Any opposed? Okay, so it's um 52 Aaron and um Sarah uh were nos. Okay. So, moving forward, um the approval of the IDEIDA grant application. I move that the board approve the annual submission of the district grant as required by any discussion on this. Is there anything pertinent that we need to know about this? No, this is really just preunct. This just allows us to submit the application to the state. um which is due on May 12th. Um so yeah. Okay. All in favor of approving the IDEIDA grant application, please say I.
Tyler Morris is here to answer any questions you might have. We have a motion for any questions or discussion on this moment. That's fine. President Hopkins, members of the board. Um, this report reflects a significant reduction in compliance questionnaire findings. Um, I just attribute to like the growth that the district's had in that department. So, um, in Pennsylvania, right, a lot of this is from last year. So, we know going into this year, we've had even more growth and we anticipate even less reduction. So um just a kudos to the team here attempt to be in compliance with the USFR and all those financial questions or comments from all those in favor say I. I any oppos. Okay. Mr. Hopkins. Yeah. I Mr. Guthrie. Mr. Kerserich. Hi. Rodriguez is I motion carries four to zero. Thank you. So, next up we have approval of district signers for the Unified School District bank accounts.
Those actions combined with the years since of disciplined budgeting helped affirm Ashlin's AAA credit rating by standard and pores. This is a distinction held by only a select number of municipalities across the Commonwealth. This reflection, this rating is more than a number. It's a reflection of the town's reputation as a strong fiduciary steward and a leader in responsible financial, excuse me, in responsible municipal finance. However, we are now entering a new and more difficult phase. The challenges we face today are structural. They are not temporary. While one-time funds and stabilization reserves have helped us manage recent deficits, continued reliance on these sources is unsustainable. The stabilization fund cannot serve as a long-term solution to growing annual budget gaps. Without action, Ashland will face increasingly difficult choices that will affect core services and operations. We are nearing a fiscal tipping point. The time for temporary fixes has passed.
Any opposed? Okay. So it's unanimous. Thank you very much everyone. Um and now we will hear from um uh the Brookfield Cares about the attitudes and behavior survey results. Mr. Jaffy, we welcome you. And Mrs. McNiff, we welcome you, too. Thank you. I'm going to need help getting the presentation. There we go. You should do it. Where is it? The way you set it Hold on. I'll be right back. Sorry about this. All right, we're fine. Well, thank you. Um, I'm Ron Jaffy. I'm with Brookfield Cares. I want to thank the board of ed and the uh school administration, but the board of ed in particular for allowing us to present. So, who we are? Brookfield Cares is a nonprofit volunteer community-based organization dedicated to creating awareness and positive change around the issues of substance misuse, depression, suicide, and other mental health concerns. We do this by engaging all members of community to reduce harmful harmful behaviors, destigmatize mental health issues, and promote and support healthy choices.
Mr. President, members of the board, general district guarantee checks and balances on our accounts with National Bank of Arizona. Request be any recommendation from the auditor for the board to approve a change of signers on USD's accounts. Recommended signers are myself, Marcia, Glorettes, and Rona Cotay. Attached is an addestation we must submit to National Bank upon approval. All areas will change. recommend the above signers be approved for all USD bank accounts for the National Bank of Arizona. Do we require two signatures? Madam Chair, yes. Yes. There any further questions or discussion? Call for the vote. All those in favor say I. I.
Decisions must be made soon to address the imbalance between expenditures and revenues. If we are to maintain the level of services that our residents enjoy and expect, we must seriously consider revenue increases, whether through overrides, new growth strategies, or other long-term financial measures. The finance committee remains committed to supporting responsible policies that protect Ashlin's financial integrity and long-term prosperity. We want to hear from you. Please go to the town website, look for our meetings. We've set aside time for public comment. Nobody ever comes. You're invited. Please. Our goal is to help the town transition from short-term stabilization to sustainable fiscal planning that meets the evolving needs of our community. Thank you and go Clockers. Thank you, John. And I'll take this as an opportunity to say we have two openings on the finance committee. You've heard the important work that the committee's doing. If you want to be involved and help make those decisions, there are two openings.
Our work is funded through donations from individuals and the town and by grants for specific projects from the organizations depicted here. In order to gain a better understanding of student attitudes and actions relating to at risk behaviors, Brookfield Cares and the Brookfield Public Schools surveyed students this year in grades 8 through 12 on in February. And we've we have surveyed grades 7 through 12 in the past. The results that I'll be showing you are aggregated from multiple questions providing more representative results. So, it's not just a yes, no uh survey. This is the seventh time we've worked with the schools to survey students since 2009. And Brookfield Cares fully funds the survey. Brookfield Cares works closely and collaboratively with the school administration on the survey, including the survey itself, which grades to survey, and the need for additional questions. This year, questions on vaping, ZIN, and e cigarettes were added, as well as questions about social media use.
Any opposed? Motion carries 4 to Z. Next item up is the approval of the J2 intergovernmental. Mr. President, members of board the P County Jed annually completes an undergovernment agreement IG between its district satellites. Attached is the IG for the 2526 academic year for Unified School District. The J has been approved and signed with the district's lawyer. It is recommended that the attached IG between a USD and JS be approved. Motion second.
You might have heard that before. I won't say it again tonight. Town website, talent bank form. Voting on the budget is a two-step process. First, we will review and vote on the appropriations for each of the various accounts. After action has been taken on the accounts, we will vote on the overall budget motion. I will start by reading the names of a series of accounts. If you have a question or comment on a particular item, yell out hold. In this case, it's okay to yell. After voting on all unchallenged light items, we'll go back and discuss any that were held. Town manager, central purchasing, telecommunications, town council, data processing, town clerk, elections, town meeting, board of registars, human resources. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. and opposed. That passes. Town accountant, assessor's office, treasurer. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards.
The survey was reviewed and approved by school administration and principles prior to be gi prior to being given. Parents and guardians were notified by the schools of the survey before it was given and were offered the opportunity to view questions at the schools and they had the opportunity to opt their students out. 32 students were opted out this year. Students were allowed to opt out the day of the survey as well, but none took advantage of that option. The survey is totally anonymous. results are not and cannot be tied back to individual students. That information simply is not collected. Brookfield survey results are provided only to Brookfield Cares, who shares the results with the town, the schools, and with Western Connecticut Coalition, who only reports aggregated data trends, not town specific information to other organizations. The data from the survey is collected on and stored on search institutes secure servers and is only accessible to search institute employees who work on the analysis.
Any questions for discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Four to zero. Okay. Next up is the own unified school district's top five priorities to send to pass for the legislative agenda. Mr. President sorry Mr. President members of boards, sorry about that. From ASBA as a member-driven nonpartisan organization, ASB probably represents the collective voice of Arizona school boards. It's time to begin developing the 2026 political political agenda. A shared set of advocacy priorities created and approved by members members. Uh there you have as far as what you need to do. This is a board decision, Mr. President, members of the board. feedback from left here because the same notebooks. the same people from No, they get mixed up. They might be tucked into somebody else's The ones for Monday are the same ones. Oh, okay. I marched mine up with my priorities.
Thank you. And opposed. I see one in opposed, but it passes. Conservation Commission, Open Space Committee, Planning Board, Inspectional Services Department. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed? Pass. Police Department, Fire Department. All those in favor of the untalented items, please raise your cards. Sorry about that. opposed. That passes. Health Department, Council on Aging, Recreation, Veteran Services, Prevention and Human Services, Public Library. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed? Passes unanimously. Public buildings and property maintenance, DPW administration, highway snow and ice removal, highway street lighting, highway combined fuel, cemetery, parks and trees. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. Pass. School department. Keith Tech Vocational School. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards.
Data sets have unique number assigned to them. Organizational names and youth identification information are not stored on these databases. The web pages are SSL encrypted and all data are stored on secure servers. Search Institute does not use the data for any purposes outside of what is listed in the parental fact sheets and consent letter and Brookfield Cares only receives aggregated report of the student results. Neither Brookfield cares nor instarch institute sell or profit from the de data gather data generated by the survey. The survey itself developed by Search Institute provides data in a wide range of areas including alcohol and drug use, depression and suicide, gambling, vaping, internet use for the first time, and much more. Search Institute also reports results as developmental assets or research-based frameworks that shows a clear relationship between high asset scores and thriving behaviors. Of the 25 local prevention councils in our region and Brookfield Cares is an LPC, 14 of them have utilized the attitude and behavior survey in some fashion since 2019, including New Milford and Bethl.
I thought I just tucked it under my notebook. So, I have it. I didn't move anything. Okay. Security. I know for me I'm going to go with adequately and equitably fund district schools to the Nashville meeting standard for people preserve and respect local control federal advocacy school safety and Arizona rural schools. I think mine are the exact same as yours. Okay. Yeah. Arizona rural rural. Yeah. Safety, federal advocacy, require public accountability and transparency. That was my Oh, sorry. Yeah, that was mine. And then adequately and equitably fund district schools. When I was a kid, I when mom used to have me draw circle around everything I wanted for Christmas catalog, right? and she knew that I was the beginning of I think Arizona school board association things they already know what they're going to do so this game okay because then we're stuck with we have three three of the priorities that have three votes for it and we have three that have two votes three that have We can just go with three.
And opposed. That passes. Total debt. All those in favor, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. Employee retirement, workers compensation, unemployment compensation, group health insurance, other insurance, salary contingency, reserve fund. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed. I'll move to enterprise funds. Water enterprise, sewer enterprise, trash collection, field management, cable access, storm water. All those in favor of the unchallenged items, please raise your cards. Thank you. And opposed? Passes, but not unanimously. We've approved the individual line items in the budget. Now, we need to approve the overall funding mechanism. For that, I'll entertain a motion for the general fund that the following amounts be transferred from the respective accounts. EMS revolving $200,000. Dog licenses $25,000. Recreation revolving $12,975. And that the balance be raised and appropriate 79,331,386 for the water enterprise fund that 3,953,249 be raised to the water rates.
Over six million students have taken the search institute surveys nationwide in thousands of schools. The framework of developmental assets identifies a set of skills, experiences, and relationships and behaviors that enable young people to develop into successful and contributing results. They break them out into external assets and internal assets as listed here. And we have more information on this on the assets themselves on the Brookfield Care's website. And for anybody who's interested, and I encourage all of you, if you haven't watched this video, I won't do it now, but and any any parents interested, this is a very good discussion of the importance of developmental assets. Search Institute has found that the more assets youth have, the more they thrive and the less likely they are to engage in high-risk behaviors. So there's a real a real benefit in working to increase to first off identify what the assets are but then to see what we can do as schools, as a community, as parents to increase assets.
Yes. Do we have five that are, you know, we've got I mean we've got three that have two votes and three that have three votes. So we got to figure out which to eliminate based on Oh, okay. That's tough. Yeah. for them. Like Angelina suggested, we just submit the ones where we have three votes for only three priorities. We also those three that we have three votes. I agree with Carolyn. Whatever she wants, I want So you guys are all the same. Okay. Adequately and equitably fund district schools. There's three that will be require public accountability and transparency with taxpayer dollars. Arizona rule and remote schools, school safety and security and federal advocacy. Okay, we're still kind of still in the same box now. We've got four for three of them and two Wait, we did it. We got three that have four votes, two that have three votes, one that has two.
for the sewer enterprise fund that $6,365,469 be raised through the sewer rates for the rubbish collection enterprise fund that 1,800 I've got a wrong number here. What's the D? What is the correct number? 1867 1867011 I have an extraneous number. $1,867,11 be raised through solid waste rates. Apologies for the Fields Management Enterprise Fund, $114,933 be raised through fees for field usage for the cable access enterprise fund at $390,000 be raised to cable franchise fees for the Stormwater Enterprise Fund at $45,255 be raised to storm water fees. 405 406 255 406255 not my finest hour transcribing these the 406255 erased the storm water rates again apologies for the economic development special revenue fund that $338,593 be appropriated from available's meals tax meals tax funds do I have a motion we've already had the discussion so we'll go right to a vote this will require majority All right.
Some history with the exception of coming out of COVID, the average number of assets reported by our youth has increased over time. So we can take that as good news. We as a community are doing something right. So what have our students told us? We'll talk about assets first. Students tell us that we are strongest in these assets and we've reported as me as much as we can historically so we can see trends. We are strongest in the assets positive peer influence, school engagement, family support, achievement motiva, motivation, integrity, responsibility, time at home, and honesty. Where are we the weakest? We are weakest and some of these may not be a surprise to you. Reading for pleasure, creative activities, community values, youth, parent involvement in schooling, you using youth or children as resources, neighborhood boundaries, caring school climate and a caring neighborhood. Now we get into some specific behaviors and this report of course will be made available to you and it's also available on the Brookfield Care's website for download.
Perfect. Thank you. I'll snag those and then we do submit them online and that will get you at the same time. Okay. And I'll make some sort of mark that makes sense on which one you just chose. Uh we have the option too to pick a delegate. old school. So, anybody interested in being the delegate to be I'll nominate Trist. Yeah. That is it. We can choose to send the delegate to the Assembly. We don't have to. Yeah, we can submit our priorities online. Yeah, but we can do both at the same time. Yeah. And I think she's already she's already gone to one. Yeah. 23 24. And I think last year they had an online like you could you could video in either through teams or FaceTime or something like that. I don't know if they they haven't opened that up at ASDA yet.