>> So, the magnet school that we operate is uh largely funded through uh through a grant. Um and the the purpose of this line uh in its beginning was to supplement the cost for the magnet school over and above what the the um grant covers. Um and again most of those expenses are salary and benefits which really wouldn't belong in the 57008 and historically nothing has been charged to it. So again I made that correction for the 2027 budget. Um, I I made sure that the salaries for the magnet school were accounted for in the salaries. The benefits are accounted for in the benefits. So, year-over-year, budget to budget, you'll see a $357,000 or $358,000 uh reduction because I remove that uh budget line. Um, and that really is what's what's driving the $449,000 favorable variance. And then dues and fees and staff development. This is where the instructional improvements are for the 150 195,000 so far of expenses that we have encumbered.
And as a reminder, speakers will have three minutes to address the board. A buzzer will sound when 30 seconds of speaking time remains. And uh we um as the board we can listen to public comment. Uh we're not able to respond to any speaker um under these items. So we do have three names that have been submitted. So I'm going to call them in the order. Uh the first one is Deanna Lindström. Hi, my name is Diana Lindstöm.
Thank you, Wendy Gaty from ADC. >> Thank you, chair. ADC stands on their written testimony, strong support. >> Thank you, Brian Miamoto, Hawaii Farm Bureau. >> Thank you, chair. The Hawaii Farms on written testimony in support. >> Thank you. Uh we also have Larry Jeffs from Larry Jeff's Farm, Johnny May Perry, Michael Jabbert, Daniel Nells, Veronica Boore, all in support. That's nine in support, none opposed. No com uh Anyone else wishing to testify on this measure?
We've thought that a lot of it would be um the classroom uh and other type of you know teaching spaces. Oddly or s I shouldn't say oddly surprisingly um a lot of the feedback that we got from students was they were kind of more concerned about having spaces where they could gather and study um at night in safe places uh because Monoa really did not have um a lot of those type of spaces. So based on that survey, uh, Provos Bruno made the student success center a priority project. >> I I guess that raises some concerns because it seems like whether you have a plan or not that things get inserted or deleted. Um, I know in the s care of Sinclair, we talked about possibly putting floors above to be student housing, student dormitories. Yes. And um you know that wasn't considered. You added on a fifth floor, but I mean honestly it wasn't considered.
Our guidance team is working really hard. Our principles are working really hard and this data is going to continue to help guide us moving forward to identify additional strategies and other preventative measures to reduce some of the areas that we do have concern. And that's it. Does anyone have any thoughts or questions? How are you success was done successfully? >> So we are each school's required to report out on all of our drills in when we evacuate they're actually timing evacuations. Um we also have conversations with Dom Longo um in terms of improving any of the um processes that we already have. I mean even in the case of last year where we had an emergency evacuation and we weren't able to come back to the schools specifically in Smallley, we came back together as a team to do just that to evaluate our processes and and really start improving them and being prepared most importantly.
These tables will be stationed will allow students to collaborate at shared visual tables while teachers be small group instruction. um created a technology intrigued collaborative learning laboratory accessible to the entire school. Um Miss Janine and Christy from the PTO, they wanted to have a big thank you to all the volunteers that contributed to a successful event, the snowball dance for six eighth graders as well as windowing. Some upcoming events. Uh Friday there's a sweetheart dance at Eagle Oaks Country Club. Today is the last day to sign up. Get your tickets. It's 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. The readathon, our biggest fundraiser of the year, is starting March 2nd to March 6th. So, be on the lookout for that. Blazer Boys event is happening Friday, March 27th, 6 8:30 at Lake Banner. Look for tickets on the website to open up next week. Art appreciation committee they are still working on details for sometime in March.
So um as you can imagine that can at times create some friction as well as um ele or elementary and high school levels they don't have that additional team planning time as well. So at times that can be uh a bit of a sticking point. And then current uh student achievement data highlights the opportunities for improvement. You'll see here in just a little bit we have some data to share that um shows that what we're doing right now um we're not sure if we're getting really the growth that we would like to get moving forward. So um another reason for considered change >> over these next uh several slides we want to get a little bit more specific on um the goals and and the reasons why. And so that first one uh that we listed was student achievement. And how you read this data is these are the past five school years um looking at fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade data.
Um and it's it's pretty amazing and you know and it's something you don't want to miss. If you ever get a chance you know come down and and experience it. It's it's pretty awesome. you know, it takes about a half an hour and and uh the Ashlin Police Department puts on a really good um show or what it's not a show, but they they do a wonderful job showing their leadership in Ashlin and it's a really remarkable thing. >> That's great >> to see to witness. And there's a bunch of donuts and coffee and all that. So, we bring them all back to the guys, you know. So, >> so when when's that now? >> It's the 20th. The Monday the 20th at 6:00 a.m. >> 6 a.m. We have to be there sharp at 6 a.m. >> Exactly. The only problem is it's it's an early start, you know, >> as a result as as being so close to Hopington as we are.
Vanda and I had an opportunity to walk uh the whole high school and really check out each bathroom and the condition of each bathroom uh go in and out of each one, test everything in them. Um and look at opportunities that we might have. Um so upon doing so um as you can imagine uh well very first and foremost I would say that the bathrooms that are closed are absolutely for security purposes. There is nothing wrong with the bathrooms that they are functional. So mechanically we can manage with them but we also want to ensure the safety of our students. Um, so we do have certain ones that are not accessible through either technology like uh camera visibility or uh enough uh staff in the area to be able to ensure the safety of students and uh what may or may not also be going on in the bathroom.
>> Yeah. That that's just out of curiosity. It's not it's not a pressing issue because we're going to pay them $4 million. They're going to figure it out. >> Yes. Yep. And then you can see here, this is pretty small. Um, I'll see if I can zoom in a little bit, but like the approximate uh square footage being the 108,000 square feet here. Um, and this is all the the components of the costs, but um yeah. >> Yeah. Um, and there there is contingency for that, but I would say that that's, you know, the contingency is $189,000. It's certainly not a majority of, you know, it's a 5% contingency. Um, so not a ton of wiggle room there. >> Is is um do you have an idea of what what's the what's the main driver behind the the the change from 1.5 million to four million?
>> This will be in that one time um >> Yep. >> Okay. And the next um screen we have this was created um I guess last year right Mike or did you do it the year before? >> I when Mr. Janelli um was chair he asked us to put this um it's a monthby-month comparison which um can be helpful um certainly to see timing of when we pay things. So this is not going to include any of the purchase orders. This is just the year it'll tie to the year-to-ate expense. Um, and you'll see some some of the if you want to scroll down, you'll see some of the timing variances are apparent in here. Uh, such as transportation where they might not send us a bill in time for us to pay it and get it through the accounts payable cycle or um, another common one is utilities.
Thank you board members for allowing me to address you. I am a parent of a child who posted a political belief and was then told he should kill himself for it by another student. I would like to say thank you to the staff and board members who reached out offering help without judgment. being told, and I quote, "Rather, it sounds like dating Natalie and subsequently talking to a bunch of girls is the issue at hand, and Tyler's interactions with girls seem to be at issue," end quote, is an excuse to justify someone's poor behavior. This coming from someone who serves on the board, I am truly disgusted. It was not open for debate why someone might think my child was told that, nor did this person offer help. California Education Code, specifically sections 7050 through 7058, prohibit school district employees to engage in political activity during work hours and to use public resources for political activities.
>> Are there any questions? Mark >> question. [sighs] Hey, thanks for being here. So um based on the bill, the bill goes into funds to be funds to to the department of a biocurity department of land natural resources and aggra business development corporation based on your irrigation systems and the repairs and everything going forward. Do you guys have any concerns about how much of the fund will be needed to do repairs and maintenance on your systems throughout the state? And are you guys agreeing that it be divided up four ways of the different agencies or how's this hierarchy working in this bill? >> Um or is this a toss up of we're just giving this funds up four different ways between the departments? cuz I'm well aware of the deterioration of all your water systems that helps farms and which way we pulling what. As you guys know, ADC also controls water systems.
I know we talked about it at length, but that never came to fruition. Um we had the Athetherton where the innovation center and we've already have the Manome innovation center. We have the innovation center at the business school. A number of them in Kakaako yet that was still still put to supported. And then we said, well, why don't we put the innovation center in Sinclair because that's where they seem to be using the innovation center at Athetherton as a student gathering, not as much as an innovation from what we can tell in the reports we've gotten. Um, and that wasn't put to heated or done. And then you did McCarthy Mall, which you know, I don't know where that came from. Of course, it came from no plan and added more money and it was for a drainage ditch, but that decision was made. So again, it seems like either absent of a plan or even when there is a plan that's not being followed to suit and and the concern is the cost, the monies that would come out of the rim, the monies that come out of the tuition funds, those are all areas and then the delays, the constant delays.
Are we noticing that something earlier or we noticing? So they're actually pretty similar um even in terms of the reported incidences themselves which is part of the reason why they did bring in assembly the easy fix to really start to appeal to the students on a level where they can see the impact. I think sometimes students just need to hear a story relate to a story. Um and we're hoping preventative measures like that will start impacting these numbers. You'll notice that as I mentioned this is the reporting period from September to December. So come the end of the year, I'll do a secondary report and we'll be able to really take a look at those numbers again. Thank you. All right, since our student board member is not with us this evening, we are moving right along to our committee reports. First up is education committee.
Spring enrichment is happening to run starting April 14th for six weeks. Look for more information around March 24th. Um and I have a meeting in March working with administration on coming up with a topic to invite parents to learn a little bit more. human resources. So, um, since our meeting on January 21st, we celebrated actually 98 school. Uh, that day included our school assembly house of preparedness for bringing classes together, for example, the whole school, including recognition of our Blazers of the Month and our Blazer boxers. Uh, we had an afternoon pep rally for our winter sports teams, Belar Wrestling. our students who come together for that team cheerleading boys and girls basketball. It was a very wellreceived event. Um and both our basketball teams were in the NCA finals that Friday afternoon. Uh the boys were runners up in the tournament game. They played a great game and our girls actually won the league title.
Um this data is I learn data. It's the percentage of kids who passed both math and language arts uh each of these years uh at uh both middle schools. And we included fifth grade just to uh show how it related to their elementary schools or scores as well. Um if you look I you know the blue always jumps out to me just because it's seems brighter but um this data follows cohorts. So it follows the same kids through their years. And so if you look at the blue shaded uh cells, you can see that u the uh as fifth graders in 2023, this cohort was 51.5%. Um and then as sixth graders in 2024, they were 52.5%. And then in uh seventh graders, 48%. So you can see how that how we read that um diagonally there and color code those u those pieces of data over the years looking at same kids um and we see some small dips, we see some small increases, but overall um Mr.
You know, other cities in town, they get to sleep later, you know, further east of us. >> But we're also done earlier, right? We get our students back in the afternoon. >> As long as Framingham opens up on time, we can get out of here at a reasonable time. So, that was one of the issues last year, but um yeah, so >> great. Thank you. >> Yeah. I I just want to say thank you. you know, there's such a tremendous amount of work that happens behind the scenes here that people really don't appreciate and uh and you all do a great job all the time. Um it's been a really tough winter and I just want to say that on more than one occasion I've crossed from Ashland to um South and Sherban a couple of weeks ago and it was like a shocker. I said, "What was I thinking?" >> Um and what a tremendous job you folks do in terms of the condition of our roads and >> Yeah.
So uh those are locked at this time. Um, we did take a very close look at some of those and to see is there a possibility to open um gradually start opening some back up and have a plan for the remainder of the ones that we wouldn't be opening up immediately. And that would be due to um reasons such as um we we can't see clearly uh through cameras right now kind of visibility those bathrooms um and or um you know there wouldn't be staff in the proximity or the area for us to be able to you know maintain security in those areas. So we will look to solutions for that. But in the meantime we have identified some bathrooms that once cleaned because they've been closed for a long while. So you have to understand we want to make sure that they're prepared right for students to begin to use them again.
Was it raw materials, labor, tariffs, just like that's a big jump and I'm curious if it's going to hit other schools too? Yeah, I think and Vin, feel free to step in if you have more context since you're here, since you stayed. Um, you might get lumped in. Um, but I think that this this is when we've actually went out to design work for the $4 million. So, there's like a rough order of magnitude, like a belief of how much this might cost. And then that assumption is tested when we actually go out to the design firm. Um, and so some of the 1.5 is our director of facilities saying, you know, this is a rough, very rough um, placeholder, right? But this is also a project that has been deferred and kind of kicked around on the plan for a while. So it's it's just compounded by that.