Happy to answer any questions after that. Okay. All right. Well, thank you for being here. Thank you. Okay. We will now open the public hearing. Remember, if you would like to speak, please sign in on the sheet, which I have here if you haven't already done so.
Sa Maguire to talk about and I'm going to then turn it right over to I know Mr. Kylie has a a few slides that he wants to share with you. and you know he's been involved with the long-term capital plan long range capital planning team for uh for well I think a two years now and what I'm excited about what he's about to share with you is that we're really starting to see more than just a plan formed but something on paper that I really do believe we're going to see some action. So thank you Dr. S Maguire. So, the presentation that um the long-term capital planning committee uh has proposed is scrolling through the screen right now. I'm not sure why it's scrolling, but you can't blame me this time. Fairly rapidly scrolling through the screen. Might be hard for me to keep up with that.
Ramos. Hi. Mr. Garba. Hi. Mr. Keith. Hi. Mrs. Patili. I. Mr. Focarino. I. Motion carries. A motion for policy resolutions 16.1 through 16.3. I make a motion. Mr. Cruz. Mr. Otto. Roll call, please. Dr. Porchek. Hi, Mr. Taylor. Hi, Mr. Otto. Hi, Mrs. Isan. Hi, Mr. Ramos. Hi, Mr. Gaba. Hi, Mr. Kelesz. Hi, Mrs. Peter. I Mr. Perino. Hi. Motion carries. At this time, I'd like to open up the comments to the public. If any would like to make any comes, please uh come forward. How you doing? Frank, 262 Evans face. Um give me a second cuz I have a couple things. Um first and foremost, I want to congratulate the new BOE members. I wasn't able to make it here last time. Um, this definitely shows that the people want change and we're not happy with the decisions that were being made. Uh, so I I'm pretty happy about that.
So that is goal A. Um goal B, culture and leadership. Uh the governing board goal is Daert Unified School District will recruit, train, and retain highly qualified staff to cultivate a culture of success. Uh goal one under that um under goal B is by the end of 24-25 school year, there'll be an increase in DAART's recruitment efforts to hire staff. Uh goal two is by the end of this year, uh DAART's customer service plan, DAART cares, will further be expanded. So those were the two goals set for me. Um the progress towards those goals is that to date in goal one the district has attended or hosted 15 events. Um and our advertising strategies evidences strong growth in interest and activity at job fairs. Interviews increased by 51.9% uh this year. Walk-ins rose by 152% and candidates recommend to hire went up 39 uh.4%. Um, as you know, our retention um is off the charts and uh that's a lot of efforts to uh this goal and and uh the recruitment and retaining our uh teachers.
He's talking about doing it the 23rd, the Monday after. Are you talking about the 5th and the 9th then? Thursday. Well, Thursdays he you're not going to be back till the 7th, correct? June 7th. So, if we do the 9th and then is there any other evening the week of the 9th that's available to to everyone else. The the 12th appears to work for me. That's Thursday, right? 12th. The 12th is fine. I can make the 12th. So have the ninth and the 12th that would accommodate Scott open. Oh worked a miracle. And that gives us the opportunity to kind of have fresh in our minds the first set as we go into the second set. What time on the 12th are we going to do? Start six on both nights. Six work for everybody. Six. Three. The first one to the second. Sounds good.
They're open for everyone, um, which is not typical for every high school in the state. So, it doesn't matter your background, you're able to take and have access to these AP courses, uh, which is which is going to help us in the future with those. And then we need to celebrate. So we are going to do a lot to celebrate our advanced STEM achievements on top of these three metrics which you know we've already heard several even tonight and we'll continue uh to highlight over the next year and working on marketing strategies and other pieces on how to make this uh more of a public view as well to all of the great things going on in BCSSE for STEM. So we're going to start tonight. So I have a senior whose last day was today and she's at the board meeting. So thank you.
Uh we are also asking for a 25cent hike at St. Mary's for the lunches we serve there and at Trinity a 35cent hike. The reason for the difference is that currently Trinity does not have any of our staff members on site. They handle that and next year we'll be putting some of our staff members on site at Trinity. So only fair that they pay the same price as St. Mary's where we already have staff members there. The food uh cost the price increase we're requesting is due to as you mentioned Mr. President the the increase in food cost uh but also an initiative to to try to provide some more local fruits and vegetables uh which will have a little higher cost than normal. With that, we're recommending uh the food the lunch price increases for 2526. Thank you, Mr. Ree. Uh you heard a recommendation administration for approval of the meal prices 2025 2026 school year that are within the federal regulations.
As I mentioned earlier, we ask you state your name and address, limit your comments to proposed project and financing, and keep any comments at three minutes. Avoid being repetitive if possible. Have the signin sheet up here already. I didn't have anybody on there. Does anybody wish to speak at this time? Okay, thank you to all who participated in the hearing. We appreciate your time and interest in the project and the future of our community. Please note this is just the first step in the legal process. No board action is legally required at this hearing. Rather, this hearing is solely to hear public comments. The board will continue to work with the administration and its professionals to look for efficiencies to conserve tax dollars while meeting our educational needs. Board will hold a second public hearing in this boardroom on June 23rd, 2025 at 6 o'clock p.m.
I'm um so so this is, you know, not my presentation. This is a presentation that was created by the long-term capital um improvement planning committee and uh the town moderator has been gracious enough to give that long-term planning committee time at town meeting. Um when the capital improvement planning the capital improvement article comes up uh Mr. Tattlebomb will be presenting this presentation. It'll be a fairly brief presentation. I think about 8 to 10 minutes. You'll you'll you know we'll take a look at some of the school relevant pages. Now it's it's 10 pages in total including the including the cover book. Um what is particularly important is um that um if you look at the top projects that are identified on this list um this includes possible start dates and it has the Dartmouth High School roof and windows um as number one over there on the left uh with a possible start date of 2026.
I'd also like to congratulate all the award recipients tonight. Uh, that includes all the teachers, power professionals, and students. Um, you listen to these principles talk about the teachers, teacher of the years, and and how many were nominated, and that's just um going back. That's the reason why we need to take care of our teachers as board members and administrators because of what they do. Um, and how they take care of our children and teach our children. Uh, let me see. I want to give a special shout out to Debbie Simpson. Uh, I don't know if she's still here, but growing up, she was like a second mother to me. So, I'm really happy to see her get that. Uh, now I want to get into a few other things. It's the minutes tonight. A lot. And I've been noticing this. They're like barebones. And unless someone goes online and checks that little PDF attachment, whatever it is, you do not know who's being rehired, who's being let go.
Our digital display ads, we really focused on that. We cut the cost in half. Um the the impressions and click-through rate has increased. So, how many people are clicking on our ads, seeing our ads, we not only cut the cost, but we increase those impressions. um evidence increased employment ad reach and engagement. So, as we look at those, we know we're out there, we're reaching people, um we're doing a good job. We also launched the teacher preparation program, and it's been expanded this year to include the K K8 teacher prep program. Uh this is a program where we are growing our own teachers. They come to us with bachelor bachelor's degrees. We've been approved by the state to uh grow these teachers and and uh get them certified. So that has been a s a success. Goal two um goal two is we have launched daart cares um and we have further expanded it.
And then you'll have time for deliberation on after the second second night. There you go. All right. Great. Thank you all very much. Committees. So, I'll say real quick, a couple weeks ago, I asked everyone kind of what um committees they would like to be on. Um, and I've got everybody down and I've spoken with every board member about the committees. However, there was a request to to get some more information on other committees that maybe there isn't board member involvement on now. And so, Griff was kind enough to to get us those committees. And then he's also going to speak about another committee. So, what I might be doing is asking board members, including Mr. Hurst now that he's here with us to um if you if you want to change um the committees that you previously had or if you'd like to stay on your current ones or if maybe you'd like to be added to another committee um and so we'll pass on our list of the committees that are not board involved.
Um so Ashita Kud is leading all the way in STEM excellence going come up here. So looking at the goals, she's graduating soon um and had her last day in high school. She was in algebra uh by seventh grade. She's actually taking Cal 3 and linear algebra through Ball State. the last two years. She's taken seven AP STEM courses and passed them all. Will earned 24 advanced STEM credits, has been with us uh all the way through Southside, was in the AC program, did girl up. She's taken advantage of CVP classes to fit all the courses in her schedule. She's taken C4 classes, just the entire gamut that we offer. She's really been able to model. and I'll have her say a few words, but if you would please welcome Ishita. Hello. Um, my name is Ishita Cout as Mr. Williams um said earlier, but I just think BCSC has provided me with ample opportunities and resources to explore various pathways, specifically the C4 pathways and has helped me find the area that I'm truly passionate in.
May I have a motion? So moved by Mr. Angel, second by Miss Bas. Are there any questions or comments? Move to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Naz. Vote carries 50. Item 6.09, cancellation of teacher contract. Dr. Terrell. Thank you. Members of the board, on May 2nd, 2025, teacher Trish Trisha Reid was served with a written preliminary decision to cancel her teaching contract. I have provided the school board with a copy of the preliminary discuss decision for your review which contains the reasons for the preliminary decision and outlines Miss Reed's due process rights to challenge the preliminary decision. Miss Reed did request a private conference with me. I held that conference with Miss Reed last week on May 13, 2025. Indiana Code 20-28-7.5-2F affords teachers a right to have an additional private conference with the governing body if the teacher requests the additional private conference no later than 5 days after the initial private conference with the superintendent.
Thank you, sir. I appreciate your time. And you are you're welcome to stay, but you're also welcome to leave if you would like. You attend the Thanks. All right. Moving on to approval request for the second reading of the 202526 building handbooks. Yep. So in your packet were all of the uh revised uh handbooks. And it would be my recommendation that board uh approved these updated handbooks uh as presented. Um, I can't remember if we have any of the golf publication, but that way they can get prepared uh for posting to our websites as well. I need a motion to approve. Second. A motion and a second. Any further discussion?
Uh the DMS replacement is number four on the list with a 2028 start. Dlo and Potter schools are number seven on the list with a 2030 and 2035 start. Quinn is on the list at number eight with a 2040 start. And Dartmouth Memorial Stadium is also on the list and at number nine with a TBD let's see what we can do type plan. Um I think that's encouraging. I think that this group is made up of um folks that the selectmen um you know appointed to this group and and I think there's a recognition amongst everyone there that that the schools are an important um investment that needs to be made and it can't be made 10 years from now. It needs we need to move this for this process forward. So I think that's reflective of the of the list here. There are other priorities in town that are also going to require investment.
It's very difficult for someone to come here and have a full picture of what's going on. And um to me that's concerning cuz tonight there's a lot of dead weight on those rehires, a lot of money that could be saved. I noticed a lot of people voted yes tonight. And that's a problem to me. Um as a taxpayer in Gford. I may not live here, but I pay taxes. And if you're voting yes for what a previous board did, then that's a problem. Um I'm really happy to see uh Dr. Kuzmano's retiring. That's uh freeing up a lot of dead weight off of the payroll and hopefully that money will go towards um the teachers. I do want to wish him well in retirement though and I'm confident that the new BE members will help the current BOE members free up more money over the next several months by going through contracts which I've saw that are very inflated and um positions with a fine tooth comb.
So we have uh kind of peeled that onion back and now all administrators have participated in the in the customer uh service training. We are going to continue peeling that onion back uh more and more so we can get more people involved. As you know, last year we created that DACAR CARES plan and now we're getting out of there and doing uh the things we need to do to put it into action. So, goal C is our safety. A huge one. Um the governing board goal is um that Desaert Unified School District culture will consistently be reflective of a safe and secure environment for all stakeholders. Uh something very near and dear to all of our hearts. Um and we take this goal very seriously as we do all the goals but safety is is up there. So the goal one was by the end of the 24-25 uh school year all campuses uh will have conducted safety checks, audits and inspections.
Also, there was a suggestion for a a finance budget committee. Uh that's something the prior superintendent planned on setting up. Uh and it is a very common committee in almost all the districts I've ever been in. A budget finance committee uh is pretty typical. Dana, I can't wait to meet the new budget committee, but that is something that is very common. It is not common though for things like insurance committees. It's usually the union and and administration look at the results of trends in insurance. It's something that if the board wanted to be involved, uh I' I've sat through many of them. Not very exciting, but uh it's it's very important to our our union members and all our employees. So, there's a number of of these committees that uh like the calendar committee. The board has the final say so on the calendar. Uh, however, we we try to do as much as we can work to prepare that calendar for all of you.
So, I primarily explored the C4 biomedical pathway. I took classes in 9th and 10th grade. Um but at the same time I also took various AP computer science and high level math courses. So what I found was my passion truly lied in more problem solving areas which I found um very heavily in the field of computer science which is what I'll be studying in the future.