And it turns out Gary show that lin 14 itself is a regulatory protein. It regulates the production of of RNA from many other genes. So that's how it controls this juvenile versus adult transition by regulating other genes. So what's the message here? We were just, as G said, we're just curious about these mutants. That's all it was. We were just curious about the mutants. And we figured if we could figure out maybe what these mutants are telling us about developmental timing, sort of clocks that may be happening in during development, we should probably learn something new about biology. But there was no expectation that we would be identifying some completely unexpected kind of genetic regulate. So that's the you know the very important point here is that the curiosity is what motivates the research and that and the results come from the research we and and in this case what the new insights that came you know was pretty interesting that you have this new kind of RNA and it turns out that there's um many micronas not just in worms but in humans as well and in fact the lin 4 microna that we discovered is in our genomes as well.
So again yeah you have a lot of resto you know we had a lot of students that were absent that kind of uh you know they kind of got them back on track and then you know they they did their own thing it never never caught up. So, uh, it's a great program. If the if the receiver, the audience, which is the student, is willing to accept and willing to work to get to get back to work they need to do, it works. But time will tell. Um, I Yeah, I was gonna have something to say. Um so as a role as a uh former counselor these are skills that um we would bring to the table with students. Um again when we talk about yes this is the policy we have to have it in place as board members we still are accountable for how that program pans out how it's used how it's developed who is going to do it who what when how and why um and so I think we we will get the policy in we have to have it in it's mandated but we need to be very very careful about making sure that this policy rolls out that it's um I mean there are so many we're dealing with so many developmental levels of students um a full range um trying to develop empathy in students responsibility accountability honesty respect it's not again yeah okay I I'm not going to beat the force, but um right down to reparations.
We as a steering committee will be happy to work with you through the proposed assessment process. I leave you with a final thought. We believe so strongly in the importance of this program that if there is one single student that benefits from it at USD244, we are willing to put in the effort to make it happen. Thank you. Well, the school board I'm saying ought to be encouraged by this. How many meetings have we had where I've been the only person here that's not part of the school board, part of the school system? So for me this is this is American government. So so I appreciate the students and parents and everyone being I personally appreciate that and I did look around Mr. Springs not here, does he? No. I want to acknowledge him. Uh in his report, uh he um included Van on his actual prick report.
So, kind of a couple things here. Um, we need to decide if we're going to keep using the Bushon facility for middle school and then also um pay for the gym flooring to be refinished on the same every 2-year rotation if we're going to continue with their usage. I did uh take some pictures and have the gentleman at Cancord shoot us a figure to redo not redo the whole floor but to refinish the floor every two years and it was 3100 $3,150 to be able to do that. So every two years you're looking at you know a little under $10,000 to be able to use that uh facility over there. So, um, you know, I really feel like it it's a good way to incorporate a community that does not have a school right now and still maintain their viability to some um, activities that are school related.
So there's input um from the school personnel and there's input from PD. So okay. So if there's input from school personnel, does input of the student body and the community have anything to do with it as well? Because if the if the input of the board or the school has preceded in that decision, shouldn't there be precedence and input of the people that are here? I can't I don't know exactly what PD's evaluation process is or if they take into account like public constituents as part of their evaluation process. But in the school district, we don't routinely gather student input when we're evaluating our employees, but he's not our employee. Him not being your employee. And we have contacted parents have contacted the China Valley Police Department. They say it's all coming from the school district. You have the school district saying it's the police department.
So, we haven't been calling. No, I think we looked this up before, right, Jay? Yep. Is it still listed? I think it is. Yeah. Says though, like for marijuana, I thought any kind of I think we looked it up and as long as it was um you couldn't possess it still even for medical purposes on campus. But when it comes down to suspected use is where the gray area comes in because because you could technically have legally used it as home for medical purposes and then someone could suspect you of being under the influence of it at school, but that would be technically okay because you didn't use it or possess it at school is really kind of what I think we remember we came down to. So that's the only place where the gray area exists is about use. That's what I would call my team, but otherwise you shouldn't possess it.
So it's just it's different when you compare states. And you guys know that I've we've had that conversation before, but I just want you to be aware there are changes coming in this fall when we get the test scores reported. So, we'll do our best to show you the results with with with our partnership with ECRA. We're able to do a little bit deeper dive in our comparisons with how the kids are actually doing. So, um I just don't want us to get caught up on the on the percentile scores. So, um my next one is an update on this is kind of a strange update, but update on bike path construction. We have two situations going on right now. One is not not really an impact to us. Vololo is going to start this bike path down uh Fish Lake Road uh connecting our parking lot on Fish Lake to the parking lot on on Nippers on Wils Nippersink.
And it it we really just want to have them spend time and build those relationships. Later this year, we are going to have our first full-time community engagement specialist. And that is going to be a police officer that does nothing but this community engagement work. A lot of other departments call them community oriented policing officers. Same thing. We just gave it a different title, community engagement specialist. Um, one of the other programs is the citizen at risk program. So this is something where we have officers um we have some officers specially trained in this but um for instance if we have say a a child with autism and let's say maybe they're a wonderer um and they go and we will enter all this information in. We'll talk to the parents. Let's say they wondered once and we found them somewhere. Now we know that location and maybe they'll they'll go back there again.
our our labor rates are filled by meals per labor hours. So, we have to have so many meals to support so many employees. Um, and honestly, we do really well. A lot of those girls have been here for a long time. It's like a, you know, it's every day to them. So, so we are going down employees a little bit and raising rates. You know, I feel like to be competitive, I think my elementary proposal is $310 and my high school proposal is $3.25 for a lunch for a student. And I know that that sounds high to me. I still feel like that sounds high, but then I think like I can't go to McDonald's and get my child a meal for $3.25. So, I don't know. So, how did it how did it work this year as far as how did you I mean, how did your account get drained?
Uh after a few days, we figured out that we in September and then something as a personal achievement going back to those junior colleges, they take you go to five of them. They take four your four best scores and you add them all up. I was 16 overall after they add them all out of the Thank you guys. Can you real quick just tell us what we're I was going to say if you guys didn't know we have a junior, two freshman, and then an eighth grader. So a very very young Wow. All right. Thank you for that. Um, it's always great to hear all those accomp accomplishments. Some of them happen outside of school on the weekends and things like that. You don't ever, you know, hear all the time. So, that's awesome. Uh, moving forward to consent items. Uh, we have a lengthy list here.
And there's Terry uh showing off the new lighting in the hallways. And uh as you've seen, if you've been in the the building at all walking around, I know the students have noticed there's no ceilings. Um but the areas that are done are considerably uh brighter than what they used to be. And uh that project is going uh very well. They're about half done uh with that at this time. They're also following the piping and the ceiling. They're putting in a new PA system uh throughout the school as well. and uh they're following behind the guys doing the ceiling and lights with the cabling and speakers for that. So, they're kind of working together along with those uh doing the piping work as well. Uh some good news here. Uh that piping project is going extremely well uh and may actually be 100% by the summer.
And so just really am grateful that we're part of a district that takes such good care of the people that give their time and talents. And so um it may seem inconsequential to a lot of individuals, but it really does mean a lot to those of us that are working. Um many times I I know there are interviews on Wednesday where it'll be provided. People don't realize people will be working here until nine o'clock at night and many of them are volunteers. So, thank you for the continued support. Um, something really small but really means such a so much to so many people. So, thank you. Mr. Miles is also an economic impact. We're trying to keep the money within Lawrence. We are exclusive hosts of many of the department of education. We also are host exclusively to the state principal leadership academy which brings hundreds of principles from around the state.
Fourth grade is an hour per day doing things like Savas, practice buddy, the math um waggle, rocket math, walking around doing this. Fifth grade is 6.25 hours weekly on research reports, things like that. There are some filler games in that we've cut back on um to do more rigor. Um, but I will say that uh, one of the things that's helped is Bark. So, I just went on just to see that I had eight alerts from just the last couple of days. Um, one of the things that we found out about this is the kids didn't know about Bark, but we kind of let them know if um, we have seven, doesn't it? It certainly does. They're being kids. They're they're calling each other, you know, silly little names. And my school site or my adjustment counselor or myself have access to this. We go through we go and say, "Hey, did you know we can see what you're doing on your school computer?" And that's not okay.
So that common ancestor that I showed you of all of animals had lin and we've all had one ever since. So I want to just close with things we wonder about um that we're starting to work on in the lab today. And this is a a hostenia which is a little worm called the banded panther worm. Um and our collaborator Monty Servosta has developed this as an experimental model organism for studying regeneration. Okay. So now if you cut this worm in half you get these two halves and about a day later you see that the the wound heals over at both sides. Now this is a tail and this is a head and the head has a brain and everything right? This one doesn't ever break. But evolution has provided mechanisms for these animals to do what's called whole body regeneration. So the back end regenerates a head, right?
But we we have to have students who are at a developmental level or a cognitive level or a reasoning level to fully take advantage of this type of a uh so we have to do it the right way. It's not onesizefits-all. We're a large school district. Um certainly it's my expectation that elementary is going to look different from middle school. Middle school is going to look different from high school. But the training that needs to go on, that's why I'm worried about the personnel who are going to be um trained, responsible, and accountable. um uh and understand that we um restorative practices were originally introduced because of the high number of suspensions in our students of color. Um and so um being culturally competent that should be one of the training issues. Um, but anyway, we have to have it in. I understand. But I am really going to be pounding on the regulations and moving forth that, you know, we're saying it's across the district.
You know how I feel about that. And there's a a band concert tonight. So, I trust where he is, where he ought to be. And so, I just want to acknowledge him. But the reason I want to speak to you tonight was last month at the at the meeting talking about 21st century learners. And we emphasized being ready to to contribute to the 21st century society. And we're trying to get learners to do that. And Robert Kaplan wrote a series of books several years ago about how the world is connected and no longer isolated here and isolated there. A person in Sierra Leone can be as connected to Burlington, Kansas as anyone else in the world. And so in in view of that, we ought to take a real high view of um language instruction. How can I speak? Language instruction. Um we reported last month that there were 13 students taking Spanish 13 in a class in a in a school of were not ready to to contribute to the international community and then during the during the uh senior interview day we had one student taking German and so I talked to him in German for a moment.
I think that's really important if we can still be able to reach out and do that. So I would recommend us um looking looking at that in depth to continue that um with use using that Bushon facility for those items. So, I went back and watched the minutes from that meeting that was uh deal and I was under the impression just by watching the minutes that part of the um good thing about that deal was that it was all included and that we wouldn't have any additional costs for gym floors. Um that's what Mr. Lowry was talking about anyways. He said it would that would cover, you know, more be a good deal. So, I guess my question is where did that agreement come from? I don't know if it was an agreement or if was just talked between the superintendent motion. So we do pay for refinishing of the M4s at the wreck also every other year.
You have the police department saying it's this. Where's the transparency? As parents, we want to know what is where does where do you draw the line? So what we So what I could share with you again like President Thomas has shared any personnel issues can't be discussed in a public meeting without asking the employee first. Like there are laws in Arizona for that and he is not our employee. So that's not something we can initiate with him. But yes, it's a it's a joint. It's we work together both agencies with services that we share. So how does the principal feel about him leaving? We we cannot go into personal issues and just keep being around the Can we have not come here and speak possibly at a later time? It's not on the agenda for tonight. Of course it Um, could I is there anyone here with discrepancies about not that would like to speak?
And I think you do still have to call the police if somebody's in possession of marijuana. Yes. Um technically marijuana, the leaf is its own drug. Um classification, it's not a dangerous or narcotic drug under the Arizona state statutes. However, if it's in distillate form in a vape can or something like that, that is a narcotic drug and it's a higher level. It's like an actual felony to possess it. Um, did you say it was felony? Yeah, if you're Well, technically it's like a higher level offense. I don't know if they still char No, it's not a felony for adults to possess it. it I they haven't cleaned up the statutes very clearly, but it's basically a higher level offense because right now it's it's a misdemeanor to possess marijuana underage, right? But it's actually classified differently if it's in a vape pen and so they it may still be a higher level offense.
So that and it's going to be in the ement you guys passed the easement uh last month I think that one's not going to impact anything. What is gonna what uh is an interesting conversation is that Round Lake is going to finish off the uh bike paths on uh Nippersync and Wilson connecting to Valley Lakes. So, it's an interesting discussion. I I talked to to our trans our operations committee about this last month and we actually had Route Lake Village officials in on the meeting. Um there the state does have a formula that I can run through the data for like what's the speed limits, how close is the path to the road, is there a curb, all these things. It's a KA district. There's a formula and when you put the numbers in the formula, we get to 11 and a half points, but the board can add a point or two based on extenduating circumstances.