Miss Pelota is the person who greets you every morning with a smile and says something bright and we are going to face the day. Um she is there to help everyone whether it be a student, whether it be a teacher, whether it be me and the way she helps is that first she knows me, she knows the teacher, she knows the students and she knows what we need and she is there to take care of us. So for that thank you and [Music] congratulations. Miss Dangelo if for you if you don't know her is one of our biology teachers and most more specifically anatomy and physiology teacher uh which is a dual enrollment course through Bergen Community College. Uh probably one of the most popular upper level electives that we have. Yes. students who want to take science for a fourth year. And I think that says it all.
Some are done um you know they print and some choose to use manuscript. Thank you. So it's basically two years of using the cursive is that's pretty much it. It's two years of instructing in cursive. You know, I guess I would liken it to we teach them to add one number by ones by ones in second grade. We don't loop back to it in sixth grade. It's used in context after that for other things. Um I guess that you check a little bit more. Uh we do give kids we do give kids choice in the way they write currently. Okay. It's not a standard after be primarily it's not a standard after third grade. So we don't really enforce it. Okay. If it was a standard, we would enforce it. Correct. If it was a standard, we would. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Um, I did jump online.
So I was just wondering if there was actually a process forward but if they do have keys yeah they there was yeah we we had issued key fobs so those students that are transitioning should have access to a key fob to get into the to get back into the school. Yeah. And they and my understanding is they're received by somebody whether it's a specials teacher whether it's a you know whoever it is speech or whatever they're going into the school individually for my understanding is there's a staff member that's receiving them whatever they're going there for. Thank you. Yep. Anything else? Yeah, somebody else superintendent process. Hopefully everybody was to bring your ask to bring your calendars. Uh if you're going to start meeting the we put out a request for proposals and we you have them in front of you. So, if you'd like to give us some dates that you're available or would you like us to choose?
U but I went ahead and participated in the district and facilities uh committee. Was it week and a half ago, I believe? and main discussion was discuss all the new resoning and potential re new building projects on the west side of of uh the county and then primarily envision 2030 update along with discussing and coming up with a new name for the new elementary and that's pretty much all we we came up with the DNF. CCIC met on May 14th. Uh we walked through Dr. Stalbomb and the group walked through opportunities to better assess employee engagement. Um this year there was kind of an intentional pause not to have a um vendor in place to really allow us to understand what's the needs and how we're going to provide for those going forward. Uh which you may notice we have not received those like data packets.
Are there any questions or comments? So, Mr. Gian Fermy mentioned that the selfunding does it properly fund is it are we able to fund the program at this move? Um, we've kind of calculated out with the increase of students and workers. This should get us right there. Question. Any other questions? Move to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Carries 5. Moving on to item 6.05. Uh, landscaping at Solen Robinson Elementary School. Mr. Ree. Thank you, Mr. President. As we're wrapping up the construction at Solen Robinson, the last step of that project is to go in and approve the landscaping for around the building to meet city codes. That was part of the site plan uh when the city approved that construction. So with that, we're recommending the landscaping for Soul and Robinson Elementary uh to Hubinger Landscaping Corp in the amount of 91,858.
Our operations fund is basically primarily meant to take care of our buildings on a daily basis, not for large capital projects. So, as you recall, um there still are a lot while we've been able to chip away a lot at the list, which I'm extremely thankful and and proud of, um there's still a lot of work that that needs to needs to take place. Um we do have roofs uh some roofs throughout the district, primarily over at Green Castle High School in Menali because we didn't touch uh the roofs except for the roof edition. Um we have some obviously we're taking care of some flooring here at the middle school uh this summer but there's a large amount of painting um that needs to continue to take place at the middle school um at TZ eventually you know dear meadow and red path we have some flooring needs um we have uh just a lot of miscellaneous things that have been deferred over time uh that we need to work towards tackling.
uh Heather Noise FET who also um did a a professional development you know learning about the neurodiversity and neurirming approaches and whatnot. So it's actually started there but it's certainly um carried over with what Lisa Gibson does and again she focuses on the research base and you know what what research says is something that we take very obviously we listen to her and she she helps guide us with that. So we're really fortunate to have the Lisa Gibson's the Dr. Heathers uh really everyone on staff has something to bring and we've learned a lot a tremendous amount from both of them just this year. Right. Very thankful to have them. Thank you. Great job. Appreciate you know they've all been super this year and how they've lined up with uh the strategic plan. So thank you. Yeah. I wanted to know too the neuroaffirming um training that you're doing because um to see neurodeiversity as strength is really important and as we're seeing a wider range of neurodeiversity in students we're seeing it the higher ed level as well.
What Miss D'Angelo does, she does with passion. She does with um love for her students and a connection for her students. She looks to give them realworld experiences and she doesn't forget them when they graduate. She keeps those relationships going, keeps the connections going, and 10 years later, they're coming back to be honor society induction speakers, and they've earned two um doctorates, PhDs. And that's what Miss D'Angelo does. She builds a love of learning in her students. And for that, thank you very much, and congratulations. Congratulations everyone. There are some cakes back there if you want to take photographs with them. And there's also boxes for your um plaques so they don't get scratched on the way home. Before before you disperse um if we could do a photo up front with the board. Um you would have your families come up and take pictures.
I was trying to do a little bit of research and I came across it. It says that the Arizona cursive writing standards say state board of education in 2016 approved new academic standards known as Arizona college and career ready standards which require cursive writing instruction through the fifth grade. They say by third grade students are expected to read and write in cursive ensuring they can create readable documents by the end of fifth grade. So, do we go up to the fifth grade or just stop at third? We do not currently have it mapped to fifth grade. That is something that we can definitely go back and do. Okay. Because I would really like to see this um uh intertwined um or incorporated through actually K through eight if we could. Um because the more research I was doing on cursive because me I grew up with cursive.
Is there any date you want to stay away from? Uh, would you put out a request for dates and we can see coordinate that? I want to get through in early June before you start taking your vacations through June and July. It's going to be hard to bring all seven of you together during July and that's just normal. Unless this group never takes vacation. I figured I'd get a laugh out of that. All right. So, to me, uh, any dates that we should stay away from? Wednesdays are horrible days for me. Wednesday's bad. Okay. Monday hopefully is the best. Mondays work. Yeah. Mon Mondays and Thursdays for me are the best. And Thursdays, anybody else on Thursdays? As far as I Okay. So again, June, early June would be better for you. When you get in July, you're not available. Okay, that's good to know.
I think we got them once every nine weeks or so. Um and so the team reviewed three solutions um is providing feedback to the employee engagement council and then the other area of business is that we passed all waiverss that were submitted at that time. I do not have anything to report. Uh the diversity council is meeting on Wednesday. Okay, you take it from here. Relining the meeting to me. That's lovely. Thank you, Mr. Stanner. Um, cabinet reports our next advanced STEM achievement, Mr. Williams. Thank you. Uh, today we're going to talk about our third student achievement goal for the district. So, along with found fundamental reading skills, uh, graduating students, we're going to now talk about advanced STEM at the end of the year here. So, we do want to be the STEM capital of Indiana out of all of our schools and like sizes and that is going to involve uh making a commitment to helping students reach their potential in STEM.
Thank you, Mr. Ree. Uh you've heard the recommendation of the administration for approval of contract for landscaping at Solen Robinson Elementary School. Um and that bid go to Huminger Landscaping Corp in the amount of $91,858. So moved by Miss Bas second by Mr. Angel. Questions or comments? No questions or comments. Move to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. The vote carries 50. Moving on to action item 6.06, purchase student Chromebooks. Back to you, Mr. Reese. Thank you, Mr. President. as we have done for the quite a few several years uh getting our Chromebooks into our students hands. Uh we are recommending the purchase of 2,150 Adele Chromebooks along with the 2150 Google management licenses. These Chromebooks are ones we replace at kindergarten, fifth grade, and nth grade every year. And those follow those students and uh through the grades until they get new ones in fifth grade and nth grade and then obviously when they graduate.
And um while we are going through this legal process, we're going to continue this discussion and really kind of fine-tune um our list or tackle our list of priorities based on what's left. So um because I have already forgotten, you know, we have a middle school freezer that needs replaced and a cooler and another one's easy and we our school lunch fund just can't sustain those kinds of costs either. So, um, we've developed a comprehensive list and again um, we're going to spend within our means and just continue to, uh, chip away at the list. All right. Well, now I'll hear from Stifle, Mike Shoemaker, uh, about how the proposed project will be financed as well as information about the effect on the typical property tax. My good sir, good evening. Thank you. presentation to share. I didn't share the the one that we shared last month that I don't have that to to display.
I think it's really important to learn to adjust to the individual which I know is difficult to do in a classroom full of children. So, um I'm I'm impressed with that and um great. We'll be anxious to see next year at this time. Yeah, we're certainly excited for it. I was going to say we would love to have you visit us and talk more about it. Okay. I definitely will. Thank you. Dr. Sab Magcguire, you have something to say? I do. I just want to add that, you know, you before we talk about your school improvement plan, your reference to the Lisa Gibson position, and I know that's been really wellreceived. But I want to thank the committee because that was the position that you approved for us last year. We came to you, we told you that we saw a real need for a position that could be in the district on a consistent basis.
Just come around. All the recipients just kind of follow this way. Maybe behind Dr. Tomco. Okay. Congratulations. Someone have a You're welcome. There's always one. [Applause] Congratulations. Congratulations. Dr. Tom Dr. Want to get your moment. Dr. Tomco, if I may. If I may. Congratulations to the teachers of the year as well as the power professionals. I have to say that uh Garfield is truly honored to have such role models for our students as well as your fellow peers. Thank you very much and congratulations to all of you. [Applause] [Music] Make it louder. 56. 56. Are we doing I'm ready to go, sir. Thank you. Progress. Now we're going to [Music] go as for the VA. We're up to 57. Mr. Tomco, are you going to do on 56 or up to 57? Okay, then 57 at the front page. Miss Dage, uh, can we get the business administrator report, please?
all I knew. Um, that's all we were taught growing up. That's all I know, you know. And there's even kids that can't even um write their names. They can't sign anything. So, I think it would be extremely important to bring it back. I know it's very time consuming and I know a lot of people say it's outdated. You know, just give them a Chromebook and have them type it. But to me, I'm all about cognitive learning. the whole writing paper um because of what what you comprehend and retain on written materials. I think it's better for the kids. Um I think learning cursive helps with um motor skills and um the whole cognitive learning. So I think if it's if it's possible if we could probably incorporate this more in our curriculum and like I said member Drake we could definitely incorporate it more. You know, it comes to when you look up here for a third grade teacher that have has kids all across the spectrum that some, especially if they transfer to us, may be way behind in reading a couple grade levels and I have these 15 standard 49 to 15 standards to master and my math and my science and social studies.
So again, we're just trying to get some common dates and probably we might be able to do it in one one long night. Uh you probably have to have more time with these folks than 15 minutes. I would say at least a half hour with 15 minutes of discussion in each one. Uh so you want to try to do it at one night or two nights? Griff, I guess I guess I'd ask a question first. is um is the thought that we would um hear a presentation or interview all five of these firms if you so wish. Yes, there's they're the ones that submit proposals. Yes. I I guess I guess I would ask the rest of um my colleagues um is is that what we want to do? Do you do we want to um interview a subset of them? Is any you know have we looked at that?
So, these are our goals that we're going to go over tonight. Uh to get here, there's a lot of measurements that we have discussed and gone over uh to how to best showcase our STEM achievement. And a lot of people have been involved in making these decisions. And what we have decided are these three main goals around advanced STEM achievement, which is to prepare students for algebra and pre-alggebra by seventh grade. Increase the percent of graduating students who've at least earned 10 STEM credits in high school, which is equivalent to five classes, and improve the percentage of students passing STEM AP courses. And actually these all kind of fit nicely with the new graduation requirements and uh bill 1634. So diving into the elementary base goal or more elementary based goal is to look at the numbers of students going into seventh grade who are ready for pre-alggebra and algebra.
Uh we are using the Midwestern Higher Education Compact which is a group of 12 Midwestern states to do cooperative purchasing. And so with that, we're recommending uh approval to purchase 2150 Dell 3110 touchscreen Chromebooks along with 2,150 Google management licenses from Electronic Strategies Inc. at $712,725. Thank you, Mr. Reese. heard the recommendation administration to approve the purchase of 2,150 Dell 3,110 touchscreen Chromebooks along with 2,150 Google management licenses from Electronic Strategies Incorporated at the cost of $712,725. Motion so move. So moved by Mr. Basser, second by Mr. Morning.
Okay. Um well, I don't know if you can see anything that I have, but um the board has it. Yeah, you got it. I know you've seen it in the past as well. Um, but the first slide of the presentation shows your outstanding debt service payments, which would be all the principal and interest that you owe on previously issued bonds. Uh, the good thing that's at about 4.3 million 25 and instead we decreases starting in 2026. So, as Mr. Gib said, you have a lot of room for additional projects to be able to bring those on, repay them in a way um that does not increase tax liability for homeowners. Um, same thing uh kind of the the current debt service levy and that is what property that's the property tax levy that that you raised is just under four million. Um I know you're aware there have been some changes with Senate Bill one and a lot of schools previously would manage to a fixed tax rate.