She will be deeply missed, but we know she has made connections that will last for years to come. Nana couldn't be here, but we wish her well. We did go to deliver her flowers today and unfortunately missed her. So, we'll try again tomorrow. So, congratulations. One more. All right. And last, but certainly not least, we have a retired message for our superintendent Kristen Heat. After more than 30 years of dedicated service to the field of education, we honor the retirement of Superintendent Kristen He. Her impact has left an indelible mark on students, educators, and communities alike, and it is with great deep gratitude and admiration that we recognize her tonight. Over the course of her remarkable career, Kristen has exemplified what it means to lead with vision, integrity, and compassion. From her early days in the classroom to her time at the helm of district leadership, she has consistently championed excellence in education and put students at the heart of every decision.
Also, their final class competition was filled with summer fun. All grade levels participated in a variety of summer themed games during lunch for a chance to win more points for their class. Now moving on to CVA. CVA wanted to highlight one of their amazing staffs, Mr. Okala, being recognized as a classified staff of the year. Congratulations and thank you, Mr. Aala, for all the hard work that you do. Now, let's move on to Cypress. Cypress High School recently held the Every 15 minutes program, which aims to educate students about the dangers and consequences of drunk driving. Their senior class was also engaged in capstone projects designed to showcase their skills in the five Cs. These projects serve as a culumination of their academic achievements at Cypress High School. The Cypress Centurions are eagerly looking forward to a series of memorable senior events and are ready to celebrate their unity achievements and the exciting milestones ahead.
Apple Valley High Eden [Applause] Good evening members of the board and attendees. I'm Eden Piolo. Today is the last board meeting I will be speaking at on behalf of Apa Valley High School as line president. Being a representative comes with a lot of responsibilities, but the memories, the people, the friendships, and the skills in this role are irreplaceable and will stick with me. I want to thank my ASB director and adviser who has also been my AVID and financial algebra teacher, Mr. A. He has been such an impact on my high school career. And I wouldn't have joined ASB if it wasn't for him. And I want to thank you and the board and the members of the board for this opportunity opportunity. It truly has been an honor and a pleasure to see you and to speak in front of you all. Thank you for the peels of laughter.
We have four components. Education of students who are deaf and who are blind. Clearly this vision says that to provide leadership and services to collaborate. We just talked about how to improve our collaboration with school districts and that is in our mission collaboration with school districts, with families and with our community and then partnering with state agencies. Those four components are our mission and that is what we have to do. We also have a strategic plan with four pillars. I was recently asked that maybe we should pause potentially our strategic plan because of all of the things that are happening around us. And I look back at our strategic plan and our four pillars of excellent communication and relationship building, outstanding student development, superb organizational culture and effective resource management. Each and every one of those must remain. We don't need to change that. That again is our guiding light.
But we've weathered many storms in public education in Morirana as well. That is uh what has always kept us grounded, our commitment to our students. So, I urge you to remember what is best for students must also include what is best for educators. Now is not the time to stand back, but to speak up and speak out for what's right for our community, our families, and our children, regardless of their background, immigration status, gender identity, or anything else. We must take care of our kids. And in order to take care of our kids, we have to take care of ourselves and our educators. Because we can't take care of anyone when we're exhausted, burnt out, and struggling to survive. I'll leave with a heavy heart, but I also leave with hope. Hope that you'll continue to listen to the educators who remain. Hope that you'll make bold choices in support of public education.
Again, Miss D'vorge presenting. The Columbia American Legion is awarding five $500 scholarships to graduating seniors who are children of GR or grandchildren of veterans and planning to attend a two-year or four-year college, university, or technical school. This year's five winners are, please come forward, Logan Bosch, Addison Butler, Allison Dively, Megan Ballard, and Cameron Hrich. [Applause] We'll do a couple gift cards. Carson Etheton [Applause] L. Van Bruigan. [Applause] Next we have the Crawford Bryant Foundation Scholarship presenting presented by Tara Lure and Scotty Bryant. This is a $10,000 scholarship being awarded to a graduating senior from Columbia High School who has a minimum 3.25 GPA and plans to further their education at a two-year trade school or a 4-year university in construction related field. Congratulations to Sullie [Applause] Benaldi and the Zimmer family scholarship presented by Jim Merr.
I think it's important that it's middle and high school, right? So, we're we're starting next year to have more opportunities at the Mendes School, grades three through five, which is important for our music programming. And then athletics. Uh, you know, we tend to in most high schools around the country think about our athletic programs at the high school level as being the, you know, the beall the endall of of a high school career. I I tend not to think that way. Uh, but we do have outstanding uh opportunities for our students to participate in athletics and they perform quite well. So I'm going to conclude by next last slide Michael we have over this is these are just it's hard to read and I apologize again but what I want to emphasize is this over 200 colleges and universities in the past year uh have accepted our students.
So, we needed to do it for both documents. So um Elro put together the second set of documents which is on the um the site plan review portion um which is the same document which is changed from special permit to site plan review. Lisa also looked at that and said yes, you know, this is how we need to do it. So we should be all um set. We we actually already voted on the special permit one at the end of last meeting. So really it's just voting on this one, but did everyone get those documents, have those in front of you? Um, and then obviously we'll need to collect signatures since we're not here in person, but uh Chris, did you want to add anything to that? No, nothing to add. Uh, it's exactly right. So uh, thank you everyone. Uh yeah, we realized after, you know, in the the past two weeks that we needed to update the site plan approval as well.
It's still raining. And it's still rain now. I think it's now the rain's really beginning to pick up. Few people bearing not umbrellas out there. probably the biggest crowd of East Law Meadow's season right now except for maybe La Meadow when we beat La Meadow which is always good and there's a couple of fathers from Lo that went home crying after that game. So I know your dad was happy. We're all happy. Anytime you see a grown man from Long Meadow cry were always happy with that. Kenna Marino with the ball. Gets ball over the restraining line. And that's got to be really tough with wearing the goggles and the rain coming down in it. Can't see at all. Yeah, nice pass and Addy Jordan in and out. And that's that something call from Agawam. And Addy Jordan will be getting shooting space. I'd like to see her shoot it, which she is.
As superintendent of Bolton public schools, Kristen has guided the district through times of growth, challenge, and transformation transformation. Under her leadership, Bolton's first strategic plan was developed, a lasting framework that continues to guide the district today. She was a passionate advocate for both students and teachers, always seeking to create an environment where every learner could thrive. Her contributions are too many to count, but to name just a few, Kristen was instrumental in key improvements at Fulton Center School, from upgrades in the gym and parking lot to implementing one-to-one Chromebook initiatives and enhancing classroom sound systems. She also prioritized staffing district-wide, ensuring that ensuring that instructional coaches and essential staff were in place to meet the diverse needs of all students. But above the accomplishments and initiatives, what truly sets Kristen apart is her genuine care for people. She understood that schools are not just places of learning, their communities.
Now, let's move on to Kennedy. Kennedy would love to congratulate Miss Foy for receiving the distinguished honor of Constitutional Rights Foundation of Orange County's mock trial teacher of the year. Miss Foy has developed the Kennedy mock trial team into a strong, versatile group of competitive students. They are extremely lucky to have her prepare and guide their mocktra students to success. Thank you, Miss Foy, and you are so so appreciated. Now, let's look at Catella. Catella's boys varsity varsity volleyball made it to quarterfinals. Their varsity softball had their senior night yesterday and won their game. Along South, their baseball varsity team had their senior night and won their game against Anaheim. Congratulations to those teams and their hard work. Their highlight was also prom at the Turn It Bros Prominade where many students had positive experiences even with unexpected rain. Thank you to the staff and students who made it to prom.
And even if my jokes weren't funny, you guys still laugh. So, thank you. And I'm so incredibly grateful to have you all as our board. And even those who aren't on the board anymore, I am truly grateful for every single one of you because you have so much passion for our education and every single student in our district. And it's truly inspiring. And you guys are big role models for me. And it's because it like it has made me grow such love for education and I want to continue to strive and I'm going to miss you guys so much and I want to thank you guys for everything and I will see you guys at graduation. Now I would like to introduce you to Efron Avila who will be the next senior line president for the upcoming school year. I've known Effie for about two years now and we have gotten so much closer this past year.
We have to stay the course. Some of our objectives may change and probably will. That will likely happen. But those four pillars, we have this strategy. We have a clear direction. We have a shared purpose. Could we more clearly define our shared purpose? Likely. We likely could. We have already. We cannot simply leave those four pillars. We would be lost at sea. We must have a clear direction and we must stay this course. Our priorities remain our students. Simply I agree with our community that our priority must remain first and foremost our students. We have some difficult decisions that must be made but our students must remain our first priority. We must use researchbased best practices in our instruction and support of students. Period. How we do that is up for further discussion, but we also must look at long-term sustainability of this agency. And that means that we have to face this budget shortfall head on.
And hope that someday teaching in Arizona won't require this kind of sacrifice. I won't totally be gone. You're not totally rid of me. Um I'm still a parent in the community. You're certain to see my face here at these meetings. Uh but it is unfortunate that it won't be as a classroom teacher. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you. Next up, Miss Conwell. Good evening, dear governing board members and the members of our community.
Mayor Well, uh, good morning everyone. Um, first off, congrats to everyone on their, uh, you know, accompl accomplishments, uh, so far. You all should be proud. And, uh, the other thing, I've seen a lot of, uh, future Missou Tigers out there. So, go Tigers. Was a, uh, former Tiger myself in a, uh, previous time. So, um, my name is JD Mayer and I work as an estate planner, uh, on the family office side of Archford Capital Strategies in Swansea, Illinois. Uh, what I appreciate and love, uh, most about the role that I serve at Archford is working with clients uh, that are similar that are similar to Mr. Edgar Zimmer and being able to facilitate and assist people and their desire to give back to the community. Uh my father uh Jim Mayer, founder and CEO of Archford, had the distinct honor of working with Mr.
This year we are sending students to Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell, John's Hopkins, UMass, Holy Cross, a variety of schools across Cal Berkeley, across the country, Syracuse, we got them all. St. Michaels, you know, we got a couple St. Mike's grads up here. So, um, but but what I'm what I'm trying to get at is our students are prepared when they leave here. And that is a credit to this community for supporting our schools uh and our educators pre-K through 12, preparing them to be successful. Thank you, Mr. Moderator.
Uh I believe the language is a uh identical to the special permit. Uh so uh that's exactly right, Trisha. No additional comments. Yeah, we we intentionally obviously do that to keep except for the parts that are different between the two special permit and site plan review. We keep all those conditions exactly duplicate. in fact not adding them on to the other document until the last minute. Um but uh um but yes, so any one of us should have been able to say, "Hey, what about the site plan review?" So um I'm glad you were on top of it and and caught it so that we could take care of it all together. I really appreciate the the quick attention to this.
Jordan takes a step. Oh, wow. I think that went that off the kneecap. I think if that went off the kneecap, that's going to leave a mark by the goal for the goalie tomorrow. That looked like that hurt. You know, they're always adding um words to the dictionary. Maybe something will be added to the lacrosse playbook. I I definitely think that should be one of the rules. Something because nobody knows what it is. I think you're making fun of me with that something call. Yeah. Yeah. Nothing gets by you. Yard sail behind the net. Awam with the ball behind a net. And now it is really coming down. It's pouring. Got some puddling on the track. Puddling everywhere. We're probably in the only building in Esau Meadows High School field that's uh not letting water in is Goodro with the ball behind the net. Kicks the ball over to Gven.
She believed every child deserved to be to feel seen, supported, and empowered. And she modeled this belief every day. Kristen greeted every staff member, attended countless assemblies, and took a personal interest in the lives of those around her. She showed us that Bolton is more than just a school district. It's a family. On a personal note, I've had the privilege of working alongside Kristen for the past 12 years. She's been a friend, a confidant, a tr teacher in the truest sense. No matter how busy she was, she always made time both personally and professionally. Kristen is one of the most caring individuals I have ever met, and her kindness has made a lasting impression. As she steps into retirement, we thank Superintendent Heck for her unwavering commitment, tireless work, and the legacy she leaves behind. She reminded us to always do what is right and what is best for students.
Now, let's look at Laurera. Laura High School hosted a vibrant community garage sale and pop-up market organized by the family and community center. The event brought together families, students, and community members in a festive atmosphere filled with music, food, and opportunities to support local vendors. Attendees enjoyed a lively experience that celebrated the diversity and entrepreneurial spirit of the Lera community. Events like these help strengthen the connection between school and families, building a sense of unity and collaboration that defines what it means to be a Saxon. Now, moving on from Magnolia. As the school year begins to close, the highlight of Magnolia High School is the unwaving spirit of their ASB. For the rest of the school year, ASB has a multitude of activities lined up for both students and staff to end the year off strong. For teacher appreciation week, their ASB members have been bringing snacks to every classroom on campus to recognize the hard work their teachers put in.