Number two So, she'll be here. really There we go. Actually, she wants Hey, hey, [Music] hey. Yeah, kick. [Music] Okay, that's fine. Good evening everyone. I'd like to call this meeting of the Dartmouth School Committee to order for Monday, April 14th, 2025.
Um Haley or Olivia Lions is wrestling at Baker this year and Haley Potter went to Baker for track but is also has um accepted a position on the wrestling team as well. So she's getting both of them. So these two ladies are pretty talented, hardworking young ladies. They're not here with us tonight. I went straight from track practice the rest. I'm sorry. Congratulations. Thank you for those concerns 244. We have Bana Kirby and Jeff. Excuse me. I have a copy for everybody. Probably have some extra page. It's the same thing that you guys received by email. So, I just want to make sure you all can see it. The best place I am. Right there. Right here. Excellent. Here we go. Okay. So, this is my letter or resignation that I wanted to make sure you all got the chance to hear from me. Not going to cry.
Anyone have any questions, comments, changes to be made? Okay. I have to approve the minutes as presented. Motion by Allison. Second and a second by Josh. All those in favor say I. I.
So, stop drinking your water, please. Information and discussion items. Our first item up this is from Del Rio Elementary School. did it, brother. Um, Madame President, members of the board, um, esteemed colleagues, and everyone else, I guess that would be Matt. Um um obviously we we have been going through schools and departments on campus and if you don't know um I think at this point you do but if you don't know us um principles um we play a little game with one another when we get up here to see how long we take and so let the timers begin. There we go. Excellent. Okay. Fantastic. I appreciate that. Um I could stand up here and talk about math scores. That would be awesome. And I could talk about reading scores and and what we're doing there. And I could talk about our writing scores and I could talk about oral reading fluency, but I'd rather talk about Thomas Jefferson.
And uh we also edited JIC and the intention today is to work on the community council slide deck slash the uh governing board slide deck to modify it and make sure that it's ready to go. And um yeah, that's probably as far as we'll get today. Um just to get through that stuff unless there's anything else pressing that people would like to go and cover. Nope. Okay. Um so the slide deck, uh the one I'm looking at here, I hope it's the one everybody else is looking at is the SY 2425 discipline policy review committee community council. Wow, that's the longest uh policy review committer community council presentation. Gota edit that. So, [Music] um I guess the I mean we kind of did a little bit of this at the last meeting where we paired things down a little bit, right, Mr. Man? Okay. Um just take a look at that and well I mean we can modify some basic things like the members of the committee which definitely needs to be updated.
Glover to bring this vision to life this year. Uh we began this journey by immersing ourselves in the latest standards. Uh collaborating with a seasoned consultant to ensure our approach is both innovative and effective. Uh together we've craft crafted a compelling vision and set ambitious goals accompanied by clear action steps and robust methods to assess our progress. Our library, hopefully you may have some time in the in the near future to come over and take a look, has been redesigned to foster easier access for our students, including purchasing and weeding titles to support the growth of our collection, creating an inviting and dynamic learning environment. Uh we've also made thoughtful recommendations for revisions to our collection policy to better serve our diverse student body. Uh the collaboration this year with our consultant has resulted in developing curriculum, lesson planning, and district alignment among the three buildings.
The rest of the team that we have here this evening is includes Troy Kerr will be our project manager and your day-to-day contact for the project. Mike Dens who will lead design efforts and Neesma Humura who will be the project architect for projects. Brian Ogle who is the technical architect um the senior technical architect for the project was unable to be here this evening because of a prior commitment. Um we are extremely passionate about the work that we do for school districts and clients and the positive impact we can have on students, faculty and administrators. You could say you're getting the A team with us. We could team, we would team with your preferred civil and mechanical uh engineers. I'm Maggie Ericson um as well as McCcluskey Engineering. All of those firms are firms that we have had extensive experience with. Um we recommend a district has a referendum consultant to deal with PR, do community surveys and all those kinds of things as we find that it's very self-serving appearing to have an architect lead that process.
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. like to also read our vision statement here at Covington is equipping every student to achieve their aspirations. Be reading that at every uh every meeting. Approval of agenda. I need a u a motion and a second to approve tonight's agenda. I'll make a motion to approve tonight's agenda. I'll second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor? I. None opposed. At this point, we're going to move to a public hearing uh concerning our general obligation bonds of uh 2025.
So I appreciate uh everybody being here tonight. Uh board tonight is literally to talk a little bit. I'm going to have Mr. Wally talk about the process of that strip of land and uh the acquisition thereof. Um we're hopefully to bring that to you on the 28th. Uh Mr. Carl uh will not he's trying to tell me not he doesn't want any credit but I will tell you he's been instrumental in this process and I'm super appreciative of his expertise. And so I'm going to start with Mr. Wy and I'll ask Mr. Carl to chime in as we can. Um then I'm going to have Mr. Park and the students come up and show you a visual of what it might look like. So Joe, thank you again for all your work during this process and Mr. Carl as well. Okay, thank you. The hopefully I can make this very very short.
Mrs. Schroeder is a ray of sunshine. I think anybody that knows her would agree. She brightens any space she walks into. She works hard to provide quality and engaging lessons for students. Her big heart for her students is evident in her energy. And if you know Lou, you know she's got a lot of energy. her patient instruction and the way she makes her room welcoming. She wants nothing more than to see her students succeed and she does whatever uh she can to make that happen. And here's the one that I really see all the time. I see that. But she's always willing to jump in and help. If you go past volleyball, she's in there helping. If you go past basketball, she's in there helping. She doesn't have to be cuz she's not the coach, but she's in there helping. She's in there helping wood chair.
I don't know how many languages are spoken there. German not as much but uh I think it's a wonderful program. We're looking forward to the renovation here and have worked with this man for many years and I wish him all the best for his next steps in life. And uh that was another thing that was so easy all the time to work with you. You know we we don't have much barriers. Sometimes there are things we needed. I remember the first days more than 10 years ago when we said how many refrigerators we want to have in there and you said oh wait a minute I don't think our electricity system for the old band room is is working on that but I just want you the board and Dr. Smith and all of you here to know how uh how glad we are to be here that we're can serving so many folks.
So, any questions that are assigned to Megan, I'll just read myself. All right. Mr. Chair, your first candidate. Good evening. Thank you. Hi. How are you? Good. She's Donna Flity. Donna Flareity. Yes. I was debating whether I should come around and shake all of your hands, but in light of the fact that the was going through our building, I you would probably prefer that I didn't do that. Perfect. Thank you. Uh okay. Uh so we all uh as you probably know, we voted on some questions to ask you. We have a list of them. You're just going to go around read them and feel free to answer how you wish. Sure, that sounds great. All right. I'll start with why are you interested in this position and this district? Sure, that's a great question. Um, for me, I really love I I got to know the community um through my work at Except um I was just telling the story that we do a lot of external professional development and we travel around um for groups of teachers and SPE directors and what have you.
Would you please stand for 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 and justice for all. Please be seated.
That's what I tell myself all day. So, dear US 24 board members, thank you so much. Can you tell how much I love this state job? Love it so much. Uh, dear for board members, due to being informed by principal Jenny Grover, I was going to be recommended for non-renewal of my contract for 2025 2026. On April 9th, 2025, I'm submitting to you my letter of resignation effective at the end of the 2024 2025 contract year. for my positions of family and consumer science teacher and family career and community leaders of America at UCLA and Fiser. I'm grateful for these two years that I worked at Burlington High School and look back on them as the most positive and most fulfilling years of my entire career. In the 2024 2025 year, I'm proud to have implemented industry recognized training and certifications for every one of the classes I taught.
Any opposed? Same sign. And then the approval of the treasurer's report. Also move. Motion by Josh. Second by Allison. Excuse me. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? same time. Motion passes 70. Um approval of the invoices. Is there anything you would like to call out, Mr. Murphy? Yes, we do have a few big ticket items that you're going to find on there. One is the app to fund that we approved last uh last meeting. And then we have our split sped flow through, sorry, that's on there as well. We did purchase our ceiling tile for our renovation in the high school and middle school this summer as well. Then we have our normal graduation alliance billable amount. It's a little bit less than a white marble is, but that's the big ticket items on our invoices this month. Any any other questions?
And Thomas Jefferson said, "Education is the practice of practical skills in the midst of virtuous action which promotes intrinsic joyful learning." He wrote that as the opening salvo in an essay he wrote on the introduction of schools. He really wanted private schools, but let's just set that aside for a second. And he said, "However, schools should serve the purpose of literacy, yes, but they should greater serve the purpose of character because without character, literacy becomes moot." And so what I'd like to do is spend just a few moments um um on a project that Cheyenne has actually been lovingly working on. And um that is to say in the revamping of our our um websites um you'll be going a to a district link and then to the Del Rio and all the other schools and there's going to be highlights that jump out at you just kind of little snippets of of good things, bullet points that are going on.
Um and then there's other stuff in there too. I'm sorry. Oh, okay. So Hilda can update that. Um, purpose of the committee, timeline, that seems like all introductory things, policy revisions. Oh, this is pretty sparse to begin with. So, uh, Mr. Man is the Oh, okay. So, this isn't the one that's council slide deck, right? I think Adriana was talking about working on the more in-depth for the board and then pairing that down for community council. So, I don't know if we have an example of the one that went to the board last year or if we used the same one for the board last year. I thought we used this. Okay. I thought it was the same one. Wasn't it the same one? then that I mean that may be the best model because you know the way that our board meetings run currently will provide the policy but really the slide deck is just intended to give an overview of the committee's work and what the intent behind it was.
Uh we've offered a number of incentives for our students also within the school library. Throughout this process, I've had the opportunity to be actively involved, meeting regularly with our library media teacher to support and nurture this engagement of our students. Um tonight, our library media teacher, Kristen Glover, will share the exciting progress we've made and the creative strategies that have been implemented. Um, thank you as our school board for your continued support and I'm confident you'll be as inspired as I am by the strides we're making in enriching our students educational experience. So, Mrs. Glover, I'm turn it over to you. Thank you. So, good evening. I don't know where to stand to see everybody. Um, so I'm just going to share with you a couple of the highlights from this year maybe. Um, so who am I? I'm Kristen Glover. Uh, huge Iowa State fan.
um quickly reviewing our agenda for this evening. We're going to tell you a little bit about us. Then we're going to tell you a little bit about what we understand about your context. And then we'll talk about a master planning and referendum process that we think is transparent and can help build trust with your community. And finally, we'll talk about our approach to actually taking a project from its vision to its final completion um and open it up for questions and answers. FGM been around for a while when we've grown quite big, but all of this team serves you out of our uh office in Westchester, Illinois. And two of our clients are Geneva to the east and Sycamore to the west. So we in this area all the time and um proud of working with those clients. Been with both of those clients for 20 plus years now.
The next item on the agenda is for the board to hold a project hearing on the proposed project. If you are interested in speaking at the hearing, please make sure you have signed the sign signin sheet at the front of the room which should include your name and address. After presentation by the administration and adviserss, there will be an opportunity for the public to make comments about the project.