Now moving on to Laura. Next for Laura, on April 2nd, 2025, Laura High School hosted its annual international night in the gymnasium. An event that brought students, families, and staff together to celebrate the rich cultural diversity of the school community. Students from various backgrounds proudly showcased their heritage through traditional clothing, music, dance, and cultural displays. Schools from across the district also participated, making the night even more vibrant and inclusive. Now, moving on to Kennedy. After receiving numerous donations from the community, they were able to deliver the firefighter care packages to the Orange County Fire Authority headquarters. The firefighters were very grateful for all of the support from them. These bags will be distributed accordingly to the firefighters who supported the containment efforts in Los Angeles. Additionally, a special thank you to the Kiwani Club, La Palma Foundation, Mr. house fabrication students, servatthon volunteers, and all of the fighting Irish who were involved to make this happen.
Our district has real financial challenges. We understand that. But the reality is that AVUSD, which offered competitive salaries relative to nearby districts just eight years ago, now ranks near the bottom. And while our pay has gone down relative to our peers, the expectations placed on us have only increased. California is asking schools to do more to keep students in the classroom by reducing suspensions and narrowing the types of behavior that can result in removal. Whether we agree with them or not, we do understand the purpose behind these policies. But in practice, they're placing even greater demands on teachers, demands for emotional labor, classroom management, soft skills, greater resilience, and the ability to meet every student where they are, no matter the circumstances. In any other profession, when more is asked, more is given. We're no different. Job satisfaction is a balance between the meaning we find in our work and how we are compensated for it.
So you have a balance coming from both middle school areas now to a new middle school area creating a balanced school based on numbers that are projected to remain around that 100 to 110 per grade level from each feeding sending school sending middle school to create first year about 220 students. This map here is the status quo. This map, the yellow shows point by point those current students who attend Woodro Wilson Middle School and the pink point by point is the geocoding of the students who currently attend Christopher Columbus. This is what the proposal would look like of the rising fifth graders and where they would come from in this proposal with students from all three corners of the city feeding into that fourth point where the new middle school would be located. The yellow that would be the blue feeding into that new school located on the far side of the yellow far side of Woodrow.
So, thank you and thank all of you. Ready? Okay. Our last piece is a contemporary piece uh a Latin chart entitled or or Delar Oria Delmare and it's also going to feature Mr. Elias Martinez on Center Sachs. Thank you all again for coming and here is our final two. [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Down down down. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. on the world champion. You guys one more time. Recognize all these awesome, awesome [Applause] musicians. Thank you all so very much for coming this evening. We hope you enjoyed our program. Um, eighth grade parents, if you want to stop and talk to any one of our uh, tempo parents out in front uh, for next year just to find out any information, um, they'll be glad to talk to you.
I. Any discussions? Motion carries. Uh unfinished business. None. New business. J1. Uh Miss Good evening, Vice President Mcronis, members of the board, Dr. Straer, members of senior staff, and our inperson and virtual audience. This morning I am not this morning, this evening I am bringing um a statement of work agreement to you for consideration of approval. That is an extension or an additional project that our district would work with the Arizona Board of Regents and the ASU Helios decisionmaking center on. Uh earlier this school year, you all approved the personalized admissions project through um this organization. This particular statement of work would provide an opportunity for our school district to share data, deidentified data, um with the ASU Julio's decision center in an effort to look longitudinally longitudinally at our students and where they go after they leave our middle schools. So, how do our kids do in middle school?
Um, the way my year's gone, like I said, it's very, very collaborative here at Crawford'sville. if I have any problems with anything or just a question in general. Um, being hired the way I was, I naturally had a lot of questions in general and I was able to lean on people like Mrs. Fuller, Turner, um, Carol as well, even though it's was his first time here. He was even an amazing help to me. Um, I've been able to bounce everything off Mr. Strickland. um whenever I get feedback from him, his door is always open for me to go down there and receive more feedback or if I disagree with the point, I can discuss that with him in a manner to where like I don't feel intimidated or I feel scared. Like I feel like there's open doors all throughout the office. And then um as far as like my why as to why I would do this, it kind of builds off what a lot of the kids testified up here.
Slowly zooming in and she's narrating over the whole thing. So this is just like beyond anything we've ever done. And we started with the honors classes um kind of getting them into that and then hopefully we can expand into this and it's just a great way for them to get those presentation skills too because they had judges that weren't me that had they had to like present to and they asked them questions and they give them feedback. Um, and so it's just a cool way for them to expand outside of the county and and see the colleges. That week they went to three different colleges at Jennings County Middle School. Yeah. National Junior Honor Society went to IU Bloomington. These guys went to Handover. And then you guys also went to IU Columbus that week, didn't you? It was a busy week for the eighth graders that week.
So we sent back that information to Cirmingham. So I think now they just want to double check on that and if it's correct on their end as well they can fix the ANR and next meeting that we bring it it will be clear but that was just kind of like the back and forth. Now when I talked about it with Peter we thought that the I thought he was telling me that the current assessor's map was incorrect. Is that was that um they did they I think after doing the title search they actually found that the assessor map was correct. Okay. And that there was an incomplete deed on some point. So when the surveyor was looking at it they found a document that didn't connect to the next couple of years and so that's when they kind of like lost and didn't know what was happening there.
We we are so careful in everything that we do. And um we are a very caring team. So, I don't know what's going to happen tonight. Um, I do hope that you uh take into consideration all of the things that Superintendent Pat Node and um Steven Sullivan are um sharing because they are putting so much time and effort into their considerations. Um I I feel like you could tell me Karen that we were going to build a school in the sky and I'd be teaching 13th grade and I'd be like sure sign me up when because I have so much trust in in the decisions that you're making. Um, so that's really all I have to say. I hope that you um My time's up, so I'm just not going to finish that sentence. Thank you for your time. [Applause] Hello, my name is Luke Martin.
So congratulations. Keep doing your thing. You make us all very very proud. So you're welcome to also say for the remainder of the agenda. Please do unless you have AP testing soon. So I ask that you go study for that. But once again, congratulations everybody. [Applause] Yeah, if you guys can wait. Um this is the the audience portion. So I invite uh Miss Nichols if you could to um address. So good evening. Thank you. I'm sorry it was a very very new thing that came through and um not only the team but the kids are very excited that one of the fencers got invited to compete internationally. So she gonna compete in Brazil and also in Spain. Um what you have in your hand is the formal um invitation convocation from the Brazilian Federation so Victoria can attend and so we are very proud and I hope the school is proud as well.
Now for Magnolia, their highlight for the month of March will definitely be their Sentinel who won the soapbox speech. Great job to Lil Coy Blake. And up next will be their spring musical. This year, their theater program is presenting Peter who on April 10th and 11th. They cannot wait to see the show. Now, next for Oxford, all the performing art groups had a successful and great time at the CS SCBOA festival hosted at Kennedy Performing Arts Center, earning high rankings. Oxford's choir group had a magnificent time attending New York for performance tour, gaining hands-on experience from realworld professionals. Now, next for Savannah, one of their highlights would definitely be the prom fashion show. It was a fun way to reveal the prom theme in which many students enjoyed. Additionally, Savannah's color guard continues their competitions after their WGAC color guard show on March 8th, in which they won second place out of eight schools.
If one drops, the other must rise. Right now, both are falling. In the years following COVID, our district rightly responded to increased student needs by hiring more administrators, counselors, and support staff. These roles helped us get through a challenging time, and they still have value. But student enrollment has declined, and the elevated demand we saw is beginning to ease. It's time to reassess and rebalance our staffing ratios so that our limited resources more directly support the classroom because that is where the heart of our work takes place and our budget priorities should reflect that reality. Teachers in AUSD are facing a difficult decision. Stay here or move to a neighboring district where we can earn 15% more. That isn't about greed. It's about responsibility to our families, to our futures, and to the long-term sustainability of our careers. No teacher in our district should have to wonder if staying with AVUSD is an irresponsible financial decision for ourselves and our families.
The yellow are the students point by point rising up from fifth grade who would go to Woodrow. The pink students from those three areas rising up to at to middle school at Columbus. And this is what it would look like with just the boundaries without the kids. So you can see we have a representation of three areas of town feeding into the new school and a representation of similar areas of town feeding into the existing schools. Again, a balanced representation. And what does that look like when we're looking at capacity? Again, right now we're at about 118 to 120% of the capacity based on square footage. And then when we move in, separating those students out 5 years from now and you have the fifth grade going up from those four schools um for 3 years, you're looking at three schools that would be around 90% capacity.
Where do they go to high school? Where do they go to college? Where do they go to any form of postsecary? And what majors do they have? What classes do they select? How are we preparing our kids for post-secary? This research study would provide us with the opportunity to really evaluate the quality and effectiveness of our programs as well as to look to other school districts to identify what programs they might be having or what re what um what pathways and programs that that they have implemented in their districts that are where students are experiencing success. So this project is called Vista uh not to be confused with our VISTA but it is to really ensure that we are constantly evaluating our programs and looking ahead to see what we need to do to be the best that we can be. Uh as a part of our strategic planning conversations and I know that Dr.
Um when I was in high school and middle school, um I wanted to be here. Um, I don't know if every student can say the same thing, but I didn't want to be at home. I didn't like the way it was at home. And I didn't like the adults I had in my life at home. The adults that I had in my life here, like Beach, like Strickland, like Mrs. Swick, like Sean Gerald, like uh Lisa Warren, all these different kinds of people were the ones that led me in the right direction and made me feel like I was doing the right thing and I could, you know, achieve more than what was going on at home. And if I could provide that to one kid, I mean, that's more fulfillment than I'll get at work in any other job, especially when I can do it at the place that made it possible for me to be successful.
So, it's pretty awesome. I think we need to get some black and gold involved. Oh, come on. Oh jeez. But yeah, I think Aiden, you have anything to add? Um um one of the uh skills I learned was micromanaging because I had like three split screens going at a time just for my project alone. So that was um something. Yeah, you put the work into a long paper and that's that's a lot for them to do at this age. So that was pretty cool. So they did an awesome job. So I say a hand for these guys. Have a picture first. Take a picture like this. Thank you guys. We'll let him know it was well received. They did a good job. When state April 26th. April 26th. Yep. Yeah. We still have some people with athletic comp like conflicts. We're hoping to get early in the morning because you can like choose your time and so they can still do it.
So that's why they were like okay the assessor's map of Ashdan shows this owner but we only see a up to this time. So now that town council has done their research, they're drafting a memo to send it back to the Framingham planning department so they can make sure that that is cross referenced. So um once that So you're saying that once all of that is complete and that information then we'll look again at the NA the N Yeah, because I my understanding is that they're going to redo the myar. So these don't have those questions on the site and they have the actual owner that the assessor's map in action has. Got it. Mhm. Okay. Interesting. That's been a real um back and forth there. Yeah. Trying to find the real Yeah. trying to find some uh the real um history, I guess, of that.
I live in Greenfield and teach at the high school. I have kids in second and fourth grade. Um, first I'd like to thank the superintendent for a budget that represented the true cost of educating students. Um, nobody expects a rubber stamp from the mayor or the city council, but as a teacher and a parent, I I for one am grateful for a superintendent who first thinks and who first prioritizes what it will actually take to educate our children. Anyway, as I was shocked, as everyone else, to hear about the mayor's new plan for our schools, I was shocked as a parent who closely followed the more than two years of meetings, forums, research, planning, and preparation to implement a change for next year. I gave input whenever possible in that process. I advocated for my kids' best interest as so many others did as well, only to hear recently that it may all be thrown out the window in favor of a plan that absolutely nobody had proposed or considered or even a whole new process to reconsider everything yet again.
Yes. Awesome. Congratulations Victoria. If that's okay with you, she would like to take a picture with you guys. Oh yeah. Come on. Thank you for your support. Would you like toach? Come here. Come on, guys. Take a picture of everybody. There you go. All right, we're good. Although you guys don't know about that. Awesome job. Obligato, Miss Nichols. I thought I was having summer. All right. If there are any other audience members that would like to also go to the podium, this is the audience section of the meeting. Seeing none, we're going to move on to our committee reports. First committee up is curriculum. So I'd ask Miss Cullinin. Mike like to start with the mic and then um put a motion on the floor that the Cheshire Board of Education approves the survey questions as recommended by the state department of education. Motion's on the floor.