things their priorities we have to vote on like teachers in front of our children or you know after school activities and things like that at times um we're not there yet but those are the tough things to do and to make savings right it's human beings that when you're char you're averaging teachers let's say I'm not saying they all make this but the average is $75,000 right or different jobs have different kind of averages that go with them you got to buy you got to stop buying a lot of dry erase markers to equal $75,000, you know, and it doesn't work that way. That's the unfortunate part about doing budgets. >> I did have another question. Um, and I know I'm early to this late to this party, but where would we be seeing is summer school in this budget or is that like a separate thing?
Requires member of the Board of Regents to complete a governance training and attend training at at least once every two years thereafter. Requires the candidate advisory council to ensure that all candidates presented to the governor for nomination have certain subject matter experience and are not registered lobbies who have lobbied on matters pertaining to the University of Hawaii exempts the financial disclosures on the Board of Regents as mandated by the State Ethics Code from being made public. Requires the Board of Regents in collaboration with the candidate advisory committee council to submit annual reports to the legislature. And we have a number of people signed up. Okay, Robert Harris for the State Ethics Commission. Mr. Harris, Thank you, Chair. Members of the committee, my name is Robert Harris. On behalf of Hawaii State Ethics Commission, we are opposed to specifically section 6 of this bill, which would re prevent the legislature, fellow regents, UH staff, or stakeholders from knowing of financial conflicts of interest on matters before the University of Hawaii Board of Regents.
That responsibility belongs to all of us. So tonight, I ask us to live up to the behavior we already know ourselves to be and the community we want to be. one that is willing to listen, to learn, and to lead with empathy and understanding. Let's make sure every child in Betavia learns from us that belonging is never up for debate. Our next speaker is Richard Den. All right. start off the first the last time I was up here uh asked you guys uh during COVID to uh not muzzle our children and here I am again. Uh first I'm uh requesting the immediate firing of Miss Dipman here, the director of communications at BPS for spreading lies and propaganda. After that, I'm going to ask all of you at the BPS 101 school board to immediately resign for allowing lies and propaganda online. I'm wondering how in how in a town of 27,000 people, you can't find one female to celebrate.
Thank you for giving me the time to talk a little bit about how South is working to um meet the goals of the strategic plan, and I'd be happy to answer any questions. >> [snorts] >> I have a question. Oops. I don't have a I don't have a question. I have a comment though. What a win is it that the check-in and check-out system is leading to the organic growth of mentorship? That is That's an amazing point that just this one program leads to young students looking at an adult as somebody that they can talk to about anything. And And somebody who can mentor them through their school career, even if it's just at South, and then maybe somebody else going forward. It's amazing. And it's really been an all-in approach. So, our custodian mentors some kids. We have our LCC assistants. So, really everyone has been happy and willing to um mentor our students.
Yeah, but ours, right? We get a certain number that transfer in and then we get a certain number that transfers out and it's been netting at about eight less per just from the transfer numbers, right? So, we'll get a decent influx um in August and we'll get a good outflow in May. And so, those numbers tend to even out and so, when when I'm when we're looking at from the time we sit at the table, so from March to August, so we've set our numbers and then who knows what happens from there. We pretty much are a wash at South in terms of the number of kids that leave and come in from the time we section. So, we don't have a lot of a lot of movement that tells us if we section it here, we better make sure that we have a certain amount of space um because we're kind of evening out throughout the process.
I'll just stay at the end. I just wanted to say a couple things quick so we're going to have presentations from Wold and STR both our district architects. Wold will be presenting on their facility assessment that they've been working on. We've had a couple meetings reviewing that plan that document. They're kind of working through that that'll feed in to what STR is doing for us for our master facility plan. The time frame that they shared in their presentation is kind of what we've been talking about for a while. This is going to kind of be a year-long process and it's going to kind of roll right into when Amy starts we can get feedback from her in this and we're not handing her a final product. We're letting her have some opportunity to review it and talk about it and be part of the process.
At Talala Elementary in Park Forest, students experienced black history through movement and performance. Urban Gateways presented the roots of black dance in America, bringing history to life through dance. Students also enjoyed an exciting performance by the Jesse White Tumblers along with meaningful classroom lessons that deepened their understanding of culture and history. In one classroom, students each colored a quilt square that came together to form a powerful image of Martin Luther King Jr. The finished quilt served as a beautiful reminder that every voice, every story, and every piece matters and that when we come together, we create something truly meaningful. At Mon'nique Elementary, students hosted a live black history museum. Students honored civil rights leaders, inventors, entrepreneurs, musicians, athletes, and entertainers, bringing their research to life and sharing the stories of those who shaped our world. At Balmoral Elementary, one classroom kicked off Black History Month by reading a biography of Jackie Robinson and learned about his impact and legacy.
So, we're glad that it's filling the need for our grandparents and we always want to welcome them into our building. [clears throat] Like I said, book fair is going on this weekend open up today. I didn't hear any bad things about things getting stolen or fake $100 bills or anything like that. So, it was a good day at the book fair. Um teacher observations are winding down and we only have four left to go here. So, hopefully get through those this week and probably the most important detail this year is our kindergarten round up was held last Thursday night. We welcomed 60 families and their students to kindergarten the class of 2039. Bless his heart he came for just a minute and it looked like a really good group. We're excited to see them and 60's about where we normally are for round up time.
Guess what? It went up sky high. Um and and so, we obviously spend a lot of money in fuel running a lot of giant yellow buses. Um and so, but but also we see other things. Um turf, for example, is going up an additional percentage point. So, and revenue changes that have happened, curricular materials, like I mentioned, we used to get that money, we don't now. Um enrollment drives our education fund, our enrollment's down this year compared to last, so that that drives that. And then the SEA 1 impact um that I won't rehash for the 4,000th time. Um action steps, reductions are necessary. Um within the education fund, just some some specifics there. Um and a little bit on the operations fund again on the referendum. We did see some good news when it comes to SEA 1 in the operations fund. Um two different things there.
Uh these programs comply with Indiana code and are featured on Indiana's highquality curriculum advisory list. Uh these curricula integrate reading and writing to build deep background knowledge on topics and ensure instructional consistency across all grade levels. This unified adoption provides a rigorous standards aligned literacy framework for all students from kindergarten through graduation. Teachers will be provided with instructional supports and resources to differentiate learning for a range of student needs. That includes scaffolds for developing readers and multil- language learners. This curricula include assessment resources, access to a digital platform, and opportunities for students to collaborate and discuss to strengthen their comprehension and communication skills. This will also include professional development for both administrators and teachers. The total cost for these six-year contracts is $4,857,72.76 which will be funded through the education and textbook fund.
Is there any discussion among the board? >> I just want to say that uh I reiterate uh what Mrs. Cooper said that we put in a lot of time and looked at everything that came before us. Anyone else? No more discussion. All in favor? >> I.
>> Some of them are um well, we asked for a specific device um as you can see there and so some sometimes even though that's very um clearly stated, we do get um bids that are for different devices that maybe don't really meet our expectations. So, those would not um even really be considered. Um they different they also have different um warranties and length of warranties. So, um you know, we put in our expectation that it's at least a a 4-year warranty, um a 3-year warranty on the battery and some other specifications. Um that also can earn them points and then really um as I mentioned the the ease of maintenance, that is that is both the design of the device um as well as just the durability and and our availability to get pricing. I'll just give you an example. There are some um companies that might be able to come in at a really good price but their distribution center that would provide us parts is in Germany and that is not practical when we're trying to um get parts in regularly for kids so that they can be repaired.
Um, I was involved in a project that a basin was built that way. It was an elevated basin like this. it failed miserably and flooded into a wetland and put a ton of sediment out in a wetland. Um, so the way to build this is to as you bring your lifts up and compact them, you put your pipe in and you build it with your lifts as you go and so it's it's done when you're done. >> Uh, agreed. >> Okay. But I just want to make sure you do that because I know that could be a huge failure if uh problem if it um failed. Is it right on the edge of the wetland? >> Yes, agreed. >> Anyone else from the commission? We good? Okay. I will now open it up to the public. If anyone would like to come to microphone or raise their hand on Zoom, if you'd like to ask a question or make a comment, you're welcome to do so.
>> Summer school's funded from a couple of different places, title one being one of those places. Um, but also and I'll probably get the grant wrong, so I'll defer to Mr. Messing. Um, And then there is a line item in the local as well um for summer school funding. any other questions, comments? Yes, Mayor. in the transportation one. How many of in the some in the what you just sent us? Seven the 7D drivers 11 and two CDL. How many of those positions are unfilled and have been unfilled this year? It's um yeah towards the end. It's about three or four pages from the end. I I would I we could use one more CDL and I think one other driver to have a sub. In that sense, we've done actually okay in terms of transportation this year. Um there are two CDL drivers right now.
Removing this information means that conflicts of interest will not be identified in real time. It allows essentially for the Ethics Commission to try to identify conflicts of interest after the fact. At that point, decisions may have already been made and the harm to the public may have already been occurred. Eliminating transparency here solves a problem that does not appear to exist. There has not been a lack of qualified applicants for the Board of Regents specifically. However, the harm caused specifically with an institution that controls billions of dollars and is a central part of Hawaii's economy, eliminating the transparency, runs counter both to national standards and other similar institutions such as the University of California, which does also have public disclosure requirements. Thank you.
That's pretty sad. How do you believe this impacts the self-esteem of real girls within this school district? In a single post, you brought disgrace and embarrassment to our entire school district, our community, the state, and throughout the entire country to see. It's important to acknowledge in the single post that the BPS 101 struggled in several subjects and was not entirely truthful. There are multiple grammar grammical errors. That's English. He is a US representative, not a senator. So that's social studies and history. And yes, Tim is a man. So that's biology and science. So in one single post, you got five things wrong that you should be teaching our children in school. It's important to uphold the integrity of the five subjects you guys are teaching and supposed to teach our children. When your post contain fundamental civical civic in your accuracies or present ambiguous information, the community is justified in expecting higher standards from each and one of you.
So, it's been a nice Thank you guys for your help. That's incredible. Thank you. Tell me a little more about how the vocabulary works. Is there integration between math and music, the word vocabulary being worked on? Yeah. So, not integration between math and music, but um in doing some of my learning and learning about the strong correlation between vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension, you know, and working with my team, we decided that we wanted to use this explicit teaching new word protocol across all of our content areas. So, just how we are teaching words and making sure we are teaching words um on a regular basis in a consistent way to students. So, they know what to expect. So, they um are given some direct instruction upon what the word means. They're given examples and non-examples, and then they are um engaging in different activities related to the that word.
>> We actually had one class that was exactly that, that the chair had been obscene what the the level levels down were, but hadn't seen what was going in the class and it actually turned into a plus one over the course of the of the year, but they'd only seen seen half of the Yeah. >> Thank you. >> But in sections where we typically see move-ins, [clears throat] we make sure that there's enough space >> Yeah. >> for for that. Or enough elective options or those kinds of things, so so that we have seats for students that show up. So. >> Okay, and before I move on, I just want to again recognize, you know, the work that Jake and Keith are doing and I forgot to mention earlier like our department chairs who have a a big input a lot of input in how these things break down.
I want to thank them. STR has spent a lot of time over the last two and a half weeks they've we've literally walked every square inch of every single building competed completed PK and CT this morning. So we did both of those today so we've been through every single building now. So now they can keep compiling their data. So I just want to thank both of them for all the hard work and the stuff that they've put into this process for us already. So turn it over to Matt. All right, I'm trying to get connected here. While that is pulling up I will just give you guys a a quick reminder of kind of what the process looked like. Our team was out here for the better part of four five months a couple nights a week coming out in the evenings after the students were It just keeps saying connecting.
Later in the month, history truly came to life during the school's Black History Wax Museum. Students carefully researched influential black historical figures, created detailed display boards, and dressed as the leaders they studied. As families walked through the museum and press the button at each exhibit, students sprang into action, sharing powerful stories, accomplishments, and the lasting impact of the figures they portrayed. The event was a meaningful celebration of learning, creativity, and the remarkable contributions of black leaders who have shaped our nation and our world. At Creek Elementary and Ketta Scott King Magnet School in University Park, students enjoyed curriculum and student learning centered around Black History Month. Even our youngest learners at the early learning center participated through age appropriate stories, creative art projects, and guided discussions. Students were introduced to important themes of history, identity, and community. One classroom enjoyed reading The Color of Us and created custom paint mixtures to explore and celebrate different skin tones.