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five means that they are half of a full-time employee um but they could also be uh sharing multiple sites so they could be at one site for one part of the day and another site for another part of the day or um have one day at one site and another full day at a different site over a period of 10 days um there will be there could be parody um for all of those three positions I just spoke about um if the enrollment goes above um 750 uh for um actually 750 uh once you reach that point based on ced's Dat data uh we will get to a full-time assistant principal a full-time counselor and a full-time social work worker okay um and then for uh the positions below uh these are Community lay on Library AIDS and clerks um again all the sites will have a 4-Hour base floor for um for both Community lay on and Library AIDS and then a eight hour base or floor for uh of a clerk and as enrollment increase uh based on the October uh ceds uh data uh they will in and they go to 750 then it will be um an additional additional hours for for those for those positions next slide so looking at the years 21 uh 20 uh2 or 2021 2022 um as far as support staff this would be a uh no change so it will be just a uh a status quo from the previous year although you could see that and Miss Atasha referred to this in her earlier slides as far as how grades would be uh coming off of the what I'll call the phasing out schools and then we be added to the new schools but on this slide there is no support staff changes next slide for U these uh for these grade levels again the uh phasing out schools as you see that they'll represented by the grade levels uh uh going from um 3rd through 6 uh they will still be no change changes in these slides are represented in the color red um so there won't be any reductions um to these uh schools but you'll see in the new schools that are will be reconfigured you'll start seeing the additions of different uh positions so here is where we'll get the first year of uh 8th grade being added to all of the school or rather two of the schools schools one and two and so they'll get a 0.1 social worker um these schools right here um uh and then so these other so the schools three through five will U be reduced to the counselors um if and and again this is assuming that their uh enrollment would be at 750 or less and um the they all have eighth grade schools three through five and so they will get an additional um social worker five of a social worker moving on to 2324 here's where you start seeing the um here's where you start seeing uh quite a bit more changes in staff so the schools that will be now in the phasing out four through six schools um those schools will have um now be reduced uh in their allocation of resource teachers um so um they will go from each having their own full-time research teacher to having a half of a research teacher um and then uh if you look at the sites below uh for the new schools uh you'll see that schools uh three through five are picking up a um uh uh a resource teacher as well so you'll see some some movement there uh for health aids will be uh because of the uh decrease in the grade levels you'll be seeing a reduction in the number of hours in the allocation of health aids um a reduction by 1.5 and also a reduction of 1.5 hours allocated to each site for Library eight if you go down to the um lower slide for the new schools you'll see that um the you'll have health aids added to the um sites um at for the new schools you'll also have some Library AIDS uh added or hours added to the new sites um and then as you um as I talked about earlier the um hours for clerks will be reduced to match our staffing ratio um this will essentially what I described uh just described right now for the 23 24 year will continue uh so there won't be any changes here in the 2425 and then in the 2526 is where you'll see the final phasing out of this of the support staff at the sites for um the schools uh 1 through seven represented above with red um so they will have just one gray level at these sites so essentially one resource teacher would be servicing uh three schools okay so now before we jump to model three are there any questions on model two with understanding that our questions are tied to our six pieces so we're not getting to the pros and cons we're not trying to Advocate um for which model or why this model shouldn't even be considered right now we're just trying to get a consensus do we understand how model two if that was the model the group chose could work and would roll out I have a quick question yes Miss Leslie so I actually have a couple questions so I just want to clarify um that the classes that we have that are self-contained can you please clarify with me um Dr Mitchell what exactly that means so a self-contained um class would mean that there is one multiple subject teacher that teaches all the subjects okay and then my other question was in the model that um we were showing of adjusting the staff the health aid um was 1.5 hours so the the health aid will only be on campus for one and a half hours is that how I'm I'm understanding that are you talking for the new school that will roll into correct they will be gaining 1.5 hours on addition to what they already have at that assigned School gotcha I was worried that they're only there an hour I just wanted to clarify that no no no little blonde and then my final question was for the the TK through eight the parks and wreck the after school program um so the parks and wreck would be running the after school program so they would be coaching you know like the after school softball or basketball games correct yes uh the same same programs that we have we put that in there because that's just something that the city does offer and so we just want to make sure that we communicate that that is um you know something that is available to uh to families okay thank you thank you great questions anyone else tied to the model get not pros and cons not advocating just clarification on the model yes Miss Meg um I want to follow up with what lesie said because my question was the same as hers and it was about the health aid um and so again it just I want to clarify what I heard you say was that when we see the one and a half hours that is on top of the existing three-hour health aid that they have yes ma'am yes ma' the only reason I ask that is knowing at elementary school specifically those those schools that are gradually transitioning out um having an existing health aid though that's only an hour and a half I think it's important for us to reexamine that because when um there isn't someone there to take care of the needs of the students it falls on the office Clerk or the office secretary and then that takes away from them being able to do their job so I I think that this may just be a cost a cost of transitioning to a new model in dealing with the health aids so I just wanted to bring that up as as a point to consider um when in the formation of this process yes ma'am we got it thank you uhhuh anyone else yes Miss Genie hi um okay so I just want to confirm this basically is transitioning enrollment of every single School in the district between next oh she froze on me is she froze freeze on anybody else okay let's give her a second School site Miss Genie you froze so we didn't can you hear me now I can hear you now okay did you all right it wasn't a speech it was just a question I just just want to clarify I'm so what I'm seeing is that the can you hear me now yes yes I'm sorry okay okay so the enrollment of every single School site is fluctuating every single year between 2021 and the end of the 2526 school year with this model is that right yes based off the grade spans that we identified yes okay so everything is Shifting every single year adapt um coming to adapt to new school or new grade levels every single year through the end of 2026 when you say every single year as a new school so if I currently if every single school year yeah go ahead and so what I was trying to say if I was let's say if I was at a middle school and I only had seventh and eighth graders or just six uh six seventh and eighth um during the second year I will now have 2k2 and 678 so yes and that you're talking in that way yes that would be the change okay so fluctuation of kids every single year and also staff every single year for five years yes okay thank you you're welcome anyone else I knew it I knew we were gonna get to model two so let's just go to it model two actually no model three I have a question there was I put it in the chat sorry about that oh I'm sorry I can't see it I apologize um since nobody's moding um just my clarification would be in this model right now I was actually looking to see um it appears that in the 2021 2122 school year all three traditional middle schools would um no longer be correct correct we would only have tk8 and it yes starting starting in 2122 yes okay thank you Mrs Jamal there's another question from a parent that says does the district have any say on the electives offered in the elective wheel okay that'll be Dr Mitchell yes I just uh responded in the chat so um in this model um we we current and we would current we would continue to have band vocal um and art we do have a program called meet the Masters that um that we have in our schools as well and so um in in this model we would really be working with teachers on um you know different ideas is and uh collaborate around you know and explore what that what what are the possibilities may I ask a followup question um Dr Mitchell does when you say meet the Masters as art um does that mean then that the Middle School the traditionally middle school students would just be getting the meet the Master's version or would there be art taught like it is at the traditional Middle School now um in this model um this that would not be in that are you talking about like a period elective Meg is that well kind of like I know for like for example with band the teacher will come they will pull out the students that are playing instruments things like that so I'm wanting to know with the vocal and the art are the self-contained classroom teachers going to be responsible responsible for teaching the vocal and the art got it we um we currently have um we currently have teachers that are now teaching the vocal so we would have to explore um you know what that would look like and right now we do have teachers that are teaching the the meet the Masters so in terms of the uh the seventh and eighth graders we'd have to take a look to see what um what's available for that and is you know uh in terms of Meet the Masters or something else so we would have to look into that deeply and and and really take a look at the details of that so that one I can't really answer right now any other questions all right you guys ask for it model 2.0 five traditional Elementary tk5 two traditional middle grade 6 through eight one tk8 and two traditional high schools and I just want to remind us that we all St we stated before that all of our models could be revamped to only include one high school for right now all of them do have two high schools so here is how the proposed roll out would be so for the 2122 school year for schools 1 through three they will not take any new enrollment but they would only have grades 1 through six and for um the fourth school that currently has seventh and eighth grade which will be one Middle School they will continue to have their seventh and eighth graders going to 2223 tk2 will transition to a different school and those schools schools one through three we'll have grades three through six and then going down to the current Middle School grade seven will transition on which leaves grade eight only at that school 23 24 schools 1 through three will now only have grades 4 through six 25 26 will only have grades 5 through six and 25 26 I'm sorry 24 25 will have grades 5 through six and then years 25 26 will have sixth grade and for school four since it's currently only seventh and 8th grade by the school year 2324 that school would officially be closed and this is how the new enrollment will look going forward so so for the 2122 school year schools 1 through five will be tk6 school 6 and S will be 7th and e8th and school 8 will be tk8 and it's important to note that school 8 will remain a tk8 all the way through the transition because that's their current enrollment so going to 2223 School 1 through 4 or 1 through five sorry will be tk6 and school 6 through 7 we'll have seventh and eth School sixth and seven will remain 7 and eth all the way through because this model has two traditional middle schools 24 25 I mean 23 24 schools 1 through five will have grades tk6 all the way through through 2526 so looking at the overall um hierarchy of how our tk8 model would look we would have a traditional tk5 we would have five schools school one through five we would have two traditional middles grades 6 through 8 we'll have one tk8 which will be school 8 now we will have Dr Mitchell I'm sorry can I interrupt you on your previous chart you had TK through six on schools 1 through five all the way through one more go back one more more if you look at it it has TK through six on your charts all the way through and six never gets bumped into the middle school and yet on the next um graph it has the sixth graders going back to middle school so does that that's because the official change for all of the change so we'll officially be a tk5 during the 26 through 27 school year got it so sixth grade will move to the middle schools but in 20 627 okay thank you you got it thank you okay so let's um take a look at the different program options in this model um you see preschool at every tk5 you see a Continuum of special education services across the schools one school would have our program for the visually impaired we would have two uh t k5s that would offer dual enrollment and 68 that would also offer uh the dual enrollment program uh continuing on again in terms of um other programs Beyond The Core Curriculum uh same thing uh as the other model you have an opportunity for um vaa stem I mean there's a wide variety of things and again we would have to do you know quite a bit of of work around you know what this might look like and um and there are there are many different creative models and so that would be working with teachers to um to explore those in the 68 model it is a traditional period by period elective um in the 68 model it is those classes are taught by single subject teachers in the tk5 it is a multiple subject teacher um and again um we do um partner um with our Parks and Recreation department and so knowing that that is an option for for families if they so choose to do that for um any after school programming um ha having after school sports uh as an option for all of our schools uh think together would be at all of our sites we would have before school care in our TK through five models um continuing with our districtwide focus on peer mediation and restorative practices um and so that's just a look a little bit at what um the program uh in this model would look like so um also talking about some of the potential programmatic drawbacks uh this model similar to the previous model um would be uh doesn't address a decline in the enrollment at the high schools and so again similar would be it could be loss of um electives or program uh fewer teachers and again it could be fewer opportunities for um things after school such as sports or activities or clubs um two six through eight um smaller schools could be uh fewer offerings for programs um smaller six through eight student cohorts at the tk8 uh again the T or I'm sorry the um yeah the tk8 has self-contained classes and do not have the traditional period uh electives smaller schools do uh have smaller staff teams the elementary model does require fewer minutes in uh PE for the state the self-contained e8th grade transitions directly to high school if sites uh have been modernized and closing them that could be a potential drawback and then um with the model there are lots of different options and it could uh there could possibly be some confusion in terms of um enrolling students all right and uh potential programmatic benefits um one of the benefits in this model would be or potential benefits would be parent choice you have the traditional Elementary you have a tk8 and then you have traditional Middle School offerings larger elementary schools might mean fewer combin ation classes in a tk8 school again a fewer shifts for students and that consistency of learning location they're staying at one site and then just making one move when they go to high school increasing the student population increases collaboration for programs at the sites um and again it could be um opportunity for a different way to look at um the these elective types of offerings or activities I should say um or could be a magnet specialty Focus like um school of the arts class sizes remain the same larger schools might create larger parent groups and the other uh programmatic or potential benefit is that this is a gradual transition over five years thank you uh Dr Mitchell um I'm going to jump into the support um staff and the slide that isn't uh that preceded this slide in the earlier presentations was the Staffing ratio so we'll still be using the same Staffing ratio um table for what I will be sharing with you um as it applies to schools that are in the ranges of TK through 8th grade uh and Miss Jones I actually I wanted to apologize if I I wasn't clear as far as when I was talking about the 05 addition to the hour so um thanks for asking the question um so in the year that's before you um as far as support staff goes um this is it'll be status quo in the schools that are both phasing um or are changing and the new schools that would be developing so um so there wouldn't be any any um support staff changes here however in the 2223 school year um you'll start seeing some changes in the um receiving schools and it's again resembles some of what we've talked about earlier as it applies to support staff um in the um first really quickly on the phasing out schools um there would be no change uh and in the schools that would be new um and reconfiguring we would be applying the Staffing ratios uh for these schools uh you see a in red a reduction of a half of a counselor per site um for the um the traditional middle schools and then at the same time the addition of a half social worker or or half of an ft FTE of the social worker so that's represented in the color green um in the tk8 they uh currently have a half um counselor and they would receive a TK I'm sorry a um half of a social worker uh this is the year we'll see the most changes in both schools that are phasing out and schools that are are U changing in new schools so um similarly as in previous uh models 0 five of a of a research teacher would be reduced in the schools that will be phasing out with their grades fourth through sixth grade um and so they will um have each of the schools will have half of a resource teacher the this would be the school uh School number four in the um schools that are phasing out they actually will have the school closed so this would be the traditional Middle School that would be closed um as far as health services the 0.5 hours and represented in red for both the um 1.5 hours for ha which is Health Services help with health assistance and Library AIDS um that red represents that they're reducing that much in hours so you so they they they'll still have some of this service um um there but they will their hours would be reduced for those positions um at those sites so they'll still have some coverage there represented Below in green is are the addition hour additional hours that the School site will be receiving so they already have their base in addition to that they will be receiving 05 hours of health aid for the sites uh for sites one through um seven actually 1 through eight um the uh tk8 will also be receiving an additional hour of a library Aid and some of the the decisions made around here was driven by the Staffing uh the Staffing uh ratios that we were we had uh presented earlier in red again trying to create some parity between sites um they will see a uh reduction some will see reduction in the hours of Clerks that they're currently assigned um and some will'll see reductions in the um hours for Library AIDS as well uh so that there's there's a there's a consistent um floor for the number of hours and what will drive changes in these allocations is their student enrollment in the 2425 year they will essentially be status quo to the last to the previous year so there won't be any uh additional reductions or additions to the support staff in this year and then this last slide represents that um the for the schools that will only have one um resour one grade level they will essentially be reduced from having half of a um of a resource teacher per site to a third so one resource teacher could conceivably be at all three of the phased out schools uh for the uh health aids and Library AIDS um they will be reduced there those positions for th allocations for those sites will be reduced by um5 hours for for both a health aid and Library Aid I'm muted sorry I was muted so before we go to next steps are there any questions about model 3 again about the six pieces not the pros and cons not advocating for model but is there any point of clarification about the six Mo about model 3 that we need to address have a quick question and I don't know if it's necessarily um anyways it's about kind of the the programing benefits and and um cons um and so one thing that Dana had mention what it it gives parents the option to choose whether they stay at the tk8 or go to the the traditional Middle School um my question is what if parents choose hey my laundry's done what if parents choose to not attend the tk8 because they want the the items that the traditional middle school offers um what happens in that situation if we don't have enough students for the tk8 those middleaged kids does that make sense can I repeat what I think I'm hearing you say so you're asking if for example your child currently goes to a tk8 and then we just have a huge Exodus and say you know what we don't want to go to a tk8 and we all want to go to a 68 then that means we would have to revisit the conversation to say okay is the rollment is the interest in a tk8 maybe that's going to show us if if the enrollment just completely drops then that would be a conversation that said we would have to reassess that during the six-year model than a sixy year okay all right thank you you're welcome and Gabriel has a question okay is uh model three the only model of the three that we've seen so far with the single subject credentials at the seventh and eighth grade level no that was also included in model one thank you any other questions okay so before we go to next steps so our goal as oh we had a question a question I'm sorry I'm sorry Mel no I didn't unmute fast enough it was oh I'm sorry oh um so um has there been any consideration in developing these models in not going the full five years um whether it's model one two three or four uh one two or three um not going the full five years to transition but taking less time and I'll give an example in in one of the models um you know the first year there's no K registration the second year all K through two no more the the third year it's only third grade and if you did third and fourth grade for example then the following year you could do fifth and sixth grade and eliminate that whole fifth year of transition time so that it's accomplished in Le less time and so I was just wondering H has been given to that also in light of of just less um um impact on our students as far as year after year that that how that affects them yeah and that was considered and so right now like we said our the thought um behind our choice our proposal to phase it over five years it gives all the students that are in third grade and above the opportunity to promote from their current home school now that could be a recommendation that we talk about in our next meeting to say well you know what we we don't really think that's a really added benefit we really do feel that it's quicker to just phase this out but you know some people may feel passionate about saying you know I currently go to this school and I really want to be promoted from this school before I go to my next School Mr mul there is a umia Ramirez um there's a question in the chat um in Spanish um s [Music] okay Pres um before um U Mr ano answers her second part of the question uh she says she understands the models uh she she gets it uh she her first question is around a concern uh the reduction of health aids even though the schools are phasing out uh and then her second question was right now currently in Aza Unified School District uh we have some uh schools that have preschools and we have some schools that do not uh so she wanted to know what was going to happen there so I explained to her that right now the models that have been presented uh all elementary schools uh would have a preschool and I'll let Mr ronio answer and then he can translate uh his answer uh as well thank you [Music] boss plan for so um in in English uh the point is while taken uh with regards to the health aids uh being reduced in the schools that are being uh that are losing grades so as we're as we're um losing grades uh the the school population would be significantly decreasing and so the once we get to that halfway point in the number of grades that's when we start reducing the number of hours that the uh of health aid services that are allocated to that site I also share sh to that at the same time um as we're seeing the enrollment of the schools the new schools those uh the hours that are being reduced in the in the schools that are being uh phased out those hours for health aids will be added to to the schools that will be increasing in the number of of students Miss Melissa um sorry I do have a question actually about um the each the the slides have always said that that that we could include a one Traditional High School I kind of wanted to know what that would look like um what Meg was saying about the phasing out of five years since high school's only four years would we still use the fiveyear phase out would it be a fouryear phase out um it we would obviously adding up the projected enrollment be over the 75 um percent I'm not saying we'd be at a 100% but would there be options for a satellite campus in order to if we did go to a single high school um expand the um facilities in that way versus running two high schools so that would be um that could be a proposal that we discuss in our next meeting when we talk about pros and cons and receive feedback and input of recommendations that you guys would like us to look into but everything is an option thank you all right so as you guys can see our next meeting we were supposed to um have feedback get input on all three models but call us crazy but we've come up with a fourth model um and we would love to have the opportunity to present model 4 to you guys on January 13th versus talking about all four my all three models and all the fourth model would be considered all level 3.0 it would have five TK fivs one tk8 and two six through 12th grade schools so we would like to know if that's doable to for use that or not even if it's doable we would like to use January thir 13th meeting to present that to you in the same format and covering the six pieces and then we will email everyone the projections of the remaining meetings that we need to add on so we can still have those meetings for open for discussion all right so that will be model four five TK fivs one tk8 and two 6 through 12th grade schools that will be model four and we will present that on January 13th all right you guys are so quiet oh my God okay well that's what we had today and for tonight's meeting so then we will do the same send you guys um email of the PDF um prior to the meeting the meeting will start at 5:30 as it did tonight January 13 you'll also receive an email with the proposed um added meetings that we're going to add on so we can have in-depth conversation and feedback from you guys um if there's nothing else I just want to thank you guys for your time wish everyone a happy happy and safe holidays um and just continue to ask everyone to stay safe stay warm and stay loving so quick question oh yes our January 13th meeting we will discuss model number four and give the pros and cons that we of the the four models January 13th we're going to discuss model four but you're going to receive an email with the dates that we're going to add on so we can have sessions good good good thank you you're so welcome Merry Christmas guys Merry Christmas Merry Christmas thank you byebye

so you'll have your tuition minus the 17 and that will be the total and one thing briefly i just wanted to talk about as well as you receive this award you do have some responses on your interest award very important and i just wanted to make sure we covered you need to submit your letter to the flight office wherever you decide to attend unfortunately we don't know you've received it another you're going to get and say and awarded thing you need to do every the free application for federal student aid which is your fafsa financial aid you will hear hopefully many have already did your but you will submit it per year to receive the award where you plan to receive additional financial aid or now and then the third thing that's required of the scholarship is that you contain a point of cumulative so those are the big three that are important which once again will be mentioned in the official award letter you received so you don't have to memorize this or write any of this down i just wanted to also please reach out to our financial aid office at umass amherst or any other financial office whatever institution you just attend um number one is to help doing financial aid process easier for you i know it's it seems overwhelming our job is to make it easy just reach out to us and i just want to wish you all the best of luck especially um during these crazy times and thank you so much for having me i'm here thank you so much laura i appreciate it i we're i think we're learning to sort of deal with intermittent and and and realities around um uh internet connectivity so i i actually put your points and main points in your chat but it's true there you want to hang on to the letter and here's the deal about the letter even if you lose it we actually made copies of it so um i don't want to encourage you to lose your letters um i know they're in the mail but but if you end up stuck we have a copy for you just in case like you get to august and it's in the pile of things in the pile of things in the basement so um next i want to um add um harold santiago's voice to our conversation um and hear what he has to say thank you laura thank you deidra and uh for allowing me the opportunity to address this year's abigail adams scholars um as a proud amherst alum of the class of 1990 i want to congratulate all of you on your accomplishments after this year 2020 2021 i'm certain that this class of graduates will be experts in the field of online learning we spend so much time every day in front of the computer that i'm sure whatever method you choose to take when you go to college whether it is online or if we continue to be online you guys will be experts in that field more importantly um we want you to be prepared for whatever college throws at you and this year i believe in year and a half that you've been going gone through has prepared you for your future uh remember that college is a marathon and not a sprint there's there's going to be some bumps in the roads there's going to be some curves but just remember to take a breath slow down make sure you take a moment to thank all your parents your family members your teachers your guidance counselors and more importantly give yourself a congratulations pat yourselves on the backs for completing this accomplishment and congratulate yourselves again i am the admissions rep for holyoke community college i am your onboarding plane to hcc or uh counselor for whatever uh reason you need whether it's checking in on your financial aid if you're going to hcc uh whether you need assistance in connecting for the placement test or scheduling your classes not only i'm the admissions rep but i'm also your advisor moving forward if you choose to come to hcc um i am going to put my my contact information in the chat for those of you who would like to reach out um and again i just want to congratulate you all on this accomplishment and uh good luck in your future endeavors did i lose everybody oh here we are we go way back so it's kind of fun to sort of harold and i worked together in in springfield and then uh he showed up in my in in the office in amherst and i realized like that he had come from um the wonderful uh institution that is amherst regional high school so i i feel like i filled in some blanks about why he was such an awesome guy um i do want to just briefly uh congratulate you on on the john and abigail adams award i also want to sort of give a little caveat um you are getting an award for your 10th grade knowledge um and and that is amazing it's like retroactive award uh and i and i do want to say i'm hoping that you have grown in the last two years um and i also want to acknowledge the fact that that um that this is a standardized test score and there's more to you than your score and i just want to just really iterate that there are 63 awardees for the high school there are 262 members of the senior class and so those of your colleagues that aren't here also have like wonderful talents and so i just hope that sort of in your head that you are aware and and of the beauty of of a heterogeneous uh school community and that you're able to sort of see that that there's a range of talents and abilities um and that you have the ability to collaborate with people who have all kinds of skills and abilities um as you now in high school and when you head off to uh to college or to whatever you're doing as i say in your in your life after a rhs and so really quickly i want to just read you a little poem um that that i i i don't know it just sort of conveys my thinking around that and it's quick i promise um it's called to be of use the people that i love the best jump into work head first without dallying in the shadows and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight they seem to become natives of that element the black sleek heads of seals bouncing like half submerged balls i love people who harness themselves to an ah and harness themselves and ox to a heavy cart who pull like water buffalo with massive patients who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward who do what has to be done again and again i want to be with people who submerge in the task who go into the fields to harvest and work in a row and pass the bags along who are not parlor generals and field deserters but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire must be put out the work of the world is common as mud botched it smears the hands crumbles to dust but the thing worth doing well done has a shape that satisfies clean and evident greek amorphous for wine or oil hopi vases that held corn are put in museums but you know they were made to be used the pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real so that's a poem to be of use by marge percy it was actually uh written in the year that i graduated from high school and i'll just say 1982.

uh so uh that uh i just hope for you that you find ways to be of use that you find ways to best be as used as you continue to move um towards your life after a rhs that's that's my wish for you all right i'm going to put all of us on this up on the screen and and answer any questions that people might have for us and so you can write your questions in the chat let's see oh okay he's not letting me i guess you guys can unmute yourselves maybe it's not letting me unmute you i'm unmuted okay okay great all right great so um i'll if you write your questions those of you that are and attending um your uh your uh questions we will uh answer them this is definitely different than zoom yeah i know it's a there's a learning curve do you see the participants no i can't see i can't see i thought you heard a list of everybody yeah yeah i it's it's so it is definitely different it does allow you to have a recording which zoom probably does too um yeah i can't figure that out though yeah you know harold you're right it's very it is very it's funny how you get used to one platform and so when you're thrown into another one it's like okay this is where that is and yeah i was wondering those things too like where's the chat it's right in front of me so any questions from awardees their parents let's see uh all right someone's saying they don't have a question oh okay let's see here comes one um ah could i please give a brief history and the purpose of this scholarship who funds it who awards it laura you win the prize laura sorry i'm still here okay so you briefly touched on it is the history behind it is i can't tell you specifically but it is people do well on their own pass awards um i can tell you it's the massachusetts financial assist who awarded the students you'll receive your letter though from the mass department of higher education and it's been around for quite a long time i mean i i've used it over are you over like eight ten years whoops we lost you i think we lost you a little bit laura i don't know mike if you can you can add in i think laura froze yeah um i i will admit just being a little newer to umass and massachusetts i'm not fully versed on the the again the history or the purpose of the history of the scholarship i would just say again like most scholarship awards and if harold you have anything to add here a lot of it is that you know every little bit to help kind of curb the cost and i think that this is one of those things to acknowledge something that you've all done to say here's a slight reduction on top of some other ways to to reduce that cost and again so it never hurts to kind of tie it in the states love tying it into history and so john everyone knows john and abigail adams and so i think that what they embody what they contributed is part of that um but i would say yeah it's just you know that acknowledgement from the public universities in the state that kind of collaborating with the the state itself to help curb that cost and acknowledge your success and your accomplishment and say not only is it nice to acknowledge it but give you a little bit of a reduction in the cost of a public education in college so that's a little bit of what i know um based on my limited time um so i wish i i knew more from my uh experience again i i learned about it through my niece who graduated amherst high school with the abigail adams scholar uh going on nine years ago now um and from my point i thought it was always an award that was given to those who excelled in the obviously the mcas and abigail adams and john uh decided that would be a nice way to reward those uh high achieving students that did well in 10th grade um so other than that that's you know at hcc we award yet 720 versus 30 credits at hcc and and again every little bit helps all right here's our next question um could you do a gap year and hold on to the award absolutely and um the scholarship semester it's not consec semester you just need to within six years of graduating high school so you can take a couple of years if you want to but it's available to take a gap all right cool and then here's another question um uh if we are going to an out-of-state college are there any opportunities to receive some of this money um and if not are there other resources i'm through the i would say through the department of education that we can take advantage of this is specific not yeah this is not a transfer over state loans um there are some other approach you should share on them the chooses facilitated website um that are able to refer different institutions unfortunately this meet the miguel adams ship state and the massive public institutions yeah it was more of an encouragement to stay within the state system too to keep our students within the state system it's kind of an incentive too here i'm going to put a link to the the main page for all all the different scholarship um that from the mass department of education um let's see my favorite one yeah i bet it is i like it too i really do they it does have the tuition it combines the tuitions um so it's hard to sort of pull up tease out what the actual tuition is um but that's a great conversation to uh have within a financial aid office is just to be clear um so connor has a question um you gave different amounts for money for the different umass institutions what is the scholarship amount for the maritime academy um so i actually just pulled this up um a great website that i hope is being linked to but the massachusetts maritime academy um i can't this is the air award but it was 1 554 a year okay yeah and it's all connected to what the overall tuition is as well yes awesome questions thanks for participating awardees any other questions from people or things um presenters that maybe we we missed out on miss saying that you wish you said or otherwise i'm gonna let people go play in the snow now that my back you guys know my i was on my back for 11 weeks i'm so excited i did promise i wouldn't shovel which was not hard to do i will not shovel ever again in my life um but i think the worst way to go back [Laughter] nice nice walk in the snow yeah yeah sledding is probably risky too huh well i i i do want to thank our presenters for for joining us today um uh and uh the names of the recipients yes i do have it it's mostly because i'm afraid of this platform hang on one sec i will share my screen with you uh great question you called me on it you're keeping me honest who's that mike sometimes i need it so here are here are the 63 awardees here um and uh and you you should have gotten a uh a letter in the mail that you had with letter and the institutions that it uh applies to and so congratulations to all of you um thanks for taking time out of your day the sun is setting we're closing in on the shortest day of the year um so that can only mean it's about to get cold out there but it's it looks really beautiful um and so congratulations to all of you and thank you make it larger please that's not gonna happen i'll just be honest with you i know darlings are there um but we will we um you're you're all awesome just know in your heart you're awesome even if you can't see your name all right have an awesome afternoon everyone um thanks again to our presenters and congratulations um to those of you um that that are here and did receive the award and there's more scholarship search to come um so keep an eye on those emails that i send because i'm i'm just gonna keep sending them to you um thanks again and have a great great afternoon deidra yes i want to talk to you okay all right let's see i don't see how i do this right in the broadcast

uh [Music] all right next up we got middle school wrestling i'm going to call up my own vanna white mr cooper okay here you go first of all i want to thank mr spring mrs schmidt mrs salver coach whit and all of you teachers uh middle school wrestling season was very um i guess fluid in our schedule and times and all that when people would allow so i thank you all for for working with us as we change two or three times on when we are leaving and all that stuff so thank you thanks to the parents as well at home that are that helped us throughout the season getting kids food all that stuff i'm gonna go ahead and call up the i'm gonna call it the manager group so emma bohannon emily mana smith tucker noonan and deanna raymer can you come down [Applause] this roof worked very hard all season long obviously keeping stats filling up cleaning the mats which was a huge thing this year trying to keep everybody healthy they did that multiple times copies anything like that so they were a very hard working group made our job a lot easier tucker was a wrestler to start off with i don't think he's here with an unfortunate dodgeball accident we might not play dodgeball ever again and a broken collar bone and uh and end up jumping over to the manager's side to really appreciate him can i get my female wrestlers on the team my female wrestlers come on down this is alex martin madison kind breaks matlock lafayette maguire haley potter ashley seresic and jillian simon [Music] so this group of girls is double sized from last year uh girls wrestling is one of the fastest growing sports not only in kansas but in the nation um at the high school level and we're trying to build that up through our middle school program and so they did a fantastic job i believe every one of them are brand new to the sport as far as participation with uh what is six six eighth graders and one seventh grader so we're really excited to have this entire group and they did very well learned a lot in our short season and really kind of dominating throughout the season as far as the girls side of competition and i'm really excited to see hopefully we get all of them back whether that's our one seventh grader or our sixth eighth graders going into the high school season uh high school year next year so these are our female wrestlers on this year's team [Applause] can i get my seventh graders come on down go ahead and line up here to the left side of me this is hunter cole luke griffin eli grove brody kitt kaiser layman jake bleiser seth matlock bowen mcintosh jesse milner tyler clarks camden plummer and lincoln wright [Applause] so the great thing about uh middle school wrestling is we do uh group them by ability and weight but sometimes especially if they're more experienced with some participation in kids club and things like that they don't necessarily only wrestle seventh graders they could potentially wrestle up to that eighth grade level just depending on where they're at and overall these kids did a fantastic job uh for for what again we have a five-week season and sometimes it's their very first time ever stepping on the wrestling mat and it was a very weird year to do it in with our pods and all that stuff but when a tremendous shout out to these kids as they wrestled hard worked hard throughout the whole season and really kind of set up for a solid team because again you don't just need eighth grade with experience you need everyone to fill those spots and these kids did a great job of that and i'm hoping we get every single one of them back next year as they continue their eighth grade wrestling season for next year so good job seven beers every one of them did get a varsity letter uh except mr hunter cole unfortunately he was one of our two that got quarantined but he did get a provisional which means if he wrestles next year and gets a varsity he'll get his second varsity award so good job some crazy you can go sit down once you get all your stuff and eighth graders come on down to my right here [Music] this group is quentin anderson jason black jr ezra crutchfield louis florey stackel amy mcmanus isaiah moss braden riggs kent stookie and jason west [Applause] so these were our leaders of the team did a great job a lot of them had quite a bit of experience whether it was just last year in middle school wrestling or or even further back in kids club did have quite a few new faces which was very cool uh cool because we didn't have a huge seventh grade group last year and i think a lot of them decided to come on out and give wrestling a shot again even if it's just one year and a five week season so we really appreciated them for coming out and doing that they led the team did very well we'll talk about some team stuff but i just know that looking across the room i could kind of tell where my eighth graders were because they did they stepped up they led and they made sure whether it was health-wise uh how hard they were working all that that they were they were showcasing to the rest of the team so good job to my eighth graders so that being said just a few overall notes for the team we got first at what we called the pioneer league clash which due to our league rules we had that was our burlington tournament this year uh we hosted just the league and we got first there we ended up being the runners-up at the pioneer league tournament this year second place overall as a team but then one of our coolest achievements we go to rossville at the very end of the season which is kind of where we decide okay how good how much have we learned this year and the kids actually took first at rossville out of a tournament that had about 15 to 20 teams i don't know exactly so that was a really really cool way to finish off the season we had 100 retention from the beginning of the season to the end you know of course we don't have a long season but when you're sitting there and you can count all 30 some kids minus one who fortunately moved but that they all stuck it out they all worked hard throughout the whole season that was really cool and last thing shout out to our four league champions isaiah moss aidan mcmanus lafayette maguire and grace matlock for becoming um one-time champions for aiden lafayette and grace and a two-time league champion for isaiah so congratulations guys and thank you very much hello everybody my name is mrs augustine and this is miss liker and this is ingle we are the coaches for the girls volleyball program here at burlington middle school um i was real happy to see the sixth graders come today um take note all you sixth graders because there's a lot of seventh and eighth graders that are involved in this these athletic events so please get involved next year it's a lot of fun for everybody um so what i'm gonna do first is i'm going to bring all my girls down at one time and then i'd like to talk about the seventh grader and then i'd like to talk about the eighth graders so here we go okay jake belcher emma thompson addison caesar mackenzie hagwall here's preston audrey daley camden swank kenli hoke corrine boland macy carlson mackenzie krueger patty bruggio natalie strauder laura ayanacone haley vaughan ziri dewitt cameron davis grayson clown i didn't know ready okay eighth graders if you'll come over here to my left please kalyn aard emerson cockle keeley hoback zaylee allen hi bailey you're out there hey there mallory over peyton bernie haley potter olivia lyons lafayette shaylee buck thompson mckinsey addison manhattan chloe gosney delina myers nevaeh sharp ashlyn logan grace burke hannah sides deanna raymer olivia bangs carly cole jillian simon hey jillian hope you're watching okay these are the members of burlington middle school volleyball we started back in august we ended in the first part of october and we had a fantastic season both seventh and eighth grade our seventh grade jv and c teams were seven and one this year in our seventh grade varsity they were 6-0 on the season and 13-3 overall they had a wonderful season we played at a tournament this year that we had never played at silver lake and we were a little nervous going into it but boy was i proud of both the 7th and 8th graders at that tournament they did a fantastic job our 7th graders ended up second behind a tough washburn rural team but i'm looking forward to getting them back there next year maybe take that tournament um uh they were our seventh graders were also the pioneer league champs uh tournament champs they had a great tournament and uh the southern group they're a very talented group of young ladies and we're going to see a lot from them next year and on into high school too so give the seventh graders a little bit of a hand there please [Applause] okay um um 8th graders this was a group that was unlike any other only men hardworking very positive positive with their teammates very respectful to their coaches i don't think i've ever seen a combination of all that in one group a whole group of young ladies and i saw that this year they were great leaders for our seventh graders uh seventh graders take that in and be those great leaders that these kids are for our sixth graders next year um they did a fabulous job i'm real proud of all of them uh our jv and c teams right your hand if you're on our jvnc team um very proud of these young ladies they were undefeated in the season they did an outstanding job had some close matches but then they fought through and they won at the end so i was really proud of those girls eighth grade varsity you were 5-1 in the league 11 and 5 overall and we also went to the silver lake tournament and they got third in the tournament behind silverlake tough team horseman rules tough teams but man they played well they played really well well it's real proud of all of them um love watching the improvement from seventh and eighth grade with these young ladies i really look forward to seeing them go on to high school and what they can contribute to the high school program they were also the lead tourney champions with the scary first game against osawatomie very scary but they fought back and we beat them in three and then went on to be in iowa and two to take the tournament champions for the 2021 school year um so congratulations eighth graders to just give a little bit of a hand here about that [Applause] okay the final thing i have to do is we have i have two awards that one i give out every year this is an award first for this year because uh this young lady kind of put a spark in our eye with the 8th graders 7th graders she a lot of times stayed after when we had extra practices or something we stayed after she was always there working on stuff she never got down on any teammates the only person she'd get down on it was herself and man when she got mad at herself it was not good but she bounced back and she did such a great job and uh just showed a lot of spirit for everybody on the team so i have a first ever lady cat spirit award and that award goes to jillian simon who's not here darn it so congratulations okay my last award is award we've given out for years it's called the most improvement award and it's an award for sorry it's an award for a young lady who went out in seventh grade year and 8th grade year it uh that was a criteria and then as coaches we see the improvement over those two years from day one and seventh grade to day two and eighth grade and there was no doubt in our minds who it was this year this gal came in a seventh grader she played on the c team she worked hard in the summer she got very respectful takes him what you say sucks it in and became a very strong varsity player this year so my most improved word goes to olivia banks [Applause] uh one final thing that i always do too is in the volleyball world if you ever go to a state tournament or anything and they announce the state players and we've done this in our own practices is give two claps as a recognition for a great job whether it was a perfect penguin whether it was a great effort to practice or being announced at the high school state tournament which would be awesome to see these girls down the road be announced at a state tournament um so with all the 7th and 8th grade and 6th grade i'd like you to recognize these girls with one final two claps so on the count of three be ready to do it okay everybody ready one two three all right congratulations everybody merry christmas [Music] um of the basketball players come down seventh grade on this side great on this side and my career okay um first of all i'm going to start with my three managers if you could come up with for me uh so these three girls were behind the scenes and don't get seen a lot but the amount of work that they do every day between practice and games is tremendous and these three had a way this year and making it seem like the easiest job in the world and we all know that it's not so um they will be lettering as managers for the basketball season and i hope to snag them again next year because they make life so much easier so cameron davis haley hahn and mackenzie [Applause] okay for our eighth graders this year we're gonna do a little backwards i'm gonna start with eighth graders um for my jb team if you guys want to step forward for everyone i have keeley hovak chloe ghazny zaylee allen could be with us today emerson cockle shaylee buck nevaeh sharp and lyra codney all played on jv for us these girls had a tremendous season they got thrown in at the end of the season and had to combine with the seventh grade jamie um and neither of the jb's had played together before that time so that was kind of a challenge and they rose up and did a great job and so you guys will all have your sheets coming around [Music] okay um my eighth grade varsity had on it keeley hovak also played on there chloe ghazny and zaylee allen and lyra cottony and then we also had hannah sides mallory over olivia lyons gracie burke kalyn r carly cole and olivia bangs you guys can step forward too to make up the total eighth grade team this year um these girls went overall 10 and four they had a tough loss to iowa at the end of the season they went into their home tournament and um ended up taking second place in the tournament they beat chanute in the first game and then lost to saint mary's in the second game we got a lot of some really tough competition in that one and um overall great season this group of girls was fantastic to coach um the basketball season was a little bit strange this year right before thanksgiving we lost all of our fans although they were home cheering us on so that was a change to go from loud fun games to quiet games where they could actually hear their coach talking to them but they took it in stride and just every game went out there and did their very best i couldn't ask for a better group of girls both personally and on the basketball court so i hope you all go on to share that next year in the high school thanks girl okay okay now um coach anderson's gonna let me talk about the seventh graders oh girls seventh grade tv if you would step forward for me um that would be kaylee briggs kimberly hope jackie smith kiera martin macy carlson and brandon harness so these girls um first year in middle school basketball and played with coach over and they did really well some of them had a little bit of experience and some of them not much experience but the amount of improvement throughout the year was tremendous and i hope you girls will stick with it as you keep going the seventh grade varsity was jc belcher addison speezer camden swing heidi virginia corinne and um kinley hope and running department back to students varsity and the basie of utah um the varsity team ended up going 10-1 this season they won our home tournament um chanuk had to step out of their seventh graders so we're gonna have it around broadway and they'd beat iola and then they need uh saint mary's to win that tournament they did have one loss this season by only one point to santa fe trail got in a little bit of foul trouble and maybe a little bit of trouble back next year i have a feeling that they'll be going for their undefeated senior these girls worked hard every day and again overcame all of the strange things that happened throughout the season but made it through their season and did a fantastic job so hope to see all of you lizzie's out again next year please give all of these girls [Applause] see all right last but not least we've got football um you guys have done a great job i'll try to make it fast but uh i want to ditto what coach augustine said about being involved you know these are extracurricular activities these guys are you know doing this extra it's the fun stuff you get to do outside of the classroom build that camaraderie some friendships some things that you might not you know deal with in the classroom but um it's a big part of our school and i promise you as you get on into high school and things like that there's other activities to be involved in as you go on but it will make you a better student as well you have to manage your time and be a little more disciplined with the things that you do outside of the classroom to try to get everything done so those guys that are in gals that are student athletes it's proven that they do have better grades overall as a group so so be involved no matter what it is uh first i want to again thank all the parents and the teachers that are involved helping do everything but my coaches too uh mr schuster is our eighth grade coach mr marvel and mr over are not here they're at the high school doing their remote learning and i want to thank them as well they do it to seventh graders but uh mr schuster has uh been around for a long time we've been coaching together for each 20 plus 20 years getting close so um i appreciate mr schuster he's got a good uh his mathematical thought when we put stuff on paper is is good i've always said i shouldn't just give the offense to him and these others coming up with trick plays and stuff like that it's a lot of fun so i enjoyed having him around first one i think my managers and it was it was different i mean it was spraying helmets spraying mouthpieces getting water i mean every day making sure that the jerseys are in the wash a lot of work involved these guys did a good job cole carlson tyler parks and thomas hudson you guys come down please [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yeah they did a lot of work this year with all the regulations and things that needed to be sprayed and washed and the guys were really good with that too um there's a little down time when they get to play some catch and do some stuff like that when we're outside in practice but for the most part they did a great job and i really appreciate them now for our seventh grade they were we five and two that's one that's what we thought five and two good group again they run a little different offense than our eighth grade so they're going to come to me and learn their different offense and i think they're going to do a great job it's a bunch that listens well and works hard and i'd like to grab a few more out of that group but uh good numbers and we just want them to continue but if i call your name just come down and line up right here please maddox cheever toby burton thank you milton hunter cole alex motts hi alex jesse milner ryan hoyt brody kid justin clary brody garland eli crow kaiser lehman jake liser luke griffin again just like those joggers being said these guys like her girls they were here in august we were getting after him practicing before school and i really kind of like that kind of gets us into the swing of things um and we didn't have super hot weather this year was a couple maybe one week where we really had some really really warm weather but the most part not too bad but it does get warmer you put all your pads on and your pants and your helmet and they're just a lot of different things and some of them never played but a lot of them have played before some younger pee-wee football and that makes a big difference too they come to us already knowing position and line and where to be and then we change some different things up with them and there's more to learn but they did a great job super proud of their effort look forward to their uh work habits next year hopefully they join the weight room next year and do some conditioning with coach beecher let's give the seventh graders a hand and bow and macintosh first [Music] maybe he got mixed up with my eighth graders eighth graders finished four and three um didn't have a ton out this year but good numbers good guys that have battled through it last year and they learned our high school offense i was reluctant to run it if you're an 8th grader to play won't you come down here and stand please and i hope they all move on and get to participate with coach feature but we're running their high school offense and you know i was i was reluctant last two years we've tried it out and and these guys really grasped pretty well and ran and i know it'll make them better for next year when they get to coach petrie and understanding his lingo and what they do offensively and defensively you could step forward rudy anderson tucker noonan i think tucker is home in quarantine to isaiah moss aide mcmanus blaze riley kent stooky lane griffin ezra crutchfield landon ernst ty stephens sage paper eli irvin let's give these guys a round of applause again they were uh good leaders it's a two mile time of 15 24.

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] my [Music] i like to call this meeting of the evesham township board of education to order pursuant to the open public meetings act adequate public notice has been given by the secretary of eastern township board of education in the following manner posting written notice on the official bulletin board of the board of education office emailing written notice to the berlin county times and the courier post and filing written notice with the municipal clerk of eastham township can i have a roll call please mrs barbara giovanni here mrs everhart here mr is here miss fleming mr canton here mrs knoll mr lancelata here mr megan here this is ryan here we have a forum thank you at this moment i am going to ask for a motion to go an executive session where as an njsa 104-12 allows for a public body to go into closed session during a public meeting and whereas the board of education of yves shrimp township has deemed it necessary to go into closed session to discuss certain matters which are exempted from the public and whereas the regular meeting of the board of education will reconvene following the end of the closed session at approximately a little after 7 pm now therefore be it resolved that the board of education office will be the board of education will be closed session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 104-12 and that's items 2.2 through 2.4 do i have a motion for executive session ah motion by ms barbara giovanni seconded by miss everhart any questions or comments uh roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr zacchara yes mr campin yes mr lancelotta yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes thank you we'll see everyone roughly around seven o'clock [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] i'd like to reconvene this meeting of the eevshrim township board of education you could all rise for the pledge of allegiance okay we are going to move into presentations mr pisacaro i would be very honored to present certificates to two of our board members tonight who have earned level two certification from the new jersey school boards association so um do we have a they have a mic or uh all right here we go feels different to stand up level two certification is achieved through completing over 20 hours of professional development as a board member this is quite an achievement and to have on the same board two members complete that is wonderful and to be able to recognize them tonight is my great honor the first board member is trish everhart can you get an elbow bump good you can see we haven't done a lot of fanfare at these meetings during a pandemic and our second level two certified school board member elaine barbara giovanni would you please come up congratulations then we're gonna you can stand in between and then miss robert giovanni if you could stand a little bit longer here so i wanted to take a few moments tonight just to recognize the wonder of you okay and and you've been on the board since 2015 you've served on the finance and operations committee the curriculum committee the technology committee you've been liaison to national school boards association to town council to the ptas to the wrap room you brought with you 31 years experience in our district and most of that at jagger'd in first grade right and i always i always felt like when you were talking i could just feel the that veteran lens you know as as everything you were saying is coming through that lens um and yet you also were the one of the first people to always think of like a fresh idea you know so you had that blend of veteran experience but um outside the box thinking that plus your dedication and heart there's a lot to miss you'll be sorely missed tilling sorely sorely missed um but we wanted to present with you this plaque to commemorate your time with us and i would hug you right now but i just do it all the bump so [Applause] so thank you so much and i really appreciate it i love my time serving on the board and i'm grateful for everyone on it and hard road ahead but i know everybody will think outside the box and try to make everything successful so i really enjoyed my time with you guys so carry on thank you all right getting ourselves uh back in i'm not used to doing a presentation like this is a long long time to be done something like that slight yes as you barely see us on the edges of the picture that's got to be 20 20.

awesome welcome everyone welcome everybody uh to the december really scheduled school board meeting kim could you do a roll call for me please sure karen anderson here tammy hines here john long here greg meyer not here yet scott little cam here greg o'connor here lisa schumacher here all right we have a quorum let's go on to item two welcome visitors we have a few folks here from hamrin and um and on to public comments i think we have three tonight that uh dr gruselli is gonna make those calls for us right now please hello yes we speak with miss fist please hi this is courtney coselli with columbia schools at the board meeting hi ariel great and you indicated that you would like to address the board so i am trying to give you that opportunity uh before you if before you started just want to for our record you need to uh state your full name and i need to make you aware of the three minute time limit okay all right whenever you're ready you may begin okay um hi i am lauren fess and um there is just a couple things that i wanted to address tonight um first game just wanted to give them a shout out and how great the job they're doing you know with everything going on uh it's been crazy and um i just appreciate all the hard work second items um that i'd also like to address and it also has to do with the teachers um is i guess the disappointment that i feel over what i'm seeing and their consideration for just their overall health and safety so not only teachers but also staff as well um you know every day they're putting themselves at risk um just to be with their children and so i'm posing the question to the board that you know when are we gonna make their health and safety a priority every every conversation i've heard the board has in the last couple board meetings um they're thinking of the students which i appreciate i have two children who attend school and um you know without the teachers though my kids and all the kids in the district find any success um i just can't imagine the stress they're feeling and and that goes along with the principles as well the heavy amount of letters we're receiving uh the phone calls that we're getting for classes being quarantined you know late to the evenings um i just want the board to be aware that yes education children should come first but the teachers and staff matter too and then the last time i wanted to make was recently i saw your posting for new remote teaching positions and was hoping that the board was going to address that tonight and what that means um the kids who are going remote no longer have their current teachers who's creating those lesson plans who's grading who's making all the videos for all those remote kids if your answer is the teachers you know how many tasks are we going to give these teachers they're already i'm addressed i can't imagine and asking really to do two jobs in the pay of one i can't imagine asking any more from them on the other hand if you're asking a newly hired staff um you know are they going to be qualified to do that job to do a teacher job and then just remind them that in your return to school plans i've posted on the school website it does indicate that remote students will be instructed by columbia teachers and so i hope that whatever decision going forward you're including your teachers union and any decisions that are being made not only for the school district but for before the children as well and and that is all so i appreciate you guys giving me time to speak thank you have a good night thank you [Music] hello yes i speak with mrs corey please hi henry this is courtney castelli i have your name dad as someone who would like to address the board this evening yeah that's right courtney um if you would just for formality safe when you start if you could state your full name for our board record and then you have three minutes for addressing the board so whenever you're ready do you have the floor okay sure thank you my name is andrew mccory and i appreciate the opportunity that he can offer my opinion we currently have a seventh grader and a senior attending in person hybrid and my position is that you know there's there's no meaningful replacement for in-person learning monday through friday 8-3 and unless you personally have a child at home attempting to learn under the current condition you absolutely cannot fully appreciate the impact this is having on a student um despite the extraordinary time and that's being put forth by my personal children's teachers the kids are struggling daily um i am most worried about the middle school grade six to eight and you know although there are exceptions the vast majority of kids that age are too immature undisciplined and unmotivated to be learning you know truly online they're not engaged and i'm not going to take some heat from my own 13 year old son or say anything but we are expecting them to learn the same way my two college sons are um they they need the routine from waking up every day going to school and sitting face to face in a classroom it's really difficult to create a meaningful relationship with a teacher by seeing him or her in person just one hour a week total um and until those kids create a relationship they don't have any sense of accountability for the quality of work they were doing and usually for the lack of work they're doing um i don't lulu has never had grapes like this before he's never been unattended difficult about school until now and i i can't even begin to describe the level of stress this is caused inside our own home it's you know daily issues of corporate missing assignments technological frustrations and i guarantee you our home is not alone so if if fifth grade can be all back at cms monday through friday you know right now it's 12 70.

e e e John are you ready for us ready okay uh it's 6 o'cl so let us stand for the play all right good evening everyone welcome to another H board meeting and uh we will start Lisa can you call the rooll please here here here here here we are all present and accounted for okay at this time I would like to entertain a motion to enter executive session to consider information regarding the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of a specific employee or legal counsel for the public body to discuss student disciplinary cases to discuss matters relating to placement of IND individual students and special education programs and to consider other matters relating to individual students to discuss Collective negotiating matters or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees and to discuss pending or probable litigation against effective or on behalf of the public V second motion made by member graus seconded by member hardik to enter into executive session call the rooll please yes yes yes yes yes yes yes we will the motion passes we will enter into executive session at 602 and return upon completion e e e all e [Music] e for for for e you ready say all right all right is everybody set okay and welcome back uh we are reentering Open session at 6:46 p.m.

thank you so much okay um seeing the presence of a quorum i'm going to call to order the budget subcommittee of the regional school committee at uh 6 35 p.m on thursday december 17th and do a roll call um holla holla president kerry miss spitzer present yes mr president um and i guess uh stance are present also um so doug did uh i wasn't quite sure what to do about the agenda so doug had drawn dr slaughter i'm sorry had drawn up a tentative agenda and the first thing on that agenda was selecting um the chair of the subcommittee right so because we haven't met in a while i thought it would probably be an appropriate thing to do so i can kind of take the meeting ask for nominations we can do a quick vote and then whoever gets elected can take over from there okay so i'm happy to do that all right thank you are there any nominations for chair you can nominate yourself sure i'll nominate myself is there a second lord second are there any other nominations hearing none is there uh we don't need to do some speeches i suppose so i think we can probably take a roll call vote on this uh in order in no particular order uh holla lord um i uh margaret uh i carrie hi so we have a unanimous selection for chair it's margaret you're on the short strong so you can continue to leave the meeting okay thank you um so uh i think that i'm gonna turn it over to you doug um to proceed uh sure so i think there's a couple different things that we've talked about um relative to to sort of getting started here and i i'm hoping we can um you know not take too too much of your evening this evening hopefully you've had a quiet day inside because it was really helpful out there but a couple of things that i think we could we could do is i sent uh uh some history of ads and cut sheets and of course one of the things that i noticed and this was something margaret wrote me about earlier today is that how we've defined the terms on those have not always been consistent or or even within a year and i think i've been guilty of this both in making those kinds of lists and also in in being in the chair like yours and and reading those kind of lists and so there's there are things i think of as more permanent changes and things that are more sort of temporary changes in those ads and cuts and adjustments and and so i think we just uh one thing we will probably want to do just as a framing thing is is that is to define those clearly and maybe um you know go back through the old lists and and uh you know kind of retune those based on things that are are temporary versus a more permanent kinds of change and then i think uh just to sort of frame the whole of this you know i think that's a useful sort of place to start but i think we should think about um you probably talk just general timeline first off and then you know sort of what kind of benchmark times we have to meet and then strategize about what kind of pieces we want to put together for um sort of telling the story because i think that's really one of the sort of critical pieces here okay um so i have some suggestions about the definitions if we want to start there just for something to kind of frame it a little bit and get okay so there's adjustments and then there's you know ads and typically cuts or reductions and what i was thinking along those lines was that it should be a little more dislocated about the use of the term adjustment to say that it's um kind of a one-time change not as much a permanent change and things that are additions or reductions or additions and cuts are more permanent in nature or presumed to be permanent so we have things where like we know a certain software is increasing in price well that's that's actually an addition you know um it has typically been cast as as perhaps a an adjustment an adjustment on the hand you know um there are times we'll make uh like this last year um we had a um we reduced the amount of money that we were going to put toward or on the budget line that pays for the msan membership that was a one-year adjustment to the budget um and we often do that we have some that are there and up for consideration every year um you know around sabbatical leaves or um uh what else things like that certain retirement incentives and the like um that i think are really more adjustments they're more single year they're things that we wouldn't permanently take out of the budgeting process um but on the other hand there are in the additions and and cuts uh piece that's more you know sort of more fundamental change or or regularization of something so if we need to um and especially at the region so if a student we know is moving from sixth grade one of our sixth grade buildings in amherst or pelham into the to the middle school um we know we're going to have them in a potential need for say a paraprofessional for that child or a particular kind of service that's going to be a pretty permanent change for a number of years um and so that would be an ad or or a cut if someone graduated or something like that so that would be my suggestion on those to just and and that'll be a if you guys are comfortable with that definition or you want to articulate it a bit more that'd be great but i think what i would need to do you know in my role is to make sure that i'm always sort of operating from that from that um that definition base so that we're always telling the same story about how we're doing this because i think it's sometimes uh you know as you look through those it's like we cut almost every year except for two in the last seven um the the uh you know which is which is true um and it is difficult to do um but there are there are many of those things that you know sort of come on and go off as far as cuts because we um we don't want to permanently take them out of the budgeting because there are things we really do do all the time but um you know like retirement incentives or sabbaticals that sort of thing um but they are ones that that sometimes come up and so being clear about those as we as we are public with this information is is probably for the best and that also requires i think sometimes why we don't you know adjustments always get put at the top and then the action always happens down in the ads and cuts part and i think what might be uh advantageous just on that ads and cuts kind of list is to be uh clearer about how it's evolving through the process so as things go on or come off the list um you know sort of finding a way to demonstrate that either by you know dating the additions or uh you know organizing the the layout in a way that that makes it clear that uh it's progressing in a certain way and then that way we can keep things in the categories uh as we've defined them and and be consistent with that so that um i just think that would be helpful i'm obviously open a suggestion for many of you about those those things but that's what i was thinking we'd start with as far as just thinking about ads and cuts because that's that's really where most people spend the time thinking about the budget they don't really dig into the specific lines um um because that's the point you know that's where you're making those critical decisions about what is or isn't going to continue and how it's going to continue and that's where the crux of the conversation happens when you're in budget like we're going to be in this year okay so so in some cases ftes were in adjustments and in some cases they were in most often in reductions and there were many many ftes i mean i added up a total of 46 i think over the course of these sheets that you've given us which is i mean i know there's probably some other reasons for that than just money there's like decreasing enrollment but um but it would be helpful to know i guess the difference between ones that we're definitely saying these are going away or these are are coming back versus this is like a one-time thing right and i think that that's one of the difficulties in looking at those over time and and you know uh while i didn't get an opportunity this last year often in years previous the the big budget book you can page in there that has fte and it has fde history and so you can see how the fds sort of track uh over time and they have decreased not to that level that you're seeing there um i think for a couple of reasons one is um you know there's some uh growth in fte during the fiscal year sometimes depending on kids move in and it's not an option sort of thing and so we take that on um and i think that you're you know the other point is is uh you know that there are some of those changes that were more permanent than others um so you know if you look at the year when we you know uh cut back on the foods program that loss of a teacher was permanent that that position is not remained in place that was culinary position yeah that was the culinary position and then there's the the child study position was the same year um i think some of the others are harder to characterize that way but i think if we again if we place those you know that are more permanent into the cut section or the ad section um and those that are more um temporary in in in basis you know into that adjustment section i think it'll be easier for people to kind of think about the whole and how much it's changing as far as the concern okay so um can i just one more thought i think the other really big question with the fds is whether or not folks are being lost to attrition or is it actual kind of layout for or um yeah i think layoff's the right word so i think that's the other thing to think about when we're when we're looking at those changes over time yeah they they call it riff reduction force um and we've been you know as a superintendent has said we've been fortunate the last several years that retirement has generally captured that and that's often how we prefer to do things um you know uh we've had a number of retirements you know the the baby boomers are retiring and that's taking a sort of cluster of folks with them um you know but that's not in forever circumstance so we will and and in a year like i think we're going to be experiencing this coming year um it's more likely to be you know actual people we know not just positions that go away um so it's it's you know it's unfortunate but i think it's it's also very relevant to the conversation is is when are we talking about doing it through um you know retirement and and people choosing a different job and that sort of thing and when is it we're actually not doing as much stuff as we used to do um the one other thing i'd like to mention just to is also which is a difficult concept i think for people that kind of look at these is that you know we talk about level services as we go from year to year but each year the what is a level service is different than the year before and and so that's also a difficulty is that the sort of frame from which we're building that new list uh is always different from the previous year and part of that's just you know kids are different perfect because of the choices we made in the previous budget and so on so that's that's a difficult thing uh to see the other thing i think that sometimes is a little more subtle it doesn't always get demonstrated you know on on that kind of a list is there'll be times we'll know we have supply lines for for all the different classes and and so you know science has to buy you know chemicals and and traditions and that's our stuff and and uh you know and art classes buy paints and you know clay and that sort of those kind of supplies and in textbooks and replacement books and those kind of things often will hold those um with no change from one year to the next and then you know every few years we do need to actually increase those and that's not something that often will show up on those on those documents and and you know i was having a conversation with sean mangano a few days ago about this topic and and trying to prepare some stuff for the poor towns meeting he said yeah we were fortunate we'd gone you know three or four years without making any change at all to supply lines like that and we had a building one of those years that was a positive that we can make a small increase to that because those materials cost you know sometimes don't change price much but sometimes they do but over a number of years they definitely do so that's another more subtle piece it's harder to sort of work into the conversation but it is a real you know it's a real number and it has a real impact okay so in terms of re sort of re-identifying things doug is that something that you can do i think largely i can i mean you know i'm familiar enough with most of it um unfortunately sean still works in town so i can bug him um i don't remember but there's plenty of them that i can tell just by looking it's like oh that was much more you know a one-time type of thing uh you know uh when we have you know um i think even last year we had a small reduction in like health insurance costs because we knew we were uh you know we had a couple people that were leaving and so we were shrinking because of the change in fte we knew that we'd have fewer you know a little bit less health insurance cost so there's there's those kind of things that are identifiable as as potentially temporary and and many other things that are like that they're you know and and there was one i was looking at where it had you know a number of special education cuts and they were you know a few thousand dollars and unfortunately it had the budget line so i can actually look at those budget lines and see whether it's personnel or whether it was things and whether it was because you know uh a change in in staffing or retirements sometimes it's retirements and you go oh well this person was at the top step and had a phd very expensive and will probably not hire someone that expensive so you know those kind of things make their way into that as well um but i can i can go through those and and kind of uh you know sort of tune them up i guess as it were and try to identify you know things where it's uh like uh carrie was asking is is a rift versus a versus a a permanent i mean a permanent versus a through attrition type of reduction in force so would the attrition if somebody retired when you say attrition meaning we just wouldn't refill the position that's what you mean and so potentially some of those ftes that were in the budget reduction section could have been retirees not not not actual cuts to academic programs um well it still results sometimes in in in that um you know so it it the the sort of uh hidden piece of of doing them through attrition is that you know we're not actually putting a person essentially out on the street but what we but we are still having fewer people on set and so that could be some programming reductions as well a lot of times with paraprofessionals it kind of depends on you know our student population and the needs of the students um and so sometimes you know we have a you know a class that has a few more students and paraprofessionals and they leave you know the kids graduate or whatever and and so our overall demand for staff goes down a little bit um not too often but it does happen and likewise we've had bump ups uh a couple years ago um i think that that that incoming seventh grade class had four or five kids and so there was maybe it was seven yeah there was a big bump up the number of paris uh that one year and those are you know you know driven by who are who are the kids and who's coming and and obviously we won't know a lot of that information you know until much later in the process but we try to anticipate those if we can okay it's the same with like the out-of-district placements which you know are tend to be very expensive um but we try to have a sense of how many of those we have because those can can impact the budget in a pretty significant way and and those are for me those are always tricky because we want to recognize and and articulate the sort of financial impact um and yet not you know identify students or or families in any way and so it gets a little more subtle and and likewise with when we talk about staffing reductions we want to be very uh careful with those as well because you know it's an evolving process we don't want to panic people we have a requirement of how we do that relative to our contracts like the timeline in which we need to do it and the way in which we want to do it and and there's just a you know sort of decent you know decency factor there too um right uh so you know those all play into the mix as we go along okay well it seems like um if that would be one next step would be to to sort of have those uh a little clearer um can i the other thing i was thinking that would help kind of with the telling the story and the data that would be useful in that is i think you know thinking about the special education out of district placements it's not like we have the ability to say no we're not going to do that we are legally mandated to pay for those and and we don't control the cost so i think it would be really um helpful to be able to kind of isolate the pieces of the budget where we are you know like health insurance it's not like we have any control over there they're big fences that we don't have control over and so where are these you know places on the margin where we can because i agree with you like you don't want to like call attention and say you know make people nervous this early in the budget process about where the cuts are going to be but i think we know where they're not going to be and where we don't have any flexibility and so um that's a good point it might be helpful in kind of illustrating like this fraction of the budget is you know beyond our control and regardless of how the town or the school committee feels about it we're going to need to to meet this cost and these are the items where we might you know have some flexibility but i think often they're the things that people are you know make people excited about going to school and you know sending their kids there i mean i i believe that all of the things we do are important but i think that in particular some of the the things that are optional you know optional are the pieces that that might be worth highlighting right and i i think you're right i think to you know sort of define and outline for folks those those parts of of um our budget that that don't have wiggle room or have very little um and some of it you know you gain more wiggle room as as you move along because you learn new information but but i mean another example where you know we have to go contracts that have steps you know and call us we don't have one right now but we have to make an estimate assuming that that will happen and so that you know is a bit of a black box that we have to put in place we want to be respectful of the of the negotiation process but we still have to put some some estimates for those kinds of things into our budget but i think you're right there's things around ell there are things around special education in particular um you know someone mentioned pe actually it's required by law to offer pe um so you can't completely eliminate pe you can count a lot of things so like we can't play sports you can count that as pe but you have to actually you have to offer that um you know other quirky things you know technically have to teach flag etiquette not that anyone does but you do it's don't ask me why i stumbled across that in the law but it's there what we really should do is get you know a booklet from like an american legion or something like that and hand it out to everybody but that's beside the point um but i think yeah articulating those components that are that have uh more or less flexibility and and and what that means and i think that uh for those that have you know we have more control over um you know that's the conversation about what do we make our school like you know what what do we you know that's where you express your fundamental um uh value system most in that in that area and so uh and that's where the debate really happens as far as you know so what are we what program are we offering what's it cost to offer that program are we comfortable or uncomfortable with that is it important enough to offer it uh and challenge those who uh you know that uh actually you know uh authorize the appropriation to to do that um you know and and and you have that debate of those things in context of other things those you know the communities are trying to find and that's and it's okay to have those conversations i mean you know they're uncomfortable sometimes but that's i think that's the other piece is it's okay to have that debate about what is or isn't um what we want okay oh boy i just um a couple of questions that or thoughts that came to my mind as i was reading through all of these are that um you know along with uh level services and understanding that that means we actually have less money because of the things that we can't control um okay where was i going with this oh there's inflation right so you know we can't control that either and it doesn't necessarily i mean it is doesn't impact personnel but it does impact things like the supplies and the bus you know so it would be interesting i think to know what the inflation has been over this period of time that these sheets cover um some people pay attention to that you know are we staying up with inflation um yeah i can i can definitely um so interestingly in our bus contract we actually use a um an inflation factor to set the price so you know they bid the contract so the first year so from last year to this year was a pretty big jump in price um because it's a new contract but there were the years after this are prescribed in the contract based on a on a you know a price index so i can you know i have several of those from previous years i can go and look those up and so that's a that's a normed or or standard you know national standard of of of of inflation we can use and then we can also you know i mean the other sort of educational pieces that people know or don't know is you know fully 80 of our budget is about people and their benefits um and so if health insurance goes up considerably or not that makes a huge difference in what we can and can't do um if we uh you know the contracts we negotiate with our employees um if their cola their cost of living adjustment is bigger or smaller that makes a big difference in in in our budgets as well and so those are all you know different knobs that we can turn in some respects and sometimes you know something like contracts we have negotiate so we have to come to terms with with a group of employees about what what that is but it is one area that we have some leverage i guess um you know the the insurance we do because you know only because uh we keep you know either adjusting what you know program we have who are who we buy insurance from uh what the plan looks like or doesn't look like you know those kinds of things you know there's a lot of it's out of our control but there are some things we can still adjust in that regard um another thing i thought would be interesting to know is number of students enrolled over this period of time you know where were we in 2014 in terms i mean we've heard about decreasing enrollment so i think that would be something that would apply in this conversation as well yeah yeah i think that you know what's interesting is a fair amount of this information is is and has traditionally been in our budget books it wasn't last year sorry i will continue to apologize for that i fully meant to but but i think the the difficulty is is that you get that budget book and it's 200 pages and yeah people just go and gloss over immediately i mean i know i do and you know i work with it all the time so i think to have uh a briefer and more concise you know tool or or pamphlet as it were to explain some of those things you know is is a good starting point for everybody um because i think it you know it gets everybody on the same page as far as understanding that you know what the terms are the definitions the history in in a nutshell um i mean i think and i said this at the meeting the other day talking about student you know enrollment is that while the enrollment may decline very smoothly over time um you know the changes you can make in say staffing and programs tend to come in stair steps um it's it's easier to sort of explain that case with an elementary school because you either you know if you think about fort river for example it's like you either have four or three sixth grade classes right and when you get to middle school high school where there's you know a different you know format it's a little harder to sort of explain that same kind of thing happening but what happens in that circumstance is you offer fewer sections of a particular elective and so some kids can't get in because their schedule doesn't work and so they end up in a study hall instead of in a academic class they'd really like to take um and that's that's a much more subtle conversation but it's still real as far as you know what kids can and can't i mean there's the broad offerings like well how many foreign languages do we teach but then more subtly is like in departments we're not ever going to get rid of we're always going to have a social studies department you know are we offering three or two or four elective classes to our juniors and seniors to choose from which they need to graduate same with english same with science same with math same with and then you know as you get outside those critically core ones that are required for graduation requirements when you get into your arts your performing arts your science uh you know your technology those kind of things then then um you know you have more latitude about how much of it you offer if you offered it all but but again you know if you don't offer any of it then people start making other choices about where to go to high school yeah miss pitcher kerry so i feel like because i'm looking right now at the fiscal year 20 budget document i it's an amazing amount of information i you know and it must take a ton of time to put it together so i i i'm very loathe to like ask for um anything else but i'm wondering and i'd even be happy to work with somebody on this potentially but i think it you know something called like program budgeting where you don't just because because what you see when you look at this is you're looking at the english department you see like this much for teacher salaries but you don't see the account of teachers you don't see the count of class offerings and the thing that gets tricky is when you're trying to show tell a story those are the details we need so i'm not faulting the document i think it's it's a good document and if anything you guys it's got a lot of detail and if somebody wanted to take the time they could do it but i think what we need to do is a little hand holding and walk the public you know through what these reductions are going to mean and i think the only way to do that is to like put meat on the bones and that's going to be the things like well if we were to you know make this you know several hundred thousand dollar cut to this department you know it's going to entail cutting this many you know potentially getting this many full-time equivalents and it may mean a reduction in our course offerings from this to this in particular these are the courses that might you know you know that are optional and we could leave off the table i i i'm i don't know i guess i'm looking at you for if if that's something we could do or if it's just too much and you guys are totally over taxed right now so i'm not i'm i'm trying to think of a way we could collaborate to do this so that you're not the one who's having to to take the time on this because it's a lot but i do have some experience with program budgeting from prior work experience and i i think it's it's it's the way that we communicate with the public the best because i don't think anybody's going to make their way through this 200 page document yeah and i i would suggest you know it's it's it's a circumstance where um what i might suggest in that regard uh would be to um sort of generically speak to the to a department uh and maybe set it up that way and sort of say you know here's you know you have department x could be english science math social it doesn't matter department um you know here's what it takes to offer you know this many courses you know certain or required you know and and kind of play out it play it out that way a little bit um so it's it's less specific to any particular department um and of course you know you'd have a little bit different model at the at the middle school because they use the team model so the structure and so some of it's built on well how is our how are our classes offered like well how many sections you know i mean how many you know periods do we have what's our rotation of classes that sort of thing so that's so it's partly about scheduling and partly about um what staffing it takes to do x number of sec sections and that sort of stuff and so i can reach out some of that material is stuff that um the principals in in high school middle school definitely have uh you know so readily to mind because as they think about um how they staff and how they change uh you know they have that kind of in their thoughts so i think we might be able to do a um a a sort of generic department and sort of you know what that impact looks like because then then you can talk about you know average teacher salary and sort of you know so like when mike said oh it's 26 teachers that's because it's an average salary he's using to to project that um you know and so we could do something similar i think to to to um to have that conversation about sort of you know how it starts to impact um it doesn't impact it's not the full story because it doesn't talk about sort of the inner relationship between the departments which is a little more subtle kind of scheduling problem but but i think it might be a way to do it that's not completely you know um like a zero-based budgeting from the ground up kind of thing that would be a whole whole other project but but i think that might be a manageable approach and i think a useful thing that um you know we could we could kind of build and and and work uh and i'm gonna need to have some of those kinds of conversations with principals here in the next few weeks as we start to meet and talk about budget so um you know i think i can keep that kind of frame in mind as as i have those conversations to think about about that because i think that's um as you you know sort of suggesting i think it's it's uh you know powerful and concrete way to describe it through to people um without getting into the you know subtlety of you know the 15 budget lines that you know talk about pd and supplies and you know all those kinds of nuanced things that we like to track and need to track for some state reporting purposes but but kind of you know create a bit of a blur when people start to look at them if if they're not needing to know the specific lines um so i'm just to recap if i can you know where we're at right now on this i'm thinking about so so on the ads and cuts i think sort of renorming those to a stricter set of definitions um looking at on on fte changes uh particularly identify those that were sort of permanent changes um well and and generally across the boards or permanent versus temporary types of changes but also things that were accomplished through attrition versus through actual uh loss of employment um and then you know sort of framing certain aspects of the budget that we know are um less mobile than others or less under our control versus those that we do have control um some sense of of of uh inflation over the period that's a fairly simple thing um you know our student enrollments over over the last several years that's easy stuff to pull together um and then and then make one more note here about um uh just sort of that the the notion of a program you know whether it be a department or or a team and sort of um you know sort of what and how it shaped and um um what's involved when you you know sort of as you make cuts to things you know sort of what kind of decision points are there um with offerings and you know ftes and that sort of thing in short i think i'm not going to add work but i i think the the inflation factor and this is something i brought up at the last meeting could also be coveted factor so like what new costs do we have related to cova that aren't going to be covered by any karex act dollars in the next year so what are we now gonna i mean i know it's a big unknown but i think there is gonna be some fixed cost going forward that's not gonna go away um and then the other thought i had was just to put it out there and that is that if if the frame of like doing a program budget doesn't work then we could also maybe think about like what would these cost reductions mean to the typical kid you know so like oh johnny in ninth grade is you know now i'm gonna get to choose from only two languages instead of or you know i i'm just thinking again i don't go into the specific i think we need to either frame it around a program or bring them around a person and just give it a face not not necessarily a face of a person but it could be a program which is something for people to latch on to so i just wanted to put that out there if that's an easier way of thinking about how to frame the conversation yeah i mean i i'm certainly open to that i you know i'll mention this to mike and see um what he thinks uh he may have some some really good sort of insights into or you know you know stories from colleagues about work what worked well or didn't work well in their conversations in their communities um you know what what told a good story what was not too burdensome for them to you know put together or that sort of thing um you know the um but i do think you know it it it like i said the other day that you know as much as folks may have uh that are on the council in particular but this is true in any of the communities you know um you know the your experience in those things is is very different you know well there's how much experience you have and then there's also what that experience has been so you know the last couple years for the for the council and amherst in particular has not been particularly difficult as far as budgeting is concerned um you know the the state was doing pretty well the economy is doing pretty well and so you know the the choices you're still making difficult choices because you're always wanting to do more things than you have resources for um but it's different than i think we're gonna face this year and and so um i think it's critical that we have good ways to to sort of a make the case for the district but also just explain you know what their choices are and and the impacts of those choices okay so doug this sounds like a lot of work for you is there anything that i can help with or others of us can help with at this point i mean right now it's like information gathering i guess yeah and you know i mean some of this is stuff i need to do anyway um because it's kind of part of putting the larger book together and and and it'll be part of the um you know it's the natural part of the process um okay and so i think that you know that's the case you know if if um after i get the really bare bones stuff together i'll probably share it out with you guys and and then that may be where where you'll have uh you know much more desire willingness capacity to sort of you know uh you know put more narrative to it or think about how that narrative is going to play out and and uh and what else we might need to augment sort of telling the story um but to start with here i'm certainly happy to do this and it's all part of what i've got to do to for both internally and you know and externally so it's it's not it's part of the job okay all right um pilot you have any questions or thoughts in particular you'd like to put forward no i think they've been covered okay my ring curve is being exposed but i'm also um writing a lot down and just there's so many unknowns because we don't know what our enrollment's going to look like what our requirements in terms of ppe how many people on the bus so right i don't admire your job dr slaughter but it was it was a heck of a time to sort of take on this this job like that's not so bad that covet hits it's a whole new ballgame in some respects um so you know every day i'm more appreciative of the kinds of stuff and the amount of stuff that sean you know did for us um and uh you know there's a lot uh a lot going on that he took care of um you know and i'm not sure always everybody knew exactly how much that was but i'm coming to appreciate more i guess i i do have one question um that came up at the sctf meeting in terms of it okay so we as a school committee or the budget subcommittee is it ours to go to the town and say we actually need more than level i think that's what i heard peter saying i'm a little slow i need to hear it a lot or mr demilly but that might be when we look at it that's something we can do and say we can't make we'll obviously have to make it but it's that one of those things where we sort of reach out to the town council people right i think how we how we do that is going to be you know interesting i mean you know as we spoke at the at the school committee the other night i mean i think the in general the relationship between the school committee and the various towns has been pretty decent over the years um you know the towns have had their their conflicts about how they think we should fund things um i mean that's another piece to this is so there's how do we you know assess this cost you know sort of what burden does each town bear and then how much should we be actually spending and both of those are uh simultaneously kind of in in the mix um and so we have to you know navigate that a little bit but i do think that um when it gets down to brass tax it you know we need uh we need all four towns to agree to an assessment method in other words how we're going to divvy up the cost and then three of the four to say yes i'm going to pay that because if three of the four do it then the fourth one has to all right that's my thing we do before our next four towns meeting anyway no no so that's gonna we got time on that um so we got yeah we got lots of time on that because i think you know the the this kind of leads naturally into kind of next topic which is sort of what is our timeline i mean traditionally you know school committee votes the budget in march we're probably going to still need to meet that that deadline um because uh you know the the town meetings have you know happen in late april and early may and there's deadlines for getting the warrants put together and all that so i think we'll still have the same you know trajectory of a of march for us approving a a budget to recommend to folks obviously between now and then we're going to have lots of conversations about you know what's the what's the cost what are the the pros and cons what do we think we should be doing and what we you know can or will do um and you know the towns have their responsibility they say no you know we offer up a budget and say this is what we think should happen and they go no that's not what's going to happen because we can't afford it then we have to go back and sort of go okay well then we're going to work with something else and you know we all want to go nice and smooth it may not it's okay we it's okay to you know i mean it's trickier because it gets you get started getting a time crunch on some stuff but but the state has mechanisms you know if we don't get a budget approved and you know we we hope not to be there but at the same time it is maybe complex enough that that's where we end up so that's also you know i think uh to the superintendent's point you know you guys are um a committee that that you know you set the budget and and you know you're going to make the decisions you think are best for the for the kids that are coming obviously not being completely blind to what the you know economic realities are of the communities but at the same time um you know you get to make that choice and then make the you know make the people who appropriate the money make their choice and then deal with the result yeah yeah it's not right so we don't have to start out saying okay we're going to cut all that money we can say this we think is a reasonable way to go this year and then they can tell us if they'll do it or not right and i think that you know i'm i'm you know the the numbers that we put out you know that i put out in the last couple weeks very rough so there'll be things that change i mean we're hopeful that like our health insurance uh won't go up five percent i mean we picked five percent we've had better luck in the last couple years if that goes down you know like a percentage points i forget the number of it's a hundred or two hundred thousand dollars you know i mean that's how big a number it is you know so so those kind of things can make huge you know positive or negative impacts hopefully positive which is why we take a conservative approach to start um so i think you know that's one area that could be um a positive for us i'm hoping is a positive for us um but there are others that we just we don't know and and you know we've made some what we hope are decent guesses to start with but you know things are going to change a lot in the next six weeks um because the you know the governor will come out with his budget and you know um i will say i was i caught the last like four or five minutes of the you know at the at the state house the uh you know chairs of the two um ways and means had a had a revenue projection meeting they do they do it this time every year they get a lot of different economic advisors to sort of offer their suggestion as to what the tax revenues are looking like surprisingly good yeah i read that somewhere that you know that's reassuring that you know that funding will at least be kind of level which is a you know whole lot better than than it could be um so you know if our funding from the state stays kind of level that you know makes it a lot easier for the towns as well as the schools to to to plan that doesn't mean we still don't have money to make up in other places but but it does help so doug when would you so i mean you probably at this point would be making a guess but perhaps an educated guess on when when would it thinking about the timeline you're saying we would probably still have to approve a budget in march unless you know unless the towns are going to move their town meeting like they did last year which would change you know sort of debates um i know in in you know in amherst they have a much later um approval process i think they're in may and june whereas whereas with the town meetings uh they're the last weekend or the of april and the first weekend of may and so and they need a 30-year 45-day lead time for the warrants and all that so so at what point would you expect to say okay this is what i where i think we're going to be on these things that right now we don't have any idea i mean what's your hope or best guess on when you might be there well um so health insurance you know we'll find out in january they usually um you know the maya miia which is our you know our agent for health insurance uh and they're part of mma which is the mass municipal association they have the mass municipal has a meeting in like the third week of january and it's usually during that weekend of that meeting that maya makes their projections so that's one number that's a pretty big number that will help uh us get clarity about that same time is when the governor kind of releases his budget so they've got an estimate of what chapter 70 is going to look like at that point so okay you're kind of kind of uh you know in that point in january we'll know uh a little bit more um about both of those that have a pretty significant impact on on the overall budget um they're not solid you know i mean well the health insurance one will be a you know kind of a firm number at that point but the um but the chapter 70 still has to go through its usual process um and and so you know i think that what's probably um likely to happen uh is and i haven't had a conversation with superintendent about this but i'm guessing that it may make more sense for the four towns to get together pretty late in january because i think we'll have another good set of numbers at that point but that would also be a good time to have kind of a document together that's got this sort of you know history and fundamentals of the budget put together okay um that's kind of what i was thinking of is that you know we can kind of gather this stuff and and kind of polish a little bit and because it's you know it's about it's about things that are known our history uh and or things that can be described somewhat generically and again are are fairly fixed and so we can kind of i think put that together and and have that you know uh available um you know in anticipation of that meeting maybe have that and send it out to people in advance and then um but i think that and and the superintendent may differ on this opinion i'm just thinking about the sort of um droop a quick glance um if we you know if we had a you know i hate to say the 30th of january because that's the sort of last saturday but that might be that that might be a target for towns meeting that might have some real significant uh you know at least reasonable numbers to put in place we should have health insurance at that point we should have uh some greater clarity from the governor as far as his budget is concerned which will help really kind of start the frame there okay also have a sense on how much people are gonna debate that so you know our representatives in the house and senate would would have some sense about how much the governor's budget uh has people fired up to make a change to it okay so i mean that's kind of you know and then from from that sort of late january i i just think i mean it would in some ways it'd be nice to meet a little before that i just don't know that we'll have enough new information okay i may talk to the superintendent he and i and and uh during cunningham are going to have a meeting tomorrow and talk about sort of budget we're going to have it earlier in the week we pushed it back to today so we're going to lay out sort of a timeline for ourselves as well so um you may have a very different take on that i'll let you know if he does um but i think that for me i'm what i'm thinking is this this sort of background information that that uh i think is useful it's always useful but but uh you know to kind of get that put together over the next month basically and then try to get out the folks so they can be prepared to have the conversation when we have a little better numbers to contour the end of january would be okay where i think we could be and then from that late january to march um is when you know uh we get a lot deeper into questions about what's our assessment method and what's what's our uh choices we're making relative to what programs we're offering and how much and what kind i mean those are that's when that real debate is happening and and the deep thinking about the specifics starts to happen in that really month half two-month span between the late january and mid-march so you're anticipating that that if we had a another four-town meeting at the end of january that would be the point at which there would actually be a vote on the assessment method you know i i think that would be lovely whether i think that would really happen i don't know okay um but i think that what we could do is is potentially get a you know a deeper commitment from folks about their comfort level okay um you know which is often what happens you know a lot of times will happen in in the in the december meeting because you know they're a lot more flu less uh variability as much as you don't really know what chapter 7 is going to look like you don't really know what state aid is going to look like you have a sense of it at that point a little bit you know from um not this year so but not this year so that you know and so and you know oftentimes we kind of take everybody's temperature in december about what you know assessment methods they thought they could could you know could uh could afford and sort of the level of funding they thought they could afford i i think palum was was probably clearest in that regard um at our last meeting um but i think that kind of conversation is more of what we'll have in late january and then i think we might have another one in in february where we really kind of do what we usually do with the second one where we really get a firmer commitment from everybody to to sort of back a particular idea that's how i see it playing out whether okay so i'm thinking for us then we we will wait for information from you and once we have that then i think we need to consider what we want to do with that information how we want to present it and um we want to have that ready probably a week before that four-town meeting yeah so go out to people and they would actually have time to go over it right and that means we would probably need to get together earlier in january rather than later so um yeah what i would what i would suggest is sort of this this sort of fact gathering stuff and putting some things together for you guys it won't be in a pot as polished estate is it will ultimately be in but getting that together basically kind of by the end of this month um and then we could make maybe that that first couple days of january then we can kind of divvy up the tasks at that point uh as far as what is the sort of product going to look like and again i think about this is about telling that story what's the background what's the frame what's the you know uh you know as we discussed the particulars a little later in the month where the wiggle you know the places of of flexibility or inflexibility uh so everybody's operating from a similar understanding in a similar history um that's kind of what i'm thinking is going to be reasonable all right yeah it would be nice if we could kind of uh yeah if not a few days a week if not if you if and if not a week at least three or four days before that gets stuff out to people so they have a chance to kind of spend some time with it would be would be beneficial i think so that okay because you know when we talk about these assessment methods if you haven't like really dug into the nitty-gritty of them over the years they are super complex i mean just the chapter 70 formula the statutory method just on its own uh you know what's involved in what's called a minimum contribution those are really complex um uh formula with a lot of deep thinking about it but a lot of debate about what is or is an appropriate way to fund schools and you know and we can get into that and and it's not that we don't want to get into those weeds but but we do want to be we don't get we don't want to get bogged down in that either right that can get to a place where it's like not constructive to to really going well what can we afford what do we want to afford and what do we think is the right trajectory for us as a district okay all right so then what i should do with you is uh boy the time is going by um is some time before the first of the year uh set a meeting date um okay yeah i mean i'm you know like everybody i'm not going anywhere so you know regardless which holidays one might celebrate there's not a lot of places to go so i'm kind of around um but what i will do is as far as putting this stuff together i'll try to get that out to everybody as soon as i can so you can start to look at it and think about it and then when we can have those conversations you post questions and and you know see if there's something missing in the in that so that when we actually meet again like this we'll be ready to to um you know uh think about how we sort of shape this into something for the broader public to look at um so um yeah i would suggest connect with me the last week of december um okay and we'll set an actual date and talk about agenda specific stuff but but i will try to get materials to you in and around that same time frame um so you guys can look that stuff over and kind of think about it and you know think about different ways to sort of present it and explain it and have you know have people interpret it okay all right uh any other comments or questions before we adjourn all right well thank you everybody and i will take a motion to adjourn all right we'll take a roll call vote holla um lord i carey and margaret hi um the meetings adjourned and thank you all thank you thank you all thank you you

meeting uh mr jeske can i ask a call roll call please sure mr grippo here miss hallan here miss ham uh miss harrigan here mr martelly here mr paragini here mr white uh he's there okay uh mr chairman you have a quorum thank you uh carol i asked the board uh and members uh join us in the pledge of allegiance since uh flag is up on the screen great i pledge allegiance is well welcome everyone uh on what is a cold wintry day uh hopefully everyone's feared the weather fairly well today and uh that you've dug yourselves out of this beautiful elegant snow pile that we have throughout town uh we have a great uh actually uh a great agenda tonight lots to cover lots of positive news um that being said before i move on uh i'm gonna ask if there's a motion from the board to amend tonight's agenda yeah i would um like to make a motion to move item 8b up to further up in the agenda to just after item two which is the audience very second second uh catherine b so the motion is that uh the board of ed move item eight b from the agenda up to after item two audience any question all those in favor thank you it is unanimous um for everyone watching and uh just so everyone knows uh we have a motion tonight to fill a very important role in the school district and we don't want to scare our candidate off by waiting for three or four hours to end the meeting to make that so out of respect for one's time just trying to move up a little further uh that being said uh uh dr sone do we have any orange correspondence at this point i'm sorry yeah of course audience correspondence separate um yeah we're i think a little ahead of the uh student report oh how did i miss that i'm sorry i'm looking at something different i apologize to our student representatives uh can we have the student representatives report by josh and lucy yep so um i can start uh in terms of athletics each school in our league receives two athlete award winners during each sports season these awards are based on leadership academics and athletic performances this fall our sbc scotland winners were simone rosenberg from girls soccer and nicki dimizio football in addition several athletes were named to the connecticut high school coaches association allstate's team from the following teams girls soccer boys soccer volleyball girl swim and dive boys cross country and field hockey in some more exciting news sophomore soccer player gabby turado was named to the all new england girls soccer team and some not so exciting news the winter sports start date was moved to january 19th to avoid any possible covid holiday issues and students are in the process of registering for those winter sports right now the next thing on our report is high school is in the process of running a food drive sponsored by the national honor society and the peer health education classes the idea was to run a coped-friendly food drive where students volunteer to be street captains so they go around door to door to their neighbors to accept donations and the neighbors that choose to participate simply have to leave a bag filled with non-perishable food items on their front steps and then the students will come around and collect them the drive ends this saturday december 19th and the items will be dropped off in front of the high school from 8 a.m to 12 p.m so anyone else in the community who have a street captain on their street can bring uh any donations to the front of the school at that time and then all of the items will then be delivered to the cheshire food pantry awesome um some other things so psats were administered to all freshmen students on december 9th also the chs vips or the advanced chorus will do virtual holiday caroling by entering each teacher's google me class tomorrow um so that should be fun the student senate is also sponsoring a theme week next week encouraging chs students and staff to support holiday colors sweaters hatch socks this event has become an annual tradition for the chs community and we're looking forward to continuing it um also the curriculum and activities night for upcoming freshmen is held towards the end of january every year the administration and an instructional leadership team is currently discussing options to deliver this event in a virtual format so look for the information to be really shortly after winter break and then lastly uh chs best buddies is sponsoring another holiday drive through this time so we're partnering with a bunch of other chs clubs and sports teams to be at different stations and hand out different holiday themed items like candy canes crafts hot chocolate and there'll also be an optional picture with santa so this is all going to be covered friendly so six feet mass and gloves for all those who are passing out candy or items to participants the event's gonna be saturday december 19th from one to three and we're accepting donations of non-perishable food items and also used books for the local rereads bookstore and we're really looking forward to it and hoping for a good turnout and that's all in our report thank you josh and lucie are any questions from the board members ann uh josh you mentioned the books for the reread bookstore uh are those necessarily uh children's young adult books or can they be are they all books they're accepting basically any book any type of book okay thanks yep any other board members excellent could i just add that you know i know i was so excited for lucy yesterday when uh she found out she got into davidson and uh it's very exciting for her congratulations lucy we're very happy for you thank you josh we're not going to put you out i know it's very early in the application process so uh you know when you're ready to share with us we want to celebrate you too so anyway but congratulations lucy thank you congratulations again and thank you both josh and lucy for your time this evening and uh i know uh there's not another board meeting until january so you're off the hook next week and and i hope you both enjoy some time off and time with families and you know be safe and we'll uh start off a new fresh new year fresh in january 2021 and and hopefully it's gonna be much much much better than 2020 so thank you again yeah you don't have to stick around for the meeting but if you do um i i wouldn't put you through that but you're welcome to stay so take care thank you see you good night uh moving on uh to number two this time audience uh doctor stalin is sure for any correspondence or if we do if that's something you want to address later on in your report yeah we have one and it's pretty quick um it's from kristin mellett she just wanted to say that i just want to let you know how grateful my family is that cheshire has made keeping kids in school a personal up in person safely a priority when i look around the country and even our state i feel so fortunate to live where we do everyone involved is to be commended from the administrators to the teachers and staff to the students and i don't know if chespercat gets enough credit for the amazing work they've done during the pandemic including what they've done with regard to schools we are incredibly lucky to have such a proactive and responsive local health department as the mother of a senior i'm glad my son has had some degree of normalcy for his last year of high school and just as a human being it has filled it has lifted my heart almost every day to see kids at bus stops kids playing joyfully at recess kids in band rehearsals and sport practices these signs of normalcy in this difficult time have been so good for my mental health i can only imagine that what they have done for the children themselves i know there is still work to be done to get to the other side of the pandemic and continued uncertainty for the coming months but we should be very proud here in cheshire of how we have handled it to this point thank you kristin mellitt so i just wanted to share that great thank you jeff we're going to move on to item 8b uh before we actually make a motion uh jeff do you want to give us an overview of this special appointment i do thank you very much chairman peregini this is a position that was vacated recently when we appointed robin ann carey to pps director from the elementary special education supervisor position so since that time we've engaged in a comprehensive search to replace that really important position in our leadership team so this evening i'm proud to introduce and nominate christina sherwood christina's 11 years in special education encompasses several key experiences leading to her desire to pursue a leadership role she began her career in education as an instructional assistant supporting special education students in various settings including self-contained classrooms christina quickly made the transition to teaching by working with students with disabilities in ansonia her skills were soon recognized by her administrators and she was encouraged to take on greater leadership roles those roles included advocating for a life skills program for students with intellectual disabilities chairing ppt's supervising instructional assistants and training certified staff in the learning disabilities guidelines cheshire was very fortunate when christina decided to join the staff at highland school in 2015 she has worked to support some of our most complex students meeting both academic and behavioral needs and has worked closely with support service providers in the process christina continued to demonstrate her leadership skills through various avenues such as collaboration time with colleagues and administrators participation in ppt's and our work with parents she showcased the highland intensive education program with her colleagues for the board of education just last year christina has also supported parents through workshops presented by the intensive education team christina completed a leadership internship at highland where she worked closely with scott jeffrey and erica bordenero in all aspects of administration after a rigorous and thorough interview process it was clear that chris christina possessed the knowledge skills and drive to round out our special education department leadership team her knowledge of special education instruction and strategies collaborative skills reflective thinking her interpretation of data and attention to detail is just a piece of what makes christina right for this position so with that i chairman i i nominate christina sherwood for the position of elementary special education supervisor for the cheshire public schools uh thank you dr song would a board member like to make a motion i'm sorry i'm on a different screen i apologize i have like four monitors here and i'm trying to coordinate all the documents and notes and so forth uh give me a second you think being a chief technology officer adam wants to make it thank you adam please do thank you mr chairman um i'm assuming uh the date in this motion is 2021-2020 yes reference okay thank you um move that the cheshire board of education appoint christina sherwood to the position of special education supervisor effective february 17 2021 further that ms sherwood is compensated in accordance with the collect collective bargaining agreement between the cheshire board of education and the cheshire administrative personnel catherine seconds and the motion is moved that the cheshire boy education appoint christina sherwood to the position of special education supervisor k through 6 effective february 17 2021 further that miss sure would be compensated in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement between the cheshire board educate chain and cheshire uh administrative personnel i uh i was gonna call for a go vote but i apologize um uh let's have a discussion on the motions i know board members would like to make some comments would anybody like to make a comment on the motion tim yeah i know i've asked this before but particularly for the public who's out there uh jeff this motion is it largely ceremonial you have the authority to hire and fire people yeah the board of education hires one employee and i'm responsible for hiring everybody else i'm the one employee you hire but board policy calls for uh the board appointment of administrators so um i think it's just really to keep the the public informed about who it is that we're hiring correct thank you any comments on the actual motion uh and please i just want to say congratulations christina and welcome aboard and i know you've been in cheshire public schools and um i i'm thrilled that we are we have promoted you up into to this uh position and um as people mentioned to you beforehand we're we're so pleased i think i speak for most people on the board if not all people on the board we're so pleased um with the way that our special education programs are working here in cheshire and um thrilled that this uh you know the turnover with personnel is going to be so seamless by getting somebody of your stature and experience and also your um experience already with cheshire public schools so congratulations and welcome aboard thank you thank you ann uh and any other board members wish to comment a faith come on um i just let the um those watching we had a half hour meet and greet with christina just before this meeting and um she is a most impressive candidate she um has just a true appreciation for the program um but when i asked her you know what was the integral part of the program she without hesitation she said it's the staff and um you know that's that's an important thing to for those of us on the board to to know um and to continue to support and find ways to um you know to continue to um ensure that we get the best of the best for for our kids here so i wholeheartedly recommend uh and support our approval of christina thank you faith anyone else i know we uh comment a little bit during a meet and greet earlier uh if there is no one else i just like to add i i'm i'm thankful christine that you know you chose to step up into the role and chose to stay in cheshire public schools i i mentioned had mentioned earlier that uh you know our special education the intensive program is um is very popular um in the state and i i know families personally that have moved to cheshire's uh because they see the quality of the staff in particular uh over the years and you know their their kids benefited uh greatly through the program and they they have roots in cheshire now so um i'm even more excited that we're able as a school district to um have people get the professional development the experience of training that to grow into these roles so um i think others mentioned it earlier if it wasn't ann you know that the seamless trend i think andrew the seamless transition uh and this very important program is huge and i speak for all the board of ed and the community that we're excited that you're taking on this role and well we welcome you um so thank you thank you i'm very excited excellent uh seeing there's no more comments uh i'll read the motion one last time uh move that the cheshire board education appoint christina sherwood to the position of special education supervisor k through six effective february 17th 2021 further that miss sure would be compensated in accordance with the collective bargaining agreement between the cheshire board of education and the cheshire administrative personnel all those in favor please indicate right here's your hand it is unanimous christine welcome well uh well since you're already here thank you for uh moving up into a role congratulations christina thank you everyone very much welcome uh you're certainly um would you like to make a few comments you don't have to we're gonna put you in the spot anyway um i will just say that i've thoroughly enjoyed the last five years here in cheshire public schools um i've had fantastic administrators that i work for who have really shown me the type of administrator that i want to be for all of you and i look forward to showing all of you that so thank you for the opportunity excellent thank you so much christine uh you're certainly welcome to stay but you don't have to um you know we're being constant of your time and everyone's had a very long year if not this week so thank you again uh we're gonna move on to the next uh item on the agenda uh which is reports of standing committees beginning with curriculum faith would you like to give that update i would thank you um we met on december 15th and probably what was one of the fastest committee meetings ever but anyway we um among we reviewed the items from the previous meeting on october 19th um among new business items um there was a recommendation to for a textbook or a new textbook recommendation college accounting a practical approach the committee approved to move the textbook to recommendation to the full board it will be on display or on review um in the administrative office um and then for any for the public to review and then we will vote on it i believe in the next meeting um so um we then had a several informational items starting with an update on the cheshire high school hybrid learning model dr mary gadd who's the principal of chs gave us the update and she shared a lot of information starting with an overview of the five parent forums that she had had in late october in november and the topics included the structure of the collegiate hybrid model student support at cheshire school student expectations and attendance social emotional learning and student activities and the meeting attendance ranged from nine to 25 parents she dr gad also shared three examples of course communication expectations that were sent out at the beginning of the year as well as email and video updates that were sent by all teachers to parents on the first week of november and um they were incredibly well done and um professional so um anyway i commend all of the faculty for that and then regarding professional development in november cheshire high school teachers work collect uh collaboratively to improve the synchronous learning um instruction model and this included a variety of technological technolo yes this is hard technology tools to support instruction assessment and feedback um after dr gad we heard from kevin hanlon who is the k-8 curriculum coordinator and he gave us a quick overview of um professional development in elementary and middle school um the uh focus this year is on the strategy of acceleration in the use of technology tools to support learning november 3rd provided a full day professional development opportunity for teachers where elementary teachers worked on priority standards for the second trimester in reading writing and math and the middle school teachers focused on developing engaging and meaningful academic tasks that support both in-person and remote learners for their given subject areas areas and then finally um mr hamlin talked about the annual eel parent information and um it's interesting i mean it was all conducted via google meet which is um really a feat and congratulations to everybody who was who were able to organize this it was mr hanlon and a number of faculty within the elementary and middle school levels respectively who talked with parents about the el options or program at the schools and in addition to the regular topics the support process for el students this year's presentation also included ways that the district is supporting the remote el students um thus ended the meeting and we adjourned so um our last item of business is to approve three textbooks um business which have been on display or on review um in the office they are business 11 introduction to business advanced personnel personal finance and um d uh computer essentials and ms word and um i would like to move that the cheshire board of education approved the purchase of the following textbooks personal finance turning money into wealth business 11 introduction to business and paradigm benchmark series microsoft word 2013 or 2016 levels one in two is there any just gosh this very second catherine seconds said thank you discussion thank you hearing none senior during those discussions on the topic no it's faith it's fine hey so one thing i get to do i'm going to do it so the cheshire board the motion is that the cheshire board of education approved the purchase of the following textbooks personal finance uh turning money into wealth uh business 11 introduction to business and paradigm benchmark series microsoft word 2013 or 2016 levels one and two uh all those in favor please raise your hands it is unanimous faith your emotion has passed okay um are there any other questions regarding the curriculum committee mr grippo uh thank you uh just my question was um i did have an opportunity to watch the uh surprisingly short uh curriculum meeting uh i think it was like 33 minutes or something like that um and so i just wanted to make sure that that my impression was correct that it seems like the um the synchronous learning uh is uh running positively uh and that the the feedback from the parent groups uh uh seemed to be that uh everything is is uh improving is that was that per impression be correct if i could comment um i i think you're absolutely correct um from what i've heard from parents um there has been a vast improvement in terms of communication between teachers and families um the engagement is stronger and um i think a lot of um the questions and confusion um have been significant have been addressed i don't know if dr sullin or um miss solano want to add to it but no i i think that's accurate you know we we got some feedback through the survey um dr gad got feedback through the parent meetings that that faith mentioned um we have made you know certain adjustments that have seemingly been beneficial but you know this is going to be an ever evolving process uh after the holidays you know hopefully we're we're trying to support more in-person learning um and you know like again this is just going to continue to evolve and we're going to have to continue to make adjustments and that cycle of feedback is really helpful so if parents or students have concerns reach out to the teachers reach out to dr gad that communication is really helpful and we can make adjustments to support you great thank you any other questions faith thank you so much thank you you're welcome up next is finance uh fans committee uh mr grippo thank you mr chairman um uh per usual i will uh hand the reins over to mr maciana for the financial report okay thank you mr grippo good evening ladies and gentlemen the board members do have the finance report as of november 30th in their package i i'll just highlight a couple of of the key points from the report for this month not a lot of not much has changed in terms of the forecast for year-end you know this year's budget is 74.59 million dollars you know through november 30th we've incumbent or expended about 80.9 percent and most of that is encumbered for payroll and transportation so you know one of the the key concerns this year has been costs related to covet which you know we've outlined in the last couple of board of education meetings um the the forecast that we had was by year-end you know including the funds we would get from the state for the coronavirus relief act which is seven hundred six thousand seventy-five dollars plus the two hundred thousand dollars we carried over from last year's budget plus the 85 000 that we have from cares act funding you know we believe that will be sufficient um you know with a 300 3 000 deficit projected which we'll be able to cover by reducing our expenditures in other categories um the other areas that are typically concerns you know special ed costs maintenance costs those are running you know in line with budget so you know again not a lot has changed from last month i think our forecast is still holding pretty well obviously our students are still in school we did well after thanksgiving so if we continue on you know with the school year staying open you know we'll we'll be able to cover the deficit a couple of specific things that i did want to mention um because you know we are trying to mitigate any costs related to cobit what we did since the last meeting is we're required to have isolation room monitors for students who are symptomatic during the school day until their parents pick them up and what we found is those isolation room monitors we're really not that active we do not have a lot of students reporting sick during the day parents you know have been very very good about keeping their students home so we reduced from having one in each building full time to having four isolation room monitors shared across the district and you know we're in the second week of doing that it's working out just fine and we can always add isolation isolation room monitors back if we needed to but you know that strategy will will save us about thirty thousand dollars through year end so again that you know helps us mitigate the the cost related to cobit the uh second update that i wanted to give you is that the state and i did let the board members know the state did officially approve the 706 075 dollars in the coronavirus relief funds based on you know the submission that we gave to the state uh you know that specified the categories and the expenditures and we're getting ready to submit um our reimbursement requests so i i don't anticipate you know any any issues with that you know we we will be expanding the 706 000 that uh we need to by december 31st in order to get that reimbursement so you know hopefully by the next meeting we'll we'll know that that submission is in place and you know if we didn't get the funds we'll be expecting the funds so i know there was some concern about that but looks like the state has done everything they could and everything they could they've been pretty flexible about allowing us to move some of the funding between the categories from where we originally started i did put beyond that in this month's finance report you know a little cautionary note about um our medical benefits which are running you know our claims are running very high this year and i do have we just included uh for the board today the medical benefits report as of november 30th and if you didn't have a chance to to see it i i'm going to present it on the screen thanks for if you could put it up there thank you yeah thanks tony um so um if somebody could just acknowledge you could see the report on the screen yes okay thank you so again this is the report that we just updated as of november 30th and you could see here that claims for november you know surpassed the one million dollar mark again unfortunately um and our reserve fund balance dropped 441 000 further so we started the year with a reserve fund balance of 2.8 million dollars and you know as of november 30th we're down to 1.2 million dollars so we've we've run through about 1.6 million dollars of the reserve fund over the first five months of the the claim year which is unfortunate um somewhat surprising as i reported last month this is this is a series of high cost claims that are coming through and not related to colbert our total covert expenses are about sixty thousand dollars year to date most of that is testing so there's not been any exorbitant uh claims related to to covet virus the only offset that out that i can share is that we have not received any stop-loss reimbursements yet which will increase our reserve fund balance um and i would expect you know based on a preliminary report i saw that we'll be receiving at least a hundred fifty thousand dollars in stock in the stop-loss reimbursements you know which will help again next uh the month that we're in now december when those december claims are filed and reported you know it will be the last month of the claim year for the hsa and then because everyone's deductible starts at zero effective in january i do expect and i certainly hope that our claims start to um drop um but we'll see so you know the cautionary note that i had put in the finance report was to indicate that for next year's budget which you know we're we're actively working on right now we will need to increase our medical benefits contributions substantially just to be able to make contributions that equal our claims before i close this report i just wanted to you know show you on a year-to-date basis um you could see the claims that we had two years ago um monthly were running eight hundred fourteen thousand last year year to date they were eight hundred one 000 and this year to date we're at a million 96 000 per month so it's a it's a very substantial and and unusual spike in claims again primarily driven by large claims we are working with the um our benefits consultant i'm going to stop sharing my screen we are working with our benefits consultant on you know giving us the final projection for next year's renewal um but you know i i do my own estimate for purposes of preparing the budget because we're not going to know you know the final renewal until you know probably march or april but we have to work on some preliminaries so um you know it this is going to have a large impact on next year's budget you know i'm estimating that between the the contributions we need to increase uh and the cost of stop-loss premiums going up we're in the neighborhood of a two million dollar increase in next year's budget just to you know get on stable ground so you know that that's the cautionary note i'll i'll stop there if there are any questions or comments yes miss howard uh this is really a comment which is to say that this is exactly the situation that was predicted last when we were dealing with last year's budget the budget for this year and and the year before we we've been sort of underfunding the medical benefits trust fund um for a couple years now and this was going to happen and we knew it was going to happen and so i am hopeful that the town council is uh not going to be um difficult in sort of acknowledging the fact that now we're in the exact position that you had you know had predicted and now we have to really make up things uh in you know a substantial way which is too bad but it is obviously where we are so um good good that we know it now i suppose that we see with where the trend is going um the question i kind of have i mean our is our and you may not have any way of knowing this but is are we unique in terms of you know are we really nailing the stop-loss insurance in a way that the other participants um in that pool are not or do you have any sense of that well there's i'll give you two pieces of information one is the town this year and last year had significant high cost claims as well so it's sort of a double whammy for the stop-loss carrier that we place our insurance with which is ct prime you know and i'm president of ct prime so as much as i'm happy when we get stop-loss reimbursements it also worries me as because i have to represent ct prime um you know it's cheshire's claims last year were almost double the premiums that we paid for stop-loss but our increase was about 20 percent so you know we've done well in ct prime had we been in in straight commercial market we are you know our premium increases would have been significantly larger the last few years and i will say that the other members of ct prime you know each year there's one or two members that are participants that have a very high claim year you know sometimes it's driven by you know a handful of semi-large claims and sometimes it's you know one or two enormous claims and and that's what happened you know last year in cheshire that the town had one claim that was about 1.8 million dollars and on the board side we had one claim that was just under 700 000 so that was the main driver of last year's stop loss now we did get reimbursements you know between the town and the board of ed of um over a million dollars so you know it's good that we have the stop-loss insurance you know this year is unusual i mean we certainly knew that the run rate of claims um was the run rate of contributions has been lower than the run rate of claims and we did that purposefully because we knew had a large reserve balance this year's jump in claims you know was unpredictable but it does happen so i'm giving you the early warning so the board members can brace themselves because we will have to deal with that in the budget soon thanks vince i just want to iterate something uh that katherine mentioned so vincent did not predict the exact situation we did not know this was going to happen we knew that claims were going to go up but at the 1.1 million dollar markets it's just ridiculous it's unprecedented and quite frankly just doing some quick math of five months we had so far the 1.62 million dollars more than the 800 000 that we average is that still the average we try to use for this year for the average claim that was is expected it's it's way off and it's averaging 325 000 a month um over so at this rate even if you funded if the board said hey let's add another 1.6 million dollars we're still we're still you know if this trend continues uh it's not enough so uh it is unpredictable i really am surprised by a large large claim amounts and you know that being said i hope you know our you know our employees that being covered are getting better i mean that's you know we we have this here for their benefit you know it's sad to hear about this that we have some you know some claims you know i know when they are you know they tend to be the most specialized and you know serious things out there but that being said vincent um it has has a town management got a heads up that we're seeing this not just for not for next year my concern now at this point and i just speak for myself is just what the trends we're seeing and even though a new claim year starts in january it's not to say we're not we're not going to see million dollar plus claims um so so if we continue running at this rate of being over an average of 325 000 a month you know the the medical trust fund will be at you know zero you know in three little or three months so do we need to have some clearing discussions do you believe with uh you know the town manager jim jascott town council that there might be a need to shore this up a little bit in the interim for school year because there's this there's the um you know the meals um projection that you know we're you're trying to mitigate that as well we have snow removal right that's just starting and you know hopefully the first and last major winter storm i i don't want to have the board in a position where you know we're going to the town council and say march or april and they're not prepared for i don't know if we need to but um have you had any discussions with the town leadership about this well we had a call yesterday with um a broker uh from usi i apologize about that my um and you know we just we just received the claims report at the same time the meeting that we had with the what the broker included representatives from from our town so and that's donald um sean kimball the town manager was not able to make it when i wrote this month's finance reporter was before i had the november claims um you know so it is it is unnerving at this point i thought we'd be okay by year-end but i think that is a is a good idea you know mr peregini to you know get together with the town manager talk talk this through um so that we can you know be prepared and give a heads up to the town council if we need to again it is a couple of things here the stop-loss reimbursement would almost in effect double the money we have right now uh in the account uh 1.5 million raise always had been no that was last year stop-loss reimbursement you know is probably in the 150 000 range so far so that that you know that's not going to touch a months of claim a month of claims so that's you know that's something that but at least it's something to offset is it comes as it relates to the meal uh situation that we talked extensively about in our previous meeting we've started um breakfast distribution to all students at dismissal and that you know we went from a position where we were hemorrhaging money to a position where we're we're just bleeding now it's it's significantly better um but still it's it's an issue so you know as you said mr pergini i think it's probably uh certainly now that we have the november claims uh time to to talk to them a little bit about what's going on yeah i don't mean the pain of diarrhea yeah it's not panic or just you know well trent yeah i mean we were very judicious of our budget before kovid there's another two million dollars reduced from it you know after we approve we did our budget we're you know it's it's lean as it was you know expanding the circumstances it just i think um you know it'd be proven at least get a heads up now my last question i'll turn it back to you adam is uh but the medical trust fund reports that i believe the town also gets that too and it's all reported into one one area because we are part of one large you know so i'm sure they have they're seeing this but um again i asked that you know you or jeff have you had a dialogue just to give a heads up we don't want to surprise anybody and uh we obviously you know being selfish here we want to pay for out of pocket because we are responsible for the budget as board members i thought that would happen but you know again just but that the other point i want to reiterate that the vince admit is we're looking at at least a two million dollar potential budget uh increase to this account depending how things go right going into next year as we discuss it so anyway sorry adam i just wanted to add that though thank you uh not a problem mr chairman uh uh just add my comments this uh report is alarming um when we did construct the budget last year especially for the medical budget the medical trust fund we were at i believe a five-month reserve um and now we're the burn rate here is is unlike anything we've seen uh certainly in my term and for many years before when i was just a budget hawk right um and this is i mean this is just uh just unprecedented and it seemed like if the way you're describing it is that it's uh uh i don't know well it's a injury by a thousand cuts because uh all of these are are high claims but they're not high enough to get reimbursed by our stop loss right is that is that my understanding of how this is occurring so far but if the you know as the year progresses you know if the claims are for the same individuals it is cumulative so you know we will we will reach the 175 000 mark and then the stop-loss carrier would would reimburse us for everything above the 175.

to participate in this meeting with regards to language so go ahead Mr tripodi and he's on mute if we can there we go thank you uh president Beano can you hear me yes okay for those who are English speakers please double check your language settings that you stay in the English Channel if you wish to hear the board meeting in that in that language it's a globe at the bottom of the zoom functions or features that purpose no can you hear me president Beano I can hear you I can hear you that's why that's why I was um reiterating to check your your language features if your English speakers click on English Linda on the bottom president Meo can you still hear me I can hear you loud and clear it says English down there and I can hear your English loud and clear thank you let me wait can you hear us um trusty Chavez yes I can hear you but now I can't hear Corina whereas before I could hear her oh because it over okay I'm in I'm in trusty Cordo can you hear me trusty Tris can you hear me yes I can hear you thank you okay thank [Music] you I'm going to I'm going to quickly screen share the instructions for those um who are Spanish speakers to log in just give me two minutes or a minute meanwhile while he's doing that um I'll I'll repeat this in a moment but for everyone we're trying to um I'm going to try to be as efficient as possible with this meeting because we potentially most likely have we'll have a different president vice president um after this and so I want to make sure that we do our best to manage the time in this meeting to allow enough time for that potential new um those new officers in the following meeting so um if you know already that you will be providing public comment for the next item please uh raise your hand as you normally do um so that we can get an idea of how many people we have providing public comment here in the special week sorry mrot right now though I don't know if you know that for those who are Spanish speakers if you wish to address the board please remain in the Spanish Channel we can translate verbally on the English Channel thank you thank you okay so thank you very much Mr T um and before I forget forget just as a reminder this meeting is being recorded and we do have a quorum for this meeting um and so as I mentioned this is a special meeting is um we're trying to get through this and get the work done in as efficiently as possible so that we can move to our normal business in our December regular meeting um so number one as I already mentioned if you know that you will be providing comment um in item 2.01 um please raise your hand now so we can get a sense of that that is where we will be um taking our public comment in this on this agenda and then um for item 3.02 uh number C or letter C receive Community input what we will be doing you can if in that section we going to be as you most of you may know or many of you know we're getting we're trying to elicit from the public desirable applications for a potential applicant for the board position so in order to do this in a way that um is efficient and very transparent um what we are asking everyone to do is submit either through text or email at the ad at the information the address that's provided on the board agenda at the top of the agenda um that email and that text number um if you can just email just the words like might be transparency or honesty or Integrity or whatever your values are that you feel are important we will com um compile those in real time and create a word cloud which is for those who don't know it's like a picture that shows visually um the the frequency or or how popular certain terms are so we can get idea of what the public feels are the values that are important to um to for us to consider as potential potential applicants from the public perspective okay so hopefully that's um clear again if you have any input regarding the values that you want to see please submit those words those values themselves to the email or text that's provided at the top of our agenda so that being said we will move um to item 2.01 Mar Bell or Mr Gil um do we have a sense at this point how many public speakers public comment we have for item 2.01 so there is only one hand rais so [Music] farano regarding the public comment we must share that email is public comment arusd.org oh okay I'm sorry so strike what I said previously if you want to send your values it is at public comment arusd.org um and so for this item then and this because this is a special board meeting it doesn't have the exact same um Brown act uh um it doesn't have the same guidelines as a regular meeting um so so for items 3.01 and 3.02 it's not quite the same as normal meetings in terms of public comment this item 2.01 is where you will be able to provide um your public comment um just a reminder so is it still just one person that we have Mr Gil and if so Mighty B if we can get the clock ready and and um we'll get [Music] going okay just a quick check in before we start Mr Gil is this that one person we have two okay so then that being the case um we we'll just go with the normal two-minute time um 20 minute um time period for public comment normally we get everyone in in that amount of time and if we come to up to 20 minutes we'll kind of play it by ear at that time but it seems like we'll be fine so who is the first person um with public comment Mr go your first person is FL Delon next is Veronica okay uh miss you begin speaking your two minutes we'll [Music] begin everyone my name is FL Deon I am a part I'm sorry hear me I can hear you can we do better on the sound quality I'm sorry to interrupt Miss Floy um but I think that if I can't hear maybe some of the public is not hearing you as well I can hear her clearly I can hear her clearly um unmute unmute Bean can you hear her good Banu I can hear perfect me too oh okay I'm going to get on the phone and see if that'll help me thanks okay sorry can we start the clock over Mar minutes okay um Mr yeah mron when you begin speak in your two minutes we'll begin okay uh good evening everyone my name is flor de Leon and I am a Parton and a community organizer uh with the committee and um today uh we are about to make uh important decisions and um getting ideas on uh what is are we looking for in in these uh candidates that are going to be running for that position and all I want to say is that um parents communities here to work in collaboration with you guys to make sure that we uh choose the best candidate and hopefully we can get someone that is good and fit for the position and uh let's put aside our own personal um thinking on what we think is good or or uh or or that we don't get along with some people or you know CU I have here comments of saying there is people that they running but they are not going to be shoes because they don't get along with some of the board members and I just want to say that you know uh hopefully we can put our personal um I don't know how to say it or personal uh lives outside and when we're making the decisions we put our hearts on making sure we find someone aquate for that position that it's here to uh make changes on our board and bring ideas to um to do better on uh when we're making decisions for our uh kids education thank you thank you Veronica when the clock is ready and You Begin speaking once we have there we go when you begin speaking your two minutes will begin okay great thank you so much um and welcome everyone and thank you uh board president and I also want to um echo on that um transparency really and collaboration um and looking forward toward somebody that actually knows about our district that has children or that have been an alumni of the district I think that is such important qualities to look at as well because they've been involved um knowing our our schools and knowing the system really as an alumni of Alan Rock I can tell you I graduated just about maybe less than 15 years ago from Joseph George and still the same unfortunately even worse actually um we you know there was just been a visit over there and it was just horrible anyways um I also want to I also want to um talk about like I love the idea president veano of having that cloud um however I do want to in the name of equity really um I wanted to see if we can put I was looking for that email address and I only see Mar B in the agenda in the board agenda so can we get it written like somewhere where we can go ahead and copy and and paste it or um because I would love to send that out but I just can't find it and I didn't hear that email address um and also I think um it goes beyond just asking the public to send those values I think as a board as a board member you should be holding the meetings with your community of saying like what are you actively wanting and what are you actively seeking right making time and I know that um your job is not just to come one night every once once a month but rather to be actively engaging with the community and there's a lot going on but um you know you have chosen to do this and as the person that it will be coming on board I want to make sure that they always they know that this collaboration with parents is very essential and it's a it's also a top priority thank you thank you Mr Gil have we had anyone else come on for yes sir we have three more people okay do you he okay before um we go to the next person um can I just I don't know the best way I used to I don't use the same system that I used to use so I can't put on my screen the um address but Mr Gils maybe or someone can work on a way to visually show the address the email address and the text phone number I'll repeat it once again and correct me if I'm wrong it's public comment arusd.org um so just to to make that clear for those who didn't hear it as the previous speaker mentioned and we'll do our best to try to get it up somehow visually for people to see right so we are arranging to make it visible and the text the phone number to text text is 0058 you can text on this number okay and both the email and the text Will we're working on getting that visually up correct yes okay thank you okay so Mr Quinn um when you begin speaking your two minutes will begin uh hello can you hear me yes uh so uh good afternoon board members and um all staff members and the public for being here today I just want to uh say that uh I appreciate your work um I originally wanted to make a comment because I wasn't I also wasn't sure what phone number or email it was so thank you Veronica for saying that um but I'll just keep this short and sweet I think uh as someone who's worked as a teacher uh as well as someone who grew up in the east side San Jose and still live here um I think the very most basic minimum requirement of being a board member or someone who represent uh the best interest of our students um the the most basic minimum requirement for me would be to have an equity lens uh nothing has been clear to me uh and hopefully to to everyone uh especially during this pandemic um you know when when ICU availability is reaching single digits or 0% even um you know that that whatever inequity that exists already in in our system in our schools uh are just exasperated and exaggerated um you know Ean Jose has the highest rates of covid um you know it's like the highest in the nation right now uh and and and that's just really clear to me that whoever um you know that that joins the board uh must take that into consideration and must understand uh that equal representation for our students is not the same as Equitable representation um and that's all I have to say so thank you and look forward to this long meeting okay thank you hopefully not too long but we'll see how it goes uh Mr Gil who is person next person is Olivia ortis following by Raymond Miller and okay Miss Ortiz when you begin speaking your two minutes will begin good evening Bo members my name is Olivia Ortiz I have two kids here in this all rug School District um today is going to be like um earlier Flor said is going to be big decision you know having someone on the board um as a parent as a community member as a as a mom that I've been trying to organize and change our our board I will I will I will ask you guys to pick to choose someone that is really really focusing on our kids education I think we should go with uh the values that should be honest people but that also should have experience in their Community experience in our schools being engaged in our community knowing what's going on someone that is familiar with with with our schools with our community um also someone that you know like that like I think the last person say I have it have a lens with Equity knowing the uh the the resources that we need here the lack of that we are facing and but at the end focusing on our kids education I would ask you guys to put your personal um your personal ego on the side today and really choose someone that will that would uh help our kids not just because you know that person not because because you you know personally know that person but someone that really is going to be able to to do the job um someone that is going to be able to work together all of you guys working together um I really hope that you guys do make thisis today um like I said not thinking of what you guys think it's better but for our kids uh it's time it's time that all of us and I'm including myself that we start thinking about our kids instead of uh you know fighting each other or arguing each other we let's let's work let's work all together for the for the F for a good future for our kids and I really uh hope that you guys choose the right person for that someone that that has experience in our community and also someone that will listen to the community thank you thank you Mr G oh I think you said um Mr Mueller if that is correct Mr Mueller um when you begin speaking your two minutes will begin good evening so welcome you all back to the same thing over and over again I want to reiterate my statement that this happens too often in this District when this all is done three of you will have been appointed by the board Not Elected originally by the community I am hoping that we will find a way to keep board members committed to the four-year terms that they are elected and not running off to another seat when it opens up um I do want to also state that there was a comment made about having someone that is appointed this time have children in the district I believe that there are already two or three uh because I'm not sure where your children are right now well but there are at least two people who have students in the district on this board this board has been known for years for its histrionics for its oh dramatic flare I would hope that in the consideration in this decision you will work towards less drama and more action perhaps find someone that is more of an administrator and less of less engaged in that dramatic flare um I do not intend to stay for this whole evening I do appreciate what you are doing um this is as as I said this will be the third one of these that I've been involved with in anyway um and I do appreciate everyone who's going to put their name in tonight which I understand there are quite a few um and I hope that each of you does bring your voice to this table and make sure that it's heard regardless if you're voted off the island in the first round good night and have a wonderful evening folks I'm sorry Mr Gil who I didn't last time the the next person who was the who was the third person that you mentioned sorry I still didn't get that yeah Buckley yes Buckley okay Buckley um when you begin speaking your two minutes will begin oh yes um my name is Buckley I'm a Community member and I'm also a member of the reinvest for racial equity and Alam Rock schools now Co ition and I really urge um the board to take an equity lens as well in this decision and use transparency and accountability to the community in that decision-making process and really thinking about equity in terms of race class lived experience among lots of other dimensions of equity it's critically important um the decision made about who will join this board must be someone who is from and connected to the Alam Rock Community um not just someone who promises to collaborate with families parents of students here in alrock but um somebody who's already working in collaboration someone who already is in community and has those connections and we really must Empower community and uplift self-determination of the many communities that live here in alen rock and that's just that's not just speaking for students parents families with the best of intentions but that's allowing those folks to speak for themselves sharing their knowledge wisdom and reflections of their own lived experience so I really urge us to have that L with those values and not speak for Community but rather uplift Community to speak for themselves thank you thank you Mr Gil um who's the next person I'm assuming we have here is Branda Zas followed by dza Gonzalez thank you Mr andas when you begin speaking your two minutes will begin good evening board members and superintendent um today I just ask you guys to um look at every person that will speak today with a clear lens and a clean slate um I do want to ask you guys today um I didn't get enough Clarity last time if I will be able to speak again or was that my time that I spoke last time was that all the time I got I know that it was a question in the air but I just wanted to ask if I will be allowed to speak again again today or was that the time that I had last time um it's that's all that's my comment okay thank you um I'm sorry Mr Gil I I don't remember who you said was the next person is D Gonzalez okay Miss Gonzalez when you begin speaking your two minutes will begin good evening members of the board my name is daa Gonzalez I am a parent of three students of two students in the AL School District uh when we talk about values we believe that Community comes first especially our students and our parents those parents are bringing every single student every day to school and are doing the best right now to keep them um log in and keep them in engaged even in these difficult times when we talk about a governance or a person that has to has to make decision on behalf of our students it has to be a person that really knows that community that understand that community and that is part of this community uh as a previous person said it's not just a person that wants to be but it's actually a person that understands the difficulties that our students go the background and our culture and the decisions that has to be made on behalf of them we talk about a person that has good governance that knows how to governance that knows how to stay and have clear clear messages and also knows how to read and understand that wordbook budgets and understands um curriculums and understands contracts with the teachers many meetings we have lost times explaining to people asking for a lawyer to come explain things and we can't have that anymore there's a lot of uh we have a few um persons in here that actually know about governance and have experienc and the ability to do it we have we need a person that has respect towards the community and we we need somebody that is committed to transforming alra schools in a better way that understands our students and is willing to keep motivating and moving the goals and the policies that have been created to bring a better and accountable Alan BR school district for our students thank you and have a really good evening thank you Mr Gil do we have more people I know no one else okay thank you very much everyone uh so we can move forward to item 3.01 and so um this was a gen dies um if anyone wanted to speak to notify the superintendent's office by 2m um but I want to make sure I think that was kind of a courtesy that we were hoping to have just so we could get a sense um so I don't know if we have anyone that um that has notified us Dr Bower of that and then I'll we'll get there was only one person but they they have already spoken before okay I don't know I think um you know okay so that I I did um I think it was it was brought up and this is now going to to the rest of the trustees um it was brought up about if people can speak for a second time um and where what I had said during the meeting last time and and what I think was the what my understanding of the understanding was was that that was the the time for any of those people to speak and we would allow for anyone else who didn't get the opportunity um to speak at this meeting the same way that we did LA when we appointed trusty atera and in fact if you go to the meeting at 2 hours 51 minutes and 30 seconds I I did clarify that that that would be the case and actually from the public member who asked the question during a public comment that particular individual um confirmed by saying okay twice um at that time at that point of the video so so my what I'm feeling is just to make it fair to everyone to everyone would have one minute I mean one opportunity to um to give the introductory statement it seems like everyone has done so at this point that is wanting to be an applicant at this time um and if anyone is interested in seeing those they are publicly available um on our YouTube channel from last month's meeting they can view all of the introductory statements by potential applicants so I'm open to any feedback from um my colleagues so for the public uh you said it was in the second hour to YouTu 25130 okay thank you is there any qu other questions or thoughts from trusty K trusta and if not Mr Gil I don't know if we would need to probably take a vote or something on how we proceed on this particular item trusty I think I saw you raise a finger if we can unmute trusty ATA please and what would do in oh go ahead I guess it's no I agree you know in in um being fair and Equitable and ensuring that everyone has the same amount of time um I'm in agreement um yeah because from what I remember uh that person was able in uh was able to provide us with her statement um so I'm okay with that okay um and I think as other board members might be muling over or thinking about anything um Mr Gil can you clarify is what's on the screen right now that you're sharing is that the live real time reflection of the comments that are coming in about the values that the public finds are important it seems like it is it's it looks like it's dynamic so is that in fact what we're getting so far about what people are wanting as values for a potential applicant yes sir it is live in a sense that we receive values as award in through email and a text message and our technical team is replicating that on the screen okay thank you to clarify will there be a different one in Spanish or is somebody translating the text and the messages just to be just to remind everybody that there might be public um sending messages in Spanish so I have a technical person who is a bilingual and I can uh confirm with him too have we received any in Spanish Mr Gil or any other language for that matter I will update you shortly okay and just as further transparency just so everyone knows the re one of the reasons why we're doing this this is because as some of you know we had some unfortunate um participation last month come into our meeting and we just want to have a way to kind of filter what comes in so that um you know so that the feedback or the input that we get is actually appropriate to what we're trying to do and not you know other things that come in so that's why it's going through Mr Gil and he's manually inputting them as they come in just to to screen for any inappropriate um comments that may come and sir I check with my team there is no comment I mean uh word sent in Spanish okay and once we have so at the end of this special meeting um my understanding or my thought is that we will finalize this particular list and make it publicly available this word cloud and if when we do so if if possible if we can get it translated to also make publicly available um that might be helpful as well for the community to be able to see um you know the prevalence of the words that they had requested as a whole in any language that they need okay any other so so far we have it seems like um two trustees who feel like in fairness um you've already spoken as a potential applicant that was your time is there anyone else from the board and if not then I'll maybe defer to Mr jise to see how we need to make sure that we how we've moved forward with it trusty Chavez um I was kind of the one that was in the last meeting saying that I think that they should have been allowed to speak or to be fair to everybody but the impression that I got on the first meeting was that that person was going to be allowed to um speak again so I will go over the minutes that's why I asked for the time but I I really thought that you were going to give everybody a second chance is but I'll go over the minutes again thank you 250 130 that's it's about I got it thank you maybe 30 seconds or less yeah um okay so well we're gonna need to make a decision right now so um president be yes uh you know I think you were pretty clear it's on it's recording and so the individual chose to go ahead and make a comment move forward um at this point everything's been laid out it's it's in the recording um if if yeah I I you laid it out the the the parameters were set right there and there's no there's I I don't feel that we need to continue to to believe at this point it's it's pretty clear it's there it's recorded okay thank you so Mr Ruiz anything in particular that I need to know about how to move forward with this since it's an agendized item no I think you you know as as the chair of the board you have the you are defining the process you talked about it at the last meeting unless there's a motion and a second now to do something different than what you're proposing I believe you're free to move on to the next agenda item okay so I hear um sounds like there's three of us at least that are in agreement with moving forward at this time is there a motion to do anything different than moving forward to item 3.02 okay so hearing none then we will go ahead and go with that and we'll move forward to item 3.02 which has several parts to it so one of them um I guess we can go ahead and take them in order and actually the third part is happening live right now as you can all see hopefully on your screens if you're watching this video or this this um meeting um so that's part C that's actually occurring right now kind of out of order in some ways but we'll finalize it at the end um so we can just go ahead and start with part A determine board questions for applicants so the the way that I believe that we have talked about this and again open to discussion or other thoughts from board members is that the board if this is the opportunity for the board to um submit their questions um that they think would be important for an applicant to be part of the application slin process obviously taking into account your own EXP experiences as board members your own thoughts and any feedback that you may have received um or you or we may have received from uh the public so what I'm thinking is each of us will um State publicly the questions that we're thinking right now we'll see if there's any overlap on those questions or if we need to just have them um individually as part of our our questions um and then if there is overlap and we need more there are there are a number of questions from the last appointment process that we did that are very I think very um General and and they actually reflect some of the feedback that I've received from community that we could draw from as well um so we need five questions that would be part of so there would be eight questions total on the written application so each C applicant would need to um provide written responses in their application to all eight questions five of them would be in the first round if there are uh I believe it's six candidates or less um so if there's six candidates or less it will only be one round of questions of interview questions so in that case we would only need the five questions if there are more than five candidates or six candidates or more I believe but we can check the bylaws for clarification or ask Mr Delise um I'm drawing a blank as to that specific number but if we go into a second round then the other three questions would be the questions that we would use for the second round before coming to the final so eight questions total everyone was asked to bring two questions each there's four of us that could make up the eight questions and if need be we can draw from questions from the last time so that's kind of how I'm laying it out throwing it out there but again certainly open to other thoughts that if we want to do something different as a as a board an agreement okay thank you um any other thoughts from the board if I don't hear any then I'm going to assume everyone is good with that process and we'll go ahead and move forward I have a question so you said that there's a question since two coming from each trustee so you said that you would do five why five five are first round why five first why not uh why not more to eliminate more from at the get-go uh can you clarify what do you mean by eliminate more we don't because of the way they're going to answer say if we have six questions um five may not be enough um I think the majority of of the well well I don't know if You' seen the questions that I um sent did you uh yes okay so that my questions pretty much eliminates um or Narrows down uh a lot of the applicants if we have a lot of if we have a lot of applicants would you not say I mean I would have I would need to see everyone else's questions I don't that might be the case for you but other trustees may feel that your particular questions don't necessarily narrow down the field okay or vice versa any other one of us might say well my questions are the ones that narrow down the field yes trusty kto so we have the eight questions that we're gonna go ahead and submit they will be forward over to the applicants and they will answer in writing correct yeah so let me um explain a little more so the did we're again as always we're challenged a little bit by the changes brought on by this digital format that we're forced into right now so last time we were able to have people wait in a separate waiting room so that each individual applicant could provide their responses to questions and no one else would hear that so that would force everyone to give their own unique individual answers in this case we can't force people into separate rooms they have to all have access to the meeting so what we are doing is that um we are asking the same questions of everyone and people so everyone will respond to all eight questions um written exactly the same we will get those ahead of time all of them as board members for consideration in their written format and then when it comes time to the interview section during the actual open meeting it will be an opportunity for the applicants to expand upon their particular response that they provided in written format so that you know the first person whoever that person is after we draw straws or whatever and and determine who will be first the first person will not be at a disadvantage by virtue of the fact that the last person might hear something that they say and kind of borrow it in their their um verbal interview because if it's not in the written part that they wrote and they just start talking about something that maybe they heard from the first person that doesn't put the first person at a disadvantage for going first by kind of um putting their thoughts out there for others to piggy back on if that makes sense so I did that answer your question trusty ketto or is that yes yes okay trusty Chavez can we just ask him the eight questions on the questionnaire on the written question there and then if we need more questions I think the more questions we asked the easier it'll be to narrow that person down well that's not the way if we were to do that we would need to redo all the bylaws again because the bylaws specifically state that there's a process for the first round to narrow down that first round and then um to have something that you know we still would need questions left over to go into the second round we did a temporary waiver last time so what can't we do a temporary waiver for the next I mean we could put it up for a vote to change the process there were no bylaws in place the last time yeah that's what I'm saying sorry I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you that's okay I think you were referring though trusty Chavez to last week or whenever our last meeting was correct yeah so um I mean I think Mr Ru you can correct me on this but I think we or I don't know because it's not a gendi so would we go ahead Mr yeah that that's correct uh CH an amendment to the bylaws or revision isn't agendized so the board can't have any motion or discussion on that okay okay yeah the process is kind of set at this point at least for this this this time around move with the questions president be so we can 20es all right any other pressing concerns if not we can all begin to share our our questions and um I don't know maybe uh Mr Gil for now can we although it's interesting to have that up I like it um can we take it down and maybe share a screen where marel or whoever can capture the questions as we're stating them um know some people may have already sent them in I didn't have time to do so um so trusty Chavez already sent her questions and I sent them to you she verified uh so they're ready to be displayed okay um I can I can email email mine to you right now Mel if that is helpful and then I I think um trusty erera may have already sent them and I'm it right now as well I'm going to send them as I'm going to send right now okay and trusty kto are you able to or did you just have yours ver that you wanted to share I'll send them over right now okay well put them all together and then share them right no word [Music] document having feed back there we go and you can make that you could share the screen with that right might yes okay marel can you uh confirm once you received I sent mine just want to make sure okay let me check and trusty Chavez your yours already got sent right oh yeah that was what Dr I I took care of mine I was ready uh I already received yours trust thank you okay I just sent my I'm G to ask the board if we ever have to do this again and we just might have to if we can actually not hold the people or the meeting up and actually have this ready and on time like it was supposed to be thank you there was never any uh requirement to send them in so we were just going to discuss them here so that that was the actual process it's I'll gladly discuss mine uh board president Bano since that was the process yeah I mean we can still discuss them yeah so can I go ahead and lay mines out first that way I can get the the perspective of my colleagues here sure um and then as soon as you have them Mighty B you could put them out because I think I have like a one-word addition modification to M now that I look at it but trusty kro while she's um the first one is a three-part question and it's um the first two parts are yes or no answerers so I would hope that my colleagues would indulge me in that since I'm not asking somebody to write a full essay but it's basically the first two parts are do you work for a charter school if appointed will you accept employment with a charter school and so those are yes or no yes or no responses that I think are very important um in for for us to make decisions um and then the last the third part of that first question would be what is your position on Charter Schools um so it's three-part question with two very very yes or no responses to it I think I could have probably incorporated into a massively long sentence but I chose not to do that so um I hope that uh my colleagues will indulge me with that the second one is what is your position on the sale of school district land so that's just one so those are my two questions okay thank you any um questions or comments from the board with regards to trusty kto question no okay I mean for me they seem the the three parter quote unquote seems reasonable to me just as you described it it makes perfect sense it's fine like that um and also I think they're similar if not identical to ones that we used last time so um and they seem to work fine last time so I wouldn't have any objection to to those questions um trusta so I can write my questions um if that's okay yes um and then just to keep in mind we have six minutes left um before our regular scheduled meeting so I don't know how we're going to go about that but I'll read them what experience do you have working with our arusd community with staff parents boards elected officials Etc what will you do to improve the relationship with the various members of the arusd community to ensure Equitable input in decision making and can you give us an example so have that as one I agree with Linda in that the you know more we know about our candidates the better we'll be able to uh pick one and the second one I have as how have you supported or contributed to restorative justice racial equity and ethic studies to increase the support for the children in our district before and during this pandemic um you know I agree like U we get to get the input you know I took the input from the community um and did my best to you know uh keep it to the same sub so those are my two that I have submitted okay so just real quick for the first part of your comment um I had I had because I knew that an hour was going to be potentially short time so um I I have clarified with uh Mr Ruiz and I believe that obviously we're still trying to keep it as efficient as possible but we can bleed into the beginning the start time of the regular meeting if we need to so I think we're on track here we might be a little bit ahead or behind the one hour schedule but it's fine to start the regular meeting a little late if we need to um so that's number one and number two oh I was going to ask you to repeat your first question but up I can see it and I think Manel you have the wrong um person in the wrong area those first two are lindas um but my you want me to repeat the first one or the second one hold on one those two are mine okay so the first one is what experience do you have working with our arusd community with staff parents boards elected officials and others what will you do to improve the relationship with the various members of the arusd community to ensure Equitable input in decision making can you give us an example okay I mean at first I thought it was it was like kind of cheating like multiple questions all in one but I know well um they're related and and so I think I would be it makes sense for that question one I think that's a conversation we're having right now and should I say uh I'll take back part of mine and maybe you take back part of yours because we're kind of asking the same question but just using different words what do you think if you want to do that I think for me if we are able to and they're in the same subject for me it's important than to know you know the the more I know about somebody and how they answer the better it'll be for me to you know um do vote on somebody and so if if I'm able to leave those I would like to because I included um Community input you know in mind some of my so I like that but for me it's important to extend it Beyond 18 months you know I want to know 10 years ago 20 if possible okay so um I will be if it's possible taking back my first question because it's to me it's really similar to gas and why asked the same question twice since I want to know more information on the candidates I think that maybe um I should revise a new one and I could do that uh right away but um is that possible to do that now so you could do that you could come up with a new one you could also take a look at um last year's questions I don't know how easy that would be for us to provide that at this time if anyone has that available to show I I have physical copies of last year's question so it'd be no problem going into it because contos was similar to last year's as well so one of your own questions from last year that you still like for this year could be the case that you could just pull one of yours um actually I got one way more in depth so uh I'll be using that one okay uh before we move forward though there's another thing that I want to address separate from this process but I just want to make sure that we don't jeopardize ourselves as a board with regards to the brown act and public comment and so I know trusty Chavez I'm not isolating you right now because it's happened in the past with various board members but I just want to make sure that this is okay and I'm going to ask you Mr for your opinion but the public obviously for the brown act has their specified time to provide public comment to board members um or provide comment um but because we're in this digital world right now um I'm wondering is there any problem or are we gonna if someone were to do a California public records act request um correspondence with board members receiving comment directly from the public and expressing those things during the meetings because it's I think I've seen somewhere where it's kind of becomes unfair for the rest of the community who does not have direct access to board members and therefore they don't have the same opportunity to provide input or feedback that is directly then um injected into into meeting discussions and and that stuff so I just want to make sure that we're covered and and that's okay or if it's something that we need to go into the next you know year watch for and be careful of if someone were to pull a a sepra request so Mr ruise if you could address that if there's anything that we need to watch out for there and I don't know if you know you're on mute or if we need to unmute him might need to unmute him okay there we go can you hear me yes yes um so uh under some uh very recent Court decisions um Communications by board members with other board members and members of the community relating to District business uh are public records and accessible through public records act requests um and then secondly uh with respect to the issue of public comment through board members um I I would just say that uh the time period reserved for public comment is for that for public comment um how board members choose to use their time to speak um during a board member comment is their choice but it does raise the issue of fairness to the extent members of the public are transmitting their questions or comments to the board through other board members for for uh public dissemination so I would just be cautious about that okay okay thank you so it is so any correspondence that is sent is up for um someone to pull a a request for any of that communication then and then but it's okay to do that it just may not be fair for those who don't have direct access to trustees that's is that what I hear but we're we don't to be in any Jeopardy by doing so um per se that's correct okay okay thank you everyone I'm sorry can I can I ask something um I know that we have a separate link for our regular scheduled 5:30 meeting does somebody need to go there um to respect our you know public who are joining that one to let them know that we're here um how does that the same link the same one okay good thank you perfect okay so sorry about that I just want to make sure we don't find ourselves in in problems down the road uh okay so trusty Chavez did you come up with theories yet or should I move to someone else for now also it's got be right now right now doesn't need to I'm just if you have it we can take it if not we can move to someone else for okay move to somebody else I'll just think of it right now thank you okay um I guess someone else is me so um I think mine that's on the screen I need to add like a word considering what the next 5 to 10 years may have in store for AR USD why is it important to have experience in the area of policy development so if might Bella if you can add that have experience in the and then add area of policy development um so that's my question number one and my question number two describe any experience you have in the development and implementation of large scale wide reaching projects or initiatives that imp impact large communities at scale particularly from a financial perspective so those are my two questions and I don't think that from what I see I don't think there's much overlap on anyone else's questions so I don't know that there would be a kind of like a situation like trusta and Chavez trust can you repeat the first one you said um because there's a lot of people coming in and um oh sorry I'm trying to bring people in and I was trying to hear what you were saying oh okay sorry so um the the only part on mine is that so considering what the next five to 10 years may have in store for AR USD why is it important to have experience in the' and then after the word the' can you put area of policy development just like that okay um president Bano yes I'm actually going to take one from the public okay is is that okay if I say it in Spanish um I mean I guess it's up to marel to okay I'll say in Spanish then I'll translate it okay go ahead marel before she goes what were you going to say I was going to say if she can text it to me and then I can see if one of the translators can I I can translate it myself I think it'll be faster if we do it that way is that possible okay you wanted to add one or uh actually um I noticed that a lot of people emailed me today on this subject and so I didn't have a chance to see it until about 15 minutes before the board meeting so I I don't want them to feel like they're not being heard like they don't have a voice so I would like to ask this so that that way they know that um we're being respectful of their choices and um and it is that okay yeah I mean so here it goes uh it's under social emotional and the one who the parent that sent it to me I believe was daa and it says wait a minute okay okay here's the translation in my words uh under social emotional learning uh we have our students and our families are in in dire need of um of courses for um mental uh um salute for for mental health uh now more than ever uh what actions uh would you take uh for the community so that being you being a Community member on the um uh School Board how would you ensure that they receive help if they need if they need it so if I didn't do good job have the other guy translate but I'm trying to read and translate at the same time so um if you want to ask the originator you could probably ask her as well is that okay Chavez would you please send it to me just text it to me so that I can send to marivel okay that's okay so that we can have it okay will that work that'll work um I just do you want me to forward it to the whole board it's up to you yeah I'll forward it to the whole board get it on I'm just trying to get it on the screen so that everybody can see it okay so let me just do it to you first and then you look at it um ah what the heck I'll put everybody uh and I'll put also marel so she has the wording on it you're GNA have to scroll down it's in Spanish [Music] okay okay so if you want to go on to the next one or or did everybody already do theirs yeah right so at this point including the one that you're just submitting um trusty Chavez it would appear that we have um eight questions so it would including the one that you are submitting now it would that we have eight questions so again as we talked about um five for the first round three for the second round the part that's not defined that we do have some I think some um some ability to talk about right now and decide is how we determine which questions would be for the first round and which question so which five would be for the first round and which three would remain for the second round of questions if necessary can can we have coras that I backed off on that was similar to mine can we have that first question first uh I think I would like to know how they answered that over all of them I mean that seems fair to me since two of you were asking for that or similar very reasonable to me so trusty Chavez do I mean trusty quo do you have any thoughts on that in terms of uh how do we decide the five or are you talking about uh either so either how do we decide or the request to have that particular question be one of the I'm if I'm understanding correctly trust correctly trusty Chavez you're saying one of the the first round of questions right correct okay so to either of those points truste ketto how to decide or that question specifically as one of the first round questions yeah I'm fine with putting that as that one as one of the first round okay um and terms of deciding I would suggest we just go at random so okay um I I kind of think we should everyone should get at least one of their questions um and so I mean I guess in some ways that kind of puts trusty laa and trusty Chavez at an advantage because theirs is getting put in there automatically but that's okay hey what as long as um because we wore red today yeah hey let me put back on I think Ro had his hand up earlier oh go ahead uh Mr ree did you have something thank you um ask if if I could ask is it the board's expectation that the application that the that an applicant will have to to answer all eight of the questions is part of their application submission to the board that that's due on January 4th yes yes okay so then the question um so that's an important point because these will be published tomorrow um and then the question as to which five will be a part of the initial uh discussion on January 7th doesn't necessarily have to be determined tonight it could be determined on January the 7th if you like um can I say c can we just say we're going to go more in depth in on those questions and then just call it a day we're done with it what do you mean we're going to go more in depth on like um for example Corina's question one question that is like three questions covers a lot of territory and I believe that the way they answer those questions depending on their answer we're going to go more in depth with what they answered correct Kina oh whatever we decide I think um and whatever is appropriate I think I think that once we ask like the way we ask that they just have one opportunity because what might happen is we might ask one person one thing and not ask the next person the same question that might then get have give them the ability to you know give different like a different answer if that makes sense so I think we should just stick to the question and then allow them to just answer it before trusty Chavis before um you go I just want to clarify so because as as Roo asked all qu all eight questions will be submitted in written format for us to consider we as the board will still have the ability and responsibility I guess to consider all of their responses to all eight so even if one of your questions or our questions doesn't get selected in this first round of five it doesn't mean that we still won't consider that as part of our decision-making process it just may not be um publicly discussed by that applicant if we don't end up going to a second round if we have more candidates trusty Chavez okay like on gto's questions his or a yes or no that's straight forward but ours goes more in depth so or it can be so depending on what they answer there that's why I was saying depending on how much work they did in the community or even if they even attended any board meetings cuz my question said how many board meetings did you attend did you said in the community so I'm assuming that's also in there so if I'm relinquishing kind of my question and allowing gorina so we can get another question are you willing to put how many board meetings in there as as as part of the your question Corina because I really would like to know how many board meetings if we're only limiting ourselves to those first five questions I would like to know how many board meetings they actually attended and if they've been and if they get on board if they're going to be uh on board knowing everything that's been happening in the last year or two with Alam rock or is it uh you're going to start from zero you know I think it's if they're more caught up they there is an advantage to being more caught up so I think a direct question was asked to truste ATA and then after that trusty I know how a comment okay I know that uh that's important to you Linda so if it fits in the kind of list that I have in parentheses you know the staff parents boards elected officials it might fit there um in regards to uh maybe comma board meetings yes attend yes yes can you add that to yours so that we can ask another question later I'm willing to add it into there so marel would be in that parentheses area um so after elected officials comma board uh arusd board meetings attended yes please thank you okay thank you trusty Chavez I mean I'm sorry trusty kto sorry really quick you added one right now I was looking at prev one no I added a comma what I'll do is I'll I'll I'll send you I'll send it to you edited okay thank you okay trusty kto uh board president can we get moving on this like we can go ahead and uh either decide which question we want to go ahead and have in the first round I think we can do that like put question one or question two and then like move on because we're already way uh kind of way behind and we have a very long meeting too regular meeting yeah I just want to make sure that um I think we're almost done here I just want to make the main part we needed was to get our eight questions I know that I mean we just wanted to give a little time for this particular question since the two of them had overlapped and we want to make sure that both of their what they wanted is captured but that being said and in the spirit of your question um I think that and especially since we know that it's not like any of our questions are not going to be considered we'll still get them written so we can still see them but um to Mr ru's point at the next meeting um we will before we get started one of the things that sounds like that we'll do is determine which questions those five questions will be in the first round and um and also the order in which people will um will be presenting and that's that's written into the bylaws that how we randomize that if you're go ahead it seems like we got the answer so would you be accepting a motion for Item B on this item uh Item B was appointing a person to do that right the ad hoc the board ad hoc committee uh yes I think it's pretty straightforward and it would be uh the president the vice president can go ahead and serve as as the ad hoc committee because staff's going to take care of it anyways so this is just a formality okay um it is primarily a formality so just but just to clarify are you are you is your motion the that the current president and vice president or the vice president and president sure if you're willing to accept it um I will go ahead and motion that the current vice president the current president and the vice president go ahead and do and serve as the the committee I have a question go ahead um when he said current vice president do you think that we should do this after we appoint uh because we're supposed to elect the board president and should we have done that before uh this meeting started or Mr ree can you answer that please yeah um no because this is part of the uh uh provisional appointment process and this this action is not agendized for the the organization ation meeting so it has to take place right now okay all right I'm good with that uh kto and as chy kto said it's really a formality it's staff that will be doing this so it's not there's not much to it um in my understanding so I'll go ahead and second it just so we can move forward is there any other questions or comments on that motion there Item B okay so there is a motion on in a second on the floor that the current president and vice president for from the ad hoc committee um to ensure that um elig applicants are eligible for board membership I'll take the vote as I see it on my screen myself I trusty Chavez I trusty kto hi trusty erera hi motion passes unanimously thank you okay so I think we we're all good with the eight questions that we chose right everyone feels like their question is accurately reflected um oh so the final things part c um Mr Gil if you can share the what we have I think theoretically finalized as as our word cloud that reflects the the values that have been submitted To Us by the public um just ahead I'm really quick who second it I didn't get that go ahead the motion I seconded that motion oh you second it yes okay I just wanted to so I can put it on my the minutes okay um Mr G I don't I don't see it on my screen maybe I have something set up differently is is it up yet or are you working no we don't see it okay and then also we can get the answer to the Spanish um words that were submitted give me a second okay and while he's doing that um I'll just um you know make sure that everyone understands so these value in addition to the values that we defined as a board at the last meeting so we had a time when we talked about the values that were important to us in addition to those values the values that are being now shared on the screen um and it looks like none really stand out as um you know Mr Gil this is set up in such a way that the more frequently requested words would show up bigger right okay so it looks like what we have is a a a kind of even distribution of of words that were submitted to us because none are really popping out as big so so these words that we have here these values in addition to the values that we have as um defined as the board are what should be guiding our decision making our scoring when we do come to um to the point of selecting our from the applicants so you know to address some of the comments that we heard in public comment this process to the best of our ability has been very transparent very open very um you know we've we've taken feedback from community and on multiple opportunities and so the decisions that we make as trustees should be based in as in as objective a way as possible on the responses to the questions that we've just talked about on these values that the community is looking for and on the values that we have so it's not just your personal feelings or whatever it should you should in a theoretical World be able to um justify or back up your position um based on all of those factors again any any board member Can Vote or score however they so choose but the idea behind all this work we've been doing is is that the pro our process of how we decide on whatever we decide is objective and how we came to our decisions so that's what these words are any other comments or questions or understandings about that process trusta um I would just like to point out I do see a Spanish word on there so that somebody was to text the Spanish word it would have gone on there it looks like and then also um in my experience with these things it it might be that you know the pink might mean something the orange means something and the black means something so um if we have the ability to explain that to us as as trustees you know to better understand I mean I think they're all important right but um I think depending on the color that means that more people put that word in um so yeah maybe they're not doing the the the size but the color uhuh that's a good point so if we before we end up putting that out maybe publicly um if we could just make sure that that frequency of words is reflected whether it's color or size or whatever and it's clear that how that is is shown on the screen if if it is actually equal that you know there's equal amount of responses then that's just what it is um thank you for that though that's a good point okay uh I think I think that's all uh for this special meeting thank you everyone for your participation um we're able to now be ready to move forward with our application process and submission and the rest of this process so so thank you everyone and so at this point um once we adjourn this meeting uh correct me if I'm wrong but every one who's here can just stay in the meeting right nothing no one needs to do anything it's just a little formality okay so I will adjourn this meeting special meeting at 5:56 pm thank you everyone and if we're ready to do so excuse me then I will go ahead and oh wait hold on let me just change the agenda on my screen just give me a moment and I don't know if other trustees might need to switch over to the other agenda okay okay so I will call this regular board me or annual organizational and regular board meeting to order on December the 17 2020 at 55 7 P.M um trust or Mar B if you could please do the roll call today is the organizational and regular board meeting of December 17th 2020 at 5:30 pm members of the board in attendance president nesto Beano pres vice president ginaa present clerk Andres kto present member Linda Chavez present members of administration superintendent Dr Bower present okay so we do have a quorum for this meeting and this meeting is being recorded um we will go through a couple of housekeeping formalities before we get to the agenda as we always do if you are um interested in providing public comment this evening the instruction for how to do so are on our agenda our agenda can be found on our website at arusd.org um and that's where you will see the information on how to provide public comment in this meeting uh I did mention that the meeting is being recorded um and then Mr trii are you still here I can't see on my screen but yes Mr trii I'm I'm hearing um yeah can you hear that Mr can you hear that gelina is also talking right now I don't know between the two of you she said said that she's in the English Channel and I'm in the English Channel okay Carina it sounds like Mr trioli will be will go ahead and explain I don't know who's in which channel but thank you for stepping in and I can hear you loud and clear whatever Channel you're in car also here Mr trii so you can go thank and Mr trii go ahead and do your thing uh Beano thank you yes uh so I clicked on off to see if I can hear it and I couldn't hear it so maybe we should go somebody should go to click on off explain that again because maybe those who weren't clicked into an English or Spanish maybe they could not hear it okay does that make sense it does to me Mr trioli does that make sense so someone someone who was not yet who was new to this meeting that wasn't in the last meeting maybe if they haven't yet selected English or Spanish they sounds like they wouldn't have heard your message so are you okay with me taking care of that right now perfect thank you so much interpretation uh good afternoon welcome uh those of you who are going to need Spanish interpretation um actually English are here with um English please go to the interpretation icon on the bottom I like that click it and click on English if you are here for English thank you okay thank you team great work uh um I think that's it for now and so at this point we can go ahead with our Pledge of Allegiance so if you're able to stand um and recite the Pledge of Allegiance with us please do so if your current situation doesn't allow for it you can remain seated um but we'll go ahead and do that I pledge allegiance to the FL to the flag of the United States of America the rep it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay thank you everybody uh so we will move forward to item2 annual organizational meeting nomination and election of board president uh truste kto i' like to nominate uh vice president I'll second that um are there let's see I need to call for any other motions right Mr okay are there any other motions for um board president El nomination and election okay I do not see or hear any so I will call for the vote on this as I see you on my screen um myself I trusty Chavez hi trusty kto hi trusty hi okay motion passes unanimously congratulations President erera I I believe at this point I could pass the the gavel airbrush over to you hopefully you have something similar over there to govern over us um and now I excuse me now I can officially pass it and president ATA will now do the rest of it right Mr edise yes okay perfect thank you everybody and the floor is obviously yours tra Ork president erera thank you so much and thank you for doing such a great job in this past year um it's definitely been one of the hardest in yours so you did a great job um now we'll move on to item 103 nomination election of the board Vice President are there any nominations and uh go ahead if you you can unmute uh Beano please trusty Bano sorry I muted I was coughing um I nominate trusty can for vice president I second that um is there any other nominations okay seeing none uh we'll go ahead and call for the vote uh I'll go down the list as I see it on my screen uh Linda Chavez hi Ernesto Bano hi uh myself I and andr kto hi thank you passing unanimously um now we'll move on to 104 uh nomination and election of board clerk uh vice president ginto I nominate Ernesto Marano's clerk I second nomination um any other nominations on the floor okay seeing none I'll go ahead and call for the vote uh Linda Chavez hi uh andreo hi myself I Ernesto Beano I okay thank you so much pass unanimously um welcome board vice president and board clerk um in your new assignment now we'll move on to 105 um approve and appoint the superintendent as a secretary to the board I'm gonna step away for a moment just to get drink okay uh so moved second okay I have a motion the second um and obviously we don't need any other nominations for this Ro just move on so we'll go ahead and take a vote um Linda Chavez hi board vice president Andes kto hi and myself I and nesto is uh absent or I don't yeah I guess absent in the m at the moment um and that is quum so um passes um let's see 106 discussion and mod or modifications to the agenda anybody have any modifications to the agenda I would like to move sorry go ahead um I would like to move 8 I believe 803 before 802 803 GRE before 802 and if you can place it after uh 506 so 803 after 506 please after after 506 so 803 after 506 okay um and then um and then 802 one second one second just um Rio can I take all of them at the same time and or do I need to pass each one one by one no you can take all at the same time and then see if there's any conflict okay so we got 801 um after 506 and then Linda you also mentioned 802 no I I said 803 and 802 if 803 can go right after 506 and then and do you want 802 after 803 correct and then the the two moved up after 506 um board president yes um I would ask our colleague Linda Chavez if um it would be okay to do 801 802 and 803 um right uh before um right after 3.02 because I think that's when we have the bulk of people and these are very very important Financial issues that I think that everybody should be aware of and be well informed because if we hear them too late um then you know bunch of people have left and they're not as informed as they should be so I was hoping that we would be able to cover them um right before public comments so everybody can be more well informed are you okay with that move Linda moving them up a little bit more so I don't mind moving them up but I would like 803 802 before 801 okay 803 it's not a problem they're all related so thank you I appreciate it so so far I have um in the order of 803 802 and then 801 uh before public comment so that would be uh after 302 is that correct after after 202 I thought you said before public comment 302 right after 302 right before four yeah right before four perfect okay okay that's good okay so I got 803 802 and 801 any other changes okay seeing none uh we'll go ahead and take the vote on this uh no that's not necessary Perfect all right we'll move on um special presentations uh the Seal of biliteracy achievement awards fifth grade student recognition uh we have somebody here to present us with that I'm going to turn it over to uh Mr Sanchez thank you welcome Mr Sanchez thank you board president um Britney rles coordinator of academic services will help us recognize these students um so if we could unmute Britney reels welcome Britney hello good evening board members Dr Bower and our elmrock community um we would like to congratulate the hardworking students um of utante for their achievement of the pathway to the Seal of biliteracy these are for students who were unable to assess last spring due to school closures um I am going to hand it off to um our lovely principal at adalante Maria Martinez and she's going to announce our students who received this very impressive award welcome M Martinez thank you so much it's a pleasure to be here this evening to announce the students who earn the pathway to the Seal of biliteracy again through all of the challenges with covid and the school closures these students held steadfast and were able to achieve this wonderful um goal so um I will go ahead and start with naming Natalia ven Korea paa Cruz Espinosa uh Carlos J Jesus Garcia Martinez samanta moriera and Evana Lorena ordas so I want to congratulate these students again and I look forward to continuing the work with our students earning the pathway to the seila by literacy thank you thank you so much um and I don't know I if there's anything else I saw maybe okay um any of the board members would like to um say anything have any comments good job that's it thank you Linda congrats uh bo Vice board president yes Dr bar congratulations thank you I just wanted to highlight for the community that this is a very difficult test the students need to take this is not for the faint of hearts so their achievement is tremendous so my heartfelt congratulations to the students and their families because it's it's h it's a very difficult test thank you know anything you'd like to share before I say a few words I know just congratulations and excellent work everybody I I do I want to say I'm not feeling great tonight so my participation might be uh muted but probably to some people might appreciate that oh thank you thank you so much uh for your input and uh for being present um and the only thing I'll add to that is you know bilingual you know being bilingual is so important um not just the language but also you know the culture and so I know adante you all do a great job of doing both not just the language but also understanding the culture and so um congratulations to the staff as well for supporting those students you know along with the parents of course U but all the teachers that you know uh we're there helping the students um move along in the process to be able to get to where they're at so congratulations to the entire Community thank you um and now we'll move on to 202 board update on distance learning and support services um and who will be presenting sure board president Cora um I'm gonna be using that little thumbs up uh in order to indicate that I want to speak so just want to make sure that you're aware of that okay thank you um did I miss did you want to add anything by any chance before we move on uh n just you well I guess yeah may as well um congratulations for for all your diligence your hard work um I became aware of some of the issues not some of the issues but the difficulties of the of the exam uh just recently when I was made aware by uh some of the uh faculty there and uh you know I I have a better understanding of of the hard work that went into the results that the kids achieved so it just makes you appreciate that much that much more yes thank you so much um and then seeing none I'm going to make sure I look to see if there's any hands up or anything like that before we move on um I don't see any so we'll go ahead and move on to 202 uh Dr Bower do we have somebody that's here to present on that I have Mr Sanchez is gonna take the lead on this one and I just want to thank all the staff that put this together um this is a tremendous effort and has Carri us through very difficult times so I want to publicly thank Mr Sanchez for putting this together and for the staff supporting um sometimes you know we forget about the the the very diligent administrators behind this and so thank you Mr Sanchez for putting this for for the public and for the board for their um uh so that they can be informed about the efforts uh from alumrock thank you thank you welcome back Mr Sanchez president uh erera I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to share with the community with the board uh the wonderful work uh I'm going to ask that we unmute um director uh Barbara Campbell uh for the presentation um and if we could give her uh co-hosting ability so she can bring up the presentation I also want to unmute uh Sandra uh gcia also she's going to be helping us with the presentation and Tony Colona so the idea here today was to give you a very comprehensive um yet summarized um version of the tremendous work that has happened in alumrock for the last um I want to say the last nine months um and it truly has been a team effort next slide please I want to remind you of the driving principles of the work right as we planned out how we were going to be supporting students through distance learning we wanted to ensure their safety uh we wanted to ensure high quality teaching being responsive to the needs of the community supporting staff um making sure that we're providing the necessary intervention to address learning loss and making sure that we're also um recognizing the social and emotional needs of our students next slide next slide please so this presentation was prepared by the various departments and instructional Services as well as Child Nutrition services and it's to give you a glimpse of um again the tremendous amount of work um that goes into everything that we do uh through distance learning so here's a list of all of our coordinators and directors that help put this presentation together and today as I shared with you uh Sandra uh Barbara and Tony Colona will help us present um just a a a brief uh yet comprehensive overview of the work so I will turn it over to Barbara Campbell for the next slide good evening so I wanted to start out by just Shar sharing with everybody um that all our students have one to one are either one to one with Chromebooks or iPads hotpots are available as needed tech support is provided in English Spanish and Vietnamese upon request we are exploring in the process right now of exploring a single sign on to be able to access the different platforms that are that are available for the students and some of the programs are available for all students students and we have some other programs that have been provided for targeted supports for different students on this slide you will see a general summary of the components of our distance learning plan it includes synchronous and asynchronous guidelines and learning instructional minutes assessment for monitoring learning loss and again I wanted to share in order to support the social emotional learning is all student students and teachers participate in a morning meeting every every morning from Monday through Friday professional development has also been a huge Endeavor during this time in order to support everybody professional development and resources take four primary um four P primary forms first you will see there's the virtual learning sessions and those are sessions where there's trainings for teach Paras subs and community aons in a variety of different um programs and supports and ways to deliver instruction we have the virtual learning um sorry the edtech coaching and that's kind of oneon-one support when teachers request to assistance to be able to work through some of the programs or learn something new we have distance Learning Hub and that's housed on our District web page and it houses professional development resources including training recorded trainings handbooks YouTube tutorials and additional resources that anybody can access if they missed a training they can go back and check that out and last of all there's curriculum support that's housed also to to support the teachers in order to support our English language Learners we are we've done a variety of trainings for our teachers this year as you can see we on the slide we've done four cycles of el toolkits of strategies that the Santa clar County Office of Ed has presented in K3 and 48 and that's in order to better support the integrated ELD we have purchased and and provided some supplemental programs that support our English language Learners at their own um English proficiency level like brain pop eel listen wise for M for middle school that's a program that supports them their listening speaking and reading and then there's El resources that are provided for the elementary teachers that help them um their materials that'll help them do their designated ELD and we just finished five full day Saturday trainings on conducting meaning which is a which is a way of providing El supports to our students in any core subject area next I'm going to talk a little bit about again just share that our newcomer interventions um are going on this is a districtwide um Endeavor we have classes going on for Spanish English so the students can get a a teacher that can support them in English while they're support them in Spanish while they're learning in English and also students that are Vietnamese speaking that are newcomers and these are students that have been in the country less than 12 months I've been here a little over 12 months but there still a proficiency level of a one and these happen on a daily um on a weekly basis they've been going on since October and there was a parent orientation for it and they're going very well the kids are very excited some one of the teachers even mentioned that um their Stu her students asked her to hold a class during Thanksgiving week off because they were so excited so again it's been very successful and the kids really appreciate the support sorry about that there we go so I want to talk a little bit about Al pack testing our English language proficiency assessment for California in the fall in SE um August September October we completed the the um initial lpac testing we tested 431 students majority were one-on-one testing and in person and there was some remote optional program U testing done and these are for the brand new students and students that have that are just being ident that are just being entering our system I wanted to share that in in February we will begin the summit of elpac and that's for every student that is already designated English language learner and as you can see we have 3,400 students that are going to need to take this test and this is going to be a combination of in-person and remote testing for grade levels in three through eight and for tk2 it's all oneon-one testing and that'll be done with our academic service testers so it's going to be a pretty big Endeavor but we are stepping up to the challenge and and working through everything we need to do to be able to do this I wanted to share um about some of our additional programs that we have available so here I think are music programs so as you can see the current music programs are being offered during distance learning we have choir at some of our vapa schools going on we have General music at all our elementaries and then we have the band programs for some Elementary for fourth through fifth and middle school jazz band and Mariachi and on the bottom you'll see a lot of the programs that help support the implementation of these band programs [Music] in in addition for some of our vapa programs and sports programs these are I wanted to just mention some of the programs that are happening again all virtually we have theater going at kurtin and Joseph George Visual Arts programs going at Joseph George Renaissance one and two and Shephard we have media arts happening at hubard and then we have physical education happening at all our middle schools and as prep uh providers in our upper elementary schools and along the bottom here you're going to see these are some of the digital some of the art programs and projects that the kids have done at Joseph George that we're just sharing some of the samples that they've been doing during this distance learning and I'm going to hand it off to Sandra Garcia good evening everyone um I am here this evening to share a little bit of information on early learning and then I will share some information on carepods and our after school programs to begin with uh for early learning we're currently serving um 1,257 children in alumrock um in our preschool programs um in adant 1 two and then our painter uh parent Cooperative uh we have 65 alumrock teachers involved in collaborative Thursdays and these meetings are planned and presented by the teachers they have um monthly topics that they discuss and share with one another um including student engagement and self-regulation um games to um share in the classroom and then some tech tips that they um share with one another to um as a part of the um professional development that they offered one another next slide please uh our youngest uh students are learning how to self-regulate pay attention listen in class um and get along with others we've been very fortunate to have um some of our um Community Partners uh with make donations to our programs for example our first five first five donated some um social emotional calming kits for teachers and these are also used in the home uh we have raising the reader uh that donated six weeks of uh School home activities in English and Spanish uh for families to use um both at school and at home uh the collaboration of teachers again um they've adapted their lessons to U meet the virtual classroom needs and uh have been very constant in in preparing pickup toolboxes for students to use at home um filled with materials needed in their classrooms next slide please as with everything else you know we have to make sure that we evaluate student progress and um the way we are doing that this year through the virtual learning is um by um observation and um monitoring student engagement the use of U multimedia for teachers to gauge how students are are um picking up uh information that um is being shared in class um so that they're able to communicate their learning of numbers and shapes and letters and um things like that following directions we also have a program called CIS that is a social emotional curriculum that is being used in all of our early learning programs now a little bit of information on um some of the the extra supports that we are providing our students um care pods care pods were launched in mid October as a pilot at Madson and San Antonio schools and we are currently running car Pods at all alumrock schools um we have 33 pods open districtwide each pod serves up to 10 students um and runs um Monday through Thursday from 8:30 to 3 pm uh with a shortened day for our TK Kinder students till 1 pm uh these programs are staffed by our Asus uh Partners YMCA think together City year and citizen schools and the main objective of these um carepods is to connect our students to their online classes we are serving some of the highest need students in these programs um and have really seen a big difference in their engagement in and attendance in their online classes since opening these care pods next slide please some of the additional um support that we're offering students are T tutoring and learning Support Program um we have contracted with various um agencies to provide additional academic support to our students um focusing on our high need students such as Foster youth our homeless students migrant students and English Learners as well as any other student that is just um having a really difficult time um with some learning loss um these programs are uh by principal referral and um we um at this time our serving over 2,000 students through um agencies such as tutor work silven learning paper Incorporated and reading Partners in January we will begin some new programs with our other partners Bay Area tutoring Silicon Valley Ed foundation and springboard and we'll continue to um reach out to families that need this support um for their students next slide please my last slide is about our um after school Partners so we're very fortunate to continue to receive Asus funding this year um to provide uh support for our students during the school day um the governor approved a flexibility waiver that allows us to use um the the funding and the staff that we typically use for our after school programs during the school day and so um we are using um our agency staff to um work virtually in the classroom to support teachers with their online classes um and some of the variety of ways that they are supporting is to manage the chat box um in the class which allows the teacher to continue with the lesson so that questions could be answered redirecting students um when they're not paying attention you know or need some redirection and providing small group tutoring support within um a teacher's online class we've also uh provided after school support for students in homework um seal activities apprenticeships and um other club type activities as enrichment for students um some of the other support that these Aces providers are um delivering is parent trainings tech support for parents and then also some of our material distribution um at the sites thank you I I'll um turn it over now I'm sorry supposed to introduce Tony Colona director of special ed and he will share some information on our special ed services good evening um in special education we're currently as of today serving 1,221 students with IEPs and Alam Rock and our special education teachers par professional psychologist speech therapists ABA have all come together to support our students during this challenging times and our case managers have worked collaboratively with parents to design a program that meets all of the services in the students IEP whether that be speech counseling adaptive physical education occupational therapy our ABA it's all um the programs been design through the IEP process to meet the individual students needs for some that's through synchronous asynchronous and a combination next slide we also are continuing to assess students we're currently in the process of assessing 149 students um for to determine eligibility for services it's in including approximately 44 students that are being assessed through our preschool Assessment Center they we continue to mon our progress on goals during distance learning and our Behavior Specialists are offering parent trainings that are open to everyone and just a little bit more about our assessments we're doing that you know by maintaining all safety precautions so we're doing that through a series of record reviews we're also conducting virtual assessments in-person assessments and when needed um timeline waivers and so for the new year our next steps we want to continue to monitor our students progress to determine if there is any learning loss we are looking to open care pods for some of our most needest students in the new year and then our Behavior Specialists will continue to offer professional development they 've offered so far three sessions it's been open to all parents and that um we hope that to continue into the new year now I'm going to hand it off to Mr Sanchez on oh sorry I did have one more so I just want you know this is just a little snapshot of some of our different classes and I just wanted you know add that my 25 years in the district you know we've always believed in alumrock that all students can learn and during this time there just it's just looks a little different now I'll hand it off to Mr Sanchez I want to talk to you a little bit about some of the other things that we've been doing uh especially in the area of or social emotional learning prior to covid-19 the demand foral was clear the global pandemic has further illuminated the need foral to care for our students their families staffs and ourselves with this in mind our district began the school year by introducing Castle frame the castle framework the collaborative for academic social and emotional learning with five critical seal competencies self-awareness self-management social awareness relationship skills and responsible decision making next slide please our administrators teachers and counselors have worked diligently to bring into the classroom and as a whole school these efforts include but are not limited to morning meetings the implementation of curriculum called kimochis at the elementary schools uh the continuation of PBIS and restorative practices two pilot programs at George and Shepard Middle School District and site leaderships uh leaders continue PD every month on transforming seal transformational I'm sorry next slide please another uh very obvious but very important area right is the area of mental health and wellness um school counselor interns under the supervision of our coordinator of mental wellness support services are able to provide different types of services one-on-one telec counseling small group counseling classroom guidance conflict mediation crisis assessment and intervention and this has been a tremendous effort uh by our interns and by um support staff that we have here at the district um these are individuals that are not only working Monday through Friday these are individuals that are often called on weekends to support families to support students in crisis next slide please students have continued to struggle with being away from school because they miss their friends teachers and their staff the regular routines um this has resulted in the increase of students experiencing overwhelming emotions the struggle these struggles can manifest themselves in self harm suicidal ideation which requires crisis counseling there are various supports for students their families and staff when they are experiencing a crisis or a very challenging situation these are some of the examples as I shared with you earlier next slide please some of the additional supports that we provide our families and Community um are through our school Link services coordinators they have been servicing alrock Families in Need by referring them to receive support for food shelter rental assistance and Mental Health Services they are currently coordinating parent trainings districtwide SLS coordinators are providing case management support for our mckinly vento families um and this is just an example just a brief example of the many many things they do um to support our families next slide please we want to make sure that we thank our partners uh they have been a tremendous support um for the work over the last few months Our Family Resource Centers have been the Hub of supporting a lot of this work through food distribution diaper distribution parent workshops referrals for additional supports and just uh being some someone there to listen to a family in need um I'm meeting with our Family Resource Center um providers every other week uh to update them on how we can better coordinate um to update and share some of the different services that we're providing as a district as well as them sharing with us some of the different things that they're doing um you know you have an image there of food distribution I know that we had some of our Family Resource Centers open even during um Thanksgiving break providing for families as much as they could next slide please one thing that I wanted to highlight is on the work that our teachers are doing regarding student engagement right and this is not just teachers right this is our administrators and our support staff as well um teachers have been supporting student Engagement online instruction teachers um and front office staff have collaborative monitoring uh have collaboratively been monitoring students oftentimes we have individuals individual students that are struggling so we find different ways to connect with them um we're not only calling students we're not only sending messages via email we have principles visiting homes we have our community layons making sure that everything's okay at home we're doing anything and everything possible to ensure that students are connecting online and that they have the support that they need in order to be successful next slide with regards to health and safety um our nurse team along with school health assistance contined to work to ensure that students are receiving the medical services that they need they continue to stay updated with regards to the latest on covid-19 information uh constant communication with Public Health Department uh constant communication that goes out to our principles to our teachers and to our community about different things that may be changing and resources that are out there in the community um regarding covid-19 I know that you've heard many many many times about the tremendous work that our child nutrition services department has been doing uh for the last uh nine months and I I want to highlight that by sharing the next slide which really captures the magnitude of this work right we as of Thursday um we have served over a, 148,00 meals for our students you know put that um you know and imagine how much work has gone into preparing those meals Distributing those meals communicating with families coordinating efforts ensuring that everybody is staying safe and healthy um you know our child nutrition services team deserves a tremendous Round of Applause um I just W to finish up um by saying that none of this would be possible without our amazing teachers our tremendous support staff and our incredible administrators um that show up every single day um ready to support our students in any way um and any need that they may have and this is done effortlessly uh with tremendous energy with tremendous passion so um I just want to take this moment to thank our teachers our support staff and our administrators um for this tremendous work and will leave you with a little gift and that will be the next slide and then if you have any questions you guys can ask them [Music] [Applause] [Music] the [Music] a [Applause] [Music] la [Music] Happ well if you guys don't think this is amazing I don't know what um this is just a a little glimpse of the tremendous um the magical things that happened with our students with our teachers on a daily basis and so hope you enjoyed it as much as I did and I know it was a quick presentation but I hope it gives you a glimpse of uh the amount of work and the amount of effort and the amount of passion that that goes into everything that the Alam Rock team does thank you so much Mr Sanchez uh thank you so much staff and before we go into U board uh comments or questions uh we'll go ahead and go into public comment uh afar can you tell us um how many people we have on the list currently there is only one okay um I so um I there's only one and that's great and I know that on some there's you know more than 20 and I know we have a limit of 20 so um I I wanted to see just to keep it consistent um if we can share our um a public comment to one minute and maybe now we could leave it at two if there's I mean if there's only one obviously but maybe if you know um yeah I roio um is it okay to keep it at two and then at the next one if we have I don't know more than 10 people to put it at one minute is that okay to do uh yeah that that is okay to do if you like okay okay yeah for me it's important to hear from as many people as possible so we have one so we'll keep it at two minutes um and can you tell us who that is outar yes now there are two the first person is Veronica okay uh Veronica um as soon as you begin speaking uh the clock will begin welcome great thank you so much and thank you Bo president and congratulations board president uh kinaa um I just really want to thank alen Rock staff um for this great presentation I also want to take the time to thank the teachers um you know I know that both of my child's teachers are amazing and doing all the work that they can as well as the staff um from the different organizations that um Alan brck has partnered with um and it's just you know I think we're all right like we if we've all been putting this really complicated space and tragic space um and we've all taken it with Grace so I really want to extend thanks to all the stuff and as you can hear my son it's singing in the back that song um but yeah thank you so much for that thank you to the teacher the staff of alen rock um and the presentation was great as well I do want to give some feedback on it I would love to see um where the donations um such as the Comming kits went to a little bit more detail on that just to know that to make sure that we're not um duplicating our efforts to one school or to um you know and we're more um and we're seeing where the Caps are going so we can bring more Partnerships into that again thank you so much um and hope to hear more in the board meeting thank you uh who else do we have after the next person is Camille fonton Camille welcome as soon as you begin speaking the uh clock will start hi good evening board president Corina Herrera Loa congratulations um and other board trustees Dr Bower I just wanted to congratulate you all um I think in the context in which we're operating in to see those numbers um to see the impact of each department and the staff um it's been incredible work and I know it's been hard work and oftentimes it's been very traumatic work um I appreciate you uplifting the the voices and the needs um that continuously persist amongst our population um but I think it's just important to name that your team has pivoted like many teams um in our community and we are all you know working diligently to make sure that our families have what they need and I think um your teams need to be credited for that and so we are grateful um as almost Mayfair to partner with you all um and then on a personal level as a parent um I also want to Echo Veronica's comments our teacher um all the teachers have been phenomenal in this um very difficult time adjusting to technology um and new learning for them um and trying to remain positive throughout it all um and keeping School communities um close and tight through it um so hats off to all of you um and I know it's going to get harder and we just got to keep working together so thank you have a good night thank you anybody else off T yeah we have two more the next is d daa as soon as you begin speaking the timer will will start d s you [Music] there yes can you guys hear me okay I have a quick clarification is this is public comment or about the presentation this is regard public comment on the presentation oh okay thank you so I just want to say thank you for the presentation uh I do want to lift them the great work that our um teachers is doing day by day especially with our students um and I know it's a hard time but you guys are doing a great job teachers um staff principal um it's really an honor that my um students go with uh attend your schools and that you are teaching my students on behalf of the students I'm so proud of all of them making the best es especially in this pandemic and as we could see and as they say music is the um food of the Soul you guys made my night with that a spectacular presentation it was a beautiful surprise to see it and it's a beautiful surprise always to to see our students succeed in every single aspect especially Arts um so thank you very much and have a really good evening thank you daa uh and the next person outar is foron my name is flor de Leon I am a par and a community organizer uh with um I wanted to say thank you for the presentation it answered a lot of questions that I have on um item 8.01 uh but I also want to um say that in regards to providing the meals you know uh we still have a lot of families that don't have the access to a car and uh there are a lot of families that sometimes cannot access the food and there's also families that sometimes is really far away for them to go to to access the the the pots that you guys have uh there's parents that have quit taking their kids to the school because they have a little one that they have to take out early in the morning when it's really cold and I'm wondering what are we doing um in a way I know that you you're telling more of what what is what you are providing but what are you doing in a way of reaching out to those people uh if if have you ever thought about using the buses and picking up students you know like uh we know we don't have a big number now but maybe identify part parents that need a ride um for school for their kids uh and also like in the food distribution you know I I also uh think that sometimes other parents don't have the right but they need the food and they don't have that access to the food if they would be a way in the future to do a delivery or find ways to get these people the access because of unfortunately a lot of times people that have a car or have other things that others don't and they don't get that access but I really want to thank for that presentation thank you Flo any others after yes next person is Claudia K Claudia as soon as you begin speaking your uh T the Tamer will begin good afternoon my name is Claudia quo um I'm a parent of a student of the special education program at your District um you know I really like the presentation I love to hear that um you guys provided social emotional um calming kits and that um there's a way you guys are teaching self-regulation I would love if you guys can share those Resources with our special education um I have not seen that available to our department just now and um I feel it's one of the Necessities that we do have thank you very much thank you uh anybody else alar uh none none thank you so much now I'll go ahead and open it up to the board members I have a question um uh I believe that ex trustee uh Karen Martinez has been trying to get in and it's not allowing her in is there a way that you can help her out there because she's been trying to make a comment marel if you can please look into that um and get back to us uh I would greatly appreciate it otherwise uh hopefully we see her name pop up here um Linda do you have any comments on this on this uh presentation or questions I do um first I just I just need to say that I have like a wide screen and nobody's coming through so uh I don't know what's happening there but as far as the comment on the presentation I want to thank everybody at the district that did such a good job um through all of this and also I want to um touch base on something that I believe it was Floy who said that a lot of these people don't get what they need and I know that there is uh places that they can go there's uh some that are more needy than others and is there a way that maybe the county or the city could come up with maybe like they have the EBT cars but something instead of it like if you go to one of these places that go pick up food if you can't get to one certain spot because they already run out of food can they go to another food pantry and maybe they could set it up with a food Harvest who is donating the food uh I was at um River of Life Church this week and I seen that there's such a big need uh of these people coming for food and if they can make it more accessible to the ones who don't have vehicles who can pick it up uh who can't pick it up if like if there's a different way to do it in partner with the city and county and see how they can the how the most needy can get their needs met thank you thank you um I don't know B would you like to respond to that or do you have anything to say to that I can also take it offline fantastic I I think it's a great idea I I'm making notes about the ideas um I'm going to look into that I know that there are a lot of people helping each other um I think that there just a matter of coordinating some of those networks um but I you know at this moment all I can tell you I'm taking notes of that and see what how we can follow up I also didn't mention City team and City team was the one that was at the River of Life Church and Pastor Randy has been doing it for months and months and uh I know that there's people of the community who have volunteered uh Brenda being one of them that was also there you know week in and week out and I just want to thank all of them as well thank you thank you Linda uh and yeah uh she brought up a good point maybe um you know collaborating with some of these organizations and maybe they have resources that we might not have or working together um any other board members that would like to ask any questions or have any comments um actually I do have maybe you might also want to call uh Brenda and deas because she was the one that uh has all the numbers and contacts has and has been doing that for a long time thank you thank you Linda um and I don't don't see Andress on my screen um so let me look through my can you hear me president I can hear you but I I know okay I just I just briefly want to um reiterate what people have already said but the tremendous level of work that's been done by everyone on the team is just super impressive and every time we get these updates it becomes even more impressive so it that tells me that you know people are not resting on their Laurels and they're kind of um reacting to the needs and the changes as they come which is important we can't just develop something and then sit on that because the needs change I think that's kind of how we got like our care pods and that's how we got our our health support system our support technical support so um I just appreciate that the team continues to adapt and of course there are always things that that can be improved upon you know some good points have been brought up by the public and I think uh board members have also expressed some things as well but as I mentioned the things that I see being done by the team gives me great confidence that they will adapt and and make those modifications as as possible and as needed so thank you everyone for for all your continued hard work as we continue to navigate our way through all of this thank thank you uh and I see andrees kto with his hand up you can go ahead and speak now uh yes I want to thank uh staff everybody on the team for uh stepping up you know to hear those millions of me meals that have been passed out it's uh is impressive and so Rene did I hear it wrong or you know that's a lot of meals million million four um so that's you know I I had to do a a second look there um and so I do appreciate the fact that our staff has stepped up we know that in other places when everything went down um some places just shut shop you know close the door said we're out of here you know running running out and instead Alam Rock said let's figure out how to make this work let's figure out how to continue to serve the most vulnerable the most folks with the highest amount of need uh obviously doing it in a safe Manner and so I do appreciate the fact that uh we have a very proactive District that's stepped up uh rather than just you know freaking out and running away and saying we're done like I said unfortunately happened in other places they obviously were dragged back but uh I mean you know the leadership um reacted in a very very strange way uh but uh you know nevertheless I appreciate that wasn't the case here in elmrock um so thank you for everybody who's doing uh their their their best from our teachers to uh our classified staff to teamers uh you know everybody the administrators and if I missed anybody I do apologize but everybody thank you and I won't Echo um anything else at the board and and the uh members of the community have have stated you know I Echo everything thank you again I know we've all shifted and pivoted but especially the staff that are with our children day in day out every day um I just I I have a question I'm curious about the um morning check-ins does anybody know what that looks like what that entails um I I saw here the U morning meetings for all students um what does what does that look like for a student every morning and it VAR online okay it very it varies from school to school right and teacher um but it is a focus on the social emotional learning and I will ask Miss Ana artiguez Dr artiguez to share a little bit more about what has been shared with the teams as they engage their students thank you m artiguez so good evening board Dr Bower and Community um I can go ahead and start it off and then I'll have Dr Alazan speak to it because morning meeting um has been led a lot by Dr Alazan but in terms of morning meeting uh what we've done is we've created a space uh by supporting teachers with professional development um to basically hold space for students to respond to different prts that they bring into the space um but like I said I'm gonna have Dr Alazan uh speak to that part a little bit more go ahead Dr thank you yeah so really um it's a space for teachers and students to really build relationships and connect with one another as well as students connecting and building relationships um amongst each other as well and one of the things that Mr Sanchez um uh explained earlier was um there have been a number of schools um that have implemented kis which which is a social emotional learning curriculum um and early learning has also implemented this uh particular umal piece and really it's giving kids language to understand you know how to express you know their feelings and it could ex you know they can express it in you know in various ways um and this particular uh you know curriculum has different characters that show the range of emotions that folks you know can go through on any given moment so um that is just one way of how morning meetings um also uh you know uh are are are implemented um you know in the Middle School it's it's it's a lot you know more it's a lot more sophisticated in terms of you know of that you know I know that um when I spoke to the principal at Shepard you know their morning meetings are you know talking about you know how how students are are engaging um you know with each other and you know with with their teachers and how could they build relationships and you know strengthen that you know through through different lessons um and the curriculum that they're using is second step and um a lot of those those topics cover you know bullying um it also covers um you know communication skills um so it covers a wide range so it really depends on the developmental stage um and range of of you know our our students so it really is catered to where they're at and meeting their needs also um as as as teachers see it thank you um thank you all you know of course I know there's tests that there our children have to take and all you know but during these times obviously the social emotional piece is so important so thank you for um focusing on that and um you know maybe in the future I'd like to see you know if there is and I know that there's no cookie cutter right every teacher teaches differently and if there's some Basics that are followed so you know just to see what those Basics are whether it's you know the first two minutes you know I go around and have each child you know share a word or you know what that what that might look like um and then Renee also I was gonna um and I don't know if it would be for you Renee or Dr bow um but being that you led this presentation um I'd like to see if in the future um because it's inevitable right as much as we do we know that our children you know um grades are going to look different right uh the way we're all doing even as adults you know what we're um doing are different so I would like to see some sort of comparison as to how our um students looked you know I don't know if there's a way and maybe we can have a conversation but grade-wise you know whether it's GPA you know Middle School level but just to see a comparison of how our students we doing last year compared to this year in regards to grades um and we could talk a little bit offline but I would like to see a presentation about that um I know we're all doing you know a lot uh but I think as a trustee and and as a parent I see things in my own home and I don't know if that's reflective of the of the district I would just like to see and then to better serve our our you know children um basically overall absolutely and I know that's been a question not just at the state level but nationally right in terms of grades and how those things are being reflected um this year in comparison to years prior but we could definitely do something thank you so much um and uh before we close up on this item I would like to just uh respect I know I mentioned that we were going to look back to see if uh it sounds like uh previous trustee Karen uh Linda is that correct she text you is she on avar do you see her trying to um raise her hand is she on here is she finally in Linda do you know if she's in oh I could ask her hold on um AAR you you could see the list here do you see her on our list or marel anybody that has access to the list no we do not see her on the list and neither on in the waiting room okay yeah I don't see her okay thank you I just wanted to honor that thanks and now I'd like to move on to uh 301 public hearing for District's initial bargaining proposal to open negotiations with cssea chapter 305 for the period of July 1st 2020 through J June 30th 2023 um and if I'm not uh mistaken I just open up the hearing roio and just move on to the next that's correct no public comment public comment thank you sorry about that I'm trying to remember uh yes so I will open 301 uh up for public comment at this time after tar do we have any uh people on the list for public comment on none none okay seeing none then uh I can move on to 302 or do I have to do anything my gavel here open that up no no okay I've just excuse me Madame President yes I just want to acknowledge that I received a text from Sharon Fontaine she is the president of csca and she is unable to be uh here but she acknowledges that you know that we are sunshin in this and I just wanted to make uh this comment so that the public knows that CA sent the text uh and they thank you know uh the board for the consideration opening the the negotiation season with them thank you great thank you Dr Bower um now we'll move on to 302 but public hearing for CA chapter 305 initial bargaining proposal to open negotiations with the alumrock Union Elementary School District for the period of July 1st 2020 through June 30th 2023 uh open it up to public comment can I make a really quick thing um yeah you have a comment Linda when you asked me about Karen Martinez she texted me back and she said that she's on the screen and she's been on the screen so can you take her for public but my my understanding was that did she raise her hand but she hasn't been able to get on the last public comment and I I don't know can you see if she's on this one if and can you take her first so we can have her comment when sh U what you wanted to comment before and wasn't allowed in please Okay avar do um do we see Karen on the list yes now we do see her and her hand raised okay so thank you Karen for raising your hand and um I understand that there was an issue so um and I did uh honor the fact that you know you were trying to get in so uh Karen uh we'll go ahead and let you speak I'm not sure if you're on to speak on 302 or um or 202 I think you were trying to get on 202 so at this point we'll um let you want are you here to speak on 202 or 302 I am we can unmute her he's unmuted okay I just unmuted myself I'm not sure if you can hear now I can yes are you here for 202 or 302 um actually I'm sorry I'm on my phone and I'm not able to to see the item okay I'm sorry Linda mentioned that you had something uh to say on public comment on 20 202 what item were you here to speak on I'm sorry with regards to the candidates okay that was done earlier um at our special board meeting that began at 4:30 um we do have public comment coming up later where you're able to address the board um for anything that's not on the agenda uh and we're not there yet but Welcome to our meeting thank you uhuh I'll wait okay thank you um so moving on to public comment for 302 um avart do we have anybody on to speak for none okay see none we'll go ahead and move on to item 803 and before we begin on 803 um I would like to request of the board if you are all okay with at 8 o'cl taking a f minute break um I think it's for the well-being of ourselves our bodies our breathing our mental health are you guys okay with taking a break at at 8 o'clock yeah that's fine yes five minutes okay so we'll move on to 803 response to Santa Clara County Office of Education letter regarding the fiscal crisis management assistance teams fiscal health risk analysis report um and Dr Bower do we have somebody that's gonna present on this yes I'm gonna turn the next three the next two items are going to be Mr Chang just so that you know Madame President and um that the last one is going to be um Mr Chang and Miss Sandra Garcia just so that you know the staff ready to go on that thank you so much Mr uh Chang um we'll go ahead and open up the floor to you for 803 we can unmute him yes we can welcome board president um members of the board and superintendent Dr Bower um with regards to items um 8.03 response to the Santa CL County Office of Education uh we did provide the letter from the county um and our response in the board book um but for the records I do want to read um the response that we prepared um and also provided in the board book so with that I'll start um with the response letter that we that we shared um the purpose of this memorandum is to respond to the C sec's letter dated November 10th uh 2020 regarding fmats FH report uh SEC noted that the fcmat report indicated that the district is at high risk of fiscal solvency and shared its concern in the areas of aligning Staffing uh with declining enrollment ongoing pattern of deficit spending delaying necessary spending reduction use of one-time Federal fund um and other reserves to pay for ongoing expenditure um in addition to that the patient of Reserve outstanding cops obligation and the expiration of partial tax at the end of FIS schal year 2122 um it is important to note that the fmet report was based on the review of The District's 20 uh fisal year 2021 adopted budget uh which was approved by the governing board on uh June 25th 2020 um the 2021 adopted budget was developed based on the May revision assumptions uh from the state which included approximately 10% reduction to the local control uh funding formula as well as other categorical programs uh subsequently the state enacted its 20 um 2020 21 budget which eliminated the cuts to lcff and categorical programs and replaced them with cash uh deferral um consequently the district's revised its 2020 adopted budget as part of the 45 day budget revision process uh which was adopted by the governing board on August 13 2020 uh for comparison purposes in order to meet the state minimum reserve requirement uh the district's 2021 U adopted budget reflected approximately 4.2 million 15.2 million and 22 million of unspecified reduction for fiscal year uh 2021 2122 and 2223 respectively um the 45-day budget revision balance uh of approxim $5.7 million um and $10.6 million in fiscal year 2021 and 2122 respectively however uh the 45 day budget revisions identified approxim approximately $9.9 million of reduction um that will need to be made in fiscal year by fiscal year um in order to meet the state's minimum reserve requirement um as noted in the sec's letter um the 201920 an AIT actual which was approved by the governing board on September 10th 2020 recognized Savings of appr of approximately $2.2 million uh mainly as a result of the pandemic shelter and place order um The District's administrations recognizes the challenge it faces during these extraordinary times of uncertainties and is committed to continue informing and providing recommendation recommendations to the board the governing board in order to keep the district's Financial uh financially solvent the district would like to thanks sccoe for its continued support and shared interest in keeping the district Financial solvent uh that ends the memo thank you thank you and um it was on for information only do we uh open it up for public comment at this time okay after do we have anybody on for a public comment at this time on this item none okay thank you I'm seeing none uh thank you Mr ca for that um any comments questions from the board uh Linda go ahead you know that's of great concern when they write you a letter back saying that there's an ongoing pattern of deficit spending delaying necessary spending reductions so um we're going to be in big trouble or we were already in big trouble because we didn't make the May revisions that we were supposed to We were supposed to do all those cuts we didn't and now we're going to be faced with even bigger debt down the line so I won't be supporting this thank you uh Madame President I just want to clarify for everybody uh trusty Chavez this is our response to them this is they didn't send this letter we responded to them they presented in September thank you Dr B and also just to point out this is on for information only um M Chavez so um yeah we won't be voting on this you have something else to add yes we've already known the problem um and yes this is our response but it's still the same that we still are in deficit spending we're we're going to be in a lot of you know we're GNA have to be be doing a lot more reductions and that's why we're going to have to be doing 802 as well so I'm just saying that when it does come for a vote I won't be supporting this thank you uh thank you Linda um and I'm not sure when you say you won't be supporting this as Dr bber mentioned this is a response that we uh gave and um so I'm not sure about not supporting this it's on for information only actually later on there's a vote that's going to take place on the um and then I'll speak to it then I guess I'm just I'm just relating it to 803 we're on 803 right now information only yes okay anybody else have any comments or questions to this item uh go ahead uh Ernesto can you hear me I just uh first of all thank you Mr changen for the um reading that out to us I'm just wondering U because you know the letter is is written in a way that makes sense for for that the purpose that it serves but I'm wondering if you could just um remind us or remind the public in in layman's terms or a brief synopsis of what the letter is saying um and you know obviously not with any don't need to go into any granular detail or anything but just um to remind us what because I think most of what's in the letter is not new to us it's information that we have known um to this point but if you could just again summarize in layman's terms so that people understand what um is in that response letter if that's possible sure I I'll try my best um you know you know the the fmat team came in and performed a health um analysis on on the district um and based on the report they required to send to the county office because the county office has fiscal oversight um over all the districts in this County um and it's their role to also um notify um the districts that they received the report um and here are some of their comments uh regarding the report and our response to that was based on the letter that they sent to us um the the response from the districts um intended to clarify some or provide some clarification in terms of um the timing spmat um conducted their analysis um and the position and the financial position that the district was in um and the key point that we wanted to highlight in that response letter was that when the fmat team was here um they were doing the analysis based on our adopted budget which was which was developed based on the May revision um um assumption provided by the by the state uh recall that um the May revision uh proposed some very tronent cuts um they proposed 10% cuts to e um and some other categorical programs um that was the state proposal back in May um budget based on those assumption um that the state provide at that time um subsequently about maybe not even a month later uh when the state uh finally approved their budget um they eliminate all that cut um the 10% cuts to lcff and also to categorical programs um the switch off is that um when they took away those cuts um they implemented cash referrals which means that um the apportionments some of the apportionments that that they were planning on sending to the district this year would be theer um to the to the next fiscal year and so that was the give and take between um between the the the significant cut and and what the state put in place to um to kind of Rectify their own situation um and so that was that that was really the key points just to identify that when the fmat team was here they were reviewing a set of reports at a set of timeline um when we Revis that report at the 45-day revision um you know we update based on the elimination of the 10% cut and also factoring of the Furr so um that's kind of the the overview of and and the clarifying point that we wanted to um point out in that response letter so is it fair to say to the letter itself is an acknowledgement that we do understand that that we um have additional cuts and and what to do with our budget but it's not um but those cuts don't match what was initially set forth um the first time is that fair to say that is correct yes okay thank you uh Linda go ahead so on 802 in the last paragraph before the recommendations uh the last senten sists that this means that the district may not be able to meet the financial obligations for the current fiscal year or subsequent two years this is what I was referring to when I said that I couldn't support that because of the last line in this paragraph before the recommendations to approve I can approve something that they already know that we're not going to most likely we're not going to meet those financial obligations that's it thank you L we'll we'll move on to that but right now we're on 803 thank you for that um Andre would you like to ask or uh have any comments before we move on I don't see your hand so I'll take that as a no um at this point this is information only so um we'll go ahead and move on to 802 I think I was going backwards so we started with 803 going backwards to 802 um and I I think you mentioned Dr bow that it would also be CA yes okay thank you so much yes I and I believe it's probably go 801 to provide the uh budget overview for parent because that's the narrative part that's kind of uh written um description of what the district is doing and then we can move into the first interum so Madame pres is it okay with you to move 801 uh no I'm sorry see 801 right there 802 that is correct uh roio I know we approved the agenda earlier is that okay to do at this time I believe that's fine okay so we'll go ahead and uh take 801 first and then go to 802 okay um and then at this point I would like to invite uh Miss Sandra Garcia um and Mr Gil if you can provide her um or unmute her mic and also um allow her to share her screen as she's unmuting uh herself at this time um I know we mentioned a break at 8 but I would like to maybe hear both of these items and then take a break if you are all okay with that we can just hear this together that's fine okay um thank you if I don't see any other uh opposition then we'll do that 801 802 and then a break thank you Sandra all right good evening uh president erera Dr Bower and members of the board and community members um I'm here this evening uh to um provide a brief presentation on the requirement for the budget overview for parents which is up for board approval this evening I'm going to begin with um some background information on the compliance requirements for the um budget for parents so California Ed code requires the budget overview for parents to be developed annually along with the elap uh due to the changes during the pandemic s uh Senate Bill 98 uh changed the adoption date to December 2020 um in conjunction with the Lea's first interim budget added in the requirements for this year um is a um requirement to add the cares act funding info into the budget overview and also budgeted expend expenditures in the learning continuity plan the contents of the budget overview include the following so the first um chart in the overview is um the total general purpose revenue for our district um what we expect to receive in 2021 School Year from all sources so this is a chart that shows all the sources of revenue for our district included in this Revenue are portions of the teacher retirement uh Federal Lo local and state funding that must be used for restricted purposes and then the remaining general fund balance that pays for General operating cost featur operational cost Transportation utilities and special cost the second chart uh provides a quick summary of how much um alamro Union Elementary School District to spend for Planned actions and services in the learning continuity plan for 2020 2021 if you remember that is the plan that replaced the lcap for this school year um and also how much of the total is tied to increasing or improving services for high need students so and then the next uh chart uh this chart Compares what our district budgeted in 201920 lcap which is the last lcap that we wrote for last school year for actions and services that contributed uh to increasing or improving services for high need students um with what alumrock school district actually spent on actions and services for um High need students two 201920 school year so due to the covid-19 pandemic um some of the planned actions for highe students did not materialize um and or we had to um we had to adapt to the needs of of the times so um we do have plans to support these students this year as I stated earlier in our presentation with tutoring intervention and supplemental materials services and mental health support and that's what's in the budget overview for parents are there any questions thank you and before we open it up for questions uh I'll go ahead and um open it up for public comment uh avar do we have anybody on the list and um I know it's with these times it's kind kind of difficult you know people are barely seeing and then they're putting their hands up so I'm going to give a little bit of time um for the public to raise their hand at this time if they would like to have any comments on this do we have anybody outar yes we have one dza Gonzalez um Mar we can put the clock up and uh thank you as you speak we'll go and start the CL thank you good evening once again parent of two students in Alro School District I just want to give thanks to Sandra for this presentation and explaining it as most understandable and in a language that parents can actually understand I know that um elcap is so difficult to explain and also to show and I would just like to follow up I know that um for these next three years we actually need to work on a new elcap and I would like to um yes put ourselves out there again to work in community and make sure that um when we're working for the next um elcap we can have more parent and Community engagement and um find new ways to involve parents now that we can um have multiple meetings via zoom and other and and other um social medias thank you have a really good evening thank youa uh I do we have anybody else yes we have Flo Theon Flo as soon as you speak uh the time will begin welcome Flor yes I was just on mute nice so um good evening everyone again flor de Leon I'm tired of saying my name but I have to introduce so but I just wanted to say you know um that um s this plan in just a few minutes right but when you go into what you're presenting and the paperwork that you have in the in the item on the book it's a lot to see it's a lot more to see and and I just want to point out on the on the increase improved services for high need students in the learning Contin plan for the 20 20 and 21 school year that you're basically as as what I understanding here is that you are planning to get 22 Millions for uh supplemental um um money for those kids that we mention as high need students 22 Millions right based on the enrollment for foster youth as we all know that that's that's the money that we're getting and uh and I I noticed that that that that that when you're M me mentioning uh in the in that book that says the difference projected funds budget spure in the area including actions items bued and provided in our last elap from 2019 and20 what a I'm trying to understand is like all the list that you have that you say supplemental concentration allocation for school supplemental support programs staff development teacher Pere blend the learning software Technology support and all uh Consular support and all of the the list that you have added in there I would like to see more that it's not only like telling me what is what you're spend what is what you're gonna spend but I think I I I think we need data I think we need data we need more uh understanding of what's working and what is not in a way not only that what are you providing but what is the data that shows us that the programs that we're getting is working and that and that the money is invested where it needs to be H invested thank you okay yeah sorry it's okay thank you for your comment uh avar do we have anyone else yes next person [Music] is great thank you um and thank you ward my name is bonica and I'm the parent of two um Alam Rock students and as well as part of the impu program and a part um of the reinvest for racial Equity Coalition in Alan brck schools now and um I just want to also Echo um flor's comment um I was looking at that as well and it just says those additional comment those additional um expeditors and they just go to the 21st century programming you know when we talk about uh things like that I'm not sure what we're referring to and would definitely benefit from knowing more on the programs and having that actual data be presented of like hey this is working or this is not working I think it would be beneficial um to track it as well and I'm sure we're doing it somewhere but we just need to see that out there and even if we have shown it before or not we but if the district has shown it before um you know just a reminder of like what does that what that data looks like and what are those programs right I think it was um during the previous presentation there was a um you know um director Campbell she mentioned the different programs that students are using in applications and she went into details who's using it and who's can use it and which one has supplemental so something like that would be very beneficial and the presentation was very short and very great in language however I would definitely like a longer presentation just because this is a lot of money we're talking about and we're talking about a lot of services as well for students um again that detail and data collection um please be there thank you thank you uh apart do we have anybody else none thank you so much now I'll open it up to board members any comments or questions Linda uh just like what people in the community have been saying um I think that you first need to look and and see what did work and what didn't and then put the money and spend it towards what was working versus just putting the money there without knowing what really worked and what didn't work thank you thank you uh Beano uh yeah I just had a question about the um the budgeted expenditures versus the actual expenditures um for spe for our um I forgot which slide number it was on but there's there was an amount and I think um sandre in the report and also you mentioned that it was due to the unforeseen uh nature of the environment due to covid and all this stuff but my question is that Gap or that difference or or those funds that were budgeted to be spent but were not spent uh what what happens to those those monies how were they spent or were they spent or what and it looks like Mr Chang you have an answer yeah I can I can provide um an answer to that um the money that's not spent that was Al Al um goes to our general fund unreserved and then um remember those savings that we talked about um when we close our books um the $2.2 million that part of it is is coming from some of the services that we couldn't carry to the pandemic I can identified a couple services for example summer school um after school programs that uh we couldn't carry out um because circumstances um but to your question um those money do fall to the reserves um in the unrestricted general fund okay thank you I just want to make sure that we didn't lose out on those monies or or you know for lack of spending them that they went away so I'm glad that we we still are able to utilize them as we need thank you thank you uh and uh you know I don't see Andres here oh there okay A lot has been raised about um evaluating programs services and things and the things that were presented I'd like to ask Dr B if you can go ahead and um let us know what sort of steps uh your Administration has take to go ahead and engage in evaluations I know not everything can be evaluated right away because there has to be a first time when you engage in programming and then you evaluate after the fact U so can you explain to us What U evaluation methods or have been implemented in other programs every program we purchase has an evaluation component to it to the best of ability we bring it to the board we have also embraced programs that have been posted by the community the extensive monies the the extensive amount of money that we invest in social emotional learning is is sort of like new to any district and that's at the tune of about $4 million so um you have during the presentation that Mr Sanchez had a list of those kinds of services and uh programs we are monitoring them on the on the you know kind of as they evolve uh one or one year and a half worth of implementation is really not a solid view of how the program is um working yet and also uh we have presented to the board all the the significant gains we have had last year before covid reducing a tremendous amount of suspensions and increasing attendance that we have had no expulsions in Alum Rock for the past three years so um a lot of those things we have we have brought to the board at different points and all of those things whenever somebody's presenting to you uh there are resources allocated to that specific program so I just want to remind the board about that thank you thank you and Linda you you have your hand up yeah I did want to ask a question um uh Dr Bower says that they're monitoring them when they do the monitoring that does that also include the students feedbacks and interest that they had in each program because sometimes the kids might drop off because of lack of interest because I know some some programs the kids were saying were good and then other ones were saying that it's teaching to a lower level and they just lost interest and then um speaking about like what um uh truste kto was saying about evaluating the programs I'm glad that Dr Bower uh told us about that but I still believe that we should see all of the results before we start implementing money on because we really need to find out which ones really worked and which ones didn't uh and that the money just going into the general fund I'm not okay with that I think that it should just be spent on what it's supposed to be spent and not going to the general fun thank you thank you Linda Dr B yeah I just wanted to very briefly clarify that we have by elap rules uh surveys that we have to the kids to the staff and to the parents so I want to remind the board that's part of the cycle we do have those surveys uh going on uh twice three times a year and that's how we make those decisions so just want to and we present those uh Sandra brings those to you every time we go through a a survey cycle so please remember that to connect those things you know it's all of that is connected we follow the cycle and um when those when are presented it's that's the part that we use to evaluate programs to make decisions uh and thank you trusty Chavez for asking because that gives me an opportunity to remind everybody about how this works thanks thank you go ahead Linda I remember when um she was reporting back on the surveys and the number compared to how many students uh was low and maybe we can think of a different incentive program to get more of those surveys back so that we can have all of them um chiming in on if the program was helpful to them or not thank you Sandra do you have something to respond yes go ahead I just wanted to add that the um lcap development process is also a very comprehensive evaluation of of the programs that we offer through the elcap um so every year we have our stake U stakeholder um input sessions and we involve all stakeholders in our district students parents uh teachers um um our Union um representatives and uh management team so everyone get has a say in evaluating um what we support through the AL app so I just wanted to add that piece as well thank you go ahead Linda um I went to two consecutive years of that uh when they had it and because of the covid this year I don't think we got I think we didn't do the last uh stakeholders meeting uh because of the covid and was there more results or did we just take the first two how did that work we actually did several um input sessions but we converted to the learning continuity plan which is what was required for this school year and we had several um stakeholder input sessions for those okay thank you thank you um and I don't see any more at this time uh and just before we move on it looks like uh uh Dr B you will be coming back or your staff with um some sort of uh maybe reminding us or at some some point where we uh get the the um feedback and results of some of these programs maybe we can put it somewhere with that we as uh trustees maybe can go back and look look back at you know some sort of report um but just an opportunity for growth uh thank you looking forward to seeing some of that um and now if there's no other is this to approve yes okay um any motion to approve this does require a board action move approval thank you thank you andrees moved andano second um and we don't have any other discussion we'll go ahead and move to uh vote uh trusty Linda Travis no troano hi truste or vice president Andes kto hi and myself I uh approves moving on to 80 two sorry 803 802 now um and I believe Mr CA you were gonna speak on that uh yes thank you madam president and I'll be presentation on this okay so um before I start this presentation I do want to take this opportunity to um welcome and also introduce Mr Eric deal um Mr Mr deal is currently the CBO at the county Santa CL County Office of Ed um and he's joining us tonight to provide an analysis um and also some comments um regarding the district's budget um in conjunction with the district's first interim and um also this presentation um so Mr Gil if you can also allow um or unmute uh Mr Deal's mic um and I'm not sure if he has any um presentation to share on his screen but if you can also allow him to screen share um when he's ready to go um but in the meantime um I'll start my presentation first and then I I'll call on him when he's ready when we're ready to do that okay so um with that um just wanted to go over topics that uh we'll be discussing tonight um we'll be doing a little bit refreshing on the budget cycle since um there were some changes this um this year round um also remind the board um and also the purpose and reason for why we do first interal reporting um provide an overview of the key assumption um do an update um of the major changes from the 45-day revision to the first interim um you the multi-year projections um and go over some next steps and future consideration uh with respect to the budget cycle um if you see the screen here typically um a normal budget cycle would represent um the four um bubbles that are going straight across so you would go with adopted budget first interim second interim and un audited actual um however due to um the circumstances um of the pandemic um the district did um recall that we adopted the budget on June 25th um but subsequently because of the significant changes at the state level in terms of um what the proposed what the proposed budget looked like and what they ended up with we had to also do an update at the 45-day revision um which occurred on August 13 2020 um we're now in December uh December 15th we're representing to you the first inter room um our next that would be the second inter room which um would occur in March um because um Al for a qualified District um a third inter room um will need to be presented in May um and then we start closing our books and in September uh will'll present the UN audited actuals to the board so um purpose and reason for doing a first interim um first of all it's required by Ed code um every district has to certify their budget twice a year um so now twice a year which are the first and second interim um the first interim as I just stated um is typically presented in December and then second in March um the first inter room included a snapshot um of the district's financial position as of October 31st um and projects out for the remainder of the year um in addition to that we also provide you with um the multi-year projections which um projects for the current year and to subsequent year uh why do we do it um because again assumptions uh changes constantly um and the administrations uh utilize the most current information um to be able to provide updates to the board and the list below present um some of those changes and assumptions or factors uh that may change it's not a comprehensive list um but those are just some of the highlighted ones for example enrollment in Ada um cost of living adjustment any changes to Staffing any changes to the state budget uh any changes to the federal budget um any impact of um settlement uh with respect to labor negotiation um cash flow implication and then um the last one any new laws um impacting the districts um the first set of assumptions I want to go over um is the projection um as you can see I went back to 2013 2014 and the significant of 20134 is um that's the first year um that lcff got implemented so we wanted to kind of keep track of um the time frame of when um lcff first got implemented and where we're at now um as you can see the district has been in declining mode um since even before 20134 but every year um subsequently after that uh we seen a dip um and re recently um we just did a demographic study that was presented to the board um in November I believe um and we've updated on en rollment projection based on that study itself um so that would be for 2021 2122 and 2223 so um the next steps of assumption is to go over um lcff um and how that's being calculated um one thing that that the state provided relief with um in terms of the pandemic is that they provided a whole Miss provision um to lcff calculation uh what that means is that uh for the current year we're able to use um as the declining enrollment districts were able to use the prior uh P2 Ada um to calculate our lcf funding um important to note that uh there was no Cola offer during that year or during this year um and also um as a side note uh the state is not collecting Ada for the current year um but as the requirement of distance learning uh they are required to uh take attendance um for next year um that whole harness Provisions um still um maintains and so we're able to use um the 201920 um Ada um again at this point no Cola has been provided um for 2223 um this is where the significant change is going to happen and um and later down the presentation I'll show you the impact in terms of what that has on lcff um but in 2223 that's when the whole Harless provision goes away so what that means is that um districts will now um need to start calculating their um lcff funding based on um the greater of the current year or prior Ada um so um if year 2122 is higher then we're able to use year 2122 but if year 2 23 is higher than we're able to use that year um we have one um locally sponsored Charter School aptitude um they do have the same um protection in terms of the whole harmness of 2021 um and the same for 2122 um for 2223 that whole par rision goes away um and their funding is based on um just current year AA um and at this point there's no Cola for any of those years so um this is a summary of the um lcff funding uh from this year um to year 2223 as you can see because of the whole Harless revision um the net change which you can see in this row right here uh reflected a net reduction of uh approximately $448 ,000 um but as I mentioned earlier in the slides or in the presentation that whole harm subvision goes away so what you will see is that once they start once the enroll declining um enrollment is factored in you'll see that the the changes the net change um in year 2223 when compared to uh 2122 um that reduction in lcf funding is approximately $6.8 million um other other revenues to consider um you know we did receive a lot of one-time federal simus funds this year um for uh multi-year projections those one-time funds will be removed um also noteworthy is that in 20 122 um our partial tax um expires um our partial tax is worth approximately $4.5 million right now and that $4.5 million is reflected um as Revenue in 2223 um in terms of the assumptions uh related to expenditures um the district has built in um an increase in step and columns for all three years um curs and stir rates for all three years are based on um the enacted budget um our special contribution um has increased in the out years um and there there's a requirement to um contribute 3% of the district's uh general fund budget um for routine maintenance and repair and we're complying with that um with that laws well with that requirement as well um for fiscal year 2122 um again as I mentioned before um with the with the federal dollars um some of those federal dollars were were used to um to pay for services in 2021 for position of servic that has been repurposed um those costs would then need to be moved back to the unrestricted joural fund um in 2122 um also built into um the 201122 budget year um is a reduction of certificated staff um at approximately $85,000 um salary um Aline with um the projected declining enrollment um for fiscal year 2223 um to also we're projecting again um some additional declining enrollment and we're um including um a reduction of 15 certificated um FTE again at 85,000 um average um also included in the um in the 2220 year budget um there is a $7.8 million of unspecified reduction which which the district we need to determine interim um just as a comparison um this amount was uh $9.9 million um at the 45-day revisions um and then one last note in terms of um expenditures um the the 2223 budget um does not include the potential of the $2.3 million in cops um or certificate of position of participation payment um that the general fund May potentially need need to um pick up um if the district is unable to issue any uh measure ey bonds by that time um because the funding source that was designated to pay the 2010 um cops uh will run out by 2021 so with those assumptions um first of all I want to um provide a comparison um in the unrestricted general fund um a comparison between what we presented at 45-day budget revision uh versus the uh first inter room we start with the beginning balance um which at the 45-day revision was at 10.2 um due to the savings that we were able to generate um that beginning balance um went up to 14.4 um total revenues didn't really change all that much um because we had already um because of the whole formulas in terms of lcf um so that remain pretty consistent um in terms of the expenditures I do want to point out that at the 45-day revision um there was a in this other adjustment line um we had identified $9.5 Million worth of expenditures and this was in response to uh the one-time money that we received um um from the federal government um related to the Corona virus funds um these funds are provided to the districts as restricted dollars um but when we receive that money or when we were informed that we were getting this funds back in August um there was not any clear um guidelines in terms of uh what we can use that money for um and so the district had to identify the amount that um could be offset um and also uh to to pay from that Corona virus fund so that's where you see the big differences um so at first interim uh we have made those adjustments accordingly um to each object code series um as present in the third column here um one other change to note is that um there was an increase in contributions to uh our special ed program approximately $928,000 um this is due to um the requirement of um the special ede and also um slight increase in special ed services um and then in total um in terms of fund balance um at the 45 day revision we projected that we would end the year with about 15.7 um and then the first interim um that number is 17 uh a little over $17 million um this is a comparison um in the restricted general fund um will start again with the um with the beginning balance um at the 45-day revision we have projected that we would spend all of our restricted dollars uh we did close a year uh with 2.2 in carryovers uh which then we will need to which have already been allocated um um in the first interim budget um the total changes in Revenue um is at 45 day revision was at 32 a little over two $32 million um at first interim um 33.9 and then total expenditure um the total expenditure at 45-day revision was 53.3 Million that went up to 58.3 um and then in terms of the fund balance itself um that number um since we are re reallocating the carryover at as a first interim process um we're projecting um zero fund balance for um the unrestricted general fund so those the last two slides compare what we presented um for this school year uh um a comparison of the unrestricted and restricted um at the 45 day versus the the the first inter room um this slides right here shows you the multi-year projection um and we'll first go over the unrestricted general fund um for the current year you should you'll see that we started the year with about 12.4 uh million dollar in beginning balance um a total revenue of um $17.7 million um a total expenditure of um 81 a little over $81 million um contributions um to special Le to routine maintenance um of approximately 22.2 I mean 22 Yeah close to 22.2 um which for this year um we're actually running um a surplus um which means that we're not deficit fending spending um I do want to highlight that the reason for that is because because of the onetime money that we received from the federal government um to be able to use to um offset some of these expenditures that incurred in the general fund and so with that uh for this year we're projecting our ending fund balance to be uh a little over $17 million um for the upcoming year um our total revenue is approximately $17 $107 million um total expenditure is 90.5 million um transfer out to other programs such as special ed and routine maintenance is 23.9 um you'll see here here's where it's noteworthy because last year because of the one-time money we were able to build um um a reserve um that that onetime money goes away and and consequently um and consequently instead of um having a surplus we're dipping into that Reserve um by a me $7.1 million close to 7.2 which brings our ending balance um to about $9.8 million um and in the third year out um you know you'll see as as I comment earlier in terms of the lcff uh funding you'll see that Big Cliff that dropped off close to $7 million in reduction and so if you compare total revenue from um 2122 to 2223 um you see that you know there there's close to a $7 million uh reduction there um in terms of total expenditure I want to um highlight that um in the other adjustment area here um this is the amount that um we presented in the previous slides that says okay this is close the the $7.8 million of unspecified reduction that the districts would need to make um in order to keep a district solvent um and that's that's that's the key High that I think it's not worthy to remember um for year 2223 um this is a multi-year projection for the restricted general fund um again we started the year with 2.3 and carryovers um total projected revenue of close to 34 million um total expenditures of 58 um and a contribution in um of 22.1 um and projected end ending fund balance of zero um and then for 2122 uh total revenue is 16.9 total expenditures of 40.1 million um total transfer in U for special ed and are uh routine maintenance close to $24 million um with zero uh fund balance um at the end of 2122 um and then in 2223 um total revenue 6.3 uh million um total expenditure of 40.9 million um a transfer in of approximately 24.6 million um with zero uh ending fund balance uh so with that I'll talk a little bit about um next steps and future consideration um one key highlight that uh we want to note is that uh we have not settled our contract negotiation uh with both ARA and CCA for fiscal year 2019 20 uh which was last year and 2020 um 21 um one thing we're eager looking um looking out for in terms of information and additional assumption is the January's Governor budget proposal uh for next year um and that should be available sometime um mid January um that triggers our budget development process um in January um and then in second um in March we be bringing the second interim um that would include all the assumptions um that the governor or the state is providing as part of their January Governor's budget proposal um and then we'll wait to see what changes um may occur um during the May Revis which occurs in May um and then in June um we'll be coming to the board um to do the public hearing um and also uh for the budget and lcap and uh the adoption of the budget and elcap in June um with that uh I'd like to um turn it over to Mr deal um he'll be following up um this presentation um with some of his perspective um from a county office um role Mr deal can you hear me I certainly can certainly can thank you I'm getting a okay good A little bit of echo there uh thank you Mr Chang uh good evening Board of Trustees and superintendent Bower the first thing I want to do is thank you for the most entertaining version of Feliz Navidad I've ever heard um that was that that was wonderful it was worth the worth sitting through to get to this point um and I I want to start off also by saying uh that uh I've had a chance to do a highlevel review of The District's first interim budget and uh I don't disagree with anything that Mr Chang just told you uh you know I think he did a very nice job of capturing the current state of the district's budget but I do want to add a few comments as the board and superintendent know the S Santa Clara County Office of Education has fiscal oversight of all school districts in the county and we've been actively involved in supporting Al for several years um I want to recognize superintendent Bower and assistant superintendent Chang for their leadership and the actions they've taken over the years to help stabilize the district and I also want to thank the board for recognizing the reality of the situation that places the district at risk for not meeting its Financial Obligations in future years we did recognize that the district's position did improve after closing the books and better conditions in the final state budget act and and that was reflected in our letter the district's still facing financial difficulties ahead though uh even without the current pandemic situation as Mr Chen noted on slide six alumrock like many other districts in Santa Clara county is experiencing declining enrollment the multi-year projection that was prepared for the board tonight assumes that there will be a reduction in staff through attrition that's the appropriate thing to do when a district is declining and enrollment but those reductions don't go far enough to close the gap between revenue and expenditures the the drop in FTE is merely covering the natural growth and salary cost you you saw slide that mentioned step in column and benefits um and so you know really the the reductions there are are kind of holding you steady and keeping you relatively flat on those costs uh and if you don't see that reduction in staff those savings won't materialize and all your Staffing costs are going to continue to rise as Mr changen pointed out on slide 10 and and elsewhere the district is using uh car's act funding to cover the cost of employees who whose duties have changed due to the pandemic and it appears those salaries will shift back to the unrestricted general fund in future years and that will perpetuate the structural deficit the district spend deficit spending and depleting its reserves uh the federal funding that you saw this year um is offsetting that if you were to pull that out the district would likely be deficit spending this year you know despite that Surplus that you're showing right now so without any action to reduce the expenditures these reserves will be projected to dry up in two years when that money is gone it's gone and prudent districts they budget conservatively and they often find savings at the end of the year that's what Alam Rock has seen um so it's a good thing when you end up better off in uh than you planned you know but a deficit is still a deficit until you have a balanced budget you you should avoid adding costs as particularly ongoing costs without finding savings to offset those new costs um that would also go for onetime cost so any savings that you achieve now are would lessen the amount of cuts that would be necessary to maintain your minimum reserves uh there is the placeholder in that 2223 school year of an unspecified amount of cuts in about 7.8 million um and Mr changen was right to point out uh that the revenue projections that you have for that year do include a parcel tax that expires in the prior year and it's impossible to predict elections uh you might have a really good history of your community supporting the parcel tax U but two districts did fail in their renewal of the parcel tax in this County and there were a few that were that were very close so you know there's some caution there that that if you need to recognize that that Revenue might not be there and develop a contingency plan in addition to that $7.8 million uh in order to cover that and and also to recognize the uh certificates of participation I know the district is using other funds right now to pay that debt uh but those are depleting as well so if that obligation shifts onto the general fund in 22 23 that's also going to add to the amount that you're going to have to Target to reduce in your ongoing costs in order to maintain your reserves so you know I I I'd like you to find immediate and ongoing savings to avoid the funding Cliff that's coming uh we've asked the district for a detailed fiscal stabilization plan and our 45-day uh budget revision approval letter that that we sent to you and we also mentioned it in the letter to the district uh in response to the fmat fiscal health risk analysis um we've also provided a fiscal expert to assist staff in this regard um this F fcal stabilization plan is crucial uh for the district to remain a going concern and for the county office to have confidence in the board and administration's management of the public funds so uh you know we'll caution you against taking any other action which would cause greater Financial uh distress uh Mr Cheng uh mentioned uh issuing bonds uh General obligation bonds um we recognize that the district needs to do this uh you have facility needs and also issuing those bonds will help uh take out uh the certificate of participation debt which would uh end up on the general funds uh obligation so we'll work with Mr Chang as the district prepares to issue those bonds and hope we can support you in this process while still ensuring that the district will be able to meet its Financial Obligations so I know these are tough times for all districts uh we're all dealing with pressures that we've never anticipated um the advice that I I I'll leave you with is pretty much what I would tell any District right now but you might want to take these into consideration as you develop your fiscal stabilization plan you know first it's never too early to start saving uh respond to the declining enrollment as it happens don't drive up to the edge of the cliff uh don't expect that hold harmless level uh of funding to last uh it will end and for districts that are in Decline the drop off and funding will be profound so uh even if you do have a stable level of funding you need to recognize that's going to end watch those factors that Mr Chang U mentioned on Slide Five uh the assumptions that go into your M your multi-year projection um take action to close that gap between revenue and expenditures um don't add any new expenditures you can't afford and if you do have unforeseen EXP make sure you find other savings to offset those new costs um create a contingency plan for that parcel tax uh make sure your bond financing plan is realistic and can be supported by your District's bonding capacity and use the fiscal experts uh that we've provided to you so based off of the information that you've received tonight but subject of further review uh by our office we would concur with the qualified certification uh that's presented to the board tonight it's in our mutual interest to work together and maintain the long-term stability of the district so it can continue to meet the needs of students and maybe I'll get to hear another concert in in a future meeting um and that's not just for the current and next two two years I look forward to working both with Dr Bower and Mr Jen to support Alam rock thank you thank you so much Mr do uh CL anything else to add before completing the presentation no this is a um this is a action item um as Mr D uh mentioned uh we are s certifying oursel as qualified um so requesting the board to respectfully approve that thank you um open it for a public comment at this time uh Mr avar uh do we have any I guess we'll allow seconds I know um just open it up do you see anybody on the speakers list not yet not yet a couple more seconds I know these times are hard and just want to make sure that we acknowledge the community um if they would like to speak um ask one more time Mr AAR do you see any yet yes I got four now okay um so the first person is Karen Martinez okay if we could before we we start Mr AAR I just wanted to make sure I know you know it might take a few people can you um just confirm that it's speakers is that correct we have four speakers there were four now there are three okay okay thank you um okay Miss Martinez uh welcome and when you begin speaking we'll begin your clock good morning good afternoon and evening sorry trustees um this is Karen Martinez a former board member I just wanted to address the fact is that starting meetings at 4:30 continues to remind me how Alan Rock has not been transparent and wanting Community input and I just want to remind um everybody on the board is that you are elected by us as a community and I hope that in the future you will work to have meetings at an hour that is actually relevant for everybody to be able to participate that's one and then the other is regarding the upcoming appointment seat is it to listen to the community and to the voters I'm sorry I'm sorry Miss Martinez um we're on the budget hearing um I thought you had opened it up for public comment public comment on this item we are on 802 um I'm sorry yeah 802 approved 2021 first interim report public comment on this item okay so then I can I just complete my public comment then because I'm almost done go for it thank you I appreciate it um and so I just want to reiterate that it's critically important uh for the community to have their voices heard and so I hope that you guys do the right thing and listen to the voters who have already voted and last but not least is with regards to Charter Schools and schools of choice that parents have actually fought for and ensuring that the schools that we have fought for are listening to parents in community and that we're holding them accountable and since you are the authorizers is to ensure that that happens um and I wanted to just give my support to Kip this evening thank you thank you Miss Martinez and I just want to uh remind the community that we are on item 802 approved 2021 first interim report uh and I allowed Miss Martinez to continue but if anybody else um is on for any other item I'm going to um respectfully mute you and then uh give you the time on the appropriate item um thank you so much Mr apar who's our next speaker is Veronica Veronica welcome as soon as you begin speaking we'll begin the timer Veronica are you on Veronica if uh if she's still muted or we still trying to figure out we can go on to the next speaker and come back to Veronica next person is of FL de okay uh FL welcome back um when you begin speaking I'll go ahead and start timer evening again flor de Leon par and Community organizer and I just want to talk about the intern report that you just uh all these conversation that just happened and want to say that it's very important that we pay attention on the decisions and spending that we are making and making sure we prioritize what we need to prioritize which is within classrooms you know we're going to make sure uh uh we have the tools for our kids at this time at the social emotional and I'm glad to hear a lot of of that from uh the plans that you're having to work in the future social emotional mental health uh restor up to Justice practices uh more creativity more art more more stuff that we need to make sure kids have uh what they need to to move on with life because right now it's kind of hard not only for kids for teachers for parents for everyone but we need to make sure uh we work in collaboration and making sure that our kids have the tools and what it takes to to go on a daily Bas basis when when learning with distance learning and all these uh these things that are going on but let's make sure our decisions are wise when we talking about spending and and be careful with that and that's it thank you um Veronica if we can get Veronica back on hopefully uh she can unmute herself um if we can bring her back on yes thank you and thank you for coming back it was it was um it was a little St I think I'm getting Echo sorry um can you hear me yes okay um yes I I wasn't getting the unmute button but anyways thank you so much um and thank you for the presentation and I think it's crucial that everybody in alen rock the parents and everyone knows that we're in a deficit um before I started getting involved in for meetings I didn't know we were in a deficit and so you know we always think that school just have money you know and that we just have to fight for them for programs but in reality I think our parents deserve to know that we're in a deficit and that they become part in collaboration and finding ways um to support finding you know really money from out there and so I really wanna I really want to Echo that parents need to know you know that schools need to not just in um Council um not just in parent Council meetings but in an overall caito talk about the budget talk about the budget as a district talk about the budget as a school because we're not you know schools are not are not just at a part of the district sometimes it feels that way but we're very connected and I think that knowing about the budget for the parents is so essential and so beneficial because we can brain stor ideas in how can we really go and Advocate to the county right and let them know like hey we need money and it might sound crazy right but I've seen it done and I have and I think we really need to come as a community together to find because 26 million do are not going to be found under a rock we need to work on this together um thank you that's it thank you Mica do we have anybody else Mr abor yes uh we have to next speaker next person is Brenda zenas welcome Miss Zas as soon as you begin speaking we'll go ahead and start the clock good evening board member superintendent and congratulations Cina on being board president um today I just want to speak U my concerns with this report um I know that being realistic right now a lot of families are moving out from San Jose I think this pandemic has pushed a lot of families out because of the lack of jobs here in this area and the lack of support for a lot of our families when it comes to um rent that is um something that they can actually pay living in in the Silicon Valley so looking at this and listening to um I believe it's Mr D um I just want to urge you guys to be very conscious on every spending that we do from here on and be mindful that yes we probably will lose a lot of more students and just take this very serious because this is the future of our schools and I would hate to see any schools close I would hate to see uh our teachers you know lose their jobs so this is this is a very tough job um but I think that collaborating and also Partnerships with a lot of companies and corporations that are around here Silicon Valley I believe that our district can get the support that they need so um this is a time to start reaching out and start finding ways to not use as much money in this District but use a lot of Partnerships that are around us um thank you guys so much Mr CA and Dr Bower for this report um it's very eye openening and um it's good to see where we stand as a district thank you missas the next person Mr abor is dza Gonzalez welcome back daa as soon as you begin speaking the timer will start good evening members of the board um I would like to start by thaning sah and Mr D if I have it right then I'm sorry if I didn't for the report I do want to Echo what uh the previous speaker said um Veronica about um showing and training our parents on what's really going on in the school districts um I remember before getting involved in that District I didn't really knew where the funds were I didn't really knew how it went and I started getting involved since 2012 actually when the l cap started just like cor showed and I've been seening that declining in students um your better allies and the people that will help you navigate this um issue is going to be the parents in the community when we understand the problem we understand and how to help too and um I think it's critical to give these trainings to partnership with um organizations that you guys are already doing but to teach and and bring parents to that table to be able to um understand but also work together on how can we bring more students to our to our schools I do understand that people are moving we also have each other schools um all around us but let's understand also why why those students that are able to come to our schools are not coming and be able to work with them um another thing is like when we give these trainings let's not try to give a lot and with language that most of the parents can understand let's try to give them in a way that parents are going to be understand and in little pieces we have the opportunity let's do it let's work together and um like I said we are here we offer our help we offer our support on being able to to train and and take this to to parents so we can know how to help each other out thank you and have a really good evening do we have anybody else after turn yes we have Camille font welcome back camil as soon as you begin speaking we'll begin the CL good evening um board members I think the only thing I would like to add is um a suggestion that I think I've shared in the past around really focusing on a strategic plan um for the district I think when sources are very tight not having a shared framework with a vision with goals um and one that we build together as a community like several of the other um speakers have said with parents with teachers with other stakeholders um it's going to always be contention if we take item by item and cut budgets um by programs by departments um just to save dollar amounts without a strategic plan or a Northstar um we're going to constantly feel like we're being pitted against each other and that is just going to make you know board meetings but also um Community more contentious and more divisive and so I really suggest um taking it upon the board with Community um and Community voice uh the creation of a strategic plan to utilize thank you do we have anybody else Mr apar no one else thank you um at this time if I can get a motion and a second um and then we'll begin discussion or questions from approval thank you thank you Mr Chavez uh now we'll go ahead and open it up for questions or comments has hand up okay sorry go ahead Mr Beano okay thank you um first I want to thank Mr Chang and Mr Dill for for their presentation obviously and it's information that we at least as a board that as I mentioned earlier we have we've had for some time and we know this information and and um you know very clearly if we if we've just been tracking a time as we go the um the our our history recent history of attendance is very obvious the projections that we got uh from our demographic study are very obvious and those the the reality of what we've experienced so far and the projections of what's to come does not align with the current um you know way that the the district is is structured and and you know the current reality and so very obviously some some highlevel decisions are going to need to be made in the near future the the the money that we're talking about is you know I appreciate a lot of the the ideas that are put forth and every little bit helps but I do believe that these amounts of money that we're that we're talking about is going to require even beyond what some of of what has been suggested so far and and so it's for that reason that I also believe that we're obviously for a bunch of different reasons but but specifically for these higher level decisions that need to be made in a unique and very crucial position with regards to the appointment that's coming up and you know it's why I believe that it's the questions that I put forth for my um questions for our interview are reflective of those high level decisions that will need to be made certainly there's a lot of different qualities that make up a a a good trustee and and for the applicants that are coming on they all have a varied skill set that they bring with them to me because of nature of these decisions it's those high level policy level um CommunityWide decisions and experience that that's going to be crucial to finding the person that can get us and help come with us to navigate through this process um of of our situation and then the other thing that I wanted to just also say is that I appreciate a lot of the um the comments that Mr Dill made and some of the specific phrasing that he used because I think that those what he brought up aligns very well with the opportunity that that we still will have on the table as we move forward in the coming months of a solar energy program to reduce costs to the tune of potentially half a million dollars a year um again the numbers that we're looking at are more are Beyond a half a million dollars a year but that's certainly significant and the opportunity to realize that for our families is something that I'm I'm going to look forward to continuing to push because when I hear the um you know the the the words that Mr Dill shared with us those are are very well aligned with what the opportunity the opportunities that that getting into a solar um energy program to to realize savings that those match up very ni nicely and will contribute to us um digging out of out of the situation that we're in so that's all for for this item thank you anybody else any questions or comments looking [Music] for andto if you okay go ahead Mr kto um so yeah a lot of very sober information and very difficult decisions that have to be made um those who are tuning in and are interested in uh serving on the board this is exactly what you're signing up for um and uh we see we see that the results of what's been happening is you know a genuine desire to to not uh immediately bring on the pain the pain that is going to be the result of massive Cuts as much as we collaborate and work with each other that'll help um but at the end of the day very difficult decisions are going to have to be made and somebody's not going to be happy many people aren't going to be happy um and so I'm that's why I wanted to make sure to bring this forward uh so that we can all collectively hear this and acknowledge the fact that there's going to be very very difficult decisions that are looming ahead of us and so as folks from the community or stakeholders everyone um be very well aware of what the future holds for us it's not it's not going to be um you know I don't know some people tend to think that they can jump onto a board because they go and they get recognized at an event now that's not necessarily this is what we're here for to make the tough decisions that um the community voed is to make um because they're out there working they're out there focusing on their families and doing other stuff and that's why they put us here so thank you for the information um can't say that I'm delighted to hear it I wish the the scenario was different I wish that um more people took responsibility for the actions that they've taken and they've imposed on Alam Rock such as chartering massive numbers of schools without actually properly funding or providing for them and and and uh and removing those funds from us when we need to we need those funds to support all of our students in the in the district we don't get to to push kids back to their home District when it's not convenient um and and unfortunately those are the things that we've had to deal with um might seem like funny to some people but the fact of the matter is that we are dealing with uh with the repercussions of actions taken by another body just yesterday we were there talking to uh the County Office of Education Alan morck and myself alrock staff and myself asking them to go ahead and consider numbers numbers of a failing school uh that they allowed to continue thanks to the three board members that stood up and took some uh bold action um but those are the type of things that other entities have done to go ahead and put us in this spot now obviously we're going to have to make tough choices tough decisions and once again I'll I'm I'm 100% clear on this that uh nobody's going to be happy um what the very difficult decisions we're going to have to make I'm not I'm not um at all going to apologize to anybody on this board or anybody over the fact that we haven't gone in and just start maching out and taking action right now I know that one of our colleagues would have loved to have just taken this action we're in the middle of a pandemic I'm not going to go ahead and start sending people home and saying oh sorry tough you lost your job in the middle of this crisis and so thank God that we went ahead and received those one time funds that were that did allow us to some a little bit of breathing room and I'm glad that we were able to use them to hold us over until things settle out and then we can go ahead and start making those tough choices once we get back to as normal as we can after covid those are my comments uh Linda Chavis do you have any questions or comments before I make M um go ahead I'm still collecting my thoughts go ahead Corina yeah no I mean I don't want to repeat everything that was said you know as we know we're in somber times like left and right um but this is what we signed up for and so uh you know I'm glad that the come on and and spoken in the way they have you know I look forward to working together if you know we don't have all the answers if somebody has a magic wand or has an answer you know we get to work together um and I love the idea of strategic planning you know and things like that um and you know I think just looking at the big picture um you know I'm not saying I'm for or against the solar panel that's not what we're on here to do but what I am um saying is that we might have some discussions where we may invest let's say a little bit of money to then at the end gain a lot and so um you know any creative ideas um any thoughts and looking forward to you know really coming together um as as some of our community members have mentioned um strategically to to find um you know the ways that we're going to deal with this we have you know some of the uh suggested ways that you know we're gonna and we might have to you know cut some positions and I mean it's just reality right it just it's it hits um but it's good to see at least that we're not making them right now we're not cutting any positions right now but we see that picture so the reality so um when we get there everybody knows the why behind um certain decision decision that we're going to have to make that are tough I'm trying to prevent that and um you know you never know we might get additional monies you know like ones that we got this year that we weren't expecting um but really um facing the reality thank you um Mr Dill for um Coming on and speaking in the way you did um you know just very clear concise and um telling us what the reality is and also providing you know staff right the support um a fin Financial expert that that can support us and and maybe answer some questions or see some things that we might not be seeing so together you know we'll continue to move forward um and make some difficult decisions uh but we we get to do it so um at this time Chavez if you don't have anything else I'll move for the vote sure I have something great okay um I I know that everybody uh doesn't like to hear this but at the same time we all know that the Adas have been declining and things have not been done to consolidate our costs yet so that needs to be done I mean he even did the recommendations that don't be spending more start bringing in revenues you you can consolidate and that'll bring in revenues once you start um renting them not selling them renting them and the good thing is is that the governor has allowed us work with the Adas that were for the previous year because if we were working with the Adas we have this year we would really be in trouble and on this uh plan you're in 2023 we're counting on that money that we know for a fact is not there it's going to be expiring and yet we're still putting it in our books as if it's gonna come in it's not so why are we projecting that it is I think that we need real numbers we need the ones that don't look pretty will put us in a bigger deficit but you'll get a more realistic picture of what we actually have to do in order to do this um I'm sitting here looking at the screen and just in the facilities we know we have to fix a lot of stuff and I don't know if you guys see it but right there this big old black spot and that's water damage there and going across and it's like that's one more thing that we need to fix but if we have less uh buildings to have to worry about because we do not have enough kids to put in every single building and let's face it people are not having the same amount of kids that they used to um we we can depend we can depend [Music] on this we know we have to do the cuts why we've been waiting this long I don't know why because if we should have done the May revision Cuts Like like was first told to sko how we were going to do it how we the state how we were going to do it and then the governor said we didn't have to do it and that nobody was going to make Cuts this only made the problem worse because it gives people a false sense of security sometimes that when you're not telling them the truth the parents are of the community are asking let us know what's happening let us be involved and the reason why is they have that cloud of uncertainty over them too but if you really want to be transparent I hope that we have a budget meeting with Mr Co the CBO there and with Mr deal there to actually show us look this is what we want to guide the public on because the public doesn't know what the detailed stabilization plan is and maybe you don't want them to know I don't know but I think that the more transparency it might be better to make everybody understand look nobody wants to make Cuts but if we don't make the cuts now and we don't have the Adas the money is not going to come in next year and then it's going to be not little Cuts here and there it'll be more drastic so I would like to avoid that thank you for your time thank you at this time I'll call for The Madam president sure a question clarification for for my colleague and I'll ask it through you does my colleague she speaks about cuts consolid is she talking about school closures is that what she's talking about I ask can we vote because I don't want to answer that right now because I think each of us to get a turn and then not have somebody turn around and get more time and more questions thank you um so Mr uh Kinto um I know that you're wondering what she was mentioning and it sounds like she was uh referring to many things um I know that we're going to have many difficult conversations and um at this time I'll go ahead and thank you for the clarifica for asking it and I didn't receive it I appreciate that you asked it but you know transparency full accountability those are all kind of terms that are thrown out there and then only when it gets pretty tough do people kind of back off let's just just let's move on let's move on so thank you thank you Mr kto Mr Beano you had I mean I just wanted to I was actually going to ask for that clarify too not necessarily the same question but I heard the comment that why don't we just rent them and so I was assuming that what was being referred to was schools that were closed um otherwise I don't know what else we're renting in in the hypothetical that trusty Chavez proposes so I just wanted to say that it was unclear to me too but I appreciate president era that you say we'll talk about it in the future but that is one point that's also unclear to me based on my calling trusty Chavez statement I agree and I have a lot of comments or questions to her as well on some of those things and maybe some things that I didn't think about right um but to see everything that's going to be brought to the table um and then move forward it's going to be tough and uh and yeah I mean I I I understood the same thing Mr Bano about renting uh maybe facilities but at this point we're not having that conversation but I'm sure you know if she brings it as as an agenda item we may or may not um but looking at the different ways that we can save costs um at this point I'll go go ahead and call for the qu um sorry yeah uh vote for this item um and I'll go ahead and go uh as I see your name on my screen now uh Mr veano um I miss Chavez no or vice president kto hi am myself I passes put yourself mute please thank you so much um and I think we're done up until now we'll go ahead and take a fem minute break um if we can be back by 854 see you at 854 thank you for for e for e for e for right thank you so much I think moving forward if I can be a co-host that might be helpful um I don't see Linda yet Mr Bano are you there I don't see him yet Mr kto are you there right yeah um and Mr GTO can you please unmute Mr Kinto as well and unmute Mrs Chavez please [Music] uh as soon as we have Quorum um Mr GTO please uh put your thumbs up when you return I'm here thank you Mr Bano are you here not yet and I don't see trusty Chavez um trusty uh when you return if you can let us know I see a screen so as soon as trusty Chavez returns or trusty Beano returns we'll go ahead and begin for hey there she is I was just going to send you a text uh Linda um if you can unmute yourself welcome back uh we're go ahead go ahead and begin our meeting um I don't know trusty Bano might come on later but with you makes Quorum so we'll go ahead and start again welcome um do we take roll call roio since we took a break or no we're good to go okay so we go ahead and move on at this time to uh public members who wish to address the board um agenda item four and I also uh I Mr trusty veano just confirming your back okay well we have quum so we'll go ahead and move move on to 401 um allowing our community to raise their hand Mr abar do we have members of the community who would like to speak to the board no one yet no one yet we'll allow maybe 20 seconds we have one so far okay um I'm going to allow 20 seconds uh um thank you okay so abar we still have one only we got four we got four okay um that's still be um under 10 so we'll go ahead and go with the two minutes um who's our first speaker Andrea Portillo welcome Miss Portillo as soon as you begin speaking we'll go ahead and start the clock good evening my name is Andre Portillo I'm a AR uslm as well as here supporting imp and the community um I'm glad that we're able to use these spaces to honor members of our community who we have lost today the community would like to use this meeting and moment to honor the students families and staff that we have lost due to the pandemic and its impacts on mental health and wellbeing our thoughts and prayers are with all of with all of you during this difficult time I hope the district will continue to support the social emotional needs of our students staff and families thank you thank you Miss foro afterward do we have anybody else yes the name next person is Anna nun welcome uh Miss Anna as soon as you begin speaking the Tamer will start hi um can everybody hear me yes okay hi hi good evening Dr Bower air USD trustee staf community members this is Anna wi speaking as the proud co-leader of the arusc racial Equity committee alongside Veronica Talton this announcement is in relation to our current status in the application process in US reviewing the current racial Equity committee applications and considering feedback from commed stakeholders including folks here we would like to review a second round of interest in order to promote a more robust application pool and to stay true to our mission and vision we are extending the process and the application period in tandem with reviewing written applications the racial Equity committee screening team will be holding meet and greet sessions as the second part of our application process this would be an opportunity for applicants to engage in meeting uh in a meeting that would run similarly to our planned racial Equity committee sessions and this would provide time for applicants and screening committee members to get to know each other and get a sense of how every member approaches collaboration with diverse individuals to clarify those applicants who turned in an application already will be invited to the meet and greet process you all will receive an email tomorrow with this invitation we will be posting this announcement of the application extension as well as the agenda and resources for the meet and greet in parents Square tomorrow this announcement will be in English Spanish and Vietnamese to support language accessibility for our members of the community if you are still interested in applying please confirm your interest and availability by completing the attached Google form to the parents Square message by December 30th you will still have an opportunity to submit your written application in this form we will confirm which meet and greet session you are assigned by January 4th as always please feel free to reach out to us via email if you have any questions and huge huge shout out to Carlos caralina Tien and H for helping us translate these um applications in such a timely manner thank you thank you next person mror yes dza Gonzalez welcome back VSA as soon as you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening members of the board once again I am here as a parent Community but also as I would like to um follow up with Andrea said I would like to also thank that board member for honoring and um having moment of silence in our community but I will also um would like to um hope that you guys honor this meeting on behalf of those students those families and those Comm and those um staff members that we have lost um it has impact my family and me directly and I know that it is a hard time but it also it's an awareness time right um let's pay attention to those signals let's pay more attention to the social emotional support that we students and families needs um we're gonna be two weeks out those students we're not going to be able to watch them so hopefully before we leave in vacations we leave um resources that our parents and families can reach out in case there's an emergency out there um and also um thank you to all those families to all those teachers that have served and um we're with you in this tough moments we're not alone we might be in a t but you guys are not alone thank you have a really good evening person Mr next person is Claudia K welcome back Claudia as soon as you begin speaking the Tim will good afternoon my name is Claudia quo I am a member of U and I represent Community today I want to Echo what Andrea poro mentioned our community has suffered losses of neighbors friends and family not only to covid-19 but to Suicide as well as well what has been the case of some of our children in our community today we would like to pay our respects and offer our condolences to their families and to Lov ones thank you thank you Mr upar anybody else yes we have three next is Branda zenas followed by FL Delon welcome back Miss SAS as soon as you begin speaking the timer will begin good morning um board members superintendent um today I am calling just to give a shout out to hbert staff um Mr natividad our custodian Jesus um and every and Mr th and all the custodians who helped uh at hbert they painted the school and redid the basketball courts and today I saw a really awesome video that really moved me because um I think we're all emotional during these times and it's really hard you know to do a lot in our schools but I think it touched me to see that they went above and beyond to do something for our schools to U brighten not only you know the staff and thank them but our kids who W who will return at one point and they're doing their best to do you know a good act of kindness and I really honestly appreciate that and wanted to thank them all um not only for myself but for all the kids and I know that these are really tough times to so many people and I just want to use this time to acknowledge all the people that we lost on suicide and I hope we do take a moment of silence for all of them and the holidays are approaching which make it tougher for a lot of us and I just want to let you guys know that you're not alone and you could always reach out to any of us here and I know that we're all open um if you are struggling or need someone to talk to I want to wish you guys all happy holidays and you're not alone and I don't want you guys or any kid right now to end this week before our break not knowing that someone loves you and we all love you I love you guys all and know that you are not alone else mror yeah FL Theon back Flo as soon as you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening everyone FL de Leon par Community organizer at um I just want to Echo my um my um the part and the people that spoke before and uh and uh as the board uh maybe it's time to recognize um members as they already mentioned that have struggled to covid and uh Su suicide um and I want to ask the board uh what is where you're doing to support that families in what way you're supporting uh how are we following up with them and what kind of mental health and support they are getting and I think it's it's time for the board to recognize not only recognizing people that is well known in that Community by having a business something else but you know just by by basically uh also recognizing what we going through and not only recognizing but what kind of support we or what are we doing in order to address those needs in that Community as board members our Bo our as board trustees the other uh thing that I want to mention too is that I have noticed that in the past where uh public comment is been limited to 20 minutes when you you have right now 120 s people participating in this meeting and limitating a public comment and earlier we had almost 200 people 20 minutes is not enough is a freedom of speech and that's the time when Community has the right to speak about whatever they want to speak I've been in City Hall in the county meetings where they have taken about uh more than 200 um public uh comments and and and they take all those public comments and we should not limit that freedom of speech in alra we should give the time to the community to speak you committed to this position and this position takes a lot of time and sometimes 2 2 a.m.

30 seconds my bad I heard Jason say yeah called a meeting to order roll call Dennis Bender here to order I I already did uh uh roll call uh Dennis vender here Maria okara yeah Yes Rick Ry here Wilson sir yeah will you please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and Mr Bender will you lead us in that yes I will pledge allegiance to the flag flag flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible liberty and justice for all it's time for the oath of office Mr Bender will you please rise I can we have all of the board members also rise alongside like we would if we were out in the um big room thank you Mr Bender will you raise your right hand please will you and repeat after me I Dennis K Bender I Dennis K Bender do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of California against all enemies in the constitution of the State of California against all enemies foreign domestic foreign or domestic that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of California and the constitution of the State of California and I take this obligation freely and I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion my purpose of evasion that I will well and Faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter and that I will well and Faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter thank you so much thank vend good Mrs blasing will you please raise your right hand and repeat after me I Adeline blasing game I Adeline blasing game do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the State of California against all enemies and and the constitution of the State of California again against all enemies foreign or domestic foreign or domestic that I will bear true faith that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and allegiance to the constitution in the United States and the constitution of the State of California and the constitution of the State of California and I take this obligation freely and I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion without any any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and Faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter and that I will well and Faithfully discharge the duties upon which I am about to enter welcome to the club Miss blasing G thank you and now annual organization in accordance with educational code section 35143 and c2a requiring governing boards hold an annual organizational meeting within 15 days commencing with the including with and including the second Friday in December from December 11th to December 25th to elect a president of the board Clerk of the board the name of a trustee and an alternate who will serve as a representative at the annual meeting of school and Community College District representatives and determine dates of regularly scheduled board meetings for the coming year I would Maria I would nominate you as the president since you serves the clerk and then I will uh ask R to serve as the clerk of the board I second that I second that oh Dennis is second already okay all in favor I hi any opposed okay so who's going to be the representative I nominate uh Wilson this is so I second that how about the alternate Mr Bender okay who's seconding that I'll second that motion okay and the meeting schedule the county meetings are uh just basically they were announce it usually a general meeting February and then there's a special but the the district will re receive announcements okay so we'll go when the county gives us the the the calendar yeah you will need to take a vote as well on um the representative in alternate and the current meeting schedule is was attached in the agenda for the proposed meetings for um the 21 and 22 school year board meetings so that was part of our packet I'm sorry I move the item to approve the U alternate representative oh we need one motion for representative alternative meeting schedule that's that'll be my motion to move the item for the representative which would be uh Wilson so alternate Dennis bender and the meeting schedule um as a proposed in the agenda I second all in favor I hi any opposed okay now we are going to go into a presentation you're going to take a quick break so that Kylie can go distribute or I can um the um Clos session potential readouts to the clerk um and allow for any family members if they have not yet left to leave so that we are um official to go into Clos session so we will take a quick break and no business will take place while those um papers are delivered thank you thank you thank you where can I get the cheese you can come here we don't want to join breakout rooms yet correct oh that's going to be after the presentation correct yeah but I one to cheese what is it I think people are leaving to it yeah we we'll fix it sorry we'll fix it I think I think Jason didn't know the breakout schedule actually in order to um I put everyone in the SK in the breakout room so we don't hear you having conversation while we distribute the paper and then I can close it and then reopen it if that makes sense so I just need to know when to reopen e e e are we just about ready we can give them a one minute warning but it takes about one minute to close those rooms so should we go start that process oh they're coming back okay everyone should be back Mrs oara you can um couple things we've got to go back and um check with Kylie about public comments to make sure um we don't have any or we do and then um go to our presentation um B1 on page two are we back on we're ready yes Kylie do we have any uh public comments we do not have any public comments at this time thank you now we are going to go into presentation on B1 Mrs Chester you are muted okay sorry I apologize good afternoon board members superintendent cabinet um I'm going to try my best to keep this to half an hour um to help us all brush up on our important obligations under California's open meeting law which is often referred to as the Ralph m brown act and to the next Slide the the courts have given us a great deal of guidance in interpreting the brown Act and the public also takes it very very seriously and members of the public often spend a good deal of time monitoring School Board agendas city council agendas and other local agency agendas to um Avail themselves of information about the business of the public entity and if we're not careful and we're not cautious it's easy to make a mistake that can not only be embarrassing to the public entity but it could um wind the public entity up in litigation so it's something to take very seriously next slide please the purpose of the ralm brown Act is to provide access to government ageny business and to prohibit Secret decisions um it's to require actions and deliberations of boards to be taken openly and subject to the Public's scrutiny next slide one of the most important things to remember about the brown act and this applies to both open and close session items is what is a meeting before the Corona virus most of us thought of a school board meeting is something you had to attend physically obviously that has at least temporarily changed and we're going to talk briefly about the governor's orders but the definition of a meeting is much more than people getting together in one place physically it's any Congregation of a majority of the members of a legislative body at the same time and location including teleconference location to hear discuss deliberate or take action on any subject within your jurisdiction so of course in our case a majority of five is three members so if three members outside of a duly noticed agendized meeting compare their views on a subject within the board's jurisdiction that's a meeting it's also an illegal meeting because it hasn't been agendized for the public and the public doesn't have access next slide please so what is a meeting 20 30 years ago um we didn't tend to think of text messaging as being a meeting but for example if Mr Raleigh were to send a text message to Mr so and then Mr so were to send to listen to Mr 's views and add his own and forward that to miss opara that's a direct communication if it's outside of a duly noticed meeting that's an illegal communication and it is um something that the district can't have legal liability for so the brown act says a majority of members shall not outside of a meeting use a series of communications of any kind directly or through intermediaries to discuss deliberate forgive me or take action so for example if Mrs Nelson were to call up three members of the board and say next time we're going to vote on this what do you think about it how do you think you'll vote on it those members aren't talking to each other but Mrs Nelson if she did that and she would never do that but if she did she would be acting as an intermediary and again outside of a notice meeting that's absolutely illegal we're going to talk in just a moment about there's only one time that you can pull the board and that has to do with bargaining next slide so here's a caveat and again this is where we all have to be super careful this shall not be construed as preventing an employee or official of a local agency from engaging in separate Communications outside of a meeting authorized by this chapter to answer questions regarding a matter within the subject matter jurisdiction if and that's a big if the person does not communicate to members of the legislative body the comments or position of other members so back to the example and TR thank you for letting me pick on you back to this example TR can speak with each of you outside of a meeting to answer questions but she can't say in Oh Mr so by the way Mr Raleigh said this that would be illegal because she would be communicating another member's position so ask questions and that's one of the reasons why you will often hear when you take a brown act Workshop please don't reply all because when you reply all you may be communicating your position next slide so even if members conferring outside of a meeting didn't intend they didn't mean to come up with a collective concurrence if there's a resulting determination outside of a notice meeting how the board's going to vote then whether you intended it or not that's an illegal meeting next slide and of course all meetings of the board must be open public except an authorized closed session next slide action must be taken by the board in an open session unless a closed session is authorized and look how broad this definition of action is it's a collective decision a collective commitment or a promise by a major majority of the board to make a positive or negative decision or an actual vote next slide and these were the rules for teleconferencing pre pandemic posted at all locations every location has to be listed in the agenda and every teleconference location must be accessible to the public and I can't tell you how many times there's been um a client District that we work with where there's been a very dedicated board member who just has surgery they're in the hospital and they want to participate in the board meeting by telephone until they find out that their hospital room has to be open to the public technically under this rule so um but anyway again these rules have been modified let's look at the next slide teleconferencing all votes have to be by roll call a quorum has to participate physically from a location within the district it must still be conducted in a way that protects the statutory and constitutional rights of the public and we'll go to the next slide so last March the governor um issued three executive orders temporarily suspending some of the rules of the brown act next slide so meeting by Zoom of course physical appearances of members are presently not required notice of each location is not required the location our example of the member in the hospital bed the location does not have to be accessible to the public and agendas don't have to be posted at all the locations um next slide please oh I'm sorry uh no requirement that a quorum of members have to be in the district um serial or simultaneous updates are allowed if there's a declared emergency um members of the legislative body may ask questions during updates and that may be without Public Access but again members may not discuss among themselves nor take action on updates because they're not on the agenda next slide so this is a little tricky when is a meeting not a meeting this is not in the brown act this is in the bargaining law the educational employment relations act a meeting and our negotiating discussion with the exclusive representative of the employee unit does not have to be agendized a meeting with a mediator or negotiating parties does not have to be agendized a hearing a meeting or investigation by a FactFinder does not have to be agendized and so you're probably asking well why do we always put it on our agenda in that case we put it on the agenda because frankly it's important for the public to know what's going on in the close session that you are going to give instruction for example to Dustin and his negotiating team about your parameters so even though under the educational employment Relations Act technically you don't have to um put it on the agenda we always recommend that you do and at any point if you have questions please please Jump Right In um next slide so this provision is so old that they use the old term executive session which is they used what they used to call closed sessions um in 1976 when the bargaining law was enacted an executive session of a public school employer or between the public school employer and its designated representatives for purposes of discuss discussing its position regarding any matter within the scope of representation so typically that is your close session when you decide what Authority you're going to give to the district's negotiating team next slide you may in case of what the brown act calls a dire emergency hold a meeting on an hour notice if you notify all media when there's a threatened disruption of public facilities a Clos session would require a 2third vote to hold and all special meeting requirements apply except the 24hour notice um minutes in the notice um persons and organizations have to be posted for 10 days afterward next slide so promised to talk about Clos session and it only took me 18 slides to get there the board may meet in close session only for authorized reasons the board must agendize and disclose the items to be discussed in the Clos session and that's why TR and Kylie are always so meticulous about specifying on your agenda the limitations of the closed session so the public knows the topics you'll be disc discussing and only those matters agendas may be discussed so you can't get a bright idea that's not within the agenda item and spring it on your fellow board members in close session it has to be on the agenda next slide following the closed session when you go back into open you must disclose any final action that was taken taken and what what the vote was and if the vote was not unanimous you have to specify how each member voted next slide if the board's considering suspension or discipline of a student the matter is heard in the closed session but then you come out into Open Session and take the action um next slide also the board has to notify and of course you would do this through your superintendent and her cabinet the board must notify the student and the parent or Guardian that the student will be discussed in the closed session and the student or the parent can request that you have the discussion in Open Session if they do so within 48 hours and of course that very seldom happens next slide again any final expulsion action must be taken in Open Session and names are not used student numbers are substituted next slide uh I think we missed one there we go so if you are giving your negotiator instruction about a real property transaction a piece of land that the district is going to buy or sell the board has to identify in Open Session who its negotiators are and the people that they may negotiate with and then once the transaction is approved the board is required to disclose all of the terms next slide close Cession for either existing or anticipated litigation and that's when you receive advice from legal counsel um and anticipated litigation is when your position may be prejudiced the board's position may be prejudiced if it is not discussed in closed rather than open and litigation doesn't have to be filed in the super Superior Court it could be for example a perb unfair Labor practice case it could be a special education um office of administrative hearings matter all of those fall at through litigation next slide when you're considering existing litigation and you give your attorney in that matter approval to defend to seek app pellet review or to represent you as amus in an existing action you have to identify the adverse parties and what the subject of the litigation is and that's often done by case number next slide please existing litigation has been formally initiated um anticipated litigation based on the facts of circumstances the board believes there's significant exposure to litigation and facts and circumstances could be a torque claim or a threat to sue the district where the facts are known to the district but perhaps not to the potential other party next slide in the case of beginning litigation or intervening the board isn't required to to discuss the particulars but it must disclose its decision to initiate litigation unless it would jeopardize serving the other party with the lawsuit and approval of a settlement of existing litigation sometimes is not immediately reported directly after the Clos session and that's because the settlement might not be final once it's final it has to be recorded at the very next meeting in an open session next slide so this is one that I'm sure you see on every agenda to consider appointment employment evaluation of performance discipline dismissal or release of an employee you also would use this government code section to consider complaints or charges about an employee next slide when you're going to consider specific charges against an employee the government code says that your superintendent and her cabinet must give the employee 24 hours Advance written notice of the employees right to have the matter heard in an open session you still get to make your decision en closed but the employee can request that it be heard in open um and when this section was first enacted I believe it was around 1994 people didn't really understand what it meant so subsequently there was litigation and the court said for example if you're going to not reelect a probationary teacher you don't have to give advanced notice that's not a specific complaint or charge next slide it's also not required that you give a teacher that you are intending to dismiss notice and the reason for that the court in the culture case said is because when a teacher who is permanent um when you initiate U dismissal charges that's a very long process and it is filled with a great deal of due process steps so the court said you're only initiating it you're not taking a final action next slide so Personnel matters action taken that affects the employment status of an employee you must identify the title of the position so for example if you're going to release a site administrator you would say the board took action in closed session on motion of Miss opara seconded by Mr so to release a site administrator at the end of the school year um next slide close session salaries close session with the designated representative regarding salary and fringe benefits of employees the board must identify its designated representatives in an open session um TR and before her Tom hogerman are always very meticulous about this years ago superintendant would go into close session with the board and they'd negotiate their own salary this section absolutely prohibits that that's why the board identifies one or two members as its negotiator or representative to negotiate salary with the superintendent outside of a closed session next slide please Clos session shall not include final action on the proposed compensation of a represented unrepresented employee and that's why you can't vote on the superintendent's contract enclosed you can discuss it but the final vote must be in open session so close sessions e educational employment Relations Act matters are are exempt from the brown act as we said earlier so if the district was going to have a meeting with the Union um that is exempt from Brown act requirements same thing a meeting with a mediator is exempt um hearings or investigations or fact finding are exempt from the brown act and close session between the board and its negotiators are exempt from the brown act and that last bullet ladies and gentlemen that's why if you tell the superintendant it's all right to pull you outside of a meeting about negotiations let's say a vuda and the district have been meeting and they're very very close and all that's holding up an agreement is a quarter of 1% of salary the superintendent May lawfully if you allow her to poll you call you outside of a a notice meeting to see whether you wish to give that Authority for that additional one quarter percent but that's the only time she can pull you is if it's related to negotiations otherwise you can't do it next Slide the board must publicly report any action enclosed and the vote or abstention and that report report can be made orally or in writing and if the board approves any documents or settlement agreements in close session those must be provided to the public upon request once they're final next slide um close sessions do um you may keep minutes of close session um we don't recommend it and the other law firms that do what we do typically don't recommend it your record of close session is the action that you publicly report out and the reason for not doing a minute book The reason it's not recommended is you want to be able to be completely candid and honest with each other in closed next slide this I believe is what Mr so was speaking about um when he talked about the county superintendent and um Brown act training a person may not disclose confidential information that they received by being in a closed session unless the board authorizes disclosure and it is a misdemeanor ladies and gentlemen to disclose close session information without the express permission of the board I will never forget the day many many years ago I was a much younger new school lawyer then um on a Wednesday night I attended a closed session of a governing board and the board gave parameters to our negotiating team the next morning I showed up at the negotiation site and we began meeting with the teachers union and before I could open my mouth the teachers negot Ator told me what my offer was going to be and that person could only have known because a board member violated this particular um prohibition on disclosing close session information so so important to the Integrity of your decision-making process next slide unauthorized disclosure of close session could Prejudice your position as a district in litigation it definitely undermines your administration's efforts to manage Personnel matters and it destroys the confidentiality of close session so very harmful to have unauthorized disclosures next slide confidential information is any communication made en closed that is specifically related to the base basis for the meeting next slide here's some of the penalties here's the trouble we could get into if anyone discloses close session information a member of the public could seek an injunction from a court to order the individual who violated close session not to do that um the matter could get referred to the grand jury if it is believed that a member of the board or an employee willfully disclose close session information and neither of those look good for the district next slide an employee who unlawfully discloses could be the subject of disciplinary action if they have training about close session requirements next slide um there are very very narrow limits on um that prohibition the member could seek an opinion as to whether the action in close session was lawfully taken um or a complaint to a district attorney or a grand jury if the person believes that the body violated the law in close session but those are the very narrow exceptions to non-disclosure next slide please there are very very limited disclosures under whistleblower statutes that may be protected again that's typically when the individual um believes rightfully so that the board violated the law in close session next slide so this is the um potential punishment that all of us risk if we disclose close session information as Mr so said earlier in the meeting every member who attends a meeting where a violation of the brown act occurs who intended to deprive the public of information it was enti to is guilty of a misdemeanor so literally it's a crime next slide please and again to prevent a violation a member of the public can seek an injunction they can file a rid of mandate against the district to stop or to prevent violations or to determine whether penalizing or discouraging the expression of a member was invalid next slide this happened to this has now been many many years probably over 20 years but a remedy that a court can order if a district violates closed session this happened to capistran a unified school district in South Orange County the court ordered that the board had to record its closed sessions and had to file those recordings with the court um next slide so sometimes we make honest mistakes because the brown act can be highly technical the remedy for that is a member of the public if they believe that our district has done something incorrect or unlawful under the brown act can file a written demand that the board correct the action that was taken in open session they have 30 days to do that if they believe that the board took an illegal action in close session they have 90 days to do that and over the years some of our clients from time to time have received Pure or correct demands normally when that happens Our advice to the client is yes you did no you didn't depending on the facts violate close session or violate the brown act but let's not spend money on lawyers let's just put the action on the next agenda properly and take the action again and that cures or corrects the alleged violation and you don't spend money litigating whether you were right or not next slide please so again the board has to be given a chance to cure or correct the alleged violation and that's the reason you would retake the action re agendize it and take it again at the next meeting and you want to do that because you don't want to pay even my reasonable attorney's fees and you don't want to pay the attorney's fees of the other party that's bringing the action against you so that's why we cure or correct next slide please so the district attorney or any interested person can sue the school board um for an alleged violation many years ago there was a gentleman who was a professor at Pasadena City College his name was Richard mcke he was an expert in the brown act and he used to follow this is in the days before the internet so they were harder to come by but he used to look at the agendas of school boards and City councils and he would often find mistakes Brown act mistakes and he would usually contact the district and threatened to get the district attorney involved so you can see the Cure or correct um method is very powerful next slide please so related to The Cure or correct action is a cease and desist letter and there's a longer period of time that's up to 9 months after the district violated the brown act the board has 30 days to respond and you have to promise never never never never to do it again next slide so in the um cure or correct you're not admitting you did anything wrong but the correction has to be in an open session as a separate item of business and you must promise to notify 30 days in advance of any unconditional commitment being rescinded and this is very very rare I don't know why the legislature thought it was necessary because we already had cure or correct um and you you very seldom see this section used next slide please so I'm doing all the Talking here's a hypothetical for you let's pretend that a superintendency is vacant and one of the site principles has applied for the position and the site principal is good friends with a school board member so after the meeting the principal calls her friend the school board member and says have I been selected for a final interview what does the board member answer sorry no can do no can do can't talk to you about that sorry next slide so a school board member is the ca Chief negotiator in the district next door and the district is involved in Fairly contentious negotiations with its CCA unit and so the board gives direction to its negot Nei ators in closed session the day after the closed session the board member shares the district's confidential strategy with his csca bargaining team in the district next door did he violate the brown act yeah yeah absolutely disclose the PO session absolutely next slide please so the agenda contains a closed session to consider an expulsion of a middle school student for selling drugs the student's dad happens to own the local business that employs a board member dad calls the board member into his office his employee and he wants to discuss the evidence that's going to be presented to the board in close session concerning the expulsion yep I see Mrs blasing G shaking your head can't do that absolutely not next slide well thank you for listening to my long rant comments or questions or complaints that was very informative it is a technical there's a lot of moving parts to the Browning absolutely good job megie yeah well thank you all it's lovely to see you and and I don't see if I may jump in on one one comment as I said I've been involved with the uh board member training at the request of Dr her Fisher yeah many many years back and and there's a frequent question that came up at at sometime at the very first session and sometimes after the discussion of B act my point is that if a member of any board or any Council I say knowingly knowing that he or she has committed a violation and don't do anything about it I say if if the violation is serious enough that members should resign from the com from the from the board and so my question will be what are we gon if something happened in this town should we do anything about it so is the question if you know that there's been a violation of the brown act not just the brown act but I'm L lot more serious yeah you are representative of the public the public elected you to follow the education code in the constitution in the laws of the State of California s so if it's within your jurisdiction if it's within the jurisdiction of the school board then there's very likely a public expectation that you would correct the problem right I and I'm glad you you you make that make that response and I will make a comment about a few years back I knew that a city council member accepted a BRI from the contractor because city council member came to me and said wson award this contract without any bidding I cannot do that a public works director city engineer I refuse it and I disclose it publicly so this member requests me to award a contract and the member later on have to resign from that Council I just wanted to point it out very serious yes that's briary thank you so much Miss Maggie my pleasure I wish you all a very peaceful and safe holiday thank you Magie Magie good luck G organ we'll need it Mr Bender thank you sir okay now um we're going to take a brief break and then go to close session let's take a break yeah [Music] Kylie are you still there can you see me I'm still here yes I think she went to the breakout room Kylie I'll go and ask her what she wants um she may want cheesee do we have any cheese any place I think down in the kitchen so um Jason are we still streaming it looks like I see the live on custom streaming yes we cannot cut the stream or else we'll have to restart the entire thing understood um know when end the break okay I am going to just verify um once everyone's back in their seats and that way we can come back in um before we go into close session to take a motion for closed I mooved you to the break so you can verify then I'll close it e e e are we all in no yeah Matt might have been oh there he is perfect okay now we're going to continue with our board U meeting uh at this time we are going into closed session will you read everything on that we're going to discuss yes so um item one Public Employee Discipline Do dismissal release reassignment transfer leave title certific certificated and classified employees number two Public Employee appoint resignation retirement reduction title certified and classified employees number three Conference of litigation government code section 5495 point9 subsection a current litigation five cases cvds 181 cvds 1 19 07172015 9 37043 cvds 20101 11183 cvds 202 956 government code section 549 54.5 subsection C and 54956.9 subsection D number two and E1 anticipated litigation four cases 20202 01 22215 number four conference with labor negotiator agency negotiator Dustin Conrad employee organization alphab Valley Unified Teachers Association number five conference with labor negotiator agency negotiator Dustin conr employee organization California School Employees Association I will ask now for a motion to go into close session do you have a motion to go to close okay we have a a motion by bling game second by Bender U all in favor I I any opposed okay 5 Z okay you'll need to join the breakout room for close session see it did anything pop up for you Dennis that shows there you go e e e for are we all in we're waiting for Kylie [Music] we're all here okay calling the meeting to order uh Kylie do we have any uh um any um report from CCA we do okay hello distinguished board members superintendent Nelson and cabinet I hope all of you are in good health safe and ready for the break another year has come and gone we as leaders have endured many changes those changes have changed the land Escape of Our Lives I can tell you that the time that I have had these last two years spending with our classified staff has been truly and was honor and it was a great honor and rewarding I would like to thank all the school board for your dedication to the students and recognizing the important role our staff plays in its operations with the district's leadership CSA was afforded the opportunity to share with our staff viewpoints and cooperatively come to an understanding in which enriched the lives of our co-workers more than ever I feel we are striving for a balance never seen before thank you I think a side effect of all of this is better employees better attention to students and co-workers cooperation my time as a speaker for the chapter has now been handed to a new president I wanted to let you know I feel confident the new leadership will increase the cooperation to new heights Kim Calvin the new incoming president starting on January 1st 2021 many of you will recognize this name she has always been intelligent confident and passionate toward the protection of employee rights this time with all of her experience and the support of eboard she will be able to Enlighten even the sky our vice president Carl Willis in his second year is very charismatic and passionately cares about the classified students and Community our new second vice president Nick Garrett brings an alternative view to our leadership team it is his knowledge confidence and great sense of leadership that will help us keep going forward Treasurer John Jonathan Silva is an eboard officer who held a previous position in our team and has decided to broaden his Horizons by taking on this new role he is well-liked but has had a hurdle he is a hugger and this pandemic has H has hampered him as a chief job stward he Prides himself in finding Solutions in the following policies and procedures political action coordinator Joshua ver Holz spends many waking moments trying to keep up the chapter up to date on what's in the political Arena to share promote and Inspire and support our legislation for our students community and School District our chapter relations officer Susan joso is a person who has been in our leadership team for quite some time she's a promoter of our causes and our future secretary Shelley Ames who does our clerical keeps up toate on our Communications and without her the president would never leave the office I feel confident that this group of leaders will be the example with President Kim Kelvin leading the team that the district will continue to see positive outcomes solution opportunities and the satisfaction we help the students community and co-workers to be their best I want to wish you all the best holiday time time and Spirit of Hope stay safe healthy and pray for the less fortunate God bless Mike Kaufman CA chapter 828 president thank you very much thank you Mike um and do you have any reports from Apple Valley univers Teachers Association I do not okay close session reports yes CL Clark will read out any action taken in Clos session yeah thank you madam president so the board approved unanimously the memor of understanding with the California School Employees Association 828 dated November 13 2020 regarding prescribed work hours at Mariana Academy ratified on December 10th 2020 the board uh also unanimously approve the memorandum of understanding with the California School Employees Association chapter 82 28 dated November 13 2020 regarding the impacts and effect of covid-19 conditions for the 2019 2020 school year closure ratified on December 10th 2020 the board unanimously approved the memorandum of understanding with the California School Employees Association chapter 828 dated November 13 2020 regarding the Etna ER for the 2021 school year ratified on December 10th 2020 and finally the board appr approved unanimously the memorandum of understanding with the California School Employees Association chapter 828 dated November 13 2020 regarding the addendum to return impacts of the effects of on CSA bargaining unit with APPA Valley Unified School District ratified on December 10th 2020 and that's um all I have to report Out close session thank you very much the board May approve the agenda as is or as and or poll items from the consent agenda for discussion and or action we need to a adopt the agenda as is and I need a motion motion we adopt the agenda as is second all in favor I I any opposed we have H public comments uh Kylie do we have any public comments we do not have any public comments at this time thank you superintendent's comment I just want to congratulate Mr Kaufman on the last two years um as CCA president um he his term as he has indicated is coming to an end and um Kim Calvin will be taking the Reigns back um what he spoke about is who he is he always is trying to uphold others and um talk about how brilliant they are and never focuses on himself and so I just want to take this time right now to say how um proud We were to work with him and um the collaboration that he created with the district um was very much appreciated and so as he leaves we did recognize him in our staff um newsletter yesterday that went out um because it he has done a wonderful job for the past two years so congratulations Mr Kaufman on finishing a two-year presidency with CCA um we look forward to seeing you around just doing what you normally would be doing which is our um hbac so um is that correct Matt that is correct um and then I would like to um congratulate Mr Bender uh for being reelected in area three um we appreciate as I said last time when Mrs Davis was retiring um service and um the fact that you ran again tells us that you're here to support the kids in this community and I really appreciate apprciate that um as I do know the community does as well and then we'd like to welcome aboard Mrs blasing game as the new trustee representing Area 1 and um I think you'll learn very quickly that this team is um very much collaborative and um focused on students and so we're excited to have you aboard um and then uh we I I will have further comments at the end of the board meeting thank you thank you okay now board comments uh Mrs blassingham just like to say um I'm very grateful to all the voters who placed me here and I hope they um um will put their trust in me and to do the right thing and um I'm just I want to say happy holidays to everyone as much as you can um be happy during this time of the year here thank you Mr so Mr so I think you're muted go next door and wake him up you an next Mr Bend can you hear me now yes we can hear you now just wish just wish everybody a safe happy holiday yeah Mr Bender I just want everybody to have a good a good break enjoy your families thank you Mr Raley yes I got lots of congratulations to do here first off we Maria as board President we really look forward to uh your leadership did a great job as the clerk and so I'm know you're going to do very good as president of the board so looking forward to the next year and then I'd like to congratulate Dennis again um it's you know I'm kind of dating myself here because it was 45 years ago that I was roaming the halls of Apple Valley High School as a sundevil and Dennis was uh yeah I don't know how yeah I think he was pretty young back then as a teacher so I'm going to congratulate him again for after all those years of teaching then he's stepping into uh as as again as a school board member really dedicated his life to teaching and then again I'd like to congratulate uh adelene blasing game I I know you have a long history of uh teaching in the high desert and um really really look forward to working with you and the rest of the board in the coming uh year thank you very nice time for my comment i' like to use this time to um uh congratulate Mr Koffman um for a great job um I found him to be very um humble um in the discharge of his duties uh I particularly enjoyed uh all of his statements towards the board um when he comes up and taking the time to um personally um uh meet with each one of us when when the board meeting was in person um I also like to congratulate Mr Bender um another year um I really enjoy working with you and and I hope you have a pleasant uh Pleasant time uh this year around uh Mrs blasing game um I I don't know where to begin except to say welcome aboard and I'm I'm grateful that you you join this uh team and you'll find out very quickly how much um we uh we work together um and then the rest of the cabinet I have to say I have thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed um this school year and the challenges that you all have faced and how you have had to address each one of those challenges um even if it means to work over time uh extra days weekends you name it you have made it uh so seamless uh for us um as we come in and I have to say too that this this is the one first board meeting that we have held with very little glitches and I really really uh have to say h thank you for what you have done and then as we uh leave for the Christmas vacation I am um I'm hoping that everybody will have a good time but as we also have a good time let us think of those families that are hurting at this time uh because we have quite a few of them even within our school family that are hurting um I send my sincere sympathy uh to those families and I I tell you that we are here to um to lock arms and and hold you all up uh a happy holidays to all of you okay there's no public hearing um discussion action SE session it is recommended that the Board of Trustees discuss and take action on the following items approve the requested leaves as noted a motion we approve all in favor I I any opposed consent item it is recommended that the Board of Trustees consider approving a number of agenda items as a consent list cons ENT items are routine in nature and can be enacted in one motion without further discussion this procedure cons conserves meeting time for a full discussion of significant issues consent items to be approved in one motion uh one through five make a motion we approve items one through five second all in favor I any opposed okay uh I Kylie do we have a public any public comments we do not okay thank you superintendent comment so um I'd like direction from the board to go ahead and agendize a um special meeting for January 7th um at 1M we'll do it again virtually um and the topics would be the governance team and um some norming as well as negotiations um we will continue to look into good Beginnings which is a csba offered um training for our board um I probably will have more information regarding that and um trying to get a schedule set um at that board meeting um as long as you all give me direction to do so um would that be feasible for everyone I don't see a problem does any but is he a problem no problem okay Kylie will get the information out to you um just solidifying January 7th 1M um and again because it's a special board meeting um we will post 24 hours or um 72 hours in advance um because topic-wise we can do a 24-hour but we can post that Monday just like we have um because we we know we're going to do it um the second thing is is that yesterday we did send out a a staff newsletter um we are very much focused on um after meeting with some high school teachers uh a week or so ago um from both high schools they asked that we focus our attention moving coming back from the winter break around um social emotional learning for our students and re-engaging them and looking at some of those needs that the kids are having um we know that none of us anticipated this long haul for virtual learning um nor did we anticipate numbers Rising the way they did and so um we want to continue to give our teachers permission to work towards that um focus down on the standards and not um try to cover everything that um they might have covered within their classroom but be very um succinct about what they can cover um and get to some Mastery with students um we will continue to focus on our seniors and um any of the kids that are are struggling to get their credits for for graduation um um and then within that same um newsletter we focused on um the concept of Hope and I feel like um the con the the statement that Mrs okara made about um this family um this school district is a family um families sometimes disagree but we are a family and as we focus on Hope um the picture that we posted into the newsletter was hope is the only thing stronger than fear and if we can keep driving that forward that we are hopeful that we will have students back in seat as soon as possible um I I look forward to that day uh very soon and then finally obviously um wishing everybody a peaceful and safe break I hope people get some time to relax um I hope they follow some of the guidelines so that we don't have the spike in numbers that we had after our Thanksgiving Gatherings that occurred um and we do want to support our local community and the fact that we are out of ICU beds and out of hospital beds um as everybody saw in the national news last night I do know the first round of um vaccinations came to the hospital today um I got a picture of that um sent to me by the CEO and um I just pray for all those people that are Frontline every single day with this so thank you TR what can I ask you what uh where do the teachers stand in line uh as far as receiving the vaccine I know there's there's different levels of uh people that are going to get it are they going to be getting it quickly since yeah stage two so stage one is all medical workers so what you're seeing right now is the um Frontline medical workers um First Responders and then all of the people that are being cared for in um Assisted Living um locations uh because they've noticed that the spread obviously is so much greater there um because of the close confines um teachers and school um employees as as the considered essential are in stage two um the last update I had looked like early March um as the soonest that they would get that um vaccine available to schools so um we'll keep you posted as we hear more information i' like to point out they just approved madna vaccine today yeah that'll help us because that'll give us two my daughter I was telling you she got her vaccination two days ago she's a clinical Psych ol at the Veterans Hospital in New Orleans so they are taking care of the frontliners an an alumni of Apple Valley Unified School District I believe it yes believe it okay H Mrs blasing game do you have additional comments no thank you Mr so no no I uh my two are youngest are frite doctors so they got vaccinated too okay good Mr Bender yes I want to give a shout out to Mr Coffman Mike I appreciate the last two years that he served I forgot to mention that thank you Mr Raleigh yes same with me I uh Mike uh has been a pleasure and always I always look forward to his um his little presentations that he gave uh very professional and wish him luck good and uh my last comment is uh I hope you guys uh will make time tonight at 700 p.m.

savannah wilkinson first year runner her best was at council grove two mile time of 1716. jaylen reference first year runner her best was at council grove with a two mile time of seventeen sixteen kobe acres first year runner his best was at council girl two mile time of 12 51 logan ferrara first year runner his best was at council grove two mile time of 14 25. lincoln wright first year runner his best was at council grove two mile time of 1506 the middle school finishes up their season competing at our league meet each of them ended with a strong finish here are our final finishes lira 5th place in 8th grade girls braley 4th place 7th grade girls savannah 7th place 7th grade girls jalen 5th place 7th grade girls cast in 2nd place 8th grade boys with a time of matthew 12th place 8th grade boys logan third place seventh grade boys lincoln seventh place seventh grade play and finally colby acres league champion seventh grade voice with a time of thirteen fifty one i'd like to take a moment and thank these kids for their hard work and dedication to the sport there isn't a day that is easy however days that require different perspectives also thank you to the parents all the people who helped coordinate our adventures charlie barf dead doug and mr spring to those that help out at our home meets this year has been different but the kids did great with adjusting and getting to work thank you mrs dawson we're now going to go in and listen to the 7th and 8th grade band performing [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] at this point i'm gonna go ahead and turn it over to mr bostic in the seventh and eighth grader man uh hello bms i am so glad that we had this opportunity to play for you um so a little back story on this um we usually uh play during uh cup assemblies or assemblies in general for you guys uh unfortunately because you know we were not able to have an assembly until now and we are super excited to play for you we're actually going to play vocal play for our christmas concert um it is a medley of tunes and i hope you can recognize something and something like or you enjoy something out of it and then it's great band members don't worry you will play for an assembly uh when you get to this bane awesome [Music] bye [Music] oh wow [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] time [Music] uh [Music] [Applause] again that was a medley of holiday tunes called uh holiday greetings i hope you can recognize something out of that all right what we're about to play now is called god rest he married jasmine um jazz is a wonderful art form that we don't always really get to play in the concert band setting but whenever we get the chance i'd definitely like to take it so this is actually god rusty mary gentlemen but with a jazzy twist ah uh [Music] [Applause] [Music] wow bye [Music] um [Music] all right just in case you're a little confused by the ending there uh if you were sitting there wondering why in the world you decided to start going through a lot of crazy chords uh jazz and a lot of crazy chords that they'd like to use that aren't really used in any other musical form so they uh they tried to add in a few jazz boards there at the end to give us a taste of what is the card so the last one this is a song that we actually started playing at the beginning of the year and the class really really liked it and they asked for uh i let them vote to see if they wanted to play it or not and they liked it so we didn't play uh here is episode [Music] sure hello ah [Applause] so [Music] uh [Music] my [Music] hey ah bye uh [Music] [Applause] again i would like to thank uh uh mr spring and bms for letting us play again it is always so nice to be able to play especially in the time like this so thank you very much [Applause] all right the next part that we're going to do is probably uh last year's hello wow last year was my first year here the skit the trade

now we're going to uh now we're going to move to uh item number five public discussion discussion of agenda items only this meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personnel items or negotiations we'd ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes per person is there anybody here would like to talk about any item any agenda item foreclosure is that an agenda item i don't believe school closure is not an agenda item that would fall to the to the second public comment thank you though for your question on that all right and moving on all right this point in time we're gonna move to item six approval of the minutes i need a resolution to approve the november 19 2020 regular and executive session minutes uh items five item five point uh item six point one and six point two uh do i have a motion motion by mr lancelotta seconded by miss fleming any questions or comments pertaining to approval of the minutes seeing none let's go to a roll call this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr pizzocaro yes miss fleming yes mr hampton yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes commission carries thank you moving to number seven superintendents report and administrative items i need a motion to approve items seven one through seven seven do i have a motion motion by mr lanzalata second it by oh miss fleming all right repeats um do i have any uh before you have any questions or comments dr smith the floor is yours thank you mr pizzacaro just like to provide an update on our continued reopening of school so we've completed 65 days so far this year seven of our eight schools are currently open for in-person learning all full remote students whose parents chose to switch to in-person through our post-winter breaks learning survey that we put out in november those students have been switched into in-person learning or will be switched by january 4th district-wide we began the year with 72 percent of our students learning in person as of today district wide 68 percent of students are learning in person for a decrease of four percent we are staying with our regular full day while we continue to explore possible options for a shortened day during january and february only just to have as an alternative if needed and this exploration is just another step in our process of always reflecting on any aspect of what we do i'll include more information in my friday email for families tomorrow but i just wanted to make sure everyone was aware that at this point we're staying with a full day while we continue to explore this has been a difficult year when many things that people might never thought possible happened like students literally not being able to go into a school things that had stress and test patience and sap our spirits and i just wanted to give a shout out to a group of people who helped create a stress reliever as today's snow day by all accounts was a stress reliever and i want to say thank you to a demacie middle school teacher mrs colitis colitis and her seventh grade writing students they wrote to me different essays on ideas for how to improve school and i met with them at google meet and we talked through their ideas it was a great conversation and the strength of their voices was an inspiration for the snow day student voice survey that all our students completed and in this survey the students had three choices and they chose to have traditional snow days for the first three snow days if we needed them and guess what the weather delivered and today was our first traditional snow day so just you know any students who are watching you made that happen and um you know again it came through inspiration from your fellow classmates in one of the schools um i received even photos today from staff and parents of their children playing outside in the snow and when you think about this is our first real snow in two years i think everybody felt just some joy in going out and doing that it made me think that the value of anything can't truly be measured without a counterpoint and the value of today wasn't created today it was created every day this year all 65 days together worked together to give today its value as a break from as close to a typical routine of school as we as has been possible to achieve a snow day feels more and more like a snow day when school feels more and more like school and so the power of today those photos those emails expressing thanks are a testament to our staff and all roles who have worked and supported stu and students and delivered excellence day in and day out and ways beyond what many districts have asked to do what they have done and are doing to achieve a sense of normalcy of regularity so that a snow day can be savored like a snow day that is the height of extraordinary and among so much to be grateful for this year for that and for so much more i'm grateful to our staff those are my comments thank you dr smith are there any questions or comments pertaining to the superintendent's report or administrative items seeing none let's go to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr pizzacaro yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes mr lancelata yes mr vegan yes this is ryan yes okay thank you mr roshinti moving now to item eight curriculum instruction i need a motion to approve items eight one through eight six do i have a motion motion by mr kantham second by miss barbara giovanni any questions or comments to curriculum and instruction seeing none let's go to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr president yes ms fleming yes mr canton yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes thank you moving to item nine finance and operations i did a motion to prove items 9 1 through 9 13.

then six through eight something can as well that building is designed with white hallway separate wings you know so and we're surrounded by schools in our county and even in our own towns that are successful going monday to friday eight to three and august uh with regard to my senior i mean she's attending classes that have anywhere from three to seven students in her class on days that she attended and on thursdays and i'm sorry on wednesdays and thursdays there's one student physically sitting in her english class i mean that's crazy to me so assuming those numbers would double if the class wasn't split by last name anymore that is still a very small class and obviously they can distance appropriately no parent that's sending their kids back to school believes they will be six feet apart and we're fine with that you know under these circumstances if the kids are given the option to opt out full time which so many are then the remainder of kids can be optional opt-in you know monday from eight maybe initially eight to twelve that's an eight degrees and you know i know i'm close on time but i could go on but i i just wanted to share those feelings and and you know and i and i appreciate so much what the teachers were doing but um anyway so i appreciate your time i thank you thank you mrs corey thank you hello can i speak with jessa please yes yes sir hi jessa this is dr castelli i am calling you from the board meeting you had emailed me and indicated that you would like to address the board and so just to give you a little bit of direction before you start make sure you say your full name for our records and then you have three minutes to make any comments you wish to make okay thank you all right go ahead and begin so my name is giovannetti and i'm a senior at columbia high school and first off i wanted to start by saying like to all my teachers that have me in class and are listening to this please don't act differently towards me because i'm simply just expressing how i feel and how a lot of my other classmates feel um so i wanted to give some quick insight to the board into what most students at the high school are going through so the student's mental health at the high school is seriously it's deteriorating our days are determined by what assignment is due we feel it so we aren't working towards anything it's just the due date that day speaking of the seniors the only thing the seniors are working towards is graduation and even then people have stopped caring if we even get a ceremony or not they're all just kind of done with this fear um everyone wants to leave because we feel as though we have nothing left here for us anymore we haven't gotten anything special for us stone while everyone still feels bad for the class of 2020.

and at this time I would like to ENT yeah I'm sorry all right this time I would ref to motions from executive session please I that the school board approved the appointment of Miss A to principal of Andrew J I'm sorry Victor J Andrew High School effective July 1 of 2021 second motion made by member dton seconded by member Murphy Peterson to approve the appointment of a ofman as the next principal of Andrew High School any comments or questions okay let us vote Yes yes yes yes yeah I am proud and pleased to say that we have unanimously approved AER is the next principal of Andrew congratulations he we are are yes yes please come on up evening I would like to thank the district 23 board for this incredible opportunity I am very honored and humbled stand here before you as this is a dream come true being at Andrew is not a job it's a way of life for me I take a lot of pride serving the Andrew Community cherish the strong relationships that I have with students parents teachers administrators and all stakeholders I believe we have an outstanding school that can only continue to be an Exemplar for the state of O I thank you very much the students are my true passion I'm going to work diligently for all students regardless of their backgrounds to provide them Equitable learning opportunities my a is going to continue to advance the legacy of Andrew High School is that successful High achieving family oriented school and to continue that wonderful cult culture and climate that we have I also believe in the strength of our staff and know that collectively we can surpass and Achieve any goals that we set together I will continue to Le with my heart and soul every single day to make sure I enhance those around and as we work through all challenges I going to embrace collectively with everyone we will bring all stakeholders together and as a firm believer of the district 230 core values I look forward to this wonderful opportunity and I thank the board again thank you so [Music] much congratulations hey we look forward to working with you up here we know that you and our other other two great principles will continue to have a very strong team here at the uh in our district okay then uh at this time we will move on and I would ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda I move this the school board approve the consent agenda second okay motion made by member Murph Peterson seconded by member graus to approve the consent agenda we have any comments or any questions okay ready Lisa take your time all right let's vote Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes that agenda pass okay we have any old business okay then next we will go to our board committees and first Pat education all right thank you Mr President we uh at Ed committee are on a rooll we had a terrific meeting again uh back on December 1st because just a couple weeks ago it's still fresh on the brain um so each of the principles uh went over their school Improvement plan which um kind of the theme there was changing from such a big focus on remote learning and now getting back into more traditional goals uh in particular Equity was one of the main themes from all the buildings and um collaboration and and working together to uh you know get through this with everybody um at Andrew they talked about um remote learning ideas and best practices for instructional staff and keeping the kids on on track um they talk about equity and professional development and um on ways of RAR this and kind of pivot a little more towards social justice and diversity um Samberg uh Dr Tyrell talked about the student report card which is a really neat thing um if to want to know more about that let us know but it's essentially showing where each student is uh the class of 23 where they're at in terms of their grades in terms of extracurricular activities and things that go on to make a successful student so that project started last year it's coming along good it's a really really neat thing um that that sber is doing over there that's a to different and then over at stag U talk a lot about empathy and um in the environment at school um and uh you know talk more about you know how to how to teach and how to learn more in a in a remote and hybrid uh environment uh Dr Data Don rder Cox was at our meeting we talked about our school report cards and one of the interesting things is because we didn't have a lot of Assessments last year there wasn't a lot of new data so a lot of the data from the year before uh was put into this year's school report card so those really haven't changed much um we do have a 96% graduation rate and a 96% teacher retention rate which is very successful excited about that um under our curriculum and instruction update uh we talked about the career day uh that we have every year and this year it was remote career day uh it was done I think the day after our meeting so we met the night before our remote um virtual career day so Dr Gonzalez talked a lot about what how what that was going to look like and all the panelists and all the the tracks that each of the students can go to uh and we're looking forward to feedback at our next meeting to see how that went because again it was remote um but they took us through um kind of if you were a student which which subject content you would go to there's three different sessions for each time frame um so we kind of got a virtual visit overview of what career D is going to look like so again I think kind of we did the best we did with what we got um we worked a lot with a new program called nepris uh which is really kind of our more new Career Cruising uh platform and they also did the career day so that worked out well I asked uh Dr um drer to do a proposal on nepris not realize that they were heavily involved in career day so it all kind of fit in together real well so that was that was neat so um that's pretty much it it a quick overview there um and the last thing that's not the minutes that we did talk about was the assessments we talked a lot about you know educ one big things as student growth how do we measure that we've talked a lot in the last couple years how we switched from act to sat based on the state you know mandates and the class of 2021 the seniors just took their sat that normally given in the spring like March or April they got it uh back in October I think it was the class of 20122 the current Juniors did not take the SAT 910 so they took it the SAT 9 10 as ninth graders they're supposed to take the SAT 10 and 10th grade that was cancelled now they're they're staying on track they're going to do the SAT regular junior year uh in the spring like it typically does so they missed that assessment they skipped over that sat 910 the second year of it um and then class of 2023 you know their software is now they didn't take anything last year they're going to take the SAT 910 this spring as well so we're going to have kind of a gap in data and that's going to be interesting to see what that looks like um but looking really forward in a few months to see how our test scores do you know with this remote learning and hybrid learning and see how the impact was there so um talked a lot about that and a couple policies for review and and that was that so our next meeting is scheduled for January typically uh we don't go in January so I'll keep it posted on when the next meeting actually but right now technically it's January 4th any any questions comments or concerns okay thank Youk you all right very very good meeting soon Services Melissa yes hi I will try to just give an overview because it was a there was a lot to unpack in our meeting um we started off with our step coordinator Mary Evelyn shaper and she provided us information on our step program the step program helps individuals with disability to gain employment After High School so it's a program that we've implemented and we have 93 current students are being serviced by our step program it's going very well all three principles gave us uh building School Improvement and Equity plans um at uh Andrew High School um along with um training staff on uh Equity uh goals and uh different uh plans to help improve equity for all students the school has also been delivering food to the families in need in that area uh Dr nting uh stated that eight Equity Town Halls have been implemented just this semester even with our trying Co times he also stated that the school is in in process of training 13 new staff members so um even with hybrid and all of the challenges we are still focused on our diversity and equity in all three buildings um next we heard from stag from Mr Olen um St has also been delivering food to those families in need during the 2:30 adaptive pause the PBS staff created a website for staff and students with helpful tips and resources for dealing with the pandemic the students are able to sign up virtually for social emotional support this website has gone off so well that the district has decided to adopt the website and put it onto the district website and so if you have a chance to check it out I I highly recommend it it's very interesting very well done by one of our stag teachers Mr Olsen also stated that stag believes that Equity benefits all students all students have completed an equity survey to this date students and their parents will receive it as well in the goal of say is to Foster an environment that ensures all voices are heard then um uh Dr drer added I already told you that the district's going to put that on their District website and oh also uh Administrative Assistant Trish triship informed the committee that the uh instructional service this department has been Gathering items for coping bags those work in conjunction with this website for students that who have had prior or current mental health concerns the hope is that the bag will help our students get through this tough time and to remind our kids how much we care for them some items that will be included in the bags are journals colored penil stress balls different activities to help them Center themselves so you we really are trying to work to help all kids in our area now over at Carl seberg geny spoke to the committee about the Carl stanberg scorecard that was implemented two years ago and how is it's the way of tracking the Student Success because as Patrick said with the data having some gaps now it's been a bit of a challenge but the scorecard has been very very helpful and they are Contin continuing to use it action plans have been developed to support and to support the students and decrease any achievement gaps with our lowincome students then um we had a presentation by Dr drer about our new uh our new title it title new rules and regulations and that's procedural but it's uh it still needed to be discussed in my committee so we went through that and then um we also had a presentation by Dr dryer about reading and dyslexia and it uh usually dyslexia is diagnosed in the elementary level but she went on to State how high schools still support kids with dyslexia or reading um limitations and then we also heard from our special education director Alisa Schulman on the CLE residency system and how we track to make sure that all the kids and families registered in our district actually live in our district and should be going to our school and then lastly we also ended it with some policy reviews and our next meeting is scheduled for January at this point January 12 but we'll get back to you to make sure that's a certain date any comments or questions I'm sorry continue to steal your thunder T before sorry about that all right now Finance Su good evening we held our building and finance committee on December 7th and um we started off our meeting with the enrollment projections these project projections are used for budgeting Financial projections attendance and faculty planning um we then reviewed the 2020 tax levy which we did redo at our last year so there was no changes and the tax ly for 2020 that represents a 3.20 increase over 2019 tax extension um we already we approved this on our consent agenda tonight we talked about the Workers Compensation Insurance renewal we had um marketed this nine carriers and the renewal of um 12 I Ts for the 2021 year for 3 sorry 3000 lovely 3,827 um we also received a a grant a safety Grant from our wom's C companies and projected that would be around 11,500 um and that is item that or that money goes to items that we use to ensure the safety in our buildings like uh entrance mats and so forth so um that gets used accordingly we also on our consent agenda approve the property casualty and liability insurance renewal and 230 has been insured with right specialty since 2011 but due to the changing market conditions U we were able to be offered as competitive renewal this year and we are going with Liberty Mutual um we increased we increased um our cyber liability coverage as well and that uh bid was for [Music] $385,500 , 38 Dr G shared with us the state legislation and um he will speak about that in a little bit there is no Transportation uh issues to cover and keing uh I actually skipped over his he always starts out I apologize for that um he will be sharing with us the current projects that are going on in the district which is the U first phase of our solar project the second phase of our roof project the status of our varsity baseball field at sber and the um ping project at Andrew High School ARS baseball field along with an elevator project for the two oldest elevators in the district um these are the last two that we would need to replace um we've been doing them through our process so those are the last two and we're also looking at some HB up Mr Lal shared with us our financial report she will also be sharing that with us tonight and we talked about um our Sports bid which we approved in our confess agenda which was uh considerably less than what it has been that we have not utilizing what we purchased in the last year so um that bid was [Music] $1,643 almost half of what we typically purchase and then we discussed the situation of substitute pay increase um all school districts are struggling to make sure that they're getting substitutes into the buildings when needed and we want to be competitive with the district surrounding us so we are going to um increase our substitute rates to 100 we're going to consider increasing our rate to $140 per day and that will take place in the next semester and then end so we're just doing it from January of 2021 to June of 2021 and then our rates will go back to what we we have already and then we just reviewed some of our policies um for revie and that was regular bu fin but I was wondering with all that we covered in this between education student services and building and finance we typically in December have a abbreviated meeting with all of us and I think that would have been a very long yeah maybe time worked out this time yeah CLE you're right any questions for Sue okay at the build Finance meeting joh B's complain of the business end of us getting a rider for cyber security and the need for that and we started asking questions we simply didn't know the answer to it I know John is here today and I don't John on the spot but I'm going to um John there's an advisory FBI advisory came down just a couple of weeks ago I guess about the ransom Weir attacks that that are head into all the schools p through the 12th grade and I'm just wondering With Us increasing the insurance getting that additional Rider I trust that we're doing everything we can to try to prevent that from ever happening here yes yeah yeah and we've got uh John John Connelly uh is going to join us at our next meeting too to go over that but yeah go ahead John yeah so absolutely we've uh we've actually been on the Forefront with a lot of districts with actually sending monthly security drills to our staff what typically happens is the attack factor for the criminals is our end user so you get you get tricked into and any of this could happen on our personal accounts you get tricked into clicking on something providing your credentials and then whatever amount of access you get is where the ransomware or any kind of breach scenario can KCK off so what we've done is with those monthly security drills is we've really our risk footprint because more of our staff really thinking about is this legit or not and so since we've been doing that for three years we're up to like the highest level in some cases you know in some cases I'm talking to staff members that are contac me saying like this was really tough and I'm not s to me but they understand so um I think we're situated a good spot there on the technical end we do a lot with looking at different patches and making sure that um our servers and our endpoints we're looking at the the new and improved security but as I say all that I think any organization can never be 100% so we're doing all we can um and that's one thing that talk Dr Gay and the principles in our leadership being often on and we did I did share that FBI Report with Dr Gay um just to show what's going on out there great great thank you I would also like to add that I'm really happy to see us double our limits of insurance for that because that market is getting crushed right now from insurance perspective because they're selling policies now and they don't really understand the full aspect of the of the risk because it's relatively new coverage and a lot of companies are starting to pull out of the marketplace so we may have a comp issue going forward they not be we not be able to buy higher limits like we are right now so there are a lot of claims that are happening that are policy limits so if we buy a million dollars they're blown through that million dollars in a heartbeat so even $2 million I mean we can go higher I'm really glad we did this especially nowadays because it's a big Hot Topic in our industry right now it's cyber y you're you're right Pat I I'm kind of involved in the in the purchasing the insurance that that the bank I'm at and um we've gone I would say probably three years ago we started uh with the small cyber security policy and we've probably double or tripled that in the last couple years um and we've really had very few you know we've had some incidents but very few but it's you got to have that protection it's not so much a frequency but the severity of the claims are massive yeah I can imagine so so it's a smart thing we're doing and I agree are going to need more next year unfortunately but at least we got our well we can get it y i sorry to get dragged off the it's okay no it's great I think it's important that we on okay then we will move on to the to comment section do we have anybody from the ESP that's tonight we haven't either okay they're on but they're not there's no comments oh there's no comments okay all right then tonight we do have our students uh on zoom and unfortunate that we once again cannot have you here with us but we are so glad you're able to join us on zoom and uh who's going to go first how we going to make that decision let's see I'm I think I think you did oh okay then who's ever first go ahead ladies good evening everyone it is great to see you all again and I hope you're all having an excellent night since I unfortunately will be unable to see you all beforehand I would like to wish everyone a happy holiday season and a happy New Year December has been an exciting and festive month for Samberg as you know on December 2nd we held our virtual career day for all students students had the opportunity of choosing three career topics they would be most interested in listening to they then gained information about these careers hopefully widening their knowledge on Career paths and opportunities my classmates and I found it very inform informational and that we were exposed to a handful of career choices that we were unheard of before to continue Samberg is proud to announce that we have wrapped up our recording for our fall for our our fall play students and staff strictly follow safety precautions by having students film in separate rooms the play is titled 10 ways to survive life in a quarantine it takes place over a zoom call and goes through different experiences each of the people face as they find ways to adapt to this new life students and Dr Tyrell even recreated the iconic last scene of the movie The Breakfast Club on the football field as the closing for the play we hope students parents greatly appreciate the time and effort that was put into it all student council has been on a role this month this Friday on December 18th student council will be hosting a schoolwide game of trivia the questions are set up to be winter and holiday themed to get students into the holiday spirit we are confident that we will have a great turnout and are even handing out prizes to the top three winners student council has also set up a food drive for this month students had the opportunity to participate in this event by dropping off food to one of our leaders Miss shaft we are thrilled by all the food that we have received and we thank all of our students for helping out in any way they could sturg students have also collected over a thousand scarves mittens and glove sets that were donated to the Orland Park food pantry amid loan school and a homeless shelter in Chicago in addition students participated in the following service projects making holiday cards for veterans in Mantino senior citizens at St Julie's church and to contribute to the Village of Tinley Parks collection for active military men and women they have also participated in the clean out your closet clothing food drive to support Goodwill Savers and St Vincent deal and a food drive for the Orland Park food pantry Mr Garner is currently working on a menu of service opportunity to share with students prior to winter break so that they can spend their time to positively impact and serve others when it comes to the holidays Samberg goes all out this week on December 14th and 17th we safely distributed hot chocolate to all students during their lunch hours many students Rejoice at the fact that we were able to keep this tradition alive especially through these tough times to keep the festivities going next Monday and Tuesday Samberg is holding an ugly s contest this contest is open to all remote and hybrid students and staff to make sure everyone feels included we aim to see as many students arrive in their warm yet ugly holiday sweaters May the contest begin also next week we will be holding holiday cookie sber will be rling all each period to remote and hybrid right we are excited that our competitive activities are able to compete virtually we would love to give a huge congratulations to ourstanding speech team on a recent successful tournament we would like to give a special shout out our first our three first place winners congratulations Grace STI and Hannah Blair for winning first place for a dramatic daa acting and Al last congratulations to nor Muhammad in achieving first place for improv acting also shout out to our Scholastic bow Team that is ranked the top 50 in the country we love seeing students represent what it truly means to be as this semester comes to close students and teachers are working together in support of a strong finish of the semester on behalf of all the students at Carl Samberg High School I would like to thank all of our teachers staff administrators and board members for the efforts in making the semester the best it possibly could for our students we appreciate all the efforts that have been taken to ensure a safe environment for in-person students quality learning for hybrid and remote students and connectedness opportunities for all thank you all for your time and I hope you have a wonderful W rest of your evening it has been a pleasure once again to see you all even if it is virtually I look forward I look forward to seeing you all next month on 2021 and go Eagles all right who's next good evening everyone um let me see okay I'm excited to share updates and accomplishments from stag over the last month in November before Thanksgiving break stack high school held its annual staff Thanksgiving turkey giveaway every period the sounds of turkey filled the hallways as the staff winner was announced although the staff received turkey to bring home students in their classes of the winners felt like the whole class had won our staff was also treated to Donuts in the morning from the do SK Food Truck it was a lot of fun for everyone our co-curriculars continue to find ways to keep students engaged and involved whether we are on campus or remote on Thursday November 19th just before the increased mitigation efforts in the state began our orchest has performed and recorded their annual show it was a beautiful performance that featured students student photograph and dance numbers orchest has a long tradition of honoring their seniors at their last show and this year was no exception our seniors held had a great had a moving dance received sendoff wishes from our Juniors and saw a slideshow of all their achievements and dance during their time at Stag and even all the way back to some of their first preschool dance classes ustus would like Tok thank the Stag drar crew for their help backstage for the first time ever all stag Chargers got to view the entire performance by having access to the video of the show created and shared sax powerlifting Club had their first meeting this month over 40 students had participated in the first few meetings and more contined to join this club gives our students the chance to be to become physically and mentally strong while connecting with charges of all grades and ability levels our girls team had has w before and we look forward to continued success with the whole program sags winard has been very busy the last month whenever possible they have been on campus to learn and practice new routines although they will not be traveling to state in the midwest like years prior this winter they will have the opportunity to record to record their routine and share with the other guard clubs and judges for feedback just a few days ago we were so proud to induct 104 new members to our National Honor Society these students demonstrated excellence and their academics character service to the community and involvement in school during the first two or three years at sta speeches were recorded from our student executive board Dr Gay Mr Olsen and student selected staff member Mr wendelin each student who wanted to was able to participate in our induction ceremony all parts of the ceremony were filmed and we were excited to share the video with our entire stag Community soon every year Stag's drar Club performs the Christmas carol in early December and students and staff alike anxiously awaited the release of this year's performance on video Last Friday I have been seeing the show since I was in eth grade and thought that this year was just as great as the others and i' had seen it I'd like to thank the drama club for demonstrating that the show must go on and keeping the tradition going for all of us to enjoy we are wrapping up the last few days before winter break begins and in andc and everyone can use some cheer so student council created a theme week that started this Tuesday and will continue until December 22nd we are celebrating all things winter and holiday we know this time can be a challenge with final assessments and tests so hopefully this bring some joy and connection our students and staff will also have fun surprises next Monday as we celebrate our very first charger day of cheer be watching Twitter for some festive outfits holiday cozy holiday jammies and treats all day theme Wednesdays are a great way for students who are all doing all virtual and hybrid learning to participate in school activities and have some fun as we count on the days until winter break while winter sports have been put on a pause by the ihsa following the governor's mitigations our teams are working hard virtually until the pause is lifted the boy swim and dive team have been meeting every day to do deck workouts and some yoga girls rolling practice twice a week virtually and they also hold a strength training program specifically designed for them by our athletic trainers girls basketball meets twice a day for wellness checks boys basketball follows a specific plan using the at home app that was purchased in subscriptions given to any student athlete interested in being part of the team this app contains basketball ball handling and shooting workouts along with some agility workouts that are used to track and compete against each other badminton has been moved to the winter season by the ihsa and our coaches are quickly working to roll out them roll out their information we are all very hopeful that come January our winner teams will be meeting in person on campus at the beginning of this month the district held a d230 virtual career fair where I was a student moderator um while I was a little nervous everything worked out at the end and it was a great learning opportunity for many of our students in the district a lot of time and effort was put into the event and I'd like to thank Dr Gonzalez and her committee for putting this together learning more about the experiences of Professionals in the field that we may be interested in assists all of us as we plan for our our next steps after high school or even as we consider classes to take next year we recognize that not we recognize that there has never been a more important time for stag to be an active part of supporting our students in the entire School Community the charg of spirit is giving the charger Spirit of and giving is endless a few weeks ago Stag's Food Service staff bagged and organized two weeks of lunches for over 160 students as students we appreciate the effort that goes into making sure that we are all all fed thank you to the PPS um staff who made personal deliveries of the food as well as mental health care packages of to students homes we appreciate all who were involved in ensuring that our chargers are doing well STX students also showed kindness and generosity through a variety of service projects this month first they created hundreds of ornaments to decorate the trees at the palis community hospital the trees looked so festive and several palis hospital staff members have reached out to let us know how nice it was to have some holiday spirit at a tough time also our students flooded the service learning uh the service learning office with scarves hats gloves and mittens to be shared with those in the most need to keep them warm through the Chicago winter our students are always looking for ways to help their community and are happy to assist however needed let's finish 2020 off strong and with a positive note thank you right last but not least good evening everyone I'm excited to be speaking to you all again I was disappointed when I found out I would not be presenting at the last meeting but I am glad to be back virtually this December looks different than last December but there is still a lot going on to keep Andrew students busy to begin I would like to update you on student council's events we wrapped up the veterans donation drive everyone who donated was so generous and it is great to give back especially giving our given our circumstances this year we also adopted kids to give Christmas gifts to this is one of my favorite things we do we buy gifts for kids and donate them to together we cope again it is great to give back along with this we also held a holiday party we had a Google meet where we played a few games and made some ornaments it was great and it and definitely got people in the holiday spirit speaking of the holiday spirit while walking around vja you might spot a green table with some candy canes and a special guest every day A Buddy the elf in atable is in different locations of the school it has been a mission for students and staff in the building to find buddy and take a picture with him it is fun walking around in trying to find him and I also look forward to the pictures on Twitter that get posted once someone finds him this had some fun and excitement because who doesn't love Elf girls volleyball participated in the ihsa tiktock challenge they competed against three different schools in one the the objective was to show the most holiday spirit while accumulating the most votes not surprisingly the Andrew Community came through for this wi half of the team's winnings will be donated to St Jude Research Hospital a few student leaders were invited to the idsa leadership conference to Res represent Andrew I had been invited to this conference at Lake Zer in the in the years's past but this year I attended it virtually the guest speaker was great and a lot of insightful feedback was given it was interesting to see exactly what other schools are doing during these times to keep people involved and it ended up being a great event I was honored to be invited Although our winter sports are postponed our chess team is doing remarkably well they are on week eight of their season and have only lost one match it is awesome to be able to follow their success and I'm excited to see how far they go with this semester coming to a close I would like to thank our school board superintendent and principles for your hard work students understand how much how much everyone has put into this year and while it is definitely not ideal it has been quite successful I hope next semester brings us a few things a vaccine a graduation and a great end to a great year let's see where next semester takes us thank you for all for listening have a great winter break and congratulations to Dr oan on becoming the next principal of Andrew thank you I'd like to mention regardless of the situation we're in with hybrid and remote the amount of service learning they're still doing amount of Outreach they're giving the people in need other than himself reaching out to the community St Y what stru what struck out to me is all these reports are pretty long which means there's a lot going on right so everyone's being really creative and trying to you know get things to do with they're doing a terrific job so it's great ladies thank you very much and obviously we'd all much rather have you here but it's it's nice to see you without the mask on yeah I think this is the first time we've seen you all your mask so it's great to see you and hopefully uh we will see you uh with us in January and uh you know this just gives you another month yes we'll meet soon eventually I can't wait for the reunion but ladies good luck on your finals and have a wonderful holiday and like I said hopefully we'll see you in person in January and let us all hope that we can have an inperson graduation that that is our goal and hopefully we can get there so thank you again thank you guys okay all right we have any public comments no sir okay business action and I think that will bring Mr L first item is the tax L correct yes last month uh tenative Levy was brought to uh building and finance and then to the Board of Education um this is no different than the one that was brought to you in tentative form um so uh we're we're required um to file our Levy and adopt it uh adopt it and file it by uh the last Tuesday in December which is December 29th um pending the board's approval of this I you know that's what our our intent would be to get that done then um yet this week uh if possible so we can get that out of the way and uh get get that filed for the year so you've got a copy of U the paper paperwork in your file that it's going to require signature uh it's in the signature file um and it it reflects a 3.2% increase over the 2019 Levy extension as Sue mentioned in our uh in her report about our building and finance committee meeting okay right thank you so at this time I'd like to entertain buar regarding the 2020 cat I move that the school board adopt the resolution providing for a tax levy for 2020 that represents a 3.2% increase over the 2019 Lev extension okay motion made by member Murph Peterson second by member graas to approve the 2020 tax levy any comments or questions okay then let's vote yes yes yes yes yes yes motion passes okay John substitute pay increase uh yes yeah um we we discussed this as a Cabinet uh a couple of weeks ago and um we we brought it to building and finance this month um Dr Gay conducted a simple poll of some area schools um got you know got some information related to uh the the rates um ranging anywhere from $110 um which is where we're at to $170 a day um we uh you know note in the memo a couple of um you know concerns and reasons I think for for bringing this uh to you um you know Dr weaton had you know had mentioned um she was hearing from a few candidates that they were going elsewhere because the rate was higher and you know nothing personal but they just wanted uh you know to make as much as they could and and so um you know while this might not increase our pool uh it certainly will help to maintain our existing pool of candidates that that help us out in substitute teaching in our classrooms and um couple other points that Dr weaton pointed out one of which is um you know without without labor we we can't conduct class you know without coverage we can't have class so I mean it's it's a pretty serious situation it's a national issue um you another point that was made um had to do with um the fact that um what was it the you know this would be a temporary rate increase um just to cover us through the end of this school year where it would be reevaluated at the end of the year so that would be something we would stress in rolling this out if approved by the board um would be that this is a temporary um temporary situation and a orary rate increase and that that's the report what do do do any of you have any questions related to sunsets with the semester so sunsets with the second semester we go back to the regular one if the board likes would like to look at that in June July August that's something they could do but it goes back to the sunsets it goes back toless the board acts differently next make that clear and every uh documentation or every advertising would say temporary the date it's just it's j that it is it is a situation if you go around driving around you see some districts have sign office this is a this is a not just region it's a state that's I'm sorry John so at this time can I get a motion please I move the schol SCH board increased The Substitute rates of pay from $110 for external substitutes and $125 for retired D30 staff who are willing to return and subies for the district to a flat increase for both categories to $140 effective January 1 2021 through the end of the regular school year 2021 second okay motion made by member Gra second to the substitute pay increase do we have any comments or questions the only other comment I'll make on this too is that um the other issue here is that if as John said we don't have a substitute from outside to cover a class we we then try to get a teacher currently in school to cover that class we actually end up paying them more so from a financial standpoint helps us um even though we do have work out better so uh any other questions or comments okay then let's vote yes yes yes yes yes yes yes the motion passes okay now for informational John Pro yep and in your packet you'll find our uh annual enrollment projection um nothing uh stood out as a major concern um related to the to the projection um you know we see a slight increase um over the next couple of years at stag um some offsetting um populations at the other buildings but nothing nothing um dramatic questions for J no I just think it's interesting that you know we have this EV and flow the district I we're up to 9,000 students about a decade ago I think we're kind of getting to that trough so I would expect these numbers starting in 27 28 back up because regeneration and whatnot so it's always very interesting to and you know we do a good job of of Staff does a good job of of projecting we're pretty close usually but you over the next five years down 100 students that's like 10 students a class at each School 120 students so not too bad it's kind of leveling off but you watch the next few years that's probably gonna start turning upward it just happens yeah I think we're lowest point now and I think you're right that and I finance that one thing I've noticed is uh where I live' all been there 253 years everybody's kids have growing and they've all left and all of a sudden now houses are start be sold and the new people are coming in with kids so it's just better time before everything starts back so it's a little bit different in each part of the district too north side tends to be a little bit different track than the middle of the south end of the district but I mean stag was growing for the longest time when Andrew was really pluming s is going down and now you these projectors Andrew starting to build up again St particular as well so iting very prudent on the board a number of years ago making some of those changes next um we have I introduce Dave keing who as I shared with you before we have video to show all three buildings we haded building separately at we kind of put it together and sorry Dave good evening everybody how are you good evening I was gonna give a quick update on some construction projects because we actually do have construction going on at Samberg right now with the baseball field so uh excited to say that the main drain is uh almost completely installed all the underground work uh they're they're moving right right along with this we've had a really good break in the weather and hoppy construction has been doing a really good job of uh getting as far into this as they possibly can before the weather turns um we're going to be able to use some of the existing dirt that we're pulling out of the field to level some uh low areas in other parts of the school which is a good way to save us some money so that that's working out nice too we had meeting on the solar project the uh the engineers are working into uh trying to change a little bit of the drawings to uh save the District money uh one of the alternates was removing the panels from the one of the roofs so they're still working on the drawings and getting that all finalized to hopefully sa the district as much as we can on the different types of options they're giving us it's been it was a really good meeting um as far as the elevators that's uh that's not going to start till summer but all the equipment has been ordered so that's on track uh the pool Renovations uh for the concrete walls the engineers are still working on that for samberg's pool filter room and the varsity baseball field they repaved around Andrew they were able to get all that completed before the uh weather turned for the asphalt too so everything's going very well with our projects um it's nice for building and finance to be able to do the touring of the schools and seeing all the summer projects but this year we couldn't do that so um the digital Med media coordinator for the district ree McIntyre put together these videos that Dr Gabe was talking about and it does a really nice job of uh showing all the construction we had done and does good job of showing all the the updates to the school we had for throughout the year so um it's nice that we'll be able to share it with all the usually we can't share it but now we have videos of all of it now everyone can see it I'm looking forward to everyone to see all these [Music] so there we go there they are hi everyone and welcome virtually I am super thrilled that we still get an opportunity that we done this summer I'll share with you I am sad that we can't do this in person uh but certainly it is the nature of the times and if there's one thing or one of the things that's really been a silver lining of Co is our building has never looked better so you're going to see some of those capital projects which certainly are partnership effort between our Board of Education the building and finance committee um our ABM staff and all of us so we're really thrilled about those projects but we're also just really proud of how the building looks in in general so enjoy hi there sha Rola division chair for PE health and Driver ad at Carl SRI High School want to talk to you a little bit about some of the summer projects that happened including our new Turf new track new stadium look with a new ticket booth so this helps our school Community our athletic programs and our physical education classes almost every class every hour based on the weather if it's not raining we're out there using this facility it's a beautiful place the graphics have changed the eaglehead logo looks new the numbers are are popping off the turf um and everything looks looks spectacular right now the new ticket booth allows students and families easier access into the stadium for our football games soccer games and Lacrosse activities our fitness center ended up getting some upgrades this past summer we ended up adding six new power racks which will help our our athletic programs our community and our student population and physical education classes I love our fitness center it's a multi-million dollar facility where benefits all kids and all people in health and wellness across our community our final upgrade happened in our blue gym which happens to be our adventure education program we ended up adding platforms for our high ropes courses as well as elements that's going to help our students learn different techniques as it relates to climbing my name is Randy caner building manager at Carl Samberg High School to talk about three projects that we did this summer one we did the uh roofs the 2,000 roofs we put which was put on the East Building it's a new style buildup roof first they went ahead and fix all our leaks then they went ahead and put up this new white film that reduces um heat loss to the building second we went ahead and upgraded all the lights in the classrooms and some hallways with LEDs the in the classrooms the teachers want have three options for their classrooms one is uh off in front where the projectors are two is at uh about 40% and the other one is at full full power the um and there also uh have sensors in the hallways so after a certain amount of time the hallway lights will go off except for the night lights and then as you walk down down the hallway the lights will will turn on which saves us a lot of energy also in the classrooms the same thing after about 20 minutes if there's no movement in the classrooms the lights will automatically turn off and and can be re-energized by waving your hand or going back to the switch and turning them on the ionizers in the south building majority of the south building has split units all the classrooms in the south building with the Fresh Air Makeup units have ionized systems in the which clean the fresh air coming into the buildings the commons the grill the media center the Dean's office in the East gym also has been retrofitted with these systems our elevators are also fit with the an systems we had the north building some of the East Building in the central building still to go I'm Steve shant I'm the athletic director here at Samberg High School one of the improvements we've had are we've gotten brand new bleachers put into our pool they replace old wood bleachers with brand brand new metal bleachers with nice uh individual plastic seat on top of it just enhances the entire pool area and I think we'll provide a great experience once we're able to have spectators back in our pool another Improvement we've had is our softball field we've made massive improvements to the field we've have brand new dugouts uh 40 foot nettings storage areas next to each Dugout as well as a brand new Press Box that we're very excited about I think the improvements we made with this field really enhances the field matches the quality of our softball program we think our field now will be able to host sectionals maybe even super sectionals in the ihsa state Series so we're very excited to do that and provide that opportunity for our student athletes hello my name is Greg Gardner assistant principal of our co-curriculars and building facilities here at Carl samri high school and one of the most exciting projects we had this summer was the transformation of our Sports Marketing classroom into an Esports Arena so we've added several new computers some gaming PCs this is going to help our business Sports Marketing class not only learn how to market the Athletics that we know of but one of the fastest growing Industries which is Esports our students in the class are going to learn how to broadcast and produce and record and shoutcast our Esports tournaments as well as how to promote our athletic events we're really excited for this opportunity and we know that the class is going to benefit as well as the hundred students who are in our Esports co-curricular activity after school very excited for this groundbreaking program to take off and be one of the best in the state of Illinois in terms of competitive Esports hi I'm Andy D crane head Deon students here at Carl Samberg High School for the Dean's office the biggest improvement over the summer was the installation of about 200 cameras in and around our campus these are going to help us keep our students and staff safe before during and after school as well as deter any negative behaviors that may occur during the day excited to be able to share with all of you a beautification project that is taking place at Samberg this November and was a generous donation from our class of 2020 so we will be updating our main staircase that goes from The Commons up to the central building and the media center to have positive quotes and messages really excited about this generous gift from class of 2020 and really thinks that think that it enhances our building from a beautification standpoint and just brings positive messages uh that we talk about within our Elite Daily culture so we have brand new field Turf they updated our stag Charter logo onto the football field uh as well as updated the school colors and in our end zones uh and along the sidelines I imagine almost all of our classes uh that we offer throughout the school day being able to use it our adventure Ed classes our people class and any of our team sports classes uh even our strength and conditioning classes out here to do some body weight exercises so in addition to a new field we have a a newly surfaced track any chance that we can uh we can take to get out here uh as long as there's not snow on the ground I can see clubs activities Sports out here um using these using these uh beautiful new facilities 2 years ago in our social a department we we did our water project where we raised over $10,000 um and we walked on the turf and I can anticipate things like that um coming about again and and having these nice facilities um make that possible I am standing in front of the state-of-the-art Press Box on top of the new dugouts that were given to us by the um Board of Education and the building and Fin finance committee this will be our softball programs this would be both the varsity and the JV teams uh they play here during during the season so the press that come out to our games are the Southtown Star and we also get members from the uh area papers like the patch Etc we have a lot of fans that are sitting close as you can see from our our bleachers and also the dugouts are close to the field um and The netting that has been provided with this new construction is going to guarantee the safety of the student athletes and coaches we are really excited about our new camera system here at stag high school we were able to obtain 350 camera views this summer and that's a combination of the interior of the building as well as the exterior uh of the building outside on the campus we were able to upgrade a lot of our Vantage points here at stag currently we have views on all of the entrances into the building as well well as maximizing hallway movement and we are also able to obtain a really good grasp of where students are in the building as well as when they're outside leaving campus and entering the building as well the priority at stag High School will always be the safety of our students our staff and the community when they're on campus uh this camera system truly maximizes the security protocols and gives us optimal security for stag High School the updates to the nursing mothers room are very exciting I think to me and a lot of other staff members here um this was a great collaboration um between um some staff members and then our Administration in terms of making sure that we not only were up to code in terms of the the new laws for for nursing spaces for mothers but also I think our building did a really great job of even going above and beyond to make sure that mothers that are returning to work um and still wanting to nurse or choosing to nurse nurse um have a good safe clean and really comfortable space to do that um which I think is wonderful so some of the changes to the room um that help ease the transition and and make it different from what it was before is just the comfort and the centralized location it's such a great location in the building um it's so Central to where everybody is so you don't feel like no matter where you are in the building you're and then the fact that it's really private um it's they've done a lot I I really appreciate just making sure it's private it's comfortable um you have a nice space to sit in again that transition back into your day um doesn't take so much time where you feel like you're not able to keep up with responsibilities as a teacher as well this summer stag High School began the first of a multiphase redesign of the media center we were able to repurpose open space for student and staff use in the form of needed classrooms given the proximity these classrooms have to the media center we are able to schedule our teachers of Blended courses in these spaces which allow for student flexibility in their day and able to access resources the new roofing system was installed on the building we're standing in right now it's our 600 700 building um essentially the northernmost building on stag High School it was one of our Capital Investments here at stag high school and um what it was was the installation of a fluid applied rubberized roofing membrane um it's over 63,000 Square ft of a fire rated multi layered fiber reinforced roofing system that is absolutely seamless so there's no opportunity for the seams to separate causing future leaks well certainly with maintenance um reducing the opportunity for roof leaks is huge um and the I think the best part about it um was that none of the existing roofing material needed to be removed it reduced the amount of waste that otherwise would have been generated by a roofing project like this um that would have otherwise ended up in a landfill as a Dean one of the most important features that we have added on over the summer is that we have had over 150 cameras added both internally and externally this is meant not only to deter behaviors but also to improve campus safety I'm here to talk about the the new roof and the uh lighting that was installed in the C classrooms all the classrooms in the north building were retrofitted from fluorescent to LED lighting with motion control sensors it makes it easier for the teachers to dim down a room when they want to use an LCD projector and if there's any in inactivity the lights turn themselves off the roof is a is a brand new membrane that was installed on the south building only all roof leaks were repaired previously and then a a coating of me of a white membrane was installed over there to seal the south building we're we're super excited about the uh uh renovations to our Stadium Field and track we started this process last year together with my colleagues at uh Samberg and stag surpassed all our expectations it looks amazing out there we added a lot of color around the the numerals uh as well as we colored the the end zones we included our lacrosse lines finally for lacrosse out there the track looks great it's so soft uh we had our football team out there the other day training on there they loved it it looks amazing it's It's So Fresh So new and it's going to be just really exciting to host our first football game and soccer game uh later this year we've been working on beautification projects here at Andrew high school for a lot of years and this year we're especially excited about one that we've done on our second floor it is a a mural of all kinds of students representative of our entire student body doing the things that they love best sports classroom activities clubs being together service projects you name it it's on the mural we're excited to have it and it was actually donated by the class of 2020 and it also aligns with one of our Equity team goals for this year which is making sure that the physical plant of the building is more representative of our entire student body and we think it does just that [Music] and yeah they're beautiful and I think U we're just good to share know off I know it took some time think was show the work done kept bu yeah thank you Dave do you have anything else you wanted to add no uh that that should be it for me um I like the fact you can see all the views from the the Drone that Reese has I think it gives a a whole new look but you really can't see when you walk on it thanks Dave thank you Dave good work all right uh then next uh um policies for first reading right and on page 58 59 there are policies student service education and building finances Finance committees are legal language legal language updates that they presented tonight but our first reading display these are reading so that's yes Mo School Board approve the first reading in public board policy 7100 7300 6300 6310 6340 490 480 and 4150 second okay motion made by member s very nicely by the way and seconded by member Peterson to the policies for first reading once again these are first readings so all we need is a Voice vote so all in favor I oppos okay motion passes okay go to the motion of the executive session starting with motion I move the uh that the school board approve p uh person action including staff co-curriculars licensed staff employment leaves of absences resignations and retirements board staff employment leaves of absences resignation and retirement member action let's vote Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes motion pass uh as to number three I move the school board approve the out of school suspension for the Peri for the period of November 1st 2020 through December 4th 20 second Mo B seconded by member graus to approve the current sup report yes yes yes yes yes yes pass I move to the school board approve the settlement agreement with former student sa20 d03 to resolve the claim for alleged personnel personal injuries as presented motion made by the settlement agreement yes yes yes yes yes yes yes motion pass um kind of refer to a little bit of a fin state state finance happing um we continue to work with with the um ccdph that state but ccph and have a meeting with them tomorrow have different things um as far as st's concerned The veto session has been cancelled and we're not sure what's gonna happen January with the new general assembly we planning going down there um once they are allowed allowing us to visit them in Springfield there's really not much to say right now with finan I think we're all holding our breath General Assembly takes office in January um we'll see with the second Speaker of the House president Senate that all the time so we are graus is involed SC we are on really heard this morning that use the word it will hurt yes and I'm not sure I that's his word not mine okay uh then at this time we'll best report happens and this time I'm gonna start with number do change it up a bit I just want to wish our students and our faculty and our families happy holidays there are numerous holidays that'll be coming up in the next couple weeks regardless of how you uh celebrate your holidays we wish you the best and we look forward to better 2021 um they uh we be able to resume something that looks a little more noral sooner than later happy holiday uh I just want to Echo what uh what Su just said I want to wish everybody a great holiday season all my fellow board members the administration teachers um all the hard workers that work for our district I want to just extend uh our appreciation for everything they've done all year long under the most trying of circumstances I also look forward to 2021 can't give much worse keep your close so 2020 right it's going to be remembered in a lot of different ways by a lot of different people I really hope that it's remembered more closely by our students comments tonight their ability to adapt their ability to persevere in a very trying time is truly impressive happy holidays everybody yeah I'm just gonna Echo what everybody else says but when Sue said resume I focus on the zoom Zoom um yeah we really want to we really want to get the students back in school we want to make sure there's a safe working environment for employees staff um we're all rooting for this thing to be over sooner rather than later and you know we need to get these students involved with the Quoc curricular activities um you know the data shows that the more successful uh our students are are the ones that are involved and it's hard to be involved but again to what Mike and Dave and Sue said everyone's being really creative like I said before we had lengthy student reports which means they're doing the best they can we're really proud of everybody to really just I know everybody is trying the best they can it's really heartwarming that that they're doing that so that being said I wish everybody here and everyone that's that's watching us a happy Holidays happy and safe holiday season and years to 2021 being a lot better okay uh well I'll Echo everyone else because everyone already said everything um I'd like to add that um I'm immensely grateful for um all the people here um that work really hard and make difficult decisions and put in a lot of extra time our administrators our our faculty our students I mean like Matt said I mean our students are going above and beyond they're going outside of the of the school day and and working in the community and helping people and that's what this is all about um who knows what 21 2021 will hold but um I'm just grateful that we have uh such a great District all encompassing families everybody that acknowledges that this is a difficult time and just kind of pivots and does the right day so happy holidays and um here's to a better 2021 what Kate just said I feel the same way I'm so grateful to the staff Administration teachers the students the entire 230 Community really pulled together in SP a time to work together to bring some sort of educational experience and help to our community members and I'm really proud of that um this was a rough year uh many many levels and I'm just very proud of30 and how we stood together whether the situation I truly hope1 uh comes in quickly and it much better and positive year and all Rejoice that we survived one you're but I would just also like to really said this a thousand times but is so true from my heart to be able to work the district be staff teachers start board know it's been a tough semester it's been a tough it's been a tough nine months now you know we working with this and it's been tough and I just am overcome sometimes by that passion compassion that really see students staff they know that you know the board is elected volunteer volunteered elected position you work very hard to represent all of us and I appreciate that our teachers have learned just a whole new way of educa students in a whole platform they' done outstanding job supports our district office staff um you know have all realized focused the one thing that's that we're in education here regardless of platform regardless of situation that's we have to be here for and I know it our goal is to get and and I just like to again for everyone but uh oh I think that as we look back on this year the thing that that makes me very humbled and and proud of uh being part of this district is that despite everything that has going on despite issues and concerns and whatever else was out there that everyone in this District was able to pull together and work together for that common goal was to do what was best and we see what's going on in a lot of other districts see the problems a lot of other districts are having and yet we suc hasely been able to keep our kids in school for a good part of the semester now and as long as we want of course not we have restrictions but I think we're doing the best we can we've had a great situation we've been successful I think it's because every one of us has worked hard despite all the outside influences and everything else because we knew what our job was and so I just want to say that I'm very proud to serve with all of you um because everyone here exemplifies what it truly means to be a part of this group what's best students and no one can ask to Ser thank everybody staff that Administration uh this is just an incredible District I say it over and over again and I do hope that everyone as Sue said whatever holiday you celebrate I hope that you have the best holiday you possibly can and I I truly truly hope what I told our our three uh student speakers that come may this year we will all be standing on stage handing out the personally each of of our great students because nothing else they deserve hope get there so thank you all and we will see you in January uh so I'd like to ask for a motion to adjourn please move second okay motion made by member Murphy Peterson second by member brour can I get a vote please yes yes yes yes yes yes we are adjourned for 2020 at 809m

um but if you've got you know 10 claims over the course of year that are 175 000 or more that's you know 1.175 million that you know is just attributable to those you know the you know our out-of-pocket cost for those high-cost claims that you need to cover right so but you were saying that you you don't even anticipate getting made you might we anticipate maybe getting 150 000 back so far so all right so but before right um and then on to the uh food service uh deficit um so now that we're not hemorrhaging and only bleeding um when uh we had this report last month the shortfall was 300 000.

in the morning we had these meetings in the past for some reasons but City Hall and other uh places they're giving that time so don't deny that to that Community thank you thank you uh anybody else Mr offer yes next person is Veronica um ver speaking uh the timer will begin welcome back thank you thank you and I also want to Echo um anduha parents um and Community organizers in acknowledging um you know the lives that have been lost here in Alan Rock um and taking a moment to reflect um you know and reflect on everything that is happening especially on their lives right and as we remember them um and also um I also want to thank um the racial Equity committee because as the Coalition the reinvest for racial Equity um Coalition and its members have we've been going and in collaboration really and as well as with some of them bu's members we've been going back and forth and asking for extra time and asking for that collaboration and really um we are seeing that coming through and I really want to thank them for taking that time um and really want to celebrate that because it takes a lot right it takes a lot to um listen and have to shift your whole um plan that you have so thank you so much for listening to community and for listening to our voices and making that time extra time to getting to know the community to getting to know the applicants and really taking the time to invest in that Equity that our schools need um and my last one is I know that um the ethnic studies committee was supposed to present their members I Believe by this meeting I'm not sure sure but I haven't heard anything I did get an email um but I would like to know the list of participants that will be sitting on that um committee as the meeting is approaching for next month um so that would be great thank you thank you Mr afar anybody else on the list nobody else n thank you so much um and see nobody else we'll go ahead and move on to comments and communication uh we'll go ahead and start 501 Teamsters do we have anybody here um and they are muted so I'm going to need the staff to help me look out and see if they see anybody from Teamsters here and unmute them [Music] please no I don't think I see anybody Dr am I missing no right okay um and if you are out there uh feel free to maybe text uh one of us but um I don't I don't see anybody and I didn't receive a message um letting me know I think somebody okay no no I said that maybe they can just raise their hand thank you thank you yes we can use that um so seeing them we'll move on to 502 um California School Employees Association please please raise your hand if you are going to be speaking on behalf of csca anybody Mr afar none I don't see okay thank you um and we'll go ahead and move on to 503 elmrock administrators Association um please raise your hand if you're going to be speaking on their behalf hello hey thank you welcome back M Martinez thank you so good evening oh sorry my cat is causing an issue sorry okay good evening Alan Rock Schoolboard trustees and superintendent Bower the Alam Rock administrators Association would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season ARA spread some holiday cheer by hosting a members virtual get together last Friday where we to engage in fun activities and also during this event we were able to raise money to donate to the city peace project this is a nonprofit that empowers youth to thrive in every sphere of Life at our schools Alam rocks vapa team put together a virtual jazz concert last night and the music that our Jazz students performed was am amazing and it was great to see the music come to life via Zoom also School School sites were able to dabble in holiday holiday cheer throughout a variety of activities for example some schools engag in a holiday spirit week or virtual Zoom DJ night while others worked with Community organizations to make sure students got gifts for the holidays ARA wants to thank organizations like Toys for Tots for working with our schools to support our families during the holidays none of this could be done without the support of our SLS coordinator Gonzalez and our community leans another recognition I'd like to make is for Dr Evan Montes the principal of San Antonio school he now has an additional role of being a Schoolboard trustee congratulations to trustee Dr Montes for being elected to the Morgan Hill School Board we know he will continue to advocate for all students and also we are proud to announce that one of our principals Jonathan natividad won the prestigious recognition of being named silicon Valley's Q's principal of the year for those who may not be familiar with Q it is all things to do with computers using computer using Educators so congratulations to Mr natividad and lastly we want to thank our teachers and support staff for all of their hard work and dedication thank you all and have a safe holiday um we'll go ahead and move on to 504 elmrock Educators Association um if you are here to speak on their behalf if you can raise your hand please she there can you please unmute Joseline she's waving hi Joseline sorry Jo everyone that's okay there's a lot of people um good evening and welcome to the beginning of yet another year on the Rock School Board ARA is very excited about the overwhelming support for now president arrera Lera in the November election you have demonstrated your commitment to the alumrock community and particularly to the students we serve your decisions are made thoughtfully and with a great deal of Integrity it is reassuring to know that you hold the best interests of our students in our community as a top priority in your work on this board which brings me to another topic that of appointing the fifth trustee to fill the vacancy when you review the applications and interview the interested candidates please keep in mind the previously mentioned characteristics we need an honest thoughtful person with Integrity who is respectful and committed to carrying out his or her duties in a professional manner this should not be a forum for public drama any longer it's time to take care of the important issues at hand which brings me to my next topic that of settling the last two years of salary and benefits in our bargaining agreement as you can see by the display of area logos in this Zoom meeting and I do want to point out that there at one point was close to 200 people in this meeting many of whom had our logo our members are here we are here because we are tired of being strung along we are tired of getting the leftovers when it comes to receiving any type of compensation we are at the end of a three-year bargaining agreement and we still have no settlement for the last two school years for salary and benefits this is absolutely not okay in fact it's ridiculous that it has taken this long all the while the district continues to spend on whatever they choose to prioritize and it certainly is not the workers who keep this District operating and providing the instruction that is being a made a priority we aren't asking for much in fact we aren't asking for any ongoing increase on salary we let that go a long time ago are you aware that the district has budgeted $15 million for books and supplies for next year it's this is what's been budgeted just to make it appear unavailable unavailable to be used elsewhere but don't be fooled it's just a placeholder for the money to be earmarked just like every other year although I think that 15 million is far more than prior years it's past time to get this settled in fact area will be sunshin and to begin our three-year successor agreement at the January board meeting it's probably a good thing that we have language in our bargaining agreement that provides a date when we must begin bargaining by for our successor agreement or may be completely overlooked just as we feel we have been these last two years we know the district has had some Financial issues although I am still trying to find out exactly what has created them I do know that area has reduced the number of FTE in our bargaining unit significantly over the last three years in an effort to save the district millions of dollars in fact we were reduced by so many teachers last year that the district paid out over $750,000 three4 of a million dollars in excess class size overages because of the number of teachers was not enough to service the number of students maybe it's decisions like that one that got us where we are today regardless we have been extremely patient while at the same time our workload has increased to the point that teachers are being pushed out of the district and pushed out of the profession patients has turned to frustration dissatisfaction and indignation when you have a union of teachers the point where we are we tend to organize unify and take action area has made an incredible amount of movement to make it us to try to get a settlement to happen however I cannot say the same for the district in fact the district tried to get area to counter our own last offer when we did not do so the district ended the bargaining session that was two weeks ago and we still not received any type of counter proposal nor has the district declared impass please direct your bargaining team to settle this now before we are forced to waste more time and energy on such a narrow divide I would like to close by wishing all of you a relaxing and happy holiday season most of all I want to encourage every everyone to follow the guidelines of the county health department and stay home and stay healthy the greatest gift that we can give our friends and loved ones this year is to take all the precautions necessary to be able to spend time and celebrate them with them in the future thank you thank you uh Mr Avatar do we have um next we have superintendent 505 um Dr Bower so I have a couple of comments before I call Dr Mones and Miss wania to um share the list that was requested earlier about the ethnic studies committee but if I may um Brenda very appropriately shout out to custodians at Hubbert and I want to Echo her shout out I went to see what they were doing yesterday um Edwin Oran and Jesus Garcia I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and the children and the staff thank you for being so selfless and so positive and collaborative in these very trying moments and really beautifying Hub birth um on your own in so many ways so um thank you I told them I visited with them yesterday we took some pictures I I shared that with the board I don't know I know you know most of you have a job and it's hard to see messages when I send it to you during the day all of you have another job so it's hard but you will see those pictures and it's amazing so thank you Brenda for bringing that up because it is really it was a joy to see the second thing I want to share with you it's um I've been thinking a lot um about a specific Memorial um for the victims of covid 2020 in this district and um those of you who know me it could be something simple or it can be something artistic um it could be a little mural or it could be a tree that we plan together honoring this beautiful people that we've lost um I want to uh encourage our community to send me emails with your ideas and I will be happy to consider them within Reon um and then we will bring something to the board potentially by February or March I would love to say something in February to celebrate the Day of Love uh February for 14 if possible um but I think it's an important thing for us as a district to honor um the victims of this pandemic and just to let you know we're going to start um we we have started a um a list of our students and families who have lost somebody during this pandemic Norma Flores um is helping us to collect that data so that we know the tremendous impact that has been in our community so more of that to come um thank you so much for everybody that has participated and with this I'm going to turn it over with to Dr Ivan Montes and miss cam fontania so that they can uh update the board about the ethnic studies committee thank you thank you thank you so much uh superintendent Dr Bower good evening evening Board of trusties community members and um we are very excited and uh very um honored to be here tonight to provide you uh an update um on the status of the ethnic studies committee for the elmrock school district with which is exciting to say um if uh Mrs marabel if you can please start the share the deck thank you and we can go to the next slide so we're here if we uh yep thank you so much uh we're here tonight from action that was taken by this board back in June 11th of this year uh with the charge to establish an ethnic studies committee um our charge was to research and ethnic studies curriculum with the ultimate goal of presenting a recommendation to the superintendent and ultimately to you all as our Board of Education uh we're very excited to bring you an update on the progress we've made thus far next slide please hi good evening everyone um my name is chamille Spano it's almost Mayfair um and I've been happy to work with Dr Mones on this to date uh just a reminder the selection criteria that we had shared um in the previous board meeting and used as a filter um with the 40 47 applications we received um we were thrilled to receive so much interest in the district um but the criteria we looked at was first and foremost do the applicants have a strong connect ction to the alumrock Union School District community so are you a current teacher parents students staff Community um CBO partner or a philanthropic partner um we were also um looking to ensure adequate ethnic representation that ensures proportional representation to the students we serve um we wanted to ensure that there was representation of the different grade levels uh within the school district we we wanted to make sure from TK all the way through 8th grade um we had members on the committee who were representative of those grade levels and we also wanted to um ensure that availability and commitment to be a lead member um would mean that you would be here for the entirety of the process and um not as a disqualifier but we also asked um members to share any experience um in studying developing or implementing ethnic studies programs or initiatives um would be also um taken into consideration and as I mentioned we had 47 applicants um all of whom uh were qualified in in different ways but again using the selection criteria to ensure that we had adequate and diverse stakeholder uh representation ethnic representation and grade level representation next slide so in in making the selection for our committee leads we um P we have various stakeholder groups in which we have representation we have a a parent stakeholder group a educator teacher stakeholder group uh a partner CBO stakeholder group higher ed and Community member student which was some of the input that we got from the community uh during our first uh presentation uh last at the last board meeting we're very excited uh to uh welcome aboard uh the parent Earl Espinosa uh who's a parent of San Antonio elementary for ATK and third grade student we're also excited to welcome aboard hushi nativa um from hubard tk3 parent Ed Washington uh from adalante dual Language Academy first grade parent uh surha uh chandi uh tkk and fourth grade parent at McCullum and we have Elizabeth Sanchez who is a TK Kinder um parent and she is also affiliated with EMP and skoy for the teacher stakeholder group we are uh excited excited to welcome Jonathan alaro who is representing grades third fourth and fifth and he is a teacher at Lucha Elementary School uh we have Alondra Rio cantes who is a teacher at George Middle School representing sixth seventh and eighth grade as our teacher alternates we welcomed Jesus loano uh who is a teacher at lindel molum in Atlanta 2 and he is also representing grades four uh fourth fifth and sixth grade we have Elvia Dias a teacher at Atlanta 1 representing grade sixth seventh and eth for uh CBO Partners who applied um we have Maha El ginaldi um who is um a leader within the Islamic networks group um and she has uh her own students in grades seventh and eth um partner with citizen schools uh located at the renissance and Matson campus Delaney bantillo and um with Amigos de Guadalupe chazli llamas um who does work with The alen Rock School District currently so excited to welcome those CBO Partners um in the higher education field we are pleased to welcome Melissa an neiera loano uh who is currently on faculty at Evergreen Valley College um and for a Community member and a current student um hearing parent feedback at the last session um jacqulyn Ramirez uh who is a former Ryan Elementary Alum and is a current student I believe at one of our local community colleges um so this is this the the roster we came up with uh we want to make sure that people know that all meetings will be uh open to the public moving forward and so if if you are not on the lead committee we still encourage you um to engage actively with us um as all meetings will be open to the public um and we encourage all applicants to really participate especially in the subsequent stakeholder committee meetings that we had um proposed absolutely and to build on my um co- co- um committee uh lead um these uh committee leads uh will be engaging will be helping us and deepen our our community engagement by um facilitating uh stakeholder meetings within the within their own area so the parent uh teacher partner CBO highered and uh student to so to ensure that we are doing our due diligence to continue to um make sure that we increase um access and we are uh surfacing the voice of our community in this process next slide I think there's one more slide um we have determined that the first meeting will be Thursday January 28th um from 6:00 to 8:00 pm um via zoom and and we definitely need to figure out the logistics for that um and ensure that there is adequate translation available um but we wanted to call the first meeting to order um in the new year and then subsequently the community leads we will all work together to determine um the schedule moving forward uh as we indicated we we expect to have meetings in April July and um November of of the next calendar year um and in between those will be those stakeholder meetings we discussed um we but we are we able for questions if if anyone has any I just wanted to confirm you said January 28th would be the first meeting yes thank you anybody uh any of the board members have any questions for them H can you unmute uh trusty Chavez please I just want to thank them for doing the work that they're doing that's it thanks thank you thank you and um let's see I apologize I don't have everybody showing here um but go ahead and speak if you would like to speak no no thumbs up from Mr kto um okay we'll go ahead and move on um actually we're still on a superintendent but before we do that thank you again um Camille and ion for presenting today for doing hard work I know it wasn't easy um to go through all those applications and interview you know the people and um I'm sure they were all great like you said you know so I can't imagine you know picking out of 47 um but thank you for doing that work on behalf of our children and our staff and you know the future uh programs that we'll have you know I can already just see our children and you know learning about themselves and so all that takes that work so I'm glad that it's YouTube doing that um and you know I I have full trust in this committee and I look forward to all the wonderful things that will come out of this work thank you again thank you happy holidays everyone too um and Dr Bower go ahead and hand it back to you since it's um it's your um presentation if there's anything else to add I want to wish everybody a very safe holiday please please um wear your mask follow social distancing and stay home I want to see everybody back yes thank you um and with that we'll go ahead and move on to 506 board trustees communication comments um anybody have anything to share and let's see I'm going to go to my gallery view um I don't see a thumbs up from Mr GTO uh Mr trusty Beano anything I'm gonna go ahead and foro my comments for this man trusty Chavez okay um and just before we move on I'd like to just take this time um to have a moment of silence for those that you know have lost their lives connected to this pandemic in one way or another um and those that have been you know affected by it in one way or another um I'm also thinking of my H padrino who's laying in the hospital with you know um sedated right now um and not knowing if you know he's going to make it so just thinking of all those that have um been impacted by this pandemic in one way or another those who have lost a job um so just wanting to have a moment of silence at this time thank you um and thank you Dr Bower for uh bringing up those ideas and um you know following up on that um I'd also like to you know see what we're doing um with those families and how we're supporting those families um that have been impacted our students um I know that this community is the one that's being impacted the most um and so I know that's our children in our community um and just you know a reminder we had a, 1,21 new cases um today news today's new uh data um and then 566 total deaths 99 new hospitalizations um and that coincides you know it's about 10% of the new cases that end up in the uh in the hospital so um let's just as we've heard continue to follow all guidelines stay home um I know this is a time when we like to you know go and visit our family that lives you know in other parts of the country and um you know even those that are nearby but we get to stay home and save lives this year um so let's do that I'd like to go back to meeting um back you know in the district office and and seeing and feeling all your warmth so hopefully we get to do that um in the near future um with that we'll go ahead and move on to six um contracts over $100,000 uh board discussion and or action 601 approved approval move to approved I'll go ahead and second um any uh questions or comments on this item no let me just make sure I can see everybody uh okay I don't see Linda on my screen here so okay good just let me know if I miss you I don't want to miss anybody okay so we'll go ahead and um call for the motion comment this item uh Mr avar do we have anybody on to speak on this item no one no one seeing no one we'll go ahead and um move for the vote uh I'll go ahead and call your name trusty Beano hi trusty Chavez hi trusty kto hi myself I motion gets approved um now 7 701 approv the county Santa Clair register voters certified blah blah blah at this point um you know we're certifying that we got the uh information I move to approve by trusty GTO second second Chavez um public comment anybody Mr afar on this item yes there is one Veron okay Veronica welcome back and as soon as you begin speaking the timer will begin great thank you so much um and one thing I do want to comment on is um the well congratulations uh um president Bor Gina I know that uh you know we saw you walking and um engaging and thank you for all the work that you've done and I think with that I also want to Echo um ARA um comment earlier about the need for our teachers to be also a priority and not to be left towards the end I think those were um very you know again that checkpoint of reality we need to make sure that our teachers are being taken care of they do so much work and I know everybody's doing so much work right but um I appreciate all my teachers and as a teacher myself I want to make sure that they that we know that they're also the infrastructure of this school system that they're the backbone of it and that we are acknowledging their hard work and we are also acknowledging all of their comments and with that I hope that there's something that comes out soon and that we not longer keep on waiting on them I also um do want to comment about um uh the blah blah if you can um you know it was a little bit disrespectful and if you can please just proceed on reading it completely I know um it's something that we had already we know the results um but it's still you know within the public and um thank you so much and again um let's keep our teachers in our mindset let's keep them as a front priority because without them you know what are we going to do and so I really want to make sure that our teachers are being taken care of and that we don't have to come back where they're in two years three years and bargaining still not acceptable please please make them a priority as well thank you I appreciate your comment Miss Veronica Miss draft do we have anybody else no one else okay and I'll go ahead and uh read this approve the county of Santa Clara register of Voters certified statement of election results from November 3 2020 declaring Corina era loera and Scott hung fam were elected to the office of govern governing board members alen Rock Union Elementary School District pursuant to elections code section 15400 the governing board shall accept the certified statement of election results and declare the totals to be final results of the election thank you um at this point we'll go ahead and move for the vote uh go ahead and call your name as I see you trusty Beano hi trusty Chavez hi trusty kto I myself I passes uh item 702 approved proposed board meeting calendar for 2021 approval discuss it determin to propose a schedule for regular board meetings for the calendar year from January through December 2021 proposed dates include January 21st February 11th March 11th April 8 May 13th June 10th and June 24th July 8th August 12th September 9th October 14th November 11th and December 9th I know our Council brought up to our attention uh that uh um December 9th should be um moved to December 14th I believe is the following Thursday since we need to um December 16 December 16 so just want to um edit that just one we have multiple edits multiple edits um can we do that before we motion go ahead uh Dr Bower with your edits yeah I think trusty Chavez were you going to do the same thing trusty Chavez yes uh go ahead Dr Bower okay so just so that everybody knows we we've selected all the second Thursdays and that's why uh we needed to adjust a number of them this year for some reason it's not going to work that way so the board meeting um in January we must have it by on January the 14 instead of the 21st we usually give the staff a week after you extra week in January but we won't be able to do that because we have some business things that we really need to have done by the 15th of January so move um the the regular board meeting for January will be January 14th if the board approves um April 15 in the 8th because we have spring break November 18th did you 11 ex because of excuse me did you say April 15th April 15 yes okay instead of the eth and we will publish all of this but just so that everybody knows I'm going to repeat November 18 instead of the 11th because the 11th is Veterans Day move to approve December 16th move to approve yes I'll go ahead in second uh uh do we open up for public comment as well yes yes do we have anybody on the public comments none uh we'll go ahead and open it up for any questions comments discussion seeing none we'll go ahead and uh move to uh vote uh trusty Beano hi trusty Chavez hi vice president kto hi approved 703 uh approved to call for nominations to csba delegate assembly motion uh can I nominate myself motion by Chavez nominates herself um do we have a second for that sure I'll go ahead and second second by board vice president Kinto uh open it up for public comments uh before we do that I see trusty Beano's hand up um I like to move that we uh select trusty kto to continue with this I think um he served us well and um I think at this time we need some stability at that in that role and I move for trusty kto to be our representative second I know that we have we we had one open uh roio do we just add to that or how do we do it yes so this doesn't uh so these are nominations and since they're nominations you will call the vote in the order in which you receive the nominations unless one of the nominees wants to uh withdraw or not accept the nomination so you would start with member Chavez call the vote on member Chavez first if she has a majority then she receives it if not then you would call the vote on vice president kto next uh Board of vice president kto do you accept the nomination yes okay um so we open it up for public comment first correct yes U Mr after T do you have anybody anybody on the list none at this time um since they had a time to raise their hand I'll go ahead and move on um so we'll take it one by one we'll start off with trusty Chavez's nomination um we'll go ahead and take a vote and then um depending on how that goes move forward with the next one um I'll go ahead and and go uh as I see on my screen trusty Bano uh no pardon V yes I didn't hear you sorry okay board vice president GTO uh no and myself no um now we'll move on to the next nomination um we do have a second correct yes I second um so we'll go ahead and go to the vote uh trusty Beano yes trusty Chavez yes trusty uh GTO hi and myself I um that passes 704 approv work Workforce requirements for power purchase agreements um 704 is there a presentation or anybody to speak on that uh yeah um Madam president or president uh I uh had brought this forward and um there were some uh some Fe there was some feedback that I had received from our general counsel with regards to some changes um I've been able to try to uh adjust the the document as best as I could but it's already in the book and it's un unless I go through line by line and I read out the the changes that that have been indicated I think it's probably it's GNA be kind of messy but um we do have Garcia who can speak to to this item as well from the from from the perspective of the building Trad folks um so and then I can go ahead and give my my thoughts after that okay Jos if we can unmute Jos Garcia at this time Al so if we can raise your hand and maybe help the staff find you yes I think can you hear me yes welcome oh good evening uh president Herrera and congratulations on your appointment and and superintendent bers good to see you uh thank you for giving me the opportunity and we see for for a a an energy service contract or a power foress agreement or a solar panel project however the name will be the policy is intended to create um good jobs good paying jobs for for for the community and it also intends to create uh um apprenticeship opportunities for high school graduates and people that just want to get into the trades as well uh to create a some type of local hire for work construction workers within the county um other ENT government agencies have this type of uh policies such as the city of San Jose the county of Santa Clara the mil school districts and other and other um government agencies and again the idea is to create um good employment opportunities for construction workers uh as it was reported uh many people are having hard time during the budget that was presented earlier the district is having financial hardship people are moving out of the area with co9 more and more people are in need in jobs and construction is still one of the essential jobs that can put people to work and I'm sure it's impossible to do this but if you ask right now every uh residents of your District who wants to who wants a good paying job a lot of people people will raise their hand so that's the intent the policy also creates a Level Playing Field for local contractors that usually compete with uh low bowling uh contractors from out of the area I'm speaking on behalf of uh the IB Local 332 which is the electricians union and also on behalf of naika which is an association of contractors and uh uh that contractors are agreeing with a policy and also they feel that they can uh that they can f fulfill the requirements of the policy so that the the labor union and the contractors um think it's a good idea and they are uh eager to participate with you as soon as you put the RFP for that project um that is basically my comments but I'm available to answer any questions you may have thank you Bo vice president uh anything else you would like to add yeah so um some of the concerns there was a obviously a lot some issues raised with the way that the the agreement reads and so I would have we have the opportunity here to not necessarily move forward with the agreement as is but instead provide direction to our Council to go ahead and uh work towards incorporating the or towards towards addressing the issues that he's addressed and and then incorporating him into a policy that can be brought back next month so that we can go ahead and uh make a decision as to whether or not we we adopt or we we choose not to adopt um and so there's a lot of good uh Point things that uh General councel pointed out and I would just ask that we as a board direct counsil to bring back uh a a policy that has all those issues worked out and if need be can he can work with um CL and others to get answers to those questions and possibly other districts that uh have been identified may have that language already so rather than adopting what's what's here would I would ask my colleagues to um take action to uh direct the administration uh to bring back a policy that addresses the issues that have been raised move to bring back trusty Chavez move to bring back uh trusty wano um I have a I'll second that but I also have uh I guess a clarification and a question um the CL so the clarification just um so people know before we go into public comment this is specifically language um for this agreement in the event in the future that this District if if it should decide to go in the direction of a power purchase agreement that this would be in place to ensure all the things that Mr Garcia uh just um just talked to us about that is that correct just Vice correct uh the the idea here is to make sure that these these uh these large large dollar agreements don't just go in and they make a buck for large entities out there but instead they also they translate into actual dollars for the people that are paying those taxes in these communities and so you know maybe maybe it's not just the school district but it's County you know countywide so that we make sure that that at the very least those those dollars are being paid out are staying at least in our County um so those are the that's the intention with this with this language thank you I just wanted to clarify that this is like a step ahead in the event that we should go in that direction in the future and so just so people don't think that that's like happening right now and then the other thing which you may have already addressed by um suggesting that we direct staff to go back with this but my just question was the the title of the document Workforce requirements for power purchase agreements if again if this body or any I guess any future body decided to go forward um and with a program like this um but it wasn't necessarily a power purchase agreement so hypothetically if someone wanted to move forward with an energy program that was not financed through Power purchase agreements would the language within this document still cover that type of agreement or is that something that you're referring to for uh St to go back and and modify those are all the details that we're asking uh the ad ministration Council to um to review and to bring back and it's part of the stuff that Council already identified so okay okay thank you yeah I have a question uh it's for Mr Rees um since this board did not see how should I say can we see bits because I believe we've only seen one and I would like to see three to see if the one that we seen before is competitive and I don't believe we've seen that yes so these types of contracts are not subject to the mandatory bidding laws they are subject to an RFP process and RFQ request for qualifications process um so if the board decides it wants to open this up and and uh the RFP or RFQ process again it's free to do that any other questions or comments um so at this point I know cha uh trusty Chavez motion no second to bring back the item so do we need to vote on this if we're just going to ask staff to bring it back Rio uh well the I I believe you haven't called for public comment yet I'm not sure if there is any and there yes uh Mr Garcia wants to talk and I'm assuming he can do that right now uh so we'll go ahead and open it up for public comment uh Garcia I'm assuming it's part of your presentation and um I have a feeling you can uh point it out in within the two minutes welcome back Mr Garcia we can unmute him otherwise we can move on to the next speaker hello welcome back I just I just wanted to answer uh Mr Beano's question about uh the policy is to whatever the the contract will be it can be a power purchase agreement or something else that that what the the policy will cover any type of agreement regarding the an energy project thank you can you repeat that please I I couldn't hear you yes that the policy is not necessarily for a power purchase agreement it could be for a power purchase agreement or any other type of agreement related to to energy thank you thank you U Mr avar do we have anybody else on public comment yes we have one Veronica Veronica welome back as soon as you begin speaking your timer will begin great thank you um and um I I'm trying to still understand but I really appreciate um having this forward however I do want to just Echo the comment that we heard earlier about it is not time to um spend and I know it's we're not talking about the solar panels yet but I'm still trying to to figure out like I know that they are going to bring savings right um but at the same time it's not time to spend so is there ways that the board can't write as one of their duties or yeah I think the board um look into other projects that might provide some subsidy um for paying for those solar panels um I know that there's um you know different projects out there and I'm not sure if again if we can go and look like the board can go look for them make those Partnerships um and have also somebody else kind of sponsor that um I just worry that um yeah it's just going back to the comment that we heard earlier from um somebody from Santa Clara County Office of Education just talking about it's not the time to spend um and when we look at them so I really want to Echo just looking into maybe who can sponsor it um and it's you know it it can be done I think um and I would really appreciate if we can also bring those um back if we are introducing anything like talking about solar panels again thank you you Mr art do we have anybody else no one thank you um so we'll come back to this and uh do we just uh bring it back to the next meeting to then vote on with the additional information you you have a motion in a second uh directing staff to bring this back at the next meeting so I think you can call the vote now okay uh trusty Beano hi Chavez um actually I would like to withdraw my motion um owned by the body it's owned by the body I can't withdraw it at this point motion second we're in the middle of the vote no uh board vice president GTO I I CL is a item Let's see we did 801 804 approve Alpha charter school facilities use agreement we have somebody to present on that Dr Bower Madame President uh Alpha requested a three minute presentation so they're ready to present to the board Mr Chris Kang here representing Alpha and after if you can unmute him I think he's ready to go so what's the last name Chris Clark I I got it thank you let me just project yes welcome thank you and you can see my screen great great good evening uh superintendent Dr Bower president Lera and Board of Trustees thank you for your time this evening I'll be quick my name is Chris Kang I'm the Chief Operating Officer of alpha public schools and I am honored to be speaking on behalf of alfha blanca Alvarado and Alpha Jose Hernandez as you may know Alpha opened its doors to its first schools in alamro in 2012 then in 2014 in 2017 both schools were approved to become full K to8 schools and in 2019 we opened our schools to our first kindergarten classes over the next few years through 2024 and starting this summer as those kindergarteners progress through fourth grade we will need additional classroom spaces for them and so that's why we are here before you today our request and our hope is that you approve a facilities use agreement that can provide us the subis classroom spaces for ourc 4 students and for our English learner program and special education services uh you have seen the lease uh there's just three important points I wanted to highlight uh first um we are very optimistic that the lease begins to address our need for these additional classrooms I mentioned second that Alpha does not plan to grow outside what is natural grade level growth is approved by our petition and third that Alpha will bear the entire Financial cost and any any potential liability associated with the lease and any construction while at the same time providing the district with stable rental income through 2026 as has been the case for many years we've very much and I very much appreciated the sustained partnership and work um especially from assistant superintendent Che and the district team uh that they've provided through this process to create this uh proposed lease there is one element that I want to bring forward forth uh bring forth for additional consideration by the board which is the need for additional student bathrooms on campus with the installation of six approved classroom modular in the lease we respectfully ask for permission to build one additional boys bathroom and one additional girls bathroom this would be in keeping with California pluming code for additional toilets and fixtures BAS on the increased classroom square footage and I think more importantly and especially given the potential impacts of covid-19 on space and distancing constraints when we fully reopen I know that having additional bathroom space would greatly alleviate the health and safety concerns of our families our staff and our students and so with that shared uh we request that the Board of Trustees approves uh this facility use agreement and we would also appreciate if you would consider the addition of language that would give us permission to build student restrooms thank you very much for your time thank you um Madam president yes Dr bar uh we are uh respectfully asking the board to approve only the six classrooms that we had in the writing in the written memorandum of understanding that that was given to you um this other addition uh request is not uh something that the staff is recommending for the board we had already talked to Alpha about this I'm not sure why this is being presented right now um so uh open it up for public comment and then um we'll come back to the trustees at this time uh avar do we have anybody on the list for public comment yes we have three okay um who's the first one bayanka wri welcome Miss right and uh as soon as you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening Board of Trustees superintendent bow in Alam Rock School District my name is Bianca Wright I've had the privilege of being a founding sixth grade teacher at Alpha Blanca in 2012 and um this year marks my ninth year with the alpha family as you can imagine being a part of the Alpha Team for the past nine years has enabled me to see Alpha grow and transform in many incredible ways not only have we grown in our pursuit of excellence in providing a quality education for our Scholars and families but we have also quite literally grown in size and we need more space and more classrooms from the beginning in 2012 we started with four sixth grade classrooms and one seventh grade class it has always been our goal to grow to into a k through eth Continuum but we wanted to tackle this growth strategically and purposefully now just eight years later we are happy to say that we serve Kinder first and fifth through eighth grade it has been amazing to see our community grow I personally have been able to work with many of my students and their siblings over the years that they've gone through each grade level we would love to continue expanding our Outreach to serve all of our families who have K through a children and we need the space to do so and bathrooms please we would also like to continue providing spaces on our campus that will allow our sped and ELD students to have their own classrooms to grow and learn since providing these additional classroom spaces for our ELD and sped programs we've seen students take more ownership over their individual growth I ask that you please consider approving the lease with alfha Blanc Alvarado and Alpha Jose hernand us so that we can not only reach our Dream but we can also fulfill our promise to the families and the community that we serve thank you for your time thank you uh do we have anybody else M trar next person yes we have three more people the next person is Rosie Carson welcome as soon as you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening board and superintendent um I am Rosie Carlson and I'm actually going to read a statement from one of our students Briana Sanchez as she had to go to bed um so I apologize for that um good evening my name is Briana Sanchez and I am an eighth grader at Alpha Jose Hernandez I have been a student at Alpha since fifth grade and have seen and has grown as a student leader on campus even though we have had to move even though we had to move school to distance learning the things that I've enjoyed about school continue we have penguin Pala that continue that include what the students like and give us various opportunities the teachers do class and explain a lot and have office hours for when we need extra help I Love the Way teachers make you feel comfortable even talking through the computer the teachers are always available to help with getting grades up and letting me know what I need to do thank you for your time and I hope you approve the lease agreement thank you Miss Carlson uh next person up Miss Dominguez welcome Miss Dominguez soon as you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening Board of Trustees superintendent bow and Alam Rock District staff my name is Guadalupe Dominguez and I am the sixth grade ELA in history teacher at Alpha Jose Hernandez I started working at Alpha because I wanted to give back to a community whose students demographic represent my own growing up as a first generation immigrant I often fell out of place and didn't have teachers who had similar experiences to my own working at Alpha has given me the opportunity to work with and help students and families who have been through similar struggles as my own and has given me the opportunity to work with Educators who are dedicated to creating an equitable future for our students and to giving access to the best education we could possibly provide the people who I work with are committed to putting in the work to best serve our community including serving students from the K through 8 range our schools are vital to our community in so many ways for this reason I ask that you please consider approving the lease with Alfa Blanca Alvarado and Alfa Jose Hernandez so that we can continue to best serve all students in our community thank you Miss Dominguez Mr AAR is there anybody else on the list yes we have one more Elsa Ruta welcome Elsa as soon as you begin speaking the timer will begin good evening Board of Trustees superintendent Bower and Alam Rock District staff um my name is Elsa Ruda and I'm a parent at ala Blanca Alvarado I come to you today to express what a great resource Alpha has been to my to my family and to our community my daughter Nina graduated from alpha Blanca two years ago and my son Nico is in the seventh grade over the past five years I have built a strong relationship with teachers and staff at at Blanca my children know that if they would like to attend a university they can the dedicated teachers have instilled in them that they could graduate from a university is is a real possibility not just a dream this was made possible because of the teachers that go above and beyond normal classroom teaching teachers that have invested in our children as well as provided resources to the whole family resources like the parent uh Learning Center where parents can go to learn English and take computer courses The Learning Center provides um parents with a safe place to better themselves so they can continue to help their children the par parent Center even provides um information for grants for families to pay for their rent bills and food during this pandemic another huge resource that Alpha brings to our community is the monthly food bank that feeds hundreds of families in the community not limited to the children that attend Alpa Blanca or Jose Hernandez our community has an urgent need for more schools like Alpa Blanca and Jose Hernandez to continue to grow and invest in our children I ask that you would please consider approving the lease with Alpa Blanca Alvarado and Jose Hernandez thank you for your time thank you do we have anybody else on the list no one else thank you so much uh now at this time I'd like to move over to the board um trusty Chavis uh yes um I would like uh to say that the the students they need to feel comfortable and they're not asking for a lot for an extra bathroom real quick um if I can I thought you were gonna motion if I can get a motion in a second motion moot anybody second what is the motion uh to approve Alpha charter schools with the bathroom because if I can State the rest of it that the students need to feel comfortable and they're not asking for a lot for an extra bathroom hold on one second um Dr Bower do you want to yes this is this is very unacceptable we cannot be negotiating contracts this is a contract this is an agreement we cannot be doing this in public and I'm very disappointed with Mr Ken for asking we had already made all of our agreements they agree to that um we allow them this time so that they can present you know we're trying to be good neighbors we're trying to be good partners but this is always you know people try to sneak in and that's not fair to us we work diligently um we presented the board already um we had an agreement and this is not what he presented Ed in public is not the agreement um I'm very sad that this has to be said in public um we were trying to be as I mentioned good partners allow them to speak in public um if you recall the board before uh had huge problems um trying to negotiate with other people in public it's not appropriate so I'm respectfully asking the board to disregard the additional U amendment that Mr K chose to put this in in public is not in our memo it's not on what the board and what we had already presented so um please board I'm asking you respectfully if if you choose to approve this um uh uh uh agreement is going to be with within the parameters that we agreed before which were the the only the the six classrooms thank you madam president I'll reward the motion then uh if I could uh say uh approve the contract and Facilities use agreement with the agreement that they had prior to this presentation what's in writing uh what they had agree on thank you uh uh board vice president kto I heard your voice go ahead yeah um if there's no second then I'd like to bring up possible opportunity to to deal with this item um Is it feasible to send it back to Clos session so that the board can talk to the administration rather than dealing with it right now is there anything is there anything time sensitive um that uh the um that they're asking for that they'll miss out on if we don't approve it tonight I don't Helo can we discuss this in closed session no it's not agendized for closed session what I meant is that's why I'm saying is is it time sensitive and would we be able to send it a close session next month is this time sensitive Dr Bower or I don't I don't believe it is since it relates of facilities for the next school year but but I could be wrong about that I would invite Mr changen to step in if he thinks different we can unmute Mr Chang if he's not unmuted no the presenter I'm trying to look up the um timeline for the prop 39 in terms of what when that begins in terms of uh when the contract doesn't get approved or the joint use agreement doesn't get approved um I don't know that does a would the presenter know or did the presenter know that there was um not an additional bathroom yeah apologies I I can I can share um it is it is time sensitive and so um you know again it was just for consideration and so um we'd rather have a lease approved tonight um with any with any condition all second trust Chavez's motion then okay just move forward all right I I just want to make sure though trusty Chavez your your motion was then to um recommendation of staff on this item correct to approve what was in writing and not with the additional bathroom but when you say to approve what was in writing is the writing let me let me put it this way to approve 805 there you go facilities use agreement yeah that's what I seconded so all right okay thank you I just want to make sure that there's Clarity on that I okay let's vote okay any other question approve 804 804 you're jumping the gun there so if I don't see any other comments or questions I'll go ahead and uh move for uh the vote do you have something else Dr Bower just want to make sure that the record shows that it is 804 and that trusty Chavez acknowledges that yes yes okay 804 Shen has another has his hand up yeah if I may just for the record um the administration is requesting the board to approve um The Joint use agreement that allows for a total of four Portables with no additional restroom just yes yes okay thank you um at this point I'll call for the vote uh trustan hi yes presid GTO hi I approved um 805 approved Kip charter school facilities use agreement do we have a presenter no we're going to have to pull this item keep never responded okay so we'll pull this item moving on to 806 but before we do that it's 1024 um if I can get uh somebody to extension sorry 11:30 yeah second okay okay uh we'll go ahead and vote do we Umano hi I uh vice president kto I myself I I was just wondering if we needed to open that for public comment no Okay do um all right so moving on to 806 board policy five nutrition program compliance first reading information only you don't need to do anything don't need to do anything okay no comment questions uh no public comment or do we need to open that up yes you do okay public comment uh after do we have anybody on the list none okay um trustees any comments questions before we move on no none we'll move on to nine uh 901 approved board policy 6174 education for English language learner second reading motion to approve 901 second prusty Travis motion and board vice president kto second uh we will open it up for public comments Mr avar do we have anybody none at this time I'll wait five seconds just to see if somebody okay anybody anybody yet no okay just want to make sure that our community has the opportunity to speak okay seeing none um any comments questions from the trustees none none and uh board vice president kto feel free to speak up if I don't see you okay okay um see none then we'll go ahead and move for the vote uh trustee Beano hiy Chavez hi board vice president kto Hi s i approved 902 2021 Federal programs review fpm information only any Believe Miss Garcia has a brief present SRA or do you just want to update the board on this we can unmute Miss Garcia please hi uh I was just um sharing the document for information only I don't have a presentation unless there a question is in there materials thank you uh we'll open it up for public comment Mr abar do we have anybody on the list none I'll wait five seconds anybody yet no okay thank you um board uh trustees any comments questions before we move on seeing none we'll move on uh 903 board policy 6173 education for homeless children first reading information only um I'm assuming no presentation receiving on behalf okay we'll open it up for public comments at this time I will count to five and give people the opportunity to raise their hand any hands raised Mr avar none none okay see none uh trustees do you have any comments questions on this item none hearing none and seeing none uh we'll go ahead and um move on to 10:01 approve new ca position and job description information motion to approve motion to approve I hear have a second I'll go ahead in a second uh to for to um discussion purposes um go ahead and open it up for public comment at this time unless we have a presentation or anything Dr Bower let me know okay um none okay I'll count to five none Mr avar thank you um okay at this time I'll open it up for the trustees if there's any questions comments before we move to vote nobody let me look no okay seeing none I'll go ahead and uh call for the vote uh trusty Viano hiy Chavez hi vice president Kinto hi myself I approved uh 102 adopt the district's initial bargaining proposal to open negotiations with CCA chapter 305 for the period of July 1 2020 through June 30th 2023 move approval second byano U public comments at this time none none I'll go ahead and wait five seconds any now Mr avar none okay I'm seeing none move to the trustees any comments questions okay seeing none or hearing none go ahead and move for the vote uh tryano hiy Chavez uh hi vice president kto hi s i approved uh 103 resignations information only uh no presentations I take it uh open it up for public comment Mr afar none I'm GNA wait any now okay thank you uh want to make sure we give our community the time to speak if they want um okay seeing none I'll go ahead and um move to the trustees any questions comments concerns trusty Chavez oh are we gonna do the whole consent calendar as one vote uh when we get there we'll decide that just I'm wondering if you have any questions or comments on the resignations no no okay seeing none we'll go ahead and move uh on to the consent calendar and your question was if we're going to take that as one vote yes um unless anybody has uh anything to pull then we can take that on one vote correct correct anybody have anything to pull out before we move forward on this move approval of the content calendar move to approve I think I already did didn't I no I didn't hear you oh okay sorry I'll second then I'll second him second by trusty Chavez um we'll go ahead and open that up for public comment at this time U Mr Avatar do we have anybody none none I'll go ahead and wait five seconds okay Mr AAR anybody before we move on none okay none at this time uh trustees any questions comments or concerns before we move to the vote seeing none hearing none go ahead and move to vote uh trusty Bano actually he did text me that he's stepping away for a moment so um I'll come back to him at the end to see if he's back by then trusty Chavez hi uh board vice president ginto Hi myself I and I'll go back trusty Beano are you here okay he's not there but we have a consent we have a most of us here Mo passes motion passes um and now to close session but before we go to close session I need to close the uh I need to close the public hearings hearings that we opened up so at this time 301 and 302 I would like to close 301 and 302 do I need to read them before we go no okay so close at this time at 10:33 p.m.

to um listen to apov Val high school and Sandia Academy our students do a present a musical presentation I am really looking forward to it there's so much that our students are still doing in spite of what is happening so I'm hoping that you all can um log in and at least applaud your your students that's all I have um do we need to go into close session again uh Kylie do we have papers to sign um there are papers to sign and there are a few documents that require more than one signature so it might take me a little bit to make my rounds but if you could just hang tight for me I'll come by can we adjourn the meeting uh and then do the signing yes okay who's moving to to adjourn Ry and who second okay thank you meeting adjourned need a vote all in favor any opposed thank you meeting agend

do i have a motion for finance and operations motion by ms barbara giovanni seconded by mr lanzalata any questions or comments pertaining finance and operations dr smith thank you mr fiscaro just on on the topic of donations it's impossible to encompass all the time and resources that are donated from our community to our families it's going on all the time i feel so privileged because i get to see it both through conversation with principals and emails that go out from the schools and i just wanted to take a moment to highlight a couple sources of that giving so we've had an anonymous community member donate masks for schools all year long okay hundreds the martin women's club the yshan township police department shop with a cop program the marlton business association the administration building staff prince of peace st isaacs and all of our school ptas and etsd families who have been giving all year long again it's impossible to name everyone but thank you thank you so much to what everyone is doing to help each other during these difficult times thank you thank you dr smith any other questions or comments okay let's go to a roll call please this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yes mr zacchara yes miss flemming yes mr canton yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes all right moving to item 10 personnel you need a motion to prove items 10 1 through 10 10 do i have a motion motion by miss fleming seconded by mr lanzalata all right he's got it uh any uh questions or comments pertaining to personnel seeing none very talkable group today let's go to a roll call this is barbara giovanni yes this is everhart yeah mr pizzacaro yes miss fleming yes mr canton yes yes mr megan yes this is ryan yes okay i'm going to move to item 11 policy but there is no policy to approve tonight so we're going to move past that and head into committee reports is there any committee head that wishes to give a report on their committee mr lanzalata yes i'd just like to thank uh mark natalie and the democratic committee of yvesham that met with us on the 24th of november they welcomed dr smith as well as the the board representatives dr smith talked to talk to them again talked to the community just about what we're doing you know the great things that we're doing in the eastern township and you know talked about the the hybrid in person learning uh talked about what's going on with the budget took questions and answers and uh you know it was it was a really beneficial night for everyone so thank you thank you mr heinzelada any other committees all right uh seeing none we're gonna move to old business um there is no old business so then we're gonna move to item 14 new business uh there is no new business to present correct on that all right that'll take us to item 15 and this is open public comment for any items of interest this meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of interest however your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personnel items or negotiations we'd ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments three minutes per person we will first work with the uh with anybody in the room that wishes to speak and then i have two statements to read after that please state your name and address good evening john janks 39 carlton avenue regarding substandard education and the reduction of class time as we all know it closing schools remote learning is substandard education the kids parents the teachers the university studies yale rutgers devil all find remote learning is substandard and furthermore the scientific studies show that remote learning disproportionately hurts the poor underprivileged minorities blacks and hispanics so if you disproportionately hurt minorities that's the definition of racism so just so we all agree remote learning is a well documented now a racist policy i'm not accusing you of being racist maybe you just don't know it hey you remember only 13 of our children are minorities yes that's a policy we can live with now let's get to some additional data and science after all we do what the science says reducing class time schools who are protecting the kids well you all ran for office on kids first time for the children's etc etc so we have to protect their kids from what blowing their noses sneezing coughing or do we protect the children from dying well what is a data show not one child new jersey child has died between the ages of 5 and 17.

um i was talking to my friend the other day and she mentioned how last year she was going above and beyond on all of her work and all of her assignments and now she's doing the absolute bare minimum and i think everyone i know can relate to that and our teachers are noticing too as they've addressed it multiple times um parents are really worried for their all remote kids because their grades are falling and they don't know what to do there's no one at home to hold them accountable because they're at work um one of my big points is that i think us students deserve math breaks teachers have their plan periods where they get to pull down their math while we have to wear them from 7 45 to 12 45 street and i have a tendency to pass out so i do get very dizzy at school and i know many people do as well my mom did actually contact the school about this concern and was and was told that because we're not in school for a full day we don't need math breaks math breaks which i believe is extremely unsympathetic and simply not true because math do decrease your oxygen levels and my mom actually did a test where she tested my oxygen and after 30 seconds with my mouse gone my oxygen level had dropped drastically another issue is that [Music] with us being in school and i know that some people don't agree with us being in school i feel like a burden to my staff and my teachers and i know a lot of other kids feel that way they feel as though the teachers because they have to work with the kids in school and at home they just don't want to don't want to work with the kids at home i feel like when i'm remote my teachers are only talking to my kids in class and so i just i don't think that's fair to me due to the fact that i want to be in school i don't want to be at home my last year of high school i had to spend sitting in my room not motivated trying not to let my phone distract me my sister distressed me or my parents distract me who were working from home um i think that plays a big role into my mental health as well as my other classmates so i think that's it all right thank you very much jessica [Music] on to item three correspondence uh we do have a presentation from cameron illinois okay where do you watch all right and i think um met about a year ago at this point um i work with train you did that hbac project this summer um and then this is larry irwin he's with illinois and we just wanted to take this opportunity to come congratulate the district on their project this year you guys received a check for about 187 000 from ameren a couple weeks ago which results in 76 000 kilowatts and 992 000 pounds of co2 gas removed from your environment so this is a great great award for your district um we do a lot of these projects and 187 000 is definitely something to be proud of so the 76 000 is actually the amount of savings you'll have every year on your energy bill on this project granted it was a very large project so we were more than happy to provide you with this incentive payment please don't hesitate to do more projects that's part of my job i actually am my company's a contractor we're the third party administrator of what used to be called the akron energy program that's now just called the american online energy efficiency programs but we have if you're an enamored customer on the residential side there are things that we can do for you certainly on the business side we love these kind of projects i have a goal every year so many kilowatt hours of electric savings so many therms of gas savings and i also have a spending target so as long as we don't color outside the lines as long as it's legal i'm more than happy to give away as much of this incentive money for our energy efficiency project so i just wanted to present this to somebody we we do need a picture we've been i've been told i need somebody to take a picture so my folks in peoria can be happy so you know okay that works thank you yeah all right yeah if you can just uh forward that to us email to us that that's yours absolutely look at that i wish we had another real one to commit to you and i don't blame you for cash now it has been deposited yeah and i know there's a lot of work involved in the district's part and on jessica's part so i just kind of sit by the side things to happen and help deliver the money i won't say i came into this project uh late in the game but it was really good working with with both of you so thank you thank you for your patience this year it's been a year like no other thing yeah it's crazy time so hopefully what money we can provide you to the help thank you very much thank you very much thanks for the invitation on to the consent agenda well you've got the minutes and all the reports you will see at your desk regarding the personnel you'll see that we are hiring three nurses that puts us by a nurse at every building we're excited to see them starting so they've got those you'll also see that under the certified personnel we've got two individuals that we have selected for remote instruction to answer the question on the phone they are certified teachers they've got their license they've got their pbls they are going to be columbia teachers employees they're just going to be doing remote work for the classes that can't really be synchronous as you can see we are still looking for three more second grade third grade and a special ed remote so we've not been able to fill all those positions and that is somewhat cause of concern but given all those facts and with this knowledge uh administration recommends the board group the consent agenda as presented can i ask a question are we going to look at hiring uh remote instructors for the upper grade levels or are we just concentrating no just for the ones that have to be asynchronous the other ones the remote kids would be logging in and following along supremacy so really we're just looking forward for the grades that we don't feel should be um secrets it's hard for a kindergartner to follow along any other questions on the consent agenda seeing none let me entertain a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented motioned by prayer second by tammy hines can you do a roll call vote for karen anderson yes tammy hines yes john long yes greg meyer yes scott middle camp yes gregor connor oh lisa schumacher yes motion carries on to the uh next item which is uh communications and administrative reports uh principles report we have enrollment in the packet principles report yeah hi bye hi hi mr duggan uh principal at parkview um i just want to share a few things with you first uh our pta held their christmas craft night on december 4th and talking with katie jansen and jerry mead they said it was a huge success they were outside that evening was cold evening there was i believe six adults and four middle school students helping out deliver they prepared over 300 bags of crafts and snacks and people drove up and and they handed them off and they said it was a great success a lot of people came and picked up crafts and on their facebook page you can see pictures of students with their crafts and they look pretty happy so it's nice for pta to provide a safe fun and free event today our staff and students enjoying some holidays here by participating in a christmas trivia game over the phone we called it 12 by 12 at 12 12 o'clock today i uh actually all the schools asked a trivia question to staff and students and the 12th caller to the office with the correct answer won the prize so they had enjoyed that had a lot of fun at my school mrs denn's third grade class was the winner um unfortunately it may or may not have knocked out our phone system because we had i think over 170 phone calls within five minutes so uh yes yes so uh kudos to trend ron our tech guys for getting us back up and working so staff and students don't forget tomorrow is pajama day so we get to work pajamas to school tomorrow i also wanted to thank parents for keeping their children at home when they're exhibiting symptoms it's really very important if they're exhibiting any kind of symptoms to keep them at home just on the safe side we've seen too many times where somebody has come to school with known symptoms and even just the smallest thing is a cough can end up being a positive which in turn quarantines an entire class so you're talking about sending your kid to school with a symptom can affect over 20 families so please be considerate of that on the safe side just keep them home finally i wanted to let the board and community know that i'm amazed every day of the commitment and dedication of our teachers and staff who make sure they are providing exceptional education for all of their students both in person and remote teachers are working harder now than they ever have before they're exhausted and they do look forward to the christmas break like many of us uh even though many of those teachers over this christmas break are going to be working on new lessons they're going to be grading late homework assignments and getting their classrooms ready for the second semester my staff and i appreciate the numerous emails cards and messages of support from parents that recognize all the hard work that we put into this year it reminds us what we are doing is working now is it working for 100 of the community no it's not but i don't think any plan that we come up with in this pandemic is going to work for 100 percent i just wanted to let parents and students know that those letters and emails mean a lot to us so our teachers are going to find a way to make the next phase of returning to school work but we want it to be safe and we want it to work well so for that to happen we feel like we do need more time thank you thank you i don't have much to add in the world of curriculum right now we've been just working on the return to school plans mainly however i will say that second semester we are hopeful that we can continue where we left off before covert started in some way or fashion so that we don't completely lose sight of that goal so i've already reached out to people that were on that committee to see uh just to kind of give them a heads up and if they um weren't comfortable because it's really going to be difficult to do that virtually being in person that we can find a replacement for that and then i do have one of my members going on maternity leave during that time so finding a replacement so that hopefully will start in februaryish [Music] one thing i do want to point out is that we have made the decision that parents can change their selection for how their child is learning with us that being remote in-person hybrid depending at a natural break in the school calendar which would be a quarter or semester or whenever we change the play so we have a natural break coming up and i will be sending out an email probably on the 22nd that is asking parents to indicate if they are wishing to change their child's uh learning setting for the third quarter so the beginning of second semester um in that email i will share data that has been requested i've had numerous parents ask that when i send that out that i include data related to the number of staff that are positive have been positive the number of students and the number of isolations so i will put that in there because they feel like they need that information in order to make an informed decision um and then we will ask for that to be i think uh ms johnson and i decided i think the 29th of december to get that return to us by the end of the day so that we can spend the next day updating the system so that way when the teachers start getting ready and are coming back they have accurate information on who is going to be in their classrooms so that will be pounding their way so we definitely need that response if you were planning to change we only need a response if you want something different um so that'll be coming out so look for that email um and i think that's it for me great thank you uh yeah we had one foyer last night to try and update you on all those uh the suspect uh iea really but through suspect they asked for the legal fees that information was given in a timely manner i would imagine this is just one of those things that ia has mass produced and districts around her open place i also want to say you know with that check it it's a nice upgrade that we've done to our facilities they did the roofs as well just recently and eagle view um really proved crucial they went up there and they did more work than they expected they were going to need to do they did stay within their budget and we allowed them so much money but they didn't do it and they said that you could just the insulation you could bring out they were surprised that we weren't already experiencing leaks and with the freezing confined to come this winter we probably wouldn't have a lot of issues so i'm really glad that we were able to get that done and then finally we're about halfway through the school year this first semester is almost over um it's amazing to say that i want to say thanks to everyone who's been patiently waiting with us through this process this year has not been ideal it's not been anybody's dream um it's been an unique one everyone's had to adapt and there's been no perfect plan as mr negan said you know it just isn't a perfect plan we're trying to do the best that we can for everybody that we can look at the big picture but everybody has their own slants their own interests their own desires and focused in on their area which is great we want them focused in on that area we need to take a step out and look at the big picture what can be done through 12th grade it's been exhausting people have been working extremely hard for it we've had a lot of meetings going through this process i just want to thank everybody and and say that you know let's have a joyous relax and holiday because just got three more days friday monday tuesday so i just want to say thanks to all the parents all the teachers all the everyone out there thank you items for action uh approved early graduation for students you have 11 students names within your packet they have met i'm looking at dr costello that met all the requirements reeves has sent that over to us and uh this is this is normal this time of the year so the administration recommends the board approve the list as presented so i would entertain a motion to uh approve those students i'll second motion by karen anderson second by john long could you do a roll call vote for him please kim tammy hines yes john long yes greg meyer yes scott middle camp yes greg o'connor lisa schumacher yes karen anderson yes motion carry so those students are approved for early graduation on item b approval of the 2020 tax levy adoption uh this is something that was presented at the last board meeting do we have questions thank you okay uh as as mr gertie said are there any questions or concerns from the board at this time great seeing none i'd entertain a motion to approve the tax levy as presented motioned by lisa schumacher second bye second by tammy hines rule caller over me please kim jong-un yes craig meyer yes scott middlecam yes greg o'connor lisa schumacher yes karen anderson yes tammy hines yes carries on to item c approval to open accounts for deposit with uh dietrich bank yeah our our treasury read uh doctor he's been doing a lot of work looking at what we can do for our best investments um right now the investment uh as a public entity we're limited we can't speculate too much or take too risky of investments we've got to be pretty conservative however he got out there and he's looked into dietrich bank can give us a point four five percent versus the 0.08 we're getting correct so uh the recommendations we open the future bank this is a nice because it's not even a cd it's going to be a you know so you're not going to be limited on time or anything so it's really flexible for us and it's a larger percent increase but we need to have the approval to have an accountable future and for those of you who aren't familiar with dietrich bank they've bought i guess the illinois side for first bank so they're right there on main street just up the street here so they're a local end any questions any questions about opening the deposit account for dietrich banks seeing now they'd entertain a motion to approve dietrich bank for direct upon our district deposits as um as presented promotion by gregor counter second by second by karen anderson greg meyer yes scott middle camp yes greg o'connor hi lisa schumacher yes karen anderson yes tammy hines yes john long yes great motion motion carries on to item d the approval of the first reading of board policies this is updates through press issue 106.