Uh, I will take any questions you have at this point in time and I have some introductions that we can make. Mr. Beckett, yes. Where are we at as far as going forward to the next school year? At this point in time, member Coutrey, we're looking at 13 classroom positions still open, five specials positions still open, and four special education classrooms still needing to fill. So, we're we're working on those solutions. About two months yet. We're cautiously optimistic we'll be ready. I noticed on the on the HR agenda there's a lot of uh resignations and the classified areas as well. Um I know that that's one area that we've been addressing. I appreciate that. Um, and so I am also looking forward to hearing what your plan is for our paras because I know that that's a big that's a big one that we see throughout the year and I know that that's not an easy position to fill and to retain.
Um, but it's a balance between how do we be good for business, keep Ashland feeling the right way, but also allowing um people to move into our town without um being hindered necessarily by affordability. So, speaking I mean affordability is one of those it it's almost like a not a pretend word but when you talk about affordability certainly here in Ashland or in all of Massachusetts um talk a little bit about affordable housing and how you see that as a role I mean again not really a planning board purview but it is in the discussion of what's going on with development right how do we support affordable housing but how do we do it um in a way that's maybe not through a 40B Yeah, I think that the first thing we have to do is really understand what affordable means. Uh, affordable housing is not necessarily subsidized housing.
She went to the massive competition. So, um all of a sudden they they kept rising through the ranks and she goes, "They're going to the they're going to the dome. They're going to the dome." And so, this is our DHS robotics team. And there's several teams that comprise the DHS robotics team. And this is a program that that we've uh has been underfunded for many years. And then in the last couple of years, we really started to make sure we have all the equipment, you have everything you need, you cover the registration, and they do a lot of fundraising. So they do some there, but that uh we we really put some effort into it as a focus. But it's all on them. It's not on us. But they um they their one of their one of their teams made it to the finals and then we got to watch live the how that played out with a uh quarterfinal semifinal and final round um in this massive stage and arena really kind of high-tech environment and they ended up in they ended up finishing second but they also won some awards.
And then I see a question. Yeah. So, I was curious um what about your your students that are in six through 12 that also don't tolerate being on the computer? Like is are there is there no independent study option for them? Like is there no book work or um you know sort of I'm I was curious about that because I teach independent study. Yeah. Um, and I have students that, uh, especially coming out of COVID, the last thing they want to do is be on a computer. And so, I mean, they we have the option of egeneuity. We offer egeneuity, but um, I have zero students, not one of my students have chosen to do egeneuity. So, I was just wondering, so what do you guys do for students who who don't want to be online? Absolutely. Um, I would agree some students are not a fan of egeneuity.
It's very much appreciated and you did an impeccable job. So, thank you. With that, I motion to approve the adoption of the 6th through 12th grade ELA curriculum and AP English language and composition curriculum as presented with motions regarding choice materials restricted access, enrichment materials with targeted access, and core materials open access as motioned previously by board member Horn. Second. All in favor? I I I So motion carries. Yep. Uh we'll go ahead and and go back tomorrow morning and clean up the motion so that it's exactly the way it's read. If we need to, we'll listen to the to the audio and put it exactly. We know you already voted 50, so we'll just place your votes in as a 50 vote, so it's nothing different than what you did, but that way there's accuracy in the record for for what the what the vote was.
I mean, we've we've been very fortunate with some that have stayed for a very long time and I'm I'm very grateful, but I also have seen that turnover and so thank you. [Laughter] Love it. Any other questions? I'd like to make a motion that we approve the HR agenda. Second. Lisa. Lisa. We have a motion to second. Shante Rothschild. I. Carolyn Lopez. Hi. Patty Catra. Hi. Robert Downey. I. So move. Thank you, Mr. Becket. May I move on to item? Oh, no. He's got some Oh, that's right. You have some recognition. Make some have some people special people in the audience tonight. I'd like to introduce like to first start with Karen Vieiraa. Karen is going to be our new Pum principal next year. [Applause] Additionally, I'd like to recognize uh Crystal Eim as well as Victoria Malone. Both of these women were involved in our lead forward program this past year.
Affordable housing at the standards of which we live today is uh affordable housing for teachers. It's affordable housings for for the police force, for for our firefighters. So, it's is is housing for people who have regular jobs, but it's still not enough to afford a home, especially in the market that we live in right now, I think. And and Ashton, if I'm not mistaken, the average medium household price is around $600,000, which is not a small number and and it's something that is only going to keep increasing because we're part of the metropolitan footprint of Boston. So we deal with the same issues at different scales and at different uh in different topics but uh and at different intensities but but the the the conversations of affordability are the same for the the whole Boston area. And so how we deal with them is is the question and and affordability again is not necessarily a scary word.
Uh and it was, you know, they lost by uh two out of they lost by one match out of a two out of three match. So absolutely incredible. Um Mr. uh Saboi was he he he said he was shaking the whole time uh watching the kids, but they performed beautifully and we're so proud of them. Um but this they are second in the world at this competition. So um that's a program that's going to continue to grow. We started bringing uh that backward design down to middle school and we had the high school team go down to the middle school. We had a trained um one of the teachers down there. Um Mr. Brewster is one of the ones I can think of off the top of my head, but now we have a VEX program down at the middle school and they actually competed in a competition already and did pretty well in their first goound.
Um, that's why having Oakdale and using Google Classroom is Google Classroom is what's used all throughout all of Chico Unified. Whether they're going to English at PV or English at Bidwell, most of those teachers are using Google Clat, Google Classroom to push their assignments through. So, that's more of a um comfortable thing for them. And so, that's the option a student like that would probably do. So, it's just the same assignment you would have in front of you, but it's just in Google Classroom that you bring up. So, again, do you guys print out assignments if that's what they need? Like rather than working on the computer like I I also taught English 9 and I had Google Classroom and you know, I did lots and Google Classroom's awesome for subplans because then there's no way that you know, your subplans can get lost or whatnot.
Okay, that sounds good. Thank you. Okay, so so 8.8 discussion, consideration approval of the 2526 school year kindergarten prep and 25 uh summer school fee schedule. Okay. Yeah. What we have what we have with that uh just a couple things obviously when we made when you guys approved the um uh community ed uh moving to right at schools uh that made some changes and we we spoke to some of the changes uh that we wanted to have um uh including moving away from three-year-olds coming in and just four and 5 year olds and moving from a split day for those kids in kinder prep to a full day. Well, right now they're only paying for a split day and so we approved the course fee before those decisions were made. So, we're just moving with a course fee that represents a full day instead of a half day, which would be reflective of the amount of time they're they're spending in.
They'll be moving from the classroom into teacher on assignment roles at our elementary school. And have both of them stand, please. And then finally, I just want to recognize a rock star that we have had at MEES for quite a while. Uh this year, Tasha Copper is going to be moving to Butterfield Elementary School to support that school. And we're thrilled with this uh this uh her willingness to do this. I think it's gonna be a great team over there at Butterfield. So we like to recognize her tonight as well. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Becket. I move on to 11B. Discussion of possible adoption of the resolution approving an the MOU regarding the possible boundary adjustment. Mr. Harmon. Thank you, President Downey, members of the board, and Dr. Loman. You have an agenda item before you to approve a resolution um to sorry to adopt the resolution to approve theou which will start the process to finalize this um minor boundary adjustment.
I think it can be a a word for opportunity precisely to have people who have lived here for for a number of years to remain in the community and for the future generations to remain in this community. And so um hopefully we can remove the the the misconceptions about what affordable means and affordability is achieved by having a diversity of typologies of housing. Right? It's not only apartments but it's also not a single family homes. There's opportunity for town houses. there's now opportunities for ADUs, the accessory dwelling units. So different footprints and different uh square footages allow us to have a diversity of d uh of affordability that now we can have the conversation of what affordable is for our community without the fear of what it really means what we famously call in the planning world the capital A affordability and lowercase affordability where I think we are talking about regular affordability for the the the the middle income people of our town that deserve to remain here that are looking for a home and hopefully can remain here.
So, um we're going to continue to backward plan this down to elementary and um we have some, you know, some materials, curricular materials. We're trying to change it up a little bit and get more materials in the hands of kids in elementary so that they too get interested in robotics and STEM and STEM and all of that. So, we're trying to fill the pipeline, but um the the the high school just did an amazing job. The kids were incredible. And and what's interesting is we had um this scuba company come out. The scuba tech company was in the paper and they do a like a programmed uh scuba robots. same type of idea um that navigate uh different courses on underwater. The company Scuba Tech came out. They're now going to be an industry partner with us. They built a I don't know how many 20,000 gall 15,000 gallon pool back at DHS and they let the kids test the equipment and that program.
But um and of course my freshmen were very familiar with using Google Classroom and knew what the expectation was. But again that sitting and working you know it was designed working on a computer and I always prayed that you know we wouldn't lose internet connectivity because then my substitute would have nothing to do I mean yeah it would be like oh no. So I again I'm just saying if a student requires you know paperwork if that's what their need is how do we accommodate that? So Oakridge we don't have an alternative curriculum to egeneuity that's available. That's the only curriculum available. We do do printed um guided notes so students can take notes as they go that's matches what they're learning the curriculum. Um with Oakdale we do have some printed options. Typically, it's for students that have IEPs that need to have a different option than just using the Google classroom.
Uh the last time we did also not do last year a summer school option for this year, although it we there's a a price tag there. Uh we do not have enough kids that are interested in the summer school. So, even though you you vote to approve that, at this point, we're not running a high school or middle school uh um summer school, but I would still go ahead and make the motion to approve both as is. Uh maybe something changes in the next uh couple weeks. I doubt it, but but that way there's a safety net there. So, my only question is this is specifically for the kinder prep um and the summer school fees. Is that correct? Yes. Yes. But there's if you go through the whole the whole one, you'll see down at the bottom the summer school at 150. It's part of the part of the form that that's the only change.
Take any questions you might have. Mr. Harmon, I actually I was not able to attend the uh the session that we had regarding um uh the proposed boundary uh with Kasa Grand Union, but I did watch it afterwards. Um, unfortunately there was no comments and questions, so I don't know if we just did an excellent job explaining it. I'm going with that version. So, but thank you. Um, the information was, you know, very clear, very concise, and very easily understood, and it's obvious that, um, all three districts want this to happen. And it makes perfect sense that Maricopa residents go to Maricopa Unified Schools.
Great. Scott, any thoughts on that? Yeah, you stole my thunder at the end, you know, with the ADUs and the and and things like town houses. Um, but it's also like you can think of development in like, you know, triplexes or quads, right? Oh, and even they don't have to be rentals necessarily. You can turn those into condos and that puts a, you know, one or two bedroom, you know, one bath into an affordable space for somebody to buy. Um, so yeah, I think more flexibility on that. So, like if you can talk with developers and maybe instead of putting up 20 single family homes, we're putting up, you know, 10 triplexes or something. You've now added um a little bit more affordability to get into the town. And then I also think of affordability. Um not the capital A affordable housing, but like you know what goods and services are in town?
So kids were working the robotics while other kids were watching how it was playing out in the pool. And I say this because the VET robotics kids kept coming down and like kind of finding their way down because they were so interested. But the crossover in the technology and their knowledge base and what they were seeing. So they're just very excited. Um you know the programs in these areas are going to continue to grow as long as we can support it and and with them continue to nurture it. But um the competition was amazing and it sparked a lot of interest across many areas. So, um, my guess is more kids will be registered for those classes and the program next year. Thank you for asking. Yeah, we wanted to bring them in and kind of acknowledge that at some point, but like kids taking this or something.
Um, and I I know that um PV and Chico High both have tradition what we call traditional independent studies where they will use textbooks and printed materials. So, it kind of is, you know, what are you looking for? And we look in the district, we kind of see it as a whole, like our district has all these different options. and if you're looking for this, maybe this is the best spot for you. And so we kind of look at it as a buffet of what's going to be best for the student. So Oakdale um their teachers, the students come in twice a week for a two-hour block of time um to get support and have lessons with their teacher. Um they use digital curriculums through Google classroom. Uh they use study sync, CPM math. They use no red incul. Pathful is a career um awareness program.