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love immigrants right AB if they're legal do whatever you want and come here and we welcome you with open arms then when you were actually able to help a family get their kid into school learn English find a job find a place to live it's a great American story and I'll tell you that 98% of the people that I worked with were great people and good for them they were told to come here by America and and then you help them find a job and get a house great story but the 2% of people that rape their daughter domestic violence steel steel

was in Boston last week Newberry Street does not look like Newberry Street anymore the streets are not as clean as they used to be there's potholes everywhere and okay you wanted woo you got wo instead you know I mean whoo like so you know and they have nothing good to report the school test scores are down the you know the the treny in Boston is like 40% and they they say well they say Boston's crime rate has got well you know what a lot of the crime in Boston isn't being taking place in Boston as we know from these stories the criminals are now scattered around Boston and they're everywhere in Massachusetts and many of them are illegal immigrants and that has to be dealt now the one thing you don't want to do is say oh well you know I'm anti-immigrant

e e e good evening and welcome to the select board meeting for Wednesday February 19th uh I know it's February school vacation week here in Massachusetts so maybe some of you are off having fun as is one of our board members so we are a quorum of four um and all women no Joe all women anyway um we are gonna we have a couple of meetings and appointments that we're going to be doing today we have the Board of Health going to be joining us we have members of the planning board that's going to be joining us but before we jump into any of that I'd like to open it up for Citizens participation if there's anyone here in the meeting room that would like to do anything if not raise your hand oh you can you come to the podium please so they can hear you oh oh oh hi do you have to introduce yourself where live I'm Jay Burns um and I just want to from the Board of Health I want to let everyone know that we are accepting nominations for the mary mortensson public health award um for outstanding Public Health Service so just um that's been um in Mike's newsletter and elsewhere so great so Jay remind us when those nominations are due is there a due date March 1st okay okay okay thank you thank you okay if there's anyone oh Mark I see your hand raised so you can go ahead and unmute yourself thank you Mary 119 Main Street um to through the chair chairperson chairwoman I'd like to ask assistant Jen ball that at the zba meeting oh actually day of the mean I was in the town hall and I made copies of my question my questions to the CBA that one night and um Pete manck made copies and gave gave her one I asked um if she can give one to the for her and to and to our tell manager is this going to ask her if she did hey Mark yes I did and was it read and talked about be be between the both of you we didn't didn't have a chance to talk about it um you know did have a chance to kind of relay some of those concerns with that that you had expressed Mark with uh Pete you know in advance of the zba meeting okay just I was one wondering they got two of me up there oh my God I was one in Halloween but I want a trick or treat um no I say um one to know what you thought of of those I tried to speak that meeting and they got me um pinpointed only on traffic so I couldn't say everything yeah and and Mark I I think you know in your in your comments you did have something about traffic and then you know something more about the zoning and stuff I think I think we should probably touch base on the zoning because um I think I think you would essentially duplicated something so that that already exists so want to make sure you're aware of that do you do you want me to come into the office yeah Mark you know it's been a while since we've chatted so we can do that do you want to say a certain time day or whatever um why don't you reach out tomorrow we'll set up a time how's that through email or phone call through Diane mortensson to Diane so that's got to be email yeah be fine Diane runs my life pretty much Diane and Susan actually I know now speaking of Susan she's on the phone but didn't know Beth rold was working in the select's office you see your name in the lower left corner yeah I know you got a long mean so that that's all there is okay great well thank you Mark appreciate it hey it is just a few minutes before 7:15 so uh I'm going to invite this the Board of Health if you look at that clock we're at 17 if you guys want to come up here and we have um maybe share some of these microphones and then you guys can oh we all like come on at the same time it's it's like synchronized almost then if you pull that one in the middle you guys can if you're okay sharing there we go wonderful good um so still don't see our candidates online um so let's see I'm going to do this while we wait for our candidates to show up um if I could get a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented with a thank you to math Mar Matt marquest for his time on sustainability so moved all those in favor I I okay the consent agenda passes or zero okay well we can only start the discussion so if you guys want to call the Board of Health to order um good evening so I'd like to call the February 19th meeting of the Board of Health to order okay La is back there taking note so you're good perfect um so we have um we've received two Talent Bank forms um one from Maurice crasner and one from Nancy Lynch um so we we've all met Maurice in the past Maurice did run for a seat um at the last election um the pharmacist um we have not met Nancy in the past that I know of okay um I thought that they be is that microphone on yeah just it's green there you go just wondering if we can confirm that we yeah n uh we did okay Susan said that she did communicate and that they were going to be here um okay okay oh okay okay so be a little bit quicker discussion but you really need more e here um yeah so if Nancy has withdrawn well if he's on his way I I would hate for him to you know show up and then not that you made it okay um so that's going to be quicker than we thought and this is always interesting could be could be that things are going to go quicker than we thought so um well while we would you like to share with us some of the um things that that people who are have received the Mary Morton award have have done in town that the types of things that you look for or I would need help with that um I know that my good friend Ed Hart had received the award for his work um it was um some of his environmental efforts around insecticides I received it last year for the remote Area Medical Clinic um you have received I received it um yes um what was that for again let's see it's all Mike Herbert's a fault um I that a lot um no so um uh we um we we took covid head on and um we were basically the showpiece for almost the entire State we're watching what we were doing we were able to assist other towns um we joined a collaborative when the vaccine came out and in a six week period we were able to vaccinate 16,000 people a collaborative was pretty amazing yeah I that can't be overstated really what you did almost single-handedly and in terms of organizing everything I know that at the time having been working in the schools um I know how often we sent teachers over to have them you know tested and and how many times it kept a teacher in the school um and sometimes not but but uh it certainly was huge you know for the schools and the kids there were many a morning where I would get the results from the test from the night before because I would be in my office at 5:00 a.m.

we good we're good good evening everyone um it's 7 o'clock so I'll call to order the regular meeting of the brook Hill Board of Ed uh this Wednesday February 19th at 7 o'clock and would you all please join me let's stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands Nation indivisible liberty and justice for all so um this is the first time we get to do something a little different from with roll call we have um all members of the um Board of Ed present in person except eron Scalera who has joined us virtually no by by phone by phone okay um and Melissa's here and Dr man can't be with us but Dr BR and Miss diat are here as well so um we're going to start with public comment are we good okay yeah I thought it was your phone okay gotcha oh yeah hold on one second I there's a um just one second I forgot to get out my notes on this okay um I wanted to say uh uh something about um public comment obviously the uh Board of Ed welcomes public comment um we had I made the decision um at the uh as I explained in our last meeting to suspend public comment due to the unruly behaviors uh that were uh disruptive and um uh quite concerning at the at and at the end of the December meeting um I made this decision um taking into consideration concerns expressed by our executive team members by the um staff who were present and at the advice of the chief of police um subsequently we heard from members of the public um with their thoughts on this and it was mixed there were some people who supported that move and some people who opposed it and I understood the reasoning on each side I consulted with um my fellow board members and have um added it back in and we trust uh that the public will um comport itself yourselves with dignity and uh respect that's what we ask of you um and with that let's move forward to the logistics so each speaker um shall have up to three minutes to provide input to the board um we'll have a maximum of 20 minutes per topic and um at the end of the regular meeting time is allotted for comment on any item which is in within our uh jurisdiction but uh is not an agenda item so I have the list here and with that oh also when you come to the podium please give your name and address so the first um item on the agenda or the first person I'm sorry is Jillian Dy to speak about the budget Julian dhy 49 hopbrook Road after watching the budget deliberations that occur occurred during the January 15th meeting and reading the budget proposal questions and answer sheet where budget questions from the board are answered by the administration attending the December 18th budget round table and Board of Ed meeting and attending the December 4th meeting where the budget was presented it is clear that a great deal of deliberation went into the acceptance of the proposed budget it seems that board members who were unhappy with the outcome of the vote could have taken Dr bal's suggestion made at the end of the January 15th deliberation session to move the budget forward while awaiting clarification on the feasibility of specific proposals made to address a shortage of interventionists in CES and the high school no board member made that motion and the motion to present the budget as is to the board of finance and the board of selectman passed that should have been the end of it but a group of Board of Education members decided to release a statement to the press that they didn't agree with the budget vote this is contrary to Board of Education policy a policy that was voted on and approved earlier in the January 15th meeting I would like to thank the administration for putting forth a responsible budget that speaks to many mus haves and very few nice to haves I would like to thank the board for their hard work andamp deliberation on the budget and I would like to thank the board for voting to put that budget forward to the board of Selectmen and board of Finance now let's work to get it passed thank you for your comments um Brian M govern to speak about um executive session Brian McGovern three hover Ridge Road in Brookfield uh first of all thank you to our board members and our administrators you guys do a great job I'm really very happy with the education all three of my children have received this town and it's because of people like you thank you I made a freedom of information request uh last December on December 4th in the materials I received from that there are several messages from a board member that had gone to multiple teachers asking them to forward Communications to her violating labor laws and opening the town to possible litigation I understand it is Boe policy not to name individuals during public comment so I won't although it is in the materials as I was concerned about these actions I was also concerned the union for our teachers would be concerned with these actions so on February F 3rd I made another foi request this time requesting correspondents from the cea and the Boe I received those materials luckily enough today there is a ceased and deist order from the ca Unis serve representative saying in part I am writing on behalf of the Brickfield Education Association to formally demand that the Brookfield Board of Education immediately cease and assist all actions that interfere with the lawful activities of the Brookfield Education Association it has come to my attention that the school board has engaged in activities that infringe upon the rights of our Union and its members as protected under the Connecticut Labor re Relations Act chapter 561 he went on to say failure to comply with this demand will result in a union pursuing all available legal remedies to protect our rights and those of our members I'm concerned that one or more of the board members don't understand their job requirements and respectfully request the board investigate and then consider appropriate actions to correct this problem including including appropriate actions for the alleged board members thank you thank you thank you for your comment um Shannon Riley to speak about uh climate and culture good evening Shannon Riley 11 dear Run Road good evening members of the Board of Education I stand before you today to commend the chair woman and for her professionalism and steadfast commitment to adhering to the board policies particularly those outlined in your bylaws under Section 93 uh 9300 transaction of business in these challenging times it is easy for emotions to run high and for individuals to get caught up in the day-to-day matters of running our schools however the chairwoman has consistently demonstrated an understanding of the role of the board that the board must play at the governance level staying true to our mission of overseeing educational policy rather than getting mired in the operational details of schools as highlighted in your bylaws the board is called upon to concern itself with the questions of educational policy and not with administrative details concerning the Brookfield Public Schools operations the chairwoman has consistently exemplified this principle showing remarkable restraint and not overstepping into the administrative do domain she understands that the running of the schools is the responsibility of the administration and she has allowed them to do their jobs without interference this approach benefits our district by fostering a healthy division of responsibilities and preventing confusion in roles moreover at the recent after the recent release of the unsanctioned press release it would have been easy to engage in a public back and forth but instead of reacting the chairwoman chose a more measured approach refusing to get entangled in a tit fortat this is a true Testament to her leadership in line with the bylaws which emphasize that individual members shall make no com commitments for the board or issue orders for the board except when ex executing an assignment delegated by the board the chairwoman refused to let her personal opinions or emotions of the moment dictate the actions of the board as a whole her decision to remain Above The Fray reflects her deep understanding of our Collective responsibility as your Collective responsibility as the board instead of engaging in a public dispute she has shown that her your focus must remain on educational policy and the betterment of our students in schools her professionalism should be an example to to us all thank you madam chairwoman for your integrity your adherence to the bylaws and your unwavering commitment to the Brookfield Community I strongly believe that under your leadership we are on the right path and we will continue to move forward in a productive and respectful manner thank you thank you for your comments um Christine Erico I hope I said your name correctly yes um to speak about graduation yes thank you hello Christina rello 15b Richards Road good evening my name is Christina arello and I am the lead coordinator for the Brookfield High School grad party I've been involved in grad party since 2019 all three of my children graduated from BHS unfortunately only two of them were able to enjoy grad party as my son graduated during covid and regulations at that time wouldn't allow for it I'm here tonight to shed some light on what grad party is and what goes into making it happen grad party was created by parents in 1986 to provide a safe fun-filled all night party that includes music food games dancing prizes and so much more right here in our high school building and has always been held on the night of graduation the doors open at 10 p.m.

one I guess Wanita is missing no I'm here oh okay Teresa is here janell's here Julie's here Kate's here and one is here whoops all of the committee members are are in attended um that being said I'm going to turn the meeting over quickly to and as I said before welcome back Dr Kath yes welcome than you very much over to Mike Weaver I'm not sure whether Angela is on I can't see her name but she is she is okay so why don't you guys start with the statement that's the first item on the agenda sure pull it up here in the screen in case uh someone doesn't have it like I see on my copy the pages were numbered don't know if everybody else had it they should be yes yeah I think that's a big Improvement thank you I I didn't get it yeah it's was an attachment it's on the level right hand yeah oh I'm just trying to share my screen here give me one second Teresa is on the email that Cara send send us I mean I got the report but I don't have numbers for p it should be on the top of the right I don't have a top or bottom I don't know if they got cut off in the no my pages are not n either Teresa okay they must have got I was going to get on mic about that because at the last meeting they were Ned and the Hope out that you know very helpful it was it's helpful yeah no didn't cut off they just not mine's not numbered the the attachment that I received has numbers on the bottom right corner right same as mine I got like chicken scratches yeah they were numbered thank you Mike that was Angela took the time to to number them by hand because we couldn't figure out how to get it um done electronically but um okay well heard you know I appreciate the effort but they look like scratches and they're not consistent ours are clearly numbered Teresa well it must have been a different document then than what I got okay try to improve it next Mike start with the the comments sure uh yeah so these are the uh the financials for the month ending July 31st um the the most uh significant thing here we'll talk about um in a minute um was a a reclass that we uh that we've made in salaries and benefits but for the month um we came in at 8.6 or 8.7 million um for the month which is typically um it's a little bit lower than than where we usually sit and that's due to that year-to-date reclass we'll talk about in a minute um as far as the the year-to date goes uh for the year-to-date expenditures where it's 70.9 so just just about $71 million uh and we have about 80.6 million uh incumbered on top of that against that budget of uh which receives $160 million um that that's putting us at a favorable balance right now so if the um if the year were to end right now we'd have a 8 uh an 8.5 million favorable variance and um again that that variance as we'll see on the next page is largely uh driven by uh by salaries um and by by benefits um and this is the page I'm talking about the the summary page uh we'll see here this is the the 8.6 or 8.7 million with the 7071 million expended and the 81 million encumbered Mike can I just interrupt here sure just quickly initially you mentioned it was statement for July January 31st right and the the headings here you have from January 1st 25 to 13125 I I would thinking The Heading should be for something like the seven month period July through January I I think we flip-flopped I think we had it last time and then we said we were going to change it to the month because we're this is presenting the month to date um but whatever is easier um this kind of this sheet represents both the month-to date and and the year-to date expenses so okay at the mood point we'll clean that up sure um million doll the8 million is very favorable at this particular Point um are there all right just finish go ahead yeah and and again that eight million is um partially due to a favorable salary um line uh favorable salary lines were about 4.7 4.8 million favorable in salary um that's due to uh two things really one is open positions um but two we have also made a year-to-date reclass taking people uh out of the general fund and putting them correctly uh into the the alliance Grant um Cara Cara had us working through that um that task it took us a little bit longer than usual but and along with that we move their benefits um so the benefits are also favorable and that is also because there are open positions so people not having um Insurance because they're not here uh as well as the reclassification of the benefits for the folks that were from uh that went into the the alliance Grant um and then the the last the last very favorable item is a supplies we'll talk about that um shortly but that's driven mostly by um electric uh um favorable variance in electric about $600,000 favorable in electric and I think that's really due to timing as the uh the summer months come and it starts to warm up using more electric we'll be using less fuel to heat the buildings and more electric to cool the buildings um following Pages uh by line item um as we typically see every month uh the first section is on salaries and uh I know one of the variances that um we we point out every month was the fact that there were people in an expiring Esser grant that were moved to the general fund um and when the person had moved them over to the general fund instead of allocating them correctly to the the correct uh account codes they put them all in one to keep track of them um and that account code that was used um was part.

e e e hello this is Rebecca Ken um acting as president this evening um in Tom Lando's um absence and I want to call the regular board meeting to order and asking if there is any public comment at this time seeing that there's no public comment uh we will go into to close session thank you e e e thank you everyone for being here tonight um I'm Rebecca conin and I'm going to be um acting as president this evening in Tom Lando's absence so let's go ahead and um call this meeting to order regular board meeting to order this meeting is recorded and is being live streamed um for the last hour we were in closed session and no action was taken uh if everybody could please stand for the flag salute ready begin iedge Ali to the flag of the the United States of America the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible withy andice all right thank you uh we're going to move along to student reports now and I'm going to turn this over to M sty thank you I love doing the flag salute when students are here you guys are great you keep us right on it uh at this point we are in for quite a treat tonight you can see we have some musical Talent out here and I'd like to invite Mr Dave McKay up to the podium to uh tell us what we're what we're going to hear and who we're going to hear it from and he may just in turn introduce Tanner one thank you sir superintendent Staley welcome everybody it's my honor to introduce Mr Tanner John's our fantastic fabulous band choir music piano percussion you name it teacher over at Bidwell junior high school and uh he is going to show off his awesome students our concert band I can attest to how hard these students work at their craft we're very proud of them and their performance will speak for itself I'm sure thank you Mr John's and ban [Applause] all right thank you Mr McKay um we're not going to take up too much of your time but we do have two short numbers prepared for you this evening the first is a piece by Carol Britain Chambers titled down on the Delta a Mississippi tribute um you're going to hear a lot of musical Heritage that comes from Mississippi in this one starting with like a h-like kind of Corral transitioning to a more upbeat piece um it transitions then into more of a slow bluesy kind of feel and then ends on the fast note so this is down on the delta [Music] la [Music] oh for [Music] la [Music] [Applause] and we're going to play one more short selection for you this is squirrel Chase um the composer notes that they watched the squirrels running around on all their Live Oaks enough stuff in the backyard and chasing each other and whatnot this has a very like Looney Tunes esque cartoony feel to it so I hope you enjoy squirrel Chase important extra stuff now the real key is where do I I it's right here what's that are you all set up back there good good sure is probably close all right ready Abby [Music] la [Music] he [Music] thank you again for having us I know you have a long board meeting planned so we'll have our kids take their stuff outside to clean up but thank you again so much and have a great evening how about another huge hand for Mr John's and the junior high bidwill Junior band great job great song selection too by the way okay we're g to give them a minute to uh grab their stands and instruments and go out and while they're doing that I'm invite the principal of Neil da Kelly Steinbach to the podium while she was coming up I just wanted to say that was super awesome um it's fun seeing the kids out there um I'm recognizing some familiar faces um of players that play volleyball with my daughter and it's just reminding me that we have some really well-rounded kids in our district and it's fun to see them thriving for sure thanks guys yes thank you thank you Tanner I think they're gonna give them just a couple seconds to grab their stuff because we don't want to distract from yet another awesome activity yeah so maybe while they're transitioning we will transition our kiddos perfect so um our leadership kiddos could you come on up you know where you're going to stand [Applause] you can see just you're okay okay good evening thank you so much for having us this evening we have a twart um presentation we wanted to involve as many neow uh students as possible I'd like to invite Mr Obie and his chess team up as [Applause] well so at Neil da we have had um been fortunate to have Miss Mr Obie uh doing the chess team for quite a number of years and he could tell you the exact number here shortly um but not only has the chess club become a staple at Neil Dow and become part of our culture it has now grown County and uh North Statewide so we have not only Mr Obi here but some of our kids to tell you all about the chess club experience [Applause] on a side note before I begin I'm going to give a little shout out to the fbite teachers behind me here International full teachers who are visiting our country and watching how we do things here so my name is Steven Oberlander my students call me Mr Obie I have been teaching in Chico Unified School District for 28 years all but one semester of that at neow Elementary School uh the two-thirds of that have been at fifth grade a third of it has been at kindergarten uh uh in 2008 we had a our annual school carnival and my booth was going fine and I was a little bored so I pulled out an old giant chest antique board I had set it up put a sign Mr Obi one ticket play a game and I played a few games until a sixth grade girl came up and back rank checkmated me in front of a crowd of people and I swore that would never happen again so I decided to start a chess team at the school and I put the word out and expected about five awkward boys that would show up maybe and 40 kids showed up uh to that meeting and the uh the number of people on the chest team at Neil DA has pretty much maintained that number uh since 2008 fully 11% of the Neil Dow student body is on my chess team um soon after that I of course wanted to develop the team and I'd heard about a gentleman locally named uh the chess guy and didn't know who he was didn't know how to get a hold of him about a year into it I'm playing uh poker with some friends of mine and the guy next to me turns out to be the chess guy who had been leading uh and uh started Uh u a the Sacramento Valley Scholastic chess League uh a few years earlier and I became very enthusiastically involved in that took it over in 2009 and at the time there were 13 schools in the league uh and three of those schools were from Chico they included Sierra VI um excuse me uh Sierra viw Bidwell Jr and Neil da there were about 130 people in the chess League at that time uh since I've taken it over uh as of this year there are now 27 schools in the chess league and we average about 235 people in the tournaments that we hold every year and the schools uh uh are from yubis City all the way up to Corning I had an invit an invitation today from a a school from Olive Hurst that wants to join and we now have 13 schools from unified that are in the chess League I'd like to shout out to Kelly who has been actually instrumental in helping me uh establish that that here we've grown so large that we now have to hold pretty much the majority of the the tournaments uh which were used to be held at smaller schools once a month we hold them now at Neil da and so Neil DA has become kind of a Mecca of Scholastic chess in the North State and we have been awarded by the United States Chess Federation as being the ninth largest Scholastic chess league in the [Music] [Applause] country um so I just wanted to invite a couple of the kids up from the team real quick uh a few of them who have are represented today of the 40 uh to give a little bit of uh note to you about their thoughts on the team Audrey come on hi my name is Audrey I am a fifth grade student at Neil d I have been on the chess team for 3 years and what I like most about the chess team is that it teaches you uh mental strategy and I like to have fun with my [Applause] friends hi my name is Sydney Miller I'm a fifth grade student at Neil D I've been on the chess team for 3 years my favorite part of the chess team is that it doesn't only give you a mental Advantage it also gives you a mathematical [Applause] Advantage hi my name is Tyler I'm in fifth grade I'm 11 years old and I've been on the chess team for about 3 years now I really like it because it gives you a game where you can express your emotions by playing playing a game in which there's very different things you can do like checkmating losing drawing it gives you a lot of different choices and you can express your emotions and stuff like that I I'll conclude very quickly by saying one of the things I really appreciate about the opportunity and and the support that we been given over the years is that chess is a nice it's a competitive it's it's a sport we are competing once a month uh and these kids are all internationally ranked as a consequence of being in the chess league and it's a great opportunity for kids who might not excel in the athletic Endeavors uh so they can compete with their minds uh and it's a nice outlet for those kids who might not be in the sport so again I appreciate the support I appreciate the support and uh thank you for your time leadership could we show our appreciation for our chess club members our leadership does a cheer for um at every assembly for our students who we are celebrating so this is a a a little sight into our NE Dow leadership cheer as well and I think they're going to stay present here for the next part as well okay we're going to do just a quick transition into the superintendent report and Miss Steinbach is gonna lead us off on that one as well go ahead perfect so um this person is here tonight and I had to um trick this person to coming she beli Lees that we are talking about our Learning Center this evening which is um partly accurate so um Miss evet can you come and join me [Applause] please so I'm gonna so um I have been at neow almost eight years and Miss evet has um so first of all she's our school librarian and does more than just um being a librarian she not only knows every single student in the school they're reading level their star score um their math score their I ready score um but she is also the only person left who started the Learning Center with me eight years ago she holds the key to our Neil success and I cannot tell you enough how much she cares for each student at our school how much she goes above and beyond and how grateful we are to have her and I am so grateful to have her standing next to me this evening but every single day so um I did write something and totally went away from it but um every day you go above what is being asked of you you take it upon yourself to create teaching materials taed to each child needs you ensure that the lessons are accessible engaging and impactful and she has a special way with students that they know how much she loves them and they work hard for her do you guys work hard for her yes they do so um on behalf of our entire School community and really myself I cannot express how my my gratitude and my um deepest sincerest um gratitude is the word um you inspire us all with your dedication your compassion and your extraordinary efforts thank you for everything that you do I'm not letting you retire for a long time cuz you hold the key to everything so leadership can we show Miss Evette how much we appreciate her thanks [Applause] guys we have more things than you can so we have a certificate for you have something to keep you hydrated thank you and why don't we get a picture with the kids okay I'm do it from an angle you're good you're good we go okay on me one two [Applause] perfect okay we have one more person to honor this even U Mr Obie can you come on back up here [Applause] please so Mr Obie already shared with you that he's been at Neil for 28 years almost solid now and during his time he's touched the lives of so many Neil students um primarily in intermediate grades but a little bit in kindergarten as well and um Obie's Journey at Neil D start as an intermediate intermediate teacher where he quickly made an impact on the classroom with his engaging teaching style his commitment to his students and his ability to inspire over time he transitioned to kindergarten before returning once again to the intermediate grade levels showing his versatility and dedication to meeting the unique needs of students you got to learn a little bit about our chess club as well and his enormous dedication to spreading chess to County and North Statewide and this is been a huge culture um impact impact at our school site um we use it as um a privilege for children to join that when children are having a hard time um it's also used as something that we expect Behavior to go right along with sportsmanship to be part of this club so um Mr Obie has just all always been there for the students at Neil da and he has been there for his colleagues and his staff and for me he is an excellent tick um teacher in charge he wears a tie to school on those days that he is teacher in charge and um I have a report from Miss Christie our office manager that he is an amazing teacher in charge so um and most importantly what I appreciate about um Mr Obie is that he always puts Neil D first even if it means a hard change for him um he voluntarily moved from kindergarten to fifth grade this year and he did that for his colleagues and for the School site for the betterment of it so we appreciate you your students appreciate you and I have so much gratitude for you and um thank you leadership can we show Mr Obie some gratitude [Applause] KN over I know come on over here come on you guys let's go get around we'll do one more picture with Mr Obie we've got a all right here we go here we go one two three [Applause] nice thank you thank you students thank you very much Neil da and um we will take just a short 30 second break here if you want to stay by all means stay for the meeting if you need to get home to homework and other things now is your chance to run e all right we're going to be moving along to agenda item number six uh which is announcements I have the privilege tonight to um introduce and um invite professor Charles dartman and Heather hacking and their Educators from all across the country so if you could please um come up now and introduce your for your group of Professor will be here in just a second you told us five minutes so that's good because he can be a long talker um I'm Heather hacking from International training at Chica State University and um we have tonight uh 23 Educators from 21 countries around the world they're part of the full bright teaching excellence and achievement program and they've been coming for countless years to be a part of our educational community and I'll ask them we're not going to come up and introduce each one I'll just have them stand at the end but we're really thankful to be able to um be a part of this they've um learned a lot about our um national state and local educational system including the role of the school board um they have been here for four weeks they attend intense workshops through the Educators at Chico State and I'm learning how we do things here in the United States and they work on uh service learning projects and um learn technology and um this tomorrow they'll be joining um three schools um Chico junor High School Chico high and Pleasant Valley high school so they'll each have a mentor teacher and be immerse themselves in the school experience which we were so excited to meet our teachers last night and they're super excited to um meet the students tomorrow so thank you for doing what you do so that we have um schools that we can be proud to bring these teachers into and if I can just ask them just to stand and we'll just go hey there they [Applause] are thank you thank you at this time I just want to um ask the board members if they have any announcements um regarding any upcoming students uh events any student awards or particular School site accomplishments um I just want to say this is kind of late but I forgot to do it in uh January so here we are I wanted to say that I it was so fun to go to Citrus Avenue at to to Mr Wan's class and then at Christmas um and then afterwards go and see the kindergarteners sing um until I had to go to um another meeting and then I had a distinct pleasure of going to the we not me event and I just wanted to give a shout out to miss Burton she was an amazing MC and if you've never done that activity I really would invite you to do so and Mr John Shepard was one of our referees it was just a really fun uh great event and I'd never been before um I'm a I'm still teaching but that day I took a day off so that I could go to that event it was really neat uh it's lovely seeing what kids and and teachers and staff are doing in the district uh just like we saw tonight so thank you thank you for sharing that um we're going to move on right now to um agenda item number seven items from the floor and at this time um we are going to have speakers who wish to address the board regarding a topic that is not currently um on the agenda um and I believe we have Danielle pen here this evening so um if you want to go ahead and make your way up this way and just as a reminder speakers will have three minutes to address the board a bell will ring when 30 seconds of speaking time remains uh the board can listen to public comment but we are not able to respond to any speakers um under items from the floor thank you thank you Daniel so I don't know if I say Madam president for tonight uh board members superintendent um and staff uh president Trump excuse me president Trump recently signed an executive order where he has ordered immediate action against schools that deny women's single seex Sports and Single Sex locker rooms within 90 days president Trump will receive recommendations for eliminating Federal funding to schools that do not comp comply with this executive order I am aware that in California um we will not be following this executive order and will continue to allow students to play sports and use locker rooms according to their current gender identity rather than their biological sex the two questions I have um for the board is how much Federal funding does Chico Unified receive and what are the district's plans to recover possible lost Revenue per this executive order thank you thank you all right um is there anyone in the audience at this time who'd like to address the board for a topic that is not currently on the meeting agenda there will be another opportunity to speak um for items from the floor near the end of the agenda if you are unable to speak at this time is there anyone who would like to speak all right okay so moving along on to um agenda item number eight which is the consent calendar um and this is in regards to the board members is there anyone who would like to pull a consent item for further discussion I had a question for Kelly regarding the um perhaps you is it 10 yes yeah so does it have to be pulled in order to discuss it at all okay and does that does pulling it mean that that it would um it does it interfere with anything as far as talking about it in the summer you had mentioned that this is something that is discussed in the summer months yeah let's just go ahead and pull it and then um we can approve the rest of the agenda you can ask your question and then we can approve it at that time thank you so if I'm not correct if I'm not mistaken we need to um have a motion correct to pull the item uh we don't need a motion to pull the item but we do need a motion to approve the rest of the agenda okay does anyone want to make a motion to approve the rest of the consent calendar um with the exception of item number 10 Madam president um I have an item to pull okay and that would be number 11 all right are there any other items that would like to be pulled from the consent calendar at this time okay so if I'm not mistaken um I think at this time we'll need a motion to approve the consent calendar um with the exception of item number 10 and 11 I move to approve the consent calendar with the except pulling number 10 and 11 I'll second that motion okay so um at this time uh we can open it up for board discussion I think um board member hay since you brought up um item number 10 first let's go ahead and discuss that one all right so on item number 10 um let me pull P I'm sorry I didn't have this open here just one moment so while you're doing that uh we should probably go ahead and vote on the prior motion on the motion to approve all the other agenda items so if we can go ahead and do that probably need to do a roll call vote on this one okay yeah let's go ahead and do a roll call vote and let's see uh can we start with you member olssen yes Olsen I conen I haai Robinson I okay the vote was unanimous so we are passing um the voting on The consent calendar with the exception of um 10 and 11 being pulled so thank you um there were a few things uh that I was was wondering about and one of them was whether or not um Seth's law which is the anti-bullying uh needs to be posted in classrooms and I I heard uh from uh staff that it's it doesn't have to be posted would there be any objection to posting it um I think there's value and it's a very I mean uh and in our classroom in my classroom I have a you know a poster about yay big that talks about how what the rights are for that no one should be bullied um and it it's um I think it's certainly as important as the Williams Act which probably students don't don't know about and many parents may not know about but I think having something in black and white that says this is you know this is a safe space that to you know bullying will not be tolerated um I think some it may be that um students in my classroom don't pay attention to it but I think uh if it catches the eye of a student just as a reminder that that this is good policy so that's one comment is that even if it's not required I thought that it actually was required but I will I will defer but I think it would be good policy um and then I did want to um comment that I thought it was interesting that this new the new policy um states that for on auto replies for emails um that during Vacations or absences there should be links to resources and phone phone and text numbers so parents and students have information readily available so that if a parent you know writes a principal or teacher or targeted case manager or whatever it may be if that that staff member is out or we're on vacation that as a part of our the signature it actually pops up with you know if you're experiencing any difficulties here are some resources um and I was told that you know we could discuss that further in the summer review but I think that the point of of the you know the urgency of it you it was supposed to be done I thought by January 1 of this year is that it's probably doesn't take much time to make those sorts of changes to put it in um as a signature line in our emails and then it's there and it doesn't have to be put off and I think having more information available to parents and students is you know the better because all of our Stu all of you know Chico Unified students also have email accounts and they can email their teachers and I will occasionally in in my role um get emails from students and so I think that's um this the state wants us to do that and I think it's an easy enough thing to do um and if it helps give one parent or student um a resource uh in suicide prevention I think that's really worthwhile um I I lost a nephew uh to um a death by Suicide and there's you know my sister will never recover you know so thank you for those comments thank you in regards to item number 11 did you want to comment at all and I I have a a question I I appreciate you're bringing the issue on number 10 forward and um what I'd like to know from staff is would it be possible just by us saying hey you know this is what we'd like to have that done without too much change hassle so we do have plans to look at this policy this summer and the reason that it needs to be done in the summer is so that there is an opportunity for all staff to look at it and answer that question directly right now our school psychologist our school counsellors our teachers are really you know very busy we do want to take a deep dive into this summer look at the whole thing how do we ensure I mean quite frankly um not all of our staff even use auto reply so to say that they would even be there um we need to do work to even get to that point so that there is consistency there might be some that do some that don't I can tell you sometimes I do and sometimes I don't so um just looking at things from a practicality Point how does it happen because we don't want to say that we are going to be doing something the policy says should but we don't want to say we are until we know in fact that we can um thank you superintendent Staley um because of the fact that we are going to be visiting this issue during the summer um I'm okay with not acting on number 10 tonight and just putting it forward until so we do I'm going to jump in here we do need to approve it um with the minor changes that have been made knowing that it will be coming back to the board at the beginning of next year um you'll probably see it either August or September so if we could get a motion for that at this point that would be fabulous can I uh I'm I will to your point I've never sent an auto reply from my email ever so I I I do understand that um with that in mind those people who are inclined to do auto replies I think there are many teachers even our busy targeted case managers and our social workers and our there are many teachers that if they knew that this is something that is suggested and it was explained at a staff meeting or it was sent out by ed services that that they go oh yeah that's a good idea and maybe it won't be seen by a soul but maybe it'll be seen by that soul that it really makes a difference so I would I'm understanding the reason to put it off till summer but I just think you know education um clears the path to many things so if we could educate staff about it I think that's half the battle so I'll motion that we accept number 10 with those um changes all right do we have a second off second okay so um our last vote was unanimous so um I think we can all vote at the same time correct okay so all of those in favor of um accepting the consent calendar um with the exception of um item number 10 and discuss or wait I'm sorry not with the exception but with the voting on number voting on number 10 correct um so all those in favor of number 10 oh okay M you you clarified I I I thank you for your patience everybody all right so now on to 11 on to 11 thank you that would be me um when I read the um background and information on number 11 even though it was on the consent calendar there's um two items identified as to why it's being brought back at this time uh anyway even though we uh we will be doing changes um later on in in the language back to that issue I did want the public and ourselves to know that the two things that have been added that mandate that we add them to our um school safety Plans by March 1st of 2025 our armed as salent drills and then there indicates the education code numbers and sudden cardiac arrest again indicating Ed code 32283 so that's um that was my intent was to just bring attention to what's being added because just because they are critical I so move a second all right um so voting on um item number 11 I just i' just like to say thank you for bringing that forward and I'm gonna jump in there and uh just add something to what you said eileene in uh as this says it's not the safety plans are not due to a be approved annually until March in Chico Unified they are always on our board agenda by October because we feel it's really important to have safety plans in place for the entire year not just for you know April May and June so this is one of those times where usually it's just not a problem but this is one of the times where the law changed and so we had to bring them back a second time but did want to point out they have been in place since um our October 4th meeting thank you okay so um voting on this uh let's go ahead and start with you member Hayes I oh I guess we were voting all together correct oh let's all vote together all those in favor Robin and I thank you that passes doing a great job by the way Madame President oh boy okay moving along um to item number 9.1 Educational Services uh this is um public hearing um it's informational and I would like to um invite up Heather sentes who's going to speak about um Inspire School of Arts and Science Charter renewal request thank you heather I was reading the agenda good evening um so tonight we are back with three of our Charters and this is for the public hearing the public hearing is the second step in the process for Renewal and it is meant to be seen in a public forum so that we ensure transparency and accountability and the charter school authorization process the purpose is to gather input and so we we posted it and for the charters to have a moment to highlight their academic growth areas their strengths and showcase a few things and then receive some comments as well so I would like to begin by welcoming Becky Brown super intendent principal of inspire up good evening Chico Unified board uh Becky Brown principal superintendent of inspire School of Arts and Sciences um and I want to give a quick shout out to Heather because this is um my first time with this process it's a little daunting but she's made it all easy and clear so thanks Heather um so I appreciate the opportunity to share a little bit about our school as you Ponder our Charter renewal um we are a tuition-free award-winning Public Charter High School we started in 2010 we like to call ourselves a school for students and families who think and learn outside the box and what that means um I'll leave it to students to to talk about in this short video if I can figure out how to play it [Music] Inspire School of Arts and Science it's a charter school for those who want to go above and beyond for those who want to not just be at the bar but above the bar a school that really lets kids do and explore things that they might have not been able to at other schools if you like dance you can do dance if you like theater you can do theater they have competitions they have film clubs it's just a very nurturing fostering Community if you really want to surround yourself with people who are as passionate as you are about Art and Science Inspire is really the place for [Music] you I want to be surrounded by artists and like creative thinkers and I'm not trying to like say like weird kids like people who like think outside the [Music] box inspires a pretty small school school and with that a lot of students are really close with each other my friends are always here for me and I met them at Inspire I think inspires teachers are probably the most unique thing about the school my digital art as teacher really was supportive of my creativity and gave me a lot of freedom to work on what I wanted to work on for projects he pushed me to improve myself as an artist which is probably the most important thing to me going to this school after my graduation I think Inspire set me up incredibly well I'm taking an internship and the skills that Inspire has helped me develop just really set me off being able to go to school and do what I like help me get through the things that were harder for me if you really want to surround yourself with people who are as passionate as you are about Art and Science Inspire is really the place for you so um we're not just a school we are a learning community with a vibrant School culture um this is just a little brag sheet for you um I'm very proud of the awards and accomplishments that our school has earned especially last year earning the um California distinguished School award and um a couple of years ago um being one of of 19 schools in California to earn the exemplary Arts education award so we're very proud of of our students and our programs and our teachers um for helping us get there uh we have an enrollment of about 357 um and this uh shows inspires demographics as compared to um the other comprehensive and charter high schools in Chico just to give you a sense of who our students are uh we do have fewer English uh Learners at Inspire but higher numbers of foster Youth and the other high schools higher numbers of homeless students um higher or comparable numbers of students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds um we have higher numbers of students with disabilities than the other high schools um comparable numbers of African-American students Asian students and comparable numbers of Hispanic students with the exception of one the other high schools we tend to have students yes who know exactly what they want to do when they come to inspire but um a lot of students who come to us because they need that smaller personalized um community and they aren't going to do well in sort of the traditional High School structure um some things that I think set us apart as a small community there are so many opportunities for families to engage looking at an Inspire parent right there uh lots of opportunities to volunteer and to lead as parents but um we really try to partner closely with parents um for Student Success and to know who our parents are in addition to who our students are um lots of community Productions events showcases as a way for our students to show what they've learned at Inspire but also ways for them to connect with our community as citizens of our community um we have strong industry and post secondary Partnerships especially um aligned with our Career Technical education programs which I'll talk about in a little bit um and amazing school and Foundation boards that help us fund raise but also our our decision-making folks um who con have connections to BU College to Chico State to the Arts Community to business um and to the science community and lots of parents on those boards as well this is another unique part of inspire our advisory program that students uh get plugged into with the same teacher for all four years it's a 35 minute class that they take four times a week um it's a safe and connected environment where they learn life skills they build relationships with their peers they have fun and joy which I tend to think are very important part of a um a student's learning and then I like this quote from a student that Inspire feels like home it's not just the school but it's the place where you want to be so just a couple of um indicators of our students learning and scholarship um this is just a look at our uh California school dashboard outcomes again in comparison to um Chico comprehensive high schools and charter high schools so in terms of ela um our students do very well um in math uh every everybody's kind of under the bar in terms of Meeting those um standards and expectations but uh inspires less under the um in science we are um uh exceeding expectations um as compared to other high schools in College and Career 61.8% of our students are um College ready um our graduation rates are um uh comparable to the other high schools with the except of one who are really killing it I want to talk to them about what they're doing and then this this is one of the things that I think it in in in addition to that small school Community where we really know our students um is the Special Sauce of inspire and that is this huge array of Career Technical education classes that students can take these are the classes that they love that they're passionate about um we're we're known definitely as the arts school and our student students can take full highquality um path uh CTE Pathways in arts media and entertainment in the Performing Arts um but they also can take um production and managerial Arts uh they can take game design computer programming and Engineering so we're strong on the science side as well um and and to to my mind this is the thing that really helps our students succeed it's not just more of those academics but it's really being able to take this huge breath of classes that they love and that they're passionate about that helps them see value and meaning in those those core classes that they need to take for graduation um students have the opportunity to take dual enrollment classes to earn college credit at the same time that they're earning High School Credit um they can take AP classes in every one of our core disciplines um we have effective multi-tiered system of support so looking at multiple um data uh pieces to understand our students needs and their barriers um and really wrap around them parents staff um admin counselors um to make sure that they're doing well and we have a bomb teacher-led professional development uh thing going on and Inspire that we've been honing for 15 years and so our um the ways that we improve are not driven by just what ad wants but um what teachers see as valuable and we really lean on them as the experts in helping um each other get better and then we have systems in place programs in place to um allow students to share um what it's like for them at school and to share their ideas for how we can improve so we really try to let student voice Drive our educational Improvement and for them to really have a say in the decisions that we make that impact them and again I like this quote um inspired teachers teach us how to learn instead of what to learn it's not just about content but it's about curiosity it's about being passionate um it's about really finding meaning in the things that you're learning um but we're not perfect in fact I'm definitely not perfect because I spelled Improvement wrong but please ignore that um but we do uh try to each we look at uh data informed research-based areas of improvement and some things that we're looking at we're looking at a lot of things but a couple of key things um our suspension rates have um increased in the last year and so we're now in the orange on the dashboard and um so we want to make sure that instead of just leaning on suspension as a way to sort of discipline students for not getting with the program that we're really looking at the core or um reasons for why they're they're um being Knuckleheads or whatever it is that uh is leading them down this path so looking at um if they need substance abuse awareness and training um do they need increased counseling and again really partnering with parents to make sure that um the the school and the parent were all on the same page in terms of what the student uh needs to do and then chronic absence boy this has been um since the pandemic our chronic absence rates have been unacceptable and far higher than uh the other high schools in Chico so we we brought it way down um but we are currently it's a quarter of our students who are absent 10% or more of the time um and there are multiple reasons for that um if you look at our socioeconomically disadvantaged students they're chronically absent about the same rates as their peers but our students with disabilities are absent far more so that's that's an area of big concern for us um a big piece of this is transportation since we're a School of Choice it can be difficult for parents to get kids to school we also tend to have um High numbers of students especially those students with disabilities who are really struggling with um physical and mental health issues that make it hard for them to get to school so again um we have an attendance liaison in place that's really working with families to understand why students are absent um we have a short-term independent study that can help students uh remain plugged into school even if they have to be at home so that when they come back they're ready to learn again uh we provide transportation support bus passes for kids that need it um and then this uh kind of comprehensive we are here campaign that that as staff we we want to let students know that we're there for them but that also that showing up is is really important I'm super excited about this so excited I can't tell you so uh we have been so grateful to Julie kle and uh folks on her team for working with us on plans for our new campus this has been 15 years in the making um to have a campus that's our own home um and we are slated to break ground in June and uh to be on our new camp campus on the Fremont Street property um in Fall of 26 so we're really excited about that and grateful to the district for that support so we like to say it Inspire you'll find your place your purpose and your people I've certainly found that so many of my students have found that um so that's a little bit about Inspire I'm happy to take any questions you might have oh I'm already green um I know that inspired draws from a very broad um population throughout the area can you give me a breakdown on how many students do not reside in the Chico Unified School District so I think at last count we had about 80% of our students who were uh residing within the district boundaries um so about 20% of our students who come from Corning Red Bluff Paradise Gridley Durham um all over um that that's kind of the the breakdown thank you yeah so even though Inspire has been housed at Chico High's campus for the last 15 years um there's been no bus service available to those students is that correct right right and so what how does the bus p are bus passes available to any of your students that's a great question and it's something that we've kind of been ramping up in the last few years as we're looking at that chronic absence um so it's the p uh uh Chico Area Transit um and we provide passes to students who are uh socioeconomically disadvantaged but really it's a pretty low bar if you come in and ask for a bus pass you're probably going to get it that's good to know um it's one of the things that um you know public education um provides Transportation if you're outside a certain area yeah and it's uh there's I was grateful to see your breakdown of the demographics because sometimes um because of the lack of transportation and also the um push for parent involvement at um Charter Schools it can be a bit um elitist isn't the right word but you have to have parents that are able to come and volunteer and you have to have parents who can afford to to get their child there and that's not every parents that's not in every family's ability to do so it was great to see that demographics I'm glad then that's why I wanted to show them too because I think there could be that misconception about Charters is we're sort of skimming the cream or you know you have to be a certain type of student but um we really do draw um a lot of our students who come because they have so many barriers to school so transport that's one of the things that that hurts my heart I wish we could do more to help students get there but I really do feel like the um providing bus passes is helping us bring down those numbers of uh chronic absence so I think it's helping and I'll just say again I'm so grateful for the voters of Chico to pass measure C that's not a given in every community so I'm very grateful to our community for doing that yes Amen to that are there any other questions from the board I have um a comment and a couple of just um Curiosities I guess um so first off 10 years ago my daughter graduated from Inspire so um it's kind of dear to my heart and she went there because uh she tried the Comprehensive High School and said yeah no um she was at answer um and she just really got um it was a great experience for her so thank you I know the teachers work really hard there um make really great connections um and so I I appreciate that so thank you these are just very curious questions I was looking through your lovely binder um and I'm wondering um are you where where do you plan to put ethnic studies in for because I don't think that I saw that as something that would be in there oh absolutely so it's it's not going to be a a Career Technical education class but it isn't going to be an elective that any student can take and our plan I know some other um districts and schools plan to e embed those ethnic studies um standards into other classes but we plan to have a standalone one-year class that's really focused on um ethnic studies curriculum that uh we we helped Pioneer actually we started our ethnic studies class um was actually during during the pandemic so told those teachers hey by the way can you um so I'm really proud of our team who's been working on that um curriculum and so our plan is for uh because it's now going to be a graduation requirement that that sometime within those four years every student is going to take that class perfect thank you I appreciate that um and then just another curiosity question can students um who live in like Chico high or py area can they still participate in those schools sports programs no no that ended um when we first started we were um a dependent Charter with Chico Unified our students could play sports uh with Chico Unified but that ended when we became independent in 2015 okay yeah so we we have some small Sports programs we have um Cross Country Golf and um and ski team ski snowboard Team U yeah but basically if our if our students if if students want to take do the team sports we tell them this might not be the the place for you thank you appreciate it all right any other questions from the board okay thank you so much this time um we're going to open to public hearing are there any um comments from the public no okay we will close the public hearing all right I'm GNA jump back in Rebecca and I will introduce because they're all in a row so our next Charter that is going to present is Nord Country School and we have principal super superintendent Amber Hayes and vice principal Tanner Schaefer all right good evening Chico Unified uh board members thank you for the opportunity to present as part of our Charter renewal process my name is Amber Hayes and I serve as the principal and superintendent of nor Country School and my name is Tanner Schaefer I'm the vice principal so you've all had an opportunity to review our renewal documents test scores and supporting information tonight we want to share not only the key highlights from those materials but also what truly makes Nord Country School a special place for students to grow and learn at Nord we have a single class per grade from kindergarten through 8th grade with a current student population of 214 students this slide provides an overview of our demographics about half of our kindergarten class class is typically filled with siblings of our current students the remaining spots are available for children of our dedicated staff students residing in the Nord Community children of Nord Country School alumni and finally children residing within the cusd district boundaries the school dashboard serves as a key tool in tracking student progress we are proud to report an 8.9 Point increase in English language arts this year our partnership with the Northern California educational leadership Consortium has led to a remarkable 23.6 Point Improvement in mathematics these gains reflect the dedication of our teachers and students particularly in strengthening number sense across grade levels at Nord we pride ourselves on offering enrichment experience that extends beyond the classroom some of our tradition include daily assemblies our Harvest vestival our pie auction our educational Garden our character trait monthly and our kindness [Applause] Squad so one of the benefits of being a small school is we get to do a daily assembly and how we do this we break this up between K through 5th and then 6 through 8 so during this assembly the middle schoolers get to get daily announcements celebration for birthdays sports updates anything of that the elementary get to do the same however we also do a song of the month and one of the songs is our Nord song so here's a video presenting both of those flag of the United States of America and to theu for it [Music] stands and our elementary this is our Nord [Music] [Applause] [Music] song So a really awesome event that we do in the fall is our beloved Harvest Festival this is a community event where students family and local residents come together for a day of fun this includes a pie eating contest a horsedrawn wagon hay ride and snow cone stands this event Fosters Community spirit and provides family with an opportunity to connect at Nord we believe in shaping well-rounded students not just academically but kind good human beings our character trait program represents this on Wednesdays each student will wear a designated color representing the month for those who participate they receive tickets that they can get a prize from our um all school assembly then the teachers also in their classrooms get to pick a representative that best character did that trait for the month and they get awarded a certificate in front of the whole school to further promote positive character development our fifth grade students lead the kindness Squad every Friday they greet students during morning drop off assisting younger students out of their cars and offering warm welcomes rain or shine their commitment to fostering kindness makes a meaningful impact on our school culture in addition to morning greetings the kindness Squad spends time on the playground engaging with younger students helping them feel included and supported they also organize fun surprises for other classes such as handwritten notes small treats or acts of service to spread positivity throughout the school so one of this really cool things we have is an educational Garden so this Garden is used daily um they can they can be used as in a classroom where they get time throughout the day as a whole class that they can go but they also can do it during their recess and their lunch breaks within this it is designated either a class section or if the student is dedicated enough can be one whole row to that one student during this time there's the students are responsible for weeding planting and watering harvesting the crops and they also learn about beneficial plants and animals that harm it the garden provides a a Hands-On learning opportunity that extends beyond the traditional classroom nor Country School Embraces a vibrant School culture with very activi various activities including this was my favorite this year baby goats so um this year um at my house house we raise baby goats or we raise Nigerian dwarf goats um the baby goats I had two that need to be bottle fed so they came to school every day with me and students and staff got to bottle feed the babies um and this experience really brought a lot of joy and excitement to our campus uh another thing is our Halloween parade and our play announcement so this Halloween during our morning assembly our staff dressed in themed costumes which revealed our annual School play this year we are excited to present 101 Dalmatians another thing that we enjoy at our school is our Hispanic Heritage Month celebration this annual event features the Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish during morning assembly recognition of notable Hispanic figures Spanish lessons on Hispanic cultures and achievements weekly food tastings from Spanish-speaking countries collaborative art projects special guest performances including B Folklorico de Cho and exchange students from Icees through these celebrations we Braden our students Global perspectives while fostering inclusivity and cultural appreciation thank you for your time and consideration of our Charter renewal application we appreciate the opportunity to share what makes Nord Country School a special place for students staff and families we look forward to your continued support thank you Nord I just want to make a comment if I can oh yeah sorry did I okay um I'm very impressed with your test scores and I'm I'm going to reach out on a Lim and say small class sizes and great test scores is right that's that's a great thing so it's wonderful that you guys have the smaller community and you really do have a community there um it's like one big family and so you guys all support each other and and um that helps socially emotionally but also clearly academically as well yes yeah AB absolutely I just want to say too um you didn't get to see it in the video but talk about Community is you know during our morning assemblies is we have families there every day anywhere from from 10 to 30 families and so we really make it um every morning a community event for 10 to 15 minutes which I think is something super special about what we have I just want to say when you talked about the baby goats over in the lower right hand corner something was cooking and and I was a little taken back I was like maybe that particular picture doesn't need to be on the baby goat I promise it was not a goat I'm just saying and you didn't explain it so I'm like what's going on [Laughter] there I thank you in in my visits out to Nord there have been um just amazing experiences um is the same gentleman doing the garden that was doing it say six or seven years ago so Ernie used to do it and so Ernie no longer does it but his protoe uh Mr Mark who kind of uh came in was his shadow for a long time yeah so Mr Mark still runs it and he was in the uh pictures but Ernie no longer does it yeah so he passed the torch to Mr Mark and Mr Mark's taken that over I I just that his connection with what he loves and the kids and connecting the kids with the growing was just amazing the other thing is um I've gone out to your your pie auction oh bad idea on my part because when those pies go home with me I eat the whole darn thing they're amazing i' I've really enjoyed um that and the um one year they had the the um hor drawn thrashing yes so we used to have a threshing bee until we had a track that was it yes yep okay again everything that I've experienced out there has just been so much fun our pie auction is March 1st we'd love to see and then I just want to bring attention that what you saw the of cooking is uh we didn't want to take too much of your time but that is a stone soup so the kids actually bring vegetables and we cook it all day long and then our amazing Miss Kyper um has done a performance with the kids of explaining what it all is about so the kids get to cook this all day and then that's actually what they get to eat later so it's super super super cool not goats I will say I have um two graduates from Nord Country School and two current students so it's obviously near and dear to my heart and what I appreciate most about Nord is just the Fantastic teachers and I see a handful of them out there tonight um so seeing the growth that's happened um with my kids academically socially emotionally um has just been just super rewarding and the level of preparation um going into high school after 8th grade has been amazing so I I love what's happening at Nord they're um just a a part of raising some really great little kids out there and who are fantastic um students and great people so too many things to say on my part um thank you guys thank you thank you all right at this time um I'd like to open this to a public hearing are there any public comments All right we will close the public hearing all right so the next Charter is our sheerwood montor Charter and director principal Michelle yesbeck is here good evening board of directors Chico Unified School District I'm Michelle yck I am the director this is my 15th year been with Sherwood since the beginning um before I speak to you about the information on the slides I'd like to introduce um co-presenters I have Liz Watling with us she is a community volunteer and Tina Hansen Lewis she's the chair of our board of directors and I'd like to invite Liz to share she is a regular volunteer from the neighborhood and so she has the unique perspective of being a Community member and I'd like to have invite her up to speak about Sherwood thank you I'm Liz Watling I'm a retired mental health professional of many years in Chico I graduated from Chico high but college and Chico State I worked for decades in the medical systems of Behavioral Health Care with a focus on crisis Services children elders and worked in the jails juvenile hall and those with chronic severe mental illness I'm excited at this time in my life though as a retiree to speak as a volunteer with our County's educational programs from the tutoring of adults with English as their second language when I worked with the literacy services with the library to being a reading palet Neil do da to being invited this last fall to support two teachers in their classrooms at Sherwood I primarily promote the sixth through eighth graders efforts to accomplish a weekly 2-hour group task where they cook for each other on a Friday morning brunch and my job is to keep them safe in the kitchen but mostly to uh promote their peer collab cation cooperation and their demonstrations of respect for each other with the kindergarteners twice a week I provide group Story Time show them how to build snacks and play with sensory materials and practice letter recognition skills while sh teaching them and showing them how to focus concentrate and recall what they're learning I spend most of my time and my attention there just applauding these kids' efforts to show their curiosity their patience their kindness and their cooperation it's my joy to have this privilege to work with Sherwood a school that prioritizes self-initiative self-discovery the natural skills that show Cooperative collaborative communication and a natural desire to learn I'm honored that I'm allowed to learn monor's methods of teaching while at the same time I'm being trusted to be helpful even though I'm still just learning myself it's a true win-win and it's a A real blast thank you so much for letting me speak and Tina Hansen Lewis she is our board chair and also a parent at Sherwood a little taller sorry um so as Michelle said my name is Tina Hansen Lewis and I'm honored to serve as the chair of the board of directors for Sherwood monstor but in addition to my role in the board I teach chemistry at Chico State and I specialize in science educational equity and inclusive stem learning so as an educator and an educational researcher and a board member and then also a parent of a of a very thriving student at Sherwood I've seen firsthand how the school nurtures a love for learning but also Fosters creativity and builds a strong sense of community my unique perspective enables me to appreciate Sherwood's remarkable ability to meet the diverse needs of its students while maintaining a focus on academic excellence and holistic development Sherwood is a pretty good example of what a student centered inclusive education can achieve the school's monor aligned curriculum not only meets the California state standards but also celebrates the individuality of every learner creating a supportive and enriching environment our students including a significant percentage of so socioeconomically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities show consistent growth in academic performance as Michelle's going to show you in the Casp scores so beyond academics sure would excels in fostering a strong sense of community both inside the classroom and outside of it the school's innovated programs such as the updated monor aligned curriculum the behavioral support systems that have been recently implemented and transitional kindergarten offerings position it as a leader in personalized Student Center education as we look to the Future Sherwood is well positioned to continue providing an exceptional educational experience that prepares students for success in school and in life so as we seek renewal for our Charter we remain dedicated to providing an exceptional education that supports not just our students but also our families and the broader community so I thank you for your time and your consideration and your support of Sherwood and then I think Michelle has all the SL okay it just this top one I brush how do I do this yeah this here yeah okay yeah okay so what we love about Sherwood we are offering an authentic manuri education right here in Chico for this community um and we have beautiful classrooms with Hands-On materials very specifically prepared environments for children to nurture their independence and their uh love for learning uh we have multiple age classrooms so we have opportunities that spring up for leadership as well as opportunities to be taken care of by an older um classmate and this builds Community uh and we also do not give homework we spend a great deal of time working very hard during this school day so when our students go home they enjoy their family life and we are still getting academic results um this is a slide showing something of our enrollment overview um those are the last five years you can see the effect that covid had and our enrollment went down uh that last bar where it's coming up was last year and then this year we're up to 122 so we're uh swinging back up there uh s that stands for on the top there that's uh students with so socioeconomic disadvantage so that group has been growing over the years that shows all the years that we've been open well not the first year but all the others and then underneath that that is the percentage of students with disabilities which has also been growing um currently we have 22.8% of students with disabilities at Sherwood and I learned recently in our monory life uh Journal that this is typical for monor schools and the US 22% of children who attend monu schools have disabilities um um and only 10% of Monas schools in the US are public schools so 90% are private so what we are offering is something special and also free um okay so these are graphs showing race and ethnicity is the top um socioeconomic disadvantage English Learners and students with disabilities so there's um some diversity there that you can see and uh it's pretty volatile we're a small school so numbers can change year to year really quickly just with a couple families moving in and out so in my uh performance audit that I submitted um you could see the Casp scores and they have been on uh the positive the past three years we've made great gains in both Ela and math what this uh slide is showing is the other set of achievement data that authorizers are asked to consider and that's um if students are making on average a Year's growth and uh this is all students and we are uh making more than a Year's growth uh each year for kids in ela and math there's a stronger effect in Reading than in math but in both areas areas we're um reaching that that goal and this slide shows the same for um students from socioeconomic disadvantaged backgrounds and uh again uh reading growth and math growth is significant and over a year on average and the same for students with disabilities so this gives us great hope that kids that um start with us below grade level um will catch up and we do see a an effect for contiguous enrollment as well and then areas for growth and next steps there's some more of those beautiful Hands-On materials but we are going to persist with our efforts with our um our mtss the multi-tiered system of support is really catching uh all kids with their data and we are addressing um any needs it's you know one of the advantages of being a small school again is to know all your students really well we're going to keep up with that and we're going to continue with our involvement with the Northern California educational leadership consortion uh Nord was uh mentioning that and I've been in uh this is on zoom and it's all the county in Northern California I've been in Zoom rooms with Chico Unified uh staff members as well and we have been working this is our uh third year involved with the program and we have been working on supporting kids emotional wellness and responding to student behavior and we're um looking forward to keep working on that and U meeting with our colleagues up in cisu and humble and all over the North State it's been really wonderful and yeah that was my last slide so thank you very much if you have any questions or comments for me yes hi I do um I was also looking through these lovely binders that we got a couple months ago um I have a a couple of questions um it it looks like and so I just want clarification that um salaries overall increase 3% every year is that correct um I think it's a little less I think it's 2.5% but you know what if that's including the hourly staff then that probably averages out higher yeah um and then I also notice that you're currently using reserves uh to fund yes to fund things and your anticipating that your attendance is going to go up um can you help me with understanding what um I don't know the word I'm thinking of I'll just use like I don't know what things you're using to anticipate that your enrollment is going to go up and then what if it doesn't yeah so if it doesn't we have to make Cuts yeah okay um we have we have areas we could cut we don't want to but we have more Personnel than we're required to have in terms of support AIDS instructional AIDS and um mental health supports but um we are enrolling and advertising the board um this month is coming back to a conversation that was started at The Retreat about uh engagement Community engagement and promoting the school and fundraising thank you um my comment would be in re reviewing what you submitted was I was very impressed with your reading and math scores so keep doing whatever you're doing because it's working and um I appreciate the um the Personnel no not no person personal growth of your students in the monor program um I haven't ever ex had that for any of my children but I have friends who have who've just had wonderful results so I appreciate that you're keeping this school going and hope that uh finances work themselves out with an increase in enrollment thank you I'm going to piggyback on that too because I made a note that wow your Ela scores really went up and while your math scores didn't I can say that probably in every District um districts are talking about well we're you know we're not as bad or we're not that I think math is just um closer math is just where math is right now yeah so I I was also impressed thank you um so regarding the board's perspective on enrollment so because our higher or our our large number of socioeconomically disadvantaged students the postco hit was pretty hard on us as far as attendance goes and so we've been looking at attendance but also enrollment trying to trying to bolst our enrollment so it's something we're definitely actively working on um and and know is um a potential problem we're watching the budget very closely and all those things as well but some of those numbers of it going back up is because of the work that the staff and and the board have been doing so we know things are working but we know there's still room for improvement we're very much aware of of the the delicate situation that we're in but we feel like we're on the better side of it now that it's creeping back up to where it was postco so that sounds really promising yeah thank you I don't have my binder in front of me and maybe you already mentioned this but how many students do you currently have um currently 122 and what would be the number that you would need to be able to not dip into the reserves I believe it was yeah I did a big tour today so we also know that there's a difference between stable and comfortable and we're aiming for comfortable we're not aiming for staes how many can you accommodate I don't know the how many could we have in our school with the current classrooms yeah we looked at that the last was it 140 I think it's 140 that was your projected for 2930 was 140 so hopefully that that's the right number you can having to hire more stuff yeah yes yeah yeah yeah thank you any more questions from the board all right at this time we will open for um public hearing any comments from the floor all right we will close the public hearing okay so all of those items um are no action this evening um but we will come back to that at our at a later meeting so moving along um to 9.1.4 um this is a discussion action resolution number um 1675-1 um authorizing Pleasant Valley High School to purchase gifts for students utilizing a Golden Valley Bank grants so I'm going to invite Tina Keen up correct or you want to stay want to do that yes this resoltion is coming to the over holiday instead of the gift cards being full Ty what we do wey situ approve a resolution that will allow for that to haveen KN that we will processes that we have in place for theer does the board have any questions in regards or clarification questions I would just comment um to the public um that there was nothing that was not appropriate that went on with the funds um the funds were used appropriately nothing Shady um that went down but um it was just a kind of a miscommunication so in this situation we're just um rectifying the situation um any other comment just on that note perhaps um what what is supposed to happen would be that the bank would if they're if they're inclined to give $25 gift cards that they would give the5 gift cards and not give $2500 to the school and yeah and so that's that's the situation I'm sure it was a Time Savings thing for the bank who is kindly donating money and I I didn't those aren't the figures I'm just using that as an example but I'm sure it was a time-saving thing for the bank entity but it just can't be done that way in public education is correct all right is there any public comment okay do we have a a motion from the board I thought I pushed the button I'll make a motion to um approve resolution number 16752 I'll second that motion okay we can uh vote at this time um all those in favor say I I I all right that passes unanimously moving along to um agenda number um 9.1.4 this is informational only and this is a update on ethnic studies so inviting um Pedro Caldera up for presentation thank you uh I get the pleasure of inviting Beth Burton from Pleasant Valley and Gina Snider from Chico to come up and do this presentation than that well Bor thank you so much for having us here tonight uh both Gina and I are excited to talk to you and share the work that we've been doing for really the last three years uh with ethnic studies um I want to start off with that quote this is from assemblyman Jose Medina he's the author of assembly Bill 101 he says students cannot have a full understanding of the history of our state and Nation without the inclusion of contributions and struggles of Native Americans African-Americans Latinos and asian-americans so those are the four core groups that the ethnic studies curriculum says need to be included um in the courses that we develop um and with this with the passage in 2020 1 it says by 2030 so this is our current seventh grade class that is a graduation requirement and we've spent three years developing courses to ensure that every student in chica unified is represented as well as hits that graduation requirement by 2030 um the goal is for next year 2025 in the fall it's on the books so that's where we're getting to today uh some timeline woo so three years ago teachers at PV and Chico high as well as our admin leads of we started the conversations going through the state created um adopted curriculum saying we like this we don't like that how are we going to make it work for chica unified and we started the implementation process last year we continued to work together so PV Chico we also went to a number of trainings we'll talk about in just a second how are we going to create these courses modeling them from San Diego as well as from Pajaro school districts to see how we'd Implement these into our courses with the idea is to our existing world history and US history courses and enhance them so how do we ensure that the requirements are fulfilled in those courses that all sophomores and juniors take as well as this year having um a semester long course so students can fulfill that requirement and Gina will talk about that in just a second that any student 9 through 12 can fulfill these requirements so that's where we're looking at right now with our timeline and a little bit more teachers at pey and Chico High did a lot of professional development so myself and one of my colleagues from Chico High we took classes at UC Riverside so we've now earned a certificate in ethnic studies to teach the course um we went to actually Chico High sent a group down and they're going again this year to the California Council of social studies uh down in the Bay Area focusing on implementation of ethnic studies uh we also got a quarter of a million dollar Grant working with Glenn County Office of Ed to have professional development development hosted by UC Berkeley so again a number of of teachers not only social science but English language arts art music drama we had all of these teachers working together to develop um the curriculum we also had a chance last year to go to Chico State and there is the far Northern far north ethnic studies Symposium um bu Glenn Office of Education has also hosted curriculum development workshops where we've had teachers from again pey and Chico High developing new curriculum and then finally we've been blessed to have our district-wide staff development days where We've Come Together We had one at Pleasant valy one at Chico high again discussing working together collaborative between the school sites to how we're going to implement um ethnic studies so I'm going to turn the time over to Gina thank you what are you clicking here this yeah hi I'm Gina Schneider Chico hi and before I start I just want to thank Pedro for um facilitating a lot of these meetings and discussion and being really open-minded and flexible as this process has grown um it's it's you know it's a lot of work and um Pedro really um made sure that we were all heard and I and I do appreciate that especially me because people tend to not listen to me just kidding okay so what courses did we create and you know there's a lot of complexities here when we're thinking about course development and um and we came up with these models uh Beth mentioned some of these but we have a um a semester option anybody 9th through 12th can take that and it has that human cultural geography lens and it's a semon closure we're going to be um gearing that mostly towards ninth graders but anybody can take that um we also have a world history course so what we basically are doing with the world history and the US history courses is implementing the ethnic studies curriculum into the existing US history and world history curriculum so uh in order to get those credits the students have to pass both semesters to get that requirement met for graduation for both their history and ethnic studies good so we're going to start piloting this all the hard work that we've been doing over the last several years and in doing that oh boy can't see either one of those um what we're going to do is um you know make sure that we are implementing these into our classroom with the idea of fostering unity and the framework um and making sure that we are aligned with the curriculum that has been set out before us um but the state has a lot of flexibility so we were able to use that and take that into account in developing this curriculum into our local community and lens but again we're going to do that through the uh lenses of geography or world history or US history and quite honestly with this kind of offerings a student can take it their freshman year as a nth grader for a semester and they could be really interested in it and continue and they will have met the requirement for graduation for ethy but they they might like it enough to take that lens again in their world history 10th grade requirements um or classes and their US History classes as well there's nothing stopping them from continuing to do that which is a nice way of presenting you know these models for these students um so what we want to do of course is continue to Pilot this um but still work and in a pilot program you're going to look at what's working well and what could be twe tweaked and be done better and um we've been lucky enough to have the ability to work during our districtwide staff development days to do that and um I think that's been really helpful and significant in developing this so you know the bottom line is that we believe that all kids can learn and that that students should be enriched with a variety of perspectives and experiences in the classroom and we feel that this ethnic studies requirement will provide that for our students so what have we done basically in January check already done that we have signed off on these this cours work the department chairs and the administrators have signed off on this we're currently in number two this is what we're doing right now February 2025 presenting to you and in March um that's going to be up to you to um approve the classes if that's what you feel you should be doing and then um we will start registering while we're currently registering right now in the spring for next year's class um for for our fall classes and but the work's not over right so we'll keep working over the summer and again piloting the um classes that we've developed and continue our PLC we have a group like Beth said going to the conferences and continuing work with Berkeley and the other um avenues that we've been having a relationship with and um and like Beth said our current seventh graders will um have the opportunity to have this class or this graduation requirement um before they graduate so piloting right now is um an important step in this process so that we can be ready for those seventh graders that's all I got thank you I have a question um clarification well anyone either one either one of you well not Pedro he won't know um so at the at the high schools will students have an opportunity to take either a world history or B world history and cultures yes yes that sorry we didn't I forgot to say that yeah well I yeah I wasn't really clear if it was you know yeah so MH I was going to say that I think uh it's an excellent placement for nth grade for it to to make that offering um I think that was great thinking I looked at that and thought teachers came up with that idea good job but I will say this as a ninth grade teacher um I think it's going to be really important for uh I always like tell my freshmen hey you might be thinking about this and I think it would be really important to actually tell them if you really if you like this the the features that are being highlighted here and teachers will know which students are really loving it but you know really helping them see that you're going to have to take world history you're going to have to take us history in order to graduate and so if this lens is something that you appreciate you know know be thinking about that but freshmen sometimes don't put put those things together so you kind of have to be explicit yeah and the nice thing about the ninth grade offering is that it um we can reintroduce um geography and so we're using that as a lens which is so important and we haven't had in quite a bit and we're trying to incorporate it in our social studies classes but this is more of a standalone to use as an ethnic studies lens as well so having that marriage is going to be great yeah and I did have one other question I'm assuming that this is social social studies credit not elective correct for the for ninth grade or is it it's not social stud okay social be before we log off here in a sense I do want the board to realize that c USD is extremely fortunate to have this group of Educators here with us starting with with Chris Montgomery from py she used to be chica Jr just so you know I stole Joe yes Joe chance from Chico High um and we also had M Slava uh and ciso Loria from Pleasant Valley High School I mean they wanted to do this and so it was we're I feel that we're extremely fortunate uh to do this and we also had two wonderful APS that worked alongside of us and guided us with SAS and Diana Holland so I just want to make sure that you all understand that these individuals put in a lot of work before before you go away don't um once I got rid of all of my television channels I began to um look for answers to the things that were disturbing me about the world what I discovered in looking at how geography and the movement of populations and the stuff all feeds into I went oh my gosh um and I am so glad that you guys are putting this information in front of our students because it it changes your perspective on how different countries and different populations and different religions have ended up where they are or are moving away from where they were I just thank you so much for the work you're doing um you may find a board member sitting in on one of your classes time anytime no I I do I I just I was I was amazed at what I didn't know and thank you I got to add one more thing I had the honor of working at both Comprehensive High Schools one for a very long time and one for a very brief time and I will tell you firsthand that all of these people are amazing uh dedicated devoted um professionals yeah so you guys did a great J job thank you thanks thank you thank [Applause] you all right um is there any public comments okay this is also informational only so uh no action is needed this evening and at this time we'll move on to um agenda item 9.2 uh Business Services uh we're going to be this is discussion and action um in regards to um the 20242 demographic analysis and no did I skip something yes I did uh all right hold on one second 91.6 extended school year oh yes the little the mini meeting right okay you sorry I think we're on 91.6 91.6 cor extended school year so um Jennifer Scola good evening I'm here for my annual Springtime discussion with you about our plan for extended school year for special education services so every summer we offer an additional um extension of the current school year for our students with our most extensive needs and um the Ed code identifies that we must provide 20 days of service beyond the school day at a half of day uh or minimum Day schedule and we have overwhelmingly heard from both staff and and families that coming back for that last week when the Fourth of July is always in the middle and um interfering with everything that we would rather have longer days at 15 days rather than extended out to uh four full weeks at four hours a day so we're coming to you tonight um with a waiver request that I will turn into the California Department of Education so I've spoken with CSEA and cut on the union side in agreement and um parents are also sharing that you know they want to get out of town for that uh holiday weekend and so we're here in front of you tonight I will add that as an esy teacher for many many years I love the 3- we the longer days um because by the fourth week the kids are burnt out they just want to enjoy their time and and they've earned it you know and teachers and staff are burned out so thank you you're welcome so School the students will go to school for five hours a day teachers are um on campus for six doing um prep work for that extra hour and then we have time built in before in May early June to do all of the prep work we've actually started preparing we started last month so this is action an action is required so um is there a motion this time public comment to you public comment good or a motion now motion to approve a second okay and at this time um is there any discussion from board all right so we can um vote now um all those in favor of 9.16 I I all right thank you that passes thank you sorry about that guys I got a little dis you were moving this on through the agenda okay moving along to 91.7 this is informational um the midyear local control accountability plan the elcap updates that is correct thank you uh we are required to bring information to you including uh demograph or pardon including data related to metrics in uh during our school year as well as expenditures midy year between um the time we approve the cap in June of 2024 until it comes again to you in June of 2025 so um it is a nice time for us to sit and look at things mid mid year and um talk about them see how things are going and this is a snapshot of what uh where we're at I'm going to invite Tim and Sharice here who uh we are the the folks that is kind of the trifecta of uh I pull a lot of the writing pieces together Tim is our data person and Sharice and her fiscal Savvy helps us tremendously so here's Tim good evening um as Tina stated um tonight's presentation is a is required by the state and the state gives us certain uh parameters to follow uh regarding what we are to share with the board in this midyear update uh one of those things is outcome data that's attached to lcap and the data that I have to share with you you tonight is the same as what I shared a couple weeks ago I appreciate the opportunity to take a longer time um answer questions make sure the board um understands um the dashboard and the implications of it so um I would like to kind of speed through the data a little bit more um quicker than we did last time I'd like to invite members of the public um who weren't at last uh board meeting to get in contact with me if you have any specific questions um regarding the dashboard and I can also I'd be happy to share the slides from that night and the slides are online too it was live streamed so right the public does have the opportunity to look to look at it there as well right thank you yep okay so um for English language arts um we are yellow and as I shared with you a couple weeks ago we went down okay not a it's a concern to be going down um however we're still at the top end of our our similar school districts what you see right here is student group status and this is a breakdown by student group of how well the kids did on on last year's test and then the change so how kids did last year compared to the year before by student group moving on to math um it was mentioned earlier during inspir um presentation it's a most districts are are below um and so are we so um that being said we're we compare favorably to similar districts and you can see a drop in math achievement as well we have student group um results from last year and the change from the year previous stop me at any time with any questions for the scci California science test you can see we're at the top of our similar schools um we don't have a change because is the first year it's on the dashboard and here's a breakdown of our science uh scores by student group English learner progress we kind of in the Middle with our comparable districts um like the other uh like English and math we did go down um however we like I just showed you we're still um beiring well compared to similar districts I really would uh encourage the public um to really look at the longer presentation um because it it really does have contextual information that helps put this in perspective um and I don't want uh the public thinking that we're glossing over this because we we didn't I promise you can look at I think it was a three-hour meeting and you're welcome to look at that information and I encourage you to do so and it's really information I think it's important mhm graduation rate you can see we're we're near the bottom however we're still green the state so that's a positive from the state um however um it's lower than we would like to see and it went down a little bit this is our student group status for graduation rate and our graduation rate change by student group and again can you explain is is the negative sometimes a negative is a good thing and sometimes a negative is bad thing so so graduation rate is something we want to go up um as opposed to suspension rate or chronic absenteeism so um graduation rate we want to go up so being on the right side of the green line there um means you're growing we look at Chronic absenteeism um we're still significantly higher than we were preco however we've been decreasing um year by year um but like I said we're still not um we're still not where we'd like to be and I appreciate the board um inviting us in for a attendance uh Workshop coming up and one thing different than Inspire this is not this does not include high schools for C USD is that correct correct okay yep so you can see our change we went down 3.2% from the previous year and this is our chronic absenteeism by student group and the change from the previous year so we want to be on the left side of this of this for chronic absenteeism meaning we're going down suspension rate um status we kind of right in the middle of our similar districts we are green we did go down fairly significantly for um in in our suspension rate by 7% so that's a good good thing um and you can see the stud uh suspension rate by student group here and then the change and again this is one where we want to be on the left side going down for the College and Career indicator you can see us there we're yellow at 46.3% and you can see we dro by little bit less than a percent from the previous year the College and Career indicator status here so this is how uh well our grad cohort last year fared um in this indicator and this is um comparing um last year's grad cohort to the previous year's grad cohort and this one we want to go up so we want to be on the right side of the line and I just like to point out that one of our largest groups um our socioeconomically disadvantaged had pretty significant growth here yes that's that's visual you know visual representation of closing the achievement Gap and any questions about any of that data okay thank you I'll turn it over over to Sharice good evening board so the second part of the midyear update we have to look at the financial pieces of the lcap so this first couple sides what we're looking at is the budgeted expenditures that came to the board in June as a part of the lcap adoption and then on the in the mid year expenditures that's expenditures that we actually paid out through January 31st and so um the implementation if it says on target that means that we've spent about 50% or more so we consider that on target so if you look at all of goal one and go down to the total because we like to look at this in aggregate um the total we've spent a little over 50% so for goal one we consider ourselves on target okay so then this one shows goals to oh yes go ahead and what does in Pro you exp in progress just means that we're spending it's still part of the LC cap but we're not spending as quickly as we originally thought we were going to um and that could be because of grant funding that we have that has carryover available um like that happens in after school sometimes we'll spend a little bit slower and carry over some of those dollars for plan Staffing for next year you're welcome okay so then goals two three and four two and three are very similar to last year here um and so they are both on target we're spending about the pace that we thought we were going to the one that I want to bring your attention to is goal four so this one is brand new to us this year it is the equity multiplier funds that we received that are being spent at our alternative Ed campus and these funds are specific to each School site so we only get them for certain School sites um one of the other pieces for alternative Ed is they also receive a lot of grant funding from the federal government and those funds expire faster so Equity multiplier has carryover funds and we're kind of building the program because this is the first year so that's why you'll notice some of those are in progress a little bit lower than we would want to see at this point and the final one down there the I bilingual we've actually hired that as of mid January so that will change to in progress um in my chart just so you guys know yes during my during my review of um go four yes I noticed the um number four Center for Alternative Learning and the academic for change reading interv intervention sections yes and that dis spirit I I I've already gotten an answer but I wanted everybody else to hear yes why that um midyear expenditure is so low so it's a combination of the staff that we've hired in there is an intern so they tend to be a little less expensive than actually hiring a certificated teacher as well as as I mentioned some of that Staffing is coming out of other funds like CSI that um alternative that is receiving from the federal government those have a sooner expiration date and so we haven't built up the Staffing within the equity multiplier as much as we originally planned I just wanted to make sure and I have been reassured that that um component of focus for the alternative Ed um programs is still there because this is important important to me I'm sure it's important to the kids so yes indeed and it's exciting to have the chance to be able to build that Intervention Program so in fact just today Andrew Maul the principal and I were talking about strategies and ideas to build that because he's never had that opportunity before specifically so I um do fully expect that to to grow and and go to to some great places we have such a short period of time with that student population and usually significant deficits in that in the the reading area So the faster we can do things that work not just spend money but put in place things that work you know the better it will be for that population which does my heart good yes we are of the same thinking as you are thank you okay yes okay so then the second part of this is we are comparing um what is called the budget overview for parents so this is another portion of the LC cap that's presented in June and this looks at budget rather than what we've actually spent so on the left hand side there you'll see the projected Revenue that was the original budget total um which was $200 million when we brought it to you guys in June and then the revised Revenue that's our first interim budget that we presented in December so you'll notice there was an increase of about $5 million most of that is in state and federal grants um some of it was a increase in Title One um but mostly it's new grants that we received received uh the the Community Schools implementation Grant as well as the I don't want to say this wrong learning communities uh Grant so we received both of those mid uh fall and we didn't know about them at original budgets that was the reason for the increase in that Revenue budget and the second part of the budget overview for parents is the expenditure side um so you'll notice that on the smaller bar there so the top portion just so you guys know what you're looking at is the Pro rejected expenditures as of original budget in June and the bottom the blue bar bars that's the first inter room budget that we brought to you in December the smaller bar over on the right that's our lcap budget so you'll see that the only uh the change between those was very small it was about 130,000 and that had to do with our textbook funds so the budget that we presented to you when we came to in June was pretty accurate with where we landed around first interim okay any questions on the fiscal side okay all righty I think that's it and there's no action required this is information only thank you all right um moving along to um item number 9.18 um this is so informational we have the student lcat meeting update for the 20 2425 school year other and Pedra okay um good evening this is our second meeting so we were last year it was decided that we'd have three elat meetings with our students throughout the year so that's what I just told you okay um so the element Elementary meeting was held on January 24th and we had 26 students attend there were two representatives from each of our 12 elementary schools it is a wonderful day I enjoy every moment of it and um what we look at is within their feedback on academic social emotional behavior and safety so things that are going really well for them academically are they expressed extreme gratitude for the opportunities are available across their campuses in the availability of participating in PE science stem programs writing lessons student council and art classes there was a lot of pro uh feedback in the positive relationships that they have with their students they or their teachers they highlighted the caring nature they're actively listening to them they have an ability to make learning enjoyable and they are providing extra support as needed when students feel like they could use extra reading math or writing support um they also are very appreciative of the positive recognition systems that are in place such as school chance student stores and the student of the month assemblies their biggest recommendation is that we continue to maintain PE stem in arts in regards to social emotional learning again they reiterated that the staff is caring yes I'm I'm going to stop you right here because you it didn't mention it meaning the report didn't mention one of the standout inputs from my perspective I got to attend these again this year um I board members if you haven't gotten to one of these put it on your calendar anytime during the year I think there's three and there there will be more but one of the things that um when it the students talked about um uh you know the teachers helping them feeling like the teachers were listening feeling that that they were getting um uh just all kinds of support and I'm not sure which one of you asked them is this new has it always been this way or or is this year better and the students responded that this year is better so that to me was just wonderful that you know that what we're doing with our staff with supports for our teachers with uh they enjoyed the um lessons that the counselors were doing in the classrooms um and it just was such a positive um hour that we spent with those kids and um I was impressed with their understanding of what's going on in their Academic School life world they get it I mean they know why they're there what's working what isn't working and they were really um forthcoming in Sharing they we just I love the fact that we have kids that are growing up that are going to be really really good in this world soon and that is a fact they are doing great things and they were and again they're very articulate in these meetings and share what they like and what they would like to see changed so in regards to the social emotional they again mentioned the staff and the approachability of them that they feel safe to talk to them um that they're reliable and they can depend on them when issues Arise at school to help problem solve they did mention again that the counselors are excellent listeners and the weekly lessons that are provided are beneficial to all and they also mentioned that they appreciate the variety of lunch options that were available and they ensured that there was always a meal that they could get at at school um the recommendations is one this one was very interesting to me they asked us to explore additional ways to Pro promote kindness and inclusion um such as videos Awards and more awareness campaigns they actually said we'd like to see the principles use the video cameras to watch and just find good things happening across campus um they they also just again to continue to Foster that kindness and incl usion throughout these reward systems and then the one recommendation for our nutrition services was unanimous to consider changing the pizza recipe and that was well received because nutrition services was with us as well so they have a plan um in regards to behavior and safety they they reiterated that they feel safe at school part of that is the presence of the fencing the cameras the radios that are used uh the locked doors and emergency drill were mentioned that they they that provides reassurance for them that we're practicing those drills again they reiterated in this context the caring nature of our staff helps them to feel supported and welcomed and really they they hit on all staff not just teachers in the classrooms but everywhere that they go in the campus um they also mentioned that bullying is not really a significant issue but because students are learning tools and strategies to resolve conflicts on their own and with with the support of adults a couple of their recommendations in regards to behavior and safety were increasing Supervision in the areas where problems are more likely to occur most of that in their mind was during lunch recess they'd like more supervision so that football soccer basketball all are refereed as well as other games that are being played and then um implementing stronger anti-bullying initiatives and those positive behavior interventions and Les lessons and reminders throughout the year and then the big concern is just that we continue to work on addressing language that's used and sportsmanship among the students and that is the elementary you will be hearing a Rec a recurring theme here uh and it's going to sound a lot of uh well it's going to sound similar so uh we met with the junior high students on uh Feb on uh Friday Jan uary 31st and we had 11 students there so with that what's going well um they felt there was an increase in uh teacher check-ins with students from the previous years so much like uh uh Mrs uh Robinson was saying is that you know we we students are noticing different things happening teachers are available before and after school for additional support science labs offer Hands-On learning students collaborate with uh class classmates in small groups uh which allows for different approaches uh to solving math problems that may be more effective with for them um and what you're going to see there I believe is a testament to what our uh CH unified initiative is is to push uh teaching strategies and to make uh engagement strategies that much more um I guess effective with inside the classroom so that is what Mrs Robinson was uh uh alluding to was that students are starting to notice a difference and uh I thought that was pretty cool so so with this whoops let me see all right social emotional what's going on well students know how to access counselors through their Chromebooks and staff teachers and principes are welcoming to their students that's also recurring theme PBIS video slides and many lessons are frequently presented I do encourage the board to try going to at least one of some of the middle schools and sit in on a PBIS lesson and just know that those are repeated weekly and then uh recommendations uh our students felt that uh it would be nice if the counselors would check in on students who had a d or an f grade and that is a little bit different to what we currently have set up within our mtss system and we do have thre thresholds and our thresholds may say hey two or more failing grades and those are the students that we meet with so it was kind of interesting to hear it from students saying Hey listen if I'm failing a class I would really appreciate the counselor calling me in so that's something that we will share with our mtss group the other part was organized whole school activities rallies and kindness awareness events does it sound familiar to Elementary sure does yeah and then um here's something the middle schools wanted um and I was like man you I I'm going to present this to the board but there's no guarantee because it's virtually impossible for that to happen and that is ensure that all grades have the same lunchtime I was like yeah no we can't feed 900 kids in a 30 minute window or a 45 minute window good luck with that so no yes so the counselor is checking in oneon-one with students who have a d or an F of course that goes to the bigger question of what counselors you know their workload and the amount of students they have and so while I do think that it that would be awesome um you know it has to be something that um I think you'll I mean the the reality is you'd need more counselors and I don't know whether that's going to to happen or not but I do appreciate them seeing the value of counselors and and that we certainly see the value of counselors too but that I'm sure that's why there's um if you have two or more D's or you know whatever that there has there is a threshold there if you go to the very first bullet to me that's the biggest thing is that students know how to get a hold of their counselors and so I mean they have access to them so it's just a matter of just reiterating at the beginning of the year if you are failing in class and you want to speak to a counselor you always have that available it's via the Chromebook Pedro yes can you go I might have I might have slept through it but go back one slide academics did you go over that recommendations oh maybe I didn't but thank you I might have skipped it I wasn't sleeping okay no okay no I was with my eyes open all right uh increase Hands-On learning opportunities and this is their recommendations uh of course and provide more classroom suppliers such as rulers color pencils and erasers um allocate approximately 20 minutes of homework in class time to do homework I was like um you know I don't I don't think we're going to be doing that one yes we can work it with it within certain classes but we're not going to be doing that but here I am sharing this uh uh make uh more loner Chromebooks and Chargers available in the classroom that's a tough one um and and the whole reason behind this and I'm going to throw this out there one of the things that we really try to instill in our students is a sense of responsibility to bring that Chromebook charged or at least bring the Chromebook to the classroom we can always provide Chargers and we totally understand that there are situations where some of our students probably don't have access to uh Chargers after school but um within the classroom there's always one available and so I just thought I'd throw that out there um yeah please so you're saying that there are Chromebooks available in the classroom yes there are yes okay and is that a do you have a certain number like um so in junior high school we're talking about Junior High correct um class size is you know in the 30s to 40 you know right so every student has a Chromebook right right and every student has a charger at home inside the classroom you'll have maybe um depending on the classroom but a minimum of two Chromebook what we call looners right they're inside the classroom that a teacher can automatically hand out along with that and by the way they are older models for a reason along with that there's also Chargers in inside the classrooms and they can be anywhere from 2 to 4 right and those Chargers students can sit next to an outlet connect and be on their Chromebook to add to that there are Chromebook loaners inside the Library so those are always accessible so my my concern is that while it's true that every student is assigned a Chromebook and that the expectation is that they bring them back and forth just the weight of this like if this is heavy um and I'm not having to bring my my school binder and my coursework I don't I'm just bringing one little bag and you know you have sixth graders that I just want you to consider that per a percentage of total body weight is that's incredible like if we were if as adults if we were having kids if if we had to carry the same percentage of body weight around it's it's a factor um and I don't know whether that it would be possible but I do think that it's something that Chico UniFi should look at you know we in in my classroom I had a class set of Chromebooks and they had their Chromebook at home but they didn't have to bring it okay you know and so there was a locked box and I mean two may not be I I realize that a whole class set a 30 may not be a possibility I mean they're expensive and they're also a durable good they only last so long right so I get that but perhaps two is not going to be an adequate amount I'm just throwing it out there thank you I appreciate that um a nice one was there an additional comment I saw you pointing I just wanted you to know that you'd been Knuck up on from Mr Vincent I just saw him so if there are specific questions I'm sure he can also answer I I have a question because um I know how many Chromebooks we have in this District it's a few yeah it is a matter of fact I just took today and there's about 19,000 that are in the district exactly yes and to double up 19,000 it's um so we right now we spend about a million a year on Chromebooks you get 3,300 so we need to double that looking at another million dollar a year right I've looked at that before I I just wanted you everyone to have a an understanding of um just exactly how significant the problem would be if we were to try and purchase more than one per student thank you uh two more items on there and coming from kids reduce the number of students in each classroom to a maximum of 25 and I'm gonna I'm guess I'm just going to skip ahead just a little bit but it was the same thing the high school said which was kind of interesting and then um of course if you do have classrooms of 25 right what do you do with classrooms of 38 they asked well it'd be cool in those big classrooms if there was an additional adult so the perspective from students yeah that's kind of interesting yeah safety uh staff teachers and principes are always welcome to our students campus supervisors are always present um School Representatives uh report that the students are aware of blind spots in the camera uh C coverage right and then at Chico Junior High School students feel uncomfortable with the area behind the well Fargo being unsupervised I know exactly where that's at so especially since the gates are open um the gates are only open during specified periods of time which is the morning and after school so uh just just to clear clarify that and then uh there have been incidents of fights on campus so that's what they're sharing recommendations increase the number of Campus supervisors in areas uh that are in the blind spots add supervisor visors during uh lunch breaks at Chico Jr and Bidwell so they wanted more supervisors during that time provide more outdoor space for sports during lunchtime um uh I encourage you all to visit the middle schools during lunchtime just so that you're able to understand the wonderful job that our administrators and our support sta do um to make sure that the students became are are active and are doing safe activities during lunchtime um so I'm going to leave that one there for you uh Supply more sports equipment such as basketball soccer balls and volleyball nets and so one of the things that I share with the students is that I will be sharing this with their administrator and then improve campus cleanliness by ensuring that trash is picked up regularly and so that was something that was shared by all three sides just so you know after lunch it does take a while to clean up after the students High School um there was a snafu that turned into a blessing uh we did uh have a scheduled meeting for both of our high schools together uh but it didn't work out that way and so we ended up meeting with them separately and it was actually pretty good and uh it is something that I think that we're going to be doing from here well here on out uh meeting with Chico high and PB separately we were able to get more students there and get a different um more more opinions so um but we had eight students total what's going well same thing Hands-On activities um learning uh sorry English class has uh acting opportunities from Shakespeare Napolean robotics through CTE and of course old schools have an amazing CTE program um they like the freedom to choose academic classes such as science uh the science department is very strong uh and that's something that uh both schools shared um and you know we all these amazing things that are up there that you know that you all can see um some of the recommendations here it is again students are comfortable with class sizes of 25 and allow students they want some of the students ask can we take additional college classes and I should say students can take additional class sorry college classes but how that works into um the current a our current AR only allows a certain amount of credits so I just want to be clear with that one social emotional what's going well students have access to the wellness center the wellness center is perceived as a very a very safe place um coaches and this is Athletics promote a healthy lifestyle by encouraging students to work hard all students can access their counselors um and counselors have a dedicated web page with a Google form for students seeking support and students are aware of their counselor's email addresses for easy communication so I mean sounds like the high schools um have a very easy access to their counselors uh and here's something that they shared in terms of uh recommendations increase education and awareness about impacts of gossiping and spreading rumors interestingly enough both high schools shared that they did not believe that bullying was existed on campus nor did any of the students share or say hey we've seen bullying they did share that in social media outside of school that's where they see um bullying if you will and so uh with that they uh also made a recommendation make the wellness center more interactive during Mental Health visits uh snacks aren't necessary um got to be careful with that one because I know a lot of students that would love to go in there for snacks safety um all the campus supervisors are available they're out there uh they mentioned that a lot of the campus supervisors they're they know them on a name- to-name basis and the campus supervisors go out of their way to speak with the students and theyve part of the chico high and our PV family their recommendations are provide education to students about special education a lot of the students share that there there needs to be more education with regards to that um in particular uh py said that uh well the event we not me really opened up a lot of the eyes to a lot of uh the students on campus and it's something that needs to be continued so they raised awareness about effects of gossiping and spreading rumors once again um they asked if they could have the bathrooms renovated um that was on the last report that we did or last presentation but here's a new one and uh um I'm looking up here because uh they said replace all the flat roofs as there are many leaks in the classrooms that are due to the flat roofs um I was like okay all right I'll share that uh increase Greenery around the campus at PV they would love to see more more shrubs and more trees and PVE also said uh we need to improve the drainage on the walkways to address flooding issues I told them that only floods floods maybe once or twice a year you'll be fine but builds character right we used to walk in the snow what 8 miles of uphills both ways exactly uh what's what's two Ines of water all right uh Fairview Oakbridge student nail cap meeting which was on Friday the uh January 24th there were six students there uh what's going well um it is overwhelming ly powerful that the relationship that our alted teachers build with our students is incredible I cannot tell you every time that I'm there they I mean hands down they say that it's the teachers they communicate well they have strong expectations they're extremely supportive they're doing everything possible to support their students and that's all up there one of the things that they also noticed was students had gone back back and forth from the comp sites to alt dead and one of the reasons they appreciated Fair viiew uh in Oakbridge was the smaller class sizes um and they did make some recommendations they said hey establish game clubs uh homecoming events and if possible sports teams they also asked is it possible for uh Fairview students that play sports at the Comprehensive High Schools so throwing that out there social emotional learning once again we've covered this uh recommendations they had none so you know that's a testament to what they're doing at Al dead and with regards to safy safety uh there were many campus supervisors present campus supervisors actively move around the campus instead of staying in one place I can tell you I'm over there at least once a week and all the campuses supervisors are always greeting anybody who walks through the front door and they're always present so um and and you could see them greeting the students and just making them feel comfortable their recommendation was we got they got a set of bathrooms renovated they would love to have another set of bathrooms so just throwing that out there and then provide education awareness about the impacts of gossiping and spreading rumors interesting across all three high schools so and that's it I just have a couple comments um one I'm really surprised not to see anything regarding cell phones on either end um that wasn't even brought up at all um I want to say that there was a comment but now I I do get confused between the last one and the similarities that I I I think there students are starting to focus a little bit more because cell phones are not allowed inside the classroom yeah but there was Zero uh comments regarding like oh we want cell phones oh absolutely nothing like that and then the other thing um I love the idea about Fairview students participating in sports I mean is that something we could potentially explore or um participating with the neighboring we could always explore it but I don't know if it's feasible I know the CIF has definitely some rules and they're would need to be some sort of agreement um like we would just need to explore it yes um Pedra thank you I do remember comments about the cell phones good and the comments were we like it yeah we see a difference we know we're paying more attention and we know there aren't as many issues because of photographing things that m shouldn't be photographed so I do remember comments yeah all positive which is good so do students get a diplom students get a diploma from Fairview yes yeah yes and so I think that's that is the reason that it limits their ability to participate in other another high school's sports team it would be like a Pleasant Valley student saying I'd like to participate on red buff team you know they're separate High School I think I I mean I don't know all the CIF rules but if a school is issuing a diploma that's where you're that's where CIF would see that you're associated with is my understanding um I wanted to just it's Mr Vincent right I didn't get the the number you you said that you we spend a million dollars a year on Chromebooks can you is that replacing Chromebooks or for incoming freshmen or or incoming students like can you explain a little bit more there you bet so we buy 3,300 a year 3 th thousand of those cover three grades and so we deploy to second graders believe sixth graders and ninth graders and so then we take the old ones and use those in classroom spares and for children who have a difficult time managing Chromebook so they get an older one right and it's not that a million dollars is an inconsequential amount um not at all obviously but you know uh currently we have a 35% reserve and you know and 1% is roughly what 1% of what of the of the so of the 35 million would be 350,000 so right you know 3 I'm yeah I'm that's why I'm asking a math person I teach English so I'm just saying that um to do 3,300 is a million to if you doubled that um or you it's not just all or nothing I guess is my point and I do see a value and um having more spares in classrooms i' just like to say yes I do too so if you the board decides that intend to take that move I'm more than happy to help with that any other questions any public comment yes do we have to do the time Elaine board um I a question just came to mind when I was sitting there during the presentation uh so I attended the autism Symposium at Chico State a month ago now no a couple weeks ago anyways and part of one of our um little cooh cohort chats that we had we actually brought up the LC cap and we were talking about um we were wondering if students with disabilities were actually ever invited to participate in these conversations to gather their input um including those students that have um extensive support needs because obviously they have thoughts and feelings um regarding their experience as a student of Chico Unified and then also while I was sitting there during the presentation uh the thought came to me of how are I believe students are nominated by their principles to attend these meetings and I only say that because my daughter was invited once to attend um are we getting a diverse group of students to participate in these um meetings as well because I feel if it's always the um good student that's getting those good grades that participates in everything um that their experience might be different than the student that's a little more shy and sits in the back and and outspoken and babies in the shadows compared to her peer or compared to their peers um so just wanting to make sure too that we're getting diverse input from um our students or we're Gathering A diversity a diverse group of students to gather that input um because it's easy to get all your really good students and have all that positive feedback versus if you have students that um I don't want want to use this term but maybe tend to be a little more bad or Troublesome that their experience is going to be different than those quote unquote good kids so just making sure we're really considering and getting input from all students that are part of GCO uifi well and I can jump in there as well when we started this it was long before uh the l cap was a requirement and that was actually our very Target group of students we wanted to make sure we said we don't want Student Government kids coming we want to have a very diverse group of kids and um that's been taken a step further where now we ask for students that represent um are unduplicated count so that we have that representation um and if you uh Eileen can attest the conversation do have kids talking about being suspended um and usually they're saying I deserved it so um I guess my only wish is that we could have more you know voices but you know that gets unwieldy too if you want to actually hear everyone but to answer your question it's been a very concerted effort to ensure that we get a diverse group of kids and not just the same group of kids that already have platforms to share uh superintendent say I'm going to add what I know and on um well what I suspect I did not get um to go to the PV input day for the elap however last year I was able to attend the were there 16 or 17 students from both high schools the criteria for selection um was was that you would have some special ed kids some C kids kids that were you know Midway through being academically successful um students that were bilingual but didn't have English as their primary um language and the impression that you get after coming away from listening to that diverse group of kids is they all recognize what each other are going through there were some jocks there were some you some students who had problems with suspension well not suspension it was detention a little bit of a discussion about detention um but the overall input was so genuine and so thoughtful it didn't matter what student was offering information they were offering what they saw honestly and um so I I hope that we do continue to do it diverse group that was one of my suggestions this year even though I couldn't go um but in the year that that did happen it just was an amazing experience and um again I came away thinking you know what we've got some really good possibilities for the human race in Chico Unified and I do appreciate the diversity and I think it's that's really important um I just want to also say you know we have we had eight and nine members of schools that have 1,00 kids I mean what's the population right and I the reason I bring that up it's not that we didn't I mean we can do our absolute best of making sure and so when you say the unduplicated count for people that don't know what that means that you're socioeconomically disadvantaged you're um Foster Youth and our elel students is that right okay so that's that's a I think it's a worthy goal an important goal but I also want anybody out in the public sphere um including Elaine to feel like we are listening we certainly understand that bullying is happening that it does happen and that while the perception of these students is that that's it it's interesting I did you see the recurring theme of how gossiping and and rumors hurt and they may not be seeing that as bullying and so there was certainly room for improvement and I wouldn't want um any parents or student to feel like they're they're being diminished by hearing just this feedback that you know all as well because um we certainly want them to feel heard and um and that we're working on it and I think the comment that Pedro made is that the students are feeling that rumors and things through social media and we know that's true you know it's it may not be directly to their face um but you know it's coming around in a different manner which is what he mentioned all right um so this is informational only and we don't um are not taking any action on this item tonight so at this time we'll move on to I think this is the one I tried to jump to earlier 9.2 from business Services um Julie Kissle hi good evening thank you so much for having us here tonight um I always appreciate um hearing all of this information um about our district it's fascinating uh information that you got presented to you tonight um every year in February the facilities Department comes forward and presents a new demographic study uh to the Board of Education uh you have all received the big document for your review um this information is a little bit different than what the business department uses like for enrollment projections for for building budgets um we need this information so that we can properly plan for facilities for our students now and well into the future because as you know it takes a long time for the the wheels of facilities to change to create spaces for students um as we see the needs so um we utilize the services of King Consulting um along with information that's gathered from many departments yes Julie Madam president our representative from kinging and Associates is one of the people I love the most because he is so good at presenting these however we've been here quite a while without a break this board member would like to have a break before he begins I'm sorry Rob that's quite all right okay for e e e all right we are going to reconvene thank you sure thank you um as I was saying tonight's been really informational for us and we appreciate it very much we do this analysis every year in February it's very very important for the planning for the future of facilities in our district to stay on top of things um different departments in the in the district help to provide data um from the school district to our consultant um King Consulting and and then they go out and they gather all kinds of other information that Rob is going to go over with you um you have the report for your review but he's going to do a a quick summary of the highlights of the plan just to go over them and then we'll take any questions that you might have so um let me introduce to you rob Murray from King Consulting all right thank you Julie and good evening to our board to our superintendent and staff but if you don't mind we'll go ahead and dive in to this year's update to the demographic analysis in student housing report again I'm Rob Murray the director of demographics at King we've been preparing this report for you if not annually at least frequently dating back to quite a while so I feel like we have a pretty good bead on a lot of what's happening and the big takeaways this year and this is this first point is not new but births are continuing to decrease we're going to show you some visuals of exactly what that's going to entail a little bit later on but that's probably honestly the biggest item uh and we're also seeing as of this year this is maybe the bigger news in terms of something that wasn't really present in last year's version that some of that net growth of your existing students it's still you're still gaining on net but it's slowing down and I have some explanations for that that I'll get into when we get to that part but countering to those city of Chico is maintaining a very steady pace of new residential development and as long as that continues to be maintained which it shows no signs of not being the case for at least the next several years that is going to continue to bring you that pipeline of new families coming in and of course transitional kindergarten is the other big one the extent to which of course we have been expanding that program since 2022 23 by next year this upcoming fall every four-year-old who wishes to enroll in transitional kindergarten you are obligated effectively it is a new grade level at that point though it is not a compulsory one and that's some of the wiggle room in the projections is the extent to which after that proportional bump that you have from that last set of the youngest four-year-olds the extent to which that program will continue to grow incrementally a little bit as you have a Delta between the kids that we independently anticipate you getting for kindergarten how many of them will also come to you for TK the year before so those are some of the highlights that we'll get to if there's anything I don't cover tonight that you read in the full report of course feel free to ask I'm happy to talk about any of this but here is your total enrollment and as you see you had a steady pace of growth leading up to the 1920s school year you like almost everyone else saw a one-time substantial drop in enrollment excuse me I as I talk about covid-19 going to have my lingering cough that I'm just not quite able to shake but we'll get through it uh but then you resumed that growth pattern really until this year and interestingly while not every grade was right on looking back at last year's report because of course we're covering the moderate projection which is good for long-term planning but we give you a low and a high that are good for plausible things especially in the short term next one to two years and that 12286 was precisely the total for the low projection last year which means it was a surprise because we thought it was going to be a little higher I'll get to the things that were unique about this year but a lot of it is that net cohort growth but you still landed within what was plausible that we identified last year based on historical data so again you're not doing anything unprecedented we just hit the very low end of what seemed like a reasonable one-year thing and so it will be very very big to see the extent to which this was a blip that we look back on and say well that year was weird or if we get back to your previous very very steady growth patterns so again just that visualization of what you have done if you just look at G uh loss and gain just this you we can exclude the co year but this year just stands out now here's a part of what's Happening happening just a quick overview of how the basic uh trajectory of your future enrollment goes and that is you have every year a new kindergarten cohort that your darker blue color there and you really see since uh you know the co year was low but you are getting lower and lower numbers of kindergarten students and that really corresponds with fewer and fewer local births and so every time that you have your outgoing cohort whether that's your fifth graders Elementary School moving up to Junior High whether that's your 12th graders graduating from Chico Unified entirely you're really looking at who's leaving versus who's coming in and when you have a difference in size that sets the tone for what your enrollments do now you have things that offset that but your natural inclination here of your enrollments just based on local birth demographics is that your enrollment is would be tending down if you didn't have these other things helping to offset it and one of those things of course is residential development and so we just want to do a quick review because we always have these numbers in there every year and there's a big important point I want to make on your student generation rates but that is we look at actual housing and Chico has no shortage of it that's been built over the last few years and it's exci is just as exciting as it sounds we get the addresses of your students and we just compare addresses find how many students there are in the homes that were built translate that to a ratio of on a per unit basis and we use that to gauge how that's changing over time and you'll see the really big significant one is single family detached housing which remains probably the most common type of housing in certainly some parts of your District really came in lower this year and we actually I went back to every year uh you know back to an early early report that I you found some numbers for to the mid 90s and I cannot find another time that your rate was that low in terms of student generation so part of it is home prices are reaching record highs the homes that were built are used to really really draw in younger families with school AG kids and it looks like that may not be as much the case anymore now that said we still have very healthy uh student generation rates in fact it got nice increase this year from new affordable housing and you just had a lot of those completed recently so you did get a lot of students from that below market rate housing so here is the list of everything coordinating with your city of Chico planning staff on projects that are just in the pipeline so again well over 4,000 units now some of these may not happen in this projection period of seven years but again it's that long Runway looking ahead of lots of development and the reason I don't have the students here on the same table like I do for some other districts is this if you look back to that last decade of enrollment this trend of steady consistent development have been going on for so long that the students that are generated are kind of already built into what we look at in the past in terms of one of the points I'll get to in a minute how does an existing group of students change as it moves through the grade from year to year so if we already see that you tend to gain students at sixth grade you tend to gain students at ninth grade across all of your grades you still tend to get more students the next year than you had the year before that's largely accounting for the impact of these there's just a few specific projects either very large ones or 100% affordable housing that gets put up all at once and you get again at a roughly 2third clip a bunch of kids who will all move in at the same time if you build 50 units all at once that we want to account for but here is again that map again you see it's not spread evenly uh a lot of what's going on now and a lot of what will be coming over the next few phases is concentrated in the south of the district between Barber yard between uh what's still going on with Miriam Park Stone Gate eventually perhaps Valley's Edge so lots of things to keep an eye on there yeah we we won't get all the way into all of that but again we're tracking things that are being talked about so quick look before we get to the projections just again I'm only including this one table you have a whole bunch of maps but we look at your students uh not just where they're enrolled in school but we also look at where they live and how they're moving and exercising that choice of what schools they want to attend some of which is program driven uh but just quickly as a review if you look down these columns that's each School boundary and you can see for the students of the grade level served by that school who live in that boundary all the different schools that those residents attend and then looking across the rows you see all the schools they can attend that includes Hooker Oak and Rosedale and Oakbridge where you don't have a School boundary but then you can see what boundary all those kids are coming from so this is probably the single most in densely informative thing that we have in the report again not going to speak to it at length but if you have questions on it of course please feel free to ask and that gets us to the enrollment projections and here is uh in terms of long-term View and something that we've been accounting for what we've we've seen this coming for the last few years that red bux outlines the years of birst that are already in the books and 2024 just recently in the books actually and you came in pretty close to where you did in 2023 so still at least managed to crack a thousand but again the the norm for a a good while in here has been somewhere between 1100 and 1200 births and that is the pool of birst that have made up your last several kindergarten cohorts and you've seen they've been taking down anyway what you have coming up for the next few years is really going to be the first real impact you're going to see from there being significantly fewer births that we know occurred and so it's just the extent to which some of these will be augmented by people who have since moved into the district with young preschool age kids one thing to note here with those ratios you notice pre-co you tended to capture M uh you know mid to high 70% of course in this community you do have some private schools you do have some charter schools of course you have some people who are born here and might not have still live here by the time they are of school age and that's really what's happened postco it wasn't just that big loss of enrollment that you saw one time it was also a bunch of those small children who were under five years old at the time who also left and that's why you've seen that ratio drop down to the low 70s we're still looking at those same birth totals from 2019 and earlier but once you get five years later usually that's Apples to Apples in this case we know more of those kids weren't even living in your District anymore we know a lot of people uh there was a lot of movement around the pandemic we do anticipate your ratio will get back higher but of course we're talking about a slightly larger piece of a much smaller Pi so we're still looking at even with that offset you're going to see some records small at least in recent history kindergarten cohorts coming in and of course TK continues to grow proportionally with that roll out uh existing cohort net growth so this is the one I was also talking about that's big this year uh you lived in a you know remote island in the middle of the ocean we would expect this to be almost flat who you had the year before probably just comes back the next year the difference being you know seniors graduate new Kinders come in in reality people are constantly moving in and out of your district and on net uh you saw you had been up above 2% total growth You' had a couple of years around the pandemic where it was lower and this year really dropped off again and if you look at it I don't have that up on this presentation but in the report by grade level you see high school has still been consistent uh Elementary School was lower than usual the junior high grades were much lower than usual so that's just a kind of new data point that we want to keep an eye on we're certainly going to explore some other correlations as we move forward with again is to what extent is this an anomaly and to what extent is this the beginning of a new trend that we want to account for but this is our overall projection still one of growth but more modest than we've shown you in the past and a lot of that is really again past projections already knew about the low births and smaller kindergarten cohorts coming this is really accounting for that net growth in your existing cohorts just pumping the brakes a little bit and putting that down again you came in right at your low projection from last year so it makes sense as we make that adjustment uh it still doesn't pull you into a negative trajectory but it just really softens that rate of growth that we had been showing the last couple of years but still looking at by the end of this projection period getting up above your previous peak level which was the year before the pandemic so still getting to some overall levels that you haven't seen before just taking a little bit longer to get there and then here is just all the numbers again if anyone wants to ask anything specific we can pull that up so we can look at it uh and then just what that means for facility capacity uh so just this one table highlights all of the school sites where at any point we have projected enrollment that exceeds that Target capacity and the FMP do not be alarmed that does not mean that kids are sitting out in the hallway there's lots of ways to uh be flexible about what that identified capacity is but there are some sites where uh it might just be by one or two students it might be by a little bit more but where we've seen that this is actually a lot less colorful than it used to look uh certainly a lot of the work that the district has been doing has you know certainly places like Shasta uh has made those School sites much more in sync with the enrollments that we see there and then just uh in addition to the demographics we just wanted to talk briefly about the other aspect of work that King does for Chico USD which is the state funding program and so uh big thing you you have so you've gotten some uh funding applications fully processed uh recently you have at least one more I believe at mcmanis that uh should on the cash flow have that funding within the ne by sometime in uh the next calendar year and then the big news is because long story short it's been another 25 years since you last received State modernization money at a lot of these sites they become eligible again to put new applications in that can be looking backwards to just be reimbursed for money you've already spent yourself so again we'll make sure that we're getting those applications in line and new construction uh to the extent that uh once you're ready to add additional classrooms or potentially a new site at some point again this could be looking longterm but you have you've maintained a very healthy amount of especially at the Elementary grades eligibility in that program so that is all I have prepared but happy to answer whatever questions you have and thank you um is there any public comment or you have are I are you is there board comment after public comment I forget what the order is after we [Music] vot all right um so now we need a motion correct is there a motion um the table to accept agenda item 9.2.1 I so move second oh I'll second if you need a second I'll take a second all right we have a um a motion um on the table by m I think I've been forgetting to do this part so now I'm trying to rectify it um a motion on the table by U member Hayes and a second by member Robinson um let's go ahead and vote all those in favor signify it by saying I I I any oppose no all right so we pass um item number 9.2.1 I had I had a question I oh yeah I didn't know if if the board got to question I'm sorry I didn't that's okay I'm patient and I thank you again sir for making your report understandable to someone that doesn't understand for those of you that have lived with me for a while this these things were difficult and I I appreciate the fact that you bring us stuff that I can understand however what you have presented um how close to not being in the moderate um projection uh color or whatever it is you are we I I know we're we're still there but are we about to fall out into the I would say from last year's moderate projection yes you're going to get I I would say you're going to continue coming in below it just given that you came into the bottom of my low projection from last year which is why we've adjusted it so this year's moderate projection I have done my best to be your long-term planning projection but again that t uh this year was such a significant shift in a couple of our metrics that really came admittedly a little unexpectedly given that a lot of the predominant factors don't seem to have changed much so that's going to be a lot of my job uh prior to the next time we do this is coming back to you next year and contextualizing a little better what was it about the 2425 enrollments but given everything we know right now this moderate projection that you just saw is your most reliable estimate for what enrollment will look like for seven years out my understanding interpretation of what you've said is that looking forward for our ability to house the students we have within our district without having to add say another school MH is is is good we're we can make Minor Adjustments here and there and still live within that big pot of students right I I I would basically agree with that okay you not going to speak for Julie but yeah I don't don't see her hopping up and down and pushing me off the mic to interject but uh and I think that's really why it's good to look at you know and the thing to keep in mind though is those furthest out years we're talking about potentially kids who are enrolled as kindergarteners who haven't been born right now and that's where uh you know I was just looking at some of the 2024 births Orange County went up uh you by about two and a half percent on births year-over-year from this year to last year so if we're seeing that kind of change admittedly a lot in Southern California but in some of those counties that have been very very hard hit by decreasing births and starting to turn the corner I do want to see that if we start getting your births in a couple of years back up closer to that historical 1100 range again I'm not going to presume that because I have no evidence for that really happening but that would be again that's why you have a high projection for well as a board member what I what my concern always is is to look at our facilities master plan which looks out a number of years and see if um housing within what we have while we are in the process of remodeling upgrading you know the the schools that are that were um selected to be um rebirthed shall we say with measure C if that's still viable without having to pull out of that pattern in the next five years in order to build a school that makes me feel good because it's going to take us a while to use our measure C menis to do rosale and Chapman and Parkview and so if we've got the time to use measure C to do those schools yay okay yeah so so from that perspective yeah I think you can sleep easier if you've been losing any sleep over that that's That's My worry is that that um our population growth begins to accelerate to the point where we we run out of the ability to do the three schools that we've targeted um so I will sleep better thank you excellent yeah that's a really good point eileene um preco we were just riding the top of the fence trying to keep our um creation of new teaching spaces uh happening fast enough to keep up with the enrollment while trying to keep our promise to the community that we were going to upgrade all of our elementary schools and not have to detour and build a new elementary school so that that drop enabled us to have a little Breathing Room uh so that we could stay on target with that promise and it's really important to our community okay thank you thank you everybody I'm next too all right moving along to 9.2.2 um discussion action um this is regarding um Nord Country School septic replacement again Julie kle thank you so um Nord country school is on a septic system being out in the country it is um very old and it has failed so what has failed is the effluent that flows from the tank out into the leech system um is stopped the leech system is no longer functioning and it's created a um a very urgent health and safety issue at the campus so we're bringing forward this um board agenda item tonight to have you approve this as an emergency uh project that will will go out for a bid but it won't um it won't be able to come back to you for approval prior to us needing to get the work done um so we have brought in um Northstar engineering from here in town they've investigated the system they have identified and created a report they're working with the but County Health Department they're putting plans together that we can put out so that we can get quotes for the work to be done we're trying to push as hard as we can so that this can be completed over the spring break uh when students are not on site because they're going to have to dig up the system and um you know install the new leech leech U System um so I'll leave it at that if you have any questions about it I'm open to those I move that we um oh I think it has to be public I think yeah I think we just need to ask for public comment on the matter no okay I move that we approve the uh emergency um septic replacement for Nord I'll second that motion all right um at this time is there any discussion from the board regarding the septic okay so um let's go ahead and vote all of those in favor this evening for um approving the Nord Country School septic replacement say I I I those opposed say nay all right this passes um 9.2.2 and we can now move along uh to 9.2.3 this is also discussion action resolution number 1676-1698 via resolution from the ordinances of the city of Chico um it does save the district uh from uh being required to make certain improvements that the city might require of a nonpublic agency a a business or a residential unit um I want to assure you though that even when we do exempt ourselves we work very closely with the city of Chico we need their imp put we we ask for their help with engineering regarding traffic and those sorts of things around our improvements so in no way does it mean that we're you know putting up the hand to the city of Chico but this um item and the next item are the same um the same uh exemption from the ordinances so with that I'll open up for any questions you might have is there any public comment okay seeing none um is there a motion I have a motion and I have a question is it possible to since the information is substantially the same for this item and the next item that we move both items at at once or no we can't just because we already have them listed separately I see okay so I will move that the resolution resolution uh number 16762 um be passed I'll second that motion all right we have um a motion um by member Hayes and a second by member Robinson um is there any discussion by the board at this time okay let's go ahead and vote all those in favor of resolution number 16752 say I I I any opposed all right um this passes okay Julie again 9.2.4 discussion action um resolution number 16 77- 25 exemption of the little Chico Creek transitional kindergarten um kindergarten building new construction project from the city of Chico zoning ordinances yes so similar to as we just discussed um exempting the Chico Unified School District from city ordinances for the project at little Chico Creek of clarification okay any public comment okay seeing none is there a motion I motion to approve I'll second that so um any board discussion at this time okay let's go ahead and vote uh we had a a motion um by member Olson and a second by member conin um all those in favor of resolution number 1677-1 signify by saying I I any opposed all right this passes resolution number 16772 thank you all right moving right along to uh 9.3 Human Resources um this is also discussion action Sunshine openers between Chico Unified School District and C um Chico Unified Teachers Association for 2025 uh 26 and we have a presentation um by John Sheffer thank you vice president conin so in front of you are the two letters uh related to the openers for our relationship with cuta as you can see in the uh background information um given the success of the interpace bargaining format and the collaborative and Cooperative relationship and the willingness um to discuss all issues um both the Chico Unified School District and cuga have jointly agreed not to open any specific article for the 2526 uh bargaining year all right is there any public comment at this time is there any motion on the table I'll motion to approve 9.3.1 Al second um we have a let's see first of all is there any board discussion on this at this time um Madam excuse me Madam president just a comment to the leadership of the two organizations that we are not receiving initial proposals from which was what we used to call this process um just my my thanks and congratulations to the amazing working relationship that we have and the continued problem solving along with um you know the just it doesn't matter to as far as I can see what problem arises you guys find a way to figure out how to fix it so thank you all right we have a um motion by member Olson and a second by um member Hayes for um let's see the 9 3.1 uh so let's go ahead and vote at this time um all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed all right this passes okay moving along um to 9.3.2 this is also discussion action resolution 1678 d25 the release non- reelection of temporary um certificated employees and um John is going to speak at this time thank you very much so in front of you is a resolution it's one that um we present every year this one is specific to our temporary and probationary zero uh certificated employees and you'll see a list of employee numbers these are teachers who have been um hired on temporary or probationary contracts for a variety of reasons ranging from filling in for someone on leave um it could be a specially funded program um I do want to reiterate the um collaboration with cuta in ensuring that these temporary teachers understand they have the right um per contract to uh interview and so we strongly emphasize that that uh they remember that because they sign these contracts in August and sometimes they forget that they that they have that opportunity so I present it as recommended for approval any public comment at this time okay um anybody on the board like to make a motion yes Madam president I move approval of resolution d25 I'll second oh you second it all right um any discussion by the board at this time okay let's go ahead and um vote we have a motion um by member Robinson and a second by member Hayes um so all those in favor of resolution 1678 d25 signify by saying I I those oppose all right this passes um let's go ahead and move on to 9.3.3 also discussion action This Is Res resolution 1679 d25 non- reelection of pro um probationary certificated employees also John all right I'll keep going here so this resolution before you is uh very similar to the previous one before however uh any employee who has been included in this non- reelection resolution has been provided the opportunity to resign and for various reasons people decide not to Avail themselves of that opportunity uh so we do need to go through a process of non reelecting them and before you are is the uh employee ID number for one person uh who elected that choice and so we do need to it's it's my recommendation uh for approval of the resolution and these are probationary one or this type of resolution is for probationary one or two employees any public comment at this time okay um is there a motion on the table I move that 1679 d25 um be approved I'll second that motion all right is there any discussion by the board at this time okay so um we have a motion um by member Hayes and a second by member Robinson um we can vote at this time all those in favor um signify by saying I I those opposed all right pass um resolution d25 thank you moving along um to 9.4.1 um this is also discussion action um 2025 California school boards Association the csba delegate Assembly election and at this time um Kelly Staley okay so you have in your packet information regarding a delegate that uh is from our area forb but uh this individual Lisa Torres is from Orville City Elementary School District she is the only one running in this so uh this is our opportunity to vote for or not a public comment okay are there is there a motion on the table for um agenda item 9.4.1 I moved that we support the election of the delegate assembly member I'll second any board discussion just that um I think it's always healthy when there is somebody that can run from our area I think representation matters so I'm glad somebody put forth the effort to run yeah absolutely okay um let's see we have a motion um by member Hayes and a second by member Olen is that correct yes okay um let's go ahead and vote it this time um all those in favor um signify by saying I I those opposed all right this passes okay this is an interesting um scenario um at this time uh we are going to be calling for a recess um and the board will be taking a recess during the recess the annual meeting of the board of directors of the Chico Unified School financing Corporation will be held in accordance with that agenda so at this time we'll adjourn to recess no I'm sorry do we do we pull the curtains okay great okay yes so thank you for coming to the annual meeting of the financing Corporation this evening um there's been no new activity within the financing Corporation over the last 12 months so the only agenda item this evening is to approve the minutes from last February and those are in the packet in front of you okay so if I understand correctly we need a motion to approve the minutes M that's correct is there a motion I so move I'll second that you two were there Perfect all right we have a motion to approve the minutes um for this special meeting um a motion by member um Robinson and a second by member conin let's go ahead and vote on this at this time some discussion yes please sorry public allowed public just no public comment so I'm just uh I was just going to say that I'm since we we don't know we're just going to trust that the minutes are good yes I did I get a I did get a chance to review them and they do reflect what I remember of that meeting thank you so um we don't have any discussion other than that uh let's go ahead and vote on that all those in favor of um um approving the minutes signify by saying I I those opposed great minutes are passed and go ahead and end that meeting [Music] and opening up back um let's see items from the floor correct right oh my goodness I'm tired okay we're calling we're calling the regular board meeting back to order so um moving along um agenda item number 11 items from the floor is there any public comment at this time are we sure is there any public at this time all right thank you um moving along to um item number 12 um there were no um there have been no um requests by members to um agendize items at this time so um nothing to report there um at this time we're um ready to adjourn only if there's a motion though to adjourn I have motion that we adjourn I second all right we have a motion um by member Hayes second by member Olsen um do we want to discuss this at all or just move straight to all I want to say is I'm really proud of us for we caught up because now it we're at we're at 5 minutes to 10 and it says 10:15 we're doing see we did it well let's go ahead and vote um all those in favor of a journey I by any opposed all right

to guide Mentor coach and encourage Bogle Junior High students from balona elementary school ludim [Applause] pla Mrs pazola is is always willing to step in and lend a hand in classes offering her expertise and support she consistently makes time for the school showing her commitment to Student Success she genuinely cares for students and their well-being creating a positive and nurturing learning environment from Carlson Elementary School ra odonnell ra is a wonderful parent and volunteer she creates bulletin boards organiz detailed and unique class events to give kids wonderful memories and serves on the PTO she is kind and patient with students and she and her husband also designed a large bulletin board in the front office each month thank you ra from Castile High School Jennifer [Applause] Hamilton Jen has been instrumental in helping build castile's Unified sports program she's assisted in finding grants for equipment spearheaded a booster program to help athletes this way they received the same perks their varsity athletic peers have and she's the first to offer to provide a ride for any or all students who otherwise wouldn't be able to participate her impact in Castile Unified sports is immeasurable from Castile Junior High School we have car Kapa Hansen Carrie has been instrumental in organizing the Castile Junior High boosters transforming it into a thriving community that actively supports the needs of both staff and student her vibrant personality and Boundless Energy Inspire those around her motivating parents to contribute their time and talents to support School initiatives from Chandler Care Center we have do Dr Rick swaringen Dr Swearingen has served as a volunteer doctor in the Chandler Care Center's Children's Medical Clinic for several years providing no cost Compassionate Care to uninsured children in the district he can often be found working late connecting with families and finding resources to help kids struggling with complex medical issues he says there is no more precious resource than our children I choose to give of my time and resources locally as I believe the value is immediate impactful and meaningful from Chandler Early College we have Karen BS oh okay from Chandler high school we have Kimberly Kowalski okay from Conley Elementary School we have Bonnie [Applause] Ortiz as the PTO treasurer Bonnie consistently goes above and beyond to support the students and staff at Conley Elementary Bonnie dedicates countless hours of her personal time to ensure the school Community thrives whether it's coordinating PTO activities assisting with events or simply being available to lend a hand Bonnie's commitment is evident and [Applause] admirable from CTA Freedom campus we have Ranna bom Miss Bol has been an invaluable asset to the school Community for over 10 years her dedication and reliability ensure that teachers have the resources they need and has significantly impacted the quality of Education students receive her friendly demeanor and willingness to help have made her a beloved figure on [Applause] campus from CTA Goodman we have Maggie Jimenez Maggie has made incredible contributions to CTA Goodman over the past eight years her commitment as a classroom volunteer art masterpiece supporter and her involvement in numerous schoolwide events have made a significant impact on the community whenever the school staff needs assistance they can always rely on Maggie's support from CTA Humphrey we have Lindsay kak Lindsay has been a CTA Humphrey parent for eight years she's volunteered for school events field trips and in the copy room in addition Lindsay has served on the the PTO board for the last 3 years to know Lindsay is to love her she is kind caring flexible and makes herself completely available to the school from CTA Independence we have sue Kim Sue has been an invaluable asset to CTA Independence as PTO president she's actively involved in supporting students and staff she always puts the school and students first having their best interest in mind Sue is truly exceptional at what she does her ability to plan with Precision unleash creativity and maintain a positive attitude is inspiring from CTA Liberty campus Amanda speltz Amanda is a reliable and dedicated volunteer who can always be counted on she has volunteered at the school for many years and recently taken on the role role of art masterpiece coordinator she's always gone above and beyond what is asked of her and puts kids [Applause] first from fry Elementary School Lesar Johnson Hunter lar goes above and beyond as the school's PTO treasurer she has given hours of her time by meticulously managing funds ensuring transparent Financial dealings and organizing fundraisers that greatly benefit the school Community her commitment and efforts as the PTO treasur have undeniably enhanced the quality of the school and supported staff students and families in countless ways from Fulton Elementary School Britney Smith Britney is the Fulton Elementary school PTO co-president and goes above and beyond to support students and staff she makes herself available no matter the situation and is always looking to make the school better she's on campus supporting classrooms helping to raise money and plans events that bring the school Community together from Galveston Elementary we have daa ellerman daa has generously dedicated countless hours to fostering artistic expression at the school and beautifying the campus her creative talents have shown through in numerous projects from helping the school tell their story through beautifully edited photos to to crafting the school's spelling be mascot which was even adopted by the district daa consistently goes above and beyond transforming every project into a masterpiece Haley Elementary School we have Andrea Hernandez Andrea is always lending her artistic flare and creative Spirit to the Haley Community she helps with drama clubs scenery decorating for graduation and other community events making t-shirts for many groups and events and always does it with a smile and a can do attitude from Hamilton High School we have Roger Pearson Roger he's been an intrical part of the Hamilton High School Community since its Inception in 1998 throughout his career he dedicated himself to teaching mathematics at all levels even after his retirement Mr Pearson continues to give back to the school by volunteering as Co for both basketball and football as well as providing tutoring support to students in need from Hancock Elementary School Amanda Harrison Amanda PTO treasur and dedicated parent is a driving force behind Hancock's growth and spirit her Joy creativity and Leadership have made a lasting impact from organizing family events to tiously supporting students staff and families we appreciate Amanda's kindness from Hartford Sylvia and cenis Elementary Sandy Hill Sandy has been a consistent volunteer at Hartford for over 10 years she takes time out of her week to comp to come out and help teachers prepare copies work with small groups of students to further their learning and she will always bring donations of school supplies when she arrives she's also quick to adopt families for Christmas it takes a village and Hartford is lucky she's in [Applause] theirs from Hill Learning Academy Joe [Applause] Mason Joe has shown tremendous passion and put forth extraordinary efforts to support the students at Chief Hill Learning Academy as a former mentee of Chief Hill himself Joe and his team continuously give their time and donations so generously they have shown great compassion and provide inspiration for students to look forward to a bright future Joe collaborates to provide Equitable employment opportunities for students postgraduation from Hull Elementary we have Tiana Walker Tiana is a dedicated and invaluable volunteer on campus she consistently goes above and beyond to ensure that everyone has the resources they need Tiana has also volunteered her time to teach Junior Achievement lessons to fifth graders Tiana is always willing to step up and help out on campus committees she has been an active member of the reimagining journey and the superintendent parent advisory committee and she is always willing to lend a hand wherever needed from the instruction Resource Center we have gay K Clans K has been a steadfast supporter of the fit program for several years making significant contributions to both students and the community she consistently donates items to support the program and helps secure tax credit funding to assist CTE students in attending National competitions in addition to her financial support Kay volunteers her time to Mentor students particularly guiding youth through the process of postsecondary Education from Jacobson Elementary we have Jessica Johnson Jessica exemplifies dedication and commitment in every aspect of her involvement at school from volunteering for art masterpiece and assisting with special events to helping make copies and donating supplies she consistently goes above and beyond her willingness to step in as a substitute teacher is an added bonus and she's always a welcoming supportive presence in the classroom from Knox gifted Academy Mindy H Haskins Mindy has been an invaluable supporter of kga for years as co-president of the PTO she leads key events contributes practical Solutions and serves as a dedicated substitute teacher an advocate for gifted education Mindy tirelessly donates her time and talents from Navarette Elementary School Aaron freeze Aaron has served as PTO treasurer for six years making an incredible impact through her meticulous management of finances from budgets and reports to reimbursements and spirit Weare sales there's no Excel spreadsheet she can't handle a standout achievement was transitioning the annual fundraiser to a platform that lets naet keep 100% of the profits Payne Junior High School marcine Bennett Marine wears many hats as a volunteer for the specialized classroom at pay she advocates for her son and other students making sure the classroom has enough supplies and donates prizes for the treasure box and school competitions she's a huge support for the teachers and parent Educators and always lets them know how much she appreciates them congratulations from Perry High School we have Jen Austin Jen has served as the football booster president at Perry High School for three years running the club like a business with exceptional communication paperwork and bookkeeping her personal skills and kindness set her apart she addresses parent concerns works with coaches and keeps Administration informed Jen also supports teacher appreciation week and contributes to causes like cancer awareness and Military recognition from Rice Elementary we have Stephanie tokarz Stephanie is an intrical part of kindergarten reading groups she Volunteers in multiple kindergarten classrooms and works with a variety of students they love when it is her volunteer day Stephanie also spends countless hours prepping materials in the school workroom supporting all teachers she's extremely efficient and organized [Applause] rggs Elementary School we have Stephanie [Applause] Cummings Stephanie brings exceptional dedication and service to rig's Elementary she consistently exceeds Expectations by volunteering in classrooms supporting PTO events assisting in the cafeteria and creating Remar remarkable bulletin boards that enhance the vibrancy of the campus Stephanie's positive energy energ Readiness to assist wherever needed and commitment to collaborative efforts with with staff render her invaluable asset to the rigs community so for the next Honore we do have Mr Joel worth former cusd CFO and board member on the stage who will help us present the next honory but we would also like to give him a special happy birthday shout out Mr worth very happy birthday from Ryan Elementary School Susan kingan Smith Susan is a parent volunteer at Ryan where her two children attend she has been an instrumental player at Ryan through volunteering serving on the PTO board as Treasurer and organizing multiple events in addition to her time on the PTO Susan Volunteers in the classroom by chaperoning field trips teaching art masterpiece and teaching Junior Achievement thank you Susan from San Marcos Elementary Cindy Carroll for the past two years Cindy has dedicated herself as the art masterpiece coordinator ensuring lessons are thoughtfully prepared supplies are well stocked and every class is covered her efforts to recruit volunteers and expand the program have made it possible for all students to experience the joy of Art in their day thank you Cindy from Sanborn Elementary School Jordan Baron Jordan is such a positive impactful influence on the students at sanbor they love it when he walks into the classroom Jordan runs small reading groups math groups and has facilitated free choice time playing games with students he notices when the students are having an off day and goes out of his way to say a kind word or just quietly read with them giving the students the individual attention they need from Santan Elementary School Stephanie Bach and Christine farmer Stephanie and Christine have stepped in to support the copy room whenever needed from making copies and laminating to handling various other tasks in the workroom they ensure everything runs smoothly their dedication to this demanding role greatly benefits the entire Santan Elementary staff we appreciate their cheer enthusiastic demeanor from Santan Junior High School we have Renee Paige Renee has served as Santan junior high booster club secretary for the past three years playing a vital role in fostering a positive School Community she spearheads successful fundraising through family food nights creating eye-catching marketing to boost participation her efforts during staff Appreciation Week including organizing Raffles with generous donations highlight her dedication from shamway Leadership Academy we have Dan pagle Pagel Daniel is an invaluable asset to the shamway school community and a dedicated advocate for cusd and public education always ready to step in and assist he generously volunteers his time to teach art masterpiece in his daughter's classrooms Daniel's positivity inspires everyone around him students and staff alike appreciate his cheerful Spirit from tarwater Elementry we have Samantha Ruiz Samantha serves as one of the dedicated art masterpiece coordinators at tarwater she invests countless hours to ensure the program success and even steps in to teach classes lacking volunteers art masterpiece Samantha contributes through time to various other activities at tarwater making a meaningful impact on the school Community thank you Samantha from Weinberg gifted Academy Melissa [Music] Mt Melissa is the PTO president at Weinberg gifted Academy and one of the school's most dedicated supporters if anyone deserves a designated parking spot it's Melissa she's practically a fixture on campus from volunteering in classrooms and caring for earthworms to organizing movie nights and braving the windiest day of the year year to hang 730 pieces of student artwork her commitment knows no [Applause] bounds from Willis Junior High School Drew Suggs Drew is a passionate volunteer dedicated to enhancing students after- School sports programs together with his wife cat he founded a nonprofit Sports initiative aimed at providing entertainment motivation and positive role models for inner city students from lowincome backgrounds who can't afford club sports as a former cusd student Drew's strength and great attitude inspires students to reach their full potential let's give these fantastic volunteers one more round of applause okay staff by now you should know the drill it's your time to rise head over to the left line up by sight [Music] nice job nice job 7:35 good job at us look at us look at us it's like we've done this a few I know I really appreciate you being here I think it just keeps the pacing so well it's nice to have a partner yes um was there one no it was the Joel one I'm just trying to think if there was oh yeah um anything about these ones but I've just been kind of also trying because then Ken was like like three in a row and I'm like wait minute they're not all right we are going to begin Anderson Elementary we have Kristen Christian Morton Kristen is a staff member who goes extra mile is enthusiastic about teaching others and helps all team members be successful by sharing her ideas knowledge and most importantly her time she always puts forth the effort to ensure all teachers are seen heard valued and appreciated Kristen has been a treasured resource in and is the clue at Anderson Elementary School congratulation on your Apple Achievement Award from Anderson Junior High School we have Ann Smith an demonstrates a student L approach to education at all times and is always patient and supportive of both students and staff to ensure incoming students are taken care of and everyone's needs are met her calm and reassuring approach is a reminder to all of us that it is possible to move mountains when you give it your all from Arizona College Prep High School we have Christy Sims christe is the kind of teacher who puts her whole heart into everything she does not just a teacher but as a mentor and leader from staying late to support students with projects to mastering new skills like 3D printing for Hands-On learning or writing letters of recommendation for her students she is constantly finding ways to inspire and help others embodying everything we strive for at ACP from Arizona College Prep Middle School Marie kleinberger as Department lead Mentor for Hope Squad and involvement in night buddies Marie's an inspirational leader at ACP middle school she's always available to guide and provide feedback to her colleagues constantly Works to make ACP a more inclusive space and works tirely LLY to incorporate the best methods into her curriculum ensuring her students achieve and Excel from auxier elementary school Amber ker Amber's ability to demonstrate patience and calmness with students coupled with her ability to make difficult tasks look effortless is truly inspiring and speaks volumes about her commitment as a parent educator she has shown herself to be not only a hard worker but also a true team player always ready to lend a hand from Basha accelerated Middle School Shannon Reed Shannon is an exceptional educator who demonstrates professionalism dedication and compassion daily she holds herself to high expectations by always planning thorough and concise lessons to meet her students needs that also keep them engaged and excited about learning Shannon maintains high standards for her students by providing clear directions and procedures ensuring they understand expectations both inside and outside the classroom from Bas okay from Basha High School we have Lori Miller Lori consistently demonstrates exceptional dedication and a positive attitude making her a player who always goes the extra mile to support her colleagues her strong work ethic perseverance ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and concisely and willingness to share her knowledge and expertise with others makes her a joy to work with from Bogle Junior High School we have Denise Brown each day Denise is with students she makes their lives richer and creates a family inside her classroom where all students can be themselves have a voice fail succeed and learn more more than just math she uses storytelling to make her class relevant holds students accountable and pushes them to work their hardest all while working collaboratively with her peers to improve instruction for all bogul students from balona elementary Tara Anderson Tara is an exceptional Administrative Assistant who consistently goes above and beyond her duties her dedication to creating a welcoming environment supporting students and staff and organizing engaging events makes her invaluable to balona thank you [Applause] Tara from Carlson Elementary School Kathleen cat [Music] Hendrickson from leading running club to helping with safety patrol and assemblies to planning act activities for each grade level cat's positive attitude energy and willingness to always go above and beyond for the students and staff at Carlson is endless she empowers kids by giving them jobs and opportunities to help her and makes PE a fun class for her [Music] students from Castile High School Linda Frederickson as Castile stugo adviser for the past nine years Linda plans coordinates and facilitates activities for thousands of students she teaches multiple preps in one year to ensure students are offered all the courses they need to be successful and is incredible at connecting with struggling students to help them get on track to graduate Linda is a leader on campus in a variety of facets and helps make Castile a great place to be from Castile Junior High School we have Christen schella Kristen embodies the essence of an exceptional educator through her dedication hard work and thoughtful approach to teaching from the moment students enter her classroom they are met with engaging and inclusive environment that Fosters learning because she takes the time to understand each student's individual needs ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to thrive Central Kitchen we have April Carpenter as a dedicated kitchen manager April is an invaluable asset to CD nutrition with her dedication to going above and beyond taking on additional responsibilities and assisting nearby sites as needed with her commitment to promote healthy eating by teaching students the importance of nutrition known for her positivity and resourcefulness she adapts seamlessly to the challenges to ensure uninterrupted meal service while fostering a sense of unity Chandler High School yeah go from Chandler High School Nikki bin nope nope Chandler Early College from Chandler Early College Sherry Paul Sherry embodies the true Spirit of dedication and adaptability due to her commitment to go above and beyond by integrating strategies and insights for practical application in her math class she's a teacher that wants all to succeed and go the extra mile making her an inspiration to both her students and colleagues now Chandler he told me no I don't know Chandler High School Nikki bin no Chandler Learning Center Julie Honeywell Julie is a great transition specialist who helps students create resume search for jobs apply for jobs or vocational training and assist with the interviewing process by teaching them interview skills she also partners with Community businesses to ensure every student she works with achieves success from Chandler Online Academy Roxanna lezma FIS Roxanna is committed to making coa's enrollment process efficient and is always prepared to assist prospective students in their families her dedication to being present every day for the needs of students and parents coupled with her positive sense of humor always has the staff [Applause] laughing from Chandler Online Academy Elementary we have Christine RAB Miss RAB has been the COA Elementary since it's an exception and has been a cherished member of the Hornet family she has taught several grade levels and is always willing to do what is best for her students her Bright Smile joyful attitude and engaging smile is an inspiration to all Community Education we have Jam Smith Jan truly exemplifies the spirit of Community Education with her dedication to families that Foster sense of trust and partnership with over a thousand preschool and prek registrations per school year she single-handedly walks parents through the process and her smile and seemingly Boundless Energy bring an infectious positivity to everyone Community Education is proud to honor Jan Smith connley Elementary School we have Bridget Dunning Bridget brings an unparalleled level of energy positivity and passion with her joyful demeanor and willingness to jump in and help wherever needed whether it's assisting with lunch duty covering for a class or colleague or volunteering her time to support the choir Bridget approaches every task with enthusiasm and Care Conley is fortunate to have [Applause] [Music] [Applause] her from CTA Freedom Courtney Bickley Courtney brings positivity and high energy to her job every day she's passionate about teaching her kindergarteners and goes out of her way to help her students 100% she is invested in making sure the DLI program thrives and remains current and contributes to the positive morale of the staff making her a positive Beacon of light to all who know her from CTA Goodman Natalie mckever Miss mckever is an incred inredible physical education teacher who is dedicated to integrating various aspects of student interest she organizes and plans numerous activities including the running club kids heart challenge student council and field day her commitment to students in the school Community is commendable and Goodman is fortunate to have her from CTA Humphrey yenia Gutierrez yenia is the hardest working most organized most thoughtful office manager who is a great multitasker with her time management and administrative skills that are a true asset to CTA Humphrey she goes above and beyond and the staff and students are fortunate to have her from CTA Independence we have Jessica fou Jessica exudes positivity encouragement and Care by supporting her colleagues and taking the time to share her knowledge of techn te ology to enrich the educational experience of students on campus her ability to uplift her teammates coupled with her creativity and organizational skills makes her a genuine asset to the school no Liberty from the district office we have Mr sha rusted as director of secondary Athletics and auxiliary program Shan has been instrumental in continuing to build build upon the growth and strength of CD athletic and activity programs districtwide sha oversees athletic departments for seven junior high schools and six high schools as well as the elementary running club and track programs his knowledge and experience enthusiasm and dedication to the cusd Athletics brand Second To None is evident and appreciated by all who have the pleasure to work alongside him from Elite Performance Academy Deanna Hansen Dianna always creates a friendly and welcoming atmosphere with her positive attitude encouraging words and funny anecdotes she works tirelessly to make sure students are successful through her commitment to co-sponsoring student council and dedicates her time or her home for staff celebrations and events she's a wonderful person and an amazing contributor at EPA from fry Elementary School Sandra lubian Miss lubian is an amazing kindergarten teacher who works tirelessly to ensure all students including those with mild to moderate needs feel included and supported she consistently improves her pedagogy encourages her fellow teachers and shows remarkable skill in managing challenging behaviors with care and compassion her dedication is greatly appreciated from galvaston elementary school Christian shanine Christian is incredibly giving of her time and always follows through on her commitments whether it's supporting students in need assisting families or lending a hand to colleagues Christian is always eager to help no matter the situation she maintains a calm and reassuring president's presence offering a helping hand and a listening ear exemplifying her dedication as a true love and pride member from Haley Elementary we have Stephanie palz Stephanie is kind and connects with the school community in authentic ways she goes above and beyond with her leadership in student council as an A and is a consistent supporter of cusd initiatives championing championing the district at every turn as a natural leader Stephanie is always looking for ways to improve the campus community and our positive attitude makes her a joy to be with from Hamilton High School we have Carrie San Carrie is a great asset helping to lead the new Reed 180 Program where she collaborates with teachers Administration and the IRC to assist her students she takes ideas from the entire team and works to make them fit the goals of the team the school and the district making her an amazing supporter and leader for her fellow fellow [Applause] teachers from Hancock Elementary we have Mandy serin Mandy's leadership in the El program displays how she supports the students staff and families at Hancock she has a special way of building relationships with students supporting them both academically and emotionally she takes the time to purchase and collect books so her students can develop a love of reading making her an invaluable asset to the school community from Hartford syvia and Cena Elementary we have Alan Richards Allan a dedicated fifth grade teacher is always willing is always the first to volunteer for anything on campus whether it's organizing breakfast helpers covering crosswalk duty hanging signs mentoring students or creating an Afterschool Sports Club to provide additional support for students he loves to play practical jokes and provide staff with some much needed [Applause] laughter from the instructional Resource Center Karen Brooks Karen's leadership has a positive impact on both students and teachers she's a strong advocate for Chandler schools modeling initiative and instructional Improvement and fostering positive relationships with both staff and students her commitment to Excellence professionalism and growth is evident in her contributions and she consistently inspires others from Jacobson Elementary School aurelli Santiago Morales AI Works tirelessly to ensure that daily tasks run smoothly and efficiently and is always available to go the extra mile to ensure everyone has what they need to be successful she assists in coming families with the enrollment process and greets every child who comes into the office with a smile her dedication is admirable from Knox gifted Academy we have Tony horn from initiating Tony horn from initiating a mindfulness space in a can9 companions program to becoming an integral part of the kga team Tony has proven to be indispensable the students and faculty have come to rely heavily on her skill skills and willingness to help in any situation thank you Mrs horn from Navarette Elementary School we have Martin kamacho Martin has been a custodian at Navarette for the past 16 years and a lead custodian for 14 years he puts 110% into every task and aspect of his job and is truly committed to the school Community Neah is so fortunate to have have him as a part of the school family from Patterson Elementary School we have John Kuts as a crossing guard and a newon aid at Patterson John is a valued member of the community and brings a daily smile friendly greeting and playful humor to the school which helps students begin their day in a positive way what stands out most is his genuine care for the students ensuring every child feels seen and valued whether it's making sure a child getss the help they need with lunch offering words of encouragement to those who might be struggling or simply offering a kind word of high five John always makes a positive difference from pay Junior High School Mary Bren Mary Kay is the kind of teacher who leaves a lasting impact on her students often remembered fondly by them as adults for her genuine passion for teaching and her care for their well-being she consistently goes above and beyond for her students to ensure their success by addressing their academic social and emotional needs she's deeply attentive to her students and her commitment is appreciated from Perry High School Norma Rios Norma is a leader and Champion for English language development students creating classes professional development and peer support programs to ensure academic success and initiating a student-led Spanish class for senior citizens that Fosters cross-generational connections and a cultural understanding through her mentorship passion and tireless advocacy she's truly an outstanding [Music] educator from Rice Elementary School Erica Christo Erica is a creative and Innovative resource teacher with a huge heart for her students she sets high expectations for her students and finds creative ways so that all are successful Erica's collaborative spirit and her leadership as the Special Education team lead along with her involvement on the spelling be committee and social committee embody her heart for the rice community and her commitment to Excellence from rigs Elementary School we have Cameron estrea Cameron's passion dedication and Innovative method of teaching music provides opportunities for students to shine in the classroom before school choir and Community performances his supportive nature to his colleagues Fosters a collaborative environment and the positive impact he makes on students staff and Community is undeniable making him a truly remarkable [Music] [Applause] educator from Ryan Elementary School we have Trudy McClair [Applause] Trudy is a dedicated school counselor who provides daily support to individual students and teaches meaningful whole class lessons that promote students well-being she's a reliable and compassionate listener for students and staff and her caring nature flexibility and extensive knowledge of mental health make her an invaluable member of the Ryan staff from s Marcos Elementary we have Shila Aziz Shila has great relationships with students and staff and is always willing to do anything necessary to support Student Success on campus with her dedication as a paraprofessional crossing guard and logistic coordinator in the cafeteria she's creative and insightful when it comes to finding out how to reach every child as an individual making her a vital part of the San Marco [Applause] staff from sandborn Elementary School Shay Dodson Shay is a tremendous advocate for the students families and staff at sanbor she works tirelessly to connect individuals and families with resources creating a food pantry and clothing closet to give immediate assistance to the sandborn community she makes home visits builds positive relationships with families and is always available to offer words of support and encouragement to students making her a true blessing at Sanborn from Santan Elementary School Jesse Norman Jesse goes above and beyond teaching by creating lasting relationships with her students holding them lovingly accountable for learning she has helped to grow the student council's positive impact on the community through Veterans Day luncheons appreciation events community outreach and spearheading San's first Multicultural night thank you Jesse for your contributions [Applause] from Santan Junior High School Lindsay Valentine as the school counselor Lindsay goes to extra mile providing support to staff and a personal investment in the well-being and future of students her kindness and empathy leave a lasting impact as students from previous years continue to reach out to her for guidance and support a testament to the meaningful connections she builds from shamway Leadership Academy we have Ryan dong Ryan is a standout star at shamway Leadership Academy fully embodying the mission to nurture Innovative Leaders with strong character he demonstrates leadership exemplifies adaptability and showcases the strength of teamwork at shamway to ensure the school Community thrives from student services we have Robin demeler as an incredible special education academic specialist Robin has made a profound impact through her dedication to both teachers and students she provides exceptional training and support to the special education teachers advocates for the needs advocates for the needs of students with disabilities ensures that every child receives the support they deserve her kindness positive attitude and encouraging demeanor is truly uplifting from student services we have April daily April is an incredible resource with a deep well well of knowledge about gifted education and Beyond she is constantly learning and expanding her expertise ensuring she stays at the Forefront of best practices dedicated to both students and teachers she's passionate about fostering success within gifted programs and schools a strong collaborator April welcomes new ideas and continuously seeks ways to enhance and improve programs her dedication makes her an invaluable asset to the student services department and the entire CD Community from Support Services Matt McCoy Matt is an exceptional member of the staff due to his strong work ethic and dedication he is always willing to assist others on a regular basis with a positive and caring attitude Support Services is truly grateful to have Matt as a member of the cusd team from tarwater elementary school Chris Yao Chris's strong professional teaching skills coupled with the distinctive expertise in math and science make him an outstanding devoted leader to the teachers on his team his volunteer work teaching Chinese at a modern Chinese School is commendable and he is always willing to spend the extra time to help those in need we appreciate his [Applause] passion from technology Gina Malvo Gina's outstanding contributions and commitment to Excellence embody the qualities of an exemplary professional she continues to make a lasting impact in her role as field service technician consistently advocating for the success of students and staff by creating an environment of trust understanding and collaboration her remarkable dedication truly makes a difference for the cusd community from transportation we have Tammy Rockwell as a dedicated school bus driver since 2013 Tammy truly makes a difference with her kind heart and cheerful demeanor she's always thinking about of others helps her fellow employees navigate computer taask covers routes feeds the mechanics acknowledges everyone's birthday and some special way and volunteers to help whatever is needed the transportation department is beyond grateful for everything Tammy does from the warehouse we have Marsha gerch no from Weinberg gifted Academy we have Jennifer civier Jennifer's dedication energy and enthusiasm have played an integral part of opening and growing Weinberg gifted Academy her commitment to designing engaging curriculum expertise in clubs and mentorship of teachers and students on campus is commendable she is a teacher leader and Advocate who goes extra mes for the Weinberg Community one last round of applause for our honores thank you governing board thank you superintendent Narducci thank you Miss Veronica King for helping with the awards everyone drive safe get cookies out there and thank you for making CD the best District in [Applause] Arizona again you too thank you for your wife she's she's a fan and I really appreciate it cuz you're a sky cuz you're a sky for star [Music] I'm going to give you my heart cuz you're a sky cuz you're sky

and I would be chasing a school bus to get a kid off of the bus that had tested we and Claudia and I were in a Claudia I'm going after this bus W so other my question was going to be what is the Board of Health working on right now what are the issues that you're dealing with so that as you know as a new member member steps on what are the kinds of things they're going to have to step into so we right now we're seeing a lot of um septic variance approvals we're doing um we're working with some um hoarding situations um we're working with some trash issues um some of our apartment complexes that we're working with um some restaurant issues um as we get the inection reports from restaurants feel free to try yeah and some of those things have been lingering for for quite a while so on the ongoing issues same sites what the next member will I think learn pretty quickly when I started a few years there was a lot of septic it's not the most exciting stuff I think um how much of town is on septic still any idea wow still that much and we get the variances when someone's system is failing right and so we'll hear from the contractor and they'll show us their plans and explain what they're would you ever consider um putting out some kind of material regarding the science behind vac vaccines thinking that it might be a bad thing these days I think our health and human services U secretary has already said that he's going to uh do actually the opposite of what he said he was going to do during the hearings to appoint him I guess that's actually a question for you guys and for you as well um one of the things we started talking about and is how we are going to be hit potentially by federal funding right what what's going to impact what might not come through what might we have to change and look at at the local level and then what's coming down from the state level I would think as Board of Health you also have grants and funding for things that are coming from the federal level through you know from federal to state to you to to Board of Health any thoughts on how that's going to impact you or what you do or so we get our vaccines through the state um you know we get all of our childhood vaccines and who vaccine um I'm curi that again I I it's a little on the unknown right now how that how it's going to affect dph and um what what's going to happen with their funding and how we're going to be able get those vaccines because you know this is how we get kids into schools you know you know and that's why we've had such success with our childhood vaccine program we're able to get kids in school in instead of them sitting at home right and I I just can just add to Mr Chief Burman right so the vaccines we are getting they are through federal grants you know so we are worried uh in past three and a half years we have administered close to 5,000 vaccines in Ashland right right especially to to our schoolgoing children right so that can get very well affected because they are through a Federal grant that comes to dph and they come come to us all free you know so we We Get It Free We administer it free you know so and those those vaccines are pretty costly you know some of them of one single single shot is like $200 $250 you know so wow that we are definitely worried about that childhood vaccine program that we are supporting at least 8 nine towns that are in collaborative that are in our shared services so we we give it to all of those towns too you know right so that that's definitely a concern thank you thank you thank you and I know it's a discussion we've had but also in Regional and you know and you work with regional stuff all the time that how can we work together not only within our town but within our region to make sure that what we're seeing negative coming down from the federal from the federal level how can we make sure our towns are staying positive and supporting our residents not only within Ashland but within our region so I don't know how closely you work with other boards of Health um but certainly whatever we can do to help support and work together to work across the region I think is going to be so important moving forward [Music] just as a thought um just to kind of best use of time do you want to talk about the budget and then I think you know with the Board of Health here they kind of hear sure yeah let's yeah so we can jump down to town manager now is this the no this is the 26 the 26 budget okay sure just Rec budget Workshop that sure Gage yeah let's let's jump down to that so um no I I think so we had the opportunity uh this past Friday for department heads including Raj um to uh to come and and basically discuss their budget requests and and what they needed and why you know why they felt it was appropriate what the what the need was within the community and uh so we were fortunate we had several members of the select board and the finance committee were there and ask questions and I think um here's Aaron um I think uh so just in general for everybody for all of you to know in case you're not aware of this I mean we have a pretty significant budget deficit that's going to need oh here's morce um that you know we need to make a decision I think collectively um we'll be having a meeting in March to discuss this are we going to use like one-time funds to fix this budget deficit or are we going to move more in the direction of making cuts um so I know what I'm probably going to recommend doesn't necessarily mean that that's what's going to happen but um you know we're in a pretty precarious financial position it shouldn't be a surprise to anybody you know I've talked about this for years now especially you know as we you know move towards this process of like acquiring open space and making those expenditure I'm not saying that that's the only reason um please don't take it that way but like when um when you buy open space like not only are you expending money to acquire that that property so you have a a cost on on that side of the Ledger you're also taking that property off the tax roles from it being able to be developed and the additional tax revenue that would be generated through that as well so it's kind of like a double double hit financially again I don't want people to walk away thinking that that is the reason why we have a budget deficit that we have it does contribute though yeah and one of the things we talked about was like the new growth numbers which measure basically how much new development happens in town and just the the financial impact that that has um so that's kind of where we are in general um I think you know the board members had an opportunity to ask you know questions of specific budgets I think it was more geared towards specific budgets as opposed to things as a whole but yeah I thought it was very hopefully you found it beneficial I'd like to ask questions but I I want to be respectful so Maurice is here now hi Maurice how are you good we're gonna invite you up to the table usually we make you go to the podium but since we're all sitting here we can have a nice conversation um and I will let you know that there was someone else who was also vying for the seat and they have decided to not run for the seat so this should be a very easy conversation for you no pressure now it's all off considering you've done a lot of work to get here so um so we have the select board and the Board of Health I think you might know maybe let's do some real quick introductions we'll start there with Board of Health uh David Kinsman I've been on the two years y yeah two [Laughter] years um Barbara on the board four four or five yeah yeah hi Maurice I'm J Burns and I've been on the board for going into my fourth year running again in May I I'm Ed bman I don't know on the board it's been a while um it's a it's been a while keep going around I'm sure hi Ms I'm Makita Keegan uh slug board uh actually coming up on a year in May actually yeah I believe it's February already and the end of February marri Claudia been at your former principal or maybe I might I may have only been your assistant principal yeah but uh welcome Brandy Kinsman s board I've been on the board six years now almost six years almost six years yeah yeah and Yolanda Greaves um know your family know your parents um and I am in finishing up my 13th year around the select and then Joe manani who is our fifth member is off on vacation and he's finishing up his 15th year yeah so he he went to Florida um hopefully it was warm I've been I was I was chatting with some people who live in Florida now and they were like oh yeah it's going to be chilly it's going to be in the 50s and I said okay it was 13 and they're like it's all relative I said okay I get that but still anyway Maurice just give us a quick overview for the and this is more for the people who are watching weave Hall had the opportunity to read your resume and many of us chatted with you a year ago when you ran and also we got to know you when you ran for the for the seat so just for the people that are watching um give us a quick background of yourself and why you'd like to have this seat um so just pull the microphone here closer so my name is Maurice ker I'm a 25 year resident of Ashland I was raised here by my parents went to school here um moved away for school for a while came back with my wife we bought a house here last couple years um I'm a pharmacist I work Milford Pharmacy um I was really looking for an opportunity to get involved with the town um back to community that afforded me a lot of opportunities so far um and I figure I saw that the uh last year that there was spot open Board of Health and I figur with my background my education I might be a good fit to uh help out in that way out here we are now well that's why they say keep trying if at first you don't succeed try try again exactly um does anybody have any questions for Maurice but I'll just make I have no questions morce I just I appreciate you coming back for assistance um I think it'd be great to have some of your background I'm I'm pharmacologist so good to have a fellow Pharma person so uh thank you yeah in a legal way in a legal way yeah yeah we'll we'll be making our own vaccine right there we go things are going oh there you go there you go there you go um I guess my one question is have you pulled papers or are you planning on pull pulling papers for the election this may if if we appoint you I have not yet but I okay that's for me that's something if we're if you get appointed it makes sense to you know if you're willing to to then pull papers and I think I myself would be more than happy to support that so um okay so any other questions concerns okay do you guys want to make the motion and I I just wanted to say that it's just fantastic to see it see someone like just raised here and coming back here to raise their family and to contribute to the community I think this is just the best case scenario all around it's just wonderful to see I just wanted to look I just wanted to say that Maurice that's all yeah so my wife and I met at ashin high school and uh that's awesome yeah we uh we stayed together through we went to separate colleges but uh yeah once I finally the best place for us we both loved Ashland our families are here so sense you got married it was like last April right in May last May right before the election just a little bit of stress all at once but geez well that's great okay so I would like to make a motion that we appoint Maurice ker to the Board of Health to fill our vacant seat second it it's okay yep okay all those in favor I that passes 88 Z you are officially appointed to the Board of Health make sure you go down to the town clerk's office before their next meeting so you can get sworn in and at the same time if you want you can pull your papers and make it really official thank you yeah thank you great congrat thank you so much like I as as was you know John said that you know thank you for coming back and thank you for being diligent and um I I too love the fact that you were born and raised here and you're back here raising your family and now you're giving back to the I think that's just fabulous and your parents are really invested you know yeah yeah we please give them my best I was gonna say we should thank your parents as well so anyway congratulations thanks for coming in um so if you guys want you can adjourn I'll make a motion that the Board of Health adjourn second second I favor I great thank you very much you're welcome thank you thank you thanks again thanks Maurice oh yeah oh yeah yeah that's good that's good good seeing you all talk to John about his chickens okay it is 7:35 we expecting planning board at um 7:45 so we have about 10 minutes um let's go back if I think we can do it in the 10 minutes the budget Workshop I just want to I unfortunately was not able to attend sometimes work does that gets in the way of my volunteer um if I could just get thoughts questions comments that the three of you had because you attended and um followup thoughts on what we need to do or what you see Makita why you go ahead yeah um I you know this is the first time that I've participated in this exercise and I have to say just personally it was extremely helpful to hear from uh Department chairs and folks to explicitly talk about what you know what they what they were asking for what they thought they needed why um and that context was was immensely immensely helpful um so uh and I also just want to say that it was I really did appreciate the time and preparation that the staff went through to to make those presentations as well you could definitely tell that that was uh that that that effort was made so um yeah just just really appreciative of uh being able to hear that information and to have have gone through that um very informative extremely informative so good yeah okay thank you yeah yeah I I would second all of that I think it's um it really is so important for us to have a better understanding of what the dollars actually go for um what our needs are um things that we haven't been able to fund um I think it's important to think about um how long some of these requests have been you know reappearing every year and how that we they get pushed down the road and sooner or later I think that typically catches up with you but um you know so it it's very informative and I do appreciate um hearing from the Department department heads and you know meeting them getting to know a little bit more about them or or them personally um not that it's not really a social Gathering so you don't get that kind of but um but it's nice to see and hear um how really dedicated they are and their and their staff um are to to our community and uh it is definitely one of those group settings that we don't get very often as select board because we don't get involved in the day-to-day right but to sit with with the the heads of the Departments who do so much for the community it's a great opportunity so again I I I'm sorry I missed it but I'm glad the three of you were able to do it and and as you said Claudia getting to know them a little bit better because you're with them in person and and having that conversation yeah great okay and then I would just add that you know it's interesting in going through the budget and realizing just how little is sort of the discretionary amount that we have to work with because there's so much that goes toward things like medical insurance and and benefits that are already allocated that we really don't have any control over that costs keep escalating so you know you know sometimes people um think that that you know everything is spent on Staffing and it's not all spent on Staffing really spent on a lot of things that are kind of non-negotiable baked in things that we have to do by state law um and it's it's it's it's interesting because like our as our town has evolved the needs have definitely changed and it's and what strikes me is that we're just the the budget is so tight that we're not able to really respond in the way that we really need to for the for for what's best for Ashlin so like the the requests that came in from the Departments are not there's nothing that's like pie in the sky there's I mean there I remember like um in human services they're they're asking for someone else to help with things like the food pantry things that you would think are like non-starter requests like we could fund that but finding that money in the budget is really really tough so our staff continues to um try to provide a level of service um that you know is is at a level that is really tough to sustain given given the the demands of the community so it's just it it always puts it in context this the department meeting and I just thank you Michael for you know including us in that discussion because um and there were a couple fincom members there too and so it really was a um kind of a robust discussion and it will help inform us as we go into to our tri board meeting um and then also just you know as we start really looking not just for this budget year but kind of years down the road and how we how we want to position ourselves and and what the community expects from us and how do we either manage those expectations or figure out a solution that's that's a better solution for a so that's all but it was it was good and just to to add to your point about the nondiscretionary funds and that and it not being about staff it certainly isn't about staff salaries because one of the most shocking things I would say for me since becoming a board member was seeing some of the salaries of our staff and I I'd like to second that that was that was shocking and and I think I I I I hope folks understand that and and I I just wanted to piggy back on that like you know it's not to bry's point there are certain regulatory constraints like we are mandated to have to do certain things and these are not they're non-negotiable like but we have to do that and then you know confounding that with you know just the the other constraints and and what what folks are are making who work for Town um I I think that there's a impression in the greater public that public employees are making uh you know Zorb amounts of money they're making bank that is categorically false I could say and and I think the struggle you know it in some ways this exercise was great because it it does humanize things and it makes us think about the town and like the people that we're serving and the people who are helping Ashlin residents that's that's in some ways it's great to have been able to experience that and other ways it's going to make it even more challenging to know that we can't do everything and that that's tough sorry no it's true it's true yeah so just to you know for the public to you know watching so that was a what a budget Workshop that was you know public meeting it was here um uh the next step of the budget process is what's called a tri board meeting and that is the the select board the school committee and finance committee will be meeting on Saturday March 1st right here in town hall um it's it'll be a posted meeting because I expect full boards um I don't know that it'll be televised I don't know that we've worked that out only because of if it's not going to be televised it's going to be it will be recorded some way sh form um maybe F I don't know so we have to work out the logistics but when it gets posted if it's if there is a hybrid possibility that will be posted with the meeting posting but that's happening on Saturday March 1st um and then there'll be a second one if necessary in April so the budget process is ongoing uh if you have questions reach out to any of us reach out to to Michael or Jen uh and we can you know give you information on that okay if could I just add a couple things so of you just first off thank you for attending you know I know um Claudia I know you're retired but I know you're very busy um and you know yeah and Brandy and I appreciate uh oh I appreciate uh you know I know how busy you are during your job so I appreciate you taking the time to do that and I think um um you know Brandy I think it was you that said I think we got to think about our financial our budget cycle I think almost in a two-year format here not just 26 but 27 and um if we take that approach that would be sound but you know I do want to say I appreciate the comments just about the you know the staff and you know how hard they work I really hope you know what came through it sounds like it did is their dedication just kind of the the feeling of the team and being being a part of it yeah I mean there are some people who um who work here that you know their motivation is you know a steady paycheck and everything and that's totally fine took me a while to get to that point but like not everybody is going to be Barn bur don't need Barn bur reorganization but they all have a dedication to that is really kind of a source of of their working okay thanks so we will keep you updated on the process uh next at 7:45 we have a joint meeting with the planning board to review the talent Bank form for Amanda Hayes who is the current associate member and she is seeking to fill the vacancy of Maurice who has just stepped down I see we have three members of the planning board online and we have Amanda online so uh Trisha why don't you go ahead and uh unmute and let's let you do what you need to do to get your um meeting open yeah all I think I need to do is to call the planning board meeting to order right on time at 7:45 but um we do expect um I think an Anna's traveling right now but I she's going to try to get on as well but we we do have a a quorum for us so that we can we can just go ahead okay great so um we Amanda has put her her name in and many of us know Amanda because we went through this process when we appointed her as associate member uh but Amanda why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to those who may not know you and let us know why you want to continue and move up to a full position on the planning board sure thank you all so much can you hear me okay y yes okay great um hi I'm Amanda Hayes I have um been the associate member on the planning board um for almost a year and a half now um and I um I've lived in Ashland for about five and a half years um I got involved um and and wanted to be on the planning board originally um through the comprehensive Clan process and through applying um to be a Precinct rep for the comprehensive plan and then uh the associate member seat on the planning board came up after um sort of that process had closed and I have so loved being a member of the planning board I um you know I find that uh you know engagement in serving my community is just is is so fulfilling and um for me you know I serving with my other board members has been such a privilege um with this seat opening up it's important to me to sort of seek that vacancy as a full voting member um I I'm really really proud of our work as a board um and I'm really honored like I said to be a member of this planning board and um I I just um didn't feel right for me for that for the vacancy to come up and not seek it um so I I uh just a little bit of additional background I have pulled papers to run for the seat um for uh election in may as well um because I know this is a temporary appointment just through the election but I have pulled paper in in the signature Gathering process for that as well any questions from the select board for a any planning board members any questions or comments or don't I don't have a a question obviously we've been getting to know Amanda over the last Actually I don't even know how long it's been um been there forever it feels it feels like forever but um I I just wanted to um comment and I think people know this already but from my point of view I think uh emed has been a great member of our team she really brings um a great um logical um rational kind of viewpoint into things but also can um can explain things or from a a lay perspective I I I have to imagine that her profession you know she's always um working on complex problems and I think sometimes she's able to really to um talk about and explain complex problems and complex answers so that everyone um who maybe watching the planning board can understand um I think she brings a different kind of perspective um to our board not only with her profession but um as being relatively new to Ashland and um um and having young kids which is you know different you know on our board so um so yeah we appreciate um having her on and um I just open up to any other planning board comments I'll Echo exactly the same sentiments as Trisha um Amanda you have been an amazing ad to the team and um just like Trisha said I think I've cherished and hear your Clarity in a lot of the things that you break it down so simple and I think that helps a lot um so thank you for being an amazing team member and I love that you rais your hand for a lot of those tough times when we really hesitate to put those documents together so thank you for all that you've done so far for the team thank you both um I'm super excited to have you as a member of the board and my only question is do you have someone to fill your shoes as the associate member I will definitely uh start chatting for folks if that if that a vacancy comes up yep well I think um I I think we probably will want to fill it in the way the past two candidates have really been from my perspective you've been considered a full board member I know it's not voting but obviously we value your input very much as Kevin before and and um you get to be part of the debates and all of that so so I think that might be a selling point to recruit um an associate member too um but I'm super excited I think we might be the uh um assuming this gets passed tonight the first time in an elected Board of all women in Ashland and I think that's kind of cool I I I would agree with you on that Kate I think that's pretty cool that that that it's our planning board one of the more technical boards that's going to have that that's very cool okay I I do want to say that Anna um has been trying to get on but like I said she's she's traveling and is having troubles I did tell her that we had um we had three members of the planning board here so she just just wanted to acknowledge her effort to try to participate so good good okay um would someone from the planning board like to make the motion to make the appointment I will make a motion that um we appoint Amanda Hayes as the fifth planning board member which um term will run into until the election in May second we have a motion in a second all those in favor we all vote together I I Hi I hi uh we actually should do a remote Kate uh jic hi Deepa I Kendall I okay that carries uh 70 so welcome Amanda thank you playing board members for for being here thank you Amanda for being here and just a reminder Amanda make sure you go get sworn in before the next planning board meeting so you can be an official member thank you for running which is a week from tomorrow so yes yep you're on Dy now thank you so much congratulations Amanda congratulations conrat Amanda thank you thank you bye good good night good night Amanda then you guys just need to close your meeting and yes I see Anna just getting on actually she's trying to get on um let let me just see if she uh okay Anna did you make it on I am I see her name I see her name I'm not sure she's um getting a full connection but um I've also been texting with her as well to as she has been trying to to get on so I will let her know the the results if she's unable to hear us hey I'm able to hear you guys there she is okay yeah I just uh I'm listening in as I'm driving so I apologize it wasn't the safest to just uh unmute you but I am listening in oh yeah so Anna we if if you did not hear we did um just vote and we Amanda Hayes um is will be filling that seat um until the election in May wonderful congratulations Amanda thanks so much and then you spectacular and on that note we are going to um I will um take a motion to close the planning board meeting moved and um so that the select board can get on with their work is there a second second Anna roll call vote Katherine jerseyy and Trisha Kendall I so we will um see everybody next week great thank you thank you conratulations Amanda thank you all for for dropping in appreciate it thank you guys good night everybody okay good night congrats Amanda thank you um that leads us to our next appointment it's a little bit early but I see Aaron here so Aaron if you don't mind we'll take you at 7:55 versus 8 o'clock and yeah good thanks that's okay just yeah have that make sure that's turned on there you go so I didn't prepare any formal presentation but I forwarded along spreadsheets and answers to questions and those so you tell me I would say if you want to go through that information I think that was just um what are you working on what you know what I think there was discussion about some of the CPC funds and where things are at and projects that are under CPC things like that so uh I've been chair of the CPC for about five years now I've been on the board for about eight um the previous chair I think was chair for 23 years so there's been two in the history of Ashlin wow um we are one of the original CPC Founders going back about 25 years years now for CPC um so looking at the history you can look at all the projects including literally this space as a CPC project um so there was questions about what we're currently working on what we worked on in the past um I think kind of the key takeaways are is you asked about vacancies we have two vacancies on our committee um All About ongoing projects there are some things like the fire Tru that's not listed there because they've allocated their funds but the Project's not complete um so there's things like that the Library recently did a painting project they're complete so they'll close that out at some point um the dog park we've allocated funds they're going through planning board process um there's things like the Riverwalk project which are ongoing in discussion um so that's kind of the status of projects and then um a status of kind of the funding is uh our spend versus replacement is increasing budget meaning uh I'm trying to raise that you know in the next five to six years we will have upwards of $10 million available for the various buckets so CPC is not um flush fund per se it's a appointment of affordable housing open space and Recreation um and I'm going to miss one because thank you historic preservation um so it has to fall within those guidelines uh for funding wise just a reminder that some of the money comes from the state directly as a grant or a matching percentage um those are about estate sale or sales right like when you sell property real estate charge so there was questions about how that fund is doing but it has matched every Grant possible the last few years so we're matching with the state money and our own coffers are a match of what we spend annually as well as paying off bonds we have four current bonds um two of those expire in the next three years I believe um so those again will take off our our balance sheet um and so that's where we are so it's anybody remember the movie Brewsters Millions yes wow so some people do Michael obviously laughed the premise of the movie is um a gentleman uh has a deceased relative and the deceased relative plays a game on him and he says I'll give you $30 million today but if you spend every dollar of it I will give you $300 million if you don't spend all $30 million of it you get nothing so and he has to do it in 30 days so he has like this contest basically to try to spend $30 million in 30 days not I was wondering where you're going with it it's not as easy as you might think to spend money right so even though we have money available it takes resources to spend money of project management staff oversight political will timeline Etc so that's where I'm getting with the bruers millions of like yes there's funds available but it requires staff and people to do it um by the way it's a fun movie of he spends he spends every dollar oh you've never seen it oh you got to watch it yeah oh there's a remake oh I REM I'm taking the REM realize the80s realiz pry oh but I use it as example of again our pot of money is growing but it's a challenge to figure out you know who can who could spend the money who can do it who can allocate it um so it's just good to see you know where we're at in the next couple years for projects um you ask for quick overview perhaps that's a quick overview of where we are so does that raise questions comments concerns is there a limit on how much you can spend or does it and does this have to maintain a certain level or anything like that I mean if there was some project that um you have annual revenue and you can't spend beyond that when we have had had certain projects we've decided whether to bond or pay cash so like the most recent large project for us was the Valentine State we bonded that so I think it was 20 year bond 30 either way we bonded it so you know like like any type of purchase you could decide whether you want to bond it or pay cash can't go negative you can't right can't borrow against future earnings but otherwise that there are four separate accounts so you can't transfer between accounts so you can't can't really spend you can't spend all of it on a affordable housing project because some of it is open space Recreation funds some of it is um historic preservation so can't spend it all in one area what what has been the hardest account to work off like I'm looking at the amount sitting in in community housing and that's affordable housing so community housing is the title for it yeah there's been discussion Statewide that that has become a problem I think there was a cover story in the globe maybe a year ago talking about how CPC sort of competes with itself that many towns have used afford have used open space money to acquire land to Pro to protect it from affordable housing um and I would agree that we have as far as I've been here we have not had a single project that has done affordable housing um there are opportunities that some towns are doing of what affordable housing can mean it can mean building it but it can also mean buying the rights to it right so let's say you have a 100 unit development and they're proposing 10% affordable housing you can buy 10% credits to get to a number to a 20% or 25% or you could buy 10 more to get the 30% or whatever you want to do so some towns do that of they don't build it per se but they buy affordability they buy affordability or they buy the credits from the developer that's obviously a negotiating tactic with the planning board and staff of like what the develop ER wants right but that's what one way they use the money other places are again literally buying land and building building it different towns have different organizations that can do it better or easier meaning they might have a nonprofit they can literally do nonprofit affordable housing in that town but that's probably the hardest and it's been historically the hardest um at least as long as I've been on the board but it's also a Statewide yeah now we I know that Habitat for Humanity is coming in are they looking for any funding from us to help them out from our affordability you know I thought they were but I don't remember have initially when we were talking I thought I know when we were initially chatting with them and we've approved them and and they're getting ready to break ground they're they get I think they were getting money from the trust a for Housing Trust and historically that's that has that is what has happened here so um CPC in town meeting through their votes have transferred money from that CPC of you know community housing bucket to the trust right um trust can be a little bit more Nimble a little bit more they don't have to wait for town meeting Vote or exact but that that hasn't um we haven't had a vote like that in a long time to transfer money from CPC community housing to the trust 2007 and 2009 wow oh wow so that's you could move money from CPC to the affordable trust so that you could use it more right because the trust once they have the funds can be a little bit more Nimble because the only vote that you'll take is at town meeting to say okay we're going to transfer you know 500,000 from CPC to the affordable housing trust and then the trust has the money available and they and then the trust could can the trust then buy land and and developer and yeah I mean it's it's they've tried tried that they we have there's a partial on Oak Street that they've tried that with um they we have used some they tried Cherry Street when the Cherry Street that's right with the freden right they actually yeah right right right that's the one I hear about most often so there's Olive Street um there's The Corner Spot which is an example that farmers market too or no that's I think that's not the either but so just and then they have done some funding with the units on Route 126 there's 20 units um the so 16 unit street at the 12 Street so it was a 20 unit development they were only going to do two affordable we helped buy two more units so four of them are affordable which made them 25% made it 25% yes the old Marone right so we did that so we could get it up to 25% affordable allowed us to count all the so um I noticed on the the vacancies on CPC that there's a vacancy that's normally a seat for affordable housing trust how long has that been vacant four to five years okay oh all right so I would say we should make sure that the trust conversation with the trust yeah Joe's not here tonight obviously and Jo's our affable Housing Trust guy but you know um you have you're supposed to have what nine members yeah we are nine members uh four are at large and five are State mandated so meaning planning board has a rep open space has a rep regardless what town you're in right um so that is a mandated one to be there could you talk a little bit about what the process is for like if if we had a project or another group had a project and wanted to look into CPC funding what you know sort of the lead time to come to CPC town meeting what that process looks like the funding mechanism how long how long the the project before it gets sunsetted and all that just sort of like Logistics around the fun Logistics my favorite word um uh what we do and what I'd like to do are two different things of uh I would prefer to have a multi year you know timeline of here are the list of projects coming and here's what can get funded one year and whatnot trying to avoid last minute uh applications um it has functioned in a six we've been trying to keep projects relevant um for both Town meetings because I think it's important for CPC to be present in the community to show that money is getting spent and projects are Areno so we've done small projects as you noticed the last couple years to try to keep in front and we've tried to had those back up within the timelines of you know you're applying by January for Springtime meeting you're applying by September for fall time meeting so that we're following the CPC finance committee you know review template to meet on Town morning articles we hold a public hearing for any you know review of formal applications and need the timeline to do that we used to meet honestly monthly um I pulled that back a little bit to probably B monthly or cancel summer meeting to try to help our members be more engaged versus just have meetings at meetings so we're trying to make our meetings efficient of really reviewing applications so I've answered your question maybe in a little bit of a long about way but uh the general consensus is we have to follow within your timeline of when articles are posted the second half of that is once we have an article we've made every um every warrant article have a three-year shot clock for projects um I thought that was important so that we weren't just giving money to applicant with a no Sunset date um it doesn't mean they can't continue it um like the Riverwalk project they got at the end of three years and then came back so all projects we've given a roughly threee shot clock meaning if it's September we usually say December 31st and then add three years but it's helped projects not just take the money and sit on it um I haven't been in a uh Housing Trust one because that's a little different but every project project one has been a three-year shot clock one um because you want to make sure the money gets spent um or like we had a project that we approve $100,000 for if they only spend $90,000 the Project's done it goes back to the Town based on the bylaw then as opposed to just sitting in an account for three five 10 years or whatever and no mechanism return it so we've gone by the three-year shot clock with if you get towards the end of the three years you just ask for an extension but that way it has to go before town meeting to approve that extension or not so that it's relevant so I have one more question so you know we were talking about um the Housing Trust and how we could to meeting could transfer money um CPC funds into the affordable housing trust bucket or from the from the affordable housing bucket to the trust um could we do that with like the historical stuff too like I'm thinking if there was um funding mechanism for like some sort of historical I don't want to call it a grant project but that's kind of what I'm thinking where if the historical commission say you know say out of that historic bucket has $100,000 transferred to the to the historic commission could we do something like that where they would have a process for doing that out as yeah so the note about that is kind of who you're giving the money to yeah and they either need to be the landowner so in the case of like Housing Trust right like they own property so because they own the property the deed restriction you know like it has CPC restrictions on the land okay or it's a nonprofit at 501c3 entity type of thing so think sbur Valley trustees right like you know they could apply for a open space and Recreation application and the money would go to them and they would oversee the land so it's either one of those two so actually the third is like internal of like we give it to ourselves basically of like like the River Walk yeah yeah we're basically giving it to ourselves or the dog park otherwise it fits into those categories of you know who owns the land or who is the nonprofit entity to manage that type of property could could it be so sorry no no keep going keep going I'm sorry I didn't disrup I didn't answer your question hisorical question because I don't know what they are I don't know if they're a not profit or a town organization or what they are but I pause when I'm like okay who we giving the money to specifically I don't know that the historic commission is an entity that can take funds and Dole them out yeah I think it would have to be a CPC project right I don't I don't think we can say okay here historic commission yeah here's $100,000 to do stuff historic renovation or something like that I don't think it's that I don't whereas Michael you you know where I'm going with this right like if like if they if the historic commission for instance like if the Federated Church needed $25,000 for repairs could instead of like taking the going asking for the $25,000 from CPC if there could be a if there could be money already allocated that we could tap into where we could utilize that to help to help preserve historic buildings I'm just trying to think of like yeah I so CPC you know I think the law um is really you know can be a little a little bit confusing in terms of using CPC money for private projects so it's certainly been done before like I mean we've used CPC funds for the telecon building um there was like a real specific purpose for that building and like a real you know specific Nexus with you know historical stuff so in terms of of being able to like fund basically put money in a bank essentially use as a grant program I you know I'm not sure um it's something that I think you know we can look into so you're trying to get to like the affordable housing trust right so we take money from CPC we give it to the affordable housing trust and they work on affordable stuff right can we do similar to with historic I think the difference is the affordable housing trust has a like they have they're an entity an entity their own entity like it's very clear they're separate from what their focuses um could you create an entity that was the historic yes I mean I grew up in Lexington and so that historical had that ability and you go to their CPC and they have a entity within themselves that can get money spend money now that it's probably 300 years old but um so some towns have those organizations in the same kind of fashion that like to be honest ashon doesn't have um a Conservation Commission that can take money so again other towns you can give money the Conservation Commission because they are its own entity type of thing uh open space sometimes is its own thing so ashin doesn't quite have the groups to set up like that like I said before with like who could spend the money that's one of the problems we run into is we don't have enough stakeholders that can spend money to do projects yeah and unfortunately Jen ends up being project manager for many of them as opposed to like a great project we're doing is the fir truck is a great example right we have we have a stakeholder we have group of employees we have everything there that can do it and they can run with it right you know we just don't have a ton of those where right you know they can literally run with that type of project yeah Aaron Aon made you know the point earlier I was really glad to hear it um you know our biggest limitation is having the staff to implement some of these things right so that that's kind of tough yeah but you could actually could you hire a staff person and pay them from if you had these different entities set up then could you have a like sort of I guess the way Jen currently does it right you could do it two ways CPC funds can actually be used to hire staff are some towns that do that um I don't quite know the specifics of like do you have to approve it every year or you get you put in a fund but you can hire staff and you can also hire for what I think is the more important thing I wish we did more of which is says hire for planning money so I'll take we know we lots of people are talking about doing things in the Middle School Fields you can't you can't build Turf but there's missing tennis courts and there's missing lights there's a lot of things there happening there and we don't know if it's a million dollar project or a $4 million doll project and what's involved and you can approve $100,000 to go do an engineering study right so can you could spend money to no money right so you can spend $100,000 if figure out how much is it going to be we did that with the trolley book Trail project so we initially approved $50,000 to engineer it then that told us all right it's a half a million dollar project we'll get half of that money from CPC half from other places so there is opportunity to spend money to you know use it later type of thing yeah part of portion of ringham project but they're doing a feasibility study just how they can restore that P so the hope is that then if we find out that there is a solution that's feasible implementation is this something we could do to move the upper Charles Trail along like do we I mean I know one of the restrictions there is having someone to manage the project in regards to the engineering of it and the mapping of it and the parcel discussion it I mean could we we do something with CPC funds we have I know we've done some so we did part of it right because there there are certain things that we want to move the project along certainly looking at potential change in federal funding coming down the road do we want to move some things along is this a possibility I think something that you know we'd have to look into and see number one if that's feasible what that would look like if CPC would be on board um I mean I have seen CPC funds used for like housing planners to fund ongoing housing planners um potentially maybe you could do a transportation planner I I'm not sure okay um I think you know we would want to make sure that we could fund that position for a while right because it's still going to take a lot of like current staff time just to bring that person to bring that person right which is one of the things we've talked about before right people say oh we'll just hire some bring consult to do this hire a consultant okay well you still need to take some staff time to get that consultant up to speed before they can actually be doing some real work so I mean looking at our fund balance do we know how much of this will go away like of each of these projects right you know so the high school Fields no no not the not the projects but the bond payments right because that's something we always you know I know I know we see that at town meeting how much requ that afterwards but like so the high school project is like $400,000 a year annually what else is on the list you got Oak Street Oak stre Oak Street is about $200,000 annually and it does it have the fiscal year on there yeah it does yeah um Warwood Bond now you're going to test my brain War Woods I think is a mixture of different ones right I know it's how much the annual Bond just the annual Bond payment I know it comes out of different buckets I'll look it up if I can okay and then the Valentine property CPA portion yeah Brandy saying it to me there I remember the largest one and then that's fine we can we can get that so so in in in even if we look at this right so you know the high school Fields that's going to be another it was getting at what I was trying to describe which was uh here here we go uh Oak Street Bond payment is uh 131,000 the high school Fields is 292,000 the Warren Woods is 148,000 and the Valentine is 45,000 annually annually so what I was trying to describe was when those other ones come off the books in three years in addition to adding approximately half a million to a million dollars annually we' be adding another uh 400,000 that will not be used as I said in three years if we continue our current spend we would have in excess of $10 million right in addition to roughly about a million dollars a year and and have has CPC on its own sort of looked at or received from the Committees that are sitting there any discussion about what could be done or looking at what's going on you know we have an open space plan that we've been working on based on that input or in I mean have you have as a committee have you had a discussion saying okay we know we're going to have all these funds what are some things that we're hearing people want to have done that we could do yeah that's really our number one task right now is to try to kind of solicit that we're getting some from town we have school committee we have different groups of what's out there um I guess if you had at least my multi-year thing the big ones that are coming up are that for Charles tril which is do you spend all of it at once do you spend it portional or how do you compete for for Grants meaning the tips process is a you do it all at once or do you do segments and so that's a big thing there there are um planning board will bring up for any type of big projects they'll discuss that there is the Town Forest who is at least identified all right here the five or six Parcels that you know they came available we' purchase we literally just did one of those and didn't need to use CPC phone for that but there are another five or six that they ever became available CPC or you could have a batch of money in a pile to use to acquire those properties right but there's that I mentioned athletic fields is one that comes up all the time right there are restrictions for Turf and stuff and other things yeah um you mentioned the church earlier uh can't use it for religious reason per areas so okay yeah there's all these little asteris things that come up that I think it's come up of we're doing a comprehensive plan to try to help us identify what are the priorities right and hopefully that identifies it like here's where we should do I think the biggest balance we will have in the next few years is is it worth doing one or two really really big projects that are really impactful and one area or is it a little bit here a little bit there piece here piece there because you [Music] know think of that that's what we don't know is is it worth going to pick on the Middle School fields for a sec going there and saying all right here's $5 million let's redo the whole thing and get it right right like let's get it right for the next 30 Years or is it a playground here an arborium here a little bit of forest here a little bit of Trail here that um I have a friend who is a chair of the hopkington um Comm preservation committee and he was kind of raising like hey we have money to spend we money to spend and then at one town meeting they had four multi-million dollar projects all come at once and they had to turn down school and an open space request because it literally came at the same time right and it was like you know the school was crushed the open space was crushed it was like all came at once like they yeah um so that's a couple a couple things you know I would just encourage um CPC to consider so you know number one yeah I think you know if you got a $10 million War chess that's pretty sizable um there could be some potential sizable purchases I'll just label it purchas I don't know what what that looks like but there could be some substantial problems SL opportunities that reveal themselves in the coming years that we're we're not aware of right now you know I think we know of a couple places that are in somewhat precarious positions and I think they have an important cultural value to the town so we might you know maybe you want to ask CPC to kind of think about that and keep some in the background the other thing CPC might want to consider I think is like a policy moving forward where like okay you know you're getting this much coming in and maybe your policy is like okay we'll spend kind of the taxpayer portion um you know right away but anything we get from the state would be banked you know for future you know just something like that just kind of where you're yeah got a little structure to it are there any regulations around having to um have you know not the CPC not being able to fund something in its entirety that there has to be um another like the town has to partake in some way no um we've done full we've done the dog park you know is Stanton Grant Town Money CPC money um so it can be a mix it could be everything there's no we have definitely we have definitely used it as a match for Grants though and so often times so for the river walk we needed to have a match and so having a town meeting vote allocating you know a certain portion was made our case a lot stronger um done that on a number of projects um yeah that's why we don't have to do with I mean I think we use it the other way as opposed to them requiring us a lot of Grant organizations will like will will like to see that as a town you're putting some money toward it and you're not expecting all of it to come through from the grant that and the more you can match sometimes the higher Grant reward that you get right yeah but it's not that it's not that the CPC couldn't fully fund something if the town was the partner in so the the um the parcel the UC the partiel that we just purchased right there was a grant opportunity and we we could have not gone for the grant and said okay we're g to we certainly could have funded it completely from from our CPC funds but the question was why do that if we can get other tax dollars back to our community let's do that and save our CPC funds for either longer term projects or bigger projects where either there's no Grant available or we're less likely to get the grant for whatever right I'm not suggesting that we would I know you're not I'm just and although that Grant might not happen is that true because it's one of the well we did get I was going to update everybody later but um I can update them now no we we're we're getting it we're getting that that money so we'll be okay I know we're running late but could I ask yeah just one question um Aaron I know you've got you know a mixture of kind of newer members and longtime members but like how long has Devon been on I think Devon's kind of your most senior member uh I can't speak to before me because they didn't tell me when they started but uh Devon and Gretchen were on when I started um so they would be the most I would say so you I I think they've been here before I started so you said you have two vacancies one is the affordable housing trust is the other one an at large member so that is for us to appoint correct okay is that Donna's old SE correct gotcha okay um I know I'm overtime but I'd be remiss if I didn't at least mentioned when we we talked about closing out projects and sunsetting them yeah I'd be remiss if we don't at least mention of when a project gets closed out it has a deed restriction against it um and The Corner Spot and The Farmers Market are stillar precarious CR what are they without their CRS or without CR okay um The Corner Spot was acquired with affordable housing money you understand the precariousness of that and the uh Farmers Market uh does not have a in that case it's an example of who acquired the property um if we had a nonprofit organization that that could hold the CR or run it right so those two are examples of not just where the money is going but who's it going to and how is it getting managed so I just be remissed that those are two outstanding ones that I personally have struggled with that like I just don't know how to resolve it um but just raise that it's one that we will continue to follow and both of those are related to Affordable Aren't They isn't the the yeah there I mean I know Corner Spot was was PCH I mean the affordable the affordable housing trust owns The Corner Spot right now right so I know that's been an issue so okay we have to follow up with affordable on that and then wasn't it similar to the farmers market Market's a little different oh that was open space open space and Community yeah community and that was done to the um AR when that was in and we don't have the AR has been disbanded so for as Revel so AR was ashon Redevelopment Authority and we had that and then it got disbanded because they weren't forget exactly why but you might know there was a lot of there was a lot of things so that was how I got sucked into the town stuff um no we didn't have I don't think we had like um full members and then we also the a lot of the projects that we had worked on was really kind of absorbed more into the town side and right it wasn't really needed anymore right I think that was part of it that the you know the the Redevelopment wasn't really so the AR um owned the the farmers market parcel and then that transferred back to the town when so um but I know like now that we're talking about it it was probably what a couple years years ago that I came to a CPC meeting and we were talking about the conservation restriction on that parcel and I thought I I thought you guys were going to start that process of working I know I looked over my shoulder just because um TR Trisha was on yeah so Trisha Kendall is Our member of our planning board um and she's your appointee to the CPC for correct and and she has discussed researching that more again I think we're just struggling with with where to start not where to start but who who's who's going to do it who's going to step forward right you know what group is going to step forward to say yeah us like for on and off since I've been sitting here we've had a CR working group a conservation restriction working group and they've looked at different Parcels talking about making sure the correct CRS are on certain Parcels so we don't have that so we don't have a c no we don't have an active group and I think that we had discussed seeing if CPC was going to be willing to take take that on and I think they I think they said that they would but I think it's just sort of unclear how to proceed notar it's uh it's just finding the time to be honest I don't think it's finding the time it's uh who do I identify right like you know we can knock on 10,000 doors but I'm not sure there's a door to knock on that would do it um so there really has to be a group or an entity that is worth knocking on the door of so I don't think it's a time thing I don't think it's a resource thing I think it's literally a group needs a step forward to say we're GNA take this on and work through this and like with Valentine there's somebody stepping forward to say we're going to hold the CR right right because there's an entity willing to do that it's done right that group isn't going to do it for the farmers market so right unless we're going to start nonprofit like unless somebody steps forward and says I'm going to start a 501c3 that's going to be the ashin farmers market well so the Ashland Farmers Market is1 they hold it but but I'm just saying I don't know if that's like something that they would be willing to do that's interesting it might be an idea might be a question for them so I merely wanted to raise that it's an outstanding item absolutely you mentioned and I and I know I'm pretty sure the affordable housing trust is aware of the issue with the Corner Spot they are because of the the conversation has been you know do they give the money back to CPC but how does that work um so I know that's been in their discussions as well so I will I will take on the task of talking to affordable housing okay regarding their not having someone coming to CPC and how we're going to handle Corner Spot so okay and Michael what do you think about the whole Farmers Market thing like is that something that that it it's it's something I certainly think we could approach to them uh that CR is going to be very very yeah just you know because you do have this combo of affordable and open space right you know Aon you mentioned it earlier um I don't know somebody mentioned it earlier um ashin had a really really unique strategy maybe it wasn't that unique sounded like maybe some other communi doing it where they would use affordable housing money they would combine affordable housing CPC funds with open space to purchase basically to leverage more money to put towards open space acquisition reservation and um you know I'm not necessarily sure how much of an intent to actually build affordable housing was there um but in any case uh those are the two uh buckets related to the farmers parel it's just going to be going to be a little complex right do you think do you think like we should reach out to the farmers market do you think that you I'm happy to do it you know just to see if that's something that they'd be interested in so when the money I've already got it on it done list here the money from the affordable housing section when that was used in par for Corner Spot then didn't that Sunset so that it needed to be returned well it was already so it was already spent Claudia so um so but then did it but it was already spent but then it wasn't didn't serve its purpose spent to acire SP to acquire the property right with the hope that something could have been done with the building that was there to turn it into affordable housing we did like RF they did all kinds of things and they tried and it just didn't make sense to build affordable housing there because I don't think they could get anybody to do it no we got one proposal and just wasn't that great it and it wasn't and this was year financially feasible right like the the the amount of money to create the to make it into something affordable was it just didn't make sense but like Aeron was talking about like when CPC funds are used for a project there's a feed restrict so that's why I'm that's why we need a CR on the on the parcel but it's complicated or a financial transfer right right okay so the in that case then the that those funds were used in part to do the RFP basically so the the when when the funds were transferred to affordable housing to purchase that parcel Cherry Street parel the again the idea was they were going to build affordable so that's why it's owned by the trust but it didn't that didn't work out but what I don't understand is how do you should should it have been in including in it anyways engineering or some kind of a uh you know a proposal for it it was one of those things where it's like okay we have the opportunity to purchase this property we could potentially use it for affordable there was also a a a a larger plan for affordable so it wasn't just going to be the corner it was potentially going to be some other lots and then things have you know as time changed and things didn't happen so I know there's now a question as to does the does the trust have to give money back to CPC right so that it can stay as open space I don't even know if they could do a SWAT you know I don't know so there's there's some work that needs to be done to figure out what needs to happen with that parcel but it's so okay good thing I started early sorry for taking over my no no no Jim thank you for your patience but it's been a good discussion yeah Erin thank you this has thanks helpful very helpful we uh we'll maybe have a few things that swn meeting in the spring but be updated on those thank you for your time sounds great no thank you I think it's been a great discussion for us and hopefully people who are watching and as always it's good to know what's going on with with taxpayer dollar so that people can understand where it's going so well thank you all thank you very much okay moving on Jim come on up hello everybody have copy probably somewhere of the report I I have hard cop okay there's like 300 of them downstairs yeah well you know I've been handing them out like okay hey you got to get the word out somehow right that's exactly right well good evening everybody I'm Jim neelson uh for those of who don't know I'm the chairman of the Asal historical commission and also on the local historic district study committee um which is just about wrapped up um what you have in front of you is the final report U I don't remember the last time I was here before the select board but I think this was in a very early draft stages and now this has been uh vetted by the state uh by the massachusett historical commission and it's also been um run by the Town Council and she had no objections with it we're in the process we're actually gone through all the steps let me just I have a quick presentation just to give you a brief outline of what what it is and what it isn't uh just to remind everybody I know I've talked to a few of you individually over the past few months and uh just to get get a sense of where we are now how do I do this I just hit the slide thing yep yep down the bottom yeah did that work no oh maybe the keyboard okay there we go all right why create a local historic district well this backs up to when the uh the historic commission was reconstituted back 5 years ago um we had a a little bit of time getting together uh and getting our feet underneath us but as we were doing this uh one of the big issues that came up besides demolition delays was the was the mill building issue and it came to everybody's attention that there's no there's no vehicle in this town to prevent the destruction of um of historical buildings uh a local historic district is the only mechanism available to preserve historic buildings did a lot of research there's things um that people think of like the National Historic register um it doesn't protect things uh local demolition delays as which we have are only good for a year we when we've got the bylaw change to a year um and basically this is to maintain the character of our downtown Ashland's quickly losing its historic buildings and demo delays and National Registry of historic buildings are not quite oops that's not quite fitting in the whole thing uh they don't quite cut it now this is the map and that's on page 24 I believe in front of you the proposed District goes from up the top you have on the upper left in the north is the ashon Historical Society down Main Street it includes the mill building site even though we're fully aware that the mill buildings are really kind of off the table for this discussion because they're 40b project and we have no control over that but it keeps going to those buildings by the church the it used to be an old General Store next to the church uh all the way down taking a corner on front street down to the library um and then across the street which is the farmers market area and across the tracks to over the old historical railroad station and there's a little jog across the street from that on hom RAV to the building that houses uh which now Zen dental and the pizza place and the Chris's Barber the post office and back on Main Street going up past John Stones lunkers which is the old Ash General Store uh the fire station Town Hall the Ashton Housing Authority red brick building out front and the plaza that's next to this building which is and uh and then also the purple house and The Corner Spot the purple house is actually uh the only residential house in this in this whole dis proposed District everything else commercial or town owned um the reason we kept it to this is because we thought we didn't want to um go overboard on this we could have kept going up Main Street towards like mates all those houses on Main Street some of them could qualify under this too but we wanted to keep it downtown and make it more of a local Historic downtown district okay I'll just a couple of pictures of some of the buildings 48 to 54 Front Street which is also known as the uh the Masons building that was constructed in 1882 the historic name is the Abner Greenwood Block it's now called the ashon Masonic Lodge they've been there since 1884 and it's h variety businesses on the first floor but it's been there I think there was a brief interruption in the 20s but they've been there ever since and of course the public library which has been renovated but it was renovated in the style of the old library we just they built out on the back and that was an original and Andrew Carnegie Library that the town match funds for when he was back giving out money for for libraries in 1903 historic name of this of course is the railroad house Captain John Stones Hotel built in 1834 it's commonly known now as John Stone as Stones public house also one of the oldest buildings in ashin and it's been continuously in operation since probably 1834 uh at various periods it's been different establishments over the years it's no longer a hotel of course but it's still a restaurant and when people say where do you live and I say ashle they say oh you know Stones you've been to Stones I'm like yeah yeah it's like the local Landmark for people who don't know where ashin is and they but they've been to Stones probably uh the central fire station and this brings up a point um when people ask us well we don't have like a downtown like say like downtown Lexington or downtown conquer or or or Falmouth or something like that where it's all kind of in the same period style we have more of a mix an Eclectic mix of different houses or different buildings um from different time periods this is a good example Stones is from 1830 this is from 1923 and it's a good example of what's going on with this building is what we propose because in a historic district we're not looking to change all we're looking to protect is the facade the outside of the building what you can see from the street and this is a good example of it it's being repurposed as a restaurant uh beer garden what have you but the outside of the building is staying the same and the police station next to it I understand that's going to be torn down or something like that we're not including that it's not old enough to be historic anyways it was only built in 1978 so that's not in the inventory each of these properties has an appendix in the back um and there's more I can I can send them over to they're all in the macis database which is the Massachusetts listing of historical properties there's been an inventory done of all these properties that have gives the history the architectural style and anything any some of the owners of the properties so just to be clear so some of the properties might fall within the map but they're excluded because but they're not historic they're not excluded but they're not historic because the the thing is with the historic district it has to be contiguous right you can't go hop scotch or cross that's why they have you have to kind of draw a line around it and that that's the district okay um and so some of them are non-conforming and that's going to be like best example I give is the liquor store you know that that's not a historic building and but if that was to be if this passes and and it and it he wants to tear it down and build a new building it would have to be reviewed um the exterior of it would have to be reviewed not only by the planning board and the town but by the historic the local historic district commission which will be established just to review it which there's three I think I'm coming up to it in the slides but there's three things a certificate of appropriateness um a certificate of uh now I'm I'm blanking on what it is there's three different things hardship it's a real hardship to do something and uh I forget what the third one is right now off the top of my head but yeah no the the exterior plans the whole the whole goal is not to overbuild in downtown ashin and not to go um stuff that's not quite fits with the general theme of the downtown area I mean it's it's it's an amorphous it's subjective which which just to to follow up on that we don't have a specific theme right each building has its own Char right so so you know okay so if so if you wanted to put up say something that's I'll give the best example the building that went up at 128 Maine which a lot of people in town I mean I'm getting used to it but a lot of people in town were horrified that it was like out of place too big for the space not enough not enough setback all kinds of different things I've heard but that's the kind of example that the it would give actually more local control to the citizens of Ashlin and just one more layer of having something to say on what gets built downtown because the the local historic district commission is going to be appointed by the select board much in the same way that you appointed the study committee I don't know if you remember that we had to have like we had to have people from different walks of life it's the same thing yeah the people on the study committee now that committee ends when this goes to the town meeting and if it passes then it then they'll have to be created a new new Comm create a committee that a commission to like oversee that separate from the separate from the as guidelines as well as the bylaw to make decisions by yes yes and I'll get to that so so it becomes another layer so in other words like 128 main had the they had to go before the planning right this will go before the planning board too but it also goes before the historical commission but I mean yeah okay so the planning board could have added to the setback yeah so it doesn't does it I mean I guess it I'm not say I mean I'm it's that's not neither here nor there at this point yeah you know the other thing is in terms of it being contiguous another option would be to choose individual properties right unfortunately to do that you have to have individual uh local historic commissions right you can do it but you have to have you have to have a separate commission for each one okay and a question I had because I I think this was when I I sat in on your meet meeting there a while ago um could could the same group be the the commission for each of those right because one of the issue one of the things that somebody mentioned was well you know we we couldn't possibly have enough people to I think might have been your consultant right yeah to to be able to for individual it's kind of it's kind of unwieldy I mean the city of Somerville does it and I honestly don't know um I have somebody on Stacy is our she was your consultant Stacy do you want to weigh in on this what the problem is with the individual commissions Hi how are you Hi hi Stacy hi um it would be fairly burdensome the way the district is written is to just um with making them contiguous is so it's kind of an Al together sort of thing it kind of maintains the streetcape so everything's a similar you know the same sort of size and scale and setback that's it's historically had um you could do the individual ones um if would just be I that's a good qu it's a good question whether you could do it separately and have um the same commission serve all of the different um uh individual landmarks um I suppose it's possible I know hopkington has um I used to be the chair of the hopkington historic district commission and we've got the Local District um you know just around the common there is one bill building uh that is a single building historic district um and that one is overseen by the hopkington historic district commission um the downtown one um I think you would need to do um to get to that point you would need to do have a study committee like like the one Jim uh chaired up you'd have to do that and have a study report for each of the individual buildings so it's um it's it's doable but it would be unwieldly to get to that point and each each individual building would have to go um to town meeting just like this District would so I I think it's possible um but I do I think it would just be um it would be a lot to to take over to undertake that word because like my my concern is that this is encompassing 44 Parcels which is a huge swath of land like Yolanda said it's not there's not a set style where we're trying to keep things in the same style and so but that's unique for Ashlin too right but you know my concern is that um you know I'm looking at some of these some of these things in the in the listing and you know you do have you do have the police department listed in yeah but it's not applicable but so I'm saying like if so if if NOP what is the non applicable please it just says ma inventory number for the police station na yeah if I can add the reason um uh for them to be considered uh it's included because it's a contiguous parcel um but it's wasn't uh 50 years of age so uh that's usually the threshold that the National Park Service holds for these um regulations um and Massachusetts adopted so yeah it's not 50 years old yet but it falls into the same category of say one of the banks like the Santander Bank or the um the need them Community Bank so if one of those Banks left and they wanted somebody wanted to redevelop that parcel then then would in being inside the historical district it would fall under the the general rubric of it had to get a little bit of an approval from them as well as the planning board okay so it's the same it's the same concept for the liquor store for the dry cleaners they're not all gems to be kept forever you know well and and to that point like there are some parcels in here that I would also consider not gems either that like you know like we like lunkers it says the year was built 1835 I wouldn't necessarily categorize that as something that we would want to retain as a facade and I would say there are definitely Parcels in downtown that we should work to preserve I absolutely agree like I think the Federated Church and Jon stones and the old train station are really unique to Ashland and I think that is something that we want to make sure we preserve I I feel that like sort of the blanket approach to everything is is possibly a bit of an overreach and you know we've we've invested over $15 million into our downtown and there's some parcels in here in this list that I just I I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily call them like historic to be preserved I would just call it kind of old um so there is there is a a considerable historic history to that building though that is the old J ashon general store and it was the news agent where everybody got their newspaper and back in the days before you know TV and the internet and radio and people would have to go physically to the news store to get it that was what when when I first moved to ashin it was still a functioning General Store I don't know if you people remember it but you know it's only become lunkers in the last yeah so many years I mean it's going to be something else down the line yeah you know but I'm saying and the actual brick building itself the front part it's an addition you know and that's not you know that's not anything um to write home about but the back if you look at from the side it is it's one of those ashin downtown brick buildings which is very similar to the one that's in front of the ashon housing authority and it's also very similar to the house next to the church which also used to be a store but from but from the street you would be looking at the facade which would be the front of that right but what I'm saying is an is ashin Brick it's it's an example of ashin brick construction that they don't do anymore and it's it's not it's something that is historically significant whether it doesn't look like it is or not that's a matter of you know that's your personal opinion right I got I got I'm gonna recommend if it's okay with the rest of board that we let him go through this sure yep y get through this then if we have I mean you you could go over every one of those I don't think I don't think everything's worth saving either believe me we've had a lot of demolition but this but this is this is the vehicle that we're trying to establish to preserve the most amount we can yeah um if possible right you know what I'm saying so there not going to be everything's not it's not a perfect solution to the problem of preservation um for example I've got up here at the church now right now it's a church it's been a church since 1835 uh John Stone actually sold a land to that church um so the bit of history there who knows if it's forever going to be a church you know with the congregation you know attendance and whether they can afford to keep it so s somebody the congregation wants to sell it to a developer that's the last downtown church we have in Ashland there used to be I think three and theyve did disappeared Through Fire and everything else um that's the quintessential New England Downtown Church you know when you go to Every New England Square Village across the state across the across New England is's the town Church in the middle of it um so anyway that's that's just what I'm saying but to preserve that you you could do an individual thing on each one and then you get back to the argument individual versus the whole thing we're trying to we've coupled this together because we wanted to try to save as many as possible in one swoop um because this is a lot of work I've been working on this for four years so it's not something that's easy to accomplish and you know some people say you can do it and it's going to encroach it's like a mold that's going to spread you know across and start taking around it no because each historic district has to go through the whole process all over again and it has to be vetted once it goes through town meeting and if it's got to pass by 2third it'll then go if it passes it then goes to the Attorney General's office and they have the final say the legality of it I'll get to the the bylaws and stuff like that but um it it's been a whole process okay and that's kind of what we're doing this for this is another example somebody looked at this building and said well this is ugly look at it's like a vinyl siding on it and blah blah blah blah blah that's actually one of the whole oldest buildings in in ashin it's the 1850 Wiggins block and that's held numerous historical uh things it's the first the site of the first ashon Library back in the 1880s it was the Ashen public library and it was an agricultural Library um before the other one was built and it's had numerous um in incarnations over the years all right see what yeah I just said it might be too late for it yeah maybe historically this one is called ibris Pharmacy or Eis pharmacy now Zen Dental it's a different example of a different kind of architecture of of uh the drugstore in the in the in 1933 architecture of the bricks and lastly I think that's it what is a local historic district uh local historic district contiguous area we've already been through this approval 2third U the district is going to be made up of the commission be made up local residents will be created to oversee the district and what does it do preserves the exterior of historically and architecturally significant buildings protects the value and character of the downtown revitalization main streets and econom revitalization program it's more cost effective program of economic development of any kind in the US today there's been studies done rather than than and of course when it comes to um ecological uh energy and all the cost that rehabbing all buildings um by far out strips uh new construction as far as uh making it quote unquote echo-friendly what does it not you it doesn't say what you can do with the property so we have no control or it would have no control of what goes on inside what kind of business uh it doesn't prevent new construction like I said let's say something happened to one of those old buildings and it burned down a good example is what happened in Hoppington I don't know if you folks are familiar with the with the white building across the street from the town hall that burned yeah you know and Stacy's very familiar with it too they built that rebuilt it it was the owner's idea to rebuild it in the same style but not everything's quite historically accurate and there was a give and take and they allowed him to move way back in the property and build additional space and stuff like that because you know he he was it was an agreement and that's what this was going to be it's an agreement between the town and the and the developer the owner to to make it so it kind of fits in the thing but we don't have to be like like period everything has to be done like according to like how it was done in the 1850s kind of thing um also there's been studies shown that it does not decrease property values and this is it it also applies only to portions of the building that can be seen from the street so behind the building it's not the concern of the commiss Miss just what you can see from the street and that doesn't include inside the building like somebody looking through the window and see something that's not that's I've had people say well what if I have something going on in my my business that's no concern of the commission um that's just it's basically the facade and the outside okay okay the district commission made up a local residence like I said it's responsible for seeing overseeing the bylaw and the commission is also responsible for establishing a non-binding set of guidelines we've already the study committee put together a set of B uh guidelines which is separate from the bylaw and the reason for that uh according to the state is basically we're not creating this out a whole cloth we we've used other towns uh bylaws and other towns uh guidelines the guidelines are to give up anybody who's doing anything in the district like some some idea what they they can do or what the committee will be favorable to look out what they're doing um and it can be changed um much more easily than a bylaw can be changed um the other thing is too the one we have up it's up on the website along with the bylaws in this report uh it's not final the final by guidelines will be done by the new commission if once they're created this is just a guide to go by it and like I said it's been kind of put together from surrounding towns Sherborn hington I think Holliston and Framingham Medfield definitely all right uh in summary historic district creates a thoughtful community- based review process that protects historically significant buildings from Demolition and inappropriate alteration to retra retain the unique character of downtown Ashlin um I have not much I I'm just trying to think I just did this for the planning board last Thursday so it's kind of I'm kind of having vu all over again here but I'll take I'll take any questions and if anybody from the historical commission Who's online wants to say a few things too by all means please jump in um what we're looking for tonight um it would be nice to have a vote of uh confidence or a vote of approval from the select board I've asked the planning board they're thinking about it I'm not asking for a vote tonight but I would ask that you would you know consider approving this and giving us a vote of confidence so that when we go and I'm I'm promoting this all over town and different things and say well the select board has has approved it the planning board has approved it we don't need it we don't need it per se to go forward but it would be nice to have um a lot of people have spent a lot of time working on this and I mean some might say it's overreach I don't think so we could have done a lot more it's not really taking we we try to limit it as much as possible we could have kept going down the street or kept going the problem with Ashlin which I've said many times is there just a lot of buildings uh that are historic and we're losing them every every time I every couple months there's another one that comes up for demolition um we're losing them but you can't really do that much with them because they're all spread out this is an Old Farm town so they're in this part of town that part of town this part of town we T we picked the downtown area because it was the most contiguously historic buildings together in one spot rather than try to you know we could do individual the Valentine estate's a good example that's that's by itself you know that's an Island by itself you couldn't include that but and also I try to keep it we you try to keep it non-residential the one person who is the resident is uh I don't know if you're familiar with naen yeah nen's all for of this and that's the other thing people ask me say well you're going to tell us what colors to paint the house and stuff like that no we're not that's not part of the the whole thing is the col there's a whole list of things that they will look at in the bylaws but color of the house color of the roof solar panels all that stuff is not reviewable color of the house is not reviewable said we already have a purple house you know and you know what are you gonna say it's part of the downtown Ash now so anybody have any questions any comments questions yeah I I have a couple of questions um so first of all I just want to say that I have noticed how much work and energy has been put into this and uh I just want to say thank you all for that uh it it it's been apparent to me the uh the tremendous amount of work that you've done um so in terms of to kind of go back to that kind of cherry picking if if you can't if it if it doesn't make sense to cherry pick then could you in say in the list articulate which ones would wouldn't you wouldn't necessarily consider to be um you know historic for example the police W the police station that says na well that's yeah that's it's not it was built in 1978 yeah so I was told it's being ripped down anyway I mean if that's still being is that still true are we still ripping down the police station anybody have any idea seems like it might happen but might not potential we don't know yet we don't know right so that's why it's kind of it's there in limbo but I'll give you a better example say the um the uh what you say what something that's not anything that's over from 1950 in before is revie reviewable for a demolition delay um whether it's historical or not is another question so if it comes before the the historic commission the local historic district commission um they can decide that no that's not worth saving or if they come to it and say this building has got so many problems there's no way we can save it economically you know and that would be a hardship kind of case and' be like okay and you know hopefully rational people can work together so that the new design for something that would replace it it would fit in with the general Vibe of the downtown district you know what I'm saying yeah so then there would be oversight on if say there was a fire of a building there's oversight on new construction right but it's only if it's it's a it's called a certificate of appropriateness and that's what they would be issuing so you could today have a building that has no historic value like the police station but if you were going to go to put something there then it would come under if it's in the district yeah okay all right um and then uh and so so you can't really cherry pick I mean you can't say these buildings anything that's in the district has oversight right okay um and then have you talked to there are some business owners obviously involved here yeah have you gotten any feedback from them I've gotten couple positive feedbacks the gentleman who runs the real estate for the for the Masons was was positive um I've heard like I said from naen people have been really silent there's been opposition but it's not from people that actually own things in the business in in the area um one person I think was was Bill who owns Ashton lickers he was not for this you know and that's fine I mean that's his you know he's like I we should he wasn't he wasn't into the concept period you know and that's F we had a public hearing and people got up and expressed their opinions and you know and that's fine and you know some people just don't want government telling them what to do you know period you know and that's that's that's what you're going to get too however it's been there's been two different rounds of letters that have gone out by the procedure that we had to follow it's mandated by the state and honestly I've never I've gotten like one call actually the gentleman that now runs Zen Dental he called because he was worried about the solar panels that the town said he could put on there if he ever feels like it on top of the building I said yeah that wouldn't be affected you know and that that that's so and he's the only one that called me I mean he actually you know but other than that I'm surprised but then again we also have government buildings in this um so I'm not going to have anybody from the town call me the church nobody's spoken mean we have me we have the historian of the um the church history whatever on the commission and nobody's you know said anything of course the ash Historical Society is all for this and you know the general public you say oh cool that sounds good you know and they're not you know as long as it's not their house we're telling them what to do they're fine with it you know but it's you know it's that's and there's a reason for that nobody wants to be told what to do with their house but whereas these are these are more commercial buildings and there's a lot of town own properties yeah and that's kind of why we kind of focused on the downtown area so not to you know ruffle too many feathers but I was surprised by the lack of um response to tell you the truth question from board the only thing I I I had watched your your hearing as well and um I think Mike Kane had a really good good suggestion was to do more more of a carrot versus a stick approach um well you know what I I agree I know what you're going to say go ahead Sor I I don't want to jump in so you know like we were just talking to CPC exactly um and my brain was thinking along those lines like what kind of carrot could we do to help preserve some of those really special buildings downtown rather than put more restrictions on the build like the the the business owners that are downtown because I I worry that like so my my fear is that so say the building owner for lunkers like they go out of business or not the building owner though well you know what I'm saying I'm just saying so and the and the building owner wants to sell that property and nobody wants to buy that property because they can't make they can't make any facade changes to that property so we have potentially vacant Parcels well they they can make some changes and they can make they can make a they it all go up for review um so that yeah if you're saying you can't but that's also it's also part of the whole another example I can think of I haven't seen the final report for the comprehensive plan people right but a lot of a lot of the stuff a lot of the stuff I've seen lately from that is about the historical preservation of Ashlin and and people are like answering questions about that and the feedback I've gotten from that just informally it's not scientific or anything is that yes we'd like to preserve the character of Ashlin um and keep it like small town ashin not like downtown Framingham you know I grew up I grew up in walpool um and if you ever have you gone on 27 into wo Center lately you see that big huge condo development that's right there that used to be fails uh machine shop back when I was a kid huh and it was you can see it here too it's huge you know it's totally out of place downtown Walpole and that's you know I used to walk from Junior High past that all the time but not when it was a condo thing and that's what we're really trying to get a uh not say we can't prevent that kind of thing from happening especially they come in with 40b like it's happening with the mill buildings but that's why that's the thought behind this so let me ask a question um so because like the mill building is 40b yeah what would prevent another developer from deciding to just go around all the local regulation and to do a 40b at or something along those lines well hopefully we'll get the affordable housing number up so that we can we we can you know avoid that from Absolut absolutely but I'm just I'm yeah I know like I'm we're I'm trying to wrap my brain around how how we can do this in a way that is not detrimental to our businesses downtown correct and reflects like the investment we've made into our downtown it's just I I feel like if we partnered with like so say say the Federated church was looking to sell I would hope that there would be a discussion with the town about what might happen with that parcel because I guarantee you the folks at the Federated Church know what an important parcel that is to the community so I would rather have sort of the carrot approach on how we work with Parcels specific Parcels downtown and maybe maybe it's doing a historic district for the church and for stones and for the five or six really important buildings that we want to make sure we preserve I just feel like I I and I and I get all the work that's gone into this I I and and like Claudia I appreciate all the work that you've done and all the work that the the commission has done it's just I feel like this is it's it's I I I think there's going to be unintended consequences from this and I'm worried about that so um well they've been in existence in massachus since 1972 um there's all kinds of historic every town around here has a local historic district and I don't know what the unintended consequences are for those business districts in the downtown I mean sometimes a historic district will attract business not necessarily repel it the other thing I agree with you about like K's suggestion um and that's why I was listening with all years when the CPC guy was going we would love to have a fund to get people to be able to apply to it to fix up their house so they don't have to tear it down and start all over again or something like that and there have been people who have spent the money to fix their houses but not everybody can afford that and you're lucky if they do it the right way you know as opposed I mean that's that's basically trust yeah and somebody new comes in I mean it's happened in Hoppington somebody waited out a demo delay because they didn't want to live in an old house well what did you buy an old house for to basically to sell to to you know rip it down and use the the lot but like we have a business incentive program and I know we've done a lot of work with that in downtown and I'm thinking like I'm trying to think of ways that maybe we could supplement the funds for the business incentive program to be able to specifically handle downtown historic projects to help so if if if for for reason like if the folks at luners wanted to do a project to make the facade improved maybe we could use money from the business incentive program to supplement that so it stays more in character with the town vers and and work with them versus I just I just feel like that's a more I don't think the two are mutually exclusive though I think you can do both and I think I think also with the with the funding and stuff like that um you can have what was the example I just it just went out of my head a minute ago um you can have the businesses that we're losing because of the mill building Fiasco is is incredible the amount of businesses that are in there and that's going to housing so on the one hand we want to attract businesses and we just lost the whole space for a bunch of businesses so so one of the things with the with the mill building you don't think so Michael so one of the things with the mill building and just to you know we we have we have a choice with the mill building and we've heard from the town from people that it is very important to preserve the historic character of those Mill buildings the developer has said that if they didn't if if they wouldn't preserve those buildings that they could do four four stories of just housing we would lose our any commercial and we're going to have commercial there and we would lose the historical the character of those buildings which we've heard is important to our community so we have been fighting to keep that as part of the project yeah so so so you know like would would I prefer a different project there absolutely absolutely I would prefer the project that was in front of the planning board that didn't go through but we can't go back and and I and I get that you want to preserve like special places in Ashland and I think I just feel like this approach may not I I think I think it's G to have problems at town meeting this is what I'm this is what I'm telling you this is why I'm here trying to promote it because as we all know only a certain number of people register voters in this town go to town meeting right you know and that's why I'm trying to promote it so these people to sit at home and say hey it's not the town I grew up in no town is the town you grew up in but if you sit at home and just don't do anything about it then you have nobody to comp complain to but yourself right and that's kind of why I'm doing this in front of the select board the planning board the Lions this that you know my two two ladies down the street um because this is it's going to be up to the people at the town meeting absolutely completely you know and I think it should go to and it's hard to get two-thirds to vote on anything we know that so it's it's an uphill battle but it's worth trying you know and that's the whole thing about this whole project is because I mean I I I I'm not married to any of this you know I I'll live my life one way or the other you know I'm not going to live and die on this but um it's kind of like the ash historic mission is charged with preserving the architectural and historical features of the town of Ashlin we came up with a plan try to preserve as many as we could in one fall Fell Swoop because we're sick of getting these demolition delays and just watching houses go bye bye we have an inventory list it's like this one's gone that one's gone this one's gone you know and I just worry you know there's unintended consequences for everything I don't know I don't have a future you I don't have a crystal ball to predict the future nobody does right you know but I think this is a personally I think this is a good way to get the ball rolling you know um to get PR preservation um in everybody's mind and you know possibly save some of these structures before they you know go the way of the wrecking ball um you know there's no there's no and nothing in what you say is going to prevent businesses from coming to Ashland or or taking up a space that's already existing you know they're not changing anything about the usage of this you know it's I mean are we Crea business blocks and stuff like that downtown I I don't know neither does anybody right so it's it's all kind of up in the air but this is a way we're trying to fulfill our mission as a a town commission and that's kind of what this is all about does anybody else want to talk from my commission while I'm here before any other questions any other question okay so we're gonna let had a question yeah we're gonna let the the two committee me and then you can close us out Michael sure so either Helen or Joan don't you probably had your hand up first so go ahead I'll go first yeah um I just wanted to say that um I think these there I'm hearing some really good ideas um I also heard um I Heard s um Mr lad um speak and that was very exciting um I think that there's I think when you talk about the carrot and the stick yes there's there's both I mean I think if you don't have if you don't have a reason for somebody to go that extra mile and look for the look for the help and look for preserving the buildings then they're probably not going to um but if you have both and you have the have them have the commission who is going to guide them to get that help then I think um then I think it's a win-win um with both the um the historic district preserving the character of the town and I think um I don't know about you guys but I mean I I love to drive through the town and look it's it's just it's Ashlin to me and um I want to keep it that way to a certain extent I mean nobody wants it to be observe you know every brick and water but we need to we need to have the uh um am I trying to say New England downtowns I think are going by the wayside and I think that we can do what we can to preserve what we have um but I also think that we're going to be needing your help to um get the um the help that we need or that the people that are voted onto the onto a commission if this goes through to get the help that they need to help these folks to um to preserve their properties so that's basically where I'm at thank you thank you John Helen go ahead and unmute hi Helen Nicole um yeah I you know I really have to say that I do agree with the carrot and the stick I I I think that's a great thing we've discussed that it would be wonderful to have incentives um and and everyone um that's prev previously mentioned that incentives would go hand inand with this um is correct and I'm going to tell you why um when you talk about unintended consequences I feel like there's unintended consequences more if you don't have this protection um I don't really see this as a detriment to businesses if a business came in into lunkers and and wanted to make changes they just have to be reviewed there there maybe some things that um they might have to work work on but it's not it's not an exclusion of those changes it's just a discussion and you know and working to keep things in character but without these protections and and some of those buildings may not apply but to the ones that do and it's important to have it contiguous because of the amount of work and the amount of effort that goes into creating the district but the loss of that little tiny bit of protection that we're going to get could potentially save that church potentially save Jon stones and some of those other buildings and I think that's the unintended consequence of not having this and if we could put those incentives in place along with this I think it's a win-win and um you know and and I just I really feel that that's very important um and I really would like to stress that there are as as was mentioned there's historic districts in all of these other towns around us and there's a lot of businesses in those towns and and they haven't been affected by this either um and and I know that these do these do create um areas that are New England I mean you're keeping the history you're keeping the the look um not all of it some of it you're still going to lose um but you're keeping as much of it as you can and that's the intended consequence which is really important especially at town in ashin because the whole rest of the town is changing and and to be able to come to that downtown area and that historic village area and which is going to be walkable which is going to be a place where you want people to come um you know it's going to be a place where people will congregate hopefully this all ties into all of that and it's a and it's a big positive as far as I'm concerned and that's all I have to say thank you great thank you thanks I just like to add one more thing too um I did a a a lot of research into the downtown area too because I I did a walking tour um I don't know if anybody was aware of that back in October and I had about 30 people which was a lot for that kind of thing and we walked to all the different sites on this and I had I have information on every single one of those buildings that's in there um you know even the liquor store but and the interest was it it was it was pretty good you know we've also put together a whole rure I I don't know if you've seen those I don't have them with me tonight um with with the Q the QC I always call them q q car codes that um that you can put your phone up to and you'll get the little blurb history of it um of the building while you're walking the walking self-guided walking tour so the historical commission is trying to promote generally that and the one thing that Helen just said too reminds me it might be easier to preserve something if there's already something there and saying okay you got to work with us to preserve this we just can't come in and say we're going to R it down you know whether that happens or whatever happens um it's just one more it's one more uh s citizen control over the development process in the downtown district that's all in the downtown district that's it we don't nothing else is concerned so I mean there's pluses and minuses and everybody's got their opinions Michael did you have a question go ahead yeah actually just a couple couple of things I think first of all um I think other people have recogn I that the work that you've put into this you know as the commission and and I would just add my voice to that I mean folks have been working long and hard on this and just preservation in general and uh I think it's appreciated I think um and I think you know the intent is certainly Noble and and probably supported um the discussion about like the businesses in the mill building that's probably a separate discussion that we could have um the ship has sailed on that one anyway so yeah I I think there's some important points though that that could be kind of fleshed out there um so I think a couple of things like the whole carrot and the stick idea I think that's that's great I think you know the carrot approach has some legal hurdles to get through as well as some operational hurdles um and I think you know that's something that have would have to be contemplated right certainly not impossible something that you know we'd have to kind of think through but um one question I had is you I was just thinking about this if you think about what you're trying to accomplish could you potentially do it just through traditional zoning and just you don't think so no no I've checked with the state on that this is the this is the only traditional zoning doesn't prevent that because things can be overridden um we we've looked into that in the study committee and I've Stacy can you you Stacy you might have some you might have some more information Stacy's excellent by the way Stacy has been doing this for years and years and years and she's currently working in the town of denam right now and they're our first district to sort out that hole I don't know if you've seen the first district of dam it's all behind where the court houses are it's all the old original it's a that's a Dam's a whole other level yeah Dam's a whole other level than level this is uh what um uh the study committee here in Ashland has been proposing and talking about is you know several levels below the there's far far more control in Dum um one of the things um yeah zoning can handle some of the setback issues and kind of the size and the streetcape um what it won't do is kind of preserve the historic fabric so you could still have something um that's the same size and setback but it you know and look historic is but you won't have the actual um buildings uh because I know like you said it gets a little sticky because you get spot zoning and that's um you know it gets a little weird with that but um Goa yeah yeah yeah because I was thinking you know so we have a form based code right now that kind of has for you know the the downtown areas which it affect they have design standards um pretty spe specific but there are options like you know mansard roof versus gable roof I mean you can choose one of the two but it has to be one of the two um and I was just wondering if you could accomplish the same thing with zoning the thing is like so currently like our form based code is um it's not required so it's a it's an option that a developer could utilize um they wanted to and they get they get some incentives for that you know for meeting that form based code um but yeah I just didn't know if you could you know maybe in this potential itial District instead of doing a local historic district do like an overlay Zone that had different requirements for looks but the but to your point I think it wouldn't stop somebody from going in and tearing it down and then rebuilding it using the same standards so I just answered my question thanks for helping me walk through that yeah there's also um there was something called um uh it's called like a NE neighborhood Conservation Area um that some towns that have had um I know a was looking at one you know a lot of their they have a very historic downtown and but at the same time it's also got a lot of vinyl sighting it's got a lot of things that have changed but the scale the buildings themselves are all still there they've just altered over time um and the state uh in talking with the Massachusetts historical commission that um neighborhood conservation districts like that which are less they're kind I see them kind of as kind of the midpoint between what you're saying with the zoning and local local historic district those are right now are kind of working themselves through the courts so um as to the I guess legality how it all applies so um the state Massachusetts historical commission has not been recommending those just because it's um it's not sorted out already where the local the local historic districts have had decades uh to get themselves sorted out okay um one other thing I would just add to I'm sorry is that it Michael no that was it thanks thanks again for all your work on it yeah just one quick thing though um we I would no matter what happens a separate issue is the car issue and we'd love to like talk about the CPC funds because we we're looking into that too for the cemetery which would be part the cemetery behind the Federated Church which is a whole separate issue which we're fixing up Helen's point and Jonah point on that um that's we could start a separate group for that or we could do like someone said we a a a entity within the the historic commission to be able to administer funds to people who want to fix up their properties and that's that's always been a stumbling block with some of these people that come into me i' like I'd like to preserve this I don't have any money um there's a guy on Olive Street I've told this story before bought the house it's he's got five acres he loves it it's an old Colonial it's but it's leaky as a Civ and he can't afford to keep the thermostat up high in the winter and his girlfriend won't live there with him but he doesn't want to sell it and it's like you know it's like he's like you know I got his trucks parked there he'd love to fix it up you know he'd love and I don't have I didn't have anywhere to send him to get grants or something like that to um you know to help him fix up his house so we'd like to get back to that too in a separate issue with you folks and also with the his with the cemetery um if it does become if this does become part of of the district um it would qualify for matching grants for for different um groups as as being included within a historic district so so there's all of that so I think that's it for me thank you very much for listening sure I might have missed this um how would you so say it passes how do you interact with the planning board process like so right now if you have to go to site plan you're you're often going to design review which is aesthetic so do you I believe it goes to the historic district first but then still design review then Stacy can you elucidate thank you yeah it still will go through design review um at least when I was uh I I did check on this um whether there was a prescribed kind of order of operations of who gets to see what first you know what designs first and unfortunately Massachusetts there is not I know um when I I used to be the chair of his in Hopkinton and the way we would work it is um oftentimes there was a a kind of a middle ground where someone would have something that would meet the you know the design review standards that also kind you know especially signage that was something that we saw a lot of overlap with and uh we found it was actually fairly easy um you know if they were designing something that fit um you know no back lit illuminated signs similar sorts of uh issues would uh would were typically asked you know the were typical concerns of the historic district commission as they were of the local signage and that but yet there's no prescribed order of operations so thank you and what we're doing is getting you the um the U warrant together it'll be it's taken out of this the bylaw is in this this document um and that that's basically boiler plate that's been Court tested kind of thing um that's going to be on the warrant as as well as the appendix which shows the actual properties so that should be in before 28 I know Joan asked you for a place as you said Jim I don't think we're in a position to vote we don't no and I'm not asking you to tonight so if you want to discuss it later or whatever it's fine um I I'm going to be um doing my thing trying to promote this as much as possible so if anybody has any suggestions to who I could speak to um I I I have no life so I can go anywhere and speak and you know my kids are all grown so it's you know one other quick question super quick you had mentioned that other other towns have downtown historic districts um we were talking about hoofington what other towns locally ni na has many Sherborn Medfield Framingham uh Holliston doesn't quite have historic districts they have his those are more unofficial there there's I I believe Stacy are those more like the sign we have already you're entering the historic district of Ashlin yeah it's more a it's more unofficial unofficial yeah it's unofficial so but but there's there's a whole listing you could just go go historic districts in Massachusetts there's quite a few I mean the city of Boston city of Boston has whole neighborhoods we not like is a number they're all vary in um levels of par details you know for example uh downtown denam I think even does paint color like they're all in do are there bylaws and their guidelines online to take a look at oh ours are online I know are but these other communities yes that's what we got they do and towns have different approaches and actually and I I um if if things like um paint color or that sort of thing that needs to be in the bylaws actually in the bylaw that uh uh We've written up uh for to go on the warrant it ex it lists the things that are excluded and that's paint um replacing you know asphalt shingles with asphalt shingles they don't care what color asphalt shingles um that sort of thing um but yeah different and guidelines will keep evolving that's why they're not a part of the warrant um guidelines are starting to include things like heat pumps and um electric vehicle Chargers things that were not thought of in 1972 so um that's why the guidelines are separate because they continue to evolve you don't want to have to go through the whole process again as as technology comes and finds US great okay well Jim thank you for your work thank you to thank everybody have a good night hope you're not here all night app Sor that's okay no thank you very much okay thank you okay wonderful uh moving on reviewing the renderings for the Warren Barn have pictures of what it used to look like and then there's pictures of the renderings I think nice to see they were pretty close yep those are the pictures of it y these are the photos that we took um 2019 uh before um the barn had to come down soort of the best we have there I there's some pretty that are but this has kind of all of the angles that I want to just sort of make sure um showing here um then I can show you I think um obviously we're working with the uh Bingham State University and the Warren Conference Center who um reconstruct the barn uh initially we had hoped we were working just to have shell reconstructed in partnership with uh firmingham State they would like to be able to use the barn and so it's a bit it's a little bit different um talked about this previously and so this they're really at the beginning stages of um designing the barn um but as we've learned through our construction processes you know once you get past design development there's not a whole He L you can change and so I just wanted to have this conversation one more time before we sort of start going down there start to do more programming and delve into the real design um of the building making sure if anyone has any concerns that this isn't meeting sort of our objective well that it's not replicating the barn as best we can and still making that I mean what I real quick what I see is certainly this is a more enclosed building if you look at the pictures from the actual Barn if you look at the back there's that whole level that was open to the back so I think that for me some of the the elevations that I looked at was this side elevation that showed that sort of matches number the old picture three so I think that is a good depiction of the side elevation and what the side elevation look like I think the other side elevation is a little bit different because it looks flat versus oh no maybe that's the back yeah yeah that's it's like we have the back and then we have the the left side but we don't have the right side right so that or depending on how you're thinking about so as as you look at The Silo in the barn right we have a pretty good picture of the side and the back what about the other side what does that look like does it match this side because that's not what it was am I making I don't know no you are making right so that's from the back I think again it's a little bit different but that's because it was open and it was an old barn I think this looks pretty close to it um it has another set of Sliders looks a little bit like this side yeah looks a okay right so like the other so it's the other side of the building that I'm you know wondering what that looks like and how it in how it hits the Silo and and things like that that we're not seeing and we don't have a rendering of I mean I think they're going in the right direction what one of the ones that you had sent me right had did show yeah I'm G to see if I can CU it had the sliding doors open remember that that was in the presentation when they had like the three I think we presented it that one at last that part as you look at the picture that you can see the left hand part that kind of is built into the hillside there which really replicates very much the previous um structure um that also is where the um bathroom facilities would be to be that would be utilized um by the skating people at the skating ring right um and then on this side of it too is where Henry's place is so it's very close to Henry's place right right um you know the one thing that I had raised to Jen when she forwarded me the um the photos and that was just that I wanted to be careful to have all those sliding doors because we do want it to be useful now correct not not necessarily Four Seasons at this point in time but that um you know we don't want to those order doors um if that's all you have to use seems to me to be like it might really limit any future um oops and then the other thing um is I wonder too what sort of wear and tear those you know it feels to me like I when I was growing up barns that I saw the slider was always open or partially open probably because you couldn't close it now I mean obviously this is 2025 and different um but I just wanted to and I did relay that actually to the group already they were going to look at it he was going to send that to the designer sort of think about in terms of durability and you know we're talking about the least functionality and how long G to have to maintain it so I did find this is from this one isn't as quite as clean this is of the initial iteration that we discussed but so this is um elevation and then I think but that doesn't have the slider on one it the wouldn't it maybe be that yeah because Silo is going to see it's like yeah vaguely yeah okay I see yeah yeah so this project obviously Silo's existing and so they're designing and that's just an existing okay so I see what you're saying Claudia so instead of having so the only real door that we're seeing in this is a little tiny one one door on the one side right so there's no doors at the front right right and so there's one and then we see multiple sliders all the way around the building which even in the initial right there was if you look at picture two the barn extended past The Silo and there was a single door that you could access the building from um and it looks like there was also one maybe on the yeah so I think to to Claudia's point I think sliding doors are are in some barns but that's not all the doors they have in the barn so yeah and there is that one on that other side that is a a door but I just thought maybe another door or something a little bit you know I'm not saying get rid of the sliding doors because I think it isn't they are important saying I think we might want to just make sure we had some additional ways of getting in the in the building yeah that might be more useful that you would use right you know for if you were trying to maintain you know say you did have a function there and it was fall and theoretically it should be 70 degrees outside but it's not right then maybe you you want to be able to clo keep those closed as opposed to open but you know again I I just um didn't want to right derail the project by any stretch of the imagination because I really appreciate the partnership with FR States and the other thing but ultimately we want it to be a useful well and and I mean I'm looking at the size of these sliding doors especially at the very back of the building those are big doors yeah well they're sliding barn doors right I mean those are you got to think about there's a horse going through there no I I understand that but I'm like you have those big big doors and then you have another sliding door on the side and another sliding door on the other side I mean unless they're thinking something's going to go through it from side to side I don't you know well I think they I think they've sort of uh thought about sort of this open air kind of right where they would open all the doors and so and then use the patio I think that you have for the um ice that you could have an event that was or maybe you're G to have a movie night and some okay you know so they I think that's one of the reasons they're trying to make the it's a pretty small space in terms of like what the I think I think they're just trying to make I think again I think this won't be a full when they use it in the winter it's really bathrooms the actual function never at least for now it's not going to be used they trying to get the the I would recommend that they look at the fair house right cuz they have the house and the it's not really a barn but it's sort of a barn um I don't know that might be an idea now granted they have more glass all the way around so it's a little bit different but yeah from a footprint size like it it's it's the same basic yeah okay I just wanted it pretty close as much as we I mean as much as we can they're making it yes stay gotta and I I think it's really a nice design nice replica of yes of the I like I like the design I think it's great yeah that was my only input was the thinking about it no I think I mean like I said you know looking at it it looks like it's going to fit in based you know the the vision that people had of replicating the barn so that's the important thing but just from a functionality and cost perspective I would just say double you know just take another look at the the the not have that only having one regular door y I will be an issue okay I can but otherwise nice thank you thanks thanks Jen appreciate that okay who knows we Barn okay uh next is to discuss and open the ba Grant and select board Grant applications process with submission due by March 28th 2025 any discussion on that otherwise if I could get a motion to open the ba Grant select board Grant application submission due by March 28 2025 so moved and a second uh all those in favor I um the other process of this is determining who's going to review the grants I don't know Claudia and Brandy are you open to doing that again or I'm good okay we don't have to add that to the motion but if if you guys want to be our subcommittee that'd be great thank you very much town meeting warrant is open and notice of intent for a warrant article is due by February 28th 2025 so if you would like to do a warrant um that is due by February 28th which is a week from Friday believe it or not um know yes yeah yeah okay um moving on discuss the ba Runners breakfast and funding so um typically we do the baa Runners breakfast this Saturday of weekend of Patriots weekend and the marathon is Monday and we typically do it Saturday it has been brought up that it is Easter weekend but I'm thinking we really can't do much different I mean people who are running are going to be in town they're going to be here anyway right so you know so I I mean if you're running because you've got to pick up your stuff right so I don't really see the point in moving it unless other folks feel differently but even still I think logistically it's probably the date that makes sense right right I mean I I would I would think the same so um I know it is the beginning of April school vacation but it's always been the weekend it always starts April school vacation because it's Patriots Day so um so the day we are looking at is April Saturday April 19th so if that's good with people and then we need to discuss and vote funding we typically do Susan up to th up to 1500 up to a thousand is fine up to a thousand from the select men's gift account that's good if I get a motion to do the runners breakfast on April 19th with funding uh not to exceed $1,000 doll from the select board gift account so moved second okay all those in favor I I so Susan will get that sent out for us it'll be at tjs it'll be at tjs we typically start at 9ine it you know goes from like 9 to 10:30 and yeah okay celebrating my anniversary with all of you over some eggs and grits well I won't have the Grits but anyway the next one is discussing uh we usually have an annual volunteer breakfast we're looking at a tentative date of March 22nd and we've already started discussing it with Susan um again just a reminder this is for all boards and committees that we appoint as well as other volunteer boards in town it's an opportunity to bring everybody together we typically do it at the community center it's typically um catered by tjs they do a really nice job we as the select board are the sponsors and the supporters so typically we have to get there a little bit early make sure things get set up stuff like that and there was discuss there's been discussion about how we can increase our volunteers right we have a number of committees that need people for it so one of the things I suggested to Susan and chatting with a few people is two things one is have Susan invite people who have submitted Talent Bank forms in the last 6 to eight months who have not been appointed to a committee invite them to come and as part of the breakfast and celebration it would be to also talk about what it means to volunteer we could ask people from different committees to talk about what their committee does and the the the this sense of good and pride that you get from volunteering the other possibility was if you are attending as a volunteer and you know someone who maybe hasn't filled out a talent Bank form but would like to know what it like is to volunteer allow them to you know bring a potential volunteer with them so those are two options that I'm offering as sort of increasing who we invite um to sort of increase our volunteer pool it seems to me last year it was pretty full MH oh is do we have space I think the capacity for that room is over a hundred and we've never I mean okay we've never had that at least I think that's the case yeah so I think we could certainly have more people we we typically get about 60 or so people I don't know that we'll get a lot more who you know we typically not all the volunteers who are on boards can come um so I think so it's a nice idea yeah so if people are okay with that um Susan is willing to get invitations out and also out to people who have submitted Talent Bank forms okay so we're going to go with the March 22nd date and then we should also discuss funding for that that also typically comes from the select board gift account I think we probably want to do a little bit more maybe up to, 1500 and then as long as our numbers don't rise too much and we typically ask for people to RSVP so that sound right Susan about, 1500 for the breakfast yeah last year it was 700 so I think okay definitely won't go over 1500 so if I can get a motion to disc to have the volunteer breakfast on the 22nd with those two additional invites and with funding from the select board gift account not to exceed 1500 hey hey that that's the point that's the point if they want to come and have some food with us and understand yeah we we gladly take get a motion uh so moved and a second second okay all those in favor I I okay and on the note of volunteers if those of you that are still hanging out here we are looking for two seats on our community preservation committee um one is the Housing Authority member so I'll talk to affordable housing the other is a select board attend appointment because that's an atlarge seat Conservation Commission has an open seat Council on Aging has three seats but we're going to invite them I had a request I think we might have all been copied I'm not sure to reduce their number they currently have a committee of nine for Council on Aging and they'd like to be reduced down to seven so I've been um I'm going to be inviting I believe it's now Donna who is the vice chair since Fran Blake has stepped down it's between Donna and Steve Mitchell to sort of come and talk to us about why they want to do that I think we've had that from other commissions where nine people on a committee is sometimes tough to you throwing things at me or okay okay Madam chair I'd like to find I I'd just like to hear like why yes and so I'm going to invite her to our first meeting in March to to do that and she's open to that uh open space and wreck has a seat stormw advisory has a seat sustainability committee has a seat and design review has a seat but that that is a planning board appointee so we you know again if you're interested but we don't do that couple other reminders March 1st the electronics can be dropped off at DPW from 9:00 a.m.

and the students enter the building to find it transformed to the point that they don't even realize they're still at school it gives our seniors one last night together as a class to celebrate celebrate each other at the end of their Brookfield education Journey typically we see about 80% of the seniors attend the event is 100% run by volunteers and donations and planning starts in September with over 200 people involved the days leading up to graduation are extremely important to us as we need as much time and access to the building to prepare it for the party ideally we would love to have at least three full days but are willing to work with something a little less but not too much less our hope this year is that the board will strongly consider voting to have graduation on Saturday June 21st this will help us accommodate the party and not disrupt what goes on in the building if the students are still here while we prepare thank you thank you for your comment um I'm sorry can I just say what a great job she does on the graad party I helped her out last year she does such a phenomenal job on the party and hope I'm not out of line but she did a great job really really great phenomenal job and a lot of hard goes into it thank you Chine um uh Aon Zimmer about budget uh Aaron Zimmer 50 obtuse Hill Road I was going to talk about about the budget and I will a little bit but um I sort of can't believe it a a member of the Board of Education breaking labor laws by meddling and private Communications of our teachers union this this may well get us sued and who's going to pay for for that we're we're going to pay for that meanwhile three of you issuing a press release which violates a bylaw that you just unanimously approved that creates this narrative that the budget was rubber stamped when the when the evidence just doesn't suggest that you got propos the budget early many meetings much opportunity for dialogue meetings open to the public for us to ask our questions and a 32 page document outlining all of your questions with answers from the administration one of you by the way had no questions no input whatsoever uh and then turned around and signed a press release accusing others of incompetency uh again it shouldn't be ignored that the board members who who were targeted in this attack did not issue a response they didn't get in the fry they just stayed focused on the work all this chaos and manufactured outrage the public attacks on other board members all because you didn't get a vote that you wanted this all feels like partisan power struggle which doesn't resonate well with the folks out there who aren't listening right now and who aren't in the face Facebook groups uh also 130 Plus hours spent on in just a few months uh responding to foi requests that's crazy our highest paid employees have to spend this much of their time especially when you know it's just a few people responsible for the the vast majority of these requests I I I recognize the importance of foi uh but this feels like a weaponization of it uh and the elephant in the room there are people usually who are are here who are mysteriously are not here tonight uh they would like to see us go shopping for a new superintendent uh but the way you all have gone about it has created this grossly toxic climate that no reasonable and talented superintendent would ever submit their resume here to come work for us here it's so bad that people who do support this Administration are too frightened to say it this is the example we're setting for our kids and I can already see the narrative make Dennis patrino the bad guy make our teachers the villains she was just asking the simple question no she was breaking the law that matters as the dad of a 5-year-old who's about to enter into this system this year and someone who I care more about than anyone on Earth I'm telling you I with our teachers who have been clear that you should improve your tone be less divisive and get more things done I'm with them please just knock all of this off off okay thanks thank you for your comment uh Laura Orban to speak about the budget I got it hi Laura Orban 95 Stony Hill Road um I am here in the unique position of having been involved with or managed every local campaign here um since 2011 I have knocked on thousands of doors and done a lot of listening to those residents and I just want to share with you a few things that I've learned in that time 43% of our town is unaffiliated the majority of the Town doesn't watch these meetings they're not in the Facebook group groups where people like to dissect the actions of our board members they don't know the rules in the processes of this board or any other they want to go to work send their kids to school and trust that the people on this and other boards are serving with the best intentions of our students in mind so the budget is one of the most important pieces of the job of this board when members of this board vote no and don't even make a motion to change the budget increase elements of it that's not serving with the best interest of the students in mind and then go on to issue a press release which is against board policy that press release actually being a lie to say that the board didn't have adequate time to deliberate and the public didn't have adequate time for Q&A that's factually inaccurate that's not serving the students and the residents of this town so I'm not sure why you would do those things if you're here to serve the students it seems like the kind of thing you would do if you have another motive these are not the actions of the people who were elected to serve the town it's actions that you have that you take if you are upset that you didn't get elected chair or vice chair if you have political motivations or are being urged to act at someone else's behest and it's not what the people of this town want it's not good for the students so to those of you who are not acting with those motivations in mind thank you for your service thank you for your comment um this sends the uh public comment there are no signups for second this evening so now we will hear um from Melissa what do you have for us hi I hope everyone had a pleasant President's Day weekend um it's good to be yeah it's um it's good to be back yeah um so I'm going to start off with Athletics per usual um January and February were filled with lots of s swc events so I want to extend my recognition to a few teams um varsity cheerleading and varsity gymnastics did play second in s swcs uh Varsity dance team placed third and boys track and field also had multiple metal placers for their events um so best of luck to all of them as they finish out their Seasons um in addition to that congrats to boys and girls basketball for finishing their season strong um and then various of our student athletes were recognized for the allc first team um so myself Sophia Meli Lucy McDonald Addison custado Giana corz Ali freeze Sierra Brennan and Charlotte bachia and as well four other track and field members um for Student Government they are currently in the process of planning for a spring pep rally slm March Madness tournament for students to participate in um for Sports badminton basketball and cornhole and the um final like games will be played during the pep rally and then next Tuesday the National Honor Society is hosting a blood drive for school and um for students and staff to participate in and we're looking to beat the 90 pints that we uh collected over during the fall and then during first semester a few meetings back I mentioned that we started the cultural ambassadors program between um CES and high school juniors and seniors um so I'm happy to announce that that was um renewed for this second semester um so it's a really great opportunity to participate in and I get to work in the same classroom that I was working in previously and Foster the bonds that I was creating with my students um and then lastly Leo Club is running a fundraiser collecting and distributing gently worn used or new shoes um during the school year and they will be collected in the front main office until March 31st that's it thank you can I ask a question yeah um about the the Leo Club Shoe Drive is this um kids shoes is it anybody shoes any yeah okay great thanks and Melissa there's boxes that all the schools set up right donations can go right to middle school and to the elementary I'm not sure okay we did yeah I'm getting the knot from the principal we there are set up there y so anywhere can donate yeah awesome thank you so much all right stepanie uh next item written correspondence what do we have the following people have emailed the board of ads since the last meeting Leslie rero Steve Dunn Donald Jones two emails Deborah K case Irene Korea five emails Andy Korea two emails Michelle Fitzgerald Sher stanowski three emails Denise rice three emails Christina Zimmerman two emails Michelle Sans wonderful thank you let's move now to um approval of board minutes I move that the board approve the minutes listed below as recommended regular meeting 1:15 2025 budget hearing 115 2025 okay okay so we have a motion and um and a second and because aon's um on the on the phone I'm going to ask is there any discussion like Aeron did you want to say anything about these minutes no okay um so Ain are you in favor of approving the minutes yeah I name and okay um Stephanie I Rosa hi I'm and I hi Sarah hi and Rob hi all right so that's uh it's you n motion passes minutes are approved um so now superintendent update Dr BR all right let's say ye thank you Dr Youngwood so um welcome back everybody it's been a while since we last met um I hope you're all staying warm in this uh unusually cold for the last couple of years winter that we've had uh so I wanted to start by going under our teaching and learning section we have a lot of exciting things going on so we have been engaging in learning walks with uh some of our uh staff and admins uh and specifically looking at the domains for the portrait of the learner on February 3rd and 4th we were at the high school on February 11th and 20th we were at CES and um we were supposed to be at the middle school last week but uh with that Thursday snow day or a delay it threw us off so February 26th and 27th next week we will be there and really looking to flesh out um the portrait of the learner uh as we go on March 5th I just want to remind I've reminded the board of this before but just as I like to kind of give the scope of the upcoming meetings on March uh 5th which is our next board meeting Dr man will present um updates on the portrait of the learner she'll have a presentation for the board and then on March 19th uh Mr Roland will um be pres presenting our department strategic plan for special education which is aligned excuse me with the crack recommendations so provide an update incorporated into that presentation I do have to thank U Mrs FAS our director of instruction and the fourth and fifth grade teachers and our our instructional coaches who all went on a walk uh walk through and visit to uh two of our uh Neighbors in the Waterberry Elementary School Watertown elementary schools excuse me um as everybody knows it's in the budget this year we have K3 first year implementation of ccla our new reading program we're budgeted for fourth and fifth grade implementation for next year and um we've been to reading and now we went to Watertown they're in their second year of full imp implementation C 5 so we really want to learn from their Journey if there's any mistakes we could avoid and they could teach us you know that kind of a thing so it was really a productive visit um and um there's a lot of Engagement and enthusiasm for the program from the um uh Watertown teachers um as I've heard feedback from from our K3 teachers as well under business and operations just a reminder for everybody we did have one uh emergency snow day thus far this year on February 6th that pushes our last day of school from Friday the 13th of June to now Monday June 16th and you'll hear from Mr Blanda later when we talk about uh graduation because that's everybody's starting to um frankly pressure the board members myself and Mr Banda when's graduation we need to get airplane tickets for Grandma and Aunt Sally and everything else so um we want to get that date on the calendar for everybody and Mr band will bring that forward to the board in a little while um have to thank uh Eric he signed us up for a free um from the um Connecticut education Network which provides our internet for school systems an independent cyber security assessment or audit if you will and it actually going to be done for the town and for the Board of Ed that's going to happen over April break so we're looking forward to results like any uh assessment or audit we reflect on things you'll get commendations and recommendations uh as we go forward to uh strengthen our cyber security an update um as as everybody knows with the the new uh uh with President Trump in and the new federal executive orders that have been coming out um it's been a flurry of activity as anybody would would know and we are making sure we can keep up as best we can um and seek uh legal advice uh at every move to make sure we are compliant with all um new legislation laws orders there has also been with Title One there's been a um a court order as well so I'll walk you through those most the most of these board members are familiar with but I thought I'd put it in one document for everybody in terms of what we've been um handling so uh back on January 24th um I updated the community there was some concerns about um ice and um immigration and how we might be handling that so we did have shipment and goodwind provided great guidance for us and so I I turned that into a letter that I sent to the community um so of course that's out there Title Nine there are changes um in the uh what the policy will look like but those changes hav't been codified yet however there was a decision uh this year in the fall we had a move to the two new 2024 regulations not policy actual regulations um with that Court decision that happened we had to move to the 2020 regulations go kind of go backwards so Mr Roland is our Title 9 coordinator so we did training with the administration and we have the shipment and Goodwin um regulations uh I've approved those they're posted on the website that's all up there um we do not have an update ated policy at this time and the advice for all the school districts is until you have a new policy put out there and are ready to bring It Forward um and be approved by the board follow the updated laws and and that will suffice um there also is an executive order titled in uh ending radical indoctrination in K12 schools um at this point we have been advised to hold until further clarification is provided um and pretty much the basis for that is um between there's there's federal laws that contradict each other as well as um Connecticut laws that are in contradiction and so forth there's a lot going on with the legislation and the attorney generals and that kind of stuff so right now shipment and Goodwin has put out some really great advice in terms of just paying attention to things if you have concerns seek the legal council on the specific matter um but there's really no room to make a move at this point we'll just continue to Monitor and wait and see and then we are a waiting legal uh legal guidance on two other matters one is expanding educational freedom and opportunities for families um meaning school choice uh there we don't have a that guidance document yet on that um and again that's family school choice I'm not sure there'll be a trickle down impact certainly on public schools but I don't know that there's a role for the school system or the board to play in that particular uh Federal order and then there's the one on no men in women's sports uh the C The Guiding um uh group or organization in the state for athletics uh again is seeking legal advice on that and awaiting uh more clar ver ification uh so just an FYI for everybody that's what's going on um and then there was another one uh something uh it was about Dei that came out I think it was directed at universities higher ed um it was not directed at K12 schools as far as a couple of us superintendent can tell and apparently that just came out over the weekend to the universities so if it affects K12 I'll let you know about it what's going on uh still in operations and business uh in the data while we've had a good number of absences across all three schools for kids who are sick the actual kids who've gone to the doctor and their parents have reported uh what they're sick from you could see we have nine from the flu one strep zero covid and one pneumonia now that was just taken at the end of last week um those numbers are low in terms of what we Common Sense would tell us the kids are suffering from uh and and staff as well uh during this cold and flu season but those are the actual Ed cases um and we're monitoring attendance closely of course and wishing everybody speedy recovery from any illness they may be suffering and then finally School climate engagement I just to remind uh everybody uh and I did update the board on this on January 16th we had our second uh speaks meeting of the Year speak stands for student parent educator advisory counsil to the superintendent we have four meetings per year and uh our second meeting was on the 16th of January we talked about the uh updates to the website how we could improve it uh parent Square in the impact it's having um all the work in recycling that's going on in the cafeterias I see some of our recycling folks over there um and also Casey thank you for all the hard work on that and implementing that with our principles who are with us tonight um and then the budget blasts and the effectiveness or areas we can improve in getting the budget blasts out there I think we've done 11 uh to date budget blasts for the community the next meeting of speaks will be on March 13th our Focus there will be budget engagement uh kind of revisiting cell phone protocols the anxious generation kind of check in how that's going uh from the parent perspective student perspective and certainly from uh the educator perspective septo met on February 4th that's the special education PTO uh Mr Roland uh worked with the septo leadership and they brought in a guest speaker Dr Ryan loss to speak about trauma uh he's the executive director of the Connecticut Behavioral Health Center in chesher and his talk was titled understanding behavior health issues and their impact on student learning and behavior um I was not able to 10 but I understand it was a very engaging presentation and and he may be brought back in again um and has made some good contacts uh with families that could use his assistance uh in terms of school climate we'll be talking a great deal about that tonight uh we have several presentations the principes are here to present their midyear climate survey data updates um but I did want to let everybody know uh we disseminated uh information uh regarding the uh survey for parents on January 10th um staff survey was conducted the week of of January 21st and the student survey the week of January 27th so we got a lot of great data you'll see some of it tonight uh Dr man uh and uh our assistant superintendent and Lindsay Marino our human resources coordinator and Lindsay is um still in her first year with us doing a great job she actually is joining us tonight where's Lindsay say hello Lindsay oh there you are right over there I'm looking for your orange jacket but now you're you don't have it on anymore um so the three of us were able to visit with uh each staff uh it was a volunteer opportunity for staff when had downtime at lunch a prep uh in between classes just to come say hello or really sit and engage on a on a topic that meant something to them uh we met with BHS on January 3rd we had 19 teachers and we spent the day um uh uh 19 staff and teachers um at the elementary school on the 10th we had 56 participants and on January 31 1st at the middle school with 25 participants um and we talked about the specific categories of teaching and learning business and operations and client engagement so we kind of wanted to frame that for everybody so you know business and operations you had a concern about security or the facilities Heating in the building whatever it might be talk to us about that obviously anything with curriculum instruction is teaching and learning um and anything with climate engagement is exactly what we we talk about uh also on uh engagement in climate uh it's important to let everybody know that our administrative team uh is working for each School actually working on recording uh and keeping track of all the efforts that they're putting forward with the staff and staff uh with with uh Administration everybody working together in terms of their climate teams recording um efforts to support teacher and staff efficacy and those key uh areas are communication collaboration and connection so anything that fits into that frame we're recording those uh particular activity or actions um I'll share that with the board later this spring and then finally uh Brookfield cares their asset inventory survey that'll be conducted this coming Monday the 24th um at uh the middle school just for the eighth graders and of course across all four grades in the high school dean and Mark have worked with their staff and uh cares to have not only opportunities during the school day for parents to come and inspect the survey um they parents are welcome to opt out if they're not comfortable some of the survey topics but also um there's been several evenings held at each school where Brookfield cares volunteer has been there uh with both uh surveys for parents to inspect um and that's all I have thank you John do you know how many parents have taken advantage of those Mr uh jaffy has been checking in with us it's been one or zero as far as I've heard but there may have been one in the last day or two oh marks one had one in the last evening so those are the evening ones and so any any during the uh daytime one Dean's had one during the daytime so far this we really tried to give a four-week window this time you know a couple of years ago it was a two we window and it just we don't think it was enough time for parents so we put made sure we had a four-week window out there for everybody Aon did you have any questions for um Dr Brill I do not okay anybody else thanks everyone all right so um now we have the the first of its kind um do you want to just do the the whole thing all right so we're g to have a building walk through update from um our own Rob petto um so you can give a little bit of the back story behind how you came to to do this we'll do good evening everyone um so I decided to do a little bit of a climate walk with um Dr barill and uh his team just to get a sense of what's going on in the schools um we hear a lot about climate at these meetings and uh the only way you really get a true sense is when you actually get a chance to walk around the school so luckily I had the opportunity to walk around and just give you some background of who I am um and what experience I have with it I'm a 25 years into in the New York City Department of Education and I've been uh um spending a lot of time in schools so to speak uh over the last 25 years all being in the city schools uh I started out in 2000 um as a PS ps75 as a computer teacher then I became a fifth grade classroom teacher in the same school and then I was also a basketball coach uh for that time that I was there I know it's uh 25 years as you as you can tell 2000 this my 25th year in the uh system and it's uh it's been quite AR uh I then I moved on to is- 131 in the Bronx I became I was also a computer teacher there I was running a brand new state state of thee art computer lab at the time which by now if you look at those computers they are ancient um but then I moved on from there and I became a ding I wanted to get my feet wet in the administrative World from there I moved on to the district office to become a school climate manager and yes if you want to know what a school climate manager does it is not just walking into the school and adjusting the thermostats I was able to go into 30 33 different schools and my role was to basically walk in get a feel for the building support the staff support the administration and support U staff students and uh parents with all things related to climate culture guidance and discipline so that's when I spent my time in the district office from there I became an AP of a Middle School uh and then I went back to the district office to become a student services manager and they come full circle from where I am today I currently the campus manager at the vand child's educational campus we have five high schools on campus and one of my roles that I do throughout the day is take care of the climate and culture of the building along along with the discipline and uh working alongside all the schools in the administration um throughout the day so what exactly is school climate well I took this straight from our vast paperwork that we have tonight School climate means the quality and character of the school life with a particular focus on the quality of the relationships within the school Community I can say right off the bat that I saw a number of positive relationships throughout my walk uh throughout my time in all three schools I spent about an hour in each one and yes I definitely saw a lot of positive relationships there um and which is based on patterns of people's experiences of school life and that reflects the Norms goals values interpersonal relationships teaching learning leadership practice and organizational structures within the school Community now yes that's a mouthful yes I did see a lot of that stuff and again a lot of the stuff that we see on paper you're not really going to see it unless you actually get a chance to walk through and experience it yourself so what exactly does that mean in a nutshell is basically a vibe that you get when you walk through the school similar to The Climate that you feel when you go outside we all know how freezing it is outside today and obviously the climate that you feel in the building is very similar to that it's a vibe that you get when you're walking through the schools it's a vibe that you get when you're on the ground and you get to see the relationships between the administration the teachers how are they communicating with each other and again it's just a feel that you get when you walk through the schools and on my first stop we went to BHS and I got to say it was a it was a phenomenal walk through the building um one of our first stops was at the uh an amazing College Corner that we have this map outlined all of the uh places throughout the country should say throughout the world where our graduates are currently attending college and the students that get to come in they get to see it it's good motivational piece and uh the councilors there were great and whole entire Corner was was phenomenal was very welcoming it looks like a great spot for students to go if they have any questions about college stuff I was also able to see some amazing artwork I'm not sure who's responsible for this piece but as I was walking through with Dr burill it caught my attention and I thought it was absolutely phenomenal as well as this beautiful piece of artwork as well it's in the same classroom again we I saw a lot of phenomenal pieces throughout I didn't want to take too many picts of everything to to bore you guys but I got I got a lot of the good stuff and uh big shout out to your Tech Teacher Jonathan uh neous hous um he uh the stuff that he's teaching our students and working with them on are phenomenal it's is such a phenomenal shop that we have downstairs that I wasn't even aware of it beautiful down there it's got all the skills that they basically need for post high school and uh and whether or not they're going to college and not he he uh had a nice chat with him in regards to the fields that are obviously in high need nowadays which is working with our hands and he's teaching them that so big shout out to him and I also know he's a vet so thank you for his service to our country my second stop was at our beautiful new CES um it was uh it was a very nice walk of course as you guys have all seen when you walk it get to the campus itself it's beautiful uh the common learning spaces outside of the classrooms were amazing I thought that was such a nice addition so that when you know students if they're not comfortable in the uh traditional learning environment they have an opportunity to go out step outside the room in a nice comfy area to um to do some work it was a very welcoming learning environment across the board uh we were very Lively lunch period with a lot of kids having fun doing what kids do at lunch and I saw one of our sro's having a great time with the students and interacting which again gives you that sense of school Community it was really really nice to see he's not just de just for that I was also able to see the Big Brother Big Sister program that we have in the media center um it's a beautiful media uh Media Center that we walk through uh the older grades are working alongside the uh uh younger grades and building solid relationships on the campus um we didn't speak too much about it but it was awesome seeing what they were doing and how they were working with them for my final stop I went to the Middle School of course I got to see my beautiful princess which is the highlight of the trip um what did the vibe feel like well it actually felt like a Middle School uh the the students were uh walking through the Halls on their way to class some were avoiding class and some were uh but you know Testament to uh to Mr Renda and his staff because he knew exactly who his kids were he knew exactly where they were going he knew exactly what answers they were giving as to why they weren't going through where they were supposed to go and it just reminded me of everything that I've been through uh as a middle school Dee heard from some students about a really cool Gold Rush assignment which uh which was fun um I I'm assuming they're still working on that I I think it was really fun thing that they were doing on a on a on a daily basis Mr Ren a quick funny story about Mr Rena as I was walking through uh the hall just to give you guys a sense of uh the kind of relationships Mr Renda has with his students um one of the students news to me one of the uh one of the students um saw us walking through the hall together and went up to him and the first thing he said to are you retiring Mr Renda who is this wondering who I am and true to form Mr Renda did what I would do and jokingly told of course yes I'm retired this is my replacement and if you got what caught my attention more than anything was the sheer look of how upset the young man was and again that's a testament to you Mr Renda and you know it it he really was legitimately upset and and I could tell you a joking but he didn't really pick up on it but uh it was uh it was quite an experience and again it really just shows what type of relationship our our admin have that that's kudos to everybody as well the the the bottom line to all three schools is that we're in good hands we're blessed we we have a very good school system when when my wife and I first moved here we didn't really know much about Brookfield but we were told that brookfield's got really good schools and turns out to be true you know of course we're not perfect everybody's got but no school is you know we have our our issues and that's what we here working on but overall we really are on good hands and the bottom line is that it was a really nice walk and uh it was fun and I just want to say thank you to Dean all the admin and everybody that received me well over there it was a nice walk thank you for what you guys do every day seriously shout out and uh we don't get enough credit as educator so cheers [Music] all thank you very much hey actually I have a question what what um prompted you to um to reach out to Dr bril and to me about this uh just all the talk that's going on about climate just really get a feel like I said it's only there's only so much that we get from the podium you know we had just to get a feel of really what's going on in schools so we on thanks was Lun New Year so city was closed okay so let's move then to the next item uh subcommittee reports so Sarah on the class size it was a pretty quick meeting we were just um finalizing the guidelines that will be coming up later um just a couple items that we discussed and it was a pretty quick meeting awesome let's move then to oh uh to policy at our special meeting on January 28th we were very productive and accomplished quite a lot we discussed Title 9 at length and Mr Bill Roland explained to the committe that the expansion of Title 9 has been rolled back and although the directive is to follow the 2020 Federal Regulations as Dr BR touched upon the 2022 Brookfield policy aligns with that mandate and so as Dr Brown mentioned he has already changed the regulation on the website and the school is operating under that regulation and the ship and Goodwin policy is on the agenda for a first read tonight we then began discussing the adoption of the Shipman and Goodwin Student survey and um PPR which is protection of pupil Rights Act policy um Dr Bell had a list of questions from committee members for shipment and Goodwin to clarify some things and we continued that discussion tonight in the policy committee and you will see that um on the next meeting's agenda for our first read joy eron and I have been viie the 3000 Series policies independently for several months and a very productive discussion resulted in the committee recommending several of the legally required and recommended policies be put on the agenda tonight for a first read so you'll see those on the consent agenda and Casey deti helped us understand how some of those policies and she continues to help us um compare to our current policies and the shipment and Goodwin uh purchasing purchasing policy for example spe specifically needs a more detailed conversation to be sure that we're not changing the way we operate in relation to the town so I'm pointing that out to make sure everyone is aware that we are being very thoughtful and thorough in our discussions of not only the 3,000 series but of all the policies we reviewing although we are moving at a quick Pace um we are trying to make sure that we do a lot of work on our own so that when we come together we feel comfortable with the information that's being presented for example tonight the um one of the things that we would like everyone to consider is policy 3110 budget procedures and line item transfers which also will absorve Brookville policy 3160 you'll have that on um the little graph that I give you for every policy review so you don't have to remember it uh but the adoption of this shipment and goodwi policy would add a quarterly report required to the board of bed to be formally presented at meetings which is different um than what we do right now currently it is a monthly report so the committee after discussion agreed that a quarterly report makes more sense and will be more robust painting a more complete picture of where the district is at um so that's one of the examples of how we discuss some of the changes that are going to be um made and we make sure with the administration that they're good with it and that they feel comfortable with it um Dr brell has been updating the board on the new mandates and the legislation surrounding the new school climate policy as you guys know and he gave us the cab policy that they have written the attorneys at Shipman and Goodwin did not write a policy because the state actually legislated that cab provide one so the principles were given time to review that c policy um it will replace our current Brookfield policy and Dr Burell reported to us that they are all comfortable with adopting the C policy as written and as a result of the committee's discussion around the importance of keeping our district aligned with the new state mandates the committee recommended that the cab School climate policy be put on tonight's agenda for a first read it's very robust I think you guys have seen it because Dr BR gave it to us all a few weeks ago um but make sure that that's one of the ones that you read thoroughly and just you know pay attention to um the details in there when we're looking for feedback yeah also that policy was linked in my November 20th presentation about the new legislation so we've had that for a while so it's it's the same one it hasn't Chang yeah so if you've read it there's nothing that has changed the committee has not made any changes we're comfortable with everything in the ases um and then lastly in the minutes for the meeting I asked for feedback to be given by the February TW by February 21st no sorry by February 24th on the first reads but I realize that's just next Monday and that's not likely enough time to review everything that we've included because some of the policies are a little bit meaty so I'm going to change that to Monday March 3rd um and that will give us enough time that will give the committee enough time to um review before our our March meeting and we met tonight and were able to get some policies on the next agenda um so we're we're going to be like uh what do you call it flip not flip-flopping but you know sort of we'll put these first reads on we'll put new first reads on for next week and then these will go or not next week next meeting and then these will go on for a second me so you said March 3rd Monday March 3D for the first reads that are on tonight's agenda thank you and you all will have one of your one of my little fancy graphs that will lay out because sometimes it's hard to know what the changes are when you're just getting the yeah um policies so if you have any questions this doesn't make sense please let me know um since you have it in front of you can you just tell me uh what number is the school climate policy do you do you recall uh the school climate policy is I mean I I I guess I can just see it when we get into it might have it right in front of you hold on let me find it's in the minutes I just don't have the minut no no no um School climate is oh here we are three 5131 911 okay great all right I'll star that one awesome thank you thank you sir so are you all set then that's it thank you thank you policy committee okay healthy school start time okay I'm going to give the update on that one um joy and Sarah asked me to give a a nice update here so I will try to be succinct for everybody the the um we had some follow-ups that we needed to uh review uh specifically uh from old business and that was we have to thank Casey and the bus company they did some work and um we wanted to take a look at if we went to a 720 uh start time at the the high school or or any school starting at 7:20 a.m.

or part-time printing oh that's yeah that's the $1 million negative number yep so you'll see part-time printing here that's that's the last one um there is there is no budget for part-time printing but you'll see month to date we move1 and a half million dollar out um there is still one or two positions I think we just we just missed so we'll clean that up um next time but this reclass um Angelo worked on um all month to do um it's it's kind of a a time consuming task to move everyone um moving one person um takes quite a few minutes and you have to kind of take note of the screens move them to make sure they they move correctly so um luckily Angela was was able to uh spend some extra time and and get them moved um in addition to moving all the folks um from general fund into alliance so these these adjustments are important adjustments in a retroactive adjustment although the the initial Accounting in terms of presenting the statement was misconstrued so these adjustments now are making Corrections the way they should be therefore distorting particular period for which these things were correct put done in yeah so so yeah so month to date it looks like we had a very a very good month when in reality it's just because uh the year-to date reclassification happened in this one current period um we we try not to do that the best uh the best we can you know to get everything right the first time but um so you'll see that in um in salaries we moved the part-time Printing and then we also moved um benefits here so you'll see that health insurance is also uh favorable again that's due to open positions um and it's also due to the reclassification um of benefits for the folks that were in the general fund and now have uh moved over to um to Alliance now Mike previously and I assume you're still in a process of of uh doing doing the cleanup as we talked about before in in going through the variances and understanding some of the Mak of the budget it's and that's how this stuff is coming coming about uh where do you stand in terms of um where do you stand in terms of a completion where you feel you have a good a good handle on the saying that now you know pretty much what's in these budget numbers and they have the actual um appropriately charged against those line numbers you think you need another month or two or Oh yes most definitely yeah and and some of them Rich some of the numbers that are in here um we just don't have any notes for so it's very difficult to say you know from a variance perspective um what was being budgeted uh in those lines but um we're we're trying our best as we as we work through the financials and as we see these variances um to dig into them in between you know doing doing the audit and the the budget we're trying to dig into them and kind of and and also Rich you know along those lines as we walk through these um you know Dr kazmo will present her these financials as well and one of the things that we're cognizant of is just to make sure that the narrative that we put forth for the budget um is is holding true um with with our monthly financials so that you know the budget that we and we see that here uh two two good lines just to point that out is um unemployment compensation you'll see here has a favorable variance of $18,750 and if you remember when we looked at the at the budget that was one of the lines that I chose to reduce because it looked like um for this current year we were slightly over budgeted so that is that is holding true and conversely workers compensation the line above it um this negative 23,000 um that is that is likely going to um that is likely going to grow uh negative and that is because the the amount of workers compensation that we're experiencing compared to the budget um is is very high so that was an increase in the budget just to give you an example of you know some of the other analysis that we do on kind of back of the envelope um as we go through these uh these statements I I do appreciate the work that you're doing you know on this and the time that you've done to to do that in the order in the AUD but again to everybody's point the the more that we we get these numbers cleaned up better off we are so we understand our position um you know get fast this particular hurdle it this time is there anything as I said these numbers are favorable and I personally I'm not going to dwell too much on it because you know the the the the amount of information specifics is is sort of sketchy at this point not a derogatory statement but a timing statement because of you guys being new and the amount of work that you've been given but from your field is there anything that any expenses that you feel are should be put a watch on that you know you mentioned workers comp are there any others that may be surprising to us that you would put a watch on and question number two is generally you know this time of year in the past we've had you know spending creases and basically with this size variance you know I'm not sure that there's a spending Tre necessary but that's my only assumption what is your take on what the financial situation is at the end of the seven months yeah I I'm I'm very pleased with how this looks um Rich one area that I always um that I always pay attention to um and again it came up in the budget is um tuition for our special education both um private public um uh tuition um that that the expenditures versus budget for last year the expenses were higher than budget and when this budget was being done for the 20 25 year not the one that we're working through right now um instead of the budgeted number increasing to match where our expectations were it was actually lowered so this number here um this 4.3 million um is actually lower than it probably should have been for this year so we do see a negative variance here uh and that is partially offset by by the amount of tuition special education tuition for public schools but it it is always um something that that I look at because some of the the placements uh for for special education be can be quite costly um but but overall um no there there's nothing um that's jumping out uh at me um and in respect to a freeze um typically I I from what I've been told in in the past spending freezes typically that conversation comes up in March and April you know as we're approaching the end of the year um however we are looking like we're tracking very favorable um at least in respect to um salaries and benefits um so I wouldn't anticipate it but um you know we we do have to be um good stewards of our of our funds so um that's not to say that they're we're not going to watch them all right apprciate that you know we sort of in a damn if you do and damn if you don't situation because ultimately at the end you know we'd like to come out with as close to a break even as possible or have a nominal you know favorable balance but not not too favorable where becomes you know a little hard to justify why your number why you've tried so much for money you haven't spent that much money you know which has been some conversation council meeting so that's why I look at concerned that at the size of the Varian is and pay close attention to these things as we get close Rich excuse me can you talk a little louder okay yeah I'm sorry yeah I was saying that to me the variances are important you know fortunately we should be winding up with a positive variance but too much of a positive variance from fact the viit us because people then say you know we haven't spent what we have appropriated or or um we were asking for too much and you know it's all in the nonsense that we have so that's why I look at the experience numbers very closely and and try to gauge what the end of year is going to be to be looked at but that being said I you know in another couple of months again um I would hope that we make more progress and continue cleaning up the these variances and getting to know what's in the budget so that you know we can have a pretty good feel for what the numbers are in total yeah and and just to to take note um of you know when you talk about spending freezes I know a lot of our staff that um that purchase supplies will typically wait um to the end of the year to spend their money and then they have you know the spend down before the freeze comes and that's kind of why if you remember on the first page we had a $1.1 million favorable variance in supplies and I said that's driven by two things really instructional supplies um and some timing of our utilities but you'll see here um on just after page four in the top of page five this $485,000 favorable variance in um in instructional supplies um and um when you think about $160 million budget putting a a spending freeze on supplies really doesn't make that much sense because um you know the majority of our expenses really are Staffing and benefits you're talking pennies relative to Y Rel the total you know you've explained when I look at your page number I think it's number nine where you lay out the the the monthly uh expenses you know for this month when I saw the $8 million the $8.6 million spend and these are ual you know actual expenditures with mle curs and the months prior or you know talking in double digits close to 156 million that that's that's a big differential so part of part of that difference is attributed to your adjustment yes this is what you're talking about here Rich y yeah right sure if you don't mind I I can't see them so if you um no I initially just want to ask regarding this special ed um and all the cutting on budgeting if it's what's going to affect this budget overall but you explain it as far as understand it should should not be a concern at this point right it's just something I'm I'm always um always aware of just because um you know the nature of some of those placements um the dollar value can be very high for for single placements okay thank you sure yeah I was just going to add you know one of the things richer that I think it's important you know when I see such a favorable balance in the salaries and the benefits um we know a lot of that's due to the open positions but also um you know we when we made a lot of moves into alliance um in this time around um I think we were very conservative with estimating you know the how much staff we can put in there we put we're able to slide um you know a fair amount of staff in there utilizing the appropriate strategies that were given uh to us the boundaries by the state um which created a little bit of extra room so one of the things that I'm looking at right now and I'm working with Mike is you know we have um I I don't want to have sit on so much salary money when we could be supporting some of the schools um and and you know maybe even getting a head start on some of the things that are critical heading into next year and so there's a few positions that I think that we should be getting started with things that were already in the budget for next year um but we don't also don't want to close the year on $8 million in salaries um you know for support so so I think you know we're going to have some conversations about getting some of these supports to the schools up and running um in advance I think if we can because I don't want to see I don't want to see us close the year on a ton of salary and benefits when that could be used to support uh things that are happening now I agree it makes us look bad in terms of our budgeting you know and then you know one year we come up with a huge tradeable and next year you know we're asking for more money so basically leads one person to say te you guys know you know what you're doing I was just going to comment on those open position or practicality in terms of what you're hearing relative to the the the industry overall being typed teachers for subs and all the other categories is is a lot of that's still prevailing where the the lack of of Supply um may lead us to not be able to fill those positions although we can afford them uh and therefore wind up with a good favorable variance that's that's part of it um I think I think some of the what's the funds that are there that are available are in part due to the open positions but I also think that you know we were able to absorb Alliance Grant was able to absorb uh more positions than we anticipated so it created a pocket some room uh nobody wants to you know mess with us with a little bit of breathing room at the beginning of the school year but as as the year Ticks by and here it's February um if we still have that pocket in room um you know there's definitely some schools um and that could use some support and I have a few in mind um but also you know there are positions in our current budget for next year so for I'll give you a quick for example and I don't want to derail the meeting but you know we have in we're in the process come this spring come June we have to move DHS science wing all the staff all the equipment CRC has to go over to the West Building 43 Beaverbrook gets moved this is all equipment people everything um 63 Beaverbrook moves um we have 1,400 students desk their equipment and all of the things and the teachers that go with them must be moved over uh in June and at the same time we have to be have a hiring process that is larger and greater than we've ever had probably in the last 10 years so we have to find a way to onboard and start hiring um the staff that are going to be set for the Academy um if we wait till July 1 that certainly makes it a lot more difficult in the midst of all that um you know disruption but so there's a few positions I think that could help get that process started early uh and there's also a few schools that are I would say not use the word on fire but they can definitely use some support um right now for sure so we're we'll we'll continue to monitor this but like I said I I'd hate to sit on 8 million in salaries when we can it can go to use sure no I agree so long as we're on the right track and and feel that you know the the numbers as presented you know we can justify and do that so I agree 100% thank you Mike um my my concern is the purchasing at the last minute um being a city employee we have to get our purchases in I mean I think supplies are very basic you know you can you know what you need pretty much you know be by the by Springtime what you're going to need in in the fall and I think there should be a um early date to submit supplies requests so because this seems to hold up our um books into next year instead of closing our our books in a timely fashion because you have outstanding purchase orders that's that's what I'm getting at we really should be more mindful getting those orders in as by a certain date and that and not so much into the summer like by May is what the library has to do so and I realize you've got a lot more buildings to consider um but still I think everybody can get make a good uh have a good idea what they need for the fall yeah that that's a great Point um one of the reports that we were um able to find in in our system in Tyler Technologies um is called an aging a PO aging report and it shows um you know how long certain POS all the various POS have been uh have been opened and we do see that at the end of the year there are people that put POS in for the current year and I think that goes back to an an old thought process that doesn't really exist anymore is hey let's um let's wait for the last minute and whatever we have we'll just hurry up and buy um but you're right that does add a significant um difficulties in in the year end so exactly what you said is what we talked about um you know that in May listen if you need something um supplies in nature please let us know put the requisition in we'll approve it in order it otherwise you know we shouldn't be entering posos in on June 28th just to earmark that money um because if it's not really a liability then we can't encumber that money that's a great point all right thank thank you any more questions on the financial stat if not then let's move on to the branch yeah um uh Angela I know you're um you're on here if you want to jump in at any time you can um I'll give um an introduction so th this uh this sheet here um is what we've been reporting on um previously since certainly since I've started um and it essentially it lists each one of the grants um what the what the budget was um the year-to-date amount spent the encumbrance and kind of that budget balance um and as I was running this report after I ran it a few times I said well it's it's kind of confusing because some of these grants are one year some of them are two years some of them end in December December some end in uh you know May 31st some of them um have other different dates um and then to to further that it was pointed out that some of these are are State um grants some of these are federal some of these are private grants um so we knew now for for some time that the way that we report our grants kind of needed to be changed so as I was uh discussing this with Angela um Angela said well I have a great idea I I used to keep track just as you're saying um in the other District I was at and it seemed to be very helpful why don't we kind of repeat that here let me put everything together it took some time uh and then present it to to the board and get their feedback um and that's what we did so we've included both of them um this is our our report here that we usually have it's the last three pages um but the report I want to look at is the new one and this is uh let's see this is uh page 10 and essentially it has your entitlement funding so your um first section here um are your grants it has listed out whether it's state or federal who the person is here that kind of oversees that the award period the length of the grant so whether it is like I said that onee or two-year Grant or perhaps something else the date that it expires and the current uh the current budget um here and I think maybe the only piece that we might want to add to this is um year-to date what we've expended so far so we kind of H know where we are um the second column here is the carryovers so from the previous year if there is any carryover again listed the grant um here we'll see that these are um are all federal but again to the extent that we have the person responsible for a grant listed the award period the length expiration date and um and what the the carryover budget was um and then lastly there are some um miscellaneous grants that we had listed here um we tried to keep it consistent with uh the grand type the person period length expiration um and and budget so um with that I turn it over to the the board andless Angela you want to add anything on you know what can you pull up the one I sent you through email that's the one I sent to Rich last week we separated uh federal and state subtotal those and uh made a grand total column um line at the end pulling it up right now um yeah okay so under the entitlement we separated um federal and state subtitled those carryover is all federal subtotal that and miscellaneous Rich called them local so I added that and uh gave it a grand total so this further can we have that CH can we have that chart yes yeah this is the most recent that we I've asked Angela to to modify with the the the subtotals U on each of the categories but previously I think it was in the last meeting or the conversation I had with Mike and Angelo about trying to and we've had other discussions periodically with the committee members talking about somehow breaking up the grants in terms of categories so we had a better feel but this what Angela has done has been fantastic because it takes into account you know conversations that I've heard where people wanted to know what the period was who's responsible for it so know I I tend to think you know with the exception of and I agree with Mike maybe could add to this another column so that's a year date actual but this really gives us a tremendous insight as to the the grants and who's responsible for them and the period endings uh and this is something that over the course of time we we've been talking about so I'm very happy and thank Angela for for this work welcome but you know I I would think that the in terms of going ahead I off the top of my head we don't have to make a clear decision tonight but the first summary could be made and this one can be continued to to have because it's already reference just adding the a final column next to the budget as to what the Year date you know has been so far uh but again we can talk about that in the near future that you know how we want to modify this further or collectively from the committee what they'd like to see in terms of the the reporting um so I'll leave that as a final thought for you and then you can get back to me with emails as to you know how you'd like to see the the format percent but I I think we've come a long way from taking into account conversations that we had putting something together I'm very happy appreciate great great uh great job Angela I think this is exactly what we were we were looking for yeah fantastic and it also goes to show you know when you look at the amount of money that we spend for Education it it's not only the appropriation that we get but it's the the the appropriation plus it's the the a grant that that we add to that plus it's how much the city you know spends on on their their maintenance and things for us so when you put those numbers together there's a lot of money that we put together in the city here for to Ed educate our kids and sometimes we don't you know really support that number or show just how much we're you know we're spending on education with the caveat that we're not spending enough but that that being said does anybody have any comments on the Grant I would just like to say that um the grants and the identification the category Angela and um Mike it's great it's great to see this because over the last four years as committees and board members has asked to have this formated like this and it it's taken almost four years to get to this court so I just want to say thank you yeah you know to to your point glad it's I haven't been on the board as long as you have but when I first got on the board being a Private Industry I thought the transition in in understanding when you make a recommendation to it it fulfillment would be quickly you know reasonably quickly as it is in Private Industry then after 17 or whatever the years I'm on the board it's a slow process you know uh to to really get something to get something changed or to get something done but as long as they'll make them progress I think that's that's a good thing so job well done guys I appreciate it it was all Angela but even on the statements Mike I know the audits have taken a long time and and getting familiar with the you know with the district being new uh the you under um you know I think we're getting there and and it's so important to me that we have the numbers under our belts and be assured of them because we're at the same time we're coming up the presentation to defend our own budget uh and so I I think that's very important that we know where we are as opposed to where we want to go absolutely okay so the second item on the agenda that I have is audit and the reason I put the audit on there I know you get tired of hearing the the that the audit and the 23 audit was completed but my point was in just last I think it was last night I couldn't make it there was an ad hoc committee um on the the audit committee which I believe Mike attended the reason I put this on is because the 24 audit is is to be completed and we don't have to have monthly updates on the audit but since it's a very time consuming manh hour type of type of venture I I think it's important for us to know the status period periodically as to where we stand on that so that that's why I just stuck it on here knowing that we had the ad Hawkin might can fill us in on some of any information last night that was C I'd appreciate it yeah sure um Dr casmiro and I attended the meeting last night um and it was the first part of it at least was Scott Basset who is the partner at RSM presenting um a um a slide deck on on the actual audit itself I have a copy of it um if anyone would like I could make a photoc copy or Rich if you'd like to come pick one up I I took one for you as well um as far as um the the audits go um in respect to DPS the only thing that was mentioned um was a material weakness for danburry public schools um and that was relating to the Cyber incident um which keeps coming back to us um so and that's just to note the the Control process that the Cyber incident happened um other than that there were no major findings um for for DPS um the meeting was um restricted to talk talking just about the 2023 audit but I think it's a good idea to um for us to present and just let you know where we stand um the the next audit will be 2024 we're hoping to kick it off shortly um we expect that to be done within uh six months the city uh has their team fully staffed um we've bridged a significant Gap in building a relationship between the finance team at the city and our team um we currently host um Joe anster um who is the assistant over there um she was here today she's here um tries to be here at least once a week um and her and I and Angela talk um on a daily basis to try to get these um these requests fulfilled as quickly as possible um and while we were doing the 2023 audit um to the extent that we could we were getting the 2024 um Affairs in order so that when we do kick off uh shortly um we're we're ready to go um and we can make that six-month um six-month deadline um so I think there will be a final Scott Basset said there will be a final audit report issued um either Thursday which is tomorrow or Friday the following day um and that should be available for a public release Mike let me ask you the the issue of bank reconciliations is is that progressing so that they're getting to a point where they're almost up to date or what do we stand on yeah so when I when I first found out that the bank reconciliations weren't being done um the the closest that I saw that one was being attempted was back to um 2021 there was a um one done for the financial audit in 2022 but it wasn't by month um we worked with uh CLA who is our um audit partner um to help us get those done um they did 23 free for us um there are as you know or may not know there are several bank accounts that um that we reconcile in addition to having all of the Student Activity accounts which are kind of on the side um we have separate accounts for um Educational Services uh a separate account for school lunch separate account for Grants and then DPS general fund has two accounts one for operating and one for payroll so those are the five um accounts that have to get reconciled um and each one of them um are reconciled by month now um and Devin who is the individual from um CLA who's helping um he is um up to date on the 2024 um the plan is um we have someone here that's we have under um an agency contract and she's helping with um a lot of the minutia but she's also helping with um the audit work um the idea is to have her trained by the individual at CLA on how to perform the bank reconciliations um and then when we can finally backfill that position have her train um the new person so that this never happens again and then they'll be reviewed on a on a monthly basis going forward so um yeah very very pleased um to have just about two years worth of B insulations done in in a few months so it's still a work in progress to get us up to a current is that correct yeah it'll it'll always be you know we'll always be lagging about a month behind just okay the other question I have is there were some conversations earlier way earlier in the year relative to schedule pable schedule trial balances and some negative comments relative to the The District in terms of the inability to have these sary records you know reconciled for the control phes that been at least cleaned up for you're comfortable that the subsidiary records are at a point where TR out of the control yeah a big part of that rich was actually the bank reconciliations not being done because what was happening is there were transactions that were hitting the bank that were not hitting the general ledger so the the ledgers that were being reported to the city weren't accurate because the entries weren't done so as we clean up these um these Bank reconciliations we're doing the entries so that that they're um ready to ready to to go um the other thing is um Joanne at the city um has access now to um our financial database so she's able to see and make sure that the numbers on their side and our side tick and tie um so yeah no they they they will uh that will not hold us up um this time and and in addition um in speaking with uh RSM the the auditor they were asking in the very beginning for the trial balances and um the city has asked that we are able to deliver the trial balances at the the second portion I don't know if you remembered enough so not during the um the initial findings but kind of in the um in the audit work in the field work as we as we go so I think we're very um very well poised for this audit and there's nothing um that I can see that would hold us up past that uh six-month part and none of the adjustments or any material adjustments that are going to affect any of our numbers so far correct um so for 2023 there there was a balance General in the educational account right now it's about 7.9 million dollar favorable um and that was due to some entries that were put in that were subsequently reversed um when we when we actually closed out and had the statement audited okay um Teresa uh excuse me Teresa been had her hand up for the longest I just want to be clear the 2023 audit is done is that correct yes um we will final report on on Thursday or Friday from RSM and now we started the 2024 audit correct uh we haven't kicked it off yet but it it is um coming very shortly why isn't it kicked off uh there needs to be an um an engagement letter signed between RSM and the city so as soon as they're done issuing that they'll um I guess the city and RSM will come together get an engagement letter and sign we'll do the kickoff okay so we're done with 2023 so we're good thank you yes ma that's why I put that on there Teresa they could sleep nights all right the next I want to make sure I understood I didn't get that wrong yeah yeah and gladus keeps saying why do you keep putting the audits on there when it's over so the the the next item on the agenda is what I refer to is the reserve summary the reason I I asked for that was not necessarily Mike that you have the schedule tonight but I think it's important that we as a district and as a board get a Reconciliation between what the district and the City of Danbury has as a reserve number five specific items and the reason I say that is one we should be in agreement with with these numbers number two you know it it I might my personal feeling that we're over reserved on the insurance but that that's only an assumption on my part but and thirdly depending on where we end this budget year it may be if we need funding that may be something if we have reserves in there that are not necessary for us to keep those reserves we may be able to request them you know to be part of an allocation to us to to mitigate some of the differences if there any so that was the the reason for it and whenever you timetable allows if you and Dan can get together reconcile it and then present that schedule to us I'd appreciate it sure the other account is the indicated that we were going to hold off funding that um right now at least the the my last estimate was about $2.1 million that we could want you make the entry put into that account where do we stand on uh opening that account or getting close to the funding it on your comfortability of the financial statement yeah so the uh the account is open um it is uh in the same institution that the rest of our accounts are in um it is uh ready uh ready to be funded um and I I think it was uh last meeting perhaps the one before where we said we were going to um to wait until we began this audit and really got a much better um understanding of the 2024 final number um to make that transfer okay all right so still working progress the next item I guess I address to Dr casamera as as we stand right now with with the uncertainty of the the appropriation that we were asking for are we still on target to open the Westside campus next September or do you think there's a are I mean so unless I get an indication from the city otherwise um you know we we have to open that building uh you know and and we're Slow Rolling we're are slow rolling up the grade so as I mentioned before instead of going you know all grades 10 11 and 12 we're doing grades 10 and 11 that cuts back a little bit on some of the Staffing so it kind of saves a little bit um not a ton saves a little bit and then it also helps a little bit with the busing uh although the kids you know the kids are still here whether they're on either campus but um there could be some cost savings there but um you know we're definitely you know I I haven't got received any you know kind of word yet at all on on what the you know broad numbers could be um you know I know that there's folks working very hard to do everything that they can but it remains to be seen you know the our funding levels will dictate our ability to to move forward with a lot of things so right now we're still on schedule we're still on schedule I'm I'm operating as if we are opening we have in my mind there's no plan B um you know yeah yeah and the next question again to you is with all of the the publicity that you're hearing on a national level about the the Department of Education the possibility of federal funding being there and not being there um is is there anything that youve heard that's definitive or is it still business as usual until we we heard yeah well you know we are we're we're on pins and needles a little bit with with with hearing if there's you know what else is developing we we know that there was a a College sart University got a program kind of wiped out from underneath them because it was very much focused on um on uh you know diversity in hiring and special education so they I think they lost several million dollars um but you know right now we haven't received anything what we have received is a letter that most um districts have received uh which I'll be sharing in the board packet it's a dear colleague letter from the Department of Education Office of civil rights that basically states that if anybody is engaging in any related Dei activities or makes any decisions based on race hiring scholarships supplements um extra supports you know admissions testing anything that they could lose their funding uh we have two grants that um by by just by the name of the title alone um would probably be flagged and that's the increasing educator diversity grants we have two of those uh We've contracted with a teacher Residency program that that has taken a long time to get off the ground the state has been very slow to so this this Pro teacher residency program that we're supposed to use has been now now available we've contracted with them uh for a couple of teachers it's like maybe 50,000 a teacher uh We've signed a contract so you know I think we're on the hook for that but yet we haven't in they have we have not been invoiced because the program hasn't started the pro program doesn't start until the end of the year so um it remains to be seen whether that money gets clawed back um or if it's your money but you know if you spend it you can get yourself into into trouble so we have a lot of questions I have a list of questions that I'll be sending to some of our state representatives uh we accepted money for a grant for an ed Rising program which is also kind of part of a minority pipeline I don't know if that's going to continue to be funded um so I'm just trying to tread we're kind of in a holding pattern with treading on further committing to programs because we don't want to sign contracts and do things if the if the money's not going to be there or if it puts us in jeopardy for federal loss of federal funding so um you know I had some other superintendant calling me I had some other folks in districts calling me just yesterday and today to talk it through we're all sort of in this similar boat um one thing that's interesting to note is that you know I know that there's been some things out there written that title one wouldn't be affected however Connecticut Title One and the entitlement grants title um Connecticut overlays an additional layer in the Grant and I know know this because these are some of my grants that I that I operate um and they make you sign you have to have an affirmative action uh packet on file with the state all of your assurances they're called and so uh we have that and whenever we do sign off on any the entitlement grants I have to sign an ATT test as an insurance that we have an affirmative action and that we follow these this this um we follow that edict and um I don't know you know if kinetic is going to have to reissue their grants and minus those assurances or if that's going to affect the money that pass through from the feds um again all remains to be seen but um you know we we're in a bit of a holding pattern the letter that we were sent states that we have two weeks to review are policies grants third-party vendors that we might be dealing with that engage in Dei practices so a third-party vendor uh could put us in Jeopardy for their practices is if we sign contracts with them so I'm not sure how you know we have to go back and look at all of our contracts to see what their mission and vision and mantras are um for their practices but um it's very complicated and um you know we're working through it horrendous in addition to the possibility of loss of funding we've got manh hour law oh it's it's incredible it's incredible I thank you for the update you know it was just something that because of the current event is very very current and so I appreciate the update and as you move along and know more just keep us in yeah hand up I think Anita has her hand up yes thank you um I'm glad you're feeling better carara so a question for you um are you hearing anything out there or are you aware of um any unfunded mandated programs that may be coming down the pike um that may affect our budget unfunded mandated programs well there's a lot right now in legislation um there's a there's a bunch of things you know it's hard to it's hard to really know what has legs yet you know just yet um there's a lot of folks you know testing to you know testifying on special education um there are some things um the PA professional there was a there was something on the table around PA of professionals that the minimum salary had to be $61,000 um to pay a fair wage I mean even what we're proposing in our budget doesn't even get close to that I don't even think we're at half the halfway mark there um but something like that could be pretty pretty big for us and but like also most other districts it would put people out of business and so those while they're scary in terms of the the Financial cost because they're so extreme um and they don't you know there's no phase in they usually don't get enough traction to get voted in um but there there are some things on there and I can go back and look um there was nothing on there that jumped out just yet but there's so many bills on the table right now uh and they and they morph through the course of the session based on testimony and so we'll know a little bit more as the session comes to a close what looks like it's has some teeth thank you of course any other questions before we move on if not my last question again you directed Dr with regard to the a budget what I call advocacy advocacy plan have you scheduled any any presentation to to groups particularly as you did last year and such a great job to the ad hoc Committee of the council or the council and other people to you know Enlighten them about the budget and get more support from our budget is there any timetable or or events that you have currently put together or will put together sure so we just recently did a presentation through in conjunction with PT with the Citywide PTO um so some folks uh were able to to watch that and it was videotaped so that's been circulating around a bit um which is good I would like to see that linked on to our website um we have I know uh Mike seeling is not on but um we wanted to schedule two at least two Community conversations I think we're going to talk about that in the community subcommittee community relations subcommittee to have a a community conversations in the in the same manner that we have done before um to do one in English but then also to host kind of a a multicultural uh event where uh we have you know we're a chalk full of uh translators and folks that can help with with translating um so that we're you know we're able to reach uh more of our parents um I have a at my next admin council meeting coming up with all of the administrative staff we have a presentation going through there and then um of course I have some something planned for the internal school system as a whole um but I think what's going to be key I think this year is as we get closer to the city uh Citywide presentation um that's when um I think some additional you know some additional opportunities to engage um the other thing I'm doing is is I have some uh appointments scheduled individual schools to to work with principales but then also to be available to the staff members as well um for open dialogue just conversation mostly around a budget but but just to kind of hear concerns that they have particularly around climate and Staffing which are very big right now so I think in the in the community uh Relations Committee I think the goal there is to identify some dates and some other some other events out in the community uh that work for the board and and also work with my schedule okay great one one thought years ago uh South pest gella I remember dur one year had a TV we did it somewhere in the the building building or at the high school I forget where where he filmed different different subjects with different people is is and then it it died it was never never resurrected after after that um maybe Ken knows the the medium and how to do that but it's that may be is a thought that may be something where you could do the presentation of the budget there and put it on a website so that it's you know that people could see it and yeah again now reach the audience sorry Rich um you just triggered a memory last year I sent a community letter out um and I embedded the link to the city council presentation and I got so much of a response from that from the par you know because they clicked it it was a letter it was kind of an all call please kind of watch the video and that went over well and that might be I definitely would like to replicate that and we were able to send it out in multiple languages we did the the um our folks at the registration Center did the voiceover that was important because you know all of the community heard for the budget so um that's another thing but I agree you know one really good well filmed uh presentation gets a lot of viral traction and can be posted on multiple sites so I think that might be a really good strategy great thank you um is there to the committee members are there any other questions that you want to have relative to the agenda tonight if not I don't know I thought I saw Al but if there are any other committee non-committee members or board members who want to ask a question are there any out there who has a question it's not then Mrs Cooper before I entertain a motion to to adjourn I say it's 7:05 and I had seven items on the agenda so I kept it with five minutes after one hour so well quickly try to be as efficient as possible you did great it was great can I I just want to say that uh Dr um the superintendent did a present ation to Citywide PTO and we had had a workshop before that and I really enjoyed the uh presentation made as Citywide PTO and as I spoke to her about it and we talked about that presentation and how it was very clear and it came to me and she says well you know it's hard to try to manage this the meeting and you know keeping up with people and I really got a good feeling and understanding at that presentation and I just want to give kudos to her and the way she presented it and Mike was there and I also I forgot to uh to announce Wanita and I forgot Wanita was on the thing and Wanita I'm sorry but uh it was a good presentation to Citywide PTO thank you thank you very much could we entertain a motion to aduring come on 36 give me one so mov great thank you wait a minute who who Moved wait a minute oneita moved okay favor

to noon for nominal fee uh winter parking ban no on street parking from 2: a.m. to 6:00 a.m. that continues through March 31st textile clothing recycling you have to schedule it yourself with simple recycling simpler recycling.com and another it's not on here but uh papers are available if you'd like to run for an open seat here in town you can go to the town clerk's office or check it out on the website are you dropping your phone because you had something to add to this discussion oh no oh complete different thing okay great papers are due April 1 April not until April 1 you sure not March 1st April 1 April 1 yeah okay great so so if you want to run there's you go to the town website to see all the seats that are open to you on the select board two on the school committee two on planning board Board of Health probably Library trustees I don't know all of them so check it out town on the town website and if you want to run go ahead and uh grab some papers and get some signatures more than merrier okay that is up to there their Town manager's report thank you and I'll be um relatively brief uh so fy2 budget update so that's our current fiscal year so um I did talk to Britney a little bit earlier and so she'll be sending out the quarterly uh Financial update to to everybody just so you can kind of see where we are budget to actuals um you know nothing uh that I've been alerted to you know any you know particular issues this year um it's going to be really interesting to see the snow and ice budget um douge does not uh he does not hold back um I mean the roads in Ashland are great um there is a cost Associated to that so that's okay um so we shall see how that goes um but you know the other thing is I just want to remind you um especially as we you know kind head into our we'll have one meeting right before our tri board meeting no actually we won't no um so just you know as you recall we did we were utilizing a pretty hefty amount of one-time funds to balance fy2 um and as the year went on we got um we ended up getting a lot more investment income and motor vehicle excise tax than what we had anticipated so just as a reminder when we're not having to use as much in onetime funds this year as we thought we would so um use that information as you feel appropriate okay um so federal grants update uh well Claudia you you kind of caused me to spill beans um so one thing is um so I've been trying to look at you know is there a way I can put like some Consolidated information like we talked about at our last last meeting you know just like a Consolidated list of different grants and stuff is there's uh there's so much confusion and um dysfunction I I think uh just kind of going on around different you know some of these different funding streams and different agencies um so it's really hard to do that I did get some good news that uh we did find out from the state that the $65,000 for the UCC property purchase was secured so the state does have those money that that funding so that would be good we have to do a few things just to satisfy some requirements in order to get the reimburse you know to be to get that 605,000 but so far I know it could be yeah we we shall see um 3.2 3.25 million significant amount of money that we weren't expecting and that's a good those are always good things when you're not expecting millions of dollars and it comes you know there's a thing so unfortunately um yeah that's there there's a consequence there um and then one thing I did not have on the agenda it just did want to make everybody watching aware I did send you folks an email late last night so we did get the application for the second 40b project on Waverly Street um the interesting thing is it's a different developer the design is different same amount of units the design is different I went back and looked a little bit more through the application I was like so wait how did we we heard nothing about this change in developer or the change in plans or how does that work with massing that was my question so they actually have a letter from Mass housing that's like an approval later like a transfer an approval um there was one thing in their Mass housing letter that you know said notifying the town you know about her Mass housing was notifying the town about it we this was that letter was dated December 10th we did not receive anything we didn't receive anything about change of I'm a little confused um so just uh just humor me for a moment so there's been a change of developer and a change of plans but that they weren't required to notify us of any of that as long as it just went through Mass housing I'm just unclear on the process yeah so Makita so if you're doing a 40b project um a developer first needs to submit an application to uh what they call a subsidizing agency in this case it's Mass housing right basically they submit their proforma and plans and everything I pause you I a motion to go past 10 o' seconded all those in favor I yeah sorry yeah no no that's okay um it's a it's a good it's like the two-minute warning you know kind of to let you know it's late but um no just because yeah I just didn't know if what what the procedure was if there is a change in develop or change in design there's no requirement to there's no requirement to Circle back to the town like there's no to notify the town I don't want to say that there isn't I do want to say that we weren't notified so I don't know if somebody dropped the ball I don't know that's that's what I'm trying to I wondering how how that works I mean yeah because is it a deal between the two developers or you know I think it's Mr hickey's property was he involved again how how does that all work yeah um you know we will upload the the information shortly up to the um up to the website I can actually forward it to you as well so you don't have and they've now submitted but you mentioned that they might be willing to PA you know like put a pause before we start the process because does the zba have the capacity to be doing two 40b projects at the same time we'll have to work with the chair and what we were hoping to do is sort of have these you know Focus month right have a monthly meeting we talked about as you get Clos meetings um need to open um project and then stagger them so because they did say that like they had one meeting in January but they're going to have I and they had one in February but as of March they were going to have to be doing two a month for just the mill project to be able to do it within the timeline that they have right because they have 180 days that they have to finish the process in yeah without without it without there being either you know penalty or or some kind of but they can applic yeah yeah if the applicant is willing okay so your bottom line is no we don't have the capacity to do it but it's a 40 project they don't care right that's I mean that's one thing I think there really doesn't that state level I'm not going to go off onent right now but um yeah but anyway I just want to let everybody know that that has been filed I certainly don't think they right let us push it maybe a little bit but not they're not going to wait until the other Project's done or even halfway okay well if we found find out that there should have been some sort of notification or I mean and even if we don't find that out or there wasn't supposed to have been some sort of notification can we still raise it with Mass housing that we don't have the capacity to be doing I mean come on this is volunteer board it's not you know I get it yeah I totally agree so frust ating Peter and Al had reached out several times to thought was the developer based on many times um you know we're sort of trying to think like how many times you GNA you don't want to encourage them you don't want to encourage it but you were trying to figure out a timeline so we were pretty uh back right show up without notice you know we sort of had Heards so were he in here was really out of nowhere yeah you would think that the developer that was receiving the notifications either could have said something to the new developer saying hey the town is wanting to know what's going on or they could have let us know and said hey we are no longer the developer so you'll be hearing from this other organization so that's disappointing well yeah that's the other thing right I'm sorry it's just like but like you would think that they'd be required to notify you know if there's it just doesn't I don't know this just seems very confused and yeah and I will say again like usually you know in my experience um developers do reach out to the town and just say hey you know this is kind of what we're playing this we're think I didn't even yeah I mean I had to look up who this developer was wow thank you for that update a little sure pointing but thank you okay let's go to board rep TS Makita uh yep so um let's see there was a boards and committee review subcomittee meeting uh we are still talking through the current process and speaking to different stakeholders about it um we are getting close to to documenting the Cur the current process and getting input and feedback we do have another meeting that will be planning and posting the agenda for shortly um but um after that we're hoping to um to to to get some more work done a little bit more quickly on this so uh updates for forthcoming I also had a chance to attend part of the open space uh and Recreation committee uh public forum uh meeting on Satur last Saturday I think it was um so that that was that was great I do have a question Madam chair we talked last time about uh SE possibly getting some more selectboard office hours on the calendar I know our calendar is getting pretty full but I was just wondering if that's something that we're still thinking that we could do um this spring I think it's something we need to look at I also would ask maybe Brandy if you want to reach out to the farmers market because I know they're going to start doing their Summer's schedule um yeah you know I one of the things that we have done is at the book sale at the library yeah it's the first Saturday of the month the next two first Saturdays we are in tri board meetings so that's not going to work yeah um so we might want to look at other days or other locations I think you know if people have ideas we can do scheduling via email so if people have ideas you know maybe there's an event or something that's going on and you say oh it might be good to do it at this time shoot that and see who's available like I said scheduling is allowed to be done via email okay from that perspective okay um so we can go from there and then we should probably start looking at our you know people's summer schedules and what we can do so we can go from there but yeah we do need to start looking at having office hours again thanks you're welcome oh one more thing thanks DPW for keeping our roads awesome I just want to shout that out because I had to drive do some driving around in this weather for the past few days and I gotta say like hitting Ashlin coming home it was smooth sailing like sadly I can't say that well I'm not going to drag other communities but I'm just gonna say how proud I am of of Ashlin and our dpw's efforts of keeping us uh safe so good yep great Claudia um so I have attended a few meetings of late so we did have the zba hearing for the traffic study uh information for uh 10 to 60 Maine and that was on February 11th I think and now March 11th will be the next one I think that's going to be the topic will be civil engineering um and and traffic again and a little bit of followup of traffic yeah I did ask actually request um I I had forwarded some questions after the first time first meeting and then again at this last meeting because I don't think my questions made it through to the um zba um around traffic and safety and then I did also attend um the traffic study Traffic Safety Committee thanks Jo Traffic Safety Committee um and did ask that they put a camera down Pleasant Street and get some of that information because that has been missing um so um I did talk to Alvaro tonight about following up about that because I think it it's you know should be part of the traffic study um and then um that the his well the we heard from the historical commission that was excellent meeting there was a lot of good feedback I too really actually um Brandy I was happy that you brought up Mike Kane's kind of carrot in the stick that was very um it was you know positive spin on how to maybe how to do things some things I did attend the school committee budget meeting um couple of Saturdays ago and uh the focus was really a couple of the schools and the special education budget um it you know very informative so I look forward to meeting as the tri boards um and I guess that's about it that we haven't already discussed tonight great thank you thank you um so I really don't have a lot of new news um I was also at the zba meeting on traffic um I thought that our peer reviewer did a really good job um um I I hope that you know like after the meeting I kind of had some questions and I'm debating on like whether to send my questions through to zba or to um ask those questions because I I was I was struck by how few questions the zba asked so um and so you know I have some additional questions so I might I might I might send some some stuff to zba yeah and you know even that night of the hearing um you know I I feel like do I stand up here or do I filter it through because I don't want to you know make any enemies out here but um you know I would say if you're sitting in a meeting like that and you have questions that are not getting answered go ahead and stand up and ask them because other people may have those same questions and right and you're just little more involved and that's okay same for you I mean if you if you're sitting there and you have questions that are not have not been answered by either that the the developer or the peer review I would say go ahead and stand ask you know yolander I know this is hard to believe but sometimes I have a little Edge and so I I just wait you want to stay away from that but but I think again if you have questions or comments I mean we are voting taxpaying residents so I think we're not speaking for the board you're not speaking for the board you're speaking for yourself they know well you're of course and and sometimes it's good to say you know I'm I'm on the select board but I'm not speaking as the select board I know I know I just think it's a just could I make a suggestion Ahad you know one of the things that you could do Claudia is you know send them into the zba but ask them to ask the applicant that question like explicitly ask right the zv to ask them that question yeah oh just a thought well I kind of you know thought that thought you did yeah and I and I thought that they would do that right but right okay in any case nothing else Brandy um and the only other thing was the the department budget meeting that um that Makita and Claudia don't you have a senior that just celebrated something senior celebrated something didn't he just finish cack or something oh yeah he finished his no no no I was like he could be we're we're cuz I was like we haven't celebrated anything yet CU he hasn't made a decision where he's going yet um yeah so so the track team um finished uh they had they had um D4 States this last weekend um and my son finished at tbls but it's been a great season they had over a hundred kids participating an indoor track thisas wow wow over a hundred kids yep that's so wonderful and I just I just you know want to give a plug to to um just sort of the culture that has been created there and just the how they've been able to um help develop these kids from freshmen to seniors and they it's it's such a great program because they it's so inclusive they don't cut students they everyone participates everyone Shar each other on and so to me it's been a very positive experience to be a part of it um um and so are the coaches uh Sharon Ames is the the head coach um Emily Riley and um uh John brineger the distance coaches Ethan okay that's okay I didn't mean yeah but the coaches are the the coaches are are are really great and they've given you know there's so few actual meets but they've gotten the kids to participate in invitation other ways um all season long so it's been it's been a very positive experience lots of times you know the a sport like track that doesn't get all the publicity and and that is so important um because it it is all about the camaraderie and the culture and it's really just a you know I'm grateful for we coaches like that winter sports have wound down now at the high school I saw someone I'm friends with on you know someone I'm friends with and through her Facebook posts the wrestling team has finished and I guess some of their St some of their athletes did very well at their last meet so congratulations to all the winter sports athletes and uh it's always fun to then see what they do in the spring y spring spring Sports start up um I think towards the end of March and uh God willing some of the snow and ice are gone we got time we got time so anyway but but that's you know yeah and I have a graduating senior this year so um we have been very focused on what is next so I will not say any more about that so okay that's it for me okay couple couple of quick things I was also at the zba traffic study report uh traffic study hearing so that was good to see I was also at the open space and wreck Forum um they had two forums one on Wednesday and one on Saturday it was the same thing but they just did it at different times to try and get different people and it's also available via Zoom they're next meetings are going to be March 26th and March 29th and Becca and Sam and Sophia some of our staff are working with the open space and Rec committee to be working on the plan and that's moving forward uh let's see Metro West Regional collaborative meeting is next Thursday on the 27th it's a virtual meeting we have our Tri meet tri board meeting on March 1st uh that will be here at Town Hall so again that's select board school committee and um finance committee uh anything goes at the Ashland High School I believe is the weekend of March 1st I think there's some signs around town if you like musicals what's interesting is I'm looking at that and they did that back in 2011 as well and I know that because my oldest was in it in her junior year so it's fun to see that come back uh a couple other things we've received a couple emails about the nip discussion I found it interesting that that's what The Local Pages picked up on at our last meeting was the nip discussion um we've received people who are like no you don't need to ban nips we've had other people say yes please ban nips so I have responded to people as we've received those emails uh we also received an email about our budget process I'm going to be responding back to that person um just to let them know that you know it's part of the process and I haven't had the opportunity to speak with Lisa yet about out right now what happens is if we get an email as the full board I as chair have been the one responding that's been historically how we've done it um Claudia had asked can we make it so that everyone can get copied on it I just have to check with Lisa because it could be an open meeting law violation if I respond back to the person and copy everybody so I will I'm going to follow up with that and and let you know at our next meeting that would be nice to be able to yep see you you know the other thing is we can can discuss how we want to handle emails that come in if it's something if it's not just the chair and not for tonight but you know think about it if it's not the chair some committees do it where it's the clerk that responds to emails if we can't respond all other committees do it where depending on what the subject is someone says you know what I really want to respond to this or I know you know something like that if we want to look at that so we once I get a ruling back from Lisa we can further discuss that how we want to handle that moving forward and with that our next meeting is Wednesday well we have the tri Bo meeting on Saturday March 1st and then our meeting after that is Wednesday March 5th anything else to add Michael or Jen anything else to add anyone on the board no if I can get a motion to adjourn and a second second all those in favor I that wraps up this meeting for the select board for the town of Ashland on February 19th thank you for being with us thank you for watching if you have questions please feel free to reach out to any of us on the board or all of us selectboard Asin mass.com thanks for being here and good night we'll see you in March e for

what would it look like for the uh pickup times on the bus and they were certainly quite early I'm not going to get into the details there we talked about that as a committee and also uh what would it look like in terms of timing and costs uh going to a three-tier bus system from the existing two-tier system so we followed up on that had some discussion and we're going to continue talking about that uh in addition to that um myself Mr Blanda and Mr Baldwin were asked to provide uh kind of our recommendation going forward as to where we thought we would land um I provided that memo to the full board and the and the committee everybody seen that um and uh the three of us really talked about digging in a little bit more on morning times as we're doing with the bus company in terms of one of the things we found in analyzing the the morning pickup times they're quite early given the later start time especially at the high school so we want to dig in a little bit more there and Casey's already had conversations with Allstar in terms of pushing them to see can can you move this later I mean part of this is not only the bio rhythms in the evening but getting more time for kids to have that opportunity to sleep in the morning so let's is there something more we can do there on that end mark Steve and I are actually going to meet this week we want to take a look at um the early dismissals from that last period and really analyze those and parse those out and I know Steve's done a really nice job tracking all of that but kind of force the issue on that area do we have to go this early you know ask those questions and really squeeze the lemon as it were to see what we can do um in that area um and so we're going to continue on that and um and also you know just thinking about scheduling and bigger picture stuff so we're going to talk about that this week bring those continued findings and those asks of the committee back to the committee on Monday the 24th um and we will have that conversation um as we as we get ready did I cover most of it okay so that's all I have at this point okay um Cape committee please Joy okay so we met on Wednesday February 12th we had two public comments um Aon Scara regarding midterm exams and Andy Korea regarding the real allocation of the Mastery based diploma credit we also discussed the um Brookfield High School program of studies so that's later on in our agenda as a possible motion so I'll kind of T just touch on that briefly so the minimum total credits needed for graduation is 25 most of our students graduate with 27 or 28 at our last meeting when the program of studies was presented and approved it wasn't really clear to the committee me members that the credit given back from the Mastery based diploma program that is now no longer was reallocated into the career and life skills bucket um we discussed that extensively regarding whether or not this credit should be reallocated as an additional credit from any category so the initial justification from an Administration was that it was most aligned with career and life skills um and when I asked if there were any disadvantages um they said there really Wen any disadvantages so we felt that students should be able to really determine their pathway and explore their interests so we ask that this revision revision be a recommendation brought to the full board today um and that will be later in the meeting for old business um so that's just some information to touch upon it until we get into a discussion later on we also discussed and got more clarity on class rank uh the state decided that we still need to have class rank especially for scholarships and students ask for it as well so we do have class Rank and have language and the program of studies about it our main change from last year to this year is recognizing the Latin honor System so the Latin n our system will recognize more students and we do do GPA as well colleges traditionally don't care too much about high school GPA um they really do their own GPA calculation so they want to really see the distribution of where they're falling within the class we went through mtss srbi um data that's attached some of your in your exhibit and we also reviewed the midterm exam data uh we just discussed some Trends and concerns which I'll go over in a minute um we did ask Mr Blanda for a comeback with data on which courses students were exempt from the exam because if it was a course in which the midterm was essentially a final exam because it's a halfe course um I would like to share some of the data and I could provide that for the board members if they'd like um so there were some areas that obviously need a lot of attention or Focus uh science math and foreign language I did some calculations on some of the focus areas and then did a further breakdown by specific courses and they're not just academic classes they're also honors and AP classes as well um so I really look forward to and I'll have Anna put it on the next Cape agenda for a followup on how you know we're working to address many of these gaps um for example math 15% of our students got a D or an F on their midterms so I considered not just F failing but D also not showing proficiency um you know some courses for concern are algebra algebra Essentials 43% of our students got an F Algebra 1 it's being very high um Algebra 2 geometry and geometry honors High percentages of D and Ms uh science was a real big area of focus as well um you know 70% of our students D and Fs biology biology AP biology honors chemistry chemistry honors and Earth and energy Essentials those were really some Focus areas as far as the courses specific courses especially a course like biology AP 44% of our students failed 50% got an FN a day uh social studies some areas Human Geography 9 11% psychology AP 24% of our students got a D or an f and United States history English was one of our strengths only 5% of our students are not showing proficiency uh English for being a focus area and World Language um French really stood out 75% of our students in French one got a D orn F all French Classes 29% Dr andf and all Spanish classes 9% with a focus on Spanish 2 and Spanish 3 so um it's apparent that we need some changes in the system um you know which is why I really supported us having more supports and pushing for more support in the area especially for Math and Science so I look forward to The Comebacks in our future Kate meetings did you want to say something I did I was just going to ask if Dr man will be when when she's is this going to be like maybe on a board agenda some point at this point I'm not sure I know that they're looking into it more at Cape so we haven't had a discussion about a board meeting about okay at this I would just I would you know I I'd want to understand like sort of her perspective of yeah you know how how do you assess the assessments themselves um you know so yeah thanks thank one of the things I noticed in going through that data was the oh go ahead Erin go ahead Aron um yeah can Joy or can Administration share the updated um data as far as the exemptions because the paperwork we got um didn't include the exemptions yeah that the data I shared included the exemptions no I know the one that you shared can you share that document oh the one I just read from yeah yeah thank you um eron is is that it that's it thank you um because uh I I was going to say um I mean the issues you raised certainly are alarming and I think Rose's suggestion about like you know are these standards based assessments how how do we know that they're um you know high quality um so we definitely need to look into that but I also noticed a pattern with the um exemptions in uh in a lot of these areas the numbers of a of students whose grades were so high that they didn't have to take the exam was um I think I think an un an untold part of this story um so it wasn't in English the numbers in English were were not of exemptions um and probably in some other areas but but there there are kids who are struggling in um many domains and the the midterms tell that story but it's really important that people hear that there are a lot of kids who are knocking it out of the park um and so um I I just want um people to know that we have we have a lot of good uh going on academically as well from that midterm report so along that those lines I just wanted to get clarification so the numbers that you gave were just specifically for midterms right correct okay so um is there or do we have those numbers for like where they end up at the end of the year so yeah so we got the midterms from last year also um and then we're going to ask for the finals once the finals come okay once they take them cuz it would be interesting to see a complete picture of you know where again where the Assessments in the middle fall versus sure how where they end up but you got to remember this is aggregate data as well right and so you know I but I I think isolating just midterms is a difficult like you were saying there's also the kids who are exempt and what does it mean you know if there's an exempt if there's um if the assessment is not a test so you know I feel like there's true a bigger picture to look at awesome well we look forward to Anna um taking us further down that road oh yeah go ahead no and I I think it's really important to note that the only um classes where kids um received exemptions or halfe classes because everybody had to take midterms so um the exemptions are our um you know halfe classes thank you for that that's an important clarification yeah I could just clarify so like for math algebra Essentials and statistics one were the only tests that had exemptions um for science anatomy and physiology one DNA science and biotechnology forensic science and zoology one and then for English it was just it was just creative writing that was it those are the main content areas okay all right let's move on to um the finance report okay uh we last met on Thursday the 13th um we went over the check registers which reviews all checks over $1,000 um there were several questions um regarding some of the items and a couple of follow-ups including um a list of all of the all of the things that fall under Professional Services so um we'll be getting that update shortly um and then I can actually send that out tonight Rosa sorry I do have it in mind perfect um and then we reviewed the uh January financials um I'm not going to go into the depth of them just because it's a lot it's not normally this detailed but because of where we're at in this particular budget cycle and also in the current year um I thought it was important that Casey provide a little bit more detail than we normally get on the financials um and there are some noticeable month-to-month changes um in particular in the first section of that report um you'll see that the outplacement um the our budget overage that is due to special education outplacement is up significantly from last month from what we reported so now now there is a $544,500 [Music] so it's important to note that the net number of students hasn't really changed significantly but the cost associated with the students has so that's an important um part of the conversation as we talk with the board of finance and the board of Selectmen um regarding a an upcoming special appropriation which I'll get to in a second um we also reported this data to the board of Finance um last week as well and this is our our net overage is more more than what they had set aside for their for the contingency um for the um the agreement that we had essentially outlined um which would cover overages and special education um they do believe that they are able to um creatively manage some funds on their side and um in addition to a budget freeze that I'll talk about a little bit tonight um we think we are just going to make budget wise but it is extremely tight um and that is essentially where we are at right now um there are additional accounts that are overrun um due to unexpected overages this is primarily r related to the mckin vento homeless assistance act um as well as a very large increase in our electricity delivery rate that I have been reporting about for months um this was reported after the initial budget creation sometime in the summer so we been tracking that overage um but it is a very significant Spike um and other accounts that are overrun generally fall within a manageable variance um considering budget underruns in several other accounts so really you know the the primary driver of um our budgetary issue this year is these unexpected overages and of course special education um the um we discussed needing to change how we budget for special education um as you know we we only budget for students that are known and for the needs that are known at the time of the budget creation but even now our adopted budget um is probably overrun significantly um just due to changes from last month when we adopted the budget for next year um so we need to engage the board of finance and the board of Selectmen in a deeper conversation about um budgeting more appropriately for speci special education because quite honestly we are underfunding it um and the money needs to not be held in a contingency on the town side is it's my belief that we need to at least budget in our own operating budget um for students uh the the costs associated with students that are at least of high likelihood of incurring those costs in the budget I think that is the very least we can do we know about these costs ahead of time um and it is in alignment with the advice that we get from our very capable professionals um so that is the conversation that's going to be ongoing and that um I hope we can all advocate for um and let's see oh Mr Roland was there to talk about some of these issues in special education um and he talked about the some of the costs that fall under that special uh professional Services um umbrella and also some future plans regarding the Strategic plan which um obviously we will get to next month uh in a more in-depth way but um he talked about you know his his goals of bringing more services inhouse in particular evaluation Services um and then hopefully maybe farther down the line it would be a very significant investment but hopefully bringing some transitional services um back inhouse as well or or developing a program that can service those students which would be um great in a number of ways not only to our budget but also to keep those students in our community which is which is always a goal I talked about a budget freeze or I mentioned a budget freeze earlier um that is due that is helping this overage um mostly to try to mitigate some of those unexpected costs um so Casey implemented um a budget freeze that yielded approximately $150,000 of net funds um those were reduced from very accounts um mostly Supply accounts not freezing things that our teachers and students need need um but maybe things that can be postponed um or things that we might not have to purchase this year um so um the board of Finance has indicated that with their other movements and other accounts that and our budget free that we should be in a good spot to cover um the overage right now and then lastly the budget transfers that are also on the consent agenda um we supported those budget transfers um which effectively move those monies from those various Frozen accounts into the accounts that need them so that even in our accounting software they cannot be overdrawn so that is generally the update um I do I can add that the legislator legislature is considering a $40 million package for for special education funding that would immediately help districts um this year and potentially next year um so we hope that continues um and if that comes through how much we'd expect to get is obviously unknown but anything at this point would be great and I'm sure we will keep you updated as soon as we hear anything anything else to add Casey got it um I was looking at that um at the cab announcement about that um I so it's going to be on Monday that the legislature is going to vote on this and um would I wanted to know and I sent you guys an email this evening I don't know if you saw it um how about we consider issuing a joint letter to our um legislators or to folks on that committee um Ian I need to know more about it I don't know if this is like being voted on in the whole house uh because then we could just reach out to our folks um saying that we urge them to vote for it yeah would that need to be sent out by the end of this week then right probably I mean it would just it would be an email so yeah yeah I would absolutely support that yeah um so I mean you have the email in your inbox you can let me know what you think about it thank you all right um let's move then to the consent [Music] agenda I move that the board approve the items listed below on the consent agenda as recommended transfers resignations bylaws for a final read tonight 9310 bylaws for a first read 9325 and 9211 policies for a first read 51 4544 51 31911 a new policy that would be added named 3517 35 24.1 35 24.2 3541 and 35 42.434652 and that's at whiskin not at the high school so we will Lisa and I will adjust that but just so you know got that corrected for you um Ain are you ready to vote on uh the consent agenda I'm just I'm just looking at one thing okay so if you've got a discussion item there um please raise it [Applause] tell you what Ain I'm going to start at the other end of or did you have a question no I'm just pulling up a policy what did she say I'm pulling up a policy okay gotcha I'm going to give her a minute to do that as you guys think about how you vote it's a lot of reading I'm off set okay great um did you want to ask a question or are you prepared to vote on the consent to no I just I just couldn't remember which one we were talking about so I just wanted to go back and refresh my memory okay are you all set then yep okay so Erin uh how do you vote on the motion to approve the consent agenda I 7y I Rosa I Joy I Sarah I Rob I and I'm an i as well so that's uh the motion passes and the consent agenda is approved okay so moving on let's get into uh new business so Dr BR you have you're going to talk to us about teacher attendance yes yes great okay so um there's a it's I believe it's a five or is it a six five page memo uh that followed up on how our teachers are doing with attendance and the news is very good so I start with that that's the big picture takeaway from this I am not going to walk through this memo it is publicly available the board has seen it since Friday it's very detailed um the first page does kind of Look Backwards to July 17th when I presented this over the summer um and talked about the the 23 24 year right 23 24 yeah um and now we're in the 24 25 school year and we're doing a midyear check I have to thank um again our HR um supervisor Lindsay Marino for for helping me with the data and and putting this together um our teachers are critical they're front- facing we need them here um but just because they work 187 days doesn't mean they don't get sick during that 187 days um or have personal days they need to take for personal reasons that's why those are contractually approved for for them um so uh it's important to let everybody know if you look on the second page of the document um there is a chart which tracks from 2018 uh 19 school year through the present school year um attendance and our big goal was taking a look preco uh this past summer and seeing that in the 1819 year there was 11.7 days taken as either sick or personal this isn't long-term absences when people are off for a maternity leave or they have surgery or something these are like daily absences um and uh we were at 11.7 days per individual teacher on average um the 1920 and 2021 years there was a lot of remote hybrid learning so you almost discount those years when we got back into regular schedule in 2122 through last year um we had noticed that that 11.7 average had jumped up to about 15 a half um and last year specifically it was at 15 that's 3 weeks of not having a teacher absolutely legitimate absences they're they're sick they take a personal day whatever the case may be but no matter what when you have 36 weeks of school missing three weeks is very very concerning and then it while this memo doesn't cover it because we're going to go to finance committee uh in March and talk about substitutes and how we're tracking that that's related as well it gets very expensive so there's the learning expense and the actual Financial cost here's the good thing we're tracking through mid year and as we compare to last year midy year um we are we are tracking quite well and we are on Pace for projecting that our teachers will be at an 11.5 uh missed days this year if it continues to track at this trend rate and I explain all of that and the charts are there to take a look at um and at this point in the year if you look at the third page there's a comparison July to December uh of last year compared to July December of this year that that Lindsay put together for us so there are a lot of uh things we are doing we have a new system for monitoring uh attendance on a on a bimonthly basis working with our teachers um working with our Paras as well um because they're they're front- facing and we need them with our students the principles are doing a nice job with our assistant principles on this um and they're working directly with HR uh We've automated some processes so it's a little easier to track and monitor um and we made it a priority I have to thank the teacher Union is here uh the leadership is here we've made it a priority in the summer it's been talked about at faculty meetings and collectively we all know it's important and we all are very understanding that people do get sick as well I mean just like I talked about earlier with with uh students who get sick schools are places where there's a lot of germs and so it's a lot of people together in one room um so um we're sensitive to that so we're tracking in the right direction we will let you know at the end of the year how we're doing if this pace continues um we're going to be in a good place we put a lot of uh um uh action steps in place to support the staff uh and to support the administration in making this work so so far so good and um again for the public if they're interested it's a very lengthy detailed document it is online and and the board has it I don't know if there's any questions I but it's long so I didn't want to read it to you I want just give you the highlights um I have a quick question so in looking at the new actions that you've taken this year um with the listening tours and the different implementations of the principles have um you know looked at implementing with their climate committees and leaders what do you think is do you have anist you do you have a feeling for what made the biggest difference do you feel like there's one thing that you could point to I think there's two things I think the the uh as you know half of our teachers are participating in reflective intelligence I think I think the um working with Boston College I think I think uh uh our presenter with Boston College is dynamic I think the process is very engaging for the staff that are involved in it and so I think that brings a and and and with that the sense from the admin team that we're focusing on climate we know it's important and we want to support our staff so I think that definitely could be one the other one is we're talking about it and what people need to remember is these are averages I'm giving you we have teachers that never miss a day they hav miss a day in 30 years so you know and then there's other other staff who for whatever reason are having a lot of of absences in a particular year they might be having a bad year family illness they're sick you know a lot of bad things can just happen to somebody in a given year so um I think the monitoring piece in checking in with teachers when the admin are working directly with their teachers and having more frequent conversations if there's a pattern they say you know I've seen you taken off in the last month three Mondays in a row you know and that's very unusual but that's something we need to address that that could be a pattern um or someone happened to just be sick that um or for whatever other reason we're seeing something it looks success if let's have a conversation how can we help um and so I think those two things kind of paying attention making it a goal paying attention to it and as we know what monit what gets monitored or gets done and then adding in reflective intelligence that's been a nice professional development piece that probably has given some good feeling and as as Rob would say Good Vibes so uh and so now that you're halfway through the year and you've sort of had an opportunity to implement some of the things that the board had made a priority at the end of last year do you feel like there's any one thing that you and the administration or the principles have pinpointed as something to move forward so like this one thing is working and we need to make sure we go further or I've had this idea that's outside the box but maybe we could try it has there been any of those discussions there's been a little bit of those discussions but what I will do is I will save that for the principles because they're going to talk about what they're doing I don't want to steal from they they have um highlights from their survey data um and and they don't want to just a little precursor for it there's probably 20 slides per principal given the survey so they don't want to bore you and go they're going to go through it um but really it's more kind of so what is this telling me and what are my actions going forward for the rest of the year that's basically I thanks for that question and there was also some areas that the board had asked us that I had brought up in the board had talked about hey maybe we could explore some other areas so there's some questions there with some responses on there so please to you know take a look I do give some substitute information for you as kind of salting the oats for further conversation okay thank you thank you very much and thanks to the teachers for really stepping up they've been great Ain did you have a question for Dr BR on that I do not okay anybody else any discussion on that okay let's move to um class eyes guidelines um we have a motion so yes oh sorry back to that paper okay I move that the board revise the class-size guidelines as recommended by assistant superintendent Dr Anna man and the class siiz ad hoc committee okay so we have a motion on the floor um to approve these new guidelines um and it's been seconded uh is there any discussion question go ahead I was just curious so we took the range we took the targets out or M so we took the targets out right right the old targets basically were the center of the range so it was sort of redundant so we decided it just clean it up a little bit to take the targets out okay I was just curious how did you come to these specific numbers is there like research guidelines or surrounding towns or like what what guided you in these numbers mostly the surrounding towns uh Dr man had brought us a lot of information from other districts and we compared um contrasted a lot of different districts and what they do and how they list their guidelines um and we also you know we had to adjust the schools from the old ones that were from uh 2009 um and just kind of make it look a little bit cleaner um but yeah basically just taking into consideration all of the information that Dr man had provided from other districts also you'll see that we kept the um the youngest Learners class sizes that that range small because that's what um I mean there's consensus in the research about that um studies done both within the US and abroad it's it's pretty much um Everybody agrees and so what does this do like longterm to how the classes are scheduled does it just give the principles more freedom to make the larger classes outside of our like strict guidelines or is there like a specific purpose in terms of like being such a wide range cuz it's like you know 21 to 26 I feel like is a significant sort of range so I'm just curious how what are like the long-term scheduling effects how does it affect like does it give the principal more freedom is it so that more students can be in the class like what was what's the like purpose of these particular numbers well I think because I'm looking at the old one too I think it might help um the elective un ah classes those ranges were more aligned with what we're seeing now so like business classes so increased business fed Health all increased by two so the max was 24 now to 26 okay um same with you know for whis skiner too was a 25 so increased by one I think like the core classes I think that was definitely on the lower side for at least the high school for high school numbers I think that original range was on the low side I would I would say as an educator um and Stephanie to to if I if I may to answer your question it's it's really their guidelines um so we we do want to hold to that upper end strictly as best we can and that's really what drives us when we're driving budget sections and those kind of you know sections for classes for for Budget um so this in the upper classes to Joy point in the high school and so forth um while on paper it looks as though it gives us a little more flexibility the reality is it was very challenging um and not realistic these these numbers uh class siiz ranges from 09 just weren't realistic in terms of how we Implement um the program across the board so I guess I what I'm asking like does this give the opportunity for more students to take that class I turn it off does that I guess that's where I'm going does it give like when when Dr Mando was talking in the beginning of year how it's difficult sometimes you don't have enough or you have to combine two classes is that kind of the purpose of this to Mark you're here you want to answer I don't want to answer yeah by the way you're Dr Banda so we expect a very good answer while Mark's walking up I know like most of our classes already have those numbers of students in them so I don't I don't think it would allow us to get put more kids in classes is to answer your question if that's accurate yeah essentially so appreciate the honorary doctorate um that's nice um it's our first it's my first I feel Sor no no I'm I'm appreciative of it that's great I'm gonna go home I'm gonna go home and tell my wife now so just it was such a good meeting yeah I appreciate and and so can you just restate your question to make sure that I get it I answer it correctly okay so at the beginning of the year he talked about how difficult it is to sort of like meet those ranges in scheduling you have to combine so does this range now give you the opportunity to put more kids in to expand the classes what we offer how does this affect your actual it it certainly gives us more realistic ranges of what we're looking for typically to what we have the class sizes so Joy's answer is correct right it gives us within that size there might be and I think the language the way it's written is um in certain I think that I can't remember the exact language at the very end it talks about uh what's that last sentence say some classes may be adjusted based on need content area so that is not a leverage of always doing it it feels like that's the adendum of the contract that says duties as assigned right that ends up there to say okay you can do it but that's in in a case where you really would absolutely need to do it but the majority of our classes are within that range already there might be one or two exceptions right where that could happen certainly um but I think it aligns with what we're looking for than yeah thank you than welcome okay um let's move on then to setting of The oops oh yeah sorry so many things happened um so uh Aon are you in favor of approving the class siiz uh guidelines as recommended by the committee yes um that's an i that's an i yes and uh Stephanie hi uh Rosa I Joy I Sarah hi and Rob hi and I'm an i as well so that's 70 great so now we move to um setting of the graduation date um we have another motion I move that the board set the graduation date for the class of 20125 as recommended by Brookfield High School principal Mark Banda oh have we jumped the shark a it do we need him up here to tell us come Mr Banda need Dr Banda well let's get yeah that down now Deja Vu I feel like I've been here before maybe maybe just unless you want to just resend the motion then we can have this discussion and then make the motion okay I resend the motion all right let's have the discuss okay uh so we really have two options on the table um the two options are Saturday the 14th or Saturday the 21st um you know this is a this is a difficult conversation to have because there there really is isn't any right answer in in so many ways right now if we set let's say the graduation date as the 14th and I'm not making my official oranization just saying we set the graduation date as the 14th the way our schedule currently is based on the snow days that we had is the last day of final exams would be the 13th that Friday before right does align relatively well with in terms of what the school you the operations of the school are concerned Monday is typically the makeup day that last day of school is a half day it's typically a makeup day so that fits the school schedule well right in terms of what we have but what happens if we have another snow day it is only mid-February that's a challenge then you start pushing things and we start having graduation and we'll have to upload move uh senior exams or things earlier right so weather is really the biggest challenge we have right now at this point um on the other end if we kept if we decided on the 14th that puts the grad party and Mr Rell already came up and and really shared you know her perspective and I appreciate that I work very well with Christine this is not this is is a very um you know collaborative and Cooperative relationship that we have trying to figure out the best way and we'll do anything and we've had this discussion you know there's been years in Co where we literally they rolled up polyvinyl in the hallways and it was that was set up and then like graduation came and we cut the things they all fell down and we put it up last minute the crew works really hard to do a really great thing for our graduating seniors having been there many years now my 10th this is going into my 10th year and I know many of you I've seen either worked it been there like I know people have been there and see the value in this so it is it's a tough thing I'm in a tough position um to try to figure out okay what do we do we push to the 21st that gives grad party plenty of time right to put that out there they have multiple days they'd have right now they would have you know let's say the last day of school if we had the makeup day they'd have four full days to set up and get ready we' have graduation that day and then they' go to the grad party afterwards that day um is that too much time between where we are with the end of school and you know I wish I could come with you with an adamant this is ex this is exactly what I want to do I'm frankly torn I don't know I'm torn with the side of I have the school operations to figure out and say okay this is the the 14th makes sense but it does not help grad party they're not it's going to be harder to get volunteers I have to move classrooms like it's it's going to be very difficult for them because they don't have time to set up the building to make it look and transform it the way it was intended to be um and the 21st maybe that's they'll have plenty of time to do that but does that affect anything in terms of families and I don't have the right answer I I I know it's on the agenda and I really wanted to say it and like this is going to be it I'm just being honestly Frank with you I I don't know the answer to this question I don't have the right answer and I know families are asking they have a right to know and they have a right to figure that out um I'm certainly I don't know if this is intended to be a discussion but kind of here we are like if anybody I'm I'm looking to the board just to get your perspective like to to what you think you we have parents on the board right I know we have parents on the board who may have graduating seniors I know that that I get that and there's there's all those different things to manage and we will have to make a decision you know I don't know if this is something we could go ahead and just for perspective and then I really do it would be great to hear from the board so there's two things because of our 39 year now coming up on 39 Year tradition if I did my math correctly of grad party on Saturday that puts us in a bit of a different we're locked in a little differently than school districts next to us who just have graduation whenever the last day of school is that's when graduation is during the week doesn't matter um so there there's that part of it the other part is honestly kind of just our own community pressure to be very honest with you the the amount of questions that keep when is gradu when is graduation when is graduation I see some smirks in the room um that that we need to get it on the agenda at least to have the discussion um you know I don't know that waiting another month is problematic but maybe it is for our community so we're we're very sensitive to that and so I appreciate Mark wanting to hear from the board at the end of the day I don't want to Short Change kids right they spent their four years here they've worked hard and I know how hard the gr party has worked all year already and continue to work so it's I just I'm not and and maybe we wait a little bit maybe that's and get more information I don't know get through another month of bad weather to have a better sense I don't know if that makes sense but like I said I'd love to hear from the board and get your perspectives any side one and the other I have two questions oh sorry Aon you want to go first no I I can go after you I just have a question for Mark um so my first question is going going to be along the lines of why don't why couldn't we consider doing it on Wednesday so that we don't have so much time I'm just curious has it ever been considered so Wednesday or Thursday right the other enjoy you might weigh in as a parent but okay like that's just I can talk that yeah that's one y and then the second question is um our next meeting is in two weeks not a month right and I maybe get through the ra what are the ramifications for the administration having to wait just two weeks to see if there snow cuz of things coming up I know we're going to be at graduation so it doesn't matter no no but I mean like getting in terms of like the community one needing today versus is two weeks feel like a reasonable amount where we can put it on the March typically the emergency days because of snow usually don't happen after March 15th I mean they could happen through March it does happen but the the further through the winter we get without taking a day off that's why I'm think maybe we could go we had a real crazy two weeks so of weather which looks like it's starting it's going to start warming up the next cycle so so to answer your F first question about doing grad party midweek that I don't know how that could ever happen just and because there is so much work that goes into that um and also clean up the next day the the the timing is set because that Saturday night people typically you have Sunday to recuperate from the 24 hours that you stay up right or those adults that come in for that second shift at 2: in the morning um it's it's a long night and I think challenging for people particularly that work because we have a lot of volunteers people that and you're not working in the weekend you people generally suck it up for that night on Saturday knowing they can kind of sleep in a little bit on Sunday and then go back to work on Monday doing a Wednesday would be a real challenge um in terms of time frame to you know listen I can certainly you know I have a PTO meeting tomorrow night at 6:00 you know I can certainly talk to my PTO as I look at my PTO president over there um it's something we can we can certainly discuss um and get some more perspective from the parent side from you there's definitely ways to collect more information um you know I we certainly could I don't think it hurts to wait two weeks three weeks I I I can certainly handle the questions they keep coming I get it but I also I don't want to wait too long and that's where we put it on the agenda to at least have the discussion today knowing that this could go the way of a conversation and then maybe punt to the next next meeting and get more information between and but anybody else have any Erin yeah yeah Mark the question I had is just um I know just from experience last year I had a child in classes that were um the majority of them were seniors and he had to take exams the week before so are our seniors taking exams when our other kids are because I was under the impr their grades had to be in so I just want to know if it does happen on the 14th as opposed to something else is it going to affect their um exams or are they still taking exams early yeah so you know to have to do officially because the the remember the the diplomas are signed by me the superintendent the board chair right so all those so this is means they've officially met all those requirements we want to make sure that their exams are done and their school year is finished even though the makeup exam date currently is next Monday we would have to have those kids take their exams before then to be fair I mean that that's the right way to do it it also puts us in terms of um of 180 day school year right like right now we have 182 days so that Monday is 182 um graduate we would the students will have completed even though there's an exam period if we graduated on Saturday the 14th 181 school days State requires minimum 180 right so we have to like at least be in so there there isn't a ton of Wier room um there but we they would have to take them early is essentially what they would have to do yeah but I mean I think I think my question is last year my son had to take exams a week before other exams were being taken so he was didn't have to go on the exam day so I think my question is are the seniors even going to school the week of exams realistically if they took exams the week before I think I it won't be the week before like I'm looking to push a day or two early like I can't I can't push a whole week ahead because that just completely takes them out of the cycle and it does screw up the um some of the Juniors the some of the things we experienced last year and trying to do Tom Marly really messed up some of the Juniors because they were taking it early and they were they really there so we we would look to move it up my question yeah are we doing stuff differently because I know mine did not have to go because we had to take an exam because it was mostly senior yeah we're we're not going to move it up as much as we had last year if we if you know if we had to move it early that's we' move it a day or two early not a week so personally for me I'm not seeing like a whole lot of like advantages to setting it on the 14th 21st it is I would be in favor of what that was that was a quick turn around y I mean I think this we can vote but I think we need more discussion no I mean yes so I'm personally not seeing a whole lot of advantages to having on the 14th it seems like there's a lot to cram in and like I mean we're we're talking about like a a week right and it leaves the grad party plenty of time for a setup and take down it leaves time for the 21st leaves time for maybe if we have a few extra snow days now if we did have like let's say three more snow days right and now the last day of school is the 19th so we're in trouble if we said it to the 14th we're in trouble cuz that's got to but would it How would affect the 21st like we wouldn't be like looking for like another week before graduation right still be but it would just make the grad party timetable crunched right and the grad the grad party timetable has been crunched before once or twice right you know then we've been parts of those things where it's been like okay and it's been a negotiation I I wouldn't say hostage I would say negotiation between Christine and I about how we're going to make sure when can I get in how can what time can I get in the building because I know they're eager to get the the room set up and those sorts of things but it is negoti they want as much time as possible gets them the ability if it was the 21st you know and even if we had two more snow days it we'd still be okay right yeah I would be in favor of the 21st I mean I think it like it leaves the most space it kind of makes it still to me make sense within the school year I mean after the end of the school year but I mean you know not significantly so so yeah but I'm also fine waiting another couple weeks if you if you that doesn't I think yeah yeah I'd be in favor of either waiting until our March 5th meeting 9th 5th whatever the next meeting is in two weeks or pushing it to the 21st and just having it have that one of the things I want to share that you know we don't necessarily have conversations about this because it's it's it's sensitive and it's um it's unpleasant to even have to think about but as a a former High School principal and longtime building administrator and of of course uh Anna would say say the same thing and I know Mark thinks the same thing um and it's what I wrestle with with delayed openings in snow days is teenage drivers and one of the things when you think about the statistics in the spring teenage drivers and I worry about finishing school on a 16th and having an entire week with no school and seniors being seniors and just being teenagers you know um and waiting for that graduation ceremony I get concerned about safety to be very honest with you and I think that's something that we just can't we we cannot not talk about as part of this decision-making process and that's why I think if if if the board in the community would be so patient to give us some more time I think we could come with a a a stronger recommendation in terms of our belief as what we think is the best course of action um I have a suggestion um could we and maybe Eric could uh answer this um is there a way that we could issue a parent Square poll to the parents of seniors um I think that would be an important data point I can do that yeah we can do I can do that do because um I mean kids start to work families travel there's a lot that happens that's the danger I see with the with the 21st I mean I don't know you have a senior I say I your lip she's like what do I want to say uh it's hard because I know the kids want to finish earlier right so um but I know that they would have to start their exams earlier right and they're going to be checked out um but selfishly the grad party you know that 21st would really help us out been painting all week um well that's a super important event they've they've really earned something and I I think 39th year like that that to me my fear is that they that someone and come you know if they're right far so much l yeah so far out I I do I was going to suggest the idea of pulling the senior parents that's something I can easily do yeah absolutely might be a way to go I mean I know my daughter would pick and I know what her friends would pick I'd also be C I think I know what the kids would do but I certainly I could pull the kids too I mean I think that I think we you're right I think we know where they would want to be but realistically there you know as parents and as you but things can happen with weather not just snow it can be rain you know we had last yeares so yeah it could that absolutely I don't want to be in that situation where right we're pushing the last day to 18th or 19th and then so so this actually is is helpful to to markk for sure and me that that you're interested in let's let's kind of see where we land in a couple of weeks and and come back to this if that if people could be patient about it then you know but know that we're really seriously thinking about it we're deliberating everybody's talking to each other um and being open and honest and we could add to our winter survey Extravaganza and continue to poll parents and and students um and get more information it would it would I would say if we can like cons if we can nail down in the March 5th meeting like just have a final Okay so Fair Stephanie rescinded the motion so there is currently no motion on the table are we are we okay to then uh move on great thank you for the opportunity just to Workshop that together rather than it's important all right so um now it's time for a school climate update all right so we will be hearing a midyear update from the principles you want to start do you want all right you mark you want to just keep rolling let me just get my notebook hold on that yeah I we all saw the me so while Mark's getting his notes just uh for everybody as as has been said uh many many many times uh School climate is a uh one of the three areas of fundamental Focus for the school year um the principles uh have worked with the administration and uh we worked with Ed Advance we have a new tool at no charge from Ed Advance thought exchange that has the three different surveys uh one for students one for uh staff and of course the one for parents the principles will they have a very similar format so once Mark goes through you'll get used to the Cadence like I said they won't spend a lot of time on each slide um but I think Mark maybe at the beginning just walk people through so they understand the format and then from there um really we'll talk about uh kind of where they're at what the survey results are telling them and what's it look like for the next couple of months so please mark as I get started not to prolong the meeting can I got a shout out for the new projector that's not off the side of the screen even know that's great right do you know how all the meetings you've been to where it's off the other side you can't see new projector that fits right in the so thank you to the technology department that's the little things that matter to me bothers me that type a person is kind of the they am so um you'll see similar presentations uh you know it's they're not mirrored you'll see some similarities certainly between the format but also some of the questions uh that we put out there uh but Dr Burl asked us to put this together uh for each school to kind of give a midyear School climate update so this was this pulls directly from my School Improvement plan um and highlighting five different things uh School climate meetings is the first bullet uh hosting those uh and being a part of those no place for hate school is an initiative from the Anti-Defamation League uh that we're planning on working on uh before knowing we're going to be doing thought exchange and all these other different things it was about make sure we survey students getting a preium post that's really important they're are biggest constituents they're with us every day the principal's advisory Council uh to meets monthly with me for students and then the staff advisory Council outside of the Bea PR and E format which is not a negative to that it's just it's something that looking to find a different way to collect information and so I'll be able to share some of that information today so this was the original School climate goals that came out of there we gave a thought exchange survey uh it went to students staff and families student survey just so you know we had 594 students um comp responded to the survey 526 actually completed it so it was open-ended you to answer every question so we got it's amazing the format and the tools that we have it takes all the data disaggregates it for you does it by question and so as the three principles know that we we met and had a conversation about what's the best way to share this information with the board and with the community and the thing that we came up with is all the questions have a general format where they ask um always often sometimes and never so those are the four categories typically and it was hard to really pick out because know we have a lot of slides to share and so we're going to try to go through these relatively quickly but what was the thing that really stuck with us the most and the conversation was like the highest percentage of neers those are the ones that are Mo we're most concerned with right and we talk about students one of the ones one of the questions you won't see on here and I think it's a good illustration do you enjoy coming to school right if I have however many percentage of kids saying always and often and then I've got let's say I've got 35% of the kids that say sometimes they're happy to be at school that to me is a win in so many ways cuz sometimes it is challenging to get to school and if a kid is accurately taking it the ones that say never that are never happy being those are the ones that were like okay that would be and so that kind of jumped off the page at our conversation to say let's let's try to analyze all this data and there's a ton of other things but we'll highlight the never so we did a never approach so we look to see which were the lowest amount of Nevers and which was the highest percentage of Nevers in each of the surveys so in students staff and and families so I'm going to highlight a couple of those um and they're broken down into categories right first category is perception of school now this is the student survey I have that little um bullet up there so you can see this is an area of recognition you see at top so this is something that we're that we have the fewest amount of Nevers I feel comfortable asking for help when needed only 40 kids now it's still a lot but that is our lowest amount of MERS that means the rest of those students sometimes often or always are responding saying they feel comfortable asking for help when needed so it's an area of recognition but it's also kind of area of growth because if there's 40 kids that feel they don't feel comfortable it's still something we have to talk about but this is our lowest never but an era we can grow is I'm eager to participate in class discussions so it's interesting how they're kind of connected right so yes the other one was a recognition but you can see there's there's still a through line there there is something there to go in a little bit deeper and so there's unfortunately 100 kids that said no they don't feel eager to participate in class discussions second category uh was perception of personal and school safety so this was an this is our best score teachers treat me with respect right always often sometimes the highest percentage lowest was 3% of the kids 15 kids said that teachers don't treat them with respect again I want that to be a 100 but we're going by the lowest number of Nevers and an area for growth students in my school will try to stop challenging behaviors um when I look at that the always and often I wish those were higher they're clearly not and a 100 kids saying that students in my school will never try to stop challenging behaviors is concerning to me so that's an area for growth and I will address these at the end I'll talk about a couple different things that we're going to do to address both the areas of growth and for recog second area was perception of learning for students an area of recognition for the students they said my teachers want to help all students learn I hate that that's at 16 but man look at that that's not bad a kid had a bad day because they didn't get the help their hand was raised teacher didn't get to them in time that could attribute to one that's a speculation but that is an area that you know looking at that and I will share this data with this with the staff as well in a coming meeting so this is an area of uh of recognition this is an area of growth my teachers checking with me to see if I understand the material right so we had 18% 93 kids said that teachers never check in with them um just understand the material sometimes often and always you can imagine as you take the Sur there's a lot of different perspectives kids are going to come to the table with and what one person feels they should get always or often or it there's a lot of interpretation um that can go into this but this is an area of growth we put it on there because this is the highest amount of Nevers in this case um so those are the three categories for students we surveyed the staff and staff 57 staff responded uh total with 51 actually completing the whole thing start to finish um so an area of recognition in perception of school is relationship between students and teachers is good so all of all the people that responded nobody said never at the very least we sometimes often and always I think that's a great response relationship between students and teachers is good this one of the things you'll see a through line when you look at some of the other surveys as well the staff feels an area of growth is that student discipline practices are fair and consistent and so they felt that sometimes often always were there and never was uh 20% 11 people um now my staff there's certainly more than 57 staff I have in the building I think if all all said and done including staff is over a 100 um but with 51 completed that was the one that had the highest number of responses for that particular category perception perception of personal and school safety um I feel physically safe on school premises right we talk about the hierarchy of needs all the staff that responded to this question none of them said never that to me is a good thing sometimes I'd like that to creep up to the often and always right understanding but that is where we are for our recognition for staff about phys feeling physically safe area of growth I'm satisfied with the physical condition of the school facilities anybody who's been in the High School is not going to be surprised by the staff saying that is the highest amount they're never satisfied right at 29 but that is I think is while a small number responded across the board I think it's pretty indicative of what people experience you know here in this building perception of learning for staff here's an area that's good the current curriculum is conducive to producing a comprehensive education of students one person said never which interesting I don't know who answered that but most people are saying sometimes often and always that's an area of area of recognition we did a good job with that in terms of curriculum area for growth I've noticed improvements in instructional Effectiveness as a result of participating in PD so this is an interesting one you'll also see this as a through line in some of the other buildings as well uh I point this out um because there's a lot of different reasons that this could be but this is the perception of the staff feeling that way um I know that Dr man has shared this with the pck committee so they're aware of these survey results and some of the feedback there and I know they're continue to address that moving forward it's an area that they know about as well uh coming to parents the parent survey um I think most of you know we have 860 I think 862 students here in this building I had 48 parents respond and 43 completed it um start to finish so um numbers are going to be a little skewed but just in terms of the whole population but doesn't matter they took the survey we want to respond to it these are the people that put their information out there so in teaching and learning learning this is an area teachers are well qualified and knowledgeable in their subject areas they said sometimes often or always and a single person said they're never well qualified it's a good area that's something to be proud of um the school adequately supports my child's social emotional development this is an area where the high school they feel you know four four people um said that we never adequately support uh social emotional development um and there's obviously you can see the mix of sometimes often and always um but that's an area for growth for us in terms of school safety my child feels saf in school two people said never that's not again not a response that I want to have but is the lowest number um in terms of that area so that's actually area of recognition for us that only two people said never most people are saying but if you look at the majority it's often and always right so that to me when I look at that information is pretty important uh area for growth I am satisfied with the school's handling of unkind student Behavior start drawing some through lines right you see the staff at one point had talked about um one of their concerns was how uh information was how discipline was handled uh consistently there's a question about that there's also a question about when students talked about um feeling that they would step up and challenge somebody's Behavior so this is an area of growth the behavior and what we do um and how the staff perceive it students and staff it's important and something to address that's the highest area and communication and parents involvement um communication methods such as parents Square the new website used by the school are effective only one person said it's never effective um which was impressive and 26 people the majority of people answered always so that's an area to be proud of I know Dr burill is very happy that parent square and the website are helpful it it shows that and the area for growth the school encourages parental involvement and feedback and that's something I will certainly talk about when I talk about my next slide so we looked at all these different things looked at the school Improvement plan those areas that I talked about and I really I categorized them a couple different ways and so the key at the top talks about continuation adjustment and addition So based on the color of the verbs kind of tells you where we are so monthly School climate meetings continuing that that's in green that stuff we still meet every month we have we have parent Representatives we have student Representatives we have staff Representatives there's been some really good things that have come out of that group um and that addresses some of the concerns brought forward by students parents and staff you know in terms of climate uh unkind Behavior our students and we have uh eight students that serve on that committee two members from each grade level that all provide feedback about some of the things that they think are going well and ah there's also one student that's also on the no place for hate committee that sits on both so it's able to provide um perspective from both committees to able to share um you know and we've seen some improvements in certain areas but there's definitely areas that can continue to be improved um but that's something we're going to continue to do um no place for hate activities we continue to do those it's um we just had our our pledge which was interesting we hit a little bit it was um our no place for hate pledge which I thought would go over relatively well um and I had to sit back we didn't have as many kids signed as I thought they would quite frankly um and it was initially I was a little concerned because the last statement says I agree to support uh I will um not allow Brookfield High School or whatever be a place for hate think well yeah who wants to get in the concept of pledge and what that means and the actual action steps to uphold that we need to do more work with the kids so they understand what that means kids felt uncomfortable signing that pledge because they didn't know the action steps in order to carry those things out which I thought was pretty impressive at the end initially I was I don't know I wish but no it's we need to do more work so we're going to continue that we're going to continue some of these no place for hate activities and that continues that helps the students and the staff um end of year school student climate survey that's going to continue we know that's coming whether it's thought exchange there's also one for no place for hate the kids did a great job you saw they're the highest number you know 500 um I think it was 526 actually completed it which for high school kids is pretty amazing considering uh the numbers that are there and that's just going to give us more data about things that we can do to improve the school the adjustment is the biggest piece about revisit the principal's advisory Council for students to mean on a quarterly or as needed basis I've held one meeting so far was not attended at all kids didn't come so that's on me as the principal to better promote that and get more different constituent groups to be there so I can hear perspective other kids you know how this goes right you have a school climate committee meeting you know you know the kids that are going to volunteer to be a part of that and I want to hear from those kids I also want to hear from the kids that aren't represented at that table I need so I need to do a better job of getting that soliciting that information from those kids and finding different ways to do that um I have a plan through the cafeteria and our new school security guard so we have some some some good ideas there as how we're going to revisit that and meet that at least quarterly so some of this information these things that kids are concerned about because if they're not telling members students in the school climate committee or no place for hate committee they may need a vehicle directly to me and I need to find a better way to get them there the addition right the staff advisory Council that's something I put on my initial um School climate um School Improvement plan I haven't done it yet and that's because I felt one way I was like oh do I really need that maybe I don't I absolutely do need that right and that's something that I'm putting as an addition it's on my plan but it's moving forward I have a very good relationship with the pr uh committee I have two building reps that uh represent the Bea that are in my building we have our monthly meetings um I have a a good relationship people feel they can come forward and and have those conversations but what ends up happening is they're usually not contractual conversations it's become more climate and culture conversations so they feel comfortable the staff some Staff feel comfortable coming to me and some feel comfortable going to the building reps or the pr or some of the the the the leadership and that's good I want their their concerns to be out there but I also want to try to foster a climate where they can come to me or to the other administrators um and feel comfortable to have those conversations I don't know how that's going to go yet and it doesn't always I want people to know it doesn't always have to be a union thing there could be just general conversations I feel that I'm pretty connected to the staff but some events over the last week and some of the things we're trying new with attendance and some of the the concerns that were brought forward were things that I didn't see necessarily and I missed it and the implementation didn't go as we wanted it to go for some of the attendance protocols we're trying and so I got a lot of feedback and I'm like well this is really a climate and culture issue this is something that I need to do to better Outreach same thing with the kids for this principal's advisory same thing for the staff I need to find a better way for them to connect with me and feel comfortable putting that information out there I think one of the challenging questions that you saw was parental involvement in feedback at the high school that has been my challenge for all 25 years of my career how do we get parents involved in the community in the school community and provide feedback it doesn't always have to be um a traditional way like I know at our PTO meetings when I say it's myself Rebecca usually the three other officers and that's pretty much it for the Brookfield high school PTO and thank goodness they're there and helping occasion we get a random person that comes in but we hold these monthly meetings and parents aren't coming to PTO meetings they they're not doing that so what does parental involvement and feedback look like we really need to dig into that because if parents are saying that we're not doing that what what do you need from us to to feel better involved in your child's um schooling so that's why that addresses the parents and then the audit the social motion learning opportunities so I say audit because they do exist right we do do we have some social emotional learning um opportunities and curricul that does exist in School counseling and developmental guidance through our wellness program and a couple other things that we do it's not as um defined as the ruler program that you've seen in in the K8 um but clearly that's something and it doesn't matter to me that only 43 parents completed the survey and put that out there enough people said it it's something we absolutely have to take a look at so we're going to work with the school counseling department um um very they have their meetings their monthly their weekly meetings I meet with the school counseling director uh team leader every other week we're going to go through and look at some of these social emotion opportunities and see and really audit and see what are we doing well what could we add what are we missing and how can we push some other things forward so I try to go as quick as I could Dr BR I know it's a lot I know it's a long agenda you heard from me a lot of stuff and you have to hear two more schools so I appreciate you listening and certainly if you have any particular questions I'm happy to answer I just have um I know there was opportunities to provide notes y can we get that information that whole survey oh we didn't put it in there we will so what what we're going to do is so the survey what we can do is it generates a word cloud so it's not very helpful for you um so we're looking to find a way that when I generate the report here like through the thought exchange what it does is it provides a word cloud don't know why that's the default report which doesn't really help you or me or anybody else cuz like what comes up as you might see in from the let's say from the um from the parent survey might say communication is the biggest word because that's the one that it saw the most but it's 15 different things they're not all tied to good bad and different communication there is a way to print the list right and some of that feedb it literally the feedback was all it was it was almost this one says this needs to be that much better this one said it's perfect and fantastic I'm so glad it works that way right you know which is not surprising because it's typically what we get as we call through those but trying to get those so we're going to I I did mean to put that we did have that conversation I don't know if the other guys did it but put the link so you can see the actual open-ended responses as well um it just it's not helpful in the format that thought exchange prints it in it only comes in a wordcloud I can give you we'll give you every single one of those questions so you know all the questions all the percentages that's easy to do it's how to find that format from the word cloud so what we'll do is we'll link that joy into the presentation like I don't know I I'm not sure if it got linked into the other ones yet but it's easy enough to do that and then when we do the three main points and everything else we'll get it all distributed out we can put it all out together so you see the whole um sounds good I just want to say one more thing it wasn't really a question but you know I really appreciate you being very candid about um you're mentioning a lot of things that you you have to do but I really hope and I really sincerely mean this that your administrative team is part of your areas of growth that you want to improve because I think even little changes can go a really long way it's not just about you and of course you're the leader of the building but there's so many more other leaders of the building that can make a substantial difference in the climate culture of the school I and I appreciate that right I mean and I I think those have known me like I'm this is harder to if you know who I am I'm going to tell you what I think and and who I feel like you're right as a leader of the building it does come back to me but absolutely I do feel the support is there um from my administrative team at least and my teachers as well we're going to we're going to reopen those lines it's it's been it's been a rough go a little bit I want the teachers and the students to not only feel like they can come to you but go to the assistant principals or the GU counselors or counseling team right you know y thank you Mr blenda Mr Renda [Applause] good evening hello how are you tonight um I am very excited to come up and talk a little bit about our whisk Middle School uh midyear uh School climate updates so we'll start as Mark did he said like he did say that we are very similar in format and what we're going through but these were some of the areas that I had touched upon at the beginning of the year for our school Improvement plans um as you notice a lot of them are um focused around students um and not that they shouldn't be because that's why we're here uh but some of the programs I know and things that I know I was very excited about was I talked to you early in the year about our web program which is is a sixth grade orientation where students come in the summer and then also throughout the year we have lessons with some of our web leaders which are eighth graders which have been going really really great um I see some heads from our sixth grade parents like having a good time um and then what we did talk about was we have an unplugged hour which is a seventh for our seventh and eighth grade uh students that are not web leaders um as in Social uh opportunities and tech-free uh activities where students can do everything from being in the Taylor Swift Club to the walking Club um to the reading club or whatever it may be things that the students uh really enjoy to do um so those two have been great our WS School climate committee we have monthly meetings uh again working well and we talk about excuse me what is working well and also just plan or Implement different things and activities for students and for staff because again we all know as as part of a climate is everybody that's in the building what can we do um to have a little fun sometimes and with the staff it was interesting for Valentine's Day my the our um School climate committee came up with every if you had a heart in your pocket at the beginning they gave hearts out and if you went up to somebody said do you have a heart in your pocket you had to give up your heart at the end of the day whoever had the hearts won well I I was given a heart at about 8:00 in the morning and not one person asked me for my heart and I was like I'm a little offended by this but I did win a um there was a little lottery ticket and and we had a little fun so again little things like that I think that uh we do obviously for students but also for staff I think just keeps a good climate um within the schools all of the staff uh climate surveys we're talking about um we are going to be Mark said we are going to be sharing with our staff our staff have not seen these yet we are um talking about them here today but then obviously we will share with staff and then look to create some action plans based on the feedback that we um that we get from it and from them uh student council is is something that I know I meet with the student council I try to do it um every couple weeks um but what we do is we talk about anything from activities that are coming up fundraisers um they want to get back to doing dances which just it makes me laugh every time I hear that because for years it was like no but now I think the kids want to get back to which is fantastic um I've also talked with them about survey feedback with our student council and getting some ideas that they have and what do they what do they think about this um and then we'll be meeting again once this is all set I'll be meeting with them again to go over the uh student survey participation in after school sports and in our uh Bandon course I said to you early in the year we have um about a third of our students in chorus because we have about 600 students now we have 600 actually today but um a third of them uh in chorus and and another third that are in uh band there are some kids that go I think there's about 20 kids that do both but if you think about it a third of schools participate in those programs is is really awesome but on the opposite side with after school clubs and sports we have about 208 uh students that have been a part of those there are some repeats I'm going to be getting that information because I know there are some kids that may have been in also one Club um say the math team but also in another club or sport uh activity the reason I bring those things up because I know I've told you before I feel that being students uh when they feel a part of of school they feel something good to come to school to be a part of now granted being in courses during the day it's part of their classes it's not an after school activity but there are kids that just just the excitement that they have in things like that I think to um to perform and and be musical or whatever it may be even in our art classes any of the uh um UNH classes we have but also with the after school clubs is just being a part of something that is different maybe some different kids in the same idea of something that I really like whether it's math counts or the Art Club or whatever it may be and it also gives staff a different like some of our staff get really excited about even with unplugged hour I should say that they're with kids that they never see they never taught them they never you know but they have a connection with them um which I think is really uh really neat Charter Champions we talked a little about ruler but um as part of each grade level came up with uh Charter Champions these words that they have as part of their Charter for each grade level and what we do is um students are nominated now that I look at this it should say by staff or by students so we had we did a uh our web leaders went around to our classes and they um introduced it to all of the home rooms and what they show the students was that they can nominate there's a Google form that they can nominate a student and that the um reason behind it has to go by whatever is on the charter like if they're they are respectful they have to put what's the reason why they're nominating this student so again it holds a little bit more and what we do then is we try to share those with families because it's really cool when you hear about your son or your daughter is a charter champion because of this reason um one of the students was that um always looks out for other people you know like I say that's the best thing you could ever hear about your kid uh and in use of parent Comm uh parent Square Excuse excuse me to communicate uh events highlight great things that go on at WMS and any other needed U information with families all right survey reception of school the area of recognition again Mark told you the reason the the things that we went behind we um the idea with the data is there are 11 students that don't feel like I belong with my classmates that kills me when I hear that this was an area of recognition because that was the least amount that we had in any of the areas but um as most of you know like that to me I would love to know who those 11 students are to be able to have a conversation and and and sit down with them to find out more um but as you can see I mean there other numbers U and again sometime I think Mark made this out said before that I feel I belong my CL there's days that you do and maybe depending on the day you're taking a survey I don't feel I feel like my my best friends or my friends kind of let me down you know we never know but just the fact that that that there's 2% is uh is something that I wish was Zero um and then I this one I don't mean to say makes me laugh but I enjoy participating class discussions so we have 9% of by the way that we had 559 of our students and we have 600 so this is a really good number of responses 53 students said that they don't enjoy participating in class discussions so I'm like what so I I talked to my wife about it and my wife's like that would have been me now me I would have been in the always category probably um but again it all depends on the student there are kids students that don't feel comfortable sometimes talk in front of their friends we understand that but again um interesting um type of data that we need to look into perception of person personal and school safety I love this one teachers treat me with respect it is at 1% I hate to see that there's four that's Say Never um but if you notice there's a large amount of um students that say always and often um again that's something I know we we harp a lot on all the time um with our Stu with our staff to our students but also obviously within our um our staff meetings and things like that with from us as adults how we have to also model respect to students and then they would be respectful um obviously it would be easier for that respect back students of my school will try to stop challenging behaviors so again this is a little bit of an interesting one because 77 students say they never do it and I can see that there are students that feel like maybe no one will come to get their back if something's going on um and obviously in my mind both sometimes and never I I I it kills me to see 273 other students think only sometimes kids will do that I get the nature of the beast in middle school I don't want to stick out cuz I know if I say something then they're probably going to say something to me you know I wish it was something that we could um we could again not that we don't try to change it and interestingly in some of the uh questions the responses back from the students I am going to have a conversation with some of our with our eighth graders about many of uh not many a handful of students put and I'm guessing it was the Nevers here that eighth graders um something about being big and walking down the hallways and they like to make fun of us cuz we're smaller than them or they need to be kinder and things like that literally it's specifically States e8th grade so that's a little something that I'm going to be working with specifically telling the eth grade this is what they are saying about you so we need we I expect better um from you so perceptional learning teachers expect students uh to learn what is taught and again that goes a lot around expectations I feel if as a as an educator or as an adult if you have expectations I really do believe most of the time students will live up to them um you should see you could see that three students said never um again you that's something I wish we we had zero in those spots but as you can see a large number said often or always my teachers check to see if I understand what is being taught I think that was similar to one of the ones that Mark had in his area for growth we had 48 students um and then a larger number is 196 even sometimes again that's something that I'm going to bring up to my staff and all of us that are teachers I think you know sometimes we feel like we check in or whatever it may be but there are some either even comments from other from the students that do say I wish they would at least one time like come by me during the class and again we know when you got 20 some odd kids in the class it's hard to get to every single student um but again it's just something that I want to put in the in the staff's mind that we need to be cognizant of Staff survey perception of school relationships between students and teachers is good we had zero for that um as you can see I think the staff felt that they have pretty good um relationships with the students uh there were 64 responses on staff we have over 100 staff members um again this is 64 and it does not break down to whether teachers you know PA professionals secretaries um teachers at oh this was 0% too teachers at school are trusted to teach in the way they think best I think they feel that um you know obviously there's curriculum that needs to be followed but if we're do if we're teaching the curriculum the way John teaches it in his class maybe different maybe how than I teach it in my class per se um so it gives them that autonomy to be able to to you know be professionals area for growth student discipline practices are fair and consistent we have four staff members that say never uh and then 25 or 39% say sometimes and again I think sometimes that's a perception that um you know we may you know they don't we don't always share obviously if it's someone who who writes a referral we'll let them know what the uh response was but we don't it's not like we tell people we don't we don't share with them you know all the different types of um consequences that we do have and sometimes they don't know what is behind it so can I understand why people may say sometimes or never I could see that um obviously we don't want them to think that way but I could understand the perception on that school safety I feel physically safe on the premises that was great I think the large numbers absolutely feel safe which is great I'm satisfied with the physical conditions of the school facilities I think similar to what Mark said we have a larger number that um feel that uh the physical condition needs to be improved exceptional learning school meets The Learning needs of the students again we had zero uh for that one as an area of recognition um so those are good numbers there I've noticed improvements in instructional Effectiveness as a result of participating in PD there you know is is our area of growth I think sometimes I think as as uh professionals we may not see what the long outcome the outcome is in the long run um but I think a lot of the stuff even that Dr bro was talking about for the people that I know that I evaluate that are doing reflective intelligence have found it to be very reward rewarding because now we're actually getting to the phase of what we're doing more in the classroom uh which has been great but again it depends on what the person you know chooses and again going in the long run obviously when you do more of it you see more of a meaning for it or meaningful parents teaching and learning I feel satisfied with my child's academics performance the school year one parent and by the way there's 83 U parents that responded not a large number but of those 83 one said never um I think we had and as you can see we had higher numbers for uh often and always I feel welcome to participate in my child's education this one is a tough one for me I talked to my administrative team like we talk about um what does that really mean when we say what to welcome to participate in my child's education obviously we have conference time um they can set set of meetings uh with staff members or uh with with certain teachers or with team team of teachers um I think sometimes their perception is maybe that they're that uh we may not be reaching out to them to participate as much um I don't I don't know the exact uh reason behind it um but it's something obviously I think in an area that we want to try to to look into and and what does that mean to participate does it mean to more about their grades is it about the social emotional um so it's it's all dependent school safety this I like even though there's one I don't like there is one that says never but my child feels safe while in school as you can see a large number feel often or always I feel well informed about the school's policy and procedures uh five that said never um honestly this one was one of those on we talked about we do have a handbook at the beginning with all with the the the the different guidelines we have and the policies and procedures um feel well informed you know maybe it's because they the people that put never or sometimes feel that maybe we haven't uh had enough conversation about that I I don't know um but again I I can understand where someone might feel that way or didn't like I I I think sometimes I look at it as I feel well informed that they don't uh may not like the outcome that came of it um but again I think difference between well informed you're informed of it you may not like the response I I I'm not sure of that but again I think that's something an area that we need to work on parent involvement I feel comfortable reaching out to teachers and administrators with questions only one person said uh never again the larger numbers are within often and always which again is is a great thing opportunities to participate in school decision- making Pro processes uh relevant to my child uh never was that's the largest never that we had was eight parents felt that they weren't able to participate in decision- making I think that may be more towards a student that may need one of our special education students or medor reading students I'm not exactly sure um and or it could be we don't have many options for Choice meaning when you get to high school you have those different areas that you can go into as a middle school we don't necessarily have those besides our specials uh classes that we have and then as as Mark stated and Dave will be doing also we talked about actions for growth uh I talked about attending the Ws School climate uh committee meetings I do that uh when we have the our meetings create opportunities uh myself and also our administrative staff create opportunities for socialization I really feel that that is a real um big key this year for us and develop non-academic relationships with students again the amount of uh one of my sixth grade teachers today was talking about one of the web leaders every time she says he sees me in no hallway he's like Miss Campbell like and gets excited to see like that's a relationship that would have never happened um if if this wasn't a part of what we were doing with our um with our different types of that that is actually a web but also with our unplug hour obviously all these surveys that we're talking about continue to administer those at the end of the year meeting with student council like I talked about before and again giving this new survey feedback to them and and get their ideas because obviously they're the ones that are answering and we had such a large number of answerers which was great and some of the areas that they had picked which was pretty interesting we asked him one of the aspects that we could change um to make a better more of a better experience at whis here and I don't I don't have the number exactly but I would say probably a hundred of them were let us unban cell phones give us cell phones again let us have cell phones on our free time you know or or longer lunch and longer recess um which I get that would have been me too probably um but um again these are really it's it's interesting to get some feedback from the students to see what they're thinking in those areas this is this is on me uh something that we talked about schedule opportunity for parents to come in uh to WMS for informative workshops we had plan to do one in the fall in the spring the fall didn't happen so uh as we talking this addition meaning that we are still that's something that we are we were interested in doing like we did last year with the uh parent Workshop uh explore students and oh then I just put two here for now but obviously there's some more based on our our survey data but I'm thinking about exploring with students and staff what can we do for students to feel empowered to help in stopping those challenging behaviors in other students like what can we do to help students get the the verbiage to like what to say um you know uh I've had many conversations with parents over the years and students about what we can do in those in those in those times um but again it's hard when I'm sitting at a table and these things are happening for me to stick up and say something because I'm afraid that they may turn around and then do something back to me um so that's something I think you know we need to explore and also explore with staff on ways that we can check in with students more often to see if they understand what is being taught and again not that we don't do that I don't want people think we don't do that um but just other ways to find that each kid has I guess a voice in that and as much as you can um during a class time I did an observation today and the teacher was fantastic every single kid spoke at least once during that class and they had students and as they were um happened to be a Spanish class but as they were um as a teacher we called it speed dating they were going from uh conversational with students and then they'd move over to the next one and one of the kids says this speak dating kind of like that I guess um but um just little things like that and she had a chart and she was going around and checking that conversation that students were having so again those little things in those little areas and I also have likened it to with my staff before about just that L those little comments just that one time when I go over to and and whether I say are you okay or whether I help the student depends on what it is that student may feel that that you're you know you're checking it out again it all depends on the the student any questions I brought these up for just a quick one um is there a PTO as is there a PTO at whiskin yeah Y and Is the participation any better than I know pretty good ours is pretty good um definitely better than rebea works so hard ours is pretty good and I have to say now that you just said that if your your students came home today and talked about the assembly we had today I will be posting some pictures on that and also be my next newsletter um Mr Napoli who is in for um m buckton who was our DEA students um he he had this assembly at a school that he had worked at in the past and he brought it in it was like a game show well we knew the sixth graders would love I I don't know about eighth grade it all depends oh my gosh the eighth grade coming out of there one of the students I heard him say this is the best assembly we ever had it was all like game show like trivia um Simon says uh tug Wars um on scooters like all different things and the kids had an absolute blast and that's something for that the PTO has been really gracious about um you know giving us for the students so ask your students tonight when you go home they like awesome we will thank you thank you questions good Dr P coming up great you'll notice that Mr B all set out for Dean remember when Mr Banda was done with his presentation he pulled up yours remember [Music] that I got caught up there's no questions I wonder run who's thinking about the pictures on the assembly all right so thank you I once again my voice is is ding I have a three Elementary Boys in southberry so when you couple those germs with the germ The Candlewood my house is the perfect storm so if I start to talk in a whisper I'm going to have Mr band that come up perhaps but hopefully we won't do that let's see all right so first uh just to review the school approvement plan this year uh we the staff climate surveys of course we're going out uh midy year end a year we did our class coins reward system for students uh when they're caught showing pause pause is our little acronym for practice kindness act responsibly work hard and stay safe that's in all areas of the building uh when Mrs Gordon does assemblies a lot of time she'll have a pocket full of coins and kids are all excited as she throw the coins uh once they fill the jar in the main office we do the rewards uh so we've had a PJ Day movie day board games uh and bonus recesses so that's been awesome uh for you know kids getting excited and really showing their pause on a daily basis uh we have 100% of our staff using parents Square uh for community communication sent home we do the class connects which is my newsletter to staff every 6 days all the important highlights to improve the communication and then every PC block is attended by administrators and each grade level has a PLC block once every six days so for the student survey we had 498 students who responded 477 completed those uh this is grades three four and five who did it the perception of school I understand School expectations only 1% those seven students that was our lowest never which is nice to say of course we want our students to know what our expectations are and understand them I have fun during school assemblies was our highest never so there's 28 kids who who never have fun in an assembly and it's not granted we have over the 400 but that come on our our assemblies are fun so I but to the 28th are not so I would love to not that I who said that but I I i' like to you know we're still going through the 478 comments so maybe some of those comments are actually going to say well this particular assembly didn't wasn't the greatest ever I will say we had one today from a dentist and it was awesome kids were laughing and loving it so I would be hardpressed you know maybe we should have had that assembly before they did the survey perception of personal and school safety students are nice to teachers so only five of my students felt that they were never nice to our teachers so I'm glad that students feel like they are nice to our teach teachers as they should be uh our highest never I have a trusted adult other than one of my teachers I can go to with a problem so we have 37 students uh which higher than I want of course uh but when you think about it in fifth when they think other than my teachers you know in fifth grade and and with their specialist teachers there's a lot of teachers so really other than their teachers well they know that they can come to the admin or they can come to some of our mental health staff so even though we we' like to see that never number reduced uh the fact that you know we have this sometimes often or always that they they do feel at least they have the teacher and there is somebody else they can go to uh with the problem the perception of personal school safety my teachers want all of their students to do a good job learning so it it says 0% but there still have one student that said never so are you no uh but it's I think at 87% always so it really shows the students that they resp the teachers are are doing their thing and just doing a great job with their kids area for growth my teachers ask me if I understand the schoolwork so there were 40 kids uh who say that my teachers never ask me if I understand the school work so again that's something to consider but in the big picture you know that means that I've got you know the 24% 30% 38% the nice high number that teachers are asking if you understand the school work but again always the it's always cause for H why why do those 40 kids feel that way for the staff survey we had 78 responded uh 78 completed perception of school the relationship between students and teachers is good so that was our best never with 0% but it's definitely worth mentioning uh even though it wasn't our highest rating there was one response that said they're never happy to be in school so there's I am happy to be or generally happy to be in school there's only one person but that wasn't my highest number so I didn't include it there's also one person who said uh that never that teachers are trusted to teach in the way they think is best so maybe it's the same person I don't know but still it's pretty good but it wasn't our best never but I feel it was worth mentioning my input is solicited andalu in school decision-making processes we have the 26 NE uh that's not okay uh it's a high number but again is that teachers is that parz is that my secretary like who and I know it has to be anonymous so we can't really say my role in the school is because but it's I want to know like who who is feeling this way perceptional personal and school safety I am aware and can navigate the school safety policies and procedures that's great that only two people can never do that uh that better not be my classroom teachers who are saying that protocols and procedures for reporting safety related concerns are effective there's 11 staff who said never so again that's worth exploring like what is it uh about the reporting that you don't find effective perception of learning the current curriculum is conducive to providing a comprehensive education to the students only two said never uh I think that really speaks to our CA and IM and it's both really good program I've noticed improvements in instructional Effectiveness as a result of participating in PD uh I think that was also Deans I can't recall if it was marks as well but that's that was my highest number at 14 our parents we had 145 who responded 120 completed for teaching and learning teachers are well qualified and knowledgeable in their subject areas only one parent uh felt never the school provides adquate support for my child's learning needs would be my highest uh with the 10 being never Shameless plug for that additional math interventionist school safety my child feel safe while in school zero I know you had one Mr Renda but ours is zero not that it's a competition I'm satisfied with the school's handling of unkind student Behavior there were 10 that say nether uh again like who who was that is that was that 10 people who didn't like that we work too hard on their child for the way that we handled that child on Behavior again we don't know communication parents involvement communication methods used by the school are effective only one person said never uh so you know kodos to parent square and I think it's a really nice convenient tool that we're all using I have opportunities to participate in school decision-making process is relevant to my child 18 said never uh I I will say I'm not happy that 18 feel that way but again worth exploring like what what particular decision-making processes are those 18 people interested in being a part of uh we look at PTO I think my PTO meetings are much better attended than middle and high school but that's just the nature of Elementary School parents are still want and kids want their parents to be in there so the actions for growth uh the greens our continuation I we will continue uh to with our weekly PLC grade level meetings uh attending them for admin uh we will continue to monitor Cubs clubs class coins in our pause lessons and we will administer the end of the year climate survey for student staff and parents we're going to modify the protocols for reporting safety related concerns as we review those uh with my Sr and our Safety Committee and then in my pink uh establish a class advisory Council that meets monthly to review the policies and procedures share concerns and plan for remediation if necessary uh the two climate coordinators have already solicited starting to fade have Al uh have begun that process and they solicited members for the climate it's a really nice balance we have classroom teachers we have mental health staff uh and app Paris who who are going to be part of the class advisory Council that will meet with me monthly and the other admins we initiated a class virtual suggestion box uh it's a Google form for anonymous feedback so every time that the class connects come out every six days there's a link uh totally Anonymous uh and it's basically it's a glows and grows what's going well and what's not going well um we're going to create a disciplinary referral form one that's a little more user friendly uh I know our climate coordinator is actually looking at uh this form that you can check the box and then as soon as you do the disciplinary referral it's either a disciplinary referral that they would like the parents to know about the behavior or they can click a box if it needs to go to the administration level and it'll immediately be emailed to uh the three admin once we complete that form and click it'll generate something that goes back to the teacher so the communication is always going to be in the link in the loop solicit staff parent input for decision- making when appropriate uh I already have a scheduling committee lined up for next year and I think what's really important is that it's comprised of the my teaching staff no admins on the committee it's like you I'll touch base with them of course uh monthly what what can I do what can I do support you do you want to go to a site visit uh and the end goal is that they're going to come up with two to three different schedules that we'll put before the staff uh so it's going to be staff are going to select what our schedule looks like next year fourth and fifth grade uh for teaming and teaching assignments teachers were solicited it's what is your preference what do you want that to look like next year so every teacher fourth and fifth grade got that voice and then we're going to send out a parent survey just to just get some feedback on engagement opportunities what would parents like to see more what would get you more into the school uh what types of decision-making process do you want to be involved in uh to hone in on that area and then we're going to audit our current disciplinary procedures uh to look at uh the way that we're you know why is it that we have that high number of never for we handle the mean Behavior adequately so we'll be doing that as well questions thank you sorry how many parents took the survey uh I think it was 145 145 oh 120 finished 120 finished 145 okay thank you sure and related to that could two parents take it from the same household if they have two different emails uh as long as long as if you had the link if you have a Google account so if Mom and Dad had separate Google accounts be able to take it with that link yep you can only take it one time per Google account yes so just as a reminder in terms of Cs um Dave I think you said 78 teachers or 71 finished the uh something like that um there's or staff I should say there's there's 200 staff at CS as we know it's a large school we have 1100 students just over 1100 students so half the students almost all of half the students three four and five did take the uh so it was a great turnout on the students um okay on the parents and uh you know maybe 25% of the um of the staff shout out to the WMS staff who took it at a really really high rate the staff at WMS took it at a really high high rate what was interesting on that though we had the most staff come to the listening sessions at CS so that was that was interesting to kind of look at those things thank you gentlemen very much for that yeah thank you very much um so uh before we move to Old business I know that I um had uh contacted each of you um individually to say that I U might act to add an agenda item um but and in um thinking more about that it's it's not necessary but I do want to give you a quick update and this sort of Segways into Old business because it's about um it's about voting in the schools and what that's going to look like like we took a vote in our January meeting right January meeting M um and uh uh but we we need to talk with other important bodies in the town about what that's going to look like so um that's what I wanted the motion to be like that we wouldn't take any action until we talk to the town and maybe the registar um but then there there's no we don't have any action planned for that so um the town somebody from the uh Board of Selectmen is going to come to the um to our next meeting and maybe we can get a register in here because we we need to have a more complete conversation about what this is going to look like because there are a lot of groups involved so anyway that's what I had wanted to say um and uh you'll have everybody will have a chance for a really good discussion on the 5th all right so moving to Old business um first item is about the uh next year program of studies I move that the board approve the edited clarification page five for the 2025 2026 program of studies as discussed and recommended by the cape subcommittee at its meeting on February 12th 2025 so we have a motion on the floor uh that's been seconded to approve the edits um to page five this is uh Joy reference this earlier about a minimum graduation requirements and just sort of a reclassification of one of the credits um so is there any discussion on this I would like to hear uh Mr Belinda's summary of it sure uh so uh Joy summarized it pretty well uh in terms of what uh the disc discussion was at Cape uh essentially there were some questions about um if we were going to be pigeon holing by saying the master based uh um diploma assessment was that one credit taking it and putting it in uh career and life skills which is where it was moved uh to career and life skills which includes courses like business um academic support um PE um and all those other types of courses from that perspective uh there was a question would it affect the enrollment in business courses in particular that was like a big a pretty large part of the conversation um because kids would be forced to take that um the reason that it was put in there was because in my mind when I made the decision to make that move it was Master based diploma assessment makes the most sense to be in career and life skills like making that um that being said putting it as a general elective that kids can take and typically kids are going to take uh two different half semester courses um it does open it up right so if kids chose to take um something outside of that particular cluster area it does give them some freedom of choice so um it's a little more than just semantics like because it really does it actually opens it up more for kids to have freedom of choice so uh that's why at the cape committee we had the discussion and you know it made sense to open it up so kids can have that that freedom to choose something else and there maybe there's something else in another department and they're not limited to just life skills career and life skills so that was the discussion and then eventually you said didn't you say that you were hoping this would become like a the portrait of the learner thank you yes absolutely so as we explore portrait of the learner and I know uh Dr BR talked about that a little bit as we doing some of these walkthroughs with portra the learner down the road what we'd like to get to eventually is some sort of um official project assessment that can incorporate that and and be able to that counts as a credit because that is really truly what we want kids to be able to do to demonstrate their learning over the course of many years progress towards the portrait to learner that is a great way to do it we don't have it yet so this is a good way to to to kind of fill that at this point not taking anything away from kids and they get they get actually more Choice okay Aaron did you have a question I don't think so I did not okay do you guys feel like you're ready to move to a vote okay so we have the motion on the floor to approve this edited clarification in the program of studies um Ain uh are you ready to vote y okay uh and what is your vote I Stephanie hi Rosa hi Joy hi Sarah hi Rob hi and I'm I as well so that's uh unanimous vote on um the change to the program of studies and thank you Mr Blanda very much okay so uh the final um bit of old business has to do with the um with our budget so uh who has something they would like to say about um the budget um I can add an a little bit of an update our our budget approval process has obviously been tweaked a little bit we were supposed to have a tri board meeting and then bunch of scheduling issues happen so um the tri board meeting is not going to happen but instead we will we will meet with the board of Selectmen first um that is actually tomorrow night um at 4:30 4:30 in the right here in the BHS Library Town Hall 209 okay yeah um and then we'll meet with the board of Finance in March I think it's is that March Monday March 3rd so it's we we've been doing the joint meeting for probably eight years now so it's just going back to the way it used to be you know go to board of selectman then go to board of Hope just for yeah maybe it's just an anomaly this year because of the uh scheduling issues right but uh yeah is there I don't have anything else really um just so you guys can hear it now um the the board of Selectmen um well I I think the budget could be uh sorry the presentation could be more truncated tomorrow because they have some specific uh topics they want to discuss so um I'll sort of accordion pleat down okay my portion of it and then and then we'll be able to talk numbers okay okay did they put did the board put something out how much they're reducing their budget by um so yes uh I think it's it's recommended about 170 net 170 less they're putting more Steve's recommending to put more money in to cover the increase in the uh health insurance cost that recently came in oh so the gross the budget is actually increased but it's a net reduction to programming or Staffing we have to take a look at because we're going to have to find $170,000 balance to cover that insurance okay so we're going to have to dig in and look at that which is what makes any pressure that we or any that we can do relative to the excess cost Grant makes it more um uh important are there other questions about the budget Ain did you have a question about the budget I do not okay all right so uh can we move on then yep all right let's do it uh so Stephanie with all of this what um comes to mind for you for the three main points of this evening's meeting um I think the grad date discussion and pushing the decision so that we can get that word out um the school climate update and I was thinking the program of studies update because it's kind of a significant change um interesting way that we're re classifying that yep those could work um for the three main points when you write it up uh about the the um graduation date could you please mention that that um Mr Bland will be sent sending out something to senior parents and so if they have an opinion it's really important that they um make their opinion known I think that'll go to students and parents separately be interesting I think that's what Mr BL was talking about oh okay on so are we all good with that for the okay so we we didn't have anybody sign up for second public comment um so what about upcoming events um I do not currently have any because I was on vacation and I sent that email out too late so I apologize I will have them all for March and April in two weeks okay so um uh that I I I'm not sure but I think that is going to conclude um the uh public session because um I'm going to move that we enter uh executive session um we have several items here um so I'm going to um go through the motion or we will will go through the motion and then um see if if uh we'll then act accordingly yeah then we'll vote okay so um actually Stephanie would you do the honors what would you like me [Music] to okay I recommend that the board enter into executive session for the purposes of one discussion regarding attorney client privileged communication regarding board complaint and board policy 13312 number two discussion regarding attorney client privileged communication regarding correspondence from the teachers union three discussion regarding performance of a board member four discussion and possible action regarding board complaint I will second that motion okay so I have a question yes um I don't know if Peter can speak to it or what does the 1312 qualify for executive session like who the thir the 1312 why does that qualify for executive session not so for the people who are here this is um Attorney Peter Mah he's the board's attorney hi Peter up it's on on okay so I don't want to give legal advice an open session but the the entirety of the memorandum with the legal advice would qualify for the privilege to go into executive session because I'm just used to typically like any 13 12s that come in we've done it publicly during the regular agenda so the the purpose of my memorandum is for me to give advice about the about the issue not adjudicate the underlying complaint okay who contacted you for legal regarding I wouldn't want to do this in an open session yeah any other questions okay but um actually you you will answer all of these all our questions in executive session correct yeah the memorandum okay awesome okay so we have a we have a motion on the floor and we have a second um is there other discussion okay Aon do you feel ready uh to vote on this Aon are you with [Music] us can you tell you what I'm gonna I'm gonna um it's just really hard because I didn't hear anything that was going on it's all muffled so I'm really not even sure what was discussed are you did you hear the um the motion yeah I heard the motion but none of the discussion so so the the um summary of the discussion is that um uh Pete Mah said that um he has legal memoranda to share with us in executive session and he he wasn't going to answer um some questions about the discussion in open session so that's that's pretty much the gist so um I'm going to uh ask you if you are um if you will uh vote to enter into executive session so what do you say yeah I guess okay Stephanie's that that's an hi uh Rosa hi Joy hi Sarah uh Rob hi and I'm I as well so we are 70 to enter executive session thank you everyone for attending um this concludes our the public portion of our meeting have a good night and D Aon I'm going to hang up and we're going to Redial you from the other room okay thank [Music] you so it is 9:54 [Music]

e e e Ain will you read the land Heritage statement yes I acknowledge that the land the city of an arbor occup is the ancestral traditional and contemporary lands of the Anish shab including Odawa oju and Bame and wi do peoples I further acknowledge that our city stands like almost all property in the United States on lands obtained generally in unconscionable ways from indigenous peoples The Taking of this land 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 will you do the roll call yes Vice chair Brown um here in Ann Arbor council member Cornell hereward five Ann Arbor H chairperson Curtis here an arbor commissioner Dale here and an arbor M Graham council member Malik here calling from Ward to an an arbor about two minutes from home and I'll be on video soon thanks guys thanks commissioner Marson I'm here in an arbor um commissioner wki believe is absent commissioner Mitchell here in an aror commissioner NRI absent commissioner peterswood Ur an arbor commissioner Smith here an arbor and commissioner weing you're an arbor well thank you that's great thanks uh does anyone want to make changes to tonight's agenda if not is there a motion to approve the agenda by Hank seconded by Anya is there a vote on the agenda if everybody approves it raise your hand say I I I okay uh does anybody want to make changes to last month's meeting minutes is there a motion to approve it by Rita seconded by Jen okay all in favor of approval of the minutes raise your hand say I I looks like a quorum okay uh next item of business is public comment this is an opportunity for people to speak up to three minutes please call 888- 78899 and our meeting ID 954 3473 9065 to raise your hand press 9 to unmute press start six City staff will select callers who raise their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number when speaking please move to a quiet area state your name and address at the beginning of your comments there may be a delay up to 30 seconds before connection is established Aaron do we have any callers no callers okay uh we don't have any unfinished business so next will be new business we have Susan briyan here to talk about was County rain Gardens thank so much um do you mind if I share my screen is that yes please I actually all right I actually I think I made some changes since um I gave it to you Erin so great see all right um I'm so glad to speak to you all I am thrilled to be here actually because I feel like a lot of my work uh fits in exactly with what you all are interested in and I'm um thrilled to be in amongst people who are working hard for the environment um as I have many more slides than really this amount of time is necess should be necessary in this amount of time um so I'd love for as I'm going through if you have questions and we want to like hesitate and talk about a particular topic more and then something you're not as interested in we can just Breeze right through so um yeah so feel free to ask questions don't don't feel like you need to wait until the end uh so I run I work for the washon County water resources commissioner's office and I run the rain Garden program which focuses on residential rain Gardens so getting the people um who live in in Arbor to build a rain garden and it's really a program built on um a Behavior change and for the social good so any like a lot of these programs are in like public health or something like that like smoking sensation or um uh anything like that in public health but this is the Environmental side of that getting people to do something good that will benefit everyone so it's really crowdsourcing rain Gardens getting everyone to do it so that uh government doesn't have to do as much of it that would be very expensive so I work for um Washington County water resources commissioner's office which in my entire 15 year of working there an announc when someone's Introducing Me they've only said it correct once because it's a mouthful um but we are an unit of local government and uh we have our own elected commissioner which is now gret and Drisco and we are in charge of uh flooding water quality we are have jurisdiction over County drains and not all waterways are County drains but the ones that do we have authority to assess in those watersheds so that we can maintain those drains and this has gone this goes back you know more than a hundred years when Farmers needed um to to manage their drainage and so we're the government entity that does that uh so my the part of um our responsibilities that I'm uh in is green infrastructure and Rain Garden are a part of green infrastructure and what green infrastructure does is it slows down storm water soaks it into the ground and cools it down and this could be small um pieces like the this is on Miller Avenue the picture on the left a rain Garden that captures storm water from the street or it could be a large um area like in Mary Beth Doyle Park where we're capturing a lot of water and really helping with flooding Downstream uh so there's many benefits cleaner water recharges the groundwater cleaner air just because there's more plants more trees reduced Urban temperatures and then also Community benefits like these folks are volunteering in a rain garden and I try to provide a lot of community building in my programs okay so Ann Arbor and Wason County we partner quite a bit in this green infrastructure world and um that City B Arbor storm water utility fee provides funding uh so that my county unit of County government can run many things but the ones that I'm involved on are the master rain Garder class um we give individual consultations to Residents about rain Gardens so tell your friends it's free um we'll come out and meet with them in their yard give them advice strategize about how to fix their drainage issues and build a rain garden and then also we uh administer the maintenance of many public rain Gardens all of the an arbor public rain Gard s are administered by my colleague Katie Whitey and it's fascinating you should have her come out and speak to you as well she's great um and then also she wanted me to mention that we have a program called Community Partners for clean streams and that's a program for businesses where we help them um plan their uh pollution prevention plans and then also we will even provide a free rain garden design for them that they can then build we have a small Grant as well if they want to uh uh apply for that and so they can build rain Gardens and build more storm water infrastructure okay so today this is what I was thinking we could talk about but feel free to ask questions or if you want to hesitate or talk more about one of these topics feel free or I can skim through that's also an option um I thought I'd tell you what my program objective is um I think uh just you know what what is the goal that we're trying to do what are some of the results I was able to partner with u ofm uh School of information uh recently for some kind of cool analysis I touch a little bit on is this Equitable I think it's interesting topic it's not necessarily um the end all BL analysis of that but I I've been looking at Maps recently and then I this is what I think about a lot is what stops people from building a rain Garden or or if you want to apply this to other subject matters what stops people from you know doing what um doing some environmental Behavior what stopping them um and then what is the benefit that they perceive that might be motivating them um and then how the program elements of what I offer sort of fit in with those needs there will be lots of photos of beautiful gardens and then actually I would love to hear your suggestions and comments because I know many of you have participated in some of my programs and if you have elements or things that you would love to see me do I this is my winter planning time and I'd like to hear from if you have brainstorms or um needs that you think the community has that I should address okay so this is my geeky um nerdy uh program goal which is to make it's full of jargon um vegetative infiltration the norm for landscaping practices in Wasing County so every time a homeowner is talking to a landscaper they're like oh well where should we put the water shouldn't we soak it in where should we put the rain Garden that that is just the normal way that people think about their own yard and how their yard should function so more specifically my goal is get rain Gardens built so that is the overarching goal that I'm always thinking about how to make that happen um it is also Aster part of our ms4 uh storm water wallet quality our storm water permit with the state um that is administered by eagle so we report out to them about our public agent public education and Outreach and then also our implementation of those [Music] practices oh also um the an arbor and I'll touch on this a little bit an does have an ordinance for if people are building a new building or are increasing their impervious surface through roofs or new pavement or anything like that they do require new either rain Garden or a dry while but most of what I do and I love it when those people ask me questions because I want to give them advice but most of my program focuses on voluntary action uh Erin mentioned that you all are interested in biodiversity and water quality and that's in everything that happens here embedded okay so this is all retrofits because an arbor is substantially built out and there's no more room to put rain Gardens except for in people's yards or in Parks or in areas that are already green um so lots of people building rain Gardens in their yards because there's all that opportunity when you look at this um map actually there's all those little yards every one of those people could have a rain Garden um and so encouraging people to do that last year this is 2024 just made this count 89 people built their rain Gardens through our program and then also I always you know sort of highlight those are people individuals residential people that I've trained to build their rain Garden but also landscapers that we have trained through the program built 53 so training landscapers is also a wonderful way to get lots of um rain Gardens built they're both doing their part now after 15 years it's um over 2,000 rain Gardens built which when I present this in front of other municipalities even much larger municipalities they're astounded by this number um because of the amazing residents of Hann Arbor who've done an amazing job I've taught other communities mostly in Ohio to teach the master rang Gardener class because it's such a great model um people build their rain Gardens and they maintain them over time it's a wonderful way to get infrastructure into the ground and um interestingly the um conservation districts in Ohio have a really good funding mechanism where they get matched by their state organization so that's why they've been able to um afford to be able to learn to do a new program so for the first time ever Ohio and Michigan both building rangu okay I can't hear you laughing but I'm sure you are all right um let me move this so I can see uh okay so I think most of you know what a rain Garden is some of you I know have built one because I've seen them that be built uh but just so we're all on the same page uh this is a rain Garden this rain Garden is off of um plat and Bess and it was one of our very very early rain Gardens uh built by Denise held so here's one example and you might recognize this sign I'm sure who most people have seen the signs around town right they're all over uh I also just wanted to go through quickly some slides that show the building of a rain Garden because it's no small task there's a lot of digging uh people can use a tractor if they want to if they have one um but there's always digging involved this is a an rain Garden on Pine Tree just north of Miller and this one's a little fancier because it has that front um retainer wall but just so we can get a moment of how much work this is we're talking about here this is a before picture and the yard was a little bit ripped up he had to replace um a pipe so the yard was already kind of mucked up and he said okay I think I'll um build a rain Garden here also if you can see right here the concrete is all broken up because the water from this down spout would go onto the driveway and just create a huge sheet of ice so he wanted to solve that problem oops okay this is all just Photoshop um so in order to do that they needed to break up some concrete um they started getting like the teenagers of the households had to get involved because they needed a little bit more muscle the trench for the pipe for the water to go to the Rain Garden it rained a few times while they were doing that there's laying the pipe rebuilding the porch now that the pipe goes underneath building the little retaining wall and not all rain Gardens have rebuilt porches and retaining walls but you know sometimes you run into these things more digging this ringer has two stepped pools no three three stepped pools and that's kind of that's like high level rain Garden building right there and then planted yay all done I I feel like this is the moment when I need to tell people you've done a great job because those pants plants are so tiny and they're like wait what done here but it all grows and it blooms and it ends up being beautiful actually often I will bring um a tour group in to see this rain Garden every year we visit the same rain garden and the homeowner now it's a new person the old person who built the rain Garden moved it's a new person and he comes out and he always says okay which one which weeds should I pull and there's usually like two he's really takes a really good care of this rain Garden um so that's what I count is what that you know someone did that whole process all that digging that's what I count is that's one one rain garden and you know a lot of people end up doing it okay so this is the sort of this is me counting rain Gardens um back in 2006 we got a back it used to be called the mdeq grant um to fund 20 rain Gardens and so we funded and helped 20 people in an arbor build rain Gardens and then we were sort of like internally funded for a little bit bit where we designed rain Gardens for residences this is back in the early days when it was pretty um unusual and also we were learning as a staff to how to build a rain Garden uh in 2011 that was the first Master rain Garder class that I taught in person and then in 2015 uh we received a grant to put the class online this is before the pandemic so it was a big deal and it uh put us in good situation to actually have uh programs during the pandemic so I think it's interesting to look at look 2020 oh people gardened people really gardened that year and then the next year it's like the pandemic hangover no one guarded and then we're back up to like normal 90s um these are this so that's the whole County this is just an arbor and I think it's interesting to see that um once we offered the online class the numbers went way up so that's that's pretty interesting and then this next slide this is it really just look at the total out of our 2,100 rain Gardens 1,400 of them are in an arbor so an arbor is the bulk of the rain Gardens that we do now um I have a map of all those rain Gardens I've been able to take all those photos and put all those um rain Gardens on to a map and it's pretty interesting to see like how they're distributed around town um another thing to look at is how important the Anarbor utility fee is because look how all the rain Gardens are in an arbor outside not as much so yes so an arbor funding some of this program makes a big difference oh so this is the whole County so you can see how many rain Gardens are right in an arbor Lots in iilani actually um quite a few in Dexter I need to work on Chelsea that's my Chelsea and um myin are actually my next goals all right so um I like to think about um how rain Gardens can be free or low cost there's nothing that will change the fact that it takes quite a bit of energy and you need to have a shovel but um the there is the online class is free and On Demand if you want to watch the video and then do the homework and watch the video and do the homework anyone can do that and it's free I offer two plant swaps a year at The ipsan District Library and people bring their plants and they trade trade or just give away their plants to people who need plants um lots of people come from uh seeds to community with their extra plugs that they've grown up which is a wonderful program and they'll bring them to the swaps um also it's great that there's Municipal compost for free for residents and Chip drop so that people can build it for all you know very little money very modest but I thought it'd be interesting to look at um our our area our County and look at the we have an opportunity index that looks at um who has more opportunity when it comes to um job access and economic well-being and those sorts of um metrics and compare that to where people are building rain Gardens so this is just sort of a thought exercise so here's the whole County this is the opportunity index the um higher the wealthier areas are in dark blue and that goes to light blue and then to light pink and then dark pink is the least opportunity has the least access to opportunity so then I put my ring Garden map on top of that and you can it's a little bit hard to see um so I thought I'd zoom in and look at um I just looked at Southeast an arbor because it's kind of a mix of different um economic uh levels here's wash and then uh Packer just to orient you is right in here right there uh so I thought this was pretty this is just you know me analyzing my own program um that some of these areas like this is kind of interesting that this is the same neighborhood I feel like this is all the same but um just where the where people are building rank Gardens um and then just to kind of keep it real for myself I'm like okay well let me take some Zillow numbers and put it in there and what my sort of back of the napkin analysis is that the middle is who builds rain Gardens the middle is look at how dense it is in here those are you know people in just modest houses building rain Gardens I think people who live in apartments can't they just don't um and then people who live in these like really big lots and really expensive houses up here aren't doing it as much but when I think about all those contractors landscape contractors they're not on my map because just tell me how many I don't necessarily know where um so I think that's actually they could be doing better than it looks here so those are the contractor numbers those contractors are building rain Gardens okay so now a little bit more Behavior change part of it what's motivating people and what's stopping PE people and this is part of what I um the analysis that I do in my own uh program so basically I'm answering the question why should building a rain Garden rise to the top of people's priorities because there's a lot of other things they could be doing with their time um they could be exercising more they could invest their retirement money they could clean out their junk closet they could Vol you know they could do really important things like volunteering at their kids school or the thing that somehow always pops up in my social media like somehow uh my kitchen should be arranged in a rainbow or my closet you know like something like that these are things that are buying for our attention um why should a rain Garden rise to the top and by interviewing people and talking to people um which I do all the time these are some of the things that people view as the benefits um they're not all environmental reasons and that's okay sometimes we have to emphasize those non-environmental reasons um to make it happen and there are real reasons people love pollinators that's an environmental reason but ooh boy that's super um powerful but so is um having a purpose and meaningful work having something that you can do and complete and be proud of also the t-shirt liame is large so this is with the U of um M School of information they have an event called Deep dive and they're always looking for um data sets to look at if you ever need a data set looking um graft they are happy to do it uh this was who builds a rain Garden what kind of people build a rain garden and this is the first pass they said what level of gardener how skilled of a gardener are you interestingly intermediate and advanced I guess this is you would think um more likely to build a rank Garden whereas the beginners not as likely and that is that makes sense to me like okay those that's I should Target gardeners because they're just more likely to build a ring Garden this is interesting as well and maybe not as obvious uh of the people who end up building the rain Garden what were their original motivations for getting involved comparing those two things the people who actually end up building had some kind of problem that they wanted to fix like the ice puddle so they're a motivated person because they're fixing some kind of problem they have a deadline they get it done there's some miscellaneous answers and then as we go down the list personal reasons like um I want to see more Wildlife or not general knowledge so that's one two three four fifth down the list of seven is is the environment that's pretty interesting like hm okay so when we want people to do something good for the environment it's not always we don't have to always talk about the environment sometimes it's a little more nuan than that or sometimes it's um more it like just this is fun or this is something that can be very satisfying rather than um really emphasizing the environmental aspect of it I mentioned this briefly at the beginning but an arbor code does require A Rang Garden or a dryw if a homeowner is building a project that increases their impervious area on their property um when people were required to do this I love it when an arbor staff gives those folks our u a postcard that has like come make an appointment so that we can give them advice and they can do it correctly so that it turns into a beautiful rain Garden because it's a bummer when they do it wrong and then it fails and then that's not good for anyone so if you know anyone who's building a rain garden and they have to and they're complaining to you about it please send them to me I would love talk to them cuz we meet them in their yard we give them advice we'll do a little sketch um it's easy to make an appointment we have it all online where you could just you know book a time because everyone needs a little advice oh let's see okay I think I already that okay barriers what are the things that are stopping people this is pretty interesting when you talk to people about it we just did a survey um and number one actually was Labor like the the thing that surprised people at how difficult it was was the amount of digging like it's serious people with small children hardly ever build rain Gardens it's just too much work um and number two that confidence factor is huge because often they're building it in their front yard their neighbors are going to see it are they sure this is even going to work so these are the sorts of things that we address through our program um so the big thing that people have heard of is the master rain Garder class um that's how people get all those answers all their questions answered about how to build a rain Garden but we also do those visits um where we'll give people advice I offer garden tours during the summer so that people can see other people building rain Gardens they can ask them all sorts of questions you know if something's bugging them like I'm never really sure how do I get the water to it or you know they can flush out those aners with other people who have done it and then there's lots of opportunities for volunteer leadership because I feel like I'm only one person and I really need everyone else to go out and tell their friends otherwise we're not going to get many rain Gardens built so we'll give advice we have the master Ru in our class and then also opportunities to volunteer um I'm always having an iterative iterative process I mean trial and ER I mean iterative process um because I'm always learning from people and what they need and what and also the times change people um yeah what they what they how they use to design or what sort of materials they use to design their rain garden and then also just what they need ends up changing so that's one of the reasons why actually I don't I would love to hear your um perspective on what because you see it the program from afar and it's nice to have that kind of perspective I think Community is really important this is sort of the process where people you know they build a rain Garden they put up their sign they are leading by example and to be honest I used to be um president of the wild ones and we were always trying to get people to plant native plants this is the way lead by example by having a native plant garden with a rain Garden you encourage your neighbors to do it and then um support them make it easy conv and fun build community and then it's an iterative circular process okay here's your parade of beautiful gardens Lorie spr and Dexter Char tarazi this is in Wayne County actually she took the class and built it there Alicia Davis this was the number one picture actually of a garden in our survey it won Denise H you already saw this Garden uh Barb Tes hosted a a tour at her garden uh last year and then having that sign means that people know what it is otherwise no one would know it's rain Garden actually because the number one influence with what people do with their yards is what their neighbors do with their yards and then we also try to reduce barriers so getting PE getting the plants to people where do they buy plants it's the number one question we get so there's the that we we partner it's really run by the Conservation District but we help them um also seeds to community is a wonderful new program that where people grow up their seeds with winter sewing and that's free which is amazing I love it when the community get gets built through visiting other people's Gardens or we have a potluck every year and it's so important like this actually 2018 I'm serious I during class I forgot to sort of open with introductions look at that that's how you learn right there so those are all the services and then also um that map has turned into like a really wonderful reporting um tool so that we do have to report to Eagle and also it is I had the school of information do a user experience analysis on it and I was a little worried that people had to submit a photo maybe they wouldn't like their privacy um you know Disturbed like that but that was the part people loved the most so you can go into this map and feel free to go into it and um I can actually put in the chat the link to it um super fun you can like zoom in into your neighborhood and see photos of all the rain Gardens in your neighborhood or you know it's it's a good time some of the um reference material and that's all thank you so much for um inviting me and I'd love to have a conversation so Ann you get the first question thank you Susan that was a great presentation I'm actually one of the uh one of those early folks back in like I don't know like 20 you're one of the original 20 oh my goodness I don't think I'm one of the original 20 but like uh you know I had my rain Garden designed by Harry Sheen back back in the day and uh anyway um and I've maintained it and it's so that the sign is faded and broken and no longer there but and it's in my backyard so it's hard you know people have to know about it to come back there but um what I'm interested about the two things um first of all do you track uh fail rain Gardens and then the second one is my second question is are there any barriers within the city of Anna Arbor that um that uh an organization like a commission like ours U could Advocate to help fix oh interesting question um the first do I track failed rain Gardens um they they stick in my mind I can think but there's not that many um I I don't because when someone has a failed rain Garden um we will visit them and strategize with them to fix it so it gets fixed that said there's probably three or four that ultimately just didn't there is a limit but there's not very many but I actually maybe I should it would be interesting to see there's certain neighborhoods that I know the soils are very difficult um and I can think of like specific places that it was very very challenging but other people in those neighborhoods I still encourage them to put in a rain garden and it doesn't mean it doesn't work it just needs they it just means they need to have a functioning outlet and then you are there any barriers that you all should work on um in the city of an arbor no it's a great place to build rain Gardens there aren't any um people don't have to get a permit which is fantastic they can just Garden um I think that ad uh making it I think the staff already know to send people to us to get advice on when they're building their rain Gardens when they're required to um so that's working all right but if you know anyone who does have a garden that they built that is not working as well because usually because they dig it too deep then you should send them to us because we want to get it fixed are there any other berries that's really interesting I'm going to think about that an thank you so much for asking that Anya yeah um Susan thank you so much this is really I loved seeing all the photos and the maps and stuff um I I have a question so I know that there's opportunities to volunteer I wonder if there's something already in place to specifically go out and do some of the physical labor for in the communities where maybe people don't have that free time available to do it you know maybe they need it because of flooding in their basement and I understand there's a lot of sort of you know ways to get compost and wood chips and other things um for free or low cost but maybe they just don't really just don't have the time to do some of the physical labor is that is there like a something in place to help connect people who want to specifically go give their time to those neighborhoods there's not um if people take the master rainard our class in one of our live versions right now we're teaching it online live and we also have an in-person live class um if they're in one of those actual community building classes then we'll match people up like for instance in our class right now there's a young man who doesn't really have a spot to build his rain garden and he was saying does is anyone building their garden and needs help cuz I will help you know he's a young strong person he can do it but um so there's that informal way but there's no formal way uh for us to do that interestingly in Detroit they have a different model um rain Gardens to the rescue which is an amazing model it's not like mine is more scalable more um uh gets a lot of rain Gardens built their model is people in the class they also teach a class and then as a unit they go from house to house and build a rain Garden so by the end everyone's built a rain Garden but no one had to dig it all by themselves so that's another the mo other model is out there but we don't have someone either needs energy or they need money to hire it up Steve well thank you Susan that was spectacular um you know um um regarding the last question um there are like High School athletic teams that I know will do this kind of work for money you know yes and um and the other thing is um it would be nice to maybe Implement something like that Barn raising idea that they use in Detroit you know um in Seline at the Seline District Library on the North side there's a rain Garden um that was built by two Master rain gardeners they were the the mines behind it and then they hired the Seline crew team to dig it yeah and one of the Master Gardeners was a former um Marine so he worked those kids hard that worked really well good so I had I had two questions really and the first one is um what do you think um any what do you think can be done to encourage landlords to put in Rain Gardens because as you mentioned I mean there's really no ins Center for renters to do it Renters of houses build rain Gardens often like grad students so many grad students have taken the uh Master rang Gardener class and built the rain Garden for their for their landlord either their landlord reimburses them or they just do it you know at low cost um but apartment buildings I have not cracked that nut I don't think this is the right tool I've never succeeded in getting an apartment building to build a rain Garden not once well that's if anyone has ideas feel free to toss them out there even people like so a master rang Garden will take the class they're all excited they live in an apartment they'll try to get their apartment building no it's never worked I don't know so so my final question is that you know a couple years ago I was in on New Haven Conneticut and I was walking taking a walk outside the hotel and every couple of blocks they have a curb cut with a rain Garden installed in the sidewalk and yeah and um I know the city of Van Arbor at one point or maybe was the county drain commissioner put in some um something similar along Miller Avenue on that long uphill grade you know between I guess I guess it's new or 7th Avenue to Newport or something like that yeah and um but I I they don't seem to have any enthusiasm for continuing that I think it was because they weren't the uh they didn't get buyin from the local homeowners to do the maintenance so there's public grain Gardens along roads on Miller and Madison and um uh I'm forgetting the name of the oh stone school road so those three places are there are roadside rain Gardens that said and you should actually really have Katie come speak she takes care or she contracts out the maintenance of those rain Gardens um as well as a lot of rain Gardens in parks on city property city van Arbor property um who's that uh Katie YT Che is my colleague and I can share with Ain her contact information and so she has a pretty interesting analysis of like how much different kinds of rain Gardens cost to maintain and when there's small rain Gardens strung out on a ribbon like that it's pretty costly so that might be more the reason um that said people build rain Gardens that capture the the sidewalk water in their own little um easement now that we have a new um uh flood plane person I haven't asked Melissa if she's G to allow us to do that Jerry Hancock used to say yes and don't ask me again um but the I'm not positive like what Melissa's new take on that is but the larger rain Gardens in Parks they do capture a lot more water so I don't know it's kind of a cost benefit analysis but it would be interesting to hear what she has to say about that thank you Rita thank you um Susan that was great and inspiring and just at the right time of year um I um I have a bunch of questions so I'm going to try and go fast um one is a measurement one and I think this is may be unanswerable but what the heck um do you have a sense of the volume of rainwater that's managed by rain Gardens over a denominator of volume of storm water yeah let me um I do uh it's some Millions let me keep asking questions and I'll find for you great um is there a measurement of flooding that we can use to kind of maybe Focus some in or whatever to encourage people to develop their rain Gardians for flooding you know I have just been playing around with that idea and I'm gonna try to get our GIS folks to do an analysis of not the people who are being flooded often when I visit them they do not have enough room in their yard to capture all that water it's too late so what I want are the people Upstream who don't have a FL flooding problem to build rain Gardens So and I've had a lot of success in focusing on a particular neighborhood doing Outreach to a particular neighborhood and it creates excitement and it creates um Synergy that happens so if I knew which neighborhoods contribute to flooding then I could do that so that's one of my like pet projects actually all right so here maybe this can add to it um we've talked a lot in our biodiversity work group about pollinator Pathways and how to develop that I would say we haven't gotten to a point of like making any real recommendations but the kind of things that you're talking about especially any easement rain Gardens would be super but anytime there's a um contiguous space of neighbor's yard to neighbor's yard that's an opportunity for a pollinator pathway and the more pollinator space we can get the better in my opinion um oh yeah and you're talking about connected spaces yeah yeah so it kind of goes with that Barn raising concept and also you know the linear um connected spaces so that's that um and also I was thinking you know when you're you're um the guy who is slipping on his sidewalk right now we're all slipping around on sidewalks and I've noticed in particular just before this last snow some very interesting um pooling and icing patterns in my neighborhood that it feels like oh man what's happening is there a way to do prevention on that you know using those icing patterns on public sidewalks as indicators of where something could be applied and you know I don't know how about you know like we want to knock on doors or what whatever but it certainly would help in another way in that prevention way that you just mentioned oh I have ideas about this so number one I keep trying to get a photo because right now like there's you'll see like the sidewalk and there'll be a frozen puddle and I really need a good photo of that because I want to do a social media please do please do and send one to me um because I want to do a social media post that says like right here if there was a rain Garden there would be no ice here um and then if you want to this is the way that I have figured out that people will come to rain gardening if you want a particular person to is you don't actually talked to them you just put a postcard in their mailbox and then I think we've talked about this before and then um and then when they come to you and they see your rain Garden sign and they're like hey so I had this idea about a rain Garden do you know anything about that because you have this sign you can say oh yes I do here let me tell you all about it right cool yeah I like it um okay so I just have a comment on the I think you implied that the utility fee in an arbor might be a cause to kind of incentivize people to do rain Gardens and I'm sure that it does it does it does but I want to comment also on some of the other places that you identified have like the out in the county they tend to have bigger Yards More Green Space more natural infrastructure as same as like the Arbor Hills area of an arbor where there tend to be very large yards that probably either do it naturally or or have already had those installed um so just thought I'd comment on that oh you know one thing I'm so glad you mentioned this because I did not point this out is that people get a credit on their storm water fee if they build a rain Garden so they get some of that money returned to them so yeah so actually when people see that line item and it says you know storm water fee if they build a rain then they get a certain amount off and it's like $10 or something like that what if you put on could you get someone to put on that Fel line a a rain Garden rebate with in parentheses with the amount and if it's blank maybe that would get people to oh hey I'd like that right right right right I think the storm water fee though actually does incentivize people even though it's not that much money people are like yeah I want to get yes I want to do it okay have you and also so I'll let this be my last one oh no I've got another one really good um encouraging homeowner associations to um you know so it's not like landlords it's a different group um seems like those yeah I've given talks at quite a few homeowners association and to be honest the ones in an arbor are very open they love the idea people build rain Gardens is no problem but outside of an arbor like in South Lion sometimes that's a conflict but it's not it people here like to hear about it and it you know we can do an a activity with our homeowners association or you know something it's more Rah okay all right so my last one um this has to do with sidewalk design and I've noticed in my neighborhood that the during of heavy storm very often the water on the sidewalk Slants toward the street and just goes down the street and Into the Storm sewer and so I'm wondering about is going to be tricky but like this very slight slant could be directed possibly in some places to push water in in a direction that could support a sidewalk reain Guardian yeah yeah and that's sort of like subtle subtle grading is uh it it's so tiny that the it's good for the homeowner themselves to be like okay like it's the sidewalk cening this way so I should dig down this part right here and capture the water here like and in some ways it could just be invisible no one would even know that you built a rain Garden there and yeah yeah yeah that's it's kind of fun actually after people build their first rain Garden then sometimes often they start looking around they're like what other water could I capture what about the sidewalk yeah right okay thank you very much thanks Rita Olivia hi thanks Susan this is a great presentation um actually the same exact question as Steve about landlords um as a renter who's lived in a few different houses with landlords of varying you know rules about landscaping and I know the current place I'm at the the rule is like no changes to landscaping and I'm like chomping at the bit to put rain Garden um so I was just also curious about you know how you guys work with landlords and dealing with that because I know there's lots of young people who are not homeowners who would love to do some gardening um yeah yeah I um maybe it's because people talk to me who do have their landlord's permission but I'm thinking of one person on Liberty that she she's a PhD student and she built a rain garden and she ended up fixing it's you know one 100y old probably 120y old house house and the there was the drainage wasn't working you know with old houses sometimes it's gets all messed up and the drainage wasn't working so like there was water right next to the house and it was getting into the basement and like it was ruining the house and she told the rank the landlord what she was going to do that where she was going to fix all that by getting the water away from the house and build a rank Garden away from the house and he gave her all the money to do that I mean it was just raw material and she had free labor so um like that sort of thing will happen and I know when I rented my landlord wanted us to landscape but sometimes they don't and then yeah it's just Case by case yeah it sounds like actually you know someone to tell me who your is does your landlord own a bunch of houses or no it's a single house but I might email you because we actually have a lot of problems with water flooding into the basement because it's a an old house on the old west side oh so this sounds like an opportunity okay you'll have some ideas yeah yeah well we and I can talk and I give you a consultation about what the solution would be and if you want me to write you an email that says as we talked about this would fix your problem um then you could show that to your landlord and say oh this is you know something that we could do why don't you at least pay for the raw materials and I'll make it happen and then I've seen that work at least yeah I was thinking about um I forget who mentioned it earlier but like pairing people who wants to do labor with people who can't necessarily do labor and I wonder if there's an opportunity to connect with like older folks or people who just have physical limitations who you know wouldn't even think to go to a Master rain Gardner Workshop because it's like beyond their capabilities um and pairing them with someone who would want to do the physical labor for them um kind of similar to the Detroit model you were talking about where you know kind of like communities helping out their neighbors you know who can't do that that kind of work um because I know there's quite a few like elderly folks just on my street who you know have pretty big yards and they've lived in these houses for like decades um but at this point you know they're probably incapable of of such work but feel like maybe there's a large portion of you know older folks who when even think of this yeah it's an inter yeah I'll have to think about this more but how to actually yeah like bridge the gap right it's interesting yeah because there are definitely es actually often older people will take the master rain Gardener class because they love gardening and they're really interested but the actual implementation is you know do they really want to take on a big new project like that yeah yeah yeah but how to how to do it it's interesting yeah have to think about that more yeah maybe it's like connecting the young people who live in apartments with the old people who have houses that they they can't build the rain Garden right that's a good point okay I'm writing down thank you so much oliv you yeah thanks uh council member Malik thanks so much Susan for your presentation this was wonderful um I don't have a rain Garden myself yet um but I believe I might be on your list sered so I really have no excuse um I think I may be on your list serve from when I got a rain barrel two years ago perhaps um I don't know if those are the same list serves or not but um my question for you tonight and I'm sorry if you may be already touched on this I cut out and Miss part of your presentation when I switched from phone to laptop but um for houses that already have a rain Garden installed if they then sell their house to a new buyer is there any way for you to kind of you know provide resources to that new homeowner that now has a rain Garden but maybe has no idea what it is or you know uh to continue providing maintenance and upkeep because I'm I'm curious if you know houses turn over if rain Gardens kind of persist across owners um or if you have any data on that maybe already that's a really good question oh and you're making me realize we don't have a mechanism like if someone has a rain garden and then the property sells often that new person will Google us and find me and get a consultation which at which they ask us how do I maintain this rain Garden but there's not a formal mechanism and but I mean we know where the rain Gardens are so in theory we could make one that's interesting um yeah and actually sort of like new residents to an arbor even that group of people we would love to focus on them because often people will buy a new house and then get all ambitious about new projects so the both of those things but oh I'm gonna add that to my list of things to coordinate with an arbor with yeah that's a good idea like when the place because we don't necessarily share our map with the city van Arbor has their own map where people are getting their credit um and it's kind of two different Maps actually uh but we could do an a a mechanism where when that particular house sells they get a notification or I don't know yeah even if we just had the list we can send them a postcard that's a good idea I'm writing this down great thank you Olivia did you have another question or is your hand still up no sorry I always forget to lower my hand that's okay uh so Susan on the um slide that showed the Equitable area and it did look like the the upper third topend houses were behind and putting in Rain Gardens is there something we could do to motivate that segment of the population to start putting more in I know right um let's think of a way I think that um those are folks that are here we go um those are folks that are hiring someone else to work on their yard um so I wouldn't be surprised actually we did a news survey because I'm working with um uh University of Michigan School of information Capstone project student group and they did a survey and of and people answered like I don't remember exactly how they worded the economic strata um but many people said they were high income or moderately High income so I though that sort of contradicts what this map says and people the landscapers when they tell me how many rain Gardens they built last year they don't give me the addresses I haven't quite figured out how to like get them to fill out a form like that's just you know I'm lucky that they tell me how many they built um so I wouldn't be surprised if that's where those rain Gardens are going okay and one other question on this getting volunteers I I know the city has a snowbody program which you know building gra Gardens sounds like like snowbody but slightly different um and so somewhere in the city there might be a mechanism for that I don't know if maybe give 365 would be a good touch Point um because they they do have gardening in their their scope so that might be a place um and also I would think the conservation stewards program would have people a list of people that might be interested in helping out and some of them are in an arbor oh that's true yeahuh they could do that as their Capstone project uh council member Corell I'm so sorry that I've I've had my camera off because my cat will just not leave me alone not trying to be not at all trying to be unprofessional and Susan you know that I Susan's my neighbor she lives down the street yeah so I was gonna say this kind of the same thing that Brooks and Olivia suggested is that we have snow match in an arbor and this just feels like such a great opportunity to connect um people who are interested in understanding more about this and have the physical capabilities and the time even like I don't think that we need to bind it by um age or capability or whatnot but there are people I think who might be earnestly involved in this or interested in this and maybe you mentioned Susan you don't see you don't see people who have young children doing this you don't you know like there are a lot of barriers that seem that seem as so that if we could find the right way to find somebody who's interested in learning but doesn't have a job or a yard with somebody who does have a yard but doesn't have the time like I'm I I would be really interested in having a conversation with you around that and figuring out how can the city support that because we do have um models that seem to work well and maybe we who's the staff person that um runs snow match love to hear I don't know how it works behind the scenes I don't know but I will find out and I would love to have a conv with you offline because this feels like something that is such an easy thing to bring people together around not only like beautification of their yards but environment environmental sustainability and all of these things like I feel like we have the right resources and the right interest but maybe perhaps not the right match and so if if you want to talk about that offline I would I would absolutely love that I think it's such a cool idea and I appreciate that bricks and Olivia brought it up before because I was just one you were talking I was like that's why I don't do it I don't have time to do it right and so yeah anyway I I thought your presentation was great thank you so much for for the information that you provided and I I'm hugely supportive of finding a way to bridge that Gap that's let's talk I want to interject real quick on Jen's points and circling back it it's just it seems like a really good community building exercise like you know like hey this neighborhood do you guys like want to connect with others in your neighborhood who are interested in building rain Gardens and like get the conversation going like somehow encouraging conversations in in the neighborhoods and potentially just like organically creating those connections between people who can and can't have who had different capabilities you do um so a lot of the public rain Gardens especially the really high-profile ones that like along Miller um and along Madison are and the um the DDA those rain Gardens are people see them all the time they're part of you know the welcoming to Ann Arbor those kind of R rain Gardens they're not only do we hire um contractors but the people can volunteer to adopt a rain garden and because they give it a higher level of care because they're you know they're deadheading flowers and you know doing stuff like that and um how Katie runs it is she matches people so you don't you're not just out there toiling away pulling weeds by yourself you have a buddy and then you know maybe a group of people and people often make friends and you know it's a community building kind of a thing so that's that's worked out really well actually Chris gr hi everybody Susan how long have you been working on the rain garden stuff 10 years no oh well I just want to say what you've done here is legendary it's sought after by other communities it's truly outstanding and it's really a model for outreach um for us who have other things we are thinking about doing as well one idea that might be to bring recognition more recognition is to um invent a plaque that can go on buildings on houses um celebrating the installation of a rain Garden um it might carry on to the next owner and they'd Wonder well what does that mean and and they'd call you up or hopefully protect it better um I also have always been bothered by the relatively poultry amount of money that one gets a credit from from the city I understand the stormw waterer funds truly important but I also understand building these things is not inconsequential to Property Owners um especially if they hire it done um maybe there's room to do a little bit better about this I'm addressing those comments through a couple council members here um I just I'm so thankful that you came and you started doing this that the county really stepped up to all this and it was really support you all the way along it's uh really terrific thank you thanks for your kind words I don't know if you noticed in the uh um way back in this graph right here [Music] um you can see 2010 that was my first year with the county and I tried something different not this one and it did not work and Harry shean my boss said well what are you g to try next year so I have always been very thankful that he has uh let me experiment you know and try a few things see what works see what doesn't and you know different things work and then we keep just doing more of what works more of what works so thanks he's another extraordinary County employee you're fortunate to have such a great boss Steve yeah I just had one more thought and that is that um you know um back in 2019 or so there was a public announcement that the city had come to a consent decree with eagle about nutrient pollution to the hon River now I looked around and at some research papers and in the Upper Midwest it seems like roughly half of all the nutrient pollution comes from storm water and the other half comes from the wastewater treatment plant so this could have a role in um you know in um in um in having the city meet its obligations to reduce its uh phosphorus pollution to Theon River I mean especially if I I believe like the road roads ins sidewalks the public infrastructure uh contributes a little more than half of all the imperious surface in town so this makes it um this could make it more economically attractive to actually do more rain Gardens that capture run off you know from roads so I don't and this isn't the only tool like I know downtown um gosh I'm not going to be able to remember the name of the road but um in front of the Embassy Hotels right there there's underground infiltration areas that rain gens take a lot of Maintenance and those some of those other methods can work well for because like roads the road is a big contributor to of pollution and residential rangu guards don't address that not a solution for that um because that's not where the water goes you know that's downhill of these so um but like what are the things that are actually um uh in our budget to but then to go on and and maintain in the future there's other like you know infiltration things like that's a big underground infiltration it actually happens under the road and you don't even see it it's like invisible um so there's this isn't the only tool in the tool box but you're exactly right like the roads that's our next big challenge okay does anybody else have questions for Susan why we still have her well thanks for coming Susan it was a great presentation I appreciate it awesome thank you thanks for having me and so nice to see you all some of you I I didn't know Jen Cornell that you are um the representative on the environmental commission from city council so lovely nice nice to see you all so next order of business is report outs from work groups um so I'll start with biodiversity we had a meeting on January 10th I think everybody was at the meeting and mostly we had a i' say a rather spirited conversation on the comprehensive plan and what's happening with the natural features document that is being rolled into the comprehensive plan um and everybody's watching the updates in the comprehensive plan and not seeing anything about natural features which is Raising concern um and a couple of people offered to write up a mission statement or something along those lines to to forward on Chris Graham you have your hand up I do I just came from a neighborhood version of the comprehensive plan meetings this one with Paton Gill and Burns Park folks and there was genuine push back uh about the plans and uh upzoning and residential neighbor especially R1 and R2 um but in any case no comment until I made it about natural features again and I'm I'm I'm hoping to try to draft a resolution for us for the next meeting to send onward um to urge I guess would be the right word the Planning Commission to uh get busy and get natural features truly included in um in the comprehensive master plan in a way that they really work and the thing that we haven't ever done is regulate especially large trees on single family properties on Residential Properties all of our natural features ordinance changes done in the early 2000s protect very well and it's worked very well natural features on properties that require site plans none of this residential stuff goes through the site planning process doesn't go before the plan commission large trees on single family properties do not get protected when properties are upsized they should be we shouldn't be giving away our natural features anywhere we'll work on it more next month thank you next circular economy Steve yeah hi um yeah we had a meeting yesterday actually and um it was um it was kind of a loose discussion the um first thing is just there's an announcement the an arbor got A $999,000 plus grant from Eagle um to uh you know to uh for circular um economy action plans so that was a welcome um resource and um and then um there was also some discussion about education you know education about Recycling and composting and whatnot because it always um um it always seems like um um we haven't really it's not clear what you know what metrics have been developed to figure out what works and what doesn't in terms of educating the residents you know about what's recyclable what isn't the city's contamination rates okay but we're in the process also of um of regionalizing the solid waste management as well you know where um where what you can recycle differs depending on what Community you're in and then there's also of course with wara um there's a there's there's going to be an out building of um you know drop off centers so um so we were kind of looking forward to what um what education could be done at the local level and coordinate with the county and um so I think it would be useful if we had uh like one of the one of the more recent environmental commission meetings kind of um um to have this on the agenda of one of the recent meetings uh about how do we how do we find education about Solid Waste um circular economy how can we increase U uh what metric how can we figure out what the proper metrics might be to measure that and um and um build like a three to fiveyear program at least that would have some continuity you know that wasn't um that maybe wasn't so dependent on um you know in budget Cycles um the solid waste fund was mentioned uh there's quite a surplus in the solid waste fund so there might be a possibility of uh I I'd like to explore the possibility at least um um I didn't hear any objections about this in the in the circular economy workg group meeting but maybe try to find out if there's some possibility of of getting an endowment um set aside for the solid waste fund um so that there was a stable set of annual funding you know for supporting these kind of education efforts and uh and building up some more metrics and tracking progress on on on goals so um and then the other thing was that um um Maisy is going to uh work on uh we going to talk about um working with the city try to see what can be done about social media um social media communic ation uh between the city and the residents um The OSI department is leading in that respect so you know we have a we have a representative on the working group from OSI um City lebl the Blan so um we'll look we'll look into that in you know the near at the next meeting or you know in the between now and the next meeting that's it thanks Steve um for water quality I don't see Sarah nedrich online does anybody from the work group attend do they have anything they want to report out our last meeting was January 17th so I believe Steve gave the recap from that meeting at our last environmental Commissioners meeting but we have our next meeting tomorrow so we'll have more to share at the March meeting okay thanks Hank um Steve do you want to report out on the water storm water meaning you want to oh uh let's see oh yes um I should mention that um yes Sarah nrich is the um is the commission's representative but I'm her alternate um you know the city has um through the leadership of gen LW and you know on City staff um the city's uh you know working on a storm water management plan and so um we are a member of that um of that work group um um you know that consists also of some you know other you know the other The Usual Suspects um except we except uh we just had our first meeting um in late January but the uh the only the only real takeaway from it is that there really aren't weren't any members of the developers community and homebuilders you know present or the the people who might be impacted um you know in the private sector and so uh we thought it might be a good idea to try to invite somebody uh to come and and at least give their input you know because one thing I've learned about these kind of things is if you don't get the entire stakeholder group together at the very beginning um things get torpedoed pretty easily later on so it's good to get them involved at the beginning just to just to make sure their concerns are heard and addressed you know before uh you know before it's uh presented as you know is an ordinance or something like that that's all okay thanks Steve uh so for energy John mky emailed me his report so I'll just read that um he said City staff and contractors provided an update of Ann Arbor's home energy rebate program the presentation can be accessed using legistar and more info on the right rebates can be accessed at one of the city webs Pages uh there is an application form key takeaways where the were at the city and as contractors are applying Lessons Learned to continually improve the program Commissioners provided several ideas for further possible improvements and most importantly there are still significant available funds for most rebate programs in fiscal year 25 which ends June 30th 2025 one exception is rebates for ebike purchases which have been exhausted this year but will resume in fiscal year 26 Commissioners are encouraged to use the program themselves and to share details of the program with their networks in addition the commission was provided a written update on and and a brief summary of the status of the city's home energy re rating disclosure her program program requires that a home energy score and be reported be generated before single family homes are listed for sale and then be provided to prospective buyers through the multiple listing service uh the update is accessible using legistar and other details on the city's web page one of the osi's web pages um next would be parks and hi uh we met back in January um we uh had a presentation on foresight Park and improvements that are going to happen there funded by a development that's going in adjacent to it we had a presentation from uh Skyline crew team which is uh currently rowing out of um Concordia College and are looking for a new home um and we approved two amendments to contracts with the gallop Park Bridge hopefully that will complete the cost of that bridge uh and then the uh one big update is just that the B the Barton embankment project is going to be starting in March and so um access to the Barton dam for pedestrians will be cut off at that point for about two years and that is it thanks an anything from counil I I would just say quickly um just to reiterate I what you shared from U Mr mki is that um we heard loud and clear that folks in multi- um family units are you know the whole restriction around rebates they were exhausted before we could when we heard that feedback before we could figure out um you know how to sort of bridge that Chasm so that people who live in apartments and other multif family dwellings could access that rebate program um the city OSI is planning to go back to the wait list uh that was established once the um rebate program was exhausted and see what that looks like for next year and then see if um how that might look in terms of extending it to other properties but that's something that we heard quite loudly from um citizens who want to tap into that program and go into more uh environmentally friendly ebikes and whatnot um and it's something that the city is paying attention to so I would say that it's a work in progress but it's something that's on our radar just to reiterate that thank you and then kind of connected but not on the exact same topic um the city also announced rebates for electric lawn care equipment um some of you may have seen this uh so not exactly connected to the home Energy rebates but obviously still kind of in the same buck um and this is you know in response to the city's um gas Leaf lower band um that is uh slowly getting phased in so more information to come on that too as we roll that out further thanks it's awesome to see the demand it's so awesome to see the demand so I don't have anything else to report from chair Aon do you have a report out from staff a quick um uh event from OSI in the written report is the um the second sustainability Forum series which will be uh next week on Wednesday February 26th from 6:00 to 7:30 um which will be on circular innovation in an arbor food and beverage sector um so please um go see that at the library and then um I had the same update as Ann on the Barton Dam and bment work uh I mostly wanted to highlight that just that because the city has four four dams with aging infrastructure so I this is you know a two-year project in the immediate Horizon but we're going to see a lot more of this just really expensive like infrastructure updates I think as you start to stretch out the the planning Horizon um so yeah thank you hey thanks um so our next meeting is on March 20th does anybody have future AG agenda items they' like to request okay uh next would be public comment this is an opportunity for people to speak for up to three minutes please call 888 78899 enter meeting ID 954 3473 9065 to raise your hand press nine to un mute press star six City staff will select callers to raise their hand one by one using last three digits of their phone number when speaking please move to a quiet area state your name and address at the beginning of your comments there may be a delay up to 30 seconds uh Aon do we have any callers no callers okay does anybody else want to bring anything up before we adjourn is there a motion to adjourn I see one is there a second okay I think we're done see you next month thank you Brooks you you bye thanks Brooks

e e e I call to order the regular building board of appeals meeting for February 20th 2025 have roll call roll call we uh Paul darling here Robert Hart here David arar absent Kevin Cox here Hugh Flack here staff Michael Lemieux here and Juliet Harvey here roll call has been taken okay thank you first item on the agenda after a roll call is public commentary General if we have any general commentary so we can close public commentary next item is the approve of the agenda can we have somebody make a motion to amend or approve the agenda so approve faor second okay those in favor I all right the agenda is passed me the next item of the agenda is the approval of minutes from the December 19th 2024 uh meeting is there any comments on those if not can we have a motion move to approve the minutes second those in favor I I minutes are approved next item on the agenda is appeals actions and shall cause hearing and um we have one appeal today so the process of we'll have the applicant uh come up we'll have the uh staff make a report or recommendation on the on the uh request that the comment the applicant can present their case and then uh the board can ask any questions they have you can stay up there and uh make sure you sign in when you're up there and then we'll make a motion staff um so the request is relief from uh section 130.3 of the 2015 Michigan building code um the property at 200 North State it's a multif family building an R2 uh it was built in 1930 a permit was issued on 10824 uh for work described as interior renovation only no changes to exterior doors or Windows footprint of building stays the same with minor changes to Interior layout at the plan review it was noted that the basement windows uh do not meet the man the standard for emergency escape and rescue openings the plan shows six bedrooms being added to the basement which is currently indicated as storage and laundry the plan was required to be revised because the windows on the plan exceed the 44 in maximum uh required height from the floor in in section 130.3 um the applicant has indicated that they believe the true intent of the code has been misinterpreted and the landing and step should be accepted at this location staff recommends this application be denied it doesn't meet the standards for approval um the code hasn't has not been misin the provisions of the code do apply and the proposed condition is less safe than the minimum requirements of section 103.3 of the Michigan building code uh section states that the maximum height from floor emergency escape and rescue openings shall have the bottom of the clear opening not greater than 44 in measured from the floor the petitioner states that section 130.3 specifies the the bottom of a clear opening must not be more than 44 in above the floor while the floor while the term floor is undefined in the code it is commonly understood to include any walking surface intended for regular use such as Landings which is an integral uh to the EG system section 1010.6 of the Michigan building code recognizing Landings as critical walking surface underscoring their functional equivalents to floors uh for safety and accessibility the intent of section 130.3 is to ensure emergency escape and rescue openings are accessible measure measuring from Landings fulfills this purpose by providing a safe stable platform while adhering to the code's objectives moreover the presidents from the city of Van Arbor other jurisdictions and practical design fle flexibility support um interpreting Landings as the floor in compliance with Section 103.3 while uh I'll Steph um thinks that while The Landings and floors are not defined in the code Landing is specified when it is intended when it is the intent of the code is to allow such configuration and in each instance uh specifics about the design requirements are provided uh Landing is mentioned in the definition of Stairway um we have the definition of Stairway um two examples of when Landings are um described in the code um 101.1 point6 uh 10 111.6 um in both of these situations the minimum dimensions of the landing is is um specified uh there's nowhere in the code that it is stated the landing is acceptable at the required emergency escape and rescue opening because this is absent there's also no specifications given to the size and conf configuration of such a Landing um uh as far as the terms not being defined um where terms uh through method authorized by this section such terms shall have ordinarily accepted meanings such as the context implies um from the Webster dictionary um Landing is a level part of a staircase as at the end of a flight of stairs and then a floor is defined as a level base of a room based on the definitions and the code sections provided a landing in a floor not interchangeable terms furthermore it is not commonly understood that a floor is any walking surface including a landing and the two terms have different applications and meanings the applicant States while 104.1 grants The Authority having jurisdiction in code interpretation this Authority should align with the mbc's intent to prioritize safety and practicality I respectfully request the building department to reconsider lerate stance on the permit of the use of Landings uh as floor for compliance with the 44 in requirement of section 103.3 ensuring alignment with the code's text intent and purpose while preserving the historic Integrity of the property um what section 104.1 of the code um also States is that the building official is authorized to direct and enforce the provisions of this code the building official sh have have the authority to render interpretations of the code and adopt policies and procedures in order to clarify the application of its Provisions such interpretations policies and procedures shall be in compliance with the intent and purpose of this code such policies and procedures shall have the effect shall not have the effect of waving requirements specifically provided for in this code uh while the applicant is focused on the authority of the building official uh to render interpretations the building officials authorized to direct enforce the provisions of the code such policies and procedures um shall have shall not have the effect of wavering requirements specifically provided for in the code um the maximum 44 in height to floor is a provision provided in the code uh the petitioners focused on one element of the required emergency escape AP and rescue opening that Focus has been on the resident who will be sleeping in that space the component that has not been mentioned is the rescue component in a rescue situation an emergency responder would enter with the expectation that the opening meets the specifications of both the 2015 MBC and the 2015 international fire code uh which in section 1030 mirrors the language of the 2015 MBC um stating the maximum height from the floor emergency escape and rescue openings shall have the bottom of the clear opening not greater than 44 in measured from the floor the configuration proposed by the applicant is unsafe as the expectation of anyone using the emergency escape and rescue opening is that they'd be entering onto a floor as there's no mention of a landing in the building or fire cat the proposed configuration would create an unsafe situation in eer if emergency personnel must enter an attempt a rescue the configuration would not meet the expectations of a code compliant building thank you y so the asking can come up and present your case um and then state if you're something your your applicant talks about you're asking for a uh based on the the uh interpretation of the code it sounds like what you're asking for S you have three ways you can ask for variance interpretation of the codes not being properly met you providing something equally good or better or the code doesn't apply so if you sounds like you're applica you're applying for one that's based of the intent or the interpretation of the code is what you're yes the interpretation of the code okay so I'm herec Scott Clawson I'm here 200 North State application um I'm here because I believe the code with regards to the egress window at section 130.3 has been Mis interpreted um that allows the seal height of the window has to be 44 in from the floor and as Mike said floor is not defined in the code book the definition of floor um but they do have floor area defined in there and the floor area grows the floor area within the inside Perimeter the exterior walls of the building under consideration exclusives of vent shafts courts without deduction for corridors stairways ramps closets thickness of interior walls columns or other features it goes on a little bit more but it's basically saying the floor areas within the exterior walls considered the floor area and then it also defines floor area net which the is the actual occupied area not including unoccupied accessories such as corridors stairways ramps toilets mechanical rooms and closets um the city itself in its ordinance uh chapter 105 housing actually allows for a maximum sill height of 54 in above the floor if the existing sill height is greater than 54 in above the floor a platform structure or piece of furniture not including a shelf permanently fixed to the structure will be acceptable provided that it has a minimum depth of 12 in a minimum width of 20 in and has a maximum of 18 in above the floor um I think we're getting hung up on Landing which is also not defined in the code most people think of Landings as part of stairways um but we are using it we're basically using an elevated area of the floor to get us to our 44 in to meet the erass um maximum height um this particular one is in a historic building so we can't make alterations to the windows it is a rehabilitation a remodel it's all interior work um we're not changing the windows um we're not allowed to so um so like I said I think we're getting hung up on a floor height um being in a email that was sent from Mike to me well from actually an Annie Wang it says that um it says the measurement of the 44 in height is required to be from the floor elevation of the overall floor plate so not intermittent elevated Landings okay and so we get more okay what's that keep going I thought you're right yeah so we were talking about basically when we were having discussions about this before we got to this point they're basically saying that the floor all has to be one level and we know in the 70s and stuff houses had multiple levels today I'm sure there's plenty of houses that have Step Up step UPS in area so I don't think you can call that uh that floor plate like the the point that you measure from so let me see if I I mean Mike read what what I had turned in um but but that's that the city has allowed this um we have done steps before in front of Windows we have done elevated floors in front of windows before this is the first time that I've come across where this has got kind of kicked back so that's why we're here asking for I guess the variance or the interpretation of the code so I feel like I'm forgetting something but oh and this is this is one that we did this summer I can pass it around to you if you want but this egress window is actually a skylight which is allowed but we actually have a built-in like bookcase so that you can get up to it because it was above the 44 in and this was approved so I guess that's it okay thank you the board have questions for the applicant could you elaborate on the layout of the plan that you've got here there are six bedrooms yes and then there's a living room dining room living room's got a door on it the dining room's got doors on it and there's a full bath attached to it is this meant to be possibly another bedroom a living space no there's six six bedrooms um the basement currently was one apartment uh a portion of it was already an apartment and then the other part was storage and then like uh mechanical area so that's my question is the full basement in the new plan is that considered an apartment or yeah that'll just be one apartment and it has two exits yeah is there I mean I have to ask is there a reason why the living room dining room area has a bath area has a bathtub or a shower I think it's because all the B each um bedroom has its own bathroom there and this is just a like a general one for anybody to use sure okay and then could you what is the proposed depth for the for the Step Up um I think the Step Up only needs uh 7 and 3/4 no no I mean from the window back well we were drawn we were basically submitting like a 3X3 um oh so it's 3 feet yeah okay is it made out of wood yeah and it's permanently attached so it's it's it'll be covered with the same flooring and and everything so when you're standing in the platform you don't have the required Headroom though you don't have 68 headro or 66 headro when you're on the platform you have to be crouching over no we have enough head room what's the ceiling height in that area it's like8 6 to the top of the window and you're coming up how far 1 fo2 okay um I guess I don't know specifically but I do know that there's 6 yeah [Applause] yeah like the windows aren't changing so the height of the windows is the same and the bottom height of the window would be the same it says that the windows are you're reworking them to meet the eess requirements yeah that was they're not being reworked that was actually they can't be reworked so there was actually a revision after the plan that you're looking at but the windows are not being reworked so the same the same size but they're still they were casement before and they new casement their casement now yes so you're able to if you go through the step and out the window you're in the window well which you would then not have to climb or you wouldn't need any assistance in getting out of the window well to escape the building correct that's right at grade the window um yes yep it's right at grade oh okay so if the windows so what are the windows right now if because they have to meet a particular standard to function as an egress window mhm are they casements yes so they're casements and they meet the opening WID and height that's required for an eess window yes so is there a reason why there was a note that they were going to be reworked um I don't know the architect put that in there originally but we took it out okay um there are a couple windows that are not the the same um some of those are historic Windows some are replacement windows and there's some also wood casement windows in there also so it's there's a a variance of different kind of Windows is there is there a uh rule or um code to how many inches the window has to be off the ground for obstructions it's a maximum 44 no outside cuz if this is grade level and that's why like window wells are made because I'm pretty sure there's a 6 in or an 8 in um like a water tightness thing or something exactly like it's off and so if the window swings out and there's been it gets blocked by debris dust blah blah blah like is it allowed to be at grade like that like how there's I mean and I'm just going by their lines and their levels that they have here on the drawing you know I just don't know if there was it's a required thickness I don't know that there's a required as it opens all the way yeah so there's when you talk about like a window while opening there a minimum Dimension the size of that to ensure that the window can open I don't think it presses that the the way it's set up right now the window there's a brick sill yeah and the grade is about six inches below the top of the brick sill okay so when the window opens up it's the bottom of the window is about 6 or 8 in above perfect great that right yep yeah and if it was if they were down I mean we would be if you can do a window well and you can have a if it's deeper than 42 in you can have a ladder to get out of it right so that can even be you know it seems like the platform in front of the window is is is a good option in the I mean rental housing uses it or allows it all the time so the historic district is not allowing you to replace the casement window as a historic wood window just dropping making it instead of uh however tall it is right now 3 foot4 another so so we did not put in an application to do that but I have talked to Jill about those windows prior because it took a long time because some of them were in pretty bad shape and they got replaced a lot of them got replaced like uh several maybe even 10 years ago um and it was a it took two years to get it approved just that that part they don't like obvious L to change the original windows that are in there but these windows are only 10 years old these windows are 10 years no these are the well actually some of them are yeah some of them are only 10 and then some of them are the original or actually they're not they're not original but they were placed somewhere maybe in the ' 50s or MH um you can just tell by how they're um attached in the building so I I mean I know the variance is for the step up but do the windows comply as egress windows in their current state because if they don't then this this kind of a mood discussion I mean what use is it to have a step up if you can't get out the window yeah well windows will comply yeah the well you just said they will first you said they' be work then you said they're not being revered now you said they will so do they I just want to make sure that we're just we're just dealing with the platform issue we're just dealing with the platform issue that's it I would like to add the that this is a change of use that the that's my next question for you the the basement is not currently used as for for this these areas these areas aren't used for sleeping rooms currently some of them were though but you're adding right that aren't currently there was only one apartment down there that took up a third of the basement now we're using the whole basement okay so actually I had some questions for the city so if this is a change of use what did they have to do in terms of life safety measures to make this kosher that I don't I didn't look into the entire plan I just looked at the aspect of the that they were requesting relief from um as far as the change of use uh it went through review and this nothing the other things that were indicated were taken care of with the exception of this as I understand yes so does that mean that the that space doesn't have to be sprinklered we are sprinkler in the building oh you're sprinkling the building yes we are oh including the basement including the basement yes the whole building is good and suppressed okay I'm glad you mentioned that because if that's the case why do they have to even have erress Windows because doesn't the code allow them if there are two means of ESS and then see I see two stairs and the building is sprinklered why do they have to have ESS windows in the basement I think maybe the basement still does I don't it's the one section I'd have to look yeah there's I i' know the there's the there's an exception that you're talking about I just don't know the full implication but yes you're with two exits in it being sprinkler actually with two ex being sprinkled we wouldn't have to have a erress window but I think when I was looking through the code I just saw where the basement sleeping rooms sleeping dwellings are required to have um window but I'm not I'm not 100% sure cuz I was just kind of you're supposed to you're if you don't have to means of egress out of a building out of an area you have to have a means of egress in each sleeping room and that's what makes it a liable rentable usable bedroom but if you have two means of egress in the basement and it's suppressed I I really do think you're you you don't have to have egress windows I'm so it's all really a point that's that's the Avenue that I would need to verify I think you need to cuz if that's the case then all of this is not then they would have to change yeah they would now is that back so I guess more questions here what are these stairwells do they go out to the outside or do they go to the inside uh out out of the back and the front I I just haven't seen the house so so it goes up to a landing and it goes outside but it's a Stairway it's a shared stairway that goes each apartment level y each level is its own apartment or is no there's there's uh four units on each of the other floors so there were already there were already 13 apartments in this building okay and there's still 13 apartments in this building so but the basement is expanding 13 apartments are 13 total sleeping rooms 13 Apartments wow so upstairs each one of those rooms are pretty much much counted almost like a an individual apartment yeah each one so there's four units on each floor yep yeah so these people will not be able to get into that area that's not like a general shared kitchen right it's a tone unit in the basement yes I just don't um I think I think we need to look up that code to make sure right I think you yeah you just verified um I just really think to the point this would be supplemental erress only wouldn't have to have the facil he requirement it sounds like they no they wouldn't have to they wouldn't have to put in those platforms and the the whole emergency exit and refuge uh Clause is kind of doesn't really apply since they're sprink wearing the entire building and I assume that also includes you'll have smoke detection as a fire alarm yeah system yeah since it has a common hallway each room each sleeping room has to have a horn strobe there's an alarm system a monitored alarm system and then obviously the every room sprinkled and you're working on the rest of the building to the rest of the apartments in the building are being ring down or just the basement level no we're we're remodeling the whole place so updating everything Electrical Plumbing Heating okay so we make a motion do we table it what decide want to do I'm not even sure VAR yeah [Music] um is the city satisfy this has been submitted for plan pering stage not without a review yeah yeah okay I would then I would say table it review it and then if you have to come back come back but right now I I would say table it review it and then come back if you have to okay need a motion write down write this motion down WR this motion WR down uh motion to table until further review right do we get additional information or until we get additional information to allow the city to that's why we got write down first motion to the table for further review of [Applause] code so City can uh further code with regard to sprinkled basement just start with that thank you all right I'll give it a shot uh then in the case of BBA 2501 the appeal of the board officials decision that the motion be tabled so that the city can further review code with regard to add added sprinkler system and fire alarms in the basement okay any other comments uh I have a quick question on that do they have to bring it back here when they get the information or they can can they if they don't need a variance they would need to bring it back just find know if they're not coming back if they need a variance we'll have to get back on the agenda do we need to add that in or is it is that implicit in the tabling that's implicit because they got to review it and then okay understanding that they might not have to bring it back at all um but that's that's my understanding okay you have a second on the motion a second those in favor to table it I I those oppos none motion is uh T okay thank you no other new appeals for today um next item the agenda is old business nothing listen for old business additional new business anything from St no there been any report on the plumbing variance we taed from meetings ago is there any more action on that there's been no communication from the um plumbing contractor okay have a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second those in favor I I we adjourned at 205 [Applause]

[Music] yeah I haven't done a I haven't done a record my stomach illness or good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Fe February 20th 20125 special meeting of the Clifton Board of Education our quarterly Awards meeting please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivis visible with liberty and justice for all thank you roll call Mr shahada Miss bassford present Mr brunak here Mr kova here Dr Danny here Mr Mia here Mr siano here Mr Suarez here vice president Santiago here president Paris here we have a quum thank you Mr Shada the mission of the Clifton School District in an open and reciprocal Community Partnership is to provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong Learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a Democratic Society and an everchanging world the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Clifton Board of Education has cause notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place thereof posted at the city clerk's office Clifton Public Library administration building senior citizen Nutrition Center on cable TV in the local press on the district's website and mailed to presidents of parent teacher organizations this meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy 0168 this portion of the meeting to the citizens of clion for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to Andor directly related to the operation of the clipton public school district residents are requested to sign the register provided for this purpose and to State their names addresses and subject matter comments are limited to 5 minutes per person issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and the response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights supported by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected are identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments is there anyone on our you're not on right now are you okay none motion close second okay motion Clos virtual by commissioner vas second by commissioner Brun would anyone like to approach the podium or Pap the voting this at this point all right seeing none mot commissioner bord second Dr Danny this is our one of our favorite nights of the Year where we get to recognize the great work of our students and our employees uh we're going to start off with um number of sports awards I'm going to ask the board to please reassemble here in the front row um and we will be doing our the awards here at the podium if you're a recipient please come up front get your award and be recognized and give us a little time for some photos as well could be right there okay well our athletic director Mr Mady will be presenting the full Sports winter sports and uh some coaching Awards thank you uh president P thank you to the board thank you to the administration for acknowledging our athletes and their accomplishments both uh individual and team we're going to start off with the fall Sports and the All County uh First Team all County athletes just want to apologize I know some we're not able to make it some are actually playing in games now and some are at work so first off we have girls cross country Alexis Smith [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] next up is boys cross country Lamar Oliver [Music] also boys cross country Aiden [Applause] Bardo sorry I need just [Music] [Applause] walking football Aiden Romero [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] girls volleyball Mela Francisco [Applause] [Music] [Applause] boy soccer Simon diosa [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] also boy soccer Justin leech [Applause] [Music] [Applause] a tournament in Texas Aaron Miller boy socer [Music] [Applause] boy soccer Fernando PTO [Applause] [Music] [Applause] boy stalker Jaden [Applause] Romero all right rounding out the fall I'm going to ask coach lbert to come up for to present the boys soccer forade County champions [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I'd like to uh first we had a couple substitutions players that wen't here they're perfecting their craft some of them are in Texas playing for their Club teams others are playing basketball for our our team here so we just had um at this time I'd also like to present this autograph fall with our accomplishments champions I State sectional finalist number 19 in the state of New Jersey both paral and public uh number four in North Jersey Dr Rob and theard Of educ You' like Tock game afterward [Applause] because of the outstanding accomplishments of the entire Varsity SOC team we'd like to ask all students to come up and be recognized for a picture please um coach lber mentioned 19 in the state of New Jersey [Music] that's with the exception of the hair know they learn a lot from you but you got a lot to learn sh spe right [Applause] feel free to take pictures when you're CH all right we're going to move on to winter we've got about U I think half of our teams have had their All County meetings so there the other half of winter will be at the next meeting first up is going to be girls indoor track J Diaz [Applause] [Music] [Applause] first next up first team W County boys indoor track wander Dome w [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right I'm going to give this one my best shot also boys indoor track vadir k [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] going to circle back back to girls in door track Michaela Francisco back the boys in door track Lamar [Applause] [Music] Olive and the pade county coach of the year for boys indoor track coach Kareem West okay [Applause] [Music] [Applause] winter First Team all County wrestling Nick doctor [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] First Team all County wrestling Joe galletta [Applause] going [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right finishing up the winter going to ask coach Wes to come back up to present his boys Indo track of say County [Applause] Champions uh thank you m mlei and uh CL bardette um I'd be remissed if I didn't mention how important my assistant coaches are to the program um so coach pontes Coach T coach du uh coach DS coach rember um and Coach post so without them this doesn't happen but um I'm very fortunate to be able to call myself coach of both the boys and the girls team during indoor and we had a really hard struggle going back and forth with uh faake Tech during counties but we pulled it out so congratulations [Applause] [Music] all right so all the boys come up so we can do a photo op and coaches to e can [Applause] all right next up we have uh some really great coaching athletes uh my 17th year as an athletic director I've never seen three uh mileston hit in one year and we're only two3 of the way you know for athletic purposes done so it's really really really cool um we played very competitive schedules um in our in our County in our conference in the state so for the coaches to imag this many wins is truly impressive um it also speaks to you know their longevity we live in a society now where coaches coach for two years three years four years and and and and they've had enough so there Decades of experience uh with these three coaches that we are going to um you know bring up today first up is coach cavas he's our boys basketball team you receiv this 100 [Applause] win we're hoping he's building on that right now we're playing Bergen te senior night it was pretty close when I left so we're hoping he racks up another win but um he's another uh coach C alumni of CLI High School uh coached by Mr jar who's taken all the credit for the 100 wins not for the losses but we'll let we'll let him go for that so we're very proud of uh coach cus and he sorry that he couldn't be here all right next up is one of the most successful coaches in Clifton history um he's very very well known throughout the state in boys soccer and girls soccer uh started out with girls soccer here and we brought him over to boys probably a little over 10 years ago proved to be a good move uh wins a lot you know 300 wins is is is no easy task when you're playing group four soccer when you're playing the County Soccer brought home several County championships in his time here a few years ago was number one team in the state one group four uh it was a really exciting run every year we're in the mix the last five maybe six years uh we start well we finished in the top 20 the one year we didn't start in the top 20 we finished number one in the state so that really speaks to uh coach lri and his coaching uh his staff he's got a solid staff and he always brings the best out of his athlet so I'm going to ask coach [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Le what the hell are you doing if you're never going to say what camera on I just want to thank my family for the support 30 30 years I started ass ass amazing my ass coaches which I'm very proud to announce are all high school Al the program I'm so grateful for the wonderful families that we have for the hard working kids that we have um turning the corn this school afforded me the opportunity to get education play soccer here uh and get a scholarship play professionally U come back um that's our message to our kids you take this silly ball you run with it you see where it can thank you um I'm very proud to say that our kids all end up going for postsecondary Education uh become professionals um one of our alumni Dr man Panda uh who I just spoke to is with the Women's National Team United States Women's National team as their doctor and it's just an example of the great people that come that come out of clion and I'm just so very grateful thank you [Applause] [Music] all right last and certainly not least is our wrestling coach coach Dan Getta um got his 300th Victory this winter um in sport of wrestling he also got his first girls wrestling Victory uh this is the first year that we've had a full uh girls team and this was something that you know Dan and actually his wife uh Susanna is a is an assistant coach really put a lot of time and effort into it um he's the one that that learned that the middle schools two years ago had about a dozen girls who were interested so we got up front of it last year hired an assistant coach for girls had three girls um they just kept pushing it and pushing it and pushing it we wound up with 16 girls in the beginning of the year and I'm pretty sure we ended with 16 girls at the end of the year so it was really great to watch them you know watch them grow and a lot of that is kind of the speech to divers ility of coach goeta who puts in a ton of hours he actually can't be here tonight because he is on the uh District seating committee so he's out Fair one uh getting ready for for our run um it's the end of we went to the section final again this year uh but now the individual part of the season comes uh districts regions and hopefully we sending a couple of guys to Atlantic City so I'm going to ask Joe G to come up on behalf of his dad [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you again everyone for coming out thank you uh our board Commissioners our Administration uh the high school administration for coming out to support our athletes and our coaches um the balls that we given and and the statutes that we're given uh will also be in the trophy case Mr ler is going to work on on that actually in the process of ordering some some new cases so we want to honor our past um and our pres coaches so that'll that'll all be coming soon so thank you again and uh congratulations to everyone who received an award [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you Mr mle was great seeing all the great coaches assistant coaches and the students you guys are all inspiring um next we'd like to recognize um one of our students who is a competing for the a New Jersey young composer uh award and I'd like to invite commissioner Suarez up to present [Applause] that thank you president Paris I'm really excited to give this award when I learned that um one of our students was receiving this I was really impressed um so I'll just read a little bit about what it takes to receive this Sterling H Kimbell a ninth grade student at clion high school has has been selected as one of only three finalists in this prestigious 2024 2025 New Jersey young composers competition for his original composition Caribbean Caprice Kimo will showcase his work at the final session during the njmea conference on February 22nd at 10:00 a.m.

a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] e [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] he [Music] a [Music] [Applause] [Music] la [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right we're going to go ahead and get started travel so they could hear wanted to welcome welome everybody here it's real nice to have a full house and see so many people here this evening thank you all right I want to call the order of the workshop for the Bullhead City School Board on Thursday February 20th 2025 at 5:32 2 p.m.

2,000 I could be talking about the amount of pounds in a ton or the amount of students walking in the Halls on any given day at West Chicago high school or I could be talking about the amount of points that jazz trero scored in her career here at West Chicago High School joining us today for Friday fun day is our alltime leading scorer over 2100 clear points by Jasmine tros here in Bishop jym as you look back on your career can you believe that you scored that many points it was definitely one of my goals of mine after suppressing a th000 that was just my next goal when did you go over 1,000 points uh junior year my first game first game junior year M halfway through your senior year you went past 2,000 yes so you scored over 1,000 points in like a season and a half yes that's a lot of points only less than 1% of girls in the country playing basketball scored over 2,000 points did you know that not until I scored it do and somebody said it yeah okay so you do other things here too though right you play volleyball mhm you play basketball yep play softball you're going to college to play softball right so basketball is not even your best sport no I like softball you like softball yeah why do you still play three Sports though cuz I like to stay active I like to still be doing something and I met a lot of my best friends during those Seasons through Sports so what are you going to miss most about playing basketball here at West Chicago the friendships that I've definitely made the coaches 100% And just playing this game overall I've been playing it since I was like 6 years old so it's been a part of my life the relationships the experiences you want to play one last time here make a few more baskets yeah I challenged you to game a horse so I don't know if you saw last year I swam against the state championship swimmer have you ever raced anybody in a swim shirt before I don't think so this is my first time okay we'll see if it increases my drag at all I've ran with sectional qualifying cross country Runners you ready for tomorrow you got to run again tomorrow yeah yeah every day every day now I'm going to play horse against a 2,000 Point score finally going to get my victory here I think so I went to the same College as Caitlyn Clark and I can shoot almost as good as her so I just wanted to let you know what you're getting yourself into okay I will let you have the honors to go and shoot first thank you by the way Jasmine has 21100 more career points than I did in high school my last sanctioned game was in eighth grade winner in 93 just all right that's right I'm not a free throw guy okay a little better than I realized this was actually my favorite spot seventh grading as ICS scored 13 points oh oh man thought that was ho that's right lot of game left lot of game left oh there it is still alive let's do threes there's no editing here she is she is four for four so far what do you like more you like shooting a three you like scoring a layup uh everything everything yeah I like oh that's off dang closer than I thought didn't feel good coming off is there a reason why you're not playing basketball in college you're going to make some intermal team very happy in college oh what is that h o r h r okay she's better than I realized I'll be honest with you that's it all right stay alive oh that's all all right she's opened the window here we go she shot from all over the place has made everything I'm going to see how her fundamentals are see if she can make a left-handed layup oh all right reverse layup can reverse [Music] is this called the elbow I don't when did they start doing that I feel like when I was a kid I never heard that term now they always call it the elow see how you are from the El oh oh tide has turned there we go there we go we're about halfway through the game from at h r jazz you're at nothing nothing she's barely missed she's much better than I realized but I'm not giving up just cuz you're down in a game doesn't mean you quit walk off the court it's my shot I'm going to put a little pressure on here I'm going to make my next one and see what she can do what is say okay I call my shot there it [Music] work we'll go back to free throw [Music] touched literally every piece of the r and still went it I'm makeing more than I thought it would I'll be honest with you I proud it it's like the more pressure I put on her the better she does it's impressive from the logo I got the C par shirt on o this is car [Applause] nope okay finally oh H RF there it is like and that sounded like it got hurt I think but don't make this it's over right here yeah nope that a it's way too far why would anybody shoot from me I'm from you know once you get to horse or pick you get a farmer chance half court shot can keep you alive see if I can stay [Applause] alive great was right online just a little short Jazz it was a pleasure playing with you thank you outstanding career thank you enjoy your week off before you start your senior softball season best of luck at Wisconsin Green Bay you've been a great while C thank you [Music]

culminating musical moment of this allet experience all 600 plus musicians that you see before you will join together in performing America the Beautiful conducting the fin finale from the center Podium will be outgoing board member Mark new Orchestra division president [Music] than [Music] you [Music] all [Music] um so we uh had the honor of taking um five students to All State this year um two of whom are with us tonight um J alasi Charlotte Garcia who were both in that recording uh in the orchestra playing cello and bassoon respectively um which was really awesome you couldn't even see all the kids there was a band over here too that was another hundred or how many 200 yeah so so many kids in the state and that was one of two concerts of high schoolers we also brought with us Noah Parker um who was in the honors uh choir and two middle schoolers Ella balser and hope Mercer who were in the inaugural Junior High chorus which was um a really awesome time so um we just wanted to say thank you for supporting our students and um and give them a chance to say what they saw while they were there so yeah I thought it was a really cool experience being able to um spend time with a lot of really talented people and meeting some really cool people who are um like conductors all of the like adults like all the conductors were from like some of the top universities they were teachers um the conductor of the orchestra that we were part of is from uh I think it was Cuba Cuba was from Cuba and he um had a masters in Neuroscience on top of being a professional conductor and it was a really good opportunity for me since I want to pursue music education to ask questions at the college fair and kind of get some insight about where I could go yeah and as a bassoonist she was kind of already being recruited by colleges which was really cool you don't hear that a lot in music um but um yeah s super special uh people like like trying to put money on the table for her already she hasn't even auditioned for them which is really really amazing um um I had I'm going to talk a little bit about about the middle school this is like uh Mr a r said this was the inaugural um middle school performance they have never had middle schoolers that have had the ability to go to State and so this was their first year and they said we're going to try it just to acquire uh they had over 10,000 students audition and they took 150 of those kids and I had two of my eighth grade girls um that qualified and came up and um it was really good experience for them it was kind of like a mini experience um these two had three days of rehearsals whereas the middle schoolers came up on Friday and had um about a six-h hour rehearsal on Friday and then about a four or five hour rehearsal on Saturday and then performed and so they all of these kids did a lot of leg work ahead of the performance um so they knew their parts and then could focus on the musicality of what they were doing so that was a really cool experience um and for the Middle School level getting to have that um first I will say say that um it was it was mainly students probably Springfield Poria north um so there were not a lot of people in the South that were that qualified for that and so we were really excited for our students that did um but I think it also gets them excited having two eighth graders prepared for high school and then not as um scared to try out for these um big things like District Festival in all state because they've already then kind of had a minii introduction to it and had that experience so um that was that was a great experience for them and we were really thankful that we were allowed to take middle schoolers this year well we're glad that you were willing and we hope you continue to expand programs for our students thank you absolutely you thanks can I ask how was the interview how the audition process so all of them audition we have to send in video auditions uh they have specific music that they're given ahead of time and they have to work um on their own and with their teacher but it's it's a lot higher level than what most schools can do because we're looking for the top musicians in the whole state um so they work on that they submit an audition on a couple pieces or their scales and their their udes and um then other uh teachers in other districts so like we can't judge in our own District so other teachers are listening to them and seeing how they do and then we get notified about a month later whether they are in our district Festival if they make the district Festival that's considered like the best in Southern Illinois because our district is pretty big um it's about Alton down to the rest of the state um and then out of those auditions I know it is different for U abandoned Orchestra versus choir but they keep those same auditions and then they take just that they narrow the percentage of how many um they take for All State and then that very top of each district get to go to state yeah band and Orchestra will re audition um once they found out that they make it to state for which Ensemble are they in honors or All State and um what chair they like what what seat they would take um so it's it's a lot of work and they're yeah they're they're amazing also we don't have an orchestra program here so everything that everything that Jonah has done has been mostly his private teachers um working on him with cello and then me helping him prepare just the music aspect of it and then and Charlotte um plays bassoon in band but it's you know it's different playing it with an orchestra too so it's a really awesome experience they get to have thank you congratulations [Applause] right well that was a r Treat thank you all right uh moving on do we have any public comments big old crowd no one wants to say anything you got to listen to me then so sorry about that all right correspondents going around I think we'll go right on and start into our consent agenda Mr Grody or Dr Grody s you've got your minutes and finances your uh all the reports and expenditures we had Deborah heiney uh retirement of 2025 and we are then hiring Caitlyn br Berger as a student service secretary Kathleen Ostertag as the cook and Emma zika as a paraprofessional uh we also have a leave of absence um our CHS librarian is going to be having a child and so we're giving her the leave and then we've got an extracurricular position Aran heny I believe I say that correctly is a volunteer softball coach uh given all of those I would recommend the board approve as presented all right any any comments questions concerns from the board hearing none when any like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented I'll make the motion thank you Tyson do I second I'll second thank you Kelly roll call please Norine yes Adam hin yes Andrea Corey yes Kelly Moyer yes Greg Meyer yes Lisa schacher yes Tyson search yes takes care of that moving on to our Communications reports and presentations enrollment report is in your packet and we will start with a building report see Mr Dugan joined us this evening hello M and his crew yeah my crew and your B yeah so uh last Friday Valentine's Day we had our first we're GNA make it an annual thing after after our first experience uh parkview's Valentine's Day fine dining lunch um we uh we just wanted to do we always like to do different things in the lunchroom just to kind of spice it up and make it interesting um so we kind of talked to the students about table etiquette and manners and wanted to give them a fine dining experience so um we had elegant music from our CHS jazz band members uh Gabriel James Benjamin Parker and Charles bass um thanks to Mr Avis Rous there for setting that up so they did a fantastic job um we had the lights were dim Med uh we had tables covered with white tablecloths tea lights centerpieces from Meg clor from makers on Main she donated those U miss Robin ordered fancy aprons and for our wonderful servers and Chef hats were ladies in the kitchen the top left you see we're all decked out there um the students were served their Entre which was Bosco Sticks fancy uh and desserts at their table so that was kind of fun for them to to get served um also desserts compliments of Teresa fundus they got their desserts served to them uh the students dressed up for the occasion uh we had dresses we had ties and Suits we had all all kinds of things they were really excited about that um it was very special for me because I did not know what to expect I wanted to make it special but just wasn't really sure I mean we have a a blue gymnasium that we were trying to make fancy so um and it was really neat to see the kids' faces and and to hear the comments we had kids saying can we do this again um I had fourth graders unfortunately saying how come we didn't do this last year um and then just kids that I wouldn't have expected come up to me and say thanks for doing this so it was just neat to uh have an experience like that with the kids excellent click it so uh a few weeks ago the view staff had a underground staff spirit week so teachers knew what we were doing each day it was a secret from the kids so that was fun to see them start to catch on like first day was just we all wore black which isn't that uncommon to see your teacher wearing dress in Black until you see them all together but in the day that we each wore Miss match shoes they were kind of like what's What's Happening Here what's wrong with all of you so that was a lot of fun it was fun for staff but it was was really fun to see the kids' reaction and how they um started guessing like oh I know what today is you dressed like your favorite holiday I sure did it was funny the following week they were asking so what are you guys doing today today so that was fun and then of course we just had our young authors um contest and these authors all here tonight are going to share a little bit about their books 101 students participated in the young authors contest this year the top four books from each grade level we selected to attend the young authors conference that's coming up in March uh Mr Dugan read the winning books to classes during lunch period and we are very proud of all of the students that participated and wanted to give each of these kiddos an opportunity to share just a little bit about their books here tonight so we'll get out of the way here right okayu yourself right hi my name is Miles and I made a book about a ceramic dog that comes to life and comes once every once every Valentine's Day and sprays love powder on family members so they're nice and loving on Valentine's Day oh my name is Macy and I wrote a book about a CORI staying the summer with Grandma and becoming friends with their dog my name is eie and I wrote a book about a dog named Billy and her neighborhood dog friends and how they sto their owners from being controlled by villains so they'll buy cats and forget about their dogs I'm car and I wrote a book about a cow who escaped and her owner found him at Chick-fil-A my name is Perry and I wrote a book about Cindy and the dragon I it's inspired me cuz I love doing scavenger hunt awesome my name is Eloise and my book is about a hamster who accidentally makes a pizza come to life and tries and fixes his [Music] [Applause] mistake and then we had one more that couldn't be here tonight Colin brandenberger wrote the dilr competition on planet Ando Denny the baker entered a big baking contest Nate another contestant cheated by ruin ruining Denny's cake and buying one instead of making his own Denny didn't give up and baked a new cake from scratch earning a high score when Nate was caught cheating he was disqualified and Denny won becoming a world famous Baker positions but this is so much better I can never tell you so thank you very much it's wonderful all right Dana you got to follow that I know I I might I think I might just head they were too good thank you very much just like I know just like that they knew I was up for my [Laughter] presentation Mr Dugan thanks you should have been [Laughter] last all right are we ready um we're going to start with uh District shoutouts as you can tell our district is one in a million pretty amazing I'm going to start with Eagle View um we want to shout out nurses Jacqueline Archer and Carrie kler they have been excellent additions to our building they stepped right into their new roles in January and have already done so much for our students and staff on top of lovingly caring for our sick children they are jumping in with health and wellness education programs for both students and staff and I can speak to this as well I've been meeting with the nurses every quarter to make sure we're consistent across the buildings um and Eagle View has kind of been a little disjointed with their their nursing staff and these two have really pulled it together and done some amazing things and are working really well with Mrs V Park viw we would like to extend a huge shout out to Lauren Noti the amazing head cook at Parkview Lauren leads a dedicated team of hardworking ladies in the kitchen and her positive attitude makes all the difference in creating a welcoming and cheerful lunch experience for our students her commitment to Excellence and her kindness never go unnoticed thank you to Lauren for everything you do to ensure our students have a great meal and a great experience you truly are a positive impact on our school Community we're lucky to have you on our team Middle School um moving our way across is Mrs Amber Haven who consistently goes above and beyond for her students she makes science fun and engaging and because of her every one of her students proudly calls themselves a scientist Mrs Haven's dedication to learning never stops she's always signing up for workshops expanding her knowledge and even sharing her expertise as a speaker her passion for teaching is matched only by her kindness and unwavering support for her students stop by and see your teach sometime you will be amazed see D Ms is beyond lucky to have her and then we have our high school Amanda sanfield she's staff member of the month her class is most often filled to the Max and her Aromas fill the hallways making the building extra hungry CHS is lucky to have Mrs Stanfield to lead our family consumer science classes I can personally share that I sat in on a demonstration to make cream brulee and I can also confidently say that I would never be able to execute it successfully we are very lucky to have Mrs Stanfield um additionally we have Suzanne garleb she is a ticket taker and a cook um You probably have seen her at sporting events being a ticket taker her smile is absolutely contagious and she is a true asset to our High School athletics a big shout out to Suzanne garley um in addition to that I I didn't I don't have it in the presentation but we are on the tail end of our winter um Athletics and extracurricular activities so I did share um some information with you in a handout of course cheer team went first to State super exciting um we sent one of our female Bowlers up to state today she will be competing at Rockford that is super exciting as well a lot of good things are happening um now I do have a presentation um Mr fr is going to help me at this point in time as I shared in December we are working really hard on our college and career path Pathways we want to um really start opening that up not only externally but internally we have and we're going to Pilot our first internal um career pathway next year with the help of Mr frish we're going to do it in construction so the first thing I wanted to talk to you about is our course sequence for this career pathway um we want in order to get an endorsement through the state you have to complete year three and year four so we have one senior that will be graduating in 2027 that will achieve the endorsement the next year looking at our sophomore enrollment we'll have two students again you just need one to start the momentum we are super excited about this and we are going to start communicating it and we have a lot of ideas in order to continue this sequence I also got to go into the construction um class today again I can confidently say that I probably shouldn't be using that Machinery but it was a really cool experience and some really great things are happening um and I'm really excited to be partnering with Mr frish um Fresh Off The the Press before I let him um jump in and share some information I'm also networking with the East Peoria High School CTE director she is going to come down at the end of March to meet with me to see where we're at with our college career Pathways to help us um do some of the things they're implementing she has some really great ideas so I'm going to also include Mr Reeves on that because it might be some schedule adjustments not for next year but possibly the following year some really cool things on the horizon and I'm excited um with the pathway there are three certain components that you have to have to make it um happen internally so I am going to let Mr fr and our student Justice talk a little bit about the career exploration okay if you guys you guys can go up if you want to okay so like we're talking about expanding the program right now we pretty much do the production Tech the carpentry going into the construction aspect so we would like to expand on that and get the students firsthand knowledge out there on the different jobs whether it be U excavation actual carpentry could be cabinet making things like that so I've got in touch with uh FM Brothers uh masry they're out of red bud uh Walters they have a cabinet shop down in Evansville pretty large facility actually and uh they both seem extremely excited about the concept of us supplying maybe a pipeline of potential workers for them in the future actually right now this is the golden age for anybody in the trades whether you're getting your car worked on housebuilt painted anything in the trades there is such a vacuum need of actual workers coming in they've all expressed so much or the two of them and the other ones that I talked to expressed extreme excitement for the potential for this to happen so um we did take a uh we're going to take a field trip to both of those uh the the facility at the uh Cabinet Shop he's got a a large Factory we're going to take a trip there and then in the afternoon we're going to head out to um the actual job site where the Mason masonry work is going on and Mr fian's going to give the boys a pitch there um so that's what we've that set up tentatively for March April somewhere in that area so we did take a field trip back this uh fall up to the uh Expo Center up at the fairgrounds of Beville and that was a great great opportunity there were I think 15 or 20 unions represented there and they they had our group of 12 students for about 10 minutes to give their pitch again it was almost a a quasi job fair they were pitching their union job whether it was a carpenter could have been a u excavator worker and they had everything from the simulators to they actually did the Hands-On processes and it was just a great experience for the boys so Justice would you like to talk a little bit about that what you thought about that and it led us get like a good connections into like the community and helped us like see what was out there for us see what they gave us a paper that gave us how much we were going to get paid if we wanted to go into that trade what our benefits were um how long it would take us to get to a journey man if we wanted to do any of that stuff it had a lot of stuff that was Hands-On for us to get and to see what we wanted to do if we wanted to get our hands dirty in that type of work yep and again it it sold them again my guys that come down at my end of the shop going to college is great but it's not for everybody so I tell them you can come in leave with your diploma go to these places lure Brothers they another one they'll take you in they'll train you they'll give you what you need and it is very very common to make six figures in a very short time these are highp paying high skilled very very very much in demand jobs that everybody can do them right yeah you worked the simulators on the excavators it was great so again just a a wonderful opportunity in addition to what we have there this is what we'd like to expand into so absolutely so the career exploration is extremely important to this pathway another part is team based challenges and this is actually a part that deters districts from doing these Pathways because it's kind of cumbersome but what's so amazing is for every pathway you need two team based challenges and Mr fr is already doing one um so really it's just looking at what you're already offering and then putting it together as this pathway so just briefly you would talk about the bidding process which is such an amazing process for our students to experience with what you're trying to get off the ground for your Eagle Solutions so yeah back in the fall September October um part of the curriculum going into this year I led the um construction class we actually went out and we bid a job for some ladies down in Dupo and it was an 8 by8 garden shed typical garden shed and uh so we sent the we made our crew up went out figured out what they wanted what the customer cust wanted we bidded the job to them presented it to them they gave us the okay and put the materials up we built it modular in our shop took it apart then went out on site for what two days like three or two days yeah two days we put it back together uh assembled it roofed it good to go so the whole process was bidding the job designing it building it producing it transport tearing it down transporting it reassembling and I just want to say that was a large undertaking but it it's it was incredible the feedback we got from the neighbors that they they came in and I heard from different ones they were amazed that these guys went out and did what they did in the short amount of time they're like you guys do that all the time but that's just that's what you do in the real world and they got a real taste of it they did the work they they called in for the quotes for the business again real life so awesome we did it without even knowing we were going to be doing it doing it exactly that's what's so amazing um and then the last big piece and um Mr frish has been um amazing and getting us some connections we have to give them intern opportunities where are some of those companies that will take and give them onsite um experience and and we have two um definitely and I I know there's more but we're just building this pathway um but go ahead and speak a little bit on the internet ship opportunities you have um Walter's cabinet for example we my curriculum right now I concentrate on teaching cabinet making I go back to the basics on it and you may or may have have seen some of the stuff we built first semester leading up to this semester but Walters I when I called Glenn Walters and talked to him that man was like you got to be kidding me you're really going to do this you're going to supply me with people that have this knowledge this work I'm like yeah I I can give you you know this is what we're teaching he's extremely excited about it and he's very excited on the concept of having an intern and it it would be the full the full thing through and um yeah again I go back to these industries or these companies everything in the trades they are needing badly the amount of people to come in just just the shortage of workers and if we give them that um that's amazing and that's a local company too so so I think it's about 30 minutes away in regards to the actual Factory so we'll get to go take a field trip there make our pitch or listen to what he's got demonstrate it it's pretty high tech too it's um it's a good opportunity um so that's that's the one I got lined up and like I said I've talked to no less than six or seven opportunities that we could probably get into so absolutely and and this is our first pathway I'm already setting the stage for hopefully our second pathway that's going to be EG um so I'm going to be meeting with Mr bur and Mrs gruin to hopefully get that set up for our second pathway um we have to start somewhere and again I'm all about student opportunities and I feel like this these are opportunities that definitely can benefit our district and the students thank you very much ask question on your cabinet oh are you doing it all by hand or CNC oh no no this is all hand we go back to like carpentry for example I've got three carpentry classes they do total join it's all by hand no CNC work um they understand the aspects of hardwood plywood veneers they do it all by hand if Walters he does have CNC so they will get practical experience I go back to they want students understanding the basics and then they they'll train you lure Brothers has told me this uh fans everybody they'll train you what they need you to go into and Boeing when I worked at Boeing they were very much similar they want you to understand the concept of what you're doing when I have these guys work we make it all by hand we get the actual cheats of plywood and we've produced kitchen cabinet sets probably probably four sets of kitchen cabinet sets already from that we make the count we can make the countertops if you want laminated countertops slate marble those types of things are big now but yeah I teach them the basics so they understand what they're making would it help to have a CNC machine to well yes but you have to understand the the size constraints too where we're in there uh Mr Reeves has been great he's when I came in three years ago he said what do you need to make this work and I gave him a list of a couple machines and we got them and we use them we make we make rais panel doors we make entire we make everything I've seen some of your work is amazing and and that's what I want them I want them to understand what they're making why they're making it how to make it and um CNC would be good um but for what I'm teaching them I want them to know the basics to know what they're doing but yeah perfect thank you m thank you both um the next thing I wanted to mention is AI I'm not sure if you guys have heard about AI but it is definitely on the horizon we've started uh preliminary discussions um as an admin team to start talking about implementation for both students and staff I found this statistic pretty interesting in 2023 only 133% of teens were using chat GT or PT I always mix up that acronym um for their homework and then to 2024 it jumped up to 26% um so it's definitely a need um and I feel like we can avoid it but I would rather look at it head-on so we are utilizing the tools to the best of our ability and we're using them smart um I am uh scheduling professional development through our Roe for our middle school and high school staff on our half dayss both the 21st and the 28th any questions on AI um curriculum updates uh social studies I'm still planning on bringing you a recommendation for curriculum in April um we're stying the stage for an Ela curriculum adoption process this will be a little bit longer than social studies um there are more programs to review and I want to make sure that we have admin and teacher input and all of the things possibly doing a pilot in 2025 to 26 to then officially roll out the following year act I'm still so proud of our act after school program um I did want to share the attendance 60 were enrolled on the first day we had 49 um then the second day we had 49 I'm still very happy with that because I feel like we've had a lot of sickness going around and we are still touching um a big or impacting a big group of students um what the teachers that are leading the program say great data being being generated with the New Horizons program for the classroom and after school program use um I hope we set the bar extra high in Columbia I I want our ACT scores to to Skyrocket and really really show Illinois how it's done um I've also started meeting with student focus groups this has been actually the highlight of some of my work this past month I met with fourth graders and then I met with fifth through e8th grade um at the middle school and then I did a high school group um the executive members of the student council and I asked him three questions how do you learn best how do you like to be assessed and what does a quality School look like and I will tell you every single age group gave me different answers but there was one consistency with the second question how do you like to be assessed they said paper pencil and I thought that that was so unique because we have ai right we have turned to such a technology-driven generation so really good um conversations I shared with the students that their voices should be heard in addition to all of the other voices of the school they are bringing good information as well so last thing don't forget um the five essential survey I did send out information about that on Tuesday um when you see the link we would love to have your feedback your voices matter this is a piece um of data for all of our school Improvement plans so it is really important um if you wouldn't mind participating any questions that's all I havek you you're welcome on to our superintendent report yeah and um as you said to Dr gainy that the she had a hard show to follow I wasn't going to say it again I just I I wantan to yeah I I I just want to say that um I came into this meeting really just not even knowing what I was going to say like for the superintendent report usually I've got our stuff you know the PTA they they raised over $5,000 with their fundraiser this last month you know the the just you keep getting moved by what's going on in this District of the wonderful things that that our community can do I mean when you have a principal who decides to have the crazy idea of we're going to serve a fancy meal to our kids for Valentine's Day and everybody gets behind it and goes running when you've got teachers that are know a kid taking lessons on the cello and says I'm going to get them in the All State and the fellow teachers say yeah well I've Got Talented kids too let's get a team going you know um we've got jobs going on and and when he says anybody can do that stuff they can't I took shop sir and I can do a lot of things but but when you pull the tail and the light doesn't go on it's it's just we are basically what I've been doing is I've been planning for next year and what I'm just honestly going to tell you is when you get the right people in the right places I'm just trying to keep up with everybody around me so um it's good it's good and we will have an executive session for personnel but no action afterwards perfect beautiful nice one well done all right we'll move on to our items for Action the first one is the approval of the student trip to Europe opportunity you're on okay good evening my name is drost um I've been teaching for 32 years and three of them at the high school um I'm pretty passionate about international travel and I think um we have two great trips already through the high school one uh with the Spanish group and one with the German students but I'd like to open up a trip to students that aren't um maybe interested in languages just to have that experiential travel in Europe um my personal passion for this started when I was in high school I was lucky enough to take two trips I went to um so the Soviet Union when it was still communist controlled because I am that old um and I was also able to go to Europe as well um my personal children were able to take a trip in high school and then my daughter actually became a French teacher uh and because partly because of that trip the experience that she had on that uh the last two years she has asked me to uh chaperon with her on her school trips we took a group of students in 23 to France and um a trip last year uh she was planning to do a trip every three years or so and the kids were so excited about it that they said can we go again can we go again so she didn't want to do the same trip so last year we went to french- speaking Canada um some of the same kids went and a bunch of new kids joined us as well on those two trips so really what I'm here to do is to ask for your permission basically to uh use the facilities and to give students information but it's not a school sponsor trip um but it is an international trip for our students in the in the district um some of the reasons for that is an expanded worldview uh personal growth and life skills it's not this trip is more experiential in nature it is not intended to be for an academic subject area I teach English one of the part part of the trip that I'm proposing is to the Globe Theater um they have it reconstructed in London uh we do some Shakespeare study and I think it really would be neat for the kids to see what that looks like um there another thing that I do I teach all sophomores and uh we we read uh the novel Night by Ellie wiel and it's his experience during the Holocaust um there is outside of Munich uh a concentration camp DOA the kids can understand what that's like when we read the novel and we do a lot of background information about that but until they stand in that hollowed place and they can feel what that's like they really don't have a grasp of it uh and I've been able to experience that personally what that attitude change is when you actually see a place like that in person um so it also increases confidence and competence in students um there's some Independence on that trip they're not with their parents they're not with a family group uh they learn interaction overseas uh this is not just to another state it's actually to another country for some students it's the first time they've used a passport the first time for some of the students that I've taken in the past that they've actually boarded an airplane um so it really is a pretty neat experience uh the there are basically two tour companies that provide these trips one is called EF Tours the other is World strides I've been in contact with both of those companies um world explor by World strides has been around for 55 years their trips are a little bit uh less expensive at least to the places that I'm proposing that we go uh they offer $50 million liability insurance that covers the chaperon the the trip company Etc um and Dr G will speak a little bit more to liability in terms of the school's liability or the district's liability to a trip like this um um what is covered in the price of that is basically everything from the beginning of the trip to the end with the exception of lunches uh students purchase their own lunch when we're out and one of the reasons is that uh some of the places that we go they have the opportunities to sample all kinds of different cultural Foods while we're there and so want to give those students that opportunity to kind of pick and choose what they want um so lunches are not covered but uh we every evening they provide a a meal that is is cultural in nature so they'll eat Mediterranean they'll eat um you know German um different sausages and things when they're in Munich and so it it really is a neat experience that way as well uh some of the other things uh the guidelines for this trip um if if I were to put it on would certainly be no family members that changes the whole tenor of the trip itself and I think an important part of this is that independence of going um and that would include uh teacher chaperons who have children in the building as well so I think it's really important that the kids do not have their parents on that trip with them um you can take any size trip that you'd like through World strides or explor by World strides it's a 5:1 chaperon student ratio uh so I would not want to take fewer than 10 students on the trip because I think uh you always should have two adults that are there just uh in case something comes up an example of that on the last trip uh to Europe we had a student that got sick and needed to stay at the hotel that day um she was Ill so one of the shaper rooms was able to stay there while I took the rest of the group um to our scheduled tours for that day also and especially as we start something like this um I would not want to take more than 20 um it's just the the logistics of that get really cumbersome with more than 20 students and 20 is very manageable um and it gives students enough room away from each other and other choices of students but not too many um let's see so um Dr gy and I have been talking about this presentation together and some of the things that we would we want to put policies into place so that if you approve something like this it's a success going forward and some of those things would include uh basically a character reference for students we don't it's not academic nature so it's not limited to students taking certain classes or certain GPA but it is limited to students of character we are taking them internationally and so we want students that uh have that character so uh we think some place some things in place for that would be no in school or out of school suspensions during their time at the high school no excessive absences or tardies um and then we would send a teacher survey for those students that are interested in tending to teachers that we can get some feedback on character for those students um but once again class enrollment and academic success are not factors um the idea if this trip if if we go forward on this trip is that I would first have a meeting for students only at school during school time during our our home room time just to lay out what the parameters of the trip look like to see if there is even interest for students if there is then I will have an after school meeting with parents I do want that to be in person I do want contact UM face to face with parents they can get to know me and and understand you know how I'm going to run things on the trip uh and then uh give them some time to digest that and then they will sign something that says yes that we're interested and once I have that back I will send that uh out to the teachers and ask for their help doing a character reference for those students and then student selections will be made from that um if all the students uh that have met that character standard uh and have expressed an interest in going and interest in going if there's between 10 and 20 that's very easy if it's over 20 then we would go in the order that those uh were submitted so that interest was submitted um it would be open to students they're currently Juniors sophomores and freshmen there's a big Advantage for me in that because I've taught all of the southmor with the exception of about 12 each year um and so I know all the students personally or most of the students personally and have been here now three years so I will know all the students that would be interested in taking the trip so that's a big Advantage it also gives students if they wanted to go and attend the trip they know freshman year they can start saving this would be something we would like to do again in future years if it's successful which I assume that it will be um so they can save money and prepare for that trip as as the years go by um probably some of this I've already covered and so I'll just uh go through it real quickly yeah not quite that quickly Dr um so um the chaperon are covered under the Explorer cability Insurance and again we wouldn't want any um parents of students to be those chaperon any chaperon that chaperon that goes would meet the same standards that teachers in the districts do so background checks and fingerprint checks and so forth it's really important that the chaperons that go have a similar view of the trip and run a tight ship because again we are international um and so it's not there's a lot of um stress that goes into a trip like this to make sure that everything runs off without a hitch and that students are safe because that's number one priority and so that's certainly what we would be looking for in chaperon um sometimes uh these trips they require a certain minimum and to fill buses and so forth and so sometimes you're you're stuck with a group from another school or from another District or another place um so it is important uh that you know that's true based on group size um that that is a possibility of that happening um but our group would all be together with our chaperons all the time so and then um we would ask uh parents and students who attend the trip to sign a conduct agreement um and that conduct agreement even though some of them in Europe would be legally allowed to drink alcohol for example the minimum age is 17 and we might have some seniors that have already reached 18 years old at that point that that is an absolute noo along with tobacco and drugs and uh they will have signed a paper that says if you are doing those things on this trip you will be sent home at your expense immediately and you'll be sent home individually um so you we'll place you on the plane we'll get you to the airport we'll put you on the airplane and then send you home uh at your expense and parents know that upfront it's extremely important we can't have that happening um when we're overseas um there is some independent student time on these trips so uh the tour guide who is familiar with that that culture and that has taken these trips many many times will take us to a certain place and say Here's your paramet in Paris for example there's a shopping district that also has about 50 food vendors restaurants and so forth and lunchtime is two and a half hours and so they'll say you have two and a half hours these are your parameters you stay in this place we'll meet back here at this time um but we also put some safety measures in place they have to have at least three people in a group one person in that group has to have access to an international data plan or telephone so they can reach us and we can reach them at any time in case of an emergency um must stay in their designated area and they must return back at the correct time it's not possible for us to um be awake 247 on the trip so it is absolutely essential that students after curfew remain in their room um with their doors locked the entire time there are some in the hotels by the time we get back the students are so tired that they don't want to stay up anyway they want to get to bed because they're going to be getting up early the next morning um but uh so that is one of the rules that they uh agree to before we go as well the hotels that we stay in have been fully vetted by the tour company that we go to uh if you've traveled to Europe you know that their hotels are much different than our hotels here in America the rooms are much smaller for example many of them don't have air conditioning so it's a different experience for kids when they're there but the room sizes are between three and four students per room but we don't know until we get there exactly how large the rooms are how many rooms we'll have so we have all those contingencies planned for before we go so if we have rooms of two these are the students that or three excuse me these are the students that will room together rooms of four and so forth um just very quickly the the proposed trip that I'm making is to London the highlight of that trip for me is the Globe Theater um but we'll also do the other sightseeing uh places in London um and that is on the first day and then we'll make our way across the Chunnel um to Paris and go to the lou of course and the Eiffel Tower it does say that it's an optional um tour but actually I've spoken to the tour company because I don't want it to be optional it's $80 and that would just be part of the price but we will go to Versailles um it is quite the experience to be there it's also where the treaty to end World War I was signed among many other things it is quite a neat experience for the students so we would do that then we'll take the fastest train in Europe to to uh Switzerland um spend the day there and then end the trip eight eight nights 10 days and we'll end the trip in Munich um I teach in to my sophomores I teach a novel by LEL called KN um it's his experience in the Holocaust and um he is actually in aitz uh but there is a concentration camp right outside of Munich called daau and the experience that students have when they stand in that place that hollowed ground you you can just see their their world viiew is completely changed it is such a neat experience for the kids and so very powerful for them and then we fly home from from Germany uh back home at that point um depending on when we book The Tour price is somewhere around $5 $100 for 10 days eight nights it is expensive but also well worth it I would I would argue um if there is interest this is something we would like to continue doing uh every two years the trip would not always remain exactly the same but still a similar experience to that uh again not academic in nature but experiential and then um giving students a time to plan and to save what we'd really like to do is get we have a great Community here we would really like to tap into that Community to um offer some scholarships to students that have Financial need to go while not in place now it's something that we would look forward to doing in the future um to give those students that opportunity to attend as well um and I the trip that I took to Paris uh the last two years ago we actually had a student it worked out great in that Community uh he was able to get some donations so that he was able to go on that trip and he was so thankful for that experience it was really really neat um trips are offered by a lot of different schools in our um in our uh conference uh Sparta Steeleville freeberg wesland and new a new aens uh offer those trips they're not school sponsored but they do offer uh the person running those trips a place to meet and or allow fundraisers for those trips Lebanon currently offers a school trip it it is a school trip they are trying to change the the leader of that trip is trying to change that so it's not school sponsored so there's not liability for the district um but it is happening around us um I think uh explorica um has taken over a million students from America on International trips over their 55 year history so um and that's just a tour itinerary that I think you have and Dr G you're going to speak to the right Mr post well first I have to commend Mr post because he has taken a lot of time with me answering all of my many questions um so this has been a work in progress and I I'm excited it's all about student opportunities right and that's exactly what Mr post and I have been working on what can we offer these students that that deserve so much um it is not a school sponsored trip that was really hard for me to wrap my brain around because we have a a School employee that's offering the trip so Dr Grody and I kind of dug into it um I had him reach out to our liability coverage indivi um carrier we do not have to do anything through um that carrier because it is offered to the company however um there was a recommendation to to go through our attorney to have all parents sign the liability waiver um that way the school is safe in that capacity um again the liability coverage through explor transparent communication with families that was extremely important to Mr post and I he can't be everywhere all the time we have to have trust we have to have some student selection process that's why that was extremely important and we as we plan together and a clear understanding of the process um we just want the to grow again kind of like what I said with CTE it takes one for the momentum to start um any questions from Mr post or myself on the possible opportunity for students to go to Europe so where do you get your chaperon so you don't want family members so normally parents are chaperon which you don't want the family members so right so it would be then one one chaperon for every five students so at Max we would have four chaperon so um I would be one of those chaperon and then we really Dr and and I will work through um that chaperon process through other teachers in our district um who are interested love right here that's we will have no shortage of people interested in going but it's really I know like when I was read I also used to teach night I taught that for years so that would be amazing I also taught Shakespeare that would be am I am going to be if this goes through the most popular teach no but yeah there will certainly be no shortage in in finding chaperons her going it's really important that the chaperons that go though run a tight ship and and it's all about the student safety and it's not I mean it's it sounds like it but it's not about a free trip for teachers because it's way more work than it's you know than a trip that you get to take to places you've been before it's really about giving those stud students that opportunity to experience those things and so a lot of times behind the scenes the chaperons are working on other things and making sure that a student who's not feeling well that day you know that you get them a Sprite or whatever so it's it's more about that what time a year do you plan to so this trip uh the quote that we have right now is June it's on the very first slide it goes to July 2nd so it' be after school is out um and it really the price fluctuates on when you go I'm just trying to make the prices um as low as possible to give that opportunity to many kids and then non-stop flights are there did we know yet so so we will fly for sure from here to um either Chic Pro we'll fly from Lambert they don't tell you exactly you fly one of the major character uh carriers but they don't tell you exactly what that flight is because they're finding the cheapest price they can um last time that I went when we went to Canada we flew through New York but when we went overseas we flew through Atlanta so it would be from Lambert to one of those International hubs and then it into in fact it tells us where we fly into um but it's not nonstop I I apologize I left mine over sorry oh yeah straight into London to and then we fly out of it tells us as well I apologize have that top of my Munich Munich thank you thank you and chaperon stay in their own rooms kids stay in their own room so there oh yeah right adult students certainly are in different rooms um and uh those rooms are decided beforehand for the students so the the best option is obviously they're rooming with their friends or people that they know which is a great thing here in Colombia because the kids all know each other and they I have been I have to tell you I've taught for 29 years before I came to this district and I am just stunned by how well these kids get along with one another and so um yeah and they don't we're not guaranteed to even be on the same floor with those students it depends on that hotel and that's why there is a certain level of trust that goes there when curfew is um we go by and check so we'll knock on the door so everybody goes to their room at 10:00 for example 10:30 you know basically is a kind of a lights out idea so at 10 20 we walk around knock on the door count heads everybody's here you're in for the night lock your door and we'll see you in the morning yeah I I will say I appreciate all the leg work you've done on this I'm very familiar with these trips and can tell you having traveled over in Europe extensively and spent time talking to other I was early 20s when I did it the first time and talking to other travel groups that we're going through because you'd see the the American travel groups like going through so I always would talk to them and see what the experiences are and the feedback from them and just you know like talking about visiting one of the you know concentration camps I'm glad it's at the end kind of sets the right tone to where they have all these positive experience and then they low grounded before they come home I mean it's real but it's there's there's a reason you put things in certain orders right so I definitely appreciate all you're doing there um I will also Echo the chaperon it is not a vacation um it it is a lot of work CU out of 20 kids you're going to have like you said a couple that don't feel well a couple that are homesick some that are just nervous about everything because they don't speak your language and the food's different and you know it's I tell you I'm scared of but it's it's awesome and when we went up the Eiffel Tower I had three students that were scared Heights and we all did it like this but we all did it keep keep back to the wall yeah I can see Mr post me a picture I can in fact I think the picture is that at the end of the slideshow and I I was like I can see I do I love this opportunity my mom was from Pakistan she took us when we were very little um overseas a lot just by herself without my dad and it was it was they were experiences that shaped my life and and my siblings lives and so I I do think it's important for kids to have an opportunity at least to get out of a bubble and to be uncomfortable in different in different parts of the world and see that there's a very big Ro out there with a lot of different people and a lot of different cultures and that's not it when you do it at a younger age it does definitely help shape that this isn't it you know and so I I think this is a fantastic opportunity and I appreciate you saying that as well because in my experience the kids really they are out of their bubble and they are uncomfortable in certain things like when we sit down to eat a meal and they're like what is this I've never seen any of this it's like you have to try it and it's amazing and at first they like I'm not you have to try it and once they do oh this is great you know well it's funny because I think even if they feel like they hat it at the time they come back and it still just changed and shaped them in in a different way you know talk about it talk about it yeah yeah so no I think this is I think it's wonderful thank you any other questions great presentation really great do we have a motion to approve we have any discussion first I think so I think they covered everything yeah you sure did very very thorough good job good job I love the idea I think it's fantastic thank you for bringing it Forward both you and and both that's it's that's what makes our community different and that's fantastic so well hearing no discussion further andbody like to make a motion to approve the student trip to Europe that was quick thank you motion Trel there you go and seconds list do I'm not sure if there's money involved let's do a roll call just in case Adam Hunkin yes Andrea Cory yes Kelly Moyer yes Greg Meyer yes Luisa schacher yes Tyson search yes Marine friedr yes congratulations you're going to Europe well hopefully kids are excited about it so and I have a feeling if you need any chaperon come on back and I think we'll probably be a find one or two for you here so all right next item is the approval for the 20252 26 school calendar all right this is in your packets and we recommend that you approve it so that we can have school next year teacher Institute days on the 12th and the 13th of August with the first attendance days on Thursday um this does put the snow days at past Memorial I know that that's not a big thing but when you've got coming back from the winter holiday on a Thursday with New Year's and whatnot it's just some years work that way way we had a lot of snow days this year so I'm sure we'll have none next year anyone know not snow snow day that said uh Administration recommends you approve the calendar as presented questions comments concerns hearing none may may like to make a motion to approve the school calendar I'll make the motion Thank you Lisa second I'll second Tyson seconds all in favor any opposed any extensions unanimous all right next is see the Furniture bids for CHS project yeah and what we did was we um pulled this out of the the larger bid specs and what what you do is you say these are the types of Furnitures we want and then you send it out to companies and the companies then bid on those Furnitures you go with the lowest bidder and then you get to then do the shopping so what we did here was we said if we're going to buy this what would it cost and everybody's got to give us the price for the same item and then we get to go through and go and and and pick out those items all of that process said uh Administration recommends the board award the furniture contract to uh of for the high school addition to circadia there were three companies circadia CI select and facilitech and circadia was the low bidder which Circ is a division of color Arts right yeah right any questions comments concerns so Chris part of this package is we are we went through and did a inventory of existing furniture and we're not buying everything new this correct this is what to supplement what we're able to reuse yes yes yes I should have made that more clear and apologize take it any other questions comments all right anybody like to make a motion to approve the bid I'll make the motion your bid thank you Adam P second I'll second Thank you Lisa roll call please Andre Cory yes Ellie Moyer yes Greg Meyer yes Lisa schacher yes Tyson search yes noran friedrick yes Adam hkin yes all right so now we're going to buy some furniture now we need some signs to let people know where the furniture is yes this this the signage went through the same process where we said we want this many signs and whether or not we actually get those many signs it's neither here nor there we go with the lowest bidder um we had three signage company Summit Craftsman and Warren Administration recommends the board award the sign contracts to Summit signs which happens to be here in local as well local as well yeah any questions comments concerns regarding the sign bid hearing none may me like to make a motion to approve the signed bid I'll make that motion thank you Adam second I'll second thank Andrea roll call please Kelly Moyer yes Greg Meyer yes Lisa shoeer yes Ty Norine friedr yes Adam hkin yes Andre Court yes thank you all all right that concludes ours for I items for Action the next one is our discussion items we'll start off with our facility study yeah um we had a meeting today went over how everything's going it's going well Logistics is always the big issue Phase 2 bids get opened next week Tuesday on the 25th at the end of the day so in March we will have a bunch of action items hopefully to award bids for Phase 2 construction um believe it or not this year there's been 23 weather days it's been very cold and it's been very wet and snowy and so we've had 3 days but we talked about it uh the goal is to get into the a into the office area in August and so over the summer we actually met with uh Kelton Davis the Roe guy today our Roe superintendent for our um project permit the building permit and then we talked about getting the occupancy permit because what's going to happen is is the office area which is in front of where the office area is now and that hallway of classrooms and then the auditorium we'll get into the office and that hallway and then those classrooms in the auditorium we might not have access to yet but we'll have partial occupancy opening up the front of the building when the front of the building is open that will allow them to then take all the fencing down those parking spaces come back to us and they take over the back and that's when phase two actually starts and so the awarding of the bids then goes with Phase 2 being built but Phase 2 can't start getting built until we've got the front doors open because our current front doors which are in the back need to be moved back to the front it's just it's all of those Logistics have have gone through and we went through while they're doing that construction what is the flow of egress for like the girls locker room or the boys locker room when they're changing should a fire alarm hit they'll have to do what we're doing now which is kind of exiting into the work area but there's going to be a a a pathway that would allow them to go out and everything so the uh Del kelon Davis was happy with all of the plans he seemed to be responsive to everything that we're doing and uh I think that was pretty much it for today well and we have a groy bridge I'm I'm going to officially take this opportunity name it the Grody Bridge the Grody Bridge your superintendent was very diligent and figured out that an egress was being blocked by some construction so he went and stopped work and we constructed a bridge over troubl concrete I guess Tri holes so the students are safe and we have our flow of ESS we do yes this is correct so anyway well thank you for that that was bridge over TBL Waters that's right triple something think rock it wouldn't be a construction project if it wasn't frustrating at points I like the groy bridge though has a ring to it sure all right Adam anything you want to add I'll take a toll for excited to see the structural steel going up and can't wait to see next week hopefully when it warms up a little and pouring more concrete so they can keep expanding to the right as well as pouring the decking very shortly there'll be no more need for a bridge because they're going to get that concrete just it's going to be level ground out there and so um yeah hopefully next week right yeah yeah as soon as it gets above degrees something about pouring concrete when it's below I believe Mr fr brought his guys out there when they were doing concrete also you brought them out for one time and you probably should get get with Donnie and bring them out there again because it is a great experience for them we've had several discussions with involving you guys' class with the construction and Mak some opportunities so they're yeah they're very willing and very aware that we want great experience Happ like a lot of construction they'd be they'd love to hire Our People Too get in line right all right anything else all right move on to individual board member comments you have anything today I have two things awesome real quick um with Mr first being here tonight that kind of made me think of before Alyssa decided to leave our district I had started working with her to possibly um have trade days like we do college days sure and I think it kind of got talked a little bit about some companies that would possibly maybe want to come to the high school and have a trade day um and it got announced to like the guidance counselors that they were supposed to kind of start working on something like that they they have I've been in communication with your neighbor yeah with the bads yeah they're calling in um Workforce Wednesdays and they're running it through their home room I didn't know it was still carrying on awesome great Workforce Wednesdays is that already started um I don't think it's already started the uh uh we're thinking of we're thinking of doing it in March yeah we're going to line someone up every one one Wednesday out of the month awesome your neighbor that works at budm talk we commun yeah and and so yeah yeah cuz I had a Converses I had a conversation with him to see if his company would be interested they went out to waterl waterl did more of a trade show but we're going with this Workforce Wednesday so um and the next thing is um when you all get your journals um if we could possibly take time to read two articles in it um page seven and eight that it it says it's all about the kids and then Pages um 28 through 30 that says amplifying student board voices three years ago was the last time that I went to the convention and I attended a couple of the breakout sessions um where schools do get students involved in becoming part of the school board meetings so it might be like a junior or a senior um you decide how many board members you want amongst the students and I thought maybe that's something that we could read this and maybe have a discussion item at our next meeting to maybe we want to start introducing that we will I made a note we'll follow up okay thank you perfect anyone else Bo's prerogative is just a very proud for me being here tonight um just the talent with the teachers and the the administration and the staff and everybody in this entire Community coming together and really doing what's best for the kids I mean it's we are we are second to none and it's a big reason because a lot of people in this room tonight so thank you all very much for for all of you do and you know it's great to do things when people are watching but it's even better when no one knows and Mr Dugan hasn't been here for a while but he was involved in a play ground resurfacing where our our was it PE gravel was not 8 compatible and just was yeah rubber mulch yeah so outside the window right exactly but but things like that that really make our district fantastic thank you Mr Dugan for all you do and everybody that what you guys do behind the scenes I mean it's it's nice to come here and get a little Applause but what you guys really do day in and day out that no one sees is is very impressive and I want to thank each and every one of you so thank you all right we do have an executive session this evening and it is for the purposes of appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of a specific employee of the public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against the employee of the public body or against the legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity pursuant to I 5il cs120 2c1 it's a mouthful all right would be like to make a motion to adj into executive session I'll make the motion thank you Kelly second I'll second Andrea Kim girl call Norine no nor I'm sorry you guys sound Al like when I'm not looking so Greg Meyer yes Lisa shoeer yes Tyson Serge yes noran Frick yes Adam Hunkin yes Andre Cory yes Kelly Moyer yes okay time is 8:18 so that concludes the meeting as Mr Gertie alluded to earlier uh we have no action items as a result if you're all more than welcome come back in here as a journ but uh we certainly understand if you don't want to so e e e all right welcome back we are Journey from executive session back in Open session there's no items for Action as a result of our executive session the only thing left is a motion to adjourn I'll second all right we have a motion at second all in favor any opposed all right concludes our meeting it's 9:10 p.m.

I pled alance to the flag of the United States of America and to theic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all that's a great way to start a board meeting I'm glad our our Roc comes and and does that for us periodically so so thank thanks to all of them for for their time and for the Pledge of Allegiance um let's start off can I get a a motion to adopt the agenda Mr President I move that to adopt the agenda removing the grading report number 5.2 will there's been a request to move it to a later uh board meeting do I hear a second I second all those in favor please signify by saying I I oppos passes 5 Z thank you next uh we'll do the uh Center of Spotlight with Middle School Central good evening my name is Jason wisman I'm proud principal of Middle School Central and here to recognize some of our staff members first I want to call up Stacy painer Stacy's joined by her family she's joined by her family uh her dad actually is a teacher in the building Mr Anderson Mrs Anderson was a uh office worker in the in the school at one time and then her husband Mr painer is also a teacher and then also her sister is a teacher in the building so Family Affair at Middle School Central so Stacy she's a sixth grade special ed education teacher prior to that she was a sixth grade teacher um she's been a special education teacher for the last couple years she has 13 and A2 years at Middle School Central 17 A2 years total in Center Grove um Stacy is a caring and DED dedicated teacher who genuinely invest in her Student Success she leads by example serving as a patient mentor and creating a classroom where every student feels valued and supported her ability to inspire and uplift makes her a gifted educator and a pleasure pleasure to work alongside thank you so much I just like to add that they had fun Polar Plunge just past weekend the whole family Family Affair there too right next I'd like to invite up Deb price Deb's joined by her family as well as uh some current and former uh teachers that worked with her as well so I think the support for our Middle School people was just absolutely great so Deb is an eighth grade special education instructional Aid and she has six years of service um at Middle School Central um along with Stacy's and Debs I had asked the teachers that they work alongside to give me some of these word kind words and then um of course I you know chat GPT them right into one nice concise concise summary after I added some of my own edits but um Deb is Deb is a dedicated and compassionate educator who goes above and beyond to support students she takes the time to thoroughly understand the math curriculum to better assist them demonstrating her commitment to their success her patience kindness and ability to build strong relationships create a supportive learning environment where students feel comfortable and encouraged she tirelessly answers questions provides individualized support and fosters confidence in those she helps her positivity and dedication have a profound impact on both students and colleagues making her an invaluable part of the team no problem thank you Deb unfortunately is going to be uh leaving us this this year it's going to be your last year so we're sad to see her go I know the eighth grade uh well yes you're not yes you're retired thank you yes thanks for clarifying yeah she's not yeah she's retiring but yes we were sad to see her go but we're also proud of her and she's worked hard to earn that so yeah next I'd like to invite up Olivia bangle I asked her to shower but she just came straight from the basketball game and threw on the sweatshirt they won it was a rivalry game versus middle school north and Olivia Olivia Olivia did a great job we I I know her parents they're both Educators and uh joked with them earlier in the year she's accomplished something I've never accomplished as a coach after a basketball game this year the referee complimented her on her great sportsmanship and Leadership so when a referee recognizes a player during the game and recogniz and says that afterwards wow that says a lot right there um some of her teachers said Olivia is the epitome of a student athlete excelling both in the classroom and on the court with unmatched Talent leadership and work ethic she leads by example always giving 100% effort while remaining humble kind and empathetic her teammates and classmates look up to her for her guidance and motivation as she is always prepared positive and willing to help others we are incredibly proud of her and have no doubt that Olivia will accomplish great things congratulations Olivia congrats I also joke with her that the news is here for her so that really made her nervous but jum in there Jas everybody [Applause] up so I appreciated the answer I asked Olivia how much she scored and she said I'm not sure and I said well how much did you win by she said probably over 20 so that's the team right there more important about how the team did than how she did so that was a fabulous answer it wasn't a trick question but a fabulous answer so uh moving moving on now we've got a report from on climate and Survey by uh Christy burer hello good evening everybody I'm here to give a quick update around our climate and culture survey that we took earlier in October in November and so just wanted to give some reminders and background if you want to go to the next slide Kristen um just about what school climate is and what we were looking for in our survey so first we surveyed um our students our staff families um and we really wanted to look at the perception of the norm goals values relationship ship teaching and learning and also our organization structures that's what really creates climate and culture and so that's what we were hoping to look at there are five domains in this specific survey um of climate that we look at and the first is safety then we're also looking at teaching and learning interpersonal relationships our institutional environment and the leadership and efficacy in our buildings so I'm going to share just our district um summaries and so you'll see I'm going to go through the different uh domains here but you'll see our students response is the blue staff is red and our family is the green and on the next slide you can see um how many responses we had so um when we worked with this company they said to really shoot for 80% for your students so we were on track with that um we would have loved to see our staff a little bit higher but we know this season it's our staff gets a lot of surveys and so we we're encouraged by the 60% we received that's actually 618 responses from our staff and then when I first saw the family percentage I was like gosh that feels kind of low but they said that their goal is 10% so they were really impressed by that and so we were over 1,200 of our families responded and a lot of secondary which they also said we don't normally see that so that was exciting to see the response that we had from our families so I'm going to go into the different domains here and at the top you'll see um what's the scale and so if it is red in the background that would be a negative perception if it's yellow neutral positive obviously is what we want and that is for 3.6 and above and so one thing I did want to point out is in all of the there's five domains but there's 14 dimensions and all of the dimensions except for one we were in the positive range so I think that's really exciting about the work that we've been doing over the last few years um I'm not going to go through all of this but I do want to highlight um District wide what are we looking at as far as celebrations and then what are the areas that we need to look and dig a little bit deeper to see what we can do um to support our students and families so a strength of ours was physical security and I know um when Dr long and I were looking at this we were like oh man safety is kind of lower than we thought but the physical security which we've worked really hard on was our one of our highest points so we're really proud of the work that that has been done our lowest um for the entire survey which we weren't super surprise was that social emotional security and so that's when we're talking about how do we feel treated at school do we feel like we have the skills to handle some of our emotions when we're disregulated and you'll see that was kind of the lowest and the one that was in more of that um neutral space another area for growth and this is something that our administrative team is working hard on is that Online safety so we know with the Ever Changing social media and our students being online how can we be more intentional in providing um those strategies for our students when they're posting things researching things how do we really come around and support them in those space you'll see our students rate in the themselves a little bit higher um which isn't super surprising there but with our staff and family that's definitely a place for us to look at as a district so then we'll move into teaching and learning and teaching and learning um these were really great we were excited to see the scores again all being in that positive one of the things that stood out to us though as a district and a cabinet team was looking at the support for academic learning where our staff rated us at a 4.6 and our students and families were lower than that and is that because our students and families aren't aware of the resources they don't know how to ask for help um or what is that Gap there and so how do we make sure that again we're making sure that our students and family are aware of the different supports that are provided for each of our students um just as our staff is the next two domains we kind of put together is relationship and environment and so we put these together because they obviously go hand inand so again I'm really proud of our scores all being in the positive range uh we want to celebrate that school connectedness we know that that's one of the foundation skills for all of our students and families to feel like they belong in our community and all of those were positive so we're proud of that work we'd like to dig into that teacher student relationship again our staff rating that higher than our students and our families um and how can we look at that and dig a little bit de deeper again this report that I'm sharing is just the overarching our teams are able to look at the specific questions and kind of see which questions we were a little bit lower in so you can move to that next slide Kristen yep both of those were positive pretty s similar amongst all the stakeholders which is always great to see and the last one is just about our district leadership and efficacy and our school buildings so this is only a staff question um and those were both positive so we were excited to see that so then that takes us to where do we go now what's our work um so our goal is that 80% of our students and families will report strongly agree or agree in the positive range that they feel welcome safe and supported in Center grve Schools and so I'm going to give a little overview of where we are on that goal um on the next slide so students first you'll see we're really going to celebrate teaching and learning um those interpersonal relationships and the environment we've already met that goal or passed that goal so we're excited for that safety again is the goal that we're going to focus in on and again not the physical safety more of that emotional safety and that Online safety for our students and the next one is our family responses and we have two areas to work in in this space um again the safety and those interpersonal relationships our parents um rated that teacher to- student relationship a little bit lower and also peer conflict which ties into that emotional security so I'm really proud of the places that we are excelling and the last time that we did this survey was in 2019 and there were a couple successes from that um first was in 2019 our students only rated us at 52% positive on physical safety and this time around it was 86% so we're really proud of that growth over the last few years and for parents in 2019 um they rated us at a 69 positive percent and it's up to 75% um this time around so again really really excited about the growth that our school buildings have really been working hard to do and that kind of leads us into our next steps so we've collected our data we've looked at the data um our building levels have started to dig into the data I know several of our buildings looked at it um on waiver days and we're able to take some of that information to their guiding Coalition um and even get some parent feedback for that so we're excited tonight's step four sharing with all of our stakeholders um and then as we continue through this semester we will work with our admin team um they'll work with their guiding coalitions to create a goal and a plan around students staff and families and we'll put that into our school Improvement plan um so that that keeps us accountable to continue to work on our climate and culture of our buildings so just a quick overview of the work we've done um we're excited to see how this plays into the strategic planning we've been working hard on um and just wanted to bring you all an update does anyone have any questions for for chrisy Burger great progress thank you it's very uh very good to hear the physical safety Improvement I know the district's invested a lot in a lot of different areas and to hear that being acknowledge and recognizes is good to hear so thank you Mr Daniels if I could I want to mention that we've provided this all this data to our strategic planning uh the people that are helping us with our strategic planning because we want to take as much data as we can get uh to to help develop our strategic plan and Mrs Conrad's done a great job of gathering all kinds of data and shared that but this is going to be one of those pieces that we share with them as well great keep it up any other questions or comments Now we move on um to the public comments and there are three individuals who have signed up they have to be on specific agenda items I have April McCracken and and Angie langum who've signed up without both okay time change thank you so we have three people who've signed up to speak tonight and I'll just go in the order they signed up we'll start with uh will hibner and when you when you speak if you could identify yourself um by name and address we give you three minutes to speak Mr Alexander his secretary gets to be the stop clock he'll he'll give you a little warning about 30 seconds in awesome um but thanks for coming and we look forward to hearing from you awesome uh so I am will hner I'm a science teacher at Middle School Central I appreciate the opportunity to talk in front of the board today um I uh obviously have a vested interest in the the well-being of our students the performance of our schools um you know the students that we have in our classrooms and so when it came to the uh proposed start start time changes uh decided to go back to the research that this all kind of sprang from and went back to the American Psychological association's initial report done in 2014 uh to look at the benefits of such a uh delayed start time and so reading the report looking at um the recommendations that teens should receive 8 to 10 hours um citing that teens under that limit um are risking higher risk of depression suicide substance abuse car crashes which are already the leading causes of death amongst teenagers so um based on the the medical professional opinion I see that this is a valuable step forward uh the recommendation in that um study was that start time should start no earlier than 8:30 a.m.

you know how they they're not doing their job you can be Pro any and agenda but to be a fair City Counsel you have to go okay listen thank you for coming tonight thank you for bringing this but let's you know we'll report back on this in 30 60 90 days and do a little bit more information you have 20 people come and yell and scream at you and then you change your whole policy that night in a meeting right that's not good government because I used to tell people all the time the will of the room is not the will of the people