Um the last that I recall landing on it was that uh it wasn't um when we were like researching at least there wasn't a clear definition of what hate speech was and the like a safe definitions they they didn't like lend themselves to like clearly defining it. So it was going to end up being like a totally district made up thing. And this part, I can only remember from my conversations with Allan, it was like it was so sticky that I think we were like, we're just going to keep it under inappropriate language. Um, but I would be down for that to continue to be a recommendation. I just don't know how we remedy those issues considering they're going to be the same issues now as they were before. Probably even harder to be honest with how things are. Gotcha. Okay. Um um but one of the things that you could put for recommendations was it I'm sure it says aligning staff conduct um aligning it like this staff policy.
Alicia is a true problem solver who consistently goes above and beyond to address challenges and find solutions that work for everyone involved. She is a natural at building strong, positive relationships with both students and staff, making everyone feel valued and supported. Alicia has an incredible ability to see the good in every situation, always looking for opportunities to highlight strengths and celebrate progress. At the same time, she is quick to recognize areas that need attention and takes proactive steps to address them in a thoughtful and effective manner. Her positive attitude, commitment to teamwork, and tireless work ethic make her a standout member of our team, and she consistently demonstrates excellence in all that she does. She is a true asset to our school and deserves recognition for her hard work and positive impact on our community. Thank you all very much. [Applause] You guys are all welcome to uh uh stay and listen to the rest of the meeting if you want, but you feel feel free to leave.
So again you know our tagline is that we build community and that's because all of the projects that we do are community serving projects. So about 50% as Jim mentioned are PK-12 projects. The other 50% are made up of municipal projects like police stations, fire stations, park districts, town halls as well as higher ed and faith-based work as well. Thank you. Out of curiosity, what are you building for Glen View and Salt Creek for 119 and 48? Uh, so for Glen View, that's that's actually one of my projects. I'll have Nesma talk about Salt Creek in a second because that's one of her projects. But uh Glen View, we were brought in because their facilities were uh very outdated. They needed a lot of work. They didn't have the money to support it without going for a referendum. So they opted to go for referendum, not just for what they needed for maintenance purposes, but to go for more of what they dreamt of in terms of educational delivery.
review and approval of minutes. And that's your March 10th uh regular session, March 10th executive session, and March 25th executive session board minutes, a review and approval of claims uh docket, a review and approval of fundraisers, which are we have two fundraisers on for this month. The elementary school will be doing their trash bag sales uh in August of next year and the CHS cheer will be doing Cincy products. Um there are no donations this month. A review and approval of field trips, two field trips. Fourth grade will be going to Forest Glenn and the middle school special education will be going to DAC uh for career expo and also review and approval of a personnel report which this I've mentioned this before. We're hoping this next meeting in May maybe this stuff will be all be uh online where you guys can get on and see all these things that I just talked about.
So, we would like to Oh, and one other thing I wanted to mention is that um Katherine, who's I think she's still here. Yeah, she's still back there. Um Katherine has been working tirelessly as our lays on to the city and uh the environmental stewardship people there and they they're they're ready to um support and they they they basically just need to say, "Okay, the project is ready to go." Um we've got um native plant specialists ready. We got some arborists ready. Uh, and I'm excited about that because those are the folks that are going to come in and and teach these kids about, you know, what's the proper res restoration uh for this this particular property. Uh, speaking of that, um I would be remiss if I didn't go back to uh Mr. Carl's um drawings and um one thing that uh he definitely much more expert than I am.
Um, but then if you look at the bottom two pages there, that is, uh, writing from the same student just two weeks ago. So, I'm super excited about the growth that this student has made. And we're approaching a time in the year where the students are going to look back at the beginning of their journal and they're going to look at all of their work and their progress. and they're going to see where they started and where they are now. And it's always fun because they laugh at themselves. They they say, "Mrs. Whitlock, what does this say? I can't read this. I don't understand this." And I said, "Well, I am sure if you don't know, I don't know." So, um, so we're approaching that time. I'm super excited for them to have that experience of seeing their growth over the course of the year.
The grass is is coming along so we expect the season to progress there. Uh we're waiting some for some warmer weather on tennis. It has to be a certain degree to put that finished coat on the color coat similar to what's out here at LECC. So soon as the weather uh warms up, we'll get that on and then I'll finish out the Is it also happening at Belzer? I just have Okay. So we we found alternate spaces for those students. Yes, we have accommodated their needs. Yeah, the high school. I know. But we have some over here too. I know with the tennis All right, very good. Miss Dunn, I have just got to tell you, I live at Fort Ben and watching the LACC come up has been truly incredible. To see folks are working there non-stop and just want to commend the wonderful, wonderful contracted employees who are working tirelessly to get that building up and ready for this community.
Um I always have an open door policy. I've always whether I when I was an assistant principal sped director I've always had an open door policy. I try and find ways of integrating myself in the classroom. I will go down and help with, you know, on a rough day, I'll go down and I'll insert myself. I'll teach a lesson. Um, really show them that what they do, I'll do because it's, you know, for the sake of the students and we want the students to progress and we want students to feel safe and want to come there. So, it's really showing them that we're all in this together. Um, and then they feel comfortable with me. when it with pandemic hit, one thing I found that was very beneficial um was every Wednesday and I continue it today is every Wednesday from usually about 3 to 4:00 I have an open Zoom meeting so anybody can join that open Zoom meeting and they can have a conversation with me.
Um, so I want to thank um, Michael today because um, he edited a um, this is a a sample about five minutes of three conversations that our students had. That's it says mute on this. Hold on. I'm going to take over. I'm not I mean not taking over. It worked this afternoon. We tested it. I promise you all. What am I doing wrong, Mr. Fry? Here comes the Looks like it's muted. We're just going to build the hard file. Yeah. This was our worst case scenario when we were testing it this afternoon is that we have a backup. Yeah. Almost exactly a year ago from right now, I got a message on Reddit from a man claiming to be Aaron Folding, this Hollywood producer. Yeah. Yeah. And I I actually ignored it. Technical difficulties. Advantages of live television. Do you have audio there? So, while we're waiting, do we have questions that maybe we want to ask uh our our students here?
Great, man. Those of you who are standing back there, we got to be helpful if you guys could come on come on in and join us. And yes, uh I just want to thank you for your continued support of our annual technology improvements. Um, one kind of addition, there is a possibility of a Perkins uh, equipment and supply grant, which actually may cover uh, between5 and $7,000 of what we're planning to spend. Um, so once we find out uh, whether we get that, that may actually reduce um, the amount that we'd be spending of of district funds. So um, hope hope to get that grant to go through. We won't know until probably mid June on that. So, we'll just kind of uh hold off on some of the cameras that uh would qualify for that grant on ordering them until a later date. Yeah.
So um the cool thing about it that we found happened totally by accident. I didn't really expect this to happen but then the next year the juniors were like oh I got to figure out what I'm doing so I know what to do on signing day. So, I thought that was really cool that they it kind of helped them look toward their future because they didn't want to not know what they were doing. So, that's number four. Thank you. Thank [Music] you. And then item number nine. Um, and I do want to take the chance to express our condolences um to Tim and Brenda and the Flu Hall family. I'm sure I think most of us have talked to them or seen them, but as a board I want to express our condolences. It's been kind of a rough year with former student in Wilson and then and then this taking place recently.
Lori Marley is a blessing um in that she provides us with some toys and games and things and kids who have perfect attendance get to come and be in a raffle and choose choose something out of the giant prize closet. And it's it's kind of this get developed this mystique at this point. Oh, what's in the closet? I've never been in the closet. Okay. Um, we have our cougar colors obviously. Um, we there's our Veterans Day assembly which is my favorite day of the year where kids invite veterans and again we do that whatever the most proximal day to Veterans Day is. Um, and I would invite you right now next year. Um, we have theme days throughout the year. Um, that would be our Dr. Sue stay with thing one, thing two, and thing three up there in the upper right. Um, and every chance we get, we um we try to have a good time because if you're not having fun at work, what's the point of being at work?
I think that's what we put last year, right? Um but then specifically to like the regulations and um and the exhibits uh like continuing to have the assistant principles and the student support whatever we're calling Amy's position um people to align uh do uh documents across the district. Gotcha. That's the aligning student policy changes to staff policy. Yep. And um separate to that um creating common forms uh to include as exhibits and within the regulations which we're already starting to do, but this was like kind of like just happen stance um as the year has been going on, but making it more like this is part of what we're doing I think is a good recommendation. Okay. So that way I don't just show up at AP meetings being like, "All right, everybody, we're working on some forms." Gotcha. Um, okay. So maybe we can um I mean, usually when I work on stuff like this, we kind of take a divide and conquer approach where uh we work off of like one slide uh deck together and then different people take different slides to update.
Uh we know tomorrow's a school day, but you won't miss the excitement. Uh, board member code of conduct review. I'll just read it. I will encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and will participate in board discussions in an open, honest, and respectful manner, honoring differences of opinion or perspective.
And so bringing full day kindergarten into the program was something that they'd never had. Modernizing their middle schools was something that was really uh a goal for them. And so we touched every classroom in the district. They have more than 430 classrooms throughout the district where we modernized those. Most of those had not had significant work since the 1980s. So it was pretty much a soup to nuts modernization of pretty much every facility district. Um Salt Creek was a little bit more based. So they had huge security and accessibility issues at the schools in the district. Um I think two out of the three entering. huge accessibility issue and then the administration offices were nowhere near the entrances. So really it was driven the primary reason was driven by security upgrades and then from there uh they had I think three tiers and tiers one through two were accepted.
Um, so you'll have them up to date person minus the personnel repel minus the personnel report. So that'll be that'll be uploaded after we uh vote on it. So So I need a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. I'll second. I have a motion in a second. All in favor? I I. None opposed. All right. Old business. Uh, second reading and approval of policy updates, volume 36, number two, and volume 37, uh, number one. Um, you don't need me to read through all these policies, do you have to? There's tons of them. So, we're working on, uh, some 6,000, some 7,000s. Um, so I need a uh a motion and a second to approve second reading and approval of policy updates. I'll make a motion to approve the second reading and approval of policy updates.
Do you want to talk about this or is that something? Um, one of the things that, um, we were excited about is when Mr. Carl came into class and talked to us about, um, some energy dissipation and how we could help to control some of the sediment that comes off of the parking lot. And so, um, he just scaled all this, uh, as some ideas for us as we're going forward about how we can, um, mitigate some of those items that are coming off the parking lot. Um, last time I was out there, um, the the amount of paint chips, uh, for example, um, coming off the parking lot is is phenomenal. It looks like somebody just took confetti and put it out there. And that's not a bad thing, but it can easily be mitigated in a project like this.
Um, and like I said, writing is a difficult process, so we try to make it fun. um we include a lot of little jingles or tunes or chants or whatever we can to help that uh information stick for them. Uh the one piece I'm super excited about using, we use this at the beginning of every unit and it is called visionary and it is a video dictionary. So they take their assigned word and they put it or I give it to them actually I give them the link and they play this 15 to 30 second video clip and the students have to infer the meaning of the word based on that 15 to 30 seconds that they saw. This is an extremely difficult task for them to do. Uh and so then they work with a partner and they write out a definition for that word and then they become the teachers.
And so, thank you for your leadership. Thank you for that board. Any other questions or comments about our blue ribbon updates? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Smith. At this time, we will move on to our update on the request for bids for Crest View Elementary. At this point, Madam President, Dr. Smith, members of the board, I want to start off with a little bit of trivia here. uh Schmiden Associates and David uh Davidson Associates. Uh you may not know, but they were the first architect and the first contractor working together to start Blue Ribbon phase two or phase one at Crest View Elementary. So, we're excited to have them back as the architects. Anna Marie Burough is here from Schmidt and Greg Edmund with Davis and Associates who will oversee our project moving forward. We received bids on March 27. There were nine bid categories with 17 contractors.
Um they can ask me about certain things. I've had, you know, a couple of my life skills teachers talk to me about getting a new refrigerator for their classroom all the way to just talking about what fun things people have planned to do over vacation or, you know, over the weekend or something and all kinds of things in between. We've talked about some of the initiatives we've rolled out. We've talked about what plans might be as we progress forward, you know, as we're restructuring things. So really, I leave it open for anyone to come in for an hour and we just have a conversation. Some people will pop on for five minutes. Some people stay the whole time. I have some people who show up pretty regularly and other people who've only shown up once or twice, but it's there for them and it gives them an opportunity to really get to know me as a person as well as themselves.