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there will be a ways a state Ways and Means budget hearing on local Aid and um the state has started to hold these kinds of hearings not just in Boston but sometimes locally this one happens to be at UMass so this is a rare opportunity to actually be able to show up um in person um it is an invitation only hearing as in terms of public comment so there is no public comment allowed um the one that will have public comment will probably be across the state um but that's just the way things go however um um the one of the principles of um in in ammer has decided to make this uh particular hearing a day of uh Civic awareness and action I um share I shared with you um a a letter that he that um the principal sent out to uh parents and teachers about this where they actually plan to walk um from a school in Amherst to the campus on UMass so that they could show up at the hearing um and there are groups in Northampton that are planning on organizing and doing the same if Green Field is to have some kind of presence at that meeting it has to be incumbent upon um our Civic leaders here in Greenfield to do the same so I'm just presenting what they're doing and hoping that there is someone here who might take some leadership on that idea um on a and a general note about um the state funding advocacy um we are still looking to try to get the state to take greater responsibility for charter school funding there are several bills pending um the one that is most well supported um is unfortunately the one that is not going to bring us as much relief as we would hope um and um as far as the most popular idea Statewide for the funding advocacy the one that would help Greenfield the most is fixing the Chapter 70 inflation Factor so um in the absence of actually being able to have a a conversation about State funding Equity that would be what we would want to support um that in um Senate bill um 1912 which looks to which is sponsored by Senator cumerford and Senator Lewis which would look at reforming the Chapter 70 funding formula so that it is more Equitable is that is that the end of public comment for me sorry thank you hi Margaret ran Court 19B Street Greenfield I have been teaching in Greenfield since 1996 and I'm here to talk about our superintendent Karen patno I have never met anybody who has worked harder to meet her Mission which I believe is to meet the needs of all of our students to provide them the best educational experience that we can provide them she doesn't just talk the talk she walks the walk if we're at school at a night event she's there if we're setting up to do the susal practice she's there helping us she's there at the performance but what I really want to talk about is her budget she did not make that light-heartedly or frivolously she made it with one intent to provide our students with what they deserve to have and if you don't believe me you need to look at that budget because member ston touch upon it at the budget meeting but what what was not said was she gave herself a $155,000 salary decrease she did that I believe because she's trying to meet the needs of our students I have not seen anybody do that in my life we all need to acknowledge you Karen are working for us all of us feel it that staff feels our support the students and the families so when we start looking at this budget because I'm worried about what's going to happen people need to be aware it was not made light-heartedly and it was made with one intent to provide our students the best education they deserve so please when you're talking about this please look at that I have not met anybody who was willing to give themselves a $15,000 year decrease in their salary so I want to thank you Karen for all that you do for us and since I probably have time I want to talk about the susal if you did not get to see our fourth graders perform in the suscal you miss something special and the only reason it happened is because of you yes juk we have to thank them and we have to thank Sarah pagee and Eli with lit lit l i sorry Litwin sorry because they also worked hard but none of it would have happened without Karen she saw this opportunity and it was amazing it was amazing if you saw me backstage I was sobbing like a baby because I was so proud it was a once in a-lifetime experience for many of our students and you did that work to make sure it happened for all of our fourth graders at all three schools you do that every day and I appreciate you and I think the city of Greenfield should recog recognize all that you do for us hi I'm Rose skof I live on lynon Avenue um I'm a teacher in the district and I love what I do I really look forward to coming to work every day um and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else uh I've been watching the various gctv videos that lay out the current conflict between the school committee and the city council um and I wanted to share my perspective as a teacher as teachers navigate interpersonal conflicts with students on a daily basis and this work feels applicable um here so as a teacher I'm often in a position where students perceive my actions in a different different way than I intend and that's just the reality of adults working with kids they have a very different view of and and we just sometimes clash and when my impact doesn't match my intent and students communicate with me that they are hurt by my actions I have two options I can prove myself right and justify my actions or I can listen without judgment and work to repair the harm that I caused even if I didn't mean to cause it as a teacher when student requests information from me that I do not think they have any right to ask me about I have two options to shut them down or to have a curious conversation and ask why they need it as a teacher when a student doesn't understand something that I am trying to get across it is my job and my responsibility to work as best as I can within my means to clarify that information and not to shame them for their misunderstanding I also have to ask myself in those moments if it is appropriate for me to address the concern in front of the class if I'm having a conflict with a student or to have an offline conversation about it I have to evaluate the situation and decide if this is a time where the student will be able to receive the information that I am trying to convey so we're not very different in that respect and as school committee members I believe there is a responsibility to address harm and restore relationships and for that to take president over being right I hope that as you all discuss budget lines that affect our lives as teachers as students as parents as families that you can either restore those relationships before making decisions or take your feelings out of it to make decisions that are in the best interest of everyone in our community because I know that that's the the mission right school committee city council teachers we all want what's best for everyone in Greenfield so we have to make sure that we are all understanding that and we're on the same side instead of being on different sides so thank you so I've never done this before I I'm take it I'm supposed to say my address yeah okay um my your address um I think it's just the town town okay all right so my name is OT Mercier and I'm a resident of Greenfield um I'm also a mom to an amazing fourth grader at Four Corners Discovery School I wanted to comment on the district's recent collaboration with juk in presenting the susal at the Greenfield High School I'm not sure how many of you had the privilege of seeing this performance but all of the students were beaming and the auditorium was full of families our fourth grader had extended family in the audience that night and we all enjoyed this so much it wasn't just a little performance for us or our student this was a big deal which is what brings me here today for public comment I want to celebrate the unsung heroes of special education within our school district the instructional assistance specifically Heidi Merritt if you're unfamiliar with Miss Heidi Meritt she is our students IIA she has spent countless hours supporting Colton in his academic learning safety and social growth in the school amongst countless other things her professional ability to connect with Colton is evident in watching interactions between them as her ability to keep him safe and support him in his deficits while also encouraging Independence is such a delicate balance that has been mastered in this pair our student Colton loves Dr Seuss and music he loves to dance and the excitement of this performance was evident watching him on stage with a huge smile and lots of laughter what you probably don't know about Colton is that he's nonverbal he communicates with an AAC device and requires an IIA in my opinion IAS don't always get the recognition they deserve they silently show up and often have the biggest responsibilities Miss Heidi was the only adult on the stage hand inand with Colton for the entire show my fourth grader got his opportunity to shine due to the selfless work of an educ ational assistant I cannot begin to express my gratitude to her and the amazing work she has done and continues to do I shared the story with our Special Education team last week but I'd like to share it with you as I think this speaks to the impact this has had on my son when Colton came back from the performance night at Greenfield High School he was in the dining room and he was busy on his iPad searching YouTube videos shortly after he comes into the living room he's laughing and dancing and he was playing the suscal soundtrack off of YouTube um I just want to thank you for your time and recognition of the backbone of special education instructional assistance [Applause] hi my name is Pamela Goodwin I live at 54 High Street um I taught in Greenfield schools monteu system Pioneer over the years for many many years I also did private tutoring for the superintendent of Greenfield in two different areas one was a little sixth grader who had to be homeschooled until I brought him into a school setting one was a teenager who got in trouble and brought in a knife and he was expelled for the whole year so I have a lot of experience in the school system and also I had an occasion to work if any of you were here long enough to know who um Sarah fog is in the alternative education room at the high school alternative Ed was for difficult children um well difficult behaviors anyway and they came um and worked with Barry molan um and so I was a a staff there in that setting um and we did really well and those kids didn't really want to be in school but they came to school and they really functioned beautifully there I also taught um some children at the high school who were at risk I co-taught with Angela Mass I co-taught with a gentleman named um Matt Stenson for a year um they were all at risk kids and and then I taught summer school so I'm just here to ask the school committee um because I know we're getting ready to talk about budget um I'm a little concerned about class size in certain schools or you know maybe it's small at the high school it's larger in other settings I also had an occasion to teach remedial reading um I fell into that and a reading program up at pioneer and my Master's Degree was in instruction and curriculum through Leslie college so I've had a lot of experience and I would just like us to take a very close look at the budget I'm not clear on why we're not regionalizing or combining schools the way that some of the other school systems have found necessary to do because certainly the state is dropping the ball as far as funding for chapter programs I know palmont is now in Jeopardy again of being shut down and combining with maybe I think it's North Adams and that's where my three children went to holmont for all those years it was an awardwinning National Elementary School at that time and these kids are now in their 40s and 50s so I just hope that people are able to look outside of the box I don't know if we're still spending a whole lot of money to park buses somewhere uh because that does not make sense to me either so if some trimming has to happen I hope that people are able to look closely at what other districts are doing or whatever else might be needed because I know budget is always a horrific time for all parties concerned thank you for your time anyone on Zoom we have two people on Zoom uh John McGee will go first hi there uh my name is John McGee I live in Greenfield um as always thanks to everybody on the committee and at GPS for all of your hard work um tonight I just wanted to say thank you to the superintendent for the very sensible and caring policies for protecting protecting all of our kids in Greenfield schools um and especially the children of immigrants in the face of increasingly xenophobic Federal action um and tonight I want to encourage the school committee to co codify those policies officially at the committee level to whatever extent possible um and to provide for teachers and staff to be trained in carrying them out in practice that's all I have thanks uh hello McAn is next uh hi I'm Anna McBane uh I work in schools uh and I'm uh uh as an instructional assistant and I want to just say uh kind of tag on to whatever the theme of the night has been which is to say thank you to Karen uh earlier this year I got to uh be um with a student in a band concert and it's because of the support Karen shows for inclusion in all aspects of the district that we knew that we could go ahead and the funding would be uh okay to have me work that uh so thank you Karen and and uh then onto the uh budget um I hope that uh we we can find a solution that uh doesn't mean that any of the services that we provide our students on the direct level on are affected because those are the servic is that the students themselves would feel the most impact of if some sort of cut had to be made to our budget that Karen has built and uh also thank you Karen for the uh salary cut uh I don't think enough people around the town know what you did so thank you for that um and thank you for your time M as in Mary C B as in Barry a n is a Nancy e b oh MC I'm sorry I got that wrong can you put on your mic and spell up for Susan Susan it's m CB e a n okay thank you on to the uh report of student representatives to the committee Club reports athletic updates and the Student Life highlight all right so this year the student council took 24 delegates um to the three state or to the three-day State Conference in hyenas this is the most ghs has ever brought to this conference we have from two keynote speakers um four of our students ran workshops that were presented to 40 students each we had a really great time and brought home some new Awards once again we were recognized as a gold Council of Excellence Devon Brown and Stella Verlander receiv received the Commonwealth award um in addition to their um Devotion to our Council Miss Mass nominated them for expanding their leadership into new clubs at our school Devon helped to create the students of color club and Stella the sustainability Club our Council won the top 10 project award and though we did not win at that level we would like to recognize Noah Chambers as our council's unsung hero all in attendance gained valuable skills and we can't wait to start new initiatives at our school to increase the pride um of ghs winter sports had a great season girls basketball won their preliminary round in the Mia Tournament game versus BAS State Academy Unfortunately they did not fare well in the next game but they had a great experience overall boys basketball was 2-0 in the tournament um until they played against O'Brien High School in rockberry and lost in double overtime with 70 to 67 but they had a great run ice hockey lost in their first round of the tourney to sandwich High School 3 to2 in double overtime springing Sports start on Mon start on Monday March 17th and you can see schedules on Arbiter live.com French Club and Spanish Club hosted the 29th annual Taste of world cultures event yesterday March 11th this event was very well attended in future performances from ghs Spanish and French students the Moonlight classical Chinese Dan dance club from Smith college and the Crescent dancers each performed and invited students and guests to participate in a dance lesson we enjoyed a multicultural Feast donated by generous local businesses and we're we were so s thankful to see so many students families and community members there drama club is busy rehearsing for the somewhat true tale of Robin Hood their play this year the actors are studying and working hard to memorize a lot of complex dialogue including several dance steps and even a cheer they have the help of Mr bostom students to build a turret window and Mr Green's Art Club to help with painting sets costumes are being gathered and sewn thanks to miss Po's daughter Juliet and we are looking forward to the performances on April 4th and 5th tickets will be sold at the door and we're looking forward to everyone attending the Spectrum Club spent their last meeting making bracelets for an upcoming fundraiser that is in the works um they're also connected with Franklin County pride and will be helping to plan um The Pride prom which is being held at the Franklin County YMCA on April 26th from 7: to 10 p.m.

thank you e e e face Mark right no it's just like it's honestly like forum and then you just like yeah some like tlist and then people comment and they're like oh I'll buy it or they message you on Facebook and they so there's no fees or anything it's just like posting just like on your feet but then it's a designated spot face I actually a lot ofure y yeah [Applause] okay are we ready all right good evening everyone thank you for coming the berasa Union School District meeting with the Board of Trustees will now reconvene to open session trust trustan could you please lead us in the flag salute please yes please stand face the flag ready begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you trusty trusty how could you please read the district mission statement of course baresa Union School District provides all students the skills to become lifelong Learners and successful 21st century Global Citizens thank you trusty Shri nasan could you please read the Norms of the Board of Trustees yes surely the basa Union School District Board of Trustees agree to focus on the best best interest of students at all times be respectful listen openly address problems and process not persons keep each other informed maintain confidentiality work towards the future learn from the past equal participation from all members stay on task thank you very much no action was taken during during the close session um e adoption of the agenda could I please have a motion to adopt this evening's agenda move to adopt second thank you very much it's been it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I oppos okay motion passed let's con no recognition no public no wait is there any public comments and calendar agenda agenda items none in that case could I please have a motion to approve the consent calendar move to approve I'll second thank you very much it's been mov and seconded all in favor say I I oppos motion is carried we shall continue on to item number nine are there any public comments on non-agenda items none in that case we shall continue thank you item number 10 reports and presentation Dr Fuentes please thank you um this evening we'd like to present to the board all of the different steps that have been taking place um to help our school consolidation decisions move forward so we have various members of our cabinet that will share with you um where they are in this transition process and we'll begin with Mr Franklin all right good evening so just to update on um where we're at um on the facility side within business services for our school transition um you know at the last board meeting we were talking about approving um the relocation of certain programs and staff so where we're at with all of that is we've started the process to relocate Portables or to procure Portables or modular restrooms for um the school sites that we were going to be adding Portables to so um Rusk in a majestic way our architect is working on uh drawings to submit to DSA um that will happen on April the 11th um surveying has already been done for um all three sites and So the plan is for the paving for where those Portables are going to be placed is going to happen during spring break so that's going to be for all three School sites receiving Portables and then actually the portable relocation for Northwood even though that was kind of the one that was seemingly the latest on the schedule is the one that's most ahead at this point so they're um their meeing with DSA is actually on uh March 27th so that one's been a little bit uh more simple um for as far as the process so far so that one's the one that's um actually a little bit ahead of schedule so um one thing to caution is that plan is to have Paving done during spring break however if it rains then that will um change those plans so we do have contingency plans in place as far as how to complete the paving um in the event that it does rain to keep us on schedule um but that's kind of where we're at with the Portables as of right now um Vincy Park the portable modernization that we mentioned for the two former Sunshine uh Sunshine School Portables off to the side in the front of Vincy Park um that work is beginning um next week and is scheduled to be completed after spring break so we're going to fence off the area um we're able to kind of fence it off completely from students there there shouldn't be anybody around um that area but it'll be completely fenced off we're going to divide the um current two portables back into two individual Portables by putting up a wall in in between because right now it's one big open space and we're going to be renovating those um restrooms that are currently in there uh with smaller toilets for our SDC preschool students so uh Tony and I also um walked all of the school sites that are receiving special ed programs and spoke with all the principles about their plans for uh where those students would be um located on the property and figuring out if there were any other um adjustments to restrooms or um anything having to do with the classrooms that need to be done in addition to what we were already thinking so we need to know those locations so we've met with them preliminarily about what um upgrades are needed there's very few upgrades that are needed but there are some Renovations that are going to be needed for the restrooms to serve some of our preschool students and so we're starting to plan um what those upgrades are um and then lastly the the school district um advisory committee or 7-Eleven committee to Surplus um what will be the vacant properties um is actually on this agenda tonight for approval of the committee so we are starting that process and the committee is scheduled to meet on March 18th March 27th and April 3D hoping to bring the recommendation from the committee to the board at the April board meeting so transitioning from facilities to the moving of Staff um uh we're currently in the process of of of meeting with school sites to discuss that process um we have the the new School boundary and school finder um um um tool on our website has been updated with those new boundaries so families are able to go and look up the School site that they will be um moving to um we have put out or we're in the process of putting out an RFP uh for a moving company to actually do all of the moving of um furniture and um uh curriculum and everything else associated with uh our staff movements from one School site to another or even within a School site so there's been extensive planning on that and trying to estimate how many uh staff will be moving within School sites relocating to other school sites and so those bids are due at the end of March there is already a a site uh job walk for that uh last week and there were I believe moving companies that came out to to participate in that so sounds like there's um a lot of interest and so we'll see how those bids come in um once we know um which moving company has been selected then we can start to finalize some of those plans what type of uh bins they'll be using to move staff so that we can start to tell them how to label those and what that process will be and then we've already sent boxes to school sites for any personal items that staff would like to take home that they don't want us to move in case um they don't want it to get lost or broken um we have started that process and letting them know that um they should take those items home um and move them themselves so that um nothing will happen um in the big moving process um so with that um as I pass it off to Dr mccu one thing um along with updating our websites one thing that um I want to do is uh commend Our IT department Stephanie uh msas and um Jackie ber for all the work that they did with updating the online registration and doing all the testing to make sure all of that um went through and was done appropriately is a it was a big task um I think from the time that the board approved um the change to the boundaries it we're able to get that work done in a week and a half um that was incredibly fast so a big thank you to Our IT department for doing that in such a timely fashion and before you walk away Mr Franklin I just want to see if there's any questions from the board regarding this section of information Bo do you have any questions I just have one question regarding the the viny uh portable that that you're you're doing so there was there was a concern uh about having either preschool or SDC preschool kids in a separate location um is that a concern over here is there is there is that likely to be a concern about that the this particular location from a facility standpoint um no um I don't know uh Dr mccre if you want to comment on whether or not you know there's any concern with having them separate um in a portable at that particular location um but I don't think so I think so I'm trying trying to understand the um the layout and how far away it is from the from the main you know right so it is a little bit of a ways away from from the main property but um I think it'll be a short distance for those students to to walk from getting you know most of them get dropped off by the bus um over to those particular Portables um and then access to the NPR or anything which they don't typically go to the NPR for anything they don't have lunch at our school sites but um everything would be kind of allinone in that area they have um even outdoor space in front of the classrooms um there's a pretty big outdoor space there and then they'll have the appropriate restrooms within the classroom so uh you know the distance from the main uh building shouldn't be an issue shouldn't be an issue um I mean yeah logistically I agree uh I was just concerned about um integration and and things like that you know from Optics point of view but but I understand what he's saying um so just just wanted to U highlight that and see if there there are any uh any concerns at the end of the day I know that the the kids do get dropped off and the parents to um walk them to the to their classroom so they do have the the additional support I do agree with that but just wanted to see how the Dynamics will play out at the end of the day so thank you I also had one quick question to um what is the timeline for teachers to be moving out and is there a process for them if they need additional time on campus for example and well do they have that opportunity so we have that spelled out in theou I think we gave them um up through April or April through June 19th to move out of their classrooms um what was it 18th June 18th um so they have right up to the to the holiday um to kind of pack up their classrooms uh but after that that's kind of when we have plan to have the movers come in to do their work because we also have our summer programs that we need to move in while we also move folks out and so um you know there's a lot of coordination going on uh but they do have that that time and um they have 20 hours of additional time that they have to uh pack up their classrooms um but those are all questions that that they've been asking and and we've been going out to their staff meetings to address those those questions and concerns thank you any more questions from the board thank you assistant superintendent Franklin uh oh we're not done yet we still have more slides oh the other one it was uh Brian the other okay so now we're going to talk about students and enrollment so like Mr Franklin uh just mentioned our District's online registration portal was opened uh last week on March 4th and uh we already have lots of TK registrations so we're doing really good with TK uh remember this year TK is expanding their uh time frame for allowing students to come into the district so it's from September 2nd all the way until um the end of August so students could turn five in September and all the way until July and also turn five so it's another grade at each School site um letters to families that were affected to affected by the school trans transition process were sent out on March 7th so once again um just like uh Mr Franklin was thanking his staff I want to thank my staff because we went through a lot of planning to make sure these letters were sent out first of all to the correct parents with the correct um school and pulling out certain um remember we had different little po pockets of schools that got a little grandfathered in to make sure that those parents didn't get a letter that said they were going to go to a different school and then all of our special ed programs that are being affected so we really were very detail oriented and trying to figure out that these letters were sent out correctly to families and so these uh letters also have a little portion at the bottom called like you know an intent to return portion and so the information there is are you are you accepting your um new placements um if not you can file out an intr District transfer form where would you like to go and then there's a process that's attached in a QR code for the families to then go through the inter District process um inter District process and then there's also a third box that says we're not coming back to the district we're moving etc etc So the plan is that those letters are then returned by March 2 E from the parents to the front offices and so the clerks at the schools are gathering all of these letters and then they're going through and sharing the information through a Google form with our team so they're clicking on they've received the letter do they agree or they filling out an interdistrict transfer form Etc because we want to track as much as we can how many students are going to be then move to these uh their new schools and we have to account for all of the numbers and so um like I mentioned the impacted schools that are not happy with the change can fill out the intra District transfer and we'll do our best to prioritize those students oops wrong way and so in addition to that last night we had an informational meeting to review all of the information I just talked about with the three schools and the parents of all three of those schools so we reviewed The New School boundaries um we talked about the safe route to school what's happening with that we talked about the re the letters and what are the options we reviewed some of the afterschool program information we also talked about um our social emotional learning supports that are available now and will continue on for the next school year we had about 20 minutes at the end um to answer questions and we're Gathering all of the questions we weren't able to answer into a fa q and we're going to post that on the website in the next uh few days as well so these were similar um slides from last night's presentation but just as we continue to plan for 2526 we want to make sure that there's after school programs available at each of our school sites and so the majority of um these uh after school programs are staying the same or we're adding an additional um service so as you can see right now we have Brook tree at Rock we have Rock and YMC at Brook tree which is the similar to what we have this year sitting with Majestic Way we have Rock and AO uh moving forward to next year we have Noble with Rock and YMCA so we have a very active YMCA program at Toyon so they're going to be adding the YMCA at Noble for next year Northwood we're going to be increasing the number of seats for our YMCA folks um rusin since it's going to be our biggest um school we have lots of opportunities for after school we have Rock we're going to continue with a Leo Sunshine school and a new offering that's new this year called Wellspring and that's actually a mandarin immersion after school program for some of our families that don't speak Mandarin they actually have homework help uh during um the afternoon to provide that space and it's not only open to our Mandarin immersion families it's open to anyone so even our English only um families can participate in the Wellspring after school program uh Summerdale we're transitioning um from the city of San to YMCA but it's still Aces and Vincy Park we're continuing with the YMCA um we're working alongside YMCA and Alo very closely so that we can then get that registration up and running hopefully by the end of May early June we're also in conversations with rock to see if we can um speed up their deadline for registration knowing that a lot of these families really want to have this in place sooner than later so we we continuing to have conversations with rock usually they do their after school um signups in July and so we're really pushing them to help support this um this upcoming school year because of all the changes that are happening and as soon as we find out more information about timelines we're also Gathering um all of the existing programs they have site directors the YMCA has a website uh we work very closely with the YMCA folks and they have also given us permission to put their names on the website if there's questions specifically about the program availability pricing um we had a big Alo um meeting here a week ago so that we're also really a great partnership with the Leo so they're also willing to help support in any way possible and same thing with rock so the timelines will be posted and we'll get um as much as we can out to parents as soon as we know more information I think I'll I'll just add to that um that definitely is a critical area of information for our families um last night lots of questions uh on how uh providers are selected you know you get accustom to YMCA for example if they've been your after school program and so what we shared with the families was we sustained existing program providers at all of our schools gave them the first option to be able to expand seats and if they were able to do so great if not then we brought in a second provider um to be able to support increased number of students at the schools so um in case you're asked about that it was a it was a popular question and I think um but you know we assured them that you know it's we're committed to providing after school care um but definitely they're interested in in the price points you know there's families that have benefited from the Asus program from scholarship opportunities that are provided through the different providers so um you know they're they're hopeful that those will continue and that you know sliding scales will be afforded to them with and those are the conversations we've been having with with all of the providers we had one just today quick quick question uh uh I think I they asked last time Al sanan budhist I know that they operate independently but uh do any of our students at Cherrywood and Toyon right they are the two sides that they have or so actually no they have they have transitioned over the years to um Cherrywood was their only school age program that they offered the other locations because they are at other sites in our district at Northwood as well as Vincy Park but that's for um it was for pre school which they're now transitioning to infant toddler care so they they their programming has been significantly impacted by the elot funds and with public school offering TK so it really has shifted who their clientele is and so now um they're focusing more on infant to toddler so none of our uh at Cherrywood none of our students we do some currently that are in their after school program however um they'll be able to be absorbed into these other programs thanks so just to highlight some of the social emotional support that we're continuing to provide ongoing from the school year until next school year so at each School site we have a school social worker and um we're happy to say that next school year some of these School social workers that have been sharing sites for so many years will now be at um one site because we have bigger schools and we have a couple less schools each of our um schools also has a community liaison so we're going to continue that work as well to help support the students and families that are coming to the school with questions and concerns uh we're going to continue uh with our school Link services coordinator she's housed over at pedmont right now connecting students and family to outside resources as well we are continuing our contract with K Solis and they're also another um uh great partner that we've had over the years and they help connect families to outside counseling services our school social workers work hand inand with car Solus they actually do a handoff in order for those um services to be provided uh Daybreak health is a new uh resource that we've added in the last couple of months and that's also free to us as um a new resource and they are offering te theapy so via um Zoom or uh Google meets and meeting with students that way at home and in addition to that we are continuing to talk through the offerings of our social emotional learning curriculum we had a good conversation with our principles today about how we can continue and maybe get some more uh PD and support so that our schools are using it more effectively moving forward Upstream is for our middle school program and Studies Weekly is theal curriculum for elementaries so we had some good conversations about that at our principal meeting today and uh last but not least we've really focused on adding a lot of additional parent workshops over the past uh few months and so as you can see we have um one of them called nurturing effective communication which has uh already happened at two of are two of the dates February 6th and the 25th we have two more dates coming up April 3rd and April 8th um our uh partner over at the Santa clar County Office of Ed is Jamie coup one of our former parents and so she's um literally the one who runs all of these uh programs we also had um active parenting for Middle School parents back in October and November and we have the active parenting class for the elementary school parents happening this month and once again um through these parent workshops Child Care is provided for free um dinner provided and the sessions are pretty well um uh packed with lots of parents and kids and our par par professionals instructional AIDS are our um folks that are watching the students so they're also helping out as well yeah and I really would like to just commend Jamie coup as you know she's a former beresa parent so very committed um to our community um the first series of workshops there nurturing effective communication she crafted just for us um and you know sharing with her the different challenges that school transitions were bringing both for the children as well as for their parents um trying to give them tools to feel better equipped for the upcoming changes so um that Workshop uh they're open to anyone so anyone it doesn't have to just be Cherrywood families for example it could be anyone from the district they could attend any one of those dates it's the same Workshop repeated at all of those locations um and it includes Community Building Circle uh learning your child's love language to be able to you know monitor how they're feeling through these Transitions and then learning um some skills on how to be an empathetic listener all skills we could learn and refine all right any other questions about um the head Services portion I I had a couple um if I can remember it still the the uh the um intent to return letter uh you said there's a deadline for March of March 28th um what happens if we don't if the pent doesn't turn in so remember I said we're tracking who's turned everything in then the clerks and the folks at the school sites will be calling and trying to contact the parents or send another letter out to so we're really just making sure that we communicate as much as we can to get that information so that we can plan accordingly and if if the if there's no response you assume that the students well we're going to continue to do what we can I mean we also do home visits we get a lot of returned mail too that we get mail that says no longer at this address this address doesn't doesn't exists and that happens more than we want to know so we want to definitely follow up if these parents aren't our residents we want to also make sure that we follow up with that as well and I know if you don't have uh the only a couple of mental students how do you reach out well they have um an address where they're living temporarily and so once again we have a list of those students and those are also um families that our community Liaisons are very close knit with and so Tom Carrol our coordinator of student services works with the community Liaisons to make sure that we Outreach even more to those families to make sure that if you know we want to get them to a school that's as close as they can be to where they're staying now okay thanks and the other question I had uh is on safe roads to school how's that going sorry yeah no so we're still um you know continuing to look into um you know where some of the the Troublesome spots are we did hear that the crosswalk um off a cople will be done in uh April or during the Spring um uh Dan Norris is com uh currently assessing all the crossing Ys where they're at and um other drop off areas for all of the school sites and coming up with the plan because the special ed students are now going to be located at at school sites that they haven't been at before so he's looking into that and we're going to soon start to meet with ed services to discuss the best spots for those sometimes the the spaces that we think are best suitable for drop off are not what ed services agrees with and so we're going to coordinate with them to to talk about that and um and then as Bell schedules start to be developed at all of our school sites which will be happening over the next few weeks um we'll also be discussing with principles um you know the bell schedule start times and things of that nature and whether or not you know any of those need to be staggered for traffic purposes right I think that I think I brought it up with especially with Raskin and sierant so that that's being uh discussed and yeah so Bell schedules just went out to principles to start working on with their staff and so that's going to be a process over the next right two months or so yeah yeah okay yeah and we received a few comments from parents last night uh you know letting us know uh their uh their issues of off children between school sites Etc and so we we let them know we're working on the Bell schedules and you know we'll keep those things in mind okay thank you oh I also sorry sorry I have one question sorry Dr Jo um thank you all so much for your work by the way um all of this is really wonderful to hear that we're really moving along I just had a few questions about the um parent workshops and also the zoom meeting that you had with our impacted families are there translation services available for families who particip so one of the things that we had in the letter was some information on translations one thing that we are going to make sure we do is translate as much as the um actual uh video into the languages and post that on there uh we talked literally the day before about trying to get uh our translators to help support but it was a little complicated with breakout rooms and different things like that so that's one lesson learned as we move forward to make sure that we at least provide that opportunity because all of our translators were I think even Lord is was on the call helping support anybody that did have questions but just trying to figure out I know we had that program that we had during some of those board meetings um so that could be an option moving forward we just have to kind of configure that through Zoom so that was one opportunity that we did Miss yeah thank you I hope moving forward too we'll really integrate that in case folks need it but translated videos with captions are always good too after the fact thank you any more questions from the board one more slide from Mr Cabrero thank you assistant superintendent mccre Human Resources has been working to ensure that all classroom teachers have a school side placement a great and a great level assignment by March the 24th we have already um notified the teachers of their school side placement we did that um before February the 28th and if people did not have a School site placement then we just put TBD um by this week on the 10th anyone who wish wishes to submit a transfer request to move to a different site or different grade level they needed to be in by the 10th now we gave the teachers at the school sites that are closed that are closing Sher with toan and Lane View and addition up until the 13th to submit their transfers request which includes the site and the grade level if they wish to follow their students Etc uh we gave them uh a week after providing them the vacancy list for all the all the sites and grade levels at the school at the schools and they're the only ones that that have that information so that that is due tomorrow once we receive that the HR staff is then going to compile the information and try to accommodate as best as possible and we plan to notify Everybody by the 24th of their grade level assignment and those who do not have a school placement will also be notified by the 24th that's the information I have this evening questions from the board comments from the board thank you assistant superintendent Cabrera I know this is this whole process is extremely detailed and it takes a lot of work to do this so I thank you all for your for your efforts because I know this is not easy and it's contined to be not easy so thank you um are we on item 11 now correct or no 10 B 10 oh excuse me 10B District professional development presentation Dr Fuentes please thank you um we Rec L had our professional development day for staff and so we'll be giving you an update of how that went uh Dr McCurry thank you Nicole peretas will be doing a presentation on um the two PD days but more specifically the one that we had back in January January 29th so miss peretas thank you good evening um yes I'll be providing um and Reporting out to you around our two districtwide professional development days held this year um a quick overview um the dates that we held those um professional development were September 18th and January 29th um classified and certificated staff um participated in those days the sessions were held at various School sites as well as at the County Office of Education the the general schedule for both of those days um we had am sessions that ran from 88 to 11: um there was actually two sessions in the morning that were about 90 minutes each um then there was lunch and then we had afternoon sessions from 12: to 3: and just some highlights that I wanted to share um that um the two days were for all staff they were planned in collaboration with our cab professional development committee the sessions were designed to meet a wide variety of Staff needs um through Choice sessions and also um many sessions that were led by various s teachers and staff and administrators so particularly in January um we had 26 barasa teachers and staff that led those Choice sessions which was wonderful we offered a total of 31 Choice sessions um we also um built into the professional development day in addition to the choice sessions specific and job aligned sessions um and there were site and District leadership um team members that led sessions and the feedback we received was um quite positive so the um the way in which we looked at supporting the variety of Staff needs was through offering Choice um so staff members teachers and staff members could choose two sessions um of their choice to attend and we organized them around those sessions that were relevant and would meet the needs of all staff classified and certificed ated across all grade level spans and that's a sample of the topics that we offered um that were available for all staff and then we organized some that were really geared towards specific grade levels or grade level spans and so some of those um included differentiated instruction um strategies to support and Foster inclusion interactive math activities Universal Des Design for Learning um Foss science seal um supporting motor skill development foundational literacy skills and play-based learning so um depending on what interests and needs um staff had if was grade level specific they had those options as well in terms of specific and job aligned sessions that um staff attended for our classified staff um there were Health Training and updates um for our um secretaries and clerks and health clerks um we had Early Learning and literacy practices for our um preschool and TK teachers um our library of mediat techs um attended a session on AI tools and resources for libraries and our special education um par education attended a session on supporting um students with peer interactions uh for our certificated staff um specific or job aligned sessions included preschool learning foundations seal strategies and unit development um for the majority of our um elementary teachers they attended a session on our new Renaissance assessments for English language arts how to look at those data reports and the intervention resources that are available within that platform for our Middle School teachers um they participated in job alike or content area specific strategies and resources for their content area so the feedback from September um the question on the form asks it was for the whole day and it was were the sessions to the extent to which the sessions were relevant and meaningful to your to their work and what I really want to point out here is that it became really clear when we looked at the actual rating on the scale compared to comments that there was some confusion on the lyer scale so um whereas a one would be um strongly disagree we had several that marked that but their comment said it was an amazing day the choices were so but I I wanted to share what the data was but also let you know that when we combed through it it became clear that they may not have been clear on what a one really meant and4 so in January we fixed that and made it very clear in the question um on a scale of 1 to four one is strongly disagree for is strongly agree um the extent to which the morning sessions were relevant and meaningful and I am thrilled to share this data um overwhelmingly nearly 88% or so um felt gave it a three or four which is amazing um and then the same is true for the afternoon sessions which were the assigned job alike um specific sessions so very successful professional development days this year and just to highlight a few of the pictures I couldn't get them all from all 31 sessions but um in this you'll see this is Heather Kain on the right um who led a session and Amy Swain and Susan papert who led a session um one of our County Office Partners um and two of our bcbas [Music] and really want to end this time in this report um acknowledging the efforts of so many people and departments it truly is a team effort and it took all hands on deck um so our teachers our staff and our administrators our cab professional development planning committee Education Services our instructional coaches mot and custodial staff and Technology services thank you any questions from the board year over year I think the the uh the uh feedback and in the content is improved uh it looks like from from what what we've seen in the past which is good so great work on that I think uh the the the peer-to-peer um teaching methodology probably works uh better for teachers to hear from um people that I mean other teachers that work in the same similar uh Lis thing so I appreciate all the hard work and you know let's keep the momentum going and then U uh keep improving and get that to 100% uh you know three and four should total 100 that would be nice thank you so much thank you thank you Miss fares yeah I do I do want to add just again um a thank you to you know to Nicole and the entire ed services team because certainly this January session is the most um content specific uh offerings that we've had in all of our professional development with you know all of the different folks who also um stepped forward to be able to deliver that learning you know for their for their colleagues and it really um it really was great to be able to have that shared expertise across the district and you know we hope to be able to continue but it does take quite a bit of coordination from everyone um you know those that are organizing the day to those that are preparing you know preparing the actual professional development as well so you know a big thank you to everyone thank you for noticing um the shift and you know the trajectory that the department is uh working towards thank you item 11 superintendent report Dr Fuentes please thank you um just a a few things today first uh this month of March is our celebration for read Across America so um our schools especially our elementary sites always do lots of fun things to celebrate reading celebrate Dr Seuss's birthday so we have lots of wonderful highlights coming up in our monthly newsletter and I just want to give a a thank you uh to Majestic Way uh for their invitation to be out there and be a reader as well as at Brook tree those were really fun events in addition uh this month of March our middle schools highlight careers and so all of those special activities will be happening marel middle school tomorrow um so if you're able to stop over in the morning from uh 7:45 to 9:45 they'll have different learning opportunities for the students and then next week on Thursday March 20th um it'll be pedmont and Sierra Mon's turns so I know um there are really good opportunities our community members get engaged we get lots of parents who do fabulous things in their day jobs coming back to share with our students what those careers are all about so hopefully we'll we'll get to see you there um also this past Saturday I was able to um participate in the legislative branch that was hosted by the Santa Clara County School boards Association both president boak and I were there in attendance their keynote speaker was Linda darling Hammond so it was really great to hear her and uh gosh quite a lineup of our elected officials across Santa Clara County there were there are quite a few there and and such an important time to hear uh their vision and and what their support will be for public education um especially after this week and everything we've learned with the US Department of Education and there's quite a bit at risk in terms of you know our vulnerable student populations and making sure that they continue to get the services that that they need so we'll be even more um dependent on advocacy to our local elected officials to ensure you know whatever happens at the federal level that they're going to be there to step in and fill those gaps so I think this is a really important time to continue to monitor you know those actions um nothing at this point that you know puts our barrias students at risk we're still whole but you know we're monitoring the situation um closely thank you thank you Dr Fuentes um item 12 comments announcements from the board do we have any anyone okay we'll shall continue 13 review and discussion public hearings let's go to now item number 15 review and action superintendent um so for this first first item we have the 2025 California school boards Association Region 20 delegate Assembly Election so you have a listing of candidates there trustees across the county that are interested in being your representatives uh we do have four that are currently the incumbents and they have an asteris next to their name but this is a very competitive year as you see they they've got several Challengers um this go around so your task is to identify the four that you would like to see moving forward on behalf of varasa Union okay so you um board members you already have the candidates here I'll just give my two cents in here um I would like to see these board members that would really be helpful to us coming from the east side of San Jose I am thinking of Teresa castillos um Jorge Pacho George Sanchez Bley unless you have any other um candidates let's discuss it go ahead I agree with those those are also the incumbents um I'll make a motion to um unless anyone wants to discuss um yeah I was going to say I'm I'm okay with uh selecting the um the current incumbents okay I yeah thank you could I have a we vote on this could I have a could could I please have a motion have a motion from Trustin second oh you did oh it's been mov and seconded thank you trusting I didn't hear you um all in favor say I hi hi oppose okay uh motion is carried thank you very much to everyone Dr FES you have the list room okay yeah that'll be fine thank you all right so let's go to uh Roman numeral 2 board bylaw 910 public statements um Dr Fuentes please it is recommended the Board review and approve board bylaw 9010 public statements for a first reading and so for this one um this one just refers back to when making public statements who is the board member that has that Authority and responsibility so here in beresa our practice has been our board president you know in the absence of our board president it would be our our vice president and so forth so just uh that reminder of who has authority to speak on behalf of the entire board and then also the reminder to trustees when you are speaking um with your own individual opinion that you make that distinction that you are not speaking on behalf of the board but simply giving your own personal opinion on a matter when when you're out in the in the community thank you any discussion from the board if not could I have a motion I'll move to approve second it's been moved and seconded could I all in favor say I I I oppose motion is carried that's thank you very much now let's go to a Roman numeral 3 this is board bylaw 912 board member electronic Comm Communications Dr Fuentes please thank you um it is recommended the Board review and approve board bylaw 9012 board member electronic communications for first reading so um what this bylaw does is it brings in uh new legislation based on uh or or new policy based on recent cases that have happened and it's a good reminder regarding your electronic communication whether it's email or social media especially to be very cautious when uh you might be engaging on items that are listed in a board agenda you can by liking an item commenting on an item be in a violation of the brown act if it's an item that comes in before you here uh in our uh public forum and so and you know we've had lots of training and conversations about serial meetings serial emails now you've got to add the likes and dislikes of social media to that um cautionary cautionary incidence so just want to bring that to your attention and um and I think also on this one it also talks about um if you are acting as your board member role on social media you're also not allowed to block or hide people if they're dissenting of a add RCT opinion and that was a court case that went and you know and solidified that it's a freedom of expression to that public individual okay okay this sorry go ahead oh yeah quick question on this one so if I like post on Instagram and then um someone comments something like negative I'm not allowed to like delete the comment not if you're acting using that as an official like board member account oh I see okay so you have to distinguish between your board member role and your role as just an individual in the community okay understood so if it's getting gray if it's getting gray You're Gonna Want to take a look at that I might have to talk to you all later because I have an active Instagram yes and and that's where I said now with social media like with Facebook with Instagram all of that um it just takes all of our practices into another forum and you know if the board would like you know this is certainly something we can get a little um you know one hour training with our with our board counsel also because it's it's it's a it can get very gray very fast and so if that's of Interest we can certainly do that thank you that's great information okay so could I have a motion please move to approve a second okay it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I motion is passed thank you very much now we'll go to letter B Business Services second interim report for fiscal year 2024 2025 certification of fiscal solvency uh Dr quentes please it is recommended the board approve the 2024 25 second interim report and the district's positive certification of fiscal solvency um before you move forward with that we do have a presentation for you okay all right good evening everybody uh today I have the pleasure of presenting the 2024 2425 second interim report uh just as a refresher the second interim report um budget adjustments take place throughout the year um the second interim is a chance for us to efficiently make budget adjustments um based on information that we have received all the way through January 31st so this is the current 20 24 budget cycle um currently we're in March in the second interim um we do have we are currently working on ramping up for the 2025 26 budget cycle but um this is currently where we're standing as far as the [Music] 2425 so in January the governor released his state budget which included um the educational budget and here are some of the highlights within the 2025 26 Governor's budget so um it's projected that the cola would be at 2.43% however not all the final data data points have been released the last one gets released about in April 2025 however it's looking like that this 2.43% would probably be closer to 2.2% um the governor has also set aside money um to help assist in reducing the student to adult ratio from 12.1 to 10.1 um if the money is not allocated within the 2526 Governor's budget then we would still remain at 12 12 to1 but if their money is allocated then we'll move to 10 to one okay um some other items uh this there's a student support and professional development discretionary block rant that has been allocated that the governor allocated about $1.8 billion in the state budget which roughly equates to 323 per 80 2024 25 Ada for us and this is coming next year this is not this year and lastly in 23 24 um we saw a reduction in the learning recovery emergency block R dollars um what is being proposed in the 2526 is that he repays the districts the money that has been reduced over the course of three years starting in 2526 all right so this is just basically analysis of our enrollment um just is just basically shows that we're currently and still in a declining enrollment environment so we're projected in 2526 to be at 5,765 and then still decreasing to about 5,563 and 2627 so these are some of the budget assumptions that we're using uh for our multi-year projections um the most important ones are once again the enrollment so you can see that it's decreasing over the course of the three years um the P2 Ada projected is what we are being funded off of so um as you can see it's also decreasing the decreases do mostly to our de decline enrollment um stirs enrollment rates are pretty much much staying steady at 19.1% but you do see an increase in pers enrollment uh pers employer rate from 27.05.2012 between the first and the second interim um the biggest one coming from the state revenue and so basically the reason for such a large increase or change from the first interim to the second interim was because we have been notified that um it's due to the elop funds so basically there um what the state did was they reached out to all the districts within the state and they're pretty much clawing back all the unspent dollars and then reallocating it to the districts so our portion of that is around $800,000 Josh if you can just share with the board because it's more complicated than than that with elop um it actually there's a tiered system and really what I'd like the board to know is we're not in the top tier for funding correct that now that it's differentiated so if you can share what that shift is um so basically at the time um there's two different tiers um it's based on our unduplicated account and so they give those districts who have a high up count additional funding um and then whatever's left over because we're in the lower tier we get whatever's left over and it gets reallocated or that gets allocated to all the second tier districts so what ends up happening for 22 and 2223 is we had a lot of districts that didn't spend a lot of that funding right and so in statute basically what it allowed the state to do is reallocate those funds up to $2,000 per Ada so I don't remember the exact dollar amount that we were allocated the Ada at the time but now we are receiving up to the $2,000 which equates to the $800,000 dollar amount that we're receiving this year yeah and and the other reason I asked Josh to share that is because this um shift happened midyear and so you know it was a loss of revenue for us initially so we did have to adjust um and change course to all of the elot programming that we were providing didn't necessarily impact our after school programming but we were also expanding service to lunchtime programming that we had to reduce because of this midyear adjustment and to make things more complicated in 2526 um I think was it 75% then the up count for the initial allocation was at 75% up and I believe they're dropping it down to 55% so now we may even be getting any we may be getting Less in 25 26 right because that means there's going to be a greater number of districts that now qualify to be in tier one but we are still below the 55% threshold so we'll continue to be at that second tier receiving whatever is left after that first tier distribution yeah and that makes it hard for us to plan for the budget year because we don't know what our rate is so there's a lot of advocacy going on with this budget and we'll see what happens in the May Revis but what's been being advocated for is to at least set a um set rate for the tier 2 districts so that for planning purposes we have an idea of of what the minimum revenues will be that we can count on and then if there are any adjustments over and above that then that's a plus for us but that at least we have some way to plan because we haven't had a a mechanism to plan for it's just been estimates and so what we've seen over the past two years is that what we started out with our elop program and funding um has decreased by approximately a million dollars within a two-year time frame which really impacts our programs as you know districts were being told the priority is elop and to build Out programs we build Out programs based on the revenues that we're receiving and we understand we're in declining enrollment but a decline of a million dollars is 25% of our revenues for elop and we did not have a 25% drop in enrollment so um you know it's it's not fair to the the tier 2 districts to not have an understanding of what that funding will be and to have to continuously adjust their program moving forward so we'll see what happens in the May Revis yeah I apologize for that sidebar but it it was a significant change so I wanted to be sure you were aware of that so this is just a percentage breakdown of our Revenue you can see that 72% um or the state's um allocation model by Ada is the largest percentage of money that we receive um we get about 133% from other state revenue which includes like items like Asis in elop um transfers in so we do are making some transfers in for the current year uh based off of some of the retirement benefits that we're paying for out of fun 20 and some facilities costs um we do have local Revenue which are donations and leases so we have donations to the school sites we have leases with um multiple um sources and then the smallest piece about 3% is we get from federal revenue so not too much um so there's not too much of an adjustment from the federal revenue okay so we still are deficit deficit spending uh some of it's planned so some of it is on the restricted side and some of it's on the unrestricted side um so there's a plan of to spend about $103 million um you can see that there's Minor Adjustments between certificated salaries classified salaries and benefits um but the biggest issue or biggest increase from the first interum to the second interum is is in the services and other operating expenses so that equals about $2.1 million so where is that coming from right so the majority of it is coming from just some adjustments related to the after school programs we received $860 or $800,000 we added that into the budget um however we do have increases in for example our utilities costs right so electricity has increased about $400,000 from what our initial budget was um there are some pieces where field trips coming from the school sites aren't initially budgeted but as they um like for example science camp they raise money so there's money coming on the revenue side but there's also expenses coming out um we have increases in legal expenses for this current year uh special ed contracts and transportation contracts so all of those have actually um there's a reason for the increase for that line item so just to kind of fur further breakdown the $103 million um you can see that the majority is spent on certificated salaries employ benefits um and classified salaries so salaries and benefits which makes up about 88% of the total budget uh 15% is made up of service and other operating costs and then small portions are for the remaining um line items but to even kind of further look into the certificated salaries classified salaries and the benefit you can see that certificated non-management equates to about 67% uh classified non-management is 24% certificated management 7% and our classified management is about 2% also i' like to break down and show um kind of where that two or the 15 million for the contracts or the services and other operating costs so the majority of it 22% is our after school contracts um a large portion is utilities and special ed contracts and uh we have about 9% in in Insurance 7% in software but you can see the majority of that line item comes from the after school contracts which is on the restricted side utilities which is mostly on the unrestricted side special ed contracts which is technically on the restricted side but we do have to make um contributions to special education and then insurance is on the unrestricted side so those are the largest contracts that we currently have I think I also just want to remind the board too that um uh Insurance liability costs have increased significantly um a lot of that as a result of litigation and um and then with utilities that has been a significant impact to all school districts and is a point of advocacy with the Santa Clara County School boards Association in looking at locally with Santa clar county is there anything that they can do to help reduce the cost and burden onto utilities of utilities for school districts so that's a um a new area of interest that uh the trustees will be advocating for see is it um the the utilities is it the electrical component or the gas component because all of the above how are our how are our solar panels doing are we generating enough are we getting any generation credits back or yeah I mean the panels are generating we did have um two months where I think we had broken panels and so we did notice that and we did get those fixed but unfortunately you know we do have to pay uh for those increased utility costs we also had some um anomalies with uh water uh during a couple of months especially months when we were um on break and so we're trying to investigate that to see if that's um you know due to uh just a misread on the meters or how could they're without having a significant water leak which we didn't have how could those costs have gone up so significantly for those couple of months so we're still looking into that to try to find the source of that increase but just across the board utilities have just climbed um extremely high we do have our solar projects are going in um uh through some of the projects that Tony has mentioned at some of our school sites so that'll help moving forward but um really just the costs of pg& um in particular have gone up quite a bit is I know it's a lot uh to ask uh but I just wanted to uh put it out there do we have any mechanism or is there anybody um reviewing the efficiency of the of the panels um year over year I know that the there's some degradation uh as far as the output goes is there any any way anybody monitoring that and you know are there any uh cleaning services that uh that that I know that they use um distilled water to to clean out some of the Dust because we do get a lot of dust uh during the summer months that not necessarily all all of it gets washed away by the rain it needs treatment to actually get properly cleaned uh I I know it's a lot lot ask but just curious whether anybody's monitoring that efficiency of the panels yeah so we still get reports from NG who is the provider or that that installed the the solar panels so we do get yearly reports that Dan Norris reviews um and Dan also has um I don't know if it's NG still that comes out to do the cleaning but they do we do have annual cleaning from NG and they come out and they clean the panels that's a lot of times when we do find and assess some of the broken panels and do The Replacements um this time the the panels were broken um outside of that cleaning period and so it was the monitoring of the bills that Drew our attention to that um that led to us fixing those but we do have those annual Services thank you all right so as far as our multi-year projections um this is a total G our total general fund um so you can see we're still deficit spending across the 3 years uh 25 26 and 267 that deficit spent is more on the restricted side um and so it's not really affecting our ending balance on the unrestricted side um what's more important to look at is the multi-year projections on the unrestricted only side so you can see um we're still defit spending in 2425 25 26 we're pretty much breaking even um and then in 26 27 we're pretty much turning it around and then ending up with this fund balance of $647,000 uh please keep in mind that we meet the 3% required Reserve because it includes fund 17 and uh fund 17 currently has about $2.8 million so the 2.8 plus the ending balances ensures that we make that 3% um requirement so with that being said um it's you know staff's recommendation um that we do a positive certification so with um uh interim reports there's three different types of certifications there's a positive certification which mean means that you can meet all its Financial Obligations um a qualified certification which means that you may or may not be able to meet all your um financial obligations and a negative qualification or NE negative certification which means that you cannot meet um your financial obligations so we will meet um all our financial obligations based on um our current projections um so some of the next steps is we do have the May Revis which will give us updates on all the things that occurred from the governor's budget and we're currently in the process of starting the 2526 budget development and the elcap any questions questions from the board U goad trusty how thank you thank you so much for the presentation I I just have a couple of questions for you um just going back to um slide number three on the governor's budget highlights um for the student to adult ratios shifting from 12 to1 to 10 to1 is that upon appropriation or will we be um responsible for the additional staff needed for TK it's upon appropriation so um it's been embedded into his initial budget um but that is all up to you know legislation or whatnot and so we'll find out in probably in May to see if that's going to actually be funded so we only have to move to 12:1 if we're actually funded got it and also um I know that numbers are still coming in for our incoming School sites but do we have kind of projections on what our Title One schools will look like with the 10 do we know those numbers yet or are we still the no not not yet and we do have an item on the agenda coming up for title one so we can speak further to it but we need to have the children transition over and then take in their new lunch applications to solidify what those numbers will be thank you um anymore you just had a go ahead comment or question or suggestion I think we brought this up uh last year also uh the possibility of creating a um trust for for retirement I think we we've spoken about it um we did uh I did attend the uh the um the session at the uh our csba um again this here to try to understand better what what it entails and uh from what I understand is we we we need a board resolution to get the trust formed uh and we can fund it any time later uh my suggestion my suggestion would be to try to get the trust established uh from what I understand and maybe maybe you can investigate more it doesn't have to be funded immediately you know if we ever get a one-time uh grant money that that we uh is a surplus at that time we can uh fund that uh fund that trust the benefit of of having money in a trust for retirement is it gives you a better rate of return compared to what what we get right now so in the long run it does it is beneficial for the um for the people that that you know make use of those uh retirement dollars I think we should um as a board at least have a uh you know have a resolution in place to create establish that trust we don't need to do anything more than that um but you know it'll be good to get some uh investigation going on how on uh on how we can um uh you know get that funded and what what are the restri are there any drawbacks or restrictions in doing that but at least get let's get that started you know maybe uh 10 years from now it might be beneficial for for the future uh you know employees of the of the district just want to bring that up because the contribution rates is looking at it it's just just ridiculous it's just um it's just crazy first St and first um that that's a big impact uh for for us so so just wanted to highlight that thanks any more questions comments none thank you Josh very much be two oh that's right I am sorry I'm just looking at the clock that's why sorry I'll make a motion to approve the second interim report second it's been moov and seconded for approval all in favor say I I oppose motion is passed now let's continue to um Roman numeral 2 uh resolution 24-15 appointing 7-1 District advisory Comm um superintendent please it is recommended the board adopt resolution 2415 appointing our 7-Eleven District advisory committee members um Kim if you can please roll up the listing um so there's the listing there of the individuals that we're recommending to bring forward uh if you recall um a 7-Eleven committee is uh legally to be a brown act committee so it'll it'll function as such uh 7-Eleven because you can't have less than seven members and no more than 11 members so we are bringing forward the max 11 to be part of this group um the majority of the individuals on this group uh did participate in our school consolidation advisory committee so they have a lot of background regarding our facilities and needs of the district um we also have others that have been active in other committees in the district um this particular advisory Council does have specific roles that the members need to fulfill so we wanted to be sure that we identified that role um next to their Nam so you can see how it's all outlined there very nice um comments from the board yeah this list has been vetted all the um I mean I recognize most of the names on this um I think one one name uh there was some concern about one parent in that list uh who was part of the um consolidation committee that is probably not not a current parent or something like that so everyone here so everyone on anyone on the committee must be a resident of Bera and so that has all been uh validated to ensure that they they do live within the boundaries in terms of um the roles that they play that is not um that is not required of our teacher for example you know they fulfill a different category if that position required a residential requirement it's listed on the table okay just want to make sure that the the list is uh fully vetted and you know you know who's who's what and what role they're playing correct yes all right um yeah I'll make a motion to adopt the resolution 24:15 thank you I have second second thank you it's been mov and second it this is a roll call vote Miss Gomez please yes president boak I trusty jenez I trusty h i trusty NN I truste Shas I thank you very much motion is passed let's continue on thank you uh Roman numeral 3 Aspen bille company lease agreement for lease of property at 137 six pedmont Road um superintendent please it is recommended the board approve the um at this location uh they um ASP benville company provides um elderly supervision care for the day so I know that we would have uh lots of community members that could benefit from that um the lease agreement that you have here is missing one component and I'm going to let um Kevin explain um what needs to be attached and will be coming to you at an upcoming meeting yeah so what what's missing from the lease agreement which the the lease in itself has been agreed upon by the tenant they've signed off on it um however it's missing Exhibit C which is basically um the work to be done paid for by the tenant to upgrade the site uh to meet their needs and so they weren't able to uh provide that documentation in time um uh for this meeting so the recommendation is to approve the lease conditional on Exhibit C being completed successfully and by a licensed architect and um it would be a mutual agreement on those plans and we would have um the board um re uh uh re-approve the lease inclusive of Exhibit C uh in 60 days so they would have a 60-day uh time frame to provide this exhibit to us for approval thank you any comments from the board could I have a motion please for approval and I'll just provide further clarification that that motion coming from the board will specifically be approval of the lease agreement between date of the lease and we will be bringing that back to you for public approval once again thank you I'll make the motion as described by Dr FAS second it's been moov and seconded all in favor say I I oppose motion is passed um Roman numeral number four rohit's Cleaning Services Inc approval of a cupccaa agreement to refinish the gym floor at the barious Senator byc superintendent please it is recommended the board approve this agreement as stated okay I have a question about this so this is a joint use facility with the city um so is the city contributing any uh money to this or yes they pay half all right oh sounds good to me sounds good to me too sounds good to me um motion please for to approve second thank you very much moved and approved uh well moved and un seconded um all in favor say I I oppos motion is carried C Human Resources uh D Education Services um Roman numeral one Title One Part a schoolwide program s WP waiver for Brook tree Lan view Summerdale Toyon Vincy Park pedmont and Morel uh superintendent please it is recommended the board approve the title one part a schoolwide program waiver for these schools um and this is just to emphasize this is for current year funding for 2425 any any comments from the board none if none please me have a motion for approval move to approve I'll second thank you it's been mov and seconded all in favor say I oppose thank you very much motion pass e Bond program and Roman numeral one it management Inc change order number one for contract 03 D20 23-24 for security alarm system replacement at Noble Summerdale and toon elementary schools superintendent please it is recommended the board approve the it Management Inc change order number one and this is a credit back to the district for $25,000 I'll take that um uh motion for approval please move to approve I'll second thank you it's been mov and seconded all in favor say I I oppose motion is passed Roman numeral two uh mobile modular Inc request to piggyback purchase one uh DSA approved portable classroom and two DSA approved portable restroom buildings from the Santa Rita Union School District bid contract number 2102 four superintendent please it is recommended the board approve the use of the San Rita Union School District bid contract as described thank you any comments from the board if not could I have a motion please for approval move to approve second thank you it's been mov and seconded all in favor say I I oppos motion is carried Roman numeral three Turf star Inc request to piggyback purchase one Toro model GM 5900 commercial lawn mower from The Source will the Toro company of contract number 11 12624 dttc superintendent please thank you it is recommended the board approve uh the use of sourcewell bid pricing as on the contract as described you could see here um the projected cost for these lawnmowers are pretty hefty 151,000 plus uh and not even electric vehicle so um but you know uh definitely uh it's an item that's in desperate need okay thank you any uh comments from the board if none could I have motion please for approval move to approve second that thank you it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I oppose all right motion is passed number 16 request for followup do we have any request for followup if none let's continue to item 17 items for future agenda my fellow colleagues none just the one that uh I mentioned with the uh with the trust yes that I understand okay number 18 H adjournment adjournment okay um could I have a motion please move to ajour Second it's been moov on seconded for a German it is all in favor say I I oppose well I'm sure none um thank you very much motion is passed we are now meeting is adjourned at 8:32 p.m.

Aloha and welcome to the senate committee on education today is Wednesday March 12 2025 this is our 3 pm agenda and we are in hearing room 229 this meeting including the audio and video of remote participants is being streamed live on YouTube you will find links to viewing options for all Senate meetings on the live and On Demand video page of the legislature's website this Zoom meeting and YouTube live stream event will include the 3:00 p.m. agenda for the committee on education in the unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearing due to technical difficulties the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business on Friday March 14 2025 at 3 p.m.

uh we are going to open up the meeting with a reading of the open public meeting statement so that goes uh New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which time any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act in Board of Education policy 0162 the Board of Education of the Bureau of Bound Brook has caused notice of this meeting to be posted in the board office and at Bound Brook High School and mailed their facts to The Courier News the Bound Brook BAU clerk South Bound Brook Board of Education and any person who has requested individual notice and pay the required fee at this time please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty Justice for All Mr secretary a roll call please yes sir Mr Bal here Mr Dawson miss gazino here Mr in calcatera here Mr zupco here miss musen here Mr minhas miss high here Mr vulmer here and Mr Januzzi here Mr board president you have a quarum present this evening thank you sir at this time we would normally do president's comments but but tonight's version will be vice president's comments Mr Bal well thank you um as the Bound Brook PTO is currently in my basement putting baskets together they have asked me to promote their upcoming Tricky Tray on Saturday March 29th uh information can be found at boundbrook pto.com um I'm there is a lot going on right now there are there women in and out of my basement every night of the week they are working super hard on this and they would really appreciate all the support that you can give them agreed thank you Mr Bal and thank you again to all the volunteers of our PTO uh at this time we will uh welcome Dr Freeman for his superintendence report please Dr Freeman well good evening everybody and welcome to our March board meeting it's great to see so many smiling faces so many students in the audience in addition to our students of the month at this time I will call Mr Ross up to recognize our students of the month for Lamont and LaMont Annex this is for our littlest and our best Little Learners so we have for the prek it is Jeffrey mlan come on down Jeffrey [Applause] mlan congratulations so Jeffrey has a two siblings and loves math activities yes and learning numbers you want to play baseball fortnite you like monster trucks yeah and playing with Dinosaurs good and when you grow up you don't want to be a superhero you're gonna be a superhero all right come on up a picture yeah nice [Applause] okay so it is kindgarten dual language it is Theon cor Coro Diaz come on [Applause] down so beon does not have siblings but is into physical education because you like to exercise which is great and your favorite activities are coloring and playing video games and when you get older you're going to be a firefighter wow no what are you going to be you can't change we're still figuring it out but that's okay firefighter first and then something else congratulations sir you're welcome [Applause] here we go and it's first grade now it is Angelina aretta albera I'm not sure if Angelina was able to make it tonight but I do want to mention has three uh siblings loves to read and write and practices all the time in first grade enjoys playing with her friends and is a creative artist and in the future and thinking about potentially being an artist when she grows up thank thank you and next up from Lafayette school we have Miss [Applause] cahas okay our second grade student of the month is Briana Hern and is [Applause] cook Brianna is from Mrs Patel and Miss Reese's class Miss Reese is here today uh she has two siblings Isaac and Amy Brianna says my favorite subject is science because you can make a volcano baking soda and vinegar can make a volcano her favorite hobbies are art and PE and she wants to be a Chef because she she really likes to cook good like Amy who's Amy Amy's her sister okay we're going to take a picture over here okay hone [Applause] our third grade student of the month is Pera roses oh let me try that again pea roses amzak peara is from Miss Fitzgerald's class she has one sister her favorite school subject is math come paa she likes to draw the Powerpuff Girls and play at the park and she wants to be a police officer congratulations paa going to take a picture okay [Applause] and next up from Miss from SMY school we have Mrs [Applause] Winters so from SMY School our fourth grade nom is Ashley Marquez Rivera Ashley has one brother her favorite subjects are math science and art she likes to draw play volleyball and play soccer and she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up [Applause] our fifth grade student of the month is Helen monio Hernandez Helen is has three sisters and one brother she loves art loves to draw she want she loves to play tag with her friends and she also either wants to be a veterinarian or a voiceover actor thank you [Applause] our sixth grade student of the month is Juliana Rosina tles Juliana is here from Miss petus sixth grade class and Miss petrius is here to celebrate her as well she has two siblings two brothers her favorite subject is math come here we'll have everybody come up she likes to play volleyball and soccer and she's still deciding what what she wants to do when she grows up congratulations next up from Community Middle School Dr Santa [Applause] surma hello everyone the Community Middle School is proud to announce ethano as student of the [Applause] month Ethan was nominated by his teacher Miss gold Rosen I'm sorry nominated by his teacher Miss gold Rosen as an older brother Christopher who I see here in attendance chop um favorite subject to science because he loves to learn about space and how the world Works our favorite hobbies is making YouTube videos we kind of look at every day in this missile right using your phone and doing science related things and hanging out with family when he grows up wants to be an astronaut or [Applause] next up for the Community Middle School student of the month yinas Perez nominated by her teer Bennett brother [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and last but not least we have Mr Smith from boundbrook high school [Applause] school good evening our first Crusader citizen of the month is Alder Guerrero Espinosa out there has two siblings his favorite subject in school is math he enjoys to cook and play soccer and when he graduates from high school and hopefully entering a culinary program to become a chef so congratulations [Applause] our next recipient is Justin Jimenez Justin is an only child and has no siblings Justin's favorite subject in school is English he enjoys fishing hanging out with friends and going on walks his future career plans include going to a trade school to work on collision repair and refinishing technology programs and hopefully own his own shop one day so congratulations [Applause] next we have Madison Huffman Madison has seven siblings her favorite subject in school is physical education Madison enjoys playing soccer drawing sleeping talking to her friends and going out with her sisters and when she grows up she wants to become a traveling nurse so congratulations good job [Applause] and last but certainly not least beatric [Music] [Applause] arudo beatus has one sibling Cal k uh her favorite subject in school is French because she loves learning a new language you also speak Spanish as well and then uh she enjoys going to the gym going out running and shopping in the future she plans on going to TCNJ for a career and early childhood education to become a teacher yes so [Applause] okay at this time we have uh let's first let's have another round of applause for our students of the month at this time we have uh one additional student not a student of the month for the district but she was recently given award by the Somerset County School boards Association a special award for unsung hero I am going to turn it over to our president Mr Januzzi who is the vice president of the Somerset County School boards Association to present tell talk a little bit about it and present uh a gift Mr Smith you want to come on up sure thank you Dr Freeman uh as Dr Freeman said each year Somerset County School uh School Board Association recognizes one student from each School District based on the following criteria it's a student who makes your school a better place simply because they're a part of it and who may often be overlooked or un uh under more traditional recognition criteria so these are really the students who make boundbrook the community that it is right represent our culture for have all of the qualities that we look for in terms of U making your way and finding success and so I'm really excited to be able to recognize Doris tonight and Mr Smith hoping you can say a few words about why she was nominated uh for this award absolutely please listen carefully uh to our story it's it's very unique and it it really exemplifies uh the epitome of hard work perseverance to achieve a goal overcoming and and overcoming odds all right it's it's two pages but I'll tell you it's worth every second because this young lady deserves all the recognition that she is receiving last week and tonight as well so there we go the ARs Nicole Amaya in est's Journey began in a small poor and sparsely populated town called tab in Honduras however her childhood truly unfolded in an even smaller and more deprived Village and received little to no attention from the government in this remote place ambulances and buses were nearly impossible to locate unless specifically summoned medical emergencies and police visits were rare often occurring only once a month and usually to collect a dead body like any other child darus clung tightly to her mother's hand on her first day of kindergarten but unlike many others she feared not only the uncertainties of school but also the dangers Beyond terrified that one day in her pursuit of a better life she might disappear and never return most of dar's childhood memories centered around school she could often be found under the tree trees swaying in a hammock while immersed in books or playing with dirt and Clay to create pretend pots in her Village libraries were non-existent and books were a rare privilege more luxurious than a phone phones though were Soom used as Internet access was almost unattainable despite the technological limitations The Village thrived on community most people knew one another the village had one church and religion was a Cornerstone of life it was safe to assume that nearly everyone was Christian as that was the only denomination represented Daris had many responsibilities growing up she cared for pigs cats dogs horses chickens and the family farm she learned invaluable skills from her grandparents making milk yogurt harvesting crops and preparing coffee and other foods from scratch for Doris these tasks were more than chores they were a legacy passed down through generations even the simplest activities like buying a school a book for school or traveling to purchase a dress became Monumental missions trips to the city whether by bus or car were fre infrequent and could take three to four hours depending on traffic on these Journeys Doris witnessed the struggles of others parents working tirelessly shanting AWA D Coco at every stop while their children Stood Beside them Barefoot and teary eyed she always asked her mother to buy her coconut water from them even if it wasn't sanitized simply because she wanted to share a piece of her blessings with those with the those less fortunate returning to school after these trips Doris felt immense gratitude she had teachers and most importantly the opportunity to attend school with her uniform neatly pressed and her supplies ready she wasn't just a student she was a determined child thriving to achieve greatness for those who couldn't Doris was an honored scholar for as long as she can remember excelling in her studies with unwavering dedication everything changed when she moved to America adjusting to a new school where she couldn't communicate with anyone besides her parents and her ESL teacher was a daunting challenge Doris often felt isolated her fear of speaking because of her accent keeping her quiet in many conversations but she persevered driven by the sacrifices she and her parents had made she braved harsh winners Long Summers filled with extra lessons and Autumn days where she mostly listened in class determined to overcome the language barrier and improve herself since becoming a scholar at Bal Brook High School Doris's High School experience is a testament to her passion for academics leadership and service with a perfect 4.0 GPA she has challenged herself with rigorous coursework including AP and honors classes in English Spanish biology and history as well as dual credit courses in anatomy and law beyond the classroom she has excelled in athletics earning Varsity letters in track and field soccer and cross country while also contributing to a range of extracurricular activities such as The Debate Club National Honor societies and student Le initiatives like uh the founding of the life skills Exchange Club that empowers students by fostering creativity knowledge and practical life skills to en enrich their lives and positively impact the community furthermore Doris helped coordinate the yellow tool project through Middle Earth which is a youth-driven initiative focused on smashing the stigma surrounding mental health and promoting hope and community Through initiatives like planning yellow tulip Gardens her leadership roles including serving as president of the rppa social studies Honor Society and Secretary of The Debate Club reflect her ability to inspire and gu others deeply committed to community committed to community service Doris has actively participated in volunteer work through interact roaa and the national English Honor Society supporting causes like food pantries shelter assistance and town cleanups a creative and empathetic scholar she balances her academic and extracurricular Pursuits with a love for art nature and creative writing all while staying on her dream of a career in Pediatrics to serve and uplift others Doris exemplifies dedication resilience and a commitment to making a meaningful a meaningful impact in her community and Beyond currently Doris claims she isn't entirely sure where God will guide her next but she remains confident in what she will achieve just that little girl in the village once did with so little she she holds fast to the wisdom of Matthew 6:34 do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will have enough worries of its own Doris cherishes cherishes her Roots recognizing that her culture and The Humbling often harsh experiences of her past have shaped her into the person she is today through trials and tribulations she has learned to remain grateful knowing that it is this gratitude and perseverance that make her an unsung hero let's here for Doris woo look at that Doris Doris would you and your family please come forward so can present you with a little token of uh recognition from our Board of Education [Applause] okay at this time we want to recognize some of our outstanding staff our District employees of the month I would like to call Miss Winter forward to recognize our employee of the month from February from February [Applause] let's have a round of applause for Miss [Applause] Malon it's an honor to recognize an outstanding educator leader and Mentor Diane M as our district teacher of the month for February Diane is the heart of our school Community bringing dedication warmth and expertise to everything she does as a teacher leader Diane takes on the immense respons responsibility of running the win program ensuring that students receive the targeted support they need to succeed she carefully reviews data schedules students and provides guidance always striving to meet each student's individual needs her attention to detail and deep understanding of her students allow her to make TR decisions that truly impact their learning and growth Beyond her leadership Diana is a nurturing and kind presence in our school she is not only a support system for her students St but also for her colleagues affectionately referred to as Mom by many Diane fost is an environment where everyone students and staff alike feel valued supported and cared for she is always willing to lend a helping hand whether it be in the lunchroom covering a class or pushing into the classroom to support her students her selflessness and dedication make her a true team player who always puts the needs of others first when I asked her colleagues to share something about her that share something about how she has impacted them personally or professionally here is some of what they said as a leader within the ASI team Diane sets a wonderful example of kindness and professionalism when I started as an ASI teacher last year the transition was a significant change for me and Diane's guidance and support made all the difference she welcomed me warmly always took the time to ensure that I felt included and stepped in whenever she noticed I was struggling her ability to up uplift those around her truly separates her from other teachers another colleague shared she has the innate ability to be present for those who need her whether it's offering a hand on a challenging lesson or simply listening a ear when things get tough no matter who it is or what the situation if anyone in the building is in need of Assistance or support Diane will always be there without hesitation ready to offer help in any way she can as you can see Miss malan's hard work and commitment to education are evident in everything she does she not only teaches but understands the needs of her students ensuring that they feel seen heard and empowered her passion patience and dedication have made her an invaluable part of our school Community miss malan m thank you for all you do your impact reaches far beyond the classroom and we are so grateful to have you at small congratulations on this well-deserved [Applause] recognition very well deserved very well deserved keep me honest come on [Applause] and next up for March we have Mr Smith will come up and uh say a few words about our co-employees of the month from Bound Brook High School [Applause] I made a joke to our staff um you know Dr Stewart Mr schaffner's like peanut butter and jelly or like ham and cheese you know kind of like a package deal they go together so you know when deciding on um you know who our staff member of the month would be it was only fair and warranted to give it to the both of you so I know was kind of a a little break from tradition just selecting one candidate but you both deserve this so it's a co- award okay so that being said we're proud to recognize Dr Marian Stewart and Mr Chris Schaffner as our staff members of the month for their outstanding dedication to the band program and their exceptional leadership and assisting with the coordination of the most recent band concert the band concert was a true reflection of their hard work meticulous planning and commitment to Excellence from selecting engaging pieces to ensuring seamless Co event coordination they executed every detail flawlessly the result was a remarkable performance that showcased the students talent and dedication while bringing the school Community together to enjoy the musical pieces they practiced during their first semester in addition to their commitment to the band program Dr Stewart and Mr Schaffner have taken on the challenge of teaching brand new courses this year including keyboard guitar Latin music and dance music exploration music music production and music in American culture not only did they develop the curriculum for these courses from the ground up but they also carefully selected and ordered the necess necessary supplies to ensure students have the best possible learning experience with music their Innovation and dedication have expanded our music program providing students with exciting new opportunities to explore and develop their musical talents with the Inception of these new courses Dr Stewart and Mr Schaffner have gone above and beyond to inspire and guide their students fostering not only musical Excellence but also teamwork discipline and a deep appreciation for the musical arts their passion for music education is evident in the way they challenge students to reach their full potential while cultivating an inclusive and supportive learning environment Marian Stewart and Chris Schaffner are invaluable members of the Bal Brook High School community and their contributions to their students and the music program deserve the highest recognition their dedication not not only enriches our schools Arts culture but leaves a lasting impact on the Young Musicians they Mentor please join us and congratulating Marian and Chris on this well-deserved honor and [Applause] recognition I didn't think a bouquet was approp rate for Mr shner so I got him a nice Cactus looking [Music] plant well deserved congratulations I guess they're off to practice okay at this time we would like to ask all of the students of the month and their parents to come up to take a group picture let congratulations I'm very proud of you J for our largest recog maybe to the back or down so we can see everybody but otherwise I think we're pretty good I'm not going Mike can you see everybody [Music] no photograph this one first bir Game Changer how are you good [Music] you guys can go down I'll just Nick somebody come take a picture I haven't seen yet I haven't seen him yet waiting that was a beautiful speech and it was so fitting it was so fittting that's who you are this young right see you I'm awesome how are you I'm I'm I'm fantastic yeah you're look look thank you very can I get absolutely abolutely no with you yeah please thank thank you so what are you doing tell me real quick I'm teaching in North planfield yeah what are you teaching uh fourth grade starting next week congratul Math Science Social Studies I know you love yeah I'm a middle school or the intermediate right now um Dr Kino she's amazing I decided a teacher yeah it's been a lot more natural than I expected it would be but the transition I know something all right good see good to see you too thank you I appreciate it [Music] all right everybody at this time we are up to agenda item 2.4 this is a presentation of our tentative budget as loyal as a public hearing on the same uh at this time I'd like to turn the microphone over to Mr Gorski our business administrator to walk us through the particulars Mr Gorski thank you Mr board president just a reminder on the procedure for the tenative budget adoption it's a little little unique the administration is going to provide a presentation with a few PowerPoint slides and information that then I will read a resolution to adopt the budget hopefully we get a first and a second then we will have a public forum where any members of the public who wish to come at on the budget have a right to do so but only on the budget then we will have a board discussion once they hear from the members of the public and then we will have a vote and hopefully an adoption of the school tentative budget [Music] thank you good evening everyone and welcome to the 2526 uh school budget presentation uh we're very happy to present to you for the third year a very well-developed fiscally responsible comprehensive budget that really covers the district's needs in terms of the classroom I'm very proud to say that 66% of the funds will go into the classroom in the form of coaching supplies technology professional development one of the signs of a great budget is the fact that the money is goes into the classroom and this budget does exactly that we have to thank a lot of people for that before I turn it over to Mike to explain the details first I want to thank our governor Murphy for those of you know for many years S2 we weren't properly funded he committed to funding fully funding the formula he did so over the last two years years we've received the benefit and this year as well so we're able to catch up and give our students our staff our community what they need in order to be the most successful also I want to thank our Administration our team put a lot of hardwork a lot of conversations collaborated back and forth looked at data in order to make the right decisions about what was to be purchased what services were to be provided so I want to congratulate them for that and thank them also our Michelangelo of money right our Michelangelo of money Mr Gorski who worked tires tirelessly and this is kind of his uh I I would talk more but this is kind of his baby you know so I want to give him the opportunity to talk about it because he put so much hard work and I can tell you uh I've seen several Bas I don't know if I've ever seen one as thorough uh with a deep understanding of what needs to go in the classroom and the ability to save money as well as to make money through uh CDs bonds very savvy so I want to thank him for that uh also our Board of Education work with Boards of education for many years I've never seen a more supportive when we talk about budget many times people go to their boards and they talk about the idea of cutting our budget our board says what else do you need let's figure out a way to get it if it if it's needed to meet the needs of the students so I want to thank the board of education for that and these thanks these this gratefulness is not obligatory I really mean what I say we have one of the best teams I've ever been a part of I feel blessed to be a part of it and I'm going to now turn it over to the Michelangelo of money Mr Mike Gorski [Applause] doc do you have the clicker thanks thanks [Music] thanks I'm old school I like to hold on to the podium all right welcome to the 2526 school budget presentation and I want to most importantly thank Dr Freeman he is the Visionary behind the budget for the last three years we have infused a lot of additional revenues into the budget and provided a lot of additional Firepower into the classrooms to meet the board and the district goals this is the third year of that installment process where millions of dollars of additional funds have been deployed to the classrooms to the teachers to the professional developments as Dr Freeman said uh textbooks training ESL special ed the two biggest areas that we have need in in this District we've focused the majority of the funds on in the last three years and of course course thanks to Governor Murphy the the funds didn't stop we picked up 1.8 additional million dollars of state aid this year when most of our colleagues lost three to four per.

run resolve the balberg Board of Education adjourned a motion motion thank you Mr Bal second thank you Mrs guzo all in favor hi have a good evening

Okay, Lance, John, are you ready? Okay. Okay. I call to order the the workshop for Bullhead City School Board on Thursday, March 13, 2025 at 9:30 a.m. It's close, right? Roll call. Present. Melinda Subraki. Charlene Dia is here. Fred Rushton here. Barb Zerziki here. Um, we have the privilege today of adding a board member and we're going to let Mr. Warren do his job. Thank you. Good morning, Madam President, members of the board, Superintendent Stewart. Honor to be here today and swear in give the administer the oath uh this morning and I just want to share with you in my first couple of months in office, one of the overwhelming questions that I get is how much do you get paid to be a board member? So, thank you all for your volunteer service. Uh, you know, we have some districts where, uh, there's a plethora of people wanting to run for various reasons and then we have some, uh, places where they can't get anybody to run.

and defend them against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That I will faithfully and impartially That I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of trustees. discharge the duties of trustee for the Bullhead City School District number 15. for the Bullhead City School District number 15. according to the best of my abilities. So help me God. Congratulations. Great job. Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Warren. And welcome to the board. You're welcome, Judy. Going to be an experience of a lifetime. Yes. And when she negotiated her salary for this, we we actually doubled her pay. So, she she's she's that that important to us. Thank you. I'm third. Item four, 1.4, school district funding and budgeting. Uh, our superintendent is going to give us a program today. Good morning. I thought it would be easier if I did it from down here than up there looking across. And um uh you guys have asked for it.

that back I mean we're hitting World War II era that so we're thinking when Wars happen um when we're thinking that recession hits people lose jobs moving there are so many things that we would think that's not really a detriment to a child but it is and again one and three of our community and it's a very high percentage of our community that faces trauma thankfully one and three adults have no Aces but again it's it's very important to consider that one in three adults which means that one in three children in the community are dealing with some very intense uh traumatic issues that they're trying to overcome which brings me to Franklin community so in this conversation I want the the public to be aware and even the board to be aware we are not the only Community uh that is looking into developing a child care center Franklin community that or Franklin that is not too dissimilar from Madison uh like I looked at the quote here and I felt like I could have taken out Dr Clint denning's name and and put in Dr Brown because he's talking about preschool space they're running out of room trying to meet Community needs they're about the same time frame that we are uh they have a very old building that they're looking to build a new center on top of after demolition occurs to that building um so just want to be people people aware you know the cost in Franklin they're going to spend 700,000 to a million dollars to um to take down that building and then they will work to build a new one so as many of the parents attested today it is an issue in our community but it's an issue that is Statewide it's not just unique to Madison there are several centers that already exist around the state but when I try to think of a community that is very similar to Us Franklin is very similar and they are approaching the same thing for the exact same reasons that we are I shared this a 30,000 foot view uh again when we had the round table a couple months ago now but what I said that night was that the average student who started in Madison in preschool at three years old and stayed with us until they were 10 years old and began taking standardized tests in third and fourth grade I said that they drastically outperformed their peers who did not mathematics it's an average of 20% and then in ela it is an average of 20 to 30% so I'll give you a brief moment to look at the left is the general student population and then to the right is where our students would score if all of them were part of that preschool cohort that started with us at three years old had their needs met and you can see the outcomes for those students versus the outcomes for students who did not attend preschool I'll just give you a brief moment to look at that and this is specifically for third and fourth grade looking at their ey learn scores and specifically I read so the two bolds there's roughly 375 school districts in the state of Indiana uh third fourth grade ELA plus math that would rank us 13th in the state Ela plus math and fourth grade would be top 10 or top two% in the state now if I look at the generalized population if I took those same figures and I calculated those out for third grade through 8th grade you can see that in English language arts we would be first in the state of Indiana outperforming 375 other school districts mathematics we placed 27th which would be top seven but when we are talking about State rankings the state specifically looks at Ela plus math 61.6% which would be second place by 1% which would Place Us in the top 1% of school corporations in the state of Indiana the top performing District was 63 or 62.6 so again to I think it was Miss Bentley Miss Bentley Schaefer said if we consider these numbers when we are able to help children and we can start their education and their life off on their right foot at the age of three just imagine what could be accomplished if it's starting at Birth what we're trying to do there was a gentleman when I received this training uh he worked in the Foster system for the state and he said he was tired of mopping up the floor and he wanted to fix the hole in the ceiling and that's what as a community that we're trying to do that we with your leadership and with your vision we're trying to meet the need of a community that whether it is from a scientific standpoint or an academic standpoint we're going to provide children and this community in general the capacity to thrive any questions okay thank you Sean thank you Kim I just the last hour has been really neat to see kind of the from the preschool all the way through our seniors that are graduating and the and the students and the passion of our employees I just it was a really neat hour that we just kind of sit through so thank everybody we should have thanked everybody at the beginning but for everybody was here in that last hour thank you very much we'll move on to our consent agenda um several different items to cover here 25-11 approval of agenda for the March 12th 20125 regular meeting you tried to throw me off there 2026 but I caught it thank tried to catch the rookie 25-12 approval of minutes of the February 6 2025 work session and the February 12th 2025 regular meeting 25-13 approval of payment of claims 25 5-14 approval of financial report 25-105 approval of construction payments we have one that is coch mechanical for high school HVAC upgrades the amount being $181,600 25-16 approval of the Personnel report 25-16 point1 and agenda of the Personnel report 25-17 approval of donations and grants we have three uh to Madison Consolidated High School the first one from vssg they donated hydraulic lift tables in the amount of $5,000 to the Cub diesel to be used to lift equipment the second one from the MCS Educational Foundation they donated $5,000 to the Academic Teams and and then the third one is from Tool and Rose Supply they they donated $50 to the FFA next on the consent agenda 25-18 approval of field trip request and 25- 108.1 agenda of field trip request we have several here uh number one we have a request from The High School cheer coach Jackie Schnabel to take high school cheerleaders to attend cheer camp in Mason Ohio on June 16th through the 19th 2025 we have a request from Linda Cole Junior High English language arts teacher to take approximately 120 eth graders to Kings Island in Mason Ohio on May 22nd 2025 next we have a request from the high school Jag instructor Sierra sha to take 45 Jag students to visit Northern Kentucky University on March 21st 25th sorry March 2th 2025 the students will be able to experience a college campus college life dorms college classes and what colleges have to offer the next is we have a request from Anderson Elementary School first grade teacher Melissa Omen to take 76 first graders to the Louisville Zoo on May 8th 2025 this trip will enhance the study of animals and their habitats next we have the following out of state requests from athletic director Patrick Morrison April 8th 2025 High School softball at Carrol County Kentucky May 14th 2025 Junior High softball at Trimble County Kentucky next we have a request from Lydia Milton third grade teachers to take 61 third graders to the Louisville Science Center on May 16th 2025 the students will be engaged in stem activities during the day number seven we have a request from first grade teachers at rers Ridge Elementary to take 40 first graders to the Louisville Zoo on April 24th 2025 next we have a request from third grade teachers at Lydia Middleton Elementary School to take 61 third graders to the Louisville Science Center on May 16th 2025 the students will engage in stem activities next we have a request from the fifth grade from fifth grade teacher Marsha o to take graders to extreme nasium in Clarksville with lunch at Joe's Crabshack in Louisville Kentucky on May 15th 2025 this trip ties with Fit Kids the importance of exercising and the great grow along from the rat feeding experiment next we have a request from high school softball coach Devin brle to take 33 softball team members to Don doina Field atmer stadium in Louisville Kentucky on March 30th 2025 we have a request from Anderson Elementary School teachers to take approximately 98 second graders to stage one theater in Louisville Kentucky on March 28th 2025 next we have a request from Deputy principal Kathy Stoner to take 42 third and fourth graders to the Kentucky Science Center in Louisville Kentucky on April 8th 2025 Dr Brown your recommendation please I recommend that the board of approve with one motion and one vote the consent agenda items 25-11 through and including 25-18 point1 as presented thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion I'll make a motion to approve consent agenda and do we have a second I'll second any discussion with no discussion we will do a row call vote first Mr Wallace hi Mr story I miss yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also a Yi an I not a Yi an i and that boat passes six to zero five five zero sorry I counted myself twice I was excited uh next on the action agenda 25- 109 request permission to advertise for hearings Dr Brown yeah I'm seeking permission to advertise for hearings this is the first step for the renovation of an any improvements to the facilities throughout the school corporation including the construction of a new child care and preschool building demolition of eoy site improvements throughout the school corporation and the purchase of equipment buses real estate and Technology asking for permission to advertise thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion I make a motion we approve second second thank you and with that we will do a roll call vote if there are no discussions any discussion I'm just watching them okay uh with no discussion we will start our roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr bin is also an I that vote passes is 5 to nothing 25- 1110 first reading of MCS policy 5223 release time for religious instruction Dr Brown yeah this is the first reading uh for that policy therefore no actions required tonight um if you have any questions please contact me this policy is required by law thank you Dr Brown Next 25-11 approval to advertise for cafeteria B bids Dr Brown I'm recommending the board give approval to advertise for cafeteria bids for the period of July 1 2025 through June 30 2026 group three food and other products we anticipate that we will be able to procure bread and da bids from the Wilson education center asking for permission to advertise thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion I'll make a motion to approve I'll make a motion to approve 255-1111 approval to advertise for cafeteria bids thank you Mr story do we have a second an i second there hey we have a first from Canada and a second from Florida so uh do we have any discussion seeing no discussion we will go to a roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story I miss yansy hi Mr Scott hi and Mr B's also an I that passes five to nothing 25-12 approval of school student transfer request deadline date Dr Brown I'm recommending the board approve the at May 22nd 2026 as the last day to accept out of District students for the 25 26 school year we are required to turn that into the department of Ed before April 11th so asking for permission for that date thank you you Dr Brown uh do we have a motion make a motion we approve 25112 thank you Mr Scott do we have a second I'll second thank you Mrs yansy do we have any discussion seeing that there's no discussion we will move on to row call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story I Mrs yansy hi Mr Scott I and Mr Benson is also an I that is five to nothing thank you uh 25-13 approval of Summer School courses Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approve the summer school courses summer school will be offered to students at their home school location with Transportation provided the following courses are included in our estimate to the state and will be offered based on student needs courses Staffing and estimated student counts are submitted to the state by April 1 of 2025 BAS based on this information the state will allot reimbursement funds to districts that are providing summer school we do not currently know what the reimbursement of funds will be uh but are dedicated to the Su success of our students and feel that summer school help student needs um and for academic support summer school will be offered to students at their home school location the following courses are offered Elementary kindergarten through fourth grade math language arts reading and literature second and third grade individual reading plan for I read three second and third attempts then for testing as required by State Statute that would be June 2nd through June 13 2025 from 8:00 until 12: noon the Junior High fifth and sixth grade math language arts reading and literature June 2nd through June 13 from 8 until noon 7th and e8th grade math language arts reading and literature June 2nd through June 20 from 8 until noon the high school all in-person courses will align with the doe summer school list that's presented the online courses are through Indiana online June 2nd through June 20 from 8:30 a.m.

to 2:30 p.m. at Anderson Elementary for Staffing we would be looking at one director one assistant director six teachers one assistant invention Camp 10 to 12 high school student volunteers and then we would anticipate 120 students for Camp invention and 15 students for invention for the invention project so asking for permission for Camp invention thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for Camp invention I'll make a motion to approve 25-1 114 approval Camp invention summer program thank you Mr story do we have a second I'll second thank you Mr Scott any discussion it's a great program yes it is has a parent who both kids went through it yeah it's a phenomenal program and with that we will go to our roll call vote Mr Wallace I Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I Mr B is also an I that motion passes 5 to zero 25-15 approval of mou with above and beyond Dr Brown I'm recommending the board approve the memorandum of understanding with above and beyond above and beyond ABA therapy will provide ABA services to students with whom they work when requested and agreed upon by both parties the services are arranged between above and beyond ABA therapy and the families and are of no cost to the medison Consolidated School schools asking for permission to be able to offer that thank you Dr Brown um 25-15 do we have a motion make a motion we approve 25115 we have a motion from Mr Scott do we have a second for Mr Wallace Mr Wallace will second that all right any discussion seeing that there's no discussion that we will move on to our roll call vote Mr story I Mr Wallace I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an I that motion passes 5 to zero next up 25-16 approval of Rico copier lease agreement Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approve a 60-month RICO copier lease agreement with Rico our leases up on March 2025 the copy machines are vital equipment to the district and having these in working order daily is very important we will be getting a thirdparty buyout of our current equipment of $8,700 plus a new monthly savings of $174 63 with a 16-month savings of $1,477 80 the total monthly cost is $692 with a total cost of the five years $3,110 asking for permission thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for 25-16 approval of Rico copy lease agreement I make a motion to approve 2516 for the copy or lease agreement thank you Mrs yansy do we have a second I'll second thank you Mr story any discussion seeing that there's no discussion we will move on to a roll call vote Mr Wallace I Mr story I Mrs yansy hi Mr Scott I and Mr B is an I that motion passes five to zero um item 25-17 approval of TBR I phase three Consulting agreement Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approve the TBR phase 3 Consulting agreement with hope Al light LLC and the amount of $600 effective June 1 2025 through May 31st 2026 thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for approval of the TBR phase 3 make a motion we approve 25117 thank you Mr Scott do we have a second I have a second thank you Mrs yansy any discussion seeing that there's no discussion we will go to our roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story hi Mrs yansy hi Mr Scott I Mr B is also an I that motion passes 5 next up 25-18 approval of contract with smackin educational Solutions Inc for professional development Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approve the contract with smackin educational Solutions Inc for professional development phase three in the total amount of 12393 we will have in-person on-site training for new teachers or teachers who missed the previous launching the Workshop this day will be grades K to 2 8:00 to 11:00 followed by grades 3 to 12 12 to 4 for $ 33100 teachers will receive the $50 stien for attending half a day of professional development this total will depend on the number of teachers needing to attend we're also purchasing teach writing PD miniseries a collection of 11 professional learning videos we will complete this study during the 25 26 school year as a district by elementary schools Junior High and high school the cost of that is 6,293 smackin phase three will be a title two funded program for a total of 12393 so that would be coming out of title funds with the half day stiens estimated at 3,000 to 9393 depending on the number of Staff who attend that so asking for permission thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for 25-18 I'll make a motion to approve 25-18 approval of contract with smackin education solution in for professional development thank you Mr story do we have a second I'll second thank you Mrs yansy any discussion seeing none we'll move on to our roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story I Mrs jansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an I that passes 25-19 approval to join the mids Southern Conference Dr Brown I'm recommending the board approved to join the mids Southern Conference the tentative timeline for us to join fully starting in 2026 2027 school year other schools that would be in that Athletic Conference would be Austin Browntown Charlestown coryan North Harrison Salem Scottsburg and Silver Creek we've been working for five years to be able to get into a conference Patrick spent an incredible amount of time working on this and he finally uh been able to make that happen with the other school districts and so we're asking for your approval to join that conference thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for 25-19 approval to join the mids Southern Conference I'll make a motion we approve 25119 thank you Mr Scott do we have a second I'll second thank you Mrs yansy any discussion Patrick thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the effort that you put in to make this happen yeah thank you for your persistence I too would like to thank Patrick I know he's been working uh very hard to to achieve this and there is so many positives of being a member of a conference such as this and uh and I think Patrick recognizes that and worked hard to get us there so thanks Patrick good job Patrick man he's not be able to walk out the door tonight let's calm down uh all seriousness is somebody who competed in the Hills conference somebody who coached in the Hooser Hills conference and somebody who's coached outside of the Hooser Hills conference and know now who has kids that compete I can't stress the importance of this from an athletic standpoint uh for the last couple years not having athletes not receive all conference was an absolute just total uh we just weren't serving our students the best by not having that that just steps up to other opportunities uh some people didn't see that but I mean I was just heartbroken for the last years when we couldn't do that so I before I was on the school board I probably text Patrick every two months and he conference yet are we in a conference yet come on what can we do at one point hey Patrick let's start a conference I was like the crazy dad forever like what can we do so Patrick thank you I see the coaches here tonight uh it's going to be it's going to be great I'm excited so that's all I have anybody else have anything else excting broke all right roll call vote Mr Wallace all Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is an i and with that Madison is in the mids Southern [Applause] Conference next up um item agenda 25-220 approval to declare wrestling mats Obsolete and of no further use to the corporation Dr Brown I'm recommending the board declared two old resolite did I say that right wrestling mats Obsolete and have no further use to the corporation uh thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion I make a motion to approve 25120 thank you Miss yansy do we have a second I'll second I'll second David Mr sorry Mike thank you Mr story uh any discussion on the old dirty wrestling mats I see none we'll go to roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and I a definite I that five nothing and motion passes thank you 25-12 one approval of farm project at Deputy Elementary School Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approv the farm project at Deputy Elementary School this is something they're very excited about and done a lot of planning essentially the third graders will be part of the design process and building a chicken coup they will work alongside a former deputy student who is now a Community member that owns Big Creek Metal Works he has also agreed to build the coupe in your packet Mrs Stoner attached a picture of what his CPS look like Jennifer colen will be leading the stem project the PK students will be offered the opportunity to join the chicken tender Club where they will be responsible for hatching the chickens feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs this will be done from the outside of the C so they will not be exposed to the chickens so we are asking for permission for them to begin that project thank you do we have a motion I'll make a motion to approve 25-11 approval of farm pro project at Deputy elementary school thank you Mr story second Miss yansy yes second miss yansy any discussion I just want to say that um I think this is really cool and I truly enjoyed their crop farming that Deputy did last year and was constantly putting Facebook updates out there so um for knowing what they did last year I'm very excited to see what this is going to happen um for this summer so pretty cool any other seeing there's no other discussion we'll go to the row call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story hi Mrs yansy hi Mr Scott I and Mr bin is also an i motion passes 5 2-122 approval of resolution to distribute supplemental payment stien with early literacy achievement Grant funds Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approve the resolution to distribute a supplemental payment stien with the early literacy achievement Grant funds this must be distributed by the end of March this is a cash dipen to award teachers interventionists and instructional support Personnel who are responsible for the implementation and delivery of literacy and reading instruction through grade three through the 2324 school year and who maintain employment with the corporation um on the date of the distribution I will add that last year we qualified for 11,000 this year we qualified for more than 55,000 due to improved academic growth and achievement that's awesome that's all good news wow thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion to accept 25-22 I make a motion to approv 25122 do we have a second I'll second any discussion being that there's no discussion we will go to roll call vote Mr Wallace I Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an i motion carries five to nothing 25-23 approval of reconciliation of teacher payment 2020 resolution Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approve the reconciliation of teacher payment 2020 resolution we are requesting approval from the board to write off a salary overpayment from 2020 of $127 as we reconcile our Books thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for 25- one23 make a motion we approve make go ahead Mike yeah I make a motion we approve 25123 Mr St like a second yeah yep any discussion see if there's no discussion we'll go to our roll call vote Mr Wallace I Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an I that motion carries 50 25-24 approval of sound production engineer teaching position and Doc job description for Madison Jr High School Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approved the creation of a new position within the district sound production engineer teacher this instructor would be responsible for teaching students in grades 6 through 12 about music literacy recording studio Basics technical Concepts and music business principles they would guide students through various stages of skill development from introductory Concepts to Advanced recording production techniques fostering a collaborative and Creative Learning environment this position would align with the district's commitment to providing a well-rounded education that that prepar students for a variety of future opportunities the addition of the specialized instructor would enhance our music and arts curriculum and provide students with valuable skills and experiences and it is cost neutral as we would be um replacing an occurrent elective so would be no no additional cost okay thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for 25-24 make I'll motion to approve 25124 approval sound production engineering teaching position and job description for Madison Jor high school thank you Mr story do you have a second I'll second thank you Mr Scott any discussion I it's not part of this but I think it probably needs to be said that um we are looking at putting a Sound Studio in the junior high so this position goes this new position goes with a new facilities upgrade for the corporation thank you Mr Scott any other discussion I'd like to thank our Administration and our faculty who's constantly working hard to uh to grow our curriculum and to add more programs for our for our students to be involved in this is so important for our kids to to have every opportunity to be involved in something positive this is outside the box and I I think it's going to be another big success so I appreciate everybody's effort uh for this program yeah i' I've kind of joked before with the board and saying that I honestly don't recognize what the school corporation offers uh today versus when I graduated way back in the Stone Age so U kudos to um all the innovations that we continue to bring to the table thank you Mr Scott Mr Wallace uh we will go to our roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story hi Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an I that passes 5 2-125 approval to declar softball uniforms Obsolete and of no further use to the corporation Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board declar some old Junior High softball uniforms Obsolete and have no further use to the corporation they purchased new uniforms in 2023 and 24 to replace them the current uniforms that they want to replace are dry rotted stained and no further use to anyone so we like permission to dispose of those thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion to pass 25-25 make a motion we approve 25125 thank you Mr Scott do we have a second I'll second second Miss yansy beat you to it Mr Wallace any discussion being that there's no discussion that will take us to our roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an I that passes 5 Z hey next we have moving on to our reports first up is our student representative Miss Emma WN good evening um first of all my most important announcement this evening happy birthday to miss fam so everyone sure happy birthday a um and then we covered a lot of my shoutouts at the beginning of the meeting so I'll just wish a like congratulations and a big shout out to all of the students who were recognized tonight um I had so many friends here and I love seeing everybody here getting recognized I also wrote down that um I'm always just so impressed by all of our FFA members and students they're just so impressive and well-rounded and so I had to give them a shout that as well um spring sports are starting so be on the lookout for those athletic calendars to come and support all of our Junior High and high school athletes I want to extend a huge congratulations to the share show cast crew and Orchestra it was a fantastic show so thank you to everyone who came to watch um and then I want to give a special shout out to Miss Grayson um this was our last our last show with her um so we're all going to miss her so much and while I'm shouting out people who have been here for all High School um shout out to coach John he was my coach for like 11 years so I couldn't have done high school without either either of those people so thank you for all you've done for us anyway go ahead and mark your calendars for Hades Town um our last High School Musical April 11th through the 13th and congratulations to all of our students who have been in honors band in honor bands recently um and the annual Custer contest will take place on April 4th at 7 o'clock this is such a fun contest to come to I love going every year um so come and watch and see some students hard work um the junior high theater is currently working on Wizard of Oz so I'm super excited about that everybody go see that more information to come and congratulations to all of our Junior High swimmers who have been breaking left records like left and right they are so great we have such a good program right now at the high school and so many great kids coming up um I wanted to give a shout out to all of our sophomores who recently participated in community service and we had some great sophomores give tours to the eighth graders on crossing the ditch day so that's great and thank you to all the community members who came to speak to the senior class on that sat day we saw some really great presentation so I thought that that was a great way for us to fill that day um I also want to congratulate Miss Bullock officer mcveay Miss Len Neil on their Awards last night um and it was so fun to go to cup Fest it I thought it was really successful it was great I love seeing all the elementary schools in the gym and all the junior high and high school things and we got to perform so it was so fun to see all of the the things going on at Madison right now um and next week is the MCS spring break so everybody have a great spring break and a great rest of your night thank you Miss Emma win um that'll bring us to our open public comments uh we do have some procedures to read the following procedures will be followed for Citizens wishing to address the board during public open comments number one resolutions to questions or concerns are to be addressed first at the building level and then with the super intendent before being brought to the board number two those addressing the board will speak in a manner suitable for a public forum number three those speaking shall refrain from making any personal references or attacks number four time limit of three minutes will be imposed depending on the number of people requesting to speak any group wishing to speak regarding the same agenda item may speak up to 20 minutes or less total time for public comments will be limited to 30 minutes or less if a patron does not follow the guidelines the board May close Patron comments and move on to the next agenda item for the meeting or the patron may be asked to leave we have one person signed up to speak this evening Shad Britain you may come up thank you okay thank you I mean obviously those are Personnel matters that we cannot discuss the particulars um we will notify the with another update on a letter when permanent decisions are made going forward and I I'll just while you're there and I'll go ahead and do my comment my board comments right now if that's okay um I do want to thank you for taking your time to come and speak tonight parents and community members are the backbores of our school system and it's important that they feel welcome to come and speak so thank you for coming Mr Brittain um when decisions are made that impact Personnel we are not at Liberty to discuss specific matters we have been trans arent as much as we can be in ways that we're able to be and we'll continue to inform our families as decisions are made going forward I will tell you that I'm a parent of two Madison Consolidated School students and being that I'm also a member of the Board of Trustees I can tell you I take all this very seriously uh we as a board want to make sure that we have the most professional caring and nurturing employees in our school system our children are our most important asset that we have and we will not be leveraged against anything that doesn't support a professional caring and nurturing environment in school Community employees with Madison School should have one goal and one vision and that is our students I sit here tonight and Mr Britt I'm reading this but I can confidently tell you and everyone in attendance that none of this has been compromised with any of the decisions that been made by Dr Brown or this board sometimes the unpopular move is a move that needs to be made to protect our assets which is our children we will always put our children first and we always make sure that they are safe so thank you I appreciate it as a parent I appreciate you know that we're doing everything we can to make sure your students are safe out at rers Ridge thank you um that will take us to the rest of our board member comments I'm going to start with our virtual guys so uh Mr story I'm going to keep mine short I'm up here in Canada sorry I couldn't be there but I just want to say Dustin great job today well thank you Mr I have to say you did a really good job this is something completely unusual um in all my years I'm being on the board I hadn't done it um hadn't seen this done like this so um if I was on video earlier you probably saw me panicking because since I'm in Canada for pledge of allegiance I had to scramble real fast to find American flag and stuff so great job to all the athletes all the other students um that got recognized and thank you for the parent for speaking uh this afternoon uh we do appreciate it uh Dustin thank you for your response to that as well so that's it thank you David John Wallace I'd also like to thank the the parent that came before us tonight um we do want to hear from our from our parents and um and our board meetings are always open to them and and I appreciate him taking the time to to speak with us certainly doesn't fall upon that like congratulate uh Lindsay Bullock our teacher of the year welld deserved very proud of her I'd like to also thank all the ones that uh were involved in the cubfest and and the hard work they put into uh to that successful event certainly a lot of effort was put into it and our students tonight um again I think that goes back to show how vast our programs are and how we continue to still want to build upon them as we've uh as we've done here tonight so appreciate them being there and congratulations to all their hard work and their success and definitely want to thank our our teacher parents who came in and gave their testimony tonight with regards to our early childhood Care Center I think that that I think it says it all and how positive this program is and and to Sean Mr Pennington thank you so much for the scientific viewpoints of it uh my only hope and goal is to expand this to uh to all of our parents in our community so they can have the same fulfillment that our parent teachers uh testify to here tonight it's it's so important and U and Miss Kim uh Miss Lions say she's just doing a wonderful job and it shows so we definitely thank her for for all her hard work and and in close um is Janet still in the room yeah I'd like to know how many of those 350 diapers that you participated [Laughter] in well hey she's an honest girl so all right hey thank you Mr Wallace Mr Scott thank you and hey great job and thanks to Josh again for putting this on Force good job um I also want to say a big shout out to everybody who was involved in the celebration last night um for um basically the best of the best within our school corporation everybody who was even nominated uh that's an honor in itself um but for those who uh were the ultimate uh uh recipients uh a job well done uh it is fun to um celebrate um good things in our school corporation um Kim and the parents um outstanding um we could have probably just let Addie do her thing and then stopped right there um but in all seriousness the one agenda item we had tonight is the first step of several steps that we have to take to expand uh what we currently have at the Junior High um at where e Muny currently stands so I'm excited uh for the future but there's with all things government there's steps uh as you well know John and um so thank you for everything that that you've done um and the last thing I want to say to all employees at MCS is have a very enjoyable and safe spring break thank you Mr Scott Miss yansy well there's not much left to say um I Echo pretty much everybody's um sentiments tonight um thank you for coming and speaking about your school um we um hear your passion and and your concerns so um and thank you for Dustin for his very eloquent um resp response I think we all feel the same that the most important thing is that you know everybody our students are safe and that we have you know the right people in the right places so um thank you for that and um big shout out to the parents that come in and spoke tonight on the um the pre or the Early Childhood Center um it's great to hear that you know we kind of hear a lot of things secondhand about how great it's going but than to have the parents come in and and the children um just you know affirms that so um thank you and thank you Kim for coming and Sharon and Shan um appreciate that very much um and congratulations to all the students that were here tonight um and um everybody have a great spring break it's great weather this week hopefully it goes on till next week that's right that's right thank you Miss yansy uh one thing I do want to say is Miss W share show was awesome I don't know if that got mentioned at any point but I mean it was fantastic so congratulations and thanks to you and the the theater crew Dr Brown um yes so first of all uh thank you to um Kim um and also to Shan appreciate you guys coming and to our teacher parents who came after working all day to share their story of what's going on and Cent so thank you for that Teresa um thank you for all you've done for our kids it was great to see them recognized tonight and their love for you surely will shine for many many years after you retire and leave us um Josh and Karen thank you so much for making all of this happen I know this was incredible to put together appreciate that congratulations to our teacher of the year for 2025 Lindsay Bullock to LY Neil the classified operations employee of the year and to Jacob McVey the classified support person of the year so uh we have 500 employees in Madison schools uh we celebrated um many uh nominees last night and the three winners were certainly very deserving so we're very proud of them also last night we were fortunate because graciella Miranda who's the 2025 teacher of the year for the state of Indiana joined us um and sent me a really nice email today about how much she enjoyed um seeing and hearing um our stories in Madison and she plans to come back and visit so we impressed her too uh the share show it was on my list um congratulations to our own Emma um you did a super job and uh the shareff show was amazing um our theater Department is literally Second To None I've I mean I've been at this 38 years I've never seen programs like our high school puts out it's just incredible you guys are amazing um also cubfest was spectacular um we had so many people we were able to to Showcase um so many programs and kids and teachers and just a lot of great things happening in our school district also a big thank you to Patrick for the mids Southern Conference work that you've done um greatly appreciate it and lastly spring break is next week thank you and I would like to wish my Pam a happy birthday because I would never forget you should we sing ever no should we sing once you reach a certain age you don't have to sing oh okay please ever thank you Dr Brown the board will conduct a work session on Thursday April 3rd 2025 at 4:30 p.m.

good evening and welcome to the Greenfield school committee meeting for Wednesday March 12th 2025 this meeting is being recorded by greenfield Community television gctv if any other persons present are doing the same you must notify the chairperson at this time not seeing any um secretary genive will you call the all all right member Goodwin here member Childs here secretary Den I'm here chair Johnson mad here Vice chair seon here member Martini here mayor dorer here we're all present with a Corum at 6:32 we call the meeting to order um we'll begin with public comment um we'll start with people in the room people on Zoom if you would like to make public comment please put a note in the chat and we'll call on you when we get to the zoom um public comment members hello uh Jesus SLA 80 eight dfield Street Greenfield forgot for a moment um I'm uh I'm here tonight for public comment to let you know that on March uh 24th uh Monday at 11:00 a.m.

it is a free event for 8th through 12th graders and they're excited to plan decorate and attend um in news for the students of Color Club students have gone to the seventh grade middle school advisories to present their lesson to address racialized language and provides some new tools to become active bystanders they've now met with every seventh grade advisory and they're now in discussions to meet with Miss fenmore to organize presentations to the sixth grade advisories um and for today today's Student Life presentation we have sustainability Club so this section is again um intended to highlight student excellence and achievement um sustainability Club is a new group this year and I will not spend too much time introducing them because they will probably do it better than I will um so sustainability Club if you want to take the stand hello thank you um so we're just going to go around and say our names I'm Stella Verlander I'm a senior I'm Isabella eblo I'm a sophomore I'm meis Al I'm a sophomore and we're just going to give a brief presentation on our club the sustainability Club it's new this year um and hold on we have a little presentation too okay wonderful um okay so I founded the sustainability Club because I saw an opportunity for improvement in our school and as the next generation of leaders I knew that ghs students were necessary part of taking action to make our school more sustainable now more than ever climate activism is greatly needed and our club members have been working hard to spread awareness and do our part we've only been a club for around five months however we have achieved a lot and we will share that with you tonight okay okay as ambitious students we have many goals and aspirations for our club we hope to include every ghs student in our events and projects so the sustainability becomes a core value of students at our school we also strive to always give back to our community in the form of community service and volunteering in any way possible through our environment projects we hope to help our our town and school reach Net Zero carbon emission continue to keep Greenfield green so a big part of our club is our events and projects that's really what makes everything fun um and so far this year we've walked over six miles in Monty's March and raised 700 $970 for the food bank of Western Massachusetts um this went towards meals that people in need um need um and this is really just to help fight the hunger crisis in America and specifically Western massachusett um and recently we took a trip to the Massachusetts state house in Boston and participated in the Massachusetts Youth Climate Coalition Lobby day we advocated for priority climate bills and spoke with representative Natalie blae and Senator Joanne comford um we learned a lot about the legislative process from this experience and we were met with a lot of support from the representatives so these bills that are um in particularly bad places in um the state of where bills get passed a lot of them were in the Ways and Means Committee um and we're helping to move those forward so that things like clean air um uh climate education will be implemented into schools all over Massachusetts um and as a part of our continued interest in food conversation conservation and composting we've conducted two food waste studies this year during our lunch periods at school we found that each person creates around um 65 to 75 pounds on average of food waste in a day and this research goes towards our interest in reimplementing composting programs in the high school and then um as we get more research and we move to doing food waste studies in the middle school and Elementary School to then move um interest in composting to all schools in the district as all clubs and Student Activities strive for we aim to leave a lasting positive impact on our on our school we've increased awareness in the school community and already through our events and our media presence recently we had the opportunity to speak with Evelyn mcdonal McDonald McDougle about our club for the Greenfield Recorder which broadened our Outreach moving forward since we're a new organiz can you hear me yeah since we're a new organization to the school it's hard to pack a large number of events into our first year this is why we've started planning ahead and thinking about fun things to implement our club next year this spring we hope to do some gardening on a smaller scale and use our garden beds outside of the high school to grow some produce and flowers we've been inspired by a fellow ghs organization the student of color club and we hope we can follow their example in giving information sessions and presentations to school in our districts majority of climate and sustainability organizations host climate Summit annually this is a great way to get connected with other schools though these events also learn a lot from keyn note speakers and workshops in April we're planning to attend and the phis academy end over youth CL Summit and hopefully make attending climate Summits a tradition for our club thank you all for listening to our presentation we hope this has giving you in some insight into what our club does and we hope um we're constantly growing and expanding our organization and there's a lot more that is yet to come thank you again for your attention and have a good night thank you thank you would you be able to answer questions if committee members have any for you thank you any questions for either Shane or for the sustainability Club um okay yeah member Childs not a question I just want to congratulate you for the success you're having and wish you the best in continuing to grow this program so that hopefully it will start reaching into the schools at the lower level so thank you for what you're doing for your school and Community thank you thank you for your support we appreciate it yeah thank you I'm impressed at your ability to stay hopeful in times that seem kind of dark to some of us so it's really um hopeful when people keep moving forward in in difficult times any questions questions okay thank you thank you so much all right I'm going to um propose a um change to the order of our agenda that we would move on now to the business manager but after the business manager's report um I move that the we um change the order so the mayor's presentation regarding the mayor's proposed fiscal year 2026 school budget proposal and rationale comes after that is there a a second okay there's the first the motion is there a second second a second for member child's and a and a mo motion from Member Martini um any [Music] discussion okay um roll call vote uh secretary Den member Goodwin yes member Childs yes secretary n Eve yes chair Johnson mad a yes Vice chair seon yes member Martini yes mayor dorer yes vote is unanimous all right we'll move on to the business manager's report Andy good evening everyone you had in your packets the budget reports for March uh in addition to my memo with a summary of the highlights as how things stand as of the March report um we are Believe It or Not uh well into our preparing the closing of the fiscal year reviewing encumbrances both salary and non-salary uh you have I highlighted some of the accounts that aren't necess aren't formally encumbered but will be expended uh Transportation salaries and those six items that are listed there so when you do that and then apply our remaining funds that we planned on using in this budget was built we have to deal with normal I say normal end of the year expenditures that aren't highlighted in those uh six of the 82,6 41 but if like I didn't want to go through I could have gone through the the budget and exhausted you know all the supply lines Etc but those six items are the ones that I kind of if you look at the trends are the ones that we normally spend uh through the end of the year Transportation salaries it's just we uh they're they're not in CED so we do a manual encumbrance for those um in addition we were notified recently of two placements uh where we are assigned fiscal responsibility so that will also eat into the 682,000 so with that said I can answer any questions that you might have as I said when you look just one thing before the questions I always like to show the percent expended and committed and the percent available so when you look uh we're at 97.12% expended and or committed with a 2.88% balance to be able to address other end of the year unanticipated and unencumbered expenses thank you questions from the committee looks like member martini and then we'll go to Mayor disorder member Martini thanks Andy do you know the um ballpark C of those uh two placements for which we are now fiscally responsible I do not uh and I think that that is are yet to be determined okay thanks mayor um I have two questions um Andy um I have question is it it's really the same category but on three different pages um on pages seven to eight and 11 the the maintenance of buildings where there's an incumbent what is it that we're paying for on page I can tell you the exact line item if you want to know um on page $2,883 encumbered no um it's maintenance of buildings also I have page s and what would that be in there it's under Greenfield High School and we P seven is the Middle School your honor oh I'm sorry yep you know the the top Line's a little dark I don't have enough light on this I apologize so um we spent like 800 8,733 and then it's encumbered 6,266 the incumbent is that's what I'm curious about and and U maybe we're doing it all the same way the incumbant what is that for do you know uh I'd have to get the detail of the open Po's uh that's the probably several purchase orders that the facilities director has used for supplies and materials related to building maintenance okay well then never mind I'm not going to go on to the other two pages I can get those though it's very it's just a matter of uh I'm on a Mac right now and I can't log into munus on a Mac I have to go through a PC so uh if you want I can while the meeting's going on I can run that report it's it was just I wondered what else we were what we were encumbering for the end of the school and and it's it's not that important the other thing I wanted to know is on the circuit breaker account um so we're um we're still supposed to get three more payments on that according to the desie website of 317,000 about we didn't get the December one doesn't look like it was given yet to our community and I I saw several other communities that didn't have that as well do you know why why that is least was listed on the website that's I could not tell you uh uh I can research that but you know I know it's I don't know if it impacts cash flow for the city but I know come June 30 whatever our allocated amount that we're scheduled to receive we will receive it so it could be a delay on theirin for who knows what reasons but you know uh I just I I would say that uh I have seen delays in the past in previous fiscal years um you know I could say the only reason i' ever I've ever seen a delay is if there is an end of thee report that wasn't submitted in time but they do have our end of the year report so it's not at all anything related to that okay um and if uh if I can continue just on this it looks like we we posted the the last one for fiscal year 24 probably came in on the very last day we posted that was the last one of fiscal year 24 in 25 so my real question is can we put five payments in in this um in fiscal year 25 because we' do three more uh is that allowed no you're supposed to post the revenues the revenues are recognized well it I would say on the city Side they should have aced the revenue and because it comes to your it comes to the treasurer's office so the revenue should be acred and it should have been posted to f524 okay because it looks like three were posted to um it looks like three were posted in fiscal year 24 and I can see that we do three more which will be almost another close to another million but okay I've got it thank you very much okay any other questions for the business manager okay we will move on to the um mayor's presentation regarding mayor's proposed fiscal year 2026 school budget proposal and rationale mayor thank you thank you um Karen ingland for adding me to the agenda to speak on this tonight the school budget I just have a prepared statement not a presentation the school budget is a critical component of the overall All City budget education provides every student the opportunity to become their best selves beyond that investing in public schools is the most important expenditure of any community that any Community can make for its future the Mary school budget number for this year is 23 m697 549 there are three main drivers for that number including exter external and internal budget factors this decision was not made lightly my emphasis as a mayor is establishing a stable Financial pathway for the city and for our schools despite alarming changes federally I am very hopeful that there will be no changes to our cherry sheet numbers for fiscal year 26 I have contacted the mass Municipal Association and the department of revenue for guidance the DOI suggested very conservative budgeting despite my prudent budget choices thus far we we were informed that we have a one in three chance of our bond rating being reduced next year due to a to due to $74 million of outstanding debt and the $51 million unfunded retirement liability health insurance costs will increase by 16.5% this year as they did last year that figure will represent a $1.5 million increase to the city budget these increases are unprecedented historically health care premiums have risen by 4% annually over the last 10 years as you know by law our budget can only increase by 25% for the city of Greenfield this means that the entire budget can increase by approximately 1.4 to 1.5 million most of that increase this year will go to paying the skyrocketing health care premiums our total health care costs will increase from 8.8 million to 10.3 million the school budget increased requests this year is almost 2 million the ask is more than the than the overall City budget can increase every year our budget can increase about 1.4 to 1.5 million last year the schools received about 2third of the total City increase this year the school committee approved a 25 a, 587,589 of 1,889 76 if this were the only Department requesting a budget increase it would be mathematically impossible to fund the city B budget and pay for the employees health insurance and no mayor can submit a budget that the city cannot fund last year almost every department head asked me for more staff I said no because we could not pay for it we added one full-time position for the entire city in fiscal year 25 these are our constraints within which we have to operate although the above external factors are outside of a control many factors we can and must control to survive these are the solutions we can explore today but must change this year to avoid a fiscal cliff the nesda study uh was published just in June of 2022 it is already obsolete in less than three years we have lost 254 students the the the report predict predicted this decline would happen over a 10-year period the dramatic change means that we must reexamine our plans our plans won't work with our budget or the current en moment for those of you watching the nezda study is on the gpsk website under [Music] redistricting I will be referencing one other paper which is under the energy Department under buildings if we move the eighth grade out of the high school in September as planned there will be only 300 children in a state-of-the-art energy efficient building designed to hold 788 children the high school building is superb and has the best energy rating of any of our schools with an eui of 37 conversely the middle school has the worst energy rating of any of our schools with an eui of 57 keep in mind the high school cost 60 million do to build of which we pay 1.3 million every single year year out of our city budget until 2039 a plan that puts the seventh and eighth grade at the high school utilizes the building better while still being well under full capacity the fifth and sixth grade could move to the elementary schools with the same Equity plan that we all strive for we can do a great job for our students increasing resources for Music Arts and sports PT speech and programs will be centralized reducing travel time busing costs and maximizing the impacts for these services for our schools to impro improve we must prioritize our spending on teachers and Par professionals and we must reduce building and administrative costs of note on the school budget slide show there was no actual figure uh of of the cost of moving the fifth and E eighth grades it is known that it is known we add more teachers for Less overall students in our schools in this move plan a meaningful restructuring of schools could provide the education every one of us wants and simultaneously accomplish the equity we are striving for when H when parents have the opportunity to choose what school to send their children to they are looking for strong music and arts programs excellent academics robust Athletics and exciting field trips these things are possible but only if we course correct now the Shar gold shared gold will remain impossible if the current plan stands I am not an educator but I do know that the numbers don't lie we know the future of funding looks Grim earlier this week the president cut the USDA food programs that we rely on to feed our students how can we justify the massive increase of the current plan when we now have to find a way to make sure hungry bellies are full we don't have another year to wait the die will be cast and we won't have any other options Transportation cost are another massive expenditure within our control evaluating contracted Services the size and energy consumption of our Fleet is needed a plan that includes oversight is necessary our school committee becomes aware of new vehicle purchases after they have happened all vehicle expenditures need to go through the capital planning process the city all is a green community and and an almost lost grant funding uh last year because of a vehicle purchased by another department that did not align with energy standards lastly on the budget figures on the numbers The increased cost of outof District tuition seems factually inaccurate it was reported to us that out of District tuition costs would rise by $1.5 million the director of student services agreed that all our students attend students governed by the governed by the office of students with disabilities as I stated last month that tuition can only increase by 3.67% Additionally the practice of encumbering larger amounts that you will spend is pervasive we need to represent the facts properly although fiscal year 26 seems daunting fiscal year 27 is predicted to be far worse I sincerely hope that we can come together to address these very serious issues let's fix this well we can together that's all thank you thank you mayor um I think it' be good for the committee to get to discuss your presentation I think maybe one way to proceed would be to start with um questions for the mayor to make sure we're all um starting with just basic uh basic facts and information and then for the the committee to get to share their um perspective on your presentation um I just I think it would be good um might be helpful for the public to know that what you have put forward is um a 0.11% decrease from for from fiscal 25 $254 less than the current fiscal Year's budget um PE are there questions that committee members have for the mayor about her presentation member Den um I'm not sure that it's much a question is a confirmation um are you saying that you do not wish to go forward with the redistricting that we worked on and proposed through the many Community engagement meetings that we had I am saying I I realized that we had many meetings on this um I also feel that when I bought this when I actually raised my hand on this again that some of the dis dis discussion was discouraged however I definitely think what we spoke about with the V districting putting the fifth grade and maybe the sixth grade along with them um with the street design Etc is a a great idea I think that we definitely need to look at the use of the schools now to have a high school with 300 students in it to be running two massive schools at half capacity with all the administrative costs is not something that we can afford to do um I referred to the mzda study and where they had us 10 years from now is where we are now and I think that those numbers actually mandate that we look at what we are doing considering the cost that this move is going to be for us to underutilize the most energy efficient building at this point in time does not seem to be good judgment at all I guess I'm asking because I appear to be the chair of the redistricting subcommittee that was ad hoc but is still alive and I would like to see if you could I guess I requesting that you could send me all of that information um in case we need to meet again I need to know what your your views and thoughts and plans are regarding this because it's certainly different than what we had worked on for several years I was removed from the redistricting committee but I am happy to submit any of this to you thank you any other questions for the mayor about our proposal member childs would it be possible for us to to uh get a written copy of it just for better digesting I will get that to everyone if not tonight tomorrow morning thank you any other questions for the mayor okay member Martini uh thank you I uh I appreciate member J's question s and comments um I feel quite Disturbed that after having engaged in a two and a half year CommunityWide uh project to design this redistricting to uh consider pulling the rug out from under families who've already made decisions about uh about which school their child will be attending next year and what have you uh and also I appreciate member child's um request just now uh normally we are provided with materials for everything that is on the agenda and I would very much have appreciated having this as part of our meeting materials before this meeting uh it's very hard to respond to a slew of detailed comments without having any lead time uh to consider them and I just want to clarify uh mayor in the school committee's recent uh budget hearing the budget proposal that was approved was presented and discussed alongside level service funding which would have uh constituted a five and change percent increase increase but uh what you are proposing here is not just um not the school committee's but proposed budget and not even not just level service it's actually not even level funding it's actually less than our previous uh our previous budget I just want to ask you to confirm that that is what you are suggesting so um so member Martini um two things on the on the redistricting uh first um yes we did talk about we talked about the redistricting the cost project projection however was unrealized by any of us until the budget that budget came out um by commitment to equity remains incredibly firm and I I agree with all of you on what we had proposed but things changed and I kept trying to raise my hand to speak about this but we need to look at the numbers of the children that are in that we have now in the school in the school system in light of facing uh daunting changes is to our health insurance the rising cost of health insurance is the main driver for what is happening to the overall City budget um we're together in this uh city employees make up maybe about 40% um School Employees make up 60% but everyone is paying and getting fabulous insurance that I want them to continue to have but that increase to the budget um is is going to be one and a half million dollar [Music] so we are many depart many departments are being cut um this is not the my favorite time of the year many departments across the city are facing Cuts because we can't afford to you can only do what you can afford to do um there was another part of your oh there was another piece of what you said um I actually did not concur with the $1.5 million increase that we were projected to have in outof District um out of District tuition expenses um if there was a four a just say even a 4% increase to out of District tuition cost that would have meant that we spent 37 A5 million on out of District tuition so I I question that number also and let me just see if there's anything else um we are down approximately 5% of students over the past fiscal year I think that those things were not talked about and we need to look at the spending and the best way that we can do this to give a great education to our children this pains me terribly to do this I think I have the same love of Education that we all do I hope I answered your question remember Martini I saw your hand are you you want to follow up um yes thank you um thank you for that explanation mayor um I also wondered uh when this situation in regards to health insurance came to your attention because I feel quite sure it's probably something that's been worrying you for quite a while um and I am wondering why you didn't come forward with any prepared motions during our budget hearing or prior to that uh to amend the budget that the school committee would be proposing because I'm sure that that would have been um discussed at that time and the school committee would have been interested in that but uh but there was no such motion from your corter could explain why not absolutely that was confirmed two days ago and I would say probably the first time that I heard that it was going to be in the 16% range was with 16% range was with was within the month it is certainly not anything that I kept from from anyone I think I told the superintendent what as soon as I started boring about it I knew what it was last year I hoped that that was an anomaly but I did not have advanced notice of that that I kept from anyone because honestly it's just not how I operate um when we when we get the first number he said was going to be 16.9% I'm sure that was in the month but I I can check um we asked our the person to go back to the insurance company um the called the meeting of the you know we've been trying the IAC but this was all happening I would say probably since our last meeting um thank you for the clarity uh I just had one other question but I don't if someone else has their hand up over there I don't want toize member Goodwin and then we'll come back to you member Martini I just remember this being brought up and a in a meeting um when we were discussing things what being brought up health insurance that the health insurance would be quite high this year yeah I don't think that was brought up that wasn't uh that wasn't multiple times yeah okay uh back to you member martini and then we'll go to member Den so uh say that this is um the level of funding that the the school department does receive in FY 26 uh and we have to contend with uh less than even level funding of the school budget um this in some total would [Music] um represent more than a $1.8 million cut to the proposed budget and I am curious uh exactly what you would suggest be cut and I it's I need more specifics than just to say that we should have less Administration I I'm asking what exactly you are suggesting be uh be cut or who uh you suggest so that decision won't be mine but will be the superintendent and then we would be looking at whatever the superintendent presents my suggestion however would be to provide the best services that we look at the utilization of our schools um I don't make a decision for the committee but if we put seventh and eighth grade in the high school um and um I've been running these numbers looking at what ndaq said just over the past couple weeks um what would fit in the elementary schools if we were able to um do K through six or one through six in our elementary schools I think we could do that without um without um oh while providing the same services that all of us are hoping for I think that we have to look at a better utilization of the numbers in face of the when faced with the declining numbers that are startling it it was June of 2022 when that um NASDAQ study was published um and since then as I said we're down 254 students I think we Pro I'm not sure and um there are people that know more than me about that but um but um I think either with the same design that we worked on so I didn't want my fellow teammates and members to think throwing out the idea because it was important for all of us to have Equity within our schools but can you afford to keep six Schools running that's not talking about um we need to we we need and all want to provide the same level of education and services to our children so do I but when faced with the the budget constraints that we are faced with I had to make terrible choices last year last year the school request was for 1, 3 like it was for [Music] 1,333 increase and and I put forward a a 900 and something I think it was a $940,000 increase as I said that was 2third of what the entire city budget could go up and when I said that we added one full-time employee that's true I cut one full-time employee from it and uh we added one person in assessing and one firefighter so that's a plus one for the whole city because of what we faced with with insurance and it's not a position that I want to be in but it's not not a position that I want all of us to be in but it is not economically feasible for us to go forward without looking at what else we can do and what we could combine so when you asked me about cutting that wasn't what I was thinking like who you know whose position would I be cutting I would be looking at which schools we could combine because actually that would be an enormous savings while providing the same education to our children I don't think it's possible to continue using the six schools and we might not be able to pay hungry children I mean we might not be able to afford to feed our hungry children so that I I feel I know it's a profit of Doom here but it's the writing is on the wall and we know it's not getting better and that is a factual thing what happened with our health insurance we had the person come before us the fact of the matter is and I did send this um print out to both the superintendent and the assistant superintendent um we are we are spending more than our premiums the health insurance costs by our members are more than our health insurance premiums we did everything last year we asked every single other um health insurance company if they would take us on but they would not because um because what what our employees and their family members spel spent on their health needs was higher than the premium that went into the health insurance company and they're running a business and then nobody else wanted to pick us up so that's a reality that we're faced with two years in a row um we tried the IAC and I forget I'm not the IAC the GIC and another one that um some different employees had suggested and they wouldn't take us so I was hoping it would be better this year but it's not um I don't like to be in this position either but when we're here it's like what are we going to do what are we going to what are we going to do that is the best plan and running two two schools at half capacity doesn't seem like the best idea to me that's a plan that I came up with but I'm just one member I have to run the budget though go ahead sorry member den and then back to member Martini I'm sad and really frustrated in this moment I just have to say um we always knew when we were talking about redistricting that six schools was really not a sustainable thing that we could have forever I mean I've talked to a lot of people about that we talked about that in the subcommittee The Pie in the Sky dream was always that someday after redistricting we could all come together and start working on a plan to have a new elementary school so that we wouldn't have six individual buildings you know that we all in different states of disrepair or you know had space issues and I think that there are so many things that are just there are moving pieces to this that I think aren't just about oh let's just put this grade in this school like that's not how it works um there's employ employment contracts on the table there's Transportation changes that have to happen I can I tell you how long the superintendent was saying that she spent on doing all of the streets to ascertain who could ride what buses where um we did a whole piece with the family engagement there are families who have made choices on where their child is going to go for you know the remainder of their time in a certain school and there are best practices regarding grade grade bands and where they're housed and it's just such a complex issue I just don't I don't see it being as easy as oh we have a more energy efficient school here with some space let's stick some kids there so I feel dismayed um I would much rather like to see us come together and look at how we can add more Energy Efficiency to the middle school perhaps to reduce costs there are lots of things out there and I just I I don't see this working and it makes me very sad because I spent a long time many hours with so many of you in little rooms talking about what you wanted what would fit what it would look like and then to just have it sort of lost because of health care costs is really sad it's just sad I just want to say it it's just sad and I don't know what to do but this just throwing people wherever to Save A Buck just doesn't seem like the right thing to to do Martini thanks uh mayor I think I heard you say that we should not have so many schools as we have but I confused and would like to know which school are you suggesting we eliminate can you I need more specific information about exactly what you're suggesting and when you think that should happen um so first I wanted to address um a member Den um I hear your sadness I can feel that this to me is not about sticking people some somewhere or another their families with children and I don't think any of those decisions are easy for anyone but the de the declining enrollment was not predicted and the rise in costs was not predicted I just want to assure you that I I have kids I have nine grandchildren both my daughter-in-laws teachers reading specialists this is a a a crushing thing to make a a a cut to the school budget but it is what what what can we afford to do and what makes the most economic sense I I don't want us to think of it like the mayor wants to stick people somewhere they're people but I also want to say when we make this decision the presentation that we had was about hiring new people I work very hard to make sure that we're not losing people for the you know for the people that I'm kind of over I guess as you would say it that are under my employee so when we're making any of these decisions and I'm worrying about it I always say oh if I know who that is like if we have somebody already they have faces and families so I always try to make a decision that is before I've done anything like that all I just want to say to you is facing the financial concerns that we are we're talking about hiring we're talking about moving teachers first of all from the 8th grade at down to the middle school then hiring new people that we haven't met yet people with faces and families that's how I see this and that's why I talked about making the decision before it was happening I wasn't expecting to be here either um and then I want to go back I'm sorry I was answering that question more um than member Martini's member Martini I lost that because I was trying to answer that's okay my question was I think I heard you say that um you think that we have too many schools for our number of students and I want you to explain which school you think we should eliminate and when you think that should happen okay so I didn't actually I was I I didn't want to come out and say something for the whole committee but I'm just running the numbers on this um it appears to me it appears obvious to me but I don't mean that it needs to be obvious to anyone else that running six schools as we are doing running two large schools with you know with four custodians and the accompanying Administration doesn't feel like the best idea they are the two two larger schools are the ones that I see this is just from a practical standpoint but there's there's people that work there so I it's hard to you know talk about on on uh um taking into consideration the people who's job jobs this would affect but those are the two large schools and I think that's that's where we have to make the decision two large schools that are running would I'm sorry to interrupt you but I I just don't understand your answer okay middle the middle school is H is the one that I I would think the the one that we should be closing so you're suggesting that we close the Middle School move the seventh grade to the high school and make all of the elementary schools K through six K through six and when do you think when are you suggesting that would happen if that would be possible to do for next year I would do it next year and if we needed another year in between I would do it the year after that if we moved five five through um if I think the best plan would be to do it next year if it was humanly possible and if not the year after that because I don't actually know I'm not a superintendent or an educator or somebody that does bus plans and I don't know how long that would take to do and I will tell you I know that our superintendent Works extraordinarily hard I think she gives 150% and I I know what I put into a budget I I can tell you I think she puts her heart and her soul into the schools and so I can't speak on her behalf or the folks that she works with about how long that would take to do and this is very difficult for me to talk about but I think it needs to be done I think the writing is on the wall and I think by doing that um we could afford to provide everything that everybody talks about in all of these meetings some of you are far more educated than I am on these reading plans Etc there are all of these wonderful plans that you want I think we could do all of those if we Consolidated the buildings so you asked me very specifically I think it's the middle school that we need to look at closing that's my opinion and I I think it would be uh a very unwise choice to make the decision that we're making for September so I would keep I would do seventh and eighth grade I don't think that is in into the high school this year keep that good running facility you know almost at uh well not really near capacity because they certainly could take more and I think we should all be discussing if K through six or 1 through six would fit in all of the elementary schools I've run the numbers and I'm uh not quite sure and I am I'm I'm not an educator but I am very good with math other uh member Martini thanks again does anybody El have a hand up because I don't want to one I'm recognizing only when I don't see any other hands raised so you're good um okay thank you mayor for being um being more straightforward about that um have you met with the superintendent to ask whether the numbers that you have run are accurate and whether what you're uh suggesting would be in any way feasible the superintendent and I meet um every two weeks and we did not discuss that I thought that this was a good discussion to have um uh with all of us whether or not we could put all of the people in one school is is not a decision that the two of us had together but I would welcome that discussion with her um next week right no but when I when I am wondering about something and I'm not sure whether I am correct or maybe I weigh off basee about something I put the question out there to the superintendent just to make sure that I I am I'm on the right track so I I would hope that everyone is doing that and um I am not the superintendent uh and I'm much like you and um not in that role and and I was also not on the redistricting committee that led the work on this project over the last several years um I'm just cognizant of the fact that it took two and a half years to develop the plan that we were supposed to be implementing in September and so I feel very skeptical about the uh plausibility to implement a wholesale different plan in a mere less than six months that's like f five and a half months um at this point so I would be very worried about that and um um also I think I heard you say that you wanted to see no less in services to our students but I'm very perplexed as to how that would happen because we provided uh a budget proposal that included level service numbers so a level service budget would uh be24 million $981 and one $981,000 so what what you're suggesting here is about $1.2 million less than that and I am I'm I know that you will know and and uh most people will be aware that we have um contracted step raises and um agreements that we have worked out with our staff in our last uh round of contract negotiations that must be honored and uh Absol I don't understand how um anyone could think that we would not lose Services uh with a drastic cut like that and um I'm just recollecting the last time that the school committee had to um contend with a short fall of about $200,000 I think it was um and we lost several positions including our entire foreign language program in the middle schools so uh I'm I'm very worried about about what you are suggesting I I appreciate the pressures that you're under and I'm I'm sorry not trying to uh P you here but I'm I'm very concerned um I I just wanted to say two things I thought this was this is not easy for me either I think this is it was better to have a discussion publicly um and the finances and it have changed dramatically as has our enrollment and you I think there is an enormous savings um as we look if if we were looking at a change in the buildings I I think in and of itself that saves a lot I don't think that would involve a loss of any teachers or par profession professionals that was I think you could easily do that without having that happen but again I'm not the superintendent nor do I claim to be but in the end I'm going to do my best to submit a a thoughtful budget for the entire city and this the other part of this and some of this it's been like since January as we all know it's this is a scary place to be in as far as budgeting I get things from our Del delegation saying it's a terrifying time right now and this isn't even predicted to be the bad year okay so I guess I want you to think about I want you to think about that and perhaps my perspective on this and why I'm saying this today because knowing well none of us knows the future right but anticipating what next year might be how bad it's predicted to be would it not Would we not be having more foresight to be not making a change that's going to um hook us into or have us into more um you know have done some things that we can't turn back on I guess that's how I want to say that just remember you know the federal government cut food funding for children that it it makes me think that that we have to do that now do do you know what saying the things that are coming from outside of that may be say we have to look at what we're doing on the inside and and to try to provide the very best that we can all other questions from the Committee Member Den I okay I I do understand your perspective mayor but you did say in your presentation that that the middle school is one of the more energy efficient buildings and the high school is also energy efficient building so but now you're saying to close the middle school so I don't know if I have that right I guess I'll have to read your proposal when you send it in but you did also say I believe I heard that there were costs associated with going through the redistricting plan that we created well there would also be costs closing the middle school and moving multiple grades around I mean there's that costs also so I'm just perplexed as to I'm perplexed as to this whole plan just perplexed sorry I don't have a question do you want to respond yes um Elizabeth um the most energy efficient of any of our buildings is the high school building it has an UI an energy rating of 37 the um the middle school has the worst energy r of any of our schools it has an eui 57 that that is I will send you what's on the um energy and sustainability website it was about building efficiencies and yes um everything that we do has an Associated cost with it it is just if we were talking about making this move and hiring new people because of it um I think that puts us in a fiscally more precarious state for next year where some of the federal cuts are going to hit us so much in the face that it just be be wise for us to be making a decision this year and I understand it's March I didn't think January and February were going to go the way they did on the federal level I bet none of us did and I didn't reach out to the Department of Revenue last year for guidance on my budget because I didn't have to um things were stable but faced with with the looming changes on the federal that are going to come and and hit us and what is hitting Us in the face this year you try to make the best decisions that you can thank you um I'm sorry I just have a followup does follow up from Member Den then member Childs then member martini and then I promise I'm done um does Jus function on fossil fuels do we use heating oil and things there is my first question then my second question is have has have you looked into the uh upgrades that um the msba will do for the middle school because the it is a new enough building that they would do upgrades most likely so that's my question see how far down that rabbit hole you've gone I I would say that our energy director leaves no stone unturned as far as that goes um and I can get more information to you on for all of your questions on fossil fuels M Childs so first I just want to put it out there that the new hires in question were to make it so that the middle school children would have full years each of science and social studies as opposed to a sixth grader getting half a year of one then half a year of the other it is an investment in an age group that it's a tricky age group the families I know who've left District have left from the Middle School it is an area that we do need to be spending attention and man just because something's a good investment if you don't have money how do you invest imaginary money into it It's Tricky I don't think we can have an answer tonight I think what we need to figure out first of all is what is the time frame we're working on that we have to come up with a solution what is doable uh what will destabilize things so much with so much uncertainty that we would end up losing even more students because the families are scared mayor would you like to respond um so well you I we're we're going to continue to bleed students if we can't afford to feed them and it's just this is a a priority we're going to have to prioritize what we can afford that's what I do every day when I'm looking at my budget that's what I'm doing here and I I perhaps by consol I think we'd all have to say by consolidating by consolidating in and of itself there are savings I think why don't we could all think about that for a little bit there are obvious savings by consolidating and we can address those perhaps together I am more than happy to come to any extra meetings that we have on this remember [Music] Martini I'm I'm glad to hear you say that mayor because I was just about to suggest that um I don't think that we will be able to um resolve this discussion this evening especially since members had no time to prepare for this discussion and I was going to suggest uh that the school committee schedule a special meeting and I also wanted to uh clarify something I think important because uh we keep talking about the um increase in the school Department's requested budget due to additional staff because of the redistricting plan that was established over the last few years and is to be implemented this fall uh but that is actually only one out of five five uh significant factors contributing to the local increase in the uh proposed budget this year so uh even if we were to Scuttle the redistricting um then that does not mean that the school department would not need additional funds uh our Sr grant funding ended in September there has been an increase in out of District special education tuition and I would say I would just remind everyone when we don't provide uh quality services in District then out of District placements will increase um also there was a transportation adjustment um for the contract amount with travel CS there are our curriculum and instruction materials that were previously paid out of Grants which we now need to cover ourselves and I would mayor I'm glad that you men the literacy efforts that the district has been making because Central to that was our investment in CK amplify as our new Ela uh instructional resource from kindergarten through grade seven which is uh a resource that is helping us to align our instruction with reading science more than um the hodg podge of uh resources and uh lack of resources we were providing to our teachers in the past and I would be heartbroken to have to say goodbye to it um and uh and I would uh underscore member Goodman's comments from our last meeting about um the fact that we still have a super majority of our students who are not achieving literacy proficiency and we need a long-term commitment to um improving our resources like that in order to move that needle and then lastly was the redistricting um alignment and I just want to clarify the the school's uh proposed budget included seven new positions and just four of those were related to the uh the redistricting in that we would need to go to full year science and social studies at the middle school levels which necessitates another Middle School team uh and also the superintendent has let us know on several occasions previously that we would need to do that any way uh because of requirements uh to meet expectations of the state so I'm not certain that not doing this would um eliminate the need to have those four positions I just want to highlight the other um positions that were included in this proposed budget that includes an additional English language learner teacher uh we need one and our English Learners deserve to have enough teachers um so that is not related to to redistricting uh so far as I know and uh we sorry I uh I need to get to the right spot here super intendent correct me if I'm wrong I our the English learner pH that is included in the proposed budget that is not related to redistricting correct correct thank you uh the other two positions were a building based substitute at the discovery school at Four Corners um and superintendent again correct me if my recollection is wrong but um that is included because it is the only one of our schools that does not have one correct thank you and the last one was a beacon teacher for anyone who does not know the beacon uh program is a alternative Pathway to graduation for students who are otherwise at high risk of uh dropping out and not attaining their high school diploma and that program was recently um eliminated by the collaborator which used to provide it for our students 30 of whom benefited from it um in recent years and so the superintendent felt um it was really crucial to continue to provide those Services uh to our students especially considering our uh efforts to improve our graduation rates uh so I just want to I want to make clear that not everything in this budget and not even a lot of it is related to um increased position because of redistricting and again I want to underscore that we have increases in this budget that are related to our existing staff so a level service budget would still uh represent about 1.2 million more dollars than the mayor is suggesting I'm just going to respond to that by saying there's one part of this budget that as I indicated um The increased cost there was one thing that kept coming up it was the main part of the budget so I think we really are going to be a lot better off than you think that our out of District tuition costs are going to increase by $1.5 million is not factually accurate and um we have a million dollars in the circuit breaker right now I was kind of indicating that in the questions that I asked with three more payments coming so that will put us up to 1.9 million that's uh count number 1515 in 1504 special student fund there's a million dollars in that um and so I think you could bre the side of relief on where we are with that major expend that major expense because it's not there thank you mayor Andy had his hand up for a while Andy well yes thank you I just have a few points of clarification regarding some of the issues that uh based on the mayor's statement uh let me deal with what I think the easy one first is this whole thing of not being able to feed kids the program that is being cut nobody likes Cuts don't get me wrong but it is a covid era related program that was encouraging communities to buy locals so it is a local food for schools Cooperative agreement program in fy2 the farm fresh program that is funded through this Greenfield received only [Music] $1,497 so $1,497 doesn't mean that we are not going to feed kids it is an encouragement to buy local so I would say with with all due respect I don't find that argument to be uh necessarily related to the funding issues that are being presented here tonight and then regarding the special education I would suggest that we all review the video from the public Hearing in the minutes Mr messing acknowledged that in the local budget for special education tuition he had included four contingencies for out of District placement in addition to the OSD increase to operational services division increase is also factored in there and then I also clarified that regarding a circuit breaker for now even though there's a balance as you're referring to if you look at my Memo from today's report just under $600,000 of that is already committed and as I said at the public hearing any balance that we have that is coming in as you're referring to as far as FY 26 is already earmarked for FY 27 that is how it is that we budget for a circuit breaker that every community in the Commonwealth does so to say that it's inflated or incorrect quite honestly is disingenuous and to some extent quite honestly for me quite insulting I have a a question for Andy go ahead member martini and then mayor if you wish to respond after me member Martini's question and answer from Andy thanks so in your um budget update today uh you had mentioned that there are two additional um ad of District placements that we are now fiscally responsible for per uh the state and I wanted to just have clarification since um Mr Meson included four contingencies uh in this for FY 26 does that would that now essentially mean that there are really two contingencies uh no those would be in addition those would be in addition to this okay thank you for that yeah see uh wanted to give the mayor a chance to respond and then I'll come to member Goodwin I saw member um that Mr messing um raised his hand as well um in respon I just wanted to respond to member Martini um I realized that all of the new positions um were not actually having to do with um moving people I just want again to state where we are today this is not like me against you this is us trying to figure out how how to do this effectively I'm a member of the school committee and I also happen to be the mayor and I'm charged with putting forward a budget that we can afford I want I want you to remember that when I did this last year only two or three months into being a mayor I knew how much we could go up and two-thirds of it went toward the schools and we we added one new position this year a year later there's two departments that I'm adding a position in um and and a and possibly part-time at the library it they're really hard choices you know I'm on this phone call or on this meeting with you uh struggling at a time when we're all struggling and Andy absolutely I I don't know um I I didn't know what the amount for the federal funding was I do know the economic reality that we are in absolutely this year it is 100% true that our health insurance is going up one and a half million so that we so we were able to do what we did last year um we we're 300,000 over on the health insurance this thus far this year and then it's going up again that's not made up it's real and it's a whole budget you can go up 2 and a half% plus whatever the new growth is so what you know the position that we added last year in assessing it was so that we could get the most New Growth that we possibly could so that the whole Community could do better not the schools versus the city or anything it's like how many things can we afford as a as a community we need another person in it like you read about the library is waiting us for us to do things like lighting up their sign in them and U doing the fobs because I have three people for a community of 18,000 and when you guys were having trouble we helped like and that's what we have to do it's together but I can't unless I start you know like making a mint in the in our downstairs I can't make this and I got on and I said I'm going to put myself out there I'm going to be on a meeting with everyone where I'm actually saying this and and be trying to answer all these questions in live time which as you probably all know isn't really my best thing but I'm trying because we have to figure this out do do I have like every idea about did did I think of everything of what we could possibly do for every energy thing with the msba no I didn't because you know I've asked my own staff the one thing that I really need is is if you could just add a couple of hours to each day because I think like Karen we go from dawn to dusk and I'm 73 I was up till 3:30 last night and I'm sorry everyone that I didn't get this paper to you last night today so that you could read it because I finished it at 3 30 you know because I was trying to make sure that everything was factually accurate and polite at the same time and I didn't I'm sorry I didn't get it to you but that's when I finished it and then um I brought it in today and I had two people helping me with it and um I think I finished it around 4 o'clock and then went for a walk and so it didn't get to you and I agree with each one of you I can't digest anything thing when it's just um when it's just read to me and so I appreciate that and I I will get it to you but I've done my very best with this and it's a nightmare of a position to be in when they're telling you know what the bond rating will do to to affect us because the borrowings are so high I walked into all of that and and I I walked in gathering everybody together all the um Union heads and said look you know we need to do something different because we do a 8020 share on the insurance which means that the city takes 80% of that um but I certainly could understand why anybody wouldn't go for a different ratio in this economy where eggs are $10 a dozen yikes it's awful but there's some economic realities there and when you're asking me do I know how the savings would be I don't know exactly I don't know exactly but I do know the numbers and I know that they have decreased dramatically and we need to look at how we do things and I was just trying to save us from making something where we hired new where we we hired some new people those people with faces and families that we'd all grow to love just like we do each other so I'm trying to get a to the next stage and do it responsibly and to talk to you about it I think other Mayors have just said what the numbers going to be this was a really hard year and next year's not going to be better and we are we're teammates we have to allow talking and listening and new ideas and we may have to move some things very quickly like we're running an emergency room and all of a sudden there's a there's a mass Cas casualty incident and you respond quickly that's what's happening now there's two things at once incredibly spiraling costs with other ones on the horizon and a huge dip in enrollment and do do I have every factor of that finished out and known to you I certainly don't because I I am just one human being trying to do the very best job being a mayor of a city with a whole lot of issues but a whole lot of fabulous people many of you who've stepped up to the plate to serve on a school committee month after month for what $1,800 the time you put in thank you it's incredible but we have to figure this out because it's just us that's all thank you mayor m a good one so you know you hear the sadness and you hear the anger but I guess I think the most important thing is somebody who has you know been part of schools for over 40 years um and watched Greenfield school committee meetings for at least 30 um I can remember meetings where bankruptcy was discussed in Greenfield and schools were closed all over this town there were some adult who were probably in their 30s and 40s who didn't know what school they were going to until the day before school started but I think the most important thing is we're not alone everybody around us is going through this every time I read the newspaper another superintendent is facing cuts um nobody could plan for health insurance costs and I we're nobody can plan for that nobody can I mean what's happening in our country right now nobody everybody wakes up wondering what is the next thing that is going to happen because that is really where we're at I think this is going to be a lot of conversations to figure out um next steps um I sat on the star committee every Thursday afternoon for over a year when superintendent Harper was here and we moved the fourth grade back to the elementary schools Karen was getting furniture at the high school and I got some chairs from her to for fourth grade still we believe in putting you know fifth grade back at the elementary school but you've got declining enrollments you've got um outstanding costs that we were not expected as somebody who voted for a brand new high school um we're still paying over a million dollars every year on that on that building I I think there is a different way um and I don't think tonight is the night we're going to find that way it may take us two years but I think everybody has great ideas but we're not alone every District around us uh I read something in the newspaper Pioneer was talking about putting every single grade in their bit their High School um people are talking about regionalizing people are talking about all different ways just to keep education alive and by fighting and getting angry with each other we're not going to come up with Solutions we're not alone we're in this together um and I hope you know maybe it's a two-year plan knowing that next year is going to be worse um maybe we raise chickens and sell eggs as a fundraiser I don't know but I I'm just the reality of this is not about the mayor has nine grandchildren if she could give you all the money in the world she would um she values children and that's you know one of the reasons that um I know I voted for her and so I would sit here and say to you I've fought for school budgets for my whole career and bottom line is there isn't some um Li unlimited funds you know I built a brand new new Middle School in South Hadley and then the next budget cycle I was told to cut 22 teachers because with the district didn't have the money so all this anger and all this sadness is real and it happens a lot in schools who make the amount of time that a superintendent makes a budget is enough to have nightmares um and a mayor who's faced with a city that um seems to have liked to borrow money and build a lot of new buildings from a library to a fire department to parking garages that nobody parks in um we sort of I would just say to you Greenfield is the second highest taxed city in Massachusetts that is a fact and bottom line is our taxes every time I see a tax bill I start to shake so so bottom line is there isn't extra money laying around um I don't believe it's hidden at City Hall buried in the dungeons I think we we're just going to have to and I don't know what it's going to look like Karen's going to have to as superintendent figure out how she wants to handle that number it's really something um to but the big thing to remember is we're not alone everybody around us is doing this um every time I pick up a news paper it's another school district you know facing budget cuts and so far our number is actually the biggest one I've seen in the newspaper um and that you know so I that 1.4 million I wrote it down for health care I mean that is a benefit that every educator gets um the P the fact that we're still still paying for the high school um I don't know what other buildings were're still paying for um but we're in this together and I guess I just would like you know I hear a lot of anger and a lot of sadness and yes um but it's not about what's Happening Here is what's happening to us it's bigger than us I really believe that I stopped watching the news because it started to make me um very upset so I would just say to you um we're in this together um we're in this and we live in Greenfield and no other department is getting like big money um we're not you know looking at that I know the fire chief needs a fire truck or all our house insurance is going up so that's a 1.35 million and I want him to get his truck because I'm not sure I can handle an increase in my house insurance so as citizens of Greenfield we have to pay attention to what's happening in our city so anybody who's listening I think you need to watch all the meetings to see all of the costs that take to run our our town and to fix our potholes someday I hope so just remember we're not alone and I think the big thing is we need to do this together any other questions or comments from members I have some things um mayor you kind of use the emergency room um metaphor uh to say that where this is like a real fiscal emergency that we're in and I agree you can't have a health insurance costs go up that much and not be in a really tight spot um have you considered using free cash or stabilization um for this difficult Financial time we find ourselves in um we have a I'm not I'm I'm not really sure what I can say about this right now but um we had you know we had significant um significant exp expense for the settlement I think I could say that and that leaves us with $135,000 in free cash until um June 30th so I'm keeping that for um you know well you know the the the stairs and the ramp to City Hall just collap collapse so I'm keeping that for things like that to see what the bill for that is so it would be unwise to be to be spending that on stabilization Glenn um you know I I can't I would not use stabilization for health care costs because um I I put the Bond rating thing the bond rating information in my uh in what I had to say because the bond rating makes things worse if your bond rating goes down then you know everything that you've borrowed for or going to borrow for goes up so the bond Council whom I've just had the pleasure of meeting um they all review what you have in things so it would be be just unwise for us to use that you use the stabilization for I don't know um you even try to save that if there's something like Hurricane Irene comes along you try to save that for for just um I mean the the health insurance it could be up a million next year so you'd wipe out half your stabilization if you use that for this year you know what I'm saying and then I bbody G it down so I actually do try to think of every different thing not that I think of all of them and I and we welcome suggestions but I I run it by somebody you know I run it by our chief F Financial Officer and others to make the best decisions but almost everybody says you leave that stabilization at is is and free cash with um you know I think there might be a financial order out for that that settlement thing so you you'll see that next month but that wipes out most of what is left in in there and and again I I want to say I'm not making a lot of friends this month just so you know um you know I had people that came forward with their Capital requests and um some departments requested three or four things and they didn't get anything and um and then you know others had four requests and they got one um the you know um the school department we we put that forward and I'm sure that city council will pass it for the fire panel because that was the necessity it's it's like these choices that you make right um and if I had a magic wand I'd create an extra couple of million but I don't have that but I don't believe I could take it out of stabilization did I answer your question Glenn you did can you uh speak to um what assumptions you're using in your budget in regard to state aid for this year I yes I anticipate that we will get I use the cherry sheet number so it's a scary time I I've called MMA and um the Department of Revenue but they both think that our charity Street figures will come in as anticipated this year so I put the number in in the budget that you know the first number is already out I think you probably know that from being in your line of work um so you know you get the first number than the house number and the Senate number so I I that's what we did last year I'm assuming that we will get the same number on Cherry shoes um that we have and I don't have that number in front of me yeah but it's similar to or a little bit better actually than last year um so that's what I use for number yeah it looks like a 7 80k net positive yeah so we put that in and I I do want to say um because actually because I got a text from my wonderful Chief of Staff um uh on the health insurance cost when somebody asked me if this was a surprise I might have known for like five five oh five weeks because I did say something to Karen it within but I'm not really sure whe it was a few weeks but we did not get the last number I kept thinking it couldn't possibly happen again I did not get the last number until two days ago but I was pretty sure probably within the last 10 days that it was going to be um that it was going to be you know somewhere between 16 and 17% so I just wanted to make sure that I spoke that clearly thank you um I just have some comments I'd like to make and then I'd love to hear your responses mayor but um I think that this budget that you're putting forward is an absolute catastrophe for our students it will represent I think dozens of positions being lost in our schools I I uh appreciate you very much for for for asking to be put on the agenda and for uh at least getting us the uh getting the superintendent the number in advance as of yesterday and confirming it today um it uh so that kudos to you because the way this process works you could have just put for the number to the city council and April 1st and then we would only have a few weeks uh to yell and scream about it it and now we have many more weeks to uh be very upset because um we're if you are concerned if you're noticing declines in enrollment now uh this number is going to accelerate that like you would not believe families will be fleeing from this district and it where where we already have several schools in turnaround I think the state will see this number as a as a signal that Greenfield is really not taking the education of our students seriously and would actually put us at risk of being put into something like receivership I mean the the number that the numbers that Kate was talking about member Martini was referring to you know the the dozens of of students that have been helped to actually graduate because of the program that the superintendent proposed uh continuing to fund imagine graduation numbers going down that dramatically what's that going to look like for Greenfield it's it's I mean it's it's just we will not be um having an ethical budget for our students if the number is anywhere near the number that you're you're putting forward tonight um you you know if you asked uh all of the Departments to keep a certain percentage in mind for uh salary increases in in budget negotiations that itself would obviously represent an increase in our budget um you asked us to to negotiate on that and then come forward with something that's less than the dollar amount we're actually using this year and I I understand the position you're talking about with the insurance costs going up it's very hard to look at it at the school number without seeing the rest of your budget so so it's very hard to to see I certainly hope that other uh departments will be complaining just as loudly as many people will be complaining to in the coming weeks because it would have to really be a true fiscal emergency with all of our city services being cut um well I did appreciate your transparency with the number and and sharing your perspective with us tonight and giving us a chance to talk to you about it there are number of items in your in your statement that I personally felt very offended by um I felt offended that you felt that you could kind of suggest that just by rearranging the schools in some other way that we could save so much money that I mean I just I don't don't see how you could possibly responsibly include that as a as a suggestion how could you possibly consider that we would be able to re redistrict everything in in terms of September if you have been paying attention at all to what it takes to redistrict a school system um so it just seemed and it it it sort of felt like oh with with the vans that we purchased without going through the capital process that were vans that were needed and that were done in consultation to make sure they were up to the green standards of the city um it just felt like you're kind of adding a little laundry list of complaints that you've accumulated about the school's budgeting process and and it does not really feel responsible to me to kind of make suggestions that by doing things with with closing down a middle school um you know with with in less than six months time it just you know I I app appreciate that you have to try to find some work with us to try to find some ways to mitigate that negative impact of the number you put forward but it to me personally came across as uh I felt offend I felt offended by it because there was just kind of so little thought put into it and and not enough conversations to find out or even a review of what has already been presented um in terms of the special education numbers and and things like that where our business manager and our superintendent and our student services director worked so hard to to put forward really uh thoughtful presentation um that seems like it was um kind of ignored um so that that was difficult for me and I think that you know we will have to see what this looks like in the context of your broader budget but I would encourage everybody on this committee and everyone at home and all the Educators to speak up very loudly and um to insist that we have to find something else some other solution uh to the to the city's uh fiscal problems because this is basically um punching our own students in the gut and we can't do that we we cannot allow that to happen so mayor would you like to respond to my thoughts um well yes I would um so I would like to say that I um take offense at your remarks Glenn I um I heard other people say things like they were they were very sad or they were very worried um but I feel like yours were more offensive by far um irresponsible and so little thought were things that I wrote down and um I would just you don't have to agree with me but that's not going to help going forward um there was I'm a very responsible person I'm responsible for an entire city and um [Music] and we're a committee we're teammates and how we talk to each other other actually matters now we don't have to agree with each other thank God we still live in America so we can all speak what I tried to say while making two um while while making a significant cut to an Ask was to say what I thought that we could do because I think it offers some hope for the future it in my opinion it would be very irresponsible to not speak about what I see might need to be done to save us because I'm looking at the future of the city and the future of the city's budget and I could just see what making one of these changes might be something that we couldn't go back from um and I offered thoughts on where we could save because when you're doing something you try to offer hope and a way that you could look at this in the best light of what we could do to give all of to give all or as much as we could in services to every single special student that we have here and so it was actually thoughtful and not irresponsible how can you save I mean this is this is if you're having um if you don't have enough money for something you can look at two things um how you save money or how you make it and that's what I've done since I've been in there how could I make more money for our budget I put somebody in assessing so we could make some new growth so that there would be more so that when people were asking for new positions it could happen and then I made suggestions in this which in light of um which in light of current events appeared very thoughtful um they were some of them were Energy savings but most of them were based on the fact that we had two things that we did not plan on um spiraling costs that happened very very fast that I did not know about until February and declining enrollment and what could we do to save and it and to work together for a solution is not going to involve name calling it's going to be what could we do that was the best thing and so I'm just going to leave it at that um and I like look forward to working with the rest of the Committee Member Childs so how do we go about scheduling a special committee meeting to talk about this because I think we've reached as much productive discussion on the topic as we're going to tonight without talking in circles how's Monday at 6:30 pm Che calendar I think it's St Patrick's Day it is but we can have green beer meeting right I didn't say root beer I'm available I'm available on March 17th i' don't I'd also Glen could I just say one thing um there hasn't been any name calling saying that you feel a certain way about something is not calling somebody a name saying that you have a feeling about what's happening is not calling someone a name so I really appreciate your comments Glenn and I think that what you said was really important and insightful and thoughtful and in the future I really hope that these sort of things can be handled at a special meeting ahead of time where we could have these materials to digest so that we can be ready to have these kinds of conversations so we work on the date but um basically I I I'm not hearing any objection from anyone on the committee that we need a special meeting so I think that will happen Okay 7 PM oh member Martini member Martini do you have your hand up okay sorry about that can you hear me I can now yeah okay okay uh so I agree with member genive I did not hear any name calling uh so let's not go there I uh did hear dismay and concern about the probable impact of a a massive cut like this um I wanted to say um in response to the mayor I again I appreciate the pressures that you're under you must be extremely worried um I also want to say the school committee is used to being having the school department budget be underfunded that literally happens every year and uh the the school department absorbs cuts to the our proposed budget every year but that's not what this is this this is less than 0% is what you're suggesting this is not even level funding which would be Draconian in the Extreme as it is so um I I think that um people are right to be extraordinarily concerned about this proposal and um I am dissatisfied with hearing that you don't know specific numbers and other essential details for your proposal I really do understand that you work hard Around the Clock probably the mayor and the superintendent are the busiest people I know um and uh the same I expect the mayor's office to be prepared with um information like this so that people are not um blindsided and scrambling to try to figure out a murky statement like this so I'm available um for the suggested date and time for a special meeting I would just like to request a copy of the mayor's statement from this evening and I would also like to request that the mayor provide uh in advance as much specific information uh to back it up as possible so that members have time to digest it thank you okay um it is uh past 8:30 I promised a five minute break um so we will take a five minute break and why don't I'll give you s minutes so uh when that clock turns to 9:55 we'll resume [Music] a [Music] n [Music] n [Music] what all right we are back from our break um there is a h suggestion given the hour to ask the assistant superintendent and the superintendent if you would like to maybe just make a few brief comments and we can read your reports um or up to you whether you would like to do your full report or just make a few highlights I'm happy to cover the highlights great Al I think they're all highlights that's why I put them in there okay fair enough um oh but I appreciate the offer so last week was read Across America week we had a number of events in the schools um we had Bingo for books at the elementary schools we had a local author visit um and we had some celebrity readers to read to some of our students um over the course of the week so another great opportunity to promote our district priority uh around literacy we have um some upcoming events that our Title One program is either sponsoring or collaborating we have the first cardboard challenge it's this Saturday at Federal Street from 11 to 1 and that is open to all GPS students but it will be hosted at Federal Street and tomorrow night is a SK night at GMS yes um so in terms we talked a little bit last month about the district report card I did include that again this month um it is publicly available it is full disclosure data that we've had available to us for some time but um you know we recognize that we may lag behind the state in certain areas um you know we have two schools in turnaround and but in certain places like Mass core completion um yes we're 19 points below the state but that's also 14 14% increase from the prior year um you know it's kind of bounced up and down the past few years so that data is helpful for us to look at um but just really a few of the data points that we do look at in our decision making some Grant updates we have pursued a Civic teaching and learning Grant recently a career corrected career connected learning program grant that um we believe would supplement uh The Innovation career pathway that we're pursuing with additional um equipment uh we submitted the investigating history Grant in mid-February and just want to mention that we were thrilled to have our first acceleration Academy over the February break um we hosted it at Discovery School there were 19 students from grades 1 through four across the district who attended um I think all but one or two students had perfect attendance and the feedback was really positive from all the students and staff who attended huge thank you to Rachel solder Tammy Campbell Amy podelski and Britney Tuttle for leading the way and taking the chance and being part of the first GPS acceleration Academy team and we already have positions posted for our April celeration Academy um we've talked a little bit about programming our core and past diagnostic assessments um in terms of we're providing professional learning for our staff and how um those could be additional tools in the tool kit that they have um we have professional learning coming up on March 21st for ghs and this past week um the superintendent along with with myself and other members of the district leadership team attended an instructional prioritization Institute um with um desie where we began um planning our district priority build I would say not planning our district priority for next year but building off the work we've done this year to continue that work in the 25 26 school year and you have some photos there below thank you thank you super um I do want to highlight that AAL and kindergarten registration is uh ongoing and upcoming we have an AAL open house on Thursday March 20th from 5: to 6:30 you can contact the Academy of early learning to schedule a slot if you are interested in your three or four or potentially soon to be 5-year-old going if your 5-year-old turns five before September 1st though we really strongly encourage folks to register their kindergarten central office is open daily from 88: to 4:30 for kindergarten registration and then each elementary school is going to host an evening in April each Thursday of the month will be a different Elementary School for families to visit and register their kindergartener and if you have any questions you can contact my office I do want to just uh talk quickly about enrollment and uh some of the comments made tonight and I want to remind folks that uh a lack of enrollment doesn't happen just in a grade level and I think that's one of the misconceptions that a decrease in students allows either for the collapsing of a certain grade section or the uh ability to kind of put everyone where everyone thinks they should be um so we've only had a decrease in one student since February and that student um was sent out of District because our programming could not uh sustain the child's needs and we had to service that child but enrollment is very uh intricate and uh we look at class sizes and trying to keep class sizes at an optimal size and that is something that takes a lot of thoughtful planning um and with all due respect this is the first time I've been hearing about the potential collapse of Greenfield Middle School and the amount of time and effort for the last three years that we've put into the redistricting already that is not something I can foresee Happening by September and um while I'm absolutely going to be part of the solutions so that we can do what we can that's best for kids that is going to take a lot uh more thought when we did the original redistricting we were very clear that the elementary schools could only house K through five they do not have the space for additional sections so that is something just to keep in mind before our Monday meeting and we will be working on that internally um um with regards to the thoughts that were brought up tonight but that is definitely a space issue I also want to just comment that the required Cuts right now are almost a 1.9 million to our budget and regardless of how many administrators folks think we should cut and could be cut we will never meet 1.9 without cutting staff and potentially cutting more programs that our students deserve so um there's a lot of work to be done and it's not that I'm not willing to do it but I want to be really clear about some realities that were revealed this evening lastly I just want to add that we had a desie site visit on Friday the associate commissioner Charming Curry came um looked at all of our high school classes and it is a school inter turnaround and focused on our district instructional priorities and after the site visit debriefed with the principal the assistant superintendent and myself and in conversations um asked us why our coaches couldn't tackle some of this work or why our department heads couldn't tackle some of this work and we uh jokingly just gave her a chuckle and said we do not have those positions and then she went on to consider you know other avenues that we could use to do this work and in the end the people that do the work that we are required to do Under the state are our administrative team and we have a lot of work that is um being being done behind the scenes with many different Desi departments and that is not happening without lead administrators in buildings so um we were thankful for her feedback and her site visit on Friday um but one of the real takeaways is our instructional priorities are the route that we have to continue working on and that's going to continue to be costly for this District to get our students to schools that are not in turnaround and the rest you can um I presume read about oh the other highlight I should say though we have started the search for Newton Elementary principal interviews begin next week and we are very excited about that as well thank you thank you questions for the superintendent and assistant superintendent hearing none thank you very much we'll move on to the consent agenda is there any member who'd like to remove any item from the consent agenda I'd like to hear a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved motion by member Childs second second by member Goodwin any discussion secretary Den will you call the vote hold on a second second was a good one okay member Goodwin yes member Childs yes yes secretary Deni yes chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair seon yes mayor dorer yes member Martini I'm not hearing you member Martini okay Mark her down as a abstain I guess so that passes with one abstention thank you move on to uh school committee reports um just briefly the executive subcommittee met and started looking at mentoring of the um Vice chair and prepare preparing um the vice chair uh for potentially being voted on chair as chair next year and also looked at how to kind of systematize and document some of the um some of the tasks that the chair performs uh member Den the legislative representative mask I I don't feel like I should have to read this whole thing because it's so late but I will if you want me to but you can read it in your packet um so I'll do the highlights um on February 27th um member Martini Vice chair seon and I engage in a zoom meeting with our division five chair Huma fudin and the masc president Jason Frasier and a number of other school committee members from districts in our division we were given a list of current bills to advocate for and member martini and I read them and split the homework we're bringing forward these bills to the full committee tonight for your approval as points of advocacy as we converse with our legislators for our day on the Hill activities which is May 6th this year there are four bills on the page um I can read them or we can just take a moment to look at them my goal is to make a motion that we look at these bills and approve the advocacy point so that when we go to the day on the hill we can say with authority that the Greenfield school committee approves this advocacy would you like me to read them or could we just take a second to look I think we can just take a second to look great and I'd like to hear a motion to approve the points of advocacy uh as presented for um conversation with legislators and for legislators and for our day on the Hill activities so moved is there a second I'll second it discussion did you get that Susan Farber thank you all right with no discussion uh secretary Den will you call the vote sure member Goodman yes member Childs yes secretary Dena yes chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair ston yes member martini and mayor dorer yes okay all approved with uh mayor um member Martini abstaining thank you very much for your attendance at that meeting and your work on this and getting us better prepared than ever for our day on the hill we'll move on to Old business and the business manager position um superintendent um we had a um handful of candidates who applied for the position um we are still in discussions with one candidate and should have updates um within two weeks or so um given that um we we'll need to start we need to basically a contingence plan contingency plan in the event that the final candidate uh doesn't work out for one reason or another um so I've prepared a motion for us uh to consider um and I'll just make the motion myself I move that the school committee authorize the superintendent to initiate the procurement process for a consultant to support the B business manager role in case the current business manager search is unsuccessful this authorization allows the superintendent to take necessary steps to secure consulting services in accordance with applicable procurement laws and regulations is there a second I'll second great um I can speak a little bit more to this essentially um we don't know for sure if the final candidate will end up signing with us if they don't um it's probably too late uh at our next regular meeting um for the um for us to vote to authorize the superintendent to begin the procurement process for business manager Services by by contract um so essentially if we do not and if the search is unex unsuccessful then we could be in a position of not having a business manager July one um at all which would be not a good situation any discussion or questions member deneve what is it what is the process to do a second round of searching with that we would be locked into whatever Services we found and then after the contract we go again um what you're saying I guess yeah I'm saying if if I mean I I suppose the other option is you could initiate another search for a business manager and try to hire but there's a great possibility that that would be unsuccessful and in the meantime you haven't started the procurement process to try to get a contractor in place for July 1 so that contract um you know probably the minimum we would want to do would be two years um for the for to go through the whole procurement process and find someone and the time that it takes and all that stuff you don't really have someone even on board for very long um if you do less than two years um so yeah I hear you I'm just thinking because so many districts so many uh chairs of different uh School committees told me that they found people on their second go around MH so I was just wondering what that looks like yeah I mean I I guess could we continue searching up until the point of contract ending and having to renew or find somebody new I mean can we overlap procurement and searching superintendent that's a great question we'd have to we'd have to look into that I don't know the answer to that if you can do both member Childs so what is the time frame for procurement to end our legal obligations um well basically in order to get you know so the school department would have to uh either go through the city or contract with some other group to do the procure because our current business manager would have a conflict of interest so um that involves basically developing a detailed scope of services putting it out there's certain timelines for notification that have to happen like it has to be listed on certain places and and then you wait to get the responses then it has to go through a scoring process and so on so that's why essentially the superintendent is saying can't wait wait until the March meeting to initiate that procurement process if we want to have a if a contractor in place for July 1 that process would really need to start within you know in two weeks or so given all the things that need to happen in between um yeah uh yes member Charles and then I'll go to the mayor so what Happ happens if we don't have someone in place July 1 how big of a problem how big of a crisis is it superintendent can you lay out what it would look like to be try to run the school department without a business manager um I don't know the answer to that I've never run a school department without a business manager but that is our rollover of everything so from payroll to um you know everything in between so I can't imagine trying to run the district without a business manager July 1 I don't know yeah I mean end of the year reporting you know there's just so many things so um we certainly don't want to be without one mayor so um are we Gathering to together on Monday could could we push this vote off on Monday so we all had a little B time to think about it um yes I think we can May May uh member Den could we find Karen could we find the answer to that question about a procurement overlapping thing for Monday oh thank you mayor um and could we would we have a defined Budget on this or could we ask for defined Budget on this defined budget you mean like budget number that we would be putting towards a contract um yeah I think we can have an estimate for you of you know we have an estimate of what the the the um staff person would cost and what the uh um contract contracted person might cost thank you that am I on base with that superintendent that we should be able to have some rough ballpark for people on those questions I presume so but I'm uh just thinking that you put a range when you do a bid and then they come in with their bid for their services so I'm not sure if I will have an actual cost but I'm sure there will be a range yeah it's a bit of a chicken in the egg thing because part of the procurement process would be establishing what that range is um by whoever did the kind of like official procurement um which involves a little research but um kind of we certainly have a picture of what we are putting in the budget for the staff person and what we're currently um paying for uh contracted business manager services so okay member Childs so do we need a motion to table this until Monday sure if so then I move that we take a uh the business manager procurement issue until Monday second um all right uh and I think it's the tbling the motion so the motion still stands but okay you accept that as a friendly Amendment okay uh any discussion non debatable oh okay thank you mayor um so secretary J will you call the vote please yes member Goodwin yes member Childs yes I'm a yes chair Johnson mad no Vice chair seon yes member Martini are you here okay so it pass oh I'm so sorry mayor dorer yes okay so it passes with one no and one exstension okay um on to where are we now ah um so we're on to policies bde and policy BDF um this was something we I had brought to you a draft before and I believe I've Incorporated uh the committee's feedback um the committee's feedback was essential actually uh please don't make this process go through the policy subcommittee um some members said just present us with something um as chair other members said um it should the subcommittee itself should get to provide feedback on its charge I think that what I've put forward allows essentially for both um it has the uh chair uh putting forward the itions for both the um subcommittees and advisory committees for uh approval by the full school committee the school committee could certainly um at that point if they didn't like the descriptions um charge an ad hoc committee um with um returning with different language um or make any changes they wish to at the meeting itself so um and certainly once a subcommittee is up been running they certainly have the opportunity to put forward request for an increased or changed scope of um of work um so I'd like to on the other the other change that I made was on uh policy bde subcommittees of the school committee it talks about having the subcommittee descriptions or subcommittees put forward at the organizational meeting however since it's the chair that needs to assign put forward uh I'll be back okay mayor can you hear us yes okay um I'm assuming the video is up and running and whoever is having a hard time hearing us must be the technical problem must be on there end because some are able to hear us so um so the other change that I made to um bde was that the original one talked about having these subcommittee assignments being presented at the organizational meeting but since the chair presents the subcommittee assignments and the chair is only appointed at the organizational meeting it seemed to make sense that the chair should put them forward at the first meeting of the calendar year regular meeting which has kind of been our past pack practice so that's the other change so I'd like to hear a motion to approve these uh policies as presented so move and is there a second second so I heard a motion from let's say from the mayor because and then a second from Member good one uh any discussion Susan Farber oh sure um the motion to approve policy bde subcommittees of the school committee and policy BDF advisory committees to the school committee has presented all right um and any objection to the people who made the Motions for that friendly Amendment from our attentive recording secretary okay any discussion secretary Den we call the vote member Goodman yes member Childs yes I'm me yes chair John smithad yes Vice chair sexon yes mayor dorer yes member Martini still absent y all right the motion carries thank you very much um let's see we've already talked about day on the hill um and had the mayor 's presentation so um I would like to hear a motion to enter into executive session pursuant to Massachusetts General Law chapter 3A subsection 21 A3 to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the bargaining or litigating position of the public body and seven to comply with or act under the authority of any general or special law or Federal Grant and Aid requirements the committee will not return to open session so moved is there a second second a motion from Member den and a second from Member Goodwin any discussion secretary Den we call the vote member Goodwin yes member Charles yes I'm a yes chair Johnson mad yes Vice chair seon allor right I mean yes uh mayor dorer yes and member Martini still absent okay approved okay um members should watch their email for an invitation to the executive session it's a Google meet and now we need to do a vote to adjourn the um regular session is there a motion to adjourn the regular meeting so move and a second second motion for member Goodwin a second for member child's when you're ready secretary Jive again member Goodwins yes member child yes I'm a yes chair yes Vice chair yes mayor yes Kate Martini okay we're approved all right we're going to get an email yeah

trustees Rara Union School District is now called to order items to be discussed in close session uh excuse me all five board members are present items to be discussed in close session a conference with real property negotiators government code section 549 56.8 property 34 3435 Birchwood Lane San Jose California APN d025 agency negotiators superintendent roxan Fuentes Ed and Kevin Franklin assistant superintendent of Business Services negotiating parties beresa Union School District and Milpas Christian School under negotiation price terms of payment and terms of lease of property B conference with real property negotiators government code section 54956.9 property 1376 pedmont Road San Jose California APN 5 95-106 n agency negotiators superintendent roxan Fuentes Ed and Kevin Franklin assistant superintendent of Business Services negotiating parties beresa Union School District and Aspen Aspen bille company under negotiation price terms of payment and terms of lease of property C student discipline or other confidential student matters Education Code sections 48918 489 48912 B and 49 0686 and 20 USC section 123g D conference with labor negotiators government code section 54957.6 agency designated negotiator roxan Fuentes Ed and other members of the negotiating team employee organizations California School employee Association California Teachers Association a area Teamsters Local 150 management e Public Employee discipline dismissal release complaint government code section 54957 are there any public comments on close session items from the audience or none in that case we will adjourn to close session at 603 p.m.

thank you very much and have a good evening

so we're very fortunate the formula was run Equalization Aid formula was run and boundbrook um is becoming more adequate in terms of the funding definition of that word every year also like to thank uh miss Robin Griffin a chief academic officer she was involved in nearly every education decision of what type or what what uh what widget should go into the budget and she's an expert on curriculum and staff training and I would be RIS if I didn't thank a very talented Miss Christine Lee who is not only the assistant business administrator but also has the most important task of being our grant manager and she does a very fine job with both this year Christine entered every single number into the state's budget software and and I think she has a Mastery understanding of the budget from start to finish so thank you very much Christine members of the Board of Education as Dr Freeman said we have an All-Star Board of Ed and and I don't mean to just say that Mr januzi Mr Bal uh from a leadership standpoint of the board Mr zupco um chair of the operations committee which sees all of the financial activities of the school district Miss Lisa gazino Miss Joanna musen Mr Danny Minos Mr Sydney Dawson Miss Teresa suai Mr Donald vulmer and our most recent Edition our southbound Brook representative Mr Nicholas incal Cera and we're very happy to also welcome our student board representative Mr Harrison musen operations committee as I mentioned is chaired by Mr zupco and served by These Fine members of the Board of Education the board's mission statement is important balber board Public Schools is a supportive Multicultural community that provides an Innovative and academically challenging educational program while offering a variety of extracurricular and social opportunities that en encourage lifelong learning and citizenship the vision you could read it um this is how we accomplish the mission and the the School District budget has two important goal areas in mind the board goals and these are those that the Board of Education works hard with New Jersey school boards Association to develop and the district goals which are those belonging to administration every consideration in this budget was around the board and District goals otherwise we would just be wandering through the process the executive summary to prepare a comprehensive budget what does that mean it serves all areas of the district especially those in most needs special education ESL bilingual meet the need of projected additional students we're going to get to a slide in a little bit that's going to show you all of the increased enrollment over the last several years B Brook is unusual and that we are still growing at a very solid and consistent pace and that was recognized by the state of New Jersey this year with an enrollment adjustment to our cap if we needed it expansion of curriculum programs and Staffing to broadly improve student performance budget for capital outlay projects seems like every school building in this District needs some upgrade some improvement and we've been responsibly doing that every year and budget is no different we have a lot of inflation as everybody's familiar with hitting the budget particularly in transportation maintenance contracted janitorial services and we've had some horrific projected increases in our commodity prices for next year up to 25% that's very hard to meet when you have a 2% cap and what is the timeline for the budget how does all this come together first we establish a budget philosophy what do we want to accomplish this year do we want to reduce taxes do we want to increase our facility um wherewithal do we want a um a budget for increased um resources for Staffing do we want to develop our staff further all of this is met and then tonight is the adoption of the tenative budget and we will have one more step after tonight hopefully and that's the public hearing and the final adoption next month where does the money come from 61% of the budget revenues come from state aid and that's a very good and also a very concerning statistic because when the well is Flowing it's wonderful as it's been for the last three years but it it is it's showing signs of starting to dry up we went from $6 million of additional state aid to 5 million to 1.8 million this year and we're fortunate to have received that because there are a lot of districts who lost money this year more lost than than gained tuition and miscellaneous Revenue we've had very amicable um discussions with southbound Brook Administration and the board to um come to a resolution on tuition because we had a large adjustment come due from two years ago and it was a lot to fit in a 2% budget cap as we recognized uh we also from a board and administrative standpoint did not want to impose too harsh of a bill on southbound Brook which could impair their ability to meet their goals and and um um Elementary and um Middle School needs local taxes to this community taxes are High um comparatively but there are only 24% of all revenues and we've worked diligently to try to suppress that and we'll talk more about that in a minute and one area that Dr Freeman and I do control is the fund balance every year we ask the board and the public to adopt the budget and we do our best not to spend it to its Fidelity we engage in all kind of saving activities from purchasing consortiums to making money on any additional uh areas such as U certificates of deposit we're now earning over $400,000 a year on our our CD portfolio which um helps and transfers into the general fund to meet our appropriation needs federal aid you've heard a lot about uh threats coming from the federal side fortunately that's only 4.65% of our PI and miscellaneous and transfers some mother fund are a fraction of a percent but the majority of the funds come from state aid and that's something to just keep an eye on and and read and understand what's coming there's a handout for the comparative Revenue schedule most noteworthy there is the increases in state aid the slight increases of about $280,000 for the tax levy increase um tuition revenue is increasing miscellaneous income is increasing grant money from the state is not increasing um we just digested all of the covid grants and U we were told by the county department of education to budget 15 % less for all federal and state grants here is a calculation if anybody is interested in how the general fund tax levy is calculated basically it takes last year's general fund Levy adjusts it for enrollment and we had a significant enrollment adjustment based on our Assa student count as of October 15th of the last few years the state does a trend line based on that and they afford US an adjustment for enrollment $1.5 million we could have taken that and gone above the 2% cap by that amount of money we also received an adjustment for Health Care our health care costs have increased 7 and a half% on average for the last three years and that made us um eligible for an adjustment to cap for health care so you could see between the two adjustments to cap that's $2 million we could have went above the tax levy cap but we chose to defer that resource to Future years if needed because we met all of our obligations within the general fund 2% standard growth and all of the other Revenue areas that we're able to achieve in the budget so we did not impose any more upon the taxpayers but that money is not lost if there is a future need if state aid dries up in the future this district will have the ability to raise the general fund Levy by as much as $2.4 million over a three-year phaseout period no prior years Bank cap has been appropriated the healthc care adjustment to cap and the enrollment adjustment to cap also have not been appropriated and are carrying over as banked cap key facts on state aid Equalization Aid is our biggest form of state aid BL you Equalization Aid is designed to help a district support their adequacy budget and then there is a local fair share calculation where the state looks at a District's incomes from your New Jersey 1040s as well as your property wealth and they determine if you need State assistance in meeting your adequacy budget boundbrook has always needed such and we qualify and we get $ 33.4 million our largest state aid award for that category and then the next one is categorical Aid and that's as the definition implies based on the different categories of aid for extra items such as special education security transportation and a lot of these are reward type AIDS the more efficient a district is in running a transportation department the more Transportation Aid you will receive um based on an eligibility of State revenues of course our state aid grew almost $1.8 million that's a 4.7% increase above last year one area of state aid that we were very disappointed and surprised with is the preschool education Aid which we have received notification thanks to Dr Freeman's contacts at the uh New Jersey Department of Education that the state is looking at the preschool Aid formula because a lot of districts got severe cuts of of double digit decreases to the preschool program and without similar Aid funding from last year cuts to those programs would have to happen and as most educators will share that is one of the most important areas to meet the needs of students right off the bat or you'll lose them for years where does the money go as Dr Freeman said when you take the instructional classifications and you allocate benefits directly for the teachers and and uh and staff two-thirds of our budget goes directly in the classroom that's extraordinarily High this District's Debt Service is is extraordinarily low at 2.6% and we satisfied the SMY commissioner approved lease purchase in the 2425 budget so we no longer have $700,000 a year approximately of debt service for that amortization schedule administrations under 8% capital projects are 4% 5% and they're growing we're spending more on Transportation because our contracted special education transportation services have had extraordinary inflation and Athletics and um curriculum development and all those are represented there there's a schedule comparatively showing every line item of Appropriations for all funds from last year to the 2526 budget and budget spending is directly driven by enrollment and this is your enrollment in Bal Brook board of education for the last uh five years and you could see there's significant steady increase in enrollment however our facilities are at capacity for the most part so in this budget we will show you in a minute that we are tactically meeting our needs for student enrollment with a modular classroom addition of four to five classrooms at Lamont that will help the preschool program and could be used for anything that the district chooses to reallocate that b uh the building for in the future Miss [Music] Griffin as you've reviewed all of these Appropriations before they were decided upon it would be most appropriate for you to talk about these okay thanks okay so I'm going to go over um what we added in for curriculum and instruction and programming uh this is just kind of an overview and then I'll break it down a little bit in more depth on the next slide so we're going to be enhancing our curriculum and programs for the 25 26 school year getting new and updating materials for history and math courses in Middle School level um aligning our Curriculum maps to the standards the new standards updating um Ela ESL World languages and High School cour courses such as science math social studies Ela hiring new bilingual teachers hiring new special education teachers um enhancing our summer and before and after school enrichment opportunities and then that's the bottom one if you can see it um expanding special programs for families um and Community connections okay so if it's so broken down we have uh seven additional staff members that we would like to have in this budget we have a bilingual math teacher for our middle school so this is to support our programming that we put into place in the elementary school with a dual language program where the students are getting instruction in English and Spanish we would like to continue the programming for these students in the Middle School school and have a bilingual math teacher to continue with the math support then at the high school we have three a need for three teachers in one in the math department one in the science department and one in the social studies department and these are to um provide more opportunities for expansion of courses and to um you know work on adjusting the schedule and making sure that we have enough staff to cover all of the courses that we need to teach we have two special education teachers that we're adding in we need a section in the Middle School to address uh a population of students that is coming up from small into the middle school and making sure that they have a class and program that's appropriate and then we have um a special education teacher at the high school and um that is also to support our students and our programs um and then we also have an assistant superintendent position in in this as well which replaces a retired superint assistant superintendent position um our textbooks programs and resources we have uh expansion of our text novels Mentor text classroom libraries in K to 12 uh providing resources for our students for um you know to expand on what what we already have we have um a variety of texts and we just would like to uh get some more and get some more um books in students hands then in grades one and two we have a need for document cameras so the teachers can use that to uh display examples for students and we have it at the um we have it at grades two and three or we have it at one of the schools it's positive so the other Elementary School would like to have that we have science kits and materials for our sixth grade students right now um they need a revamping of our programs that we have at the middle school to support our science so more Hands-On materials so they can do experiments and things like that Middle School social studies getting new materials for that and middle school math uh the Middle School teachers have been asking for extra support in what resources they have because they're they're different than the elementary and the high school so we want to make sure that we give them a voice and they have their own lens on curriculum um Middle High School social studies DBQ Project so this is a writing project that is infused into the history classes and this uh focuses on critical thinking it focuses on um using um using research to write and then uh we're language textbook so it's been a while since we've updated our World Language programs for French and Spanish so we are getting some new textbooks some new resources and refreshing our textbooks in that area isn't that's it right okay so now when you add in all those new textbooks and those new programs we have to write our curriculum to match so we have a lot of curriculum writing so a lot of people are going to be really busy this summer writing curriculum and making sure they're ready for everyone so in the elementary school working on our uh writing programs our ESL our math and science and our Spanish in the middle school we have different levels of ESL we also are U working on our integrated language arts which is also for our ESL students Spanish one and two our Ela 7 and8 and our social studies s and eight and then at the high school we have um we're working on our AP Chemistry special education math courses our math 912 ESL integrated language arts Our World Language programs are need a lot of um curriculum revisions and rewriting so we've got all our levels of Spanish including some of our new courses that we have like our Spanish Heritage language courses and then our French courses um two new English courses our folklore course and our film course um all four of our English courses and then US History one two and world history I think is that the end of it yeah okay so lots of work especially at the high school and then this is kind of just a review of what the first slide said and everything else um one of the um one of the big things is our student learning standards so we've had updates in student learning standards um specifically over the past couple of years from two uh 2020 till now with um Math and Science being our most recent one so we just want to make sure that our curriculum addresses the most current um standards that are out there and then we want to make sure that our curriculum writing and our maps are supporting um our teachers our teachers are part of writing The Curriculum maps in the program we want to make sure that they're updated and that they make sense for what we're teaching um our multi-tiered systems of supports so that would be our academic Support also our gifted our um ESL programs our special education um our in school before and after school and summer programs obviously the textbooks the technology um as you know we got our new computer so we still have to keep on making sure we update the technology with promethium boards things like that um continue increasing our gifted and talented opportunities to make sure that we are providing these opportunities for all of our students um continuing our multilingual learner supports and then some of our assessments and our assessment tools that we use to um make sure that you know what we're teaching is actually um what what we're addressing is actually the students are actually learning so we have our data warehouse link it which houses all of our testing results and then we use some of these different types of test testings then professional development so whenever you change things you add new things you want um your staff to know the newest um strategies and best practices you have to provide professional development it's important development it's important for teachers to continue to learn so we need to invest a lot of money in that and then we also have professional memberships not only for our Administration but for some of our teachers who are specifically members of organizations throughout the state and then now it's back to Mike okay this slide shows that we are spending a little over $2 million to address Capital needs in the district and that doesn't tell the whole story because the preschool modular classroom is actually a $4 million expenditure and from that $4 million we are least purchasing the actual modular unit which means we're financing that over a 5-year period to better match the lifespan of the asset and with interest rates where they are that made a lot of sense the foundation part of the $4 million which is about a million dollars where we had to budget for directly because the leasing company cannot come collateralize the foundation if they had to we didn't pay the debt but um the rest of it is going to be leas purchased over five years we are going to address sealing and striping at all parking Lots catch Basin at the football field and asphalt at the high school Fieldhouse roof drainage issues at the high school all the remaining schools are getting new signs um the annex bathrooms and basement ceiling is going to be redone gym wall padding at Lafayette and bathroom Renovations uh to a small extent at Small E School we're spending about $900,000 on various equipment that you could see including coffee machine sensory wall kits that we're most proud of um musical equipment stage lighting and a lot of those Promethean interactive panels we save a lot of money in this district from shared services and this list is growing each year we're working with the municipality we're working with um County consortiums to share any cost that we can we reach out to other school districts for transportation joint ches if we're both going the same way might as well just share the route and we are very proud that we are at the Inception of working on a shared services committee with southbound Brook and we're we're scheduling the next meeting as we speak so that the two districts can collaborate on saving money next we'll talk about the tax rate what influences the tax rate number one state aid obviously if we didn't receive the amount of state aid that we received this year and we weren't blessed with that and we had to go into the tax levy that's going to affect the tax rate fund balance applied uh Dr Freeman and I through the management of the budget ending June 3024 we're able to increase excess Surplus by about $300,000 which is a revenue by Statute in the 2526 budget Township ratables are what shares the levy and the value of everybody's property through town um uh shares the the rate of uh the text Levy and finally student enrollment as we mentioned that is the biggest driving factor in why we have to budget for so much and the we are very pleased to say that the culmination of this budget which is infusing millions of dollars into the classroom is resulting in a school tax rate decrease of 3.9 cents the average assessed home of $447,000 will experience a school tax decrease of approximately $170,000 this this metric um is very dependent on the specifics of the property um not everybody is going to see a school tax decrease this is looking at the community on average as the property values grow each year everybody shares in more of the levy and everybody's rate goes down and uh Dr Freeman and I would like to sincerely thank everybody who had a hand in this budget which started in November um notably the principals the vice principls the supervisors the directors um Miss Griffin Miss Lee and U certainly the board of education for for all your patience at all the committee meetings going over all of this information and data which we've um provided before we have a 4.5 four to five classroom addition to Lamont that's coming we're most pleased with that that's going to be open January 1st of 26 which is very fast it's a it's a pre-made unit in in Georgia and aside from the construction for the foundation they just drop it down it's it's outfitted already and ready to go uh seven new staff we talked about health insurance rates are a big challenge for a lot of school districts the school health um State Health Benefit fund is going up 15% we are at 13.5 and our average over the last three years has been seven and a half um we have new curriculum new special ed new bilingual new professional development new technology $2 million of capital projects $900,000 of equipment in summary without much additional cont contribution from the local taxpayers the Bound Brook Board of Education in this 2526 budget is providing for the third year a very comprehensive budget with significant additional educational uh increases to support our teachers and Educators with additional staff professional development coaching technology specially deployed to the areas of bilingual and special education we're adding new sections we're growing and we are most confident that we we we will meet or exceed the board and District District goals with the resources that we are thankful to the community for providing in this budget thank [Applause] [Music] you e Mr Gorski are we going to address item 2.5 tonight yes sir all right uh if it pleases the board I would like to recommend a resolution to adopt the 2526 tentative budget and then we will open it up for public forum so the public can comment specifically and only on the budget and after hearing that the board can deliberate and then we will take a vote on the adoption of the budget may I proceed please thank you as recommended by the superintendent of schools be it resolved by the balbrook Board of Education that the 2526 tenative general fund budget be adopted in the amount of 58 m232 182 and a tenant of general fund local tax levy in the amount of 4,244 1882 and a tenative special Revenue Fund in the amount of 3,745 33 and a tenative Debt Service budget in the amount of 1,633 $263 and a tenative Debt Service local tax levy in the amount of 7627 73 whereby the tenative 2526 budget total 62 m731 th074 and whereas the balber board of education has been notified of state aid amounts and whereas such state aid amounts are for the 2526 Equalization Aid is 33,43 a,2 23 and the 2526 school choice Aid is $3,835 and the 2526 categorical special education Aid is 2,5 11,744 and the 2526 categorical security Aid is 83,1 194 and the 2526 categorical Transportation Aid is 137,953 preschool education Aid is 1,768 1877 and the 2526 Debt Service Aid is $87,400 and whereas the Bound Brook board of education has estimated a state aid amount pursuant to application and for the 2526 the estimated extraordinary Aid amount is $200,000 and whereas policy 6471 and NJ Administrative Code 6A 23A 7.3 provides that the Board of Education shall establish in the annual school budget a maximum expenditure amount that may be allotted for travel and expense reimbursement for the 25 26 school year now therefore be it resolved that the Bound Brook Board of Education hereby establishes the school district annual Travel maximum for the 2526 school year at a total of $57,500 and be a further resolve that the school business administrator shall track and record these costs to ensure that the maximum amount is not exceeded and whereas due to consistent student enrollment enrollment growth instructional Staffing and program needs facility needs and other priorities set forth by the superintendent of schools the board of education is budgeting to maximum spending Authority which does not include an automatic enrollment adjustment to cap of 1 million 55241 and it also does not include a health care cost adjustment of $555 both of which will instead be added to the district's Bank cap the district is not applying any previous year's Bank cap now therefore let it be resolved that the superintendent of schools and the business administrator board secretary file all required documents with the executive County of superintendent of schools may we have a motion and a second please motion Mr zupco and who is the second Mr calcatera thank you Mr Januzzi motions on the floor you may now open it up to public forum please any questions or comments at this time sounds like you did a very good and thorough job Mike there are no questions shall we move to what's the next item then board discussion sure board discussion I think if the board were going to discuss anything we probably would have heard that by now too so you're you're in the clear Mike what's next uh the vote sir sure why don't we do a roll call please thank you Mr Bal yes Miss gazino yes Mr incal Cera Mr zupco yes Miss musen Mr minhas miss high yes Mr vulmer Mr board president yes Mr board president motion passes and on behalf of Dr Freeman and the administrative team thank you for your support of the 2526 school budget thank you round of applause for Mike and the team really [Applause] job all right at this time we are up to our student board member report Harrison your hot takes for this month please so starting off with our sports news with the end of the winter sports season lots of spring Sports hosted their first practice on Monday March 10th including girls softball Spring Track Boys Tennis volleyball and baseball two wrestlers on the high school team Junior Kobe Morgan and freshman Briana sandal will compete at the njsiaa state championships at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City Briana sandal secured her ticket for winning the njsiaa girls North second region she went four to zero with three pins and one techall Kobe Morgan secured his ticket by placing third at the region for tournament going four to one on the weekend middle schooler Brian Hernandez on the middle school wrestling team qualified for kids states which took place on March 2nd moving on to our cheer team they ended their season placing second in the co-ed intermediate cheer Dan competition the winter track team will have three individuals going to Adidas indoor Nationals in Virginia Beach including Dylan John Baptist in the long jump Dolson John Baptist in the triple jump and ogur Malik in pval they will also have one individual doson John Baptist who is also going to New Balance Nationals in Boston for triple jump he set the new School record for triple jump in the high in the high school at 45 feet and 7 Ines congratulations to all the winter uh athletes across all sports for their amazing accomplishments and contributions to the high school moving on to school news on March 4th 20 sorry on March 4th The Freshman avoc Class planned and hosted a tour of the high school for RMS middle school students the RMS students came from the high uh came to the high school at 9 o' and did many activities with the high schoolers including tours of the school ice breakers scavenger hunts sample assignments and shadowing students in their classes there were a total of 44 of the middle school students who came to visit all giving very positive feedback on on the Avid class and bomberg high school the junior class is currently in the middle of NJ GPA testing which started on Monday March 10th and will end tomorrow March 13th the senior class continues to be accepted into colleges with many people committing to the univers to universities such as Ryder Monmouth University and more National Honor Society presented an anti-racism and anti-bullying presentation to the fifth graders in SMY Elementary School with lots of fun activities teaching them why bullying is wrong on March 3rd for read Across America the national English Honor Society went on uh went to lont and the annex to read to the younger students there on March 6 the high school hosted its second blood drive of the year with over 100 people registered to donate blood on March 7th the national computer Honor Society took a trip to SMY to have a presentation on coding and they did an activity on the platform scratch with the students finally on March 8th and 99th the boundbrook robotics team competed at Mount Olive in the first Mid-Atlantic District competition going against 34 other teams they placed 14th individually and seventh in teams they also won the Don Donald Bowers inspiration award this award recognizes a person that instills values of first and stem teaching and inspiring their community and that's all great report any questions for Mr musen nicely done all right we are up to our committee reports uh Mr Dawson isn't here but Mr Bal it looks like you're ready to go oh sure would you like to do the education committee report I wasn't sure if it was going to be me so I love you being prepared I brought up his notes so uh Mr Dawson this morning sent me notes so I'm just going to read them um I was obviously at the committee meeting so if you have questions I can answer them for you um the education committee met on Monday our Focus was to review the midyear achievement data with several of our district supervisors the data overall indicates strong growth as well as some opportunities for further growth in prek and K students are working on pheic awareness letter and number identification and problem solving which by the way I can add in is a shift in our uh in our curriculum uh in fact our prek curriculum has changed completely in the last year so we're looking for big big gains there a focus on Phonics and different differentiated reading is generating gains at the primary level we are seeing benefits from our academic support staff pushing into rooms to assist with small group instruction students in grades 2 through six are working to solidify their skills and it appears that work to departmentalize subject teaching has also been beneficial a common indicator in the low grades the lower grades excuse me was was a need to increase understanding of measurement and data analysis in math so staff are working to embed these skills more frequently and I can say as a math teacher that is common throughout districts everywhere measurement and data analysis is always challenging at the middle and high school level staff have implemented common assessments within their departments in some areas like eighth grade language arts we are seeing strong growth we are working with students to build their stamina to read longer passages in Math building fact fluency is a priority data meetings between administrators and teachers have been productive and planning next steps and then just parenthetically as a board uh we always ask at the end of our education meeting what we can do to help them and uh we can support them we were told by working to fund curricular revisions and additional books uh in our upcoming budget which you saw in tonight's Bud budget presentation so it looks like we are aiming to meet those same needs that we were asked for and that's what I have here any questions for Education all right then very good rolling right into governance come on it's a different tab hold on what are we doing govern okay so at governance we spent the majority of our time talking about the rotating drop schedule and the sidebar agreement that we are working on with the Union at this time um they went over all the details I'm sure we've all heard them before but just in case here are some of the highlights the uh work day for teachers would actually end up being five minutes less uh there would be time at the beginning of the day at and at the end of the day which we would be calling unassigned time about 15 minutes each at the beginning and end of the day so they can prepare a little bit more and and not have something where they somewhere where they have to be um teachers will teach five classes instead of which by the way I'm sure you heard in the presentation of the budget is why we will be looking to hire a few more teachers so that we can fill some of those spots um we also will be changing well if this were to go through we would change the amount that is paid when uh when teachers teach an extra class this happens once in a while when we we don't have a leave replacement this often happens and a teacher who has five classes has to take on a sixth to cover that teacher who's out and um on a maternity leave uh for instance so we right now obviously would pay one sixth of their salary because they're teaching five classes that would go to one fifth of their salary the math makes sense there and they would also if I have these numbers right we would now have 360 minutes of planning time with 60 Minutes being common planning time okay just making sure that was right that's what we did there I do have one other question but does anybody have any questions about that about the rotating drop schedule that I can throw over to Mr Ross he's he's the answer man there no okay I did have one question for you uh Mr President I was on the email I believe that you sent to miss ree about our progress and I just want to see if you got any response from her because I did not I wasn't on it if if you did it's a great question so I have not received a response yet but uh just to acknowledge the last item that we needed to complete as a board before we attained Master certification was um uh self-evaluation uh of the board so uh hopefully everybody has done that if you haven't the njsba website is not currently up to date so I can't tell you who has and who has not um but as soon as that's available we'll download those results synthesize them the same way we do the chief School administrators evaluation at the end of each year and then discuss them before we accept and move on so uh sadly that's not ready yet but hopefully by the time we meet next we will have the results and we can check that off our to-do list okay and one other thing while we're on the topic of Miss ree also I realized that we had not for this year 2025 done our ethics training I know that now we have uh a full board again with Mr in calcatera we can uh move forward with that so I'm going to reach out to miss Ree and see when she's available and then so just keep keep an eye on your emails because I'll be sending out dates hopefully we can coordinate with our regular board meeting but if we can't and we have to come in for an extra night then I'll give you hopefully a bunch of options of dates that we can do that that's the plan as of now good point and then last comment I guess on training Mr Gorski obviously everybody is due to uh complete their manual a manual required training um depending on where they are in their tenure so um just encouraging everybody to get in touch with uh Mr Gorski and his team to make sure that you get registered for that as soon as possible okay all right any other questions for Mr Bon governance what's can I do that you wish miss high up to you for human resources it's going to be very brief for uh Human Resources we every meeting we start our agenda with just the new hires looking at what positions we need to fill what have been filled it's an ongoing process which is always updated so that we know what we're looking for and you can look on personnel and see what you know has come up this month the only other thing um was the sidebar update with the strength and conditioning coach and that is also an item that is on this month's agenda that is all thank you Mrs High any questions all right we're up to operation Mr zco this should be brief which it should be because the budget was phenomenally presented um basically there was a budget update um I'm kind of gonna uh revamp not revamp but go over everything a little bit um for the notes uh Mr Gorski and Dr Freeman updated the operations committee where the currently the budget revenues balance the budgeted Appropriations with no fatal errors and the uh njd Oe budget software members were presented a print out of the two-year comparative revenues and Appropriations Dr Freeman reminded members that the district has prioritized and concentrated most new revenues mainly from increases in state aid over the past three years too much needed curriculum Staffing professional development and faculty needs the additional 1.7 million of the 2526 state aid is no exception Miss Griffin highlighted all the new program instructional enhancements to the 2526 budget along with the need for seven additional full-time staff which we saw tonight uh Mr Gorski indicated that the budget was at 2% tax levy cap but an effort to continue to suppress local taxes the district was not budgeting available adjustments to cap for enrollment and health health care costs these unused Levy uh tax levy adjustments will carry over to the next three years budgets as Bank caps of the district was to encounter a shortfall on revenues in the next three years budgets they can uh basically tap into that Mr Gorski I just want if you can comment on that a little bit um in relation to going forward for what we would be looking at certainly the um the unused tax levy cap adjustments from this year were total of $2.4 million and the district has a limited time in the future before the expire of a graduated schedule up to three years so for example if God forbid the district was to lose state aid next year of a significant number the program needs here would still be met unfortunately the burden would be shifted from the state's obligation to that of the taxpayer which we are able to avoid this year thank you Mr Gorski um district is planning a completely outfitting uh outfitted modular addition to Lamont pre- School program with bathrooms staff workrooms and more uh there are other facility upgrades in and Equipment budgeted and that was discussed tonight as well tax consequence of 2526 budget is a school tax reduction of approximately 3.9 cents which calculates to a school tax decrease to the average zest home in book was 170,000 per year members recommended the budget to the board of ed for was that 170 170 I'm sorry I I I put in a thousand just for my uh I got excited for a second 170 $7 per year members recommended the budget to the board of education for tenative adoption on a personal not Mr Gorski I've been in education for 30 years and uh I have to say and Dr Freeman and um Miss Griffin the the job that you've done is not just spectacular but in being in a number of different districts um it's it's incredible and I think that we are honored and I'm humbled to work with you guys I know the board of education is as well so from the bottom of our heart and from the bottom of the taxpayer's heart we we want to thank you and I want to give you another round of applause very much good job that's all I have for operations if there's any questions uh you can ask Mike thank you Mr zco maybe just two quick updates on some of the projects that we have in process um I think really for no better reason than we have a good idea of getting excited about them so I know in the middle school we just recently uh started or hopefully are completing at this point uh renovations to the gym that uh have been long anticipated and overdue so that's done that's great um and then the work in the high school that we've deferred because of winter sports season hopefully is going to be getting underway soon as well so um as we continue uh as we continue to see upgrades to these facilities uh which are overdue and and needed um I think it gives us reason to be proud of the community and the the events that we're hosting as well as inviting uh not only our students into each building on every day but uh people from outside the community and within the community inm so uh I hope uh the members of our uh staff and administration are as excited about that as I am and uh you board members are as well any final comments about operations [Laughter] I'm adding a demerit to your record uh Mrs High uh can you just give a brief comment about SCC please um Somerset County Ed Services Commission meets um every other month so they it would be a meeting for the executive committing and then a meeting for all of the districts involved so this past meeting was an executive meeting so there are no um minutes to report from that so next month will be the report on what the what the commission is doing perfect thank you very much I always forget the schedule and last but not least Mr in calcatera anything you'd like to report for southbound Brook well on top of the excellent report that was given by the student board member good job about the RMS students that came for their introduction which I hear went well uh we've been concentrating a lot lately on the facilities on getting maintenance schedules correct and starting to plan out for our um repair of things like the roof the gutter systems things of that nature other than that does anybody have any questions just maybe in terms of uh your own budget presentation and adoption is that something that has been presented or 18th very good all right any other questions from Mr inalca all right as always excellent work in the Committees the reports are always very thorough thank you to our staff partners uh who are really doing the heavy lifting in terms of uh all of the agenda items and everything else and uh for our board members for continuing to participate I think uh we actually had a few meetings where we reached Quorum and and needed to ask people to step out of the room so that we could um abide by the appropriate laws and regulations so great to see all of the interest and participation at this point we are up to item 5.1 which is public participation and uh comments regarding agenda items so this is in accordance with District policy 0167 which governs public participation in board meetings members of the public are required to sign uh at the podium and provide their name address and group affiliation if applicable when addressing the board please state your name and address and limit comments to agenda items only directed to the presiding officer each participant is allowed three to five minutes to speak and no individual May address the same topic more than once until all others wishing to speak have had an opportunity to do so so at this time is there anybody who wants to address US regarding agenda items okay so we're on to item 6.1 uh be it resolved that the Bound Brook Board of Education upon recommendation of the superintendent approves the minutes for the following meeting this is regular and executive meeting minutes for February 19th 2025 I have a motion motion thank you Mrs High a second thank you Mr inalca any questions or comments hearing none Mr Gorski a roll call please Mr Bal yes m cazino yes Mr in calcatera Mr zco yes Miss musen Mr minhas miss high yes Mr bumer yes and Mr Januzzi yes motion passes thank you item 7.1 be it resolved that the superintendent recommends for approval the resolutions as outlined in District Personnel resolutions these are items 7.2 through 7.39 I have a motion thank you Miss Muson a second thank you Mr minhas any discussion okay uh before we get to a vote just for Mr incal catara uh's benefit we merged multiple sections together in the agenda probably last year or the year before so just keep in mind that the items that have the double asterisk are the ones that uh are applicable for middle and elementary schools you got it all right Mr Gorski a roll call please certainly Mr Bell yes Miss kazino yes Mr incal Cera yes Mr zupco yes Miss musen Mr Minos miss high yes Mr vulmer yes and Mr januzi yes motion passes thank you item 8.1 be it resolved that the Bound Brook Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlined in District education resolutions this is 8.2 through 8.19 I have a motion motion thank you Mr Bal a second second thank you Mr zepco any discussion uh hearing none Mr gorsky a roll call please Mr Bal yes Mr Mr Dawson I beg a pardon Miss gazino yes Mr in calcatera Mr zupco miss musen Mr minhas miss high yes Mr vulmer yes and Mr Januzzi yes motion passes item 9.1 be it resolved that the Bound Brook Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlined in board action resolutions these are items 9.2 through 9.21 I have a motion motion thank you Mr B a second giving it to Mrs guzo any discussion yeah just a a quick thank you on 9.11 to CCO for the backpacks absolutely any other comments or questions all right hearing none can we have a roll call please Mr Bell yes Miss cazino yes Mr in calcatera yes Mr zco yes Miss musen Mr minhas miss high yes Mr vulmer yes and Mr Januzzi yes motion passes thank you we are now up to other matters to come before the board which I have not received any which leades us to new business from any of the committee members if there's items that you would like to raise or address that were not on tonight's agenda Mrs High please wait a minute okay we don't have to hold it anymore we don't have to hold it anymore CH yeah as long as the lights thank you and here I in my finger is exhausted sorry to steal your ther but also it guys no more red flashing light so I don't know what you you figured it out good job thank you thank you well what I wanted to say is you know March is a busy month in the schools with and I have to say as a board member just be so proud to go into the schools and in the community and see what's going on um attended the unsung hero at NJ SBA what a wonderful experience reading to so going from that and then reading to the preschoolers over for at um the annex for read Across America and I love how I just love their questions because of some of them have so much to do with what you read and some have nothing whatsoever so it just was fun to be there and also just attending um robotics they had a wonderful program and the kids were so articulate and so involved in it and so happy to see too that their mission statement the first thing is to teach to learn to inspire wow and that really kind of goes with our whole thing you know enter to learn go forth to serve they presented themselves so well I actually asked if I could see their Report with the next day I received that they also did the um subst I just want to the award that they got was the substainability award which was formerly the Chairman's award which is a really big thing with robotics it's really big and they've received it for the past two or three years is it it two years that's huge so these kids are so involved the time that they put in but again I just you know as an educator myself I just was so proud of what I was seeing thank you awesome thank you Mrs High uh any other new business all right at this time we are open to the public for discussion I will save my breath and just note that the same Provisions apply as uh back on agenda item number five um with the exception now that the full formoor is open for anybody who would like to address us about any topic yeah yeah your turn yeah would you like to you want to talk your time to shine you've been so patient don't apologize you've waited for hours for us we might as well wait yeah if you want sure why don't I grab those while you start talking it's green no not yet we're going we're going handheld test test there you go Plan B okay all right so I'm just gonna make this pretty much as quick as I could um because I do I am on the time limit um I'm going to start by introducing myself I am Andrew Townson uh I work with a company called document Solutions um at the moment we are teaming up with West Winder Plainsboro Regional School District as well as Lawrence Township School District uh helping them with water coolers uh to provide a healthier drinking water solution for the schools uh for the staff students um with the reports that I just handed out to you guys uh it is a report for Bound Brook Township of the water uh systems um and with that being said this is everything that's in the water for this Township of boundbrook um and if you flip you can just flip through you can see everything um on one of the pages is a customer uh list for the school districts that we actually do a lot of work for um as you guys mentioned uh earlier in the presentation you are looking for two copers for uh you know the newer classrooms we handle copers as well so that would be something we'll be able to help out with um and then if you flip to the last two pages these are the systems that we Implement in the schools to ensure the Purity and the healthiness of the water itself to ensure that the children are getting the best water possible uh to eliminate everything that you've seen on the first few pages so let me just say thank you on behalf of the board for coming out and addressing us tonight we really appreciate you sharing the information as well I stay two minutes away so it's not it's great so you've given us something to consider which we'll do and uh we'll let you know if there's anything we'd like to follow up thank you so much awesome thank you thank you I don't know how to work this I'm not gonna touch it you're good all right at this time we are up to item 13.1 move to go into executive session so resolved that the Bound Brook Board of Education enter executive session as Allowed by njsa 10 colen 4-11 for the purposes listed below including 1 s and8 may I have a motion motion thank you Mr B a second thank you Mr incalcaterra all in favor I we are adjourned to Executive we got your numbers tday e e e okay everybody we ready to get going awesome so if I'm reading this correctly keep me honest go ahead we have nothing to move in 14 correct awesome so we are right to number 15.1 be it resolved that the Bound Brook Board of Education approves the resolutions as outlined in approval of Hib cases under Mill and Elementary schools this is just item 15.2 I have a motion thank you Mrs High a second thank you Miss musen uh roll call please yes yes yes thank you item 16.

So, my hats off to you. Uh, continue doing the excellent work that you're doing up here and best wishes to you. Thank you very much. Okay, this is Reed, if you will raise your right hand, repeat after me, please. Hang on. I get my old Repeat after me, please. In the state of Arizona, county of Mojave, In the State of Arizona, County of Mojave, I, Judy Reed, I, Judy Reed, do solemnly swear Do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the state of Arizona and the Constitution and the laws of the state of Arizona. that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. and defend them against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Yep. We're going to get it in more ways than one. Asked for it. So you're going to get it. Um I'm calling this budgeting 102. I don't know, maybe it's 2011. Whatever. I did the marbles in the jar thing before and I called that budget 101. So uh this is whatever the next step is. So, we're going to talk about uh where do the funds come from and how do we decide what to do with those funds. So, I'm going to be talking about uh M budget and the capital budget. So, this is all state money or county money. Jen's going to we're going to tag team this a little bit and she'll talk about all of the grant funding that uh that she manages. Okay. So, let's see. Oh, here we go. So, our goals for today are to provide basic information about public school funding in Arizona, provide basic information about the sources of funding uh for our district, and provide basic information on how uh BCSD decides to allocate those funds.

to 2:30 p.m. all teachers will have one hour of prep each day in addition to instructional time so asking for permission for that summer school plan thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion to accept the summer school plan I make a motion to approve 2513 for the summer school courses we have a motion from Mrs yansy do we have second second give to David we have a second from Mr story any discussion seeing that there's no discussion we will go to a roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr storyy I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an I that passes 5 to nothing 25-14 approval of Camp invention summer program Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approve the Camp invention Summer Program Camp invention is a nationally claimed stem summer camp providing inperson and at home learning opportunities that turn curious students into Innovative thinkers by providing open-ended experiences that help them build the confidence persistence and problem solving skills to make their own creative Mark in the world that would be from June 16th through the 20th from 8:30 a.m.

the next scheduled regular meeting of the board of school trustees will be held on Wednesday April 9th 2025 at 6: pm at this time I will ask for a motion to adjourn make a motion to we adjourn and I will second thank you Mr Scott thank you miss yansy any discussion I was gonna bring a mice and men and a filibuster to keep John and David on for like hours but I got stuff to do so at this time I guess we have to to do a roll call vote to end the meeting so Mr Wallace hi Mr story let me think about [Laughter] it Miss YY I did I I and Mr Ben say an i five nothing meeting adjourned there we

there will be a ways a state Ways and Means budget hearing on local Aid and um the state has started to hold these kinds of hearings not just in Boston but sometimes locally this one happens to be at UMass so this is a rare opportunity to actually be able to show up um in person um it is an invitation only hearing as in terms of public comment so there is no public comment allowed um the one that will have public comment will probably be across the state um but that's just the way things go however um um the one of the principles of um in in ammer has decided to make this uh particular hearing a day of uh Civic awareness and action I um share I shared with you um a a letter that he that um the principal sent out to uh parents and teachers about this where they actually plan to walk um from a school in Amherst to the campus on UMass so that they could show up at the hearing um and there are groups in Northampton that are planning on organizing and doing the same if Green Field is to have some kind of presence at that meeting it has to be incumbent upon um our Civic leaders here in Greenfield to do the same so I'm just presenting what they're doing and hoping that there is someone here who might take some leadership on that idea um on a and a general note about um the state funding advocacy um we are still looking to try to get the state to take greater responsibility for charter school funding there are several bills pending um the one that is most well supported um is unfortunately the one that is not going to bring us as much relief as we would hope um and um as far as the most popular idea Statewide for the funding advocacy the one that would help Greenfield the most is fixing the Chapter 70 inflation Factor so um in the absence of actually being able to have a a conversation about State funding Equity that would be what we would want to support um that in um Senate bill um 1912 which looks to which is sponsored by Senator cumerford and Senator Lewis which would look at reforming the Chapter 70 funding formula so that it is more Equitable is that is that the end of public comment for me sorry thank you hi Margaret ran Court 19B Street Greenfield I have been teaching in Greenfield since 1996 and I'm here to talk about our superintendent Karen patno I have never met anybody who has worked harder to meet her Mission which I believe is to meet the needs of all of our students to provide them the best educational experience that we can provide them she doesn't just talk the talk she walks the walk if we're at school at a night event she's there if we're setting up to do the susal practice she's there helping us she's there at the performance but what I really want to talk about is her budget she did not make that light-heartedly or frivolously she made it with one intent to provide our students with what they deserve to have and if you don't believe me you need to look at that budget because member ston touch upon it at the budget meeting but what what was not said was she gave herself a $155,000 salary decrease she did that I believe because she's trying to meet the needs of our students I have not seen anybody do that in my life we all need to acknowledge you Karen are working for us all of us feel it that staff feels our support the students and the families so when we start looking at this budget because I'm worried about what's going to happen people need to be aware it was not made light-heartedly and it was made with one intent to provide our students the best education they deserve so please when you're talking about this please look at that I have not met anybody who was willing to give themselves a $15,000 year decrease in their salary so I want to thank you Karen for all that you do for us and since I probably have time I want to talk about the susal if you did not get to see our fourth graders perform in the suscal you miss something special and the only reason it happened is because of you yes juk we have to thank them and we have to thank Sarah pagee and Eli with lit lit l i sorry Litwin sorry because they also worked hard but none of it would have happened without Karen she saw this opportunity and it was amazing it was amazing if you saw me backstage I was sobbing like a baby because I was so proud it was a once in a-lifetime experience for many of our students and you did that work to make sure it happened for all of our fourth graders at all three schools you do that every day and I appreciate you and I think the city of Greenfield should recog recognize all that you do for us hi I'm Rose skof I live on lynon Avenue um I'm a teacher in the district and I love what I do I really look forward to coming to work every day um and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else uh I've been watching the various gctv videos that lay out the current conflict between the school committee and the city council um and I wanted to share my perspective as a teacher as teachers navigate interpersonal conflicts with students on a daily basis and this work feels applicable um here so as a teacher I'm often in a position where students perceive my actions in a different different way than I intend and that's just the reality of adults working with kids they have a very different view of and and we just sometimes clash and when my impact doesn't match my intent and students communicate with me that they are hurt by my actions I have two options I can prove myself right and justify my actions or I can listen without judgment and work to repair the harm that I caused even if I didn't mean to cause it as a teacher when student requests information from me that I do not think they have any right to ask me about I have two options to shut them down or to have a curious conversation and ask why they need it as a teacher when a student doesn't understand something that I am trying to get across it is my job and my responsibility to work as best as I can within my means to clarify that information and not to shame them for their misunderstanding I also have to ask myself in those moments if it is appropriate for me to address the concern in front of the class if I'm having a conflict with a student or to have an offline conversation about it I have to evaluate the situation and decide if this is a time where the student will be able to receive the information that I am trying to convey so we're not very different in that respect and as school committee members I believe there is a responsibility to address harm and restore relationships and for that to take president over being right I hope that as you all discuss budget lines that affect our lives as teachers as students as parents as families that you can either restore those relationships before making decisions or take your feelings out of it to make decisions that are in the best interest of everyone in our community because I know that that's the the mission right school committee city council teachers we all want what's best for everyone in Greenfield so we have to make sure that we are all understanding that and we're on the same side instead of being on different sides so thank you so I've never done this before I I'm take it I'm supposed to say my address yeah okay um my your address um I think it's just the town town okay all right so my name is OT Mercier and I'm a resident of Greenfield um I'm also a mom to an amazing fourth grader at Four Corners Discovery School I wanted to comment on the district's recent collaboration with juk in presenting the susal at the Greenfield High School I'm not sure how many of you had the privilege of seeing this performance but all of the students were beaming and the auditorium was full of families our fourth grader had extended family in the audience that night and we all enjoyed this so much it wasn't just a little performance for us or our student this was a big deal which is what brings me here today for public comment I want to celebrate the unsung heroes of special education within our school district the instructional assistance specifically Heidi Merritt if you're unfamiliar with Miss Heidi Meritt she is our students IIA she has spent countless hours supporting Colton in his academic learning safety and social growth in the school amongst countless other things her professional ability to connect with Colton is evident in watching interactions between them as her ability to keep him safe and support him in his deficits while also encouraging Independence is such a delicate balance that has been mastered in this pair our student Colton loves Dr Seuss and music he loves to dance and the excitement of this performance was evident watching him on stage with a huge smile and lots of laughter what you probably don't know about Colton is that he's nonverbal he communicates with an AAC device and requires an IIA in my opinion IAS don't always get the recognition they deserve they silently show up and often have the biggest responsibilities Miss Heidi was the only adult on the stage hand inand with Colton for the entire show my fourth grader got his opportunity to shine due to the selfless work of an educ ational assistant I cannot begin to express my gratitude to her and the amazing work she has done and continues to do I shared the story with our Special Education team last week but I'd like to share it with you as I think this speaks to the impact this has had on my son when Colton came back from the performance night at Greenfield High School he was in the dining room and he was busy on his iPad searching YouTube videos shortly after he comes into the living room he's laughing and dancing and he was playing the suscal soundtrack off of YouTube um I just want to thank you for your time and recognition of the backbone of special education instructional assistance [Applause] hi my name is Pamela Goodwin I live at 54 High Street um I taught in Greenfield schools monteu system Pioneer over the years for many many years I also did private tutoring for the superintendent of Greenfield in two different areas one was a little sixth grader who had to be homeschooled until I brought him into a school setting one was a teenager who got in trouble and brought in a knife and he was expelled for the whole year so I have a lot of experience in the school system and also I had an occasion to work if any of you were here long enough to know who um Sarah fog is in the alternative education room at the high school alternative Ed was for difficult children um well difficult behaviors anyway and they came um and worked with Barry molan um and so I was a a staff there in that setting um and we did really well and those kids didn't really want to be in school but they came to school and they really functioned beautifully there I also taught um some children at the high school who were at risk I co-taught with Angela Mass I co-taught with a gentleman named um Matt Stenson for a year um they were all at risk kids and and then I taught summer school so I'm just here to ask the school committee um because I know we're getting ready to talk about budget um I'm a little concerned about class size in certain schools or you know maybe it's small at the high school it's larger in other settings I also had an occasion to teach remedial reading um I fell into that and a reading program up at pioneer and my Master's Degree was in instruction and curriculum through Leslie college so I've had a lot of experience and I would just like us to take a very close look at the budget I'm not clear on why we're not regionalizing or combining schools the way that some of the other school systems have found necessary to do because certainly the state is dropping the ball as far as funding for chapter programs I know palmont is now in Jeopardy again of being shut down and combining with maybe I think it's North Adams and that's where my three children went to holmont for all those years it was an awardwinning National Elementary School at that time and these kids are now in their 40s and 50s so I just hope that people are able to look outside of the box I don't know if we're still spending a whole lot of money to park buses somewhere uh because that does not make sense to me either so if some trimming has to happen I hope that people are able to look closely at what other districts are doing or whatever else might be needed because I know budget is always a horrific time for all parties concerned thank you for your time anyone on Zoom we have two people on Zoom uh John McGee will go first hi there uh my name is John McGee I live in Greenfield um as always thanks to everybody on the committee and at GPS for all of your hard work um tonight I just wanted to say thank you to the superintendent for the very sensible and caring policies for protecting protecting all of our kids in Greenfield schools um and especially the children of immigrants in the face of increasingly xenophobic Federal action um and tonight I want to encourage the school committee to co codify those policies officially at the committee level to whatever extent possible um and to provide for teachers and staff to be trained in carrying them out in practice that's all I have thanks uh hello McAn is next uh hi I'm Anna McBane uh I work in schools uh and I'm uh uh as an instructional assistant and I want to just say uh kind of tag on to whatever the theme of the night has been which is to say thank you to Karen uh earlier this year I got to uh be um with a student in a band concert and it's because of the support Karen shows for inclusion in all aspects of the district that we knew that we could go ahead and the funding would be uh okay to have me work that uh so thank you Karen and and uh then onto the uh budget um I hope that uh we we can find a solution that uh doesn't mean that any of the services that we provide our students on the direct level on are affected because those are the servic is that the students themselves would feel the most impact of if some sort of cut had to be made to our budget that Karen has built and uh also thank you Karen for the uh salary cut uh I don't think enough people around the town know what you did so thank you for that um and thank you for your time M as in Mary C B as in Barry a n is a Nancy e b oh MC I'm sorry I got that wrong can you put on your mic and spell up for Susan Susan it's m CB e a n okay thank you on to the uh report of student representatives to the committee Club reports athletic updates and the Student Life highlight all right so this year the student council took 24 delegates um to the three state or to the three-day State Conference in hyenas this is the most ghs has ever brought to this conference we have from two keynote speakers um four of our students ran workshops that were presented to 40 students each we had a really great time and brought home some new Awards once again we were recognized as a gold Council of Excellence Devon Brown and Stella Verlander receiv received the Commonwealth award um in addition to their um Devotion to our Council Miss Mass nominated them for expanding their leadership into new clubs at our school Devon helped to create the students of color club and Stella the sustainability Club our Council won the top 10 project award and though we did not win at that level we would like to recognize Noah Chambers as our council's unsung hero all in attendance gained valuable skills and we can't wait to start new initiatives at our school to increase the pride um of ghs winter sports had a great season girls basketball won their preliminary round in the Mia Tournament game versus BAS State Academy Unfortunately they did not fare well in the next game but they had a great experience overall boys basketball was 2-0 in the tournament um until they played against O'Brien High School in rockberry and lost in double overtime with 70 to 67 but they had a great run ice hockey lost in their first round of the tourney to sandwich High School 3 to2 in double overtime springing Sports start on Mon start on Monday March 17th and you can see schedules on Arbiter live.com French Club and Spanish Club hosted the 29th annual Taste of world cultures event yesterday March 11th this event was very well attended in future performances from ghs Spanish and French students the Moonlight classical Chinese Dan dance club from Smith college and the Crescent dancers each performed and invited students and guests to participate in a dance lesson we enjoyed a multicultural Feast donated by generous local businesses and we're we were so s thankful to see so many students families and community members there drama club is busy rehearsing for the somewhat true tale of Robin Hood their play this year the actors are studying and working hard to memorize a lot of complex dialogue including several dance steps and even a cheer they have the help of Mr bostom students to build a turret window and Mr Green's Art Club to help with painting sets costumes are being gathered and sewn thanks to miss Po's daughter Juliet and we are looking forward to the performances on April 4th and 5th tickets will be sold at the door and we're looking forward to everyone attending the Spectrum Club spent their last meeting making bracelets for an upcoming fundraiser that is in the works um they're also connected with Franklin County pride and will be helping to plan um The Pride prom which is being held at the Franklin County YMCA on April 26th from 7: to 10 p.m.

thank you e e e face Mark right no it's just like it's honestly like forum and then you just like yeah some like tlist and then people comment and they're like oh I'll buy it or they message you on Facebook and they so there's no fees or anything it's just like posting just like on your feet but then it's a designated spot face I actually a lot ofure y yeah [Applause] okay are we ready all right good evening everyone thank you for coming the berasa Union School District meeting with the Board of Trustees will now reconvene to open session trust trustan could you please lead us in the flag salute please yes please stand face the flag ready begin I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you trusty trusty how could you please read the district mission statement of course baresa Union School District provides all students the skills to become lifelong Learners and successful 21st century Global Citizens thank you trusty Shri nasan could you please read the Norms of the Board of Trustees yes surely the basa Union School District Board of Trustees agree to focus on the best best interest of students at all times be respectful listen openly address problems and process not persons keep each other informed maintain confidentiality work towards the future learn from the past equal participation from all members stay on task thank you very much no action was taken during during the close session um e adoption of the agenda could I please have a motion to adopt this evening's agenda move to adopt second thank you very much it's been it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I oppos okay motion passed let's con no recognition no public no wait is there any public comments and calendar agenda agenda items none in that case could I please have a motion to approve the consent calendar move to approve I'll second thank you very much it's been mov and seconded all in favor say I I oppos motion is carried we shall continue on to item number nine are there any public comments on non-agenda items none in that case we shall continue thank you item number 10 reports and presentation Dr Fuentes please thank you um this evening we'd like to present to the board all of the different steps that have been taking place um to help our school consolidation decisions move forward so we have various members of our cabinet that will share with you um where they are in this transition process and we'll begin with Mr Franklin all right good evening so just to update on um where we're at um on the facility side within business services for our school transition um you know at the last board meeting we were talking about approving um the relocation of certain programs and staff so where we're at with all of that is we've started the process to relocate Portables or to procure Portables or modular restrooms for um the school sites that we were going to be adding Portables to so um Rusk in a majestic way our architect is working on uh drawings to submit to DSA um that will happen on April the 11th um surveying has already been done for um all three sites and So the plan is for the paving for where those Portables are going to be placed is going to happen during spring break so that's going to be for all three School sites receiving Portables and then actually the portable relocation for Northwood even though that was kind of the one that was seemingly the latest on the schedule is the one that's most ahead at this point so they're um their meeing with DSA is actually on uh March 27th so that one's been a little bit uh more simple um for as far as the process so far so that one's the one that's um actually a little bit ahead of schedule so um one thing to caution is that plan is to have Paving done during spring break however if it rains then that will um change those plans so we do have contingency plans in place as far as how to complete the paving um in the event that it does rain to keep us on schedule um but that's kind of where we're at with the Portables as of right now um Vincy Park the portable modernization that we mentioned for the two former Sunshine uh Sunshine School Portables off to the side in the front of Vincy Park um that work is beginning um next week and is scheduled to be completed after spring break so we're going to fence off the area um we're able to kind of fence it off completely from students there there shouldn't be anybody around um that area but it'll be completely fenced off we're going to divide the um current two portables back into two individual Portables by putting up a wall in in between because right now it's one big open space and we're going to be renovating those um restrooms that are currently in there uh with smaller toilets for our SDC preschool students so uh Tony and I also um walked all of the school sites that are receiving special ed programs and spoke with all the principles about their plans for uh where those students would be um located on the property and figuring out if there were any other um adjustments to restrooms or um anything having to do with the classrooms that need to be done in addition to what we were already thinking so we need to know those locations so we've met with them preliminarily about what um upgrades are needed there's very few upgrades that are needed but there are some Renovations that are going to be needed for the restrooms to serve some of our preschool students and so we're starting to plan um what those upgrades are um and then lastly the the school district um advisory committee or 7-Eleven committee to Surplus um what will be the vacant properties um is actually on this agenda tonight for approval of the committee so we are starting that process and the committee is scheduled to meet on March 18th March 27th and April 3D hoping to bring the recommendation from the committee to the board at the April board meeting so transitioning from facilities to the moving of Staff um uh we're currently in the process of of of meeting with school sites to discuss that process um we have the the new School boundary and school finder um um um tool on our website has been updated with those new boundaries so families are able to go and look up the School site that they will be um moving to um we have put out or we're in the process of putting out an RFP uh for a moving company to actually do all of the moving of um furniture and um uh curriculum and everything else associated with uh our staff movements from one School site to another or even within a School site so there's been extensive planning on that and trying to estimate how many uh staff will be moving within School sites relocating to other school sites and so those bids are due at the end of March there is already a a site uh job walk for that uh last week and there were I believe moving companies that came out to to participate in that so sounds like there's um a lot of interest and so we'll see how those bids come in um once we know um which moving company has been selected then we can start to finalize some of those plans what type of uh bins they'll be using to move staff so that we can start to tell them how to label those and what that process will be and then we've already sent boxes to school sites for any personal items that staff would like to take home that they don't want us to move in case um they don't want it to get lost or broken um we have started that process and letting them know that um they should take those items home um and move them themselves so that um nothing will happen um in the big moving process um so with that um as I pass it off to Dr mccu one thing um along with updating our websites one thing that um I want to do is uh commend Our IT department Stephanie uh msas and um Jackie ber for all the work that they did with updating the online registration and doing all the testing to make sure all of that um went through and was done appropriately is a it was a big task um I think from the time that the board approved um the change to the boundaries it we're able to get that work done in a week and a half um that was incredibly fast so a big thank you to Our IT department for doing that in such a timely fashion and before you walk away Mr Franklin I just want to see if there's any questions from the board regarding this section of information Bo do you have any questions I just have one question regarding the the viny uh portable that that you're you're doing so there was there was a concern uh about having either preschool or SDC preschool kids in a separate location um is that a concern over here is there is there is that likely to be a concern about that the this particular location from a facility standpoint um no um I don't know uh Dr mccre if you want to comment on whether or not you know there's any concern with having them separate um in a portable at that particular location um but I don't think so I think so I'm trying trying to understand the um the layout and how far away it is from the from the main you know right so it is a little bit of a ways away from from the main property but um I think it'll be a short distance for those students to to walk from getting you know most of them get dropped off by the bus um over to those particular Portables um and then access to the NPR or anything which they don't typically go to the NPR for anything they don't have lunch at our school sites but um everything would be kind of allinone in that area they have um even outdoor space in front of the classrooms um there's a pretty big outdoor space there and then they'll have the appropriate restrooms within the classroom so uh you know the distance from the main uh building shouldn't be an issue shouldn't be an issue um I mean yeah logistically I agree uh I was just concerned about um integration and and things like that you know from Optics point of view but but I understand what he's saying um so just just wanted to U highlight that and see if there there are any uh any concerns at the end of the day I know that the the kids do get dropped off and the parents to um walk them to the to their classroom so they do have the the additional support I do agree with that but just wanted to see how the Dynamics will play out at the end of the day so thank you I also had one quick question to um what is the timeline for teachers to be moving out and is there a process for them if they need additional time on campus for example and well do they have that opportunity so we have that spelled out in theou I think we gave them um up through April or April through June 19th to move out of their classrooms um what was it 18th June 18th um so they have right up to the to the holiday um to kind of pack up their classrooms uh but after that that's kind of when we have plan to have the movers come in to do their work because we also have our summer programs that we need to move in while we also move folks out and so um you know there's a lot of coordination going on uh but they do have that that time and um they have 20 hours of additional time that they have to uh pack up their classrooms um but those are all questions that that they've been asking and and we've been going out to their staff meetings to address those those questions and concerns thank you any more questions from the board thank you assistant superintendent Franklin uh oh we're not done yet we still have more slides oh the other one it was uh Brian the other okay so now we're going to talk about students and enrollment so like Mr Franklin uh just mentioned our District's online registration portal was opened uh last week on March 4th and uh we already have lots of TK registrations so we're doing really good with TK uh remember this year TK is expanding their uh time frame for allowing students to come into the district so it's from September 2nd all the way until um the end of August so students could turn five in September and all the way until July and also turn five so it's another grade at each School site um letters to families that were affected to affected by the school trans transition process were sent out on March 7th so once again um just like uh Mr Franklin was thanking his staff I want to thank my staff because we went through a lot of planning to make sure these letters were sent out first of all to the correct parents with the correct um school and pulling out certain um remember we had different little po pockets of schools that got a little grandfathered in to make sure that those parents didn't get a letter that said they were going to go to a different school and then all of our special ed programs that are being affected so we really were very detail oriented and trying to figure out that these letters were sent out correctly to families and so these uh letters also have a little portion at the bottom called like you know an intent to return portion and so the information there is are you are you accepting your um new placements um if not you can file out an intr District transfer form where would you like to go and then there's a process that's attached in a QR code for the families to then go through the inter District process um inter District process and then there's also a third box that says we're not coming back to the district we're moving etc etc So the plan is that those letters are then returned by March 2 E from the parents to the front offices and so the clerks at the schools are gathering all of these letters and then they're going through and sharing the information through a Google form with our team so they're clicking on they've received the letter do they agree or they filling out an interdistrict transfer form Etc because we want to track as much as we can how many students are going to be then move to these uh their new schools and we have to account for all of the numbers and so um like I mentioned the impacted schools that are not happy with the change can fill out the intra District transfer and we'll do our best to prioritize those students oops wrong way and so in addition to that last night we had an informational meeting to review all of the information I just talked about with the three schools and the parents of all three of those schools so we reviewed The New School boundaries um we talked about the safe route to school what's happening with that we talked about the re the letters and what are the options we reviewed some of the afterschool program information we also talked about um our social emotional learning supports that are available now and will continue on for the next school year we had about 20 minutes at the end um to answer questions and we're Gathering all of the questions we weren't able to answer into a fa q and we're going to post that on the website in the next uh few days as well so these were similar um slides from last night's presentation but just as we continue to plan for 2526 we want to make sure that there's after school programs available at each of our school sites and so the majority of um these uh after school programs are staying the same or we're adding an additional um service so as you can see right now we have Brook tree at Rock we have Rock and YMC at Brook tree which is the similar to what we have this year sitting with Majestic Way we have Rock and AO uh moving forward to next year we have Noble with Rock and YMCA so we have a very active YMCA program at Toyon so they're going to be adding the YMCA at Noble for next year Northwood we're going to be increasing the number of seats for our YMCA folks um rusin since it's going to be our biggest um school we have lots of opportunities for after school we have Rock we're going to continue with a Leo Sunshine school and a new offering that's new this year called Wellspring and that's actually a mandarin immersion after school program for some of our families that don't speak Mandarin they actually have homework help uh during um the afternoon to provide that space and it's not only open to our Mandarin immersion families it's open to anyone so even our English only um families can participate in the Wellspring after school program uh Summerdale we're transitioning um from the city of San to YMCA but it's still Aces and Vincy Park we're continuing with the YMCA um we're working alongside YMCA and Alo very closely so that we can then get that registration up and running hopefully by the end of May early June we're also in conversations with rock to see if we can um speed up their deadline for registration knowing that a lot of these families really want to have this in place sooner than later so we we continuing to have conversations with rock usually they do their after school um signups in July and so we're really pushing them to help support this um this upcoming school year because of all the changes that are happening and as soon as we find out more information about timelines we're also Gathering um all of the existing programs they have site directors the YMCA has a website uh we work very closely with the YMCA folks and they have also given us permission to put their names on the website if there's questions specifically about the program availability pricing um we had a big Alo um meeting here a week ago so that we're also really a great partnership with the Leo so they're also willing to help support in any way possible and same thing with rock so the timelines will be posted and we'll get um as much as we can out to parents as soon as we know more information I think I'll I'll just add to that um that definitely is a critical area of information for our families um last night lots of questions uh on how uh providers are selected you know you get accustom to YMCA for example if they've been your after school program and so what we shared with the families was we sustained existing program providers at all of our schools gave them the first option to be able to expand seats and if they were able to do so great if not then we brought in a second provider um to be able to support increased number of students at the schools so um in case you're asked about that it was a it was a popular question and I think um but you know we assured them that you know it's we're committed to providing after school care um but definitely they're interested in in the price points you know there's families that have benefited from the Asus program from scholarship opportunities that are provided through the different providers so um you know they're they're hopeful that those will continue and that you know sliding scales will be afforded to them with and those are the conversations we've been having with with all of the providers we had one just today quick quick question uh uh I think I they asked last time Al sanan budhist I know that they operate independently but uh do any of our students at Cherrywood and Toyon right they are the two sides that they have or so actually no they have they have transitioned over the years to um Cherrywood was their only school age program that they offered the other locations because they are at other sites in our district at Northwood as well as Vincy Park but that's for um it was for pre school which they're now transitioning to infant toddler care so they they their programming has been significantly impacted by the elot funds and with public school offering TK so it really has shifted who their clientele is and so now um they're focusing more on infant to toddler so none of our uh at Cherrywood none of our students we do some currently that are in their after school program however um they'll be able to be absorbed into these other programs thanks so just to highlight some of the social emotional support that we're continuing to provide ongoing from the school year until next school year so at each School site we have a school social worker and um we're happy to say that next school year some of these School social workers that have been sharing sites for so many years will now be at um one site because we have bigger schools and we have a couple less schools each of our um schools also has a community liaison so we're going to continue that work as well to help support the students and families that are coming to the school with questions and concerns uh we're going to continue uh with our school Link services coordinator she's housed over at pedmont right now connecting students and family to outside resources as well we are continuing our contract with K Solis and they're also another um uh great partner that we've had over the years and they help connect families to outside counseling services our school social workers work hand inand with car Solus they actually do a handoff in order for those um services to be provided uh Daybreak health is a new uh resource that we've added in the last couple of months and that's also free to us as um a new resource and they are offering te theapy so via um Zoom or uh Google meets and meeting with students that way at home and in addition to that we are continuing to talk through the offerings of our social emotional learning curriculum we had a good conversation with our principles today about how we can continue and maybe get some more uh PD and support so that our schools are using it more effectively moving forward Upstream is for our middle school program and Studies Weekly is theal curriculum for elementaries so we had some good conversations about that at our principal meeting today and uh last but not least we've really focused on adding a lot of additional parent workshops over the past uh few months and so as you can see we have um one of them called nurturing effective communication which has uh already happened at two of are two of the dates February 6th and the 25th we have two more dates coming up April 3rd and April 8th um our uh partner over at the Santa clar County Office of Ed is Jamie coup one of our former parents and so she's um literally the one who runs all of these uh programs we also had um active parenting for Middle School parents back in October and November and we have the active parenting class for the elementary school parents happening this month and once again um through these parent workshops Child Care is provided for free um dinner provided and the sessions are pretty well um uh packed with lots of parents and kids and our par par professionals instructional AIDS are our um folks that are watching the students so they're also helping out as well yeah and I really would like to just commend Jamie coup as you know she's a former beresa parent so very committed um to our community um the first series of workshops there nurturing effective communication she crafted just for us um and you know sharing with her the different challenges that school transitions were bringing both for the children as well as for their parents um trying to give them tools to feel better equipped for the upcoming changes so um that Workshop uh they're open to anyone so anyone it doesn't have to just be Cherrywood families for example it could be anyone from the district they could attend any one of those dates it's the same Workshop repeated at all of those locations um and it includes Community Building Circle uh learning your child's love language to be able to you know monitor how they're feeling through these Transitions and then learning um some skills on how to be an empathetic listener all skills we could learn and refine all right any other questions about um the head Services portion I I had a couple um if I can remember it still the the uh the um intent to return letter uh you said there's a deadline for March of March 28th um what happens if we don't if the pent doesn't turn in so remember I said we're tracking who's turned everything in then the clerks and the folks at the school sites will be calling and trying to contact the parents or send another letter out to so we're really just making sure that we communicate as much as we can to get that information so that we can plan accordingly and if if the if there's no response you assume that the students well we're going to continue to do what we can I mean we also do home visits we get a lot of returned mail too that we get mail that says no longer at this address this address doesn't doesn't exists and that happens more than we want to know so we want to definitely follow up if these parents aren't our residents we want to also make sure that we follow up with that as well and I know if you don't have uh the only a couple of mental students how do you reach out well they have um an address where they're living temporarily and so once again we have a list of those students and those are also um families that our community Liaisons are very close knit with and so Tom Carrol our coordinator of student services works with the community Liaisons to make sure that we Outreach even more to those families to make sure that if you know we want to get them to a school that's as close as they can be to where they're staying now okay thanks and the other question I had uh is on safe roads to school how's that going sorry yeah no so we're still um you know continuing to look into um you know where some of the the Troublesome spots are we did hear that the crosswalk um off a cople will be done in uh April or during the Spring um uh Dan Norris is com uh currently assessing all the crossing Ys where they're at and um other drop off areas for all of the school sites and coming up with the plan because the special ed students are now going to be located at at school sites that they haven't been at before so he's looking into that and we're going to soon start to meet with ed services to discuss the best spots for those sometimes the the spaces that we think are best suitable for drop off are not what ed services agrees with and so we're going to coordinate with them to to talk about that and um and then as Bell schedules start to be developed at all of our school sites which will be happening over the next few weeks um we'll also be discussing with principles um you know the bell schedule start times and things of that nature and whether or not you know any of those need to be staggered for traffic purposes right I think that I think I brought it up with especially with Raskin and sierant so that that's being uh discussed and yeah so Bell schedules just went out to principles to start working on with their staff and so that's going to be a process over the next right two months or so yeah yeah okay yeah and we received a few comments from parents last night uh you know letting us know uh their uh their issues of off children between school sites Etc and so we we let them know we're working on the Bell schedules and you know we'll keep those things in mind okay thank you oh I also sorry sorry I have one question sorry Dr Jo um thank you all so much for your work by the way um all of this is really wonderful to hear that we're really moving along I just had a few questions about the um parent workshops and also the zoom meeting that you had with our impacted families are there translation services available for families who particip so one of the things that we had in the letter was some information on translations one thing that we are going to make sure we do is translate as much as the um actual uh video into the languages and post that on there uh we talked literally the day before about trying to get uh our translators to help support but it was a little complicated with breakout rooms and different things like that so that's one lesson learned as we move forward to make sure that we at least provide that opportunity because all of our translators were I think even Lord is was on the call helping support anybody that did have questions but just trying to figure out I know we had that program that we had during some of those board meetings um so that could be an option moving forward we just have to kind of configure that through Zoom so that was one opportunity that we did Miss yeah thank you I hope moving forward too we'll really integrate that in case folks need it but translated videos with captions are always good too after the fact thank you any more questions from the board one more slide from Mr Cabrero thank you assistant superintendent mccre Human Resources has been working to ensure that all classroom teachers have a school side placement a great and a great level assignment by March the 24th we have already um notified the teachers of their school side placement we did that um before February the 28th and if people did not have a School site placement then we just put TBD um by this week on the 10th anyone who wish wishes to submit a transfer request to move to a different site or different grade level they needed to be in by the 10th now we gave the teachers at the school sites that are closed that are closing Sher with toan and Lane View and addition up until the 13th to submit their transfers request which includes the site and the grade level if they wish to follow their students Etc uh we gave them uh a week after providing them the vacancy list for all the all the sites and grade levels at the school at the schools and they're the only ones that that have that information so that that is due tomorrow once we receive that the HR staff is then going to compile the information and try to accommodate as best as possible and we plan to notify Everybody by the 24th of their grade level assignment and those who do not have a school placement will also be notified by the 24th that's the information I have this evening questions from the board comments from the board thank you assistant superintendent Cabrera I know this is this whole process is extremely detailed and it takes a lot of work to do this so I thank you all for your for your efforts because I know this is not easy and it's contined to be not easy so thank you um are we on item 11 now correct or no 10 B 10 oh excuse me 10B District professional development presentation Dr Fuentes please thank you um we Rec L had our professional development day for staff and so we'll be giving you an update of how that went uh Dr McCurry thank you Nicole peretas will be doing a presentation on um the two PD days but more specifically the one that we had back in January January 29th so miss peretas thank you good evening um yes I'll be providing um and Reporting out to you around our two districtwide professional development days held this year um a quick overview um the dates that we held those um professional development were September 18th and January 29th um classified and certificated staff um participated in those days the sessions were held at various School sites as well as at the County Office of Education the the general schedule for both of those days um we had am sessions that ran from 88 to 11: um there was actually two sessions in the morning that were about 90 minutes each um then there was lunch and then we had afternoon sessions from 12: to 3: and just some highlights that I wanted to share um that um the two days were for all staff they were planned in collaboration with our cab professional development committee the sessions were designed to meet a wide variety of Staff needs um through Choice sessions and also um many sessions that were led by various s teachers and staff and administrators so particularly in January um we had 26 barasa teachers and staff that led those Choice sessions which was wonderful we offered a total of 31 Choice sessions um we also um built into the professional development day in addition to the choice sessions specific and job aligned sessions um and there were site and District leadership um team members that led sessions and the feedback we received was um quite positive so the um the way in which we looked at supporting the variety of Staff needs was through offering Choice um so staff members teachers and staff members could choose two sessions um of their choice to attend and we organized them around those sessions that were relevant and would meet the needs of all staff classified and certificed ated across all grade level spans and that's a sample of the topics that we offered um that were available for all staff and then we organized some that were really geared towards specific grade levels or grade level spans and so some of those um included differentiated instruction um strategies to support and Foster inclusion interactive math activities Universal Des Design for Learning um Foss science seal um supporting motor skill development foundational literacy skills and play-based learning so um depending on what interests and needs um staff had if was grade level specific they had those options as well in terms of specific and job aligned sessions that um staff attended for our classified staff um there were Health Training and updates um for our um secretaries and clerks and health clerks um we had Early Learning and literacy practices for our um preschool and TK teachers um our library of mediat techs um attended a session on AI tools and resources for libraries and our special education um par education attended a session on supporting um students with peer interactions uh for our certificated staff um specific or job aligned sessions included preschool learning foundations seal strategies and unit development um for the majority of our um elementary teachers they attended a session on our new Renaissance assessments for English language arts how to look at those data reports and the intervention resources that are available within that platform for our Middle School teachers um they participated in job alike or content area specific strategies and resources for their content area so the feedback from September um the question on the form asks it was for the whole day and it was were the sessions to the extent to which the sessions were relevant and meaningful to your to their work and what I really want to point out here is that it became really clear when we looked at the actual rating on the scale compared to comments that there was some confusion on the lyer scale so um whereas a one would be um strongly disagree we had several that marked that but their comment said it was an amazing day the choices were so but I I wanted to share what the data was but also let you know that when we combed through it it became clear that they may not have been clear on what a one really meant and4 so in January we fixed that and made it very clear in the question um on a scale of 1 to four one is strongly disagree for is strongly agree um the extent to which the morning sessions were relevant and meaningful and I am thrilled to share this data um overwhelmingly nearly 88% or so um felt gave it a three or four which is amazing um and then the same is true for the afternoon sessions which were the assigned job alike um specific sessions so very successful professional development days this year and just to highlight a few of the pictures I couldn't get them all from all 31 sessions but um in this you'll see this is Heather Kain on the right um who led a session and Amy Swain and Susan papert who led a session um one of our County Office Partners um and two of our bcbas [Music] and really want to end this time in this report um acknowledging the efforts of so many people and departments it truly is a team effort and it took all hands on deck um so our teachers our staff and our administrators our cab professional development planning committee Education Services our instructional coaches mot and custodial staff and Technology services thank you any questions from the board year over year I think the the uh the uh feedback and in the content is improved uh it looks like from from what what we've seen in the past which is good so great work on that I think uh the the the peer-to-peer um teaching methodology probably works uh better for teachers to hear from um people that I mean other teachers that work in the same similar uh Lis thing so I appreciate all the hard work and you know let's keep the momentum going and then U uh keep improving and get that to 100% uh you know three and four should total 100 that would be nice thank you so much thank you thank you Miss fares yeah I do I do want to add just again um a thank you to you know to Nicole and the entire ed services team because certainly this January session is the most um content specific uh offerings that we've had in all of our professional development with you know all of the different folks who also um stepped forward to be able to deliver that learning you know for their for their colleagues and it really um it really was great to be able to have that shared expertise across the district and you know we hope to be able to continue but it does take quite a bit of coordination from everyone um you know those that are organizing the day to those that are preparing you know preparing the actual professional development as well so you know a big thank you to everyone thank you for noticing um the shift and you know the trajectory that the department is uh working towards thank you item 11 superintendent report Dr Fuentes please thank you um just a a few things today first uh this month of March is our celebration for read Across America so um our schools especially our elementary sites always do lots of fun things to celebrate reading celebrate Dr Seuss's birthday so we have lots of wonderful highlights coming up in our monthly newsletter and I just want to give a a thank you uh to Majestic Way uh for their invitation to be out there and be a reader as well as at Brook tree those were really fun events in addition uh this month of March our middle schools highlight careers and so all of those special activities will be happening marel middle school tomorrow um so if you're able to stop over in the morning from uh 7:45 to 9:45 they'll have different learning opportunities for the students and then next week on Thursday March 20th um it'll be pedmont and Sierra Mon's turns so I know um there are really good opportunities our community members get engaged we get lots of parents who do fabulous things in their day jobs coming back to share with our students what those careers are all about so hopefully we'll we'll get to see you there um also this past Saturday I was able to um participate in the legislative branch that was hosted by the Santa Clara County School boards Association both president boak and I were there in attendance their keynote speaker was Linda darling Hammond so it was really great to hear her and uh gosh quite a lineup of our elected officials across Santa Clara County there were there are quite a few there and and such an important time to hear uh their vision and and what their support will be for public education um especially after this week and everything we've learned with the US Department of Education and there's quite a bit at risk in terms of you know our vulnerable student populations and making sure that they continue to get the services that that they need so we'll be even more um dependent on advocacy to our local elected officials to ensure you know whatever happens at the federal level that they're going to be there to step in and fill those gaps so I think this is a really important time to continue to monitor you know those actions um nothing at this point that you know puts our barrias students at risk we're still whole but you know we're monitoring the situation um closely thank you thank you Dr Fuentes um item 12 comments announcements from the board do we have any anyone okay we'll shall continue 13 review and discussion public hearings let's go to now item number 15 review and action superintendent um so for this first first item we have the 2025 California school boards Association Region 20 delegate Assembly Election so you have a listing of candidates there trustees across the county that are interested in being your representatives uh we do have four that are currently the incumbents and they have an asteris next to their name but this is a very competitive year as you see they they've got several Challengers um this go around so your task is to identify the four that you would like to see moving forward on behalf of varasa Union okay so you um board members you already have the candidates here I'll just give my two cents in here um I would like to see these board members that would really be helpful to us coming from the east side of San Jose I am thinking of Teresa castillos um Jorge Pacho George Sanchez Bley unless you have any other um candidates let's discuss it go ahead I agree with those those are also the incumbents um I'll make a motion to um unless anyone wants to discuss um yeah I was going to say I'm I'm okay with uh selecting the um the current incumbents okay I yeah thank you could I have a we vote on this could I have a could could I please have a motion have a motion from Trustin second oh you did oh it's been mov and seconded thank you trusting I didn't hear you um all in favor say I hi hi oppose okay uh motion is carried thank you very much to everyone Dr FES you have the list room okay yeah that'll be fine thank you all right so let's go to uh Roman numeral 2 board bylaw 910 public statements um Dr Fuentes please it is recommended the Board review and approve board bylaw 9010 public statements for a first reading and so for this one um this one just refers back to when making public statements who is the board member that has that Authority and responsibility so here in beresa our practice has been our board president you know in the absence of our board president it would be our our vice president and so forth so just uh that reminder of who has authority to speak on behalf of the entire board and then also the reminder to trustees when you are speaking um with your own individual opinion that you make that distinction that you are not speaking on behalf of the board but simply giving your own personal opinion on a matter when when you're out in the in the community thank you any discussion from the board if not could I have a motion I'll move to approve second it's been moved and seconded could I all in favor say I I I oppose motion is carried that's thank you very much now let's go to a Roman numeral 3 this is board bylaw 912 board member electronic Comm Communications Dr Fuentes please thank you um it is recommended the Board review and approve board bylaw 9012 board member electronic communications for first reading so um what this bylaw does is it brings in uh new legislation based on uh or or new policy based on recent cases that have happened and it's a good reminder regarding your electronic communication whether it's email or social media especially to be very cautious when uh you might be engaging on items that are listed in a board agenda you can by liking an item commenting on an item be in a violation of the brown act if it's an item that comes in before you here uh in our uh public forum and so and you know we've had lots of training and conversations about serial meetings serial emails now you've got to add the likes and dislikes of social media to that um cautionary cautionary incidence so just want to bring that to your attention and um and I think also on this one it also talks about um if you are acting as your board member role on social media you're also not allowed to block or hide people if they're dissenting of a add RCT opinion and that was a court case that went and you know and solidified that it's a freedom of expression to that public individual okay okay this sorry go ahead oh yeah quick question on this one so if I like post on Instagram and then um someone comments something like negative I'm not allowed to like delete the comment not if you're acting using that as an official like board member account oh I see okay so you have to distinguish between your board member role and your role as just an individual in the community okay understood so if it's getting gray if it's getting gray You're Gonna Want to take a look at that I might have to talk to you all later because I have an active Instagram yes and and that's where I said now with social media like with Facebook with Instagram all of that um it just takes all of our practices into another forum and you know if the board would like you know this is certainly something we can get a little um you know one hour training with our with our board counsel also because it's it's it's a it can get very gray very fast and so if that's of Interest we can certainly do that thank you that's great information okay so could I have a motion please move to approve a second okay it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I motion is passed thank you very much now we'll go to letter B Business Services second interim report for fiscal year 2024 2025 certification of fiscal solvency uh Dr quentes please it is recommended the board approve the 2024 25 second interim report and the district's positive certification of fiscal solvency um before you move forward with that we do have a presentation for you okay all right good evening everybody uh today I have the pleasure of presenting the 2024 2425 second interim report uh just as a refresher the second interim report um budget adjustments take place throughout the year um the second interim is a chance for us to efficiently make budget adjustments um based on information that we have received all the way through January 31st so this is the current 20 24 budget cycle um currently we're in March in the second interim um we do have we are currently working on ramping up for the 2025 26 budget cycle but um this is currently where we're standing as far as the [Music] 2425 so in January the governor released his state budget which included um the educational budget and here are some of the highlights within the 2025 26 Governor's budget so um it's projected that the cola would be at 2.43% however not all the final data data points have been released the last one gets released about in April 2025 however it's looking like that this 2.43% would probably be closer to 2.2% um the governor has also set aside money um to help assist in reducing the student to adult ratio from 12.1 to 10.1 um if the money is not allocated within the 2526 Governor's budget then we would still remain at 12 12 to1 but if their money is allocated then we'll move to 10 to one okay um some other items uh this there's a student support and professional development discretionary block rant that has been allocated that the governor allocated about $1.8 billion in the state budget which roughly equates to 323 per 80 2024 25 Ada for us and this is coming next year this is not this year and lastly in 23 24 um we saw a reduction in the learning recovery emergency block R dollars um what is being proposed in the 2526 is that he repays the districts the money that has been reduced over the course of three years starting in 2526 all right so this is just basically analysis of our enrollment um just is just basically shows that we're currently and still in a declining enrollment environment so we're projected in 2526 to be at 5,765 and then still decreasing to about 5,563 and 2627 so these are some of the budget assumptions that we're using uh for our multi-year projections um the most important ones are once again the enrollment so you can see that it's decreasing over the course of the three years um the P2 Ada projected is what we are being funded off of so um as you can see it's also decreasing the decreases do mostly to our de decline enrollment um stirs enrollment rates are pretty much much staying steady at 19.1% but you do see an increase in pers enrollment uh pers employer rate from 27.05.2012 between the first and the second interim um the biggest one coming from the state revenue and so basically the reason for such a large increase or change from the first interim to the second interim was because we have been notified that um it's due to the elop funds so basically there um what the state did was they reached out to all the districts within the state and they're pretty much clawing back all the unspent dollars and then reallocating it to the districts so our portion of that is around $800,000 Josh if you can just share with the board because it's more complicated than than that with elop um it actually there's a tiered system and really what I'd like the board to know is we're not in the top tier for funding correct that now that it's differentiated so if you can share what that shift is um so basically at the time um there's two different tiers um it's based on our unduplicated account and so they give those districts who have a high up count additional funding um and then whatever's left over because we're in the lower tier we get whatever's left over and it gets reallocated or that gets allocated to all the second tier districts so what ends up happening for 22 and 2223 is we had a lot of districts that didn't spend a lot of that funding right and so in statute basically what it allowed the state to do is reallocate those funds up to $2,000 per Ada so I don't remember the exact dollar amount that we were allocated the Ada at the time but now we are receiving up to the $2,000 which equates to the $800,000 dollar amount that we're receiving this year yeah and and the other reason I asked Josh to share that is because this um shift happened midyear and so you know it was a loss of revenue for us initially so we did have to adjust um and change course to all of the elot programming that we were providing didn't necessarily impact our after school programming but we were also expanding service to lunchtime programming that we had to reduce because of this midyear adjustment and to make things more complicated in 2526 um I think was it 75% then the up count for the initial allocation was at 75% up and I believe they're dropping it down to 55% so now we may even be getting any we may be getting Less in 25 26 right because that means there's going to be a greater number of districts that now qualify to be in tier one but we are still below the 55% threshold so we'll continue to be at that second tier receiving whatever is left after that first tier distribution yeah and that makes it hard for us to plan for the budget year because we don't know what our rate is so there's a lot of advocacy going on with this budget and we'll see what happens in the May Revis but what's been being advocated for is to at least set a um set rate for the tier 2 districts so that for planning purposes we have an idea of of what the minimum revenues will be that we can count on and then if there are any adjustments over and above that then that's a plus for us but that at least we have some way to plan because we haven't had a a mechanism to plan for it's just been estimates and so what we've seen over the past two years is that what we started out with our elop program and funding um has decreased by approximately a million dollars within a two-year time frame which really impacts our programs as you know districts were being told the priority is elop and to build Out programs we build Out programs based on the revenues that we're receiving and we understand we're in declining enrollment but a decline of a million dollars is 25% of our revenues for elop and we did not have a 25% drop in enrollment so um you know it's it's not fair to the the tier 2 districts to not have an understanding of what that funding will be and to have to continuously adjust their program moving forward so we'll see what happens in the May Revis yeah I apologize for that sidebar but it it was a significant change so I wanted to be sure you were aware of that so this is just a percentage breakdown of our Revenue you can see that 72% um or the state's um allocation model by Ada is the largest percentage of money that we receive um we get about 133% from other state revenue which includes like items like Asis in elop um transfers in so we do are making some transfers in for the current year uh based off of some of the retirement benefits that we're paying for out of fun 20 and some facilities costs um we do have local Revenue which are donations and leases so we have donations to the school sites we have leases with um multiple um sources and then the smallest piece about 3% is we get from federal revenue so not too much um so there's not too much of an adjustment from the federal revenue okay so we still are deficit deficit spending uh some of it's planned so some of it is on the restricted side and some of it's on the unrestricted side um so there's a plan of to spend about $103 million um you can see that there's Minor Adjustments between certificated salaries classified salaries and benefits um but the biggest issue or biggest increase from the first interum to the second interum is is in the services and other operating expenses so that equals about $2.1 million so where is that coming from right so the majority of it is coming from just some adjustments related to the after school programs we received $860 or $800,000 we added that into the budget um however we do have increases in for example our utilities costs right so electricity has increased about $400,000 from what our initial budget was um there are some pieces where field trips coming from the school sites aren't initially budgeted but as they um like for example science camp they raise money so there's money coming on the revenue side but there's also expenses coming out um we have increases in legal expenses for this current year uh special ed contracts and transportation contracts so all of those have actually um there's a reason for the increase for that line item so just to kind of fur further breakdown the $103 million um you can see that the majority is spent on certificated salaries employ benefits um and classified salaries so salaries and benefits which makes up about 88% of the total budget uh 15% is made up of service and other operating costs and then small portions are for the remaining um line items but to even kind of further look into the certificated salaries classified salaries and the benefit you can see that certificated non-management equates to about 67% uh classified non-management is 24% certificated management 7% and our classified management is about 2% also i' like to break down and show um kind of where that two or the 15 million for the contracts or the services and other operating costs so the majority of it 22% is our after school contracts um a large portion is utilities and special ed contracts and uh we have about 9% in in Insurance 7% in software but you can see the majority of that line item comes from the after school contracts which is on the restricted side utilities which is mostly on the unrestricted side special ed contracts which is technically on the restricted side but we do have to make um contributions to special education and then insurance is on the unrestricted side so those are the largest contracts that we currently have I think I also just want to remind the board too that um uh Insurance liability costs have increased significantly um a lot of that as a result of litigation and um and then with utilities that has been a significant impact to all school districts and is a point of advocacy with the Santa Clara County School boards Association in looking at locally with Santa clar county is there anything that they can do to help reduce the cost and burden onto utilities of utilities for school districts so that's a um a new area of interest that uh the trustees will be advocating for see is it um the the utilities is it the electrical component or the gas component because all of the above how are our how are our solar panels doing are we generating enough are we getting any generation credits back or yeah I mean the panels are generating we did have um two months where I think we had broken panels and so we did notice that and we did get those fixed but unfortunately you know we do have to pay uh for those increased utility costs we also had some um anomalies with uh water uh during a couple of months especially months when we were um on break and so we're trying to investigate that to see if that's um you know due to uh just a misread on the meters or how could they're without having a significant water leak which we didn't have how could those costs have gone up so significantly for those couple of months so we're still looking into that to try to find the source of that increase but just across the board utilities have just climbed um extremely high we do have our solar projects are going in um uh through some of the projects that Tony has mentioned at some of our school sites so that'll help moving forward but um really just the costs of pg& um in particular have gone up quite a bit is I know it's a lot uh to ask uh but I just wanted to uh put it out there do we have any mechanism or is there anybody um reviewing the efficiency of the of the panels um year over year I know that the there's some degradation uh as far as the output goes is there any any way anybody monitoring that and you know are there any uh cleaning services that uh that that I know that they use um distilled water to to clean out some of the Dust because we do get a lot of dust uh during the summer months that not necessarily all all of it gets washed away by the rain it needs treatment to actually get properly cleaned uh I I know it's a lot lot ask but just curious whether anybody's monitoring that efficiency of the panels yeah so we still get reports from NG who is the provider or that that installed the the solar panels so we do get yearly reports that Dan Norris reviews um and Dan also has um I don't know if it's NG still that comes out to do the cleaning but they do we do have annual cleaning from NG and they come out and they clean the panels that's a lot of times when we do find and assess some of the broken panels and do The Replacements um this time the the panels were broken um outside of that cleaning period and so it was the monitoring of the bills that Drew our attention to that um that led to us fixing those but we do have those annual Services thank you all right so as far as our multi-year projections um this is a total G our total general fund um so you can see we're still deficit spending across the 3 years uh 25 26 and 267 that deficit spent is more on the restricted side um and so it's not really affecting our ending balance on the unrestricted side um what's more important to look at is the multi-year projections on the unrestricted only side so you can see um we're still defit spending in 2425 25 26 we're pretty much breaking even um and then in 26 27 we're pretty much turning it around and then ending up with this fund balance of $647,000 uh please keep in mind that we meet the 3% required Reserve because it includes fund 17 and uh fund 17 currently has about $2.8 million so the 2.8 plus the ending balances ensures that we make that 3% um requirement so with that being said um it's you know staff's recommendation um that we do a positive certification so with um uh interim reports there's three different types of certifications there's a positive certification which mean means that you can meet all its Financial Obligations um a qualified certification which means that you may or may not be able to meet all your um financial obligations and a negative qualification or NE negative certification which means that you cannot meet um your financial obligations so we will meet um all our financial obligations based on um our current projections um so some of the next steps is we do have the May Revis which will give us updates on all the things that occurred from the governor's budget and we're currently in the process of starting the 2526 budget development and the elcap any questions questions from the board U goad trusty how thank you thank you so much for the presentation I I just have a couple of questions for you um just going back to um slide number three on the governor's budget highlights um for the student to adult ratios shifting from 12 to1 to 10 to1 is that upon appropriation or will we be um responsible for the additional staff needed for TK it's upon appropriation so um it's been embedded into his initial budget um but that is all up to you know legislation or whatnot and so we'll find out in probably in May to see if that's going to actually be funded so we only have to move to 12:1 if we're actually funded got it and also um I know that numbers are still coming in for our incoming School sites but do we have kind of projections on what our Title One schools will look like with the 10 do we know those numbers yet or are we still the no not not yet and we do have an item on the agenda coming up for title one so we can speak further to it but we need to have the children transition over and then take in their new lunch applications to solidify what those numbers will be thank you um anymore you just had a go ahead comment or question or suggestion I think we brought this up uh last year also uh the possibility of creating a um trust for for retirement I think we we've spoken about it um we did uh I did attend the uh the um the session at the uh our csba um again this here to try to understand better what what it entails and uh from what I understand is we we we need a board resolution to get the trust formed uh and we can fund it any time later uh my suggestion my suggestion would be to try to get the trust established uh from what I understand and maybe maybe you can investigate more it doesn't have to be funded immediately you know if we ever get a one-time uh grant money that that we uh is a surplus at that time we can uh fund that uh fund that trust the benefit of of having money in a trust for retirement is it gives you a better rate of return compared to what what we get right now so in the long run it does it is beneficial for the um for the people that that you know make use of those uh retirement dollars I think we should um as a board at least have a uh you know have a resolution in place to create establish that trust we don't need to do anything more than that um but you know it'll be good to get some uh investigation going on how on uh on how we can um uh you know get that funded and what what are the restri are there any drawbacks or restrictions in doing that but at least get let's get that started you know maybe uh 10 years from now it might be beneficial for for the future uh you know employees of the of the district just want to bring that up because the contribution rates is looking at it it's just just ridiculous it's just um it's just crazy first St and first um that that's a big impact uh for for us so so just wanted to highlight that thanks any more questions comments none thank you Josh very much be two oh that's right I am sorry I'm just looking at the clock that's why sorry I'll make a motion to approve the second interim report second it's been moov and seconded for approval all in favor say I I oppose motion is passed now let's continue to um Roman numeral 2 uh resolution 24-15 appointing 7-1 District advisory Comm um superintendent please it is recommended the board adopt resolution 2415 appointing our 7-Eleven District advisory committee members um Kim if you can please roll up the listing um so there's the listing there of the individuals that we're recommending to bring forward uh if you recall um a 7-Eleven committee is uh legally to be a brown act committee so it'll it'll function as such uh 7-Eleven because you can't have less than seven members and no more than 11 members so we are bringing forward the max 11 to be part of this group um the majority of the individuals on this group uh did participate in our school consolidation advisory committee so they have a lot of background regarding our facilities and needs of the district um we also have others that have been active in other committees in the district um this particular advisory Council does have specific roles that the members need to fulfill so we wanted to be sure that we identified that role um next to their Nam so you can see how it's all outlined there very nice um comments from the board yeah this list has been vetted all the um I mean I recognize most of the names on this um I think one one name uh there was some concern about one parent in that list uh who was part of the um consolidation committee that is probably not not a current parent or something like that so everyone here so everyone on anyone on the committee must be a resident of Bera and so that has all been uh validated to ensure that they they do live within the boundaries in terms of um the roles that they play that is not um that is not required of our teacher for example you know they fulfill a different category if that position required a residential requirement it's listed on the table okay just want to make sure that the the list is uh fully vetted and you know you know who's who's what and what role they're playing correct yes all right um yeah I'll make a motion to adopt the resolution 24:15 thank you I have second second thank you it's been mov and second it this is a roll call vote Miss Gomez please yes president boak I trusty jenez I trusty h i trusty NN I truste Shas I thank you very much motion is passed let's continue on thank you uh Roman numeral 3 Aspen bille company lease agreement for lease of property at 137 six pedmont Road um superintendent please it is recommended the board approve the um at this location uh they um ASP benville company provides um elderly supervision care for the day so I know that we would have uh lots of community members that could benefit from that um the lease agreement that you have here is missing one component and I'm going to let um Kevin explain um what needs to be attached and will be coming to you at an upcoming meeting yeah so what what's missing from the lease agreement which the the lease in itself has been agreed upon by the tenant they've signed off on it um however it's missing Exhibit C which is basically um the work to be done paid for by the tenant to upgrade the site uh to meet their needs and so they weren't able to uh provide that documentation in time um uh for this meeting so the recommendation is to approve the lease conditional on Exhibit C being completed successfully and by a licensed architect and um it would be a mutual agreement on those plans and we would have um the board um re uh uh re-approve the lease inclusive of Exhibit C uh in 60 days so they would have a 60-day uh time frame to provide this exhibit to us for approval thank you any comments from the board could I have a motion please for approval and I'll just provide further clarification that that motion coming from the board will specifically be approval of the lease agreement between date of the lease and we will be bringing that back to you for public approval once again thank you I'll make the motion as described by Dr FAS second it's been moov and seconded all in favor say I I oppose motion is passed um Roman numeral number four rohit's Cleaning Services Inc approval of a cupccaa agreement to refinish the gym floor at the barious Senator byc superintendent please it is recommended the board approve this agreement as stated okay I have a question about this so this is a joint use facility with the city um so is the city contributing any uh money to this or yes they pay half all right oh sounds good to me sounds good to me too sounds good to me um motion please for to approve second thank you very much moved and approved uh well moved and un seconded um all in favor say I I oppos motion is carried C Human Resources uh D Education Services um Roman numeral one Title One Part a schoolwide program s WP waiver for Brook tree Lan view Summerdale Toyon Vincy Park pedmont and Morel uh superintendent please it is recommended the board approve the title one part a schoolwide program waiver for these schools um and this is just to emphasize this is for current year funding for 2425 any any comments from the board none if none please me have a motion for approval move to approve I'll second thank you it's been mov and seconded all in favor say I oppose thank you very much motion pass e Bond program and Roman numeral one it management Inc change order number one for contract 03 D20 23-24 for security alarm system replacement at Noble Summerdale and toon elementary schools superintendent please it is recommended the board approve the it Management Inc change order number one and this is a credit back to the district for $25,000 I'll take that um uh motion for approval please move to approve I'll second thank you it's been mov and seconded all in favor say I I oppose motion is passed Roman numeral two uh mobile modular Inc request to piggyback purchase one uh DSA approved portable classroom and two DSA approved portable restroom buildings from the Santa Rita Union School District bid contract number 2102 four superintendent please it is recommended the board approve the use of the San Rita Union School District bid contract as described thank you any comments from the board if not could I have a motion please for approval move to approve second thank you it's been mov and seconded all in favor say I I oppos motion is carried Roman numeral three Turf star Inc request to piggyback purchase one Toro model GM 5900 commercial lawn mower from The Source will the Toro company of contract number 11 12624 dttc superintendent please thank you it is recommended the board approve uh the use of sourcewell bid pricing as on the contract as described you could see here um the projected cost for these lawnmowers are pretty hefty 151,000 plus uh and not even electric vehicle so um but you know uh definitely uh it's an item that's in desperate need okay thank you any uh comments from the board if none could I have motion please for approval move to approve second that thank you it's been moved and seconded all in favor say I I oppose all right motion is passed number 16 request for followup do we have any request for followup if none let's continue to item 17 items for future agenda my fellow colleagues none just the one that uh I mentioned with the uh with the trust yes that I understand okay number 18 H adjournment adjournment okay um could I have a motion please move to ajour Second it's been moov on seconded for a German it is all in favor say I I oppose well I'm sure none um thank you very much motion is passed we are now meeting is adjourned at 8:32 p.m.

and defend them against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That I will faithfully and impartially That I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of trustees. discharge the duties of trustee for the Bullhead City School District number 15. for the Bullhead City School District number 15. according to the best of my abilities. So help me God. Congratulations. Great job. Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Warren. And welcome to the board. You're welcome, Judy. Going to be an experience of a lifetime. Yes. And when she negotiated her salary for this, we we actually doubled her pay. So, she she's she's that that important to us. Thank you. I'm third. Item four, 1.4, school district funding and budgeting. Uh, our superintendent is going to give us a program today. Good morning. I thought it would be easier if I did it from down here than up there looking across. And um uh you guys have asked for it.

Okay. At any time, stop me if you have questions. Okay. So, funding formulas serve very varied purposes uh uh based on policy. first to fund the basic costs of operating the school. So that means teachers, staff, administration, facilities, all those things and to fund specific cost drivers uh for some areas, special education, the size of the school, uh the district size, e all of those things. Those two things together factor into the state equalization formula. We'll come back to that term a little later. Um the funding also serves specific policies like special ed, title one, K3 literacy, community uh donations and approved oh community approved extras. So that means like bonds, bond elections and override elections and also to provide incentives uh for specific behaviors. So Arizona has uh some kind of incentive things like resultsbased funding. Uh performance pay for us performance pay is in our classroom site fund.

to 2:30 p.m. at Anderson Elementary for Staffing we would be looking at one director one assistant director six teachers one assistant invention Camp 10 to 12 high school student volunteers and then we would anticipate 120 students for Camp invention and 15 students for invention for the invention project so asking for permission for Camp invention thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for Camp invention I'll make a motion to approve 25-1 114 approval Camp invention summer program thank you Mr story do we have a second I'll second thank you Mr Scott any discussion it's a great program yes it is has a parent who both kids went through it yeah it's a phenomenal program and with that we will go to our roll call vote Mr Wallace I Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I Mr B is also an I that motion passes 5 to zero 25-15 approval of mou with above and beyond Dr Brown I'm recommending the board approve the memorandum of understanding with above and beyond above and beyond ABA therapy will provide ABA services to students with whom they work when requested and agreed upon by both parties the services are arranged between above and beyond ABA therapy and the families and are of no cost to the medison Consolidated School schools asking for permission to be able to offer that thank you Dr Brown um 25-15 do we have a motion make a motion we approve 25115 we have a motion from Mr Scott do we have a second for Mr Wallace Mr Wallace will second that all right any discussion seeing that there's no discussion that we will move on to our roll call vote Mr story I Mr Wallace I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an I that motion passes 5 to zero next up 25-16 approval of Rico copier lease agreement Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approve a 60-month RICO copier lease agreement with Rico our leases up on March 2025 the copy machines are vital equipment to the district and having these in working order daily is very important we will be getting a thirdparty buyout of our current equipment of $8,700 plus a new monthly savings of $174 63 with a 16-month savings of $1,477 80 the total monthly cost is $692 with a total cost of the five years $3,110 asking for permission thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for 25-16 approval of Rico copy lease agreement I make a motion to approve 2516 for the copy or lease agreement thank you Mrs yansy do we have a second I'll second thank you Mr story any discussion seeing that there's no discussion we will move on to a roll call vote Mr Wallace I Mr story I Mrs yansy hi Mr Scott I and Mr B is an I that motion passes five to zero um item 25-17 approval of TBR I phase three Consulting agreement Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approve the TBR phase 3 Consulting agreement with hope Al light LLC and the amount of $600 effective June 1 2025 through May 31st 2026 thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for approval of the TBR phase 3 make a motion we approve 25117 thank you Mr Scott do we have a second I have a second thank you Mrs yansy any discussion seeing that there's no discussion we will go to our roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story hi Mrs yansy hi Mr Scott I Mr B is also an I that motion passes 5 next up 25-18 approval of contract with smackin educational Solutions Inc for professional development Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approve the contract with smackin educational Solutions Inc for professional development phase three in the total amount of 12393 we will have in-person on-site training for new teachers or teachers who missed the previous launching the Workshop this day will be grades K to 2 8:00 to 11:00 followed by grades 3 to 12 12 to 4 for $ 33100 teachers will receive the $50 stien for attending half a day of professional development this total will depend on the number of teachers needing to attend we're also purchasing teach writing PD miniseries a collection of 11 professional learning videos we will complete this study during the 25 26 school year as a district by elementary schools Junior High and high school the cost of that is 6,293 smackin phase three will be a title two funded program for a total of 12393 so that would be coming out of title funds with the half day stiens estimated at 3,000 to 9393 depending on the number of Staff who attend that so asking for permission thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for 25-18 I'll make a motion to approve 25-18 approval of contract with smackin education solution in for professional development thank you Mr story do we have a second I'll second thank you Mrs yansy any discussion seeing none we'll move on to our roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story I Mrs jansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an I that passes 25-19 approval to join the mids Southern Conference Dr Brown I'm recommending the board approved to join the mids Southern Conference the tentative timeline for us to join fully starting in 2026 2027 school year other schools that would be in that Athletic Conference would be Austin Browntown Charlestown coryan North Harrison Salem Scottsburg and Silver Creek we've been working for five years to be able to get into a conference Patrick spent an incredible amount of time working on this and he finally uh been able to make that happen with the other school districts and so we're asking for your approval to join that conference thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for 25-19 approval to join the mids Southern Conference I'll make a motion we approve 25119 thank you Mr Scott do we have a second I'll second thank you Mrs yansy any discussion Patrick thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the effort that you put in to make this happen yeah thank you for your persistence I too would like to thank Patrick I know he's been working uh very hard to to achieve this and there is so many positives of being a member of a conference such as this and uh and I think Patrick recognizes that and worked hard to get us there so thanks Patrick good job Patrick man he's not be able to walk out the door tonight let's calm down uh all seriousness is somebody who competed in the Hills conference somebody who coached in the Hooser Hills conference and somebody who's coached outside of the Hooser Hills conference and know now who has kids that compete I can't stress the importance of this from an athletic standpoint uh for the last couple years not having athletes not receive all conference was an absolute just total uh we just weren't serving our students the best by not having that that just steps up to other opportunities uh some people didn't see that but I mean I was just heartbroken for the last years when we couldn't do that so I before I was on the school board I probably text Patrick every two months and he conference yet are we in a conference yet come on what can we do at one point hey Patrick let's start a conference I was like the crazy dad forever like what can we do so Patrick thank you I see the coaches here tonight uh it's going to be it's going to be great I'm excited so that's all I have anybody else have anything else excting broke all right roll call vote Mr Wallace all Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is an i and with that Madison is in the mids Southern [Applause] Conference next up um item agenda 25-220 approval to declare wrestling mats Obsolete and of no further use to the corporation Dr Brown I'm recommending the board declared two old resolite did I say that right wrestling mats Obsolete and have no further use to the corporation uh thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion I make a motion to approve 25120 thank you Miss yansy do we have a second I'll second I'll second David Mr sorry Mike thank you Mr story uh any discussion on the old dirty wrestling mats I see none we'll go to roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and I a definite I that five nothing and motion passes thank you 25-12 one approval of farm project at Deputy Elementary School Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approv the farm project at Deputy Elementary School this is something they're very excited about and done a lot of planning essentially the third graders will be part of the design process and building a chicken coup they will work alongside a former deputy student who is now a Community member that owns Big Creek Metal Works he has also agreed to build the coupe in your packet Mrs Stoner attached a picture of what his CPS look like Jennifer colen will be leading the stem project the PK students will be offered the opportunity to join the chicken tender Club where they will be responsible for hatching the chickens feeding the chickens and collecting the eggs this will be done from the outside of the C so they will not be exposed to the chickens so we are asking for permission for them to begin that project thank you do we have a motion I'll make a motion to approve 25-11 approval of farm pro project at Deputy elementary school thank you Mr story second Miss yansy yes second miss yansy any discussion I just want to say that um I think this is really cool and I truly enjoyed their crop farming that Deputy did last year and was constantly putting Facebook updates out there so um for knowing what they did last year I'm very excited to see what this is going to happen um for this summer so pretty cool any other seeing there's no other discussion we'll go to the row call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story hi Mrs yansy hi Mr Scott I and Mr bin is also an i motion passes 5 2-122 approval of resolution to distribute supplemental payment stien with early literacy achievement Grant funds Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approve the resolution to distribute a supplemental payment stien with the early literacy achievement Grant funds this must be distributed by the end of March this is a cash dipen to award teachers interventionists and instructional support Personnel who are responsible for the implementation and delivery of literacy and reading instruction through grade three through the 2324 school year and who maintain employment with the corporation um on the date of the distribution I will add that last year we qualified for 11,000 this year we qualified for more than 55,000 due to improved academic growth and achievement that's awesome that's all good news wow thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion to accept 25-22 I make a motion to approv 25122 do we have a second I'll second any discussion being that there's no discussion we will go to roll call vote Mr Wallace I Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an i motion carries five to nothing 25-23 approval of reconciliation of teacher payment 2020 resolution Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approve the reconciliation of teacher payment 2020 resolution we are requesting approval from the board to write off a salary overpayment from 2020 of $127 as we reconcile our Books thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for 25- one23 make a motion we approve make go ahead Mike yeah I make a motion we approve 25123 Mr St like a second yeah yep any discussion see if there's no discussion we'll go to our roll call vote Mr Wallace I Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an I that motion carries 50 25-24 approval of sound production engineer teaching position and Doc job description for Madison Jr High School Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board approved the creation of a new position within the district sound production engineer teacher this instructor would be responsible for teaching students in grades 6 through 12 about music literacy recording studio Basics technical Concepts and music business principles they would guide students through various stages of skill development from introductory Concepts to Advanced recording production techniques fostering a collaborative and Creative Learning environment this position would align with the district's commitment to providing a well-rounded education that that prepar students for a variety of future opportunities the addition of the specialized instructor would enhance our music and arts curriculum and provide students with valuable skills and experiences and it is cost neutral as we would be um replacing an occurrent elective so would be no no additional cost okay thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion for 25-24 make I'll motion to approve 25124 approval sound production engineering teaching position and job description for Madison Jor high school thank you Mr story do you have a second I'll second thank you Mr Scott any discussion I it's not part of this but I think it probably needs to be said that um we are looking at putting a Sound Studio in the junior high so this position goes this new position goes with a new facilities upgrade for the corporation thank you Mr Scott any other discussion I'd like to thank our Administration and our faculty who's constantly working hard to uh to grow our curriculum and to add more programs for our for our students to be involved in this is so important for our kids to to have every opportunity to be involved in something positive this is outside the box and I I think it's going to be another big success so I appreciate everybody's effort uh for this program yeah i' I've kind of joked before with the board and saying that I honestly don't recognize what the school corporation offers uh today versus when I graduated way back in the Stone Age so U kudos to um all the innovations that we continue to bring to the table thank you Mr Scott Mr Wallace uh we will go to our roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story hi Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an I that passes 5 2-125 approval to declar softball uniforms Obsolete and of no further use to the corporation Dr Brown yeah I'm recommending the board declar some old Junior High softball uniforms Obsolete and have no further use to the corporation they purchased new uniforms in 2023 and 24 to replace them the current uniforms that they want to replace are dry rotted stained and no further use to anyone so we like permission to dispose of those thank you Dr Brown do we have a motion to pass 25-25 make a motion we approve 25125 thank you Mr Scott do we have a second I'll second second Miss yansy beat you to it Mr Wallace any discussion being that there's no discussion that will take us to our roll call vote Mr Wallace hi Mr story I Mrs yansy I Mr Scott I and Mr B is also an I that passes 5 Z hey next we have moving on to our reports first up is our student representative Miss Emma WN good evening um first of all my most important announcement this evening happy birthday to miss fam so everyone sure happy birthday a um and then we covered a lot of my shoutouts at the beginning of the meeting so I'll just wish a like congratulations and a big shout out to all of the students who were recognized tonight um I had so many friends here and I love seeing everybody here getting recognized I also wrote down that um I'm always just so impressed by all of our FFA members and students they're just so impressive and well-rounded and so I had to give them a shout that as well um spring sports are starting so be on the lookout for those athletic calendars to come and support all of our Junior High and high school athletes I want to extend a huge congratulations to the share show cast crew and Orchestra it was a fantastic show so thank you to everyone who came to watch um and then I want to give a special shout out to Miss Grayson um this was our last our last show with her um so we're all going to miss her so much and while I'm shouting out people who have been here for all High School um shout out to coach John he was my coach for like 11 years so I couldn't have done high school without either either of those people so thank you for all you've done for us anyway go ahead and mark your calendars for Hades Town um our last High School Musical April 11th through the 13th and congratulations to all of our students who have been in honors band in honor bands recently um and the annual Custer contest will take place on April 4th at 7 o'clock this is such a fun contest to come to I love going every year um so come and watch and see some students hard work um the junior high theater is currently working on Wizard of Oz so I'm super excited about that everybody go see that more information to come and congratulations to all of our Junior High swimmers who have been breaking left records like left and right they are so great we have such a good program right now at the high school and so many great kids coming up um I wanted to give a shout out to all of our sophomores who recently participated in community service and we had some great sophomores give tours to the eighth graders on crossing the ditch day so that's great and thank you to all the community members who came to speak to the senior class on that sat day we saw some really great presentation so I thought that that was a great way for us to fill that day um I also want to congratulate Miss Bullock officer mcveay Miss Len Neil on their Awards last night um and it was so fun to go to cup Fest it I thought it was really successful it was great I love seeing all the elementary schools in the gym and all the junior high and high school things and we got to perform so it was so fun to see all of the the things going on at Madison right now um and next week is the MCS spring break so everybody have a great spring break and a great rest of your night thank you Miss Emma win um that'll bring us to our open public comments uh we do have some procedures to read the following procedures will be followed for Citizens wishing to address the board during public open comments number one resolutions to questions or concerns are to be addressed first at the building level and then with the super intendent before being brought to the board number two those addressing the board will speak in a manner suitable for a public forum number three those speaking shall refrain from making any personal references or attacks number four time limit of three minutes will be imposed depending on the number of people requesting to speak any group wishing to speak regarding the same agenda item may speak up to 20 minutes or less total time for public comments will be limited to 30 minutes or less if a patron does not follow the guidelines the board May close Patron comments and move on to the next agenda item for the meeting or the patron may be asked to leave we have one person signed up to speak this evening Shad Britain you may come up thank you okay thank you I mean obviously those are Personnel matters that we cannot discuss the particulars um we will notify the with another update on a letter when permanent decisions are made going forward and I I'll just while you're there and I'll go ahead and do my comment my board comments right now if that's okay um I do want to thank you for taking your time to come and speak tonight parents and community members are the backbores of our school system and it's important that they feel welcome to come and speak so thank you for coming Mr Brittain um when decisions are made that impact Personnel we are not at Liberty to discuss specific matters we have been trans arent as much as we can be in ways that we're able to be and we'll continue to inform our families as decisions are made going forward I will tell you that I'm a parent of two Madison Consolidated School students and being that I'm also a member of the Board of Trustees I can tell you I take all this very seriously uh we as a board want to make sure that we have the most professional caring and nurturing employees in our school system our children are our most important asset that we have and we will not be leveraged against anything that doesn't support a professional caring and nurturing environment in school Community employees with Madison School should have one goal and one vision and that is our students I sit here tonight and Mr Britt I'm reading this but I can confidently tell you and everyone in attendance that none of this has been compromised with any of the decisions that been made by Dr Brown or this board sometimes the unpopular move is a move that needs to be made to protect our assets which is our children we will always put our children first and we always make sure that they are safe so thank you I appreciate it as a parent I appreciate you know that we're doing everything we can to make sure your students are safe out at rers Ridge thank you um that will take us to the rest of our board member comments I'm going to start with our virtual guys so uh Mr story I'm going to keep mine short I'm up here in Canada sorry I couldn't be there but I just want to say Dustin great job today well thank you Mr I have to say you did a really good job this is something completely unusual um in all my years I'm being on the board I hadn't done it um hadn't seen this done like this so um if I was on video earlier you probably saw me panicking because since I'm in Canada for pledge of allegiance I had to scramble real fast to find American flag and stuff so great job to all the athletes all the other students um that got recognized and thank you for the parent for speaking uh this afternoon uh we do appreciate it uh Dustin thank you for your response to that as well so that's it thank you David John Wallace I'd also like to thank the the parent that came before us tonight um we do want to hear from our from our parents and um and our board meetings are always open to them and and I appreciate him taking the time to to speak with us certainly doesn't fall upon that like congratulate uh Lindsay Bullock our teacher of the year welld deserved very proud of her I'd like to also thank all the ones that uh were involved in the cubfest and and the hard work they put into uh to that successful event certainly a lot of effort was put into it and our students tonight um again I think that goes back to show how vast our programs are and how we continue to still want to build upon them as we've uh as we've done here tonight so appreciate them being there and congratulations to all their hard work and their success and definitely want to thank our our teacher parents who came in and gave their testimony tonight with regards to our early childhood Care Center I think that that I think it says it all and how positive this program is and and to Sean Mr Pennington thank you so much for the scientific viewpoints of it uh my only hope and goal is to expand this to uh to all of our parents in our community so they can have the same fulfillment that our parent teachers uh testify to here tonight it's it's so important and U and Miss Kim uh Miss Lions say she's just doing a wonderful job and it shows so we definitely thank her for for all her hard work and and in close um is Janet still in the room yeah I'd like to know how many of those 350 diapers that you participated [Laughter] in well hey she's an honest girl so all right hey thank you Mr Wallace Mr Scott thank you and hey great job and thanks to Josh again for putting this on Force good job um I also want to say a big shout out to everybody who was involved in the celebration last night um for um basically the best of the best within our school corporation everybody who was even nominated uh that's an honor in itself um but for those who uh were the ultimate uh uh recipients uh a job well done uh it is fun to um celebrate um good things in our school corporation um Kim and the parents um outstanding um we could have probably just let Addie do her thing and then stopped right there um but in all seriousness the one agenda item we had tonight is the first step of several steps that we have to take to expand uh what we currently have at the Junior High um at where e Muny currently stands so I'm excited uh for the future but there's with all things government there's steps uh as you well know John and um so thank you for everything that that you've done um and the last thing I want to say to all employees at MCS is have a very enjoyable and safe spring break thank you Mr Scott Miss yansy well there's not much left to say um I Echo pretty much everybody's um sentiments tonight um thank you for coming and speaking about your school um we um hear your passion and and your concerns so um and thank you for Dustin for his very eloquent um resp response I think we all feel the same that the most important thing is that you know everybody our students are safe and that we have you know the right people in the right places so um thank you for that and um big shout out to the parents that come in and spoke tonight on the um the pre or the Early Childhood Center um it's great to hear that you know we kind of hear a lot of things secondhand about how great it's going but than to have the parents come in and and the children um just you know affirms that so um thank you and thank you Kim for coming and Sharon and Shan um appreciate that very much um and congratulations to all the students that were here tonight um and um everybody have a great spring break it's great weather this week hopefully it goes on till next week that's right that's right thank you Miss yansy uh one thing I do want to say is Miss W share show was awesome I don't know if that got mentioned at any point but I mean it was fantastic so congratulations and thanks to you and the the theater crew Dr Brown um yes so first of all uh thank you to um Kim um and also to Shan appreciate you guys coming and to our teacher parents who came after working all day to share their story of what's going on and Cent so thank you for that Teresa um thank you for all you've done for our kids it was great to see them recognized tonight and their love for you surely will shine for many many years after you retire and leave us um Josh and Karen thank you so much for making all of this happen I know this was incredible to put together appreciate that congratulations to our teacher of the year for 2025 Lindsay Bullock to LY Neil the classified operations employee of the year and to Jacob McVey the classified support person of the year so uh we have 500 employees in Madison schools uh we celebrated um many uh nominees last night and the three winners were certainly very deserving so we're very proud of them also last night we were fortunate because graciella Miranda who's the 2025 teacher of the year for the state of Indiana joined us um and sent me a really nice email today about how much she enjoyed um seeing and hearing um our stories in Madison and she plans to come back and visit so we impressed her too uh the share show it was on my list um congratulations to our own Emma um you did a super job and uh the shareff show was amazing um our theater Department is literally Second To None I've I mean I've been at this 38 years I've never seen programs like our high school puts out it's just incredible you guys are amazing um also cubfest was spectacular um we had so many people we were able to to Showcase um so many programs and kids and teachers and just a lot of great things happening in our school district also a big thank you to Patrick for the mids Southern Conference work that you've done um greatly appreciate it and lastly spring break is next week thank you and I would like to wish my Pam a happy birthday because I would never forget you should we sing ever no should we sing once you reach a certain age you don't have to sing oh okay please ever thank you Dr Brown the board will conduct a work session on Thursday April 3rd 2025 at 4:30 p.m.