Have we been talking about that a lot in classes? I don't know that we've talked a lot about it in classes uh directly. I'd have to ask principles if you know if the kids if the teachers talk specifically about it. U we talk in general about not bullying and about not cyber bullying. Okay. Okay. Um I just wondered because it was so different from the other three. Well, actually that's a pretty positive response. I mean that's why I'm saying it is it's a pretty positive response. Um and uh uh you know uh especially compared to uh I guess when I look at two where there's a more even breakdown between you know can I tell an adult if the bullying is occurring? Um so you know that's kind of an interesting comparison. Yeah. Um, I'm I'm a little concerned about how often do you worry about violence at your school?
All right. Well, you've got your minutes and your reports. We have, this is the end of the year list, so bear with me. Resignations. Trisha Durban, kindergarten teacher, is going to retire at the end of the 2029 school year. Amy Fes, Donna Meyers, and Jenny Reosovich are also going to be retiring at the end of the 29 school year. John Spencer, E Eagle View Cook, is going to be ending at the end of this year. And um added on before we had it, we got this uh today or yesterday. Zack George High School PE will also be leaving us to go to another school in Alton. Um we've got some employments. Taylor Bradshaw will be our high school finance secretary. We'd like to put her on. Sylvia Gardner will be the an adult supervisor for Eagle Zone. Uh we've got some certified personnel. Wendy Range will be our new speech language pathologist for next year.
Kevin Langmire for leading the construction of the new dugouts, Jim Bomba for managing the safe demolition of the old baseball dugouts, Chris Messier and crew for executing the final touches on the infield and fencing. And Dan Moore for daily project coordination, ensuring the right tools, materials, and manpower were in place every step of the way. Local meetings, programs, and events. Stay connected and informed about what's happening in Ashland. From town meetings to community programs, there's something for everyone. for upcoming public meetings. Want to know more about local decisions and initiatives? Tune in to upcoming meetings either in person at town hall in the select boardroom or virtually. All meetings are broadcast through WACA TV. Go online to view full agendas and meeting details. And don't forget to hit view all calendars to see everything that's coming up for this week's meeting. On Tuesday, May 13th, we have the zoning board of appeals at 700 p.m.
And before you grown, right, I grown first. I'm like, Stairway to Heaven in a jazz setting. Come on. And I It is a beautiful arrangement. You're going to be surprised. I promise. All right. So, here we go. Good. So, how you doing? Yeah, good to be here. It's a little warm today. Nice. Whole tide thing only a couple times a year. I hate them. You're the only one. True that. Um, we good. All right, we're good. Yeah, I can [Music] hear [Music] Here I [Music] am. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] 2 down. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hello. Hey. Hey. [Music] [Applause] Dal. [Music] [Applause] And this is our wonderful Bar saxophone player that I stole her from the other band to come to the sit with us and play. So, [Applause] So, our next song is uh Midnight Creeper. It's a classic uh by Lou Donaldson.
We've been talking for a few years about um getting our superintendent salary sort of up to par with especially the superintendent in the DUI. So um this contract does that. We um I'm very pleased that we're um able to keep Dr. Solen on for uh the next little while. So I fully support this contract. Jackie Um, I'd like to thank uh my colleagues for all their efforts. We spent a long time discussing this and this is a uh a wellthoughtout contract. Uh some hard negotiation between us and Dr. Solen and we're very pleased that Dr. Solen is staying on. Um I will be supporting his contract and I'm very excited to keep working with him. Dwight, did you have a comment? I would also like to share that I am supporting this contract and I believe that this contract supports our belief um in Dr.
Please welcome Mrs. Habberer. Well, good morning. What a wonderful uh day today and it's I'm just so proud of each of you. Um again, congratulations class of 2025. Today marks the culmination of your resilience, your dedication, and all of your hard work. You faced late nights, challenging exams, moments of doubt, but you never gave up. This is your moment to reflect on all you've accomplished and take pride in your journey. Our vision for you is that you have the knowledge, skills, and character necessary to be successful beyond graduation. But none of this would have been possible without the help from your family, your friends, your amazing teachers, your coaches, and other mentors. They've been with you every step of the way, and today they share in your success. So, let's take a moment and thank them for their unwavering belief in you. Personally, I'm reminded of the legacy of my own parents, Carl and Jane Johnston.
Um the applicant has provided those. Okay. Thank you. applicant, you have a summary of what uh what you're requesting again today and the updated information that you have. We appreciate your taking time out of your day to meet with us as well as uh the staff. Um Dwight Hendricks is the architect who has provided the updates and will uh share the difficulties um and problems related to our request. So uh Dwight Okay. Um I think that you all have the plan. Do you have the plans that updated plans through the package? Yeah. Okay. The I tried to make it as as um simple as possible on sheet A5.0. Um basically showing the existing plan the proposed variance and then the reason that the required code compliant plan does not work. um the alternative plan that was suggested at the last meeting. Um basically the existing stairs um are extremely steep.
Uh, you know, to have 19% that's that's about one in five kids. And and you know, we work really hard to keep our kids safe at school. And um uh so we don't know quite what goes into that. You know, maybe they're thinking safe from each other as opposed to safe from the outside world. I don't know. We don't have any particular way of of assessing their thought process. When this was given, there may have been something going on might have been. Yeah. So, they saw that. Yeah. Please, Jen. The other thing about the survey is that we only had like little 250 270 or so students take this survey out of all of our students. At one school in particular, we only had 10 students. only a 10 students need to take the survey at all. So just to give you the perspective, so it's sort of a little lopsided then.
We've got a leave with Kyle Stumpf, middle school social studies from 8:18 to 9:19. So, he'll be starting the year um at home with their child. Extracurricular assignments, Kylie Wolf for Scholar Bowl assistant coach. And now we have the list summer workers. Kale Reigns, summer student, IT worker. Xander Noel, summer student custodian, along with Shane Johnson, Aiden Sepic, uh Gage Stumpf, Aiden Bower, Jason Ron, uh Hayden Habmill is getting added and Ethan Habbermill is being added and those were all summer student custodians. Jason Ron is going to be the summer student painter with Donovan Bieber, summer school student paper. August Hangel will be a summer adult painter. Diane Beerman, summer adult custodian. Gina Blandon, summer adult custodian. Amanda our summer adult custodian. And Wade Brady, summer adult custodian. So those will be our summer workers. Um, and then we've got the extended school year. Megan P will be our EC teacher.
Town Manager coffee hours will be held every third Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. at the Ashlin Community Center. Have a question about something in town? Want to learn more about local projects? Join town manager Michael Herbert for casual community focused conversation over coffee. The upcoming dates are May 21st, June 18th, and July 16th. The Ashlin Community Weed Poll. This will be held on Saturday, May 17th from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Ashland Arboritum at 409 Elliot Street. Join the weed warriors and help beautify Ashland. Volunteers will work together to remove invasive plants from the future Ashland Arboritum, making it a healthier, more vibrant space to enjoy. And that's it for today's update. Be sure to stay connected for more community news. And don't forget to get involved in local events. A big thank you to our town manager, Michael Herbert, and the dedicated town staff for putting together this newsletter.
Uh Lou Donaldson was a jazz tener player from the 60s. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Do [Music] you skip to my finger? [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Grand Lou. [Music] [Applause] All right, our next piece for you tonight is Fly Me to the Moon. Uh, written by Bart Howard, I believe. And, uh, I think everybody really knows it from S. Frank Sinatra. Maybe that's how I know it. But um this is a classic. Still stalling. I think we're ready. Okay. Oh, we're not ready. I always count my chickens before they hatch. All right. Speaking of hatching, I have four chickens. Um, I don't remember all their names, but the ones my kid let me name or the one I was allowed to name, I lovingly named Mrs. Pancakes. Right. What a fun name. If you're Okay, we got Thank you for putting up with me.
Solen and the work that he has done in the past and the work yet to come. So I am very happy to support uh this contract with the rest of my colleagues on the board of ed. Thank you. Yeah, I I as well will be supporting this contract. I very much appreciate the job that the superintendent has done since before I was on the board and I think this is I've been on for five and a half years now. I I want to clarify something because it wasn't totally clear to me, but just so for people who are watching this, in years past, we have had a three-year contract with no salary beyond year one. So, the contract existed, but we would always vote on the salary. So the change that we're doing tonight in terms of sort of the standard contract is we're including the salary for three years.
My mother was a kindergarten teacher and my father, a high school English and journalism teacher. And together, they taught me the importance of collaboration, communication, and being a lifelong learner. And even though they are no longer with me, their influence continues to shape my journey. And I encourage you to hold tight to those lessons from those who have helped you along the way. Graduates, listen to the wisdom that's shared with you by others. A poem that captures the very essence of values like humility, grace, and living life well is Ruddierard Kipling's If. Kipling was a Nobel Peace Pri prize winner uh for literature in 1907. He had one son, John Kipling. And we can infer that this poem was written for him before John left to be a soldier in World War I. And even though this poem was written for his son and somewhat reflects the culture of the time, there are ageless truths embedded within.
It's um the risers are 9 in and um uh right with a um treads I'm sorry as a the risers are 8 and 5/16 with a 9 in tread which creates a angle of incline of 43° which is almost 45°. um ex they're extremely steep and it's sort of a wonder no one's actually died. Um they're they're also um old. They're 100 years 110 years old. So they have metal nosings with concrete which are now extremely smooth. So it's they're really slippery on top of being really steep and they're narrow. Um the the proposed plan last time at this meeting was to use the regular um uh minimum requirement which would be the 11 in with a 7 in rise. And so I went through and created that in the only space that is possible um due to the fact that the building is um entirely built out of steel and concrete.
Yeah. So because we have to ask parents opt in, we can't give them c any surveys unless the parents opt in. That's where our struggle is. So just to kind of give you perspective, I'm not saying it's not good data for those kids that took it. That's how they feel. But it's just it's not all of kids. That's kind of interesting because that's the same number, 128 responses. Isn't that very close to what the parents were? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It is very close, isn't it? Yeah. Um, and it used to be for years and years we would we would give surveys and uh parents could opt out, but then the legislature changed it and said we have, you know, parents have to opt in for their children and they have to be able to see the parents have to be able to see the questions before, uh, you know, to before they decide if they want to opt in or not.
Holly Habbermill will be the parah for that. Tiffany Dill will be the K1 teacher. Rebecca Wise, K1 parah. Aiden Wireshine, I mutilated that one. Worsham. Thank you. K1 parah. Tiffany Taylor, K1 parah. Uh Amy Wulmer, uh second through fourth grade teacher. Stephanie Turner, second through fourth grade parah. Sarah Brandenburgger, 5 to8 teacher. Haley Storm, 5 to8 teacher. Khloe Stofl 5 to8 parah Emma Zika 5 to8 parah Sydney Will 5 to8 parah Sarah Kimmy sign language interpreter and Gloria Melanus is going to be the nurse for the extended school year given the resignations that we have we have the vacancies of paraprofessional to replace the uh middle school position Cook to replace the Eagleview position and we need a PE and health for the Zack George position Given all of that, administration recommends the board approve the consent agenda as presented. You have um two nurses up in your resations.
They put up with me because they have to. Thank you. I had to Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] And I [Music] know [Music] [Applause] you are. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Happy birthday. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Here I am. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] All right, our next and our final uh song for you tonight from these guys is uh Superstition by Stevie Wonder. Um, if you haven't had a chance, there's this awesome documentary on Netflix about the making of We Are the World and just how it was insane to get all these people together and Stevie Wonder was like the only chill dude in here. All right, man. I got it. Like, oh, we're so stressed out. He's watch this. And he just sits down, right? So, uh, great great documentary. Highly recommended. Talk about more documentary. All right, we're good. Ah, beautiful. Here we [Music] go.
And just to put this out there, and correct me if I'm if I got something wrong here, Jeff, uh next year will be 254,000. The following year would be 265,000 and the third year would be 291,000. That's the basic idea. I uh I support this. It's a lot of money there. I do want to point out that not only do I want him to stay, uh, but also if we do end up going out, if we didn't move forward on this, and I believe that the superintendent could get a job elsewhere, probably fairly easily with a 10-year track record here as superintendent, and the average the average number of years, I think, is about three years in Connecticut for a superintendent now. Okay. I like continuity. Um, but another thing just that goes through my mind is the reality of um going out and looking for someone new who frankly I doubt would be I I'm sure there's somebody out there who's better.