It's not just going through just the capital. Yeah. And you guys have a like people have said, we're so grateful you guys have a hard job. We're just trying to work together as this is not an issue of us not agreeing that it's a serious problem. We're all on the same page about like that it needs to be addressed. It's just figuring out how to get there. All right. We don't want to take up too much. Yeah. Thank you. But to Marcy's point, if if that helped answer, you know, some of the concerns or questions that some of uh the folks online had, but certainly willing to keep going with whatever uh input anybody wants to give. So, I see people, but I don't see hands. I do want to make sure you all have your opportunity. Anybody feel like they need clarification on anything else or want to just give some input?
We're actually expecting it to possibly be even harder. Um, I think that there were many problems that I had with the mayor's statement and certainly with the number that she put forward to us. But, um, I think it it is true that given the these numbers, uh, the concept of keeping all five schools open looks pretty untenable to me. Um, so that's why I will I think we need to take a fresh look at redistricting um in light of the new economic realities uh that we're faced with and um the enrollment trends. Any other discussion, questions, comments? Um member Denife. Um, so I am the current chair of the redistricting and reorganizing ad hoc committee and we are pulling for a meeting to happen shortly with the mayor, myself, vice chair ston, superintendent patode, and Steven Sullivan. So I believe that it is the correct practice according to our handbook and our policy manual to have those discussions begin in their subcommittees and then bring them to the full committee.
17th grade. That's right. I sure was. Of course, it was before the Washington DC trip that everybody got to go on besides me and it was a perpetual trophy. So, I got a thesaurus though and I will tell you something. I still have it and I used it all through college and it says I still have it and inside it has the Madera County because the schools Madera County schools sponsored and it still has my name Denise Gerard seventh grade. So anyway, for some like I wasn't a giant athlete, but you know, there's always an avenue for kids and so that was my strength. And so anyway, I think it's super cool that that you guys still that we still do those types of things because every kid has a chance of success. So So I'd be happy to be there if you need a word master.
It's basically it's a a cell dividing. The middle of the of the valley is getting bluer and it's pushing the red or more conservative areas out and certainly your area falls into that. Also in Panau County, it's a rapidly growing community. In fact, if if Santan were to incorporate, it would immediately be the largest community in the entire in all of Panel County. It would be larger than Maricopa. It would be larger than Cassag Grand. Um, and so it's a large concentration of folks. So, uh, when you look at that, I'll say that there's more a little bit more optimism in general for bonds overall. What we really see is those districts really struggle with overrides. uh with to basically to every district that I've measured really struggles with overrides. From the bond perspective, building things is starting to come back. There was a few years there where conservatives were not wanting to build things for whatever reason.
As I mentioned, there's 13 disability categories. There has to be some kind of educational deficit uh that creates a need for specialized instruction or related services. So if the student ha meets those criteria, then the student qualifies for an individualized education plan with specially designed instruction and related services. And then each of those plans is calculated um based for the individual students needs. An interesting thing that came up as part of this audit was the um comments about um programming and um least restrictive environment and things like that. And one of the things um that they talked about was looking at the data overall. We know our teachers do an amazing job with our individual students. They do a great job writing progress reports, looking at IEPs, making sure we're updating. Where we have struggled is if we want to compare groups of students. So, we're looking at reasonably calculating how much reading time a student needs and whether that should be pullup time or in-class time.
It's not a thing we use or that is helpful right now either. We don't have a need for it currently, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't exist. I'm I'm failing with the may do this and then six pages of text afterward. That's where that's where I'm inherently rebelling. Write the policy. I'm I I'm the checklist and it's but it's something that's there as a reference should the board need it down the line. It is it is in press so it is something that will come up for review at the very minimum every 5 years or more often if there's any changes to uh press on this sooner than that. So it is still out there and exists because it is part of press. It may not be adopted right now by our district but it it is still out there as a reference guide that the board could pull it at any time if they wanted and incorporate it later.
That allows me as to your point, I could come over to Dr. Thomas who's chatting away with Mr. Sheepard and just be in close proximity while continuing my instruction. So for different classroom management reasons, sorry Dr. Thomas. um or just student engagement. Like I said, students being able to project and now involving students in that learning environment. It's really an opportunity to bring Carrie forward. Um see what I did there? See what I did there? Uh bring Carrie forward into education of today with technology. I um I see both sides of it. Like I totally get it. Like I'm the first one to buy the latest tech and I'm I'm a nut. But I do also think that um before we rubber stamp something that going forward everything's going to be this way. Kind of like jumping on board with iPads. It's like we're in we're all in that we need to get some feedback and we need to see from our staff how these things are working before we say okay here's a rubber stamp now from now on all the classrooms we're phasing you all in.
I know they were super excited uh, about that. We had six rotations. Uh but we did meet a um statemandated um uh piece that we had to um accomplish with our seniors where where every senior had to be involved in a um career discovery meeting that lasts 30 minutes and the the group size had to be uh six or fewer. Um so to get every senior involved in a six or fewer a small group with somebody that's qualified to do that and you become qualified by the state saying you're qualified and it can't be anyone within the high school. There's all sorts of little um hoops we had to jump through. Um but uh we were able to work with our our student services team and Janelle Smith um and Megan Wely with college career readiness coach um to really um make something super beneficial for our students there.
I see him. Jason. Jason. Hey everybody. Uh, I'm Jason McDonald. I'm with the Ashlin lacrosse, but also have coached every sport that we've all been talking about. So, um, I like I said, I have three kids and I've coached everything. So, um, just, you know, same thing on the on the topic of the fields though, just help me understand what does what do other towns do? How do they handle this? Is it always a town kind of thing that they're they're managing it and they own the budget for it or because we're all advocating for, you know, the best for our kids and our facilities and and all that, right? And we're all paying rental fees, right? I don't think anyone's getting anything for free. And we only get it at 6:30 a night. So, like it's like 12 hours of school property, right? And so we really want this to to we're really trying to emphasize that we want this for for that.
So we are going to have agenda items where we bring forward out of the box thinking ideas to that meeting. [Music] So I guess I'm just making that as a statement more than a discussion option. Just saying that we are going to discuss it in the same careful thoughtful manner that I think that we did before and we'll have some ideas and options to bring to the full committee. Yeah. And I I have two responses to that. The first is just that um the school committee needs to give you all a charge as a subcommittee um to actually take on a project. So um that's part of what tonight's discussion will lead to hopefully would be what is the school committee actually asking you to do as an ad hoc uh committee. But we do not have time for the um 202526 school year to engage in a a long deliberative uh process or even a short deliberative process.
I'm an excellent word master. Anyway, that's all you guys. Wonderful. whether it's texting, you know, everyone has good things they share and I wish I could have gone to the knowledge safe lives. I was busy that day, but just enjoying uh Mrs. Gwyn's uh kindergarten class and I do that on Fridays and getting to know these little ones and see improvements every week is really encouraging their behavior and all of that. But there was something I I was reflecting on. Um there's a documentary called uh 22 Words. And you know, it's kind of a serious thing I was reflecting on, but um I don't know if you guys have ever heard about the 22-word prayer that used to be recited in public school for decades. And some people found it offensive. Uh and this was in New York. And so it was removed in 1963.
It used to be 10 years ago if it was a bond, you could get conservatives to vote yes on it because they like to build bu buildings and buses. Um it fell off for a while. Um but it's starting to come back. So, I think it's within line, but I mean 62% is probably one of the higher ones that I measured. As I said, I like to see a our benchmark for a pre-EST is about 55%. We like to see it around there or higher. You know, post test, we like to see 50 to 55%. You're at 62%. So, you're on the higher end of the benchmark we like to see. Okay. All right. Any other questions? I'd like to thank you for all of your information and time. Oh, no. I was just going to say just for perspective also thank you uh for coming.
We don't have a system or didn't have a system to look at that overall. So, we wanted to compare all the students in the district who were getting 60 minutes of reading support in the classroom versus students getting 60 minutes of reading support outside of the classroom. Before Branching Minds, we had no way to actually look at that data because we have 420 kids in the district with IEPs and we would literally have to pull each one of those 420, take a look at what the services are, group them. It it just would be such an overwhelming task. That's something we're still learning how to use branching minds, but that's the kind of thing that we can look at big picture to see is this uh intervention more effective. Is this method more effective pull out or push in? So that's what we're right now this whole year we've been learning to do which I think will be really in important going forward and essential to making sure we're making good decisions based on that data.
So, a future board that wants to have this in there could put that if that's something that they're doing. Um, but if it's not something the board currently does, ISB's recommendation is if it's not current practice that you wouldn't put it in your policy, then I would say that in at the very minimum and in in policy 2160, there should be a reference in that policy 2160 that should a board need an exhibit on selecting a checklist for selecting an attorney that here it is. Click 2160E. Correct. Well, you could just it could just be in 2160. It's just a checklist. That would just be named a checklist. Then you might as well just have 2160. I just think it's easier to I mean, it's just it doesn't have to be I I just think it could be just a check a click on the 2160 to get to the checklist.
It needs to be a a buyin from the people that are using it every day. We need to hear their feedback. and th those costs to buy additional um displays will highly go over the 25,000 threshold. So, they will come before the board um before we before we purchase um more of them. And I would agree, I think, you know, um Mr. Fitz Simmons, if we get um I think it's the Sony Bravia is what the brand is. If we aren't seeing that display is meeting the needs, we will look at other displays. We also know just like with any other change, we are going to have to provide training, professional learning. Um, one of the feedback that um, Mrs. Jetty shared with me was teachers concerned about writing with their fingers. So, we're looking at what is the best stylist. They took mine to try it.
Um so we've got some work to do as we with the data is up there. Um but there's some progress that we're seeing um and I'm excited to see how now that we've established when we're taking the PSAT, when we're taking the SAT, we'll be able to continue to track where we're at with that. Um and um and then it was really cool that we were able to touch 18 various locations for community service. Um there were over 30 um community partners in the fall um that were present for our community um or career day and then we had six rotations of community members in talking to our seniors. um AP. Um also, uh it's been interesting to see, you'll see that the average score, um last spring on our AP, um was a three. Um so a a three, if you score a three on an AP exam, um that is um considered a qualifying score.
But anyway, sorry not to belabor it, but is this normal? Um is there a normal is there a recommendation that we should also be advocating for if there needs something to be changed, right? We talked about field committees have decommissioned and all that. Like should the schools manage this? Should we be considering that in the future? Um and or or not? I guess simply put I'm gonna let Mr. Adams take that one. It's a loaded question, Jason. Yeah. In terms of whether the school should take it over or not. Um it's uh but we've been talking it's a conversation that's been happening for years and and and you know, you want to call me, we can we can sit down and talk about it. Um but that being said, every community is different, right? So many communities have wreck programs that are really robust and then they have folks who are part of those wreck programs.
the superintendent and the school committee leaders, the school leadership needs to know and parents and families and students need to know basically tonight what is happening for the 202526 school year. We can't really wait any longer on that. And so the proposal is to continue with redrawn geographic lines, but to put a hold on moving any grades out of their current buildings in light of the fact that we may need to look at closing a school and that none of our redistricting plans um involved that possibility. Do we have any information about the economic um the financial implications of doing that? Um, superintendent, can you speak to that? I think that the I think it's basically what our current I mean the the imp the financial implications are we're going to have to create a a budget that meets whatever comes out of the city council after the the mayor's proposed number.
And we have to look at how has society changed over the generations from that point in time 60 years ago to what it is now with I think we can all see there's been quite a shift in all of that and um not for the better unfortunately but I just wanted to recite this 22word prayer um and this is it was almighty God we acknowledge our dependence on thee and we beg thy blessings upon us our parents parents, our teachers, and our country. And that was it. Um there's a lot of power. I personally believe in prayer and I think there was a lot of covering that um God really blessed the schools in the United States of America. And um I just wanted to share I I think that becoming more secularized as a society has not been, you know, good for families. And um some statistics real quick, at least one, that uh 80% of single parent homes are run by a mom.
I just want to give you perspective. So what we'll end up doing just so we take this information we've shared this information with the bond committee that we'll have a presentation on the 23rd from the bond committee. So we have identified 350 is am I right on that Bob? 350 projects we could do and how much they cost. Based on this, we're now going and taking a look and saying, "Okay, what are some of the highlights of what came out of this and then how do we go ahead and if we take the 80 million, how do we go ahead and and take the information here and say we want to spend 20 million on this or 10 million on that?" That's what the proposal is going to be to you guys so that you can get an understanding of what we're thinking about. There'll be a discussion about the no taxes because that's critical.