Also, work was done on the audio system so that people sitting at the ta at the table are can be heard better and can be heard more clearly from the people in the room as well as through Zoom. And then after all the technology was updated, a great refresh of the room was done when it was painted and just looks so nice. The wood was protected and they came in and did a wonderful job painting and cleaning the select boardroom. So, if you haven't been in town hall recently, go up and check out the select board meeting room. And if you're attending meetings via Zoom, you can say thank you to the WACA team, including the board, for improving the technology in the select board meeting room. [Music]
Yes. And so that's the point. You can change your goal or you can change your route. Yep. Um, but if you're looking at it, if it's written, if it's uh tangible, yeah, you're able to adjust and know what the consequences are of any decision you make. That sounds fantastic. But that's good. You put it into a logical plan and then you get support around following that plan. Yeah.
You're on the road. So it it kind of helps and like, oh well, I don't really want to go there. I think this is a straighter location. I just checked Google and they said this.
Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed, you're on an uh cash balance report as March 31st account balance on February 28th was 3.867 million. We had deposits for the month of 3.67 million. Uh we transferred in a million250 from MMPT. See less the payroll amounts shown the warrant amounts uh leaves us with a GL balance uh March 31st and 4,2419214 we had 7,4258 in MMDT account we transferred out a million250 to the operating account we made 30,859 of interest for the month Leaving us a balance of 6,205 91836 and total operating cash balance of 10,446 111050. All set. Can I get a motion to approve cash to approve? Second.
And a market stipen for our transportation staff who have a school bus certifi certificate. Um, administration is not eligible for this in this case because they do have a certificate, but they're not eligible. uh would be $1,500 annually for all employees that fit that category of having that certificate. So, a market stipen is provided um when the current market is calling for something more than what we currently offer. As you know, we have a um very difficult time uh finding special education teachers, both resource and self-contained. We found that some of our surrounding districts were paying this amount or more annually. Um, you know, we currently have a hard to fill, but that was a one-time stipen. That is a one-time stipen. Um, this will hopefully make us more competitive. We have approximately um, right now in special education about 10 positions available for this coming year.
That's a lot of students, especially those who are involved in track and field and cross country, really enjoyed this because this is something they do, I guess, on a daily basis. Um, we even had one team run, I think, close to 70 laps. They raised $540. So that was really fun. You know, it's physical, it's active, but we're also raising money for a really good cause. And a lot of these students, I think it was humbling a little bit to get out there with their teams and then recognize how big a lap around that track kind of is. And so, some were able to make it 70, others made it about two or three, but you know, nonetheless, it was a fun fun event. And um it was it was really well put together by the National Honor Society. So, kudos to them. And then last week, we held our annual anti-racism and inclusivity week.
I don't know where the other two are. Hey, 26.9. And I uh I just before I start, I I did have four hours of proctoring the ACT this morning, so if I'm a little fried, I apologize ahead of time. Uh do I have to talk into this or Sorry. First time here. Uh I'm Chris Ozark. I teach math and computer science at BHS and I appreciate appreciate the opportunity to come here and celebrate our successes while allowing me to promote our CS program. I started working at BHS 11 years ago and Brian Gamlin uh the assistant principal at BHS. He had this big overarching vision of creating a sequence of CS courses. Back then it was just a intro to computer science class that was just a term long and that was it. But he wanted to make like a whole sequence of it just to kind of push people if they're interested in that uh in majoring in computer science.
So, the next couple months will just be one meeting here at six o'clock here at administration building. Uh there are a few revisions to the agenda all under HR. Uh moving to public recognition. Uh we'll do all these under one. Um recommendation to approve $350 donation from from Corteva A for science for MSC uh for Southwest FFA. recommendation to approve a $249.90 donation from an anonymous donor and $100 from Vicky Mezer through donor's choice for Mrs. Cass Cassie Harold's Little Norse pre what is that? PreK PreK 4 at Metro North Elementary for materials to create morning find more motor bins at the classroom. Recommendation to approve $500 donation from Dick Dick and Leavon Smith for Southwood choir. A recommendation to approve a $500 donation from Dick Leavon Smith for Southwood Theater and a recommendation to approve $2,000 from First Farmer Lake Trust for staff appreciation.
The motor vehicle excess tax reminder. If you haven't paid your excise tax from commitment one, it's now past due. A $30 demand fee will apply after May 19th. Questions? Contact the assessor's office at assessor's officemass.com. The spring yard waste collection yard waste pickup is scheduled for April 28th, May 5th, 12th, and 19th, June 2nd, and June 9th. Place grass and leaves curbside and marked barrels or paper bags by 7:00 a.m. No branches or brush. Questions, call the DPW at 5088120. The DPW special collection events, oil, mercury, and oilbased paint drop off will be Saturday, May 3rd, 9:00 a.m. to noon, and electronics recycling day, Saturday, June 7th, 9:00 a.m. through noon. Both events will be held at the DPW facility. The annual townwide cleanup May 3rd through 4th. Ashlin's favorite spring tradition returns. The annual townwide cleanup takes place on May 3rd with supplies available at Stone Park Pavilion from 9:00 a.m.
Any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Finance report. You have consolidated cash has been hand out. Revolving fund. Anybody have any questions on the revolving fund? report on.
So, that will help us. Also, the market stipen that's allocated for our transportation staff, as you know, um has been a very difficult to retain our employees because there are sources out there that are paying much more than what we are anywhere from like two to $8 more per hour to employees. So, this would be paid annually over the course of their 10-month contract. And we feel that this will help us to retain and continue to attract bus drivers to our school district. Thank you, Miss Johnson. Sorry, Miss Richards. I just wanted to say I think that's awesome. Obviously, getting those positions filled and being more competitive is great. So, thanks, President Wade. Next, we have I'm so sorry. Um, President Wade, um, Miss Johnson, I I do know that, uh, with bus drivers that when they do come and and we pay for their, um, for their license, um, that in in many cases because other careers offer higher pay, um, that once they have their CDL license, they can go be a a truck driver, they can go be you know, they can drive the the what's the trash for the for the town and it it pays higher.
So, the fire club, which is our fostering intercultural respect and empowerment club, worked with all of the other affinity and cultural clubs to put on various events throughout the entire week. Um, so there were performances, as you'll see. There was a food making event, there was an art show, and really students here were able to take part in various different things both throughout the school day and then after school and before school. There was just a lot of activities encompassing all the different divisions. um students were really able to take part in what they enjoyed and and find cultural connections to the things that they do on a daily basis. So, this was a really nice community building event um in the month of April to bring everybody together and celebrate our diversity. Career and academic wise, we've had a number of different academic and career clubs honestly kind of round out their season, if you will.
Um, here's the courses right there. I can talk about them forever. They wanted me to talk about them. Um, I'm not going to because I'll go over time with that. Um, but I do, yeah, those first three are the ones we have. Now, that fourth one is in development, um, cyber security, and they're all primarily focused on career pathways because it's just there's tons of jobs, tons of growth in this field. So, um, those are the courses we have right there. Um, as the CS program gained popularity with students, we need another teacher to cover all the requests. He's not here, but um Kevin Jensen took over the intro class, completely reworked it, kind of made it his baby while I took over the uh the two and three classes there. Um and while the program grew, one thing was lacking was female representation. In the early days, many of our classes had little to no female students.
And the last one recommendation to approve $350 from Cortell A Science for North Bay. I get a motion and second to approve all these generous donations. So move second. Got a motion, a second to approve all of these donations. All in favor say I.
to noon. Can't make it Saturday? Cleanup continues through Sunday. Just leave bags near your cleanup spot. Register online from April 21st to 30th or walk in the day of. Let's keep Ashland beautiful. A taste of Metro West. April 28th from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Join the Metro West Chamber for an evening of food and fun at the Sheridan Firmingham Hotel. Sample from top restaurants, caterers, and wineries and vote for your favorites. Tickets are available online. The drug takeback day will be held on April 26th from 10 a.m. to 2 pm. Safely dispose of expired medications and sharps at the Ashlin Public Safety Building. The Ashen Lions and Police Department will be on hand to assist. Some job and volunteer opportunities. We are hiring. We're hiring a town planner, a director prevention and human services, an assistant town accountant, and DPW operators and technicians. We also have open seats on several town committees, including the conservation commission, open space committee, and storm water advisory.
Does anybody have any questions on that packet? She's not [Music] question please. So, you have a you have a list of transfers uh that was sent out to you um because of the as you remember we transferred $950,000 from this year's budget into the budget and we took uh a lot of that money and balanced out a lot of our accounts that were overbalanced uh that were overdrawn uh and you have a list there where we're using some of those funds to balance out those line items in budget. So the budget transfers that are being requested. Can I get a motion to approve the budget transfers? Second.
So, um I do appreciate that we can offer them more money in order to as an incentive to stay with us. Thank you. Thank you. I think we're ready for upcoming events. So, we hope you'll join us this Thursday at 4:30 at the HCPA for our teacher of the year celebration. I'm reminding everyone that we'll have an elementary teacher of the year as well as a secondary teacher of the year. So, we're excited about that. Also, on May 1st at 9:00 a.m., we have a school visit to Power Ranch Elementary. And last on upcoming events is the parent event supporting um teen mental health. It's a virtual meeting May 6th at 6:00 p.m. And that concludes the events. Thank you, Miss Richards. This brings us to item 4.1, executive session pursuant to ARS 38-431.03A1. I motion that the governing board convene to an executive session pursuant to ARS 3843 or sorry 43.1.03A1 for discussion of superintendent's annual evaluation and performancebased bay.
um right up leading towards spring break, even into the first couple of weeks now that we've gotten back from spring break, we've had a lot of state competitions. And so on the bottom right, we had our HOSA club, which is our healthcare club. It's got a huge, huge showing. Um had their state competition at Springfield right before spring break. Um we had 10 finalists, 19 state champions, and 50 students who qualified in their events within the top three. And so if you qualify within the top three, you then advance to nationals. So we've had over, I think, 50 students now qualify for nationals. And just to kind of give you a perspective on how big that is, that's just the the population of students who's qualified for state. There was also a regional before that. So that club has hundreds and hundreds, I think it's like close to 300 members at this point, maybe even more.
Like there was times we just had zero. Um and so we started researching this and and we noticed a trend. Um we found this graph here. It says, "What happened to women in computer science? Percent of women majors by field." And uh I'll try to use this laser pointer here. So if you notice like around the 60s here, super low with med school, law school, physical science, computer science, but they all started in the same spot and then as time went by, they all kind of went up here around 50% which kind of makes sense given the population, but for some reason computer science kind of peaked here and then went downhill. Um that's the only graph I can find. I know it stops at 2015, but it was the best one I can find. Um and I believe you said it was 26% now.
Any opposed. All right. As always, we appreciate all these donors that donate to all these different areas of our school district. Uh school recognition. Do we have any? Yes, we do. So, first of all, last week or last meeting that we had, uh, Jill Glascock accepted her retirement, but one thing I did not have, and that was her, um, years of experience. And so, that was 37 years. So, I just want to make sure I mention that tonight. Um, and then we have a longer one here. This is from Shark Creek with Mr. Martin. This goes along with Sharp Creek's Blue Norse bots headed to world championship um, robotics championship coming up here in May. So, I'd like to read this to you. He said, "The Shark Creek Robotics team, a the Norsebots team members, Elila and Noah and Hudson, Audrey and Gabriel and Hunter, have earned an invitation to compete at the VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas this May.