The second digital detox was in April and we had 251 students commit. For this detox, we had students turn their cell phones into the library and keep them there during the day. We think both detoxes were successful and we would like to do more detoxes next year. This year we also participated in what is called QPR training which stands for question persuade and refer which is the same training teachers take to learn about suicide prevention. We took the student version which was taught by the youth services bureau and 22 students were trained. We were also able to use some of our day to plan for next year. Some of our goals for next year are to help support the walk of hope in in September which w which we work will work with other clubs like national honor society and diversity club to run a watch what you say anti-bullying campaign and talk to the administration about having more fun days for students to look forward to where we do fun things like we did in middle school and elementary school.
we're all subject to to what happens um as as sort of um you know tariffs and other things you know come into play. U competition you know yes it does appear to be the trend. Um yes we've also you know put ourselves in a good position from a cash balance standpoint um both in our general fund uh operations transportation certainly but it's certainly something we're going to have to watch moving forward as well. um we will we will certainly consider that as we put our budget together for next year. Um also keeping in mind kind of our revenue forecasts as well. So we're certainly going to have some challenges uh up up in the future months. Um Mr. Smith um as you well know the board of education are experts. They visited transportation facility and see the wonderful facility we have. We have a supply room and generally speaking where do we buy our supplies from Mr.
Our aggregate health insurance though. Uh, is about $222,000 to the good with with $78,000 encumbered. That's about $300,000 total uh available. Um, we have uh I believe two more bills that should be about $150,000 each. So, that seems like it's going to come in uh just about on uh transportation. Um you'll notice the net is is a little bit negative if you were to add all the numbers up. Um but within that is about $952,000 encumbered. There have been some challenges with special education transportation. Um and I think some of our NRT invoices are are running a little slow. So we're going to uh look at that. Um, Asibet right now is um way behind in terms of their special education transportation billing. Um, in fact, Asibet has filed a breach of contract with Vanpool right now um and is looking to get out of the contract um for next year.
So if you have any questions for Candy, she can ask she can answer almost anything about about my Yeah. Yeah. about me. Do you want her to tell the truth? Yeah. Frankly, truthful. So, thank you. Thank you, Victor. That was really fantastic, I gotta say. Questions? All right, we have a curious young man over here. Do you want to scream or do you want the microphone? I'll scream. I've seen him run. He's really fast. The biotitarian ancestor, do we know like which traits it had or and which ones that we evolved to have? That's a really good question. Yeah. So I mean you notice I was claiming that maybe whole body regeneration was a characteristic of the original biotherine ancestor pointing out these very diverse animals can do it but what I didn't tell you is that we know something about the molecular mechanisms the fundamental molecular mechanisms in the flatworm and in the ail and it's the same fundamental molecules you know wind signaling and a certain kind of transcription factor So you can see that the the parts the gene parts of the genome that are guiding this process in this animal and that animal are the same.
The former policy that we're replacing really focused around um administering of medication. Um and this one really goes over all the legal requirements of the age levels and grade levels at which students have to have uh their physicals done. um the requirements for immunizations, tuberculosis screenings, um uh eye and vision screening, um uh scoliosis screening in the school environment. Uh so it encompasses uh the state statutory language regarding our health services requirement. Um so you will see here uh the yellow language uh the yellow highlights um are things that we just added in. Um, for example, we have a coordinator of health services here in the district and this policy is overseen by both our school nurses as well as um, Carrie Burke. Um, so we added her name here. Um, one of the changes we did uh, we did recommend here um, our nurses of course are are responsible for appraising the health status of our students.
So the reason behind the decision, I think it was just because of ask these kids getting home at 11 or 12:00 at uh prayer view. I got home and and I was fueling up at midnight. Um the buses hadn't got back yet and it's it's long days. Um so even even that 30 minutes does help. So and that's really all it is is moving at 30 minutes. The counter being the center. Correct. It's a balance I guess. Yes. Yes. Okay. Anything else reports? I've got a couple things here. Um, concerning Lifewise Academy, I uh like to read on the advice of legal council board is declining the request from Lifeway Academy to adopt or suggested policy. We remain as committed as ever to our vision that each VHS graduate will be prepared for life and a passionate contributor to the career and community. Next, I have a letter I have uh statement to the board to all board members.
Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? same sign. Motion passes 6 to 0 to one. Item number 11, the air clearance testing. Okay. So, we we've been working with John Fox. He's the director at ACM. That's the company that's coming to do the mitigation um that the high school middle school this summer. Um we do have to hire a air clearance company. He gave us a couple of names for the air clearance companies that they've worked with. Um, we do need to get this locked in so we have some dates finalized when they will come out. Um, we'll have to have an air test done after the tiles are taken up in the entryway and then we'll have to have one done once they get the first half of the ceiling tiles out and then we'll have to have another one done when they get the second half of the ceiling tiles out.
504s, we also must cover 504s. They are unfunded. Uh and just explain what that is to you. It's more of a medicallybased document that provides accommodations. So, if a student has diabetes and they need to go to the nurse or they need to have certain accommodations to help them in the classroom or they have to check their phone more often because that's where their monitor is, things like that. Or if a student has ADHD and they need frequent check-ins, they need small groupoup instruction um often, you know, or a preferential seating off to the side to where they can concentrate better. So, we have to develop those also and follow them. Homeschool evaluations in services, same thing. um we have to provide those evaluations and speech, PT or physical therapy, OT, occupational therapy and then also something that people don't understand or know also is that we cover the evaluations for students who were in our district and now are in residential treatment centers.
Um I don't think we ever really figured that out, did we? I mean, it's technically the same as like the law has never changed. Big signs saying tobacco. Yep. Yeah. That the tobacco products, even if they're in vape form, aren't allowed on campus. Yeah. You can't have cigarettes, nothing on campus. Yeah. And if they wanted use their vape, technically, they would need to go the same distance away from campus as you would to smoke a cigarette. So would that be like even in their car? They're not allowed to keep it in their car. No. In fact, um, and now this is going back to the cigarette days, but I remember, you know, I had a boss who smoked cigarettes and if you wanted to have a meeting with him, you would have a really horrible experience of hopping in the car with him so he could drive them, I think, what was it, 75 ft off campus in the car so he could smoke a cigarette while you were having the conversation with him.
Anybody have any questions on the school treasur? Please have a motion to approve the school treasures bond. Motion. Second. Vivian. Yes. Anybody have any questions on the twous between Big Hollow and Big Hollow Federation of Teachers? All right. Can I please have a motion to approve the twous between Big Hollow School District 38 Board of Education and the Big Health Federation of Teachers? Motion. Tiffany and Doug. Yes. Yes.
And so it's a fantastic way for that officer to get in front and really advocate for law enforcement and say, "But this is how we actually do things." Um, what's awesome about that is it seems like back in the day the classes were filled with prospect prospective police officers. While we still have that, I ask all the kids in there, what are they doing? Where are they going? It's awesome to see kind of where the future of these kids are. And there's attorneys, there's people that want to go in forensics, there is the kid that just wanted to learn about law enforcement and take a class. I mean, we get in front of a lot of people. So, it's a kind of a cool experience for them from that standpoint. Um, and then the last part is the law enforcement piece. 100% kids need a safe environment to go to school.
We make sure we have the numbers correct before we before we vote on that. So I need a motion and a second to table this agenda item. I'll make a motion to table the driver. I'll second it. I have a motion and a second to table it. All in favor? I I none opposed. Uh there were no general public comments uh signed up administrative reports and they're over to you. I'll start with just a five-year facility plan. I put this together with the idea of looking primarily at year one. um a lot of flexibility with year two through five what you want to do. We know you know that HVAC is going to be a huge expense. Um I'm still waiting on some bids to come from Lindsum. He's having troubles getting bids on um some of the particulars that we we need. Um, we're looking at, we've had several rooms who have already had those corner units put in that are heating, air conditioning combinations.
and a third company we run didn't even have but that's kind of stuff we're working on right now put on there positive note I just got noticed as I was walking in another track record tonight sure what it is we do we'll find out short but it's the last middle school me of the year and the field be record of the year fourth overall because Um, and then I wanted to just do a public thank you. Um, Mike and Becky and everybody out at the most welcoming top shelf group to work with. We host this weekend. I think we had over 300 people there at one point. Um, plus obviously all the girls, coaches, all the people coming along with it. So, I mean, you're talking 800 people out there hanging out all weekend. That was really the second time that we'll be coming back next week for the conference tournament.
This month, we want to make sure all students know that they can get two free Bowen Center counseling sessions over the summer. It is also a great time to check in with your mental health and every single student in the district is eligible for two free sessions.
Smith? We buy them. Are they made in America or do they come from overseas? They do come from overseas. We do both uh local supply companies and across the US. Uh also the increase there, we have the most drivers we've had today than we've had since 2014. So part of the increase is we have more drivers on the road, which is a good thing. That is excellent news. board. Any other questions or comments on the financial update? Okay. Well, now we'll move on to our board committee chair reports. I'll go ahead and start with Miss Dunn. Parks and Recreation. Lawrence Township had our international festival on Saturday. Um, and it was a lovely day. Very beautiful event. Uh, next parks meeting, board meeting is on Wednesday. So, more updates to come after that. Very good. Thank you. All right. Um, ISBA legislative updates, Miss Lawrence.
So, they're putting that back out to bid um so that's um going to be our collaborative or just that's as collaborative. Yeah, as Valley Collaborative, I'm sorry. they do our they coordinate our special education transportation. Um so they're looking at a number of options, but one of them right now is is definitely getting out of that contract and re um redoing it with with much tighter specifications. So the real challenge is uh the people at Asabet are struggling to um reconcile the invoices they're receiving um against the actual sort of student information. um there's a lot of uh waiting hours being charged um that they don't think are appropriate, things like that. So, um you know, separate item, but you know, we don't really have a lot of control over that. It's really um but they're they're starting to reconcile some of them. Um I think they're a few months behind right now as of this point, but as of this report, they were quite many months behind.
So it probably was back there. So that's the kind of uh arguments that you can bring to bear but basically comparing genomes. So there's for example we all can do um inflammation you know innate immune responses and so forth. And so if we look at the genans required for immune responses, innate immune responses, they'll be conserved across all these organisms. So it suggests that our our our you know ancestors have already evolved those things. Adaptive immunity is a different thing that's evolved later. Something we can do that most other many other animals can't do. Yeah. I have a question for ah that's for hi how was your process in the lab? Were there any like really bigots you came across? Oh. Um, well, you know, the clinical info for was not straightforward at all. And we didn't have technology back then that we have now.
Um, when someone is injured or comes across a sudden illness uh, in the school environment, our school nurses are also responsive. So, we put the school personnel here when it's really more emergent. Um, our school nurses primary responsibility is for our kids um and monitoring their health and well-being as far as making sure they're compliant with physicals and so forth. Um, when it comes to emergency situations, it would be both our staff and students and we thought it was important here. Um, but it's not typical that a that a school nurse would be advising, for example, uh, one of our staff members on their medical conditions minus an emergency. um health records. This reminds us that all of our records are uh protected by furpa um and then HIPPA as well with some of the um privacy information related to medical records. And that's important because um there are certain situations in which information cannot be shared uh to protect students rights.
As more members of this board, our foremost responsibility to serve the best interest of our district, our students, staff, and community. It is vital that we uphold the integrity and credibility of our decision-making process. We have a duty to make careful, informed choices based on thorough discussion, evidence, and shared values. Recently, there has been considerable pressure both from within our board and from the community to reconsider some of our previous decisions. While community input is essential and valuable, we must be cautious not to allow external influence or peer pressure to override the deliberation and consensus we have worked hard to build. Changing course solely because of external pressures or public opinion after decisions have been made can undermine the trust placed in us as elected officials. it risk creating an impression that our decisions are reactive rather than thoughtful and principle. This can erode our leadership confidence and diminish our patrons respect for us.
So, the two air quality companies are American Metropolitan Environmental and then Paradigm. The bids are attached. Um both of them are very comparable talking to both of them on what uh their services that they have to do and give us the paperwork back to make sure it's safe to be in the buildings with those three different tests. Uh Paradigm came in quite a bit cheaper. Um you're looking at about $3,200 for Paradigm to come in and do theirs as opposed to 72 Yep. 7280 from um American Metropolitan Environmental. So those are apples to apples. They are. Yep. Apples to apples with the same clearance test for each one that they have to have done. So the paradigm the 2500 is for both of the air clearances, not 2500 times two, right? Okay. So my recommendation um comparing the two is to move forward with paradigm and get them locked in for the air clearance test for the asbestous abatement at the high school.