In her four years at Rampart, Clare has been part of National Honors Society, DECA, Future Business Leaders of America, Student Council, as well as the girls basketball and track teams. Clare will attend the University of Alabama where she plans to major in economics. Claire is the recipient of the University of Alabama's admission scholarship. Claire Coliseimo [Applause] The college prep saludiatoran is Irene Wish. [Applause] Irene is joined by her mother and father Deborah and Matthew Wish, her brother Ethan Wish, her grandparents, friends, and former Rampart graduate Ty Kaiser, her cousins Nicholas, Sophia, and Sylvia, and other close family. Over the course of her high school career, Irene has participated in National Honor Society and the girls tennis team. She was an active or she was active in various Rampart bands playing the French horn in the wind ensemble, the melophone in the marching band. She was the brass captain and a drum major as well as participated in the pit orchestra and Colorado college band.
I took the AP Calculus AB exam last year. I had worked hard all year and done well in class, and I wanted my exam to reflect that. But studying an entire year worth of content felt like an overwhelming task. First, I had to decide to commit. I reminded myself of my dedication to the subject, my desire to go into engineering, and the work I had already done throughout the year. I then broke my study down into smaller goals, including studying my formulas, reviewing weak areas, and using practice tests. Afterwards, I scheduled times to study. Finally, I followed through with my plan. I've been awarded college credit going into BYU Provo and had the privilege of completing the BC exam yesterday. These general principles, breaking down the problem, scheduling time, and following through, apply to tackling almost any challenge. Choose to overcome setbacks. Devote yourself. Work in an intentional way.
Something you already have right now at your disposal. The power of starting with yes. Let's be clear here for a minute. There are lots of times when no is an important and clear decision for you and you and I both know it. That little voice in your head or that feeling in your gut won't fail you. So listen to those when they are telling you no. But the power of yes, that's what I want to talk about today. We live in a world that loves no. No, that won't work. No, you're not qualified. No, you're too young. No, we've always done it this way. No, that's impossible. What if we decided to start with yes? Yes doesn't mean saying yes to everything or abandoning boundaries. It means starting from a place of openness instead of fear. It means seeing possibility before problems. It means being willing to try, to risk, to begin even when we're not guaranteed success.
Second, uh we should limit building height in the transition district only where it borders low-rise neighborhoods, not where it's away from low-rise or close to the core. These are some of our most promising areas for new housing and strict limits there would cost a lot in terms of housing that doesn't get built while helping very little. Third, let's allow but not require groundf flooror commercial uses in the transition district. Mixed use is great, but forcing commercial uses could make some worthwhile housing unworkable uh especially given today's retail and office challenges. Now, I'd like to speak to my fellow homeowners in Ann Arbor. I love living in a city that values social justice, and access to housing is one of the defining social justice issues of our time. This comprehensive planning process gives us a chance to act on our values. To overcome our housing shortage, we need more homes across the city, including in the large majority of our residential territory that still zone for only single family.
Next slide, please. Uh this is the Mumford uh project. This uh particular parcel is 6.7 acres in size. A townhouse development is proposed including 25 units. There will be four townhouse units. Two of them will be family rental and two of them will be for what's known as special needs bedrooms. One of the units will be three bedrooms, the other will be four bedrooms. You get credits for every bedroom with a special needs um project. Uh it is it is a need. It's throughout the state of New Jersey and the new Fair Housing Act has actually given full 100% bonus credits for special needs units. Um, in this particular instance, uh, we are able to get a what's known as a set aside of 36%. A typical set aside is anywhere between 15% and 20%. So, it is a substantial set aside on this particular property.
for MSAA, our alternative assessment, three students took the test. Again, they did amazing. For our state assessment for our third through 8th graders, I have never seen our kids more ready. I am so proud of them. They have never been more focused. We were able to make the process really seamless this year working with Mrs. Quibbos and some of our support staff. Um, I'm just I'm so proud of these kiddos. like they've absolutely done amazing. Even some of our eighth graders who've kind of been done since December, like really focused. Um, as of yesterday, we had 93 students qualified for services and I still have four or five meetings by the end of this week. So, by the end of the year, we're looking at roughly 100 students around 98 or so. Again, Diane Kent from Puma County Superintendent's Office. She's coming out to do an end of year reflection and future planning, professional development in um the week after we get out of school.
And then the last point that we want to touch on is professional development opportunities for substitutes. Um, especially at Williamsfield and Higgley, we have a lot of long-term subs, but they're kind of just thrown into a class with no guidance on the class and no understanding how to do classroom management. just we just think that maybe providing them with a short lesson on how to run the class or just giving them extra support would be really beneficial and create a lot of like um differences that we see because I feel like a lot of students just don't feel supported because they are having a sub who doesn't know what they're doing and I feel like the subs don't know what they're doing because they've never taught the subject. They've never majored in it. So I feel like from a district we could support subs more by just giving them the support they need because they matter just as much as teachers do.
Others, I don't have my name yet. No, I I have two feelers out and I just haven't heard back yet. That's exactly the same. All right, that's okay. Yeah, that's the same with me. I have a name, but I don't want to put it out. It hasn't been validated. Yeah, correct. Got it. That's okay. We've got the three names. Like I said, I think we've just got to make sure we once we have those names ready to go. What I plan to do is I will probably call a and I'll probably do a virtual meeting um because I know these folks are uh you know probably working in the evening have a virtual meeting. What we're going to do is share the application that uh Mr. Albrech filled out that gives the testimony behind uh somebody that he is recommending. The committee will then kind of take a look at the merit of that recommendation and then they will give a recommendation to bring back to the board through me.
Cameron won the Connecticut Fire Prevention Poster Contest for all of Cam. Congratulations, [Applause] Cameron. I'd like to call up Olivia Corey and Finn McGee. Congratulations to sixth graders Olivia Corey and Finn McGee for their strengths in the visual arts, citizenship, and cooperative skills. Olivia and Finn were honored at the Connecticut Association of Schools 25th annual Elementary Celebration of the Arts this past February. [Applause] calling up Samantha Lee. Samantha is always a willing participant in class activities. She does a great job of balancing effort, competitiveness, and teamwork. She plays the rules by the She plays by the rules of the game and her actions encourage others in class to do so. Samantha receives our sportsmanship [Applause] award. Chloe Charles. Chloe is an outstanding participant in social emotional learning class. She consistently demonstrates active listening, empathy, and respect for others. You can always count on Khloe to raise her hand and contribute thoughtful insights to class discussions.
She founded Rampart's brass quintet and big supporter program and implemented the senior time capsule. Additionally, in her free time, she is a math and SAT prep tutor and she volunteered for four consecutive summers at Challenger Aerospace summer camp. Irene will attend University of Colorado Denver where she will major in biochemistry with a minor in business. She has reserved a spot in the doctor of dental surgery pathway program at CU anshootes. Irene is a Betcher semi- finalist as well as the recipient of the CU Denver Merit Scholarship and Gazette's best and brightest scholarship, Irene [Applause] Wish. I would now like to welcome to the podium our valadictorians. We will first hear from the international balorate valadictorian Sienna Fer and then the college prep valadictorian Aana Paul. [Applause] Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can make great. A quote from the chef Agus Gustoau, who many of you may know from the film Ratatouille.
And you can realize your wildest dreams. Class of 2025, you are now headed into adulthood with your diploma in hand. You have learned so much. Use your strengths and knowledge, academic or not. Conquer challenges and start becoming the person you want to be. And please be kind to yourself along the way. Whatever has happened or whatever regrets you have, the best time to get back on track is now. Thank you all for sharing these years with me and impacting my life for the better. Go out and seize the world, and I know we will all accomplish great things. Thank you. [Applause] At this time, it is my pleasure to introduce our superintendent of Academy School District 20, Mrs. Ginger Habberer. Mrs. Habberer, a Colorado native, brings more than 30 years of educational experience and expertise to Academy District 20. She comes from a long family lineage of educators who instilled in her a desire to inspire others to be lifelong learners.
Let me tell you a story. 10 years ago, five educators came together to ask hard questions about the disruption of a wellestablished and oftentimes stubborn system. They started with some very simple questions. Could high school be a place of exploration and joy? Can students be empowered to drive the decisions in their own education? Can school be reimagined, redesigned, reinvented? Could it possibly work? To that last question, it became evident early on that cultivating a mentality of yes was critical. That without that way of thinking, surely we would fail. You've been living in a world of yes, and it's possible it never occurred to you. Starting with yes doesn't guarantee greatness. But saying no too early almost always guarantees nothing. So these five educators dove into living in yes and Village High School was born. Yes to trying again for those of us who no longer knew for sure that this was the profession that could be the work we could believe in.
If we wall off the current single family zone, we're limiting our ability to solve the housing shortage. We're also concentrating the costs of change rather than sharing them equitably across the city. That's just not fair. Overcoming a housing shortage means allowing space for, among others, private builders because, like it or not, they construct most of our housing. When we block a new housing, we just drive up the cost of the housing that's already there. But don't take my word for it. Let's listen to the experts. And by that, I mean the scores of younger people, including students, nurses, and teachers, who've spoken up during this planning process and are struggling to make their way in our exclusionary housing market. They know well the awful power of their landlords when rental vacancies are far lower than a healthy 5 to 7%. They're aware of the untenably long commutes in search of housing they can afford.
Um, and the density equates to something pretty low as it relates to affordable housing in the state of New Jersey, 3.7 units per acre. A normal single family house development is about six units per acre. That's that's an absolute requirement per the COA regs, but in negotiations, we were able to negotiate a density of 3.7 units per acre. Um, next slide, please. This is a concept plan that is uh proposed to be attached to the draft ordinance as well as the the future developers agreement. Um what you will see here are six buildings. Uh to your left is Ra is it raen raen road? It's raftton Rathjen Rathjen Road. To the right is Route 35. Uh you will see a a spine that comes through the property. There are six buildings uh four town houses each. The one the one building that's all the way to the right hand side closest to Route 35 is the affordable housing building.
All right. So, next year, uh we're looking at staffing, preparing for student needs, again, policies and procedures, and then the beginning of my fourth year. I am so incredibly thankful for my staff. We have everybody returning except for one staff member who's moving on to look at going to school full-time. We have almost all of our students returning. Our eighth graders we will send to high school and wish them well. But when we look at incoming students um from our preschool to our kinder, a lot of them are returning. We are looking at an on-site speech and language pathologist and speech and language pathologist assistant. We're still kind of finalizing those plans and we will have a virtual services for our school psychologist. We got into a really great routine and um there's a lot of benefits to it at this time. Next year, oh next year we will start the SSIP process which we're really going to look into reading um and reading supports of for um special education.
And now I'm going to pass it back to Michaela. And if you're wondering, here are all the pictures that we have from all of the places we went to. We talked a lot about um the ASU mix center and um CGCC. We learned a lot and got to see a lot of really cool, unique things that we wouldn't really get to see if we weren't a part of this council. So, with that being said, thank you so much for taking the time to listen to our reflections, ideas, and hopes for the future of Higgley Unified School District. Being a part of the superintendent's advisory council has truly opened our eyes not just to how much thought and care goes into making this district great, but how much our voices matter as students. We've learned that growth doesn't just happen through policy or curriculum. It happens through collaboration, through conversation, and through truly listening to the people your work impacts the most, which is us.
um to name that field or not to name that field. So, it's a pretty straightforward process. Um I think we could get this wrapped up certainly within, you know, the next month or so. So, there I would imagine there's going to be other opportunities with that whole sport complex to name the football stadium, to name the boys baseball stadium. I guess I would imagine is that a legitimate assumption if if Yeah, I think it is as long as you know the the award the accomplishment is there. Right. Right. Right. And that's what I'm saying. I would imagine you know we got an opportunity. We have a football or a softball field right now. We have a boys new baseball field. We have a football field. We have a track. So I'm just looking to see and people the public is seeing opportunities to possibly throw someone else's name in a hat for those positions, those facilities.
She's a true role model, embodying the values of SEAL and inspiring her peers to do the same. Keep up the great work, [Applause] Chloe. I'm not sure if I saw Joelle Wilson sneak in, but I'd select to celebrate Joelle. Joel's being celebrated for his outstanding participation in fifth grade. He's consistently engaging in classroom discussions and works well in our part, whether it be in a partner or in a group. Joel's respectful and shows his classroom community how to be role models during that specials. So, Joel, at this point, I'd like to call up all of our future problem solvers team. There's many board is familiar with this group. Sixth grade ACT students took the year to study the future problem solving sixstep method. Their teams completed practice problems and then worked to qualify for the state competition in January. CIS had three teams that were invited to attend the Connecticut Future Problem Solving State Bowl.
While this line may seem to only be about the trials and errors of a cat, of a rat cooking at a five-star restaurant, there is a deeper meaning, an aspiration to do better and be better than what you believe is possible. By being fearless and taking risks, what can be achieved is beyond our understanding of ourselves. Throughout our high school experience, many of us have feared taking risks. Deciding whether to study for a test or not, taking a hard class you've only heard rumors of the intense workload, or joining that sports team you don't believe you are good enough for. However, the problem with waiting for the right chance is that it may never come. The world may never have the perfect path for you to to achieve your dreams. It is important that we chase what we believe is right for us on our own terms.
After starting her career pathway as a registered nurse, she soon realized that her true passion was being an educator. Ginger has served in many roles from the classroom to administration, including earning national board certification as a science teacher and serving as a middle and high school principal, an assistant superintendent of student achievement, and a superintendent in the state of Washington. Ginger is proud to be back in her home state of Colorado as the superintendent of Academy District 20, where team one spirit ensures that all students thrive. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Mrs. Ginger Habberer to the podium to share some inspir inspirational words with the graduating class of [Applause] 2025. Well, congratulations class of 2025 Liberty Lancers. Let's give it up for them. [Applause] Today marks the culmination of your hard work, your resilience, and your dedication. You faced late nights, challenging exams, moments of doubt, but you never gave up.