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congratulations hermione will the following recipients of the trojan booster scholarship please come to the stage drew balowski mia bowers kevin bozeman emma cho lindsey good ryan guerin reese isaacson nathan kerr emily coors lucas nielsen madeline redpath olivia shirk aiden stevens ashley schubowski gianna thayer and jane tyson the trojan athletic booster was established to promote and support student participation in sports and activities at downers grove north high school the booster club is dedicated to assisting all of our sports programs and all of the students and all the student athletes senior athletes who whose parents are members of the children booster club are eligible to apply for our annual scholarship winners are selected by committee on the basis of the students participation in athletics as well as the community's activity during their four years at north high in addition to the seniors consistently exhibit sportsmanship teamwork leadership responsibility and a character on and off the field congratulations to these 18 seniors will catherine filiomani please come to the stage katie is the recipient of the virgin of the virgil and catherine campbell scholarship north high is fortunate to have been to have been the recipient of the campbell scholarship endowment catherine campbell was an american history teacher and spent her entire teaching career in downers grove during the teaching 10 years she stressed a rigorous program of study in liberal arts and sciences upon her death in 1997 mrs campbell wheeled the portion of her estate to the downers grove to to north high school to fund virgil and catherine campbell scholarship for student pursuing the college degree the selection of this award includes a multi-step process process culminating in a scholarly project presented before faculty judges congratulations to catherine filiomani for being the 2221 campbell scholar with justin burghorst and catherine murray please come to the stage justin and kate are recipients of the will c steger memorial scholarship will see steger was a 1936 graduate of north high school he was a veteran of the united states army and served in world war ii upon his death he left a portion of his estate to endeal annual scholarships for north high graduating seniors congratulations to justin burghorst and catherine murray for being this year's william c steger memorial scholarship recipient well lucas murray please come to the stage lucas is this this year's recipient of the william coopes relic scholarship the scholarship allows really allows william coopers to make a difference in downers grove north to make a difference in dallas grove north student who will not have the privilege of being affected by him the way so many so many of his past students were it is awarded to graduating seniors who best live the relic principles which were stressed by william coopers during the tenure at dallas grove north high school this year's recipient demonstrates the ability to successfully handle a demanding college level workload with poise and confidence he stands out in his ability to discern an essential component of complex concepts equality that is more often seen among high achieving college students not only does he exceed expectations on almost all classes assessments he quickly establishes himself as a clear leader in the class in every aspect including cooperating projects and class discussions he is consistently one of the most one of the strongest students in discussions demonstrating an ability to evaluate validity of competing perspectives and defend his own stance with compelling evidence congratulations to lucas maher for being this year's recipient will anika aponic please come to the stage anika is the is this year's woodridge junior women's club scholarship recipient the woodridge junior women's club is a non-profit organization that supports local charities with a structure that allows women to develop their talents and leadership skills while working together to serve others in an effort to foster a lifetime commitment to the community service we present college scholarships each year to a male or female senior from woodridge who has already shown passion in serving others this year's scholarship is presented is presented to anika aponic a young woman who has demonstrated an exceptional initiative not only in personal volunteer service but as a leader empowering others congratulations anika if anika can remain on the stage anika aponic is this year's recipient of the woodridge rotary club sir um service above self scholarship the woodridge rotary club recognizes students who have made different differences within their community by enriching the lives of others through meaningful community service this year's service above sales scholarship is award is awarded to anika opponent jordan and kate thank you for serving as mc's tonight you did a fabulous job i know it's hard pronouncing all those names please do me a round of applause for [Applause] rmc's they got a feel of what it's like for us administrators as we try to practice all the names so while this concludes our recognition ceremony tonight we will be honoring more seniors on may 14th when we will be showing a senior video at the beginning of second period so many of the awards that we would do for the second half of the awards night we're actually going to be doing on the video some of those awards will actually be given in different ways by different academic departments so seniors you are not getting done not done yet getting awarded so very pleased to see all of you tonight one last round of applause for all of our award winners please then unfortunately due to some of our restrictions we cannot have a reception like with with lemonade and cookies and things like that so i just ask that as you leave you don't linger for too long and we'll stay safe and we'll see you at prom and graduation so congratulations [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do you
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
and i only say that because if the majority of the group wants one or the other why are we debating and hashtagging with 27 different models or whatever it is that we're doing when that could have very well changed with the dynamic um that's kind of been laid before us with one having one high school one having two one having a mega middle school one having seven through you know what i'm saying it's like i'm just i'm questioning if if that could be a wise decision or not make sure i understand what you are saying so that i'm not jumping to conclusions or making assumptions are you suggesting that instead of ranking the model threes and the ranking the model fours is it is it possible to say all right everyone you're going to decide do you like the model 4 or do you like the model 3 and if that let's pretend it's 95 in favor of one that right then and there we would say okay then all of these fall off and now we're just going to look at this model is that what you are suggesting yes it's a thought i'm only saying my thinking about that is just because in looking at social media and looking at what community members are saying hearing comments here from this committee um i'm just wondering you know knowing that that's not going to take that much time and then if it doesn't work and it's still too close we go back to this ranking idea i don't see anything wrong with that i just am thinking in terms of trying to narrow the focus because 14 models is a whole heck of a lot you know so it's just a thought and if nobody else thinks it's a good thought then ignore me um again this this is this this is i'm we're facilitating you that's all we're doing um and so we're going to pivot and turn and toss in the manner um that you want to pivot and turn uh and toss again so far what i've heard um you know it's different some people want more time so um i don't know i i let you open up your mics and and talk into that i think that we would have to be a super majority okay with that because that's uh you still need more time i'm sorry i still definitely need more time yeah i was gonna uh uh mr ortega i was gonna recommend in the comments uh most are all agreeing that they would still like to rank all the models but a option could be we can add another question at the end just saying if you're ready to decide on what model 3 versus model 4 maybe that could be the final question just to see what it calls out but based on the comments majority are stating that they would like to currently rank both model 3 and model 4.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
okay um so i want to make sure i understand what you're saying so maybe as a possibility in what i sent out today if you if there is an interest to put there also okay thank you for ranking model threes thank you for ranking model fours if you have to make a decision right now are you leaning more towards model four you're leaning more towards model three yes if that was the desire of the group this is an option okay see one thumbs up and and and that would not be definitive right that's just to get a pulse correct just a pulse just to test the water all right i'm seeing thumbs up some seeing thumbs ups seeing the thumbs down [Music] more thumbs ups sideways is that a sideways miss sanchez oh that's a down okay i'm like which way but mr ortega there's two thumb downs and everyone else was thumbs up that did vote not everyone voted we have five with their cameras off okay four um i would like to make a comment regarding that um i agree with um yvette that um i feel like it would be a little bit premature um my concern in like eliminating one model over another at this point um i know that at the board meeting yesterday um the board member board members um commented about a town hall meeting um i almost would like us to do that before we decide on one model or another model um just because i am interested in to hear what the community has to say uh about what we have been discussing and sharing with each other and miss rojas just to for clarity um that's exactly what i referred to at the beginning of the meeting uh in my head that happens after we dwindle down going right now i think also would be premature um but but once we have narrowed that down to i mean whatever that may be but i want to make also just another clarifying point and make sure that that i didn't misunderstand this what i heard was that the question would be like if right now which way are you leaning but that that would not be a definitive like we're not saying oh wow 95 percent said they're leaning towards model four so let's cancel model three no that was just to get a pulse of where we were at um it was not to make a decision to cancel a model but if i'm wrong about that then then i will take it back but i thought that this was for sure we're not making a decision to cancel a model this was just to get a pulse of where we were where we were at as a team so far and i understand that but i mean personally for me i think for me it's still too soon even for that okay and just to add to what diana was saying i um had typed it into the comments that yes i do feel like it's premature and even if it was um if it wasn't definitive just because i think that would probably influence somebody and i i wanted to maybe just um still like marinate in the discussion process of this instead of starting to pinpoint these sort of um these the polls although it would be nice to know just out of curiosity but i think it might influence somebody um or it might influence them for a later poll in regards to um different models and i wouldn't i wouldn't like that to be the case i i think it would be better for us to still discuss um because it's a lot of information to take in honestly and to go through all the charts and all the data so i think the more we discuss it we'll be better prepared to make a uh to vote on something later on down the road that's the only reason why okay thank you all right we're going to go back question yes mr graveyard i'm sorry after miss miss uh jones uh mr gabriel has his hands up okay so because this is live and and the public has this information we can go to the schools that we work with and the parents that we see and we can ask them questions and their opinions is that just to get a bigger picture because my personal opinion is just my opinion but it's always better to discuss it with others is that okay a thousand percent okay yeah uh did you say mr fernandez yes okay but i don't see them anymore yeah sorry i'm here am i here still yes yes i'm sorry sorry okay um one of the things i'm kind of going back to the process and like like meg a process question when when we go to rank before monday afternoon or monday night originally we kind of started with the premise that we're looking at capacity and now we're considering from the conversation i heard tonight considering geography and making sure we're not losing certain segments of azusa or covina in terms of where families currently live and then i'm hearing within these models talk of programs so now we have geography and program that are on the table as well as capacity are those three things that we're considering as we rank the models or are we considering based on something else right now as we rank you you are ranking i'm gonna i'm gonna bring us back to our objective maximize our facilities and maximize our programs um right now there are 14 ideas right and we as a team decided that we're gonna we're gonna go through this exercise and this process first and then we're gonna start talking about all these possibilities um afterward so as you have heard we're a diverse team and to some of some folks in this in this group location is something uber important for others capacity is uber important uh for others it's uh geography or you know the the what might bes um and so you have to rank them based on on on your perspective and what what you think is best uh moving forward but again the objective does not change the objective is to maximize capacity um i'm sorry maximize our facilities and maximize our our program uh so with that with that lens um obviously we know right just looking at these models that that fluctuates right depending on on the model uh that we have and the people who who who have it on the lower end again that they have shared their mindset of like i get it i understand that this is a little bit low but you know this is why i did xyz and that's okay and that's perfectly fine um because again to have a robust conversation about 14 models um is is difficult um and so so right now all we're trying to do with this next step that's coming forward is to to dwindle this down to something more manageable at that point in time is when i am thinking that um i don't know that it would be a town hall but like this live meeting and get get some data from from the community and then bring that back here as well as we start to to even dwindle even more and there are things that you know outside of this this meeting that and this team that maybe we have not considered or thought about all right um miss amber fish has a question i'm so sorry miss amber fish um i just i have a couple food for thought points that i wanted to bring up before we close out this meeting i don't know if i should wait till we're done with going through model the models to bring them up i think that would be great i don't want someone to be left out of a question for the models thank you uh questions about model 3.5 for the author i think i have a question okay so i'm i'm trying to make sure i'm reading it correctly um so if we make foothill the tk8 was that going to be like the steam school and then also has any i understand foothill is a big campus but with it being so close to azusa and only having one high school at this at that time won't traffic be ridiculous for getting students drop up drop off and pick up i mean has that been will that be discussed or thought about the traffic in the different neighborhoods that will happen traffic is going to be an issue everywhere i mean because you know you already have traffic problems you know at every campus and so um and they are being managed to the best of everyone's ability and so increasing capacity is it will have to be addressed in in some way or another and this is this is our model was there a question about the model or was it you actually you asked about the our intention with this was that foothill would be the steam school yes and again you know i i just want to yeah that's it i answer the question and and also that center middle school would then now be the location for the mega middle school or the new you know single middle school school okay perfect thank you you're welcome any other questions for 3.5 um i have a q i have a question um and um this came in to me um from another teacher and the reason and like i said i'm not married to to voting on three or four but the reason i ask that question is because i want to know with the board of education the school board having gotten input already from community members or like adrian's um coffee that he had the other night with with the live discussion there was a lot of back and forth about one high school to high school and so i only asked the question and um for that purpose and i'm wondering is the board even going to accept the concept of one high school has that discussion been had and and is it worth moving forward if they're not even going to accept that and that's where my mind was going and i completely want to honor people's need to have more discussion with that i wasn't trying to curtail that so i want to make that clear but i but i am asking you that question though because yeah uh the board um like we have here um um are not in favor of a model over a different model uh they are eager just like we all are in here to listen to learn and to listen to what this group has to say and so to answer your question um no i don't think that the board um is um already at a mindset where like we're not going to look at model 3.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
um i i honestly can tell you that i think everyone's open uh to listening uh and to hearing um what what the team uh has to say and then what the community has to say thank you yeah absolutely any other questions for 3.5 miss edna has her in a hand up oh it's it's not specifically about 3.5 but i'm asking it are there any models that are similar enough that someone might be willing to withdraw their model so it's not to split the vote between the two very similar models i was going to ask that when we're done as well just because i didn't know how golf ranking worked if if it actually helps your model right to have one similar and they both come to the top or if it hurts it say you really want foothills a tk by splitting it um i don't understand the golf ranking so sure we can talk about that once we get through when we once we get through those thank you ms rogers all right moving on to 3.6 any questions about 3.6 so i i we didn't have this one beforehand um i i'm very intrigued and originally when when we had a couple of um invitations to talk about reorganization with hajj parents using gladstone as the middle school was absolutely um brought up um because i think you know heading towards uh the parents that i was talking to heading towards a single high school is necessary to keep our programs and um i i wish that it was above this 50 if they're within this model would there be any space for how would we get that number up i mean besides reconfiguring the sending the sixth graders all there um i just we hadn't looked at this one before so it's it's very intriguing uh but the gods at only um such a low capacity my question like from if this is my model but would that capacity change if ellington becomes the tk6 so then the seventh and eighth graders would filter into gladstone middle school more does that number include that good question right now uh this number does not take into consideration who may or may not go to dalton as a seventh and eighth grader so if it's a only a handful and like everybody wants to go to this new middle school at gladstone then this number um fluctuates depending on how many students would choose to go to dalton versus uh versus gladstone in this particular model of course any other questions for the author of 3.6 okay moving on to 3.7 any questions for the author 3.7 okay moving on to 3.8 any questions for the author of 3.8 okay oh sorry i had a question so i really i really liked what she had to say about lee i had i had a little a little bit of a hard time with those graphs kind of figuring out um what was the more walkable community i'm just wondering how um were there were there numbers there that i didn't see or was it just simply look at the concentration of the of the dots i'm just the concentration of the dots and obviously uh being at lee and knowing the community um that most of them walked um and also having the familiarity with murray because i used to work there as well um and it's the same type of community where it's mostly walkers is this 3.8 yes yes this is the community okay thank you any other questions for the author of 3.8 i have a question yeah i do i have a question um uh mr house were you can you explain to me where you were thinking that the students for ellington would go and where the students for powell would go in this model yes thank you for asking me that because i forgot to mention that when i presented um so from ellington um valley dell's not that far away from ellington um so we figured they could absorb uh valley um ellington students and then making that the dk8 um and for powell um powell's not that far away from lease so lee could absorb past students thank you any other questions for about 3.8 i'm sorry what's sort of related i would like to know is there another map of the the borders that we could see because the one that was provided to me was a little confusing maybe not to others was there another one that we could have or look at it was confusing to me too because i'm looking at it and they're really overlapping each other for every single one instead of having a clear one for every single school so each map was school specific and it tells you the dots represent where those students are coming from to go to that school so if you're looking at ellington you find ellington on the map and then it just shows you based on the dots where all those students are coming from so each map was for that specific school based on the title all right but there is one i think there is one that had everything and that's the confusing one but then you have to go through each sheet to find each school that would tell you for that particular school but if we wanted to know the actual zones of each school site you know um to know what their boundaries are like you know we can i can clearly see hodge i mean it's its own entity you know basically and also um paramount but a few of the others they even though the dots are there to say where our parents are at it would just be nice um for myself i mean i'm not speaking on behalf of the committee but just to kind of see because if you do look at um if you look more like i'm just grabbing one if you look where arlington's at all of a sudden it turns into one two three squares valley dale i don't know if valley dale goes into here or paramount goes it kind of gets a little confusing then dalton has two colors it goes actually and then it boxes i mean i could see it but sometimes it's just easier to go okay i know that's salted i know that's lee i know that's you know but it does kind of overlap i mean there's even an area magnolia where there's a part that i don't know if it belongs to magnolia if it belongs to i don't know there's three different colors for magnus oh miss sanchez so like our attendance area map like a tennis area uh keep in mind of course that those boundaries are right now and obviously those boundaries would have to shift right depending on where where we are at okay any other questions of 3.8 okay moving on to 3.9 if i can add one point real quick is that you know thinking in the future if we're thinking about programs the only way programs work in my experience is that if there are students that participate in them so you know the larger the the school what you know the kids in there the more successful the programs will be and also i feel again that the magnet school would be a disadvantage to some students because if a parent can drive a kid to the school this awesome school or if there's not a bus that's near this child this child is going to miss out on that so again just my thoughts thank you mrs rico any questions i have a question um so um with murray what was your thinking with murray versus um some of the other schools in that area um paramount or magnolia or valley dale and then also um with the murray kids i guess they would be they'd go to the nearest campus so that would be uh magnolia or they could go to valley or magnolia correct and also um really thinking about the concern that uh some of the people on this meeting have is that we if we take um ellington out then we'll lose some students then we can't close you know valley dale needs to stay k through eight if if that's where our families are the most you know that are going to that school so i that's one of the reasons i picked that but yes i think that uh the other schools would absorb those two can i make a question about something that that you said miss rico because it's something that we talk about a lot we meaning the the the teachers that are on this this committee and that is um whether or not the the steam school would would really serve all of the students there and if there were students in other parts of the city that would want to attend and um we really considered capacity we talked about it a lot and sometimes the the the big interest that this committee seems to have with capacity proximity um modernization uh what else do i put on their own and the programs of course is that when you really favor one you're going to hurt something else and so it's hard to it's hard to meet the needs of all of those things equally without something giving somewhere and since this district also has a long tradition of letting families kind of uh transfer within the district we wouldn't we really decided that it was better to um to not serve capacity to the extent that it it doesn't serve our students and so the the percentage of our the capacity for instance in our model the 3.5 model is the the tk8 does not has a still somewhat lower capacity than some of them because it allows room at the steam school for students to transfer in from other parts of the city and that's one of the things that we thought about when we were putting it together because um we agreed that that's something that should be available to students everywhere if they want to come and participate in in learning through those those ways of learning yeah and you know there are some students that have parents that can drive them pick them up but there are some students that don't have that so you know things get the best okay thank you any other questions about 3.9 okay moving on to the last model in model three uh any questions about 3.10 okay moving on to model 4.1 questions about 4.1 um i i have a question about 4.1 just because valley dell and paramount are so near each other i might have actually asked this last time sorry um i just worried that that there's like a block there and is there enough um nearby nearby schools to absorb those two big populations and my my other thought was that slauson is um well it would be paramount um middle school anyway right but valleydale i guess i guess that was one of the things i couldn't see on the map what elementary schools feed into what middle schools naturally it feels better to say that if they were if those parents were going to commute to that middle school anyway that that is a school that then could go there so that was one of the things i couldn't tell on the map can you repeat your question i i wasn't sure what you meant um so valley dale and paramount being so near each other and then i don't know if you know this or someone else could tell me what what middle school does valley dale feed into is it center or do they come all the way up to slauson oh valley dale um gosh i ca correct me if i'm wrong but i think valley dale the area valley deals in might split between slauson and center might i'm not sure um yeah yeah yeah because i know valley dale to the east i think is center and valley dell to the north island um but as far as paramount and valley dale repeat that again you are questioning the the area that area surrounding those two schools well it's just such a big hit for yeah that little area yeah so that's why i had mentioned previously i left slauson there so it could absorb those students and this model slauson would be a tk6 um and that is one of the reasons why i did not take it out um earlier in the meeting i explained that i left sloths in there because i know it's the school that might need the most remodeling but if it's going to become a tk6 that would be the perfect school to make our steam school or our specialty school and that mo that school has the potential to get remodeled um to um for the purpose of those programs so if it was to get remodeled let's say for um they have the media program there now but let's say it's gonna get remodeled they could you know it has so much potential to maybe add a sound stage a video room different things like that and because it still needs remodeling that could possibly be incorporated into the remodeling plans so that's why i felt like slauson i i didn't want to take slauson out eventually from my model after thinking about it i was like no i'm just gonna leave it because i just figured that would be um a good school to leave there um and again to answer your question it would cover that area between ellington and hodge and that because it's so much bigger could take up a lot more kids it could serve that whole area originally i was wondering if there had been any talk about reopening mountain view but um if that's not a possibility slawson's right there too it's not too far away um so that was my idea in covering that gap is to use slauson um and i think that's everything that answers your question hopefully thank you ms valdez i had a similar question about lee oh i'm sorry i had a similar question about lee if you closely where are you envisioning that it would go so um with the help of uh mr contreras mr contours made these really neat maps um where he um put like a mile radius around each school um and so using those maps i um kind of did my own map based on my model and um closing lee um dalton could potentially take some of those kids as well as powell um as well as you know what i don't have that form here with me but um i i made it so that those schools using the little uh the circles the radiuses around those schools it it seemed reasonable to me on the map that that community would be taken care of um based on the distribution of where the other schools were at thank you miss valdez any other questions about 4.1 i just want to clarify one more thing too that i forgot to add when i was presenting originally is that the reason why i left slauson as well there is because i know we're talking about um in like for example the other model having uh or some models having the a middle school or someone mentioned a middle school at one of the high schools or um i know we're not talking about um reorganizing our models but in the future let's say the model that we end up picking is not suitable for our community we'll at least have a middle school and another high school that we could convert back into middle schools or to a tka or vice versa and that was my big picture thinking when i did this this model is just thinking forward in case we do pick something and it's not working for a community that we could go back and modify it so instead of just plucking out schools and then in the end being short we could at least have something to work with in the future in case what we do choose doesn't end up working in the future thank you okay moving on to model 4.2 any questions around model 4.2 okay moving on to model 4.4 any questions around model 4.4 okay and then moving on to model 4.5 any questions around model 4.5 okay uh let me see if i can do this right all right so let me summarize our next steps um i know that there was uh some questions uh that might be here but uh the next step uh technically right now again i sent you an email with a word document a google doc and then just an email uh for you to rank um the model threes and rank the model fours um and that is due uh by monday night uh next wednesday we would show up with uh the data uh for the models so it would rank them from the school i'm sorry from the model that got the least amount of points which is in this case a good thing all the way down to the to the to the model um not the model but the idea right the 3.9 3.8 or whatever that may be that got the highest amount of points which in this case again uh would be the least favorite or not that good uh and then the objective would be to to dwindle this down uh to um to whatever the data says if the data says it's dwindled down to four then so be it the the data says dwindle down to six uh then so be it uh as well uh again i know that this is not easy uh but i appreciate um and i am in in just in in gratitude to what you are doing moving forward miss rogers asked um if there was anyone who uh after looking tonight wanted to withdraw a model or not a model i'm going to make a motion that you don't need to do that in public but if there is something that you want to withdraw again this is your process this is you know your your ideas and just like this first time around somebody did withdraw their their model uh obviously the better that sorry the sooner that we know the better for this team uh so that as they're thinking about how they're they're ranking them but even if you've already ranked them uh as some people in this room have already done um if someone withdraws then it's just removing that one from that piece and then everything you know collapses into that so uh was there any other question um before we call it a cinco de mayo night i want to refer back to what mrs perkins said um when she said should we combine the ones that are not combined look at the ones that are very very similar so as not entirely to split the vote so i'll give an example number five and number seven are identical but with just the difference of one elementary school being swapped in and out for the other and so um i know you said some people have already turned in their rankings but um i mean if you're looking to look at scoring them based on the least number but two of them are identical minus you know one elementary school i'm just wondering you know we you said that you know that we could potentially talk about that or do that yeah again i'm i'm going to say that that's in my opinion that's an intimate thing um and so um absolutely i i don't i don't have a problem with that whatsoever again this is your process but there's pros and cons to that um and again i think that it would take you know two people the two authors to come together and to say hey let's talk about this i mean that's just me but again what i'm trying to avoid is you know somebody feeling like i have to make a decision right now to change my model or not change my model but again that's just me i'm just trying to protect the team and you know the genuineness of the team again i know 10 is a lot to rank and some of them to your point are extremely similar extremely extremely similar so again in my head just going just thinking about data and how these processes work um if you are inclined to those that are that like that that have similar like oh this is my favorite then you're probably gonna rank the next ones the ones that are closest to your favorite right and and that and that's okay and then the opposite holds true ugh this is my least favorite let me look to the ones that are like my least favorite and rank them down there uh as well but again that's just that's just my my you know two cents as i try to uh again facilitate and and protect the genuineness of the team but but but again offline again just like if somebody says you know i thought about it i'm gonna withdraw perfect or two people come together and say hey we've changed our mind we're gonna collapse and do this perfect that's not absolutely that's that's allowed um but it is 707 and again i think that that's something that in my head is more intimate between the authors okay then if i had a clarifying question to one of the say miss rojas i could just email her asking those clarify questions before i make my decisions there is nothing wrong with um again somebody asked earlier right can i talk to um parents and things if i'm a staff member can i talk to other staff members and some people have already tucked in a put them upon themselves right to to reach out to to you guys as as teams yeah absolutely miss wilson perkins thank you so much for asking for them to go over the models it might help me out a lot good question it's a it's a big process so the model that meg was talking about is mine 3.7 i didn't know um because we didn't have the is it the 3.5 um presented before that they would be so similar and i i feel like it might just be easier to have less models to rank and it just seems like to me the idea is very similar just easier to withdraw 3.7 but well that that is that is your model and you are the only person that can withdraw that um so that doesn't you don't have to do it now again you can think about it and email me but again this is that's that's your call to make for sure you know i have mixed feelings about this and i feel i have to say it so i'm going to and it's it's true that if there are three that are very similar that you like you would put them close together but it also then splits that vote three ways for three models that are very very similar which would then cause which means that's probably a popular idea but then all three of them would fail because the votes had been split between the three and when actually it might be a popular idea and so i i'm i don't know how i'm a little worried that it may not get the results that we're hoping for i mean whoever it is all of us sure that would be true miss pillstick if we were if i was asking you to vote for your favorite model but because we're ranking them uh that that is actually not that would not play out that way but yes to your point if this was like hey you must choose a model then the vote is split uh and because we're ranking uh that that does not the splitting doesn't doesn't come into play uh because it's a rank so you're not thinking that we're going to be using this ranking to um then eliminate next time without more discussion um no so next time what i'm thinking is we're going to take these rankings and we're going to dwindle down so so the objective next next week is to take 10 model 3s and make it less than 10.
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whether that's nine eight seven six five four three two one and then take the model fours and also uh dwindle those down to three uh or two or one depending on what the data says okay yes absolutely the data's the data is going to give us numbers what exactly is going to be the threshold for eliminating certain models that's going to be the team's decision so if if the data was this model had you know 1.07 number two had 9.8 9.9 10.1 10.3 10.7 10.6 then that data tells you something if it's 1.09 1.09 1.10 1.11 11.2 that that data set tells you something different so there is no no threshold this is going to be again live and open and and we're going to let the data and this team drive drive those conversations and that's why i keep saying again the more we can do it down the better but again the data will will help us decide what number we get to so i waited my turn um i want to jump in before we hang up i'm sorry everybody i know it's getting late um i i was really hoping we'd get to have a little bit more discussion about the models and the things in general because hearing your feedback every week really helps me narrow down my decisions um i did not know that lee and murray were walking schools and having that saying closing down lee because it is such a bigger campus in favor of powell knowingly is a walking school changes things in my mind um i also made a couple notes like especially foothill you a lot of models suggested he'll be our tk8 however it's such a large campus we need to make sure that we're able to fill that campus to capacity without expecting dalton parents to bring their kids dalton is so far away that i feel like a lot of the kids would go to hodge so expecting all um sorry i don't have a number right here uh four bulletin three uh it's a roughly 400 kids to go to dalton to come straight down i don't think you're going to get those numbers um from foothill so those adjustments need to be taken into consideration when we rank also using center as a middle school um i really don't feel like that's a central location for our northern students um we're worried about people leaving where we're putting a high emphasis on ellington having those seventh and eighth graders at ellington that were you were losing them to uh covina i feel the same would happen having center as our middle school that you'd lose some of our northern students so keeping that middle school in the center to me seems like it makes more sense like either at foothill or slauson um and i i just i kind of put a note to emphasize what um uh myra mentioned was that the middle school works with the middle schools work with the high schools kids do transport we wouldn't have to worry about buses if they could just cross the street to to go to um i'm sorry assemblies or different activities that they might house there and then my big one was capacity i know last week you if somebody asked about capacity and you said there really wasn't a number but latasha had mentioned that 75 was our capacity where we were trying to keep things and i feel like our goal at 75 we really need to be working to hold on to that because if we're going to look at our models the longer time goes on if our trends continue we're going to hit less than that and it just that some of those numbers on the models really kind of concern me looking at that as well but i wanted to i really wanted to hear from you guys too like lee is a walking school i didn't know that um am i being crazy when i think that center is not a viable option like do you think that people will transfer i i was hoping we'd have a little bit more discussion amongst each other so that i could hear what you guys think and it helps me rank in and know cause um realistically like we're talking um use making brought up the models uh melissa's model 3.10 and 3.
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my 3.1 they're identical with the exception of the location of our tk8 um if we have room to say but i like this but i'd be willing to to merge my model to melissa's so that we could you know adjust that tk8 so thank you thank you i i want to bounce off mrs fisher up ish sorry um and say she has a lot of questions and you know we're not going to meet until wednesday but we have to have our rankings in by monday i think we need to be able to send questions uh in or be able to discuss even in more depth because that's true there's walkers i mean majority of our city is walkers and you know dalton are high percentage as well are walkers um so that i know the transportation is available but we know we don't know the parents and also um there's questions of are we prepared to have a large number of students leave us because they're not happy about the high school uh leading us to fit gladstone they're not happy that ellington is gone they're not happy and i mean you think about just ellington and gladstone that's almost a thousand students will lose in one shot i mean if we if we the worst case scenario worst case scenario is our district prepared for that you know uh looking at powell you know that's 300 plus you know looking at dalton are we ready for that are we we're really that's what i i as a you know as being a fiduciary on this are we really looking at that at our parents in our community and i think that's why again i'll repeat i think we really need to have more questions before we rank because if we make that decision and that rank goes through we end up with four we end up with eight we end up with whatever it is you know um i don't know my gut is just i i'm i don't know i think i just needed to say it so thank you miss sanchez um again we're facilitating this process um and um any any one of us from any site uh from any community um are gonna have our reasons um and and and and that is legitimate and that that is okay and that's part of this process um as um i think miss pilsek summarized right there's geography there's capacity there's program there's location there's east-west there's north-south there's border there's no border and and again no matter how we do this the only way that this is not going to be difficult is to do nothing right to do nothing just say it's over and we're just going to keep the schools because this is too hard or this is too difficult um and and and and that's right that that that's that's the only way because no matter what model no matter what school you are taking away a school from staff from students and from a community um and and that is tough and that is tough but we can right focus on on on on that side of it the fear or the what ifs or um you know these things that to your point can happen right worst case scenario nobody everybody says forget it i'm out and that could be anywhere pal dalton ellington gladstone right it doesn't matter or we can say we we have we have this responsibility right now and let's focus on and i'm not saying that i i i'm not agreeing or disagreeing right but let's focus on creating the best tk8 uh with the best with the best programs we're talking about model 3 right now um if it was model 3 right how can we reimagine a high school that has robust electives and robust pathways and robust sports and robust uh vapa and again i'm not advocating for that whatsoever i want to make that super duper clear i'm just what i'm just what i'm just saying is again we have been tasked with something and i know it's hard and in no way shape or form are we looking to make a decision next week but having 14 models on the table um is is is hard to even have those robust conversations because there's 14 there's 14 models and so i i i believe just listening and and being part of facilitating you guys um that that we are primed and ready not to make a decision i don't think we're primed and ready to make a decision but i think we are primed and ready to to to begin the dwindling uh process and then to your point um again whatever that may be let's take a pause let's survey let's talk some more let's think but now we're thinking about this versus you know this um and so um that's again those are those are um my um my my thoughts uh we will send you the the data miss sentence that you requested about the the sites again i just want to put emphasis on this we can go back and i can tell you what what has happened to these sites and i can tell you what was planned moving forward but this process might change that right because we have paused construction not knowing what was going to happen here and and again depending on how this lands right all of that can change and so i just want to be super clear about that as well that even though yes there were plans for these schools that have not been modernized we can share that but again that doesn't mean that that's what will happen based on the based on on where this team uh where this team lands any other any other um questions that's the clarification regarding the ranking so right now we are to rank everything we saw tonight if someone communicates to you that they're withdrawing their plan i'm sure you're going to update us with an email right immediately yes or again if in the background two entities come together and again they mix or match their idea or whatever again that's that's fine i will definitely again we we plea on behalf of the team that if those things are happening the sooner the better for the benefit of the team but yes absolutely and to clarify with ranking them there's no splitting the vote per se because say you love the foothill tk8 you just put that as one two three correct it's kind of confusing okay yeah the only the only way again that it would split the boat is if we were if if the if you weren't ranking and and i was just telling you okay look at all the tens and tell me which one you like look at all the fours and tell me which one you like then then yes that has the the high potential of of uh splitting the vote again i cannot begin to express um how proud i am um again as evidence of tonight um this is this is messy uh this is tough um and this is um uh this is difficult uh but i appreciate that you have signed up uh for this process i appreciate that you are twisting and turning uh with us as we take this journey um and um and we look forward uh to seeing you if not sooner uh next wednesday again i will reiterate in the email uh one more time because i'm gonna resend you the link because we made that one little change for uh 3.6 it was very small but we i made it live and so i just want to make sure that you have the the right one uh we'll reiterate that the deadline is monday night to get your ranking in any of the three modalities that i have uh stipulated in the email so thank you so much uh have a happy uh rest of your cinco de mayo and we will see you later thank you everyone thank you
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since we're all here um and um why don't we do a call to uh order um uh well i guess before we get into the roll call um we do have in the agenda that we intend to end the meeting by nine o'clock we came close last time um but uh not quite there but i think uh it's our intention to to get there tonight so um uh with that uh heather can you do a roll call sure uh stephen borgster uh here from ann arbor michigan thank you oh yes thank you i do need to remind you to say state where you're from or where you're at right now not where you're from you don't have to give us your life history but where are you physically at right now all right jennifer cornell here ann arbor michigan thank you alan haber here from ann arbor sarah hammerschmidt here from ann arbor jeffrey henney you're from ann arbor camila lazandia here from ann arbor rita mitchell you're from ann arbor alice ralph you're muted there we go here from ann arbor michigan washington county michigan thank you frank wilhelm here from the west side of ann arbor ward 5.
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had to do that before i talked to eric about doing it but that mr daily maybe it's a new chromebook because it used to automatically go right into the zoom when you're yes yep so apparently there's another step with the new books chromebooks okay guys we're live okay good evening everybody i would like to um open our the regular meeting of the clifton board of education for thursday may the 6th if you'd all please rise for a brief moment of silence and our salute to our flag starting with our flag i pledge allegiance pledge of allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with people with liberty and justice for all thank you what happened mr uc roll call please mr awad here miss bassford here mr beltram here mr canova here mr daley here miss danny here mr casper here mr abedrabo here mr smith here leave a quorum um mission statement um mr casper would you mind yes the mission of the clifton school district in an open and reciprocal community partnership is to provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a democratic society in an ever-changing world okay our open public meetings act the new jersey alpha public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the clifton board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place thereof posted at the city clerk's office clifton public library administration building senior citizen nutrition center on cable tv in the local press on the district yes i think he's frozen yeah i think it's only mr smith adoption of uh minutes motion motion by miss basford second by mr casper discussion yes miss beltran yes mr canova yes mr daley yeah yes miss danny yes mr casper mr abedrabo yes mr smith yes carrie okay next communication announcements we have none uh next we have um first reading of policy 7250 school and facility names next presentations or reports from administration uh tonight we will have um first uh dr robertosi will give a superintendent's referendum update followed by the public hearing on the final budget by our school business administrator mr uc uh dr robertosi thank you mr president uh good evening commissioners good evening to our community members faculty staff and others who are joining us tonight let me start off by giving the clifton community a huge thank you from the bottom of my heart for those of you who came out to vote in favor of our district referendum uh as i'm sure everyone knows by now on april 20th the district passed a referendum by a two to one margin um in order to do 168 million dollars worth of improvements to our schools and the community and our students and our parents saw the value in what this board of education is attempting to do so thank you so very much um it's just it was it was such an amazing day that that whole day that election day and when the final results came in although they were tentative for a few days we were confident that tuesday night april 20th that the referendum passed and just an overwhelming feeling of support that the community said we support this board of education we support our schools because strong schools strong community creates strong schools so thank you so very much so now the hard work really begins and what this board and myself as a superintendent plan to do is at least once a month or possibly at every board meeting we will be giving a referendum update so there's not much to update tonight except for i'm going to give a brief overview of what the public can expect to happen over the next several months for those of you who have seen our presentations or have tuned into our board meetings know that the plan really isn't for any work to start believe it or not it's going to be almost a year from now there's a lot of things that need to be done before we actually put a shovel in the ground and and start on these projects so one of the first things the board is going to do is they're going to put out an rfp which is a request for a proposal to hire a construction manager or construction management company i should say the purpose of hiring a construction management company is because they serve as another pair of eyes for the district to review documents to provide initial budget pricing to supervise all of the projects that are going on there's going to be so many different projects going on at the same time that you need somebody to manage it and supervise it the construction management company will have a representative on site every day who will be my point person for the duration of the project so that i'm always aware of what's going on and can be updated and somebody that i can call if there are any issues that need to be addressed that's the first thing we're doing uh the other thing that we'll be doing in concert with our architect to cara rubino is we have to look at the projects and establish how the projects will be grouped to go out to bid so as a public school district we can't we're not allowed to just hire any um any company to come and do work we actually have to put the projects in what's called a a and companies get to review what the project is and submit bids and say we'll do this project for this amount of money and as a public school that uses taxpayer money we are required to select the lowest bidder in most cases um so the uh architectural company will be discussing our big bid package concepts with the district they're going to provide professional services for each bid package for board approval and they're also going to start surveying and and investigating all the conditions at each site where the projects are going to take place so they have to review all the existing drawings of the schools do new final drawings of all the projects and all this is going on while we're meeting with district and staff and board members to discuss the timing of the construction there are certain things we can do when students are in school certain things we can't do when students are in school unfortunately we can't do all of the projects over the summer so there's going to be some projects that are going to be initiated when students are in school so the architect will work closely with the district administration the board of education and our principals on what that looks like and what that means for our school school is not to interrupt learning we'll have regular meetings uh design meetings um with our architect and our construction manager uh at those meetings the board will be updated on the current progress they'll be updated and be able to give input on projects and review timelines and in turn we'll be turning that over to the public monthly so you know our goal is to be very very very transparent about what's going on so that the public is is the public place the great trust in us by voting yes to this referendum and we want to be very transparent with the process of what's going on and how this money is going to be spent so the other part of this besides the actual projects is the actual selling of the bonds because what we passed the referendum it's actually called the bond referendum so the public has authorized the district to sell bonds to borrow this money to fulfill these projects so we have a quick timetable uh because we need the funds to start paying for the projects and we really want to hold this the competitive sale quickly because interest rates are very very low right now so uh the plan would be um the tentative plan would be that we have a closing a final sale of the bonds around july 15 which means our first payment on the referendum will be due on july 15th of 2022 and that means that your taxes will not be impacted until then also so the schedule will look something like this at our may 20th board meeting the board will adopt a resolution authorizing the sale of the bonds we'll prepare a preliminary official statement we'll apply for what's known as a bond rating and we'll do a rating call with the rating agency that rating depends on the interest rates that you that rating that the district gets will impact the interest rates that we get when we sell the bonds so um the idea is to close by june 15th so that we can give notice to the department of education by october uh and that will allow us to get our state aid for the following school year remember the the big selling point behind this referendum was that although we're borrowing 168 million dollars 55 million dollars of that is going to come from the state so that's a critical critical part of this and so as you can see there's a lot that needs to be done there's some technical things that need to be done but we will be transparent we will be updating the public monthly on what's going on and as always i'm available board members are always available if there are any questions throughout the process we expect all of the projects to be completed in two and a half years so um thank you again it's a great day to be the superintendent of schools in clifton it's a we have a great wonderful future ahead and so many good things to look forward to so thank you so very much and if any of the board members wish to speak on the referendum uh please uh you have time to do so now thank you uh superintendent robertosi for that uh update and uh the public will be uh each meeting will be given an update on uh the referendum as we continue to go on uh next we have um our business administrator uh mr michael usey who will give the final presentation of our budget mr uzi thank you president smith let me just give me a moment to share my screen it's all good everyone can see okay looks good mike all right very good so good evening commissioners and everyone attending um tonight's meeting virtually i'm mike you see the district's business administrator quickly i just want to acknowledge dr robert tosie superintendent of schools mr tegen assistant superintendent of schools mrs kusalevich assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction who will jump in during the presentation regarding staffing grants and curricular highlights and mr thomasevich our assistant business administrator uh this is the public hearing on the final budget the board will have a resolution presented to them tonight to approve the submission of the 21 22 budget to the county office which is the department of education i always want to start our pres the budget presentation off with a quick snapshot of the school district's operations to put into perspective of how large a district we are the clifton board of education has 23 facilities consisting of 14 elementary schools within annex two preschools which are the clifton early learner academies two middle schools an extremely large high school the administration building we have a transportation garage and our stadium during normal activities on a daily basis we transport over 2 200 students in district with 57 buses in vance the district employs over 1600 full-time employees and has nine hundred forty eight students on roll we have a pro 28 different sports 53 teams 73 coaches two athletic trainers on staff um all helping over 1 250 student athletes also there are over 150 co-curricular activities and clubs throughout the district the district has and will follow this budget schedule for the 21-22 submission for the department of education the preliminary budget was approved by the board at the march 18th board meeting my office submitted the preliminary budget to the county office shortly after and it was approved by the county office around april 20th the budget was advertised in the record on monday may 3rd the public hearing on the final budget is tonight with the final budget being due to the county no later than may 14th also the user-friendly budget will be posted on the front page of the district's website which is required to be posted within 48 hours after this meeting now go over the main focus points of the budget on the revenue side the budget calls for no tax levy increase for the 20 from the 2021 school year into the 21 22 school year there's a state aid increase of over 12 million dollars or almost 30 percent from the prior from current year the budget maintain maintains its full unassigned fund balance which is essentially a surplus account that is capped at two percent of our budget by the state which is around 3.6 million however the budget calls for using excess surplus from the 1920 fiscal year of 1.8 million dollars that the board put away back last june and lastly on the revenue side would be the special education medicaid initiative of around 330 000 and miscellaneous revenues of around 850 000 which consists of um interest facility rentals fines dividends insurance dividends prior year refunds et cetera on the appropriations side the budget maintains all current staffing and programs with the addition of 21 instructional and other staff members ms kusalevich will go into more detail about how the budget maintains and expands uh programs and supports instruction throughout the district on the next couple slides there will be 119 special ed education out of district placements in private schools county special services and other schools and 743 budgeted students at the vote tag pcti the only change from the preliminary budget presentation and this presentation is a capital reserve withdrawal of 1.85 million for two tentative capital projects next year and i'll explain those projects on a later slide one of the biggest increases in any budget area is the increase in charter school tuition which comes directly from the department of education of around 2 million or 20 around 28 from current year and i will go into a five-year trend analysis later on in the presentation regarding the charter school so while the district did receive a very significant increase in state aid there's also this significant increase in charter school tuition and then finally the other largest part of the budget or the largest part of the budget is budgeted salaries and employee benefits now if i could turn it over to our assistant superintendent mrs cousteau-levitz to talk about some programs thank you mr chi um as mr uchi explained this budget maintains our current staffing and programs which include our completion of our one-to-one chromebook initiative the infusion of technology and 21st century skills across all programs expansion of our defined stem program across content areas differentiating instruction to support our diverse learners from preschool through twelfth grade we maintain our excellent fine and performing arts program our strong core literacy and mathematics programs we're continuing to team in grades six through nine to support student success the transition to high school and we're introducing teaming above grade nine um we have 17 career concentrations at our high school in three academies our stem career and fine and performing arts academies we're increasing our dual enrollment opportunities this year adding even more college options for our high school students pbsis has now been expanded district-wide and we have as you heard from mr uchi a very extensive offering of sports and extracurriculars for our students the additional staff that this budget is being is including in this budget has a very strong focus on social emotional learning with five additional guidance counselors two for the elementary schools two sac counselors for the middle schools and an additional high school counselor we're adding an additional high school teacher and then 11 special education and support teachers this is in to ensure that we are instructing our students in the least restrictive environment as required by idea law we are adding two preschool disabled teachers four elementary special needs teachers including resource room autism speech and self-contained three middle school teachers one for the autism program and two resource room an additional high school resource teacher and a an additional behaviorist a non-instructional staff are just as important in this budget with two additional computer technicians to help support our very robust technology program for our students and staff a new central office secretary a bilingual arabic speaking secretary for our welcome center and registration area in the administration building and a custodial nighttime supervisor to return to our previously fully staffed custodial supervisory team overseeing over 90 staff members across our 23 buildings thank you miss kuslovic uh moving forward so our district's total balanced budget is two 210 million nine hundred fifty eight thousand six hundred ninety eight dollars which is comprised of the general fund that contains an operating budget and the capital outlay budget and special revenues which are federal grants and state entitlements the district receives and then lastly debt service here is an overview of the general fund revenue sources as i stated before the tax levy has no increase from the current year and stands at um 134 million dollars state and state aid increased by nearly 30 percent extraordinary aid is budgeted slightly higher than the current year to a more actual number we do not we're not using any fund balance but we are using excess surplus of 1.8 million from the prior year but the budget does call for the capital reserve withdrawal as i said before also the budget miscellaneous revenues and um medicaid reimbursement which is semi and just to note almost 70 percent of the district's total revenues is funded by the tax levy while 28.6 is funded by state aid here is an overview of the general fund appropriations or expenses broken down in major categories of the budget i won't go through every line however everything is relatively consistent with the current year the 2021 school year except for the major increase to on the charter school budget line item the projected charter school enrollment budget comes directly from the department of ed um with the release of the state aid numbers you'll note also you'll know some increases on various lines and that's mainly um salary projections and the 21 new staff members that we are project are hiring next year or budgeting for next year also to put the total budget into perspective salaries and employee benefits consist of more than 78 of the total operating budget now i'll go over a five-year trend over major revenue sources being the tax levy and state aid and on the the next slide after that i'll show the five-year trend of the charter school enrollment as a major increase to the charter school appropriation line so here is a trend of the district's tax levy and state aid over the last five years for the past two years the board has presented to the public a zero percent tax levy increase and in the past five years the board has presented less than a one percent tax levy increase and has never gone over the two percent cap since it's been instituted around 10 years ago when it comes to state aid the district has seen significant increases in state aid over the past five budgets which includes the 20 21 22 budget the 2021 state aid increase was actually taken from us in a cut during the summer because of the pandemic but the state luckily luckily the state made up the difference and even more so in the 2122 budgeted state aid this increases this in state aid comes from the state trying to equalize the state funding reform act or safra formula because clifton has been significantly underfunded since the state aid funding formula's inception the state's plan to is to fully fund the formula by the 24-25 school year so hopefully they'll stick to that plan um because it would greatly benefit clifton clifton would have received if it's fully fun if and when it's fully funded clifton would receive approximately 75 million in state aid instead of the current 55 million we're receiving um in the 21 22 budget under the safra formula here is a five-year trend of the charter school budget which is based on enrollment 20 21 22 budget numbers or projections as i said approved by the department of ed that the district is required to budget for compliance purposes the actual enrollment counts are realized during the october 15 assa audit or application for state school aid at that time the budget numbers increase or decrease during the school year typically the projected amount that we have to budget is much higher than the actual enrollment amount after the assa audit um over the past four years the charter school enrollment has had a drastic has had drastic enrollment increases that have been approved by the state with the budget increasing um from 3.79 million to 9.5 million or 382 students to 711 students in this five-year span here are the capital projects that were tentatively planned for 2122 which are outside of the referendum the projects include a school 13 window replacement and tennis court renovations at the high school so as long as the the bids come in within our budget and the board accepts them we can we can start working on these projects next year here is an overview of the special revenue budget or our grants our federal and state grants the district has completely one one um important thing is our our preschool grant that it used to be federally funded and it was called the preschool expansion grant and now it is a fully funded fully state funded preschool education aid program and the preschool education aid grant requires a general fund contribution you see at the second to last line there in order to receive these state preschool funds for regular education preschool this general fund contribution is a budget line item that already existed for the education of preschool disabled inclusion students but it now has to be transferred into special revenue so it was always in the general fund it just needs to be transferred into our federal grant line items now now uh miss kusulev is going to jump in one more time just to explain how all these grants support specific district programs that serve various specialized populations of students our smallest grant is our perkins vocational education grant which supports our marketing academy title one supports remediation after school extended day and a portion of our typical summer programs for our title 1 students or title 1 schools title 2 provides us with funding across the district for teacher training to support effective instruction title iii and immigrant funding is a supplemental pot for our english language learners and this also provides their after-school and summer programs and title four which has really been leveraged this year focuses on social emotional learning and advanced programs idea both basic and preschool supports our special needs students and the 21st century grant provides a wraparound after-school and extended year program for over 200 students at schools 4 12 and 17.
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like to call this meeting to order due to the covid19 health emergency and in order for the board of education to conduct its business this board meeting is being held by a video conference and streamed on youtube on the district website at www.ebnet.com in addition members of the public may provide comment at this meeting through zoom by entering the url meeting id and password you see before you on the screen upon joining the meeting your participation will be muted to ensure that there is no disruption to the business being conducted by the board of education will the secretary please call the role mr florangelo here this is true here mr sismar here mrs gloss mr hong ki mrs lax here mrs reese mrs reese will not be here tonight she's um observing the last night of shiva for her husband's uh mother mr winston here and president becker here we have a quorum please rise to salute the flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america to the problem for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with lori would you mind pinging heather please and seeing if um she's planning on joining us and just running late thank you the new jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies in accordance with provisions of this act the east boundary court of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published at the board of education offices written notice was also provided to the sentinel the newark star ledge of the home news and tribune and the municipal clerk of east brunswick all board of education meetings with the exception of executive session discussions or video tape for later broadcast and individuals who speak at the board's public meeting should be aware of these video taping rules good evening thank you for joining us tonight dr velasque first item is superintendent's report thank you president becker and good evening everyone tomorrow friday may 7th is recognized as national school lunch hero day on this day we celebrate our child nutrition staff for all they do every day especially during the pandemic last march when the world was shook with so many uncertainties and challenges our child nutrition team still maintain their commitment to make sure each and every child in our community did not go hungry now one year later our staff still makes it a priority to ensure our children are given the meals they need to maintain good health and nutrition thank you so much to the child nutrition team you truly are heroes our board of education and the dedicated staff at east brunswick public schools has a history of demonstrated leadership preparedness and strategic focus on the future i would like to provide two significant examples when the tragic parkland high school shooting occurred in florida the east brunswick board of education took immediate steps the very next evening to give me the authority to arm our school security officers our implementation of that board action was swift because over a period of time we had already prepared for it the east bronze board of education authorized resources to purchase a learning management system along with laptops and chromebooks for our students and professional development for our teachers when the pandemic was looming and our governor issued an executive order that we would be closing our district and moving to virtualized instruction within days of his announcement we already had the infrastructure technology and support to immediately shift our teaching and learning our implementation was again swift because over a period of time we had already prepared for it tonight we have another significant milestone to address in the evolution of east brunswick public schools the board will consider my recommendation for restructuring our grades and installing temporary classroom units at churchill which will create and maintain adequate elementary classroom space to appropriately accommodate incoming students beginning september and just to recap for the audience the proposal is that elementary schools will be pre-k to four hammer shoulders proposed to be a grade five six as an upper elementary school churchill is proposed to be grades seven eight and nine and east brunswick high school will remain unchanged with grades 10 11 and 12.
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[Music] my [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] um [Music] do [Music] so [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] then [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] i like to call this meeting of the eastern township board of education to order pursuant to the open public meetings act adequate public notice has been given by the secretary of the eastern country board of education in the following manner one posting written notice on the official bulletin board at the board of education office two emailing written notice to the berlin county times in the courier post and three filing written notice with the municipal clerk of eastern township can i have a roll call please mrs cappello here mrs everhart here mr fizzy caro here miss fleming here mr canton here mrs noll here mr lancelata here mr megan here mrs ryan here we have a quarrel thank you at this point in time i ask us all to rise for the pledge of allegiance indivisible with liberty and suspect at this time i'm going to read the ysham township school district's mission statement the mission of the ishmael township school district is to promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students dedicated staff families and community the district provides a strong educational foundation that will empower our students to achieve their unique potential embrace self-directed lifelong learning develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk-taking and responsible decision-making respect themselves and others problem solve individually and collaboratively and become contributing members of a diverse global society at this point we are going to be moving into the public hearing on the 2021 school budget so the presentation by dr smith uh how this will work uh for the uh for this meeting we will dr smith will give his presentation on the on the final budget at that point we'll then open the floor to board members for questions and comments and after that we'll then open it up to the public for their questions and comments as well following that we'll then adopt the budget and have any more debate that the board needs at that time uh then vote on the budget and then open it up pack the to the public for any comment of interest that they have i just wanted to kind of give you tonight the the idea of how the the ebb and flow of this will work so at this point in time i'm going to give the floor to dr smith thank you mr visacare okay so final budget presentation third budget presentation first one was february that was the preliminary then the tentative in march tonight the final and just um i think it's a point of late that we do three we're only required by code to do one some districts do too i don't know of any district that does three it's a fantastic way to let voices be heard um and especially when so much is being cut from a budget so um some of these slides will seem familiar they are from prior presentations i'm going to go through them fairly quickly because this is the third time through we included them all in this presentation just so that if anyone were to look just at this presentation or just at the tentative or just the preliminary you would have the whole story in one document this year this slide i think i'll pause on for a second just um the the total amount of reduction is um a lot right and this year more than any other in that seven year sequence although next year is not far behind at a projected reduction of one million six hundred fifty one thousand dollars other impacts this year that chapter 44 loss i'll point out has gone up since the last presentation it's now at 950 000 yearly through the the latest open enrollment we had that increased from 800 000 in the prior presentation what i'll pull out of this slide is that primary driving question how can our district maintain the effectiveness of our educational services while costing less money this slide it looks like a piece is missing from kind of from the bottom there but let me looks like the uh a return got added in i just want to make sure we can see everything we're doing in here so hmm looks okay in my mind might be the uh the screen possibly in any case what's different about this slide compared to the last presentation is the staffing changes you can see down below there so added to the general fund budget is a half media specialist position that's a position that we actually cut during this current year as we did take steps immediately during this current year to generate savings knowing the very arduous road we have to travel now and in the future budgetarily but we we do you know a lot of times when you cut a number of positions what emerges is spots that need more bolstering so you know we cut back the entire media specialist position at mms and uh we we need a half position there so we're gonna bring it back um the kindergarten teacher that's due to enrollment so we need that we're adding that in and then the sr3 grant and you know the deal we did release some some guidance recently kind of a comparison of um the various as for grants we do and they have said that more guidance is coming on that one thing we do know is it can be used for class size so we have three related arts teachers one school counselor and then what's missing from the bottom that you can't see is half of a special education teacher and then i'll let mr shinty take slide good evening everyone so on this slide we're looking at any changes that occurred in our budget since the uh tentative budget that we presented back on march 11th so looking at the top part for revenue we we were able to increase our extraordinary aid by a hundred thousand dollars based on what we have received in past years um and then below that as dr smith just mentioned we had increased kindergarten enrollment for full day so we were able to put another 49 500 into the budget so then looking at the other side the appropriations and we changed there we were able to decrease the operations budget by 111 000 and change due to the fact that we were able to move the ionizer lease out of our operating budget and charge it to the sr2 grant um we had some changes in um salaries since that um tentative budget projection which we were able to decrease 16 000 and change and then unfortunately going the other way our special ed tuition we had a few kids that we were able to bring back into district which was a good thing however we had a few more kids move in from other towns into the district that will have to be sent out to private school placements so the net change ended up increasing our budget by a little over three thousand dollars the next two lines i'll uh talk about together because it's all insurance um we had projected a uh two percent increase in our auto property uh workman's comp insurance and things like that and when we got our bill it was a three percent increase so we had increased those lines by four thousand and five thousand dollars the next line the prs contributions um we um got our bill for this year it comes in april and the bill was greater than what i had budgeted for this year so we needed to increase that budget line to get it in line for what the bill for next year is going to be so we had to increase that by 51 000.
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that right here okay we are live hello everyone it's uh four o'clock now is the time set for the board regular board meeting of the arizona state schools for the deaf and the blind um we're gonna call to order uh and have a roll call um sue k if you can take the role linda bove present lynn davison president brittany buchanan president david nigro present dean howard president aaron wonders president mike gordon president and myself all right excellent thank you um and move on to section 1.02 information item introduction of new board member uh i guess first i want to thank mike manley uh for his service to the board he's been on the board for a number of years appointed first by diane douglas originally served for several years of the board mike uh had was a career educator he was a principal he was a sped director he really brought a deep understanding of school of finance of how school districts operate uh of how the agency operates within the context of education delivery uh in the state um and and that those having those years and years of educational background really made our board better uh and uh we certainly appreciate mike's contribution uh to the board uh so as i think some of you know uh superintendent hoffman has uh appointed uh aaron wonders um in his place um uh i'm sure aaron has uh you know a similar background so so aaron if you could explain maybe some of your background um you know in in education and in particular special education that'd be great yeah absolutely thank you very much president nigro um so my name is aaron wonders i'm very excited to be with you all today i've been with you on the board um so my background has been an education policy specifically at the legislature i'm a native arizonan grew up in flagstaff i went to high school there graduated from the university of arizona and now live in phoenix so prior to my stint at the department of education i worked at the house of representatives um staffing the education committee um spent seven sessions there doing that work and then have been with the agency for the past three um so really i've spent a long time in the education policy world working with statute the legislature and now the agency i think really have a background on the policy side and school finance as well as general operations and legislative language drafting those kinds of things so very much looking forward to being with you all being a connection to the agency and being a resource okay great um thank you for that um and uh we all welcome you to the board uh next we have 1.03 the call to the public on agendized items uh again similar to as we've been doing these uh you know for almost a year now or perhaps a little more than a year we've had public comments submitted with a certain word length limit prior to the meeting and that'll be right at the beating we have a few for this one and sue k if you can read those emails i believe we have two for the for um agendized items this subject is addressing agenda item 5.02 specifically deaf-blind educational transition specialists it is from donna reiff or i'm sorry dorinda rife and the comment is i am writing to express my concern about the recent recommendation to cut supplemental pay to a handful of specialist positions the reason given these measures are in effort to address projected fiscal year 2022 budget deficit i have held administrative and leadership positions since 1998 within three school related organizations each position included budget management ranging from thousands of dollars to 40 million dollars an overarching principle i learned from my time in administration is that taking something away from an employee even by financial necessity erodes trust between administration and employees that is very difficult to regain it weighs heavily on me to see the addition of administrator positions at the same time cuts like this are recommended and at a time where few administrator positions are filled by professionals with education and direct experience in the fields of blindness deafness and deaf-blindness acknowledging supporting and listening to those with that expertise has never been more critical for this agency i am not privy to the circumstances under which stipends were added but i know from personal experience that financial acknowledgement of expertise and responsibility goes a long way in improving morale and building trust i urge the board to reconsider the small financial benefit of removing these stipends in favor of attracting and retaining employees who build asdp's reputation as experts in the fields of blindness low vision deafness and hard of hearing as well as deaf-blindness my comments are made in hopes that they will increase awareness and perspective among our board members and the second one is also a public comment for agenda item 5.02 it is being submitted by megan morgan hello my name is megan mogan and i would like to address agenda item 5.02 regarding the elimination of salary stipends specific to the job title deafblind educational transition specialist my colleague pat young and i work in this position for the deaf arizona deafblind project a federally funded program that provides services to the educators and families of children and youth with combined vision and hearing loss from birth to age 22.
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are live already folks ready to roll i think so um emma we're so thrilled to hear about um how successful the vaccine clinic was at the high school today what a huge wonderful thing um can you tell us what you know about it just ended not long ago can you tell us what you know about how how it went yeah so um i don't know the exact numbers that we had i i know that leading into this morning we had 24 students pre-registered and i wasn't at that clinic jennifer brown and mary o'brien and robin supernot and our admin assistant lillian were there uh but i know from the feedback that i got briefly just before i stepped onto this being there was also a great amount of walk-ins that came um i think which just shows how how the students are ready and and they're willing to get it which is which is a nice thing um so i think anytime we try a new first thing um sometimes there isn't as much traction as we can get but you know we're gonna do it again and we're excited about that so next time maybe there'll be more who knows that sounds um par for the course with teaching high schoolers to have so many show up walk in i think as those students talk about their experiences it's going to spread and i'm really hopeful that we can it's very good to hear you say you want to do this again especially on the heels of the next group being becoming eligible hopefully within a week it would be amazing to see another clinic like this happen so we can try to get more and more of our younger kids vaccinated too yes absolutely and i know that i've been in um discussions with superintendent morris and and robin with the school health and and marta in the office just really trying to figure out um how we're gonna reach all of our students who need this them everybody needs it but those students that need us the most um to be able to meet their needs and and meet them where they're at so we're trying we're in the works for it krista it's good we're all on the same page you know i just want to highlight for the community who might not know just how wonderful this was all arranged um the the clinic happened on the very heels of the school day ending so students were already in work many were already in person and could just stay after school for this the consent forms were given in a huge variety of languages which i think was also really an important key to the access and equity issues that we we know are important those factors along with having it in the announcements so teachers could encourage students to go sign up and remind them to go sign up and remind them they could just walk in those all i think may have contributed to to helping this be such a success so i'm i'm i'm very thrilled to hear um that we could have more of these in the future absolutely it's good stuff so emma um keeping in mind that we're the optimistic group here and if we do see some cdc guidance on lowering the age range what would be the turnaround time for us to be hosting another clinic that includes that age range yeah so i know i believe that the fda is scheduled to review um the pfizer i think it's wednesday or wednesday evening or but we could potentially do a clinic next friday for that age group if it is approved um we have been preparing for that announcement um it would go out in a similar pretty much the same fashion as this one went with the flyers the multiple languages for consents um we did some review of how this went this time this clinic was held in the gym we are thinking for this other age range that it might be outside under a tent this way family members guardians could come and be with their students um i know my son's 11 so he's just under the cusp but i but he's a he's a squishy fella he's a sensitive guy so even when he becomes 12 he certainly wouldn't want to be vaccinated without a grown up there with him so i think of those students i know certainly with that age range we have quite a spectrum of needing support and then also great independence so that's something that we are thinking of and then also wanting to make sure that the parents and guardians feel comfortable with the process so we're thinking that that would be outdoors under a tent next time jean and i think that um that was a conversation that i had with superintendent morris in terms of how long would we need we want to be there as soon as we can for the families and students that want it as soon as they're available so as as we have vaccine available here we are ready to go and could do it that friday all right and just as a follow-up because this might be a question that um families have is this solely for um arps families or is it open to other families what are what are the guidelines if there are any yeah right now it's open to arps families that's our primary reach i haven't discussed um because it is on school property and at the end of the school time i certainly want to be um conscientious of uh crossing lines and making sure that um people are safe there and students are safe uh so as of right now it's only arps students but i think this is something that we're looking to possibly continue this is a start um and and hopefully we can expand it from here steve do you have any questions um about vaccine availability for students no but i'm just glad that emma pointed out that that next age group down is a whole different ball game than doing 16 to 18 year olds because then you really do have to get into the parents and guardians caregivers grandparents thing where the 16 to 18 somewhat on their own but definitely it's a whole different ballgame with that next group down sure as um i know there have been clinics at the high school um because of the different you know the lowering of age range would there be any um any motivation or thought to moving it to the middle school where you'd be closer to where the kids are i know that age range that we're talking about 12 to 15 year olds spans both buildings of course um but is there is there any thought of that or because you're already you already have done it at the high school is there a reason to stay there yeah i i think we're open to seeing how the process goes um and seeing at it if this does open up to 12 and 15 maybe where are we seeing the most students from um so that's more to come with that i think we're not hard stuck on anything because as we all know as soon as we figure something out with the pandemic it changes right so um we're just always ready to change our processes if if it'll meet our patients and clients the best just a huge thank you for trailblazing in this area and for for making this happen i saw the announcement and i practically fell out of my chair with joy so thank you you're welcome we're happy to do it and emma um i think as as you and i know rep dom and senator comerford and others and legislators in western mass were really pushing for more regional clinics because as you know um the communities the music municipalities in the cities and towns their boards of health really know the residents better than what a large-scale facility can do particularly out here in western mass so is your senses that that is how it's going to stay i know that the state has closed or is in the process of closing down some of the larger the mega sites but we're going to are we going to be sticking more with the the regional and the um the town run the town board of health run um and the coalition that we have with northampton is that going to be more the format going forward yeah that's a great question gene so in the last week we've seen this dramatic shift at our clinics from being packed full every appointment um and very busy and um to all of a sudden not as high enrollment uh so we've actually and and this is when i've pulled the other municipal run [Music] vaccine clinics including uh umass as well that this is really being felt everywhere um we which i feel uh mixed feelings about right um it's great to see that we're not as full that maybe there isn't that need but then when i look at the data and the numbers of of the individuals that are still not vaccinated there is a need we're just not connecting with them somehow so it's this time to shift our work a little bit as of right now we are planning on continuing our clinics through the end of june um we have uh starting may 17th we're 17th or 13th one of those days we're just condensing the schedule a little bit for our hours so we won't be open for quite such a long time but we are still planning on holding clinics here through the end of june in addition to transitioning our focus to um more uh hard-to-reach populations doing more direct outreach um to those clients that need them all right ben this is more a question for you not that we don't love listening to you emma um so as someone that works at crocker i know that we we're now looking at tent 3.0 um so the second tent um unfortunately was a victim of of weather circumstances so can you just give an update like i know the uh one of the issues with getting the tent put up the last time the second one was having enough staff to who can put it together and that's why it was done during the school vacation week in april so given that we don't have another school vacation week until the end of june um what kind of update can you give us on that yes we have a bigger problem now and that's no tent so we we we'd have to go back through the uh the whole uh procurement process and and get one again and to be honest based on the timeline getting the last tense i'm not entirely sure it'll be there before the end of the school year it does it doesn't seem realistic that we could do that don't get me wrong i'm trying to schmooze my tent salesman some room sticky great guy can't get tents from missouri to here very quickly because they have to actually come on a truck as opposed to uh like ups or something like that so it's not looking good i'll say that and cracker presents we're learning this the hard way that it presents the the probably the greatest challenge for us because of how the wind comes through there's there's like every situated other tents you know a little bit here and there to kind of a building to block but there's just no good spot there basically all right and i know you've discussed this probably ad nauseam with their um administration but i know kindergarten screening is coming up so is there a plan for which um my understanding is it's going to be held outside um so is do we have like even like partial tents or smaller coverings okay so yeah i almost said the wrong thing there it may be possible other there's there's another school in the district that had purchased i don't know if you guys are familiar with the easy up tents so we're going to try to do some wheeling and dealing over there i i feel like i have pretty good uh stock over there so i might be able to get that but yeah we're going to do whatever we can do to make that happen outside kind of working with with derrick on that as we speak if it comes down to getting 10 easy up tents that's what we'll have to do oh i'm sorry this is in the spirit of problems collective problem solving ben not that you haven't thought of this yet but have you considered renting from a local rental agency they're all booked up because of graduation here and i'm guessing or or what's the status on something like that even for a short amount of time for like kindergarten screening week or something yes so it's what i'll say to that that and yet we've definitely kind of explored this option but it's tough but not impossible because the the other side that we have to worry about is is permitting and there may be considering what we went through i don't want to say i suffered but considering what we went through to get the permits for those tents there may be a way to expedite that process so that we can actually get one put up on site but yeah if we have to do it temporarily we'll do it that way we're trying to figure out the way the best way to do it with what we have kind of for now oh yeah if we if that doesn't work then i'll say there's a rental company around that we could use i don't want to plug anybody but good to know good thank you for that ben just an acknowledgment that i've been um back in the high school for a while now and my building has never looked nicer um and so i i just the facility staff are constantly working in the buildings and i just want to really acknowledge the hard work that i'm seeing it because i'm seeing them do it but i can also see the building itself is in fantastic condition and just thank you for all of that hard work from um from all of your your people who are working extremely hard to keep our buildings clean and safe and functional and just thank you for that oh that's absolutely not i would want to extend the thanks to the head custodian don davis we have ron gamash gary reynolds marvin stewart and i'm oh i'm not missing anyone they're short-handed right now so so they're actually they're they're doing magic over there is what's happening so yeah thank you thank you for noticing and on that end i also wanted to bring up a topic it'll be out in today's newsletter but i just wanted to just kind of kind of go out there and explain that we have changed our sanitizing practices so that we're not overusing chemicals basically at this point because of cdc guidance there's less of a concern of the fomite transmission so what we're doing now is sanitizing once a day and then we're cleaning as much as we can still but but less with uh sometimes more with neutral cleaners so i want to put that out there because that's one thing that our high school staff is doing very well it sounds crazy but it's actually far more labor intensive to just clean than it is to sanitize yes thank you ben for bringing that up i know you know you are aware that i've been working on the disinfectant wipe issue at the state level trying to limit the use of those in public schools but a lot of people are not aware of the difference between cleaning and disinfecting but they are two separate um two completely separate things yep absolutely and and on on the record i i just want to say um i can say it strongly i hate wipes as well and i'd like to see us use a lot less of those and more basic cleaning supplies actually so was there anything else yeah i didn't have anything else is it does anyone else have anything i don't have anything um steve how about you do you have anything that you um wanted to discuss no i just i'm just curious folks i know before the elementary schools got rolling you were really concerned about the buses at crocker i'm just curious how that whole thing worked out um derek shea is a master that's all i want to say uh traffic control he has it planned so well and um you know is it a little bit tight at times yes but he's got we have everybody in that building is doing whatever they can to make it run as smoothly as possible yeah i could add that like so so we've tried to monitor at random times right and and i'm amazed by the fact that i'm not like i've come at pickup to go inspect things i do intentionally i've gone during drop off i've never really had to like stop and wait to turn in i haven't been really like they're used there's it almost seems like there was more of a backup before the pandemic on west street at you know pick up and drop off time but but yeah derek shea is a genius it's very very meticulous very detailed and it's it's paying off dividends to anybody emma did you have any any does anyone have like a joke leading into the weekend this has been like a very intense week so ben usually i could pull one out but i'm just exhausted [Laughter] right there all right if nobody else has anything i'm ready to go if you guys are all right thank you all for coming talking about my favorite issue which is health and safety that's not even sarcasm it actually is kind of my favorite issue thank you everybody have a good thank you it's good to see you all again have a great bye you
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[Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] is [Music] uh [Music] okay [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] good evening everyone if you could please have a seat first i'd like to acknowledge margaret ryan for uh so good evening and welcome to the 2021 esau meadow high school student achievement night with the uncertainty that has surrounded everything over the course of the last year i am so excited that tonight we're able to come together in the frederick wheeler auditorium to celebrate the amazing accomplishments of these 71 students seated before you we have scholars artists leaders volunteers activists and athletes the students here though unique in their own journey collectively embody the values that we hold so dear and are true representations of what we see as east law meadow high school spartans unfortunately due to the current state guidelines we are unable to have many of the presenters and the lhs elhs supporters present tonight that typically are part of our award ceremony and are integral to making this evening happen i would also like to acknowledge the family and friends watching from home who have supported these students over the years for those not here at this time i would like to thank the students the students families scholarship programs colleges and local organizations that have made tonight possible with that let's please give them all a round of applause and now at this time i would like to acknowledge the presenters and distinguished guests who are able to join us tonight please hold your applause until the end first with our high school staff mr gary wright assistant principal miss anne blaine administrative intern mr kevin mcgee athletic director mr mark bale english teacher department head miss amanda dinardo guidance counselor mrs ukrezia illingsworth guidance counselor miss shelby matroni guidance counselor ms janet sullivan guidance counselor ms jennifer faulkner foreign language teacher and department head mr brian freeman math teacher and department head ms terry hellyer principal secretary mr james kiernan band director and fine arts department head mr todd less tech ed teacher and business and tech ed department head mr mackery mr mark macarini career specialist miss chris norden health teacher and family consumer science department head ms lynn reed senior class and key club advisor ms christine ruger social studies teacher and department head this is catherine walland science teacher and department head and mr michael keeley school resource officer at this time i would also like to acknowledge our central office staff who's in attendance tonight mr gordon smith superintendent of schools ms pamela blair assistant superintendent of school for business is heather brown director of curriculum instruction and assessment dr joanne welch director of student services and mr richard furchero school committee ex officio i'd also like to acknowledge uh the members of our school committee who are in attendance tonight um miss beth marzian voucher mr gregory thompson so if you could at this point give us a nice nice round of applause for everyone [Applause] so without further ado we'll now begin the presentation and ask that each recipient when they hear his or her name please come forward to receive the award as far as the award process goes this year it's going to be a little bit different than the years past the process is going to be that miss terry hellyer is going to be placing the awards on the on the white table at the front of the room when your name is red and you come down to receive that you're going to come down and pick it up and then you will head back to your seat so with that i'm going to turn the forwards mr gordon smith good evening everybody i have the honor and pleasure to present the certificate of academic excellence and this is awarded to a student who is qualified under the standards prescribed by the massachusetts association of school superintendents and this year's recipient is margaret ryan [Applause] okay the the next award is the 2021 national merit scholarship program letter of commendation uh this is awarded to students for outstanding performance on the preliminary sat in the national merit scholarship qualifying test in 2019 these students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success and represent a value a valuable national resource tonight's recipient is william v nguyen the the next award is the east law middle high school principals award i have the honor of presenting this award to two graduating seniors tonight uh this student achievement award is presented to a graduating senior in recognition of outstanding contributions to the school for tonight like i said we have two recipients the first one is elizabeth m [Applause] laughlin and the next recipient is reyna k [Applause] plaviak oh the dartmouth college book award donated by the dartmouth alumni club of pioneer valley to a junior who ranks in the top 10 of their class demonstrates intellectual leadership has made a positive contribution to the extracurricular life of their school and demonstrates a love of the outdoors this year's recipient is mr noah [Applause] simanski the ellen's college book award donated by elms college each year to a junior who makes a positive impact on their school or community this year's recipient ms stefania liquori [Applause] stand right there the harvard club of western mass mass junior book award donated by the harvard club of western mass junior book prize committee to provide recognition and encouragement to a young person of promise within our community this year's recipient mr aaron hamilton the mount holyoke college science award awarded to a junior girl in the top five percent of her class who has exhibited academic promise and aptitude in science and through his or her scholarship leadership or community or extracurricular involvement has shown a commitment to excellence and willingness to accept challenges and risks this year's recipient rebecca mana [Applause] hello the saint michael's college book award is awarded to juniors who have demonstrated a sustained and sincere commitment to community service within the local community and has taken on a leadership role the students must also be an inductee of the national honor society this year's recipients kyle garvey hannah and colleen o'neill the smith college book award is donated by the springfield smith college club to a junior girl with the built with the ability to combine academic achievement and community participation this year's recipient rebecca and manna the springfield college book award is donated by springfield college to a junior whose personal values and aspirations most closely align with the mission of springfield college to educate students in spirit mind and body for leadership and service to humanity and has demon demonstrated an exemplary record of service to their high school community in the community at large this year's springfield college book award recipient michael carlone and the setfield university book award or suffolk i'm sorry suffolk university book award is presented to a student prepared to live in a diverse global society while also appreciating the richness of various cultures this year's recipient alexandra eager good evening western new england university's award this award is given to a junior who shows a high level of leadership through extra extracurricular activities and community service the new england uh university western new england university book is chosen each year to offer opportunity for students to generate scholarly discourse as well as examine personal perceptions and values and attitude this year's recipient is robert kane unfortunately robert couldn't make it tonight but we'll make sure he gets his award the williams college book award awarded to a junior in the top five percent of his or her class who has demonstrated intellectual leadership and has made a significant contribution to the extracurricular life of the school this year's recipient is nicholas cassidy yale university book award award to a junior for outstanding personal character and intellectual promise this year's recipient is sally nguyen hi everybody good good evening listen i pulled up tonight and i saw a lot of sad moms and dads because their babies are getting awards tonight so i want you to look at that camera everybody and wave to everybody at home okay kisses you know [Laughter] i want to start by just commending our staff our amazing students our families our community it's been a really rocky year to say the least right and i've i've made it my mantra and i say it to my students on the other side of discomfort and pain and hardship and all the stuff that life throws our way is gross so we've done a lot of growing this year y'all everybody agree with me on that one all right and i also want to say and i i make it really clear to my students that just like on the other side of discomfort is growth on the other side of hard work it are the natural awards so i commend all of you tonight and i want you all to know that you are unique a gpa doesn't define you you are all of this once in a lifetime event so i want you to go out and live it that way okay so let's start with the message oh let me continue with the massachusetts american legion post 293 boys state award this is awarded by the gunther rally post not 293 american legion and the islam longmeadow chamber of commerce to two junior boys who are outstanding in the following leadership citizenship scholarship um courage honesty and character these boys will be attending stonehill in northeastern in a week in june and the recipients are garrett mikowski and christian j thomas is christian here tonight uh i'm gonna have to yell at christian tomorrow during spring block all right and the next award is the the well excuse me the the girls state award is um awarded to a gun the gun three rally post 293 american legion for the islamic longmeadow chamber of commerce to two junior girls who are outstanding in the following leadership citizenship scholarship courage honesty and character these girls will be attending stonehill college in northeast for a week in june the recipients are attica awan and brooke [Applause] vaccaro [Music] all right good evening the east of the river chamber five town chamber of commerce scholarships the following scholarships are awarded to students who utilize the career center to explore career options before going on to college through a job shadow or an externship first is the cheryl reed scholarship and the winners this year are risk way and lily hellyer [Applause] in their leonard preston william and polly stebbins memorial scholarship winners are william nguyen and olivia watson in the munson savings bank scholarship is awarded to graduating seniors planning to attend an accredited college technical school or certification program the scholarship is based on the applicant's academic performance in extracurricular activities the recipients of this award is lily hellyer ariana nevins and olivia watson i have the pleasure of announcing the east longmeadow rotary memorial scholarship foundation incorporated the east longmeadow rotary memorial scholarship foundation incorporated is now celebrating its 34th year of providing recognition to east longmeadow students for their demonstration of scholastic excellence since its inception the e-l-r-m-s-f-i has awarded 403 hundred and fifty dollars in scholarships additionally since nineteen ninety three the east long meadow rotary club foundation incorporated has awarded fifty one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars in scholarships scholarship recipients are chosen based on the whole person concept that takes into consideration academia school contributions community involvement future plans and goals and letters of recommendation the recipient of the earl mcdonald memorial scholarship is julia ferentino [Applause] recipients of the james davis memorial scholarship or william nguyen and olivia watson [Applause] the douglas barack memorial scholarship rhys gway [Applause] the gene ferentz barack memorial scholarship recipients brianna conant and aaron hill the east longmeadow rotary memorial scholarship foundation scholarship was awarded to margaret ryan [Applause] and finally the east longmeadow rotary club willie ferrero memorial scholarship is awarded to caden bien good evening this is the hub international new england scholarship hub international new england is honored to be a part of the east long meadow community this scholarship program was created to recognize high school seniors who will be continuing their education in the field of business this year's recipient is julia [Applause] ferentino and the cloud nine marketing group scholarship founded by elhs alumnus dylan theon cloud9 marketing group is honored to be a part of the east long metal community this scholarship program was created to recognize high school seniors who will be continuing their education in the field of business with a concentration in marketing this year's recipient recipient ryan port hey hello again uh the hugh o'brien award also known as the hobie since 1958 the hugh o'brien youth foundation has been holding leadership seminars for 10th graders throughout the united states these seminars held regionally at various colleges bring young people together to develop leadership potential to encourage and assist students in their quest for self-development and self-identification to introduce potential leaders to today's leaders through informal seminars to provide exposure to the opportunity to explore america's incentive system and democratic process this year's hobie student ambassador is miss jilda descoli [Applause] good job the matthew s barrett memorial scholarship this scholarship was established in memory of matthew barrett former student here at the high school class of 2017.
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awesome uh good evening everyone welcome to may 6th uh 7 30 p.m uh special showcase meeting the board of education uh before we get into it uh mr have a call to order please sure mr crippo here miss howland here miss ham miss harrigan here mr martelly here mr parichini here and mr white here mr chairman you have a quorum thank you i said good evening everyone i hope everyone enjoyed quite a beautiful day today and you've had a chance to get that beautiful sunshine and mild weather i hope you put in as good mood as we are uh we have a great showcase screening tonight uh i'm gonna turn it over to dr gather or dr solner wants to kick off the showcase but this is not about the board tonight is about cheshire high school so we're all looking forward to the presentation thank you very much mr paragini and as you mentioned uh we're excited to be joined for this evening's showcase uh by dr gad and uh does that miss well speak in the background um so uh we have a special group with us tonight and they're going to walk us through a presentation all year we've been focusing on what are our schools doing to navigate the pandemic and to keep kids engaged and if you recall we've uh touched on everything from you know classrooms to clubs and so tonight you're going to get i think a little bit of both with the high school presentation so with that i'll pass it off to you dr gad thank you very much dr solomon we are delighted to be here tonight and i have a number of folks in the room with me and i'll introduce them in a moment but i just first wanted to make a shout out to our teachers this is teacher appreciation week and i'm doubly honored that our teachers and students have joined us tonight this is this is an honor of their hard work their perseverance and their tenacity through extraordinary circumstances so we want to talk tonight with you about how we supported complex thinking and social and emotional learning during the covet 19 pandemic and give you a little bit of context so as you know we've had a number of broadcast systems installed around the district we had 19 installed here so we're going to talk a little bit about this was a year like none other so what did it look like we have also cameras we have 19 broadcast systems installed we have cameras and microphones installed in every classroom we have 585 students attending four days a week 333 who are currently remote a number of who are remote during the ap testing which is this week and next week we have 438 students who are in the hybrid model which means when you combine our in-person learning days and our students in the hybrid model we have roughly between 800 or more students in the building every single day these numbers are subject to change as parents do make adjustments and we said this at the beginning of the year we mentioned and we continue to mean it we wanted to be flexible and adaptable because this is an ever-changing landscape and boy have our professionals been adaptable and flexible and more none more than our students so instruction has been both in person and it's also been hybrid every day so we have some remote learners some in-person learners a combination therein teachers have adapted to instruction using the google suite and it's been a really powerful year some things though have stayed the same we have had in-person testing we were able to administer the psat grades 10-11 on footwork psat 9 in december the sat school day was on march 24th to all of our juniors uh currently we are in our ap testing process for the next two weeks that started on may 3rd and goes through may 14th which is also in person and next generation science testing is may 24th and may 25th it's actually through may 28th i apologize so again to reiterate in a year like no other and i think we are all as i look out at this room very ready for when we don't talk about it being here like noble we've persevered we've adapted and despite extraordinary circumstances our kids have shared their insight with each other and with students around the district so uh we're extremely proud of the ways that our students have extended and the way they've adapted and the ways our teachers have extended and adapted so i'm going to share with you i'll make some introductions first but i'm going to play one clip from our deca club we have many many clubs as a feature of how we've kept our kids connected our clubs have continued in spite of this extraordinary time and so just one example again i can't stress from among how many that just showcases how our students have continued to learn and continue to think deeply and continue to learn in complex ways and then share that outside of the school walls and then you will hear from our fine arts and performing arts departments and we'll be talking about hands-on learning experiences and mr joe castardo our our department chairperson will speak with you and then you'll hear some clips from mr greg bell who can't be here tonight but i think i'll let his clip tell you why it's kind of exciting you'll also hear about our academic and organizational supports we have cheshire high school learning labs among other supports that students can drop into or be enrolled in and you'll hear this is anne well speak we'll speak about that our library media specialist and dr maureen reed our assistant principal for curriculum and instruction and then mrs pells is going to share just briefly about a program called scope that i know you've maybe heard a little bit about and then we'll end with our extraordinary pe department and our peer health group talking about wellness wednesday and our leadership initiatives so without further ado i would like to bring mr castardo up to share with you how our school wait no we've got to do deca our students have adapted to uh their hands on work to this environment but first a little bit of bad deck hello this is susan wage maker along with brittany and kerry we are the co-advisors for the cheshire high school deca club this year cheshire high school deca club members exemplified engagement perseverance and dedication in the most challenging year 27 students prepared all year remotely to compete in the statewide deca virtual competition held over two days in march the statewide virtual awards ceremony was broadcast to announce the winners with much excitement we were happy to announce that out of 14 events that cheshire students competed in nine teams placed in the top positions for their events these teams had the opportunity then to compete at the national virtual competition which was held in april this year was like no other as students wrote marketing plans community giving projects franchise business plans and other events in a virtual setting in many ways this virtual format allowed us to support our students more regularly and we saw an overall increase in member participation at deca meetings that were held virtually after school there were many challenges students had to overcome in this unique setting but each student persevered in ways that made both myself and brittany mccary so incredibly proud to be the advisors for these outstanding students good evening everyone thank you for um thank you for having me i'm happy to be here and i'm happy to share oh it's pardon me so used to having this on i'm happy to share um with you what our what our department has been doing and what we've been moving toward uh to really to boost our students social emotional learning as well as their ability to move forward with um you know pushing their personalized learning um forward at this point in the game there are three specific areas that our department is pushing it and one of those is a virtual slide critique because we noticed that the hardest part at this point in the game with the art with the arts was working with critiquing our students work um it was so great rickovit when we could have our students gather around we could have critiques firsthand but we had to find a way and i know the students could vouch for this to get that feeling back to get the feeling of a class back where students felt they were a group they were heard by everybody and they had the ability to comment on each other's work so um we put our heads together as a department and we came up with a very quick simple and a very effective solution and that was the virtual google slide critique in addition to that which i'll speak to in a minute um there's the personalized learning targets those two tie together hand in hand and i'll discuss how those go together momentarily um the last one on the list is the virtual google meet art share which um in the classroom again pre-coded we would be able to walk around and show each other what we were working on discuss as a class how well we were proceeding toward our um our ideas and our um you know the way that we were trying to how we were trying to develop each piece with that being said the hardest part was how are we going to do this in a virtual environment well we came up with a very simple solution we had students holding up work four or five or six at a time to the cameras and discussing with the class or even taking quick screenshots with the class and then discussing this work with the class as if we were right in the classroom which we technically were on a virtual uh setting so now i'll move forward and talk about our virtual google slides critique um it seems like you know again a simple solution to a very big problem that we were having and it's as simple as students taking um taking photos of their work submitting it to a shared google slideshow where everybody in the class was shared into that slideshow all students were this was real time so everybody was sharing their work at one point in time with three photos um and then students were set up into groups of three or four or more and they would actually comment back and forth on each other's work constructive criticism um things that tie directly into unit objectives into lesson objectives as you can see in this particular slide there's a photo of a student's mask that she was working on you'll see my comment at the top and you'll see three other student comments down below where students are commenting on again these are comments that are coming directly off of the rubric things that tie directly into students learning as well as developing their social emotional perspective so students are able again to tie in these ideas together and work as a class that was the hardest part they were feeling like they were no longer heard as a class so this is a great perspective and a great angle on how to do that the personalized learning target document this was um this was a brainchild of how are we going to make students feel like they can they can still share their ideas as how they're going to move forward with their learning we really wanted students to understand that they were heard not only from a perspective of the teacher like here's our unit objectives giving them an over-encompassing goal for each unit but we wanted students to again still break the bounds of the creativity component so with that being said the personalized learning target document was the way that we developed this um students would literally break down a pdf document i have a pdf of the document actually in this slide um it was it's about a four or five slide document i won't again i won't show you all the slides but um within that document students have to list their learning targets what their goals and objectives are for this specific unit how they're going to develop these goals they have to show their research and their work in progress these are incredible formative assessment tools for the teacher incredible tools that allow students to work together and discuss their progress and their process our goal as a department moving forward was really trying to have a way for our students to still feel like we the teachers and they the students were involved in the creative process so um truthfully that learning target document has solved two of those problems and the third thing is it has solved the ability for students again they don't feel like they're alone in their decision making the teachers are there the whole time to guide them through the process we can comment on the slides on that personal learning target document students are showing us their progress so with with full remote learners uh we are able to see exactly and the slide that's coming up will show the students pro this student's progress this is a full remote learner's progress with all of her comments and her perspective on how she's progressing through this this specific unit which is a coil constructed vessel so um the student is actually in the i can't unfortunately can't see all the words from here if i could i would pass and that's that that greeting very well but the eye exam but um i can't see all the words but unfortunately but the student is commenting on i pretty much know what she's saying here um from having her in class she's talking about her progress with the two black bars that she decided to put into pieces she wasn't sure if they were working she also discusses in this in this particular slide how she took some of the feedback from students and even though they were telling her that things looked like they were good she pushed herself to move beyond that feedback and really strive forward to develop it even further so i love the last photo on the far right because it shows um it shows the whole progress that she went through to develop the lid to this piece which was it sounds like such a simple task like put a lid on something but if you know from any experience being in an art room and working with different types of materials it can be quite a quite a work um especially when you're working remotely so she constantly was sharing slides with her classmates constantly sharing slides in this work in progress um particular slide from the learning target menu and really was able to be guided through that progress by the teacher by her classmates and ultimately be happy with the final result which this piece is going to be featured in um in a virtual art show this year for the um cheshire public schools at the high school so she's really excited about that too so that's how our department currently is utilizing those three specific techniques the virtual google slides critique the personalized learning target menu as well as last but not least the virtual google me art share which seems such a simple idea just to hold up your work and show people what you're doing but students feel so proud when they are able to be taught within that moment of saying hey you know what i might be remote but this is what i'm doing and here it is and i think it makes them feel great and it makes us feel great as teachers to see that so again thank you for having me i appreciate it um and we'd like to move forward now with mr bell so the next piece you're going to see is greg bell he's he's going to talk with you a little bit about how they adapted in the choral classes good evening my name is greg allen the chorus teacher here at cheshire high school i apologize that i was unable to be here in person this evening as we actually have a choral event that is going on downstairs in the auditorium at this time this year chorus has been able to maintain the opportunity to perform through virtual events we have been able to record our fire individually at home and then piece those together which i'll explain further a little bit this year we were still able to hold a virtual winter concert which the link is available for on this slide as well as a virtual senior showcase and pops concert which is going on currently last year we put put on a concert at elam park for the first time in which we performed the pops concert for the residents there as well as members of our community and we also gave all seniors the opportunity to perform solos of their choosing this year we were able to record the seniors individually doing their solos as well as put together virtual versions of the pop songs which i'll explain further this year we also have an in-person concert coming up in june which we are really excited about we were able to procure the use of the main football field here and we will be putting out concerts banned symphonic bandwidth ensemble orchestra jazz band the choirs in separate concerts of course over the course of multiple evenings but it is great for us to culminate a year that has been unlike any other good evening my name is good evening this year we were able to use programs like garageband and adobe audition in order to create our virtual choir experience we would work on the music together in class and students would either learn it with us in class or be learning synchronously at home i remember learning the music students would go home and take each individual part and using practice tracks that we have provided online students were able to record their own parts they would listen to the practice track on a set of headphones while recording into a device usually as simple as using their cell phone they would save these recordings and submit them to me i would then be able to take these recordings and place them all here in garageband where one at a time i have to edit the recordings uh getting rid of background noises whether they are you know a car driving by the background someone turning a page uh someone coughing or sneezing in the background i was able to edit those out at the same time as line them up so that way it sounded like the students were performing together we could then edit them for balance and for blend and i was able to use these programs to put together the songs that we were performing oh [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] sure [Music] oh [Music] i'd like to ask mrs well speak and dr reed just come in to talk a little bit about our learning labs and support classes hi good evening learning labs particularly the writing lab and most of our learning labs social studies and general learning lab take place here in the library and so um you know i see students on a regular basis along with an array of teachers from every academic area that come in to help our students and there are students that are assigned there and there are also students that drop in particularly to the writing lab and we all often talk about like how writing lab isn't really for bad writers it's for all writers and this year in particular students that wanted feedback from everything from a college essay to an ece paper were able to virtually meet up with a writing teacher and get some feedback and that could be done in real time over a google me or they could submit their work and they could get feedback on it so it was super successful we had we still continue to have a lot of students that are taking advantage of that and um you'll hear from a learning lab and writing center teacher in just a moment caitlin carter um math lab and science lab kind of run in separate areas you know being science it's important to be near the bunsen burners and such and math it's just a scary place up there there's been a math lab up there for a number of years and students are able to access a math teacher several math teachers that filter into the lab at various times to assist students um so um yeah that's that's what happens do you have anything to add to that dr reed in terms of like um you know more about the math lab and the science i think than i do because you'll yeah i'll just add in that while these students are scheduled in um also drop in that they're enrolled during their daily schedule that these are groups of students that can range from two to eight ten students the teacher tries to work um with each of those students in targeted areas that they're struggling in but they are in groups for the students i mean for the teacher and the science lab had about 42 students enrolled this year the writing lab about 63 so far and um the math support also extends to evening tutoring uh tuesdays through thursdays like seven to eight at night and sunday evening seven to eight online so we do offer quite a bit of support and as mrs well speak said i think we have mrs carter caitlyn carter in a video next to share with you her experience as a writing lab and learning lab teacher okay [Music] so the goal of the writing and the learning labs is to help support students and this might look a little bit different based on the different needs of the specific students so some students are given a writing or a learning lab as part of their daily schedule and this is great especially in a year that like what we're experiencing this year where students are experiencing learning in a very different way so these learning labs and writing labs provide students with one-on-one teacher support and we're able to focus on areas where students are struggling whether it be executive functioning or organization students are able to work with the teacher to set attainable goals for each week and this helps hold students accountable and also helps them have that one-to-one teacher support where they might be lacking and another great thing about the writing lab is any student at chs can get the feedback that they need on writing assignments so whether you're in an actual writing lab or a learning lab you are able to fill out a google form and that connects you with one of the english teachers and we're able to provide students with feedback and again in a year where it might be a little bit difficult for students to get that one-on-one teacher support they're able to fill out a google form and to get that support from from teachers and the best part about all this is it's not only helping students academically but students are also able to make other connections with different teachers that they may not be familiar with through the writing in the learning labs hello i'm kristen peltz one of the assistant principals and i'm really proud to be able just to give a little bit of blurb on a program here well a new school a new club at cheshire high school called scope which was the student community outreach program for education just wanted to make sure i got that right um the brainstorm of two junior students here at the school eddie chen and joanne junity who approached us with this proposal anticipating that there are elementary school students because of the remote learning that might need some extra attention this year and so they worked and coordinated with all four elementary school principals they reached out to parents and took it from there they've been coordinating weekly meetings between our high school student tutors and elementary students predominantly giving them assistance on reading and math and also just forming relationships with them through the year they're very excited about it they're hoping the program grows next year so keep an eye out on information that's coming from your from the elementary school principals because the program can only grow and it's been a great support to those students thank you thank you mrs pills and this is a perfect segue into our next group of students you're going to hear from kathy sullivan the chairperson of the pe department joe krutz physical education teacher dan lee physical education teacher and peer health teacher and students lucy helene connor d labelle giuliana destante brad krutz and jack lovelace all right i want to start off first by saying what mary gad said before uh thank you to all the teachers of this teacher appreciation week and i know that this year is much more challenging than every other year so again i just want to mirror what she said at the beginning as thank you to all you guys really appreciate everything that you guys have done so with this being said uh pure health is one of the big classes here at fisher high school it's very important especially for leadership and kindness and whole bunch of other initiatives that we have taken and that we do throughout the year but of course this year is very different so one of our first projects is the elementary school leadership program essentially what this is is every year we go to the elementary schools and we do a leadership conference and we just kind of teach them the ideas of everyday leadership and kindness and how they all tie into on each other so one of the first things that we always talk about is everyday leadership and this is very important especially to learn at a young age and this is the idea that you can be a leader without actual titles and positions so whether we're communicating this idea to kids in elementary school middle school or high school this is our first objective so exactly what is being an everyday leader kind of try to convey the idea to these students that you don't have to be a captain of the sports team or you don't have to be the head of the drama club or the president of the class the overall idea is just raising your hand in class and a whole bunch of other small actions is really what's going to build up your leadership skills so i have a few of the projects that we have done this year for the elementary school leadership program and one that i really want to elaborate on is the book drive so i think this took place at highlander chapman i don't want to pick one because that wouldn't be wrong but essentially every year they do a book drive and it was inspired by a student's grandmother who passed away who had a big passion for books and this has been going on for a few years so we didn't really start this initiative but one way that our peer health class was able to help this year was a group of students in pure health actually made a video promoting the book drive and then we sent this to elementary schools and this idea of motivating them to really take initiative and donate is really inspiring and i think just the idea of it coming from older children just in of itself is enough to get younger kids to really take initiative and then more so this kind of ties into the idea of community service and community action because it really was conveying the idea to these younger kids that they should be helping out their community whether it's in a small way donating books or in a much bigger way so the second program that the pure health class does is the elementary school kindness program thank you so as the name suggests really just promoting kindness in the elementary schools and again this is something that we usually do when in person where we actually send students in pure health to go to the elementary schools and kind of teach them these principles of kindness but of course this year we had to be adaptable and flexible because we weren't able to actually go to the schools themselves so one topic i really want to address is kindness week and kind of how we went about this so i think one of the biggest issues whether it was leadership or the kindness program or a few other programs that you're going to hear about in the future later on in this presentation is how we communicate and how we actually plan these events and like i said before we can't actually go in person so we had to rely on google meets for the majority of communication with principals and guidance counselors and just teachers of the elementary schools so of course this project is no different we have to rely on google meets especially with the principals at highland the chapman and a few of their guidance counselors as well i forgot their names but so one of the topics i want to address is kindness week so what we did was the kids that volunteered for the kindness program in the pure health class actually put together a series of videos where they kind of portrayed how you can still be kind and demonstrate kindness especially during these hard and challenging times so we kind of gave some examples of how like especially people associate kindness with doing big deeds but i think what our pure health class was really trying to convey this year was that all small acts of kindness all add up so in the video we kind of portray to them how you can just wave to someone in the hallway or just ask someone how their day is going and just that in of itself really shows everybody else around you how kind you're being so that was one of the first things that we addressed in the video and we also talked kind of like on the bigger picture in the videos kind of um taught them some kindness skills such as really getting into deeper conversations with people and it kind of goes into what i said before where it shows people how much you care about them it's just overall like these videos that we did the pure hall class did for the elementary school kindness program and leadership programs really were just designed to still keep these projects going even though it was a much more challenging year and like i said before uh google me i think was the biggest biggest um advantage in the situation because it really helped us communicate more and up next i think lucy's going to share about the food drive good evening everyone uh so i'm going to be talking about the middle school leadership program that we ran at god this year i was on a committee with four other or three other excuse me uh pure health students and we started by working closely with the dodd staff and talking about what elements of leadership they really wanted to focus on this year and as connor mentioned everyday leadership of course came up so from there we wanted to create some ways that we could engage with them to develop those leadership skills uh in order to do that we had to meet uh almost bi-weekly with teachers and administrators from god specifically mr connolly and mr paraceno were incredibly helpful and they helped us plan the leadership activities that we wanted to do this year so the main thing was that we produced videos that were leadership challenges and they were based around events taking place at dodd so what we would do is we would make videos with instructions on how the students could participate in the challenge and then also the importance of how participating in the challenge then translates into leadership skills so for example during black history month we did a challenge where students had to read a book or an article maybe a poem or a watch a video or a movie relating to black history month and then from there and well to have this challenge take place we produced a video like i said and within that video we interviewed teachers from god who talked about the importance of participating in this black history month challenge uh so that's just an example while we were doing these challenges we also developed a middle school leadership conference surrounding everyday leadership in a typical year this would take place at holiday hill and it would be this big event that students got bust the holiday hill for obviously that could not happen so we had it be held at dodd under the tent outdoors and about roughly 50 students attended the tent was a great resource and we were able to use the fields at dodd for interactive activities of course we collaborated with the dodd staff on safe and engaging ways to create this event for the students it actually happened last week we had a panel of uh student leaders from the senior class and uh juliana and connor actually gave a presentation about everyday leadership and it was a great success the students really enjoyed it um so now i think uh juliana or yes juliana is going to be talking um oh no i am still going around a little bit so earlier in the year we uh the high school held a food drive where we worked with the cheshire food pantry and we really wanted to give the students this opportunity to support the food pantry and create the opportunity for them to learn the importance of being a community contributor you know some people might assume that because of the pandemic that isn't something that we can still really focus on but i think this creative opportunity really showed that you know you can still find ways to give back to your community so in a typical year uh clubs and sports teams from the high school would participate in a supermarket challenge which was a fun competition uh with the goal of donating as much to the cheshire food pantry as possible but we weren't really comfortable having large numbers of students inside uh at the beginning of this year so we had to pivot and we went with another still creative still fun alternative plan which meant that the peer health education classes collaborated with the national honor society here at chs in creating a covet friendly neighborhood food drive as far as we know this is one of the first times that two major groups like this have come together on a community service project like this and i can say as i was in the meetings it was really incredible to see representatives from pure health and representatives from the national honor society all collaborating on this common goal so that was a really awesome thing to see like i said we still wanted to make this as fun as possible for everyone participating so we took some ideas from the cheshire lights of hope and created a um a drive where students got to be street captains meaning neighbors that wanted to participate simply had to put a bag filled with non-perishable food items on their front steps and the students were street captains would go around and collect that allowing for contactless pickup for anyone who chose to donate overall the group donated 5063 pounds of items for the cheshire food pantry on behalf of cheshire high school and the cheshire community so it was quite the success um that is all i have to say hello everybody my name is juliana destante and i am the project manager one of the project managers for pure health one of the largest projects that peer health sponsors and puts together at the high school which is the cheshire high school leadership conference uh so the goal of the conference that we hold every year which is also sponsored in part by the ryan t lee foundation provides students with the opportunity to participate in a day-long event and focus on many different facets of leadership such as problem solving uh community community service communication and team building and all these different ideas centered around the purpose of promoting everyday leadership and we talk about this in class a lot and coach lee talks about this as well this idea of vertical planning which we're also trying to promote in pure health this idea that we have the same kind of leadership message that we are making sure we're teaching to the elementary school the middle school and the high school so as you work your way up through the cheshire public school system you're learning the same idea of leadership um and peer health is very happy to be enforcing that through our conferences and different programs that we have and outreach so we want to make sure we're enforcing this idea of connectedness and adaptability and guidance through the pandemic as everybody's talked about before all of our programs and projects that we've run through peer health usually look very different this time of year and uh we have had to adapt in many ways and we have definitely been able to do that and still pull off as much as we can given the circumstances so this year for the 20 20 21 school year we have kind of altered the uh conference event and we've been working very closely with nurse stanton to kind of follow these procedures and protocols to make sure we're holding a safe and effective conference so this year we're going to be hosting over 75 chs students that are going to attend the conference on may 19th and it's going to be an in-person conference typically on a normal year uh peer health and cheshire high school would host about 375 students from different high schools across the state and we would all come to the high school and we would usually have the same template every year that we can apply we didn't have that template this year so we had to kind of re-adjust the way we wanted the conference to look so um my members of the members of the project group that i'm working on and everybody is working on is to speak to different presenters and speakers in the community and we even have a graduate who graduated from cheshire high school that's going to be speaking at the conference to show students you know where leadership takes them post cheshire high school and the different successes that they have applying the skills that they've learned here going forward and that's super meaningful and we really want to enforce this idea of hands-on learning through activities and how important these interactive informative activities are because students always wanted to be active and that's why we chose to do a smaller in-person only cheshire high school event because we figured that that would reach students the best and would be the most effective and we always enforce this idea of parallel planning and you know in the day and age that we are things are constantly changing and we've been doing parallel planning planning a remote version of our conference to um adapt and you know help students that choose to be remote on the day of the conference that way we're not excluding it everybody has an opportunity to participate in the cheshire high school leadership conference so um brad and jack are now going to talk about the new project for on spence day hi hi i'm brad uh first of all i wanted to say please excuse my appearance just came from lacrosse practice so our pure health initiative is wellness wednesdays which was created because i'm sure many of you know that all chs students are remote every week this year so we would create a lesson plan for physical education and health classes um in order for students in order for teachers to teach students topics that make a social emotional connection um to help in their everyday lives typically the topics would be rotated on about a three week scheduling period and um each lesson plan would have um stimulating uh ideas for the students such as videos articles quotes just something to get the students like brains kind of flowing and then the teachers would you know ask the students what you get out of the video how is it going to impact you every day um so now jack will talk about how we came up with some of the topics and yeah good evening i'm jag loveless and um here we're talking about wellness wednesday so how we came up with some of these topics is we would originally go into our group meet brad and chisholm okoro and we would talk about what would be good to talk about and what things this year have been a need for students that like they need help on and stuff like that some of the topics have been like helping others uh wellness like personal wellness managing stress writing an email to teacher and good study habits so um a lot of these things people need help on especially in the year with covid and everything that's going on managing stress and mental wellness uh people just need help sometimes like nobody can go through all this alone so we've uh we've discussed with teachers and uh faculty and tried to come up with lessons plans that every three weeks get uh pushed out to the students um so for example helping others if you see somebody having like a bad day in the hallway just giving them a nice comment sharing them up if you see somebody drop their books help them pick it up like everything helps it nowadays and uh another one writing an email you wouldn't be surprised or you'd be very surprised how many kids could not write an email to a teacher in the correct format so stuff like that it's just in in a year like this where there's a lot of remote stuff and a need for technology it's just very helpful for the students to have these uh resources on wellness wednesdays thank you we are we are so lucky to have these incredible students and teachers who have collaborated and i think it's been the hallmark of the year that our teachers have been focused on ensuring our kids still have these rich and deep experiences that they are still connected to each other and to us and that we're finding every way we possibly can to ensure they're getting the the depth of experience as well and i think this evening uh articulated so much of that and i just want to say again thank you to all the faculty um the last piece of what we'd like to share with you tonight is our drama and theater theater department of course something that is typically very very much in person and shared with the community has had to to do all of their work remotely and so we have a little uh dance number that they put together they were able to do 12th night this fall as the drama production and little women is a musical production and that video is almost done and it will be broadcast at the senior walk on the 21st before pretty much i hope i hope i haven't i haven't i hope i haven't told too soon and it'll be just for friends and family so we can keep the numbers small but we're psyched to be able to make use of the tent and show the video uh but until that was all done they also did a dance number these kids were learning dance moves by watching zoom they were singing in the shower and then recording themselves when they were later on so that they could you know practicing but they did everything in recording uh we had some in-person uh events that they kept it some some in-person rehearsals and certainly this dance number is a culmination of one major in person recording session and the man behind the scenes is the man behind the scenes on this meeting as well and i would like to send a special shout out to mr michael salamini without him much of this year would have been ever so much more complex than it already is so our drama theater department fantastic job and while things have been virtual performances have been virtual passion and excitement has remained actually [Music] um [Music] come on [Music] so come alive okay is okay so do you have any questions for us first thought it was very very cool video well done uh before i comment uh any questions or comments from the board uh tim thanks yeah i'm just curious the uh how many students do you have is it for 1400 355 okay do you know how many of them have gotten vaccinated uh we're collecting those data right now but i think early numbers are at about 40 percent of eligible students okay what percent is eligible at this point based on the 16 year old i guess we're students who are 16 and over and it's about 800 kids okay thank you all right adam okay i was looking at the comments uh capture me next uh am i upper here's kev okay well okay um i just wanted to comment to say uh what a fantastic presentation um i i i was thinking back to uh when we were putting together our um i guess our our 10-year objective plan jeff i think in in in policy last year where we're uh going back between words and things that we wanted students to focus on and and uh two of those things was critical thinking and also flexible thinking and i and i and it's incredible how to see that sort of come come into reality this year seeing the students really use the technology to to to bring people together to bring students of all the great levels together be able to just create a new community in this time when you can't physically be together and i think that was really great and to also see that the teachers use technology which i'm sure they weren't all that experienced in last year or two years of whatever 18 months ago or however long ago it was it seems like yesterday now um that they all sort of became experts and became really uh uh almost i guess experts now in using a technology to to keep students interested in this subject at hand so it's really fantastic presentation thank you thank you thank you adam uh catherine thanks tony um thanks dr gadden and everyone there who participated tonight um and put together the program really great um i agree with adam it was just like very impressive um i particularly loved all of the leadership work that is being done across the district that is so phenomenal and the fact that it's so student driven is really incredible and i i just feel like that that's the kind of thing that's going to have an impact that's going to help our kids get past covet and you know the resilience that we're going to be hoping they can display um that's got to help a lot and so i appreciate all of the work that the students um are doing and the teachers and the principals and uh i would like to say i appreciate all of our teachers this is a great week for um our teachers they're doing a phenomenal job so i'll be quiet now because everybody else wants to say something to you but thank you so much thank you catherine uh tim just wanna say oh by the way i'm to say thank you for the presentations in the comments uh andrew you had a comment and then faith sure just to dr gad and um the whole cheshire high school community um i'm continuously amazed at what you guys do at cheshire high school um i'm an alum of the school and you know to see the different activities and the leadership roles and being part of the different you know the entire school community it's really been very impressive and this year hopefully you do not have to ever deal with circumstances like this again um you know i i always was questioned the whole day off on wednesday but seeing the presentation tonight and the different things that were able to be done during that time i think that that's really important for everyone to see so thank you and congratulations that the year is almost over and we've we've made it out and uh the good work thank you thank you thank you thanks andrew faith i um my colleagues have said everything so um i don't want to keep the need the evening going long so i'm just going to say thank you dr gad and to everybody assembled there and all the kids who put together the the presentations the faculty who guided him um most impressive and we're very proud of you so thanks thank you thank you i wish you could see everyone here i almost want you just to come so you can see who's been here because we have a cast none of this happens without a lot of people doing a lot of heavy lifting and so you know i'm i'm grateful every day for the extraordinary colleagues and students that we have the absolute privilege of working with every single thing awesome thank you andrew uh i'm sorry faith uh and europe i just want to say thank you for the presentation uh dr gad and and all of all of your uh cohorts that you have there helping you tonight um it's wonderful to hear words like pivot and changes that we made to be able to continue to do the good work that cheshire high has always been doing but during these times that are really hard but you know what the attitude of everybody here tonight really shine through and the fact that we can get videos of student work and we can think of new and interesting ways to show student work to assess student work to to just do bit do the business that we do i i just want to commend all of you and thank you for showing us how you have been able to pivot this year and um be flexible and and make things happen make the magic happen so thank you very much thank you thank you uh i i just want to say i i i personally cannot thank our entire staff enough um teacher we appreciation week or no teacher action week in any given day especially this past year has been um well a year and a half tremendous and just see the the excitement to ann's point you know everyone's so happy and excited talk about your contributions how the students are responding we see these students engaged that just that high level that i see whether it's at a board meeting or you know hearing my daughter's teachers talking sometimes during class if if you all are frustrated and tired you're not showing it um so i i can't thank you enough for the hard work and and uh you know ann mentioned pivoting i you know in listening to uh the structure of all this you know i kind of try to relate what you're doing with our kids in this remote model to what's happening in the corporate world today um where things are more agile um they're not very static and agile being mean at teens and little team members employees to move quickly and adapt and have these online conferences where they're trying to make their pitch their project their idea known to people that are not just in the office with them but around the world and i think the skills that they're learning you know this there's a positive to the covet is they're learning these tools and technologies as you are so they're learning with you but they're building a confidence level um in doing so and learning a better way to communicate which is going to help them immensely in college and beyond so i you know i i think where kids are could be better positioned uh in their careers as a result is um so i i can't thank you enough i appreciate all the time everyone put in this presentation i know there's a lot more to it than you're able to show but thank you um very well done and i was impressed i'm impressed and i could tell you many many many parents students are impressed especially considering the year that we've had so uh thank you thank you yeah absolutely uh dr song do we uh have any public comment at this point we do not mr peregini right barring any public comment uh the only item of the agenda is to adjourn i would read the upcoming meetings unfortunately available to me but uh it is on our website and our calendar that being said unless there's any other comments from the board on tonight's showcase yeah i want to thank the entire staff at cheshire high school and especially everyone that's there tonight and again i we all recognize michael salamini thank you for calling him out because uh without mike involved and you know his support staff we want to have these kind of meetings tonight be able to showcase to you so mike thank you thank you for sticking around for the long nights as well um that being said do i have a motion to adjourn came in first place and i think anne came in second and you're a distant fourth sorry uh second all those in favor aye it is a unanimous thank you everyone please have a good evening and we'll see each other
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
[Music] [Applause] [Music] hello [Music] can you hear me okay [Music] one two three test one two three tests [Music] one more time one two three tests [Music] perfect [Music] right [Music] you've been solid that comes to my mind [Music] sparkles uh thank you so much my thank you good okay please stand for the pledge of allegiance place your right hand over your heart ready begin i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all you may be seated thank you very very much and i've done moments of silence moments of inspiration but i want to take this time to do a moment of gratitude speaking for myself in this position i want to say thank you to the board my doctors and my fellow ambassadors this position has truly let me grow as a person and the opportunities i was converted with was more than i could have ever asked for thank you for letting me have a seat at the table and in terms of this entire year what we've all lost is irreplaceable and i understand that but it truly shows to be grateful for all we have and also for what we can give and the kindness that we show to others extends beyond what we could ever imagine and what we can do for others and the kindness that aohsd is all about in our five c's it's something that we needed most this year and it's something that i think we need to push on throughout the rest of our years so please take this moment to reflect on what you have and what you can do for others thank you thank you elizabeth moving on we will have our closed session report the clerk of the board of trustees will report actions taken during our closed session 4.1 no reportable action taken regarding public employee performance evaluation superintendent 4.2 no reportable action taken regarding anticipated litigation 4.3 the board of trustees took formal action with a 5-0 vote to accept settlement in claim auhs 19-02 tort number 407 4.4 no reportable action taken regarding personnel 4.5 this item was pulled prior to the adoption of the agenda 4.6 the board of trustees unanimously voted to make the following transfers jana kovar from magnolia high school to western high school mary ellen park from south junior high school to orangeview junior high school jennifer sassai from walker junior high school to ball junior high school the board of trustees unanimously voted to make the following appointments ashley mcadams assistant principal anaheim high school christine mcguire assistant principal brookhurst junior high school ryan rue ellis assistant principal cambridge virtual academy david brutus assistant principal catella high school ann marie bernhard assistant principal lexington junior high school brian covey assistant principal magnolia high school brittany nichols assistant principal savannah high school 4.7 no reportable action taken regarding negotiations and 4.8 the board of trustees unanimously voted to make the following appointment jose lara coordinator alternative education okay thank you now shall we give him a hand now on board now is their opportunity to come forward and have a word okay i'll start with anne-marie bernard i must say you have a great name bernard i completely agree legend is here hilarious i want to start by thanking the board trustees and superintendent matsuda thank you so much and the executive cabinet thank you all for this opportunity and i am so excited to continue this transition starting here 15 years ago in the district i'm so happy to continue to be a part of this family so thank you and thank you to my family as well my husband and my kids thank you guys okay david brutus [Applause] hey good evening everybody again i want to say thank you to the board and trustees thank you to the superintendent and his entire executive cabinet team thank you to all those who were in the panel who sought my potential and had to give him an opportunity to come and co-labor with the staff at cotello high school and i look forward to the opportunity to i think the biggest part is to meet the students and then be able to hit the ground running and then i look forward to serving you guys with all that i have again thank you thank you [Applause] hey let's see christina mcguire hi everyone um just wanted to thank the board and the cabinet and everybody who had a part in this um i want to thank you for lead that was amazing and greatly appreciated i really look forward to working with brookhurst i've enjoyed my time at all of my other schools and i really appreciate this opportunity so thank you thank you superintendent matsuda and the entire cabinet thank you very much all right okay let's see ashley mcadams hi there good evening i would like to take this moment to thank the board and also to thank superintendent and the cabinet i'm really excited to be joining back to the school district i am a former student and graduate of western high school so i'm really looking forward to this opportunity to be able to come back and serve those who have served me thank you very good all right we love it when our alumni become our part of our faculties and what have you it's great okay brittany nichols [Applause] as another proud auhsd alumni um i'm just absolutely humbled by the ability to serve my district and the students of anaheim in a greater capacity and i really want to thank the board superintendent matt souda and all of cabinet for this amazing opportunity i adore this community and i'd also like to thank my parents my husband and my two daughters for putting up with me during this process it's bittersweet i've had 14 years at anaheim high school you're gonna love it i'm going to miss all the staff and the students there but i'm so grateful to be part of the family at savannah and build upon all the amazing things they're already doing thank you so much all right [Applause] okay ryan ruiz [Applause] [Laughter] i was trying my best to be calm there so i don't get all sweaty and start you know but now you know it's me now that my glasses are fogging up and i'm um but really um president piercy and board of trustees and superintendent matsuda and cabinet um i love this district i'm a proud product of the anaheim union high school district i'm super excited um that other alumni are coming back and returning because this is a fantastic district to work for and a fantastic district to be educated in and i just want to thank you all for giving me this opportunity uh to continue something that we started in the anaheim union high school district in response to the whole pandemic that took place which has really taken off and is truly proving to be one of the most innovative and exciting educational opportunities for the students that we serve here in the anaheim union high school district thank you and of course you all know i'm super close with my family who's watching on youtube right now so thank you mom and thank you to my sisters and everybody i love you all and a special shout out to a woman named renee sitlao who basically many years ago had the vision to start the e-learning program and this innovative experience for our students thank you and jose lara our [Applause] principal board of trustees thank you very much for this opportunity i look forward to working as hard as i can to make you and our community proud i am a graduate of western high school my whole family has graduated basically from savannah high school i told you it was a great place my mom came here from mexico when she was 10 years old attended brookhurst junior high went over to savannah peter marshall to begin with my family has long roots here i want to thank my wife my wonderful children who allow me and give me grace to be here with all of you every single night working late nights i also want to thank the staff over at dale junior high the new dale junior high and if you go to dale junior high today it is a completely transformed place thanks to the leadership of lorena moreno my school principal and also the partnership of my co-pilot's assistant principal papi hill and former assistant principal israel rubio who's now at savannah high school and lastly i just want to thank the cabinet for always picking up my phone calls whenever we need help and support it's truly a family atmosphere here in anaheim union high school district and i'm glad to continue here with all of you thank you all right [Applause] okay that i think did i miss anybody okay thank you all and welcome aboard all of you that are new to us and those of you who have been with us and are in new positions i hope you enjoy it and you're gonna do a good job i know so thank you all okay our next item is introduction of guests and um let's see here i see grant schuster our astra president is here all right um i don't see is brian bannon here no they may be in the lounge okay so hilt here's hilda okay and let me see here well i then brian okay hilda and brian are here all right we have hilda alta president and brian bannon the apga co-president and grant is our aster president so i there are there any others that are going to be present today i don't think so okay thank you okay now we're going to go back to elizabeth ochae and she's going to give her student representative a report thank you tonight i will be appreciating four schools at oxford their oa gamut has been producing a virtual newspaper they were entered into a student media contest and third place in all of southern california one of their highlight articles is on student joshua lim who did the 24 miles and 24 hours challenge lim donated ten dollars for every mile he ran and donated it to the aapi organization at gilbert they had an entrepreneurial week and opened up students to various career pathways that they can take oc pathways collaborated with them and facilitated live workshops and efforts in building leadership skills at kennedy the new organization humanitarian research association has branched out in expanding their club throughout the district they were recently able to facilitate an aapi informational summit to discuss the recent hate that has been spewing and create a safe space for all students and at western just like many other schools have been appreciating their teachers and staff this week although they were such small acts it created a positive joyous environment all students were participating in such a spirit days like a day to unmute and turn on your camera and these small ads really just made it for the teachers because in this virtual environment it's really hard to connect and i feel like that's what they love about their job so this was an opportunity for us to all connect with our teachers and this concludes my school report thank you elizabeth and the board of trustees would like to honor you for how you have spoken for others and your service as a student representative to the board of trustees during this 2021 school year you've done an outstanding job and we really appreciate all your work now we'd also like to honor the district's student ambassadors for their service and important contribution to the district during the 2021 school year the ambassadors served as official spokespersons for all district students at special ceremonies events and functions along with elizabeth of course who is the kind of the head ambassador and the student leaders are also deeply embedded in the district's governance structure and actively provide the student voice whenever possible now our ambassadors during the school year were do you want me to read them elizabeth or do you have their list no you don't hear okay i'll read them dulce martinez from anaheim high school nathaniel labara from cambridge virtual academy samuel bingham cypress high school aaron and gotti from gilbert high school denise martinez cattella high school kang liu kennedy high school russell santana loera high school ivan ayala magnolia high school castillo from oxford academy natalie moreno from savannah high school and chris patel at western high school trustees we need to actively thank all of these students for a super year considering the disadvantages that we have faced on this school year but i want to thank them all for taking part and doing the best that they could [Applause] they will all remember this year as unique and different so anything else you would like to say elizabeth right now i would like to say that you guys have been so encouraging through this entire year i don't want to get emotional but you've opened up so many doors and let me truly have a seat at the table and it's meant so much to me because i know that it'll continue on with the next year's student ambassadors the student every student's leadership because they want to talk to you guys they want to let you know that what what the students feel and these decisions are being made on their behalf but they can have a voice too and i really just want to thank you for letting me letting me amplify my own and a which is you will always have a dear spot in my heart so thank you thank you thank you for this opportunity okay elizabeth just just before we let you go you know but you'll stick around to vote where are you going next year i'll be attending usc next year [Applause] a shout out to mr ron hoshi and um principal houston over at oxford and principal brown over at walker they've been really important to the success of ensuring the voice of all of our ambassadors as well but what i didn't know oh elizabeth where are you going again we'll see i'm going to usb usc usc usc fight online all right congratulations yes and i and i would also like to chime in and say that ron hoshi is a retired teacher administrator from the district and he still is working for us and helping us out tremendously he does a great job with these ambassadors i have been involved with the ambassadors since i got on the board because i love working with kids and i still enjoy doing it you know in a kind of extended sense of a way but ron really gets in there and works with the kids and does a great job so we're lucky we still have him working with us thanks ron best wishes elizabeth yes can i say something real quick of course i i just want to congratulate elizabeth um your your point at the beginning of the meeting was well taken and i think it's it's so resounding that you would actually say that about kindness and what the district is all about i also want to tell you that you have been one of i mean i say this to all ambassadors but i think you have been very very poised in in terms of presenting your ideas and presenting your site and advocating for the students so thank you for doing that and knowing that you're going to usc i know that there is a big and bright future ahead of you so congratulations and i want to take this opportunity to congratulate all the ambassadors they did a phenomenal job especially during the covet so thank you all for your services and i'm sure all of you guys are going to do great i i wish i we would we could hear each one of them where they're where they're going to school but you know i'm sure that they're going to really good schools especially cal state fullerton right which is go titans so um thank you again appreciate it very good thank you so much elizabeth i spoke to you privately before because i didn't want to cry but she has been an amazing amazing ambassador and yes we tell our ambassadors that but you've been exceptional because you've always been uh out there and poised and we see you in almost every committee that you know you join and you and and we treat you like like a an adult because you are so poised and you speak your mind and that's exactly what we want so thank you so much for all that you've done all that you will do because we know that um you know you're gonna you're gonna do bright great things in the future and we know you're gonna give back in some way because you have such a big heart and we appreciate you so much thank you thank you so much i wanted also extend my mind congratulations on your uh going to usc we know that's a great school for uh any student going there but uh i think you're going to be exceptional having shown your leadership abilities here working with the other ambassadors and the way you presented yourself excuse me to the board here and to the audience uh you've under the difficult situation we've had this past year you've done exceptionally well so thank you so much for that and i hope that the scholarship that you that you earned at least one of the scholarships will help you along the way so congratulations thank you so much all of you thank you elizabeth i'd like to ask you do you know what pathway you plan to pursue in your education what pathway what area of is your interest i will be pursuing political science and then hopefully one day become a lawyer they are so lucky to have you bless your heart we wish you well thank you okay yeah on another note i just want to say since we're already uh recognizing ambassadors one of our former ambassadors ibrahimov i don't know if you guys remember he was from kennedy high school he just got accepted to harvard he was going from i think from uc berkeley to got accepted to harvard to pursue his masters so that's a good news again one of our favorite ambassadors very good it's always good to hear about our students succeeding tremendously it's great okay our next item and i kind of concluded i mean i added one of the next ones anyway i made a mistake here but that's okay 7.3 we're going to talk about our mikvah soapbox challenge national speech winner in 2020 kenny lee was a mikvah soapbox challenge national speech winner he was selected to represent california as one of 10 national winners based on his passionate advocacy for increased support for student anxiety and mental health services kenny was recognized at the soapbox nation main stage event held on june 23 2020 where he presented his speech to an audience of educators and community leaders from throughout the nation as oxford's key club vice president kenny received the key club 2021 district distinguished vice president award kenny will be attending claremont's pitzer college in the fall and looks forward to continuing his work in support of student mental health and social justice okay hello everybody does this work all right thank you to our board president district trustees distinguished guest district cabinet for this opportunity for me to share this very important topic let me start mental breakdowns are common someone tells me about how asb their final and sports are all happening on the same day normal people frantically staying up to study for a test that they procrastinated for a week because of anxiety most people have done that but now the news is all of a sudden clamoring about the rise of anxiety due to covert 19 however let me say that this has been an issue for far longer than covert 19.
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okay we'll call this uh unified school district uh regular board meeting on uh may 6 2021 at 5 30 p.m to order and with that uh kylie can we get a roll call sure um i'm present rick raleigh here wilson so here dennis bender here adeline blasting game present okay if uh does join me in the pledge please stand i [Music] with liberty and justice for all thank you okay moving on to number three we'll have a moment of silence at this time uh in remembrance of the apple valley unified school district family member no longer with us and that's richard weingarten so please join me in a moment in silence thank you thank you okay moving on to public comments um we'll start with um joel lewis you're up i can remind you i have a time limit of three minutes but take your take your time [Music] i thank you is this on okay thanks for the opportunity to address the board this evening um i just want to let you know that in the last several months the negotiating teams from both the district and the buddha have really yeah yeah all right no problem uh i wonder last several months that the negotiations from the district and buda have really worked well together and in formulating and put together a new contract that we have um especially negotiating several key items such as the monetary compensation and prep time for elementary school teachers we do have one item left to tackle and that is retirement retirement benefits our health care coverage for people that are getting ready to retire we are significantly grateful that the board in our school district have recognized that this is an important item and good for both the teachers in our school district uh we are grateful for the initial offer of retirement benefits being available at the age of 60.
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frank wilhelm oh oh sorry i just said you i'm adam zemke here but uh in port huron this evening oh great tom crawford here from ann arbor and erica briggs here in ann arbor right wonderful full house um so uh with that uh we move on to approval of the agenda are there any amendments to the agenda this evening okay uh hearing none uh can i get a motion to approve the agenda second second second all right uh all in favor of approval of the agenda as written say aye all right motion passes um approval of the minutes from the prior meeting uh they are posted on legistar um are there any uh any comments um on uh the minutes from last week the last month rather yeah i i'd like to comment that there there are they're too sketchy i think in somehow we do need some a secretary or some note-taker for instance then there is the the protocol for the agenda one of the items i think when there's something there it isn't reflected in emotion but it should be reflected in what is that protocol and when there are public comments i think the people who make the public comment at least their names should be uh recorded i don't want to make any objection to it but i think we should improve the agenda uh process the new minutes process and it may be that we need to appoint among ourselves perhaps as a rotating position a secretary or a note taker to fill in some of the topics that don't actually produce a a resolution that would be recorded in the formal way but looking back at these minutes over time i don't think we will learn enough or somebody looking at it and we'll learn enough so that might be a later question on our agenda somewhere down the road as to how to improve the content of the minutes or the notation of the meeting content can i can i ask a question related to that please are are the recordings of the meetings archived somewhere i mean those are available for anyone who wants to deep dive and really get into the substance of the meeting at a later date is that correct that's correct yeah they are recorded ctn records them so they are playing on the government channel live right now and then they are replayed again um and you can just access them by looking them up on ctn thank you any other comments on the minutes from last meeting yeah frank just one other uh maybe a clarification for example when when tom gives uh his report is the administrator is is that a is that a written report that could be included or referenced in the minutes you know a link to them um because i i agree with alan that you know a month even a month later maybe it's an age thing uh you you look back and you you want kind of something more to to reference uh to sort of bring back the the conversation i realized that you know the the video and the tape is there but that that's pretty arduous to find things and especially if you go over two hours but anyhow they're just kind of figuring a way to have a little more uh something to prompt us on what did transpire we don't actually have a an administrator's report on each agenda that was something that we did last time so it's not a standing item that's something we could consider doing uh what we did do you'll see on this agenda is attached the issues exploration document is what we're calling it and that's meant to track some of that and that's going to be a document that i continuously update based on how things evolve so that might be helpful that'd be very helpful yeah good thanks uh alice you have your hand up i think yeah all right i'd just like to um say that the um streamlined version of the minutes i think are the preferred by legal terms showing mostly actions or or facts related to those actions but and i do appreciate that ctn is recording them i have in the past tried to use that resource it is a little clunky but it's all there including the expressions on people's faces and everything like that well they're not video it's not video for this meeting but um i think it's uh i think it's too much to go through even if you had had to print out all these uh notes and everything um that might be a little bit of a quagmire as well i i would be in favor of keeping the minutes as as they are recommended to be very brief and action-oriented uh we have a note taker and we can and we can take our own notes and that's my opinion of how we should handle the content of the meeting or reference uh rita um i'll just agree with alice for the most part um we did discuss this in our in one of our prior meetings um and and the potential for um kind of introducing some bias and so i think as as long as we can capture for sure the decisions um i think that that's good um and i understand the wish to have more more detail but i can tell you that from taking some minutes recently myself and trying to my notes and transforming them into minutes when they were more detailed it was more difficult to um write them and write them in a way that i felt was accurate so um i'm i'm gonna vote on the bare bones oops all right well it sounds like we have a little bit of uh um difference there on an opinion if we want to appoint uh an official notetaker at least um i guess hearing that um seems like we don't want to take any more action to do that do we want to um do we have a motion on approval of the minutes yeah i i heard a good discussion i didn't hear any specific changes to the minutes of the last meeting um i would move the approval of the minutes as presented in the packet i'll second all right wonderful all in favor of the motion um at hand say hi any opposed okay motion carries uh i think with that we're on to uh public comment uh heather could you help us with that there any members of the place yes i can let's see who we've got i don't see anybody with um hands great yes i do okay robert i'm going to allow you to talk you should be able to talk now can you hear me okay i can thank you this is robert black i'm a member of the initiating committee and i just want to let you know that you do have an interested audience here and that your work is very important and i'd like to applaud you for that i just wanted to say a special kudos to the initiating committee of which i am a member and it's a very diverse committee and who's actually very much action oriented you talked about tracking actions in your meeting minutes and i'd like to just underscore the efforts of the initiating committee from the end of the task force report to the the beginning of your work they've done a lot to do working with education and outreach to the community about commons and commoning in the world they've done a lot with gardening currency and there are other different committees that are all working in a very broad effort to move this forward so i'd like to just encourage you to keep that support from the initiating committee as you move forward and then also to keep a perspective on the whole project such that ann arbor is a is a wonderful model for this as we're seeing with the covid pandemic it's a world community and so that ann arbor can be an example for others in the world of how to practice commonings to get diversity equity inclusion and those kind of things really living from all constituents of the community i just encourage you to move forward with some kind of intention and action to really make this happen you will of course run into difficulties but i'd like to applaud you for the way that you have worked together thus far and encourage you to continue including as many people as possible in this process thank you thank you robert and i i don't see any other hands raised right now but we do have two people on the phone so i'm gonna say um star nine if you want to raise your hand and there's somebody that just raised your hand so i'm allowing you to talk it's the phone number that ends with 464.
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the students from school 17 are received their support at school 12 after school and in the summer as mr uchi explained our preschool education aid is combined with our special education preschool aid and we're able to provide a fully inclusive preschool program for nearly 600 students while the majority of those students are income eligible we do have quite a number of spots for first-come first-served non-income based students we are getting close to meeting the needs of most four-year-olds in clifton and finally our federal climate pbis grant is one of the grants that we're most proud of because it is helping leverage our social emotional learning and behavioral supports across the entire district thank you very quick short slide this is an overview of our debt service for the 21 22 budget the debt service tax levy is dropping from 37 400 from the 2021 school year the remaining debt service um this 932 000 reflects one bond which does not fully mature until 2425 and it was originally the chs annex project which is um now seal of b the pre-squats still a b um now if i can introduce mr thomasevich he's going to go over the next two slides and this is regarding the budget's tax impact on the clifton citizens thank you mr usi good evening board members and the community of clifton the main focus in preparation of this final budget for the 21-22 school year was the mindset set of one clifton while keeping the tax impact in mind the one clifton mindset that has been set by the superintendent dr robertosi in everything we do at clifton public schools this budget addresses the current and future needs of clifton students and staff while keeping in mind the overall tax impact on the community of clifton mr usee has provided an overview of the 2122 final budget relating to the various focus areas for revenues and expenditures as well ms kusalevich has illustrated that the budget that this budget maintains the current staffing and the district programs while also adding the necessary additional staffing to better support the students in the district with that being said let me discuss the overall tax impact that the budget will have on the residents of clifton there are two factors that impact taxes for the residents residents of clifton the first factor is the tax levy that is budgeted as the lev as the tax levy increases it will result in an increase in taxes on the average assessed home they have a direct relationship to each other here is some additional information as it relates to the assessed home value in clifton the average assessed home value in clifton is currently 178 four this is the value that the tax level the tax levy gets applied against this is calculated from taking the total tax value for residential properties and dividing it by the number of residential properties on the tax roll of the city the residents might be questioning that the average home in clifton is worth more than 170 554 that is correct that is what they call true value or fair value to convert the average assessed home to the true value or failure fair value you would take the 178 554 and divide it by the county equalized ratio which is 50.21 so uh so the calculation would would convert 178 554 in assessed value to about 350 355 614 dollars in true value also an approximate tax point is about a 533 405 dollars which will affect the average assessed home by 18 annually so let me recap what the total budgeted tax levy is in this final budget as mr uc has mentioned earlier in this presentation the budgeted general fund levy is 134 million 259 260 which represents a zero percent increase from the 2021 budget and the 1920 budget as well the district has kept the tax level the tax levy flat for the past two budget years this is truly an amazing accomplishment by the district and it demonstrates a great job by the board that the board and the administration has done to keep the the clifton taxpayer in mind during the budget process while still meeting the needs of the district in addition to the general fund levy the debt service levy is budgeted for for 932 000 which represents a 3.86 decrease or about 37 400 decrease from the current year budget of 2021.
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