>> Yes. >> Harland. >> Yes. >> Right. Motion passes. Thank you. All right. Under celebrations and recognitions. Um in recognition of National Reading Month, we thought it would be appropriate to invite Sean Dickman of principal of Hooverwood Elementary to join us this evening to celebrate their new book vending machine. >> Please tell us all about it, sir. >> And I got Emily with me, too. >> Awesome. Even better. Hi. Come up here, Emily. >> Hi. Hi, everyone. I'm Sean Diamond, principal of Hooverwood, and this is Emily. She's the fourth grader at our school. And we got a book vending machine for our school. So, it is what it sounds. It's a vending machine full of books. Uh, it's repurposed. Um, holds chapter books, picture books, uh, and we use it as a way to instill a love of reading in our kids, motivate them to want to earn books.
Okay. Um Go ahead, Mr. May. Thank you. Uh Ms. Kathleen Kelly Colgan, do you have some good news that you'd like to share with the board? I do. Wait, I don't know. Okay, this is Good morning, everyone. Good evening, members of the board and this esteemed group here this evening. This evening, on a personal report, we are requesting approval for Lisa Butera to be the new assistant principal of Algonquin Middle School. Ms. Butera has been a dedicated District 62 staff member for 24 years. One year from now, you'll hear me downstairs talking about >> [laughter] >> Uh she began her career teaching ELA and math at Chippewa and Algonquin Middle Schools before moving to Terrace, where she served as a second grade teacher for many years before moving into a behavior specialist role. She returned to Terrace as an math interventionist and has spent this school year at Algonquin Middle School as student services interventionist.
>> No. >> Okay. Item [clears throat] number five, I'll turn it over to Hank Lewis. >> All right. Uh first one is Travis. This is an action item this evening. [clears throat] Re-visiting 10-year safety survey report. >> Good evening. I just wanted uh just remind you we've just been through this with several uh different amendments that we did. So, when we did the the two amendments for our paving and for our energy conservation, it's a very similar process, right? Where we're submitting uh an amendment through I was to the uh ROE that then they look at it. They'll either approve it or not uh after working through the the different information that has been submitted uh from White. So, um this is in line with our 10-year life safety survey. So, if you remember, we talked about this uh couple meetings ago, I believe. Um so, the snow load has changed, so we need some extra work that wasn't initially identified in our 10-year survey.
Unfortunately, we will not be doing the folk dancing portion of the concert, but these amazing students did folk dancing. I taught three folk dances uh to them and each class performed one of them and they did an amazing job and blew me away. Uh folk dancing has really taught these students fundamentals in music making and collaboration um within their class. uh they are learning how to count in time for the first time and also um uh memorize uh familiar uh patterns. Um so it is a great thing that I incorporated folk dancing in their concert. So for the songs that they are going to sing, the first song is called Don't Sit Still and it's a song about the different ways that we naturally move to music. The second song is actually a song mostly sung in Spanish and it is a song called Losco Lotes de la Prima Vera which translates to the colors of spring and it is a song about the different colors that we sing that we see uh when spring season hits.
So moved. Second. And questions or discussion? This again is an annual, just a continuation of a of a agreement that we have with Fox Valley Career Center. Yes. The next item is the DECA International Career Development Conference. A motion and a second required to discuss and approve the DECA International Career Development Conference. So moved. Second.
I would like us to stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a mission statement. Pledge of allegiance led by Mr. Gayos. Gahos and our mission statement read by our board secretary Jamie.
All in favor [snorts] of approving the minutes of the work session of February 6th, 2026, and the minutes of the regular board meeting of February 9th, 2026, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. B2, vouchers and financial reports. Can I get a motion for I'll make a motion for the vouchers and financial reports. I'll second. We have a motion and a second.
People who care deeply about students, who give their time, their energy, and their hearts to this work every single day. The friendships and professional relationships I've had during these years are among the most valuable parts of my career. Most importantly, I've had the honor to work with students in this community. Teaching local students, many from families I've known for years, sometimes even generations, has been incredibly rewarding. And I see two such students here tonight, high school students. Watching young people grow, learn, and find their place in the world is a gift that few professions provide. I'll always be grateful for the trust that families place in teachers to be part of that journey. I also want to thank the present and former school boards for the professional support over the years. I appreciate the time and care that you invest in this district and in the future West Noble.
So, when I got her words back, they were so nice and so thoughtful. I was like, Mrs. Kylie, would you like to come and share? So, she's going to tell you that part. I have my cheat sheet. I would like to nominate our digital design and marketing teacher, Logan Whitman, for teacher of the month. In recognition for his outstanding collaboration, generosity, and commitment to students. As a new teacher who is also balancing coaching responsibilities, he has a very full plate, yet he constantly makes time to partner on cross-curricular projects that elevate learning for everyone involved. He has supported me on two major initiatives, bringing not only creativity and technical expertise, but also patience, encouragement, and a genuine enthusiasm for helping both colleagues and students succeed. His positive attitude and willingness to jump in whenever needed speak volumes about his character. He's building strong relationships, strengthening our school community, and modeling what teamwork and dedication truly look like.
>> Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. But that's something else that we're putting together is we're putting together a document too that will actually >> show cost comparison between the bids and actually what our cost is >> job for job. That's great. >> Trying to be as transparent as possible. >> You know what? I used to have to be in one of them leadership position and I found that was the best policy. >> Yeah, it is. >> Yeah. >> Hey, how you doing? >> Maybe I can hear a little closer. >> Me too. I got a fair sound system. Maybe that'll help. >> Yeah, just talk slow. 25 years working around heavy equipment before they required hearing protection. >> I had a lawnmowing business for about probably almost 10 or 15 years and I' I've noticed as I've gotten older. >> Yeah. And that's impacted because I didn't, you know, I was young teenage kid and >> Well, you know, you don't ever think about it.
Speaking of somebody who has worked hard, uh, congratulations to Libby Ryan. Uh, she is a student athlete at North High School. She was recently honored at the power of women's sports lunchon. Uh she was the recipient of the Lily King Award for athletic excellence and integrity. Uh and you can see Lily King was there to be a part of that presentation. But uh when you talk about being recognized as uh truly a top athlete in our community, that is really something to be proud of. So I know Dr. Hoover obviously you can see from the picture got to be a part of that. So really proud of her and everything she has accomplished. Uh Summer Musical Company, bit of a name change. I know you've heard about this, seen this. We've been talking about this a lot lately with a lot more to come. What we used to call the EBSC summer musical, now the summer musical company.
Trip is in Clark's class. And so Miss Clark has chosen Trip for this character trait of respect. is always kind to others, whether it be adults or fellow classmates. Trip has shown that he takes the time to pay attention to others and always be a friend. And I will add that Trip's name came up multiple times from some of our other staff members as Trip is also like a seventime national champ dirt dirt bike rider too >> and a good running back. >> Yeah, I like it all. I'm gonna introduce uh Milin Schwitz as our GMS student of the month for respect. And all of our teachers u he came up first like they were like milin every single time respect is uh a huge trade that we take a lot of pride in and he's a great example of uh respect in our building at all times even when others are not looking.
Congratulations and thank you for all you do for going ABOVE AND BEYOND. >> [applause] [applause] [clears throat] >> WE'RE WE'RE VERY UNFORTUNATE TO have um great staff to do that, so thank you very much. Moving into our information items tonight, we have a full schedule. We will lead off with Dr. Nesbitt Blue Ribbon 2 updates. Great. Thank you, President Norman, members of the board, and Dr. Smith. Let's take a look at Blue Ribbon 2. Here's our overview. McKinsey uh got a lot of good design work going on right now as we narrow that in. Craig Academy continues move along, and then we're going to take some look at some pictures in our classroom additions as well. Uh our guaranteed energy savings, I'm happy to report that those those two lower right green ones are now fully functional. We just commissioned those over the weekend, and so the controls are good.
After any discussion, the chair will call for a roll call vote. During the meeting, commission members will keep their video on and microphone muted unless speaking. We have two members of the commission who are online right now uh using the Zoom app application. Applicants and representatives, please keep your video off and microphone muted unless uh until your agenda item is discussed. Public public, please keep your microphone muted until recognized. If you need to share your screen, you may request permission through the chair to do so. When the discussion is open to the public, if you wish to ask a question or make a comment, you may request to speak by using the raised hand feature on Zoom. If you are calling in by phone number, you can use the star nine feature to raise and lower your hand. When acknowledged to speak, please state your name and address prior to speaking.
Okay, it is not displaying it for us in the room on the TV. We can see the zoom but not the presentation which is fascinating. content. >> Aha, success. All right. With that, I will turn it over to you, superintendent. Thank you. Um, members of the school committee and the public, so you have some of the materials that you have in front of you tonight. You do not have this. Um, you will have this after. I wanted you to pay attention to me, right, and not flip through it for the moment, but you will get this um have it queued up and ready to send to you any minute now. But you have in front of you things materials that we presented last week to you. Um the executive summary, an overview from the budget and finance some subcommittee about priorities and the actual um budget, and then the mayor was kind enough to pass some things out last week on the tax rate.
Parwinder? From the university? Aloha, Chair. And wise Aloha, Chair, and the members of the committee. Um thank you for allowing us to have this testimony. And my name is Parwinder Grewal and the Dean of the College of uh Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. I just want to make a few points about the food and uh nutritional security in Hawaii. We are We have over 30% of our households still food insecure. The pandemic has been long gone and it's actually increasing uh since then. Uh what we are trying to do after the loss of SNAP and we lost 13 positions in that. What we are to do here is to combine our different programs that kind of either directly or peripherally focus on this particular issue so that we can have a more data-driven and community-based approach to this problem so that we can uproot the food and food and nutritional insecurity from our communities.
Um, I get to curate what's in there. So, I get to pick what types of books. Um, so we're picking, you know, award-winning books, diverse books, books that we feel like are good for children to have. Um, and then they get to keep the books. It's not a rental and they're not paying for it. They keep it themselves. So Emily here actually earned our first one a couple weeks ago. You want to share how you got it? >> I read 15 blue stem books. >> So one of the ways kids can earn it is our librarian um has like a blue stem challenge. So if kids read a certain amount of books, then they get their picture up in their library. But then since we got the vending machine, I was able to incorporate every time a kid reads X amount of books, they can come get a book from the book vending machine, and she was the first one to read 15.
With several other applicants for the AP role, Mrs. Butera's wide range of experiences made her uniquely qualified among the pool of candidates who participated in a rigorous interview process. She is focused on meeting students exactly where they are and giving them the tools to succeed academically and emotionally. Mrs. Butera holds a bachelor's in education and a master's in educational leadership from Saint Xavier University. It is my pleasure to introduce Lisa Butera, the future assistant principal for Algonquin Middle School. >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you. It is truly an honor to be here this evening to accept the position of assistant principal at Algonquin Middle School. This year not only marks my 24th year as an educator, but more importantly my 24th year of being a part of a place that feels like home. District 62 is a wonderful community filled with supportive, diverse, and invested students, staff, and families.
So, we are filing this amendment because we have enough funds in fund 90. So, if you remember, when we did the energy conservation and the paving, we had submitted in our um two projects, one here for solar and one at T 99 for solar uh that was not approved. So those funds, if you will, are still in fund 90 that are available. So if you can go to the next slide, please. So things that we need to do um tonight asking the board to approve the the report that is in there and I know it can be a little bit confusing cuz it says 10-year right? That is every time you do an amendment, that's the name of the report. So then what we'll do once we get that submitted, if it's approved, we'll just have to make sure and file paperwork to show that we got the work done with White's approval and we can check that that off.
And then the next song is a song about it is a song called We Got It Done. And it is a song about feeling accomplished, about working really hard on something for for a while. And then we end this little program with the Oaknull School song. I hope you enjoy. >> Thank you, Mr. Gonzalez. You did a great job. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right. and the night was not going to be exciting as that was. Uh I don't know if we're expectations are a little bit high now. Um next we have foyer requests. There were no foyer requests this month. Uh next we have board member commentary. Uh first up, Mr. Janzi. >> Uh just a couple things. Mr. Gonzalez on your way out. Thanks again. Great job. Those kids were loving it. So and we were loving it too. Great job. Keep Thank you.