If not, if do we have any questions? >> Question for DOE. [clears throat] >> Hi, Deputy Superintendent Suki. So, I I know that you're fairly new into this position, but um there was some testimony that says, you know, for 19 years the funds haven't been encumbered. Can you explain to these committees perhaps why and um the reasons for some of the funds being not encumbered? >> Yeah. Uh Jesse Suki, deputy superintendent of operations again and I yeah, I started in September, but I've been in land use development for over 20 years. Um and actually worked on some of these impact agreements way back when for projects in both the private and public sector. So, um the fees I my understanding is that some have not been spent because the way these um impact fees work or the fair share we're talking about the fair share specifically is that the proportional share of the impact that the project being proposed is going to have on schools in particular.
Um part of two championship teams now with football and basketball and as a as a contributor there. He is more importantly a leader on campus. Um and and I I learned what a leader he is when um I coached him in football and whatever you needed Sam to do, he was going to do it. Um no complaints, no questions, just yes sir, what can I do to to help the team next? Um and it was just a pleasure to work with him in that way. Um and on that vein, I think it's important to note that Sam um does not draw any attention to himself. he goes and does these great things and participates on campus and is a great friend, a great student, does all these things. I really don't think he expects any one to notice or any accolades or anything. Um, and that's why I think it's super important that we recognize him as student of the month because he doesn't even care if he's student of the month.
How long? >> So you have multiple You guys all did an incredible job. One great comment know what that All those movies long car. Thank you for coming to play at >> Roman. Anyway, instruments they have. >> Oh, piano. Sorry. >> Thank you. >> Typically we pause there so that people for these. We would love to have you all today. >> We will not penalize you. >> We need musical accompiment. Will you guys come back next time? Thank you. >> Mrs. Madison, you tell us what we're spending this month. >> Yes. I have nothing near as exciting as that, so I shouldn't be following it. But um voucher range 436236 to 436420 for a total of claims to be approved tonight 2,318,6316. You also have financial reports in your packet that show the bank balances, fund reports for the district as well as the schools, cash flows for education operation, a transfer resolution for $80,000 from education to operation.
Uh we believe if we can do those three things, then we're able to create an environment where we can all thrive. And tonight, I'd like to talk about how we leave it better than we found it. We try to provide ways that we can model this for our students, um and give back to the community in which they live. And as you can see, we've got a lot of various activities that we have done to get students involved in giving back to our community. From student-run events like the toy drive, the food drive, and the mural up town, to some more adult-organized events like treats before dark, career day, and the shelter drive, we try to model and include students in a variety of events. And today, I want to literally talk about how we have left our mark on the town. Oops. All right, go back.
Our neighbor Rhode Island banned in 2017. They did the scientific research and they reversed the ban in a couple weeks. Matter of fact, as of April 1st, 2026. Um the FDA also announced in their July 29th, 2025 press conference that they are not interested in scheduling. They only want to ban um the synthetic 70. Uh let me see. I do support the ban on 70 and I think I I think I emailed you last night or this morning that um South Hadley and Amherst passed their regulation. You know, they listened to everybody email the testimonies and you know, they made a great decision and I just hope that you guys do as well, especially for, you know, the people in your your town and the state of Massachusetts. Thank you. Great. >> Thank you. Um I see Melody has her hand up. Here we go.
So the amount of money that's contributed or land that is contributed is just a part of the entire need for the district. So the money that are in those accounts may not have been spent because they're not enough money to build like a full school and the money is restricted to being used in the district where it's collected because the impact fee um like the AG had testified um is linked to the constitutional limitations of you know it has to be a proportional share of the impact and can only be used for the purpose that it was um exacted for. So that's another reason why um those fees may not have been spent, but they are um allocated to projects within those regions over time. So it's being used um but some of the funds still are in there, but the intent is to use them as the need becomes um um you know to to fruition because this you know because it's dedicated doesn't mean at that time you need to build.
He just does all the right things. So, I'm super proud of you, Sam. >> Thank you. Good afternoon. Our high school student of the month is Adeline Cobb. Come on down, Adeline. You You choose. >> So, Adeline, I met Adeline last year. She was doing job shadow at the elementary school. Um, I didn't realize how much she was involved in at that point. Um, but her list of accolades is very long. She's currently likely in the running for validictorian for next year. She's a junior. She does NAVIT. She's the editor and chief of our yearbook. She's on the superintendent advisory council. Um, she's running for student body president right now and she's currently the junior class president. Um, she's keeps up with everything. She stays on task and she goes above and beyond every day. Um, so Miss Cherry had wrote this big long thing.
There are three donations. $200 from Greensboro Methodist Church for general use, $100 for Nightstown Friends Church for boys basketball meal, and a $600 donation from Triatha for field trip support. Need a motion, Mr. President. Uh, Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion to approve the consent agenda, which includes approval of bills and also approval of financial reports and transfers. >> Motion by Mr. Leonard, second by Mrs. Van Hoy to approve the consent agenda presented.
I got happy clicking. Thank you. So, we were approached by the town of Waterloo and Mrs. Books um a few years ago or a year ago, and they wanted to paint a mural on the side of one of the buildings in the heart of Waterloo. Our students brainstormed with Mrs. Books on the different images and symbols that represented Waterloo. They collaborated on ways that they could incorporate those into the overall design and then they edited it to make sure it looked just how they wanted it. And finally, they were able to volunteer their time to go up and actually paint the mural uptown. This past fall, we were recognized we were actually contacted by the Disabled American Veterans due to our Purple Heart status to see if we might be interested in raising some funds for their cause. So, our students and families spread the word and they were able to raise $1,250 for the Disabled American Veterans.
I got it. >> Okay. >> Yeah, we can hear you. >> Okay. Get my things here. Okay. Got Um, I just returned from the University of Florida um, a couple weeks ago from the 2026 Catum Scientific Symposium where we had um, legislators and scientists from every single US healthcare agency talking about chronom. Our keynote speaker was Dr. Nora Vulco. She is the director of NAIDA, the National Institute of Drug Abuse. She communicated the same favorable stance that she communicated to the Congress in the 2023 congressional briefing as she did at the 24 congressional briefing and as she did just a few weeks ago. She is a favorable standing on chronom and one of them mentioned about the um press conference. I spoke at the HHS FDA press conference. They asked me to speak from their platform as a 12-year daily created consumer so I could talk about the benefits of it and to distinguish it from 708 which I am all in favor of being banned.
You build when the need arises over the life of that project. >> Okay. Are you able to share with the committees what projects that you're using the funding for? Um >> I believe in our testimony we named the um a couple was the uh let's see we talked about the um core ridge and whole projects and the central and west Maui projects. >> Oh I see it here later in the testimony. Okay. Thank you. Thank you chairs. >> Thank you. So, how much of the school impact fees did you folks use on these projects? >> Um, I I don't have that in front of me, but we reported and we have the um quarterly I believe it's quarterly reports on the website. >> So, of the $17 million that was in the in the fund, is that what we have? How much is in the fund?
Shocker from Miss Cherry. Um, pretty much to sum up and say that Adeline is exactly what we want at Blige. She is the kid that works hard every single day, that comes in and smiles and makes sure that it gets done even if stress is mounting and timelines are coming up and things like that. That's Adeline in a nutshell. She's awesome. And I I'd like to chip in that Adeline had some great stories for our superintendent advisory council last time about um some of our toilets turning into water features at the school. She had some really good discussion. So I might try to talk Adeline into coming with us. Uh we were invited to the town council meeting uh at the beginning of April. So I might try to recruit Adeline to come with me to that as one of our star students. So congratulations all of our students of the month.
Any questions or comments? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed the same. Motion carries 5 Z. Old business item 7.02 board policy second reading dealing with board vacancy and the use of social media. Motion by Mr. Van. Second, Miss Fox to approve on second reading board policy 1106 and 1503.
And in partnership with them, they sent us flags. So, for every $250 that we raised, they sent us 25 flags. The students then counted all the flags and they figured out a grid they plotted and then they planted the flags for our Veterans Day program. This spring, we are once again leaving our mark on the town of Waterloo. We are very excited to be a part of their planter box art display that they're having uptown. Um Waterloo Elementary was integral in getting the town of Waterloo put on the Monarch Waystation International Registry. We were one of the first towns to be put on this registry and now there are thousands of them. So, in honor of that history, our students are all going to be creating their very own butterfly and they will be painting it on that planter box which will be on display uptown all summer and then this fall, it will be auctioned [snorts] off to raise money for the um Downtown Business Association.
Um, creatum has helped me so much during my life and my family. I've been in pain for over 20 years. I've lived with chronic pain from fibromyalgia, arthritis, sciatica, and other conditions. Before consuming crom, I was bedridden and required assistance which affected my family. Um, my kids did have had to have fans on in the room at night when they were all in elementary school so they could sleep because they would hear me crying in pain on the first level of of our home. And this past summer, I chased my three and a halfyear-old granddaughter all over the countryside and um from one splash pad and parked to another because I was her full-time caregiver for the summer last year for about four months. And so I just would urge you to follow the FDA and the HHS guidance which says get rid of 70 and keep the plain leaf products available.
>> I'm sorry. I don't have those numbers in front of me. >> How can you not have these numbers? I mean, you're here to to defend this measure. So, wouldn't you didn't you have that information available? Yeah, I can provoke about this last year as well and we had proposed to do away with the with the impact fees last year and the measure got watered down, but um you know this is serious. If you're going to tell tell us that you're using the funds but you don't have the monies, then how are we to trust that what you're telling us is as accurate? Did you read the did you read the audit report by the auditor about the impact fees? the impact fees. Yeah. Yeah. That came out a while ago. Yeah. >> Yes. And you know, you know what they stated about the formula about the fact that you folks haven't used the monies uh about how res residents are being are being um um assessed these these amounts and yet those monies don't go back into the schools in that district.
All right. Now, we're going to do our athlete of the month. Coach Kloff. Could I have Garrett Gestner come up here, please? And my my allergies are really bad. So, if it looks like I'm crying, that's that's just not the case. So, just so you're aware, uh, this month, um, our teachers and coaches selected Garrett Gestner as our athlete of the month. And one of the things I can say about Garrett is he's a kid that I just absolutely love as an administrator, a coach, also as a teacher. Um, kids like Garrett, um, you just wrap your heart right around them because they do everything you ask them to do. They do it the right way. They work hard and they don't complain. Um, here's his plaque. um his teachers, coaches. He is a three sport athlete. He um ran cross country, wrestled, and now he's running track.
Any discussion? All those in favor say I. >> I post the same. Car new business food service program. >> Um over the past three years we have been very lucky to participate in the community eligibility provision which allowed us as a district to provide free breakfast and free lunch um for every kiddo. Uh it was a wonderful program for us. Um as many things do as time has changed u policies have changed staff requirements we are seeing and have been seeing for the last couple years. The percentage reimbursement that we're getting back from those meals um is significantly lower than what it was when we started. So, um, instead of being able to maintain and provide those meals based on the reimbursement that we would get, we had to spend down cash balance and food service. And we held on just as absolutely long as we could.
So, as you can see, we're working really hard to provide our students with lots of different opportunities so that they can give back to the town and leave it better than they found it. Thank you. >> Thanks, Samantha. >> [applause] >> Moving [clears throat] on, um I'll ask the board to adopt an amended agenda. >> I'll make a motion. >> I'll second. >> I have a motion and a second.
Thanks for your time. I appreciate it and I'm happy to stick around for any questions. >> Thank you. Um I see Jennifer. >> Yes. Hi. Um my name is Jennifer Gillis and I am just calling. I know y'all are having a cradle discussion and I just wanted to voice my opinion. Um 20 years ago I was diagnosed with transverse malitis. I became a chronic pain patient. After years of struggling to find relief, I discovered natural cradle. It gave me a second chance at life. And because of that, I made a promise to myself to use my voice to advocate for cradle because there's many who rely on natural products, particularly those in the chronic pain community that may not be aware that these discussions are taking place. Um, as far as um, what everybody else has said, I think it's good to, uh, you know, support reasonable regulations.