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Was when did that take place? Yesterday yesterday. Yeah. So let's talk about it because that 74% of the voters in the last election said yes we support the the legislature being audited. 74%. Just to make sure everybody's spending the money properly and doing their job. So that means a majority of Democrats that means a majority of unenrolled and of course you know a majority of Republicans said yes we want that. We want it. But it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. You know why? Well because there's corruption. Because they had the vote and the Massachusetts House of Representatives and they had you know it's a yay or nay situation. You know I don't know why they just say yes or no they make it yay or nay. What are we horses? You push a button. Yay nay would you like some hay?

Uh yays nays. So 127 elected officials are defying the will of the voters to say we just want the books to be audited. What are they hiding Mike? Exactly the question that pops up automatically next. What are you hiding? And it's a lot. You know I walked through TSA you can go through my bag cuz I got nothing in there. I got nothing to hide. You know you want to check my pants pockets I got nothing to hide. You know I'm kind of bored anyway so let you know just do it. I got nothing to hide. If you got nothing to hide you want to be audited. You want to audit my taxes great. Okay. got nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about. Right. What are these people afraid of? I don't know but your names are all listed on massfiscal.org right here this document which I printed out today showing the 24 yays 127 nays defying as you said the will of the people who voted for the audit.

So they're basically they're saying screw the you know the the voters and the Massachusetts taxpayers we're going to do what we want because we got something to hide. If you've never gone to massfiscal.org go to massfiscal.org. Find out what's going on. They have a rating system of how they rate your elected officials. They they do check the closest thing you're going to get to an audit in Massachusetts right now is massfiscal.org. Yep. Go find them out. They're a great organization. They do a lot With some truth. They do a lot of good work and they they just put the truth out there. There's really no agenda. It's just like here's the truth. Now speaking of truth though. Yes I I like truth. I I have to get to this. Uh on my way to the studio today I was listening to Grace Curley and I heard my friend Steve Robinson come up.

From Maine. Steve Steve is the uh editor-in-chief of the Maine Wire and he was going on about what happened in Maine last night. I want to make sure I get this hero of mine on with Maine? Laura Libby is a state rep in Maine who now does not have the ability to vote. Even though she's a state rep or even express her opinion in the chambers of Maine because she believes and I believe her as well that men should not compete in women's sports. So the Maine legislature last night censored her and saying until she apologizes for a post that she put up on social media she can no longer vote. Stating her opinion about men men competing in women's sports. As bad as the Massachusetts legislature saying we're not going to respect the will of the voters and say you're not going to audit us.

What happened in Maine last night is catastrophic. Because if you don't agree with somebody's opinion okay great you don't want to agree with her. You don't take away their ability to represent people. Right. Vote her out of office if you don't like her. The power of the ballot box is still the most powerful thing in your state. Sure. But Janet Mills going to the White House and picking a fight with Trump over this very same issue. This exact same issue. Did you think that this was going to work out for you? You're on you're in his house and you're picking a fight with him and you think you're going to win? She she probably put the jeopardy of education public safety roads all in jeopardy because she's a Exactly. And by the way that right after that incident was all over social media video of her at a drag event dancing on stage dressed as whatever.

I I again there's got to be a line where you say okay this isn't probably the right thing to do when I'm the governor of the state. It common sense again John. It always goes back to common sense. But I mean but think think about it. Her peers Laura Libby's peers in Maine Yeah. voted to not give her a voice. Laura is more conservative. So what if conservatives did that to liberals? What would the response then be? It would be oh hellfire break out. You know Look how hateful they are. If people want truth they want common sense they want the opportunity to express themselves without being ridiculed and without being driven to the side one way or the other because there are two sides to this. We know this is a split country Democrats Republicans but and if the if the Democrats would just take 20% of the common sense that is in in the most Republicans thought patterns they'd be much better off and much more accepted across the country.

Cuz right now we have an an issue and you know what the here's here's where they can get their truth. Right here on All Politics is Local with John Featherson who's sitting right here. This is a guy who pays attention always tells the truth and is pure of heart when it comes to his motivations. That's you John. Well that was very nice of you Mike. Well that's it. I need a raise. Follow us on iHeart Radio. Follow us on Spotify Apple Podcast YouTube Rumble uh Just follow us because not when we leave the studio. Uh Mikey Adams 420. Yeah that's right. You can follow me on Twitter or X at local politics is. Anything else Mike? Well not till next week but I'll tell you what there's always something. There's always something to talk about and the input from the viewing public is welcome. He's Mike Adams.

I'm John Featherson. We'll talk again real soon. [Music]

now we're live so it is 7 o'clock so if you want to call me o' stand for the pledge i al to the flag the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and justice for all Mr Davis here Mrs Reed here Mrs Helm here M Allen here m Mr Golden M Juliano uh M orente here all right can I have a motion in a second to approve the minutes from the January 23rd 2025 Action meeting motion second all those in favor I oppos or obain and presentations go ahead Mr all right welcome everyone thanks so much for coming out this is the best part of the entire meeting right at the right at the beginning where we recognize our students of the month from both of our schools uh our students of the month are chosen by their teachers um and their teachers also write something up for them that I'm going to read out loud for everyone so students when I call your name need to come up here stand next to me awkwardly okay and then I'll give you your certificate and then you're going to you're going to wait up here with me and then we'll take a whole picture as a group of me and the JFK students then me and the students from DDE all right so our first student of the month from JFK our prek student of the month mil ston that's for you congratulations come here stay here there all right turn around turn look everybody big smile recently AA has started to help out her friends in small ways helping zip their coats handing out lunchboxes and water bottles without being asked to do so she has been so kind to everyone she meets and always greets you with a smile she is such a joy to have in class congratulations our next student from JFK is Nicollet Kella conratulations there's one for you nicholet is always willing to help her classmates and teach her she is caring and compassionate and always has a smile on her face it is a pleasure to have her in my class congratulations nicholette our next student from JFK is Jolene melany congratulations there you go Joey is a great student and classmate she will go out of her way to help others every day of the week congratulations our next student is Gabriela godold congratulations there you go Gabriella is always going out of her way to help others she shows kindness to others even if they don't show it back and she always strives to be the best that she can be congratulations next we have from third grade John Charlie Wilson conratulations Charlie thank you Charlie is a thoughtful and caring student caring about both his education and his classmates and teacher Charlie takes his time on every assignment and also takes the time to help others when he can he is kind and responsible as well as a great student congratulations Charles and last but not least from JFK we have David Plaza David is a true gentleman in every situation he remains Pleasant thoughtful respectful and kind David continues to demonstrate growth especially in the area of advocating for his understanding of the material he is learning to accept his mistakes as a growth process and asking for help when needed his confidence is beginning to emerge every day David is a pleasure to have in the classroom so congratulations to David all right guys let's get a picture everybody over here with me all right right in front of me right here right you can stand in front of me or to the side of me nobody wants to see me any little ones come over here take a picture with everybody turn around and smile Miss Megan smil job guys all right and now we have our students from uh dwighty Eisenhower Middle School our first student from fifth grade is Logan muff the fifth grade team selected Logan muff as the February student of the month for his exceptional kindness hard work and dedication to helping others he consistently demonstrates a remarkable ability to stay focused on his goals while being a positive influence on those around him whether it's offering assistance to to classmates in need volunteering time to help others or putting in extra effort to achieve Excellence Logan embodies the values of perseverance generosity and teamwork his caring nature and strong work ethic make him an invaluable member of the fifth grade class so congratulations saludan our sixth grade student of the month is Dominic shellenberger the sixth grade teachers have nominated Dominic shellenberger Dom is a hardworking and focused student he is attentive participates and driven Dom is a kind and respectful young man who is always willing to lend a hand or help another student so congratulations to Dominic our seventh grade student of the month is Bradley Bal bua conratulations I say your last name right yeah okay awesome the seventh grade teachers have nominated Bradley as the January student of the month Bradley is a hardworking considerate and mature seventh grade student Bradley has shown amazing growth in his academics since the beginning of the school year he takes ownership over his academics by asking for assistance in class completing work outside of school and adhering to due dates given uh each day we are proud of Bradley for his hard work and the kindness he Shows Daily to anyone he encounters congratulations BR and our last student of the month uh for February 8th grade Juan praul there you go Juan is deserving student of the month because of his Natural Curiosity and eagerness to learn consistently displaying a sharp intellect he not only advocates for himself but also for his peers demonstrating leadership and empathy his passion for knowledge makes him an outstanding in member of the class congratulations Mar ready for your picture your Big M middle schoolers don't smile I know they don't I have one congratulations to all of our students of the month um you guys certainly are welcome to hang around for the rest of the meeting but you definitely do not have to so you'd like to get up and leave now you absolutely can do that have a great night thank you a good night you for bringing us those greaty kids yeah we can just do it we did that last month we had two extras Mr Palmer ready for your next yeah you're next we'll get you and out here good evening everyone um for those of you who don't know me um I'm Evan Palmer from bman company I'm the auditor for the school district um tonight we're going to be reviewing in in summary format I passed out to everybody a quick one-sided sheet it's double-sided uh has a has a visual pie chart repres representation of the fund balance as of June 30th 2024 uh and so one of the agenda items tonight is the acceptance of the 2024 audit uh and one of the things that we do need to do with that is just kind of do a brief overview of kind of where we ended that year uh now that we're into our next year already um things go by quickly but as you can see on the front side of the sheet that I passed out that's a breakdown of our general fund balance as of the end of fiscal year 2024 uh several of the numbers remain pretty consistent from the year before are urine incumbrances which do represent things that we things that we wanted to buy but didn't weren't able to purchase at the end of the year would be purchased in the next year uh our maintenance reserve and capital reserve those have remain consistent over the last several years as well as our Unemployment uh the other numbers that do change based upon the state's calculation for exess Surplus are the two red pieces which kind of add together that's what's being used in the current budget that we are in now the Green Piece which is what we're generated which is known as our ex Surplus that's the amount that's going to be used in our next year's budget so not the one that we're currently in but next year uh and then our orange piece here uh which is our unassigned fund balance that is designated by the state that is our excess Surplus that cannot be greater than 2% of our expenditures from the previous from the year under audit uh with with a couple small exceptions you know um we'll have non-transportation uh Aid we'll have extraordinary Aid um because of our maintenance reserves there there's a few things that we get a little bit of back of an add-on which is why when you look at on the back side of the sheet here it'll say that our unassigned fund balance as a percentage of expenditures is actually 2.6% um that's down from 4.9 uh the reason for the significant drop is after covid years and a few other things with with ARP money kind of flowing into the district the State allowed for two-year period there to allow for 4% instead of two um so it went from the 4.91 down to the 2.6 the top side of the back section this is a very very condensed overview of kind of how we got to where we ended up for fiscal year uh 2024 uh you have your Revenue section across the top a lot of that in most districts you know it's kind of flat we've had our state a changes you know from the state um but you know tax levies remain the same that that's the revenue side the expenditure side is underneath of that um that just kind of shows in general total that current expenses are are operating what it cost us to run the district and then our Capital outlay which we did have a significant increase in 2024 compared to 2023 uh and then that leaves us with our fund balance that was broken down in the front it's also broken down here in the middle of the page here uh also showing you in comparison to what it was at the end of 2023 versus 2024 we did have a dip um you know we used a lot more but like I said some of that was Capital related so it's not something that we're putting into our operating budget we need to have a recurring cost um so that is usually what we want to use our fund balance for it's not something that is recurring because if we don't raise it as a revenue we would be short um in general um we have at the bottom here our finding recommendation which is the only required section to be reviewed for tonight's meeting um we have our recurring item uh this item should you know fingers crossed be gone for this coming year because all the ARP funding all the excess money that they've been giving all the kids having been free before now not all the increased rates and all the all the things that we're going and and at the same time we have inflation pushing up the costs of providing the meals we're going to probably be be kind of getting closer to that break even which is what the Department of Agriculture is looking for um and so this is kind of saying that we have more money in the Food Service fund because of all those items like we've had a lot of increased Revenue over what it's costed to provide the food by about $50,000 um and that's the only item that we have to do a corrective action plan on um we've had it for a couple years you're not the only District that has this note this is probably at least half of the reports that our firm issues um and and in varying amounts depending on the size um but it's not anything to really be concern of and it's not really anything that you can do a lot about um other than just kind of reviewing and making sure that the cafeteria fund is being reviewed and that there's a plan and and as long as you provide those things the Department of Agriculture has said that they don't have any issue with it at all so that's the only item that we have for tonight's meeting have too much money yes well could be it's not gonna last forever yeah uh I I don't see it staying that way but um you know because we've seen it over the last couple years every year it's gone down and so it's you know as our costs come up and then all the things that Co afforded Us in terms of the increase rates they've all started to come back down and so we're going to eventually hopefully get back to right in The Sweet Spot of breaking even that we don't end up costing anything to the actual District itself um but with that if there are any questions I'm here to answer anything you want to know about the audit for the fiscal year 2024 everybody also has um the AIT and management report this is really good sleeping material if you want to put yourself to sleep read the notes um but the very thick one is that's the AER that has all of the uh extreme detail uh it has our budget to actual it has our J exhibit information which is just statistical Nature has all the note disclosures and it also contains our Auto reports which we are pleased to say is an unmodified opinion which is the highest level opinion that we can issue uh that means that we found no material misstatements we found by by error or Omission um so everything with that was nice and clean our federal single audit and state single audit both came back with no findings um we just had the one compliance item and that's because the Department of Agriculture does have us just make a comment or recommendation just about noting that it is in excess of the three months of expenditures the thin report is the auditor's management report um the probably most important thing in that is as I referenced before that excess Surplus calculation there's a sheet in there that details exactly step by step how that's calculated so if you wanted to see the expenditures what gets added back and uh how our fund balance breaks down that agrees to the pie chart in front of you uh that would be in a thin one other than that that's just a state required a couple statements just kind of saying you know we reviewed this we reviewed that there were no issues tpf was turned over timely Etc so yes if you really want to read them all and ask some questions later please uh Reach Out well thank you for having me here tonight and as always very much appreciated being the auditor for the district thank you uh and I think next is the a well we're gonna later yeah later we're he's got a couple things to present and but it is on here okay it's here with the corrective action plan so I can shoot you in we'll get uploaded so all right thank you everyone if there are any questions that do come up when you're thumbing through the auto reports themselves please reach out to me and she does have email and and cell number and office number so always available thank you thank you everybody have a great night see you later see everyone all right so in your large pile of papers this evening uh there should be a print out of the ssds results so we are required to report out the results of the student safety data system uh twice a year so this is for the first section of the Year September 1 through December 31st so anything that happened after December 31st would not be included on this uh report and then at the end of the school year can't remember when we did it last year June maybe uh was after June through the end of it might be July or August even I think it might have been August so we'll do the second half report um at that time um happy to report that there isn't a whole lot to report with the ssds numbers uh we'll start with uh the elementary school first um so just a little bit of an overview that I always have here on the presentation um so this is we we always call this violence and vandalism um so all incidents of violence vandalism weapons substance abuse and Hib incidents that occur in school should be reported via the student safety data system which means when we get them we we have to put them into on course um but then for the state we have to report it out um through NJ homor uh each student involved in a single inent will be listed separately in this report for example a flight involving two students gets counted twice once for each one of the students that's involved in the flight um and then it has the categories there as well violence includes the following and then vandalism includes the following so for JFK thankfully as you might imagine um we're all zeroed out for the violence and and vandalism uh categories so nothing fell under those categories um with regard to state report um we go into weapons and substance abuse again weapon possession sale distribution um substance possession substance sale substance use we have to report all that as well once again at the elementary school thankfully no weapons no weapon sales no weapon use um uh and no substance issues as well our next section here is for hip harassment intimidation and bullying um now this there's there are two types we have the hibs that are alleged um but then not confirmed after the investigation and then we have the confirmed hips we also have a category other incidents leading to removal and essentially what an other incident leading to removal is is it's a suspension for a reason that doesn't fall under the state um guidelines for violence and bism okay so what you'll see here um for Hib we had one alleged Hib JFK one confirmed so that's two total for the reporting period um and then other incidents leading to removal we had four in the fall so that would be four suspensions for an incident that wasn't considered violence or R um and so that that could be any other violation of the code of conduct that just doesn't fall under those categories for the state moving on to the Middle School um same thing same same descriptions and explanations uh at the middle school we had the only number in our violence uh category was assault there were two assaults um an assault is when a student hits someone else unprovoked and so as far as the state um data is concerned that's considered an assault if it's two kids who square up and they're they're fighting with each other then that's considered a fight so that's that's the difference in the de um so that was the two that we had in the fall at D um we had zero weapon issues there and we also had zero substance abuse issues that were reported at the middle school as far as hi goes there were two alleged hibs and one confirmed Hib for a total of three at the middle school in the first reporting period and there were nine um other incidents that led to removal removal being suspension that didn't fall under the other categories any questions good okay great thanks for your attention appreciate it all right so no need to discuss the Miss mission statement or goals or right um what I will do briefly though in Li of that um so what you all have in front of you you have more paper um so you have a copy of it's a bound edition of the Strategic plan um from a school boards Association um essentially what that is and that's that's for you to keep that is a um just a a book that has all the information in it from the strategic planning process um everything that was discussed uh everything that was decided through committees then what I created here for for all the board members is our um strategic plan action plan so once once the committee came up with their um their findings and their recommendations then as as an administrative team we had to go through and say okay how are we going to satisfy these things over the next five years so I put that together for you as well um and it'll be on the agenda tonight to to accept it to approve it um and then moving forward it you know I really look at the Strategic plan as it's a guide for for the next five years this action plan is something that is not it's not set in still so if at any point you all have recommendations or you come up with an idea and you're like hey I think we can hit that by doing this you know have we thought of this we we can go in and change that action plan it's not a it's not the end of the world okay more tired of talking over here a lot all right well I'll take it from here then um all right um we're gonna open the meeting to the public then can I have a motion and second to open the meeting to the public for the discussion of agenda items only Mo second all those in favor opposed or obain hearing none can I have a motion a second to close the public portion of the meeting motion than all those in favor opposed or obain all right I'm going to take this next one since it's for the audit approval um there's a resolution there as well as our corrective action plan it just says that um you received the audit that was performed by Bowman and Company for um fiscal year ending June 30th 2024 as Mr Palmer had said we did have one corrective action plan item which is related to the um Food Service uh net cash resources um so at this point I need a motion and a second then to approve the 2324 School District audit for the Berlin Township School District motion second any questions all right um going to do a roll call then Mr Golden yes Mr Davis yes Mrs Allen yes Mr Phillips yes Mrs Reed yes Mrs helmo yes and Mrs oriente yes perfect thank you all right sorry it's your time I talk fast so I didn't give you much much of a break the motion first or you yeah go ahead and then you can go through the items we'll do a motion in a second to approve superintendent item XA through XI okay go ahead all right first item a uh under my section of the um agenda here is Safety and Security we had both fire and safety drills at both schools uh item C are the monthly reports that were uploaded to the portal for your review item D we had one incident uh one reported incident of uh Hib at JFK and that was found not to be harassment intimidation or buing uh E1 is to affirm the two uh hi decisions hi cases that we presented at last month's meeting item F1 is uh two policies that were shared with the board uh in our newsletter District uh records and reports there were just some adjustments to that based off of Statute um the second policy there was expectations for conduct at inter Scholastic competition events um this was a model policy that was presented by njsa um for mainly for High School athletics uh since we're not a member of that I took the policy um and we we removed uh the language that spoke to um being a member school and added our own procedures for um spectator expectations and behavior at our events we typically don't have issues at our events but if we do it's nice that policy to back us up when we make decisions about issues that happen there so that's the second policy uh F2 is our two fundraisers F3 is to approve two School volunteers F4 is to accept the SS DS and hi results from reporting period one that I just presented to you all F5 is the sidebar agreement with the BT btea uh this was also shared with you in the um uh a newsletter uh this is an agreement to um compensate them uh the teachers when they're asked to asked by the administration to turn key um professional development uh item F6 is to accept the Strategic plan action plan that I just described all right on to G G1 is field trips we have three more more field trips that we are approving uh on to H H1 we have two new hires a substitute nurse and a full-time speech language specialist uh H2 we have two resignations H3 we have the siyon positions for the spring semester at the middle school H4 is um to approve a student from camon County College to come and observe one of our teachers in the classroom under curriculum and instruction uh i1 is to approve the njsoa State Testing security plan that's it any questions on any of those items I do the turn key did we come up with a number for the turn key cost you mean it's the same cost in the contract as the committee work like if a teacher were to serve on a committee and I believe it's $46 an hour 46 this year 40 whatever so I blended the 4146 and I made it 46 4146 cheaper and again it wouldn't it would be like after their contractual time for the remainder of the time of like say St meeting or something like that any other questions Mr Golden yes Mrs Allen yes Mr Phillips yes Mrs Reed yes m M Helma yes Mrs orente yes and Mr Davis yes thank you thanks for listening to me all that time pain and suffering compensation um moving on to business and finance can I have a motion in a second to approve business and finance items xia a to XI J please motion second all right item a through today is our December and January report so we are finally all caught up as I said before I had do have 60 days to reconcile my accounts I usually like to get them done within 30 um we've been behind a little bit but we are all on track we're within 30 days um for the months of December and January no line item has been overextended the treasur report and secretary's reports are in agreement for those two months um there's no changes in anticipated Revenue amounts or sources oh I don't know why our bat bills list number didn't make it on here um let me get that because I have that here you don't even know how many eyes looked at this agenda um so it's going to be batch number 57 and I believe it's 1,282 18576 um the finance committee members did review every every single bill they signed off on them gave them the two signatures um everything was good there f is to approve the January and February 2025 listings for um source for teachers all of the rates are listed on the agenda as far as um teachers power professionals nurses Etc um January G is for cafeteria dispersements for the month of January 2025 in the amount of $57,200 32 h is to approve the care dispersements for for the month of January 2025 in the amount of 82530 I we have some additional um contracts for um pretty much these are a lot of these are some related services with regards to the special education child study team um so these are just a few additional Consultants that they wanted to add um to be able to conduct these evaluations Jay is travel and professional development for some of our staff members and the related costs associated with each one um we use a lot of our title two grant money to cover these um professional development costs does anybody have any questions all right I'm G to do a roll call Mr Golden yes Mrs Allen yes Mr Phillips yes Mrs Reed yes Mrs helou yes Mrs oriente yes and Mr Davis yes all right Perfect all right I don't believe we have anything for old business at this point to discuss discuss uh committee updates negotiations just that sidebar agreement I would say with the only um update for btea we don't have anything for BT BT PSA uh we did have finance committee this evening uh we went over the budget report the revenue report uh we discussed out of District uh special ed placements we do have a new placement for kindergarten student um that started on the 26 we are still waiting on that tuition contract um I believe that we do have the funds there from another student that did not go from um our initial budget uh state aid Figures were released this afternoon so that was good our Equalization aid went down but we did expect that because those Assa numbers um are numbers were down which I had communicated in the past um but all the other funding did go up it resulted in a 3.89% increase um for the district which I believe was 86,000 something in that range um preschool expansion Aid was also increased which is extremely helpful since we have to add that additional classroom in next year um we do still have a deficit so but we also had some wish list items in there so next week the administration and I um will be taking a look at my redlined items uh that I will compile over the coming days um they're kind of really we had some wish list items in there some that resulted from the Strategic plan that we were hoping to kind of maybe tackle um for 2526 and may just not be in in the forecast for then so um the budget is due to the county office for review on March 19th we'll approve that on the at the March 17th board meeting however you'll have plenty of information before then so you'll know exactly what's in our budget what's coming out of our budget and um everything like that some of the increases so far have been at school level um supply lines we needed to add that math curriculum because ours expired so now we're doing another three-year term um of the math uh curriculum series for both schools we also needed some new cubbies in several of our classrooms um especially with moving around some of our uh grade levels some of those Cubbies are simply old and not really safe at this point so that's an added increase uh health benefit increases we have uh related Services increases for special education uh we do have a decrease for our overb per pupil cost um and that is because they are kind of looking at um certified tuition rates based on I guess some retirements based I guess on the loss of some grant funding um Pine Hill seems to think that they are comfortable with that reduction I did voice some concerns because while I'm excited to see a reduction I don't want to get bit later um so I'm I reached out to the county office to express some concerns I've talked to Pine Hill I think what we're going to do is increase the total amount of students that we're going to send there um to try to offset some of of what might come down um the line in a later b a later date so we're just going to have to see how this one plays out the only saving grace is that we do have our tuition contract our send receive contract um if we have a large tuition adjustment in the future they can't put more than we can't pay back more than $100,000 per year that's in our contract so it's not like we owe $400,000 and we're on the hook for that in that following year um it doesn't work that way so we do have some protections moving forward my concerns have been voiced but it looks like we a decreased which is great for the budget but not great for my fiscal mind um so uh that's budget more information to com as we kind of dig a little deeper and I get a little bit of feedback from the administration as to where we're going to go with certain things uh the S 2 Grant performance report is due was due tomorrow I submitted it today this was from Co funds as well um and I actually already got back a response from the state saying hey we approved your submission so that's done and that's put bed um bills list review is done miscellaneous we have school bus inspections on March 19th uh quarterly inspections will be done on site in the coming weeks to make sure we don't have any major issues or concerns to address prior to inspection so hopefully we all pass on the first go um and then the treasures report and board secretary's report are due by anually to the County Office of Education they are due December is due no later than March 1st I submitted hours today they submitted that they um acknowledged receipt of it and um that's that's our secretary's report it's our treasurer's report it's a transfer report and a checklist indicating that everything is kind of lined up and matches up together so all that's done that's Finance now I'm tired of talking um School boards I don't think there's much for school boards Camy County and services um they just had a reorganization meeting swearing in new members and just kind of talking a little bit about it but there's nothing else really Pine Hill Kim Pine Hill um we went over our audit as well there was one correction plan um I did not know exactly what it was because it wasn't anything that I to be completely honest that I understood so it was one of um let's see graduation is 97 days away and um freshman orientation is August 26 2025 uh they also we also voted for our architect to um project fees to start the auto te project which is to refurbish the automotive side of where I don't know Mr Lee knows what I'm talking about but where they used to have Automotive like um Cy County Tech does so um we're also it's basically just a shop now it's like all the the maintenance crew uses it to store exactly but they're they're looking to make it back into an auto mechanic shop to offer more of a teex class um they're also getting their their architect project um started to start doing build lighting for football games so they'll be able to have Night Football games so that's kind of exciting I know I've wanted it for years unfortunately I'm almost down to going to they got a large uh donation from a graduate they did he's done very well for himself and contacted the school and said he wanted to put lights on the football so they're looking to see how much it's going to cost and how the best way to do it we've been told that they want to do it over the summer but it will not you started or at least not AFF what graduation looks like because that was my concern because I have one graduating this year I like I don't want the field all messed up just you know pulls duug and stuff for people coming on the field take graduation pictures and stuff like that so we were told that our next board meeting is March 11th um the basketball team the boys basketball team is currently right now playing in their first round of playoffs um I believe they are the second seed if I recall correctly um the wrestling team went to districts two weekends ago I think yeah I think it was two weekends ago um I believe two kids made it out of there for um and that's it um C County school board's not much going on there eth grade dialogue is March 12th um so we're all set for that with our student candidate and I just wanted to shout out to I went to the eth grade history Fair last night um it was the kids did a really nice job there were probably about 20 kids um from the eth grade and they all had either boards or um a couple of them did like a skit um on I think it was the Prohibition um someone else had a documentary so the kids did a really nice job prohibition outfits were great yeah they were they were really neat to watch too you should have actually heard them they really played up the role um so that was that was really fun to see it was really impressive to see these eighth graders you know have those social skills and be able to stand there and answer questions and and review all the information that they learned and presented um so kudos to to Mr tro and his eighth grade um social studies students that was a good night um I don't think we have anything else new for new business no all right so um motion as second then to open the meeting to the public for the discussion of agenda or non-agenda items motion second all those in favor I oppos to abstaining n can I have a motion a second then to close the Public Public comment yeah you want to talk yeah sure all right go ahead can you state your name and your address please mark Reen 257 Mount Vernon Avenue you got it ahead I don't want to make a complaint but I would like to see what the administration or board's uh stance is on the traffic situation at pickup at the schools it's quite um disastrous and I know we've talked I talked to some of the police I talked to the SRO talked to the principles and uh the answer I get is less than satisfactory so I just kind of want to see what if anything that the board is doing to make that more safe do you say both schools both school so we talk about this all the time all the time um to try and come up with solutions that are going to make it not as disastrous um it's actually part of the Strategic plan for one of the items that we talked about um so I don't have a I don't have like a an answer for you right now but I'd be more than happy to have another conversation with you and go over maybe if you have any possible solutions or you've spoken anybody who has possible solutions we're always open to my biggest concern is the amount of parking that goes on on the street there's signs from the township to say do not park here and at any one point there's eight cars underneath that sign that says do not park on the other side of JF on the other side of the street on the front side of JFK where the island is and all the on that side on that side there's a sign two signs that say do not park here you'll see eight cars the roads in town are meant for three cars if I got teachers on one side parents on the side you're not supposed to be on and then I got two sets of cars trying to get down the lane we run into a one car problem right people want to come out of the loop to get out especially the way that the school's operating now where preschool and some of these parents get out a little bit earlier and then the parents that want to come up and try to park down Mount Vernon because there's no room down Lincoln or Washington because they're already full the parents are coming out the other parents are trying to come in the two cars are there so there's got to be a slightly better solution in my mind and it's the same thing over here you'll see in front of DD they pick up people Park the wrong way on the street they Park the other way I've also spoken with the um crossing guard down there she does a perfectly fine job she Parks 50 or 25 ft behind the stop sign where she supposed to be but that's another car now that the buses have to go out and around and you got parents lined up because the loop doesn't move quick enough because people are getting out you know I don't know quite what the policy is uh Mr Murphy sent out something last year I don't know that anything was really sent out in the beginning of this year whether you're allowed to get out or they got you're allow to go movements yeah good stopping movement's a problem people have figured it out everybody comes up with their own kind of like agenda what they want to do we're not all on the same page as a a school or District so it's making quite a mess then we took the parking away du to the bus and that side Lot and now I saw Chuck put the signs the permanent signs no authorized unauthorized people yeah so I don't know if we don't have enough room for parking for all the teachers that they're parking on the streets I don't know if we don't have enough room for parking in general because the school's just growing yeah we certainly have way more staff than we've had in the past that is part of the issue for parking yeah so I don't know what again if we're only going to continue to grow we're getting another kindergarten team next year what are we going to do to make sure that we have enough parking or of plan to flow the traffic at least a little bit better is there any officers that help so we do we have the SRO who's out there but he he has to stay in the in the actual Loop okay right so all this all this stuff that happens out on the street and I've seen it yeah was talking with you one day we were there is the township does provide cops sometimes the addition when they're available when they're available to help move the buses or stop the traffic but you talk to them and they said there's bigger problems in town than worry about this street for 10 minutes the problem is it's more like an hour and 10 minutes because people start lining up at 215 for a 330 right 315 drop off uh pickup because they want to get their good spotted the loop so they can you know it's just and I get it there is bigger problems but getting an ambulance getting a fire truck down these three streets it's going to be very difficult in the time to pick up I don't know how drop off goes goes in the morning I'm assuming it's a little bit more Smooth you're just letting them out you're not waiting for them Megan may I ask you a question since you've been in the district for a long period of time I know they've done different things especially JFK with pickup yeah over the course of my 20 years of having kids in the district has there been any that worked better than others that maybe what we're doing now like I remember when Kira was there the buses set were in the loop the loop and they I don't remember why that was stopped completely um I feel that that that could possibly be something that we explore and discuss I know that we have discussed it before with the police department and they're like I don't think it's going to make a difference um I feel like maybe it could if we line all our buses in that Loop and have them come out straight and have all the other bus although there's this is a longer Road here to maybe have parents come in this way but again and I think the road on the side here is a little wider than the road in front of JFK too correct when we when we discuss that my my concern with having parent drop off a pickup on that road is it's more space but now it's more space for people to do things that we don't want them to do so if we say everybody has to drop off on the school curb side we know not everyone's going to do that and the kids are going to run outside the kids are going to be crossing the street I spoke with the township about potentially making it a oneway street during just during pickup and drop off because I felt like if we could do that um we would be able to um control it a little bit better um and I didn't I didn't get very far with that conversation at that point if we did that the SRO would be based over here right right yeah helping that doit you have to drop off pass side towards the school well and like I and in my many years of doing these things that the hard part is if you don't have people out there like if and then we we I know we don't have enough staff to line up all the way up and down that street people are just going to do what they what they want to do absolutely I mean that's what's happening now they're parking where they want to park they're you know and so that the difficult part is is policing it um like we in the JFK Loop about two months ago we put cones out to make it a single leane so they kind of like because people were were going around the cars that were dropping kids off um and it it's a it created a very dangerous situation so we we said okay we're going to put cones out for a drop off which maybe slows things down a little bit but it's safer so I just that that's my that's my fear about switching it over to that to the street side that's my that's what that's what give me points I the only thing I can think of is that the parents that want to stop and walk up and pick up their kids that road is wider there's much more parking on that road than there is over here where the buses are you're right absolutely you know and you wouldn't have so much at least on this side everybody would be on this side so that Road's still going to be crowded but if we could only like a one way thing right cuz right now you're you're right you have them coming and they're blocking it this way the buses are trying to get out this way the cars are trying to come this way it's not more narrow you're right like dismissing the Walkers and the bus at different times Well we do the Walkers do go a few minutes early but maybe it's not enough time maybe that should be adjusted also like get the buses out of here and then let the kids go but they'll still probably be lined up I would think right we still be lining up at 2:30 even if they're not because I try to even come because I have to do gde stuff and then come here I can't get it through there's no parking for me to drop off stuff I park at Washington with hand full of stuff of piece to bring in the buildings and I don't even have a spot to drop off stuff just to drop off stuff so it's even for us to bring stuff into the school to help the school as peace it's not we have nowhere so M actually worked out something me I'm allowed to park in that area just me only but then I have all the parents yelling at me why are you allowed to park there and I said your VIP Chuck said he's going to get me but um I said well then stuff won't be coming to the school because I also have a student I have to pick up so or I have to run home to brace a bus so um they like the stuff they put on I don't know if you guys read the parents of Facebook page or what's it called the JFK page there they put license PL and call people out like it's oh my God it's that bad now that he's speak up it's that bad you need Tammy Phillips 177 had in there you don't know my address I but it is just for me to see it I come I get there at 3:00 and they're still wind up to have meetings with her and it's like there's nowhere for meting Park and then you have the care workers and then you add the care of parents on top of it one suggestion maybe to be looked at for next year possibility of letting them go out different doors some of the students the third graders the four graders right uh the first grade Hall preschool they all have doors in their classrooms or whatever grade that is kindergarten maybe they can be let out at the back of the school I'm sure some parents going to say well I got two kids and one's can't be two places can never satisfy but yeah I think that might be a little bit more of a safety concern I can understand the separate doors but not necessarily the doors in the classroom I think that might be too much going on at one time in my opinion I could be wrong but that's I just feel the might not idea for like third and fourth grade they want to get out they want to take their time they got their kids they got to buckle them up they want to do all that but they also want to be in the loop just a couple things yeah no I appreciate it believe me it's and we do we discuss it all the time all the time appreciate it thank you thank you any other problem all right motion of a second amend to close the portion the public portion of the meeting second all those in favor I I don't think we have a need for executive session this evening so at this point can I have a motion to second then to adjourn the meeting all those in favor I oppos or AB let me let jaob to shut it down is probably listening um and Brian I need

Mr Brown Brown is notified abs [Music] Mr Thompson 12 sing a public meeting whereas the Board of Education disc yes [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] a [Music] n [Music] e [Music] he [Music] down [Music] e [Music] n [Music] n [Music] a [Music] n [Music] [Applause] n [Music] d [Music] a [Music] a [Music] n [Music] a [Music] n [Music] la [Music] sh [Music] okay [Music] n [Music] h [Music] e [Music] he [Music] h [Music] he [Music] oh [Music] sh [Music] m [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Applause] [Music] a [Music] n [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] n [Music] sh [Music] sh e [Music] a [Music] St every [Music] thanks Miss gford um we will any questions or comments from the board seeing n Mr vat's roll call please all right roll call to amend the agenda M Rich MTZ yes Mr demarcy yes Miss Fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr boach yes Mr conon yes a motion carries thank you Mr Yates for the reading of the mission statement I'll hand it over to Mr peelman the mission of eam Township School District is to promote excellence and an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students dedicated staff families and Community the district provides a strong Educational Foundation that will Empower our students to achieve their unique potential Embrace self-directed lifelong learning develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk taking and responsible decision- making respect themselves and others problem solved individually and collaboratively become contributing members of a diverse Global Society thank you Mr peelman I will now hand the floor over to Dr Smith for our presentations all right so we've got some wonderful students to recognize tonight and we're going to start with the South Jersey Champion MMS wrestling team and I know their coaches are here or I hope which is uh John delvey if he's here come on up and Matt kulo good to see you good see you man you guys want to read the names that's is that me all right good luck to me all right any of the ones wen't here just I'll give them tomorrow just if the uh if the athletes can stay up here after you get your certificate because we want to do a picture at the end of everybody okay if I can have Eli blin Solomon blue Stein Connor Brown Trevor Brewer come on up Trevor Anthony Butch there you go Trevor great job Luke Cheeseman Trevor Trevor Luke oron Michael too Austin Cox Brian Ford Jackson DeMarco Leonard Fusco Hayden Groves I'll wait Kier hammock Micah honia Joseph imperiali Jr Bladen lsho Drew lelot Asher Miller should be Noah next Noah Miller I was hoping you was here Chris na Leo na congratulations Ryan Schultz Haled [Applause] teakle Jack Thompson Logan TIY Harper Booth sorry Alexis Lions Olivia mcne did I thought yeah I can deliver those on behalf of myself and Coach K we just want to thank our team this year no team that we've had has ever worked this hard or wanted it this much they are a true example of what we do here in the township and I and Coach could not be any prouder of each and every one of them in the middle and we'll get a picture here it's all right we're going to move from Athletics into the Arts we've got um a number of very fine musicians to recognize from both middle schools for various achievements they've they've they've accomplished so we're going to start with deacy students if uh Miss Goldman is here and wants to come on up uh don't know um but these students or Miss green if she's here um these students earned placement in the Olympic honors band so we're going to call them and have them come on up first Luna Alesandra Cabrera uh yeah it'd be great actually and if the students also could stay up in front here so we can get picks at the end next Leah frella Samuel [Applause] Hassan yep I'm just and now this next group um successfully earned placement in the all Burlington County Middle School honors band Jackson Hunter Preston Lightfoot and Jason zidas and the next these next students earned placement in the all the all Burlington County Middle School honors band and the South Jersey honors band so this is vihan Carr and Casey Liza now we're moving on to the Mustangs all right we've got these students successfully earned placement in the South Jersey honors band Karen guo and if teacher Mark White is here in the audience and could come up and join us that'd be great too um we also have have Anthony Hughes Carly Ridley Dylan Cina and elain eert and something tells me if a student wasn't here to pick it up it's because they're playing somewhere out there I think there's something going on at senica tonight they could be there um let's get a picture of these wonderful students all together parents if you want to come on up congratulations again to all our musicians great job yeah um so uh for the families who are here for the for the presentation and student awards you're welcome to stay we've got a big night ahead of us but also if you have somewhere else to go you're welcome no no harm no foul you're welcome to to leave we're going to take a few minute break while we get ready for the budget presentation thanks everybody [Music] sh [Music] sh [Music] slides any time we post all of our budget presentations on the homepage if you go to the tab that says departments and you go down to budget and finance you can find them going back uh some years there so like the J the one from January 30th is on there and we'll put this one up there too so uh budget goals as always striving to maintain the effectiveness of Educational Services while costing less money that's just the reality of where we are as we all know quick overview of our context we've been through this before state aid lost since the onset of S2 over $7 million and a budget that is the fourth leanest in terms of budgetary cost per pupil of the 76 k8s in the state a budget that is $16 million short of being average for our size for our enrollment updates since a month ago so first positive uh state aid released today didn't know if you saw but um we're getting an extra an additional $400,000 so which we're glad for of course um wish there was an extra zero on there but okay 400 is more than we thought we were going to get um we are discussing the best path through this additional money we just found out today right number two no additional reductions anticipated Beyond those shared on January 30th if you recall on January 30th there was um at near know the end of the presentation I talked about a 1 Point $6 million gap that was remaining which we were looking to remedy through a variety of steps but we weren't sure if we could get there um we anticipate being able to do that through breakage through savings per position these positional savings is are they estimates right but as we look at who those specific staff are which is um very complex work but we're seeing um some additional saving there eliminating late buses still being calculated but will get us help get us towards that 1.6 and then additional revenue from leasing Middle School space which will be freed up through the steps discussed last time um number three our district is planning to is planning to take um for those who may not be aware there is something called enrollment adjustment which the state permits districts in certain circumstances to go above the 2% cap when there is there's been an enrollment increase so for us um that is the very nice sum of $2,336 th000 3 $320 okay above the 2% cap our plan as a board is to do just that to take all of that money the tax levy impact is up there which shows if you don't take the enrollment adjustment on the average assess home and E sham we're looking at a $60 tax incre over 58 increased for a difference of about $122 for the average assessed home or another way to think about it is about $10 a month time now at Bears mentioning and emphasizing we are discussing what to do with that money that has not been determined and that is a complex conversation it does not mean certain things get restored it may not mean much of anything gets restored that's what we're talking out okay but I don't certainly wouldn't want there to be um an automatic assumption that taking that additional Roan adjustment translates into $2.3 million in restored positional Cuts our district has drained down many of what would be fiscally prudent accounts to survive to this point which essentially is like the eth year of S2 for us and uh those those are also part of this conversation as we look at what to do restoring the fiscal health of our district for the long term as we know that from a budgetary standpoint we're probably facing Cuts every year for the foreseeable future and then lastly um just as an update for anyone who was wondering uh we did a CL cost analysis so far of the preschool expansion resulting in a year-to-date estimated Surplus to the general fund of $618,000 that's so far that's not a um finalized number because the year is still ongoing but it does show a positive net budget impact from the preschool expansion um and that is again reminding everyone that we were awarded $3.2 million for year one of preschool expansion which was the largest Grant largest Aid amount given to any of the districts who were approved this fall Statewide that Surplus Here We Stand we're working on the 25 26 budget the year is not over so we don't know you know what that number will finally end up as so it's not going to help us for this year's budget but it certainly can help us for future budgets and our district as I said a second ago anticipates yearly budget shortfalls for the indefinite future and I'm going to pass the mic over to Mr Yates all right thank you Dr Smith good evening everybody so here we are at our February meeting but I thought I wanted to start by just recapping some of the things that we discussed at our January meeting so uh e sham is an S2 District what that means for us is the school funding Reform Act uh they they changed the law or changed the funding formula in 2018 and that's referred to or commonly referred to as S2 we're an S2 District that meant that we were scheduled to uh our state funding was scheduled to be reduced by over 51% over a seven-year schedule so we're now entering year eight of that we're currently in year seven we're entering year eight of S2 funds what that means for us is that our total State funding annually was reduced by up to A7 million but what it really means for us is our the cumulative effect for uh e sham has been over $38 million in cumulative reductions this has uh caused an ongoing Financial strain for our district and we will continue to face an ongoing Financial strain as a result of S2 we also talked in January that our expenses continue to outpace our ability to generate revenues so we can only generate revenues so much our expenses continually outpace those putting us in an annual structural budgetary deficit which means budgetary reductions so we have a need for cost cutting measures all right so tonight I wanted to talk about revenues with everyone and just T kind of touch base on each of the revenue categories that we can generate as a district our largest revenue source is tax levy so this is going to be the revenues that we collect from the taxpayers of the residents of eam uh we don't uh tax residents directly we send our bill to the township the township then passes that bill on to the residents here in eam our second largest source of Revenue comes from State AIDS I put State AIDS here because we receive multiple sources of state aid our largest source is the one we had just talked about which is the school funding Reform Act monies but we also receive what is called semi or the special education Medicaid initiative this is going to provide us funds for services that are provided for children uh with special needs extra services so think of things like occupational therapy physical therapy Counseling Services those type of things are funded through semi partially and we also re receive extraordinary Aid or what we call X Aid and that's additional funding provided by the state for special costs not typically covered by regular school funding and this might be for transportation costs or the tuition associated with students who might be placed at a district that might that's an example of X Aid it's important to note that these are not dollar Ford dooll reimbursements for us these are significantly reduced based on our costs we have to submit to the state costs and then we uh collect that money in return we also have used fund balance in this District traditionally to uh offset some cost in future budget years fund balance would be like a district savings account so this is the amount of money that we're allowed to keep from each budget year if we had some excess we cannot keep more than 2% in fund balance anything north of 2% is what is considered excess Surplus and we have to to use that to offset future year expenditures but all of that together we call fund balance we also can uh if we don't deposit into if we don't use EXs Surplus and we're above our 2% we can also make deposits into our Reserve accounts these are like additional savings accounts but with limited purposes to the two that e sham keeps is capital reserve and maintenance reserves so think of capital reserve as for major repairs and renovations new construction anything that's going to have significant dollars to it we can deposit in the capital reserve we can withdraw from capital reserve to help offset those costs in a future budget but keep in mind if we just like your savings account if we aren't able to put that money back then eventually that money there won't be any left maintenance Reserve is going to be used for required maintenance of school facilities so think of minor repairs and upkeep of our uh facility and our infrastructure and then finally if their maintenance or miscellaneous revenues is going to be anything else that we collect as a school district that doesn't fall into one of those buckets that we had just talked about so for us miscellaneous revenues would be the lease we receive for the Evans facility so the Yale rent the Sequoia rent we get money for cell towers that we have on some of our properties uh facility usage fees Chromebook insurance and interest from our bank account all gets or all would fall under this category what is called maintenance or uh miscellaneous Revenue excuse me so let's take a look at each one so let's talk tax levy first a couple things to talk about with tax levy that is really important tax levy it has a 2% cap on that what that means is the the tax levy that we're levying today we can only increase by up to 2% for the subsequent Year's budget so it's Capp at 2% there are some exceptions to that cap like health insurance costs enrollment adjustments and Bank cap so if we in any particular year experience and and increase in our health insurance costs above normal we might receive a health insurance cost adjustment from the state to go above our 2% Levy Authority similarly for enrollment adjustments if we see a particularly large influx of students in any given year we might qualify for what's called an enrollment adjustment we do have that this year and we'll talk about that tonight and then banked cap we can go to 2% banked cap is generated when we don't go to 2% so if this board were to choose not to go to 2% and they only went to 1% the 1% they left on the table would be generated as banked cap it's not money that we levied from the taxpayers but it would be money that we have available to generate in any of the next subsequent three budget years if you don't use it after 3 years it expires down below you'll just see I want to show the our tax levy as it was in 2324 what it is in the current budget year 2425 and then 2526 it's important to note the prior year's tax levy becomes the base for the new year applied with 2% so in 23 24 we had just over 68 million with 2% added to it and last year's special um uh we were we were given additional authority to go above 2% we were able to generate 70 almost 71 million taking 7, 89283 and just applying it at 2% will arrive at 72 m309 925 that's just at 2% all right so bear with me on this slide there's a lot going on here but the question came up on what about the additional Authority and special question that this District received and where's that money well it's here it's in the levy so if we go back to 2324 the board at that time approved the tax l of $66 m141 $141,700 190,000 that 2, 90,000 gets added to our Levy in that year increasing our base to 68 million $231,700 so that 68 million at 2% when we were building our budget last year becomes 69 m595 692 last year per Public Law 2024 chapter 13 we were given additional authority to go above 2% this board the board at that time excuse me chose to take an additional authority of almost 1.3 million that brought our total base that year to 7,892 2083 next year at 2% we'd be at 72 mil 356 651 so we're in the 2526 right now just the base with the enrollment adjustment it will bring our total tax levy our total authority to 74 m692 n71 it's the number in Gray at the far right all the way at the top so if we use our enrollment adjustment that's what our Levy will be that's what the levy will be that we collect for 2526 which will also become the base that is used for applying 2% increase on top let's talk about our school funding Reform Act State funds and I showed going back to 23 24 what it was then we received in that year 6,773 th000 last year we received um an1 18,000 reduction bringing us to $ 6,754 617 this year we received some good news and our state funding has increased by $45,000 this is largely due to again they kind of tweaked the funding they didn't revamp it like they did with S2 but they're now funding special education costs higher than they were in years past we have a significant population of children with IEP so that affected our funding and then also our enrollment numbers impacted our funding so that in my opinion and this can change but give or take I would expect in any given year moving forward unless S2 changes again and they rework the formula that each year will receive about 7,1 160,000 so other revenues Year bye comparison so what I did here was I put our miscellaneous revenues our budgeted fund balance and our withdrawal for maintenance Reserve all on one slide the blue column represents budget year 23 24 red column is going to represent 2425 so the Year we're in and the yellow columns will represent what we estimate for the 2526 budget what we're using to estimate our revenues for next year you can see just looking at each of the revenue buckets that it's going down from 2425 to 2526 in particular just to highlight a couple things on this slide miscellaneous local revenues in 23 24 was 3, 46822 excuse me this was largely because in that year we were collecting full dayk to tuition the very next year we no longer had full dayk tuition because that money is now in our tax levy and so it was decreased in 2425 the 2, 67,000 that number is decreasing from uh to 2526 because we no longer collect tuition from our uh preschool students we now have paa funding so we no longer collect tuition money from them so that's no longer in our miscellaneous Revenue by the way PA funding is a specialis Revenue funding it is accounted for separately from your general funding it does not help us close our budgetary Gap budgeted fund balance we talked about this how we use this district has used excess Surplus in years past to balance its budget per the audit from 24 or 2023 23 24 excuse me we do not have any excess Surplus next year to balance next year's budget so our budgeted fund balance anticipated $400,000 down from 4 and a half Million last year it's a significant Fiscal Cliff For Us in the upcoming budget and same thing for withdraw of Maintenance Reserve this budget the current year budget was balanced with $860,000 and we are not balancing we're not using $860,000 next year also representing a fiscal cliff all right so this is probably a little difficult to see um from down there I didn't anticipate that when we were developing this slide but uh we can certainly work work on that if we add up all of our revenues we take them all and we we compile them all together we will arrive at the number in the left column the 85 m5859 198 this is what we have available to spend next year we cannot spend more than $85 A5 million next year let's call it $86 million next year so when we're when we're developing a budget we can most accurately or most accurately predict our Revenue we know what our tax Lev is going to be today we got our state funding numbers we know what our state funding is going to be we can we are very close on our miscellaneous revenues number because we know what our rent is going to be we know what our sale sell Tower revenue is going to be we know with a good guess what our interest income is going to be on any given year so we're pretty confident that we're not going to receive much more than 80 85.5 million next year conversely when we're building a budget we look at expenditure separately we take expenditures and we say what do we need to spend what do we have today if revenues didn't exist right if we didn't have to worry about how we pay for these things and we just needed to have these things what would it cost us next year to have them with an increase and when we're doing that we do that by Consulting with our vendors and getting actual quotes and if it's not something we can get a quote on we run an analysis for it that analysis is going to take in historical rate increases and apply weighted uh percent to it based on recent Trends and we'll arrive at a number on our expenditures so that's what we're obligated to spend that's what we have to spend next year when your re expenditures are greater than your revenues you have a budgetary deficit we cannot spend $90 million when we only have $86 million so when we this board has a legal obligation to balance a budget with no exceptions and expenditures must equal your revenues not the opposite way around expenditures must equal our revenues so at some point we have to take the column in the right and we have to squeeze it down to fit into the column on the left that's where we're at today just for reference last year's total budget was 88 m69 388 it's the number at the top in the gray so this board's job right now is going to be looking at this we're taking a deep dive into each of these categories we're going to determine where we need to cut from and the column on the left the tax levy does include the enrollment adjustment so this is including the additional State funding we weren't anticipating in January and this is also including the enrollment adjustment of 2.3 million we still have a $4.5 million gap that we need to account for thank you thank you Mr Yates so uh nearing the end of the presentation just going to kind of summarize the cuts and the steps that were shared last presentation about a month ago and we estimate total 4.3 million from these steps there are eight the first is outsourcing transportation department 800,000 estimated and would like to put as a uh an umbrella over all of these steps they underline the somber and solemn reality of tonight these are momentous steps no one wakes up looking to you know how can we create change and Outsource and reduce this is we're forced here fiscally and trying to come up with the least horrible path forward second was reduced Transportation burden 100,000 we try to do that every year that that means increasing walking essentially um Middle School sixth class instead of Team time 900,000 so if you have six teachers teaching five classes each mathematically five teachers teaching six classes each equals 30 sections Middle School class size increases those go hand in hand we haven't really been able to increase class size in Middle School the way we have in elementary we've increased Elementary class size each year throughout S2 Middle School class size has stayed pretty much locked in because of the house system only by getting outside the house system through the team time replaced with a six class can you increase Middle School class size Elementary class size increases step number five step number six a step we were looking at and talked a lot about about four and a half years ago four years ago basing out pair professional health benefits 750,000 eliminating Elementary extracurriculars 150,000 we are exploring a way to make them cost neutral to try to preserve extracurriculars and we'll be able to share more about that in the time ahead and then lastly step eight is use up the shift dividend which we used some of last year um and then that will deplete that dividend entirely the asterisk are for other steps that were that were that are in the consideration and we're looking into render take those those steps there 1 three four and five render them as um positions this type of chart we've used this every year in our budget presentations to kind of translate those steps into that looks like from a position count um and uh that would be 10 core content teaching positions um for the sixth class in place a team time 10 core content teaching positions in middle for the Middle School class size increases eight Elementary General Ed teaching positions for 28 total we have nine retirements as of in that in that Realm as of today it's those Asters are because what the situation any district has is um we have staff who have multiple certifications so a retirement in one area could mean a a position saved in multiple other areas and that has to be worked out based on factors like seniority which we're looking at in the non-certificated area transportation department 55 positions for a total of 83 positions in 3.2 million that's from these steps here those 1 three four and five another slide we looked at last time just to recap is uh additional projected staff reductions so you know we went through these last time uh updated the rightand column which shows retirements and vacancies as of today we always hope that that number increases only in the sense that it means as we eliminate a position a person's not losing their job um and uh so I won't go you know we went through those before but um all very very difficult all these steps are incredibly difficult um ideas steps please share anything that can't be used in this year's budget we carry over because this is a a never ending cycle of having to find reductions and efficiencies in order to balance our budget every year um which we foresee as our reality um which was is a difficult reality to to to look in the face but it is our reality as we move forward questions from the board okay no questions or comments from the board good thank you Dr smithk appr we will now move into item 6.1 approval of the minutes we need a motion to approve item 6.1 and 6.2 do we have a motion motion by Mr Thompson seconded [Music] by Miss Fox any questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr y roll call please roll call and the approval of minutes Miss buer moitz yes Mr deari yes Miss Fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr boach yes Mr conon yes that motion carries thank you Mr Yates we need a motion to approve items 7.1 through 7.7 under superintendent report and administrative items do we have a motion motion by Miss Fox seconded by Mr Thompson before we head to a vote I'll hand the floor over to Dr Smith thank you Mr canthon I'm going to keep the comments short tonight just because we've had uh some presentation and I know we have comments ahead um would like to recognize the importance of this month as Black History Month in etsd and Nationwide and to that end I'd like to highlight the contributions and Leadership of our board member jiren Brown who is actually on active duty right now as a member of the US Air National Guard that's why he can't be here tonight um also a huge and heartfelt thank you to the isim Education Foundation since our last board meeting they held their biggest fun Riser of the year which is the double down on eim education it's truly a village effort our district appreciates the work of that fantastic organization every day if you didn't see it there was an article on 70 and 73.com that came out yesterday about the EF I'd encourage everyone to check it out it's a great way to get involved the next big EF event is going to be on Monday June 2nd which is the Larry Cole Memorial Golf Classic lastly I'd like to thank all our staff for their dedication as we get through the heart of Winter the days start getting a little longer but this is a long stretch and um what you do day in and day out makes such a difference for kids and I say that acknowledging that that work and that dedication goes on even as here we sit here we talk dealing with the stress and uncertainty of yet another very difficult budget year so thank you all thank you Mr canthon thank you Dr Smith any questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr Yates roll call please roll call and administrative items Miss P MTZ yes Mr Demari yes Miss Fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr Bach yes Mr con yes the motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item eight under curriculum and instruction we need a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.5 do we have a motion motion by Mr peelman seconded by Mr Thompson any questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr Yates roll call please roll call on curriculum and instruction Miss buter MZ yes Mr Demar yes M fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr Bach yes Mr Conan yes the motion carries thank you Miss eight moving to item nine finance and operations we need a motion to approve items 9.1 through 9.14 do we have a motion motion by Miss Fox seconded by Mr demarcy any questions or comments from the board wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the donation that's on the agenda tonight um Taho tur farms and Mr David Bach in particular he is a Marlton dad his children go here attend MMS um and uh he is donating their services to repair our softball and baseball fields um in particular they're donating all their services to repair our softball field here at no cost they're donating their services to repair the baseball field here and the field at deacy at cost so just want to say give a big shout out to Mr David uh and uh thank you thanks Mr Yates any other questions or comments from the board seeing n Mr Yates roll call please roll call on finance and operations Miss bura moetz yes Mr dearcy yes Miss Fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr Bach yes Mr conon yes that motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item 10 Personnel we need a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.10 do we have a motion motion by Miss Fox seconded by miss buter mowitz any questions or comments from the board seeing n Mr Yates roll call please on Personnel M bu MTZ yes Mr deari yes m Fox yes Mrs NL yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr boach yes Mr conon yes that motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item 11 policy we do have policy this month we need a motion to approve items 11.1 through 11.3 do we have a motion motion by Mr dearcy seconded by Mrs null any questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr Yates roll call please roll call in policy Miss buer moitz yes Mr demarcy yes Miss Fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr boach yes Mr Conan yes the motion carries thank you moving to item 12 committee reports are there any committee chairs who would like to share a report Mr peelman so we had uh an a meeting for the community engagement committee uh we met on February 12th and we mostly talked about paa funding there had been a lot of comments that we had received regarding paa funding so we tried to better understand it and understand how the district had been able to use the funding thus far and in what ways it was benefiting us um in past just paying for the preschool program and how they've been able to apply it Dr Smith and Mr yat showed that we have the $600,000 Surplus that we're expecting in the future from this year from the Pea funding um from there uh the we were also invited to a parents United Community meeting uh several board members went to that we had great conversation and were able to hear from number of stakeholders in the community um and we were really appreciative of the opportunity to come and listen to everyone and that's all thank you Mr pman any other committee chairs like to share a report seeing none we will move to Old business of which we have none new business again we have none now we will go to open public comment this meeting will now be open to the public referencing both agenda items and any items of Interest however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we would ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to 3 minutes per person and state your name and address at the beginning of your comments okay everyone as I stated I'm just going to run through the ground rules uh it's been a while since we've had a meeting um that has had this many people here and I don't know how many people have never been to a meeting before so um as Mr Pon stated everyone is limited to 3 minutes her comment there is a timer up on the screen I will start that timer after you introduce yourself and tell us where you're from um and then you can proceed to your comment when the timer goes off please finish your sentence uh and be seated I am not trying to be mean or um you know upset anyone but I have to keep everyone to the same rules uh or else there could be an issue so and also there is no yielding your time to anyone else and please try to keep the out the comments the loud comments um to a minimum um when you are speaking please address the board you should actually be addressing your comments to the board president please do not turn and face the audience you're not here to address the audience you're here to address the board um this is public comment not a Q&A so while you can absolutely pose question questions to the board um please do not think that people are being rude when they do not respond to those comments um it's just not a Q&A session so if you know at the end somebody is able to uh answer certain questions um you know they will do that possibly um or maybe it's a situation where somebody will reach out to you regarding that specific question at a later time um so again please just be respectful of everyone here as I stated previously um while everyone gets their 3 minutes everyone is anticipated you will only go once um and the latest that we will be keeping public I mean we may not need this but the latest that we will be keeping public comment open it's till 10:45 because we do need to close public comment and wrap up the meeting by 11 o' so um all right I think that is everything so go ahead and you do have the right to vote to extend it as it's been done many times in the past those that are new I just want to make sure they know that that's a rule they do know that and that has they have been advised of that but we do not anticipate that being the case tonight okay so you starting my time up is it up there so um it's perfect it's up there but I'm goingon to start it after everyone once you say your name and address that's when I'll start it great all right good evening my name is Tracy Brown I'm one of the vice presidents for the E Township Education Association and also a teacher here at MMS it's difficult to believe for all of us that we're here to talk about budget cuts yet again uh somehow we went from 7 million to 4.3 million but the cuts are all the same so that's an adjustment to what I was going to say that's a little bit confusing um one of the proposed Cuts will privatize our transportation department we brought our transportation inhouse we built an entire Transportation Center to save money for our district but now we're told it costs too much privat privatization means we will lose most of our drivers some of these drivers live in town they pay eam taxes and have a vested interest in the well-being of our students many of these drivers have worked in our school district for over 20 years and our etsd staff has taught some of their children and their grandchildren including board members these are our children these are our people due to your Cuts they are now losing jobs and health benefits after all of these years spent serving our community will privatization truly save money for our district is this really the best option I hope the Board of Ed members have asked good questions and have been able to see some detailed facts and figures to prove this the other item I want to discuss is the restructuring of our middle schools and the increase to class sizes as well as the very drastic increase to the number of kids we will teach each day if you go through with this budget cut you will be responsible for changing the landscape of our middle schools forever and that is definitely not something I would be proud of if I was in your position sitting there right now this will affect every current and all future etsd students without the team concept kids will slip through the cracks your proposed restructuring and cuts to Middle School teaching staff will leave content Area Teachers with six classes up to 180 190 students a day no team no no independent study to catch up with the students along with a host of other problems that my colleagues will gladly share with you tonight what might look good on paper is not reality we can't allow our budget to be balanced on the backs of our students education before my time is up I do want to publicly thank miss buter mowitz Mr demarcy and Mr peelman for attending last week's community meeting at the library we truly appreciate you that you afforded extra time in your busy schedules to come listen to the con concerns of the community and our etsd staff I also want to thank Dr Smith and our principal Gary Hoffman for arranging time for those three Board of Ed members as well as Mr conon to visit my seventh grade team at Marlon Middle and observe some of our classes this week though the kids were truly on their best behavior I hope you do know that um I think it is very very important for you to see this great system here at the middle schools that we have in place and everything you risk us losing and these children losing forever with this budget cut there's a way to increase some class sizes without cutting a team thank you for your [Applause] time okay yes sorry had to figure out how to turn okay good evening my name is Brian whitz vice president for the eham township Education Association I stand here tonight as an exhausted educator I am exhausted as we sit and listen to another year of proposed cuts to our programs which will reduce staff and in turn harm the achievement of our students I believe I speak for the entire membership by saying we are exasperated by this the reduction in staff which will lead to increased class sizes in elementary schools places a burden on both our teachers and students larger class sizes mean teachers can't cover the curriculum as intended small group instruction will become more infrequent leading to less individual Iz the attention to all students specifically our needest students this will create a greater need for interventions and referrals however these programs reading recovery supplemental support and interventionists are all also on the chopping block furthermore High achieving students will not get the differentiation they deserve in the classroom as the pullout tier three program is also slated to be cut to continue the elimination of all elementary school clubs deprives our students of extra chances to thrive beyond the boundaries of the academic school day should they remain to be cut additionally Dr Smith is proposing reductions to crucial areas of our school district counselors our students need more not less ta positions our students need more not less also all the proposed reductions in related arts and Spanish will further deprive our students of opportunities to grow lastly we fought long and hard to retain benefits for our most experienced and dedicated power professionals it saddens me tonight to see that these will be phased out what does it mean that they will be maintained for those with the most seniority as was discussed on last month's slides how will that be determined we risk losing so many good Powers who have given many years of service to this District many of whom who are residents and have raised children in this town these powers are not easy to replace I urge the board to carefully consider these proposed reductions please become curious and ask the tough questions and be aware of the irreparable damage these proposed Cuts will do to our students thank [Applause] you just GNA hold it if that's okay Holly Miller Marlton Elementary uh fourth grade teacher I'm also a union rep I'm reading a statement prepared by ETA president Russ BS Russ wanted to be here this evening but is out with the flu I stand before you tonight once again watching this District suffer under another destructive budget season during Dr Smith's preliminary presentation he was very clear about where the cuts would be but far less transparent about the one where the money is actually going other than Mrs Mr yates's detailed breakdown of electricity increases the other justifications were vague at best one particularly misleading statement claimed that salary increases exceed 3% per year while ETA May settle for a 3% increase annually retirements significantly impact the actual expenditures typically allowing the district to use only about 60% of that amount to fund movement on the guide and teacher raises another budget pressure cited was the rising cost of Health Care with double- digigit increases however it's been communicated to us that the state of New Jersey allows districts to exceed the budget cap as you spoke about tonight for health care costs this year health care costs Rose by 14% And part of that increase can be incorporated into the local tax levy preserving teachers counselors benefits clubs activities transportation and ultimately a better educational experience for Eve sham students could that money have been from our 4 and a half our 4 and a half million gap been offset by taking the once in a lifetime money available last year $3 million that was left on the table it saddens me that in just five short Years Eve sham has gone from being one of the top districts in New Jersey to one that is far less desirable it is devastating to witness this decline I urge this board board to hold the administration accountable for these decisions is it completely their fault absolutely not I urge everyone in this room to pick up their phone and call our local legislators and tell them to fix the funding formula to the Board of Ed earlier this evening you spoke of the district's mission to allow students to achieve their unique potential but how is this possible when educators are denied the tools necessary to make that happen when class sizes at this point Have Become unmanageable the answer is simple it's not you're failing in your mission and Eve sham students are paying the price thank you uh good evening uh my name is m Hayes I'm a parent of a first grader at Marlton Elementary School I'm also a 10e professor at a local University here uh who studies education finance and policy and so one of my research questions that I've done in my own research is can schools how are they utilizing the resources right one way to save money is be more successful with the resources the scarce resource we have right and so if we look at our school district's school performance report we do not see success specifically in English language arts so if you were to go to the New Jersey Department of education's website they have a school performance report for every school school district and you can look at their English language their math and their other types of standardized test SCS results in our school district almost 50% of students are not meeting expected language arts skills one out of two students is not meeting their reading skills at their grade level so we have to ask ourselves why is that happening what are we doing maybe there's external factors right research suggests there's plenty of things that are outside the control of a school district but there are many things inside control of a school district so we need to look at our current reading program our current reading program utilizes a whole word learning approach right to teach kids how to read in other words we're just asking kids to memorize site words we're not actually teaching them how to read how did they code words how did they code and actually sound out words so when we see almost 50% of our students not meeting expectations for reading in this school district we have to evaluate what we are doing with our reading program we're not teaching phonics I don't even know if many parents have the ability to teach phonics because maybe they were taught a whole we learning approach so I would ask this school district to look and evaluate the current reading program I've reached out to all school school board members via email including the the school administration our superintendent and I've kind of gotten some great responses from two individuals but everybody else has ignored those and I understand people are busy but this has to be addressed 50% of our students almost 50% of our students are not meeting English language art skills if we don't do this what's the point of spending all this extra money if we can do better with the resources we have we can have call savings and deal with our long-term uh structural deficit that are everybody dealt with here so I encourage you to do that I think this is a big challenge I think you're up to that challenge if we're asking our kids to take on the major challenge of learning to be a good and proficient reader I think the school board and I think our school administration can do that themselves as well so I challenge you to this and let me know how I can help I guarantee this community wants to be part of that as well thank you very much once you say your name and where you're from I'll start it okay all right um my name is Renee Pico I am from Marlon I am forgive me for being so nervous um okay so good evening members of the Board of Education my name is Renee Pico I am a reading and interventionist with 24 years of experience also a mother to a bright loving sorry hardworking first grader in E sham I am here today to advocate for my son for all the students in eam and for the teachers today I want to talk about something that has the power to change lives the way we teach reading like many parents my husband and I are average Working Class People Who deeply value education that's why we made the significant financial sacrifices to move to E am believing it would provide our child with the best possible education my son adores his school he adores and loves his wonderful teachers and he is excited every day to attend school although imagine my dismay when I discover that balanced literacy and outdated and disproven Method Remains the foundation of reading instruction in Eve sham despite my te my son's wonderful teacher who is dedicated and committed to his success Eve sham does not have a reading curriculum that is able to support his reading development we as parents made the decision to hire a reading specialist trained in the Orton Gillingham science of reading method this instruction is a major financial burden for my son burden for us but my son's literacy is non-negotiable it is because of this added instruction that he is showing growth and success in Reading he has been learning the code of reading he is being taught not to guess or look at pictures to figure out an unknown word he's being taught how to read read real words this is not the fault of the teachers the teachers and Eve sham are loving and kind and caring and dedicated and we thank them all the time this is a problem with the district the curriculum coordinator must provide the teachers with with an effective up-to-date curriculum teachers need tools they need a district that provides these tools so that they can effectively instruct their students teachers need outside professional development to to study the science of reading the science of reading on the other hand is not a trend or a passing educational fat is a body of research spanning decades backed by cognitive science neuroscience and educational studies it tells us that reading is not a natural process like speaking it must be explicitly taught and the most effective way to do this is through structur literacy we must ask ourselves why would we continue to use a method that is s that science has disproven when we have Clear research-based Solutions that work the answerers clear it's time for eam to embrace the science of reading we owe it to our children every single one of them to give them the best possible foundation in literacy we owe it to the wonderful teachers of eam please provide them with the PD and updated tool so that they can help our kids when we teach kids when we teach reading the right way we are not just teaching words we are unlocking doors to opportunity confidence and success thank you good evening my name is Danielle Palmer I'm a parent to a first grader at Rice Elementary I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of my child and the children of e sham School District who deserve an equitable comprehensive and research-based literacy education structured literacy as Renee had just pointed out is an evidence-based approach that systematically teaches phonemic awareness phonics fluency vocabulary and comprehension structured literacy is not just about what is taught it is about how it is taught it is delivered explicitly systematically sequentially and cumulatively ensuring that students build strong foundational skills step by step instruction includes ample opportunities for guided practice with immediate corrective feedback to reinforce learning frequent checks for understanding and Mastery are critical for monitoring progress and identifying students who need additional support this approach is a stark contrast to our current literacy curriculum yet if structured math were a term IAM Township School District would already be implementing it just as we do not hand students a sheet of math problems with M mixed operations of varied complexity and expect them to figure it out along the way we must stop approaching literacy instruction this way the foundational literacy instruction our children are currently receiving is scattered fragmented and inconsistent lacking the structure or progress monitoring needed for True Mastery my son like I said as a first grader in the district and I've been using youly with him at home since kindergarten it's affordable and ALS supporting materials can be found on their website it's designed for all students structured and takes a scaffolded approach my son doesn't struggle in reading and writing I'd love to give this credit to his two wonderful teachers he's had at rice and yes while they're absolutely wonderful I have to credit his hard work at home youly or a similar program should be available to him in his primary classroom he shouldn't have to come home from an 8 hour school day and sit with me and do a reading lesson this should be provided to all students kindergarten through 3D by providing him early and explicit instruction in key phonetic and language structures my son doesn't struggle to read or write and have that added stress he would probably like more time at home after a long school day so I urge you to please take a look at replacing your old outdated approach with a more structured approach to teach literacy thank you my name is Amanda G I have three children at Rice Elementary I'm here on behalf of the parents for improved literacy outcomes advocacy group to address a critical issue in education Equity access to structured Literacy for all students in December I urged the board to examine the differences between balanced and structured literacy I hope you've had the time to do so but if not our group is ready to provide additional resources Decades of research show that structured literacy benefits all students and is essential for some the failure to provide structured literacy disproportionately harms marginalized students this includes lwi income students multilingual Learners and those with disabilities worsening long-term academic and social economic disparities the latest data from nape confirms this troubling Trend disadvantaged and lower performing students have experienced the steepest declines in achievement this downturn has further widened the achievement gap between the highest and lowest performers UND underscoring ing the shortcomings of current educational strategies and meeting the needs of marginalized students groups unfortunately this disparity holds true locally as reflected in esam's performance data so what steps is eam taking to close this Gap eam is doubling down on the use of inequitable and ineffective methods justifying these methods by describing them as traditional reading pathway and referencing the surrounding districts continuing such practices your traditional methods aren't working it's time to closely examine your own declining literacy data and take action it's time for eacham to forge A New Path forward by implementing evidence-based best practices and literacy that will reach all Learners what's needed is the commitment to make structured literacy the foundation of ean's curriculum this requires training Educators investing in resources and prioritizing Literacy for all students it begins with a commitment from the administration to Prior prioritize evidence-based reading instruction and make decisions that truly serve the best interests of students now is not the time to reduce interventionist positions instead we should focus on expanding interventions with programs that can effectively reach and support more students amid budget challenges we Face our group has already proposed cost-effective solutions for the district additionally providing high quality core literacy instruction tackles issues early on reducing the need for costly intervention Special Education Service services and Remediation later this proactive approach not only enhances the educational experience for students but also ensures more efficient use of District resources the Administration has largely ignored our advocacy for over a year even as our children literacy rates continue to decline if the administration refuses to acknowledge the glaring deficiency in its curriculum then it's imperative that the board seek expert Guidance just as we have the board must hold the administration accountable for the quality of instruction our children receive anything less is a failure to our [Music] children good evening my name is Christa ianelli I have three kids within the district I stand before you tonight representing ISM Township parents for improved literacy outcomes I would like to share a recent experience I had with my daughter who is currently in kindergarten she came home home beaming with excitement waving her reading level certificate that indicated she was now reading independently at level a based on the Fontanel Benchmark assessment administered by her teacher in her reading pouch she had a level a book titled marshmallow the pony which she was eager to read and log in her new reading log that evening as we sat down at the table she began reading the predictable pattern I blank my pony which she had already memorized she navigated through the text with ease reading words such as Ride Clean feed comb brush kiss and barn I quickly noticed when she encountered these unfamiliar words instead of attempting to decode it using the actual letters her gaze automatically shifted to the pictures on the page when I covered the illustrations she was unable to read those same words leading to to frustration and tears as an educator myself I recognize that the phonic skills embedded in the level a independent book were things such as the long e sound long vowels the sh diagraph the silent B following M the floss Rule and the Bossy R they are all phonics Concepts that should be taught explicitly in first grade not in kindergarten no wonder why my daughter relied on the illustration to decode because she couldn't read it yet this was her independent level and for the record my daughter's teacher is absolutely phenomenal I share this personal moment to highlight the shortcomings of the fontas and panel leveling system as it pertains to our youngest Learners I urge the board members to re-examine the literacy approaches currently in use within our district by making simple adjustments and adopting effective literacy practices such as providing all students with access to developmentally appropriate decodable readers will help us save money in the long run implementing the costeffective ufly phonics programs for all students not just tier two on a final note I want to acknowledge the unwavering dedication of our remarkable teachers counselors nurses nurses and teacher assistants they are in the trenches every day and deserve more support not less through cuts and reductions as a parent I can sense the low morale among staff members which is undoubtly influenced by decisions made at the top increasing class sizes and reducing support sta support staff only exacerbates the challenges they face every day our staff and students deserve better hello everyone um I'm Maria kitus I teach seventh grade language arts at the Macy Middle School I wanted to start out first by saying congratulations to our wrestlers and our musicians they are such positive representatives of our community um I only hope for all of our students that the incredibly excuse me valuable experiences offered during and after school can remain we must not lose sight of our children as the priority our children must come first they depend on the adults in their lives to work together in order to make decisions that are in their best interest with the proposed budget however our children will be denied the time attention instruction and activities they are entitled to and deserve they will miss out on the special and meaningful connections with teachers that are forever remembered and for me that's the most special part of my job is the relationships that I build with students everything that each TSD is will be reduced to numbers and loss the numbers of teachers bus drivers and support staff to be lost the loss of the team concept time available for teachers to gather together collaborate and discuss the needs of children the number of children in our district struggling with mental health who without the team of their teachers will lose the nurturing and care that has always been there for them the loss of teams means the loss of independent study and I know you've heard that a thousand times but I can't stress how important that period is um it's a period where children get the time that they need and time is everything to receive extra help to make up work if they've been absent um to review concepts with their teachers some additional numbers to consider if we're talking about of classes of up to 35 students it breaks my heart to think about children who may not material or ever get a question answered and whose names may not even be known by their teachers because we're 35 students Next Period 35 students Next Period and again those relationships to me or everything and to all of our teachers the deficit state aid is a grave issue making it seem as though the proposed budget is the only way there are other Alternatives sell or lease the admin building bringing administrators and teachers together on under the same roof working thank you working together side by side for the good of our children there would be nothing more rewarding than having our supervisors our superintendent um all of that stuff together so they can see that the day-to-day of what we do but leasing out Middle School space is being proposed I'm going to end with this and Dr Smith I appre appreciate the words that you wrote to parents um when you first joined our district you said during times of uncertainty these values kindness love listening collaboration are our anchor we will not just rise to rise to these challenges but become stronger and better because of them more communicative and collaborative more intentional in our decisions all aligned to the goal of helping our children and I appreciate those words thank [Applause] you hi beg waren I'm an eve sham resident and a third grade teacher at jagard as both a Marlton resident and teacher I'm deeply concerned about the devastating cuts for our proposed budget and the implications that they'll have on our students class size increases at the elementary level are not conducive to Quality instruction while best practices and teaching rely on differentiated small group instruction how much individ individualized attention will the students get when their small groups are six or more it's also important to note that the average class size doesn't include special education pushin students for morning meeting related arts and other subjects already at jagard my third grade class is a size of 30 students during these mentioned times with the new suggested sizes my class would have 35 or more students for morning meeting or related arts quality teaching starts with developing personal relationships with students first how is a teacher supposed to get to know each individual child meet their needs and meet with them in small groups with a class of that size many of our classrooms won't even comfortably fit that many students I'm also concerned about the proposed cuts to the intervention support for our struggling students these are students who have been identified by teachers who would benefit from additional instruction all res search points to Early Intervention which gives students the best possible chance to catch up to their classmates and I've seen students successfully make academic games from these programs I've also seen students confidence grow in school unfortunately removing these programs will put students even further behind with a bigger class size of peers and less intervention support these students will be left struggling and that Gap will only widen with each passing year in addition removing tier three instruction for our gifted and talented students put puts yet another thing on our teachers to take on and implement the creative project-based instruction that these students receive once a week is not something that can be instructed in the classroom please remember with all of these budget cuts that we are only one person while the teachers in this District are some of the hardest working teachers in the profession increasing Elementary class size while removing intervention and tier three support will not provide the quality education that our students deserve while I certainly understand that many of these budget cuts are coming from the state and you as the board only have so many options I strongly encourage you to think of the implications that some of these proposals would have on our students and our Town's reputation for outstanding schools thank [Applause] you hi my name is Anastasia trellis um I'm a Marlton resident and I'm an alumni I went through the district I was VanZant I was right through Dey and Cherokee I used to be proud of Marlton I used to tell people I pay my taxes gladly because I know our school district is amazing and I'm not so sure anymore I have a four-year-old I'm terrified I don't know 30 plus six-year-olds in a classroom maybe some of you have forgotten what it's like to teach and how many can be in a classroom at a time but there's not a chance I also have questions if any of you have actually looked at the occupancy of these rooms 26 so are we going to just be paying fines or they going to sit on each other's laps it's ridiculous you're going past the fire code it's not making any sense when you're putting up these beautiful presentations and your budget cuts you're forgetting about the students that's what I want to see on this when you're presenting to the parents and the teachers and everyone here how is it affecting these students the class ratios there's not a single statistic on there showing about the education and how it's affecting the students you cannot put your students first if you're going to put your teachers last that is the most important thing I also want to say that both my sisters are teachers one in this very district and I'm so disappointed people used to love a you're a teacher in Marlton that's so amazing I would love to do that and now they're second guessing why why am I a teacher every year I have to fear for my job and you wonder why there's such a there's such a definite with teachers they don't want to teach anymore they're so passionate about their students but you're taking their passion away let them do their job support them and be there for them thank you my name is Kelly oh my [Music] I know I'm sorry my name is Kelly Walsh I've been a social studies teacher here at MMS for almost 20 years I understand the financial hardship and challenge Alles that the board is facing how I however I need to stress the detrimental impact of losing the house Concepts increasing and increasing class size to up to 35 students I currently teach 127 students here at eam my largest class of 26 my smallest 23 and that includes a combination of 45 IEP 504 and intervention students increasing the class size to a 35 will significantly impact the classroom in the following ways some of you have come to visit my room this week I currently have 30 desks in my room and three large totes to put all their computer bags in so we can safely navigate the room board members who came in on Tuesday could see it would be a tight fit to put five more desk and then actually put small adults into those seats creating seating charts for 25 kids let alone 35 to foster a positive Learning Community is difficult and Ever Changing risers Rising numbers will make it more difficult to Str Strat strategically create a positive learning community that minimizes distractions and meets the individual needs reduction of collaborative activities there is no way possible that we can break 35 kids into four groups of four and have eight or nine collaborative groups and keep them engaged and on task teachers will need to incorporate catch-up time into our weekly schedule to accommodate students who have been absent or require additional time and support as outlined by law in their 504 and IEPs without the house concept we will no longer have independent study or time with the students due to varying schedules this will reduce time spent on curricular um content decreasing the ability to quickly identify students who are not just struggling academically but mentally or socially especially if they don't advocate for themselves we do that at team we talk every week about the children in in the East sham District we talk about who do we have concerns do we have things in common we talk to the VP we talk to guidance we try and make a difference in them to make school a better place for them and if you take that away your children will fall through the cracks we will not have time to have these interactions with them anymore opportunities for personal connections will be reduced and sadly some lost meetings will um students will have more time with substitutes as teachers that will now be attending identification IP meetings um iron RS meetings will now happen during instructional time not team time teachers will need parents to be more diligent about looking at Genesis to check student progress It's not feasible for me to send 180 emails to your students to to my students and your children less opportunities will be given to demonstrate understanding of Concepts because I cannot possibly grade 188 papers in a a school week it's impossible in closing you're consider adding 50 more students to the current teachers case load your middle schools have reached the point where we cannot continue to do more with less you have to find a solution that is better than what is being proposed [Applause] today um good evening my name is Cara Hutchinson I am a sixth grade teacher at Marlton middle school and I've had the pleasure of teaching 11 and 12 year olds over the past soon to be 27 years before I begin I would like to thank the elementary school teachers of e sham school district for doing the work of angels since I am a middle school teacher please understand that I only know middle school so therefore please don't take my please tonight as a slight on your efforts I sat down over the weekend and crafted a letter to you all on why the proposed budget mainly cutting 28 teachers 20 of them from the Middle School doing away with the team model and adding an additional class to Middle School content content teachers was not a great idea when I'm when I was done I realized it would have taken me about 15 minutes to read all of my concerns when I only have three to speak so I cut out the part praising the team model and how it does nothing but benefit and make lives easier for students and parents I also cut out the part about the support that I get from my team and how grateful I am that I have that system in place for me I took out of the number of things I do in one day to make my classroom function and to make my students feel welcome and safe that doesn't include actual teaching as well as the part that discussed the long hours it takes to plan teach reach and grade the 125 students that come in and out of my classroom every day this includes work that is done before during after hours and often at home adding 25 30 40 more students I can't even imagine again it was still too long so I trimmed some more I took out the part about a teacher's life outside of their job caring for babies making sure our kids are set with their hund 100th day of school outfit dealing with our own health issues um the constant worry over our College AED children or caring for aging parents yet still being able to come to work every day all the while Never Letting our struggles at home and the toll they take on our lives outside of school affect what we present to our students but still it was too long sadly I finally deleted the part about the months of worry we as teachers have each and every year over the budget and how it will affect us in the future over the past few years the worry has been more palpable in the halls and is visible in every face of every colleague that is here with me tonight yet we show up and we do our jobs because after all we are here for the kids our worries have to be set aside until there is time to think whenever that may be so after all the revisions here is what I have left teams work middle school children and families need consistency teachers need consistent and genuine support and each other we are not chess pieces or machines or numbers we are people this plan will break your teachers and in essence the heart of this school district I humbly ask and say with the utmost respect please try again thank you so much really really quickly before we get to the next speaker I just want to point out that if you do have a longer statement I know that this is shared at pretty much every board meeting but if you do have a longer statement that you would like the board to see you can feel free to email that to either the board or to uh Mr Yates who is the board secretary so just know that that's an option thank you hi I teach seventh grade language arts Laura Davis here at Marlton Middle School language arts is a state tested subject and highly scrutinized subject at that but let me be clear I actually teach two subjects reading and writing I in my 28th year of teaching middle school with 26 of those here at MMS while some people may focus on class- siiz numbers tonight or money or dismantling teams I'd like to take a minute or three or 240 at this point to focus on how an increase in class sizes and or overall numbers of students I teach each year will have an impact on the education of the students and this may kind of go directly in line with some of the language arts stuff that's been mentioned for 26 years I've been having individual conversations with all of my reading students every week during readers Workshop we talk about such exciting things as storylines literary Concepts why they chose their individual books but we also talk about the individual struggles and goals each student may have I can generally do this well with 20ish students in a class in years where the class sizes have been up to 26 or 28 it's far more difficult and at times impossible to fit a meaningful conversation in with every student every week let's talk about writing when the students submit a piece of writing I tell them and the parents at back to school night in September to please be patient with getting the grades on those I read and give written feedback to every student so that they understand what worked well with their writing and what they need to continue to work on it is Meaningful individual feedback that is direct guidance to them to becoming better more capable writers when you add more total students to my classes whether it's through bigger classes or by adding a sixth content period that feedback diminishes and becomes less comprehensive and meaningful because I have that many more to do and the students deserve to get them back in a timely manner the amount of evaluation planning and preparation that I have with both subjects forces me to do a large amount of work outside of my school day one prep period a day doesn't come close to being enough to evaluate the five classes worth of essays plus book reports plus tests plus quizzes plus short answer responses or anything else we do let alone actually plan and prepare the lessons please don't mistake what I'm saying as complaining I chose my profession I chose middle school because these seventh graders are at a pivotal point in their lives and I felt I could help them navigate that and learn to and help them learn and grow in such a tough year I'd like to think that over the course of my entire career I've done that what I am saying and what my point is is this when you ask add more something has to give because teachers care about our students we will give and give and give and give of ourselves most people won't even see this happening because we are professionals eventually though it will affect the students through the individual attention we are forced to scale back on we will be forced to sacrifice quality for quantity not to mention the diminished energy and enthusiasm we the teachers strive to bring to the classroom every day please take that into [Applause] consideration uh Jen Van Horn I teach at Marlton Middle School good evening my name is Jen Van Horn and I'm a math teacher at Marlton Middle School I grew up in marleton and I received an excellent education here I had phonics and grammar both I grew up in Mar uh 25 years ago I was hired to be a teacher here and I was extremely proud to call myself a teacher in Eve sham Township fast forward 25 years and I'm now witnessing the quality of Education here crumble before my eyes with these proposed budget cuts I understand that cuts need to be made but I also know that in the past some of the proposed Cuts have been reconsidered well I'm up here to beg this school board to do everything in your power to stop class sizes from increasing to an unacceptable level any budget cut will have a negative impact somewhere but these increases in class size will have devastating consequences to every single student in this district for years to come I want to paint a quick picture of a typical middle school classroom several of the students have documented specialized learning plans with many accommodations in place to help them be successful yet other students have those same learning difficulties but they are undiagnosed or do not meet certain criteria and therefore no plans or extra supports are in place for those children several of the students in the classroom also have documented ADHD anxiety behavioral challenges and other mental health concerns that require additional support several other students have also these same exact struggles however because their needs have not been previously addressed there's no plan in place to help them either in fact some of these students currently in this classroom should actually be placed in a smaller group setting that could better meet all of their needs but for one reason or another that has not happened sometimes we are told there's just no room for them there one of the middle school students in this class reads on a second grade level one of them cannot figure out the answer to six divided by two one of them speaks very little English one of them is crying because they're being bullied at recess but they don't want to make the problem worse by telling the teacher or the guidance counselor one of the students just moved here from another district and is completely overwhelmed another student just refuses to do any work on a daily basis a different student is shutting down due to an ongoing family crisis yet another student just returned from being out for a week with the flu and doesn't know where to even begin she sits next to another student who's chronically absent almost all year for unknown reasons now of course there's also several students in this class who are average Learners and who do not need accommodations but now some of them are even starting to struggle because of distra distractions in the room and I don't want to forget the multiple students in this classroom who are above average Learners and are extremely bored because they already finished their regular work and the extra challenge problems I gave to them this classroom already exists all around our district and not just at the middle school level ask any teacher at any grade level each year the diverse needs of our students grow more and more however I'm not up here describing the classroom to so that you feel bad for us teachers yes it's overwhelming yes we're asked to do more we'll be giving less support every year including next year but we are adults and we will do our jobs to the very best of our ability I'm describing this classroom because right now my average class size is in the mid 20s and despite all the challenges that I just described above I'm still able to do a pretty good job of teaching them math however I'm going to keep going however you have to stop you cannot cannot keep going well somebody else I'm going to finish my sentence it's nauseating it's suffocating it's the children who are going to suffer I have one final question when you ruin the quality of education do you want your child to have a one out of 35 chance of getting help in their [Applause] [Music] classroom I'm going to break it to you I know it's the last one right okay perfect thank you that's why we need to teams we work better together hi my name is Amanda sisy and I'm an eighth grade teacher at maralon Middle School um I'm not going to speak about the team model but I want to start by saying I agree with everything my colleagues have said um but I am going to speak to something different I've learned not to prepare my statements so I can speak to what I hear at the board meetings um as our elected officials right it's your job to listen your constituents and we all know the budget is a time-sensitive issue um and I find it highly concerning that at the beginning of the board meeting we were told that the board would most likely choose not to vote to extend the board uh the meeting if needed in order to allow all who wish to speak um in a public forum to do so and then we were told the same thing again at the beginning a public comment when Tracy asked for clarification um we know that sending private private emails to the board is not the same as us being able to speak here publicly in front of everyone um yes we can send our emails to you but speaking here in front of an audience where everyone can hear us not the same um additionally public comment being moved to the end of the meeting large timers being in front of us projected on a screen um just seems like a lot I can't claim to know your intent um but what I can tell you is that as a teacher I often explain to my students that while intent matters the way others perceive our intent is just as if not more important um right now I just would be remiss if I didn't stand up here and say that my perception is that decisions have already been made and that there are at least some not all but at least some sitting in front of me right now that don't want to hear the voices in the audience um which is just really sad to me um don't worry though I'll be back next month as I'm sure many of the people sitting behind me will be too thank you my name is Andrea tyy I'll share my address privately I am a parent of three children in the district um I I first I I'm actually going to speak um from other than what I prepared I want to say thank you for choosing to um take advantage of the opportunity to use the enrollment increase um I know it doesn't cover everything but um as a parent I appreciate that you're taking that into consideration um and that's where my speech was originally intending um but I do want to talk about where we go from here okay I understand there is a deficit we can't make money but we do have to start getting creative and and what we saw tonight can't be the end of where we go with this there are Creative Solutions that you can seek out and you can explore to try to minimize the class size that our teachers are going to endure um Mr Bach you actually commented last night on social media on a question that I had asked someone else regarding the budget and you had commented that litigation is expensive I couldn't agree more with you okay so I think we really need to take into consideration how much litigation we might wind up in when we can't stay in compliance part of the way that teachers are able to stay in compliance with the needs of IEPs and 504s is that they are able to manage the amount of students that they have and that is going to not happen or you're going to have teachers who quit in the middle of the year because they are overwhelmed and they're new to the career and they decide I can't do this I talked to a parent this past weekend who talked about how the district was out of compliance with their daughter when she was in first grade and as a teacher she knew they were out of compliance and before they took it to litigation they were able to settle but it cost the district a significant amount of money so I ask you to be creative don't stop at just the idea of we can cut teachers and it's just going to go away it's not it's going to be a huge problem and to speak on the issue of literacy I am one of many parents that spends my afternoon sitting at the Burlington Center of Dyslexia tutoring center and the other parents sitting with me are from Marlton multiple parents from Marlton that's not something we should be proud of that should be a glaring red sign that we have an issue with our instruction okay if you're going to ask teachers to work with less you got to give them the best tools that they can work with so please take the time to really scrutinize this and take the time to work with us we want to work with you we want to advocate for you we are stronger together if you come together and you we are side by side with the teachers who are phenomenal I could not speak higher of the teachers of this District they are creative they are smart and they are they are experts in their field come together with them let's work to find solutions to really minimize the impact that these class sizes are going to have thank you hi good evening Carol Larson Baron 114 Deerfield Avenue um I come before you and and as a lifetime resident of Isam Township a concerned taxpayer of 34 years and a disheartened employee of just about 19 years I'm very concerned about all the proposed cuts um and how it will impact our students and staff however power professional benefits particularly concern me um approximately 21 years ago my child attended rice preschool and had a wonderful experience not until then did I realize the importance of the power professional staff as a result I just decided to leave the banking industry and to give back to my community um by taking on a position as a par professional the majority of my time has been spent working with the autism students watching them learn overcoming significant challenges growing is such an amazing feeling words can't describe uh especially knowing that I played a significant part in that during my years at eam I've attended many many continuous education courses to expand my skills in order to support the classroom teacher and related Services through direct instruction my direct instruction including feeding therapies communication therapy behavior intervention and developmental education just to name a few now as I round the corner and and closing in on my retirement which is six years away my benefits are now in Jeopardy eam has invested in me to become a more effective parah in return I've given All of Me All of I have and have taken a great deal of pride in the work and and progress that the children have made within my eam school Community my only hope is that you will stand by the promise that was made your years ago to maintain our benefits please find a way to maintain our benefits as we are just as important as any other full-time employee of the school thank you and consider my plate good evening Dr Smith and board members disrespected diminished deflated discriminated these these are some of the emotions that I felt after the January 30th board meeting Deja Vu as we all know is a feeling in which we've experienced an event before here I stand before you speaking and imploring you to spare our par benefits again there's one big difference this time I have 21 years of dedicated service to my students now and yet I must anguish again over the possible loss of my health benefits ripped right out from under me I can make make one promise to you if I lose my health benefits I will be forced to leave I cannot afford the significant loss of my compensation and my special education classroom will suffer from the loss of 21 years of experience I am a senior member of the power professional staff at Rice School I have extensive experience in classroom management behavior management and yes helping my teacher to teach effectively but I love my job it's a shame to think about leaving but that's what I will be forced to do if we lose our benefits Dr Smith board members do you know the worry and angst of losing your benefits after nearly 21 years of dedicated service I hope that you never do in closing I respectfully ask you to use your moral compass and let it guide you in the right direction and spare the power professional benefits I'd also like to finish with a question Dr Smith and board members we transition to a full day preschool program in January as we all know and it has we have received a sizable Grant is there any reason why we couldn't that couldn't be used to spare benefits and Par benefits thank you again for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight good evening Dr Dr Smith board uh my name's Edward Beck I'm a uh Marlton resident um my wife Susan who you just heard spoke is a full-time power professional at Rice School in the special education program uh I could tell you sue mentioned something she loves her job Sue does love her job I have to tell you I've seen it over the 20 years she's been doing it uh she's got over 20 years years with the district over 20 years in the preschool special education program at Rice um unfortunately I guess 20 plus years doesn't mean what it used to mean it's really hard to believe that we're back here again with this discussion uh the same discussion about the cut in the health benefits for a group that really is so vital to the education system in this District also I have to say they're probably one of the lowest paid groups within the district and yet uh their health benefits are being talked about phasing out the health benefits are a key component of their total compensation package that they earn and I I I have to emphasize that they earn that package um I I see the impact every evening uh on what a day in the classroom is like for my wife so I I'd say before you make these benefit Cuts I'd like to ask the board and the administration to just take some time and maybe observe a few hours in my wife's classroom I think your decision to cut their benefits would be different you realized you realize the vast experience that they bring and the hard work that they do for this District that actually many folks don't want to do and you'd realize how lucky we are as a district as a community to have them do what they do the past month I've been on the phone I've been emailing state representatives our congressman's office on the funding the budget cuts um I'm hearing that there's legislation coming so hopefully I to keep calling uh many of the Paras are not going to stay if their benefits are gone and you can't replace those years of experience with part-time St you just can't you can't do it so again I'm asking the board I'm asking the administration take a hard look at the decision uh take some time visit the class understand what it is you're voting to come thank you hello my name is push carvi and I'm a student uh in seventh grade at decy middle school and at the beginning of the board meeting you said that you want students to Excel and be great but this will not happen if class sizes increase I speak on behalf of the entire student body when I say that we do not want this I feel like my classes are already large and 35 students will be chaotic especially in lower grades and if class sizes increase students will not have any opportunity to interact with the teachers if they need help or have a question which will lead to lower grades and failing education lastly cutting teachers will make this problem infinitely worse as less teachers mean less people for students to rely on if these things happen all the problems that will come will be pinned on the board thank you hi my name is Jacob peelman I'm a seventh grader at deacy I might not understand all those numbers about State a or tax levies and revenue but I do understand one thing class sizes matter having class sizes be 30 kids or I guess maybe more depending on the class is too large by raising the class sizes you eliminate the student teacher connection students will no longer be able to ask the teacher for help with something emotional or just with homework because to their teacher they're just another kid when they're teaching a 30 to 35 kid class classes will be too crowded and harder to focus another subject of concern I would like to mention is the music program I deeply care about the music program I just came from a band competition at senica music is something that you can do to find your true self something fun to do can be a passion helps you meet new people having less music teachers in the music department will cause the program to make changes that will negatively impact the students and if less students participate in the etsd music that will have a direct effect and impact on the high school programs too I understand enough from these slides to know that we have a huge deficit and the budget has to be balanced somehow so I'm sure some things we all don't like will happen next year I would like to ask for two promises tonight A promise that the administration will advance on on we will Advocate on the state level to get those funding formulas to change please set up trips for parents and kids I would love to go speak on behalf of the kids and a promise from the board Administration that if painful Cuts have to happen that you will be creative dedicated and leave no stone unturn to restore all of the best things of the school district kids deserve small class sizes to learn and Thrive Transportation they can count on clubs where they can make peer connections and the additional supports that they have to great have a great educational experience my sister is only in second grade so again I say if Cuts have to be made please promise you will work tirelessly to bring it all back thank [Applause] you hello there my name is Harry stos I live on Stone Mountain Marlton been here for 10 years almost um I have a son who's in second grade he's got autism spectrum he's nonverbal transportation to the school is very important to me we were taking him to uh rice in kindergarten and Mrs Zody convinced me to let him get on the bus so I did and ever since had great experience we have great drivers that come to the house and I feel comfortable that that's a big thing for me I've been in a transportation business for 30 years I've heard all the Outsourcing there's other costs that come in later and we won't even talk about litigation issues safety accidents you get what you pay for so there were so many great points brought up maybe we can be creative as a town to get more revenue or find ways but people are here that you know perform well and I just going to double down I feel comfortable with my son who's nonverbal getting on that bus every day and coming home thank you hi my name is Shen Bea I'm a bus driver in town I have two kids here I live here I moved here tooran 5 years ago in the middle of the pandemic I left my job of 16 years teaching preschool and came here for a year and a half I commuted for 18 months well 18 months I commuted an hour and 45 minutes to work and back until I made the decision to become a driver here where I felt like I was fulfilling my purpose working with children children just not in a classroom setting right now have any of you ever been on the bus to observe what happened on a daily basis I assume it's a no right for the last almost four years of being a driver we've had many meetings with you Mr Smith and Mr Yates and maybe a few more of you guys I'm not sure um but do you guys understand the role the important role we play as drivers to be the first face once those kids exit their homes to get to school right we have voiced our concerns in the department for years but have anybody listened it's beyond just the budget have you worked with us to restructure the system to make it more efficient for the drivers AIDS and the families reservice do you understand that we're the ones called to go pick up little Johnny because he misses his bus because the other outsourc company did not turn around do you understand that we have to turn around when the kids miss their bus do you understand the passion we put out every day to wait for little Johnny who's having a rough morning to get his shoes on but because he sees Miss Kim on the bus oh that's a familiar face she's probably going to have some toy on the bus to keep me entertained until I get to school or it's going to be the conversation what did you do on the weekend with one shoe one one one shoe in hand handing it to the bus Aid or the bus driver so little Johnny can get himself to school we're important the personalized relationships we have built with most of the families within the district as an eam Township school um eam Township School District driver will be lost and now our children will be a generic child just riding on some Outsource company bus that has their own rules and policies that may not coincide with the goals we have in District I have not heard any options for restructuring the department to make it work within the budget available what I heard is our district trans a department is incompetent not important or unnecessary and would make the district save a few dollars if they the drivers AIDS and position um and AIDS positions are eliminated but who suffers the children the families who rely on us to transport their children safely to and from school every day so maybe that's a lot of stuff for you guys to really think about hello my name is Franchesca Grace I have three children 16 13 and 7 years old I live at that shouldn't start until I'm done I live at 5302 Baltimore drivein Marlton um I've been here for 20 years and been attending these meetings for 18 of them over the years I've witnessed on numerous occasions the people teachers and staff of this town stand up against proposed budget and budget cuts it makes me wonder why I ver it what our voices may look like if instead of fighting with each other Town against the board if the boards across the area pushed back against the state and express to them that these cuts are unacceptable and they are not a functioning amount year after year we as a community that means our superintendent the board all of the staff all of the students all of the parents all of the families make hard choices and sacrifices that we'll have lasting negative impacts far beyond the years of their schooling and will follow them into the future we know is a community of intelligent people that studies show that music and arts improve areas of mental health cognitive function social skills and academic achievement they improve self-esteem brain function memory and overall academic performance students are less likely to drop out of school score higher on standardized test and are more likely to graduate college we know that larger class sizes lead to less student engagement and increase in behavioral problems increased classroom management issues lower academic performance higher difficulty assessing student student progress and increase teacher stress we know that removing extracurricular activities can lead to a decreased sense of belonging reduce Social Development potential academic decline missed opportunities that can potentially impact their overall well-being and future prospects we know that the state has consistently cut our budget by millions year after year and you our board in this community somehow make it work enough is enough we continue to work with the limited scrap that the state has been sending out to the school systems why would they stop the cuts if we make it work it is not us that needs to stand firm against you we should be working together it's all districts that need to stand firm against the state and it states it starts with boards like you saying no and it starts with communities like us not protesting and fighting at our local meetings but as a district paired with other districts pushing back on the state demanding the kind of budgets that are necessary to properly fund our schools and educate our children in environments that are focused on learning and furthering the education of our young people my family has personally been supported in crucial Ways by the very items that you are threatening to cut and before the increase in class size and devastating changes to the Middle School structure under the workings of these proposed changes I don't dare imagine what the potential outcome could have been under these changes my oldest two are thankfully acade academically sound but as the years went on and the reading program these parents here spoke of I saw with my seven-year-old firstand when my first grader couldn't read I noticed it in kindergarten and the teachers didn't see it and that was before the increase in student size I noticed it working with him at home and thankfully because of these programs he's a second grader barely meeting benchmarks our program today needs to our program needs to change you begin with sports and arts recognition yet propose cuts to these very programs I encourage you to vote no to this budget and these Cuts you have a responsibility to our children good evening my name is Colleen Ellis I am a marleton resident I'm also a speech and language pathologist in the New Jersey public school system and I have two children in the elementary schools here in eam one is on an IEP one is on a 54 uh they will both be affected in enumerable ways by these proposed Cuts but I'm not here to talk about my kids because this goes beyond my kids I'm here tonight because I think I speak for a lot of parents and staff in this District when I say we're sick and we're tired the situation with state aid is Bleak yes Cuts have to be made but this Administration expects parents and teachers to blindly accept these cuts that will do drastic harm to our kids and to this District when the district has a lot to answer for what if you delivered effective science-based reading instruction so that children are not being identified as learning disabled when they simply aren't being taught to effectively read thereby being classified as special education and putting a strain on already critically underfunded special education programs in this District What If instead of scapegoating rising numbers of students being classified as special education students in this District as a strain on our budget you took a look to figure out why those numbers are spiking you mentioned at the last board meeting the strain on resources it is to send kids out of District what if you invested in appropriate special education programs to keep them here how much money does this District spend on legal fees for mediation and due process hearings because parents have no other recourse to make this District do the right thing by our kids because whatever it is and I encourage the board to find out it's going to Skyrocket when these Cuts go through because there is no way that these teach are going to be compliant with 504s and IEPs how much money is being spent having contracted staff from the Educational Services Unit come to deliver special education to dyslexic students because your staff is either not equipped to do it or stretch too thin to do it how much are you paying for teachers to see students one-on-one in Reading recovery programs when they could be more effectively seeing them in groups to deliver phonics based interventions these are the questions that the board should be asking because here we are facing yet more devastating cuts and after your teachers and you offer your teachers and staff Zero Solutions as to how they are supposed to handle overcrowded classrooms lack of meeting time to discuss students in counseling or special ed or inrs lack of substitutes for when those meetings are scheduled during instructional time increased social and emotional needs from our students with fewer counselors the list is infinite and I would really like to see this District address the ongoing systemic issues at the heart of some of its budgetary problems before pulling out the machete to make drastic Cuts while expecting the families who pay taxes to help this District to smile and eat what we're [Applause] served good evening Trev har Marlton resident mine is of a different uh it's a non agenda item so it's in regards to your board retreat that is listed on board docs for this Saturday so I see it's a closed meeting and you're discussing the budget as well as District goals so I would like to just uh give you some food for thought I was a little disheartened to read that it's closed when you're talking about something that's addressing the district what I'm hearing here tonight is an opportunity for the taxpayer you've you've asked us to swallow a tax increase with your free kindergarten request last budget you're asking us again with this budget as a taxpayer to swallow another tax increase while I can uh appreciate that you don't give me the opportunity to sit with you and discuss District goals and ways that we can roll our sleeves up together you're asking me to bear the cost but you're not considering my opinion or my suggestions by offering me an opportunity to come as a taxpayer and rolled sleeves up to together and work on ways to fix your challenge I hope that you will consider a strategic goals kind of a meeting between the town the taxpayer and the board and administration we did that a couple years ago and we had towns folk from you know retirees we had uh teachers we had board members we had Parents we had whole plethora of different types of people coming together and sitting at tables mixed tables sharing ideas and coming down and developing a strategic goal so while I'm not asking you to do that per se I am asking you that while you're asking us to Bear some of these costs to help you balance your budget you give us the opportunity to come and meet with you and come up with some solutions you're getting some suggestions here let's not have this confrontational situation but a more collaborative working together kind of initiative thanks [Applause] hi Rose Mary bori I'll just kind of piggyback off of what Trish had kind of said you know this whole budget development it's a process and you know that would her idea too with the strategic planning it kind of came out of last year's session as well when we came to you guys and said you know we we had Parents together we came up with ideas and one of the things that we left you with was really to come up with strategic planning so that we wouldn't be in the situation um for this year I'm here again because um we were here again it's a process you know you unveiled the budget in January I came up to the microphone excuse me and I asked for you know what are the details in the $7 million deficit um I I asked the question and U Mr yat uh swear to answered me but not really so I followed up with an email because I really need to know the details if you want us to advocate um for TR in Trenton we have to be able to tell the story I need to know what those details are what makes up the $7 million and past prior in past budget presentations we would have that list of line items and would say Hey you know instructional costs are going to be uh x amount of dollars or you know health care costs are going to be over the percentage we could tell that story special education maybe we got new students in that year or something but without knowing the details of the $7 million and actually Russ's comment also alluded to that fact we need to know what's in the $7 million you know you ask us to you're solving this problem is $7 million okay so we not got additional state aid so now we can subtract out that $45,000 4 $45,000 you guys are going to go out with the um going against the uh increase the tax levy so now we have another 2 million we can subtract out so we still need to know what is going what makes this $4 million uh what is in this $4 million because here's my question again it's a process and we're going to have these conversations but at the end of the day what's going to happen next year this is honestly really concerning to me because this $7 million figure I've been doing this a long time we've never had $7 million and if we're at $7 million today what is next year's and I'm very concerned about that um the other two things that I just want to bring out as a point question regarding the budget is the Education Foundation negotiated the deal with the um to save tier 3 we had the um agreement so I want to make sure the tier three is still saved and also to um sorry one more uh crap uh there was another oh for we went out with the bond referendum for when we did Kindergarten we also went out for mental health counseling that was $193,000 that was so I understand there's counseling services that are being reduced so that's concerning too so those two questions I would like to ask but honestly if you could just give me a spreadsheet that tells me what makes up the $7 million that would be great thank you very [Applause] much hello uh my name is Brian Connelly I'm a math teacher uh seventh grade at decy and I am also a parent in the district um I wasn't going to speak tonight because honestly I feel like everyone's addressed most of my concerns but I was inspired by two students who I teach students who I know really [Applause] well students who I know very well and have gotten to know throughout the year because of the class sizes being what they are and the team concept I've been able to work with them during independent study I've been able to pull them when needed and I worry that enlarging these class sizes and losing team many students are going to fall through the cracks students who need it that's honestly my biggest concern as a students as a parent as well I don't want my child to fall through the cracks that can't happen so I don't know what you need to do but it needs to be done we cannot have these class sizes increase we cannot let these students fall through the cracks so I'm not I'm keeping it short I'm gonna end here please figure it out don't let my child or any of these children fall through thank you good evening my name is Shela I live in the Marlton area I recently moved from Philadelphia where the school district is trash and I don't want to feel like this school district is going to be trash um I've been here for four years I have a kid that went to two different schools um in the beginning I realized that he wasn't able to form certain words took him to one school and they're like well we had program in the school but you guys pulled it out that school to put it in a different school which made him have to go to another school van Zan which they're doing a phenomenal job helping him and it just baffles me that why pull a um a program out of one school to put in another school and then now you want to increase class sizes not only does that affect my son it affects that gentleman right there that has a kid that's nonverbal you're going to you're going to increase those type of things things those classes his kid could be using an AAC device you know how long it's going to take them to raise his hand for that teacher to get his attention while he's pointing to what he wants to do go to the bathroom do another do something else it prohibits him from learning even though he's nonverbal he is still able to learn that's one thing I have a kid again in this District that has phological disorder a parent said earlier she covered her child's work and and her child couldn't recognize it because she couldn't get it together with literacy y'all want to increase class sizes but these kids are not getting the help that they need the parent professionals I commend you guys I'm an educator myself work I work with kids with autism again I work with kids with autism and a lot of the autistic kids are in this District that's one per professionals you do not go unnoticed at all they don't and I don't want them to feel like they're going unnoticed you're pulling let's see health benefits do you guys know that these kids depend on these parap professionals if they get sick something happens to them they can't come in the kids are screwed that they help the teachers get these kids together in the beginning of the day and at the end of the day let's talk about the busing I'm going I'm going all over the place but the busing thank you for what you do um I had a a situation this morning this afternoon a bus driver from Hilman blows the stop sign but you guys want to have Hilman take over their routes unbelievable I was in a crosswalk with my son when she blew through that stop sign could have hit me and my boy but you want to use outside sources to take our kids around absolutely not it's disgusting it's a disgrace it is unbelievable what they have to go through it's unbelievable my kid in the beginning of the school year when he when we moved to New Jersey he didn't get home till 2 hours late following Hillman but you're going to use them when our kids are getting home late and we have to go to [Music] [Applause] work di Brown par professional so par professionals play an essential role in supp in both students and teachers the loss or reduction of these positions severely limit our District's ability to meet the needs of students particularly those who rely on one-on-one support many of us work with students who require frequent R Direction and without our presence these students will struggle significantly unfortunately short-term Solutions such as Ro rotating the first 15 and the last 15 minutes a day are inadequate consistency is critical for the students success ongoing budget cuts not only jeopardize the quality of support available to our students but risk driving away dedicated pair professionals from our schools personally as a new hire I make less than a new hire at Taco Bell while I deeply appreciate the administration at my school and the opportunity to work alongside exceptional teachers the lack of career advancement livable wages and adequate benefits make it difficult to remain at this pos position long term I urge you to explore every available Avenue to secure funding to support our roles I encourage collaboration with local districts to develop Sustainable Solutions we must act now before the end impact they devop by our students particularly those most vulnerable uh good evening my name is Ben gini uh my statement tonight is twofold uh first I wish to share my heartfelt thank you to the amazing reading recovery team at Mees more more specifically Mrs Morgan uh the thoughtfulness professionalism and determination that they give to all their students has been proven year after year to be Beyond un successful the reading recovery program hosted at all six elementary schools has been a has been a supported and much-needed program within the district for over 20 years utilizing a combination of a reading specialist and an interventionist these teachers work Hand inand by creating a successful game plan for each student needing intervention without this program it' be impossible for the bottom 20% of the first grade children whom struggle with learning to read to obtain and be successful at any portion of the school district's mission having uh read the pimary budget and seen it this evening right uh this historical and fundamentally needed program is suggested to be cut is overwhelmingly disappointing and wildly inappropriate if this program were to be cut or reduced it would have long- lasting effects students would forever be behind and in my opinion that would be the school district failing those students at the very basic form of school which is learning how to read I hope you take into consideration the profoundly successful program you have currently you you have currently and that you've had over for 20 years not only embrace the amazing staff that you have as it pertains to reading recovery but allow them to continue to help our students develop the skills to empower them to and you probably understand this and heard this before achieve their unique potential Embrace self-directed lifelong learning develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk taking and responsible decision- making respect themselves and others problem solve individually and collaboratively contributing members of a diverse Global Society this reading recovery team helps them do that simply by helping them learn how to read thank [Applause] you Bruce alright Marlton resident you know I sat here tonight and listened to all the issues from lower class sizes reduction of staff loss of health benefits so let's talk about the special education department and the power professionals that are the backbone of that department they make the least amount of money in the district and yet you're going to take away their health benefits when most of them have over 20 years in the district and each year as they retire there are less of them the bulk of the power professionals will be gone in four years yet you're going to take away a lifetime of hard work and the love of those children that they give and just take away their health benefits do you think they're going to stay they're not they're not going to stay they're going to leave you have a plan to replace all those people I doubt you do and I doubt you're going to find them off the street for part-time work with no benefits do you know how hard that job is I doubt most of you even know I doubt you know it's a disgrace what you're doing an absolute disgrace it's a betrayal they were promised to keep those benefits and I've heard before when we went through this four years ago as Mr Smith quoted it was stated that no such promise was made and I know that's false a promise was made to them so the word is betrayal and I've already you know expressed to my wife who spent 22 years in this District to leave if you take away her benefits there's no reason for her to stay and you know who suffers the children and let's talk about the bus drivers right I live right by Hillman they drive like lunatics I see it every day and that's what you're going to use I'm hearing hman good luck with that it's about the safety of the children the bus drivers that work for this District make sure our children are safe when they get to school and they're safe on the way home and the bus drivers for the special needs kids okay they they know what they need they help them they make sure that their trip is safe and that they're taken care of on the way to school on the way out so this buzzer presentation and what you came up with it's awful I give the administration and this board an F hello my name is Donna I've gone on 10 years as a bus a with the Ean Township I have nothing prepared to say tonight only to say that none of you realize how much an aid does for your children in the town they take on many different roles they're mothers there's helpers they wipe noses tears listen to them help them ask questions they answer they want to know things and when you came in and said buses were uh bus AIDS were all going to be gone as though we didn't mean anything to this town you have no idea what you did to these AIDS and alls I have to say to each one on the board if that's how you feel I ask and invite each one of you to ride the bus all day and see what is done on those bues I don't think any of his real ize what goes into getting these children to school thank you good evening I'm Joyce Luchi I'm a bus driver in the district for 25 years so I've seen a lot of things going on I've seen more Hillman drivers here and yes they do run stop signs they do things that us drivers wouldn't do or if we one of us did we would tell our uh coordinator what is going wrong but you have no one to answer for hman Hillman's not going to come and tell you oh that person did this or this person did that and we've taken care of so many children over the years I've not only have taken care of children I think I've canceled them some of the time they would get on upset and I'll say what's the problem today oh I don't like my mom today um she's mean to me and well we'll talk over all right well you know sometimes moms have a bad day and I talk over them with the a little bit on our ride to school or my Aid would do that also but you want to get rid of someone that's here to be your eyes and your ears and put out there to something that they can do whatever they want The Out Source company you're not going to see that nobody else is going to see that they're going to do what they want and yeah they're going to give you a good price this year but I guarantee you the next time they're going to raise it a lot and we've seen that over the years millions of dollars that hman has raised for you guys and it's put you in a bind and you have no other choice but to pay it because there's nothing else to do with it and with the bus AIDS and the pars I've seen pars be kicked they have protective garbs on their arms so that they don't get scratched I've seen one power fall on the ground and get scratched in his face because the child was unruly and she couldn't had to try to pick him up so he wouldn't get hurt I've seen some of my own students the Paris had to help protect me against a child that didn't want to get on the bus that day so we had to try to help Coke someone to a bus because he didn't want to go home and the parent couldn't come and get him because they had no transportation for him is himman going to give them that much attention no not at all I can't emphasize what aara does and the bus AIDS do to help us out as far as driving and that par is helping your Stu the students of this District every day to get through a school day especially with the new preschool program that's a full day and they had it 10 with these students all day long I've seen it just the little bit of time that I've seen them outside with them trying to coordinate them and get them on buses and calm them down a little bit I've even had students that wouldn't get on a bus if they didn't see my Aid or myself one there because we take careing the kids so much put Outsourcing them is not going to help thank you hi my name is Patrick Bryan I live in Heritage um my daughter is in the preschool program here um I grew up in this town I went through the district I moved back here because I thought it was a good District but from what I heard tonight it doesn't sound that way I have a younger daughter who I wanted to continue and follow her sister through the program but sounds like one of them is going to learn to read and the other's going to have problems and that's terrifying as a parent um I was scared to send my daughter to school just because it's my first kid it's a scary thing and her bus driver's here I don't think she would have kept going to school if he didn't provide the quality of service that he provides I wouldn't have been I wouldn't have come here to tonight if he didn't implore us to you know come stand up and and fight for some of this stuff I wasn't you know my kids four I wasn't aware of all this going on this is terrifying it can't possibly get better based on the history that you guys are showing in this presentation um but I mean I was inspired to talk by her bus driver and two of my teachers from when I was in Middle School are still teaching at the at schools here and because of how much they care about their students and you're going to put the burden on them to work so much harder take away their free period where they can work with students and ultimately the kids are going to be the ones that suffer and it's just not right I I can't imagine that those are the those are the only options you know my daughter's in the preschool program and the Paras are so important this it's hard dealing with two toddlers at home can't imagine a class of 15 or more if the size of the class gets bigger the teachers can't do it without the Paras and if you cut their fun their health benefits how can you expect them to stay especially with 20 years of service under their belt and it's still going to get taken away it's just it's not right there's got to be something else that we can do um and it seems Seems silly that we started with you know Sports and music and and those types of programs are going to be getting cut should have left that until the end so that all the parents that were proud of what their kids accomplished would have stayed and heard what was happening because they probably don't care or know they just blind to it and you know the kids should see it it was so impressive that the two students who spoke tonight I don't think that all the kids understand what's happening and I I think that you know there'd be more people who would voice their opinion and stand up if they knew so I I don't think that that was the right choice thank you for the [Music] time hi my name is Corine halabura um I'm from Marlton I'm also one of the power Professionals in the district I'm also one of the um Union reps um I just want to say that again I'm up here speaking I'm very disappointed in the budget that was proposed um all of these Cuts affect kids the bottom line is it is affecting kids I'm disheartened to see I have grandchildren myself that to have strangers driving our kids to from school I know after 24 years in the district what it's like to have the bus drivers with a friendly face and somebody that the kids actually recognize and know and it is important um also I'm certainly disheartened about our benefits being taking away again um after 24 years we as power professionals we are the lowest paid and we work really really hard um special needs preschool um all of the students can benefit from us and to have these benefits taken away is devastating to a lot of families um and again Middle School classes the kids aren't going to get a good education here in Marlton Marlton used to be the best we used to have the best special education program people moved here because of our school district and I just I I think maybe we need to go back to the drawing board and figure figure something else out I don't understand our taxes were raised last year over 2 million you want to raise the tax levy again and yet you're cutting cutting cutting it I'm not good at math but it just doesn't make sense to me so please try to do better thank you good evening my name is Kelly Huber I'm a sixth grade science teacher here at Marlton Middle School these budget C are having a profound impact on the middle school and it's heartbreaking to see how many vital programs and supports are being compromised the loss of 35 teachers and other important staff members coupled with the increased class sizes and changes to the team concept will definitely strain the ability to meet students needs in meaningful ways the team concept is not just a structure it's a Lifeline that supports both students and teachers with reduced access to independent study students who need extra support whether it's catching up with absences after being absent receiving more one-on-one help or getting additional testing time are going to be severely impacted these Cuts could lead to an environment where students particularly those struggling the most don't get the support they need and risk falling through the cracks this time allows students to be challenged and enriched in their learning the loss of the time for collaboration between teachers the guidance counselors the administration could also hinder the efforts to address student concerns early leading to more students being overlooked the personal connections and relationship building that were once possible in a more manageable setting like having smaller class sizes and consistent team time will be incredibly difficult to maintain when teachers are spread so thin for sixth graders the opportunity to learn life skills like self-regulation self- advocacy and goal setting during independent study even practicing opening lockers could make a huge difference in how navigate Middle School the no place for hate lessons and growth mindset discussions are critical to developing well-rounded empathetic students who feel supported both academically and emotionally this situation speaks to a deeper issue about how schools balance budgets and ensure that educational quality is not compromised at the cost of the students development it is going to take a concerted effort from the community teachers parents students and policy makers to advocate for restoring these programs and ensuring that students best interests remain at the Forefront thank [Applause] [Music] you is there anyone else who would like to speak seeing none will close public comment we'll move to board member announcements is there a board member who would like to share an announcement Mr dearcy thank you Mr Kon um first I just want to uh obviously EF they were mentioned at this meeting um the amazing work they do the article that was out there if you got the chance to see it a lot of the stuff uh they do to help fundraise for the district um I I encourage everyone if they can to get involved with that organization they do great stuff uh so thank you to them um but one other thing uh I wanted to say thank you to a lot of you I know a lot of you have been very involved with the efforts to Lobby our state legislators to talk to uh the policy makers and threatened trying to advocate for additional resources to make um our budget situation even just a little bit better right uh I'll be honest I fully expected to go into every year after um losing funds from the state just because that was the trend that always has been the trend uh so the news that comes down from Trenton's a little positive and I could share that um I I had a couple conversations with some of our LDA legislators and I asked them I said uh how many calls do you get from eam every day and he just looked at me and he smiled and he goes you guys are doing a good job over there so they're hearing it um and thank you to everyone who put an email in put a call in uh cuz I really do believe it makes a difference in actually telling the state what we need from them so thank you thanks Mr dear Mercy is there any other board member would like to make an announcement Mr pman I just wanted to take a moment and thank everyone that came out tonight and thank everyone that spoke tonight um we're all up here to listen and to learn from everything you have to say and it means a lot and it's not easy to do and we appreciate what you have to say Thank you Mr peelman any other board member like to share an announcement seeing none motion to adjourn motion by Mr pman seconded by Mr Mary all those in favor thank you e for

e e e e all right can you hear me we're live all right good evening welcome feels like just yesterday I just like the song well hello again uh Craig muy assistant superintendent uh sport services and uh the brains here mared El spidel assistant superintendent for business services and the one who really makes things operate around here it's good and Jenna is here and uh she's uh she's the one who who makes sure that we have everything we need in here so uh we'll make sure we take care of her along the process uh thank you everybody for being here uh we want to first start I'm going to actually hand it hand it over to uh our superintendent you you uh they won't be able to hear you live unless you stand by a mic oh there it is right there so there you go boss so Dr croo all right good all right good evening uh thank you for being here uh we appreciate you a lot um I know you did a lot of work last year a ton of work and and we are thankful for all that work we're here to look at the two subjects again um this time we don't have that six-month time frame it's a little shorter so but you have a lot of the background I know these two um have a lot of information for you to recap that but I just want to say thank you thank you for taking your time in the evening to come talk about these two subjects so you know we have a override pending now last year we looked at it um now we're at crunch time with it so um I know you guys will discuss that and talk about that um and do some wonderful stuff so I just want to say thank you for taking time for the district and I'm glad you're here so have a good night all right thank you Dr croto uh and uh um the the evening is set up obviously um we know that everybody's time is valuable so we're going to make sure that we're very efficient in what we do um we know when you came in there was some information you were able to gather uh we had both an agenda and a and a PowerPoint presentation that you can also watch up there but uh really as we as we look and I know that we have you guys are you know were able to be here tonight um I know that we also have one member that's uh calling in as well so but what we thought would be nice to do is real quick again just so we can uh make sure that we're connected with everybody in the room we do that but before we keep going on that piece we do want to allow and give opportunity and time to our governing board president Don denmore um and say hello to her miss denmore anything you want to say to the group thank you for being here and for our audience out there uh Miss denmore president denmore has uh has uh thank everybody here that's here tonight thank you for your time and uh and appreciate all you're giving to this committee so um but we want to do is give an opportunity for each person in the room just to to introduce if you could tell us just give us a name again and and uh if you could even tell us Community uh Community member affiliation where you're kind of where you're the school Community maybe that you're affiliated with would be perfect for us okay so are we on okay Shantel mcne um nice to see all of you again and I'm the principal at Countryside Elementary School we're K4 school just across the way also Community member to dier graduates from Shadow Ridge so I'm just very happy to be here to support our school district uh Travis wadell um I'm a former employee in the district um I have a daughter that goes to an elementary school in the district as well so Community member or a community member and parent Shannon Frasier um current employee and Community member and also a parent um over my kids are over at Mountain View hi good evening Patrick Campbell um it's the employee coach volunteer coach and parent of a of a child at Shadow Ridge Kelly spear I am over in the Assante area and I'm a parent of a daughter at Willow Canyon Jeff Drake board member husband and father Karen Cody and I am a Community member and I live in the Assante area proud mom of two graduates from the daart Unified School District I'm Bill poopo I'm a 5 year resident here in Surprise um retired city manager I was here as city manager from 2000 to 2004 three grand kiddos in the diart district one at Willow and two at Shadow and uh that's about it Community volunteer have one more go ahead Mr Milton johnie can you hear us sorry guys yes hi guys this is John councilman Johnny Melton District 4 glad to be back with you guys um sorry I'm calling you remotely but I will be with the next session in person um I'm just glad we all got back together again and and see what we can do to help the community so GL to be a part of this thank you thank you okay thank you everybody for just giving an opportunity to do some quick introductions uh you'll have on your agenda you'll see the uh really the the rundown of how we want to to orchestrate this and and walk through we want to do what we want to do tonight um obviously if there's feedback or input that we need to take be you know before we finish the night and on how we're moving forward um and we'll give you some next steps as we see it but this is uh this is going to help to guide us and so when you think about the objectives that we have for tonight um it really it can be categorized into three areas as you see them up there uh that first one really the first one's really about the type G you know the information that we're providing so is delivering clear comprehensive and accessible information on both the override and bonds okay to enhance uh understanding it'll help us to make you know some decisions again uh and and and really that you'll see on the third bullet was Twi the second bullet there Gathering meaningful input um and and enhance the process for future improvements in decision- making this one is really related to getting the input from the committee and what and hearing your thoughts uh as to you know the next the next step and the third one is really what we have to arrive at in the end and that's to make a recommendation to the governing board on calling for a bond Andor override uh election um and we'll get into some timeline dates for that because the timeline is pretty is pretty short there's go around on this time but I you know the the the other part of it is you've all seen the stuff that we've presented already so it's going to be a little bit more of a recap tonight for us uh but that'll give you the opportunity to decide when we're at some point um you know it it it won't be tonight but then we'll be making a decision uh go for a an override and uh not a bond or go for a a bond and not an override or go for Bond and override or go for neither I mean that's the recommendation just similar to what we did last time okay so just thinking about the process if you remember this is a recap last time I don't need to read every piece of information but I want to show the elements of what we did uh you know as maryell and I reflected on this you can see the amount of time last school year from October to March and how much time was invested uh everything that started on October 24th uh where we had our first meeting uh gave us that opportunity to start with the overview news and then as we continued through as you look into November you're going to start to see where we started to do a lot of the research uh and looking specifically on how funding looked and spendings you know because that's important to see that so we dove into the budget uh and then um we had an opportunity to study a little bit about our community hearing from an outside Source but then doing our own studies uh hearing more information on construction and transportation which moved into December where we dove into um a little a more specific look at safety uh again the the maintenance construction but then also and I left this part off on the last one looking at the needs that existed as far as school builds um and and just because of the capacity that we have at some of our schools if you remember specifically we looked at those maps and we'll have that in just a second but that was a big piece to this of determining whether there's a lot of population growth and how do we handle that um we toured on a Saturday in January those you how many people here remember touring on a Saturday that was fun right the three hour tour was great we got to see a lot of what's happening out there uh and then in uh we came back here and we did a recap on bonds overized took a lot a close look at tax implications which we'll get to revisit again and uh then we moved into the results of even looking at those public surveys we spent some time on that uh reviewing and then in March we uh we brought it all together and came to a conclusion on where we wanted to go from there so uh just to recap some of that information we studied um if you'll recall the buses that we identified in that particular uh uh piece we talked about replacement needs and that uh during that study uh we recognized that uh we only had purchased about 78 buses from 2008 and prior and that 70% of our fleet was 15 years or older uh we looked at the regular education buses um and the the cost of those needs if you're replacing those 46 and the cost of the special ed buses and it was about 5.6 million total cost 17 million there was the uh the map that Kevin Shipman helped us with our um we say it's planning administrator is the correct title or director of Planning and Development yes director of Planning and Development um and he he helped us really to identify where the growth was happening uh we took a very specific look and you'll see up there on that map uh the Assante area I want to say Copper Canyon is the other uh community area we talked about and then also you'll see the the extensive growth we talked about also even that's starting to happen more and more down in the Shadow Ridge uh area so we explored the idea of what is an elementary school cost uh and that's in the neighborhood of 35 million um that was at the time we did that study so we haven't done a new uh pricing uh projection but that that time that's what we determined we also had looked at land and what that would cost up in that region and we had estimated for about 50 to 60 Acres was around you know we might be able to do that for about 10 million maybe right but that was a negotiation side we said we were trying to do facility Renovations there's a lot in there um you'll see 48 million is the big cost at the bottom of that um you see the breakdown within that chart mechanical and HVAC roughly you'll see just a little over six million Plumbing which kind of goes along with that in some ways but the 300,000 the floring um that you're seeing some of the issues where you start talking about you know Florine that's coming up and everything else to six little 6 and a half million Roofing um almost 8 million weatherization those are the seal and paints and and and upkeep there of approximately six million freezers and walk-ins that are breaking in the district about 1.5 million High School Community restroom facilities um but before I say that on those other ones a really important piece to say is that those the facilities remember that's because you're talking about schools that were built almost 20 years ago so we're starting to see how that caught up in the Aging um the restroom facilities uh the majority of that money was looked at for the needs at both Willow Canyon and Shadow Ridge that don't have any restroom facilities out in their field areas um and then daer High School um Auditorium about 5 million so that came up to about $48 million there uh Safety and Security needs we tackled quite a few things there um when we talked about see the bottom there 17 million we discussed everything from uh gate openers that are automatic um some of the card key and and ways to get in and out of buildings uh busing system the the being able to see where kids are at and manage those pieces where you know where buses are at and where kids are at um the check in and out piece so parents could know where their where their child was at and when they're getting dropped off lockdown systems we discussed that are that are beginning to to break that go along with even I will tell you intercom systems and other issues that happen that are uh that have been failing um and trying to update those fencing um that's deteriorating and gate repairs and areas of those tactical diagram building modeling so um so those a lot of those areas where we were trying to really update what the buildings had on there to identify them and making sure that we know how where everything's add on a on a footprint uh safety related communication systems which includes your even your radio system of how you communicate with each throughout the district it provides great communication for police fire everything else that was in there and then the fire panel upgrades which was a big one and very expensive um and those are about $250,000 each that's why you're seeing that that price of about 6.3 million and updating those There's a summary of each of those areas which totaled 127 million and that was the total that we went out for in the bond so if you'll recall in that recommendation time we um we brought it forward to the committee at that uh from the membership that was and that was um that was our our uh we had about at the time I think we had 28 29 members 30 somewhere in there and we had 16 in attendance for that meeting um you'll recall that it was a 160 vote um to pursue the 127 million going for a bond but we also took the vote as well that we said when we say that we said we're going to recommend it to the board that was our intent so we walked out of here with we also made that recommendation of um you know when we said that we we have to say well what's our what's our final vote on the override and that one actually failed there was a lot of discussion if you'll recall of of the attempt to try to go out for two things at once and it was better to just pursue that um it would have been a year early and and I don't want to go too much into that piece but that was where we were we were at um and we recommended to wait for that piece I I I do want to acknowledge in that in that time frame and all those updates that we did for the board meetings I do want to still again thank uh Patrick campel for for taking the time at each of those meetings I know other people were involved in helping to shape that but there was a lot of time out of his out of his schedule during that time back then so just to say thank you again thank you Craig so I don't know if there's any um thoughts or questions or we kind of just want to hold on to them I know we wanted to review just a recap because mostly everyone has was here with us um through the six-month Journey so um it feels like we just went through it so kind of looking at the Timeline it's like it feels very fresh so hopefully we just wanted to provide a little bit of perspective given just some reference points and not just speak to the dollars but really give you guys a little bit of context on what those amounts um included so now we did want to go into um the election history within our district because I know often we say the last time a bond pass was in 2006 and so we then kind of forget a little bit of what what else happened within that timeline so here we have just an overall history of both the bonds and the overrides so you'll see in 2006 while the bond was approved for the 190 million we were only um able to issue 122 million of that amount and so often people wonder what happened I mean and if you recall in 2006 we had that big dip that happened remember we had the recession there was values that went down assess values and so as a district it's just as if you're issued essentially you may be authorized to to sell bonds but if your assess value is so low we you may not be able to issue those bonds prior to them um phasing out prior to that authorization running out and so really that's occurred that's what occurred within the district so we only issued 122 million of that approved amount and we'll briefly go over what those projects were for um then in 2009 uh we went out for year five it was so was in the final year um where it would be fully funded of an override and it did fail um so really that would have meant we were slated the following year to start phasing out and we'll go over a little bit more of what that M override timeline looks like here in a little bit um but rather than now starting to phase it out for fortunately in 2010 there was still an option for school districts to to participate in the special elections so in 2010 in that March special election the district put an M override and it did pass so there was no phase out of the override um 2013 the district went back out again for a bond for 86.8 million and that failed um in 2014 the district went out um in year five of the override and it failed which meant it started to be phased out the following year so I don't know if who recalls being here in that in that year yep in 2015 we started seeing that first year of the phase out when we started seeing some of those programs um that were funded through the override starting to get cut and phased out so um we went um then in 2015 so that first year the phase out we then went back out in that election for election in that November and it did pass which means it was then restored in 2016 um then we got to 2019 which was now year four of that override and it failed um and as well as a bond for 152.5 million that one failed as well in 2020 when it was the final year of a of a full funding for the override it did narrowly pass in 2020 for the override which is now where we're at today with the override and we'll talk a little bit about that and then 2024 which we just recapped that was the bond request for 127 million and and that's a fail so it does help you to put into context of um where we've stood in history with our with our election process here within our school district so with the bonds and I know this again we went in such detail with it last time I but I did want to do the refresher over bonds and we'll do the refresher over overrides and then obviously we'll have that conversation and discussion as a committee group but with bonds if you recall those are similar to to Al loans kind of similar to your home mortgage when you issue out for Capital items those are all authorized by the voters they're funded through property taxes so if you recall in your taxes you have your primary rate and your secondary rate so any of those voter approved initia such as bonds and overrides those are funded through property taxes and those are used specifically to purchase Capital items or make Capital Improvements and so we want to draw that distinguishing um difference because often people call them an override Bond or you're going out for a bond override but they're two very very different things um and so a bond is very the tangible Capital items that you use to really um do renovations to your school sites and our purchase equipment um the thing with them is they can only be used to fund projects that have a useful life longer than five years because the thought is you shouldn't be paying off a bond for items that you no longer have or are now obsolete or fully depreciated and so um you you typically see them bonds that rep paid over a set period of time about 15 to 20 years um at the last uh bond that we took out we were estimating about a 15-year payback um because there was a difference if you extend it you can reduce your rates but now you pay more an interest so the counter to it you might have a little bit higher rate but less interest overall and so um those are just kind kind of um decisions to consider as well so again this is just a recap on those types of things and projects that you typically see um school districts uh fund with bonds and so you got your equipment safety improvements school buses building improvements new schools so all those types of things that we had included in that list um those are the common things that you see funded through bonds so the last time that we issued the bonds that was 122 million so that was almost 20 years ago in 2006 and so that's where you see we did have some renovations to five of our school sites um had buil a two new high schools there was construction of just new replacement buildings for for some of our school sites and so you see there the list of of the the big construction projects the largest one we had there at the time was also the acquisition of buses we we purchase a significant number of buses and so those are the buses that we kind of refer to often as we're they're approaching the almost 20-year Mark so the big Fleet of buses was purchased at that time um as well as we just did General upgrades to a lot of our schools recall that was during the hyper growth so there were a lot of schools that were being built and constructed and so also there was Renovations and improvements being done to those sites as well so I apologize for that's it's very small but you should have also on your print out which I don't know if that's any bigger but here um now that a year has passed so I know last year I shared with you where we were as a fiscal year ending 24 so now here's fiscal year ending 25 so you see there our overall combined amount which is really in that gray section to the right our outstanding principle after this fiscal year is $ 54.4 million um with interest of 5 million so overall 59.4 so those are really scheduled to be paid off here at the end of 2028 so really in the next four fiscal years the bonds that we currently have outstanding as a school district are entirely paid off so it always helps to put into context because where do we stand in relation to our peers so the Arizona auditor general combines us with with other peer districts so look at our makeup of student count um the size of our district just demographics Etc and so they really kind of look at us for operational efficiencies with our other districts that are like sized and similar um operations and so here I wanted to put in context then for those peer districts where we stand um with our outstanding bonds so you see us here it's the third um column over so we're there at the 54.4 million um and so just for context and comparison purposes you see where we stand um in Rel to our other school districts here surrounding us um and as Craig mentioned previously that's just a recap there what the previous um bond amounts were were requested for um and all the various Bond projects that that would be funded so this was I have not gone through because really it's the committee as as if you decide on amount or a recommendation or whatever the case may be I just wanted to put into context this is what was um estimated when we worked with our financial consultants on what that amount would be it was really a 36 Cent per $100 of assessed valuation would be the um the tax impact and if you recall I had to pull out my chart um does everyone remember this little handout that we had we were giving out so the plan of the time was really it was intended to be a layering in because if you remember we have that the bonds are paid off in 2028 and so the tax rates were going to start coming down and so really this was intended to now just kind of layer on top and once those bonds fell off it was now going to be at that reduced excuse me at that reduced tax rate so often the question they say you know there's no increase in taxes well technically it would not would there be an increase if the bonds weren't there well yes but it was intended to not be a rise to the tax rate for our community but just really kind of help smooth it in and then you would have seen an overall tax decrease compared to what we've been doing now so um again I don't have the updated estimate because we don't have a dollar amount to really reflect on but um you know if there was we would obviously have that updated at that time um and this was again we just uh wanted to provide just the election results from this past November's election so that's where you see the final results so the bond approval at a total 91,000 votes so 53% no and a little under 47% was yes so that was um the results of that election so and I don't know if um maybe speak a little bit to this one too Craig I mean I know we Craig works quite a bit right now in with our Cons with our facilities department and our transportation department so we have had to go back to kind of to the drawing board of when there is no bond but the needs are still there what do you do as a school district you know they often say you have to kind of find it in the budget live within your means and so there are some decisions and tough decisions sometimes that have to be made in order to really try to find efficiencies as much as possible so I don't know if there's any of see want to speak to a little bit no thank you and and I think it's you know just just provide a a few things that are going on just to give you some ideas um you know the school facilities uh board they put out a notice I want to say was in early January um that they they were out of money um so any projects that they had committed to in the state um were not going to be funded uh one of the difficult aspects for us on that is that we have an air conditioning unit and one of our schools it's operating at about a 60% capacity um we can't find parts for this particular unit um it's going to be difficult for us uh obviously now we'll do everything we can obviously we have great people that you know they do a lot of amazing things to keep things running but the problem is is that could break at any time and then you're canceling school for that day things like that so especially when you're talking about the the hot season well the other part of it is if you don't order parts now getting those installed in five or 6 months right is not going to we we need time if we're going to get things in place so um so you know those are tough decisions for for us when you're talking about a project that's about what you know a little over a million dollars um to to put in play to make sure that we have U sufficient air conditioning running at at that school um but they're not the only school that we're kid of keeping an eye on that's having some of these challenges and so we're working on some of those pieces and and and there have been other ones too that we've we've dealt with along the way um another thing we ran into a problem with in the last uh uh know 3 or four months obviously it wasn't brought up in the bond time but our our elevators started to to age out and not work correctly and so we're having difficulties in using elevators on the campuses with the second floor buildings that's difficult um so we're having problems there and the repairs are not cheap to an elevator is what we've learned so um you know so those are those are some things that have happened but you take the big scope of of what we're doing out there we've we cancelled a few projects that we had you know said hey we're going to try to do this but we had to shift money um I don't want to you know give too much that Mary Dell could speak to even better to this be that I can but I know working with maintenance department and on the expenditures I mean we've already spent just as much by this time of the year as we did last year on just repairs so it just continues to add up and and the depletion that way um multiple times buses broke down you know we heard from people in the community when those are things were happening but so we would have buses sitting in the N would drive that direction and wait in that area just in case something happened so we were planning ahead um when we were having some of those difficulties um to make sure we operated that way so uh one one of the bullets you'll see on there as I talk about buses um is uh is the uh walk radius uh just recently at the board meeting we had proposed that um in two two capacities one is that we would uh policy I want to say it's 3-32 uh the walk radius for K8 um is currently that if you live over you know over a mile we pick you up and if you're over a mile and a half at a high school we have uh we brought that forward and the governing board voted um to expand that next school year then it would be a mile and a half half for uh K8 and two miles for high school and and part of the reason for that is is along with that along with changing ESS boundaries that you have to go to the program closest to your home and you can't we're not going to just open if you apply for open enrollment we're not going to bust you all the way across the district you're going to go to the program closest to your house that was another reason it helps with repairs it helps with maintenance on those buses it helps with fuel we went down the the list and I don't want to you know continue I mean if you have other questions you can ask on that that was at that board I me we can summarize that piece for you and give you those notes but um uh we we we found a way as to to that we believe as we looked at it all those cuts would save about $500,000 a year now there is a there is a you know an impact to that but we recognize hey this is something that we need to to do in order to take care of some of the other needs we have out there so I don't know if you want to add anything to no and then just to speak into that last bullet because often we get questions well you know you have to find find it within the budget and so what what happens is especially as school district we have an overall budget limit and some of it stays within our operational the m so our maintenance and operations and that's what funds salaries benefits utilities purchase Services everything and then there's a separate Capital which is what we talked about funds equipment sites repairs Etc so often what we have to do in these instances is if there's no more money coming in in capital and some other districts obviously they supplement that Capital need if they pass bonds and so you're able to kind of relieve a little bit of that pressure valve on your Capital funds by using bonds well if we don't have any outstanding or any bond available the capital that we talked about last committee meeting you remember how much we receive in capital it's it's a very limited amount the need far outweighs it and so often it ends up happening is if we have the ability to shift a little bit of our operational over into Capital it helps to supplement it a little bit but what happens in that case is now you're shifting your operational and as I mentioned that pays for salaries that plays for benefits and so often it's it's just kind of that you know seesaw effect of you're going to shift monies over to help your Capital unfortunately it comes at the expense of of of people and salaries and benefits and so overall we have to run the operations and so that's when we talk about a little bit of reallocation and we're also continuously looking this the bullets three and four that was just kind of a conversation when we were looking within how can we start identifying further efficiencies it is difficult to to make those changes but they're also needed because reducing that operational cost will now reduce that Capital need because that will reduce the number of routes and fleets of of vehicles that are needed okay so for now then we'll shift over into the override um so again I feel like everyone in the room is very comfortable with the bonds because I think we've talked about the bonds for for a while and the bond Capital needs so overrides tend to be a little bit um more confusing they folks kind of forget about the fact that it's because it is embedded in our operational budget so the override they are used to provide additional funding to happen to support what happens inside our classrooms so this is something that school districts you can request up to 15% of our budget with an M override um and there are three types of overrides that can be used for K12 funding there's a maintenance and operations override a special override and a capital override and so really for our district the only override we have in place is the m override and we'll go in a little bit over what specific programs and and items are covered through it but it does provide funds for teachers salaries benefits supplies and general operations and we currently have a 15% override in place which for our district that comes out to about $25.5 million of our budget so our budget's about $216 million this year 25 and a half of it is um specifically related to the additional funding we receive related to this override so I know we've shown you this timeline before but just as a refresher so overrides they are approved for a term of seven years so even though they're approved for a total amount of seven years they're only fully funded as you see down there on the timeline for the first five and so you often then see districts come out to voters and they say you know in year four hey there's an override that's about to start phasing out if not renewed do you authorize an early continuation of this override so that's essentially those year fours because if you don't pass it you technically have another year to be able to go out to your voters again um and so you really if you don't approve it or renew it in year four or five you now start reducing it by a third in that sixth year and 23s in that seventh year and then ultimately it goes away by that eth year um so for context here we are um for diart we are currently in 2425 um so we're in year four right now um so starting next year we are still fully funded in fisal year 2526 but again if that override does not get renewed it starts in fiscal year 2627 being reduced by a third another 2/3 by 2728 and then ultimately it entirely goes away in 28 29 so again I wanted to provide context of where we stand in relation to our operational peer group so we saw where we stood with the outstanding bonds so here we see do other districts have overrides you know does what what do others do and how do they operate within their budget so here we see really um with the exception of uh glendell Union has a 10% override and peia has a 13 % but everybody else uh within their within the operational group is operating with an override in place at a full 15% so as mentioned our adopted budget or revised budget um is $25.5 million uh that we have that that funds this override and so here we see the programs um it really helps when we talk about reduced class sizes well that means you basically employ additional amount of teachers in order to maintain the current class sizes so when we say to help reduce class sizes it means if the override goes away we look at those ratios we would have to really adjust that ratio of that class size um upwards and so you know that's we estimated the amount of the override is about 135 teachers is that are funded through the Amo override that helps maintain the current class sizes keeping them uh salaries competitive so a portion because it adds additional capacity to the budget it allows us to um help fund those salary increases as well knowing that if we don't have that additional funds um that would certainly have an impact on any potential compensation changes um keeping instructional extra instructional reading and supports so we do have um specific positions that help um with intervention with additional um support in the um math and reading areas and so uh we have those positions that are funded through the override as well as we support our Arts our PE and our Athletics programs through their override as well and then finally we have the full day kindergarten um so ultimately it accounts for um half of the FTE in our current kindergarten uh teachers and so without it we would really just have that um the half day kindergarten which is the level that the state funds so just as a reminder the state only funds half day kindergarten often districts will go to their voters and say if you want something above and beyond what the state provides that's what you typically see the overrides are are in place for and so here's the breakdown of the 25.5 million that we have in our budget for this year so you there you see the amount of um that is supporting those individual areas um and that's what comes out to the $25.5 million so this is just the override phase out impact so as I mentioned the full funding for five years and then starting in fiscal year 2627 uh it would be funded at uh a third reduce so it' be coming down by 8 and A5 million and then by the year seven it comes down by an additional um 17 million and then starting in 28 29 the override funding would entirely be be gone so you're two I mean currently it's $216 million so you remove 25 a half million out of out of that is what we would be operating with so this is just a very preliminary um estimate um I did it based off last year the average daart home assessed value was 197,50 33 so I did it off about a $200,000 estimate um expecting about maybe a 5% increase in our assessed valuation um that is the estimated tax impact again we'll know better once we have our final District assessed valuation numbers um and we usually get those here in the next couple months when we do our proposed budget tax rates but here we see what the override um impact could potentially have so on an estimated $200,000 home um we'd be looking at about it comes out to about $239 a year or about 19994 a month is what the override um would would cost okay so and we can talk I think in a as a committee here in Theo if we wanted to go over next steps or yeah I think if maybe we just pause right now and see if I know it says override questions we can also anything on the bond piece that we went over do you guys have any general questions you want to ask that uh related to information that we recapped or um we went through it pretty quickly so but I don't want to lose lose you all so any questions or comments or otherwise we can go into the next steps and then just open up for committee conversation and discussion thank you the the phase out we're in year four right now yes you said currently in this fiscal year we're in year four so Financial impact is two school like basically a year and a half from now correct that's when it really starts yes so next fiscal year it is still fully funded so it would be the following fiscal year if not approved beginning of that school year that's when you start seeing that 33% drop yes okay yes y yes July 1st of 26 so next July is when you would start seeing a budget that's now adopted at about $8.5 million less yes any other questions yes and you guys can stay there I'll walk around the mic just to make sure everybody's if you have any questions so I'm looking at the retention of teachers it says that there's 135 um teachers that are currently um employed and I was curious to know if we have any information if the bond and or overrides don't pass what that would look like for class size potentially we had an initial estimate and again that's it's it's hard to say right now because of course but when we did just an estimated increase let's say for right now our student teacher ratio is about 26 to1 we could expect and we know that that's the average so there's some classrooms that are going to be higher or less even at this point because we have different um class siiz ratios depending on different grade levels so knowing the kindergarten is the lowest class ratio and it goes up from there but we could potentially have just when we started doing initial numbers you could see that basic ratio of average from 26 to1 potentially up to 32 to1 so and and it could go up obviously from there incrementally and so um it would have a pretty what that final amount would be we wouldn't know until we have you know the final budget established but um just initial estimates it would drive up that ratio thank you and then I just have a follow-up question regarding um ESS support or resource support would there be any or do you anticipate any Cuts happening in those areas as well well in terms of teachers and support so again I until we would really look at what the final result was and see what we can operate within I mean that is we obviously are required with a lot of what's in an IEP to provide those Services um so we we are required within that but it does fall within the operational budget so for example when we just talked about making some of those program placement changes and just changes in operational efficiency that could be something where we just continue to look further into really all areas while these are fully these are the items that the override supports it's fully embedded in the budget so it could be that we look at other areas to kind of help get us to that total total dollar amount thank you you're welcome and go ahead oh can I one comment first to that question and then I'll pass it over to you Jenna um when you also just along with that element of when we talk ESS there's depending on the types of services that are needed for a child that that can fluctuate in the expenditure which you a lot of times you'll see on average is that the funding for an ESS student it'll fun you know you'll see the funding at about 40% of the entire needs of the child so if they need other types of specialize supports so those other required services and I'm going to I'm just looking at Mary Dell for that those other we're still required by the law right and you know that but we still have to pay for that and still do that so that's that's the difficult piece when you talk about that element is there's you know there's an element to the funding needed to you know to meet all of those requirements any child needs and you don't have the you don't necessarily have all of that funding for each those VES and what I was going to add to that too is then sometimes because we're required obviously what ends up happening sometimes is you pull now from your regular education programs to support those requirements which now just has less overall available in the regular Ed um Johnny you can go ahead hi thanks team um Can can you uh go back to slide 33 M override second secondary tax impact could you walk through that table one more time I didn't hear all of it yes that one right there yes so um so this is the override the secondary so as mentioned the overrides as well as bonds they are funded through taxes right so they are funded through a secondary tax um different from their primary taxes so I provided this just for context of where it stands so fiscal year 22 was $131 per every um 100 of assessed value and so what I was mentioning in an FY 26 uh we're we just received actually our assess valuation so we'd have to go back out and get an updated estimate um but just an initial estimates show that if based on about a $200,000 home um and expected the assessed valuation to be I estimated about a 5% increase from last year's assessed value I think it actually went up a little bit which would mean the rate actually goes down because you have a bigger assessed value you can spread it out over um but initial estimates Johnny was about a116 um which as I mentioned if you if you really um kind of calculate calculate that out on a $200,000 assessed home initial estimates would show a little over a little under $240 um supporting the override in a year is that that's the question you had yeah that was okay so the so the average annual so the median household pays annual what number um and again if this if we're doing it on $ 200,000 on this dollar1 16 it's about 240 23922 or about thank you 60 cents a day or 1994 a month okay obviously all this is all subject to change based on assess valuations that will be performed at a later date that's good thank you you're welcome we know that override would impact kindergarten severely do we know if it would also impact preschool good question I mean at this point again it's really hard to say all the programs that would be impacted I mean last time and you remember being here it had a ripple throughout the entire District that I know we're still kind of seeing a little bit of the results from so because even though we you may specifically identify the target is or that that um kindergarten is just going to go down a half day I mean we saw a lot of impact on where do those students now go and where do they get their other their other half day of their education and then we had the Community Education Program create a before K and and after K and so we did did also see that impact down at the preschool level um but at this point what program changes would happen within preschool it's still a little too early but I also know that there's potentially some special education preschool that we were required to to provide services for so um a little early but I I do know it had I mean it has a district-wide impact even though you may only specifically you know address the full dayk you know you have siblings and other grades that are now impacted and what their transportation in school may look like Etc so um but yes I mean specifically right now I think it's still too soon but depending on what the results would be we would definitely need to go to the drawing board and propose things to the governing board and Tim make the call um Mr Poo but in when the override failed in 2014 that was an impact of 146 teachers so you can extrapolate that to figure it's band and arts and sports and I hope that answers your question okay great questions and obviously if any more come to mind as we um continue please we can certainly talk about that um here in a minute so next steps and timelines so I'll have Craig speak a little bit to to this yes we we wanted to you know obviously we want to think about really we've gotten this information I think we have an understanding um but but where are we at now and this will provide this is really where we're going to be getting the committee input um we know that we're we're not going to stay here until N9 o'clock at night to do this tonight I think gives you guys a chance to go back and reflect have you know think about that I know there's people you talk to um it's one of the reasons we stream this uh so there's that opportunity to gain you know a little bit more input so that we don't not rushing into a decision in one night so that's important for us um but we want to uh obviously for the committee the next steps are going to be review the needs of the district um as as you know we've talked about but what are those needs determine the needs for district overriding a bond um so you can kind of see what this next agenda is going to look like when we walk in the door determine the amounts for a bond and an override um you know the the part I want to say here is that um when we did the last one we said okay these are needs these are needs right um but then I you know as I sat back down I said well what are the needs to actually have a school day okay so like you have to have air conditioning right I mean you know in August we can't put the kids in the building and you know um so there were elements where we started to really drill down of one are those specifics I mean you know where we could could actually tackle um you know where we're at on each of those so we looked at for example on Transportation you we already talked about the idea of lengthening the you know a community that you think about is spread out very far and expanding that that boundary that that's a stretch so other things that are going to need to happen right but we said well what can we what are still needs well the buses are still going to fail so what we said is that how can maybe we can when we looked at the the buses you buy we also looked at the um a lower tier bus um so um a bus that capacity of a bus we'll say 84 and I don't mean 84 high school kids I'm talking about like you know that's a when we talk almost said the yes so that would be crazy to put 84 high school kids on a bus but what my point is is that a little bit smaller Bus Around 77 and then um it doesn't necessarily have all the same you know the same uh meet all the other same um I would say not luxury but it's definitely it's not going to be at the same level so maybe you're spending a little bit less on a bus and so we went and we shopped that a little bit more we said maybe not buying as many um so we were able to even make a proposal over you know as we looked at the bond over that stretch of a fiveyear span of maybe cutting that in half and just say not in buying as many so we we actually spent some time saying what is the barebones need of Transportation then we said what's the barebone need you know of you know when we said well building a school well we said we're not right so we said what else can we do well we we will continue to figure out ways to move kids obviously like we do there was boundaries redrawn up in the Assante at the time we had to say what are we going to do so that's not there for us what are other options then we looked at maintenance said do we do we have to have do we have to have restrooms out in those field areas well we can just continue to rent porta potties right people can walk right so um we said we can survive but we do need to fix the air conditioning we do need to make sure roofs don't leak and we do need to make sure that buildings do at some point get painted and we crossed off flooring off the entire list we're not going to do any floors floors will be okay we'll figure that out right we'll just make things work we'll we'll be okay so we started to cut things out and saying this is how we're going to do it but then the elevators we started hear about elevators are breaking and we said well that's a new expenditure we hadn't considered so we recognize that even cutting money out of there trying to reduce that we talked about safety what are the absolute needs you know and every one of these I do want to preface this is every one of these was discussed obviously you know the lot you know these are all things that go through the super attended to the governing board that we make sure that information is shared the community then obviously as we bring it to you guys you know this evening and this gets streamed out there we are taking every step we can to try to figure out a way to do still do it so which which of those safety needs can we not do so we took a look at the list and we said which ones can we you know we said well the fencing is nice we really do want that but what we really need to make sure is that the actual building itself has you know proper locks and lock down systems and fire you know so there was elements where we even looked at how we handled that element of it um and said what is the bebone need so my point in saying all of that with that item is we figured out we said if we you know if if there's less money asked for at least we can still make sure that the building can open on Mondays and make it through the week to Fridays and we're going to get kids there safely do our job in teaching them and everything else as far as those other things that you know that we know along the way it's still a Band-Aid in some ways and that's just an element I would say but we have to be we have to be conscientious to what the community said in the election and so we were we were doing that on our end so I'm putting that into context so you understand right and and I just to kind of little on that we did that was part of that final bullet when we talked about what do you do with that well you have a potential reallocation of your operational into your Capital so I mean we really in the last few months we've the needs are still there right when we had went out for the bond they weren't at the committee we had this conversation where like these weren't the luxury things they were definitely identified needs that need didn't go away in fact we now have an extra year where we don't have them and so you still need to continue to as Craig mentioned address all of those areas and so that's what we mentioned we've we've started doing that process you me you saw already some of those boundary changes just addressing a portion of it but that's where we'll now you know on our next time really talk to the committee and and get your thoughts and kind of creative ideas of what are you seeing or hearing or input on what are the absolute needs that if needed to reduce that requested amount what is more more feasible I guess from the context of what you said said what I'd be interested in is if you do resize the bond package to from X to Y what is the impact on the rate is it you know 50 cents less or is it 5 cents less or is it three cents less that's what I'd like to know right no that's a great question so I think when we meet next time if we have specific amounts and I can definitely follow up with because I'll I'll work with our um Consultants to draw up of those figures that's why right now I didn't want to give updated numbers because we don't we don't have an updated number but I know when I reach out I can give some estimates hey at this amount over this many years what would that do to the tax rate and then definitely bring back that back to the committee for you to consider any recommendation and that's I think that's a great point and that was the intent as Mary Dell said so we we would want to give exactly those numbers to show this is what we you know if you do this is the impact it would be on the tax rate so absolutely so those will be shared um those questions will be answered that's that's what we would consider uh needed information um on our agenda and that's one of them we'll add to the list um we we will also need to um I mentioned B we would need to determine the amount of the override as you think about that piece and that's why you got some context of what other districts have done what we had historically how much that's worth everything else so if there's information you would like to that and you want some other you know aspects s override please make sure you share that with us um we do need to provide the governing board with a committee update at the next meeting on March 24th did I get that right yes okay March 24th so um I'm I'm not going to volunteer anybody in the room um obviously we'll be there to answer any questions but um I don't want to volunteer anybody I wasn't going to volunteer you Patrick I was being very fair to that I do have question something I want to see real quick if you don't mind is the the history that you gave us is awesome I want to know more than that other school districts especially since we're now at a window where we're looking at potential override and bond simultaneously which the committee was pretty much against last time adamantly now that we have that I want to know has those two together in a school district comparable to us in this greater Phoenix area past and when was that history because I think history is important to understand that absolutely one of the things that we've had many discussions around us after the bond failed was not just what happened but it was why did it happened I believe this is me personally but things that I've seen was public perception even though we put out a just mountain of information and it was very clear and what do we do and all that transparency people still were saying oh well you know I'm not voting for that because you know the bond you know the the cabinets just going to give themselves raises and stuff we're like that's not true so there's still some false information out there especially on social media and I just those are things we need to address and I think we need to start educating the public now on more of those things because this much you know small step small step small step equals a journey right so I want to see a little bit more of the history of that those two especially those two together has that ever happened because I notice on ours we've never done both at the same time yes absolutely in fact we do um receive that information every time after the elections over um with other districts for comparison and I'll I'll bring that next time but it is interesting that it used to be they didn't want to go out together because one inevitably would fail that's actually kind of started Shifting the last few years the last few elections um where they've both gone out and they've both passed so it's um but I'll certainly bring that next time I did look at a regional of this last election and I saw there was a pattern yes of where certain things went really well and there a PN on the map of where things didn't yep y we can bring that next time um just to kind of piggy back off of having additional information I think it would be important to have additional information regarding how um I believe it was in 2016 or 19 when the override didn't pass and we didn't have all day kindergarten um the impact that that had on student achievement because as a teacher subsequent to the um Bond not passing and they're not being all day kindergarten there was a noticeable impact on student achievement and if there's any data that um can be presented that supports that as well because not having all day in kindergarten has a lasting effect on students and their achievement as they progress throughout um their academic career so just something to think about yep one thing I I I'd like to bring up is um as an elected PC for one of the LDS inside of surprise um there is lots that we could do to get information out taking that to these LD meetings or even having it included in the chair people's weekly monthly emails I mean if there's a way to get like a concise little what whatever the decision is made we also do electioneering outside at the polls so there I feel like there's some ways to get some additional information out there um to say because we're we're the ones that go out and help get these people and do the door knocking and you know while we did a good job last time it obviously wasn't enough to get over the hump but we have these resources here that I would like to say that as something we could start doing right now even for the next month monthly meeting okay thank you and thank you for that um I I will say that um uh obviously from where we sit up here I mean this is a this is a a district element where we come in here we want to make sure that the the community gets to be heard heard um it it goes beyond this Committee in many ways too that we you know the voices right that we're hearing and uh um and the opinions that are out there so um any of those aspects that you know you guys do independently or you know when this is over that has nothing to do with our element here that you're welcome to talk about other steps next steps as well doesn't mean you can say all those comments in here I don't mean you can't I'm just making the point of saying that we will not we will not be um um leading and directing any type of actions that's happening within the community that's a obviously we all know we did election law and everything else everybody's aware of that but um our job would be to get the information you need and then how that's carried forward um especially even those that are employees in the room and I just remind that is that's their work they're doing on their off hours and that's absolutely allowed so um just you know I just wanted to make that as a reminder but uh you know um I appreciate you sharing that information I think other members in the room were were glad to hear that so I could see the nodding in the room thank you um the uh U there was one other last B there the the F and I think it's on the next page too so the LA uh the last day that we can go before the governing board and and make a recommendation uh to them is April 28th and that's when they would also have to i' say that's the last date because that week make the recommendation and that's the the last governing board meeting prior to you see the next bullet of May 8th so Mary D that you speak to those pieces sorry I think that was yours yeah no so yes April 28th is when we looked at the calendar that's and um that's the date that would align with when we really and we'll look a little bit the agenda just our next meeting here as a committee that's just the one that would align the best to be able to get that recommendation to the board and then um kind of working back um from election date of November 4th the last St that the we would need to notify Maricopa County by May 8th um so as corra mentioned it's just it is a tight deadline I know it's uh we don't have the six seven months of that we had before but um yes we'll we'll get a lot of information covered in a short amount of time yes sorry I'm grab you a microphone here SEC just a question on the dates again so the next okay so we need to get a recommendation to the governing board on what date recommendation on a by April 28th but okay so if we give them a recommendation on the 208 we so we have an on the agenda we have a noted on there so for example we have the a board update on March 24th we're meeting again as a committee on the 27th of March we're then looking to do another board update on April 7th so okay I just want to make the final recommendation at the end of the month because I want to make sure the board's going to have have sufficient time y to look it over you know we give them a recommendation XYZ that night on the 28th and they may not have the time to make a decision at that point I mean I don't know if we're given them enough time to make a decision can they make it on the same night that we're giving them a recommendation are they going to need need a little more time and I know we right now that's we're are working um looking at those deadlines and so if we need to make some modifications so that the board has sufficient time we can we can adjust at that point we just know we the we have to notify the county by the eth of of if we intend to um if if we say we are and we end up not then obviously we can retract we just need to at least give Maricopa County essentially a heads up that the district is considering holding an election um but if something should happen in changes then we can you know retra that later on so so obviously when we have our next meeting um you know we're we're attempting to Hash A lot of those pieces out there is you know there is opportunity and time in there that if we needed to you know we understand that if the committee was in here said we needed another opportunity to come together we have to listen to you guys say that if you're saying more times needed so to your point yeah I mean it's if there's the if the ability and we're ready to go on the 7th and that's when the recommendation could be made right and we could you you guys could bring that forward and make that recommendation so all right any um last because I know we're right a little after seven so I know we want to get you guys out so just really our goal was just to kind of recap the information happy be able to kind of mull it over here in the next few weeks obviously reach out to us if if if you do have any questions along the way or if there's any other um things that you want us to research prior to coming back um together as a group next time um but yeah I don't know if you have any final words of wisdom Mr M no I'm just I want to say thank you for taking the time this evening again um and uh we appreciate you giving up this time um it's if there's if there's any uh issues with attending the next meeting please let us know or we have to do a special call in um we we find ways to make it work um we just want to make sure that we uh we make sure we keep things moving along because of the short timeline so um as we wrap up uh we appreciate uh Mr Campbell taking the being willing to take the the lead and and provide that update so thank you and then um uh I think that's all we need to cover tonight we'll be ready to go and provide that that requested information um and work towards uh our objective at the next meeting yep all right everyone thank you very much have a good evening

to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands Nation God indivisible withy and justice for all want to welcome everybody to the Schoolboard meeting this evening remind everyone we are live streaming um the Schoolboard meeting and so um today we have one board member who is vir so we will be calling the role with each vote um so we'll start with consent agenda if I'll entertain a motion to accept consent agenda items motion by Earl do I have a second second second by Travis any discussion call R maryn wh yes Pat Sol yes Amy P yes Travis Shephard yes Cheryl Miller yes Earl tager yes next we'll ask there anyone present who would like to speak on any item um on the agenda or any other topic hearing none we'll go down to Old business we have some new policies yes asking for approval of this group of Neola policies um like to take them as group please entertain a motion to um approve the Neola have a motion by maryn do I have a second second by Cheryl any discussion marn W yes Pat solivan yeah Amy pett yes Travis Shephard yes Sherl Miller yes Earl Tacker yes next we'll go down to new business um under programs we have an idoe um transfer request yes every year we must set a deadline for how long we'll accept new students in corporation typically we do the last student day asking to do that again next year so that date would be May 21st 2026 requesting approval so motion by Travis do I have a second second second by Cheryl any discussion Mary Lyn yes P yes Amy P yes Travis Shepard yes chery Miller yes Earl tager yes next we have some data accountable yes I would like to ask to table this presentation uh we were notified this week that there may be some errors in the data that was sent to us from the Indiana Department of Education so as soon as the Department of Education releases that data we'll bring that presentation back to you that item wasn't an inform item so we'll be tabled um to review a later date um next we have prek programming yes asking for approval to continue our three sites at Brush Creek North Vernon and Sand Creek Elementary for the 2025 2026 school year with a potential of adding a an additional site at North R Elementary of our enrollment um supports that motion by Earl we have a second second second by Travis any discussion Pat Sullivan yes am penet yes Travis Shephard yes Cheryl Miller yes Earl tager yes okay next we'll move down um under prek program yes and so with our program or with our prek program I would like like to add a $50 per a $50 fee per week for families who do not qualify for ccdf vouchers or on my way prek vouchers uh this will help the program to be sustainable and be cost neutral moving forward entertain a motion to approve so motion by Mary ly do I have a second second second by Cheryl any discussion Mary ly yes Pat Solin yes Amy pet yes Travis Shephard yes chery Miller yes Earl tager yes next we have a virtual online school this is a present a presentation this is in in form um we have been studying studying obviously Dr Johnson's talked multiple times about we are a declining enrollment School District so we've been looking at the areas that we are declining and one that has come up over and over again or kids who live in our district but are choosing to go online or virtual and other districts so in the first Sor so on the first slide um if you take a look you can see where our kids have gone from 2022 2023 and it's slowly crept up and we had 128 students this year choose online or virtual and our goal is to put a program in an online virtual program in that we could gain some of those students back um the next slide is just a it's just it's good be there it was so the very go you can go to the next one thank you this just shows the breakdown of where each of the students are okay um and as you can see it has crept up to 128 as of this year the next slide is just simply the visual representation of this so we've had a committee that studied this and we've looked at every option to provide online for our students from we do it in house to a total TurnKey program and as we went through we feel like this option that we're going to share with you is the fiscally most fiscally responsible option um we've looked at several we're we're going to have a an online provider Ed minum we um researched several different online providers that multiple school districts used in the state ad minum is the one that we feel like met our needs the the best um and we are looking at Ed options k through eight um can you go to the next one thank you um this option it's a accredited and state approved online learning platform it's a comprehensive K through a curriculum aligned with our standards and then it provides access to State Certified teachers who specialize in V virtual instruction these will not be our teachers these will be aditum teachers so kids would log in and they would take online classes the teachers would be provided for them when we look at it it's broken down K through five it would be just like the students would be in school they have their core subjects English language arts math science and social studies and then they would also be have enrichment programs art music physical education in Stu 6 through eight looks just a little bit different just kind of like our Middle School also they have their core subjects along with electives World Language technology coding career exploration and then they would also have a College and Career Readiness class when we looked at it we we saw that programs all over the state were online and so our kids are living here and what would make them want to come back to us we knew we had to be different so some of the options that we're we're looking to implement is to offer some tutoring so even though they're online and virtual we'll have sessions where kids can come and actually meet with up with a tutor and all of this will be staff that we don't have to add at this point um also enrichment opportunities where we will have them come in if if they choose and have stem days or enrichment days um they'll have the local Technology support they'll have a hotline they can call but also if they're struggling with the technology that we have support in that area also um other support systems we'll start special ed teacher um will be one of our teachers that will be assisting them and providing special ed minutes so once again just another person that they connect with locally and not somewhere across the state um still have the flexibility in learning interactive and engaging the cost and and finding of this so a virtual student with we do not receive the full tuition um support amount it would be 85% of that um that we would receive instead of the 100% that we do in online 60% of that cost would be the ad edmentum and device itself which would be the annual um licensing fee and then just the the device um once again this committee felt like this was the most fiscally responsible choices of our online um options the benefits of do of offering online vir jings County um increased enrollment we're looking to get some of our students back that we've lost um keeping our local students in that local connection possibly attracting students from other districts that could still benefit from the tutoring and um the enrichement days um a red reduction in absenteeism and still continue that flexibility if if this is approved we will apply for a separate student or um School Co um license accountability accountability number so that we can keep it separate and continue our data um so we know what this program is doing we can keep a hand on that it's Compared to What U we're providing already so next um I board meeting I'll be asking for approval for that so that we can start U marketing and enrolling students so we really want to keep the accountability and apply for a school number separate if we go option and it's approved and we would bring that back for approval we as a district have made some great strides in literacy graduation rate other areas and online school is still a developing area so we want to make sure that we are developing the best programs in both options and by keeping that data separate we'll be able to really study that work um and we are our biggest goal is hoping to bring back a majority of those 128 students that are living in jings County right now and are logging into online school somewhere else every day this item is an inform item does anyone have questions just in case Gary um because of you know technology and the the love of computers just in case um someone has questions that maybe wasn't able to see the PowerPoint presentation while they're streaming um or um chooses to go back and just take a quick look at at the PowerPoint May could they reach who should they reach out they they are more than welcome to reach out to me and I can share that great so call the sen if you have questions about this online option please reach out um happy to either meet or have a discussion over the phone um just to reach out to Carrie here at the central office and and we'll get information to you just a quick a question the people that are uh online they they can't take advantage of our skill traes is that correct um as far as coming in for classes yeah I mean they offer a version on the online programming but we are this isn't offered to high school students right now so we that as far as CTE programing the high school wouldn't apply it's just k through eight is what we're offering so what I want to we've got one of the nicest skilled trades around and you people out there that uh are Tak online I'd like for you to give us a chance on skilled trades because you talking about occupations that uh open the door here in Jenny's County it's unbelievable so give us a chance I know you're plugging online but I want to plug uh what the U school board administration's done we've got one of the asked around so give us a choice too sorry to talk the other way so Earl you make a great point you know if while you're you may be looking at an online option um if you're interested in taking a look at what else Jennings County Schools have to offer um we're more than happy to to share the great outcomes I know those were shared at I think the last board meeting um the trades um you know the SIM High School there's a lot of things that are going on Happy to um share all of those great things as well with the community so again that item was an inform item so you go on that so next we'll move down to the five star um eate battery this this is also an inform you have u a packet in your um folders this is we're in the process of an e project for un un uninterrupted power supply for it needs um there were six quotes collected from V vendors and five star had won the um proposal and so it's in your uh packet and I'll ask for a um approval at next meeting again that's an inform item um we'll vote on that the next meeting does anyone have questions about that I know it's in your packet you'll have time to review but does anybody have questions right now perfect so next we'll move down to professional staff we have some recommendations yes please asking for um approval of the following recommendations we have uh three certified employees that are asking for the career increment Master teacher stifen to be awarded for the school years of 2025 26 through 2029 2030 and those three are Billy Ballinger Jessica Hall and Kevin Smith entertain a motion to approve motion by Travis to have a second second by Earl any discussion very tat Sullivan yes Amy pett yes Travis Shephard yes Cheryl Miller yes Earl Tacker yes um next we have a resolution yes just like last year this resolution is to allow certified supplemental pay for the 2024 early literacy achievement Grant entertain a motion to approve so moved motion by Cher do I have a second second by mayor Lynn any discussion yes Amy pennett yes Travis Shephard yes Cheryl Miller yes Earl Tacker yes um so next we move down under support staff we have some recommendations yes please asking for the um following approval for the following recommendations Terina Bard um to be approved as a Jennings County Middle School cook and Aon Martin to be approved as a Jennings County High School assistant track and field coach a motion to approve those R Sal motion by Cheryl do I have a second second by Travis any discussion sorry marn you have discussion yes Pat solivan yes any it yes Travis Shephard yes Cheryl Miller yes Earl T yes next item would be another resolution yes this is the classified portion of the supplemental page for the 2024 early literacy achievement Grant I have a motion to approve motion by Travis or second second by Mary Lynn any discussion Mary Lynn yes P solivan yes Amy penett yes Travis Shephard yes Cheryl Miller yes Earl tager yes um next we move down under finances we have some donations yes that's a board approval for the follow following donations the high school Harmon construction $500 to the high school men's volleyball club and Martin Rea $150 to the high school Esports team and cpio Elementary Purdue University inmac micro grant for $2,000 to cpio teacher baa Davis for the purchase of a view Sonic viewboard entertain a motion to accept those donations as right motion by Mary Lyn do I have a second second second by Cheryl any discussion Mary Lyn yes Pat Sullivan yes Amy petett yes Travis Shephard yes Cheryl Miller yes Earl tager yes phip one more resolution yes this is a repeat of the one from last meeting it's just not complete yet so I had to put a new time frame on it great so just an updated time frames yeah to it's it's the transfer Appropriations for the major B major for budget motion motion by Travis do I have a second second second by Cheryl any discussion Mar Lyn yes Amy pennett yes oh Pat svin sorry yeah yes aming yes Travis Shephard yes Cheryl Miller yes Earl tiger yes um next we'll move down under relations yes asking for approval for our appointments to the County Public Library of uh Board of Trustees reappointment for Jeff Green for a four-year term and appointment for Jessica Floyd for one additional year so entertain a motion to approve abolutely motion by Travis do I have a second second by Earl any discussion Mary Lyn yes okay Pat Sullivan yes Amy pennett yes Travis Shephard yes Cheryl Miller yes ear terer yes um next we'll move down to anou asking for approval of anou between ourselves and Western Governor's University it's an annual for student teacher placement entertain a motion to approve so Move Motion by Cheryl do I have a second second second by Mary Lynn any discussion Mary Lynn yes Pat Sullivan yes Amy pennett yes Travis Shephard yeser yes Earl tager yes now we're down to other nothing addition hearing nothing to be brought under other will entertain a motion to adjourn I have a motion by Travis I have a second by Earl call the role Mary Lyn yes Pat Solan yes Amy P yes Travis Shephard yes Cheryl Miller yes Earl tiger yes you notice how I've never had a last name through this yes I did go back no I like it better that way I believe that's meeing a jerk

asking them please M okay came into the office yesterday gave a little talk and not talk but a little situation talking about and did you get a ho to the town manager after uh between yesterday and today no I have not okay so and Nour you didn't either okay that's Ste situation what what what pass on the stronger Zoning for the planning board and all that and everything else I wanted to make sure that something least gets talked about on on the roof here on the town hall and then get and then we get back together and just see what happens if it can if it can work together sure Mar Mark do you want to tell the plany about over your idea my ITA it's uh 119 Main Street what are you talking about well you had an idea to create a to come together to talk about zoning and who who should be part of that meeting or the group do you want to talk about that to the planing board because I think it's a good idea I would like to come in and have a pre setup talk okay I can't I'm not g I can't do something like that by myself okay all right well let just up update the board Mark did come in yesterday and he kind of floated the idea that he would like to see some of the bylaws kind of strengthened um with the idea that you said there there's too much restaurants is that correct there still bunch of one of one s restaurants and businesses that is not gener generational ready okay maybe service businesses you want to see more Economic Development businesses with jobs and um and that was just kind of an overall conversation we kind of had and you know I think at this point I think that's a great process after the comprehensive plan is complete uh in my eyes is Implement is is kind of an implementation strategy but Mark just came in obviously and and talked about it and um and and requested to talk to the town manager and I don't think Mike was available um and Alvaro and I talked to Mark a little bit but it's obviously it's a pretty big idea and it's a big process right and so uh obviously it would be the kind of the the preamble to a process that would that would occur obviously to rec codify our bylaws which I think we all kind of know need some some work and and uh and Mark just kind of want to came in and talked about it and tried to spawn uh uh a meeting to try to to to just discuss what could and can't be done at this point in time so it's basally a talk about with with some of the uh some of the Committees that involved in in zon in and not just zoning but overall site plans plan board everybody that's involved together and to look forward to a um future downtown and future business for the reason for the college people that get out the college who are study and have their bachelor's degrees and stuff like that in the services and the Professional Medical and uh professional areas of jobs and for the general family that come in that has a professional commercial in um family um DNA inside of them and there's no jobs that around here looking attract to get keep them in town and to understand that they they can live here if they have to go out of town get the tea station either way but to make this make the uh Route 495 console which is which is setal like down Franklin be something like that here all right thanks Mark I mean I I think uh it does seem to tie in to me to the bigger effort that's going on with Comprehensive plan and so it seems like uh those things will you know as the results start coming out a comprehensive plan about what the goals of the town of Ashland are the residents of the town in general then it seems like they'll start to we'll start to work on those exact things once we know what those results are from the residents of Ashland so so on that I'll just end it on this will Mr Peter allar give me an email message that I can reply back on and let's go from there sure I'm happy to email you mark like we've been doing other things oh sure okay sorry oh okay I made you a co-host Paul so you can unmute yourself okay sorry about that um okay yeah Mark I'm happy to put an email together and email you no we going to put like a date time come in and get get a preamble going sort of thing I can I can look into the calendar and and try to try to figure something out for you go thank you all right thank you uh seeing no other public comment know they're public really um we will move on to the next item on our agenda which is the public hearing for 20 Ponderosa ryen wireless equipment upgrade do you need to read that into the uh yes I am um the plany board will hear a public uh excuse me the planning board will hear the petition of Verizon two uh 20 Alexander Drive uh wallenford Connecticut 06492 requesting a special permit modification per chapter 282 section 6.4 Wireless Communications facilities in 9.3 of the Ashton zoning bylaws the applicant seeks to modify the existing special permit for the removal of three existing antennas and callar mounts installing eight new antennas three excuse me eight new antennas three new antennas with uh integr integrated radio heads eight uh eight radio heads and one BP two hybrid cables and one new platform Mount at the 123t center line of the existing 150t Tower there are no proposed changes to the tower height or compound size that would be the fen in area um at the bottom obviously of the pole uh the added equipment is 3G cap excuse me is 5G capable the property in question is located at 20 Pond neosa Road assessor map 13 lot 35 and in the residential a zoning District just for a location uh this is at the Ashland DPW um at the far end of pondosa road if you go past the um ashon fishing game club um and then that's where you run into the ashon DP W um there there is a um a large I think it's about 100 by 100 fencing area it's a land lease um that the town has with crown castle and Verizon represented tonight um is a co-tenant of that pole um and they are one of four um carriers that are uh co-tenants on that uh crown castle pole uh so with that said uh if there's no questions from the board I'll turn it over to the applicant who's here to introduce herself good evening members of the board uh and staff and members in the audience my name is Domin Tator I'm permiting specialist with crown castle um submitted this application on behalf of Verizon who is our uh customer carrier um as you know I've submitted a special perent Amendment application um on behalf of Verizon uh for 20 Ponder Rosa Road as Peter mentioned um this is 150 foot uh telecommunication monopole located at your DPW facility uh Verizon is an existing carrier at the 123rd Center Line um crown castle owns the tower and U the town of Ashland is the property owner uh telecommunication upgrades um are common and desired as technology changes pretty quickly and it's important to for the carriers to provide better telecommunication services to Residents businesses and also First Responders right now uh C uh bryen currently has three antennas um and bryen proposes to replace all the antennas in the existing Mount and ancillary equipment uh with new Mount and antennas at the exact same Center Line um there's no as Peter mentioned there's no change to the proposed uh tower height or compound size this application constitutes an eligible facilities request for the fcc's regulations and does not constitute a substantial change to the Tower and as a birght use by the federal law uh the application materials that were submitted to you included with the application also the construction drawings the uh structureal analysis report and compliant radio frequency emissions uh analysis report so if you have any questions i' be happy to answer them I have just some basic questions as we go through these um frequently but but um okay so on that Tower there are currently uh two other levels of antenna who else is on that Tower Peter you know just curious I can answer the question if you want you m sh okay um at the very top is T-Mobile followed by Sprint which is actually T-Mobile now okay T-Mobile T-Mobile yeah and then Verizon okay and the lowest level is dish oh so that's uh so I thought I pardon me while I look at the image I took today I mean I I went by our PDF and our structural analysis so maybe the dish one hasn't been done yet or is proposed but I know the top three ones are there the T-Mobile and the Verizon yeah I think dish is proposed yeah dish has not been dishes not come in front of this but when they do come or want to come they will be obviously at the lower level so right now there are three levels right there's they kind of start going down in size are are the three to be removed that low level is that's what is that what is being removed so the lowest level which is the uh 123rd Center Line was Verizon that is slated for like basically an overhaul replacement because what is there now is deficient the platform Mount is extremely tiny the antennas are Antiquated right that's I'm just wondering what like I said what I'm looking at there's an upper level there's a middle layer and there's really this tiny little small layer the tiny little small layer is the one that you're talking about yes it's so deficient for technology today so that is what's slated for replacement it it's long overdue to be honest Madam chair okay all right and it would go into the it would go back into that same loc that same slot yes okay the same location exact same central line so when it's taking out oh it's printed so small for my eyes um remove those three antennas with the collar and they're installing three dual antenna mounts install three antennas with integrated rrh and install another eight antennas can you tell me the difference between an antenna with an integrated rrh absolutely and an eight and the other one absolutely yes so the platform amount that they're putting on is basically a square amount okay so what they're installing is like eight eight antennas um and then you have down there you have installed eight rrhs those are remote radio heads those eight are going to go behind the eight proposed antennas just think of it like little suitcases and then on top of that they're also going to install three antennas that have like almost like a Duo um antenna with radio so it's kind of like a it comes like a Duo two for one um as antenna so basically it's like 11 antennas coming on three have radios already in their basic design and um eight of them are going to have radio behind them okay yeah and when the testing was done there's a letter describing like certain percentages oh here um this is from the Fox Hill Telecom yes and um it talks about a site total of 9.76% this is about the um the the emissions that's right correct is the 9.76 mean that it is if we look at the fcc's allowable limits the proposed total is 9.7 six yes I can tell you exactly everything about it if you want to um that was kind of is my only question I wanted to understand the percentage is related to the allowable limit so no is there a limit on the tower like like how much come out of the 100% is a fail and 99 99.99 infinity infinity is a pass so this is 10 times below um the um FCC allowable limits and that would be for the is that for the Tower as a whole yeah it's for literally all the carriers all the radios on the tower and it assumes the model that was used was assuming the worst pessimistic um situation a model that was run basically where all of the radios for all the carriers on that Tower are transmitting non-stop 247 which it doesn't do in real life so it it's a model of the worst situation possible and even the worst worst situation possible was 10 times under the limit so it has um so when it has sector a sector B sector C sector D are those I'm just trying to understand from based on what you said so that your so the the percentage of what we're looking at for her for Verizon on this one is 9.76% right um for I'm just looking at the the summary on the back page of the so how I understand it and I believe the 9.76 is for all the carriers for the entire Tower oh yeah it says the estimated composite emissions value for this site assuming all carriers present is 9.76% of the allowable established guidelines yes and and Madam chair if you unfortunately the document is doesn't have page numbers on it unfortunately but you're right yeah just really not helpful but right before the heat Maps the page right prior to the heat Maps it actually shows um a table that says site composite MP percentage and actually lists out the carrier like Verizon 7.49 and then they added up the T-Mobile one as well I see yep okay so is green Verizon at the top in this um diagram um that I can't answer actually no correction that is the Verizon with okay so GRE Verizon yes okay so it seems like Verizon is 9.76 right and other ones would be other uh no Madam chair the uh Verizon itself is 7.49 and you when you add the team mobile ones as well 2.79 it comes up to the percentage of 9.76 oh so and the T-Mobile includes both of theirs both those tiers yes okay got it okay and the other one is not on there yet that's correct got it okay okay just for clarification is the second T-Mobile kind of shut shut off you think you don't know you know unless I get uh which I might might have have soon I don't know an application for T-Mobile we'll find out what they're doing go whether they choose to use that center line or not I don't know yet okay yeah just CU just I know me too I I don't know okay okay sorry those I'm just trying to understand these technical things a little bit better um are there any other questions from the board so this is a location obvious this is a location obviously in the past we've had uh questions about um uh access about uh work trucks coming in and maybe blocking access to residences we've had um you know questions about hours of construction but this is all happening at the Ashen DPW um yeah so typically any anybody any work in this area obviously is going to be coordinated with Ash and DPW and within any condition obviously coordination would have to concur absolutely concur with the DPW and is there anything also being changed out at the ground level no no just it's all on the tower principally other than like you know a fiber cable right right no new boxes being constructed okay yeah um I was just going to say I think because particularly for that platform they're going to need like a big crane I'm assuming and that's going to take L iect that they probably will so it'll be like a coordination Town it be a lot of coordination for that then the only thing I I would say just want I appreciate that um the application the crown castle went through our entire bylaw in Comm and I just appreciate that level of effort and I can't say that people read this but they do get published and and it gives background like when we can't really deny if people ask it sort of it just it spells it out so thank you and and any other applications I have with your town that's my intent to keep up doing the same thing I did with this application quick clarification question um this ton report has more quantities of proposed equipment antenas versus the 11 is there a trick to read this chart um I'm I'm saying proposed equipment configuration though yeah that's what is proposed for um this application so but that's more than 11 antas on this table um they also have the T-Mobile ones as well that I don't know if that's how he designated on here but because it's saying proposed equipment configuration so T-Mobile should not be part of it right no probably it's just like um how they worded it is what I believe just a confusion with the wording but you'll have better Verizon coverage in town once we get rid of that because all the Samsung ones sounds like it is Verizon so that count itself does not add up correctly because the there is a schedule on this drawing set which shows Samsung products uh the new proposed equipment is a combination of Samsung and com scope scope yeah so that's like com scope is on this chart is eight of them and Samsung is adding up to 15 unless the Samsung is the radio as well cuz that would D um changed the number as well yep Sam Samsung is the radio heads as well okay so that's where the numbers come up so most of the equipment on the on the um proposed Mount are going to be Samsung with the exception of some com scope serting the things listed as Samsung telecommunications are actually the radio heads so I believe that um how it was listed includes the radio heads and also the antennas is that are Samsung so okay so the and they're all just when it says number of antennas they're just it's just there's actually more various types of equipment there exactly and what's listed on the drawing set is what's it's makes it more def makes it more descriptive I guess exactly right and so that's at one 123 ft proposed and then when it says other considered equipment those are at 146 40 147 and 148 ft which would be the upper levels of the tower I yes and so that would be the T-Mobile levels and then there's yeah and then there's some things at 36 35 36 which would be maybe that mid level yeah a higher level in a mid level okay and we did have a question about about um you might have heard K and I Ching about a little bit that the um that the uh study the telmon study was done in August 2024 and it was using the ninth edition of the building code and we're in a concurrence period of The Bu building code right now so is this do you know if they have looked at this with the 10th edition of the building code or if there's any I believe that they have it's just that normally the structural analysis reports are usually done a substantial amount of time in advance they have to because if the scope has to change or the equipment has to change it all has to make sure that you know passes structurally so that's why these um reports are always done six to nine months sometimes a year in advance um but I'm aware that the 10th edition came out in October okay yeah and um Peter is this something that um TR I remember the other ones we've done um is there anything in here where our third party so no because this is a privately owned pole uh it's owned by crown castle versus US owning the tank correct so when we own the tank such as a water tower it goes through peer review through the water department for rest structural for structural analysis for this Tower privately owned by crown castle um the town has um I don't want to say no interest however it's not Town property so therefore there's no peer review from a structural standpoint this would just go to the building okay there any uh questions otherwise we can open it up to public comment okay um I'm just going to open it up for public comment as it is a public hearing oh do you want me to sit down you need to take a seat okay that's okay I thought you needed me close by in case I needed to answer anything you might you might need to answer things my name is Diane calt and I live at 66 Sudbury Road which is the towers is right behind it's in my backyard um and talking today it's like just 750 ft so my concern has always been with that tower being there is health concerns just because of the admissions now I know I heard you say tonight that it's in total it's what 9.76 which is 10 times under what the FCC limits are um but I still have that concern you know there's still our emissions constantly being coming from this this cell tower and I mean I just hear that I know this is supposed to allow the 5G capability um but I just understand just from you know with this going from 4G to 5G that with all of this radiation that's being emitted the verdict still isn't out yet on on any kind of health hazards um so just being so near the tower and you know there are other homes on the street as well um it concerns me thank you yeah we've um these issues um obviously come up every time um we have um one of these uh proposals or these changes of equipment these special permit modifications so the concerns always come up there's things in the news that travel through you know once in a while um and there are obviously um some people that are really you know trying to delve into this and trying to to figure out what the risks are um for the um for the purposes of the planning board we are under um um reg National a federal regulations that we really can't um there's no re we really can't reject the permit for for issues of perceived concerns without there being um it's just not in our purview to do that so um as long as everything meets our bylaws and meets the required standards then the the Board needs to approve so that's the that's the place that we're at um people can probably explain it better than I can but yeah it comes down to what was mentioned today uh I believe it is um 2012 the SEC regulations um came out and it's a they pretty much as as nationally they got said if you're eligible um uh eligible facility and you meet the six criterias laid out within that 2012 Bill and law that was passed um I think it was the jobs act I believe believe the middle class jobs act uh President Obama signed in 2012 laid out that eligible facilities that are were existing um if they met six criteria points uh which this one does um I don't have those six criteria off the top of my head but maybe the applicant does um that the planning boards Andor local boards do not have the authority to deny um upgrades of existing towers and so that is the regulations that this application falls under up this is what the the law that I was speaking to today on the phone with you about um however uh here in Ashland when upgrades are applied for the biggest thing I think that this board tries to do is to make sure there's a public hearing and with there's notification um to allow everyone within uh proximity of the tower within 300 feet which is the notification regulations that we fall under under chapter 48 are notified of the work being done uh and therefore people know what is going on within their local area um and so I think that is the the tack that the the planning board has taken over the last few years when the update to cell tow come in um regarding new equipment so um that's kind of my summary of I also just in acknowledging that the the that the board has um um has listened to people with concerns when whenever one of the one of these projects come comes up but I want to say that the the board has made no determination about whether it is at risk or not and this actually has gone to the um the Board of Health as well and I think also they have not determined that there that there is a risk based on the based on the um based on the the information out there at this time can I just clarify because we we have also I just to be clear have not that isn't under our purview so we are not saying it's not a risk and we aren't saying it is a risk but I I just I just the way it was worded it could be I was just saying we had made no determination so um about that because it isn't in our purview um to do so we're not scientists in that way so um but um what's that oh it it's still open if you want to make a comment thank you again m Sony 119 Main Street um I can because of the health reasons but I also know that for the technical reasons for the tower itself because there's more customers coming on that use the devices so they need a stronger radio frequency to coincide with what is out there so I'm I'm basically either way on it healthwise I'm not but this this is for the future Road and from 4G 5G and the tower itself of down Ponderosa is a a essential frequency carrier down there and the two um the two tows plus the middle one and they're going to have a Verizon and um T-Mobile but Samsung is basically if I if I can guess it right and correctly if I'm wrong either either anybody be behind me or not but Samsung is the radio frequency material material that they is used on the towers themselves yes or no can you I don't know if we have that Samsung the one that carries a regular frequency and to Verizon and T-Mobile they send it out to their devices but the Samsung major radio carrier no the antennas that's mounted are from the manufacturer from Samsung they the manufacturers of those products that's M yes so I was in the ball park but I was not here in home run okay um we yes we have had this and the one on C the street the same thing going through stuff like this healthwise I can agree that it's it's a it's is a risk but the Board of Health deems not to but then again the Board of Health needs to hear it more the have this been going on we you can't say no basically you can't say no because FCC regulations has your hands TI because if you try it could be a court case and this town doesn't want to go through that but it's cost money and it's a um real hassle so yes I agree with what they want for but healthwise is is a background negative thank you thank you marike all right so the next step in this would be to for us to close the public hearing if there are no further questions we would vote to close the public hearing and then we would um I guess ask um Peter to start to put together a yeah so uh just looking at the next meetings date uh for the for the pl board is March 13th uh I can pretty confident that I can to draft a decision to the board fairly quickly um and then we could uh make a file determination so I think either Contin you know closing the public hearing and continuing it out to March 13th is probably our next yeah I'll make a motion to close the public hearing for a Verizon Wireless 20 on Roa cell to radio alteration is there a second second and a roll call vote Katherine Jersy I Amanda ha and Trisha Kendall I so uh we have closed the public hearing and we will move we will we'll review the decision um on the 13th of March can you come up to the microphone please thank you he you madam chair so that means that the decision will be reviewed and signed at the on the 13th correct and then filed with the town the day after starting the 20-day appeal period and all of that okay thank you I appreciate it and I assume that we are within our scope of time yes we are within our scope of time and I think um um obviously we we will be within the required phase okay great thank you thank you thank you um moving on next to our on our agenda is an informal meeting with the owners and agents of 123 Pawn Street um and we had talked to we had talked to the applicants a few oh a few a few a month ago maybe a month or two ago I'm just going to go to excuse me uh I know Mike McKay is here online but I do see the applicant in the hall okay so excuse me yeah okay so um Peter you just want to give a update about where we are on this project uh sure um Mike McKay has his hand up Mike I'm gonna ask you to unmute um and so my main direct communication has been through Mike McKay uh here and he is the uh project applicant excuse me the project architect um here tonight we have uh George Connor's engineer Bruce wheeler who is the owner of the project thank you so much Bruce I know um Bruce Mike and George have been working hard on this project but a month ago they did came come into the Plenty board meeting maybe a little bit about a month and a half ago in December okay prior to Christmas and we had a preliminary kind of discussion about the project I know um work has been done on the project I know they took a lot of the comments back um and they've kind of came up with a new uh and improved um plan for that for that matter um and I can pass that along um um I did circulate I would just know like to say uh Mike George and Bruce are here just to kind of open up a preliminary continue that preliminary discussion with the plainy board about a future development at 37 uh James um with that said I'm happy to hand it over to Mike uh Mike you are unmuted um and I do have the PDF if you would like me to share my screen I'm happy to as well and or you are allowed to share the screen um if you want to um I'll do it I'll do it Peter thank you it might be easier for me to control it uh okay thanks Peter and uh members of the board uh Michael McKay I'm actually um on vacation um so don't feel bad for me but uh I'm uh I have my family running around outside and I'm I'm sitting in one of the bedrooms so um but I'll just share the screen okay um I as as Peter mentioned um we were in you know six weeks or so ago maybe a little bit more and it was a lot of feedback about the project um from a sighting situation um from a um parking um and what we did is we we looked at a lot of things that that the the major item that we tried to address was the amount of parking on site so from a scope standpoint we are actually still very similar we're in the 200 residential unit range 1700 17,000 square ft of commercial um and 325 parking spaces and a mix of 101 bedrooms and 102 bedrooms that so the scope has not changed U much um just the design so from a um we we took some ideas from all the board it was it was actually a great meeting we thought and some good feedback about the type of designs the the site and so I'll just get into it a little bit I'm I'll just go through the context quickly this is uh you know a couple of context images but the site in blue wraps all the way around James and as a small pie well it's not a small piece a significant piece on Pond um but it wraps around the gas station and U two residences but uh so this is context a few photographs uh bird's eye of the of the site um looking uh both ways up Pawn Street and again I'll just go through this fast this is the existing condition site plan it's um we're you know substantial site this was the original plan that we submitted and I think one of the comments you know the general feedback was there was a lot of uh um a lot of parking a lot of gray um on the site and not necessarily inviting um I will say that we you know we took this there's a lot of um conservation issues there's some easements there so the sighting of the buildings is not that easy but but you know when George first looked at this site even before we got involved one of the major um ideas was to get it away from the existing house uh get the M the big larger buildings away from the house and we put screening and parking along here but also as far away from the gas station as possible so that was from a sighting standpoint um so we actually didn't change the buildings a lot we tweak them a little bit but they're generally in the same location um not necessarily the same footprint um so this was the existing the proposed really cuts down on a lot of the parking we actually put parking in both Building B and Building C at the ground level so that took you know approximately 125 parking spaces and put them inside um what this is a blowup of the entire sites we have building a on Pond Building B Building C and then there's a building D which everybody liked I think it was the favorite building because it was kind of a cute one and a half story building um but this is a blowup version of the site building a still has commercial 13,000 square feet of commercial what we've done is taking some Clues from other projects that are that are going on in town with you know just softening up the edge more Landscaping have walkways that will bring um bring people walking along Pawn Street into the site um and this particular idea there's a little walkway that would wrap around the building WP around building a get into this uh kind of triangular site by getting a lot of the parking off the site we have more amenities we have a playground that would be a public playground um in the middle of this you know Courtyard of between the the three buildings um the um building a would have a u you know potential this is what the hope is to have a cafe but no matter what it would be some type of a um a landscaped open um sitting area in front of um in front of building a um that again will help draw people into the site um Building B I always had this idea during the meeting was to introduce some I call them duplexes um or and call them a townhouse for whatever it's worth but to soften up the edge of Building B we would have a entrances each each of these four units it's not significant a significant number of unit but it's more just to to break up the massing of the a large building but have twostory units that would uh have their own yard have their own little landscaped area out front and you know create this little formal um formal landscaped area um that would then open up more to the amenity space this is a building amenity space space um with a gym um grills fire pits so this whole area would be developed as a again it's more of a softened area that uh than we had before um still Building B is uh Building B has is all residential uh but the ground floor is parking we would have Lobby um along the side so we'd be entering into the building and exiting um and exiting here ha and wrapping around the back to leave Building C again ground level parking but all this white would be uh ground level amenity space Lobby mail room bike storage um but that building again it's softened by this ground floor Break um we did explore putting some type of walkway going along the back and we it's it's not the the best it sounds great when we talked about Wetland maybe there's a there's a potential to do something nice and but it it's just not the best um space back here and it's still something that we'll explore further but it's we did we did look into it a little bit but it's just not it's not the best that's all that's all I can say I did forget about our little Sport Court area this would be for residence in the back and it's tucked away as far as we can away from the buildings and and and our neighbors um that U so the sports courts would be in this uh this back corner but again the the amenity that we be adding is this significant playground um in the courtyard building D hasn't changed at all there's a couple of notes that we put down we have met with one of our neighbors and uh we're planning on meeting with the um with the other neighbor that lives here um but we've a couple of suggestions on things that we may introduce to uh slow down traffic maybe uh um you know speed deterrent um uh bumps or U signage that would um stop everybody from going so taking a turn onto James Road if you're leaving so signage and um curbing that would uh direct everybody towards the main uh the main entrance so that those are just some notes that we're putting more as reminders to us as we develop the plan so let's see sorry about that this was the original concept for building a um had this manside roof U it is a four-story building um commercial on the first floor and which you'll see in all of the buildings is we we're introducing more of a more of an industrial Mill feel to it just a consistent there'll be some brick um gray colors um still having the heavy commercial Frontage but this building has a recess U so the a tower on either side and then a recess um to to break up the mass thing we're introducing balconies sporadically not every unit will have a balcony but we're um we're planning especially in the back of the building we may have um a few more balconies um but that's something is an idea I know there's feedback both ways about you know having having balconies having people hang there laundry but uh it's still an amenity that uh might be a a good thing to have as a um not as a general use but um several of the units uh that's building a uh the change I'm sorry I'm having a little freeze Building B this was the original design um it was a five-story building it was actually four and a half stories but it was flat roof with the half story um sort of Ste back um from both elevations um our New Concept is introducing a fairly significant um sloped roof and having the fifth floor built into the roof line with shed Dormers um and even bringing that roof flying down to the um the corner down to the fourth floor so that it is a again this is that that building with the tow houses um that were talked about just breaking up that would be sticking out approximately 15 20 feet um and this is the garage entrance here so there's a there's a large l and a large angle to this building that's not showing up we don't have renderings of this yet we wanted to get feedback tonight before we do that but you'll see the consistency in the the design even even though they're different buildings um color the brick um the base would be um similar this was Building C again it was all mixture of Hardy siding and you know clap wood and Bay but it was um just maybe a little bit hotter not as not as soft and this is our version for building C which again is similar to B but different um if that you know just not not the same this has a significant tower that would um be flanked by the shed Dormers up on the top floor and the amenity space again for uh at the ground level for building C and the last but not least is a little cute we haven't touched it um we we we you know it's it's kind of off on its own and this would be a you know a twostory commercial building um that's uh sort of sitting off by itself um so that's I I I'm don't not sure if George wants to add anything I'm sure Bruce would like to say a few few words but for just from a redesign I think the major Focus was to get rid of some of the parking put it in the buildings and introduce more site amenity space both for residents and for um for the town that would be open to the public and to bring people in so that's it thank you just give us a minute while we digest a little bit here I I could start with one question so um the building a is much much more industrial than the others and I mean I well I'll just say personally I think that's dramatic change and Improvement um of of the design I like the other ones don't look inspiring it looks like you see what you came with originally so I feel like this is just something different that's going to be attractive to in but um the other ones just seem a little nicer I guess because maybe just not so harsh so is there something that you chose to have a not have any any um the others I'm sorry so so it just looks like a very very industrial and I know we the planning board threw out an idea that that might fit there and be better but I feel like some of the other features just make it more interesting on the BNC building I think the I think the um I I said the same thing I kept trying to figure out am I looking at the front of this building or the back of this building I think it's the only one we're looking at the street side instead of the back instead of the courtyard side right that's right and I think the um I think that it's partly it's just it's it's the only one that's symmetrical it's a very symmetrical building so it's a very um a little bit more static building than the other two a little bit less Dynamic than the other two and given the how Dynamic that road is and continues to be maybe it needs a little it it's seems a little um a little bit too balanced I guess you know static that that building relative to the other ones I and and I wonder um again I agree with Kate my first impression was the other buildings look a little more interesting because of the different kinds of roofs um and there a little more articulations in the other building um but I also I'm thinking when I step back and look at it from the site plan point of view you are going to see the other two buildings kind of partially Inc as kind of a background to this building and I wonder how what that really looks like uh if there is like a street view that we should kind of look at when see you you're going to see a little bit of the building a b and c and kind of together on the pawn street right and wonder if that's going to add a little more drama to the whole experience versus just looking at it individually um and I don't know if we would think otherwise when we look at it together yeah I mean I appreciate um I don't give you guys time to take in our words and to respond as well but um I mean I do appreciate with the materials that I assume were which was not only 501 Pawn Street but 10 to 60 Maine which we talked about yes I believe so what was sent to uh the app I excuse me to um the architect and Bruce and George was 501 Pawn Street right and I think the biggest one of the the takeaways of that project was was the werf in the front and how do you connect the street to the development um and then I do believe the uh the handdrawn drawing of of tenness 60 Main Street um which was sent over that was during the plany board process um of that project those are the two big uh pieces that I believe were circulated to the to the team yeah and I just want to say that that I would I would have been very surprised if those weren't in the hands of the architect because the things we loved about that little drawing you know um before it sadly went away um I I think you have been able to pick up and start running with you know this idea about this I mean for us it was about the mill building history in Ashland and um a different kind of a modern building that but one that had some kind of root in the past you know something with a little bit more character that we were trying to develop and I see some of those things coming through with the the horizontality and the the tower element um on the one building um so I I really I appreciate that kind of careful looking at the things we said we liked you know um and for those not to be disregarded it's interesting looking at the front again of that building a where you have the more of that um um Green Space public space that little bit of buffer from pwn Street and the the park for lack of a better term that you've created out there is very asymmetrical and I wonder if that gives that gives a little incentive maybe that the building should also relate to the green space that you have out in front so if the Green Space isn't symmetrical maybe the building doesn't have to be either and you know so how does that building become again a little bit more Dynamic how does it relate to its its landscape I think it's just a little bit too rigid kind of right now um for me my me personally I I really appreciate all the um effort put into the um put into that Central landscape and really starting to think about how it might be used I know the first time was just a first pass at things but it really um it it really it gives an idea that different activities are happening here you know that people aren't just walking in a circle and um and the taking some of that taking the parking and putting it in other places allowed that space to grow in size um which makes it uh even better a better you know place to be is the parking count still the same as it was it seems like yes okay it is other things we talked about at the time where um giving that we have hundreds literally hundreds of rental units that are going to be coming online that that a question was we talked about condos potentially about having this be something different and having be condos in these units instead of instead of rentals I don't know um if that uh if that discussion happened or if it was there's still that if if there's an argument to be made for that if there's if there's any advantage to doing that go the microphone hi uh Bruce wheeler I'm uh the principal of pendulum um and uh we're we are taking a look at the the possibility of condos as as opposed to rentals we're doing a study on that now and uh uh as we get into it we'll be happy to share our thoughts okay yeah I just wanted to keep following that idea along as long and as well is the um you know that we're always looking for the affordability component of affordability versus commercial space versus you know like I said versus the as you know we have many many rentals that are going to be coming up and that actually needs other stuff too and so um always looking for how those can be maximized I know there's a bottom line with things financially but how can this project be different into what it's giving back to the town when some of those we have no control over it's just all residences and it's all rental units there's nothing we can do do about it so um appreciate just keeping that in mind um and comments I wanted to I appreciate the uh public space um and that you are intended public like there's not um it's not too far from other residents and in fact in the comprehensive plan came up to try to have some kind of amenity space within we wanted half a mile and we knew it wasn't so this is there potentially there but I think that's sort of the community thing as well um I really appreciate that you kept that and and enlarged it actually yeah I really like um tucking away the parking it's a great note from um our last chat um as Kate noted I think the the public space playground I can't think of another playground between of our Public School Sherborn um that on that side of town um it's sort of foreign Elementary and then probably all the way I think that's yeah no 100% I would actually you know I I I do not know of another public playground in that that neck of the woods I do not think um uh Workman Circle has a playground in it maybe they do but know they that that is something that's there I know it's something we're looking at with um other Investments that are being made in town open space on the the pwn Street side of town yeah as you know um fish out of these days my consu at home that will be you know about half the distance to where we're usually shlepping to Cemetery Lane in Sherborn so um I I think that's a great note um and and just a way to sort of um really have that be a vibrant feel with the commercial space and have those in that Courtyard area so um I really I think that's lovely sort of I agree with the note on get a view of how it will look when you're driving down pond because I I I'm I I literally had the two buildings like B and see I really I love this little not on bottom here but sort of like trying seeing how it how it would look I think it would be really nice to be that that everything stack up yeah and I think that that's always something that um that gets asked for um especially when this goes for design Review Committee eventually is for those views from the street so I know they're hard to kind of put in um sometimes at this early stage but as you start working toward them to kind of get the things set up in the computer model that uh that those things are easy to do when when you get there like doing the groundwork now will make it easier then because it will it will come back um this is is is that the path we had talked about um like just making it easier for pedestrian and bikes and I assume that's what that that path is right that kind of gray path yeah that that would be a especially for pedestrian bikes trying to keep them out of the busiest obviously they're going to have to cross some parking but try to keep them out of the busiest um parts of that making Crossing easy it seems to me that it's fairly effective in doing that um so I appreciate that as well is that an area for out out outside seating in the front that's what that that's what the intent is to have outside seating or it will be a developed uh you know open space okay parking was cut back a little bit maybe maybe seting for a rest potential restaurant indoor pocket park in the front that's correct okay I have a couple of I have a couple of we complaints that no one can hear uh I think um uh it would be great if we could uh work in both a restaurant and uh and a cafe into the space that would add a lot of life and vibrancy and uh some outside seating um uh between the the front of building a and in Pawn Street will add energy and and attract people um and and also uh Mike did a great job of having uh parking uh very close to the playground so that it can be easily accessed by um residents and uh uh of the community and and the town as well to zip in and use the playground and um and and have it available to everyone um just a small design when I wear my design hat is when you kind of get to the next level of kind of composing all the three buildings in one elevation my suggestion would be uh one is to find a way to connect this building a and the playground in some way visually because it feels like um it's until you know the area people will not know there's a playground that's like public so connecting that would help and I think visually when you look at it it will look less dense even though each building has less than 100 units it feels like 200 is a lot um I think visually when you get to the next level it may be helpful to see how you can connect the playground a little bit to the front and if there is like a transparency of some way that you can create through um the other one is if it's great that you looking at like a restaurant and an outdoor seating but from service point of view that's tucked in such a corner from getting trucks in and out getting service deliveries you may land up losing lot of the parking spots so you may want to think about it as you're kind of looking at it next if you really think that it's a great spot that it's like tucked in you have seating but again from your practical point of view and as you develop Your Design I think uh paying attention to how it serviced will be important for that to be really successful so um I mean you it's you're still way um this one I think you need to think about it as you're developing this drawing so that you don't lose parking spots for what it is intended right now those are very helpful comments thank you um also that so the James Road you're planning it's almost like a semi emergency not regular use that's awesome for those people it's it's access for the building D yep uh primarily and uh and then emergency access for the rest of the community uh we're going to have speed bumps and uh curb uh uh the curb radi and signage to pull everybody away from uh using uh James Road other than emergency access for those residents probably app that yes if if if I may I had a just a couple of um comments um we do we have a rendering from the street of the original design and we did that rendering to show U how far back Building C was so it's it's something we're prepared to present as we develop we understand showing this you know showing the whole picture instead of static elevations um we we have we're we're ready to do that we were we were actually going to do it for today but we thought we' just get get some feedback um you know now I'll talk I always say architectural gobbly because sometimes we uh talk but the the idea of building a being so formal was it was the first building in the mill development right they had this they were very formal Mill building with the symmetrical entrance and that's where we that's where we started and then the back buildings they got all kinds of money and they went crazy and built these outrageous um you know ornate buildings in the back and and and that's uh that's how the you know Mill buildings have organically developed over the years that was kind of the thought process if you look in this plan in the building a the back the upper left corner we have a turret and that turret was that was actually the the back was going to you know I thought is that that is a much more orate elevation the front is formal symmetrical at the back espe it's that entrance Tower elevator stair for the residents would be you know much more um playful and that was the thought so and that kind of ties in with the rest of the courtyard so that was the thought we could easily look at the front in a different way it was more of you know it's a retail ground floor Strong building and then it got more playful as we got into the back uh but we're you know certainly taking another look at that um but that's what we were thinking you know we sit around our office bangging our heads against the wall yeah I I actually I actually very much appreciate that you do have a story you know that um you know to tell about wish we we use those terms last time like what is the story behind it so I just think the story needs some tweaking because I don't think I'm still not gonna yeah you know I like the story but I'm not sure I like the the product of that that first building so obviously I don't have the AR Tech speak but we but we all kind of said so but I think the story of that is the playfulness of the site like even though you're not overly thrilled with the Wetland it is still like you have that Commercial Street which is kind of busy and you have the commercial building cross but you still like that is kind of a special place and you recognize it by recognizing James with those residents and I think that's the part that that can it's kind of the story there but maybe a tying a in with that and just a techn um just a factual question is is the um the easement is this is that under the street I was wondering where the easement is the easement here oh right there okay yeah okay okay I was kind of saying that on the site plan but it was hard at that scale I say yep so that also puts the buildings kind of where they are located to avoid the easement okay correct yes what is the ement for okay Circle it's a utility eement I'm sorry I didn't know the answer it's I I know it is a Workman Circle Gan way um Captain e Circle to a gun way Perman is ledge Meir 3 ledge Meir condominium 3 so my I guess you know my final comments would be well for one thing really appreciate the effort that You' put in we I I feel like the discussion um that you really listened to what we were saying and went and took that feedback um looked at the images that were sent and really tried to make something with it so we very much appreciate that effort um I would say my the big questions I have right now are about the you know the the Condominiums um versus Apartments number of Apartments I mean OB you know I'm I'm just G I'm just going to like say it that there's a lot of Apartments going in and we're always looking for 25% affordable someone's going to say it we need to say it um even though we have 40 BS coming in we always have to be we're always keeping an eye out for that 25% and um and the other thing is the commercial space I don't know if you had a chance to talk to Beth Reynolds about different kinds of commercial space um if you haven't already I would definitely again have that conversation with her she's she knows Ashlin she can start um you know bringing some ideas to the table as well um and then the final thing for me is to and I'm sure it's already embedded in your thoughts on on the site um but issues of sustainability like how do we um it it'll come up we have a best practices list that probably gets out of date every six months versus you know as things change but that's also something that we should make sure that they they have it's not it's not a bylaw it's things that we just like to see for the for the direction Ashland is going I mean I know I when I moved here 20 years ago some of the things that stood out to me was that they had just started a that was I don't know what it was the farmers market I think was at least in planning at that time I think and um and that there was a Green Building committee like that had just started up so it was still there the town a lot smaller than is today but there were good things happening and um I think those things have only grown and increased and continue to be appreciated in town so we're always looking for um yeah I'm happy I'm happy to share the list you know and I'm I'm sure there stuff embedded in them that they have intentions but we the more information we can get you about what we're looking for in advance that the easier it is to the story easier to tell that's right right so there any other comments from the board too right do you have any other questions for us at this time no other questions we'll um uh we'll think through uh all of those last suggestions and um uh revise uh building a and uh and prepare uh Street uh perspective to share um and uh and love to come back and share those those items with you um very soon I think this is a great process that we have going so yeah that would be that would be great yeah I just want to read it because I think it's super helpful to us and and I think it's proven as well and then it's it sort of keeps things going without being under a deadline and you have to wait and right all of that so it's thank you I I think this the scoping sessions are are uh incredibly efficient for us to um uh work through things uh uh in you in this in this form so we we appreciate it as well right great thanks thank you very much everyone good see okay sounds good what up bumping the microphone yeah okay I'll say I'm getting back together here again but they did okay the state is updating the Charles River Watershed it's update to the up there's new maps for the Charles River all right which is next on our agenda item six discussion of update to flood plane overlay District okay so I don't know if you guys had a chance to plow through the uh the flood plane actually before we kind of well in in keeping with this why don't we look at our schedule um and for these bylaws and thank you Alo for putting this together um it's in the uh kind of right after after accessory dwelling units um in the front of the [Music] agenda so um so we have the two bws which is the flood plane and the Adu and elro put together this uh timeline here um and I think it's this allows for a little bit of wiggle room in it it seems like but um it really has our discussions um so that that the last discussion for us would be our next meeting March 13th and then what is the submit to assistant Town planner Town Town manager Town Council final review what does that entail that's kind of like the same process that we did with the NBTA before it goes to the warrant if there's any comment that um either the assistant Town manager or Town Council has they can review the bylaw that we're providing they give us any sort of comments and then we can make those edits before he actually goes to the warrant um yeah yeah so I I guess the pro the best process will be that after our meeting on March 13 if we were able to have all the comments for us we will have between the 13th to the 17 to like put everything together from the comments from the board and then pass it down to Town Council and um this town manager but like you said Trisha like we can also like move those kind of like times around maybe after this discussion we can send it to Town Council they can take a look at it if they have any revisions they can send it back to us and they so we have that okay yeah okay so I just wanted to keep that calendar in mind um and also at the planning board public hearings I know we like to have two or we required to have two public hearings no no okay we we just map out two right just there's insurance policy right but we we are um it's not required to have two you know I think if we we want to say hey let's move the the the advertisement date back a little bit you know and have another scoping session at the on the front end instead of having two public hearings we could do that right so because once the once they go to the newspaper there's no changes correct so we could have a scoping session before put it in the paper and have one public hearing you know and have them on each side because then you can actually incorporate changes that you hear from the public versus afterward you can't so is a forum is there oh you could do a forum but not the hearing because I don't think there's time to change it once you once it goes to the warrant we can probably a typo but we can't change it so I think the idea would be taking this public hearing and sco to from Front End right right great yeah as as an option you know like I said you these aren't the kind of controversial uh warrant articles but it's it's still something for that same reason we might and not need two public hearings on the back end for these for these things so it's I mean I'd be a fan of that as a practice because it always feels like people do have and we can't change it the only thing is pull it right but this is being proactive and do I think we're going to get a room full no either but it's it's setting a precedent of a process where the public can have an impact versus when they can't I agree and I think um the ads might surprise any any of these sort of state regulations that are coming at youed so would we make maybe um think about taking taking one of the public hearings off and opening up a spot um which would be like the yeah the 13th what between the 13th and the 21st so it would be the 21st that would be a public forum potentially because the March 17th isn't a meeting right uh I gu would be the 20th it would be March 20th Yeah March 20th would that would be the that would be the possible Forum ahead of time Forum before and hearing after which oh no it would be it would be yeah Mar so so the pl board's going to meet on the on in March the pl board meets on the 13th and the 27th the 27th oh okay okay oh right okay 27th yeah and obviously the comp plan typically meets on on the Thursday that Wednesday that that Thursday the 20th um I think if we're doing a forum like a oneoff I know for the forums the NBTA we always did a zoom meeting um we can follow the suit same so you're saying we don't have enough we don't have time to do a forum in in the public I mean we could do one on third March 13th yeah we like a discussion just make sure that we advertise it and like have yeah we can advertise on social media and have a you know into kind of move things on you know right why don't we do that why don't we plan to do that okay and get it out there um and we'll call then we'll see where we want to go from there with the rest of the calendar okay because on the 13th we're going to have we're going to review the decision for 20 P Roosa Road okay and we're going to open up the public hearing for 240 260 Pleasant Street the soccer field which is a so recreational soccer field at on those two vacant Lots um which which is a pretty good project is there any is there anything else in the 13th that you no the the only other thing that we have came in um oh there's an anr that came in that we'll have to review um uh which I've reviewed um and then um the historic commission we can reach out to see if they can if we can move them to because remember we don't have to there's there's nothing we have to do with that right we can do that at any point in in our calendar so we can we can I we can move them or we could we could just give them a a time we could do that or if they're because they're working on like the same calendar but they're not it didn't really seem like they were really open to changing the like actual text of their bylaw so the 27th would be fine right but my what I recall in that whole conversation is that they're looking for support leading into come on the does a vote uh come on the 13th versus March 27th they can do it yeah yeah I guess i' um depends on how if they're looking for feedback or they're just looking or they're not you know and they may not be I think also this is one of these times where you could say let's just you know put some put some time limits on everybody and say Hey you know I think the the the Pleasant Street project 45 minutes minutes you know it should take us maybe 15 minutes to decision um then we can kind of give a half hour to the ccal commission and then leave the rest of the um and we could add time and as long as the board is willing to kind of go by the the time limit set for each project I think that's appropriate okay yeah why if we want to do that or I'm having to reach out to Jim neon with the historical committee and say hey what do you think about coming back on the7 well I I think it would be good to have their take on it like like it makes absolutely no difference to us because this is our bylaw we just want or maybe we want more time to really talk to you about it versus fitting in a slot or know we'd rather have you would rather get some feedback on things in case you guys have changes you know it just you know what what are they looking for exactly from us so that we can make an appropriate okay okay we can do that in time okay so uh okay so that said um going back to the bylaws the um blood plane bylaw I met today with um with Peter and Alro and um Becca because I had been reading through it and I just had to make sure I could kind of um have a better understanding of what was going on so we went through a bunch of I went I had gone through it and said where it was unclear clear to me things that were um difficult to understand where things weren't smooth and did you say Peter that you made changes and that you and Al made changes and put them in is that in the thing already yeah so the bylaw that we put into we took away all the colors just to like make it easier to read um of course everything that is on red and crossed that's what it was on the all uh bylaw and we're not planning on keeping and then everything else is what we love that last time and then there's a couple of lines like for example in I want to say 8.1.3 um two that there's all subdivisions proposals or other development that is underlined that's because we were just making some changes on the language just to make it clearer so all the areas that you see underline are like that okay yeah so really we're just kind of going through and making it read just being organized make it read more smoothly taking out redundant information um and um and I think the biggest uh question we had in that discussion that I had for them was um when we talked about special permits when we talked about use regulations on 3 or sorry 8.1.4 that that use regulation basically said um that any of the following uses and I think this is from our original bylaw with some modifications right that any of the following uses have low the following uses which have low flood potential damage and cause no obstructions to flood flows shall be permitted provided they do not require structures fill or storage of materials and so these these are all kind of the they're like forestry and fishing and conservation and those are things that'll just be allowed because they don't do anything to the flood district and then we go into special permit which is where you want to build something in the flood plane and then what is the process and basically the process is a special permit because you're trying to build in the flood plane so anything that comes to us there also has to go to Conservation Commission um and so what we were trying to do is make sure the things that are in between those two things um say our example was well what if you want to put up a fence in your yard and it's in the flood plane you actually have to go into to the Conservation Commission to put up a fence not because of this but because of conservation so we wanted to make sure that that was um covered and and actually I'm not sure that NOA put in because were we weren't we going to put in something in that first paragraph 8.1.4 something oh we have Wetlands protection weren't we going to actually put in con Conservation Commission as as uh isn't it the reference last time it's the M add the wetlands protction mgl that's the W comma Wetlands protection bylaw action town code chapter two two yeah 280 and so obviously those are two the those two are under the jurisdiction of the conservation okay yep okay so for the special permits I don't know if I have the one we had the state suggestion has they they suggest that you don't have anything by right I I get that contemplating keeping what we had do they have a process for special permit and Is this different from that or does that follow that State's process yeah the state's process um try to that was that little paragraph that yeah it was a little parag my colge sheet yeah so the state's passess said the t uh so okay so we had permits are required for the purpose development in the for proposed development in the overlay overlay excuse me the flood plan overlay District so requires a permit for all proposed construction Andor develop in the flood plan overlay district and I think and including new construction or change of the existing buildings placement of manufactured homes placement of agricultural facilities fences sheds storage facilities Andor drilling mining Paving or any other development that may increase flood or adversity impacts of the flood plane and or other properties so I think what we kind of came down to is all of those would be kind of grabbed by the special permit because they're not within the by rat use right and then also within the flood plane you're going to fall into the jurisdiction of the Conservation Commission and so yeah I mean what my thought was is that I really don't think the planning board wants to spend its time debating about where a fence goes you know and so what would happen is that those things would not fall under special permit by the planning board but they all have to be looked at by conservation so if the if the fence is okay for conservation it's okay with me so the that list of things was just things I just didn't think is where we wanted to go on the planning board when really what we would be doing is well let's see what conservation says but I'm open to other interpretations of that yeah this is just obviously conversation and is that would that be the same situation that it would have to go before and if everything has to go through conservation anyway like that's that's separate from MBTA like any part like if any parcel that is within the flood plane it will follow right back into conservation regardless of it being so it's like a similar rationale it is it is a similar rationale to me I mean to me these two parcels and you know Al also made this nice little diagram to show us where those where that Parcels were um so both of those are um they don't get a free pass they both have to go through conservation but they don't have to have a special permit they have their regular site plan review um under MBTA but they don't need a special permit we don't double down on the special permit from the planning board because okay you know for issues of flood plane to me that's not our expertise let conservation handle it which they would have anyway and we would defer have deferred to them anyway um so to me it was a non-issue and Peter you said that um that you did a training on this and the state was recommending the that you write the exception in okay so there it's like fully yeah they're aware of the tension and are like they're aware of this whole the MBTA right the NBTA bylaws and the biggest effort for the MBT bylaws was to remove special to allow bu right right so if you're if a MBTA Zone was in the NBTA excuse me if your NBTA Zone was crossed with the overlay District that's going to be a and so they're recommending this language corre that's helpful and I think underscore your point yeah well I don't think that's true I think they don't think you should have any byright exemptions that's my recollection from last and so but they're saying if you have an MBT and they pretty much said be careful and if you do they the advise point is to talk to legal counsel and you know in this instance we do have two Parcels one has a 40b proposed and then the second parcel is is I believe it's 1.6 0.7 Acres within the toal par so I guess like that's that's my that's what I'm wondering so in the training are they when they were flagging it they weren't saying like these two things cannot be intended they were saying if you have overlap just write it into yeah the said correct okay and research it and I think what we came up with is that we're M our MBTA is is so specific on acreage using cus as the key piece right of meeting all requirements and having one contiguous area be greater than 50% of the total overall area is you know not to go back and redo that whole process e just to put in exemption what the understanding geographical geographically what is going on here Inland that's probably the best way to kind of solve them that's Town Council I've had discussions with them about but I'm happy to take it to I'm happy to have a further discussion and bring it back F on develop I me it makes sense to me if the answer sort of being like fed To Us by the state like understanding that these things could be conflict yeah it but I guess I think Kate raised the point last meeting like blood plan's there you know they don't want you to build the we encouraging and we're sort of like in this but we also can't have a special permit required the MBT is owning and like they sort of we in this difficult situation because the NBTA had to come before this and now it's like what you know what do you do and I we can't be the only Town that's in the situation no I would feel better if Town Council like gave blessing as on I think it the rational makes perfect sense to like that it's conservation F house yeah obviously we're going to have to have Town Council look at it and you know and you've already had discussions with her that's just a normal part of the process right but my question is like well what's the alternative right you're going to read do our MBTA zoning before this like right that that right it's already in there those zones are already in there it's already being reviewed by the state and it already was sensitive land we knew that it's part of the equation it's not like it oh surprise it's a flood zone it's already been in there like from day one so but I mean that might have been a mistake like let's face it that I don't I did not know that when that was presented no one said that hey this six acre parcel is sens of land and I'm not sure the public that so the people doing that knew that and that's fine but like I I just I mean I'm going to be honest I cannot support anything that the state gives you we we don't want to build here and then we're just saying it's okay and I get that there's other conservation but I I will not support that I think I mean I think I think it's a little my perspective is I think the state might be saying conflicting things to like we do want you to build here right because they do want building within yes certain radius from train stations and I mean the the train line into Boston follows the river right like we can't be the only community in this situation so there I think that there might be two messages right on on the whole we don't want you building the flood plane but also build new train stations which we again we can't be the only community that has the overlap I I think it's just a an acknowledgement that there's a million gray situations right things aren't black and white there's a million situations like yes these are in the flood plane you know what they're both parking lots right now right and it's not going to change no one's putting that back to be a a park right so um so it's a little bit being to me it's being kind of realistic about it as well so I I but we what's the alternative like what is the alternative 1060 is a it's not just the parking lot it's that's the entire site commercial building commercial building yeah that's businesses you're talking about a building built in the 18 1840s I guess my right so it it that's been built correct right so that that would that's a question of a replacement so I I think all of us to say like k i my initial reaction last week or last meeting was like oh like this feels like it's a major tension with but then it does also feel like we're being given conflicting directives and I think to your point Trisha and the state has approved the housing for that site right right so there's a third a third party think that's what I wanted to clarify with Peter like obviously like the issues being flagged this is the solution that sounds like is being presented so if our Town Council says like this I can the exception is good I feel like that's good enough so for me though I mean bylaws should means something right and so it is about principle when you sort of say well it's it doesn't really matter because something's going be built there and they said housing and I and I just don't agree with that way of looking at then what is what is your proposed alternative so that we can weigh out with the proposed alter we would have to look at at m at MBTA zoning what at changing the MBTA zoning that I guess we would have to I mean that that would be probably the The Prudent thing to do I'm not I would have never put it all in sensitive land myself I really didn't know that I mean I wish that was flagged well it's just that the it's on sensitive land and MBTA allows it to be there right it's not that it was a secret you can count yeah you can count it it's allowed and I think like in a lot of the presentations there was the 3D frame maps that show the sensitive land the excluded land and the density denominator which was the actual one that will take away density for it so there was not really a secret there were three Maps there in every presentation that show exactly the specific areas maybe we were not as great at doing the point of like following up and pointing out in every single one but there was three maps in every single presentation that were showing that and I think that if the state really didn't want any sort of building in there they would have made it in the model so you will not count any of that land like they did for the density denominator which I s strength yeah it it to me just feels not supportive of the intent of the flood plane rules at all I think um well so we'll have the Forum on it and then we'll have to take a a vote on which way to proceed you know with it I think if we have it in there that we're negating our own MBTA bylaw right so we'd have to figure that out with the state um but my thing is we put it in there for the state let the state the the state is giving us three different things you know that to to deal with let the state decide if we're handling it okay why should one thing get precedence over the other things that are important because that's exactly envirment should get precedent over when the MBTA um packages reviewed they would pay attention to each of those parcels and the features in those Parcels so the fact that this is a sensitive land would show up in some shape or form for the review it's in the spreadsheet and I wonder if we also have like a backup information just for our own Clarity what does that sensitive land really how do you define that and if there are again categories which is why this is passing when assuming that ndta package is getting asked without questions maybe it's passing under like bylaw like you said always has the interpretation is one thing and then there's always those sublines that probably we need to look at I wonder if there is a language of what that sensitive land means um and if there is a category that this Falls in in between two categories that then that's why it may pass um it may be a homework just for us may not something that we want to big up but I'm guessing MBTA package is getting reviewed they should catch it of us trying to I mean to Al's point you they had the formula and like you wouldn't we wouldn't if they had wanted us if they had wanted you to not used that land they would have excluded it right so I think to Trisha's point we are being dealt a hand where things are in conflict with one another we aren't I understand we might have each our personal way of ranking them and and um and saying which thing is more important I think for me when I look at a situation where you have regulations or rules that might be interpreted as in conflict with with one another like that's where I'm saying like do we have an opinion of our Council Council okay to be able to say for us to help us say okay we have things that are intention how what is our Council opinion on how they rank and I think that would make me feel better to come to this conclusion because I think this conclusion is reasonable I think I just want the backing of legal counsel to say listen yeah in a situation where we are dealing with you know regulations that are in one another and directives from the state that are in tension with one another you know are we in the clear to use this solution but but the MBTA they didn't tell us to put it there that's self-induced conflict right the flood plane we do not control that's a federal government and issued and expanded so that conflict was self-created by Ashley so I understand what you're saying but but you act like we didn't control it but the state's also controlling it because they had to review the proposal they created the formulas and the whole what you could use and what you couldn't use and so I guess what we're dealing with is um you know a mandate from the state on MBTA a mandate from the state on blood plane regulation so and then when they're conflict with one another what do you do yeah that's where I'm looking for like if we have blessing of Town Council to write the exception in and they think that that's a reasonable and legal way to deal with that tension I would feel a whole lot better about having it in there because I don't want to have to revisit MBTA but I share some of those concerns and I feel better having our legal council say to us this is a reasonable way to resolve it and push it I think it I mean you've already discussed it with Lisa I'm happy to but if if if if you want me to again no totally let's will let's me that's what comes out to I think I'm not goingon to and she I mean I guess like when you talk to her about it she felt yeah yeah you know it's you know this was a solution that was feasible guys and uh when I talk to Lisa on Wednesday I'll see if I can get her opinion and want email I think okay that kind of go from there I think it's a discussion yeah uh and and it's things are in Conflict things are always in Conflict right you're never going to have everything line up together um but if it's one state department saying one thing and it's another state department saying the other thing exactly what we have this stuff that like I also feel a little bit like you know it were at the crash roads yeah from a at a local level and that's what it comes out to and you also Anna would be saying the same thing well you know have to understand that that the special permit it just says no structure or building can be put in these areas without a special permit we can decide to put something in that area with the special permit I'm not saying we should I have the same principles but we're but we're balancing out complex things and it's not black and white yeah you wish everything was just perfect but it's not right you know so to your point it's the whole by right issue with the end that's that's sort of where the MBT zoning puts you in a pickle right because yes you we could under a special permit approve a building there right it's just that that's the hurdle that can't be there because of MBTA zoning and that's what's been created but it still has to go through conservation of course yes and so I I completely understand that rationale I guess I just wanted to know that you know this is not my area of legal expertise so I as a lawyer I'm inclined to when things are intention with each other have the blessing of lawyer who it is their area of like we this is a reasonable that's fine solution I hear I hear the situation whatever happens in the site right in mind you it's a site where the owners petitioned us to incre to to to bring MBTA zoning to them right and and whatever goes on this site right is going to have to go through site plan approval through the planning board process it's going to trigger storm water review that goes through the Conservation Commission and anything in the flood plane would have to go through the Conservation Commission so it's not like you're just going to say willy-nilly go out there and build build whatever you want right um however I do understand your your your concerns and and I'll talk to Lisa me Town Council and uh and bring back uh to the board her opinion I'm sorry I don't want to be person do that because I think it's a reasonable I will hold it got you okay so what is is there any other the only other the other thing in here which I think um Peter mentioned last time is the requirement for recreational vehicles to be that are placed on a site to be elevated and anchored in AC I don't know what elevated means but elevated and anchored in accordance with the zones regulations for a foundation and elevation requirements um so basically anyone with a camper W Wago I always said Wago Wago yeah and I'm not sure what Elation requirements like do they need to build a plinth to put this thing on or um I'm not sure what that I think just call Mike Kane and you go to 126 storage uh if I had to win a Bago and I live in a know I think that's my solution but uh yeah I think the biggest thing is they don't want these rolling down the river I think there's a song about um yeah so they Define recreational vehicle and they don't say anything about what that elevations yes that state on that what like we we should we shouldn't write something less clear we should try to be clear if we don't if we're saying right we don't understand we try clear that up FL it can we find out what elevated and anchored means elevated anchor yep I can yeah elevated how much I'm thinking I'm think 2 by4 and then yeah well I'm thinking like at the cape where you have to put the first floor of a house 8T in the air is that where your you know Hydraulics yeah exactly so it's out of the flood zone I mean likely it's not going to come up but we that would be nice if we could have that clar well because it is something that you could get people here that say hey I have that yeah you know um so uh so I guess the um the process would be then to get information on that to get information from Lisa on the MBTA to take out all the extra text in here so now that we're not showing what is there now we're just showing a clean bylaw would be my preference and then to have that for the um for the Forum next at our next meeting if that's what we're going to do right so that the so that it's very clear what we're what we're doing we can have copies that show the original bylaw but I think it gets very confusing when you're seeing both at one time and things crossed out and it just wants to be one clean bylaw is it uh how hard is it to create like the things that we pulled out of ashin like some instead of just showing them all like there's a few changes right there's not a lot I mean we can we can have the two copies of the two bylaws here's what we have now and here's what we're proposing but I think it's about to me it's about taking the old and oh yeah no it's time to get get rid of the whole thing and here's the fresh that makes it more confusing but people are going if people come to the Forum and ask they're going to want to see what what being replaced I think well I think we can have two handouts right new and old you know clearly labeled New or Old existing proposed or something like that you know and then we can kind of go through how they're different obviously like all these definitions are different you know kind of like big section that wasn't there before and um does that sound like an okay process does anyone have anything else they want to talk about with it okay that case um we don't need to make a motion or anything we'll just we'll just uh get that information and we'll get the clean copies ready so that we can look at them as well get it all nice and edited so we're putting our best foot forward in two weeks and then we'll can get comments from the public all right so then the other one is accessory dwelling unit um so you'll see next in the agenda right before the calendar is I just went through this today um kind of editing and Anna's not here to she was kind of working on this stuff too but I went through the bylaw that Peter put together after combining several and talking to Lisa but I went through it with my first pass at a fine tooth comb trying to make it clear trying to make it um you know the same ter that we're using the same terminology all the time um and this um kind know one and a half page thing is where I ended up so the first part of it is just obviously purpose um and the purpose obviously is to increase the number of rental units the number of affordable rental units and the diversity of housing options um obviously can add things to that but I was trying to keep it really clear the Gen General requirements Adu shall only be permitted in a zoning districts that allows by right single family residential that's that's the Massachusetts um law Adu is only allowed as an accessory to a single family dwelling so for instance you can't put an access accessory unit where you have your uh like someone has their business right or some or or an empty piece of land you can't just put on an Adu you're putting on a house then not an Adu right an Adu is without is allowed within attached to or detached from a single family dwelling um no more than one Adu shall be permitted for each principal dwelling unit and with a single family residential you can only have one dwelling you on it right correct the Adu and the principal dwelling unit shall remain on the same lot and not be divided into two separate Lots so there's no oh now I can subdivide my lot and have two properties um an Adu may not be utilized as a short-term rental as defined and Peter had a note on this that yeah just kind of to look at just kind of look at other bylaws uh I found one and then this is kind of a propo not a proposed but just going to read it is that says short-term rentals as defined obviously um are prohibited in both the accessory and principal dwelling so in that case you're saying okay there's no short-term rental in the in the in the Adu which is new and also there's no short-term rental in the in the principal structure on the lot now the question is would you like to add that verbage to our bylaw as proposed I think yes because otherwise this is the same thing you can move into your Adu and rent out your house right same same issue agree so it's a little okay so if the if the if the goal is to provide housing not Hotel then let's provide housing is my opinion on it I agree with that um and then um Peter also had a thought about putting in something that just saying it can't be condo ised like you can't take the correct so I've seen a couple one of the things that keeps coming up in conversations is can you condo eyes right and I think that's also still taken away from the intent right of the Adu bylaw and so I've seen some Town saying not condom and so again just in very similar to that is how do you you cannot separate you can't separate into two different Lots we're also saying you can't condo eyes it and have two different ownership creat away in in my eyes I think it's I personally from my my opinion which I will share without anybody asking I think it's good to add to the to the bylaw um and and if it's not legal then let the state cross it right go through that process but I think not adding it is uh kind of adding it kind of at least closes that door without having to open up that game so kind of along that s or there I I can't swear and Ashlin there are two houses on one lot but they commonly exists so that could mean two houses two adus unless we change that can come again sometimes there are two houses on one lot it's very it's very very um few and far between right yeah but the way that is you could have each one could have an ad I'm not saying that's wrong but we should make sure what number is this uh 7.6.2 okay so it maybe should more than one Adu shall be permitted for each principal dwelling unit so I think it's saying if there's two principal dwelling units in a single lot they could each Campa the way it's written slot and or lot yeah and no more than one per lot you could say so whether you're going by the lot or by the number of dwelling units you still just get one okay at least at the present time let's get a you know control of this thing before we expand it there are situations that there are two houses on the lot yeah those situations typically occur when both houses are there for pre-existing nonconforming and they're built prior to to right to zoning and the only way to split that is known as the 81l and that is when take that lot that you can actually split that lot without either a lot being conforming either lot being conforming kind of like weird nuances within right so let's add that in which then they could have two that would be fine they have a way to make each principal structure but we're not even saying that's yeah no no that that's a far-fetched but I think the intent is we're trying to make it as easy as possible to do one right and the next section obviously is exterior appearance and size there's some things I think like said Peter had gathered things from other Adu bylaws there's some things I'm not sure about the accessory dwelling unit shall be designed to maintain the appearance and essential character of a one family dwelling I guess I guess that makes sense um what I'm not wanting to do as I think I talked about before is put a design Sense on it like oh the existing house is so wonderful that we have to match it well it isn't always right so I don't want to really have that um other things that we you know we just talked about the set that um number one is obviously the state law um the number two is something we agreed that hey it has to be within the site the setbacks done right um and other things like I said are things that Peter had had found like about the front entrance um should we be able to tell the front entrance from um front entrance of the primary dwelling from the front entrance of the Adu um number four is about staircases which I think makes sense like yep you might need an an open egress s in the back but do we really want open egress stairs like porch pressure treated railings in the front of a property you know probably not if we can help it um detached Adu needs to provide for and I'm sure this was be under the building code anyway but they have to provide that that that just common sense right for five number five I think it has to have like that's just yeah building codes that's building yeah yeah so that can come out um and I wasn't sure about number six either exterior a well I guess six kind of goes with five exterior access AIS ways uh the intent of this okay exter ACC space shall not be detached detract excuse me detract from the single family uh appearance of the dwelling I think this is where it kind of comes on you know you you start allowing you know stairways on the exter that are visible from the I mean am I imagining like this the essential character of a one family dwelling and this one both seems to be like you see some stuff on line with the but there's there's like or like a hobbit house like these like do you know what I mean like these Niche yeah yeah designs that are it doesn't look like a home right I think that but that to me means like nothing on the outside is should make it look like it's not a house yeah is that different I think it I think it seems it does seem different than five and the over6 yeah well I don't love the overarching I I like the intent but I feel like it is getting design and it's so subjective and I you know when things are subjective they don't somebody's disappointed so um I think we should try to clean that up and maybe we just say that like maybe just say it's an intent but people get to do what the the byright is that if it meets building code it has to be yeah and I don't want to give why put more on the commissioner say does this meet the intent too doesn't make sense I think it's iffy in that way too um yeah weedy do that the weeds weedy I like it we use that a lot now B um yeah I I don't know we really need that I mean we have above it's the intent to maintain the single family character of the neighborhood containing adus yeah um yeah so that's good enough that just means it's an intent and it still doesn't matter as long as it building so yeah so no four and five oh I think four I think four is okay that's about the stairways do we want to put that condition what are we gaining by saying enclose the stairway yeah I don't all stairways shall be enclosed it could be a design feature it could be well it's true the thing is like okay when you when Adu um happens within an existing building right right you can carve out the third floor of your house that would be an an Adu you have to have two means of eress from that I mean that has to happen by fall we have to specify that no that's building code that's build yeah that's right but do you want um do you want a a a pressure treated um egress stair coming out of a third floor window of a house and going down the front of the house to the driveway that's what it's trying to control a little bit like the haphazardness like if you do it you got to kind of be careful about how you do it right it would meet code it meets code they put the fire escape stairs are you refering to that yeah well not a fire escape but like a yeah and a second means of ESS stairs could be or just like decking yeah like pressure treated wood like down the front I mean there's some in there's some in down to Ashland that do that right not down the front of the house but you see them on the side so you know because there's probably an apartment up there and that's your second mean to vigas so those are the types of things I wonder you know um I don't know I mean that still has your um yes materiality for that ER is different but it still has to follow the other Heights and widths as a neeger if that's is your second means of regress but for 900 square feet I don't know if you need to I think you do in fact that's yeah in fact I've talked to Doug about it before this even about regular adus and he said one of the distinguishing features of an Adu is that is a separate dwelling unit and has two means of egress as a okay so um so unless that's changed in his mind versus something else I think it is a distinguishing feature okay where're time yeah something like that but but do we I mean the whole thing is by right so I think these are skirting go to the Building Commissioner apply for yeah it may need to go through I'm I'm just raising it as a question right I don't know I think we are allowed to put some kind of controls on this but I'm not sure so it would have to be a question for Lisa and it would be a question for you know maybe Doug as well but um but I but I get it if we can't do it we can't do it I'm just raising the question that this is why some somebody else put this in their bylaws to prevent this type of situation that's all I'm saying Bea is and the beholder I'm not saying it isn't I explained why I put it out there so Mill building and a metal stairs works perfect but um I'm just going to share my screen real quick cuz I know that I I know an example from from from I just showed it to Trisha uh but you can see the screen here you know front of the house talking about big pressure treated stairway coming went off of the third so but but we started this saying we weren't going to have design requirements and that's what this is like I I just I feel like we're better off sticking building I think some suggestions of what aren't bad but like the building code is the code and it's very clear and then the directions are clear I get it I'm not sure we can even do it I'm just I am raising the question and I think there I think things like that are not the intent of what we hope to provide with these adus right so but that's that's looking at what some of the results might be and that we should think about that so if that's okay if you're like go for it then that's one thing if there's if it's possible for us to write something in to mediate it and again it might be a question for Lisa to see if it's even possible what's then then we might we want might want to think about it my question would be if there was a scenario where it is an open staircase would the square footage be more than 900 square fet and if it is enclosed with the square fet in the stairs within 900 no it counts again this is all through an egress there it's probably not this is all just through my experience with the zoning board of appeals and with Doug and going through an Adu that the Adu is is the locked door the locked door that separates you from the so if the door is at the bottom of the stair then yeah maybe if your if your door where you put your key in is at the bottom of the stair then yeah that that stair probably is your unit it's a private and no one else can get to it right but where does someone knock on your door where does where does Amazon come to that's your unit so should we Define that when we are talking about the 9 00 sare ft because now that raises a question to me right for me if I need that 900 square fet and the staircase is creating that open staircase allows me to create that additional area then I probably don't want it to be an open staircase right so if I'm saying from design point of view 900 that we have here is the usable area no it's excluding the erress you don't need it for that because again it's where you can have an enclosed stair without your front door at the bottom right Amazon would come up the stairs the enclosed stairs it's provided it's Sheltering you from the weather right for other floors snow can't get in there right so would that be like a staircase that's accessible for the other floors as well it has to be where it has to be where the like the two units are separate it's like a vegetable with stair could be a v that anyone can enter right like the the door into that area isn't locked M and then there's stairs inside and then eventually you come to a locked door but your unit yeah with your it's about the privacy of your unit and that what you when you lock out other people to your unit that's the 900 square ft so it doesn't include little vestibules in between between you know or any you know anything like that so I certainly don't want to do anything that defeats the purpose of the bu of sort of the initiative to have a place but I'm I'm sort of on the other end of the spectrum I think where I find to appreciate the things that are keeping some guard rails in terms of what the results looks like like I'm I'm good with the exposed with four and I'm good with the and if it's not permissible I'm good with the state Ora telling us that it's not permissible I don't think we have to make any decisions here I'd like Anna to weigh in um I like the public to weigh in but this is just so that okay we have a discussion going let's ask Lisa if she's going to be like oop no then great we don't need to discuss it anymore she knows it's not going to pass pass if she's like yep these things have been passing in other communities you have a right to put some def definition on it we can have a further discussion about it should we then add just exclusive that line which talks about exclusive of any garage shed should we say exclusive of St but not uh but it sounds like the building code's already clear on that it is I I think I don't think this is a if Doug is like very clear that it's locked door on then I feel like the building code addresses that and I I kind of feel like if we put like shoulds or we would like like that's where we've tried to avoid doing those things in the past because it's gray area and it's not actually enforcable it's like not yeah real and so my my personal preference is that like these things make sense it doesn't seem like it's going to be any of these things is going to prevent somebody from being able to build an U on their property yeah I mean things like the EEG they I mean I like I I've done edus in Ashland you know it doesn't count that stuff doesn't count in the same way that you can like it doesn't even count necessarily in towns um strict like Newton you know you your stairs doesn't count you have to get out of your house it doesn't count towards square footage it can go in the setback line like they just don't count for those type of things okay if it's clear that's and in the grand SCH like there's there are lots of other things that are going to prep up the cost anyone septic Sy but in a whole other like ceg situation right like that's a good point the way 7631 is written so you can interpret it you're it can't be more than 50% of the area of the house or 900 square feet and but you you can technically I think interpret it with it's 900 square F feet but I had a garage and a shed on my ad the second part of that exclusive because that's what Depot was asking about do we have to Define also the stairway so that sentence is that from the state law the way that's written I think that's from the state is that from is that the number one from the state law but what it's saying is that um and maybe I I'm only reading it here is that um when you count the square feet yeah you're not you're counting the dwelling unit you're not counting anything accessory and the same when you're trying to do the the what how big is the principal dwelling so I can take 50% of it you're not counting the garage or the stairs or the porch or you're counting the living space do we so is there a cross versus usable versus Net area or something that's how the square footages are typically defined because that when you do you have net or usable that's when all these kind of get taken off and that's a much more clear C language typically so I'm curious we can see if there's a definition something if there's a language word that's missing here yeah we can look and see if they're if they're spelling out a definition for floor area or usable floor area whatever um livable space or what however they want we can look for if that definition is in there somewhere from the state I think the state law is very similar but it might be a little bit maybe not maybe that's exact you talking about the definition of an edu a self-contained housing unit exclusive of sleeping cooking and sanitary facilities on the same lot as a principal D is not okay is no larger than gross Flor area of a half the grocy area or principal dwelling or 900 sare F feet whichever it's small so say they said Gross floor area correct so that's important so that you that's that's to the exterior walls which is what we typically measure yeah so so adding that is important because that's very different than saying floor area yeah so we'll make sure that that and the definition you know was in there and then that exclusive of garage shedu does that have to be there or is that the square footage does not include I mean it it possibly can be out if we have a definition of gross floor area because that gross floor area would not include the garage and that kind of stuff so if we put gross floor area we take out garage yes you should be a you should be able to take out that whole thing but but we'll need to make sure we have the glose gross floor area and have it defined in our definitions defition yeah the way we want the way the state defines it sorry are we missing 7.6.5 correct I know one element just to to be clear I was able to touch base with a DPW and I think in my last reiteration it talked about having a meter on the water on the incoming and a a meter on the sewer obviously you cannot meter sewer yeah the sewer is obviously estimated off of um so we just kind of clarified that with Dan M DPW this is a so why did we the question is why do they want a separate water me from the principal delling like why is that required for billion purposes but but that should be up to the person who's running the Adu not the town like are you having a second I don't because I can take a I can take a part of my house and make it an ad I I think right that that's what we're saying okay I'm going to put that ugly staircase out front that you don't want right and and why would I have to get a separate water for that and a separate meter I mean there are simple ways to make an Adu and there's complicated way right so I just don't understand why that's a requirement I'm not saying that people might not want it as an Adu and I let the people take all the showers they want and pay their own bill but I don't know why it's requirement I can follow up yeah and actually the state does provide definition of gross floor area but it is the interior faces of the exterior walls Center so if they had doesn't say anything about glazing but so no that's probably the commercial interior faces of exterior walls or from the central line of wall separating buildings or dwelling units but excluding CW spaces garage parking spaces attics enclosed porches and similar spaces so so there's our definition simp gross flare area right and we have to add that and we'll add the definition and they also have a um oh it's also says where there are multiple principal dwellings on the lot the gross floor area of the largest principal dwelling shall be used for determining the maximum size of a protected us Adu I've got that covered so the like stuff like that we don't have to that's don't have to repeat it in our bylaw well there's a whole list of definitions here but I we might want to pick out a few of them and have that updated definition as our bylaw definition right so um yeah there's a lot of these you know that it also has fairy terminal I don't think we need that in ours so no no do you think no fairy terminals not not here in Ashley so yeah not too much Coastline okay I wonder to your question what happens how do every level has a different water meter Tech no they don't that's what I'm saying I don't know why we're insisting on that I mean I two family had one I'm going to start to stop the conversation I'm going to follow up with DPW and come back next yeah I'm guessing the intent is if it's two separate units versus in the same building we want to just clarify I'll clarify I have no preference he parking we talked about last time I think we had kind of decided on the half mile that half mile is by how the crow FR flies and it's not how you walk which is never the crow flies um that sentence on location and appearance of driveway I mean I get yeah do we need driveways look terrible anyway so what's that that last sentence on seven six six yeah so as long as they're following the general the driveway bylaw and they're following the driveway they're doing the same thing that a single family house could do because they're following the driveway bylaw yeah and and with that just the back story there is in our bylaws we require 5T between the driveway and the property line so a lot of places Ash that people pay up to the property line but it's in the bylaw that's should be 5T there so someone tries to extend their driveways that yes there 5et but you have you do have number seven driveways shall be designed in conformance to section 6.3 of Ashen zoning which which that which I'm calling out okay y yeah that's a yeah that makes sense obviously this isn't a common driveway as a special permit required when you theoretically which was do have a special perer right and that's come through a subdivision process theoretically wave right through a paperwork right and so we're not going that that's that's a different application y so I just kind of want to call that this is not a common uh requirement which is a special on the 7 if I I just get it's supposed to be just a building per by right to have this separate permit you know what I mean like it just makes a layer that the whole thing sure it does kind of but it might it might be able to be very uh much simplified I mean it's just building code at this point like that's the whole point of I think two and three are I think three is addressed by two comes out I agree three comes out but I would keep one two and four and I think one just kind of makes it clear who is the where does the application go for you it's not hurting anymore um but is there a separate application like I don't understand I thought it was a building permit but it's going to be Ed it's going to be Adu accessory D you building permit so it's going to be a building permit and what you're applying for is it yeah so is is a different process you have to have the you have to know the square footage of the existing house you have to have 50% of that you have to know what that so it is so it has what this is such shall be conducted currently as part of the bill application implying that there's some other process that's what I'm I could take out we could take out that second sentence yeah I mean I think it's important to know who the who it is like you're not going to the zoning board of appeals anymore you're just going to the building commission so um yeah so he is just reviewing building permit so we can you know take that out but is reviewing it in a different way than a single family home because it's different the or what I mean can you impose conditions on a build can like like to and you have I mean your condition is it has to be built to what you submitted and has to be I I guess I'm sticking to the are these different than we do with a single family home I have never that where you reading this 7674 yeah I think I probably just I I probably took that from a sample bylaw yeah we probably don't need it you know I would say any condition I would say any condition of the law is not fulfilled it's not a condition impo any conditions posed but yeah I'll look into that for but I don't I think the biggest thing is if mean I think that's also you know what is the situation if say edu comes in right and then somebody does start using ter and somebody Flags it on Zillow or on whatever and yeah we do have the ability to enforce it it's almost come to enforcement but cance through other measures but you know I think that's what it's trying to kind of clarify is if you're not following the rules and regulations of State bylaw in this bylaw you will be stripped of right enforcement almost like an enforcement and but I can see taking it out I don't think we have to have it in there there's other enforcement measures um in our regulations and from of building Commissioners a building commission's perview so I'm neither here nor I think that's probably the that's the intent of what I was trying to in include within that's an important point I mean I think we I think we should 10 to 10 here so I'm not sure I can think completely yeah clearly about it but um but yeah it's it's about you know um making sure you know how do we make sure that the regulations we're setting forth are followed one is the building permit process obviously but then what about after that so and then the first guidelines they do talk about okay State information we have to and other Adu bylaws you prior to this like okay they rented to a family checked in but I think in this case it's almost saying okay it can be R they're not following I think that's where that word come from revoked Upon A determination that these regul because there is times are not following right we know that everyone that I think it's just a little bit of an enforcement action bylaw that you put in that again doesn't doesn't change can you or can put ad you in your house just saying and you're clarifying hey if you're not doing this there is a penalty that come through the and it can come through the zoning zoning but that can be changed that language can changed and it can be removed but I think that's the intent all right well I think we got it down more and more and more clear which is great so um and we have some things yet to be discussed which is fine so we'll do another iteration of it and then but we'll plan to discuss both of these bylaws on March 13th have a form at that time and then see if we can tweak it to our final and once we go through and um just have a clean copy of it we'll have Lisa look at it too so that we already know the answers to those questions before the 13th all right is there anything else on that uh no comments I think it's close yeah I think it's close all right site plan oh site plan review timeline uh we still need to you know what I haven't I was out last week and this week's been pretty busy catching up so I haven't even chance I I looked at it I know what I need to do um and that can be kind of brought forth at the next yes so we have I mean that's a really simple thing right we're just changing a date so I've already so why don't we why don't we put it the same form as the rest of them no like it's it's one L that also needs um public hearing right so that's why I'm saying well we have the for with the rest of them yeah I think because it's about it's just about changing a number right yeah it comes out to section 9.4.3 procedures site plan review and design review and that comes under three and it says the planning board May hold a fact finding public information meeting I don't want to change that the public hear because we hold public hearing we do not hold fact finding right um information within and it says 30 days I'm going to say 65 days match it up with special plan which and the regulations and then really from there on out that's pretty much so that's one that we can have like as opposed to these two bylaws which are new I'm going to take this I'm GNA strike this che check and it's G to be right done 100% because C plan review you know we talked about this right C plan review need it just lives in it's not in but any site plan review we have a public hearing we notify a Butters as Che section 4A reir the process the best practice we just want the process to go in tandem correct yeah okay well I think the best argument to the public is sometimes they're both and that's just worse and like yeah for so we're taking yeah I think that I don't think anyone will have a problem with it either but yeah for yeah okay so we'll do a simple one like that and we'll keep it we'll keep it with all the other bylaws that we're going to have all the stuff at the same time um and this project after planning board approval has to wait because I'm too tired to get into it someone else wants to take the mic and you can lead yeah do it tonight okay um anything on that list that has to be discussed before we do meeting minutes just the the one new project just want to mention um we have an anr plan for 11 Franklin Road um and that is a plan that will be circulated um that is the Hicks property behind the Valentine okay uh there is a um there was a um deed restriction that was purchased by the town in stating that there could be only eight dots carved out of that parcel this will be the first lot of those oh okay so I have all that requirement that documentation I uh and his wife last night when they dropped off that plan and then the only other news for new projects is the application for 61 Waverly Street 40b was dropped off to our office last Tuesday and so that process is going to start rolling with the z um that's the information I all right thank you I saw Marcelo I he was at the meeting but he left early is that was at yeah oh okay correct you think it was was weren too many I don't think there was any emotions because we all we did was talked about there's no motions with the as historical preservation and discussion correct yeah I don't think I can do a search all try to find it right does anyone still need more time all right any want to make the motion make a motion to accept the minutes February 13th meeting as presented and a roll call vote gu Amanda and and I so those are approved and anyone have anything else our next meeting is obviously March 13th than that we're at the end of our list all right then I will make a motion to re uh adjourn at exactly 10 o'clock is there a second a roll call vote cath Jers gu and Trisha Kendall I so we good right thank you wacka thank you Paul e e for

[Music] he [Music] he [Music] it's [Music] today's game is brought to you in park by Marathon Deli Marathon Deli offers a full range of lunch and dinner items for dining or catering fine P Cuts cheeses and meats also available in addition to Specialty wraps such as the Mayflower wrap as well as the honey be wrap they'll be sure to get your mouth watering serving Metro West for over 24 years give them a call at 508 2311 1859 or find them on the web at Marathon deli.com tonight's game is brought to you in part by townhouse pizza subs roast beef and more be sure to fill up with a buffalo chicken cow Zone that's been called one of the best in the [Music] area located at 300 Elliot Street in Ashlin give them a call at 508 881 3010 or find them on the web at townhouse pizz roast.com [Applause] watch [Music] for [Music] B [Music] it's F Pur to hour [Music] for [Music] e [Music] for you basetball [Music] [Applause] tonight you are about to Beed by some of the greatest basketball players that ever walk through the of the school this evening I hope that you will cheer loudly you will have fun and you will stay safe and understand parents our students should not be walking around the high school hallways we are here to watch the basketball game at this time I want [Music] to support our students our teachers our staff and our commun now if you are willing and able I would ask that you please rise as Nation High School presid Rachel [Music] at [Music] the [Music] the [Music] [Applause] St MERS good evening everyone welcome to a special waa Sports presentation it's the annual clockwood Classic basketball game featuring faculty from ashin high school and the mes School matching up against ashin middle school and the Warren school but we're going to send it Courtside to our PA announcer Michael KY as he introduces tonight's [Applause] [Music] lineups yes sweet [Applause] [Music] [Applause] e 2 one [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Le school we [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] have sweet [Applause] [Music] [Applause] war team [Applause] and representated [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] m [Applause] [Music] [Applause] in the middle [Applause] time [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Co [Applause] rightful support students okay again everyone welcome and good evening this is a waca special Sports presentation the annual clocker Classic basketball game featuring faculty from Ashlin high school and the mes School matching up against the Ashlin middle school and the Warren school I'm Josh Abrams joined Courtside once again by Brian s and Brian last year's clocker classic set ATT tenants and energy records what can we expect to see tonight so I'm expecting the exact same thing maybe a little bit more energy you know we're at a 20 minutes after you know 6 o'clock this place is packed again I love it and sorry I thought the ref is talking to us you know I have every emotion going on right now I feel like this is like a inside out part three right here excitement I'm nervous for you for this Dad joke because we've been building up whatever joke you have in in mind but just it's great and I'll just talk about real quick Mr Kyra if he wasn't a superintendent this would be his Dream Drop is to be the PA announcer he reminded me of the greatest basketball team of all time the Chicago balls and the way he all he needs is music the lights out but when he introduced Mr Powers as the man in the middle that's my team from the 90s so great job Mr Kyra and uh great job from The Freshman was it Rachel doing the national anthem yeah love it freshman so I'm excited man okay getting ready for tip off in tonight's game presented by the Ashlin PTO we'll talk more about them throughout the game so really appreciate them putting this all together tonight we are underway as the high school and Mendes in blue the middle school and Warren in red blue with the winning tip over to Walker feeding inside to Johnston just off the mark She's a thousand Point scorer for the clockers in her High School career here comes the red team yep I think last year M Johnson had at least 10 points first three-pointer was off by uh M over there off to the right went right into the stands yeah you know if you're if you're here live you got to be on your on your game because balls are flying and the fans are all over the place absolutely you know what I'm really excited about is we have a huge presence here a huge presence online as well on YouTube so my understanding last year there were over 2,000 hits the game eff here's turnover red on the Breakaway dako hands it off shot is wide rebound gathered by Red Tessier has it trying to drive right kicks it back out to Horton feeding inside miscommunication there track down still held by red dnco with the ball drives in goes for the layup off the glass and it's good wow I was going to say I wonder how many fouls I don't think there'll be a lot of fouls and good thing I didn't say that cuz we had our first foul and one that's a little different than the varsity gam just one ref tonight it's going to be handling all the action no actually we have two refs we do one over there as well yeah missed him okay I stand corrected yeah it won't be my first it won't be my last mistake of the night that's for sure so that was uh Chloe dako correct yes and one misses the first free throw that's okay okay couldn't complete the three-point play but read up two to nothing early just a couple minutes gone by Blue feeding inside Johnson misses over the top of the rim gathered in by Red dako keeping the pace up pressing it up I could tell she might have played a little point guard back in her day maybe now oh going deep for three get out so is that red Five Points is that Miss chlo Five Points Chloe five points I mean that was nothing but net we have a Kon Clark playing with us right now that looked like Kon Clark on the Indiana fiva blew off the Mark Johnson with the rebound and she's on the board yes Johnson had at least 10 points last game last year bako the point guard the top of the key looking looking dishes to Tess matched up with Walker drives in against Walker loses the handle grabs it back trying to bounce it out but turned over Evans has it over to Walker and here's a fast break opportunity for team blue Macwan pulls it back waits for help feeds Walker on the run off the mark Sweeney with the rebound just missed the Lefty layup over there you know this is supposed to be an exhibition these teachers are they're playing hard right now I'm glad you mentioned that tonight is an exhibition Brian just a reminder no wagering no wagering and that that yep so weeny with his first points on the board he's an 11year teacher here sixth grade social studies at the middle school oh Johnson all alone unguarded puts it right back gets it back for team blue that's four points for her four points total for high school Mendes they're down 74 420 to go dako thought about the three guarded closely drives the lane kicks it back out to Horton fires again for three just off the mark rebound by Chloe all right we got to do a little research on on um on Chloe over here does she make another one oh just off the mark oh we got a whistle we have our first sub I think it's a sub whistle all right so yeah Chloe dako a four-year teacher she's a team silver and gold math teacher at the middle school got it all right I'm curious if she played basketball back in her day running the point guard she sure looks like it and I think we've got full chance changes here for both teams so fresh fresh legs out there for both teams Kelly dishes to Rivera quick three just off the mark and out of bounds it'll be red ball 345 to go in the first quarter team red up 7 to four yep I I think they took offense when Mr kyus said the reigning Champion um Mendes high school they're like nope we're taking this almost oh that's getting called close she just had a barely piece of the Soul on the line but there's the call out of bounds blue has the ball you know what they say the most important toe is the pinky toe might have been the pinky toe might have been Caitlyn Clark feeds inside bounces off a couple players and out of bounds it'll stay blue ball somebody should let the clock know that it should stop running yep I think they just did notice there's no 35 second clock I I don't think there's going to be a lot of too many overpassing if there's a big lead but uh what do you think about you think we'll get 50 over 100 points today which total between the two teams is that is that I would say it's unlikely that's that's un a little unlikey Rivera fires just off the mark rebound red that's Johnson up ahead to Chong who I'm told has no basketball experience took a deep shot but you know she's smiling I love it oh yeah she's having a great time she's having a good time that's what matters okay so this is Dan Powers PE teacher bringing the ball up over to Kelly given go to Powers fires left-handed shot Off the Mark rebound red he's looking out he's going to do a little press Mr Powers uh looks like a lefty a little Southpaw over there yeah want to qu give a quick shout out to YouTube viewer Matthew Lombardi who's watching with us tonight giving a shout out to uh Miss Bachi Bachi okay play continues we're still seven of four team red that's the middle school and Warren leading the high school men and Mendes there's a pass intercepted by Grace team red so they'll bring the ball back up try to sneak him in the post good defense by Red this is in fact Bachi Off the Mark with the shot gathered rebound by team blue this is Caitlyn Clark up ahead to Dan powers powers feeds inside running oneand or no good rebound though gathered in by Blue Kelly thinks about the three drives thinks better of it kicking outside top of the KE to Clark she fires off the pass it in with had a two or three I think that a call two they're calling a two so that's Caitlyn Clark for two yep and again as you pointed out not the Caitlyn Clark of Iowa Fame but nonetheless another Caitlyn Clark but apparently anyone that's named oh got him on the double dribble I thought the ref was going to let that go but and and you know for every these are refs that I've seen reing at Metro reing at the high school level so they got the real thing over here okay Kelly inbound sounds to Clark unlike other basketball they got the music going on oh yeah this is like the uh Savannah bananas just music going all the time we got a foul on the floor no no basket but we have two foul shots I think a lot of pressure over here it's kind of like a pitcher on the mound everyone's eyeing the foul shots okay so is that uh Aon guo at the line to shoot two gyro played basketball straight through college has uh three boys in the Ashlin school system all big athletes okay husband Dave we saw before the game gave a big hello gyro hits the first of two yeah definitely played in her in her Youth and we've got a tie game here Brian 7 seven yeah red had a big lead one for two wow look at that that's a a Miss free throw but blue who's going for that rebound oh Grace loses the handle Powers has the ball Beth fell down got back on D kicking the ball around Riviera fire Rivera fires from outside off the front iron no good rebound gets eventually to Powers follows his own Miss shot and in Dan powers for two his first points of the night and suddenly Ash the high school Mendes up by two in the final minute here of the first quarter you know Mr poers always a a huge fan favorite I think it he's just the the individual that just everyone knows Kyro got a hand in there to force the turnover final 12 seconds poers up ahead I don't know if they know how much time is left on the clock Rivera to Kelly driving over to guy Aro Got 5 seconds I don't hear the people um coun down over here it is so loud in here I don't think the players could hear it anyways that shot goes arai that brings us to the end of the first quarter with Team blue leading team red 9 to7 we're take a quick break with for a word from our sponsors you are watching the clocker classic on waca today's game is brought to you in part by Marathon Deli Marathon Deli offers a full range of lunch and dinner items for dining or catering find Co Cuts cheeses and meats also available in addition to Specialty wraps such as the Mayflower wrap as well as the honey bee wrap they'll be sure to get your mouth watering serving Metro West for over 24 years give them a call at 508 231859 or find them on the web at Marathon deli.com tonight's game is brought to you in part by townhouse pizza subs roast beef and more be sure to fill up with the buffalo chicken cow Zone that's been called one of the best in the [Music] area located at 300 Elliot Street in Ashlen give them a call at 508 881-3010 or find them on the web at townhouse pizz roast be.com and welcome back to waca coverage of the clocker classic tonight's game is sponsored in part by Marathon Deli they offer a full range of lunch and dinner items to eat in or take out along with many catering options perfect for office meetings or parties at home check out their menu at Marathon deli.com then call your order in at 508 2311 1859 little insiders tip they post daily specials on Facebook the r on 135 in Ashlin in open weekdays 10 to 7 want to say thank you to the to the crew Carlo and ay for setting us up with uh some food we'll be enjoying our wraps at the half want to also mention that members of the marathon family here tonight at in the live audience here at the high school so for lunch today I actually went to Marathon got my famous chicken salad lettuce tomato and pickles and I'm having cap the cape Kata which is a chicken salad as well so I got two two doses of Marathon today I'm excited got double down on Marathon Deli good stuff good stuff so I'm Josh Abrams he's Brian side we're glad to have you here on YouTube so there was some kind of uh first quarter competition with two students Mr Kyra I didn't see who won but uh lot of uh lot of excitement over there see Mr Powers in the stands rooting on the Mendes group over there okay so Brian while we have a pause before we start second second quarter action let's go with the first of tonight's dad jokes so Brian what is a math teacher's favorite type of treat I was expecting a basketball math teacher favorite type of treat a plus one I don't a plus one what does that even mean I have no idea so I mean you know for me it's always about Junior Mints but cuz they're they're chocolatey they're they're delicious no the answer is Gama tree g yeah teacher favorite kind of tree you're right Gama tree thank you very much everybody you're right told you that that was one of my uh emotions nervous but so far you're one for one mhm okay I want to give a quick shout out to Stephen marks watching live here on YouTube appreciate the comments he Lov seeing the gym packed and listening to the always entertaining announcers a little bias but I think he's right and of course uh Steven's wife and kids are here somewhere live at the game while Steven is stuck at work but we're back underway here second quarter action team blue leading 9 to7 so I think I they had a 90 run I know was up I don't think it was 9 close crashing with the ball gets the shot off no good turns into a pass for Walker I think her layup is no good rebounded by team red and here they come up cour this is Smith I thought that was going to be aloop fires off the front iron no good rebound blue Walker's going to push the action a little bit loses the handle then re regains control gets it to Johnston top of the key brings it up feeding into the corner bounce pass right on Baseline there goes Walker shooting again not afraid to shoot the rock is Miss Walker doesn't go in red has the ball fed over to Jake Smith 12year math Support over to nanof crowd favorite Jackie nanof nyear Spanish teacher good pass good defense another one off the front iron no good blue with the ball little bit of a travel both refs missed that one the ball's turned over so play continues Maddie Collins with the ball now oh she steals it goes for a three B wow great shot is that Matty Collins three I was looking down was and there's Mr KY Walker gets her shot block picks it back up tries to beat cashion intercepted by number one Glenn Stout he's trying to go Coast to Coast dishes off to nof a little trouble handling the ball Johnson quickly up ahead pass intercepted right back to Stout one-on-one with Johnson fires The Rock Off the Mark no good rebound Smith puts it backing in gameer runs over here AMS Warren trying to break that uh losing streak over here okay down 97 at the half AMS Warren now up 12 to9 Walker fires and hits this layup so Amanda Walker on the board now her first two points of the game want also mention that uh she got some hell fantasy football Wise from my son Logan last season and I am told still owes him a trip to tomorrow all right so Amanda if you're watching this on the replay just let it be known the public now knows you are still in Logan's debt is it breakfast lunch like what are we talking or anything oh I only heard two marrows I did not hear anything else Collins firing for three again no good rebound red Smith trying to find the handle Off the Mark rebound red again that one's off the shot clock no good it'll be a turnover just under five minutes to go in the half and we've got a one-point game Brian you know the ref's going to let fouls go they're going to let travels go They're not going to let the ball if it hit off the clock let that go so they'll definitely call that Miss Johnson posting up let's see if she wants the oh good defense wow Collins with the block Johnson goes back gets knocked aside again we've got a foul on the floor uh I think she might have gotten hit in the head so that's a good match up between Collins and and Miss Johnson yeah our notes tell us uh we got some great notes from the PTO and much appreciate Maddie Collins has been playing basketball since she was from when she was five straight through high school she coaches the Middle School girls basketball team who finished N9 and four earlier this year and uh she's engaged she'll be married later this year wow congratulations that is going to be an interesting match up between Miss Johnson and Miss Collins clearly they obviously both have a basketball background they were guarding each other she might have gotten clipped a little bit in the face over there and Miss Johnson went up but uh very competitive game so far absolutely John misses them both but crash in gets the rebound and almost just got saved inbounds Walker lays it up no good gets her own rebound puts it back up no good Smith with a rebound we've got a whistle going to get timeout here as we make some substitutions and again wanted to mention again that uh tonight's game presented by the ashin PTO for the past 18 years the PTO has provided enrichments to Ashlin schools through author visits motivational speakers artist visits and science stem programs they help with field trip busing and provide fun Student Activities such as the high school challenge day kids night out or Koo as they call it down there at MES the seventh and eighth grade glow party and the sixth grade night out back underway here red with the ball Stout fires no good rebound Powers right over Tessier and I'm sure she's going to give him an earful as they jog back down Court Mr Powers giving a little fake out to the fans over there sitting behind the net oh good defense that Miss test here like a step back layup attempt no good here comes digo Five Points I believe she's the uh scoring leader tonight for both teams oh finds a player good back door cut there and in really nice back door cut so that's Erica Laris her first points of the night nice assist Again by Khloe power slaugh about a quick pass pulls it back and I think that Melissa mpell on the receiving end of a great pass by Powers right down the middle puts it in it's a one-point game again 320 to go in the half Tim Horton thought he might try again from that spot hasn't hit it yet here's Lenoris top of the key to dako she drives the Lane right through lay up and in W I'm impressed seven points Ford is going wild are and if you miss lerys is not only the Warren school of vice principal but the coach of our red team so okay that pass to Powers he took his eye off it went out of bounds so red ball again they're up 1613 248 to go nowo to Horton Horton inside to Tessier goes Baseline gets the shot off but no good loose ball gathered in by Red back up top Horton for three back iron no good balls loose red has it quick shot fire no good air ball Tess with it now feeds it inside to Horton against Powers there's a height mismatch there no good on the shot Stout fires no good you know Red's doing a good job on the boards Blue's playing good defense right now just got to rebound a little bit there the powers oh that's a player coach toe was on the line absolutely got the call but good effort over there poers directing traffic bounce past to mwan shots just off the mark follows the Zone rebound something we're trying to teach middle school kids all the time to follow your shot but uh goes out of bounds off blue it'll be red ball under their own basket minute 45 and counting to go here in the first half they're clearly blue their their strategy seems to kind of get the ball outside bring it down in the post get an easy layup Red's a little bit you know they're shooting the ball outside they're driving so just good to see there's no ball hogs out here on either team a very you know I'm selfish kind of game yeah exactly exactly so got a foul on the floor no basket clock stops with a minute 19 to go it's a non-sh shooting foul so red inbounds back outside to dako I'll make that might have a little tip on that play okay oh John says the ball taken away Powers blocks the shot almost unfair with that height Advantage I forgot how tall Mr Powers is okay so it'll went off of red final minute of play here Mr Horton almost got that back to Powers Here Comes Mr Horton I saw that coming PR his powers did not see it coming here's Horton going Coast to Coast gets foul one Mallen with a blatant foul and Horton will go to the line to shoot two me and Mr Horton were talking earlier when we got here ultimate goal besides having fun is no injuries injuries abely absolutely so also just want to go back talk about the PTO really quick some upcoming PTO events include mystery readers the Warren school as well as literacy night a readathon of the elementary schools and the sixth grade night out coming up soon on March 7th you can learn more about the ashin PTO at ashin clocker pto.com they're always looking for new members and board members current open positions include secretary director of program operations and AMS PTO chair is Horton hit the bottom oh hit them both both good job you know last year we didn't know Tim Horton very well other than uh you know his being the namesake for that restaurant Shane up in Canada now into the uh Northern United States y we had a very nice trip to a Tim Horton in Toronto last spring I heard yep he's is he one of the coaches base um soccer coach he's a baseball coach Middle School baseball coach yeah okay final 16 seconds Tessier going to get CAU on that travel they've been pretty generous most of the night but they call that one I think we're under minute left you got the ref's keeping a little bit tighter yep okay Caitlyn Clark back into the game she'll inbound Horton was looking to press a little bit dials it back see if they see the clock is coming down I don't I'm surprised the fans AR calling the clock down okay bini had it for a moment gets knocked away here comes Horton on a break away last second gets it off but no good no good crowd groans that did not fall hardest thing is that that wide open layup but uh good game it's a lot of pressure big crowd here tonight at the half the Ashley middle school and Warren team red they are winning 18-13 over the high school and Mendes team blue we're going to take a quick break here send it back to the studio and we'll have a quick word from our sponsors you are watching the clocker classic on waca today's game is brought to you in part by Marathon Deli Marathon Deli offers a full range of lunch and dinner items for dining or catering fine P Cuts cheeses and meats also available in addition to Specialty wraps such as the Mayflower wrap as well as the honey bee wrap they'll be sure to get your mouth watering serving Metro West for over 24 years give them a call at 508 2311 1859 or find them on the web at Marathon deli.com tonight's game is brought to you in part by townhouse pizza subs roast beef and more be sure to fill up with the buffalo chicken cow Zone that's been called one of the best in the [Music] area located at 300 Elliot Street in Ashlin give them a call at 508 881-3010 or find them on the web at townhouse pizz roast beef.com [Music] he [Music] all we you are in [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you want the right now up [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay s [Applause] [Music] okay [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all [Applause] I [Applause] [Music] feel J good job good job [Music] [Applause] all [Music] right all right let's see [Music] [Applause] [Music] all [Music] [Applause] [Music] we have first we [Music] [Applause] d [Music] [Applause] [Music] fin [Music] [Applause] [Music] trouble high that big yo what Just Happening [Music] you [Music] hold you were sling a block what he [Music] IED over what he say no he look way more and welcome back to waa coverage of the clocker classic second half about to get underway team team red with a slight lead here 18-13 it's been a back and forth contest all night as we uh waiting to get underway here again I'm Josh Abram Brian s glad to have you with us here on YouTube yeah you know we we just witnessed a crazy um Simon Says game that was the halftime show and I learned oh almost the back court ref did not call that Mr Kyra has that a very serious um Simon says so all the third and over all went out got eliminated and Miss Johnson with a lefty shot over there last year's scoring leader okay Sweeny Chong green the ball up still learning the game got called for double dribble last time picks up the dribble now DS again no call play continues Grace trying to find an opening gets it off to the wing shot is rimmed and in oh a little dance little shimmy little Celebrity Dance celebration dance there's a three pass shot over there I'm just trying to figure out which teacher that is oh Moore Moore Caroline Moore car Moore so two teams have traded baskets here another basket I guess it's 20- 15 now inbound by Blue and in that was Danielle River with her for points of the night offense really picking it up here in the second had a little bit of a struggle in the first half Johnson with the ball trying to drive kicks it back out to Grace little give him go now between graceon Johnson Johnson bounce pass in to batche oh a fancy pass top of the key Mo over to Chong who fires wildly and out of bounds but not afraid to shoot the rock just a bit outside but she's loving it though I love the smile honestly absolutely blue brings the ball up Kelly inside cutting Baseline is Johnson no good gets her own rebound that one also Off the Mark rebound by Red almost a carry yep ref might have just looked the other way on that one but Caroline Grace bringing the ball up to chong chong getting some pressure now double trible not call call it but really loosening the Reign here Caroline Moore with the ball dishing off to The Far Side to bachy back it in looking for a shot righty shot off a bank Miss fire Rivera with the rebound blue has the ball down by three 540 and counting to go here in the third quarter Walker trying to drive Baseline up and oh that was a nice started with the right finished with the left okay so Amanda Walker two points in the first half two points now here in the second half it's a one-point game as team red brings the ball up and just a reminder of tonight's game sponsored in part by Townhouse Pizza and roast beef be sure to fill up on the buffalo chicken cow Zone that's been called one of the best in the area located at 300 Elliot Tre in Ashlin give them a call at 508 881-3010 or find them on the web at tanous pizz roast beef.com five minutes to go here in the third quarter guo pushing ahead now to Walker one-on-one with Johnson drives left side no good rebound by Johnson so I think blue has at least three or four lefties playing they love that Lefty layup over there okay missing making it oh deep shot Bache with a switch wow and she's on the board Bella Bache All 4 foot n of her made a note that she's always the most decorated classroom goes all out for every event and holiday and now a basket here in the clocker classic walker with a rebound with the putback four points for the half six total for Walker Timeout on the floor with Middle School war and Warren up by one over the high school and Mendes yep our uh traditional sub timeout fresh legs the key with the clocker classic is have fun and no injuries which is half the reason why we're not playing that's right could get seriously hurt out there that's right and we both know we need our faces and we need our bodies just to get up and down the stairs oh a little pick over there Mr Powers I love it Jake Smith gets it over to Stout Stout trying to drive through the lane wild shot Off the Mark blue with a rebound a little bit of pressure from stout now Powers has the ball matching up with Horton actually match up with Smith my mistake bounce pass out to mazini Fires for three off the glass no misses everything and out of bounds just to the right so no we we had a bunch of three-pointers in the first half I think we're over for two in the second half still early okay Jake Smith Mass support bringing the ball up here for red dishes off to Collins Fe inside all alone Baseline can't get it to fall Smith crashes the boards for the rebound Stout is open Howard takes it away and here's a fast break for team blue mazini stops and sees oh dishes a three-pointer oh that's a banker the bank is open for mazini you know I feel like they just opposite my Jinx I was like there's no three-pointers and she's and look like she got a little intimidated on The Fast Break decided not to go all the way instead steps back and drains a three off glass poers dribbles off his foot red gets the ball and they are on transition now Collins driving left side and in layup is good Collins does not missed the third-year sixth grade counselor former basketball player okay blue inbounds mazini bring the ball up under 240 to go here in the third quarter we've got a tie game here Brian tie game 24-24 you know they're they're playing hard this is uh good defense by Red turnover by Blue Smith and stout had a two-on-one good defense just off the mark stop battling for the rebound Powers bursts in with a rebound his leading pass intercepted by colins Stout all alone kind of cherry picking shot is no good South finds n off underneath she can't get it to fall and blue comes up with it here's mazini up ahead ball ends up back with mazini she has the layup off the glass no good rebound red that's Collins and we got a time out on the floor sub y make some subs here and all every opportunity here for our second dad joke of the game so I can't say geometry I got it okay I'm ready okay why did the teacher wear sunglasses in the classroom why did the teacher wear sunglasses anything to do with Subs maybe sunglasses no why would you wear sunglasses in a submarine I don't know no I'm thinking about having a substitute but we're back underway Brian will continue thinking about that I I will think quietly so I don't ruin the game okay that shot Off the Mark but get red gets thr on rebound rainbow just misses Powers with the rebound minute 20 or so to go here in the third quarter still a tie game Powers bringing the ball up mazini guarded closely by nof tries to drive Baseline picks up her dribble pass to powers powers with the de the layup no good rebound red rebound by Smith Smith has Collins cutting all alone to the hoop no good ball is loose Collins tracks down on rebound passes off to a teammate given go Smith download to nanof guarded closely can't get the shot off good defense pass inside rebound rebound red puts it back up no good and blue comes down with the final 35 seconds of the quarter it is Megan Maguire her son was a senior on the basketball team is that Kevin um no that's her husband I think no no no not Kevin but he was my defensive player of the game when he called the game with uh with Daniel just off okay okay so I give up I'm I have no idea about the sunglasses so the teacher the teacher wore sunglass in the classroom because their students were so bright I like that one all right you I like it I like that one final 10 seconds here berum feeds inside to Collins Collins guarded closely nanof gets the shot off rims out no good Collins with a rebound three seconds now shoot it pass to nobody As Time expires and so we head to the fourth quarter tied to 24 we'll take a quick break a word from our sponsors you're watching the clocker classic on waca today's game is brought to you in par by Marathon Deli Marathon Deli offers a full range of lunch and dinner items for dining or catering fine P Cuts cheeses and meats also available in addition to Specialty wraps such as the Mayflower wrap as well as the honey bee wrap they'll be sure to get your mouth watering serving Metro West for over 24 years give them a call at 508 231859 or find them on the web at Marathon deli.com tonight's game is brought to you in part by townhouse pizza subs roast beef and more be sure to fill up with the buffalo chicken cow Zone that's been called one of the best in the [Music] area located at 300 Elliot Street and Ashlin give them a call at 508 881-3010 or find them on the web at townhouse pizz roast be.com and welcome back to waca coverage of special Sports presentation the annual clocker Classic basketball game featuring faculty from ashin high school and the Mendes School matching up against Ashlin middle school and the Warren school if you're just joining us and when I say us I mean Brian s and myself fourth quarter action it's a tie game 2424 got a little bit of a fun time here on the court is uh Mr Kyra leading the uh leading the way in between quarters and the halftime entertainment for the kids or third quarter between the third and fourth quarter entertainment right here not sure what they're doing but they have teachers out so this could be the kids moment over here they'll be able to watch us back on waa and okay while we while we're watching this footage just want to uh go through some Game notes we were provided get get to know some of these teachers a little bit better so we had mentioned earlier Bella Bachi of course she's very proud of her 4 fo9 height and uh tells us she has the most decorated classroom goes all out for every event and holiday Caroline Moore we I don't think we' mentioned this yet but uh she played basketball in middle school and made the Massachusetts Allstar team in the sixth grade moving over to the Middle School Maddie Collins and she's had a good night here on the court played basketball straight through high school she coaches the Middle School girls basketball team which finished nine and four on the season and congratulations to MD will be getting married later this year Jake Smith his fourth clocker classic so he might be uh the most experienced teacher on the floor tonight apparently yeah uh eron guerro one of the nurses at the high school or moved on to the high school now played basketball through college Jessica Kelly coaches JV softball for Ashlin and high school soccer in Shrewsbury Lindsay Johnson of course no stranger to the clocker classic played basketball here and Ash High School a thousand Point scorer here for the clockers and also played at salv Regina University Natalie mazini is in her College's intramural Hall of Fame for basketball and uh you might remember that uh she had the P shot since sh big Bank three-pointer what led to this tie game as we enter the fourth quarter and that's why she's a Hall of Famer that's right that's right Cory McAn played high school basketball and almost walked on at Providence College as he made it to the final round of cuts Melissa misspell this is her second clocker classic and she coaches High School field hockey in Lacrosse for Ashlin and runs the ashin youth field hockey program and finally Danielle Rivera who played basketball right here at Ashlin high school so uh lot of basketball experience on the court here tonight I didn't realiz we had a Hall of Famer and you know Miss Johnson which you know if you're back at the ashon high school gymnasium you'll see her name her maiden name is shuy yep so thousand Point uh on on the banner here it's it's it's it's almost laminated so it's it's a great honor very few kids athletes uh had that opportunity so clearly back in her day was playing you could tell the way she plays here has a really good post game so absolutely and of course a final reminder for those of you watching us live here on YouTube we are monitoring the chat so feel free to drop a comment in there and let us know your name and where you're watching from we talk about this during the varsity games all the time that clocker Nation goes coast to coast and uh of course you know let us know your favorite player yeah if you have a really good dad joke you know keep it clean feel free to share it and speaking of dad jokes I've got another one for you so we got three so I told you I was nervous I'm not nervous anymore no no we got plenty here tonight so next dad joke why did the teacher go to the beach to to get a day off on the weekend like uh love sharks um needed some I have no idea went to the beach to test the waters teacher went to the beach to test the waters thank you very much everybody next year it's in the budget we'll have some drums and all that stuff or the sound bites the uh the crowd okay well it looks like we're getting ready here to start the fourth quarter the final eight minutes of this year's clocker classic get off the back court get off the back court please get off the back court so it started off first quarter The Blue Team the defending Champions were up 9 to7 second quarter red uh came back up 18-13 to end the first half we have a tie game going to the fourth quarter over here I'll tell you what you couldn't ask for anything better here nice close game evenly matched two teams here and again one just give a quick shout out to the Ashlin PTO who put this all together much appreciated was a great event last year it's an even better one this year just a great great Community event seeing all these kids and parents families together here tonight watching and cheering on their teachers dako firing for three oh hit just about every part of the rim but did not fall out of Bounce going to be but that will not be her last shot of the game not at all so blue ball here Kelly's going to bring the ball up supporting the uh rainbow shorts over there last year it was more the socks yeah that's it helped us this year you know we're thankful last names are on the jerseys so H good move by Kelly can she finish just off the rim okay Jessica Kelly of course one of the fifth grade teachers here in Ashland Here Comes Taco firing oh a misfire Horton caught sleep and he was wide open the pass was there they're going to laugh about that one as they drop back up Court yeah they might be talking about that tomorrow morning during a coffee break oh yeah oh yeah we worked on that play that was 2.0 got to hit that okay so Jessica again with the ball dish to mwan Gowan sizing things up try to Johnson her post game is Unstoppable once again Johnson is all business when she scoring oh good defense by Blue yeah that was mcel he gets Stripped by Horton dishes off to larus that's the player coach theck I think uh Josh sendy put that shot up before he realized where he was had no angle no angle underneath the basket 620 and Counting team blew up by two Johnson picks up her dribble to Jessica feeds it over to Clark Caitlyn Clark not not the Caitlyn Clark but I guess in Ashlin could she is the Ashlin Caitlyn Clark Ash Clark Kell trying to find an opening guarded very closely by Chloe trying to feed inside to Horton but inside to Johnson the pass is complete quick shot there by McAn gets the hoop and we're going to get a timeout I got that as mcan's first points of the night yeah but you know it's NE you know there's a little bit of intensity right now I mean these teams are both playing a win maybe the NBA should kind of watch this exhibition match on how they should do their kind of allstar game and play with some heart okay Deo brings the ball up drives the lane kicks out to Horton Horton quickly over to lonar Dees the shot now drives in right-handed layup off the top of the backboard no good out of bounds and another turnover lenar inbound or sorry blue inbounding here yep Maguire like his son in his last uh home game for the varsity team great defense MCU playing some good defense over there Walker tries to drive left side kicks it back outside now mazini working around the around the perimeter Rivera drives Baseline dishes off to Walker good follow through but can't get the shot to fall loose ball Tracked Down by Horton he'll bring the ball up couple slips on the court ah good post kick back outside Laris pulls it back Horton stops Fires for three oh had it lined up he wanted it he wanted that nice follow up by Sweeney oh defense by Walker Horton keeps it in but turns it over to team blue but shrip Chloe tanako picks it up goes back for three just off the mark rebound blue dangerous pass is turnover again Horton can't get it to fall follows his shot and this time it does hit yeah you know you don't see a press in exhibition but there's there's some defense going on right now I have that Horton's first field goal of the night to go with a couple of foul shots another turn over here Horton fast breaking ahead to Chloe dako tries to get off against Rivera and gets fouled that's on the floor and we'll get another set of substitutions the clock stops 402 to go in the game team team blue team Blue by two team blue is up by two 28 26 that actually was a really smart fou because um dakos Khloe she was going for the layup so I think that slowed it down a little bit I think it's should be Blue's ball right I got red in yeah you're right blue is full court press in an exhibition game don't tell me this doesn't matter oh no it's red going down okay but there look at this Miss Johnson defense aony with the rebound see now reding trying to dribble out of a triple team they start to dial it back a little bit Aon gets it off to Lindsay Johnson up ahead now dangerous pass gathered in the Baseline they kick it back up top we'll reset the half court offense Johnson slung it down to Clark back to Johnston oh that that's what she last last year too she owns that post game it's so nice I have her up to 10 points on the night and suddenly this is a four-point game with the high school in Mendes up 30 to 26 we have our mascot over here the clocker so I think last year uh Miss Johnson had 10 points this this year 10 points as well doing her thing okay red is going to inbound under the basket looks like Joe berom education sport professional inbound for red gets it to Johnson Johnson gets her shot blocked tries to track it down there's a scrum underneath and Lindsay Johnson comes up with it up ahead to crashing a little bit of a walk a wild shot no good with the ball and we have a time out I think red wants a timeout a red timeout but blue is keeping their players in I forgot the coach the the U teacher who's coaching right now she's taking this pretty seriously I love it oh absolutely AB there's some strategy I love this so by the way before we forget I do want to give a special thanks again exhibition game but our crew is out here tonight so Jeff Paul Jeff Hall Paul Bowden Brady monoco Nick hunningham they're the ones for bringing you all the uh sound and video of the clocker classic so guys thanks a lot great job as always Brian and I certainly appreciate it always here early I mean they've done so many basketball games men women hockey game not hockey um I've done a couple hockey games too have they done hockey as well okay yeah but almost every basketball game it's crazy oh Miss Johnson oh that was a nice rejection okay blue brings the ball up nursing a four-point lead just over two minutes to go gero tries to pass it gets intercepted by Red they've got numbers if they hurry but a wild pass Khloe Hut diaso with dako with a great Hustle but can't track it down probably uh one of the best opportunities of the night for team red and they cannot connect yeah blue ball team blue look like they're making a a substitution on the T on the uh whistle 203 to go so red is pressing right now they got got Collins and so is that a timeout okay and I'm I'm checking the chat I see that our longtime waa broadcaster Rob silver is checked in and he's awarding his silver medal to Johnson I believe he's referring to Lindsay I team blue Rob if you want to uh want to clarify make sure we got that right because we do have a Caroline Johnson we do have two Johnson that's right a rookie teacher kindergarten teacher on team red but she's not on the board so I'm feeling pretty good that he he is referring to Lindsay Johnson yep so we have a timeout we have some Mr kyver is getting grabbing two fans could this be for the million dooll shot or while we're while we're figuring this out just again a final thank you to the Ashlin PTO for putting together tonight's clocker classic event they do a whole lot for the uh for the school district you can learn all about them at Ashlin clocker p o.com /out they're always looking for new members and board members current open positions include secretary director of program operations and the middle school PTO chair yeah Special thanks for Kate for kind of helping you and I kind of get all this information helping out with the insights and takes a lot of work to get an event like this yeah pulled this all together and of course I saw a lot of high school students here tonight with the Make A Wish Foundation so they're helping out as well all the uh food and beverage that were available outside for this Crow always a great fundraiser like uh absolutely I just love it on Thursday night little chilly out raining place is packed right now and I think what I always love is at the end of the day at teachers the impact that they have on you know both you and I have kids they're here to support you know their teachers their Heroes and there's a lot of love you could tell with the uh the students the parents and the teachers so it's a great event absolutely I love how you and I get a front row seat over here so we have a little mini competition going on over here we have a two on two haven't seen a lot of shots made yet but if we have one shot to the right if up that's two shots also want to uh thank tonight's sponsors you've certainly seen their commercials during the breaks but uh thank you to Marathon Deli as well as tan house pizza and roast beef couple of great restaurant options here in Ashland I had something at Marathon the other day I've never ordered I went there for soup it was meant to be shared amongst my daughter myself and I'm like Joey I don't share food so that soup was basically for me chicken noodle so besides their sandwiches okay well final check here on the uh on the YouTube live stream chat and uh Rob silver did clarify did confirm in fact that tonight's silver medal the winner from Rob silver Lindsay Johnson 10 points so far fifth grade teacher 13 years of experience here in Ashlin and per Rob's request we will do one more dad joke are you ready I am ready I told you I was excited and nervous so okay so here we go final dad joke of the night what is a teacher's favorite Nation teachers favorite Nation that's right teachers favorite Nation look this is a is this a history kind of well I can't give you any clues I know um either you know or you know I I don't know so so fa teachers favorite nation is explanation exp explanation I like it saved the best for the last so that's right that's right all right so we have two minutes we have a press from Red 3026 blue they the defending Champions oo they're going to call it tight here in the final minute 55 or so that foul called against Khloe dako blue inbounds here by Center Court mazini with the ball now trying to go down the wing now looking to go Baseline gets stripped ball Tracked Down by Macwan drives Baseline turned over bero with it Joe bero and he'll slow things down y minute 30 or so to go red is trying to break that streak over here sees Collins oh good pass Stout stra save by Horton feeds Collins cuts the lane and gets fouled she'll go to the line Y again four point four-point lead minute 12 to go though they're running the clock again oh I thought it was a shooting foul let's I thought it was a shooting foul as well it is AO yeah they have stopped the clock now shooting two no Miss Collins I think you're the one supposed to be shooting this okay so substitution for red Stout is out and I'm not sure which of these teachers just came in need to see the name on the back of the Jersey which by the way my compliments to the clocker classic and the PTO for putting me on the back of the jerseys this year as Collins underhand free throw just so rare to see that today in today's game but our sixth grade teacher is bringing it back two for two those are a couple of big free throws y two points with a minute six to go red dottling up the pressure Lindsay Johnson bringing the ball up our silver Medal winner tonight that's the pick McAn dribbles out guard closely by Horton goes for the steel doesn't get it McAn still with the ball up top to Kelly beating Johnson at the foul line she's trying to drive against a double team and she gets fouled she'll go to the line to shoot to it's all fun and games until the last minute so absolutely I love it so potentially very important foul shots here it's a two-point lead Johnson could put them up by four if she hits them both you think granny or regular she goes regular just misses top of the rim I'm starting to wonder if they've replaced the rim since the last time since she played here in high school probably I'm I'm guessing the floor is a little bit little tackier little tackier as well all right could she make one needs one to keep him that three couldn't hit it red with the rebound Here Comes thought that was Hort H yet okay driving in SES off are they going to go for three to tie or oh she lost the handling huge turnover they're going to have a 10-second violation maybe the ball I don't think they're aware of it Kelly gets hit falls to the floor travel call the travel over here red call the travel and got the refs to agree 25.5 seconds to go so even though blue is high school I think red has the homec court advantage right now they're pushing for for an upset maybe a tie to overtime have we ever had a tie the clock the classic I am not I'm not aware ber inbounds to Horton Horton fires it up just off the back iron no good loose ball and out of bounds red ball boy they are getting every opportunity the middle school and Warren they're down by two 19.9 seconds to go Tim Hort inbound for the red team Horton of course an eighth grade civics teacher four years of three years of four years of experience here in Ashlin they need a three-pointer over here hands it off to Smith Fires for three to tie no good rebound red ball loose blue has it for a moment bodies flying everywhere and we've got a jump ball and red has The Possession out because of course they do of course they do 4.6 seconds to go no they're giv it to Blue no I thought they G it to red hey fans do you think it was possession all right apparently maybe the refs can't be foughts but they can be influenced here at the clocker classic they and we're going to get a timeout we talk this one over this is not a sub this is actual timeout strategy down by oh down by two I'm sorry I thought they were down by three so all right okay here we go 30 28 ties it it was 242 24 so we've only had 10 total points in this quarter it's been a defensive battle defensive battle here in the fourth look clearing for any confetti on the floor make sure no one slips y see blue had a chance to defend and uh red I think you're right about that court advantage for team red middle school and Warren crowd is on its feet here at the ashin high school gym again a quick game reset 4.6 seconds to go in the fourth quarter team blue up by two red inbounding under the blue basket the old stack play Chloe way up top to Smith oh and he gets F by Walker got stop the CLK Walker Walker was looking for the jump ball going to put three seconds on the clock red is going to inbound again I believe in front of their own bench three seconds over here so Smith will inbound here for team red turn on the old stack play really a stack play huh it's the only play I know thought you were making a reference to our fantasy oh no no no here we go okay into Chloe guarded closely trying to get the shot off she gets it off oh almost no good almost what a shot what a game man despite multiple multiple opportunities team red cannot close the deal and they fall tonight in the clocker classic 30 to 28 as team blue the high school in Mendes retains the title for another year you know they won the game but the fans clearly gave the game to Red I think uh couple of nice calls by the refs to give the red a chance a little the you know we got the Oscars coming up on Sunday everyone's about a good story over there try to get that Arc but you know this was a great game it's uh we had two high school games that came down to the wire we're ending the last indoor game on a great game like that so absolutely so again your final tonight team blue takes the win 30 to 28 over team red so that's the high school and Mendes winning against the Middle School in Warren again our thanks to the Ashlin PTO for putting this event together another great job by the PTO a wonderful Community night here in Ashland also want to thank our sponsors Townhouse Pizza and roast beef as well as Marathon Deli and want to thank tonight's crew Brady monino Nick Cunningham Jeff Hall and Paul Bowden for bringing us all of the audio and video tonight and of course want to thank my broadcast partner Brian s for joining me once again Courtside to announce this one this is two years in a row for me I'm hoping I I get the invite next year I I love this game I love calling this with you it's always been fun 516 um great game competitive game both teams wanted it and I just love the environment here just a lot of energy um a competitive game but great sportsmanship on both sides lot of smiles a lot of fun a lot of fun a lot of joy and uh I don't think any injuries so as a teacher so that's a win no injur that's a win yeah no but honestly well done well this will wrap up wca's winter sports schedule keep an eye on our Facebook and exp posts for our spring sports live streaming schedules we head back to covering Varsity Sports here in ashin if you're interested in joining our announcing or production teams drop me a line at joshwa atv.com so once again for Brian s and everybody here at waca TV I'm Josh Abram saying thanks for watching and go clockers today's game is brought to you in part by Marathon Deli Marathon Deli offers a full range of lunch and dinner items for dining or catering fine P Cuts cheeses and meats also available in addition to Specialty wraps such as the Mayflower wrap as well as the honey bee wrap they'll be sure to get your mouth watering serving Metro West for over 24 years give them a call at 508 2311 1859 or find them on the web at Marathon deli.com tonight's game is brought to you in part by townhouse pizza subs roast beef and more be sure to fill up with the buffalo chicken cow Zone that's been called one of the best in the [Music] area located at 300 Elliot Street in Ashlin give them a call at 508 881-3010 or find them on the web at Townhouse Pizza roast be.com

what are they hiding Mike exactly the question that pops up automatically next what are you hiding and it's a lot you know I walk through TSA you can go through my bag because I got nothing in there I got nothing to hide you know you want to check my pants Pockets I got nothing to hide you know I'm kind of bored anyway so let you know just do it I got nothing to hide if you got nothing to hide you want to be audited you want to audit my taxes great okay you got nothing to hide you got nothing to worry about right what are these people afraid of I know but their names are all listed on Mass fiscal.wa.gov [Music] what's going on yeah they have a rating system of how they rate uh your elected officials they they do check the closest thing you're going to get to an audit in Massachusetts right now is Mass fiscal.wa.gov

[Music] hello everybody and welcome to Max basement Brewery I'm your host Gary mck mallister and you all know my good friend here Dave tomasini how you doing Dave you know every once in a while people ask me Gary why do you keep brewing beer and uh there's usually three real reasons I think why I like to uh brew beer the first reason is of course the end product the beer you can make at home is just outstanding it's the freshest beer you're going to find and it just tastes good come on now that's the only reason no no no Dave there's a couple other things that I enjoy about Brewing the second thing is the terminology of Brewing the language the jargon the kinds of words we get to use when we make beer for instance we have the hot liquor back we uh we have mash tons we sparge um what else we have high crois when the the fermentation is going on we chill we chill we pitch we pitch we get to uh we measure specific gravity we calculate apparent degrees of fermentation all these terminology I mean it's just great I logger we logger and we taste tasting is obviously the key always now aside from all the terminology the language the jargon I enjoy the equipment that comes with Brewing the uh what we in the trade call technology high technology or some cases low technology either way what um some people would consider to be gadgets so today's show Dave we're going to look at the gadgets of home brewing and there are many there are many so why don't we just uh get right to it and and uh see what we have here for the folks at home let's begin from the beginning we'll begin at the beginning the first thing we have to do whether you're Brewing All Grain or extract beer you have to heat water now to heat water you can certainly use your stove in the kitchen but we've expanded beyond that we want to take a look at burners that are available now the first thing first one we're going to take a look at here Dave is also the cheapest what I have here is the burner that uh have taken out of a basic hot water heater gas fired hot water heater what you might not realize is that even though your hot water heater might have uh died a horrible death uh the heating element is still good and can be salvaged so don't throw that hot water heater away that's right it's pretty easy to take apart it's just a couple of screws um these parts here that are hanging off are the uh pilot and uh the gas line you don't need those those come right off but before you can use this there's a little orifice here that the gas comes out of and uh this is called the Spud uh I think I can get it out here Dave uh the problem with the Spud with your normal hot water heater is that natural gas requires a larger hole than propane does so what you have to do is pull this out there it goes it's unscrewing now and uh there it goes this is the Spud another great terminology we get to use uh that's where your gas comes out and what you have to do is find a uh a local machine shop that can make you another one of these it's just a simple thread and what you need is a smaller hole than what we have on there so you start a little bit small and uh make it a little bit bigger each time until you get a nice blue flame um if you get too big you'll get a yellow flame it's getting too much air so that's how you know um so that's what the burner looks like now to make it really worthwhile Dave you have to mount this somehow and that's what we have here I've mounted this burner inside of a this is a 14in wheel Rim uh if you're depending on the size of your Kettle you may have to be bigger or or smaller than that um I've got this brazed in place uh you always want to have a regulator this this is a regulator off of a uh gas barbecue that's what I thought no big deal there now the other thing to be concerned a little bit about with this burner and with any burner is you have to be able to get enough air to it it's got to breathe always use these in places where this adequate ventilation don't try to fire this thing up in in your kitchen that's right always use this outside or in the garage now you need to have some way to get air underneath what I've done at my uh Brewery is I've drilled a hole in the table that it sits into that lets some air up you can also put it up on some bricks or some blocks and then what I have here is uh this is just some bar stock not the kind of bar you're used to Dave that the uh that my Kettle can sit on it raises it up just a little bit and provides for some uh some good adequate air flow this is about the cheapest route you can go the only thing you really have to buy would be uh some sort of valve to direct the propan you use this for boiling or do you use this for mashing this type of a burner in my Brewery I'll use uh this particular kind of burn burner for my Mash ton only um if you're if you're boiling small amounts of water uh maybe uh four or five gallons even uh it's adequate it's not quite hot enough to really get a good ripping boil with a 10 gallon batch like I normally Brew Dave so I use this for the mash ton where where I just need a little bit of heat to uh get things warming up now we've got that propane burner out of the way another way you can go is to uh purchase uh this is the heating element out of a emerging heater this is uh the Brew heat boiler and this is a 220 volt you'll have to make an extension cord to connect to a 220 outlet it's got a uh a regulator on here with just numbers 1 through 10 so you'll have to uh calibrate Cate it that's right ordinarily this thing just comes unscrewed here and when you buy one of these they come in a plastic bucket just like your uh plastic Brew buckets and I urge you to be careful as I learned the hard way most of my lessons have been hard learned here Dave that you have to make sure that you don't let the uh water run completely out of the plastic bucket when you have the heat on that did happen to me Dave and I noticed an odd smell one time and I just couldn't figure out what it was until this came tumbling out of my hot liquor back and made quite a The absentminded Brew that's just about it now if you really want to get burning and boiling large volumes you really have to go to a larger burner this here is an outdoor cooker that uh these are readily available at uh Home Depot or some of those other stores also catalogs outdoor catalog in the Brew shops this one is a 135,000 BTU outdoor cooker this comes with its own regulator uh which is also adjustable that's how you adjust your uh your your gas flow it's got an adjustment here on the back which allows you to adjust the air flow to get the per perfect uh flame and then if I tip it up here I can let you see what the burner itself looks like uh this is a small ring shaped burner uh I've had a lot better luck Dave with the ring uh design burners they give a little more even heat over the whole bottom of your Kettle or your hot liquor B and uh they do make burners of this type with a single uh a single Jet and it sounds like a a 747 taking off not to mention the fact it doesn't give as even a heat over the bottom of your uh Kettle as this type of AA does that's right I tried one of those Dave once and just turned the my Kettle red hot it was roaring I was in the basement my wife was up on the second floor of the house and came down the stairs and said no that thing is going back it sounded like a freight train going no no meant no that's right so there we have have a few uh samples of burners that are available to you we go from the real easy to uh the electric to the real uh Nitro fired rocket burner here that uh gets things cooking for you all right Dave so now we've heated the water next thing we have to do is our Mash in the we have a few samples of some Mash tons here for you we can go from the the simplest to some little more complicated ones just uh you know to fresh your memories for those of you who and for those of you who may not have seen every single addition of Max basement Brewery mashing is nothing uh more than combining the crushed grain with water of a given temperature to release the enzymes necessary to affect fermentation so now that we've reviewed all that let's take a look at the picnic cooler one there first Dave okay this being uh technologically the simplest this is a 7 gallon uh cooler it's a g cooler just uh has a lid well uh we've done here is we've mounted a valve um on the outtake and on the inside if you remember when we Mash we need a way to strain the grains and what we have in the bottom of every Mash ton is a louter fork now the louder Fork on this one is pretty simple uh you want things to be relatively easy to take apart relatively you know need a monkey Wren yeah there it goes this here is uh this is the louder Fork this is a copper copper uh tubing here here with uh some hacksaw blade cuts into it spaced at uh about half inch intervals and this lies in in the mash ton with the cuts facing down so the grain weights down on it and acts as a nice little strainer for you you always make it so that everything comes apart pretty easy so that you can clean it real well ease of cleaning is absolutely essential to the construction of any Brewing apparatus save save the burners These are nice because they're relatively inexpensive and they really hold heat extremely well the one drawback to the pl cooler as a mashon is that you can't add heat to the bottom of this you wouldn't want to put this on top of your burner if you need to raise the temperature of any Mash in a plastic container you need to add uh boiling water directly you can't use an external heat Source that's right in the latest uh Brewing techniques in the September Brewing techniques Journal there's a great article on how you calculate how much boiling water you would add to raise the temperature of your Mash to certain uh desired temperatures and it's a it's a great little article if you get a chance to read it what else we have there for got another Mash ton here this one now we've gone to a stainless steel Mash ton with this one you can apply heat directly to the bottom to uh raise up through your step Mash temperatures and of course with every Mash ton we need to have the louder Fork this one is the same same concept except it's a ring shaped has the hacksaw blades across the bottom of it and uh this one F has a flared fitting here on the end you just tighten that up to the the corresponding end on the inside just fingertight and it holds it in shape and uh this all comes apart easily for cleaning as well the benefit of this here again is that you can add heat directly to the bottom okay what else we've got there Dave I think we've got one more here we have the giant economy size there we go this is for some serious mashing uh this is a uh reconditioned beer keg these are available through uh commercial vendors you can get them through your uh Brew shops as well and this has a pretty simple louder Fork on the inside I don't know how well you can see that I why don't you tell tell us about this one Dave well this is merely a piece of 38 in U outside diameter carpet tubing attached to an approximately U 8 in length of stainless steel mesh uh closed at one end it's a it's a a tube and that strains all the particulate out of your mesh uh you know as you draw it off so it works pretty effectively yeah great there we go okay one other thing we have to look at that from an equipment standpoint is the grain grinder we obviously have to grind up our grains to uh before we start our Mash got two different green Grinders here this one here is the first one this is the one the old standby it's been around for years this is the Corona Grain Mill which uh pull the uh sides off here real quick for you this is basically just two two plates here that uh and there's a little augur on the inside the grain falls down through and by cranking it like this the uh plates rub against each other and that grinds your grain now you're able to um adjust the distance between those plates with the screw here this moves them closer or or farther apart this uh fits on here to help keep some of the Dust down and what I've always done when I use one of these is if you take a a a piece of plastic bag tighten it up nice and tight around there and then let this fall down into a bucket that will allow your grain to fall right down in you keep the dust down in your room which is really important this comes with a couple different uh tops here this is the uh High Hopper which holds about three pounds of grain you can it usually comes with a smaller one as well it's a fairly inexpensive grinder works pretty well main drawback is that it tends to uh crush the husks of the grain maybe just a little bit too much um which is why we use this Roller Mill here this is the jack schmidling Roller Mill if you look the inside here this is our Hopper I'll turn it around so you can really see what's going on underneath what we have is two rollers here with got grooves cut in them and as you crank it little rubber gasket here allows one to go against the other one and uh this one is kind of neat because it also has an adjustment on the side that you can adjust the distance between your rollers uh this does a really nice job this is the one I use most of the time and um again readily available from your local brew shops and reasonably priced that's right okay so much for the grain Grinders we've ground our grain we've gone through our mesh now we've you remember in the process we go through a boil uh we don't really have any kettles here Dave for uh to show today but you basic pots although we don't have any kettles to show Gary um you can use a similar setup to this particular Mash ton as a boil kettle that's right the uh the easy Mash system that I showed you can be used to strain the particulate out of your final boil so you can use a setup just like this for a uh you know for a good siiz batch this is very handy for a 10 gallon batch okay so let's assume we've got the boil done next thing we do is we have to chill the beer chill the hot wart as it were to get it down to pitching temperature so we have two styles of chillers here Dave when we uh pull these up let's see we have an immersion Chiller which is actually the easiest to make the cheapest to buy and the style that I personally use most often this is very simply some 3/8 in copper tubing wrapped into a coil you have an inlet here which will screw onto a faucet adop faucet adapter on your sink and then this is your drain what happens here is you run cold water through the inside of this copper coil this sits right down inside of your Kettle and if you kind of jiggle it a little bit while it's in there the cold water going through here will cool the work on the outside if you can somehow as you move this up and down if you can do that it just exposes uh more of the surface of the wart to the uh to the cooling coils and it cools your w a little quicker these are great you can make these with as many coils as you want they're really nice because the work never goes through the inside it's really easy to clean the outside and for sterilizing before you put it into into the uh the boil that's exactly in fact Dave how you do sterilize these just drop it down in the boil for the last 20 minutes or so and uh you're on your way now another uh style of chilling which Works a little faster a little more complicated a little harder to clean though is the counterflow work Chiller and we have one of those here you can make one of these I made this one you can also buy these now the difference here see if we can turn this around just a little bit and see what the the business end here on this one what you do is the uh that out the way way see we can get a get a bead on that your beer flows through the copper pipe here the copper is going all through this whole coil inside the the garden hose and then it comes out this end over here now what you want to do is this the garden hose connects up to your cold water faucet and what you're doing is putting cold water around the outside of the copper tube as the beer flows through the inside of the copper tube and as fast as you can run the beer through the copper tube it starts out boiling at one end and ends up pitching temperature at the other end and it's called a counterflow word Chiller because the beer Flows In One Direction or the W Flows In One Direction and the cold water flows in the opposite direction that's right that's uh basic physics heat transfer it all works part of the technology of Brewing again about as Hightech as we get difficulty with the counterflow chiller is trying to clean the inside of that copper tube uh because the tro and the proteins and other sediment sticks to it and it does make it a little bit harder to clean out although I found that uh flushing it with real hot water and then uh running an Iota for solution which is nothing but some iodine uh a small amount of iodine mixed in couple of gallons of water running that through and then plugging the end and letting the uh the inside 3/8 in coil fill up and then plug it and just put it away just like that and when you're ready to use it drain it and uh flush it out with hot water great okay now uh we have just a couple things on fermenters to show you I've got two one of them uh you've seen before but I want to show you uh something with the handle if you can show us the uh regular uh car boy there Dave this is a standard glass car boy this is the 7 gon versions that are available these are really handy they come with the styrofoam cover here which um helps prevent breakage another hard- earned lesson that I've I've picked up they're nice cuz they have the screw cap which uh allows you to keep them clean now you can put the orange Carboy handles on here they fit a little better on the five gallon ones but if you want to put these on the 7 gon what I do is put it down below the bottom rim on the neck and you do have to put a longer bolt on these the the standard bolt is just too short to reach all the way around so that's your standard glass car booy now we have another one here that you might have seen in some of the magazines it's kind of neat it turns Brewing upside down and that's exactly what it does this is this is the Brew cap by uh brewco there's also a uh another one called the ferment tap which uh works the same way basic what it allows basically what it allows you to do is this cap fits on the bottom there's a tube going up through the middle that acts as your blow tube which is connected to this pipe here as you recall when the fermentation really gets roaring you get the high crois you get foaming lots of CO2 a lot of gas release from the beer you need a blow tube and that's what this serves as this then doubles as your air lock because you can put some water in here and down here at the bottom it'll form a little air lock that'll allow the bubbling to come through that just then sticks up there at the top the other neat thing about this is as you know when the fermentation starts to slow down the yeast starts to settle out with the carboy upside down the yeast settles down into this cap we have a hose connected that comes right off the bottom of the cap and there's a little valve on the end normally you'd keep it closed but if you open that you're it allows you to harvest the yeast as it settles down through that keeps your beer uh off the yeast very easily you don't risk the oxidation that occurs when you uh rack to a secondary and it allows you to reuse the freshest part of the yeast now you have no problem at all with any of the uh fermenting beer coming through that well not more than you really want it's important to taste your beer as throughout the entire process as you recall so you can pull off samples for specific gravity measurements calculating the apparent degree of fermentation and of course tasting now there is one little drawback to these I found is that if you remember the commercial fermenters if you've ever seen those they have very steep sloped s sides your car boy doesn't really have that steep of sides to it the yeast does tend to hang up a little bit on the shoulder here now if you can keep after it just give a little shake to it and it it will take keep most of it down through uh basically though it's a pretty neat little rig okay and that's it for fermentation well Dave we're running out of time and uh so we're going to have to move along any show on gadgets for home Brewing wouldn't be complete without taking a look at the ways in which we enjoy those fruits of our labors and we do enjoy them we certainly do what we have here is just a small sampling of some of the glasswar that is used for enjoying your home brw you have your basic Shaker glass which uh holds a full Pint you have the English dimple glass which is perfect for holding your English alses and then you have the English Pub glass complete with the Pint crown symbol and this is perfect for those rich and creamy Stouts that we enjoy so much just as a little uh side note this is a true pint these Believe It or Not although they might look bigger usually in America hold 14 o so when you see one of these you know it's the genuine P that's right and here we have moving up to the high end on enjoyment this this is a uh half yard glass which is really uh enjoyable to watch somebody try to drink out of it which I'm not going to do right now but when you tilt this back um you have to be real careful in watching the the beer come down the end but it the the uh tulup end here adds tremendous Aroma to the beer and really just makes it a fun way to finish off the only really significant piece of glass wear that we're missing is one that uh many of you I'm sure familiar with the so-called pilzner glass you know the one that looks like an inverted uh funnel small at the bottom and tapering straight up with little bit of a stem and that's traditionally used to drink pills Style Beer we just don't happen to have that sample here well Dave I think uh we made it through uh at least some of the equipment we have I think we've got enough left over to uh continue at some other time but that's going to do it for this show with the exception of the infamous mail bag mailbag yes we've been collecting all of your cards and letters and reading all of the email that we've been getting and uh we love hearing from you we have to whittle it down due to time to just a couple of letters so why we dig down deep into that mailbag Dave and see what we have from our uh viewers at home well we have this from uh Fred in Franklin who asks what is first word hopping and why would anyone want to do it first word hopping Fred first word hopping is when you add your first addition of hops into the kettle as you're starting your sparge this is even long before the boil starts and uh you might think that by adding your hops that early you're going to boil off all of the Aromas as we've said before however by using this technique the Aromas actually stay in the beer and you get a lot more Aroma and uh hop flavor by doing a first work HPP there you are Fred there you go Fred what else you got Dave got anything else in there our second and of necessity our last letter is from Ashley uh right here in town where can I get that famous Mac Mac wear that everyone is talking about uh the famous or inFAMOUS mawar well Ashley I'm sorry to say that our plant in Indonesia got shut down it was also making Kathy Lee's clothing and uh that has caused tremendous delays in our orders and we hope to be uh getting in our first shipments any day now but they want 4 cents an hour unbelievable all right Dave it's been a great show we'll do it again everybody out there in [Music] mland B why back whatever is that pitched on your melon looks like something you found in the park and lot of schaer Stadium after a patch game H Dave this is the latest in our round of Macar this is the perfect black and tan helmet got a rich creamy Stout on one side and a cool golden pilsner on the other Blended to Perfection I'm glad the Russians don't have your mind now what do we do that's [Music] it well I don't know we're not we're not the Russians don't Factor anymore

and be here for one um another presentation of this program Family Academy today we have our presenter a our community partner she came from the Federation with the kids with special needs and the topic for tonight is building brids par us partner is um in education you are parents and a very important partner in education for the student to succeed so a is here and enjoy the presentation thank you so much thank you thank you hello everyone good to see you know so many famar faces and new ones there some that PR for me um for those that do know me um don't know me my name I work for Federation for children gr special needs um the Federation is a umbrella of many different programs and within them we have the Massac the mass family engagement program and within that we have the school finder help line that's where I work and I going to talk a little bit about that but also before that I going to talk about the important role of the parent throughout the educational journey of the student of your children okay so I going to be putting back and forth my glasses but um I hope that that doesn't distract you so we as Federation we are the pti's Statewide you know uh parent training formation center for the state recover the whole state of Massachusetts we're not a state agency we're a nonprofit organization and our services are free for parents Educators and professionals working with the families what we do uh we provide information resources trainings this is is just one of them there are many different ones and I invite you to go into our website which right in the bottom www fcs.org and find out more about our organization in the work that we do um one of the sorry about that the we have um training which is to train parents and professionals um a little more in depth of the special process it's more intensive it's called PTI which if you have a child with special needs or when I say special needs you know connect with the physical disability but it's not only the physical disability is also for specific learning disability sometimes children have difficulty learning sometimes in Reading sometimes in writing sometimes math sometimes it's behavioral and say is that we help you with information with all the issues that you might be going through or try to support as much as you can we try it so uh we do have an annual conference coming up which is March 8th uh this side of the next one is a virtual conference um that exists for 25 years and um there's over 40 presentations and including multiple language so if you are interested uh tonight because you're here and whoever is watching with us uh you can either you know sign up on the Block the morning is going to be passing on or you can email a schoolfinder at fcs.org is one of the fers that is connected with the this lights that was provid oh she's going to provide you is not in there you going to have so um let's see let's di in in today's today's session uh which is called I'm excited uh to talk about family engagement and the critical role parents play in education so the title of this session is building Bridge which is parent as partners and education as we begin I want to acknowledge the challenge families often face and navigating in educational system today especially if fing the system often feels complicated to understand and there are many barriers um that can get in way for some families that are real fear of attending school or interacting with system whether it's due to language barriers concerns about the child's learning needs or the confusion around education policies on top of that families for dealing with housing stability face a constant uncertainty that makes even hard to engage with the school system and with the political climate today there's a lot of mixed messaging making difficult to know what resources rights are available for English Learners especially those with disabilities this complexity increases for the system can often feel like it's not designed to meet the unique needs of his students but I want to reassure you that you are not alone of facing this challenge today we are here to talk about how we can navigate this barriers together and ensure that every child has access to support they need for Success so despite this challenge Z goal as a parent is incredibly important you have a right to advocate for the child's education and today we will discuss how to navigate the mop I'm try face okay thank you go to baras to ensure your child receives the support they need research shows that strong parents engagement leads to better students outcomes such as improved attending higher grades and healthier behaviors in childrens and adolescents so let's explore how we can build this reach together SCH schools can build positive relationship with their parents by addressing barriers to engagement like scheduling conflicts those transation language needs and ensuring a welcome environment like this one today then we should be aware of key legal protections that support students rights and access to education schools cannot ask about your or your child's immigration status family ucational rights and Privacy Act which is called FAA protect the students record from being shared with immigration authorities equal education opportunities act ensure language support for students who are not willing in English IA or individuals with disability Education Act guarantees F Education Service for children with disabilities title six of the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race color national orange gender or sexuality parents and Guardians have the right to request and interpred for meetings and school communication the school were designated a sensitive location meaning immigration enforcement actions are generally not allowed inside schools an ice officer cannot access a students unless the parent gives consent or if they present a warrant signed by a judge the school staff should consult legal counil to evaluate and warrant and inform the students parent Guardian if that happens the schools cannot share a students indentifiable information with outside parties including ice agents without parent consent or J warrant students direct directory information is not protected under F students record pre Privacy Law parents and Guardians make out of sharing their child's direct directory information if approach or detain you have the right to remain silent and provide the red card from me I know they they were here last month so if you need more cards there's more to provide if you question about immigration status keep emergency contact forms updated with the school so the school who knows who to contact in case of emergency included an emergency contact outside your household talk with your child about increase immigration enforcement and create a plan including a caregiver up if needed so you're going to see on the slides that I that I provided a link which helps you to create that plan with a child and there is another another one that actually provide some keywords or a way to communicate with a child to prepare um to discuss the increased um number of reinforcement that we are facing this time the benefits of school Family Partnership we heard that a um research shows that when families are actively engaged in their childhood ation is students them to earn higher grades have better attendance and complete homework more consistently in fact paramal involvement is one of the strongest predictor of Student Success regardless of a family social economic background family engagement plays a significant role in the child's social emotional development the students were the strongest School family connections often exi higher self-confidence greater motivation and more resilience the students also tend to have fewer behavioral problems and better social skills making them more successful in the classroom and Beyond Beyond academics and social emotional growth family engagement also directly in inuences the students participation and the School attendance the students are more likely to participate in school activities and stay on track to graduate regular communication between schools and families reduce aism and reinforces the students sense of belonging further supporting their academic and emotional development I just want to check with the purp am I too fast I'm try to face myself I promise students are designated as sensitive locations oh that was the next one is a critical element of successful School Family Partnership is the trust and relationship built between parents and Educators a school that actively work to create positive relationship with families Foster an environment where both Educators and parents feel value this trust leads to a more supportive and productive learning environment for students engaging diverse families provides the schools with a better understanding of students background is strengths and needs culturally responsive family engagement promotes equity and education and it ensures that all students have resources and support they need to succeed the school with the strong Family Partnership experience higher teacher satis section and lower burn burnout family involvement creates a positive School climate improves collaboration within community and leads to more effective educational relationship when teachers feel supported through strong family school relationships they are can dedicate more energy to Student Learning fostering a positive and prod productive classroom environment a stronger partnership between families and school plays a crucial role in the Student Success you got that right as parents you are a child your child first teacher and best advocate so we know that when parents and teachers collaborate the students benefit academically socially and emotionally so far open communication creates important opportunity for team teenagers to develop key skills that help them navigate adolesent research shows that students with engaged parents tend to have higher grad attend the school more regularly and take higher level courses this partnership also Foster motivation reducing Dropout rates and increase the likelihood of a opportunities parents can be involved in various ways attending events such as this one is staying in touch with the teachers and guiding their child to homework and extracurricular activities but family school partnership go beyond academics when parents and teachers work together the students develop confidence selfawareness decision making skills this relationship help young people build resilience preparing them to adapt and try in their communities when parents engage in their child's education they'll help create the foundation for lifelong success by staying formed involved and proactive every parent can contribute to a stronger education experience for their child I know that not all schools have the same resource which can be a barrier to family involvement The Mending working work schedules that need parents ability to attend school events cultural or language barriers that make communication difficult Transportation issues that prent and families for engaging in person even when schools and parents face some challenges involv parents play a crucial role in maximizing available support and opportunities for students for example instead of attending events in person like today you might start by attending virally like others that might be watching this the other way is encourage your reading and help with the homework at home you might say yeah but I don't know the content and we're going to talk a little bit about that request translation and interpretation Services ah had of time to be able to fully participate in your child's education if you need help understand forms or school documents you have the right to request interpreters and translations contact the school or district office to access the services uh participate at the parents groups in your District such as PTA the parent Teachers Association elac English learner parent advisory Council or cacs ucation P advisory Council stay connect by check the school website for updates events and resources cultural differ are real right can you testify to that I I don't know I have few stories of myself so I'm trying to just keep myself on the SCP right here today but I have quite a few stories does anyone want to share one okay all right so one thing that I would bring it up as an example um there was a part of our state the word I which is the individualized education program for children with special needs with disabilities um the interpreters they replace the word IP for pay e i they reverse the order of the words because that's how it's WR and PS and because of that they never mentioned the word IP and multiple parents in that region didn't make the connection with the pay and the I which is a legal document where the schools they have to follow by state and federal law and that brought a lot of confusion for that one family specifically which is the child migrate here and with clear intellectual disability physical disability mulle disabilities I would say which would trigger the evaluation process to start right off the bat however because of that there were delays in services so one of the way one of of the reasons that I'm here today is actually to inform you of some of the things that you might not be aware of and to tell you that is a place that you can check different of your question or in need so let's explore some key differences between the US education system and other countries one of the most important difference is parenting volume in the US the school expect parents to be engaged in their child's education attending parents teacher conferences helping the homework and supporting school events another key difference is how students are taught in us here education emphasize developing critical thinking skills rather than focusing solely on memorization this approach helps students become independent independent thinkers and problem solvers preparing them for rapidly changing world when it comes to special education inclusive education is not as widely available in many countries as it is in the US here students with disability have a right to individualize theti program which I mentioned before I or a 504 depending on their needs to ensure they receive the support needed to succeed alongside their P by support is another difference many US schools provide language services for students who speak a language other than English however the level of support varies by state and district there are other educational op in state that parents can explore sh with the family's prior consent I going to share another example how um the work that we do actually was helpful for this family specifically I like to share an example that illustrate the situation which I might be able to assist you to this the students became very ill and while she was still able to work the number of missed from school due to doctor's appointment medical procedures recovery time and physical barriers at the school caused her to fall behind a community in this case a virtu school option proved to be the basket for her we support the family throughout this process which I'm simplifying for you today uh now she is attending school on track to graduate high school and has we started making plans to attend college you are your child first teacher and you and most important Advocate your culture language Traditions en reach their education your voice matters and your presence in the tribe's educational Journeys in valuable you're not alone schools communities organizations and educators are here to support your the way hey as a parent it's essential to understand your right regarding language Services the school and Health Care Systems are required to provide interpretation services and translate uh documents signature including the student handbook 504 plan and thep but also in your daily communication with school with the teacher if you're not understanding what they are communicating it's important to request your child has right to receive the support they need regardless of their language if they are English Learners leaving situation or developmental challenge the first La that I'm going to talk about is M act under the m v act even children who are on house or in stable leing situations are entitled to free public education another one is the child find Provisions ensure that children with disabilities or developmental delays are identified and supported early if your child was born with disability of early intervention services here you likely be set up for year however if you notice any developmental delays between bir age three you can speak with your child's petition about your concerns but also parents can also request Services directed from our if you notice delays after you try it turns three or any time during the child vation Journey whether you suspect of a disability or have diagnosis from a doctor it can request an evaluation want okay sorry about that see that's why I'm trying to follow the the notes Here uh so if you notice delays after try follow you better oh okay then you know what here we go let me speak for my heart follow you from your heart awesome so uh if you notice did you get the first part when they said about if the child was born here in the US okay so if your child was born here in the US and you heard from the doctor that your child was born with a disability it's very likely that you leave the hospital with the services already set up for what is called early intervention if your child wasn't born here but you came when the child is between the age of zero is and six months or you know three before 2 years and 6 month uh you can actually share with your PS your concerns about the child's development and if the doctor doesn't think the same way you do you can actually call the place and ask for service independently for this sphere of time however when the trial turns free one day before the child turn free the early Convention Services end so because of that your child might need extra support between the age of three and five if they going to start as kindergarten or six if they're going to start as first graders one point here important to mention is that the tribe has to have 5 years old to byy September 1st to be enrolled in kindergarten and the same thing with the six for first grader first grade so if your child is a tri that completes their birthday is September 4th usually it goes to the next year that they going to start the school the there is a lot that actually the child has to be in school by six years old so technically by five is a given and there's a information on the district's website when the opening uh for registration is um going to happen I just want to see that okay the special ucation programs one of the things that for students that are English Learners doesn't mean that they cognitively cannot understand what is being taught in the classroom they might be Advanced and they might have a chance to ATT classes that are more advanced as well so there are things that we can talk I just want to invite you know you guys to reach out to ask you know questions and especially the patient it's a whole process so if your child was diagnosed with a disability back in your country and came here there is something that to be shared with the school and there is a process to start if you want to learn more we have other presentations and again you can just call and we can walk you through the process if your child was diagnosed here by a doctor um and the child needs extra support than what is being offered by school we also can talk with you and discuss about the services and the I the program to help you understand the process but I also advocate for a child in light of increasing immigration uh enforcements it's important to approach conversation with your child with care and sensitivity so be honest and age appropriate about the situation while ensuring that you try to feel safe and support it one thing that you might want to do is actually have a conversation with your child about who could be a safe person a safe person if something happens uh with one of the parents or the parent um another thing that we we have here is links to the page that actually by age is divided it's kind of funky um but you guys have on your PDF as well um for early Tri card between Age 5 uh 0 and five the elementary which is the 6 years old to n can you see that one it's to small small sorry about that I'm try to keep like three of and the Middle School from between the age 10 and 13 and the high school is 14 and hour so it's important for you to have open conversation with your tribe but all so be attentive to the age appropriate and talk about um who could be the safe person to actually provide any kind of support if in case um that happens and you need um updating the emergency contact form from school like I mentioned before bring someone else that is outside your household it's another way to prevent some kind of if you are uh the and um make sure that the child is not going to be uh by themselves right so the other resource that you see on the right side is help your child learn to read um one of the te that exist in me is that because the child speaks a language they cannot learn another one where they are having trouble learning English because they speak another language there is research that they want that they already show that is not true that actually helps the child develop not only one language but multiple language so if your child is having trouble learning if you were told that contact us that is very likely that is more Che it and also you can discuss that with your child p u to discuss for the the concern that you have about their learning so some ways that the parents can actually help their child putting the at home because that's one of the things that parents ask oh I don't speak the language I don't know exactly what you're learning and how can I help so we can help by reading together every day can be just a short story um you can ask your child to be allow and create a reading which can set time just a regular time can be a bad time can be uh just a silent moment that you have throughout the night just to calm down before Lear to um B and it's okay if you try read in their own language it strengths their ly skills and they can transer those skills to learning English or you both can learn English together so you might identify something some words that actually is helpful for both of you but you can Max it together so by f in Reading friendly environment you're building a foundation for the future success in school and Beyond and here we going to talk a little bit more way that the parents can help their child so you can talk with your child about their day encourage your child to write every day of course if they little ones that they not actually really develop the writing skills you're going to develop you're going to help develop the fine M skills by other activities and again if you need those you can help with that you speak to your child in your home language so you might want to try English but if you want to keep you try it Bilal that's the way to go talk about the benefits of being Bal within your child sh special and recipes from home you're going to create an environment at home where you try not only going to carry the traditions and the history about your culture but also it's going to be build their own as they grow the here in the US so listen to your child read alloud and sign up for a free library card I don't know how many of you here know about having library card can you show my hands come on just okay Monica you're the only one okay I have two more three more but if it doesn't help she's professional so one thing that I want to tell you is that the library you can have the free card they have multiple books they have videos they have CTS they have multiple information for free and if it happen that you borrowed the book from Fall beaver and some something happen in have you move to another city or town you can actually return at the library in that city or town you don't have to come all the way to frer and you have access another thing is asking your child bring your child to the library to actually choose the books the topics that they want to read the that sense of um having you know them encouraged to actually be it's empowerment for them so the next one we're going to talk about encouraging the writing and um also offer a space so they can do their homework they can sit down and be able to prod to work that they have to provide at school so writing doesn't have to feel like a chore you can encourage your child to write about things they passionate about it could be a fun story a letter to a friend or even a Daily Journal the more fun they have the more confident they they will become you can try making share activities right together share stories and celebrate the activities expose your Tri to variety of books and stories and articles um can make very exciting part of learning like I said choose something that they have interested in already so we make the activity fun consider introducing digital books or audio books especially if they have access to technology the formats can engage be engaging especially for reluctant readers so if your child needs extra help in reading that's one way that you can also help having the book and have the audio book at about the same story to play together so the child can actually learn and spend time reading with your child whether it's a bedtime or during a quiet moment uh modeling reading behaviors well uh helps your child see the reading is important and enjoyable um sometimes sometimes what we perceive as behavior in teenagers especially can actually be a form of communication I invite you to shift your perspective and look beyond the surface it could be frustration lack of confidence or even a need for validation when your teenager struggles they are trying to tell you something so they might simply need support a different way to express themselves what might seem like defance of resistance is often a different need for expression so the ones that have teen The Next Step you notice Behavior take a moment see things through a lens and understand that your team might just be struggling to communicate their needs with your support they can unlock their full potential as a wrer so T teenagers often you know resist the writing portion of homework unusual so writing is essential skills that students are expect to master over time when they start kindergarten in first grade second grade and third grade you know when when they got to the third grade they are supposed to now generalize the skills that they learned before but if they got to the third grade and they have a lot of struggles reading or be able to engage in classroom they might need extra support and exra supports are available so again as a parent and observing being part of the ucation portion of your child helps you understand the needs but also help them um Express to the teachers or Express to um if you're having a meeting with the Educators um your tribe specific needs here is a portion how actually educat can support families they can create a welcoming environment for where families feel respected valued and included uh make sure they know their contribution I appreciate and their voices are heard that's the number one negative feedback that I have from parents is that they are voicing however they feel that they're not being heard so that's one of the things provide clear clear communication um translated materials the interpretation services this help reach the language needs but also if ensures that important communication are understood by the parents respect cultural differences so understand which family are coming from so if there is um traumatic event that a family went through or a loss you can communicate with the school with the teacher and so they will understand if your child is struggling for a period of time and ex supports might be available to support them encourage you know mly parents to participate in their child's education and listening to their ideas concerns and feedback Okay so have B staff trained by desie um bie is offering a training which is divided in three tiers and what I would invite you um is School District to actually expose the professionals working at the district to be trained there's different levels that they can be and where it's important to bring it up so what to do when my child I already talked a little bit about diagnosed with disabilities facing learning difficulties behavioral challenges mental health problems and school refusal you can start by communicating with the teacher communicating with the school to try to see if they can provide the resources available this is one uh that I found on the website here from the F Public Schools if you the student or families are in need is just to get in contact with them and Monica here is here to support if you need my and here I will introduce to you the I know that the FES were distribute and um if you want to be part of the conference there is more than just special needs or specific learning or specific disabilities it's about interpretation it's about health health system so it's important like for the Portuguese there's a session that you're going to be talking about M out specifically there's another one that is going to be talking about discipline and uh behaviors so there's over 40 presentations which I'm not going to L one of them for you right now but I I I just want to make gow and if you are interested you can just email schoolfinder fcs.org with your name last name um then your phone number and uh tell me that you are interested in and I can register you and provide you more information how to move forward from that um so how you work what we do we help families with the school enrollment and placement assistance also support for English Learners and multilingual families special vacation and suit Support Services advocacy and family engagement and address complex situations and social challenge like some of the examples that I gave you before um who we support All Families different of their backgrounds the language that they speak uh abilities or difficulties uh so we address students with and without disability here are some of the questions that we received um one of them is how can I communicate on my district if I don't speak English which is scho can I my child apply to and what other lines here is specifically for high school there is many options in terms of a high school placement especially schools that are uh Career and Technical focus and which they have a deadline where the application is open at this moment in mulle in multiple schools throughout the state if you try this looking for something that is on that field they can graduate high school with the diploma and depending on the FI with the license to start working as they graduate high school so together we can build educational system where every child feels they belong and has the opportunity to succeed thank you parents is school for your commitment involvement in your child's education and we will love to hear from you so at this point i' like to open the floor for any questions or comment in my have please feel free to share your thoughts and ask about anything you discuss today you import Val to us thank [Applause] you any specific question question I don't bite you have one okay than you do is that a question no okay if there is no question then I guess um I'll hand it over to Monica thank you very much everyone and all right thank you all right everyone thank you so much for coming tonight for this amazing presentation the resource still there at the table and please feel free to enjoy some PE and refresh before you go home thank you so much for coming here tonight

[Music] so cute [Music] I [Music] they [Music] spe welcome everyone my name is Cynthia bti I'm one of the music directors here at Continental School District this is the fourth grade class and today they will be performing the musical Jazz for you before we get started a couple of recognitions I do want to thank the fourth grade team for being flexible with our rehearsals today The Specialist Team for all their support and making sure that our students can get together and rehearse as a group and um as well as Mrs quos Mr lean for all their support with our music program I'm really excited to be here today with you all and show and have you see all the hard work that your students have put into this last recognition before I forget the c um the Continental foundations they have been really great about providing a lot of our props for us for these musicals in the past so you'll see some of the props being used today um just a shout out to them we're gonna go ahead and get started [Music] Jaz is jazz is a unique kind of music that was born in America at the turn of the 20th century the City of New Orleans played an important part of the development of Billy Jack way back then the people of New Orleans um um came from many different cultures there were African-Americans as well as cre were the descendants of mixed African French and Spanish Heritage there were also people from Europe Latin America and the Caribbean all of these different cultures had their own musical Traditions as all these people come together to play music many different styles of jazz begin to emerge some of these Styles include dixyland bbop swing and the [Applause] [Music] blues yes [Music] sing in America Jaz is music every know [Music] [Applause] [Music] orans re [Music] play Sing s ja [Music] CH s [Music] sing s sing sing [Music] [Applause] the blues is the musical style that the African amican commity it came from plantation work spirituals and it was used to impress sness and hard although jazz is turn into Boo and turn into jazz the blues has found its way into almost every style of 20th music from folk country pop and of course jazz the word blue is has even become another way of saying sad so if you find yourself feeling sad at least you know you can always sing the L [Music] and and here I you feel so you [Applause] [Music] I [Music] and [Music] [Applause] [Music] know [Music] [Applause] I know one of the earliest STS of jazz with Dy land a blending of African rhythms and an improvisation of European instruments such as the trumpet clarinet or Trum Dixie Land musicians combine musical ideas from Brash band Marans marchs rag time and blues over a steady Rhythm played by a Rhythm Section some of the instruments in a dixyland group played a melody others improvised your Jazz the song Disneyland jazz is also known as New or Jazz it wasn't actually called dixyland until it started to move north out of Luanda because New Orleans is on the Mississippi River it was easy for musicians to travel North bringing their music other cities quickly became known for jazz including Kansas City s Chicago and New York Young Americans in particular really like this new style of music they often listen to it and dance radios and record players were becoming more widely available which also helped the popularity of jazz almost anyone can listen to it on American Airwaves and dance halls and even their own homes Jazz truly is spring across the line [Music] the [Music] is here to [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] to the [Applause] [Music] as Jazz spread across the country and even around the world it also in the 1930s a new kind of J known as the big band s s music was energetic and fun to dance Too jasan group to include four trumpets four trumpets drum bones and five woods and rym section they toured all over the United States and filled our country with the sound swim a new style jazz C but was made in the 1940s was a complex St of jazz including fast Melodies and uh improvisation beop showcases the technical skills of players that had a frantic feel to it some people didn't care for It While others thought it was genius pool Jazz also appeared later in the 1940s but it is very different from beop the word pool meant the style was slow and relaxed in the 1950s and 60s I Latin dances had a strong influence at jazz such as the S and the BOS NOA became extremely popular in the United States Jazz has own unique sound us a wi variety of perspective such as and the cool thing about Latin jazz is that it doesn't always swing you see not all jazz music has a swing feeli to it if you ever wondered what it means to swing or not the swing GL I show you [Music] [Applause] [Music] to S to that is that is the [Music] to S not to s [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] today jazz continues to be to evolve and blend with music with other music whether it's Jazz Rock contemporary jazz or another new styo of jazz is still growing and changing jazz is about personal expression emotion and communication although there have been many great jazz musicians over the years some of them stand out as true Legends the song song was one of the first well-known Jazz musicians he played the trumpet and was famous for his unique rby voice everybody called him Sato Duke Duke Ellington was a jazz comp composer pianist and big band leader for many years many of his words became ja like thing Miles Davis was also a jazz trumeter composer and B reader he was a real Pioneer in many different styles of jazz Sean C was a jazz pioneer he's considered to be one of the most influential saxophonist and Jazz history eleph face can make any song a jazz song when she sang it she had three oal vocal music range and everybody called her the first lady in song Frank Sinatra is another great jazz singer who went on to become one of the most popular and influential music artists of the 20th century to today he remains one of the bestselling music artist of all time dizzy gesy was a Trum band leader and composer Bak the modern Jazz team but he was probably most famous for playing a bent trumpet and having on his puffy cheeks Dave breach played jazz piano and composed a number of jazz standards he's probably best known for his use of unusual meters Ry and tonalities Herby Hancock was another jazz pianist van leader and composer e he he was one of the first jazzers to embrace electronic instruments even today he is still on The Cutting Edge of jazz in the 100 plus years that jazz has been around there has been thousands of great jazz musicians we may not have time to talk about all them but we can certainly pay them a tribute [Music] for birthday [Music] [Applause] [Music] his [Music] why [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right let's give it up one more time for our fourth [Music] [Applause] graders at this time the fourth grade students are going to walk off stage and line to the side once they've checked in with their teacher you may go ahead and take them um please have a wonderful rest of your night and thank you again for supporting your students in music [Applause] [Music]

all politics is local with John featherston an in-depth and comprehensive look at Massachusetts political news and current events hi and welcome to another edition of all politics is local I'm John That's Mike what's going on Mr Adams still Mike still Mike and I'm so glad you're still John we don't want you to change don't ever change John what a week in the world of politics Mr it's hard to keep up with um you know I I enjoy it but I mean it's like we we we'll talk about a lot of things today

welcome USD 264 staff parents students patrons community members and anybody joining us and watching us on YouTube uh for this uh video I just wanted to come together and just kind of uh share an update uh for our superintendent update for this um volume 17 for March of 2025 uh what we're going to focus on today is really um just some things that are happening at Elementary West um all of our buildings are having some great success this year but there's been three specific things that have happened uh at Elementary West and happening uh later this spring at Elementary West I just wanted to make sure and get that information out to everybody so know uh kind of what's going on and how we are attacking uh strategic goal uh plan number one which is to increase uh student achievement so there's three specific things that uh have happened this year that we're just really really excited about and sometimes when we don't share the news we don't aren't able to get that information out there um but uh internally from an education standpoint and education uh fraternity of different schools and and organizations um there's a lot of work that our teachers at ew uh also our director of teaching and learning and our administration at ew have done to really kind of uh shed some great shed light on the great things that are happening uh over there in the building so the first thing is that there's a group called the collaborative classroom organization um so it's a group of network of different schools across uh different states uh that really work together on how you can be more productive in the classroom and also how you can provide high quality interventions uh for students and so the first thing that happened is that the collaborative classroom organization requested that we host at Elementary West a day where area schools could come and visit and learn about our Intervention Program that we are using um so a lot of the work that Miss Erica rup and Miss Kirby Woods are doing with their uh intervention times uh with the students as well as the individual teachers were being recognized and so we had schools uh from the witto metro area from northeast Kansas and South Central Kansas that came and visited um the building that day and that was back in October uh and they really just kind of went and visited what we were doing in the classrooms for reading and math and also what were we doing for our interventions and how we are um notifying students and providing them the best opportunities um to get better and then later um during that same time that collaborative classroom organization because of the people they had here um they did write a blog post about our sips program that we're using and that's more specifically on the reading side of things and so as you can see there um there's a snippet from that so if you just uh search that collaborative classroom sips blog post uh you'll be able to pull it up and just see the great things that uh Kirby um Eric her Jamie Brady and uh Casey Piney have been doing in in getting that uh program really going at a high level and just getting some real good National recognition uh for that and then the last exciting thing that we have that's actually coming uh here towards the end of uh March is that we will have about a dozen principles from the state of Texas um that are going to come visit Kansas and they're specifically coming to Clearwater and specifically to Clearwater Elementary West um to visit uh what we're doing and how we are approaching School Improvement how we are using our plc's how we are using our intervention time and how we're using data uh to make decisions that help students be the most successful that they can be um these are schools that are being uh collected in organization similar to like Orion Education Service Center that we have here in Clearwater so that service center is organizing these principles that are looking for this type of work and has connected with us uh and being able to be here and visit so they'll spend the full day visiting with us and looking at different things that we are going to be doing so that's just exciting um to be recognized for all the hard work that the teachers have been uh put in so how did we get to this point is we're really again focusing in on that strategic plan gold number one which is increased student achievement and there's different bullet points under there but part of that is also making sure that we have high quality professional development so we've had um staff members from the new teacher project organization that also is partnering with KSD come in and do some work we've had Dr Kelly guspy doing some work with our professional development uh but we've also centered that professional development around their building goals and making sure that it's helping the teachers with the work that they are doing at that time and the professional development is also targeted uh to be able to give them strategies that they can use the very next day after the professional development and then they also follow up with that during their PLC process where they meet each week and look at how is that working so there's a coherence and that's kind of a word that is being kicked around a little bit but it's also a word that I'm using quite a bit with our Administration and our staff right now is that if we are going to do something it needs to have some meaning and we need to be able to understand the why behind it so when we have professional development why are we having it how is it going to impact us and what are we going to do with and I think the uh all of our buildings are doing a great job ew's just had the opportunity to be spotlighted in some different showcases with different visits this year to just show how that's all working second part of it is we've got great interventionist uh without our interventionist being able to work with students a lot of this would not be possible so having highquality interventionists that are in the right positions to be able to support those kids uh We've also got a really strong uh building leadership that has a good vision for what excellent instruction is and how that uh process is going to work each day and making sure that we're moving One Step uh in front of another to achieve that also with the work with our instructional coach and also in work with uh um School psychologists School social workers and the counselors to help make sure that the students have everything they need and then the last thing is is there's Collective efficacy amongst all the staff so in all the U staff members that are working at the elementary when they are having the professional development or having their plc's they're really digging in and working into what is best for our kids and how can we uh impact that and so when you have all of those components together is where you'll get that recognition and again all of our buildings have a lot of these pieces together ew just has the opportunity to be able to get some of that uh recognition this year so the last thing I really want to close with is man really Tak an opportunity to reach out via email see them in a grocery store come to the uh building and really just thank uh all the staff within the district because we've had a a rough winter with the amount of days that we've been out and still juggling all of this uh but the staff has done a great job so really encourage you not only just reach out and tell uh any staff member you appreciate them and thank them for all the hard work but if you see a staff member teacher uh instructional coach leadership uh psychologists social workers uh Paras anyone uh secretaries that also work at ew make sure you take some time to just congratulate and tell them thank you for all their hard work um they're getting some recognition this year doesn't mean they're any more deserving than any other building but they've uh put in the work and they've got the opportunity to really showcase some things that they've done and I want to make sure uh our community here at Clearwater knows uh how we are being um spotlighted Across the Nation in different areas whether it's principes from Texas whether it's a National Organization and then also just local teachers coming and visiting we've had that opportunity so make sure you reach out and give them a shout out as always we're reaching to be one degree more so while we're excited and we feel very successful with the work that we've done so far with ew this year we're still wanting to achieve more so we're going to keep working on getting one degree better each day and uh being one degree more for someone else again as always if you have questions or concerns please reach out here's my information you can set up a time to come visit always looking forward to reaching out and communicating with uh patrons and stakeholders um and having that opportunity so again thank you and hope this uh finds you well and we'll see you next month