You will only appoint the best qualified personnel after the recommendation of the superintendent. So, you can only um vote on the superintendent's recommendation and you never you can vote your conscience, but if if there's a recommendation that isn't made about a staff member or anything else, you have no authority to to just come in from left field and say you want to do that. That if it's not recommended by the superintendent, the board can't take action. you're uh um supporting and protecting your school personnel and the proper performance of their duties. You know, you can't go um in the grocery store if somebody comes up to you with an issue. It's really not appropriate for the board member to kind of chime in and either um negatively talk about a staff member or or positively. You just have to support them and and and listen to what the person is saying.
Um, it's not always an easy group to teach, but we definitely have the right teacher to teach those kids. Um, just one quick story. Um, we've had a student who struggling academically, socially, um, just having a really tough time getting through the difficult middle school years. Um, and Allison did what a lot of teachers have tried to do. Um, but she's starting to crack that shelf. She found out what that student's interests are. She finds out what that student likes. um she takes it upon herself to reach out to bookstores and use her own money and purchase biographies, autobiographies of any type of musician or entertainer um because she knows that's what the kid likes and she doesn't have to do this, but she chooses to do this. And that's just a snippet of who this teacher is. So, thank you for everything. Our next educator um of the year is from our prince of from the high school and it is Miss Linda Zenado Jennings and Mr.
And as we step forward into whatever comes next, I hope you remember this. Life isn't about never failing. It's about never giving up. It's about willing to try again. It's about believing in yourself even when it's hard. So, let's walk out of here today with gratitude, with courage, and knowing that no matter where we go, we carry this place, these people, and these memories with us. Thank you. And lastly, congratulations to the class of 2025. [Applause] Our final student speaker is Aubriana Swatman. [Music] [Applause] You're going to do great. Thank you. Fellow graduates, staff, proud parents, and honored guests. We stand here today at the end of years of hard work, dedication, and maybe a few too many late nights. It's hard to believe this chapter is closing, but as we look at back at our time here, let's remember the moments that shaped us.
His success was rarely measured in dollars or having the newest, latest, and greatest. He measured his success in the smiles on the faces and memories made with our daughter and nieces during their trips to the river in the semi to deliver grains. He measured it in the anticipation and excitement he had for teaching our son all he knew and loved about farming. And he measured it in working with his father every day and living out their dreams together. He certainly didn't have it all, but by his measures, his life was incredibly successful. Agriculture is vital to the future of this county, country, and the world. Agriculture needs individuals that are leaders, innovative risktakers, and can think outside of the box in a world that continuously expects us to do more with less. Working in agriculture takes a broad set of skills and knowledge, an ability to be flexible and often think quickly, and an obvious willingness to get your hands dirty.
Any discussion? No discussion. Um I would like to just say something about uh Miss Flanigan. Um, this past year has been a tough one and she has really stepped up at uh, you know, every step of the way with everything that we were working through. Oh, there she is. I was looking for her. Um, I I do want to say that we really appreciate everything you did. I know, you know, you came into this year as, you know, an assistant super assistant principal and you had to step up and take on all those extra roles and with a lot of uncertainty going around. So, thank you very much for everything you did. Um, any other discussion? Congratulations. Yes. Thank you very much. All right. So, we'll take it to a vote. Mr. Bilips, I. Mr. Poesca. I. And I vote I. Next item. Under personnel, I recommend to the board that they approve to hire Kevin Jones as dean of students at Edison Junior Senior High School effective the 2025 2026 school year.
Hearing none is I can get a motion to approve the project for Eversource as presented. So moved and a second. Second. All those in favor? I. So the project passes. But before you go, Jacqueline, go ahead Joe. Ask her your question now. Yeah. It goes without saying that we always hear that, you know, they're taking, you know, they're taking down these uh double polls and I haven't seen any action yet on that and it's it's it's becoming an eyesaw. And this is not just recently. This has been an ongoing issue for years. So I just wanted to know is there any are there any plans by Eversource to uh hopefully get this uh these this double pole issue corrected and and removed before before I end up in Wallwood. Um that I don't know. I work out of the Somerville office. I will send it back to the Salt Bar office and and see what is going on with the double polls.
That's Constantini. We'll get her 12 meter. Constantini with it. Turns around, takes a shot. Good save by Jenna Holly. Jenna Holly behind the net. She turns around, gets the ball up to Mary Devoy. Mary Devoy blows by one. Mary gets the ball over to 50. Mary going in and out of people. Ball gets loose. Mcknne there to pick it up. Mcknney has a threeon two. She gets the ball to Parsons. gets displaced. Another call on I don't know. I think it was on Lucy Giovani with it. She kicks the ball up to I don't have 12. Going with the ball. She goes in and out. Takes a shot. Jenna Holl sees that. That's one of my favorite passes by Jenna Holly. The over the shoulder catch by Marino. Quickly fires it up to Caroline to Oh, that was that's good. Good work right there. Riana Calib throws the ball at Jane Peler.
Uh, Monument will now advance to the semi-finals of the Western Mass tournament. And that'll be it. Again, you are watching Elcat. I am Bernie Martin signing off.
So, that was really really good news. Um, and so, uh, yeah, we have just to finish up, uh, filling out the paperwork and then we have to, um, you know, just figure out some logistics with the building principles at the high school. Much, you know, a lot less figuring to do, but the the middle school and, um, CLS will just have to figure out some logistics in terms of the graband-go stations and supervision in the cafeteria and where where it'll be um, where the breakfast will be eaten. But we're really excited to um to roll this out and you know even if it's you know a handful of students in each building that um that need that breakfast to start their day. Um it's important that we offer it and so uh so we're looking forward to rolling that out. Can't promise the first day of school but definitely in early fall we'll be What time is it going to be?
So we had um approximately 1.0 0 million in IT expense um that we had submitted to the city earlier. Um this the the procurement procedures the city attorneys were not comfortable with. So of the million dollars we submitted, they said we'd be able to be reimbursed for a little over 300,000 of that amount. um that that amount is still in um our general fund financials under this 1.8. Um again, it's although it might not be able to be used now, we're just it's being saved for a later purpose. So, what you're saying there's a lot of red tape before we get the money. Yes. On that, what I'd like to recommend is for a couple things. One is more of just a cleanup. you and I had talked about um at some point publishing and maybe for June 30th just make and and going forward make a notation of the statements that the statements are prepared internally you know by by yourself or your your department the the the other question I have is on the health insurance line it's favorable variance of $4 million you and I had had conversations where your findings were previously the reimbursements with for the employees um for the health insurance weren't credited or or applied to the the financials to the statements.
Uh but but that's important like you are the employer and and you need to support them um what they're what they're doing and and and and if they're not that's under the superintendent's perview to take care of that. And this is kind of like the the almost the chain of command. Any complaints that you get, you refer to your superintendent. Uh and and you only act on those complaints at a public meeting, a notice meeting with a quorum, a majority president, a quorum president after the if there's a failure of an administrative solution, you have to you let the administration uh do what they need to do to investigate uh in and any any situation. if if it's um it's not the board member's job to do that investigation or to do anything regarding that other than let your superintendent know that an issue has come up.
Pinto. All right. So, Miss Donado Jennings, I don't think there's a lot of students here. I think every single student, show hands. Have you had Miss Donado Jennings? Show hands. I mean, they can come up here and they can tell you how incredible this woman is. Uh, rigorous. Her classroom is rigorous. She teaches the highest level students in the building. Um she teaches both dual enrollment uh collegebound students and she teaches uh AP uh is it language? Language which we just introduced. And if you know Mrs. Donado, she's very comfortable in her comfort zone. Um she likes to teach what she's been teaching and we challenged her. Uh we asked her to, you know, would she be interested in taking this this this AP lang language on because we really want we want to bring more rigorous courses in and We had to negotiate with Miss Denali and eventually we got her to buy in and I think at some point she came down.
From nervous freshmen navigating campus for the first time to confident graduates ready to take on the world. We've grown together, learned from each other, and created memories that will last a lifetime. When freshman year started, I started hanging around the wrong crowd and ended up happening to leave Morirana. I transferred to Mountain Rose Academy. My grades were good, but I wasn't truly happy. It wasn't until this year when I transferred to MCAT that I felt like I had a place where I belonged, a place where I fit in. The teachers were so welcoming. I would like to give a huge shout out to Miss Sonia and Miss Christa for always supporting me. And the biggest shout out to Miss Green for everything she has helped me through this past year. I would also like to give a huge shout out to my parents for never giving up on me even when I'd given up on myself.
This scholarship was established as a way to support youth with these very special qualities in Decar County, honor Adam, and give back to a community that has given so much love and support to my family and that we're proud to be a part of. I want to continue to thank the Decar County Community Foundation for their help and support making this scholarship possible. I want to thank all of the scholarship applicants. Our scholarship application has an essay question asking what agriculture means to them. Reading their responses brings an immense amount of joy to my heart and reminds us of the deep love and respect of agriculture in Adam's life. I do want to mention that the Adam Camp Memorial Fund uh does hold a chief and sidebyside fundraising event that we call Adam's fun run. This year our event will be June 22nd. If you're interested in further information about this event, please visit our Facebook page, Adam's FunRun.
We've heard the recommendation. Do we have a motion? I make the motion. I'll second the motion. Is there any discussion? All right, we'll take it to a vote. Mr. Phillips, I. Mr. Poesca, I. And I vote I. Next item. I recommend to the board that they approve to hire Leverne Marquez as a school bus driver effective immediately. We've heard the recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll make the motion. I'll second the motion.
I appreciate that. Thank you. Sure. No worries. and then somebody will reach out with that update. Yes. Thank you. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. I do want to if you're watching this desk by the Ashley years ago. Oh. Oh. I got to have my mic on. That helps. Does that help, Susan? Yes. Okay. Yes. I I couldn't hear anything. I could see everybody laughing. Okay. We were talking about the flamingos. So, so if none of you heard that, we were talking about the flamingos that are in the front of our Okay, moving on. It's that kind of night. Um, moving on. Old and new business. We're going to review and vote on the subcommittee recommendation of the BAA grant and select board community grants. I'm going to hand this over to Brandy and Claudia. And I'm gonna hand this over to Claudia to start and then we'll we'll tag team.
Pelier hits the open person and Lucy Parson. Lucy Parsons goes upper 90 on the goalie to put the Spartans up 11 to one. Now with running clock Lucy Parson on the assist third goal of the season. Another goal came against AWA I believe in Awam. The speedy freshman gets the Spartans to have running clock with 650 to go in the second quarter. They can run today. Okay. So, when the fans making sure to tell the scorekeeper it's running clock now because they say it's cold. False start. Kylie Marino gets it. Looks to pass her sister. Says, "Nope, I'm going to take it." She goes by everywhere. She's quick. Gets the ball over to There we go. That's a nice try by Mana. She gets it a little quickly. Lucy Parsons quickly gets the ball in. She gets the ball to Jane Pelier. Jane Pelleter behind the net to Addy Jordan.
Um so it'll be it'll be open the cafeteria will be open in the morning as students arrive. Um and so there there's some you know we have to speak with u our busing company as well to ensure that there is you know at least 10 minutes before to and again these are not going to be very um elaborate menu items. Um you know it's not going to be you know a lot of choices but it will be you know a breakfast sandwich um you know a fruit and a a muffin a yogurt you know graband go type options. Absolutely. Absolutely. So yeah more to come on that. Okay thanks Casey. Yep. Um and then u a clarification. I did put this in the weekend update last Friday to the board um when we were working on um the new school start times. We also obviously had to talk about the end times.
Has that been corrected? Is this a net number or is it still grossed up and there's an entry for the uh reimbursements to be made against it? Uh so the these numbers are um our actuals. So what was um what happens since we're uh self-unded is each employee based upon their benefits election gets an amount that we deduct from their check. Um most of our staff is paid throughout 20 pay periods although there are 26. Um it's just how the the contracts are set up. So a little bit of uh a fraction of the benefits are taken out each pay period. um at the end of that um happens during payroll and then after the payroll is happening. What I think the intention was in prior years was to look at what Sigma actually charges us from their monthly invoices as well as their um weekly uh debits to the to the bank and book the actuals and reverse out um the the placeholders that are created when uh payroll posts and at um last year and the year before possibly the year before I don't know that that short was happening.
I mean I mean ultim ultimately these 10 tenants um identify the different lanes and the different roles of a board member what they can and can't do. Um so these are cases related to the code of ethics. Uh, and there are some interesting I hear. Um, there are some interesting um in here. Um, and just just so you know, some of these cases have been appealed. So, the determination might change. Um and um as a board member um just just know that if the commission has a recommends a penalty that is automatically reviewed by the commissioner of education who has the option of agreeing not agreeing or or changing or amending. Uh and then uh after the the decision is made, if it's upheld by the commissioner, board members always have the opportunity to appeal any case and you can appeal um the violation itself or the pen andor the penalty.