Continuing onward um at Columbia Middle School, we have a huge shout out to Mr. Joe Gilbreth. We'd like to say a huge thank you to you, Mr. Joe, for being the go-to tech hero at CMS. Whether it's an easy fix, a supply need, or a mysterious tech glitch, Joe is always there. quick to respond and ready to troubleshoot whatever comes his way. We truly appreciate his willingness to dive in, figure out the issue, and find a solution. Joe, your reliability and support means so much. CMS is lucky to have you. Again, I can um attest to his amazing technology abilities. He's helped me numerous times when I have not known what to do. And then last, but certainly not least, Columbia High School is Miss Elise French. She nailed the AP testing organization and proctoring for three and a half hours for each test. She continues to go above and beyond in her support and efforts working with all of her students and staff.
So, I think that he worked with them to manage expectations around that for both students and teachers. Oh. Oh, manage expectations. So not not necessarily um accommodate just to let them know that the reality might be different than Yeah. No, I think the teachers needed to needed to hear that that was a a concern for students so that they would design it differently. Okay. Yeah. So it won't necessarily be the same. It's just that the Okay. Gotcha. Anything to add there, Mr. Hanland? I don't want to speak for you. So one one of the concerns is because they meet every other day they decide whether to do my history homework tonight or tomorrow night. So if I'm at a sporting event tonight, I know that I have tomorrow. So this is adjusting kind of the design so that everybody can get good students. It will not be brand new for teachers because they existed.
So it would need to come in for review. We would evaluate it. if there were non-compliant elements found, the applicant would be informed and then if they would have the opportunity to come back to the board. So, so the city didn't didn't even get a chance to review that. This this was this was reviewed and what they're appealing now is the the they're appealing what we found on plan review. So they submitted the this their proposed plan was sort of their last what they gave us last time saying that they needed the variance from the uh width and riser height and that was the part that was evaluated. If there's a reconfiguration we just need to look at it to do a plan review and then when the um elements that aren't compliant are identified then it would come back here. Um it it it in order for us to be able to inspect it uh to to get a to get a um a clear approval if if the variance is approved, we just need something to go by.
Oh my gosh. Coyote Canyon was high on something that day. Either sugar or energy drinks, but they I appreciate it. I think we all do. We all appreciate everything that's given to the schools. Thank you. Now, I know it'll probably show up in June, but I know this week was a big donation from the Shriners, too. That they gave out 30 bikes and six scooters to the elementary schools. They gave 10 to each of the elementary schools and two scooters for each of the uh kindergarteners at the schools. They gave those out on Monday and Tuesday of this week. There you go. We'll look for that in next month's list. Yeah. Bikes for books. And I understand that there was one student that had read 145 books this year. Wow. Yeah. They told me Monday night because I see the group on Monday night and they told me Monday night that one of the one of it was a boy and he had won read 145 books at Desert Valley this year.
Great things happening at Columbia CS 54. Um, next on my list of updates would be ELA uh curriculum for grades K through 8. Um, this timeline is very similar to what I shared last month. I'm going to share a little bit more um in-depth details when we get to the action item that's on the agenda. Um but there was a lot of work done in April with both building administration and ELA teachers and leaders um alike. Super excited about our 5 through8 STEM elective that Mrs. Amber Haven has taken over. Um she has partnered with our tech department and they're doing some really cool things. Um there are some technology possibilities that we are super excited to hopefully have in the classroom. Um she's hoping for the curriculum to use project lead the way which is um STEM based and so she's hoping to integrate some of those um units into the STEM study and classroom.
every other day for a long time. So, we just need to lean on some of their previous practice and draw that back up. So since you weren't on a microphone, um I'll I'll sort of try and summarize that basically uh managing expectations meant that um the homework situation will change, but you're working with students and teachers to make it not as bad as they might think it could be. Thank you. All right, white and Yeah. No, I was just wondering do the microphones pick up people sitting back there or do we need to speak to the microphone? It's better if they do. I just the reason I ask I know what some of those microphones we have in the classrooms are amazing but that's not what we have here. Yeah, just for future reference so people at home know. Um, correct me if I'm wrong, Miss Solano, but um, I'm pretty sure that we were informed in curriculum committee meetings that even though those history books were a little outdated, that curriculum is covered with supplemental materials.
As it is right now with the changes we're talking about, I'd have no way to um instruct somebody in the field of how to inspect what was approved. So on your review, did you guys catch the handrail scenario? I I don't know. I all that I know is that the only variance that was requested was the was this. Sure. Do they red flag the handrail? Uh I don't believe so. But um may I ask a code interpretation question? And I'm not sure if this is building code or or housing code, but where that door is at the top of the stairs, that's a fire rated stairway that goes up and then closed. Now it's open on the bottom. Yeah. So that if it's fire rated, then this plan doesn't work. Okay. So, there's a stairway and there's fire rated doors at every level. And the door that's at the top of the stairs is a fire rated door.
Wow. 145 books. Yeah, that's the whole library. Uhuh. Item 2.7, adoption of the agenda. May I have a motion to adopt agenda the agenda as presented? I make a motion that we adopt the agenda as presented. I'll second that motion. All those in favor? I Melinda Saski. I Charlene Diaz. I Fred Rushton. Hi, Barbar Ziki. Hi, Judy Reed. Superintendent reports. Uh madame president and board members uh we have the usual reports uh from student uh enrollment and uh attendance through discipline and um my usual financial reports and u strange as it may seem I don't have any miscellaneous updates to share with you tonight. I'll answer questions or try to answer questions if you have them. Can you put up the cumulative uh discipline report, please? Oh, I see that part of it got It's on the next page. Oh, it's on the next page.
She is already certified for her STEM teacher certification which she's going to be taking through Mville University this June. Um and just last week she visited Mscuda school district um their STEM program to kind of see it. I have helped um implement STEM classrooms in other districts and I can talk the talk but it it's really scary because there's really not a curriculum set that you can get for STEM. It's really an innovation class and it's messy and sometimes the only thing that comes to mind are like pipe cleaners and then the teachers look at me like I have five heads. Like so she got to see it. she got to see it and she's super excited now with everything she got to see um going on in the classroom. So, she wanted to be here tonight, but she has a million things um going on tonight.
And so, it's not as if our students have have no knowledge of history from 2000 on. Yeah, I really appreciate you making that point. I I should have caught that. But yes, we had a significant conversation in our fall curriculum committee meetings with Tim Galvin there to say that they did a lot of supplementing and even with the textbook, they did not stop teaching history during the Bush administration and continued. It just might not have been in the book. That's absolutely accurate. Thank you. I appreciate that clarification. I think I I may have said I you know known this parent for a while and I may have said well it is a history book so it doesn't necessarily have to be you know yeah totally up to date but you know depending on the subject I suppose but that's good supplemental and in my mind that never even dawned on me that because the book didn't have it that our teachers wouldn't wouldn't be doing it.
Glass in it now. I'm sorry. It's got glass in it now. Well, it was again that's probably a um a non-conforming use based on the time that it has been there. But what what I'm trying to get at is if we remove that door, are we creating are we violating some other code or creating another problem that we have to solve or is there a way to keep the door and we just take the but your variance plan destroyed the fire rating in that in that room by having the stairwell. We're talking about the maintenance power that comes in at the top at the top of the stair first floor up first. Not not the basement. Would that have to be a fire rated assembly? So, we're getting to a point where I don't know the building well enough to start making these just speaking to it.
Yes, that's okay. We don't need that piece anyway. I found it very interesting to note that March seemed to be a very troubled month for our students, especially considering that uh uh that it was a short month. You know, it's a month when we only have three weeks of school. Yeah. Yeah. They needed that break. Was the wind blowing? Yes. As I recall in March, the wind blew a lot and there probably was two full moons. Two full moons. There might have been. And I know that people laugh about that, but I will tell you that if you track it, we have we have issues the weeks of full moon. And junior high is especially successful. Oh, and kindergarteners. Oh. All right, everybody. One extreme to the other. Yeah. Um, it looks to me though that this was a a lot better than last year.
Her boys are in baseball and she wanted me to share that she truly appreciates the opportunity and and can't wait to do more. Um at the high school, as I've been talking about all year, we are constantly working on our college and career pathways. We are so excited to announce that um for next year we will have three in-house pathways. Um pharmacy technician is fresh um off the press which I'm excited to talk to you about. We're hoping to find one student that would be willing to take this pharmacy technician um software 40hour asynchronous. It's all online this summer. And then they would do a 20hour unpaid internship which Corey Pharmacy has been very willing to allow them to come in fall semester and and do some of the 20 hours there. Um to which then they would just pay for their registered pharmacy technician license and we would hopefully get them a job at CVS or Walgreens or even a hospital.
So thank you for pointing that out. I think they work really really hard to keep everything fresh and to use primary sources and um stay current. Thank you. That is concludes curriculum. No, we have one more item. Um and I'm just going to read this. Uh, in accordance with board policy, the following textbooks will be made available for public viewing in the Cheshire Public Library, Cheshire High School Library, and the Office of Curriculum and Instruction at 29 Main Street from Friday, May 16, 2025 through Friday, May 30th, 2025, and slated for approval and adoption at the board of education meeting on June 5th, 2025. The textbooks are US history interactive publisher SAS learning for grade 10 and I ready classroom mathematics algebra 1 by curriculum and associates for grades eight and nine. Thank you. Thank you Miss Alana. Next um committee report and looks like there's some items that are going to influence the vote on this one.
If if if the plan is changing significantly, we'll take a plan N. We'll re-review it and then that would sort of be the step forward with the amount that we're talking about changing at this point. As much as we would like to resolve this today with the reconfiguration we're talking, can we request another 60-day tableabling and provide more information and research this door issue and um come back again? I definitely think it's a good idea for you. I I you brought up good points, valid points. I uh and and again, we're just trying to get this to a yes for you. I've been on that side of We're not We're not trying to be hard on it, but we understand. On our end, we'll work with you to get a review done as quickly as possible. If you're giving us something that needs that um so that we can get back here, I will mention that next month's meeting is on a holiday, so it was going to be cancelled.
Um, it it may or may not be. I I didn't compare it to the other chart, but I will tell you that two things have affected it. One, I've explained before where we've this year we've included bus writeups and we did not do that last year. So now to compare the two, it's kind of skewed. Uh the other thing is that uh in trying to make sure we have records correct uh for the state for discipline uh we've learned that um um at least one of our new assistant principles um uh was when there would be an incident uh disciplinary situation uh instead of putting all of the infractions in one one report, they ended up in separate ones. And so uh so we have some inaccurate numbers um and it was it's just a learning process you know and and how to put the data in.
Once they get that, then there's a two-year clock that starts which they can do an additional 60 hours and become a certified pharmacy technician even before graduating high school and they could walk away with making $40,000 a year. That's pretty cool um when you really look at that. So, we are really excited to hopefully get this off off the ground and running. With that being said, um I reached out to Chester, Redbud, Sparta, um and Waterlue and I shared this pathway because I have since worked with the vocational area funding location that we we use and it has been open there. So all of the other districts in the area, if they are interested, can definitely offer this to their students as well. Super excited about the collaboration piece. Um construction trades we've been talking about. Um that is all set. We are excited about that.
So Dr. Mr. Heran, take it away as I'm chewing it. Yeah. So, included in your packet is the financial report for the 202425 board of education budget reflecting expenditures and incumbrances. I love that word. Um through April 30th, 2025. Um there are several items that we will be discussing including the financial report itself, medical benefits report, the 2023 2024 audit report, approval of increase to school meal prices, and a report on grant activity for the 2024 2025 school year. So with that, I will leave it to Mr. Masiana to uh walk us through some of these items. Thank you, Miss Dr. Harrian. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I will highlight uh first financial report through April 30th. The um we're down to the wire obviously as we you know enter now the month of May and June to close out our books. I will point out in this month's finance report that if you look at our projected year-end balance, instead of zeroing out, we anticipate closing our books with a $250,465 surplus balance.
Um, so it would be the following month. Uh, Junth Junth. Oh, Junth. Oh, I didn't know exact date. So, okay. So, you know, you mentioned the business about the rating. I mean, from the beginning, it it didn't to me it didn't make sense to have a rated stair from the basement to the lobby if the lobby or the vestibule itself is not rated. If you have a rated stair, it usually has to discharge into a rated corridor or something else right to the outside to the or directly to the outside. So that took away that rating requirement presumably made things a little bit easier as far as the rest of the stair open stair to the How many floors are in this building? Three. Three floors plus the basement. Wow. And I think what the doors may help you with would be passage of smoke.
So um so when I look at um some of the numbers I go oh I think that's probably inflated but it's simply because of how it was entered. Um, so we'll do a better job next year of making sure that uh we probably won't include bus incidents in this uh in this report so that we can kind of compare maybe to last year which was our base year uh and also to make sure we do a little better job training our new people on how to enter the data. Is there a any kind of a researched reason why um the boys seem to have more discipline problems than the girls? There are lots of theories about that. Um lots of theories and I you know I mean I could I could find those things and share them with you. Uh and then there are disputes about um you know whether we whether we treat those those misbehaviors accurately or not you know correctly or not but there's a lot there is a lot of research out there Melinda about that.