Reader

the following day is the Fort Ben Winter Market from 4: to 7 and that is at the government center every Thursday there is the golden hour game day from 11: to 12 and that is at the Lawrence Community Center some things that we are hoping to do and I've spoken with Dr Smith and I know he will be meeting with the mayor this week is to talk about how we can get our students involved in the wonderful activities that are transpiring in our city an example of that this spring is the clean up day on April 22nd which coincides with Earth Day um they're looking for volunteers and in the past have had Key Club members and other um members of our school Community Support that is from 7:30 to 12:30 um in April we also have the oioo opening baseball day and so um looking for ways that our students can get involved in participating um in a variety of different Fashions um throughout the year in our wonderful City of Lawrence so thank you thank you Miss dun board thank you for those great updates at this time we will move on to our action items action item 5.1 is the approval of our resolution for the school board on the First Amendment lease the bonds and related matters Dr Smith I'm honored to do this on behalf of our CFO I recommend the board approve the resolution of the board School Board confirming the First Amendment lease and approving the bonds and related matters as submitted board I'll entertain a motion sorry oh that's okay make a motion to move we have a second second all right all in favor of the approval of these of the First Amendment lease and bonds related matters say i i i i all right sounds like a affir guys have it no nay all right board any comments further okay all right we will move on to 5.2 um Dr Smith will present um approval of resolution approving the additional appropriation of BR Bond proceeds thank you madam president members of the board I recommend the board approve the resolution of the school approv board approving the additional appropriation of Bron proceeds as submitted I'll entertain a motion so moved second all right properly moved and properly seconded Miss Pucket Miss um Lawrence all in favor say I I I I all right the eyes have it any other comments board not we will move on to action item 5.3 approval of the request to advertise RFP for catering Dr Smith and thank you madam president I'm honored to bring to you board as you recall Mr miles our CFO appr uh presented to you the approval or the request to advertise for RFP for catering for the Le for the new LCC and so now I recommend that the board approve the request to advertise the RP for catering as submitted all right board do we have a motion so moved second all right properly moved and seconded Miss D Miss Lawrence thank you board all in favor say I I I all opposed all right the eyes have it any comments about the RFP I just want a yog we'll check on that Miss La some good food all right so we will move on to 5.4 approval of the Neola policy updates Dr harshbarger Madam president Dr Smith members of the board earlier this evening I brought forward for second reading the all of volume 37 number one revision packet as such I now recommend the board approve the policy revisions as submitted thank you Dr harsh Barger I'll entertain a motion for the approval so moved second all right properly moved and seconded Miss Dunn and Miss Pucket all right all in favor I I all right properly moved all all are in favor all right any comments about the Neola policy updates all right at this time we will move on to action item 5.5 approval of the board minutes Dr M Holland that's okay we can have we can have a movement for consent agenda as well yes it is a consent no that was my fault I moved to I so sorry that that was my fault I moved the approval of the consent agenda items 5.5 to 5.12 all right that was fun look girl look so sorry I'm like oh how's this gonna work today do we have a second I second that oh I can't second I can't second I will second that okay all right so we have all in favor say I I I okay so we have a movement for the approval of the consent agenda now entertain a mo a motion for the approval of consent agenda we have a I move okay yes I move approval consent agenda thank you Miss Laurence second and Miss done properly moved and seconded all right all in favor I I I okay the consent agenda has been approved thank you board uh there are a lot of items on here it's part of our business piece that we do um but it is noted too that in the consent agenda are fundraisers field trips donations the a lot of these are from the community and are imperative for our students to be successful so we thank everyone who has donated and also um these are crucial again like I said field trips approvals those are all very important claims business so thank you for that board and at this point we will move on to our board comments I'll start down here miss Dunn you know it's interesting that you started with me because one of the things I was thinking about is if you don't take a moment to look at the things that have been donated it's really interesting so we have a gentleman who donated a 2004 Mazda Tribute um we've got the roller cave that um awarded 10,000 attendance Awards and merits and so it's just a reminder of the importance that everyone plays in our community and the support that we are so incredibly grateful for um and I just encourage all of those who are um constituents in the community to make sure that your voices are heard at the State House to protect our public schools to make sure that we are um singing from one sheet of music because this is what makes Lawrence great is this wonderful school district and we need everybody to continue to Advocate on behalf of the school district so uh I just thought that those those Mr Michael cranfill whoever you are thanks for your Mazda thanks Luke for your Roller Cave just thank you everybody for this wonderful Township it is appreciated well said Miss lawence uh I was not here last um last board meeting or our working session because I had a work obligation and could not be here um so I did not get an opportunity to wish everyone happy black history month so happy Black History Month to everybody that we serve with on the deis um and everyone within our district and also thank you to um Dana for posting all of the Black History Month reminders that you do I read every one of them and it's um it's wonderful to see so that's it for me oh also real excited about I didn't want I I'll I'll let somebody else let somebody else all right thank you Miss Lawrence Miss Pucket yeah I I'm I am gonna wait and let you have that one because those last six seconds I'm just GNA say those last six seconds I don't think I've sweated that that hard in my life um I have no other comment than to publicly apologize for not for not having my consent I was I apologize Dr malland I yeah thing about being new is I don't didn't quite know so thank you for publicly apologize I have no comment it's okay we've had a lot of reading going on so a lot of things going in here all right Dr M Holland well I'm I I appreciate U Miss dun's comments uh about the support needed at the state house and I just um appreciate everyone who's been uh ring for uh support for public schools and I take that word very seriously I don't want to say a whole lot but that word Public Schools just making sure that we um hold people accountable to what that means when they're going to use that so public schools and um appreciate all the work that that has been done um I know you two were at the State House this past week and um appreciate your time and everyone um out there thank you thank you Dr M Holland um I did want to take a short moment to um we've lost one of our own here recently um many of us know Mr Jim Hardy one of our safety officers and I just wanted to offer condolences and prayers to his family um he was truly a genuine contributing member to our our Township and just somebody who lit up the room and somebody who genuinely got to know the students and care about them as individuals so I just wanted to acknowledge that um on on a on another note um thank you board for your comments this is a very busy time um I'm grateful for the unity and for the advocacy that's going on um with us and with other districts um State House day was amazing there were uh board members across the whole state of Indiana rule Urban suburban and just everyone just like Mr hardy I mean so many people people care about our students in our public schools which serve you know 90% of the students in Indiana so so thank you everyone for the work you're doing so at this time I'll turn it over to Dr Smith I am ready Grant n we get to the microphone we are certainly celebrating excellence in Lawrence Township because we are back at the state championship again Dr nesb tell the board what's happening and what to expect Saturday sure uh let let's start off with a little boasting that we can all do collectively uh if you look at the last seven years five of those seven years Lawrence Township had a team in the State basketball finals that's pretty impressive folks Mo most schools as you know never make the state finals at all to five in the last seven years we've had a team down there at gamebridge so that's that's impressive we thought we'd be back there this year we didn't necessarily think it be Lawrence North they they they ended the season unranked started the season 3 and three had a four-game losing streak in January but that's why they played the tournament because it's who's going to get on the streak and who's going to win and they're on a eight game winning streak they're going to take on number two uh excuse me number five ranked Warsaw the Warsaw Tigers another factoid for you because I'm an old history teacher 1976 Title Nine passes we host the state's first girls basketball tournament Warsaw Tigers won it later that fall Lawrence North opened its do all right so that's just an old history teacher I could go up here I could go for an hour up here but uh so what's going to happen is at 6 o' the 3A game is going to be played the they only guesstimate what time we're going to tip off for the 4A game for with the uh the big schools 8:15 is the published approximate time experience tells us because we've been down there five the last 7 years it's probably be closer to 8:30 uh CU 6A they're going to their their medal ceremony and whatnot as they should so it'll be a late night and don't forget you have a late night Friday night with the Gayla too so get some rest during the day Saturday uh we're going to cheer them on about 8:30 at gamebridge Saturday night is there anything any other questions next week what's going to happen oh okay sure then we Flip Flip the page again when you're in Lawrence Township there's really no break between girls and boys basketball state tournament so next week we host the boys state tournament as it starts the section will start and wouldn't you know it what also seems like five out of seven years but may be uh Lawrence Central and Lawrence North JW each other for the first game so Tuesday night uh LC and Ln will play at 7 o'clock in round one of the tournament and that is all at LC they publish time is six o'clock but LC is playing there at 7 uh they give the schools latitude either Tuesday or Wednesday excuse me they're going 7:00 and I'm sure that's get more people there and be able to get their other teams in and out of the gym so 7:00 uh tip off Tuesday night LCL versus Ln winner will play uh war on Friday night and then the winner North Central Tech on Saturday for the championship Miss Lawrence Miss Lawrence jump in there my uh trumpet playing son would be REM he'd be really angry that I didn't also note that it's state solo and on emble contest this weekend so good luck to all of our students who are competing at stat Sol Ensemble and I believe the um swimming state is this week as well right just a lot of of greatness all right all right well thank you Dr nebet all right well our next meeting is a combined work session and meeting it will be here on Monday March 17th at 5:30 p.m.

thanks for your hard work everybody

e e e good evening everyone welcome to the to February 24th Board of Education me meeting in accordance with the open public meetings Act njsa 10 4-6 adequate notification of this meeting has been Prov has been provided by advertising in the record please stand for the flag salute flag the United States of America na indivisible please stand for a moment thank you week all right uh Miss D if you could please take a roll call Mr Taylor pres Mr MOS pres Mr ferino pres yet not station pres Mr Gaba presid Dr P roek presid Mr Moo pres M Sanchez Mr KES Mr Ramos President we have a quum all right at this time we'd like to move forward um work session I mean a work session uh vote on minutes uh motion to vote on the minutes 3.1 through [Music] 3.2 so moved motion by Miss Sanchez seconded by Mr poino uh Mr Mr Taylor hi mros hi Mr fukino hi Mr Gaba hi Dr P I had a 3.1 I was absent for 3.2 so I'll abstain Mr Malo i m Sanchez Mr killes [Music] I Mr Ramos all right motion Carri my okay no problem so Mr Mr Taylor's mrl change his vote to an exension okay continuing on U superintendent report please thank you Mr President good evening everyone welcome to the February meeting um we have a few presentations tonight and then we'll get to a report that I have um I hope everyone had a great break uh we also have on the agenda tonight uh the calendar which I made public uh which I'm hoping the board votes on tonight um for next year uh with regard to the school year uh you'll see on that calendar there are um several more half or single session professional development days uh there are a few other things that are on there with regard to uh you know stuff for curriculum uh this is a newer calendar than the district might be used to with with with uh in consideration for laying out um specific steps if there is an extra emergency they that's needed Etc what I try to do is I try to put uh be transparent with what days would be taken in order so you can prepare uh sorry you could plan your vacations and and whatnot um there uh there was uh there was a suggestion that was made to for the board to uh look at um uh taking away the uh the break that we had last week so that we can um we can move uh School the dismissal of school or the end of school year um six days earlier five or six days earlier to try to stay away from some of the heat in late June because I know that was an issue when I was here um last year uh when I when I was going to those meetings those May meetings and a lot of the parents and teachers and whatnot we're talking about that uh after speaking to the unions uh who I'm guessing got feedback from everyone uh the board uh the recommendation now is to keep that February break um which is you know which is fine just again um trying to do the best we can to mitigate that heat uh at the end of the at the end of the year so that's on there too I also want to uh mention um uh 9.15 on the agenda is a donation from Spencer Savings Bank uh an incredible donation that we've been working on with them um for a Jumbotron scoreboard um which with your uh acceptance tonight and then on Wednesday we're going to meet with the bank to accept the check um just an incredible partnership with this bank I know you all know that already um our board board offices are on top of the bank however uh a Jumbotron like this I've only seen maybe one maybe two districts um the thought is to order this immediately we've had the specs ready to go so we could hopefully get it working and programmed for by June so we can use it for the graduation which would be great um I I had the uh opportunity to have that for one of my children uh years ago and uh as they're getting their diploma on the Jumbotron their picture goes up there and and it's really a great opportunity for families and our students so uh so we're really excited about that so that's on there uh tonight as well so um so to start this off why don't we uh turn it over to the student government board Liaisons who are here uh and uh whatever you guys uh have planned for us let us know yes we have a presentation prepared you guys got the link to it do we have the link okay good evening everyone we're here to present our Student Government presentation to summarize everything we've done the past month so first of all from February 10th to the 14th we had our spirit week and we had a lot of student requests for these days we had meme day where they dressed up as their favorite memes we had Generations day where freshmen were uh babies toddlers uh sophomores were elementary school children Juniors were working adults and seniors were senior citizens and on Wednesdays from the popular movie Mean Girls we selected Wednesdays we were pink uh Thursday was perfect pair so an example of that would be like someone dresses as peanut butter and someone dresses a as jelly and then for Friday the National Honor Society um hosted their PJ dat um PJ pant day here are some pictures our teachers and our students collaborated together um we have a bunch of pictures from generation day um these are just all the pictures we also had our career night which was very exciting it was on February 12th at 6: p.m.

e e e well okay I got 6:30 Julie would you call the rooll please certainly Cara Caston CHR ESP here Terry pavich here Don Runner here rean Hashim hereas thank you very much than jie having AUM stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right HK first order of business be student recog turn it over the I don't know who from North High is coming up comece okay all right all right good evening everyone um it is my wonderful pleasure to begin our meeting tonight with a student recognition and we are really really happy and excited to introduce to you Nathan Cisco who got fifth place in state in boys bowling a few for athletics uh Mr Dave Rose and he's going to talk about Nathan because you also might be wondering how we have a state bowler with no boys bowling team yet so hey all right good evening everyone um tonight I have a great privilege of recognizing an athlete who has not only excelled uh in his sport but in doing so has paved the way for future Bowlers at Downers Grove North uh for the past four years Nathan Cisco uh has represented dgn as an individual bowler qualifying for sectionals both his freshman and junior year this year senior year Nathan's goal was to qualify for the state tournament and he did just that Nathan entered the state tournament with confidence he said he was not focusing on the pressure but rather on enjoying the moment and competing at the highest level after Friday's qualifying rounds Nathan was ranked 24th in the state averaging an impressive 25.7 pins Nathan made a few adjustments and took that same confidence into the finals on Saturday finishing an incredible fifth in state with an average of [Applause] 222.jpg North we are so incredibly proud of your achievements your hard work leadership and love for the game will leave a lasting impact on dgn and we cannot wait to see all you you accomplish in your academic and bowling career at Grand Valley State University Nathan [Applause] congratulations all right uh any questions from for Nathan from the board I'm impressed with uh his bowling score that's for sure it's not an easy task I know have you bold a 300 I have yes I had two of them two very good very good very good so you play at Grand Valley is there uh or compete at Grand Val I'm going this Thursday to practice with the team and officially sign with their team wow oh fabulous fabulations so are you a Kingpin or a big leowski fan kingpin's a great movie definitely say that but kind of Go My Own Way oh good luck to you that's awesome yes very good very good all right as we do with all state finishers we invite you forward to get a picture with the board not be just a to be up in the front here and we'll all kind of stand around you it's important that you got to be in the [Laughter] middle students we go come on don't be sh be in the second row all right one two three say strike open work congratulations we're so proud of you yes you see never enough space it seems like okay um next item of business is the approval of minutes can I get a motion from the Board of Education to approve the January 27 2025 business meeting minutes the January 27 2025 Clos meeting minutes the February 3rd 2025 Workshop meeting with action item minutes and the February 3rd 2025 closed meeting minutes minutes so moved second moves K seconds thank you very much Christoph Espinosa hi Ken Dawson I cherelle fuller hi Jenny hagstrom hi Terry pavich I'm abstaining I didn't come to the third Eric Caston I don rener motion carries thank you all right item five Julie do we have any visitors next reception second reception okay and I'll turn it over to you Hank item number six get there all right I will turn this over to Gina uh and Scott who will be leading along with some of our other members of the administrative team on two of the indicators and measures within the Strategic plan uh grades and interventions all right so I'm going to go ahead and start tonight as Hank said um Scott and I worked with our team of associate principles on two of our indicators uh one indicator relates to grades and the other to interventions so we thought it made sense to present on both um at the same time and so we will be looking at grades first with that I'm going to turn it over to our associate principles for curriculum instruction Keith Pals from Downers North and Jake Giblin from Downers South and then when we transition to looking at interventions um we I will turn over with Sarah coring to from South and Aaron Ludwick from North who are associate principles for student Support Services I have the clicker so they could just give me a sign of when they want me to progress to the next slide okay good good even good evening everybody my name is Keith Pals I'm the associate principal for curriculum instruction at North High nice to be with you again um so before I talk about uh the report on grades for the first semester at North High just just uh highlight some interven that our wonderful teachers Implement on a daily basis I'd like to we have two that are highlighted up there that are new this year um Jake um really helped out with putting this together so as the apis for cni we do send specific um targeted email blasts to students who are struggling in their parents at certain point points in the year um that email uh with Jake's support and putting that together also indicates where they might their teacher would have office hour and what other supports are around the building for that particular course um that they may have a struggle in so it's a very targeted email uh aligned with those supports the other intervention that we've started this year and we're hoping to continue to next year uh is we're sectioning right now is math 3 lab this is an opportunity for students who may be struggling in math 3 um and may have not um had the success that they wanted or their teacher was hoping to support them on on on an assessment and then what they do is they go and um they go to a math 3 lab during for half of their lunch um and it's really targeted on supporting them for that for that time on those um maybe a deficit or something they're struggling with in math 3 and that's been very successful this year so we hoping to continue that as well but both of those are new for this year um Gina and then um we listed some other academic interventions that of course are um going on as well uh throughout the course of the year so there two slides on those interventions um so for grades a report out on grades for the first semester should I say beep that's kind of my thing right um so for uh sorry um so for this first semester at North High these are um all grades um earned C or better so um 95.24% of all grades at North High are AC or better um that's kind of trending along as has been for the last couple of years our next slide is on uh individual students who may have a d ORF so 16% 16 and a half% of students at North High right now um for that seme last semester we just finished will have a d or F and those again are individual students so whereas the last slide was uh all encompassing grades um and that is uh has been trended down and kind of leveled off in the last year MH and the next slide ARD for South High I'm Jake Giblin I'm the South High API um similar idea this is for all grades uh given uh 91% of those grades are C or better at South High when we look at individual students on the next slide um 29% of our students at South High um have at least one drf so as we get ready for the next slide what I want to point out is when we connect this to the goal the goal is for all students to have a c or better or to be individually intervened with so of the slides that have been shown we're going to be talking about the 29% of students at South and the 16% of students at North in regards to they didn't make the Seer better for every class so we're trying to see and assess whether or not they've been intervened with individually so the way we attempted to do that was we took a look at echool and if there was any type of Cs so counseling uh social work whatever intervention that was in the system and any intervention and I'll be careful with that in Tac related to a DF parent contact we counted those and if those were there we credited as that student had an individual intervention through this process so if we go to the next um page one of the things that we'll talk about when we get to the actual numbers is that of all of these Tac interventions that are there the one that's highlighted is the one we pulled okay that's the one we asked teachers to use what you're going to here for me is that they didn't all use that as the one that they registered so when we take a look at some of those numbers I just want to put that in context there are many other places where they could have put some sort of intervention including caregiver Conta any of those things that you see up there but we were looking specifically at DF report okay so when we look at I think we it's all right South High will be after we'll go over both it'll be great um so for South High based on those two metrics all students who finish with at least one d uh 72.5% of them had one of those interventions in either Tac or echool at least one that showed that they had been contacted so that means 27.5% of the that fractional 29% that's out there um still we just didn't have something in our system that said that they were intervened with this shows for FS it was 90.8% of those students had at least one of those types of contacts therefore just over 9% did not so if our goal is to get to 100% this is our Baseline data couple things we know we need to look at potentially some other areas where Tech is um tracing these for instance just caregiver contact is something that teachers might use there are also some teachers who might not have logged it but these are things we're going to continue to work in as we go forward you'll see similar numbers for North High um so Baseline data was uh similar 25.9% for D's 12.4% for FS still looking for something in those categories that did not show up so before we go any further are there any questions about any of that that we've presented so far I have a question so is did you focus on the contact home for DF report because that's like the protocol like why didn't you look at the other yeah or just that was too too big of an exercise to undertake no I I wouldn't call it too big it's just when we initially had all of the the conversations and we were asking people to track these correct we were trying to do it and we're just going to have to broaden it now some of that will be helped when we move to uh Infinite Campus which has easier reporting abilities and it's a little less cumbersome for teachers for those who just didn't enter one maybe necessarily but um some of that will be us also thinking of different ways to try to capture all of that as well so give you an example of that what we know about um from using echool the the report that I shared that Jake helped us build which has the office hours piece like all those things that are connected to that one course that a student may be struggling with um we had to go through a whole bunch of mail merges and everything to make to make that happen in Infinite Campus it's one of the reports that we can we can send out so it will make this a lot easier and on the other side for teachers to put things into the system it should be a lot easier right now as Jak mentioned and that's not track here either like that while every student who fell into that category received one of those from both of our schools mhm that's not what we were tracking here we were trying to track individual teacher or counselor work with a student right so just to be clear Jake and Keith we likely reached out to those families almost every unless it was like a last minute because of a final exam or whatever likely every student with the drf we made some kind of contact with both the student and the parents about their progress but under this metrics that we've developed in the standards and expectations we've developed here this is where we're not meeting that criteria that we established as part of the Strategic plan metric and goal yes yes am I stepping ahead by asking this but do we have uh data on how well that intervention um increase their grade or their um question ability to you know uh raise their grade uh because that to me is what's really important is is that we help them achieve a goal you know I there is some individual data we have on the south side that I have to analyze cuz we we pulled some targeted data about students who had only one drf and were coming to school regularly so we were trying to siphon out chronically absent or students with multiple Ds and Fs and give teachers like a a focused Target area one of the things I will be doing I be honest I have not had a chance to analyze it is kids on that initial report how many were on there at the end and you know seeing you know if teachers were able to intervene to change um the the the direct correlation more globally I don't I don't think we have necessarily pull anything that would give us I just would like to see our our students succeed and and if this intervention is succeeding then that's a really good thing and we should we should be well really the intention of the goal the way the goal is written is to just ensure that nobody falls through the cracks right that's step one all right is to make make sure that we're communicating well that everybody knows the opportunities and those kinds of that's why the goal's written the way it is okay you know and then it's the work that we do within the buildings led by Keith and Jake as to how effective that is and how we can do that better but step one and which is the board's goal is like nobody falls through the cracks right and that's what we're measuring right now for the board okay because I think they're yeah this is there steps that that inter intertwine you know correct and you you'll hear more about those interventions in a second but you know I'm sorry I didn't mean to go ahead okay but and obviously we're not reporting out on every little you know everything that we do right these are Big overarching goals and indicators Step One is recognizing that the kids have challenges make sure that they know make sure that their families know and make sure that we're reaching out in the ways that we've set expectations for to make sure that that's communicated and is 25.9% realistic or we instead of that we've missed them or is that I I think it's likely that it's it's far lower than that I think part of it is in the reporting some of it's in the the gaps of what we didn't pull from tac um so I think it's that is the highest level possible is what I would call it I I think it's the worst case scenario yes okay all right I'm sorry I'm just trying to get a handle jump in real quick if you go to the slides that talk about um it's a little earlier where we look at those percentages of like South was at 29% of the students and then North was at 16 that would be the the metrics to look at over time every semester every year are we seeing that number go up or down and then that helps to re-evaluate the programming that we're doing one of the pieces that we I I think we all believed in was that parent communication was kind of a critical piece and so we that's why honestly we did Target the parent uh contact piece and like Jake and Keith were saying and I know Aaron and Sarah have said to me too that um you know when you look at um there's so many anomalies out there like for example Hank reference Gan and I when we were looking at the data we saw students that all of a at the very end ended up with a D in a class well I mean that's hard to then intervene right if you're ending up with a D in December um and you were doing a c work all the way um so to what we're trying to build is we have IPR which is our weekly grades and so we're going to start building pieces to try to look at that because that was a piece that we talked about as well U you know but think of the anomaly of how this works I mean students could end up with a D in their sixth week of school but then end up being fine the rest of the way um you know and those are hard pieces to track over 4,000 you know some kids of how that all works so this is our metric and this is what we chose to do and I will admit like when we looked at the data in terms of like that caregiver like Jake mentioned we did not count that but that would credit to lower those numbers but we felt like we needed to start somewhere so for example even in C S we saw a lot of scenarios where our CA staff used like an academic contact instead of the parent contact we have like our our note types that designate that totally fine but we wanted to just pull data that we could kind of be consistent with if we choose to which I don't think we will but if we choose to expand that to the caregiver and others I mean we could do that but we're trying to keep the data for our first run like kind of tight of what we felt would be a good way to show you and I really think the slides and I know Arwin and Courtney had spoke a lot about we talk a lot about the student dies and Fs and what we're going to do to intervene like that 16% and that 29% but I think that's the measure that will tell us um over time you know how we're doing with all our programming okay all right if that Mak sense thank you sorry remember this year is your like Baseline reading right it's from this year that we establish what work we should be doing what is our priority goal you know and what is our biggest Focus coming into next year and then we'll come back and indicate how that may or may not have changed in terms of the contact do you are you counting like are is it an email or an acknowledgement by the parent or whoever you sent it to that it's it's when so it it could be an email phone call it we just have a what we call our note type but the note types are like our interventions and so when we have just parent contact that means it's either an email could be an in-person meeting it could be a phone call um any of those would be parent contact um just like in the the um tax system for the teachers it's the dnf contact and it says parent contact so it could be an email it could be a phone call might be an in-person meeting um you know and that's what we're looking at is when we're running this Conta so it's I mean I'm just saying like you didn't just send an email cuzz it and call it like done like you've actually gotten an acknowledgement from the parent or the recipient yeah honestly many times that the emails go out and sometimes it's a preferred method of parents are like please email me and then that you'll see the follow-up emails all that so more questions sorry substantial enough that a teacher took the time to record that they made that Outreach right so this isn't like the normal just like email blast of the whole blast thing yeah and this is truly the first time we put together data like this not that we weren't looking at data but to actually kind of structure it and put it together and we know um I think Erin said it best in one of our meetings she's like you know it's like kind of what we learned from our process and looking at um you know how we did put this together um and and again I think it's really good to in just my opinion like our parent communication you know is vital and essential and and that and so we we know these numbers are not exactly perfect right now because of the anomalies um and as we move through this we'll refine it and see that oh you know C plus will use the parent contact or we'll find ways to look at the other pieces to say okay behind the scenes we'll put it in there and say that that's an intervention um so we'll we'll be working through that process and that kind of leads to Sarah and Aon to talk with you about the intervention through CS tag team thank you and thanks Keith and Jake yeah thank you welcome to act two I'm Sarah Corrington I'm the associate principal for student services at South and I'm Aaron lewick I'm the associate principal for student support services at North and we have an opportunity tonight to talk to you about the second part of this school which is how our interventions look in student support services and how those interventions duvail with everything that Jake and Keith just shared next slide please all right so here's the good news we do many many interventions in many different ways in CS and um you can see from this infographic that's the many different ways that's not all of them but that those are many of the ways that we work to support students um the world of intervention the best way to describe it is really wraparound service it's not clean it's not that one thing happens and then another and a straight line we work at supporting students from all different levels in all different ways so often if a student initially presents with maybe an academic concern or a grade concern what we find out that is that we have to actually support them in um other ways communicate with other members of the team both in the building and outside of the building and this is a good representation of what that looks like in our world I think in the time that Aaron and I have been in this role what we have seen is um we're continuing to look at more ways to support students and College and Career that bubble is growing as is 504 and Alpha and assist we're getting better at making sure we meet students students where they're at all right so if you remember when Sarah and I came to visit you first semester uh we talked about some tier one and tier two interventions so when we talk about interventions we talk about tiered interventions which means we have some that are available to all those are aspects like our counseling curriculum that's um our tutoring centers so things that are available to all students they can freely access um and then when when we find that students need a little bit more um we move into tier 2 some examples of that would be our guided study initial placements um so maybe you're not visiting the tutoring center on your own so we need to add a level of intervention that may attaches an attendance code to that which then communicates to your parents naturally and has another adult your responsible with so that's just a little bit extra a little more love um there and then another example would be our student support with past structure I do think that falls into tier two because while a student can say to a teacher can I get a pass for access the teacher can also determine like hey our after school or after class quick conversations aren't enough so let me give you a pass so we can talk more individually um and then what we're going to talk about today are the tier three plans and so at the the intervention triangle that's at the top of the triangle those are the fewest number of students who require that individual problem solvings and plans but they do require that from us and so that's what we're going to share a little bit about today um so one aspect and honestly it was a key aspect as to why I took the job in d99 was that there were wellestablished Alpha teams um so you'll hear at any presentation you come to when Sarah and I are able to get a microphone and talk about what we're proud of um we'll talk about the alpha teams um because what that is it's a team of professionals that team around a case load of kits it's called Alpha Team because most often that's determined by the alphabet it's by um you know your last name um and then you have a team of professionals that all work with that group of students on the slide you'll see who it consists of underneath the number to it's our counselors our social workers our Deans our saps we miss putting the nurse and the psychology just on there um and Student Success coordinator um so that is the team so the first step and task of the team in CS is to identify who needs interventions so we do have a report that runs called the Alpha Team dashboard that's a safety net um you'll see on some data slides later we're catching students far outside of that safety net because we're identifying that they need a good conversation earlier than that um but the first step is to identify the students who tier one and tier two is not working in the building um then those Alpha teams meet most often they eat meet weekly bi-weekly um throughout the school year they build an agenda they put the names of students on those agendas we are tasked with any student who's on that actual five Labs list goes on the agenda but then service providers can put other students on that agenda for problem solving um when I used to sit in Alpha teams as the department chair um there was a variety of reasons that students would come to team some it's just they know hey I'm working with a student and I'm at a blockade can you help me spitball some ideas um sometimes it's I'm starting to see that early emergence of their social emotional needs maybe better met with a social worker can we talk about that can you meet them can can we consult after that um and then sometimes we're bringing students there because we can't get a handle on what the actual need is and you just need as many people as possible brainstorming or you're thinking that maybe they would be better served by a tier three plan and you just have to look at as a comprehensive team that's when our psychologists would come in and do file reviews um and would do look at data to see what do we know historically about the students um so we have that meeting and at that meeting we determine intervention what are the next steps and those are individualized interventions for the last few years every team has an agenda with a name student what we tried and then the day we followed up um which takes us to the number three part which is really important and when we were talking about Tac notes and and putting things in systems right um is we want to make sure we close the case um and so we've had a pretty good Cadence over the last few years using the alpha notes that we have that you came to an alpha team and that we monitored it and that we've closed the case and so I can run those notes to make sure that someone who has an alpha team also has an Al a team monitoring and then we have access to those agendas as well if we ever need to look back the great part about the monitoring to kind of get to your question is how do we know the interventions work um at this level because we're not talking whole groups of students like Keith and Jake were just talking about we're talking about targeted groups we are able to link in and see after four weeks or six weeks is that intervention working did that meeting that we have stick and is it getting better or is it not we're coming back to make sure that we've put the right thing in place um and sometimes it takes a couple rounds and sometimes it does you know alleviate the concern we see you know changes in the attendance they're no longer coming up on the monitoring form anymore um so those are the the three key I guess the Cadence of work that I would want to highlight with the Alpha Team interventions eron yeah just to tie it back to the dnf students are are you suggesting that all D all students have a One D or one f are being no that Al I can not falling into the tier three no so um C has a dnf response so they get that dnf list too just like teachers do um and if the student has an F for multiple weeks they check in with those students but actually on the slide this will kind of speak to what you just asked um so the threshold in our Alpha report on when you would flag would be that you're failing two courses okay and so but to flag you have to flag in all three of these Char these categories which is why when you look at the chart you'll see for example 2024 we had 17 students at North who flagged in all three categories which would mean they would come up with a red flag and they'd automatically go on the list but we actually intervened with 189 students because a student failing two classes that the counselor has met with multiple times we've tried to get them to to go to tutoring we've tried to contact home that's not working that would be a student that would be appropriate to come to an alpha team because then we would be talking about so what do you think team do you think guided study is appropriate or are they more of a student who needs a seminar course which is different because then we're looking at an elective so no just failing 1 F would not put you on an alpha team okay thanks yeah and and then that kind of takes us into the data so one of the things that we wanted to show was the alpha threshold is indicated up there in purple for North those would be students who met all three of those indicators and we do have students occasionally who do because being at high risk for truancy impacts grades which then gets you referrals for treny and so you do see that happened but we only had 17 last year and we intervened and discussed 189 individual stud students on the list um so what I think that demonstrates to me as someone who's over that is we are bringing students to team proactively so they're not getting on that threshold list um and and you can see the trend has always always been that way I did giggle when we saw 2021 and we had one student who met that threshold but I was like oh I tried to forget 2021 and whoever that one student was he was really meant on being there but or they were so but I I get gold when I saw that on the slides and you'll see here very similar patterns at South as well um while there were 102 students that tripped those markers for us over 400 students we talked through at Alpha and I think that just goes to show how many different ways information reaches our Alpha Team you know it's not only through the classroom it's also through outside providers it's also through families really any way the information comes to us we make sure that we bring students to team and and we process them appropriately and make sure they're connected with the right supports I would also highlight because you said something it made me remember we do have a teacher referral form for Alpha teams as well um often that the first blush of that referral form is with the counselors to make sure that we're having the right level of intervention conversations but teachers do have an active way to make sure students are on the list if they think they need creative problem solving so can I just ask so is the alpha threshold is that number in the alpha intervention bar as well are those totally so Andrew like the relationship between 102 and 401 the 102 is in is part of 401 and then all the other people that you've found some other way okay if I can you know add a little more and give credit to Aaron and Sarah um there was a time that we had this Alpha threshold that we did not engage you know because we were just getting new to like looking at data and how do we identify students and I give them credit because they made the commitment you know with their team and we have an excellent team that you know to support it um to ensure that we're engaging with all those students and you can see obviously now over time that we are engaging in the students that truly need it um the other thing I would share too is that our team even um so you know with their input they wanted the threshold list but they also wanted the threshold list broken down so that it doesn't just flag kids that are meeting all three but it gives like the the information about all students because we might have a student that like I think eron was speaking to that might be failing some courses but their their attendance is fine and their discipline is fine um and so our teams wanted to run data to look at that as well so I give them credit for really looking at the whole scope and that's where you see these numbers in the gray being much larger than the blue or the purple so I give the team a lot of credit for that right that brings us to the end of our slides questions for us no no thank you thank you you we appreciate your support thanks for letting us come talk about it we're both excited to do it absolutely okay than team uh I don't I don't have a question for um eron but I do have a question for Scott um Scott um going back to the first part of the presentation um we talked about the software change may have an impact on this reporting next year so we might see sort of like a false increase in essence yeah we're definitely going to we'll monitor that and see what we're see might have a false decrease this year yeah and next year you might have a more accurate reporting just because correct we have a more intuitive tool for our teachers and counselors St and then are we addressing like training our teachers as to how to like track this because we are now actually tracking this and the board wants to see these contacts so are we you know indicating this to our teachers to tell them that it's it's important that you document this when you actually do this because we are tracking this data and we're we're focused on yeah and I know the buildings are working on that I know at insute they introduced you know the the topic of the TAC note types and we redesigned them so some of the other thing is is just like when you think of like act and sat keep flip-flopping you know we we've kind of built the system and then redefined like our Tac note types that we can finally start capturing um the one thing that I think Aon and Sarah were alluding to is that um currently like our echool system teachers can put in the tech uh interventions through their system through um echool but then what happens is our CS can't actually see that and so it goes into five labs and that's where it all but next year Infinite Campus will show it all so we're really excited about that um because we believe and I know that Aon and Sarah and Keith and Jay have said the more that the teachers can you know really see what other teachers are doing for interventions and what might be working you know to to support a student that they can learn from each other too um so I just look at this as kind of like this is our first pass at really putting it all together we know the the we we anticipate that the numbers will actually drop in terms of like getting closer to like our 100% or increase right to get to our 100% um and no fault to anyone I mean it's we're just this a new indicator measure um we even decided that we wanted to look at semester one and we'll report out to semester two more through preliminary notes because we kind of felt like as we see the semester one each year we can do more like real-time interventions um you know and then semester 2 is really well this is just what the data was um but we're looking at semester one as our critical piece so is it fair to say that right now due to the I guess uh the way the limitations on the reporting that we may not know if a student is really actually falling through the cracks at this point well I mean like so for example like if the when we ran so like if we just ran the data and gave it to you which is what we did but we looked at it but if we just gave you the data the way it is when we if we didn't look at what was behind the scenes then we would just say well this is what the parent contacts were but what we discovered is like we mentioned earlier that like if if staff are using like that t caregiver which there was a lot of those or if they were if our our C sta was using an academic contact or a different kind of note type than the parent contact note type then there was interventions happening we just didn't capture it here because we were focused in on those like just literally two not types if that kind of makes sense and we just felt like we would do it that way just to try to get a a baseline of what we're um kind of reporting out to to the board that so Scott can I chime in and just share some additional so one of the things that that I think is a barrier with the current system is that it's very cumbersome for teachers to enter all of them you can't multic click you met with six kids on a student support with past day and you can't load all six notes at one time um but we were really clear at the beginning that we were monitoring it and so I think that that had an impact on the numbers that we see but then at both buildings we've also talked to our department chairs to follow up with the data that we have from first semester too um and most often I'm getting contacts back that the teacher wants to know if they can go back and reenter the note because they didn't do it um but I think that that followup will lead to more accurate data in reporting at the end of this semester because there was a circle back to say like hey we didn't see this when we expected to see it and I think that that will naturally it still is going to be much better with Infinite Campus because it's just easier to put it in and for people to see it our Tech team has been great already having those conversations around contact logs and stuff like that and we will do training um but I think just the followup and the fact that we're sharing this with you tonight will probably help that be more accurate it's going to take a keep few years to isolate variables right in how this works so and it's also important to note that this is the very narrow definition like I was saying earlier of what we indicated in this indicator there is Outreach in all kinds of different ways you know whether it just be the the email blast by teachers or the ones that came from Jake and Keith there's that doesn't mean that a a family was absolutely in the dark that you know things weren't going the right way but it what it does mean is the thing that we told the board that we would make sure we did for every kid that was getting a d or an F wasn't done in the way that we said it was going to be be done for every kid right so now there's multiple approaches that we're going to take this isn't like a blind study that we do we just throw everything we believe will make a difference at it over the the this semester and over the summer and going into next year and then we better see an improvement in those numbers when we come back and sit down I won't be able to tell you like this was the direct cause for that but the goal for us on the board is to say we we improved on on this Baseline right so and I think we appreciate you taking sort of the most accurate which is frankly a a you know more difficult number for the community right so I appreciate that and I think we also have to balance was very helpful for you to explain the reality of teachers or css on how they I mean the last thing we want to do is burden you know teachers with additional go in six times and and do it for one student so I think we have to balance like getting good data giving an accurate measure and also like what is realistic in terms of capturing it on the teacher end so thank you for that perspective one question um when we're looking at the longitudinal semester one grades between north and south and at the um Baseline intervention data nor the difference between north and south is is like twice as much there's there's a there's a significant difference in the um percentage of the student body in the Baseline data between South and North and then in the uh first semester grades um dnfs right the north has the 16% in 2025 and South has almost double with 29.4% what and granted they're different sides of town different groups of kids um is there any additional resources that we should be focusing on uh to meet the needs of those kids you know I mean like gr South is always at a a different level than North uh it's across the past couple of years that we've been paying attention to this data um what more can we do to even that out a little bit because there seems to be a clear discrepancy where uh you know one side of town is doing a little better than the other well it's a different group of students as you acknowledged remember South is a title one targeted student it had a group of students students with different socio economic backgrounds and you know just different situation than the North side of town has with just resources walking through the door right and we know that that will show up in all of our data in some shape or format uh because it is a title one targeted school it gets some different interventions just through those resources that come from the federal level but also just both schools we're trying to do the best we can for the students that are in both settings um Gina what am I so for I'll give you some just more concrete examples so as a title one school um at South we're able to have U math Specialists so that actually go in and work individually with students obviously on math but also assist teachers in the classroom um with struggling math students so that's just one example another way in which we use the federal funding through Title One to benefit ourselves students would be for example we have Avid tutors outside external tutors in addition to some teachers that tutor we have um at North as well some teachers who do but we also bring in additional external tutors um every year as we work on the Consolidated District plan and we look at data not necessarily just grade data a lot of different data we look for what other interventions we may want to put in place either at the district level so both schools um a and also targeted title one for South so we'll be doing that again in another month or two we do that annually um and really that's that's really been huge because we get the input of teachers and so we've seen some really great interventions come in uh from that for example we have had what the last two or three years have to look back um language line which is a way we're able to um communicate better with families in I language line has over aund different Lang I mean it's an incredible number of languages so every year we kind of look at it and see what other supports we can put in place okay Arwin anything else you'd like to add to you did a really nice job I think um I think Sarah touch on this really working to connect our students and our families with the resources that we have we do feel will well resourc and very we have like our teachers and Department chairs and our entire leadership team putting our heads around this trying to figure out what are the most effective ways to connect our students to our intervention you feel like we really good path to keep improving I'm also say to keep decreasing the number of students who have these and we kind of our building wide Mission and goal to work on that really is hands done that working together good I I appreciate that it's just um you know it's interesting it's it's concerning to see the you know because there are different socioeconomic backgrounds from each sides of town that um to make sure that we're not putting those kids at a at a disadvantage because of the background that they have um so yeah if there's any more that we can do to uh you know provide additional resources to those kids I think that's really important but thank you both for uh the work that you've done and Gina I think the biggest thing you're seeing in with the board's commitment to actually looking at this data is no nobody's leaving any of this to chance right and there are ways in which data could be presented to you that would make it look really good right and we're not we're just giving you the raw data the way we told you we were going to give you the data we're showing you those Trends over time and what the biggest thing you should see is longitudinal improvement improvement year over-ear in the direction us be able to tell you the stories of how that the interventions are making a difference for kids I mean they are two schools with two different sets of backgrounds and and that's the reality of it in in all data you're going to see students with more resources with better academic outcomes as a holistic group right when you get down to the individual kid those Trends don't always hold but when we're looking at large groups of students those with more resources at home are going to outper perform students especially if it's been over a long period of time right um you're just going to see those data and trends play through right and we'll do everything we can to try to push back on those Trends and make sure that those Trends aren't predictors of a student outcome but we are working with societal factors within the community that we have yeah any other questions I are we looking strictly at semester grades I mean I think that's what is it helpful you know when you said like someone could be going along fine and then all of a sudden we're looking at grades all the time all the time but what we're reporting out to you is that final transcripted grade okay right so but yeah we're looking all the time yeah it's a Non-Stop yeah and so are our teachers right they're the ones that are putting it in and they're they're looking at how students are performing and they're using the wide variety of interventions that are there and you know and some of this especially on high schoolers you know we do have teachers that are constantly reaching out to both students and parents but there are choices that students are making as well you know that factor into it right so um that's why you see these goals of continual Improvement the idea that there will be a school year where there is not a single student that receives an F uh or earns an F uh is an unlikely goal right the goal is continual Improvement and it's making sure that if a student ends up with a d andf they knew how how they got there and we know how they got there right and that we took specific measures to try to prevent that from occurring right but could lead that horse to the student has a very large impact on what that overall grade is in the end all right thank you thank you thank you thank to all of our assistant associate principles for presenting with us tonight all right uh next one uh this one comes around to every year uh we have the p parent teacher advisory committee that meeting date has been selected for April 28th 2025 we're always looking for one to two board members to serve on this committee I'll let Scott give an overview of what happens at this Committee just so that every Everybody remembers what happens and then Don you can decide how you want to about uh getting uh one to two board members yeah so the parent teacher advisory uh committee meeting um we hold every year like Hank said um we bring together our our mission is to bring together as many parents as we can um and and that typically is a range from sometimes we've had 10 parents there to 70 parents there um and we're reporting out on um many discipline related um issues or points or data pieces um we've t talked about the cell phone uh um concerns at the parent teacher advisor and received parent input on that um it's been a for me it's been a journey of really good feedback from our parents that have led to a lot of initiatives that we that the parents in those meetings kind of processed supported um in terms of like our path increase in our social workers um and so um obviously uh is you know discussions are on our cell phone um you know plan and procedures so um it's a great event um we kind of rotate I think we're going to be at South this year uh in the library and we typically have yeah two board members that join us and um Ken you were there last year I don't um and Chris you were there I think with us weren't you so I don't know if you have anything to add to it um I think it's a great event and the parents contribute a lot of good information uh back to us I think it was a great event and to uh get the direct feed back from the parents is very special it's a great opportunity yeah and that invite does go out to our entire uh Community for parents so and and staff and staff yeah so we have a and it's just one meeting date is that correct it's just the yeah it's the April 28th okay if any board member has interest in uh joining um parent teacher advisory committee just uh please email me before the next board meeting so that we can can um I can advise Hank as to who's going to cover that okay thank you all right uh the next one's coming back from a prior uh meeting you guys have known this is coming uh Travis uh received bids on pavers and Paving and I'll let him tell you what happened there yeah so exciting news um I I remember back sometime this fall jery came in after she was at a meeting with other Chief business officials and said hey I think there's a way that we could potentially use our fund 90 our life safety funds in a way that we haven't used them we have a balance so we got to work started investigating we submitted all of that paperwork uh to ISB and I'm happy to report that we have uh received approval uh for this Paving work to be paid with our funds out of that so both of these projects total over $275,000 that's not coming out of our fiscal year 26 budget um the other thing are LED lighting projects so when we look at our field houses um at both schools when we look at our pool at North and we look at our Stadium lighting while we have some things to finalize there uh that's about $380,000 that was also approved for us to utilize that that balance um we were not approved for the uh solar projects here and at t99 because they were new um and there wasn't a modification uh I went to bat for and but we're modifying the roofs uh can't you help us out here they did not buy that so um so we're going to continue looking for funds to tackle those those projects but um really exciting that that we have those approvals so I'm bringing to you tonight uh two uh recommendations for uh bid work all of the bid uh process followed state law followed our our board policy 460 um it went out for bid advertising in the D Daily Herald on January 17th we had a a public bid opening uh all these are sealed bids because they were over the $35,000 Mark um we had that on January 31st so I want to talk just briefly about Norse project um the way that we bid that was our base bid was to reuse our existing papers um and Alternate bid was to use brand new papers for replacement um seeing that this came in uh to use new papers at uh $144,000 less than what we had anticipated um that is the recommendation that we would go ahead and replace with with new um and just to go to show you why we go out to bid for these types of things uh the bid the low bid uh of $162,600 is what I'm bringing to you as a recommendation and that's with LPS pavement company um the high bid on that was over $380,000 right so quite a dispar we did receive three sealed bids for that project while we were hoping for more we knew that was more of a niche uh type of of work uh that goes with that then when we shift over to the other side of town uh for South um this came in a little bit more than 5,000 almost $6,000 less than what we had anticipated um and that bid range came in what we're recommending at $14,200 uh with M&J asphalt pavment company that also includes the seal coating of the visitor parking lot um and that range the high range was over $225,000 right so uh we received 15 sealed bids for for that project um so we were very happy with the results seeing that in total we're about $20,000 less than what we had brought to you initially and the fact that we're able to use our fund 90 uh for these projects um we did a double check made sure hey are we good on do you understand the scope of work we know you submitted a bid but we had those followup conversations um they are all good um and uh we're looking forward to getting both of those projects done uh this summer we're still working on the LED uh components uh but that'll be coming at a at a future board meeting but we're working on getting that work done as well very good this is an action item tonight uh questions for Travis always like to see under budget always a good thing always nice and creative payments yeah that's great ex all right uh Freedom of Information requests any that we have received have been filled according to our requirements and are posted on our website for the public to review okay before the board votes on the consent agenda is there any agenda item a board member would like to pull out of the consent agenda for further discussion hearing none uh can I get a motion from the Board of Education to approve the consent agenda as presented which includes a personal report leave of absence certified transfer of position administrative to certified appointment certified B Personnel report retirement certified resignation certified retirement classified resignation classified C January Financial pages and D student trips so moved second Terry moves Chris Su thank you very much Terry pavich I Chris Espinosa I charal fuller I Jenny hagstrom I Cara Caston I Ken Dawson I and Don rener I motion carries C item eight recommendations for actions can I get a a motion from the Board of Education to approve the contract for the alternate a bid with LPS pavement company for the North High inside and outside paper replacement project at a total cost of $162,600 so moved so moves Ken seconds you Terry pavich I Ken Dawson I Chris fanosa I Shaw Fuller hi Jenny hagstrom hi Carrick Caston hi and Don Runner I motion carries uh second can I get a motion from the Board of Education approve the base bid and Alternate a bid with m& M&J Asphalt Paving Company Inc for the South High bus visitor and staff lot asphalt replacement project at a total cost of $14,200 so moved second K moves Charelle seconds thank you Ken Dawson hi Fuller hi Jenny hagstrom hi Terry pavisic I Carrie Caston I Chris Spinosa I and Don Renner I motion carries Hank old business uh yep we have a second reading and approval of policies coming forward this month after first review by the board last month uh all of these were provided to you in final format uh I have not received any questions or comments uh following up from our last presentation uh I don't know if Chris Don anything on your okay so our recommendation tonight is that the board approved these policies as presented does that require a motion yes motion and action okay um can I get a motion from the Board of Education to approve the policies as presented so moved second okay Terry moved and Cara second thank you always a shocker ter Terry pavich hi Cara Caston hi Ken Dawson hi Chris Espinosa hi Cheryl Fuller hi Jenny hagstrom hi and Don rener hi motion carries thank you any new business Hank no new business Julie do we have any visitors in the second reception of visit we do sir all right um do you want to give the guidelines for reception visitors um I will if I have those that's fine are they in item 11 they should be yes um this is the second reception of visitors which is intended for audience members to address the board on any topic pertaining to Community High School District 99 comments will be limited to 3 minutes to provide all visitors an equal opportunity to address the board individuals needing more time should submit their thoughts and writing to the board secretary visitors addressing the board need to submit a comment slip to the board secretary and will be invited to the microphone prior to addressing the board audience members should State their full name proceedings may be tape recorded for the purpose of producing accurate meeting minutes the board's pres presiding officer reserves the right to modify these protocols if circumstances warrant audience observation of these protocols is greatly appreciated all right good evening uh our first uh visitor is Tammy wor worak wor worak thank you I'm sorry Tammy always enjoy listening to people trying to say it yeah I did my best um for the rules Tammy worak a parent of a donor's Grove North High School student um thank you for providing time in tonight's agenda for comments it was kind of interesting hearing about the students who are failing I'd like to raise awareness about uh teacher training for students with invisible disabilities like dyslexia the services and accommodations needed for students with visible disabilities may be obvious but students who struggle with learning disabilities often struggle in silence without help I'd like to share my family's experience with your teachers and team my daughter's a freshman at doners gr North High School and is an incredibly smart competitive and hardworking student she it's evident by the number of honors classes she's in and she does have a very good GPA but she's a student who was diagnosed with dyslexia and anxiety and came to high school with a 504 accommodation plan in place when she registered for classes in January the year before she started at North I would have hoped conversations with teachers and different departments would have started then so the teachers would have been prepared and understand that learning disabilities identified the plans and how to accommodate them let me start by saying that some of your teachers a lot of your teachers have been really great to work with taking the time to learn and understand her needs and how best to support her learning environment we've also experienced a particular teacher and Department I might add Who has fought or tried to alter combinations through throughout this entire school year this teacher even expressed that her accommodations gave her an unfair advantage over other students and didn't understand why she needed them we are now 7 months into the school year and still struggling having meetings and contacting Administration for support every step forward with their counselor and accommodation team ends up with the Department pushing back and resulting in no progress and more frustration at one meeting the department chair implied it was all in her head the conflict my child now hates this class and is begging me to apply for for a waiver so she can drop the course and avoid future course requirements that she may come across past with this teacher in the department her normal positive attitude about school is now plagued with Dread thanks to one teacher no student should have to Advocate and defend themselves to a teacher day in and day out teachers need training and to be pushed to think creatively about how best to teach all students just because this is the way you've always taught class and how you teach should not be an acceptable answer frankly it's lazy I want to accept it from my employees at work the district has as you mentioned teacher training I would strongly encourage you to use that time to teach your staff about how to serve students with disabilities especially things like dyslexia I'm heartbroken for my daughter who's given up on something that she started the year enjoying no longer trust her teacher and has her best it thinks that her teacher does not have her best interest at heart the fact that a student can walk away from a teacher crying because they feel so unheard and for that teacher to think the situation is resolved it's just beyond comprehension I fear for students whose parents aren't pushy like me or don't have the resources to support their children those are the children who are truly going to get lost in the system end up on your D and F list and fail classes and Miss educational opportunities thank you thank you all right our next visitor is uh Bobby dado um who's the decision makers I would like them to see this vocab book who's on the school board is it yeah they're all on the school board You' like to circulate it you absolutely can thank you for your time um so I've sent uh many emails to the school board I appreciate all your time and feedback my name is Roberto zet Bobby zet thank you um the first thing on my agenda I have three things is no cell phones in class honorable Governor pritzer last week indicated to the Illinois School Board to review a mandate to review cell phone cell phones from all schools in Illinois 12 counties in Illinois ban cell phones on students persons in class let's go ahead and follow that lead that TW not 12 schools but 12 counties do students cannot learn with their phones in their pocket all day long um the second item is the request and I don't think I was clear my request is not to remove particular books it's to make a mandate to stop teachers from giving students the books with the F and the MF word last time I was here the book that's in Downers Grove South pipeline has the F and the MF word on every page one page has the FW four times on a page and again thank you Mr uh Espinosa about the discrepancies between South and North North didn't have that book they had a book that had uh vulgar profanities only seven times whereas South had the book 130 times students are not going to learn to read and perform well when teachers give them harmful vulgar profanities the third thing is this vocabulary book that's being passed out if we if students are able to read They're going to accelerate not only in English but also in math and at life vocabulary is so important this book is $20 at South the School receives $224,500 per student this book is $20 if you want to get the book in a digital copy it's $30 so oh I lost the book okay well you have your Chromebook we can teach you words are very important um so again the students should have a book to learn the English language if we want to bring up students self-esteem if we want to bring them into class we want to drop true and see it South down from 25% let's teach them how to read it'll boost their confidence and their self-esteem um again also similar to um This Woman's story my student asked the teacher if he could come in and have assistance before class well one week he said he'd be there three days each day the teacher was a no-show yes here's my classes you could be there didn't tell my son all the days he just didn't show up so the problem is teachers are being allowed to kind of do whatever they want give horrible curriculum not really work with the students say I'll be there to help you and then just don't show up so um yeah if we could just work on those three things I would like a a response back from the school board I've been emailing um every weeks since November thank you have a great day I really appreciate you all thank you so much for everything thank you okay moving on to item number 12 Communications and announcements um Jen I'm sorry Jenny do you have anything to report from ly no the meeting will be Friday okay there will be a lot there'll be a lot yeah yeah there's like 6,700 bills posted so there's a lot to work through okay uh Chris anything to report from sassin uh we met two weeks ago I think to go over strategic for the year um you know they've got a uh they sent out a uh newsletter to I think board members um with a lot of their information but um we went over the budget and um yeah the new executive director is doing I think really good job so far so I'm excited to see what she does for the rest of the Year great uh Terry anything to report on Foundation no we we didn't meet last week so we'll be meeting this week so okay um Ken stepped out uh uh shrell anything to report on the downers gr plan commission not at this time okay I I will speak on Ken's behalf even though he's not here to speak up is the dup page division meeting is upcoming uh this is the last call uh if you'd like to attend to go uh the presentation will be College and Career Readiness and uh I'm I'm at a different event that night but Ryan will be joining board members that are there yes please try to go yeah it'll be good but yes okay upcoming board meetings um our next board meeting is March 3rd 2025 uh here at the here at the ASC at 6:30 p.m.

[Applause] Unit School District Board of Education meeting for February 24th 2025 can I have a motion I'm sorry can I have a roll call Mr Cerone here Mr Gatewood pres Miss Johnson pres Dr Mario presid Mr ploger present Miss Simon present Miss venth present our student board members colleag parel pres and pres please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right good evening board uh tonight is one of our favorite uh evenings of the month which is our pride recognition I want to invite uh executive director of schools Mr Francis and also thank our Communications team for helping rally this evening's event thank you Dr katti tonight the Board of Education acknowledges Pride winners from Grand Park Homestead the wheatlands and East viw Academy for the month of February Pride stands for proudly recognizing individuals demonstrating Excellence the Board of Education began this program 9ine years ago to recognize promote and celebrate the many contributions made by teachers employees across the district we would like to thank our generous District Partners Chick-fil-A Culver's imagination Print and Design Huntington Learning Center serve bank and the scoop for helping to make this program a success we would also like to thank all those who nominated individuals for consideration awardees it's almost your turn after your name is called and we share your nomination please come forward to be congratulation by the board and Dr katti and then wait until the rest of the individuals from your school have been called up first of all we have Grand Park Elementary the first is a kindergarten teacher Lauren breaston Lauren come on up Lauren has stepped into her role as a kindergarten teacher this year with an emphasis on forming strong relationships with her students a nominator said quote Mrs bre has a natural talent for creating a warm and welcoming classroom where every child feels safe valued and excited to learn additionally Lauren has been intentional while integrating the new Ela curriculum creatively using engaging materials in a way that is accessible for all of her students congratulations [Applause] Lauren next up we have Rachel Fitzgerald first grade teacher Rachel is passionate about her work cul cultivating a nurturing classroom environment for all her students her dedication is evident in everything she does one nominator said quote Beyond her incredible work with students Mrs Fitzgerald is a true Cornerstone of our school Community her kindness and support for fellow staff members is appreciated by those around her congratulations Rachel [Applause] and finally from Grand Park Connie Harrison principal [Applause] secretary referred to as a hero by her nominators Connie works hard to help ensure everything runs smoothly throughout the school day she brings positivity to her building and demonstrates admirable precision and commitment quote whether it's organizing the day-to-day operation of the school with Precision or stepping in as a buddy and Mentor for students who need extra help she does it all with a smile and a Heart full of care congratulations Connie at this time we'd like to invite any Grand Park administrators and District administrators who are present to come forward and join the award the board and Dr kilg Gotti for a couple pictures a lot of time eff it's Grand Reserve what did I say grand Grand Park that's that's fantastic and while they're doing pictures let's get one more round of applause for GR Park tribe [Applause] winners all right our next Spotlight stool school is Homestead Elementary School our first a winner is kindergarten teacher Julie raldi Julie Works to create a nurturing environment for all of her students she goes above and beyond to connect with students and ensure they feel supported in their Learning Journey quote she demonstrates a genuine passion for teaching kindergarten fostering a love for learning in her students through creative and engaging activities congratulations Julie and now we have first grade teacher Valerie seti Valerie makes learning fun for her students she cares deeply for each of her students past present and future Valerie acknowledges the uniqueness of all of her students and develops plans for individual growth as shared by a nominator quote Mrs seti is a staunch advocate for her students and is endlessly creative when it comes to teaching her class congratulations Valerie and finally building nurse Susan Becker Susan carries herself with a joy that makes all welcome she supports her building responding to the individual needs of each student one nominator stated quote nurse Susan is always available to support and goes the extra mile to build relationships with students staff and all of our families her dedication to her role is appreciated by Homestead staff and parents congratulations [Applause] Susan at this time any building administrators who would like to come up for a photo opportunity come on up all right let's give one more round of applause for our pride winner from homestead [Applause] Elementary next up we have the wheatlands elementary school first up from the wheatlands is social worker Carly beitz known for her advocacy for students Ki is passionate about educating her school community in a number of ways she works professionally with both students and families ensuring they have care and resources that they need quote she is a safe harbor for her students and staff members one nominator said Carly is a leader who collaborates well with others to ensure the best for students congratulations [Applause] Carly next up we have a board certified behavior analyst Katie Todd Katie Works to understand and provide for The Unique needs of every student she encounters she collaborates well with teachers and is very knowledgeable in her area if she doesn't know the answer to something she sets out to learn and share her research with others as one nominator shared her approach consistently demonstrates a commitment to finding the best path forward a particularly crucial quality given the unique attributes presented by diverse Learners congratulations Katie and lastly from the wheatlands building nurse Raina elar tabani Raina cares deeply for all students at the wheatlands and puts serious effort into her professional development she puts a priority on safety and works hard to ensure students are cared for beyond the concern that may have brought them to the nurse's office her dedication to her role is evident in the report she has developed with the entire wheatland's Community congratulations [Applause] Raina and we need building Administration up for pictures congratulations wheatlands one more Round of Applause for our wheatland's pride [Applause] winners our final building celebration for this evening we move on to East View Academy school first of all we have special education teacher Michael fulam Michael is creative in finding ways to motivate all of his students in in addition to empowering students in the classroom he serves as a special Olympic soccer and basketball coach as shared by a nominator he also makes a positive impact on employees by ensuring they are celebrated for their achievements and their hard work is acknowledged within our building congratulations [Applause] Michael next up from East viiew physical education teacher Jack Marta Jack is dedicated to helping all students succeed he is flexible with his plans and supportive of fellow staff members quote he actively participates in PE activities with our students increasing their engagement and desire to excel Jack also works yearly to raise funds for new equipment and opportunities for the students at East viiew Academy congratulations Jack and our last winner of the evening is certified nurse Seline Gonzalez Marino despite being a District staff member for just two years now Seline demonstrates great leadership on nursing and special education teams the students she serves rely on her Selen is ready to jump in and help in any situation as a nominator shared nurse Seline always looks for the bright side and shares her Joy with every staff every student and every family every day congratulations Selen and we need Mrs suon up for some pictures all right one more final round of applause for East View Academy and all of our February Pride winners honores please proceed out into the Hall we will have some group follows out in the hallway thank you everybody for coming just feel like this is action and okay guys we're gonna do two action items before can you hear me y all right 5.1 action item approval of District administrator contracts can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the district administrator contract as discussed and presented second Mr Cerone hi Mr Gatewood hi Dr Mario hi Mr cloer hi Miss vmou hi Miss Johnson um I wanted to go ahead and explain um why I'm voting no um my vote has uh zero to do with Dr Mitchell I happen to think she's an incredible educator in administ administrator what I'm here to talk about though is having the benefits of a fully certified HR professional on staff that includes managing complex employment laws employee relations and recruitment strategies as a certified HR professional can Implement strategies to better enhance Employee Engagement Performance Management professional development a certified HR professional when ensure that policies are applied consistently across the organization minimizing favoritism or bias the consistency helps maintain fairness and clarity and establishes trust with increasing increasingly complex employment laws that need for Next Level HR guidance to navigate legal issues is becoming more and more evident I've also seen it firsthand in the um school district and I implore our leadership to continue to uh move forward um with fully certified HR professionals thank you uh no Miss Simon hi [Music] motion passes oh I we're done okay I'm sorry I thought we had one more person okay motion passes 70 61 61 I'm sorry madam selon may have Madam president may have a minute uh dry want to open up yes good evening board uh tonight we are very excited um to bring Dr maresa Mitchell uh as the assistant superintendent of human resources that you just approved thank you very much for that um let's give her a round of applause uh Dr Mitchell uh currently serves as our executive director of high schools uh after a successful administrative career in uh multiple States including Georgia and Illinois um she is remarkable throughout the interview process uh led by Dr K to Mr oian supported by Dr katti uh and many stakeholder groups uh we are really proud of her uh strengths of systems collaboration interdependence and problem solving are aligned with the goals of the successful candidate to continue to support Human Resources throughout our system so once again a round of applause to Dr maresa Mitchell okay okay action item 5.2 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as discussed and presented second Miss johnon hi Dr marel hi Mr Gatewood hi Mr cler hi Miss Simon hi mrone hi Miss ven hi motion passes 70 and with that good evening we want to welcome uh Bren Miss Bren patterman would you please stand uh she'll be stepping into the role yes of executive assistant for the uh superintendent as well as secretary for the Board of Education and we just want to thank you for uh uh joining our team and her start dat will start in uh May and official start will be in miday so we want to thank you [Applause] again okay on behalf of um or 6.1 public comment so on behalf of the Board of Education I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we receive from our members of the public and and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public Public School System residents interested in speaking to the Board of Education this evening are asked to have completed a comment carp and presented it to the secretary to the board when the secretary calls your name I ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please note that comments are limited to five minutes per person and no responses to your questions are permitted comment should be addressed comment should address the Board of Education as a whole and not be directed to an individual board member audience or staff member the Board of Education will not address concerns against individual employees rather a complaint against an employee must be in writing and signed by the person who makes it and the Board of Education will refer any such complaint for appropriate review campaigning or advocating for any candidate is inappropriate during public comment comment should be limited to business before the school district and not political advocacy followup to your questions or concerns will be addressed by Administration through the contact information provided on the comment card thank you Katie Heiden hello hello okay it's on uh I come to you today as a parent in District 308 uh my name is Katie heyen I know our district has been great about supporting unionized education for teachers and staff at District 308 but I really feel there is an opportunity to bring Innovation when it comes to postsecondary education I I could see District 308 welcoming other unions within this sector to support our students in their future um I come to you today because I would like to see when it comes to committed to this University or this college committed to Career Readiness we do it for our athletes our musicians our artists kinary and it work but this still constantly is underserved for these students who choose different educational paths today I would like to give you some numbers to just kind of that way you guys could go on and you could go to Facebook or you could go to Instagram and be able to see what I'm talking about if you go to OHS Athletics 2.1k followers 3.2 likes asigo Fine Arts 1.9k followers asgo High School bands 1.1k followers asigo East band 1K followers asigo High School 4.6 followers asigo East High School 3.4k followers we go to ohos student services or what they referred us to go to which was OHS St uh for postsecondary 222 followers 100 105 that are actually following and 42 posts I could not find any committed signed days for unionized trades or postsecondary education I was told to go to the senior Celebration Day link and I could find it there and it was just a 30second video I know we can do better than this to serve our students at st308 thank you thank you thank you our superintendent to provide his uh superintendent report all right good evening board um this evening uh today is a huge day for a district it's really the comination of months and months of listening and collaboration that I would say has really um challenged all of us to really learn to better listen to each other think about the way in which we operate and take some next steps tonight you are going to hear the first formal presentation of the draft of the 2528 strategic plan big round of applause for all those who are here to present um truly thank you all for and really thank you to the community for being part of Designing our next uh chapter of the next chapter of our story um on a different note I just want to uh appreciate some really important information that came up last week that many of you heard and some reports that came from in our schools we often and it is an important slogan we say we when we see something we say something and this really isn't just a slogan um it's a shared responsibility that whether we observe hear or read something concerning we must reported immediately every report when it comes to uh things that have significant concerns are investigated and we are always looking to enhance uh the safety of our learned communities by working together we can't swiftly prevent serious incidents and ensure that the well-being of our students of our staff remain a top priority we always work to collaborate closely with law enforcement to proactively identify potential threats and respond swiftly to any reports or in incidents lastly I want to um thank our teams that were involved and our uh police department for really taking the after Action Report ser seriously um when every one of those scenarios um and as I shared in my letter last week we always want to make sure we make time to reflect because there is no perfect scenar the perfect scenario is Improvement and safety and so we are always taking each one of these incidents when they do arise with the utmost seriousness and where there is opportunity for growth we will take it because our students deserve it and that is our commitment um equally important is really the culture we create for our students and part of that is really ensuring that we are working together when uh whether it's uh your child comes home and says hey something happened in my classroom and you wonder about it is that is that accurate information accurate right do I email the superintendent or do I email the teacher say hey Johnny came home today and had a question right and so really understanding where in our systems whether it's um where is that point of seeking Clarity regarding information or misinformation that arises sometimes it's at the level of your son or your daughter or your child says something to you this happens to me every day I have a third grader so I hear lots of stories every day there are moments where I have to decide am I emailing the teacher the assistant principal the principal or Pedro Martinez right so I have to always think about where am I entering with that information now there are lots of ways where we we see that information that also moves on we've become a community where we rely on social media right that is how we gain our trust trust we gain confidence we use that as a support system there are also times when misinformation shows up on social media and we have to think about how that information shows up um in the last couple weeks I've heard situations where uh somebody talked about uh threatening uh it gave the impression of a threat um so on on social media and we had to investigate it right we've had hoaxes and so when information misinformation shows up on social media we have to look to ways to disrupt this information and think about how that we have to look to ways to make sure that that information doesn't distract from the work that's happening in our schools which is really creating a place of safety truth and academic success um I would ask that anyone when you see things that are confusing please reach out to the right place to get clarity about those things our goal is always to be um fair and give feedback and to give information as best as we can when we can there are certain scenarios when there's an active investigation we might not be able to give everything but reaching out never hurts um and for all of our information and we want to address misinformation as quickly as possible in order to address the core issues we have um lots of channels for this and we thank all of you for reaching out to those proper and appropriate channels lastly this evening I want to share something about some really important upcoming several there are several upcoming events uh we have our parent University at Boulder Hill which is beginning on February 27th at 5:00 pm we have the speak and Spark um event and this is going to be our student Le Roundtable discussion hosted by the school district through a board of education um this will take place at plank Junior High um and led by our board Representatives student board members so thank you on March 3rd um we have our kinderquest Fair an expo for incoming kindergarteners and their families which will take place at asigo East High School for 4:30 to 6: pm.

followed by the panel discussion from 600 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. moderated by student board members this event will feature questions crafted by high school students to reflect our Collective concerns and priorities leaders from various clubs and organizations across the district will be invited to attend in person and the event will also be live streamed for the Public's viewing this is a chance for students to not only learn about the candidates Visions but also to make our voices heard as we shape the future of our school community so as we prepare for these important events let's continue to support one another bring forward new ideas and ensure that Amplified 2025 truly ref reflects the voice of our students thank you a plank Junior High yes no problem oh that one was not open to the public thank you so much you said unfortunately it's not brought to the public but will be live streamed for everyone to view students um the student board yes let me let me just jump in so what we decided was is that they're going to moderate it with the uh potential candidates or with the candidates and then they are inviting other um student members from various groups at both high schools to come in and do a meet and greet um but then alongside of that we're working with building Administration and Communications to get their questions so there'll be tons of questions that students will be able to submit um and then we want them to be able to view it live stream okay March 3rd is in person and it's at plane and we need you to be there okay thank you is that it ladies is that it oh yes thank you thank you thank you all right 7.3 board member comments any board member comments who would like to start you always look my way CU you always got I'll start um it's kind of hard to do it seems kind of weird doing this on a day when it's like 50-some degrees outside but I just want to thank Mr Bell Mr Queen and everybody in operations who you know one week ago today we were like we were really cold thank you um I want to thank you for all the hard work it's not an easy it's not an easy job and no matter like as we discussed no matter what kind of call whether School whether it's e-learning or whether um students are in class somebody's going to be upset and nothing is a perfect solution but we always try to maintain the safety of the students so whatever decision is made just know that it's made with a great deal of thoughtfulness prior to and a lot of hard work it can't be easy starting buses at 4:30 to get them all warmed up I don't know I was asleep um so um again I just I just don't think it's said enough so I wanted to I wanted to give props to to all of you people who who kept running during that time make it while you can get the other thing I wanted to say was um Saturday there was an event by the robotics team over at bed nurc and there were uh a couple of speakers at the beginning and unfortunately um we kind of missed the speaking positions Dr katti and I were busy giving blood um Dominic was off blood drive yeah yeah yeah at a blood drive yeah okay we'll clarify somewhere else we have needles in our no um but we did we Dominic and I did get there later um we did and again i' I've said this before these kids are so amazing so I won't go into all the details but you know all of the stuff that they do goes right over my head um but they did want to they did present us with plaque that I'm going to turn over um and it was basically um a thank you from them for the support that 308 has given them um this particular year um as usual they are their expectation is to go to Worlds again in Texas um we are one of the few teams that kind of plans beyond beyond Nationals and actually goes to Worlds uh so again um great time and um I'm going to pass this over to you thank you either either that or it's going up in my living room I love it this looks very exciting thank you thank yep can I piggyback that because uh I want I was I actually had that on my list too and um unfortunately I had a college visit this weekend so but I did it was interesting what's that fortunately unfortunately for well I mean fortunately but I'll be honest with you I try not to miss that event so it's kind of like unfortunate that I can't clone myself being in two places at once and I actually did receive a text from a parent saying where's the board at and I explained the um uh the the the blood drive and so forth but I wanted to say thank the reason I want to piggyback that is say thank you to um representative kwit and also um bill um Bill Foster for coming out I know they were here and they spoke so appreciate uh them doing those things I think it was called the wow event right wow um the other piece I'll be quick is uh tomorrow is Tuesday listen I'd like to lecture our country at uh what 2025 we still vote on Tuesdays I really don't understand that I really feel like it's an Antiquated piece at this point but nonetheless hey many of um many of the people in uh our district will have the option to go to the polls tomorrow and vote and as I try to always remind people you do not vote once every four years you do not even vote once every two well I should say you could but you have the opportunity to not just vote once every four years or two years but in fact you have the opportunity in this uh country of ours to vote at least once every year and this year uh some of us get the opportunity twice there's tomorrow uh Aurora and asigo I believe both have uh primaries and then we'll do it again in uh a little over a month April 1st so uh don't forget to go exercise your vote my wife and I went uh together um yesterday yeah went down to um uh the county uh y county seat and we uh cast votes together so don't forget please make sure your voices are heard anyone else okay moving on to the consent agenda 8.1 can I have motion to approve the consent agenda please make a motion to approve all items under consent including 8.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on February 10th 2025 open and close session and 8.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district second are there any questions on the consent agenda Mr ploger I Dr Mario I miss vmou hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson hi motion passes 70 okay good evening I want to invite uh Miss Amanda satar and Mr Rob FEI uh any updates regarding our financial profile and information thank you Dr katti I want to start out uh this evening by recapping a meeting that we had with a legislator this afternoon where the legislature talked about the governor's bring your mic a little closer sir the governor's budget message and the governor's uh appropriation to the legislator for fiscal year 26 I mean there were some good information that I'm happy to share the fact that the state will fully fund uh ebf evidence-based funding and evidence-based funding has been a change maker for us because we're tier one in the district so the governor has appropriated uh $350 million which means that we should be able to receive the same amount that we expect to get in fiscal year 26 that's the good message the challenging part of the governor's uh uh recommendation to the legislation is the fact that mandated categorical funds are been prated they've actually been prr over the last few years and for example in this current fiscal year Transportation regulated Transportation special air transportation instead of also receiving 100% of the expenditure that we Ur this year is been PR rated regular a has been prated at 79% that is how much we get not 100% of the money we're expecting that we spend we only get 79% for special a transportation the pration in fiscal year 25 is 69% but it gets worse in fiscal year 26 the budget that was presented by the governor to the legislature reduces the pration for regular ad from 7 79% to 69% and for special education it goes down from uh 69% to 61% so as it stands right now and I think I've talked to the board and the public about this transportation is the One Fund that is the most challenging for us as a district the One Fund that consistently we've had a deficit and the latest projection that I will present to the board next month shows Transportation deficit growing from now till 2030 which is 5 years from now to be about $26 million if we don't do anything about it just in that fund and the paration based on the recommendation of the governor's budget is not going to help that the hold just becomes bigger so it was imperative before that we do something about Transportation it's become doubly triple imperative that we address that now because we have a we have a bigger hole than what our projections were to begin with now what I would like to talk about now is the uh the financial information that is in the package if you look at the first item there we have the fund balance I want to point out that the fund balance is out of 30 uh January 31st and which is is gone down because this didn't include the uh Bond payment of about $30 million that we made after the 31st of January so and also the uh the expenses of an additional 30 $30 million in payroll and other related operational cost so if you take that of that 116 we're closer to about $60 million so this is the time of the year where it gets tough as far as cash is concerned and the reason being that we get paid the majority of the money that we get in the district twice a year we get the first installment in June of the uh proper tax extension we get the second installment in September and we have to pretty much make it last for the balance of the year what we've been trying to do is do a better job of projecting our cash flow and this is tied to the if you look at our investment uh statement too you will see that last month it was much higher than where we are right now we had a lot of investment that we placed short-term investment and some long-term investment we had to liquidate that to be able to make payment on those on that $30 million bond that we have to pay on so if you also notice we don't have a lot of investment right now because at the end of the at uh on the 19th of the month we only have $58 million left so we are really now in a position to engage in long-term investment three months or or longer because we need that cash to pay immediate uh immediate expenses that comes through so that's why we don't have any so what we are we have some investment the liquid investment that pays about 4.2 million uh 4.2% interest as suppos to a longer term uh investment that will pay us more because we need that cash for day-to-day living but I'm I'm happy to say that uh last we've been monitoring our cash flow as I mentioned earlier we met with a a financial advisor last Friday and we will be able to to get through June when we get our first installment of the 2024 uh property tax extension without doing a Taw so this would be the second year in a row after 20 years of not having to [Applause] do so the other things yes sir yes sir can I request just the interest earned sure from from whatever period to whatever period actually it's in the uh it's in the uh projection it's in the uh Financial is it on page um what's your document though yeah can we project these when we talk about them H we project them oh that's a good idea yeah yes right now I don't know if it'll be prepared to be too small but maybe for you do have earnings on investment earning on investment on the revenue if you look under the revenue which page are you on the dashboard yes yes the revenue dashboard if you look at only on investment to date we have earned $3 million so that was and that's year to date that's year to date since September yeah since uh July 1 since ju okay get ju dates wrong sometimes um and that's kind of a new practice yes so $3.1 million because of a new practice yes of putting our cash to work can can you explain that just a little bit more say so in the past what we did we put our our extra money in the savings account essentially but what we've done this year is to since this fiscal year we've aggressively tried to invest our money but rest assure we're not doubling anything uh risky risky because we have to follow the state law under the Illinois Municipal investment act there things that are permissible that we can invest in such as CDs uh that actually as long as we put less than 20 and $50,000 in it is uh is ensured by Bic we also have investment in government uh agency bonds uh Fanny May Freddy Max uh t uh treasury bonds Tre uh treasury bills so those we invest in those so so we're getting 4.2% right now currently in our liquid a shortterm liquid liquid assets yes and then you were chasing basis points by doing a lading type of strategy yes we were and when we didn't need all that money so I'm I'm not trying to you know but so over a six-month period yeah $3.1 million yes sir so this this is I mean that's huge you know I I don't this is this is why we have yes this is new money that wasn't there before so we need to look at the revenue side that's being generated you know because of these new practices and and they're far outweighing anything that we're any investment that we're making but also and that we're able to help you know um pay our teachers more and our T more and you know but to never have done this in the past that's what I'm saying it's new right it's new money and and you know rates were lower but not that long ago I mean we could have been getting this you know um so and it could have been at least a million you know but now it's it's going to be like four or5 million you know year thank you for pointing that out so so on the expenditure side one thing I would like to point out if you look at um on the revenue side I'm sorry since we're on Revenue if you see there's a difference uh in the memo that is included there that we actually received 12 $2.5 million more in Revenue last year than we did this year and most people may be wondering Federal federal revenue why we got that if you think about it what was different last year about this year yeser last year we had Esser and that 2.5 million was the reimbursement that we received from Esser at this point this year we don't have Esser that's the that's money that is that we're not going to get this year but that was know right right but I just wanted to point out that's the explanation for the areans the $2.5 million difference now on the expenditure side what we've seen so far if you look at it what we project is pretty close to what we're getting there's no big uh surprise now if you look at other objects if you see what we actually project and what we actually spend there's a big variance we're projected having to spend about 54% of our of our expenditure in uh other objects we've only spent 49.6 and if you look at the I can show this to you and let you see the cause of that variance is actually a timing issue if you look at um uh budget reports the what I'm looking at here I don't know that number four uh let me see this will be one two yeah number four thank you you can put that so what that is is the timing of a bond payment by this time last year we had PID $30 million in our bond payment we pay the bond payment after we pull this report so that's the difference so it's not like we spent a whole lot more last year that we spent this year it was just a timing of the bond payment we have to make the bond payment we paid it earlier last year we paid it after we're going to pay it after this report has been pulled I just wanted to point that out can you just real quick um Define other what other objects those are Bond payments oh they are the bond payments those are the bond payments that I just mention so the other thing I want to talk about talk about the revenue talk about the expenditure is CPI CPI I I put a memo there every month for us to track CPI because CPI drives the amount of money that we get that we can Lev in property taxes so it also governs how much we spend for things such as electricity and other things that we spend money on as a district and uh as we're seeing now CPI is actually the CPI is actually gone down a little bit over the last few months but it's then coming back up again what essentially showing that inflation is still sticky it hasn't gone anywhere so if you look at the last 12 months from January of 2024 to January of 2025 uh CPI is actually 3% so it's actually remember if we remember that goal is for us to have CPI to 2% that's the target so it's 3% so we're not out of the words yet as far as inflation is concerned and it impacts Us in how we spend money and the things that we spend money on that's why I think it's important that we track that and we keep that uh in our sight those are the things I wanted to point out as the financial is concern the other thing I would like for Mr to talk about peace collection thank you so this is a report that we should kind of get used to seeing um that would be nine yeah the last one yes number nine okay so this is a comparison at the same time last year compared to this year what we've charged versus what we've collected you can see the bottom line is um sign significantly lower in comparison to last year we're at about only 71% collection rate whereas this time last year we had an 85.6% collection rate um you know it we're not really sure why people aren't paying their fees but um it is an it is an issue um it's an issue with uh food payment too meals we know why I mean just to be honest because a legislation was passed about 3 years ago that prevented the district from from taking actions to collect fees owed uh to the district by families and I think the word is gotten around and the level of collection is suffered as a result of that and what is important to note is that as we lose this Revenue it has to come from somewhere else from some place else some right that's somewhere else in the budget those Services still have to be provided those bills still have to be paid we just have to find the money from somewhere else again I appreciate more than anything um this word is being thrown around a lot transparency and I am incredibly proud of the transparency that you are bringing um from a financial perspective than we that we've ever had and to understand where we what is very hard to understand about school budgeting is it's very cyclical like you said we get paid twice a year but we have bills due every single month so we have to pay them no matter what and so when we don't when when you put a budget together and you put it budget together to say we're going to have3 million or $4 million in fees but we don't collect that you then have to go to the budget and find it from somewhere else because we still have to pay for whatever those fees are for whether they're for activity ities or sports or whatever um so I really appreciate the transparency that you are continuing to bring to this two things I wanted to talk first of all were you finished yes we are I'm sorry so the the other document is the the activity funds by school the balance how much was spent last year how much was collected and the balance left by each building that's it um I think regarding Transportation one of our core values in the district is collaboration and I really wonder and I'm just posing this as an idea would it be um feasible to put together a transportation task force and to bring in some people from the community from areas of Industry parents and so forth to really just bring in and talk about the issues when we had our bus situation the other day when the buses weren't moving you know it was very interesting for me to see from the community to hear ideas like was did this take place did that take place and is something around you know collectively um letting other people know what's going on but we also have a lot of experts within our community so I think that's something that maybe we could think about or that you know if the administration could think about one of the other things that I don't know that if we've talked about this or when we're going to talk about this or how to bring this up but are we facing some deficits from federal funding with a new political Administration and um obviously I'm on the board for 49 more days but who's counting and um I can answer that question straight up yeah and I think we need to have some really hard conversations right now the projections that we have the five-year projection I was actually going to provided today but it was so much on the agenda with the uh strategic plan we didn't want to stay here till 1:00 or 2 o'clock so we decide to to present it uh in March but the projection that we are assumes $9.1 million a year in federal funds which is about 4% of our Revenue wow so in real terms that's about 130 teachers salary so losing that fund will be devastating financially to us as a district so it's not small potato okay go ahead yeah and just want to say I'm glad you put it in terms of jobs but um the one thing and please don't take this the wrong way but I know I heard ever and I would disagree and but I think there's a lesson in that piece which is we did have a finance person who was very transparent we lost them um they went to another District he did a great job um also of doing a lot of educating in the community and a lot of what the community knows was due to that to that person and the reason I want to mention this is because listen it's a tight Market you know this I mean it's a tight Market finding good Finance people and so when you get one please Community hold on because um it's it's it's a tight Market uh in a lot of areas right right now so um and that's not to you know you're doing a great job and so did he and I remember at the time the discussion on the board was well I don't think we could pay that much I'm like I don't know kind of thinking maybe we should but would have been a good investment but we're we're happy that we have you too be very careful who you're talking about I don't I why what not our most like recent oh no okay no no no I go ahead you guys go ahead no I I I'm just thinking about um you know you're you're very calm and you're very you know matter of fact you know I want to say even casual about these bombs that you're ding sh right and um it's just very disconcerting to know that we could be in a situation where we need to come up with $9.1 million um and so my question to you is how are we being proactive um around that possible scenario you want to start we've been we've been working on the the fiscal year 26 budget and we actually are not we're not as far along as we will have been at this time as we were last year because we're looking at different scenarios that we didn't have to consider last year because we knew where the appropriation was last year we knew how much we have to work with and it was easier to budget the fiscal 26 budget is a little more difficult because of the different scenario for starters before the governor presented it his budget uh last week the state was uh communicating a $3.16 billion deficit and we didn't know how that will impact ebf and how that will impact mandated categorical funds we have that now we feel pretty sure about what we're going to get from the state but what is not clear is what we're going to get from the federal government and even to some extent the the appropriation that we build the fiscal year 20 five current year Budget on is contingent upon the the federal government coming through between now at the end of the this fiscal year with the money that is promised to us in federal funds so we are we're looking at different scenarios when we present the budget and we present the uh the financial projections about what we looking at but what we know is that if we don't get all the money that we assume we're going to get that would be $9 million so we have to find a way to reduce the budget proportionately to be able to operate and that would be a significant significant impact on the on the operation of the district so some of the things we've done is we've we've built a strong connection with our Senators and our legislators at the state level and today uh I was on a call with at least uh 10 other superintendents and so we discussed what are the types of contingencies so I think everybody's think think about it uh there were two senators on House of Representative member and the senator um who are very connected to what's happening um so there's a lot of strong advocacy around a contingency so I I just think that that's very important for the community to know that we're not just sitting back and waiting this is an active situation and we are very much connected to understanding how we will weather kind of like uh with the with the covid days how do we weather uh catastrophic situation like this right so number one number two uh we are looking at really what our efficiencies in the system so we're uh mro befi Dr zmy uh members of the senior leadership team Dr K have been working very diligently to review any place and every place that we can really think about efficiencies and and really thinking about how do we you know every year we have natural attrition right we have natural attrition that happens as a result of retirements somebody moves out of state somebody decides to go work a place else we have those right so uh fortun unfortunately a lot of times when those happen you automatically a system may replace those right but are there ways that we can move diligently strategically where we're not impacting our schools to address some of that does it get to $9 million I don't think so but does it get to shortening small making it a smaller Gap so we can we can ensure I can assure you that those are are some things that we're looking at the last thing that we're doing is we have to think about the other um more operational expenses um the board will hear from Mr Obi um maybe not next week but the meeting after one about some of the transportation challenges we currently essentially if you want to ride a bus in our district for example you ride a bus there's never been a system to validate who gets a ride a bus whether they're within the mile or not so we spent about $1,500 per student ,550 actually per student for students who are out within that mile we are still busing students who are within the mile who may be have access to what would be realistic walking to school we've never vetted that the district has never vetted that when I say we I'm saying over the last 5 to 10 years that's never been vetted so we are actually engaged in the Hazardous streets study to ensure that we are ensuring that every child has safe passage to school whether it's walking or Transportation secondly ensuring that you know right now there are places where it's very much like door too a bus stops here there there there there those are natural efficiencies that would save a significant cost around that and so I just those are things that will come and I we've got guest here for the Strategic plan meeting so I want to honor that and this was not necessarily the focus but I will say the board will hear a full thorough review of that in a very soon time Z if I asked my question of course oh great thank you um so the first question is I was looking at the CP CPI piece for that month right and I I know a lot can change right so I'm not going to sit here and ask you to project the next 11 months but the part that concerns me when I start seeing like a 0.5 yeah in a month is if you project that out you're talking about a 6% CPI which means that means our expenses are going to out outpace what we can possibly bring in for revenues and I think that's an important piece that people need to realize is that um we can't go above five so anything at 0.

e e e [Applause] good evening welcome to the regular business meeting of board of school Trustees for the Crownpoint school corporation of February 24th 2025 I'd like to call the meeting to order at 6m if we could all please rise for the saying of the as Mr Vasser leads us in the saying of the pledge allegiance followed by a Moment of Silence thank you all right the next item on today's agenda is section 2.01 Patti registered to comment on educational issues there are no patrons registered to comment tonight so we'll move on uh item three consent agenda Dr Terell thank you for your consideration this evening we have 3.01 which is our executive session minutes our regular business meeting uh Board of Finance minutes 3.02 our disposition of stale data checks 3.03 uniform conflict of interest disclosure statements 3.0 the personel agenda and 3.05 the voucher registered checks checks as listed you've heard the consent agenda outl outlaid by Dr Terell 3.01 executive session minutes regular business meeting board of Finance meeting minutes of January 27 2025 3.02 disposition of stale dat and checks 3.03 uniform conflict of interest disclosure statements 3.04 Personal Agenda and 3.05 voucher register checks number 17161 to 17548 vouch number 30 second motion by Miss B second by Mr Angel are there any questions or comments to I do have one question U real simple one uh Mr ke real simple question the um the dates that people are are hired and resigned are those the actual dates that they would do so are those just computer gener the date of the job that they're doing I think you're referring to the what seems to ECA position yeah so to clarify for that all ecas are for a full year regardless of what that ECA happens so when it says for example August 12th that means they've resigned from that position for that year that ECA position that fits in that year does not correlate with an actual date that makes sense it makes perfect sense I was just for clarity so it lines up with contracts and really helps the business department if we were inconsistent on those ECA dat they reflect a Year's position and potentially later to be detailed is it split a percentage of that year thinking about that driving over here t wait a minute I have to ask this so thank you for the explanation yeah sure any other questions or comments F questions we'll take a vote all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose guys carry five Z action item four 4.01 2025 Crown Community summer school corporation summer school programing what's your thank you Mr President board members in support agendas the proposed 2025 summer school plan uh this year summer school offerings reflect the state of Indiana's emphasis on early literacy and new graduation requirements as the state of Indiana has reprioritized resources for summer school we have adjusted our offerings to match that alignment realigned uh Elementary School will focus on second and third grade students with the emphasis on literacy and passing I read assessment Middle School will F focus on basic skills and trans transition to Middle School um our summer school offerings will allow students on current core 40 diploma tracks to take previously mapped out courses in their graduation plan obtain credits for graduation and finally special education extended school year will be offered per students individual needs all courses being offered during the 2025 summer school sessions meet the doe State reimbursement requirements and administration recommends approval of the 2025 summer school plan if you have any questions while you're thinking of questions that you may have I want to jump in here and just make a couple of additional comments so our current the biggest one of the biggest impacts this has is students in high school so our current sophomores um freshman sophomores and juniors will continue to be able to participate in summer school just as they have in the past their plans of course courses as they take them throughout their at the high school will be will not be impacted by this they'll still be able to do this incoming freshmen are going to have a little bit different and part of that is in the past we've had a really large amount of students take summer school during or take PE during summer school with the new uh diplomas that everybody's heard that are coming out based off of the seal requirements and the number of courses you have to take for instance PE has been reduced from two semesters of PE in one of Health down to one semester of PE uh there's been some changes in social studies there's been some other changes so Our intention as we continue to move forward with this is to make sure that the offerings that we provide allow us to continue to have the Integrity of the number of teachers number of sections that we offer during the school year so that we don't look at a reduction in force in in those areas um the other part of that is with the uh I three this summer being the year actually being the first time that kids if they don't pass it have to stay in third grade is really focused on hitting the retention piece of that or the literacy piece of that to make sure that we can continue to focus and really zoom in on the needs that our students have in that area kind of a complicated funding uh Source from the state for summer school is they have like a set amount of money that they designate for summer school and then they classify different has classified one the first group and then in the second group and they've realigned where those are offered um therefore they're going to give priority in funding to the ones in the class one and that's what we're going after right now um so for instance in the past we've our summer schools have been funded anywhere from 65 70 plus percent range of what it costs us and we have to make up the rest of that what we're seeing now across the state is would have a certain amount and it would be set and then however many corporations jumped in and did summer school then that pot just got duded more the more schools districts that did this um my guess is that as we look at this literacy piece and having to retain students in third grade you're probably going to see people weren't offering summer school before they're really going to hit that hard so going into this being mindful of where we are um with the budget with the addition dollars we up on our end but then also looking at what the graduation plans what the course plans are going to be for our students as eighth graders now coming into ninth grade next year this will really allow them to still accomplish the things that they want to accomplish um taking those AP courses do credit courses we're not shying away from any of that you guys have heard me say before we're going to be real close to earning 10,000 college credits this year at the high school and that's for a school our size that's like closing in on twice as many as most of them um our AP courses last year at the high school they received a silver recognition from the AP uh college board group who is in charge of the AP courses and testing because of the increased number of AP courses that our students took not just students taking them but at RIS students and students of minority as well so um that those are going to we're going to continue to push in those areas um we just have to make sure that we're aligned that can do that in a way that it's fiscally responsible for us Dr Terell thank you for that I I really appreciate hearing you address that we're making sure we're not impacting students who are currently in high school with their um paths and then making sure that we're having as little impact on our teacher fores thank you for that explanation let me also say that we will be communicating out tomorrow um with a message going out regarding summer school that will give parents staff more information and kind of clear the air on some of those issues as well waiting until the board took action tonight to begin that messaging so expect that to hit early tomorrow Dr ter can you heard some Whispers and things online seen sure this is not a strategy that we are employing to persuade our community to pass the referendum has nothing to do with that um this is just simply about addressing the needs for the graduation diploma seal requirement changing and the emphasis that the state is putting on literacy especially at the second third grade level follow itics sues future years that could be um for instance if the legislators in theis decide that they're going to put a bunch of money into summer school all of a sudden you would reflect that as well I cannot predict the future but I I don't see that happen about summer school you get a chance every year to take so just to clarify for the people watching home if the state doesn't make any changes we would have been status quo on what we continue to do but even though they made the changes with some of the funding we're still giving the kids what they need to graduate we just have to hold back because we're not getting that funding for PE or classes such as that so the current freshman sophomores and juniors will continues even though funding has changed and what that's going to look like we're committed to making sure that they can finish out with the plans that they've already established for the course work in high school yes so nobody's going to be shorted nobody will be short thank you question so we're not definitely not having summer PE that's that is correct anything else all right heard the recommendations of the administration for approval of 2025 Crown Point School Corporation summer school program to vote oh may have a motion so by Mr Angel by all in favor signi by saying I I carries ZK Mr all right on to action item 4.02 resolution number 860 literacy Grant supplemental payment Mr Kiwa yeah thank you Mr President board members we bring to you uh this evening resolution number 860 860 uh referring to on the early literacy Grant stien on December 15 of 2023 the Indiana Department of Education issued guidance related to the early literacy achievement Grant established through the house and World Act haa1 -223 also known as the literacy Grant the literacy Grant funds in the amount of 29,6 n589 uh $ 29,6 19589 were received by the school corporation for distribution to teachers instructional coaches and other school staff responsible for implementing and delivering literacy and reading instruction of students through grade three stien amount of $183 cents will be received by 162 staff members we ask that the board this evening wave the reading of the resolution and approve it this evening so that we are able to distribute the early literacy stien in the month of March thank you Mr ke you've heard the administation administra for approval resolution ol so move thank you Mr President members of the board we bring before you tonight a project regarding the districtwide monument sign replacement across the corporation bids were received and Legacy sign group was the low bid with that we recommend approval of the districtwide monument sign replacement project to Legacy sign group for $ 25373 thank you Mr reation the administra for approval of contract districtde mon sign rep Legacy signp for the 23,000 just one question when was the the last time this was done to this level anyway as far as these signs being upgraded or anything I'm not sure if they ever were at this level and we've got some signs that I should drive by have where you can put messages on them some that don't some that look like they should have been updated in the 70s um so this will actually get us and kind of be that bow on all of the work that we've been doing to that final step kind of figured that but just want to make sure that it was a long time ago it was very long time so all of the signs then will have the capability of putting messages up no we're going away from that what we found is in 2025 people that want messages are getting up through social media um going through the websites of our buildings so these will be very what is in front of this building and also in front of Taft middle school and signs will look very similar across the board in every one of our buildings do we what do we do with the old materials that all is part of the demolition process some of them we can use the foundations that were there most of them we cannot and have to remove those and start let me ask you something privately later questions comments to item street thank you Mr President uh this recommendation brings two parts one is the actual purchase of the uh air conditioning or trer unit that was done through a the Statewide qpa and the other part is quotes taken to actually install and make it operational once it is received with that we are recommending contracts be awarded to Carrier Corporation to the state qpa in the amount of 750 for the installation of the chiller we've heard a recommendation of the administration that contracts be awarded by carrier coration of 29895 excuse Precision so the company is precision temperature control but the unit is a I think said Carri is that that is correct the brand is Carrier we're purchasing the children from carrier it is a Carri right and that Precision is the oneall gotcha okay thank you I understand uh are we familiar with these particular contractors involved in this project Mr M shaking his head you want to come come up and say anything Mike or you good any questions for Mr again with all of the projects we've been doing this just completes that project so at this point in time we're in a really good spot in all of our buildings with our chers getting them very similar in what brand new any other questions or comments items1 super discussion groups I am not have have a discussion about who's going to tackle that just make sure you don't get to upset each other Mr sorry Mr Angel aular basis based on fing uh yes I had the pleasure of meeting with the Crown Point or being on the crowno Redevelopment commission last month we have our next meeting next Monday night uh big item on the agenda was Bulldog Park they're going to be extending the stage there to make the stage bigger and put in a much better sound system as well so be nice nice to see that anything else uh next week begins our 11th grade Juniors will be taking the SAT the window opens up marches the 14th so on March the 5th our Juniors will be taking school this is a culmination of with the College Board that began back in grade for these students started with PSAT they follow that up in grade n with PSAT 9 and then there's PSAT National Merit that takes place in grade also PS they take the beginning 11 to Monitor and track this year we have also added T in the PS and PS1 so that we canit grow of our students between those two tests the first test we use the formative assessment Grant to fund the second assessment in the spring that we have added that will be something that we will be funding but it does help us to stay on track and to Monitor and see how our students are growing over time the culmination like I said is the uh March 5th Wednesday stud their experience with college there are diploma ramifications for those that pass it is part of pass colge any questions Jim it's been a long time since I've taken the sat right about as long as you how how long is the test now administer it within and maybe Mark you two two two and a half hours take than you moving on to item 5.03 director Elementary education thank you Mr President and board members just a few updates tonight on some things happening here in the next few weeks uh first off tomorrow's the big day for the 2038 uh pre-registration opens up online for our new new incoming kindergarten class um this year also for the first time instead of one school one book at our seven elementary schools we will be uh starting one district one book uh so all seven of our elementary schools uh have a have their own teams that are planning some activities around this one book title you've previously approved that book but I'm not going to reveal the title tonight because that's a big deal at our elementary schools um but uh this is to really get students excited about literacy and get our families excited about reading at home um so that will be kicking off uh at our seven elementary schools over the next couple weeks and it will finish up with an author visit uh the afternoon um the Friday right before spring break so that'll be a good afternoon for for students uh next exciting thing coming up on March 6th our uh elementary school art show will begin at 5 o'cl and end at 6:30 this is at the Crown Point Public Library there are several hundred 2D and 3D works of art on display at the library uh they're already up but the official show is on March 6th from 5: to 630 so thanks to our seven Elementary art teachers for all their hard work to Showcase uh the talent of our youngest artists um and we're grateful for that partnership with the library they host US every year and it's a it's a really cool event uh last thing tonight um as Dr Terrell mentioned earlier I read three uh is coming up here very soon uh the first two weeks of March is the I three testing window uh legislatively there's a couple big changes this year first uh the first big change is that all second graders will be taking I three this year for the first time uh the second uh really big change is that there are more strict and really inflexible uh retention requirements for students in grade three that do not pass uh the assessment uh student students will have um opportunities to retake the assessment as third graders if they don't pass uh here in March um and we'll have detailed remediation plans for any students um in grades three um that don't pass that first try they'll have a couple more attempts but um traditionally our students do very well on I 3 but these are seven and eight and nine year olds and can be a lot of pressure and a lot of stress and some angst for our students and our our teachers so best of luck to to everyone involved any questions Dr a question it's a practical question I think youed this some stud struggle test taking that type of education right presenting testure good students homor that's a great question so kind of on a whole school level the calmer the adults are the Cal the kids are going to be that's the first thing I would say um and really it's about knowing our students knowing our Learners and our teachers are excellent at really knowing what our students need but you're right sometimes our highest performers they get the most anxious uh sometimes students who struggle get anxious anyone can um but really it's about setting a kind of a calm environment on test day um encouraging students in positive ways not stressful hey you're you know threatening ways we don't want to do that I know a lot of teachers do um you know cool ideas to have parents write students a note of good luck on test day different things to encourage students to be at their best but uh if students do need some accommodations there are also options that were were allowed to put in place from the state to give students um you know certain things like small group testing or breaks during testing things like that than you question that was that was a great response to that question Nick um softball question for you uh Library hosting the Elementary art show we can go there now to see that is that what you're saying that okay that is on display already um but from 5 to 6:30 I think we do like two or three schools at five and then two or three schools at 5:30 kind of spread it out because parking might be tough but um each school has I can't remember the exact number but a good chunk of student work on display but it is already up thank you good evening president Smith members of the board uh you do have two more opportunities to see the Bulldog ballers in action at the high school March 6th and March 13th I think Mr Angel's interested and maybe joining as a coach next year he came last week and we'll get to that um I'd like to mention that next week is school social worker week and I want to recognize our five School social workers for their dedication and compassion in working with our students our families our staff um they really do help us Foster uh a safe and nurturing environment and they're really making a difference not only in the schools but our Greater Community they're helping families connect with outside resources um helping students during crisis and they also meet with some of our students regularly to provide support so I want to mention them by name we have three exceptional Ed social workers Evelyn Bratton Sandy specker and Tara verdusco and then two additional School social workers Tracy Noble and Mary ree so we really appreciate the work they do and their social workers are relatively new to Crown Point schools within the last handful of years so I think they've been an invaluable addition uh a couple of upcoming important dates uh April 23d we're hosting our transition Fair again and this is an opportunity for our parents and students to come over to the high school at 5:30 that night and there are gosh I think about 70 tables set up and there are service agencies like the Bureau of Developmental Disabilities there are group home um companies there's insource which is a advocacy agency in the state planting possibilities just even some of our local colleges come the military just a range of um resources for our parents and students to grab and talk to the representatives and then best day of the year is Wednesday May 14th um at 10:00 a.m.

[Music] I [Music] for [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] I [Music] for [Music] p [Music] a [Music] we are here hello we're back in the vapor wave Dimension welcome to week 12 of the ihsen competitive regular season this is the last competitive week of the regular season we're coming at you yes we are coming at you today with tetrio gam playay they will be facing off against players from 26 other schools totaling 69 players throughout Indiana in the state of tetrio that is the league that our competitors are playing in in this Swiss style bracket players will attempt to win best of five 1V one matches but enough Yap we got clay up against Jaden who's right beside me Jaden 445 the Jaden Jen playing with his mind currently he has my name which means I'm the same person and seems like Jaden is going to Fumble can he clutch you know how when you have the same name as someone else and the first thought that pops into your mind is I'm the better version you got to fight him all right yeah I I want to engage in combat with this we got excuse me everybody we got Jordan up uh AKA strixe against aquamarine a another reoccurring attender yes we got Jordan on the left side of your screen and he decided to soft drop that in there which was kind of a silly little move but you want to explain to the crowd what a soft drop is you got to remember our audience you push the down key and the block go down oh I see it go down it go down slow crazy insan do I like doing that I like throwing on random British accent when I say Insanity then just put a little spice on it and go insan I can't believe aqua aquam aquamarine is goofing up already I'm the only one who will never lose AA for real all right bro it will never be lost my silly Little vocab over here your vocabulary and other news we have um EMT ostrich beat EMT Maro got a victory over an anio very sad loss and yes bartello got a video I can't talk today guys he got a video he clipped him he got a victory over anano well I was making fun of Cullen I just realized that aquam Marine has been hit with a massive crap like what do we talk about you went to therapy for this Jaden it's in my natural vocabulary there is a victory for Jordan is that seriously all the matches already wow oh dang all right yeah I guess a lot of three O's goodness goodness golly oh my god well I guess since we're waiting we could introduce the play oh never mind we got Hunter who seems to be really small against rock and roll oh yeah he's comically small yeah Hunter on the left side of your screen who just got cooked bro he did the cooking I'm I'm talking about rock and roll okay yeah root for the left side of the screen that is Hunter that is your cyber tiger it's okay if you goofed up in the beginning and you didn't notice that Hunter wasn't oh he's oh my goodness he's ining he's becoming massive I'm not going to say any joke that I would like to say because we're on a school stream what bro he miss dropped that doesn't matter again rock and roll is he does not seem to be rolling The Rock like Copus could sure that that's that guy's name Copus yes yes yes yes that guy that rolled a rock up a cliff and always fell down because he was a little goofy and he didn't know what to do he was being just a bit quirky just a little bit he was getting a little freaky oh know oh my goodness oh and all clear goodness gracious in all clear is when all of the tiles on your board are cleared wouldn't that be a bit self-explanatory yes but like just in case oh yeah I see what you mean all right good job looking out for those people out there yeah we got to look holy moly look at him go he is going with such speed and efficiency is this that you say bolt of tetrio he may or may not be I mean he is oh my goodness he's kind of lacking the Brazilian part so probably not Hunter cops a dub over rock and roll who just got rock and rolled on and he's got dunked on yeah and this still is not the end of round one we are still waiting on owens's matchup indeed we are it seems they're trying to get a hold of him yeah we do not know when our next match is actually going to start but in the meantime why don't you start us off with some sponsors I got you do that huge shout out to our local internet provider Adams Wells internet Telecom and TV they are directly responsible for our Esports players to be able to compete because of their incredibly fast and reliable fiber internet service my favorite if you are in the market for Internet TV or phone service check out adamswells.com that's adamswells.com yeah ah check it out do that and also another one of our sponsors special thanks to what was that special thanks to The Moose for sponsoring this event as well check out the garage here in town on Main Street it's a cafe slame room/ music venue for the Youth have left in hangout special thank you to the Moose garage for sponsoring us hey Jaden you want to see a little magic trick look I want to see a magic trick for you a sponsor paper too I didn't know that oh my goodness look at that that there's a bar breaking news everybody we round one EMT versus Brian Master 64 2-3 that's very cool I love it I feel like I'm on the news guys all right very last sponsor we got here auction it do you yes you have a favorite nonprofit that could use an awesome fundraising idea auction it is an online and inperson auction platform that can help your nonprofit host a great charity auction find out more at auction.io that's auction.io I don't know if it's auction it or auction it I just always call it it you got me I I gu I I apparently did anyway so that didn't waste enough time it actually did Owen is going now we did it perfect timing we did it we're so cool yep Owen in the middle all right and it looks to be fluffy something I say fluffy hog it looks like it says fluffy dog does he got that dog in it hold on just a second that says Rog oh frog fluffy frog frog fluffy frog the frog is Fluffy quirky little name I bet I bet he's just a little silly just a bit silly anyway yeah ignore the silly oh the garbage look at look at the look at the Cyber tiger in the middle of the screen you sound like you're trying to mind control somebody look at the Cy that sounds like something in particular look at the Cyber tiger in the middle of your screen do it now I'm gonna order Dairy Queen after I'm done here da Queen really bro I I love Dair Queen awesome I mean no hate on Dairy Queen but like me and my family went there we had like a gift card and it literally took like almost it took like all the money on the gift card it was like $50 to eat it's it's expensive that's why it's good though yeah last time I went there we got four of the same item and it took them like 25 minutes to make that's why you order online to also get the rewards program going no thanks I'll go eat my Taco Bell your Taco Bell yep I love Taco bow I mean their nacho fries are good but like what else they got Cheesy Gordita Crunch this man Cheesy Gordita Crunch EMT not EMT Owen stacking himself up putting the pressure on himself unfortunate first round loss sad very it's a it's a sad day in America everybody yes in all of America for real everybody's mourning the loss of that one round but he's back at it again though off to a good start so far hitting those combos nice little two-piece some some doubles some doubles could do him some good mhm but to each is own they say what does that even mean I figure like you you know like everybody has their own preference type thing cuz like two each is own yeah I guess yeah yeah like person like each person has a different like preference of something yeah that makes sense that makes sense there we go getting the stackage up I can definitely tell he seems to like the combos more but they're kind of harder to pull off especially because you have to be quick yeah and when you don't have lines like in a like a certain way like a setup for it you ain't just going to you ain't going to hit nothing bro yeah Owen is definitely more of a like singles combo sort of player as opposed to the massive power I did it again the massive power of the big Power of the like quads and the t- spins that you'll see like watching Bello or somebody like EMT like them hit their Combos and then you got Owen over here him the singles it's a very different experience watching those different players this is like Bingo night this takes forever that's I mean no hate but like I feel like that paints us in a bad light this comparing I take that back guys comparing our cyber Tigers gameplay to bingo Bingo's pretty fun is it when you win stuff I mean even still you're just like Bingo Bingo's low key overd there's a reason it's an old person sport I was about to call it a sport Bingo is not a sport who's who's stopping you from for making Bingo a competitive thing the the rules and like basic principles of bingo where it's just you pick a number and you get lucky there's no skill da punk what they play Bingo all night so they're up all night to get lucky they're up all night to get yeah exactly it's the D Punk song yeah Bingo's just like da Punk yes that's a good song but Bingo isn't a good game Bingo can be fun no you just sit there and do nothing and you cross off letters it's even worse when you just do the numbers and such like schools find a way to make it ever so slightly more interesting when you can win stuff and it's with like I think you actually have questions you think yeah well makes it I don't know man it's just there's just an aspect about it like just just the thing being school he's stacking up he is going we are noticing a change he's got a line block a drastic change line block coming up eye piece oh hit him with the quad he's got another one coming up he's got another one yep oh yeah another one another oh with a double mhm yes sir let's see he's got to get into a got to get back into the position where he can bring that offense now yes he's got to assume the position here you'll see if he can get back because that little flurry was not enough to fully take out fluffy frog come on do a flip do a flip I mean they're doing a lot of flips they're spinning the BL that was a potentially bad swap b b boing oh my goodness the boing Boingo my goodness gracious the sply goly oh we're two and one now this is this is getting tense here we go yep match point for Owen if he wins one of uh either this round or if he loses this round the next round yeah one more round is this getting Sigma this is getting Sigma boy hey guys just so you know that block they can't see it oh yeah they can't they cannot see the one that you're referring to he was pointing at a block and here in the vapor wave dimension in the middle of the sun guys our house yes the vapor wave Dimension the home from which we cannot Escape yes how sad how sad we're stuck here forced to commentate Tetris till the end of our days for this for real we're getting paid in exposure like some sort of pathetic actor or something we're we're being used guys yes come save us for real please bro why not s my friend request bro don't you want to be my friend bro why would they not accept my friend request all right Owen he's stacking it up oh yeah that's fine that sets up for another one of those little singles a triple triple hit him with the single trip oh my goodness there we go nice little can oh yeah yeah yeah yeah hit him with a Wombo Combo bro this one two all right yep quad into a single nice he hit him with a one two a double into two singles oh yeah look at him go look at him go he's Galloping at precarious speeds and that garbage is gone fluffy frog relatively high up on his board he's getting there heble see if Owen can find some sort of finishing combo or maneuver that can push fluffy frog over that threshold and get him the round win see see if we can get that there we go congratulations you won and he immediately tabs out immediately quick on a draw with that the three to one victory for Owen round one very nice I don't know why doing this thing very nice guys as you drink your not water get this guy all right that is all we have for round one we will return soon we promise we will return soon with round two but until then stay tuned grab a snack we will be right back yeah we're doing the same [Music] for [Music] okay jayen is not back but I don't know if everybody can hear me here but we got ourselves a Canon event we've actually begun yes we have a Canon event my friend and it is finished oh boy oh no it has not finished Owen has uh slipped himself a two to one I'm going to shut the door mhm excuse me everybody okay we're back okay Owen seems to be getting stacked up a lot holy moly and that is game excuse me whoa what in the world oh this is not a can event excuse to misclick everybody but we got Hunter against Raven King 08 mhm and he just got cooked skibby on him Hunter yeah do that whatever he said take him down sorry I just finishing eating pizza crust cuz I like bread yeah I sure hope they can't hear me in the r in my mouth when I take that be when you put it in your M I couldn't resist get me out of this room get me out of here who's stuck in the vapor wave Dimension with this freak ah oh you know who else is a freak that the Rio King Hunter oh my goodness he was getting he was he was a freak in that match guys just had to give him some nicknames the fre re and the Three King oh yes oh yes oh yes oh we're back hey you're eating your it's my that's what he was putting in his mouth oh wrong guy that's the wrong direction sorry I forgot there was One Direction like the band and you didn't pick the One Direction like the band that only direction is up okay that's the only way we can go here all right I just got to start ascending doesn't look like to the heavens I go it doesn't look like there's anything up there and now my knees hurt because I put them on the plastic hello excuse my eating everybody he's putting it in his mouth sorry I'm just stating the obvious you're putting it Go L this back I've got to stop I need to be put on a leash or something that's yeah to put on leash you can't go any further how how about I just he walks off camera and you hear glass shattering anyway guys I have now assumed the role of Jaden I am now the Supreme you got to put that back buddy he guys she's back I've returned I've brought myself a no phone card because I don't know what else to do with this bit I'm going to put this back I'll be right back and now I'm all alone looking at the screen so if uh Hunter oh never never mind so apparently this dude just finds everything in here and he just grabs it I now have a banana yes I'm grabbing a banana put the banana down this is for my monkey you can also put this in your mou I don't want to put that in my mouth Jaden this bit has gone too far we got to stop while we're at it all right good thing that this is the last week of the competitive season we're getting banned we're getting canceled for this we're cooked so looks like all right let let's let's look here let's take a little lookie poo we're taking a lookie that's a weird thing so we we have Gabby is chilling as in bing chilling against Jaden they don't understand what Bing chilling means ice cream it just means ice cream that's all it means they don't understand why we're saying it cuz it says chilling you know if you put that's not the actual reason if you put Bing in front of it what do you get where did you where'd you get Bing from anyway okay we had uh bartello AKA to X dark ninja this is match 270 in the um first row second column three to one against grey W okay uh the one next to that we're just going to go in order here any okay any one of them that you see that is red are our cyber Tigers so we got um Hunter against Raven King dun on him three and0 uh one below that which is 271 uh stricky against rock and roll 4402 I don't know why I said the numbers 30 dunked on and then um bartello AKA dark X dark ninja which is to the left of uh 271 uh 3 to one good good good still dunked on him but you know and then our Canon event that just happened um clay AKA Firestorm against o which was three to one and then everybody else yeah very good very good yeah what's going on for round next to round next round I think it's two wouldn't this be the second round though yeah that's why I'm saying this is round two oh my goodness oh they're moving the thing the movement Wow Wow money spread I'm goodness he spreading his bands as we speak you know what else could okay I think Jaden's cooked everybody I AP I am I am I apologize drop an F in the chat for Jaden everybody I made a severe and continuous lapse in my judgment and I don't expect to be forgiven I'm simply here here's what elaps your judgment some sponsors what I said in that stream yeah we can do some sponsors you to read it the first time now okay huge shout out to our local internet provider Adams Wells internet Telecom and TV I don't know why I'm slapping the table for each syllable but I am I'm going to stop just read the words they're directly responsible I have to do it with a little bit of flare though come on it's my thing flare having flare a they are directly responsible for our Esports players to be able to compete because they're incredibly fast and reliable fiber Internet service we have to emphasize the fiber you got you got to hit him with the fiber byab if you're in the market for Internet TV or phone service check out adamswells.com that's adamswells.com all right because it was so funny the first time I did it I might as well do it again I'm going to ASMR my sponsor section guys oh here we go Qui special thanks okay hold on the Moose garage thanks special thanks to The Moose for sponsoring our event as well check out the garage here in town on Main Street it is a cafe game room room/ music venue for the Youth of loved in hang out thank you the mo/ garage we love you I did it you no all right ASMR I saw a commercial one time where someone was doing that she was like follow me while I set up my window stead or whatever follow me as I as I go feed the kids I've trapped in my house exactly that that commercial sucks yay freedom no you you guys don't get to leave anyway read the Third yes where is my mic his mic fell guys this is what happens when you put it under your shirt anyway do you have a favorite nonprofit that could use an awesome fundraising idea I know you do Janet auction is an online inperson auction platform that can help your nonprofit host a great Charity Auction find out more at auction.io that's auction.io hey that was very skibbidy thank you I think I believe the the definition of is bad so okay we got Hunter who's doing some 40 lines but oh there he is oh my goodness he's appeared you can't see him right now guys but he's not here we're excuse me excuse me there he is three in a row there's he is there's theu behind him and he's not even playing right now as you can see he's not even in his chair and he's just playing with his mind he's insane he's really like that holy moly look at him go oh oh yeah baby the lag the lag oh my God it's it's like me anytime I try playing Marvel Rivals at home all yeah he missed drop so he resets rage no that's not Rage that's just that's just knowing that he can't like rage his Bulan rage he ate his mango and now he's ready uh-oh you don't want to mess with mangoed up Hunter mango up is crazy yes all right look at him go he's a zoom oh my goodness yeah mango up Hunter that's like that's like one of the final forms you've got Yo new CCU new CCU entry bro for real yeah you got you got base form Hunter you got skibby Hunter and then you got mango dub Hunter you got mango up Hunter mango up Hunter is when he's going absolutely crazy mhm but that does not compare to full brain rout mode that's when he loses all sense of humanity and just becomes full brain compare to um it doesn't compare to watching shiko noo no noo Kos tonon Hunter I love that show it's incredible it's Peak brain rut I should play the theme song right now no don't I kind of want to now he's he's at 29 seconds it's a b please don't it's a banger it's going to get stuck in my head forever it's a banger just a second 36 seconds not fast enough I'm just kidding I was really good 2.80 oh he's going he's going somewhere he's going straight back in the 40 lines he made us think he was going to play quick play but he lied oh I found the ad I found the ad how did he do that I don't know he just switch tabs in like I was looking away but but this is the ad that I was talking about my winter aesthetic this is my favorite season I like skip it skip it all right he is playing it on stre all right that's we played the good part he be the shoutcasters while they wait for the round to start yeser song I never skip intro when I'm watching Sho no no noo coach guys we have news we just lost all our monetization great how could this be n no Katan will spare us it's fine no dude no our ad Revenue bro it's all going to shico noo no no koson all right we got Hunter anyway already at 104 M all add Revenue goes directly to my um to Sho no no no Kos tonon I'll say oh holy moly oh my goodness Jordan never did that Mo sure he just did the washing machine bro he's doing the washing machine my get the Wasing Ma I think I'm getting some sort of like unknown disease just being around jading guys the sacred ancient devious nefarious H with the Among Us opener the Among Us opener in the middle of the M I'm definitely going home with like some sort of like terminal cancer after this guys yes you're going to wake up you're going to look in the mirror you're going to see me I'm turning into him you should be grateful I'm awesome you should be grateful be grateful I have blessed you with my power yes all right he's going this is this is Hunter in his skibby form my goodness he's skib form me are we going to see mango du he's like he's like Goku before fight though he'll use his base form and then he goes Super Saiyan exactly hey it's me gokou oh God we all know what comes after that yes I don't remember the exact line cuz I haven't actually watched the show oh look this the te the te- spin the T spin the spin my God is that a WWE ring welcome to the WWE okay guys I think uh the third round is starting my all right we got EMT Lego AKA Lego Master this is the first time he's on stream hello welcome uh against opai yes route for the left side of the screen I believe this might be the last regular season round right here already an all clear from opai that is humongous yes opai goat pie I don't know goai okay I can't think of any cool name for opai or Opie or whatever E I don't know how what her name is actually called e anyway onee all right here we go and one two opai Going Crazy Goat pie setting up the Triple T spin go pie that's it right there go pie not goat pie I just kind of like didn't really pronounce the T that much I say it fast for goat pie oh my goodness the t- spin double once more a nice triple though oh the spin yeah goai needs some time to set up more offense here EMT getting some good stuff going through oh my goodness emit just a second quite the combo there took some damage with that but that that just made gopai angry now Hulk mad hul is now mad all right 0 and two this will be very sad if this is a crush crushing loss everybody uh another news um we have nightwalk against uh we have Clay against custo oh yes but we we shall we shall focus on Goat pie against Lego Master Legos Lego my ego the EG good my goodness uh that's why she's the goat pie suffering a loss and as goat Pie gets the win meanwhile clay up 20 against custom Mo root for the left side of the screen Costo woo what about what about moo moo moo moo moo moo that's what a cow says did you know that that's what a cow says I I was aware of that moo yep moo moo and a horse goes nay and the duck like the hit song whiping n neigh remember that as the as the hit the hit song old McDonald had a farm the hit song that topped the charts it was number one it got like three platinums mhm it got like four diamonds you should have been there for the era of Old McDonald Old McDonald was back when he had a farm before it got robbed it's quite ominous had you know what happened yeah what happened to the farm perhaps the same thing that just happened to custo getting dunked on good three 0 for clay all right switching over to bartello against the funny creature haha funny it's so funny if I could fake laugh I would me boy all right that's game already which is crazy next up we got Hunter he seems to be using his base form at the moment oh my goodness base form he may be charging up for mango mode he's speeding up a little bit I think it's skibby I think he's trying to get he's hitting the skibby state he's trying to lock in he's going skibby sayian it's like if the Avatar State like all that all those cut scenes that play before it was like in real time so you just have to like stand there you have to stand there and watch as he just Powers up exactly all right he's he's definitely entering mango mode he's not in full he's not in full mango do you think he might be mangoed up he's he's getting there he might oh he's getting mangoed he's mangoed up he is mangoed he's he's destroying you Jaden goodness gracious that's not me I don't have 445 mango mango dep is working out I'm the seventh Jaden this is the 445th Jaden all right Doctor Strange there's only 14,6 five possibilities here M all right he seems to be he seems to be testing the waters before hitting skibby form let's see he's setting up two different te spins two t- spins a stack of them oh my goodness gracious yeah I think he's in skibby right now he he's hitting skibby all right he just let it happen bro that that was Aura There He Go he going to say GG's in the chat and Hunter is going to finish the season withow against meanwhile Jord got as well Jordan also cops a dub three and0 and that is game for Owen seems like Owen has suffered a loss donx to tetrio no you I don't I don't play Halo and that and the other Jaden had a Halo profile picture so that's not me hey what an impers an imposter Among Us I don't know wow I didn't know a funny very very eventful everybody very canonically it seems it seems as if Baro is challenging Jordan to a game oh my goodness and not sto's private room will this be considered a Canon events I think it is it most likely will be we just got to get the transition here we go they're off screen right now they're going crazy oh they're going crazy yeah we're the only ones in view right now we may we might we may sound skito but we're not we swear oh my goodness yeah I believe the I believe the regular season has ended this is just a four fun match this is the funny Haas oh that's C that line block one and0 that messed all up oh my goodness yeah by the way Jordan on the left side of the screen Baro is on the right just so you can that should change here soon so you can root for your respective bb bb bb okay where where's the line of root for your respective spawn Jaden come on you got to say that that was a one time thing I I didn't know how accepted for your respective spawn was going to be it's like those things I see where it's like people name their mom or dad in their contact spawn point yes exactly all right here we go it's one one they named the coordinates of the hospital 31 North 45 45 West oh yes oh yes oh yes all right here we go oh Jordan gota got to down stack a little bit Jordan is entering his MJ State as in Michael Jordan never mind all right one to two they're they're looking at each other Mara is entering X State though that's the X in front of his name he on X Games mode he's on X Games mode he is on he's getting the X Games and he's getting ready let's see can he close this out the Triple T spin hit him with the also got a double right there oh goodness oh look at all the little flashes the pretty particles oo shiny the Double T spin once more right another one set up but he doesn't have a t block he's not going the defense up he is going strong and he that's it guys he's cooked the X Games was too much he missed dropped Baro is going to take that four fun match three to one and look at col look at look at this guy look at this guy all right all right all right now season very offal last match last game of the regular season next reaches you can take over now yep tomorrow we have the last regular season OverWatch matchup and the tomorrow of tomorrow which is Wednesday we have the last regular season smash matchup join us both of those you'll see me and I know you want to see me so join those uh we're going to try to find a way out of the vapor Dimension we'll have some free time to kill because you know regular season is over there's always an escape we just got to find it but thank you everybody informed I believe this is new for the tetris League postseason is single elimination tournament what I might be wrong I know I know the OverWatch and smash leagues are that I don't know the tetris is switching to that but that would be interesting all right that'll be fun um okay yeah yeah well thank you everybody for joining us we'll be back tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.

to lease an additional appropriation of bond proceeds this is for the 25 to 27 elementary school expansion renovation and energy conservation project at this time in lie of Matt miles I will call on Dr Smith to present thank you madam president members of the board uh this is how it happens in most School District I'm just fortunate enough to have a large cabinet but in some districts the superintendent presents all the uh uh presentations to the board today I'm honored to bring forward Mr Jeff Quackenbush our legal counsel our bond counsel from Barnes and thornberg who's going to take us through some important projects that we have coming up board thank you Dr Smith good evening Madame President members of the board it's a pleasure to be with you again this evening tonight uh is the culmination of a femon process that we started back in October of last year and went through several public hearings and this is the last the public hearings in connection with the 25 to 27 Elementary School Expansion Project and guaranteed Energy savings projects um the process is very similar to what you've done in the past when you've gotten to this point the financing parameters have not changed at all in connection with the project or the financing from the time we introduced it back in November to today it's going to be roughly a $65 million principal amount of bonds to be issued for these projects uh it will be for a term of repayment of over of not to exceed 20 years and the uh good news is that because of the school corporation's Debt Service fund tax rate and and tax and Deb service Levy that you currently have in place and the way you're shaped all your bonds that You' previously done you're going to be able to do this project and financing without any increase to the de service fund tax rate over the term of the bond issue so you should be very well commended with respect to managing your fiscal house in that way the U uh Amendment first amendment that is before you this evening is in connection with the sky's test Elementary School you began leasing that back to the building Corporation in 2017 when you did some work at Skyles test at that point in time uh and this will be doing some additional work at Skyles tests more on the guaranteed savings side of things with heating and air conditioning controls which will be done a lot of the different elementary school and middle school facilities across the district um as well as then doing at three of the elementary schools expansion of those elementary schools to accommodate your current overcrowding in those schools that are currently being man handled with um portable classrooms and that sort of thing um tonight as I said is the last step in this process you approve the the First Amendment to lease in the regular part of the meeting later this evening then we will publish a notice of execution of the lease and then after bids are received on all the projects later this spring we will then actually sell the bonds once we know exactly how much you need to issue in the way bonds for these these projects and financing so with that I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the process that we've gone through over the last several months or in connection with any specifics on the actual financing if you have specific questions on the actual project I will turn those over to Mr Smith to to give you more detail on those so any questions I'd be happy to answer this time after I answer your questions then that's when you'd open it up to the public to provide any comment just on this project and on this financing only comment on other things weat thank you Mr claen Bush uh J or board anybody yes Miss done thank you so much for this information I am curious knowing that currently we are seeing quite a few bills that are being uh proposed osed um specifically pertaining to taxes and our schools and so I heard you say that you do not anticipate that this would have an impact on uh individuals property taxes however the length of this duration of this is for what term what I said is that this would have no increase on The Debt Service fund tax rate of the school corporation we cannot manage any individual person's tax bill because that is based on what their assessed value is over time so we are not saying that there's going to not going to be any changes in anyone's tax bill what we are saying is that the school corporation's Debt Service fund tax rate is not going to change as a result of this project or this finan so there's no way that the tax rate would change and how are we so sure that that of that I think because for me I think that's very important for people and the public to understand we're talking about you said $65 million and how that will not impact them in some way shape or form sure very good question we are making an assumption that the net assess value of the school corpor operation does not decline from its current level that is the only assumption we are making if this General Assembly takes any action to reduce the assess value of the school corporation as was originally proposed in Senate bill one but was taken out of that bill then that would have an increase in not just the Deb service fund tax rate but all the tax rates of all governmental entities across the state so there's still there still is even though that was taken out it's still not and the governor has said that he may not sign it in its current state there still is that possibility if he doesn't sign it then there would be no changes in the assess value processes that currently exists so we are not assuming any assess value growth even though the school district has seen 10 and 12% n assess value growth over the last two years and has an average Deb assess value growth of between three and 4% we not making those assumptions thank you so much thank for Miss Don the board of education is not taking action to raise taxes with this project that is correct sir that's what a question is and we you are not right but I also know that there are a lot of other variables that we're seeing and I want to make sure that we are being thoughtful stewards in the event that our taxpayers feel the impact of this through no fault of anybody sitting on this day as here this evening no that is correct I would also comment that given the fact that a lot of this is Energy savings Contra projects that you're planning on doing that will reduce the overall operational costs of the school corporation with lower utility bills and lower operational bills bills and so to the extent that the general assembly decides to either cap or reduce the operations fund Levy and rate that's being uh Allowed by the school corporation right now this would put you in a better position to manage those decreases imposed On You by the generals thank you thank you uh board any other questions Mr claen Bush okay I do have one for this would be more for Mr Smith just um for the public to know again this is elementary schools can you explain again uh which elementary schools this project would be touching great yes good question and uh the phase one of the guaranteed Energy savings contract we have uh F uh four buildings that will be touching first Sky's Tess Crestview Indian Creek and Harrison Hill Bill uh for the Energy savings and roof replacement and the three other buildings where will be adding on classrooms will be Forest Glenn Mary castle and Crestview thank you for that board if there aren't any other questions at this time we will open this up for public questions or comments [Music] okay well um thank you everyone thank you for this presentation at this point I will close the um public hearing and now at this time we will begin our regular monthly board meeting please rise with me to say the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands na under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay at this time we will get to go down front and Miss Carla Johnson will be presenting Awards good evening Madam president Dr Smith and members of the board and to our community tonight we are honored to bring forward two employees from Indian Creek Elementary and their principal Mr ker we have L Monica Henson and Mike Lopez [Applause] L Monica Henson congratulations to L Monica Henson third grade teacher at Indian Creek for being selected to receive the above and beyond award Miss Henson receives this award for her outstanding leadership and dedication to bringing the NASA Tech rise challenge to Indian Creek Elementary through her vision and coordination she guided a team of sixth graders to compete making Indian Creek the only School in Indiana to win this prestigious competition her efforts provided students with an incredible opportunity to engage in real world stem learning and Innovation her success was recently recognized on Fox 59 on Friday January 31st showcasing the impact of her work L Monica's passion for student achievement and Hands-On learning makes her truly deserving of this recognition we are honored L Monica Henson to to give you the above and beyond [Applause] award same school yeah Mike Lopez congratulations Mr Lopez head custodian at Indian Creek for being selected to receive the above and beyond award Mr Lopez receives this award for his incredible dedication Beyond his daily responsibilities this semester he has played a vital role in helping us maximize our 3D printers ensuring they run smoothly to create unique prizes for our students Mr Lopez starts each day by setting up the printers maintaining them and making sure we have plenty of rewards for our learning initiatives beyond that he has taken the time to train and teach students how to use the 3D printers fostering their creativity and problem solving skills his commitment to our school is truly inspiring we are honored to present Mr Lopez with the above and beyond award congratulations right there that's okay come on Paparazzi come on up every anyone else wants a picture come on y all right right here please one two three hold on we got some more pictur on mik next we have Dr Emily hos Brown our assistant superintendent of Elementary education thank you Miss Johnson president Norman Dr Smith members of the board I'm so pleased to bring to you tonight our elementary winners of the district Vex robotics championship and we'll begin tonight with the winners of the Excellence award and we'll have their principal the proud principal of Amy beverin Mr Jared Pennington introduce those students thank you as mentioned I am the proud principal of Amy beverland Elementary Jared Pennington and I'm here to uh recognize four of our five participants for winning the Excellence award uh first Up Archie morali Kai maeni Aiden Curry Clayton Hendrick Smith and the coach of the Amy beverland starbot Mr Brady Harrison [Applause] [Music] heavy all right Stars come on Mr pton Perfect all right right here one two three and then know what to do right congratulations Stars Right congratulations [Applause] stars and if you've ever been to a Vex robotics Championship you know that the there are two winners in the end of the team award so two teams work together to earn the most points during the championship and this year both teams are from the same school so to introduce those teams they're proud principal of Skyles test Elementary Miss Dominique Franklin good evening congratulations to our s team that's Christopher muur OAS Tate Fenner all right Arthur Thomas Ethan Woods conratulations Jacob SE over here on congratulations and our a team Ryland Bell Tristan Tatum Nicholas goodro Austin Morris Sebastian Kendall congratulations and our amazing coach Coach Dave [Applause] schaer conratulations all right all right we got a big group we got a big group I'm GNA have my students only I want you all to take a couple steps your left to your there we go little bit more little bit more little bit more I'm you with the logo and then the adults will come behind you got looking good can I see everybody there drand adjusted a little bit schaer let's get them right here one two three and now I'm going to get out the way now a lot more congratulations [Applause] all right that was fantastic congratulations everyone many of you already know the drill but at this time we'll be moving to our business portion of the meeting you're welcome to stay or if you'd like to leave at this time you can once again congratulations okay at this point we'll move into our information items we will go to our Blue Ribbon updates with Roger Smith thank you Madame President Dr Smith members of the board we continue work on the uh Belzer Middle School kitchen full renovation there uh again in the kitchen area and also we're about to complete the band room major renovation and ADA Compliant in that room ball Creek Val Valley on the back half uh back house uh renovation uh is near completion Cafe we have removed the interior walls uh put up the new entrance way thus giving them more space again another shot of that space new lecc exterior green board continues on uh exterior work a lot of brick work going around the building and the interior they're painting the first floor and getting ready to put the ceiling Grid in and moving to the second floor with mechanical electrical plumbing and drywall here at Craig we are finishing up the uh four rooms down St so we can move our uh District files in and that will be happening in April just a quick snap of what Blue Ribbon Phase 2 is moving forward as we talked about tonight with cres view Force Clan Mary castle and a feasibility study at McKenzie again this is Blue Ribbon phase two priorities one and two and guaranteed Energy savings contract all right thank you Mr Smith Bor any questions about our Blue Ribbon updates I did have a question um just kind of going back old school about the file room so the district still has paper files we we have a lot of paper files okay yeah I didn't know and uh over the years and by a state statute we have to maintain those records to a certain degree okay uh so we're going through those files now condensing what we can uh but we are still going to have to maintain District files uh on our uh campus so uh we'll be moving from upstairs six classrooms down condensed to four rooms downstairs so for the Board of Education Miss blankin ship and I are the housers of all of your board minutes and notes going all the way back to 1950 1958 so for 58 it'll be 58 when MSD was incorporated we may have some old stuff beyond that that were a part of the old Community before the school corporation Incorporated we have all of the paper and we have to keep it forever so board that's Roger Smith's job is to make sure that sound and secure for all of those notes and we have them bounded if anyone wants to see some papers from 1958 they're nice and gentle very gentle we have all of them for the the history of the school corporation so as we begin to move all of those things will be secured and moved to the new locations and secured forever okay that's just very fascinating um because we'll be talking about theola policies next which mentions AI so for all of us that are old enough to remember the the old school of paper everything and now we're talking about AI future forward so anyway thank you for sharing that update so if there are no other questions from the board um I will call on Dr harbarger for our Neola policy updates for the second reading Dr harbarger Adam president Dr Smith members of the board February 10th work session I presented to you neol the revision packet 37 number one for first reading for statute I now bring the same revision back second reading and I might say at this point we're likely to see a much larger group of policies coming through in the spring so just be be ready for that front great thank you Dr harshbarger board any questions Miss Dunn I do have a question about policy 6140 the depository agreements I know this is not scheduled to be adopted however I was curious because I was under the impression that some of our um like loving care and some of our other um before not just before and after care but also um the LEC if you are parent pay that we did have families that are using um online transactions for that fortunately probably a Mr miles question but through easy child track we take credit card payments yes we have a um blue pay is the corporation that that we use with Mr so I guess that would be my wondering is since we do because it says here the Chief Financial Officer has recommended that this policy not be adopted because we do not accept digital payments but it does appear that we are so I was just curious as to why potentially we did not adopt that policy I think Dr har barer and Mr miles and other there's some other forms of payment PayPal vimo we're not quite ready to go in that direction yet so we do have a service that we use and we prefer right now to stay with that was that the conversation okay Dr harbar yes that's what Mr miles had told me right so we already have a service we're not adopting others as of yet because well I was going to say we we're according to Matt we're just not set up at this point to take those electronic payments it doesn't mean that it won't happen in the future we're just not adopting right now we can certainly bring this back right but that I think that that's my question is because we are receiving electronic payments for before and after care and so that's why I just wondered why that particular policy I understand venmo and PayPal but I I'm just curious as to the other platform that we're using and if was that policy not incorporating that platform as well I think that was just the question that I had reive is not that we're using but that's a different system do we have a policy I guess my question is do we have a policy on the books regarding that specific platform which platform specific no we don't at this point so maybe we could revisit with knowing that we have that I guess I'm just confused as to I can follow up issue simp we're not ready to take depart not and that's probably most that's why sense right I understand that but is that not the what is the one that we're using for isn't that a third party service that we're using we use blue pay which I'm not the one who sets that up that's Mr miles who manages that but it's very different from PayPal or venmo so I think that that's where I I guess maybe when Mr mes returns we could find out what the difference is and why we don't need a policy I'm clear I'm very clear like I am it's clear crystal clear I think I'm just not I just I guess I'm unclear as to why there's wouldn't be a policy though for the one that we currently do have and that if it would not go under the same I'm just trying to understand how it was not included I think that's all the question was I'm sorry I didn't mean to answer I was just trying to clarify that we did actually take online payments for certain things not venmo not PayPal but it's apparently we don't need a board policy for that not not at this time no thank you uh board are there any other questions regarding the neolo policies I did have one Dr harbarger you had mentioned that we will likely foresee a lot of um updates coming this spring um will the timing of that be after the April 29th into the state legislator uh knowing that what we might be getting some new bills coming forward correct okay it is and we'll we'll likely see those that have to be implemented by July one we'll tend to see those first okay and then we'll see the second part of that revision packet in the summer okay all right thank you for that absolutely all right board if there are no other questions we will move on to the financial update um Dr Smith honored to speak to this board you have in front of you your financials for the month uh January as you can see our ending balance is a little bit different than normal I do want to remind the board January was a three payroll month for us but I can honestly say that our overall finances are about where we expected them and uh we look real solid we're well on our way to where we need to be by the end of the year we take a look at Transportation everything seems to work very well in transportation again we had a three-month payroll and things are looking good there uh supplies were up a little bit Mr Mr Smith over there in operations but we can expect that sometime during the winter and we also had our expection for the State Police so we probably had to spend a little bit more money on a few repairs out there but overall we're in good shape board thank you Dr Smith boor any questions Miss stun I was just curious because I know we had this conversation previously that we haven't used the nomenclature for general fund since I believe 2018 and if we could move to um having that the education fund especially given all of the hyper attention that we're seeing from the state in terms of budgets and so forth I think it would be imperative that we move to creating an education funds report so that it encompasses what we're currently doing and not what we were doing in 2018 Madame board member I'll take a look at that okay thank you for that board any other questions regarding the financial update okay very good so now we are on to our board committee chair reports I will start down here with Dr M Holland um with the foundation good week yes it's an exciting week for the Lawrence Township School Foundation um I did highlight before that the the annual Gala is happening this Friday it's it's already here and um I since I've already highlighted the event I just also want to mention that there will be a silent auction and all the proceeds go to the activities of the foundation and you saw earlier students who participate in the Vex robotics um and that's an example of one of the programs supported by ltsf um in addition there's up and running Camp Town um the Legacy study uh trips so uh I've had a chance to be part of the foundation for a couple of years and um I'm looking forward to ATT attending and and seeing the support um but you know this is not the only time you uh should feel like there's events happening there's events happening through the throughout the year so um this is just an invitation to check out the foundation if you'd like to learn more the uh website is msdlt f.org and it's very easy to find if you Google it as well so just want to share about that yes thank you for that it's an exciting week um this uh Pucket is there anything you want to add regarding policy yes the um policy time has been great with Dr harsh barer I've been leaning hard into the importance of sh and May and so what we have so far is revision packet 37 uh number one will be brought tonight for um approval then we also have the general assembly has reached the halfway point bills must receive a third reading in their originating chamber by February 20th or be considered dead for the session unless language is added by Amendment to another bill thirdly we have legis legislators are currently on a mids session break and they reconvene Monday March 3rd and lastly we have the last day for bills to clear for the third reading in the opposite chamber is April 15th that is the LA and the last day of the session is April 29th so it's a busy time thank you for that all right Miss Lawrence isba legislative updates to go along with that yes there are so many bills out in the world but there are three primary bills that we're looking at as being most important and particularly important to the funding um and the future funding obligations of this District um Senate Bill 518 passed the Indiana State Senate although I will add that it was with um some very noticeable no votes um and that bill now moves on to the house for consideration um SB 518 would require school districts to give a portion of their property tax revenue to Charters which reduces uh districts like our's ability to fund important programs and Student Activities um for its part the um last week the Indiana House passed their version of the next um state budget sending it to the senate for consideration um the bill includes uh several back and forth between the tax cap and uh and how that uh and how that will play out as part of the state budget I know the governor as M dun had mentioned previously has had some concerns about the bill itself um that will move on as well to the senate for consideration um finally the most important call to action I think as it relates to the work that we do here on the school board is our perennial uh nonpartisan School Board SLP partisan School Board um both the Senate and the the house have um have bills that were introduced in order to make the work that we do here on the deis a partisan effort um we have come out strongly opposed to to this bill um because we know that we have to work across the aisle regardless of political affiliation for the betterment of our school district and our ability to do so as part of a partisan group um would impact negatively both our students and our community that's it from my world yes well said thank you for that all right and now Parks and Recreation with Miss dun yes thank you so much I was sworn in uh to the parks department on Thursday February 20th and immediately following that had our monthly meeting we have some exciting events that are happening here in the City of Lawrence uh if you feel so inclined you can visit the visit Lawrence indiana.com website where they have these events and others that will be forthcoming over the course of this year on Wednesday we have the Black History Month celebration that is at arts for Lawrence starting at 7 pm.

oh yes and our board retreat will be here on Friday busy Friday and then the gala Friday night so at this time I will entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting right moved Miss Pucket and seconded Miss Dunn board thank you and have a good night got it all right see you soon talk to you lat

good evening and welcome to the Greenfield Public Schools school committee meeting of special budget hearing meeting for Monday February 24th 6:30 pm um let's see the meeting is being recorded by greenfield Community television if any other person present are doing the same you must notify the chairperson at this time not seeing [Music] any secretary Den will you call the role yes secretary Jim I'm here member Martini here chair Johnson mad here Vice chair seon here member child here member Goodwin here and mayor dorer in oh okay great then we are all present and have a quorum all right and it is 6:32 PM um we'll start with a public comment with folks who are in the room if you're in the room and wish to give public comment please let Susan Farber know she's right there and then if you are on zoom and would like to um um give public comment please uh let me know in the chat let me just get the timer set Glenn it's two minutes right okay okay I'm GNA stay right here my name is Melissa Webb I live here in Greenfield I have not one not two but three kids who all attend Greenfield Public Schools two of my children are on IEPs and one of them is on a 504 I am here to say that we are very topheavy as a district we pay a lot to our Administration and to our central office staff as a nice gesture we did a Valentine's Day thing for Newton and I thought oh it'd be really cute I could you know bring some to central office they always get forgotten about and when I asked how many staff were there I was told 35 35 is more staff are relatively comparable to what we have in a building for our students so to me I was not able to bring little gifts by I figured it'd be 15 20 people not 35 I was expecting it to be a lot L less um my child's classroom still doesn't have an IIA are we competitively paying our IAS no I think we're competitively paying the topper end of our budget the people who are in central office kids don't get excited about a 504 coordinator which used to be a sipen position which now I see is getting an assistant a stien position that's where it was when I first started with my son in prek a stien position that was done by the adjustment counselor in the building when it comes to an iup I see a different lead person at each meeting but yet I talk to families in the community who have kids who are severely autistic and they tell me we're we're going to a different School we're School of choicing out and I say why we have a program that can meet your child's needs oh that's never been discussed with us so I look at paying people more having more people it's just not always helpful we need more boots on the ground can you hear me okay um my name is Tera cluder I am a Greenfield resident wonder if I should go closer that noise is a little intense anyway hopefully it stops um I just want to tell you a quickly who I am I'm I'm fully invested in this place I am a ghs grad from 1988 I am the mother of three children who have graduated from Greenfield Public Schools um they're doing great by the way class of 2018 and twins of class of 2023 um I have taught in Greenfield Public Schools since um I am the vice president of the GAA the teachers union and um I'm still a Spanish teacher here in Greenfield so I'm here to ask you to pass the budget um we we can't afford to have cuts to our school um I'm in support of many things in that budget I think there are some things we could talk about um but we can't take less money um I feel like if the redistricting is one of the things that's really causing us these big issues let's look at it again I don't know that that's you know do we have to do the entire thing right now if that's going to mean fewer teachers fewer bodies in front of children um um I guess that's what I have to say thank you very much hi I'm Judy Bennett I live in Greenfield I am an eighth grade science teacher currently at the high school um I will be moving down to the midd school next year I can't tell you how not looking forward to packing up my room I am but that is something I will have to do um I was looking at the slides from the superintendent and I would just Echo the comments from Miss cluder because I'm asking you to yes pass the budget I know it is a heavy lift it kind of always is when we have these discussions but the topics that were brought up on the impacts of level servicing of class sizes I know class sizes were brought up this fall especially with the elementary and kindergarten classrooms and I know that that's a concern at all grade levels um and this year I'm implementing new curriculum so I'm very thankful that the district was able to get funding and and provide the science curriculum that we're implementing and I know that that is also a heavy lift that if that is now on our budget but I do think that those things are important for our students across the district so I guess I would just ask that you take our students into consideration and our our staff in consideration we're all vital to the success of our students and our community so thank you that's all the public comment in the room thank you and I'm not seeing any yet on Zoom one more second if anyone wants to write to me and has to speak happy to recognize you all right I'm not seeing any we'll move on to the fiscal year 2026 budget public hearing um superintendent thank you I'm gonna share my screen copies of the slideshow are online as well as in here on the table if you are present here and would like a copy okay to start um would like to talk about the priorities that are in the budget uh many of these priorities also came from a lot of the work the budget and finance subcommittee did in meeting with parents and families at lpac CPAC PTO meetings school council meetings um we took into consideration the feedback that we got from those families and those considerations are highlighted throughout these first three slides one of the things and Miss Bennett already addressed it in her public comment this evening is to continue to fund and provide support in ela Math Science and History we've adopted high quality instructional materials across the district and we need to continue to support those materials in our classroom sorry to interrupt we we missed something we've traditionally done at the budget hearing um which Susan Farber has a a motion that we've used in the past can you read to us what that was Susan sorry about missing that the motion is simply to open the Greenfield Public Schools FY 26 budget public hearing so moved is there a second second I was it you m Martini okay second for member martini any discussion all those in oh we have to do by roll call because we have a member on SEC yes member Martini yes chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair seon yes member Childs yes member Goodwin yes mayor dorer yes all motion passes unanimously back to you superintendent sorry about that no worries um the next priority though in the budget is to maintain level of Staffing needed to continue to provide educationally appropriate class sizes and programming we've also discussed the need to assist our elll population to invest in and adopt the elevation platform to support those English language Learners we want to continue to invest in professional development relative to the Social and emotional needs of all of our students we want to provide expanded programming opportunities at the middle and high school for College and Career Readiness so that our students have alternate Pathways to success After High School we want to expand benchmark assessments up to grade 10 to monitor student growth and we want to continue to invest in professional development aligned with improved instructional practices reading and literacy and the last slide with our priorities is maintaining staff and process to support those seal needs of students including what many advocated for in the fall a commitment to restorative justice professional development for students staff and administration as well as training active bystanders for our students we need to continue to refine and increase interventions at tier two and tier three to support our students academic needs and close those skill gaps we need to maintain staff to continue to support and monitor student attendance the district has a chronic absenteeism issue and we need to continue to support those staff that do that work and then we need to continue to support and staff the English language learner program and our special education to address the increased needs the district is seeing from those priorities though I just go back to the entry plan that I've presented to you along with the findings and the foundation of our core values and priorities in District this budget was developed with students first the budget reflects what our students need and as superintendent is my obligation to put forth what they need and what is best for them this budget also reflects a shared Vision with stakeholders the budget and finance subcommittee made the effort to make sure that stakeholder voice was important and included in this and this budget receives that feedback and puts forth that feedback with those engaged parents and families that offered their input this budget supports uh the ongoing work that we have been doing in District to close skill gaps so that our students can progress and meet those academic achievements and this budget also supports our continued collaboration with families and what they want in order for their students to to be successful in learning this budget was crafted because the district has um voted to redistrict so this budget reflects the additions needed in order for the redistricting to happen and that includes uh two middle school science positions and two Middle School social studies positions with the eighth grade returning to the middle school they will go to full year science and social studies and that is what students deserve right now they have a half year of each if you're a sixth grader and you have a half year of Science in the fall you may not have another half year of science till the spring of seventh grade they are not meeting grade level standards and we need to change that we have an influx of elll needs we need an additional English language learner position for next year we need a building based substitute at the Discovery School all other five schools have a building based sub to help with coverage in helping out with you know monitoring what's going on in the school day covering classes helping out at recess and lunch the Discovery School is the only school that does not have that position and then unfortunately the Alternative High School program that was created three years ago that was originally under Greenfield Community College and then transferred to the collaborative for educ Educational Services in Northampton they have cut that position at the collaborative as a program that is helped over 30 high-risk students obtain a diploma it is not one as a superintendent I could see not putting back into the budget those students deserve to have this alternative Pathway to assist them in getting that diploma and finding success After High School so we're going to get to some of the um budget details all of this is part of the presentation there's additional um munus report over there if you want the line item de detail and all members have this in their packets this evening the budget that I've proposed is a 5.89 increase from all funds and a 7.97 increase over local you might ask well how did we get here for three years we were in the luxury of having Esser funding we had Esser one two and three Esser 3 ended September 30th of 2024 and things that we were able to fund with those Grant funds it's no longer available to us additionally we have outof District special edit tuitions that have increased by $1.5 million we also had a transportation adjustment last last year travel cuz had overcharged us for one bus so we had 106 I mean $130,000 credit last year that obviously does not exist this year they found the oops and we are back to having a full payment there I do caution however though we have not found out definitively if there will be another bus needed in order to support transporting all students where they need to go with the R districting of schools curriculum and instruction materials you'll see in assistant superintendent Sullivan's cost center the increase has been pretty exponential we were able to fund curriculum and instructional highquality materials through Esser funding for the last three years those funds are no longer available but we need to still support those curriculum materials for our students they deserve them they need them and the cost had to be put back in into the budget and then there are some redistricting alignments where we had to add those additional positions for the redistricting and the reconfiguration of great levels I'm going to go quickly through the cost centers over the next four slides because after that you'll see I've done each cost center specifically and in detail so um you'll see the specifics as we get through this the next four is just a uh cost center comparison from the fy2 local and then the increase or decrease as to the FY 26 and when we get to the specific slides for each cost center I'll go through step by step what those increases are so you'll see on the first slide here we have all of the schools and the uh ups and downs that we've seen at each and and we'll go specifically through each School in a few minutes next up cost centers are uh English language Learners Athletics all the way through systemwide and there's been some variations in those cost centers as well special ed 504 Services custodial Personnel some school committee changes and then finally with the business administration through all of those you'll see how we got to the 7.97 request this evening wanted to go over some of the estimated funding sources I think as many of you are aware and what if you watch the news Federal grant funding in its entirety or Federal grant funding at all is highly in question we receive a lot of money from federal grants so what you see here is uh the estimated funding we've received from title 14 and 2A which is a Federal grant to us our turnaround Grant is not the state funded one from the Department of Ed it is the federal funded one so that tag Grant is also federally funded we have our Ida um 240 and 262 Grant federally funded and then other funding sources that you'll see on the next slide have been school choice our circuit breaker tuition Transportation revolving and our a tuition prek when I start the next slides though I just want to caution um the uh Excel sheet that we use goes to two decimal points I rounded to whole dollar so there's some slides that are off by a dollar if you're actually doing the math but it's because of that configuration don't Fred it all works out in the wash with the dollar at the end but I did want people to know that ahead of time so I'm going to start with the Academy of early learning they saw a 6.47% decrease um they have seven full-time teaching staff they are six regular Ed teachers along with one special educator um they have A6 social worker this year be based on special ed needs and services provided they have a full-time principal a fulltime admin assistant they have 12 instructional assistants they have their building based sub and one full-time custodian I also included on the chart you'll see that every building has instructional supplies office supplies and field trip money because I know field trips were um something someone questioned in the past so I wanted that delated we have used some Grant funds from 262 to offset um an IA salary and we've also use some a tuition revolving to offset a unit a salary teacher um the other decrease that you see that accounts for that 6.47 is just a change in Staffing and the step rate of a teacher higher that was either on a lower step than the previous teacher that they replaced Federal Street staff you'll see that they have a 20% increase and it may seem as if they have more they have um 12 regular Ed K to5 teachers for next year so that would be two at every grade level they have three special Educators we have one subpar program a transition program at Federal Street and then two special Educators that provide inclusion or pullout Services um Federal Street is unique though you know we have six Elementary Specialists but all six of them can't be everywhere so three of them spend their full time at Discovery three of them spell spend their full time at Newton and then the they split Federal Street so part of federal Street's increase is because they share six Specialists not three so they have a point4 and a point6 of each person's salary so it may be a little confusing but I just wanted to point that out because they do share all six and not just have three each Elementary shares a librarian so they have a33 um cost share of that for the librarian and each Elementary School shares an elementary instrumental music teacher so they C share that of a 33 as well Federal Street has a 1.0 Title One math interventionist and a 1.0 Title One Ela interventionist Four Corners um you'll see that they have also the specialist shared the they have 12 regular K to five so they will have two classrooms for each grade level um along with three special Educators we have our ases program Asus one and acis 2 at Discovery School so there's two special Educators running each of those programs along with one inclusion pullout service provider they have 26 pair professionals um the ases one and ases two program require one to one for many of our students so the increase in instructional assistance are the majority of them are one to one that serve as special ed students they also have a building based sub which is a new addition to the budget this evening and then a building Monitor and two custodians they have a day and a night custodian um they also have a split 1.0 Elementary um Ela math title one interventionist Title One grant funding is based on poverty level and your need in school so they do not actually qualify for two 1.0 in that building so their their interventionist does halftime math and halftime Ela Newton Elementary um again 12 regular Ed they'll have a K through five two at each level that is a you know increase of the two fifth grade teachers that were moving back to the elementary they have two special Educators they have one sub separate program which is seeds and then they have one special educator that does inclusion and pullout Newton has two adjustment counselors um this year we saw an increase in behaviors and moved um the full-time adjustment counselor from AAL to Newton to help with the service providing over at Newton newon because the demand had increased there they also split the elementary librarian and the Elementary music teacher as well as they have a full-time math and Ela interventionist Greenfield Middle School the 29% increase may look like astronomical on paper it's a lot of the shifts that are happening because of the redistricting so they will have two teams of four in grades six seven and eight next year in order to cover collective bargaining agreement preps they had to increase also the uh unified Arts staff that are there so that they have coverage for not only the electives that we want to increase there but also so that we meet collected bargaining agreements they will have um seven special ed Educators they currently have four inclusion pullout service providers and they have an ases one and two program as well as a transition behavioral program at the middle school they have a full-time math interventionist and a full-time Ela interventionist they split the band teacher with the high school and they have the band teacher they will have it six of the time next year and she will increase her time at the high school next year due to another elective that was was um very popular in the scheduling of the high school so there's an increase in music options at the high school and then the middle school has a 1.0 full-time librarian um that has remained in the budget even though it remains unfill unfilled um I think you know from the Personnel updates I've given you we've had three Librarians this year but because it is a unified arts teacher this year and not quote unquote a library um in nature they have departed because they want to be a full-time librarian we value the full-time librarian and feel the need for our literacy Focus to have that profession and that person remain in that position so we left it in the budget and we continue to post and hope to fill it the high school see has a decrease because of the shift the eighth grade teams are moving to the middle school and those salary line adjustments have been moved to a different cost center um they also have many different additional uh accounts in munus that I wanted to provide for you so that you saw where um many of their line items are expended they have um three adjustment counselors currently at the high school and two guidance counselors they have a principal and two assistant principles they have two admin assistants in the main office but they also have a guidance Administrative Assistant that helps um with college applications graduation all of the needs in the guidance department they have 16 pair of professionals they also have a building based sub and two building monitors there are four custodians there is one in the day and three that work at night due to the size of the facility the need is there the other cost accounts you'll see on the left of this slide and I think they're pretty self-explanatory um the one though however that we will be um removing is the 7500 because you did vote to eliminate our neas involvement so we will not be expending that 7500 but I wanted to make that known the high school also has Title One money for a 1.0 math interventionist and a 1.0 Ela interventionist and currently we've been only able to fill a point4 Ela this year so um the we'll see when and if title one gets given again next year what happens they do have seven special Educators but the high school houses four subpar special education programs we have our Rise program our transition program our essential skills program and our life skills program which Serv as are 18 to 22 we also have three additional special EDS Ed teachers at the high school that provide inclusion or pull out Services per Service delivery grids the assistant superintendence cost center I highlighted on the slide all of the Investments we have made with our highquality instructional materials and you will see outside of salaries or obligations to our substitute pool or tutoring pool the majority of the increase in this cost center has been textbooks instructional supplies and um servicing those high quality instructional materials and maintaining them in our district the cost center for the superintendent um we have an additional uh support ad staff who handles all of our FMLA workers compensation and supports the payroll department the 504 coordinator was made full-time and um while it was a stiffened position in the past no one would fill it and we have an obligation to meet the 504 needs according to law so we tried we worked with the union for many years tried to do stiens at grade level tried to do stiens for teachers we had some teachers try it and then gave up the stien because the work load is enormous and so we made it a unit a position it's in the collective bargaining agreement and it is um definitely needed so that we are meeting our obligations under law the elll cost center increase you'll see is the additional elll teacher we need to support the districtwide needs that would bring our total districtwide of elll teachers to five and that cost center also includes our two tutors that service students we have one Spanish tutor and one U movan Russian tutor currently Athletics the cost center did not change um based on historical spending we feel as if that will cover what we need for athletics the nursing Services every school has a 1.0 full-time nurse plus we have a district nurse leader position that is in that cost center as well the salary adjustments really were just based upon uh different Personnel taking a position after someone had left admin technology our technology department unionized this year so now they work under collective bargaining agreement and the salary adjustments in this cost center are based upon the collective bargaining agreement that we have with their union now the cost center also provides funding for a05 of our registar position special ed covers the other five of the registar um and you will see that um we have five Union employees in the it Union the 0 five register salary a IT director and our network network manager in that cost center systemwide systemwide was really just uh a decrease we were trying to clean up munis Personnel control Ledger we move folks to where they should be because a lot of people were in the wrong spots but this also includes our director of Behavior Services this cost center also pays for our rental of the church parking lot for GMS so that we have the parking we need it also covers postage travel reimbursement for staff who travel between more than building this cost center includes marketing newspaper ads when we need to run anything in the recorder supplies districtwide Etc transportation we have 21 staff as well as a transportation coordinator % of the coordinator's position is paid out of gen the general budget 50% is paid out of special ed this cost center also includes mckenny vento and Charter School transportation as well as gas repairs of our vehicles we also chose to offset this fund with 400,000 from our transportation revolving this year so that we could decrease the budget request special education increase um our outof district costs increase for students who attend outof District placements this cost center also includes salaries for our director our two assistant directors two administrative assistance and special ed and two educational team leaders those team leaders are part of the unit a collective bargaining um so while many of these folks sit at central office and are located there they are not central office salary employees they are simply housed there but they are part of the unit a collective bargaining our psychologists are at our central office our etls are at our central office as well as other folks that are in the unit a because that is where they have space to work so that is not simply 35 central office employees I just wanted to clarify that 504 Services um 504 is not special ed many people confuse that and 504 does need a cost center to support any students 504 needs um such as tutoring or supplies for any supports that are put into a 504 plan for any reason um custodial and maintenance you will see that each of our custodians at the schools are in the schools cost center but we also have two maintenance workers along with a director of facilities that are in this cost center we also want to say though that the increase in this cost Center is really about maintaining healthy and safe buildings a lot of our contracted service providers for you know checking up on certain things with regards to building maintenance have increased exponentially the Personnel cost Center um some of this is really collective bargaining agreement issues that we have to fund so we have Unita and Unit C course reimbursements per their contract that are in this cost center we have 403b costs that we have to cover longevity stiens for non-teachers we also have professional development costs that admin assistants get according to their Union agreement so this cost center really covers all of those kind of odds and ends issues that are required contractually the school committee you'll see we decreased um we decreased some of the cost for the expenditure of our school committee secretary based on historical Trends and then this cost center also covers your mass dues as school committee members as well as your stiens and then last but not least is the business administration um there were some obvious Personnel changes this year and some of the salary adjustments were due to those Personnel changes and then there's the contracted service provider for our current business manager in this cost center as well so through all of that is how we got to the 797 some of the highlights though are really maintaining and enhancing the programming at the middle and high school including Workforce Development opportunities at G H HS financial literacy um keeping the alternative program Beacon at ghs and accessing foreign language at the middle school as well as highlighting the increase in music opportunities at both schools the increase in music opportunities at the elementary level the instrumental teacher remains as well as general music and our budget does account for half of the strings for kids coordinated program which is an outside entity but is uh $25,000 of our school budget to support that we also remain committed to the restorative practice work and the stiens that we have provided to have that work be fulfilled we have stiens for extracurricular clubs at ghs and GMS to get kids invested into more activities outside of what is currently offered and expand those options options for our students and we remain committed to experiences we continue to fund field trip funding at all schools so that kids have those experience and can go outside of the school building to learn we have a continued investment in high quality instructional materials they are costly it is a commitment we made but it is a commitment that we need to maintain we have um a skill Gap issue we have students underperforming they are entitled to grade level material in front of them they are entitled to grade level access and every student regardless of their abilities are entitled to this and in order to sustain that it costs money and we need to continue our commitment in all four subject areas so that our students get the education they deserve we need to continue the support of literacy as you'll see uh tier 2 interventions and our tier one diagnostic assessments are part of the work that we're doing with the teaching lab part of the work you hear about in the assistant superintendence report at every school committee meeting and how we need to really identify those skill gaps and support those skill gaps so that they close quicker and our third graders move on being able to read we need a continued investment in professional development that's aligned with District initiatives we have to support our teachers in the work that's being done on the ground we have to continue to support our instructional leadership teams and the work that they're doing from the professional development in their faculty meetings and in their collaboration times so that we're constantly analyzing student data and finding out what kids need and addressing those needs continued investment in Staffing levels to maintain appropriate class sizes our average class size right now districtwide is relatively low at 18 removing teachers means collapse in classes which means increased class sizes um we also invest in administrative levels to maintain operations and accountability I hear often that we are topheavy we have mandates through desie through at least three arms desie and we were chosen by a fourth this past week for civil rights and Mr massing knows who's with us this evening um to have administrative oversight this requires numerous numerous hours and effort based upon that our administrators at the building level have to perform and commit to educator evaluation over 50% of our staff currently are not pts which means they require at least for observations with feedback throughout the course of the year in addition they run faculty meetings they supervise and engage in professional learning time they have the oversight of daily operations of the school lunch recess arrival dismissal they have to supervise and investigate all complaints bullying harassment or otherwise as well as try to continue to build culture and Community with families and parents I think that uh numerous teachers know that our administrators are working hard every day trying to support them and what they bring to the buildings that they serve we also have a continued investment in supporting the social and emotional learning of all of our students we have counselors that we've committed to maintaining at the levels we currently have along with rbts at our elementary to continue to assist with the behavior issues that they're seeing and then last um redistricting was really part of a lot of the shifts here with the change in the GMS schedule and the offer of more electives in the full year of science and social studies a lot of that is incorporated into the 797 you see tonight a question that was posed was what did level service look like versus what does a needs-based budget that's presented and you will see that a level service budget is a difference of a 66,000 savings I caution though that level service does have impacts anytime you reduce a teacher or a support staff um in the redistricting model in order to continue with redistricting those positions are needed and if we adopt level service those positions will have to be acquired somewhere else so we will have to make shifts and moves at other buildings in order to make that happen class sizes increase and class offer class offerings will decrease we could use some special ed contingency money for potential outof District placements but then we are also in need of having to potentially ask for additional funds if we need that funding at a later time and then tier 2 intervention supports that we've been talking about all year with regards to to the core pass diagnostic test and possibly adopting Lexia to help with the skill Gap those are currently not allocated in the fy2 budget and would need to be covered in the FY 26 budget so I just took a a line from policy dbd since um you know this was my first superintendent's budget and um this line spoke to me that the superintendent is charged with making budget decisions that reflect the attitude and philosophy of those charged with the responsibility for educational decision making the needs-based budget or 7.97 increase allows the district to fund the staff curriculum instructional materials and programming that students of Greenfield deserve while also implementing redistricting and there's certainly our options the reality is you know a needs-based budget is based on our district prioritization plan with desie our strategic plan as well as our redistricting plan and you know we can consider options here and there but um with the policy in place for redistricting that is the proposal that is in front of you this evening and I just ended with you know thanking you for your support because our students really do deserve the best and I'm happy to answer questions along with Andy or Mr Sullivan thank you so much for the thorough presentation questions on the presentation I'm a good one so unfortunately the world is not um what I would call predictable right now for funding um so I have questions about different things but what if we had to wait another year for redistricting what would that save us really MoneyWise what would that save us I mean that the six be the level service yes because everything would remain the same okay and that's every position is the same everybody is the same okay that's just taking out redistricting okay other questions member Den I just wanted to thank you for the very thorough budget hearing this is the fourth one that I've been through and it is by far the most adjustable um but I did have a question um maybe I don't understand this the business administration cost center is more than the superintendent cost center in total and I was wondering could you explain why that would be the case there are more Personnel in that cost center so we have payroll our assistant business manager our accounts payable and our payroll assistant okay thank you any questions from anyone who hasn't asked yet I'm good one so were we paying the collaborative for the beacon program yes so would we I mean so adding that teacher would it be additional funding or the coordinator position or both positions than what we were paying the collaborative it would be a potential half okay they were essentially subsidizing it so we had a cost per student and I think this year it was about 50 but uh unit a teaching staff to cover it would be more than 50 I think their B1 is 53 I'd have to pull up their contract but so it could be a wash depending on who you hire but it potentially will be a cost addition is that a program we could accept students from other districts not that I'm trying to make any money but I am when I when I first created it with GCC that was the full intent was to try to have it become a program an alted program that would be Franklin County right um and then it became a GCC program and they only ran it for ghs and then when it turned to a CES program they were going to expand it to Franklin County um but then they lost a lot of their funding as well so they cut that portion of their programming but I think potentially it could turn into that in the future I don't think I would propose that for next year when you have a firsttime ghs or GPS person running it okay chance so this isn't a question it's a comment of something I found very very compelling was the move to full year instead of half year for science and social studies at the middle school I mean those are two incredibly important subjects science shows up on the mcast which our students still will be taking um I have a kid who's a nerd in both of those subjects and so I have personal stake at getting him more of those classes so that my two cents I do want to add level service would not provide for that may do you have a question oh your hands up yeah um yeah I have a I have a few questions go ahead yeah take them all the first one is um first that was a great presentation thank you um I have a question about the out of District placements do we have the same number of students out of District placements as we did last year I have M I have Mr messing with me for confir so let me just get him up to the mic good evening uh a little bit more than that I mean in short similar so if we're talking about four projected FY 26 at the time that this budget presentation was set forth we were looking at essentially 30 uh students placed and these are students that were also program were funding um but what I would hope folks would keep in mind is for example last year right when we looked at the students that were reported like October 1st uh of this year we reported 29 students but actually looking at serving 44 separate students in that time so I would just caution us I mean in short we're talking about similar numbers of students the numbers are not drastically different but we want to also understand that those numbers are only so helpful because some of those students might be a $10,000 tuition cost and another might be 156,000 for example but if so if the question is you know as compared to projections for when the fy2 budget came out as compared to when we are crafting the this iteration of the FY 26 budget uh pretty similar um when we're talking about es and flows and that becomes much more meaningful when we talk about the context of my desire and my full throated support for having a contingency you know nobody's trying to have extra funds but when we're talking about the EB and flow of those students for example even in the time since this budget was uh prepared and delivered we get notices that we are fiscally responsible for students uh in one form or fashion so um in short yes the numbers are similar in terms of uh particular a of District placements what is more nuanced is the cost of each of those placements uh not to mention the reasons for those placements for example you know referrals versus those things that are outside of our control uh thank you and are you a able to send us the ages of the students that we of the students that are going out of distri in terms of I could send you the both separated out from three to five you know in terms of the younger students um as well as 6 through 21 and then I could certainly give you the grade level bands of course if that's helpful great great in terms of trying to project out when students might age out um because the other thing that happens is especially with the highest cost centers some of these students that are in our residential centers for example if they age out um that has significant implications um and the one thing I would just take this opportunity to help folks keep in mind is that part of the other uh elements or components of the proposed budget related to District quality has an impact on our needs determination so our performance in District which impacts our maintenance of effort uh which is only relevant here because until our needs determination our performance with regard to students uh with disabilities in District improves in a couple meaningful ways and that's an interesting com ation and own we are not able to take advantage of the exceptions for maintenance of effort which is to say we don't uh in other years we would get to spend less than we did last year if a student aged out if a student moved as long as we are in a needs assistance determination with regard to our district performance we can't use those exemptions um so again not to take up this time for that but it's related but absolutely I can send those in terms of uh age level bands and grades so I had a question about we what we said was a 1.5 million increase um the the office of I think it's student with disabilities I actually called on a couple of the schools they all can only go up [Music] 3.67% for the next school year so that the cost of out of District placement is going to be a million and a half extra is something that doesn't appear that that that that's going to happen um I noticed that you know what we've already paid for this year which is you know through February we've encumbered a lot more than than what we've already paid in out of District placement so I I actually wonder if it's going to be that much more where it can only go up that much yeah that's a a great point so for example we always want to be uh projecting out a higher cost than there it's always easy to pair back as opposed to that so we use a 5% expectation so when they just published the OSD number so it's the operational services division um that they set these rates for out of District uh programs and a couple of years ago it was double digits uh during Co it was it was asinine so you're correct the 3.6% so we actually can reduce some of these numbers by the 1 .4% difference um but then also when we look at that a family moved you know we talk about you know um the EB and flow because a family is going to have moved prior to April 1 100,000 of that is no longer needed at this point right not that not that we don't need to account for the potential that somebody will move in um but again yes that's exactly the point so reducing that 1.5 by the you know difference in the OSD cost and then accounting for some of the notifications for fiscal responsibility so in large part that's individuals moving in or in some cases uh like in one case for example if DCF terminates C parental custody fiscal responsibility reverts back to where the parents live so because the parent lived in Green Field uh we assume some of that responsibility to the tune of you know 56,000 for example so there's a host of those um you know we talk about 114,000 that would be one we talk about funding in District programming and make sure we're robust in District you know being able to bring a student back in right uh increasingly because of the need at these out of District placements the value ad that they used to provide 15 years ago is being offset more and more by The increased level of need which is to say that these out of District programs are now only taking the highest need students districts are keeping more and more with their students and as a result being able to bring back a student you know reduces that and then we're talking about 1.3 and we're talking about 1.2 and then we can account for some you know like the 700 in um in additional you know in the cost within that um but yeah certainly part of that is the OSD increase uh that was capped and those numbers came out after this iteration of the budget was um was developed and when the numbers are that big right that one that one 1.4% is is significant and you know if the total spending has varied tremendously during the last several years other than that Co year yeah and I was actually doing some of that you know and again to speak to the piece about being topheavy like I would love to do more of that Trend work like as I was looking trying and identify some of the nuances like even looking back the last year before I came on 2223 trying to sense make of how some of the people Services budget tracking work Works were utilized but the current format is pretty similar so with regard to the idea that you know we're we're topheavy I would just say I wish I had additional time to devote to that sort of things it's important right like fiscal responsibility is critical for sustainable um administration of a district uh I would say that I don't have as much time as I would like to do some of this work uh although there are particular deep Dives that I think will continue to do um and superintendent Pat no reference some of that work with the significant program uh program audits that we're doing uh and I think some of that will bear out for example with even um internal program evaluation right we talk about evaluation on a couple of key metrics of our internal programs specifically how are substantially separate programs serving kids um what is the increased outcome for students uh if we're saying that a student who substantially separately placed is going to at least be able to achieve at the same rate as their peers uh some of that but yes I would be very interested in engaging some of those deep Dives and I think there's a lot of that that would appropriate to partner with some folks um in terms of areas of mutual interest as we look back certainly before 2223 right so as we look back prior to FY 23 I think there's some real lessons to be gained for all the uh confounding variables for all the things that aren't relevant and that would obscure any insight from that I would say that there's enough to be derived from that and certainly informs these conversations that that uh type of thing even on a fiveyear uh would be would be worthwhile um and again I would love the I would love to be top heavy enough for me to have enough discretionary time and effort to do that thank you I just want to clarify something to regarding the 3.67% that is only for 766 approved programs so for those programs that are not 766 approved there is no cap so they can go the the OSD the operation of services division that's the office of school disabilities just to clarify mayor um they're the rate setting Agency for programs but it's only 766 approved programs so any program that we sent to that is not 766 approved the rates are set by those schools themselves and what does 766 approved me sorry that's the special education law regarding placements yes thank you one I guess I have two questions so and I don't know who this is for but do you know how many non 766 schools that are out of District that we are current currently sending students to very few so for example we looked at one um that we had to look at um because other placements weren't appropriate for example if there are limiting factors for a student but in short like we try to keep it under two uh by and large because we have to have a rationale if we don't choose a 766 school there are very few instances where the circumstances would be such that there wouldn't be an appropriate at 76 school okay um but uh one of them for example we have an interesting case there's a behavioral clinic that uh we utilize as an evaluatory placement because they're despite a student responding favorably to their time in that programming and the compatibility of that student needs with the program delivered in that setting by way of them not having gone through the accreditation if you will you know to to be chapter 766 approved because it's a pretty heavy lift um it wouldn't be appropriate for us to place a student there so we have a situation where because the student was not demonstrating fatee there um we were able to access some of that under an evaluatory placement um but again that would be the type of thing where were we uh to be able to demonstrate the quantifiable progress that the student demonstrated that would be the type of rationale there and then I guess I've heard this conversation since mayor Martin was mayor um about special ed and the In-N-Outs of you know the kids moving into town and exactly so in every school district has money set aside for that child who may be around the corner because it is an a flux like situation that you live in so what is and every District does this so what is the you have circuit breaker you have reg regular I guess what I would call it taxpayer money local money local funding so what is the percentage that you kind of hold on to because something may move into town what is that I mean it's honestly it's Community Based if there's some I've got clients that set 3% as the number I've got clients that will do like an average tuition amount but as far as circuit goes you're only allowed to carry over your prior year receipt amount so that's kind of the threshold that if we were to have you know a move in that wasn't budgeted for we have two options we we can dig into the circuit breaker receipts that we have using more than what we want but then that just again kicks the can down the road as to having less available for the subsequent Le FY 27 and so on budget always want to keep a year in the rear for the circuit breaker is statutorily allowed okay so we're keeping a Year's aside so you're basically keeping a Year's funding aside which is in a sense we're already planning on using that for FY 27 so it's all theoretically what it's already spoken for okay so that that explains some numbers because math teacher here is going wait a minute I'm seeing double things so because I do like I've lived this so and I wasn't quite sure if it was just setting aside funds so you're setting aside whatever circuit breaker gives you this year for next year correct so what we're budgeting for for 26 is based on what we received where it's using slightly more okay in 25 so what we're going to be getting in 26 is what we're going to be using for 27 so what was circuit breaker this year 1.6 1.4 1.4 says the 337,000 times 4 okay you're scaring me but that's okay sorry so and we're going up what was the increase 1 point [Music] 3.67% it's going up more the 3.67 is only the amount Associated to the placement it's you have to we're budgeting for the 3.67% plus their known placements plus a contingency factor in the local budget for FY 26 okay because the FY the amount that we're carrying over in circuit breaker we're already planning on using an FY 27 gotcha so we've got in a sense I want to say quote unquote two contingencies but one of them potentially is going to if decide to use I'm going to call it the f27 contingency that just makes f27 more difficult because we'd be using you know more than what we had originally planed for hence budgeting for a contingency and a local appropriation for fi 26 I get it framed differently when I built this budget I baked in an unanticipated placement at the high school level an unanticipated placement at the middle school level two un anticipated placements at the elementary level and then three evaluatory placements which are are much smaller they're these um several week um evaluatory placements at uh the student stabilization and Diagnostic Center and those by comparison are like 15,000 a piece but baked into that because on balance that would account for the potential movein um whereas we have done a really uh sound job of trying to avoid unnecessary referrals there were some referrals over this past year for students that um it was inappropriate for us to have kept people did their due diligence to try and keep students in obviously budgetary pressures right that we don't ever talk about uh at multi-disciplinary Team meetings but are the reality um we had some referrals there but in terms of those when I built this budget the reason I had one at each level was really to ensure we were robust against move-ins because of the high Mobility um of some of these students and a reasonable person not that uh you know correlation is causation but there is some relationship between some of these highly mobile families and some families who have found their students placed uh here so again especially if we're talking about either Franklin County or if families are jumping between Hampshire and Franklin County uh over time there are a handful of communities that families that are accessible with the real estate market so my thinking was that by having essentially four unanticipated placements plus the the uh much smaller uh so 15,000 a piece for the three student stabilization Center placements that was a conservative approach such that we're not coming to this body to say you know we need more funds or conversely like when I was in Northampton their budget was Stark enough that we anytime there was not a district referral there was a conversation about what the building principle was cutting to allow for that and that obviously has KnockOn effects that are really drastic so that's uh framed differently that's how I baked in some of those um expected costs and just one of the questions member Goodwin asked FY 25 circuit breaker projected reimbursement is 1,268 1851 to give you a comparison FY 24 was a $1,563 and4 so it's down by $200,000 that gives you an idea as far as the I'm going to say the volatility of the ups and downs because then I also went and looked at the special education tuition Trends um in fy20 it was $4.5 Million out of District placements fy21 it was $ 4.18 million FY 22 it went back up to $44.75 million FY 23 it was relative ly stable at $4.6 million so hence the we'll say the roller coaster volatility of whether it's being fiscally assigned the responsibility of a student students moving in from out of state Etc all those things that come into play regarding the need to have contingency in addition to what it is we have for circuit breaker and the district itself reports the numbers correct to circuit breaker yes and to that point one of the things you talk about like process improvements one of the things that uh we had done even the last cycle was making sure that um State Wards were reported appropriately so the difference between getting a 70% reimbursement for a student who's above foundation so the way circuit breaker works is any amount more than four times you know the pure pupil expenditure so you know talk about like $52,000 for example you get reimbursed 70% if it's a state Ward for for example somebody's in the custody of the department families for whom uh or we get 100% of that I bring that up because that has real impacts on how much you know being more effective you know are we leaving any money on the table as a result of our circuit breaker monitoring and um identification practices so you know making sure we can have confidence that of the circuit breaker monies we're receiving we are getting 100% of what we could have possibly gotten if that makes sense thank you other questions mayor you I have a couple more go ahead mayor um all the advice that I'm getting from the Department of Revenue and MMA is to be budgeting very very conservatively as we can't count on a lot of the grant money um do I guess this would be for Karen or could be for Karen and Andy whoever wants to take it um do you think it's wise for us to be doing the redistricting move this year that's one part and secondly have we thought at all of moving the um the preschool into one of the other elementary schools to be saving on a building and principal custodian so those are my two like like I think I just feel like we have to be thinking about how we're going to afford this so I'll whoever wants to take that sure um it is the school committee's perview right now to redistrict so I would deflect back to all of you that if you would like to change that vote that would have to be a school committee decision not a superintendent decision um as for a and its move that has not been part of the conversation as long as I have been in central office administration so that would be a whole other conversation to be had to see if the space Etc would even be feasible and as to the conservative budgeting with the obviously the concerns of what we're hearing down in Washington I'll just say that the M Mass Association School Superintendent legislative committee has told us all to for on intens of purposes just sit tight and watch what's going on and be in touch with the House of Representatives representing the mass the massachusett delegation the Senate offices the governor's office Etc so um if you want to go strict numers wise if you look at the slide that uh regarding a federal grants if those were to go away the what would be available to us would be to complet exhaust any potential both current and future using current year receipts for current year expenditures which just again kicks the can down the road I'm going to say when you look at the way the federal grants are budgeted um as of right now um we are even though it's considered FY 25 grants that we're currently using the federal government set those in the prior year so they're in a sense a year and a rear so we I want to say being optimistic I understand lower casc conservative without any political connotations when we're coming to talk about budgeting is that it's a year away if you will the but as we know what's going on as it was reading the news who knows but at the same time we can't budget out of fear we just know that if the things are happening now if it were to hit the fan so to speak uh there are potential solutions for us and I also think back about 16 years ago I think it was under Governor Ramy when there were significant cuts the state stepped in and filled the Gap you know and so that's other things that are being discussed about the fact that as much as we're hearing about Revenue projections now this is just Andy putting on his financial prognostication hat um if you look at the quote unquote R day fund that the state has I think there's Potential from several funding options out there that could potentially cover any drastic Draconian cuts that could be made at the federal government I'm going on quite honestly right now that I'm putting my faith in the mass Association School Superintendent legislative committee and saying right now it's monitoring at this point in time and seeing what's going on and taking the lead from the House of Representatives that represent the Massachusetts delegation as well as the Senate thank you Andy any other questions M ston hello um one I just wanted to take a moment to respond to that because you sort of put the ball back in our court if that's fine I I think it would be helpful to remind ourselves why we wanted to redistrict and we thought that it was in the best educational interests of our students to move them back back into the buildings move fifth grade back into the elementary schools and eth grade back into the middle school and I don't see why we should postpone making the best choice for our students given that we don't know if the situation will be better in a year or two years so I think that we should just move forward with our plans now get it done and that way if it is even worse in the next few years then we will have already made the decision and our students will be where we at least think they should be based on our own judgement um so that's that's uh that's on that I did if if we could start if we get into some of the spreadsheet into some of the lines I would love to I just have questions um one of them is line 287 and this is in the very colorful spreadsheet um and this is the transportation contracted Services one I've got sort of two questions this is more educational informational for me um one I'm noticing a pattern year to year where like in was that 22 or 21 goes it's goes from 6 to 609 then back down to 459 then back up to 607 and now we're going back down to 379 why is that what is that pattern representing is that like is there a reason for that and then the second question is I'm noticing that we're saving 38% of that budget it's a pretty sub substantial amount different what is the reason for that savings and can we expect that to continue into the future or are we gonna have to put that back next year essentially so the 21 22 23 and 24 are just the local funds that's from the mun so we also fund the transportation from the revolving account for the fees that we charge um the reason why it is lower is if you look we are using that's what in the slide that Karen referred to as $400,000 coming out of the transportation or evolving account account to offset the transportation program as to Future potential I mean it it it I I'll be the first to admit that when we came back into the district when I heard that the district was buying its Vans and running its own transportation I was quite honestly Dead Set against it but I think to some extent I've been proven wrong as to the revenue that it's been generating so it really is contingent on whether or not we can sustain that Revenue source for the future years so if you were to look at the the total transportation costs when you add the revolving accounts and other sources that we use sometimes in the past uh special education tuition covered part of the special education tuition trans special education Transportation so when you look at it it is more I'll say steady some of those years were also tail end of the covid so we had less Riders less buses and then now with the new contract as well we had to go out to bid so it's a new year which resulted in a substantial increase so I would like to think that we could sustain the ability to use those funds from the Transportation revolving account but um we'll have to see thank you um I okay I've got a few other lines um and these are not the most fun to talk about but I need to ask these questions um line 308 this is part of I think the substantial reduction in the amount that the school committee is costing but I'm curious if that is voluntary and how that will impact the ability for us to produce speedy and accurate minutes it's just based on Trends quite honestly if you look at the Historical trends for what it is that has been spent it seems that it was a budget line that could AFF for to take a reduction okay so all right so it's more reflecting the actual great um line 318 that is a somewhat uh that is that is an ongoing discussion and I'm just curious about in either scenario of either continuing with a contracted service or bringing in uh an actual employee would that be roughly the same amount or would that substantially impact our budget at all you're on 318 I thought I was on 318 yes sorry using my ruler around yes yes um well it was a posted position for up to 130,000 um and we have no updates on potential filling that position okay so tentative great so it could even save this $20,000 that'd be nice um great thank you um going back up a a little bit back up to 1678 and n one I I just wanted to and I hope you don't mind that I'm calling this out that there is a tiny reduction in your salary line and I just wanted to appreciate that in order to be fiscally responsible um and but I but I was curious about lines 168 and 169 what the differences between those positions are and why there's a 73% increase in line 168 what does that actually reflecting so the 504 coordinator is actually in that account which is a unit a okay um and potentially will'll be moved to the 504 cost center at some point but that is where the position is held right now right um I think that all of my other questions were answered during the presentation so that's what I've got for now thank you okay my the good one and then the mayor if you defined the 66 I can't remember the exact number $1,000 what would you eliminate well we certainly would have to meet with building Administration I wouldn't want to make that decision solo today so that certainly would be a conversation we would have with department heads and building Administration [Music] so I wanted to go back to Transportation contracted services and I just wanted to talk about the um Capital policy and green Vehicles we just purchased in of the last warrant um another uh for 97,3 69 a Chevy micro bird bus and also in this fiscal year although I thought it was in last fiscal year out of that same line item um to cry the Voyager BS and I think that they they need to go through the capital project and they need to be see whether they're green vehicles or not and I just wanted to call that out the the the one for 97,000 was just on the February 11th warrant and the city overall is trying to have a vehicle plan and policy that is green and and Earth friendly so every vehicle that we're going to purchase we have them go through Capital planning we sat with C Collins and Paul L the um you know who's our lead mechanic to go through whether they were uh actually we can lose our green vehicles our Green community status over purchases it's not just this department but we look at all of them so go ahead I think Andy resp start to say something so the school uh every vehicle that has been purchased we are aware of the school City's Green community uh ini issues regarding to vehicles and they have I mean we we actually sent this the stickers for the vehicle purchased to Carol Collins I believe Teresa Martinez did to show that it they are in compliance with the cities Green community initiative regarding the purchases of them to the vehicles were taken off by the DPW because they were deemed unridable and so that was going to significantly impact the libility for the transportation to actually occur last year so the district had the funds available we went through the state procurement process because it is a state bid for these vehicles and it was done out of the need to have the vehicles that we could do to to operate our transportation program all with in compliance with the city's green initiative I did just meet with our energy director today and she was not aware of those purchases until I told her however I don't know I can tell you that communication was made because we were made aware we knew of obviously the Green community initiative and the need for the vehicles to be green in accordance with the city policy and we adhere to that I'm just going to say this going forward there's there's we we have always from this day forward I'll just say that um and I think if we we would make a real big effort especially on the vehicles from this day forward if we can work together to make sure that we're purchasing them in a in a way that makes sense with our Earth any other questions oh if I just clarify regarding that 97,000 that was a prior year open po so it's not coming out of f25 so it's not we we have I it was even though it was processed on the February warrant the funds were committed as far as encumbered the order was placed in FY 24 so if you look at the D detail of the warrant that purchase order numbers of po just a point of clarification there's no so any other questions a good one everything in here is you know close to my heart I number one for me the priority has been throughout my career when I've faced cuts and I have faced hard cuts um throughout my career one year I was asked to cut 20 teachers um and is teachers and IAS in front of children that is my priority because that is what it's about and then my second priority is making sure that there are reading specialists in every school to help the children who will struggle in Reading because 95% of kids will learn to read despite what we do to them this is a direct quote and then 3% will learn with a systematic research-based instructional approach and then 2% will struggle and without reading specialists in our buildings they face a struggle which they shouldn't face alone so I I'm totally committed to that so when I look at this and yes we all want to go ahead with making the shift I mean I was on the star committee and we wanted our K5 elementary schools every Thursday of my life I sat in those meetings so one of the things I was trying to do as an administrator I've been a principal of 600 I've been a principal of 800 and then I was became a principal in Greenfield is an at that time there was a formula that if there were 300 kids in a building that meant you got a vice principal when I went to 800 students in a building that meant I got two Vice principes right now Staffing wise at the high school in the Middle School we've added guidance counselors which I think we all agree after the pandemic we needed more guidance counselors but we have a declining enrollment we have less children in our buildings and our Administration has grown so I guess you know I'm not going to be popular tonight that's clear because I will fight for what the kids need um and that's good quality teachers and Pars in front of them and I believe in the materials and we've lost all these funds so I'm going to actually I don't know if I'm allowed to make a motion right now we're on questions right now but there will be a motions guess okay so if you look at your administrative um staff and the number of children in each building you need to look at the ratio of children to staff um and I think that's in the 504 coordinator position years ago all the 504s were handled by guidance counselors along with Medicare reimbursements which was was really a problem and that's when we had one guidance counselor in each Elementary School um and so 504 that job went from the principles are going to do it to a GU scoun is going to do it and now you have a full-time administrator so I think there's just some choices we have to make for the kids who were in those classrooms and thank you for um the information I wasn't sure how many first grade teachers we had how many second grade teachers we have so we're down to two of everything and it work can I just clarify to the fedal coordinator is not in administrative position it's un a collective bargaining position good that's better okay any other questions remember Martini sorry you know I have a lot so I try to let everybody else go first um I wanted to I'm always trying to keep in mind folks who are watching who are not familiar with all of the acronyms and lingo that get thrown around in a school committee meeting and there's certainly been a lot of that tonight um so uh I have a few just um kind of definitional questions um superintendent if you could give um those who are unfamiliar with school funding and the changes that have occurred over the past few years could you please explain uh for someone who is not normally a part of this world uh a very brief nutshell of what uh Esser was and why we don't have anymore I had to go back in my mind about that every student succeeds at yes so we had after covid sr1 came out initially and then the feds provided s yes yes um and then we know longer have any Esser Grant funds but Essa is every student succeeds act which is our Title One funding title two and title four sorry I know yeah Elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund sorry to it is alphabet Su okay um I wondered there was a little bit of discussion about this earlier um uh when the special education director was answering questions um for the mayor but um I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who um might have been confused by um the discussion about how out of District special education tuitions at state approved schools are set and Andy I know you have a an excellent little nutshell about that so I was hoping you could just explain it to people you gave us a really good one at our most recent budget and finance um meeting so go first no I just I just wondered could you explain for folks how those do we set those tuitions does somebody else set them who sets them how do they get set what happened last year so that's back to the rate setting agency the operational services division Set uh the rates for next year with a 3.67% increase so for as Mr Ming said that most of our students go to that those programs I was just bringing up again for clarification purposes that there are programs that are not 766 approved programs that we are you know if we were to be sending any students that then we're not behold into the 3.67% um and can you explain what chapter 766 is that's the special education legislation thank you okay um I wanted to just add to that if anyone would like to know more um about Greenfield special education services types of placements Etc including the grade level information that the mayor was looking for I would just encourage them to watch the presentation that was provided by Mr messing a couple of months ago um at a school committee meeting and I believe those materials are posted online still um so that would be an easy look back uh okay we already talked quite a bit about Transportation so I'm going to skip that bit for everyone um could you please um superintendent provide some detail for folks who um were have not had the opportunity to watch previous meetings where this has been discussed um could you just provide some detail about how the districts recently adopted high quality instructional materials are improvements for the district over what was or wasn't in place before sure um when I first came on as assistant superintendent the first thing I was charged with was uh analyzing district-wide curriculum at every grade level seeing what each school was using or not using and seeing if it was aligned with grade level standards and uh what was revealed is that it was a mishmash hjg podge of uh different teachers using Teachers Pay Teachers materials some schools having some high quality instructional materials but only for some teachers some not having access access to any of the above so part of our turnaround work with the Department of Ed and our Statewide system of support um we were charged with adopting high quality instructional materials because we were cited for not providing grade level content that was accessible for all of our students special ed elll and J Jen Ed and um our first grant uh covered the adoption of our Ela curriculum K through additionally um during Co the middle school had done a highquality math adoption um and had worked on adopting illustrative math um the elementary school did not use illustrative and we are working to align Eureka Math for all of our elementary which is also considered high quality um they are rated on curate on desy's website so you have to have a meeting of green ratings to to make sure you can adopt them under the grants that we initially received we've further worked to get Illustrated math um not only 67 but also through geometry at the high school which was last year's adoption we've also adopted openai Ed which is helping our science teachers and that's grades six Through Chemistry along with the middle school has adopted investigating history all of these are in line with our mandates under our desie oversight and are um continually observed analyzed and we've had desie site visits um that they do come to ensure that our students have access to highquality instructional materials that teachers are delivering that curriculum and that we are accountable for reporting out the progress that's being made with those materials so what would happen if the district were to suddenly drop its commitment to all of those materials I could not predict but I could at least guess that um we would be cited Again by desie we have two schools currently in turnaround our high school is in turnaround and they have um we are going to an instruction prioritization Institute next week because they would like to see the ELA high quality instructional materials at our high school because of the student progress reports that we have with our underperforming groups um I think it would be very unfair to our student body to pull the rug on what is actually showing progress and albe it slow and steady progress it is certainly something that in the adoption of these materials they say you need a five-year window to at least see the effects of the great work that can happen with kids kids so it definitely would not be um welcomed not to be able to offer these students what they deserve thanks um and I know you explained this but can you just explain it again because I um I think it gets lost for folks sometimes um can you just explain the shift from grant funding to local funding for those materials to keep them going sure um desie is wonderful about providing Grant opportunities for the initial roll out in many of the initiatives that they project upon districts especially those districts that are underperforming so usually in year one they give you a uh a nice chunk of change to do the implementation process and adopt the materials in year two they usually give you a a nickel to continue maybe some professional development but that does not actually afford the curriculum materials so we were fortunate enough to be able to use um that emergency funds in Esser for the last few years but uh K through 7even and now along with the high school math materials the costs are exponential to uphold the materials that are needed for students to have access to it and the shift had to be made to the local because there are no grant opportunities currently right now however we look every week to see if there are grant opportunities that might offer offset some of those materials but we just have not um seen any come out yet okay thank you and maintaining these high quality instructional materials is one of the pieces of feedback that budget and finance received during our listening sessions this past fall um from stakeholders so I'm very glad to see that represented as a top priority in this budget um I'm I'm even more glad to see the pursuit of um improve approved tier 2 and three interventions and assessments um and uh I wondered if you could please explain for those who are unfamiliar with those terms um briefly what do those tiers mean what are tiers one two and three and um can you explain what investment in uh new interventions or improved interventions and assessment will do for our students in that context I can take that one so I think part of well tier one would be essentially if you're thinking of a classroom would be the whole class tier two is a smaller group of students who may have a specific need they might share that need that you can do that in the General Ed classroom tier three is more specific and targeted need for individuals or small groups of students um I think what the these assessments do is allow us to hone in a little bit more specifically to have more of a focus on what the individual student needs are that allows teachers to one know exactly what that need is specifically um if you struggle with decoding or you struggle with long vowels or short vowels these assessments get down to that level of detail that way the teacher in the classroom knows each individual students needs and can work on that in both their tier one instruction and Target those um needs in tier two instruction um I think there was a second part to your question uh well I wanted to know um if you could explain you know what what will these assessments do for our students are are they going to get them intervention sooner are they going to get them more accurate intervention what's the yeah I I think it also means that not everything's going to happen in a tier two or tier three inter intervention I think some of this happens in the full group at tier one because now the teacher is equipped with more information about those individual students in the past and even currently we have dible scores we have nwaa assessment so teachers are getting an idea of the student is struggling but what their specific specific needs are may not always be identifiable these diagnostic assessments allow them to hone in um a little bit more deeply like I said concidence long vowels the r the r sound um certain specific skills and then we're also looking at intervention resources that can support teachers in targeting those skills specifically but also in their tier one instruction so um correct me if I'm wrong what you're saying is the uh first goal here is to address needs in tier one and prevent the need for students going into intensive interventions absolutely I think we we're looking at all our grades but looking specifically at Early Education to make sure students have the skills to be strong readers by grade three I think all the research says that that is the time that students need to develop those skills and we're seeing Nationwide about 67% of students are below uh re below grade level and uh in Greenfield we mimic that Trend um it's actually a little bit higher based on some of our um assessments closer to 70% especially for certain groups of students in gek fields um such as the students with disabilities that we were talking a lot about earlier absolutely yeah uh so if we're not serving those students well in District where are they going rhetorical question they're going out um so accepting that we hopefully reduce the need for so much intervention um we do need high quality interventions so um could you talk a little bit about what um is being considered for investment in terms of those tier two and three interventions sure so Al Lexia is a is a um Intervention Program that some schools in the district some classrooms in the district have had before but it wasn't Universal um youly is another early literacy support hegerty um and they allow teachers to focus on different skills for different students if the challenge is um phonemic awareness or phonics they have supports for that if it is um I'm sorry core core and pass are the diagnostic assessments and then the uly and Lexia allow for some of that tier 2 intervention so Lexia is a computer-based program that teachers could have students working on personalized lessons while they're working on a specific skill based on the diagnostic assessments with either individual or small groups of students thanks um and what problems would you anticipate would continue to occur if the district does not um invest in these assessments and uh intervention tools and ultimately our students in a more challenging position because teachers don't have the specific in inform information about indiv ual student needs so they're going wider than they might be going deeper at that point thanks um could you I think maybe this one's for actually I'm not sure which of you this is for but could you provide some detail about how elevation Works um and why it's important for our English Learners as well as their General and special education teachers who are not their e teacher absolutely so uh one of the main things that came out of the tiered Focus monitoring audit that was done in 2223 just became just before I came on board last year was that our ESL program was in need of a pretty drastic overhaul at the same time there was some updates in expectations of how districts were monitoring so uh elevation allows us to do a couple of things um right now we're moving forward with the th solution which essentially allows us to digitize the experience and data points related to each of the L's and monitor in real time so for me the selling point the difference between just one more shiny digital platform and something that actually was a lever to improve outcomes to to leverage technology to improve these outcomes was our ability to progress monitor students in real time specifically if an English learner for all English Learners people may be familiar there's access testing in February which is a standardized assessment that measures them across four domains so listening speaking reading and writing independent on the fact that it's not doesn't provide timely feedback because we don't get it until later in the year and we need to have more uh quick feedback to make instructional planning decisions in the order of weeks not months one of the things that um happens is the state sets Benchmark targets for English Learners so if you are an English learner uh and essentially they can be at level one through essentially five but they expect most students to be exited if they're above 4.2 so in the district we see level ones which are the beginners we see level twos threes and fours which are emerging bridging they set targets based on your access performance which is to say if you score at a certain place or at a certain level at the access testing in the January to February testing window the department of Ed would expect you to reach a certain Benchmark if a student doesn't hit that Benchmark Target the state is now which is different from a couple years ago expecting us to meet individually and have individual Student Success plans um um because with Pro what gets monitored what get measured gets monitored so what they're thinking is is that if we are focused on all these students that don't meet those targets and we have increased expectations for Progress monitoring specifically no less than three times a year um and this is with a team this is with parents this is with staff this is with Administration being able to identify you know what it is that we're doing very similar to the tier two and two or three conversations about how we're changing the kids experience to improve those outcomes um one of things that we're not able to do in an analog experience now is keep up with that in real time so again when we talk about adding a fifth position when we talk about the current experience of of English as a second language teacher there's it's not sustainable it's not tenable to expect our teachers they're doing a bang-up job you know the the teacher Fran Ortiz at the high school is really in an impossible position trying to navigate 43 of these individual plans right you could almost do nothing else you know we talk about the ways Administration can support that work in terms of helping offset that load we couldn't do it with pen and paper just trying to do it manually so it's really a force multiplier in one way just with the individual Student Success plans for Learners having it um in a clear place that's accessible to all people in real time all stakeholders that are working with the student it uh reduces drastically the time that a teacher is spending on the bureaucratic side of it the paperwork stuff and that to speak to member Goodwin's Point allows them to be in front of kids and focused on instruction and planning on instruction data analysis we talk about making sure that uh English as a second language teachers are available for collaborative planning with their General Ed colleagues because a lot of this work happens in the General Ed setting it doesn't just happen during the 60 or 90 minutes that a student is receiving SL so one of the main things that I felt that elevation did for us was a force multiplier in terms of the progress monitoring for students in real time uh especially we think of it being coupled with the test of English language learning which is a a progress monitoring tool that we use that mimics access that is provided four times a year that allows us to have more timely uh results that we can then take action on so the main thing that it does is digitize and reduce the time and labor it takes not only to be compliant right everybody you know cares about compliance you know we obviously want to be compliant with the state to make sure that the department uh isn't putting um Draconian restrictions on us but more than that we care about outcomes for kids so for me moving forward with the forms solution from elevation allows us to reduce the time that the average English as a second language teacher is spending on paperwork it also reduces the likelihood if we were to suffer attrition for anyway that anything gets lost um for example you know you have meam Robinson who's splitting between Ted Street and Newton she does a great job of making sure that the central office files for English Learners is kept in sync so when we talk about for example our experience in the last year and a half with all the families uh who were English as a second language uh families of students English of language that were supported by the shelter site the significant amount of testing and uh transients you know Mobility that those students experienced she did a great job trying to keep the central office fold file synced being able to take that away and not be Reliant such that all of those materials are within Arms Reach For any body not having to go back to you know a file room at central office being able to utilize in real time the secondary and tertiary benefits of of reducing the the state reporting aspect is is an aside but really it allows for individuals at either the classroom level the grade level in the middle school for example the team level um certainly the district level to have conversations about how a student is doing in real time at any point in the year what is currently in place to scaffold for them if we think that their performance is a byproduct of the experience they're having so if it's lacking in one thing or another specifically if there's a part of their day that we are not taking advantage of that we should um and allows us to make instructional planning decisions more effectively it also allows for us to review the uh timeline of that students experience for the time we had them in District to be able to look back was something missed in a way that we couldn't do now or would be um uh time or labor prohibitive if if you were to go for example and pull out a students manila folder and try to manually go through all the years of of paperwork and try and connect the dots you can imagine how challenging that would be having it there having it synced in real time to power school now for example that the ccla for example K through a has in power school grade level assessments being able to draw that that syns every night is just uh really taking advantage of technology to reduce the time that teacher there uh what I hope to do in the future uh as we are able to find efficiencies elsewhere is there's a strategy solution um which allows for even more professional development with General Educators with regard to the other key point in terms of um reducing the time that uh English and second language teachers are spending on the paperwork and increasing the progress monitoring um and instructional decision-making capacity is being able to share with General Educators so that is to say a a Content area teacher uh a grade level teacher at the elementary and be able to communicate with that teacher in real time about what a student who is an a speaker of another language can do um and conveniently they're called can do descriptives so rather than having a deficit mindset and saying oh this is a a student who's U non native English speaker you know they can't do this they can't do that helping the average General educator understand okay a student is at a level two in speaking what does that actually mean for their ability what does that mean for what they're I can expect should expect from them in my class and how I can make instructional decision- making to scaffold my class what types of things can I do as a general educator to help that student both access the curriculum more consistently and experience faster growth uh that missing it just want to check and see whether your's question was answered yet remember Martin yeah I I um I was uh really struck by the level of um enthusiasm of uh one of our El teachers uh when I attended elpac to gather feedback there about um how this was going to enable her to integrate what she was doing with her students content Area Teachers and I think you elucidated that really well so thank you so much um let's see um super could you detail or or maybe this is really assistant superintendent could you detail some of the professional development that is identified for the coming year it's it's in this presentation several times but I was hoping you could share a little bit of detail about what that um is going to look like based on the needs yeah so the professional development is Guided by the the assessments that we're receiving by feedback that we're receiving from teachers um a lot a lot of it has focused on current in this current year has been on the implementation and the current the implementation of the curriculum materials and our priority Focus instructional strategies um which we want to have more student student centered classrooms more building thinking classrooms so that students are doing the really the heavy lifting and teachers are facilitating conversations teachers are facilitating work and that this is connected to real world and relevant um relevant actions that are connected to the standards and I think a lot of the work has been focused on how we're making those connections to the standards are we at grade level I think the superintendent said earlier that prior to high quality instruction materials medum district there was a wide variety of um things happening in individual classrooms and now that we have high quality instructional materials that are evidence-based we know that they're at the level and I think we want to support teachers in making sure that we're maintaining that level and not saying like all right we're going to bring it down because a student similar to what Mr messing just said we're going to bring it down so the students can access it how are we supporting them so that they can move up and uh meet those grade level standards or access that grade level content okay um one of the other things that is um clearly represented here is the high volume of stakeholder input that we received this fall um asking for increased and improved restorative practices um in preventing and resolving conflicts and responding to behavior so I wondered um can you explain what objectives the districtwide planning committee mentioned will be working on yes so our director of Behavior Services uh recently we convene the team so it consists of uh Unit A and Unit C members across the district across grade levels um they have a schedule that's set up and they'll be working with the collaborative for Educational Services Sapphire and Tom will be joining their meetings to really map out the um we call this year zero so that they can do a lot of the planning and um thoughtful steps that need to be taken in order order to have restorative practices ingrained in the district um one of the things that we've talked about and I'm not sure if this will come to fruition is really just focusing on a pilot school for next year and who would potentially pilot um the work that needs to be done and then our teaching staff or Unit C staff that are members of this committee could be kind of trained by the trainers and then become District Trainers for the years moving forward um we're really excited because the collaborative is also working with our administrative team already we have a meeting on Thursday with our whole admin staff um to really launch this work districtwide we're not asking um staff to do anything that we don't believe the administration should participate in as well um we've talked about this for many years in District and I've I've been part of the launch at the high school and part of the initiative and where it's taken off and where it's ingrained and it can't be a oneperson show it has to become part of the culture culture and a lot of that work is just timely it takes effort in input and practice and um as we grow into that we hope over the course of a three to fiveyear plan that prek through 12 that is what this district is okay um what would it cost to hire a full-time position responsible for this uh rather than a group of stipended positions and do you think these objectives can be achieved with just stiens so we want staff and teacher input because the buyin needs to happen because at that level it really needs to be part of the work that they do um with students with their building administrators with their own counselors um we have the director of behavior services and we've kind of dawned it as part of that job description even though it's technically not in that job description because the social and emotional work that um is part of this person's background and part of the leadership that um she has done in the past that can really guide this work moving forward for the district so um outside of an actual additional position I think the investment is really in high quality professional development where folks learn how to hold circles how to be restorative how to um talk about the harm that they've either done or have been done to them and how to solve that so I think it's really key that the professional development is there at the get-go and not so much another person in District thank you that answers my next question already about what advantages to Distributing that responsibility um do you have a sense of whether there are enough staff who are interested in taking on that additional role in the stipended positions yes the committee is full they're very excited to do this work okay um great I uh I wondered if you could outline for folks when you were assistant superintendent of teaching and learning um how did you then spearhead the um District's strategic development in terms of high quality instructional materials related professional development and also um in terms of starting a multi-year plan for developing restorative practices is and would you be able to carry that out now um essentially performing both roles if you were superintendent and doing your former role at the same time and if not why not big question sorry it's a huge question and uh no um I think many people misinterpret the role of an assistant superintendent as being an admin assistant to the superintendent and that is clearly not what the job is the professional development um alone the monitoring of uh student data the planning of professional learning and collaboration time for our teachers in the assistant superintendent role is very time consuming and uh a job in and of itself so I would not be able to tackle both roles um being both my previous self and my current self would be uh untenable actually I do think however though that um the commitment to it is what is intense with the time involved in those positions and I think that's what folks forget is that there has to be a monitoring there has to be an analysis of that data there has to be follow up with building leadership there has to be continual observations there has to be continual feedback provided so that there's a cycle in place and that is not something that is a oneandone um I've been in the district a long time I've seen a lot of oneandone initi IES and it's easy to roll something out and then simply forget about it because you get consumed by other tasks in your day and that is not something uh we want to have happen because we are seeing the effect it's having on student progress okay um we are um past our 8310 I'm wondering if you have how many more questions you have I will keep it to one uh look into the future how does improving all these things that you've just talked about our instructional resources assessments interventions and professional development that is to say improving instruction affect student Behavior student attendance long-term outcomes for students and our Educator's experience well I hope it's a a positive trend moving forward for all parties involved but I think ultimately um schools are the foundation of why people come to communities I think when you have families that are looking to move into a town one of the first things that they look at is how is the school district what's the school district like how is the school district performing and I think it's very important to remember that all of these things are necessary to improve student progress here in Greenfield so that our schools are are not in turnaround so that our students are not underperforming so that they are allowed success and have a bright future where they can have a sustainable job and live in this community give back to this community and be part of a community so I think it's very important that we remember all of these things are working for the best interest of our students um while I know that some of these initiatives are a heavy lift for our teaching staff I have to commend them um 150% because they work harder than any other bunch I've ever met and I give them credit every day for all of the hard work that they do all that they tackle I think we still do have some behavioral issues that um we need to address and the support staff that are there to help with them is pivotal to having all of our students be able to access the curriculum and be in a jened classroom so that they are offered the same opportunities as every the other student I see a question from lber ston are there other questions there are should we do a five minute break and come back to finish those is that okay there's plenty of time if people want to ask questions absolutely I just wanted to make sure we got in our break so um we will take a five minute break um um it's 8:39 by my clock now we will resume at 8:45 as the clock turns to 8:45 [Music] welcome back we're on the question section of our budget hearing member Martini did you have any more questions I I took up a lot of time so if somebody else has questions go ahead all right have to member St I want to give member Charles a chance to ask a question because I'm not sure she has yet remember Charles I just had a comment on question earli so my question is so we already know my thought on how full year science and also social studies are important but in terms of those positions would it be logistically possible even to continue having the sixth and seventh graders with half year for that in order to maintain the Staffing level instead of adding in those extra positions is that something that could even feasibly work in the schedule or because of prep time contracts it would definitely need to be uh remapped out with the Middle School principal because the current configuration and schedule that we have for the Middle School relies on those positions and the current Middle School SE schedule that they have doesn't have those positions so we would have to either create schedule number three and what that would look like and then how that would actually affect coverage under the collect to bargaining agreements every SE I mostly am wanting I have there's probably a question in here somewhere but I'm also wanting to externalize my thinking for anyone who's following along at home um or might view this later but something um Mr messing mentioned that sparked a train of thought in my brain about the families that we have had um living in the emergency shelter shter and and coming to our schools in past meetings you have reflected that some of those families have in fact found permanent housing which we celebrate not in our district and so a person could Wonder then is our total number of students receiving elll Services going down that's a question that you could answer but noticing that our elll services number is actually going up somebody might think that there's a mismatch I'm wondering is my my thinking on that in trying to answer my own question without asking of you is that that actually represents one getting all of the students that we still do have access to services that they maybe weren't previously getting or getting them a higher quality of service than they weren't previously getting perhaps um or just like volume of it as well as like maybe it is not true that our elll students population is declining so I'm could you respond to that and Dave can verify all of this but I'll try to start the answer though um El services are based on the level that the student is identified at so you need more services as a level one than you do a level five um with regards to our decrease in numbers I'm not sure we decreased exponentially we still have quite a few uh identified I think it's hundred two I was going to guess at my last conversation with you but it could have switched changed um but it is also providing the services based upon the level that they're identified at and that is the need that we have currently in District yeah and that's and that's exactly it so even with the the families the vast majority of families have already been rehoused a couple of families did find alternative housing in um in District but when we think about the numbers even when we account for all the families that we were previously serving you know we think about a high we were like up north of 123 and now we're hovering around 100 plus or minus depending on the point of the year but still to speak to superintendent P's Point like for example newcomer students that require significant portions of their day um like one of the things that the state is asking us to do you know those are conversation about high quality instructional materials is improve our newcomer curriculum our s curriculum students formal education so that's exactly it so it's not just the number of students um but it's the amount of time that they need so with that span I referenced a teacher being split across two buildings being able to ensure that as potential increases there come back that's manageable we aren't currently doing a good enough job for our youngest Learners specifically like we're flirting with non-compliance at our preschool level difference between Mass state law and federal state law there but even as we think about the high school when we're talking about even with the the district's significant focus on development of early literacy and our K through 4 folks making sure that we're not leaving you know kids that are currently in Middle a high school um behind it is untenable to think about a case load you know of 35 to be able to provide meaningful instruction that's even before we talk about for an English as a second language teacher specifically but that's even before we talk about all the other work in terms of insuring access you know inclusive opportunities all that just purely getting students instruction experiences that can be reasonably expected to result in gains requires that even once we account for that thank you any other [Music] questions a good one so my heart is breaking because 70% of the kids are not reading at Great level so I guess I'm just questioning why there aren't more requests for reading specialists at all the schools because to me that is a civil right that has gone un mandated and unfunded in our country that everybody has the right to learn to read and so I'm concerned you know everything here is important but to me that is a I know that districts have bitten a bullet and put more reading specialists in especially at elementary schools to lower their special ed numbers because the number one reason that children get referred to special ed is because they have a reading difficulty so if we want our special ed numbers to go down um and one piece of information that maybe listeners don't know or parents don't know is special ed teachers are not reading Specialists they are trained in special ed and the children of our district need reading Specialists um special ed is when we're looking AC at accommodations but not direct reading instruction and so the more reading Specialists we have at our elementary schools the better we will service our youngest students and we will lower your numbers um and that is a goal because financially it pays for itself in the long run um and at the age of five they know that they are struggling to read used to be the Red Birds the blue birds and all of that good stuff but children can tell you at the age of five that they other people are reading before them so I guess I'm questioning and I know you were trying to keep it down but what do you identify in here as something that's going to help our elementary schools get more of our children reading the high quality materials I got that but what else is in there that would do that after the adoption of all these high quality instruction materials we don't have a tier 2 problem we have a tier one problem and that's the the problem that people don't identify so so reading Specialists would identify a tier two or a tier three problem and when we have looked at all of the data and analyzed all of that we have a tier one problem and we had an inverted triangle when I came on as assistant superintendent we were intervening for 80% of our population and intervention should not be for 80% of your students so the high quality instructional materials require a certain amount of time for delivery so we have intervention built into our elementary schedules specifically for not only pullout Services by The Hired reading Specialists that each building has but then a lot for the intervention time and supporting our tier one teachers and being able to to apply in time interventions based upon the diagnostic tests that we actually are adopting I don't think it's necessarily another person we need we need to strengthen our tier one instruction and learn how to analyze our data and analyze student skill gaps so that's what we're really focusing on with the core and pass and then adopting Lexia and youli so that tier one can be strengthened and then tier two really becomes a true pullout of your 10 to 15% % of kids that need it so do you still have data meetings with we do and we have them as a district we have them as building leaders we have them with instructional leadership teams we're now doing it in professional learning time and we're identifying our three subgroups that are underperforming in those data meetings so we have um really taken on that task this year and what that data says to us is tier one needs to be strengthened so teachers know how to actually assist those underperforming kids that are in front of them and lessen our tier 2 pull out interventions from a reading specialist but that also means that people have to understand uh the science of reading and how kids learn how to read so we've upped our anti in professional development and helping teachers in the tier one level identify how to actually be reading teachers without being reading specialists 19 I just had a comment that fits in well with this discussion um and um and I really love watching someone talk about something that is their passion like that so um that was um that was delightful um but I just wanted to add to the discussion about whether uh or not to proceed with full year science and social study um at the middle school because this does pertain to our reading achievement problem in Greenfield um raising raising reading achievement in a district that fits squarely within the national quiet literacy crisis has been going on for a long time where two-thirds of our students are not making it um to a grade level proficiency is such a multi-faceted project um it's never one thing and it's never even several things I mean there are so many parts of that um and I think that this um issue of full year science and social studies is one of those many parts for us um because we talk a lot about um helping our youngest students to master foundational skills and I'm really excited that we're talking about that because there have been some serious gaps um in terms of developing uh phic awareness and decoding skills and fluency um for our students and also uh it's important that we um don't forget that background knowledge and vocabulary are essential to comprehension um those three other things that I just said constitute the other essential components of reading instruction and I don't know how how we're providing adequate background knowledge and vocabulary to our students particularly our middle school students who are struggling some of the hardest academically um in the district if we're not providing them full year science and full year social studies um especially as those are um content area domains that have very specific vocabulary uh in them and uh if we want to improve our students literacy and therefore their academic uh achiev overall we have to do this and I also um just want to say I agree with member seon's comment from earlier um I don't want to wait to make this shift in terms of redistricting which also then necessitates um this change to uh instruction at the middle school to next year or the year after that waiting to see whether or not we might lose all of our Federal grant funding uh that year or the next year I would like to have this done now uh so that we have our established um field so to speak before any such changes will uh potentially come down the pike so other questions um I guess I have a question um and I guess it prefers to sum up our budget vocabulary so I'll try to do my best to explain what my question is and maybe Andy you can help um if I if I get this wrong but we talk about revolving funds we're talking about special accounts that let us essentially carry money over from one year to the next and sometimes it can be there as kind of like an emergency um piece and we're saying okay transportation is something where we want to draw from some of those funds this year for this budget or that's but being recommended by the superintendent I'm just wondering if you could give us kind of a overview of how our revolving accounts are doing overall I know in Prior years we had been getting kind of close to the edge in terms of using some of those up and how are we in terms of the healthfulness and the recommendations of where those accounts should be and where they are sure again as to the the definition of where they should be and where they are is kind of a a value you figure out what is that communities feel as I have one client who has an agreement with the the town that their total just because in a similar way that free cash can only be 5% of a a community's uh budget they use that as a dollar threshold for what it is that the school can have and combine for revolving account so it varies but one of the standard rules of thumb is that you shouldn't be using current years receipts for current year expenditures because you always want to use like a year and a rears is what it is that's a best practice approach when it comes to revolving accounts um we are currently at that point slightly with circuit breaker where we're looking at to use maybe I think it's about $10,000 more than the prior year receipts that were allowed to carry over but as of right now we are still uh we are quote unquote I'm going to say using the prior year receipts balances uh and not using current year receipts for current year expenditures so that's solid for us that's is that forward motion for us from the past or how have we done I can say the second time that we were here in Greenfield maybe six years ago we were using current year receipts for current year expenditures and to be perfectly honest again and I tip my had to even though we use uh we Greenfield use some of the eer funds for positions um we did not create anywhere near a funding Cliff like we've heard of other communities regarding the significant use of EA for personnel so by using eer as we did and it is a not that I would ever want to go through a global pandemic again but it did allow districts and Greenfield was not unique in using less of its revolving account that it had urgently anticipated which allowed us to get us back to the point of being able to not use current year receipts or current year expenditures yeah I kind of want to underline that what you're talking about um because it was um I thought very Savvy of you and the and the prior superintendent in terms of really making a fine decision not to use the eer funds for personnel and so we're not facing the Cliff that some other districts are right now with you know million doll deficits and so on so I really um wanted to uh celebrate that um because of the district leadership we're in in a stronger position in that regard uh any other questions all right um so we we move on to any motions um I have a motion prepared which would be for us to adopt the superintendent's budget as the school committee budget that's there uh for us and unless there are other motions that people want to make right now which would be uh to make specific um recommendations for the superintendent to make changes to the budget um that would be something where we would as a school committee vote on whether uh to uh Direct the superintendent to make changes to the budget and bring that back to a meeting that we would have um next week um so at this time I would hear those motions M Goodwin I move that we direct the superintendent to eliminate three administrators and take the remainder of funds needed uh to match the 600,000 number from the increase in special Susan fber I did not get did not get that so you'll need to repeat it um I can repeat what I have so far your motion is to direct the superintendent to eliminate three administrators and take the remainder of funds needed to match the 600 something number yep let me get the exact number for you 663 thank you Andy from The in to match that number from the increases in special education yes the requested increase in special ed the requested increase in special education thank you thank you for the motion is there a second let's see in a second are there any other motions not seeing any other motions I would uh like to hear a motion to accept the superintendent budget for FY 26 as the school committee budget for FY 26 at the total amount of 25 m875 some moved is there second second so that was a motion from Member de and a second from Member Martin is that right okay great any [Music] discussion I'll I'll say a few things I guess um I um appreciate the apparent willingness of the committee to move forward with this budget I really appreciate the superintendent's thoroughness and Clarity and your presentation I thought all of the administration tonight did a really wonderful job answering a lot of really uh hard and uh questions on the spot um and gave not just us but I think the whole public uh real education and what's going on um and the way we the way that students are being thought about in our school system which I'm incredibly proud of um I really am glad that we're not um going back on our commitment to do the redistricting we think that uh educationally it's the right thing to do and it's important that we as a district as as a school committee put forward a budget that represents what we really think is best for the students um it is a budget that reflects a lot of choices and there maybe there will be hard choices ahead for the mayor for the city council and um and I just want to say that in the richest country on the planet the fact that these choices are so hard and that it pushes taxpayers so hard to pay for these schools the way we that we do in a in a world where you know billionaires are taking a sledgehammer to government instead of contributing to public education um is is a crying shame but I think that we um I'm I'm proud of uh our leadership of our committee and of our city in t taking on these uh hard challenges together um to come up with the budget that will work for our students and for our community any other comments or discussion okay member Den will you secretary Den will you call the vote yes secretary J I'm a yes member Martin yes chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair seon yes member Childs yes member Goodman no mayor dorer no he the motion carries with two nose Okay um so uh the uh desired outcome of next week's meeting would have been to um take any changes that committee directed the superintendent to make and to vote on the final budget but since we've done that tonight and I think we will cancel that meeting um we will hear I'd like to hear a motion to adjourn oh yes first please a motion to close the budget hearing oh thank you very much our honor a parliamentarian which I really appreciate I'd like to hear a motion to close our budget hearing so moved is there a second second so that was a motion from Member Charles and a second from Member Den Martini Martini okay any discussion uh secretary Den we you call the vote on the motion to close the budget hearing sure den den member Martini yes chair Johnson son yes Vice chair seon yes member Childs yes member Goodwin yes mayor Ser here yes motion passes all right and now I would like to hear a motion to close our regular meeting so moved a motion from M Martin seconded a second from M child's any discussion secretary Den will you call a vote Yes Yes jar Johnson the son yes Vice chair seon yes member child yes member Goodman member mayor dorer yes motion passes we are adjourned at 9:13 p.m.

on Tuesday March 11th uh student Coalition presents amplify claiming our space where students will take the stage to show showcase what makes them unique and this is going to be at asgo high school not East where it was last year and uh next we have several area candidate events that are taking place in the coming weeks um some of those include uh parents for education and Global success host will host an event on uh March 14th uh we will have this information many of these events we also will have the League of Women Voters who will host an online event on March 19th we have an online student panel um Tuesday March 18th and the bilingual advisory committee will host a forum at hun Club elementary school on Tuesday March 20th which is an opportunity to hear all our candidates who are running for the Board of Education Miss Camas these this information will be on the website for anybody oh great it's already on our website uh we want to thank all our candidates for their dedication and service I'll turn it over now to board to uh we have had a lot of exciting things so I invite board members to share any additional uh exciting events yes weo yes weo Co-op finished fifth as a team at the ihsa girls State Gym final gymnastics meet this past weekend Eva Sullivan won the State title in Vault uh and took second place on floor third on beam and fifth all around yeah Sam [Applause] Phillips it was impressive thank you John for sending that to us um Sam Philip took fifth place in Vault and sixth on floor congratulations to Ava Sam and the entire team Braden Swanson of asgo high school took sixth place in his weight class 144 PBS I haven't seen that number for a long time at the IHS a boys individual State final wrestling tournament congratulations Brayden the asgo East High School girls bowling team took sixth place at the ihsa girls State final bowling tournament this past weekend congratulations on a great season the oehs and ohos journalism programs flourished at the Southwest Prairie Conference Championship OE took first place and O took fourth congratulations to student journalists the co-op boys swimming and Diving team took third place at sectionals this past weekend this performance secured their spot at the state competition congratulations Dr Amy Howton English department chair at o and my friend was selected as a finalist for the 2025 Golden Apple award for excellence and teaching over 470 nominations were submitted for this prestigious award and Amy is one of 30 finalists congratulations I always feel like this time of year we totally need to celebrate right coming out of these uh cold days and uh there were several sd308 members who have been named recipients of this year's Illinois state Board of Education those who Excel and Teacher of the Year Awards congratulations to the following individuals Amy rguez uh oehs classroom teacher Moren turel uh ohos classroom teacher dangit por uh plank Junior High early career educator Deborah rabic um Grand Park Elementary Murphy jior High student support personnel and Dr Adam B Russ uh Rus uh Director of Human Resources School administrator okay now we'll move to 7.2 we'll ask our student board members to give their report okay so we are just a few weeks away from amplify which will take place on March 13th a moment where student voices take stage um ideas turn into actions and we showcase the power of collaboration in our school Community last Friday we came together in the Coalition meeting that helped us solidify our vision and strengthen our bonds we gathered ideas discussed what we would present and most importantly create a comfortable space where everyone felt hurt this sense of unity and shared purpose is exactly what amplifies about take students taking ownership of their experiences and claiming their space space which is the theme of amplify as we move forward our president presentation continues with an important event on March 3rd the student Le um board speak and Spark this discussion will allow us to dive deeper into crucial topics particularly the relationships between students and teachers this conversation directly connects to our planning for amplify ensuring ensuring that the discussions we bring to the table are meaningful relevant and impactful additionally as your student elective Board of Education Representatives we are excited to invite you to another key event a student panel discussion with the sd308 student board candidates on Tuesday March 18th we'll be hosting this discussion and give students a direct opportunity to engage with the individuals who seek to represent us a social resection will with pizza yay will take place from 5:30 to 6: p.m.

five should become alarming because 04 all right you're still talking 4 8 if you project that out but anytime it's getting 0.5 or higher that's the piece that should alarm us since we're capped and so I want to make sure that was unless you think I'm wrong no you you're spot on and if you look at the driver of that 0.5 one of the key drivers utilities which is a big chunk of our expensers at the district we have to buy electricity we have to buy heating to uh to we have to cool our buildings so that's a big chunk of the of the high end of the CPI so directly impact us and then the last and food is also another part we have to buy food to feed our kids and that's another part that is going up a lot yeah and then the last part is and you don't have to answer this now but I'm I'm sitting here listening to transportation and I'm wondering uh and I think it ties into what you said Dr katti but I'm sitting here thinking about the um options right and I don't know and listen I am not suggesting that we should have a referendum but I I I I've heard like is the referendum on the transportation end an option uh could we go electric buses would that be um an option and and listen I'm not saying any of these things other than this is the this is what you hear out there uh and then of course the cutting cutting services right like are is there an opportunity for cutting services and I don't expect you to answer all three of those I kind of think I know what the answers are to all three of those just say that we can't referendum our way out of the cost of Transportation it's not sustainable long term the way we're run it right now a referendum will be a short band-aid and it will come back again so we have to right siize it uh the way we do transport what I just explained earlier so the state only reimburses us for three class of kids those who have special uh special with I uh Transportation included in the IP kids who live beyond a mile and a half and students who live in designated hazardous area even with those suspensors they all they've always prated us this year they prating us at 79% next year it's going to be 69% so it gets lower so right off the gate there's a hope even if we did everything right right and in our case we don't even limit transportation to those three categories we provide transportation to everybody so by that very nature we we're in a big hole and the hole gets deeper and the state is not really helping us to to fill that home so so what I hear is that it's not necessarily cutting services to those that were obligated but there is a I don't want to say opportunity because that sounds terrible but there is a situation where we could potentially see a cut to services to those that we we just quite frankly can't um service because of what we're bringing in but we're not obligated to either okay I mean thank and the 9.1 million is that title one and Medicaid all federal funds so that will be TI all the title funds idea funds okay and Medicare so and Medicaid and then the other part that we can't even begin to possibly think about but we do also apply for other federal grants we don't know that other federal grants are going to be available and what that could also potentially and fortunately we don't include those in projection right because all we include are what we know I'm saying is there's other Revenue out there that we may also not be able to have access to um because the money just or the grants just won't be will be one that comes to mind e rate will be one yeah we normally don't include that in that projection but that's a federal fund and the other one that comes to mind is uh FCC funding for uh for upgrade to technology those are grants that we are nearly a prideful we don't even know that's to your point okay that's available thank you Mr OA very much okay next board I'm want to invite um Mr bell assistant superintendent to discuss the students rights and responsibilities handbook um I know you've got some guests with you this evening to also help with this presentation I want to thank all the families and parents and uh community members and staff will really help uh prepare this uh updated version this is a state mandate that we are complying with this evening very nice good evening board even uh I'd like to introduce uh my counterpart here uh Miss Bailey Campbell she's our director of student services for special programs um and uh everything you have in your board packet could not be have could not have been done with without her work she worked tirelessly and diligently to make it uh visibly appealing to put all of the the hard work and content um and take all of the changes that it took from all those engagement opportunities um as we kind of go forward so you have a couple of items uh in your uh board packet one of those is hopefully just the summary of changes so that it's brought to you in kind of in a digestible um way um you know members of our student services team include myself Miss Bailey Campbell Miss Michelle Pete our director of special education for uh secondary Michael Johnson our director of special of uh student services um for elementary and then Mike frers our coordinator for School Safety and Security sorry I'm not managing the clicker well um as with everything we do we still um work to do all of our work uh and align that to our foundational practices um and so you can see evidence of that uh for from high quality instruction to equity and rifle presence and effective systems and teams throughout this entire document this document is required that we bring to uh you for approval each and every year um and those adjustments that are made as per school code uh listening and learning through collaborative input um this is uh just a snapshot of those engagement opportunities and stakeholders that we've tapped into um to be able to kind of edit and refine this document as it's as it exists um we have met with uh the superintendent's Advisory Group um ssac along with the Coalition board for a student voice component um they were awesome by the way um I give you uh Kudos um our um policy committee um uh we have presented in front of our Board of policy committee for feedback um and provided a number of administrative Focus opportunities um and collaborative office hours for them to be able to weigh in on how this it uh how this uh text in this document exists within the schools and how they use it to better serve our kids all right thank you good evening everyone so um essentially when we took a look at this document for this upcoming school year we wanted to kind of keep some of these priorities and focus areas in mind um first off obviously for those of you who have had a chance to peruse this document it is like a 7080 90 I think we've lost count at this point um it's a lot of pages so the goal really was to try to continue to make sure that the the meat of this document if you will was student focused integrating both policy as requ ired but also our practice and procedure within the district um this also helps us ensure compliance with our board policy legislative updates and then really just making sure that it is true to what we stand for and what we believe in The District in terms of that culture climate and purposeful language um this year you'll see a lot of changes in order to prioritize the continued focus on rightful presence for a variety of um students in our spaces including diverse Learners and specialized programs which we'll highlight in just a second and then the biggest thing again is just that commitment to ensuring that this document continues to be more and more userfriendly um you'll notice Graphics you'll notice QR codes um and even as you kind of walk through our buildings we start to see some of these Pages taken off and put in posters on bulletin boards and in classrooms and and that's really what we want this document to be um is more than just that 90 page manual so here I'm just going to kind of start to highlight some of the changes that are proposed um within the document so our document really is broken into two parts the first part really focuses on policy and then we'll kind of transition into the second part which is more of that handbook if you will so the first part that I want to highlight is section one um you will be hearing shortly from my teammates um about the profile of an sd308 learner there's a beautiful graphic that goes along with that that we're going to be embedding within the introduction of our rights and responsibilities so again that it's living there and it's forward facing section two this is really our student rights and student commitment section here we did add a section focused on Safety and Security within the building again really focusing on that policy piece which highlights our school safety drill plan which is the required drills that are um mandated every year the annual review of school safety in terms emergency response plans and then we highlighted our School Safety and Security procedures for both visitors and parents this is a section that um is very common we talk about this often but we wanted it to make sure that lived somewhere section three is Student Records a quick um addition to this section included language around parents and Guardians who wanted to put a statement in their students file in the event that they pull their students records and they wanted to dispute something so that was currently missing and we wanted to also make sure that we highlighted that there are ter uh times in which our um our buildings would then not be um they would be exempt from uh polling Student Records our next section section four minimal language changes and then that brings us into section five special education and Health Services so this I highlighted earlier but we just wanted to highlight that we are proposing a title change for this section to really Encompass Health Services special education and special programs so the special program section highlights um a lot of our Learners that we wanted to make sure we're represented in this document including our rights for our students who may be pregnant hospitalize and homebound Services multi lingual Learners our Alternative Learning Program in the district which is goal um our homeless and mckin vinto students and also those students who may be involved in the with foster care another thing I want to highlight real quickly about that section is we also relocated and added the suicide and depression awareness and prevention language into that section our team felt very strongly in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders that this really needed to belong in health services and special programs and removed from student Behavior all right that transitions us into the second part of our document which is that student handbook section so here we start off with enrollment and attendance so here we just kind of further defined compulsory attendance as defined by the state we also added guided language we're making up missed coursework when we have students who fall into that absent category for valid cause and then we also made sure that we wanted to highlight the incredible work that our buildings are doing in terms of those attendance interventions the next section there was minimal language changes in terms of the bullying harassment racism discriminatory language and hateful acts there was a lot of time and intentionality and focusing on that section section last year so we felt that that was in a really good space for this year our next section student conduct here we added um a number of items in terms of personal belongings just really emphasizing what our students are bringing into our classrooms and our spaces student parking privileges and regulations at the high school level cell phone and mobile electronic device procedures at the high school level and again just wanted to highlight that we already had language in there for our elementary and junior high schools and we had a lot of conversation and input from our high school teams and from our students um about what that language looked like in or in order to incorporate that along with our other levels we did include language along our threat around our threat assessment process and then we further Define restraint timeout language as required by code um minimal language changes in the next section which then brings us to section 10 which is the title 9 section here we just wanted to highlight the change of title from Title 9 to Title 9 sexual abuse and grooming behaviors because that section really encompasses a lot of information aside from just Title 9 we also wanted to highlight the work that our buildings do around aon's law which is our curriculum that is embedded um in our spaces um in terms of um grooming and safe touches the next section we really just worked closely with transportation to further Define what those expectations look look for for our students that are um utilizing our transportation services moving right along section 11 this is our suspension and expulsion guidelines here we really wanted to focus on adding language around the re-engagement and the returning of students what does that look like and how do we support our students when they return after a period away from our schools and then last but not least the code of conduct Athletics and extracurricular activities worked very collaboratively with both of our High School athletic directors reflecting in minimal language changes for that section so I know that was quick and that was a high level overview um so I guess at this point oh one more slide sorry um so our continued Focus um again we just want to make sure I kind of highlighted at the beginning this is like we're committed to the cause um of really just continuing to enhance the usability of this making sure that this document while yes hot heavy and policy is really rooted in our student focus and then just making sure that we continue to be dynamic responsive and adapt to those changes as they come our way and what does that look like and how do we best incorporate those to meet our students and our families where they're out now we'll open it for questions I have Dominic I have some if um okay uh page [Music] um just wanted to clarify TBE meaning kind of what the state refers to as TBE not TBE programming it's uh yeah for multilingual number three yeah yeah so so um TBE is kind of dual language TBE there's different things you're just using kind of the grant you know wording or whatever yeah so TBE versus TPI yeah and this is where uh Dr dubio comes in because this is her uh expertise um being able to describe the difference between the two of those and which ones are in English and which ones are in Spanish and how that kind of rolls out from a service delivery but we wanted that language in here and that is represented with the transitional bilingual educational programming of which we utilize dual language okay I just wanted to because there's Al you know how that there's a lot of different uh acronyms wherever um page 41 I'm sorry I got to get there too I know I know sorry um any other question Junior go ahead so Junior High um students are not permitted to carry backpacks of any kind same with ele but in high school yes so I just want I'm just a little concerned about um that transition and if they're going to have enough time to be able to go to their lockers and yeah um they're not going be able to carry all those books um so has it been kind of tested uh I don't know if I don't know that I can answer the tested question but I I can say that prior to covid this was not a practice uh and that students were not carrying backpacks um at the junior high level did they do something where they shortened that time though too though and then so going into covid right um then we kind of went to utilizing those personal belongings um whether they're backpacks or some other items right and what they can carry um and there was a shortening of some of those passing periods as a result of some of that um Mr Francis uh has worked extensively with those buildings um and the staff to kind of understand um how to use that space um in that time um we've talked about how this is going to increase the need for executive functioning skills and some of those soft skills that kids need to use um and need to be taught and need to be reiterated um with how do I organize things how do I get from one place to another what does that look like and so we've talked about kind of rolling um this out um what the communication needs to be how we're going to support those kids how we're going to support the staff and being able to get um this across but we felt that um this uh in in many of our conversations um and supporting staff's asks uh supporting buildings asks um that this uh that uh the number of of bags and things like that in classrooms are significant hindrance um to that space um and so that doesn't mean that we're going to eliminate all personal carry items um but those giant backpacks that tend to make their way into the classroom and into aisles and into um all the kinds of spaces um we're going to need to be attended to and if I might uh step in for a moment um Mr Francis will be at the equity learning and Innovation board committee meeting um presenting the interconnectedness of a b bell schedule change with backpacks um and a uh revision to the student support time in conjunction with uh what Mr Bell was just speaking of so more information to come which will then come to the board so preview yes so okay also answering your question about the backpacks I was in Middle School not so long ago and it is kind of easy just um putting your backpack in your locker quickly grabbing your stuff and just bringing it to your class because Middle School is relatively smaller than a high school so you're not walking from like point A to point B and it's like it's a super long walk it's Rel your classes are relatively really close to each other and I feel it's a good way to teach time management to the middle schoolers so like if you grab your books you can't just be like walking around talking with your friends like no you got to get to class you got to keep your priorities straight and learn with when you're in school and H H I'm just going to give you the mic I I just want to make sure that we're doing the we're doing that support part that's and go ahead and I think that's to the collaborative nature is that we didn't make these decisions in isolation we we really um again you know listen to the buildings and other departments to be able to kind of make sure we're doing this with intentionality I'm I'm I'm also speaking for students and parents right now um sure you know sure and also to add on to Callie's Point um counselors do a really good job of for middle schoolers to have their classes relatively in the same hallway between like first and third hour your classes are not spread apart like very like far apart like sometimes you'll have your class on the first floor and the second floor first period and second period for high schools but for middle schools sometimes you'll have all your classes in the same row I know my brother yeah same pod and like it's after lunch now you have on like the first pod so it's not like they do it like a challenging way like you're going to go from the first floor all the way on the left to the second floor all the way to the right like they have it relatively in the same for my experience and for my siblings experience they have in the relatively same area for a majority of your class periods depending on your grade level and definitely in high school those Deans let you know when the bell is about to ring like they are on us so I feel like it'll be easy for the middle schoolers to change and uh we have kind of a pretty big change um on page um so we touched on you know this but uh this is a pretty big change so i' kind of like to discuss that a little bit um I don't necessarily have a question um but high school and cell phones I think change is a relative term I think that um our teachers in our classrooms at the high school level have been doing any number of things to try and um remove the distractability of our electronic devices um some of their teachers are uh have pods in the front of the room or um I'm not using the right word word but um pouches shoe organizers shoe organizers you know some of those other things um I don't know if you heard Governor priter uh announce kind of recently um about his potential proposition for um what that would look like uh as a Statewide statute um what we did was we looked at uh a number of different uh States that had already adopted this um and our language closely aligns to what potentially would come out of a Statewide ban on cell phones um it still leaves a lot of autonomy for the teacher um to be able to use those uh just screen time I don't want to limit it to cell phones but let's say say screen time um um for for instructional purposes what we want to get away from is the need and the Reliance on our streams um and the distractability that it causes for um everyone in the space um whether that's the teacher the student the uh support person um we when we met with uh ssac and the coalition we actually did hey pick up your phone go to your settings look how many times you had pickups you know on a daily basis and it ranged from 74 to I think 270 some um just in terms of pickups and and what that does to your to your kind of mind frame right we've heard from parents we've heard from staff we've heard from legislators um but we also listened to the kids and that they said that this is a useful tool to them um the times in which they're in the hallways or the times in which they're at lunch some of them using it to check College uh to check email for college applications um and to be able to kind of stay connected um outside of the school um for the things that they're doing in life um and so we have to figure out a way to to provide that balance and so I wouldn't say that this is change in language I would say we've added Clarity to what is an expectation already that exists within our within our spaces um and and I think you'll see that come out on the state level as well as the national level as it already has thank you Miss Dr moodo did you have a question or no Dominic actually kind of brought to the Forefront one of my questions about characterizing what the change is at the high school so I appreciate that thank you well I want to thank you and your team for the the oh sorry so with regarding that cell phones I I mean I personally love it but two things that I want to say um I had a group of uh junior high students at my house last weekend and they were like well what about the teachers that are always on the phone too so um like my son's math teacher talks to her daughter in college throughout the entire math period so I think that needs to be I think we need to model that as well my other question is and something that I shared with um a parent shared with uh Dr katti um and myself and I don't know what other board members but we are a lot of especially elementary teachers are rewarding students with screen time and that almost sends the opposite message so there needs to be something done with it and administration to um really talk about the effect of that and what that does so just wanted to bring that up thank you for adding um Ai and chat gbt in there um if we could go to page 30 number six excused absences is the needs at home is that a Illinois code thing and the reason I say that is um I know a handful of kiddos that have to stay home when their younger siblings are sick and I mean it just breaks my heart that they being I mean let's be honest you know it's here or there I'm sure it's not devastating but that does happen and there are families that are in that situation is that our decision or is that an Illinois school code thing can you just clarify which number you're looking at excused it's page 30 number six number unexcused absence oh unexcused and it talks about needs at home like I know my neighbor was just home with his little brother who was sick the other day and yep yep absolutely so we utilize those as some examples because within the excused absence that's what's specifically taken from is in terms of what qualifies as valid code however we just want to reiterate that those are absolutely case-by case basis and like conversations that we we often get in student services of hey I have this really unique circumstance can you guys kind of help me problem solve what this looks like so if there's any a situation a situation like that we are available we have a director for elementary and secondary and we can help kind of problem solve some of those situations okay excellent and then on page 55 talking about controversial topics this is just a draft obviously but will you make that form that parents can opt out live yes so um Dr Paul and her wonderful team are currently working on updating that form to make sure that it's ready to go um but that was also something that we made sure that we did in terms of going in linking all of those pieces and then eventually taking all of those forms and having an appendix where all of those extra resources in terms of forms that may be submitted um can be quickly found so yes we will absolutely get that to you guys excellent thank you as U Mr Bell will tell you that came up in our former um committee that people parents didn't know where to find that so if it's there then they should have no problems thank you for this is a lot of work thank you thank you B hopefully she had something to say I just had a question on page 55 about teaching about controversial issues can you talk briefly about what you mean by a balanced view I'm going to kick that one to Dr Paul in terms of uh talk it says teaching about cont controversial issues um and specifically the language says Where Are You Be informative and present a balanced view policy you know go ahead Dr Paul so um it is exactly what it says uh having a balanced perspective um so we have a we have a uh novel text review process as well as a textbook review process um that our novels that are were were proposed for information and today for Action to the board uh went through and this is the consideration that was used when looking at uh the novels that are coming forward for kid Street okay um this is more of a comment but on page seven I really like how when you put additions how you're advocating for more spaces that aren't talked about and and you're creating a space that's very comfortable for other students because we don't talk about we don't talk about how like some students might be homeless or some are pregnant or multilingual I really like how you're creating more of a comfortable space for things to talk about because I feel like mostly in education students find it difficult to come to it to come to teachers when that's happening and you adding on to your policy I just I really like it that's all thank you great job I a shamess plug all of you have in front of you kindergarten registration if you're going to turn one you do hand those out to uh your your uh people accordingly but if you're going to um turn five by uh 91 please please please register early register often um we have Kinder quests coming uh 311 no you can't have the microphone um kinder Quest coming 311 so please putting on when sh wipers don't call I thought it was a commentary on my maturity all right we have quite a few special guests this evening uh you all want to come on up uh really important Gathering um you guys to stay back there you going to stay there or we Dr conade I want to turn it over to you all right for our presentation wonderful so we are so excited our team is here to share truly share our next chapter so um tonight you'll hear about our journey the connection of our past our present and our future um including really the alignment between interweaving our district Vision our school plans and then also our portrait attributes so we have teams from both our portrait of a learner um uh team and our district leadership team not only presenting but also here in the audience um we will talk tonight about what do do um our priorities look like including how is the voice of our students our staff and our community really coming through our plan so with that I'm very excited to turn this over to our executive director of communications to racer kamias hello hello so yes we are super excited so we are going to kick this off in just one second but I want to give you a quick preamble to this video we are ecstatic to share this with you tonight um this work is really a culmination of many weeks of being out in literally like hundreds of classrooms and practices and you know events and things all across our district um you'll see it's it's our kids it's what's every day happening in our classrooms um we often forget when we're sitting around at meetings um all the amazing things that are happening behind the door and really why we're all here and so we hope as you watch this video it will set the tone for what the strategic planning Journey has been like and what it's going to be like it's very different we got excited about it when we presented to you about our engagement um but this is really unique in that it truly is a story a reflection of where we've been where we're at to now and where we all want to Aspire to be in the future um together and that's really what sets this process apart is is how we got to where we we are at this point and how we're going to work together moving forward so um I do want to give a quick shout out to my team because a few of them are here this was a ton of work to put this video together lots of time following cameras around in lots of schools so without any further Ado we present our our story video to you can we hit one of the lights just to make it a little oh thank you don't hit all of them just yes this is Premier we should just keep stay like oh rewind Pump It Up Turn up the basee [Music] we were the first class to graduate from sgo high school in 1964 with more than a 100 Kids primary kids went to the little white school we were starting to get the growth by then Boulder Hill had just started there was no uh Boulder Hill or Long Beach Schools so those kids were bust here to the swiggle during period of time when all that explosive growth kemell County uh was the fastest growing County in the whole country similarities uh with the district probably are the quality of education kids get we got a pretty good grounding here we were at one time a small country school district and now we had people from all over the world speaking 52 different languages at home home the biggest uh I think positive of all this growth has been the expansion of the curriculum and the expansion of the opportunities for kids we wound up having a huge percentage of our staff having Advanced degrees we have better educated teachers give kids better opportunity we find unity and solidarity through those around us now more than ever our differences that put us apart also Define us and bring us together a single entity We Are One constructed out of many like a piece of artwork like a painting our class is a single image though it's composed with all shades all brush strokes and all markings but together we create more we achieve more these Impressions form a masterpiece that cannot be replicated even when the brushes have been cleaned and the canvas is left to dry what has been created is something that'll be a permanent part of the past as we walk out of this Auditorium with our painting completed we walk out with another blank one in our hands one meant to portray the actions we will take in the next chapter of Our Lives I'm going to remember that I am capable of overcoming failure that I have potential for greatness that I am incredibly lucky to have gotten these chances to grow surrounded by people who love and support me I'm ready to trust try and to fail and to rebuild and to finally succeed but we have our own story now keep telling it but go figure out the next chapter of this [Music] life this is my story this is our story this is my story this this is our story this is my story this is our story this is my story this is our story this is my story and this is our story yay so now you have all the feels right we've set a good a good tone so um I do uh want you to know that we are working currently on having it um a voiceover created fully in Spanish and then we will also have um our Clos captioning available that can be translated in other languages so it'll be accessible to everyone so um without anything else I'd like to pass it on to our portrait of a learner team the babies we're going to get one more chair and then we're going to go ahead and get started good evening president similon members of the board superintendent kelti and members of the school Community it is an absolute honor to officially introduce portrait of a learner the portrait of a learner demonstrates our District's vision for our Student Success shaping the skills and experiences that guide them it's a part of our story ensuring each and every student is ready for their next chapter with a strong Foundation I have had the pleasure this year of leading the portrait of a learner task force which includes the collaborative efforts of various classroom teachers counselors coordinators reading Specialists building Administration and District administration from every Department tonight I have two members of our task force with me Pete meismer and Sarah Fischer they're going to walk you through our journey and our process thank you so our portrait of a Learner Journey began during the 2023 2024 school year superintendent Advisory Group and School Board Forum participants were asked the following questions how important is it for high school graduates to be prepared to enter a university community college postsecondary technical training such as apprenticeship military or a living wage job how important is it for high school graduates to be prepared for their roles as responsible informed and courteous Global Citizens to explore and understand different perspectives and to participate in society how has the world changed since you were a student and how has the changing World impacted students today and what skills and mindsets will be necessary in a rapidly changing and complex world the responses to these questions were compiled into a comprehensive summary through a partnership with innovate K12 our task force work focused on additional analyzing and synthesizing of the data gathered in response to these questions with a strong commitment to continuous feedback and increased engagement from a variety of stakeholders we are able to identify and Define five key attributes that represent the skills and abilities critical to the development of a Learner in School District 308 so as we prepare students for their future here are the five essential attributes uh that we have identified to equip students for their success as engaged communicators and collaborators students will confidently express ideas actively listen and work effectively with others to problem solve as Innovative thinkers and problem solvers Learners will be able to tackle challenges with curiosity persistence and creativity by being responsible D digital citizens they will be able to understand and practice e ethical safe and responsible use of Technology by being emotionally aware and responsive students will develop empathy resilience and emotional intelligence to navigate diverse situations and as adaptive lifelong Learners students will Embrace a growth mindset adopt to change and pursue continuous self-improvement so through the work of our task force as a portrait of a learner we wanted to ensure that this framework supports every student and being equipped with the skills and mindset to thrive in an everchanging world thank you so at first glance I think it's important to point out that some people might look at this as a simple graphic right but as the evening unfolds you will see more of the connection to our pillars our priorities our three foundational practices as well as the data that guides our decisions to support each and every learner the portrait of a learner framework provides a comprehensive vision for Future Ready Scholars and that is our True North at its core this framework reflects our commitment to holistic student development ensuring each and every scholar is equipped with the skills knowledge and support needed to navigate an Ever Changing world next you'll hear from Principal Smith who will share more about what falls under the umbrella of portrait of a learner all right good evening oh good evening welcome good evening making sure it's working good evening Board of Education members District administration and community members uh I'd like to share a little information here regarding our portrait of a learner framework the portrait of a learner framework is a comprehensive visual representation of the key components necessary for student development it highlights the essential elements that contribute to a well-rounded Future Ready learner emphasizing the interconnectedness of academic achievement personal growth and systemic support within our elements of framework at the heart of the framework are foundational practices which act as the backbone for both academic and personal success these practices ensure that students develop strong skills habits and mindsets that prepare them for lifelong learning and adaptability surrounding this Foundation are four critical pillars that support a holistic educational experience for one at the top there is Future Ready this pillar focuses on equipping students with the skills the knowledge and the mindset necessary to navigate a rapidly evolving World it includes competencies such as critical thinking problem solving adaptability and technological literacy to ensure students can excel in both careers and personal lives next systems of support recognizing that Student Success is Not solely dependent on academic instruction this pillar emphasizes the importance of resources guidance and interventions support structures may include mentoring programs Counseling Services tutoring or Community Partnerships to address the diverse needs of our students academic well academics and wellness this underscores the balance between rigorous academic achievement and the overall well-being of students it acknowledges that cognitive social emotional and physical health are interconnected and must be nurtured alongside the traditional learning schools that prioritize Wellness create environments where students feel safe supported and are motivated to learn systems Management in order to maintain an effective and sustainable educational experience structured processes must be in place this pillar focuses on leadership governance policies and operational efficiencies that ensure schools can provide high quality education while fostering Innovation and responsiveness to student needs at the base of our framework here you'll see core values which serve as guiding principles that reinforce each of these elements these values humanization collaboration dignity courtesy integrity and empathy ensure that student development remains aligned with ethical and educational priorities they help shape the culture of learning environments influencing both curriculum design and daily interactions within the school communities next you will hear from Principal van Kowski who's going to discuss District pillars and priorities good evening so I'm Laura bosski I'm the principal of ASO East High School the teacher and me is kicking in and I want to tell everybody to stand up and stretch and stuff because otherwise I feel like I'm going to be Charlie Brown's teacher with so um just real um so I'm happy to be here tonight um I'm excited to talk about the four pillars of work and just kind of the journey that that has been um and really when you look at that and you think about that within our school district strategic plan these all five of these priorities that Sean just talked about are included in these four pillars of work um and they really serve to connect the objectives to you know the necessary time that we're going to need the resources that are needed and everything that's been talked about tonight right ra Raphael uh talking about uh the finance piece um others talking about students rights and responsibilities talking about just all of the nuances that we have um so this serves as those foundational pieces um the pillars really are a focus focus on our commitment to enhancing educational opportunities for our students and those outcomes and supporting them through that process so the first pillar is academics and student services student I'm sorry Student Success and it really emphasizes those High academic standards that we have facilitating student achievement through engaging teaching practices um our desire is to have for students to have those experiences the skills and knowledge to be successful in whatever future Endeavor they choose to pursue and so we want them to be set up for Success when they leave as weo East High School when they leave as we go high school we want them to be successful and that takes everything that they experience in their entire time um the second pillar is educational access in supportive environment and we need to ensure that every single student who comes through our doors has Equitable access to educational resources to a nurturing trusting environment and we are and I I'm going to say for for people who dedicate their lives to this profession we are passionate in believing that we have to support students emotionally physically nurturing and that that is at the core of who we are and what we do every single day and supporting students um you know and if you look at that pillar one and that pillar two those are the things that we do that we do on a daily basis but then if you look at pillars three and four this is how we want to accomplish and be successful in those first two pillars so that third pillar in Partnership and collaboration that is talking about building those strong relationships with families with Community with organizations with uh businesses with stakeholders that connection building those relationships that is vital for our school district's success we are not just this single entity that can just stay in this tiny little box right we have to build those relationships and we have to go out and seek them for our students sake we need to create those opportunities for our fam to be involved that they're welcomed into school spaces um and that's going to help build those relationships to support students um looking for those that collaboration with local community business Partnerships to create those opportunities whether it's the student who wants to be an exotic animal vet we have one of those at as weo right now um or we have individuals who are seeking opportunities in trades in engineering whatever it might be that we are finding those connections within the business Community within the greater oo community that students can have those experiences um and then you know um as Raphael was talking earlier that resource allocation um and talking about how we are going to find that efficient Common Sense use of our physical our financial and our human resources so that we can maximize our impact on students and their learning um and that is our goal is we want to be very strategic in how we use that and how we use our resources so that we can support students academically instructionally and emotionally um so you know in conclusion these four pillars um are vital to our strategic plan and they are going to guide our efforts in creating that in educational envir environment where students can Thrive I'm going to pass it over to Dr K thank you so as we discussed at our last meeting we really took a deep dive into the data to shape our pillars across each of the five priorities you will see objectives in each of these four pillars so looking at our strategic road map analyzing the curriculum audit looking at both academic data and our social emotional data that we see not only um through our school data but also five Essentials that's where we landed on the four pillars from there then we transition to what is our community which is encompassing our students our staff our families what are the priorities and that is what we are about to unveil in terms of our project or our objectives across um all five of our priorities so what I would like to do next is invite um both our Oba uh co-president uh fa scobby and our oesa co-president Lynn waight who are going to do a deeper dive into some of what informed the plan and highlight the connection for us so with that thank you for being here F good evening Lynn just asked me if I was going to sing a song which I am not so you all know recorders can we have a recorder I can bring out my recorder if you would like um I am as said I'm F scobby I teach elementary music at Church Hill and I'm also the co-president of OA and um I just wanted to talk a little bit about how um when we were building the Strategic plan we really wanted the plan to reflect um the voice of the community we really wanted all stakeholders in asgo to be a part of building and creating the plan not just being given it at the end so the um the district has worked very hard about engaging voices from as many different places from as many different people to really get the voice of our community to really hear what they're saying um I'm happy and excited to say that uh we've had over 4,000 points of Engagement um we've had a lot of people from staff students families community members they've all participated in a variety of different uh methods they've participated in surveys polls there have been town halls and focus groups they've got to meet both virtually and um in person and just take the opportunity to share their expertise their thoughts their experiences here in asgo and we're really excited that the plan is been being created by everyone not just the school employees and kind of explain how everything's connected is when hi I'm Lyn Wade I am um the uh administrative specialist for special ed at ASO high school and like I was introduced oesa um president so our next thing is how we wrapped it all up this is our strategic vision for uh the next three years hopefully um and as you've heard from everyone previously um this is our strategic Vision uh it encompasses um all of our uh points our portraits of a learner their attributes our four pillars of work um where we at leading uh to our priorities and then finally with our annual objective so everything is going to be where we can physically see and follow the plan and not just hearsay or you know we think this might work we have definitely visions of um and our priorities will be uh definitely written down with our objectives that we will be reviewing um on an annual basis so it will also become fluid as well as things change we all know nothing stays the same we can't predict everything so that's the beauty of it um with all of our stakeholders and where we're at we have that ability uh to be fluid with the plan as well um and then these were all driven by the foundational practices that we have and um I'm excited this connects the Strategic plan from the vision that we started with a while back to the actual work AC the district and our school so very exciting yes I do and next thank you all oh no oh no okay so we are gonna start getting into the meat of it before we jump right in we want to remind you that there's five priorities and four pillars each priority considers all four pillars that you have here these were um kind of discussed in detail already what we want to um show with this slide though is that there isn't a finish line for us this is an ideal State this circle and what you see up here as far as having you know physical and psychological safe environments and trusted relationships and um equital distribution of our our resources these types of things we know aren't going to be done come 2028 this is Journey this is the next chapter of our story we aren't going to be um writing the end at the end um but this is really ongoing for us so we just wanted to remind you uh that each of these four pillars are present in each of the priorities for each of the three years so it is very um programmatic in the way that it all kind of flows out and so we are going to kick it off with Priority One Future Ready with Mr Francis thanks Isa uh so when you look at the the three-year plan for being Future Ready this is really grounded in that pace framework uh that Dr Paul Ben Owen and I spoke about at the last meeting right the pace framework just again to to refresh for everybody is just postsecondary career expectations so this really Blends right how are we getting kids ready for postsecondary schooling and just postsecondary careers right post postsecondary career expectations really are grounded in three things it's it's career explor ation and development so again finding yourself as a as as a future worker and employer how are you using and leveraging what we're doing as a school district to help you prepare for Life After asigo East and asigo high school and and Pathways and goal in all of our places Eva all of our our our places so it's it's Career College exploration development it's postsecondary education exploration right preparations applying all of that work that is is Led through our high schools of getting kids ready for college and then also like I think a really under undervalued but really important financial aid and financial literacy how are we helping our students being financially aware of of how life operates how how they can H use money for their benefit and and stay ahead of the game that way so again it's grounded in that pace framework everything that we're kind of talking about in Future Ready starts with there as as you look right on the the educational access environment again this is what Ben Owen really talked about last week that School links as that platform to better help prepare our staff our counselors to work with our students Jared pluger already is a little familiar with School links we know that game um and we're excited to roll that out with with our district when it comes time right and then as this goes like the the layers that we're doing with this is really developing that digital literacy for our students how are they understanding their footprint on electronics how are they understanding you know just their life within social media all of those skills that they need also relating that eventually to AI literacy right again all about this future Focus for our students throughout all of this if I can go to the next slide right this is really the how this is all really rooted in like a cycle of inquiry right right now we're in the planning phase we're going to start implementing as these three years go right over and above what we're doing is is we're going to roll this out we're going to assess how it's going and then we're going to reflect do the next cycle of inquiry right how are we continually changing and making this better for our students better for our staff throughout all of this right here are the Partnerships that we're going to do uh there is a lot that will come with this right it's it's more Pathways for uh for college credits for for all of our endorsements that we are doing within that pace framework but again we can't do that without getting some Partnerships from our community how do we get businesses to help our Educators and our students learn this work how do we identify where we are getting time for professional devel development and again bringing in experts to help our staff and and really lean on that that expertise that is within our community so all of this is really that three-year plan as far as our priority of being future ready and we are going to turn it over to jadan and IET thank you very much um so I actually am going to be focusing on the what we do um area for our priority systems of support and then Dr dubiel will explain to you all how we intend to accomplish it um and so our goal is to create an environment where students Thrive academically socially and emotionally um we are strengthening our academic Student Success and access to supportive environments through the following action So within academics and Student Success we are integrating rightful presence and behavioral expectations within a scope and sequence of the social emotional learning curriculum from EC Early Childhood through 8th grade ensuring students are able to understand what they need within their environment to be successful alongside academics we are establishing clear instructional and SEO Behavior standards for tier one to ensure that all students are receiving Equitable differentiated support at the same time we are aligning tier 2 and tier three interventions across schools to provide consistent academic and behavioral support ensuring no student is overlooked in the following years we will continue the integration and evaluation of of those systems to ensure its Effectiveness and its impact within our next area educational access and supportive environment we are imple implementing a new data dashboard to analyze student needs gu guide decisions and improve school performance by identifying the most effective interventions and enrichments for our students to enhance student support structures we are reorganizing student support teams particularly in our junior high schools to be more responsive iive and student centered and through professional learning and Leadership collaboration we are refining our foundational practices that ensure that every student receives the resources that they need in order to succeed and furthermore we are developing Frameworks that explicitly include special education and multilingual Learners reinforcing our commitment to equity and Excellence thank you can I just underscore something right there Dr um well I think one of the most important things that that you may be as your listening board is important that what we've created is really based on where we are today not what we hope we were but really based on what we are where we are today in terms of the types of things we need to to put in because they weren't there right so for example a data dashboard those kinds of things that you may think well what so what so a lot of these things are really self homegrown structures and so when you're listening I want you to really tune to that I think it's really important to that many of these things are because we're really starting and when you listen to the feedback from the curriculum audit it really underscores that so I I apologize for interrupting the flow but I just want to underscore that go ahead Dr duel sorry okay um we're going to talk now about how we accomplish these systems of support so we recognize we need a comprehensive professional learning plan that is aligned with our goals and our needs we recognize that we need to embrace the highly regarded and evidence-based School leader Paradigm which is a Leadership Model focused on cultural culture learning and systems of collaborative leadership and continuous Improvement we recognize we also need to increase our special education collaboration to ensure that students are present in special education through the collaboration with their general education peers we're working to monitor our staff resource allocations to ensure equable staff plans for schools and departments ensuring alignment with student needs and refining Based on data and best practices we're looking at our financial resources and continue to do so to identify the necessary Financial Resources for new interventions and programs and overall as Dr Kari say is providing that time and that training on the dashboards and the implementation of tier academic and profession Behavior interventions that's all so our next priority area is academics and I'm going to be speaking to what we plan on doing uh the first area is curriculum development we will be conducting a comprehensive review of curriculum needs from Early Childhood through High School ensuring Equitable access to Spanish language arts Math Science and English language arts in addition we'll be working on um refining our student centered structures with efforts including restructuring our Junior High electives to better meet student needs and aligned to programming at the high school improve assessments to refine Equitable instructional strategies and instructional resources in addition we'll work on educational access and Equity we'll do a phase review of multilingual special education and gifted education programs in order to enhance Equitable programming and student learning outcomes how we'll accomplish it in academics is we will strengthen our partners and collaboration across grade levels and content areas through structured articulation schedules to ensure alignment in curriculum and assessments in addition with resource allocation we will focus on identifying and allocating professional learning time and financial resources to support culturally responsive curriculum in instructional technology and then with technology and assessment we will conduct A needs assessment that will guide our development of an instructional technology plan with measurable goals and stakeholder input up next is assistant super intendent Jeremy B over the next three years we have Focus this pillar um with these objectives in the area of Wellness um what we do is going to be focused and centered around relational responsiveness in tier one tier two and tier three instruction we're going to communicate that practice and have common language as it relates to systematic or systemic responses for emergency and preparedness training this also encompasses the district Comm unification planning in terms of educational access and supportive environment we're going to lift those shared definitions of relational responsiveness in that tier one tier 2 and instructional framework we're going to evaluate the use of that common language and we're going to continue training and evaluate those districtwide processes in the event of a need for a campus-wide evacuation how we will accomplish all this we will accomplish this through Labor Management Partnerships and continuing that expansion that work has begun this year um through this entire process as well as with our district leadership team we're going to continue to uh address disparities within our school Improvement planning and examine plans for the physical mental health and financial well-being of all of our uh staff and uh respective uh supports and last but not least we're going to uh continue allocation and time and resources around Safety and Security based on our security audit findings and and uh provide essential training um in all of these areas so I'm going to speak to the systems management party I think one of the key area that I'm going to speak to we mentioned earlier before for when we're talking about the finances which is the need to restructure transportation that is an important thing that we need to do as a district and so we are going to uh look at the uh Transportation as we currently have it look for ways to restructure it and make it more efficient so that it can be sustainable uh long term another part of that will be to do a m to continue the master facility plan that we've engaged and that will be uh the first year second year will be contining to monitor transportation for efficiency and then we know for example as a district we spend significant money on technology we need to come out with a technology plan to actually create a process of Designing a plan as to how we use technology our Technology support the work that we do as a district and once we've done the uh the technology plan uh assessment then we can start uh coming up with how we can Implement that so the next phase will be in the systems management will be the implementation of the assess assessment of Transportation how do we determine ridership who is eligible to ride on on the bus who should we provide transportation and uh we continue to monitor that to make sure that we can continue to afford transportation long term and we know related to this as it relates to Resource allocation is do we have the resources the money necessary for us to continue to do what we need to do as a district and part of what we do is to be smart with the way we budget and what we've started doing last year and we continue to do now and moving forward is to adopt zerob based budgeted whereby we don't roll uh the programs over every year we look at it from the beginning and we look at what do we need this particular year in order to develop a budget and in doing that too we come up with a concept of Roi whatever it is that we Implement that we bring in this year we have systems in place to see we get a return on our investment yes as Mr obami mentioned the systems management is really the foundation of our operational efficiencies and Effectiveness so this priority includes not only Transportation operations technology but also human resources in terms of more efficient Recruitment and hiring practices in addition the bridge between our human resources and our finance department um we are also uh looking to implement increased efficiencies in staff attendance and payroll so as as we talk about all five of our priorities our systems management really then connects all of our priorities together so with that uh Teresa will talk about next steps yeah so that's the end of the um overview of our objectives you have them all um in full in front of you in a draft booklet that we're working on um what's next is really building the the work plan so we shared with you what the ideal state is at the end of each of those years and and kind of what the to-do list looks like but what needs to happen now behind the scenes is really developing those work plans that will get us to each of those objectives so that's where kind of the rubber hits the road for all of us um then we'll be helping to make this plan really digestible to our community our community was part of authoring this plan uh many of the objectives that you saw represented in the plan were ideas from our students our staff our families um our community we really want to make sure that they understand that they're there and in what ways it impacts their experience uh with the district so we will be helping to develop materials for everyone to see and understand how they um fit so we will come away from some of the big uh ideas and some of the the difficult education language that we sometimes lose people in and really make it uh simple we're going to use a web page to kind of keep everybody updated unlike previously where it was just kind of a measurement we're actually going to use use stories and narrative going along with our theme of um our story so we'll be giving you proof points as we go along on this journey of different things that have happened by developing stories and sharing photos and seeing how this plan is coming to life across the district also connected as part of our um whole overall theme of keeping all of these things kind of tied together and aligned is our school Improvement plans so those were based on our foundational practices um once the board takes action on this plan in March next steps for the schools will be then to assemble their teams to help build next year's School Improvement plans that again will align with what you just heard in the Strategic plan and then at was as this was mentioned previously this is not going to be um published and done so we are going to be establishing a very clear protocol for revisiting and refining along the way so that this does not become a plan that's unrelatable to our system we really want this to be uh representative of of current times and if we need to adjust a little bit in order to be relevant to our stakeholders then that's absolutely what we're going to do so we'll be developing those protocols um for everyone to continually evaluate and improve this plan so it's a single driver to all the work that we are doing so with that we're going to open it up and Heather's going to help us kind of narrate through our question so thank you so much to the team for being here and thank you all for listening thank [Applause] you I have a comment more so than a question um just trying to recognize the incred slide 89 it's slide 89 for me but just to recognize the incredible amount of time effort energy intentionality um and engagement that went into creating this and I I just wanted to and I know it's been said and I know you guys understand it uh but I just wanted to say thank you for being committed to the process that it took in order to produce a document that's really the starting point as you just said um but I I believe it it really does go a long way and I appreciate and I've been saying this for three years and I appreciate the thread slide nine I mean I can just if I could hug a slide like that's the slide it just it makes so much sense to me it connects all of the dots the intentionality behind it and any of the questions that I would have had were answered in one slide and so I just appreciate um and I'm sure I'll have questions as we implement it because the pr it's one thing to have a plan it's another thing to implement the plan um and of course we have learnings and discoveries as we're attempting to implement and it's so important the practices are as in sometimes the outcomes that we that we get are not consistent with what we what we desired but I just wanted to say thank you I'm still digesting and uh more to come yes Mr Gatewood I really appreciate you mentioning that and that really connects to that first what's next bullet point is we have our district leadership team coming together tomorrow to start not only processing through the feedback for tonight but diving into the work plans which will connect the objectives to the metrics so there will be not only deliverables but then also reports to come to this team and to our board to see the progress each year and year over year so that has been something that has been part of the fabric of all the discussions and actually what the team kept wanting to jump to was how are we going to measure but we really had to take the time to build the structure to get to the how and that's what um we hope to bring back at least some year one work plan drafts so you'll see those metrics over the next couple of weeks why we have the timeline we did was because we're really um intentional about the connection between the district and the schools and the schools really wanted to start with their school Improvement planning for 2526 in April so hence the timeline that we're on so thank you so much for that that's great that's great talk to I mean I'm G to Echo U Mr gatewood's comments of kudos to the the whole group um and then I'm just dive into a couple questions um one question and maybe the answer is I haven't seen it because there's a lot here and I've read through it a couple of times or maybe the answer is it didn't come up as a didn't surface among when we gathered all our data and that's okay is there anything in this plan that I is it related to sport or activities for students so there is um and maybe you could point me to it yes um so we have a couple of different spots in terms of that first um especially connected to some additional opportunities for um our uh special education Learners um yeah in terms of no not necessarily I'm just wondering and then so and yes I should have this please um within our um wellness and then also um within our transportation um so we are as Mr Ali talked about trying to bring some efficiencies to our transportation over the next year or two what also um came from that was the desire to look at some additional after school transportation so um that is part of of the plan so looking at what are some opportunities um in connection with our students needs and then also Transportation okay I'm asking because I um I feel like we hear often from the community about sports and activities um and I'm wondering um you know I know we cut Junior High Sports at one point and it was like are we going to bring something back and so I don't know I don't want to put something in a plan just because I mentioned it at a board meeting right I want it to come from the community so if this is not something that surfac from the community in regards to looking at our extracurricular activities and looking at our um you know uh Sports uh and after school programs I don't want to put in there because I'm asking it so my question I guess a followup would be did more than what's in here surface in our data around um extracurricular activities in sports um I'm not asking you to answer that right now I'm just asking is that a thing yeah Teresa wants to add something and then I want to add something yeah so um actually one of our online polls was specifically about extracurriculars and the amount of them that we offer and it was actually incredible feedback um explicitly in our focus groups on multiple occasions it was brought up that um both the the offering as well as the accessibility of the offering so um students with uh special needs needs being able to participate in extracurricular activities um language barriers um maybe a def of Hardy hearing student it may not be able to participate in an after school activity because the sponsor may not you know be fluent in sign language and so there was just this desire to really examine what we're already offering and how it's accessible to our full student body and one piece of that was the transportation because if students don't have a way to participate in after school activities or Sports because they don't have transportation home afterwards that was another barrier so it was really more about bringing the barriers down for students that don't participate today than it was about a need for for more or new things and in sense and in 2627 if you look at page 17 it talks about continue to enhance school-based programs and activities that provide connection and right rightful presence for all students so this is to your point about the Junior High in the elementary space specifically and then when you look at 28 27 page 14 it's on the on the it's so sorry board do in the board do you you have the slide presentation and the booklets yeah so so it's actually good that we're going through this because the nomenclature will help you as you're looking through this so there are years part of the evaluation process we talked about sorry you got it all right yes yes sorry so part of what happened was the team evalu what can we functionally and productively achieve in year one of this plan versus everything has to be achieved in year one of the plan because we understand very realistically and this is where the DLT the district leadership team became very Paramount because together they said okay realistically with the amount of time allotted for professional learning based on current conditions the amount of time the human resources of staff to enact these things what can be actually productively achieved in year one two and three and so to your point many many things emerged and then in multiple passes we had to say Okay can this be good done what's what's urgent what comes first what come second if we haven't resolved programs during the school day but yet we're over prioritizing after school but we haven't even addressed internal curricular issues challenges in the school day how can we up to year two to after school not that it's not important which is I think a big distinction it's absolutely important but it had to have a place where it could be what I kept saying what we kept saying to the team was let's not put on paper what we cannot achieve I completely agree and so to that a lot of what we heard from Educators like is this going to be another fancy laundry list that's going to sit on a wall they really wanted a plan that could be felt as a result of what we're doing over time versus a plan that has like all the things that are important to everybody but then doesn't achieve much of anything yeah Dr KK do you want to add to that I think you you you know we yeah so I'll just I'll say do you want to add anything to that no it it's definitely prioritization and um there were many many passes uh through um listening to voices both in and out of the school of what needed to foundationally be built and then built upon so as you look through all three years you'll either see planning progression and implementation or strengthening so taking on additional things year after year so but we did have to make sure that as we have you know heard about earlier we have some uh connection between not only professional learning as Dr katti mentioned but also budgetary considerations about what is accomplishable so um that's why we looked at a three-year strategic plan knowing that we will see some changes over the three years and really building for the future yeah I appreciate that and I do appreciate the way that the things are written and that it is very um tangible like it's not so overarching that you can say yes we accomplished this um I have another question but I don't want to I'll go to my next question um this is a curriculum thing it's very particular but um in the future ready priority in 2627 There's an opportunity to articulate or to overview and articulate on articulated credit and dual credit um I'm wondering if AP is uh Advance placement is particularly left out of that for reason reason and then I'm also wondering I if that you're going to be doing some articulation of curriculum in your other academic priority area and I think it would be important to also I feel like that's late in the game in year three if you're Artic if you're doing some curriculum work um in like math and language like in science and Things Early in the um um strategic plan does that make sense yes so the math work and Dr Paul can also speak to this is just starting the curriculum renewal cycle so um why we placed that um in uh year three was really to then have some foundational knowledge and information about our Ela and math to then do comprehensively across all departments right now our dual credit and articulated credit offerings are smattered uh and it's not a consistent overarching plan so we wanted to make sure that we entered the curriculum cycle that was determined priorities or building off the work that's currently being done but then also um looking at uh the Dual credit and yes obviously connected to our AP offerings also um but really what are those College um and pre-ol opportunities for our students Dr Paul is there anything add on um again it's underneath the Future Ready um area um not that it would only stay there in isolation right we're paying attention to everything's interconnected but really wanting to create more clear Pathways for students and so when we talk about dual credit opportunities how we can increase that connection to Pathways at 912 um so that's why it's it's here in Futura but everything Dr K Kate said I would Echo there are specific things she's describing why were those delayed and I think if we could speak to that a little bit why why are they not earlier what I'm hearing is that ramp up may be too late so but what is the current state of things as to why that is a little later versus right now like there are some things that you have to hone in like establishing a curriculum advisory Council that was something that we had to really build so please speak to that if you could so we also were implementing for the first time at curriculum renewal cycle that Dr K Kade alluded to so um in the academic priority area it kind of alludes to the different stages that the different curricular areas would be in um so we're paying attention to that when you go into that first um part of the cycle you're really doing A needs assessment and that's where we can see what we're currently offering for dual credit and articulated credit um in our K12 system and then be looking to see that as we move forward throughout the cycle what recommendations will we be making for cor selection um to enhance our opportunities for students um but that again we need to do some foundational work first um and then also make a connection to the career Pathways that we want to offer for our students um as we continue to build that um throughout our system if any members of the um DLT or here want to jump in for any answering please also come on up just so you know um I just had a thought about um oh the portrait of a learner and and maybe it's here and it's just not ex as explicit as I'm thinking um about it but you know as a a learner I'm I'm I'm wondering if being having a Global Perspective is important um for a student so that they understand the interconnectedness of us all you know whether whether we live in this country or whether we live across the world um as well as just being interconnected like we're not just Islands among among ourselves but that we are all interconnected um even as part of you know this community and so I'm just wondering as you know as the portrait of a learner is that in there and I'm just missing it or is it important enough or is it okay if I yeah um so that's a really good question and my answer might answer some other questions that might be existing today was an effort to give a broad view of portrait of a learner what is coming next that you haven't seen is the definitions that go under the five attributes the piece that is um making the process take a little bit longer is we want to get feedback from our Scholars so we've gotten feedback from the community we've gotten feedback from our uh alumni we've gotten feedback from um District level staff and some other staff but right now what we did was listen to our building level administrators when they said it's too much going on to do another survey right now and what we want is for when our Scholars interact with these questions and they're really thinking about what they need so we have the perspective of what their parents feel like they need we have the perspective of what district administrators feel like they need building level administrators like we have that perspective but if we're creating a portrait of a learner then the voice of the learner needs to be present as well so that piece is what we are waiting going so we have the information from the community and we take that and we synthesize it along with and comes Bogan we send it to her and then she aligns all of the information that we have received since last year and so when we create more questions which comes out from Teresa she sends questions to the teachers and then we synthesize a little bit more and then we begin to create questions in a way that students can understand in a way that they can articulate this is what I need regardless of we're talking about what they need academically socially emotionally psychologically like all of the things and so it's going to be more than just the high schools and the junior high we're also speaking to elementary school students too we won't go down past fourth grade but we do want to have the conversation because we truly do value what they say they need and sometimes that's missing from a lot out of the work that we do you have these Roundtable conversations full of adults and you are planning for students without the student voice so that part is coming that has come up from various stakeholders but we still are holding out for that student Voice without overwhelming them because it's so much happening in the buildings and we don't want them to be exhausted from surveys and assessments and all the things because they're still babies and they get tired too and we really really value the data so we want to gather that data and use it to really say this is the voice of all of our stakeholders and how do we use our true north and then develop what is next for them if that makes sense thank you Dr Paul did you want to add something or on to that um from the learning Innovation side we eagerly wait to see the findings of the work that Toya has been leading um with her team because we want to use that information to integrate that into our Curriculum maps and scope and sequences that we're creating for our different curricular areas so that it becomes embedded within the classroom experience for students so that doesn't feel like a separate thing that we do um so we still have some work to be uh doing ahead of us and we're excited about future collaboration around this area thanks I was just going to say in a in another District I I don't want to say I was in the trenches but certainly had courtside seats to this and uh it's it's a that's a it's kind of difficult to narrow this down and when you're dealing with like a lot of people coming from a lot of different directions with some of those pieces sometimes yeah I think it's good that you bring it up because like there's a lot of I'm sure there's a lot of other attributes if you will that probably were mold over or kind of made a list if you will that was like well wait a minute what about this or that and and I think it's important that those pieces get in there but it's it's it's difficult process when you got to narrow it down to like three four or five it's tough but I think it's good that you bring it up because I I agree with you and I and I think though um um what Toya said is that we it can be there are there are many more attributes under there that you just haven't presented to us yet I actually asked Dr Waller that same question I do have a question though what what was the choice in going with portrait of a learner versus portrait of a graduate just stay up there Toya thank you to what's interesting is that we had that convers we've had so many conversations I'll tell you this work has really been invigorating right because we're all passionate about students um the reason the team well part of it is I inherited portrait of a learner portrait of a leader portrait of an educator but I think when you think about future ready every student's path looks different right and that has to be taken into consideration because even where they think they're going that could change because you don't know what the journey is going to be so at the end of the day we're thinking about lifelong learning be it if we're talking about problem solving or collaborating or being empathetic or understanding diverse perspectives this is the learning game right and so these are it's it's a life skill it's not just about graduation because postgraduation you still need to be able to do these things so something that came up from character strong certification was like the foundational things that are are necessary and some of the some of the goals that are proximal and some goals that are distal right we won't know for a very long time if you truly are an Engaged learner if you're a collaborator if you're a problem solver but we have everything in place every step of the way to hopefully ensure that you can demonstrate that right because we can talk about it all day long but you really don't know until you're tested right yeah that's when you know people think they can hold their temperament but get in situation where somebody frustrates you and then you see how someone truly shows up right and so I think it's about The Learning Journey not just the graduation I really love that answer um I'm was hoping to hear that so I want to make a comment and I don't want anybody to feel that it is negative in any way um so I appreciate all the work that has gone into this the thousands of hours hundreds of hours that have gone into this but I have a very specific question about is this strategic planning or is this the actual strategic plan because this sounds more like it's planning versus it's a plan if or do I need to elaborate no no no I understand okay so two things one is when you look at what was before there were many many things on that docum in fact what we heard in the why we ended up with the Strategic road map was because there were multiple plans in action and depending on what school you visited yeah what community you were in you heard different things and so the first thing was to really rally the well the first thing was the Strategic road map which was really to identify the major holes that we need to start to address on the roadway on the path to a strategic road map right then was to really engage is there a collective vision and really to bring together all the various Educators staff members uh certified non-certified families to say okay when you think about the landscape of how we're going to Pace our resources and our time and our learning what are we going to do first second third how a parent say when are you going to fix this okay well to fix that we've got to fix these three things on the road to getting there right so and so I think um it's it's really tough because there are significant academic areas that within our performance that we need to address but if you haven't built a cohesive plan that addresses how we think about professional learning that thinks about how we are providing the appropriate resources um that the district or even principles or teachers have access to relevant rigorous performance data on a regular basis we just this year just started testing our for giving our students Forma of Assessments in Spanish Visa the star is it Star right star program that's the first year so so can you imagine if for we're going to do this in year one but we don't even have the appropriate Benchmark so I think um it's a both a plan and a pathway Dr King K so the strategic planning is really the culmination of the connection between our um portrait to our foundation with our pillars to the priority areas and then the plan are those objectives then supplemented by the action plans those work plans the actual like here the task with the measurable outcomes so comprehensively yes this is our strategic planning to connect the Strategic plan is our objectives and our work plans that will accompany I and I just I know this seems very um maybe minutia to some but no it's very helpful thank you someone that has done this a in another school district but also in my professional life a strategic plan has very specific components it always starts with your vision and Mission and I didn't see that um it always starts with establishing accountability and Dr katti and I talked about this um a year ago that this is great but who's responsible for page 12 who's responsible there has to be to to be able to be accountable and responsibility we need to see who is you know you'll say oh well that's Dr Paul or that but that's not that's not in the plan so that's something that's very important and then the other thing and our core values those are kind of missing from here too and then the other thing is the idea of a SWAT analysis and I think it's really important especially in the environment that we're in right now that we really do show what those threats are we know that we know the strengths we know the weaknesses we know the opportunities but what are the threats to seeing this happen funding you know uh we know a lot of times when there's a change in or turnover and and so you know so forth so I think that if we're really going to call this a strategic plan we should make sure kind of those key components are in there and we are very honest with ourselves about all this is what we want to do but there are definitely challenges and then finally I am hoping um well two things um first someone who is this is a lot of information for someone who is neurode Divergent like myself but will we see can will you guys as you're kind of finalizing do like here's what 2627 looks like and just have a one pager for 2627 a one pager for 27 28 whatever the numbers are I'm 25 26 and so forth so we can just see snapshots versus like the whole thing and then what is the for the board the future board current board what is the Cadence for reviewing with the board where we're at the touch bases for where we're at and can we see that in the plan so that we know where that's coming when that's coming and if it's there I'm sorry this is little o overwhelming no this is why there's two meetings and also we we we want to make sure that the the board has full understanding and questions are addressed so there's thank you you know and I and I think for anybody else who listening please send in your questions uh we welcome them um it's been I think a big priority was building a shared plan because many strategic plans are developed uh presented and then they don't do what they are intended to do which has really changed the system um and so that was a big I would say the most important thing in this process was to build a shared plan and I think um not I think I know that that was achieved internally um I have seen many many many of plan that have been built created that led with a lot of very clear smart goals we're going to close this Gap we're going to do this we're going to do that and those plans did not realize the goals that they had I am I have very strong belief in what I see in this plan in terms of addressing that pay Cadence and that's one of the things I heard from the board was really how do you change culture and climate in the district and this was achieved um in terms of the internal shifts of what it took to get here was not a Dr kti's plan Dr K K's plan this is something that really was a collective effort um do you want to add there were a number of questions that I think I want to at least name I just want to say I agree with you the the difference that I see versus our Invision 308 is 180 degrees so I want to give you massive Kudos and I think the involvement of just everyone has been even down to our committee meetings and we had people that came to our committee meetings that gave feedback I want to give you huge Kudos I'm not meant to pick anything apart no no no I'm not hearing that at all we're at a 30,000 foot View and you guys are so inside of it it's like sports and activities you know and and you know it and we're just seeing it we're like yes whoa yes um I want to just thank our those of us who joined this evening this may go a little longer so for our guests who came tonight if you if you want to uh if you have a early start tomorrow I I want to give you permission I know you have early starts tomorrow so uh let's give our our our speakers a big round of applause and our uh student uh board members as well you got class tomorrow or work tomorrow so thank you all um [Applause] yes yes yeah Dr K you want to speak but I would like to address some of your your questions so as Dr Kat mentioned today is is a draft right like we did we wanted to come specifically with this stamp as draft because we wanted the feedback from everyone around this table um and that's why we literally are meeting tomorrow uh to start to process through so the pack that was left um at your station that is the start to some of those um kind of tangible things that you had asked and talked where yep there is a page just for pillar one year one so there is focused attention to be able to separate that out um as Teresa also mentioned um and I made sure we came to kind of the what's next slide like what we have is the need for the strong level of detail for the work plan which would include that rasy of who's responsible who's accountable absolutely that is part of the work plan which will be an internal document that you know that that's where we're getting the metrics to review now as we kind of go through like the what's next the third one is then the the public facing of how are we going to interact and be able to see what this plan even accomplish so is that the dashboard that Dr Waller referred to or is that something separate it's so the dashboard is really the generator of that data so today launched um the uh vendor review of a new dashboard we had two vendors in today uh Andrea Parker our director of research um and data is leading a team through reviewing different vendors um so our goal is next month is to bring a recommendation similar to uh the process that Dr Paul and her team led uh for our College andc read platform so the data dashboard will then give us and um ideally that is one of the elements on the rubric is will it then have public facing that is our goal um is for our data dashboard to then have both internal and external reporting features so so we will be looking for ways that the board what in the vendor review for an information system specifically we've used a particular product till now it's not serving our needs um we are looking for a product that would be able to say okay here's your strategic plan here are the metrics for you know implementing the pace framework evaluate EV and then here is the progress on those related to this particular goal now at the beginning of this conversation one of the things that uh Teresa Miss Kam spoke to was that some of these when you look at our long-term goals Wellness uh collaboration I'm just let me pull it up here but efficient impactful supports for student learning that's a vision that's a shared Vision this is not just drawn out of a a packet or hey let's look in some meaningful educational jargon of like what schools should have and you know I've heard many consultants say you could just pull up a strategic plan and replicate it right no this was a hard fought word I mean I sat with parents who said well why does it say Equity oh it shouldn't say Equity it should say this it should say that uh we we feel tested it right so each one of these efficient pathf supports for should learn where we will be in three years from now we will still have this because we know the community prioritize it but what the goal goal and the metric behind what that looks like will change in three years because we have identified in year one things that support getting to that resource allocation in year two improvements and if funding changes we're going to have even more difficult conversations so those metrics have to be built together in relation to that but the the you know I know that there's a lot to cover tonight but I I do want to go back to this page which is that's a big win when you think about that shared Vision as a community saying here are are what the community has says is important for our school district Full Stop Now within those there's a lot to be unpacked but what it does is it sets the vision for where we're going now comes the even harder work or more deliberate work of saying okay to get there what are we going to do and so what you heard tonight are those breakdowns um another tension that we are working on which will the board will receive at the next meeting was the outward facing language right internal facing language our word facing language layman's terms I think about a school Improvement plan I love I'm going to use the example Wheatland here does they have student friendly language you walk around the wheatlands you're going to see their school Improvement plan they have articulated their school Improvement plan it's student friendly language so students read it and they can say oh that's what we're doing this year right that's aw very different than what the teacher School Improvement plan is versus that so those stages will come as part of this living document you heard at the beginning also part of the pressure of what we're trying to get to is establishing some of these key priorities so what we can start to do is then in April and if and if it has to take a little longer it has to take a little longer because we want a good product however we do know that if we want to be able to arrive at something meaningful and purposeful that schools can then because ultimately the school is a nucleus of change not up here the school this is about coordinating our resources to p schools so if the goal is to get something meaningful relevant and and purposeful that schools can then react to in terms of building their plans that's a win for the district and but you also couldn't have done it we could have rushed the system that the district could have done in isolation that's come to you in January in order to get to that goal that wasn't as inclusive of the community's voice that our teachers voice so there's this tension and so while it may have not have been as elegant as we would have liked in terms of the time I do think it it its purpose which is to ensure that there was a common vision for our language and what our purpose was where we're going and then to be able to bring something to the board and the board's been apprised of many of these things along the way and where there is something that feels like it's missing as you brought up Dr Mario anything like that I think is really important to note and not forget because we want to make sure that the language in terms of where it shows up whether it's in an objective or in the pillars is not in the pillars in the priorities is well articulated so I'm learning the language thank you I think we're all learning and then my my last question I promise is that how does this crosswalk with the curriculum audit and I'm asking that very specifically like I know part of the answer but I also know that the curriculum audit is being much talked about right now and so I want to know I know specifically that it was done very intentionally but can you just kind of really synthesize that great question or anybody everybody on the team there's a lot to be said here so please there's a lot to say um but one of the biggest things that we've learned from the audits recommendation is to spend really intentional time planning and that's what we've done this year and being um going slow to go fast um because we really need to take the findings from the audit all the way from you know aligning um practices when it comes to grading to um job descriptions job descriptions resource allocation collaboration um a lot of the things that you see as kind of like our non-negotiables that we're always paying attention to in our strategic plan is really a direct correlation to the findings we um have gleaned from the audit thank you so not only the planning but also the audit Drew attention to some more depth of analysis that was needed specifically in special education multilingual and gifted education so Dr dubiel and her teams have started some of that work this year but as you can see reflected in the plan that work needs to continue and then uh recommendations from there so not only the curriculum very specific pieces also you can see in Resource Management the connection to some of our processes for uh HR um but then also programmatically things that we want to address across the system I know that a lot of community members don't always get to [Music] see the like level that the board does but to see all the dots connecting is just very powerful and really cool and um I just want to say thank you to everybody um it really shows um that this is really all about students and their success and um the path of getting there is not easy um but to dig in and do this hard work is I hope rewarding for everybody as well um and I'm just so looking forward to the future study slide nine we're gonna get you a t-shirt with slide nine on it there I know I really like domic has a question it could be the back one more dot that we do need to connect that we did start to address in the last round of committee meetings is the state's plan so tonight we've talked about our portrait so our student at the center to our school with our foundational practices um of high quality instruction equity and rifle presence and our um our effective systems and teams to our district built on our uh pillars and priorities but then also when we come um on March 17th we'll also be bringing uh Vision 2030 so it's essentially the foundation of our state's strategic plan so we want to make sure say again I said ours is matter so we want to make sure we connect our students to our schools to our uh our district and our state so um we didn't want to bring that on top of all of this we really wanted to focus on our district plan uh but we will be bringing that um on the 17th just to be able to see that alignment also Thomas I don't a a question it's more of a an ask or a suggestion um when we have the outward facing just to um be very um explicit you know with special education and multilingual and gifted goals that connect those dots for people um because in in in this document it's not necessarily you know um very obvious um but we do need to make sure that that's communicated well um to the community so in those three areas the focus of this plan right now is in that deep analysis and creating a plan so um we we don't want to jump into action before we've done the the research and and created the plan so absolutely I just wanted to get that out there y um thank you for the feedback yes absolutely absolutely okay other thank you very much all right 10.1 action it item approval of two rtu units can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the purchase of the two dalan McQuay rooftop units to replace the failing bro call units in the total amount of $400,000 excluding labor second Miss venmo hi Dr Mario hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon I Mr Gatewood I Miss Johnson I Mr pler I motion passes 70 action item 10.2 approval of high school English text selection can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the high school English text selection for an initial one-time cost of $7,350 second Mr Cerone hi Dr Mario hi Miss johnon hi Mr ploger hi Miss venth hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Simon hi motion passes 70 10.3 approval of career and college readiness vendor can I have a motion please make a motion to approve School links as the recommended College and Career Readiness vendor platform per the attached quote second Miss Simon hi Miss vmou hi Mr pler hi Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson hi Mr ceron hi Mr Gatewood hi motion passes 70 can I have a motion to adjourn before I do for those at before before I do those at home we got like a dedicated bunch here past 10 o'clock so kudos to everybody out there motion to adjourn favor

the following day is the Fort Ben Winter Market from 4: to 7 and that is at the government center every Thursday there is the golden hour game day from 11: to 12 and that is at the Lawrence Community Center some things that we are hoping to do and I've spoken with Dr Smith and I know he will be meeting with the mayor this week is to talk about how we can get our students involved in the wonderful activities that are transpiring in our city an example of that this spring is the clean up day on April 22nd which coincides with Earth Day um they're looking for volunteers and in the past have had Key Club members and other um members of our school Community Support that is from 7:30 to 12:30 um in April we also have the oioo opening baseball day and so um looking for ways that our students can get involved in participating um in a variety of different Fashions um throughout the year in our wonderful City of Lawrence so thank you thank you Miss dun board thank you for those great updates at this time we will move on to our action items action item 5.1 is the approval of our resolution for the school board on the First Amendment lease the bonds and related matters Dr Smith I'm honored to do this on behalf of our CFO I recommend the board approve the resolution of the board School Board confirming the First Amendment lease and approving the bonds and related matters as submitted board I'll entertain a motion sorry oh that's okay make a motion to move we have a second second all right all in favor of the approval of these of the First Amendment lease and bonds related matters say i i i i all right sounds like a affir guys have it no nay all right board any comments further okay all right we will move on to 5.2 um Dr Smith will present um approval of resolution approving the additional appropriation of BR Bond proceeds thank you madam president members of the board I recommend the board approve the resolution of the school approv board approving the additional appropriation of Bron proceeds as submitted I'll entertain a motion so moved second all right properly moved and properly seconded Miss Pucket Miss um Lawrence all in favor say I I I I all right the eyes have it any other comments board not we will move on to action item 5.3 approval of the request to advertise RFP for catering Dr Smith and thank you madam president I'm honored to bring to you board as you recall Mr miles our CFO appr uh presented to you the approval or the request to advertise for RFP for catering for the Le for the new LCC and so now I recommend that the board approve the request to advertise the RP for catering as submitted all right board do we have a motion so moved second all right properly moved and seconded Miss D Miss Lawrence thank you board all in favor say I I I all opposed all right the eyes have it any comments about the RFP I just want a yog we'll check on that Miss La some good food all right so we will move on to 5.4 approval of the Neola policy updates Dr harshbarger Madam president Dr Smith members of the board earlier this evening I brought forward for second reading the all of volume 37 number one revision packet as such I now recommend the board approve the policy revisions as submitted thank you Dr harsh Barger I'll entertain a motion for the approval so moved second all right properly moved and seconded Miss Dunn and Miss Pucket all right all in favor I I all right properly moved all all are in favor all right any comments about the Neola policy updates all right at this time we will move on to action item 5.5 approval of the board minutes Dr M Holland that's okay we can have we can have a movement for consent agenda as well yes it is a consent no that was my fault I moved to I so sorry that that was my fault I moved the approval of the consent agenda items 5.5 to 5.12 all right that was fun look girl look so sorry I'm like oh how's this gonna work today do we have a second I second that oh I can't second I can't second I will second that okay all right so we have all in favor say I I I okay so we have a movement for the approval of the consent agenda now entertain a mo a motion for the approval of consent agenda we have a I move okay yes I move approval consent agenda thank you Miss Laurence second and Miss done properly moved and seconded all right all in favor I I I okay the consent agenda has been approved thank you board uh there are a lot of items on here it's part of our business piece that we do um but it is noted too that in the consent agenda are fundraisers field trips donations the a lot of these are from the community and are imperative for our students to be successful so we thank everyone who has donated and also um these are crucial again like I said field trips approvals those are all very important claims business so thank you for that board and at this point we will move on to our board comments I'll start down here miss Dunn you know it's interesting that you started with me because one of the things I was thinking about is if you don't take a moment to look at the things that have been donated it's really interesting so we have a gentleman who donated a 2004 Mazda Tribute um we've got the roller cave that um awarded 10,000 attendance Awards and merits and so it's just a reminder of the importance that everyone plays in our community and the support that we are so incredibly grateful for um and I just encourage all of those who are um constituents in the community to make sure that your voices are heard at the State House to protect our public schools to make sure that we are um singing from one sheet of music because this is what makes Lawrence great is this wonderful school district and we need everybody to continue to Advocate on behalf of the school district so uh I just thought that those those Mr Michael cranfill whoever you are thanks for your Mazda thanks Luke for your Roller Cave just thank you everybody for this wonderful Township it is appreciated well said Miss lawence uh I was not here last um last board meeting or our working session because I had a work obligation and could not be here um so I did not get an opportunity to wish everyone happy black history month so happy Black History Month to everybody that we serve with on the deis um and everyone within our district and also thank you to um Dana for posting all of the Black History Month reminders that you do I read every one of them and it's um it's wonderful to see so that's it for me oh also real excited about I didn't want I I'll I'll let somebody else let somebody else all right thank you Miss Lawrence Miss Pucket yeah I I'm I am gonna wait and let you have that one because those last six seconds I'm just GNA say those last six seconds I don't think I've sweated that that hard in my life um I have no other comment than to publicly apologize for not for not having my consent I was I apologize Dr malland I yeah thing about being new is I don't didn't quite know so thank you for publicly apologize I have no comment it's okay we've had a lot of reading going on so a lot of things going in here all right Dr M Holland well I'm I I appreciate U Miss dun's comments uh about the support needed at the state house and I just um appreciate everyone who's been uh ring for uh support for public schools and I take that word very seriously I don't want to say a whole lot but that word Public Schools just making sure that we um hold people accountable to what that means when they're going to use that so public schools and um appreciate all the work that that has been done um I know you two were at the State House this past week and um appreciate your time and everyone um out there thank you thank you Dr M Holland um I did want to take a short moment to um we've lost one of our own here recently um many of us know Mr Jim Hardy one of our safety officers and I just wanted to offer condolences and prayers to his family um he was truly a genuine contributing member to our our Township and just somebody who lit up the room and somebody who genuinely got to know the students and care about them as individuals so I just wanted to acknowledge that um on on a on another note um thank you board for your comments this is a very busy time um I'm grateful for the unity and for the advocacy that's going on um with us and with other districts um State House day was amazing there were uh board members across the whole state of Indiana rule Urban suburban and just everyone just like Mr hardy I mean so many people people care about our students in our public schools which serve you know 90% of the students in Indiana so so thank you everyone for the work you're doing so at this time I'll turn it over to Dr Smith I am ready Grant n we get to the microphone we are certainly celebrating excellence in Lawrence Township because we are back at the state championship again Dr nesb tell the board what's happening and what to expect Saturday sure uh let let's start off with a little boasting that we can all do collectively uh if you look at the last seven years five of those seven years Lawrence Township had a team in the State basketball finals that's pretty impressive folks Mo most schools as you know never make the state finals at all to five in the last seven years we've had a team down there at gamebridge so that's that's impressive we thought we'd be back there this year we didn't necessarily think it be Lawrence North they they they ended the season unranked started the season 3 and three had a four-game losing streak in January but that's why they played the tournament because it's who's going to get on the streak and who's going to win and they're on a eight game winning streak they're going to take on number two uh excuse me number five ranked Warsaw the Warsaw Tigers another factoid for you because I'm an old history teacher 1976 Title Nine passes we host the state's first girls basketball tournament Warsaw Tigers won it later that fall Lawrence North opened its do all right so that's just an old history teacher I could go up here I could go for an hour up here but uh so what's going to happen is at 6 o' the 3A game is going to be played the they only guesstimate what time we're going to tip off for the 4A game for with the uh the big schools 8:15 is the published approximate time experience tells us because we've been down there five the last 7 years it's probably be closer to 8:30 uh CU 6A they're going to their their medal ceremony and whatnot as they should so it'll be a late night and don't forget you have a late night Friday night with the Gayla too so get some rest during the day Saturday uh we're going to cheer them on about 8:30 at gamebridge Saturday night is there anything any other questions next week what's going to happen oh okay sure then we Flip Flip the page again when you're in Lawrence Township there's really no break between girls and boys basketball state tournament so next week we host the boys state tournament as it starts the section will start and wouldn't you know it what also seems like five out of seven years but may be uh Lawrence Central and Lawrence North JW each other for the first game so Tuesday night uh LC and Ln will play at 7 o'clock in round one of the tournament and that is all at LC they publish time is six o'clock but LC is playing there at 7 uh they give the schools latitude either Tuesday or Wednesday excuse me they're going 7:00 and I'm sure that's get more people there and be able to get their other teams in and out of the gym so 7:00 uh tip off Tuesday night LCL versus Ln winner will play uh war on Friday night and then the winner North Central Tech on Saturday for the championship Miss Lawrence Miss Lawrence jump in there my uh trumpet playing son would be REM he'd be really angry that I didn't also note that it's state solo and on emble contest this weekend so good luck to all of our students who are competing at stat Sol Ensemble and I believe the um swimming state is this week as well right just a lot of of greatness all right all right well thank you Dr nebet all right well our next meeting is a combined work session and meeting it will be here on Monday March 17th at 5:30 p.m.

followed by the panel discussion from 600 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. moderated by student board members this event will feature questions crafted by high school students to reflect our Collective concerns and priorities leaders from various clubs and organizations across the district will be invited to attend in person and the event will also be live streamed for the Public's viewing this is a chance for students to not only learn about the candidates Visions but also to make our voices heard as we shape the future of our school community so as we prepare for these important events let's continue to support one another bring forward new ideas and ensure that Amplified 2025 truly ref reflects the voice of our students thank you a plank Junior High yes no problem oh that one was not open to the public thank you so much you said unfortunately it's not brought to the public but will be live streamed for everyone to view students um the student board yes let me let me just jump in so what we decided was is that they're going to moderate it with the uh potential candidates or with the candidates and then they are inviting other um student members from various groups at both high schools to come in and do a meet and greet um but then alongside of that we're working with building Administration and Communications to get their questions so there'll be tons of questions that students will be able to submit um and then we want them to be able to view it live stream okay March 3rd is in person and it's at plane and we need you to be there okay thank you is that it ladies is that it oh yes thank you thank you thank you all right 7.3 board member comments any board member comments who would like to start you always look my way CU you always got I'll start um it's kind of hard to do it seems kind of weird doing this on a day when it's like 50-some degrees outside but I just want to thank Mr Bell Mr Queen and everybody in operations who you know one week ago today we were like we were really cold thank you um I want to thank you for all the hard work it's not an easy it's not an easy job and no matter like as we discussed no matter what kind of call whether School whether it's e-learning or whether um students are in class somebody's going to be upset and nothing is a perfect solution but we always try to maintain the safety of the students so whatever decision is made just know that it's made with a great deal of thoughtfulness prior to and a lot of hard work it can't be easy starting buses at 4:30 to get them all warmed up I don't know I was asleep um so um again I just I just don't think it's said enough so I wanted to I wanted to give props to to all of you people who who kept running during that time make it while you can get the other thing I wanted to say was um Saturday there was an event by the robotics team over at bed nurc and there were uh a couple of speakers at the beginning and unfortunately um we kind of missed the speaking positions Dr katti and I were busy giving blood um Dominic was off blood drive yeah yeah yeah at a blood drive yeah okay we'll clarify somewhere else we have needles in our no um but we did we Dominic and I did get there later um we did and again i' I've said this before these kids are so amazing so I won't go into all the details but you know all of the stuff that they do goes right over my head um but they did want to they did present us with plaque that I'm going to turn over um and it was basically um a thank you from them for the support that 308 has given them um this particular year um as usual they are their expectation is to go to Worlds again in Texas um we are one of the few teams that kind of plans beyond beyond Nationals and actually goes to Worlds uh so again um great time and um I'm going to pass this over to you thank you either either that or it's going up in my living room I love it this looks very exciting thank you thank yep can I piggyback that because uh I want I was I actually had that on my list too and um unfortunately I had a college visit this weekend so but I did it was interesting what's that fortunately unfortunately for well I mean fortunately but I'll be honest with you I try not to miss that event so it's kind of like unfortunate that I can't clone myself being in two places at once and I actually did receive a text from a parent saying where's the board at and I explained the um uh the the the blood drive and so forth but I wanted to say thank the reason I want to piggyback that is say thank you to um representative kwit and also um bill um Bill Foster for coming out I know they were here and they spoke so appreciate uh them doing those things I think it was called the wow event right wow um the other piece I'll be quick is uh tomorrow is Tuesday listen I'd like to lecture our country at uh what 2025 we still vote on Tuesdays I really don't understand that I really feel like it's an Antiquated piece at this point but nonetheless hey many of um many of the people in uh our district will have the option to go to the polls tomorrow and vote and as I try to always remind people you do not vote once every four years you do not even vote once every two well I should say you could but you have the opportunity to not just vote once every four years or two years but in fact you have the opportunity in this uh country of ours to vote at least once every year and this year uh some of us get the opportunity twice there's tomorrow uh Aurora and asigo I believe both have uh primaries and then we'll do it again in uh a little over a month April 1st so uh don't forget to go exercise your vote my wife and I went uh together um yesterday yeah went down to um uh the county uh y county seat and we uh cast votes together so don't forget please make sure your voices are heard anyone else okay moving on to the consent agenda 8.1 can I have motion to approve the consent agenda please make a motion to approve all items under consent including 8.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on February 10th 2025 open and close session and 8.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district second are there any questions on the consent agenda Mr ploger I Dr Mario I miss vmou hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson hi motion passes 70 okay good evening I want to invite uh Miss Amanda satar and Mr Rob FEI uh any updates regarding our financial profile and information thank you Dr katti I want to start out uh this evening by recapping a meeting that we had with a legislator this afternoon where the legislature talked about the governor's bring your mic a little closer sir the governor's budget message and the governor's uh appropriation to the legislator for fiscal year 26 I mean there were some good information that I'm happy to share the fact that the state will fully fund uh ebf evidence-based funding and evidence-based funding has been a change maker for us because we're tier one in the district so the governor has appropriated uh $350 million which means that we should be able to receive the same amount that we expect to get in fiscal year 26 that's the good message the challenging part of the governor's uh uh recommendation to the legislation is the fact that mandated categorical funds are been prated they've actually been prr over the last few years and for example in this current fiscal year Transportation regulated Transportation special air transportation instead of also receiving 100% of the expenditure that we Ur this year is been PR rated regular a has been prated at 79% that is how much we get not 100% of the money we're expecting that we spend we only get 79% for special a transportation the pration in fiscal year 25 is 69% but it gets worse in fiscal year 26 the budget that was presented by the governor to the legislature reduces the pration for regular ad from 7 79% to 69% and for special education it goes down from uh 69% to 61% so as it stands right now and I think I've talked to the board and the public about this transportation is the One Fund that is the most challenging for us as a district the One Fund that consistently we've had a deficit and the latest projection that I will present to the board next month shows Transportation deficit growing from now till 2030 which is 5 years from now to be about $26 million if we don't do anything about it just in that fund and the paration based on the recommendation of the governor's budget is not going to help that the hold just becomes bigger so it was imperative before that we do something about Transportation it's become doubly triple imperative that we address that now because we have a we have a bigger hole than what our projections were to begin with now what I would like to talk about now is the uh the financial information that is in the package if you look at the first item there we have the fund balance I want to point out that the fund balance is out of 30 uh January 31st and which is is gone down because this didn't include the uh Bond payment of about $30 million that we made after the 31st of January so and also the uh the expenses of an additional 30 $30 million in payroll and other related operational cost so if you take that of that 116 we're closer to about $60 million so this is the time of the year where it gets tough as far as cash is concerned and the reason being that we get paid the majority of the money that we get in the district twice a year we get the first installment in June of the uh proper tax extension we get the second installment in September and we have to pretty much make it last for the balance of the year what we've been trying to do is do a better job of projecting our cash flow and this is tied to the if you look at our investment uh statement too you will see that last month it was much higher than where we are right now we had a lot of investment that we placed short-term investment and some long-term investment we had to liquidate that to be able to make payment on those on that $30 million bond that we have to pay on so if you also notice we don't have a lot of investment right now because at the end of the at uh on the 19th of the month we only have $58 million left so we are really now in a position to engage in long-term investment three months or or longer because we need that cash to pay immediate uh immediate expenses that comes through so that's why we don't have any so what we are we have some investment the liquid investment that pays about 4.2 million uh 4.2% interest as suppos to a longer term uh investment that will pay us more because we need that cash for day-to-day living but I'm I'm happy to say that uh last we've been monitoring our cash flow as I mentioned earlier we met with a a financial advisor last Friday and we will be able to to get through June when we get our first installment of the 2024 uh property tax extension without doing a Taw so this would be the second year in a row after 20 years of not having to [Applause] do so the other things yes sir yes sir can I request just the interest earned sure from from whatever period to whatever period actually it's in the uh it's in the uh projection it's in the uh Financial is it on page um what's your document though yeah can we project these when we talk about them H we project them oh that's a good idea yeah yes right now I don't know if it'll be prepared to be too small but maybe for you do have earnings on investment earning on investment on the revenue if you look under the revenue which page are you on the dashboard yes yes the revenue dashboard if you look at only on investment to date we have earned $3 million so that was and that's year to date that's year to date since September yeah since uh July 1 since ju okay get ju dates wrong sometimes um and that's kind of a new practice yes so $3.1 million because of a new practice yes of putting our cash to work can can you explain that just a little bit more say so in the past what we did we put our our extra money in the savings account essentially but what we've done this year is to since this fiscal year we've aggressively tried to invest our money but rest assure we're not doubling anything uh risky risky because we have to follow the state law under the Illinois Municipal investment act there things that are permissible that we can invest in such as CDs uh that actually as long as we put less than 20 and $50,000 in it is uh is ensured by Bic we also have investment in government uh agency bonds uh Fanny May Freddy Max uh t uh treasury bonds Tre uh treasury bills so those we invest in those so so we're getting 4.2% right now currently in our liquid a shortterm liquid liquid assets yes and then you were chasing basis points by doing a lading type of strategy yes we were and when we didn't need all that money so I'm I'm not trying to you know but so over a six-month period yeah $3.1 million yes sir so this this is I mean that's huge you know I I don't this is this is why we have yes this is new money that wasn't there before so we need to look at the revenue side that's being generated you know because of these new practices and and they're far outweighing anything that we're any investment that we're making but also and that we're able to help you know um pay our teachers more and our T more and you know but to never have done this in the past that's what I'm saying it's new right it's new money and and you know rates were lower but not that long ago I mean we could have been getting this you know um so and it could have been at least a million you know but now it's it's going to be like four or5 million you know year thank you for pointing that out so so on the expenditure side one thing I would like to point out if you look at um on the revenue side I'm sorry since we're on Revenue if you see there's a difference uh in the memo that is included there that we actually received 12 $2.5 million more in Revenue last year than we did this year and most people may be wondering Federal federal revenue why we got that if you think about it what was different last year about this year yeser last year we had Esser and that 2.5 million was the reimbursement that we received from Esser at this point this year we don't have Esser that's the that's money that is that we're not going to get this year but that was know right right but I just wanted to point out that's the explanation for the areans the $2.5 million difference now on the expenditure side what we've seen so far if you look at it what we project is pretty close to what we're getting there's no big uh surprise now if you look at other objects if you see what we actually project and what we actually spend there's a big variance we're projected having to spend about 54% of our of our expenditure in uh other objects we've only spent 49.6 and if you look at the I can show this to you and let you see the cause of that variance is actually a timing issue if you look at um uh budget reports the what I'm looking at here I don't know that number four uh let me see this will be one two yeah number four thank you you can put that so what that is is the timing of a bond payment by this time last year we had PID $30 million in our bond payment we pay the bond payment after we pull this report so that's the difference so it's not like we spent a whole lot more last year that we spent this year it was just a timing of the bond payment we have to make the bond payment we paid it earlier last year we paid it after we're going to pay it after this report has been pulled I just wanted to point that out can you just real quick um Define other what other objects those are Bond payments oh they are the bond payments those are the bond payments that I just mention so the other thing I want to talk about talk about the revenue talk about the expenditure is CPI CPI I I put a memo there every month for us to track CPI because CPI drives the amount of money that we get that we can Lev in property taxes so it also governs how much we spend for things such as electricity and other things that we spend money on as a district and uh as we're seeing now CPI is actually the CPI is actually gone down a little bit over the last few months but it's then coming back up again what essentially showing that inflation is still sticky it hasn't gone anywhere so if you look at the last 12 months from January of 2024 to January of 2025 uh CPI is actually 3% so it's actually remember if we remember that goal is for us to have CPI to 2% that's the target so it's 3% so we're not out of the words yet as far as inflation is concerned and it impacts Us in how we spend money and the things that we spend money on that's why I think it's important that we track that and we keep that uh in our sight those are the things I wanted to point out as the financial is concern the other thing I would like for Mr to talk about peace collection thank you so this is a report that we should kind of get used to seeing um that would be nine yeah the last one yes number nine okay so this is a comparison at the same time last year compared to this year what we've charged versus what we've collected you can see the bottom line is um sign significantly lower in comparison to last year we're at about only 71% collection rate whereas this time last year we had an 85.6% collection rate um you know it we're not really sure why people aren't paying their fees but um it is an it is an issue um it's an issue with uh food payment too meals we know why I mean just to be honest because a legislation was passed about 3 years ago that prevented the district from from taking actions to collect fees owed uh to the district by families and I think the word is gotten around and the level of collection is suffered as a result of that and what is important to note is that as we lose this Revenue it has to come from somewhere else from some place else some right that's somewhere else in the budget those Services still have to be provided those bills still have to be paid we just have to find the money from somewhere else again I appreciate more than anything um this word is being thrown around a lot transparency and I am incredibly proud of the transparency that you are bringing um from a financial perspective than we that we've ever had and to understand where we what is very hard to understand about school budgeting is it's very cyclical like you said we get paid twice a year but we have bills due every single month so we have to pay them no matter what and so when we don't when when you put a budget together and you put it budget together to say we're going to have3 million or $4 million in fees but we don't collect that you then have to go to the budget and find it from somewhere else because we still have to pay for whatever those fees are for whether they're for activity ities or sports or whatever um so I really appreciate the transparency that you are continuing to bring to this two things I wanted to talk first of all were you finished yes we are I'm sorry so the the other document is the the activity funds by school the balance how much was spent last year how much was collected and the balance left by each building that's it um I think regarding Transportation one of our core values in the district is collaboration and I really wonder and I'm just posing this as an idea would it be um feasible to put together a transportation task force and to bring in some people from the community from areas of Industry parents and so forth to really just bring in and talk about the issues when we had our bus situation the other day when the buses weren't moving you know it was very interesting for me to see from the community to hear ideas like was did this take place did that take place and is something around you know collectively um letting other people know what's going on but we also have a lot of experts within our community so I think that's something that maybe we could think about or that you know if the administration could think about one of the other things that I don't know that if we've talked about this or when we're going to talk about this or how to bring this up but are we facing some deficits from federal funding with a new political Administration and um obviously I'm on the board for 49 more days but who's counting and um I can answer that question straight up yeah and I think we need to have some really hard conversations right now the projections that we have the five-year projection I was actually going to provided today but it was so much on the agenda with the uh strategic plan we didn't want to stay here till 1:00 or 2 o'clock so we decide to to present it uh in March but the projection that we are assumes $9.1 million a year in federal funds which is about 4% of our Revenue wow so in real terms that's about 130 teachers salary so losing that fund will be devastating financially to us as a district so it's not small potato okay go ahead yeah and just want to say I'm glad you put it in terms of jobs but um the one thing and please don't take this the wrong way but I know I heard ever and I would disagree and but I think there's a lesson in that piece which is we did have a finance person who was very transparent we lost them um they went to another District he did a great job um also of doing a lot of educating in the community and a lot of what the community knows was due to that to that person and the reason I want to mention this is because listen it's a tight Market you know this I mean it's a tight Market finding good Finance people and so when you get one please Community hold on because um it's it's it's a tight Market uh in a lot of areas right right now so um and that's not to you know you're doing a great job and so did he and I remember at the time the discussion on the board was well I don't think we could pay that much I'm like I don't know kind of thinking maybe we should but would have been a good investment but we're we're happy that we have you too be very careful who you're talking about I don't I why what not our most like recent oh no okay no no no I go ahead you guys go ahead no I I I'm just thinking about um you know you're you're very calm and you're very you know matter of fact you know I want to say even casual about these bombs that you're ding sh right and um it's just very disconcerting to know that we could be in a situation where we need to come up with $9.1 million um and so my question to you is how are we being proactive um around that possible scenario you want to start we've been we've been working on the the fiscal year 26 budget and we actually are not we're not as far along as we will have been at this time as we were last year because we're looking at different scenarios that we didn't have to consider last year because we knew where the appropriation was last year we knew how much we have to work with and it was easier to budget the fiscal 26 budget is a little more difficult because of the different scenario for starters before the governor presented it his budget uh last week the state was uh communicating a $3.16 billion deficit and we didn't know how that will impact ebf and how that will impact mandated categorical funds we have that now we feel pretty sure about what we're going to get from the state but what is not clear is what we're going to get from the federal government and even to some extent the the appropriation that we build the fiscal year 20 five current year Budget on is contingent upon the the federal government coming through between now at the end of the this fiscal year with the money that is promised to us in federal funds so we are we're looking at different scenarios when we present the budget and we present the uh the financial projections about what we looking at but what we know is that if we don't get all the money that we assume we're going to get that would be $9 million so we have to find a way to reduce the budget proportionately to be able to operate and that would be a significant significant impact on the on the operation of the district so some of the things we've done is we've we've built a strong connection with our Senators and our legislators at the state level and today uh I was on a call with at least uh 10 other superintendents and so we discussed what are the types of contingencies so I think everybody's think think about it uh there were two senators on House of Representative member and the senator um who are very connected to what's happening um so there's a lot of strong advocacy around a contingency so I I just think that that's very important for the community to know that we're not just sitting back and waiting this is an active situation and we are very much connected to understanding how we will weather kind of like uh with the with the covid days how do we weather uh catastrophic situation like this right so number one number two uh we are looking at really what our efficiencies in the system so we're uh mro befi Dr zmy uh members of the senior leadership team Dr K have been working very diligently to review any place and every place that we can really think about efficiencies and and really thinking about how do we you know every year we have natural attrition right we have natural attrition that happens as a result of retirements somebody moves out of state somebody decides to go work a place else we have those right so uh fortun unfortunately a lot of times when those happen you automatically a system may replace those right but are there ways that we can move diligently strategically where we're not impacting our schools to address some of that does it get to $9 million I don't think so but does it get to shortening small making it a smaller Gap so we can we can ensure I can assure you that those are are some things that we're looking at the last thing that we're doing is we have to think about the other um more operational expenses um the board will hear from Mr Obi um maybe not next week but the meeting after one about some of the transportation challenges we currently essentially if you want to ride a bus in our district for example you ride a bus there's never been a system to validate who gets a ride a bus whether they're within the mile or not so we spent about $1,500 per student ,550 actually per student for students who are out within that mile we are still busing students who are within the mile who may be have access to what would be realistic walking to school we've never vetted that the district has never vetted that when I say we I'm saying over the last 5 to 10 years that's never been vetted so we are actually engaged in the Hazardous streets study to ensure that we are ensuring that every child has safe passage to school whether it's walking or Transportation secondly ensuring that you know right now there are places where it's very much like door too a bus stops here there there there there those are natural efficiencies that would save a significant cost around that and so I just those are things that will come and I we've got guest here for the Strategic plan meeting so I want to honor that and this was not necessarily the focus but I will say the board will hear a full thorough review of that in a very soon time Z if I asked my question of course oh great thank you um so the first question is I was looking at the CP CPI piece for that month right and I I know a lot can change right so I'm not going to sit here and ask you to project the next 11 months but the part that concerns me when I start seeing like a 0.5 yeah in a month is if you project that out you're talking about a 6% CPI which means that means our expenses are going to out outpace what we can possibly bring in for revenues and I think that's an important piece that people need to realize is that um we can't go above five so anything at 0.

like ratio down but I just at our St we get caps like numers extra teachers and others are and that's a principle and probp I can yeah let me throw let me Google research that supports it yeah it'll come up great whoever makes the presentation for the board has for three hours do you find research that supports yeah not for long because they're getting rid of all that funding but they're just deleting yeah exactly this didn't as it's not on the census website no you didn't see it that didn't happen I a lot more of those applications those two years you know as soon as the I think it's probably make replacement so and I think in the system stuff lot get all the you know coaches do all useful stuff that's a decision you don't right maybe you need a little more like maybe you need few more administrators you don't need 18 structional coaches I'll take two director but also that could be put more on us as I not maybe more onest but just give us us team more training all right well also I think like another good example of this is like I'm sorry why don't we have lesson plans math now has lesson plans that's good English has bad lesson plans most in science there's no lesson science maybe not no if you look at our curriculum if you look at our social space curriculum there's a unit guide with like five activities and an assessment those aren't lesson plans that doesn't show me a new teacher what a lesson should look like like English English and now math has scripted lesson plans which not I don't think everyone should be made scripted lesson if you're a first year teacher especially if you're a teacher or contract another country it would be very helpful to have good examples of like oh five minute bellw work vocab routine right fluency activity and then this but then planned out for like a year match to our pacing and it would only take someone like like if I like even if we're just going off the HH it would take the math stand all stuff maybe like a week of work to really put together like a year like routine of like they teaching lessons Monday through Friday whatever and it was another week of work I could even tailor it to like the days we have off so like it just doesn't get I freak too busy doing Turn talk so you do turn talk turn talk the kids can't turn to talk because they don't even know what the words mean so yeah I can give them a sentence frame and they can fill in the blank one the word it's actually not helping them learn anything because it's just like a Lear also like in that situation if you're not giving teachers train which which should be fair is more not keep in my slides I'll keep a turning talk thing so I can really someone Hey kid gu what we're doing a turning talk and it's like whatever but like I couldn't do that unless if you got someone who's a dumpster fire or site that's a dumpster they're not going to they even know what it's do they even know what collaborative discussion what do you need e e e okay everyone we do aind make turn on your mic when you're speaking turn them off rest not a little reminder here to make sure when you're speaking you turn the mics on and when you're not using the mics turn them off because it uses the battery and we want the battery to um last our entire session today okay so um we're going to actually move on it's the other slide um the the previous one yeah yes okay so um you're finished right jel oh okay oh that's right that's right okay so we'll have you share then yeah and I I'm not going to spend a lot of time going through uh this document because it's a long uh involved document but I did want to orient you to the information so that as you're looking at it uh you can kind of see what is on there uh so this is the stay interview we had um one of our conversations earlier about some of the things that came out of our meet and confer process last year was the um addition or the uh uh systemization of stay interviews as a mechanism to gather information of current employees classified and certified about their intent to stay uh in the district and what are some of the triggers that would maybe prompt them to leave the district uh so just to give you kind of that quick overview there 's a brief explanation of what a stay interview is um the interviews are conducted with highly valued employees that doesn't mean we don't value all employees but that means that a highly valued employee is someone who has been consistently part of the district uh that has you know affinity for being part of the Craton team and has been identified by their director or their principal as somebody that might be able to provide insight as to what it is that keeps them coming back from year to year so in looking at our results remember we do not interview all employees in this process uh the recommendation is for sites and departments to to interview 10% so uh when we look at the numbers we actually have pretty good results uh and we have a variety of levels of experience represented so certified classified and um distribution based on years of experience novice continuing established veteran and you can kind of see the totals so of the 119 people that were interviewed 60% were certified and 40% were classified these are the sites that returned information uh so we have represented across non site-based departments as well so you see Technologies there uh exceptional student services community this is a lot to look at on one screen so I'm going to let you digest it on on your own time uh but basically this is what I did was I took uh some of the reasons why that might be identified as categories broad categories and I presented those as uh quantitative measures so if they were present in their results the principles or the directors would indicate that on a Google form uh I know it's very hard to see because it's very tiny yes just real quick um before you show something like this can you just tell us where to find it because I'm looking in the shared folder I think a bunch of us are like scrolling and looking for just which document everything that I always put is in this document the the green folder or the green Google sheet that's in the resources okay if you look at today's notes it says meet and convert update my apologies meet and convert updates for 2425 resources okay got it and then you link so anytime we have any information that we're sharing I try to link it on that document so thank you for that Dorothy um so what I did was I took some of those broad thematic Concepts about why someone would return and Quantified those uh using the same I did uh reasons for leaving as well so we have two different measures we have a qualitative measure and a quantitative measure the quantitative measures are represented in the charts these were the things that people primarily would say would be a reason to stay or primarily would say would be a reason to leave that's what's represented in the charts I kind of scrolled past it but this is just a little bit of a summary of the factors overall districtwide not uh not broken down by site that's individual in those um charts then also did the same thing for insights about leaving and then summary of additional comments so in this process there's also something that we don't capture uh which is anything that the supervisor can do that that needs to be addressed that would be something that's critical for that person at that time right so if there is a specific need or specific concern as part of the stay interview process they ask for that feedback and then the charge for the director or the principle is to address that and get back to that person right so it tries to be actionable and tries to be responsive uh especially for those individuals that you know considering highly valued employees and if there's a something that happens that can be directly impacted immediately then that might tip the scale one way or the other and then just an overall summary of the the document so this is here for your review um we can pause for a moment if you want to take a look at a couple of things um I know we're going to be behind today but I want to give you an opportunity to have any questions answered um just had a qu question real quick so I appreciate that it's the 10% and that if that particular person has um something that is they would like their supervisor to address but if that thing ends up being something that is not just specific to that employee but could be impacting other the other 90% in that department is there any kind of thought about that supervisor not just Direct you know directly addressing it for that individual employee but also expanding that more for knowing that it might have impact for other employees that aren't part of the stay interview as well yeah there's nothing saying that it's isolated to the person that they're talking to Okay so if it's a individual issue like let's say I'm a an employee having the interview and I'm struggling to get to work because I have a daycare issue that's probably an example of something that's only relevant for that person but if there's the structure of the way duty is assigned for or morning duty is another part of that conversation then that could be something that's a bigger picture item so I think it's up to the principles and the leaders to determine you know what is the extent of this and they may do more exploring and say oh this person had this concern might that be an issue for others as well got it so they have that opportunity yes sir um you said that the goal was to interview 10% approximately 10% yeah is that did every site hit that approxim goal yeah yeah I just want to make sure that all of them have like a statistically significant amount of interview so I know uh most of the administrators interviewed the majority of their staff or quite a few quite a few of them did I know I quite a few did not everyone did yeah well quite a few of us did like I know I met with like 90% of my certified staff and about 50% of I classified right give you just a minute to look at this information and then I'll turn it over to Vanessa yeah yep once once you're ready to switch I'll switch it over all right any other questions or if you need more time we can field questions later on all right I'm going to turn the mic over to Vanessa so she can update us on budget and I'll get that switched over thank you so much I appreciate it perfect thank you okay so this should be becoming a very familiar item I will just real quickly talk about uh why this method is used so what it does is it takes into account uh the current budget and where we stand because we've already been allocated that budget we've already been expending in that budget green folder so it's a communication tool that I use with the governing board with groups like this with other um uh groups and it talks about from where we were what's going to happen in the future so that I can try to start putting together a proposed budget uh with projections and assumptions and gauging climate and trying to stay on the newest latest and greatest and so it's a moving Target uh I start as early as I can and so I started with this group very early and I talked about how um especially the yellow areas were were just highly volatile so since that conversation and as happens every single year um as I get closer and closer to the end of this fiscal year I start getting more data available to me to fill in some numbers so that uh things aren't quite as volatile so um looking at that top number that's where I take an adjustment in this year's current budget I have to adjust for that so I can see and plan head how we're going to end up at the end of this budget year so then I can see how much did how much is going to go that would be eligible in our budget calculations for next year and some of this talks about you know all of these factors in some way shape or form touch each other so yes this is a a portion of how we determine a budget balance carry forward and there's a lot of different weird layers of um School Finance so there's cash balances and there's fund balances and there's budget balances um so the part that we tend to focus on is the budget balance carry forward that's kind of what funds the fund balance Reserve that we've discussed okay so um that first number is an adjustment this is the one that I had guessed really close um to but I also had to factor in that um we had some student data uh we had some challenges getting that student data up prior to budget season I call it and so if you don't have everything really tight and your data really clean by October um you can be required to make a budget revision which we were this year once I captured those dollars back into our budget it made that change on that top number so I'm pretty confident on that number we'll keep checking that one as we keep getting closer and closer towards the end of this fiscal year the next number is our projected enrollment decrease so the last time you saw the screen I believe I had that at 188 we track a bunch of historical enrollment data enrollment and ADM are two different things so when you try to compare those two numbers they always look a little funky because you guys will say well we had 4,800 kids enrolled and your ADM only says 4600 kids or 4500 kids that's because those are two different measures of students enrollment is just a a day in time and this is how many kids were sitting in seats on this day ADM is average daily membership meaning that for the first 100 days of school they count how many days that particular kid got of the 100 days if they got a 100 days they're considered a 1 ADM if they get less than a 100 days then they're um FTE is a portioned so if they only attended 50 days and I think I gave this example before they're a 0.5 so in that same time period I could have a 1.0 kid a 0.5 kid a 0.5 kid I now have two ADM for money purposes that's a per pupil money so uh in the funding formula they take the ADM times a base level support amount that's called per pupil spending I'm educating three kids but I only got money for two so you can see how this stuff always becomes a really fun and interesting topic yes I'm trying to follow what your explaining but so for that first um column the FY 25 adjustment for 100 day ADM it's almost double on today's budget versus the one that you submitted sure highly volatile because of not having any data whatsoever and just plugging a number in based on one aspect of the four or five different data points that hit that number okay so when I'm asked to provide the number super early tell you guys these numbers I don't rely on them right but so what did you use to base the numbers on the F for the B first budget sheet you gave ADM only ADM projections only okay for last year for this year okay so we did it this time for this year's budget okay in the year before I had to try to guess how many kids were going to be here today so adms have gone up adms did not go oh yes adms went up uh like by four or5 and that was the number that I gave you and then we also had student data that was not included in our budget because we had to do a budget revision um and these are at board meetings in the explanations of why we need to do these budget revisions um so because our data was not there in October uh our budget had to be revised down lacking that data being in it to help with the calculation of money so our budget was revised on our last revision low because there was missing student data based on changes we had no control over so ad changed the way that they take preschool data because of that we couldn't get our preschool kids uploaded ad had some other changes in some other areas and our free and reduced lunch numbers were not being pulled into our calculation so of the variety of factors affect that number so then that happens is depending upon where you are in October with your student data that number will have to be re-budget in the budget and I'll have to go back out it's a mechanism of state law it's a requirement through the Arizona revised statutes and AD sends you a letter and says because your data even though I know my data I know that I have those kids they're in my calculation ad does AD doesn't have them in their calculation so they send me a letter they send it to the governing board and they say because you just have so much time on your hands go redo your budget and bring it way lower than what you know it's going to end up being at the end of the day because by this point in time you didn't have the data right then we pass 100 day and then we fix 100 day for the rest of of the year because at 100 day we may or may not have all of the data we only get paid for the first 100 days of school for students and then it goes into a calculation and that number that's why that number will change at different points in the year so what I had back then was just ADM I didn't have the impact of all the different studa data points that I didn't have any idea about until we passed 100 day in January and then I had to get to February for the January reports to come out and then for me to see things are or are not there or missing from what I expect 100th day to be and then I get to March and I go hey guys did we get that thing fixed because it's not in my March number and oh no ad changed their system we can't get our data up we're working with our vendor and this thing's happening and now you know I'm a little closer with that number by may I have to hope and pray that all of those numbers and data pieces and everything for the first hundred days of school we work on it for the whole rest of the year um um come out correct and then that way I get every penny of funding that uh we are entitled to through the budget process so that number can go up drastically and could go down drastically sometimes I know what's pushing it but when it's really early in the year I don't which is why I tell you guys how volatile these numbers are so that's why it went up was because of a couple extra um student data pieces and so when I did the budget revision with the board on it going up and down we talked about the the data there some of it and then um the other big piece is now this should stay pretty consistent that's why I un yellowed it I'm pretty confident in this number it'll change a little bit here and there but that one now isn't going to change drastically so thank you for that question and letting me get into that a little deeper yeah so to summarize our student numbers are going down long term but the numbers that were reported to the budget last year were undercounted and so we received a little bit more money from this year undercounted let me remember I mean yeah no I'm not assigning blame or just you know the numbers no it's the process that you try to guess so you your numbers can either be inflated in a budget process when you project because you just don't know how many kids are going to show up this year right so so I'm I'm the reason I'm asking is because we're projected to lose this many but we could end up in a situation next year same thing no one's fault where a bunch of kids just show up yeah oh and I'm actually going to talk about that in the next one and why I think that there's a likelihood of that happening in the next number so yes so let me tell you two things about that top number real quick and I'll move to the next one when you project a budget you have two big factors Weighing on you one is the tax rate is set with your projected and or your proposed in your adopted budget so it's really important to be fiscally responsible to taxpayers when you're trying to pull the number of students that are going to show up in the following year out of your magic crystal ball you want to have really good historical processes and mechanisms to try to project those numbers because you don't want the number to be too high because then your tax rate will get set too high on your taxpayers right and you don't want the number to be set too low because if we set that tax rate too low I won't get enough revenue and cash to fund my budget so there's like this really big pressure when you propose and adopt a budget to be I say go high I say go a little high not to the point where it's going to affect my taxpayers negatively but to make sure that I have the monies and dollars available to manage the budget for the whole next year I would much rather not come in short supporting our budget right so um so that's kind of what happens and the process is not a great process in school Finance this this isn't awesome um we do have current year funding it has it's pros and cons there's a lot we can do a whole budget class I could talk forever about that but anyway so yes that number goes up Goes Down based on projections that I'll be making now for next year and same thing will happen with that budget now going to the next one the reason why it's yellow is exactly what Daniel was just talking about so that number comes from so we track our historic enrollment over time and we look for Trends and we talked to a lot of people in the industry about what the climate's going to look like economically birth rates trends that we see in other areas uh what the esa vouchers are doing and how much that we think that's pulling kids out of our districts um Charter effect there's like a bazillion things that we think about when we're trying to say how it's going to happen to our kids next year right but one thing that we can really see is that we definitely have a progressive trend for um declining enrollment uh and so the first initial mechanism is to take that historic Trend and apply logic to it uh the way that I've seen done in this budget is an average of those um Mr Man had an average that was higher than I saw the trend as I came on board and then I started calcul like last five years so his last five years were a little higher decline I saw it slowing down so I decreased the number of how much I think we're going to decline next year so we're declining but the level of how much we're going to decline I had slowed down because our economy was showing that uh the growth in Phoenix is still happening but it slowed down uh birth rates were declining but the decline of how fast the birth rates were going down has slowed so I slowed our decline that's why we had 18 88 there and then the immigration stuff happened so now I needed to factor in something because we know we we are getting directly impacted by these these changes so how do I come up with a number to adjust that in declining enrollment and we talked about this at the last meeting so I did pull in some research studies from some of the um information that was gathered during s sp1070 that was passed in 2010 uh but one of the other things that I thought would be really interesting to look at is what happened in kraton during that time so fun story in 2010 kraton had the the next to the largest decline in enrollment at 400 uh no sorry 287 kids over that Year from the previous year the next highest in the course from 200 7 since 2007 the next highest decline is 230 kids in one year so 287 kids in that year the S SP 1070 came on board and everybody knew it was there so we declined our our decline increased the year before it was 100 something the year after sb1070 was put in place was our highest decline in enrollment ever it was 457 kids it doubled from our highest number so it was extremely impactful in this area in this District so I'm like well uh I'm hearing some districts planning for a 30% increase in their declining enrollment some districts are calculating anywhere from 8 to 15% I've heard a lot of measures out there I took our own data our own averages all the other stuff that I researched and then I applied what I think is logical for me in the budget process and that number increased from 188 to 250 I am projecting a bit High because do I is it going to go up a little is it going to double or are we not going to have any impact at all and that's what I want to show you the cool thing about it is yes I might go into the budget year with a little less dollars but at multiple points in the year I can increase the dollars back and put them back in our budget and have them available it's why we always talk about contingency so that's kind of where we're at now as I get closer to the time for me to project and um do a proposed and an adopted budget I will work on other factors such as like what are my peers in the area doing where are they seeing it um actual data from this year that I collect and say how am I how's how's it being affecting my number this year like how are we as a district already losing kids to this situation so there'll be a lot of factors that's where it is right now that number will change which is why it's yellow any questions about the enrollment decrease how we calculate it and where we're at right now the things that affect it sure keep going um what's the other thing on there okay uh that's a good one uh in statute this one's pretty quick um in the funding formula each year we get an inflationary increase to our dollars in our base support level base support level is the initial dollars that they give you for a student based on a quick calculation this year it was $513 per ADM there are way more things that happen in the budget after that uh but in setting those base level support amounts um it has an inflationary trigger so what happens in uh Arizona is you either get 2% if inflation's 19% in our state it doesn't matter you get 2% if infl is 50% doesn't matter you get 2% if inflation is 3% you get 2% but if inflation is low like it is right now because we're at one point I think I just looked Point 1.3 um you get the Lesser so so good times I'm anticipating we we're not going to get 2% that number will change as we get closer um through the year and I see more Trends in inflation but right now I I lowered that number I don't think we're going to get a 2% infl inflationary increase this year from the state so I'm looking at a 1.5 it's yellow I don't know for sure anything about that it's pretty standard do it that happens every year uh medical cost increase it it it rounded back down to about 4.73% it also includes those Dental choices that we haven't solidified so I don't really know but I have a budget towards it that budget um takes care of the district portion the staff portion and any increases to the um that come uh the district side is not increasing I don't believe for the dental so that part doesn't matter that's why I feel comfortable with that number and it's not yellow that's the budget everything I'm hearing is that everything's still within the budget and I have yet not I have not gone over budget um based on the choices you guys are making in in the committee or in here uh selecting those medical things can I ask a question real quick about that that's after we've already negotiated with them about the increase because every year they come to us with their projected increase and then there's a some level of negotiation process and that's already taken place correct yeah yes I mean I guess if you're saying negotiation is adjusting our choices sure yeah no I don't mean adj adjusting our choices they'll come in and they'll say uh we're projecting a 17% and then there'll be some HR involvement and then it'll actually come back 8% or 9% like there's always a oh it's not because of HR involment it's because of the same reason that I have trouble pinning down some of these numbers they have initial information that they're projecting and they think that we're going to have this level of claim and this level of uh Pharma and then as they get closer to the time frame of when they actually have to set the rate they wait to the last minute so they can give us the most accurate uh rate possible so when they start coming in and talking they're at 5.14% um a a month or two has has gone by we've had more information come in on our actual claims and how much of we're using of our policy and they're able to recalculate it they always work at recalculating for us and getting the lowest percentage which is why we're with them and why we're in this type of insurance and then they came back when it finally got time to sign the paperwork and and say they're at 4.73% I don't know if we've signed paperwork till it goes to the board they'll do another final calculation before we sign on to make sure that those rates are what they said they were going to be and um we're at 4.73% so negotiation Pieces come from what do we want to offer in our plans that's the part that goes back and forth with HR and bringing to this group and saying here's the dental and oh good Joel has info on well I was also just going to remark that sometimes I know you're thinking of those times when Rosie would go and she would go into a dark room and then come out and then we'd have different results um that was also before we were self-insured right and before we had that relationship with Valley Schools so that's why we're not seeing that big you know some some of the fact big one but even though we're self-insured we're still there's still some wiggle room because we still have an underwriter and we still have some right right my my son's an underwriter for siga so like right even he said like yeah we always project we always go in 10% higher than what we actually right and that's one of the benefits of being part of Valley Schools is do that process for their clients as the bigger group okay okay I'm sorry I didn't know that you had a different process prior to being in a self-insured pool I'm just so used to them always working really hard to give us the best rate so okay um that's the medical one I I mean I think that's close I don't think that's going to change uh inflation cost of goods I mean that one could change but I don't mess with it too much I'm at 1.56 I think I'm pretty spoton if something crazy happens I'll change that one but I didn't mark it yellow I felt more confident in it asrs definitely is just what it is that's another one that'll change but look at it $7,000 it's not big um Staffing adjustments this is some attrition I get some savings to attrition I don't necessarily always put this into the budget um but I wanted to this year because I was looking at mechanisms to just try to capture some stuff so typically this is uh in this goes into just Savings of monies we didn't use so I'm putting these savings more visual on the sheet to try to help us get to a bottom line number that gets us out of the zero area by attrition do you mean that when um higher paid employees retire and we're replacing them with lower some of that is savings no not vac well some vacancy savings some of that some of some of the reductions in cost to this year like the budget that I'm spending this year I will have attrition of positions that don't get filled I will have some you know some attrition I you know vacancy savings are tough because that's just a part of that budget balance carry forward number so you don't ever really want to get too into that because I have to budget there's no savings I have to budget as if the world was a Utopia and we got all our teaching positions filled and um else we wouldn't get the right tax rate to to fund the budget I'm sorry guys I'm I don't mean to get so technical I just don't know so please ask questions so I can help help uh try to explain there are a lot of aspects in here and a lot of moving Parts yes um I was going to say we appreciate I think I mean I appreciate the technical details I think we're all intelligent people and I think you know more detail is always good um does this include cuz we spent I think like a million fiveish on the ratio reduction last year does this and I know I mean I know it comes out of M even though it was one time it was one time money to M right it doesn't a show up in here because these are ongoing monies okay so yeah that's what I was going to ask is this is all ongoing money so there's no okay yeah nope this came out of that came out of onetime money so it wouldn't be showing here um budget balance care for that's when everything is said and done and we are completely done spending for the year which I won't know until end of encumbrance which is end of August uh that's when I know um kind of what that number is and then it goes to the state the state does recalculations on their end for different types of funding things or things that go through the legislature and so I mean that's yellow probably until I'm here next year at this point and then I can say oh yeah that number was this so um we don't get that information until way after uh budget adoption and proposal so we do again um managed historical processes to try to hit those numbers as close as we can through the budget process and then we adjust uh to what the actual numbers are next year through budget revisions so what we project the intent is never for it to be absolutely per perfect the intent is for it to be at a budget level to get us what we need in our buckets to ensure that we meet all the requirements for legally and all the different things we have to do uh we do try to get it as close as we can and uh last year we did two budget revisions or yeah two budget revisions uh this year we will be doing three budget revisions which is the norm I have been in districts that do more than that uh but just for the regular Norm you're typically looking at three budget or you know three budgets uh in the year just to make sure you get it as accurate as possible okay um so we met with the uh compensation and compression committee and we kind of really dug into the difficulties of determining compression and one of the first things is that the system of record is challenging to pull data out to even start the process to figure out who's in what group that could be compared to any other type of group um we are absolutely working on fixes and moving forward it is a it's a tough one it it it's tough It's a system problem it's a culture problem it's a data problem it's a having time to work on it problem um I pulled what four nurses I pulled four nurses it took me like I don't know 30 minutes just to pull enough data into even and it wasn't even all the data right that's just me and I'm pretty good at pulling data out of there anyways um so really cool uh information came out of that committee and they said you know we know this is going to take us a little time we're getting access to some tools we're back and forth on this one and they said in the meantime how about because we know it's going to be a multi-year process how about we kick that 200,000 that we had earmarked for compression back to the committee I mean back to meet and confer I'm sorry um and have them utilize it because those are ongoing monies that just didn't get spent but if I'm going to spend them next year I need to include them [Music] um and I think Dorothy did you want to talk about what happened in the committee like I feel like you're the best representation to what the intent of the committee was to put that back what do you think sure um I mean basically it came down to really digging deep into it and seeing how complex the situation is and I've been here a long time so I understand how it somewhat how it became so complex it was a multitude of different factors over the years that caused it to be very difficult to pinpoint how and where to address individual compression issues or um like employee group compression issues and so we really talked about while we're trying to dig in and kind of un tangle all of the various components that are causing the complex can we at least address the compression through something general like longevity which at least is going to acknowledge that people who have been here longer should be getting paid more money than a new hire in this a similar position it's not perfect it doesn't address the nuances of what we wanted to address with compression but it's just that the compression issue is so complex and complicated to solve that we felt like that more was needed to untangle or detangle and we really put in a recommendation to make sure that any decisions moving forward don't further complicate the system that it becomes more clear how we're moving forward with taking into account the issue of compression and minimizing the impact of it on existing um retained employees yeah so that's why that's there and then um as some of those numbers firmed up it started showing me a different picture and um couple of things you know on there new which is the sofg prioritized teacher support professional development there's some pieces coming out of curriculum uh it's been coming forward in the board meetings and while the I just I need to make a common about the budget the entire budget is sofg prioritized so these are dollars that are new dollars not existing dollars um that are intended to have a direct tie to the governing board's goals um it has gone through a process and um so that's where that is is happening can we get any information at all about what that Prof believe that's going to the governing board yes absolutely okay it'll be in the governing board ER Eric's not here yeah I'm used to the whole team being here I'm like okay Eric talk about it now so wait a minute a quick question Bas what she said so when about development training there's no M I thought you had one um when we were talking about um prioritizing teacher support and professional development SL trining um are we talking about sending admin to training are we talking about teachers going out to training when we talk about supports are we talking about adding more District level admin and managers like what does that 650 looks like so that is curriculum and teaching and learning so their program and their plan that will be articulated out into different venues has already started at board meetings that information would be with that group I just apply budget numbers to it through the sofg process I understand that but what I'm asking like so if we all go and watch the five and a half hour meeting from this weekend it's going to kind of give us some ideas or what yeah I think some of that came out and there you know there's some um so first off as you get more into the into the process there have to be measures right and that's something that's being asked of this group so as we make decisions those decisions have to be tied back to these goals with inputs and outputs outputs are those interm measures that say this Choice was made this was an input we decided that this heard coaching model right I get that part and then they had to measure it through measurable outputs that said because we did this coaching model we saw these improvements in these areas that they feel like support teachers I know that a lot of this revolves around the coaching model and providing more coaching model support to the to the sites so we're going I cannot answer detailed questions about it though Ariel I I can speak to what I think your concern is and also I think it's useful for the group to acknowledge um going back to the context of our uh the last year the year before we approved that big $10,000 stipend right out of our eser money and I think part of the motivation was that is that when we looked through the expenditures of the Esser money we found a lot of things that I think people maybe not universally but like we spent a lot of money on some guys to come and play guitar and sing songs and that was not well received and so to some extent there was a belief like we blew a lot of this money the Dead coming up it's better to go to staff than to see it wasted and I think to Sophia and Jay earlier like I think there will be an urge when you see money spent on professional development training to want to dig in like micromanagers like the wrong word to want to dig in and be like okay what is this money being spent on what's the company what's the curriculum what's the subject because I think there is a little bit of a lack of trust there based on spending from previous years however I think going back to our conversation before there needs to be some level of trust because it will not always it should not always be the case as a school district that the money is better in my pocket going to Vegas than spent on professional development right like that's just the reality is that there should be some level of spending on professional development training support that is better than just going directly to staff because we're School District I agree with that I I'm asking who's going for because like for example are paying for district level admin and whatnot people to go to some training in Las Vegas dat data wise I maybe yeah they going I can tell you anything that they go to has to connect to sofg and we are asked really hard questions about why we're going where but what I'm asking is the 650,000 because it says teachers support professional development SL trining who's going to the training are we talking okay we're going to send teachers to training or we're going to have people come out here to train teachers or is this money being spent to send District admin at the district level position and then you know we already have a budget for district Admin Professional development so is this gonna be like teachers teachers getting the training like this is in this category and I just put a lot of things together for Budget brain not for curriculum brain the majority of these dollars I would say 625 thousand of it is probably going towards coaching models and direct teacher support so mean are we going to hire more coaches again I know we coaches I cannot talk about the details of it because that's another department it's teaching and learning and they are sharing information out through the sofg process I had to put dollars to what they've been talking about that's been discussed with the board and I think that we can get um detailed questions that kind of question back to you we can definitely tell you add that to the list of things to hear about about next time it's like what exactly I don't know if it's a hear next time it's a I think it's he about in the next board meeting so in the next board meeting we're going to hear what exactly we're spending six or I'm not thinking like oh Eric and Joel is gonna take the money and R run off no but there's also a big piece of that which to me is not very big some portion of it is for sofg training too sending staff like yourself to the sofg model so that you can be a part of this whole process so that you understand that the board is not going to allow us to spend any dollars that don't have a direct impact on the outcomes of students in a way that we are showing in how we're being held accountable I'm not sure how to say it but like we have to before we do that stuff we have to have measurements we have to say here's a a model of success here was the data that we used to show that there was success and that it did something and then we're going to recreate that success or we're going to add these new measures to it the whole process of it is all about data data data and tracking and interm measures and then saying before the board will allow any of this we have to really show those connections I just think like if we can tell teachers before they sign their contract okay we have these SG prior priorities and we are going to provide teachers support professional development and training this is how it's going to look like this is how we are all going to work together to achieve these goals so that's what I'm asking like absolutely and that's coming yeah absolutely we could have Eric come in and give a little that would be fantastic because they're the ones I had to I had to put it in the budget so that we could have numbers to get you guys moving forward with conversations in the meet confer realm and so that's why it's there be like like these are the type of supports we're going to provide for this upcoming school you can use this recruitment in retention I agree I think it's fantastic I mean what little I know of it as a money person just because I'm just not Savvy enough in the depth of curriculum that's not my expertise Dorothy I think it's a great idea I love Ariel your idea of making sure that you're able to share with teachers because that's one of our charges right to work on Recruitment and Retention giving more clarity to that information I can also give an example I think of like prioriti prioritize teacher support we heard them talk about having those more formative assessments and I believe one of the intentions with some of this money is to have you know summer work being done by teachers for teachers in creating those create informative assessments which is then a support for the teacher so that they don't have to create them themselves within those plc's so I think that's a a fair example of one of those expenses yeah I mean there's convers there's no one person standing over here going oh I think I'm going to spend $600,000 on something these are conversations and data pools and a lot of process by the time it gets here yeah no not Dr um no said lady the lady the other lady that puts on Dr No P Martha um no Dr P Dr Pomo Dr pombo is the director of curriculum could we have her come in and give us a breakdown of what things will look like next yearing Dr dupin to do that he's the assistant superintendent teaching okay he may choose to break okay but we'll talk about yeah I just think that would be more kind of like geared towards your answer where are these where is this money going toate like request and it also show is it a yeah I don't think anyone's saying we're not going to give you information and we're not hiding anything I'm just telling you there's other forums too that that's coming out and meet and confer I I mean I don't know what level you know that and I think that you share all the information especially with meet and confer because as you said you can go out and Advocate hey these things are coming down the pipe I'm just saying I had to put a number in but for those people were here I didn't think to have them here that's on me I take responsibility that I have a number on there that people would have a lot of questions about I just know that the information is coming out yes I I just want to extend on the on the processes and for clarity or for trust just like you said there's board meetings their committee work uh there are other venues and fors in which people can find out details of the expenses and nothing it's expended without having the proper approval POS in place it it's so hard to and also I want to add to the it's not hard there just proc yes and it also I want to add to the other process as a director who oversees Grant um different grants I have to repurpose um training money because people for many many reasons are not able to be compensated to take a training for multiple reasons uh there's also toing money that needs to be reallocated specifically for Mento students because I haven't found teachers who have the stamina or all the commitments again but there's different opportunities to make extra money and the reality is some people are available to take um um use of those opportunities and some of people are not are completely exhausted and checked out and so I just want to bring that also to the story that we're not going to if we're going to go into pennies and how we're going expended let's also talk about people not having or not having the time willingness to take these opportunities hey James hey um I just have a facilitator question um I'm I'm all for information but should we be concerned about um time in terms like if because we got a lot of things to get through right well especially since there's dollars on the table to talk about and weren't any so there's time that I think you might not have thought you needed to spend on but right so just a suggestion I mean if we're concerned about time maybe not a whole presentation but maybe just a you know a document or if we can get the if we can get the information elsewhere are you I'm just saying like it it because I know presentations sometimes turn into discussions and in the interest of maximizing our time if it doesn't have to be that then let's not so you're you're um talking about next week instead of maybe having a speaker we just get the information presented to us on like a PowerPoint or something something that's given to the team and I I would also remind us that our scope of work if this is instructional in nature if the concern is instructional nature is not within the scope of work of the meet and confer process oh and I'm not saying that um I also want thr I'm not saying Penny pitching to where any Penny's going but if we're saying like oh we're going to prioritize teacher support professional development training if you have teachers who are on the fence about not coming back if they kind of knew what some of those supports would look like next year it might give a lot of the people who are really stressed out and like I'm not coming back here ever again maybe kind of giving them like okay so things are changing in the district things are happening from these sfg models them being like tell me each penny where is going I don't really care I'm just like what does the teacher support looks like and I know this oh sorry I think if if we were to have a speaker um you know our questions I don't really think like Joel just said there probably wouldn't be a discussion because we don't have any input into instruction curriculum so he would just be providing us information so we can't question what they decided to do with that money and I definitely know that there's an interest to provide information to as many people as possible because everyone understanding what's happening is critical and as you said you know spreading that information to others this is coming directly from superintendent guard ra number three so that's kind of part of it but it also touches I believe um the plan is touching all four goals so it'll be interesting to get that data because you'll get to see those connections all right I I do want to um do time real quick so on the so that's that one I jumped to that one the 15% fund balance Reserve we've we've discussed that one a bunch of times I think that one's fine it hasn't changed it's not going to the meet and confer budget so uh dollars um 724 386 those are dollars um I just wanted to put some number to it so you have the 200,000 for that what had been already determined to go to compression has come back into the group to decide what what to do um you have the 724 386 which is a mechanism of these budget numbers I I can't just keep changing that number so I hit a number and then I call it good and then we move on that's the number um if we get a tremendous amount of more money than that in some fashion that's why we talk about make sure there's some contingency language because if the fund balance Reserve is at 28% that means dollars would be back you know what I'm saying and I won't know what the fund balance Reserve is until we pass some measures so I think on the next one I'm G to I'm going to bring in some dates that tell you when I get the final information on if I hit the 15% or not um so there'll be some dates that that happens in the future after probably we've proposed and adopted the budget so contingency language for next year into if it's above the 20% the board has you know we've had some discussions about it um you know we talk about that maybe in here in contingency I'm just I I don't know what exactly you guys would want that to look like I've have I have examples of ways it looks like in other places but that's where that contingency comes into play is that next year I will have actual data that says that we're at that or we're way above it and if we're way above it what does that do are we above it a 1% then do a onetime 1% payment to staff I mean there's ways we can handle it different things we can do we can talk about it later the other big thing is the 724 386 I wanted to cost it out at this point in time that would cost a 26 to1 ongoing instead of a one-time teacher ratio um or it's uh equates to 2.21 1% salary increases across the board at all levels not pulling that you know differentiation of any any sort um we obviously can do that I put the 1% in the um the shared docs so I know uh Daniel likes to take those one% and do some stuff for you guys um or any other mean confer recommendation so those are the dollars 900$ 24,38 anything that costs money has to come out of that bucket and I have strict directions that it can't be a million dollar what it is is what it is it's 200,000 and the 724 is 900,000 so I just would just want to put that out there can you clarify it can't be a million dollars it is $924,900 number is that what you mean and because these are the numbers that we've put out and yes that's it I'm I'm too flexible in all the other numbers I can't be flexible I just can't I am taking the hit if inflation doesn't come in at 1.56 right I am taking the hit in all those other numbers I have to have solid numbers and I have to know what's in my budget with that being the case I talked about it last year and I've spoken with the board and I've spoken with exec team it's $924,000 386 for all of the things that cost money in this group wait can you sorry because I was doing things on a spreadsheet and I just dumped these numbers and summed them up and I got like a million 11 is that my numbers which numbers are you looking at like I just took the the the fall 25 adjustment the fall 26 adjustment the 1.5 base support like I literally just added all I just summed up all of these numbers yeah there's 880,000 buffer at the bottom okay right so the 880,000 buffer is because we want is because I don't know the yellows right okay I understand and so so this would be the number for for these conversations is a 200 and 700 any dollars above and beyond that that that vet out because those yellows get solid and that number of 80,000 goes way higher yeah so I would rather round up if we're going to round and I'll take it it's in the 80 if you guys want me to take the 80 to zero I'm happy to take the 80 to zero I'll do it okay so that's I mean you guys are saying that and you're smiling about it but I gotta tell you the people who understand how this is working I don't know that you want me to do that that 80,000 might fund something else in federal that we're going to lose you guys know we're losing 25 to 30% of our federal funding so sorry to clarify it's in there I get it it's your job to get every penny the labels are sorry so just the additional continuing funds that we are getting that we have like in general not that we necessarily can spend but additional continuing funds are um we are subtracting a a little bit of those from the 80,000 or we're subtracting the 80,000 from those so we can meet that 15% number is that correct it's probably in the budget balance carry forward estimate that number will change if you see that's where it is right now at 793 622 if you'll notice most of my numbers I try to round them when I can so that one's where the 880,000 is coming from is the budget balance carry forward okay I understand so if we spend more than what I think we're going to spend it'll go into that budget balance and that'll reduce it'll scoop up everything but what I commit to is the 200 and the s so the and the only ongoing cost we approved last year that that wasn't a salary like obviously you wouldn't take salary from people it would be compression which is why you includeed in here so our money that we can access safely assuming nothing crazy whatever we also maintaining our 15% fund balance Reserve is 924 386 yes and we could round it out of the 80,000 though if if you guys want me to round we need 500 bucks we can take it out of the 80,000 but if we need you know $100,000 we're not that's not okay I understand it's not happening cool and that 80 is a magic number it's not a real number it's because I don't know the yellow yellow yellow but I feel confident enough in the other numbers that the 924 th000 or if we round it to 925 because I hate the numbers too um i' I think I'd rather do that I was just trying to do really solid where the number came from before we talked about it in here but it that's that what feel confident based on the information that I have assessing the risk levels that I'm aware of the federal decreases the immun um immigration impacts the extra this and the extra that the bond sale 500 million other things I'm thinking about I feel confident that I will be doing no harm to the district's future fiscal Health by giving seven 25 and 200 out of this planned budget with the knowledge that these numbers will change and with the hope that the committee will put in some language that'll help us adjust if these numbers go so much better than I anticipate because they could or they could go worse so we have some capacity built in with our fund balance Reserve to deal with some of these impacts and emergencies that we anticipate may or may not happen and that's what that's there for to get it it's not there to fix it forever it's there to fix it in the emergency time and then have a plan to try to figure out what bad things happening to us and give us some breathing room and that's what the fund balance Reserve does so by maintaining that and then going through the budget process it came up with those dollars and then there's like 880,000 of number because I don't know the yellows yeah so again that's why I said I'm I mean I get it and I I I appreciate your passion like I think I'm like I'm so with you too and then I appreciate the team coming in and saying oh we can take that 880,000 yay uh and then I'm I'm in the middle because I'm like I want to be here well no no I really want to be over here so that's why I said I'm willing to round up the 724 to 725 I'm not going to fight hard over the 80 I just think it's not a good precedent I think it doesn't show respect to the budget process it's not a 1% if it was at least a 1% I would have rolled it back up it's less than 1% of a salary increase and I kind of use that as my measure when I'm looking at numbers and so since I had those 1% available I threw them in there and I threw as much of it as I I I had a different criteria so I'll tell you I don't usually have 2.21% salary increase I heard through all of the uh conversations that you guys were talking about was that the um teacher student ratio is important to us and we want some mechanism with ongoing monies not onetime monies so because of that that's why that number ended up being that because I started with that as the PRI like 26 to1 how much does that cost 27.5 to1 is not affordable can't work it in the budget but can we ongoing do the 26 to one I felt comfortable that we could sorry I raised my hand excuse me excuse me thank you um sorry I guess I have two questions one can we get that final number I know you kept saying 920 whatever but it's not on this page it's 200,000 and 724 it's those two numbers together those are what you guys see where the ones that say meet and confer M and C that's the two numbers right there okay we can go up to 92 725 yeah it just for simp I know you guys like that and then and I do know that you guys Target small wins so if something was $10,000 are we going to we've got 80 there I mean it is important and I appreciate you prioritizing the ratio because that is definitely the sentiment of many of us in this group so thank you for that um yeah having one number I think just together just for clarity is helpful because I heard you say that number but I didn't yeah thank you thank you for clarifying it is hard I'm in my mind I've looked at these numbers so many times I'm like like what do you mean you don't know it's $900 is related going back to Dorothy sharing about the recommended compression I get that it's complicated it's never not going to be complicated so I just have a lot of rub with pushing it back I get that that allows us more money but the issue is still compression and that's still on our list so now we're just like flip-flopping and that feels weird so I don't know that does address compression the compression committee wanted to see a win and was was trying to see how quick they could affect people actually in their pockets with compression right and so then I think the thought process was but then we're all walking on eggshells I have to just I'll just throw it in there they said longevity so that's the intent of it not to get scooped up into the other dollars the intent from the committee's recommendation was how can we affect compression right now and I think they felt like the priority of putting those dollars in the pockets of the people who have stayed with us who continue to stay with us our senior staff and putting it into longevity seemed the biggest effect that uh the committee felt would be positive in this climate I think it would be disingenuous if that money didn't go towards longevity I get that that it's just hard to come into the committee and go okay committee you have to do longevity it would be awkward to go back to the committee and say well yeah but instead it went to you know reducing class size or you know the a raise for everybody like sure the the committee did recommend that it go toward longevity which isn't asparate but that it can be still generally address compression I guess the reason that I'm confused or why I feel this like rub is that last mean confer we were like there are like uh study sessions that can be created around this or there are like more information that we can gather like it seemed like there were fresh ideas different things that could be looked into and now it's like well it's all longevity well if that was the case why didn't we just prioritize that last year anyway why are we creating a committee to just bump these dollars that we already allocated to oh that wasn't that wasn't the intent the committee just recognized that they're going to have to be doing some significant work and and they weren't going to have it done by the time this committee was going to make the meet confer was going to make decisions on dollars okay and so they're like we can hold on to the money and apply it we may or may not apply those dollars this year sure okay you know so that was it if we take it back we take it there's no right or wrong in this um I would say the intent was not to combine it but it also is not our intent to walk in here and tell me and confer what to do right so that's where I'm kind of in the I I give it a 200,000 I'm gonna put it on a separate line so you guys know it wasn't supposed to be for that I guess I thought there was more behind that 200k than just let's put it into longevity and now I'm understanding that it is there's so much more that we will be able to do do with it yeah Kelly neighbor neighbor got skipped was that from a different stack Eve um I just wanted to contribute to uh I know the compression um conversation is uh historically longer than just longevity and that's probably something that we want to explore but given where we are right now I think um longevity is a is a good way to address compression when we are at bare minimum right now and I also think that it um is Equitable for classified and certified sometimes I think our classified staff doesn't get represented as well in meet and confer and so when it's longevity it's like a flat rate and so that I feel like levels the playing field a little bit and as we know transportation is and Facilities facilities is one of the two of the places that um the compression is the worst right now right where like the people that have been there longer are getting paid less than the new hires so like longevity helps to boost that um I have a one small comment and a couple of questions about the the longevity and the compression I think that's the frustration on I don't want to speak for Kelly but I think we wanted something more targeted for places like Transportation where we could actually just like fix the issue instead of just applying it to because like respectfully like you know if you increase the longevity I get that money I don't have a compression issue you know what I mean and so that's money that go is going going to go to me that could be going to someone in transportation and that's why I think there's some frustration about well we waited a year and it just you know didn't get done and I understand there's actual like constraints as to why that's happening but well it didn't not get done it's that the process of getting it done showed us how deeply it's yeah am mesed there's a lot going on um yeah we did a lot of work we've done quite a bit of work I have some questions um does the compression so I know we're talking about continuing dollars the 200,000 from last year that was allocated for compression like or or rather this current year that we're in right now um is that money was not spent so is that wrapped into this or yeah okay so because so then that is repres where is that represented in your budget no but yeah but that would that would be for next year right or would be that would be represented in the final numbers in the yellows right okay so it wouldn't get double counted because I've pulled it out over here so I get what you're trying to say yeah that's where it would be represented is is it's backed out of those yellow number so it doesn't get counted twice okay so we would be spending like if we choose to spend that $200,000 on it or whatever would that be from this current Year's $200,000 that we allocated or next year's it's from both it's ongoing dollars okay it's ongoing dollars so it's not like well we could approve we could approve a onetime longevity increase well I guess right right and it would be on it would be an ongoing cost you right never mind it's ongoing just like salaries last year when you did salaries that's that's ongoing we're not taking unless you guys in here decide we need some extra budget dollars you say we're going to take money away okay you know so yeah so once it's there it's there it's all ongoing which is why I pulled it out separate so okay and the 200 that wasn't spent is just in the carry forward well it won't be that's why I pulled it out on the line by itself I'll make adjustments once I have those final numbers in the carry forwards understand so it doesn't get counted twice okay um basically do you unrelated to compression do you have a 1% calculator because I can take mine from last year and just add the raises but I I put a 1% of actuals in there that I backed out the um is it on the green I I see I see 1% figures for planning but I don't see a link we'll put that in there and yeah you can make your calculator is fine I think we had um multiple calculators I would just ask that we have one calculator I didn't make one and yours and mine was the same no yeah I no I I was just saying because I was I'm not gonna make you I'm not gonna be like go make me a spreadsheet that's why so I I could use my old one yeah just use the old calculator and then the 1% new numbers will be in the in the doc like in that same place thank you Joel I appreciate you and then we've talked about it a couple times on I see that the last update was that they should have met on the 19th do we have those NextGen compensation numbers that's what we did with the com compression committee we went through the nextg data and determined what could and couldn't be pulled out a nextg and Dorothy did you want to speak to that we we bumped into immediate problems when we started trying to pull groups because our naming conventions that were changed through several processes uh do not align in NextGen at all um we did go back and get some historical data um for what the titles used to be um we actually have been able to give um members on the committee which I think I had to work with you because when I went and looked at and test it didn't look like it members on the committee have will if they don't have access to the nextg module um so that we can get our job titles updated so like it it doesn't align um and we did find out that when they came and showed us the the thing they have a new uh teacher how cool was that I think that's really interesting it was helpful to hear directly from one of the I don't know creators or people in charge of NextGen and just all the they are working really hard to try to acknowledge and deal with some of the problematic areas like the job titles and how to mesh those together um it was also a little frustrating at times because there's not a lot that we can get from it other than those very teacher superintendent bus driver you know the ones that everybody Global every district is going to call the same thing where it gets really dicey is a lot of the administrative assistant and PA classif the classified titles are just a such a jumble of how different districts call them that it's I don't know how meaningful the comparisons would end up being I mean they're good for the global and just keep in mind this nextg product is not a um necessarily the the salary comparison tool it's an addition that they saw a need out there um we don't I don't use this for that I use um it has a very robust budgeting um uh indirect cost calculator it used to take me two weeks to calculate indirect cost now I can plug it in the system have very accurate and historically accurate data so I use it as a budget tool this was an add-on that was added to the system in the um compression committee what we realized was that we needed to pull out the groups that the meet confer um uh identified and we're looking at those groups like real people real data and then using the nextg tool to look at those um positions in other districts uh because the nextg tool is all about psychologist facilities were is a little trickier facilities got hard but some of the other ones were easier so yeah we're using multi- levels to do that I I think long question to say no we don't have it in here right now um we first had to figure out what can we get and how do we have to do it um so I think we came up with a really good plan we're going to have all of the groups that were identif if IED and here uh at the next committee meeting um it is a unfortunately um complex pool from our system because our system is kind of flawed in some ways the way that it manages data um so yeah so everything that we unturned there's 50 problems as to why can't I just get this answer I is it possible for us to just get like like the ones that are Universal teacher principal bus driver things like that because that even that would be helpful because like we're talking about raises like our certified raises that's like mostly teachers yeah and like you know I'm here representing teachers but like I If we're 10% overpaid compared to every surrounding District that means probably can go better places than raises right but if we're 10% underpaid then that might I think it makes sense to at least bring all the global consistent ones and then figure out how we can I mean longterm we need to it won't help with compression things and try to conform more to the of the other districts last year you guys saw the meaningful about which districts we compare to as well there's like I don't remember how many was it like hundreds of districts oh yeah hundreds of districts but we would just pick our normal five six seven eight the other thing to know is out of that system it's comparing um placement data and so when it said oh here's with 10 years experience most of the districts use a step schedule and so then they equate steps to years of experience and they go out and look at a schedule and they go 10 means 10 years of experience I can tell you that is not the case um years of experience don't equate to steps in most districts when we got frozen for a million years yeah so it's just the it's a mechanism to move people this way or to move people this way um or to move this this way uh it's just a mechanism so we don't have a step schedule we we have a placement schedule it kind of looks like a step schedule um so just take keep that in mind I think our best bet is to do base level entry um but the other problem we bumped into is that other places don't include some of the add-on pieces so we have to keep in mind some of those too like Market demands and things like that it it's I we're trying we we will try to give you some stuff I just it can't be this is perfect data and it's the end all be all yeah say can we make a hard commitment to at least having like the teacher data for next next time I think so don't you think so Dorthy looking at it I think I would think like big ones are like teacher principal like bus driver is a great one yeah yeah let's do that it was and I understand there's a lot of caveats but like I said before we're all intelligent people I think people understand the constraints and things that go into the and I would feel more comfortable giving you those than all the ones we gave last year because then we found out oh wait when we do half the ones especially certified I mean not certified classified it was crazy Carolyn Caroline how are you doing by the way okay good it's a big topic okay we're going to move on thanks so much yes I want to make sure I captured the data request so we're looking at nextg data for groups at align uh with the focus on certified and what particular groups I heard teachers I heard bus drivers that's a good question um which are those global ones I mean it was yeah sure but if there if there are specific groups I think we I want to capture that here so when I remember the list from last year I would say the the smaller certified positions that are more likely to be um in congruous are like less of a priority and the bigger priorities teacher bus driver psychologist principal assistant principal Maybe depending on as long as that's congruous he probably yeah like yeah I would like to I would like to see those numbers but the problem is is that another school might call someone a custodian that is not like comparable to what we call a custodian [Music] manager District realizing it's cheaper to just contract them out so what happens is thats doesn't show up on next so it isn't if we have the same name that most other people have if we call them custodians in our system y we could compare it's we'll we'll go through and look at the ones we think are the most accurate so to answer your question Joel as quickly as possible yeah I got you okay are you a to put the PowerPoint up okay here Carolyn was a member of IBN a couple years ago so she is familiar with the process so we're fortunate about that um okay my I on why am I okay what time is do we want to vote on the he curve plan really quickly the dental did you have enough time to think it through yeah I read it all okay so we're going to make a recommendation to um stay well stay with level one two Delta Dental as opposed to going to the extra what was it two levels right okay one and three so the recommendation is to stay with Delta Dental level two so thumbs up cross okay so our recommendation is to stay with uh level two okay just a real quick real quick review of what an option is um and just remember an option really is the solution it answers the how and we are going to meet in our two groups again we have four um to finish four issues to finish um and when you're in your group just remember that how we come about with our Solutions is by brainstorming within our team coming up with as many items as you possibly can come up um try to get all members of your group to speak and actually I do have a little prop for all of us to use today and I thought of an when I purchased these I have Talking Sticks and they sparkle and so some had mentioned I they're pretty so some of them someone mentioned in our evaluation that um maybe if we used a Talking Stick I think it was in last weeks and I thought that's really a a great suggestion so how these work is um your your um Taskmaster we're going to put in charge of this so the Taskmaster will pass this talking stick around so that everyone in the group gets an opportunity to talk and we would like to make sure it gets passed around so we'll we'll be using these um when we meet with our group okay any questions about how to develop options okay let's go ahead and we will have our jobs um again and I have cards that um will pass out in the group so we'll have our timekeeper and we will display the clock like we did the last time or the timer I guess I should say we'll have our Taskmaster our nor Monitor and recorder and presenter so try to mix it up if you've been a presenter maybe several times and you happen to pick out that card maybe give someone else an opportunity to be a presenter we kind of like would like to mix it up a little bit okay so um our issues to day to finish in we just might be able to finish in before lunch we'll see how it goes um is salary advancement for education level special education workload um relevant open positions or leave of absence um internal advancement promotion employee group compensation so uh we'll assign groups um reviews stories interest and framing statements when you're in your group you'll the charts are right over there the four charts are together over there so you will grab one of those charts you will review the stories and the um entrance interest and the framing statements once that's complete that's when you'll start brainstorming options um analyze those options to determine your final option or options uh write them on the chart and then you'll share out to the group we're going to use the exact same process as we used last time okay um we're just going to take it easy today and just count off by uh we're gonna have two groups and we'll just count off one two one two starting here two two two okay ones will meet over here twos will meet over here your team can decide which chart you would like to take and um I think we'll try for 20 minutes so Adrian when the groups are all set don't start the timer until we have all the jobs assigned e e e okay our time is up so raise your hand if you're the speaker or the presenter okay over here who's your speak speaker or presenter who is it Ariel yes okay I was gonna say aren't we supposed to switch that up or you like to do it she yes she likes to speak so that's good okay so can do the talking James doesn't count he doesn't even know who de D tasi is so before we start um first of all we need to have it quiet please okay um as you are sharing um please let us know the story as a reminder refresher and um the interests and then share your options and remember all of us are going to think is the option okay are we happy with it okay let's start over here Ariel oh just like to say this will be my last time being a presenter I passed the card on to Daniel okay um yeah so we'll miss you Ariel um so District education I'm sorry special education workload District special education employees are often asked to take on additional legal work without compensation to fill in compliancy gaps due to leave of absence vacancy and noncertified employeee in a position um and so some of our options we came up with is case managers who cover case oh sorry case managers who cover case management for vacancies or nons sped certified teachers will be compensated for the additional case management three hours per IEP I'm using the extra Duty rate what currently right now is $35 but it could change oh and that's currently in practice we're just putting it down on paper um and then our next one was school psychologist market demand amount added to base instead of being a market demand and they are in a separate group when it come to any raises questions concerns I see looks U oh the second one school psychologist market demand amount will be added to the base instead of being a separate market demand stipid yeah and um they will be in a separate group when it comes to any raises instead of ctif yeah they won't be certified classified or admin there would be a separate group with just them ctif oh yeah it will offset the certified raises what you mean when we do raises usually we do a raise for certified admin and classified we just we we had some discussion amongst the group about like well that would make their rise significantly higher if they're adding adding that market demand to it so in order to offset that they would have their own category and then presumably a lower percentage compared to certified who doesn't have a market demand stip in and we talked about how yes it would be great to move all employees who receive a d market demand such as sort of uh OT PT all the other ones into their base but we have to start somewhere and so we felt like psychologists were sort of the biggest bang for your buck type group um and based on how many contracted employees we know that there's not very many coming back next year um so this would solve those problems hopefully and now what we can advertise this really big number and be like look how much you make in a creating District okay comments about that and yes we can add to it if you want us to we can add more love to know the numbers of where we are comparative because I know people who have applied have gotten substantially like 15 to 20 grand more so like that would be a great starting point um I'd like to have more information of what that looks like in terms of how we're compared because I'm a little cautious about having it totally makes sense having the separate table because I think it'll be forgotten and again we know how much we're spending on contractors for syes and how like we can't get people over over here um so right and I don't know I adding it to the salary is great but I don't think it's going to give us that big bang because we're so low compared to other districts now like I just don't want a false hope but a great place to start for sure yeah and well I was going to say the nextg data would help with that and then also we did talk about potential cost impact of that recommendation and just some like very quick math that I did on my napkin um says that the cost of hiring contractors is more expensive than the cost of the 21% uh that this would add to their base salary and so if we hired if we hired even one psychologist that would cover for you know three psychologists market demand going into their base and so on and so forth so um oh and then about the um yeah having them in a separate categories because like if the average teacher is making like 60 and a psych is making closer to 90 then that like if they both get a 1% raise syes are getting a fortunately much higher dollar value than teachers and it's like weird to lump them together and just just to remind us that the next gen data is going to be based on last year's salary information so it's not going to be taking into account increases the 5% increase from this year so just kind of keep it that in mind as we're looking at those numbers okay any other comments sorry and did you want to add a suggestion that you shared yesterday we can add that I forgot to put it on go ahead um all of the contract psychologists that we have coming in have written in their contracts that they have one work from home day a week and they are not extending that to District level psychologists and that is unfortunately rewarding the contract psychologists more and encouraging people to leave a district and so I would request that we allow one to two work from Days home a week because psychologists in terms of case management have a lot to do in terms of overseeing paperwork and making sure that we're being compliant and we know that there's folks that are leaving the district to go work for a contracted company purposely because they know that they have yeah and just to add we have neighboring districts like Scottdale that has a whole thing about one day work from home for syes there is uh Madison there are requirements in terms of compliance and all of that so there are we did write a proposal that we submitted to um our director on that as well to try and recruit people um so it's definitely something I think could be really helpful can we do two separate option one option can be one day per week and the other one can be one to two days per week because one day I think okay good good good good good one day per week thank you I just help understanding how reducing the amount of people available for kids in a week is in the best benefit part of the story part of the story is that psychologists often get pulled when they're on their campuses to cover Duty to grab a kid that's running to do other everybody does that in every position asist when there vacancies or when there's emergencies or with there's abmm right but I really I need help from this group to help me understand how um a person working from home doing only clerical it's going to benefit and going to help us with sfg goals um I have to say it's because of sped so school psychologist is responsible for all of the evaluations and they have to do a whole there's a lot of paperwork that goes into a m a Met meeting one and a Met meeting two and they're responsible for all of the compliance paperwork that's on the federal level it's not a e it's not like they're going to be going home just sitting there the paperwork takes hours and days it depending on the kid it can take weeks to complete one men evaluation all the paperwork this is not a strictly clerical thing this is a compliance directly attached to Federal funding this is something that we need to do in order to make sure that we are meeting timelines and obligations and as we indicated this is something that is inequitable right now because we are losing District psychologists to contractors or other districts surrounding districts who are offering this as a way to make sure that we are meeting compliance timelines and again up for negotiations and debate when we come to a vote this is just getting information on the paper right now and I I want to add to like directly to Avon's question about how this is in the best interest of kids as a teacher I have seen some pretty bad sped paperwork I've seen a lot of Co not the and and I think a lot of that comes down to people being rushed to complete the bare minimum of federal compliance rather than actually trying to do what is best for students because there's a certain number of like minutes in the day there's timelines that have to be met and like I just know that if those IEPs were written with more time more space to be given for things I'm I'm I'm aware I'm just speaking to sped in general I I I an evaluation is a lot more difficult than I you know I imagine just coming up with some classroom accommodations and so if I'm seeing for example the wrong kid's name coming up in an IEP right I'm not just I'm not going to assume that that teacher that wrote that is just like a bad teacher or someone is bad at their job I'm going to assume that for because of time constraints because of the like responsibilities that are assigned to them they were rushed into doing something same thing with an evaluation no one want it's not good for our sped students to have like a rushed evaluation because psychologist got pulled to go do lunch duty right and so they cut their thing short and they had to come back to it and they're like I just need to be done with this today versus having some structured time to complete all that like the paperwork isn't just to make some person at ad happy right the paperwork is a reflection of the practices being put in place that help our sped students and our sped Department like you know our district has a whole um committee I think or task force set up around collecting feedback about our SP Department because it's been an issue ongoing for years where families have given a lot of feedback where they feel like their sped students are not you know being given the services that they deserve so I think that that's no not not really I I understand the difficulty and the importance of in compliance but there are other positions that had also uh clerical work that assist with compliance and federal grants educational SEC and and and and they don't have four days a week or three days a week they do it before and after and during every day and they're still available as needed for their team at each one of the schools so um I'm sorry I just I just want more clarity because I don't see how having less time at campus will impact in better result for kids let me make a suggestion because we're not um these are just options right now we're not doing a formal recommendation so um I would say whomever really wants that think about how it really can align to our um guard rails so you're ready for that conversation when it comes up okay um James you wanted to say something yeah I just had a question um if if correct me if I'm wrong the the first option is if there's uh something that the case manager has above and beyond their case load that they're to be compensated am I understanding that correctly not above and beyond if there's if they've they're getting additional duties because there's a vacancy or because there's a non-certified teacher who cannot legally write the IEPs so that kind of case not because they go over some magic cap or anything because there is no magic cap but it's if they're actually taking on the responsibilities of a vacant position or a position that's filled by a non-certified teacher somebody has to write those IEPs so they would be the ones and then they get compensated that's happening right now yeah we do that now right it's current practice correct that's not true it is current practice for anybody if somebody's doing that and not getting paid for it they need to talk to D Gretchen because right it they it's happening but it's a practi not in the PA that's the point yeah so that's sorry that that that's my question so what you're saying is this is an option that is current practice but maybe unevenly implemented I think in paper or in policy I think so that if somebody felt like they weren't getting it they could say hey it says I should be getting paid for this yeah because I I thought it was current practice it is current practice it was vetted through the Triad Pro procedure last year and we had input from exceptional student services uh to develop the mechanism to gather that extra pay documentation and what those criteria were so all of that is in practice currently and it's in our practice manuals so don't it it no it's not that we don't have the budget we we won't have well we don't have to no we don't have to add as a budget item because it's already in practice that's a pretty easy one then yeah okay any other questions okay I'd like to finish this one before we go to lunch so our speaker neighbor yeah our topic was salary advancement for education level um our story was lack of license s psychologists um no interns as a result because I guess you need a license site to oversee an intern um people don't always and people don't always feel compensated for their education um interests were how do we compensate psychologists for achieving uh their licensing and how can we competitively compensate employees for their education level um couple options we came with up with with if funds are available to lower uh classified staff educational advancement criteria from 15 to 10 hours so I guess they get advancement quicker and our second one if but it's if funds available provide comparable stien for for licensed school pyes it was also noted that um it shouldn't affect I think our budget because the district gets reimbursed uh through Medicaid for sites license sites what do you mean by comparable what do what does that mean comparable so would we need to determine like do the research to find out what that is and put in a dollar amount I would think yeah yeah if I mean if that were to move forward as a recommendation I think we'd have to have a dollar amount yeah okay comments can we get curve so just for the people sitting at home watching can we you first mentioned oh licensed psychologist my first reaction was y'all ain't licensed what are y'all doing here maybe do some clarification what licens mean so we are all certified School psychologists to work in the schools however it is required ired by the state that a licensed school psychologist that means a psychologist who is typically they have to have a doctoral degree um they also have to go through additional testing to obtain that lure and then they can do private practice not all of school psychologists who are certified School psychologists can do private practice the difficulty that we're seeing is that we're not able to recruit interns because we don't currently have a licensed school psychologist on staff which is heavily impacting our ability to recruit new psychologists um from ASU and surrounding universities yeah um go into more detail about the billing to Medicaid So currently hopefully Medicaid stays around if it does um a licensed psychologist can bill for every evaluation so if they consult and provide consultation to any of us for say autism sign the report they could bill for every autism so it actually could actually pay for the typen and actually bring in more money and Vanessa apparently has something very exciting to say because she's running up um we can bill if they are not paid from a federal or grant funding source you can't build somebody get paid out title or something so if they're paid out of idea we can't can't we can't build medic but if they're paid out of M yes if they're paid out of a ml or local funding question then are all speech and language therapists paid out of M I could look I don't know that would be great because they bill because they bill everyone well if they're billing then they're paid out the right funding source because we're audited extensively we cannot sub we have to submit reports that show where they're being paid from so whoever we're billing for is out of a funding source that's billable I just want to make sure that we all understand there's there's there's some people that we don't bill for because they're paid for out of idea or some other grant funding source so I wouldn't say all of of anything but the ones that are appropriately funded we can bill for if that makes sense it's a balance so clari question so um she um lordis said that if um a licensed psychologist if they um what do you word do you use Bill Medicaid not Bill Med but if they you they consult with a psychologist but that psychologist they consulted with is paid out of IDE a grant can they still bill it's only the only the licensed psychologist would be billing so if as long as they're not paid out of okay they would be able to Bill that was my question and considering we have zero now I think we're okay so I have a clarification on option one are you looking at reducing just the 15 to 10 or all the other four categories because there are four different professional growth credit levels in the in this di so we were looking to reduce all of them we'll add in the number but we didn't have all of the other numbers the way it reads it's just saying the first one yeah so if we can get the additional numbers we'll reduce them 30 45 and 60 okay any more comments um I have a question what do you mean by lower so just what do you mean so for classify staff lower the criteria so you mean so when we say 15 hours tell about 15 college hours is just 15 okay so instead of getting 15 credit hours they would just need to get 10 credit hours to qualify for the advancement the first level of advancement okay that makes sense okay okay so thank you very much um I thought that went well after lunch we will complete the next two and uh then we're going to work with our wording thinking about our discussion we had this morning uh we're going to revisit our options and if we have time then we will go through all of our options to determine which ones we're going to need Finance for and which ones we do not so two more Yep so it's 12:20 so one how about 105 okay enjoy your lunch everyone e e e yeah let's go for it I'm up for that slide yep okay that group is out by the picnic table aren't they but Ivon can you tell yep oh he's yeah and Amy you're leing right we'll miss you let me know how everything goes Amy welcome everyone I hope you all enjoyed your lunch okay in the back there we're going to line up make a straight hor horzontal line starting from shortest over here to tallest we're gonna do it again did we shortest to tallest okay we're gonna do it again we have some we have Carolyn here now so it's gonna change a little bit I was going to do boys and girls but there's way more girls okay we'll do years of service zero one year to 3 five all together yeah all together it doesn't have to just be in this District Ariel where where do you belong Ariel okay Daniel I guess you're the newest person since you used your college degree for Education okay Daniel how many four I just don't like to Countess well 14 14 16 25 oh my gosh wow okay soel Joel how many years do you have oh it's catching up to you ladies how many I had I had 30 oh my I even know six how many years have you guys been in you ladies been in the eight Lisa Don how many Don how many of you had been in that six Finance or education alt together yeah wow we got some r is almost ready here okay everyone okay from an over that's from an over is one team you can come over here and over here this team and select one of your charts and we're going to go through the same exact process six one two three four close enough e e e um Adrian we're gonna we're actually finished early we're High achievers uh Kelly needs your cards if you were in her group okay are those all collected theyed perfect well who has the norm card it really okay I'll make a new one okay um great work as always um we're going to share now and we'll have our presenter over here sharing um the topic the issue and the option well actually you better share it all the story yeah um so the story to summarize is that some of our current employees are not seeking uh promotions or advancements because uh the the pay would not end up being an increase because of maybe contract days or something like that so our option is um for internal promotions that when a transfer to a new higher position you would receive a percentage over your current rate the the just this just the option when um transferring to a new or higher position you would receive a percentage over your current rate what yes and the the reason for that is um because sometimes if you're a 10-month employee and then you become a 12-month employee even though the base salary might be more if you look at your daily rate you're working more days and so then you're not actually getting a raise or promotion it ends up becoming a decrease yeah any other questions questions comments okay thank you can let's move on over here and it's uh Daniel um our issue was Employee group compensation so specifically it was addressing compression as well as some specific subgroups of unemployeed who are underpaid compared to surrounding districts um when it came to the subgroups of employees who are underpaid to surrounding districts we don't have any data that we can work off of currently so like things uh groups that were brought up are uh LPN syes edx bus drivers facilities we asked for the data because like we had the whole prior conversation we don't have it in front of us and so we couldn't make we couldn't create any options targeting those groups because not only are we short on money but also we don't know how much it would cost and so we didn't feel comfortable making that um but for compression like we already talked about um the compression committee uh was unable this year to come up with a solution to address um I guess you'd call like job roll compression where a manager is not paid a significant amount over their employees but we can address years of service compression where someone who's been in the district a long time is getting paid only a marginal amount more than someone who's brand new coming in and through longevity um we don't have like hard longevity numbers in front of us Vanessa said she's working on that so our option was to address compression the longevity stipend will be increased at years 5 10 and 15 by x amount um we know that that can be up to $200,000 because that's the amount we allocated and was separated out this year from our budget and that can be continuing funds and so um and we addressed Tiers 5 10 and 15 because those are the years that people would be experiencing compression not we have a three-year longevity tier but it doesn't no one at three years would really be feeling like I get only get paid a little bit more than someone with one year of experience like yeah it's pretty comparable compared to someone with five years to a brand new employee that's a pretty big jump okay comments questions okay good let's move on okay so like I said earlier today first thing um I know there was conversation at our last meeting um and the evaluation about how do we word our options and that's why I asked the question I asked today of the board president and um probably some of the things I wrote maybe we need to ignore but maybe not because every option we look at might be a little bit differently but here's what I learned from my study so when we word our options the they should be clear so the person understands them and I think that doesn't change they should be clear and they should be specific and there should be actionable language in other words there should be an action verb in there I think we can do those three very easily okay um concrete details and a connection to your interests which that's what we did here um so we know that they're going to to our interest because we did that activity um it's best to avoid vague terms like should or might and instead State opinions that are concrete actions that can be implemented always ensure your options are directly tied which we just did to your framing statements and think about this when you're looking at your the options because we are going to do an activity which requires us to go back and look at our op options and in your group I'd like you also to think about is it achievable is it truly achievable when you say that when you say that do you want us to think about achievable Cur based on the current financial status for next year specifically or achievable with that if then language should more money come in I I think both because we are going to do the if then so um I would think both Daniel a comment about if then language we can't have I would say I mean I probably even more than one thing but we can't have too many things competing for if then language because um then if there's money who decides what if then goes you know and so just be aware that not everything can have if then language okay yes James idea to prioritize well but James like for example if we do if then language for salaries up like with a minimum of 1% what if there's enough like money to give everyone 5% worth of like salary increases like that would we do a 1% raise and a bunch of other things or would we do 5% of salary so if you have too much if then language it's going to compete so you could prioritize but you it would require it to be very detailed so like you could say if there's enough money a 1% raise and this and this and this and this before a 2% raise right but it needs to the more if then language there is the harder it is to prioritize yeah I'm notu just see if there's a way to avoid that we kind of prioritized in the past with them and we'll probably use that same process that we've done in the past so thank you for the question okay so here's just more information on the wording of options key points to remember when you're with your group wording your options be make sure the options are specific meaning they're detailed an example would be instead of saying improve communication you would say Implement weekly team meetings to discuss targeted student engagement strategies so that's pretty detailed I mean you read that and there's not too many questions that come to mind um try to make sure you have an actionable verb in there um an example the company should consider becomes the company will Implement and I think we do a pretty good job with that actually um support with evidence which basically means data explain why you're making the options by referencing data or observations from your analysis we're not really going to do a lot of that we might with our research um and we're going to need to do that with our research for sure okay these bottom two I'm rethinking now after the conversation had this morning I still think we might be able to maybe add dates when needed um I think we're going to have to be careful with that after our morning conversation and actually the last one you know provide person group responsible um kind of left thinking we might want to look at that too with how we're wording it up to all of you because you are the team but that's before we had the conversation today I think um we should try to PRI and this is my opinion we should try to prioritize timelines for things that don't make sense to implement unless they're done by a certain time and like like for example if we have something that is only effect like I think we included some language about providing teachers structured time to meet with uh sped teachers in the first two weeks of the school year that is only something that really makes sense because it's part of that year first year back process um and if we are like oh well they can't get this done by the beginning of next school year then you have to say okay is it okay for it to be done the following next school year and if the answer is no I guess we just got to make priorities right like how badly do we need does something need to get done versus oh it would be nice if we did that acknowledging like the like the capacity limits that the district has I think that makes sense does it make sense to all of you so when you're group when you're in a group can you Summit a little bit smaller so when you're in your group and you're saying should we add a specific think of this time timelines are not bad but they should be it should be important if you are adding a timeline yeah a rationale yes yeah thank you okay here's an example and like I said I put a date and I put a person in it so um you'll have to bear with me so to improve student attendance that's the evidence because you would have have evidence to look at which is data the school that's the group responsible will conduct there's my action verb um quarterly surveys that's specific and it has a date to track attendance rate by school um to track attendance rate by school grade in classroom evidence and Implement targeted solutions to address student attendance so it's pretty specific active voice within the next quarter so there's a date so do I expect you to do this for all of our options no but it's something I want you to think about and like I said I did I did kind of research it and it made sense to me um so at least we have I know some of you wanted a little bit more Direction into the wording of our options so really the purpose of this is just to give you something to think about and like I said you don't have to use every single one of those suggestions but if you can Implement them where you think they should be implemented that would be great questions okay so our activity for today it's going to be a long activity it's probably going to take us 40 minutes and then we're going to take our break um we're going to have three teams um each team is going to have a captain okay and the responsibility of the captain is they have to wear the captain hat so if you get called on and you're not willing to wear the cap you can't be a captain so this is the captain hat so our Captain's going to Weare hat and then our captain is going to randomly going to pick this the the captains are going to be selected first they're going to come up here and then they're going to randomly select crew members from my little packet of names and then the team cap Captain is assign is going to assign the job responsibilities for the group and the team captain has to collect those cards at the end so Captain if you're selected when I pick the names and you don't think you can follow through on those responsibilities just say select someone else so anyway so we'll first select our team captains and then once the captains are selected we're going to divide the options and I don't know how many we're up to now 28 maybe I don't know we're going to divide all our options into three groups so every group is is going to have a certain amount of options probably eight or nine options your job in the group is just to read over the options individually if you think the way they are written is fine leave it if you think it needs to be tweaked a little bit more then change it okay so on a chart paper you're going to write what your group has decided is the final wording of the option so we won't have to do that again when we go to do our recommendations um any questions about the directions okay let me randomly call someone to repeat the directions which by the way are right up there and hopefully that person that I select is here Amy Daniel what what do I need to say to repeat the directions of this AC oh um the captain will receive their hat and put it on and then um they will assign like you know once you've picked the groups they will assign roles to their group members and then uh and or responsibilities and then um you will have have eight or nine options to review that you'll be rewarding um for Clarity by reading through them reading out loud and revising and if needed um or if needed you also may leave the options alone okay oh and then write the revised versions down perfect okay Dorothy select a name here for Captain one Katie Katie is not here Kelly Kell are you willing to be a captain I know not much okay Kelly is going to be a captain y Kelly okay select another one Kelly you want to go up and grab your Justin's not here Ric nope do you accept the challenge okay Justin's not here Ricardo an's here let's take her out one more one more James Jes James are you willing to be a captain no okay so we'll select are you serious you really don't okay select another one Ivonne are you willing to be a captain okay okay we're not gonna have too many in a group we're gonna have very few in a group hey the hats are brand new you are the first person to wear them okay so well we're gonna do it hey R you know why I didn't it randomly because when I was little and was on you know we used to divide the teams for the Kickball and I was always the last one to get selected until I got good then I I got you know so anyway I felt uh that's why we're doing it randomly oh let me make one for carollyn okay or how about neighbor okay okay so the captain's over here one at a time you're going to draw a name you're not going to see the names zon come over here no those are the ones not here okay my first person is Dorothy Dorothy nebor am pick somebody elseca lordis neighbor you're with over here okay so uh this might take us a little bit of time but we have to select the posters with the options on it so goes okay so we'll have ivonne's team will be over here Kelly's team will be in the middle and James you you should have been picked it's it's Junior High all over again I bet you e e e welcome back everyone okay so our job right now is to share our revised if needed options and we will start over here with Daniel and by the way if you have in your folders the paper that lists all the options you can use that to follow along some of like we said some of the options were not changed some of them will be so if it was a changed option let us know why you changed it and then I want us to agree upon that and once this process is finished we're not going to change the wording again okay this is it um so starting with the first six on the printout we changed the first one to uh yeah of course um let me fix my screen up all right and this is called boardroom probably it's mirror all right let me make it bigger it's as big as it gets all right um the first one on your print out the first option we changed it to read a committee formed by the kraton elementary school district will conduct a thorough investigation and formulate a plan for a 4-day school week findings will be presented during the meeting confer session for the 2526 Academic Year with a recommendation for implementation targeted for the 26 27 school year yep passive to active voice sort of you go back oh all right moving on the second one in alignment with research that suggests there is a diminishing return on student outcomes for instructional minutes Beyond 5 hours and 30 minutes the school day will be reduced from 7 hours and 10 minutes to 6 hours and 30 minutes yep we added rationale and slightly changed the language in alignment with research that suggests there is a diminishing return on student outcomes for instructional minutes Beyond 5 hours and 30 minutes the school day will be reduced from 7 hours and 10 minutes to 6 hours and 30 minutes is this for next year yeah yeah so all of us out it's I we're fixing up the option language it's not like do we need to say implementing 26 or 256 yeah we I guess we should add to make it clear for the 25 26 school year well again adding yeah sure let's leave it off is sorry maybe we say for the 256 unless yes put that at the top of the option so what how will you reduce the date by 40 minutes like what's going to be reduced it's not the point of changing the option language the option is the option clear do you understand what it means that's not what we're asking well do you understand what the option is saying then we have rewarded the option successfully can I just ask one question um is that a calculation based on required instructional minutes and that's the minimum in order to meet all the instructional minutes including uh early release days and okay if not I'd want to get someone in here who really is deep in the student data part that would ensure that that would work the surrounding school districts all have 6 hour 30 minute days we used to have I think 7 hour and 30 minute days and it was slightly reduced to 7 hours and or no sorry we used to have 6:30 and it was increased to 710 I think we should have our student data person um because we have a audit requirement to run our calendars in each year annually to provide that the instructional time minutes are are being met I know I'm just saying for data purposes because I I would hate for an option to not like not meet the legal requirement yeah we don't want that fix data for you guys that's illegal yeah it's just another piece of data to make sure that your times all work out and if you had to make literally I did this job and so one minute you might have to say six hours and 29 minutes or you might have to say six hours and 31 minutes let our data person run the times for you so you get that exactly right that's all I'm saying next I yeah but we're not right yeah I would just add it to the data request required minutes instructional minutes sep separate options well we could approve both well Dorothy we could approve both and starting next year we have six hours and 30 minutes and then the committee is investigating a four day school week right which might increase the school day yeah yeah just so people know I don't want the Mone I also think that maybe oh I also think before we have someone come and give us feedback on some of the so maybe the requirements or the options they require feedback from another department someone else instead of wasting someone time to come out maybe we can thumb the ones today that require a presentation to see it's even worth having someone come out and give us information if if we're not actually no I will not I will not publicly support something that might be illegal if all I need is one person to thumbs up or thumbs down if it's even something that we really want as an option so someone come out and get it because if we're some of like what I'm trying to say is if some us already know that it's a thumbs down for us regardless of what the person come in and says is it really worth wasting someone time to come out and give us information I'm saying thumbs up or thumbs down the options they require someone to come out and do a presentation they're not wasting their time diging up information and whatnot what I'm saying like do we really want to waste someone time to dig up all this information come and do a presentation if some of us already off the bat no is not something we'll ever consider well like do we want to waste somebody's time collecting all the data yeah but there are guidelines for Staffing and minutes and we can provide what we currently have and what we know how our minutes break down that's a pretty easy thing to get okay I don't think it needs to be a presentation I think we can just present that in the data information and you can kind of look and see and enough of us are in here we have an AP in the room who's responsible for Staffing or for uh master schedule so if there are questions about how that looks then we could rely on our expertise from our principles in our AP I know I just don't want to waste anyone time trying to make well it's this one this one is just GA gathering their document and putting it in there so you have access to it does that sound okay okay okay um moving on each month of the school year one Friday per month will be designated as an inservice day for mandatory staff PD we we yeah we use the language in service day rather than I I so to repeat the original option was designate one Friday per month for mandatory staff PD comma without students we wrote each month of the school year one Friday per month will be designated as an inservice day for Manda story staff PD an inservice day is a day without students yeah yes yes the next option originally read district will initiate development of site-based systematic protocols for crisis team response intervention including identification and training on District processes threat assessments suicide assessments Etc by the end of the first quarter of each school year we we did but that's not what we're talking about right now um we changed the language to develop site-based systematic protocols for crisis team response intervention including identification and training on District processes threat assessments suicide assessment Etc that will be administered by the end of the first quarter of each school year any issues um the original language was School site or sorry the district will provide a full-time highly qualified ESP who is also on the crisis response team we change the language to read School sites will ensure that a full-time highly qualified ESP is assigned to the site's crisis response team any issues um where it's develop site based systematic protocols um uh because in the past there seemed to be a push to have uh consistency across the district and when I read site based I feel like that implies that that's not true am I misinterpreting that um so the when I recall last year we actually passed a recommendation to do this some sites have followed that recommendation other sites have not for reasons I do not recall but I think we talked about it at some point um and some things yes I think in general everyone prefers consistency but crisis response and intervention for example relies on things like the Personnel that are available like contact XYZ person right the positions that fi at a site the physical like literal physical layout of buildings depending on like things like that and so um I my understanding is that why that is why crisis response is site based although I could be wrong I yeah I don't know if it's just me but I like when I read that it's feels like everyone has their own systematic uh protocols in place that may or may not look the same from side to side is there a particular way you'd like to you see that possibly Chang um I would just get rid of site based and say develop systematic protocols everything else is fine but the site based is what depent right that's why I didn't I didn't write the original option so I don't feel comfortable making an edit like that because it wasn't my option does anyone remember whose option it was ask a process question so we did have similar language in last year's agreement so would this be a revision of the existing recommendation so realistically Joel it probably is going to be dead in the water because we already have an a recommendation that covers this and the people that want this should file a grievance for being it being a violation of our um professional agreement or if this language like I I don't have the other language right in front of me or like you were saying like I noticed that this says end of first quarter school year I know our previous language didn't it would be a revision right just as a some additional information is that the curriculum effective uh essential student services ESS exceptional student services it's going to be a while uh so ESS uh cinaa myself uh Dr dupin uh we're bringing APS in we've started talking about the training that needed to have happened this year and what's going to be different for next year so I that wouldn't prevent someone from fining a grievance or change what we're doing in here but just to know that that came out of the conversation that we had earlier this process yeah so the way the grievance procedure and the professional agreement works is you file grievance with your direct supervisor usually regardless of what who is responsible for the violation so like I don't know if it if it is a district level thing you would just you would give it to your principal or your site administrator and then they would escalate it to the proper person and then the goal with the grievance procedure you're supposed to resolve things at the lowest level so first you go tell your supervisor hey this is a problem and then there's a certain timeline that they fix it within if they don't fix it within that timeline you can file a grievance same thing there's a timeline the grievance gets a response from the district or the responsible party in this case it might be hey we're doing XYZ thing if that's sufficient then they don't nothing happens if that's not sufficient they can file like a level two grievance that can goes to a different body I think it's supervisor and then superintendent and then School Board s ultimate ultimately everything falls on the superintendent and their designes so you know what actually happened and why something isn't being done is is going to depend like but it's up to the superintendent to make sure that their principles are doing XYZ thing right um I'm just asking this question it the crisis team is at the school right and the the principal selects the crisis team is so is that your question James it's like is it use the mic please keep forgetting that um so uh the uh it's just that word site based that to me that implies that each school would have different systematic protocols for their crisis team and that seems to go against previous conversations that we've had about uh trying to create uniformity across the district so I'm just wondering if that is the intention or if I'm misinterpreting it or um yeah um I I'm thinking of two different things with what you said site based meaning it's at the school the team and you're thinking that the crisis the actual crisis development could be different from each School correct because of the way of the wording correct okay I I get that um I I think that's the clarity right because it's the training is that provided by District level staff so that that's uniform but how it actually is applied and unfolds is site based because it depends on like like uh Daniel said the layout of the school or the nature of the crisis and the actual Personnel that you have available all of that is site based but the training would come from that's the uniformity from the district level staff that's that's that's humorous to me um and and the and I don't mean to be sned about it but I promise you that training would come from the people at the site because I I mean I don't want to speak for district but I don't think they have the resources to go out to every school I think that's the point the threat assessment and the suicide assessment must be given by should be given by the district Personnel that was one of our recommendations last year and this is revising or reemphasizing that because it has not happened at some sites okay my department is the one that does it so I know it hasn't happened so school districtwide okay well that that language to me is not clear for that especially the developing site based I mean I hear what you're saying and I agree with it I just I don't think that reflects what she's saying how would you do you have an option yeah James if you'd like to add an option that addresses your concerns I think that's fine while also leaving the original option I mean the only thing that kind of rubs me the wrong way is that site based so if my my option would be to remove site base and to say develop system atic protocols for crisis throw it on the list so really it's just deleting site based that's that would be my recommendation doesn't gayway already have a I think our concern James is like what if teams look different site to site right like there was a time where some sites had an AP and some didn't so we can't really develop a districtwide one if they all those team members don't necessarily exist within certain sites I think the uniformity comes is that it's districtwide but then it's up to the sites and those supervisors to be able to determine what exactly that shakes out to be on that particular campus and also did James credit it is possible I mean you could just have a flowchart if this if the site has XYZ Personnel then use XYZ Personnel right but um I I'm worried about what I mentioned at the beginning which is it it implies that each school will uh develop it differently and it won't be based on I mean because it's like a game of telephone right you go and you have District processes and training and stuff but then once it reaches the site level um if you're having a site based approach to it then that can change based on the interpretation of uh of the people at the site it's happened before I've seen it happen before would that's right and I would say that that's wrong and it should be that way and uh maybe but I like I said I I I don't think that that addresses it that's all I'm saying so I think we can add an option to our final list that excludes the language site based I don't want to change this because the original language had site based and we're just changing for clarity um rather than trying to change the intent of the option does it change the intent of the option by deleting site based yes yeah like those are two different things no but what I'm saying is it does it change the int oh we can't we can't determine that because Amy's not here oh okay okay so wherever we're collecting our final list of options can we have that reflected is someone writing down a final list of options somewhere yeah okay cool oh our group did the ones over here oh look at you yeah yes these ones weren't but those ones were Contin we we'll r is it that James then when Amy I guess is here okay continuing on um I will repeat the one after that one since we had cot discussion um the next option reads the district will provide a full-time highly qualified ESP who is also on the crisis response team we changed it to read School sites will ensure that a full-time highly qualified ESP is assigned to the sites crisis response team so 40 hour this is very small but does everyone know what ESP is that universal language or is there another word that we use for classified employe right which is exceptional student services no that's what I meant educational support Oh e oh oh I see oh just write it out that way I see I thought there was another word that the district used right well it's a title I thought it was educational support professional that was my that was my definition we don't need that one the one says to provide it is professional we should have put money on the table I was correct something district is already planning to do so rereading School sites will ensure that a full-time highly qualified educational support professional can you can you wait until it's quiet ESP is assigned to the site School sites will ensure that a full-time highly qualified educational support professional ESP is assigned to the sit's crisis response team can you I hate to mince words but can we Define full-time because most esps are not giving 40 hours in 40 hours is full-time most are now 36 and 37 would you consider them full-time cuz some sites might not have any 40 hour full time is fulltime I think that the intention I'm not a mind reader but the I think the intention of the option is that there is someone who is there all school day right full-time well 37 hours is all of the school day when the kids are there that's the point that's considered okay so then full-time for them but it's not 40 hour full-time that's why I'm saying Joel I guess then what language can we use to well we don't want it to be a halftime we don't want it to be someone who is there the whole time can we just put full time in quotes could we say 37 hour could you do full day is that are we okay what's that school sites will ensure that a high qualified educational support Personnel is assigned the crisis months I don't where instead of fulltime full day or school day who works who works a full school day so School sites will ensure that a highly qualified educational support professional ESP who works a full School the who works the full school day the full school day is assigned to the SES crisis response team there you go I have a question and and I I don't I don't have a problem with this I just I I want to describe a scenario and you tell me uh whether or not that's something that should be of concern um so so uh we are in a time where it's hard to find people uh sometimes and let's say that this is something that's implemented and a highly qualified ESP person is not able to be hired would what would that mean the same the same thing as if you have a math teacher position that isn't able to be hired you have a vacancy that's waiting to be filled okay so it's just vacan so it's not it's not a it's not a violation or anything no so there you can be that there will always be an educational secretary or an office manager or someone else in the front office there who works that time there will always be somebody in that position I think you're thinking of Perros and that that's true that can be that can be kind of a large turnover group sometimes in some places but you'll always have one of the two either an office manager or NX so they could put that person in that place so this isn't necessarily a job it's someone who's assigned to that crisis response yeah and and the nature the nature of the nature of grievances is like the school district is really only responsible for a grievance like like if the school district can't do something or doesn't want to do something that's what kind of what the the Grievous procedure is for not like it's not literally possible Right like if you file a grievance and you're like this thing is in our agreement and it's not happening the answer is we can't hire anyone to do that that's you know right lawers take that up be like you're violation contract you have not suc you can never guarantee that you're able to hire someone in a contract right got it thank you for the clarification um moving on the next option read the district will provide ongoing training to all staff in terms of trauma informed practices BMC transfer behavior management cycle rulers Etc we changed it to read provide ongoing train to all staff in trauma-informed practices the behavior management cycle ruler and other comparable programs designed to Target student Behavior but we're just we're just we're just rewarding them right now save that um Ariel for next meeting because that's what we'll be doing exactly what you said are you okay with the wording okay okay go on the next option oh we we did the options on the posters we rewarded them like the ones over here so I will migrate is to be able to read the options um oh the next one I don't think we changed very much it just says to add address compensation or sorry to address yes to address compression prob yeah to address compression longevity stiens will increase by 10% at years 5 10 and 15 okay that's how did we come up with 10% well when we when we developed the option earlier we wrote x amount and then Vanessa gave me some numbers and 10% was an amount we could increase the longevity by without going over our $200 limit okay okay next one Daniel um the next one originally wrot read case managers who cover case management for vacancies or non-speed certified teachers will be compensated for the additional case man Che thank you to continue yeah my hat case managers who cover case management for vacancies or non-speed certified teachers will be compensated for the additional case management hyphen at three hours per IEP at extra Duty rate we changed it to read sped case managers who take on additional duties for vacancies of nonsp or non-speed certified teachers will be compensated at the extra Duty rate at 3 hours per IEP respons yep you're as the case manager you're only responsible for the IEP you do not have to do the support I don't what is the current practice I don't know it depends because those vacancies change throughout the year yeah it's a good question but that's we just rewarded the original option it just said per IEP it didn't say per I and progress report and whatever it just said per IEP you don't get compensated if for shown up to meetings you just get compensated for the IP I guess right it assumes that it'll take at least three hours of your time to write the IP and Sh to some meetings yeah okay there's at least one I don't want that one the question is well I'm I'm asking Dorothy do we want to Dorothy you're the professional I'm I'm just here um do we want to take out like three hours per IEP or do we to put three hours for that's the problem right so if if the case management is in February and the IEP was already done in November you get three hours to get compensated when you don't even have to write an IP okay that's not can't afford that I mean it's it's for actually doing something no I mean like do we want to change it so people actually because you going to need someone to do prog course you going need some want to attend the mid one and mid two do we want to keep the phrase IEP or say per case manager activities per case and then put in parentheses all the things that no do you want to do per case excellen had a vacancy first quarter of the year so any I that need done not order one of the other resource had to do them yes happening right now in monista but they didn't have to do progress then we hired somebody there was no longer a vacancy so I'm just not sure I'm not Pi sure for as long as there is a vacy no no no for May me for per casee so so in that in that time frame you have to do the IEP if there's a met you got to go go to it and you have to do IEP and then if the parent let's say for example something happens and a parent calls extra IEP meeting you gotta do that too I don't know people aren't vacant for the whole year usually I mean that's a huge problem if they are they're vacant for like a few weeks or a quarter and I don't know and thinking three hours for a like three hours per case makes sense to me because then that's a Max number if we SW thanks it's a Max number if we switch it to say case per instead of per IEP then I feel like that can Encompass up to three hours per case yes up to three hours per case the suggesting yeah the exact wait up to three per case between January and March and no was due when there was a v yeah that says up to hour up to three hour yeah and that's what the up to is is it Dorothy it can be zero zero is up to three hours yeah you have to fill out a form so if you fill out an extra Duty form for an hour of work then they get two hours to do their part and then every they could get another hour doing something else isn't that what we already do no what how does it work an IEP oh okay so the stat the current practice is only for an so if you have to do an IEP you get paid and we're going to have to consider compensatory at anyway I'm not sure how long it's going to take to do that progress report so could they like make a case and get paid for what the work that they think they're doing extra that's not our policy right now at the only point of this was to document the current policy then I'm not comfortable with well I'm saying you know that a part of that three hours that includ control Z control Z moving on um the next the wording did not well yeah this the word did change um the next one second to last for our group go for it when's a sped case managers will be compensated at an extra Duty rate at up to three hours per IEP yes for yes taking on additional duties for vacancies or non-sp certified teachers cool and that c probably doesn't need to be capitalized is allive sped capitalized sped cool um the next one school psychologists market demand amount added to base instead of being a market demand and they are in a separate group when it comes to any raises we change that to read psychologists will receive a base salary increase of $115,000 in blue of a $115,000 market demand stien and psychologists will not be grouped with other certified staff for the purpose of negotiated raises is that clear to everyone what that means okay and then our our last one allow school psychologist to work one day per week from home or offsite we change to read School psych or psychologist will be permitted to work one day per week from home or offsite psychologist will be permitted to work one day per week from home or offsite while you're talking that's when we did it okay so purpose of negotiating raise so we're you want to share what you want to share oh yes um so last time we met I sent a group of RF Protections in the Google Chat of proposed reduction Force language um it was relevant and preent because we were talking about potentially losing a lot of federal funding which might necessitate a reduction in Force if you don't know reduction in force is when um usually it's like more than 1% of Staff positions have to be closed um or removed or made vacant um that may or may not happen that usually happens at the end of a school year so for example if our school district had to shrink more than 1% of our positions moving into the next year that would be a reduction of force um I asked everyone to read it if you have any issues with that language if you could please let me know before our next meeting so we can fix it up yeah cool I'm glad um it was added on because of that reason and also under the interest of retaining um good staff I forgot what the exact interest was but it was something about retaining uh staff and retaining recruiting staff um it is under our scope because it's like a a benefit um similar to how something like Severance would be a benefit or protections around um observations would be part of your working conditions so um it is a lot of language so I just threw it all in one document if there's someone that doesn't like it or wants to thumb it down or thinks it's bad and we could fix up the language to get it approved that would be helpful rather than like viewing it as like 30 different separate options I'm also going to reach out to the district lawyer with the language just to make sure that it's vetted through her so that she can determine whether or not we're overstepping we're not stepping enough or we have done something that that may not pass muster Daniel I know you use different you research different options for that language was our policy Craton policy one of those documents that you use to put together your proposal iot iot guidelines ruction course basically so not when the trigger what the just like when one is happening the guidelines structure out thank you okay um it's in the folder so when we meet next time we will finish when we meet next time we will finish our wording of the options then we will determine which options require money and which ones don't um then we will um have that long discussion about what options do we want we'll talk about Finance what we can afford what we can't afford um and then we will align them to our standards and maybe hopefully come to consensus on some of them anyway we'll see what uh how much time we end up having so it's April 4th I'd like to before we do with Emily um I want to do um a quick temperature check how are you feeling are you okay any comments I feel good no comments okay anyway anyone want to make a comment um I would like to add to anyone watching and also to the people in the room I was told that contracts will be due April what was the number 8th April 8th so we should have not board approved professional agreement but we should have a professional agreement going to the board um before contracts are due on the fourth well you know within and yes April 2N my bad okay so Emily um let's go ahead and do our communication update so really we started off today by having um some speakers a conversation with our board president and our superintendent and then um well you know mine's going to be super specific so I don't want to go through every little item um but really the gist of what we did today was um we finished developing options for four issues um and then we um after we finished that activity we um spent the majority of time rewarding our options and that's where we left off and every time we always have a presentation from Vanessa and Joel um anything else you'd like to add that I might ADM Miss Dorothy yes we're staying with the Delta level two as opposed to one and three I think it was we're not we voted against that thank you thank you Dorothy anything else that we want to add to [Music] yes I do want to ask you all something quickly Dorothy justed ask I look at I look at what Emily posts mostly because that's I like to um but I don't ever look at your detailed notes do you actually put the options there yes I do and you always have um I believe so I mean since we've had them why I just I'm wondering I think Ariel was trying to say about if it's an option that's not going to pass anying right do we even want it out there that that we were con considering that yeah I you know I didn't I I agree but I do put a note and I did put a note Dorothy that these are not recommendations these are just options I add that note to it yeah James just to kind of just to kind of add to that um we've had in the past um controversial options um that have uh come up and uh for every option that you would thumb down there are people that would be supportive of it and would be upset if you didn't at least have the conversation and sometimes I think it's helpful to tell people hey this was brought to the table because it was something that W that uh constituents uh felt was something that was important it was discussed and it was thumbed down so I just think Sophia will be very that's a good point if she want to see that we not that we have to all like make Sophia happy that's not what I'm saying but she's already in this mindset of I give you health insurance what's more can you ask for type mindset I think said all well she said I give you health care but um she said it's important to her yeah that we have that everybody hasal yeah yeah but her seen the fact that we're no about the S about trying to reduce the school day well we'll wait and see where we're at with that and you know like we said earlier with her we're going to provide research you know there's as to what we may not even settle on that options so we really don't know at this point what we're going to do we still have them like to add Ariel since it sounds like you feel so strongly one way on that already like do some research and look on your own because we are one of the districts that have one of the longest days FG and all that other J I think it would be a I think not necessarily though because quality sometimes is much better than quantity so there I mean when you have longer days sometimes you have kids who have more fatigue you have more issues like there are a lot of things nothing for us to get into now I just I think you need to kind of think of it broadly I also worry that we're creating stories for people before they've had an opportunity to review these options or recommendations should they become that and I worry that we're creating these stories that are talking people out of looking at issues or approving recommendations and we don't have that data to indicate that they would go one way or the other I agree I think we just need to come to the table if this is a big option for us I think we need to come to the table with student outcome focused maybe at other schools that follow the same guards just come to the table with all of our data and all of our research behind it we're trying to engage with you in this conversation I would appre I'm distracting her so sorry yeah so when we actually next week I mean our NE not next week um April second is it or fourth our next meeting we will be devoting quite a bit of time to that and if we need to add another meeting we need to add another meeting because like I said we have to add research this time with whatever we decide April 2nd I just want to um throw something out here we you know with the healthc care the benefit we never went through um the process for those I'm still going to write that down as a recommendation because we already did the recommendation okay um what I wanted to ask you about is there were two other ones that we never went through the process for so do and I talked to Daniel about this do we want to add them as our options the one about translation pay because the district already I guess is doing that so we will not add that as our recommendation right are you all in agreement and how about the PTO option the PTO option which I I think um Vanessa said they the district was already working on that so that would be something that we really don't need to negotiate yes um so depending on the district and like we could include these things as language in our bargaining agreement and it might prove redundant um but I think in an effort like the previous conversation this morning of like showing trust in the school district and not needing to like micromanage things if something is been clearly and publicly like communicated us that it's already being done there's no reason to be redundant includeed in our professional agreement unless we feel like there's a reason to like James has often talked about how he wants to make sure our professional agreement isn't like 100 pages long and that's one way of doing it is not to add redundant redundancies okay last lastly um you have some homework for your next meeting did you notice it on the PowerPoint okay so here's your homework I'd like you to bring an artifact for showand tell from your perspective um that from your perspective is represents negotiations okay and it could be in relation to what you offered to negotiations or just the broad topic negotiations so you're going to bring a little artifact to share with each of us so we're going to go round robin everyone's going to share their Show and Tell object any questions about the homework assignment okay and we can handle that right I'll um can you yes Maria will send a reminder okay um a wonderful job today even though we didn't accomplish everything seems like we never do but we really do a great job of accomplishing um what we do get done so I'm proud of that yes I thought so and I really feel that taking the time to hear your voices is important to this process even though it does take us a little bit longer but it's important to hear you all so um if you would please fill out your evaluation and leave at your pleasure for

and in 4A mosquit is the 15th seed and they will play at Prescot on Wednesday at 700 p.m. girls basketball in the open division mosquite is the number four seed they've Advanced to the quarterfinals and will play number five Pinnacle at home on Thursday evening at 700 p.m. and at 6A Gilbert is the one seed and has a Buy in the first round after a second round loss to Desert Vista in the open they will play the winner of the higgle Cesar Chavez game at home on Saturday at 600 pm. and Highland is the 15 seed and will play sandre day o Conor Thursday at 700 p.m. and cample verie in 5A is the five SE and they will play AZ college prep at home on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. so a lot of games this Thursday boy soccer um in the open Campo made it to the semis but lost this past Saturday 3 to one they always put together phenomenal teams 6A Gilbert and Highland both made it to the quarterfinals uh but they lost as well on Saturday and 4 a mosquit lost in the first round to West viiew in penalty kicks it was a close one 4 to three and GCA in the 2A lost in the corner finals to number one seed Phoenix Country Day and in girls soccer Highland uh in the open Highland made it to the elate 8 before losing to Perry Campo lost in the quarterfinals to chapparel which was ranked number one and GCA lost in the quarter finals 3 to2 to Kingman Academy in wrestling the Champions ship was last Thursday and we had many GPS wrestlers make the podium including two state champions Campo was runner up for division 2 and D Ridge took fourth in division one and we will recognize our two finishers at next month's board meeting on to something else School connect Cafe on Tuesday March 25th at 8: a.m.