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school committee on Tuesday March 4 at 5:4 p.m. um we have no public comment so we will go on to approving the minutes what oh I'm sorry no public comment do we have anybody here who's going to make public comment okay you're more than welcome to me I'm sorry I'm just so used to not not it um okay so we will go on to minutes we are there any corrections or additions I do have a request could you write out the name for brim the acronym just in there because I always I can never remember I mean I know buling no reporting buling reporting you want to email it to me and then I'll I I forget the brim is bullying too though like to me I don't bullying but I don't know what comes after that so I just think it would be good to have it yet written out um okay there's nothing else um move to approve the minutes of February 4th I second all those in favor is that you that okay um the warrant reports we have three of them they're here for anybody who would like to see them and I've also today and for this meeting I've also uploaded all of these documents to the my town government website I haven't done that in the past but there is a place to do that um we have no gifts um chairs update the only thing I have is that um I went to the PJ meeting and last week and they finished the readathon and had an incredible success and I think raised either four or $5,000 yes and it sucessful time um and that was with very little funding effort [Music] family be their next um event that they're working on um chair's updates do either of you have any announcements to make lot of anoun [Music] are you getting to ready to say something yeah sorry okay I'm just checking we had another um negotiation session um and the team reached consensus on several more areas of language including clarifying the work day and work week and finalized language on work related injuries uh we have two sessions next week March 5th and six and we'll provide oh this week I wrote I did write that last week so this week tomorrow on Thursday um and we'll provide a single update afterwards okay great thank you all right um Nikki isn't here should be a few minutes pleas okay we'll come back we'll come back to Mickey's update um Dr Z I wanted to keep my update a little bit short because I knew that um there was some presentations this evening um so I know that I am working on the PM report and so that will be in on Friday um so I'm hoping to capture just a little bit from Micky I think I have some based on all my superintendent updates that I can share for from since I came in moving forward um and then I worked with my team today in just trying to track what we're looking at for next for this year so I'm not surprised next year that I have to do for um because I also got a request on I think Le or a copy of a report to Y um and I'll just clarify so the the town report that is ready at town meeting time is the one that we will get this may is for 2024 and there's a section in there about the school and the superintendent has written that so it's a little odd because we don't operate from January through December we operate on the school year so um anyway that's the report that she's talking about thank you no problem um and so um we really we really want to make sure that um capture a good picture I'm going to do the best that I can this year and then do a much better job next year um I think for me I also there was a 911 call from the campuses I think that's the what Mickey is dealing with um so in terms of the after school program um there was an email sent today and if I don't have a set meeting by the end of the week I will be passing the after school program um that was a straw to me that broke the Cel back um so I'm not quite sure what occurred as about that and what that looks like but I think it's time to intervene before things escalate further um and I look forward to the presentations this evening okay great thank you um so I have on here to discuss discuss and possibly vote on the proposed um operating and capital budgets tonight um so I would like to ask William and Sarah best if they have any discussion questions we did have pretty good discussion at our last meeting for the budget cing uh I I don't think anything changed correct you what I don't think anything changed no we have not received any feedback since the budget heing I and just to clarify it was a pair two pair okay I know I had some parents call concerns that just to clarify that just concerns about that they'd be losing two pairs in the school okay and how that would impact their children's education okay in class size all right well we did talk about that last at the budget hearing so I I know that we have anything new to discuss about that really I justess have one more question I know one time we had discussed about joining two classrooms into one yes is that part of this budget or not no I think there were some um I got to chose my words wisely um but that's not in this it's not in this okay I can be you let that be the answer yes so we retain the classroom teacher okay MH and and and opted to but I would assume that all I may get the wordings wrong so correct WR all the special ed assigned pairs are all still in full force and working I can't come from medic check okay but none of the cuts would be for kids that are mandated to have um if they are affected so the I'm the way how IEPs are written and how they're normally written not how they're written here um students who require one to one Services may not require one to one Services all day they may require one to one Services during specific time um so we're discussing the poers and students with IEPs would still be able with the reductions to receive their required Services um I would have to make sure that they do and if they don't we would have to figure that out I it's a legal obligation to do that if we I imagine I guess this is um a question back to you if we had a student who came a new student and they requireed one to one I don't know how much funding we get when a student like do we get additional funding when a student I not enough to not I don't think enough to cover a full person salary that's that's the issue that we ended up running into yeah um um so it's not a model as IDE um but that's that's where that's one of the reasons we also have the power review that's going on at the central office to determine you know the IPS that we have now because really honestly and truly research Desi like Nationwide individuals are talking about the impact of one toone um in terms of student dependence and not creating an opportunity for that Independence that we should be like I think some I firmly believe that every child needs what should get what they need to be successful in life I also think that there's a misconception around the resources when it comes to special education and I think that we need to kind of do like a deeper dive into that um to make sure everyone is adequately getting what they truly need to be successful um not just with us but when they leave us and so um it's a hard question to answer with the cuts that we here okay I think both things can be true like the way I answered it last week I walked away feeling like I was putting a very positive spin on it because that's how that's usually what I do but it is going to be hard and we can do it and we will have to shift a lot of things um and I also uh agree with what you were saying about how our practices and I think that co co did have a little bit of something to do with it we are giving kids too much help in general and um so I think both things can be true and it's a balance and it it will be hard though to uh if we get more students who have more needs to run a school with less Paras well I suppose for example if you had a student come in who needed a one needed one onone you would need to come back to the committee and we would have to see whether there's anything we can do that we have to reappropriate funding on okay anything else do you feel like you've got answers from people do I feel like have absolutely the people who talked to you did not talk to us rest of us do I feel like I have answers for them now I guess I guess I would ask and I thought it was in here so it might be in here um like what are our current class sizes it's it's it's in here isn't it I was just trying to find that I don't see it I thought it was that's right it was if it's not there it wasenda it was in the agenda from last agenda not the hearing I guess I was going to ask what what are the what are our staff to teacher to kid ratios and what is the state mandate I should know that as a school Committee Member but I don't know that [Music] so I don't think the state doesn't really mandate the ratio that comes through the district and and what I've seen for example I believe it's ammer to the committee okay um that's one there is best practice when it talks about you know the size of a special education classro and and things like that but in some instances depending on your adult supports you know those things are put in place um the classroom ratios I do not know that off the top of my head so I'm going to leave that one to Mickey but I know you did ask about the consolidation of the K1 for the upcoming year and stuff like that so can you say like what the average class size is the average class size is about 20 okay some have 22 23 and some have one has pen and it's there's about two adults in each classroom at almost all time so it could be the special ed teacher in there it could be a par it could be the intervention teacher um so I guess the ratio would be one to 10 if I did my ma do you think the ratio what would what this budget going to impact on the ratio uh like is the class that only has 10 going to not have a parent and just a teacher is like is that or do we not know exactly where the Paras are getting cut from yeah I don't figure out the Paras schedule until the fall okay um I've done that in the past and had to redo it so um but I can take like guesses based on the classes right now it's it's dependent on student need more than uh how many are in the class um and so so some of those pairs that are currently in the classrooms are mandated are needed because of the students in the classroom well and also know that because of our Union contract there's seniority longevity so there's different things also that may come into play when it comes to who gets you know Rift first so can I tell my constituents that we will always be in compliance with the parents and the needs of our kids based on their iips with this current Bud i' wa to say yes I mean I don't want to be out of because I was assuming we could so that's why I mean that's why I started the conversation I didn't think the conversation would be well I don't know if we can say that does that make sense so I would I we would not be cutting for kids that need the services I think I would be coming here and saying we're out of compliance help yeah so if the kids if the current enrollment and the current children stay the same we can be in compliance and not have the two parents just would be hard it'll be tricky we we can be in compli okay I can take that message I'm done sorry well am I able to ask a question no well we don't typically it's typically a business meeting for the committee so I think I'm going to stick to that because we have kind of a long agenda tonight um okay then I guess I would take I would make a motion to pass to accept the proposed fiscal year 26 operating budget a second all right all those in favor hi okay if I abstain it doesn't pass um so after we all vote out to we all have to agree um so I am also going to make a motion to um accept the pum pis year 26 capital budget and is you second that okay and is there any discussion about that okay and um all those in favor great all right thank you um so I we have several people here with us tonight well we have one person who usually comes and another guest tonight Tommy McIntyre and gonna do a presentation about the reading ccul I'm here so welcome thank you um but good evening everybody McIntyre director curriculum equity and instruction of leadership and I'm going to do a short presentation for you about reading curriculum and um it is available on uh the cover picture I want to thank M light in her sixth grade class uh for letting me come and uh read we are here a book during afan American reading that that picture there and I hope you all were able to that um so as the first at the first uh slide it's a front and back for those of you that have cop um why new reading curriculum uh it talks about science of reading and it's just that in 2018 the district identified needs for new reading curriculum there was an Ela Review Committee um composed of uh different uh diverse stakeholders and they began their work in 2019 however um you know right after 2019 Co happened and that committee stalled and um some of the work did not move forward but with uh wide inconsistencies across the four uh School Four elementary schools where we looking at the opportunity to find the curriculum that meets the needs of um students uh currently it's important for you to see on that next slide currently what's happening we have the teacher C College uh reading and writing project that's happening in the school it is um as you see there was dissolved by the teachers college but it's a outdated curriculum it's um also has been shown to uh call some it prevents us to have some grant opportunities that if we wanted to reach out for a grant through the state you have to have something that is a time to deight reading that particular one is not so if we keep it we're going to prevent us from having Grand opportunities um it's also not aligned to the science reading so um that information is important for you to know and also important for you to know is Massachusetts moved to the forth shifts in literacy and this was um this guided the work that we're doing since 2023 um it started with what the district was looking at and so they said okay how can we um really think about what kind of curricula we put in front of our students which is going to make the most difference for them based on the science of reading and going to make most difference for all students um we have to pay attention to our year Divergent students our elll students at real income all of those particular segments so we're not just looking for something that's going to appeal to the mass but for all of our student groups um just some information on the four shifts for you uh we talk about explicit uh Dr atic foundations and that's all children need clear structured lessons um in phonics word recognition and decoding skills to become confident readers um the second shift is engaging with complex and knowledge Rich Text it's student built comprehension by discussing and learning the challenging books and topics that expand their knowledge uh the third shift is targeted small group instruction we know small group instruction is focused on either foundational skills for our early readers our comprehension for complex text rather than just reading at Great level or reading at level text great level and level text to different within and then last the fourth shift was balance literacy block and it's uh making sure that we understand the importance of every day including time for phonics reading writing and discussion to develop all aspects of literacy that brings us to where we are now with our pilot uh we are piloting magnetic reading found foundations um that is a great K2 uh foundational skills reading program at pelum it's being uh piloted in uh first grade and we are now in year two of this pilot it is not fully implemented yet across all grade levels um but it has provided some positive um positive signs in terms of the data and it is um provides early insight into structured literacy approaches um and we're hoping to move as a district across the system where we're addressing those things with students K so you might be wondering what's different it is an evidence-based structured literacy approach and that what's different is on yeah you got it so yes you're flipping um it transitions away from the reading and writing project uh to really deal with explicit um this actually the four shifts that I just mentioned yes on the back so it deals with the fores shifts in um that in literacy that we're talking about so we're looking at um systematic instruction increased focus on decoding influency high quality diverse Tech remember we want our students to see themselves in the curricula that we choose and there's greater integration of writing and oral language development um one of the components of the reading curriculum that we're piloting in uh the first grade is the opportunity to really gather some data on where students are so remember in order for us to be able to move students we need to know where they are how did the instruction really inform their learning and then what kind of shifts and pivots and practice do we need to make based on that to keep them movement forward and um the magnetic uh foundations allows us to use the I ready diagnostic there is the beginning of the year middle of the year and end of the year diagnostic that goes with it that allows us to really see progress over time um if you look at the next page with the graph I purposely put the one here so you can see that it's only a one grade so as we think about this and it's in grade one but there's an expanded version on your next slide where you really dig and see the data uh the top line is our midyear uh data and that bottom line right under underneath it was the beginning of the year data um I hope you notice that there's lots of green yeah so there's progress that has been made if you look at below you'll see particular strands that we're um talking about but overall it's um it's shown to really have made um positive student growth I want you to also be mindful that I am not sharing disaggregated data with you because we have a small group and if I disaggregate it in any way you'll know students so I will not be doing that although when you're with the region might see that this is why that's not happening here and you'll notice that same thing for your mcast data propellum it does not get disaggregated and I want to make sure everyone in the community is aware this is why we're not looking at specific things because there might be one child and we don't want that um called out for them um but notice that what's happening is the the growth has been um really positive and as we look at what kind of interventions like what happens to go from beginning of the year to mid year so the curriculum's working the way the teacher working with the students is working as we look at small groups that information's working those are the things that we highlight and this is why we think this is a systematic approach that all schools could use that this is promising this is showing that our kids are not only moving but if you look at the end where the red is that um more more of our kids are coming up so it's getting it's decreasing in terms of the kids not on grade level so it goes from a grade level one grade level behind two grade level behind and three grade level behind that's what the Vans are for um I'm going to stop there um so as you look as the light green dark green yellow light red dark red that's what those represent um for you I'm going to stop there for a second because there's not much more and I want to make sure you have a second to look at the the chart before we go on what does early on grade level mean early on grade level means that students have the skills so that they're actually reading like they're at the cup but being great right there okay ear and I have Miss Stephanie here Joyce who is our k6 uh curriculum person who's also here to help me make sure I say things properly um but as you go past and you look at what's next the hope is that we get more expand the pilot to more grades because we can see just from our first grade that this is really helping and it's important that we know that being able to understand the shifts and help move teacher practice is it also helps to have a curriculum that helps us do some of those strategies have the strategies embedded in it and also provides us the diagnostic information make in time switches and changes in practice to have better serve students so expand the pilot and then also offer professional development to teachers to know how to use it to know how to actually you read the data and say okay what do I do now but I think the more teachers that are using it in the pilot it gives an opportunity to have that collaboration with another colleague to say here's what I'm seeing what are you seeing um how are you using this how are you um shifting practice what kinds of things would you suggest and recommend and U that's the importance I think of having multiple grades and hopefully the entire school that's one point I'm ready for that um I do want to say that um as we think about our curriculum across all of our districts especially here with pum it is not just about oh let's find a nice little curriculum to use it's about e it is ensuring that all students have access to opportunities to succeed and having differentiation available for them to meet their needs where they are so that's very important and it is seeing themselves in the literature that they're reading so it is focused on all of those things the shifts but intentional Equity intentional opportunities for students to be able to to grow and stretch in ways that meet their diverse needs um it's important that our principles um Mickey and our principales in the Amis District have been talking about how do we better align and that's been I think a positive thing and will only be positive for our students as we go forward and start thinking about the future of instruction here in P but in our district and region as a whole um I want to thank you for the opportunity it's short because the question was oh tell us about the new curriculum so the pilot curriculum in first grade is doing a great job right now with an excellent teacher I should I should start with it's when teachers are doing the work and doing the training and really putting time in we have dedicated teachers in pelum as well as across other districts but when they have the tools they need to succeed it makes it an easier left for so I want to thank you I want to offer Stephanie an opportunity to maybe say some things and if there's something I need to PR please say so um but I'm sorry thank you so early on grade level means that they're scoring on their grade level but not where they should be at the point in Year all right so early on grade level means that I should be there like in the first month or two of the school year so at this point of the school year they should be at like first grade six six months mid year right early on grade level means that they're first grade but probably second month or third month so it's earlier in where they should be versus so they're on their grade level they're staring for first grade just not on like where they should be for this part in the school year the dark the dark the dark green is where the kid should be in mid you don't know this is mid want to keep in mind that the yellow represents the fact that we're only mid year in the year so we don't expect everybody to meet grel benchmarks until June so we expect some children to be in that r with um T's shared everything that's important I think we all thank Dr Z for supporting professional development this fall for all of our K2 teachers um from Pals K K2 special educator um and our other K2 teachers in the district District in explicit systematic structured literacy Foundation skills so there was that opportunity for everyone um and thank Mickey and um Miss Gonzalez for supporting the opportunity for this pilot here at to it's been really instrumental in providing us with information we need I guess I would just also say that some of you will recognize that this curriculum comes to us from curriculum Associates that also provides our K5 math program so heavy advantage of having one data platform for our Educators and our administrators as well I wondered about that when I saw the I the I ready is this being piloted in any other districts in the area ammer in ammer yeah there are more classrooms with ammer will that data also be on their agenda for am for am for us to look at I want I don't in the elementary right the K5 with the ammer just so I could have a comparison oh okay um yes they absolutely you could also just ask to compare ask us to compare P to to district and we could compare them to the district closest to as well as any other districts in Massachusetts so you can see how p I was just curious how this program is doing I know I didn't know if I could look on board dos that's what I was asking is it gonna be on board but no this was special to tell this was requested yes but I'm happy to get you some comparison can have it that's absolutely and later this week the CC Associates is doing um an overview for the whole district for Dr Z um and for us um so we look at districtwide curriculum in that and reading so they have have to share with you that's the six um I get my question did teacher yourself feel like it's successful does she feel like it's successful for her and for the kids and that it had like you know grow potential yes um it is so I'm going to give an example of the old curriculum when we were assessing kids we use these little books and um it had vocabulary in it like d i when I came across that I was like what the heck is that um and I had to mark it wrong because the kids didn't know how to pronounce it or even what it was and and it just wasn't it was very it didn't give us much information those assessments this this these assessments along with the reading program at level with level books with very structured literacy with the science of reading is is exactly where we need to be I'm um I would say I'm a little biased because I have been trained in how to teach reading um but that shouldn't really make me bias that you know that's a good thing right more critical like you know a whole wi about this yeah and so um I think it's wonderful because it's really Narrows in on what the students need the most support in um and also it requires the teachers too because the teachers can say well that is because it was a time test and so and so you know doesn't do well under pressure or kind of talk slowly or whatever so it's it's a combo definitely um but I think it's been extremely helpful the way that not only the program will tell you groupings that also Supply some ideas for intervention or what the kids might need um for those skills and the PB that the teachers have received this year they've even learned how to deep do deep dives into the data and create more inter more intentional intervention groups um so I think you also mentioned professional development and I think that's huge because I was not taught how to teach reading in uh my master's program I had to seek it out afterwards and I think that it's really important for especially K2 teachers but I would argue even about that to know the science and how to read so um I think it's always been part of the discussion with the new curriculum that we make sure we give our teachers some professional development around that it feels to me that this system is more about like managing for success right rather than like I felt like the old way where you like Del um like looking for failure right like it feels like it's a yes it's all about teaching and learning right but you're not like testing to make it wrong you're like testing to make it better yeah so I I think for me I think for me when you look at the PO um comprehensive programming teachers use all aspects for example when the data comes in for it they actually also small group of students like say hey these students have the same you know issues when it comes to this standard here are some mini lessons that you can use so it's very teacher friendly and engaging on say dive in um and for me I would like to see I I love that there's very little red and there's a lot of yellow but yellow is still one grade level below which means that our first graders are still on the kindergarten class whether it's kindergarten n nth month 10 10th month so it's like what are the strategies and skills that we need to bump our students up and support them in so that we can get them to to on grade level and I feel like once we use anything with Fidelity um and we apply it and we we instruct then we'll start to see the goals so for me I'm I'm really fingers crossed hoping that next year it's going to be a lot more consistent and it's going to be if we're doing K2 then we're rolling into K3 and we're rolling into sixth grade because there needs to be a level of consistency across across the Gres and I believe they go up I mean magnetic greeding right now is K five we have K too but the whole site is goes to five six and in January 6th grade so there is an opportunity for us to push straight through to sixth grade so they'll have that continuity and flow of again my favorite word data driven instruction but not data to oh my gosh test test test no data to build upon your skills and that's what I like to see how was the um all I can think is evaluations and that's not the right word but how do you how are the kids assest assess yeah sorry I just could yeah there's all there's uh sub tests and so so is it computer or paper or it's they go in with the teacher and some of it is reading off a computer and some of it is teacher yeah so it's it's different subtests some of it's time some of it's not some of yeah and how's the anxiety of the kids when they do the assessments um I'm sure there are kids who are anxious yeah um but they're used to being pulled um three times a year at the very least to come do these um but this program has Brain Breaks right they they so they also have like little games in between the assessment so like like they're testing but then there was like a brain break and like a quick two three minute It Go fish with it so if you walk in you think like oh my God they change screens no it's actually built in to the program where they know that kids need certain levels of like that so some of them actually see it as a fun tool you know yeah so the assessments are all done for the most part on a computer with the teacher support or the or the teacher is following along yeah and it's oneon-one then it takes a staff member per child to do the testing yes and what happens three times a year three times a year so what's going on with the rest of the class during that time if you don't have a par in the room anymore they're doing their intervention so um to support all children to be learning while some children are being assessed we've maximized the use of our reading Specialists and our reading intervention colleagues to to do those assessments um and and the assessment can be broken up over many days so we recognize when a child could be having an off day and you know we can adjust for that so yeah so our special ed teacher and our intervention teacher uh divide and conquer okay and do you feel like that that is realistic to do that on Sixth grades with that staff like to do testing for does that make sense right now you're testing in one class indidual special it's different get more that would be a lot to sorry to Wrangle while you're doing individual testing with limited staff and testing for older grades takes longer yes but it's more independent they don't need those K two this is what we're looking at K two but it does take time yeah and this is rolling out for K2 next year you roll out for this is the second year this started last year so we do it in kindergarten Carly no so we're piloting across the district and it was an option to be piloting we hope that next year it will involve all of our K2 classrooms okay so this year it's just first it's just first next year it might be K first and second it will be it will be very next year okay wonderful then we come back next year we'll have almost but thank you all and thank you you know it might just be helpful to know that because Dr Z asked this question too why are we ping again a second year because it availed us of the opportunity to to have grants come our way if we had decided to implement right after year one when we were meeting we could already show successes with the evidence it gave us this opportunity if we call this a pilot again to be able to be considered for Grants so thank you this is really great to hear about really appreciate the time us thank okay [Music] right Micky you're next all right well um I what no I'm okay okay I you can look at it I I almost know it okay um so I put together data from and I did a comparison of beginning of year to middle of year for ELA and for math um and I will say that when you're looking at the which slide did I put first sorry I should have brought Ela um I combined the above grade level and at grade level um because I felt like that was yeah um and then when you're looking at the data at what you will notice is it goes up for above grade level and then the purple purple's my favorite color goes up for above grade level and then the next one the purple goes down and you do want it to go down what is concerning is the last row where it goes back up again um when you when we're digging into the data though we look at individual classrooms we look at the kids who score below we look at what's happening it might be the timed test we um in those intervention meetings that we were I was just talking about um just a perfect example we had a meeting today where a student scored low on their Ela diagnostic that's we call we're calling them we call them um that's what we're we call them um and we we like talked about the student and we're like we need more information on this student and so the intervention teacher works with the student and we had a meeting today and the student has made so much progress in all areas that the assessment was timed and the mom was like yeah she doesn't do time you know like there's certain things that just we're not going to see in one dipstick of data um so even though that score at the end uh for below grade level dipped up I we you know we dug deep into each gray Bubbles and like Tanya said I didn't want to do it by gr bubble um for math math is and I originally did the green yellow and red um um and decided that it wasn't showing the the weird thing about the I ready math diagnostic results is that for example a a grade will have 50% green and the teacher will be like what oh my God you know that's where you want them to be you want them to be 50% of the way mid year and so I didn't want to show it that way I wanted to show it at um in the similar way that I showed the ELA that we are having progress at or above and the purple is going down in the other two um levels as the years have gone by with I read this is now our third year with I ready um um the data is getting better and better um and um I think the teachers have become more and more Savvy with the data which is really exciting I remember my first year as principal I decided I was going to do a data meeting and um everyone kind of freaked out uh because it wasn't something that they were used to doing and I have to say with the two new curricul uls and the two new assessment uh platforms that we're using teachers are getting more and more comfortable and it is uh so much easier to see where kids are struggling and with what and how to give them those prerequisite skills that they might be missing uh to access what they're doing so I am happy with the data um it is funny that you know the teachers who have like the one of the strongest performing classrooms will freak out at the 50% or the 48% and I had to video one of the um curriculum Associates saying during one of my PDS 50% is where you want them to be she didn't believe me him um and you know by the end of the year you want to see that green you want to see most kids get um to 100% of growth uh you're you know it's all about growth for them how much growth that student has made as well so we look at that um and it's really telling if a student's not making growth we really need to dig in and figure out why they're not making growth and what's getting in their way but that's kind of rare so um thinking ah head so you mentioned end of year would that data then be available next fall for us um I imagine we'll have a school committee meeting after we get the all the data at the end of the year because we'll do it well before the end of the year we'll do it um in time for the classroom teachers to do their report cards and great but I think the data is heading in the right direction um showing it is what you see in in the classroom and unfortunately there are students who are going to be in the red they're a lot of the kiddos who we already know and have IEPs and we'll hope for them we look at their growth and we try and get them there's also we can also track track their stretch growth what they need to do to get to grade level so we're also able to look at that with this program um yeah thank you um Dr Z you sort of already gave us the after school update but we're between and Meg we're GNA get a date on the calendar or like I told Mickey they'll be after school I'm sorry we're going to get we're trying to finalize a date on the calendar or they won't be after school right so we're working on that okay okay fames be notified if there yeah I don't have much to do that said will families be notified in a Time fashion if there's a stop ta um since we have people here who maybe don't know what the issue is about the after school sure um so the after the after school program um I think when I first of all I've learned learn that school programs are not really run by the schools um that was something completely different and you for me coming as a superintendent most after school programs in my past have been led by the school leadership um here in pelum there have been some issues that have trickled that has trickled from after school into the school in the morning and resting on the school leadership team to address and to clarify because individuals immediately assume that the principal um Can intervene or is responsible for what's happening um these incidents have kind of escalated to the point that the that Niki has brought it forward to me um I've been trying to have a meeting and then like I said today I was notified that 911 car was made and so I didn't have a chance to speak to to micke because she was dealing with it at the time when I called her um but for me that was the kind of the straw that broke the C's back um and so I think that we need to step in make sure that our paperwork is correct in terms of our agreements um also knowing that there's a level of responsibility that after schools need to have which is if there's there's conflict address the conflict resolve the conflict inform parents because when they come into the schools in the morning they are looking to the school leader to address it and to fix it because they're assuming she's aware but it's not her program so we need to kind of clarify that okay all right and the contract and the contract is up we need to make sure our contract is a good one because if I'm responsible I want to know I want to know that's really the bottom line I want to know if I need to oversee it or I maybe get paid a little more to do that okay thank you next is yes well being that I'm usually longwinded I'm going to be fairly short today because I'm just going to highlight um the uh Community engagement Leon portion of my job particularly the uh superintendent uh init of the every caregiver counts here at pelum and that is focused on ensuring that every parent and caregiver feels informed included and empowered to participate in their child's education and brother School community so um I want to report that the pelum family connections initiative is rolling out uh we are actively responding back to uh families who have responded back to the uh the parent survey that went out so right now we are actively scheduling appointments we have actually one coming up tomorrow and two next week uh the pelum family connections uh just went out in the newsletter and it it is also going to start appearing in the PTO forums uh with Miss Karen Peters in the PTO uh group uh I'm also going to be participating in the pum family fun night which is coming out next weekend so that that'll be a great opportunity to connect with parents directly talk about pum talk about the initiative and start scheduling um uh appointments so right now I'm actively reaching out to over two dozen families to connect with them to build community Through Communications and I would say that um it is starting to pick up I'm getting emails and inquiries about it so I look forward to being able to present some feedback and data from the call that we have so far and also I just wanted to highlight um the uh student engagement with the mentoring groups which have really uh started and soared to the point that uh right now we have about 65 total students between grades six four five six uh in between um fifth and sixth grade where we have whole grade mentoring weekly and also fourth grade as well and we just started with some individual mentoring so so the fact that we can sort of cover about half of the students so far in pelum with constant mentoring positive supports is a positive uh a positive uh direction that we're going in and once again the hel family connections we strive to build Bridges create strong sense of community by fostering open respectful and meaningful conversations with families so these are going to be really good uh getting to know you uh with the fam finding out their hopes their dreams what they're looking to accomplish and also giving them an anchor here in school and once again just want Tok thank Dr Z for uh the initiative of putting the student and family engagement in the school um at the school level and also working with Mickey three times a week with school supports have been really um I say inspiring and really u a growth really growing for me so for the mentoring groups we we're just ending our second session we're going to be having three more sessions which will go through June 20th so I'm looking to also report back at our next school committee meeting on some data feedback from the students it maybe some testimonials and maybe invite some families here to talk about it as well so that's my quick let me know get it on the agenda um it sounds like a lot has happened since the last meeting when we with us that there been a lot more connection yes yes and I think getting the the word out there just trying to really figure out what exactly is it what does this mean is this a group thing is it individual uh but I am actively this month um going to uh reach out you know to to all the people that responded to the uh surveys but also people that didn't respond to the surveys because as we know um I don't know the exact numbers but I know a lot of parents school choice so the fact that we have to build community when people don't actually live in a community is a feat but I think it can be done through having that connection point with the school so we've been having positive feedback look forward to he more all right that is our agenda for tonight um I just want to thank Moren brim is bullying reduction intervention in monitoring we were trying to figure out and we could we had several of the words just not in anyone try Google yes did could find it I even went bullying reduction intervention and mon yeah we were close though I'm very proud of us and as we we had growth I so I went on onps thats I wasn't there I was we were proud of ourselves I'm proud of you right now great job team that's right different path it takes a whole team to different Pathways to success C so um the last thing before we adjourn is items for our next agenda next meeting which will be the first Tuesday in gosh um so we'll hear back for you DNE we'll get another update for you um I would be really interested if you have any data on attendance absenteeism I mean I don't know if that's anything you can give us about how that's happening over the course of is that how what's happening like what we do about it we doing with absentee ism is getting better it is getting better and um what's interesting is when you look at the data oh do you want me not to I'll bring it next reading I can talk about anything for a while I mean when it comes to this okay yeah we'll put you on the list that in April would it be time for 43 update 43 up okay well I I know it's really an agenda item but I would love to have an Insight on how families are communicated with and so that the school committee members can also be included in those which I feel like we are somewhat because we get these random invitations through Google meet Google something from Marquita just to invite us to oh I do to various random things that are happening at P elementary but I don't always quite know what they are but I get these random Google invites for different things so like it' be nice to if we had a page to go to or a place to go to or I don't know yeah I keep well when we send out the newsletter I put school committee um I know we'll work from our office on better communication and getting stuff out more timely because that's a conversation that we're having as well so that things can be clearer in terms of what's happening and going to every every we I don't think I'm getting I don't think I'm getting it either it may be that that pum school committee list is not up to date did you get when I stuff you get from yes come the ones did you I sometimes I send stuff directly to well sometimes I just put Margaret to I put marget okay so I'll talk to Jerry yeah that would be good I'm not trying to create more work but no I'm already already but I I also think like some some context helps like okay so some information about communication that's fine okay great yeah working on one thing I'll just mention which I didn't before is that Cent I'm meeting with the p finance committee tomorrow I don't I don't know if are you was it's at noon here I I'm not really sure what it's going to be I mean I can tell them that we passed the budget okay I also have BCG so I'll speak to Shannon and see who can I'll talk to her [Music] today favor okay
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[Music] hello cloggers my name is hi silver and I'm very excited to bring you another segment of waca news blog today I'll be giving a quick update on the latest ashleen happenings as highlighted in the town manager newsletter firstly we have the fountain and Union Street water main replacement ashlin's DPW is replacing 1,800 feet of Aging water M on Union Street and part of Cherry Street to prevent future issues construction begins after the Boston Marathon in late April and will impact traffic updates will be provided later drug takeback box at the community center residents can safely dispose of unwanted medications at the ashin community center a recent incident where medication was left on top of the box posed a risk especially to Children residents are urged to place medications inside the box or seek assistance if it's full Ashlin budget process discussion the latest episode of Around the Clock features Town manager Michael Herbert discussing ashen's budget process with select board chair Yolanda Greaves offering insights for residents now there's a thin ice warning residents are cautioned about unsafe ice conditions on lakes and temp as temperatures rise Public Safety Crews do not measure ice thickness so people should avoid risks and follow State safety guidelines the environmental action club and replenish ashen's High School environmental action Club is partnering with tree plenish to plant 300 tree saplings to offset the school's carbon footall print donations are being collected for the project with a planting event planned for the spring coming up on March 15th we have the Metro West College and Career Fair which will be held from 1: p.m.
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uh good evening everyone I'd like to call the March 4th 2025 um Board of Health meeting to order um so the first thing on our agenda is we'd like to welcome Maurice cner as our new member of the Board of Health Maurice um Maurice I know we have a lot of people that um are on from home if you want to just say a few words hi um morrice um very excited to get started with the Board of Health um I've been an Ashland resident for a long time and um very happy to have an opportunity to give back a little to the town and offer my my service welcome welcome Maurice thanks for joining us um the next thing the next thing on our agenda is um citizen participation do I have anybody that wants to do any s citizen participation go ahead Mark hey even Marky 119 Main Street welcome to the crew there Maurice hope hope you have a good hope hope you be patient enough to be with us and be happy together is it is a good group um through the chairman to Roger want to ask him a question if it's okay go ahead Mark okay R uh R keep saying R um I hear I heard that the vaccinations are back for the uh the flu vaccines is that true Mr Mark can you repeat that the flu vaccine vaccinations is that um true that that is back being being being done we we we we have flu vaccines if you're asking that that yes we we do have at at the health department level also and then we have we have a tie up with a pharmacy uh called pin Hill Pharmacy in shuran that we've been doing clinics with but if you need need a flu vaccine we have it in in stock here at the the department I need was is making making sure people haven't had yet here that um it is it is still in town that they can come to the town hall to get that that that's true so we we have clinics Wednesday and Thursdays that are public health nurses here and we we do have flu vaccines yes yeah that's it thank you yeah thank you yeah thanks Mark um so the next thing on our agenda is a septic variance for 12 Oak Tree Lane uh do we have anybody on for that u m Chief you know so they didn't get uh clearance from comcom so we have to put it to the next meeting you know so uh I'll bring it back on the agenda once once they are on you know okay so that's going to be tabled due to con con that is correct yes okay great um next thing on the agenda is 61 Waverly Street 40b application request from zba for comments um so good evening we're going to resume the Board of Health meeting at 6:16 um the next thing on the agenda was the 61 Waverly Street 40b application request from the ZB a for comments Raj do you can you guide us on this yes Chief so what has happened this this was back in June 2024 right we from the Board of Health we have submitted nine comments for for the developer right uh this month they came back and sub submitted an application so uh the public meeting to my understanding is not set up yet but uh uh the zba have asked comments from board and committees you know if we have as I mentioned I we had we have submitted nine comments earlier I will share it with the board you know because Mr moris is new you know but this this we submitted in June 2024 but again if any board member have any other comments if they want to say it now or they want to email it to us we we we can put that uh forward in our comments you so just just little bit more on the project it's a 40b project uh at 61 baverly streate it's a five story building that's going to have 22 226 units uh and 25% of it it is going to be affordable and and this is the one it's like across from the high school right it's that land in between 135 and the high school that is correct so yes and all right okay so really there's nothing for us at this point right correct I mean there was there was some comment that that time you know that the board decided right that was sent to me and I have forward it to the to the to the developer you know at that time through through through through our zba all right so I guess we'll wait for more on that um for comments right and if any any board member have it you know please send it to our way you know and we'll will'll we'll put it forward to you okay thank you all right um so the next thing on the agenda is the mary mortensson public health award um this is a a discussion so we've received um two um recommendations we'll call them at this point um does anybody want to have a discussion um any comments kind of open it up the floor here so tonight is just for commenting are we still collecting nominations Raj so uh Dr J up to the board again yes I guess you know till we decide we we can or you know um at our last meeting Jay we had talked about you know keeping the nominations open till March 1 yeah and we would discuss it at our next meeting okay guess then we we we should not be collecting any any more nominations right we passed pass March 1 right thank you thank you Chief yeah yes um did anybody have did everybody have an opportunity to read the two nominations I did um yeah so I'll just comment on you know um the one of the um recommendations was to um do the award to the um Ashland emergency fund and my my just personal opinion I kind of liked that idea you know doing it to a group that's been in town for quite a long time and to recognize them um and then also by by doing that you know we bring that emergency fund to light you maybe to more residents that don't even know about it and you know just that was just my thoughts yes that makes sense yeah I I agree with you Ed and and Barbara I so this was the nomination from Brandy Kinsman um from the select board I wasn't really even aware of the Aston emergency fund uh prior to this I had heard about it but never really looked into it until this and um and I I did just a little bit of digging and it it's really impressive um uh and I I like the strong nomination from Brandy so I yes know kind of kind of partial to to this nomination I guess you know and you know and we did have the other nomination too right I mean um but again you know um this is just an opportunity for us to recognize a group and then maybe to also you know when you know when we do the presentation you know I thought this was a great opportunity um again you know I don't want to repeat myself but for other residents in Ashland who might be in need that don't even know about it but then an opportunity for other our some of our other residents to get involved whether to be you know to join their group or to you know maybe to make donations to that group that would help the Great good of Ashland yeah I agree I will um I I I feel the same way the the uh the ashon emergency fund is certainly a an important um benefactor and organization for the community um I think it would be remiss though if we didn't at least discuss um kisten Kern's nomination since it seems uh you know she's also um has quite a quite an impact in the community um through her work with uh with decisions at every turn and and as a um you know a jail diversion uh clinician um with Riverside Community Care um you know it it's it's clear that she's um she does a lot of work important work in the community and I think at the very least that that needs to be mentioned even if we don't recognize her this year oh absolutely you know like I said that you know I wanted to discuss that next you know um you know that that is a pivotal role in the community um yes but just I mean you know everyone's deserving right and and unfortunately during these things sometimes you know just like like when you do promotions at your company right there's going to be some people that you know don't get it initially and you know it's something we could certainly look at for next year unfortunately this is a once a year um award that we do from the board absolutely and I think you know it's it's probably overdue for the Ashland emergency fund um and I would certainly encourage uh those who wish to recognize uh Kirsten's contributions to um to to resubmit for next here if if that's the way things go um so um is this something we want to vote on tonight or do we want to wait for our next meeting if you know if anyone else wants to make any comments um and like I agree with um all on what we're talking about the Ashland emergency fund and like ksten you know really working hard on it but um I agree with like it being like for the group for the Ashlin um and and cuz we only when we have closed and we don't have any any more nominees and we have two so I feel like maybe if we are able to just vote tonight and I think that might be the best yeah I mean you know and also you know you know we can certainly do that and then you know maybe as a board send um Kirsten a letter you you know you know recognizing her efforts and you know you know just you know please continue doing what you're doing yes no that'll be great Chief you know so as like just my two cents right she she she's part of our holding task force right uh there are a lot of complicated cases housing cases that we are dealing right now right and she's definitely helping a lot with that you know so uh that'll be great another thing I want to mention you know about the other nomination right that it seems it was it was on Mary mortinson's know to-do list as well you know about that fun you know so that's that's I mean again just just my my my two cents on this you know thank you so why don't we do this so um looks like Mark has a has a comment has his hand oh sorry Mark I didn't see your hand Mark sorry go ahead okay um this Mary I've been around since day one on this that and um it originally started as a person who did who were was around for the town and got into service and brought up other things that was in the uh medical field but now it with the whole different spin on it is basically um now you're talking groups and and as emergency is a good group and uh decision every T is is another good group but it's still Mar as a person that is in order of so why could it be a person not a group as being a person being for with that not a group you're mute right so in the past Mark both individuals and groups have been um recipients of the award and decisions at every turn in the past has been a recipient of the Mary Morton and award yes and then there as emergency was was mentioned by certain members of that group but not as the group itself so this is like a first time for the emergency group that being they being named but in the very begins it was a Mary moson person that started out the first couple and then and then it expanded if a person is in town doing doing all the volunteering and not not Vol but involvement in any field not just the health field you got an overall person that can be out there and still get a married Mor CER award for being all around all town all everything not just Health thank you you're welcome um so do we want to vote on this tonight hello I think Barbara's right you know it's it's top of mind right now and um we have all the nominees so um a vote and we also have all of our members um so it's probably seems timely to vote tonight y so how about this what I will make a motion that we vote to award the Mary mortensson award to the Ashley and emergency fund this year but also a letter will be sent to Kirsten thanking her for all of her current contributions to the town from from the board I second that and any further discussion all in favor I I I okay that's unanimous um Laura um maybe if you could um help draft a letter to Kirsten and um between you and I we and then we can send it out to the board to see if everyone's good with it before we send it and then sure and then once it's finalized maybe if people have a chance to stop down they want to sign it actually you know you could sign it yeah that'd be great if everyone could sign it before we send it off sure sounds good yep and then we can also um Laura once once that's done too what we could do is we can send um an email to the original person that made the the nomination you know thanking them also yep great idea and let them know when the uh award will be um the ceremony will be sure yes y that'll be great that would be great um everyone else are we good with this then great all right um so Raj you're up next thank you Chief thank you so uh first uh first with the food establishment uh uh we have permitted clock down pickle wall now did couple of inspections there they do have a food permit regarding the Clover Road Brewery I did uh one for one inspection for the occupancy last week there are certain items that are still pending there that I have to go back uh now only thing with the Clover Road Brewery or tap room right they won't be pulling a food per as for now so how they're going to be doing it um the there are couple of food trucks lined up right we we did had one inspection today that they're going to be calling food trucks or uh getting food there but for right now but I have heard from the owner that they won't be pulling a food permit but they will be doing that further down the line so our inspections was just to sign on the occupancy uh and we we have to do one more inspection there to get going about the 135 discount Ashland IL house I I have confirmation that the water issue been resolved uh we'll do an inspection to confirm uh that soon uh with the chestnut Place Apartments from our last meeting I I had two three inspections I've been able to go to all the three units uh on on my first round of inspections for the three units uh that was 146 147 as well as 1415 those was the unit numbers uh for now we have cleared two units that's 146 and 147 can be reoccupied uh and all the violations on those was corrupted 145 still have activity uh that uh they they the management have agreed to to continuously treat uh but for the other units also they will not be doing u a p control every two weeks and sending us the reports but uh the conditions both at the dumpster or at the at the three housing units right is way better than what we had a couple of months back regarding our other housing cases 137 pwn Street I had an email from from a receiver today that they have accepted an offer uh for somebody to buy it uh it's I guess it's close to $490,000 um offer that they got for 170 137 P Street so so they'll be working on that 183 Union Street uh that's another case that we had going uh uh that had uh some mice activity still going on I had a p control report from from the management company last month and I will ask them an update uh again for for this month's past control we did pick up couple of new housing cases one on Elliot Street and one on conquered both are like you know again falling being under like complicated housing cases more of you know uh some sort of hoing scholar situation at both the cases with the accessory dwelling units uh as I updated the board last time now uh accessory dwelling units are allowed by right uh it's under Section 8 of the chapter 150 of the acts of 2024 that these units under 900 sare ft are allowed in a single family uh testics right and so far we had couple of queries only thing that we are missing so far is we don't have any guidance from be on the septic systems right like how how we going to be dealing with the septic system are we going to be hooking up to the current septic systems or they they need to build a new septic system so we're still waiting on the guidance from De uh once we have that we we will be probably getting good get going on on the adus you know and again as I said we had couple of queries from from our residents regarding regarding those um myself our public health nurse and and uh Sam from sustainability we attended our uh round table last uh week in natic this was around you know a climate uh hazards right and we we did some couple of exercise around heat events right like H that we we set up cooling centers you know about the management of it and all that you know so we had that Workshop uh two weeks back in in Native and then with the with the Boston Emergency Shelters you know it's coming next month as you know in the last time board members have supported me you know help me with with the with the with setting up the shelters and be there please please let me know whoever whoever is available for that this year as well I'll appreciate that with the even flu uh we we have information up on our website like you know how to handle dead birds and I'm just glad right so far we have not heard anything at least in Ashland regarding that you know but website information is available on our website how to handle if there if there is any any situation that arise with the open go uh permitting software we working with the vendor you know in the proc process of uh developing our inspection software U we have already finalized you know our permitting application for the food establishments and uh every Wednesday mostly we we meet with them you know to to to get going on on on the on the inspection software for our food establishment inspections and lastly with the disease investigations U uh we we we we have three to four open TB cases that we are working on right now and I guess that's that's all I have I'm open to any questions from the board members one question Raj now Clover Road when is that going to open I know you've got to go back but um just as a as a uh we we had minor items you know that all that was need to be addressed I guess other other department are working on what I have heard you know it was probably by the end of the week that they might be open uh uh that's what I have heard there was some some stuff going on with other departments but ours are minor right so there was few items that have written on my inspection report you know and I did had an email from the owner today you know for for one clarification but uh I guess it should be by end of the week or so you yeah thanks you're welcome anybody else okay all right so the next thing on the agenda is I'm sorry the next thing on the agenda is the consent agenda uh which is the review and approve the fiscal year 25 year-to-date budget reports and review and approve the meeting minutes from February 4th and February 19th do I have a motion yep I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda second okay any discussion or questions okay all in favor I I Maurice won't vote this time that you'll vote all right so Mor will have to abstain right because oh no oh uh he wasn't a member oh he wasn't at the February 4th meeting right but he'll he'll be able to approve the next ones for this thank you thanks Laura um discuss future agenda items external grease trap waivers green up Ashland is that you Raj so Chief we're still waiting from D DPW regarding the you know GRE St wers I guess uh there's some challenges with the Staffing and all that on their end I guess you know uh so hopefully we have that clear you know and green up again uh I guess they have started meeting on on on the on the Greenup day and uh we should be part participating you know I'll be there and if any board members want to be there you know that'll be great um so next thing is um we have a meeting schedule for March 18th are we going to need that meeting Raj U Chief the only thing is like was that uh uh um the septic system right that we need clearance for if that comes up you know I will I'll inform the board and then we can discuss right other than that I right because um because at the April meeting will have to be in person for well it has to be in person because we're probably going to do the Mary mortensson Awards so we're gonna have to notify the people from the emergency fund yes and we'll do that you know once we we have to get the plaque ready you know we we right me and Lara will work on the items right right but so so do we want Raj do you wanna should we wait a week or so and see if those plans come in so so we just want to make sure yeah we we have the plans right they they need clearance from comcom you know uh what I heard from Eric today that you know they're going to apply with the there was some sort of miscommunication within Eric's team that you know they were supposed to apply and they didn't and I guess it might might take time you know for them to be on comcom and get clearance right but I I will keep you posted or board posted and we we can decide right all right so so we'll keep the meeting scheduled for now we can always cancel it if there's nothing going to be on the agenda right right that's fine and then um and everyone will plan our first meeting in April will be in person but also the Governor still hasn't um let hasn't decided yet whether they're going to extend remote meetings anyway so but we'll plan our first meeting in April um as an inperson so Laura if you could maybe book the room for us yes we'll do okay um anybody else have anything to bring up once again Maurice welcome yes thank you for meeting Zoom bombed just like it never that would never happen to us you know you know can you Raj can you just let Michael know what happened just so he knows Chief I've already informed Jen right but I I will I will inform Mr Michael as well right yeah let him know we let him know we shut the meeting down and reopened it yeah I will do that so yes yeah all right s really makes me makes me wonder you know if um doing the in-person meetings again getting back to that and and I've been here for four years and never experienced that all of the meetings that I've been to for the most part have been online um but um I would certainly be open to doing in-person meetings if it if it came to that just you know yeah I agree for what it's worth so I'm I'm sorry Maurice that that was the first meeting um right yeah yeah and Maurice jbys dinner at every inperson Mee oh yeah looking forward to it then right absolutely um well if that's all everyone um I will accept a motion to adjourn I will make a motion to adjourn this meeting second second and all in favor all
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[Music] okay good afternoon everyone I would like to call this meeting of the Berlin Boon Regional School committee's budget subcommittee to order um so today we're going to review the FY 26 budget before the school committee votes on it on March 11th um and we are lucky enough to have the liaison from the Boon finance committee here with us today um to hopefully get a little bit more insight on where Boon stands as far as what type of wiggle room we have so we can try to find somewhere to be aligned that's the goal all right so we're gonna have a what we're gonna do how we're gonna do this today is Aaron's gonna present we'll hold questions till the end and then I kind of want to look at this like as a working session um this is more of like a conversation so that we can be prepared for Tuesday so that Tuesday we go in and we can hopefully get the vote done obviously things could in may change I know we're on your agenda for March 17th right I think that's right yeah um and I don't know where burlin same week Forin I you said it's the same almost maybe the same day think the same day they asked us for the same day but yeah it's gonna be hard yeah that'll be tough for you place at the same time yep so we can see what we need to do and maybe we're in alignment here and then I can go to Boon and you guys can go to Berlin so we'll figure that out after this um but I think today the point is Aaron's gonna kind of go through this give Karen the opportunity to ask some questions and see where we land and then um you know maybe see what else we need to do if anything before Tuesday um and when I say we I mean Aaron yes so the only I can add Megan if I so this is still a working document right so we're trying to get this prepared for on Tuesday when we put this publicly out there on the budget hearing we're advertising that absolutely everywhere but it's real important that our po sorry our budget subcommittee takes a look at this first right and gives us is this the direction we want to go in even the format right yeah so this is not Aon and I first time presenting a budget we we've worked together for many years and we we've done this multiple times but this is the way we're used to presenting it so we want our feedback from from the the school committee um the budget school committee so this way when we go to Tuesday we have everything in there that you feel like we need and even the formatting of that as well too so it's our chance after we present this for school commity to ask us questions and then we'll certainly have questions from other people as well too but making sure we have everything ready to go uh for Tuesday so not only that but ready to go for Friday afternoon so we post this right um that we can put this in the drive so people have access to see this as well too ahead of time okay okay all right awesome thank you good okay so I'm going to run through I think at the school committee meeting we'll have more time I'm going to sort of run through sort of each slide quickly why it's there what its purpose is and just how um we arrived at it I won't get into all the nitty-gritty of all the calculations to the degree but the bottom line numbers will be there um I also want to say this is a working document um you will see some notes that say updating those slides have not been updated to current numbers um there's some of the budget driver slides that I need to pull some data on um um I also want to say that the things like percents and things like that are to the best of my ability at this moment I I haven't gone through this three or four times yet so you know there may be a fat finger here or there on things and I just you know I want to make sure that you know this is a working document we're working together I left at 5:30 last night he sorry I left at 11:30 last night uh and he came in at 5:30 this morning so literally that's where we're at um and this morning we're still making challes this is just if you feel it's still war right like we're literally still making changes so that's that's where we're at so just appreciate that okay oh yes okay so um really quickly I want to based on sort of some of our conversations um we've sort of tried to take I guess the word is would might be a scalpel right now to the budget and and dig through the cuts we feel like you know get us at least close to where the towns might need to be right now um so I just want to be clear that what we're sharing right now is not a service level budget this is a below service level budget we're making some cuts um we really try to keep those cuts as far from students as possible um but the challenge is there's also the realization that there are things that will fall apart if we cut certain things um there are also positions that support positions so you know if we were to in the most extreme example cut our payroll person well people wouldn't get paid and that would make teachers very unhappy which would make students um unhappy so you know there are there are Domino effects that occur so we really try to keep it away but um these are going to impact operations in terms of what we have and the other part about that is you know I people are going to want to ask us the specifics of those cuts right so we're we're not I'm not at that spot yet to share that publicly um because these are Personnel issues these are individual conversations that we have to have and we need our employees to still be working from from this day right now until June 15th um but those conversations will be happening but the the professional thing to do is for us to be having those conversations and then not to hear them from a PowerPoint presentation or from someone who's watching us on online right now so we're going to be respectful to that process as well we will add what we can in aggregat that's right try to be okay so really quickly you get um you know maybe the 30,000 foot view of the budget in the very first slide um one of the things things I want to be clear about is the budget that was approved by school committee in December is certainly significantly above the budget that was used to base the assessments as people will recall there were some changes I think made in the town of floor meet uh the floor of town meeting that altered the Assessments in Berlin in Berlin um and you know as desie became involved with this whole process um they uh they were pretty clear that we didn't in their minds we did not have a voted budget because that wasn't a formal vote of the school committee when that was done so you know we had been operating at that point into December without a formal past budget in their minds we should have done on a 112 budget so we very quickly asked the school committee um I was looking at five or six versions of the budget and it wasn't clear which version of the budget if any was used to make those decisions so um we went with what was in the system with the understanding that we may not fully spend that there may have been intended Cuts but we weren't able to capture those so while this looks like a a decrease it may not be as much of a decrease it may be a little bit more of a level a level budget as it were I can't really speak to exactly what the intent was when that happened we we're working with Department of Education right one of the communities brought it to the attention sent a formal letter to the Department of Education we were in the process ER and I of coming on board and still working out our Logistics um but them involved with us brought us in the direction we need to go for here and having this budget using this number and school PR did vote on that as well too in December so Aaron that thank you for that that's a really at least for me I don't know if that's very clear as to why it looks like the change is actually going down but it the assessment for the budget it looks like the change is going down but the assessment might be higher yep that's corre yep absolutely so I don't know if it doesn't really right this is a big sticking point meetings of the last couple of weeks it's been brought up and I don't feel okay so explaining that in detail would be so so why me pause here for a second because I and I I we want us to go through but I guess a lot of people had a hard time understanding that right so is there anyone that needs further clarification than that right I when we voted on it I didn't necessarily fully I understand it a lot more now than I did in December a month into being on we needed a number we needed the budget that was voted on right so that we could work off that so I think our important asks we don't end up on the floor of town meeting doing things like this is that whatever budget is passed on March 11th can be amended right within the 45 days but let's do it before we get to the floor of town meeting let's have those conversations let's have meaningful conversations about what wiggle room we have where we can meet in the middle what our options are and and then we could have a meeting on March 11th and then April 1 or a whatever you know some whatever the first date in April is we could have another meeting and and vote a new budget that's you know a fair way to to think about that that that's not good for anyone in this room never mind the communities if we're on the town floor still still working that stuff out right that's not not a good look for any of us right and we we made that promise not to have that happen again this year and so I guess my question in terms of clarification of this is like you know voters like are just they don't want to have more increases in their tax right and so this looks like Yay like we might actually you know not have that does this mean we can have these numbers but still have an increase in our taxes because of yes you will see inre to the assessment starting the the the starting number is just a higher number number so all those numbers that get taken out Chapter um school choice circuit breaker money that comes out of it doesn't take as much obviously doesn't take as much out doesn't bring it down as far because your starting point is higher it's unfortunately I could not find and and there were five different versions of the budget in various places um and I just couldn't come to something that was like an actual budget while you know trying to close 24 pay bills um get this budget ready we just had to make some decisions about what was going to happen so what will voters know what their increase will be on their tax you will see you you will you will see the assessment increases here okay um you know as I said My Hope Is you know the school committee vote this in March and the towns may come back and say well you know this is higher than we'd hoped and we can have some reasonable conversations and then the school committee might vote a different budget that might be a little lower um you know we may make some cuts the school committee may decide to put in a little more resources like there's there's a school choice account we could we could draw from um you know at the meeting I or you know I I would definitely want to speak to responsible use of of things like school choice um which is really a rainy day but I would argue that it's raining right and this is an opportunity to say let's steady the ship let's figure things out if we have to have conversations about with the towns about how do we move forward with this if money isn't going up what do we need to do there's a conversation there right and now might not be the time but say anyways there's a there's a big piece that we we we're not sure of here right we're in the middle of contract negotiations right so that's just starting um and so on top of all this and I'm sure you're aware of what's taking place across the state right with MTA um and teaches unions and stuff and the numbers they're coming in at which we can't share at this time uh in executive session obviously but that's a big thing we have to we have to figure out as well too um so we're just being mindful of that as well what we're budgeting for that um and what what what they're asking as well to so sure just one quick question Aaron I mean at some point maybe in this presentation maybe I'm jump the gun am I going to be able to see it in the format that we presented and voted yeah pretty much yeah understand like that's sort of the finish line for the assessment I don't know so Boon was kind of a a lot of what you're speaking to pertains to Berlin Boon gave us a number we hit the number we correct were in alignment with fincom 100% of the way it was a very simple and quiet town meeting mostly about dogs and other things um but yeah it wasn't about the school budget it was a very straightforward I think the assessment and the budget should tie for Boon um so I feel like maybe that's something you know after the meeting you know now I don't know if You' met had met Aaron before but he's so easy to work with way back to December yeah you can shoot him an email and like if you have questions on specific because I know you guys have your spreadsheets and you try to fill in and you get the asset stuff so I think that should tie out your budget with the Boon budget and your assessment I think that was all kind of because none of that ever changed it should it would just be the total um and you know maybe to hunt do so maybe a little but I I like your capital and stuff like that that should be fine none of that changed at all so I think maybe like offline instead of you know sitting here and spending in the presentation he can absolutely get you whatever detail you need to fill in for your spreadsheets and then um yeah go from there what we're hoping what you described in Boston which were're here and probably didn't happen last year maybe in Berlin we're hoping that will it will be smooth that way this year right that's sort of what we're used to right we used to go to him and wilam and they spend four hours on on chickens right no exaggeration and yet 20 minutes on the school budget because the work we're doing ahead of time going up to the floor is all done so that it should be a no-brain that we go in there and andone no surprise sounds good good yeah okay so um the next slide gets into how everything's broken down by cost center one thing that's a little new this year is I've broken out districtwide cost so that's the superintendent myself the director of special education nothing changes in terms of How It's assessed we are assessing it the same but we're calling it out because um it really is its own cost center and um um public accounting really expects that you're going to manage things by cost center so principles for example the principle of Berlin Memorial really is the controller of his budget for the most part within within parameters right they own their budget they're they have authorization but not for those districtwide costs right so the superintendence pieces things like that so we're just trying to call that out so people see that as a separate amount they understand what that overhead looks like as well so it's not buried in the schools and how does that get split between the two towns ex I actually have a slide on that but I will questions at the end okay I'll get to it um one of the items we were asked to do one of the things we were asked to do is to break things down a little bit more by line items so each one of those cost centers is now broken down by sort of major line item um you know we don't get into every salary and every but these are the major sort of of cost breakdowns this also aligns with there is um some reporting expectations in the regional agreement this coupled with some of the later slides complies fully with I believe those expectations within the regional agreement um so I won't dwell on each item I'm GNA go ahead and peruse it if you have questions about them you can get back to me um a little further down we have a graph so this sort of explains where our money is being spent you'll see that big brown piece I'm sorry there's a big pie chart I didn't go over every single class Center I just thought that be a little redundant um I think it's fair to let people know where they're spending their money the vast majority of our money is spent in instruction and the vast majority of that money is is salaries um you will see um some other costs that directly relate to students that in many cases we really don't have much choice on um you know Health Services we have to have nursing we need to have that support uh transportation we have to transport students um activities in athletics um you know to what degree you can ever cut Athletics is a is always a challenge um you know custodial and utilities the lights need to be on the schools need to be clean we don't really have a choice uh benefits and insurance that's health insurance I think I've shared that both of our health insurance is retiree and general employee health insurance has gone up by 18% this year um that's a big driver in this um tuitions most of these are students um on IEPs who are in outof District placements um some of this is also um school choice costs so when students school choice out we have no control over any of those costs those are are sort of baked in um you'll see districtwide Administration and then School administration so School administration is principles Al and I are examples of districtwide administration so then we get into the million dooll question that was just asked so the regional agreement itself um doesn't say anything about the allocation of districtwide costs however past practice um that has existed since this region was a union before the development of the region was that each of the elementary schools was allocated 25% and toono was all ated 50% um you know that's unfortunately with a with a regional agreement that's silent I did call um Rob conry who was the in my position back when the regional agreement was founded um he was very clear that when they made it a a region they continued what they had been doing so this has been going on it hasn't changed what I'm doing is no different from what's been done and then that 50% gets split by the allocation for that allocation of so yeah so then as we're looking at the budget these these next slide represents offsets that are built into the budget so these are built into the budget we've already seen but these are helping reduce the budget so um we're proposing to allocate 850,000 of school choice uh we take in around $450,000 of school choice when of the challenges we're dealing with right now is that our end probably won't be certified in time for budget but I would expect that we would have a couple hundred, in available to support the budget that wouldn't be in here so I'm pretty comfortable putting a little extra yes fingers crossed um I'm comfortable putting a little extra school choice we have the balance as I stated it is raining um in the past two years the school district has not used much school choice at all so that balance has built up so it's reasonably appropriate to say okay now might be a good time to to spend it down a little bit and and use what we have um and eron just normally end would be certified by now correct yes so we're catch up a little bit right so we trying to get this work done we usually review the audit in our early February or late January meeting but just we just want to make sure for the public right that we're having this moralized which takes place here as yeah um so circuit breaker um I explain each of these items in the next few slides so I won't jump on them yet and then our idea Grant funds so those help offset the budget as well we do have some other very small grants that I'm not delving on so we get a very small amount of Title One funds uh sometimes we get some 274 Grant funds there's no reason anybody should know what those are but those are typically used to offset the budget a little bit 5,000 here 10,000 there um I don't feel like they're big enough to delve into here um a few explanations about school choice and circuit breaker um and then the idea Grant on the next slide I won't delve into it but if anyone has questions on these sort of explanations really feel free to reach out to me yeah take a look at that school choice definition we know that's been a question that's been asked nice see in writing yep so we we memorialize that we we talked to Katie manalar our attorney for special education say she gave us guidance on as well too so we know that you you guys wanted it somewhere right and we want to make sure we're putting that in the presentation as well and at the bottom you will see um at the bottom below idea Grant you will see I've explained how the regional agreement deals with these items so it's in italics down here below idea Grant so page are you on on page seven stilleven yes yes yes not yeah yeah so yeah page seven the top slide um so all of the budget offsets that I've described so that is um school choice circuit breaker and the idea Grant the regional agreement indicates that all Grant and other District funds shall be a portioned to school budgets by the district at The District's discretion so what we've endeavored to do and I can share that as needed is employ these in an equitable manner uh either sort of equally to the way say district office costs are assessed right so 25 2550 or um what have you um or in the case of circuit breaker sometimes relative to the numbers most of our circuit breaker virtually all of our circuit breaker comes from those out of District students so it's relative to the number of outof District students and the the overall cost of outof District students um and that you know in each school will go up and down year to year and you try to equitably manage that in a way that helps sort of offset those costs that are completely uncontrollable um and challenging to deal with I think in most cases it's been done what I've got is pretty equally split so so it's I I think it's pretty pretty close to equal um even aside from Equitable right the difference between those terms is a little little different but but um there's some Nuance there so then we get into what are we using to support the assessment so when we're through with that budget bottom line there are a number of items that go into reducing the assessments to the town now all of these have basically the same effect but they're just put in different places right so um assessment offsets we have Chapter 70 chapter 71 which is reimbursement for transportation we get some Medicaid reimbursement money um and we get some interest income so those are used to offset the actual assessments themselves and the next few slides I explain each of these items and how the regional agreement treats them which is how I've treated them um there is a little bit of you know maybe Nuance in the reasonal agreement that I speak to at times but um pretty much I've tried to follow this um so chapter 7 is that major aid from the state it's based on um student counts and relative um wealth of the communities in terms of how much you receive um so you can see there's a couple steps to how Chapter 70 is allocated um it tracks with minimum local contribution changes in minimum local contribution which track to uh Foundation enrollment which is a whole separate calculation unto itself so there's number of things that are calculated off of each other so there's step one um which carries through to the same percentages but if you apply those same percentages to the increases you're left with a little leftover so then you have to go to step two and do a second calculation to calculate how those have been apportioned I have done that um so then down to chapter 71 uh that's a little simpler that gets into um specific student counts in each school so we keep um October 1st numbers for the state and from each Town um this is literally how it's written in the regional agreement but that Bo BM and bbr those are just the number of town students Berlin or Boyston in each school so Boon that's the total number of Boyston students at Boon Elementary divided by the total number of students from both towns in the region right so you add up all three components that's all students in the region divided does that make sense this is like a true allocation because you're doing it by student which is probably how everything should be done yep and yeah so I I when we talk about the regional agreement and how I would Envision things this might be closer to where I sort of Envision how it would also be more transparent right this is pretty self-evident in our October 1 numbers y some of these other calculations are harder to get to so it doesn't change the spirit and that these numbers are very close to the foundation numbers it's you you you add in a few Charter students and choice students to get the Foundation numbers and it's a very tedious process um and students are Wy and that they tend to move around a little bit so you always have one or two students you're never going to be able to track down and figure out so best we can I'm just clarifying that the this chapter 71 is based on only Boon kids only Burling kids at these two three school yes yes not the school choice kids no does not include them so one of the things that's been asked of and I is about does does it does can we reduce the number of kids we don't see all kids taking the bus all the time and can we get smaller buses just sharing questions that have been brought to our attention so one of the things about being a Regional School District is you have to be able to provide transportation for all the students that's how we get that reimbursement so even though a Beth is not using it every single day and then also January 3rd her mother says I want her starting to take the bus yeah we have to and she lives within that distance away we have to make sure we're part of Transportation so it's not like we could do in some private schools right where I came from and Megan's not using the bus she says I'm not using so we're not going to stop at that stop anymore so I just want to clarify that for that Transportation piece we have to make sure that every student has a seat on our buses as a regional and I think the routes can't be longer than an hour right so if you have like if you're like oh just put them on that bus well if the routes go over like 61 minutes then you have to split that to two routes right correct we could be asked to do that Y and this is a question that Heidi and Mary had asked also behind the scenes and I I said I knew there was a reason but there was something to do with regional schools that we required to yes we are required um uh we get reimbursed for oh she missed it you go sorry no problem um we could pull up the chair I had a piece of work that I we're on camera I had to sure absolutely have a seat so we can catch you up after maybe sure okay so we're on page nine moving on to page n so page n has a quick explanation of uh Medicaid and interest um it appears that the again the regional agreement is silent to these items so um looking back at past practice these have always been applied to the Tanto assessment so by virtue it does get split according to the assessment to the Cs right so I think that's probably if something is is silent it might be the best thing to try to keep into Tanto right because that splits things like that so some of these things um and if you if you don't know what past practice was or what have you so minimum local contribution that's another Factor we take that out of things first this is where you really get into the formula allocations this is the foundation enrollment piece um this is um so there's description of it I'm not going to dwell at that on that the regional agreement allocates minimum local contribution in accordance with Foundation enrollment figures these are the ones that sort of take a lot to calculate um and figure out but it does use a five-year moving average which helps smooth some of those changes out variations um my assumption has been and it looks like that's the case um that the above minimum local contribution again the the the regional agreement is sort of Silent to this but the above minimum local contribution costs have been done at a five-year moving average as well so again that smooth is out Smooths out big changes um a it's very typical of most Regional agreements to have a fiveyear moving average of some sort and if you're going to do it with the mlc component there's almost no sense in not doing it for the rest right you're doing that whole that whole piece by a fiveyear moving average it Smooths things in the long run doesn't really change anything but it makes it a little easier when there's big adjustments um so in Prior prior versions I've shared these key drivers you'll see that in red I've put updating these are not updated figures but I've left them in just so you see that that we will be addressing these items and I will be updating these prior to when we we post this on Friday so then the next Slide the bottommost slide so this is the one that we looked at last time yeah you you've seen this in the the December version and the the the February version these are here will the numbers just need to be updated right these are still the major drivers they're pretty significant yeah but we'll need to just update those numbers as we said when we started this meeting this is still a working document right until Friday afternoon when we post this we're still making the decisions we need to make to make sure we're prepared yeah um the next gets into the specific um components of the operating assessment for burlin Memorial and then page 11 you have exactly the same two slides for boil sticks right so you've got um these haven't changed from the December um the the numbers have changed but the format hasn't changed the same format we're trying to stay consistent with that um but you will see the numbers have changed so those have have decreased significantly we will get to the percent increases and things like that in a few slides wait Aaron so your assessment calculations have the new budget numbers but your the drivers are the old okay got the the the the the slides that are being updated have the updating in Red so I haven't I'm in the process of updating them so I those aren't valid figures to but that bottom SL the bottom correen and Mary yeah those are the numbers we're voting on and by the way this is the first time that we're sharing this out with school committe right so this is the first that's why we're here with the budget sub for them to give us some feedback on that as well too yeah so by page 12 we get into to Hanto same format at the top what are our key drivers down below the tondo operating assessment is a little more complicated because you have both towns involved in that so you have you start with the budget you add the district share um you get the total budget you take out chapter 7071 and Charter um that's Charter reimbursement um as well as interest I should line that out I apologize um so that would be the total amount being assessed to the towns is at 11,286 688 and then the next slide of the top of page 13 breaks it out by town I apologize that green is a little challenging it's a little dark um but I try to highlight Berlin's components in green and oilon in yellow um just to kind of help people because this gets a little difficult to look at as we play so we get into those both of those minimum local contributions that then feed into the above minimum contribution amount that then is split by the Two Towns right so everyone's accountable for their own minimum Lo contribution share and then their share of the above minimum contribution in accordance with the regional agreement formula that I shared before that kind of make sense okay so Aaron this does not include any Capital the capital's coming okay we'll get the capital yep so but doesn't one of the towns use something from capital in their assessment was it Berlin I can't remember Mary uh Capital you just look at the definitions that are next to the numbers and then take it from there so okay uh we got instruction Berlin historically has always voted these things separately yes and so we got some guidance from desie that really you should just vote the entire number but in the budget presented to the town in the warrant you can List It Out separately which we do okay and our approval process for Capital and operating are are different you know there's a capital planning committee and this year is further complicated because we um we like you are struggling with some Financial records doing an audit and so we don't have our end of the year wrapup to give us the free cash number so we don't know and our guidelines say you spend about 30% of your your free cash you can that's a guideline towards capital projects and we don't know what those numbers are yet fair right that's a that's sort of that's to be yeah and so I feel you're I feel you're paying as you as you try to take you know take last year's numbers in there I'm glad you appreciate that well you know the the calendar isn't isn't helpful this year for either the district or the town of Berlin but we'll do the best we can with it okay so um the next slides get into the total operating assessments for each town and I think this gets into the first part of maybe some of what we were asking for the numbers broken down so um the very first is the burlin memorial assessment um the mlc component of Tanto and then the above mlc component getting to a total um operating assessment to Berlin based on this budget of 8,376 1875 that represents an increase of $575,500 increase um you know that we we understand that's a pretty still a pretty big increase that is down from more than 15% in our first round so we've been kind of continuing to pull that down and and again topic of conversation uh Boon Boon had some some things that sort of naturally helped the budget this year they they lost some um out of District placements um that actually went up many of them whom went up some of whom went up to Tonto so those costs ended up becoming share costs which then impacted Berlin a little bit and that happens vice versa right some years Berlin they have students go up to Tonto and then those get split um so oon Elementary a total assessment of 4,945 th000 you have the Tanto mlc the toono above minimum local contribution and then a total operating budget of that's not right so I apologize that's not that number isn't right because it's middle yeah yeah it's the same number I apologize like I said that's okay you can that would be just fine there's some fat fingers in here the increase is truly the 4957 46 I would call that so you could add for a 4.18% increase I can have that number before you leave if you need it again I apologize and hence the reason why this is what we're doing right bringing in front of budget sub right and looking at it and making sure we have all those final things before this is the point of this meeting that's right y yep so um then we start getting into debt and capital so uh one of the things um some of you may be aware of is the past two years there has been an error in the capitalist in the in the debt assessment um so the debt assessments that were provided to the towns were short by around $250,000 combined so that ended up being split uh the district ended up picking up those cost so that's about $500,000 of cost of the district inherently has ended up picking up excuse me in in the fiscal 24 numbers was there also a missing interest payment in those numbers so you two years running yes and is the 250 both years or one year that's one year one year so that's just the the 25 fiscal 25 from both towns yeah both towns right okay so this corrects for that so I understand you know people may may see an increase in that and wonder what that comes from um interestingly there is some some inherent variation because uh debt is allocated the same um for Tanto is allocated using the same Foundation formula which is a little different most districts I've seen and and been in uh when they have debt they lock the percentage at the time the debt was incurred so if you were 75% 25 it would remain 7525 for the life of that um payment um you know this it is what it is our numbers don't shift that drastically because of the 5year moving average but in terms of anticipating the next 20 years of that Bond right it might be a little more challenging for the towns if numbers do shift over time but it's important to have you both here right from both towns and both communities because when we put this out on Friday right so we're putting on our district website we're making sure we're pushing it and advertising so everyone's aware when people look at page 14 right and see that second slide about the debt they're going to ask those questions like what why why is that difference taking place there right so that you're knowing that story because we're not really all publicly giving that information out um but obviously we are now but it will be important for you guys to help tell that stories like this is the reason why believe we shared this at the last yeah we've been talking about it and then we we saw the two debt schedules which was helpful to see that too yeah um and I'm curious kind of this is a little side but it looks like the the one little bump in the amount may have to do with not making the with the interest payments missing from the previous couple years I don't know yeah so there's a there's one out there's like an outlier interest payment yes okay April payment I think okay it's that April payment that seems to have been missed y um and interesting from both communities right that where where that didn't catch this right and didn't say hey we didn't have but now that you have a schedule right and so I think we'll be a little yeah I get to the register a stop and shop and it seems they've missed something I don't always jump up and let them know so you know appreciate this this is big figure there though when you're looking at looking at both communities right we're making difficult decisions that Aaron and I and our principles are making right that's a that's a a big figure so correct appreciate that um so some of the feedback we received on the capital requests um is that that that towns would like to see a ranked Order of Things so these are in priority order if we look at the capital items um a couple things I know that for example you know Berlin is expressing that full Capital amount when they're talking about sort of increases we're not expecting to get this full amount but I I I think it's important for us to be clear when we talk about the needs of the school and we talk about say in the long-term unfunded capital and and this is I think this is something that hopefully the towns can Sharon as well when we go to the state for example or msba and we're talking about funds we should be tracking how much unfunded Capital there is right and then you know if we can't fund say replacing the roof and something happens right how we how we explain that is important right um what have you we've asked for this x number of times the towns wanted to do it but there's no funding available what what's a mechanism for this like how do we work together to maybe go to the state so I guess what we're hoping for is an opening of a conversation with um the towns around what they think they might be able to do um around say Berlin Boon uh Boon's got the roof going on so that's a really big one um that's one of the reasons you know their number might be a little smaller right now um you know to Hanto as well um you know I think when you go to Tanto um there were some questions about that Middle School Furniture number right um that is to replace all of the Middle School Furniture if the towns were to come back and say you know we can give you probably X dollar to help with a Furniture um the challenge is that Middle School Furniture is Elementary School sized and there are many middle school students who are my size um I've sat in those chairs and it is challenging um I've not had to sit them all day in multiple classes I've saddened them for 10 minutes maybe um and they're kind of fun for 10 minutes but all day would be a little grading um but we do have some students who aren't my size right so it's reasonable to say if we had the ability to even change out some of that for the students who are growing more right who are are in a place where they need bigger Furniture um you'll also notice we've we we tried to sharpen our pencil in a few items um there are a few items so student device replacement this was a much higher number we rolled in last year's number because it wasn't approved but we also then sat down and we went through uh our new director Joseph basado um IT director went through every single item and looked at what do we need to replace where is it in its life cycle um and we've come to a much lower number and and he has a full fiveyear plan but he's is working on right now that he'll be presenting to school about technology um changing over those Compu not only for students but also for faculty as well too so we're really a very well thought out plan he's got a real solid plan so can I wait I'm so sorry just um go ahead no l first please sorry uh we had talked a little bit about devices and whether or not they belonged in operating or Capital did you all resolve what you're thinking about that because it's sitting in capital now I think it is for the other schools I guess my question is that would increase so if we were to put that 100,000 in operations that would change our operating I get it but it's really a matter of the principle how do you how do you yes and and right so it's a great conversation that we'd want to have with Joe and with both communities sitting at the table right and figureing out how we're gonna where we're going to put that yeah it frees up things that are actually critical capital projects right so and makes you think about the operating because this is a recurring expense and each device is not you know I think it'll be important to see his complete fiveyear plan and how he's planning on rolling that out as well too um I I got to just go back to as well to though we're prioritizing these we use the example this one like this is like these are our homes right we got to take care of them so we're choosing that we got to do this but please know you're gonna if we don't fund five six seven and eight you'll see those next year still being on the list and that's the thing that we're going to be working on um there are things like Aaron has said that need to be done the elevated controls because we won't be able to open our schools if that's not working but my my priority as superintendent is cameras right we truly need exterior cameras on on our schools for not only the safety of our kids outside during the day but also we're starting to see some night activity taking place in our schools right that have been brought to my attention so we really need to have um and that's Joe's working on that working with a company to ensure that as well too so back to the operations if I can CL that um that would be my preference I mean that way we're not coming back every single year for very similar numbers because we're going to develop a five-year plan that that means every year we're going to spend roughly the same amount of money um but that's going to mean that the budget's gonna go up I can't cut a teacher in favor of adding devices to Tanto right so that's 100,000 is certainly the cost of a teacher so I we need a commitment from the towns to be able to do this in the past we had District I was in where we did this is we happened to have a bit of a windfall in the sense that we had a fairly significant out of District move out that saved us about equivalent money and we were able to sort of forklift that right in yeah um that's not the case right now sure so it's to me one town could decide to do that because you have your elementary schools and you're both accountable if you have a good year and you feel like that's something you could put in we could put into operations we can do that and then we can wait on the other town and we can wait on toono or vice versa um but I I just want to be mindful of like I don't know if any of us is comfortable cutting a math teacher to move those from Capital to operations I'm sorry does that does that sort of close the loop on that a little bit sure if there's a year where there's an opportunity to jump in and make the shift and it makes sense to and we'll I hope look for that kind of year and we'll keep talking about it every year because I think it's the thing to do you buy them every year right so that's that's my point and they're too small to be capitalized buy them every year they should be in the budget yeah yeah what you could start doing is maybe setting aside like a smaller amount in the operating budget each year so that you're setting up almost like a reserve fund for technology because we all know it's something that we're going to have forever and so in order to soften the blow to the taxpayers instead of just adding in another you know 200,000 or whatever in one year you start with like maybe 30,000 so I mean but I I don't know that this is the year to to and I still want to make sure that we have that understanding with the towns yeah that this is what we're mindfully doing yeah right so we're not just adding 30 we're not just adding 30,000 willy nilly were adding 30,000 and it would come out of capital right we so that 100,000 if it was toono would be 70,000 yeah each time we do that just to be clear about the computers right so one of the things you need to know is we have enough devices for every single student in our district we we just don't have a a plan right and that's what Joe's working on I think he started sharing that with you right like what are those older computers that were going off in what are the new computers that we want to bring on um that's what this that's yes that's the piece of it so um we want to make sure our students have the current devices not by the way that's not just computers when Joe's talking about his plan is also about some of the other technology that we want to have in our buildings as well too so there's another piece of that sure server switches yes understood y that kind of makes some sense it does I see Tod was not looking to put in cameras I assume that we ask have so that was something you funded I believe last year yes absolutely see some vigil on right outside and by the way what will happen with all these once we have them all they'll all be sinked so that either Cal office or in our phones we're going to be able to see that God forbid something was happening right emergency wise right last time we had an emergency in the district you know I I went over to that site right and and they don't want us at those sites they want us to be able to give direction and that will all be web based so we'll be able to see what's taking place if there was emergency but also just to keep track of what's taking place in as well too it's important y yep okay so getting through those the bottom of of page 16 you get into the debt assessment plus the capital you have your Elementary Capital items you have your Tanto Capital shares those are in accordance with the regional agreement uh that's similar to the foundation enrollment piece it's all broken out the same way um for total Capital assessments again I I I I want to just you know make sure it's really clear for everybody at home we're not expecting that Berlin is coming up with $2.1 million for Capital right the debt really needs to be paid but the 1.3 million dollar in Berlin Capital we we the plan is that that hopefully we can engage in a conversation about where um Berlin thinks it is we've met with the capital committee uh we did share our priorities with them and we've prioritized it here so that it's very clear to both towns sort of what what we really think are the the important things to get done the last piece and I I think M you might have missed it at the beginning is the the part that we're not that's part of this this presentation but we're in the middle of negotiations right so I just want to make sure everyone's clear about that right can't stress us or not that's what's keeping us up at night right and because that is a figure that's unknown to us right now so at least for the time being um you know sort of as the towns maybe sharpen their pencils look at the numbers here um you know our our hope is that this is what we can bring forward to school committee on March 11th um with the understanding that the towns may get back to us and we may need to have some conversations about what that looks like and we're with some expediency trying to resolve those matters and not make these decisions on the floor of town meeting but have votes maybe another vote in April needs be if that's where we need to be so does that seem fair to lower it we can't go higher any yeah we we wouldn't we wouldn't be able to go higher so we should right so the the vote on March 11 should be the highest so that yes know agree yeah so respectfully to to school committee first because this is a a budget sub um we we want to share this with you and then we'll certainly open it up Meg you know as as chair but is there something you you you you think that we need to add something that we're missing again this is not our first time doing this work but it's our first time doing it for berin Boston so we want to make sure if there's something that you need us to answer right we got a lot of feedback from a lot of people on school committee so we wanted to make sure we we put that all in there that's why it is you know we're not used to being this many slides right we're used to about 10 previously so we put a lot of information to give some people some information some history um some about whether it be school choice so we put that all in there so it can be memorialized um but is there something we're missing something you want more clarity on here's a chance for us to hear from school committee so that that then we're ready for to put this online on Friday so people can get their questions in preparation for Tuesday and then I'll defer it to the both towns of Berlin Wilson say what are we missing as well too to just dug tail what Al said um it is is our intent to add some information on the sorts of cuts we're proposing I know Al said we don't want to share specific positions at this moment just given that we're dealing with people and things like that but but the intent is to have those conversations um and make the proper preparations to do that so we're hesitant to do that right away but we certainly will have some information on the specific cuts the areas that those cuts areas not specific positions y so would we do that in executive session before we vote or are we just gonna I our plan is what we've done in the past is we'll give you a number it's just a general ballp like areas it's going to be in but not specific positions because it does have an impact right um people's contracts people sority right bumping all there's a lot of things that we need to take into account um so no I get that but I think uh before at least the school committee is voting it's hard to vote blindly on I know I'm voting on Cuts but I don't know which Cuts specifically and then to be responsible for that I'm just more looking at like y as we know you know know the school committee the shoulders or the responsibility well you guys decided to do this but we don't know specifically what we're cutting so I don't know if there's a way to maybe have that discussion in some type of executive session before we actually vote question yep have you done that in the past we've never had to make Cuts like this or at least on my time on the school committee so I don't know how um last year when there were proposed cuts um but we they were they listed the cuts out in public session sure sure yeah I agree I don't know necessarily think that was the right way to do it so it was almost like they were threatened Cuts because we weren't sure what was gonna happen um after please know like these these aren't the the moves we're making right are not just sort of high in the sky these are what we've got to get to this number right so this is what the work that we really had to do um and making sure that you know that there's there's some credibility with with each one of these cuts yeah art moves we made not necess C last year it was more like we're cutting all the art teachers so then all the art teachers are now looking for not the same situation and well it is it's just that we're not GNA announce what the cuts are so that's what I'm saying but those were more broad like swe he's made really targeted yeah I think it's most to have time to have conversations with people that's right um so it might be that shortly thereafter we could have a conversation about where those and if the school committee disagreed you can move money around freely that's that's School committee's prerogative so we could have some conversations about I will never do like those sweeping Cuts right I think that's sort of a probably inappropriate like a weak move when you say Arts are gone right all sports are gone everyone comes to your meetings and then we bring it back I want to be able to make sure these cuts that are decisions that we're making I'm Mindful and and very specific so that we could you know so they had specific positions on the board last year during the meeting yes the recess a in Berlin Memorial that was one of them you know I you know it was Elementary art there's one Elementary art teacher districtwide so it was it was pretty specific but it was like I know you know they had a Sit town and they spoke with the teachers and they got pink slips before town meeting so it was it was just publicized so I guess the question is this year do we do it an executive session because I think the school committee members were aware of what we were voting on or what would happen we didn't vote to make the cuts right we voted on the higher budget and then we were waiting to see what happened at town meeting so it was a different situation in that school committee was Voting no we we don't want to make any Cuts we're keeping this budget but if it doesn't pass the town meeting these are the positions that will be cut and it was literally listed out on a slide and put up so I agree with the way you want to do it this year I just think that before voting on a budget that has cuts we need to be aware of that that would be my only thing I think this is a good um a really I thought this was very uh comprehensive easy to understand um understanding yeah these Capital requests might be maybe not boil in elementary I can't imagine Berlin's going to come up with that much cash I think that's a pip stream um but without going to the capital meeting and hearing what they had the assessment I don't know if they need the if you need to compare the prior year assessment if that's something that you can get in a spreadsheet um we can work on that after the meeting and I don't know if Mary needs that as well for Berlin but I thought this was very well done I do have yes go ahead I do have one other component which we talked about last year and that is for our town we need the vocational um tuition and and um transportation for aset um do they come and present to you at all as no no we need yeah so they're not a partner in just to to maybe clarify um aset comes to us because we are a member town in the aset group okay and they cannot they don't have enough seats for the member town so they've completely stopped so Boon's not a member of town and you had to be part of the formation of aset to be a member town right so there are no seats at aset for anybody but member Town think you're just their and how much is it going to cost to B some there but just and if anyone graduates and if we have any one like going to agricultural school or any of those other tuitions that are not in your regular budget yeah but just for clarity there there are seats available possibly for students that are Bon even though they're not a member Community but it's not at the ninth grade so there might be an opening that they'll have in grade so I just want to be clear about that right so it's first member communities first and then others go in there um but they have more of a chance and I've had meetings right based on I think school committee's request and they'll they'll they might have an opening in 10th Grade it's harder for a kid to move maybe from Tanto there but there is an opportunity for so just for clar your best guess you know I understand that those things could happen and yeah that's G to get to do we have any requests so it should come through our superintendent first and there's I believe there's an April 1 deadline yeah for those um yeah I we'll have to check with we High School principal and the guidance Council well do do you have a sense of what the Boon population is right now at asit the the 10 11 12 I mean given our tuition this year was 223,000 it's rough Oh I thought I was going to say 20 per oh 20,000 22,000 per person exactly so 10 kids that's you don't have they don't give you a number when they come to present to you how many yeah um we have the number the number um last year was 37 out of Berlin this year coming up as 44 okay so I'm sure they would tell you how many of our kids yeah yeah we can reach out we just don't have that information but great question my reason for asking Al is that they don't have to just reach out to ASAT so permission that there may be another voke school that other kids have applied to that you're still going to hook for so we want to make sure we reach out to them as well so if Al has an application and has approved it which he has to do before April 1st um we need to know if I don't know what you mentioned potential a I don't know if as it as an A but which is which is the one that hasn't no it's nor Norfork we yeah nor you might have we the same thing with Smith vocation western Mass I is oh it was that was an expense I have not received any applications yeah um and I I do want to this is the time to tell you that as you know we hit our cap last year we are you know hands are tied um estimated new growth of 375,000 means you guys have 500,000 to work with for increases on everything total and does that not Capital though um I think it's Tanto Capital that's what I it's you guys you keep Tanto capital in the yeah operating assessment but not the debt I you know that I was trying to look through and figure that I it can't be the debt because the debt your piece of the debt Al the debt wasn't right last year your debt million so I'll tell you what yeah I'm not sure takes a um I'm sitting with it's Ken thank you um a little different approach on this and and we build up the town budget and we look at our revenues so one of the key things for Berlin this year is our new growth is estimated at2 200,000 000 and that's a push according to our assessor we are each year losing Revenue out of solom the Pond Mall so Berlin the the old Sears store and the movie theater are the only parts of the mall that are in Berlin so we have a we have an assessment tax assessment against the mall property overall and then against Sears and so on so Sears has been in bankruptcy for a while it's not been easy and every year we get an abatement filed and last couple years we've gone to Tax Court on it so I actually have the numbers so our Revenue in Berlin is dropping and I think it's really important for whoever's tuning into this to understand that it's it's an increasingly difficult position now Karen and Boon have done something very smart which is just say we put our numbers together this is what we can do right um if you look at fiscal 25 Boon had the same message 500,000 yeah yes it was yep last and and after all the dust settled into two Town meetings in Berlin Berlin ended up funding 832000 now here's the problem with that Berlin Berlin's population is three- fifths of Boon our student population is roughly a third and you know if you were and then when you take the the regional agreement for the district right that Regional agreement these numbers you can argue like you had the fiveyear running with the foundation amount okay there's another piece in that formula that says uh to run with the actual population in the three schools that is transportation reimbursement no it's it's I'll pull out for you it's not yeah' be inter so and then you take you average those you do another percentage right so so thumbnail thumbnail that thing with those numbers Berlin's contribution last year Boon anchoring at 500,000 Berlin should have come in at 250 300,000 and we came in at 832000 and we can't do that to our taxpayers again we got a you know Erin and I say this uh let me let me pull out You' got yeah I'd be interested so I've I think you missed some of the slides where I talked about I went into the regional agreement and I each component we calculate I pulled out the calculating process so there may be yeah here we go so does it talk [Music] um blah blah blah there is a an oper there's a a there is a a section on calculating the budget then there is an appendix one on the transportation no well the appendix one covers chapter 70 in in 71 and then the main body covers minimum local contribution with Section D um that's on withdrawal should we do this offline then you guys can or I I can I can thumbnail it the formula has four components um in fact I got it in an email right here because I sent it over to Christen Ruben and so the increase Boon increase was 832 is that what you said last yearin Berlin increased dollar figure last year for operating I just spoke with the Town Administrator was 800 and we had essentially no Capital last year very very very so it's pretty much all operating 832000 like a couple hundred thousand for capital for so you stopped shotting area of getting a number um just putting that out there let's because we don't we don't have a number I what I'm trying to tell you is we're looking at a 10% tax increase if we take the numbers out of the version two budget and that that's not feasible right so we have dropping Revenue we're not you know we're not getting new growth understood and it's it's simply not feasible now one of the issues we're having trouble here we go um here's the formula Regional agreement section D1 grade six 12 mhm you take the town total M and this is um this is to Tanto y yeah this too so they bring in the mass Foundation but then they average the actual numbers for tondo and this foundation and then you take that and then you look back three years on the town numbers thought it was a fiveyear moving average that's maybe the state the regional agreement said you look back three years plus last year yeah it's here but I'm not finding the regalement full we do that off yeah hold on I haven't seen that so I'd like to see in the and also it's 110 so I just want to be respectful of Megan to your to your point I would like to see that after to your point um what I I'm asking eron if you could do is take a look at the fiscal 25 budget numbers so you gave us with a lot of caveats a mid report yes and I and one of the parents that's very Eng enged took a look at it and for example we looked at districtwide expenses here's a total here 1.3 million in change yeah and then a portion of each of that was allocated to the three schools here's the deal just the budget column which even if you've had messy accounting and you know posting this year the budget numbers ought to be okay right so you take that total then you take the three allocations of the three schools they don't add up to the same number the three allocations do not add to this number and when I was working with this parent okay that parent that number in his calculations showed 23% of the district expenses going to toono with the remainder split between the two elementary schools and you and I spoke it's supposed to be 25 2550 yes it is not in the budget so what that means is that the budget drove an assessment y That's wrong for the three schools and the three and and the Two Towns and and so if you base your 26 numbers on that 25 budget you got you've got baked in errors so so I I I really can't I really can't speak to what was done in fiscal 25 um sure but one of the things to recognize is a the budget doesn't relate perfectly to assessments right there's there's Chapter 70 there's chapter you know all of the other pieces in accordance that get split out so Chapter 70 and chapter 71 are split differently in that equation by student counts that move right um understand that 23% I'm not sure where that comes from where that came from in fiscal 25 the the challenge that we talked about is that last year um which is why we're trying to be really proactive about it this year is that there were decisions made on the floor of the Berlin town meeting related to assessments correct am I correct in that that were never captured in an actual budget um so so so so there were agreements made that did not result in a voted budget by the school committee so then um when when desie became involved I I wasn't Alan and I weren't here we weren't aware that that had occurred we had a budget in the system that was the best we could work with I had five separate copies of the budget in different stages because five different hands had had been on the budget at different stages and they all had different formats but what was what was actually agreed to a town meeting through what was not a vote right so desie did not see that as a legal vote so whatever happened at that town meeting um they didn't recognize so when we revoted the budget we had school committee vote what was in the system because that's what we we were six months into the year almost right and we had to at least hold on we knew there were going to be some holes we knew the actual budget was much higher than what the what the assessments ended up being just by virtue of it but we had to have a budget for desie and we don't have another budget that is accurate more ACC accurate to those assessments so I mean I I unfortunately I unfortunately can't undo the decisions that were made on the town of floor meeting and undo the fact that a vote wasn't taken the goal here is we're having these conversations and I'm really saying that we as partners in this right need to commit to whatever school committee votes on the 11th great we can you know it may be higher than you want we're not going to get angry going to bang our shoes on the table but we're all going to come back to the table and we're going to say okay where do we need to be and we may have to have some conversations about how we get there um I'm happy to to sit down on the nitty-gritty how that's being done this year I would read through I've provided I don't know I I I if if I need to a little education on a component of the regional agreement I'm happy to take it because I thought I had it but maybe there's something I'm missing and everything he just said through his educ believe I think that was initiated from the town of Brin right that said we we want to take a look at this um so we met as a group um bran was obviously very involved with it and what he just said was memorialized and sent letters to the town of Berlin as well too right so here it all is here's what we need to do and here we need to go to make it to make it correct and we just recently and I'm not sure if Brin received their letter yet we met again with the dep of education and they they said to us this is the right way to move this is the path you should be going forward so that vote that school C took in December is the direction that was initiated from from Berlin to the Department of Education that that we brought it to their attention and did that so that's where we're at I it I've I've seen the correspondence on it two two points the town's voted that's what they're authorized to spend yeah full stop sure okay so it's a bit living in to expect the budget to be something more than what the towns voted and desie cannot argue with that I don't think I mean we can have that conversation so that's a real simple fact yeah okay and um and so we we get that we needed a number we needed a budget number budget Chang the assessment okay so Megan I have a question you know for the school committee in the district can you go back and vote that again on fiscal 25 number one and number two I take all of that as a given and I'm sorry that you're dealing with that but when I look at the plugged in budget numbers for fiscal 25 there are clear errors okay number one and number two when I look at what's expended at midy year I know that you gave the caveat that this particular report there's you know there's errors in it but if you look at what was expended at midy year I I I I find it hard to believe that we would impact teacher Staffing if you look at these numbers in fiscal 25 so my ask to you is to go back and in particular where we know the district agreements said allocate this way or at a minimum you can look at districtwide expenses and say why is it that the three amounts allocated to the school when you add them together that's a bigger number than this number huh all right so if you're using those fiscal 25 numbers if you're saying we need to apply I know we have increased Insurance costs I know we have increased Transportation costs yep but how do you allocate them and and it's a question I think I asked you eron at the end of the night back in December um is what does it cost to run the school right now and and and the reason I'm asking it I you know I say this all the time and it and it's actually really true I'm a huge fan of public schools I want us to have the money to do what we need to do but we cannot ask these small towns to do things unless it's Justified and and I'm sorry when I look at this this budget and I see those kinds of errors and I say well if you're driving I know Al you came in with the aspiration to to do zero budgeting yeah and and for lots of reasons I understand why we're doing what we're doing okay because because of not no the exercise I'm asking about is not a huge exercise is to at look at the first column on this report out of the financial system and maybe at the second column are we doing okay with booking our expenditures right can we actually look at that and see if we can get to a better place for the towns and Karen's told us where Boon is and I'm telling you where I'd like to see Berlin be based on our pupil population all the formulas if you boil them they yeah I was to say I missed that what you I'm not I'm not I'm not authorized to come in with the number but what I'm going to tell you Megan is we have two-thirds of the pupils and our and our population is three fifths of Boon so I think that if Boon's coming in at 500,000 I think Berlin ought to be between two and 300,000 okay increase over last year that's now I'm not speaking for fin I'm not speaking for the select board I'm not speaking for the Town administrat Administrator I'm I'm just telling you from my studying of the agreement and and and just the numbers you know we didn't Alon we didn't talk about pupil numbers at all in this budget presentation I think we need to look at it and look at the regional agreement because both Boon needs the fairness of following the agreement so does Berlin so so can we do that and I you know I apologize it's late in the in the process but so I I guess so again I I I can't speak to how how districtwide costs were allocated in 25 I I just I mean I I can the one of the problems is because they are Blended in to the school budgets so this is another reason why I feel like districtwide cost should be called out so if you go for example to the individual School slides slides 10 and 11 y you will see that the district share is very explicitly called out so the burlin Memorial operating assessment 26 BMS District share is 41855 if you then go to boil sorry sorry which one are we on there so I'm sorry the second slide so second slide second line so I want to see under your hand yes so you're there that's what I want to see I'm on 11 I'm sorry I'm sorry y 11's fine as well question you will see you will see that that page 10 and Page 11 are identical for that okay right so that is 2525 and then if you go to Tonto you will see that's slide 12 you will see the district share is gritty detail I can find line items where uh the Berlin piece and the Boon piece are there but I'm sorry the Berlin the Danto piece are there but the Boon piece is missing and I find the same thing so at some point someone made Cuts right and they didn't appreciate that this is a three-legged stool exactly right y the district office is a three-level stool they arbitrarily cut something so this further goes to some of those challenges yeah um you know there are also things so we are now a full region um it looks to me like there are certain costs related to being a region that were still allocated only to Danto right so they need to be allocated to all three members of all three legs of that stool right so I can't again I can't speak to how they did in fiscal 25 I can try to dig for that on top of other things I I I will if I I mean but I I'm going to do the best I can to give you a budget that's in line with the regional agreement and if there's something in the 26 budget that calls out something that I'm not addressing I'm happy to try to address that and we had the Auditors come in looking at previously and see what their findings are but here's where we're at and here's where we're moving forward for fiscal 26 so I think that point that Aaron just said is huge right if there's something we're missing for fiscal year 26 that's what we're controlling right in the 25 we're still trying to work it out we're still trying to figure that all out and using the the Auditors as well too we there some things that just don't match sure and and and my point is to the extent that that you're building the budget driven off fiscal 25 I think I don't know how you can do it when you see things like I saw and it's not the incumbrances which you pointed out you know mid year it was crazy but the actual budget numbers are really kind of out of whack and out of whack with respect to the the the three schools and how things are intended we are not just taking fiscal 25 numbers and carrying them over to 26 um we I always use that as a basine so we have all of our payroll figures I go through every single person every single person I have a spreadsheet that encap poates encapsulates every single person I look at prior years for you know it's hard for me to look at prior years for every little $500 item no but for example one of this the the pieces of savings we have this year is I want to say it's over $50,000 in oil at Tanto it appears to me that they had over budgeted for oil if I go back multiple years and I look at an average I see that so I have looked at every major item that might change year toe um significantly um you know I I have to assume that if there's $500 pencils to line item we might need 500 again it's hard for me to you know go through every single item but the items that that might change that might increase I follow Trends I look at that um another comment I've made is we looked at substitute use right substitute use and we talked about this in other meetings has shot up so that couldn't stay where it was I had to increase it to hono based on utilization you don't have a choice but to spend that I did me would Leisa so in this version of the budget we had taken it up to about $667,500 in version uh two at least um this version backs that down to about 50,000 Lisa sigara and I have met and she is going to try to manage that down using um it can be hard to do but using internal resources that might mean that an assistant principal substitutes in a classroom with the principal substitutes in the classroom where we try to use a pair of professional at a little bit lower cost it can be challenging but we're going to push to meet that we have we've established some stretch goals for ourselves for and put them into the budget so as you know we have 12 um uh agency par professionals districtwide um we've committed to eliminate all of those by next year so that's about 300 some thousand in savings we heard that we've heard that a couple times and yeah that's these are the unfortunate part is those were not budgeted into the fiscal 25 budget so those are all literally budgeted at half their cost so when we're looking at where we're going to end up this year Berlin does have the preponderance of those so the costs associated with that are going you will see drop into Berlin's cost profile right so it's Challenge and and we have we've eliminated those we're going to do every single thing we can we'll post um not only on school spring areir people St so all of that and the only other part and I want to be careful because I know this is a school PR meeting right and I know we're going way off I think we're getting a little off and7 so I'm going to give one more minute and then we're gonna kind of rain it all back in just just know I I I I think just gotta be careful the wording said I'm not really sure the wording you you but and certainly we're we're sitting with each department and going through line on by line on me every principal every Department looking exact exactly what so you need to know how careful and precise we're being with this stuff I I got full confidence and I want the transparency that we're doing right now has been really excellent seen anything for the only other part I'm I'm I'm asking for you and again I I appreciate this is a school Comm meeting and we went in front of fincom we went in front of your meetings and stuff like that so if you're looking for things like that what we're really trying to avoid is the gutes right so if there's something that you're looking for I know you're not I'm just I'm just saying that like we want to make sure that we're we're we're providing what you're looking for to the best that we can right now based on where we came into this situation so that's the point of us going to your town meetings you're going to your selectboard meetings going your fincom so if there's a level of detail that you're looking for something like that we we we would hope that you'd share them during that time right because we were just with you a couple weeks ago I think that we met with you was it two week three weeks ago yeah I didn't have the bandwidth to do the analysis on these numbers and then there is the caveat that Aon clearly gave that there's some errors in here but I was trying to look at the columns that I thought wouldn't have been affected as much and those would be the the budget numbers and the expended numbers and they're telling an interesting story that that that for example classroom teachers budgeted for Berlin L Mo 1.6 million and some and expended at Mid year was 620,000 so uh shouldn't it be closer to 50% of that 1.6 million but it isn't and I don't their salar technically start September 1st so it's not quite mid so you think it's three months and it's three months well that's helpful because right but I didn't I wasn't able to do this analysis until until a couple weeks ago okay sorry one we have through salar it's really not our right I want to make and you're really getting into detail detail detail tell you how much money and I want and I want to just go back to what you're saying and I some people might not appreciate this but our our budget's to the school committee right and we're like the Vatican right we're telling you this is the money we need to run our buildings right it's that's the analogy we use as Regional School school superintendent and and then you give us the money we need and then we we we need to do the best way we can we're telling you this is what we need to run the school successfully and we've shoping up from version one version two to where we are now but know that every one of these decisions that we're making is going to impact the schools somewhere along the way impact them on the classrooms we have as well so just know that but we're we're doing the very best we can with the information we have for this year and trying to be my the infamous word transparent can be to giving this information but honestly sometimes when you give all that information then people are down here looking at like okay this one point that's right and that's that's that's our world to try to figure that out as best as you can so yeah at a at a high level I'm really a lot of my questions have to do with the regional agreement are we really focus on applying it because the the costs that go out to the two elementary schools are a little easier thing to look at but I I I think we all know there's errors in the Baseline and if we're looking at a change from Baseline yeah we got to fix those we got yeah there's there's I'm sorry but how do you take it how do you take it to the voters huh you can't we we'll fix something we'll work on that yeah okay so I think this was helpful because we found out we have about 500,000 to play with in Boon looking at page 14 the operating assessment we at 495 746 now that doesn't include like we talked about Karen I believe the Tanto Aaron You're Gonna Want make note of this because I don't know if you knew this but Tahanto capital I don't think it's the debt I think you guys have something separate for the debt but double check on that and let us know I think it's just because the debts like a million dollars right the Tanto capital I think goes into the operating assessment in Boon so that 500,000 that she said that she it has to include the Tanto Capital the Boon Elementary it's whatever there it's like what Mary said they have the X amount of free cash to spend and x amount goes to the school and Vocational and vo they need the vocational y we'll get that for Berlin this was actually very helpful Mary you said between 200 to 300, no don't don't go to the bank on that money I'm just reacting to Karen's comment that is not an official Berlin number don't even go there I get it reasonable comparison yep I get it but we're at 575 right now so what you're telling me is that is probably a bit too high uh sure when we do the calculations we're looking at a 1.2 million increase that's where we that's where we sat last week when Scott Schultz didc numbers before we really Bank on P so this assessment number is accurate because that's pretty uh where we at this is page 13 so when you're looking at the change it's the budget that he was saying is what you're at Mary before that sheet you had that's the budget and I agree with you it's not correct but the assessment number you guys are paying that that's accurate I don't think ours is accurate well we can look at it and tie it out um like capital and all that absolutely you would to look at yeah are you if you're on page 13 we're only looking at 26 numbers not 25 if you look at the fy2 column there's nothing in it 7,887 that number that's your total assessment Aaron is saying that's what you guys pay are paying us this year does that match what's on your warrant the 7.8 million so you guys would have to look and tie that out and so that right there this calculation on this bottom of the page I get it has doesn't have any detail we're just talking high level yes just saying so when we're going into this boote we know are we in alignment are we way off are we a little off it s this is I'm guessing relatively close to Accurate 575 439 that's the increase where we're standing Berlin just operating that doesn't include any of the capital Tanto capital I don't know if you guys include Tanto capital in the assessment like filon does so so if I can also share the reason those are blacked out again feeds into that vote taken on the town the the floor of town meeting I don't know because that didn't change in accordance with a voted budget I don't know where that money came out of right so did it come out of the BMS assessment did it come out of obviously the mlc would have stayed the same but did it come out of the Tanto money there's no there's no record of where that came in and out of um well we should be a figure it out with ours might be able to there is in what you can back into it there is in what the town was voting for but the allocation debt and capital didn't change the operating costs on the June 17 vote the school committee take a vote on yes on Berlin Memorial and that number is not the number that the district is working with today well they they took a vote like an official vote a legal vote there was a posted school committee meeting on the 17th prior to the town meeting same adjustments were made on the floor of town meeting adjustments were made by the school committee vote ahead of going into the floor of the town meeting okay so the so the school committee and the finance committee and the select board met at 6 o' and then we went into town meeting I don't know it was an hour hour and a half later the amendment made by the chair of the fincom was not the number that the school committee voted on it was an error it was an innocent error he did not mean to his intent was to have the same number as the school committee but because everybody was working so quickly that number was not the correct number and that's where this whole situation and we had to provide all that information to the power education checked all that stuff so my challenge is is why can't the school committee stay with what the town voted to that that's what we did his number was lower though than what we agreed on so it this error was in our favor not yours so we did stick with that number because that was what Christen had said that we wanted yeah yeah my do you remember that uh it was it was a split of the U difference between the ask and the just just be careful right we want to be careful like the way that it was voted like Megan just said was exactly the way it took place it was too rushed it was an innocent mistake that was the number that was motioned did not tie out to what the school committee voted on they were two different numbers and it was no one's fault it was due to rushed error and then what happened was when they were trying to do the assessment letter to send it back to the town they didn't they they W you know the person that was in Aaron's job was reviewing the video and then reviewed the school committee minutes and it was two different numbers and that's where he was like what do we use and then they worked with Kristen and Kristen I think was involved in that every think was all memorialized in that letter that and so then that's why we had to get desie involved and that was that was one of the things so anyways all right so I think this is helpful though at least from what I'm hearing from you is that if this is accurate I understand your concerns about accuracy yep so we need to go back and tie this out and you know Aaron and I are going to have a little bit of a working session this week to kind of go but then then we still have a little bit of cut to make here yeah that that's what I'm here I'm just trying to I want some feedback so that we're not going into this meeting blind because we're really trying to be in alignment do you know what guys want I do but I know she's not in a position I I think she doesn't want to be backed into no I'm not I'm I'm not I'm not trying to say Mary give me a number but but I think in general a 7.4% increase is probably higher than in your yeah yeah we recogniz that they've said that since the beginning so if we vote this then it'll be with the intent to perhaps clean a few things up down the road well these are they're hard realities so yeah no I get it um um and there are a number of errors and erroneous assumptions from before I'm going to repeat what is clear is what the town's voted for so we got to see if the milon ties out the dollar amount the town's voted for is very clear and um and that's what you're paying us well I I assume so but I have to go back and check that the total assessment number I forget what I've heard on that but but um that should be what they're paying is the number somehow I have an erroneous number I'll change that if you have the BMS assessment numbers and the Tanto above mlc numbers I'll fill in those blanks they just need to add up to the the money right and then the disconnect as we have our conversations between town in the district has to do with some of that and right that's that's what do you mean by that say that again um well well there's two things there's also assess assessment percentages and there's operating there's actual budget percent and those are different but they're depending on the the words you use the definitions the financial definitions you're going to get different numbers um but my understanding is the the school committee vote in December on that number that was higher than what the Two Towns had voted for with respect to that's correct yes the budget not the assessment yes how to change the assessments uh what what the towns had voted to to um so the towns the assessments not the budget right right so those are two separate things okay okay but you keep saying vote of the budget the towns right my apology yeah it's a town budget the assessment is within the bud respect that's a huge piece to so people aren confused by that so so just we got to be careful on the semantics of that because that's important so the the school committee did not change what the town voted on the school committee changed how the school can spend that money if that's a more clear way to understand it we didn't change what you're giving us we don't have that Authority what we changed is how Aaron spends it that's what we voted on Aaron you have the authority to spend it this way we can't change what you guys are giving us so I think that's a clear way to understand school committee needed to vote Department of Education made it clear to to town of B School Comm need to vote on that number so that this way then it was it matched and that we could start somewhere and that's what school he needed a starting point right so he asked us respectfully to vote on these numbers this is what he was going to use as a starting point the assessment again I'm going to reiterate this and Aaron can go back and double check I know he doesn't want to rubber stamp his numbers just yet those numbers on that page the ones that we looked at those should be relatively accurate because I'm assuming he's taking that from the assessment letter which is what's actually getting paid to us every other month we get a payment from both towns every month or every other month um and he's he can easily reconcile that by taking that and multiplying it times six or 12 or whatever so you can go back and do that yes very easily and say okay at least the total I agree there's issues between what goes to what school but at least we have the total start one from and we can say all right this might be too high this is where we want to be or this or we have a little bit more wiggle room so I I feel like this was relatively productive because I feel like at least we have some type of guidance we may you know have a little bit of work to do totally I think we can all agree on that um so I want to thank you guys both for taking time out of your day to coming um to coming and and contributing to this um I hate to cut everyone off but in the interest of time I know Al has other meetings we all have other meetings I have to go back to work and you probably have to go back to work so um I'm gonna say um did you guys have anything to add okay all right so um like please no okay so um but this was a purpose please don't sing no no this was this was the purpose of the me to hear from scoop in in the community although we didn't have public comment written on there like this was important to hear from everybody so we know we're prepared for for Friday's and to know where we stand which is something like you know it was just to know where we stand so that this is good um all right so could I please have a motion to adjourn the meeting excellent okay Lisa I you just second second okay all right all in favor I'm and I as well all right moot a thank you everybody thanks everybody can I just have your email
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
and we have at least at least one board member with a time constraint um so I gu we should start pled [Music] Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States and to the it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice uh public comment is no one here uh is there anyone online here we have five uh members online so if any of you online want to go ahead and make public comment you can use that raiseed hand feature zoom and I will call on you by your Zoom name I have a raise hand on Aubrey so I'm allow Aubrey to talk hi Aubrey just again for the record your name and address please good evening Aubrey blachley Bart Drive um thank you again for having this meeting I'm sure you're all aware of the widely publicized news today that Governor Lamont um vetoed the uh $0 million for the special education fund and I I was curious if you can address tonight whether that impacts the current proposed budget I know it it applies to the current budget Year we're in the 23 24 but um or the 2425 but if if it does have an impact on the 2526 budget I was hoping you could address that that's it thank you I'll address that right now um Aubrey latest news um if you pick up uh the news right now and I just got out of a meeting with uh two legislators uh they worked out a deal um that there's going to be a new vote I believe tomorrow that the governor and um the legislators worked on a deal that there's another proposal uh coming out onto the table that will actually fund uh this special education uh short call for districts this year of 40 million so they did work out a deal that's all recent uh relative to a few hours ago and in fact I'm next next year's budget we're funding um excess cost at 72% thank you auy uh anyone else online again if you're joining us online you can use that raised hand feature Zoom it's usually on the bottom of your screen and I will call on you by your Zoom name all right seeing El just follow up with au make sure that clear Ary does that make sense to you what I just said yeah that's did I hadn't seen the update that um they worked out a deal literally just happened okay yeah I I didn't think it applied to this year but I didn't know if you did have to anticipate not receiving those funds and then had to you know add that in somehow this year or not or how that would be addressed but you answered my question so thank you thank you all thank you uh anyone else last call all right seeing none we'll close uh public comment and turn the meeting over to Dr brosman budget update so in front of you you have a a PowerPoint um kir is going to put the PowerPoint on the screen and this will also be um posted um posted uh on our website okay so just want want to remind the board and the public uh the second slide that this budget is grounded in addition of The Graduate come creative thinkers communicators collabor collaborators critical thinkers compassionate citizen this budget is also grounded in the Board of Education goals of student growth and achievement partnership and Community engagement Financial sustainability efficient operations learning environment embracing equity and Workforce Development the priorities were to maintain student achievement across the district maintain class class size focus on teaching learning professional development provide a safe and healthy school environment propose a fiscally responsible budget that aligns with the Board of Education goals the highlights of this budget that we will continue to refine student performance establish a responsive multi-year technology Improvement plan alignment of culture climate practices collaborate with State and Regional Partners to provide professional learning professional learning responsibilities time and resources to support the continued growth of certified and non-certified staff and they continue to provide a safe and uh secure School Community I want to remind the board that on February 11th I proposed a budget to you of a 5.88% if you recall in December we did a forecasted budget and that forecasted budget at that time time was 5.97 and we landed on February 11th at 5.88 you may ask as we discussed what makes up this 5.88 and what is the difference of what happened between December and February the biggest driver of what happened from December to Fe February was as we discussed the health insurance number that I budgeted in December in the forecast budget at 7% we were told that we had to increase that percentage to a 20% for us that 20% was an additional 6 $577,000 so this budget as you could see in February 11th between salaries health benefits Insurance Transportation including fuel electricity he heating oil natural gas and propane just to roll over surfaces that we have this year to next year is a total of 6.28 and as we've discussed there's a decrease in special education cost of 42 and then you can see the rest of the the budget that Athletics in the new personnel which we'll go into a minute into a minute that overall the budget increase on February 11th was 5.88 but on the next page you can see that I had to with the addition of the health insurance of 577 th000 small Capital that we now have a small capital and a large capital and then Union negotiations from December to our February number I add an additional $654,000 to have to be added to that number if you remember the 5.97 when you add 654 th000 that's another 2 and a half% so the administrative team and I had to get together we went through and we made as we mentioned uh throughout our bunch of workshops we made an additional 840 8 $14,000 worth of reductions and if you go to the next page we also had to change our open Choice Grant and uh some of the things that we were requesting regarding human resource Specialists par Educators uh the dishwasher was moved into large capital and as I mentioned another day this is not the dishwasher that's in your house this is a commercial dishwasher so ultimately throughout this process the administrative team has cut from new requests in current funding $84,000 the next Slide the the new Staffing requests that are in this budget is the social worker for 05 of 33,500 as I mentioned to you the other day and throughout the process that's actually a savings for us that we're bringing a student back but if we didn't have additional additional Social Work service Services the student would be outplaced so this is a student that we're bringing back so this is a a wash for us and actually a savings because we're bringing the student back I had a plan that Mrs McAn was going to come tonight to speak about the new program that we're going to start I'm going to bring her later in the year because I want the program to be truly finalized in a contract executed for us to really go through that but what I did post on the website tonight under budget materials if you recall Mrs mle came to the Board of Education in November and went to the board of Finance in November to talk about tuition and costs related to special education and some of the savings so I put that on our budget web page so people just in case they had any questions regarding savings that were when we bring inhouse that are outplaced and we bring them in house that you can see the savings and then the next three positions are the after school supervisor for CMS CM CMS and CHS and the campus supervisor at the for each Cherry Brook and C Intermediate School those are the only new positions that are in this budget as you remember when I originally proposed this budget as in a forecasted amount we were talking about 75 students well we are now last week we're at 105 now we're at to 106 so they keep coming in but it's still a far cry from the data reports that we receed from our Consultants who were predicting upwards to 130 kindergarten students so again we'll have to really look closely at that and then the next chart you could see that we're not not increasing any sections over this year to next year it's the same sections no new FTE so as you can see on the next slide additional changes from the February 11 is I did make a reduction of a teacher at sherbrook Primary School in the forecast of budget and then our original administrative budget but now that the numbers are at 106 we're going to need that uh kindergarten teacher so brings the budget up to 6.05 and then if you go to the next slide as we discussed the the town had in their budget our payroll Specialists and our accounts payable so we needed to move that into our budget that brings us to a 6.45 there were a few questions that were asked last meeting and I received a few from the public the first one is in the first page of your document the superintendent of buildings and grounds is listed as part of the administrative team is a percentage of this salary included in the board bed budget the superintendent of buildings and grounds position is a town position paid out of the town of campon budget and is responsible for the oversight of the facilities grounds for both the town and the Board of Education this salary is not part of the board of education budget the next that we received is most of the schools have solar panels do you please relay to the public how those solar panels impact the schools utility bills if at all the solar panels on the school buildings are managed by the town of Canton through a power purchase agreement the schools are allocated a specific number of kilowatt hours that are generated from the panels the kilowatt hours are charged at a reduced rate however the bulk of the savings comes through the app of delivery charges the next question that we received regarding medical insurance what is the percentage of the Canon employees that elect medical Canton Public Schools Employees that elect medical benefits 71% of the Canton Board of AD employees elect medical benefits so the last slide that I'd like to show you is just a summary and a lot of this that I already presented is definitely a review you to the board of education and possibly some members of the public that have been paying attention but I think it's very important to do a summary on each one of our workshops but the last slide shows what is presented to you today as a possible budget for you to uh approve this evening and pass on to the board of Finance this is as a March 4th you could see with salaries health benefits insurance Transportation electricity just to roll over from this year to next year is 6.28 just to roll over and the driving force to this budget is a 3.01 increase in health insurance if it was at the original 7% that I was told this budget would approximately be a 4.1 4.2 in in that range you can see our special education is actually decreased 42 Athletics educational technology and reference books these are like our supply accounts that's an increase of 0.12 it's nominal and then you could see the new Personnel that we went over in the Personnel reductions move from GRS it's a 0.25 and then our small Capital items which you've seen is a 0.22 so that brings us to a 6.45 of budget increase over last year's budget budget and as I said the major drivers in this budget is salaries and number one is health and benefits and just the last um slide that I just want to remind the board and then the team is here to answer any questions that you may have that uh the board of education budget must be presented to the board of Finance by March 10th Mr Daniels will present the board of education budget to the board of Finance on March 19th I would encourage all Board of Education members to be present at that meeting on the 19th there'll be a board of education workshop on March 25th depending upon if there are any Board of add Board of Finance reductions an annual budget hearing is on April 28th and then there's a budget referendum on May 8th so that's a a quick summary of the two or three questions that I received from our last workshop and I'm not take any questions from the board at this time and if we want to open it up Mr shler to the public since it's a workshop sure uh well we uh we certainly have been talking about this budget now since December so there's a couple of new things and developments as they came to over the past couple of of months uh but it's essentially the same uh and we've had plenty of questions and plenty of time to ask questions and but it's not too late to ask them now so I guess we'll start with anybody online uh L Felicia Kim uh anything you any questions you'd like to raise I don't have any questions thank you Kim good yes I'm good thank you Joe uh and hey Joe Joe I think I think I'd be remiss not to uh to thank uh the superintendent the assistant superintendent our business manager Claudia everybody that had that touched this because I know a lot of work went into putting this book together a lot of scrutiny a lot of um review so on behalf of the Board of Education I guess I I'll just say that uh thank you Dr Gman and team for putting this together we know it's not easy I know that uh you know it caused you some angst yourself in putting this together but it is what it is and uh move from there thank you Lou I probably can speak for everybody on the board to Second lose comments there for sure uh Jordan I do have a question sure so in regards to the health benefits I know that that's still fluid at this time so how will that be a approach if there you know we went from 7 to 22 it's kind of St in limbo right now what's the goal of that so the the experience that I had with this this is that the the Brokers give you a number as you go for the through the budget process and that continues to be fluid as we move along as they look at claims and how we've been doing through this year and eventually they're going to have to land on the number and so over the next two or three weeks even the next month it will be ongoing conversations with the board of Finance Board of selectman and the Board of Education what that number has landed on um the number that we've been told as I shared we were told seven in December and then I'll never forget the phone call that I got from Anna saying sit down because again I was I was at under 4% for the budget and then I got hit with you got to go to 20% so be irresponsible of me not to take that 20% that they say because if we didn't do the 20% and the board of ads said no we're going to ignore what the town says and we're going to put in 16% um I I would not be it I don't control that number I'm told by the town what the number is so they said 20% and that's what our broker says and it'll be a fluid conversation over the next few months okay so I'm just curious how that will actually look if that number changes will then our our increase go down or will we then be able to add things back so well that's a really good question um and the board of Finance so they they would get from the CAO the the town manager that would say well we were just told by our broker that insurance I'm going to take it the other way insurance goes up to 24% and then the the board of Finance would have to determine what they're going to do because that would increase by 6.45 to at least a a 7 and a half if it went up to 24% and then they would have to say okay you're at 7 and a half that's not going to happen you need to cut $150,000 and that's what that budget Workshop would be that they say now they could say that let's say to take an example that you gave that it was at 20% and it came in at 16% they could say well that's a a savings to the overall budget in the mill rate within the town that's why I encourage the board and I encourage the community that the board ofed budget may be a 6.4 the town budget may be I I don't know what the town budget is right now but the town budget may be let's say a 5 and a half or six and then you look at the revenue that is coming into the town from the state and from uh taxes and then you put all that together and then you look at what the m rate would be and the possible tax increase to to the town and then that's how the board of finance will determine so if it goes down they could take that as okay that's going to lower the bill rate or they could say B of you have $7,000 that you could put back in your budget I don't know how that been my experience over being allowed of these meetings that it's the first thing that happens not the second that if uncommon for the number come in differently sometimes lower therefore the budget is that much lower right and milary adjust that adds up to the boance it's a good question that's the board of Finance decision not a US decision it's a board of Finance decision on if they get once the budget is presented to them and they're putting the calculations in their worksheet and it comes in that the insurance is going to be higher or lower it would adjust the the budgets either way but then they would say you know what we're to do it actually happened last year I think they came in like Anna you might remember like an eight or a seven plus and we ended up getting down to a six and then the board of Finance decided how to make that split between the two boards so the board of Finance is very much on top of it but it's a good question okay so at that point as a board of Finance decision as to what be as the board of able to do it that outcome correct me if I'm wrong but once the budget goes to the board of Finance on the 19th May 10th yeah no I I I understand that I guess yeah thank you pgy no that was I have a question um just wondering who's decision was it to allocate reallocate to the board of ed budget these uh the payroll Specialists and the accounts payroll so that was a conversation that I had with the CAO in the first letter because the the accounts payable people in the payroll they don't answer to the board of AD so if there was a mistake with payroll it has to go through the the town manager and the CAO it doesn't really make sense for a teacher to if there's an issue to like Mrs robins and myself we really don't have any jurisdiction over we're not their supervisors so in conversations with them they're they're in our office anyways and years ago was trying to be a shared finance department and it just didn't work the the way that it was supposed to so when I arrived I asked if we can have oversight over the accounts payable and the payroll specialist in they oh so it's just for ease of process thank you that's it uh folks online or sure I just had two quick questions your name and address oh I'm sorry Steven C 27 TR um just two quick questions um and one may um be OB but with the health and benefit increase is that inclusive of the offset for the employees cost share in other words is that the total number less what the employees cost share is yes this is the what you're looking at is only the Board of Ed expense the employees will take up their ption right that's I'm just making sure then maybe this is better question for we'll find out more information about this one um we meet on Thursday but is there still consideration of a possible switch to the state plan um being discussed so right now L you can help out because youve been part um the broker is out right now um investigating and researching and going out for bids on what the best possibility is for um the the town in the school so it's all we're out there to bit right now so no decision has been made there's benefits to all different plans so it really has to be analyzed no I understand that I was just wondering if that will still up if if it does the only thing I would just if I could um provide commentary on is that you'll obviously would probably have to negotiate the changes with the unions and I would um make a suggestion to try and avoid the typical response which is from the unions which is often we'll be glad to switch to the state plan but you need to knock down our Premium cost share by two three points whatever it may be they are already getting the savings by switching over if that is indeed what happen so I would just ask that you consider resisting those types of proposals to the best that you can when it comes to that thank you thank you for thank you anyone online you yes I anybody online if you're front of our public comment online you can go ahead and use your raised hand feature again and we can call any that way I and regards to what happened last year with the benefits coming in at 8 and then going down to six or whatever it was do you recall was that savings passed on to the taxpayer or did the board of Finance like how did that work out we we did we did that in our budget it it it came in I believe before we presented our budget it was um it it was in there so we first told an eight and then it went through six now prior prior to this got it okay thank you thank you for those questions everyone uh last call for questions or comments seeing none uh I would ask for a motion for the Board of Education to approve the administrative budget as presented at 6.45% and make it the Board of Ed budget that will go to the board of Finance at 6.45% increase Peggy is the first we have a second ER have a second okay good there uh any any discussion Joe it has to be because it's a money issue it has to be a uh a Voice vote by each one right any discussion um I just had one comment I'd make regardless of how I vote I just would like us to be able to be followed up with regarding the um the benefits that that whole situation I just think we'd like to be kept up to date on that and know the difference especially the finance committee absolutely doly noted can for sure thanks I'm in a second piggy back off of what Ken saying too and I really would like um any savings that does come from that to be passed on to I know that's the board of Finance but I would like that to be passed on to the taxpayer opposed to you know unless we can add in something needed for the children because it's very uh I wish it didn't happen because it's impacting the kids the error that you know whomever has made um it's disheartening so yeah we certainly look forward to having that to wrestle with um I all right uh L hi Kim hi Alicia hi Jordan hi py hi Erica hi and likewise I all right it's unanimous I count seven I got him right seven nothing all right thank you all very much it's been a long process and uh certainly appreciate the work that's going on from the administration initiative team it's been an enormous job uh quick comment the high school walks was Thursday Thursday Thursday anyone can make it it's 8:30 uh a couple people have left F you know already um if you can make it that would be great if you make it for an hour that would be great 8:30 Thursday uh and I don't think I need a motion toour if I understand Mr Danel getting a Robert tools correctly we are thank you thank you
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and there's a $15 entry fee the theme this year is Enchanted Garden your attendance would bring us Glee also also coming up this week is the fans in the stands basketball game with Unified sports so don't forget your shorts it happens Wednesday in the tech gymnasium right after school it's going to be so cool it's called fans in the stands because we want to bring in as many people as possible to show our support hope to see you there go Wild on the court we might be starting to think about spring due to the longer days in the occasional warm weather but the flu season is still around and it will continue through April here to tell us more about the flu and how to prevent it is Nurse G take it away nurse G yes we should get the flu shot the flu shots pretty effective against um the flu um usually there's a couple different strains that you got last year that they tested last year that they put into it this year it's not 100% guarantee um but getting the flu shot is a really really good idea you guys are young I wouldn't just jump right on it I would talk to your parents and make best decisions for your family the flu is um preventable in a lot of cases if you wash your hands and keep your hands off your face so I'm going to have our LPN student your name Bria briia is going to demonstrate how to wash your hands with soap and water um I think there's a lot of confusion around this so we're going to come over here and run the water and over here is the soap so bria's first going to wet her hands and then soap them up and listen just because you only get a little bit the first pump use a lot of soap a generous amount so rub your hands together real good lots of friction and then in and out lace those fingers in and out and then the tops of your hands each hand your wrist and your thumbs and then you're going to rinse and dry really well um using soap and water is the preferred method of handwashing so after you use the bathroom obviously you're not going to use hand sanitizer you're going to use soap and water um before you eat it's best to use soap and water after you eat um if you blow your nose it's best to use um soap and water afterwards however there are cases where you just don't have soap and water available to you which is when we're going to use the hand sanitizer so come on over here through here tell them your name relle relle is going to show you how to use hand sanitizer hand sanitizer stations are located outside of each of the um classrooms have them they're located inside the classrooms um there's one right there on the wall and you might see bottles like this around the school if you're um popping by my office and you feel like you need to do that go ahead and stop in and get a couple of pumps so here goes relle on on how to sanitize your hands few squirts on the hand don't just use one squirt you use a generous amount and then you're going to do the same thing you're going to rub your hands together interlace your fingers and using friction friction is what works best and then the tops your wrists and your thumbs so that's how to use the hand sanitizer so make sure you use that um often as well the last thing and I didn't realize this until Co hit about myself was that I touch my face a lot and don't even realize it um so I do this cuz I have allergies so every time you're touching your face you're introducing microorganisms germs that cause respiratory infections so make sure you're Co try to be cognizant of how often you're touching your face and make sure you're washing your hands um because you don't want to you don't want germs on your face or quickly introduced to your eye resulting in pink eye or a cold or your mouth um so make sure they're entry ports so make sure you're washing your hands frequently you all can use that information to stay healthy and well so don't forget to like subscribe and hit that notification no let's not rhyme anymore let's roll question of the week okay this week's question of the week had to be put into two parts cuz there were so many responses let's let's let's do that my favorite album is probably the Weezer Blue album my favorite album is census designated by Jan Rover and my favorite song is JR Jr Jr by Jan Rover my favorite album is census designated by Jane remover and my favorite song is JR Jr Jr by Jane remover and my favorite artist is Jane remover my two favorite albums and I can't uh I can't change them uh or I can't pick one are songs in the key of Life by Stevie Wonder and Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen when I was a kid I was all about Bruce Springsteen I think Born to Run is this great story of being like a child being a teenager and trying to gain freedom and then as a grownup I think Stevie wonderers songs in the key of life is all about what it means to fall in love build a family see the world change before you so right now all you kids go out Listen to Born to Run when you turn 21 go out find songs in the key of Life by Stevie wander it'll change your life my favorite song is Backseat Freestyle by Kendrick Lamar Kendrick Lamar Eric D uh my favorite album is the Y gimm Christmas album my favorite album right now is the new Bad Bunny album that just came out my favorite song is white Ferrari by Frank Ocean my favorite artist is K andri Lamar and my favorite album by him is to pimp a butterfly my two favorite albums are Rush coming by manin and strange Trails by Lord Heron go uh I guess right now is I know I'm funny ha by F Webster and be Witch by Le I mean I like be witched by Le but like my favorite song fortnite rap battle by nerd out is tough vessel by 21 pilots and Rush are you coming by monkin my favorite album is is either fatal realm demo or ever since by bade my favorite song is be quiet and dry Far Away by death tones my favorite album is SOS by siza hello my name is Ari and my favorite album is toxicity by System of a Down uh my favorite song is What You Won't Do For Love by Bobby Caldwell my favorite song is dark red by Steve Lacy my favorite song is love you should have come over and the best album Grace by Jeff Buckley my favorite song is candles by juice world uh my favorite song is Paradise City my favorite song is beauty and the beat my my favorite song is last night by Morgan Wallen Paradise City well that's all for this week and I'm Marty and we'll see you next week on Cat TV news [Music]
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our next board meeting is on April 1 which is Tuesday and remember it starts at 5:30 where we do our celebrations and the regular board meeting starts at 6: pm.
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to 3 p.m. ashon High School will host the Metro West College and Career Fair the event will feature over a 100 colleges universities and career Representatives along with sessions on financial aid sat acts and the college application process in general also some exciting news some free transportation for seniors Ashland Senior Center offers free transportation for a resident 60 plus within Ashland and surrounding towns rides must be scheduled 48 hours in advance the Council on agent Community hero Award nominations are open for the 2025 Community hero award recognizing individuals who positively impact Ashlin seniors submissions are due by April 1st 2025 now the Steve Ulus culinary scholarship in honor of the late Steve ulist a scholarship has been established for students at shaen Valley Technical High School waca is running a donation matching challenge until March 14th contributing up to $2,000 in matching funds also don't forget the Ashlin 2025 rain barrel program ashin is offering discounted rain barrels to Residents to promote water conservation the program helps reduce water bills decrease greenhouse gas emissions and provide a clean water water source for gardening the rain barrels are durable repurposed and available in three colors orders must be placed by March 28th 2025 this week's Community shout out goes to Nick O'Hara Nick O'Hara owner of the O'Hara and Company is a well-respected member of Ashland since opening his business in 1986 he has become known for his dedication to the community his compassionate nature and his work as a high school soccer coach Nick also founded the the Leo project a nonprofit that support education and Healthcare programs in Kenya in honor of his late daughter Caitlyn he is a regular at local spots like Stone's Public House and the Ashland Farmers Market next's positive impact and kindness make him a true embodiment of Ashlin Spirit the taste of Metro West the taste of Metro West event is back offering a chance to experience Regional restaurants early bird tickets are now available for Town manager coffee hours on the third Wednesday of each month residents can meet Town manager Michael Herbert at the Community Center for coffee and conversation for upcoming dates we have March 19th April 16th and May 21st coming up we also have the Ashland Education Foundation casino night on March 8th from 7:00 p.m.
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Thursday April 3rd is our school visit to williamsfield high school and that concludes upcoming events thank you Miss Richards it seems most people already did that but just in case you were here for some of the celebrations now is a great time to leave if you are not here for business as usual um the rest of the meeting is going to start now okay next on the agenda are the requests to speak so please play the video we value input from our constituents this time on our agenda has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board those that wish to speak should have filled out speaker cards which are due prior to the start of our meeting members of the board may not discuss comment or take action on matters raised that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to AR 38-4 31.0 onei action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and decision at a later date also we ask that audience members practice proper public meeting decorum refraining from either negative or positive responses including clapping or verbal outbursts to ensure fairness to All Points of View those that refuse to follow these rules may be asked to leave in accordance with policy bedh public participation at board meetings if considered necessary the governing board president shall set a time limit on the length of the comment period in order to ensure that each individual has an opportunity to address the board the president may also set a time limit for individual speakers thank you for your cooperation first up we have Jessica Campuzano we're live okay good evening members of The Board District cabinet and superintendent Richards my name is Jessica cazano I am a proud mother of three husd students and a certified general education teacher at kolie early childhood development center I wanted to take a moment to say thank you to the board and superintendent Richards for taking time to read emails and answer questions from the husd community I wanted to publicly give a gratitude shout out to Mr Moore our CFO Mr Moore you have shown your continued commitment to your hsd community time and time again Mr Moore your time communication with husd Community should be looked at as standard of practice you excel in this area and I want to say thank you for valuing staff and teachers you are an anchor for husd thank you for continuing this essential work as I'm looking forward to the 2026 2027 school year I'm eager to welcome our newest Learners giving a little plug we will be hosting our spring open house April 22nd at kolie Early Child the development center if you have a three or four-year-old it would be our pleasure to welcome them into our school family and provide your L young learner with essential School Readiness skills needed before kindergarten governing board I thank you for allowing me this time to speak thank you next we have Katie crear hi there my name is Katie crto I'm a parent to three children at SanTan Elementary and the member of a Santan PTO board I come to you tonight to request transparency and communication regarding the budget survey that was closed on February 24th we've heard from within the schools and rumors from even students in tear that our librarian Aid along with others such as crossing guards contracts are not being renewed next year was this the majority feedback requested by our community to cut specials such as library and music last year the board voted 3 to one to increase teachers teacher and administrated salaries when given two options by administrator the vote Ved voted the one that would give the administration the higher amount at the time president Wade you stated we have the budget for the option that we approved I here to point out that we no longer have the budget for the 230,000 administrated increase you implemented last year administrative staff should not have been lumped in with classified staff and received the same increase removing this increase administrated would allow us to save several if not all our Librarians Mr Bo Mr Moore you told the board in February of 2024 that budget review that the the override fails there would be some contingency Monies to offset the probability and year the harshness of year one and two of the phase down where are those contingency monies you spoke of you were quoted in stating I try and pride myself in looking forward and not only to next year but to two or three years down the line I want the district to be stainable and have continuity not only with salaries but in everything we do end of quote presenting an administrative increase salary last year was not looking two to three years down the road it was coming knowing that the override was coming to the ballot and might not passed we are now in a position to put words into action to create continuity for everything we do which is Library safety of getting our students to the school by the cross guards and musics in our classrooms we have a student at Sandtown who comes to Miss Baker in tears and offer money out of her own piggy bank to save Miss Baker's position I ask Administration to look into their piggy banks to see what we can do lastly I'd like to understand from Administration and the board if the community has the ability to save this position through raising PTO funds to enhance our library we can rally together and to cover our librarian salary and support our students and do what the district is not willing to do thank you thank you next we have Kim Jackson board members it's essential that we carefully assess our current budget and spending as the financial decisions we make today will shape the future of our district the raises authorized last year by some current board members of this board should have never been approved given that we did not have the necessary funds allocated to sustain them Beyond one year board member Wade was quoted in the Gilbert Sun Times news on March 29th 2024 stating quote we have the budget for the option that we just approved unquote however according to the CFO we are now having to cut jobs because the district does not have the budget to sustain certain positions this contradiction raises serious concerns about how our financial planning and priorities are happening to address this I strongly recommend resending these raises at the administrative level if not entirely at least by 1 or 2% is it true that the CFO just informed some preschool staff that they will be take they will be taking if my mouth is correct a 15% cut next year no one party or area in the district should have a be asked to make a financial sacrifice such as a salary reduction admin at District need to help offset monies too redirecting These funds could help preserve the jobs and contracts of our teachers and even reinstate some of our Librarians who have been notified that their contracts will not be re renewed for next school year additionally I urge the board to implement an immediate freeze on District funded travel expenses over the last two years the district has spent a half a million dollars annually on travel total that's a million dollar um by pausing non-essential spending we can reallocate those funds to save critical positions board members your responsibility is to prioritize the needs of the students and Educators by advising District administration on how to do so effectively I ask the board to take immediate action to ensure our budget reflects these priorities to close I want to express my gratitude for Miss Montel at San Middle School she took the time to hand write a letter and mail it to my home expressing her appreciation for my child who is her student I deeply appreciate the effort she made to recognize and encourage him we are fortunate to have such dedicated Educators in our district such as Miss Montell thank you thank you next we have Kathleen Richards good evening cabinet good evening board members thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight um first of all I just wanted to thank you all in looking at the agenda for um the superintendent selection I think that we really need a champion for our school district and I'm really excited to see the direction as I know much of our district was rooting very much for Big Lots was it um and and we look forward to seeing what he brings to the table and the energy that comes from that um I also wanted to thank the cabinet for putting together the uh uh The Forum La I believe it was last week this month suddenly feels well it's March anyway um I wanted to thank you all for putting together The Forum that to discuss the survey that went out regarding things that could potentially find themselves on the chopping block um due to the lack of passing of the override on last year's ballot measure um it was eye opening for a lot of families I believe who were able to attend should the district hold another one of those I would definitely recommend attending while there were a lot of really new faces and some familiar faces um it was a wonderful opportunity for clarification on things uh in terms of what the district intention is with these cuts that will be necessary as well as what in investigations have gone forward um to lead to the choices that are being made uh there is a lot of information that's available to families um with just a quick ask or email or just taking a look through our website that has been so nicely redesigned this year so there are a lot of ways that you can check up on that but having that opportunity for Community for individuals to come together who don't all reside in the same bubble especially in the elementary areas where you just tend to sort of stick to your area for seven years before you end up thrown into the middle school pot um it was great to be able to meet those families talk to them and help them better understand how we got to where we are today and what we can do going forward one of the things that the fames brought up over and over again is how much they appreciate the teachers that they have how much they want to keep those things the things that make Higley special like our specials like the selection of classes that we have at the high school like our dual language programs Etc and how is it best that we can protect those things one of the things that came up was the fact that parents can be cheerleaders for our district I think we all know that we use Word of Mouth to find a doctor a dentist you name it we're asking a neighbor a friend our community and our community really needs to come together at this moment uh including everyone in this space to be the champion that Higley needs and to go out and speak positively about what we do really well and to speak positively about what we can change because nowhere is perfect thank you guys so much thank you next we have Barbara Summers hello um my name is Barbara Summers I'm a parent to a student at williamsfield um earlier today I came across a podcast from last month that makes me question as to whether all members of our board can accept the information from the novel committee update without bias the podcast I listened to had one of our board members as the guest and this board member spoke about topics like our novel committee during the podcast the board member mentions things like looking into the list of committee members and checking it against an employee list and also checking into the committee members voter registration they even go so far as to say that a parent investigated the committee members and shared that information with them one would wonder whether this board member felt that it was necessary to go into this presentation with all that information and if it was appropriate to utilize the voter database for this reason this seems to be a huge overreach that violates the privacy of community members involved and I want to bring this to the attention of all of those involved thank you thank you next we have Jenna schmidle good evening Higley Community Hing Rini my name is Gina Schmid it is nice to meet you my voice will bring awareness of and support for the Mandarin Chinese dual language immersion program offered in the Higley Unified School District the Mand Chinese program is one of the me many educational opportunities that add to the Halley Unified School District being one of the best districts there is the mandrin Chinese program is a unique asset to the Higley Unified School District Higley unified school district teachers are the best of the best with the Mandarin program teachers standing out giving Learners and their families every opportunity to grow and thrive in education in addition to Rich and vibrant curriculum in the classroom the these teachers provide super informative weekly newsletters complete with personally recorded vocabulary words YouTube links interactive quizzes and pictures and videos of our students in vibrant joy-filled classrooms Mrs P Whittier is the best possible beginning teacher for our kulie preschool Learners my first son is in the first grade program at Coronado Elementary School while my second son is in the kindergarten preparation class Mandarin Chinese parents are among the most supportive anded dedicated parents in hegle Unified School District we have built a strong and active parent support Community we work hard to honor the Dual language immersion learning contracts that we signed when enrolling our children in the program our children and families participate in at least two celebration activities a year including the full Moon Festival and Chinese New Year celebrations which are opportunities for the community to join in learning we spend extra time at home to support our luners with home library books home media learning apps such as du lingo and Chinese learning new ways to cook traditional food finding and displaying authentic Chinese decorations for our homes and planning time to get together with other Mandarin Chinese Learners these are opport there are other opportunities such as parent University classes for general education students and inclusion activities for all Learners I strongly recommend that the Hingle Unified School District continue to fund the Mandarin Chinese dual language immersion program as one of the best parts of our district brain science proves that learning a second language early in life is the best way to ensure success at being multilingual my first child would have been enrolled in the program had I known about it but my fourth child will join the program in 3 years please fund the Mandarin Chinese program and grow the mandrin Chinese program and our district will most assuredly continue to thrive thank you next we have Mindy brocker hi thank you for the opportunity to speak today I am a District parent I have three kids in our district and I recognize that we have great freedoms we have the freedom to choose this district and I do choose Higley to choose the school the classes and even the books that my children read I listened to this recent podcast one that sent it to Barbara and Anna van hul I will name her was the guest in her position as an elected official for our district she said in this podcast that in the recent Advanced literature class that everybody is debating that only one parent did their research um unlike you miss van hul I believe that parents are smart and they like I did did do their due diligence and can be trusted to parent their children accordingly I do not need you to protect our children from our own educational choices I'm only I'm also really grossed out by Anna's statement that while children that don't attend Higley schools might not need to worry about higley's educational decisions you do have to live amongst those public school students so you should care I'm sorry but our district students half of the children in our community are amazing how dare you infer that they are lesser in any way and because they read that's gross behavior from a board member you also said that you reviewed research from a parent and that book committee book committee members are left leaning or Educators do you typically investigate committee members is that investigation information you ingested and repeated in the media part of your public record you inferred that book committee members were not a blind selection you also grinned through the podcast host saying that people need to stop this at all costs you that encouraged everyone especially those who are not in our district to show up and speak it's their right but it's gross political Behavior you were very clear that you had no intent on listening to a citizen committee with an open mind I ask Anna van hul is not allowed to vote on literature reviewed by this book committee as she has publicly shared misinformation allowed and encouraged in threatening behavior and has encouraged brigading her participation in this process is highly inappropriate thank [Music] you thank you next we have Jessica D Ambrosio good evening superintendent Richards the cabinet and to the board I want to say thank you to the board and to the the cabinet for um having the superintendent Forum uh available online last week not everyone was able to attend for three hours but I felt like it was a really good um way for our community to make an informed Choice um or rather to provide feedback for who will be our next superintendent um I wanted to give a tremendous thank you to the community for their feed back and I am hopeful of the board's approval of Mr Len heiser's contract this evening um he embodies what we have going here at Higley and what we want to continue um supported teachers kids who are put first every time um I also wanted to bring out something that's happening at williamsfield high school um under the leadership of John Dolan um there's this program called the evit program and while I've been a teacher for 18 almost 18 years in this District I never really understood what went into it until my senior said that he was joining the program and I said for what he goes for nursing I said you want to be a nurse no but what he does want is a foundation so that when he goes to medical school someday he's going to be well off so um he has his teacher named Miss Bray over at the evit program and she has just really inspired him and so when I think about the evit program and for parents who don't know a lot about it it's phenomenal and if you're kid is anything like my kid and can pretty much graduate high school with a pretty easy load push him into the Eva program just check it out um because now his sophomore brother is like oh I'm going to go do the firefighter program which means he'd have to go to school a little early and for this kid to want to spend more time at school thank you um I just also wanted to throw a thank you to the early childhood education CTE program run by Miss Depo over at williamsfield high school um I visited her class back in like November or December and I saw a lot of my former students who are aspiring future teachers which uh is such a blessing because I feel like they'll Thrive as they go on into the future um misso had heard about a toy drive that teachers at HTA uh started about seven years ago she said hey we want to be a part of it too so with the support of williamsfield high school and HTA we made gift donations of toys to the military assistance Mission Sunshine Acres and star found star wght Foundation I just want to say thank you to higly have a good night thank you next we have Ryan Edwards good evening and um honored to be here with the board and and everyone present uh my name is Ryan Edwards I'm a Gilbert resident I'm a husband father Arizona native um I'm also a former teacher and administrator in the Gilbert Public School District of 10 years and currently uh 21-year employee of the Mahoney group in Mesa Arizona and I lead the educational institution's uh Commercial Insurance Division I live just outside of the district in the gilberg public schools district um from 20 from 2012 to 2019 I had the great honor of serving uh the district as the air to the trust that ensures the district um during that time at the end of that time period we found some discrepancies in some of the coverages and items that were being handled by the district as as an air you are given the task to completely review and go over everything that's being covered by them and and being offered to you we saw some things that were alarming and so we set out to um make them aware of that we did there were some adjustments made but year over-year those things stayed and so the decision was made in 2018 to take a closer look and so we went out and did a a three-year uh two to threee case study of your district with all the major carriers around the United States that brought some amazing results uh we ended up um that the district ended up going to RFP we responded to that RFP we won the contract and we ensured the district for the next 2 years um at an annual Savings of rough roughly $350,000 uh which we were very proud to do um then in 2021 as a result of uh a shake up in leadership some other relationships with people that came in that had relationships with the trust um the account went back to the trust they dropped their rates by a quarter of a million dollars in order to try to win back the business but we're still about a 100,000 High um we were disappointed because of all the great work that we had done and close relationships we had built with the district but nevertheless um we we stepped back and and let the the trust carry on I've been following the budget constraints and uh it pains me to know that the commercial insurance is is a piece of that pie and so as I've watched that over the last months I couldn't help but think you know why not start that discussion again and why not look at that closely again there's tremendous savings to be had for the district um to be covered adequately and and appropriately that would bring thousands of dollars back into the budget and back to Higley for the students as a former teacher and administrator I know how important this is um I can send the full case study to you in the morning this week if you'd like to read it again I'm sure it's on file here at the district and we'd be honored to open that discussion and um bring about those savings again and duplicate our efforts to the benefit of pigley Unified School District for the coming year thank you thank you this moves us to um oh I'm sorry go ahead um superintendent Richards if you can look into the um one of the speakers mentioned PTO funds possibly assisting with a librarian I'm not sure um what the ask was but if you can look into that please if PTO funds is that what you said could be used I think that's what that's what was mentioned um and I would like to make a comment um regarding public comment um Barbara and Mindy uh your obsession with me is quite concerning um I know you hate that I have a first Amendment right and that's too bad um I've I'm not going anywhere um you can continue to cyberstalk me and um I will continue to speak out and maybe next time I'll email you directly any podcast that I do so you don't have to go cyber stalking um I have no control what other parents pull and investigate and present to me um that is to District parents if that's what they choose to do um I will listen to them um but again I have no control over what other parents decide to do thank you this moves us to item 5.1 selection of superintendent of uh hickley Unified School District starting July 1 2025 contingent upon negotiation and board approval of an employment contract are there any questions comments or concerns before I make the motion you want to make a comment is that what that is if it's about this you want to do it now before the motion okay great I motion to recommend selecting David lsen Heiser as superintendent of Higley Unified School District effect of July 1 2025 contingent upon negotiation and board approval of an employment contract second Mr Glover seconded all those in favor I I all those opposed nay motion carries 32 Mr lsen Heiser would you like to say a few words yes I would thank [Applause] you president members of the board thank you very much for entrusting me with this position it it means a tremendous amount to me I'm truly honored and humbled to be in front of you today and in front of our community knowing that the task that's placed ahead of me and how seriously that I take this task into moving forward for those of you are able to attend the Forum hopefully I was able to express to you my beliefs and what a district should look like and what leadership should look like in terms of influencing our community and our students we are in a relationship business and like I said then I'll repeat it now the most important relationship we have is between the student and the parent and it's our job to support our students by supporting our teachers with guidance and providing them the necessary materials so that we can have Limitless opportunities for our kids I'm proud of the group of valued Educators that I'm joining not just in cabinet but at our sites and in our classrooms you know Higley we're really really proud of what we do and I don't think we shout it from the rooftops enough we're an a district we have a plus schools we're very very very successful when we do do we have things to fix absolutely there is never an organization that can't look at themselves and say there are things that we can do better at 100% And so I'm so excited that I get to join a new team honestly I get to team with the five of you up there and with me and make six and now we're a team that's going to help lead and provide the vision of what we want our district to be and I'm a team with all of the Educators out here and and as I look at at the opportunities that we have we have some challenges in front of you absolutely we do we all know them hey but together we can overcome this together we have the expertise in the room to be able to make the right decisions that are going to support our kids because we're all here for the same reason we want our kids to get absolute very best and that's what we're going to do in Higley and just remember together we got this thank [Applause] you thank you Mr Len Heiser now we're going to move on to the consent agenda items I motion to approve consent agenda items 6.1 through 6.15 second thanks Mr clever all those in favor I I I motion carries 5 Z with that we um like to recognize the gifts and donations so thank you to hickley High School choir boosters Katherine Ortiz Kent MidFirst Bank chapparel PTO and Higley girls basketball boosters for their generous donations to our schools at this time we move on to information items we're at 7.1 novel and supplemental committee update Miss Davis that is you good evening governing board um I am here today to um bring forward our recommendations for the prek 12 um supplemental committee and the sixth through 12th grade novel committee um the goals of today's session is to um review our state statute and board policy review our district definition of supplemental materials and novels and then to also um go through our process for the selection and use of the supplemental materials and novels and then I will walk through um the recommendations for each of those two committees and um the next steps from there so on the screen OHA I went too far on the screen you'll see the state statute um 15 um 71 721 rather that guided the work the district policies um that also guided our work and then two related policies as well and those are the policies that we went over when we pre when we initially launched this we have two main definitions for this work um that being our supplement supplementary materials our in stral materials that are outside of the district adopted curriculum that the district site department or grade require for use for all students and then our supplementary novel um or books are a set of novels both fiction and non-fiction on an approved book list that are identified through a stakeholder process with a rubric and then we also have our curriculum page on our website through our ed Service page on there you can find all of our core content adoptions but also you'll find um the links to our prek through 12 supplemental list and our 6 through 12 not approved novel list as well which will be updated after we make it all the way through the process and then want to give a big shout out to our prek through 12 supplemental material committee we had four meetings throughout Theo school year we had 10 uh committee members that were made up of parents and community members and a mix of teachers and district office staff um the picture on the screen is a small group that was meeting um to go over a couple supplemental materials I would love to pause I know I have a couple Comm U committee members in the audience they would like to stand so we can recognize and give them a little bit of thanks you are on the supplemental for being able to review the supplemental materials teachers and administrators were able to propose a new material that they would like us to review throughout the year um parents and teachers community members were also able to submit a request of the previous or our current list as well if they would like something reviewed that's currently on the list um and then we would take it through the process of the larger group would meet we would introduce um each of the items go into small group so the small group would be assigned um the supplemental material they would review it independently and evaluate it using a rubric the rubric would include or does include um judging is it meeting the standards is a grade appropriate does it have educational value and is there any sensitive content in there um and then we would come together as uh for a committee meeting when in those small groups they would discuss that instructional material and make a small group recommendation so each small group would meet and then we would come back whole group and they would do a presentation on that material and share any positives concerns and then their recommendation on that material and as a whole committee they would vote um yes or no on that recommendation so what we have for you today is that completed list of recommendations so on the screen I have for you um the six supplemental materials that were put forward this year for request um I have two that were not recommended um given the criteria in the rubric for um standards educational value um and if they're meeting the standards and even the value of who's putting forward um that M the author of that material so we have the K3 structured literacy culum by primary Bliss um ince and math Hands-On Equations and fractions those were not recommended by the committee to move forward and then whose reading um was recommended for k6 students ST Math was recommended for K8 students bird CV was recommended for k6 students and esgi was recommended for k6 students for formative assessments only and then I do want to note that these are site-based purchases and then I'm going to hop us into the sixth through 6th through 12th grade um husd approved novels and just a reminder of the expectations that we set forward beginning of the year that all of our teachers have to um communicate with the families at least two weeks prior to teaching the novel um that a novel will be um used for instruction that can be done on their website a newsletter they also list them in their course syllabus at the beginning of the year um parents do have the right to opt out of the reading and an alternate text will be then provided and um we do have that husd um parent consent that all teachers utilize that will identify the sensitive content and context around that so those have been utilized this year we started the year off with 26 committee members for the novel committee and due to life we ended the year with 23 um and that was again a mix of parents community members um husd staff and that is a picture from our last meeting and I think I have a couple committee members here as well so if they wouldn't mind standing so we can recognize and thank them [Applause] and we did meet um we were scheduled to meet five times this year but ended up meeting four um again illness life scheduling and similar to the supplemental process um novels were selected for review based on teacher proposing new books to be added um parents community members um teachers admin could put in a request to review what's currently on the list um or if a teacher would like to have a novel change of grade level if their um site curriculum team couldn't come to that decision then that would have come to us but this year we just had the proposals for new texts um again similar to that supplemental material process we did the small groups um so each small group was assigned a proposed novel they would read it independently and score using the rubric that rubric was based on standard and GR appropriateness instru value um literary merit and sensitive content and then they would come back together um and meet so the whole committee would come back together meet in the small groups to discuss their novel come up with the positives and the concerns and then make their small group recommendation and then as a whole group they would share out their presentation and recommendation and then they would vote yes or no on that recommendation um so that is the list I have for you today and also during that recomend recommendation they would name if that would require a permission slip based on those content areas things that we considered with our novels um again that alignment to standards great appropriateness um statute ARS uh 151 12.03 ensuring that the committee was comfortable moving forward with it that all voices were heard and that whatever those concerns were were noted in our presentations that they were completing at the time so with that I'm not going to read all these novels out loud to you I'm going to pause and have it on the screen so you guys can review them um these are our final recommendations for novels that do not require a permission slip good okay and then this is our final recommendation for novels that do require permission slips so next up so today we're in our first read so bringing it to you guys to get the information and it also act activates our 60-day review for the public um and with that um our committee page um so from the community website off of husd we have a committee page that has been kept current with everything that's been happening um was updated today to reflect the recommendations for both the supplemental and the novel recommendations and it also includes a feedback form for each of them so if a um Community member teacher whoever would like to go and provide feedback they would click the right form and then they would identify which material they are reviewing and then answer the questions that are there there's 10 questions total for each form um and then we will use that um the feedback um from there um to we'll synthesize the information give it um to you all and it will also help um uh evaluate any other um concerns that might be brought up by the community and then we'll come back May 13th um for the final um or the approval vote um so that is where we are from there Miss Davis are you going to have these forms available on paper okay I meant to turn my page and I turned my microphone off um yes we will have printed copies as well of each um feedback form available at the front desk so if um somebody is more comfortable with the paper feedback form that will be available do you have Madam president may I is it okay to ask questions may I so uh thank you for all of that I understand I've been teaching in this area uh well for a really long time I understand it's a conservative Community um I understand that we have people who opt out I'm I'm all I'm fine with that hopefully it's not too often the only question I had was on um page nine I have racked my brain to try to understand how one could make this happen so either maybe you could explain or maybe maybe I'm Miss understanding but it says teachers are expected to have an alternate text for all novels assigned in the classroom along with teaching plans for including all students in classroom novel discussions I just I don't know how one could do that if you're talking about character development those kids that aren't supposed to hear those things are going to hear naturally some things so what could you just explain or maybe I'm dumb no not at all um thank you for your question um so parents can indicate if they would like their student to go to an alternate location and then if that is the case then those that instance would occur that there would be alternate um lesson available for them to how they would respond um to that alternate text no I I get but it says for including all students in classroom novel discussions how could they be included if they're not so they would have they would have an alternate assignment um but but they wouldn't be in the room would okay that's not the way I read this well so they could still be in the room for the discussion if the parent is okay with them remaining in the room okay maybe that needs a little little bit extra added to it I think maybe because I I misread that or misunderstood go correct me if I'm wrong I believe sometimes the novels that are read the discussion is more Global for lack have a better word for themes not specifics and that might be a case where they would potentially remain in the room so all right but it it it says that they would it says including them all and I read that say all the time and I just see that would be problematic because they would be exposed to things that they're trying to not be exposed to so I'm married to an English teacher so we had we had some healthy debate on this one president Anderson board member Glover um so the based on the my understanding from last time um this was discussed uh unfortunately those kids are having to leave the room and self-educate in a different room which is really unfortunate um but uh I I would like to uh say I'm going to read a statement um that I wrote regarding this um there's been a lot of misinformation out there um including a recent a central article um that was put out and I I want to clarify some things um this law passed in 2022 and the district did not implement this law for 2 years um and parents were given a syllabus uh with list of book titles without an explanation of their content for 2 years um the last parent who spoke about his child being given the book never got a permission slip before his child was given the book so there was a violation of not only his parental rights but also the district violated the statute meanwhile the novel committee made up of approximately 25 members and I understand some members resigned due to conflict um is only relying on a recommendation of just three to four people who are actually reading the book and if you can confirm that after my statement i' I'd appreciate that um if those few individuals don't raise concerns about a about a book the rest of the committee remains unaware of any issues it's my understanding that every book has been approved unanimously without a single dissenting vote even when explicit and inappropriate content for minors was openly acknowledged on top of that the teachers recommending the books are in the room and are part of the committee and our voting members which is made up of more than 50% of husd employees the committee is this raises serious concern about bias and whether the process truly represents the best interest of students and parents there are countless of books that meet educational standards without exposing students to graphic material yet we continue to select books that create Division and controversy when parents opt their children out these students are removed from the classroom and forced to self-educate in a separate setting when more appropriate books could have been chosen from the start let me be clear adults are introducing the content to minors and if this happens outside of a school setting it would be completely unacceptable why are we normalizing exposure to sex sodomy rape drug use masturbation and beastiality in a school environment the argument that these are college level courses is irrelevant these students are still minors it is deeply troubling that educators are making these selections and that Administration continues to allow it if alternative novels exist why aren't we using them that way a child does not have to leave the room and could be in their educational environment we have laws that say that we can't do things in a classroom that disrupts the educational environment but here we are doing it and from my understanding even colleges aren't assigning such books we should be focusing on education not exposing minors to appropriate divisive and harmful content if we really want to keep and attract students something needs to change yet this committee has approved every single book and every one of them requires a permission slip that's an absolute disappointment you can't say we care about increasing enrollment while making decisions that drives families away and I just hope that we can make some changes to reverse that because that has caused our district a lot of harm financially thank you president Wade I um I know that there's a lot of parents who are very proactive on um what their children are exposed to obviously there's a lot of apps out there and all kinds of things in order to kind of prevent certain situations and I just really don't think that this is wise I I I think that overall if we could figure out uh less of a mature rating of books that suffice the state standard I really think that would be wonderful and would accommodate a lot more people and also not be a burden on the teachers the teachers are going to have to manage the students now and who can go in there and who cannot and then potentially you have the risk of certain conversations coming up in that class and so I just I don't think that we need to necessarily go there and um there's Summers there's weekends that parents can decide which books are more appropriate more one-on-one adult topics that they can take on with their kids but overall I don't think this is a necessity in this kind of situation thank you uh thank you madam president I just want to I I just I have to go home to my wife who I said is an English teacher and I just want to say so when the when she has had to send people out um it's not I I'm not just it's not they're not self-educating she had to also prepare lessons um and check in and do some of the same things it's a lot of extra work for her as well I agree but also this this is a good time to mention I think well it's probably not but so you could let me know it's not um you know the things these kids carry around in their in their pockets and the uh the iPads and things like that that we give them as a sixth grade current sixth grade teacher um just we're talking about these things just be aware your kids are on a lot more things than you think that they are I was surprised I'm I'm shocked honestly about some of the things that they are exposed to so this can also be just a good reminder to keep an eye on your young children especially because the internet is is the wild west um and we can't control what's in their what's in their pocket on their cell phone we can't we can TR we can try on devices but anyway it's a good reminder just watch out for your youngsters president Wayne um I just would like to clarify a couple of items um overwhelmingly the majority of the committee read all of the novels and each of the small groups had five to six committee members on them so it wasn't three to four um that were reading them and making the decision for the whole committee um and the whole point of of the small group was so that they could come up with the positives and concerns of the novels and I have to say it was endearing how much the whole committee dug into to not only the positives but the concerns of the text and hearing the parents and the teachers talk about what concerns are in that book and the parents talk about what was an issue and what was a non-issue for them we had a representative group across the district that dug in to this committee and talk about what was their value at home and what was a value in education for them and that came across in every single committee meeting um and in the end we did actually have more parent committee members than we did husd members I will say only by one but it was still we still had more parents there um and each even when a concern was brought up it was taken very seriously it wasn't just well that's okay we'll permission slip it it was no is this a book that kids need to have in their hands or is there already a book on our list that does that job um there was something else maybe it was um board member Glover um to your point about the lesson plan if they are leaving the class CL yes if um the parent has asked that they not be in the room for a discussion the teacher is planning an alternate lesson for them outside of the classroom and doing extra touch points with that student as well so they are not just self-educating that is not a thing that we do here at higle um so just wanted to touch point on those president Wade um so the parent from um earlier this school year he had mentioned that his child was given extra work um when having to leave the classroom it wasn't equivalent to what the rest of the class was doing that it just seemed like uh it was much more work that his child had to do um and felt like it was kind of a punishment um for opting out of a specific book um so I want to ensure that these kids aren't in fact been being given extra work uh when they're opting out and uh how many of those how many books were rejected out of all the books uh no Books Okay so it was brought up concerns were brought up and yet they were all passed unanimously correct um yeah very very disappointing um and then as far as uh kids having a lot of stuff on their phones um I get that um but the fact that this stuff is given um by schools is the inappropriate part uh we shouldn't be the one um giving children minors uh this type of information in a School setting president Wade um I just wanted to ask the question I'm sorry if it already got answered but were there any alternatives for these higher mature ratings that suffice the standard that was trying to be met by that potential literature are you asking did we name alternates to go with these were there any alternates Al alternates like um any other options that suffice the same standard that you guys were trying to achieve by that book by that literature um I would say yes but they also fit the same criteria in terms of the sensitive content um like it would it's an equal trade and and things that we were looking at um I if I'm understanding your question correctly so Miss Davis correct me if I'm not communicating clearly these books were brought to the committee by teachers that wanted them evaluated for new to be newly added to the list they are not current novels on the list correct president Wade um I believe what uh board member jarman's asking is um are there alternates which yes the the answer is yes so when a parent opts out there's an alternate book that they they select there um there would be an alternate text provided yes if a parent would ask that um and you're saying that that alternate is equivalent to the content no I'm sorry I misunderstood her question um me go back so if we have an alternate why can't we just use the alternate instead of um the explicit content that still meets the standards and doesn't create controversy or chaos or put in the new alternate I'm sorry to interrupt it's okay sorry I got really excited about my um most times the alternate texts are not meeting the standard and they're not of the same rigor um they're usually grade levels below um that we're pulling from um as alternate texts and there's not a similar grade level text that would qualify for an alternate um not often so you're saying you looked into that yes we have okay um we've been very particular about what gets a permission slip and what does not um to meet the needs of our community and that has honestly narrowed the the scope of what's out there for an alternate because an alternate cannot have a permission slip tie to it um um in six of our new recommendations have permission slips the rest of them do not have permission slips tie to them president Wade board member Van Hook um these books if they make it through the full process and are added they will be added to our approved book list which contains lots and lots of books so when you ask if there's an alternative we do have several books the book lists provide the book list provides an opportunity for our teachers to be able to select from the approved what they will be teaching in their classrooms to meet the standard before I uh move on I would like to comment just on a couple of things um first and formost to the community members the staff who took the time to do this committee um I'm greatly appreciative uh as a teacher I find it frustrating sometimes that aspects of our autonomy are are take it from us from individuals who maybe aren't taking the time to understand things or aren't in a position to have the same level of training and expertise that we have with respect to our topics um the idea of going through this process sometimes is a frustration so uh look I'm a reader and I've been a reader for quite some time and reading is something that we you know put forth in our family a lot reading about something versus visually seeing it really does impact the brain in in different ways and that is an aspect that is important um I also again when it comes to to messaging I feel as if we're getting mixed messages sometimes we routinely hear from the community that we need to prepare our kids for next steps of life always and I agree with you and we have members of our community who are the victims of rape who are the victims of incest who are the victims of some of these things that are in the books or are suicidal or have these other things and I've had conversations with individuals in the community who I would argue probably are more conservative leaning with respect to do we have to have a books that have these content and I recognize and understand a parent's right to choose and again we have always had that so in 2022 we had permission slips we updated them two years ago so it's not that we weren't in compliance with the law but maybe we could have made better steps and so now we're making efforts to do that we have asked to make better steps and we have gone through created a community uh sorry a committee to come through and take these next steps and yes even though there are difficult topics and it is understandable why we have these difficult topics the merits of what they give deserved us to to push them through as an individual who understands that in high school sometimes or as an adolescent things can be difficult to talk about and it is a safe space to be able to talk about these things in a way where you can understand that I am not the only one who experiences these things or it creates Avenues and opportunities to say hey now I can report some of these things that are happening because I did not understand what was happening to me was not okay and being able to talk about it in these ways are are part of that we are also existing in a changing society in which people are making efforts to try to limit information and that causes harm so I I think for those people who have concerns about the book I think it is okay you can decide that you are the parent and you get that choice and it is one we have always maintained here even though it is extra labor and effort but I also ask that sometimes maybe we take a step back and recognize that as much as I want to Shield my child from all of the ills that exist that is an impracticality it is not possible and at the end of the day if we are doing our jobs our jobs are to provide them with information and tools and how to navigate so I recognize that there are difficulties I struggle when we use words like pornography because that is not the legal definition of what pornography is reading a book that has a scene that depicts rape or depict sex whether we like to admit it or not some of your teens are having sex some of your teens have been raped and maybe they have not talked to you about it these difficult topics especially when it is a college course especially when it is a college course and if your concern is that my kid is going to be othered because they're not part of this then maybe don't sign them up for that course because again you also have to give permission for them to take that course these things are part of it I I I understand the concerns and so I think it is important for us again to recognize we have jumped through your Hoops repetitively and yet we still end up with books that have Merit difficult topics yes but Merit for the future adults that we are breeding into this world and for any kid who may not feel as if they understand or are aware that this happens and it helps create better citizens to be aware of these types of things and for those of you again who still have concern if it's not this year then maybe it is next and so we still have Choice parents if you have this you still have that choice but we have gone through this process and again I'm grateful the fact that we had to do it I find frustration in but I was part of the process that approved it because again now we are here and I go thank you to those who took the time I recognize that it was diff difficult and I also understand that it will be difficult for our students who discuss them and maybe they can do it in a safe space that we all can grow and learn from perspectives that either are our own or will never be our own and so again I'm grateful to the books that we provide and the things that we offer for the students and the opportunity of other uh issues because the world around us is is not always the safe welcoming comfort that Gilbert provides I'm grateful to live here I'm grateful to raise our kids here but that does matter president Wade um it's also not the teachers's responsibility to have these talk talks with students it's up to their parents um and so to assume that it's a safe space and that uh a teacher can have these conversations with minor students is not okay and and yes I'm glad that uh we do have laws in place to allow parents to make those decisions but at the same time uh parents can buy these books for their kids anytime they want and have them read it anytime they want but in a school environment to expose these children to content that their parents are opposed to and if they opt out then they're sent out of a room out outside of their educational environment I don't find to be appropriate um and in the instance of the student from earlier this year that student didn't have an option but to take this class because they had taken every other class there was no option so there are students in that situation as well miss Richards to clarify there are other English 12 options that they could take but it might not have been dual enrollment is that correct correct yes thank you and again to reiterate no child is exposed to this if the parent does not sign the permission slip that is important and again if you are signing the permission slip you are condoning your child to engage in a conversation in class about this material Miss Schultz go ahead president Wade Miss Davis I correct me if I'm wrong but we're going above and beyond with this committee right beyond the law and how many other districts are doing this do you know with the book committee it feels like I mean we're we're covering all our bases and making sure everyone's included and 25 voices 23 sorry at this point sounds like a lot of differentiating voices to me um correct um most don't quote me on it but most districts in the East Valley are um have a committee very similar um I don't know all of their makeups um but yes we are going above and beyond the letter of the law with this thank you um and I do just want to clarify that the conversations around the novels are about the standard not yes the content is in there but it's driven by the standard not the content like the exact sensitive content that's in the novel it is about the standard so it's about theme it's about vocabulary it's about symbolism it's not about insert sensitive content to provide an example Miss Davis because it was used previously the book that the the parent spoke about in the beginning of the year is talking about slavery and rape is often a tool of an oppressor and so in the context of Oppression and those types of things that is why that book was chosen um yes because that would get to theme this brings us to uh item 7.2 independent PE credit Mr lsen Heiser president Wade members of the board very excited to share with you some research that we have done not necessarily about Clifford but um although I remember those books well when my kids were little so we just want to talk about independent PE credit we had a Community member come and talk to us and said hey there's other options out there for our kids especially within our middle schools can we look at those and when she spoke here at the board the board said hey can we go and look at into this and so we have done it and so I need to give a shout out to my ed services team who went in and did the research on this and I'd like to present the findings to you today along with our recommendations and and I'm happy to come back at the April 1st board meeting if there's a vote that you guys would like to do about the direction we would like to move forward with with providing opportunities for our students so these are the surrounding Gilbert uh the surrounding districts that we looked at Gilbert Chandler Scott s Mesa Queen Creek and Tempe Union and then we have our Higley proposal so the the course that was originally brought to us uh we think is actually a fantastic idea and kudos to Gilbert for looking at it but it was an independent PE course with seventh and eighth graders where if they're in highly competitive club or League Sports who use practice and competition outside we get it parents are busy kids are busy they're always at practices in the evenings club sports is huge in our area we understand it I need to throw in Dance and Cheer as part of club sports as well because we know competitive dancers cheerleaders that's a lot of time that they're spending practicing um they're allowed in Gilbert they have to complete 100 hours of the organized Sports activity and then uh they log that and there's a way that they submit it to the school to get it they are allowed a release time either a first or a seventh period and so the parents are responsible to coming in and picking them up for their transportation and they get a a pass or fail so they don't get a letter grade it's not like hey you hit 89 hours sorry you get a B+ no you you complete the hours you get a pass or fail and that's the independent PE option additionally within Gilbert they have at South Valley Junior High School a Sports Performance Academy where the students only take their four Cor content classes and then the district actually drives them out to different locations to go attend their different training sessions and things but that's a school within a school model they've done for the middle schools and that's at South Valley Junior High within 12th grade they have kind of a unique option honestly when I coached there 26 years ago they had this option then as well and I think we've kind of grown past it but if you're on a sports team you can get permission by your coach and the ad that you would get credit just for going to practice and so that's one that has that has consistently been within Gilbert actually they're the only place that has anything like it uh I know when I when I called the District athletic director who I used to coach with and said how is this still working well it's it was a way that they could support athletes to give them uh perhaps a different opportunity to increase maybe a GPA or something or something through that within the 9th through 12th grade but they have to be on a School athletic team has to be approved by the ad and the head coach so this is not for outside work that's happening for club or anything like that it it's a specific one within the school that is designed and honestly it was put in place before we had online learning before we had other modes that we could ask kids to be able to earn the PE credit differently so those are when we researched within Gilbert that's the feedback that we got from the Gilbert people uh talking to us about it very exciting options they do in kudos to Gilbert for doing that within Chandler for the 3rd through 8th grade they have an Elite Performance Academy again the four core content areas um are from 7: to 12:30 and then very similar to the South Valley they bus at the end of the day for specific gym a center or a studio but there's just a third through eighth grade in it's house on an elementary campus and that's their Elite Performance Academy um for you to get High School PE credit uh you actually take the class in person or you can take it online and um any the beauty of that and I can speak as a parent of a student in Chandler who took PE online because she did not want to do it in person and uh she would have to log her time outside similar to if a student went to practice they could log their time but she had to log her time submit it as well as communicate with a teacher on a curriculum throughout the semester in order to be able to get her credit within Scottdale they don't have anything in the middle oops quick hands with in Scottsdale they don't have anything for the middle school but they have a program for 9th through 12th called Elite athlete and what this is this is specifically for those kids that are training to be Olympians honestly when you look at our swimmer from Higley High that competed in the Olympics we did this informally to help support him because we know those those super high tier athletes are training all the time their Competition schedule does not depend on a school okay and so how can we then turn around and support them so if you take a look up there it is for elective credit again it's the students have reached the highest level of performance for their age group okay so maybe it's a super competitive dancer that is getting to that point maybe a lot of times it's swimmers or gymn gymnasts we know that gymnast spent a lot of time within there and so they have a training and Competition schedule that uh prohibits them from attending for the full day the student is required to verify that Elite status this again is Scottsdale turn in their weekly training log and then complete two independent study assignments per the half uh elective credit on the outside so that's what Scott still had when we looked at Mesa here if you take a look at this one this is for grades 912 outside school activity and so this one's a little bit different because it's designed for students who participating in sports or athletic activities outside the typical School sponsored Athletic program or School sports they phrased it that way to again to go to an elite gymnastic there's no High School gymnastics so we can't provide that opportunity for them honestly this could be hockey in the past I've had kids who are on traveling hockey teams that are um Semi-Pro and getting ready to do that and and their schedules again don't align if you take a look at it it has additional assignments and documentation must be completed they have to do 60 hours participation but and this is the difference we'll talk about in a second non-competitive sports non-organized sports activities gym membership and or personal daily exercise does not meet the course requirements so you can't say hey I went and worked out right I went to Mountainside I got my workout in does that count in terms of my hours no this is again designed for the elite athlete who's doing something that is different than what we're offering as a High School athletic program so that's what's happening in Mesa when we take a look at Queen Creek what we have is they offer a PE electric elective through their online program again there's nothing specific outlined uh when we had our discussions for uh specific individuals and then Tempe Union does not allow for PE credit outside their sports for outside clubs or Sports and so we took a look at all of those different things and said what could we do in the immediate what could we recommend in the immediate and what could we prepare for the future to provide opportunities and so what I'd like to talk to you about today is our proposal so what's nice is currently we offer PE online we have the hva and if a student doesn't want to take PE during the day or if they're really busy and they have outside commitments that they need to do for the 9th through the 12th graders we offer an hva PE class already and so they can take that PE class so would it mean they could leave school early absolutely they could miss sth hour because they are taking a class online but that goes to any of the students who are taking any of our online classes it's a blended model or hybrid model where they could be at the beginning of the day or the end of the day where they don't have to be in person but we already offer that PE option for them to get their PE credit would their outside practices count for the hours that they're doing yes and so that would they're going to the gym and just working out count yes that would work out for that now for the middle school we would love to be able to uh pilot the Middle School independent PE similar to Gilbert I'd love to Pilot it this year because I think what would be great is we could see the need and the demand and we could help support those uh students we already talked to the middle School principles they said yeah we're on board we'd like to do it where the kids leave early uh at 7th hour log their time very similarly we met with our it uh department and we can actually go through Synergy so parents don't have to do a handwritten form they could submit their hours online and submit it through that and using the instructional time model we could be allowed then to have them meet their goals and so that's part of what we're already doing um for the elite student athlete we You' already have that instructional time model and I don't know if you guys remember when we presented it I want to say it was last summer the instructional time model allows us to give credits for kids who are in different uh areas of attendance based upon if they're completing projects if they're putting in time it allows us to work around kids who have needs maybe Health needs that they can't be at school but we actually talked about Elite athletes at that time if they have a competition schedule that does not allow them to be there we can work with our teachers to provide them the what they need need to be successful in their courses and yet we can still get our ADM because we're following through with the instructional time model it's an agreement that is made between the school and the parent that they will complete these hours and submit them to us and so it's a really positive thing for us to do now starting an Elite Performance Academy or an athletic performance Academy is not something we would want to turn around overnight or want something we want to turn around over months I think that needs to be part of the further discussion as we continue to look at different ways that we provide opportunities for our students not just within Athletics but I know that we've already had discussions about what what are some other options we can provide especially when we get to our elementary students in terms of programming there and I think it would be important for us to have that athletic performance Academy be part of those discussions our we're looking to move forward so in summary what I'm asking tonight is this is what our recommend recommendation is if there are other things that you guys would like to do I'd very much love to hear the feedback and be able to look through that but but I think we do have an opportunity and I do want to thank I think this is an example of the community coming and a Community member coming to us and saying hey this is something that really works for us and so when we got into that and started looking at it within an ed services department we said we agree this is good and and how can we help incorporate that to provide the opportunities for our families so it's a it's a nice model of parents who had a voice and then we've looked at it and these are the recommendations coming back to you as a governing board so with that I'll take questions and you'll notice this is a different picture because they were all used to be for chemistry class but now we have an athletic picture for our questions on the very end so questions um president Wayne um Mr ler um thank you for turning this around so quickly feels like it was just last month or board meetings yeah so thank you I appreciate that um and I like all these ideas sound great and the idea of an athletic AC Academy moving forward I don't have can you go back to the other side go back um as far as the um piloting this program so when could we roll this out because I know many people have already selected their schedules and things like that or is that something that we can go back on or 2026 I'm sorry I just want to make sure I'm correct the reason the reason I said pilot with the governing board's approval I would love to be able to communicate directly from the principles to the people who are at the school and en rolls and say hey we're going to Pilot this program with governing board approval and that if you're interested please contact us and we can work on those schedules right now okay thank you and so if if we look at like an April first gole for we can get that communication out and I think it's important to be able to explain to parents hey here's what we need you to do do does the activity that you're doing fit within our need right can you get that 100 hours per um per semester to be able to receive the credit and then as long as we know upfront and ahead of time then we'll have the process ready to go in directly from that communication perfect thank you president Wade um I I know we had the conversation as far as like why it wouldn't work at the high school level um can you go into just kind of explain based on our conversation as to um why that wouldn't work in order to be able to Pilot this in our district at the high school level well I think for me we we already have a mechanism that allows them to achieve credit by not being at school and for getting credit for something additionally and that's our hva program because within PE you you have to log hours you have to do those things the hours that's spent practicing in an outside club or doing a different activity would work for that but I don't think that we need to reinvent and add something different a process we're already using and so think about with hva right if a kid wants to take English n online right they don't come to school for English n they they take English n online and then they come to school later very similar to PE for that option and that opportunity for we don't limit the number of PE credits they could get so if they wanted to take PE online and be part of their electives and do it every single year for all four years we can do that but we already had that system built in to what's happening and so for a parent that who wants to come and pick their kid up early right they want to come in and pick up their kid early and they're going to take it online good that's available at our high schools and it's actually available right now we don't need to add anything additionally to what's going on through hva uh there's so for the kids that currently have like work study um what would they do in that situation would they maybe switch to like fourth hour work study or cuz I think is it fourth or and 7th hour like the the lab like I don't know which periods the labs open or sword so that's that's at the middle school okay that's not the high SCH so that doesn't impact High School no that doesn't impact high school and then um the itm MH uh that only works for students that have to miss three consecutive days and actually with the with the itm we have the ability right as long as we have the parent signed off so if they have this kind of competitive schedule that's very different and it allows us to allows that creativity and it will work and that's one of the ways that that they can make sure that it continues to work this the instructional time model no it it can cover the needs of what we need for them to be able to do in order to receive their credit what how we've anticipated using it and honestly we haven't used it very much okay after we've rolled out is for those specific instances where yes this could also help when you're talking about missing specific days not related to sports I have some other issue or something else going on we can use that instructional time model to support a student who's really at need because they are missing those big blocks of time and the itm allows us then to to capture the ADM for those students while they're out as long as we have the agreement in place and as long as we are are following through with what kind of model we're using whether it's hours based whether it's Project based okay thank you good no I oh Madam president I just wanted to thank the community for bringing that forward and for the uh cabinet for taking it seriously and moving moving something forward that uh that is good for kids because I that's why I'm here thank you I agree this moves us to 7 point Sorry yep go ahead one more thing uh President W uh I just um I know there was a situation with this and uh where a parent was promised that this would in fact be implemented in the district and I want to make sure that we're not making such statements before it comes to the board for approval um and we shouldn't be promising things before that's done and then as far as uh if the if the pilot program is successful um will there be like an expansion beyond the current model um like what what I'd like to do with the pilot because we've already got our course guide approved okay and so let's say the pilot comes back and I have parents that are really into this this is working well providing for the needs of the community as we go through the course guide process next year then we can add it as an official class when it comes in and we can present it to you guys as part of the changes that we're looking at again for the seventh and eighth graders at our Middle School we think this could really have a positive impact for those and support those families absolutely now again going back to expanding the program or looking differently if we start looking at those elementary kids on the Elite Performance Academy that's part of a bigger conversation about the direction of what we want to do with our elementary schools and how we want to oppose that and so I think that will be part of those ongoing conversations not necessarily related to the junior high pilot if that makes sense yes thank you okay thank you Mr lson Heiser this moves us to 7.3 GCB professional staff contracts and compensation first read to you Miss Johnson good evening president Wade and members of the board um tonight before you have the first read of um GCB and the noted changes are in Blue uh what would be removed are in red and if you would scroll down just a little bit thank you so much perfect uh those changes are listed below it's basically giving the superintendent some authority to go ahead and wave all or portion of the liquidated damages based on the bulleted points below president wa um I was just wondering if you guys worked with legal on this policy Madame President Miss Van Hook the policy uh is my work product okay um based on my understanding this policy is in violation of ars1 15545 which specifically States um that teachers cannot resign after signning their contract without board approval um and those who do May face disciplinary action additionally legal precedents have upheld liquidated damages um as a legitimate means of offsetting hiring costs ARS 47 2718 um and these proposed changes contradict state law and set set a dangerous precedence on how our district would handle resignations um and I believe that um not only based on the law but uh that we need to keep these decision-making Powers um where they belong and that's with the governing board in um full view of the public um and then the policy is also missing these statutes um that I mentioned as well um and they should be added Madam president miss Wade uh Miss Van Hook so ARS 15544 is a statute that applies to teachers it states that the teachers cannot resign without governing board approval when the governing board assesses or doesn't assess liquidated damages you still are approving the resignation so I do not believe that the changes to the policy is presented violate that law thank you president Wade um Miss mlen um so we would we would then be approving so if they decide if the superintendent decides that somebody can resign and not have to pay their liquidated damages how and so they can approve anybody but teachers is that what you're saying Madam president miss fin hook the superintendent cannot not approve the resignation only the board can approve the resignation this policy only delegates the right to wave liquidated damages which is not governed by Statute it's a contractual Arrangement between the district and your employees there's no requirements that you charge liquidated damages there's no requirement that you wave them this is something that is within the local control of the school district so this policy by delegating to the superintendent the ability to W liquidated damages um subject to ultimately the governing board's review of this policy and any um acceptance of a resignation you're still retaining your ultimate Authority as the only entity that can hire and fire Madam president yeah I just there's there are circumstances where you have um you know this I I hate that this happens but it happens there are teachers who are for whatever reasons um miserable and they make everybody around the miserable and there's really no when you um you know I mean teachers a lot of people in this country are about you know three paychecks away from some real financial trouble so when you have a situation where a teacher is unhappy as a principle I mean you you have these conversations all the time and and uh I just think this removes a small small hurdle to help get somebody out and a lot of times when I've talked to teachers in this predicament they they kind of agree that like it's best to move on and so I think it's I think the liquidated damages acts as a deterrent sometimes and you have people sticking it out so I thought that it would be a good idea to give the superintendent some discretion um to be very clear if someone commits a crime that is not something that I would ever want to see weigh we are Mand reporters and that's not the case sometimes we have um you know people have family circumstances that they got to go take care of somebody and anyway it it just it holds it up and uh I just want to have the best people in front of our kids you know as quickly and as often as we can president Wade I I understand that um at the same time uh we continue to give away our responsibility as a board um and it it's our responsibility uh the board was elected to protect the taxpayer and we're giving that Authority away to the superintendent um and we're removing the checks and balances that are required um and and part of our duty um there's also the lack of oversight um to be able to quietly resign um and have no you know the fees waved um and the cost that to the taxpayer that we're here to protect uh there's having to get subs there's having to put you know market for a new hire there's the impact on current staff that's going to have to take on the burden while a replacement is brought in and I I don't understand why why we as a board would give away our authority to the superintendent and I mean this it just it continues to happen and I it just doesn't makes sense to me and obviously not with the current board but just in the last two years that I've been here um there's been instances where we are giving away what our responsibility is and we were put in these seats to make the decision the best decision on behalf of the taxpayer and this doesn't do that this ends up costing the district much more money because we allow teachers that to walk to be able to walk away from their contract with no consequences these are adults signing contracts we all have to sign contracts as as adults and the understanding should be you're signing a contract you are held to this contract until the contract terms end and you shouldn't be able to just walk away easily president uh board member Van Hook which out of those four bullet points don't you like like impa incapacitating medical condition or injury seems like a good reason um to not have to pay liquidated damages spouse's relocation due to employment to a distance reasonable um or um a promotion I wouldn't want to hold somebody back from taking a promot promotion in the education field so which one of those would you take issue with um it's not necessarily um the it's it's the last one the agreement to separate employment all the other ones we've already been doing but the board's been approving those it's just an agreement just to separate from employment is wrong like they're they're signing an agreement they shouldn't just be able to go oh I don't like it here I'm going to move on and then we're going to go okay we're going to wave your fee and then it's it's going to cost us more money to have to replace them President we um to uh board member Glover's point that if somebody's here and they're unhappy it might cost us more in the long run um if they're creating chaos or issues based on um what he's saying as a teacher and and we employ the superintendent to I hope make educated decisions and decisions based on what they think is right for the district well if it if a teacher is creating chaos then they should be terminated and have to pay their liquidated damages um a teacher shouldn't be creating chaos just because they might not be happy that they signed a one-year contract I mean that's that's not a I can't sign an agreement for my employer and be like I hate it here I'm out and then you know you can't do anything about it that's I just I don't think that's right like we're adults we have to we make decisions and we have to abide by those decisions for whatever the term is Madame President um might have be heard on the termination issue so the process for terminating teachers in the state of Arizona requires a statement of charges if the board were to adopt a statement of charges you would not be assessing liquidated damages because that wouldn't be a resignation these liquidated damages only come up when there is a resignation um by adding the agreement to separate employment what you would be doing would be permitting that tool to be used by the superintendent to um potentially allow a resignation in lie of a termination the board and the district would still be required to comply with all of its mandatory reporting responsibilities including to the Arizona Department of Education regarding certification um so it was my understanding based upon the last board meeting that Mr Glover wanted to see specifically that option given and that's what you're considering and debating tonight but the if the board were to seek the termination of employee and employee through the statutory means the liquidated damages Provisions would not be charged because the employee would not be resigning president Wade uh we've had at least one situation that I'm aware of where a teacher resigned their liquidated damages were waved and they were reported to the State Board of Education correct and we didn't find and I didn't find out until after the fact because we aren't given names When teacher let's say a teacher is placed on administrative leave pending investigation the board isn't given names so that's a problem because if if there's enough information to report somebody to the State Board of Education we shouldn't be waving their their fees just because they resign Madam president miss Van Hook that's exactly what's before you tonight whether you want to give the District administration that option with all due respect board member Van Hook we hire and employ all manner of staff to do their jobs and for ours specific we hire the superintendent I I think it is important for us to maybe take a step back and some of the scenarios with which you are describing um have not happened we also get to approve them so as far as your oversight comment we still would approve this or not so if you don't want to you don't have to that is our still oversite that exists so if we are in a situation in which we feel our superintendent is abusing this process we do not have to approve it so we aren't changing the checks and balances that exist and I also so again considering the way our state department of education is structured anybody can get reported to the state and that doesn't necessarily mean that the state comes back with anything other than they got a report they followed through with the port and that is it so again I still think it is important for us to a remember we are the ones who are approving this at the end of the day and B we have the power should we view that this is being abused to make changes to that or say that this is not something that we are approving to sit here and just say all of these abuses are going to happen I is is hard for me in that that is why we have policy in place and that is why we have these things until those things happen and so if you're in a situation in which you see this employee and you go I don't think we should do that then don't vote for it and I again that is still our oversight um I'm appreciative to for legals response to some of these things if you would like to make another comment please by all means otherwise we can move on to the next item this brings us to 7.4 third review of the 2025 2026 maintenance and operation budget sorry Mr Moore that'd be you thank you good evening president way members of the board tonight I'll be presenting the third review of the maintenance and operation budget for fiscal year 2026 as my slide placeholder our budget timeline um we are working towards again that June uh proposed and adopted budget for 2026 as you know uh and as you see later on our agenda um we have to get through um this tentative approval and get the board comfortable with a budget as we issue contracts on March 15th and so um this is our my third presentation um of this 26 budget um and that will hopefully set the table for the uh later agenda items on the board meeting tonight so go um looking at the FY 26 projected budget highlights currently the legislative process is ongoing um there's a number of uh bills that have been heard both at the Senate um and the house um a couple that I'm keeping an eye on that are kind of keen to uh K12 are the proposed a or aggregate expens limit um legislation um there's a number of different bills out there um several incorporate an exemption into the state budget process some exempt it completely uh my hopes is there's enough conversation regarding this topic that we get a permanent solution to this um as a reminder the last two years this uh legislation has done one-year exemptions to this um agre expenditure limit and so um I'm hopeful this gets permanently addressed whether that be in the the legislative process or potentially um on the ballot so in addition um sp sp 107 is bringing back uh the authorization for tax credit dollars to be used for Capital items and so this fired last year and so I think there was enough District interest and I know I personally reach out to some of our legislatur uh advocating to bring this back because it allows the flexibility for our our sites who receive uh designated tax credit dollars to use those uh beyond the traditional tax credit uh criteria so authorizing the use for Capital items just gives them greater flexibility for those locally donated dollars some of the known budget implications that we're taking into consideration with uh respect to this budget projection for 26 are the estimated 2% inflation adjustment to the base level support as I stated this is included in this budget projection and I footnoted at the bottom that the legislature is obligated to increase um by a minimum of 2% if the GDP price um deflator is running above that like I said previously in presentations it's currently hovering around 3.6 uh 3.5% so I fully anticipate the legislature minimally obligating that 2% inflation adjustment to the base level support in addition the Arizona State Retirement System is decreasing uh they've had good returns in terms of their Investments and so we'll see a decrease both on uh as a reminder both the employer and the employee pay into the state retirement system um so that decrease represents for the district side about $200,000 savings um um and then the individual employee can calculate that but that 027 reduction that will be more money back into the employees paycheck um in addition we have an alternative contribution rate those are for employees who are retired and that have retired from the ASR system and then hired back um there's very few employees that participate in that ACR that alternative alternative contribution rate some of our husd uh budget special items I I would say our um our annual uh transfer from Capital to or M to capital for our Middle School lease payment um we have 28 more years left on your lease payment our current principal and interest payment for next year is anticipated to be $3.5 million and so uh we are recommending again to continue to transfer M dollars to Capital where we have to legally pay that lease payment from um to continue to support that outstanding lease in addition um we are projecting an ADM decrease of uh 300 for 26 I have some additional slides to address and and talk about how how we are coming up to that projection and then uh phase one of the M override reductions as uh the board is aware um this last November we did not renew our override and so we are going into year six which um starts the phase down and override phases down in two successful years by 33% and then 66% and so I do have some additional slides to cover what phase 2 would look like um and highlight some of the survey resp responses so first looking at our ADM projections for 26 there's a couple factors that we take into consideration when looking this far out right we're we're projecting for July of next year um some one of the the simple calculations I would say is to we look at our EX visiting 12th grade class uh comparing to our incoming Kinder class and so when you look at our current 12th grade class of 952 minus our estimated incoming Kinder class of 661 uh we see a difference of about 291 students and so um this is a a clear indication of of just the the less students that are attending higly schools and again this is a national Trend as I've stated and I presented to the board um um all our neighboring districts are going through this same um declining enrollment and if you look at it it's a lot of it is stemming from the Kinder in the earlier grades um we'll continue to see as this uh Works its way through um that kinderg grade Works its way through um our educational system um this is going to be a ongoing issue that we'll need to address and and continue to monitor as we budget from year to year so this second uh factor that we look at is so as of um July we take all our registrations and and kind of look at the movement between um midy year right so everybody who's registered as of the first day of school um that is one number and then as we look at new enrollment and withdrawals throughout the school year um I've created a graph here working with our assessment team to kind of identify um in four categories where our students are going or where they're coming from and so um looking at the graph uh in green is highlighting students enrolling in the district throughout the fiscal year and then in purple is those students withdrawing and so starting on the left you can see enrolling from other Arizona Public Schools um this is again throughout this year we're looking at a snapshot of fiscal 25 of this school year uh we've enrolled 98 and in the flip side we've had 271 withdrawal to go to an Arizona Public School School looking at other Arizona Charter private and homeschooling um this year we've enrolled 840 from those Charter private and homeschool um options whereas we've seen 731 withdraw for those options Charter private or homeschool on the next category other state or country these are students who have or parents who have indicated that they're enrolling um either out of the state or the country um and so enrolling from out of State into Higley we've had 409 and then again flip side leaving um Higley to move out of state or out of the country 252 the other and unknown we've had this is a a magnitude of different options so these are this could be medical issues these could be um either the parent didn't indicate why they're leaving or enrolling within the district and so we're working hard to kind of continue to gather that information so we can this is very powerful information so we can share not only publicly um but use as resources as a District administration um so that other category again it contains a bunch of different other options but enrolling within Higley 166 and then withdrawing 271 if we look at the total green of enrollment um again through this fiscal year year to date versus the withdrawing we see a difference of about 12 students um to the negative so overall um this just highlights I think higgy's and maybe the East Valley in general is the the choice right school choice parents have choice and you can see throughout the year that choice is very evident but uh for the most part you we're relatively flat in terms of people choose Higgly um and they choose hly um over other options and um you know these two variables in addition there there's several other variables that go into um projecting enrollment but these are these are safe variables um that are kind of known options and so uh that's how we kind of get to that 300 number and where we feel comfortable using that as a projected enrollment um decline or less 300 students for 26 so looking at our budget uh in terms of numbers so currently this is the top budget number this is our current budget it was revised as of December 10th 2024 of the 125 million um again that includes our current um ADM budget loss of 239 our transfer to Capital and our estimated ending budget balance carry forward of 21.5 million looking at 2026 uh the 11 16.6 million includes again the 8 the 300 ADM less that we're projecting for next year the M override phase down of 5.1 million the transfer to capital for a lease payment and I I highlighted in red um this whole full presentation and the in both the first two presentations um we were under the assumption and we're going into the Assumption for next year of having a pay frees um from the M budget um as you can see we're projecting a proposed budget decrease of $9.2 million um and just want to make that publicly known as as this presentation is um proposing that recommendation for 26 of no compensation increases in a pay frees for 26 so look at somewh of our fixed costs um and how we are uh working to address that $9.2 million decrease uh property Cas Insurance we're seeing an increase about 110,000 um the reinsurance market is is running about 8% majority of this increase is coming from prepaid legal costs as we pay um our prepaid legal through our property insurance um uh our property insurance premium so um that is a three-year average and it's based on usage workers comp uh we actually see a no increase there um a lot of that can be a test to this is our third year with the trust and so they provide a loyalty credit um for uh three years uh part of that loyalty credit is for district uh employees to attend several trainings professional development um to help continue to keep us informed with the national Trends and put in Pro proactive measures to keep uh employees safe our utilities um it seems like every day a new uh utility increases um SRP has approved a 3.5% increase um we now know Queen Creek water is also increasing by 15% um and so that 200,000 represents those two increases we also uh were aware of town of Gilbert's um I believe it was sewage uh increase so all those are taken into consideration into that $200,000 number in which we anticipate seeing an increase in utility costs on the flip side we worked uh with our department leads and our School principles um to reduce our budgets across the board uh we are reducing about $750,000 in uh department and school budgets um not an ongoing thing I would say uh but we are taking some some drastic measures to try to address this $9.2 million deficit next year so those totals uh represent a decrease of about 440,000 from what we're calling our fixed costs and then looking at this in a whole again our f26 projected budget of 116 million we're looking at a proposed budget decrease of 9.2 million as the board as was presented on uh the January 14th board meeting we presented the phase one position reductions of 5.1 million we're now adding the fixed cost reductions of 440,000 and again uh we're projecting a budget decrease next year of 3.7 milli million and so we've heard the board's uh and and the public really U point that our budget balance is too high and we we are budgeting to a deficit or decrease um to bring that carry forward down and and leverage that next year um you know going into this phase down and so um that estimated 17.5 million in budget balance carry forward takes into consideration that decrease at 3.7 million so uh we'll be bringing that down from 21.5 to approximately 17.5 um in fiscal year 26 so as a reminder the M override um is going to continue to phase down if we the district does not choose to do uh anything and lets this fully expire and so um as we plann for this we uh took into consideration um the option to do a survey we've spoke with staff we spoke with a parents via a community meeting um it was very well attended I was pleasantly surprised um in my in my tenure here that was the most highly attended community meeting um and I answered questions well past uh are anticipated in time and so um very thankful for that turnout um our leadership our principles our directors have all been involved in these conversations to try to come up with a plan and on what we would do if this continues to phase down even our students uh Miss Richards has a superintendent advisory Council or committee a team um and those students uh also went through this exercise and provided some feedback on on what their initiatives are and what their priorities are in regards to um our survey and so looking um again as a reminder this is the phase down timeline I updated it slightly to include um fy2 is is really already reduced um so we're really looking at 27 28 um as the as the phase down will continue again if the district does nothing uh going forward so looking at uh the survey results uh for a potential phase two uh we sent the survey out I believe is open for just over two weeks two and a half weeks um the survey started with 4,134 uh respondents um what we did see there's so much nutrition um throughout the survey so we had 4,134 start with this first question uh and then if you add my numbers you're going to see some attrition uh as the survey uh goes on so but out of the respondant approximately 74% were parents and higly unified and so um that was great feedback um in terms of the parent response question two ask those parents who responded uh What uh where where did your student attend and so we saw of the parents who took the survey 70% were elementary students uh we had great I think feedback from the preschool those are good numbers from the preschool uh and then our high school and middle school uh represent about half of our enrolled population there so looking at question uh four um I just want to publicly acknowledge like we we fully acknowledge that this could have been worded differently we had some feedback and I'll cover some of that feedback um there's some confusion regarding um contradictory language in terms of the category and how we asked individuals to prioritize but the general consensus was we asked uh people who took the survey please prioritize from first being your number one item you wish to eliminate versus 20 versus the last item you wish to eliminate and so again we acknowledge the feedback um some of the language uh specifically regarding Mandarin um you we wish we would had a modified Mandarin or restructured Mandarin option um just to provide uh that flexibility and and not be so rigorous on eliminate so um again I wanted to publicly acknowledge that and and state that because I know both the board and District administration got some feedback on that so with all that said uh I do want to present the results as the survey was presented and so looking at the survey results how I prioritized this was the average ranking and so um taking all the responded um responses and then averaging the uh categories um by the lowest number essentially and so um looking at the first one um eliminate Mandarin again we wish we had some other language or had another category for that um but on average that ranked 5.99 so in terms of um people prioritizing that that was the number one in terms on average um budgetary reduction item I'm not going to go through this list extensively um but if there's questions after I'm happy to answer I just want to highlight a couple items that um maybe how did you get to to that cost estimate or um how did that item fair so on um provide free half day kindergarten um that 825,000 represents so the state funds us for half day kindergarten um if those families currently within our district were to pay for that other half which is approximately $2,500 that's where that number is derived from um I would say the only the other option is on um it seemed like band and Orchestra ranked higher than art and music uh that was interesting in in that came across um and this as people prioritized um the total here these are the 11 items the total on this page was $4.3 million just above $4.3 million looking at the next page um we have a number of different items um I want to jump to the bottom though it was very clear throughout the survey that uh individuals responding to the survey did not want to touch teacher pay and or um staff salaries uh class sizes were also very lowly ranked in terms of prioritizing the classroom um and so that was very prevalent throughout the survey the red line indicates about five just about $5 million which would be essentially our next reduction um so that would include both this first list and these two items on this second list now again this survey is just a tool for both the board and administration this wouldn't be the exact items in which we would look but this is a great representation of what it would take to as we proceed if the board chooses through phase two um you can see that the number of cuts that would need to be made um throughout our district um the total page one and then page two uh gives a total for both pages about $8.8 million um we had an open-ended question um after the ranking of the survey and again I've kind of highlighted a little a little bit of this but I I kind of categorized it in five items so there were several educational concerns so the most discussed topic uh was it was very clear statements about Cuts should not affect teachers in class sizes there was um very passionate individuals who took the survey and that is um reflected in um prioritizing teachers and our class sizes budget and resources there was many respondents that raised concerned about how the district is budgeted um how we are um where budget cuts are being proposed um there was concerns and comments that wasn't admin cuts on here um there was resource allocation in relation to prioritizing funding that we should continue to prioritize more in the classroom stop spending money on admin um overall I summarize that some confusion on how School District's budget works and what is required uh from a budgetary standpoint and and a district responsibility State and governance um significant discussion how little support public Ed receives um concerns about District policies and government involvement in education um to further support education there's some legislative discussion there was some discussion about you know why doesn't Arizona support K12 more um and that's kind of summarized in that category number four support for programs um a portion of the response is focused on the calls for increased support for specific educational programs and again music and art were mentioned far more greater than some of our other programs um but throughout the open-ended questions uh a lot of the attention was here to support our programs that we are offering as a district and again I mentioned and and as a District administration team we understand there was some confusion uh regarding the uh categories listed or the survey format um but again there there was um only 11 mentions the last time I counted so of that so A small percentage of the survey respondents um did have some disagreement about the categories Andor survey format the last excuse me the last question was should the override pass for 2627 um we will strive to preserve the items on the reduction list but to support student retention enrollment growth which of any of the Innovative programs options would be interest Ed in the district exploring dber at one of our existing School sites about uh Stam Academy was the highest ranked in terms of programmatic schools um but you right after that was do not add any special Theory programs so um interesting feedback okay the last piece is that we are here tonight right with the third review as I said this timeline is is largely contingent on um our HR team getting contracts out March 15th and so um on the agenda further um with the survey results presented with the um know implications of the override uh we are asking the governing board to give the district Direction um on whether to pursue an an election in November in April we'll switch our Focus to our capital budget and we're talk about the first review of the 26 capital budget um with that uh we have I have some uh considerations for a possible sale lease or exchange of real property and that's really related to our vacant piece of land behind Target and trying to leverage some options as we know a bond is probably not in our future so how do we leverage some of our resources to uh support our Capital needs and on April 22nd I'll present the second review and attentative approve of our capital budget again we approve our uh tentative approve our capital budget to get out ahead of purchase order items so we have long lead items on several HVAC products those um large purchases uh tend to have four six 8 week 12 week lead times so um we ask for tended approval so we can issue those POs and start to secure those items for our short summer window where maintenance has an option to to get those installed before start a school um and then in May we'll we'll present our final budget revision for this current fiscal year and that will reflect um our final ADM numbers and and where we anticipate ending our year in terms of budget balance carry forward in that so with that I'm happy to take any questions um just looking at the uh survey results and people will naturally vote for things that their kids don't participate in um you know for instance if my child's an athlete you know I I'm more willing to to pick art uh but I want to ensure that um we do uh take into consideration every student um within our district and ensure that we support uh all of them no matter what they participate in um I've spoken before about uh our carry forward um and as the presentation mentions we'll have a 7.5 million um Carry forward after the all the reductions correct 17 I mean 17.5 um and so basically again that's you know we're we're saving that um we're setting that aside for a rainy day um I believe uh that's 15% of our budget um and as I've mentioned before uh the state used to cap us at 4% um um and I believe that if we are able to utilize more of that and I'm not necessarily saying to to reduce that to 4% um but if we are able to reduce that further um then I believe that you know none of these Cuts have to be made um we don't have to make such drastic cuts um on top of that uh you mentioned we do have um the parcel behind Target and the cash market value for that is 7.3 million um and so if we were able to sell that um that would be money that would be able to go to Capital and uh would allow us not to have to transfer the 3.5 million from emota Capital um so more money um going back to m&o um um and if you if you the new auditor general report came out um it's available for anybody to go look at um when you look at the report all expenses have increased um and one of the the major things that's decreased is the the classroom spending and that that was cut by $154 per student um in 2024 um at the same time um administrative costs increased by 100 per student um and at the last meeting we talked about the uh the audit um my biggest concern with that is I wanted that presented uh so that the community can see that um the district spent $2 million more on admin last year than they did in the classroom um even without comparing us to other districts just comparing our own numbers year-over-year uh we keep spending Less on our students and more on everything else um and I as a parent um have concerns with that uh and I mean and I've I've spoken to many parents that you know they can't trust um the district when they see decline in funding into the classroom um and so we see it in our in our survey results um as well uh we need to ensure that our students aren't directly impacted and when you look at the the numbers um all the impact is directly to our students um which is in the classroom and that needs to turn around in order to regain the trust from from our community and our parents um so that they know that we're putting um our students first and our teachers first um that's it for now couple of things uh Mr Moore and than in response to at least some questions that I have um I agree with you board member Van Hook that um this is going to impact students there is no way that it will not when we are losing funding because our m is sunsetting um with respect to those reports the reports also talk about how Higgly comparative to our other counterparts and Mr Moore you were the one who is the expert here um we spend more in classrooms than our counterparts do we not member or president Wade yeah comparatively and I I do um would like to present that classroom sub report from L General at the next board meeting as it was just issued I didn't have enough time to obviously bring it here but um to go into more detail regarding that report um yeah comparatively we are about 6 percentage points higher an instructional spending versus our Pure districts and also um Mr Moore administratively we are also lower than counterparts is that correct or at least comparative yeah per the audit general report we are low in administration yes yeah we're like 9.1 or something but I don't remember numbers in the same way so I could have also just totally made that number up is it 9.1 I don't know the percentage because I don't want him to speak either but I know we're comparatively low I believe that's correct either way you will present it to us on the first the reason I'm bringing this up is because I I think there is a misconception uh on a couple of things first and foremost the biggest thing that people always talk about is we pay administrators too much I'm going to challenge that and I'm going to say we pay teachers too little and here's why Mr Moore you are remarkable at your job and there are a number of things that routinely come up that show us how remarkable you are at your job and dear God do not leave us and go to to the private sector in which you will be making more money than we could ever pay you here don't say that I mean he's aware of it he's not he's not an idiot he's a smart man and numbers are part of that he is aware of that he is here because his heart is in this and it's clear by some of the things that you have done to try to figure out how to protect preschool teachers for example right I I feel like education for so long has continued to be beat down in terms of we are spending too much money or it is wasteful and the reports do not show that I'm not saying other districts haven't had those things I can only speak to Higley and this is what we are about we pay our admin well because the job they do requires it we don't pay our teachers in the same category so when you look at the disparity that's part of the reason that that exists and yet we still exploit teachers and their hearts for why they are here because they believe it matters and I'm grateful to that because not everybody has the opportunity to leave like I did because it's hard to do we have a a situation in people continually talk about we need to make sure hickley is great how do we expect to do that if we do not pay our people competitive salaries our teachers still rely on our administrative cabinet to provide to do things to put in the work for HR to put in the work for for sped and security and everything else that we do we need it that is a vital process to that our structure for our state is not in support of public education we structure it to where our public schools have to beg for money in ways that our competitors do not this puts us at a distinct disadvantage that is hard for us to compete with at the end of the day when you have individuals who are good at their job and we wish to continue to have the best people for that you have to pay them the idea or the expectation that we just hold on to that and still expect great or even better results they do not match that is an unrealistic expectation for us and if you talk about when these MOS do not happen we can talk about what our turnover weight was in 2013 because as a teacher good news there's a lot of job security in that and if I go to a different District I can get a salary raise and so what did people do they switched districts all the time to get those raises because everywhere else is on pay frees which we are right now dear God teachers stay but we are on a pay freeze right now we aren't doing it next year that is part of this so when we look at that and you look at this and go where is the money I am telling you you can come sit down with Mr Moore I apologize I'm giving up your time here in this regard and he will explain to you we have done it repetitively over years and part of the way we are capable of doing this is relying on our community to say whether or not you have kids here you benefit from our schools you benefit from how great our schools are because they are attractive look at the number of people from out of the state alone who are here we also routinely hear people say things like we're having 300 families that's not the case that 300 difference is a low birth rate and that is a nationwide issue that is not a Higgly issue in fact we're losing 12 and I argue if you look at the next year I'd be interested to see what those numbers are as well so statements of people are just leaving higgle because the choices we are making is not accurate it's not they are coming to Higley or staying at Higley and might there be other circumstances in which they leave and for the 12 individuals who might let's say one of them or all 12 for that matter unhappy with something that is part of the that we have Choice I'm sorry that you leave and should you come back we'll welcome you with open arms in that regard ultimately it comes down to our community and what you're willing to support these programs are what make our our district remarkable these programs are why some kids come to school in the first place because academically we are great and while I love my children who are very smart especially my eldest school is an afterthought he is there for literally anything else he tells me every day and part of that reason is because these things are what give kids mental breaks they tell kids and and and feed their curiosity in ways that help education Thrive so if you look at this and go these are great programs we need to keep them we must look over here we have done it so if you support these programs if you support our kids you support our students right now the m is what needs to happen that's how this comes down and it's a problem it is a frustration that is something you should take up with your state legislators because they do not budget appropriately they handicap public education and give other institutions more money who don't have to go through the same Hoops who don't have through the same thing and that lovely report from the auditor general talks about you want to talk about high administrative costs take a look at our charter schools because it's 22% it's more than double what we have there is a lot of misinformation and at the end of the day nobody wants to look at this and go yes I'm willing to give more money because everybody is hurting financially but if you go it matters to students these programs matter because these programs have impact and I recognize that at the end of the day you have some people who say I don't appreciate pulling on the heartstrings of things but this is where we are at that is the way this works if you care about these programs the m has to happen and again remarkable go sit with Mr Moore and he will show you all of the places in which we have found where we can save money where we can change money and other things to the carry forward Mr Moore can you please correct me if I'm wrong if we spend that money that is for this year it's not like it's every year we have 17 .
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to 10:30 p.m. join the Ashland Education Foundation for a Cino night at the Warren Conference Center with proceeds supporting ashin public schools and Metro West nonprofits For the Love of the Game on March 8th from 11:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. support Ashlin new softball and AHS softball at For the Love of the Game at The Corner Spot featuring a bake sale gear swap raffle and more organized in memory of Coach Andy lime burer we also have a March menstrual product Drive in recognition of women's History Month the department of prevention and Human Services in collaboration with daet is hosting a menstrual product drive this initiative addresses period poverty supporting individuals who struggle to afford menstrual products donation boxes will be at Ashlin High School Town Hall and the community center throughout March all donated items will benefit the Ashlin food pantry for ashin Public Library events for adult and teen events we have maang which will be on March 5th at 6 pm and artist reception with Leslie balt March 8th at 1 p.m.
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5 million is that correct so when we spend it it's gone yeah so carry forward is a onetime budgetary obligation it's not ongoing funding correct so if so right now the cuts that we have to make in this coming year might that save us for next year great what about 2027 2028 and if your argument is goes we got two years on that awesome what about 2028 2029 these are the long steps that we are talking about we had individuals today talk about we should not have given those Rises because there wasn't forethought with that again we need competitive folks to stay here we need competitive folks to do these things this is a hard situation and this is not fun for anyone and again I encourage you if you don't wish to do it see what happened in 2013 and see the immediate effect that losing some of these programs had and why we turned around and did an override after that because parents realized oh this sucks this is not what I want and we agree with you constantly people talk about all of these negatives that just aren't true and again our own report will show it and I'm looking forward to surprisingly a budget explanation come the first because it is showing the remarkable things that education has been forced to do we are the craftiest of folks in that if you want to know who knows how to budget well poor folks they're the ones who know how to budget well and education is poor it is and so at the end of the day these remarkable things in our community we want it we were 317 votes shy 3177 so for the 317 people who go oh I do not want that excellent I am here to work with you so we can make sure it overwhelmingly passes thank you Mr Moore for your time and all of the wonderful things that you routinely do for this District in terms of putting Staff first because that ultimately is what benefits uh students the most and I am greatly appreciative of that having two children who are young and will be here for quite some time president Wade Mr Moore um I appreciate everything you said president Wade um but I have uh can you repeat what you said about the mandrin program I missed that um and to board member Van Hooks point and I believe Miss Wade uh then you know people tend to pick the programs that their kids aren't in which I understand the mandin program is a small program um I might be biased towards the mandar room program but I will leave that out but I just um wanted to hear what you had had to say about that keeping a portion of it or can you remember president way and member Schultz um in our reflection of this survey in some of the categories the straight elimination of Mandarin shouldn't been our only option that's our reflection there's other options to restructure like I have here there's other options um that in our reflection in some of the comments and uh feedback that we got that we should have had additional categories U to help um again further provide different options for survey people or people who took the survey to uh further uh categorize that better so that is our self-reflection um in response to the survey thank you I appreciate that um we did receive a ton of feedback from parents who as as the parent pointed out earlier Mandarin parents are passionate um and involved so I appreciate you clarifying that for them thank you oh I'm sorry one last thing um I want to say I really appreciate your slide number five um that does put in perspective you know neg only a difference of 12 and that we are getting so many students from Charter and surrounding schools um I I I love that chart so thank you so much for putting that um into clear perspective for US president Wade um we know what we have financially and we know what we have to function with as one of the speakers Did quote you from an article and now we know you are wrong decisions were made that should not have been made the way that they were because it was in the hopes that an override would pass and we don't make decisions based on hope we make decisions based on the money we have now and I think for far too long we got comfortable with having extra funds from the SR funds from covid money and that's how our M managed to balloon up so big and we got too comfortable with that the funding from the state and federal doesn't stop that money continues to come every year so to to say it's a one-time funding with the with the m no we still continue to get state and federal funding our bank account's not going to go to zero we're still going to keep getting money and yes we are getting students that are coming in but we also have students leaving so imagine if those students didn't leave and the impact that that would have the positive impact that that would have on our financials so the difference might be 12 but it's still a huge difference the fact that we have these numbers leaving so to say it's only 12 is not true because these have a huge huge impact financially so let's do something about it and I do appreciate all the work that you've done and and the fact that you do budget conservatively I I'm probably more than anybody appreciate a conservative budget but when we come into this situation and we need to figure out how to fund it and we have money sitting in the bank let's figure out how to use that to where we don't have to make these Cuts we have land to sell we have declining enroll moment that we could potentially consider consolidating a couple schools look let's look at the bigger picture and and the options in order to function within what we have and then go from there but to you know for for us to create this I mean we we saw the emails that we were getting and unfortunately there was information that was you know incorrect so it kind of created a bunch of stress but um we we have to learn to function um with what we have before we continue to say give me more money because I have money sit in the bank that I'm not willing to use uh Mr Moore I'm going to ask can we go to the slide that lists all of the things that we ranked and the amount of money that that would do I have no idea what number it is that's the one thanks sir um when we look at for example School closure consolidation of smaller Elementary sites that is $750,000 Mr Moore um the remaining 66% of the M&L that is sunsetting can you remind me what amount of money that is yeah president wait it's on this slide so approximately $9 million if thank you so very much um so again these solutions that you're providing I'm not saying do not immediately solve what we have in front of us but then I ask what does that mean for the future we also just talked about how for fiscal year 2026 we are not giving raises what will happen if we cannot continue to give raises and so while we're able to use this money right now for next year then that means no more raises after that because that's where the money comes down to right if we sell off our land at $ 7.3 million which is great the second we spend that $7.3 million that is gone for us and so there are other options I know that you are going to present and how those things are I cannot emphasize enough that while we have these things available we also have really old buildings again williamsfield air conditioning went out this past summer and we talked about potentially even having to send everybody home because dear Lord it was very very hot I think it was like August or something and this is Arizona and you know the temperature is real we also had a water main break at Cortina and the amount of money that that unexpected expense is so I ask yourself individually at home when you budget if you know that your uh job is no longer expanding at all right uh and your income is going to be fixed and you have a small pot of savings ask yourself Is it wise to use all of that savings right now now knowing the potential Financial hardships that are in your future or knowing at the end of the day that inflation is increasing and the cost of it you just merely existing will go up how many of you would be overwhelmingly willing to take whatever safety net you have and just get rid of it that is what we're asking when we say get rid of the carry forward and again you have in an appropriate and conservative fashion look to the carry forward when we can the point is what is sustainable beyond that Mr Moore I I wish to challenge the that you lied to us in terms of the raise that we put forward it was not you alone who presented that there was a committee of individuals who were part of the citizens group who came forward to also recommend that they are also not Liars in what is in front of them they looked at the value of retaining teachers they looked at the value of telling teachers that you matter and administration that you matter and this is the raise you deserve in order to exist in the society around you because cost of living is getting very scary and we again do not pay our teachers very well in in terms of our starting salary our base salary is less than $50,000 these things matter in the grand scheme of things when you are looking at or saying I love teachers and overwhelmingly that's what our like that's what our community is telling you I love the things that are here then show value to it because we don't have any other options you have go ahead Mr GL thank you madam president so um you know I Liv through some budget cuts uh gosh 2008 2009 and I will tell you that everyone here that the wounds from that in a different District are still there some people have never gotten right about things that were cut um so you know I I've came on in January um you know and so it was kind of like this is this is what we've already been going through and this these are the cuts I'm just want to make a comment and say you know of course one of our roles as board members is to pass a budget so I just want to make sure that you all know that I want to definitely be included in these things I highly value Elementary Librarians I highly value um our our Elementary music programs all of them um The Mandarin program I'm supportive of so I just want to make sure that you know everyone is fully aware that I it's really hard for me to get things like on a THD and then like have to be in front of people on a Tuesday um you know I don't need to make all the decisions but I just would like to be a a more active participant than I have been in January um as these things are being you know decided or floated out there that's all and I'm probably going to need a restroom break soon why don't we do a five minute recess because I would also like that that'd be great do we need a second I don't think so okay I yeah look at that it's a little embarrassing that's all on camera now but anyway I asked once that's why I'm aware so it is 8:37 we'll be back in e e e okay have something to say before you move okay all right thank you everybody for and I apologize for the re we are going to uh continue back where we were go ahead miss van hook um and just to your last Point um when we know things are tightening up um do we go to the bank and say give me a loan cuz I might not have a job for long or um things are getting tough so I need a loan that I might have trouble paying back I mean those are things to consider um or or do we figure out how to budget and and function um based on our income and uh what we have on hand I can say something real quick can I say something go ahead just okay obviously like sustainability is a really good goal um and so it's helpful to know this chart is helpful that it's about what is it 12 million or um and it would be pretty empowering to kind of be able to maybe do it kind of on our own um so I just since we have the carryover um if we could possibly utilize that and um it's kind of saddening to see that all the cuts are in the classroom I don't know if we can regroup and just double check that like I don't know if it's a little uh Dr uh the theatrical effect but um just it would it might be pretty empowering to kind of figure out a way if there's a way to do it without the ML and we know how much that is and if we could really uh strive for more self- sustaining I think that might be a good feeling thank you president Wade um we can function barely because there just isn't any money this is again because of the legislators have set this up this way and the way schools are funded in our state president wait could just make a comment the functioning I just want to clarify the list again that we provided was a plan for phase down into 2027 so again this is staying in place for next school year July 1 26 this is in place we are absorbing $3.7 million and basically a budget reduction to keep a lot of these programs in place um in order to operate without the override it would take eliminating all this list and we can look elsewhere too but 85% of our budget is in the classroom and programs and so um we can cut our grounds we can cut Administration we can cut but we're not going to get to to $14 million is what is what the override has been supporting the district with so um I just want the board to know if we continue down this road and we want to operate without an override we can certainly expect a majority of this list would be have to take into consideration um you know in addition we can we can look at other areas as well but yeah I just wanted to make that clear but one this is is a planning phase this is information this is all in place for next year but as we continue through these conversations um that's that's what this really survey represents so uh thank you for the clarification Mr Moore I think it is helpful especially when you remind the total M that is a $14 million uh aspect to our budget that we've been operating with when that goes away we might be able to handle it one year or two years but what happens when all that savings is out it's a it's a valid argument and I appreciate uh the reminder of that this brings us to uh 7.5 update on classroom site fund again Mr Moore this is you president way members of the board um I wanted to break this presentation out from the m&o conversation this is a separate bucket of money that we have uh and to your point earlier of leveraging different accounts uh to maximize what we do for our teachers and and our staff this is one way that we are doing that um in the classroom type fund bucket um this is One Fund that we have available to us that is statutorily um um that was introduced statutorily um several years ago and then I'll cover it that was renewed but just to highlight we're we're talking about this bucket in isolation we just talked about M um on the left we'll talk about Capital um at a later date those are our two main State uh buckets if you were um this classroom cund bucket is what we're going to discuss in addition we have 43 other buckets that uh we leverage we utilize um for all of our programs throughout our district looking at this Sor I had some little highlights emphasize that bucket um the FY 26 classroom site fund just to kind of recap or refresh um the board or or Community um this funding stream is statutorily um listed under 15977 the CSF was extended another 20 years by the legislature in 2018 um and again this funding stream is uh for public education that comes from sales tax this fluctuates annually um we're currently in fiscal year 2025 operating um receiving Revenue in the tune of $792 per weighted student um back in 2008 2009 this was down to $100 and so this is another where we have to look at um how much can we obligate on an annual basis and make sure that this is sustainable um the CSF allowable uses is ined to support K12 um and increased teacher salaries in 2021 s SP 1130 expanded the use of class CSF to include student Support Services examples include spad and instructional coaches and also uh this is where you know again the board received some notification we originally were under the impression that preschool is not eligible for this bucket um but we did look through uh State Statute and AG opinions um and and was able to justify putting those individuals back into that bucket and so um there's going to be no change to that uh we did have some recommendations um to change that but we were able to correct that and again I personally take some responsibility for that interpretation but um it doesn't clearly State preschool um and so it's just a difficult um responsibility that again I take ownership of so we fixed it and tonight that those Preschool teachers are included in this plan um and will continue to be um so hu history the total amount in CSF pay uh perform per performance has continued to increase um the state as a whole so this bucket has been operating and growing exponentially um sales tax in terms of like Arizona looking at a whole right we've hosted World Series we've hosted a number of different events and so our e economic impact in terms of sales tax and the activity in Arizona has continued to rise which has increased the funding per weighted student in this bucket and so we've leveraged that and you can see over the past four years we've increased this uh amount that we're paying from this bucket to teachers um over $3,000 and so uh tonight uh we are recommending an increase again from this bucket to uh support our certified teacher salary schedule um as you alluded to earlier our current base salary which comes from m is under 50,000 we currently are at 46210 the rest of these Buckets come from that the rest of these line items come from that classroom site fund bucket um and again that totals uh just over $112,000 in terms of $2,597 and so our plan this is unique to Higley but each district creates a plan in which how they want to utilize these funds um our plan includes a base amount a supplemental pay which is paid in uh December and then a performance pay which is paid in June based on uh evaluation criteria um the line item in which we uh meet and confer discussed increasing was the base amount um and that represents an 8% increase in total teacher salary pay but it's actually 6% increase in that class s fund bucket and so uh We've looked at that bucket again we feel like this is sustainable for the next uh 3 to four years again I can't predict sales tax um if we go through a recession that can drastically change overnight um but we do have a sufficient amount of money in there um like you said earlier how can we get this money into Teachers Pay and leverage these different buckets to uh continue to honor our staff and one point of emphasis is through the meet and confer process the teachers selfishly you some of the conversations were regarding like this is unfair just do teachers but um you know I I honestly pushed back a little and said this bucket is for teachers and um we eventually came to you know like we want to use this to continue honor teachers and keep our teacher pay moving up um total teacher pay uh for 26 would be just under again this is a starting teacher salary would be just under $60,000 um with this increase and so um that is presented and recommended in the salary schedules that are on the later in the agenda and uh also in the certified teacher contracts again certified Preschool teachers are included in this teacher contract so just short presentation uh regarding this bucket any questions or comments before we move on to action items this brings us to 8.1 approval of award RFQ number 25-0 2-30 construction manager at risk uh CM for weatherization of schools to Concord General Contracting uh Mr Moore you also have a comment on this one yeah president way members of the board I just have a brief comment um the district issued an RFQ uh for construction manager at risk for uh several uh seven approximately weatherization projects that we are in the application Phase uh for the school facilities division um through this process bundling this with one single contractor the district felt that we'd get better pricing uh in the long run and so uh the committee as you see is presented in the is in the agenda um and they participated through two uh interview processes um and ultimately recommended a Concord to be the contractor of choice for these projects again these projects are not I want to State very clearly are not funded currently if this state Awards these we now have a contractor in place to um go forth and uh start the construction on these so um we are optimistic this August again depending on the legislative cycle and how much budget is allocated towards the sfb for next year that some of these projects will get approved in August so um from that point we would bring back um the total construction cost for the board to approve tonight you're only approving um the contractor of record uh if and when these these projects get approved so thank you do we have any questions or comments before I make the motion I motion that the governing board approve the award of requests for qualifications RFQ number 25- 0230 for the construction manager at risk CM for the weatherization of Schools project to Concord General Contracting thank you Mr German for the second all those in favor I motion carries 5 next this brings us to 8.2 tentative approval of fiscal year 2026 maintenance and operation budget do we have any questions or comments before I make the motion I motion that the governing board tentatively approve the fiscal year 2026 maintenance and operations budget to allow for the issuance of contracts to all employees for the 2025 2026 school year second thank you Mr Glover for the second all those in favor I I I all those opposed are you abstaining did you say I oh sorry my bad I did not this is 8.2 that's that's correct okay so then motion carries 5-0 this moves us to 8.3 direct District administration to proceed with M override resolution for the November 2025 election Mr MO you have comments for this yeah president way members of the board um the district is seeking Direction uh We've presented survey feedback we presented uh a number of different um resources for the board uh to determine whether the district um as a whole should pursue a resolution this is not approving the override to be placed on the ballot but really to bring back a resolution asking for That official do U to be placed on November so um or excuse me giving direction for the district so um we would just like some clarification and not make any assumptions throughout this process I also included the estimated cost of the election on an off-cycle election slightly higher than an on-cycle so president Wade Mr Moore what's the the 100,000 um what's that based on because the off cycle does special elections C definitely cost more yeah president Wade member of um so in an on cycle election if the town of Gilbert is also issuing an initiative uh we can split the cost for voter registration um so there's 60,000 approximately registered voters within our 24 square miles the district is obligated if we are placing something on the ballot to pay for each one of those um ballots to be mailed out and that's a majority of the cost um there's also some legal costs and the mar County superintendent's office has an election fee um there's also some translation fees in terms of translating pamphlet language so but a majority of the costs are related to the expenditure to pay for those ballots to be mailed out and by law we're required to mail out to all registered voters and does this include also uh the cost for possibly putting the sale of the land on the ballot which would require voter approval if not sold to a government entity yeah president way member Van Hook this is only regarding the M override election I plan to discuss that other agenda item at a later date so um M of sorry I would point out though that adding another question does not increase the cost the biggest initial cost is creating the pamphlet so if we were to add another question there's typically not an additional cost I I thought there was a cost per question on the ballot not with the the mailing okay oh yes mailing yes I forgot about that so it would be a mailin only ballot okay um sorry I'm just reading through my notes all right I'm good for now I motion that the governing board authorize District administration to proceed with drafting a m override resolution for the November 2025 election second o I'm going to give it to Tiffany she like get greedy Mr Glover all those in favor i i i oops if I may explain my vote please uh all those opposed um I would like to explain my vote are you in they I'm trying to make sure I write it down first that's why I just don't know what I would like to explain my vote before I say um I um have concern um because 2 months ago I mean we want to talk about the will of the voters um two months ago the voters again turn down the override um and I I want to be able to get more information and more more options on um on what we can do um so uh at this point I'm going to abstain um but I would like to uh schedule time to meet with you Mr Moore um to figure out uh what other options we have um that we can potentially look at um before moving forward with this thank you motion passes 3 three to one with one abstention item 8.4 wave second read and approval of GCB professional staff contracts and compensation do we have any questions or comments before I make the motion I motion that the governing board wave the second oh sorry 8.4 um I believe uh this is a violation of our policy bgb which states first meeting the proposal should be presented to for review second meeting the proposal shall be presented for discussion and action and bgb says policy policies may be adopted or amended at a single meeting of the board when the proposed policy or amendment is consistent with statutes and um other policies and board members are unanimously in favor of adoption I'm gonna wait on you miss thanks Madam president I'm trying to find your policy so no worries I just letting the folks at home know you okay I'm there give me a second um so uh Madam president M man hook did read the portion of the policy correctly which says that policies may be amended at a single meeting of the board when the proposed policy or amendment is consistent with statutes and other policies and board members are unan unanimously in favor of adoption um so the question would be whether if you wave the second read which you are permitted to wave policy um can you wave the provision of your policy that requires the unanimous approval does that make sense no okay let me let me try to explain it again you have the ability as a governing board to wave your policies what you have as an action I'm is the waving of the second approval so the legal question is whether you can both wave the second reading and wave the requirement for un unanimous approval so in other words decide to be to suspend policy bgb for this board meeting I would tell you that your safest course of action if you there's not unanimous approval would be to have a second read next month which would not impact your ability to issue contracts so do I to make a motion to have the read uh if or just table you I your safest thing to do would be to table okay would you like to do it and then not all right I'm going to motion that we table this then so we're following the laws for our second read of GCB second oh thanks Tiffany I should write that down that would be Miss Schultz seconding all those in favor of tabling hi y okay great uh the table will carry Z this brings us to 8.5 approval of 2025 2026 salary schedules Miss Johnson comments um Madame President yes um just to let you know and this was in status last week but uh the changes to the supplemental oh wait yes seller schedules so supplemental is the changes that were described in status last week as well as what Mr Moore alluded to with the classroom site fund of the increase of $487 no other salary schedules were changed only the supplemental and that one changed to the CSF all salary schedules remain the same for 2526 thank you Mr ch do we have any comments or questions before I motion I motion that the governing board approve 2526 fiscal year salary schedules as presented in the attached documents affected for the new fiscal year July 1 second that would be Miss Schultz seconding all those in favor I I motion carries 5- Z Item 8.6 approval of 2025 2026 employee contracts uh I actually have questions and comments uh so miss mlon um question I have because something that was removed from these contracts per our last board meeting um is uh clarification of protected uh classes essentially for individuals who are uh are employees and that classification would be sexual orientation and gender identity and as far as I understand it um and you can correct me if I'm wrong uh currently the issue of that protection is within the courts and so I I'm I am asking if we are in a situation in which the federal government says this is the minimum requirements of protections and we go above that knowing that there is some potential legal changes to those classifications in the future are we in violation of that if we continue to have those qualifications after sex in our protected classes does that make sense my question president wait it does um you are not in violation of the current federal or state laws if you include the parenthetical however the parenthetical whether it be in your contracts or in your policy is subject to the interpretations of the US Department of Education and of the the Federal ederal courts those things are in flux right now um as you are aware the uh 2024 regulations implementing Title 9 UM of the Education Act included um identifying gender identity and sexual orientation as a part of the definition of sex protected by the various statutes that the US Department of Education overseas including uh title 7 Title 9 UM the uh recent recision of those Federal Regulations um would revert the definition of sex back to how the courts interpret it and currently there is not a US Supreme Court decision with respect to that definition in the title 9 context um so it would not be uh it what whatever this board decides to do in terms of its contract language and or its policy language is going to be subject to the decisions that are forthcoming okay so um before I make my motion I'm going to allow opportunity for others to speak should you desire to do this um considering for me personally the idea that there is a question and we are not in violation of any laws we don't have any concerns of what that could mean until the the gray area gets decided by the courts um I look at it as I I the idea that we would remove sexual orientation and gender identity as telling our staff that whomever you are whomever you identify whether I agree or not you are still a human person and based off that identification you should not be discriminated against is something I personally will fight for and I personally choose to stand behind which is part of the reason why I'm I'm going to end up making this motion again after I give other individuals the opportunity to speak I think a a a business that works with all manner of people should stand up for all manner of people and for those who are online and looking at our contract if you continue one of the other protected options is political affiliation I I think the idea that would remove sexual orientation and gender identity regardless of where we are at especially considering that there is a uh potential gray area because something is not decided at the present moment I personally am going to make a a statement of we should honor and respect and do all we can to protect uh all groups regardless of how we personally feel or see those issues uh if somebody else would like to make a comment that is this is your opportunity and then I can make my my motion before I motion on the agenda item to begin with President Wade um miss mlen you said that we would be subject to you know if the decision where we're at in the courts what does that look like for our contracts though like if we left it on there and we had to change it or I'm just trying sure sure uh president Wade M Schultz so what I mean by that is that ultimately what your contract language says is it mirrors your policies and state and federal law indicating that you can't an employee can't discriminate against an individual it is meant and included within the contract documents to provide notice to the employees of the their obligation to act in an anti-discriminatory manner with staff students visitors so ultimately what would mean if the courts do not include those terms within the definition sex is that you couldn't discipline potentially or you or if you were um if you were looking at um how that policy was to be interpreted that's what that would mean thank you so with that I sorry go ahead um So based on um I got to bring up the contract this is item 8.6 so current language is person sex race religion color national origin age disability veteran status political off affiliation and genetic code so by saying person sex that should cover a person's sex and based on the executive order yes somebody's challenging it but at the same time under the direction of the Department of Education they reverted back to the original language for title 7 and Title so I don't understand how we can you're saying that we can include the language and not risk being impacted by a violation Madame President Miss V hook the the definition of sex whether it being in your contract or your policy is going to be subject to federal law so if you said that you um protected let's just take gender identity and the courts ultimately find that you cannot protect that that it's not protected then the interpretation of that contract would be subject to the federal law whether that be a federal law that's uh published by Congress or whether that be a federal law that's established by the courts I thought it got resented Madame President miss jarm the US Department of Education published regulations in the title 9 context that contained an expansive definition of sex and it was rescinded in January of 2025 so now the definition of sex is sub solely to the interpretation of the courts without um guidance from the US Department of education's regulations president Wade and what about the other executive order related to um male and female Madame President Miss Van Hook so again that executive order is also as I understand it currently subject to litigation so all of this when you describe it as gray I would say that's accurate we don't know how the courts will come out with respect to this issue especially in light of the US Supreme Court's decision in bowo where they did extend the definition of sex to include sexual orientation in the title 7 context so it's very gray it's it is in all transparency it's my office's recommendation that you remove the parenthetical just so that you then sex is up to the courts right but I it's a decision for the board so again um recognizing all of that and I appreciate your legal advice I personally am choosing to do this because again we are a uh an entity of people and whether or not I agree with you whether or not I see you as a person doesn't mean that you are any less human or have any less value and so at the end of the day I argue that until the courts decide this and there is some potential legal ramifications because my job is to serve the best interest of Higley that while it is gray I am going to say that we should include the parentheticals because whether or not you agree with them queer folk exist transfolk exist and so I personally am going to uh motion that we approve employment contracts as presented with the exception of retaining the parenthetical information following the word sex in the anti-discrimination requir second Mr Glover seconded I was going to write that on the wrong thing oh goodness Christine I do not know where you want me to write it but I'm writing it down right here Mr Glover seconded that thank you uh all those in favor of including that language the parentheticals after uh the word sex I I all those opposed nay that motion to include um when I make this motion for what we have before do do I need to say including anything of the motion that we just carried or is that kind of understood I just want to make sure I use the proper language yeah so now approval of that yes um so you've you've amended the contract language and now you would approve the as amended okay so I motion that the governing board approve the 2025 2026 contracts as amended second Miss Schultz will second that all those in favor I I all those opposed May motion carries 32 go ahead I just want to quickly say I I don't want to discriminate against anyone and if it's not a legal ra ramification then I I don't understand why we would go backwards so president Wade if I may um yeah I don't think anybody's going backwards um I think uh I I think that no nobody should be discriminated no matter what uh everybody should be treated as human beings um and uh at the same time nobody should require special treatments um based on a specific belief um everybody should be treated equally um and uh equal as human beings so um to to require anything additional um I think is discriminatory uh within itself so I just want to clarify that nothing we just voted on gave anybody special treatment correct Miss Mullen president weigh Miss Schultz that's correct thank you item 8.7 approval of over wait that's what we're on right yeah yeah okay sorry didn't mark uh 8.7 approval of overnight Andor outof State staff travel we have any questions or comments yes um okay so um I did notice that some staff members are scheduled to speak at this conference um however um with the current Cuts uh spending $112,000 to send um what looks like um admin staff to a conference I'm not sure is a um responsible use of public funds um and and this is again I if I mean this if we're considering you know for instance the Mandarin program uh 50,000 I mean this I'm sorry the Mandarin is 500,000 uh I think the numbers changed for some reason because I remember there was like coaches on there too at like 35,000 and that's different um so this was before I saw the numbers change but anyway I mean this is like a whatever is 50,000 this is a quarter way of of being able to fund um that and I and as a speaker mentioned uh we did spend half a million dollars last year and the year before on travel related expenses um and we need to consider those expenses when we're dealing with cut that's um that's all um first again board member Van Hook I agree with you in that we should not do frivolous spending especially considering where we're at for the cuts some things that either you may not be aware of or at the very least certain members of the public um our administrative staff our certified teachers we are contractually obligated to do PD uh it is a state requirement in order for us to retain our certifications and so the idea that we as a as an entity would provide that funding uh I existed before in uh Higley in which we weren't paying for some of that staff training and then what happened staff didn't get the training and our results kind of reflected some of those things um so while I hear you in that it isn't uh you know Wise to just do frivolous spending I again these are contractual obligations that we have for our staff the expectation is that they in order to maintain their CTS have to reive professional development and as an organization if we are requiring that you do that um the state doesn't provide the funding for that it has to come from somewhere otherwise we run the risk of having less qualified teachers um and something else to keep in mind is again our neighboring districts do provide funding for these professional developments and so what that means is if you're a teacher you don't come here because we won't pay for it and it can be costly and that's tough um so so I I I just think that aspect is important having that c that requirement I don't know how many people are aware of the fact that it is literally a contractual obligation and I'm required by the state of Arizona to do that uh training in order to maintain my CT uh president Wade in regards to this specific travel um I believe this is 13 admin staff um and I do understand the importance of professional development but when we are making cuts um sending 13 people to Laughlin for several days um is something that we could maybe look at and consider otherwise um but I do get the professional development is required uh but again we've spent a half a million dollars um the last two years in a row uh for that and we need to look at the bigger picture I motion that the governing board approve the overnight n of State travel uh request as presented great thanks Mr glver all those in favor I I I all those opposed motion carries 32 items for future agenda this agenda item is for the governing board to have a running oh wait do I even need to say that do we just have does anyone have any requests for future agenda items oh goodness the last page I motion we adjourn this meeting thanks anav Van Hook seconded all those in favor I I motion carries 5 Z thank you for everyone who stayed thank you than you for
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and for children's events we have Min Marvels Comics workshops for ages 5 through 8 March 8th at 2 p.m. thanks to our town manager Michael Herbert and the town staff for putting together this newsletter and thank you all for tuning in today this is H silver with waa wishing you a good night and go clockers [Music]
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all those fa I opposed motion car zero United States of America hi I wanted to I have turned in my resignation as the end of March and I wanted to thank the school board and all the staff and everybody for the opportunity to be here um I know my successor will do a great job you guys are in good hands it's been nice to see the changes and you guys do a really good you know you do put a lot of work into it so I'll still be in AO um I'll be here to help any way I can from the community aspect of it and everything else so but thanks and it's nice to see a positive change with the school so thank you that I'll still be around okay next up we have the governing board report of current super report Mr President members of the board and all of those in attendance it's good to see everybody um we have some real special uh uh presentations for our our superintendent report first I'll ask B to go to the r security camera so just so everyone can see uh we have three new rata security cameras and as you remember we have six already located throughout campus we have one on outside of the district office pointing North we have another right in front of the of the school office we have one over dius pointing out towards um Southeast South Southeast then we have um another one right here in the middle pointing towards the cafeteria then we have uh one more by the bleachers so long story short we still wanted to cover these three areas so you can see this is full coverage of Jack Peterson Field cameras have three times the optical zoom plus digital zoom and Cloud backup so that just means whatever damage is done to that camera the the information is being stored already remote at at another location so that's the vision right there that you all can see we have now going towards the primary building there's the zoom capability primary playground um football field west to Southwest right here is the location the other camera we have two cameras there this one now is pointing um towards the West Northwest area where you see the zoom capabilities if you go down can you go down on that on that slide you see the bottom two right there so that's where the cameras are so now we have um the west southwest West Northwest area to our campus cover we didn't have that before and so if we go to the next one Angelina this was the area also that wasn't covered north of the miror room weight room maintenance center in softball field student parking we didn't have one of these uh Hightech verata security cameras just to remind everyone it's 247365 so the data stays on there for the whole year U and has a real good recording device as far as a feature an AI feature where it can pick up there you see right there are some cars opt optical zoom digital Zoom but which you can also see uh it it also keeps track of who is on that area of Campus when and at what time so if someone's walking that area um 8 9 10 at night and that same person comes in you know at 3:00 on Monday to pick a student up the front office is going to have that and like okay well what were you doing here Saturday at 10 or 11:00 so this application is with our school safety team miss our principal our dean of students Mr Casey our facilities team leaders Mr cotton and Mr y our SRO Deputy Richardson and our campus security monitor Chief tibit these are some more zoom capabilities you can see the students playing they can actually zoom in to see what's going on so if there's any kind of situation on campus whatever it might be the people who have access to the to the app they can just check it out and see what was going on at 1:30 one on Friday or 9:15 on Wednesday morning so just for everyone in attendance to know we just want to try and have a improve our security measures we didn't have this before now we have nine security cameras all around campus so what what's the what's the last one Ang the last one okay so uh board members that's an update to our Nine rata security camera State ofthe art cameras the next part from our report uh actually I'm not going to do any more talking I'm going to turn it over to uh I know whenever we have our students present it's always um more enjoyable so uh I'm going to call our student council leaders that were there uh to come up and just say a few words just for everyone in attendance our board members and and parents and families on February 14th we went to the ouer College of Management at UFA go a little bit um that that man on the very top I'm GNA going to go over here just to give you a little more background this is Dr Paul Melendez he is a distinguished Professor for the University of Arizona Elder College of Management and he and I were in the same doctoral cohort 20 years ago so he's he's written a number of books he also does a lot of international traveling and the main focus of his course is organization and ethics and so we had these 12 students I'll let them I'll let them tell you who went they know all the faces a lot better than I do and we have our adviser Miss Fernandez who's back there she was also at the College of Management they took a tour they participated in in uh some lecturing sessions from University professors on ethics there was about 200 students there um AO UniFi was represented there for the first time in our history and we also were there with other districts like Sunnyside tucon unified and T UniFi so I'm going to turn it over to president uh we have two presidents in the room Mr hop I hope you don't mind we have Mr cus Manuel syus take it away oh uh you've been doing this longer than me so I would say you're the you're the superior but uh um honestly um it was a new experience and I'm I'm glad to have been a part of it um it it was like like you said it was uh it was a we had never done this before and um it was definitely kind of like At first I was a little nervous kind of going into just it was a bunch of different schools and you know you don't really know how you're going to interact with them but um overall I think it was really it was really helpful and it gave Insight on you know kind of like where I don't know it I feel like it was just very productive and uh talking to other schools while also getting um to learn more about um their program and ethics what they had so uh yeah I was just glad to be a part of it um there was also a really good interaction with the other students um especially since a lot of those students might be going to school with like Marina Marina's going to U OFA and they all are planning to go to UFA and looking to the elders like when they gave us a tour it they talk to us about their experience and like how they went about the L life and how it could connect with what's going on in our lives right now how their decisions from high school changed from then till they got to college so it was good to have a lot of different perspectives and to me this experience was incredible I got the opportunity to meet new people to connect with them to share our ideas to meet a little bit know a little bit about each other like our different schools I got the opportunity I mean yeah I got the opport opportunity to um sit with them and like learn a little bit from them like it was like really strange for me because for me like I wouldn't say I'm I'm not social but like just sitting on a table with unfamiliar faces it's like really strange but I was able to like connect with them like I really like that it was like an experience for me and I really like the L program it has it offers a lot of opportunities for for college students and also for upcoming students from high school and I think in general it was a great experience and I want to thank Dr Soo for making this happen you um I think the experience was very great for all of us it gave us all an opportunity to meet other people and experience new things it reminds me of why I'm going to the University of Arizona I think that having the opportunity to study about ethics and then how situations like Aubrey said in high school affect the rest of our lives that's a very big thing that I feel like young people don't understand is that the decisions we make now affect the rest of our lives and I feel like that was a very important thing that they expressed to us and I think that that's something that everyone should understand um they also gave the seniors an opportunity to do interviews about what ethics means to us and they gave that us the opportunity to do that we also um tore the campus which is really nice and very fun and yeah I'm just glad I was a part of it I would definitely say it was very nerve-racking for me because when we first got there like I got scared that we were getting separated but I feel like once you know you get to meet the other people it's like a good um experience to be able to like Branch out and meet new people so you aren't like scared inside also another thing I wanted to add uh um as far as like you know meeting uh students and everything I also wanted to add um also just um I could have went like my whole high school without knowing who uh Dr Melendez was but I feel like that kind of gave an opportunity to kind of like build connection as well because um I mean it was weird but I I was in the bathroom when I met him and I kind of like I had a one I had a I remember walking in and I was like you're Dr Melendez right he was like oh yeah and then I was like oh okay Dr knows you oh you're from a and then we had a whole conversation but yeah so I he he ended up telling me you know about things like if I was looking into that program or also looking into other programs and he he kind of he had he gave some good advice on like you know other programs I could look into After High School also here you all can see it this came out where have where you have little heart shapes those are all different High School Red Raiders this came out in the Elder College of Management website in their Journal so our students got to come out and uh they did a real great job and uh Miss Arin kopa from the Better Business Bureau spoke very highly of our students um he said they're very courteous very respectful and just really eager to learn and just really uh they felt at home so um a USB yes goad shout out to Emma Rose because they did like 25 questions Emma was the one out of the 200 students that got them all correct and she's the one that so I just think a unified a sorry uh they they set the standard they made history so Dr melenz has invited us again next year so we can keep going there as many times as uh as we would like so I just want to recognize our leaders right here this to the C leaders J good job J and the last thing on the superintend report Mr Hopkins we have some great me to share with everyone here we uh applied for a uh Pima Jed CTE Grant they awarded 25 to $50,000 of to different um Career Technical education program so uh we do have Miss cot here who was our grants coordinator got hard come in I'm going to have her I'm going to have her explain it because quite frankly um uh she she's the one who really deserves the credit her her and uh Miss and Mr Romo our new architectural drafting teacher got it started but really um she did most of the work so miss Cotate can you talk a little bit about this uh um award letter from P J said and how it's going to help our program um so we we said we're GNA we want to expand our very new um architectural drafting class and um different ways to support it um we need different materials like software such as AutoCAD and Revit and those things can be expensive as well as drafting tools shares ergonomic SE seating and all those stuff and so Mr Romo and I put together the plan he gave all the ideas which is yes beautiful ideas we just needed the funding to make it happen and so we're very happy that um we were granted this opportunity expand architectural yeah nice how how many students are taking architectural draft right now so parents you're welcome to come and observe it it's probably the biggest classroom we have on campus Mr Romo is is an architect for meali Bahan California Mexico with 25 years experience we're able to recruit him to come over here and he has many years working in the private sector designing buildings and homes and so now he's teaching our students will be with them long after they move on from and so Mr President M of that's that concludes my next up we have the award over to our teachers here we have Miss Williams Mr maningo and Miss codo for our seventh eth and nth grade superintendent uh student of the month we have Miss Williams you're on first Miss Williams good evening everyone I'm Don Williams and I'm pleased to introduce the recipient of the students of the month award for academic Excellence for the 7th grade Helena sand the name Helena has Greek Origins and it means shining lights or Le Sun it is said that the person who Bears this name Will harness the fall of the Sun the grace of the sky and possess a little fire in their heart Helena has been a shining example of quiet strength be persistence and consistency it has been my observation that Helena maintains a high standard of performance in her work in all her classes and does nothing in half measure while she may be considered Reserve she is very observant and will Advocate herself if she needs to she is held in high regard by those she interacts with and keeps her Circle close and small one teacher's comment about Helena is that she shows a genuine love for Learning and stays highly focused on her tasks she upholds honesty and treats her parents and teachers with the utmost respect another teacher has said that Helena consistently demonstrates a strong focus on her studies showcasing her commitment to academic Excellence her responsibility as a student is evident in her ability to manage tasks efficiently and meet deadlines her respectful demeanor contributes positively to the classroom environment fostering mutual respect among classmates and teachers she has strong family support and that adds to the quiet strength that she displays daily in Jamaica we would say she little but she tal meaning she is small but strong powerful and resilient ladies and gentlemen or students of the month of the seventh grade play a stand family get up there sorry sorry sorry Grandma right here one two three thank you thank you one two three thanks the members of the SCH Board District school fell teachers or parents students guest busy it's my privilege to recognize our eighth grade student of the month a student who consistently demonstrate exhalence in both academics and extracurricular activities as a team and a meddle school team we proudly describe her as a dedicated leader to values teamwork and collaborates effectively with others she approaches every task with precision and commitment ex exing only um again um uh she approaches every task with precision and commitment exiling not only her studies but also in her rule as a junior high high school student council president her attentiveness cooperation and active engagement in class discussion and activities set her apart as St remarkable student help me we congratulate Valentina FZ [Applause] right here turn awesome thank you one more two three to our board members um our superintendent dro princip parents teachers students it is my honor to present to you a truly exceptional freshman student medicon col who has not only examed academically but also set as a brilliant example of behavior and character she embodies the values of being respectful responsible and ready not demonstrated and an unw unwavering commitment of her studies and and showing genuine passion for all her subjects she consistently exited hard work and perseverance that leads her success she is always ready to help her classmates in completing their task aside from exceling in academics the way she treats others with kindness and respect truly makes her outstanding Maddie you made your parents proud we are also you also inspired your classmates to in higher and better every day we the teachers in high school are proud to be part of your Learning Journey ladies and gentlemen let us give a sounding Applause to our freshman superintendent student of the month marison col [Applause] ready turn and look awesome thank you that superintendent student of the month Awards uh famili students and teachers you're welcome to stay I know Jinger said she was going to stay till the very end want the whole budget you guys are welcome understand if you have to go to go have dinner go do homework just go relax and enjoy the rest of your night so uh we give you give you a pleasure you off to for the budg have a good night guys thank for congratulations do they make you sell popcorn at halftime at the basketball game because you do everything else I just make too invited me to sell my snow cones and popcorn during the Easter egg hunt for next month yeah she did okay so next item on the agenda is approval of the consent agenda I will make the motion I was GNA ask if I could read something for E you can you can do it all right good um I just want to share with you you have an Angelina has just so we have this is the Mojave contract it's at 118,000 um originally it was at 171,000 but we wanted to stay within the physical PL line item that Mr Mor shared with us of 135,000 or less so it's 118,000 can we go also to the fence prototype this is the main uh 8ot high rod iron fence between the district from school offices um we have we go to the map this is the map of how it's going to look pretty much the main area which is the center part of Campus is going to have that rod iron two main entry exit exit doors with the intention of putting cameras on each door so that whenever before anyone comes to the district office angel will have a camera to see us coming on campus and be aware and for safety and the same in the school office missia Miss grei and anyone else in the front office area will have access also to who's going in to the school office so this is a procedure and protocol that is used in other districts no Dallas UniFi Gilbert hle and other districts to where just to promote safety and so if you can go to the document little summary andina that I shared with you I just wanted to highlight a few points just just so so we have for for the record School Safety and Security we had multiple paent coffees as you can see there October 4th December 5th February 13th we had uh multiple reports at governing board meetings November 4th January 15th we also present to student council you saw the leadership here January 22nd staff professional development and and classroom parent group with missg Wallace on the 22nd uh we shared with them what we just shared with you uh parents and staff really started to express this concern at the October forth parent coffee shared that how they would like to have main entrances and exits so that everyone knows who's on campus where and when at what time um the concern is that the campus being wide open not knowing who was on campus so uh the school office really and parents at that first pay coffee shared concern about just having a more secure system for people to come on campus and they highlighted the school shootings that just took place in Georgia in the fall so that was present throughout throughout this discussion uh Deputy Richardson our SRO from Human County sheriff's house made a great point he said um anytime anyone would try to enter our campus by climbing the fence that would be in place this would to give him evidence of this criminal activity and that person can be trespassed from on campus so he made a very sailing point I believe at the December parent coffee and so just uh in closing the last paragraph highlights just the student council these students leaders are the ones we presented this to and they had some great points Mr our president syus Manuel stated how uh his cousin goes to a high school in the valley and they have an ID card or for them to get in they have to slide the ID card and that way the people on campus at the office who's coming in students when where what time and also the vice president arriana shared that she was in Buckeye for elementary school and that they had rod iron they had some kind they had a fence on campus there so when she got here she noticed that and she just talking about her family she was concerned about the safety too so student council they they were just they were incredible they just there probably the most enlightening conversations we had the staff also shared their concern about just being little more safer uh the classroom parents made some great points also the parents uh believe MOS had a very good point that changes hard but when it comes to safety change is needed and so uh the parents also were very very supportive and so I just wanted to share that with with everyone that we made the best decision possible but we also wanted to be fiscally responsible we wanted to stay within that line item amount that Mr more shared with us from the physical plant so um that's just for your information for everyone to have that um yeah the only thing that occurred to me thinking about it since we talked about it last I'm hoping that the folks who are monitoring it during the times when it's closed are on top of it we don't want to leave somebody standing there at the gate or will it have door like a camera doorbell remember there's a camera yes and then I know we have a number of people who haveing we'll make sure we'll get it all figured out but it's a great Mr Mo shared with me this is a great challenge to have I actually have I have a question how is it going to work with Head Start we'll have we'll have them follow the same uh the same sign in checkin procedures we'll coordinate that with the Head Start office here that way you know if we need to figure out how they can also have access to see who's coming in from from their program so we'll figure it out but we want we going to want Head Start to there students and families that follow the same checkin procedure you won't have to worry about won't be what you won have to worry about there won't be any any Head Start are there any more question or discussion on that if not we have the motion in the second so I call for a vote all those in favor say I oppos motion carries support zero okay next item is Personnel issuance of the 2526 certified contracts Mr President members of the board uh statutes 15536 and 15- 5381 now state that probationary and continuing teacher contracts for the ining school year shall be offered honor after March 15th of each year 2025 2026 certified teacher contracts will be recommended to be issued to the following teachers and we were reminded of this update from asba but uh M and I also pulled out the statute and just to go over the language as well so I recommend the issuance of 2526 certified contracts to the above teachers return uh they have acceptance within 15 business days receipt counts when the written contract is personally delivered or placed in the teach mailbox or email so as soon as we uh we're going to get with this tomorrow make sure we have everything in order and once we have that done we'll send it out we'll have 15 15 business dayses more questions or comments on we have motion second all those in favor any opposed motion car supp zero okay next item is approval of the sister business manager Mr President members of the board um we have uh the administration is posted for the position of assistant business manager two applicants applied very uh strong applicants and they were interviewed uh the committee of consisted of Miss and Mr Simon our it manager is recommended lo as the assistant business manager with the start date of June 1st 2025 um recommend the approval of the employment of Rona c as the assistant business manager starting June 1st 2025 it was an internal post just so so everyone is aware uh we are doing internal posts at this time to really uh as far as with best practices and the research shows within an organization it builds credibility it also uh promotes retention from staff they know that they have a chance to maybe advance and grow professionally and go into another position so um that's why we have it at internal the interviews good candidate so Mr Mo also provided some questions that we looked at and just had it set up so um we believe M will do a great job I will make the motion I will second any questions or discussion on that did you talk to the Pres scers he might not be too happy about it conversation she'll be well utilized over there over here okay if there are any more questions or comments we go for the all those in favor say I I I may we opposed the motion carries four to zero next up we have the approval of Finance cour Basquez Mr President M of the board the Administration has posted internally for the position of finance clerk two applicants applied were interviewed they both did very well the administration is recommending Emma Vasquez for the finance Clos recommend the approval of the employment of Emma Vasquez as Finance second question com those in favor say I I any oppos motion carries for Z okay approval of volunteer coaching softball coach J Mr President members of the board Jake Tucker has been interviewed for a position as a volunteer softball coach Mr Tucker will not start his first day until an approved ivp finger print card is received I recommend the appointment of Jake Tucker as a volunteer stop appr upon the receipt of an IP fingerprint C I will make the motion with the change that we now have is IP yes but the three of us are and are only there like half or a quarter per of the time so um and then uh the tuers can't be there at the same time because they have a baby so well they'll be there at the same time it's just one will be on the field and one field and one will be on the field so the Essa has is s shift so she's there like she started work Sunday so she wasn't here Monday Tuesday Wednesday but she gets off tomorrow so we're we're constantly on a swing schedule so not all five people will be on this field all at the same time or some of us will be in the stand and some of us will be on but yes the answer to your question yes F question okay so all those in favor of as amended as Amendment yeah okay say I I can post all right motion carries as amended four to zero okay next up we have a review of the projected SCH year 2026 Mr President members of the board we have our finance consultant Mr Tyler Moore who came from the valley and uh he's going to present the projected M and and capital budget number there is no board action necessary at this time this is an informational item only and I will turn this over to Mr Moore who's going to go through the nuts and bolts all the way down to the NS cow of our projected budget for next year Mr about that part thank you for coming yeah a pleasure to come down here it's a refreshing uh to see different District a different perspective so uh yeah president HS the board um this evening I'll present kind of a lookout to fiscal 26 uh budget so we're looking at the start of next year which would be July 1 2025 um this kind of the agenda I kind of look at what legislative changes are coming we'll look at the mown capital budget your formula based um budgets So based on student count what you get from the state and then just talk about some upcoming budget conversation so you go to the next slide um this legislative cycle is uh what's essentially happening is there's not a lot of money on the table so um what the Republican Le house senate and then Democratic governor um you're seeing a lot of bills propos and then so um and then there not a lot of money on the table there's really not U much implications in terms of increases for for State funding programs in K2 being 50% of the state budget uh we can likely assume little to no increases um the one thing uh that we are the state is obligated to increase is inflation and so um there's a statute that uh basically says if the state is operating at a a GDP growth price G yeah GDP um if that's above 2% then the state minimally has to provide a 2% inflation increase to school districts budget so right now the state's hovering about 3.5 3.6% and if you look at the state as a whole right there's a lot of activity going it was a World Series last year there's constant activity in terms of economic value people are visiting the valley um and the state of the whole in general so um that has continued to be steady and so um we're assuming that 2% inflation increase in our projections for next year pretty safe there on the uh again House and Senate support um there's a couple bills that I'm monitoring that really K2 one's the AG expenditure limit the kind of Cliff Notes on this is there's a a limit that school budgets exceed right now it's about over a billion dollars it's an old Antiquated formula from the 80s um there's several bills that address this and try to provide a permanent fix for this to allow District to suspend their to budget um so a monitoring that one the uh s SP 107 um will kind of open up the use of tax credits to authorize um use back this was previously approved it expired last year and now they're bringing it back so this gives you some more flexibility with those tax credit donations so if there so tax credit donations that are undesignated to the district now they'll if this bill passes they'll have the ability to use this for Capital items and not just your traditional extracurricular like coaching SS or field trips or covering Plus cost so um Capital items could from shade structures playgrounds um Etc so um it gives more flexibility to the district to use those funds so but outside of that uh I anticipate little to no change again no money on the table you're likely see the bare minimum in terms of the state budget this year so so what does that mean for for the 26 M budget again this M budget is our budget in which we pay teacher salaries our supplies our benefits um we again are assuming the base level amount increasing 2% so again that's the per people amount um there's different weights right if you have students with disabilities you get additional weights on that amount um so I didn't include all those calculations but B the base amount is basically the formula is basically the base amount TS your ADM um right now ao's been hovering around 375 there hasn't been little no change in terms of like what the valley seeing is drastic decline um but AO has been relatively steady so we're assuming kind of a flat enrollment next year so you take those two and then you get your kind of Revenue control limit that's your your base level budget of $3.6 million you add in uh the buds carry forward right now uh March we're not done with our fiscal year yet this number is relatively low um as we work towards the end of the year and reconcile our accounts we'll know um we'll have more money left in our budget BS car forward so uh that will go up but being this early yeah we're we're looking at just throwing a conservative number out there the additional add-ons prop 123 um that's being discussed at the legis legislative level um right now it expires 26 so um being conservative in nature we're not going to budget for any money in there if something does happen we can add that back in that's just going to be a bonus um just for context was getting about $30,000 from that bucket um but again that expired in 26 right now there's no resolution to keep that funding ongoing but there is some bills discussing that so you add all that together you get a general Bud limit of $4.2 million we adopted this year this current year $4.3 million budget and so you see a difference about less 43,000 again that's a very conservative number like I said that 600,000 likely you guys are likely going to car for more um but just looking at the budget right now holistically early in March this is what we're looking at so um that's for M if we go to Capital so this is our capital budget so the formula budget amount is is 269,000 a year so this is capital this is means you can buy this is your furniture budget your equipment um any sort of your physical tangible items this is uh used for that this is also used for um printer software and licenses so that um instructional technology piece is also purchased with capital dollars um right now we're anticipating Bud SC for over 700,000 so um almost three times your annual allocation so very healthy fund balance there um it's typical to have higher reserves in capital because when you do have something break such as an HBC or a bus those prices are are a lot higher than a supply per se so um very good reserves um your add-ons you can actually add on interest earnings so that carry cord that you're keeping in the bank you're actually you're actually earning money on that carry board to about $155,000 that you can add back to your budget so um it's doing work for for the district um so you add those three items together you get a anticipated capital budget about 984000 this year we adopted capital budget just over a million again we're looking at a less 41,000 for next year do the Wall come out of that defense defense no we're actually leveraging um like was said the school plant fund so that is a fund that is when we when you sell um District property that goes into that school plant fund um you guys have recruited over time over $100,000 in that in that bucket so uh we're putting that to use and we're not even touching this bucket so and nor we usually we don't sell things but like when a whole Council for the Fine Arts wants to rent the auditorium they have to pay so much um a couple of times we with um Kim County or or um T buses broken down so they borrow our bus because they have a certified driver so they have to pay us to borrow our bus um and then that all goes into the plant um when like the CH club or somebody wants to rent the cafeteria that all of that goes into 555 and that's all of our plant that has that beened so that's been saved up but once it's done it's done and we have to yeah it's one time money right so but ongoing pieces the revenue if you continue to rent or lease facilities or lease so that's where you get that and then the last slide is just looking at some initiatives that Dr has and trying to continue to leverage the budget so we're looking at a a feasibility of a 2% compensation increase to all employees um like I just mentioned earlier the state is anticipating funding a inflation amount of 2% um so we're researching feasibility of passing that right directly to your employees um the additional one is continue leverage of other funds like we just said and I put the example right up there the school plant fund um leverage these other funds for some of these onetime project needs and continue to enhance your District um and so those are really the two uh again not a lot working at the state so we're kind of keeping the initiatives at AO kind of similar the basics looking at the needs so uh I hope to come back in April with some information regarding the feasibility of maintaining and supporting a 2% increase so Tyler we're waiting for the insurance to to give us the information on the 15th for the benefits and stuff like that what increase but there is a cap of 133% on it for this next next year that will go into that research that's really it if you have any questions early budget club for next year I got a couple questions yeah any try of course I keep's going on on federal level and I see where they do with the Department of Education they said they're going to take those dollars and give them to the states in the form of laws yeah so you have me a clue how that would work no and until they propos a plan right it's all here so right now I haven't seen any concrete plans but um from the conversations with a because obviously every District can be affected so um they anticipate again just be ad administering those grants you're talking about title Ida those federal grants um but again there's been here I haven't seen an actual plan how that was going to work and what the process would be so uh obviously we're monitoring that they've kind of reassured that they're not going to be reducing or like taking away it completely so um not worried about that piece how they're going to implement it that's that's concerning right how to how are we're going to make sure that we can still capture those funds and be in combined with now ad um to keep those funds and that Revenue source the district yeah I mean yeah we're not sure I know it's not open it's already March usually March 1 that's already open and they will be open April 1 that's the first time yeah they're holding what is not open the FY 26 gr so 8 is holding back I think in the same tune like they're waiting for more information uh they don't know nobody really knows so I saw rep sorry I saw legislator the other day being interview by Channel 12 yeah and it said the legislator legislation legislature is going to push harder for the voucher system and the state so can you explain this a little bit to us so we understand completely what the voucher system is and how it works yeah so the vouchers would um affect your budget only by either you know encouraging your curreny to come off of the district and go to the vouchers right that means less ADM for AO and um your budget would then be reduced by the a right that's the main multiplier so um it doesn't have any effect on your property taxes or anything like that because the voucher program right now provise for a basic student with no identified disability $7,000 um per household and they could be up to 30,000 if they have um any sort of identified disabilities or such so um the only worry for AO would be the competition that the do program brings um if it were to enti families to to move to that voucher program in home school I don't think you guys have a charter in so the only really option is homeschooling um I my only worri for that 7,000 not per student students are yeah so if we had we had a family that had kids and they decided to homeschool everybody the district would lose on 20,000 about $20,000 yeah and that money goes directly to the to the parents now so then the the state picks up that burden right it's it's it's kind of a it's not well system it reduces The District budget right and it's less the district gets the L less property taxes to Garner the budget because your budget's less the state picks up the bill for the 7,000 per student so every student lead District that comes out of the state budget there's no property tax Bas to pay for students on these the state general fund it upid directly to yeah one budget question I had is sound like you were saying to build the fence we're spending L share of what is in our and that's from selling or leing how long does it how long did it take us to accumulate that much in6 yeah that's a good question I mean I just I know I got in here and that fund has been over 100,00 since I been here looking at the financials for the last two years so um angory the last time we dipped in we got uh the VW Bug Grant in 2017 or 18 and they gave us $100,000 but the the bus was actually like 125 or 135,000 so that 35,000 that's the last time I think that we touched the um School the the school plan and um so like it was like 35 or 40 when you ended up attacking St and getting it down here and that's the activity bus that has the the seats and the the screens and stuff like that so it was $100,000 that was given to us and then about 35 to 40,000 came from that at around that time so 2017 16 17 is the last time touch it no no I'm I'm wondering how fast is it crew like how much are we adding to that from sales and leases and rentals it dep it depends from year to year I haven't gotten I haven't gotten a rental from the auditorium in a long time but what we have been getting on a consistent basis which is weird um the P County U rents has to rent our bus um for the route um Oregon pipe has been doing Feld trips with um different organizations and they can rent our driver if they need it because only a certified driver can drive our our school buses and only employees can drive our school buses so they're not only renting the bus they're renting the driver as well so they have to pay you know hourly salary and and that kind of stuff because we can't let our our insurance would go we just handed a bus over to somebody who wasn't a an employee so that's been happening the last couple of years pretty consistently and um the theic center hasn't hasn't really rented the last time when the Air Force went to the auditorium for that um that open house that they did yeah last August but it has a b consist it was but what's really coming in right now is is the renting the bus the driver guess what I'm looking for kind of a ballar $4,000 a year right now okay that's I was looking how many how much how many years yeah um and that now going into the rental fund really this school plant money was just left over from time i' have research when it's there not being used and so this is a perfect project to use it's one time money this is a one time project to kind of get this up and and started so uh yeah okay so here's my bottom line okay I don't want to end up on channel 12 news I got another so so it yeah we're we're counting on you Dr Soto to make sure that we stay fisical responsible all the time right I want to give raises to everybody right I'd like to give a lot more than 2% but you just got to make sure that that we keep the Train on the track okay next item anything more on the projected budget okay we'll move on to the Arizona General School District Financial Risk analysis yes U Mr pres members of the board of Finance consultant Tyler Moore will are you the auditor general Financial Risk analysis report for a UniFi for 2025 we will also compare a unified to Isaac Elementary School District there is no v action necessary at this time this is information report only I will turn it over to Mr pres the um this is this one or the plug you have to type in oh yeah yeah this first um so this is a report that's um basically produced by the auditor general and it's an analysis A really kind of high level analysis of um Financial Risk and so um we're going to first look at AO unified I can explain the categories kind on a high level basis and then we'll look at Isaac who was just on the news um and you'll see drastic differences in how their Financial Risk was compared to a which is pretty vanill which is where you want to be so um the first categor is they measure changes in weighted student count so um like I just mentioned you have not beening rural isolated have not been affected by kind of the national ter of low birth rates and that's so your enrollment has been relatively flat um see one year change of just over just under half a percent and a foure change of plus 133% so you've actually been increasing over the last four years so um they measure that because that has a a direct impact on the budget form right so that's a very important metric when you're when you're managing bud so um that is not at risk um it's kind of just neutral blue that means there's no risk for a and there hasn't been in the last four years so looking at the budget limit Reserve so this is a second category this measures um your reserves in relation to your M budget um this is showing high risk I will explain if you want to open the no yep that so this this shows the last uh five years of trend for the M budget balance Reserve um some of the the reason why I got flaged as high risk is one- year change from 23 to 24 where you went from $1.2 million to 600,000 and that was a direct Rel um a direct initiative by the district to reduce this budget balance down $1.2 million is approximately 33% of your of your overall budget that is that is really high right that is um every every District in the America in the state would be thankful to have that much money so um part of me coming in analizing the budget is is we were caring for the district as a whole is caring for this large amount of money that was not really necessary above what any recommended individual or financial consult would would recommend so we purposely brought that down right we made changes to the certified salary schedule increases and put that money to work into um addressing compensation and inance and wage increases so we are now hovering around 600,000 um and we're going to maintain that which is approximately 20 21% of your regrip which is again very healthy um personally my district I I'm around 15% um but the about five six years ago there was actually a cap from the state that you can only car for 4% so considering the state was mandating 4% and now it's kind of unrestricted inders can can manage that as they see um a rule to be anywhere from 4 to 12 so being at 20% um Alo is very safe in that sense and so when you see high risk um that is just that year-to-year change but again we are um committed to maintaining that at 600,000 or approximately 20% of us for um on an ongoing basis and so um that flag is really from just that adjustment and U kind of how where we want to reass on that so we go to the next one the budget limit reserves on Capital um this one's no risk here if you want to open the data again this one's been relatively flat right 700,000 2020 um it increase slightly um but again like I mentioned earlier Capital these are these are often times your large purchases so this can swing um on year to year kind of to the tunee of 50 to 100,000 when you buy a b for a large purch right that's going to swing that that number but again we're committed to maintaining about that 700,000 Mar which is about three times your Capital your annual appropriation so very healthy balance again not flagged by the Financial Risk report um and again like IED the 26 we're projected to maintain that $700,000 Reserve so you scroll down the financial position general fund aling Reserve ratio so again this is the the measurement if you look at the data open the data again please this is that percentage so again they take your um total expenses and then your budget BS carry forward if you actually subtract it actually close that yeah go to the analysis yeah there you can see that the 20% um on the on financial 20 um again extremely healthy time balance again not flab by the other General so the next one the financial position the operating margin um this metric is kind of confusing much to say here it's just all all I want say not it's not flag when we get to Isaac you're going to see you're going to see the difference Capital monies uh redirected to operations so um they measure this districts have the authority to transfer Capital to operations or vice versa and um when districts start transferring Capital LGE to operations they're usually floating um the operations because they're overextending themselves um AO is not transferring any Capital dollars operations um are supporting both funds are supporting each other but um that is a metric they test small school adjustment these last two are are not really applicable to AO if we want to open Isaac you can actually go back to that report and then type in is that the URL um we'll look at Isaac and I think you'll see right away why you AOS is not in any isaa is not in any sort of fin or not anywhere close to becoming um on channel 12 yeah and so um looking at those same metrics for for Isaac if you want to open the data they are a um in America County right we've seen drastic enrollment decline in ter of students um so you can see their student count has decreased over you know 500 students in the last five years um their budget limit reserves have gone from 200,000 and they approximately have a um is that $40 million budget um 200 they were only carrying for itly of 200,000 on 41 budget so their reserves have gone from 200,000 to3 million again well they declin St and then they just continue to overextend themselves um the same thing on the capital budget they've overextended themselves to the tune of9 million um so again not even I don't know what's going on there but there was there's definitely some mismanagement financials get opposition how many schools in their District again if you scroll down there's some oh yeah there is 10 this year 10 schools can I can I read up president if I can just interject you know um I just went through and I want to just highlight some of these some of the critical points here um says your fiscal year 20 uh 24 District exceeded fisc year 2024 operating budget by 2.9 Million cap by 9.3 million um that's just incredible said here um also this is the report from the oxgen throughout FC year 2024 District failed to report expenditures in the appropriate funds throughout the year submitted a misleading and inaccurate fiscal year 2024 annual financial report to the Department of Education so an inaccurate financial report District's revised December annual financial report still shows a $6.5 million deficit in its eate fund um The District's M fund budgetary overspending also resulted in general fund expenditures exceeding revenues and almost 4.1 million deficit ending general fund balance according to the Maricopa County Treasurers Office treasur the district had a total cash deficit of 42.7 million as of June 30th 2024 continues to use tax anticipation notes and register warrants with the treasurer to accommodate over spending with its cash deficit um they were awarded originally 60 million from Co Federal relief Monies to spend the fiscal years 2020 to 2024 District management is stor that it did not monitor the spending of relas Munds on its F year 2023 a in finding in question so it's just pretty um I was talking before the meeting you just reading this like stands out so just don't to share so they only lost about 50 kids per school right I mean they had 10 schools they lost 500 kids so they lost about 50 kids am I right yeah yeah about 50 kids per school and walk by up by eight that's that's not all the millions no so it's it's either there's a multitude of issues it's not just the climate student right they they either didn't address that that's one problem and then two they just contined to over spend or overextend their budget um they didn't set either parameters on on what we want to carry forward in terms of reserves we a very clear we want to stay at 20% and 700,000 in our Capital so um you have to operate within those barriers right I I don't think they either didn't set boundaries or didn't set expectations for themselves to to have contingencies and just grossly over and again I can't speak there but you know it just mismanagement honestly thisd so but again you know these Financial Risk reports come out in this has been high risk and flaged for years they didn't just get here overnight and so um I just again I want to highlight AOS which is relatively clean with the exception of the onee change um you guys are in a very safe position right now and uh I can tell you we continue to make conservative recommendations to not get even anywhere close to that position as a district so um yeah I hope that report highlights kind of some of the differences you you were not a is not anywhere in the same conversation as Isaac and so that reur those school districts like Mason that are having to shut down schools mostly student decline so yeah as as your student decline right then they have to I'm going through this in my district as well I lost 300 kids um this year and so we have to re size right size our district right 300 less K means you know about we by about 80 80 positions across the district so that's you know your Kinder classes right are going to be smaller so maybe you only have one or two sections instead of three right previously so if you don't constantly update or monitor that on an annual basis um you can you can lose traic that right you continue to spend three keep three Kinder class classes open just for example right annually without adjusting because you have less students in those classes you're overspending your budget so um it's a process I do annually and um that's that's one metric right then you create these parameters to have contingencies and maintain those and not touch those but yeah you have to write size every year and yeah Mesa is going through I think they lost over 3% and that's about over kids um and so they have all those reductions are based on right sizing their district for their new enrollment so your teachers scared all the time about the jobs yeah we try to do it through attrition right naturally you have attrition from year to year Al no different than that and so you try to do it through attrition you try to again make the uh process seamless but again if you get to a point like Mesa did I they're having to have those RS and that's not fun conversation can I add one thing in there I know like you tell Dr Saro with the overtime and stuff like that and that's one of the things that he's changed schedules around and and changed staff around to make it where we don't have that because that gets real expensive really fast so they are watching that very closely so yeah then miss she's going to be working on continuing to leverage the grant that you get as a district and uh continue to utilize the funds in the full capacity to save these these operational dollars from the state so that's the intention she's already been doing a great job any further questions on this you're pretty awesome thank you thank you next item up is approval of governing board policy advisory 809 through 88 sorry about that next item administrative salary Mr pres members of the board our Unified School District does not have a salary scheduled for administration and is best practice to adopt and approve a salary schedule for all employee groups including Administration attached is a proposed administrated salary schedule I recommend that the governing board approve the proposed salary schedule for administration it is uh it is a best practice just for for to add the comment other districts like Tucson Unified School District Unified School District have administrative salary schedule so this is a best practice okay may I have a motion on that I'll make a motion second any questions or discussion I'll call for the vote all those in favor say I I opposed motion carries four to zero next item approval of disposal table pitching machine and student Mr President M of the board a broken table and broken pitching machine are being recommended for disposal because each item has a fixed asset tag board approved disposal is necessary pictures of the items are attached also being recommended for disposal our broken student tables and chairs they're on the Whiteboard right now approval of the disposal of the two items is recommended and um I believe this go to a public website that's right depending on on uh that's what we've always done in the past whether uh we decide to recycle them or public surplus.com or whatever um and then if they don't sell then we can recycle them or throw them away you have a motion that I'll make motion any questions discussion all those in favor say I I opposed motion carries for to zero approval of the governing board policy advisory 8098 yes Mr President members of the board I will just uh the second reading will not be as I I went through the we went through the detailed reading Monday for the second reading I will just uh read a summary updated section TI revised documents ASP policy Services commitment of service to our subscribers includ listening to your feedback and improving our services to best support you thus as we have shared at County meetings via our post on policy newsletter and at our annual conference we are in the process of conducting a full review of our of our model manual and are rolling it out in sections for manageability this manual update is a team effort of policy legal experts as well as district and education leaders for aving each document part to in each section to you section A documents line with revisions to policies gbk and J are provided below policy documents ACA ACAA ac- RGB k j tile mind updates from 20 USC 1681 education Amendments of 1972 Title 9 the updated documents are available in policy bridge for adoption approval as with any other policy advisory you have the policy advisories uh right there in front of you number 809 number 89 and number 810 number 811 number 812 number 813 number 814 policy language remove the title mind references the regulation includes minimal edits and new sub with Clarity the exhibit remains unchanged policy advisory number 815 language in the policy regulation was subject to tieline revisions based on the resented 2024 TI line pel rule policy number 816 policy 80 was removed in relevant portion the placing the policy District commission belief statement advisory number 817 title for title n information was removed advisory number 818 title information of advis transer to 1861 education of 1972 any question or discussion all those in car say I any motion 4 to Z asking if you have any new agenda items for the next meeting okay that I will make a motion [Music] to I [Music]
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
e at 5:30 I need um a motion to adopt the agenda a motion to adopt the agenda wow okay I'll take a second I second all in favor I I I hold on we still got to vote Electric you remembered your password yep it is okay all right so um let's see here we're g to do go ahead and do the pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands indivis andice okay we have a lot of um uh meetings the meeting minutes to approve so 4.1 approval meetings uh minutes for the regular board meeting of February 12th any questions on that if not then I will take a motion 4.1 I move to approve the January 8th 20 February 12th oh so it's okay it's February 12th I'm sorry oh no no no you're good yeah I was right there that's okay sorry I move to approve the February 12th 2025 regular meeting as minutes as presented I second all in favor I I I motion carries four to zero but we still have to vote take a moment okay all right next one 4.2 special board meeting on February 26 um if you do not have any questions I will take a motion I motion to approve the minutes from the February 26 2025 special meeting as presented I second all in favor I I motion carries four to zero we still have to vote online there we go oh that one came up fast that was great okay 4.3 um a special executive um oh special board meeting February 26th executive session if there's not any questions I will take a motion so I recommend that the governing board approve the exec session minutes from the February 26th 2025 special meeting as presented I second all in favor I I motion carries four to zero okay um so we have we're we're down to 5.1 um superintendent report thank you madam president uh a number of different things happen happening around District uh the Arizona Republic is honored senior Alexis vaka sua as the nominee for Arizona high school athlete of the year the ceremony actually takes place in June um and Alex as we've uh talked several times had a great deal of success uh in her career in golf uh at the high school so we wish her luck Arizona State Association conferences thanks to sa safe and healthy schools grants we were able to send our school counselors to the Arizona School Counselors Association conference and our school social work workers to the school social worker Association Arizona conference so 19 different employees had a chance to go there uh it's a great way to to build their skills and their knowledge we had three wrestlers go to state Riley Trimble Kanan ha hail and gunar Merkley um and they uh faced uh off uh top seated wrestlers in the opening rounds and presented themselves very well at CTA they had a outstanding parent turnout for parent teacher conferences uh and for the Scholastic Book Fair there report uh they also partnered with Central Christian Church coming out of the Community Cafe to have them come work on the garden and the students are here to get started with that uh they are working again with um Peterson Orthodontics for the Spring Fling so you'll have more information coming up probably a late August I believe or excuse me late April was one we did it last time um and then they had a sweetheart dance sponsored by the PTO Ranch teachers uh did a fifth grade graders recently had an incredible experience at Biz toown where they experience the ins and outs of running a business and contributing to a community Hands-On learning opportunity uh an invaluable skills so we thank the uh teachers um who put that on also the younger students were treated with a captivating readers theater performance by the high school students um so thanks to uh Mr Smith and all the CHS students for coming over and and helping the kids there at the Middle School uh Ellie Daniel Neil has qualified to compete in the National Civic spee hosted by the QC chamber um that will be actually the regional event will be at at the CPAC um and then uh the orchestra and choir will be in in Disneyland at the end of this month and the Esports team finished the the opening season inaugural season 7 and0 and are in the playoffs Harmon students uh Salman Rashid won the panal County Spelling be uh he will be actually representing uh the district uh through the county at the state spelling be I believe it's the SE no about the 14th that Saturday of the last of last Saturday of of spring break and they're also working on uh Kinder Camp April 30th and and the Kinder Roundup was very successful uh they also support project Bridge resource room is starting to take hold in our in our community with numerous families coming in to support CH uh CHS Fine Art success symphonic band qualified for the state concert Festival the ra Rush Dan Dance Company showcased their talents uh in the dance to D Tod dance competition and theyed the judges Choice Award for execution team scored first in lyrical performance second both large and small Jazz group performance second and large group Jazz and hipop the trio Jazz group also earned first place and the Dual L lyrical group received second place so overall very very successful uh we did take a team of about 20 people to the modern learning conference in in Reno uh last week and uh Dr selie PE peoples was honored as one of three finalist for the instructional coach uh of the year for uh the network which is a network of approximately 90 school districts across the country and Colton christianen a third grade teacher at Ranch was also um honored as a national finalist and the big announcement at the end of the evening was next year the conference will be held in Scottsdale area and we will be one of the national schools of Distinction presenting what that looks like and what our commitment is will be discussed over the next few months um probably not necessarily as large as it was in in 1920 when we did it uh there's another District over in U sacaton that that does Elementary so the combination of the two we'll be working with them as as how the presentation goes so we'll see how that plays out Simon uh had a great month with we welcome future students as kind Roundup and also they had their annual Love Bug picnic parent teacher conference were successful as was the book fair they had a literacy night that worked out real well and the PTO also hosted a special stuff a stallion fundraiser letting the students create the very own school mascot plush CCs is doing community service projects and as part of those community service projects they did three different projects they took students over to Amy's Farm annual s Sanctuary where they presented handmade animal blankets and help care for the Animals by feeding and walking them they visited the senior citizens retirement Comm Community where they shared thoughtful cards and books while engaging uh in conversations with residents and they also went over to uth preschool uh to bring handmade learning games and reading with the young students so good chance for the kids at ccs to reach out and help the community and then the Eagles and Ellsworth had an amazing turnout for donuts with grown-ups a big thank you to the PTO for making the event uh special um fantastic time showcasing uh their learning and student L parent conferences uh which was a great success and the second gr to shine during their musical performance um leaving families beaming with pride so that's just a lot of stuff going on obviously we're in spring break so it'll be a little quiet this next month but uh good things happening in the district hey staff and school recognition for staff recognition uh a couple things on that this is the month for our um social uh social workers unfortunately all of them are out on Spring Break um and so we will make sure they get their uh recognition when they come back to their sites also uh based on some of the conversation we've had uh between leadership team and the board uh starting in April we will start moving that portion of it we'll still do the the school presentations and we will do the student of the months but the individual groups we will start pushing out to the individual schools because the feeling was within leadership that they could do a little bit easier to recognize them especially not having people come back at night for that recognition so if you see a change next month and it's not on there that's that's the reason so um we will dispense with uh recognizing that and I will ask uh Mrs lus to come up and do the high school presentation good evening Wyman governing board members um CHS is really excited to be the featured school tonight and I'm going to start by in having our um ninth grade team who has interestingly enough we had we have a nth grade grade level PLC team and then our counseling team with Miss kinsky came up with the same similar idea at the same time in different locations interestingly enough I believe in Cosmic thought so the great nth grade level PLC was thinking about how can we motivate our ninth grade students to better achieve in their freshman year to get a solid start at the beginning of for their first year in high school simultaneously our counseling team and Miss kachinsky said we need to really pigeon hole and focus on our 9th graders getting motivated and getting off to a really good start so they're coming up with these plans separately talking about him I'm hearing a little bit this and I hear a little bit of this and I'm like wait a minute have you two been talking to each other because you're all doing the same thing so let's get you together and start to figure out what direction all this is going so I'm not going to share anymore except to invite invite Mr Hill who is the administrator that oversees the ninth grade PLC team Miss Jess Ferman who also works on the n9th grade PLC team unfortunately Miss Jolene Peterson who is was working with the cing team on the nth grade focus wasn't able to be here tonight and then also Tracy Weaver who supported all this work to come share with you what their focused work has been on the ninth grade level team so come on up please good afternoon um so basically what we wanted to do is we really wanted to focus on the Freshman because we see freshmen uh show up at the high school and they generally fall behind right off the bat uh which then now they don't get to take electives because now they're taking um online classes trying to catch up and everything so this year our biggest Focus was to take whatever data we could get try to compare it from eth grade how many classes they passed in eighth grade let's see how many they passed in first uh semester freshman year and then in our PLC meetings what we were doing was trying to find targeted interventions that we could all put get in place right then and there we weren't going to leave that meeting until we had something we were going to put in place and try and like I told all of our team is if it doesn't work we come back the next month and we say well that didn't work but we're going to try something so um uh Jess Ferman here has been our lead for this uh she's crunched all of our data for us and what you're seeing up here in this slide is uh just some of the data from that we've collected so far good evening um so as Miss laa said the Freshman Focus that was our counseling team as well as our Administration team set the goal that by the end of this school year uh 80% of our nth grade students will have earned four or more of their credits so we have six periods in the day so they can get six credits by the end of the year so we want at least 80% of them to have earned at least four um So the plan that they came up with said bi-weekly uh all teachers are going to get a list of students that are struggling that are failing um and as a classroom teacher what that's looked like is you know I teach math so kids are coming into my room to learn math but sometimes if I see a kid that you know all of a sudden is failing their history class if I can pull them aside for a second hey why are you failing history uh I did I I forgot to turn in this assignment well do you have it done no I need like two more minutes well okay I'm ready to follow up tomorrow that better be done um and sometimes we uncovered some different things of why they were struggling with something and then we can work with that student to f figure out what's not working um I definitely feel like all of the students just having a different person checking in on them has made a huge difference um counselors and different parties have been doing all of the things listed up there so some of them are individual um meetings so like in quarter three we had the motivational speaker um quarter four The Freshman presentation what do I wish had been done differently so some of our upper classmen speak to our freshmen hey this is should have done as a freshman um and then so in quarter one as Mr Hill said we kind of looked at why are our freshman struggling so not just this year but in previous years um the ones that are struggling with effort and motivation that's the biggest challenge and I'm to say that's the hardest fix the kids that are showing up in our classrooms every day that just aren't doing we're still working on it but that's the group that we're not making a ton of progress with yet um we definitely noticed a correlation between attendance and failing classes uh we worked hard to make sure every student is having some sort of connection with a staff member and specifically for Math teachers we really work to make sure students are understanding that your semester grade is not just your quarter one or your Quarter Two it all averages together so our grades don't necessarily start over um as I mentioned just having that adult check in like hey what's going on um and then realizing where our students need a little more adults uh push to take ownership and responsibility and then trying to figure out what motivates our students so um this is our current freshman class so we looked at where they were in eth grade so at the end of their eth grade year 77.7 five% of classes were passed so that 80% goal is doable and then every couple weeks we were showing our students in the math class where are they at so we saw that percentage continually to go up um you see a little drop between October 9th and 23rd that's just the start of the new quarter new quarter grades vary with only one assignment in for a week or two um and then in quarter to every Tuesday in coyote connect which is our home room uh we had kids fill out a quick Google form just looking at data so uh quick track of are we on track to get credit or not what's their semester GPA if the semester ended today and then free response questions that allowed teachers to very quickly check in on students where they at you can see some of the specifics that they had you know so for math I saw I need help on that lesson in math so I could grab that kid hey come here let's figure out what's going on um it also had some really good ways to connect with kids with when they said hey I'm proud of this um so Quarter Two we continued with those grade checks um and we followed up with as needed um English was sending home progress reports by email every three weeks Algebra 1 we kept showing students that data so that they could see where we're going and we were going we were trending up the whole quarter uh for quarter three we took some students that were struggling in one specific area and we shifted them so for instance for math I got some students that were struggling specifically with math moved into my coyote connect so I can provide some targeted help during the school day and then um also during quar three stud that were failing four more classes they uh number one their parents and Guardians got to meet individually with Mr Hill to kind of make a plan and then the students were called into the library um where they W met with Miss chardo as well as a couple of our seniors that struggled freshman year and now have gotten on the right track um so they could try to see it more positive like this is what I want to do in the future um and then this is kind of we were trending upwards um we were right at at 79.8 as we approached finals for passing and by the end data says we made about 87.1% of our credits for semester one so we are definitely making progress um and we could look at those specific students that were not successful in continue working to get them on track good evening trying to figure out okay um I'm am the instructional coach at the high school but I also am the Lead Teacher if you will for the link leaders which is a Junior and senior group that have been nominated by teachers to connect with the Freshman so they are trained both during the Spring and in the summer and they get about 20 or so freshmen um at freshman orientation that's where they build that Bond because we know that freshmen have that biggest struggle of connecting and finding um their place at the high school and sometimes or actually the last couple of years the link leaders we do that freshman orientation we get into the coyote connect classes um and then we kind of Trail off because school gets so busy and all of these kids are doing other other things as well but we do have the academic tips for Success where we go in and talk to the Freshman um we did go to all of those freshman level up assemblies sit with their classes this year they were assigned to specific coyote connect classes so the kids that they had in freshman orientation were also the kids that they were looking and talking to all year long then we decided that they needed some one-on-one tutoring so we pulled from from our link leaders first and we created the coyote guides now it's just barely taken off we had about 26 Juniors and seniors who volunteered their time to do one-on-one tutoring with specific kids those kids that were really failing three four classes um they meet at only two times a month which I wish that could be more um but there are other things that they need to do during that that coyote connect time some of the kids stay in the classes others come up to my room I have watched these kids build this relationship um they're building that consistency that closeness the structure the support I've watched the guide say where's your papers let's go get them and they walk over to the teachers room and get what they need um they are focused on the ninth graders interests so we connected did like band people together excuse me um and so we're hoping that we can reach more students it was the teacher said this is who needs the support the most and I got the volunteers we connected we have about I would say 35 kids who have received tutoring the one-on-one tutoring and hoping to have more um the tutors check with me and the nth graders check in um at the end of each quarter and we want this program to grow and continue but we wish that it we didn't need it but um that's what we're hoping for so thank you I have a question for you guys don't run off um so now that you've gone through this and we're kind of getting to the end of the year what's one thing you would do different next year I would like to get the link leaders into the Freshman coyote connects more early on we went in first quarter one or two times we did a couple of activities but I would like to get them connected more doing more activities at least once a month with those kids to stay connected um but it's a it's a new way of doing things so okay I think that's the biggest thing is I would say what we're going to do next year different is quicker like this year it was what can we do and we meet and we figure out what we're going to do we implement it and then did that work or not well that takes time when you're only meeting once a month so uh now that we got this pilot year through I think now we have a good idea of what we can do and and we'll just hit it hit the floor running right off the bat instead of trying to come up with all these different strategies we have a bank now perfect thank you um I definitely like so being math and math is something algebra one that freshman typically struggle with um I definitely I was the only freshman math teacher that has freshman for coyote connect um so being able to pull some of those struggling students into my room for second semester um I definitely feel like even though it's only 30 minutes twice a week um it's definitely made a difference so I think if we can find a way to you know because as teacher as kids move up from e8th grade to nth grade just because they're struggling eth grade math does not mean they're going to struggle in algebra one so I think as soon as we identify that a student is struggling if we can move them into get more support earlier that will definitely benefit all right so it look like you had something each quarter which was one of those made the most impact as far as as classes progressing in their classes or anything um I think I think it really depends on the individual kid okay so I'm thinking specifically Miss Weaver mentioned about um the coyote guides the tutors um one of my kids it was a band kid who first quarter he was just kind of existing and we paired him up with another senior band member who's actually right next door so every time we meet that senior is in my room like hey just checking what are you doing and he's like oh okay I'm working I'm working um you know whereas me as the adult saying hey you need to work you need to work just was kind of not not making an impact um but then for other kids them seeing the data of oh my gosh if the quarter ended today I would have zero credits to my name that really made a difference so it's kind of figuring out each individual kid math person I'd love to say here's a formula that works for everybody but it doesn't work that way no so in in there you said was saying something about finding what the mentee was interested in was there is there a connection that you see any excitement about when they have an upper classman that shows interest in their progress or anything was that is that what I'm reading there yeah um we can see like I don't know the kids as well as just does and I was trying to pair them up um by closeness proximity and she would go and say nope he's a band kid he needs a band person and I'm like all for that let's let's get them another band person it's hard to force relationships but if you can find common ground that can probably increase the chance that they'd even be interested in for me and these freshmen the teacher said these are the kids that need the most help and we said okay you're getting a tutor if we can get enough tutors and then we did have a couple of freshmen say no I don't need the help I'm fine not fine but the kids that um did continue and are still continuing um they're they're working they they're struggl I know that one kid is really struggling um but his tutor is really on him in a positive way and I can see that relationship building when you start building those relationships and you start building some confidence and you're going to school and you're seeing some success I mean that impacts everything that you're doing as far as walking in the school as far as discipline as far as pride in the school when someone walks on a campus and says I know I can be successful and people care about what I'm doing something starts to change and I I know this will probably be a shock to most people but when I called the parents into the principal's office um the ones that came and met with me and we talked about their kids's progress and everything their kid actually got better because they they wanted to they wanted the help they wanted you know basically it was I'm here to help you we got to work as partners what can I do I gave them some suggestions um most of them I gave take the phone away they get they have to turn in five assignments tonight they you can have the phone for the rest of the night and that seemed to be some kind of Revelation to these parents but also in that same vein the parents that said that they would meet with me and then didn't show up their students are still on course to not yeah that additional support school and home if if the kid doesn't think parents necessarily care about their progress in school why would they pick that up and move with it well and that's the biggest thing we had to get through that first semester so I knew what parents to call in right and that's that's what we worked on third third quarter was calling those parents in and having that discussion in my office because one I get that personal connection with that parent they know that I care because I do and then we can try and figure out some way between home and school of getting these kids grades up and my biggest thing you know I and staying in school it's yeah see uh yeah well we won't go to there with that but you know I talked to Jess regularly on on the numbers and stuff like that and it's really encouraging when I hear her excitement and the the posts out to our or emails out to our team of like Hey we're actually doing really well let's keep it up and don't forget this and so it's it's really nice that we can get that parent on board and we're seeing a lot of good success with the parents that showed up and actually met with me well hats off to you guys you guys did a great job I like it sounds good sounds good it would be neat to see if some of those kids end up being Future Link leaders and mentors I that's a great idea thank you no you guys can go now wait wait one more I want to commend them on their teamwork and collaboration and and coming together these two independent ideas coming together and focusing on those freshmen it has also given us an opportunity to look at their their um little mini project or mini experiment has opened up opportunities for us to look at our coyote connect across the campus and how can we improve our coyote connect for nth graders 10th graders 11th graders and 12th graders to be more dialed in and prescribed in the areas of student need number one to improve their academic achievement and then number two what is that connection to the outside other thing that that that students have a commonality about because there is some um great uh motivation that comes from surrounding yourself with like-minded people and having a similar goal whether that goal is your academic achievement because you want to continue to prosper and band or you want to continue to compete on the field and everybody is supporting you and doing that so I really commend the work that they have done so that we can take it and expand it across the campus so I commend them they did a great job thank you it's good to hear so with that I want to commend some other people and do my blue apples and I'm going to invite Mr Griffith up to come and help me you didn't know why you were here I just wanted you to hold blue apples bring it home so this evening I would like to recognize our first blue Apple recipient um Mr Sam Zoya he is our campus security guard yeah we lied to you come on up and you're very goodlooking attire this is not how he normally looks on campus I didn't even recognize him in the back of the room I saw Liz and I said oh where's Sam so I would like to say it is my pleasure to recognize Mr Sam Zoya with the blue Apple award if there is one person who keeps CHS running smoothly and makes it look easy it's Sam as the goto guy on for campus security Sam leads with let's get it done attitude he doesn't just do the job he finds a way to do it better he's always one step ahead one step ahead tackling issues before they become problems and making sure things run efficiently whether it's a broken door or a bigger concern Sam takes care of it with calm professional approach that keep CHS a great place for everyone no matter the situation his dis decision making always resolve revolves around keeping the campus secure and looking out for students and staff when it comes to the students he's firm but fair and pretty funny too he knows teenagers don't always make the best choices but he treats every situation as the learn as a learning moment no matter what happens the day before he greets students with respect and the expectation that they'll Step Up and they usually do because they know he genuinely cares whether he's managing security handling emergencies or keeping things on track Sam always is on it he wouldn't be I'm sorry I'm getting choked up he wouldn't be the same without him and will we are Beyond grateful for all he does [Applause] isn't that why you brought him I did yeah he's but sometimes you don't know the second blue Apple recipient I would like to invite up is Miss Jess Ferman if the Miss Jess Ferman is the definition of dedication as as long as is a longstanding math teacher and a math department chair at CHS she goes above and beyond every single day no matter no matter what it might be she constantly looks for ways to support students and her team tackling challenges headon with problem solving skills that makes her a natural leader this was never more evident than in the 23 24 school year when the math department started the year three teachers short and I said three yeah three teachers short sorry I lost count four teacher short instead of letting that obstacle slow things down Miss fman and her team got to work they created video lessons setups different shared Google classrooms for all of the affected courses and developed a check-in schedule to make sure students got the support they needed but her dedication didn't stop there when she saw a future funding shortfall and educational support program she immediately stepped up and began working on the 21st century Grant submission because that's just what does she sees a need rolls up her sleeves and finds a solution Miss Ferman never asks others to do the heavy lift without being right there beside them whether it's for her students her colleagues or the school as a whole she leads by example every step of the way we are incredibly grateful for her commitment and are honored to recognize her with a blue Apple award well deserved [Applause] next I would like to welcome Mr car Carl Hill up to the podium and honor him with a blue Apple [Applause] it is with great appreciation that we recognize Mr Hill as a blue Apple award recipient Mr Hill receives serves CHS in a way that connects with staff students and parents whether he's keeping our many many ducks in a row as the activities AP or working with the with the most fun and sometimes most challenging group are 9th grade freshman he has unique ability to guide nth grade students through their first year reminding them that mistakes are opportunities to learn from and grow and does not define them in his role as a activities AP Mr Hill mentors and trains new club sponsors ensuring CHS students activities continue to thrive he works to ensure ensure campus events and activities are planned well and advanced keeping everything running smoothly Beyond his role as an assistant principal of activities Mr Hill is dedicated to the Trap and ski as the trap and ski team sponsor spending more Saturdays than anyone can count coaching organizing competition and practicing and sometimes getting in a few rounds himself of practice he always shares his skills and knowledges his skills and knowledge with aai supporting students and the interim teacher by hosting teaching sessions to address learning needs in the land lab Mr Hill supports his fellow administrators reminding us all that while the job can be tough there's always room for a quick witted comment he has lots of them a smile and most importantly fish sticks and he can explain that to you later he does a lot as principal I'm incredibly grateful to have Mr Hill as our admin on our administrative team his dedication humor and Leadership makes each a better place every day congratulations Mr Hill and it's a well-deserved honor [Applause] and Miss Lori Morgan is our volunteer of the month but unfortunately she's actually she's the student coun student council booster FFA trap and ski she at a so um I was going to ask if we could honor her at the next board meeting because I would love her to be present to receive this award we'll see what yeah thank you okay no student of the month right we do oh okay good evening members of the board and our community tonight we're focusing on critical thinking as we celebrate our students and their work toward portrait of a graduate so tonight I have a number of people I want to recognize and when I call your name come on down stand next to me and we just want to share a few words about you and then afterwards I'll have you cross the room and you'll receive your certificate and a medal courtesy of the JS foundation so first from comes High School Antonio Vasquez all right we will find a time to celebrate Antonio at the high school how about Kristen depal from com Center for Success this is spring break yep from the Middle School Anar Thompson oh there she is all [Applause] right so a little bit come on down here little bit about Anora uh she is an independent learner who researches information about anything she does not understand she analyzes information to make logical decisions her in-depth responses demonstrate an understanding of her learning she was always open to new ideas and not afraid to ask question questions or challenge when she doesn't understand anything the Middle School says keep up the great work [Applause] congratulations from comes Traditional Academy Dean Montoya all right Dean little bit about Dean Dean is the CTA student of the month because he always thinks deeply about what we learn he asks great questions and comes up with Creative Solutions to problems Dean helps others see things in new ways and I love this part making class a better place to learn way to go Dean congratulations from Ellsworth Elementary Adel steinagle from Harmon Christian Rus all right [Applause] Christian a little bit about Christian he consist ly demonstrates the qualities that align with the student of the month award especially critical thinking he analyes information and makes reasons reasoned Decisions by considering multiple outcomes before taking action he also applies logical reasoning in classroom discussions and decision decision making and is collaborative with his peers great job Christian nice job from Ranch Elementary Marilyn Boer and from simonon Isaiah Bissell all right we will find a time to celebrate them at their schools thank you and we'll take a few minutes break or a few minute break in case anybody wants to take any quick pictures and then we'll get started back up about quarter after e e e get back to our agenda um we have a governing if any of the governing board members would like to um uh have anything to say of course you said that right when I at my I was like I'm going eat my candy bar really quick um I just wanted to say that I was able to attend the um comes Educational Foundation meeting and that Dr Fountain ran it was awesome um to watch things in action this was my first meeting so I got to listen and um some really good things are going on on April 10th they will have their Awards which I get to attend which is really cool and um then in September they're having a golf tournament which I thought was really neat too so um just a great sorry great foundation and I'm glad that I got to um attend nice I know that um we went I I got to um meet with a my leaon school it was nice to talk to um Mrs Pierce and I got to sit and chat with Dr Middleton as well and then Lisa and I both attended a new board board members although I'm not new but it I still got a lot out of it there was uh two days that we had to go two Thursdays so I I came back with the work for uh Dr Wyman and Judy to do it was great and if you ever go to Florence what was it what was the pizza in the subs A&M Pizza it's the best yeah I never the pizzas were so cute for& out there they make these monster the monster pizzas so a little plug for A&M out in Florence yeah they it was the best I was so impressed all right um I was able to attend some of the last of the Season basketball games for comes High School um as well as see their Cher team and see the varsity soccer team um play in as they attempted to make it into the playoffs sadly they didn't win um but they had a great into their season it was the best season in combes high school history um so that was exciting as well as a attending the end of the season Banquets and they really did just the coaches um they really put their heart into it they put everything into it I'm so appreciative of the coaches that we have they really love the students um and you can see that in all that they do even when it comes down to the end of the season in the banquet um that they the Banquets that they put on um this last Saturday I went to the comes High School varsity track team um Invitational at South Mountain and there were over 50 schools there um it was incredible um and several different bigname Charter Schools um bigname high schools that have been in the valley forever um as well as newer high schools and combms held their own they did amazing it was um with great pride to be able to sit in the stands with a comes High School uh track and filled t-shirt on to support them um and then at the end of March a save the date for anybody um that might be in the area to go to Ranch Elementary they have their carnival coming up um and it's it's a huge um Carnival and event that they're doing but then also they're using it as an opportunity to help with project Bridge so that's exciting nice okay we'll move on to 6.1 public comments there is no public comment perfect um so we'll go back where now takes us to the um consent agenda so does anybody have any questions comments concerns about any items on the consent agenda I did learn at our little board meeting that if we want to discuss anything that it has to be pulled out and put into our action items so and that's up to me to do if you guys start asking too many questions so um if you guys don't have any um any questions then I will take a motion I recommend that the governing board approves the consent agenda as presented I second okay all in favor I that motion carries four to zero yeah she is she's getting on that okay that takes us to our action items um 8.1 discussion and consideration of approval of community use of District facilities fee schedule thank you madam president as we uh take a look at budgetary issues moving into next year uh Miss Pasqual uh took a look at our community our our U Community use of District facility fees she could not be here it's her daughter's birthday so that's why she's not here um and so in looking at how we do uh compare to what our costs are compared to neighboring uh schools districts uh for their facilities uh is recommending a 10% increase to our facilities there's several attachments there um basically what we're running into I think with everybody Rising utility cost I know we have a an anticipated uh increase from SRP uh doesn't come until November but we've had some other increases castoral maintenance expenses to make sure our our facilities are up to speed and then just the competitiveness um so we think that the 10% increase still puts us at the low end in comparison to our neighbors uh but it does just help uh take care of uh issues we also want to introduce a facility Ranger fee what we're finding with the more we rent our facilities out we have an individual that's called the facility Ranger and he has to be at more and more places and there's some overtime involved and so uh we have not charged for that in the past uh uh some do and some don't but so that's a recommendation for an increase there so it just keeps us competitive we're trying to be cognizant of of we are a a uh facility that a lot of our facilities are used in the area so we don't want to out uh price ourselves but at the same time we're running a business and so we have to make sure that it's covering our costs so I would recommend uh approval of the 10% increase as presented does anybody have any questions on that no all right I'll take a motion I motion to approve the community use of District facilities fee schedule for the 2526 school year as presented I second all in favor I I I motion carries four to zero brings us to 8.2 discussion consideration of approval of changes in policy BB agenda um this is the second reading so and this is just a cleanup of a couple changes that were made by the board that got missed when we updated a change coming from asba so it just takes care of both those cleanups and so if there's any question be more un happy to answer but otherwise recommend approval as presented any questions on this one no okay I'll go ahead and take a motion I motion to approve the updates to policy bedb as presented I second all in favor I I motion carries four to zero okay this is coming back from our us tbling this was um 8.3 discussion and consideration of approval of policy recommendations for tele telecommuting and so that is our second reading and I think that Dr Wyman got us the information that we um asked for so do you guys have any questions on that information are we good with it yeah okay so if we're good then I'll take a motion I motion to approve the telecommunity policy gck as presented I second all in favor I I motion carries four to zero okay all right um 8.4 discussion consideration of approval for Center for high school Success at stand for children Leadership Center sole source so what we have here is uh this uh com Center for Success applied for a grant and received the grant uh to work with very similar in in quite frankly with what uh the high school was presenting working with ninth grade students students uh this is a specific Grant uh and 10th grade students given the size of of CCS uh as part of that working with the students there's some training of of Staff that's uh accomplished by this Center for high school Success at Stanford children leadership Stanford children is the is the organization that got the uh Grant approved through the through the state uh and so we would use them to go ahead and train our teachers to to again very very similar a little bit of difference but but it very much just connecting with kids to make sure they're on target to graduate make sure that they're getting the classes and and and passing the classes they need very early on their career um as they mature and and grow uh but it is a so Source uh curriculum it's only $112,500 normally in a regular curriculum we wouldn't bring this to you at 12,000 but because it is a soul source and above the $10,000 uh uh threshold we now have to bring it to you uh the business department and myself and and Dr gouls we work together on the soul source and so that documentation is in there what the soul Source basically says is effectively there's not another organization out there that provides the exact services that that this place is providing it is not mandated in the grant but it's strongly recommended in the grant that this individual group was used so we bring It Forward for your approval as presented is there any questions no um so the 12 the 12,500 is that the grant is covering that yes yeah the Grant's covering this grant itself is worth sign significantly more than that uh Dr Fountain maybe $100,000 it's a $100,000 Grant so this is just a small portion of that Grant okay um and so it's all covered by the grant Now by Mino okay that sounds good any other questions all right um if not I'll take a motion I'll motion to approve the soul Source Award of the center for high school Success at stand for children Leadership Center for $12,500 for 2425 is presented I second all in favor I I I motion carries four to zero you're getting good Judy okay 8.5 um discussion and consideration of approval of employee medical insurance plan rates for 2025 26 I'll start and then Miss Cook can help me out if I get lost uh as you know we're with chyos and uh we received our rate increase uh this past week we had anticipated an increase of 7% unfortunately uh due to our loss our loss ratio of of what's happened this year not just us quite frankly we're in a pool so chyros is a pool of any number of cities school districts and fire departments uh and we're on our third year with them and so we get this we get the average rate that that the whole pool gets uh next year we'll be rated individually because we'll have three-year Trend data and we'll be rated based on what happens within our district so it could go higher than the average or lower than the average but but in our third year uh we need to as a three-year commitment to go with the average and it came in at 14% um so there was uh some significant Health Care issues relative to our uh employees but also across the pool as a whole uh the cost on that will be uh for the district if we absorb so a couple things here we're going to have a presentation on on uh budget a little bit later uh and so the cost is 20 uh approximately $270,000 uh that does not this motion to accept the package does not predicate who's paying for that that'll be part of the budget discussion uh the district has routinely paid for it but but we're in a budget situation that we'll talk about so that may change it um by approving it today it just allows us to start to work on um work on open enrollment our open enrollment will run uh the tail end of April but there's a month worth of time that needs to take place with KY Ros to get the Open Enrollment together we may be bringing you another one because of the budgetary situation we are looking at one more option but we do not have those results uh as of what those costs are um so it may be that you have an action item on the 27th when we go through the budget recommendations the 27th of this month but because it is uh a little late to change uh any venders I would recommend approval of the increases as presented okay do you have any questions on that I mean I have comments and concerns but it's not going to make any difference right no it's not right okay so if not I'll take a motion I motion to approve the employee insurance and Benefit Plan rates for 2025 26 as presented second my voice shows all in favor all scared I motion carries four to zero what other there's not another option at this point not no not at this point we will little bit frustrating right right yeah we will go ahead and look to uh potentially go back out we just went out three years ago so um we found that the rates were pretty consistent and I think the same they look at your history and then they just do what they do so okay so um that brings us to 8.6 discussion and consideration of approval of policy service selection so this is just the conversation about uh do we stay with asba or do we move forward with with the trust i' be more than happy to I know we had a presentation at the special meeting uh and so be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have um or uh any discussion amongst yourselves okay um yeah so thoughts questions um I'm leaning towards the trust actually I thought this presentation and confidence and what they had to offer I I thought trust was probably a way that I would prefer to go no I I feel like um we made a commitment to the asba for certain amount I mean we still have how many years through 27 okay um and I feel like if we stick it out with them then the trust can build their services and see what happens they're still young and I feel like they're still in their infancy of I mean I know they're ready to take on whatever but I feel like um I don't know I just I would votee the ASP okay I was just looking at the number of people and districts they already have on board we're talking about I mean they had a page full including Mesa including some big I mean this it was I I guess I wouldn't have considered them in their infancy they have established themselves and districts are coming on board for certain reasons right um I think politically that's one of those reasons they've seen in the past asba take a certain lean and maybe people aren't liking that that was that's part of my thought as I look at it too okay Lisa I have all sorts of opinions about this um I've I've been quite Torn To be honest with you I also am leaning towards the trust um I would say um what is holding me back is we do have a contract with them and I don't feel that we owe it to them but I feel that it wouldn't be financially respons responsible decision Mak for us with the 50% that we would owe them um to break the contract and so since the contract expires in 2027 I think it would be financially um advantageous of us to stick it out um I don't like that they say that they are nonpartisan and several of the trainings um paperwork that they've handed out um Zoom meetings lots of situations and I've only been here for a full two months mons not even three um and there was a lot of a lot of partisan information um so is the financial hit worth taking to get with a group that we feel more confident with I feel like it would benefit us financially to stick with asba and then revisit this um maybe even look at revisiting it annually um and then if there's other one of the other things that I was I was very impressed also with the other schools um having previously lived in the White Mountains and I saw several of those schools on there that did that did impress me yeah they are in a similar situation to us um being a little bit more rural a little bit smaller um but then you also like you mentioned you saw some of the the big name schools on there as well yeah that something yeah one of the other things that I was considering is um if we have larger changes in the district and we were to be in the middle of changing from asba to the trust um I think that could make that difficult a difficult transition for the district and that would trickle down to the schools um so just trying to look at all like foresee the future of you know all of the different players in the game um financially where we're at um I I think long term I would like to see us with the trust but I I just think we might need to be patient I don't want to be patient I don't I don't know just looking at so that part of it I that political part of it I don't think it's a good way to go I think it's I I do we stick with something we don't want you know I'm not going to finish the hamburger that I don't like I need to move on to something else or I don't sometimes I have to take the the financial hit but I don't know what the exact Financial hit is right now well it it had it on there it would be it would be 4 49 00 isn't it per year right but you have based on the 50% what's left we calculated a 49 $4,900 or it might be a little bit more than $4,900 that still save his money to make the change to the trust because it would be about $1,000 doll roughly per year with the trust so we'd have that plus we'd have the approximately five grand so we're sitting at $6,000 to pay Breaking the contract early plus the trust does that save us money over the two years though no now what would save us money is not um signing up for the extra trainings that tend to be partisan anyway that we're paying for and those we just we need to be mindful just because I think that there's lots of cuts going on and I think that everybody is feeling them um and I think we need to pick and choose when we do um some trainings asba has a lot of trainings that you can do for free on Zoom um the T doesn't right the the the differential differential yeah the differential so everybody's aware is asba is a board member Association and so their trainings are geared towards a board member the trust is a insurance piece that does policy so their trainings tend to be much more related to trust issues of of what you do within your HVAC units or how do you make sure your your um campuses are safer so it's it's a slightly different bent on what it is they both are providing policy services but they're bent from where they come from I think that these two different areas I think that we could take this year I I I think I'm tending to agree with Lisa on the whole like I don't think that I really want to break something and have to pay for that um however I do think that that gives us a year maybe to investigate a little on do some research on our own like hey the trust is doing a a they're going to do something maybe we could go sit on it and see what if we like it do you see what I'm saying um I I do think that our so the training that we went to our presenters tried really really hard they did try hard um to be um to mind their like just give us the facts um and not go lean one way or the other it was really hard for them I mean I think that they were I think they're trying to I think they're trying I think that they know that this is where people are getting upset and I do I do think they're trying um some need to try harder but at this point um I I think I'm leaning I think I am thinking that we need to stick it out with asba until the end of our contract and I I would feel better about going and doing some more research because I mean I've I've been asking around myself um I would I would really like to go into one of their trainings and just sit and see um if I could get myself in there we'll see just just for everybody's there I mean the trainings are open to any of the trainings that are there open to anybody so I mean Sten does the the the delegate assembly someone else can go for the delegate assembly if they I'm thinking about the the trust ones oh the trust yes just so that I can yeah like I say they're not generally skewed towards board member training but yeah you just we'll go ahead and share with you the different trainings that the trust puts on over yeah I would love to see some of those and see how how it goes I mean I we're jumping sh I I do think that we need to do our due diligence and make sure that we're making the right move um just because we're not happy with one part of it um do we just throw away everything else you know that comes with it I don't know um I would like to know more I would like to research more about it about the trust and exactly what they have to offer and how they how they convey their message and maybe even revisit it sooner than a year maybe this is something that we bring back to the table to see what any of us have um researched and found and bring back more information maybe but at this point yeah right but I I will caution one thing that I would say that I I would disagree with the Trust on uh for and I'll give you the reason why is even if we came back in January let's just say December January this of the upcoming year to discuss this and you choose to move to the trust I will still tell you you will not be with the trust until July of of next year because both the trust and asba have copyrighted all of their um policies we call them regulations and Exhibits the trust calls and procedures and forms and so anything that we need to make that's in our current system that's not in the new system we then have to make and so although they indicated there would be you could flip it in two weeks I've done five policy reviews in my career you're not flip it in two weeks if you flip it in two weeks you're going to have a poor polic policy man once you get you in trouble so I don't have a problem bringing it back in December or January I don't have a problem with making decision in January but I just want to caution you that you'll ride through the whole year because it'll take you six months if you're going to do the right job to make sure your policy covers what you need to cover it'll be July of a year from July before you before you trans transition over because it'll be a good five to six months to make the transition so just just so you're aware of that so maybe find out how long the transition would take would be a key element because if happen a lot quicker yeah so okay so I don't know does somebody want to make a motion okay are you sure yes I sure okay I move to approve asba the Arizona School Board Association as the policy services provider for the ja Coles Unified School District take a second I'll second that motion all right so all in favor I all opposed oh you're not gonna say it okay okay perfect so motion carries did everybody vote what is it okay so motion carries four to zero all right I I love our discussion thank you that was great okay so we have some um discussion items not for Action so um 9.1 discussion information on the 2526 J comes Unified School District budget yay budget budget so fun there okay so as we go ahead and start to move forward in in the in the budget process for next year just a couple reminders of of some of the goals uh first and foremost is just a reminder that in the state of Arizona for a traditional Public School District I won't speak to uh Charters or privates uh by law we have to have a balanced budget and so whatever we do when everything said and done it has to be balanced and so that becomes a a important uh part of whatever we do within the budget for us the cre the key one of the key component is going to be student enrollment and there's a slide coming up I think it's the next slide that will talk about what do we determine as student enrollment student enrollment is how you build your budgets uh in the previous years going back uh for any number of years it used to be pre uh past year fundings not current year funding uh it's it was easy then I could come to you if we were using prior year funding I could tell you exactly what the number was because it was the number we're using this year when you go to current year funding you have to make a guesstimation of what you think the number of kids are going to be when they come in and so therefore you don't know until August what it is but you still got to build a Budget prior to knowing that so we'll we'll show you what our what we're talking about relative to um what our projections are for student enrollment uh to the extent possible uh and this is in in lie of uh just in general uh declining student roll which impacts your budget that's the again stud enr is the primary determination of how much you you get so everything we can do to protect staffs and students we do and then to meet staff and board priorities a little bit different with staff and board priorities this year um because of the situation we know we're in based on the last two years so I'll I'll get to slide on that in a second please stop me if you have any questions as we go along in terms of declining enrollment I uh just put this up and thanks uh thank Dr Milton for some of this information because uh he he presented this same basic information to the CCC so the CCC are aware what's going on um and uh the declining enrollment issue again Mesa Public Schools is $18 million Roosevelt Elementary alsoon Phoenix had to close five schools San Francisco you can see is facing 113 M you got Texas district you got two Washington districts it's across the country I've been in a couple different uh settings with uh superintendents from around the country the declining enrollment based on declining birth rate is a real issue it's not just an issue for public schools it's it's an issue for private schools it's an issue for higher education you're seeing some colleges and universities small colleges and universities closing because of this issue and so this is a reality of of what we have to deal with um as you recall or some of you that new to the board may not know applied economics Mr Rick brambert gives us uh we generally go out every two years and ask him for projections on what our numbers are going to be uh uh 10e look forward to see and so the numbers that we're using to project what our enrollments going to be is based on uh applied Economics Report from a year ago uh in many cases it's a it's a combination of rollup of the numbers that you have as well as birth rates as well as capture rate which means how many kids do we have as a reminder right now in the district we have about 12,000 in the zip code that the district saying we have 12,600 kids but we only capture 3,800 of those kids so about 30% 31% so and that's due to the choice issues that are are out here and all the different choices kids have and families have yep so and this will be open for discussion so the very first thing we have to do when we go to build a budget is say what are your options so the most aggressive option that we would do is to say that we believe we're going to have 0% growth and so we're going to build this year's Budget on the same number next year as we did for this year that's not what Rick Brammer's projecting but that's the number that we would use so that's option number one option number two is to say what would happen if we did a 50% reduction on what Rick Brammer was um projecting and what would that do in this case that would be a loss of 86.5 ADM average daily membership um which would be half coming from our k8s and half coming from our 912s you can see that in the first case with just growth in the best case scenario we're still going to have to do reduce the budget just short of a half a million dollars and the second scenario we would have to do it just short of a million dollars the third scenario is10 30 138 ADM loss which is 80% reduction where did we get the 80 80% reduction and why did we use that Rick bramber basically suggested that this year we would lose 108 kids or 108 ADM and we lost about 85 80% so therefore we chose 80% because if we mirrored what happened this year uh and did 80% of what was projected that's where you would get option number three and again in that case you're looking at before we start anything else you're looking at a reduction of 1.3 mil if we go with the full 173 ADM loss that he's projecting so 100% um then you're going to see uh 1.5 million that we'd have to cut um this is a I'll go through the whole presentation and we can come back to this if you need to have a conversation I will tell you we met with leadership all day on Monday uh the recommendation of leadership would be to use option number three okay and that was a consensus one not everybody necessarily felt three was the best but overall across the leadership team that was what happened now what compounds the issue a little bit in part of the conversation that we had relative to um insurance so if you take a look at option number one we said the cut was going to be just short of half a million for 446 if we take and give a 1% raise 1.9% raise to all employees why do we come up with a 1.9% raise because that's what we gave our classified staff in January based on the minimum wage increase that's mandated in the state that's another 446000 that we have to come up with if we pick up the entire cost of the premium increase for health insurance again that's what's been done traditionally not only in our district but districts across um the state that's another 270 so if you put those two numbers together then what we have to come up with cuts within the district uh to go ahead and meet that is 1.1 million that same Theory goes across for all three options so you can see the range of what we would need to cut in the district this year to balance the budget would be somewhere between 1.1 million and $2.2 million okay I will tell you that uh the combination of this budget as well as last year's reductions uh we are in the neighborhood of 20% reduction to our budget in the last two years which is very very difficult across the board um I will tell you that when you look at the health insurance if we pick up the cost uh please note that there still is a the buy up so we pick up a base cost for our employees if someone wants a better plan then we have two other plans that they can buy up to I will tell you that when you look at health insurance just so you're aware we ran the numbers of the maybe off a number or two um but of the eligible individuals so you have to work a certain number of hours to be eligible to re re receive insurance we have approximately 4885 485 people that are benefit eligible of our employee base our employ employe base is approximately 525 um of that employee base that is eligible 333 Tak insurance so we're running at 71% of all of our um employees take insurance so many of our classified people that take insurance um take work for the insurance and that's it how many people buy up buy up I believe I don't have the numbers with me Julie how much 55 55 buy up the other thing that you'll see if you give the 1.9% raise okay and if you use the teacher with a base salary of 53 teachers May many teachers make more than that but if you did a base salary of 53 that's $1,007 your increase on the insurance if you pass it on to the employee is approximately 875 so they would they would cover it any of our support staff would start losing money um to to cover the insurance cost so when you take a look look at um the options and if we go back to um option number three then we're looking that basically we're going to have to cut $2 million do we know what the state is like have they done their no the state has not done their budget everything that we're hearing from the state is it's going to get a little bit confusing but as a general rule because of a lawsuit several years back the state is obligated to give us 2% right okay so we've built our budget on the 2% with a caveat um if you've looked at proposition 123 proposition 123 is going to go away okay now when proposition 123 was passed in 2016 it's got two components to it this what makes it important and if you look at Governor hobbs' proposed budget that's not necessarily going to be the final budget but that tells you the numbers of the money that's out there approximately 330 million that goes to public education across the state okay 286 is part of the money associated with the state land trust okay the other portion of that 330 was a payback to school districts because the state did not fund us the 2% they were legally obligated to fund us but that was one-time money so the way one two3 work the 286 is baked into the state budget so we're going to get the 286 when I say we meaning public education the 75 million the differential above the 286 we're not going to get get and it's not projected to get so if you do the math that's about a 20% decrease so although they're giving us 2% in one hand they're taking 20% of that out in the other hand so we're only going to get a 1.8% increase this year um overall when you play the numbers that's what's projected uh all the conversation about one two3 the governor released something uh this week it's not going to impact the budget this year because the 2 point or the 286 million is into to the budget already that other stuff is additional money if they decide to take it to the voters in November or whenever they decide to take it when it's put in the system it'll be additional money it won't be it won't affect our our base as we have it right now okay so that kind of lays out what we have a couple things just to uh take a look at these have been priorities in the past we didn't really change this again to the extent possible we're still worried about staff retention Recruitment and attendance we're looking at student retention recruitment attendance are still main issues uh do we look at the salary increase because of the competitiveness with surrounding districts I can start to give you some ideas what surrounding districts are are projecting uh chanler just came out today with a 2% um I'm drawing a blank on which one was a 3% I believe AJ was a 1% so they're kind of all over the place depending on where you're at but they seem to be 1 to 3% depending on which district you are and the unique situation at least in the East Valley in the West Valley they have a little bit more growth so their their increase may be a little bit higher but out here in the East Valley we're in the 1 to 3% range depending on what what district you're in we have aging facilities um in some cases uh we are having a conversation about a possible Bond and and we'll bring that information to you on the 27th um uh but what I will tell you our facilities dollars is we get 2.2 million and 1.3 is already spoken for for uh operational expenses that we have to do so we're trying to keep our fil sillies up and running on on less than a million dollars uh and we have rough roughly 700,000 square feet that we're dealing with um we want to go ahead and work with students obviously and their behaviors and we want to make sure we have curriculum moving forward and and staff professional development so those are our priority areas to the extent possible the key questions that we're going to have on the budget priorities and what I hope to have a little bit of a conversation with you guys today is do we take a look at class sizes and staff reduction that increases class sizes do we have to look at staff reduction is it all through attrition or is it going to be more than attrition what about administrative reductions who picks up the health premium increase we talked about salaries how much do we do and what do we do with curriculum and Technology what I can tell you is the the leadership team came through with a recommendation that would say um when we go back here see I can do it they came through with option three in its totality so that we would go ahead and give the staff 1.9% increase and we would pick up the cost of um the the the base plan for our employees so if we were to follow that it would be two uh you know a little over $2 million so the conversation for you guys just for some direction um uh is uh is that comfortable with you guys do you think we need to do option number four do you want to go to option number two do you want to go to option number one what do you want to you know just some direction um we're working on trying to get there as we speak um by Mar March 27th when we have our next uh or 26 excuse me we'll have a special meeting with you guys and we'll lay out how we're getting to the number we have up here are we there yet no are we close yeah um so over the next two three weeks we'll get there um but this is not unique to us it's a struggle that many districts are going on we are trying not to harm people to the extent possible we've been able to do that the last couple years um but I will tell you where this is difficult cuts when you get up to 20% um uh you're starting to really cut into the bone on this one um Fat's been taking it out a long time ago despite what people say uh we're we're running pretty mean lean and mean right now so I'll open up any conversations questions and answer anything I can where to start what do you guys do you have any burning questions comments so I I think it's smart to do the 80% at this point but I think I told you before like we need to plan B in case it's more um I think that um is there I would like you to look into like um some of the curriculum like the technology that have like paper I don't know how much we pay for that and can we not do it for a couple years to see do you see you know what I mean yeah we can we can take a look what I can't and we have started to look at that I'll just bring up papers an example because that's come up we're looking to try to adjust it a little bit different that program um but because of the way I was brought in we paid for that on a two-year two or three year contract with essers dollars so that we didn't go into operational expenses so the the pausing of it doesn't make an impact on our M budget because we took the federal dollars to take care of that issue before I forget when they done when's our when's our it's two more years but but the issue is we're going to change to some high-intensity tutoring and so we're having that conversation with them right now we're running a pilot program in the fall and the spring to change that the other thing I must caution you about this is our M budget and this is State monies um we do not know what's going to happen at the federal level right um the indications are that there may be a a 10 to 15% cut to title programs as well as Ida um until we're told specifically that's going to occur uh from everything I'm reading it won't occur in this current year budget even though they don't have a budget and they're working off a concurrent resolution um that money is baked into the into the federal budget so it's not going to go away when they come back and this is the tough part if you're not aware the fiscal um budget for the federal government runs from October one to September 30th so we will have an idea in January what they anticipate we will get but knowing how the politics works at the federal level we will not know the real numbers for the federal level budget until we're into basically through the first quarter so we may have to make adjustments based on whatever happens there we're we're watching it we read the stuff that everybody knows but just know that this is relative to the m&o budget it is not relative to anything that may happen at the federal level and then we will make the adjustments accordingly based on what we know um and so when you say Plan B there will be b c and d are they there right now no because it there you guys approved today who gets contracts but we don't know who's going to turn back contracts just because they they say they're doing it right now so we may take care of opportunities in their contracts are due back April fourth for the most part we may go ahead and do I may be able to add something even after I meet with you guys on the 26 because somebody didn't turn on a contractor two or three so so there's still a lot of moving parts to this uh I don't believe we'll get a state budget until mid May at the earliest so there's a little bit of a gamble based on what this budget is um uh as you know when you approve contracts or approve the people they that are coming back next year they get the same contract as what they had this year and then based on on the budget and based on what we try to do here then we give them an addendum to their budget in May or sometimes even June but last year we did not get budgets until June from the state so there's still a lot of unknowns but we have to move forward to start figuring out what we're going to do so so just know there's five or six moving parts and they're not moving at the same Pace um is there any way that I know I'm just throwing this out here um the premium went up on the health insurance way more than anybody thought so what if we just we picked up half of that right you see what I'm saying right um and the other half I don't know how much that would be if well what it would be is at 8 it's I think it's 875 but but basically what you're running depending on which plan you're in you're somewhere between about 65 and 75 bucks a month a month so if you're going to do half of it you're going to be 35 40 bucks give or take 30 35 bucks that you would have to do um collectively it would add up uh the issue will be um you give me that just what I just said to the state you're giving it to me in one hand and you're taking it away in the other so that will be the issue that comes up but yeah we can run scenarios and and what we're going to do even with the recommendations on uh at the end of the month is you're not voting on anything till April again we're going to have this conversation two or three times so we can bring you scenarios of what would this mean uh where we at with the budget situation if if we last year we tried to overcut to try to address some of the issues this year if there's a way I would didn't promise it because I'm telling you right now it's going to be very very difficult but if we could overcut a little bit that may change your decision on what you just asked so we'll bring that to you and let you see I mean I don't right health insurance is awful like this is oh it's for everybody yeah it's for everybody and from going to what we thought it was going to be then right double it that's crazy Y and and just so you know the anticipation based on what they've told us for next year would be they they were working everything off 7% this year next year they're already anticipating working it off plus or minus 11% okay other questions considering all the talk out there and just thinking of some districts that are closing schools it I mean I feel like sitting up here that there's been a lot more talk and we've been pretty straightforward with the finances and I think it's better for us to have these type of discussions now and we're planning instead of like oh by the way we've Fallen apart like in Isaac school district nothing against them just right they had some horrible books from what I've understood and heard and it sounds like we've got some good people really putting in some time and looking at what's going on and I mean I think um I hope that what we're presenting as far as caring about our students and our staff because truly it's the staff and the teachers that make this work right and and I and I think people need to understand um and even to our public um we have spent in the last since I've gotten here I'll just speak to my time here so this is year number six we've spent close to $30 million and fixing of our facilities by by maximizing every dollar we can through the state and everywhere else without going to the taxpayers for an increase yeah and that I mean so we are trying to do that for the taxpayers for our students for the staff I mean that we've we've squeezed the turnup every which way we can and so it's getting tougher but but that is our goal to to to run a quality situation while minim in the impact to our community and to our taxpayers well I look forward to what you what you bring us thanks there's there's some time left for me to figure it all out Julie will be there she'll be she's twitching a little bit but we'll get there thank you okay so are we are we good to move on are you guys still okay so um we're at 9.2 discussion information regarding the English language uh language arts curriculum adoption for 612 this is the first reading all right good evening Madam president members of the board Dr wman Miss Winger um love getting to follow that so thanks so we are we're not sure this is happening no I'm just kidding we are um almost to the finish line of the process for a 62 English language arts adoption um just a quick reminder especially for our two newest board members um when we look at curricular resources we are seeking to have those that are rigorous aligned to standards have clear learning outcomes relevant learning experiences focused assessments and are uh based on transparent learning one of the things that I always say we're very passionate about in the teaching and learning team is that it's our job to make sure the teachers have the resources they need so that they can focus on being educators and not being curriculum developers so that's why this process is so important to us because we really want to make sure that teachers planning time is spent around the craft of teaching and not going out and finding the resources that they need to teach um again uh Mr Beach and Miss harus have seen this before um but for our two newest board members we worked in the last couple years to set up an adoption schedule that is based on an 8year cycle um as you can see what we've tried to Target and focus on at the top top circles there are the core adoption areas so math Ela social studies um science will Factor back into that that was um one that we did a few years back and then in the off years we look at some of those other components because of some of those budgetary pieces um that were shared with you tonight as well as the fact that we are um still somewhat fresh off of a math adoption um we chose to move forward with just the 612 Ela right now the goal would be to look at the K5 next year um we will have some issues with the K5 that we need to address specifically specifically the third grade move on when reading components and needing to have an approved program but that's a next year issue so um that's what our cycle looks like right now um I've got two wonderful folks who have agreed to join tonight so I'm going to bring them up and thank them for being second to last on the agenda and still sticking with me um but U Miss Jennifer nans who's one of our instructional Specialists and Miss lorett nardy who's one of our um teachers who was also on the committee are going to share with you a little bit about our process good evening I am Jen nans um I'm A literacy specialist here at the district and like Dr Fountain said we are focusing on 612 for this adoption which is my focus always so um for our adoption committee we wanted to make sure that we had a good representation of District members um High School teachers sixth grade teachers learning specialist s um our principles were a part of that and then we also had parent representation it was very important to me as someone who works with primarily with struggling students in my career um that we made sure that we had learning supports or people who specialized in learning in supporting our struggling Learners um so that's what you see up there that was our adoption committee um and now we'll kind of go through the process so here is our timeline we did first meet in October and during that meeting we established our purpose we created our vision and we talked about our rubric um we had a couple more meetings based on that with our with our core committee where we refined our rubric um we took a look at our rubric and we had our sections of we must have we want to have and it would be nice to have or a bonus and there were certain things that were non-negotiable across the committee and then there were certain things that we were able to sort of negotiate um so we did that and then we reviewed the materials they've been up displayed in the back I'm sure you've seen them and the committee members reviewed the materials using the rubrics and based on the review view of the materials we chose to have five different vendors present we had five different vendors present all day from 8 to 4ish uh teachers were excused from classes and we had sub coverage so our teachers were able to be a part of that adoption um and they were able to ask any kinds of questions that they needed to based on our five vendor presentations we met met on February 18th and we discussed which vendors we wanted to go with um so the committee got together there were certain things certain parts of the package um that were up for discussion and the committee members voted to determine what were the priorities and then that brings us to today our first proposal um so setting our vision it was very important for us to ensure that our 612 Ela adoption committee is going to adopt or is looking for a diverse culturally relevant and viable curriculum that provides rigorous standards aligned learning with necessary scaffolds and support for all of the students that we serve this is what our criteria our rubric looked like so every single Committee Member received a rubric um with our mus haves are nice to have and then our bonus and then we rated the different curriculum based on the criteria that we set forth um like Dr Fountain said we always want to make sure that our um curriculum is aligned to the standards and that we want to make sure that we have differentiation and enrichment for all of our students so when kids need help we're able to provide them support and then when they're able to kind of fly a little bit more we're were able to give them those opportunities as well we wanted to make sure that we had texts that were representative of all of our students um examples of text dependent questions so tdqs that were aligned with the standards and at various depth of knowledge levels we know that that's something that our students need and that's a cross-curricular transferable skill so the more that we can work on it in the ELA content the better off our kids will be in science and social studies as as well um it's very important for us to have a variety of assessment options so that we can make real time decisions um based on what it is that our students need and then we also recognize the importance of some standardized test preparation because that's what our kids get to take uh it was very important to make sure that we had a good balance of informational text and lit literary texts as kids get older that balance shifts so um um it starts at by the end of high school our students should be exposed to 70% informational text and 30% literary text when you think about the the text that we read as adults um and that's kind of what is taken into consideration we typically read more for information rather than for recreation it was very important that for our teachers especially to have uh userfriendly digital resources to make sure that the learning platforms were going to be compatible and easy to navigate and then to make sure that there were enough uh educator supports and that we were able to integrate the writing piece to that as well miss nardy it's your turn should you wantan to does anybody have any questions for her before she's okay yes um you had mentioned texts that are representative of all of the student population relevant newer and modern what are some examples of those texts um there seems to be four kids there seems to be a prevalence of Miss nans this is what I would hear in the classroom Miss nans I don't understand why I'm reading something that was written in 1946 can I read something that's going to be more representative of me of what I like of who I am um so some of those things the first thing that comes to mind is Gary soo's U bario boy a lot of our kids can uh that will resonate with a lot of our kids just in terms of the challenges if anyone again Gary stto if anyone's read the story seventh grade um in that story the two main characters they're both males they're adolescent males and it's kind of that coming of age where they are trying to impress a girl and so they try to sort of like use the lingo that might impress the girl um so those kinds of texts are what comes to mind in terms of Representative of all of our kids um is it mostly geared towards racial differences other background differences sexual differences what are all of the differences that those include well there's a lot of differences um but I would say one of the things that has become more prevalent in society would be um kids with different abilities kids at different ability levels so I'm thinking about like the good old Joey piga with ADHD that was kind that was something that was a novel that is typically WR around fifth grade but the ADHD part wasn't addressed as much as it potentially could be now so I would I would say um religious differences cultural differences language differences ability differences all of those so when there are um books that have religious differences or things that might be of concern to parents in different households because you do have a variety of children um how accessible is that to parents and how are they made aware of the different books that their children are reading in the classroom so I want to be clear that this does not include novels so this is short stories informational text um kids grappling with science articles um and that is a totally different process or the the novel adoption process is a different process that we that we are getting into um so we've been taking a look at that in terms of the texts that are in these books in particular um our parents are very they're accessible to parents um and then anytime that our teachers are introducing anything that could be challenging it's always encouraged that our teachers preview it with the parents and let the parents know for example um our Juniors typically read and it's not just our Juniors it's Juniors across um the country they typically will read The Crucible in 11th grade some there can be some feelings about The Crucible because it contains witchcraft or there are references to Witchcraft and I know that that was something that our teachers specifically addressed with our our parents this year all right thank you and then I actually have a question um possibly I guess for Dr Wyman um going back up just a little bit I had to enlarge it even with my glasses I think I need a new a new pair of glasses um or maybe it's in the hold on one second I think it's on the agenda here we go um so it discusses the requested approval that includes funding of over half a million um if we're looking at the adoption of new curriculum and we're also coming right off the heels of talking about budget is it possible just like we were discussing earlier with asba versus the trust um and we're talking about insurance we're talking about people's pay and their their livelihoods and their home life and how that affects them and all these different things that are intertwined um is there not any reason and and I guess you could all chime in here really um that the curriculum that we currently have couldn't be stretched out for another year or two years or kind of like we were doing with when the last time that we had this CC curriculum well they've talked about usually it becomes the tech access becomes the concern the books themselves in curriculum still fine it's just what you'll find is all so we run out of the technology license and then what do we do now like my iPad from 2012 doesn't work anymore so that's that's the biggest part of our problem is that a lot of what comes in curricular adoptions now and you're going to see the same one with the proposed adoption a lot of what comes with it now are um student consumables in some way shape or form and um online tech-based components so the issue becomes that we get those consumables on a yearly basis so they expire when the contract expires they're no longer mailing us those consumables and the tech-based access that we previously had also expir so um that is the situation with this as well is that we're in in in a situation where um it was a 2017 adoption so we're at the end of those eight years and so it's expiring and running short um we actually will be limping through a little bit on the K5 side of things next year um but we knew that we needed to be be mindful with the budget um I will say that and and Dr Wyman or Miss Stone can speak to this either way um we do have earmarked money set aside for these these curriculum adoptions um so we are working within those budgets um I will tell you and we're going to get to the dollar and cents in a minute here but I will tell you that um this was hands down the selection of the committee um and we worked um I'll leave I'll even say I I'll take a little credit um I worked hard with the vendor to get this into our financial parameters because originally it was not do you guys have a coupon y I'm a really good negotiator you know so yes I mean obviously we all know curriculum is an expens expensive components um I would reiterate that my lens and I know you know Mr Beach comes from from a teacher lens as well sometimes that that that piece of I'm passionate about making sure that our teachers have the resources they need is there an expense associated with that there is my concern is that the absence of that means that we're asking our teachers to go out and be curriculum developers as well and C the resources I I launch things call the resources they can find um to spend their time doing that instead of you know putting their teaching in place but it is an exp that's for sure and and and to far further that that's why on the slide that I had we talked about priorities and so now it it becomes just like with anything else in your own life what are your priorities relative to the budget you have coming in and so we take a look at retention of students and staff at salary increases at premium increases PD curriculum facilities and say okay within all these things with the dollars that are available which has the highest priority and how do we get to where we need to get to so we're we're having these conversations again the the technology piece makes a little bit different than in the old days where you had the same book and if you had a good textbook and it was there for 50 years it was there for 50 years but you had it in your school no big deal when they shut off the resources nowadays you don't have that book anymore so we have to go back but but it is truly that's the hard decision making what is the higher priority and so when we start to say how do we get there to balance that budget it's going to be a priority issue and and the bigger issue will be with everybody sitting in the room my guess is that if we place priorities we all wouldn't have the same priorities so that's why we try to listen to as many groups as possible and move forward with what we have so with our current curriculum are we unsatisfied with our current curriculum or is it just that there new are new advances yes I I would say that it it is definitely an outdated curriculum um I would specifically if I even speak to the K5 piece which I know is a down the the road component I would tell you that they're not even renewing that curriculum it's gone out of print um because it is it is a little bit Antiquated it's good good word choice um and this this piece aligns much stronger to where the standards are at and the expectation um of the rigor that our students are being tested on so um it it is a key piece but fully understand the budget implications that go with that okay you can go on hi my name is Loretta nardy and I'm a sophomore English teacher at coms I'm also a new teacher so I bring that perspective to the uh curriculum committee selection committee um and I can tell you the current curriculum that we have wasn't didn't even make it into our presentation we didn't even have it as one of the fendors to come and present I'm really excited about the hmh um curriculum it is uh to speak to kind of what was brought up about the um text that that we'll be using uh there's a lot of uh young young adult um authors are part of this there's also a lot of women uh more represented so it speaks to the issues that the students are currently going through as well so it's going to be um much more relevant uh text that we'll be working with for the students um I also so am a I have caught classes I have three caught classes and two gen Ed classes so I really was impressed with hmh and the offering for the scaffolding the real time assessments that we can get the the grouping everything's moldable um it's going to be very functional with immediate results that I can just use right away into the classroom it's pivotable it's changeable so there's a lot of options I also really like the fact that when the students are doing the writing component um it does have automatic like AI Checker so while nothing's foolproof the students don't necessarily know that it's not completely foolproof and it does provide that component um it's got an ease for teachers to get immediate feedback to the students that right right now I I don't have time to write on write teacher comments on all the papers we work pen to paper because of the AI problem um with this I think that's going to eliminate most of that and it's going to make the ease of the Educators role much more um it's going to facilitate um getting feedback immediately back to the students with a automatic like commenting that I could just because typically the students do the same errors where you see the same thing so I can have my standard this is a runon sentence ready to go that I don't have to completely write it 144 different times on all throughout my all my classes um I want to speak to the fact that we also were um we had every for the um 9th through 12th we had teachers represented who taught 9th through 12th grade including our um AP and dual enrollment classes we all independently came on to hmh for our me being a new teacher looking for the resources and effective scaffolding for my students uh one of the things that I really liked about hmh was that the text because I have co- talk classes um some of the students accommodations require them to hear the text audio all of the text is by spoken by um people there's there's nothing that's computer generated which was really important to me because a lot of times our previous curriculum didn't have the audio version available or if I found an audio version it was a computer red one so I was just left having to read the text myself to the students um so having the actors having the text read aloud um I also really like the fact that everything that's available is also available in Spanish for my elll students making it much more friendly and easier for them to segue into learning the material um so I can say that we collaborated very well we all came to the same decision we heard the presentation from um all the vendors and um I think it was just a slam dunk that the the 9th through 12th I mean I 6 through 8th was there we also saw you know the presentations but I can say working with the 9th through 12th grade it was without question hmh was our number one choice so is your they're going to have uh most of their assignments will be on computer as well as a consumable I don't know if we're there there are both components um included there's a a student workbook um and our original review of the materials one of the pieces was a grammar workbook um because of the cost measures we opted to remove that because those components um exist as printables so we if there specific grammar Concepts we want to teach we can print those we don't have to pay for those workbooks um and then so there's a work a student workbook that we'll get copies of every year and then there's the digital access that's available as well um one of the great things about the the writing component that we're really excited about because that's an area that our kids usually struggle in um is that the writing component it's called writable genius name right um it's called writable and it's actually um something we can use cross-curricular so science teachers social studies teachers can access that platform as well and have students practice their writing and tie it into their state standards and some of those feedback pieces um and then it does some work where the teacher goes in and does that grading and it Compares some of that feedback it's got some really cool features to it to really give our students that quicker and more robust feedback than one human can give to 140 people off actually have some experience with it and um it was a it was nice to do that very um as they were working you could give them that instant feedback and have them go back and do it again right and so if I can turn it over if anyone has any questions no I just have uh not for you hun but who was well you probably could you probably could answer that this who else was on the committee who how many how many people what did the committee tell me what the committee looked like there's a list of the committee um they looked blonde blue and I'm just kidding slide perfect doesn't slide six give us that group it's right there uh so variety of teachers um six seventh eth grade teachers 9 through 12 teachers um we had both on level as well as AP dual enrollment and some of our special education Representatives um folks from teaching and learning were a part of that and the the adoption process yeah have principles the adoption process now follows the same components of open meeting law that that our governing board meetings do so these were published these were available to the public to join us if they so chose we don't typically get a lot of interest in that but they were open meetings that were posted for folks to to attend and then of course the um the input is available for folks to come in any time to the district office but that's kind of your makeup of the group right there thank you I have a quick question um it was mentioned that that women are increasingly represented how are men represented in this curriculum so for any of our male youth that are using this curriculum how well are they represented and I would say that they are still as well represented as they would have been in the past you know I think if you think back to I I'll date myself a little bit but when I was in high school you know a lot of the authors that were highlighted were going to be male authors and so when we talk about having a little bit more of a diverse offering it's just being a little more Equitable with that so that we have have both male and female representation in those Works um and giving students some of those more modern pieces again I think the biggest Focus that's that's most important to us is that we have that diversity of learning ability and this text really meets us from our foundational Learners all the way to our excelling Learners and really give us gives us those scaffolded supports I would say that previously in the district um we had a tendency to kind of look at that as two separate adoptions you know like what are we doing for our special education kids and what are we doing for our gen kids instead of really looking at something that's comprehensive and meets that full spectrum um and that was one of the big drivers for this selection is feeling like it really met the full spectrum of our Learners is there classical literature or texts that are also still utilized okay thank you and and generally speaking when they get to the novels kids are given a choice within within a lesson to to to read multiple whichever one they want to choose their family chooses so so it's not just generally this is the only novel there's multiple novels that are and we do have um we have multiple components of our novel review process and when we have get to those points um the first one being the piece that's always been in place which is that if for any reason we'll use The Crucible as an example if for any reason the family says I don't want my kid participating in that we always have an ALT text available um and we have processes in place that we've worked on over the course of the last year that if we were to have um a literary work in there that we said hey we're questioning this for all kids we have a process that we would take it through to review it um parents and community members can be a part of that we look at whether or not it has literary merit if it's appropriate for that age level so on and so forth um and then depending upon the sele the decision of that committee it would either be continued to be used or it would be discontinued but um I really don't anticipate there being anything significantly controversial this is a national curriculum um that that folks are using all over the place um but obviously we always try hard to make sure we're respecting individual family choices as well and and we honor that with those Alternatives when it's appropriate [Music] so the teacher and me has to speak up for a second so supporting the committee I would fully support the committee and what they're trying to do I mean we've got some great people here right how many years of experience and interest in helping kids um I feel like the district has done a good job in trying to plan professional development for teachers um if and when this happens as much as we can we've got to think about that we make sure we don't just give it to the teachers and hope they figure it out and I'm I'm I'm ass sure you've already thought of this but the more the training we can give to them we allow them to be the teachers and not the curriculum people you're talking about because we just throw this curriculum and we've got teachers out there that are mediocre teachers that really aren't going to ever figur it out until we give them that support and we've got those great teachers that no matter how much training we give them they're going to figure it out make it great because it's the teachers that make this work and I think we if we keep that Focus that it's the teachers that are going to make this work and we train those teachers up make sure they got the resource know the know the ins and outs of all these assessments and tools that they have they can use them at you know their full ability because again if they don't at least get the training those mediocre teachers those teachers that really aren't those great teachers and we know they're out there they're just going to slide through and this curriculum really will mean nothing right% got to focus on that give them that support they so they know that we're invested in being the best teacher that can be out there sure focus on the teacher and the curriculum can work out yep um and I'm happy to bring that next month for second read we can bring some of the professional development components um to you just so you can see that that's always one of the the pieces that we build into the process is having those conversations about what does the PD support look like for that um so we already have this slated for this would be part of the welcome back PD for our 62 teachers to get that training and then we have an ongoing rotating support that happens on those early release Wednesdays to make sure that we're scaffolding that support throughout the year so definitely those pieces are are critical to make sure uh and again if we went back to the previous slide about how we've tried to stagger this that's the reason behind it because we know that teachers need time in the curriculum um to get good at it and to have that practice and so we we've tried to be conscious of not um not stacking two years consecutively on top of each other especially for our elementary folks who teach multiple contents and saying I hope you figured out the math because here comes the ELA and next is the science like we've intentionally tried to spread that out so that they have time to get into it I think it was pretty user friendly honestly and I do think that there was like like a help button that you could like you could type in like if you were having trouble like I'm I don't know how to do this and it would like pop up and tell you how to do it but I'm I'm sure you can do your job we will work hard at it so why also we have Miss nans that's very much her wheelhouse so um so the two finalists that we're bringing to you are into literature which is the hmh component um that's going to be your onlevel 612 piece um the other piece is from a different company Amsco um also you might hear them refer to Perfection learning but it's the that's the AP dual enrollment component oh okay yeah so they they have a separate text for the AP dual enrollment um this is the the research um from Ed reports that looks at the quality of the materials as you can see um hmh is highly ra rated across the board um the Perfection learning for the AP dual enrollment is not um rated by Ed reports because it's just a much smaller usage um here's what we would be looking at for cost so this is an 8ye option um the total for the eight years is 565 54375 um got the average yearly cost there Bob's not here to do the math so hopefully I divided that correctly but in your honor Bob I hope I got it right um the student addition with digital courseware is part of what's included as well as the software excuse me the soft cover student Edition workbook that is for the life of the adoption um and then the teachers Edition and worksheet Masters including access to teachers Corner uh which president harus mentioned that's kind of that help button feature that's part of their component that they get there um as well as the grammar practice that's built in um we talked a little bit about writable um but this is the writable component um it's it's a very cool piece it was really in many ways probably the most sought-after piece I would say amongst the committee um we worked hard to to make sure that we negotiated that into the contract in a way that was affordable to the district um but it really works students through a variety of genres um helps teachers with skill proficiency breakdown within those genres it's just a really great userfriendly tool um to help teachers make sure that we're focusing on writing again that's not been our strong suit as a district so we're really trying to focus on that um the advanced placement language and composition in the literature and composition resources you can see there um on the board um they are much cheaper because it's much fewer students who are in those courses the eight-year adoption for the language component is 12521 it's $1,500 a year um the literature at the moment would be about 11269 um at an average yearly cost of about 1408 um we're approaching both of these a little bit differently uh in terms of expenditures um so board member horn this might answer part of your questions from the financial perspective um we are working with once we get your um approval or we are working with the vendor to break that out that cost out over multiple years so it's not a huge hit on the budget over one year it would likely be a two or threeyear piece so we would be looking at 200 and some odd thousand each year for the next three years um the AP L language um components we have some monies that we get for providing AP courses and so there's some monies in those accounts that would actually cover the cost of this because our AP and dual enrollment numbers have kind of fluctuated a lot in recent years um this piece we're going to look at paying just on a year-to-year basis because our our AP numbers have kind of been all over the place and we don't want to commit to a given number um so we would kind of take that one year at a time so we would ask for your approval when we come back next month for the 8-year adoption of the curriculum um but we would pay for it on a year-to-year basis depending how many students we have in the program is there something that can be included in the and in the bond if we decide to yes that's that's one of the focus areas would be curriculum and so we would look if if we decide to go out for that Bond we had a dollar amount that said every year we'd come back with this much to so that we could continue the the cycle that that Dr Fountain put up there so yeah it's definitely there and the goal with that would be that if we are successful in the next couple couple years here getting the ELA component in place um we would have a research-based science um math and Ela curriculum in place for the next four to five years for for all of those so we're in a good position as we write out this little Flatline in our enrollment to make sure that we have those materials in place and then hopefully 3 four years from now now those numbers are starting to climb up the enrollment is coming in the bond passes all of those things are in place and we have that regular cycle to make sure that we're we're staying updated um because this was asked earlier I would say one of those options um just so we say it is that when we get to that U renewal Point um and we have done this in the past it could potentially be that eight years from now well I'll go six years or five years from science that we like what we've been using and the adoption is simply an extension of what we've had um that that does is sometimes the case but um as was shared with you it was a pretty resounding no thank you to continue with the curriculum that we have at the moment any other questions I don't think so all right thank you there's anything particular you want added for the second read let me know we'll be happy to provide that apparently PD PD got okay okay all right um 9.3 discussion information on the 2425 District uh student enrollment number so I think those were emailed to us I just emailed you they're a little bit late or not not late with the meetings a week earlier so but if you have any questions just ask me part of that is part of that whole conversation we just had with with building the budget okay all right so um requests for future agenda items do we have anything I have one um I do um I would like um if if you could I know that I've had plenty of people like disgruntled maybe about um vendors on our campus and the um insurance policy and if you could bring that to us and explain us like the amount and why that is or whatever just so that I have do you understand what I'm saying okay so when you say vendors okay so if we had just for example we when the cheer when cheer did the um thing and the vendors they we had different vendors on um on our campus it went from they had to have a $2 million policy or some insurance policy so I I would I would just like to know like the reasoning behind that that's that's the trust recommend that's the trust recommendation that's where the trust comes in when we talk and the trust and they it used to be a million dollars and due to lawsuits across the state for any number of different issues the recommendation come out of the trust starting last year was to Move It from a million to $2 million just as liability coverage and so we just follow the recommendation of the trust when we go ahead and and move out with with those vendors so it's it's truly coming from our insurance company and is there any further clarification for example when we did the trunker treat and we had um there were homebased Crafters that would crochet and they were asked to get $2 million coverage and then there was kind of like some back you know and so I think that's what some of we we can check on that yeah yeah I would like some of so that when I'm asked I know I have an educated answer yeah the the instead of I don't know they just told me that yeah the starting point is the 2 million because that's what the trust requires but I'll check on the home based and get back to you guys okay awesome okay any other no okay um I will make a motion to adjourn at 7:41 I motion toj adjourn the meeting you can you can second it I'll second it too okay that' be great um all in favor all right motion carries for to zero
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all politics is local with John featherston an in-depth and comprehensive look at Massachusetts political news and current events to another edition of all politics is local I'm your host John today's just going to be a quick episode we're GNA talk about uh mayor woo Boston mayor woo testimony in front of Congress today uh a lot to get to a lot to talk about a lot of controversial things uh let's run to the clip and have mayor woo talk about Tom homman hman shame on him for lying about my city for having the nerve to insult our Police Commissioner who has overseen the safest Boston's B in anyone's lifetime bring him here under oath and let's ask him some questions I am here to make sure that the city of Boston is safe others may want to bring hell we are here to bring peace to cities everywhere mayor Woo is doubling down and and calling out borders are Tom Holman uh mayor wo quick question if Boston's the safest it's ever been uh why did an off-duty police officer have to kill somebody this week at a Chick-fil-A because he was going to do a stabbing why is record crime going on in the city of Boston mayor woo made a comment today in front of Congress saying that Boston is the safest city because it's a welcoming City and you know what in concept I agree with that I agree with that 100% that we that City should be a welcoming committee but there is no way Boston is the safest Community you know I had the pleasure and honor of raising my family in the Metro West Boston area and the Boston that I knew when I was friends with mayor monino and the Boston I know today as a planning commissioner in the state of Massachusetts you can't comp compare the two Boston is not the same as it was 20 years ago under monino Boston is not the same as it is because of Mayor wo's policies now granted if mayor Ru wants to be a sanctuary City that's her but you know things come with consequences Tom Holman has made the comment that he's going to bring hell to Boston and that's a controversial statement and I'll be the first one to say it's a controversial statement but what Tom homan's going to do is he's going to bring Law and Order to Boston he is going to come and get the rapist the drug traffickers the sex traffickers off the streets of Boston and any elected official who has a problem with that then I have a problem with them because the first job of government is to protect the vulnerable the first job of government is to protect the people and if you're going to protect known criminals and we'll get to a clip here in a minute that unfortunately I have firsthand knowledge of but if you're going to protect known criminals over the safety and sanctuary of your own children then we've got a real real problem here in Massachusetts governor Healey and mayor woo keep walking the line is is Massachusetts is Boston a sanctuary city is massachusett a sanctuary State I will tell you just based on their actions not on their words because their words never match their actions but just based on their actions Massachusetts and Boston are a sanctuary State now you can say okay well that's that's their choosing that's the will of the people that is the will of the people but then you can't say that Boston is the safest that it's ever been you C you don't have the data to back it up you don't have the reality to back it up you don't have facts to back it up and more importantly talk to a Boston police officer they're not going to tell you that you know I mean seriously when was the last time you you you know on a Saturday night you heard somebody was being stabbed at a Chick-fil-A thank God an off-duty Boston police officer was there to to uh help out with the situation and then you have the mayor not only not thank the off-duty police officer but give condolences for the person who was trying to stab people I mean you you just can't make it up you can't make it up but believe it or not that was not the most outrageous thing that happened today during the Congressional hearings let me set the table for you a little bit uh it's probably not unknown that I was running a migrant shelter in marbor for quite some time and last May May of 20124 a DCF agent came to me and said hey we got a real big problem I need to talk to you about something I said well okay I'm in the middle of something give me a couple minutes I'll come in so I took her into my office and sat her down and you know CH pleasantries and she's like I'm not here for what you think I'm here for and I thought she was here because we had a teenage migrant who we found out was pregnant and at the time we assumed she got pregnant from her boyfriend and you know the classic saying uh never assume uh because it turned out that she was not impregnated by her boyfriend she was actually impregnated by her own father the father uh committed multiple times of rape with his daughter and when confronted by DCF he was actually proud of the fact that uh he had gotten his own daughter pregnant well today in in the Congressional hearings the chairman uh Congressman comr asked mayor woo about this incident last year in a Boston suburb an illegal alien raped and impregnated his 14-year-old daughter while living in a shelter for illegal aliens mayor woo under under Boston law would you turn this criminal over to ice on a detainer whenever there's a criminal warrant Boston police enforce that and hold people accountable so would you turn that criminal over to ice this happened outside the city of Boston but I can tell you in the city whenever someone commits a crime whenever there's a criminal warrant we hold them accountable if I steems that they are dangerous enough to hold obtain a criminal warrant and the Boston police will enforce it will you do turn that criminal over to ice we follow the laws last year so there you go she will not even admit that a man who impregnates his own teenage daughter that she will not turn that person over to ice for a detainer so I mean what what more do you need what I mean what more do you need to you know see it's not the first case you know in in and to her credit to W credit it did not happen in Boston it did happen in maror yes but there are many other numerous cases commissioner Cox the Boston Police Commissioner has flat out said that he is not going to help Ice uh now you can sit sit there and say that it's you know Boston law it's Massachusetts law but what I guess the bigger question that we have to talk about in today's world is isn't public safety the most important thing because everything comes back to Public Safety in politics everything comes back to Public Safety you send your kids off to school you assume that they're going to a school where they're not going to be shot you know and the school shootings that happen in this nation are are horrible you assume when you put your kid on a school bus the school bus is not going to an accident you have faith in the institution that they're going to take care care of your kids and that they're going to be safe you're gonna have safe roads for your kids to go to school on you're gonna have a a safe school for your kids to learn in but you just had a ma a mayor in a major city in America one of the greatest cities of all time in the history of the United States of America in front of Congress testified that she would not turn over a man who rapes his own daughter to ice have we lost all sense of common sense now listen I Am pro immigrant we are a country based on immigration we are a country based on the values of supporting immigrants if you come here legally and you follow the laws and you are not a you know a criminal America is is a dream it's still the land of opportunity it's still but I don't understand why politicians Mor hey and mayor woo Elizabeth Warren even want to double down and now say that you know like we protect everybody no we don't protect the criminals we should not protect the criminals we do protect the criminals and because in this case in marbor I was told by the marbor police transfer him to Worcester and with my Municipal experience and working you know with law enforcement over the years I literally turned to the police officer and said Worcester is a different County than marbor marbor is in Middle sex County Worcester is in Worcester County and the police officer said to Mew why does that matter I said because if I transfer this man from middlex County to Worcester County the da is never going to touch this case because the crime didn't happen in his community and the police officer looked at me with a look of like oh well he got me uh and said yeah you're right but we'll figure it all out well it took eight months to figure it all out and the only reason this man was ever arrested is because I continued to push the story in the National media was first picked up by the daily wire then it was picked up by Fox News so much so that the Boston Globe even did a scathing story on morah Healy about how morah Healy tried to cover this up and only then and only then when the Boston Globe uh choose to cover the story was this man finally arrested and he'll have his first court date at the end of March here even today after uh mayor Woo's testimony my phone rang probably five or six times with national media looking for a quote for me uh about the case but never once this happened in May of 2024 and now we're in March of 2025 has one Boston Legacy Media TV station called and asked for a single comment on this case so it just goes back to proof that you know the journalism that we all grew up with and that we all knew is no longer exists and you know it actually adds to the value of why Community media is so important because there is no more balance in media now if you don't like what I'm saying today and you're entitled to your opinion I'm just speaking the facts but if you don't like what I'm saying and you want to go more to the May mayor woo side of the thing that's great but at least there's balance there's two sides to every story there's actually three sides to every story Yours Mine and then then the truth and what you're not getting in the in the Boston Legacy Media is you're not getting the truth how can this story go National and become part of congressional committee hearings and no one in the Boston media wants to talk about it that is a big concern uh I'm surprised mayor woo did attend uh she she looked well rehearsed and well coached and and at the price tag of $650,000 to the taxpayers of Boston uh I think she did you know she I don't agree with her testimony but I think she did better than what I anticipated that she do but if I was a taxpayer in Boston I would be furious that that c came at the cost of $650,000 of legal prep for the testimony that she gave today and she did just once again prove to the nation that Boston is a sanctuary City and like I say if Boston wants to be a sanctuary City okay great but it does come with consequences and those consequences are are going to play out over the years they're going to play out over the months and but I strongly disagree with mayor woo that Boston's the safest it's ever been and I cannot wait for the moment that Tom homman comes and restores Law and Order listen I don't want Tom Homan going into schools I don't want Tom Homan going into to churches I don't want him going in the hospitals I want him to come to Massachusetts and get the worst of the worst off of the street and that's what I think that he's going to do and uh that's going to do it for another edition of all politics is local like I said we're going to do a quick one and we'll talk again real soon
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e e e test test test hello hello hello want us to get closer e e e we have also put it in it's posted in the senior center in the monthly newsletter that started in February and that's continuing ongoing until our membership is up um I personally went to one of the more well attended lunches were about 45 people and said to the people there we are here for you you you would be great members to be on our Council on Aging please join us and I gave everybody a little reminder in case they wanted to join as to when the the uh meetings were which is the first um Thursday of the month at 10 o'clock um we have a couple of members who are in both of the Lions Clubs and they are presenting to their Lions Clubs members that they There's an opportunity for people to join the council and to spread the word and also people there are certain people have said oh there's someone I know that I might think might be interested so we are continuing to do that and though the newsletter um reminders will continue to go out we have had uh four people have put in Talent Bank forms and uh I have an sent invitations to multiple invitations to those folks and a reminder on Monday that tomorrow is our next meeting um H so thank you for considering our vote we want to make sure that we as a council can continue to function in other words to have a quorum on a monthly basis and if we are met with the problem of having more people interested than could currently fit at the at the reduced size we would be more than happy to come back here and say you know what we think we should expand the council because we have a lot of interest so we we are just that you know we are taking it is part of our consent agenda tonight to reduce you from the 9 to the 7 so that will be happening by the end of our meeting okay terrific uh and one other thing the Council on Aging is for a second year has a community hero award that with the help uh of Susan Roby has been put on the Council on Aging website nomination forms it can be a senior who has done public service and volunteerism for the ashy Community or it can be an individual a group or an organization who has done particular work to support Ashlin seniors so I would like to invite all of you to go on that website if you think of anybody who you would like to nominate please do that and as well as the wider audience thank you very much for your time great thank you Don I appreciate a really quick question sure go ahead back before sorry um so just just for the people that are watching can you talk a little bit about what the Council on Aging does and what kind of like if if there's programming or things that you know what what people um what your what Your Council does yes the Council on Aging as I said it meets once a month our meetings generally last about an hour and a half two hours maximum and our primary role is to uh provide advice councel support um you know commity Community connections to the for the senior center and to support the senior community in Ashland the uh Senior Center Director and her staff meet with us on a monthly basis and we go through the programming we talk about their needs we kick around ideas um we help Advocate or bring up um you know cons any concerns that we might have or particular concerns about particular seniors groups of seniors trying to expand our reach um you know in support of the ashin senior community anything else thank you uh so just a [Music] reminder which one are you you're Town Hall okay um yes so I just wanted to say we're seeing a lot of stuff on our screen if you're on Zo you're seeing that as well our Board of Health yesterday did have some Zoom bombing so we are not letting anyone take their cameras off uh and okay um so we're not we are not allowing you to take your video off and we are not allowing you to unmute we will unmute you that is why if you want to share uh during Community participation you need to use the raised hand feature if you're not sure where that is if you look at at the bottom of your screen where it says reactions you push that and at the bottom it has the raise hand feature so you can go ahead and um raise your hand uh seeing none right now oh okay um we're going to keep moving forward there's some stuff going on technically but that's okay we have a legal update Lisa me our lead Town Council is here Lisa welcome uh make sure you turn on that microphone and pull it a little bit closer to you there you go uh to give us an update on all things legal thank you very much Madam chair and members to the board at least some things legal anyway legal um so um just to start off I'm going to go through um high level some litigation that you know obviously is not strategy but just to tell you where things are um so you might recall that case with NSTAR and eversource energy um that we haven't heard anything since 2021 and we continue to not hear anything which is good for the town um so they've not had any recommended decisions at this point not really sure what's happening but that's where that is um the um the issues with Burnham Circle are being worked out um so hopefully that'll be settled um in short order there is a draft settlement agreement that's been circulated and um so hopefully that will be resolved um ugc and Gainer uh there was a trial uh on the case of U GC versus gainor um about four weeks ago now maybe three four weeks ago and um we participated in that we had some witnesses that were there um the judge indicated at the close of the trial he thought that there would be a decision within the week or so um well because it was because of the kind of the decision they were taking verdict slips and not actual like not an actual findings of fact um but that decision hasn't yet been rendered so oh um we're still waiting on that um the other case is Gainer versus ugc and the zba which we are party to um and that is um gainor's um challenge of the 40b approval and um of course the that case hinges on the decision of the other case because the case is challenging whether or not ugc had site control the other case is about the purchase and sale agre so um but that has um that is supposed to um have a trial this year there is a pre-trial conference scheduled in April so it's you know one hopes that the ugc versus Gainer case comes out soon so that will help um resolve or dissolve um the other matter so that's what those are it could it could I mean the the bottom line of the case the zba case is that there's no site control and if the court says the pns was valid and awards the pns accordingly then that's the end of that right um we have been very busy with the town uh since last fall um buying and selling and exchanging real estate so um we of course closed on the faford property at the end of the year um the uh we've closed on the purchase of the uccc land recently um we are haven't yet closed on the conservation restriction purchased by the subb valley trustees because the conservation restrictions being reviewed by the Commonwealth and so um until that's done there won't be any technical closing on that but that's in the process um as you know as part of the Main Street project um there is a lot of underground utility work happening in order to help facilitate that next door with the Kramer property um tonight you're going to have on your agenda the granting of an easement to Kramer to allow his utilities to come through the driveway at Town Hall um so we've been working on that um it's been a very interesting process um related to tital issues so if that's something that you're interested in like we are um that's been an interesting process nonetheless Diane actually has been the motivating force behind that and so that's just about done and hopefully we'll be have that all resolved and recorded by next week so that won't hold up that process at all uh the Hopkinson Land Trust Parcels that um were finally approved uh at town meeting uh the attorney for the Hopkinson Land Trust has all of the Deeds that we drafted for that uh and we're waiting on his review uh we had an exchange um yesterday actually um he's out of town until next week so we still don't um we don't have their approval of it but one once they approve then you you're going to have a vote that says you accept it and we'll go forward from there so I don't I don't see anything in the in the way of that uh and then uh the final thing of course is theou and the lease with firmingham state with the Warren Conference Center that Jen's been taking the lead on um and I've been helping her out with the theou and the lease agreement so that's um that's actually coming around full circle as well um additionally um we've been doing various troubleshooting with the old fire station next door and the um soon to be opened um Brewery um couple of weeks couple of weeks um but if you need a pallet go next for um the we've been very busy with um the planning department um obviously we did a lot of work to get the NBTA zoning passed in the fall um the uh Adu zoning uh will be up the revisions for the Adu that were as a result of the changes in the law at the end of last year those final regulations um were adopted at the end of January and so um Pete's working on revising the um bylaw and I've been working with him so that'll be on the Springtown meeting warrant did Le if you don't mind did we have to make a lot of changes did we because we didn't have an Adu bylaw did we or um I think you have some kind of accessory dwelling bylaw but um so that it'll yeah it'll be a wholesale change yeah to to meet the new requirements so they they've approved it at planning and have they had their we haven't approved anything yet okay he's drafting it okay right okay right but it will his goal is to have um his goal is to have it done in draft form in the next week for my review and then it'll go to the planning board for public hearing and okay and then but it should be ready for Springtown meeting oh yeah definitely be ready I me it has to be right well it doesn't have to be I mean you know it's not like it's the MBTA 3A zoning right so the the law is now that essentially an accessory dwelling unit that's 900 square feet or less um and or half the size of the existing structure whichever is less um can be built by right on a conforming piece of property period right right and so if you have that basic information you can go get a building permit for that today the issue is there are some things that you want to control around that um and also it's good to give guideposts and maybe uh the town and I don't know what Pete or the planning board has in mind but maybe you want to let have byright ones and then maybe you want to have some that are by special permit so for example I have a a more rural community who doesn't mind if the Adu is a th000 square feet right and um on a certain size lot and therefore they're making those on special permit right so there's some nuances that you know the planning board may want to have but the basics you want to have in a bylaw just so there's a you know a clear path and that the building inspector knows what he needs to look at and move forward anything on a non-conforming lot um it can be by special permit for non-conformities from the zba like anything else is right now or you could make it by right that would be your choice but you don't have to okay great um and then of course we've been very busy with the Main Street uh 40b project um and reviewing um all of their submissions and the peer review and as I was saying a little bit before the meeting um with Miss Bennett that um we just got our response from the traffic the response to the peer review response to the traffic so still waiting on our peer review person to review that response but there is a the continued meeting is this Tuesday um evening um so that is on there and then uh the town had a new 40b project filed uh which we anticipated on Waverly Street um and that opening of that will be on March 27 is that 24th 25th but it's that week in March um and so that will be an opening with which will be similar to the opening of The Main Street 40b where they'll um do a presentation introduce the um project to the board and then the board will um approve the hiring of peerreview um folks and then they'll be off and running so the board CBA is going to be very busy over the next six to seven months going back and forth between these two projects in addition to the the regular work that they have and U you'll be seeing a lot of me and potentially Adam but you know mostly on these projects um we also did an IMA for Regional Health Services um you know we have miscellaneous um items that we've dealt with um that's litigation that is just things that we can get rid of in a pretty timely fashion we had a case um that um involved the a a criminal matter um but there had been a public records request associated with it or a subpoena associated with it so we had to handle that in the district court um same way the town was sued as a defendant as part of a condo collection um condo fee collection matter which is not unusual so somebody doesn't pay their condominium fees Condominium Association sues them under chapter uh 183a section 6A and if the town is owed any taxes or anything they're made a party to that lawsuit just for notice purposes so what happens is we work it out and figure out where all of that is and make sure that our lean is it has priority um and then we don't basically don't have to do anything else but we do have to be involved in the beginning of that so um we had one of those cases um uh Jen and Diane and us we worked as a team to avert two bid protests right which is really good congratulations um very good and then of course we have various enforcement matters public records and open meeting law but um it's been a a pretty busy uh four or five months I think always um Lisa just to follow up you and I so here as a board we've talked about communication and things like that you and I had a conversation earlier and I just want to sort of review that so that if any of our members have questions so right now how we handle it we get an email in to us as a board and I as chair respond to that person without copying the rest of the board and one of the things Le said chat about she's like yes that's a good way to do it but we talked about what the next step could be so that instead of a conversation with someone if I take my email and give it to Susan and ask her to put it as part of the board packet moving forward so that you see my response or whoever is chair uh and then if you feel like you still want to communicate with that person you can then reach out to them directly and that will then keep us from conver either having you know a discussion via email or any open meeting law right so the the the base rule is that even though it's an inquiry from the citizen to the chair if the chair were to include you on a response if it's a matter that's under your Authority which is just about everything right so if the chair responds to that person and includes all of you that's actually a deliberation right so it's a violation of the open meeting law and so when I talked to yoland I thought this was the best way to do it so if she provides that to Susan and then you all get it at the same time when the packets are made available it's not a violation because it's distribution material and then you can see exactly what the communication was and if you wanted to follow up yourself with that person individually you know have at it if anybody chooses to do that I think it would be best to let the chair know that you're going to make that response as well that way we're working on the same thing and not the left doesn't know what the right's doing right yeah that that's a great idea but that that'll complete the full circle so it that's a great idea because that's something I know that has been uh you know a concern of mine just just right making sure people get responded to you know it's sort of out there this is out there is anybody you know so um would it be too much work for Susan to perhaps instead of waiting for our packet to forward us she can't so right so that's we're trying to avoid the only reason she can include it in your packet and not have it a violation of the opening meeting law is that once that packet goes out it's a public document and so everybody can see it okay so got it the the process was instituted probably seven or eight years ago because what was happening is the chair would then copy everybody and it and it's a violation and in fact we were had a chat with the Attorney General's office on a number of times because of it okay very good thank you I appreciate that anybody have any other questions for Lisa or yeah go ahead Claudia I just had a couple of questions um excuse me what potentially the cgc court case in that what implications are there for us in that mean the ugc the ugc yes so um the um the first case the validity of the purchase and sale agreement in and of itself we have no interest or liability or anything like that we were Witnesses for certain reasons but we're not a party to that lawsuit it does however impact the the um Gainer versus ugc and the zba because the decision in that case will fully inform how that the zba case will go and the impact for the town is is if that comprehensive permit is found to be invalid well that's a big deal for the town right so um that would that's the impact for the town in that case we go forward with the trial on the Gainer versus ugc and the zba it's like any other zoning case in Superior Court so we would be participating in a limited fashion um always the applicant carries the water is what we like to say in this instance and so ugc would carry the water on that you would have some legal fees associated with with it but not as if we were actually trying Cas long well the pre-trial conferences in April that means the trial date is set I believe it's in not may but it's it's the summer and um you know it's the case isn't going to be as long as the other case was no because it's a it's a pretty straightforward zoning case but it's a zoning case based upon one issue was their site control or not Superior Court and then if there was and so that's why the trial beforehand that's going on now we're waiting on that decision right because that's going to tell them right but I I suspect if that decision doesn't come down the judge is going to go forward but that there's two separate cases so right yeah and then the other question I had was um about 61 Waverly so um the fact that you know that has been sold to a new developer and we weren't notified or anything have are you is there anything that says that that's inappropriate No in fact it says quite the opposite so um there are um Michael asked me to to look into this so they're allowed to make a transfer of ownership um even after a decision has been made but before a decision has been made well it's during the project eligibility process so long as that person qualifies as dhcd or eohc and the Mass housing would review it they can do it so it's not it's it's a f there's a provision to allow it in the regulations can I follow up to that because the plan that we see now right is drastically different than the than the plan that we responded to Mass housing about correct but it's the same number of units either one pick one and turn it on pick a mic so um it's got like different entrances and so so why does Mass housing asks for comments because the regulations tell them to okay because I guess it's hard for us to kind of wrap our heads around this because yes the units are the same but the site plan is different and we felt that Mass housing was looking for comments on not just like the size of the building but actually they make it make it very clear they don't care what we think about in terms of the size of the building but some of the other aspects like the safety and the traffic so I just but those are all going to be so I think Mass look we I'm happy to direct a letter to Mass housing saying what did you do here and the answer is going to be we're allowed to do this under the rigs but I'm happy to direct letter their position's going to be their position's going to be that all of that gets reviewed in the comprehensive permit process Mass housing doesn't approve a Project based upon the they don't approve a Project based upon the size the entrances the the storm water the traffic that's not what they do right they do eligibility Shi you know I mean you know you've submitted comments that raise all of those things and what happens it was almost IGN you can address this through the zba process that's exactly right and so that's exactly what they're going to say it's the same number of units and the the developer meets the requirements of an eligible developer and that all of those issues will be addressed during the Z process we don't have any idea why that um transfer took place do we why the other developer decid decided ultimately to not that I'm aware of I don't have any idea well it's it's the same with 10 to 60 Main Street right the initial project that was done before us not before us but before zba three years ago was a different developer and then when it came back it was they had changed devel it wasn't a 40b then was it no it wasn't it was no it wasn't a 40b but still it changed yeah well I would imagine it change from one develop to to the next I mean the fact that um that CH that changeed to be a 40b is Right different right where this was yeah okay the other you know it could have been you know who I don't I don't know but there's a you know a Litany of what reasons why financing experience availability you know all kinds of stuff I was kind of hoping there was some something going on that might ultimately cause its downfall that's what that's why I ask question never know maybe still good any other questions comments concerns for Lisa no okay thank you it's greatly appreciated that you come in and give us an update pleas nice to see all of you good see you see you on Tuesday yes you will thank you uh so I think Mark might have had a problem or stuff something was going on Mark I do see your hand is raised we are going to allow you to unmute but we're not allowing cameras on so if you want to uh if we can unmute Mark and Mark Sony to give Us's I think hey Mark because you can hear me yep we can oh yeah I was on I was I was waiting for everything to get set up and um I even put the my TV on for the YouTube channel and just to see if I missed anything no we just had some technical difficulties so what would you like to comment on today Mark okay um through the chair chair woman person to our to manager can I go can I do that yep go ahead okay did the town manager receive my latest email Mark I don't think it when when did you send your latest email I I I'm a few days behind so you sent it within the last few days I have not seen it oh it's it's the um I commented on your town manager article and the project overload part of it oh okay well thank you and I put I I put in a a pretty good um two paragraphs of a comment okay well I can't wait to look at it and um the other the other thing is um I went to no yes wait second no let me redo this again has there been any progress when I came into the office on my idea uh no you uh believe you were going to go upstairs and talk to Pete correct yes which I did and which I did which I did talk in the planning board too oh that's right because you were going to speak to them the next night yes well that's good I'm glad you got a chance to do that Mark so I was just wondering you you you to you told me on pizza that night that once the comprehensive plan gets done then it be that would probably be a good time probably to start stop that um it's not a bad idea yep I think that was the I think he steered you in the right direction is that is that would that be the same way as you're thinking maybe but Mark maybe we should talk about this off line you think um well because I'm not sure what he's asking right I know that's one I would say Mark maybe follow this up with a direct conversation with Michael in person or you know over the phone it does not sound like it's quite related to select board information um well it's it's it's not it's okay it's okay no okay I'll I'll end it this way to Mr T manager can you send me an email yeah once um once yeah why don't we why don't we why don't I do that Mark and I'll respond directly to your email how's that that's it yeah okay thank you that's it no cameras right no no cameras thank you Mark thanks Mark thank you okay commuted him again great uh next on our agenda I'd like to welcome Rob Sher former chair of the select board still our representative to the MBT PA advisory committee thank you for continuing to do that Rob and he's going to give us some updates on public transportation uh we went I've given him 15 minutes to give us an update I believe there's a presentation yep it's on the board uh on and back of us uh there's going to be some changes coming with the commuter rail and we felt it would be good to share with us as well as with the community right and I think it's available on that computer Rob yeah I see it here okay and uh can we share it via Zoom as well or I just need camera be able to pick it up hey by the way thanks uh great seeing all you guys again good to see you too Rob Mr retiree yes um you know every time I leave an organization things get really challenging you know actually you know I mean anyway um I don't uh I'm not sure how to advance this do I use the arrow oh okay all right so um yeah so I have 15 minutes there was a number of things I just wanted to touch on I originally asked for um you know this meeting to talk about the fiscal cliff but one of the updates of course is that the governor did includeed in the budget for next year to fund the te using what what is colloquially called the millionaires tax and you guys probably know the actual name for it but I don't remember but it was it was earmarked for education and transportation so it's really resolved that problem at least in one year but I would just say keep an eye on on that um all right so I'm going to do just a brief and most of you I think are pretty familiar with the MBTA Advisory board and the fact that I'm your representative on it uh but just for the sake of um a quick review for anybody who's watching um you know there's like 174 member cities and towns of the MBTA system and ashlin's one of them and actually it's as you all know it's commuter rail Services is and rail service in general is very important to Ashlin both for folks using it for work and for social reasons and for general transportation both both blue collar and Commuter so you know we're very interested of course in the quality of commuter rail service and that's why we stay involved in this so uh this is just a a quick uh blurb about the member um you know there's a new deputy director Hannah uh SW lowski and she's um she's our direct liaison in the commuter rail committee I am of course in um you know I was hoping to have her come and meet you folks sometime I think it would' be good she's a select board member in um I actually don't remember but it's like Canton or some time like that so she's uh she's on the firing line as well so um you know and you know there's a number of committees I as I said a chair of the now newly named um Regional Rail Regional passenger rail committee and the idea there is that we're looking beyond the traditional commuter rail to more Regional Rail and I'll talk a little bit more about that uh in a moment because I think there's some issues for us there as that grows but it's you know the idea there is that um commuter rail is changing to Regional Rail and not just commuter schedules as as we've experienced you know uh one of the updates they give us is that rail ridership uh kolis is telling us has returned as measured by them the pre-co levels but it's not the traditional commuter patterns it's um it's what they call clock facing so it's around the clock and also weekend trips I don't think it's the kind of intensity you know you know Randy and I and other folks take the train and you know you know the parking lot's not as full as it used to be but uh there's more there's the same number of of trips apparently so that's kind of a big uh big thing so this is just a quick blurb on you know and you guys I I had this you got it so you can look at it at for reference um and here's the MBTA service District you can see there's the core communities around Boston which have subway bus and commuter rail and the outer ones but we are actually pretty involved in the MBTA because we of course host a commuter rail um station here so that's that's kind of a big deal so that's um just kind of my quick uh review of The Advisory board and the Committees um so in terms of the commuter uh the regional rail committee if any of you folks as always have issues or concerns or questions from tonight I can bring it back we meet at least on a quarterly basis with MBTA me me uh management and also the kiola CEO uh comes uh personally to talk to us about uh rail issues so you know again if there's questions or concerns that come up feel free to let me know and I'll I'll I'll bring that up so um like for example we're meeting uh the week after next for an update on the spring schedule but also we're going to talk to them about the recent audit report that came out that I'll mention briefly it's not on my list of points but I I I should say I sent you a list of four brief points I did remember that we should also at least touch base on the alustin project project um we had a meeting um we had a meeting with Dennis and Brian and Hannah Dennis um of Senator spilka's office and also representative uh uh Jack Jack Lewis Lewis don't tell Jack um and but it was that was one of the things that came up and Dennis was quite concerned about it and Ryan who's on the n and I don't know maybe yoland you've heard something but of course that's a huge project that's going to impact both our commuters and people taking the Pike in but briyan seemed to be saying this is Brian Kane the executive director saying that the funding's on hold and it's not you know a huge issue Dennis had a different impression it was quite concerned but so I want to follow up with Dennis about that uh but of course and you folks probably know more than I know about of course the federal funding is all in question now so how's that going to affect some of these big projects I don't know oh interesting hav't thought about that but that is something so I'm going to you know stay stay involved with that and see you know what's happening with that because we're going to ask for mitigation and what your plan and you know keep them you know stay stay informed on that so um but I I didn't have that on my list but I think it bears at least bring it up the other thing was just um and we'll talk about briefly is the um the state UD just released a report came out I think yesterday or the day before which I looked at it brief briefly uh where they audited mbta's management of the kolis commuter rail contract and they had a number of issues which we can touch on briefly I don't know if any of you heard about that or had a chance to look at it yet um but that's just that's like breaking news um so I think I mentioned earlier that the fiscal cliff is resolved for this year um oh so the commuter rail procurement so kolis is going to have the contract for this year after FY U 26 and probably another one but the thing to keep in because I think they can extend it if I understand the uh the timeline so the t is I guess likely to extend it because the terms are fairly favorable supposedly but the new procurement is going to be quite expensive is the is the word you know because costs have gone up so much and um the idea is that kis has been a bit under uh under stringent requirements but again looking down the road a few years potentially big cost increases so um just a quick update on that and we've we've made it now a commuter rail that we're going to have or the regional rail committee still having trouble with the new name um that we'll get periodic updates on the procurement and how it's going and what the issues are so that's going to be a big deal especially for us the quality of you know what's happening with the with our rail service um the other thing I wanted to bring up was the East West rail project and um I don't know if folks if you folks have heard a lot about it I suspect some of you have um I didn't I just heard about as a general term but actually it's it's been going on for years and it's um it's be really being pushed by the cities like Boston Wier Springfield some of the western cities and they've actually moved pretty well Along on it now this is the East West is basically from Boston potentially to Albany now right now that's service is done like twice a day by Amtrak but they're talking about um major expansion and frequency of of trains and trying to be high-speed trains from Boston to Wier to Springfield at least and pushing on to Pittsfield and so those those plans are actively underway um they just finished doing the Worster Union Station over after about two three years really to make it suitable for that for the East West Rail and they're they're investing probably billions of dollars in track improvements all all along the line so I think that's another thing that's that's been underway you saw the blurb that I put in uh I think everything's probably in question now with with the change in federal funding but it's something that we should be monitoring because of course on that whole line there's as you know four grade crossing two in framing him and two in Ashley so that puts us in kind of a unique position in terms of of impact most of the other communities are not going to be dealing with grade Crossings but we will be so the one thing you know the plans call for something like 10 trips a day so that's additional trips that we're not experiencing now how many trips do we have now do you know I'm I made a mental note to myself to look at the schedule and do that number but I did not but then my grandson came for a visit that's a good my I think it's like 20 if I had to say off the top of my head so we're talking about about potential in you know increase and then that leads me when you're looking at traffic impacts here are people that's what I was thinking yeah yeah especially downtown are they thinking about it there's a lot more trips and stuff so yeah so I think you know this seems to have a lot of push behind it and so um I think our best role is like you know mitigation or being aware of how it might affect us and keeping an eye on what's going on and what the discussion is uh framing him will probably a stop uh I think um and the next stop would be Worster so um so that's something potentially you know ideally those crossings they shouldn't be great crossings they should be submerged or you know something like that so you could have real highspeed rail but so that's that's an ongoing issue I should also not not note that um um I forgot to on the The Advisory Board are are representative on the um MBTA board of directors is Mayor Thomas K of of quinsey but we also of course uh mayor cisy of framing has been named to the MBTA board so uh we do have some you know some input in this process of course along with our Senate President and representative Lewis um so that's something to keep an eye on but these things uh you know would be impacting us if plans move ahead and they're like a fiveyear plan now that's probably all up in the air now add real quick to the east west so I'm familiar with it uh probably three years ago they created a commission and there are members representing the different areas of mapc as well as the other planning organizations so the Metro West Regional collaborative um I was asked if I wanted to sit on that because I was the chair at the time and we asked an map staff member so uh L Robbins who was our coordinator at the time actually did go out and do all the different hearings and to hear stuff and there is a lot of support as Rob said for this East West rail think about it you're in Boston you want to go west if you don't have to get into a car and you can get on a train so there's a lot of conversation about it and certainly from a sustainability perspective let that's easier if you're you know on a train versus cars and stuff like that um so I think you're right R we do need to be aware of it I don't know what what mitigation but certainly we can look at that yeah well you know thinking I'm remembering the quiet Zone and so right you know thinking about it do you want a quiet Zone that could be if there's a lot of trains that could be good on the other hand if there's a safety issue you want a quiet zone so you know there's that kind of thing to think about so um uh the only other thing on my list was uh this recent uh the audit report that came out and uh I'm not going to belabor it but um the state audit are so under her under her charge she audits various State agencies and MBTA was one and they selected uh the K this procurement um oversight management of the K is commuter rail which is logical because that's an enormous contract it really is far reaching and so they had a number of um uh it was all about the meaning performance requirements but they the the they are saying that they did this the T failed to collect 3.3 million in um uh possible sanctions for Kil is not meeting their performance targets that's kind of the the the headline but they say that t doesn't have uh sufficient policies and procedures and monitoring in place to to um uh to to uh manage the Kess contract and I've seen some of that myself where you know you're not sure when you report something where it's going or you know if there's really good systems in place um um and they talked about fair not collecting Fair revenue reports not being adequate and Fleet Maintenance reports things like that so I could send that um I could there's a general uh an executive summary I can send along yeah that'd be great um to you guys uh and it's just I think you know as well I don't know Randy if you had a report on Revenue collection what it's like but I know in the Wier run it's they've been getting better they're about 60% collection so I don't know how they're doing on on the other side of it but uh yeah I would say um there's definitely more more Revenue you know more more ticket checking than there was um part of it I think is because for a long time there was staffing issues on the on on the commuter rail I think it's a little bit better some days not so much but but um most days it's relatively staffed well and if it's staffed well then they'll check tickets so um but the ridership is definitely up I can I can see that um you know it's it's it's the the rush hour Express trains going into Boston are packed so um you know there are times where you know I wonder I I like debate on whether to go to Framingham or not and then I don't want to go to Framingham because I want a seat on the train as oh yeah right you know um so there's there's that too but but I think that the the um the renovations we we did a year or so ago on the train station have been really good I think this winter it's wintered much better like the stairs and everything well that's good to hear because someone asked me they said so those Renovations that were done what did they actually do and did we benefit from anything or did they just no this the stairs the structure is is in a much much safer much safer place I would say that you know they still throw I mean I'm sure you see that the salt everywhere and I just feel like like it's going to just eat away at the at the concrete let's that goes actually the monitoring you know is anybody from the like I complained directly to Mike meller the head of operations for the te about salt they really need that much salt that's just like an un like it should be somebody coming out and say well an inch layer of salt everywhere is not really necessary you know right like what's going on here yeah so that it's yeah stuff like that I did I came there one time during a heavy rainstorm and rain water was just pouring all over the platform out of these the spigots were obviously clogged and then I called and they said oh yeah they checked out they checked out immediately well they needed to clean leaves out of the gutter right I mean come on you got to clean your gutters twice a year yeah it shouldn't be me make calling the tea to say y I did have a couple questions I was curious you know when we were going through the whole thing with our maintenance um issues I know that there were other stations along the line like Southborough that was having similar aging issues has has the commuter rail like are they are they making maintenance a priority do you know if like so first like one is I'm curious if other stations are going through what we went through a year or so ago and then the other part of it is um do they have a real plan for like regular scheduled maintenance on a regular basis because I think you know I I I think of what they did for our station not as sort of an upgrade but as sort of deferred maintenance yes oh definitely that was definitely deferred was definitely not an upgrade deferred maintenance um just repair what there's a term what's the term they use um right or repair no yeah no um state of good repair yeah so that's what they're supposedly aiming for and doing under this new guy okay so that that would be their answer but I can ask specifically at our meeting like what's the plan I mean I'm sure there's a plan uh but I've have not seen any work I mean that I've noticed on the other stations other than Wier which is like brand new now yeah yeah still working on okay and then the other one one other question I had I had somebody asked me about EV charging stations at the train stations and I don't know if that's something that's on on the mbta's uh it don't believe it is because it comes up periodically people ask those questions and um it's I don't think there's a direct plan right now that I'm aware of but you know I'll bring it up again because it's a good it's something they should be continuing with there is a sustainability committee as part I'm sure that's something they're pushing and actually the te is big on electrification they're moving ahead they decided not to buy they bought some refurbished diesels but they didn't buy any new ones they're going to try to keep moving towards Electric uh you know what do they call it um there's another term push pull or something where they're generating um there's battery powered but then it is assisted by overhead catenary line so they're they're they're looking at pretty widespread adoption in the next you know 10 15 years of of electric U locomotives so that's good thanks and thank you for for you know advocating for us yeah you know for ash it's good it's you know it's an interesting thing to do and um it does touch on us a lot um so anyway yeah happy to update you guys and come in yeah go ahead if you know my manam CH Rob uh thanks for doing what you're doing I appreciate that um just to follow up with the update on U the maintenance of the uh Ashland station um I don't believe all the work has been completed yet I have they painted the uh The Pedestrian crossover I I know that um they s they sand blasted it but because of the weather when they done they held off on painting it know whether or not that was going to be something that we see maybe late spring you know before the summer before the summer time that's a good question yeah and secondly is um have they ever thought about putting solar panels you know in the parking lot it's another good one you know like like we have over at the high SCH school and things of that nature to generate income are letting us do it yeah well my my point being you just just just a thought I mean there there was a conversation probably seven eight years ago where we saw what happened in the Framingham train station where it was taken over by the mwrta right so they did the renovations they handle the revenue coming in and out and at one point when it was the previous um when it was Ed car we were like oh well do you want to do something similar with the Ashlin train station where they would take it over and we would help them and stuff then of course with Ed Ed stepping down and with Co and things like that there's been no further conversation and for a while it was very little parking now it's starting to ramp up again y right just a thought just try to resurrect that those discussions if I was a tea I wouldn't do it right so anyway I think it it's interesting um when you think about using it more to go destinations be other than Boston right yeah you know if it if if it does go further west maybe Framingham becomes a destination because there's a lot of businesses and Y and that um you know just kind of an interesting or even getting out to if you can get on a train here and go to Springfield right if there's something in some people would like that stuff to see in Springfield or out to Pittsfield and see some of the great things about the Six Flags trip is that there go one thing though I'd ask though based on your history um when you depart from positions I would ask that you just let us know if you're going to depart from this position because we do appreciate what you do oh thank you well we would know because then we would have to appoint somebody else to become the M because yeah I'll stay long yeah as long as it's easy as long as there's plenty of funding there yeah then I'll yeah well thanks so yeah again anytime question thanks for the update greatly appreciate it if anyone has questions you can continue to reach out and thanks thanks for all you do guys yeah thank you all right because that means none of us have to well I know he's passion that's okay you're good great see you rob thanks Rob no no no that's we we understand us too okay [Laughter] okay uh well moving on in our agenda next is the update from our recent tri board meeting um I'd like to hear people's input what you thought and I think this might be an opportunity to also let Michael know what we feel we want to see at the next meeting that's happening on April 5th I think we took some notes on that um but I think especially Makita new Claudia you haven't sat in on one of these meetings be have you done a have we done a tri board meeting not not not since you've been on the select no yeah might I'm sure you've sat through so might be helpful just to give folks an overview of like sure before we start discussing okay sure I'm willing to do that so for the public who's watching to makita's point the tri board is a meeting of the select board the finance committee and the school committee we do it as part of our budget process not always it depends on how the budget process is going it's a way for us as the elected people who manage the majority of the budgets as the select board we manage the general government side the school committee they manage the the the school committee side the school budget and the finance committee they manage and help with both and it was an opportunity for Michael to give us an update on where we're at in the 2026 budget process as well as for those of us who who weren't able to attend some of the school committee budget processes to understand the challenges that our school committee is currently facing with some of their needs and increased uh requirements of some of the students they're having to educate and I think it was a productive meeting I think it was a good first step uh I took some notes so who wants to jump in I think that gives a good overview and thoughts comments uh I just if I may Madam chair I was um I was impressed with Jim uh superintendent Adams's U presentation especially when it came to uh special education and and and the the needs uh of several students uh uh that fit those those requirements and the changes I mean there's nothing there's nothing concrete I mean they have figures but those figures are constantly changing with with the needs of a student especially a new student that may move into town uh that has these these needs uh so that's a that's always a revolving door so you can never really put your finger on one figure and that's constantly changing and that's that that's a difficult boat to you know to to steer during you know a budget process um it's kind of difficult to gauge where you're going to be at a certain time frame in in a school calendar year uh especially if you have kids that are coming in Midstream uh where you already have a budget set so now you have to change that those figures all around uh so it was very educational on my on on my part anyway I hope for everybody else uh with respect to you know how difficult it is and and how uh important it is to make sure that the needs of all those students that that require that special training and special education uh is met you know forth with without any uh you know delays because it's important educate one you educate everyone and not and not leave anybody um Mike's presentation on Town side I thought was very upto date modern uh respect to you know the challenges that we face and what we meet I know some of the big challenges that Michael brought forward was uh new development which you know even though everybody thinks that you know all these things are coming up you know coming online they're already accounted for it in some respect in the budget so when you start looking at those figures that are coming in with Revenue those figures are a little bit lower than anticipated higher uh so then with say the uncertainty of what's Happening Federal level with grants and other funding that many cities and towns and States uh look you know look for the need to use uh is now in question and so that's putting things on hold for a lot of you know not just Ashland but for everyone uh with the respect to that so these are definite challenges that uh that this town is facing uh for May and hopefully there'll be some resolution with it but I thought overall presentation was very uh detailed but very concise you know it was understandable I know Mike's presentation uh is online I know Mr Adams's presentation is online in School site so if there's any questions or concerns that people don't you know totally understand just go on those sites and take a look at uh the figures are what they are and uh they don't tell a nice tale but it's it's it's they're accurate it is what it is and they're accurate and uh we have to deal with it and deal with it the best way we can and hope everybody understands that if you want want the services that you're currently getting and to continue that well it may be it may cost a little bit more than what we anticipated and uh it's just the way it is there there nothing to do that you know the economy is flux inflation is increasing and God only knows where all these actions are going to lead to down the road that just taken over in the last 60 days and and unfortunately we can't not balance our budget we have to have a balanced budget when we go to town meeting so uh who'd like to go next thoughts what you'd like to see us follow up within April I I I'll go ahead again I I I do want to say that uh you know on the town side Michael's presentation and school side uh you know school committee Jim's presentation very very clear um easy to understand I'm glad that those are online and I would encourage people to take a look at at at what what was presented uh so that folks understand Joe I think you gave a pretty accurate recap but I think the thing to understand I think on the school side and on on the town side the focusing on a school for a second you know I think that there are a lot of challenges and not just exclusive to to special education but you know I think there's some there's some challenges here um in so far as some of the policy changes that you talked about coming down from the federal government there's uncertainty at the top and at the bottom or on all sides of this thing and you know I think it's it's important for us to realize that there are a number of factors and a number of uncertainties and it's kind of hard to point at one thing um to say that this is why this is happening you know oh blame this or this that or the other thing I think that's that's not where we want to have this conversation I think the conversation it goes back to exactly you know what what Joe said you know I think folks are um accustomed to a certain level of service uh in town and we're going to have to make some very difficult decisions about priorities and you know what kinds of what kind of level ex of service will be acceptable uh to folks here in town uh on Town site School site Etc going forward um you know we don't have a crystal ball you know um I don't even have a magic a ball I gu tell you you know those are fun and people sadly do make a lot of management decisions with them I'm convinced of that but but I I'm not saying anything at all Michael but but uh despite that moment of lity levity which is greatly needed at this point uh we are facing some very Ser serious challenges here um and I think that if if we um you know the boards and and and us as towns people can approach it from from that direction um and try to try to figure out how we can how we can we can make decisions that have maximum benefit to us uh and and being able to discuss these things rationally and and um you know and and together and collectively I think that's uh that's the point That's the Way Forward um so thank you Makita Claudia yeah I just um have a few comments and thank you Joe I thought that was a really good recap as well well um you know I think one thing to think about is really even before what we're going through right now in recent the recent 60 days with all the uncertainty and and potential dramatic changes um they just even since um covid really you know the the rate of inflation has been very dramatic and you know we really haven't kept up with that in terms of how we pass it on to the community and I you know at some point that comes and you get to the wall on those things and I think that we are fast approaching that you know one of the um things that I think is significant is is items that are in the budget that we end up not funding or whatever but that are in the budget or in the budget request I should say over and over again and we're not in the position um to fund them that that's those are that's an important data point I think um and then you know finally just in terms of the school budget and Joe did a nice job of talking about um you know I think certainly the the part of the school budget that is the most challenging tends to be the special education portion I think you know it's it's hard sometimes to have conversations about that because I think that we all believe um that we want to support every CH single child that comes through our school district and make sure that they get what they need um um and you know some children need a lot more than other children and I think a lot of us live in this world and and we don't know um the severity sometimes of the needs of some of our students and so um and you know we do the right thing by them and as we should and and I think the school Department's done a tremendous job of building programs that have kept students in District and um whenever possible and providing services to them in the district um they've done certainly a dramatic um job I mean very very good job of that of being able to service our kids and educate our kids in our district whenever possible because that's where they um so I I do think we have some difficult choices ahead I think in April um and that's what we're going to need to be looking at certainly we're going to take recommendations Jim and Michael and um and have to Hash those out a little bit and understand what the impact is and then understand about how do we uh do a better job of educating the public that's that's huge Randy so you know I I completely agree with with you know with Makita and Joe and Claudia we were one of the things that is um interesting about Mr Adam's presentation is just how much they are taking into account every single little thing that they can whether it's positions that they can consolidate or it's um changes in this in in the special education um amount or transp ation which has become a big issue on the school side um you know I I know we do that on the municipal side but I I was having a conversation with Jen kind of after after we were leaving Mendes um Saturday and it was a really interesting what she said really kind of struck me was you know Jim's presentation is like a unit because the schools are pretty much contain it's a one one issue bucket what our challenge is on the municipal side is we cover so many other really important areas of of operations so and it kind of all gets lumped together into this one like thing and so you know to to the point of Education we I think we need to do a better job of like and Jen and I were kind of talking about this a little bit too and it kind of goes into the communication plan too like so how how do we break it down so people understand what the services are that we're that we're giving people like what you know what it means for our fire department and police department how many calls they take how many what what percentage of time uh Chief Robi was saying at the budget session at the at Michael's budget session that there are times where there's we we send calls out on um a mutual Aid and we're not able to completely service our community how often does that happen What happens if that like so if we were to cut and this is kind of the same thing like because I want to know you know our our dilemma is going to be how do we close that Gap how do we close that the Gap in what is going to be our the revenue that we that we need and what the revenue actually the levy kind where where we are and and the issue is the requests that have been put forward and it's not even just the requests like I I I think it's like the level of service that we provide it's not even it's not even funding we're we're not even talking about like this is not the goldplated service standard that we would love to to Aspire to this is like how do we service the community that we have because and and minus minus requests even because you know we we know that the insurance the the money for insurance is going the the cost of insurance is going up and that that in and of itself takes up a good chunk of of the increase in the levy you know so there's so little wiggle room for us to even make any of these changes um so how do we make up that Gap and and we have two choices really we either can figure out how to use onetime Revenue uh onetime funds or we cut service and so you know I think for me personally when we when we meet in April I really want to see what that cut and service would look like like like specifics and not just on the municipal side on the on the on the on the school side too because does that mean that class sizes go from 24 to 28 or 30 for for an elementary school age does that mean less electives in the high school does that mean less opportunity for our kids does that mean increased fees on busing or sports or do our trash does do we have to really look at like how do we subsidize other things on the municipal side like it it's it's going to be a challenge and and I hate fees as much as everybody else does I hate the idea of paying more into taxes I also know that that we do have a really um our community ouru our community knows they can depend on us as as a government to service their needs and I also don't I'm I'm I'm concerned about cutting services because I'm concerned what that would mean for our residents um so it's it's but part of that is like this education component how do we educate people on what what is really going on behind the scenes because people take a lot of stuff for granted a lot of stuff for granted whether it's that they can go to the library during certain hours whether it's that that um there's a food pantry in town that is town that that that is Town run um whether that there is um you know police and fire and a water treatment plant here in town like there's a lot of stuff that people just really don't don't don't know so that's that's my that's my take on it so that's sorry like you had a response or a question or a comment um I I think I lost it but I did I did have one at one point that's okay it's okay okay okay but yeah I mean I I I do want to say that you know part of what you're I think you got uh the specifics down BR of what what I think I was trying to say like it's really critical that people understand when we're like oh we have to make some hard decisions oh we need to look at Services specifically helping people to understand like what services are we talking about and what could be the potential impacts of that you know I I think people appreciate they do appreciate what government does in this town I think they do they may not understand what it takes to provide the level of service that we do and even now you know I I'm sure and my colleagues probably he like you know there's some fantastic things that we're doing in town but people need and more you know so now we're we're here and we're talking about potentially less but to your point we have to give real concrete examples of these impacts and I think that's exactly what we need to see at that April in April so that we can better to your point communicate what some of these hard choices might be and and and before I let you unless yeah okay so one of the things that I think about is having sat through this in very different ways right since you're on the school since here as a select board member being a school Committee Member and the discussion and the the idea of level Services right so we look at what we're providing this year and what would it cost us to provide exactly what we're doing now in the next fiscal year right I remember those discussions okay we're g to we're going to look at level services and what does that cost and there were times when we had to say okay well we know we're not going to be able to provide level services so we need to reduce our costs by X perc for whatever reason and we had those we would look at that okay if we if we cut by 10% what would that mean and I remember having a conversation with Michael about this he said well remember that if you decide to remove a position and remember many years ago having this discussion as a school committee member with Claudia if you decide to remove a position you don't completely save those funds because you might have to then play unemployment or things like that right and as Jim was talking about with us they have teachers that retire at a higher end and it used to be we would we knew we could bring someone in at a lower rate to as a brand new teacher or a year a teacher who' only been a couple years in the in a position but with some of the programs that we have in place thinking about languages at the schools they haven't been able to do that I mean we had some teachers who had been in positions for 25 30 years when they retired I mean I remember one in particular they couldn't find someone to replace them so they had to bring them back as a substitute yeah so I think the the big thing for the community that I would like to say is we're having these discussions but we need the input from the community we need you to take a look at those budgets we need you to say okay I like everything that's happening at the library to be able to continue to do that we might need to hire some people what does that look like I mean I looked at the local pages today there were three pages of activities going on at our library now a lot of them are virtual but someone still has to manage them and currently they're all free and and and it's funny I I was chatting about that and it's like okay well they're not really free they're free to the participants but our tax dollars are cover cover in those events and the friends pay for the friends are paying for those events as well so it's not they're not free there's no cost to the participants but they are being paid for either by Don you know the friends donations or from the library budget is that something we want to continue right you were talking about the the things that are going on in our community center our senior community center there's more stuff going on there than has been for a long time right our food pantry has expanded part of it's because there's been more need from our community I think about our holiday programs at Thanksgiving and at Christmas now granted a lot of those are managed or not managed but there are donations made to help support that but there's somebody managing that there's a position in the budget that has helped managing that so I think it's important that we get input from our community what what services are you using that you that are critical to you and I think we need to get input on that go ahead think I was going to actually ask about that too because you know I think leading up to our discussion in April it would be helpful to get that input because I think the next step on that is sort of like doing some and I'm not talking about any kind of complex econometric modeling but doing some like back of the napkin modeling about like with a few scenarios likely scenarios like if we decide to take this course of action to take the Jenga pieces out of here here what does that look like what does it mean I know we can't run we can't do like a do allar all scenario but maybe a couple of like possibly likely ones are are ones that that would would would be likely to be considered based on feedback from the community um and some of the things that that we're seeing as well you know nothing extensive like maybe two or three I don't know but that might actually help not just uh us understand impacts but will help communicate impact just a thought um just one other thing just um just to keep in mind too is that our town has the the demographics have changed in our town too oh definitely and the needs have changed in our town and so you know it's it's you know I think you know for instance I know that our um like our Police Department is doing a lot more with mental health like there's a lot more mental health component there's a lot of social work that's happening both in the police and at the community center and those are needs that are from what I gather growing in our community it's essential and so and in society right and in society so so you know we talk about the food pantry and you know that's that's part of it too it's like how how do we meet the needs of the the residents as they are now and so it's not necessarily about like just cutting programming in one spot it's it's really I I mean I think we really do need to to kind of make sure that um that you know because even you know jened made this point the other day and even if you know those needs are not going to go away so if we don't service those people it's just going to to shift it to another place whether people come to town hall whether it's people are showing up at the library because they have no place to go and the library is a great place for that but like they're not getting services at the library so it's it's it's that kind of that's such an excellent point just because and and I think I'm going to say it louder for the people in the back just because you cut the budget line it doesn't make the problem go away if anything it just displaces it EXA it may displace it or exacerbate it so that's that's I mean that was wonderfully put Brandy and I think that's something all of us as a community have to keep in mind as we go into this process and and if I if I may Madam chair sure um with respect to how the how the budget is is designed um Michael and his management team Financial team over the years have uh taken a a serious conservative approach to to the to the budget and um it only goes to show uh as a result of our AAA rating and U it's not like we're spending money haphazardly far from it if anything we have a very good um eye on on the on the on the ball as to what's going on and where the money is being spent and how it's being spent um we're just very cautious about where the money's are coming from and this year even more so uh with the way the state is you know making their decisions as to the type of revenues we'll see on our Cherry sheets and what's going to happen uh with the federal funding uh if we see any at all uh that's definitely going to come into play and I and I think people need to realize that okay there are serious going to be some serious hard decisions that need to be made and to bry's point what services do you want you want level Services well okay it's going to cost us a little more we have monies that are available those onetime fees the one time fundings that we have we call it the rainy day funding that we have that's available well if it's anything it's corn buckets out there pretty soon so we we need to make sure that we grow we do everything we have to to make sure this budget is balanced as as stated earlier and we make sure that it goes through the the services that everyone is is looking forward to and and there a they're accustomed to and it doesn't come without a fortunately okay we need just need to do that just a just a couple of points um you know in in terms of how to maybe engage the community a little bit I mean I think one thing might be maybe in Michael's newsletter to maybe some kind of a ser surve that just U asks gives a list of services and asks people to maybe to check all that they use yeah um be a good idea you know something along those lines and then the other thing that to me is very different this year and Joe you just touched upon this um that causes me great concern is that you know I feel like in in days when I've been involved in pretty heavy budget discussions um it you kind of you kind of had an idea of the direction and everything was going but I feel these days are so the uncertainty around what we are currently doing as a country um and the impact of things like tariffs and you know everything I hear is expect that the average family to have an additional $2,000 next year to pay for um some of these these as a result of some of these tariffs if if and and I just think some of the some of the things that are going on it's even very challenging to try to even predict what's going on so now we're trying to make some decisions when we really don't know what the future looks like and when we think about using one-time funds and you you know you're always gambling when you're using one-time funds because if that money doesn't come back then then you've got to make it up and I can remember being on the school committee and laying off a a teacher mid year because um we lost some funding and so you know these are it it's it's tough because I feel like there's an additional lay this year because we don't really know what the future I would agree with you on that I definitely think that because of what's going on at the federal level I mean I I've never heard questions about Title One monies coming through like we did Saturday with on Saturday and I think Jim bringing up the point about their revolving accounts and how much they're using but not knowing what's coming in I think that's important to just think about that so a couple things and then Michael has some comments I know we heard from uh someone on the school committee and finance committee wanting to look at the general government revolving funds so I think we want to see that um stabilization fund balances I think that would be good to know you know what is our rainy day fund balance at um and I think the other thing that I think is going to be important because there's a lot of new people sitting there is also just review our current Financial policies and you and I talked about this so we have some specific Financial policies about where the burden lies if we get additional funding but also where the burden lies if our funding gets cut so it's I think everyone that's sitting there at at the meeting I think it's important maybe we get it out to them beforehand but can have a discussion one of the things we talked about was possibly changing and looking at the special ed stabilization fund right as as Paul Kendall said it currently has a a cap that we thought was going to be enough but seeing what we're seeing now in those special education out of District costs and you know not being able to meet those we might need to increase that so that's something that we need to look at one positive or something that is being discussed at the state level is they are looking at trying to increase Chapter 70 to hold certain communities harmless from some of the changes and trying to increase that um there's also been discussion that they want to fully fund circuit breaker and they're trying to make that part of the budget unfortunately I still think the whole circuit breaker calculation is a joke because you still need to as a community support up to $40,000 of the CH the costs for that um so I don't think that'll change this year but I think one thing I've heard through different organizations that I'm a part of is there's got to be discussion about two and a half right and the fact that we can only raise taxes two and a half percent what does that mean um how does that impact excluded debt there's also been discussion about the whole building schools building public buildings how how can that be looked at as a state to support I mean we as a community have just built a school we've just built a public safety building so any changes we're not going to really benefit from in the near future but how can that be looked at okay Michael you had some comments I'll try I'll try in the interest of time but I I got a feeling if I don't say anything you guys will be disappointed so I don't want that to happen um so I think uh just I had a few points and I'll try to make them quickly just really to kind of go back to the special education discussion because I think you all made some good points and I think you know what I heard um on Saturday and and Jim and I talk about this constantly is you know with special education the the the problem if you will is not necessarily that we have to spend the money um it's it's that we it's it's very hard for us to plan because you could have a kid you know come in in the middle of the semester that you hadn't necessarily planned for and so that's really kind of where where the challenge is it's not the kid itself right it's it's it's it's the timing and the unknown that's really kind of where where the challenges are related to that um that should almost be State funding you know oh and much more significant something something something I've always said about circuit breaker and special education cost and i' I've mentioned this to a few people I'd like to say okay what are our special education costs in our community right and and I don't know offand what they are but what if as a state instead of doing the full you know the crazy Chapter 70 funding where you get this percentage or that percentage every Community goes here are special education costs and just find those because it's very possible that if they fully funded our special education costs we'd probably be okay or closer to okay right rather than this convoluted formula of this and that and so many kids and then it doesn't matter what level your community is at there's this there there's these mandates of special education that you have to do to do stuff in in and and it would still incentivize communities to try and keep their costs low like we've done to keep our programs in house but it would also maybe then say to the state okay some of these programs that get to increase their fees by 18% that no one is controlling maybe the state would look at that well in the other thing that's a big issue with special education right now and it was you know is that yeah Transportation but the other thing is part of the reason it's they can't we can't even get kids placed at times right yep right that that had never happened until probably four years ago maybe where you would struggle to find a placement for a child who really needed some extra support they did you brought that up Saturday so I mean that's uh another good point so so just a couple other things I think you know some of the analysis that you're asking for um can certainly be done I it can't be done by April 5th though and that brings me to I think a bigger point I think we're we're literally two months out from town meeting right I do think we haven't even had like a fincom like our our hearings with fincom and I think you know some of the the challenges that we're having with the finance department kind of you know makes things a little bit complicated I will say most of the discussions that we're having it sounds like given where we are in the FY 26 budget cycle is probably more suited to the FY 27 budget cycle I think this year given what we've got I think we're going to have to make a plan basically to do to use the onetime funds I'm going to come up with a scenario and I'm going to ask the department heads that like if you needed to cut by 10% like what would that what would that look like so I've got to kind of like have some baseline okay um so that's one point I wanted to make um honestly at the end of the day if you can think of this thing as a quadrant you know four boxes and one being you know one one axis being you know whether something is easy and hard and then the other being whether it's simple or complex this is a very simple problem that is very hard it's a hard thing to solve okay you just don't have enough Revenue coming in to cover the expenses right that's the bottom line and and the thing is if you know yeah and and I don't usually do you know like to do this but if and we hear this from people right okay if it's my personal budget if I don't have enough Revenue to cover what I want to spend I have to cut my spending or you find ways to get more or you find ways to increase your Revenue one of the two right either you say okay this is what I'm making so this is what I'm going to spend or you say okay this is what I want to spend I need to make extra yeah right so we need to and and and I expect for this year it's going to be a balance of the two I think we going to have to look at saying okay maybe there there's a request to add somebody new some place we say okay we're not going to do that but we're going to make sure everything else stays the same in your department I think finding that balance I think if we have a good understanding of where our funds are at right our rainy day fund our goal is 10 we obviously do all that stff I think we're above that right aren't we no we stay right at 10 okay so yeah but that tells me that if we use some of that right if we and and and the thing that always gets me not gets me but we need to understand is we put it in the budget right so we budget x amount but the last couple of years we've had a fair amount of free cash actually every year we've been here I I think we've had almost two million in free cash yeah weed not free and it's not cash but yeah we try to keep it at the do this does warrant some some explanation Madam chair it does um and actually Yolanda and I did a great video that explains this yes there you go um people can take a look at it um but do think yeah that's so and and I and that's the part that I always want to I I go back to right is we we're we're saying we have this gap between our revenue and our potential expenses and then I mean we won't we don't know yet for 2025 but in 24 we had some additional revenue and because of our potential expenses but then we had that and and basically it's we performed below budget in regards to our expenses right that's what free cash is your budget exit or the revenue came in high or the revenue came in higher right either you said okay you didn't spend as much and your Revenue increased and that's where that free cash comes from um so I think those are all things to look at as we move forward and I think we as a board as well as with school committee and finance have to determine how much of that re how much of that cash that's sitting there in our rainy day funds and other funds funds are we willing to use or are we willing to apply to our budget in case we need it in fiscal year 26 yeah so we'll we'll come up with with something um for you know the the board to to consider and contemplate one one thing um I do want to point out and I think I did make this point in Saturday is that I know we talk about the things that we've added right but I think it's really important to note if you start from way further behind than other people and you add oh yeah you know I think that needs to be well exactly so let's just say so we have three people at the senior center right let's just say we have those we'll go with them like three people at the senior center and maybe 10 years ago we only had one right but if 10 years ago you know another Community had five right and they're at like seven and that's what and that's the services that they can you know they're able to provide those Services I I think I think we need to kind of keep that in mind one way to highlight that is to show recurring requests for certain things right right that it means it's been we are behind because we didn't we haven't funded it when we needed to the problem I think I think where we're we're going to kind of shoot ourselves in the foot on this is that we have found ways to do very similar things with a lot less people well that's we don't want to be victims of our success that's that that's something that that to your point Michael right is we're as a town most people would go my services are being met right my kids are getting educated at the school but they don't understand the impact that it has on the people who are actually are actually providing having do to do this which can impact quality of delivery deliver you you know long term it will impact quality so you know you talk about schools you talk about this you talk about that like you know um you know there's no free lunch you know no something for nothing you know there's always a cost I think two things related to data I'll make that point in the one last Point um we met yesterday just some of the staff to go over some of the data requested um on Saturday that we talked about and some of the other things that we can add and I think we can add a lot more uh a a color and and context the data that we presented just by adding some other pieces like for example when you look at inflation and you look at constant dollars on our tax levy well how much has eggs gone up the whole you know what does that look like for people too um and then finally um Claud I think you had mentioned something about it'd be oh it' be great if maybe it was you Makita something about a survey the yeah I I like that idea adding it to your newsletter so so we we did do a question a couple newsletter episodes ago like how that people feel about the direction of the town was and again these aren't scientific right but overwhelming overwhelmingly over 80% was positive so that was really good um but to Claudia's point and I think that's a great idea is what services do you use do you go to the library do you go to the senior center we need that for the analysis piece the communication would be helpful it's going to be interesting though because like if you have like the fire department like you're not calling the fire department you're not going to use the fire department unless you need them and so you don't NE might NE not necessarily need them and you might not have necessarily used them right two questions maybe there's a question which services do you use and then there's a second question that says that asks for Value you place on questions or it might be two different weeks questions right or or what or maybe it's what services have you used in the last 12 months right because if you've had an emergency in the last 12 months you might have used the fire department right so if you don't might like I mean we can come up couple options and I'd love to bounce it off of you I would actually say also that there are like very likely that other municipalities have put out similar surveys there's really no reason to reinvent the wheel we could probably steal I meanor surprised replicate instruments from share yes that's what I'm looking for other municipalities that and and tailor it to our our needs say that right and the final point is I I feel like there's two categories of data that we we always um we always talk about we don't talk about them in categories but I think they're both important so we talk about the fact that we need to know what people value and also what people what kind of community want to be what kind of services do they want to have okay so we get that the next question is going to be if if just speaking as you know taxpayer is like well then how do I know you can't do that with your existing resources right right and so that's where that value piece comes in that I'm always harping on right so exactly so I think we just got to think of both both data points and um and yeah have answers for it all okay you know a lot of people in town probably don't realize that the Ashland Public Library almost lost its um certification certification absolutely oh yeah because of you know the lack of you know funding yeah the lack of resources it was it was a very dark time and you know people were very outspoken as to what they wanted Joe I'm sure there are people in our community who did not realize that there were two three years where we had no Librarians in our School cor I bet you community now wasn't here was correct right well that's my point that's my point we have a lot of new people that's it if you look at the or Claudia made the point that you know oh I think it might have been Brandy you know the demographics in this town have changed dramatically you know we have a lot of new families in town well and we also have a different um income bracket right it Ami has gone up too right but but also I remember a couple years ago before everyone was getting free lunch uh free and reduced lunch I remember hearing from Mr Adams that the number of students that were on free and reduced lunch had increased right yep who would think that who would who would right at this stage of the game would think here in in this community and in years past you know a lot of the condo groups uh didn't have a lot of children or families in there now these families are staying in these units and the associations are seeing that and it's impacting you know their their quality of life with respect to that and you know they're worried about the safety and everything that's going on with you know within the individual you know associations so yeah there there's a big change and one of the things Michael you brought up a couple of years back um and and the reason why I I think of it right now is that I just opened up my mail and I got my excise tax bill and I'm the person you think of when you open your no but no well my point was that you we got more excise tax than we anticipated last year last year yeah and and you know who's to say that can happen again this year Well we factored the higher number in okay so hopefully it comes in right maybe people are going to go out and buy new cars before they go up in price tariffs before the tariffs you never know so we won't see that this year but next year right which is one of the reasons we saw increased excise right because when interest rates were low and people were buying yeah okay so great discussion and again to the Community Reach Out read Michael's newsletter reach out to any of us to say what do you value what are you concerned about what do you want to see because it's important that we have your feedback uh so I think Michael you have a enough information if you think of anything else make sure you you know let Michael know if you want other data or whatever or something like that so great well thank you for that discussion everybody uh moving on regarding discussion communication plan and response from for select board so the actual communication plan was not included in our packet that it was supposed to be so we're going to push that part out to our next meeting but which is not bad because actually we got okay um but there's been some different comments so I just want each of you to think about if you have a few minutes now what are what are you seeing so that as they talk about that community that plan on Friday what are you seeing or feeling is missing from either what's going out or what's on our website or how we're interacting with communication to the community no I mean we we don't have the that that plan but just you know let's get that feedback and we can give it to Michael and then we can go from there well I know a couple of things that that you know have I know that I expressed concern about one was when we get an email right who's responding what are they saying and you know I just it's it's hard to um get an email and not respond especially you know that was something I always have taken pride in is being responsive okay so I it feels like we we've addressed that y um the other thing is the website is very challenging to use um and that was improved a couple years ago has it been no because it's been since bry's it was like brandy second or third year on the board that it got was it your yeah yeah 21 but it wasn't it wasn't a a like a complete refresh and part of the issue is is making sure that the the content is easily accessible and and kept up to date and you know utilizing the homepage and things like that yeah and and I think too like the search function fun doesn't I don't know doesn't seem to work really really well and I'm not sure that would be a sort of a standard Google thing so I'm on some level I'm a little surprised about that but um there it there's something there um and then I think it would be pretty simple to to have like a I mean you know on the back end it's basically a spreadsheet and after there's any meeting there's a link pasted there for um for the meeting so you could go in and easily find if you wanted to review a meeting um you mean the video of it yeah the video of it I mean I think we have any videos on the of meetings on the website do we bring them over our right planning does yeah and I think that I think I like that idea you know the other thing maybe to think about too is do do we offer a transcript right who was it is it you Joe somebody said to me today that they hadn't watched something but they' read the transcript people do that now I said that about the the speech last night yeah yeah we I mean I I I see that all the time that if if I don't want to listen to something a podcast I can get the transcript the transcript you know that's a good option is that some some you know that might be a little bit further down the road but is that something that we want to offer transcript of a meeting from usability not the minutes necessarily but an actual word for word transcript so that you just you know read through and with AI right now it's it's getting a lotas entirely possible and it's happening it's happening absolutely I mean that's that's how these other organizations are doing yeah yeah it gives you the bullet points things you want to work on I mean it's very cool okay what else so what else were your points Claudia um I think you know those were the highlights I mean I think the the website's the biggest deal yeah okay um and also Makita yeah I think um just a couple of things I'd like to see out of the communication plan like a little um um I could I could talk about one tactical thing um definitely some more expansion and some ideas around utilizing social media uh talking to not being more looking at like um everything from like being more responsive or how we can be responsive to inquiries over social media how we can make sure that we are getting correct information to folks over social media uh addressing misinformation and disinformation um and kind of you know of course with social media also reach you know I see that we've got a a Tik Tok I guess now know but um for how long that lasts legally but but um but um but really sort of taking kind of a strategic look about not just how but how how when and why we are uh pushing to pushing and responding to information across all channels um the the the only other thing I'd like to add is that I think um there should be some kind of a public component for communic a with select board not necessarily emailing us individually but like even an opportunity in some of our kind of more mass communications like you know ask select board this or you know something like that and so like the board can can field fre I I won't say FAQs but like lots of questions like we we we'll probably get over the next you know because we're going to budget like a lot of the same kinds of questions coming up like it would be great if we could just ask the select board and then one of us those and responds exactly you know on issues that like from a policy standpoint that we are in concurrence with you know just so we can you know kind of be responsive that way in a a more public facing uh way as well just to let folks know so just not to one of the things we have to be careful of is someone sends a a question right similar now with email right someone sends something in as the chair I respond how I feel is appropriate and I do it pretty generically because I don't um and that would be a similar thing if we you know do an ask the select board member right how do you how do you make sure that either one if if we just you know maybe we have to discuss it and then someone can post something yeah maybe that's it something we look at yeah yeah maybe that's how we do it sure go ahead yeah so just as a suggestion maybe when we're looking at kind of redoing the website we have a section on the select Board site that's like an ask the select board corner right and what they could what people could do is they could send like questions to you know Susan or me your Jen or Diane and we can get it to you guys and get your answers on it and then like kind of distill it into one answer if that makes sense and post it up there does that make sense newsletter that's a great idea Claudia because that's more responsive select board yeah like you know Town newsletter the select board corner select board a question yeah ask the select board a feature I love that select board Corner whatever you okay yeah but um but yeah just kind of more kind of a also just sort of a strategic look at at how we're how we're managing Communications what we're communicating when why all these sort of things across all these channels that's what I'd like to see Andor Brandy comments so I would agree with Claudia about the website um I think that hting our links to meetings is it like recordings is a really would be would be good and I think that should be for all boards actually because my issue always is is if I'm going if I like if I'm looking for if I hear about something that happened at the planning board planning board is usually pretty good about things meetings that they they post some a lot of stuff on their website um so they're probably not the best the best one but say when I went back to look at the first um zba meeting on 10 to 60 Main Street I couldn't find the recording and it's it's like then I'm going on wacka and I'm trying to find it and it's literally it's the most brutal it actually really is the most brutal process because I actually have a suggestion for that but go ahead keep going but to find the right town the right meeting the right format and the right date like you're really you just you cross your fingers and you hope for the best so it would be great to have like to have recordings of all of our all meetings posted up on the website um and then the other thing too is is I would love to have some sort of bulletin board feature on our website where like where groups if they have vacancies if they have if they're looking for people like there's some way to to get that out there on our website um because I think that would be helpful to when we have um volunteer positions we're looking to to fill or even like the farmers market is looking for people like there has to be some sort of process obviously they can't just post willy-nilly because then we get in trouble but um I would love to see some sort of interactivity of the main the main home page on the website and then um social media like I'm I'm curious what our kind of how we what our philosophy is how organizations reach out to us as a town to be posted on on like Instagram and Facebook and things like that like what's that process look like um we really do need that social media presence like Instagram and that and I think we just because that's way people and just to make sure and just to make sure people like if if people need to get information out about something that they know what the process looks like to H to how the town can help support that if it's something that is kind of more related yeah so a clear process that people can follow that we can communicate lot sense maybe to help move that along we could even you know Michael could send out in when he communicates with um with staff right just have a little blurb at the bottom is there anything that you would like to push out right you do that yeah every Monday we say we do that every Monday okay yeah and then it goes to the communic sometimes they're pushing monthly yeah yeah it stays pretty active that channel yeah so so one of the things I would like you to look at is waca does a great job right but if you go to waca on their YouTube station it's very hard to find stuff right so why doesn't Ashland Town of Ashland have a YouTube page so instead of storing everything on our website which then could block you know bog down the website or make it difficult if we had a Ashland Town you know town of Ashland YouTube page and when you go there you can hit select board and it has select board meetings and it has I mean it's it would take some time and someone would have to manage that but once it's set up we can just say to waca okay here's our rather than just leaving it on the waca YouTube channel it comes to the town of Ashland YouTube channel and it's select board planet and any board that has recorded meetings and maybe we could work with waca to bring some of the history so that people could access it and it would be on the on the website instead of having to have all of these things you can say go to the town of Ashland YouTube page to see all these meetings but then you still have to have it organized somehow that's you still have to have you don't have to do any of that all we need to do is get a link to a record every recording is get the link from wacka right and then I mean I then you basically you design a you know the web page using a spreadsheet or whatever and all it shows is okay these are the selectboard meetings these are the planning board meetings we're saying just have the link it's just it depends like which approach is going to be the easiest to implement I think that's that's the question I think we're you're we're both singing the same song we just need to figure out what key it's in so you know I think if we do a little analysis on that and figure that out then do a little research where make more sense exactly and then go with that do we have a Communications office we have we have a Communications like team person and and then so why couldn't we utilize those individual so they we are and they're going to come before us with with their Communications plan okay so now remember you know Beth was brought on as the economic development director right and then as things changed and then we brought on someone to work with her to do some Communications that has now changed Beth is going to be doing more communication and um Jordan is going to do more events so I think so I think this these comments and suggestions can go to their they're having a meeting on Friday go into that and hopefully we can hear when when they give us a communication just say if that's what we already have available then well but they're doing more than just Communications right like you know the city of Framingham has a Communications person Y and they manage all the communication going out from the community okay so that's fine okay have we given you enough stuff to think about resources I was going to say you got a lot going on for Friday you know again doesn't have if it doesn't make sense but I think we can accomplish a lot of what you're talking about yeah I think um we might we might get to it a different different way a slightly different way but I think we can get to it great okay anything else on that are we good okay wonderful moving forward update on the dog park and the bid results Jen please so we had a bid opening um probably been about a week um so it was one of our larger sort of responses we received 22 bids um was an awful lot um and it ranged from the low bid being 47,9 to 1.12 million so pretty right range uh many of the folks sort of fell in that 550 sort of range it was probably about 10 uh biders uh We've checked references on the low bid and and got some good response um we are a little concerned in terms of how tight um the budget is so right now we have $215,000 um from CPA funds that were awarded I guess two no all of 23 yep um and then also you know we are hoping to receive the Stanton Grant of 250,000 um as soon as we sort of move through this process and so that gives us 465,000 um for the project and so I'm trying to carry a decent contingency because we know when we did Memorial uh drive we did hit some ledge and there is some site work um and also case we have to build there's a boulder wall in the back that sort of separates the sort of more manicured part with The Rock and the more natural piece um and so we did get unit cost for both ledge and rock carrying a decent contingency and then the other thing we did uh on the recommendation of our designer was I we pulled out all the Furnishings you know this shade structure the benches um the water bubbler the trash receptacles because we can get a discount with direct bu off a state contract could potentially save around 10% budget tight and so I have estimates for those around somewhere between 40,000 probably 50,000 all said and done um and then we would have to coordinate um with our contractors so they would actually install it we're just s supplying it um and saving fund so a little bit more front end work on the procurement piece but hopefully it will uh yield a decent savings so I met with the dog park committee yes last night um sort of just talking about you know how we want to approach it given how tight thinking the project will actually come in probably around 5 I think 20 yeah 525 is what we're so have a little bit of contingency in case um and so there has been some discussion with see um meeting after um and so we're going to do a little bit of work around that maybe maybe requesting funds for May 60 yeah and so I have to work with st Grant like all of it has to sort of line up we have a little bit of work to do on our end but we'll have an update um as we closer to meeting and I just want to I mean being a member of the dog park committee um I just want to thank Jen publicly and the committee is fortunate to have Jen working for the dog park and it's one of those things where I know a year ago Michael was like nope we need to we need to stop it and we would have lost half our funding because we are probably going to be one of the last dog parks that the Stanton Foundation funds so thank you for those who supported us last year moving it forward thank you for Jen for staying on this through three designers and where where we're putting it and stuff like that so it it is moving I it's going to move forward we're hoping to break ground in the spring hoping by the Fall we'll have a dog park um so just I just want to publicly thank you Jen for all the work and effort you've put into it because uh we are hearing from people they want the dog park we're in the process right the dog park is working with a subcommittee to get people who are willing to be volunteers to help do the maintenance because that is one of the requirements is that the dog park committee brings in volunteers to make sure the poop is picked up to make sure the poop bags are taken from inside of the park to outside of the park um but it's it's a it's a it's a we we've had people step up they were actually having a meeting tonight as we were meeting to talk about it so there are people who are interested so if you're interested in helping maintain the dog park reach out to the dog park committee um because I think it's when it's done I say poop at home poop it home there you go if if only we could require that Claudia tagline poop at home'll put that in yeah we'll put that in the brochure poop at home Ash welcome to ashy poop at home put it right on the welcome s i that's good yeah hold it as you're going through oh I like that too you too can pick up poop I like that one that's a good one okay anyway is there a Sunset date we're they're we are expecting them to no longer be funding these organizations so no we have to sign we will start construction yes and and because of how they do it they say okay we're we're funding you we're funding you this amount here's your check so but I mean we definitely are going to do this right it's not like we're going to but yeah so the that's the that's the the issue we're dealing with is we have to get to that and get it approved in the check fairly soon and then we'll start construction great okay uh moving forward review and discuss the open meeting law complaint dated March 3rd 2025 piled by filed by step Morgan regarding executive session minutes uh we've all seen the open meeting law complaint um as we went to do our executive session we did a review we had meeting minutes that we had decided not to release they've now been approved in executive session they have a couple of updates so in our March meeting we will be able to release them um and yeah anything else you want to say about it Michael okay okay moving on let's see town meeting warrant articles Jen you're up again or is Michael taking this one no no Jen yeah yeah so um we have received I haven't started sort of putting the warrant together yet but um have received a couple notices one obviously from um the historical commission which was discussed previously um we may have three um CPA one obviously the dog park we just talked about um one project for uh Cadillac paint turning into the ash um and then also uh the town clerk's office has requested some funds to do some historical preservation of Records um so working through that so and then obviously our normal um articles and then um we may have three bylaws from planning board so they're working on an uh accessory dwelling unit bylaw there which Lisa spoke about earlier um there's a flood plane change from FEMA and it's a small change to our bylaw in our maps and so they're working on that as well as just clean up to their site plan review bylaw it's just really sort of right now the special permit and the site plan review language doesn't match up and there's some language about a community meeting as opposed to a required public hearing straightforward so other than that um it'll be more of the standard sort of obviously budget I haven't I haven't done all the regular ones yet so I I don't know yet but then our next meeting I'll have a I'll have a draft Yeah okay wonderful thank you for that Jen uh so just a couple of notes reminder the baa Grant and select board Grant application process is open submission are due by March 28th 2025 Susan Roby let me know that she had specifically sent out emails and personal invitations to anyone that has applied in the last I think she said two years so the last four either four or six Grant Cycles uh so that's that the select board scholarship opportunity is open to any graduating senior from graduating high school senior from Ashland you don't have to attend Ashland high school but you do have to live here in Ashland for that uh we have a number of volunteer just really quick about the the scholarship we're doing two scholarships at $2,000 each correct okay y just to clarify and at our um um I guess we can talk about it now I don't know Joe and Claudia if you'd like to be our subcommittee again as you were last year or I would be okay Claudia would you like to continue with that wonderful good um we don't have to vote that but if you guys are willing to do that wonderful thank you thank you uh volunteer opportunities our community preservation committee have two seats one is a Housing Authority member and the other is a select board appointment they did have someone at their meeting last night who was interested so we'll see what happens there Conservation Commission has a seat Council on Aging has three seats so actually I think now that's probably two because we just reduced them to seven open space and wreck has a seat storm water advisory has a seat sustainability has a seat next page and design review but that's a planning board appointment but if you're interested in architecture and design Reach Out fill that out and that will be uh reviewed by the planning board winter parking ban is still in effect until March 31st which means no on street parking from 2: a to 6: a.m.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
order at 6:00 we have a quarum the first thing on the agenda is the selection of a chairperson and before we select the chairperson I would just like to say I think at this stage of all our committees it sort of hurt us to select another person that have started out with the committee you know because first of all when you ch in a committee you have to have the time the availab ability to put into what you need to put into that committee and I'm not saying I just think it's better hold us like this is March almost at the half of the scho the school year is over to select a different person so at this time I would put forward to uh select Kate as the chairperson of the uh policy committee and I need a motion to that affection I make that motion that U Kate become the chairperson of this committee uh in there other any one else would like to chair this committee no but I second it okay so we don't have anybody Teresa second okay thank you Teresa okay all those in favor could I hear I I I I okay okay so we move on and I turn it over to Kate thank you very much glattus um and thank you everybody for the opportunity to chair this committee again um before we get going on the agenda uh is there a Committee Member who is available to uh take the minutes this evening please I do need somebody to do that I'll do I'll do it all right thank you very much Michelle I appreciate sorry I'm off camera you got it that's okay no problem um so uh Michelle if you need information about the first part of that meeting I did take a couple notes real quick so I'll be happy to relay those after the meeting okay okay all right um so Kelly thank you again for pulling together the agenda for this evening's meeting um as we have been doing we're going to continue with the 5,000 series um and we're going to start off with policy 5114 suspension expulsion and student due process oh my gosh okay so here is the model policy from cab on suspension expulsion and due process it is quite a lengthy policy that matches um exactly with rules and regulations and current Connecticut state statute um so I will um put it up for a moment see if there's any questions about particular sections and certainly if you want me to camera myself to walk you through it uh with an overview we'd be happy to do [Music] that make it a larger okay oh God okay give me one second for is that easier for people to say yeah I can see I'm okay thank you can I ask a question sure what are the changes the uh policy objectives number two is that what they're calling was it restorative practice is that the term um so there are definitely um restorative practices as highlighted under the objectives under number four um really number two is equity and fairness so basically making sure that we're Equitable that we're consistent that we're not displaying biases um in any of our disciplinary practices um so number two does not explicitly speak to that but number four under the policy objectives does thank you sorry about that that's okay no Teresa that's why we are here to ask questions uh Kelly I have a question um so um under number okay policy objectives number four guidelines number three um so by July we well we have a mandate about restorative practices is this where we are going to include that yeah yes oh I'm sorry this no I apologize I thought you were done with the question did you want to say anything else Wanita before I respond so is there another policy um like School climate is there someplace else where restorative practices um might be mentioned and a and more and a bit more detail on um training um I I know that this is the expulsion and suspension part so I'm looking to find out if it's somewhere else in policy also they're definitely as this new mandate is coming down you will see the restorative practices terminology um reflected in upcoming additional policies um so more particular to uh training um requirements around professional development and so forth um this one this one is just referencing it as one factor or consideration under uh disciplinary action um so that's why it's here but you will also see it in upcoming policies in different places thank you Teresa does that mean we're going to get rid of uh exposion hearings um so uh the I think the intent of all of this is um clearly communicating guidelines making sure we're fair and Equitable making sure everyone knows what is expected to try to intervene on the lowest level possible to prevent disciplinary actions um but this policy very clearly outlines that there are certain situations in which despite all of these um proactive approaches that discipline is appropriate and warranted including an up to expulsions um so the hope is uh Teresa that we will be decreasing um the number in need in that area but certainly um there are legal requirements behind of which an expulsion would be appropriate thank you Michelle oh thanks so are there changes from the older the prior version to this one are there any changes that we should be looking at or you can highlight sure um I will say that the changes between these two Poli IES is really bringing it up with um current regulations and guidelines so more explicit um the guidelines that are outlined here including references to things like restorative practices is new um uh or more explicit in this policy I should say um there uh I in my opinion I think the outline on clear expectations and Communications to families um and then it does a little bit more detailed um or explicit description of expulsions um and so those are the areas um in particular but that the two policies it's not really one you could do a match for match um because there have been some substantial changes I think the essence of the policy is very similar with our current practices but this new um update from cab uh definitely um is more explicit and in variety of different areas to help people to better understand the rules and regulations Teresa sorry oh I'm sorry just a seconda a follow yeah I'm sorry I just was hoping that it would be a little bit more cut clear cut because you know obviously a word even you know can change a lot um I didn't I didn't realize that it wasn't you know kind of like what we've been doing and we just kind of add a little twist or we say this isn't a requirement do we want to adopt it so I didn't have a chance to really look at what we're looking to change so that's all sorry if you would like me to pull up the former policy I could um but as I said that this one is much more substantial in explaining the details and and significance of the disciplinary procedures the expulsion process um it doesn't fundamentally change when we expel students um but I think it the intent behind it is to be much more detailed and descriptive Teresa did you want to ask a question um so these are C this is a c policy this is not a state requirement this is redone by C so this is a c policy but this policy is a legally required policy um so you have to have an expulsion on this topic here so this is a model that's been written by cab that coincides with the law and requirement there are other um agencies like Shipman and Goodwin that write their version of a policy um but this is one that the Board of Ed must have it's not a choice policy when you say we must have according to who Connecticut state law okay Michelle um just one more question I know we've had some expulsions and you know while we're talking amongst board members we've you know spoke about different things that we might want to implement to just you know as far as policy is this where we would um Implement that or would that be later like we have you know we've talked about where you know I think we've spoken past I'll jump in if you don't mind k um I think when we when we talk about sort of the specifics of how these policies are carried out that's that's under the jurisdiction of the administration our role here in setting the policy is to make sure that whatever guiding principles that we're applying align with um what the state requirements are and that's typically why we follow the cave policy here but if we're digging into like the some of the specifics of you know individual circumstances or if we're digging into you know the specifics of how the administration um executes the the principles of the policy um that doesn't really fall under the authority of the policy committee or the board okay perfect thank you for that any other questions from committee members um any questions from other folks on the the call here all right seeing none I'm looking for a motion to bring uh policy 5114 to the board for a first read please can someone please make a motion that we recommend policy 51 revised 51 policy 5114 uh for a first read to the full Board of Education please I make that motion and I'll second it thank you Al thank you Terry uh all those in favor please signify by saying I I I any opposed motion so carries thank you you all right Kelly did you want to move down to 51142 one extracurricular academic eligibility and there's a a note here about a revision discussion so if you could elaborate yeah so I'm going to pull up the existing policy right now for this one um this is not a mandatory policy so this is one that we can elect to have let me just apologize I have to zoom in each time um please remind me if there's reading um so this is one that we have let me try that again my apology thank you sorry thank you very much uh this policy is our extracurricular uh policy and it's particularly around um academic eligibility um meaning that students who participate in extracurriculars so after school sports clubs um Athletics different activities uh that as a district we expect them to have a a certain level of academic uh preparation or success um so really speaks to failures in courses so on so forth would not meet the criteria for extracurricular eligibility um there is a more detailed policy that is related for uh to our CIA rules that we will review actually in our next policy meeting which is specific to eligibility for sports so I do just want to alert you that a more detailed policy on that is forthcoming um but this is meant for any other club or other extracurricular activities um the question here uh for the policy committee is if we want to put any reference in this policy to uh discipline um related to eligibility for extracurricular activities um so that is one thing that we could Infuse in the policy as well um the second and that was a recommendation from um the cab policy audit for consideration um the other uh is just to bring to everyone's attention that this is not required policy um so for example uh for those of you that have participated in um expulsions for instance um that prohibits students from participating in extracurricular activities right when there's an expulsion in place they lose the eligibility or access to that similarly if you are suspended at a school on a particular day you do not participate in the extracurricular on that day um so that is already embedded in some of our disciplinary uh codes and policies so kind of two questions on the table do we feel the need to continue this policy to to explicitly state that we expect students to demonstrate academic um a certain level of academic expectation to partake in extracurriculars um do we want to include a disciplinary recommendation or or disciplinary Clause um if we want to it can be included in this policy or do we feel the need uh to have this extra policy because it's already embedded or covered in our other policies so I will turn it over to everyone for a discussion committee what are your thoughts Mich what are your thoughts um oh go ahead did you say that um somebody who is not doing you know is not um showing progress successfully cannot take this extracurricular activ is that what we're saying like if you're not doing well is this a summer school program is this within the school year like I think I'm this is meant for after school clubs and activities um and there is no spe specific um the policy is WR written pretty generically to be very honest which leaves some room for interpretation um uh and it just says suitable level of academic preparation and success so indicating to our students and families that we expect you to be um performing in school but it does not say you must maintain a c average or better um like I said for academic um sorry for C rules for our our athletic teams there are very strict rules around that which is why it's a completely separate policy okay thank you Bita hi um so just in Reading uh the policy I think it's um you say generic I say very vague to show evidence that there is successful progress progress um is to me sometimes individualized and um may not be as much for one student as it is for other but they are successful in their own right um and so I I find that where it says show evidence of successful progress in their educational plan um to be a bit bit vague um and just to note that extracurricular activities for some of our students is what um keeps them connected um and engaged in the school community so I just want to put that out there I completely agree with you other committee members any thoughts on this policy so I do want to just um sort of acknowledge that a lot of the content that's covered by the regulations following this policy are now covered by the previous policy that we're making a recommendation to the board for a read on um and so to that extent I'm not sure how much sense it makes to renew this policy um I do think you know to the point that was made by um Wanita um and and Kelly both um this is this is a very sort of vaguely worded policy um and I don't know how is it is that something that is helpful to our Administration in terms of handling different disciplinary cases or does it not really serve any particular function to to the work that you're doing and certainly Cara Kim please feel free to jump in I I think that this to your point Kate I think that um there's enough information covered in policy 5114 that we just reviewed um that you know if there needed if there was a disciplinary action for example um that it would give the administrator um uh the authority if they felt that that should also extend the extracurricular so I don't necessarily think you need a separate policy um and because of the vagueness of this policy I think it's left up to the individual interpretation which could be helpful in some situations but again I question do you need a policy that says that I agree so given this feedback um what is the appetite of the committee here do we want to um renew this policy do we want to um remove this policy what is the preference do we want to change this policy I'd like to make a motion that we remove this policy so um I'm just looking for a little clarification in um a case like this where we we do not want to renew a policy we want to remove the policy um is that something that has to come before the full board for a vote it is okay so well capes suggestion is to consider a more comprehensive model which I think you know we when we looked at policy 5114 the one we just approved um that is much more ex more a much more extensive policy than the previous version of it and it incorporates many elements that are covered um by the regulations that follow 5114 point21 and and that was one of the reasons that I asked Kelly you know does does this particular policy add anything substantial to that one that we just passed 5114 because that governs most of the the content around um discipline and um you know sort of what tools are at the disposal of the administration in terms of handling um you know a situation with the student's performance I kind of think that you need to touch you have to have some sort of even keeping the the blurb about extracurricular activity acknowledging that we expect a standard at least you know disciplinary standard academic standard yeah it says it only refs to academic eligibility uh and we're thinking discipline I think just keep it and the um the disciplinary part like said is in the other section so are sorry say I'm sorry if I could just provide some context I do believe that this policy was originally added if you notice it's still 5114 but it's 0.
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and then textile clothing recycling you do have to reach out to simple recycling simpler recycling.com to get those picked up uh consent agenda if I can get a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved second okay thank you very much all those in favor of the consent agenda as presented I and that passes five zero okay uh Joe did you have a I just I just wanted to ask a transfer transfer um right now Nori County Sheriff oh cool I was yeah I was going to I was going to say a little bit more about it okay yeah great thank you uh that leads us to town manager's report oh yeah yeah it was was a late edition do you not see it on there I guess I did not print that copy notification yep besides treatment no there was one no there was something else but for some reason it was not on theend the agenda that I printed yeah so essentially as as we're pulling it up I'll just give you um a broad overview so um this is related to the downtown project and so right now we had like an overhead wire like one overhead wire going across uh near NX and so we found a way to do it underneath and so but we just need the easement we need the board to approve the easement to let us do that right so again don't I guess I did not print the correct agenda that had it on there so I would say this is something that was not foreseen before we posted the 48 Hours it it wasn't so and it's really pretty straightforward so as was said um they're going to go through the parking lot of town hall to get to the back of the building because otherwise we were going to have one overhead wire and with everything that we're doing so I have this ISR this is property yeah so we're going to be giving an easement to their property to be able to do the undergrounding of their utilities moving forward so if I can get a motion to approve the utility easement agreement okay all those in favor I I okay and I do have documents for us to sign thank you for reminding whoever said that okay now we can go to the town manager's update sure so even though there's just uh one thing that you see on the agenda I do have just a few other things and I'll I'll just hit you with them real quick how's that so um the first one you see is the update on the open space and Recreation plan so um our team working with the open space and Recreation committee they've already had a couple forums and got some information they are looking at having two additional Forums on March 29th and April 2nd uh really to more focus on the specific action items so um again those will be public um and so I would encourage everybody to attend even though uh the team did a a bunch of Outreach uh we didn't have too many people I think at The Forum so uh obviously the more feedback we get the better plan we can get um next well speaking of plans on the comp plan so um we were at the stage where the department heads um were asked to provide some feedback on each of the strategies and so we met with JM Goldson last week and uh we distributed those strategies talked about the instructions um and those were due on Monday so and I believe everybody got theirs in haven't heard anything otherwise um Joe you you brought up uh Manny Tuscano who is going to be our newest police officer so he is um you know he is scheduled to start on the 20th and that's when his swearing in date is uh so you're all welcome yep I believe it's at 11 o'clock but I I'll confirm um Manny is uh very interesting guy very positive so um I I'll save my comments for his swearing yet I've got some unique comments for him but uh again very experienced um officer um I've got about 20 years in law enforcement and U met officer rodkey in um or Sergeant rodkey as should say now and uh doing some training and um Sergeant rodkey was telling him about the department and kind of Direction things are going in and um Manny felt like he would be a good fit did everybody else uh well one shy and that and we're actually um in the process of interviewing that one last officer actually I think I'm meeting with him next week because now that's part of our process the last step is meeting with me and making sure I'm okay with the guy or or gal um it's been it's actually been very very good it's been a very very good process I'm so glad we we worked together um we did have uh a meeting of our community inclusion task force uh last week uh after a little bit of a Hiatus I thought it was very very good Makita could probably um you know after the meeting tell you give you her take on it but um we're looking forward to kind of lining up what we want to accomplish in uh calendar year 25 and uh we're on the on the way to do that um and then finally um Susan and I met with the baa yesterday Jack Fleming in um and Lauren um because it looks like we were going to incur some more expenses than what we have previously to help um basically carry out the marathon on Marathon date and so um I'm pleased to say that the baa very willingly agreed to pay that extra those extra funds so um very very security yeah we might do that out of our own we're not quite getting that much money yeah no kidding um but it was about 30,000 extra dollars so and they um yeah I I have to say I've really appreciated Jack Fleming and his team's approach to um community relations since he's taken over uh the baa yep well thank you for that update Michael and we have a comprehensive plan committee meeting the third Thursday the 20th of March so that's our next comp plan meeting no y oh that was a very hour like it was like owl oh an owl reference owl reference to the owl no no no you're I don't know that you hear owls when you have a stroke Makita but okay wow can't wait to hear your board report I've never heard of that symtom anyway okay we are it's time for our board reports and I'm hope I'm thinking we can get this done before we have to extend past 10 so yes ma'am Madam chair uh so in in all seriousness uh lot of activities so we already talked about the tri board meeting which which we attended had a good conversation about that um um in so far as the community inclusion committee we had uh a first meeting in a long time uh last week uh I think we'll be hearing more out of that committee uh over the next few months about the the road ahead so I don't want to steal any Thunder but they are uh planning they're in planning mode right now trying to figure out what uh they'd like to accomplish uh this year and then a couple years out so we'll hear more about that later I like the name thank you we'll talk more about that a little later okay uh anyway uh and then uh finally uh the uh the subcommittee on uh committee appointments is going to have I guess are we calling it sort of like an open house or like sort of like a a just sort of like a open discussion with board committee members yes open discussion with board and committee members coming up on Saturday March 15th at 10:00 a.m.
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21 was originally added due to the um the original 5114 that was in place before we just made the recommendation for the new the new one more comprehensive policy I think did not cover enough of the um latitude across crost extracurriculars which is why they added this as an addition I think with your recommendation to adopt the more comprehensive new uh suspension expulsion and due process policy I think it covers all the expectations within this one so uh committee members what what is uh the preference here um can we take a quick consensus to see who's in favor of um renewing this policy and who is in favor of removing this policy please Thea I I say keep it renew it Michelle you're muted Michelle sorry I was thinking to remove it since we've you know increased the scope of what the other policy covers so um remove okay Wanita sorry uh remove Al remove okay um given the feedback here I am looking now for a motion to remove policy 5114 point21 uh to make a recommendation to the board to remove policy 5114 point21 so moved thank you w and Michelle you'll get the second there uh all those in favor please signify by saying I I I any opposed okay motion so carries um just one point of clarification does this have to go through a second read process similar to what we do with the uh policies that are being adopted or is this a simple like single vote uh at a at the upcoming meeting it's a simple vote okay thank you for clarifying appreciate that that what was that response I just wanted I just want it was a yes it's a single vote so if we vote as a board to remove it then it will just be removed and we won't have a second consideration of policy thank you can I ask a question if you and and I'm not on the committee but if you're going to remove it and then you're going to bring it before the board and the board still has the right to ask questions at that meeting and maybe the majority don't want to remove it yes am I right or wrong that's correct so it's so it you know whether you bring it up for a first reading board the board has a right to discuss this policy absolutely it has to be brought to the board for a vote I just wanted to because with when we bring a new policy in we have to have two votes on it we have to have the first rote and then the second rote um so I just wanted to make sure if we take a vote on this kind of the removal of a policy and the board you know has its discussion and then votes yes they want to remove it we don't then bring it up at another meeting like we that but we you know we got to have we should have a discussion on it because everybody might not feel that that they would like this so okay yes did you have anything that you wanted to comment about on it U Mrs Cooper no because you already voted and I you know it wasn't uh a required policy but I also was not comfortable and I have to read it again with removal okay okay well I look forward to certainly discussing this at the with the full board to to get the the sense of where folks are with it so for me I'm sorry just for clarification are we gonna am I voting putting down that this is a simple single Vote or are we looking to put it before the you know the Comm you know the board that it will go to the full board uh for consideration so the motion we made here out of committee was uh that the recommendation of the policy committee to the full board is for the removal of policy 511 4.21 and at the point that we take uh we we bring this up for uh as an action item at the board meeting that's a point at which it will open up for conversation amongst the full board so that folks can discuss uh how they feel about it and if the board so chooses um they may reject um the policy committee's recommendation and kick it back to the policy committee for conversation okay okay we are now going to move on to 5117 please Kelly thank you um so 5117 um is uh talking about they refer to it as School attendance areas um and basically uh this gives the superintendent and the Board of Education the right to designate um the schools in which students um go to um are zoned right across the district so for example which Elementary School you're zoned to um and it talks about the criteria for which that determination should be made Student safety educational needs programming so sometimes that's for our MLL programming or special ed programming um Optimum use of facilities so let's say we're running out of room in one school then we need more you know we have extra room in another school it gives the authority to make some decisions around that um residential patterns as we know as we've seen building in certain sections of danburry we have seen increased enrollment in those schools um and so this would in theory give the ability to potentially look at uh rezoning uh schools in the future um it also talks about the ages of students um so for example we have you know we recently added a new preschool facility um but we have some elementary schools that are K5 versus other elementary schools that are K3 and a 4 five school um so it allows that that Authority for those decisions um and lastly uh racial and ethnic balancing which is something um that we want to make sure uh to monitor across schools um you know you can modify those and make changes um it also uh speaks here to um a provision and this is in uh State Statute um that students are who are placed in foster care so that students who are um in the care of DCF the Department of Children and Families are students um who are homeless uh are allowed to stay in what is deemed as the school of origin and essentially what that means is if a student is going to school a and is let's say removed from their home by by uh DCF or experiences homelessness and needs to move to another location they are allowed to remain in the school that they are originally in for consistency um and that can apply whether or not though in those two situations whether or not the student moves in or out of Danberry um because sometimes we will see for example when it uh involves the Department of Children and Families that they may find a foster home in a surrounding or neighboring Town um and we are still obligated to have that student remain in the school of origin usually it's for the remainder of that school year and then it and then it's reassessed um so that is the essence of this policy and I'll pause there for for any questions committee members questions or comments um the ratio and ethnic balance uh that was added is there a reason for that so those are things that we report um districtwide we always report out on our uh racial and ethnic those are required in our state required um uh reports uh to the Department of Education um and uh those would be things for consideration um if we saw an imbalance between two schools across the district that we should look at for consideration of should there be any changes made so the first 5117 is the new one and the SEC the old one is the one in the back correct is that right you're looking at a paper version so I'm not confident if you're the if you're looking at the agenda the ones on the left hand side are the old original policies and the ones on the the right hand side are the now there should be a date at the bottom of one of them um Teresa that says I don't have it it's not here the original regulation or the most current version of this um was approved in 2000 right February 9th I see that but I'm trying to see where I got a paper version and it's want to make sure what would you like me to pull up the original one on the screen this is the newer proposal okay I can do that um here is the original policy that was adopted in February of 2020 or I'm sorry 000 I apologize for that um some of slightly different um but you will see it here okay I will also just um say to the committee that for the newer version of this you'll see that there is both the uh policy and then underneath is a regulation but the regulation is not labeled at the top so it is a little bit confusing but yeah and for the purposes of tonight we're just looking at the policy I know the regulation is below but just the policy yeah Michelle so you I'm sorry you had mentioned that if there was an e um an equity inbalance that you would take that into consideration to make adjustments how do you do that currently now do we do that now in the district and is that something that you think that we need or did I misunderstand what you were saying regarding um you know being able to move or change the racial um you know I don't like we're adding this policy why other than you're looking for I get it for you know detailed information maybe for Grants or something I don't know but how how do you change the the way that that you um I don't know choose what students go to what school I I believe actually these are all state mandated I mean we you know this goes back to Chef versus O'Neal and and what the makeup is for your schools so this isn't something that we've created this is a these are all part of the state mandates that we have so you know if you were to look at if we were to report our data to the State Department of Education and we had for example all Hispanic students in one school to the exclusion of everyone else they would look at that as imbalancing it would hit our title one I believe it would hit our ESL numbers it would hit our special ed numbers so this is just a generic policy that recognizes that we have certain mandates from the state about the composition of the schools and it just gives you the latitude to be able to maybe make changes to your districting based on some of that feedback so and so like we had one situation where we were we were trying to redistrict a certain area and it turned out that all of the families were of one ethnicity which raised issues about um the composition of the school so but they're not anything that we make up these are all requirements that we have from State legislation from the state department Teresa question do we have a tuition rate for our schools typically it's considered the perp people expenditure if someone were to attend um that that would be charged tuition um that that happens very infrequently but that is what they would have to pay to access education in the district do we know what the current figure is don't have the exact number but roughly Cara could give it to you I have it in the budget book it's like 16 and change y yeah 16,000 yeah W so 16 that's like fully in and then you've got your e your multilanguage learner right what is that looking like and then your special ed is that like still 50 and and like 76 for those like so there's not there's not an exact number so what I will share with you for special education for example um I think the magnet school is a good example of this students come from other districts um you know and there is a a tuition for the flat fee of just generaliz general Ed instruction so for third grade classroom instruction this is what it costs to educate a student in Danbury and between uh the partnering District sending U money as well as money coming through to the state that covers the expense of educating one of our surrounding Town students if that child receives special education services um we build that based on the services that the child is receiving so for example if they are receiving reading specialized reading instruction with a specialed teacher there is a rate attached to that depending on the amount of time if they're also receiving speech and language services or OT or PT Services there is a rate attached to that um so what we're looking uh it's an hourly rate that's builded based on the size of the group the student is participating in so that is that different in the sense that that's a state school and not like our other you know they don't have the same kind of built-in Financial setup correct like so would this apply to other schools the don't get any assist like you're looking at a situation that I can see but let's say it is just special ed in Danberry regular I'll give you I'll give you another example public school is what I'm looking for so a perfect example a student um is living in d uh let's say um is residing in a dambury foster of family and and because the the Nexus of origin let's say is Hartford that's a significant distance for a child to go back and forth with um DCF May determine that that child should enroll in danburry um and we would welcome that student in but the responsibility Falls to Hartford so we buil back Hartford the cost of educating that student right but I'm just asking what is the cost to educate a student in this District not out a district not like just like literally is that the same cost well I don't I don't want to I I certainly appreciate the question I think it's a good one for us to resolve but I just don't think this is the correct meeting to handle that question if we could just hold it and revisit it yes okay all right um are there any other questions from committee members or comments from committee members about this policy okay I have a question sure go ahead one so when we talk about school attendance areas and you can also um maybe this is for another discussion also um where would administrative placement fall and do we have a policy on administrative placement I want to make sure I'm understanding the question is are you referring to administrative placement at um like a program like a reach or Endeavor program I I am do we have a policy on that um there is a reference in one of the our regulations on that but I'm not aware of it in an existing policy but I would need to confirm that oneita um this policy in particular is not meant to speak to administrative placements okay thank you are questions or comments from um non-committee members that are on the call here no if if I could just add Kate there is an optional provision that we didn't speak to um it's it's right under and I can share my screen again so we can all see what I'm referring to um it's part of the policy that is option um and it really talks about um if a if the option to attend another school if you don't want to go to your Zone school um we would not recommend to add this into the current policy any feedback on that from the committee here okay um given that there is no feedback uh actually any any feedback from not go ahead Michelle um so so let's just we're this is to if you want to put somebody outside of the district right controlled free zoning Choice what are we saying is this a a an optional policy and are we looking to to get rid of it or to it's an it's an optional so this is our the new cave version of this policy that they're uh recommending to that we adopt um and that optional provision is up to the purview of the policy committee and the board um to adopt or not adopt can we just roll back down to that again one second okay so so you actually would have a choice oh through theut attendance area first ch this is basically allowing parents so if I'm if I'm zoned to go to school a and I don't want to go there I can fill out an application process to be considered for school b or c um and then it's up to the district based on you know enrollment availability so on and so forth um this is something that we are trying to get out of it does create a transportation um conundrum um and I think it creates a perception uh that uh school you know certain School schools have more credibility or weight than others um and so we are encouraging all students to go to the school in which they're zoned for oh let's just say I'm sorry to Michelle had her hand up I'd just like to recognize her first please I'll come back to you is that for me K okay so um Kelly I I think just for clarification we are talking within the Danbury public school district is that correct that is correct so we're not talking about um going out of District it's just within our school district if i cho if I ask can I please go to King Street instead of South Street that is correct and make application for that okay thank you Michelle so let's just say I'm in the district and you know pen Brook is not zoned in my area and they you know have a lot of special ed services and I want my child to go there or whatever for whatever reason um do we currently I I didn't think that we currently allowed that is that an option and that you're saying we've been trying to dissuade people um from choice in know in other words from to me that's what I'm looking at is that choice so as a um I think two parts I'll give two answers as a special education program we have certain programs like our our um self-contained programming at at Pembrook we have some at Great pl we have other programming at King Street and another one at hazetown um if a student needs that different level of programming due to their special education needs through the PPT process a student can be placed in in the program that best meets those needs uh that is considered a districtwide program that is available and accessible to any student so that's not what this is referring to this is referring to a parent that says um you know I'd rather go to school a then School B um in within the dber public schools within our district um certainly and um Cara please jump in if you'd like to add anything um there are sometimes you know uh particular situations in which um you know they're on a case-by casee scenario that it may be in a child's best interest to approve something um for example a student is is moving and wants to start in the school that they're moving to a month later or something like that um that we want to be reasonable um but to create a system in which parents can can essentially apply uh for access to different schools is not something that we that we want to do okay and you're saying that is something that we currently do and you're dissuading from it or you're saying we don't really we don't do that now and we're trying to disuade that we we can do it if we if we need to it's an ad it would be an administrative decision however you know given the capacity issues that we have across all of our schools you really have to make A very wise choice as to the reason why you would do it the risk would have to outweigh the the benefit would have to outweigh the risk um and in all of these situations it creates a transportation conundrum crisscrossing across town so um we we haven't we don't have a lot of room in our school so you know whenever you make a a decision to to make a move it hasn't you know equal and opposite um reaction in another school so either you're going to have an overcrowding situation or um you know there's a trans Transportation issue occasionally one of our schools may fill up and there's no more capacity and we and we we we are forced to make an administrative decision to divert um to to a sister school or a school with room that's within the closest transportation area so it it varies and uh you know we do um take a look at at requests but um we've been honoring less and less of them uh just because we don't have the capacity to to to get into the business of I want to go to this school and that school unless there's a very serious reason so Teresa um I was glad when he asked about uh was the Danbury District can we it was a little confusing um what they were ref referring to can we somehow be more specific in the wording there if we do take uh accept it say within the danur district blah blah blah first choice of school in the area blah blah blah I I would prefer a little bit more clarification because if it was a fruit and we need it I thought this was meant if you wanted to go you know out of District type of thing or I'm just not with it tonight we certainly can add that I just I also want to add that the board only has the provision to set policies for the operation of the danber public schools district um so any of the policies in here you we don't have you would not be able to decide that a student could go um to a surrounding area school or district and any outof District implication um when it comes to like a special education student is is defined by the PE the planning and placement team process so I mean we can certainly put that in here but all these policies are only for danber public schools okay it was just me then Michelle yeah um I agree with Teresa I don't think it's clear I you know feel like there are certain circumstances and I was not even aware that that it was even a possibility and you're saying that the district is trying to do it less and less like how many how many students do we actually entertain or have like do we provide this or actually take this up and I understand completely if we don't have the room that this wouldn't be the case but you know uh again if if for some reason there's a situation in a school like I've had a parents come to me and say my son was absolutely fine or the whatever the environment doesn't work and they're like either I have to move out of Danberry to find another another you know classroom or I've got to pay $188,000 or whatever the cases but it's come into so I'm just wondering depending on uh you know my experience too and sometimes certain environment may not work I would not want to take the choice or the possibility of a choice if we have the right circumstances to um you know properly you know work with the child and and try to find the best environment so I would not I would be very apprehensive to say no and and give that that opportunity to a student I don't you can I just ask a point of clarification to the administration um we we do have communication from parents that make these kind of requests periodically um so I like we're not doing away with those conversations or those possibilities um we're just not in in this this conversation we're having right now we're just evaluating whether or not we want to have an optional provision that specifies this is that correct that is cor okay so in other words Michelle the the those conversations can still take place um parents can still approach Administration with requests depending on the specific circumstances that they might find themselves in with the student um I think to uh Dr casemiro's point and to Kelly's points um there are you know there are um reactions that happened repercussions that happened as a result of making decisions about placement that also have to be considered um it can't be done exclusively at the behest of of you know what a parent you know feels about the situation but um our Administration is certainly open to having those conversations should parents wish to have them absolutely Kate just just just to kind of punctuate that and you know we've we have always um had an open door with with listening and and certainly entertaining um but again it's you know it's there we we do have a review process we do have discussion about it and a lot of times just uh Michelle we do end up having some pretty good conversations with the parents as a result of like hey what's going on and and what is there a communication breakdown at the school or Services you know did did we engage in um you know doing right by the correct services for your childhood let's try something different so we always um you know those conversations and those requests usually end up in a review process where there's a engagement of the parent and and potential uh Services if those have not been employed to date so um you know we do very good uh work on that there's a lot of due diligence in that process and and I I would stand by the the process that we've been using I do also want to just ask another quick question um Point number two under that optional provision specifies that parents of students choosing out of area attendance shall provide student transportation if if we have a case where a student um you know you get a student request and and there's a conversation and ultimately the decision comes down that the student is going to attend um you know a different School in that kind of circumstance right now is the school district responsible for the transportation of that student if we make the administrative decision to place a child there um or if a section is closed let's say let's say grade two at Ellsworth is closed and we need to bus somewhere else than the transportation we take care of the transportation Okay so adding this provision would actually create additional burden for the families potentially by requiring them to provide the transportation well they have they have to do that now if they if we do Grant a request and they're going across town for whatever reason the parent it's on the parent and they they go into that knowing that that's the situation if we make the determination you know based on having to close down due to enrollment then we we make the effort to um redo the bus routes and try to get that that student there because that's no fault of their own they're they're tried to register in their attendance Zone um but that you know there was there was a barrier okay and that would apply also in case of special education programs or if it's a program that we're recommending um special education multilingual learner services that they need in a particular school then we are obligated to provide transportation currently okay thank you for the clarification okay Academy model what happened if a student is near the one school academy model and then but it wants to be in the other school is there an issue there danburry high school will be one high school so it's one campus split into two uh it's it's one high school so um you know students can if they want to switch their Academy pathway this is really not a an attendance zone or Transportation Zone we have only one high school in in the city of danburry so it doesn't matter All Buses lead to Danberry school one way or another depending on the campus so it's it's really about whether or not if a student changes their pathway that's a whole another um issue not related to to attendance zones yeah okay it's a good question though any other questions or comments committee members non-committee members yeah um all right given this conversation um I'm looking for a motion to make a recommendation of policy 5117 School attendance areas um without the optional provision included is there a motions I made the motion thank you Al is there a second please second thank you Anita all those in favor please signify by saying I I I I any opposed kind of ify on that you want to abstain yes okay you know I think I'm there as well then actually can we get more information I just feel like I don't have all the information um can I what information are you looking for I just want to make sure how many how many students how many requests do we have how many like we might entertain them do we actually place them like you know I know that we don't want to kind of go into the weeds but it just seems like um you know having been a parent with a child in special needs and having to find the right you know like jumping around um I just I want to make sure that the parent has a choice or at least the opportunity the conversation and I don't know I didn't even know that we actually entertained it so um I don't know if it's repetitive to have this you know I mean like to have this little additional provisional um policy here um even just to strike up a conversation because again I was not aware and I don't know what kind of requests we've gotten and how many do we actually if we have we had the opportunity the the space to accommodate any anybody I can certainly do a review of the number of requests we've received this year and how many have been granted I can say to you anecdotally very few um but I will I will clarify with the exact numbers there thank you so um I guess I would ask uh committee members if we we did take a vote on this and the and the vote did go through um but in consideration for the questions that some of our committee members have I wonder if we could um bring that information to the full board when we do this uh for first read this could be part of the conversation that we have thank you I'm okay with that great is that okay Kelly that's fine okay thank you thank you Kate all right so we are at so it passed it did pass yes okay we had two abstentions but three votes in favor all right so we are moving on to policy 5118 nonresidents attendant sorry non-resident attendance um so I'd like to uh propose that we look at version one of this policy again another uh uh cab uh recommended policy um that we need to consider uh this evening um and this really talks about um children that are not living within the district so non-residents meaning not living within danburry um and talks about uh the terms and conditions under which a district may decide to enroll them um again this this decision is up to the district and is based um on availability um you know can we provide programming for these students do we have the room and availability and really on a Case by case uh situation I I will say again anecdotally this happens very infrequently but it is important that you have a policy around this do we have any currently now yes there is an initial policy um no no I mean uh students like this out a district out a district um you do have a a handful of students that I can speak to that are typically um with the Department of Children and Families which is an obligation despite this policy um that are non-resident students um uh we also will occasionally take a student for tuition into um our vocational programming at the high school level um so that's our 18 to 22 year old program um some of your your surrounding districts and this is all based on enrollment and availability we have two programs currently um one is a uh a job shadowing program a vocational program for work uh with support and the other one um is our partnership with Weston our Western connection program um we give priority and seats in those programs to D public school students first um but some of your surrounding uh districts will send a student there for tuition um and that is reviewed on a case-by Case basis thank you Kelly this also um will uh there has been I'm not aware of any currently but I uh Cara please correct me if if there is a situation that you're aware of but this could also be the staff member that wants their student to go to school in Danbury for example that we you know they could make a request um you know they do not live in the town um and they would be obligated to pay you know we would be obligated to see if we can in fact um meet their needs in District um and then um that it will be for tuition um or or a fee for enrollment Teresa so we're looking at version one this is what you [Music] recommend what's the difference that's fine um Kelly in our prior policy it talked a little bit about um if students something about a semester let me just go back in um students who become non-residents during a school semester may be permitted to continue attending the Danbury public schools for the remainder of that semester without payment of tuition that is correct I just pulled up the old policy which is from 2000 and this is the paragraph you're referring to correct if they choose to stay they they they are asked to pay tuition um Cara do you want to speak to that a little bit I I think for the it really depends on the time of the year right so if there's a student who has moved and it's April um you know that we're less likely to try to pursue that by the time you even get something in place and try to you know that's the school year is just about over if it's if you're just talking about a September situation that's another conversation that we would have about um about you know having that the parent agree to to uh if they wanted to agree to to remain to pay to pay on a tuition basis um then again assumes that we have the room assumes that it's advantageous to the school system that's kind of another delineation is is it is um you know is there is there undo risk or or harm or is there an ad advantageous situation for the district like okay well this is a class that's under enrolled and this actually helps we haven't had that case in a long time in Danberry um most of the time we're over enrolled um but it's really you know we try to be humanistic uh in this approach here we we we aren't looking to uh upset uh a child's life and disturb them as to the greatest extent possible um but we're also realistic that it does cost us uh money to educate children here so we have to make a judgment call on that Teresa can I speak to the uh a mother that was at the uh last board meeting from bethl I I don't think we can speak about specific circumstances um okay all right if Kate if it's okay I just want um both carara and I did follow up and um that matter has been um resolved I will just share that thank you thank you it was just being that we're in this Frame of Mind here just God bless you God bless you both and again we shouldn't be talking about individual students but I think that's the essence of the question it has been remedy it's a good outcome it's a good outcome excellent thank you um any other questions or comments about this policy from any uh non- committee members okay so I am looking for a recommendation for first uh for first read to the full board policy 5118 non-resident attendance version number one where are you move by Al is there a second second thank you Teresa uh all those in favor please signify by saying I I any opposed any extensions motion so carries okay thank you patience we're on the last one here and that is policy 5118 point1 homeless students okay our um last policy um again another required policy um 5118 point1 um and this speaks to um our homeless students a lot of the times you will hear them referred to as McKinny vento um and that is uh uh one of the terminologies used to identify um there is also Grant U monies that we typically apply for um and have been uh the recipients of in in years past um and so this really speaks to um the students that uh for whatever reason experience homelessness um and it really Advocates that we uh continue their enrollment in school and eliminate any barriers that might be um might be challenging for them to immediately enroll in school um so one of the things um through the enrollment or registration process I'll give you a for example um sometimes there will be a tragedy or there might be a fire in a home or something like that where important documents and paperwork did not follow with the family or child um and this recognizes that in those um you know unique and special circumstances and basically encourages the district to do everything within its power to immediately enroll that child in school to get them back in school or to continue them in school if they were already with us um and not not have additional barriers that are there sometimes I do get asked a question regarding um uh medical and physicals and we always inv involve our coordinator of health services to make sure that there's not any risk to other children um you know for example while we're trying to um you know track down medical records or catch up on vaccinations things like that nature um but this uh this policy um is something that is currently in practice I think this one in particular is a little bit more specific on the details uh and bringing it up to date um and I would recommend uh the optional language stay in in the revision of this policy I don't know if there's any questions comme members so Kelly when you say if you can um scroll up a little bit more um the optional language will replace where it's up above the board shall make are we replacing that entire first paragraph under homeless students um I was recommending that we keep that first paragraph and just add uh under optional you would remove the heading optional language and just write the District administration shall attempt to remove existing barriers and keep that section below it but I would keep the first paragraph as well and so um I would love to see up in that first paragraph um the board shall make reasonable efforts encourage their enrollment and attempt to eliminate existing barriers as you did down in the optional language so no um so kind of take that first sentence under optional language and and bring it up into that first paragraph I'd like to hear what people think instead of saying and eliminate we we can attempt to eliminate so just just modifying the language in the the top paragraph to mimic the language of that sentence corre that appears belever way whatever works out best but including that somehow so Kelly instead of just saying at the top in that top paragraph and eliminate existing barriers say attempt to eliminate existing barriers I think that makes sense committee that seem okay to you all yes the consistency in the language is good thank you Anita any other feedback from committee members or questions non-committee members any thoughts on this no I just want to ask Kelly uh as I was reading the policy when we have homeless students are there I don't mean a list of parents or a list of families or how do we go about placing those homeless students somewhere to live do we have like five families or so you know you know what I'm trying to you know what I'm trying to say somewhere for them to go if they come into their home uh Mary Joan you know that she's going to take in this homeless student um so we have um an identified mckenny van v vento liaison sorry I'm combining those two words um and that is uh Lisa Basher is the is the current uh liaison prior to her it was um Carol um and so it is a school social worker um that list is highly confidential in fact it's it's very protected information um but I can share with you again totally that we have over a 100 students currently identified on that list um across the district and that number is up very significantly um since um you know in really since postco um I think there's a couple reasons for that I think there's uh definitely um there's definitely some more challenges in the local community that are that families are experiencing I also do think though that we have um increased our Outreach um we've designated more of our social work time and support to reach out and liaison with those families um so part-time so half of her role each week um is to work with the different schools and so she spends time at uh Central registration she's um training our registration staff in how to ask um sensitive and tactical questions when um kind of flags come up for certain families and to filter that information to her so she can have a more one-on-one con you know information um as I had shared there is grant money available in that grant money um it is something we need to apply for so it's not something that we automatically get um but it is something annually that we are filling out I'm actually in the process of completing one for next school year it's not a significant amount of money um it's $50,000 for next year um and with that um we put money in there to help students um to ask access programming so sometimes these families need uh assistance with accessing after school programming or summer programming we also put money in there um for school supplies uh clothing supplies shoes things like that that students need um Lisa also um it takes in donations from sometimes students families uh staff members uh to get different products hygiene products for example um are something that that often times students will reach out to her for she's also working to uh connect them with uh different food resources um uh food banks and so forth um helping uh parents to connect with different Community Resources maybe for um uh job interview skills to help them um she works with the Housing Authority in Danbury quite regularly so all of those different things that families may need um very similar to our work that we're doing around the elite programming right what's the why what's the challenge what's the barrier and how can we support you um so she she's amazing she's done an excellent excellent job um in doing that um and then it's often partnering with other districts because we also uh know that many of our homeless families are tend to be families that um are are experiencing housing instability and challenges and and we frequently sometimes they're within district and they experiencing uh experience those challenges but other times we are seeing these families that are coming and going kind of across different towns and districts um and so it also is an Outreach to those towns and really understanding the history and the backgrounding and getting students in at the high school level it's even um what is known as unaccompanied youth so there are sometimes students that are 18 years old that um do not have the support of of um a parent or Guardian um as far as living directly with them they might be living with a friend they might be um kind of rotating to different friends and uh you know sleeping on a couch or things of that nature and it's helping um that young individual to access resources um you know in the local community and to advance their education Beyond high school so there's it's multifaceted um but that uh there are a lot of different situations in which someone could be deemed as experiencing homelessness thank thank you very much you Teresa what is the uh maximum age this that this applies to this is anyone that's enrolled in the public school district right now so under McKinny vento for the uh for schools so that could be anyone from age three um that is enrolled in our preschool program all the way up until age 22 uh that would be enrolled in high school thank you I should share though that sometimes we identify a family that has a schoolage child that also has younger siblings um or older siblings so sometimes we're also so once a family is identified we're working with the entire family unit um so it's not uncommon that you might have a middle school child that's identified but they have a two-year-old sibling and so when we work with the family we're working with the entire family wow that's really nice all right thank you uh is there are there any other questions or comments about this policy okay I'm looking for a motion then to recommend to the board for a full first read uh policy 5118 point1 homeless students is there a motion on the floor please I make the motion there a second thank you Michelle all those in favor please signify by saying I I I any opposed any abstentions all right thank you everyone I know that uh some of our members are trying to get to services this evening and so I just want to uh call for a motion to adjourn please wait wait wait one minute one questiones Callie um how come we don't have a section 7,000 um so that uh we are not required to have any policies in the 7,000 uh section those are optional policies and they relate to new construction thank you thank you Kate I motion to adjourn thank you Teresa is there a second on the floor please second second oh thank you Al all those in favor please signify by saying I I all right
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
and uh we'll be just want to hear their thoughts about their experiences on the Committees um you know what they think it's going great what they think they'd like to see some improvement in and we're going to be taking all that into consideration as we finalize our notes and come back to this committee with some recommendations around process we have about 30 people who have responded already excellent yeah it's good to hear might not fit in that small room yeah we may well you know we'll have to figure figure it out all right um I'm done thank you great thank you Makita um we had a school building committee meeting last week um and I just bring that up mostly to findind everybody that we are waiting for $3.2 million from the federal government that um we earned using some uh for as a tax credit based on some of the sustainability features of both the mindes school and the um public safety building so that's $3.2 million that we're supposed to be getting and currently I think that we would have had it by now if we had not had a change in administration and so it's kind of being held up um and then I did attend a a webinar about engaging um trying to increasing engagement oh in um town meeting and um a couple of the takeaways for me were um you know whether or not we should have a conversation about having town meeting on Saturdays um I know some communities do that but it doesn't seem like a ton of them do but some do and then the other thing is we C can't broadcast live from the auditorium right yeah we do broadcast live okay so because actually hav always been there but in any case it's true too it's actually true but um so one thing would be to have call-in questions um let people participate from home um yeah wouldn't be able to vote from home but they could certainly ABS not they can't vote but they did and some communities do that where they allow for you know which communities it would be great to reach out to them and see how it worked I might have to review that who was that an MMA webinar I think it was one it was it was moderators that um Town moderators who were um mostly running it I'm sure we can find out yeah the one gentleman from Westboro um I should have written down their names okay um he he was very so anyway so I thought that that would those were a couple of things that may for attending think about doing nice okay Joe thank you madam chair uh just real quickly um I have some information to provide to all of you uh since I've come back with respect to the uh U quiet zones for the railroads there was a webinar that I on and uh the information was provided one of the one of the key issues that they were really concerned about was the liability and that and that you know it's just you know again you know who's going to hold on to that liability aspect and that's why a lot of the communities that have these quiet zones they TR the the number of trains that go through are not like what we have and so it's based on the activity and the use of the Rails tracks the tracks so and who has the uh so that's that was it and I have the information matter of fact they sent it to me requested it so email it to everybody so you all yeah it would be that might be something we want to talk about at a meeting to because get an update on where we are with our quiet Zone and the funding and the timing of that and the engineering and then a determination if we still want to try and move forward well and that and again based on what's been going on over the last 60 days Federal funding is could be a question could be a major question with respect to that so God only knows where that's going to end up um I want to just give a quick uh shout out to uh the folks of uh um Habitat for Humanity they've gone through their uh priting process they got all their roet and their permits and we're looking to do uh shovel in the ground at 478 Main Street uh sometime miday so we'll be having a new affordable housing uh project in town and I I saw something that was a little disturbing with respect to um CPC said they were looking u a me for a member on the photable Housing Trust and I thought I could have sworn that Steve Greenberg was the sentive apparently that's not the case so I think there's an important clarification that needs to be made that seat is actually the affordable housing committee committee which we don't have anymore right which we don't have anymore oh it was stated as the affordable housing trust and that's yeah and Steve was on it at as a member of the affordable housing Comm committee that's correct so so do we need to either one update our CPC bylaw to say trust versus committee because we should have someone from affordable housing sitting on sitting with CPC to look at if you can make that if you can make that that change I would suggest doing it yeah so how would we would that be I'll have to look into that you could look into that all right great thank you um and other than that and then um I I will be uh not in attendance uh physically uh I'll be uh on Zoom for the next month or so after my I'll be pitching for the bus and red sock after the surgery so it it'll be well actually you're lucky because I believe we're all going to be remote for the next select board meeting because they're going to be painting this oh they're going to be painting so oh that's right you might want to remind us I believe our I believe our next select board meeting is going to be fully remote okay for two reasons one because the potential for remote participation ends at the end of March and we're like okay let's do it in March so where our next select board meeting and this is for the public as well will not be here in person it will only be via Zoom um so okay yeah and they is there any anticipation that that will be extended again or no at the state level so there's been a lot so I'll I'll talk about it as part of my board report and and that's all and that's all I have thank great Brandy um so I've got a couple things coming up um I'm going to be attending the Ashlin Education Foundation Casino nights Saturday night I'm gonna win big when I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna pay for college don't tell me it's all fake money no I'm kidding it's all fake money it's all fake money but but um it'll be it'll be a good it'll be a good time and um our schools will benefit from that so on a on on a side note for that if you are not able to attend like I am because my daughter's coming home this weekend you can go online and bid for some silent auction items so you can if you can't attend in person you can go online and bid on the silent auction and you can just donate if you're not a also just donate yes there's actually there's actually if you go to the if you go to the like I received an email about it because I've been in the past you can just donate money if you'd like and not worry about bidding oh it was a lot of fun yep and uh just for folks to know if if they don't know already the ashin Education Foundation um puts through grants that teachers and and uh folks in our schools request so that money goes back into the to the classrooms so so they've done some pretty dramatic things um through the years the stem Lab at the middle school was an National Education Foundation project yep iPads that they bought um they bought um 3D printing you know for us um back yeah the Shir days I remember it was back in the kitchen mom prom was fun I enjoyed that we uh and that's what my husband called it too just in case just whole town yeah yeah it's had U many iterations Through The Years yep so but uh so yeah so that's this upcoming Saturday um I'm also going to be going to the the YMCA uh Marathon breakfast which I think is the 14 Fray March 14th yep um so that's coming up so well it's more about celebrating their and supporting the the YMCA y hopefully getting an update maybe we'll there'll be another update or something I'm looking at Yolanda because Yolanda's involved in it I know nothing so um and then we talked about comprehensive plan on the 20th so we've been we've had a reprieve for the last you know month or so we had a break in in February so as as we Gear Up For What will be a um very a bunch of work moving forward a very intense stretch yeah so um so I encourage people to keep an eye out for for things that are going to be coming up for the comprehensive plan um in in the following in the following months and I do owe I'm sorry I I just it just popped into my brain I need to reach out to the farmers market about dates for us for table about that after I I uh have not done that so I will do that because they're going to start planning yep and I will I will get all that squared away and that's um and that's pretty much it for me so okay thanks okay so a couple things so uh Joe you asked about the extension of the remote meeting so it's part of What's called the municipal empowerment act at the state level they are discussing it as an mapc member as an MMA member they have asked me people to reach out to your legislator and if you want I think MMA may even have a letter or an email that says please move this forward and get it done and make it permanent before March 31st so if you have the time and the energy I would ask that we all do that because let's just make it permanent let's not just keep pushing it a year down the road and a year year down the road because there are communities that are trying to make plans and right now if they have town meeting in April or if they have meetings in April they can't plan them for remote meetings so that's the Municipal Power rint um MPC I'm the Ashlen representative to the mapc metropoline area planning Council we had our wi winter council meeting virtually this morning uh Mark dren who is the director gave a really nice update talking about some of the sort of countering some of the things that were going on in Washington I believe they make it his the whole thing available so when it's available I'll let people know because I can't repeat how he said it he said it very eloquently so just something to think about uh last Thursday I had the Metro Regional collaborative meeting we had some good discussions we had one of the other sub regions with us and with that on Friday March 28th at I think 8 or 8:30 in the morning is the legislative breakfast for Metro West Regional collaborative and we're doing it with I think it's either swap or magic one of the other sub regions and it's going to be in Medfield I think I forwarded that to people at the the house um at the the Medway so at the the house in Medway uh again if you can take if you come can come it's a great way one to meet other people who are select board planning board and I sent out the invitation I think to this whole board and planning and some other people uh and then also a lot of legislators are there and I think because it's going to be two regions together there'll be a few more people we haven't heard who yet um we we always hope to get Karen as the Senate President but I know it's tough and if she can't be there someone from her delegation is always there to to chat um let's see this Friday morning so MMA is having their legislative events and you know you have these two organizations that are doing great things sometimes they compete uh so mma's legislative breakfast they are doing two this Friday and two next Friday the two this Friday there's one in Marboro at the Marboro library and that's from 8:30 to 10:15 if you've never been to the Marboro Library it's a nice little building they have a great space it's not that far I'm planning on going this Friday if someone wants to go I'm more than willing to carpool um so just that is information there as well yesterday so I'm on one of the regional subcommittees for MMA and we had one of our meetings yesterday uh chatting about Regional information and we're going to be hopefully having a discussion in the future about Adu about housing in general about 2 and a half half and what does that mean and how we can look at different funding um so I can keep people posted on that and then the last thing is I want to congratulate the ashin high school theatrical Society they performed anything goes this weekend and the last time I saw it here in Ashland was 14 years ago when my own daughter was a part of it so it was fun to go back they did a great job as always David Harrington our theater teacher does a wonderful job on these Productions costumes um set they were having some technical difficulties with their Lighting in with their sound stuff so um we'll see what we can help out with there uh but again the the musical Direction and it's always just a fun event so congratulations to the Ashton high school theatrical society and that is all I have sure there any clocks ahead this weekend on Sunday yes time ahead on Sunday that's right and uh as we said our next meeting will be virtual so we won't be here in this room you'll see us all from our various locations at home and uh I believe that's it if I can get a motion to adjourn and okay we have a motion and a second all those in favor I thank you all for watching thank you for being here thank all of you for your participation and thank you Michael and Jen and again our next meeting is uh Wednesday March 17th so between then and now happy St Patrick's Day and we'll see you in two weeks
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