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item four conference with labor negotiator agency negotiator dustin conrad employee organization alpha valley unified teachers association item five conference labor negotiator agency negotiator dustin conrad employee organization california school employees association item six conference with labor negotiator agency negotiator trinee nelson employee organization unrepresented and last item superintendent evaluation um motion to go into the post session i'll move the item all in favor all right any opposed thank you so close section call the meeting to order do we have a union representative for csea there is not how about abuta there is not thank you the clerk will read out any actions taken in closed session yes so you might have to move your microphone okay so from closed session i'm going to read out the following items b2 public employee appointment resignation retirement reduction so this was uh to appoint uh jeanette martinez as principal of vanguard preparary range 14 column one so on a motion by bender and a second by so the board approved uh on a four to zero vote to promote you to that position should be noticed that blasting gain was absent and again on in closed session as a result of the district reorganization leadership development and the needed distribution of duties and responsibilities the board of trustees approves a recommendation of the superintendent to appoint redesignate renee castillo from coordinator student services to director student services effective july 1st to only 21 range 13 column 1 210 based duty days appoint and redesignate renee thomas from coordinator student readiness to director educational services effective july 1st 2021 range 13 column 1 210 duty days appoint christian dupree as director of human resources range 13 column 5 on the certificated management salary schedule 210 base duty days effective july 1st 2021.

once we start talking about school sizes our elementary school sizes of more than a thousand um which i we don't have very many here in the san giro valley um then then we could start um including that as a possibility we have an example here in our district ellington ellington has 400 students and they have a half-time assistant principal and a half-time counselor and those seventh and eighth grade kids you could say oh because they have middle school but those are self-contained classrooms you know they're not switching classes they're not doing master schedules they're not doing all those things and yet they're getting that assistance with 400 kids but but but the larger schools murray valley dale they're all in the mid to high 500s too i believe and and those administrators do not have the extra help also i'm going to turn to our middle schools our middle schools right now have 250 at two of the schools and 400 at slauson and again they have a halftime assistant principal and a full-time counselor to deal you know with far less students than these large elementaries so i i think that we need to reconsider what that means because these schools are going to be 600 or more and i quite frankly i'm not trying to be disrespectful but i don't care about the comparables around us i care about our kids and our administrators and i want them to have the best possible you know this is about servicing our families and our community and what's going to happen when a principal is so busy and so impacted that they can't meet the needs of all those kids anyway i'd like us to reconsider that and go to a graduated model you know based on the fact that we have schools in our district right now that have far less kids and have the assistance so okay we have ms wilson sorry i just i i just strongly agree with what meg said um at hodge we had a resource teacher that sort of acted in a vice principal capacity he was amazing i'd like to get him back but any um i think it was technically called a resource teacher anyone serving in that capacity i was very very nervous about retaining the fifth graders the the sixth graders and not having that those extra eyes on campus making sure that pbs is running well and interacting with the kids and i just feel like with 600 plus kids um even if it wasn't a full-time position um i mean that would be preferable full-time some sort of resource teacher some someone allocated towards those vice principal roles would be um very very beneficial especially with us the sixth graders on campus thank you miss wilson ms rojas would agree with mate that i would like to have us consider a a gradual increase of support um as she mentioned as our elementaries get bigger um i also believe that we need more support than just the resource teacher the research teacher already does a lot um so i think that is an important piece to consider so i agree with me thank you that's the last question mr jorge thank you miss tasha okay um i'm going to secondary um and here on the secondary uh slide you'll see um that you have some um enrollment bands so it's middle schools equal to or less than 800 and then middle schools greater than 800 high schools equal to and less than 1200 and then middle schools equal to um greater than 1200 on the um so this is for the model threes where you have a individual middle school and also a an individual or a individual high school so in all these models one principle and then for the middle school one assistant principal uh so i won one of each at the high school for the high school equal tour less than twelve hundred two assistant principals and then three assistant principals once you get above 1200 for counselors one middle school counselor for the school site at 800 or less that's the floor and then the council that would grow to two counselors once you get above 800.

ashley completed our concurrent enrollment classes with middlesex community college in english and history ashley was recently awarded the john and abigail adams scholarship due to her outstanding performance in the massachusetts comprehensive educational exams and is a member of the national honor society ashley has also contributed to her community outside of school through volunteering at the church doors of hope in haverhill mass cooking to feed the needy and packing school bags with school supplies for students congratulations ashley i would now like to present the salutatorian award to nicholas delegates nicholas delegates is a student in the business tech program from the town of andover and has consistently enrolled in the highest level classes available including honors ap classes and dual enrollment he has maintained a 4.3 weighted gpa throughout the four years at glts in grade 10 he participated in national honor society and skills usa placing third in customer service competition in grade nine and ten he participated in golf and wrestling programs becoming a captain of the wrestling team during his sophomore year in grade 11 he was the national honor society treasurer and in grade nine national honor society president nicholas participated in the co-op education program at reading cooperative bank he received the outstanding vocational student for business technology he has received numerous scholarships and award including the roland cotton business technology advisory award the massachusetts vocational association presidential certificate of merit and the nhs officers award national honor society nicholas will attend northern essex community college to obtain an associate's degree before transferring to a four-year institution congratulations nicholas um wow and for at this time i would like to introduce our special guest notes speaker this evening mrs miss cassandra jean marie from the class of 2016.

at wisconia monday june 7th is the eighth grade field trip to quasi wednesday june 9th is the eighth grade field trip to bellamos adventures and friday june 11th is the moving up ceremony at the brookfield municipal center and at the high school on june 7th a pre-recorded presentation of all undergrad awards will be shared with staff students and families june 8 is senior scholarship and athletic awards at 6 30 and june 12th is graduation that's it and amy just very quickly mr belanda just whispered in my ear the senior awards is being moved on june 8th to 7 30 instead of 6 30 mr landon can you share yes so tomorrow night we're supposed to to try to get some back of normal some sense of normalcy we're supposed to have an outdoor concert tomorrow and if you pay attention to the weather it's not going to cooperate so the next available date really was june 8th so we're moving that up we're going to do that june 8th a little bit earlier and we're going to push the award ceremony back to 7 30 just so there's not as much traffic and congestion in the parking lot so thank you thanks mark okay we have an executive session plan i'll move that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing the employment contracts for superintendent dr john burrell assistant superintendent dr maureen ruby and director of operations can post and the superintendent's evaluation and unaffiliated salaries thanks okay uh all in favor okay so that concludes our broadcast tonight

appoint susan kim lasko as interim principal mariana academy range 14 column 1 and the certificated management salary scheduled 210 base duty days effective july 1st 2021. on a motion by so and a second by bender the board unanimously appoint uh approved that appoint those appointments and those rescheduling [Applause] b6 public employee conference with labor negotiator agency negotiator trenay nelson as a result of district reorganization leadership development and the needed distribution of duties and responsibilities the board of trustees approves the recommendation of the superintendent to amend the following job description titles from director english language development programs and college readiness to director educational service equity and access on a motion by so and a second by opara the board unanimously approved that motion and finally in closed session conference with labor negotiator agency negotiator trine nelson employee organization unrepresentative adjustment to the certificated management salary schedule redesignating director 2 to reflect the following from director 1 range 13 to 10 days to director director 2 range 14 to 10 days effective july 1st 2021 on a motion by so excuse me in a second by oak parra the board unanimously supports that thank you everybody [Applause] it's always good to do promotions yes it is the board man working hard the board may approve the agenda as is or add and or pull items from the consent agenda for discussion and our action we need to adopt the agenda as is i need emotion all in favor all right blessing game is absent thank you proposed budget presentation by mr schoelenberg thank you if you don't mind give me a minute here as i grab the screen you also do have a copy of my slides at your seat in preparation for the public hearing for the budget later on the agenda today and in preparation to adopt the budget at next thursday's board meeting i'd just like to share a little bit of information about the proposed budget that was part of the packet so first off just really quick we do use a lot of resources to prepare this of course we have to have a starting point for next year and that's our estimated ending point for the current year so that's that first item estimated actuals as of may 21.

um for counselors at the high school um they you have like a working ratio of one counselor per 400 students um and uh that would continue um as the students increase so you would have um those those numbers increase of counselors um as i showed in my earlier slide you have one um scl coach as the floor um and and it stays at one you can normally start getting higher than 800 or middle schools and then you start off with two and you stay at two with uh four at the high schools and then we have oops an instructional coach i'm here for um in the middle schools and then two instructional coaches at the high school any questions i do have a question about um and i i i think i just missed this the scl coach what training or certif certification do they have dana do you want to be doubt on that sure um so an seo coach somebody who has um you know uh knowledge and expertise in the area of social emotional learning um it could be somebody with a pps credential it could be somebody who has a social work background i mean i think there's a variety of things what we could look at again this is a position that would be supporting students specifically uh in terms of just you know social emotional um and being able to have support for students in that area so i think it could be a i mean it's a it could be a variety of different options for that position that's very true and and i think davidson has a follow-up of the other characteristic that would be looking for someone who could lead professional development uh for for the staff to really grow capacity in the area of social emotional learning okay and then um so my follow-up question is a sel coach could not be counted within the um the american school counselors association um reign or because they they could be doesn't mean they are so i wouldn't count them in the ratio but they um suggest 250 students per counselor because you know our we're not just doing the counselors are no longer it has been mentioned in the past just scheduling classes and helping with master schedule they are doing very legitimate pull-out groups small groups and individual counseling bullying abatement at middle school um so they're doing a lot of things so having one counselor for less than 800 students is am i just missing something or are we talking about the middle school that's just this whole idea of the the secondary so so less than 800 and one counselor at the middle school yes yeah i i'm really concerned just based on the national guidance for counseling that's you know one-third of what they suggest yes and when you look at national averages of the actual number of students per counselor on that number ranges from around 400 to as much as 900 so there's there's we're certainly below those 900 numbers per per counselor and one of the things that's different at the middle school and in high school is the work that counselors do um at the middle school is substantially different um in middle school counselor work day and the type of groups that they're running the interactions with students uh looks very different than at the high school when we're there maybe more scheduling involved uh a through g college counseling specific uh all very important work um but the work does look substantially different i would just say that we can do better for our students that these types of interventions with you know high school counselors are trained to do those types of interventions and that type of work yeah and now and i would say that we are doing better when you look at the national numbers yeah but we're not anywhere near what the national recommendation would be jorge we have mr gabriel and then we have two questions in the chat that i um actually yes two question to chat and i'll read after mr gabriel okay so looking at that ratio there um mr ankio one per four hundred so let's say we're at a high school of a thousand um or eleven hundred would we get half a counselor or we would get a full person with uh a thousand okay perfect and then the second short question um and the previous conversations we've had about support staff a social worker has been mentioned is that within this part of the discussion or a later part of the discussion um so you're asking um the social workers or where uh what i was talking about the uh when i mentioned earlier that we're not going to be calling out specifically like a social work position okay we're reimagining that based on the feedback that we heard from a variety of different folks and even in these meetings that got it um social worker um really may be too narrow and maybe maybe it is and so um while they when we may look at a social worker to be one of our scl coaches the the position could could include folks in our organization that already have that specialized training that has shown an interest and success working in this area perfect thank you meg before i before i go to you ms meg i'm just going to um have a clarifying question from um miss myra can we clarify what an instructional coach does sure i'd be happy to do that this is dana um so yeah so an instructional coach is um very similar to uh teachers on special assignment which we uh that's something that we currently have and so instructional coaches um provide professional learning to um instructional staff they support the professional learning communities um our teachers uh collaborate with one another in what we call plcs and so we ask the questions of one another what is it that we want students to know and be able to do how do we know uh that they are learning and to what extent and what do we do when uh they're not and what do we do when they are right to be able to accelerate learning so instructional coaches support teachers with lesson planning and implementation they also work with with teachers within the plc around student data and that's something that that we use to be able to monitor our and adjust our instructional practices and so when we have students who are not successful using data from formative assessment is really one of our our best ways to be able to do that and so that data will help us to be able to determine instructional steps and so those are the things that instructional coaches do to support ongoing instruction and learning thank you dr mitchell we'll have um miss meg first then yvette and then miss rojas i have i have two things um first i want to share that um we have heard from counselors um at the high schools very specifically say that with the caseload that they have now which is anywhere from 350 to 400 kids maybe a little less a little more depending on which school you're at that they are not nearly able to service the needs of those kids in what they were designed to do and that is to guide to instruct to coach the children to guide them in the best paths to listen to them when they have concerns if they can get to all of those kids on a regular basis and not just putting out fires they're lucky and it's because they have too many kids as it is now and so again i would like us to reconsider these ratios for counselors at our high schools because i think that we need more not less and again i'd like to point out here that there are two issues with this graduated schedule for secondary which is not being applied to elementary and that is you're getting one assistant principal if you have 780 kids but if you have 800 and you know um i'm sorry counselor if you have 780 kids you get one counselor but if you have 810 you get two and i think that that as margie said is is there's a flaw in the system here that there needs to be some other graduation where we say you know you have 400 kids you get one you have 800 kids you get two same thing when you're talking about you know high schools they get one for every 400 kids i think that or portion thereof and again i'm going to go back to elementary because i i think that it's only fair that if you are combining elementary schools and they're getting up into the high 600s 700s they should have an assistant principal they should have a counselor you know not just an seo half-time seo coach when they have so many kids you know even even if we're looking at learning lost money if we're looking at some of these one-time funds to try and you know look at using them for these services in the next year or so in order to see how much better our schools run with them i think that it's worth the investment of taking those dollars to hire more people to serve our kids so there you go thank you man miss yvette miss rojas um well i just wanted to say first off i completely agree with miss savella and i um i definitely agree that all i keep hearing from staff especially right now is just that it's not enough it's not enough and like it was mentioned last week in the meeting that this is a great opportunity for us to fix what hasn't been working um and so we should definitely look at it in that manner but i my question was has there been any type of survey questionnaire any data pulled to see what are areas of weakness within not a specific school site but throughout the district or where there's trouble for a certain staff or certain schools for the number of students for a number of issues that are going on at a particular school for example with this particular program because that would really help in identifying you know maybe this school needs more assistance this school might need another counselor because yeah that graduation number like ms avella said i mean you could have 780 students and get one counselor but then you have 100 and you know 25 and then you get two is there any buffer is that literally like the number that we're going off of and um i guess i have two questions so is there any buffer and also has there been any type of survey um or would there be one in the future to revisit these staff numbers and hours for staff all right so with regards to a survey no not a specific survey has been conducted um i i will say that i had multiple conversations individually with principals and also with small groups of principles to really help formulate thinking around this and so um this was really an evolution of multiple conversations um now the numbers that you see here are are not set in stone i mean we i think i mentioned it when i had my opening remarks that a lot of this is um just the starting point uh for us to discuss and really have some um like uh something to to put our head around as far as what a support staff could look like um but your comments are all helpful i mean we we are looking at this from from a way of trying to um really gather information gather perspectives listen to feedback um and if we need to have further conversations with uh within cabinet then of course we will and then we will follow the same process and if we need to widen the net of information to really inform our discussions then we could do that as well miss rojas [Music] um yes thank you um this the counselor ratio seems a bit low to me for the number of students so my first question is how many counselors do we currently have at the high schools or the middle schools even well middle schools i believe just one but high schools how many counselors do they have so a student high school has three height and three counselors and um gladstone has three three and a half and the other half is at ellen okay that seems a little bit reasonable and i'm sure because of the counselor support and all the other support that the high schools have is probably why they're doing very well um so i would hate to see this very low number with um that great number of students my other question is um the instructional coach would that be in addition to our current ptosis or in place of or what are we thinking with that dad do you want to take that sure yeah this would be in addition to the staff that we currently have okay thank you mr tasha are we all set sir no more questions at this time thank you and then the last slide that i have for you all is what a site would look like with regards to the certificated position um follow the same same logic that i that i shared earlier so you would have um one principle uh in both the less than 15 um 100 and more than 1500 models three assistant principals um and then a seven eight counselor uh one and then once and then you go to two once we get higher numbers but keep in mind that we also have the high school counselors at the site so it wouldn't be one for 1500 students because we know that not all the students there would be seventh and eighth there would be a number of them that would be seven and eight and then the rest of them would be would be high school um but we followed the same same um thought pattern that i described in the previous slide same idea with regards to seo coaches and then same idea with regards to construction approaches and both models of the 712 schools would get two seo coaches and two instructional coaches no questions at this time sir well i want to thank you all for engaging me and sharing this conversation and asking such thoughtful questions appreciate it i'll turn it over thank you sir um thank you for the uh like corn has said thank you for the feedback we wrote down what i did for sure wrote down um some of the big topics here um so thank you for that um i think we owed you as well let me see if i know how to do this we owed you i think you have requested uh results from uh survey uh so i'm gonna pop those up right now before i pop them up uh please keep in mind that unlike everyone in this room um staff unless they're binging us and watching us and following us right they they don't have the insights they might not have had the insights that you had number one number two please keep in mind that this survey was prior to our conversations with programs budgets and support staff uh so just want to kind of lay a context in that please give me a thumbs up i cannot see you i mean i i cannot good thank you um so here again just this is a staff 202 people responded to the the survey so you'll see here that for model 3 with the exception of 3.1 which didn't seem to garner a lot of attention or a lot of likes uh the other three models are pretty evenly distributed um yes there's a difference between 27.7 and 32.2 but all in all it's a pretty even distribution amongst those three again the only thing that sticks out here to me in terms of data is that 3.1 was not extremely liked or wasn't a preferred model for staff going on to model four this is a little different this one also had 202 responses this one the data speaks that model 4.4 was by far um more favored than uh 4.5 in this case more than double um but again just wanted to share the the context with you that this was prior to these uh to these conversations so just want to put that put that out there um last last week we ended by saying that we probably would we probably would be reaching a a crossroads which we are at uh now so i will be turning to the team in a second here and the big question is now what we know that we have our our goal all along has been to land a recommendation or recommendations to the board of education in terms of school reorganization um that is that's what we're trying to do right we have said from the beginning that if 24 people came together and magically it was one recommendation great but if it was not that way and there was you know half of the people uh wanted to um recommend something and half of the team wanted to recon recommend something else that that was perfectly okay that's not a problem that's not an issue um that's just that's what we give to the board and we say hey hooray the team did a knockout job um and at the end of the day this is how the team landed and they're landing with two recommendations with half supporting this recommendation and have support in this recommendation not an issue not a problem uh whatsoever also clarifying a question in the chat yes um miss yvette is asking can we ask clarifying questions from last week's meeting regarding modernization adaptation of the schools yeah we can definitely get to that um let me kind of just build this context and then we can definitely go to go to that as well um so so so the question then again goes to where where are we as a team i'm gonna throw out what i mean by that that we need to grapple with or you need to grapple with uh in terms of uh next steps um so for example right now we have four model threes and two model twos is the next step that we're gonna dwindle it down to one model three and one model four that that that's that would be like something like a now what right this is our next step no we disagree that's not our next step our next step is look just take the six models let's do a force ranking again but now with all six on one rank and let's just say this is how we're going to force them and this is the data that's going to be and that's that's how this ends um another another option that has been thrown out in this particular room uh is we are ready to forget about the four and the two for right now let's just vote on model three or model four and that's our next step like let's eliminate one of the one of the models let's see where we're at and then okay cool now that now that we know it's this model let's worry about the ones that are left and that's that'll be our next step that's another option uh another option uh that we have heard um well right now uh right live in live in live motion uh there is still more conversation that you wanna have uh in terms of uh where where we are at questions clarified you know those kinds of things um another another uh option that we have heard um why not heard but we read [Music] is you want to wait till uh the community meeting um now again i i will just throw this out there as your facilitator if we were to end right now today and then go to the community meeting what we would be asking them is essentially the same thing we asked the staff but now they would have more information than the staff right because there's programs there's budget and there's support staff so that that is that is an option if if this team like the previous options for example dwindle it down to one model three one model four for example do all six and rank them for example we're just going to vote for model 4 and model 3 right now any of those any of those options that can also be the community meeting right and so we could influence what the community meeting will be we're still going to ask for input we're still going to ask for feedback but depending on what you decide is what we would be asking the community and re-asking the staff right so a lot of different ways that this can go but before we decide i want to lay out the landscape for you um so that this can can or or cannot i don't know influence or not influence you uh next week we are off uh there will be no school reorganization team uh next week is graduations and promotions um and so therefore uh there will be no school reorganization team um next week um we do have the capability of meeting on june 16th and we do have the capability of meeting on june 23rd um to be to be um wide open on the 16th and the 23rd which are possibilities 100 percent uh on the 16th and 23rd um i do know that there are folks who uh now go off contract uh there are folks who uh are on vacation and again that's just but again i put that on the on on the team not on me uh in terms of parents uh school is now officially out on the 16th and 23rd unless of course we're going to summer extravaganza but just again things to consider but besides the 16th and the 23rd then this this team would not be able to reconvene again until the 21st of july so can we squeeze in two more meetings this month yes we can uh that would be uh the 16th and 23rd uh but but but past that uh then we're looking at a break about a month and and not be able to come back until uh july 21 so just want to put that as a context as you start to think about and wrestle with um wrestle with the not what and i'm gonna look to you and i'm gonna turn it over to you to again start uh unmuting yourself and you know if you have a recommendation or an idea that you want to put out you're more than welcome um to maintain order we have ms meg first and miss jin and then miss ochoa i have a question um has there been a decision made about whether we're going to do i'm going to call it theme schools or you know focus schools versus doing all things at every school and the reason i say that is i think that that may very well influence how people make their choices knowing the difference between that especially since we've had extensive conversations about program so um similarly with like the high schools you know knowing that if it's one high school you know yes everything's going to be there or we're going to main you know pair down um if it's two high schools which one would be can you address that please yeah um no the answer the answer to your first question is no that hasn't been decided uh but this team again could be part of the recommendation package right we recommend model abc and we recommend that the schools be um like themed or magnets or academies or whatever we want to call it so that could be part of a recommendation and part of our you know voting process or consensus process or whatever 100 and the same thing for the high schools miss gin thank you um how much time okay so we know that the school board needs to make a decision about this next year because then the process starts and so when when is the very latest they can have this information this recommendation from us and also have community meetings and still have time to really deliberate and dig in and have a lot of meaningful conversations in order to make a good decision how much time does that take uh well we are 14 meters 14 meetings in uh in this team um but to answer your your question frankly right now there has not been a a due date uh put forth but what i could tell you um in terms of thinking about the district thinking about the kids thinking about the staff thinking about the parents and thinking about the community um in a in a district-focused mind uh the sooner that we can get something to the board of education so that the board of education can begin their process to decide uh the better it helps staff students um and the community uh for example um one of the ideas right now that are floating in the six surviving ideas of these models um is that center become an elementary school so if that decision were to be let's pretend that that's what that's what happened then that gives us the opportunity to actually start that process of building out though that that facility and getting it ready because that's a that's a ginormous process right that's not a hire a contractor and come in and do it you're talking about uh planning design permits department state architects dsa i mean it's it's a it's a very very very long process and so that would be helpful in terms of curriculum again super helpful right now we know that there are teachers at all at our elementary schools uh who have uh five sixes and that's a really really tough combo so again if something were to be decided sooner than later then we can we can do that now we don't have to wait until you know we start phasing out or phasing in uh in terms of the community a parent right now knows that they're going to be at a school that eventually is going to be shut down and they have a kindergartner going to school maybe they just want to move now they don't want to go to this school and then three years later have to go to another school so uh putting on a district lens when i think about students when i think about staff when i think about program when i think about facilities um even though there is not a deadline um again for those respects uh the sooner the better uh is definitely uh a good mindset uh to to have so my my view is that this committee is is really an advisory we're kind of a think tank we are representing um we're like the sponge and we're taking in all of this information and and using it to give our opinions or advice but we are not a decision-making body this the school board has to do that and i feel that it we could drag this on and get more information and dissect absolutely everything forever because there's always something new and at some point we're going to have to just let it go and let them do their work because i don't even know how they're going to do it in a year and so i i um i just wanted to kind of throw out that at some point we need to stop worrying about whether or not it spares one school or another and start looking at what's best for the district overall and make that recommendation to the board so they can use it and hear from other people in the community besides just this group and then let them take it and do their jobs mr choa miss ochoa we cannot hear you can hear you i think your sound isn't picking up you might want to check your mic why you work on that can i go to miss wilson perkins okay miss wilkins perkins um hi i wanted to say two things one something amber brought up earlier about combining 3.1 and 3.10 and leaving it up to the school board or the teachers or people who know the community where the tka will best serve azusa what location what um the facility wise and um when i saw it split with the teachers it doesn't really seem fair because we don't know all the schools we don't know where the tk8 should be we were just you know thinking um so i would um like to combine those if that's okay and then the other thing is um i really think people should know the dollar amount of rebranding it's a very big number and for me personally but i'm newer to azusa it wouldn't be worth the spending it but if the community wants it then we should do it but i would really i really want us to ask many many many many people with the dollar amount do you really want to do this those are my two cents missy vette said she has a suggestion our recommendation so um to go off of what miss uh peel stick was mentioning about um dissecting this over and over and over again because yes there is so much information to go over and there could be something new tomorrow or the day after but i really feel like um at this point with all the new information that we have i know um it's been mentioned over and over again that we can change the models but unfortunately with all this new information i don't know that the models that we've created are gonna be best suited for the community just because we have so much more information now with uh staffing budgets um information on location things like that i wish that we would have had well i came in the meetings late um because i came in i think like a few meetings in um but had we had this information before we i think we would have been able to um make better decisions as to what models to cut what schools to cut knowing the information that we have now that i kind of feel like we're stuck with this and um i mean we can go over and over and dissect these last models but unfortunately we received information later on in the process and i think we should go back and at least try to modify these models that we do have at least slightly to see if we can maybe decrease the cost on on some of the models maybe look at the tk8 or the middle school or the rebranding um like miss wilson perkins also said like maybe there's a way that we can adjust a couple of schools in a model to make it more um better for the community um just a couple of the schools so just the the cost um that is my suggestion that we at least go back and with all the new information that we have now try to at least tweak or adjust what's not working in these models so that we can eventually say okay we feel completely comfortable here you go board these are our recommendations because i don't know although they're good models the ones that we have now i think we can do better and just with the information that we've gotten in the last few days okay i'm gonna respond to that really quickly again that that is a definitely possibility uh but i just want to throw a word of caution as your facilitator um that we would have to spell how that goes so like does everybody then get to go back and recreate and now we're back to 11 ideas um because remember everyone in this room has a different lens and a different mindset right and that's that's the beautiful thing about it right the district had a mindset of capacity some people have a mindset of north-south how some people have a mindset of east-west some people have a mindset of border towns some people have a mindset right and so and so i i believe um that if we if we go to that which again it's your your this is your team and and you are more than welcome to do that um but just a word like how do we do that knowing that there are people in this room that authored these ideas right they they came up with these ideas um and so how do we respectfully do that number one and number two um again is it like now we're back to the drawing board and everybody gets to create uh new ideas based on the new information uh which again if this is what the team wants to do then then go for it i just want to point out just again some just some some as your facilitator uh trying to put that out there so that you understand uh that the possibilities that that go with with with that honoring and respecting people's ideas and then how do you how do you go about again recreating and reimagining which again is awesome and that's allowable and you can do that um so again just things to consider okay we have a comment for miss fish then we're going to miss jones and miss sanchez hi so i see we surveyed the teachers um or sorry the staff but we haven't surveyed the parents and i feel like we really need some parent input and unfortunately the parent meeting got cancelled um and you're not gonna you think you said thursday the 22nd of june is when the new one is scheduled for 24th 24th okay i know i wrote it down somewhere um but i feel like just waiting that long to get some parent information and having a survey from the parents doesn't help us either like i like seeing the teachers numbers but i really want to see what parents think as well um we're a small little there's 12 of us here and we're a small little portion of a whole entire school district so i know that you said that the parents will have more information but i really i don't know if it's possible to get them a survey sooner and ask ask them to look at the information that's on the school board on the website um so they have it or reach out maybe even reach out to like a lot of us parents are willing to talk to other parents if they have questions um i just don't want to move forward with making decisions with a little bit of input from them as well since it is fair that we got the information from the staff as well i want to see it from parents too before thank you yeah no worries again again just uh again context um the the 20 the 24th when we have that meeting we will be asking for input the the big question is what input right are we asking uh of the model of the four model threes which one do you like better of the two model fours which one do you like better which is what we essentially asked the staff right again if this team were to decide right now something different like we're going to dwindle it then then the input is different and you still get the input but now it's on a different question for example hey here's the model three here's the model four which one do you like better or here the you know i mean just depends on what the team wants i think i think there is a a genuine valid opportunity uh to meet with the community and meet with the parents and get input from them and they could definitely be the same question that we asked the staff but then that means that this is on pause then which again is is perfectly okay but but now we're on pause there's no need to meet on the 16th or the 23rd unless there's more information that's needed and then we reconvene in july okay we have miss jones and ms sanchez i agree with everybody there's just there's so much good information that i almost feel like we just need to rip this band-aid off there are rumors flying around the district of oh my school's closing or this is happening parents are getting false information and we have to remember we're just an advisory board and i know different school board members are watching and getting information um because ultimately they're the ones that are making this decision but ultimately what's best for our students i think about my students in this district and i think where can i see them going what programs can this district offer my students and the students it in in the surrounding area and and we need to make our district the best possible and so i think we just the sooner we make this decision and yes there's so much to hash out and yes this is expensive but we need to do what's best for all of our students so here's my two cents thank you miss patricia good evening i i agree with a lot of conversation that's going on today it's true ms jones says we need to do what's best for our students we need to in certain circumstances we need to stand alone instead of comparing ourselves to other districts because we always tell our students they need to strive and they need to go for that goal whatever it may be that makes them happy and not have to worry about the person to the left or the right of us i think as a district we we really should strive for ourselves so maybe we can be a role model to other districts and they can say hey you know what i like what is this is doing over there they're they're shining over there so and i think in every aspect and you know especially for our students and that we're giving them you know the support and everything that they need so i agree on that i think in in regards to what a vet said i understand where she's coming from it's it really is we're really far into the game i think um if it maybe had been constructed a different way where i've been in a lot of um in groups along with the administration where we create an umbrella we create ideas of what we want to see for whatever it is that we're working on that goal i remember we were part of a you know um what we want our district to strive a new uh slogan or a logo or whatever it is saying about our district it was it was constructed to where we brought creative ideas together and we and we then at that point when we agreed on those ideas we then implemented everything else into it and i think we kind of did this upside down we did as a little flip and so i think that's where some people are feeling like okay now we have this but now we've moved on so we can't really go back we gotta move forward so i get it and it is you know um it's very hard for me at least in my two cents it's kind of hard to um say you know what yes we've been working a long time let's rip the band-aid on let's hand it over and at the same time it's like oh but there's a couple of few things that we could so i agree with a lot of people and you know we're in a difficult situation but i honestly you know i think we kind of on this i have a comment um can i read it before you go mr anthony or do you want to go first okay um so miss edna we have a lot more information to work with we have not been given an opportunity to see where we stand between the two models why continue to work and we work on a model that we may no longer find feasible um and then we have miss jin who says i agree edna can we poll whether or not can we go with one model or not now mr anthony right thank you um first um i don't know i feel like i need to introduce myself because uh people that are watching on youtube sometimes don't know who everybody is and wondering who are all these little people in the squares uh and what do they do and what is their role here so i'm the principal at center school which is kind of in the middle of everything in terms of closing so i don't say have a state but you know you have to keep keep in mind but just to give you a little perspective on where i come from um i actually do live in the city i am here as have generations of my family uh you might see my background today that's riley school in azusa unified and i know you guys are thinking oh my god there's not a riley school well yes there used to be it was actually on fifth in pasadena where my uh my parents actually went to school so it's not there it's now now a senior living area and i guess uh my parents attended a citrus high school before my dad came over to azusa high and was as a junior my mom actually graduated from citrus high school and i worked at magnolia i worked at gladstone high coached at azusa high i worked at center uh decades so uh i i just bring this in because i'm very very vested in seeing how we progress and what's going on in in this creation i'm super excited by everybody's comments about really wanting to create the best school system here um i'm going to let you know also too that what i i've seen over the years many people kind of choosing other school districts and kind of giving me reasons about why they chose to go to another school district i'm not always sure if it was honest or not of the answers i got but i think we're really at a good time in azusa to really as everybody was saying create a school system that everybody else is talking about why i'm leaving and i want to tell you personally from someone who's been at many school sites and has many friends in this district and teachers and staff if we had to match up our teaching staff and our schools toe-to-toe with any other school system in this whole valley we would be on top the teachers and the staff work exceptionally hard to create a good system i have i am a thousand percent confident that we would end up on top i've got to see the classrooms and i've got to see the work parents you've got to meet your your your children's teachers they work exceptionally hard so to tell you the truth sometimes i got a little excited about some of the teachers that i know at one school working with some of the amazing teachers at another school i'm like wow that would be a pretty good team there it's kind of like you're making an all-star team you know we're starting to kind of put some pieces together so i guess as much as i don't want to as much as i don't want to close schools and i don't think anybody in this whole on our whole panel wants to close any schools nobody really wants to do that okay but we all have seen kind of the financial needs and kind of where we're at i mean i i started here when we were in that 13 14 000 student range and all three middle schools were almost at a thousand students each we've talked about it we understand it it's it's understood and we know we need to make some difficult recommendations we'll see from there but i'm super excited about creating a better school system i'm not worried about the next few years before i retire so i want to create something that's good for the next decades okay the next century um i want this to be good for the whole community and i think everybody's been talking about the same thing so i do take myself out and look what's going to be good for the rest of the community i'm here and i also will be talking to people as well um i know we're potentially closing anywhere from four to seven sites so one thing i also want to leave on the table in public right now is if we're closing four to seven sites and we're trying to create the best opportunities in the best school district that we have in the area uh one of the things that's been talked about a lot is if we have four to seven properties really utilizing one of those properties for what's been talked about a lot a stadium and a performing arts center we're going to have the property for it now and finding a way to utilize that i think that would be a big plus to the community if we know that some one of the sites that's being used is now going to be repurposed as another uh pinnacle within the community itself something else for us to be proud of uh in addition to the pool and i think you if the pool would either be on aquatic center or if it's redone at one of the schools however that looks but i think that would definitely be something that should be i haven't seen it anywhere here but i think that should be something that goes hand in hand with us moving forward you know that should be understood that if we are going to close this many sites we are definitely going to look at creating those spaces for everyone um really it's not an easy thing it really this isn't it this isn't any easy process and i've struggled quite often and maybe i've kept a little more quiet at times because i think a lot and it is hard to do and the change is difficult but i'm hopeful and i'm confident that we can do it azusa and azusa i mean everybody here all the parents the staff everybody working hard to get numbers and putting in the right place the one thing i'm confident in is i think everybody i i'm confident that everybody wants to create that good school system i want to be the school system that everybody runs to azusa this is our chance to create our school district that everybody says i'm taking my kid to another district because whatever your because is we need to create that here this is our time right now so some of it might be really difficult to do one of our favorite schools and maybe the school you attended might not be there anymore but it should be with the with the understanding that we're creating something better and for our kids and your grandkids and your great grandkids and they can talk about how my mom or dad or aunt or uncle tiatio nino used to go to this particular school and where it be just like i talked about my dad used to go to riley school okay don't talk about the time he hated over the fence because we had to hear that story too many times so we all talk about those things we all have those stories it's part of our history but it wouldn't be the first time and it wouldn't be the first time that we've had to do that here but i do think we can build a better part as is i hope that we all step back sometimes i don't know i'm feeling like everybody else too you almost want to step back for a second so we can go a little bit faster and i agree we've gotten a little bit of information here a little bit much i i calculated and if you see them on the side sometimes i'm actually doing the numbers to see kind of what they look at that's my thing i think we can do that so i'm going forward i hope we can do that i want to let everybody know and the panel know and i don't know if the people on the panel know this we've been doing this in an hour and a half increments but we usually do would have these big meetings would be like a full day like an eight to three with some lunch and so we would be getting six eight hours of time and i know patricia was talking about that so this would have been done a little bit more concise and we'd probably have a lot of chart paper up and we're gonna be going through some small groups etc all right so we've been we've been really doing a lot of good work in a short amount of time an hour and a half isn't a lot to do this this big work so i appreciate everybody's time and willingness to still be here um i will mention a few things as i broke down on points one um i think our cost in us spending money on some stuff is okay as long as we're not i call it not cheaping out i want to spend money on stuff that we really need let's go ahead and buy up okay all my nordstrom shoppers out there that love to walk through there and want to find something good because you want the good pair of shoes or the good outfit and you go to the store i think right now we need to go ahead and spoil ourselves azusa unified in the areas that maybe make the most impactor that we really need you know we might have to spend a little bit more money let's spend it in the right spot and let's make us really shine but let's make sure that we don't hold back in an area that we might need to do um i'm just trying to make and the last thing i'll leave you with is when we talked about asking the parents questions i wrote down a little note to myself maybe we asked the parents both questions ask them to rank the models and then i don't know if it would be the beginning and say would you prefer model 3 or model 4.

cassandra jean-marie is a rising second year student at the university of massachusetts medical school she is a graduate of the university of massachusetts amherst where she received a dual degree in microbiology and public health as part of her dedication to improving the health of others she has worked as a research assistant for the national institute of health funded food activity screens and teens study this research project allowed her to work with disadvantaged adolescents in springfield massachusetts now attending the university of massachusetts medical school as part of the population-based urban and rural health community health track she is dedicated to learning more about social determinants of health and the effects of poverty on health she is part of the worcester asylum clinic team an organization dedicated to help individuals on their journey to obtain fundamental human rights she is currently working with the springfield department of health and human services on vaccination efforts and racial equity and justice as part of her community assistantship she credits her success in following her passion to the hard work and dedication of the teachers and faculty at greater lawrence technical school cassandra jane marie good afternoon family friends distinguished faculty and the class of 2021 i am both honored and overjoyed to be here today at your commencement in truth it feels like just yesterday when i was addressing my own graduating class five years ago although i'm feeling significant deja vu i understand that nothing about this year has been normal this moment in time will be forever ingrained in our minds in history books and for many it will be described as the year of loss we lost experiences chances to celebrate and opportunities to hug but most importantly many have felt the ultimate sacrifice of losing someone they love we have been challenged like never before to remain faithful to the values that make us human compassion gratitude and respect were found to be the only things that matter in the middle of a pandemic and subsequent economic loss and amidst all of these trials and tribulations you have managed to receive your diploma a symbol of hard work and dedication i am positive that i speak for all of us here today when i say that we are in complete awe at the perseverance and grit that this class has shown right now you're on the cusp of your own history after today you'll be entirely responsible for your future and all those that surround you today will always be there to guide you you are in the driver's seat and i remember thinking how terrifying that was many thoughts ran through my mind as i pondered what the future had in store for me i couldn't help but think what if i let down the people who stood by me since the beginning even worse what if i let myself down but the reality is that in this world the only thing that you can ever do is your best and i know this may seem like such a simple statement but it is one that we tend to forget except for grand events like today we rarely pause and congratulate ourselves for all that we have accomplished all that we have overcome please do not misunderstand me today is a momentous occasion a cause for extreme joy and celebration that's why we're here today and i want you to be as proud of yourselves as we are of you however we are really here to celebrate those smaller steps that you took every day to reach this moment the long days of studying and withering beneath endless exams and essays the part-time jobs and the long practices that made even walking a chore and finally those quiet moments of struggles that we often shoulder all our own and rarely tell even our closest confidants but through it all you prevailed in making this a decision to endure whatever comes your way and with this comes the gift of choice and the chance to decide what you want to become in this short short life and i know it may not seem like it but the choices you make do matter and may end up changing the world in a way that's impossible to comprehend it's these conscious efforts that make our life meaningful and while you're making these groundbreaking earth-shattering decisions i want you to keep three main principles in mind number one be kind to everyone i know this year has been challenging and some may say it brought out the worst in humanity however this year i believe that i saw the best that humanity had to offer i witnessed individuals going to the grocery store for their elderly neighbors healthcare workers holding the hands of their patients when they felt alone people helping complete strangers when they had absolutely nothing to gain and i realized that this is what kindness truly is so when you are presented with someone in need remember to be kind because sometimes this is the only thing that matters number two remember to make the smaller moments in your life matter graduations retirements weddings and other big events are the moments that we often see depicted in movies and books and at times they may seem like the only thing's worth celebrating but i want you to remember that life's most purest moments when all is quiet laughing so hard that your stomach hurts that twilight hour in late august when you're with friends and family enjoying a meal reaching a personal milestone that nobody knew about remember that no matter how fast life seems to me moving and believe me after high school it goes by fast remember to press pause and enjoy the small moments of life number three understand that the most important thing the simplest thing is hope hope is the most powerful thing we have in this world and it's what allows us to get up every time we're knocked down hope is what allowed us to survive this catastrophic year and while i pray that we never see one like it again the fact of the matter is we don't know what the future has in store for any of us however what i do know is that i and everyone present here today has hope in you we hope that you will go forward and embody the best that this school has to offer in your respective careers we hope that you are the next generation of leaders in policy makers and carpenters and dentists and doctors and nurses we hope that you will utilize the tools and skills you've gained in the past four years to make this world a better place and i hope that these principles will guide you as you move forward as you sit here today surrounded by those that love you reflecting upon the days that led up to today never forget the small steps that helped you climb mountains that way when you make it when you become everything that you're destined to be when all anyone sees when they look at you is the success in the happiness and not the hardships you'll remember what it felt like to be uncertain and impossibly scared you'll remember the people who surrounded you today and you'll remember all that you have overcome and you will know that you can do it again congratulations class of 2021 we cannot wait to see all that you become i would like to invite nicholas delagas back on the stage this time to deliver his solution address good evening school committee members administrators faculty parents families and fellow graduates my name is nicholas delagas and i'd like to thank all of you for the honor and opportunity to speak today it's honestly a bit shocking to see so many people gathered in one place as the largest gathering i've witnessed recently is the lion at chick-fil-a i believe we can all agree that one of the most impactful moments during our high school experience was in march of 2020 when everything ground to a halt we were ripped from our classes from our after school clubs from our sports and from our routines many students who were struggling prior to the lockdown found themselves in serious danger of slipping to the cracks and our futures were uncertain the entirety of our senior year was spent behind monitors and cameras which presented unique challenges to our educators and to ourselves covet 19 has not been the only challenge faced by our class and our community throughout these past four years in 2018 all of our sending communities were engulfed in flames many people were displaced and unfortunately a young man lost his life in the ensuing catastrophe my thoughts and prayers sincerely go out to lionel rondon's friends in addition to the circumstances that have affected our entire communities many of us experienced our own personal tribulations and tragedies in our transitions into adulthood everyone here today be its students parents or staff knows just how challenging the previous years have been we have all experienced loss despair precarity and worst of all uncertainty uncertainty is indisputably the worst plague that can afflict the human mind because there is no terror comparable to that of not knowing what challenges await and how we will react to them today we do not have to fear the unknown for there is no uncertainty in what has been accomplished by the young men and women gathered here today we celebrate the fruits of our labor and our victory over our circumstances despite the unique challenges presented to us and despite the overwhelming uncertainty that has loomed over us at every single step in our journey we as students and as young adults have prevailed today i am certain that each and every parent guardian and supporter will smile upon their child as they walk across this stage and accept their diploma today i am certain that each and every member of our school staff will breathe a sigh of relief after such a tumultuous and challenging year today i am certain that each and every one of my fellow graduates will return home with the satisfaction of having accomplished the unprecedented today i am certain that each of the graduates sitting here has the potential to make a positive impact on their lives and the lives of those around them and lastly i am certainly proud of myself and most importantly my peers for what we have accomplished this year going forward i only have one piece of advice from my fellow graduates remember what you've already endured accomplished and learned when life presents you with unprecedented challenges remember your four years in high school and remember that you have the strength and potential to weather the storm no matter what thank you [Applause] at this time it's my pleasure to call back on stage ashley lima to deliver her valedictorian address good evening class of 2021 family friends and distinguished guests who are gathered here today i wanted to start by saying thank you firstly to my god for i can do all things through he who strengthens me he gave me the wisdom and courage to get through these four years of high school secondly i'd like to thank my friends they would edit all of my papers help me with my assignments in the middle of the night and listen to me panic thank you to my family who gave me my space to move over pages and pages of work and supported me through all stages of learning and to the staff of glts to all of the teachers guidance counselors and deans without the guidance and advice of those around me i do not think i will be the person that i am today this is our last day together all in one place and i am privileged to be allowed the opportunity to bestow upon you up some parting thoughts after today we'll all be moving in different directions some are moving far for college or staying in state others going to straight into the workforce and the remainder who have no idea what to do next you're not alone take it one step at a time as a freshman the thought of graduating seems so far off but now that we are at the threshold what do we do to answer that question we'll keep doing what we have been doing for the past four years we apply what we have learned here at glts our core values growth mindset high expectations supportive environment and lifelong learning glts has had one mission since we stepped foot into the school building and it's to prepare the students for today's challenges and tomorrow's opportunities we have shown we are capable of overcoming today's challenges and now it is time to look towards tomorrow's opportunities all of us seated here today is proof that we're ready to go into the world i know that the class of 2021 has gone through a lot starting with the gas explosions back in our sophomore year where everyone banded together to help one another through the traumatic events to last year's global pandemic we were stripped of any interaction and we had to resort to virtual learning we the students and faculty of glts adapted and changed to whatever curveball life wanted to throw our way we were able to rise above all the difficulties and hardships we have worked hard overcame adversity to get to this moment but it's important not to dwell on our hardships and remember all of our positive experiences let's remember all of the dances homecoming pep rallies car washes concerts plays and games that we had together let's take those amazing memories as we move forward into the new chapter of our lives although we may be heading down different paths and directions we'll always remember what we have learned here at glts we will continue to persevere grow and be lifelong learners these core values will continue to be fundamental to us and imperative in achieving our future goals so we will try try and try some more until we reach what we want not settling for less so there is no expiration day on your goals and your dreams thank you and now the moment we've all been waiting for the presentation of diplomas i have the honor of calling mrs rebecca webster class of 2021 advisor for the first two rows and then we'll be joined by rochelle paula and bridget severino who will announce diplomas for the rest of the class ashley lima nicholas delagas samantha colon miriam grulon gabriel maroon rachelle paula iverson rodriguez [Applause] amy sevilla bridget severino jada tahada jezebel a brew cameron anderson jalis baez jacob breen [Applause] madeleine burgos abdullis cologne [Applause] annabelle cordero jerebel furman emma gibson heridia eileen hernandez joseph javier carly jones alexis mellon font kaylee oh carol holly ogaro [Applause] edgalis quesada rosario alexander scott anna maurice tapia josiah alcantara ramirez lisandro breton congratulations aris ellis deleon katherine gierin issael hernandez randy and teriano kimberly lara nathaniel maldonado noah misho where do i step up isaiah olivari sean payne [Applause] jairo peguero franklin peguero tavares jody rosario natia serrano damani swan brando velazquez elmer alberto eric delgado miguel duran kimberly garcia chris gonzalez oh my god luis mejia [Applause] brian morell reynoso abdiel orsorio jonathan reyes caitlyn pinargote maria rivera arleni rodriguez newton rodriguez yuri rosario alexis santiago tia santiago marleni durena eric velazquez giovanni bedard mitchell cameron edwin castillo maxime cezard sonny chen nielsen crimins joseph de bellis michelle del toro derek de la cruz tyler francisco kevin matul armando montanas gabriel naval jeremy osorio jordan pena burmarie polanco mario portes mark roy javier rivera camila romero jeremiah rosario robert scalise enoch torres larismar vasquez emeline almengo cara bonilla [Music] angelique de los santos adriana baradinas d'alyssa dominguez lacia fournier [Music] destiny griffiths amber guerrero inolis osorio brianna poirier nicole santos juleka santos well dallas to tejada so sorry jalen velazquez john alfred a brew raymond acevedo reyes luis mel adames jeffrey boldonado vazquez adrian barrow xavier castillo michael korn eric fuentes axel lagrange renee lopez samantha martinez jefferson mazza angel mendes scarlet morales emily moravel andrew motron delwin ortega melissa perez brian quija aidan ronald christian velazquez madeline ventura juherling alcosta priscilda cardona gabriela philpo joelina gonzalez anna javier oh i'm so sorry this one's going fast [Music] kiana lee harris brandi laveau sierra marcano marie angeli medina adelies naranjo karina ortiz ramos chris melly rojas glenaris santiago amy santos angel tejeda zylis acevedo jonathan cabrera cameron duncan giselle ferreira angel guzman mackenzie hendrick tucker hubbard janzer montanas andres muniz johnry negron [Applause] elizabeth nunes jasmine pena joshua pena lucas pacinis elena quinones juan reynoso adriana rodriguez jalen rodriguez julius mar rodriguez jan santiago lacy sosa sophia strang [Music] juan tavares [Applause] catherine ventura gabriella cava erlen camilo [Music] margie castillo darling diaz [Music] christopher frica scarlett garcia you get the thing aidan giddens [Applause] lopez danielle miss yeah miley medina sherlin mejia naily pena brianna polanco jamari rosario keanu rudys hani sepulveda rose rosemary tajeda leoni vazquez [Music] amelia bijon [Music] cyrus almanzar jeremiah castillo osman chacon jonathan conserva sean cuzzy moment of silence donna for the jesus polanco aaliyah garcia nicholas guerin okay okay you go you go christian gonzalez [Music] and akari gujong crystal gutierrez anna maurice lopez orlando martinez cameron medina nicole martier nicole reyes wales reyes zachary scott are jelly sicard karina simmons jared small josiah tavares and sharon touch adrian burrito ruby camacho christian coniello glendi do you know she kendra fernandez nicole goyas amy fam [Music] brady sanchez annelise torreiro isabelle uni dice manny your arena amaya barbosa madison bronco [Music] naieli dominguez ariani francisco [Music] gonzalez amber hadley anaya hernandez camille laura christy nunez diaz melis valentine [Music] kiana pena enrique herrera shirley rosales chris ladies santana ruiz [Music] anneli santos cheyenne tibbetts luisana vazquez jenna wagner joshua augusta alex boop [Music] candelario [Music] thiago fernandez [Music] [Applause] abraham has been hernandez joseph iverson jordan levesque omar lopez john martinez aranda kevin molito [Music] anthony pearson edward pimentel angel angel pla preston eric quantos leandro former [Music] lopez jaden magruder jose ramos jose ramos dojon rodriguez mercedes kevin vegeta noah leslie montas jonathan pena cologne perez christopher tennell elizabeth barbosa santos elise villa jordan brito [Music] victor cuesta franklin espinosa steven fernandez omares gomez alba gomez cruz jennalis guzman lyric areola joel jarrier sean lewalski demetrius mendez ortega [Music] anthony salk aiden torrence guillermo torres [Music] jason almanzar andro cincineros de la cruz [Music] alfie gonzalez talia gonzalez terino brandon lebeau brandon palmer joel paulino joel paulino nabel pena amy ramirez tysha rivera alvin torres isaiah torres isaiah torres you go queens you go ismail velar robert wilder brianna bowman bernice nunes jasmerlin ortega [Applause] velmania ortiz santiago perez [Music] aliani rosario cassandra serrano emily then genesis vargas delvie almanzar [Music] [Applause] jacob garcia alexis gonzalez julio jensen jennifer diaz jennifer matul diaz syesha andy morales [Applause] nathan curran dongle robinson andreas robinson jacob rubbles jacob robles robert robert and last but not least elvis vasquez wait till they're all seated go get the flowers don't worry now that we are all seated we would like to thank the superintendent and interim principal mr lavoy and miss celinski we would like to thank you for your dedication to the continuous improvement to our school and our education thank you the class of as we all appreciate you and everything that you've done for us thank you we would also like to thank our class advisors ms silinski and miss westberg for all of their effort time and commitment to the class of 2021 hold the book twink queen we would also like to bring them up let's have miss webster and miss silinski up let's have a round of applause for these beautiful ladies whoops we're going to take a quick photo op yeah we're ready to close we're going to take a photo real quick [Music] over the last four years they have worked tirelessly to organize fundraisers and special events this past year was certainly a challenge but we think but we thank them for making the most out of it they have spent their time to create relationships with all of us and tell us some valuable lessons they are extraordinary people and we are fortunate to have them as our class advisors the class of 2021 thank you for being you and for all you have done everyone a round of applause for miss webster and mrs linski now before we close this ceremony we would like to have a moment for mr lavoy to say something quickly i would just like to have all those students who are entering the military after graduation please stand and be recognized all those who will be going [Applause] i want to thank you for your service and best of luck would everyone please remain in their seats while graduates process off the field lead by the faculty and staff graduates will be reported outside the small gym to collect official papers from our career and area teachers graduates then return to the parking lot we asked families not to congregate for pictures but before we do that let's do this special moment for just the class of 2021.

we also rely heavily on the governor's january budget proposal in the may revision which was recently released we utilized the thick mat lcff calculator the school services dart board and the san bernardino county superintendent of schools common message are also very important guiding documents as we build our budget so just a really quick rundown of where we're estimating we are going to end the current fiscal year um and one quick disclaimer this now that i've put this in writing it's wrong it will change between now and when we close the books but this is our best estimate as we sit here in well as we sat here in may because the budget was finished up last month so you look and see our total revenues we're looking at about 208 million dollars a significant portion of that is one time federal and state coronavirus mitigation funding that flowed to us in several different pots over the course of the last 14 months we're ex planning to expend approximately 185 million and you'll see what happens if you look at the line over on the left titled ending fund balance you'll see we have three columns there the first one unrestricted we're still projecting a significant deficit spend on the unrestricted side of our budget this year so about a five and a half million deficit to spend that down to 12.7 that's one of the things that will change between now and when we close the books we have planned expenditures or budgeted expenditures that are still in the budget that will or may not occur between now and june 30.

why don't you put both of those on a questionnaire and we'd actually have both that set of information all the models ranked and if they actually prefer three or four um those are my thoughts i have other thoughts on the 712 and the big middle school big high school but i'll leave those for a little later but i just wanted to share i used all my time right now from the last 12 meetings all at one time yes sir come on mr anthony did you miss did you miss two meetings i think we've had 14 meetings i don't know where you were i thought i heard i'm sorry i thought i heard somebody say 12 and i wrote down 12 right away so uh i lied all right ladies and gentlemen um we also have two hands i don't know if you want to go with the two hands this up or just letting you know okay i'll get to those two hands in one second it is 6 43 um we want to honor your time you take time out of your busy schedule uh to be with us and we want to honor your time uh we do see in the chat that there is a little bit of a steam moving forward here with a suggestion i believe miss rogers was the originator of the suggestion if i'm mistaken please correct me but um to to take a poll in this team uh not the ideas but the models so keep the four model the four ideas of model three keep the two ideas of model four and when you compare these to these where would you land so you're not asking you're not you're not saying a specific idea you're just saying hey of the two models that are here this is the model that i would that i would uh jump to um and i we're seeing a lot of i agrees agrees we're seeing a lot of movement there so i want to throw out to the team is that something that we want to do and is that something that we want to do right now i guess the best way to do that is if you are in disagreement of that um go ahead and meet yourself and and say so or share that with us if we do that is it going to change what we present to the parents because i want the parents to be able to have everything and not us make it just another decision and then we go okay friends this is all you have because there are parents watching and they might say whoa whoa whoa so that's my input a thousand percent they can be asked uh of everything and then um kind of like what we've done in the past as we whittled down the models at the beginning of the process um now is like this is a huge uh poll we're about to take and um i'm strongly in favor of one over the other at this point and i don't know if i would be in support of saying to the border to the community that this is the model when there are there's a chunk of us that are probably feel like me and we're just expressing an opinion right now but i really feel the results of this should be interpreted as this was a poll but not a decision so that it's not taken as this is the recommendation from the panel which i don't think you're saying but that i just want that to be extremely clear right now yeah so just a couple of things remember there is zero problems going to the board of education and saying this team is split right just like we did the last time we said hey 95 percent agreed on this but there was one person who didn't agree we're going to do the same thing right 22 people agreed that it should be model burger king but two people were adamant that it should have been in and out that and that's we're gonna we're gonna give them the entire story uh of how that of how that is and then number two i think this has been brought up several times by several of you and congratulations and thank you for continuing to remind us um we are not a decision-making body we're only recommending to the board and then the board has to do their next tackle right now they're gonna have to grapple with this and and try to understand and what did the staff say and what did this team say and what did the community say and what do i say um and what is staff saying right so there's a lot of input that they're going to have to get as well so so again um i i bring it up i haven't heard a great opposition yet that we should not do this right now does somebody want to unmute themselves and again opposed to uh taking a poll in terms of model three or model four yes i've been waiting my turn to speak um i would rather wait until the parent meeting because i would like to hear what the parents have to say um i would like the parents to receive a similar survey that our staff did um and after that meeting i would like to see a chart of the data to compare what we originally said on our models what the staff um said about those models and then what the parents said about those models i'm a visual person i like to see the data um or i wouldn't continue to uh reduce the models or make a decision so i really uh was looking forward to the meeting that we were going to have with their parents um so i would not feel comfortable doing that right now because i really would like to hear from the parents um and also i have a question uh mr ortega regarding um the staff survey uh please refresh my memory was their comments there that our staff made and will we get that information uh yeah they had they had the opportunity to make comments so will we see that information or those comments um if you wanted to it's it's overwhelming but if you want to read through that then you you can okay so we have one person opposed do we have any questions or anybody else want to unmute themselves i i i i wrote a question in the chat but i wasn't sure if we're still doing that oh wait go ahead go ahead patty go ahead oh no i just i thought i was clear earlier but i oppose i believe we should wait um and also see the data from the uh from staff it would be interesting to see what they have to say i have a question about that um literally staff were given um one day before we were in an email until we were told that we could have a meeting with you um to hear about um this potential survey and then the survey came and there was not a lot of information or discussion for staff other than here's some models pick one we got several phone calls from staff saying what does this mean and i really think that staff were not given enough information in ample time as evidenced by the fact that there were 200 responses and we have 1200 staff members i think that they needed more time and and i think that such a small percentage of staff and when i mean stuff i mean everybody i'm not just talking about teachers giving that input i'm going to say it devalues the validity i'm double double saying it right of those results having it be so limited i i wish that we could i'm going to say do it again so that more people would participate having that short time of that quick turnaround i know what the intent was it was to try and get the information to this committee and i i appreciate that but i just think that it's not as you know valid in response to um ms rojas's comments about not voting right now i have a question a clarifying question i'm hearing you say one thing and i'm hearing concerns from people over here and i'm hearing you say okay we're giving a lot of pieces to the board of information the board of education we're going to say what this committee recommends and we're going to disaggregate that data for you then we're going to give you what the parent town hall input was and we're going to disaggregate that data for you we're going to give you the survey from the staff and disaggregate that data for you so when when we say we want to hear from the parent town hall first and and letting that influence our decision is that what we're supposed to be doing i'm i am authentically questioning that or is it that we are supposed to be making a decision independent of that based on the information we've been given because i want to make sure like like mr contreras said that we're looking at our data you know and and making decisions for the betterment of our kids our community our district for the long haul you know versus my school my school my school that kind of so can you answer that question i mean you're did i i'm blathering no it's it's a good question so uh no the the team does not have to and also understand uh what you are asking right if if 95 of the community wants model 7.2 but that is the last on your list does that mean you are now voting for 7.2 um so these are questions again i'm just facilitating that's all i'm doing i'm just trying to give you different angles of what that is so the answer to your question is no um this team can say i just want to look at it i want to see what they say um you know and that's perfectly okay um but again right keep in mind what does that mean for you right what does that mean that you are now going to side with the staff in the community and whatever they they come up that's what that's what you're going to do or no you're just curious about it but you're still going to do or or you know do whatever it is that you want to do so i mean it's really up to up to you all but what i will say if we are waiting for the parents we are saying then that we are reconvening on july 21st right so there there is no other way around it um this gets pushed pushed forward um to that and again i just want to close out again we can ask whatever we want to ask re-ask the staff and and then ask the parents in the community as well it doesn't have to be the question at hand right now unless that's what the team wants we have two hands raised first karen rugley and then jen and then margie with the question in the chat thank you for this very robust conversation i'm wondering if this preliminary poll that we're talking about here at this point doesn't affect whether or not we're reducing to one model if we were to move forward with the preliminary pull could we use that as an informational tool in the same way that we're using potentially a parent survey or the teacher survey and now we're in essence taking a survey of ourselves and where we stand and using that as an informational gathering tool because i if if we're saying that there's that we're not reducing on this one poll right now i suppose i don't see the issue with trying to at least take a poll to see where we all stand okay um well i'm going to take a flyer on this one as your facilitator uh we have five minutes left and so um i don't know um it would be it would be a quick exit poll if that's what we wanted to do um and but that would be it right there's no discussion after that we can't really talk about it and then um we would we would reschedule i'm sorry we would schedule another school reorganization team meeting on the 16th and again that's two weeks to be thinking about you know where where you guys want to go from here latasha or anybody reading the chats i mean do we have i mean we did hear a couple of uh dissents but i do see a lot of people saying i agree i agree i agree and miss jen had her hand up but she took it down but everyone is saying they agree okay uh so seeing the overwhelming um to to take a poll i'm gonna reiterate what was just stated that this doesn't mean that there's a decision being rendered by this team that this is just a dipstick right this is just to check in and see see where we're at and maybe this affects our conversation in our next meeting on the 16th uh mislika do you have a poll ready that would that's asking do you prefer model 3 or model 4 i do it says exactly that okay give me just a second to drop the link in the chat all right here we go all right if you go to the chat click on the link and fill that out [Music] please uh we have about 10 responses so far i am not able to get it to open am i doing something wrong are you able to click the link from the chat it may ask if you want to leave zoom i am clicking but it's not taking me anywhere i don't know if anybody else is having that problem maybe minimize your screen or see if it's behind something else you can also just copy and paste the link just highlight the link and paste it into a new browser jen it does pop up to another pop-up window just in case it's behind something 18 responses in well now i can't even see you but there it is did you find it i just emailed it to you as well are you able to get it how many do you have lika i have 19 now [Music] okay okay we have 20 now okay that's the 20 i think there's 20 in this room yes let me share my screen okay can you see a little chart at the bottom uh yes it says model four sixty percent uh model three uh forty percent okay so all right well that's uh that's a poll gives you an idea where we are as a team um you will be getting a calendar invite just for precautionary measures i will i will put it on uh i will do two i'll do the 16th um and the 23rd just in case uh so there are there in your calendar uh thank you everyone super super great uh discussion today i really appreciate uh everything that you guys uh share today and really appreciate uh the diversity and voice that's what makes us uh stronger uh so thank you have a good evening and we will see each other if not before on the 16th thank you everyone thank you everybody

i would like the members of the class of 2021 to please stand is everyone ready let's have a round of applause if we're ready let's go let's see if we're ready yeah i think we're ready now i would like everyone who doesn't have their tysol on the right side to put it on the right please real quick whoever doesn't have it on the right okay now we're gonna move it from the right to the left ready one two three okay now graduates please leave the rose and proceed to the small gym we're going to be outside the small gym everyone please leave in rows in a nice formed line [Music] [Applause] [Music] vacation they [Music] we made it [Music] champagne [Music] top floor lifestyle on tv sunset don't [Music] since we was on i dreamed it all ever since i was young they said i wouldn't be nothing i didn't always say congratulations worked so hard to vacation [Music] we changed you

so of course those will be adjusted when we close the books on the restricted side you'll see 69 million in revenue 67 million in expenditures a 26 million dollar contribution and you're probably wondering well why are we contributing 26 million to the restricted side if we're not spending as much as we got that's because of the nature of the funding the one-time federal and state coronavirus funding cannot be used to support the programs that we're contributing to that 26 million dollar contribution really supports our special education program and our routine restricted maintenance program which we cannot use those coronavirus monies to support so you'll see we are projecting a significant excess on the restricted side of our budget primarily due to those one-time funds a little detail on the expenditures just to share with you 63 million dollars in certificated salaries almost 26 million and classified almost 44 million in employee benefits that covers health and welfare stirs pers contributions unemployment insurance books and supplies you'll see the other categories totaling about 185 million and just to call attention to some minor transfer outs that we do make we had to transfer or we are estimating we're going to be transferring 748 to our nutrition services fund to cover some bad debt and our fund 40 as a reserve for capital outlay that 1.2 million dollar estimated transfer is rda funding that flows to us within fund one but it is it is uh limited to use on facilities only therefore we transfer that to fund 40 our special reserve for capital outlay as we have done consistently for the past several years so as we look for next year's budget here's some quick assumptions we're budgeting our ada at 1920 p2 and you're going to say well why 1920 well 2021 we didn't do ada we had a pandemic so we were we well we just didn't take ada so we were how to hold harmless in the night in the 2021 year we were funded based on our 1920 p2 so when we look at 2122 we're going to be funded on the 1920 p2 because that's the only ada marker we have because we are currently um assuming a decline in ada for the 2021 or i'm sorry for the 21 22 budget year if in fact our ada in the budget year is higher than 12608 we will be funded on that higher ada but that is the that is the lowest ada will be funded on the lcff cola the statutory cola of course is 1.7 but the governor has proposed what they're calling a mega cola of 5.07 on the lcff now that does not apply to all programs there are other funding sources and programs that will only receive the statutory cola but that impact on our lcff if that cola comes through at the 5.07 we'll be budgeting an lcf revenue of about 143 million and we're also budgeting additional coronavirus revenues next budget year that were not budgeted in the current year of about 36.6 million of s or 3 money and also i apologize i did not notate it on here also our in-person instruction grant is part of those additional one-time funds we're budgeting in next year we're also assuming k3 fully staffed fully funded budgeting our routine restricted maintenance contribution and of course our whopping 1.4 million dollars for a six million dollar transportation program that we get from the state of california on the expenditure side of course we have included step and column for all of our units we have budgeted compensation increases based on negotiated agreements anything in process is currently not budgeted these are agreements that have been reached stirs and pairs contribution rates of course are in there and position control is going to be something that's very important moving forward in the salaries and making sure we have accurate positions for the folks that were doing the work in the district we are replacing buses so we have some fleet replacement expenditures of course all of our lcap expenditures are included in our budget one thing i would like to note in years past we have made a general fund contribution to fund 14 to cover deferred maintenance that is not part of our budget in the budget year or the out years currently so this is our projection as of 21 as of today for our budget year you'll see we're looking at a little under 208 million dollars in revenues in the combined column with about 197 million in expenditures not planning on spending all of the one-time funding that comes in for the coronavirus mitigation money some of those funds don't expire until 2023 and some of those funds do not expire until 2024 so we're currently not budgeting to expend all of those funds hence you will see combined ending fund balance grows to little over 50 million dollars the majority of which is restricted due to those one-time coronavirus mitigation funds as we move into the let's see this first out year in our budget projection 2223 we are funding we are currently projecting a slight uptick in our ada um but you'll see that bullet there says the recapture of the reduced enrollment during the pandemic right now we are assuming those kids are coming back every one of them and then some are going to come back to apple valley unified school district so this we will have to monitor this very carefully during the 21-22 year and make sure they do come back because if they don't we will absolutely have to make adjustments to our assumptions in our year two and year three of our multi-year projection any reduction in that ada of course will facilitate a reduction in our lcff funding and a reduction in our revenues and we are of course assuming k3 grade spanning and the federal revenue assumptions all those one-time monies that were budgeted to be received in the current year and the budget year of course we have to remove all those in this i'm sorry in year two of our multi-year projection because we're not planning on getting any more of those one-time revenues we will receive them in the 21-22 year on the expenditure side again we do accommodate for step and column we have not budgeted any compensation increases for any units we budget the stirs and pers rates as proposed in the governor's may revise and of course we absolutely include all of our ongoing lcap expenditures in our budget here's a quick rundown of our best projection at this point of what the 22-23 year will look like now you see some big red numbers there and they're restricted in the combined column because now we are beginning to spend those one time uh we're continuing to spend those one-time coronavirus mitigation funds but remember those revenues are not there under the restricted revenue line you see that's now only 20 million dollars because our restricted revenues have now normalized no additional one-time funding in the 22-23 year however we are budgeting significant expenditures of those revenues that we received in the prior two years which is our current year and our budget year hence that red 18 million dollar deficit on the restricted side and a 16 million dollar deficit in the combined spending down the restricted ending balance of those coronavirus funds we get to our third year in our multi-year projection again we're projecting um a slight increase in that ada again i put that recapture of enrollment the the the reduced enrollment during the pandemic we'll have to keep an eye on that the statutory coal is 2.71 percent which will net us an increase in lcf funding for that year with a little over 4.4 million dollars current projections and of course we are assuming our k3 great span adjustment revenue step and column no no compensation increases stirs and pers rates and of course our lcap expenditures and finally the numbers you'll see in that restricted column a continued spend down of those one-time funds because now they expire in september of 2024 so we are assuming expense of all of those funds by june 30th of 2024.

so our revenue on the restricted side is again normalized right there around 20 million and our combined revenues at 170 a little under 175 with expenditures of 187 facilitate deficit spend about 14 million again on the restricted side back to the unrestricted column you do see an excess there of about four and a half million dollars was what what we are contemplating or what we have in our multi-year projection now is some salaries that are being covered by those coronavirus mitigation funds that passed this particular year will be put back on the unrestricted side so right now we're we're showing a surplus on the unrestricted side but as we get into the this year and the 24-25 year that will not be there those salaries will then move back to the unrestricted side of the budget some highlights and concerns for the future of course covet 19 is not gone it's still around unfortunately has created some economic and political pressures in the in the world in the united states and in california our enrollment trend that we have to keep a group really close eye on based on what our assumptions are currently and assuming all of those kids that were not with us this year are coming back we are assuming the the colas based on school services and department of finance recommendations for our multi-year projection and of course the stirs and purse costs we had we did experience some rate buy downs that governor newsom put in place for last year in this however he has not proposed any further rate by dow so those rates will continue to rise over the course of this multi-year projection the state adopted budget the governor has proposed in the may revise the legislature has already come out with proposed modifications to the governor's proposals there is there are some deadlines looming for the legislature to adopt and of course the governor to sign what happens is if next week you take action to approve this budget which we do have to approve a budget prior to june 30th depending on what the state adopts we will of course make appropriate adjustments and i will have those adjustments in front of you when we come back in august the biggest what if the economic recovery some people will say we've had a record recovery post coveted 19 which we have the revenue continues to flow into the state far exceeding the state's projections but the the question is how long will that last and of course as i mentioned budget adjunct budget adjustments will come to you in august based on the adopted state budget thank you very much thank you the board of trustees will again like to remind members of our community that you may remove your mask while making your public comments if you feel comfortable to do so kylie do you have any cards we do not thank you um superintendents comment i'd like to congratulate the um staff that were appointed today those that are stepping up to do some new roles and um it is is that better yeah um and i need to make the board aware that yesterday june 2nd i received a letter of resignation from area 1 trustee mrs adeline blassing game with an effective date of june 15th i have filed the letter to mr alejandre the san bernardino county superintendent of schools and it has been accepted if it's the desire of the board i will bring back information after investigating a process either to work through a provisional appointment or a special election at the june 10th board meeting next week so i'll bring that information back so that you can make a decision as to what you want to proceed with replacing that area trustee there's a 60-day timeline that is started now um and then on onto district news graduations obviously were amazing we had some wind we had some technology problems we had the police department come forward and help us with our 2020 group and allow us to use their pa system in order to announce students and just amazing just the entire thing the kids were well behaved they enjoyed themselves the staff was wonderful in celebrating them and so many people showed up for the 2020 graduation in order to support the students we have lots of retirees who are not responding to our call to ask for information about them and so we extended that timeline so that we can celebrate them it may just be their time in service in this district if they don't respond but we're trying one more attempt before the june 10th board meeting because we do want to have an opportunity to celebrate them and then two last comments one having to deal with the budget committee i so appreciate the fact that mr schulenberg and cindy kunkel put together the budget committee and the people that have participated i know that we have two board members that are on that committee and we've we've really come a long way in in as a team understanding the process by which the um administrative um division puts together a budget for three years and what the questions are and then the final comment it has to do with um some activities that cabinet and i participated in on tuesday after returning from memorial day we were contacted by uh the san bernardino county fairgrounds they wanted us to experience showing animals like our ffa students did and so it was a bit of a competition between lucerne valley um leadership apple valley leadership and snow wine leadership and i want to share first and i'll stop browsing mr um conrad after this board meeting but this is mr conrad's participation ribbon this would be my fourth place ribbon um mr schulenburg got a sixth place ribbon and mr um schlosser took first place in showing and showing what they called lambs but they were very large sheep and um i will tell you that those kids put a lot of work into this and they trained us up in about 15 minutes and then let us free without leads or anything and how to show the animals and so this is going to be an annual event and next year we will invite you to come watch us in our our dilemma they tell us that they're going to up the ante with what kind of animal we get to show next year um but apple valley likes to have fun but we also like to compete so um we we took the sweeps for the most part good job [Applause] mrs so do you have a comment wilson you have a comment i don't have any comments the only thing possible to say is that my youngest daughter the last question from high school dr catherine so she checks me said do you guys really have a graduation so i saved and used the good job mr bender i'm just happy that we had in person graduation the kids really enjoyed it we had the normal win pa broke down but other than that went great mr raleigh yes i just want to thank since the 2021 school years winding down i want to thank everybody from the district for all the hard work from the top to the bottom all the teachers the staff everybody's done a really great job i i hear from different people in the community and there hasn't been very many um negative things said about how the schools were handled uh with the kovid and um just again it's it's been a pleasure to be on this board and to working around all these hard working people that show up all the time so just thanks to everything tonight you've done a good job uh leave the charge along with your cohorts at the other side of the podium here thank you and then it's me um i'd like to take the time to congratulate all of the new hires and all those who are moving up uh i've had two weeks two board meetings that i didn't attend so i'm taking this opportunity to congratulate each and every one of you that got promoted to your new position and those that are still holding their position you can count on me stopping by to see you at at work to see what you do but when i come in don't worry i'm just there to just to give you a tap on the shoulder if it is okay at that time just to let you know that i notice your work i notice what you're doing at your individual schools for this coming school year my plan is to is to wear your t-shirts proudly so let me know how much it costs so that i can pick up a t-shirt from each of their schools with their logo on it and i have no problem whatsoever in wearing those to celebrate your students and to celebrate you i'm hoping you have a wonderful summer if you can rest but just know that you have a good support system sitting on this podium that will be there if you call them thank you for all of your years of service and months of service and dealing with covid and now we are getting ready to return thank you so much it's time for public hearing we'll conduct a public hearing regarding the proposed budget for the apple valley unified school district for the 2021 2022 school year time opened is 308 any comments there are no public comments submitted at this time [Music] so we're going to close it at 308 number two conduct a public hearing to solicit the recommendation and comment of the public regarding the expenditures proposed in the three-year 2021-2025 local control accountability plan for the district called the lcap by mr schlosser time opened 308 and i'll just say briefly that although this says to solicit public comments um you know by the presentation last time that we have um well-documented and extensive stakeholder input in this process that does not in any way limited to this meeting in fact the entire document is really generated by that group that helps to build it and so there's been no significant change since that day the document is posted with a link this time and it will stay that way that's the way the california department of education has provided the service of giving input on the template side so that the business office and my department can put in the information but then it displays nicely for parents and then if there are adjustments we can make those adjustments without having to take a pdf down and reposting a new pdf so it will remain a web link on our website so that families can look at the budget overview for parents and the lcap document and of course we'll continue to solicit input for each year the one other thing i'll mention is that this lcap is unique in that in the annual update portion we are both updating the 2019 lcap and what we believe uh what we could in the 1920 school year and the 2021 unfortunately titled lcap that stood for something else it was the um learning continuity and attendance plan which had a totally different format and so you will see a dizzying array of information inside that link um the new plan is at the bottom and that's how that will work and so i just wanted to clarify the way the structure of the document is and then also just to say that the input from the families has been well heard and represented thank you now and for that particular one will people be able to get to the dashboard and see the most current sl cap the lcap district the dashboard is a different link and the the lcap link does not automatically provide a dashboard link but we do however as you know this particular year there's not much on the dashboard as soon as there is we'll continue to use that in fact all the dashboard metrics are lcap metrics thank you so much time closed is 3 11.

discussion action session it is recommended that the board of trustees discuss and take action on the following items approve the certificated and classified personnel actions as listed i need a motion i'll move the item all in favor number two approve the requested leaves as noted move the item second all in favor item j consent i agenda it is recommended that the board of trustees consider approving a number of agenda items as a consent list consent items are routine in nature and can be enacted in one motion without further discussion this procedure conserves meeting time for a full discussion of this significant issues i would like to make a comment on item j3 at the may 20th 2021 meeting we did not announce after closed session how individual board members voted to employ the director of human resources as it was not a 5-0 unanimous vote the vote was for to approve with mrs blessing and voting no that is reflected in the minutes of the may 20th 2021 board meeting within items j3 remove items 1-17 second any opposed thank you consent items to be approved on one motion one through seventeen i need a motion second by um rawley all in favor any opposed superintendent's comment just one final comment tomorrow we do our last graduation which is our adult education students at victor valley college at about 4 p.m um i hear there's quite quite a crowd and we're excited to celebrate that last group that is a consortium group it's the entire high desert adult education consortium so we'll be graduating students from apple valley hesperia victor and all of the other support yes do you have a comment comments wilson no i don't okay mr bender no mr mr raleigh i do dennis one more thing come on it's daytime it's still light outside i'm hungry okay i want to give a shout out to the police department okay i i drive around a lot and they are always in front of the schools and they get your attention and you slow to 25.

i've had them actually kind of give me the evil eye once i look down and i was like i was doing 26 but so but it's good to see them out there because it is dangerous for these kids yeah it's so keep it up because you drive other other cities you don't see it so yeah just good job that's it okay well i didn't have a comment until dennis says we need to get out of here so i have a comment i also have to thank the police department i've never in this real difficult time that we're living the police guess a bad rap and and i was so impressed at the graduation when the community applauded them for coming onto the field and that was really something to see i wish i could have recorded it because it was just a beautiful thing to see i thank you again uh for doing what you do and i look forward to seeing you next week yes thank you mr president we will not post the agenda until monday because that will give us the 72 hours and these are back-to-back meetings so it will not be posted tomorrow it will be posted on monday all right um we don't have any more closed session do we dennis will kill us all right um can somebody move to close motion all in favor okay we have signing of documents yes you

we do a roll call vote and heather could you help us out with that and just a reminder that everybody needs to recording in progress perfect sorry just got the recording going yeah it's also being recorded on ctn this is the zoom recording that i just started excellent so uh just uh heather if you could help us out with the roll call and then just a reminder to everybody that you need to state where you're calling from um as long as your virtual the jurisdiction that you're calling from correct sorry yes all right so stephen is not here jennifer is not here alan yes allen is here and i'm a right on 531 third street ann arbor and sarah is not here jeffrey henney uh i'm here jeff heny and i'm from ward 4 1402 henry street you don't actually need to give your addresses i mean you can if you feel like it but really just the jurisdiction so you can just say that you're in ann arbor yeah all right camila lasagna i'm here i'm calling from san carlos california rita mitchell i'm here calling in from ann arbor okay and then alice i don't think she's joined us yet uh frank wilhelm i'm here in ann arbor adam zmkay uh here but uh in port huron tonight tom crawford uh here in from ann arbor and erica brings oh and alice just is joining you know it's excellent hi ellis we're just doing roll call so if you can just say that you're here and where you're calling in from yeah i'm i'm here i'm in ann arbor i'm um is that enough i'm still trying to get my picture on i i did i couldn't get on uh for the past five minutes so not a problem uh take your time and i think that takes care of roll call um you all uh should have seen the agenda uh heather posted it up on lechester um can we have an approval a motion to approve the agenda motion uh to approve the agenda uh second well second okay uh all in favor say aye are we all right any opposed all right um approval of last meetings minutes um there is an attachment in the agenda uh can we have a motion to approve um could i ask a question please um i noticed that the agenda just listed a couple of items and one of them in particular we didn't talk about it all but there's no note that we didn't talk about it it's one of the items that we're on have on our agenda tonight so i'm just questioning how we're i know we talked about not having detailed minutes but this one didn't seem to help me you know if i were to look at this in the future i wouldn't know what was going on in the meeting is the item that you're referencing the exploration yeah yeah um i i guess this is a a good a good point when it comes to the you know the skeleton uh meeting minutes um certainly we can maybe um i don't believe we had to take action to continue that item if i recall correctly uh right that was right we didn't have to take it didn't address it yeah but that's that's easy enough to know it i'll note that in the future if we if it's just not talked about i'll put a note in the minutes i think that would be very helpful excellent any other questions on la the minutes from last meeting well i would i would add a a a comment we we dealt with the bylaws and we kind of had a motion to approve them in their in their fullness though i was proposing in some of the particulars that the public comment be not two minutes but be longer and as the actual public comments that we had at the beginning and the end they were all longer than two minutes and i would hope that we could maybe put on to some agenda extending that time and in the meantime have the chair be very flexible in how you read two minutes yeah i didn't time them last time so i apologize for that i am going to time them tonight but you do have the right if you do want to extend um the ability for people to talk longer you you can you can do them as the chair you can allow for that ellen i don't see any reason why we can't uh you know try and be fair uh with folks so i you know i i don't know if do we need to make it a formal adjustment to anything i i don't know that we need to um just be flexible for sure it's just important to be consistent i think so if you do allow for one you should allow it for others so um you might want to try two minutes and see how it goes and if it's not working then officially change it i hate to create paperwork but i do think it's important to set consistent expectations for people that's a fair point tom well why don't we time it tonight at two minutes and we'll see if there's uh a desire to contin to continue beyond that by several uh folks and we can adjust um any other questions about the minutes from last week or last month rather sorry all right can we have a motion to approve the minute son all right second all right sorry who moved it sorry to say again i really did yes that's okay yep um and uh all in favor of approval of the minutes uh say aye or raise your hand uh any opposed okay motion carries um uh who was the official person that seconded it i didn't kept i think allen maybe ellen the hand i saw okay there were like three for the initial motion i appreciate the enthusiasm but i do need to get a name down um and then uh public comment uh is the next item on our agenda uh heather do we have any folks on the phone i know there were two written uh pieces of uh statements that were sent in as well we do have people one person has just raised their hand so that's robert black so i'll let you speak in just a moment i am timing for two minutes so let me get that up and running did my time going okay all right robert you should be able to talk good evening robert black i'm working with and advising the initiating committee this is a written statement time for one minute and 57 seconds thank you for your willingness to listen to comments from the public this is an important process that will inform your work in shaping the commons an essential part of ann arbor's future the written communication that i submitted that was part of your information packet for this meeting has three components an overview memo suggestions for specific next steps and an example of how to structure a discussion of the physical elements of the commons the cover memo advocates for the importance of process before product this necessary groundwork the idea of a good process as in preparing the soil and gardening will lead to better results in the growth of the commons idea over time the second part of the submitted material suggests and acting on the recommendations of the center of the city task force recommendation number one is already underway recommendation number two meeting with a block partners group and recommendation number three action steps to create an active ground level public space will show progress on the comments to ann arbor voters and more importantly expand your constituency with willing partners to assist you in moving forward i spoke of the third item in your packet previously this is an example prepared by the initiating committee from findings of the task force showing one way to organize the desired physical elements of the commons this is only a place to start you have an experienced professional among your members in alice ralph who can help you with this your work tonight in defining a critical timeline of short medium and long-term goals will create a structure to build on i trust that you will discover many commonalities as you each speak your vision for the comments whatever differences may arise will provide opportunities for greater understandings and stronger alignments and form the necessary groundwork for next steps in engaging professionals in the wider ann arbor community in this exciting process best of luck and your endeavors thank you thank you robert right that was timed very well okay we have another person on the phone i'm allowing you to talk the person with the phone number three two six that ends in three two seven so you should be able to do your loops yep yeah okay if you can hear me this is jeff crockett i live at 506 east kingsley and i am here very excited about the progress on the garden which is just uh community garden which is just north of the elevator and i'm hoping that you will all come and stop by and not just look and appreciate the garden but pitch in and help with the weeding from time to time it's been a lot of work uh so one of the one of the items is just trying to water the garden and i bring from home sort of a water reel attachment and then bring it to the um commons garden and thank you uh to um council member ram lawy for providing water because we've gone about four or five times and we're doing this but we're hoping that we can get the sprinkler system from through the dda activated so we don't have to go through the effort of watering so i appreciate all the work of the other people who are working in the garden and i hope to see you out there sometime soon thank you very much thank you and that is it okay um with that we'll close out uh public comment uh start a meeting and go into any member news and updates we don't have to have updates unless we want alan and rita ellen go ahead yeah yes i've been as i think i've er said in working to uh help envision a vision of the uh what this could become uh a designer stefan trendoff had done a earlier version of the uh sense of the elements of this possibility and he has been working on a refinement of that in terms of what he's heard so far uh and i would like to see an opportunity for this uh visual uh stimulation to be presented and i have the sense that if we could have a special meeting that would help us with a kind of facilitated discussion of our various views trying to see some coherence and also an opportunity for stefan trendoff's uh visual representation to be presented so people can see it it takes about probably 10 minutes or something for him to uh explain just what is there on the on the poster with a central image and by the surrounding images so it's very interesting work he's done he's very competent inspired person so that's a new contribution to our effort and i hope we'll have the opportunity as we look ourselves to see more how will our views kind of cohere and converge that that image can be part of a special meeting that maybe we will see how do we do that probably after we look at all our individual statements which are down the agenda we'll see well we barely got started and how do we really begin to see a merger and i think that's also the kind of process that robert black was suggesting we go through with some facilitated discussion to bring us to a higher understanding of one another thank you thank you alan um rita and then frank this may be a little preemptive but i just wanted to thank councilmember briggs for her work on getting the budget funding for forty thousand dollars to get us started on some design uh planning that that we have yet to do but but it's it's a good start and it's much appreciated to show the the support of the city for this project thank you birds frank just uh to echo rita's uh thanks to to erica uh i i think uh having uh the anticipation of uh uh funding for a design and planning study sometime in the coming year in my mind underscores robert black's recommendation and echoing allen i would like to have us consider action at some point in the meeting perhaps later on the establishment of a subcommittee to bring forward a proposal for a what i'll call a work a facilitated working session program it may be one working session it may be a couple but i think with the individual inputs that we've had uh nicely capped with adam's uh late but very welcome arrival of your comments uh i think we're at a point where we do have to have facilitation and and uh work towards an alignment of our thinking uh so we can inform of the rfp that will be going out at some point to attract uh professional consultation on how we're going to develop the center of the city so um i'm proposing a the practical step of uh creating um a subcommittee that in the next month could bring forward uh a a proposal for the establishment of a facilitated working uh session program thank you frank and i know that there there is a uh an item later on the agenda around the um the formation of subcommittees and i know that several folks are interested in doing that so i think certainly however we want to structure that works as long as one of the words you said was working subcommittees you know can be really uh beneficial to this process i i would echo that uh councilman briggs providing some feedback on the is it not no okay good i think it takes a little bit of delay on this one sorry um i want thanks to um to all of you for providing some feedback last month on the resolution to counsel um and um particularly thanks to rita and frank for working with me and helping to to think through that a little bit as well as adam and um i interfaced a fair amount with heather as well so many thanks to everybody for for working to try to find put something like that forward and um i'm glad i got approved and we have some money to um hopefully work to find matching funds and um start a sort of a physical planning process thank you erica any other member updates or comments tom um yeah i had a couple people ask about where we were on um trying to clear the the the top part of the deck and as we talked previously you know one of the things we need to work through is is how the maintenance of any activity there and the liability uh if there's damage would be handled so i just want to let you know i started kind of drafting uh something so that once we work out our roles and responsibilities we uh rather than waiting for that to happen we're going ahead and drafting a a concept kind of mou that might be able to be used working with the dda on that so just be i wanted you to be aware of that you camilla would like to say something yeah no one please thank you um i realized this is all preemptive but i just wanted to volunteer my expertise in facilitating workshops it's something that we learn in planning school and it's something that i personally enjoy um so i'm very interested in in this idea of having regular facilitated um working group sessions as opposed to just one one-off um sessions and um i think that the opportunity to move away from this rigid type of schedule will be helpful for us to just spend a little bit more time thinking about ideas excellent that's very good to know too yeah super any other updates heather just a question to camilla's comment um if we were to do working working groups um that you know may or may not include additional members outside of the the council you know tbd what is the process around the public notification how how much in advance do we need to give and what are what are um you know how much of a rigid schedule do we need to adhere to ideally i like to give at least two weeks notice for people to you know if people want to come and put it on their schedule um technically it doesn't have to be that long i think it's actually only 48 hours something like that for a special meeting um but you know the longer the better okay all right um unless there are further comments we'll move on to the item that we didn't get a chance to get to uh last meeting which was the exploration of issues and solutions and i think uh it's maybe going to be a tag team of heather and tom or mostly uh tom potentially um i was not planning on speaking to to to to this i mean we provided it as a i'm happy to but um i provided a little bit of an update on on the first item which is the the deck i can provide one other update on there but this is kind of a live document that we are intending to kind of provide you for reading purposes and if you have questions we can respond to um i forgot to mention earlier the wi-fi um the city is i understand from allen that the wi-fi reach from the library was a little challenging uh the city's doing a build over the next 12 15 months or so and as we in the downtown as we do that i've asked him to incorporate uh coverage from the city through there so that's also kind of in the works are there any questions specific questions about any other aspect of that document all right council member ranks can you hear me okay um so i i had one question around um sort of the the use of the deck and um particularly wrap around the issue of the warranty um if the deck surface is um i guess some there has been some sort of damage the deck surface in any sort of way it sounds like it seems like we as a commission probably uh need pretty detailed information about exactly how the debt can be used how the structure is built in ways to help really understand how what sort of short-term and long-term um uh actions can happen on the deck so you know specifically i mean i would love to hear a presentation or have more detailed documents that we might be able to peruse that inform all of us about how exactly what the deck is built for and can be used for because i i don't want to start visioning around something like a fountain um for example and find out that's just structurally impossible or you know i want to really understand how that space can be used and i think we need more than sort of high level information to do some of this work so those are i guess some of my thoughts on that um and i it's some of the financing i guess around the um you provided some information around um the dollar amounts that of revenue um that the the service level parking is the revenue that that's bringing in and sort of the debt that that surface level parking provides i'm kind of curious we might need some more information on what that looked like in terms of revenue during covid versus you know outside of covid um you know would are there sort of mentioned that you're working with the gda about thinking about those issues but i think maybe some more specifics around around some of the revenue issues might be helpful for this group as well okay the um yeah on the revenue side um they um they'd have to speak that i remember talking to them and i i and we may want to invite them to to come and and talk um that they have i believe trying to remember whether they can identify whether what the activity is on the surface versus subsurface and uh i anyway i'll let them address that um on i'm i'm not quite sure how to how they could speak to um the use of the site i mean it really does depend on what you want to do the structure obviously was well it was built to hold in certain parts um a lot of weight um but uh understanding the potential like piercing the deck is a problem right that's that's definitely an issue um for the warranty and i think they could speak to the warranty but as far as potential uses i don't know that they'd be able to address it without an engineer kind of taking the idea back looking at it the id um you know putting soil or moisture on the deck in a permanent way that cannot that inhibits their ability to main to maintain the concrete uh coatings and things um those are things that uh would have to be explored as you come up with ideas i think so we can try to get them to respond and i think it's a good idea to invite them to give us the information that they have but it might be that we might find that we take some ideas and see if they can be vetted by an engineer it's not going to be it's going to cost some money it's going to take some time to sort through some of those let's say so adam if you'd like i uh you or i rather heather and i can work on seeing if somebody can come at the next meeting to discuss that i think that would be good um or maybe in one of these working group sessions uh too depending on how how those shakeout does seem like time there's kind of two two layers of questions if you others the things that maybe the dea can certainly answer related revenue potentially the city fans are related to what we do know about the warranty limitations but then certainly i think you've identified the the bucket of questions that we need to have uh engineering support on you know based on hypothetical situations so maybe we'll we can start a collection of those ideas from members here tonight and uh and and pull those together uh to get some engineering advice okay um there are there are several folks with hands i think it's frank then alan then alice um i i wonder if the uh of the document from which we're selecting items to talk about uh that was on the agenda last time which is on the agenda this time can that be put up so we can see that you um i used to have a photographic memory but either if you like i can try to do that if your hands are you got it okay i got it there we go all right can everybody see that yep well so i think the first item was the parking deck uh surface and the second item was the water and restrooms yeah water and restrooms is next i guess my one question about that first item was the figure of 132 000 dollar debt associated with with the surface parking um i'm under the impression that the debt is a general debt maybe this is just a mathematical calculation based on parking spaces but that there's no specific debt attached to the surface of the lot as opposed to all the parking um you know in the various levels the debt in a city issuance um is really kind of of a bond and in doing the bond analysis here um i can double check where the dd how the dda got that but i um it's important to note that the purpose of what is built is really relevant to the way that it's accounted for and managed so the item that's come up between the dda what the dda has raised with me on this is if we're changing this from the deck from parking which is that this has been paid by the parking fund and parking system pays the debt service if it's removed from that then it would need to be covered by another source if it's the dda you know is that what is that is it their tiff fund where some pedestrian improvements have been made in roads uh work was done or is it uh the city um i mean those are the questions that they have and they um we'll have some opinions as they work through their uh committees and discussing that that they're gonna get back to me on okay thank you alan i think you're up next yeah on the surface parking that was never intended as a long-term parking lot if we hadn't had the commons the parking would have been gone long ago and something else would be there but i i did request at some point uh that we have uh the detail of the construction uh of the surface as to what a weight bearing can handle in what places and so on it would be excellent if in a subsequent meeting we could have a city engineer or the building contractor actually interpret the drawings the detail of the construction so that we all know exactly what is the structure with which we are dealing so you seem to be moving in that direction tom i i encourage that to get us the drawings that we can see and somebody who can interpret them so that if it's a question of how we protect what how the warranty functions how we could protect the lower structure how we can protect the cement uh the cement surface was never intended to be a permanent surface it would have been penetrated by whatever would be built above it in some way so how is that going to be done and what are the uh the options that we have for trees and for building a weight in terms of where the pillars are on the support structure underneath my preliminary inquiry from jill o'neal looking at those the drawings that we had is that the perimeter of the structure can support quite a more quite a deal more weight than is on it and so i think we should be great if we had a construction engineer who could actually tell us the limits and the capacity of various parts of the structure to support whatever might be called for and with different views of how it could develop well i'm not quite sure um i mean the concrete was put there as a base of a building as well i mean it was not intended to be temporary that is permanent permanent uh uh concrete but um where i'm struggling with your request and i'm trying to i'm trying to help but um when i think of how engineers respond to questions about what can go where it tends to be not if but how like like they they um for example one of the proposals for one of the buildings um if you have a building that is an office building the weight bearing is a certain sequence in a structure like that very different than a weight bearing of a more dense wall building like a residential but both can go on there with one base and they do it through engineering and transfer of weight from one location to another and so that's why i i don't know what you're looking for it's not like someone can say in this corner you can put so much weight and over here another weight if you have a solution that you're looking for a fountain or something like that they can tell you what it takes to put it there i mean engineers can figure it out generally so that's why i'm struggling with how to actually answer your question i mean we could give you some engineering drawings but um there are specialties with an engineer uh you know a structural engineer would be appropriate for one part of this discussion as with a different kind of engineer for another part so um i'm not quite sure i think i was i was thinking that the best way to address your question is to to get some ideas some general sizing and then see if we can get feedback on how to make that work how difficult that is does that make sense yeah that makes sense in terms of the longer term view of what structure and building might be on any part of that you know i appreciate the sense we just gotta ask the engineer and they'll tell us how to do it yeah rather than whether it can be done or not anything can be done and how to do it is the question and the costs and so on yeah then it becomes whether it's feasible or not um based on what efforts it would take yeah i think alice is up next okay um i'd like to be brief on this and i have to because i that's the point of not lack of information and to look back i as i recall the bonding analysis and the bonding requirements for the debt uh were challenged a bit by the amount of parking which was available to the public for public use and there as i recall there were one or two lawsuits that proceeded for some time and having it's so long ago that i would just like to make sure that there are not also um issues with the bonding that we could that we would be limited by or that there are some that we should be aware of so maybe i'm kind of lost track of where that history went but it was like so many such some percentage of the parking spaces were required to be available for public use and there was some question as to whether monthly permits for instance were included in public use and so forth so if if there's some way to kind of look back and make sure that all those kinds of issues were resolved and that we know what they were and how how it came out we would then know the financial impact on some of the changes or proposals that we might have yeah that's a good memory alice there was a lot of discussion about that i don't remember uh lawsuits but that there's just so much discussion i'm not saying there wasn't um the allocation is you know affirmed we went through a lot of discussion i think there was an audit with there's even a discussion i think with the irs about it just to make sure um and uh so so i mean we're all set there we would not the city would not allow a change of use to occur without revisiting the implications of it so for example if if the outcome of your conversation says well we'd like a cafe here or you know this over there those things will as a matter of city business be be run through all the things that we have to look at to make sure we stay legal one of the um but but i do not anticipate a change in usage based on my conversation so far with our bond attorney i do not anticipate a change of usage from parking to non-parking in and of itself to have a negative consequence to this commission moving forward it would still be public use in that respect okay yeah um can i clarify what your last statement uh was real quick and i know we have another number of other folks but when you said that you do not anticipate a change of usage to be a negative consequence to this commission you mean and you previously said you're gonna weigh the obviously the city would weigh the the revenue considerations and analyze those did you mean could you expand a little bit on your last sentence what i was trying what i was trying to say is um it does not appear that the fact that there's a bond against this is going to affect the repurposing from a use of parking to a non-parking use as long as it's public purpose okay sounds good thank you for clarifying that um i think uh rita is next thank you um well i have to say just looking over this list and thinking of our short-term discussion which is to come it feels like um each of the categories has a barrier to use for short term and so i would like us to come to an understanding about how we will deal with things like access to drinking water and restrooms if we're going to be using um the surface of the lot for short-term kinds of things the activities that we've considered or we are considering um and or it does all of what i'm pointing to in this document get addressed by the section let me see if i can get to it um the last section that is um not in the last activate the space in the near term um so if it feels like each of these items have certainly a revenue or a cost associated with them um and so that my question is because um i feel like i've been confronted many times with my own concerns and those that i've talked within the community that there's a wish to move forward with some activation and so i would like to have a solid way for us to proceed to address those short-term things that we all agree with and so so sorry uh from from my from my seat um the the biggest or the most challenging the first thing i should say i don't know whether it's big or not is really figuring out the roles of who's going to be responsible for what like once that's sorted out um a lot of this starts to become a lot easier um to figure out where we're going and if you're talking about picnic tables and benches versus um you know maybe booths and other things like that um uh i think we just start working through it right i mean it's just uh the way to solve these things is to take an idea and go at it and and and uh happy to do that um it's just the the most challenging one for me is this figuring out um the maintenance and the liability and could you amplify on the liability issue well i mean let's say um let's say someone is putting a tent up uh you know vendor tent or something up and they try to secure it somehow and it damages the surface of the deck or um you know some other damage is done um you know establishing responsibility for that is is important to do up front those are not things you want to solve later on um but and so um how would you suggest that we proceed with things that are you know they're they're on the list as as being kind of more in the future but they are things that are um requested now like the wi-fi like access to water where we've had trouble in in our garden event days using restrooms getting access to water uh well we can run down those i mean where we can you know trying not to nickel and dime this group so where we can for example we're going to put in wi-fi that's just going to take some time you've got a sub-optimal solution until then with the library uh the restrooms um i know this and i have forgotten it when the library is thinking about opening uh um but uh i thought we resolved that the blake center did have restrooms and water i i've got confirmed uh matt carpenter that they they are open and available to the public and for a short-term solution uh that strikes me as a the most viable at least until the library is open okay i just know that we had an experience where that where it was not available so at one point of time during the day during like what we consider normal hours between say nine and noon um and uh that was on a saturday so what happened up here what's interesting yeah i'm curious what happened because i'm curious what happened because uh and we can take that offline if you'd like because uh matt had said that they they were open um yeah okay well let's take it offline i'll get the details sure thanks and uh camilla thank you all thank you um i was planning on bringing this up as an idea when we talk about subcommittees but i feel like it's relevant now um so if i had to describe the main issue that our group has been facing recently it's one like how do we get started and um two also documenting all of our ideas and issues that need to be addressed you know in response to rita's concerns we spit ball a lot of ideas but we don't have a central location to put those ideas like a google drive it's all on our own uh notebooks so uh my proposal um which i'm happy to hear feedback about is to make a giant to-do list um and to rank specific tasks based on priority and um who it's assigned to such as a subcommittee the city planning office um the public et cetera and um i think moving forward in our agenda would we get to the part about roles or subcommittees it might be helpful for someone like adam to pull up a word document and just make a table with writing down our ideas first um different subcommittees and then our ideas for tasks and go from there i think that's a good idea i agree i think it's a good idea are there any more questions and i know that uh kind of per come on camilla's suggestion we're gonna you know have some items for tom to take back i'm sure we'll add to that uh here shortly are there other things right now that that you know were directly related to this document um that we didn't that we didn't get any feedback on or the folks feel is outstanding still you can always add to these things right and we'll capture that on a task list to reiterate that this is meant to be a living document just to have it on paper somewhere as a reference for the issues that we're exploring and how we're working out resolving them ellen you have your hand up yeah well uh i appreciate camilla's thought of a uh massive to-do list uh my uh effort towards short medium and long term uh was quite a bit of a to-do list yeah but in in particular i uh in the in that document or in one of those such issues and solutions i think that we need the block group of all the partners on the block to be convened because we really need to see what is the plans of the library what are the plans of the martin people how do they mesh with our own thinking and i would extend to that also that we have some liaison with the site development for the y lot across the street while that's not on our block it definitely impinges will impinge our our block as well as the uh connection with the credit union and uh that we'll probably be seeing some you know development in their own thinking and uh [Music] and likewise uh yeah the uh the uh co-op federation so i i just i know whatever the the holdups has been i think that we need to begin to invite to and convene and have a presence together of the people who are our partners on the block and uh so i hope that can move forward you know more quickly than it has and i can speak to that just a moment i've been thinking about uh trying to get that group together um i i feel like we've got a little bit more work to do here understanding the roles and responsibilities of each group will help drive you need to be able to go into a meeting like that in my view and being able to say here's how decisions are going to be made and and here are some of our priorities here's an agenda that we have that we'd like to know now if we want to just go in and ask you know what's going on with you all um you know each each group um we can do that um i don't know that everybody will be able to be um forthright with what their individual plans are given when i'm aware of some of the planning stages or thoughts that they're in but we can always do it um and that that could be a way to start uh if if that's what you're getting at that's sort of what i'm getting at that just to start and as much as we can for the people who are sharing this block with us or with whom we are sharing this block to see that we are kind of all in this mixed together and uh our plans will in some way will develop in relation to one another i think there's definitely uh certainly uh as we decide how we're gonna form and do our our work certainly i think that both points that alan and tom have made around you know the incorporation of people into that working process uh will need to identify uh erica you had your hand up too you know further on the agenda we're gonna be talking about sort of our short-term um vision for the space and hopefully coming to some some level of consensus around that um but um to mr crawford's point that it's it's sometimes helpful to have something that we're asking people to react to i do think that that is that's useful i'd also like to point out that the center of the city task force report um calls that that group is the compilation the meeting of that group um is sort of under the auspice of the city administrator bringing that group together and it's maybe one liaison from this group going and and meeting and with that body and so it's not necessarily us as a body meeting um with that group i think we have to be very conscious of they're obviously very can all the stakeholders i assume are very concerned about are interested in what it in how this space proceeds um but they are also focused on their own efforts and endeavors um so we have to be careful about how to use their time and to use it wisely um to return to um rita's point about how to sort of move forward with short-term you know the activation of the space um mr crawford you mentioned about sort of maintenance liability who's going to be responsible being the primary issue i do think that's a it's a challenging issue for us to resolve because we're kind of working outside of the models of who might traditionally be responsible for something like this and so you know this is not there is part of the space that um is park space and we need to be conscientious i think that we're gonna have to interface with with pack on on as we discuss that so we have one potential responsible party for thinking about what happens there but um top of the parking lot is obviously that's traditionally republic parking but that's we're talking about efforts that would not be within their purview of activities so and um you know the dda is not thinking about this necessarily as is their responsibility so i don't that that sort of leaves us with this city organization broadly as a responsible party and yet the traditional departments that might handle this are not um would not be engaged so i don't i don't know how we exactly resolve that if we're talking about activating the space um in the short term with as we move into this discussion i guess we can have a discussion around what we think about that short term vision might be and then maybe that leads us to thinking about the responsible parties but it does seem like we're we're stuck a little bit in a circle on this one um it is it's a bit difficult for us to resolve maybe with the traditional operating parties so i don't know we may have i'm not sure how maybe you can provide a greater guidance to us on that later in the discussion i think i definitely think uh one part you just identified erica around maybe creating a vision and then having that lead us to who the stakeholders may be um seems to make a lot of sense to me i think we've got frank then alan i i just wanted to support the notion i guess of bringing the block partners together uh because we we're sort of circling in different orbits uh they don't they're not informed where we are in the process and we have other than you know two year ago conversations with the martins and um the uh credit union and so on uh and a few other uh uh land landlords on the block i think would just be uh useful to engage them we may we may find uh some advice and some uh insights that they have that uh will really inform us and and vice versa um so i would encourage uh at least an initial meeting and um i think one idea that has been floating around is maybe not regular meetings of all the block partners but find ways to integrate black partners based on their interest into some of the subcommittees that we're going to be forming so that they're attached and feeling uh part of the part of the conversation as as things begin to emerge that's just my thinking at this point sure definitely um and i know those conversations you just alluded to certainly have been you know popping up i think of interest uh alan yeah as this endeavor evolved with the resolution to recognize the initiating committee as doers in this situation i have presumed that when we actually are permitted to be doing that the initiating committee will be the assume the responsibility for the clean up maintenance whatever it is that now would be assumed by republic parking or by the dda or that we would share that in some cooperative way as we are undertaking to do the gardening in those areas where we are so and i think that's in the short term and longer term i think that we will be creating some management uh group that undertakes the integration of all this space and joins together what now is the dda republic parking park commission and initiating committee in some new conservancy that actually is managing this but in the short run i'm assuming that there yeah when when the initiating committee is permitted to do stuff on the lot that we will be uh assuming that responsibility and we need to see exactly how that is to be specified that is different from assuming the liability insurance or whatever which i would assume would be under the city of blanket insurance or we have to figure out how that is done when there's some special program in the past rather than just passive use of a park space then there needs to be or has been required to be a insurance for that particular program but anyhow the i think the initiating committee has a job to take care of things when other elements are withdrawing from their supervision but such as the dda and republic parking i uh ellen i'm not so sure i totally agree with uh where you're where you're going on the initiating committee assuming a lot of the responsibility is a city-owned property and i think the city probably has a little bit more of a coordinating role in my in my view at least um but um but you know i think we can we can get into that and tom tom raised his hand too yeah i mean um so i mean allen's been been mr aber's been saying this for a while uh you know his view and i think he's familiar with how the city um uh allows people to use the space in an organized way with permits and insurance and all that and um you know i think that you know as as into what councilmember briggs was bringing up earlier you know i think i think it's useful to to really this is the hard part in my view because it uh we have to be careful about not getting into a situation i think of of where there are perverse incentives if say for example the city or the dda were responsible for for cleaning or liability or whatever just for purposes of this discussion and yet there was a a a commoning effort of just people being able to use the space in some creative way something fun and then something happens you actually have the the the the user not have any accountability for their actions and and and transferring a pr uh i'm saying a private use but a a group's use to the public and that is a little bit different than we might do with the um that seems very different to me than the way that we're handling parks even in parks if you're wanting to organize something or do something there we have all these things to go through so i think you know i don't have the answer here i think it's this is a good discussion to have um and this may be one we want to take offline because it's one of the harder nuts to crack fair enough are there uh are there other items specifically related to this agenda item uh because i do want to i want to be conscious it's 8 o'clock right now um i think this next agenda item around the individual visioning is going to take some time here but it seems like what we're doing right now is kind of going into role definition and things and certainly the visioning can inform some of that but also this conversation clearly can inform some of that too so i'd like to make a suggestion that maybe what we try and do is limit our explanation to a short period of time shorter period of time we set a time around our visioning and then we can continue that that way we make sure that we cover a discussion around roles and next agenda items in the formation of subcommittees because i feels like from the the momentum that those items have from folks here that's really important to get started uh on and so i would like to suggest that we we try and be conscious of a shorter period of time around the next agenda item that's okay okay um so without any more discussion on on the previous uh item we can move into a discussion around individual visions um maybe if uh if we wanna everybody has the documentation um and so so certainly can reference it in the future but it probably would be helpful for each author to provide a little context so maybe if we want to try and take a couple of minutes a piece um that you know that could get us to uh some explanation does that sound fair okay uh who would like to go first we can go in the order they're listed on the agenda too alice you had your hand up i think we need to have you unmute i'll start i'll start because uh i'll i'll admit that i had quite a bit of trouble deciding how i viewed the whole short-term intermediate and long-term things but i realized that one reason i was having trouble is that i didn't have the information the kind of information that we're talking about right now but what do we know about our opportunities and limitations and so forth so i i think i i did get a look at adams at the last minute i had a week um and um but i did look at that and i i think there may be other similar threads um among our visions and all of them i suspect may depend on the kind of information we can gather as sort of our our sounding board you know okay this is a good idea because we have this information that shows that we don't have far to go to get that done that's a short term and and so forth with the intermediate and long term so that's my my uh my version of the vision was very um skeletal but based on the information that we need and that we have both so that's what i have to say thanks girls i'll go if you like real quick so you know there's kind of a connection between what i'd like to see in the process that we need to go through because as alice pointed out there's information that we need and we need also to have a process of working together but i'm most concerned about uh well my first point was that we should engage right away with the liberty plaza community because i think we tend to forget about liberty plaza in focusing on the library a lot and there's a lot of issues there and it it's also important to to engage with the people who uh are involved with that area um not only the the the inhabitants if we can use that term but also the people that service them so that was an important consideration and we um also i think we've got to get these working groups moving quickly because otherwise it'll just be months and months and months because we only have a meeting once a month uh in our group and it's going to be another month before we have another one if we don't have these working groups working during this month you know the summer will be gone before we know it and nothing really will have happened so i think working groups um need to be in place and working you know within the next 30 days um also i think the facilitation we need that facilitator uh getting everybody's vision sort of integrated as robert pointed out you know there's probably a lot of overlap i mean i know there's a lot of overlap because i looked at other people's work and mine and and there's an enormous amount of overlap and i think that um camilla was very generous in offering her her skills to maybe work with us on that maybe she could work with also maybe robert might be useful or somebody else um but appreciate very much camilla uh offering this and i think she recognized probably having looked at that stuff very much why she brought it up that there's this commonality there the patterns if you like that we need to put in place um so the facilitation needs to happen also very quickly otherwise it'll be forever before we get our common direction going um the uh we've already talked about convening meetings of of the uh uh library lot and liberty plaza partners and that needs to happen you know at least a preliminary in a preliminary way again in within the next 30 days from my perspective and then we need to start deploying some removable resources um you know um hopefully in line with what comes from the facilitation and the initial meeting with you know block partners uh that can show that activity is happening you know that the the booths the maybe a a temporary fountain that can be moved around that can be fed by water from a from a hose or something like that and some chairs and tables and you know maybe chess boards you know like a lot of european cities they have that kind of thing a lot of people have spoken to me about this and said get out there and get us engaged allow us to come and mingle with each other doing stuff and you know it's it's not rocket science or that difficult to do these temporary structures and get them and put them in place so people can mingle and do things but again it comes back to this let's have a facilitated meeting to agree you know the sort of things that we want to have in place uh you know a lot of people have offered stuff alan actually has a very detailed uh outline i think that that's one that could be our starting point to speak to camilla's you know big list i think alan's item is good i'll i'll finish by just saying that um you know because i put a bunch of things down here but um and over the medium term you know i put some dollar amounts too i mean people are scared of putting numbers down i think we ought to start thinking in terms of what are we really talking about and i'm thinking that we need to have from our you know from private sources about four hundred thousand dollars by the end of the year and hopefully some matching money with that maybe five million dollars over the next couple of years and 20 million by five years that's the kind of order of magnitude that you see happening in other cities around the country and and that's a minimum we could we could probably spend a lot more than that and get a lot more than that because this is going to be the heart of our heart of our city and it's going to be telling the world a lot about what our city is all about and i'll end by just saying that um there's some examples in other cities around the world and in the tradition of commoning and the tradition of eco villages and urban eco-cooperatives that we can get information from that way that's my my quick vision thanks thanks jeff uh erica and then frank i think both had their hands up um yeah i appreciated reading everybody's um sort of different visions for the space and got me thinking about a lot of different pieces i appreciated um heather seeing you kind of put that together kind of in a in a timeline of of of phases that we might go through um it seems pretty clear that we've you know there's there's this desire for us to to learn um and and and also to activate the space um i think uh in the short term um for my from my part i um hearing as much as we want to activate the space there actually are a number of challenges that we have to work our way through to make to make that happen on their they're simply this issue of maintenance and liability is is pretty large from the city's eye and so as much as folks want to get the space activated our responsibilities as as a group is to figure out how to make that happen in a way that is um is responsible um and so it may not as much as folks want to see things happen immediately i think we have to to work within those work with that when it comes to the library lot the space that we do have and available um immediately is liberty square plaza um the challenge that we have as more as a commission is that's not there's actually another commission that's set up to to oversee that space um and that's pac and so um i do think that we we need to figure out how we're we're interfacing with them um because we can come up dream up a lot of different ideas but we're we're dealing with you know limited resources and we have to figure out how we how we integrate that um from i also think i as much as i appreciate hearing everybody's visions and views on this um i i want to make sure that we're building upon the work that's already been done from the task force before us and so i i don't know that it is necessarily that helpful to have us spend lots of time figuring out what our vision is for the space because we've already gone out to the community and asked them what their vision is for the space and we have that we've done a couple of we've done quite a bit of work on that and so what i'd like to do is utilize that to be able to move us forward towards solving some of these short-term issues and really utilizing some of the money that we have available to us and figuring out how we we complement that um to start working towards a physical plan so that we have some you know we know what our long-term plan is for the space um so i had a hard time figuring out what short-term midterm and long-term is i think folks had different you know different um different buckets but that might be something we we might at least want to know what we're what time frame we're all thinking about in the short term um that might be a nice thing that work comes out of at least tonight's meeting frank do you want to go you're muted frank you're needed yep sorry um just uh following on from what erica just said i i think we did try to reach back to the task force and uh was my first journey through the appendices my god there's a lot of information there and we we pulled out you know a selection of quotes to from people who responded to the various questionnaires what they're what they were looking for and then there was an interesting uh ranking of activities um that people wanted to see uh on the uh on the site and i think those informed us as we and we thought probably as much about short term because it it seems more definable than intermediate and long term and in the midst of this we went from hope of very little hope of any funding to having resources that we can begin to deploy on some planning and design work into the next fiscal year and so i i don't want to speak for rita but i think we saw uh the immediate activation of what might be possible let's say in the next six months the balance of uh 2021 is kind of our a place to experiment a bit which will inform the intermediate planning and the longer term planning we might get some some interesting notions as we attempt to deploy some activities and events in these locations i think one thing we need to do is be sure that all the public land on the block are part of the the park's next five-year study because one of my hopes i don't know if i'm smoking the legal stuff now but my hope is that um this all will be viewed as parkland at some point it's it's really uh uh not i think not a productive planning device to have this land divided into a couple different categories as we as we think about a unified plan and that was we really i think reed and i both emphasized to each other we need to think about liberty plaza the top of the parking structure in library lane is a unified uh parcel in terms of planning over the intermediate and longer term um on fundraising uh i i was rocked a bit jeff by your numbers uh my experience is you you you build numbers based on uh the vision and the elements of the vision that come into into shape over time and so i can't relate to the the 5 million the 20 million because i don't know what they attach themselves to but we can work that all through over time rita i don't want to deny you the microphone here well um no i think that was a good summary um i just would say that i do feel it's essential to link up with what i'm what i call the block partners um in what i've read of other cities the community as represented by the businesses and and other organizations around these kinds of things do participate in some way and i think that we'll find some strength in that and and some ideas that could be really fun um that's what i'm hoping for um so i think i'll stop at that so we don't i might i might just comment uh i i think in sarah hammersmith was helpful to us and and understanding something that should be obvious that the business partners the block partners uh really want to draw economic benefit from whatever happens here and so all the more reason we we need to begin to have conversations to understand what what their vision and what they potentially see as a benefit to what we're attempting to do here it seems like we're kind of operating a bit in a vacuum um maybe they're listening in tonight one could hope but i think we need to actively pursue the conversations with the business community and the block partners specifically and i'd like to just add one thing um i i do want to have a good conversation um with well with everybody um but i think that parks provides us with a certain kind of structure and set of existing rules i'll call them that may be useful to us at least as a model if we are not you know i don't know where we'll end up in our association with parks but but there are structures in that system that are recognized by the community that we can rely on and i think consistency is a good thing camilla would you like to go or would you like me to go i'll go um so i just want to highlight my concerns about equity and justice in this visioning process uh one of my greatest fears is creating a space for your stereotypical ann arbor white county and to exclude uh racially diverse communities in particular and i um i want to amplify the difference between equality and equity quality being trading on treating everyone the same and equity being fairness and access um for instance like even putting out an open call for public comment is flawed and doesn't reach um every community equally um so just i think that goes back to erica's point about it's not really it doesn't really matter what our individual visions are for this space um we've been brought to this committee to focus on the vision um the greater vision of the ann arbor community definitely um and so i'll uh i'll wrap things up by just saying i think that um i think that in the in the short and intermediate terms um we need to understand what while while we are working through what this is going to be and who is going to manage it long term um and and really you know what the spaces are i agree with some of the sediments that have been previously shared around linking liberty plaza and the the common space much more directly on a long-term basis but certainly in the short and intermediate term uh coming to an understanding of what the the coordinated who's going to coordinate use um what the management of that space is uh from some of the uh points that tom has previously brought up um but also then how the how the public is engaged and how we let the public know how to engage in in the use of the space uh during that time period i feel like that's very important that we have a planning portion of that i do think for the activation in the short and intermediate term phases it's really important that be much more planned than left to be organic i fear that that allowing the space to simply be open um uh without any sort of coordinated uh reach out effort um is is going to lead to it being vacant quite uh and so i feel like a lot of the ideas around activating on a very deliberate basis are are things that drew me to the short and intermediate um ideas i think from a long-term standpoint um i think a master plan really needs to be developed um and maybe some of that couldn't be started with this group but certainly uh shouldn't include the block partners and really that is sort of the basis for i think the the long-term planning period um and so um you know i think we should start that process now frankly um and that will lead us to uh the ability to select a design partner uh at some time in a not too distant future who really you know can professionally do this in least ways better than i can um and so i feel like it's a it's an all overlapping process um we start with that long-term vision that's really what brought this council uh to creation to begin with and the rest of the the things in the short and intermediate terms are more to show the community what could what can happen make sure they're engaged in providing feedback and creating a process so that the space is utilized for something other than what it's used for right now uh and also utilized for something such that it's not just left uh to be to be potentially um not used for anything i think that would be the ultimate um failure frankly if we locked it off and and uh and then it wasn't used for anything so i feel like planned activation is important really important in the short and intermediate phase but then certainly all of this goes into the the long-term vision and um i agree with i think it was erica that brought up that we cannot we there's already been a ton of work in my in my brief uh review of of how long it took other communities to plan parks i felt like we already had a jump on some of that with all of the work that the task force had done and that community outreach envisioning and i think it would we really uh need to honor that and make sure that that's part of this time period otherwise it's going to take a long time to reinvent the wheel on it and frankly i think it's it does a disservice to all of that work and so so that's that's what i would say i would say we need to set up a management process a coordinated use process a way to engage the community in the short immediate term me short and intermediate term uh usage and then simultaneously we need to start planning this this long-term path to a design firm right away well i want to uh move in i've i've listened to this and i have a lots of agreement though my main observation is this is a urban central park and civic center commons and except for you adam one time saying common space commons was not mentioned by anyone my uh uh document began with education what is the commons and it is something about which most of us know very little the task force by the time they were done with seven months had enough understanding to say yes we are for the commons and included in the task force report was some reference to the commons and commoning and the commons does not exist without commenting commoning is the relationship that produces a space that is self-managed self-governing and it is as tom and i had a little exchange maybe in a previous meeting different from the way the city normally operates which is a top-down direction whereas the commons is creating a social organization of people who find needs for mutual benefit except mutual responsibility and have a mutual respect uh camilla's statement very important is this is about equity how do we really include the community of ann arbor in the design and feeling of possession of the potential of this space and participation in its creation and the outreach to the community to have engagement and opportunity to put vision into it is very important but the first part is really what is getting ourselves some sense of what is this commoning all about and it is not the usual way of doing things now beyond that in the uh multi-element effort i made of short medium and long term and i tried to lay out the elements that were addressed in the task force and then subsequent work looking towards this as potentially some kind of eco village that really had a vision of how a community more broadly is developed in a way that is beneficial and relating to the world as a whole and heather today which i appreciate sent out a report from the network for the culture of peace that the culture of peace is essential in what we are doing and we need to have that sense of what is the culture we are trying to create that is different from how the lawn chairs are arranged that is very important and we need a plan of how actually to do this doing but the social organization and how we are creating a culture in the center of the city that is really a inspiration for the community that people's best ideals can go into that's what seems very essential and i hope that a facilitated discussion could help bring out that element of our various thinkings to see what is the substance that we are endeavoring to bring forward apart from this physical elements and uh i hope that you will uh take the the time and focus to look through those uh that outline and the many elements that i tried to identify as part of how this might develop and i would say that in my picture we are creating a surface level park area including liberty plaza and the surface of the parking lot we are seeking to to subordinate the automobile and elevate the people of increased public uh space build some sort of balcony terrace over where the cars are create a civic center building that could connect with the future library or the present library and and some passageway between the liberty plaza and the uh library lot that involves uh the martin either initially some uh oh look at that puppy yes initially some bridge over their parking lot but ideally through their building a arcade like the nichols arcade of commercial space they would integrate the two elements of our space that's a long-term vision and it is a multi-million dollar vision but it could be developed with a sense of the culture and the participation something that would be very attractive to the richness of this community and there's a lot of money in ann arbor i don't think the money is as much the problem whether it's five twenty or or a hundred million dollars it is what is the vision and how do we make it something that really has a participation in a culture that is elevating so that's what i want to put into this and i hope that people will see as part of our task on this council of the commons to educate ourselves and me is more as much as everyone else what really is the commons what is this about is a movement all over the world of cities trying to have a different sense of their municipal organization the donor economy that's been developed out of england and now spreading all over the world the sense of eco villages of how a community is resonant with the needs of the transformation of the whole culture of of quran's society if we are to survive these times of their massive transformation anyhow that's where i just want to put in and i hope that facilitated discussion could really bring that more to the surface and see that the physical elements that we are working with are really derivative from the participation of commoning and the creation of the cultural uh cohesion in the in the town that's that's a high ideal that's higher than the high rise all right thank you alan uh frank you had your hand up here oh thank you alan uh i uh i'm looking at the clock and now we've got more uh important things to do before we before we end tonight so i um i don't know if it's moving on to subcommittees or exactly what but um think i'd like to if it's if it's fine uh with the group we do we sort of uh separated out roles and subcommittees but it seems like frankly um maybe some of that should be talked about together um do we want to combine a discussion around roles in subcommittees about how we're going to move forward and who needs to be involved i i like that idea okay i don't know about everybody else but i agree we do i agree with that okay okay so it seems like you know we've had an opportunity to share uh visions obviously they're all documented we can come back and reference them why don't we do an organic discussion around how we take these first steps and then how they lead into the next steps the next steps um you know we sort of centered around this we need immediate things and then we have longer term things uh as well and it does appear that they are quite different given the the way the space is set up right now so you know what what are some ideas and then how do how do we as a body do actually take that work alan you your hand was up first go ahead well i i hope that we can continue with the gardening and get more people involved i think we need to have some specific activities it would be excellent if we could have something on june 18th which is now a city holiday if we could have the end of the fourth of july parade and on the commons and see that as a gathering point with the junior chamber of commerce that we could see the art fair which is now back online to have some presentation some engagement of the commons as part of the art fair rather than as a parking lot for the fans and so on and uh looking forward to seeing september 21 as peace day is an activity so looking at some public activities there that people could participate in and activate the space then in in addition i'd like to see you know the cars off however we can do that and some chairs and tables and so on but i think some activities that begin to draw people there and invite the different elements of the community to do do formal activities the way that's been done before a lot more but that's that is one start of some something the program committee to look at those possibilities uh frank let's see yeah um i agree with alan i i think maybe the way to to activate the site in the next whatever it is six months to a year maybe around activities as opposed to you know passive benches and and tables uh i think those can be there when there are elem events being sponsored we need a way to introduce community groups the art fair the end of the parade juneteenth whatever it is and we need a small sales force to begin to really uh engage community groups that will then begin to think about this as a site um because when you have organized activities you have a protocol you have a process and allen's familiar with it but we we need to spread that out among other groups um i i keep coming back to i guess the vehicle that i think will help move us forward is this facilitated uh working session program where uh and i i on the screen here i looked at camilla and i looked to heather as people who i'm assuming camilla says she has and i i've been told that heather has has this background as well um we need this facilitated process to take all the input that we have from the task force our impressions um from the assignment that heather gave us i think we're ready for this facilitation um and you know over the over the next few months and what what what is the vehicle to get us there i i don't know if my idea of a a subcommittee that would bring bring together a proposal for this or whether we should turn this over to heather and camilla to um you're the experts uh or maybe it's a combination uh maybe heather and camilla co-chairing and getting a few more of us involved to flesh this thing out i'm getting excited here as we as we uh as i talk about it uh but um i see where on the i feel like we're on the cusp of of grabbing hold of this idea and having this facilitated process be the vehicle that kind of drives us to the next stage here uh before uh i turn it over to jeff just to clarify frank when you say this process this uh a lot are you referring to basically an uh uh the this first phase is phases uh well um i think it's more than that i i i've been following robert black's uh descriptions of of this process and i think in his community written communication tonight he goes into some considerable detail so that that's my my reference point it it would be more than uh looking at short-term uh activation i think would be uh looking to at least informing uh how we approach professional uh consultants about the planning that i think erica has been been referring to and is so wonderfully uh led the led the charge to get some funding available so i i don't want to limit it to the uh for the short term at all okay uh jeff yeah i i i agree with what you're saying um but i'm still concerned about the this drifting over a long period of time and i would like to see perhaps camilla and and and heather actually put their heads together with whoever else and within this next 30 days between this meeting or 28 or whatever is between this meeting and next that that facilitation takes place the actual facilitation meeting takes place and we come to some you know we establish as a result of that facilitation exercise some working groups and some direction and we not just you know plan to think about when we're going to do this facilitation down the road it needs to happen immediately or very quickly otherwise we're going to be drifting all summer in my opinion i apologize for being a little bit of assertive here but and i do agree with most of the comments that were made earlier thank you alan yeah echo i would like to see us and put forward before the that we have before the end of the month a facilitated discussion to bring our various views together i'd be glad if camilla wants to be part of that if heather wants to be part of that i would urge that robert black be you engaged in that yeah and uh he is a pro in this uh kind of work for a lifetime and that we need to do exactly what jeffrey just said get us together and get some focus in how we are moving forward and that should be done sooner rather than later we have if we could give a two-week lead for a meeting we could have a meeting on the 20-something of the of june and uh and take to see that is to take the next step and probably it will lead to the central we need another facilitated discussion who else could be brought in begin to look at the other talent that is in town that could help in this and that's what i uh there's any room when we for a motion i would say that out of this discussion should be a call for a special meeting within the next two weeks before the end of the month to uh have a facilitated discussion and that heather and camilla and robert should consult on how best to do that and if there's somebody else that should be drawn in as a facilitator uh that would all be to the good and that we should get ourselves together to the next step and see the big picture as it develops out of the immediate steps so i'm all in favor of a facilitated discussion i do think that it would probably be a good idea to and certainly camilla and heather leading it i i think i concur with the sentiments there if they're uh willing and but i do think it would be helpful if we identified sort of what the obviously if it's going to be facilitated you know part of the goals come out of that facilitated discussion but you know some idea of what we want to to come out of that i i i fear if we go in completely blank slate that we're going to create another meeting that's facilitated but uh it's going to be another meeting and i don't want to see us you know drift like that with just more meetings well i think we go in with the documents that we've put together so far is certainly one point and what are the one two three steps that you see need to be to follow from this and perhaps that will help form what is the next agenda for our july first meeting camilla you've got your hand up please feel free thank you yeah i think um i propose that heather and i chat offline to figure out next steps um i agree that there should be um some working group session before our july meeting and because we have to notify the public sooner rather than later it might make sense to just decide now the time and date um so we don't have to go through long email chains definitely heather there are just a couple thoughts that i have on this um one thing to that i think we need to keep focused on is that this group is an advisory body so this work would be focused on how you get to the end point of developing a set of recommendations to city council um so the starting point i i think is about learning this uh this graphic that i put up earlier and i'll share it again this was my attempt to consolidate everything that was put in your visioning exercise um which was incredibly hard to do which is kind of a good problem to have because all of you were so thoughtful and had a lot to say and you had a lot of ideas going on so this is a very very generalized overview but i think if we can find agreement on these common threads about this is generally the direction that we go in then we can get to the details and i see it starting with learning there's a lot of unanswered questions and things that i i feel like this group really wants to know so that might be a place where we um really have a discussion around and see what we can do to bring everybody to the place where they feel like they have enough information to start making recommendations um and then getting into this activation of space that seemed to be the number two item on the agenda is really really you know getting the space moving but again it would be you providing recommendations on how to activate the space to city council so i just want to keep that in mind i know that's a little bit of a debbie downer message because everybody's so energized and wants to actually get out there and start doing things and putting things out there but it's really developing a set of recommendations to city council the other thing i just want to just um bring up as a word of caution with camilla camilla i want you to have this experience with facilitating as an up-and-coming planning planner but i don't want your voice to be overshadowed sometimes it's hard to facilitate and be a member of the group as well so i think you and i just need to work out finding that balance so when there's times where you really want to participate as a group then i can take over with facilitation but anyway we'll just we can talk about that later all right uh jeff had your hand up you muted yourself i think actually commuted yes if you're muted yeah can you hear me now yep yeah so from my perspective i agree with what's just been said i think that's great and heather's diagram is is super and i agree that the the the task force recommendations are kind of a core and you know i was involved you know as an advisor in the task force so i you know i totally agree with that um whatever other ideas have been brought to the party that's great from everybody else here uh but at the end of the day from my perspective what i'd like to see come out of this facilitated meeting is um working groups on specific items in other words we we identify those working groups in this facilitated process and then recommend that they be established and then we we vote to have them established or we we cut some of them or we add some but let's let's have that so that people can other people can be brought in from the outside like we've said we need a more representative or that we need you know more community input as camilla said you know the task force recommendations were great but that wasn't necessarily the whole community it was a significant part of the community what wasn't the whole community so that's a way of doing it getting these working groups going and bringing people in from the outside as i was in the task force uh even though i'm a you know an older white guy unfortunately um and um the second thing is i i think what we need that needs to come out of this uh facilitated meeting is recommendations on what specifically um is going to happen in the short term uh that you know some very specific things and ways to that we feel to overcome the issues that are still out there so those two things i think would be oh sorry and the third thing is that facilitated process should also uh result in a recommendation about where and when and with who these block partners are going to come together so that's my 10 cents worth thanks okay so uh erica yeah please concur that if we're going to have a facilitated process and we definitely definitely want to make sure we understand what we want to get out of that i think part of the goal of this meeting was to try to come to it and bring our visions and and have some consensus around what our short-term midterm and long-term vision was and i i don't know i don't see us getting there i think we've each put a little something on the table and um we're it's just sitting there and it's not coming together as a recommendation about how we should move forward um so that that might be helpful if we are getting together to really just focus very much on the on the short term um and then um sorry i have oh for the july meeting what i would recommend um out of that bubble of learning i think while i think it's great that we're having a lot of discussions i think it might be helpful to just have us presented to for a meeting with information from partners that have more information than we do um so if we could get information from parks if we get information from the dda you know and that's we just learn for a meeting um some um from my perspective that would be helpful to move us forward especially um and maybe maybe voting on exactly what we're going to do for um out of that if if we've been able to achieve a facilitated session before the next one that does seem ambitious to me in the next month even though we want to do it but if we if we are able to get there then um maybe we can take some action on that quickly so i definitely like the idea that you just presented erica about a learning session certainly we've put a lot of questions to tom um that are gonna require additional um feedback and certainly we could utilize that july meeting to to help do what you just said um you know with regard to some of those questions probably plus more that could come up during a facilitated discussion um i think uh camilla's point around setting a date on this now is a good one if we're serious about doing this as you know within the next 30 days uh and so the thing that obviously uh does limit us is i think we want to be cognizant of the fact that we're going to ask heather and potentially camilla to help go through that process and i think we want to be cognizant of if they have the time to do that in you know two weeks or so is that something that is possible because we're going to base what our july meeting agenda looks like on this in part which we would uh i would imagine is are we setting ourselves up for something that can't be achieved so all right heather camilla please feel free yeah i have the capacity um also when we're voting we just need to remember that we're missing three um members of our committee today definitely i think it really depends on everybody's schedule because i do have some i assume this would need to be an evening meeting and so i do have a number of nights that are filled up with other evening meetings so it's just a matter of if we can get everybody's schedules aligned ella i propose thursday september june 24th for a facilitated discussion and that we ask if he is available robert black to help in that with hender with camilla with other suggestions but that is a possible date and that people can check their calendars whether that can possibly work that date works for me um works for me can i can i ask um yeah can i ask uh how how how that works i mean that leaves us a weak or agenda formation i mean is that correct i mean can we do this uh by i mean can we do this by july 24 june 24th but before june 24th i mean it seems like there's not enough time i i would uh alice the the one thing about this that i would think is that um if i i would think that we probably need to allow heather and camilla a little more time absolutely yeah and that is is there that time is is it there this is uh what is this date this is the third yeah it's like three weeks basically yeah and we usually publish our agenda but by the way before i mean the the one thing that could come of this though is that you know we adopted a process at the last meeting that we're gonna uh publish the agenda we're gonna build the agenda out based on the previous meeting if we're having an interim discussion that is a public meeting and um and so we could utilize that opportunity to to finalize the agenda for the july 1 meeting okay good idea so that way we don't have to do it tonight we have an item that council member briggs proposed that does make sense regardless of what comes out of facility discussion action items um that we can put on for the july one right now but then we can build out the rest based on that facilitated discussion all right like just so you know i have a meeting conflict that night okay um what if we tried the previous thursday the 17th looks like it's sort of a catch 22.

um mark sismar all right okay let's call this meeting to order due to the covet 19 health emergency and in order for the board of education to conduct its business this board meeting is being held via video conference and streamed live on youtube on the district website at www.ebnet.org 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 roll mr carangelo mrs chu here mr sismar here mrs guas here mr hong kia mrs lex here mrs reese yeah mr winston here president becker here we have a quorum please rise to salute the flag i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states indivisible with liberty and justice for all the new jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies in accordance with the provisions of this act the east brunswick board 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 ledger 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 broadcasts and individuals who speak at the board's public meetings should be aware of these videotaping rules good evening thank you for joining us tonight we're going to start off with the superintendent's report dr valesky thank you president becker and good evening everyone uh the science honor society held its 10th induction ceremony on thursday may 27th 23 students received their second year honor cords and 17 students received their first year pins and i was a pleasure to join them that night on wednesday june 2nd the national honor society that was last night by the way hosted their annual induction ceremony on the j doyle field at east brunswick high school 131 students including one of the sons of our own board members robbie reese were inducted during the first ever outdoor ceremony based on their scholarship leadership service and character in the east brunswick community so congratulations to all of them the east brunswick music department has begun its spring concert series unlike the winter when all concerts were filmed in a completely virtual manner teachers have now used a combination of live rehearsal footage and virtual performances to create their video productions all videos can be found at ebnet.org arts with an s education the east brunswick public school district was recognized on may 31st through a news story that ran on nj spotlight tv the piece highlighted the excellence that east brunswick has been able to maintain in their arts programs throughout the pandemic in ways in which we are starting to safely return students to live performances the story included footage from a recent successful three evenings of live performances by the ebh drama club at the community arts center with their production of the sondheim under the stars in addition to performances by our high school band and elementary district orchestra both students and staff were interviewed and featured in the news story additionally the east brunswick video also highlighted in a larger digital print story the importance of arts in school as we return from the pandemic and this article and video can be found on the arts education page of our district website under current events and a few important dates just a reminder it's hard to believe the last day of school for students and teachers is friday june 18th and graduation will also be held on friday june 18th right on our own j doyle field at east brunswick high school and we have ordered great weather for the event thank you thank you dr valesky a lot of people i know in town who grew up in east brunswick um have reached out to me and said that while their own children some of their own children graduated uh in trenton and the sun center arena they really are happy to see return to the football field for them it represents east brunswick and um i'm just thrilled as we all are that we're all going to be together and able to do this uh i think i think some of our own alum on the board may have graduated on that field as well i do too um i and they have mentioned it um but i just wanted everyone to know that i've been hearing from members of the community um who just expressed their um joy at seeing it on the football field i also wanted to just piggyback on what you said dr valesky uh congratulate our entire arts department um we have talked many times about no one can underestimate the importance of arts at any time but especially during times of trouble and crisis it is a place for people to seek comfort and solace it is a place for children to find a niche that will bring them comfort and solace i know that a cry has gone up around the tri-state area the news that broadway's coming back in september but there's a whole lot more to the arts in broadway and we um we are very proud to support our arts program here now this brings us to the good of the cause for the public members of the public may provide comment at this meeting by entering the url meeting id and password you see before you on the screen in order to be recognized use the chat feature select the zoom meeting host then enter and send your name to the host you will be recognized to speak when your name is called and individuals will be invited to speak in the order in which we have received your request the board of education recognizes the value of public comment and educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interests participants will be limited to three minute duration each is there anyone wishing to speak to the board tonight uh we have no one in the queue mrs becker okay seeing none i close the public portion and now we're going to move on to one of this board's favorite things to do and that is to honor by resolution and recognition of appreciation people in our district normally this time of the year we'd be having a meeting where we'd be doing in person 2021 staff and support staff honorees we wanted to send a special member to our honorees this year a special special message we're not able to honor you in person again in true east brunswick fashion however we adapt and my fellow board members and i cannot possibly end the year without noting your achievements during the school year please know we are making plans for proper celebration once we are able to do so in person we are now going to go round robin and announce the honorees at each school for this year and we are going to start off with bal monroe i am pleased to recognize bow monroe's teacher of the year for 2021 alyssa d tommaso alyssa has worked as a special educator and media specialist since joining our district in 2015 and our support staff winner cedric johnson a dedicated head custodian who began his career at shidduck school in 2017.

[Music] um oh [Music] so [Music] thank you so much here we go [Music] my [Music] my [Music] please keep on looking at me even if you're sick of me okay here we go oh [Music] my [Music] my [Music] my so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] you [Music] welcome ladies and gentlemen to the class of 2021's commencement ceremonies thank you for your attendance this evening as we celebrate our seniors to start this evening's program we would ask that you please stand as we honor america as our concours singers sing the national anthem oh say can you see by the dawns of the light was so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming who's brought stripes and bright stars [Music] streaming and the rockets [Music] that our flag was still there oh say does that star spangled and the home of the [Music] [Applause] brave to begin today's program we would like to introduce our selected senior speaker who was chosen to be to present to our graduating class today at today's commencement immediately following this speech our selected senior speakers ms beck spotaro and mr joel cray will perform a musical selection for us today but first please welcome our senior speaker adriana smith to the podium good evening ladies and gentlemen and class of 2021.

well grace if i don't see you ever again does she work at the coffee shop she seems very like

nice over here i thought that was you thank you uh last summer we started mountain lions yeah i started uh so i when i graduated i started going to college for fire science and safety engineering i just wasn't like not halfway through the semester not for me i was like really depressed so after that semester i dropped out and i got into this is there a call list to get the do you want it it'll just be on the youtube channel i'm so yeah i'm going out in august my dad thank you oh yeah yeah they feel like

you board of ed business meeting tonight we have a packed meeting a lot of recognitions to get started on but before we get there i want to call the meeting into order mr oginski please uh have a call for roll call here thank you carol uh ask that we stand for the pledge of allegiance the united states of america and to the republic for stance one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you everyone thank you for joining us this evening uh it's uh this is such an unusual site for us uh as we resumed in-person meetings i think last month and this is the first night we've actually had a live audience so for folks at home i don't know if you're paying the room but we actually have a packed house which is great so thank you for coming out this evening a lot of great stuff to talk about but before we get started on that we have a student representative report we have a solo act tonight lucy welcome thanks for being here tonight what do you have for us oh okay just want to make sure it's on um so first we're going to start off with athletics josh and i were awarded the southern connecticut conference scholar leaders for cheshire high school and our spring sports teams recently competed in their league post-season play both softball and boys volleyball won the league tournament championship and then just yesterday girls golf also won the league championship senior softball player brianna pearson was named the connecticut high school softball player of the year and spring teams will now be competing in the state tournament play and the season will end on june 12th some other updates we have are that junior prom is happening right now senior prom will be tomorrow night and both events will be held at aria banquet hall in prospect most recently seniors were able to partake in the senior picnic at holiday hill on may 24th students were able to participate in boating games swimming and other super fun activities now we just have some updates on end of the year events senior honor cord ceremony is june 15th at 7 30 a.m uh the award convocation ceremony will be june 15th at 6 00 pm and we are very happy to say that graduation will be june 16th at 6 pm on the turf field and this will be one singular graduation ceremony for all graduating seniors each graduate will have four guests seated on the field the graduates will be seated together and all attendees will be required to wear a mask but graduates will be able to cross the stage and receive their diplomas unmasked and then finally josh who's at the junior prom tonight and i just wanted to thank you all for giving us this opportunity to keep you up to date throughout the year on all of the happenings at chs and that's all thank you lucia are there any questions from the board members i also the all-night grad party is this weekend correct i think it's friday night uh it's the night of the graduation oh the 16th i'm sorry uh yes the 16th uh and i know the tom white pta and leaning and that team are still looking for some parent volunteers uh so for everybody watching that want to have some fun time maybe if you're on the glass under graduate or underclassman parent uh great way to see how the activities work there where if you know how to do uh texas hold them in blackjack i know we're looking for dealers for that security uh please sign up it is a fun time but um that being said jeff did you want to add anything no thank you lucy that's that's all we have for you so you get to go home really tight not that early though we have uh recognition as well oh that's right so hang on thank you dr sullin i know we have a number of presentations this evening get the show started it's nice to step outside of the cell and see everybody here this evening tonight i mean if there were one evening of the year that we could pick to have people return in person it would certainly be this evening the opportunity to recognize so many special people tonight is really uh it is the highlight of the year uh for us and so you know we're so excited to kick off our recognitions this evening with perhaps the most humbling uh five minutes in board history every year where we introduce the valedictorian and salutatorian because you can't hear about these people and not just be instantly humbled with what they've accomplished in their 18 years relative to what i've done in my significantly longer time on this planet it just seems i feel a little bit inadequate and so uh through no fault of theirs but we are thrilled to be able to recognize two very special cheshire high school students this evening just a couple of housekeeping notes here before i tell you a little bit about these two students dr gad sends her congratulations unfortunately there was a family health emergency that she had to attend to and is unable to be here this evening but i know when we notified these two in person she conveyed her pride and and just ultimate respect for you two and um what you've accomplished so i just passed that along this evening the other uh quick note is we have several recognitions this evening everybody on the dais is um fully vaccinated and not wearing masks this evening but um you know typically we go up and shake hands but we're going to forego that this evening is a precaution from kovid but i know that i speak on their behalf when i say that they wish they could shake hands give high fives and hugs when they hear the accomplishments of the people we're recognizing this evening so i i will um start by asking our chs salutatorian for the class of 2021 grace u to please approach the podium grace you is the daughter of dongju and ya zhao you grace demonstrates a natural intellect and academic drive that has truly made her stand out at cheshire high school grace is a distinguished student who performs exceptionally well in all of her classes and is a leader amongst her peers one of the things that stands out most about grace is her dedication in talent and synchronized skating most recently grace was awarded the platinum level graduating seniors award by the u.s figure skating organization and is a former hockey player myself i am already humbled selection for this award speaks to the skater's continued commitment to succeeding in their athletic and academic endeavors on top of her immense commitment to figure skating grace has also found time to be an active member of her school and community during her senior year she was elected the vice president of model u.n as well as young democrats grace is also an active member of deca the biden campaign fellowship a church leader and co-founder of cards against corona grace is able to balance all of her commitments while maintaining her schoolwork and she manages to do it all with positivity and kindness in meeting grace even for a few moments you will quickly notice how mature and special she is grace is so much more than the incredible academic student we see on paper she is also a kind human being with compassion for others maturity and patience we are very proud that grace will represent cheshire high school as part of the incoming freshman class at carnegie mellon university starting this fall grace congratulations [Applause] take advantage of the opportunity okay let's smile and one more very good great at this point i'd like to invite ryan michael shan the valedictorian of cheshire high school to the podium please ryan shannon is the son of feng shan and daniel shan ryan is a conscientious student who has dedicated himself to his academics and a cheshire high school community he has been involved in a multitude of extracurricular activities and leadership roles throughout his high school career notably ryan has served as class president and his student representative for cheshire high school ryan's natural ability to lead others remain organized and advocate for his peers has made him the successful candidate that he has been it is also important to highlight that ryan is a talented and dedicated musician he has performed in multiple prestigious choral ensembles and demonstrates a true passion for music on top of all of ryan's commitments he has consistently achieved strong academic success in rigorous courses throughout his four years of high school he is the type of student who welcomes the opportunity to take on a challenge and his efforts are always met with success ryan has a calm and kind-hearted nature which is quickly apparent to anyone that meets him he displays gratitude sets a good example for his peers and has a maturity beyond his years it is without a doubt that ryan's accomplishments and his academic and leadership experiences will follow him into his future collegiate career as a freshman in the fall at the university of connecticut where he plans to study pharmacy and i always harass ryan a little bit because he's generally better dressed than the superintendent which is not good for me it does not make me look he is one sharp dude i can't keep up with that amongst everything else that we have to be proud of for ryan and so it is our incredible honor to recognize you as the valedictorian of the class of 2021 ryan great job buddy [Applause] congratulations and you know certainly what i hope isn't lost on the audience this evening or anybody watching at home is the fact that you know we we pride ourselves on the fact that the two individuals that we just introduced have transcripts that are ridiculous frankly the the number of ap courses and ece experiences they have and the incredible success and what you don't see on there is not only the hours of dedication that they've put into being that successful in a very competitive high school but what's more rewarding is the people that they are and you know we're not about tran cranking out great transcripts that's not what we aspire to be we aspire to have a school system who produces and helps students fulfill who they can be as people and with character and i couldn't think of two better representatives here this evening that embody not only academic success but personal character and so it's it's very humbling for me and proud moment uh for all of us to be able to recognize you two this evening so again congratulations on your success so great job guys absolutely our next recognition this evening is for the cabe student leaders award the cape student leader award program was developed to give local boards of education a chance to reward student leadership potential this year's honorees and i i know a couple are here this evening our lady and if you when i read your name if you could come up please lydia golly brady potralala lucy helene and josh [Applause] so many goldstein lydia come on yeah one more congratulations thank you okay thank you so congratulations ladies um and in the case of those awards uh at the middle school i think what makes these awards so special is that uh the honorees are identified by their peers so lydia's classmates see in her a character and leadership that stands out beyond others and so congratulations i think when you know your peers are recognizing you like like that it's something special and it says a lot about you so congratulations um this next award is going to feel a little bit like deja vu and that's for lucy helene is in one of our board of education reps the students that represent cheshire high school's student body at these meetings often in person although not so much this year but lucy and josh spent a lot of time they basically you know we'll interview folks at cheshire high school to know what's going on and then come here and speak on behalf of the 1400 students who attend cheshire high school and they share with the board of education uh the interesting and important the events that are occurring at cheshire high and so they play an important role for their school and community and so i'm very happy to recognize lucy this evening with another award i wasn't gonna make you come and do that lucy just dear diary mr massiana made me thank you yeah definitely so this next honoree is somebody that we would typically recognize much earlier in the year um but the the pandemic made that impossible so just have the opportunity to recognize her this evening feels really good um it's overdue in a lot of respects but you know particularly this year when our entire teaching staff was really pushed beyond typical expectations and demonstrated uh leadership and commitment and care for the kids in our community more than i think i've ever could have imagined to represent that group of teachers is pretty special and so i'm really honored to be able to recognize her in person this evening and uh in front of you at least as an audience to to be able to recognize her and i know that you know knowing her well enough that she would deflect this attention away from herself and on to the many other teachers and professionals that she works with who help make our school system successful but there's a reason that she was identified as the cheshire public schools teacher of the year and i can't wait to share that with you so uh deb manky if you could please come to the podium deb is an elementary teacher at norton school and has worked in the district for over 30 years i know you would have never guessed that from looking at it like 15 years maybe she holds a bachelor of science degree in human development and family relations from the university of connecticut a master's degree in early childhood education from southern connecticut state university and possesses a sixth year professional certificate as a classroom teacher specialist with a focus in elementary math miss menke is a graduate of the cheshire public schools she attended chapman elementary school dodd middle school in cheshire high school her children also attended cheshire public schools deb began teaching in cheshire in 1987 where she taught first and second grade and she currently teaches math to sixth grade students a cheshire educator wrote this about deb this is amazing that is what i thought the first time i observed deb manky teaching i observed thousands of lessons but her classroom is different her sixth graders are connected to math through her infectious enthusiasm the deep and engaging questioning and personally meaningful learning another wrote deb works tirelessly to support each student's path to success she uses formative assessment to determine each student's precise understanding of the math concept she teaches she structures her class to meet the varied pathways to learning so that each minute is maximized and each student's works comfortably challenged in their specific zone her ability to personalize learning for her math students yields incredible results both academically and social emotionally deb has created a classroom environment where her stern students know success is afforded and she will do whatever is necessary to see each one of them succeed they know that she makes it her most important priority to know them as individuals know their full potential and motivate them to rise to it deb creates classroom systems that make it possible for her most struggling students to get second and third doses of instruction in intervention well with her while all other students are working to together collaboratively to solve problems find solutions and check each other's understanding her students take pride in their accomplishments and are true believers that they can do anything evidenced by the level of success and growth each of our students attains year after year deb menke is an exceptional teacher who embodies the passion of being a lifelong learner her dedication to teaching and learning is exemplified in her daily practice she has a growth mindset even during the most challenging days of remote learning deb could be heard saying it's hard but i'm learning so much and i would have never known if we didn't go remote miss menke is a gifted educator who we are so proud to have on our cheshire public school system team and proud to recognize is the 2021 cheshire public schools teacher of the year congratulations all right got it thank you thank you unfortunately our next honoree couldn't be with us this evening but i think it's important for us to publicly recognize cheshire public schools esther harvey as cheshire's recipient of the 2021 in anne marie murphy para educator of the year award the plaque will be awarded to her tomorrow at her school chapman elementary and diana burns chapman's principal had this to say about esther esther's commitment to providing a learner-centered supportive environment is admirable she is well versed in responsive classroom practices and is a role model for its implementation esther puts as much energy into supporting the social emotional needs of children as she does their academic needs her ability to create meaningful intimate relationships with each of her students is a gift she faces her kitties as she calls them light lights them up excuse me when she faces them they light up to when they see her past students love to visit her throughout the year demonstrating that these relationships also have a lasting impact on the children she works with watching esther in action is a treat she is a talent for engaging each and every one of her students she is skilled in engaging students that are unmotivated in learning and knows just what to do to make learning fun and exciting for example esther learned sign language and taught the signs of letters to her students adding this kinesthetic element heightened engagement for students and complemented the teaching of letters and sounds additionally esther uses songs to build climate and reinforce skills taught in the classroom esther sets a high bar for professionalism and ethical conduct she's always on time has almost perfect attendance and is a role model for others even when she is faced with a child that is escalating or a parent that is upset esther's combat upbeat demeanor is the perfect intervention to handle the situation additionally esther forms meaningful relationships with the adults in our building providing a positive school climate esther's nurturing character allows her to comfort others in challenging times and many teachers seek her guidance she is truly a rock star for so many individuals in our school community chapman is blessed to have a professional and individual like esther she has a place in all of our hearts and has made a lasting impact on our community it's my privilege to honor esther harvey is the 2021 ann marie murphy para educator of the year so congratulations to esther so um you know i did talk a little bit when i was introducing uh miss manky as our teacher of the year about the sacrifice that um our teachers and the commitment really that they demonstrated to their students i think the amount of in-school time that we had as a district this year was really kind of unparalleled and a lot of that was due to the efforts of our teachers and their desire to do what was best for our students and it was hard it was hard definitely but they did it anyway and so that's that's really uh something that came to the to the forefront this year but has been there for many many years and um so you know to crank out products like deb menke you needed that commitment for for years and so um tonight we're going to recognize some of our retirees some of them are here this evening and others uh i would like to read a biographical statement on because they all deserve that recognition all of our retirees whether they're here or not um so i'm going to start with jane adenolfi uh she's not here with us this evening but jane earned her bachelor's in special education elementary education and masters in special education early childhood education from st joseph's college and additional credits in reading from southern connecticut state university jane began her teaching career as an elementary special education teacher in the hartford public schools and taught in south windsor before having children as a chapman parent jane was very involved serving as a member of chapman's niask new england association of schools and colleges steering committee and strategic planning committee she was an early ambassador and point person for the open choice program jane also served as a substitute teacher for the cheshire public schools and a religious education teacher for st bridget's catholic church before being hired as a special education teacher at chapman in 2001 a skilled teacher and thoughtful colleague jane served on numerous school and district-wide committees over the years jane's students will remember the time they spent in her classroom and one of which they learned much from a teacher who was welcoming and kind congratulations on your retirement jane [Applause] i'd like to welcome denise booker up to the podium congratulations denise earned her bachelor's in speech pathology from the university of connecticut in her master's and sixth year degree from southern connecticut state university she's maintained a certificate of clinical competence from the american speech language hearing association since 1976 she has mentored students from quinnipiac university in sacred heart in independent study programs denise began her career in new britain public schools and also worked in plainville and north haven before being hired in 1989 to work at highland school denise has worked with students with speech and language impairments in the general education classroom setting and support services she developed a series of inclusive oral language lessons which she presented in kindergarten through sixth grade general education classes these lessons were presented orally and with sign language denise has conducted numerous evaluations over the years and is considered a leader among her colleagues she has spent countless summers supporting students in summer school and is always looking to improve her skills a true professional denise retires after 32 years of service to the children and community of cheshire thank you so much denise congratulations on up [Applause] okay i'd like to welcome lynn goldapper up to the podium please [Applause] lynn holds a bachelor's degree in human development and family studies from the university of connecticut and a master's degree in elementary education and six-year degree in early childhood from central connecticut state university a lifelong resident of cheshire and a cheshire high school graduate class of 79 lynn chose to begin her teaching career in her hometown at doolittle elementary school in 1987.