I was with them, supporting them, giving them ideas on how to support. I still keep in touch with students from uh from that school, students from Rosa Parks that that were Hispanic. on and on and on. I could go on about the different students that are Hispanic or groups of Hispanics or events that I've attended. I do not look at Hispanic students any different than I look at any other student in this um that I've ever worked with or that goes to any school or that I've supported. So, that is a false narrative. I I did not support. Yes, I did not vote uh for or against the resolution because I didn't think there was a real need for it. And when given the opportunity, nobody could explain to me or the other members why the resolution was needed. But it was suggested that if we're going to have a resolution, why don't we just point out our policy and the strengths of our policy and what we already do versus writing a resolution.
A lot of kids are interested. We love that. Uh getting kids involved in school. And again, very successful every year, not only individually, but at the team level. I've even come over here a few times and have watched them. Always impressed. You know what I'm impressed with most, Mr. Ribitch? And also just teamwork. I didn't think there was much teamwork, but there really is. And helping out each other and uh there's more to it than just playing some video games. So, I'm a fan. Yeah. said this is my favorite game that they do for the um for the esports by far because as you mentioned the teamwork. Yeah. Um again as in football which we're both you know very you know done a lot of you're only as strong as your weakest link in this and if your healer's not healing or your your tank's not absorbing damage or whatever you you know things don't go well.
The role of coordinator is so incredibly vital in supporting our most vulnerable population and the educators like myself who work tirelessly for them. Not only does this person have to be a conduit to families for scheduling and advocating, but they have to know the Massachusetts and federal special education laws inside and out. They work non-stop to make sure that their students, families, and school staff don't get bogged down in little things that could amount to larger things slipping through the cracks over time. They ensure the validity of IEPs as well as holding educators to a high standard of implementation. All of the various roles a coordinator overseas are important and crucial to Saho remaining synonymous with being a district that excels. Eliminating this role also places an incredibly heavy burden on already taxed educators to pick up the slack left behind. It is not sustainable full stop.
Um I know that um Canon public schools have a number of teachers and administrators who are residents and I'd like to suggest to them um to continue to promote uh bicycle safety by um participating in the bike to work event which is May 16th. Um the safe routes to school report uh made several important recommendations and the temporary traffic and pedestrian safety advisory committee forwarded um their recommendations after reviewing that report to the board of selectmen and um that committee is counting on the board of education to support creating school zones um to create a safer passage for the pedestrian and cyclists. Um I have to make some a few additional comments because I I didn't realize that the um policy committee meeting was not hybrid. Um it didn't say in person only on the agenda. So I just want to make a few comments about um that agenda over there.
Looks good. Okay. Um great. Um so I think there's one of the things is there's probably some awareness and some lack of awareness around what's already in place and what's happening in terms of um uh what's happening within the city what's happening through OSI and elsewhere and um what I might propose and I would invite all of you um if you have resources and materials sort of at your fingertips and you want to add to this um we might be able to sort of co-edit and co-create and sort build that out a little bit. I'm going to try to pull from the slide deck that we had shared previously um from some things that had come up for example um from the uh uh these were city administrator recommendate recommended um incentives and I don't know to the extent that they're um so I'll just start down here for example um and add those to the list um and uh this was just from that first slide in that and what we might try to do is is just build this out as well.
We want adequacy. And adequacy is not what you might think when you hear the word. It doesn't mean you're provided an adequate education. Adequacy means that you're provided with enough to meet your needs. My needs at dinner may be more than your needs because I'm a large mammal. So funding then was changed to a weighted formula for each district based on the number of students in that district and the characteristics of those students. And what do I mean by characteristics? meaning we know it costs more money to educate a child with a disability. Okay, we we we know that takes more resources takes more resources to educate a child who's an MLL which is a multilanguage learner. So, the state created a weighted system and the weighted system is based on a base amount and that base amount is what the state says it costs to educate an elementary student in New Jersey.
So just going down this list, we would maintain elementary extracurriculars, maintain elementary and middle school late buses, pause the increases to walking, maintain middle school and elementary class sizes. That's a big one. We would maintain benefits for our pair of professionals who had them at the time when our district stopped hiring pair professionals full-time. So that would just leave seven who um were not benefited at that time who would lose benefits and we would maintain the team structure. No class in place of team time. We will look to explore ways to increase teacher contact time during that during that time span. But it keeps our team structure which is so um core to our identity of our middle schools intact. Transportation. So transportation was not on that list of things to maintain. Two reasons. One budgetary savings. Second reason, operational challenges. We outsource twothirds of our bus routes already.
No. Okay. So, well, we're we're happy that she got it. She's from sixth grade. And then our next student is Neoni Oging. She is getting two awards because she got student of the month last month and then she's getting it for PE this month. So good job to Neoni. She has demonstrated remarkable progress in her class and she is kind to her peers and always showing good character, puts good effort in every activity she does. And she would like to make the world a better place by being kind to everyone because you don't know what others are going through. Thank you and congratulations and high school. Hello, President Wendia. Um, board members, um, Superintendent Diaz's families. Um, so the secondary students of the month, we're going to go ahead and start with the seventh grade team, Ally Juan as the March student of the month.
Good job. Thank you. She's an outstanding teacher. I was in her class several times. She does a a terrific job and quality human being. We'll miss you. Principal Hoffmeer. I'm 0 for two tonight. Mrs. Rollins. Kimberly Rollins is our teacher of the month at the junior high. Ironically, she is actually over at the junior high um working on home instruction with one of our students. And so that's why she's not able to be here tonight. Um, so she, this is just a testament to her, the many hours that she puts in to make sure she provides daily what our students need. Um, and her dedication to our special education population is just unmatched. It's she is an incredible teacher. She's so valuable to our students and to our teachers. When we have new teachers come in, um, she is the mentor teacher. I say go and you need to go into that classroom.
She listens attentively and follows directions. She's excited about extracurricular activities and is always full of questions. Ava, keep on being the best because you are the best. Congratulations, Miss Janette in second grade writes, "Congratulations on being named Hold of the Month, Leah. Your hard work and dedication never cease to amaze me, and I'm so proud of all that you've accomplished. Your love for reading is truly inspiring, and it's wonderful to see how much joy you find in books. You bring such a positive and welcoming energy to everyone around you. And your kindness in making friends and ensuring that everyone feels safe is a beautiful example of what it means to be a great student and friend. Keep shining, Lyanna. You're such an incredible part of our school community. Congratulations. [Music] Mrs. Noland in third grade writes, "Lilian has consistently demonstrated exceptional dedication, hard work, and a positive attitude toward learning.
Um, also dollars in the classroom, very low in administration, which is where we want to be. um tied with Mesa and plant operations. Again, um lowest on the grid, food service and transportation. So, we do want to celebrate Gilbert's result in comparison to our local districts. Um we are higher where we want to be and a little bit lower where we where we want to be. And I wanted to point out to I wanted to point out too that um to compare ourselves with administrative spend with Mesa. Keep in mind that the larger you are really generally you should see uh economies of scale. So your administration spend should be less on a per student basis. So or on a percentage basis. It's really quite remarkable that Mesa is nearly double our size and we're matching pretty closely with that 8.2% to administration which is something to celebrate for sure.
and that and I stand by it. I still believe in it. I think that if we were to point out our policy and take those pieces and do it, I can hey, I'm fine with it. I didn't think it needed to be a resolution. And again, when I ran even when I run it past my daughter, she without me saying anything, she's like, why do a resolution? What's the point of a resolution in this case? People can disagree, but I feel like we already have stuff and we just need to the policy is what we are governed by and what we follow. Yeah. And like I said, I agree with you. I I just it was redundant in my opinion. I just thought it was saying the same exact thing. That's it. That's that's the way we have policies. We follow them and Okay. Yeah.
So again, the communication, you guys won't be able to hear them but on the stream, but these kids are constantly con, you know, in contact talking to each other and just like they would on a basketball court or anywhere else, which is definitely cool to see. Why don't you read one of our sponsors, Mr. Let's go. You hear another joke about the last Let's do one sponsor then a joke. All right. Hey, a quick shout out to some of our sponsors. Huge shout out to our local huge our local internet provider, Adams Wells Internet, Telecom and TV. Well, you know, just so you know, Mr. Riich, I use Adam Wells's internet TV, your inter telecom TV. I hope I don't get any special deals by saying that. Probably not allowed to, but they're directly responsible for our esports players to be able to compete because of their incredibly fast and reliable fiber internet service.
Now more than ever when there is a teacher shortage, educators need to feel supported and this directly opposes that. This will leave them drowning in more paperwork and day-to-day logistical issues and less hands-on direct teaching or inclusion time. The special education needs of students is only growing in a postcoid world and reducing the amount of support for our students and family will only families will only weaken Tando's reputation. Thank you. Thank you. Hello everybody. Forgive me, I'm a little nervous. I don't normally speak in front of groups of adults. I read mine. Hello, my name is Elena Spron and I'm a first year special education teacher here at Tanto Regional Middle School. I'm here today to just express my deep concern about the proposed elimination of the special ed coordinator position. Over the past few years, I've worked as a student teacher app and now teacher.
Um I had made some comments on October 8th, 2024 about the homework policy um and requested that it be reviewed. Um the National Education Association and the National uh PTA also recommended that homework be 10 minutes rule per grade. Um so maximum of 120 minutes in 12th grade and that's not what our current policy is. So I'd like you to review that and I haven't seen it on any agendas. I'm also requesting that that committee uh look at a communications policy with parents regarding staffing changes in the classroom. um whether staffing changes are temporary or permanent. Um it's really important that the kids are made aware of any staffing changes because some kids are very sensitive and they need to be informed about what is happening. Um, and then lastly, I wanted to comment on the well, not not lastly, there you were looking at the bullying policy, and I I do feel like the school maybe could provide some additional education and support about bullying, particularly something in your policy that's missing is silent bullying.
And I also know I believe Joe, you were also um might be able to give a little bit of an overview of some of these things as well. So, we might be able to add and append that. And what we might want to try to do is annotate this to the extent possible that we we understand sort of what's in place, what's happening. Um but then also build out things that aren't that might be preferred as well. Um that might maybe aren't um if that's if that's workable. Yeah, sounds good. Do you want me to pop in now or any other clarifications? Level why don't you go in now and then we can we can we can all sort of take notes and add and add and begin adding to this and then we'll try to make sense of sense of things as we go.
And that number has gone up over the years, but this year the base number for every elementary student in our district to be provided with an adequate education or to meet adequacy is $14,972. That's the baseline. To get the weighted formula, you take that number and a middle school student, you multiply that by 1.2. And a high school student is, I think, 1.4. And a special ed student is weighted more. And an MLL student is weighted more. And so, there's a very important day that happens each year in my world, and that's October 15th. And that's the date of the ASSA. That's the application for state student aid. October 15th is the day we count the children in our district. If you're on our roles, October 15th, you count as our student and we get state aid or at least our adequacy budget is made up of the number of students on our roles by category on that date, October 15th.
What else will we do beyond that? So that first slide was maintaining what we've already said would have to be reduced if we don't take this additional levy, any of it. This slide is about trying to help our district move upward and forward towards adequacy. things that districts with adequacy, with an average budget enjoy and benefit from for their students, like reducing our elementary class size back to its max sizes from 2122 school year, restoring secretaries in place of Kirk Typus in the in two middle school offices. Many of these positions, by the way, are things that were cut or reduced in prior budget years. restoring full funding of the one tier three position whose cost is currently shared with the Ed Foundation which we greatly appreciate that support from the Ed Foundation and that shared agreement needs a lasting solution. We would restore our fund balance to the 2% maximum which is recommended.
Alli Juan is the daughter of Roswell Juan. Ally is a student athlete playing volleyball for the Lady Cougars. She's an active member of the middle school student council serving as the seventh grade secretary. Alli's favorite class this year is culture with Miss Cloia Martin because she likes learning about her Anthem history and doing fun projects. Her favorite teacher is also Miss Cloia because Miss Martin is a very nice teacher and she's always there to help you out when you have a problem. After graduating from Babokri High School, Ally plans on going to college at the University of Arizona. Bear down. Alli's future career or her current career goal is to become a teacher. One person Ally greatly admires is her mo was her mom. Ally would like to honor her and thank her for all her love and support. Keep up the good work, Ally.
Um, and you need to see what she does. her organization, um her passion for education, her patience with students. Um it is just unbelievable and um and Blige is is so lucky to have her. Thank you. Braraw Award will go elementary, junior high, and then high school. Beginning with Mr. Grace. So for the Brar, we have two people that work on our campus and they were uh nominated together as a team. So I think one is here. So Miss Strs, come on up. So Miss Strs and Miss Lois Good are our BR star for the month. They are our occupational therapy and physical therapy team. Um, so let me pull this up for what was said about them because there is a lot of great things to say. Miss says she's sorry she can't come. She's in White River doing physical therapy. Correct. Miss Miss Lois is is in White River.