that the um you know we haven't had growth and loss and there's a lot of schools that have lost a lot of enrollment um across the state especially in Kinder first second I mean we see the trend here as well but because students leave and then students come in so it's usually three out the door three in so uh we have been pretty stable and this also comes back to budgeting so that when we come back and we say that we Vegas our budget off of kids that's pretty close to where we're going to be and saying if we're going to get 700 to 20 know let's face it it's a pike tree we open for 705 yeah so and we would have made it if we didn't lose kids so we are gaining kids I I'm doing tours every single day the problem is kids are moving out of the district out of the state and and when we're doing our budgets we're using this historical data to say look over the last five years we've gained a total of nine kids we thought that at least I did the new section in Manda Islands add doesn't and two years ago when that was going in we did plan for that but it just it never materialized where did those kids go there aren't there really wasn't a whole lot of kids they real little I see the little ones running around and the other ones are getting old so they're nice and even with the change in our boundary that we found out recently that's an age restricted area also so that were kids but that's the area she's talking about it's soua there I would I think those students are probably end up being Salas and go to so but we'll double check if they put it right up next to the Canoa golf course in that area right back in there which is what I'm that's what I what I'm thinking I think that falls in our area that because those taxpayers are right in that area right next to it so that's that's going to be it depends where the wash is that cuts the line to the South so this so this area we're not at risk according to the auditor general go to the sorry Oh no you're fine you're fine because because it it comes into play with what we were talking about all right so this is our budget limit Reserve I okay um if this 109 59 for 2024 yep is that the carryover into 2025 that's the carryover into this yes so the numbers on the left that is the amount of money that we carried over into the next school year so to to break it down if our budget was $5 million for this school year with our carryover our budget would have been 5,195 okay so that's how that work work so in order to remove ourselves from this high-risk category there's a couple things that we should that we need to think about we need to think about a getting our Reserve back to that 350 375 area um we also need to look at um when we're looking at raises you know you know not doing what's going to put us at this $100,000 remaining at the end of the school year making sure that we keep that 345 350 um buffer at the end of the school year and that's per formula the yes yes because what they say is right now if something were to happen we could couldn't cover the expect the sharp drop looks to be about $250,000 which is what cut from our budget last year is that where it came from is that why it dropped so much well so also remember we didn't do raises um so yeah that it doesn't it doesn't help you know so by not doing raises and having to cut 250,000 out it left us at $19,000 okay um there's a couple of ways to address this um we can take a look at Staffing we can take a look at like I said earlier doing raises and not budgeting it raises down to where we have almost nothing left at the end of the year the only way we're going to get out of this highrisk category is to get our numbers back into this area so if you remember in the past when staff and board members would look at the number of the 760,000 or the 361,000 and we weren't giving raises to the staff where we were very conservative in terms of that it was for this reason that you know if we don't have the carry forward and there's an emergency and we can't we don't have the funds to take care of it if the air conditioning goes down or you know something happens with building and we don't have the funds so when the audit in general looks at this amount they it marks us as high risk a district that's high risk because of the low amount of carry forward that we have but you will see there is an anomaly in 2021 that was my first fiscal year here and not knowing how the year you know progresses within this district and expenses towards the end of the year and everything else I was very fiscally conservative you're saying good I was saying a lot of notes but that is there for this reason it's it's done with this in mind is making sure that at the end of the year we have the finances to meet all of our obligations and covered anything that comes up you know out of the you know that's not out of the North are so the question is with the budget limit Reserve if we because it's a fouryear average so if we maintain 109,000 carry forward for the next three years will that get us out of high risk it won't because it's still less than 1% of our budget okay we need to keep it in that 350 to 375 range to keep it out Ste in that 2021 Greg pointed out she said a lot of I also want to point out that was Co so we Wen running buses everywhere all over the place there was a lot of things that are normal day-to-day basis that we weren't doing because we that was that Co time so that also plays into that the year matches that where obviously you're not going to spend as much but you don't have the kids on campus we we also had special funding for a lot of things yes we we spent as funding on a lot of stuff which allow larger number I find it a little sick that the state took $250,000 from us late last year well you also have to remember we do that to ourselves by not budgeting towards that number on the previous slide as as we keep saying you know well let's budget for 720 kids well I can do that but we're going to lose it but we're going to Lo it it's better to budget for the six and 85 yeah and not have to worry about it but are controversy with that before was if we do get the students the state won't give us more funding it's a wash so that's where we kind of toyed with okay let's shoot for more let's be conservative and know that if we don't have numbers we're going to have to reimburse it so that was kind of of our approach so does anybody have any questions on this piece I mean it's a study session so it's open for questions concerns clarification so this is the exact same as the previous slide except for this is District additional Assistance or our capital budget um as you can see we are fairly consistent within our capital budget about how much we are are carrying over um the first two years we carried over you know $100,000 each year um but also remember since 2020 and since in 2021 school year we've been doing a lot of work around the district getting buildings fixed fixing there's been a lot of Maintenance that has gone into the buildings into the vehicles and things like thater maintenance comes out of the capital yes and also remember that when we bought the buses those GRS also come out of capital have two years left yes and we won't be getting as many for the same price so this is this is our Reserve Revenue so what this is telling us is that our 2023 audited we had 8.3 million in revenue and 7.8 in expenditures are un audited for 2024 which the audit begins this well we've already been sending stuff but they'll be here on Tuesday um we spent 5.4 million on $4 million of Revenue so they haven't taken into account all of the um the federal grants they haven't taken into account a lot of those granted we don't have $1.4 million in Grants but um about how much do we have in pending grants in federal grants [Music] just I know um we've approved what of the the maintenance F stuff okay so but has it come through yet right so so are those hitting the books those said the book because it shows that we spent $185,000 for some Plumbing work but it doesn't show the revenue until they do the audit to see yes they received the $185,000 okay about how much is outstanding there as of right now there's about $180,000 outstanding so we're still running about 1.2 deficit according yeah but also it doesn't take into account the payments of rce for all grants so Ida um esdaa so once they actually do our audit it'll it'll show up a lot better we be back with the Positive cash flow or it still be negative it should it should be fairly close it should be fairly close I think there's about another 1.2 outstanding all right so this is the change in fund balance so we had in our 22 to 23 audit $443,000 in our ml cash account County Treasurer the unau UN audited balance isga 1.3 remember that in the November December time frame that $2 million that was improperly coded to ml went to Capital so that's why you're seeing a 1.3 deficit right now that deficit is just over a million dollars so we are working on getting that down um but this will not correct itself until we actually have a positive cash balance and part of that also comes back to not keeping $100,000 at the end of the school year so since that was a county treasure error the auditor general doesn't care doesn't care they just report the numbers because it was the county treasurer's office because that happened to other a lot of schools that got the reimbursement it's the board's responsibility to understand that not right so that that was my original question was even though it was the county treasur error still reflects negatively on us in terms of what aitor general because the auditor general doesn't care who made the error because the numbers are the numbers so Capital money is redirected to operations as you can see we would have been fine but we did move $161,000 out of it into Capital that amount covers our our lease purchase payment okay our capital budget this year was only $390,000 after we cut with the December revision so that is why this is listed as a high risk if we wouldn't have done that we wouldn't have any Capital Money remaining as of last month right so that means that when a bus loses a transmission that bus is just done so they're thinking we should keep more operation funds their so their point is is you should be keeping your Capital money in your capital budget you should be leaving your money in your M account if anything you should be transferring Capital to M and not vice versa now remember we can only do this once and that's at at our budget adoption and once it's done it's done we can't we can't unring the Bell so here's a good one small school budget limit adjustment we don't qualify we are too big of a district to qualify um we would have to have a district that had roughly 250 kids or less to qualify for this so just wanted to put that out there as you know a piece of good news the next one here's another piece we do not have a fro tax rate um so as as you guys know property taxes is what pays is how the district gets paid um the current tax rate that we have is enough to cover our budget um if more housing is coming in unfortunately that means that yes we will still be able to cover our budget we may be able to drop the tax rate but we will be shipping more money off to the state because our budget depending on you know kids coming in our budget isn't going to adjust much from that point isn't our tax rate already being adjusted up it's low no no well so our tax rate is artifici it's artificially inflated the minimum tax there's a minimum tax rate that there has to be and our tax rate is the minimum tax rate so yeah we actually have one of the lowest tax rates in the state are we still giving back about 440 we're not giving back that much but we are giving back 4050 [Music] Grand Greg where in this report is um is it reported the loss of students from the high school that we used to get funds for it's not the only thing that's in there go [Music] back so right here that's about the only place that you're going to see with the with the loss um unfortunately you know there isn't a 22 audited that they list but this is where you can see that you know the budget you can just if you just look at the expenditure amount you can see that that's down over 2 million it's down $2.4 million and we were paying Serita right around 1.9 for High School tuition and we were using that extra as a buffer as well as using that to give out raises in December knowing that we weren't paying you know $2.3 million in tuition but this is as far as this report goes this is about the only spot you're going to see anything related towards that that reduction fund and after the audit it's starting soon how long until they adjust our numbers you'll see it on our next repor next year yeah next year okay that that comes out at so our big two things is we need to our reserves by quite a bit as well as something with our operation bu and they go hand in hand sure do we have an action plan for building back the reserve it's seems like a very Steep and I you we lost that big that overage that we had with the high schoolers um we had to use a lot of the reserve last year we are not gaining students um we didn't do raises last year so is that something you want to do your where's the money so that's where we really have to look at um districts that are in this position right we have to really recruit and get more students somehow um hopefully you know those homes are ours because we generate more funding by students that's how we get our ADM so if our students don't increase then it's um we're looking at being overstaffed right the problem has been we used to be um staffed with more students and now we have the reverse we're overstaffed with less students so um you know we need to increase our revenue and get our get our um kids get more kids to come in yeah our staffing was fine for a $7 million budget it's not fine for a $5 million budget so you need 30 to 40 students right we get fall apart by the time you add all the various forms of funding comes to about 10,000 you figure it's about about $9,000 per five months to do it hard can okay so just so you know our 100th day has passed any kid that comes in we don't get paid and and if you want to look at it a little bit more terribly those kids that came in like the beginning of January beginning of December those weren't even full students those are Rec we need to get them here when school starts yeah and the kids come to us have to stay here instead of getting $9,000 for that student yeah so instead of getting 9,000 we got 2800 and also looking at Open Enrollment you know prior to eight years ago when when I became superintendent open enrollment was frozen and we were not accepting any kids so if you remember we slowly started adding and adding staff kids and that's a huge do we for open enrollment so we have open enrollment on our on our U website we put a sign we're ordering the sign out there that says now accepting open enrollment think that will only target people going to Canyon like picnics can we do like can we boost um pay to boost Facebook posts so we attract um maybe stan9 yeah Rancho Santas and we had talked about last year at Transportation right to see when we did our Kinder Roundup and said we're accepting kids from saita did we get one family Mrs web us that came from that from that night one or two and they've been transporting their kids here but we talked about again if we had more students then that would justify transportation and a route so try to figure that out how many students let's say [Music] inos um how many students would we need in order to get a transportation for them have we got 10 students in that neighborhood Steve what do you think if we had how many more students could me from M Royals area to transport like to actually offer transportation and I had a call from Dr valuel yesterday because one of his board members said that we don't transport to saita that we only transport to Walden and um but the conversation is we drive right by SAA um after we drop off at Walden we drop off and then we have special need students we do and we don't but that ultimately that decision to take high schoolers there doesn't increase our budget here at all so that actually spends more money from the budget instead of brings it back to our district to transport them to high school that we don't get compensated the way the way Transportation that's partially right partially not because the way we get trans compensated for buses is mileage and per student that's why we use student counts the bus drivers remember when we were kids but they're doing that for safety so they know how many kids are on the bus but we have to report those numbers to the state and then reimburse us so we we we kind of get paid for that but ultimately it's not the best move there well I'm thinking like if we can uh attract a handful of kids from one of these neighborhoods they say oh could we ride the bus we say well get 10 more of your friends to sign up and we've actually talked about like off of all mind those neighborhoods right along we talked originally a couple years ago about Rancho I I believe that's the wrong move I think that's going to the North End of serita's boundary I say we start with the neighborhoods like even old no Dallas those houses that everybody Drives By Creek those are seren if I live in those houses I would prefer my kids to come here and so you know the ones right right there by the cons before you h oh yeah those are notri you think they are not so wellek that cut off um and so if we targeted those areas if we targeted if we started targeting some of those which we already have quite a few families in there UMO like behind Sprout what what is that yes so that's that's our boundary line that's not in our jurisdiction but it's right next door those are the neighborhoods um targeting behind Walmart right those are the ones that I would recommend because they don't cost us anymore to transport or we have buses already that drive by it yeah so to get to the main road so you're driving Qui it you go to Rancho and you're going out of our way so if we advertise those areas we can advertise Transportation the the the answer to that is it's a political game so we can basically take our buses on any public road anywhere so if we decid to Target a neighborhood in Tucson we could go up to Tucson transport kids here sure you're going to make enemies with neing districts because you're taking away their revenue and so keep in mind Ser district is our neighbors we have a good working relationship with them um when you intentionally Target taking away other kids from their budget you're not going to make a lot of friends um having said that we have a lot of kids in there already that have made the choice could we transport them to make it more convenient for them yes would fellow neighbors see the buses in there and see that they have a choice yes um legally can we go in there with our buses yes it's a public roadway they can't stop us from going into any jurisdiction right Serita is owns the majority of Madera they own Madera Highlands right it's a their city limits and we take our bus there so that's that's not a problem there's a bigger problem that we're not talking about which is do we have the buses do we have the drivers right now we're on a Bare Bones trying to just get the kids that we already have here so we're talking about a pipe frame when I can't guarantee our families that we've had to call in and say hey you're gonna have to wait 30 minutes for us to get a bus out and get back because we're short drivers and I'm driving and everybody else and so and we are one of the lowest paying districts and I know it's money right we're one of the lowest paying districts for bus drivers in the state so for us we have drivers here that are amazing because they're dedicated to our district they are not relying on the paycheck most drivers are relying on that paycheck so if we increase an hour what up five five bucks yeah about like four to five bucks an hour we're belowa now so for us to do that we have to fix that for us to get drivers to be able to and it's goes back to you got to spend M spend money to make money right that's the business model but is is that the answer I don't know the buses that go by those neighborhoods right now are maxed out so I I can't put more than five kids on any additional bus that we have um that's going to our North Boundary because those are my full buses right so back to the buses that get the head count the high school buses more yes sir the revenue that we get off of those is that offsetting our cost how close are we it's going to be the business managers so what it does is we get the mileage that we drive for the high schools RS and then we also collect half of the capital dollars that we would have that we used used to be receiving for that so for that number of students so the answer is actually yes we are coming out ahead it does matter when we're transport transporting our our high schoolers is it enough ahead to pay a driver $21 an hour to match the r no and we've discussed in the past if you remember umut the high school kids loose and say Serita needs to transport and we were looking at doing that because that would free up to of our drivers because we're running two buses for the high school right now just to get our own kids in our district to and from and I hate to look at the high school kids is not in our district but at this point because of the change was made they're not technically they're not our students anymore so we're not getting compensated for them but we are transporting them because they live inside of our district foundaries which doesn't also get we are not legally bound but by cutting that out we lose another 26,000 if that's what we looked at it would it would be a bigger hit to our budget to lose and to be clear we're not we're not legally required to provide any transportation to any our students unless it's identified on their IEP and so that's a very small handful of kids but the reality is that's business too we want kids to come in our school we would lose a lot of kids if we didn't transport so we we need to continue to provide a very good Transportation which I believe that we do and we've gone for our ups and downs with hiring and things of that nature um in quality of buses which we several years ago got five new buses which really helped alleviate that and so it's just it goes back to it's to fix your problem you got to spend money and that's we don't have so I have two other quick little things um on open enrollment if we pull out the staff's kids that are here what areas are they coming from or the bulk of them coming from and then maybe that's the area that we focus on first as far as recruiting is we have kids from r that are on open enrollment we have some from Tucson actually that come in from Tucson whose parents work at um you see HC um they come here quite a few from Rancho area you know not like in one neighborhood Rancho is a really big place but they're kind of they're spread out in there yeah it's not a cluster it's it's spread and then isn't with all that new Rancho building because I know a few teachers that are over at um Bry and they're full and they're going to be Fuller you know is there if you haven't been through wal then they're doing expansions on the buildings right now because they already out grown their capacity so they're trying to core constructions in the middle of a of building additional room has it ever been I'm just thinking out loud since we have a little time of saying hey we'll take the kids Behind Sprouts or whatever and let's just say there's 50 and just move our districts I think that's easier seven number can we borrow those kids and so you have for well is in the same situation probably um they're in a situation where they're looking at again they're losing students they're not getting the funding that they were getting for the kids for their loss so they're starting to look at also um not hiring teachers who retired through attrition right they're they're trying to tighten up their budget as well because they don't have the students to maintain um what they're doing so maybe it would be worth approaching them with that hypothetical if we take that small neighborhood behind Sprouts where we already have buses going it would alleviate their construction needs to build more buildings but you're a huge part I'm going to tell you what it is because our boundaries between us and Serita are horrific so if you look at it um seren's School District boundary is shaped like a sea that encompasses our district which is ridiculous it doesn't make sense we in reality we should have all of elephant head but we have a road that we drive through Serena's District to get to the one road and know head that we have and it just doesn't make sense for transportation years ago we looked at redoing that it's not going to happen easily because one of two things have to happen um one is you can't just change District boundaries because it changes the tax rate none of our voters are going to vote to take in additional kids from Sera because it will increase their taxes so that's that's the challenge that we faced before Miss Rico came in this was a conversation that we had way before of how do we fix the boundaries and that's why is the taxpayers are not going to make that vote to change our district boundaries because they really don't care the shape of our district um in the ease of that but they do really care about the increase to their taxes and if they um vote themselves into the Serita District right so where they live is now in the Serita District now they're paying for all of the kids that attend the Ser School District which is a lot more than our 650 yeah right and so that's where you're going to run into those issues um so that's it's not such an as easy as that and then the second way when we did that research is the state comes in and says you can no longer operate and they shut you down and then they can change your District boundaries by having another District swallow you up um and so that's not what we want to do with our lovely School District there's a reason why people want to come here open enrollment and that's because of our small size um and the quality of Education our smaller classroom sizes our transportation department that that functions very well those are the reasons why people want to go here so we don't we don't want to be swallowed up and become a part of 3 uni School dist yes what are the demographics of the the 700 homes that to within they are in an age restricted area so we didn't gain any students from from that change and the influx of kids who are coming and going I failed to mention that they're um foster kids so we have a lot of foster parents in our community now that are fostering kids and they have them for maybe you know two three weeks and then they go back to their schools or their place back in their homes so that's the the entering and withdrawing that's happening at school as well what's the percentage do you think go foster kids that be gosh I don't know if I could give it an exact number but I do know we've had a few Foster families recently where reunification was possible thing busness and that the um reunified parent actually got a house in the area and are trying to open R their students here so there are some of those kids that we are holding on to but unfortunately like Mrs Rico said some of it's out of our control and the fact of their parents might live in Tucson or they might live in you know the Phoenix area or something like that they were down here with Grandma Grandpa temporary B temporary a lot of temporary placements and then they but for every story like that you get the the parent mom and child moved here from Florida to get away from an issue and issue got resolved day and a half later they're moving back to floor literally parent two are in a day and a half later the child's been withdrawn so it's we can't control who moves in and who moves out necessarily to to a large degree um and you know those those stories are no result a lot of times they leave it's no result of the school of quality it's just life happens when you get a job transfer get a job transfer um when you get evicted from your home you've got to find a place to live and maybe here with um this St happens a lot you move here temporarily with Grandma and Grandpa and say you get back on your feet because we live in our district boundaries the majority of it is a RCT and that's always a challenge and so we see that where they come in and then eventually the parents get back on their feet and they get a house Tucson right in wherever and they off they go at no fault of our own but that's just part of those we're also looking at our preschool kids right because they a lot of kids that are here in preschool we get maybe 10 8 to 10 that are going to start here as Kinder I have 17 to 20 children who are going to kindergarten in um some of those kids are here in enrollment I have several families whose parents are teachers in s they bring them here for preschool and then they want them where they are teaching for when they start elementary school so I have 17 to 20 probably about 10 of [Music] those I think it's definitely worth exploring more ways to increase Revenue before we look at cutting costs yeah we've got to really sit down and instead of just begging gray is figure out where we get $250,000 without too much pay and um do we have a a goal of when we would like to get that that rollover balance back up to 35375 we like to do it by the end of 26 well it's not going to happen this year no no how how aggressive are we going to approach it from my standpoint should but from my standpoint the next budget that I present to you I'd like to be working towards that yeah and unfortunately it will and I'm making assumptions based upon you know the past I am assuming that the amount of an increase that we're going to receive from the state in our funding formula is not going to cover the increase in the cost of living okay I I'm making that assumption so so with that being said I could see another here where we don't do arrays simply because we need to get back to those types of numbers and if we did do a raise it's almost a slap in your face raise and what I mean by that is I can give you half our percent yeah that is almost insulting and that's not where I want to be and again again we keep with our title funds and with our grants funding and you know working with in collaboration with free to be able to receive the grant so that we can continue to operate and offer our students viable curriculum and a well balanced education so it's just um are there things that we could reevaluate on the capital outl schedule science curriculum coming so we're in a good place with curriculum because we have our read our math for one place that we haven't um really looked at is the science adoption because we've been kind of holding off we know that we needle school um so you know we've been really trying to optimize the resources that we have um so that it's not to budget I don't think I've seen the maybe in and so I think we're we're in a pretty good place when it comes to curriculum and what we you know have been able to purchase students as far as theal funding goes I I think the items that we would need capital for were in a good place um the items that we would use that we normally use that for on everyday basis is Furniture you know when we have to buy new desks new chairs when we have to buy new computers because you know there computer are cyclical you know we have a group of computers that will no longer be supported at the end of the school year that replaced um the the the hardest part about it is you know take out the lease purchase payment that we have on the buses is that catastrophic bus F you know we had a turbo go in one of our buses that blew metal into the rest of the engine so now it's you know 40,000 lb paper but the least pay if something happen to correct yeah those buses are still under warranty and else thank you thank you Greg and thank you everyone and thank you for those of you that were here to listen to our to our report okay we'll take a if you are here for um our Cults of the month students please come up and give Miss Jenna your name oh and we have Miss Miss is already going around packing them out there's also cookies in the back so you can grab a cookie napkin and we [Music] re by hard no [Applause] I'm [Music] that's [Music] it's look at it like this state gives us spe [Music] GL but here's the [Music] we [Music] I for [Music] Happ [Music] ni [Music] all right well welcome everybody we're going to pick back up we just finished a study session over the auditor General's findings it was you got here earlier you could have seif so with that our next step is to um approve our agenda Mrs yes Mrs Allan yes Mr yes and next is approve the minutes from our January 14th I'll make a motion to approve the January second yes Mr a yes sorry Miss Alan yes and we have call the public look like it moving right along so we're gonna have two reports from our superintendent and the principal report and then we'll get to you guys take it all right good evening president a members of the board members of the community and our amazing Cults we have some exciting things to show you for our February board report so as you know as they're bringing it up our uh theme for the year is our friends theme so this is episode seven the one where kindness is in the air with love of reading and Valentine's Day and our sweetheart Gayla so a lot of things to be proud of okay our sweetheart G was a huge success and I'd like to um special shout out to our Continental Education Foundation for all of their hard work it was a beautiful evening and true Testament of a c a continental family community United um our sponsors increased by 5 to $6,000 this year we worked really hard getting new sponsors and new um members to join us to contribute so there's a special shout out to Miss Bonnie CL and juli who are on the left of the slide and then then Mr Dick Roberts that's there with Mrs wellas and I he was a board member here at Continental and he actually started the foundation more continental and we celebrated our 20 25th year anniversary of the foundation so um truly when you think about our community and how committed they are to our students and to our families and staff Mrs uh clar and Mrs ceri don't have children here anymore their kids are already older graduated from college but they are truly they continue to stay committed to the success of our school uh which we are so appreciative of we also did a um the staff voted on who was going to be the teacher of the year and our parro the year so Mrs deoy our Middle School Ela teacher and Miss Kim stff stary of Paro received um the award for the year and they each received $500 from the foundation so they were very excited about that and uh we also there's some of our Kids In Action there and our members of the rotary that are there at the bottom left it's not showing yet but the 5050 drawing went for $516 so um one of our rotarians from B the rotary who are also major supporters ended up winning um the $500 so it was a beautiful [Music] time we really do have a presentation for you okay and I'll just continue with the report and we can get the pictures but we had an ad assisted technology team um came to present last month Mrs Suarez plan for the h assisted technology team to come to Continental for a make and take professional development uh they made a lot of visual V visual schedules adapted book holders and much more um for the students that they serve so it was a really neat you can see pictures up there of the make it make and take it session they so thank you Mrs Suz where's mrsz okay she stepped out um I attended a tech power and Equity conference in Phoenix and we talked about how to select launch and evaluate Pilots of AI teaching and learning tools um as you all know AI is just huge and up and coming the state has guidelines for schools on AI implementation there's a lot of resources for um teachers to use and uh so we are developing a task force and we'll soliciting input from our parents from our parent advisory parents I did a u meeting with our student advisory kids and with our staff on just what do you know about AI um have you used any AI programs are your parents using AI so it was really interesting and fun to see where they are so we'll be developing plan for that um and at that conference they just talked about the power of setting our leadership brains on fire and literally my head felt like it was on fire because there's so much to learn and know and read but um the staff always says yep you send the boss to a training and she comes back and everybody's on fire now because we all have a lot of learning to do to keep up with um best practices for our students and for our teachers and there we have the student advisory and staff meeting that we had where I um mentioned that we met with to talk about different things of AI and so we're talking about all these programs and I don't know parents how many of you have used chat GPT okay what about Gamma there's a gamma program that's there on the bottom there's something called napkin there's also something called CLA there's notebook LM and then there's magic school for teachers so all those are programs that I had heard of two of chat GPT and magic school but like I said there's a lot to learn about what's out there for us to um explore okay our tax credit update uh super excited about that and we've been making a plea on everybody get your tax credit money in asking our teachers to try to get um the parents of the clubs that they participate in to um to donate tax credit and I'm so happy to say that up to date we've received $156,000 427 of tax credit funds which is an increase of 48,000 from last year so we use tax credit money for all of our clubs Sports tutorials um to pay our sponsors and to buy material that those clubs need and that our athletic department needs as well so thank you parents for um your contributions and if you know people who still haven't donated their tax credit please send them our way uh school project updates again um we reported last month that we had 11 open projects so um there's a report from Mr Greg that the roofing and weatherization projects have been submitted but sfb the school facilities board is not going to be funding any more projects this year so we'll have to wait to see for next year and then our cafeteria SE lines I don't know if kids went to home to talk to you about it but the project has a new um a new complication there's a crack in one of the grease traps and a collapse line from the grease trap to the main sewer so a structural engineer is needed before the project can move forward so we're working on that do we know what is that com okay uh we had the baby goats came to visit preschool and kindergarten class which is always a highlight so there you see our preschool kids with Dr Robinson there on the left and the baby goats and then um I was able to catch a baby goat so that mrsas could cuddle with the Little Goat there on the right hand side so that was a fun did you roke it no I didn't I actually had to just catch it on foot they're really cute you have a career fair Mrs and Mrs Alonso attended the U OFA career fair so we are not anticipating the need of too many new teachers as we just spoke about in our budget um but we do need still a school psychologist we we will be needing a music teacher so we're just kind of like to go to the fairs to see who's out there just in case they're sh changes in the summer our dual language enrichment team we went to visit some schools in Enix so four dual language teachers went along with Mrs weas and I and um we learned so much from the schools we got a lot of information and ideas and we're excited to continue our collaboration and our refinement of the program and we we saw students who have been in dual language since first grade and Kinder who were actually doing projects giving feedback in Spanish presenting in Spanish reading complex text highlighting words so it was very exciting because we you know we've always known that it's possible so we're really trying to just enhance our program to make sure that our students do leave Continental bilingual biliterate and that they can read and write in Spanish as well love of reading week it's not too late to sign up to read in a classroom We Love Our Guest readers and our volunteers so there we have our read with the dog program that comes we had um I try to get into every single class to read this week so I think I read to about 10 classes yesterday it's a fun time there's some more pictures we're using our outdoor reading piece garden and of course our rotarians love this time of year where they come to read to the students as well generation schools network was here today our continued professional development for our teachers talking about depths of knowledge and questioning um we talk about how to um increase the level of rigor in the lessons that teachers are presenting so um it was a good training that we had today and I also went to an avid meeting this morning on return on investment as you know we are an avid school so we're really talking about how well we articulate our vision for instruction at our school and um as Leaders how and how often are we communicating that Vision to the staff and how do we know if our staff is clear on the instructional Vision so we'll continue our school Improvement efforts and level up leadership level up our leadership upcoming events jazz in the desert by the rotary mark your calendars and then we're super excited about our Continental musical Alison Wonderland that will be here April 4th and 5th and I know that we have grandparents coming flying in from out of state to to come watch some of our kids in this musical thank you have a great evening and have a Happy Valentine's Day appreciate it [Music] good evening everyone evening so my principal's report is very sweet and me sweet well it could be sweet but it's short and sweet um it's about our winter Benchmark data for middle of the Year assessments that we just took for district benchmarks so just to let you know this first slide is for reading we want to see a whole lot more blues and greens when you look at the yellows they could either go into the greens or head into the partially proficient areas um when I first started here as a team the team here and you're a part of the team has been working really hard with getting our students out of the red area which is minimally proficient so for they're at middle of the year we want to see them near the 50s because there's percentiles because we are still have half a year of curriculum and standards that need to be taught so when we look at the projectiles the percentiles this is based off of in the nation so we're doing pretty good when we're in the 50s and up and we're projecting that we'd like to be near the 70s before the end of the school year that is our hope that is our goal and when we look at all of these tabs when we Mark when we click on these tabs the different colors it'll tell us as a site leadership and it tells the teachers which students are falling in those areas and what standards they need to go back and retach and what standards they're really the students are really progressing in getting an understanding so that helps us middle of year to continue to modify our instruction and go back to do retach and enrichment opportun for our students and then as you can see where we're at at math as well language usage is Grammar and Writing so many of your our students K K1 does not take language and usage they start that test in second grade so this is where they're looking at sentences they're looking at grammatical errors they're looking at punctuation and they're looking at sentences that that are given to them in questions to figure out how to find the errors and how to fix them and science we're doing pretty good too in that area we have currently Mrs Zabo she's our English language development teacher so so she works with students our population of students where English is not their first language so it could be various other languages that are their first language and she's helping them to gather those skills along with our teachers so that they're able to be English proficient right now State the state mandates that we do an aala spring test called AA or isella and she's finishing up that test with our students our students worked so hard and every year we have a good chunk of them who test out and are now proficient in English so we want to thank Mrs AEL and the team that's helping her right now with testing is Miss L and miss miss L Fleming and Mrs alen so and all of the teachers who've been on board cooperating and helping us to that testing part but this is State testing for the rest of the content that we teach and I I will be sending this home on the family Weekly Newsletter so you know the dates I know many vacations are planned and a lot of parents will ask you know when when is State Testing going to happen so for science State Testing only Fifth and eighth graders take that science date test and they'll be taking that in March and it's three parts and then we have writing so our aasa for writing oral reading fluency and Mathematics that all kicks off on um March 31st and we'll be testing for two weeks so we'll start on March 31st and we'll be finished the following Friday just like we did last year and those tests are only grades 3rd through eth so what we what do we do with this data we do data digs is what we call them when we get together as a site leadership team with our teachers and our support staff to analyze the winner data our teachers get to look at their specific classroom data grade level teams look at their overall grade level data and then we as a site leadership which is our math coaches our reading coaches our English language development teachers or special education director all of us come together to figure out how we can support the students progression and be able to implement any interventions that are needed so those are our next steps that we'll be doing now that we have this winter Benchmark middle of the Year data and um it's just that continuing and monitoring of student progression so I want to thank all of you students in here if we can give you all a round of applause because you're moving right along and it's so fun to walk around and see you in class learning teaching each other teaching us as the adults on campus so thank you for your hard work and we thank all of you families for supporting our Colts and everything that they do because they come to school ready prepared and they're making great success so just a few announcements if you didn't know already it's love of reading week and um we did send this link home in the Continental family Weekly News tomorrow is cozy up with the book so it's where you're pajamas Pajama Day Thursday's hats off to reading wear your favorite hat and Friday the 14th is our hearts love to read wear any type of Valentine's Day themed apparel we have math and science night tomorrow so it's family night we welcome all of you and your extended families to come and enjoy math Insight night it will be at from 4 to 5:30 and it'll be taking place in the cafeteria we have a lot of fun if you've never been there there's stations that are set up for Math and Science and you can interact in those stations with your with your Colts and there's Raffles and prizes and it is coordinated by our teachers so our teachers put that on and they've been working really hard to prepare for this night for you all and we have Continental Kindergarten Roundup which will be taking place next Tuesday from 4:30 to 6: p.m.

e e e welcome everyone today is day I keep forgetting welcome everyone today's day three of IBN um and I'd like to share our agenda I think all of you have a copy of our agenda for today I know okay how's that I know or do a little dance okay we're gonna adjust the agenda just a little bit because we have our speakers that are here right at 8 o'clock so we're going to actually um have them go first so we don't have to keep them waiting but before they start I did want to go over our process skills and if you could take a few minutes to read them I'll read them also team will complete a temperature check at the close of the meeting to protect individual opinions and perspectives and by the way I did put that in the PowerPoint so I would remember to do that um facilitator will list talking points agreed upon by team to Emily and Emily will request consensus in chat and then um we wanted to before we started to check on any time restraints so does anyone today have any time restraints Amy let's just go around [Music] here and I'm helping facilate they start at 2:30 so I'll okay Eve uh my daughter has volleyball practice so I need to leave at 3:45 okay I have a meeting um with executive team at 12:30 but I should be back by 1:30 so it's just a very short amount of time I'll be gone okay perfect I'm providing training to the educational secretary so I have to leave at 1 okay I have to leave at 3:30 okay I'm here transportation is short staff and I'll be driving at about little shortly afternoon afternoon yeah okay I'll be here yeah I'm good yeah I don't have any constraints I like how we all passing around the mic and so using the mics at the table but no time restraints now we have to pass it back okay okay so today we're fortunate to have our insurance team here and we have Jameson from okay and Darlene and they were here in past years and um so this is our time to learn and ask questions that may help us with developing our options so Jameson do you want to start and as we jump in uh there's a link on the agenda for today meeting notes for a folder that has all of the insurance information we're going to do a pretty high uh level overview of what is being presented as far as you know where we got where we are today with our health policy uh and there are some additional products that we can talk about after uh Darlene and Jameson are are through presenting uh so I wanted to make sure you knew that that was available to you and then you also have in your packet you should have this document uh and that's I believe what Jameson's going to start with right over you is it going to be presented up there too or just am I okay sounds good um so we will go off the first page here we call this the dashboard it brings everything and you're live yeah that's why I thought but okay um so this first um dashboard page kind of gives us everything that's going on uh in the top first section section one the first sentence lets us know what our overall increase is it's at coming in at a 4.23% uh to give some character around that um the average um increase right now was about 6.5 for Valley Schools um after plan changes we're expecting those to be closer to five um your all your plans aren't looking for any plan changes so the overall expected increase uh at this time is 4.23 so better than most actually a lot better the most so it's a good position to be in you'll see why how this breaks out your current uh funding rates have about $4.2 million uh for medical and RX your fixed expense which pays for United Health Care Services your stop loss in Valley Schools is 688,000 adding those together come to about 4.9 million when you look at the projection so my independent projection of claims was uh at 4.4 so about four 4.9% uh above uh your current when we look at our fixed expense it stayed the same so on a weighted average our new budget for next year is at 5.1 million so about 4.23% above our current funding below that is just your two plans and the current enrollment in each plans most plans are in that choice base um section two kind of just gives us some history so when we look at our 2024 plan year we had a 0% increase so that was just last year when we looked at our 2023 it was about a 7.2 which is the national average increase okay uh so you're you're just about around that in 2023 when we look at your loss ratio so this is what we budgeted compared to what we spent in 23 24 it ran at 85% so that means 15% better than expectations when I looked at claims that's supposed to say through December sorry through December um we were running at a 99% loss ratio so almost exactly what we've budgeted we've we've spent so far this year top right section four this tells us what is going on uh in your plan for um medical and Pharmacy so your top medical spend which is maternity not uncommon for schools um and neoplasm and then genitori system is the third and then your Pharmacy's diabetes inflammatory conditions so for those that don't know what that is uh that's going to be like your humas your Skyes so o um arthritis um Crohn's disease all those are all grouped into inflammatory conditions um and then your third on here is oncology which is cancer um section five does not have any impact to you guys section six shows you the trend I'm using is 7.1 for medical and 10.3 for pharmacy on the next page we're going to go through what's called high case normalization this is the process that we utilize in our underwriting methodology so uh when you are having a bad year if I apply Trend to it I'll potentially over project if you have a really good year I apply Trend to that I'll under project so this process kind of takes what did happen we remove it and put in what should have happened based off your demographics your demographics on this sheet it's the very top line is a 1.27 what that means is my database is a one factor your average age and gender mix is 27% more expensive than our average spend in the database that's mainly because you don't have a lot of dependence on your plan so you have mainly employees uh our database has a lot of dependence because we're a National Database uh with members across the country uh the way we do the normalization is we pull claims above 75,000 you buy a stop loss at 150,000 so we look at that first section uh 22 23 plan year you had an average membership of 695 so when I say membership that's employees spouses and children uh we are going to remove in my underwriting $796,000 when we look at your claims above your stop loss we had 334,000 when we look at your expected liability between 75 and 150 that's what we expected you to spend was 403 so in my underwriting I'm going to take out 796 put back in 403 which gives me a net underwriting adjustment of about $400,000 um when you look at the second time period And if you look at the table below you'll see some green at the lower Threshold at 25 to 75 and then right where I'm starting to pull claims out you're a little red you're not too red you're just a little bit above expectation uh in that area and you didn't have much severity either so severity is when you have what we call catastrophic claims so claims above 250,000 you have one that just went to 275 so not too bad when we we look at our prior year 23 24 membership stayed about the same so 692 members in this time period I'm going to take out 381,000 you only had 107 above stop loss we're going to put back in 437,000 which so we're just going to add a little back in that time period of five 56,000 you can see all grain in that time period that means you ran much better than our expectations so we want to make up for that a little bit because you'll always come back to your demographics and so far this year um you had a little drop in membership we're at 661 we're going to remove 128 in that time Peri time period put back in 219 have a net underwriting adjustment of $90,000 again that's just a partial Year we're only six months into that year that's typically what we see um in the start of a of a plan year any questions on normalization all right so this next page actually walks through the um the full underwriting U model for medical and Pharmacy so starting off on the medical side so that's Row one uh that's where we're bringing in our gross medical claims of 2.8 2.4 and 1.3 row two and three is that normalization we just talked about so row four is our Net medical claims after normalization of 2.4 2.4 4 and 1.4 row 9 and row four are the same we didn't need to make any adjustments um for projection purposes and then we want to convert everything to a per member per month that's kind of a unit cost in your uh medical plan the best way to do that is to add each month of the plan year of your membership and then divide it out by those claims it will convert it to a per member per month on row 11 in the first time period of 293 uh second time period 298 current time period of 352 and this next step is where will you apply Trend again 7.1 annual Trend but when you're applying um Trend to claims that are two years old what you do to mature those claims is you apply 7.1 to the midpoint to midpoint of the position you're analyzing to the position you're you're going to so analyzing 22 23 plan year um projecting for 25 26 there's 36 months midpoint to midpoint there so when you apply 7% annual Trend the 36 months to mature those claims you have to mature them now by 22% so you're going to add 22% to the 293 to get that first um period projection of 36017 second time period is 24 months midpoint to midpoint which is 14 %c to Trend the 298 to uh look like claims in 2526 from that time period is 342 Uh current time period is 15 months which is about 9% to the 352 maturing that to a pmpm of 380 386 the next step is to blend these um this also helps take out some volatility by blending them we're going to apply 20% to that first time period because it's the oldest we're going to apply 30% to the most recent completed time period and we're going to apply 50% to the most recent time period uh because our most recent time period is only six months we do what's called a membership weighted adjustment really what that means is we're waiting the three time periods by their m ship count by those percentages which readjusts it for the first time period of 27% second time period is um calculating a 40% and 32% for the current time period that blends together to a pmpm of 36058 representing about 65% of our spend coming from the medical side pharmacy side pretty easy just we're going to bring in our gross uh medical claims in that first row there's no adjustments so Row one and nine are the same we're going to convert to the PM PM just like we did medical so in in your case the first time period pmpm conversion is 117 second time period is 160 and our current time period is 187 you can see kind of a natural Trend in those numbers um that's why Pharmacy we're seeing that just in every plan uh due to utilization new medications and cost of medications are going up um the actual Benchmark right now for 2024 was 155 uh so you're a little bit higher than Benchmark you were much better than Benchmark a couple years ago when it was about 135 140 we're at 117 and now when we're looking at this last or this current time period we're at 187 again some of that is due to the oncology medications that are newer to your plan uh so we're going to apply that 10.3% annual Trend to these three time periods same midpoints to midpoints which converts to a 34% to the 1177 21% to the 160 and 133% to the 187 giving us uh a projection from the first time period of 157 second time period 195 current time period of 212 blending the same way we did with medical gives us a blend of 19052 representing about 35% coming from the pharmacy side uh we've talked a lot about the PM PMS we're going to add those together um and multiply them out by your membership of 679 divided by your enrollment Employee Enrollment of 570 that converts it to a per employee per month because that's how your fixed expense is adjudicated your fixed expense is the same at 10060 per employee per month when you add the claims in RX with the fixed we get a total fixed in claims PM of 7578 uh expected monthly spend of 431 annualized out to one uh 5.7 I'm sorry $5.1 million comparing to our current budget of 4.9 gives us an adjustment of 4.23% or about $210,000 the pie chart kind of gives us a breakdown uh your overall fixed expense represents 133% of the pi 30% is coming from the pharmacy and 56% is coming from the medical side question yep okay so just to clarify so current MERS 679 that includes all of the depend that is correct 57 is en y do we have what current enrollment was for last year I don't have it off top of my head but it should have been it's a little higher than this but not much yeah we have this year versus last year is it yeah I can look at okay I'm just curious because it like in a perfect world if we have full staffy next year will this be impacted greatly well but don't forget that we also have not everyone that elects benefits through the district so these are members that are actually enrolled so if they choose a different option for their benefits then they wouldn't be part of this calculation correct yeah y so we it's it's you know I think ballpark for um contract was about 30 I think right and then we had pair professionals as well if I'm just remembering off the top of my head I remember that conversation now we did have that conversation so um I know they're looking into how many people will expect to bring onto the plan um but it doesn't impact our our overall calculation it impacts the 5.1 because we're gonna have more bodies on it but we're just going to multiply that out by the 757 we're just assuming they're the same risk as your current population all right I also just to point out also if we have employees that are J1 V U teachers that are international teachers they are not on our plan because they have to have certain benefits that are required by the federal government uh so we we do not meet that criteria for our plan for our International teachers just the ones on J1 so they're on a separate plan that we pay for uh out of District funds for that benefit for that employee yeah they have some fun requirements it's not that it's a richer plan yeah the the big employment is the reinterment benefit so if there were something catastrophic that happened to the employee while they're here then we would have that benefit reurn them to their home country yeah if if they pass away yeah he was trying to keep it light yes yeah it it's part of the agreement with the iig group which is the group that does the J1 visas for us our H1B Visa candidates or teachers are on our plans and then the last page on there is just your plan designs um again no changes to those just the overall increase to the funding rates uh is is what's changed on that last sheet and then I left contributions off because I don't know where you guys ended with contributions but so any questions so what I might suggest if I may maybe take a couple of minutes to look over the packet uh and talk with a partner next to you and see if you have any additional questions if that's okay yeah sounds um and then we want to uh talk a little bit about some of the addition optional benefits that we're asking for meet and confer to take a look at and just kind of get a thumbs up if we want to move forward with those optional coverage pieces you also reminded me we wanted to talk a little bit a reminder who who's got the wellness app anybody doing the wellness okay couple of you good so yeah well Styles yeah yeah it's through the insurance um so there's a lot perfect so the one pass is great too that's another good benefit that's through United healthc cares yes those gyms um that's anybody know about one pass so if you're into gyms it's a really cool thing there's different tiers and levels to it um so like if you buy the base level you can go to LA Fitness EOS you can go to all of them um so you're not just going to one gym so if there's an EOS set is closer to your work you you can go to that but let's say LA Fitness is Clos to your home you can go to that so just gives you a variety of gyms and then if you get into the higher levels you can go to Lifetime stretch lab so there's a bunch of cool ones on there so you're not just stuck to One Gym um and then also who's heard of hinge benefits hinge hinge hinge Health yeah okay that's one that I want to make sure everybody knows about it's yeah it's for your muscle skeletal it's pretty much PT through the website um through online system where you're talking with a a physician to go through your exercises and then they send you equipment to monitor how you're doing with your exercises if you're doing them correctly and as you progress you work with a physical therapist to continue on with your therapy we've found that it's been much more beneficial for employees to get all the way through their physical therapy instead of going to the actual place a lot of times people have a hard time finding time to get to a facility and then walk through an hour worth of PT this is like you can you can just do it at your desk at work you can do it at home you know it's on your time which is nice um and then the other one is second MD have we heard about that okay second MD so second MD is great um for example a colleague in my office we have at our work um his daughter was diagnosed with lupus so they wanted to make sure that was the correct diagnosis because that can be a hard condition to diagnose so they went through second MD um all you do is you get in contact with them let them know what physician has all the information they do all the rest of the work they send it to their specialist they do a full panel review on it and come back with either suggestions yes it is or maybe you should try this maybe talk to this doctor so it's a really easy way to get a second opinion before you go down a very expensive treatment that you may not need on average they're finding about 25% of the treatments that are recommended are not needed so it's helping out a lot so yeah so and that's all part of the Valley Schools bundle um yeah so you already have access to that yeah so that's a benefit that I think we need to promote we have access to all of those yeah yeah Darlene are we it's an awesome program second opinion program they have um doctors their team of doctors nurses Specialists I've used them actually unfortunately but fortunately a couple times myself where it's like okay you need this procedure I'm like aha yeah right so I go to Second and doesn't cost you anything that's one of the benefits of being with schools okay and so what these folks do is they will get your records from your physician everybody that you've been seeing and then they will they will take a look at all that formulate their opinions and their recommendations give you a call back and then discuss it's it's called and I think we've had it in place now I want to say maybe four yeah we brought it during Co yeah yeah and it's it's just been awesome and the good thing too though is you don't pay any extra for it is there a maybe I missed it but is there a little sheet cheet that we can have as employees where we can have all of these wonderful applications that are part of our program yes a matter of fact in your benefits presentation and that's that is posted right on your uh your internet your in yeah yes it's on it's on our website if you go to the benefit maybe maybe we just have to pull that specifically because I don't want to see to the presentation I just want to cheat cheat of all of these apps that you can do yeah there's a there's a it's a it's well it's a slide and they're they're all on there and then how to get a hold of each because with second MD there's a phone number that you actually call and then that way that's how that process gets going yes especially if there's going to be directions of on this one you need your login or on this one you need to call or I think it will be very beneficial to have that definitely need that information and and you can find that um on your site and that's the benefit of signing up for the well Styles app also because you go through all of that all that information is all on that app um and it makes it prettyy easy to get to those places um we also have a well Styles Champion Miss Lisa Mena she has a mug and everything um but if you do have questions about uh well Styles or their program we there's also an incentive program with use of that um that benefit uh which we can I don't know Lisa do you want to talk a little bit about what it is oh okay so Lisa put it in the chat so if you to refer to that uh and so now I think maybe we give you a minute or so because we talked over the minute that I was going to give you but let's that's okay um this good information I also want to direct you in the uh overview there's um a list of the products that we currently have that we're recommending for next year we'll go over that in just a moment there is a change I think we noted this in the dental program for next year for provider uh which looks a little different than what es ESD had uh or EDS my apologies um there is a comparison in the folder that's labeled Dental in that insurance folder so I try to give you as much information to look at as possible because I know for some people I really want to know about dental because that's important to me uh I really want to know about um you know options for some catastrophic coverage so that's all in that folder so I guess maybe give five minutes to kind of look over things and come up if you have questions and then we'll go through the information together so this is that's that's I see right Jes think I told said I told to Google message day still did you use the right I think I think we're uh about at the point where we had given you some time to kind of take a look at the information so does anybody have any questions for our guests for Jameson or Darlene or any other thoughts that came to mind as we're looking at the benefits information Mr Diaz the gentleman from Gateway the gentleman from gayway thank you sir um uh uh this is just like an open-ended question and it's something I've I've always had curiosity about throughout a couple of years um uh uh can you and and you don't have to go into specifics can you speak in general uh because about things and I don't know maybe there's nothing but things we as a district uh practices policies approaches that we uh are doing that are helping keeping our rates in a good place and things that we should look out for uh be wary of maybe you would recommend don't do um to uh that would escalate those rates because obviously when it comes down to it at the end of the day we want to keep benefits High excuse me I just turned into a 12-year-old boy no stop stop can she speak without a microphone yes um anyhow uh yeah if you could speak to that I'd appreciate it yes so there's a lot of great things we talked about those here uh your Wellness strategy it's it's really building a culture of wellness and having everybody understand all the values that are already here that we can utilize like hinge um the one pass those things to make sure everybody has access to those and knows how to use them uh so that we all kind of live a healthier life will be kind of the best way to what we call Bend the trend um because the things we can't control are contracts with Hospital Systems so when we do use um the hospitals unfortunately those contracts keep going up every three they have three-year contracts um things like that new medications that are coming in there's some new um amazing technology coming through with the gen therapies but those are a million to $3 million for the use of those so there's a lot of expensive things that are coming in so the things we can control are through hinge benefits to make sure that in second MD so you've got a lot of great things that are in place it's just making sure everybody knows and has access to it that's where this group kind of as you learn more about those types of benefits you take the opportunity to help your HR department um to to educate those around you to make sure that they have access to that um Mental Health Services again uh through your benefits also through the EAP those are also make sure everybody has access to those because those are definitely crucial benefits for everybody uh in today's society so um as far as things not to do we've set up your plans I think in a very strong position um so that co-pays are affordable so when they are seeking care that's the one thing we want to make sure people have access to care and it's not breaking the bank so that's how the the thought behind your plan designs were built uh with that mind so um not really a question but more of an idea now how we have that automated training component is it possible that one of the things be is like a Rie or dive in yeah absolutely yeah yeah I think that's a great suggestion Lis um to to educate people on what are their benefits packet is and how the well Styles benefits them as an employee I think that's a great idea Lisa is happy to get those emails yes Debbie and Debbie and Debbie um yeah I believe we talked about that last year or two years ago uh was making sure that the information was disseminated I think it's actually in our bargaining agreement to make sure that that gets out so we just need to follow up and make sure that's yeah so part of that agreement was to have uh something in early April I think said April 1st but then the calendar timing is interesting uh so the we have virtual meetings already scheduled for the first week of April I think it's April 3D April 3rd for um for current employees uh one of the things that we've been talking with um Kendall who's also with Valley schools and she's sort of the overview overview of the well Styles program or she oversees that program is to invite uh Valley Schools to our new teacher orientation and to have some information presented at that time to really kind of get some excitement around the well Styles program and that I think would help as well to bring that attention because that's when they sign up for their benefits is during that time so just have a comment thank you Lisa the comment that I made before about the list with all of the apps it's already done so you just point me refer me to the right please thank you and then a question for you yeah um I'm looking at page three uh the demographics and the claims um is it accurate to say that in with the three years our population is healthier based on the number of claims I'm looking at this page what you're seeing is actually the severity you so yes hopefully we're catching things earlier so we're not seeing the severity of claims because that's what we're currently seeing in the expectation of large claim utilization you're beating that expectation yes so um while we still have Darlene and Jameson for a couple more minutes I did want to call your attention to the overview of options uh one of the things that well a couple things one is that uh we're we're recommending that we stay with United Healthcare uh that's been a cost savings to us over the last three years since we've been self-insured um we talked about the HMO for dental being different so I would encourage you to look through the Sigma Information uh there we will still retain Delta as a buy up plan for dental uh there are additional levels of Delta that we don't currently access um that we could add to our plan it would be an increased cost to the employee because the district will cover their portion of what we would cover for the HMO uh and that would be transferred over to Delta if you're part of Delta I am so I I pay for that buy up uh so the employee is responsible for the difference between what the district pays for the HMO and the the per month cost for the dental Rebecca do you have a question yeah if you look if you link there's a link in this app um where it says Delta P that's a hyperlink and and you can take a look at both plans or the levels there's level one level two and level three uh we currently offer level two as our benefit uh for Delta uh we could add level three and I believe a big difference in level three and and please correct me if I'm wrong Darlene but that's the orthodontia um that uh it it's coverage for the adults as well as a different level of coverage for the students or the children do you want so if you have dependence and you are interested in looking at that as an option and and as meet and confer uh one of your charges is to recommend to the governing board what our benefits packet is going to be so um you might want to take a look at that and we can take that into consideration uh Vision there is going to be an increase in the vision uh over last year uh and there's an option currently we're with United Health Vision there's an option to go I think back to vssp because I think we had vssp years ago um so if uh your prescriptions and contact coverage uh you might want to look at comparing those two we could recommend staying with the United or we could recommend moving to vssp which also has different levels I think there are three levels but we probably won't offer all three right oh two okay and the low plan is a 12 1224 so in other words you get frames every 24 months there's also a 12 122 where you'll get your your exams your frames every 12s so and that's a little higher plan and the rates between all three uh in because that did go up 3.5% they've been really good about keeping their rates completely flat till this year so with the vssp low plan and the vssp high plan and then your UHC Vision all those rates um vssp has kind of come in the middle so the low vssp plan the rates are lower than What U vision is going to be the high VSP plan the rates are a little higher than your current U so again it's just like Dr Dr Lauren indicated take a look see what you think and then come to whatever conclusion but they're they're all great the bsp though is I have to say kind of like a Cadillac of of your vision and I know there's a lot of our members that have really asked to to look at vssp again so that's how we came up to okay let's see what we can do with VSP all right and then uh employee assistance program um you can see the information there we're recommending that we don't have a change in interface um Behavioral Health we also have EAP through United so those are the two options that employees currently have that are part of our benefits package the sunli financial is your basic life accidental death and dismemberment that is a uh something that employees elect to pay into for coverage uh so that's not something that the district pays into as a benefit it's something that the employee elects um so if you are participa that program or not uh you would still have that option that would include short-term disability um flexible spending and FSA account there's a description of that that's through wex currently so you get the card you use it for co-pays and different types of uh payments right yes anything else on that okay um and then well Styles we talked about some of the options uh the second MD hinge Health those things that are available I know I'm going through this quickly but we have other products that are available to us as a district if we choose to offer them to our employees that might be helpful uh one is to offer pet insurance through MetLife I believe the pet insurance is build directly to the employee it's not a deduction from your paycheck but it's a discounted rate so if you are well we have four dogs so we probably can't afford it but um if you have a pet that you want to have a insurance policy on uh then that would be through MetLife and that information is in that folder to take a look at uh did we know what's going on with the Identity Theft Protection because we were talking about it being different than what we had talked about and down and that people know that more as LifeLock right yeah yeah we got life yeah in LIF lock so we might end up switching back into LIF lock that we've had like years ago but we we I'll keep dren informed so he can keep you informed uh and then the third option is uh through colonial life there's group accident Group Medical bridge and group critical illness and cancer insurance um this if you could Darlene talk a little bit about what would be a benefit for employees to have each of those yeah um with Colonial Life obviously you've probably heard that they've been around for years they're an excellent company they offer excellent benefits this is something that you um if you choose to go with you could um you could bring in critical illness they've got that policy they have an accident policy and then they have a hospital Indemnity and you don't have to offer all three to your employees you can just offer couple one whichever you'd like um those rates actually they just went down last year they're very affordable in coverage and uh that would be via payroll deduct so um you've got some information I think in your packet on those plans and what those entail so yeah you could get that for your spouse yourself children uh so insur yes insurance not critical illness specifically what these are these are called what these are called dread policies they're to help toti not cover yeah right right and accident insurance so you'll it's lump sums you can purchase different different different increments and uh if something happens to happen then they'll get you that lump sum payment so it's very different from your uh Medical and isn't that some of that portable yes so what what is that can you explain what that is what that what that is is if you were to these are based on group rates typically and if you were to leave the district you could directly work with the colonial to keep your your plant so that's they call that portable for your life yeah without the duck without the duck uh that sample is linked there uh and we there are similar districts in similar size to us that offer this as a as a optional benefit for employees so we wanted to bring that forward um and you know the intention is to have our team at meeting ER give a thumbs up on our basic package that we want to bring to the board and then also see if we're uh interested in adding these products um and we can talk about how that's going to play out over the next uh today or the next meeting so any that's all that we have um from the insurance side are there any additional questions or thoughts or concerns all right thank you Jameson thank you Darlene we appreciate your help and your support and we'll see you next year well I'll see you way before then but for we okay so um would you um maybe during I don't know if you would want to do that during your break is it's your break we can decide now oh yeah so um we can decide now if you want to go with um the changes or in the extras or um we can do it toward the end of today and make that decision what would you prefer if we do at the end you have a little bit of time to look over um the information if we do it now it's fresh in your mind can we do it the next meeting Joel I don't think that's going to be an issue I'm looking at Vanessa um if we're because we won't we'll bring it to the board on the March 4th meeting right so we could considerably do the approval thumbs up thumbs down at the next meeting for this right yeah or we could split it I mean if you if you want to split it and say let's do the ones that we know right that are currently adopted and then bring the other part back next time so I think we have those options apologize ARA which uh Parts um that we want to bring back and is there anything we can provide to help gole the extras which extras are we discussing like the pet p insurance and that those Colonial stuff that so sometimes in in those benefits just so you know like we could pull in a whole booklet and have a benefits booklet which is kind of like a menu of things that people could choose on their own to pay for and have because I've seen uh books that have legal aid they've got adoption assistance and so I think this is just an effort to start I mean these seem to be the things that they brought forward that they could get to us easily yeah and it's in that packet and this isn't additional cost so I feel prepared to vote on this right now there's no re it's it's not a cost to us and it's not a c it's only a cost to you if you choose if you want to opt in go ahead if not don't that doesn't impact their vote I don't think and it's not impacting the budget because the the district isn't going to help pay for pet insurance but if you need pet insurance it's an option you have it's just a thing it's all opt in not opt out right yeah so there should be zero people who are like I got the pet insurance and I didn't know it was just a bad idea I've seen I've seen District put this on like an HR website and say additional benefits for staff and like sometimes it's discounts to uh gym membership or and which I think we already have yeah and so these are just value added services to give our staff an option to go through somebody that we already have a relationship with and we and we value and Trust the relationship as opposed to them going I need pet insurance let me Google it and then they got a scam or something grab um well no I'm not gonna die but um I I really want to get some gap insurance too life Gap life Gap Gap let's just call it life Gap life Gap no I was wondering about the colonial stuff because it said that it's based off of a group so you need a certain amount of people to sign up to actually get the group rate or no no it's already a part of a group that's why we get a better rate districts and cities right so it's a big it's a much bigger pool than if we as a district were to go out and try to get that benefit on our own because it's all the districts that are associated with Valley Schools as well as the vmg group also works with some cities so it's a it's a pretty big group I I put this up here to the Colonial Life voluntary benefits booklet this is linked in the insurance folder on the um Google Drive so if you wanted to kind of scroll through you could kind of see if you were going to go with uh these products this is what that cost would be for the employee or if they're going to add coverage for their family addons for us if we choose to yeah so like like uh short-term disability sunlife um wex FSA those are added benefits the district does not cover the cost on those well so but there will be no change like I have what I have the FSA and HSA right now for our family there will be no change to that correct that's right so what we're what we're proposing is to mirror the benefits that we're offering this year and then bring a couple of different products in one we have to because of the dentals changing uh for the HMO and then the other optional products um like the ones that we we were talking about okay Kelly since we have the meeting scheduled would you say Lisa a April 3rd okay wonderful um I move that we vote on this wait Ariel's not here I think she's having a personal and she'll be right back so we want to wait is there any questions any other questions that people have though yeah we could do our break D and then vote after a break yeah absolutely time is it n o'clock are you ready for a break now okay let's take a little break let's just do a short break let's do like 10 minutes yeah e e e if we all can get back in our seats to get started okay Joel you're going to uh take over here I think he made it easier for us listing um really the four areas in which we're going to vote I'm not going to facilitate the voting I'll but let me just explain we're looking different um okay in which we're going to so essentially we have four different tasks regarding benefits the first and I think this kind of Cascades right so um we can vote on all of them today we can vote on some of them today we can figure out as we go you know what makes the most sense uh the first is to offer those optional products which would be Colonial Life the pet insurance and the uh ID Theft prote Protection coverage that again is optional coverage that the employee pays into that is not a cost to the district uh except for the resources we need to make sure that they're available to do the enrollment part and that would be Debbie uh the second one is to add a second level which is confusingly level three So currently in the district we have level two for Delta Dental level three is what we're proposing to add as an option again that would be an increase from level two to level three for the employee but the employee could sign for either of them so for instance I will probably stay at level two because I don't have any dependence that would need orthodon Orthodontics um level three or the third part is whether we want to remain with UHC as our vision provider or move to vssp as Vision so this is where darene was saying and there it's on the in the packet where you can look at the two plans it's the amount that you get for frames per year uh it increases with vssp right the amount of money that you'll have as a benefit for frames it is slightly more expensive for the um employee if we go with the highest tier of vssp yeah I would take a look at that um if there're similar plans it's just what's covered um makes a difference right and it won't be in this packet it'll be on the um in the folder yes Dent Dental you said we're getting rid of the first level no we don't offer the first level currently currently we offer level two which has more benefit that's what just a school district if you I have the buy no no what we off offer is sign this year it's EDS we pay for EDS if you choose to opt out of EDS and go to Delta you're paying the difference between what the district pays and then you are buying into Delta and then what we're saying with this is that with that you could do a third level which will be an increase costs to the employee because you're still only getting that $10.50 credit it would be a second level of buy up for dental but haven't we always had that or is that we've always had Delta as a buy up but we haven't had it an additional level on Delta that you could opt into right so anyone that has Delta is paying something I was about we're I have Delta Dental so we're already paying okay right right both of which levels you payre and you're not paying the full cost of Delta you're paying the difference between what Delta costs you as an employee and what the district is paying for so if the district is paying $10.50 next year I believe for that uh HMO you get that free if you go with Sigma or you get a reduced rate on Delta and they apply that 10 50 to Delta and just just saying we're keeping the same level of District coverage so we're not increasing a price to the district we're saying if we covered 10.50 last year we're still covering $10.50 this year we're offering you some other buy up options again you get to option in and pay the difference for the care that you think you need the district will still kick in a little bit to help most districts I don't know I'd have to go really search don't participate in helping to pay for dental in any way shape or form so just keeping that in mind I think that we've gone quite a few years without increases to um uh direct increases to staff on things so I I just you know I'll probably be bringing more information forward as we're talking about budgets in this case the budget for the district for the increases of the dental coverage of people jumping in what the district has to cover and the health increase um was budgeted into our budget planning um as a part of that process so for another year it's it's not causing an in a direct increase to the staff for the things that the district typically covers does that make sense but we are going to give them more options so if their costs go up it's because they've chosen to to go up in any kind of buyas scenario the district isn't taking anything away of what we existing cover and but there are choices going away because if you had EDS you no longer have that choice um well that wasn't a choice that was just a stay withs or Del yeah now the Cho is stay with Sigma or go to Delta and then choose between two levels of Delta sorry do that yeah so there more options for our staff and would this be time to talk just I I wonder if I should have told them yeah the health insurance and this costall yeah the fourth thing knowing that with when we're talking about just health insurance cost not the dentals not the anything else he did give you some cost in that packet you know it's like four something for the next one but then the current so where we are in that current just you know kind of how that goes $4.2 million of those health insurance costs are being covered by the district $4.2 million of the health insurance that we provide our staff is being covered by the district 395,000 is being bought up by staff in those choices that's it h that's nothing so I want everyone to really hear that and as a thank you yes so as we talk about health insurance we're trying to add as many options as we can for people to have person personal responsibility and choice of what they want to put their dollars towards with the knowledge that at this point in time in our life as a district 4.2 million is being covered by The District budget and 395,000 by employee buy ups and participation in health insurance only it was just a quick number I could pull for you wow is there anything else that we can offer for you guys before this vote only absolutely yeah that's so so what we'll do is we'll do each one separately and we can hold some over you know to the next meeting or later this afternoon okay so let's start with the first one that one is the optional that you're offering to your staff um if they want those options then they need to pay it oh I'm sorry Daniel oh sorry can we because um can we start with the overall package because then if we approve that then we don't need to talk about everything else and then if someone votes that down then we can go in and do specifics number four yeah because then if anyone disagrees with just approving the overall package then we can move to vote for the individual pieces yeah sure thisno if weor I was gonna say that before lunch yeah how about that can be the last thing we do before lunch how about that vision is changing it's us deciding want to go from United he to do you have information on why we would want to do that not want to do that um what they offer for instance frames the benefit is different with VP than it is with UHC there is an increase in the cost for VP um so there's something that's something to look at and those pieces of information are the two online not the folder the Google folder okay florus can I propose that we take a little bit of time for those who need to review because based on the schedule we're running ahead correct because insurance was scheduled from 8 to 10: so instead of wasting time now going over it why don't we just give everybody 10 15 minutes to review it so we can move to vote yeah can and then could we put the the because I think the vision is the main thing that it would be a change instead of just adding an additional so could someone just throw a link to the vision plans in the Google Chat they're they're in the yeah they're in the dock Justin you you had us something I think it's also contacts too so yeah uh but we can put the link to that folder in the chat that's fine okay so let's um I don't know if this is overthinking it but do we want to maybe have if you want to talk about vision and look at it together if you want to talk about D look at it together or or do you just want to work independently well no I'm thinking because that that might not I don't it's up to you all let's just take um we'll take 15 minutes if you want to talk to a peer during this time Joel's available Vanessa's available um you can get up and maybe ask them your questions so we'll take about 15 minutes it is 9:22 and so Adrian will you put the timer up thank you e e e yeah I think so because then if someone if someone's like like heads up so because of potential um budget cuts for next year all the department of eved stuff I want to propose some reduction of course protections it would go under benefits or it would go under teacher work but it's going to be like a lot of language and a lot of like text and I don't want to go line by line so I was think the best way to do that is to wait towards like the end of today bring it up and we can put it in the chat or something if people canie for the next session does that sound yep okay yep Kell Tim okay everyone welcome back from your break I hope you um I hope you were able to get um some of your questions answered Dorothy you have um a comment a question yeah I was able to look at the difference between UHS UHC and vssp which I believe we were on many many years ago actually and they're fairly comparable um yes VSP the cost to be in that is a little bit more expensive but they do offer a little bit more for the um frames I think for me who my vision doctor is is very important it's because it's not just going and getting a pair of glasses I have cataracts and glaucoma and severe Vision um difficulties so it's really important who my doctor is I don't know how many other people other employees that's really important to but I worry about because you know right some doctors take some doctors take all of them some doctors and I'm concerned about having staff not only have to changeed from their Dental if they were on EDS but now potentially have to change their Vision doctor for minimal um you know adjustments to the plan so I guess that's my biggest concern I don't just worry about like for me I mean I'm not voting for me I'm voting as a representative for all staff who use the vision program I just don't know how many people now their current doctor that they've been going to they have a relationship with they'd have to change doctors that that's very stressful for some people it is for me so you know for me I I think I would probably just vote to stay with UHC for that reason I'll Echo those I'll Echo those points and I feel like the differences in the plans are negligible so if we're talking about just comparing the two yeah we may as well stay with continuity and allowing people to keep their same doctors if there's not any like drastic reason to change so I also would opt to continue with our current plan as a glasses wear but no glaucoma sorry Dorothy oh it'll come okay well let's like Daniel suggested I like that idea let's start just with the fourth one and then we'll work our way up so some of them we might come to consensus with and want and some we may not so let's take a consensus vote for number four our old overall package which includes Signa Dental thumbs up and are we talking about Vision or not just yet not yet okay so thumbs up for that sideways down do you agree with car over so remaining the same with our current benefits where the district pay the same amount that they do unless youer the buy up which would be and there are additional buy up options here and here yep okay okay um Ariel okay okay so um we did come to consensus to keep this okay the next one is uh remain with UHC Vision or um change it to vssp I recommend that we remain I I recommend that we UHC Vision plan say it again Kelly I recommend that we remain with the UHC Vision plan um the sideways can you live with this or I'm on my husband so I will do whatever okay and over here um who Ariel you were sideways can you live with it keeping it okay so so we're making a recommendation to continue with um UHC okay the second one that is um adding and this is the paid option by the way for Delta but we're going to add another level we have to agree to add in another level right yes yeah so everyone pays for this already and now what we're doing is someone will make a recommendation that we add another level to the Delta Dental which would be level three and would be an extra cost so I guess what it is is just giving you another Choice really and you have to pay for it so would like to make that recommendation to add a level to Delta Dental okay thumbs up crossed or down okay so we did recommend to add another level to Delta Dental and then the other one again will cost the employee money but it's another benefit for them even though they do have to pay um which will offer optional products like pet insurance um ID theft Colonial Life Again the um employee has to pay for it but it is an option for them a benefit actually a benefit they pay for so who would like to make that recommendation to offer optional products such as pet ID I mean pet insurance Colonial Life um that was the cancer one were there other ones besides the cancer in that okay and um the ID the theft one who'd like to make that recommendation and then we will who wants to word it for us I know any other we don't know but those are just the B on about those are those are the products that we brought forward to us for Valley Schools so no other part of that's not part of what we're we're voting on options that they offer their their clients so that's all they offer the other things that were brought up are like hinge and some of the other ones are free they're just included in the wellness they said they had this whole entire book or something where they had additional option that was me so is there anything else under here that the employee can pay for besides point but we will actively search for things as we move through processes to ensure staff get more opportunities for discounts or value services and and the benefit of going through Valley Schools is that you do have that large pool of insurance and beneficiaries that make it more affordable so I propose that we offer these optional products all that they may be for employees to opt into should they choose okay so we did make the recommendation to offer our employees um additional products such as colonial life pet insurance and I theft ID okay great okay what we're going to do next now is and then while we're doing this I'll put up my PowerPoint okay thank you we are um let's do our our little activity to start I'd like you to line up in the back shortest here to tallest um no we're not we are not moving seats all day thank you okay again this forget what Adrian told me I had to do to get my I'll get him over here okay um okay now that most of us are shortest to tallest let's start with the shortest person I and you know what since we still have new people here and not everyone has okay I'll wait okay since we we do have we do have new members this year and some of you have your name tags some of you do do not can you also say your name and where what school you're at or District or that information um but what I'd like you to share is something that none of us know about you so just take about 30 seconds to think about something that we don't know about you doesn't matter okay so we're going to start by our name and then share something that we would not know about you okay okay Daniel what are we doing perfect okay let's start over here Academy after my first year teaching I backpacked through Europe for six weeks that was really fun wow my my name's Dorothy green and I work at the district office with the sped department so I'm at multiple sites as a coach for special education teachers and I hiked the Grand Canyon when I was in fifth grade uh lorda Smith preschool uh everyone kind of knows this about me but it's so important I'm going to share I'm a huge Lor fan I am Amy Burgess and I am at L Melinda school and some people know this but I'm double jointed yeah where my hands and my feet oh yeah joining okay love we love the visual yeah uh I'm Kelly Bley I work here at the family resear Resource Center uh in the community Department I have been to every country in Central America I lived in Honduras for two years so traveled around all the little countries I'm Anne Henry I'm a school psychologist at excellencia and the kraton academy and my nickname and grade school was Sparkle [Laughter] good morning my name is Ivan caral the director of Community Education and I work closely with uh my friend here Kelly and I do CrossFit uh my name is James Das I'm the assistant principal at Gateway School uh to this day I have several um we'll call them shrapnel bibs uh in my right leg and two in my left leg not to where I set off a metal detector um I was a rambunctious child and uh my friends and I thought it would be amazing to have you know like cops and robbers kind of thing but we decided the best idea was to use actual BB guns so I lost oh oh oh oh the doctor said that it would be too it would cause more damage to dig the BB's out than to just leave them there so they're left there so do you have your leg no it it it it it the body is an amazing thing it it heals over so no not that much not that much I'm Eve Carol I am the manager of effective schools at district office so external programs um I think some people know this about me but I don't know I'm left-handed I'm I I noticed that there were a lot of us that were left-handed in this room which is really interesting um I'm Rebecca OK Conor I'm at excellencia of schools and um adding to the traveling of countries we've been to 12 countries in Africa and returning next year to do all of the South um Ariel Williams special education teacher gway nothing too exciting I'm a twin yeah he's a boy so we're not identical we're fraternal no um Danel Lopez Middle School social teach at Gateway uh I do fencing for fun do you win awards no not that kind of fencing okay um neighbor Moreno I'm with Transportation um I collect cars most of which do not run actual cars I just have too many and work on I do work on them too uh Justin Moody facilities I like to take uh digital analog photos an archive good for you okay well we learned a little bit about ourselves so we actually are just going to okay what do you want to okay let's see do you all want to share yeah let's have you all share okay Joel I feel like I share the same one every time I do this but I have a page on the Internet Movie Database from some uh movie projects that I was involved with in the early 9 late 90s early 2000s I was uh like artistic director and I I acted in one of them but they were local short films in the director put us all in imdp so all right wow after Joel anymore dang it that was a different Vanessa Shapiro the assistant superintendent for business and development I was gonna say you know something people might not know is I like math but no it's just kidding or account codes uh I've swam with sharks twice oh once in a cage and once not in a cage hi my name's Lisa Mena I'm the HR manager at district office not nothing crazy um I just originally for my education I was going to be a dentist I that was my and then but now I'm an HR so I know well no I I don't have any cavities or anything so like I always had a great experience at the dentist so maybe that's why because everybody's always scared and then I have little hands so I thought it would be good uh my name is Dominic Ruth I'm the Director of Finance over at the district office and I enjoy playing disc golf on my free time yeah okay I'm gonna do it right now okay okay okay mine you all know I'm Diane um what you may not know about me is that I twirl or I have twirled fire batons so yes I'm a fire baton twirler yes I know how to throw them up and catch them and put them under my legs so anyway um the good old days okay everyone we're gonna sit right back down where you were I know yes of the I know I wonder if there are any out there there might be okay let's quickly go over our evaluation it was clear to me when um I read them that you really like group work so anyway the question number one is did you understand the interest process skills well enough to easily apply the process to the activity if not what could I have done differently to help you better understand uh five of you just wrote yes and there were several of you that actually wrote comments and they are as follows yes the process used today was very helpful and easy to understand yes the meetings seemed to go quicker and felt more efficient everything was well understood yes doing interest framing kept everyone on track yes I'll voices were equally heard yes I felt comfortable with the process and comfortable asking questions if Clarity is needed the review of the interest process was succinct and clear no recommendations for improvement at this time yes although I struggle with not developing options yet well that's what we're doing today um yes I was able to effectively follow the process skills well enough to apply the process to the work that we did today question two do you feel the way in which the interest activity was structured better assisted with the pacing if no what changes could be made to better address pacing um yes having it timed was great thanks Adrian for that idea and for doing that for us we appreciate it um yes today's pacing was efficient and effective yes maybe a Talking Stick to encourage voice yes the activities were structured well as well as the pace at which work was done the pacing was better and felt more efficient I liked the smaller groups because it felt like we could move faster however I like the whole group as well maybe we could do a whole group for some of the options um yes pacing was excellent need to remember to use stack for full group conversations and yes good pacing it was more efficient um and here we had some more um pacing went well and time was respected um yes today felt productive but not rushed more voices were heard and a better understanding of the process seemed to be a great consequence of taking all issues through to the framing question stage um yes the small group assignments roles displaying the clock for every activity help us to be more efficient and productive and let's continue with the structure for future meetings and yes I think it took us a little time to get started on the first round but by the end we had the process down and lastly yes I think working in the two smaller groups worked well for our pacing and productivity today I think it's important to continue to mix up the members of the small groups to make sure different voices are mixed and able to listen to each other's perspectives so again thank you so much for filling out the evaluation and today we have another evaluation with two questions okay let's have our updates now we have um Vanessa are you ready to share any information that you have with us all right uh so if you look at the uh resources tab um or resources folder in the Google Drive uh there's a meet confer document uh the Google sheet called meet and confer updates for 2425 um the information that I added to this uh conversation for this time around includes um there's a report that our payroll uh manager Linda Rand to talk about the impact of the lack of personal leave time available to new employees and so she has that just for the last quarter or last semester right so basically from the beginning of the school year through January um so that you can kind of see in that chart um let me see if I can open it here we go uh new teacher with zero absences new teachers with a 1 to four and new teachers with greater than five and then she also has by support staff so this is a piece of information a resource for you to use as we start to talk about leave time uh I think you know Vanessa and I have been talking about it that because the district is already kind of moving forward that might be something that we can just get meet and confer blessing to continue with the work that we're already doing to get it changed for next year but that'll be when we talk about options um the other piece to look at is the overview of the intent to return uh we also call IT staffing survey so this is a snapshot uh aggregate of the whole District of the responses to that survey uh you can see that we only had 359 employees return the survey or respond to the survey uh that that's out of uh just under 700 employees it's on there 359 gotta keep up all right so uh it's broken down by Administration classified and certified uh you can also see percentages are indicated there and then I just gave overall numbers of employee groups so you can kind of get a sense of how many were returned um clearly I think our certified staff um admin is such a small number but certified staff we had a much higher rate of return so as we look at next year for options we need to figure out ways to engage classified staff in returning that document um it is available by Department by site U but we're providing the aggregate information for you yes is there an option to put like unsure in the survey because it's only like you are coming back you're not coming back or you're retiring or you're transferring right there's not an option no there's not an option no okay because I know at my particular side it's been discussed um that there's I'm only returning if there's this contingency set in place is and they said they've put that on the survey um and myself included um but is there like a way of like seeing that we prefer to keep the comments at HR level so we can follow up with employees there is a place for employees to ask if HR could follow up we also share those comments with principles by request uh or if there are things that we see that are significant then we'll share those as well and the executive team has access to this so the superintendent the assistant superintendents and our executive directors can I fill it out yes oh so when it says so potentially oh I about say um about have the stuff filled it out yeah and the percentages are listed on that document um so right now it said 19 resign but could be more possibly and it could be others that didn't respond that are planning to stay I can only give you the information that I received so I can't I'm not going to speculate about what people may or may not decide to do I know that sometimes people wait to make a decision until they know what this body is doing related to uh recommendations to the governing board for compensation and there are a lot of different factors that go into that so I'm open to suggestion on how to increase that return rate next year um and that's something that you know we always want as many people as possible to respond but I know principles uh communicate that this is available it goes in Craton connection so there are different ways that we try to bump those numbers up we even extended the deadline this year oh we did y oh I did I be honest with you I didn't do it [Laughter] it's not but this year I noticed I did open it oh that's a first step that's the first step but I didn't know this but I didn't know this year you were required to um put your name in your site has always been that way yes oh oh it's not an anonymous survey um aside from the comments we want to keep those protected for people who I do like Lord's suggestion of having an other or I'm not sure option I think that might increase the return rate because some people like you said they're making decisions based on mean confers or whatever so that would at least get you like well people opened it and thought about it so they're definitely not on one side or the other but at least give more information we can take that under consideration I think from from year to year we want to try to keep the survey consistent there is a place for comments though so people can add that to the comments can I ask a clarifying question do we know percentage wise about or oh just kidding it's down there at the bottom the percentage is at the bottom yes Dr burges they're there that's okay I'd like to to add a different perspective sure for the unsure I would I would not recommend uh to add that it's either make a decision resign return or transfer because what we want to do is want to make sure that we don't lose a candidate in Hope of somebody making a at the end of the moment decision so we need to be aggressive into recruiting or retaining but if somebody's unsure then that means they have the choice but it will not help us with projecting or attracting other people and as a reminder this is not a binding survey right so the the actual intent to return comes on May March 17th when your contract is published and you accept it or you don't over that course of those 15 days and then when we release the notice of intent to um assign NOA that for the classified staff also uh our district and I don't know how many districts do this but our our people our employees we all get plenty of time like three weeks including the spring break week one week before and that's that's no longer valid oh okay so what remember the law changed that no schools in the state can release contracts to teachers before March 15th perfect so our first opportunity to release on a business day is March 17th so then and teachers will have 15 business days that includes uh Cesar Chavez Day I think as part of that so they have they actually get an extra little day but they have an extra weekend to finish that right because it's after spring break thank you for that correction yeah um is there any other strategies um like letter of intents intent or is still against the statute like just a letter of letters of intent we can we can we can distribute yeah so if we have a person that we want to hire that's no that's not part of our school we can give them a letter of intent yes Eve um I would just like to uh add that I agree with Ivonne I don't think that it's necessary to put on the survey if somebody is unsure that doesn't give us any information that we're seeking it wouldn't help us with any decision- making so I mean I think only the people that are sure or decided are the ones that are filling it out and I think that that's okay because it gives us information to move forward with well and and to add to that I know as a principal and I'm sure that uh Katie and Amy can attest this as well when we see those results of who did and didn't fill it out often we'll go to those people we'll say hey I didn't see that you filled this out let's talk about what's happening right which could go even a further distance to helping support that person making the decision to stay or clarify for the um supervisor why they're choosing or thinking about leaving um we'll also give you access we talked last year in me and confer about the stay interview process the stay interview process should be finishing this week I think think is the deadline so we'll have data from that as well to share with you next time um I was going to add I don't think I don't think adding the option of unsure would like take away from the survey because also all these people that say oh I'm resigning I'm retiring March 15th 17 can come and they can still sign their contract so even them saying on this document that they're not coming back is still not a solid answer it's not until they officially reject the contract that's true but we use that information if they say they're retiring then we're reaching out to them from HR so it's not just about Staffing it's about our process in HR to be able to kind of help them understand what their options are if they already know I'm gone I'm out of here I'm taking my retirement and I'm going on the road or do they want to uh partner with ESI and become a return to work employee so those are I think that's another part of that conversation so that's why that piece helps Justin I also think like unsure like putting that as an option wouldn't be helpful as far as like yes it's a personal decision but it's also the district being able to engage and figure out what we're going to have to do for the upal decision but it definitely helps like this is what's going to happen we have this many people that are saying no maybe they'll stay how can we get them to stay and I think that also involves like more of a approach from HR admin to everybody to kind of be like why are you saying no what's going on instead of an unsure because because I think some of these people who actually thought about it and chose will just default to unsure and then we'll have sure we'll have 90% filled out that say unsure and that's useless information for us don't know so that those are the pieces of information that I have uh available for you I know there were a couple of other requests one in particular was about um turnover rate from the past several years and I'm working on that I I ran a report that did not look accurate to me and so I don't want to trust that the system is telling me exactly what's happening because it was way elevated um from where it should have been and this is a behind the the uh in the weeds kind of thing the system that we used to run those reports it only has me having access to the year before I started HR years before that I can only see Mona Vista because that was where I was as principal so we're working to correct that so I can run the reports that I need to get that information to you so I'm going to turn it over to Vanessa okay um can we pull up that let's see this guy that one be awesome thank you I didn't think we'd get here this quickly I had such a good shiny fun year last year uh because of the epically amazing planning of Dena and Jay um I am very used to as the budget person I hear music is it sad music okay I don't know I don't mind a background of slow sad because uh what I can tell you as a budget person who's been in it for quite a long time uh in Arizona a lot of the times when we get up to discuss budget it is not the happiest conversation um especially in Arizona we have been subjected to not only cuts and lack of support at the legislative level um and then just a struggle to get it done right but now we have the declining enrollment that's affecting a lot of districts and you know those are just things that we deal with I have been in districts in times of Plenty where you're growing you're You're Building schools like crazy you just can't you know they're sting can and you're trying to get space and I've been through the years of not plenty and I feel like we tend to have lot not plenty so I don't mind getting up here and talking about the hard truth what I can tell you is budget outcomes look gloomy and I don't necessarily see a big huge fix but what I know is that we have lots of people lots of brains working on making sure that we have the least amount of negative impact as possible so as a budget person I do that in a variety of different ways uh to protect the district fiscal health and we've talked about this we talked about this last year so when we were looking at um if we can go to the Chart please Joel thank you so much it's that last thing okay so remember I told you it's so drafty um that top number um I did get 100 day I was only 4 ADM off in my uh projection no no no good for my ego not good for that number not good for that number so there's there's pros and cons in this uh method you can highly adjust yourself with way lower you can project way lower than what you think your outcome's going to be in a budget planning process and then I can have that number when I do make it right I have a a number like that A $1.2 Million number or something like that um then I do a budget revision during the fiscal year typically in December or may probably in May because we have to get past 100 day so that's the most effective one which means I have a substantially lower budget going into the year that isn't going to be realistic to the budget that I have at the end of the year so pros and cons lower budget means when we get here I can say hey guys I'm going to probably bring 1.2 million back into the budget when I'm for ADM off that number is not accurate so I'm going to bring thousands back into the budget not Millions but by doing what I did I had more money at the start of the budget planning process which allowed me to have higher calculation in some other areas as we move forward into selling bonds there's all sorts of backend things that would give me a reason to not make our budget seem incredibly low at the beginning of the budget process so I will update that number but I want you to know that that's not going to be Millions that's going to be thousands tens of thousands okay the next number the 2% that's a moving Target I'll get closer as we get closer into um the end of the year the projected enrollment I I need to that number now needs to be yellow that number is going to get hit so I want you to understand these are the the big hit numbers that make the budget go up and make the budget go down and it tells us how much we have ready for next year um inflation inflation's inflation it's not as impactful as some of these other areas but we'll get a better number as we get closer Staffing adjustments attrition I know that one as we get closer to the end it's in that list that J uh Joel just had where he had the links to the other items thank you it's line okay thank you thank you guys okay um so again another number we just you know I I can get pretty close on most of these numbers and that's how we move into a budget is pretty close I never know these 100% until the budget's done uh I'm having to estimate what are we going to do next year I'll be in the same situation I'll be bringing you the sheet I'll say okay here's where we're at now uh so this is a good process it gets very familiar you guys will get very familiar with this slide it's the same one I use over and over and over again it's been very effective okay now I want to talk about real quick why these numbers are going to be affected so we uh did our second fiscal stewardship committee meeting uh with continuing the discussion of a fund balance Reserve process we've I think laid the groundwork to to bring understanding as to why that is an important thing to have we have other districts in the state that don't have that process it makes life a little harder it doesn't solve all problems it allows you a cushion to get through the unknowns so through the committee work we recognize a range a sliding scale of 10 to 20% what that means is if we have less than 10% there needs to be conversation somebody needs to be talking to me the Board needs to have understanding why would we ever fall below 10% 10% is our most minimum basic amount that we need to roll over in order to be safe and healthy and fiscally sound for the next year right 20% is the high range why do you want to do 20% Vanessa what's going on what are the risks explain it to us we would be very comfortable discussing and getting all those things put together in the um process because we recognize that this is not going to be a policy we're not going to get tied into an actual policy that goes into our governing board policy but this would be a transparent and accepted procedure that I use in the planning of budgets and it's on me to explain why it's 10 why it's 20 after I meet with that committee each year so it's a group of phisically minded people and then we talk about what the risks are the committee says say hey I say hey I think we're at 20% and this is why and then the committee can give me feedback and I have to justify it so it makes me accountable it gets more voices in the process and I believe that everybody has been um very thoughtful about the process coming out of the last committee meeting the committee asked me to get as close to 20% as I could they said in the culture and the current environment there are so many uncertainties that they're very nervous and concerned and I said I'm very nervous and concerned too this is a 15% based on that number uh down there 15% fund balance Reserve that is a known number we base that number off the previous year's closed financial statements of expenditures in m&o so I know what I spent last year it's been audited the books are closed closed we do a calculation of 10 11 12 13 to 20% on that number and that's what gives me that number that's why it's not yellow I know exactly how much that number is that's the method the budget balance carry forward is a function of creating the fund balance Reserve so what's in budget balance carry forward is how much monies we got how much we expended and how much was left over at the end of the year based on the amount of budget that we had that is either low or high when I revise it so we'll be spot on in May our budget will be exactly what it needs to be based on that amount how much came in how much went out that's how much is left that is the budget balance carry forward that then becomes our fund balance Reserve in the next year I think it's kind of a weird topic we've talked about it a few times and I and I know it's not I'm trying to simplify something that's very complex and has a lot of different inputs but I feel pretty comfortable with that do you guys have questions about budget balance carry forward or fund balance Reserve Mike just really because of people online here you go how much do we currently have in our fund balance Reserve I'll know when I do the the revised okay how much we had how much we have last year 8 million 8 million okay right so if we spent more this year that'll impact it that's what that budget balance carry for or the budget balance carry for estimate so with that being said um can I one more thing sorry yes go ahead would the increase of like salary for contract workers come from that if if we had if we didn't have that in the budget like if we have an increase of we didn't assume we would be paying so much for contract workers this year would we have moved money from that to help this year or is that somewhere else in the budget that's in the budget okay yeah we factor that into the budget that's a part of paying people so we do what's what would be the perfect scenario if I filled every seat with a teacher yes are there board guidelines on how much like what percentage of our budget should be in the carry forward no that's what we um recommended to the board from the committee it is now 10 to 20% sliding scale based on risk okay I'm sorry when was the last fiscal stewardship committee meeting when is the next one the last one I don't know remember the date it was a couple weeks ago he was he wasn't there I was very surprised I was very surprised I got myself there I didn't get an invite to that one I apologize not on my calendar that's why I asked I was surprised it was on mine so I apologize I think when we sent out the committee dates there was one document it had all the dates on it so I'm not sure how calendars get set on that but I will make sure that you are on them yeah we'll follow up and make sure that happens it definitely wasn't intentional um okay so budget balance carry forward you have to have a mechanism that's the mechanism that seems to be supported by committee and it was sent to the board in a board update it will also it's also been discussed in board meetings and when we do the budget update with the board on March 4th it'll be discussed there also to whatever level they want us to discuss it okay with that being said with all the UN unknowns some of the things that we had talked about for risk I shared with you guys last time since that time here's the additional risks that have come into play we have a federal freeze that Federal freeze we have no idea how impactful it will be here's where I'm at right now the judge has ruled that that is an illegal thing to freeze or take away monies that have already been awarded and allocated and the response was pound sand get me so exactly get him Mario get your badge and your gun and go get them dude that is that is a outside of me in this room kind of thing it'll play out how it plays out but all I know is uh litigation is timely and if they don't come to a result then I don't get the money then I don't get the money whether it's right or wrong that I don't get the money who cares I either I'm getting the money or I'm not right now the money is in danger so I was discussing this earlier with a member I have a contractual obligation to everybody who has a job this year that you know signed a a Noida or signed a contract that I said we're gonna or we said the district said we're going to employ you for the rest of this year right now as it stands the most imp acted grants would be competitive grants because those are ones that we have already been awarded and allocated at this point in time we have about 800,000 that we have not been given in the money part of that because the way that grants work is you spend the money and then they pay you back it's a reimbursement what we have had reimbursed versus what we've been awarded and allocated minus the total amount leaves about $800,000 that we expect to spend that we have budgeted that we we have put into contracts that we have put into POS for things we've entered into vendor contracts it's about $800,000 right now if they don't touch any other grants that we felt at when the story first started coming down weren't on the table we are now being told the other dollars could be on the table maybe not in this year but definitely in next year so in addition to the competitive grants that are about 800 1.9 million that just goes away those are the ones that have the potential to go away next year it's like 1.9 million in competitive grants we have I don't want to put you on the spot that's why I'm trying to remember it we have our title one and we have our Ida those are big grants they're not competitive grants they are we are anticipating those will be decreased so the things that those things cover do you have an amount percentage me neither it's so up in the air we're not sure how much the state messed with us last year and said 20% came back it ended up being like eight so it is decreasing student enrollment is decreasing that's affecting grants if everything that you fund out of your sites goes away that's funded by a grant there's no other resource to put there so right now for sure I would have to cover about 800 900,000 the rest would be starting next year we'd have to figure out how do we do with out it's a big conversation and we don't know there's a lot of things being affected I also have a $500,000 cops grant that was supposed to be coming to help um support our Safety and Security infrastructure it's cops it's a particular type of Grant it's called cops Grant but it's for Safety and Security um infrastructure so it's how we get cameras intercoms lockdown upgrades uh all the things we've been diligently working on part of that is funded out of the bond and a part of it was funded from this grant that Grant is entirely on hold we're actually determining that we might not get it please use them mic so I was asking the principal at our school site that um they put these lovely like badge like the badge scanners but they've only put them on a few doors is that what this grant would help support yes okay it's not the whole entirety of it it was just a por of it so it freed up other monies for us to do other things in our district it's shells you know okay now I don't have 500,000 here that I thought I was now we take something that we were planning in the bond that we were planning to do there's no extra money I have to not do this and do that instead Safety and Security has been an approved plan by our board it is highly important to our committee uh our community and we will continue that project and finish it it's just MoneyWise it'll look different another big hit that we see coming down the pipe uh is our electric buses it was um a lifetime plan we are entirely set up in a perfect kind of District to actually recognize huge Energy Efficiency savings it's a part of our overall big energy efficient plan um we went through phase two and three successfully we completed that that means it was awarded and it was allocated we put in purchase orders we're working with our vendor to get electric vehicles we got three buses and then we got or no two we got two buses and then we got five buses they have not gone to production because once they go to production we have 14 weeks to pay them or something like once it goes to production we're obligated to pay them this is millions of dollars we've now worked with our vendor to push off production until we see what happens but but if you Google it and take a look at some of the interest there's a high interest to kill Energy Efficiency type things so the EV buses are actually being highly targeted we don't know how it'll turn out so we've pushed it off so we don't go into production so that the district is not obligated to pay the dollars if they kill it and we're not going to get those monies then we don't get EV buses we were supposed to get 10 we are counting that we will not get the final three because we were in phase we were not completed phase we have a chance through the legal process to get the seven we will not get the three it is not in interest of this Administration that's currently in place so those are the types of things of how we're being impacted and we have to kind of think about this higher level impact in we in our budget planning and the dollars that we have available and what we keep for cushion the other Factor that's going to affect the line number two a lot more significantly than I anticipated we've been very excited about our student decline slowing down you got to look for the small winds we're still declining we're still slated to decline a significant number that number was a thousand students in 10 years we now have an immigration status that is absolutely impacting us I was able to go back and find some research work done for sb1070 that said across the state the decline in student enrollment in public schools was 8 to 10% is significant less students less money I'm going back to the SB 1070 years and I'm going to see what the decline for kraton in particular was I'm going to utilize that information and I've been hearing in lots of numbers I like the research study it was done by U OFA it was well after and they had a lot of data to look at 8 to 10% seems reasonable I have some districts that are saying they're anticipating being impacted by 30% that means that that number is going to get bigger once I find a mechanism that I feel comfortable with to decrease it it will get bigger yes do we already have families that have disenrolled do we have any data we're still Gathering data it's hard to find out but I know Avon's been really closely watching it yes we do have families maam excellencia gayway that have come and withdrawn their students because of fears on the current immig immigration um orders some districts are more impacted by that particular legislation than others we're impacted so we have to find a projection a number that makes sense that's in between all of those numbers so when I say it's gloomy it might be worse than gloomy so um before March 4th we will be really discussing these numbers in our exact meetings pulling in additional data finalizing the actuals that we know which is 100th day data and our budget reports and updating all of this what I anticipate is instead of a 500,000 at the bottom I'm going to have a negative that I'll have to figure out how to cover typic Ally that comes out of your budget balance carry forward which means then we're going to probably be below the 15% we just need to make some decisions anyways I'm so sorry to get up and do the downer rep presentation I I think I need the the music from behind uh it's unfortunate those two other things because they're super impactful like again that's why the uh Reserve is important because there's unknowables there's so many unknowables so you just have have enough cushion to deal with the problem at hand while we figure out the solutions for the future so um I'm dedicated to giving us cushion I'm also dedicated to while all of this is happening just like it has in every single year in the past in good and bad years at the end of the day what is our job educate kids there's nothing else our dental plan options they're important it all feeds down but at the end of the day student outcomes is where it's at so I highly encourage us to really be thoughtful about our processes and how does it affect student outcome directly I can say all day long oh if I don't have a bus driver kids can't get to school they're not going to take the test I don't know if that's a strong enough connection so we need to have good conversations about what's important for pushing the needle for our kids that is the only thing that is important and we all need to come together because student outcomes do not change until adult behaviors change and if we're not changing and doing something different in our processes we're not on the path and it starts with me as a budget person bringing you budget information to the best of my ability and giving you what I can when I can any other questions yeah Katie just if you could give us like a one sentence summary of like we think we have this much money to play with and what is that I think that we pay $49 million and employee benefits I think that we have other benefits I at this point in time am saying zero I am dedicated to bringing a percent of some sort to you guys I'm relying on the exec team Mr Man we are having deep conversations I am terrified about the Federal freeze and the potential decrease in enrollment through immigration so zero and that means that would be taking away the 25 to1 ratio can I once again talk about the 25 to1 ratio that was onetime monies and then we would need to get a lot deeper in budget because then we would have to take things that exist right now and say we no longer want these things we want that thing there are no additional dollars on that bottom line and in fact I'm probably going to be working hard to deal with negatives on that line we are going to lose grant money significantly we are going to lose students significantly we are able to manage this year and stay status quo we are able to manage next year and stay status quo with the ongoing agreements and commitments that we made to our district the ongoing ones the 200,000 for the compression we have a committee I I didn't talk about that I just want to jump right into the yucky get it over with makes me cry um yeah we have a little money set aside for that compression we definitely have put that into a committee we're bringing nextg into that committee instead of here we wanted to make sure that was a little more efficient because they're going to be the ones clicking the buttons I think that we need to make sure they're Highly Educated with the tools that they can use to compare groups that you send to them look at the bus drivers look at the teachers we're going to have to prioritize obviously can't do anything in one year yeah Dorothy yeah I just had a question about how uh in communication you are I assume that people that have your type job you communicate with people that have your type job across other districts and I'm wondering is that kind of the vibe across multiple District because right our our job is to recruit and retain right if our job is to teach students we've got to have staff in order to run the schools and teach the kids so I mean I guess it's I don't know good news of everybody's staying down in the dumps that sounds terrible but at least then we're not competing with districts that are Opera not giv a but we're the only ones not giving a raise that kind of thing do you have a feeling of what's out there Mesa set and loose how many teachers 1% they're let I know Phoenix L isos phix is closing two schools Paradise Valley just closed four schools uh Rosevelt is closing they closed or is closing schools may say is closing schools so it's not likely that other districts are coming in and going we're given a 10% raise right everybody's gonna kind of be Duck and Cover we gotta wait and see right Duck and Cover is a good way to describe it there's a lot of unknowns right there very much we see the chaos our staff is hopefully aligned with current events and they're seeing it too so as long as other districts aren't making different kinds of choices now one thing a district can make a choice of is pay fewer people more so I'm not going to say nobody's giv a raise but they might be cutting a significant amount of their staff in order to give the raise so I mean there's that thing I don't think we're going to be struggling to have people apply this year in teaching positions and and some of the other positions I don't know Arizona has a lot oh sorry I would say a lot of Arizona teachers come from out of state you're saying they're G to go back definitely I would go back home I'll be like okay yeah I was I was I was going to add I mean the whole message from the administration is we want you to go work for the private sector so actually that just because people are being laid off and no one is giving raises does not necessarily mean there won't also still be a teacher shortage people will well what I can tell you is the charters are also in Decline oh I didn't mean the private sector of Education oh okay you mean private sector of yeah they can go do CP lot yeah but then you have tolison which is now bot building the whole go keep in mind Tolson is one of the micro districts in this state that is growing yeah when you're growing you're making money a lot of money yep if you got where are we going to grow here we're pretty landlocked there's I mean we can knock something down and build an apartment but those aren't giving us a a good enrollment base those are transient kids they come and go come and go come and go when we about Leo said mesa's doing and closing schools and whatnot wouldn't it be their so it would it will pretty much be people who are what is it like contracted teachers um people who was just given a salary to fill a gap because we do that we also where we lay teachers off we lay them off but it's just because they were hired to fill a gap are you talking about attrition they just don't yeah we don't yeah well the thing that we do like um people who are emergency Sears yeah yeah we still fill the position though yeah yeah if they get their stuff yeah have we seen an increase in people applying for teaching positions in this District since everything's been going on regular teachers contract they're contract because of that same statute I think what two of them was like a way we just got one at we just got one at that it happens everywhere be seeing like an increase in amount of people compared to this time last year to this year who are applying for position for next school year I will tell you teachers do things last minute [Laughter] so oh there's nothing posted for next year yet uh I would say that we have seen a decline in applications overall starting last summer so they're not coming in like typically you get a bump at the end of the at the end of the first semester because you have college graduates from December but a lot of college graduates in December we're hired up by other districts that might have been paying them because they offer a paid student teaching track um and we don't currently offer that so we we have not had an increase in applications coming through the applications we're getting now are generally for next school year no um even though it's gloomy are we still planning on doing our trigger language of if funds become available these are the things that we want to prioritize I would I would I would highly recommend because of it being so unknown because here's the dedication when we have the dollars on the table we put them here we put them here that is my whole goal in life is to put it here everything extra that's outside of what I'm saving to take care of us comes here so when we get more over those percentages if it hands out it will come here those dollars will come here and then where are we you said the 10 to 20% is the sliding skill where are we at with the seven point whatever um I'm still waiting for the so that's a oh Dominic had to go to a meeting so I've asked Dominic uh to work with the entire District so something that's really hard for us is when someone puts in a purchase order at a school site or at a department for let's say they put in A1 thousand it's tiny $1 thousand Office Depot Po and they've spent $50 on it for the whole year so $950 is being tied up in of the budget number for me because it's encumbered and people are saying oh I'm going to spend that money so what we're going to start a message is going to start going out here very quickly from the finance office is if you have encumbrances you have open POS we want them closed we want them to be tight in this year especially I need people to be very conscientious and say do I need another box of pencils this year or can I get through and wait and see so we need people to be very thoughtful with these encumbrances of things that that they think they may spend can you do you need it if you need it spend it you got it spend it if you don't close the PO it will help our budget process go smoother yeah so I know we're giving contracts out in March and there's already language in the contract that says can be up to0 four% 2% 2% I thought we increase it a 4% it's 2% I thought it would increase but 2% reduction in um pay or that if the position is no longer available then you don't have that job based that's written into the contract already right yeah that's some of that risk management that we talk about and I know there talks about oh we won't cut Title One funny we'll just give it to the states and let the states decide what to do with that money but we know that this state will give it to vouchers because vouches is half of our budget what would be the process of letting people know if I mean like it's like so we find out let's say in May Department of Education is gone no more money you freeloaders go get a job Talis got so much money bias bias oh man it's sad thank goodness for them like with meet and confer come back to the table let's say we find out the process I can answer this question thank you Daniel in policy right now there isn't really a process other than that there the board will figure that out and so um per policy they could I mean I you know I don't think the board would give us 24hour notice but per policy it could be 24 hours it could be 48 whatever like I don't there's not really strict guidelines for reduction en force in policy right now other than to meet like the legal requirements um which are pretty broad um I was going to bring this up towards the end of the day but I have been researching and working on a bunch of production enforce um guidelines that other school districts have in their professional agreements that I would like to add to ours um I was going to bring it up at the end of the day because it's going to be a lot of language that people need to review and go over but it would cover things like notification timelines it would cover things like recall rights that people have for jobs um and so that if our school district does have to cut jobs we would have like a starting place to do so from in our professional agreement and it wouldn't just be starting from scratch based on trying to figure out yeah and having the crystal ball go yeah um and then also I would like to add um about the the money think Gario brought it up they they are talking about you know we want to get rid of all these grants but we're going to give the money back to the States like um of course it is possible that we just don't see a single scent of that but there's also a possibility that we lose a bunch of money and then over the course of a couple years we get some of it back in like a trickle and so there also needs to be things in place for us to determine what to do with that money so trigger language um recall protections for people that get RF things like that but I would caution you you don't want to start telling three years committee what to do three years out committee what to do we put in the guidelines and then is there any way we can do like we did with the professional agreement where you put it all together in a document we can all review as opposed to a lot of so I so I was going to have something ready by the end of today just to put it in the chat for everyone to review fantastic for reduction in force protections because it's frankly just from like having reviewed a bunch of professional agreements and trying to synthesize it it's too much to go through line by line by line I would um send everyone like a a thing and then you guys can all look at the thing and if there's specific areas that people have problem with we can um discuss and Target those areas on our next section and just to reiterate this is coming from Phoenix Union a number of other districts not D brain although we do yes no it it makes it more efficient to put it all together and kind of um a thing for us to review another question so how much money do we currently get and then how many positions are currently affected by federal dollar would need to go into a data request there's no way I could just pull that one out for you like are we talking so we know like a bunch of we get we get about $10 million in federal grants yeah so B how many positions know we're not counting uh national school lunch program in that that's not include National School launch program it is not I don't know they froze it they froze it I don't think they will well we you know here's the thing as as an entity again right or wrong we just have to go and do what we're able to do so but it would pretty much be like SP Department get a lot of federal funding right and then you have um our interventionists you have coaches some of our APS um all the cafeteria staff um even bus dve could we get Transportation dollars too this would be every District being sub like under that lens though so we would have to come up with Solutions probably as groups if we were that impacted I don't know how we would function or move forward yeah they want me so we're talking about like whole chunks of and then yeah it's a crystal ball though area like we we want to plan for the worst as much as we have the ability to but honestly at the end of the day we only have so many dollars and they're either gonna take away or more I mean we we got to go with what's actually happening and have contingency in place as possible but if they were to take all of that funding away we would be crippled I don't we would not be making the decision of how to move forward as a district we would be making the decision as public education how to move forward yeah well red states are now trying to make laws based on special education that they won't provide certain Services yeah well when there's there's blood in the water everyone's coming to get theirs right I mean course they're saying hey we're gonna give all this money back to the States you know people are rushing to the states to say hey I want a piece of the pie I'll see you up there well I think that's a little more political and not helpful for the budget conversation but I know Ivon had I was going to say that this is are very uncertain things and we need to learn to navigate uh one thing that I could say that it will be helpful for what we have uh to is the draft budget that you have proposed yes and give us numbers that will be fisc responsible uh to work uh with with the straty of saying if then statement plus uh we have also the data from the demographers that said that we were respected to lose students and now with the current uh immigration law in place we know that also is going to have already an impact but it's going to be a greater impact at the end of the year because many families are making plans for the end of the year right now they're just gathering information and planning for resources so I think with those four variables it's not good but at least it something that we can connect uh from it will be I think an accurate information to make decisions knowing that we don't have we have a great list of uh issues and so I think we all have to come together and be resourceful and see what other Solutions can we can come up uh with that may not have a fiscal impact and I'll say the only reason I wasn't ready to provide an updated budget was because of the very recent impacts with the federal I had to I needed to make sure I had a good handle and understand of where we're at right now and which ones would impact the dollars that come here because as I said there's dollars being impacted with oper bless you operational things that I had to kind of determine all right if I don't get those EV buses am I GNA be hurting somewhere else so I needed some planning time I definitely have that ready for the board on March 4th I will have it ready for this group prior to that and I'll drop it into our documents the two things that are that we're holding that up is the federal freeze impacts and making sure it's very thoughtful I don't want to just say oh it's this much money I need to really keep discussing with the experts and talking to the people who are in charge of Grants and I'm gathering information from across the district and from outside of the district to make those decisions but then also I needed to find a really good measure that I felt comfortable with for the the immigration potential impact it's a guess it's a crystal ball but I like to back those educated guesses up with some data now I have a research study and I'm going to last thing and final thing for that one is to go see how was kraton impacted when s sp70 1070 happened so I'm going to go back and look at some historic data that I don't have access to right now and then as soon as I do I should be able to update that budget for everybody and and I'll um get that dropped into our documents so um can I I would like to just summarize this conversation like top level it seems like there is somewhere in the ballpark of Z or negative dollars right we don't have any money to work with we should develop some trigger language so that if money does fall out of the sky we have something to do with it um and I would like to add as like a personal comment I don't think this should mean that we can literally do nothing with any money like for example I have like a item in mind that would cost I think it would be like $10,000 to fix like a very major problem for a very small group of employees something like that could probably still be on the table um because it wouldn't affect our District's like Topline budget but it would need to be something important or like a priority um because we would be potentially risking funds that would be needed some point in the next six months doation oh yeah and then in regard to the conversation that arel was bringing up with reduction and for stuff I will I'm also um drafting something for the committee to review thank you Eve um I'm I'm not sure if this is still relevant or not but um I was looking at the Grant funded positions we're looking at approximately a hundred positions that are funded out of Grants and the majority I would say probably about 90% of our addendums and stiens are funded out of Grants good point yeah I know they're talking about down there prop what's the what we get the what's the land prop two three yeah the L trust thing yeah I know they're talking about like I know the Republicans say oh we only want to give teachers a raise a limited definition whereas you have Katie Hobs who was saying that give the district the money and then let them decide how they want to give the raises if they maintain the funding at at P level fundings that's $300,000 for us no I think they talking about increasing it to give raises because I think the Republicans are trying to say oh we'll give every teacher like I think what was tampon bre sure FL around but they only want to give it to teachers and then Katie Hobs was like no let's just give this you know the districts the money and let them decide who they give she wants to include support yeah that what she's like just give the districts the money let them decide how to give the raises that's where exactly if we do get any kind of significant money through that process exactly yes so just to kind of uh follow up on what Eve just shared with the number of people who would be impacted by addendums because that covers like all of the extra stiens the market demand for psychologist for speech and language for OT at what point would we share with staff that those could potentially other than this live stream be going away I think that is where we are in the process of the conversation is we're identifying to put see because I don't want to go out there and go oh my gosh all the addendums are going away but so we are identifying yeah so so we're identifying right now that's where we are in the process and then as we get more identified I think and we get a I don't know what that looks like I just don't know if it's going away because we also have built into the budget planning covering portions of Grant expenditures so just because it could be decreased it doesn't mean it's going to be that area that's decreased we would bring all of that back in and we'd say here's the areas and what do we need to keep moving forward with to push student outcomes and so it's but and and for sure definitely but I definitely think it's knowledge that needs to kind of be for employees to be aware of because other districts offer um those things but in the salary and I think that's why we see it such a salary difference with a lot of AG because it's not an addendum which the fear with the Dums is they could go away um whereas if it's in a salary it can't well it can but it's a harder process it's a little harder it can go away 2% in our language I I agree I mean I think we'll use the process we've used in the past to gather information and then provide and this is a this is a forum right so we're beginning the conversations here to see what those impacts can look like so I appreciate that input and absolutely we want to communicate but we don't we don't know enough to really put out a solid communication but we are starting the communication with the people who will help us build communication right we're going to rely on you guys to get that input and feedback and and as we get more we will we'll talk about it but yeah this is my first go at hey by the way there might be zero do you know I've been grabbing this mic like this the whole time it's not a good conversation and it doesn't I I mean I had a totally different plan when I showed up here so um I now have to protect more of the dollars than I anticipated because of these these things anyways any other questions or anything I can do for you or provide to you outside of what we've already committed to provide is there anything I can do for you to help you have good thought processes about this federal dollars the request for data for next meeting would be federal dollars spent on Staffing that may be impacted by funding changes including Child Nutrition title and idea those are the three that I have is there anything else to add to that just speaking in terms of federal dollars that's on there title programs and if it's different aspects of title that would be included in this so if it's title two or title four Child Nutrition title and idea also want to let you know um I had another just side point of something I have to decrease in the budget just want to get this word out there the free and reduce uh lunch percentages went down uh because we didn't have as much um uh um intera what well how would you say it Eve can you say it like responses that doesn't that hurts us in multiple levels could you explain your ways yeah um we typically as a district are about 89% for eligible for free and reduced lunch uh this year we have to pull from the the 100th day and this year our district is at about 71% so we there's a significant decrease in our eligibility in free and reduced lunch and and also that's that's responses that's not what could be eligible it's because we didn't get the the paperwork back yeah it's been um increasingly hard to get and I don't know if I see this at my site it's been increas increasingly hard to get families to fill at the lunch application um my office staff and my CEO have been like outreaching to families that have not completed it like hey let's sit down I'll walk you through this step by step and it some we just we can't same thing last year like some blatantly refused to fill it out um and it's just been increasingly hard and I don't know why it it's because it's not impacting their wallets like I mean that if they didn't fill it out before they have to pay for lunch and they're going to get a balance and now it's not impacting them I okay I will actually throw out that the so two things that I've heard from families directly one is that generally speaking our families are inundated just like in their normal life with like scam phone calls random junk mail people trying to sign them up for things on the side of the road and so generally I've noticed that our families are pretty suspicious or wary of paperwork as a whole and then secondly that proposition that just passed um made it a crime to apply for any kind of government benefits if you are undocumented and so uh whether I actually am not aware of whether or not free or reduced lunch uh accounts for that but I did have at least one family tell me I don't want to fill this out because I don't know if I'm going to break the law so I think that both of those things and also like a third element at least for our our overall number I can't speak to like why families would be hesitant um I know this is like one of those things that at some sites have been passed on to teachers to manage and it is much hard harder for like 30 individual teachers to manage reaching out to families on like an individual level than to get them when they enroll their kids or you know at some other point um where like the office staff is able to get that um interface with them so I agree with the comments made so far and like to add uh that currently the the way that um families are supporting into complete this at the beginning of the year and throughout the year is through the CEOs front office staff and also even though they're no longer required by them but they they collaborate because they know the importance of getting this data is the Department of U food nutrition uh so it it's those three positions or departments working together for that um there's a fear of the immigration impact that may have for those who are in the process or that they have the hope and then there's also families that they know uh that their salary or their household income is high and so they don't want to take the laborious steps of completing because they said I'm not going to qualify um and so we're trying to always go back to the community and educate them that even if they don't uh qualify or they partially qualify uh that they the the data is it's it's useful for us to get other means of uh of funds to complete um to continue to provide services to kids so it just to restate obviously there's its data it changed and it also affects the budget and it also affects grants and so we are going to get less there I'm also having to factor in less in the budget because in the actual budget there's a tiny little thing that comes in it's a weighted student count just like you get a a little bit so you get a one for one regular ed kid if that kid is like hearing impaired you get a little extra money for them uh definitely not enough to deal with all the things you need to deal with to help and support them same thing with the free and reduced lunch population we get that recorded we get a little extra bump in the budget um having to calculate a a big hit to that it's a substantial change so just so you know that those little things that we can try to do but I don't know how we would get parents to not be afraid with the the current events you know so just do our best I just want to let you know it is just another piece of data of something that has to be calculated in the budget process okay I'm so sorry boy it's making me think a little differently um but I think this district is very fortunate that the insurance is being paid still by the district and there is still a raise budgeted in if that happens so that's all good news okay if we can take a look at our Norms so we can apply those today you have them in your folder yes oh did I misunderstand that budget line when you said 2% someone said four oh okay we better make sure I guess I misinterpreted oh gosh did I misinterpret I misinterpreted your question um okay well you have insurance covered so let me tell you did I tell you how much my insurance went up as a retiree 175 a month that's a lot of money for a retiree so anyway um you're fortunate to have that um why don't we take our break now yeah let's although we did have one I guess we're going to have another break no oh no do you need a break 12 yeah we'll do that we'll have lunch till 11:45 okay um so we're aware of our Norms make sure that we're following them today um we spent a lot of time on developing them and especially when we're in groups um the Taskmaster um and the norm follower want to make sure that you're remembering our norms and follow making sure all the members are following those Norms sorry about that okay our guiding principles um important for us to remember when we're doing our options that um we are and this is going to be new because the board really wants us to focus especially on the first one alignment with student outcome focused governance goals so we're going to have to really um in my opinion defend any option that we have so we will be spending quite a bit of time whenever we finish our um options making sure that they specifically align with that first one and I don't think we're g in the past we've always when we've done our alignment um with our standards we just said a quick yes yes it'll improve student achievement but I think we're going to need to this year basically tell how and the reason I'm saying that is when we're doing our options we really need to keep that first guiding principle in mind if we can't defend it then we really shouldn't be presenting it um then we have our other guiding principles which is sustainable salary for all staff sustainable health care benefits explore Revenue Generation generation options adhere to budgetary recommendations okay the scope of our work for meet and confer you're aware of this but I just wanted to remind you again is what we basically can um negotiate our wages salaries salary schedules hours of work compensation relating to fringe benefits and condition of work that are non-instruction in nature and of districtwide impact so again keep this in mind when your groups are talking sometimes we like to maybe try to negotiate something that we're really not permitted that's out of our scope so we need really need to um have our options deal with what our scope is for this committee okay so options our goal today is to develop options for all of our framing statements and we have 17 of them so we'll see how we do with that um so the new people might want to know what is an option well the option really answers the how so how are we going to accomplish whatever we want to accomplish so fairly easy um so what we do is we test the valid validity of the op option against our framing statement um will your options meet the interests of the other parties um so you'll select the best option and we this year we really I think if we could try not to just have a a running list of things if we can kind of consolidate um maybe our options not to have as many as we've had in the past that would I think be helpful um but I'm not I don't want to stifle you either so um but anyway that's where we we'll find out what we um come up with when we're finished with our activity and I don't know if we'll finish it today we'll see um after listening to Vanessa I don't know um like she said we'll probably have to really focus on a lot of options that don't include money and then the ones that do include money I know it won't happen today I don't think it will then we'll prioritize which ones are the most important to us um but anyway when you meet with your groups um you you'll review your stories and the interests kind of to refresh your memory and then um you'll read out your framing statement and then the options will answer your framing statement so you'll list all the options everyone can think and of course without criticizing anyone or dismissing anyone's ideas and then you'll brainstorm all the options that your team can come up with and this is the place where we want to make sure all members are contributing so if you do want to pass around a pencil as someone suggested as a Talking Stick so that everyone in your group actually does have a voice that would be helpful too um but you'll anyway you're just going to brainstorm and then once you brainstorm your team will look at all of your options and try to consolidate them into an option to answer that framing statement you may have more than one option for that framing statement or you may not okay so this is our activity we have a half an hour so we probably could get at least one finished um so we're going to select an issue based on um our order of votes so if you look at that handout that I gave you it lists um the framing statements and we're going to go in the order of the first one on the issues it was the issues handout looked like this the first one was the one that we had the most um votes for and the last one was the least so we are going to start with the first one so we will select we're going to have two groups we're going to select an issue um then you're going to take your hand out with the job responsibilities that you have you're going to determine the job responsibilities um then you're going to collect your issue chart which by the way they're all together over here so we have to separate those that might take us a little bit of time um we're going to review the information of the charts because you'll want to uh refresh your mind about the stories and the interest because it was um a couple weeks ago since we done that activity once you refresh um your mind about what we did in the past you're that's when you'll start your brainstorming someone um will chart that and then you're going to consolidate your brainstormed options review your framing statement and determine which option best answers the framing statements make sure to include all voices and again keep in mind the guiding principles especially the first one um the first one of the guiding principles relevant to student achievement and keep in mind our scope of work so um you're probably have to call out each other in the group if that comes up where someone may need to say well that's really not in our that's not really our responsible for IBN um so make sure you're listening to everyone okay just a review of the roles we have the timke keeper the Taskmaster the norm monitor the recorder and the presenter okay so I wanted to leave that back up here so I'm going to call on someone and you don't have to read every single one of those but in your own words when we get into our group what is it that you are going to do for our option activity Jame James and can you speak into the microphone I'd like you to repeat what we're going to do for this activity in your own words kind of summarize it I was a little detail orientated there basically we're gonna get groups and come up with option right using exactly right right you're going to look at the what's important to remember is that you review the chart okay read the stories read the interest and then you're going to come up with options for the framing statements okay so uh you have a card there was a purpose for that card after last time um if your card and we'll see how this turns out if your card is red you're going to come over here and if your card is black you're going to be over here or over here wherever you choose are [Music] yes yes you can so I haven't I haven't said which group is going to get which issue but if you're not happy with the issue that the group you're in as long as you can find someone from the other group to exchange with you perfect and by the way we're going to have to sort out the charts so one person one person from your group is going to have to go through the the charts and grab your chart paper um the the okay so this group over here teacher workload balance and work time start end and this group over here High need students so if you can select your um people who in their roles and then we'll get the charts e e e okay if I could have everyone's attention over here your left hand up if you're listening looking for everyone's left hand yeah okay great okay what we're going to do now is your presenter is going to uh read your issue tell us a little background the little story um and then review some of the interest and then share your options let's start over here with teacher workload and you'll need a microphone area the orange first it's up to you I you I just we want to know what your issue is what's the story The interests and your options so wait until everyone is listening so our um issue is teacher workload um classroom teachers are unable to meet increased workload demands outside of their workday due to internal and external factors increased Behavior L commute hours and personal boundaries so how can we decrease the amount of workload outside of the school day while retaining teachers and improving our students outcomes um our first fully thought out idea was a committee will be formed by CSD to conduct a thorough investigation and formulate a plan for a 4 day school week Round of Applause no findings will be presented during the meeting confer session for the 2526 Academic Year with a recommendation for implementation targeted for the 2728 school year oh sorry make the 26 27 school year our second one was the district day will be reduced from 7 hours and 10 minutes to 6 hours and 30 minutes eat lunch at home kids um another one that was presented was an extra protective individual prep for each teacher using a six day oh no matter how the um extra protect a extra protective individual prep for each teacher daily and then the last one the district and the Representatives will not make Ariel Melissa Williams and her fellow CC teachers ISS teachers okay comments especially when we're thinking of um you know the board guide rails guard rails and student achievement I just need some clarification that 4-day work week would be like would we pilot it the next coming school this upcoming school year and then put it into play is that where we're going with that I just needed some clarification no we're saying that a 25 26 school year is when they will be formulating a committee they'll be investigating and creating a plan it might happen it might not happen in 262 is going to be based off the investigation so with with that work CL and what we're about to say um have we looked into opting to maybe one PD a month and stay within our certain hours since we do work our extra extra 80 70 75 to 80 hours a year um could we opt one Friday or preferably a Friday a month for us teachers to have a full day PD or workday or whatever our school sites decided it to be that's going to be based off of the plan and the committee but you can join a committee now hers is a total she's given another option oh you want to add an option okay I'll add it what am I adding um so our neighboring School District um balls School District Ops for one Friday I think once a quarter right now um for teachers to have a full day PD no kids all teachers all admin so that could be your data walks that could be your uh vertical articulation um to allow us teachers and our at our school sites to do what like to have those real life those real life PDS to take back and like really Implement really Implement um the things we're all asking for now do they still have um Wednesday early release I understand what you're saying so an up so other idea outside of the four day week will be that instead of having four days every week once a month once a month once a quarter once a month once a quarter no school on Friday and just teachers there and no students yeah oh I like that idea what did you want per quarter or per per month one can I add to that just to give a little bit of context context I really really love that idea um but that we tried to do that with a calendar committee um I think James maybe you were on it with me uh where we offered like that um it made us start a little bit sooner in over the summer and try have one day a quarter where we had a full day professional development with no students and it was not voted on when we adopted our calendars that was it was overwhelmingly um the other option I don't know if people really understood it but I I just want it was we did try to do that could we add to that option because I like that option maybe we could say that you know we say one day per month and then that Wednesday would be a full day instead of a early release day so of that week Wednesday would be a full day instead of early release day I'm not in with that it almost throws the whole everything off when you change the Wednesdays days could an option be that we move all early Tuesdays to Fridays instead of Wednesdays it will affect the when other districts that did that it affected their attendance kids just wouldn't come I I agree with I agree with what everyone is saying um but I have worked at a district uh prior to coming here and we did have um one day a month where there were no kids but we still kept our half day and our hours were still the same you did you add more days you would have to add because it's statutory law that if kids aren there maybe you're right but I I don't per I think we might have started maybe like three days more like exactly can I ask a couple clarifying questions and um just to help me understand better are we talking about like a 4-day work week is one option yes shortening the or shortening the day is another option so it's not this and this or or adding add an additional daily prep for Teacher right like is it it's just not all combined no thank you oh okay I just needed that clarified for myself okay so we have that option we have uh we got one more who is it okay James um did this group take into consideration a budgetary impact in terms of classified people who would be losing money which op for any of the options because they're hourly employees and when they're not there they're not getting money right well I mean the so that would be something that they would research and then we didn't talk about it for the other two so on specifically on the fourth one day because that's I think that's the only one that will affect the hourly employees what we know or would discuss in the conversation is that the district that we know cartright uh on the fourth day there uh the students are there but for child care purposes or other things and so that will be another opportunity for those classified uh employees to still have more hours or the regular hours also I was going to say for staff that lose hours you could raise salary appropriately to mitigate that because the intention is not to cost anyone money to maintain the same salaries but sta CD because we're always looking for time to meet our um second second uh point to consider and I know not everybody in the room would be aware of this I am intimately aware of this because it is tearing my brain apart because I know it's coming up and it's called Master course scheduling we have required minutes that we have to meet and I'm concerned about the extra prep and still being able to fit in all the minutes I'm just I'm not saying I'm before no no I'm not talking about minutes of instruction I'm talking about like minutes that we have to have we have to have a certain amount of ela we have to have a certain amount of math all that stuff Oh I thought you were referring to we're over St um minute requirements and then there are the guy recommended or the district minutes and oh I was told that there was a five minute like there was a five minute thing that we had in okay it is also possible that our specific School James because of test scores or other factors require more minutes so that might be what you're thinking of but I could be confused uh that's definitely not true uh but I could be confused so okay um I was also gonna say that I don't think right now we are debating options I think we are just like presenting them and then when we go to vote on individual options we can open the floor for debate about particular options can can I add on one for that um is that it like if I I absolutely love the idea for all staff but like mandatory training because we offered multiple opportunities for professional development for um some of our classified staff and some of them took advantage of it and others we they did not so if we could build that in where all these new things coming out we're ensuring that all of these people are getting trained something about like mandatory something yeah it's really hard when you're implementing like a new um module at your school but you can't get everybody trained on it because you can't get you can't get everyone on board because you can't get everybody trained okay so we're going to end it here and um your group will share after lunch it is 12 close enough 1210 um we'll do 45 yeah one is close one o'clock e e e just doing options we're just going to do the options that's it today and I just want is anyone again let's do another time restraint Check Yes James okay I I know we're not going to finish before 2:30 but I I'll we'll when we see leave then we'll know anyone else again any 330 215 215 330 okay so we finished over here right before lunch I believe um let's go over to um this option High need students and Kelly you are the presenter it was Amy but she's gone so oh okay so you'll give us a little background and share the framing statement and then your options so our uh topic was high needs students the interest statement says we need support and training for all staff members in order to support our high need students the framing question reads how do we systematically and fiscally provide training and support for all staff in order to address the high needs of our students and just a little background we talked about increasing behaviors needs of students um not a lots more non-verbal students students in diapers um not necessarily identified for special education but some are and just a escalation of um increased behaviors across the board and a need to address that so that brings us to our options the first one we said district and then we talked about how this could be the new director of inclusion position there's a little discussion about whether or not that lives in the sped department but I believe that it does right okay so yeah no it doesn't oh okay sorry is that what they're called director of inclusion no it's academ director student supp okay that's what I that's what we meant that's why it has a question mark curriculum got it okay thank you for the okay thank you for the background so whomever that person may be or or just said the The elusive District wherever that does live um will initiate development of site-based systematic protocols for crisis team response intervention including identification and training on District processes which includes threat assessment suicide assessment Etc by the end of quarter one of each school year so the reason that we added that time stamp is because this actually was a recommendation that came out of meet and coner last year and just in surveying the couple of sites that we had among our group which was three to four there was a variety of we have a crisis team all the way to we don't or if we do I'm not aware of who those people are and they're not being implemented to serve the needs that are coming out and so and there was some sites that reported that they do have one and that they're using these protocols so we just said it needs to be systematic across the district so that it's not just you know one-offs across whatever sites happen to be utilizing it and we felt like it's we know that you know each school has their own flavor and whatever but this feels like more of a Universal um template or process that can just be implemented across whatever site you're at are there any questions on that one or we're not doing questions we're just right cheing okay and then the second one is um the district again whomever this director position may be uh will provide a full-time highly qual highly qualified ESP who is also on the crisis response team so we talked about in addition to having these set protocols written in this first one having additional support is needed and that would be a designated person to provide support with uh High need students sort of in the moment and outside of a behavior interventionist or a already designated position that's there and then the third one district will provide ongoing training to all staff in terms of trauma informed practices BMC rulers Etc so we left that more open-ended because we know there are some programs that are already in place but there's not a lot of mandated trainings um this actually goes hand inand with the recommendation of the other group in terms of having that additional Friday so that would be great two of us in this room lordis and I are both being Aces uh trained currently so that's something that we could offer but we also know that there's tons of experts in various departments that could be used to help rule these things out and then we weren't sure about the um training or whatever roll out that looks like for the new rulers program ruler sorry okay okay and that's it okay right now does anyone have any comments any thing they want to add Kelly you'll be our recorder if we want to add anything I like all of the options I'm wondering if we could add a specific option something about like the potty training and diapering no body training of incoming kindergarteners and possibly like educational secretaries will be trained in how to have conversations with families around the importance of incoming kindergarteners being po trained already or something like that yeah that sounds like a community ed like f FRC thing actually kind of yeah um we do offer parenting classes typically for kids under five but that doesn't mean it's limited to that um so I'm just wondering just a question why did you say the secretaries the Ed secretaries because they're in charge of enrollment kind of the last pH oh okay very uniform and consistent because we have had the situation in the past where it wasn't and then we found out that that they were being parents were being told they could not enroll their student unless they were potty trained or until they were potty trained and then we ended up with a slew of seven year-olds coming to school that had serious special education needs but their parents hadn't enrolled them because they weren't potty trained and that's what they had been told and so we don't want that happening because we want early intervention for students who for a you know for a special ed reason are struggling with potty training versus I just haven't been potty trained you know what I mean like those are two very different things so I think we have to be very careful with how that's presented so that we make sure that message isn't accidentally given out again to kind of Ensure maybe that that happens can the district have uh what to expect in kindergarten like brochure that isn't done site by site but is District uh done so that it's available at each site and it talks about those expectations s yeah that's a great idea actually related to that the FRC administers the early enrollment testing for kiddos that aren't five before the September one cut off and two um teachers at builtmore helped to facilitate that testing last year for us and one of them created a list of benchmarks yeah kind of like expectations for for kids entering kindergarten and so it feels like that could be a good jumping off point to start with that list and then say add like oh also not in pull-ups thank you certainly I can send it to right now so Katie with that that's a little different from your option but you and I Katie could talk about that too like just you know I don't know that it needs to live here just because of my role in you know what I mean are you okay with not listening yes and in the front office that says we don't diaper we don't diaper yeah we don't even give out diapers bigger diapers for that reason actually cuz we're like no are you amazing are you okay with that are you okay with that not going down as an actual option then or because related to that we're in conversations right now about our Kinder boot camp program because we currently don't have funding through our grant that we get funded by but we're trying to see if we can roll it into summer school and I feel like Kinder boot camp also goes along with that same sort of vein so I would love to just brainstorm more in yeah I just let it live at the F SE appreciate what like the the necessity of a uniform statement um just because I don't want to personally break any laws um Rebecca into following law thank you thank you um when you're talking about grants for cander Readiness there is a grant that I know of called jump start it's uh 60 extra days of school um solely K I think it's K2 um and incoming Kinder so a little different no these would be incoming Kinders so you could do like incoming Kinders Kinder going into first grade first graders going into second got yeah let's check more for sure it's through the government called jump start okay Eve um I just wanted to add that I know uh for our transition programs um that we do Kinder round up and so like maybe that is a good time to also share the document so that every site has the document we're giving our parents the same information that is a really good point and that's actually coming up at the end of March but because this checklist already exists from I'm forgetting her name right now this wonderful teacher at bmore uh I I yeah I would be happy to reach out to her and just see if I can get a soft copy so I can edit it and then we can just jump jump on from there y for sure okay any other options for this one okay okay thanks Kelly so let's move on to the next two which are see employee group compensation that's LPNs mechanics psychologist Ed secretaries bus drivers and facilities and the other issue is longevity so um we're going to divide again into two groups if your card is less than five you're over here if your card is six and above you're over here and this time we're going to do things a little differently as far as assigning roles because I have noticed that some people seem to have the same role every time and we want to get voices out to all individuals so I have some cards with the job responsibilities and I would just like for you and your team to put them flat down and then everyone takes one and whatever card you get that's your role okay understand I don't need to repeat right okay anything less than five over here more than five over here and let's see how our group turns out okay okay good that's good thinking with the next gen and you guys were giving them groups those are the groups were prioritizing committee and so next gen's coming into the committee meeting they're teaching about that thing they're going to see if it's going to be usable they're going to Deep dive of how to do the salary um comparisons to other districts when did we find that out to committee well the last time we talked about here in Meet confer that we talked about whether we could use next gen or not and we've talked about it going to committee and we called the committee it's the compression and compensation yeah so are we not getting next salary data well the committee has to meet and they don't meet until when next they meet next Wednesday so I'm just saying we won't have it for you today but we can have it for you after the committee meets and they make decisions on how they're gonna webe skip that one for now and do that one next meeting and we do the next those prioritized groups that the meeting confer gave us is so we would be skipping longevity too then right I'm assuming if that's is that on that no okay the next one is longevity after that pay raises for everyone yeah okay let's then it the this one will be okay okay let's see how our teams uh look okay I will give you your roll card e e e not about 30 seconds why they will be hourly employees no they're not there's only certain people I'm okay our time okay could you raise your hand if you are the presenter in your group raise your hand if you are the presenter uh who over here is Kelly you're the presenter right okay so as you're presenting make sure you share the story and uh the framing statements and your options and start over here when you have everyone's attention Rebecca sure okay Kelly they'd like us to start here and make sure you have everyone's attention Kelly oh thank you thank you okay our topic is longevity the interest statement says we need to retain staff in order to impact student achievement according to the sofg guard rails yes the framing question is how do we improve current longev current longevity in order to improve staff retention to impact student achievement so these are options we started very high and then finished with non-monetary options or an a non-monetary option so the first one says uh keep same tiers meaning the system of uh being paid out after three years five years 10 years and 15 years so keep that same system but increase each amount by 20% if you're curious what that looks like they are here so the first tier would be400 2400 4,800 72 and 9600 oh we there's another option to add um after after 20 years so that would be the last one option two after your first year of employment level a staff because anybody any baby teacher starting at with zero years of experience starts at level a after their first year they would be moved to level B so essentially putting them on the next pay scale pay level uh the next option is to add an additional T tier so that's the last one that we talked about uh to longevity for 20 years we don't currently have a tier for staff that stay for 20 years even though we have some of those in the room many uh and that would be 8,000 but with the 20% that brings it to 9600 and then the last option is to offer an option to receive longevity compensation over two payouts instead of divided up over all pay checks so right now you just get it spread out over your paychecks throughout the year but this opt for staff to opt in if they wanted to to get a big check at the beginning of the year presumably and then a big check at the end of the year we talked about for staff who are young it makes more sense maybe for them if they wanted to see a bigger chunk as opposed to seeing that spread out throughout it's the same amount of money so this is no a monetary impact it's just a distribution distribution exactly a way to say oh do I want a big chunk right now and a big chunk at the end as opposed to spreading it out over the paychecks any questions anybody want to add an option okay thank you Kelly okay Becca okay so our interest was uh pay raise for everybody um due to inflation impacting all staff staying with us staying competitive with surrounding uh other school districts uh compression and booster morale and we need a tier approach for to compensate all staff groups so our options were for the 2 5 26 school year contract substitutes will receive a 5% raise of retroactively to the 2425 school year resulting in a stien of 177003 or I'm sorry 1,735 paid at the end of the 2425 school year to the people employed as a contracted sub for the entirety of the 2425 school year and funding permits a pay raise at a ratio of 2 to one to five to certified classified and admin employees respectively within the minimum of a 1% raise for all certified staff 25 26 school years to be implemented 2% certified 1% classified and 05 to admit yeah yes okay did you read the last one oh yeah and contracted Subs will receive a pay raises at the classified rate for further pay raises okay any questions anyone want to add to that okay oh I'm sorry what do you want to add anything to that are you no okay okay then we're finished with these two our next two are which we started by the way so that person I think we do have some options on that chart I could be wrong um did you want to add anything about translating we had that discussion yeah so we discovered that there are some CEOs that are already getting paid for $35 so we need to make sure that it's consistent we did check it with ourne and so that sorry sorry trying to do HR higher things okay we did run it through our attorney to make sure that was appropriate um but then when we started uh checking into it we determined that there are some in that CEO group that are actually right now getting the $35 an hour for translation extra duty pay um and the thing that I saw in it in the piece of takeaway is that it seems to be site based and is being used uh site discretionary monies are being used to make it happen so what I can think maybe happened and I don't know it's an assumption but maybe some sites didn't have site discretionary money and maybe had language that told a CEO or something you can't do it I don't know I don't know how it all transpired uh but what I do see is that it's possible we can do it we got it checked by legal let's just move forward if they're doing it outside their contract we don't need to change job description um I've information on how payroll has to treat it as it comes to uh calculations for overtime pay so that we're in legal status with that so I think I think we are okay with this one and it's a non-issue is everybody good with that and is there any questions I can answer can I just clarify what you said so I understand so it's happening at some sites we're just making sure that it's now happening at all Sites I'm not saying that it can happen at all Sites what I'm saying is if they do it outside of their if someone comes and asks them to do it there needs to be an appropriate funding source however that funding source is normally allocated those processes need to be followed so if it's site discretionary I'm sure there's a process at the site if it's a grant there's an approval process through the grant you can't just say you have to do it there needs to be a funding source it looks like the ones that it has happened with it was the site discretionary fund so there would be whatever the approval process to get a funding source and then however that is articulated to that person to say hey are you willing to do two hours of translating outside of your regular day and if so you'll get paid $35 an hour out of this funding source is kind of you know how that would go so yes they can do it I don't think there's a they have to do it and I don't think there's a everybody has to do it every site I think you have to have a funding source and a willing body person and we can pay them the $35 an hour just like everyone else okay so if there is the funding source it is at $35 an hour it's not their General rate it is not their General rate it is at $35 an hour it would be a time sheet pay assignment it needs to have HR paperwork and a funding source has to be assigned appropriately okay and then was that communicated directly to Ivon because it was his concern and his where is he he's at a meeting we definitely need to say it to him we'll tell him as an issue it doesn't seem to be an issue I don't think so it sounds like we solved it we just need to communicate that so that he can to solve it we just needed more information and thank you for let allowing us to dig into it we have to come to consensus to yeah Vanessa maybe just send him a chat or something believe since we came to consensus with these issues we have to come to consensus to eliminate that issue because we don't need to have it anymore so I am going to um recommend that we eliminate the issue regarding let me get the right words um compensate staff for translating regardless of position so do we agree to eliminate that I would just like a point of clarification before we do that so what I'm hearing is that it is up to the site administrator to implement that well what she just said is my understanding that because they come of site funds okay they can't ask someone to translate without paying them and they have to find basically the funding source yes okay cool sounds good are we okay thumbs up sideways down Dorothy okay okay so then let's go to hey let me ask you this question so when we started developing our issues we decided that we would try to get through all of them and if we could great if not you know sad but I'm kind of worried are do you want to try today just to try to get through all of them and then when we go to our next step we'll go as far as we can is that yeah raise your hand if you're leaving at 2:30 we're about to leave lose like lots of people one two Oh I thought you were two in just two oh okay sorry I thought it was more than I I know with Jeff for those of for those of for those of you who worked with Jeff he told me you used to do five to seven issues a year well we've done you know we've done a lot I'm not I'm fine with it if you're fine with it I think we should get through the issues today develop options if people aren't here they can review what we did and come in with options ready like I think next session if we have like an hour set aside for people to say okay I listened to the video I did the work I've made the language here are some options we can add them to the list and then next session we can go through get consensus eliminate and then evaluate and I think that should be fine and we'll again start when we start next time if we get through all these options we'll start at the very beginning with the most the ones who had the most votes and if we can't get through all of them then we will stop yeah does that Mak sense to all of you okay I'm not going to do a consensus vote because it's just the way it's going to be um okay so our next two then are parental leave and class size and by the way class size comes up every year here since I've been here um okay so when you go into your group we're going to follow the exact the same protocol as we have in the past get your charts review the stories the interests the framing statements and then brainstorm the options um Katie question um yeah so I know class size and the pay raises are different um posters but how would we different because I there's probably only going to be one pot of money unless there's enough you know to do everything that we want but how do we how do we differentiate between the two or do do we need to put that in the options like so um for like looking like class size is like an issue I know it obviously leads to like the the option of like reducing the ratio which would cost money but for example instituting some class siiz caps um would actually not cost anything necessarily um when I looked at other professional agreements and other bargaining agreements that have class siiz caps um like the language that they all use is the district will within its budget capacity Implement acceptable Alternatives that may include but are not limited to um and then they list things out and so for example if you have a class that's overc cap you can move kids and that's doesn't cost anything right you can move like if you have a class at 38 and a class at 34 move two of those kids cost Zar right and we would still be within we'd have some language that would allow that whereas currently if you have a class at 38 and a class at 32 you know it's kind of just up to whoever that that whether or not that happens right so that would how it usually goes it's usually like we have class sizes in all first grade classes that are 33 you know and so where does the 34th kid go do they have to go to a new different School even though you know they're in our boundaries or what have you read around that so like for example I'm looking at Phoenix or I'm looking at Roosevelts right now and like so like have options that starts with site driven options so reassigning students to a different teacher reassigning students to create a combo class right within a grade level band um assigning PA professional staff to support large class sizes in the effective grade level um reassign a teacher once the student enrollment exceeds Max in a great uh effective grade level and then on a district level hire PA professional staff to support large class sizes reassign a teacher through District inade transfer at a teacher right so some of those things would cost money but all of that comes with the caveat of within budget capacity right so if it is the case that you have like a ton of like kids well all those extra kids should mean extra money right and so that could be more hours for a PA that could be assigned to that grade level that could be enough money to hire an aid or it could be enough money to hire a teacher depending on the amount of kids it just depends which is looking at all this language it's all very flexible and it it comes with the caveat within budget capacity so like for example if we um don't have enough money to do a 1% raise but we do have like I don't know $200,000 that's enough for two or three teachers right that could be used to alleviate class size caps like that's what the district can do with the money that is not enough for a raise but is enough that it could be spent on something so are we saying that if it's because what I'm hearing you say is that if it is under 1% we would go to the it would go to class sizes but if it's over 1% It would automatically go to the overall teacher raises with class sizes as a second it would go so over 1% it would go to teacher raises under 1% it would go to whatever the district is deems necessary per like policy whatever right which one of those things could be class sizes but again like it's up to the district to decide its budget capacity so if the district has $500,000 a float and they decide they need it for something more than class sizes and it goes to that then like we're not prioritizing like that because it's it's impossible for us to consider all of the district's budget needs and we will once we you know have our options then we rate them for what's most important to us to least and then as the money comes we know well we can afford this you know and that's how that's how we'll go about doing that but we can't afford this so what's more important to you class size or pay raise I mean uh we'll do that as soon as we pretty much know what the budget is I would assume probably maybe the March meeting um I'm assuming does that answer your question okay so then we're going to go again with a parental leave and class size um parental leave will be parental leave will be over here class size will be over here and just for the fun of it without using our cards I'm going to let you select and see what we end up with over here if you want to be parental leave come over here if you want to be class siiz go over there let's see where we're at and again you have the cards I believe and use the cards randomly to select your um leaders for the job responsibilities and we'll set the time as soon as the groups are okay that one where's what did we do with your group cards are they over there Dorothy are you guys gonna join oh you're leaving okay oh that's right oh oh my gosh okay are you which group were you in that group okay oh good okay are you okay with uh three does anybody would anyone like to move over to this group for Parental leave okay thanks Eve which card which these are the and I don't know where the rest are there's one over there or two hey Joel okay um are we ready to get started okay not even not even they Ma anything family you that's that's I mean so you were already comp spe because B said e for know [Music] re cre you're spe so are you proposing [Music] feel [Music] right yes know [Music] Daddy okay no that right sure first show meas love I'm gonna do right C it's TR see I if you're I need to not keep sitting in [Laughter] [Music] myat too some feary just don't know going to share now okay so if you are if you're the presenter raise your hand who's the presenter over here okay um and make sure you share the story the interest the framing statement and your options and make sure you wait until you have everyone's attention um parental leave staff who are new parents are likely to leave or resign because they don't have enough accured accur accured accured acre PTO to take time off as needed and or the resulting cost of child care make staff question question the benefit of staying interest how can we meet the needs of new parents while retaining hly qualified staff these are the days of our lives so our parental leave options the district will create a parental leave package with sufficient leave time and an option to reserve days Upon returning to work number two two the district will advertise donation to SI time bank to provide extra hours towards maternity leave or parental leave any questions options yeah this says seek Bank y okay well maybe they if they qualify for MLA and they run out of days halfway through [Music] um could we start a paternity leave Bank where people can donate time I don't know no we have the yeah just sick C can no you're thinking of the S Bank yeah I had my oldest I was a teacher for like year and a and but he's saying that the current medical leave bank is for people with no changey directly to a policy that's there has the policy but it doesn't necessarily mean they're going to get it because there's a committee that decid who gets it so you can ask your co-works to donate to the medical Lead Bank but there's no guarantee that committee is going to reward that time to that person um the district will adver the district will advertise donation to SI time bank to provide extra hours towards parental leave will uh change the SI time bank to provide they call medical leave bank right but also I feel like there should be like a I feel like there should be like a last resort because like cancer you can't plan for cancer you can always plan for the uterus well sometimes not always I said something change policy change policy the the board would have to act on it so we gave them a recommendation so it would actually be a policy change to time bank adding but I also feel like we shouldn't make that something people are dependent on because once again it goes to a committee and then the committee has to decide we'll give you the time that's why it's an additional benefit to the first right the first one is the package that's like the main one and then this is like if you're out or your baby is excessively sick or whatever I don't no no you can't use like oh my baby's sick let me go get no no no no no you have the on FMLA well in the committee that would be just another item on the committee list to look at correct medical leave Bank paternity leave no medical leave Bank y you could take off bank that's it that's M yeah to include to include you take off the whole thing by extra hours and just put maternity paternity leave maternity leave or paternally leave parental parental leave which by the way covers okay we need to read it again um the district will adjust policy of the medical leave assistant program to include parental leave Katie I know we've talked about this before but I feel like a lot like just like last year these are all coming out to be the district will and I was was just kind of looking up some other collective bargaining agreements and they're worded differently than that ites it doesn't just say like the district will the district will the district will it so give us an example we can put the board will because this is like a board change so we can say the school board I mean it just says certain things like the following are paid holidays for or um policy let's see vacation pay will be paid at the rate of employees May C carry over unused acred vacation they just kind of are stated eliminating first few words like we could say right a parental leave package will be provided leave time right exactly just like that yeah yeah are we in agreement with that do so I would I I would also just say that the reason why this language was included like this is because for the past couple years we were having difficulty making sure everything was implemented and a common response to some things that got dropped was just well we didn't know who was supposed to do that and so no one did it and that's why and when we wrote up and approved the professional agreement last year we included these things to be very specific about who is doing what um so if we are comfortable removing that language that's fine we have a grievance policy o or we could maybe at the end of this like write it and remove that and then brainstorm kind of in parenthesis like here's who we're thinking where we're thinking these things would live we've said they're happening here's our recommendation for where they might live but you can decide yeah I yeah I also um some bargaining agreements also specifically named usually departments that are responsible for things I think we've shied away from that in the past but yes for specific things that could be useful like this is probably a human resources issue be a benefit coordinator yeah I I appreciate that conversation because when I feel like when we say things like the district will it feels divisive to me and like we're not assuming positive intent and I think we want to create a culture where we're assuming positive intent and we're United and unified and making these decisions so I appreciate using different language or you give j a t-shirt that says the district and and then the rest of us will say [Laughter] will that's it yes that's it I did want to just say that um in other uh bargaining groups I've seen different composition and I think sometimes um we have a representation actually at the conversational table and so you'll have HR representation Finance repes representation and so when these types of things do come up it's more needs-based like an item might be hey um staff are having a really hard time finding this kind of information and so then like an HR department can come forward and go oh wow well we have this tool because they're part of the the part of it and then it it then they're part of the solution and they can say this is what we can do like because as opposed to the district will do this thing and then the reason it's there because we keep failing to do it well sometimes it's because it's not legal or it's and we don't know it until we start trying to implement it or it's not feasible because of Manpower or it's not the way that our systems work and so I think that sometimes some of that just comes from not you know necessarily having everything that you might need in order to make these decisions and we try to do our absolute best but once again we will do our absolute best like we always do okay um one thing I would like to remind you and we went over this earlier is remember we have to provide measures for our recommendations so as you're brainstorming your recommendations in your minds or as a group you might want to think how are we going to measure that that it's really going to increase student achievement we just can't say anymore this will improve student achievement we're going to have to you are going to have to basically when you present it to the board um provide that measure that you're going to use so that will be a task that we will also be doing um which is going to take quite a bit of time um but just remember that as you're developing your options okay anyone want to add to that and I think what we'll do um listening to you Vanessa is I think I'll have you and Joel when we're doing this part of the conversation once the group has brainstormed their ideas their options now um then we're going to open it up to both of you during the sharing time to offer your input would that work for both of you that rather than going around to the small groups when we're doing our sharing is when we'll have you actually um provide your Insight and your input absolutely and sometimes it may be we have to rely on other staff on our teams that'd be perfect yeah might need Dominic here we might need you know um Scott here we might need well neighbors here or he was here so instead of them attending the small groups they will actually um share during this open time okay I think that would work yeah let's try that and see okay sounds good oh a side note you know how we do the welcome back rally everyone have T-shirts you know what district office you do you guys should get t-shirts for the welcome back rally that says the district the district the district will the front says the the back says will yes okay yeah so class size we came up with two options would you give us a little history first yeah oh sorry um our interest is how can we systematically balance class sizes to prioritize student safety and learning so the problem right now like was based in the that word systematically is that of course we have a staffing ratio of 20 of right this year is 25 to1 in previous years it was 27.5 to one and so right now we get one teacher for every 25 students um but we don't actually have a a system for balancing out class sizes and so our first option um which we borrowed from Rosevelt is um it says class sizes for Gen EDS shall correspond to the following and we have grade level bands a Target and a Max for each grade level band So for kindergarten the target is 24 to1 the max is 20 28:1 for grades 1 through 3 the target is 26:1 the max is 30 to1 for grades 4-6 it is the target is 29 to1 the max is 34:1 and for grades 7 through 8 it is the target is 31:1 the max is 36:1 and then if maximums are exceeded the district will within its budget capacity Implement acceptable Alternatives that may include but are not limited to and then at the site level there's four things written down um for example they can reassign students to a different teacher by leveling classes within the same grade level they reassign students to create a multi-grade class within a grade level band they can assign a parah to support large class sizes in affected grade levels they can reassign a teacher um once student enrollment exceeds the max enrollment level um and then District driven is higher PA professional staff to support large class size large class sizes and affected grade levels reassign a teacher through District initiated transfer or three add a teacher and then at the bottom we have that site driven steps will occur prior to District driven steps site administrators will provide written communication to affected teachers of any probable Sloss Solutions within 10 working days so Our intention here is to be very flexible while still having some guidelines for both teachers and administrators about how Staffing should be done and so we spoke from like a teacher perspective if I'm a teacher and I'm a middle I'm I'm a seventh and eighth grade teacher if I got 33 kids that might suck but I'm not at my Max right I'm expected to be able to handle that even though I'm a little above what we want and I also know that my principal is not trying to give me 33 kids right that's the the Target and if I'm a principal right and I have a class at 38 and a class at 33 it's not just like oh well you know everyone's has a lot of kids it's okay we need to take two of those kids and put them in the other class so that we're meeting our maximums right um and then our other option and then also we spoke a little bit about how like for new principles for principles that maybe like have their own system but don't have anything in writing like for how to do this especially as there's turnover it can be useful to have something on paper for like a way to distribute um class sizes and then related to that we also have an option um tied to this that says if funding allows the student to teacher allocation 27.5 to1 um because that is what this system is set up for if you average all of those targets it comes out to 27.5 to one um will be reduced and the resulting class siiz targets and maximums will be reduced appropriately so I'm not going to do the math no one here wants to do the math but if we had more teachers than 27.5 to one you could figure out what the ratio is for this and then reduce all of it appropriately it would all go down by one or two kids questions option yeah yeah and then if we if we decided to if for example if this got approved and not the other one or whatever right um if in the future the ratio reduces we have more than uh 27.5 to1 uh teachers if we have like 25 to1 again for some reason um you know as long as these guidelines are being met they can be used however right I just have a a a comment maybe or like a a perspective to consider um I I would caution Us in putting something like this where we could potentially be moving kids out of classrooms I know for my daughter that would cause a lot of anxiety and I feel like that's really disruptive to the child's learning environment so if there's a way that we can not do that I think it goes back to the guard rail of adult convenience and like nobody wants to have large class sizes I I recognized that there was a time that I had 38 first and second graders in my class and so like I understand how difficult that is but I also really really really want to caution us to disrupting the child's learning environment for the adult yeah I would say respectfully this is not very convenient for us right it's not convenient to move kids around it's not convenient to reassign teachers it's not convenient to hire people this is actually a lot of work actually the the most convenient thing to do is to wash your hands of it and leave things as they are not do anything um and I think when it comes to reassigning students to other classes that's mostly a preventative measure so for example like it's very rare that kids show up on the first week and you got like two classes of 40 or whatever right and things don't get moved around the first week that's not it's not as disruptive for your kid to be in a class for a few days and then they get moved I think that depends on the child and I think that I think that um we should consider the best interest of the child at all times and I do not think that moving kids out of a classroom where they have built relationships and had a certain teacher for a certain amount of time is appropriate but that's my perspective what length of time do you think is appropriate I mean I I don't know I don't I don't I don't have a do you have an option you'd like to add no I I would just like to share my perspective that I don't think that we should do things that's disruptive to Children I'm I'm I'm sorry if this if I appear to be like hostile right now but it's because this is like a huge problem in our school district and I know for a fact that no principal no teacher is going to move or reassign students because it's easy for them or convenient for them um they are doing that usually as a last resort because they have to because what is really not good for the learning of a child is to be in a class of for example 37 or 38 students right or if you're in kindergarten 29 or 30 students and then of course when it comes to what kids to reassign a lot of this problem especially with caps when it comes to maximum class sizes is students who enroll midy year because every year there's a a big enrollment right right in the beginning and there's a little bit of shuffling that happens right and then once the shuffling is figured out the things are pretty stable and then you get these bumps of enrollment throughout the year if I'm teaching halfway through the year and I get a new student right and if we have some caps in place my Ed secretary or my principal or whoever's assigning classes knows oh we can't assign this kid to this class because we're already at the maximum we want to assign them to this other class right because we have some guidelines in place my understanding is that is what's already happening when kids are enrolling they're not so can I provide maybe a little bit of clarification that I will say that is um I can speak about a that is happening at most of the sites like that's what the educational secretaries do they're like oh you know we're getting a new kid this teacher has 28 this one has 27 we're going to put him in the 27 class um but I also want to provide maybe a little bit of context because that actually did happen at my school and totally get is that we sit down and have conversations with all of the teachers so for example we hired an an additional third grade teacher so rather than their classes being at over 30 they were at like 20 um and it really helped level out those classrooms but we had conversations about which kids would go where and who to separate from whom and so it does happen it's not ideal but um that I know it it so it's like maybe that's the piece like reassign students so it to another classroom maybe so I want to put it in place and maybe this was my understanding of it is that when an additional teacher may be added to the grade level so I'm not going to like you lost three kids but I still have three more than you so I'm going to move one over to your classroom it's more like maybe when an additional teacher is added to the grade level at least that's my understanding I don't want to move students like so it happens every year kids go and they they come and for whatever reason sometimes it happens more in one classroom than another classroom um and it's Midway through the year and we get that 100 day influx of uh kids that come through so I don't want to move kids that have already been with a teacher for like half a year to another classroom but it's like maybe the caveat to that is is like when an additional teacher is added to the grade level then they're leveled up and I also I I would totally agree with that and like like I said like it says right here you're if you're leveling classes the only reason that would happen is if students are enrolling and somebody messed up and assigned them in the wrong place right or you have two classes over cap I guess and some when one class some drop right that could be like an option but something there has to be some special circumstances to cause this that is almost certainly triggered by students entering mid year there's nothing else that would cause this to happen well also I can just say you know from experience also if they don't show you know like so we tried we tried to do 28 28 28 and then out of one class 23 show so if I can just give some context looking at our 100th day number going off the ratios that are in this option currently we have zero kindergarten classes that go over this the maximum we have one first through third grade class that goes over the maximum this is districtwide we have one fourth through sixth grade that goes over the maximum and we have zero seventh and eighth grade that go over the maximums which I think also demonstrates that most of our principles are doing this are following these procedures but we need to have something written down some there needs to be some guidelines somewhere to structure that because if it's not structured then you know it kind of is just up to individual discretion which is not always the best thing in place also at speaking of like saying oh smaller class sizers is for adult convenience we need to you know not do what's best for the adults and do what's best for the students being in a classroom of let's say 30 first graders compared to random number 20 makes a huge difference more time for small group more 101 time the teacher more time to ensure that every child is getting those basic reading skills which we know is kind of lacking but smaller class sizes does benefit the adults but it benefits the students even more because the adults in the classroom already got their access to a free appropriate adequate public education is the kids in the classroom who was trying to receive the education not the teachers and I will add that this is one of the Bigg I agree this is one of the biggest drivers of turnover and there's nothing more impactful for a kid's learning than their teacher dipping mid year because they've been sitting on a 40 person class all year right okay let's take one more comment then we're going to move along um I I don't know maybe we are we allowed to amend options or yes that's what this discussion is about so maybe then because if I'm a teacher or someone that isn't sitting in this conversation and I'm reading this where it says reassign students to a different teacher by leveling class sizes the same grade level that doesn't that reads to me like oh you know I can do this any at any point in the year at any time I can just move kids around where there needs to be like a systematic when an additional teacher is added to the grade level or when um within the first so many days you know because we have 25 to one in each class but sometimes you know 25 show up in this class and 12 show up in this class so maybe we can amend that so it's a little bit clearer I'm for that I mean it's up to you all I think that's fair I have a side question um like this would go in and everything we come up with goes into the collective bargaining right but it doesn't go into policy so I guess like thinking when I think of how I am guided to do my job I always go back to policy first so do we just like need to as principles get into the habit of like always going to policy and collective bargaining or is there a way to marry the two um the collective bargaining agreement is a contract cont ract entered into by between the school district and the union so I mean yeah like it's not so policy supersedes the collective bargaining agreement so if the school board wanted to go and write or change policy that is in disagreement with our collective bargaining agreement um the the policy would supersede our agreement right so if you're checking two and there's a discrepancy policy wins state law federal law wins but it's just like the law right policy isn't going to tell you every single law you need to follow you need to be able if in applicable cases yeah you need to check the policy the the bargaining agreement and then also in some cases like state or federal law right it's like these are all things that are guidelines need to follow and in terms of marrying the two so some school districts have um what they would refer to as like an employee handbook that is like a 100 200 pages long like Phoenix Union High School District their their professional Agreements are like 200 pages long and includes a lot of policy we last year and the year prior when we were like drafting ours um I think there were a lot of people that were like we really don't want this to be 200 pages long and so we chose to Omit a ton of policy from it that would have been reiterated to Omit a bunch of guidelines from it that would have been reiterated um and just have only our bargained language in there so that it's as short as possible and it's still sitting at like 25 pages is so I I think those there is a world where there is a handbook that includes the collective bargaining agreement but um those are very long and unwieldy and people I think were opposed to that when we discussed this pre previously but wait a minute when the board votes on this doesn't it become Pol District policy like when we did that whole thing of cont one interrupt it's a contract like a vendor contract almost so when we created that policy that says um teachers should get at least what three uninterrupted preps a week that wasn't added to board policy it's not board policy it's an it's a contract entered into between the school district and the Union right which the school district promises to uphold by signing the contract just like any other contract they would sign um and the implic of that is like you know they follow the contract Etc in places where push comes to sub the employer does not follow the contract you usually go to court over it is what like that that that's what the enforcement mechanism is it's not in policy it's a contract like you would have a contract with a vendor or a business or anything else so my question to you to all of you is as I'm looking at this and I'm thinking that's are those going to be like even Amy brought up you know we're not going to do the wording of it today but we will when we prioritize and we decide you know what we're going to do that's when if we need to reward we need to reward but boy that's that can be a lot of separate recommendations right there um I I think so one way we can structure that Dian is we can have this as a recommendation and then if we want to recommend like if someone wants to offer a recommendation that is this but with slightly a different language that would be a second recommendation right but I'm I'm putting this forward as One op option because it only makes sense together right or does it I mean is there I mean that's my question if someone like if someone like to propose a different option that omits or includes more language that's fine but yeah just because it's long doesn't mean it's it's all one thing I mean I see this as one option you know and then the district will within its budget capacity Implement acceptable Alternatives that may include but not limited to I kind of see these as different not the only one well yeah I'm sorry Daniel I'm so sorry um I am the only ele I should say Elementary School teacher speaking on small class sizes versus large class sizes last year I had three High need students at a capacity of I think I had 23 kids I was able as that one teacher to those 23 kids with those needs I was able to meet them where they needed versus this year with those same high need students I'm sitting at 30 and I'm not able to um as a classroom teacher I was just telling Daniel I think these numbers are real looking at it like this because then us as teachers aren't going to the principles complaining like well here I'm at 33 like I I don't really get to say anything because my Max is 34 so think those numbers are real what I'd like you to do because it's it's lengthy um and I'm not saying it's not good I'm I'm not judging you at all it's lengthy um and you will see the communication I will type it all out I would like for you yeah and I I'll type retype it but I'll add it to your the communication I'd like you all to really take some time to look it over um and if you you know take notes if you want to add if you think anything needs to be deleted or rewarded make sure you come prepared next time with um because we could spend hours just on on this especially the wording um and we can do that at the next meeting um after you've had time to really digest all this because it's quite a bit um now Daniel you said Ros was it Roosevelt or were all of I'm just curious for myself is the rest of that from Roosevelt too or is that what your team came up with okay okay so that's how they explain all of the numbers okay okay would anyone like to add any information about class size okay so it's 3:05 um I see Emily is here we didn't take a break we didn't do an afternoon break um let's do a 10-minute break okay and then we'll actually I don't think we're going to I don't know if we're going to finish or not we'll see let me think about it during break 10minute break so come back about e e e okay um I was able to go over with Emily during the break what we did today and then I'd like to be able to release her so she doesn't have to hang around here the rest of the time because I know what we're doing so is it okay if she reads what she's going to put in the communication and then um we actually tell her if it's okay and you know you have to agree with it anyway online so go ahead em Emily yeah just share yeah if you could share what your yeah oh wait a minute I want you to hold on sorry everyone I'm going to make a change okay I hope this doesn't offend any of you and if it does I can take it okay so let me know so Vanessa shared with me some information that she um researched about one of our issues and I want her to share it with you because I think after listening to you when we were developing our issues and listening to the stories I don't think we have to meet in a group to come up with options like I think that might be one that we might be able to say oh well that's what we wanted but I want to make sure okay so would you share what you shared with me about PTO days new teacher illness pay because we might be able to do that right now and come to you know come up with our maybe who knows I don't know and if not that's fine we'll do it next week and we'll put it in a group and we'll go through the process and then also I wanted to um clarify on the work committee for compression and compensation they're not making any decisions uh I think they're doing the work and then I think our understanding is we had 200,000 to put towards hot immediate compression but I mean I I think the process that is we'd communicate some of that back here and we'd say hey here's where we identified is there any kind of heartburn if not let's fix it so I just wanted to clarify Joel said I may not have been clear when I was discussing that committee work earlier um CEOs are already getting paid $35 an hour for two of them and so we said move forward because it's based on funding available funding and a an intent for people to want to do the work and if so they would get paid outside of their hour day for $35 an hour B want to follow up with you on that and then also on the PTO leave time I'm going fast because I gota leave at 3:30 um this was already a problem identified on the operational side before we even brought this up as an option here in this room and we had discovered through the transition of payroll Personnel that we have some highly inefficient processes in uh the system one of those things resulted in staff uh teaching staff certified teaching staff uh receiving a different type of pay for their very first paycheck as opposed to the 3 days being a full pay because that's something that we're able to do um so as a part of that and a part of those discussions we determined that there's a highly inefficient process going on when we're occuring some of the leave and then how we're occuring it uh it was causing us some angst so one of the things that we had already talked about and kind of thought this might be a good thing uh was pre front loading half of the leave uh based on how much leave whichever type you know it's by work group or FTE however you normally acrew your leave if you acrew five days a year if you acove 12 days a year whatever that is hours um we had talked about that it would be a lot easier for us to process it if we front loaded it uh like and and the thought that came up around that table was half and half so if you would normally acrew six days for the entire year of your contract you would get three days starting when you start work and then you get three days like January 1 and so that was something that we were already looking to try to implement in Phase to it will require a policy change so we were going to work through policy to try to make that happen it would uh absolutely help us on the operational end or you have one it's dead here is De um I just had a quick question about um but when people were work additional hours let's say summer school or they do extra training or something after school and they're paid extra do they earn leave time from that no so we only earn leave time from the contract hours okay so I don't know if that would be acceptable what I heard was that teachers uh especially new teachers who haven't had a cruel of a any type of uh PTO um don't have anything when they get started and I think that our process that we were already looking at may may help with that so I don't know that is a big interest on the district side to move to something uh more of that nature and it meets the requirements of prop 206 and moving it into a PTO Bank versus multiple Banks of leave to navigate one of the things that happened this year is because of change over in payroll staff they used to take the sick leave and then they'd move it into the personal leave and then now a person who has a crw thought well I'm sick I've got leave I'll take my leave and we had a bunch of docking happened at the beginning of the year that we had to kind of go back and reverse just the process itself is gangly and cumbersome we would like to make it not cumbersome easier for operations to navigate and easier for staff to understand what their leave box banks are and uh so anyways wanted to put that out there I didn't know D thought it might help us I know with our stories when we told our stories I don't remember who it was was talking about the new teachers and how when they miss school at the beginning they don't have any days so what she just explained that would take care of of that issue I don't know if it would take care of PTO though would it no would it so what I'm asking you is does that take care of our issue yeah I mean would be for next FAL year we go we figured out the rest of this year and put it in place we'd figured out the rest of this year go through the policy changes that are necessary that takes several readings with the board um and then it the intent would be to get it started kicked off for next school year we'd have to vet legal I mean there's a lot of work we need to do with it when it comes to the policy part of it um but the initial looks that we've done uh we feel that we have the skills and the power to make it happen so we think we can do it Daniel yeah I was just saying we want sick and leave together and to start with some amount of sick yeah yeah leave we' start with an amount of a PTO and and just like the and then the beginning of each year cool yeah and whatever you acred you'd have available yeah and there's a big thing that there's a mess in there because um uh hourly people should get hourly leave and salary people are should be getting daily because their contracts are are calculated daily so uh there could be some changes like that that we would communicate out uh if we had to move because what we've seen is that salary staff uh in the system are being calculated as hourly and that's causing another issue and problem for our system and for our payroll staff so we need daily calculated people to have leave that looks like daily like this is my day off and then uh or half day or full day and then hourly people who we have to keep track of in a much different way have hourly leave buckets um and we would articulate all of that and communicate that out to staff uh so they don't go oh my gosh I had 300 hours and now I have you know what however many days that is I don't do math in my head I do it on a calculator but I learned in accounting school Daniel did you want to say something Daniel no okay so what I'm asking you is do we want to negotiate that anymore and develop a recommendation a formal recommendation if it's already going to be accomplished I yeah I propose that we remove the option and then um just issue yeah and then just uh Vanessa if you can report rep back to us just on updates and whatever it is that you find out or where we're at in the process okay would you say it again but say issue uh can I propose that we remove the issue of the UniFi PTO new teacher illness new teacher well illness pay okay so let's come do a consensus vote thumbs up if you agree with that okay okay so um that would be in the minutes too Emily that would go in the minutes I get leave a good inad of hurricane GL thank you guys thank you okay we'll have Emily when um she's ready you can be filling out your we are going to end here shortly you can be filling out your evaluation right now that'll be your ticket out but I don't want you to leave yet because Emily's going to share and we're going to do no we're going to do a temperature check and we're going to discuss the agenda for the next meeting and just to remember after Emily shares with you um what she's going to put in the communication update for the kraton connection make sure um if you if there are any changes or anything you let her know by Friday next Friday yeah okay Emily so so started out with representatives from Valley Schools joined to discuss benefit options in the categories of and please excuse my typos I'm typing quickly U medical dental vision EAP life insurance short-term disability flexible spending and wellness the meet and confer team approved the benefits options to go forward for approval by the kraton governing board for the 2025 2026 school year you can find the approved list of benefits attached below so I have a a list from Joel attached to the meet and confer information for the Craton connection yep thank you yep not approved yet um Miss Vanessa Shapiro presented the budget realities and current climate with concern to enrollment Decline and federal freeze impacts the group discuss the student out comes Focus governance goals and guardrails and then the team then used the IBN process to discuss to start discussing options the issues discussed are as follows teacher workload balance High need students longevity pay raises for everyone parental leave class size PTO days new teacher illness pay and then I Hadad due to time the following topics were not discussed but are still on the table for future discussion and that's employee group compensation internal advance ment promotion special education workload and salary Advanced education level that the employee group compensation will also be discussed in the upcoming compensation and impression committee yeah Emily I was going to add well we're actually removing that one altogether because it's living in that committee so it won't be one of our options which one the compensation groups one got it with the LPN yeah yep okay so this will not be on there it's being referred to the compensation compression committee hold on I don't know what I just did create a different paragraph then yeah employee group compensation B lot is being referred to the compensation compensation committee compensation compression committee and we'll report back to M confer with Rec their analysis okay and then so let me get that off here and then I have uh the group came to consensus to eliminate extra pay for translation outside of the workday the team also voted to remove can we explain that why they why it was eliminated because it went to the attorneys and it was determined that it's already happening essentially we just need to streamline it one is that we're able to provide the extra pay yes and the second is that um we're going to make sure that that's applied equally yes across sites based on their budget funding capacity yes maybe say that to the mic Ivon wasn't here for that and I think that's important for the world to hear as well well if he missed it twice do you guys have a mic over there oh Eve maybe you can pass a mic down so that Joel can no no have have mic soft I'm holding it for Joel and that's so like me would you like me to hold it I'm gonna hand this to you to say that one more time while I write it down the issue was eliminated about who because of uh because we it is it was vetted through the lawyer that it is an option already available for employee groups to receive the translation funding eliminated du to attorney recommendation that it was vetted vetted yeah vetted through the attorney um isue was illuminated because and that is it is an option of currently available based on site funding options site funding options then you want to assure that all Sites you said something about rece that or able to do that or something Ivon will talk to them yeah so we'll make sure that it's that will be communicated yeah to be to the changes um okay I'm gonna I'm going to rework that and we'll be at to sites okay I'm gonna uh fix this sentence structure y got it thank you for that context um and then the last part the team also voted to remove the PTO sick Lea because it's already being addressed to buy business services and then I have uh the changes for the 2026 school year will be communicated to staff so I'll I'll re reformat this uh paragraph to show the why and the it's being communicated or will be communicated make sure you look at that communication when she sends it out to you for your approval Dorothy will catch all your typos should there be any I listen you're not the only [Laughter] one okay thank you okay I appreciate you okay let's do a temperature check um right here how did we do today any comments how are you feeling any concerns that we need to address for the next meeting just checking in um I think it is mildly concerning that a lot of people left and we should all try our best to not to to be here the full time because I really am going to be very frustrated if people who left then come back in another session and say I don't like this thing or I'm frustrated about that thing when they were not here to be part of the process and developing the options or especially once we start getting consensus on things because I if we if we give consensus on something and it's you know consented to and someone shows up and it's like I don't like that then if um we need alternates make sure the teams have alternates I appreciate that um yeah I'll Echo that too and then Daniel will you just keep us updated on the reduction en Force document yeah give me like two hours oh great it sounds like he's gonna send it out on the chat yeah I'm gonna send because we talked earlier about some reduction en Force guidelines I'm going to send something in the Google Chat it's not for anything it is just for everyone to review of some sample reduction en Force guidelines that we could use so that everyone next time when we come to bargaining that we can uh be on the same page about some stuff any other comments okay so I was just going to remark um for next year Daniel one of the things that Kelly and I can do when we schedule dates is to kind of pay to look at what we have on that Cina calendar because I think that was we did yeah but you know things change so we'll just we'll do whatever we can to to make sure that we're trying to avoid because I think that's a big piece of that so our apologies for that oversight did I get everyone's card if not oh there's some over there okay um okay so next meeting we will finish developing options and I believe we only have one let's see we have the employee group compensation special education workload um and salary Advanced education level so we will right away start with that and then we will um look at our wording on our options we'll go through all of the options and see if we want to adjust any of the wording on them I think um hopefully we'll have some more budget information and then look at prioritizing our options and um finalize our [Music] options and then I don't know where we're going to fit but we are maybe next meeting I have to think about it we really do need to look at guard rail number one and go through our options and determine how we're going to prove that that option really truly does um is going to improve student achievement and maybe we'll do that before we do the finalizing of the wording because if we can't if we don't think we can really defend that we may not want to have it as an option okay all of them so we're going to have to really and you might want to look at those again at home and kind of in your mind say we're not going to be able to really justify this option um because we need to do that he wanted to share something no I'm just kidding um in in in regard to that I think one of the things that um Vanessa and Diane and I were talking about is that if you can think about the goals and the guard bills in terms of measurable outcomes uh or inputs that would show that we're meeting sofg goals and guardrails based on our recommendation so think in terms of a smart goal or something that's connected to the data um that I think will go a long way to help support what we're recommending moving forward to the board just a suggestion okay everyone well thank you again for your participation um we always appreciate you and what you're doing for the district and I look forward to seeing you in what two more weeks what's the next date 26th February 26 enjoy your time

e e e testing 1 two 3 testing e e e do you have the cards no no do you have the yeah I didn't know if you had the card or I'm good okay I would like to call this meeting to order 6:30 p.m.

they internet are we ready we're waiting on Chris we need a clap or something yeah all right we uh welcome everybody here we'll start out with pledge allegiance Follow by prayer iedge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Our Father in Heaven we're grateful for this opportunity we have to be here this day we're grateful for this uh this group that we serve with and grateful for all the teachers and administrators that that surround us and for this community we uh ask that as we meet here and go through our agenda that we will be able to make decisions and do those things which will both benefit our community and the students that that attend our schools we ask to uh please bless us as throughout this week that as we have more weather coming that everyone will be safe in their travels and that we'll make good decisions and the things that we do for our activities we ask thee that we will do those things here tonight that will be pleasing unto thee and we say this in the name of Jesus Christ amen [Music] amen all right uh future board meetings next one's February 25th March 11th March 25th all here at 6:00 Administration do I don't think there's any revisions to the agenda and move on to public recognition and donations recommendation to approve $100 donation by Christine and Troy hoppert for northill girls basketball pink out and a recommendation to approve a $300 donations from crumb farms for Northfield girls basketball pink out need a recommendation approval for that so second motion a second to approve these donations all those in favor say I I any opposed motion pass we like to thank those that donated and for the efforts that they give to help our basketball teams and all those Athletics you have a couple things y couple recognitions um from Mr Snider um at Northfield congratulations to um Ellie Baker who became the seventh lady Norse basketball thousand Point Club member Ellie scored her thousand points on Tuesday January 28th at Peru so we want to congratulate her also we want to congratulate the Northfield wrestling final four Cooper um when I say final they're going to semi state so it's Cooper good r Rice Cameron Pratt and um Eli G Gail I'm sorry for all advancing from the Peru Regional last Saturday we'll be wrestling this Saturday at the Fort Wayne semi State Cameron Pratt and Eli Gil came away as Regional Champions best to these remaining four at the Fort Wayne semi State on Saturday and I do want to mention too it's not here but I have that information I going to share that with you um School Board later on but uh two of them actually um Cameron um I believe maybe I don't have this exactly right but I think he's like 40 oh not lost it I think it's 41 or 43 um wins this year I think 41 well now Eli um has 44 wins um he's 44 so he's undefeated this year so far so we wish them well and we do know that we also have a Southwood um wrestler um Nolan heiner that will also be going to semi State this Saturday so wish all them well it's a big deal to to get to semi State and we do have five from our school district so congratulations to all them that's all I have that's it all right public comment we don't have a public here tonight so we'll move on to agenda items uh we need a motion second to approve our uh meeting from January 28th those minutes second a motion second to approve those minutes all in favor say I any opposed all right financial report uh claims and payroll anything there anybody have concerns or anything Chris You' have there no everything's pretty typical um from a payroll standpoint this next pay we won't see any changes but after that we'll see some changes just due to winter sports ending and getting those coaches claims paid out the next couple payrolls will start to see an increase questions right no I get a motion second to approve claims and payroll number 14 so Mo second got a motion second to approve claims and payroll number 14 all those in favor say I I any opposed Financial summary so just the end of the month balances so this would be our first report in January so you can see there on that First Column is what we ended 2020 uh 4 with so that means we started with that in 2025 in January 1 and then on the far right the ending balance is where that is at the end of the month uh for January so just kind of continue to give you uh updated looks on that each month on where those balances continue to fluctuate uh where we pay a little more specific attention to the cash flow with education fund and operation fund because those are our bigger fund sources any questions on that no all right we'll move on to HR report we don't have any resonations uh got underemployment JC Crum as assistant softball coach for North High School effective immediately Madison bar volunteer assistant tennis coach effective immediately and Chase Sadler a custodian at Southwood High School effective 22 all those favor get a motion second to approve that second time motion second to approve our HR all those in favor say I I any [Music] opposed all right all right Matt nothing is now nothing haven't had a meeting since well from next week you got anywhere on that roof or I guess I missed last week yeah so we uh at the next claims you'll see our first installment for the re payment so is this going to be done this year summer this summer and everything is on schedule we had our meeting last week on Friday and everything's on schedule we just have to wait for the weather to break y good uh right I have a few things um first of all I'm going to go back to the 103 flexibility waivers um we have two of them don't want to confuse them but you know we have one that that's for our professional development days we won't talk more about that right now but we have another one that actually goes along with our e-learning days and so the state allows us to have three asynchronous days all right our 10 flexibility waiver allows us to have five additional asynchronous days okay but after if we would have more than eight days that would cancel because of inclement weather then we would have one of two things that we could do we've already decided we would not um make those days up at the end of the year um but we would go to asynchronous and I mean synchronous I'm sorry sync days and along those same lines we have developed a plan the school schools know about the plan but we haven't shared anything with the um parents yet and the big reason is we don't believe at the time that we'd have eight days out now of course the weather um meteorologist always talks about all these storms that come along um you know like the one that's coming now maybe this weekend maybe another one next week but it seems like they always blow them all up and they're not really that bad so just kind of want to just share a little bit to say that we do have a plan um we are going to uh re-evaluate what we do with sharing this with our public with our parents um probably maybe Thursday Friday to see if anything is really happening the next week because there's no reason to get um people confused about what we're doing unless we really feel like it's going to happen and so we do have a very good plan like I said the principles have all shared that with their um teachers um and it's something we haven't done for a long time if you remember during Co time we did have what we did what we would call sync days or synchronous days we're going to try to make it a little bit easier instead of saying asynchronous and synchronous we're using the terminology e-learning which is typically what we do when have a uh clate weather day and then we're going to call them sync days just to make it a little bit uh easier to remember so e-learning or sync um so just kind to let you guys know and like I said Thursday morning I have a calendar uh reminder for me to to think about uh what's going to happen and see if we need to worry about anything but we've only had three days so we still have five days that we can go e-learning probably will not use five more days but you just never know and so we want to be prepared so we will uh re-evaluate this what what we're going to do as far as that U communication so just wanted to share that with you um also last meeting I did share that we were thinking about Wan coming to present uh but instead of them coming because there's not um there's not a lot of new well there's a lot going on um but we won't have them come until March um and so actually you can see on the screen I want to show this a little bit but also I want to share a couple of other things um just as a reminder uh Senate bill number one uh if it was passed could affect us a lot could affect the county a lot so I have talked with the um uh the chair of the Commissioners and also the chair of the County Council um they have the information too going down to see legislators tomorrow um and talk a little bit more about this um it's definitely concerned if the way it's written right now if it was past um but there are certain people and even the Republicans said that it it would be really hard to bite off that much at one time as far as reducing those property taxes where um counties and schools would be hurt um quite a bit because that's what pays for fire service and Police Service and schools and all those different things so just kind of sharing that again let you know what's going on and then want to give you good news we have um our ADM count uh was February 3rd and so we're up 33 students from our October so it's always good when we see um that increase so and and I'll send you the specifics later on but that's what U that's what the big number as far as the the additionals they really good and then finally just want to show this short video um if you haven't been around um and seen some of that uh if you do go around when it's m um it's a little muddy but that that shows progress right so we'll go ahead and show you [Music] this so you can see basically um there's a lot more going on now they have other walls up uh but this is a little older video you can see all the foundations it kind of gives you a little bit different idea they don't have all the foundation um in this picture but they're starting uh the gym I think they have the West part done I'm going to stop right there so this is the the neat so it's kind of neat because they they show a little overlay um and as you can tell though they haven't finished it all the way to the east there as far as with the wrestling and with the U the stem room and different things like that um but it gives you a little idea you can actually I guess I can't do it here I can do it on my computer but it shows actual classrooms um and label things like that so it gives you a little overlay of what that what that is so course you know those [Music] designs a lot of prep work to get to that point not real glamorous yet lot of concrete so progress and if you've been around though you can see that they have quite a few a lot more block work done right now so a lot more than what shows there that just shows the one so have a couple interior walls done basically now and you can see especially if you go into Sharp Creek and look to the East End you can see um the office area and different things like that we need first go in so good progress all right um that's all I have all right Sam yeah I mentioned it before about we getting K toy reading curriculum and so we're staying right on schedule uh and the two names we have are wonders and Benchmark advance and so those are the two best ones that are our committee um and just to remind you the committee has eight teachers from Metro North Sharp Creek and South Elementary K through five and so um we have we went to the textbook Caravan Fort Wayne heard some presentations got lots of samples and met here in in this office just a few days ago and um those are the two in front and so we will invite parents and community members to check it out and so we will keep uh printed samples here as until somebody checks them out for the next four weeks um we can send digital resources I can send logins and that kind of stuff to see that and so um so yeah we welcome those kind of any kind of input from those people we have then the next steps looking ahead to March um we have a professional development day and so our committee and teachers will have a chance to really have their final say and then the the winner of that vote we will bring here to the board on March 25th for your formal approval so one of those two and then with that purchase we'll look to try to get teacher training on those materials and and just for fun um I think Mr Drake would approve with this too um the samples that we um are not going to look at that we've already looked at that are no longer in use we have them right out there in the little wagon so if you'd like to take something home with you take some of those home with you mentioned you narrowed it to two or it's printed up there yeah how many did you start with um seven started with seven um and uh for one reason or another um there was one program that was very good I won't say its name publicly but it was very good however our teachers were not happy with the way the content was delivered um just some pictures and some stories and content choices for kids at that age and so we've eliminated um materials for that reason others they don't have enough small group others don't have phonics and so there's just a lot it's a lot like picking a k to5 read may be the biggest challenge we have as a district because you know kindergarteners are learning their fun and awareness and what sounds and those things and then by fifth grade we're reading to understand and try to understand bias and so um but the teachers we have an amazing group and so I like that we started with seven it wasn't very hard to get down to three or four and then from three or four there down to two um we have vendor trainers from those two vendors coming here um actually one's com on Thursday and they're going to walk our teachers through every how you would present a lesson using this material and so they get a real good deep feeling for that and our goal is to find a reading CC k to5 um there's always that backup if you know what we get through this and we don't like it um we will not purchase something just to purchase it and so the committee was very appreciative of that because they know it's an expensive this is probably one more expensive purchases we make and so there's always a plan B and so we're not locked in but based on the ones we found now those are the two best ones and stuff uh they're good and so it's not like we're looking at bad material but just if one when we get into it if we're like man that doesn't really fit what we want and we we'll keep looking but going to kick the tires for the next four weeks if it turns out to be a good choice how long would you anticipate before you roll again to another so we're we're going to try to follow the old sixe pattern and so uh for those of us that new board members remember that we used to Indiana used to have a very strong consistent six-year pattern and so this year you would buy Ela K through five English language arts next year you'll do English language arts 6 through 12 and so on and so you had like a six-year cycle and then it would start all the way over again with the devices and stuff we kind of got a little off of that um but we're going to try to kind of blend a little better between both you keep the devices and where we need to get some more material teacher stands try to do that so it'll be a six-year purchase and it's like I said it's it'll be you'll notice it when it comes across claims um but uh we've worked talked to Chris a lot about it we we've we've I don't know how to say the right word we've got funds for it we've set aside it it's in the budget um but yeah six years I guess is a short answer to your long question yeah and I think most people in the public if we I feel like their concern is always the content first right so I I feel very very confident in the people we have that's not even concerned really because I think they're going they get one pretty quickly so do these books will they go home so yes both of these vendors have books that go home they have books in their classrooms they'll have digital uh digital components to it and so but more so not like you're thinking maybe like it's not like a high school kid who checks a book out from library takes on a chapter book because you're talking about kindergarteners and stuff and so they might have workbook pages to put in their folders to take home or or those kind of things and as the kids get older they might get some chapter books but I um yeah I I just you know seem how we're not getting to charge for books or anything like that I just you know look at okay how many will get lost or damaged or things like that they going home and so that's why I was wondering that's a great question most of the stuff you send home will be consumable stuff where we get a new one next year so most that will stay in cost the printed books and things but that's one thing that we can do if you do have if there was a textbook and if they would lose a textbook or damage textbook we are still allowed to charge for that to replace that but not the initial one they don't have to be charge for that so they can destroy them so well they can but they have and so if you have anybody the community to ask or whatever just have contact me rather than the principles because I'm going to try to keep that here so it's easier toiz all right last one all right I guess we're done our reports yeah we got one more y under new business um and I might have school attorney help me a little bit with this but I will start out by saying that we MC of w county has been part of a along with other school districts part of a civil suit with Jewel which is a vaping um we've been a part of that for many many years and I continue to uh communicate with them uh they continue to say that it's going to be very soon U but the last time very soon was a a year and a half ago November 23rd as far as that settlement um I think it was settled but I just don't think they have paid out yet so that's one that's going on right now we also were a part of the social media claim um and going into this one uh we have found out uh most recently there are a lot of other requirements with that that we don't necessarily know that it will be uh beneficial to us to be able to spend the time for not just the people here in our central office but into our schools uh to um be a part of that and so the recommendation that I'm bringing to you is that we just abandon that social media claim and then um Mr Bren would would share that yeah I can I can add a couple thoughts to that um social media one to me on its face always seemed a little a lot more speculative than the duwal one um my understanding is it's basically all the same law firms that had success in the Dual one just kind of started to look and see can we do um I don't know if they've even told us in the jewel what the dollar figure per school is I I I have a feeling they' they've been delicately sidest stepping the answer on that is that the case they gave me a number that's below that number so in other words it could be a dollar but I mean in reality it could be a dollar but I know it would be more than a dollar but yeah um and then I recently forwarded on to to Mike and Chris uh what the the Council on our side um in social media was um requesting from us as far as extracting documents preserving documents and it it did almost face look pretty labor intensive on our side and so I think when when I sent that matched with Mike's experience on what they would call a success in the jewel case um that's when the idea came up of whether or not you work to do this so here again it's just a recommendation that we abandon that claim so thank you for that any questions any questions on any of that makes sense to me all right get a motion to approve to abandon the social media claim motion second second got a motion second to approve that we abandon the social media claim all those in favor say I any [Music] opposed unfinished business any board policy public comment items for board members can't make this too short yes we can I will just say on Schoolboard policy um there was a suggest made and so I did send that up to everybody so Mr D I will talk to you later about that to see if you want and everybody if we want to bring that to the table as far as a vote because I did some research on it I did give some examples of what we could do uh to just basically communicate a little bit more information that's out there um it's not really a huge change necessarily but it's more just about communication so people are aware of that particular policy won't mention it right now but after we have that conversation if you want I could put that back I mean I can put it on the uh policy to I mean a recommendation we can discuss it for the first reading and then vote on it the second reading okay there I made a little bit longer happy all right if not we'll adjourn 62 yes

all right we're going to call this meeting of Berlin Bo Regional schol committee to order thank you could you all please stand PL Allegiance United States Amica all right thanks everybody um 15 minutes of public comment if anybody's here yep go on up in the front uh name address and uh what you want to talk about Jason Berlin um daughter is an eth grader here son is a fifth grader ATS um regarding upcoming budget stuff um how the fiscal 24 and 25 budgets were handled by both the district and the town damage trust at this point it doesn't matter how why or who was right or wrong what matters now is that the district facing the voter base that is skeptical and in some cases out might possible and spiteful hopefully that's a minority but they're also very vocal and perhaps influentially last year's presentation of the voters felt like a false choice between two polar options either accept massive tax increases or except the loss of all electives and extra per District failed to rationally explain why there was no middle ground available why was a modesty increase with some modest reductions not possible and asking for a large increase there was virtually no transparency there was a few top level numbers on a slide deck but no supporting information or commentary behind those numbers until after count meeting last year we request that a budget book similar to what as and other districts make available so it is promising to he that a budget book will be in outl of distri budget process P for to its availability with that in mind I offer a suggestion for your consideration please help the voters understand why the only options are large tax increases or cing and cuts if the district is running so lean that there are no impact sa then please demonstrate that with supporting evidence and commentary tell us your story with supporting data last year there was live discussion but no documentation to illustrate the point about a large portion of the budget but cannot be cut due to State requirements or capacity considerations such as 50 kids in a grade level have must have two teachers and so on to help illustrate how Le the district is already running if that is the case it would be helpful to see the budget articulated in terms of min requirements versus discretionary as then if we have to because this is where they have to come from as this story was not being well articulated or supported by the district last year I personally spent hours pouring over n school spending data comparing it to comp Ral nearby rural districts trying to learn if the district is running lean or has room to T it Bel that story should be told by the district to all voters who need to hear it tell us your story dat it would be helpful to see not only the top drivers of increasing cost but also where the district has Gree savings that help offset required increases for example there has been some discussion about seeking savings from agency costs by hiring those positions directly what other areas has the district look for savings or reductions please demonstrate what specific efforts have been made to rein in costs tell us your story with supported data the general sentiment from parents with students in the district tends to be that we choose to live here because it is a great district and we don't want to see it g that sentiment can only absorb so much in terms of tax increases the rates increases are we've seen are going to become untenable if they haven't already it doesn't seem reasonable that the only choices are major tax hikes or just I don't see anybody anybody else no he's not all right all right one last time for public comment anybody out there all no all right uh could I please have uh any Communications that you might receive anyone no all right then could I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda so I heard Lisa second and Megan second all right any discussion questions on that that uh has a warrant and two meeting minutes the warrant will have some spending information out there as well uh people are interested in looking at that it should be available online any questions all in favor I all right against okay um for my report tonight I'm just going to briefly read uh a little summary of our meeting last night so for those who don't know we had a meeting last night to discuss um the superintendent search and what we're going to do our next steps for that uh so last night we met with our masc rep to discuss these next steps and uh she did suggest several things Tracy Novak was here um she said based on our District's current status issues we've been dealing with uh the situation last year with the budget mess the fact that our current interim superintendent was thrust into a situation with uh virtually no team in place over the summer having to start everything over from scratch she suggested that it might be worthwhile to do an interim search for another year to give us time to repair and improve the situation with our district um mainly we're talking about things in the central office uh in order to make this a more appealing position for someone looking uh to be hired as our next superintendent uh so if we were to take that path we would still do a public search for an intern person Ally you'd be more than welcome to apply for that position if you were interested I don't know if you would be or not uh and I think uh what we agreed last night uh although we didn't vote it uh was that that might be our preferred approach uh and so we do have a last minute addition to tonight's agenda uh to add that as a vote so we'll discuss it later on that uh just a few more notes about last night Tracy did go over the timeline of a full search and what that would mean for finding a permanent replacement for our superintendent if we were to start this winter uh she suggested and we kind of agreed with her that it would make it a bit rushed uh process if we were to start this winter based on the timing of where things are and it might be more natural fit to start a full superintendent search at the beginning of the school year have that sort of full year start new school start new search and then give plenty of time for a transition period um she also discussed what the search might look like if we started at the beginning of the year giving us some more breathing room to actually prepare documentation to get ready for that search to put together a proper search package uh and it would be you know more natural fit uh so there's probably a lot of questions right now about why we didn't just start a full search right away in August when we heard that um so in August uh we didn't start immediately once we heard that Carol costell decided to end her cont contct after the first year uh if you remember at the time central office was having a hell of a time actually paying the electric bill never mind anything else so uh it was kind of all we could do to get someone in place with two weeks to go before the start of school to just lead us through here we found Al and he he was named our interm and even though we looked for other candidates uh only two applied one was Al the other was uh the consultant who had been part of that that group over the summer uh so we have Al here now and later on tonight we're going to put a vote on whether we want to officially start an interim search or if we want to start the full-time permanent search this winter so that's my chair report that I have tonight update everyone we'll get to that later on in business items uh next up we have our superintendent of schools report so Al if you wouldn't mind taken away great thanks Mike um so if I can ask we're going to go a little bit out of water I know car here um he is our athletic director he's a little bit later on in administrative updates but um I know he's got a couple games going on he asked if you could go little earlier so G turn it over than that yeah I was asked to um talk about what I do you go front yeah so I think we have your power there so we're going to try uh ladies and gentlemen in the future to make sure everything um is put up on this bhead screen so people can see things there'll always be H copies but we're going to try to move away from that if we can we can have it um seene for everybody out there as well um just was GNA talk about what to do as an athletic director um first again it was a quick overview a few sheets I guess quick overv and sorry L I bringing the other team in and um just talking about budgeting first um you know I don't have a secretary or an assistant um so I order all the supplies for all the teams or set up the budget for all the supplies for all the teams and how we put that together Transportation I'm the one that sets up all the buses when we do it now you know I we have the game we set up a bus another piece of that is we have been had issues with the buses I'm sure you all know that overall buses but um a teacher here at school Chris cabino decided to be basically our personal bus driver from nrt signs up to nrt and then we get Park bus here so although we still have some issues sometimes and we got multiple games going on for the most part I mean it has been there are schools out there that having major issues we have a bus here park almost every time we have a chance to do we work around if they don't have a bus sometimes maybe a little bit later we have someone to bring them in but I mean it's it's been Chris compared to everybody else officials I'm I put the officials together I got to get them paid gotta write down every game um fast but there is probably somewhere else out there too field rentals our Fields have not been great towards the end of the season of also when rain comes they get flooded um so you know we've had to go a lot lot of area places but really going other places we haven't had come out of the too much I don't know what that'll look like in the future but a lot of I guess that um same with um EMTs we don't have a trainer that's another thing that we don't have here so when we have M AA games we have had quite a few over the past five years when we go into the state tournaments is required to have an em or official so fire has em great another big favor that we get um and then also putting together the whole the workforce for all of our gam um ticket sales to basketball is really the only one where we need a work course for selling tickets and putting together people outside but when we have an M AA game year whether it's soccer or basketball again or lacrosse we need to have ticket sales for those games it's you set up a whole outside section and all people we have B people at soccer games all the time but the entire Workforce put that that would really be the budget section of stuff I wanted to throw a few things on there scheduling um again schedule all the games now we are in the midw walk and being in the midw walk is a big Midland watch league is what it's actually called there's 26 schools in we are one of the smaller schools don't get me wrong but being a part of that um one advantage is you are in leagues a all schools are in leagues don't get me wrong but you know and being in P of the middle of Wachusett these leagues are a little bigger and half of your games get scheduled I would say about half and then I have to go out and get all different makeups for what we're not makeups um opponents for where we're going to go and I mean that just started last week so for fall fall schedule comes out last week in the middle watch C most schools February 1 and then we are already this past week I was setting up next ball which we're pretty much all we I've set it all pretty much have our game set when we're going to go but I mean that's how far in advance we are setting these things come March we'll be setting up next winter so that's been a big thing that's been going on this week trying to get BS SC set up transportation we already talked about the buses so what I we put that together uh coordinate communication with the co-op teams and communities you know we play West Bo and football um which has been big the past few years but we play Hudson hockey which has having a phenomenal year this year uh we play Hudson boys lacrosse we have lacrosse here here for girls West Boon comes to play with us um we have Cross Country Golf and track West Boon comes to play with USA ski we have some kids in the really good ski in I mean it's these co-ops put in organizing and trying to get everybody together it's another form of the schedu schedule officials talked about those um schedule of Workforce talked about that in the last one can be tough though trying to get people to do ticket sales or someone that wants to work at the side of a soccer game going to get the balls as they go off to the side but um the kids really really help us out on that um administer all these Games supposed to be out there right now for the middle school game two middle school games today and then JB comes in and vars for Gardener girls games today so um that's you know I'm administering all those games um this is but a big part is the changing of the schedule and I mean kind of example this week I've been watching weather since last Wednesday There's this week Thursday we could very well have a snow day or there's bad weather coming in I've been watching that since Wednesday and updating parents since Wednesday that this could happen it's also supposed to be our senior game come Thursday anyways I have to tell the other schools all our workers every over the weekend anyways come Monday I um finally pull the trigger and I I wanted to do it earlier make sure we have officials like officials can be short when you switch stuff up we're playing the day before tomorrow instead of going to Friday and as I did that a director came out that a lot of people were now trying to work to move Thursdays so I was a little ahead of it and they were told they cannot move them to Friday because IR enough officials so the fact that we move it we're not playing Wednesday at least we're not to wor about putting it into vacation um and we have officials where some people might not get and the reason not going to vacation is because our basketball teams are doing great again this year and they in the central M tournament so another thing today is trying to get everything together we are we are hosting they're both the one and the two seed in the Central Mass tournaments and we are playing on Monday now on President's Day over vacation yes and it's another day off yes but we had to get that done to be able to play the game so that's another an example of trying to all St um Minister I said that ches sched and then you know coordinating um facility of availability that's more of other people want to use our facilities you know got travel basketball in here on Sunday got to make sure we have practices still going on people want to use that baseball fields you have to make sure a wider rate SCH um let's go to registration this is longer than I would have liked um registration family ID Arbiter we got this last year so this will be our first time for the spring so this year we started with it has really been much easier we just do Google Sheets now we can send this out everybody registered once you register all your information is there um it's just an aspect of piece of technology that has made my life much easier as um this share has gone on also with this family idea uh ID aitor I probably say this later but I'll tell you now communication there is you click on button and I can do can email the entire season of everybody I can break it down to just players I can break it down to just one parent or a couple parents I can break it down to the team so today we have moved we just found out about the games are going to be Monday so I just literally before I walked in here sent out another email to all the parents of both boys and girls rby teams that they are now playing probably have to see on Monday over vacation of the two games that we had so it's you know it's a very really good for communication which for coaches to use for anyone to use especially for me to get it out to parents um physical that's involv regra but now to make physicals easier it was always trying to chase kids around trying to get find out if they're eligible play they cannot play it that pH physical expire day it expires you're done so you know I have the opportunity then hey it's it's going to expire so me and the nurse we can get our emails to those kids so know you got to make sure they have physical up today that Time payments not very good on that family ID arer you know I can write down the people PID but isn't really a spot to show how much they paid when they paid we have some that might be on you know um get a waiver and then just doesn't add it up and that's me trying to get them all together family caps just takes up a lot of time but at least it has a spot I can see that um that I think I to on that um another piece of this is um with Team organization you know registration data analysis to understand which teams have enough players trying to put everybody where they need to be sometimes we don't have enough to fill a team sometimes we our numbers to make sure we have everybody for all teams so this year actually have more time we had time and to do pre sign up so then I go around to all the kids first and find out who's playing what so that you know we only have 20 kids signed up so we might not have enough for a different team that we had or we got to put the kids in different spots or how many teams we're going to have and that's just pre-registration that's just me putting up like a Google form or going to everybody and then for two weeks doing a lunch making sure I get everybody signed up then finally they register and then we at least have a good idea that's especially for sket um hiring all the coaches and sometimes gener ready coaches um you know that's on me bring them in hopefully interview them with our other head coaches or the admin or whoever would like to be involved in that hiring process to get coaches um and then you know coordinating an outside candidate when we have someone in the school it's easier know it's nice person in school sometimes got to go outside school get people too post that outside and then bring them in have interviews more Cory CH and fingerprint you do that for everybody but as a teacher they have that already so now know a bigger bigger step to get them um award ceremony that's something I would like to change a little bit because um it's great we have this big huge awards ceremony at the end of the year but like to make that a little different that's something I would like to change up for next year um not put try put three hours into one night maybe have three different ones or individual you know it's a lot of planning we W use the auditorium but it might make it easier if we change that up a little bit um new this year again AR Ed that's a basically what it is is and teachers use it also but it's a platform that holds all the information for all the coaches that we need from signups that they had to um I think you coach down to certification like having CPR having um concussion having concussion training so this new arc Ed makes again life a little easier because all this somewhere says they're ready to go or it's 90% got to go get this other stuff and then also bringing back these preseason family meetings is now going to be another thing coming into play you know we've been us talking about send out medic sign all the information out but coming back now we're going to be able to put these pre-season meetings together which is people don't necessarily like them but we get all the families in here and then talk to them what we're looking for for just a few minutes but then they get to meet with the coaches and coaches their expectations it's actually pretty big to see it and do it person so that is something that we're going to bring back um communication again talked about this already I feel in the in the last couple but um how family ID makes it easier but communication also Daily I am doing this you know walking around a school checking the car it is and then while I'm doing that you know I can have these meetings with admin with the coaches that are in the schools in the school other schools in athletic cor is 90% of this job is done during the school don't get me wrong have our games in practices after the school but administering being there for the games but all the planning all the budgeting all that dealing with the other schools that we're going to be playing or or even players in our own school that is done during the school day and it's just you know it's very time consuming um and being able to be in the school and go around and talk to all these people and make sure and you know when they have prep or whatever or whether suddenly turns on a dime that is pouring out it's I can get that out and then I go right to family ID aitor and tell all parents hey don't have um and there's the weather that was that's weather coming that's the buses we got to talk about but then it's a lot easier when I have also um in um there's another piece though student supports which you know we got the brand this brand new um academic you know the quarterly support for struggling students now and we just you know put put put together a letter for that for these kids when they're struggling and how we can support them to you know so they can continue to play sports and then then make they get those grades up and do better we just put together a whole system for that that was you know just passed a little while ago um now I these we have ambassadors which are just you know kids in the school which are ambassadors for the sport for our school and for the the whole state and they have many workshops to go out to we got to get them there so I bring them to that these ambassadors they have workshops then they these ambassadors also go through the mid wus workshops and conferences um there's Mia leadership workshops and there's a ton of this stuff for our kids that we can use and this last one at the end of this ntq Workshop again supporting um mental health and um you know physical awareness of the kids too to be ready for when practice comes up that's another piece of just having more stuff for our athletes to be prepared for the season or after um when they're out of school we also get to go to the sportsmanship conference there's a women and Sport conference and another piece ntq up there with that is this Kyle cares and active Minds which you guys will be seeing in in a few weeks trying to get that into the school another one supporting of student mental health um that was it on student supports uh if you don't mind we're running a little short on time but I know I know some people have some questions goad um do you guys have some questions I specifically I'm interested in a few things you said um how that relates to you know our budget as as we had in public comment earlier we've got budget issues and this uh this position athletic director is full-time this year in the past has been part-time uh with the other half being a teaching position so I guess what we're looking for is what value does the new full-time position bring in terms of budget and costs what are we able to do now that we absolutely could not do before what improvements are happening what uh you know basically the return on that extra half full-time because correct me if I'm wrong maybe L you can help me with this but the we did a full-time athletic director and a full-time math coach it was split part-time math and part-time athletic director so that's an extra cost that's that's an increase so can we get some just some numbers I didn't see any numbers in the presentation but do you have some numbers like how we can see what kind of value that's bringing maybe it's easier on the math side but what what are we able to do now like I know there's issues with the fields we talked about that earlier this year right with so with the field so there's an example with the fields yeah we we have a game I can't have that game here I need to set up I find out that day that we can't have g i we don't have the time to set that up when I'm in class doing something I can talk right there real time to the other school hey we need to set this up then I need I need to come to you we need to play you we need to go to a different field um as far as far as the fields go so that's like in the moment situation something happens that day weather issues whatever um is there any movement on like a maintenance schedule getting that improved so we actually can do something going down to another meeting at 6:30 tonight talk field but that's another one for maintenance when we have issues I can help to get those fields ready now I might have if there is we have something and I you know we have to get that game in today I sometimes will have time if I need to be able to help ever might be the cause to get back game know same with the buses I you know we're talking about that switching buses up for the next week being real time being able to set those buses up to have them ready to go whereas when I'm you know sit in class that bus has been cancelled now I got a call for the for the bus company to what are we going to do get in touch with parents and you know the last couple of years often I can't get in touch with those parents Qui and I missed in you know middle school games to let not them know that the the bus was cancelled and now there kids that aren't going somewhere and they're stuck at school because they weren't able to get on the bus to go home because they missed the game because we didn't have time to get that it's just I mean it is the time that now I can talk with all these schools of what's going on that I can talk with all with the bus company that I can be involved and be with um parent emails that I can help outside on the on the field on the court seven um I know I'm missing but that is really well I think one of the main things is for this year I know that the school commit um you know as well I mean we are all very committed to you know student academic success and that um you know making sure that student a contract you know a letters been created um the communication and then the follow through and monitoring of that whole system that we talked about putting in place that there's a lot of time involved that I know that rich Renee and I don't I we're spread thin as it is um so he's able to take that and monitor you know student athletes and um he has reports written through guidance so that's a whole piece that never would it wouldn't it would have been lunch duties now too I'm on lunch duty um you know and while I'm there if something happens with parents I can still email someone while I'm sit at Lun but I can't necessarily do thatass and so with that excuse me I can um so that's been a huge um made a huge impact for Rich Rene and I in terms of us being able to um have parent meetings and student meetings during lunchtime because previously we don't wear the lunch duty people because we also have you know we'll cycle our staff through lunch duty um but if they we have to if they have to cover a class then we can't use it for lunch duty so that would be our responsibility so that's allowed Us in student and parent communication um so just two things uh number one about the fields um so that's great that you're gonna work on that now we've been working on that or at least I have with Matt um probably like seven eight months right I know we met last summer with the vians I know Joel gay was involved um but we've been meeting with the state now we're looking into grants so I just want to let you know I'm going to start looping you in on that because I wasn't sure who from the school should be involved we have Aaron I think is starting getting involved but I think it'll be helpful to have someone from toono that can speak to that um and then the second thought I had was it would be great if you know I know a lot of other communities offer like summer uh athletic programming like camps um to kids even elementary kids I don't know if that's something that we could think of as a district because I would imagine I'm looking at your schedule I would imagine the Summers probably aren't I know you're planning for the fall but it would be great to see if we could figure out a way to get some camps or something even for the elementary kids front them here something like that maybe I don't know where that would fall under but it seems like that would be a good place for that yeah Jess you have something yeah I just I know you gotten the coach evaluations yet so I just speak very briefly to that I in my own high school caree here I had very negative experience with a coach and I felt there's evaluation process or some like Mental Health Training for the coaches set up a coach evaluation this year um you know meet with the coaches afterwards go I me observe them through the season and see what we're going on and then look for you know what might have for parent input or player input and uh putting together also trying to put a a survey together for that too from experience how that was you know get all that information we develop that but the first part of it was theils that develop year so so it can be sent out to students and to parents that that survey yet the emils are from me and from what I do and then post at the end the season and that whatever information I might have got as put put in with that valuation survey is going to be more right now your experience that's separate from the evaluation sorry so part of the coach training I know like there's concussions and all that but and you mentioned there's a conference for um athlete student health mental health is there something required within the training right now but I mean there is certain requirements on coaches I don't know that not necessarily specific training but there is you know there are PDS that they could do there are certain they got to take that the training the concussion training is one another one is uh an implicit bias course um another one is CPR um you know then signups going through and certifications from for hazing and op but there isn't necessarily another training session there are stuff that they can make fundamental coaching um there are different classily but said that if there is something to coach EV there's certain trainings that we can give that think m is going right now through the same evaluation training that we have as ad as admin for the district are going through as well um so that would be part that he used so there is a consistency and how we look at and evaluate people um that will sort of be used for coaches as well too um the other part is we with help of Sally we are updating the training that some of our coaches need to attend we found some polls this year that we didn't realize existed for um some culture so we've added to that to make sure that's in place as well too so that just so you know add to those two pieces anybody other questions um I have one final question but the family ID Arbiter what is Arbiter yes what it's confusing because it's like three or four different Arbiter sites so it's I call Family ID run by so you mentioned communication is that how teams communicate with players too because yeah I don't know if this the right place to bring it up uh some parents have told me that their their kids are getting Direct Communications direct text instead of using School devices is that the system that will you should be using that and also Google classroom and Google Chat okay so so Matt now those the only two ways any communication happens with any of our coaches and any of our players now are those two formats that we control right that we control go to okay so it's more for registration signups and then regular school can out I just got one that the middle school practice can it came through Arbiter okay from me or a coach can then send that to the parents okay family IDE not to the players it's to the to the family okay whoever whoever signed up for that player it goes to that but coaches aren't texting players okay in full disclosure there was an issue there was things that we were dealing we were dealing with some things like that you know working with Joe and with that um Joe SP our interim Tech director so we we moved that we trained our coaches so they're no longer have that option our attorney Sean Sweeney would tell us all day long we don't want that to happen we not want to be having individual conversations on our phones um with students um so that has all been stopped and we go through our platform now of Google and and there's a record of everything sent by coaches so if there was like a dispute the district has the record out sorry out line in terms of but we're going to talk a little bit later on about something we put in place that Joe's put in it's called B now right so we have that for across our entire District now so anything is inappropriate or any certain words that come up um our administrated are notified I think we put that Joe started to put you on spot was that this week we put that in plate uh within the last week yes week which is by the way zero zero cost to our district so we're really happy to have that play more added work for our our admin I know but it's also a huge protection for for for our district thanks anything else anything else you want to tell us or is that good yeah cool all right thanks for thanks for coming in yeah I know this game's going on so yeah when when that I'm open up that door you have to have a door open all right I would you got sorry um so next on the list is strategic plan I'm got to introduce a colleague in friend of my PM in a second uh so as you've heard me say multiple times this District our district um is is a really good school district um but we certainly want it to be a great School District again I'll go back to Jim Collins you know good deg great all all all day long um but one of the major pieces that we are missing is a strategic plan you've heard me say that multiple times there are a lot of good things happening but our strategic plan be our true not um for the next five years um once we have a wellth thought out plan this will drive the district that this will drive the direction our district will go in in one of the best parts of our strategic in is they'll get input from all our stakeholders and will tell you about that shortly nor students parents teachers staff admin school committee select board Town managers community members I tell you this because everyone will be a part of and own this part of the Strategic point so when our meetings are held at any level whether it be a school committee meeting whether it be a select board meeting a budget meeting we'll remind everybody about our strategic plan that we all agreed on this point together um the biggest part that you know on what Mike was saying in his his Chairman's report about hiring your next superintendent one of the best gifts that we can give the the next superintendent that comes on board and trust me and and both the people that will be presenting in a second as well as myself as retired superintendent will tell you having a wellth thought out strategic plan would be one of the most important gifts I made sure before I retired from hon wilham that that that was the gift I gave John provos the new superintend that came in there that creates that land you know what's taking place for the district that first year is not a year that the superintendent is trying to figure out and get to know everybody here's the plan we sort of like here's the Baton you take it and R with it and I think that's really important um we met earlier our admin team about four o'clock today we've been working on this the the Strategic plan and having conversations about it since I came here at the very beginning of the Year everyone of our Adent team truly believes and I say that with them while sitting in the room like this is the direction we need to go we need to have a strategic plan so that we know what direction we're going in terms so business finance uh Fields curriculum every single aspect of our our our our district will be will be taken in account and that will be so extremely important for us to have the other part that you'll you'll hear PM talk about is about the portrait of graduate there's work that has been done in that and that will tie in really nicely that it's not being put away but that will be tied really nicely strategic plan and and the last part is this will be our living document this will not be a document that we just put away on the show this will be what drives us as our goals for the next superintendent the goals of the district goals for our principles so with with that being said I'd like to introduce you a colleague of mine um PM gold who we started our infancy as superintendent together way back um and she's here with zeth help me on the last jetti zth janetti who will give us a a quick presentation about what strategic plan is because a lot of people have a different idea of what a strategic plan is and it's important for everybody to have a clear understanding sitting in this room and what our community knows about what we're going to be doing with this strategic plan pm I'll let Ze introduce himself first and then I will a little bit further and then I'm Z retired educator retired as superintendent of mfield 20 year Middle School principal and before that music teacher Finance director and I'm happily working as a consultant not interested in being an interm anyway lay and uh we we are really and we tell you we love doing this kind of work because it's the passion of the work that we've done over our careers and this is the fun part of the work without all of the things that makes the job of superintendent non fun so I'll pass it over thanks so yeah Pam I retired three years ago as a superintendent but Al and I were in our first niss program together and so what you would find in a district and I believe what you currently are working off of right now in that program we were all gu to do a kind of a district Improvement strategy which is a good document but it's a very kind of simplistic usually done internally uh with your with your administrators and things like that um I am a as Al said to a huge believer in not only the finished document of a strategic plan but the process that you engage in as a school Community um I Heard earlier that there are there are things going on right so not to say that a strategic plan fixes everything but as I listened to the gentleman speak at the beginning I kept all I kept thinking was these are things that you could begin to address in a strategic plan whether it's communication finance and Facilities all those kinds of things that I think again doesn't fix it just by doing the plan but you at least get up onto a place where you're all speaking the same language um I I be I'm way older than most of you and so I started when I first did my very first strategic plan as administrator with our administrative team I was an assistant principal it literally sat on a shelf we did it because we was told to do it I didn't ever agree with that and by the time I'm with with Al I did on my very last year we worked in our community to develop a strategic plan that was left with the brand new superintendent it gave them a road map that he could now he's going to tweak things as he goes on understandable uh but gave him a five-year plan to settle into the district and figure out where they needed to go and in a bigger level it's really the district's PL school committee is the final step of the process it's developed by a committee but it's approved by the school committee so it becomes your guiding document for setting District goals goals for your new superintendent which then transfer into principal goals School Improvement plans right down to teacher professional development plans so it's it really is the template for improving and as we go through the plan we talk about developing the plan the first phase of the plan where we gather data and that's really the strength of and the difference between a superintendent's entry plan and in a strategic plan such as this is that we gather a ton of data up front internal data we have fors with all the major uh stakeholders the surveys and all of that data is used to inform the process so there's nothing that comes out in that final document of a plan that isn't grounded somewhere within that data has been collected and looked at by the committee as we go through the process yeah and Z said it I'm I'm a more visual person than he is um I I always envisioned and I would talk to my school committee about the idea that the Strategic plan became that umbrella document for a school committee that every single thing that you did um I had a a standing agenda item on my school or my meetings every month that we talked about what was going on with where are we in the Strategic plan but the school committee sets goals around that the superintendent and their team sets their goals around it your te principal set your goals the teachers set their goals so that it's all in that Silo again you're all working from that same road map um again doesn't fix some of the problems but at least has that Community understanding the why so the question too is why hire a Consulting and we we are extremely busy doing strategic plans right working on eight right this this spring and um so the TR when Pam and I were doing this work many years ago superintendant developed their own plan but um current thought process around strategic planning is it's really important for the superintendent to participate in the process not run the process and from a community standpoint adds a whole different layer of transparency when you're looking at budget you're looking at facilities to have a facilitator come in facilitating firm and talk and guide everyone through the process and our fingerprint is not on the document it is truly a community document but it's powerful to have the superintendent be part of the process and working rather than driving the process well on in this situation which again you guys are in a little bit of a unique situation where you have an inter whatever you do next year as you make that vote tonight um if it still stays in an interim another year that again takes the fingerprint from the interim off of that isn't their plan another piece having a strategic plan in place when you s a search for a new superintendent is you're going to be interviewing candidates with a template of improvement that the district has already developed and you have the ability to ask candidates what is this is our plan you see the road map how are you going to implement this plan it's a really good strong starting point for your search process and looking for a new superintendent I think so you're in a you're in a good position and um portrait of The Graduate you want us yeah we're going to show you the process that we would use but it's really important um to me uh it came up with your admin this discussion of all the work that you put into a portrait of a graduate or portrait of a Lear some districts are calling it um they have two separate documents to me uh a strategic plan is that guiding document that helps the community it helps the school committee finance and Facilities teaching and learning kind of that overarching portrait of a graduate portra or portrait of a learner are the skills and attributes you expect your children to graduate the burlin Heston public schools with that is different and they should you know stop to overlap but the point is a student to be very honest is never look at any strategic plan but they will understand what your tort and all those skills and attributes that are and that's really important what what I did in Sandwich when I retired from sandwich was we implemented and put that right into the plan it was goal number one so that it stayed in the Forefront of all of us so that became our first goal and then we went after that so you guys can do whatever you want but so the process and I also know you have a meeting and I don't want to stand in the way between you and like 11m that's the that's the right now all right so we've run kind of like what's what we consider like a three-part process um if you're not on the committee some of this won't be as important to you but the beginning is that phase one where we have done some initial meetings uh but there is still a decision to be made if this is the direction you're going to go in and so what if we go this direction and there is a contract signed what we would do is we would work with your H central office admin team to develop a timeline one of the discussions that we had with Al was this idea understand districts are facing all kinds of financial crunches there's no doubt about that so one of the things that we offered again I've known him for a while that's a running joke between Al and I I did have to go to my boss he got the discount friends and family discount B de bed um and so the price prices had just gone up and I told her I'm like seriously I started talking with him about this a long time ago so but anyway part of it is when you do it when we break some meetings in the spring and then some in the fall is you get to put it in two different fiscal years it makes it a little bit more palatable for our communities and committees without that but so we would get phase one in as early as possible getting those meetings we would start our focus groups we run a series of five focus groups you get to a community decide what you want typically students staff parents administrative team community and now this is where you get to get a little political who is important for you sometimes what what districts do especially in a Regional School you invite strategically your your board of Select whatever you call them in your town from each Town your your some people invite the police and fire they show up fincom it's all that depends on what you think politically would be good to have some people to be able to have some say while that's going on we're developing a survey we have a gentleman that is one of our team members he you we use Survey Monkey so he will work with Alan Sally and they will develop we have templates as you can imagine but they can be tweak depending on what's important in this community that goes out to parents staff student everybody and so uh the survey would go out we then start so I'm sorry to interrupt you so I know that's a real important piece right so know we've talked in this community here spook about like survey right and getting how families are feeling in that whole culture piece it's this this will tap out to everybody Community right not just parents but also people live in the community well we also do you guys do students have a um a student activity period or like a um a flex block a flex block or anything in school okay sometimes we find we get a much better response rate obviously when you're using an advisory time way given to them whereas it's as opposed to like any human being you just say hey fill out the survey I might forget I might do that so sometimes we find and this is up to you guys but even if you don't have one if you can find a time where you might be able to get the students 15 minutes or so your response is amazing you get such valuable data we getting from the entire Community it really is Elementary as well or is it just high school we T this is your call but we typically definitely do high school middle school if you really want wa is your Elementary in fifth grade yeah you might want to try the fifth grade I'm not say you but give it a shot we do middle schools frequently when they part we do fifth grade typically when they part of the middle school so so that's kind of I would never tell you what not to do I the reality is you know kind God you're not gonna get so it's that's up to you guys we will put it out there but when we but it's important to not though based on your question when we when we run the forums and we meet with the students High School some districts do Middle School too um we tell the students even if it's just High School make sure you talk about your middle school years talk about your Elementary experience you know some of the students moved into the district what was that like what it was like the kids that have been here since preschool so we try to have them represent the the past experience as well not just the current experience so we do try to tap into that data from the forums we generally ask three questions in the forums simple three questions what are the strengths of the district what are the challenges that you face and then what are the opportunities and a lot of times we kind we're pretty decent at what we take that challenge and we okay what could what could we do for that and try to the challenges present opportunities because that in the survey and then all of the data that would be put into what we do is we provide the district a series of folders they will dump in data every single thing they can think of whether it's mcast data whether it's student mental health surveys all kind budget data budget data everything we go into these folders and then so what we do is we run series of six meetings during these six meetings we are looking at your current Mission your vision core values if assuming again if you're working on a district Improvement strategy probably have something but you might want to revisit those depending on how old they are see where they line up when you put so at meeting number two we do a data analysis meeting we facilitate we break you up into three different groups and uh we put fold data in folders depending on what group you're in so it gets overwhelming as you can imagine to look at data and so we've strategically put certain things in in different we use data mining tools and we we guide we guide the groups through the process looking for Trends and patents that come across in that data so they come out it's amazing yeah what you find from it and then meetings 3 through six just become us kind of continuing to work through what then becomes your overarching goals what are your initiatives within that goal and then I'll kind of all that timeline in it and by the end of the thing when we're getting towards after meet meeting six we present the community uh the school district with a draft it is brought to school committee it is voted on because we don't do any graphic design until it's been voted on at the school committee to make sure there's no changes uh which is fair and so then at the end what we produce someone said it earlier and this is where it sounds kind of sticky what's the story you're trying to tell and I am a believer in that is what are you trying to make the community and have them help them understand what you're trying to do and so when we talk with our graphic design person I'll just show you a couple of them just so you can understand we ask communities to come up with a theme what what is a them what might be going on we do a lot of Sea Coast communities there's always some sort of nautical type but we did we did um Mich and they had the Great Road because all of the schools in town were on the we call it the great traffic jam because we could never get there but there's a theme that will be developed that'll be that the committee will decide to so what we do is we give you two documents one of them is what we call a dashboard uh but that's what you can publish you can put it on your classrooms you can put on your website you can put it everywhere but it's a very simple gives you what your mission and vision are what values and those kind of levers of where you're trying to improve all that detail of those comes in the next document we give you which is a much lengthier you'll put it on your website but it's a much lengthier document but this is where the story is being told we do a lot of let's the pictures of kids this is what you're about right so put them in there what do we value we joked earlier D is a farming and Coastal Community so that was the story they wanted to tell they're proud of that but you can see we put all these this documentation and the graphic design person does it all throughout the process we're asking uh your team to be dumping in we have a PO for photos as high resolution as possible and then it just goes so we as we get see how they what they did they built right in they were very also very proud of their portrait of a learner that they had worked on the before we implemented it right into the entire plan so that they would understand it and there there's a huge accountability piece on there as well too and you'll see that timeline there okay you just move up one slide right like we're we're not only telling the community we're telling you know school commity all of us like this is the plan we're all working on together this is the timeline we have and and this is the success we're hoping to have as folks this is this truly is what we need it's truly what we need to help guide us and like I said to you earli our admin team um is in complete agreement as well too I think this is what we need as as a district as a community um to really help guid us for the next five years so you're identifying your big rocks where are your big rocks that you want to move and then below the big typically three to five and then what does the work look like under that what is the timeline and then the school commun Prov Prov with an opportunity to up have updates as you go through the five years of the plan of where you are in meeting and it should be a living and breathing document that you know no one saw covid coming and everyone had to have a different game plan so there when things happen you have to have that flexibility to adjust within your planet as well as you move forward and it's going to hold us a little accountable as well too right so what we're talking about even their first goal right there right looking to do a curriculum review right so what does that look like right we talk about I SP spoken to Joe before we even h a 5-year technology plan what does that look like here's where it's going to be here's where it's helps here's where you're going to expect it to be completed by so it holds all of us accountable and then you guys can say okay where is this because this is where it's instead of all these manyi conversations a lot of blinking lights going on this is where we're headed for we can refer to this at all times and making sure we get the work done we need to get done in the next five years y you might have again I'm looking at this very simplistically because I one gentl speak but there the budget right that's going on everywhere it might be that you have a communication plan around your budget because clearly that might be something that needs to be better doesn't mean you're not trying to do your work but it might be better it could be better and what does that look like uh one of the districts on working in was literally one of the main goals was communication and it was it's simply around having a common platform for all the principles to work off of they just didn't have that so as a parent if your kid is in three different schools it is a nightmare doing it differently in every different building for a parent and so all little things like that but let's what's the plan can even you know the question that was asked about our athletic director okay so what's communication all back and forth by coaches so we say that's happening but we then we can memorialize that like putting in a strategic plan so it's underneath technology yep here it is we're said we're going to do it here it is listed it I think we got a lot of things going on uh and I think we just need to have it house in one place that we all can refer to it and we can all hold each other accountable say why are we doing this or great idea we're going to hold off to that because we all agree that for the next five years this is what we're doing the the plan guys why are we doing this and the beauty of these plans it's all grounded in the data it's not someone has an idea or I think this might be the case it has to be grounded in what we analyze out of the data this support what we're doing so it really gives the plan some tee you have questions questions talk a lot anyway yeah oh easy so you I heard you talk about parents and students you also include like the staff the teachers oh yeah absolutely they have a forum they have a survey and when we put the committee together the committee's typically around 20 people and it's made up of community members such as school committee could be other elected officials students staff administrators teachers so that's the group you really want a representative group of um the community that's involved process okay and then um so for like the meetings my other question is does everybody have to go to Every meeting or could we say all right we're gonna send just to this first meeting and then I'll go to the second one or does it have to be the same I would advise against that no emergencies happen right but if you say if you say to this uh to your constituency that we're going to run meetings X time a day these These are the dates because that's one of the things you would publish before you try to get people on the committee I just think for Flo yeah doesn't mean people can't come and watch a meeting but part of it part of it is that some of the work doesn't it's not a hard set that finishing this part of the pro project at this point lose the work we'll have three different groups look at mission statements right mission statements we might come up with a common one but then we'll give people time to think about it before the next meeting and come back and and meet it again if you if you have mission statement alone if you have rotating folks coming through you're going to be rewriting that it'll take a six Miss coming through the door but what I would advise you're going to probably have one maybe two members of your school committee on there I would make it a standing item while you're working on it to report out of what's happening so that people have they know be open about this whole process absolutely and then it's no longer as we as we know that sometimes people are saying well it's the community it's the school committee it's the superintendent everyone has ownership in this right everyone from the community so it's all of our PL right so we're all on board it's not pointing thing is it's all we're all working on this together as well I just have a couple comments so first of all I some things that stood up to me I like I like the idea of an outside entity doing it because as you point out it's not just superintendent driven it's not just School Community it's someone who does have a stake in the game kind of guiding it and um that's extremely helpful because it is a huge undertaking yes um I also like the idea of having a strategic plan when a new superintendent comes in because you know what they tell you when you're when go for leadership positions in in graduate school they say the first year don't make any big changes see ship is running don't make any so this would be they they have course that they would go on it is a gift as superintend it is they come in and watch and the ship is kind of running itself at that point but they're you know they're helping um but the other thing that I can't help but notice is your enthusiasm like I don't think I've ever been excited about a strategic plan all right really we really enjoy doing the work we truly do love we had a new executive director come in U and we were a little nervous it's kind of a new boss and she said something at a meeting we were at she's like when will you guys just stop doing this and he said it when it stops being fun it's we thoroughly enjoy and for like I'm I'm a people person I love getting to the people that I have met during this we now go to conferences we know all these people being a superintendent's not fun I'm married it's not fun IJ it's just there moments when you come home and go this was a great day really I was disappointing people at a very measurable rate and this people smile and they say thank you and it's all of the fun of the work with none of the myself and La their first year superintendent we got ourselves in so much trouble we were like we were like the kids get in trouble as the new superintendent well we would be the ones doing it so this is who you got so that works for youing what what well what did you say was the timeline from let's we say yes to finished product that's that can be a little bit of uh essentially what we would do is split the cost in half now does does there's no probably a real set point of which meeting you know is it typically like two months three months year it's typically takes it's usually like a four month process when you start earlier in the school year starting at this point of the year can be difficult in that May and June are very busy to get peoplee high school staff students with everything going on so realistically we'd be able to do most of I would think phase one by the end of the school year with forums and those types of things um and maybe a meeting or two yeah maybe a meeting or two but it the scheduling piece is a little bit challenging but the typical length is around four months from start to finish in the whole process one of the good things we said to your admin team though before was if a district is starting it fully in the fall by the time we stop meetings we're in good October beginning of November the good thing is if we did kind of what we're calling half and half you would literally your meetings would start right up again in September there's no lag time so you would be done your plan likely give or take end of October beginning of November so that you could roll it out after the and it's honestly a good time for our graphic design person too because as you can imagine I just said we're working on any plans right now we four of us that do the work available dates for us becomes a challenge but September October you're not bu probably holiday without a doubt holiday break with a plan done so that that was what my target was gonna be because if we're talking about and I talked about that yeah it'll line up yeah okay yes and I like the split for the financial reasons knows more we talked that right making sure yes we have to vote on this or how do we so I I would like school committee vote on this because eventually when we develop a strategic plan and when it's done uh we'll we'll be bringing it to you step along the way but also you need to vote on the final the Strategic plan the other the other part I just want to know let you know is that so even when you know when I move on and you guys are still here and the work is still being done there's still a resource to us right so I don't want you to think that they once the once November comes and it's all done they say goodbye that they're a resource to help us so again it shouldn't be just a document we do and like okay we're good for the next five years it's the job of this this Administration in schooling Community to keep looking at this do keep working at it and having it as an agenda item all the time saying where are we at what do we doing where's the fiveyear tech where's the curriculum review where are we with special education because you said this is what Happ what's that yeah so some numbers y absolutely we voting tonight or what's the I would like you vote today if you good with that well I mean let's see how it goes I mean it's not on you it's not on here for a vote oh good point so it's not on here for a vote and I don't handle rejection well either it's a budget issue you want to hear more from Aaron about budget so I don't know if we'll be able to vote tonight but we do have another meeting this month okay excellent excellent because the we we really want to stop moving on this and like I said everyone in this room really feels like this is the dire we need to go on I like it I just want to see yeah so if we if we're not voting maybe we get the numbers at them we don't have to discuss them tonight we're not voting he has all that the presentation Drive yeah yeah yeah well I said I sent all the the scop of sequence and stuff that we had and also some um the samples y you know what I I apologize I didn't talk to Mike about putting this as a vote on there for so that's I think we can get it done this month maybe just not tonight fair enough absolutely yeah we meet literally the Tuesday after February break I mean nobody's doing anything between now and no we're voting tonight you stop tomorrow I'm actually looking forward to I was gonna say that why you why you let up easy I okay thank youate thank you very much me all right um Matt do you want us um where it says student council rep Matt you want to take you're on yeah sure I'll just like I'm gonna go through real quick I got kind of a short list of things that have happened um so right now our high school student council is doing something called kindness week uh we got like it's kind of like a spirit week kind of thing uh just some like kind of like dress up so tomorrow is wearing blue for support inclusion um you know just kind of like a simple easy thing to you know spread some kind of some love around um recently we've had something uh awesome going on we've had AP Literature exhibitions so AP Literature is a class that you can take as a senior in high school um and since like starting in like October so it's you know it's like three or four months of work uh the students put in to put together these uh presentations that they get to the high school and teachers and AD uh in the auditorium um and they are I mean they are incredible how much work goes into these to answer some really awesome questions um it's very like creative it's like they pretty much uh get full control over what they do um they're work at awesome to watch in person and see what they come up with um and also another great thing that happened was the Quebec trip so our French teacher Mr Bean uh put together a trip to Quebec where I want to say like 50 students I don't know exactly is around 50 students went to Quebec for a long weekend um it was a lot of fun a lot of my I unfortunately did not go but uh a lot of my friends went I heard it was awesome um lots of awesome things going on there they did like dog sedding and stuff it it was a good time um I just wanted to point that out that was a pretty awesome thing that happened Frost and Mr Weedman for putting that together too Matthew thank you any questions for Matthew I just wanted to acknowledge Mr really that trip off the ground take 50 kids out of the country to get them passport these kids all might never have gotten a passport now they have passports now they'll travel like it was really did amazing work all sorry quite adventurous a trip got stuck on the board there for a little while in Canada right know Mr was there the one that was like through the yes absolutely and I as Mrs I was keeping me informed I was keeping School pry informed about getting you guys back into the United States saf as well too it's great other than the Border situation what's the coolest Story come out of that trip that you've heard oh boy I heard some awesome stories about dog sledding like because they like they you hop up on a sled with dogs I was surprised to hear apparently how like ridiculously fast you start going when they start running um but there some also some um what's the other thing that was yeah some videos of that like they like pick up some speed was impressed it just like beautiful oh yeah lots of lots of photos it was pretty it was definitely yeah it was something else yeah know you think the the teacher I don't know the name sorry we yeah I mean I did a trip similar to that in high school and it completely changed my outlook on everything throughout life uh it was more of an exchange not just a field trip but to this day our families are still in touch and uh any type of opportunity like that that we could promote be cool thanks are they doing it again because I remember we voted on it like around this time last year yes you for a year year that's what I mean we voted last January for this trip and I haven't seen it come through so just wondering so it'll be every other I mean because it's um it's a a long time to plan yes um and it also allows families to pay it off in increments and and students also can contribute when it's you know so it's like a payment plan so I talked to Mr Weedman and he said um he would he would like to do it every two years that but that doesn't mean that we won't have other staff members who want to do other trips there you know we have other people who are interested in doing and supporting that those types of experiences so so Lisa is it specific years of French students that are allowed to go or any french student like how who asked to go with any high school student that was taking French so it wasn't even so like they mixed like if you just take the whole eth grade on trip they stay in their group when you take 9 through 12th grade French kids that are all mixed together maybe your friends aren't in French like they were all mixed it just like it was really great and T even the process they have they have passports now right like they they've already traveled outside of the country at this age and so those are the things we need to celebrate right and we need to acknowledge right and that we need to we put on our district website and we put in our strategic plan like those the stuff that we want to make sure that those are the things that draw students and families into our district knowing these the things that we're doing awesome also as an portra of a graduate like a local citizen out of own thanks you yes um so I'm just going back I know my agenda is long today school choice um so I have this on the agenda only to get some input from school Comm on the direction you'd like me to go um I have asked my principls and assistant principls to give me anticipative openings for in 2025 2026 school year and literally that's all that at this point so I didn't know where where we're going in this in this direction or not um I will have some data together for you for next school committee meeting um but I just wanted to know if there's any direction you want me to go and or not to go uh typically we'll get the data the enrollment data everything um if there's any suggested openings or go from them and then we'll discuss that okay perfect good excellent um the next thing if I can just go a little out of order in mind um and I'll by the way I'll have that for you for the next school meeting I'll make sure I have all that data before I would anticipate open as well too Renee can I ask you to U talk about the cell phone policy just a little bit update on that I know that's something that came through with the Attorney General's office um but if she's going to spare head that for our District um about mid to to late January um the Attorney General's office um Andrea Joy Campbell had introduced um the study act um which is a bill that would require all public schools to have formal policies regarding the use of cell phones tablets and any personal electronic devices on school grounds uh so Al has you know decided greatfully so we need to get ahead of this right um because this and and this has been a conversation um prior in the district right but um we have um no formal policy at this time um so we we have started a conversation just between Al and myself and um we wanted to first come to you to just you know just bring this bring this up we thought the best approach would be to start having um some informal conversations with all the stakeholders um you know attending hopefully you know are your policy subcommittee meetings um and then go to the PTO meetings at all three of the the schools um we have student council groups uh student advisory groups that we could attend um teacher team leader meetings um and then from there try to regroup and think about forming a you know probably a smaller um focused committee um I would plan to create you know a draft for you next month I would think of kind of a timeline of what that would look like um I know we have some meetings coming up um the end after vacation we have a student advisory meeting that we can kind of start some you know conversations with students um PTO meeting is this week so I think we would start the PTO meeting conversations I would ask you invited obviously I would love to start with your sub policy committee meeting you know that would be one of my first I would love to attend just kind of to see where you you know where you guys feel this needs to go um and then you know kind of lay out a timeline um of where we need to be so that we can write a policy to go forward with this because this looks like an initiative that's going to you know come come to coition you know um for the state so I think we just need to get ahead of this before the next school year um so if it's okay I'll maybe be a touch M to see if we can have to sub committ meeting go from there there's going to be some decisions as grou in the community are going to have to know right so Rene will gather that information there not it's not black and white right so there's either some are going to say you know no cell phones at all some are going to say keep it the way it is and it'll be a bit of ground like there's there's there's a philosophy in mind included that it's an educational tool as well too if you use craw right so this Middle Ground so all that information she'll share with you and they're and they're telling you that right what pathway do you want to take but we know we need to as a community decide what we're going to do with that um but we felt the first thing was best to gather information from everybody stting obviously work first with school committe and then working the way out to the communities I think you're also starting to see you know expanding people's jobs right so grene will now spare ahead the cell phone this is a big undertaking right for ourselves as the district which doing that safety piece as well too so expanding their jobs and expanding um the growth for them as well too questions on this all there's also the Student Success and Technology subcomittee too we did discuss l and i in the spring as well so I don't know you know certainly there's overlap between the two committees great point I'm so sorry I didn't that I I had Renee go in the direction of Paul so we canap certainly yeah absolutely so I'll make sure there is a whole Tech ad um Tech committee as well to I have a question um so my understanding was that in the middle school they're not allowed to use their phone during the day that's a policy I guess my it's not a policy though that's in the handbook okay but it's so that's a rule right they have yeah but there's not we don't have a we don't have like a district policy which this act is asking all public districts to have all right and I I agree with that I totally agree and I think we need to move forward with that but I guess my question is it's in the handbook middle school kids aren't supposed to be using their phones during the day is that actually happening are we enforcing the policy or the rule as written in our own handle to some six grade absolutely the thing you know there's there's pieces because again some teachers use it as an educational tool right so depending on um those pieces those need to be clarified in something really specific right so where if if if we you know and again with with the help of Technology right if if there are certain apps that the teachers are using because that is that is something that does occur like the kids like to use it as an excuse but it is especially in eth grade it is definitely something that's happening we may need to call upon technology and said what else do we need then on our Chromebook or is the Chromebook the best tool that we're I don't know I'm just I'm just saying right so those are pieces that we're going to need to really again that's why these kind of informal if you will conversations with each stakeholders are really important to really you know um I would say that in structured time yes those procedures are always being followed in unstructured time no not always because what what ends up happening is sometimes what we're seeing and that's part of I think what the Attorney General's message is here too because it's not only the self of social media right is that students and um you know are using their phones as adults are so because they don't know how to talk to one another anymore yeah right and they're playing Blockbuster and they're doing all these things right so there there's a whole another piece that doesn't really have anything to do with them even on anything that's really you know um distracting them from their education because it may be at lunch but they're not not they're not having that interaction Fe they're not having that piece of their social emotional growth being developed right so there it is a bigger piece than just lock up your cell phone right and that's where we need and and I think that it's in the drive that that large pack Shar but there's a lot there right so and that's why I think this will take some time but if we can you know start working it through these groups and really get get get ahead of this now um because if they're asking for what we understand the Attorney General really asking all public schools to come up with a formal policy and it doesn't necessarily mean no cell phones it just means you know an actual policy um and and again this piece on social media if there's policies and and the and the Attorney General is then going to go forward to really work with some of these um the social media groups that also hopefully will um work you know in hand right together that's the Hope um but it's it's gonna take it's gonna take some time we see every day things are changing around us right there so this is a huge thing the general dropped off right huge thing here it is right and and they put it to the local level like what are you what are you doing so we just feel fness to school committee Rene and I talk that we got to gather some information right and we'll we'll meet with both sub Comm meetings right and talk to you guys about that and gather all that information so that this way then when you present this to you then you can help make a decision that you have some knowledge bed so we've been talking about cell phones for a while now knows so um this is not new to us so we I think we've all except for Beth because she's new to the committee we've all voiced our opinions on how we feel about it but I guess going back to the whole thing how it's in our handbook that middle school kids are not supposed to be on their cell phones actually had the pleasure of subbing at lunch one day it was over a year ago and there were kids on their cell phones in the eth grade at lunch can we please start following the policy in the handle that is my ask to happen immediately so it's a good question she brings up because your answer to you it's it's in the handbook but is it being followed completely no what well what would change if it was a policy versus being hand well it depends it depends on what you have if it's a bell to Bell no phones they don't have their phones on it's in their home room I mean to me right good B is different that's the easiest thing I guess what I'm asking let's assume it was just the same rule just as a policy not in the handbook is it what what's the reason for not enforcing it is it just not enough people around to enforce it or what's what is it the difference is that not all sixth graders have phon by time theyit Sev eight most of them have a phone and now you're asking the teachers to Poli their pockets and all of that so yeah that's a question for you guys so what is it like so um in lunch today um so we have you know six and seventh grade lunch and then we have no eighth grade lunch with some high school and then the third lunch is all high school so in the eighth grade lunch I was constantly going over to a group of students I'm like put away your phones put away your phones I knew they were eth graders they were like so desperate so they were like sticking in their pocket and then as soon as I walked away they were like sh it back out and then I'm like you know like put it away and it's more usually a game to be honest with you than a text or a a picture or a um you know it's this Blockbuster thing Blaster thing more between each other I don't know way no I guess the point is and this is a this is kind of a a sore spot for me if it's in our handbook and the rule is you're not if you are in middle school you're not supposed to use your phone during the day why is it happening well I mean I don't care if it's hard or then it shouldn't be I'm not trying to be a jerk but it's like we talked about this last year if it's in the handbook and and then if we're like all no this is too hard to enforce it shouldn't be in the handbook and then yeah we can make a policy and we'll have to figure out do we have to physically lock bones down because people are so addicted to this drug that we can't put it away to eat lunch I just think if it's in the handbook and if it we have it written as a rule just like you can't bring a weapon to school or I can't come in with a glass of alcohol you know we need to be enforcing what's in our handbook there's no excuses and I think we are but this is asking us to now create a policy yeah we have no choice right I mean at this point that's that's what's what's being asked of us yeah no so maybe maybe part so we do this policy maybe part of this policy includes some sort of enforcement or punishment for breaking it right do that but with the technology we have bark apps the family settings on on phones yeah I mean I'm sure there there are things that we can block just to speak to that there's there's a lot of limitations when kids bring in their own devices to what we can control um especially when it comes to mobile applications it's much harder to lock that stuff down especially when we don't own the device yeah so I I mean I'm just throwing things against the wall here Joe I mean devices are not going away they're what we're trying to train these kids to be young adults to go out into the workforce that's all you use out in the workforce is a device you said some teachers use it as an educational tool absolutely they should they should do more about it Julie we've had a lot of conversations about this back and forth we're on opposite ends I agree I think it should be some sort of etiquette type training to go along with it but to to Joe's Point okay we can't control them but how many companies now have a BYOD policy Right There Are Rules around it there there are ways to control it just like you have a math class where you say you can't use a calculator unless you pass a certain qualification or a test you can't bring your phone out unless you've demonstrated that you've installed certain things to block certain things with like I'm sure there's a lot of different ways we can get creative with it other than just sorry you're a parent but we're taking this decision away from you for your child and we're telling you you cannot have your personal property of school I think that is terrible thing to do I I don't think it's right I don't think it's I love the idea of passing the test to see if you're responsible contract or something like that I me these are all these are things that we need to I think and and I don't think the Attorney General is telling us no what to do just that we need to have something in place we set those meetings up and I absolutely and I these are these These are the ways we need to think just like it's really those three different ideas and then you know they're asking districts to formulate their plan I think having a policy will give them a little more meat right we're taking away phones from them and the responsibility of holding on those phones and calling those parents and saying you got to come so then what are you picking up the phone are we giving the phone back I've been in that office I can't tell how many times at dismissal where they call kids down they come retrieve their phones at the end of the day I mean it would be a full-time job the other part of our Trinity would say really you're going to hold on to a $500 maybe $600 device right that are our other kids phones and what happens if something happens to those phones right so there's a whole I think that's what the insuring General was asking us like let's come up with a policy so that we can all as a district live by and for as well all right so I guess the answer is it's not being enforced because it's almost impossible to be enforced because what are you supposed to do if a kid has their phone aside from give them a suspension and there's no policy so and and let's have that honest conversation calling those parents and saying we've taken your son or daughter's phone and and and that they want they get back to their kids right so do we call parents say you got to come pick up your phone with your child like what what is the policy what are we going to do with this Rich Le yeah I mean we do have a set guideline and they are being redirected phone away out happens every time if I see a kid who in middle that phone out they're putting it away we usually give some form of a redirection that's like possibility child um but at the end of the day if they're they need to be full a second time they're putting in the office second time parent needs to pick them up third time they're just not bring it in so and we sit down and we have those meetings so all those procedures are in place um you know it's really hard to police the pockets of every you know middle school student in the building um but those those Paces are and they know right when when I'm walking down the hallway here and I'm walking with you rich and they see him coming they're thrown it in their pot right why they all wear a hoodie sweatshirt I mean and the other thing is they do use it appropriately at times I mean that is the that is the other piece um and so this is a bigger conversation clearly and so we we want to bring this to the table now to just let you know we'll be in touch with with with you guys be in touch with the various Community groups um because it's something that we being asked to do dress sorry yeah um so I I love the idea that you brought up being creative about teaching them how to use it appropriately um for as quickly as we put this any policy in place those kids will work around it they have burner phones they they all I can tell you they all have burner phones so yeah oh yeah my song walking around this school with two Fones oh absolutely so there's that but let me let me throw something out there and um and I wrote this in my newsletter if anybody you know um cares to read it um I do I'm like um why don't we give our or why don't the parents if they don't want students to have that much technology and so um social media get them dumb phones until they're in eth grade get them dumb phones if you don't want your kidss on the internet on their phone I think it's important for them to have communication I know parents think it's very important to have communication um a flip phone get them a flip phone they can text they can call they can get what they need but they're not they don't have that addictive social media part the parents also have some responsibility in all of this as well totally So speaking of social media we had that earlier this year with the attorney general coming up in March as well to CommunityWide or districtwide opportunities to come see that that's everybody in the community we're actually doing it remotely so she have so people don't have to all come here to the AUD in March yes I saw that y yeah there's one is C doing right with the police yes just technology thing just to kind of um just introduce like social media and things like that parents have been requesting it and you want to off that so I don't know I don't know if BMS is doing one but I saw another one at Tonto as well so that's probably one that you talk I want to make sure Megan that you got your question answerers about about having that in the student him right so they are doing their very best too no I get that I get it it's just like a it's a sore spot when it's like it's a rule and I get it I'm a black and white rule follower and I don't have kids that age yet so that's copia right over there my kids are still young they do what I can say so you know well yeah because I'm breathing down their neck all the time because they're little but yes I get it when they get to that they have burner phones too I can't believe kids have two phones at that age I don't know where they get the money but anyways I one I appreciate that you're enforcing it at the middle school because one of the problems that we have and we all recognize this is when they get to ninth grade a lot of students leave them because there isn't a connection so those real life connections and and you you said the word Lisa and it really is I can relate it's addictive like I think we all touch our phones and um so it's really hard for them so I appreciate your efforts and I know how hard it is to be like the warden I'm it's tough to go up to these kids and say can you put it away can you put it away but I appreciate the efforts because we want them to connect with each other we want them to have memories and we want them to to just enjoy the experience and and not be like please last you what I did at lunch time the hardest part this next generation of kids that are coming up they're just watching their moms and dads all day long in the phone and how many times we going through a grocery store and you see kids in carriages with the phones in their in their hand already it's right so this next Generation that's coming up it's going to be even more difficult but I think parents are finally informed like I think some of the kids people didn't know how bad it was it's just coming out right now the data how addictive like Facebook like scrolling is physically like a drug and it's bad it's bad for your body deliberately addictive too yes even the creators of Facebook have said I wish we could undo this and I know I'm aging myself with Facebook because there's all these different things now but I think this newer generation of parents is going to be like how people are about red dies now like they're gonna set forth and say no I don't want my kids because we know it's bad but I I don't know when that change will come and I agree I think we need parent parental Buy in on this you can't just be the school trying to do it and so we're being proactive right so we're already on top of this and we want to make sure we knew because this is out there right uh and we're going to get you as much information so you guys can help make a decision both at both policy meetings and then eventually at school if it's okay I'd like to just make one suggestion so Julie Lee sent us a really great email about this topic and she had um a couple resources that she recommended one is a book and one is a podcast and I think it might be a really good idea if we all you know listen to that podcast and read that book so that we're all fully informed so when we go to make a vote on this or make the policy we'll know what all the dangers are and I just want to say one thing that might not be included in these resources that doesn't often get brought up but I bring it up occasionally um all of these phones are emitting emfs and when you're in a room with you know 20 different phones you know blasting this we got the Wi-Fi blasting it is affecting our bodies it affects our bloodb brain barrier and getting these out of the classroom and then trying to you know mitigate the the blast from the Wi-Fi would help also our kids with their health their physical health and mental health written about the book but you had mentioned the an generation something you I forget from what direction I have I start I want to start a book club for the anxious generation I did put out a Google form I only got two responses so um if any of you want to join in with me I would be happy um I can send out that link again thank you if you can send me that information that Julie share with you that' be great okay great okay I'm so sorry that was Renee thank you there's a lot of work obiously ahead good conversation um a K to 12 school student in information uh protection so I I just want to make update um this is the immigration updates right and so how we as a district are hand Mo this um just so you're aware I went for training as a superintendent on this um we are as an admin we went through all this training as well too I sent you a link at scity members you can go through this training as well to we are prepared right in case something should take place in our district I think Joe's gonna uh send a a slide up there for you as well too um if if for any reason someone should come in um we need to make sure we realize that kids are protected in our district that is our job um we we protect that information we protect our students um we were trained we had a a training that took place that if someone should come in wanting information about our child we we cannot provide that F prevents us from um giving that information um if they do they have to produce a warrant um and we are we're sort of trained on what a warrant should be looking like and what it should look like coming from the federal government as opposed to coming from Ice the third step that our administrators were told to do is and then they call central office um which would be might be the contact person we have an emergency text group message as well too um so in case something like that should happen um and then we also have an attorney on record that we would be using John Sweeney is not the attorney on record for that would be Katie manal who is someone that I worked with in the past she is that person that if something like this should ever take place that's her her expertise we would call her and use her as a reference I just want I want people in the community to know that we're we were trained in this we're hoping that this won't ever happen but if it does happen we have policies and procedures in place to keep our students and their parents in information safe questions on that good okay excellent um next thing I'm quicker um Town reports um I want to thank our principes U Mike as well as our our chairperson um we submitted and Nicole obviously compiling with all that we gave both Town reports to both uh B and bston so they both have their reports and they will be published annually with information regarding our school districts as well too um and I think that was put in your drive as well too so you SE that as well too lastly a little bit of a vocational update so um it's something I'm still pursuing I know the last time I met with you I gave you some information about aset um Valley um and that there is openings um for our students more so in their Softly year so we shared that with the high school we shared that with our guidance Council as well too I am spending tomorrow night actually at Monty Tech um I'm spending it there with a couple School commity members looking at some Poss possibilities and opportunities for us as well too so I'm looking at all different Regional School districts around us giving our kids opportunities just preliminary conversation um I I know a couple School pry members there and they invited me to their sort of open house and training of what it takes place yeah I'll keep you updated with that so yeah just getting some more information and more knowledge it's not something that's going to happen overnight by any meet um but John Mica who is a a colleague of mine and teacher he is on school pry there so we're going to spend some time tomorrow night um shury has an agreement with Lester now and they bought beer college so they have 10 spots promised know it sounds like they're at the ground level I don't know that's an opportunity sort of what I'm trying I hate to even say this public sort of what I'm trying to do a tech right just opening up a door and seeing this opportunity for our kids um for difficult Pati because again as we were clarified that you know the opportunities that students from Berlin might have and students from B don't have an AS Val so we're just looking to create other opportunities for our kids vocational is is a thriving opportunity for our students right um so we want to give them every opportunity they can have so just looking into that I'll give you a further update um after my meeting tomorrow night what else is on my anything else I think that's it that was I apologize for the length of that but thank you that's my report cool thank you thank you uh next is our administrator updates we can start at the top with Lisa so we they there we just read only oh yeah read only right my no no so if you want we I held them off for next month but there are all read only but if you want them to give them an overview no we get that is anybody have any questions on I like one minute 10,000 view next time would be great for people are yeah next time we can do that I'm sorry sorry about that all right then up next is uh director Sally all right so I have a couple of items that I've submitted for tonight um just over them quickly the first one is the district report cards um this is something that the department of Ed issues every winter they just came out on January 31st it's basically an overview of much of the information that was already contained in the accountability report that I turned in my call and with our mcast um presentation so not a lot of new new information really but um they do put these out for the whole district and each individual School in your district and uh they do ask us to share those with families and and post them on our website so I just wanted to share that information with you as well and my report basically just kind of breaks down the different categories that they talk about in that District uh report card um do you have any questions about the district report card there's that on our website it it's posted right on there right I'm Prett sure sorry just if I were not me on the committee where would I go to access that inform I know Cindy sent the one out her blog they were in the blog but they're also supposed to be posted on the website can put on they'll be on there tomorrow wasn't that's why we have these meetings thank you anybody have any other questions so Sally u i I spent a little bit of time looking through them but can you maybe point out the maybe the most I call it the most challenging score that we received but the worst score that we received and and what might we be doing about it um well you look at all the scores there's a especially there's like like an overall rating at the very end and so um I would say bees has had a score that was lower than the other two schools so that's something that you know we want to take a look at in what areas it was an overall score but um it had to do a lot with which we talked about before so I've been working with Cindy right and so um we we've been working hard to see that growth taking place our hope is that this next round of mcast that will be Tak um this spring actually next month right we're going to see um there's some things are focused on and I'm not speaking for Cindy but with matth and we're working with John as well too who's not only our curriculum director but we're actually doing learning walks so we're seeing what education's going to look like both in Berlin and Boston um and we're actually working with um Su O'Neal who is a former superintendent as well too so we have an outside perspective who's working across the country right now helping us seeing like what do we need for best practice practices to make sure we're moving that deal but there are some things we're working on and we know it's concerned and we acknowledge that as well too so that that that's our probably our our biggest thing that we're working on right now s want to put you on the spot then you want to jump in on that but no I don't we do know we have some to work around in that area we're looking at that report C the accountability it's not just the mcap I'm going to throw this word out there it's ATT tenance too which we have been working on this a lot of things in that accountability rating so it it is a lot of MC but there's other factors in there as well on the opposite of that you need to know um because we we we focus on that but we also got to acknowledge what what's happening in Berlin is is is is great there's some great things there are pockets of Excellence that happened there and the report card is is extremely we're very happy about that as well too as well as T there are some really good things that happen there as well too so we're we're now as a admin team working to to to move up W as well too and we know we have to do that I think the small classroom size atland Elementary needs to be pointed out as a major difference between elementary schools and also we go into budget season I think that's very relevant and also you know and I know we talk about this time I a lot there's still Stark differences between things that are being done at bees and things that are being done at BMS between curriculum and oh they did this work she every third grader should be doing the exact same thing districtwide agree um so I think there's a lot of work to be done there um you know and I know at BS I think it's an amazing school let two kids go there I love it I comfortable love being there I love Cindy um but we've got a lot of younger teachers and that's not a bad thing they have a lot of energy but they you know versus Berlin so I think some of those things need to kind of be taken into account we need to figure out a way to bridge that gap between those two schools and and what can we do um to kind of make it more Equitable so I I i' say the two you hit them both Megan and jesser it's not only small class sizes but it's high quality teachers and not there teachers AR high quality they're all are but we have to make sure we're training them right and what they need to get better you've heard me say this multiple times everybody needs a coach everyone needs some professional learning you're going to see from our calendar next year it's going to be much more specific you a first read of the calendar this tonight but you're going to be at the next scho you see what we're intending or doing in those professional learning days which we're going to share with you we're going to have tged professional learning that will also help drive those schools up as well too we really need to be looking at the curriculum and what it looks like for high quality education what are the best practices that we should be putting in place that are going to show our Student Success evidence-based practices and if I could say so I mean this is another reason I'm excited about this Fe of planning I mean that's one little section the teaching and learning section but that's where we can develop this plan and then have it you know so and by the way that that is on the district tab our district tab I'm also very interested like in Berlin that they departmentalized right so that that's that's a p a perspective we're looking at right so and S and I talked about that where where the kids are the teachers are concentrated on what you're teaching right whether they're teaching math or teaching Ela and stuff so those all things that are part of the conversation that we're having the Sal will be able put all the Strategic plan this is where this is where it's going to stay um the other thing and we talked about this during the budget a couple years ago if you look at Boon Elementary School spending per pupil versus our district that's on the lower end so the spending per people at bees is less than the district and it's significantly less than State just something to point out y good less than Berlin it's less than last state Sally one of the stats that stuck out to me on this website was the graduation or High School outcomes graduation rates it only goes to 2023 but it looks like our district dropped significantly from 2122 to 23 you know but that that's kind of a tricky um what's yeah what's going on right because sometimes for instance I'll give you an example if a student was with us and they leave they unenroll but then they don't finish whereever like they don't go on to do something else like say it was like a you had a student that was on the Le to do some kind of a night program or something that shows us a non- graduation so there sometimes there are situations that are out control is that what happened that year I me we've had situations like that in the last couple years one it's you know at 99 987 to 91 but it wasn't that uh like it's not that fail out and not graduate you know it wasn't that kind of was usually some of those outlier situations but if we're online looking at the district report card the trend line on that looks down yeah but I think I think it has just to do with the statistics because I it's not like we didn't have anybody that didn't graduate last so yeah I think that it that is a difficult statistic because when I look to be honest with you like when I looked at like how is that because it is it's start to look at and so I did into it because of that and I was told that you know that sometimes those other factors can cause a change in the St for those numbers but but we can tell you that we haven't had any students not gradu I would also I I part of me wonderers only because my daughter gradua 2023 that was graduating P of 62 kids was significantly smaller than 2022 right so the numbers are tin so like you have small numb that's one of the things I wondered I was going to ask you maybe because just one or two students could set that low that true so I'm careful I ask this question this year we have 100% of our students graduating from high school is that correct correct correct so 100 that are enrolled currently but that does not mean that there are not students that may unenroll and then we will not it will not be reflected as 100% so right now everybody that are attending to H to high school will be graduating in 202 as they did last year our attract this good things for us to be looking at though and paying attention all right would you like me to talk about AP scores now are we okay so the AP scores I know that you had a chance to look at them last month um some stats associate Bas SC table that I put together um I put together a table of about 27 of surrounding districts um to show you what their percentages were for students that um earned a three through five or um and then of course you can also see what they were for one to two and uh we ranked 12 out of 28 uh also I looked at some information right on the AP website and it lists every single AP exam that exists and the percentages is across the country for students who earn a 3 to five or a 1 to two and I was able to see that for every one of those tests the range is anywhere from 50 to about 80% so our 70.8% is pretty good percentage in that range there um also it's it's good to keep in mind that even students who score one to two um there's research that shows that they they always perform better on subsequent tests and that also 90% of students who've earned on and two uh report that their year in college was much easier to transition to than they expected because of the rigor of that the AP courses alone so um it's you know not something to look at as necessarily negative you know um so I just wanted to share that information with you thank you all good any questions on that I one last wrote it down and I remembered you had a question J if it comes to you just just let us know ask and if anybody wants to see like this AP resource that I have or if you want to check the website that I can share with you too because it has really great stats on it about the whole country and all the as I was talking about we're GNA talk later on about approving some additional AP courses later on correct Lisa Rich okay great okay uh all right uh Director people personnel Janelle sure um I submitted a report with some highlights from the people Personnel Services office and I'll talk about some of those here um starting off with our special education services um I've provided the number of students that we've provided special education services to so far this year um the district total for that is 249 um that includes services such as academic Services social emotional Behavioral Services occupational therapy Physical Therapy um and or speech and language Services I talked a little bit in my report about our um CPAC which is our special education parent advisory Council as you may all know this group meets um monthly they do a variety of meetings sometimes they're in person sometimes they're remote um we did a basic rights and special education presentation this January um actually last night there was a wellness presentation that that Sally um shared with them and in March there will be a parent Gathering just a little bit of update on the CPAC in our district our great group that there's a lot to support parents in our district um I also wanted to provide an update on the district's um efforts related to our 2023 special education determination rating and the work that we've done since that time as um you may recall we presented a lot of information last April on that determination rating and at that time a number of the issues um actually all of the issues except for again mcast right coming back to the mcast conversation any of the issues that had come up in that special education determination rating had been resolved at that point um the outstanding issue that required our attention for um mcap scores that are captured in what's called indicator 3 and indicator 3 looks very specificly at the um the Gap in proficiency for students with IEPs compared to students without IEPs and so interestingly um when we look at this data AC for 2023 and 2024 even in cases where groups of students with IEPs met the state proficiency Target there was still a greater gap between them those groups and students without IEPs that exceeded the state Target nine out of 16 times um so since then um administrators have worked very intensively um with desie and Consultants to really understand the root cause of this Gap that includes analyzing various data points such as attendance discipline grades Service delivery in the IEPs disability types mcap scores really if you can think of the data point we considered it and we looked at it um and we're now in the process of sharing those insights with our staff and focusing on developing an action plan to address that in and that does take time so when I say an action plan that means over a period of a couple of years um the plan will one thing that we do know is that the plan will emphasize professional learning opportunities in Universal Design for Learning which is referred to as udl for short um udl aims to reduce barriers in learning by offering multiple ways for students to engage represent and express their knowledge it is an evidence-based practice based in Neuroscience personalizes learning experiences engages students um and it not only addresses students who might be struggling or having difficulties but it also provides opportunities for students who are ready for enrichment and advanced learning opportunities in the classroom and these kind of things take time um to really carefully and thoughtfully roll out but that is something that we are focused on in our upcoming professional development opportunities in the years ahead um although I and I don't want to be misleading we do have staff in the district who are um who are very skilled in udl principles but we really do want to prioritize that professional learning across the district um so to make sure that we're supporting all students funding for this type of work um we reserved a an amount of money from our Ida Grant that's our Federal grant fund and we are looking for additional grant opportunities to further support those efforts that rating that I just provided an update for was provided in January of last year uh we understand that the next rating will be available from desie in March so that's where we'll have a new rating yep and that will be the 2024 special education determination rating so that's a year it's a yearly rating and for the you know for whatever reason I think as I explained last year although we always have this Bank of federal indicators that were always responsible for we're always looking for 100% compliance with desie is often Reinventing their rubric and how they calculate and determine that rating for districts so um there isn't an expectation that the report card if you will be on will be on the same items it'll be a different mix and that's probably a good segue doesn't follow the order of my reporter actually it might um is I had shared just some information on a a feedback that we got on our meeting significant disproportionality indicators um because in previous years that has those indicators have been taken into account in that special education determination rating they weren't in the last one um we don't have any status in those and those do refer to any kind of significant disproportionality in special education referring to identification placement and discipline regarding to race or ethnicity um for special again for special education students I also outside of special education um I provided an update on our M multilingual learner Community who is certainly thriving in the Berlin boyon District um we have you know students who have moved into the district we have students who have graduated from receiving English language learner Services I've highlighted some of the U most prominent languages that are being spoken um in our the homes in our Community um and I have pointed out some data that in this school year um the enrollment of students requiring English language Services has nearly doubled at the elementary level and so I've provided some data around that and talked about um what that looks like for our um for our teachers when they're providing services and um they do provide services in small groups a lot of times those small groups do represent two or more languages in addition to English um our English language teachers monitor student progress for four years even after they exit Direct Services provide consultation to teachers administer access testing um and often times are just a natural point of contact UM for for newcomers um because they have a lot of resources for those students and they're able to help them make connections um and adapt to a new school and a new community as they're Le learning the language I also provided um an update on health office so um as we all know there is a full-time registered nurse in each of our three school buildings um very recently the job description was revised and updated and posted on school spring so that we could support our students with by directly hiring um that nursing staff for each Health office we also have a two-day per week float nurse um and that float nurse position for the and that's at the district level is very is quite critical to supporting our busy Health offices responding to spikes and illnesses as we're seeing now supporting field trips that require nursing support mandatory screenings sometimes our nurses need to be out too um and so in addition to the Daily medication needs acute illnesses um our nursing staff staff monitors students with chronic needs including those of our diabetic students that two-day float nurse position has been um periodically vacant this school year um however we are really excited that we are in the process of onboarding and experienced school nurse for this position um we're hoping that she can start right after the February it's a good update there as well um I do want to note that in my report um as I was just looking over it I do see an an error in my data chart so I apologize I will resubmit that um with a corrected data chart the the math just isn't um adding up there I can see that so I will get that corrected and resubmitted my apologies for that my report also talks about educational stability which is not something that I usually bring forward in my reports it was in my annual report so I thought um an update would be appropriate here so the pupil Personnel Services office also supports students um in that might be experiencing homelessness or are in foster care or even have families who have active duty military members that type of work requires a fair amount of coordination and collaboration um with other agencies um state agencies Community Partners and the whole purpose of that is to provide educational stability to students who might be needing otherwise without that sort of protection and Safeguard um they might be needing to move schools a lot we know that that could be very damaging to a student's education so that's also work that um is done in the pupil Personnel Services office last but not least is preschool um so we recently had a preschool um Lottery and um thank you Lori for coming and drawing names I know um many of the school committee members have um helped us in that regard over the years we're always very grateful so this school year um all of the families that request a spot we able to receive either their first or their second choice which means we are not running a wait list at this time I provided some updates just on how many slots are currently spoken for in our two and three day programs in both El um both preschools and just a note that we do tend to see those numbers increase between now and when that school year actually starts in August there's still a fair amount of time um professional development we have been working on identifying specific professional development opportunities for our Preschool teachers and um you know any planning that we're able to do in regards to Universal Design for Learning is also consistent with the recommendations that we received from our preschool program review as well believe those were all the areas that I had updated so I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have any questions I a quick question I just want to sure what it meant to have no status I know I had to check on that that as well I actually second guess that as well so it really means like no finding no problem no um so they use a mathematical formula to calculate whether or not there is significant disproportionality in those areas and that labeling is a little um can be misleading because sometimes or past years maybe they didn't calculate it because we have such a small group of numbers and it wouldn't be statistically accurate that is not the case it's no status meaning that there's no problem I clarify I confirmed that for us yeah thanks good question Jess you some yeah so for the indicator three which is the gap between the I and non kiddos was there a a trend like a statistically significant Trend or anything that was identified so I mean we were able to as a group of Administrators and um really doing that that deep dive on the data we were able to see sort of connection that you would that we sort of expected to see right we could see that attendance you know might might impact um performance on The End cast right kind of things that were guess but we did not see one really stand out um piece that connected to that data which is brought which is what brought us to that wider view um and in that collaborative work that we did with the Consultants that were provided by desie to take a look at um you know our practices and that are happening in classrooms right most of our students receiving special education services are fully included they are receiving their English and their math services in you know classrooms and that's what led us to say this is an area that we want to support teachers more in and their ability to differentiate and be flexible um with the students that they have another question um so you said the udl programs what you're going to use and it's evidence based how did you come up on that was something desie recommended so it's actually already in the desie teacher rubric it's already an expectation that um that teachers um and schools you know are implementing various um practices to that and so those of us in the district going back to your previous question as well those of us that have been in the district for a while one of the data points that we looked at is our history of professional development and our offerings and we could see that that was something that we haven't done in a really long time um it's worthy of of revisiting it yes so thank you Janelle nice report sorry s please um so I'm looking at the L uh kids and the multilanguage Learners so we have one L teacher for both elementary schools and it looks like there's what 45 kids is that sustainable or should we be adding an L teacher in the bud how can one teacher go across two schools about 45 so that number did come up it's a surprise like I said that enrollment number doubled this school year um when if you compare it to the previous school year and that and you're right that teacher is um attending and providing services in both elementary schools every day um and we've the principles have done a lot of work to support that teacher in scheduling and rescheduling and rescheduling Serv services for students um that is something that we're keeping a very close eye on and that definitely warrants consider um in budget process and then too there's 28 students for somebody that teaches part time so um there just like yeah the teacher is she is just to clarify she is in the building full-time but her schedule is halftime English language and then halim Humanities um so she is in the building halftime um but I believe that right now she has two two periods that are dedicated for English language learner and um three periods that are dedicated for humanities again something that we need to watch um parts of that that go into it is some students it depends on their level about how many periods a day they of instruction they need um and the group sizes the the elementary students um those groups need more um just developmentally right they just need more sort of time and attention um and probably instruction they're just not as independent with maybe even the tools um and that self learning or social learning and our teach are all FCI indoors right so so not only is the services so we got to be careful with that so not only the services are be delivered by our L teachers but also our teachers are trained as the endorsement so some of are level fives right some you you're level from one to five right five is where you're really you're working your way out and you're not receiving services at all is that just monitor as well so there's this it's a really big formula so the numbers alone yes do we need to look at some additional support there yes but it's a it's a so not only not only this year you said the numbers doubled but I know in the past it's been it's not like it's been flat it's been increasing every year creeping yeah um I mean yeah budget wise I mean that's gonna hurt us um it's gonna be a challenge but like so that that is high on our ask list you know like I said what we've got right now is level service because the numbers are high already um as we break things down our hope is to weave so so if we don't get that Aaron and Janelle maybe it's more for you are out if we aren't able to get that what kind of impact do that put on the classrooms at the elementary level I mean certainly it's something that we would need to look about look at we would be thinking and wondering about you know how much progress students can make and how we're able to meet you know the um desie recommended periods of instruction each day for each individual student how creative can we be with the scheduling um so if we were W you know your question is if we weren't those are the types of questions we would have to ask ourselves and and the work we would need to do because because like like you know I mean Jason's still here like you said in the beginning they're big asks right so it comes along with tax increases but we need to communicate the differences between what is behind this big ask what is the impact if we don't have it is it you know he talked about cuts and just saying blanket Cuts but it's not necessarily a cut but it is additional challenges increased challenges where there's more challenges here there's more attention focused here there's less attention focused somewhere else wherever that might be it's up for you guys but it is an impact one way or another whether it's a tax impact for the budget going up or whether it's an impact in the classroom teachers this some things we have no choices on right when a student has an IP or needs to have L services like that's not discretionary right we can't say we're gonna we're provide this or not provide that right so but to to the point we talked about earlier those are all budget things insurance and Aaron will go through all this stuff those are some things that are out of our control we look at our budget just to sustain the day-to-day operations the my heat electricity all those things that are going up then we're asking for things that don't come out way right to to Janelle's point it's other point like one of the other concerns and Janelle and I meet Weekly right so not only are we're working on what's happening in Wilson but that gap between special education kids with IPS and those kids that that's something we should all be concerned about what are we going to do about that to to to to to decrease that udl is absolutely one thing but we got to make sure we're sustaining these things right financially sustain we do udl for a while and then we we let it go away we got to look at how we're going to maintain this stuff so we can see some growth taking place but those are things where we about um just a couple clarifying questions to what J report so preschools this year are going to remain at Tanto right because we're continuing that program taking place where kids have that opportunity to be have that internship um for lack of been awarding at that the preschool and the other will remain in Rin as well too you know there was talk and moving one of them TOA but that is not happening for for next year as well too um in Staffing um to nursing piece um we we worked on job description we got that out we got some actually high quality interested people that are there so we're looking to move away from those contracted um individuals that working in the special education world and the nursing world and getting more internal um care so that's all the work that's been happening the last couple months just want to add that piece to I have one other question sorry I'm looking at the nurse visits per average visits yes there's a data error there that that's where that data error is I can see that that Ma that math isn't adding up so let me um let me correct that and I could I could submit that chart again my apologies for that no that's okay I was just it's just funny how there's so many more sick kids in Boon than Berlin kind moving into the attendance thing and just wondering have we as a district maybe tried to pinpoint reasons for that are there different practices at Berlin Memorial that are not happening at boyon elementary maybe cleaning or things that happen in the cafeteria I don't know what proportional it would be interesting to see it was not proportional in 2022 2023 well if you minus out the scheduled daily visits then it's Berlin barely has any nurse visits and Boon has like so if you minus it out Boon is like 5 to one and we're not 5 to one in size so I just did the math it's not proportional at all it's not proportional sure and to clarify and I believe out the scheduled Daily Business I'm guessing those are kids that need to go for medication you're not going to do anything about that that's just that's something that is what it is my point is if you guess that the non-scheduled visits are sick kids in Berlin this if you Min up 33 to almost five is the difference I mean that's insane it's hard to believe though no that means no that means that some days some kids don't go to the nurse in Berlin there's days where no sick kids go to the nurse she does so the um and so just to clarify um so right the 23 24 data I had shared last year around the time that we were having a budget conversation there was a question and I had just submitted that as a read only report so um it's the 2425 data that I want to double check on because um right the daily visits and the scheduled daily visits there's something about that that's not working correctly um but basically the obviously the way that I've calculated that I might be important in that the our software is able to tell us you know exactly how many visits have been seen to date yeah all right then if count the number of school days and do that that that's how we're arriving at that number yeah that makes sense to me but even so if you subtract out the dis yeah tra that there's more in Boon the Berlin and I'm going off this we had a lot of Parental complaints about sickness at BO it it's not documented it didn't happen in the nursing world right so nurse checks every and the other one says come back and they should be consistent in that the expectation is that there's consistency but any of these visits could range anywhere from and not to minimize it but I mean one of these visits could be resulting in a quick wash at a Band-Aid right something very superficial and the students in and out of the health office to something that a student is physically ill and and you know needs a lot of support and ultimately needs to go home um right so these numbers don't don't necessarily tell us that part of the story I just find it fair hard to believe that one student goes every 3 days in Berlin outside of the sched Vis day I don't know well let's wait and get the make sure we have the accurate data for Next Time Janelle and we can bring that absolutely again that that of that entire row for 2425 the 12.33 the 18.9 3 and the 21.5 I'm quite that's the part of the data that I'm saying I believe there's an error there I want to resubmit that to you but to point Meg so one of the things that's on the request right again beyond that level budget is our facilities director has come to us and said we need additional custodial help right atland and Wilson right they're look especially during the winter right especially the update and especially now we being sick right so all of that is something we're putting on the budget but again you know it's all about that big budget piece that we weren't really planning on but is a necessity I just have one comment totally unrelated I noticed um you mentioned udl and I see that there's differentiation I think just my opinion differentiation would be a nice thing for professional development because we talk a lot about the kids at the top the enrichment kids and differentiation helps them as much as it helps anybody that's absolutely that enrichment and extension absolutely that's what Universal Design for Learning is all about it's not just focusing and I know it's coming from Janelle with the p Personnel special education but it's fall so far you know we don't use that terminology but gifted in talented the kids that can be reaching Beyond right that's what we should be doing those kids in the middle they can start to soore you and not all of us learn from standing and delivering not all of us so kids will have options on the way they can learn but we got to teach our teachers on how to deliver that right we got to teach them that way and it's a whole different way of teaching by the way great all right thank Youk you how you doing all right I'm great so all that is a bit of a segue into budget um I'd like to start I I didn't you have a memo for me I know that didn't make the agenda um this is a memo on um setting up uh District PE cards um these are basically credit cards that have very specific controls on them um I think you know some of the school committee members have been in conversations about concerns about staff using their credit cards for things um you know we've had a number of situations where the only way to pay something with a credit card um what we're looking for is is authorization from the school Comm to pursue um a very limited number of again what's called PE cards I've described them in here they are very controllable uh credit cards of A Sort you could set up cards that are exclusive to only buy gas with um they have they all come pre-built with specific exclusions right you can't buy tobacco and alcohol and things like that so they're designed for governmentally agencies Municipal organizations and pars um you know so we would like to pursue that if that's something the school Comm would be maybe willing to to vote on um again I realize it's not the agenda I apologize didn't realize it wasn't on the agenda and gases for just just that one example you gave for the snowblow for the W and stuff right it's not for just for the public it's not for cars or anything like that I just want to out that it came up that like the transfer station they had to get a credit up first credit card right because they got starlink and the only way to get that the only way pay for it was was credit card I think that's the way of even today we had we got to purchase I give my credit card we needed to get like that no we're embur me but it's another step we have to go through right I I comment on the ethics piece there you know certainly someone spending $20 here and there on a few things but as we start putting large things on credit cards larger things if we have to um you know we recently had something I had to use my credit card for for $2500 right um not a big deal but you then also get into the fact that Aaron Osborne gets Costco points for that right what's the ethics if Aaron Osborne keeps using his District Credit his own credit card right and keeps racking up Costco points what's my disincentive from just continuing to earn Costco points um you know or whatever frequent fire miles so you do you know once you start getting into aggregated numbers that are a little bit larger um you know I I would absolutely support people doing what they need to do to to make sure things happen to the district but I don't think we should put someone in a situation where someone could be accused of you know using the district to um rack up costal PLS or fire miles or things never mind Mrs oswal called me they asked what was the $2500 exactly you know did get permission from my wife to the card um but uh so you know I think this would take care of a lot of that we're starting um you know with just the superintendent myself and the director of facilities um where the three who are most likely to need it we could use that card on behalf of others um were situations and a just explain that go through the warrants right you'll see that Meg you'll see the cost items for each one of those items that go on that credit anything on a credit card be and that be the same thing for this you see every single item would be transparent so can we vote on that or no uh yeah let's add it to the business items to vote after okay all right so I will um handle things in year order so last month I gave you a very long very detailed financial report um up through December 31st uh I have since created a Slimmer leaner meaner um summary report um for the school committee um happy you know if people have questions now if people have questions later um you know you can go back if you're looking at a specific item you can look at all the detail um from the prior report to see what makes that up um what I would propose is that we would um do something like this at least for now on a quarterly basis um this summary report isn't automatic it's something that I would manually put together based on a template this is a template I've used um Al recalls it from hon wilam a little different um but I know you all are very everyone's very interested in the various cost centers so you know Berlin Elementary Bo Berlin Memorial Boon Elementary tontos so I've split those out accordingly um you know prior districts I haven't always split the schools out individually um but this is a goal to maybe go you know maybe not 30,000 foot view maybe 20,000 foot view for this school committee is this maybe something the committee would be looking for as opposed to the I think it about 40 pages last time yeah Aon so what I asked for basically was based on last spring when we again how Jason described it the cluster show that was last spring nobody knowing where money was being spent people accusing the schools of being goldplated and all sorts of things we need yes something to show where the money's being spent which it's a public budget anybody can go and look at it um but if we could be a little more proactive in putting out a report yeah it doesn't need to be the 40 pages long but something enough to say okay this is what we're asking for next year this what we've already spent this year course absolutely and this is I mean what yeah to go right to to put on the website anybody can go I know the budget presentation is out there right now I saw this afternoon okay so right on the district website right right on the home page y just uh depending on your screen resolution just scroll down a little bit you'll see it but um yeah if something to go along with that maybe keep it up every month until the time meetings yep we'll keep doing that um we'll pause the gold plated yeah no more gold ples I like I like we'll work um you know honestly for the public for for the folks here um make a comment if you have questions things like that reach out to me I'm accessible I respond um email is usually the best way to get me and create the task list for me you know I can cycle through things we're we're we're not new to this but we're new to work in Berlin wison so we're just looking to see what you guys are looking for right we we we understand and heard about the past we're looking to move forward and see exactly how you want to present we worked in many multiple different communities they all want it a little bit differently so we're just trying to make sure that this is the way you want to present it so that's clear for um is there a link on each of the different websites to our website or to the budget website I don't know I mean I think that might be beneficial looking for information we can talk to the towns the towns control their websites a link on Town each of the Town websites to link to our finance page would be the one everyone's looking for I Haven looked most EAS just goes to bbrd.org it's right on the home page we don't we don't control the the link for that would have to be the towns right that would have to work with the towns to do that they might say no we don't want to do it yeah we can arange I think there is a link on there like a school link most towns have hyperlinks to their schools Aaron can I ask a question about this report the budget summary report that's what we're talking about now right yeah I think it's really good I like it um um the only thing is I think it gives like the false uh notion that so like let's say there's a balance and I think there's a balance because we still don't have like a forecast column so like for example if I'm looking at like principal's office um so like just because there's a balance of $3,722 in Berlin for the principal's office that doesn't mean we're going to have an excess in that line item at the end of the year for that amount no right it's February we spend over the course of the whole year yeah there are also a lot of salaries that our our system does not automatically encumber salaries I think I shared last you Shar that so I think that needs to be there a couple items u i mean I can add some comments to whatting some things that aren't encumbered um there's also some things that aren't taken into account um as well and that's that that can always be a little bit challenging with this we are working on figuring out um how to properly encumber salaries within our existing system um you know to my knowledge it either hasn't been done or it's been some sort of estimate at best so you know what we'd like to do is figure out you know a proper way C that property um so again I I agree I think I shared also that someone did at the very beginning of the year encumber a lot of salaries so you look at some of those items there are encumbrances I saw there are some like St is about $2 million of encumbered salaries in there that someone put in um I want to say in uh August September prior to my arrival um honestly at least it encumbers something and there's something in there so I'm I'm not I'm hesitant to take it down until we have something better but um you know looking at this looking at trending and looking at what some of our other resources are I think where we're okay we're also working on sorting through you'll see some notes in there um some of the withholdings um so we withhold um health insurance from people um you know the employee share of health insurance so 25% of my health insurance I pay for is is through um we just need to work on how to apply that properly to our our in our financial system so those are sitting right now in a liability account it's a decent size you know it's just sorting through everything that's sort of wasn't done from the start of this year and building it into um going back to July 1 and continuing the rest of the year hey Aaron this is completely random um but it's budget related your report breaks down by school by Car Center I'm sure you're going to go in in the budget presentation here but another point of confusion and I know you've brought this up before is the um what you call the allocation from the towns to Tahanto the way that breaks down um since we're putting some things on the website to be crystal clear about the budget maybe a brief like one sentence or two sentence Berlin is roughly x% Boon is roughly 5% uh based on da whatever it is uh and I know it changes every year there's a five year moving average involved and all sorts of different stuff based on enrollment but just basically you know if at Tanto because it's combined but different percentages come from the Two Towns what does it mean if one town number changes to the other Town something correct if you since you've been studying that for the last four or five months maybe a a brief summarized explanation right along maybe even in the next budget presentation like the first page I can do that that's not a problem all right right now uh and I I I pretty much finalized the splits we're at about um 65.4 186% oilon 34514 um and that is uh Danto costs are split by that as well as the debt kind of an interesting there's there's nothing in the regional agreement talking about how debt is proportionate going back it's always a portion according to this I would typically think that when you do a two and a half override you're kind of telling um all of your constituents that there's going to be a fixed amount for X years and we have something that's kind of a moving figure so um but that's kind of baked into our regional agreement it's kind of hard to unring that at the moment most districts would um have that be a portioned at the time it was incurred so when at the time you incurred that debt on the Honda for example you would maintain those splits um but you know again it's all govern by your reg right okay thank you y um so good move on move the microphone close oh I can be a lot less soft spoken um but I'll do my best I'll do my best um so we are into version 2.0 um we have presented uh at both Berlin and Boyston in December um Alan and I will be presenting at Berlin tomorrow night for those of you interested and wanting to join us um whether at home or or in person I'm assuming will be at the the town uh offices so uh if we go to the next slide um this is where we're standing now I think you'll recall we were closer to um 7% the last time through uh this includes uh I have gone through another round with all of the principles they've shared with me um a few items um we were able to take out you'll see some of those numbers um as we talk about the driver some of the salary items you know will come down a little bit um some of it stemmed from my um uh you know not not entirely knowing what was intended to be part of the budget what wasn't um in past years but I know um Lisa and I came up with a couple um items that that we were able to to pull right out um additionally uh State figures have come in for the Governor's budget uh the government Governor uh is proposing uh was it $75 per pupil as a minimum aid number um so that helps um so our our Chapter 70 is going up a decent bit so we're in good shape there we also have um a fair bit of circuit brick I'll talk a little bit about um how much we're proposing to put in for offsets as we go through we go to the next slide um this is version one versus version two uh you'll see at the end in version one we uh were at over 26 million almost 26 A5 so now we're down to uh 2,728 th000 for that 4.22% um factored in that are some a combination of a few items we were able to cut out uh as well as um uh some offsets and we'll we'll see those offsets in a few minutes um so these are the offsets so I am proposing that we look to use 700 $50,000 of school choice I know that is um higher than what we typically take in it's also um higher than we've taken in the past um you'll notice that end is not on this list we are still in the process of trying to get end certified I am very confident that end will certify at a value that is at least equivalent to the difference between what we've traditionally spent in choice and what we take in and what um we may have we we very likely we have have more than that it's um we we didn't really use end last year um the final budget last year uh from the uh House and Senate uh last year came in with $104 per student of um uh Chapter 70 Aid um there are also a couple other items that came in a little better so I'm pretty confident that that money will be there so I'm just proposing at the mo for the moment we use this as as a placeholder uh there is adequate choice to cover this in the school choice to um the last few weeks you still feel confident in terms of school choice terms of the yes yes yes I feel confident um circuit breaker reimbursement this is in line with um what we received uh this past year I've talked to CH to Janelle a couple times we've been pretty consistent with where we were last year so this should be we do have some carryover circuit breaker so I'm going to Endeavor to also carry over a little bit of excess circuit breaker to help the budget but this is just being where we are now uh we have traditionally used some of the idea Grant funds to pay for some para professionals as well as some out of as well as some outof District placements so all in uh we're looking at almost $2 million in total offsets to support the budget so that's helpful as we go through um some of those were factored into version one um some of them are just being increased right now so when we get into uh Berlin Memorial um you'll see you know that salary increase comes down a little bit we moved two of the agency pairs to Tanto you also see Berlin uh just because of an anticipated student moves and as we're looking getting a little more refined on student needs uh we moved two um from Berlin to Tanto and one from Boyston uh that had a pretty solid impact on both budgets um health insurance a lot of those things I have an email into our representative um for health insurance I'd like to get um some some closure on on our health insurance budget um you know I think there's also a conversation to be had about where we think we might be able to be on um the agency parah situation right so I have nine agency Paras bu into the budget right now I think the hope is you know we can have some conversations and maybe we can set a goal of cutting that number down by next year so um it's important to recognize it does not appear that those were budgeted in the past so even though we had them we weren't budgeting them we're budgeting them as regular Paris so again version uh 2.0 um is is a lot friendlier um on all accounts here if we go to the next slide uh we get into the assessment version one versus version two were down almost $300,000 in total assessment to the town of Berlin uh for Berlin Memorial I w't go in all the details but I factored in uh Chapter 70 and chapter 71 um Aid uh you'll see there's a little bit of of up and down it looks like our uh Transportation reimbursement went down a little bit relative to what was budgeted last year um I don't know why but the number that was budgeted did was was higher than the number that the state gave us last year but it was offset by some other things so um sometimes things end up being a wash in terms of State figures we're relying right now on Governor's budget there are going to be three or four more iterations of the budget that may change pretty drastically at the state level um but we have to just draw a line in the sand somewhere right um so you know I think this is this is a pretty responsible and reasonable place to be right now we go to the next slide we will get into Boon Elementary um you know I I know one of the things we we talked about uh a few moments ago was um you know cleaning at Boon Elementary one of the things to remember is their custodial Staffing um between brone and Boyston is very similar in Total Staffing uh but Boon has significantly more students um so that's a challenge um we're um in we're we're we're definitely including um thoughts about uh custodial Staffing grounds Staffing we've had talk conversations about uh grounds work that needs to be done at Tonto for example um as a potential ask right so when we start looking at um MLL we start looking at uh I think we have some special education resources possibly in our potential asks this is also you know custodial is also among our asks um and we're going to see where things play out hopefully be able to try to create some combination of those things to help out so if we go to the next slide we get to uh Aaron can I interrupt sorry your your your potential asks so just to clarify what you're covering right now yeah is nothing new that doesn't exist today yes this is level service so this is level service yes basically operate the schools today and next year's numbers based on expected inflation and actual contracts correct okay yes just want make sure with yeah with with some necessary changes removing staff there's no gold plates in here but there's not even silver ceramic or even paper right no so it's all just exactly what's it's all p p okay keep going down this path of metals brand new Metals choose right correct um so again you know I think we've done some of the work necessary to um bring sort of that assessment down a bit so we've gone down again almost 300,000 um like I said there there were some moves to Tonto but I think Danto is where we had um some potential savings as well so you know that became a bit of a wash and working with Lisa um in some of those areas so now moving to our next slide um toono um these are again some of the drivers with those new um items um again the the increas in salaries now includes the agency Paras from BMS and and bees um there's the existing move UPS movein um we've applied some circuit breaker so again I think last time um I hadn't applied as much circuit breakers I was looking to get a beat on where we were and how much we have so there's a little bit more circuit breaker up apped across the board to support some of those um more costly placements so if we go to the next slide uh we get into the sort of first part of the Tahanto assessment so that whole process is um you know figuring out the this that sort of total budget um taking out the chapter 7071 Charter reimbursement uh and then coming to a total assessment figure again you'll see that total assessment figure figure comes out about 300,000 a little less than 300,000 less than our prior version one so Allin we're continuing on a downward Trend if we go to next slide we get into a couple calculations uh regarding minimum local contribution um and shares uh we get to um the above um and then we look at burlin above at 2 M77 th000 a decrease of about 200,00 since last time and Boon uh Min uh above minimum um about a couple hundred thousand below as well so both are in pretty good shape relative to last round of the budget next slide and we get into total um Berlin operating assessments so we have the Berlin Memorial assessment we have the Danto minimum local contribution to hontos above minimum local contribution and and a total assessment that comes down by about $600,000 a less um 550,000 from our last iteration iteration one and again I I want to remind every We are continuing to work on this there are factors that are continuing to come in um I think most of them should be downward the the only caveat I would give is we still have that April 1 number that's always looming um I was worry about that I had a bad experience once with it and you know it's it's temp me so I'm always worried about that potential for movein so we'll see what happens moving on to Boon's operating assessments for 2026 um total operating assessments again down about 300,000 from version one uh Elementary and then the two tono pieces factoring into the total operating assessment getting to the next slide I think we get into debt so this is that debt share um this is this is factored at that 65.4 A6 and 34.51 14% um it's traditionally been assessed as part of the capital assessment I've seen it done a couple different ways in our prior distic was part of operating it's it's just a payment wherever it's paid through is is kind of arbitrary to me um so you have total shares Berlin at 533,000 in at a million1 12180 uh those are pretty much final numbers um so I I've I finalized the shares that is part of our debt schedule so that is not going to change that's a fixed cost so next slide um Capital assessments I I didn't go through all of our Capital requests remain the same from our last I didn't include slides just reviewing those again because I thought it was a little redundant um so total debt assessments including the elementary capitals for each Town um uh and then tono's Capital requests and 26 Capital assessments um I think it's really important to know that that much of this is a conversation with the towns I think when we went and we presented we've presented actually budget and capital to the town of Berlin we're going on round two of budget to the town of Berlin um um uh you know some of this is is a conversation we'd love to hear from the towns about where they're sitting I know we had uh when we had our conversation with Boon there was kind of a number thrown out um for where Boon thought they could be um you know I'd love to get something a little you know I think it would be helpful to get sort of maybe some official Communications about you know where this sits right so we're coming into round two of the towns we've said here's where our numbers are I I think it'd be really nice to to maybe get some feedback from the towns as to where um these numbers sit with them so that we can you know start that active conversation I think we can recognize that it's probably unlikely that Berlin's going to want to put down uh 1.4 million of capital this year um but there's definitely a conversation to be had about which items you know are priorities um I know when we presented capital and when we presented our budget uh we were pretty clear that um we have a couple priority items one of those being elevator controls so um you know if the elevator goes um that's going to shut down some services in the building and and run into some big challenges around ADA compliance and things like that um potential fines from the state and things like that so so that would be a priority but a lot of the others um can be part of an active conversation so moving on to our next slide which I think is thank you questions thoughts again this was a a pretty brief summary I'm happy to if people want to come in and and sit down and and pour over items we can go through every single item in the budget there's thousands of individual line items to go through um I want to provide something that's both transparent um but also you know isn't going through thousands of individual line items in a school committee meeting um if anybody would like to have that conversation our auditor is going to be in tomorrow and Thursday so those are probably not opportune days to do that um but I'm happy to work with people and and have some of those conversations um I mean it might you know might give me some space from the audit but you know whatever anyway I I happen to notice um after our last meeting that a teacher went up to you and thanked you for your budget presentation and I said the same thing to you and several others of us as well that but the fact that a teacher who has been here for a long time like I and teacher thank you really speak volumes about what you've done I you put in so much time and you thank you you've sifted through a lot and and this is so easy to digest and understand I appreciate that so I want to say thank you u i I will say that that that meant a lot to me as well um you don't I I I appreciate um positive feedback I also appreciate critical feedback I mean I mean you know this is about a back and forth I I know there have been challenges between the school in town um you know I really think um anything I can do to mend some of those in my capacity and whatever uh fights or debates or whatever were going on before those aren't mine um I I don't want to have those those I want to have really good conversations about what's right for kids um I know that more than half of your town budgets go to pay for the schools um and and that's a it's an honor um to be able [Music] to do my job in that capacity knowing that um so many families and so many communities and so many taxpayers kind of vest that Authority in us and we want to do our best to sort of meet their expectations so really anything um I can do please ask questions be critical if you think something can be cut that's fantastic let's cut it you can write me a personal guarantee and you can write me a personal check if you're wrong and if I'm wrong well you know um you know we can go we can go from there whatever um but I enjoy debate I enjoy conversations and I I I think if we can't laugh a little bit about it too um this is the way we will present it right we told you that when we first brought myself and Aon on board right this is how we we've done it in previous district and seems to have been successful and that's what we're planning on doing here andos my only question is the timeline so you said you want to get some feedback from towns so today is Tuesday y have big vacation coming up and I want to honor that because you have busted your butt for this District since the day you started even before you started so um we' got a couple days and then you get back what hours before presentation we're supposed to give on the 25th so are we going to actually have time to uh get feedback from the towns and you know does it make sense to move that vote a week or two weeks or you know because I know Boon did say hey we have a number I don't know if they have it yet so if what if they say it's higher than what we have in here and we can actually we know we have an Ask list we've talked about that right what if what if there's other things we can get for that elementary school but we've already voted on this I mean I know we can vote again but it's almost like what's the point well we've been talking about this 25th day y you got any PR talk to Kristen actually have a text from her and I guess she spoke with um P I know's in in the audience as well too um but um she's looking actually if we could delay as far as the week of March 10th um I I pushed it a week later to the week of March 3rd but I guess someone on their fincom or someone on their stard is on vacation that week I won't be available um so the latest text I received from Kristen was the week of March 10 we work fine for in the town of okay all right we have a meeting the 11 so that's perfect yeah and that gives us time to actually like last year the budget subcommittee we invited like fincom people in and you know or go you know at night and I know you guys said you're going to Berlin tomorrow meeting so all right so's gonna be there so that's great and then we can like convene as the budget subcommittee then I'll talk to um the Boon folks and see you know usually they have a different schedule they are happy to you know they don't mind coming in meeting in central office so we can figure that out and we can and that way we're going into this school committee vote kind of knowing where we St I like that point about stand where we stand with the town so hopefully we're we're all on the same page going into this vote um you know then the other thing it would be nice to have and I know again this takes time is like a list of those TS with priorities like this is number one priority we can put that together EAS I think that would be helpful for school committee members yeah so you mentioned potential ask there and John's not here he'd be able to answer this but I don't know if any of you guys can I know last year we did end up cutting some things from BMS side of Tanto whatever that ended up being and this is being a level service budget those things aren't coming back it would be nice to know how we're getting along I know there's a Kindergarten class is pretty big at burlin um it it'd be nice to know how those things are going along this year what impact it was and could we have them back because uh okay I know I've heard some challenges um and then the potential asks that you mentioned that we just talked about the special ed the elll um when when do you plan on on showing those we can have those in in a matter of a week or two I mean that that's it's just I'd like to reconvene with the principles and and um department heads to make sure that you know the asks I have and and we can rank priority them things like that I mean I think that's important uh well we won't we won't make a decision on that yet well we I think regardless of what happens the 25th will probably happen whether it's live or quick Zoom yeah okay we could have that together yeah I can do that yeah just so we have a full picture and then the 11th will be like the public forum where the public comes and ask and then we vote yeah we'll uh yeah sort final yeah we need to we need we need to know what date that is so we can get in the paper yeah it's a bu so it's not just it's seven days ahead yeah I know dealt with that we'll get it there yeah yeah if you miss Monday then you're going two weeks M but not no they if they get everything straightened out they can submit it yeah yeah and the telegram I mean it might be wor you Botham is like a couple days but it's like online and once you submit you can't change it so better be solid on the dates yeah and just for back to point every principal in this room and AD assistant principles directors could tell you what their their ask are and what their needs are for next year now be our job is as a group and say what do we as a district want not what's just best for one school or one Department what do we want as a district that we think will move us in the direction we want to be right so that's the part that we will be working together and again Cameron at home that would all be our plan right so this way we won't be saying every year after year same thing with Capital Improvements like this is what we want we just keep revisiting that same and adding a change there was a threee plan well that's what was happening is we just kept moving things off and then it was like we're in a year well we've got like 30 things that we moved off for five years so and that's why this strategic planel have a timeline right and people will be held accountable so it's not just people sitting in this room but the community has vested into it as well as our students and our parents saying what are we doing with this is the timeline yeah okay that was great thank you thank you anybody else thank you thank you uh okay uh Jess do you have any update for the Student Success and Technology [Music] sub okay uh Megan we just talked about budget unless you have something specific uh superintendent search Lori I think we covered that right and we did not meet on policy except for the uh changing the names uh to positions in the up okay uh so that brings us the business items uh there's two uh two things that I don't have in front of me here so I want to do them first so we don't forget it uh I have a motion to approve the request for the PE card setup as detailed in Aaron's memal Lori Jess will anyone like to discuss that I there will be oversight and these cards will be set up with their own account code on those yeah yeah so so anything I charge you you'd very clar just like any other credit card you get a statement you get you know I would need to submit receipts the whole nine yards nothing changes um the P cards just have a better control system um and they have a treasure that actually pays the bills and an accountant that actually do preparing the warrants and doing the entry and like so if there was anything you know and then I review it and then you know technically end Ono so there's lots of eyes even the last that came to me today was an email from Treasurer Cy Henderson saying this on the agenda she's doing for job yes she any last questions all right all those in favor of that motion anyone against okay that motion passes could I have a motion please to uh I don't have this written how should we say this I have a motion please to officially start interm superintendent search Lisa second Lor anyone like to discuss this uh just to reiterate we met yesterday with NC rep she suggest suggested this might be a smoother way a friendlier way a way to give us a better opportunity to find some more qualified so a more realistic timeline and a real more realistic timeline uh it allows Al to sort of finish cleaning up mess left to him and get everything else in mind for someone to come over and sort of be able to hit the ground running without having to do all the work that Al's been doing you sort of just take a a well oiled machine and run um so that's the motion to start interm search anyone like to say anything yeah so I think know that West is looking for superintend this moment now super there for 30 years um which was very concerning when I read that item um also I reached out to Tracy a meeting because I was thinking more and if we don't find a qualified candidate or one that we for lack of candidate applying um we would then in may have to do an inter search um so I just that as like what what that would look like if that happened be more rough to cont so it might have ended up like that anyway yeah that's what I'm saying like if if we don't seem appealing as a district and we don't get applicants or we get app we might not desire that where we end up then and just for anybody watching this will be a public search um rumes will be submitted applications will be submitted interviews will be done in public all recorded anybody come watch so anybody else and so then the more permanent superintendent search would start the process of different committees and I mean the process will start now for that but officially kick off in September yeah like we we there's a lot of work for us to do to put together job descriptions and District information to gives an opportunity for staff input um and also parent that will be if I could say my job as the inter if if that's for for next year is to work with that new superintendent the permanent one to to have them come to these budget meetings to have them come to town meetings they have them go the to do those introductions so there is a gradual release right and that there is some transition that taking place you know I gotta tell you one of the toughest slips of this job this year is I didn't have any transition I've done this job before they're not having transition right they not even just like wear stuff hard I still sometimes ask the questions I say that people in this room like just help me understand this or you know I I don't know this right now not not that I don't know the the role but I don't know the logistics of this District so to be able to have someone hand that off and in a proper manner will be able to get some starting this job right away being the the lead instruction Le that should be happening to this district and hopefully attracts candidates qualified to carry our district we all talk great super right can be able to tell the story of what what a great district is is is certainly on its way to becoming having that strategic plan too great a great gift yeah that's a lot of stuff to work on for everybody yes and Tra mentioned the timeline too that hypothetically then in January having someone you mentioned that trans you know that transition um yes cool all right anybody else words so we are voting to start the interm search right now all in favor I I anyone against okay that motion passes as well thank I have a motion for the approval of the Boon education collaborative to host a bingo night and sell alcohol if approved by the town of Boyston select board for the purpose of fundraising so Lor Jess Meg yeah sorry guys I didn't put anything in the drive um so this is exactly the same thing that we did last year and I'll obstain from voting on this um because I'm the treasurer for the group but we have a member of Boon education collaborative her mother owns greens which is a bar and Worcester and donates alcohol to our event uh we hire a tip certified server and that person we sell alcohol it's $10 a drink or I think it's $20 for three drinks we don't serve anyone more than three drinks there's bracelets you're only allowed to buy one um they Mark the bracelet after they Ser drink if you buy a three drink bracelet we have a police detail at the event and then we have uh a strict no entering the building with alcohol rule because you cannot bring alcohol into a school so the event is held completely outside if it is rained out alcohol still has to stay outside and the beauty of getting the alcohol donated is if we don't use it it just goes right back to the bar um there's no waste so it's just a win-win last year I think we raised like $1,000 doll just from the alcohol sale um we did it again in for our Pumpkin Fest it was a very cold day we still made like $300 and the rest of the alcohol went right back to the bar so just looking for approval if you guys approve it tonight then I go to the select board um and then they have to any questions I can't say greens has the best steak and cheese in the entire city the best steak and cheese I'll have to tell my friend just say Pro it and I'm only going there for steak cheese it really is not fny if we get steak cheese all right any last questions okay uh all in favor again and I just abstained yes all right that motion is approved thank you uh have a motion so we can discuss the approval of the youth risk survey So Lisa second Jess any discussion on this Al what is Al what is this so we are one of the 79 schools uh that are randomly selected by the Department of Education to do um a a risk survey um I I've spent some time I've done this in the past in other districts um they did a lot of homework on this you know in terms of getting information from my students I know you have that in the drive as well too um my recommendation at this time is that we we we take a pass on this um I don't think that this is the survey that we and we do have an option I think Sally and I make sure we made that connection with the part education making sure we had that option but I felt it was important to bring it in front of school committee um but at this time I am recommending as a superintendent um to to pass on the Sur administer toid and I'd like to leave it just at that if I could anyone I mean what bothered me some of these questions are I think horribly inappropriate um but beyond that beyond the concern of whether students would take it seriously or have a lot of fun with it is the fact that there's a way to find out like it's just different classrooms and you can kind of narrow it down and really that's privacy that was a great concern to me also the time to go in it's 100 questions I mean that's just excessive um it's like I guess my personal opinion is the Department of Education why not send it out in the mail to parents and let them do that on their own time if they decide why should the schools be the the vehicle to do that with everything else we already have on our plates to make sure the kids are you know passing the mcast and getting ready for college and sat or whatever you know all the stuff we have so it just seems excessive to me there's a great book I I get monthly it's called School CEOs right and the article in this month was research on what families want from school yeah from schools this is not one of them just know that this is not one them okay so my recommendation at this time to school committee would be that we we respectfully respond to the public of Education say um we're giving up of our squats and there Al um I'm hoping that what we're talking about I'm sorry plan that will be given surveys out and getting information from families but not to the level of this okay uh so I'm G to ask if all are in favor would be to pass this approval which is against what Al has suggested so all in favor wait hold on I want to make sure I understand I'm G the motion is to approve inquir yeah the motion is to approve the youth risk survey so if you vote for that you are approving it Al has suggested or recommended not to so all in favor any against I heard four president president just abstains presid no Pres presid okay uh okay so that uh that motion does not pass thank you can I have a motion to approve the Danto proposed courses that are in the drive can we hear about this uh can have a motion pleas La Megan okay can we hear about this what we y can I um so there are um proposal for five different classes and two of them are well three of them are AP courses the first two AP seminar and AP research those um the courses would run um in successive years um and really are um would in com as a Capstone project um Matt spoke about the exhibitions that were happening with literature this is actually like the exhibitions un steroid you know and really an opportunity for um students we're really seeking the approval so we can try to figure out how we're going to map this out for students we're really trying to be forward looking in terms of we know we have some retirements coming in the next couple years and those are pretty significant shoes to so we're we're trying to look at our you know building the curriculum um moving forward so those two courses from pre-calculus AP or AP preal that is a new course that is being um presented by the college board and would be a really wonderful offering we offer AP Cal ab and AP Cal BC so this would be a natural addition the um board course is Art literature this um we were very fortunate to have um hire an art teacher who also has a license as an English teacher and fully certified in both and this would be a wonderful opportunity to explore art literature art history um it could be um served as an art elected before an English elective a really I think um exciting opportunity for our students and then also an our CS computer science python fundamentals which would be added to really enhance our computer programming we have computer science discoveries in the middle school we have computer science principles that can be taken um as um a course or an AP course um this provides yet another opportunity for our students to Endeavor in cour workor that really relevant right now any questions any art through literature is that um an honors or not regular College it I would imagine that it would be considered a college prep course any other questions uh okay all in favor of this motion anyone against okay the motion passes Lisa if I could just one thing so we talked about this the other day about promoting the opportunity of kids so that they can be enticed to stay so this would be something I hope that gets promoted outside of just this meeting for the I know everybody is watching like as kids come into Tanto their families might like to know that these opportunities there yes absolutely and these will be um incorporate into theam studies and I'll also information yeah yeah maybe even like some sort of promotion announcement like hey look at what we can do now type of thing cap is up sorry it's exactly what we should be doing um and going that thatway is where we should be doing as well so they have Capstone class here that's where they Sorry look move forward with that right right absolutely look the um the seminar and research is like a twoyear Capstone project oh cool all right thank you Lisa um the next item is just the calendars is for a first read only um any quick questions on that otherwise we'll wait for Al's presentation next time okay uh I have a motion to approve to update District contacts listed within the following policies acab sexual harassment policy for sexual harassment against students ADF wellness policy nutrition food allies physical activities Mission goals jba policy against harassment discrimination for students and this is simply to update the contacts listed within we're moving away that I'm sorry moved Lori all right go ahead so we're just moving away from um individual names previous superintendent's name on there um Janelle's name on there instead putting positions instead of names so we we made one change already um but these are the other changes we went through the Cole and I going through them and finding that this the changes need to be made question yeah the only thing about the wellness policy is it's very I talked to Sally about this it's super vag on um policy on bringing in outside Foods yeah Megan this is only to update the names just the names all I know so are we gonna get a chance to I'm gonna be so then we'll have to vote on it again I mean at our Wellness meeting information that we discussed okay if there's a change then I'll have to bring it back okay gotcha we should have no policies that have individual people's names on those positions and please we went from Nicole and I if there's another one you're seeing in there we went through and I should say Nico make off please all right a question oh okay so the acab which is sex sexual harassment um against students lists the title X coordinator title n or Title Nine title n right okay I typed that okay but then so for JB a it's harassment and discrimination for students but it also includes you know things of a sexual nature and I'm just wondering should title n also be in there like a reference to that position um you talk about the cross references at the bottom no it's just about who to contact like it said title n coordinator in the acab one okay but it didn't say it for jba who is it saying J um it it just listed um um Personnel okay Services that's what we're doing we're replacing the name Janelle with right I know but in the jba doesn't list the title line at all it just says the pupil and Personnel Services that person in our district is the title coordinator yeah you get but isn't the isn't jba if I'm not mistaken that's policy against harassment discrimination for students as opposed to as opposed to se that's yeah buling but harassment does also include you know under acab sexual harass so so ask me the question one more time I'm sorry it just seemed like maybe um the title M coordinator should also be included in the jba as somebody to contact if you have a problem but the Title Nine coordinator is the director of pupil Personnel Services or the director of curriculum and grants and that person it doesn't specifically say the title n director but it says those two positions so I guess the only issue we'd run into is if you change who the title 9 coordinator is but then you'd have to update the policy anyway yeah and by the way title n coordinators we just don't dub the title n coordinates they go some trading for that right so right now it's both s and Janelle tile coordinates but those people are listed in jba those are and we we're removing them and putting positions positions are listed in both policies that's right it just doesn't say Title Nine in the second one in the jba in the exactly but it says the positions are listed in there yes yeah they are the same yeah yeah the one the same but I think what you're saying ask should we put tile n coordinate in that's exactly yeah she's just saying wait it says the coordinator for title n of Education amendments wait is not on P what page we could do that I think it's on page four so can we make an amendment on that or just vote as is and then add that in area it's in the sentence form right above there coordin education Amendments of 1972 section 54 Rehabilitation Act 197 622 the 1971 for public schools is it actually does say in the policy yes it right right below it it mentions the title right below the yeah then it says policies made yeah yeah it's just different yeah it's just not it's not consistent the way they're listed out so I I I think we could look at that and that would have to be a a little different change of making a change to this policy right now we're just asking you the change the Nam just take up names and put positions in instead okay but do we not that I wrote that down so the next policy meeting will definitely look at that between now and okay thank you yep thanks for to catch up anything else that's not need to answer tonight but I saw the sixth grade only one semester of gy as I know so I don't need any Meg Megan's question couldn't go either so this is only about names not act content of all right all in favor I anyone against okay so now we're going to enter into executive session and I will ask for a a motion to enter executive session one and two and will not return to open session executive session pursuant of Mass general laws chapter 38 section 21A purpose 3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining bbea CVA if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining position of the public body and the chair so declares executive session two will be pursued to Master General Law chapter 30 section 21A purpose one to discuss the reputation character physical condition or mental health rather than professional competence of an individual or to discuss the discipline or dismissal of or complaints or charges brought against a public officer employee staff member or individual I have a motion so move Lori second Lisa okay Beth hi Jess Magan hi Lori hi Lisa hi okay that motion passes we will now enter executive session thank you everyone for sorry I just well the me

welcome everybody to tonight's match up for the east on Med Spartans versus the minich Falcons hey Jeff Jeff good to be with you again tonight good to be with you Steve hopefully this turnout's a little bit different than our last matchup with them we had a rough time against them we did have a we had a we got off to a rough start had a tough time putting points on the board in the first half and that put us in a little bit of a hole to start out with so hopefully we can get out of the gate with some points a little bit more quickly tonight like within the first eight minutes uh yes that would be good okay the team's ready Jill Stevens ready to jump it up es meow controls the tip Maya noes looks to set the ball to Marino up top dribbles around the perimeter to blaze Stevens cut off here ball fake [Music] [Applause] Marino erant pass there and the Falcons will come down their first Rush of the evening so I like to see how of this part a little bit quicker Ball moving you have to be quick with a quick release on our Shots tonight I have a feeling Steve Falcons move the ball around the perimeter go inside out up for the three and off inside presence from pus and she's unable to control it ball goes out and slow will inbound minog looks to pick up just about at half court ball goes long you saw meow getting a working a few Jitters out of the system here early on the last time Steve they did the same type of one person press with wtz up top or wtz yep up top she's a good little point guard y stopped there gives the ball over to off gar see what she's got there goes outside to Manning rotate the ball back through loses her footing stumbles through the lane travel on wtz yeah it's that same thing it really is it really is just a an extended like you said almost just a one one one person pressure there really they play everything up high Steven squares up from three rebound goes high off the back rim falcons look to come down the floor move ball around the perimeter ball is up for Manning and it's good for three yeah they have a couple of those three-point Shooters I think Manning and wtz can drain those threes from outside last time B us killed us down low so to try to see what we can do to neutralize that nolles looks for a longdistance bomb of her own up and no good rebounded by bodus and wtz will break the Press by pressure by herself ball fake there outside to or [Music] yep Marino brings it up Works left to right going across comes back here finds a seam to the middle minog collapses kicks out to nolles good attempt that's a shot we're going to have to hit when that defense collapses to the middle we're have they collapse on Ken of fast yeah good job by Kenna to get back and the ball is knocked around and it's off of blal East L metal loose ball Marino will take it to the basket and it goes off a minog foot goes through Marina will inbound under the [Applause] [Music] basket some difficulty getting it in goes to the Post back out to nolles looks to reverse back to Marino goes to blaze there stolen nice rry by OS to get back and good job Emma to get back minog looks to get the substitution in and they do fo Checks In [Music] some pressure on nolles bringing it up she looks to break that herself she does the ball goes to Jill Stevens difficulty trying to find anything inside for the [Music] Spartans continue to work on the perimeter back to nolles there rolls to marino marino to go to gosin just short rebound by the Falcons going out quickly WT squares up for three nothing doing back to Spartans four minutes and 32 seconds remaining in the first quarter we only have one basket scored a three-point basket by the Falcons giving minog a three to nothing lead niss checks in for Manning [Music] minog well our our own Point output we're struggling the same way with blaze going for three same struggles we had last time but at least we're not giving up an onslaught of points to vog here in the early going yeah we don't want them to get uh hot nope could be in a little bit of problems once they start really pushing the ball they get the ball down the court fast that's the problem yep look to move inside denied there wwit tries to penetrate goes back outside and the basket's good for foise second three-pointer of the game for the Falcons to take a six nothing lead ball goes to gosin who gives it back to Stevens to blaze takes the screen set by Stevens back to Marino up and off the backboard no [Applause] good they get the ball down another that a two or a three another three three Bas y 3 minutes 35 seconds left in first quarter minog N9 East l0o e we're back after the timeout from East Al Coach Gary giving the girls some words of wisdom hopefully we can put some points up on the board yep have Kendall Reed checking in along with Caitlyn beak after the timeout ball is knocked loose there Marino looks for an outlet gets it to beak beak back to Marino a lot of perimeter action for the Spartans very difficult to get any penetration that's got to be a baseline pass into beak there there we go but St is out of the post as soon as she's in under 10 left on the shot clock the ball is loose Reed gets it back four on the shot clock Reno looks for long distance off the backboard but it does not draw Iron therefore a shot clock violation unfortunately Steve that was one of these somal better looks at shooting at the the basket sometimes if you drop back to that midcourt Circle you do get a cleaner you do get a cleaner look kind of being forced to take a logo shot with a shot clock violation coming down east meow and Beak plays good perimeter defense along the three-point Arc wtz looks to penetrate goes outside jump stop there back to Manning Manning to wtz again back to Manning looks to square up and it's high off the iron good board by Emma go good rebound that's an where we got killed last time we did not rebound at allog last time right now bodis is out so I think the only girl that they have that's Kaitlin O'Brien's obviously on everything [Music] y I think we just need to get into the paint whether it's driving you just pass around no was really driving let the def Kenna drove that one time they collaps on her she kicked it out that's I think we need to do a little bit more of that WT front rims it nice box out by beak good board by beak she'll dribble out herself handing it off to Marino at the midcourt Circle Stevens goes crosscourt to Goslin back to Marino tries to find a penetration nothing there screen to try to get some space she gets to the paint and there's a foul hold called there know Emma does a great job of driving in on it sometimes I like to see her do a little stop and pop shot on that get before she gets draws the contact she can just hit that little running jumper and Jill spots up from the corner o little bit long Falcons come down they try to find look they don't like what they have in transition so they'll set it back up the three-pointers up for Nelson up and over everything unlucky rebound [Music] yep nice move that's a great great cut to the basket W with a nice move to the basket uh that's minog with 11 ISO still waiting to get on the board maybe there with Ken get basket there very well done good things happen when you can penetrate like that minog moves along the perimeter Manning looks for the interior pass to bodis doesn't like the look she has there goes back to wtz outside there back to Manning they look to move the ball again goes inside to wtz on the cut oh almost good finish doing Reed and Beak combined for the rebound there [Music] our favorite time of the game Steve 30 seconds and we should get the last shot off see how it goes y coach asks her to back it out maybe trying to play for that last shot we'll see what we can do give it right back can of hold it for the last [Music] shot be gets it to Stevens about 10 seconds left but a good job so far Stevens looks to go gives it to Goslin over Marino hey we got the last shot off well uh after one quarter here in East L Meadow it's the minog Falcons 11 and the East L Meadow Spartans two better than the last time we did it against them Steve so that's a good thing we're making progress there go e [Music] now after the first quarter of action minog 11 East meow 2 Grace Blaze checks in for the game Maya nolles checks in for Ken Marino and East medal work the perimeter Blaze looks to get it to Goslin there Goslin goes to Stevens playe back to beak along the perimeter beak to nolles [Applause] a looping pass nothing there Manning takes it over on the side got Nelson up top screen from O'Brien rolls to the basket they didn't get her ball is dead on the perimeter goes back to Manning oneon-one with blaze nicely defended Manning has to go underneath nothing doing good by Blaze on that b with a good rebound Blaze with a good or beak with a good rebound box out and rebound there yeah I think be's like third or fourth rebound today yep nolles will reset things up top drives gives kicks back to Stevens for three off the iron and the ball goes out to Manning she'll go Far Side bring it back here to Nelson Nelson to Horn back to O'Brien as Nelson resets Manning looks there operates along the perimeter looking for a back door cut she gets [Music] one Marino checks in for beak and wtz checks in for no so MOG retains The Possession there gets a ball back with just about 10 seconds on the shot clock Ball's knocked loose on Manning bodis looks to operate 4 seconds on the shot clock don't bail him out with a foul well done good defensive possession for the Spartans Marino outside extension [Music] goes to Stevens back to Marino Blaze looks to penetrate there you got to stop keep going that right hand side nice look off for NOS but look was there get the shot CH just seems to move so much faster on defense yeah and offense hence the 11 to2 lead that's the keys that's the keys to the game right there the MOG looks to move the ball in the perimeter Manning gets a clean look after a nice screen from bodis gets her own rebound distributes out to O'Brien there kicks back to wwit takes the look from three off that's our ball [Music] Yeah by Blaze yep push on bis there gets the foul and the ball so nolles will bring the ball up she'll be picked up in [Music] midcourt minog with that swarming kind of man-to-man defense at this point Brian picks it up there take it herself Y block takes it into contact and foul on NOS two shot foul misses the front [Applause] end Manning comes off and F comes in missed both but the ball stays here on an out of bounds call that favors the minog Falcons wwit signals a box play ready to ball gets rotated back to her inside on a beautiful interor oh lost it though Jo Steven oh May noes ties it up that'll be slows ball on the alternating possession Nolls picked up in the back court by Nelson or sorry off garik there stolen by O'Brien waits for the contact draws it Maya noes picks her second fall of the night at least her second second free throw coming up and I believe that's the first point for either team in the quarter at just about the halfway mark of the quarter luckily for the spart good thing luckily for the Spartans not a particularly hot shooting night so far for the Falcons so maybe if we could heat up a little bit east lto continues to work along the perimeter with very little interior presence or cutting or possession noes looks to get in there and comes to help take it to the back should been fall good take by Joe now if I'm not mistaken I think that's two that's two on O'Brien I think that'd be a good thing Kendall Reed checks in for Grace Blaze I would take it right I would take it right at her to try to draw a third foul uh as quickly Brian's got what two picks Two breakaways Bunch rebounds take it right at her nice job there you go nice take by Joe Stevens going right at her 124 minog leads uh Jo eight point Advantage here wwit calls out the play eron dribble screen was going to be set there but they won't take it right on top Jill right on her nice Jill right on it Wait On It O that's an offensive foul yep and that's three on her well done three out that's a third call she's going to have to sit now maybe I have different information than the minog bench cuz I can't imagine they wouldn't be running to get her out maybe I was wrong but I was almost positive that yeah I'd be sitting out the rest of the half that if that's her third maybe that's only her second maybe I was wrong but I was positive that was third L yeah I bet you this substitution is for O'Brien I'm almost but that's her third foul yeah Nelson Maybe I'm Wrong Nelson checking in for fo No Maybe I'm Wrong wouldn't be the first time ball goes long to Stevens Jill looks to turn to the basket outside to Reed Reed's getting hit there takes the ball basket yep good job now maybe this it bodus is checking in for that yeah bis checking in for O'Brien yep so wtz will bring the ball up three minutes remaining in the half 12 to4 minute jog ball moves around the inter exterior rather wtz takes it in she fou there she got a quick First Step Y and once she drives into that lane she's a good passer yep she's taking it today and that makes it very hard to Def wtz makes the first 13-4 you imagine if she had a lob threat person to go along with her driveing game I don't think we don't need to give the Falcons any more weapons they already have 14 to four good job by Kenna to pull back on that play yep Ken goes High to read in the high post he looks to turn and operate goes to Goslin gosin outside to beak beak continues to work on the perimeter tries to find a seam and she does look like a hand check there what's it called and we get a foul on wtz there so the good news is that's five fouls on minog so we'll be in the bonus for the last two minutes and 29 seconds of the half I have a feeling we're going to get a third of our points after she's here the LI Steve yeah there's one there's that was wrong nice box out ball is fought for there that'll be minute jog ball on the alternating possession on the held ball like what I don't even I'm saying but what is ch ch only has what two points this quarter three I think they had 11 at three 11 at halftime I think or 11 at tied three yep double her up there oh what yeah that's one of those plays you have a speedy guard going up against your Center up up on top it's you get that hand check F sometimes you just got to learn to minog yep exactly minog also in the bonus for the remaining two minutes and change here in the [Music] half WT convert there that's a foul well done we'll take it go to the line it's what I call hospital ball nevertheless beaks going to the line for two correct back rims the first one and makes the second one 15-6 game with two minutes remaining in the first half and minog leading here in East LA Meadow ball goes out to Manning off the front rim for three rebounded by wtz also for three that's a killer when you let that offensive rebound BS come out like that she came from the other side of the that's a killer other side of the court to get that ball that's a killer Marino goes to beak there be turns tries to find a seam and she does get travel on the step through coach Gary will extend some pressure full court at this point Nelson will bring the ball to the arc off to WT there goes back to off carik WT is able to maintain there bodus looks to set the screen nope she releases turns gets around Jill just enough to draw the holding contact it's got to be two or three on Jill yep think it might be three on Jill in and out for bis on the first gree blaz checking in for Jill Stevens and Horn checks in for wtz B misses the second but rebounded by Manning we we cannot give up rebounds we have to we have to get every rebound if we're going to try to mount some kind of a comeback here Manning runs the point hands off there drive to the basket rebounded by bodis that's their second offensive rebound of this possession it'll stay here Nelson goes to bodis bodus up top to Horn we have the rebound okay good rebound from Caitlyn beat very [Applause] good to reset there [Music] [Applause] 30 seconds remaining in the second quarter we'll see what minog chooses to do with this possession look inside for both Manning and Nelson ball goes back out to Manning partially blocked picked up there by bodis up and in 20 to6 14 seconds remaining can't let the rebound fall into their their lap got to do a little bit better job boxing out on that like to see be get a shot off [Applause] here well that wraps up the half good news Steve on this is this is what they were beating us in the first quarter of the last time we played them so we're doing a little bit better so there we have it we'll go to halftime with uh East L Meadow trailing 20 to six e e e second half action Spartans down 20 to6 if we uh triple our score and they don't score at all still a bar burer so we're going to need to do a little bit more on the offensive side and do a lot better on the defensive side let's just hope we make this game interesting yeah you know I mean cut some people loose put some screens on the ball and try to get some people open for clean looks yeah I just be try especially if they keep with this kind of kind of extended man pressure I'd just be be screens all over Place set screen drive and then crash crash the boards I think our leading rebounder for today's game is Caitlyn I I think that's accurate so WT shot clock has not started for some reason was not set ready to go I would imagine they'll set it to about 30 well 302 okay no worries Manning looks the inbound to wtz here and oh they did go to 30 see that was right good you're good on that though Brian too easy 20 two seconds into the quarter Coach Gary is not pleased with what he saw and takes a quick timeout I think Steve it's one of the things that we've been seeing all year long I'm not too sure about it but I think a lot of time coach calls plays and we're just not running plays that they're or not running the plays and the girls aren't in the spots that they're supposed to be obviously I think that's that thing on the defensive side right there O'Brien is way too open easy too and we don't we don't need to make things any easier for them I agree with you you have to got to have the execution of the plays as they're called eow breaks the Huddle 7 Minutes 38 seconds remaining in the third quarter minog 22 East Long Meadow 6 so it'll be the Spartans inbounding with the length of the floor to go minog will extend what looks to be sort of man man picking him up at half court yeah O'Brien on nolles there goes to Blaze Blaze goes along the perimeter gets it to gosin also along the perimeter goes to Stevens there Stevens outside to noes noes and no rebound one shot at the basket for us wtz gets it from Nelson or sorry off carar rather scrum there Marino comes up with it screen set by nolles back to her there looks to Stevens outside the ark Blaze as well tries to penetrate gets double teamed can't get through it wtz takes it from there ball goes back to WT who drains the three I think she's got to have nine points just on three-pointers T I say most of their baskets have come from the threes I would agree with that yeah late cin stuck with no Outlet it's back to nolles and last touched by minog East low will retain possession here beak checks in for [Music] Blaze Mareno looks to inbound goes up top to Stevens Stevens takes a look dra the three 25-9 as we approach the six-minute mark EA will pick up manto man here ball goes into side to O'Brien against beak goes up and over no basket Stevens dribbles out I would press it push it push it push it before they Seto pulls it back out goes there to Marino screen by beak roll to the basket quicker nolles goes to Stevens puts up another three good job by rebound by be uh long Min has numbers no good there from Manning nolles pulls it back one one yep had it there gets a pass to Jill Stevens Joe finds beak inside where you got a tie up there beak and fo and that will be East LA metal ball on the alternating possession long meow looks for some sort of break in the action gets to beak ball is deflected as she tries to go to Marino wtz pushes the pace takes a look for three doesn't like the look The Three is missed initially by fo but scooped up underneath by O'Brien for the easy put back 27-9 Marino continues to extend beyond the arc goes outside there to noes who looks [Applause] back goes back to nolles there from Marino gosin takes it to the basket contact and I guess deflected out of bounds right I'd like to see him pull the trigger a little bit quicker on his shots seems like we have that small little space to be able to to catch and shoot and they're just waiting to get like ball is intercepted there by wwit she dribbles through the pressure pulls it back does not like the look she got we wait for numbers and set up the minog halfcourt offense O'Brien has been an absolute monster inside in this quarter 29-9 she that quick First Step goes up left hand reverse layup BS goes outside to beak ball fake there Reed Reed goes back to nolles nolles to Stevens for three long rebounded by wwit double team there there you go good job by the Freshman to try to double her up she gets out of it out of it that'll go the far corner to Nelson this was we were worried about Jeff is that some of those shots that minog was missing earlier now they're going to start falling like that one there bounces around the rim a couple shot nice shot by uh Nelson though yeah to the runner good rebounded by Marino good rebound Kenna goes up long beep with the rebound unfortunately just dribbled off in an erron touch outside I'm not saying it's I think is beak the only one that's grabbing any rebounds anywhere for us offens defens certainly is the primary rebounder I when you're point guard he's grabbing more rebounds it's not Ken Marino is putting her finger in her mouth after touching the basketball not anything to avoid the blood anything to avoid the blood trying to stay out on the court yep just wants to cover that blood so she can stay out there quickly affixes a Band-Aid no PRL or nothing no we're gonna go old school old I did see a four-year-old look at pole one time that kid got some pretty good antibodies yes so back to the action after a brief stopage flood it goes outside to that was rich ree's kid by the way to report that to Rich next time I see him uh we'll go into a quick minog timeout uh with a falcon advantage of 35 to9 that's funny I didn't know that e all right we're back out of the timeout SL medal looks to run the play Marino dribbles around ball goes to beak out to Stevens O'Brien reaches in got a hand on it Stevens pulls up at the free throw line front rims it Jill into the first row pops right back up good job nice block by Blaze gosson and nolles check in for Marino and [Applause] Stevens minog quickly back oh over everything wtz with a good box out to get that rebound O'Brien's calling for it inside against Gosa nope it'll go upside it'll go out up from outside off car there this the second time we seen w let grab a yeah grab a rebound running from the other side of the Field Court those turnovers like that don't help us out no Eve Butler checking into the game for be and Manning brings over mid [Music] [Applause] Court Falls taken to the basket by Nelson Emma gosin whistled for the foul [Applause] second is up and it's 39 to9 Eve Butler looks on the perimeter ball is stolen [Applause] there too clean a look for horn she goes off the iron minich gets the [Music] rebound horn with another clean wide open front rims it I don't think she realized how much time she had no some [Music] go noes looks to find Blaze Blaze for three up and off the rim Kendall re bounces it off the girl out of bounds good heads off play by Kendall re y take one of those Le R plays correct for jic when they're out of bounds and hand the ball Paul goes inside to re nice take by Reed going the line Kendall Reed goes to the line for two lead makes the first good news Steve we're now in double digits for score well can only can only improve from here rough night for the Spartans points have been hard to come by rebounded by [Applause] [Music] War minog will inbound as East L extends full CT pressure Ball's knocked away there Blaze called for the foul [Music] there ball knocked out of bounds by the Spartans Manning will look to inbound [Music] again defense B goes there to Horn Manning takes it to the basket under rebound for [Applause] minog pulled out by noes looks Goin that's a good look and one there go well done that's a good play it's a nice pass by Maya no see Emma gos going through the lane good job Gosa with a chance to finish the oldfashioned play Min coach is getting nervous putting back in all of his starters after we scored well when the lead goes to 27 that's you know you go to try to tighten it up bring your starters back in for that right IG goson completes the and [Applause] one Jin picks up the foul there wtz looks to penetrate about 30 seconds remaining in the quarter Ball's reversed back WC looks to take go back to the perimeter only about a 1 second difference between the game clock and the shot clock [Music] here outside off caric off the net and it looks like offensive foul against o'ri loose ball foul maybe against O'Brien on that one eight seconds to see if isato can get a shot here noes will keep it herself off the front rim and we'll go to the fourth quarter with minog leading 39-13 e we're back for the last quarter of action Min the command lead of 39-13 see what the Spartans can do East Low runs their starting five back out trailing by 30 points in the fourth quarter ball goes inside back out wwit works the ball around the perimeter extends their defense all the way out Manning to see what she has water with's cut into the basket very nicely done she puts it up off the backboard a rebounds go for three no good rebound again knock out by [Applause] Marino Manning calls the play going to trigger it in back to wwit on the perimeter takes the ball inside fouled there she slices through that lane so bur and Emerson cage two of the better girls in western Mass that can slice but yeah that that that cut to the basket is lethal puts it up and in she goes up with both hands most of the girls are either righty or Lefty that's all that they do this this girl I seen her go up with a right and left not afraid to drive either [Music] side another offensive rebound for minog I think that's three on this possession alone it's probably because Chris Cronin was her coach growing up Chris if you're listening shout out for all the times Chris's teams beat our team Ked us yes Marino fights for the leas ball and gets [Music] goes outside the beak nice ball fake inside the Stevens intercept no Joe fights for it gets it right back up then there mys will go to the line for two ball goes up off [Music] the nolles with one remaining rebounded by off carik back there bit looks to operate from the top looks to penetrate pulls it back out outside to Nelson Nelson back rims it no one boxes out Manning and she walks in with the seen that all night Manning comes off the three-point line grabs that board easy two NES looks outside to beak beak to Stevens disrupted there Kenna looks to penetrate takes the ball of the basket may have been a carry but it was not a double dribble but that's all right test all Juju gardette E Butler Kendall Reed and Emerson Bo Vino check into the game back into the game [Music] [Applause] ball is fought for rebounded by is meow good board by erson jue goes long to Eve Butler Eve looks to set the offense from there gets it to Kendall Reed Reed looks to find something goes outside to godette goette stolen there and it'll be Nelson up and in for the basket God that will slow things down and bring it up Crossing midcourt just a little bit High Diaz you're better than I am you had all these that that would be impressive jeany bulock B maybe okay work good work so MOG makes some wholesale substitutions as well ball goes up and out four minutes and 51 seconds remaining 4413 minute jog in a commanding I got a prediction I think we're going to double our points in the next four minutes okay I can't wait can't wait to see it I have a feeling that's what's going to happen oh B almost put you right on track there kid yeah that would have been a quarter of them yeah that would have been that would have been right we would have been a good way there sto scrap for and could have been a quarter of the way there just one shot well let's just okay very good it'll be I'd like to look at the book tonight I'd like to see I think Jill had a three Emma had an and one I think all of our points has come from the line that's possible juj takes the screen goes back against Tes finds Eve Butler there Butler goes inside oh another one rattles in and out Butler going to the line shooting two back rim for Butler on the first she's got the second coming up makes the second very [Applause] good MOG brings it over midcourt at the 4minute Mark here in the fourth quarter operate along the perimeter try to find something inside nothing doing switched ball there good good hand by denal get a hand on that it's off minog that'll be for metal ball Grace blaz checks in for godette BL will bring this ball down needs some help there and minog throws it away isow will look to bring the ball up I'd like to see us get to 20 Jeff I'd like to see us get to 20 points that'd be helpful [Music] inside foul called against minog I think everon was trying to draw the fall thinking that was going to be the fifth fall she was she was sadly disappointed [Music] yes Eve Butler with a nice interior pass to by Maya n Maya has got to be our leading scorer tonight she got to have like five or seven yes so I I think that would be now I think earlier on I think she had a shot a couple nice passes earlier on May is now coming out Grace Blaze checking back in so here we go with blaze running the point coming ins side Lal will set its defense at this point uh it's an unfortunate pushing call there I'm not sure about that but only East SLO second of the quarter so they've got some fouls to burn there coach Gary pulls the defense back M CH lines up outside nice rebound there by rebound by Reed Reed will clear [Music] it and we've got out of bounds Okay so G try to lock it in here and see if we can come away with some points this time ball goes up from the outside off the side piece of the stanion those hands and oh that looked like it was off minute no all right maybe I was sleeping two minutes and 8 seconds remaining 44- 16 minog inbounds in the far sideline move the ball around the perimeter here nice spin move out of [Music] bounds rebounded there by Blaze look to see if we can move things up here yes oh W may have had it she turned and looked go inside to Kendall weed bumped and hit there two shots Reed goes to the line for two makes the first and makes the [Applause] second here it's five out of the 13 Steve in case you're wondering okay I'm seeing what I can see what we can do here Jeff we might need to pour in a three to try to get us a little closer we get two threes with this we're in bu threes it's right there business foul called inside against Grace Blaze two shots for Kira horn beak checking in for Blaze EO inbounds the ball here goes Eve Butler for a three-pointer there we go and the ball's up and in this could be this could be the ticket Jeff it's eight five more points and the oh nice good rebound by Emerson Blaze or Butler looks to cut the ball up fourth be going [Music] line maybe we could put this together maybe we could get the e can go two for two at the line and that'll be uh that'll put us within a three-pointer that'll put us with guess who's going to have that last half court shot logo shot Emerson get a logo shot to get the uh buzzer beater put at 13 I've seen them work that a couple of times in practice right that play yeah yep it's a designed play [Applause] good hands by Tess ball stays with minog on the tie up Spartans will set their [Music] defense nice it's twice rebounded and that'll go down to East Long Meadow all right 47 seconds we've got time for six possessions so we should be we could certainly make that up and get the points nice look inot inside minute shog will dribble it out and I would imagine would hold it nope balls fought for there I think Emerson just pushed that girl out of bounds but all right call Eve Butler [Applause] yes there it is Butler let's see you were you were pretty close that's 11 that's pretty close scor 11 out of our 24 points in the last five minutes of the [Music] game that was a good ending saw medal well we'll wrap things up here today with the Falcons winning 45 to 24 I think we have two games left after the uh looks like it might be Holio and eastampton so yeah we'll stay tuned Spartan Nation we'll see you soon

e e e one two one two e e e please keep your thoughts the tragedy of last week with the Jet and helicopter helicop lones [Music] January 21st 202 revolving fund it's a packet question budget report is it the hand up or in the packet the pet in the pack you going speak to the FY 266 budget for the presentation [Music] that report Jerry I have the balance report um so the account balance as of December 31st 2024 was 4, 52535 plus deposits in January 3,838 9890 we had a transfering of 4.5 million L January payroll payroll three of them for a total of 3,542 64147 we had three warrants in January for a total of 2,965 465 15 giving us the general ledger balance as of January 31st of 5,616 7263 and a corresponding bank balance of 7,406 13795 on the mmdc account we had an account balance as of December 31st 8,172 13.59 um plus a year to date interest of 734956 74 86554 we had a $2 million transfer from the concentration account Plus 28,02878 in interest L $6.5 million in transfers back to concentration giving us a GL balance on January 31st of 3,993 [Music] 15262 and of course mining bank balance on the 31st to 3,903 15262 we had a total operating cash balance of 9,504 8252 thank you roling fund is the packet that's in there need to approve need to approve no the budget presentation we need to the next one I'm sorry can we approve that please can I have a motion to approve the cash balance report make motion accept it discussion what what's concentration that's our main bank account just a name for it right okay warrants what are the warrants that's accounts payable that's what you sign off in this box we going to get into the presentation so I'm just going to go over I have my presentation it's just um there's some selected slides from the budget book that you all should have received last week just going to start out with the budget calendar so we're all the way down to February 11th so we'll be voting on our our fiscal year 26 budget tonight after that I'll release the budget books to all the sending cities and towns and then John will will go to there town meeting to present the budget there EXC first typically an has first meeting and then after that two three um two North End law are pretty close to each other the last sorry I just point out the the big budget drivers for 26 we're adding 11 new teaching positions to support staff positions um and then our health insurance had a a projected increase of 10% and our general insurances were projected at a 12% increase so that was those were huge increases and then just our regular um staff salary increases so the slide com straight from desie um this is in your budget book this is this is a pretty important slide because it it basically gives us all the detail for our budget for 26 um you'll see on here that um first thing is enrollment and we see that we had an increase of 62 students going into 26 um our chapter 78 for 26 is 41 million or 47422 which was an increase of just over 3 million and our required net School spending amount is 50, 261021 and that number will be our foundation budget amount and then this slide also comes straight from jie this is a breakdown of um enrollment by each sending town so we can see that Andover had a decrease of one student from 25 to 26 Lawrence had an increase of 24 students methan has an increase of 38 students and North Andover has an increase of one student and then if you look over to the bottom right that's their required minimum contribution so these amounts are set by desie and the towns are obligated to pay them um but in the the farthest right column we can see the Rovers assessment is going up 21576 Lawrence's assessment will be going up 62 , 226 mean's assessment is going up $699,500 so this is um this is a full detail of what our estimated revenues are I've already sent this information to the CI and towns because they're planning their budgets uh at the top it's the breakdown of what our f Foundation revenues are so you can see that our Chapter 70 state is 422 the minimum contributions total 8,813 599 for a total Foundation budget of 50, 26121 and then for our non-foundation budget um we factor in we get a reimbursement for transportation and the estimate for that 26 is 1.7 million just a little bit over that um and then we're assessing an additional 2,977 to cover Transportation oped Capital expenditures and and Bon so that would give us a total estimated revenue of 54 m935 906 which will be our the total amount for our fiscal year 26 buget and then this is just a slide that basically has all the information that we just went over but some of the cities and towns like to see it this way it's just a little bit easier to read it um it just basically shows the difference in enrollment from 25 to 26 for each town the increase the percentage by town so Handover makes up 3% Lawrence is 70% metha 25% % and North Andover is 2% then at the bottom it's just a breakout of uh Transportation opep Capital long-term debt per Town basically we take those totals and we assess the the towns based on those percentages above and then at the bottom is just the total contribution by each town and then this is just a visual of all that information so this is helpful to look at because it's pretty easy to see that most of our Revenue comes in the form of state A from our Chapter 70 funding makes up 75% of our budget and then M do contributes about 11% Lawrence is 7% North Andover and Andover about 2% and then our reimbursement for transportation is about three and then this is a rollup um in your budget book there's a detailed line item expenditure this is basically a roll up of all that information that's in the budget book and it's rolled up by dese function code which is the those thousand numbers over to the left um but just looking at this you can tell that the biggest increases were in instruction which would be our additional staff the additional teachers and the colas and whatnot but also you can see that we had a big increase on health insurance and then this is just a visual of that roll up so we can tell by looking at this that about 64% of our our budget goes to student facing activities between instruction and people Services about 8% of our budget is put towards Building Maintenance 20% is fixed charges which be our health insurance um separation costs any equipment leases we have 1% going towards debt right now and about 2% is capital and 5% is going through Administration and then another important piece of our budget is our grants and donations so for fiscal year 2025 um we we've um taken in about 4 million $ 22,42 between um entitlement grants state grants and donations you guys have any questions any [Music] questions what's considered pupil Services pupil Services yeah what is it it's like um it's I'm it's instruction education it's it's a desie it's a desie roll up so it goes along with instruction instruction and services any other questions um for you CH are we going over the the other budget book that we have no so but I can answer questions on the budget b okay we go for that after we get presentation we'll go for that after we get yeah that's okay page to so this is it for the the revenue thank you very much all right now go bu sorry yeah we need we need to V on the next on the next one the present any questions on the budget itself yeah what do we do with the U Vehicles schic like what do we do that so usually like a vehicle donation might go to auto body or Automotive take it apart and just kind of learn on it y I wasn't sure if it was they worked on and then they put it for sale I wasn't all those all those types of donations do come through school Comm you approve any donation that we take in I just I wasn't sure why they us the day again it doesn't see the day again time tell question the new positions here I don't see in English or not seeing or is it not there is there English position reading position okay with more students coming in the classes full Fuller does that cause an extra burden on subjects like English and any kind of written work history science that causes an overburdened instructor to correct properly is that uh so I mean can we get another teacher in those core areas so we we base on whether we need another teacher or not based on the teacher student ratio and uh if there's a need for another instructor or not so when we look at uh we sit down and look at how many sections of English we anticipate based on the number of students that'll be you know in 9th 10th 11th and 12th grade and then we try to keep those uh student ratio no higher than 25 to1 which uh looking at if you look at our student teacher ratio I would say about 35 maybe yeah about 35% of have maybe closer to 40% have less than 21 students 21 to one ratio but do they have several sections so that's 25 25 25 that's 7500 students that they're correcting I mean as a former English teacher I mean to do it right I mean you do have to U put in some time and effort yeah so I would say of the thing to remember too in 40% of those uh classes there's two teachers there a special ed teacher and and content teacher so that reduces your teacher student ratio it also helps in terms of everything that you're talking about terms of sport and also helps in planning and organizing instruction every day so we've done a uh We've do done a lot of work in the last few years on uh our inclusion classes and teachers that working teams so that there is a shared responsibility in the planning and delivery of instruction and working with students so uh ratio you know 25 to1 ratio was uh is rare that there's not a second teacher in in that class an actual I'm sorry an actual teacher certified teacher or certified teacher okay but the the the lead teach I mean there's got to be a Lead Teacher right well there got to be your content teacher right so you have a Content teacher and you have a special ed teacher that the special ed teacher wouldn't be correcting they can there's an expectation they have special ed kids I think they should be able to look at and see what their work looks like and give feedback and yeah there's an expectation for that we've changed a lot of the expectations of the to be honest with it we've up to what our expectations are for we work with special teachers and supporting content teachers so there's a a more shared responsibility so that's helping a lot and it depends on so one of the challenges we have is that um the more advanced classes tend to be smaller um not as many so then in that what happens in your um reg Ed classes uh end up being a little bit larger because of that so one of the goals that we've been talking about is to look more closely at student performance to try to get more kids in the advanced classes if they uh some of them actually belong to ADV classes but don't like to take ADV classes I mean know where I'm going with this I mean I'm not here so I mean I'm just you know you you have you have the funds you're bringing in more more students I don't wantan to I don't want to see anybody take shortcuts on the instruction of students because we think that you should be able to accommodate that many kids I I don't want to see that I mean because that's where you lose you know the the the retainment of the material I mean I mean honestly yeah so in determining the number of instructors we need meet the administrative team the people who supervise this particular program along with the scheduling uh person uh who sits down with us uh it's actually a team of people who sit down and look at the schedule look at them am uh classes there'll be in any particular area and determine if it's a sufficient number instructed sufficient number of teachers uh to meet the needs of students I mean if you you can bring in another if you bring in another staff member and you don't really need them then you spend $100,000 for something that don't really need so uh it's not like we have hazly said oh let's just uh not hire another instructor so we can make it more difficult I mean I'm just I'm joh just thr it out there because I mean I mean it's a position that it's a nice position to be in we do have the funds and where kids need help sometimes the smaller classroom is maybe what they need I don't know well there are a lot of small classrooms there are a lot of small sections and okay this is where I don't know so I'm trusting what you're saying is there are there are a lot there are a lot of um teacher student racials are low and while they academic classes and then somewh larger because just of the nature of the way students select their coursework um we try to balance it the best we can in order to give Equity to you know teachers who so we we just to give you an example we had a meeting today exactly what you're talking about right so let's say a teacher teaches 9th and 10th grade uh they tend to have smaller students so typically a nth 10th grade English teacher would have a total of 95 students uh if you look at upper classmen they might have a a teacher that teaches 11th and 12th grade might have 150 students so talk so you know how do you balance that out is first trying to get kids to take more advanced classes and then the other thing is to another way to balance it out uh is to look at well maybe we should have the teacher teach 9th and 11th grade and 10th and 12th grade which then would balance out the classes because the larger classes are the you know the upper levels so if I take 11th grade class that has a lot of students and take a ninth grade where teacher doesn't have so many and do it that way then I'm going to have more Equity across the board for all englist teers so we're looking at strategies to make it more Equitable because that's very important know even in negotiation we're talking about that providing more Equity so the teachers have better balance there's other ways to do it too I don't think that you know like some of the the ways we can balance classes but there are other ways we can balance classes so we are far you know definitely aware of the amount of students that teachers have and some of the challenges so I think 150 maybe in some cases even more than that is a lot that's a lot of students gr work so we're aware of that and we're going to work on making some adaptations that but I think we can do that without having another another teacher let it be said I said it I said Let It Be said I said yes because I am very sensitive to yeah you know the correcting is insurmountable I mean to do it right I mean you you know I would expect that you would expect that teachers are doing it right spending the time trying to correct and and and having that interface back all right I'm not here so any further questions but in all honesty if uh when we have meetings with the director of vice principal in a particular area said we we need another instructor to be like math we're hiring another Mass instructor because they feel strongly in order to get the numbers down that we need that math instructor um I go by big part of is I go by their recommendations as well you know I would not argue the point whether they need more or less I pretty try to support what their what their requests are 150 students is that like the whole slot is like 150 every other week 75 so you have 75 students each week okay is is the vocational ratio the same as the AC no it's far less because you're talking about sh feates so if you're a a cry teacher you'd have 25 students is your total maximum of students so in that case they they're like 12 13 a piece at a time right yes so one week they may have 12 yeah they have 12 one week and 12 the other week they'd be 24 in some shops you have a little bit more depending on the space and the uh workstations that are available we could end up like in medical the medical program we can have 30 in the class so 15 each week um because of the nature of the uh the way that instruction is not there's not dangerous equipment you know it's it's a different a different environment safer environment where they can handle larger numbers uh and the high and the demand is so high for those programs and try as can without without and to make sure it's safe but also they have to do clinical and in order to do clinical go all to the hospital doctor offices and those are very limited as how many you can take out so we have to live by those numbers as well so there's a lot of criteria that's uh considered when you know determining how many students can be in a particular shop for yeah thank you these new positions um how long did this new position have been um been uh open or how long this well you take teach have been in need so biology biotechnology we've posted that program here we have not been able to find instructor we would love to have another biotechnology teacher we've not been successful if we had another one we put another one on been posted for since the beginning of the year but it will continue so we have to look at one of the things we have to look at so we're struggling with finding a biotechnology instructor so we have to what is the strategies and how do we find that instructor you know some of the work that we're doing is uh so I'm trying to leverage some of what we're doing at night school as well as the call department and we hire person support the call uh director both in clerical work but also part of the job is to go the companies and see first to try to get co-op jobs but also try to seek out there an opportunity get teacher from somebody out their industry and we have have had conversations with different companies to talk about can we post like why would they want us to post we might be stealing one of their workers so one of the strategies has been try to get someone in the industry to teach evening so Susan Mano evening programs has worked with me a couple occasions trying to seek out now we have gotten through that strategy some new teachers in our regular program B based on them coming in teaching night school in fact we have an IT person right two it people teachers right now teaching this year at started by teaching High School um and other teachers in the have also we've been able to kind of people so when we go and talk companies about like we find looking for PR which is true because we can't work offer Workforce Development program instead unless we have instructors and it's difficult to get your dat instructors want to stay till 9:00 at night and teach so now we have to walk out to Industry and find out if we can find industry people with skills and knowledge that would be willing to teach so it's really you know and we offer a lot of work forth development programs because it's so important train unemployed and underemployed uh which we try to run as many program this mean can we could run more if we had more teachers the challenge for us is finding teachers to teach those programs so all of that has some impact on but biotch has been a really tough one for us to try to obtain somebody to teach those Early Childhood is just that's the first that's next year we need this year we're fine we're not shorthanded uh next year we need another chapter 74 because we're going to be doing another grade level right now we only teach up the 10th grade in program next year we're be teaching 11th graders so that we may instructed for the 11th grader environmental scien is the same thing we you know we're only teaching right now I think three grade levels we go fourth grade level so we need another environmental science teacher but then we're also adding another reading teacher uh because uh we we hired two new reading teachers this year and we have so many kids low grade level reading two is not not able to meet the needs of all kids who need support reading so we're hiring another read teacher the math teacher is in order to reduce our where we're struggling in math we really want to try to reduce the class sizes a little bit more so that we can provide more support for the kids and Mathematics that are that are really struggling like that we should multi multi multi learning instructor we getting more and more multi- Learners El students every year it's growing so because of that we meet another instructor school psychologist we need another school this year we hired this particular position we actually hired this year just recently hired that been voting for because of the great huge need uh supports students who are having uh issues you know uh struggling with emotional and other difficulties that particular is working discussion so it's already high higher but continue to it's actually a good position for next year we originally didn't plan on hiring of this year but the demand so great the special director possible to get some of this year so we a to find funding hire that person special ed team chair we have because part of the problem with special ed team chair we have a special ed team chair now but because of the uh they've made changes in in the IEP and how they have to be written they're much longer more difficult earn in order to do the job right we actually should have another special team to shair in order to support the kids sway U the new special way director believes that in order to meet the expectations not only in the state but meet the needs of kids we need to do a better job and help might Nots and that's we should have another director education director and then we also hiring reading teacher specifically for special a kids because there's there even diary reading support and help and then Fen we have too many kids because that ratio there is through the roof uh you know there's one to 160 in some cases so we've got to get those numbers down especially I mean in so that's why so I mean the strategies you can see that a lot of the uh staff that we're hiring us to meet the uh the needs of students who have specific learning issues that we to do a better job we need to give them better support so my question was how long you went through all that and that wasn't the question question is how long these positions being open we're adding or is it something that we actually been needing and nothing nobody appli for there's only one there's only one there that's been needed for more than the year the rest are just are needed for next year they're not I mean TR what we're doing this year we're starting we're identifying that there are bigger need more needs than we can manage and effectively support them so we need to hire these other positions for next year so we can better support and be more effective in the work that we do with kids who have specific needs in different learning challenges good thank you okay um no I just have a question for the super tile um the so on page 30 for administration there's um seven I think there's several positions and I'm seeing an increase of like $70,000 there's no breakdown but I don't know if it's Merit for each of these positions or it's a new position B I don't think we added any new administrative positions not on my watch no okay then we didn't and that brings me to uh excuse me Sor you all set yes now please TR I have a very simple question I'm sure I mean I came in late so I don't know why you have this and are we what is the different one is the booklet and one is just her presentation propos but there's no different between it's basically the same but I just gave you the hand up just INE you again sure was any so are we approving this the book you have your right hand yes because I might have a little problem if we approving the book if we approving this then we up this um because it's just at a GL glance looking at the and I know I said it's simple question but I'm looking at the organizational chart there's some things that doesn't look corre there um there some position missing um do we have do we still have a director of child F because I didn't see it there one two um Miss marel doesn't work under miss Mr superintendent and she's shows there um things like that so I do report about the dist superintendent but just for ease I just put it going to Super I okay all right itn't you know go that way you with me because you actually we hire you and I know can we get a motion on this a second no I didn't motion I didn't motion I just granted because I still have a problem I thought that's where you were going with it with the number of individuals yeah it's missing it's missing people that's unfortunate it's missing people um does each each 're not approving somebody missing we're not approve the missing person so the director again may [Music] I sorry are you I'm trying theer of child care we don't have we won't have a directive Child Care next year because chapter 74 program we're taking over the program is going to be driven by chapter 74 not by EC anymore because of the number of grade levels we have so the person that will be overseeing the whole facility next year will be one of the chapter 74 teachers because it's it's driven by a chapter 74 program not spefically child with regards to the operation program so be a Lead Teacher basically like right now we get lead teachers in every program next year we'll have a lead teacher in so we won't have the need for so but we do have a child right now have we do have one it's not it's not coming into 20 thanks those words you just said John I'm going to take you up on that we're going to have a Lead Teacher therefore we won't need a director because she has the LI I get I get why okay so take that thought and apply that to this we have le teachers in every discipline then you have cluster people or coordinators whatever then you have CTE assistant principles and whatever it in in in my Paradise I would love to eliminate a level in the middle there somewhere I don't really see the need for all that I don't well first allity teachers are not supervisors they they have no authority over anything when it comes to depg all they do is facilitate well all they do is the hardest work I think and coordinating the kids the teachers that yes they don't do that they that's not their responsibility that's responsibity then why we have them well they facilitate the budget they facilitate you know purchasing uh they facilitate when they're uh like when we have a profession development day and they have to look at curriculum work they facilitate that they're leader in in the sense that they help facilitate so the coordinators their main function is just to evaluate no because I think that that's a huge waste of money if that's Cas no they don't just evaluate they meet with they they oversee each program so they oversee the budget process for that particular program they sign off and anything that's uh going to be purchased in that particular program they also oversee curriculum and and meet with the staff in terms of development they help them develop the curriculum they have an expertise in curriculum development so they work with them on that that's another thing that they do I know now we're we're reaching for things that I think honestly you can meld the two positions together I don't think you need both well if you're going to do a good job with evaluation you really do need some not one like if you don't have coordinators that are evaluating you're looking at one person that's going to try to evaluate 80 people now if you don't value evaluations and believe that valuations help to improve the quality of instruction then yeah you don't need them but if you believe that in order to have high quality instruction and good curriculum and everything you need someone that's over seeing that otherwise it's not uh you're not giving any real value to your belief system number one and also the quality of the work is not going to be what it would be if you didn't have Co is overseeing the work of teachers and ensuring that they're meeting their responsibil I'm I'm going to leave it alone but as long as we're all happy with the quality of the work um fine so be it I do think that there's a level there that can be eliminated or or merged somehow I don't think you need that many levels I don't I mean I don't there are some other schools that don't have that and they work well and it's they they're just about eclipsing this this population kids well they other schools I don't know what their challenges are or what their work looks like but um we have some of the greatest challenges of any technical he School in Massachusetts there's not a technical school in Massachusetts that deals with the population that we deal with in terms of student you know level of performance when they come to us uh and uh so and and that requires a lot more uh support for teachers and staff and we have a very young new staff we have a very young staff right now we've hired a lot of new instructors in a lot of programs so they need as much support as they can get uh from their supervisors um John I agree with that I I totally agree with that I just I just don't want to hear or see I guess I guess the proof is always in the results right and what is being produced and how we perform in different areas um I just don't want to see people getting laxed and just saying oh well this is an overlap of their job they're doing this I I I want to see again you have the funds I want to see people working with the students that's what I want to see because that's where you're going to get the biggest pay for your buck that's where you're going to see the results and you're going to see them much quicker than than you would by just sitting up here and and just you know saying I'm I'm going to evaluate I'm GNA order this order that I think being with the students gives you that unique perspective and and that's how kids learn I mean you just can't say go over there here's your book here's your iPad you know we work on it that's not my idea of of spending money wisely well I don't think that's what's happening and I hope not and and and I'm not I'm not even suggesting that it is but I think sometimes it appears that way well I will say with regards to our administr middle managers which I call managers um you know our two Vice principles uh title what's that everybody's got a title well get some kind of title overse overseeing programs but you know in in the first of all if you look at Ela we're introduce a brand new curriculum this year which is a big Challenge and we have a brand new administrator that's doing an amazing workout I I you know he is doing for job really doing well ask the teachers if you want I had I've got two teachers that have come to me this year and said wow we're so lucky to have you this year they really like I can give you some names later those teachers who told me that be sh it's been a transition a major transition impr and that's wonderful you just can't have a few picking up the SL for others just well I think everyone's I really believe everyone's doing a better job this year I sincerely believe that people are getting doing learning walks together more often director of CTE has been way out in the shops more visiting shops they she does learning walks you know uh with the coordinators to talk about what they're seeing they look at the program she makes recommendations to them to talk to some teachers to see what the challenges are that never happened before and that's happen Year yes um this is more of just a statement because I know she asked what budget we were approving now I have a problem that we got this we got this in advance but we didn't get this which doesn't I mean it doesn't a FR to the Hest I think I didn't get this in the I did not I didn't get this this in the mail I got this which was an overview so I didn't get this anymore I didn't get that you didn't get that I get that or this yeah it wasn't bbody I not get talking budg did you get you got it yeah but like come on like this this should not be happening because we're talking about this and now the presentation that you got is is a highlight of that the numbers are the same there's no changes in the numbers the assessments for each Community isn't this has a little more detail with regards to the you know where the specific dollars have gone that are going for sure I don't know why should had impct that's okay I'm just saying it's it's I mean it's just not appropriate because now I'm here and I'm sitting and I'm looking at all the different stuff and I have a bunch of questions but maybe it's not appropriate to ask now um because I'm like going all over the place I'm trying to find out like why is it that I'm getting this now some of us are getting it some of us are not getting it it's just very coincidental to me very much the time where we need to sit down and approve a and I'm just seeing like when we're talking about positions we're seeing coordinators all over the place we're seeing assistant principles all over the place and then you have like million dollar increases all across in salaries and a million almost a million dollar budget in the superintendent's office which is outrageous to me to to be quite Frank in the district with under maybe I'm B under 3,000 students maybe way under that and and this is what I'm seeing 1,950 under 2,000 so again you're talking less than Lawrence high school methan high school and school school and majority of the tech schools across the region this region specifically and and this is what I'm seeing like 150,000 for one person 125,000 for another person and then a million dollar budget for the superintendent's office I get there's staff that we're covering but like I'm seeing like 70,000 for public relations when we have a person that is working on public relations it's one position that's working on this and now You' even have that person to be quite Frank it's the position supposed so I'm just trying to get an understanding of why we are where we're at right now with with all these crazy salaries and I don't care the administrator unit could could think what they want but again these contracts are outrageous and I'm talking every single one of them I'm not talking one I'm not pinpointing on anybody and anybody's position but it's just outrageous so I I really need to understand why these increases are happening in your office superintendent well first of all the administrators uh uh salaries are in line with other administrators that other schools who do the same position if you look at the cops you'll see they're in the same wallart um and want keep good people and we have to be competitive so they have and then those salaries were negotiated so that's okay they're they're they're based on a contract that was negotiated so we got to we got to abide by the contract their salaries aligned to what be negotiated but the committee approved negotiation so you know uh in terms of you look at my office see what I'm looking at what now when I'm referring to administrators I'm more referring to these crazy amounts along with the crazy amount of people we have along with those salaries like it is and I get the success of the school I see the results I'm not concerned about that what I'm more concerned about is these outrageous amounts for like 15 administrators in a school with now that I'm understanding under 2,000 students not even a public high school a public high school like Lawrence High School which deals with much more demand in terms of discipline and and the needs of of the population mixed population first of all you can't compare Lawrence High School to read Lawrence Tech two different kinds of Institutions are services are much different and the work we do is much different and uh so the expertise that required to do what we do is different than the expertise required to that they do a la high school and a lot of the expertise that we look for is hard to find versus some of the ex you know it's a lot easier to find a math and English teacher than it is to find any vocational teacher so those you know and those and their salaries are comparable to other vocational schools I had two instructors leave last year two my best instructed leave and go Shashi Tech because I'm going to make $10,000 a year more and we pay them one of them had been here for you know 15 years or not 15 but 10 years he was one of my best he was my best prop Constructor and he left to go to Shi Tech he was going to make over 10,000 more than he makes here so you know if you want to keep instructed you got to be competitive uh that's you know and and even when you're trying to find uh good people if you're not competitive you're not going to get the best people and here's the thing here's the thing I understand with the pay and I understand with the the differences in the districts but I don't why do you need almost 15 administrators to run this operation because they each have different responsibilities so you need three assistant principles divided in three subjects you have three different princi you have an assist we call them an assist I'm just an you could call them you could call them a curriculum coordinator if you want similar same job as the title so the assistant principles because of one oversees Math and Science and the other one oversees Ela and and social studies um so it's two different expertise and um they oversee uh those instructors they evaluate all those instructors they have some some have have over 25 people who evaluate the thing that you know when you're talking about evaluations so do quality in good evaluations that make a difference and helps teachers improve takes a lot of time though they they we just uh revised our process in terms of evaluation so for every teacher that gets evaluated first they have to have a premating at that Prem meeting they're looking at curriculum they're looking at student work they're looking at what the lesson's going to be before they go in and evaluate it uh then they go in and they do a observation they spend and a period or so observing then they meet again after then they have to write it up then they have to go back and meet with them again that's one right but the writeups of there uh quality and effective take they you know they take time to do and so if you have uh you know I don't know special way may uh some of them may have 25 teachers to do uh and you have to do them three times in a year that's a lot of time and then that doesn't include you know in terms of overseeing uh curriculum uh curriculum work that they had to work with them on their curriculum they we've got a major changes in our curriculum um there working on mtss ensuring that the tier instruction is happening the way it's supposed to be happening they work with other uh U uh administrators to uh coordinate the work that we're doing so this consistently every single Tuesday the admin instruction administrative team meets specifically to talk about instruction and learning so I've been in you know two other schools they don't do that they don't do that they don't focus on no school that I've ever worked with or even some that I know puts in the time and effort to help improve the quality instruction you're talk so we just our new our Freshman Class you know 80% of them are below reading level that's a lot of kids that need a lot of support and help and that me need more reading Specialists than more administr this is what I'm this is what I'm getting at quality instruction is is driven a lot by the leadership dve the leaders quality leadership leads to Quality instruction and student performance I understand but your trouble right now is retaining instructors is what I'm understanding paying instructors so they don't go to other school districts and you should be paying your teachers more instead of your administrators and you should be merging these positions I mean instead of paying someone 150,000 here 140,000 here then pay someone 200,000 and do the job but 15 administrators and then now now you're referencing 80% of students are below reading level then we should putting our attention more on the reading specialist and and thankfully I know we approved a new reading instructor that's great that's a good start to that but my concern is is you're you're telling me that you weren't able to retain and you gave me the example of an instructor who instructors left us because they were going get more money some those are instructors and I'm referring to administrators now if you have instructors that you want to retain you don't want them to go then you should be paying them more and we should not be talking negotiating contract that's great but something we can talk about ex want to pay them that's fine again my concern is the administrators yes period it's way too much money we're talking more than $5 million probably that's me ballparking it across all the administrators so do you think that we're not giving meeting the students need our budget is our budget first and foremost is focused and targeted on student needs that's if we that's where we make sure we fund up to speed and that's why you have these new positions that that's all about students the meaning student needs we target that funding that's the first thing we look at is are we providing the services do we have these enough instructors are we doing then uh to meet those needs also you need administrators so you have a director of uh special it I think one of the best I've ever worked with I'm so pleased with our new special I've never worked with anybody in any school as good as she get she's just amazing we just got a report from the Department of Ven was A+ from the work that she did this year so far uh we've got a director of e which we have to have right we have a a vice principal overseas dean of discipline we call she's an assistant principal a lot of schools they call an assistant principl which you've had which the school has gotten away with uh has functioned perfectly for decades without without what without assistant principal well you had de they called it a de it's the same position it's a de with money right what's that came with money well she's also doing Student Activities Beyond just being a de she she's overseeing me John we better stop there because I'm going to to wholeheartedly disagree with you cuz I lived it so you're going down the wrong street with me there um so what do you think the answer is what do you think the answer is I told you that the answer for me it's my job to make sure that the school and the students get what they need that's my that's what you hire me for this budget reflects on what I believe is uh what's necessary to support the students moving forward if you look at our success over the last 15 years you'll see that it's continue to grow and get better in terms of performance uh in terms of our students and that doesn't happen you know that happens because we make change and we support the students the way they needed to be if if the curve went like this then you'd have a complaint but the curve is going like this and the Curve will even go up better I think it's going to even go up better in the next three four years I 100 wholeheartedly believe because we have a strong administrative team who is helping improve quality of instructions going on in the classroom that's 100% dedicated to that I you can come in this building anytime you want and go to any meeting any administrative meeting you want if you tell me that people are not talking about what's important then I'll fire them because I know what's going on in here every day we had an instructional meeting today think that they were looking they were looking at student grades and failures and trying to come up with strategies why are students performing at the level they are and what are the changes we have to make what's not working what is working they spent two hours on that today and then they and they' spent countless time visiting classrooms this year more than I've ever seen they work in teams they work in groups of support and understand instruction and learning they are a really outstanding group of Administrators the best I this the best team I've ever worked with and I don't say that I I don't say that lightly they are absolutely the best group of Administrators I've ever worked with um do they frustrate me sometimes yeah when they bring me their D and issues and stuff yeah I want to pull my hair out right but in terms of the work that they're doing I can't complain I I really feel like when I complained last year last year I would give you aund complaints about last year this year I wouldn't somebody goad please okay so John I'm not even questioning that I'm I'm not questioning your laser focus in trying to bring the best possible education to these kids providing that I am never gonna I said that a million times I just think that is it necessary what you're saying is you're going all out and the changing the way they're being evaluated the way teachers are being evaluated we're not changing it we're just implementing it the way it should have been implemented over the last few years okay sometimes and just and again I'm G to leave I I this this time I am so don't bring it up again I I just think sometimes we try to rearrange stuff and try another way to do the same thing and it becomes clut instead of going directly to the source of the issue instead of talking about so again the only way kids learn is not by sitting behind here and saying yeah I mean and I do believe that the administrators are saying hey you know what I don't know how how else we can we can do this let's let's try this let's try that I'm not questioning that and I'm not questioning your direction in telling them to do that I'm questioning sometimes it's a lot of talk and not the action with the interfacing with the student day and and day out instead of let's let's try this let's try this let's try that just do it instead of all all this paperwork well I don't think that the teachers are doing all paperwork they they were they in math and in bla they're working with a brand new curriculum that that's uh designed in a way that it provides planning it provides objectives it provides uh lessons uh it provides assessments uh that helps Drive what's going to happen in that classroom every day and activities and it's the vetted curriculum that's considered what call hqm yes high quality instruction material which is V by the department they're the ones recommending it and we also have Consultants that have worked with it over the last many years who are also are are recommending that we go to this particular curriculum which we started with math last year so this year we're doing math right but you just said that you know after after whatever quarter grades you're not getting the results so that doesn't here that actually may be a good thing it means we our expectations are ra are greater we're doing we're doing grade level work where before we may not have been it's not doesn't mean that good instruction isn't happening it means we might be doing better and the kids are having a hard time but now it's for us to say okay the kids aren't performing you know the way we want them to perform what do we have to do to change that the expectations were there but that means we need to every teacher in every class has to say first of all analyze why is this student failing I want to know why I have to determine if I have a student that's failing I got to determine what's the problem before I can even address the problem so now one of the uh the uh initiatives that we're going to be moving forward is we want an analysis on each of your students and tell us why you think these students are are are not passing and what's the plan to help them get there directly tied to which students are failing and how much time does this take because you only have 180 days to make a difference it takes it means it's got to be done immediately it's not like something they also have wind time is of the essence with kids I mean you can't you can't like do you can't keep moving until you analyzing and not doing the actual teaching well analyzing doesn't take that long one thing we have data we have a data specialist who who collects a lot of the data and gives a lot of that data to the teachers so they're not doing all the analysis they're looking at what standards the kids are not doing well in and then giving them some feedback on that so we have other people that are supporting the the teachers in other ways to help take the pressure off of that it's not like here you do it all but the bottom line is that the teachers in the classroom knows their students they should know their students and start to understand what the difficulties and challenges a particular student has and what that student needs to get better no it might be in the students out 50% of the time well that's a whole different issue we got to deal with at a different level and that you know that means that's one issue but if the student is just not being able to understand the work in in his uh that's a different Challenge and though you know that's something else we look at some classes have you know seven special ed students in them and are they getting the right support and help so maybe our special ed inclusion classes the special ed teacher has to spend more time on those particular students there's just a lot of all I'm saying is there's just a lot to a it's not that cut and dry but I never want to minimize the importance of Education nor the students in front of you so it's never going to be a cut and dry issue with me because nothing in education is so and and and I am totally in tune with what you're saying I just don't want it to become an excuse but with regards to the budget what is it that you think we should do differently than what we're doing like um I just again I don't know I don't know it's not because you have the funds we have the we have the money to support it why do we have the money to support it because strategically we plan on how are we going to get more money every year we brought in more students that help like it doesn't we 15 years when I started 15 years ago we were at 25 million today we're at 50 million do you think that just just happened no it happens from you know how we strategically to get more money because our kids need more support it doesn't just oh I'll just let the budget Fall Away fall the way it's going to fall we have to think about that we bring in extra money from other sources as well so we're always looking a way to support the budget and support the students you know that you know that's the work that people don't always understand questioning that well if youing it John I just feel as though sometimes you don't get the biggest bank for your buck with certain people so therefore why do you need them there isn't a system on this planet that gets all from every person you know 100% performance it just doesn't happen in anywhere World education but we're going with that we're getting 100% from you so why shouldn't we expect 100% from everybody else because you p a lot of money so uh and that's who I all right that being said vice chair if you move the chair in front of her maybe she'll let me finish the sentence May okay please no I mean really I mean I'm hearing a lot about teachers teachers teachers what I'm really focus on is the administrative piece is really important to me now again I'm not the one that's going to deide for you but there there needs to be a new way of of approaching that now you me I don't even want to ask about the other grade levels because I've already found out freshman grade level is 80 you're telling me 80% is under the level okay you have all these administrators and this is the result we have and I could only imagine they came in that way now it's our about the other grades what's that how about the other level our job is well the other grades didn't come out as low but they're every grade level we have substantial amount of students that below grade level and we're working that's why we're hiring we hired two reading teachers this year we're hiring two more reading teachers because we've got us and we're also doing some professional development work across the board so every teacher is going to start doing some work around supporting students and reading and that professional development is being driven by the administrators they're the ones that have developed professional development working with the teachers to help them develop the uh strategies and knowledge and able to help uh deliver better reading uh um lessons and so carpentry teacher they can support reading and so we're helping them to design some of their curriculum and their lesson to support reading as well as the content are I understand but now now we're we're scrambling to create create new positions and spend more money in getting teachers because now we're realizing that the administrative piece is not working that that's how I'm seeing that is how I'm seeing it because why are we okay why do we have so many administrators but yet we're still talking about I mean the amount of instructors we have specific to reading for example um and then what is the other one the U multilingual par professional for example you know yes we need more of most but what what difference does it make that we don't have a person that we're paying $150,000 and we're hiring more instructors because they're the ones that are with the students now you're telling me as and besides that now you're telling me in terms of the CTE director no they're not doing learning watch no that's what you said you said the CTE director doing learning so they can talk about what they see in the shop what how are the kids engaged are the are the are they doing projects better of what we would consider grade Lev they're looking at curriculum to see is are the kids doing what they what they've outlined in the plan for that day they're just what that does is it shows that the staff that number one that they're there to support them and help them with the work that they're doing day in and day out with their students and that it matters to them and they're going to hold them accountable that's what that an administrator does not to say I caught you whatever and then it's like what so when I go in and I'm going to do an observation or evaluation we can talk about some of the things that I saw we can talk about a lot of different things you know those are the kind of things that are happening this year that wasn't always consistent in the past and um that's a major change and you know I shouldn't say it's not a major change it's an improvement that we've learned to take a look at what do we need to do better we've said okay we need to do this better okay so I have a question so the amount of Administrators you have and this is a yes or no question the amount of Administrators that you have do you think that you are okay with the number of Administrators you have absolutely do you think you need more no I don't need any more I have the people in place so okay with the administrative group that you have right now right in in rethinking these different strategies that you've been considering in terms of responding to as you mentioned at the Freshman level and with the other grade levels and responding to the reading challenges the math challenges the science challenges and and and aside from that you got the different assist principles with the different subject so again I'm trying to wrap my head around around this and maybe this is a conversation way way later on when you re when we renegotiate with the administration because I'm excited for that one to hear about that um but definitely like this is something that we need to think about and rest strategize around because I am not okay with the amount of Administrators that we have it's outrageous but the the school and I get we are a plus we are in we are you know we're getting gold medals all over the place that's fine but sometimes it's not always because you have 15 administrators that to me is just again this is just a statement and I'm just leaving you with that um I understand the um again I understand the successes but it's definitely something that we need to think about anybody else I'm sorry um again from my understanding when you're doing like new curriculum review and stuff I hear a lot of new whether it's new curriculum that they're using to evaluate the teachers or the way the teachers are going to teach their courses is is this something that like comes down from the state and you guys either adopted or you [Music] don't well the new curriculum that we're using in ela and Math and Science and that has been a curriculum that the department of Ed has recommended as high quality instructional material so we look at our existing material and believe that the quality of that instructional material is has a lot of value in terms of more consistency across all you know all bu classes uh it's been vetted by professionals people who in the business for one kind for that found success and it's not like all a sudden it's not like we're teaching you differently it's giving us a uh different approach to teaching kids different strategies and methods U curriculum that's been uh designed from you know planning stages all the way to the assessment stages uh that has consistency from unit to unit and it's found it's been found to be very effective in uh in in uh students across across any regular high school it's not and so we feel like it it warrants you know our uh investment and our adopting and the teachers looked at it the administrators they went to other schools looked at it talked to other administrators talked to other teachers who are you utilizing that's not we did a lot of research and work before we adopted it we didn't we had two different types before we adopted it we don't just say well we know better than anybody else no we went and we also which we believe strongly in the work that she does with us and she recommended it as well and U she work she she writes uh she works with the Department of Ed and actually you know does uh workshops for the Department of B in curriculum in mtss in a lot of areas so we know she's high quality and we have a contract with her we work with her um so there's a lot to go it's and we've been looking at it for over the ELA we've been looking at for over a year matth looked at that for longer than a year too we did a lot of research before we adopted it and in the case of math we we hired a coach have a part-time coach that's working with teacher who's and who was a math teacher who up was you know just an extraordinary excellent math teacher who was also working as a coach to help some of the teachers integrate and develop and adapt to the new in curricul because she's outstanding and so and then we also have a couple other uh coaches that are working with staff as well so we give them the support we we introduce new new curriculum new opportunities but we don't just throw at them we give them the support they need to to be successful and I think that's what's important don't ask people to do things but I'll give them the support to be to be successful I've just noticed that the world just keeps moving forward and we're getting more and more away from the basics flat out Basics I mean you're talking math see the decimals fractions metric math is math but what I what I also know from when I was at my previous position year in Advisory Board yeah we we're getting students okay that are coming in with a fifth sixth grade reading level math level math skills and unfortunately they keep getting bumped along in fourth grade mcast bumped along the eighth grade and this is always been the catchall you had to pass the MS fight graduation you know it's like break the problem because no child gets left behind so you keep bump it along till you get to high school and then this is the catch on can I can I get this back to the budget please we're going all over the place um I'm going to throw a vote out give me a motion anybody have a motion if not we'll put it back into play and whatever questions you have on the budget can you please email them to uh Miss Mel and if this is time sensitive I'll call a special meeting can I get a motion on the budget please I have a second no second goes back to I have one thing to say I'm sorry if you need more time to review the budget documents it's fine we can vote on the budget at the next meeting the cities and towns already have the estimated revenues so they're good for their budgets but we still have time to vote this budget at the next meeting well there's no second so it's going back to okay again any questions any specific questions I'm sorry all right well can I make the motion that we vote on at the next meeting bring it up and review it and vote on the next meeting so whoever didn't get the the pamphlet they can we will as long as everybody's got your questions all in and ask okay next meeting what's the timeline on this one do we have to have this done so by the time goes to the next meeting is fine the next meting all right so we don't have a second so we'll put this on hold and again I will employ you to send your questions to miss Mel in advance and go over this booklet again does everybody have the booklet yes yes so wait we're going to move on no I have say this no we need I need to say something go ahead first of all um I support this budget 1,00% you know why because I support the staff that are funded in this budget the people who working day in and day out to perform for their perform for the students I support everyone and that's what this buget is and I believe this is a good budget to keep us moving forward and supporting our school I find it extremely disappointing that you can't support something that I've worked hard L has worked hard and a lot of other people have worked with this and it's it's a balanced budget and it has more support and help for the kids than any budget this school has ever seen yet you people believe you people don't believe enough in the work that we do every day and that's been my biggest challenge with this District committee cannot support good things you make my job 10 times harder because you constantly want to challenge things that are good for the school because in 15 years I've done this job I done nothing but support the kids and the district and many many other things that no other superintendent had ever done in this school or any other school in CLW of Massachusetts okay being said uh Communications report donations uh science donation Mr Sher Foy s h donated an equ pump to our biotech program Mr W Stone and mass donated the 2015 Subaru Valu at 8,600 on behalf of great Alliance technical school thank you I don't see any articles outstate travel Mr Jean Gomez and Mr Thomas sing instructors are asked to travel to Nashville New Hampshire on March 5th 2025 to a 10 Vigor so the students can learn how to install Pro press and mega press fittings at no cost of the district um recommend a motion please on the travel request I'll make a motion second discussion votee all those in favor oos next up admissions report does anybody have any questions on that packet Co-op report some good co-op numbers do anybody have any questions students shist cosmologist how many students are in total number percent doesn't seem to be I saw page yeah um so yeah so the low numbers like the centry which is this shop I think there's so much so much work out there right now um I know lot of construction workers since I I I I have for for clients and I see there only like three I don't know again how many students that will be in cosmetology for example it's only five students um it's 26% that means there's probably 20 students and there's only five out um I have uh a bunch of ideas of and I think I brought them up some of those ideas last we things that we can be doing for more students to be out probably sooner so that by the we have a co-op director maybe you can put your questions together okay we can forward it to the co-op director and we'll have them appear before us next meeting great anybody else have any questions moving on Mr superintendent construction projects uh so right now the uh new hanger that they've been working on since last November about 8% complete the due date to completion was supposed to be February 28th they probably a couple weeks behind so it's looking like it'll be closing March 14th which is fine we're going to be uh in April the FAA well expectation right now and I spoke to David culu last week about uh scheduling the final visit from FAA beginning of April so as long as the Hanger's done well actually they said we could start moving some equipment into it the beginning of March so I think we'll be fine ready for that inspection um then the landscape Barn um which is out back near the Dreamhouse uh at this point here on that particular Barn the students are doing the electrical work inside the barn the carpentry students are building the partitions for the bathrooms and the stairways to get get to the second floor and doing some other framing uh and uh and then the hbac students will be doing some duct work uh soon for the geothermal heating system uh so that's moving along uh well um in the cafeteria right now we're at a standstill because we need to get sore line in in order to move the project forward um where the the plan originally was to dig up the road February vacation get that part of the job done so then we could start progressing more quickly in the cafeteria get that's going uh and uh we need to remove a air handler out of that space uh and start the until we do that we can't start on the HVAC heat system for that so that they're supposed to try to get the air if possible if they can get the air handler out within those five days they're going to do that uh next week as well so that's the goal once those things are done then I think you'll the cafeteria will start going quickly so I feel comfortable that both landscape barn and the cafeteria be done by before the end of the school year do we have any particular challenges with the hanger it just com no there was uh no it's just um some of the wire the uh uh technology wiring and some of the uh heating uh duct work in the rooftop unit that they had to put up is a little behind schedule it came in three or four days late so but other than that it's actually G very very well any questions on the projects yeah Mr Jones the the S line is it like coming down the driveway no it's coming out of the building into in it's uh when you come out of the back of the where the uh new cafeteria is yes uh the road comes across so it comes diagonally across the road over to the corner so it's picking up the Sor line for the new landscape building and the um cafeteria and also there's a uh gas and oil uh separator that's got to go in at the same time uh which is C requirement that's going in that also tied to that so all of that you know connection needs to get done so that we can finish all the inside thank um was were these things um these like challenges new because when I first started here this thing was supposed to open in November yeah so the cafeteria uh have been a little bit of a challenge in terms of uh getting the engineering done sore lines um we were working with the architect and the engineer for that was two months behind um so I mean it was frustrating trying to get the engineer out here um and then eventually we asked the architect who did the work to get us a different engineer we could no longer work it was so they ended up getting a different engineer engineering all and then had to go before the town for approval and that took some time and not very easy to work with when it comes to health department and so had a lot of delays mostly due to you know he Department issues to be honest with you is this going to have gas in it's going to have uh we're not bringing in a new gas line or you utilizing the gas line that's in n space already so some of the appliances most of the appliances are electric but there are a few clian is at our gas which uh the capacity the gas capacity that we need we can we have already in the space so we don't have to bring or gas yeah no there's gas yeah it's right in the if you go in there you'll see the gas sign in the questions see councilor see we talking about CA CAF because that's the new cafer not what's going on with the cafeteria we used oh you're talking about the Four Winds the Four Winds yeah we're eventually going to go back there we haven't because of the it problem we haven't focused on we have to put a we have to move the camera uh because of the lights in there and they just haven't done it yet so can you put that on your list yeah of things it is on the list uh I'll ask them if they can try to get well we should be able to get it before next meeting because it's the 23rd March yeah uh city of council meeting update Mr before you start make a little comment we have attorney Wayne Simmons here and Mr Jones and I from MTH were asked to come before the MTH uh city council and this is important for me to say JY Simmons do the want to say they were under the impression we were subpoena we are not under their subpoena power we went because uh a very gracious lady uh the vice chair sent us an invitation along with Ron L we would come down and answer questions which we were going to do anyway I just want to show you mon the class for that lady to uh go out and extend that invitation to us um we did uh Brad and I both invited uh the attorney to come we want a good set of ears to protect the other three cities and towns not just m Mr uh the only thing I want to say about is that um you know um the documents that they're looking for um most of them are we have are able to send them I think we're looking for one more document uh but they will get the rest of the documents they wanted uh this week by before the end of the week we will send them to Ron Mars and the uh chair the chair of the committee um and uh other than that I won't even speak to their issues because uned only Mr Simmons Simmons welcome here so long good to be here um welcome if anyone has any questions uh Mr hayam and Mr Jones did ask me to accompany them to the meeting they thought it was important this situation is a little unique to State the obvious although uh Mr Hayden is chair he's just member and that's why he was asked to be there along with Mr Jones so he's obviously not speaking on behalf of the committee speaking individually along with Mr Jones so was important I was there um as you may be aware uh there was a public records request back in December we provided them with a substantial amount of documentation dating after to 2010 I believe um it did take some time uh given the hack and also given the Christmas break uh at the city council meeting they indicated there was a few items missing uh we are compiling those missing items I think literally three or four items that we have we're still trying to track down one uh they also complained that the information was not provided digitally uh we did provide that on Friday a complete packet was scanned and delivered to them via email uh I am tracking down the remaining documents which we hope to have either tomorrow the next day uh and have promised to forward to uh the chair and uh there were also several questions asked at the hearing uh to Mr Jones and Mr Hayden we compiling that information we provide them with a letter uh before the end of the week you anything to say oh we answered that questions as best as we could their basic issue was they were asking about the contract and all the information it so that's what we provided uh they said that they didn't understand that we weren't there when the contracts were written yeah most of the counselors were pretty good with us there was just one in particular was very aggressive another one was but they said that we're doing great work over here at the school they were very impressed with the school uh ironically one that gives us Praises complains that his City pays the most money why don't we have more of them doing students there so it's like can't have it both ways and trying to explain to them that the state sets the rate that our community pays not great alarm it just was not s that wasn't unded all okay thank you District committee uh priorities import of the committee policies bus [Music] person considerations I just want to make sure everybody has the same page I have mine was missing portion on the bottom where had one two three four five teachers they were looking for have that paper I don't was the one you share that Vice chair I'll give you my copy I'll get another one it wasn't in my cop can I get start have it yeah it was out of the page yeah can we make sure that this is included you know yeah yeah okay so did you have your hand up I'm sorry show you yeah I know she's asking why is there two separate pages that's what I'm saying this is apparently update this is in the book on the side just just the bottom [Music] resignations leaves of absences none retirements none appointments at Martinez cafeteria a effective Jamie cafeteria a effed 1 27 25 M Mel vquez special education bilingual family ways on 12725 moon ban long-term sub from math effective 12125 kimbery Beth employer engagement manager effective 2 325 we have a couple job postings field for service assistant flexible hours 7 hours day 35 hours a week year round position 40 hours 35 40 hour 35 hours or $70,000 a year nonunit position funding through facility rentals placement position rep placement position not filled since 2021 C the attached job description clean energy careers program March 2025 February 2027 hot time to be supported with the muray ma Valley renewal fund grants managed by the Attorney General's office new position see the attached job description I'm going to take a vote on that before we go any further uh there's two job position can we put them both together any have problem with that one at a time okay on the field support service assistance can I have a motion really can I have a second discussion yes please so this is a [Music] non at $40 an hour almost schol time and there's no requirement there's not I mean it's an assistant job I the attach doesn't have enough to support that even if it's coming from I that it's not much be there's no requirement there not there not there's not minimum requirement [Music] you have the job description I'm trying to do oh you should had it um so this particular position we had a few years ago um this person is going to uh actually reduce some of our spending because right now we hire a of security people uh involed in Spring you pay them sometimes we have to pay quite a bit of money more than in some Cas we pay more than $40 an hour because it's a lot of our people that work overtime we pay over time pay time so we have security out there uh from uh every day from typically from I think 6 o' till 9 or 9:30 depending when the rentals finished five days a week I just need I mean there's no there's no minimum requirement for this person to be for posting at $40 an hour almost full time that's what I'm asking yeah so job description I think they updated the job description I didn't put the requirements that you're asking skills abilities and knowledge so must be a Cellar and have the ability to work with minimal supervision and direction must be able to work believe with others to achieve common District goals must have well established communication skills ability to share information and resources approximately must possess possess a high skill of interpersonal skills General uh Pleasant demeanor working knowledge of Microsoft Word and Excel software demonstrate ability to create maintain spreadsheets and database must beely organized detail oriented and maintain confidentiality so this person is going to be not only out in the fields uh engaging with people that uh read the field but with people come to watch uh games and Ure that they follow the rules and all that so we want somebody that can do that but they will also be working uh to uh working with renters to uh rent the facilities new renters to ensure that we have the field rented for as much as as much time as possible to bring in more Revenue oh no it's not Mr Nelson it should have been included on that was not so we can bring it back to next meeting we'll add that we'll add that to the job description all right I have a motion I have a second to this can we get a vote we had a second do we not vote on it no we still have to vote on it yeah we had down you can vote it down or we can make a request that we get that information um email to it is that a job description that's missing on an amendment you want to do an amendment we'll hold it over till next uh next month can I just ask a question I I heard the skill set but I didn't hear the high school graduate what I mean how old 15 Sor you want me to read that what it says about education experience sure associates degree preferred minimum of five years experience in the oversight of outside field security okay good strong I just thought maybe it would let's finish this please she started uh CPR first responder certifications are helpful but not required okay now can we vote yes thank you I'm ready so Mr Jones yes Mr Mia yes Mr Mercedes yes Mr Tabo yes M Miss Baris yes Miss dla no Mr Hayden yes still copy second one Clean Energy careers program March 2025 February 2027 H time to be supported with valy renewal fund Grant managed by the Attorneys General office move position see the job description that looks like a real job description okay can I get a motion discussion discussion [Music] just discussion discuss so this is kind of I mean it's not the thing but again we are we have a joke posting for um a manager manager and I don't see any requirements here except for prefer high high school prefer I don't see any this would go by the program manager not by us it's not this is a position this position is to uh support teachers who be developing correctly for the clean energy um uh integration of clean energy uh activities into our C Construction curriculum so the person we're looking for is a person as it says here that uh has experience as a vocational CT teacher and knowledge about trades and expertise and curriculum around the development think to have some leadership and have some knowledge around Clean Energy careers so those are the key components of what we're look at the kind of person we're looking for uh and again this doesn't crost the district this is all Grant Fund in order to meet the requirements of the this grant was for 1 almost $1.2 million and as part of that Grant we have to integrate uh clean energy activities and curriculum into our construction Trad uh areas so um hiring osed again I think we did post it hiring teachers from each of those construction areas to devel the curriculum this person is going to oversee that work uh and also manage the uh the delivery of the curriculum over the next year and a half it is a requirement of the grant was written into the grant that we have position so the funds are allocated spe specifically for this position any further discussion Mr Jones um if the grant goes away the position goes away yes the position is only as long as it's the grants for uh once the Project's done and the Grant's done then the position's done okay yeah yeah it says uh B time years yeah U what's the definition of time like less than 20 hours and would this be like a totally separate person than somebody on staff yes okay well I say that um well that's the intent that's the intent I don't think we're looking for someone house okay just if it was like double ding so like yeah I don't think yeah I don't think that given the amount of responsibilities work that it's going to take is going to be somebody after that's not on now that's our goal to find someone that's and the reason I say I'm not leaving out the possibility of the staff person if we cannot find somebody the only person we can find is a staff person that's willing to do it then thank you anybody else okay I get a motion to move into an executive session please M Ferris yes MLA yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mia yes Mr Mercedes yes Mr yes Mr yes no future items can we give a motion to uh going to execu we have no positions for math teacher teachers some of these teers looking post okay new positions I believe there a new positions that haven't been posted that we don't have P for yet right this is what you're looking for for next year next school year one math teacher two reading teachers two Wellness teachers one M multi learner teacher one multi professional and any questions on that again this is from next year and nobody's in mind we have no job descriptions nothing at all you just make they all teacher they all teacher job descriptions we get a motion two teachers motion to approve all right can we have a motion I second discussion Please Mr Mercedes yes Mr tox yes M yes M Mr Jones yes Mr M yes Mr yes the third time can we get a motion to go into executive session that Oscar is going to fall asleep second second discussion all those in favor and we're going to be doing executive session right here e e e you're young you can eat anything you want I wish concession and gentlemen Mr Jones you got something to say I don't think so sorry all over again I make a motion to accept we accept the pay increase that we discussed that work uh let's call a on this please M okay can we have a a second on a motion please is yes discussion Mr toox yes M dla yes Miss Ferris yes Mr Jones yes Mr Mia Mr Mercedes yes Mr Haven yes all set motion to ad second motion to adur please anybody

oh yeah no it's okay you can bring it on we got two minutes you're good [Music] are those the folks that are online that can speak or are there more in the way we have a couple attendees as well okay and Peggy is joing us got it now julana so you were one of the producers pris phen really enjoy my grand kids enjoyed it too fantastic not no not all okay I like to call this meeting of the C Board of Education our regular meeting for Tuesday February 11th at 6:30 p.m.