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okay are you really gonna do it yes uh would you pull the board please certainly art wow worse than five moons i no i shane frost here is six to nothing okay and then the other two items we have for you are first readings uh one is the um approval of our action steps for our goals projects and initiatives which you approved last month mark is continuing to work with the administrative team on uh making sure that we've identified what are the specific steps that we want to take toward those gpis uh and so we'll finalize those and bring those back to the board in november mark we're about one admittedly we're about one month behind um on this process if you recall it's just that this year coming out of covid things were still a little bit wonky at the start of the year so uh mark and the admin team though are doing really great work and we're excited about where we're at and we only have some minor changes to bring to you before november and then the second first reading we have for you is a new series of board policy updates if you look at those however nearly every single one of them carol is uh legal footnotes references and things like that so uh we'll bring those back to you as well uh in november and then um we'll also bring to you the next iteration of the press release and then we should be all caught up with uh our pandemic gap of more policy updates and i just want to thank carol because i noticed it in the policy the two two six five that you went back and filled in the stuff that we were talking about so those two items will be coming to you in november for your approval um you'll also see the personnel report um there for you that will present in as part of the consent agenda and then um we will not need an executive session following the meeting as we had one prior to the meeting and then that takes us to the business section um and sean you want to begin with our lead certification of course um as the board is as well yeah re-certification this board is uh cognizant um the east building edition uh phase one received leed platinum notification and that was after our original building received gold certification from leed as an existing building um back in 2015 and then excuse me back in 2015 as well as in 2010 um it's now time for us to recertify um again and the the the need behind the recertification is really just a verification that our building is operating um in the sustainable you're following the sustainable practices that we've outlined in our board policy so it's important that we verify every five years that we have that we are continuing to follow those sustainability practices that the board has decided um are important to our community um so with that tonight we are following are following any discussion we are recommending that the board of education approve a contract with white and company for consulting services related to the sustainability and the lead recognition um at a cost not to exceed thirty eight thousand one hundred and fifty dollars can you have a motion so moved second um well and and the other point that we talked about at the last meeting sean is it's not just a sustainability it's also confirming in um that the savings uh correct and financial are realized and realized in any changes we need to do to do that's exactly correct okay this all plays into the amount of energy that's purchased and used for sure um any questions for sean other questions would you pull the board please certainly are well worsen it carries six to nothing okay the next item is uh approval of our um recommendation for new registration software and i'll let sean talk through this in a minute but i'll tell you that over the years if there's been one complaint that we've heard uh in may and june that troy and i usually get from parents it's how cumbersome our registration software is and so one of the things that we asked sean and doug to do is look to see if there's a different solution to this problem because we have so many different inputs from payments for athletics to yearbooks to the foundation to the ppa's notebook or guidebook or whatever it is that now we're also verifying residency and there's just so many inputs that the current system um is a real struggle for our parents to navigate and utilize um so sean kind of tell us where you're at with this and and what the recommendation absolutely that would be great yeah we we looked at this five years ago as we periodically look at all of our software and we we felt like at that time we could continue to operate um with the existing software um but that software at this point is kind of past its useful life and so we evaluated several out of the box um or what i'll call out of the box software packages and really what they they they're they're fine in the primary function of registering the student however it would force us as eric mentioned to use multiple different platforms for a student or for basically a family to not only register but then also pay their fees everything would go through a particular portal and we could not find one that not only um would do what we needed on the front end the front facing end but also on the back end in terms of generating reports downloading the information to put into our student management system and then downloading the money that's collected to put in our financial software system as well so we uh we evaluated several and at the end of the day um none of those features would allow us to custom nature and the one-stop shopping that we want to provide for our families so that they don't have to go to multiple places um and so what we ended up with is we'd like to work with metrics and if you recall metrics is the company that helped us build our interactive report card which is now very popular and widely used and and i think many uh people are envious of what we've built people i mean other schools of course um they're envious of what we've built and what we would like to do is um basically do the same thing um with this custom software the nice thing about the software is that there would no be there's no annual licensing fees we would um represent or we would own this software and therefore it's really kind of our product we don't have to charge us off the licensing fee and so if you were to look at an out of the box feature that has you know licensing fees associated with on an annual basis and if you look at a custom software the payback is around 10 years and that's assuming that we don't have to pay any money whatsoever with the out of the box feature to customize this which is almost never true um and the also thing the other thing is that with the back end reporting that we would get out of our custom software we wouldn't be open to human error for translating data that came out of the system and then uploading it into a different software so tonight we are going to make the recommendation to the board of education to approve metrics to build a registration software system at a not a cost not to exceed 150 000 do you have a motion please second thank you um any questions for sean i have like a million questions they're very technical and pretty specific better suited i really like to delay this if that's not going to completely throw everything off so i have a little more time to really dig into it with you and doug because i mean that what you're taking on i i mean it's 150 000 that's not going to be a one-time expenditure and the ongoing costs well there's a whole nother cons and there are things the questions i have about the security of the platform the modification of it what's the impact with the impending upgrade to windows 11 and how's that going to impact servers and and the platform that this runs on and questions way beyond some of the the things that you touched on that i'm i don't i'm just one quick guy a lot of technical yeah this number uh an exaggerated number um doug thinks it's going to be significantly less this was the number to kind of throw out there well i think it will be significantly more actually yeah this is i think highly understated i would really like to have a deeper conversation with you guys yeah i i had similar questions so these certainly we could we could have conversations about it however the the timing of this if we were to implement um you know if this were to be implemented in time for the summer registration for the 22-23 school year which typically occurs at the second or third week of june um we would want to make sure that they have enough time to complete the the build so we have a registration software today what's that we have a registration software today it's not like we won't be able to register kids next year we do we would have to pay for that licensing fee but it's very cumbersome it's prone to error there's a lot of mistakes we have multiple systems at place so it's it is far less than ideal i mean this is not the system that we have right now is um it's just terribly inefficient it it doesn't do what it's supposed to do for us doug spends more way more time on the back end of this than he should ever spend yeah not even including his time and energy yeah so let me uh eric and i were just talking for a moment if we had the motion subject to approval of the technology committee and if you guys could meet uh with doug and gary um you know the reality is if we get too far um away from this we're you know then we're just not going to have time for the build and then we would be kind of delaying it one more year you know and so it if we could um pull together that meeting that's gonna make it happen we can make that happen in the next couple weeks so that if the technology committee approves it then we can still you know move forward in mid-november later november that would still keep us probably on a time frame sure it would certainly absolutely and that is that okay is that uncomfortable okay okay so we'll modify the motion yeah carol already did yeah for the most now reads that we take do we call it the technology community executive technology executive technology committee please so do we want to pass this motion as amended as yeah as amended um and before we do that are there any other questions other people want to ask what is the ongoing cost of the existing system it's a great question i think we're up to twelve thousand dollars a year now on this particular software but that doesn't put just that doesn't mean yeah that does not include all of the customization work that we have to do correct in addition to that 12 000 a year so we're constantly trying to modify that existing registration software with other technology solutions is that a custom solution too no no it's tweaked it's registrar register so any system like that we're gonna have to customize you know like even if in campus see that that leads to some of the questions that i have for you guys what about the process itself maybe there's a problem with the process there's commercial software available that hundreds if not thousands of districts are taking advantage of maybe there's something amiss with the process that you're using that you can't use the same kind of software no i'm not expecting an answer no i'll answer that and i apologize yeah no i'll answer that i think i know a lot of those people who use those systems and they end up doing exactly what we're doing which is they end up spending more time and money on the registration processes because those solutions don't do for them what they need them to do so they'll have the registration system but then like we have then you have a whole other process that you have to go through to submit your health care forms you have a whole nother process you have to go through for residency forms you have a whole another process they have to go through for you know you have all parking for athletic fees for so parents end up going to like four five six seven different places because no out of the box solution is going to give you the portal the process that you need so they end up having multiple processes for what could be and should be a fairly simple portal to register your students so all for the low low price of yeah okay right so i have a question not a not a technical question like they're asking in the past when we've had when we've incurred expense like this for something that we then owned and didn't have the license haven't we also actually licensed it to others we have and we can't we have so would we be if with this would we be able to license it and charge fees to other schools yes we do that with um the ir crc right now from metrics it's not from us people are not you know putting people on our network um the technology is what we're like not we're not putting people on or not and just there's a liability associated with selling the software yeah sarah does abc and who maintains all that moving forward when the underlying operating systems and databases all of those things are what's in our agreements that our lawyers write up lawyers that are not retired lawyers who are not retired have already created those documents for us and they're already out there yes your honor all right so we will this will be pending approval of the executive technology committee and we will get that meeting oh we haven't we need to vote for it yes okay would you any other questions before we go would you please pull the board certainly gorson all right wounds i know hi shang i frost hi i will well it carries six to zero there you go okay moving on to our uh construction drawings for the summer of 2022 projects um we we had a more in-depth conversation about this at our site facility meeting in october on october 4th um there were a series of projects we discussed um we did remove um projects um we did remove a couple of projects that we talked about that weren't necessarily preventative maintenance um and or renovations to improve the instruction what's going on in the classroom um the estimates that we came up for for october were between 7.1 and 7.5 million dollars but as we remove those other projects it will be under um seven million dollars and once we receive the actual bids my guess is they'll be more in line with um that five percent figure that we've talked about to give everybody an idea five percent of our budget this year would be six point three million dollars um so we would be spending um basically are the five percent that's recommended that we've talked about for years in terms of what we should spend on our facility to ensure that our facility doesn't fall apart um and in fact we'll get to our carpeting bid here and our carpeting bid came in 130 000 underneath um but we do have to uh um authorize white and company um to create construction drawings from the designs that they have already created the expense here is only for white and company it does not guarantee that the construction is going to occur those decisions will be brought to the board in february for the board's final approval before um you know before we actually begin on any of the projects so um tonight we are only asking for the board of education to approve white and company to create construction drawings for the summer 2020 the summer of 2022 projects as discussed at the site and facility meetings at a cost not to exceed 286 thousand nine hundred dollars okay any other questions we talked through this at the same facilities any other questions for sure is the join is the expense for the drawing also included in the budget correct yes that is correct we will not be getting drawings on the things that we said correct we've eliminated those other projects those will not be those are not in there so that that figure will come down it's an estimate that we then true up once the projects are completed okay would you pull the board please oh i no i changed frost or wall here is six to nothing thank you um the second part of this has to do with then once we authorize white to actually create construction drawings we have to authorize uh gilbane and company to conduct a bid on our behalf for all the projects so that we can get a final dollar to present to the board so the board knows the true cost of all the construction items so tonight we will be asking the board of education to authorize gilbane to conduct a bid on behalf of the district for the summer 2022 renovation projects again we talked about this exciting facilities any other questions for sean would you pull the board no i shang frost or wall gorson moon's eye carries six to nothing um as i previously just mentioned um one of the things that i'm going to be asking for tonight is the approval for carpet installation we went ahead and actually bid the carpet replacement earlier because we would like to take advantage of both winter break as well as spring break to replace those the carpeting that's worn and torn and needs to be um replaced anyway um we uh put out the bid um we received five different bids although i will tell you that the winning bidder um did or the lowest bidder i should say uh midway flooring did ask to remove uh their bid because they had missed the part of the scope we did agree to allow them to withdraw their bid um the second lowest bidder um was about six thousand dollars more than the low bid um and that was for commercial carpet consultants and so tonight we are rebecca recommending to the board of education to award the summer 2022 carpet installation contract to commercial carpet consultants at a cost not to exceed 147 140.85 so this is the people that were in it last year that we had to undo yes so we had um we had uh we had a really um an unfortunate uh situation with our contractor from the summer of 21.

last year when i gave a similar report we had a bump from kind of in the 50s up to 75. what we weren't sure about at the time was how much of that was um related to kind of situational copied uh related enrollment how much of that was related to the general trends that we knew were going to continue um and it looks based on this year that we're continuing to trend up on that front um just below those numbers you'll see the top five home languages for each of the years and the numbers next to it just indicate how many students have that language's home language so you can see that in most of the years spanish has been our highest home language but not in every year and you'll see an interesting mix of languages throughout so it's not we really do have a wide number of different home languages in the district representing this population that's important for programming on that front the other two graphs in here give you breakdowns of similar information both by school and also by grade level and in thinking about the grade level it does run tend to run that our elementary english learner population is the highest and this makes sense to us in a lot of ways because as students are in school for a period of time getting um getting both in instruction all day long and also support as developing english learners become proficient in english and no longer qualify to be english workers so it makes sense to us that our highest numbers of english learners are in kind of the primary grade levels one of our most of our buildings back on the front page did see uh increases uh the largest increase actually was last year at highland had a significant number an increase in the el population one of the things that i feel really good about though is this is not unanticipated for us so we have been they have had we have things in place we continue to have them in place to make sure we have the right supports for our english learners through our teachers in programming and so on um we did re-establish a support relationship with aces this year we had a one-year pause on that we have people internally who can give that training and bid last year um and there's something beneficial about having the outside person who's got just that next level of expertise provide that training her name is maggie stevens she has been in once um to support teachers who have english springs either for the first time or for the first time in a long time because there's a lot of the supports for english learners that some of which are counter-intuitive like we tend to want to translate everything and that's not really going to be the best approach for in all situations help develop an english learner situation maybe translate but not always so some of those things it's good to have on the expert training from aces and maggie has actually also provided us a really good resource we've added to our resource catalog this year a book that has any language that's spoken in connecticut by 10 or more students is represented in this book and it tells you the typical grammar sounds syntax errors that those learners are likely to meet which is really helpful um to know where does the object show up in in that sentence how are those where does the modifier show that where are the typical sound that a student's going to have a hard time picking up and reading so to really she's a really good resource in this this additional resources also we're also consciously supporting um getting more of our existing staff t-cell certified and tesol as the certification that we can directly support english learners so we have uh two people in the process to additional people in the process to get that certification this year um so there are a lot of good things in place to help support our english communities and also the addition of the that i know we've spoken about and we approved at a board meeting recently um brian murphy our family and community engagement coordinator helping connect with us with you know families our numbers are trending in the the direction that um we anticipated we weren't quite sure what was going to be happening with that bump last year um but we have good things in place to support our growing young population kevin we don't get el ninos and how many um teachers are peaceful so we have um we actually have two uh t-cell certified teachers right now one is only one is actually operating or teaching under that certification but we have multiple people with two cell certifications we have two additional that are getting trained now so that will be one tesol certified teacher at every grade level bands someone else elementary something like middle high school and they just move from schools so elementary level yeah yeah pat castle is the elementary or person who oversees that so she's really helping support um support the people who are helping their english learners whether that's a classroom teacher or a literacy support team tutor so she's overseeing that kristen castellanos at the middle school she in that well oversees supporting teachers and also provides direct support and now russell in high school serving similarly to supporting teachers and students so most of our um english learner families are moving out and these this is a reflection of families moving in district yes and um clearly they're moving into this highland area um well highland just has more it does have more students but do you is there are they are they identifying highland as the school of choice or is it just the patterns that i i don't know for sure um what we have seen anecdotally sometimes is that's pretty significant i would say our significant year that bump was last year [Music] their increase in the oil population this year is more in line with percentage-wise the most of their building increases but last year they did um they did have a they doubled yeah so that was a significant and we did um provide some more support there because that was not we weren't anticipating that many students at that school so we did provide some direct additional support there well highlands had like a 4.7 rate of english learners on that rate 4.7 enrollment chapman had 1.8 doolittle had 2.7 so yeah but i don't know i don't know if i'd be able to say that families are choosing highest doesn't matter okay yeah and then so where we see declines you know some languages falling off the chart is that are they have they graduated out of the program or multiple reasons so so some is because as students exit the program um because they pass the last links um that and some of our decreases in uh home language identifications from that process i thought you were getting at these are the top five languages we have representation of over 20 right right and um but for example urgent urdu would still be there if it were nine yeah yeah it still shows up on on there and that's one of the next ones down it just happens to be a few less through both students passing the loss and some moving so it's me i didn't realize mandarin okay well thanks i love your charts yeah that's thanks it's good to see it it's good to see officially yeah so okay um next up is approval of the charts and graphs so this one is something that at our last board of education meeting the full board had agreed to adopt the flexibilities for teacher administrator evaluation he put into the state for that and they approved it to close the loop on that and give you that update okay okay and then now the um sat overview for the high school yes so i'm giving you a sheet that has green and red on it i'm not trying to jump to another holiday what i've given you is a five year summary of where you are and i'd like to talk a little bit about some context so just let me take you through the charts you know this is all the grade 11 school day s.a.t the 2021 administration which this year seniors when we were juniors took place on march 24th so it's typically a mortgage test so this is the 20 so in 2017.

fourth in math in 2019 and i'm sorry fourth and eight brw 2019 and 12 and math in 2019 and then this year 15th in evidence-based reading and reading 17th in that so what does all of that mean well what it means is to contextualize 94 percent of the derby schools showed us a math score drop 83 percent of derby derby schools saw erw drop in 2021 so i think that is that i would ever think that that's a co-big impact um but we also want to be sure whether it's an assessment whether it is the amazing content you saw or two teachers presenting no matter what is put in front of our students we want them to succeed so he said about it making a plan to move forward and we've looked deeply and are continuing to look deeply at higher level tasks what kinds of tasks are they asked for on this assessment how does that comfort with what we're getting data and looking at how we're meeting standards and looking at how we are supporting our students to be able to succeed in whatever material is putting from him in math and english we're analyzing data we're continuing to align curriculum we continue to provide support in math and writing workshops and we know thankfully he did get an additional position for a manager a certified math intervention teacher so that and we've been asking for that and we could could have it for a couple of years and so we're thrilled that we have that additional position to support our students that is being represented as fully pushing in um pull out support uh and we're also able now to offer support to students every period until three and i'm sorry both writing and mathematics um and so that's how we're we're supporting embedding both daily tasks looking at our assessments aligning curriculum and making sure that we are sticking with our acceleration practices which do have a strong impact ensuring that the content that students need is the content that they're getting do you are these uh the 480 and 530.

those do that's the junior class for 2017 junior class for 2018 19 20 to 21. so you're not looking at a cold comparison you're looking at a single test date for a single group of people so we do look for trends but it's hard to compare because they're different groups of kids one strange part of the chart is what you see are percentages so you see the percent of students in each column erw is evidence-based reading money and math the percent of students who reach benchmark or better a benchmark score for erw evidence-based reunion is 4e the benchmark for math is 530. so for example the first column 88.3 of the amount of students hit benchmark in evidence-based reading writing and 79.1 percent did not 2017. so that's what this chart shows and gestures in green everything is listed alphabetically for our comparison you want to see so the fourth column 2020 is different that shows the actual average score for the two subtests because we don't have those data indicating what percent of students my benchmark because there wasn't an average number of students who took it students could elect to take the makeup exam in 2020 so it was involved it was a very odd year i put that there and what i did was i found i didn't say what the average scores were and did a comparison there so that is not as scientific as the other columns that are tied to when the state releases those data regarding benchmark achievement okay for each of the the junior classes so what when we when we got our results and when i shared this with the full faculty i first shared with the instructional leadership team and then with our full faculty and to say we were just conservative uh for 2021 we were and what we all felt was a disconnect between what we see every day in the classroom and then how it translates to standardized testing for that year especially but as we look more deeply we see sort of the flat line um in 19 through nine in both both tests 15th in 2018.

is that consistent across yes okay so that's that's that's right that is every single school that every single school takes the sat that is set by the college board let me explain what that means what that means is that score of 480 and 530 needs 75 percent of students who achieve that support and get a 75 or veteran equivalent college course it is predictive of college college policy programs and then are there you know they they test so many concepts in both subject areas um are you finding weaknesses in particular that's what we're analyzing right now where is it that there's a disconnect did you spend too much time on x instead of y is it is it a tweak that would allow a little more practice something we did find already is reading ensuring that students are comprehending the kinds of questions that they have these are very complex questions that students are asked to deal with on the sat are they able to really read the question are they rushing through and so that's something that we took a look at um you know where where are the distractors so there's really a two-pronged approach it's both it's it's the the content that is already embedded in our standards ensuring that we're focusing on what students need and then seeing where they might have some difficulty with vocabulary or certain kinds of reading tasks both in the math and the evidence-based reading learning assessment piece and that if that's what both departments are digging into them now you have a new head of the math department yes we did and didn't you you said you were looking you are changing the program the text aren't you or the we're looking at some of the core some of the core math texts are being reevaluated um and so in the um you know just the whole curriculum review process we're not being adopting a new text to be like pulling it out of sequence and saying we've got to we see we've got something we've got to deal with we're going yeah there's a there's a couple of things that play there some things that we had wanted to look at during covet could not happen just simply because of logistics right so that is happening and then i think the other the real big thing that's happened is with the new math department chair how she's been very strategic about um looking at how we support students using the math coach and using the approach that i referred to before and how we're going to change that so we've got partner work happening for each math course during each day and support for students so they split up their periods and half of the period the teachers collaborate and have the period they deliver support to students you know they determine the first of the second half depending on me i think the future is right for our students for math i do not think that this is a score that we will see moving forward i think that's the last time we will be in that category no are you um also going to some of these other schools i mean yes okay and seeing what absolutely conversations yeah because i you know when when jeff's presented in september just it was kind of startling to see um and i know you had just gotten them that day or the day before um but what struck me was how do we go from performing so well in eighth grade and then within a very how did this cohort of students perform when they took the psja when they took and what we do see with this cohort of students is it is in comparison to previous years and i think some of that is copic related but there but there there was not the extreme it wasn't as extreme looking at their cohorted data so that is why we focus on the psat results look even more intensely now to see where is it that when students took their tests in october we don't get the results until december january and then what can we do to support them between them and the next set of psats if you're a ninth grader or a tenth grader and then then eleventh grader what do you mean between them and the sat in march and this current group of sats they were the first group to take ninth grade psats so that's just kind of a new process for us at the high school too and today trying to analyze grade 9 to 10 10 to 11 for the psats leading classes as you just said um so so you know and i'm just thinking i'm thinking that too some of the numbers come in that you had where remember we was a couple where we saw the third graders had a dip in their performance now i'm just wondering you know was that there when these guys were in third grade and i can and i may be totally off the wall but i mean should we start looking at these young kids now to ensure that yes so that is that's what we do that our data team does yeah as a matter of fact mary and i have a meeting with naviar department chair fermat i met with her last week and she's been very diligently looking at both every course every sat point and backwards looking at where those students came from so all the things that you're talking about are actively happening and when we look back and i can't let you speak as i look back to you know when we implemented eureka i think we've seen so much success there i know that as our students are coming up their math minds are different than they were seven years ago when we were teaching from different methods [Music] i wasn't going to add too much more than that other than um you know particularly for third graders it was a the first time they were taking the assessment so we have some idea how they were performing over multiple years because we had some internal assessments they didn't necessarily perform quite as we predicted but also not only that balance we're predicting um and i know really paying attention to well pertaining to all yes levels of learners right right of course but for the students in the grade level bands where it doesn't match kind of what we historically have seen you know we know that there's a connection to the environment that we've been in the last 18 months that still doesn't change the work of we have students who we know are capable we know that if we put the right instruction in front of them they can not meet great standards and people like in the mass isolation nelly our math coach 86 and on the reading site pat castle at the elementary level of really finding tuned into exactly where were some of those gaps um where were some of the things that didn't match what we know that we typically see from our student performance similarly at the middle school kristin castellano and kristen chandler division leaders on them are now getting to some of that financing and understanding themselves looking at cohorts of students coming through is not brand new for us it's just a different level of kind of attention because there are just some things that have been different from our typical experience of the last year and a half so we have to look at it even a little bit more closely than we so do you think any of this because if you only like dealing with rankings um then you're not dealing with you've taken out the coconut except were we less successful at taking care of our students other needs besides academics um whether it's social social emotional or more successful it seems like we have more fragile students what if you look at these right i wouldn't associate score with emotional fragility necessarily i would associate that with content um with practice with structured focus and an exposure to complex concepts that are aligned between the standards that are in the assessment standards with alignment between those two things so the scores themselves are are fairly strong it's just the number of students who didn't hit them by 30.

fourth in math in 2019 and i'm sorry fourth and eight brw 2019 and 12 and math in 2019 and then this year 15th in evidence-based reading and reading 17th in that so what does all of that mean well what it means is to contextualize 94 percent of the derby schools showed us a math score drop 83 percent of derby derby schools saw erw drop in 2021 so i think that is that i would ever think that that's a co-big impact um but we also want to be sure whether it's an assessment whether it is the amazing content you saw or two teachers presenting no matter what is put in front of our students we want them to succeed so he said about it making a plan to move forward and we've looked deeply and are continuing to look deeply at higher level tasks what kinds of tasks are they asked for on this assessment how does that comfort with what we're getting data and looking at how we're meeting standards and looking at how we are supporting our students to be able to succeed in whatever material is putting from him in math and english we're analyzing data we're continuing to align curriculum we continue to provide support in math and writing workshops and we know thankfully he did get an additional position for a manager a certified math intervention teacher so that and we've been asking for that and we could could have it for a couple of years and so we're thrilled that we have that additional position to support our students that is being represented as fully pushing in um pull out support uh and we're also able now to offer support to students every period until three and i'm sorry both writing and mathematics um and so that's how we're we're supporting embedding both daily tasks looking at our assessments aligning curriculum and making sure that we are sticking with our acceleration practices which do have a strong impact ensuring that the content that students need is the content that they're getting do you are these uh the 480 and 530.

right there there were a good cluster of kids who were 5 20. just didn't get that 5 30 not to minimize at all um but again we we didn't we are not it doesn't trap with where we see our daily experiences and that disconnect has to get right i'd love to know how sean's kids do because with practical math i wonder if nicole is getting chocolately a number of things we're looking at a number of ways in which they you know they're using it practically and it may have made sense i would all these questions an instructional trick too is how students understand the same concept but if it's worded differently that's why i was talking about how reading is has the college board changed its test in 2015 the college board aligned its test with state standards so they made that very conscious decision to do that to make the test more aligned with what we teach rather than the more abstract concepts that were being tested if they removed analogies from the uh the reading test they removed um a number of topics from the mathematics and focused more on trigonometry and um higher order higher level map on gm which takes a very small portion of the saturn it's on there but it's not it doesn't have any questions that was prior to this 2015 is when you have to change the date yeah so this is the same test that they're getting assessed on the same test and it is the sat is the cycle nutrition's dream it is it is absolutely normal referenced and the kids that take it they're all competing against themselves and not english that's how their ranges are set and the questions stems are tested okay and then is the approach with the sat similar you know our kids are testing are working within gssm three three three well no no okay totally different thing yeah um okay initially one more change which the sat will be now online so that's a change for this year okay so that could be a little bit of a challenge but they're pretty adaptive um testing but we'll give them and they've been online testing now for years yeah they've been doing that to us but you know yeah you know i just think we have to be honest with everybody with the community if they ask questions just yes i just don't want that but there's so you're right [Music] okay well um i'm wondering do we um you're thinking would it make sense since we're talking about future topics for meetings to bring who the new math specialist is or the new math right now it makes sense to have her come in i don't think so no i don't think so i think that this is an internal process that we need to continue to look at i fully confident in dr gad and her team in working with the math teachers there that they are on the right track i think what they will do is they will bring you the next level of data once psat data is in and they will bring you any benchmark data that is available so that they can keep you apprised of that but the specifics of all of those strategies is day to day and in classroom work that we are we are committed to so i think mary's really outlined the plan as it stands for this year and i think it's pretty pretty detailed but i appreciate where your head's at well if there is anything that we need as far as curriculum resources new textbook funding for resources etc i know that that dr god will bring that back to this table thank you thanks yeah unless you break down and find if you just even just not meeting topics but just keep a surprise of where your weaknesses are and yeah so we're there and thank you address concerns we deal with it all in curriculum good to bed that's right okay um thanks guys thanks mary thank you all right and then last item is ngss alive india professional professional development update uh last spring i believe we shared i think at our june meeting that we were reestablishing our relationship with the connecticut science center to provide professional development so just a brief report that we've had um two sessions already this year uh one at the elementary level with our rams and we're doing a coaching the coach model with them so our insult is working with our rams and we're really focused on we actually have a resource at the elementary level um but maximizing that resource be just just what you saw in the front cover of that book phenomena based in structure leading to questions and you're finding through modeling and experiments and those kind of things so um our consumers worked with our grams once already and low again next friday one of five or six times in the year for elementary and we also had a middle school session and that design is with our entire middle school division we had a full day pb re-watch of kind of our work to get everybody back and back into work and their process is actually going to be monthly department meetings after school department meetings for small chunks an hour at a time for um six additional sessions on the year so close to monthly between so we shared that we were restarting that relationship uh last spring monday to know we've had one session each at the elementary middle school level our second session is coming up soon and i believe two of her subject areas biology biology and her science and they will be doing a lesson study where they will be developing lessons according to the ngs framework the center will come back they'll observe each other seeing how this lesson worked they'll come back rewrite and therefore we'll be running all of the different courses through that protocol so that everyone can learn that alignment process and how to write the lessons so we're just so glad that we can have people come in the buildings again or at least come here for that kind of pd i know julie is really glad to be getting this back on track as as are we all k through 12 to get this ship moving again so we wanted to make sure we gave the update since we seem to talk about ngss a lot because it's been over such a long period of time we're back at work at it great thank you all right well that is the last item on the agenda so um sure okay hi we're done

is that consistent across yes okay so that's that's that's right that is every single school that every single school takes the sat that is set by the college board let me explain what that means what that means is that score of 480 and 530 needs 75 percent of students who achieve that support and get a 75 or veteran equivalent college course it is predictive of college college policy programs and then are there you know they they test so many concepts in both subject areas um are you finding weaknesses in particular that's what we're analyzing right now where is it that there's a disconnect did you spend too much time on x instead of y is it is it a tweak that would allow a little more practice something we did find already is reading ensuring that students are comprehending the kinds of questions that they have these are very complex questions that students are asked to deal with on the sat are they able to really read the question are they rushing through and so that's something that we took a look at um you know where where are the distractors so there's really a two-pronged approach it's both it's it's the the content that is already embedded in our standards ensuring that we're focusing on what students need and then seeing where they might have some difficulty with vocabulary or certain kinds of reading tasks both in the math and the evidence-based reading learning assessment piece and that if that's what both departments are digging into them now you have a new head of the math department yes we did and didn't you you said you were looking you are changing the program the text aren't you or the we're looking at some of the core some of the core math texts are being reevaluated um and so in the um you know just the whole curriculum review process we're not being adopting a new text to be like pulling it out of sequence and saying we've got to we see we've got something we've got to deal with we're going yeah there's a there's a couple of things that play there some things that we had wanted to look at during covet could not happen just simply because of logistics right so that is happening and then i think the other the real big thing that's happened is with the new math department chair how she's been very strategic about um looking at how we support students using the math coach and using the approach that i referred to before and how we're going to change that so we've got partner work happening for each math course during each day and support for students so they split up their periods and half of the period the teachers collaborate and have the period they deliver support to students you know they determine the first of the second half depending on me i think the future is right for our students for math i do not think that this is a score that we will see moving forward i think that's the last time we will be in that category no are you um also going to some of these other schools i mean yes okay and seeing what absolutely conversations yeah because i you know when when jeff's presented in september just it was kind of startling to see um and i know you had just gotten them that day or the day before um but what struck me was how do we go from performing so well in eighth grade and then within a very how did this cohort of students perform when they took the psja when they took and what we do see with this cohort of students is it is in comparison to previous years and i think some of that is copic related but there but there there was not the extreme it wasn't as extreme looking at their cohorted data so that is why we focus on the psat results look even more intensely now to see where is it that when students took their tests in october we don't get the results until december january and then what can we do to support them between them and the next set of psats if you're a ninth grader or a tenth grader and then then eleventh grader what do you mean between them and the sat in march and this current group of sats they were the first group to take ninth grade psats so that's just kind of a new process for us at the high school too and today trying to analyze grade 9 to 10 10 to 11 for the psats leading classes as you just said um so so you know and i'm just thinking i'm thinking that too some of the numbers come in that you had where remember we was a couple where we saw the third graders had a dip in their performance now i'm just wondering you know was that there when these guys were in third grade and i can and i may be totally off the wall but i mean should we start looking at these young kids now to ensure that yes so that is that's what we do that our data team does yeah as a matter of fact mary and i have a meeting with naviar department chair fermat i met with her last week and she's been very diligently looking at both every course every sat point and backwards looking at where those students came from so all the things that you're talking about are actively happening and when we look back and i can't let you speak as i look back to you know when we implemented eureka i think we've seen so much success there i know that as our students are coming up their math minds are different than they were seven years ago when we were teaching from different methods [Music] i wasn't going to add too much more than that other than um you know particularly for third graders it was a the first time they were taking the assessment so we have some idea how they were performing over multiple years because we had some internal assessments they didn't necessarily perform quite as we predicted but also not only that balance we're predicting um and i know really paying attention to well pertaining to all yes levels of learners right right of course but for the students in the grade level bands where it doesn't match kind of what we historically have seen you know we know that there's a connection to the environment that we've been in the last 18 months that still doesn't change the work of we have students who we know are capable we know that if we put the right instruction in front of them they can not meet great standards and people like in the mass isolation nelly our math coach 86 and on the reading site pat castle at the elementary level of really finding tuned into exactly where were some of those gaps um where were some of the things that didn't match what we know that we typically see from our student performance similarly at the middle school kristin castellano and kristen chandler division leaders on them are now getting to some of that financing and understanding themselves looking at cohorts of students coming through is not brand new for us it's just a different level of kind of attention because there are just some things that have been different from our typical experience of the last year and a half so we have to look at it even a little bit more closely than we so do you think any of this because if you only like dealing with rankings um then you're not dealing with you've taken out the coconut except were we less successful at taking care of our students other needs besides academics um whether it's social social emotional or more successful it seems like we have more fragile students what if you look at these right i wouldn't associate score with emotional fragility necessarily i would associate that with content um with practice with structured focus and an exposure to complex concepts that are aligned between the standards that are in the assessment standards with alignment between those two things so the scores themselves are are fairly strong it's just the number of students who didn't hit them by 30.

item five approved press plus issue 107 board policy updates under business approved board of education financial report under curriculum approved the amended calendar for fiscal year 22 personnel and culture is um direct superintendent to sign the moa with cme a regarding covet 19 pandemic operations and that's it and that is it so so before i get a motion does any board member have an item on the consent agenda they'd like taken off to vote on separately well at one point i was contemplating on taking out the financial report for a separate vote but after reconsidering i chose not to but i will comment on it okay all right well can i get a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved and okay i i would like to comment open for comments yeah any comments or discussion yeah we look like we are asked to approve the press plus issue 107 board policy updates and i'm all good with that just want to be able let the board be aware that i'm going to come back with policy number 510 that deals with the hiring and seeking minority personnel or people to be hired with the company that's for our policy i think we need to look at a little verbiage to add that so i just want to let you know it's coming okay i talked to dr collins on this maybe next time around when i review a couple other policies that is one that's uh just being asked to be approved tonight with no changes that's 510 policy 510 okay i have a question um when you look at that change why why not i'm at i'm just trying to get clarification why not um ask for it to be pulled out and reviewed or voted separately oh we can come back at a later date i still don't understand the verb reach the exact verbiage and i don't want to tie down the board well it's not on the agenda tonight i mean if you want to it says we're not approving it tonight well yeah you're approving i'm sorry seven you're talking about policy another policy that's not on the consent agenda tonight right it's it's it's under the consent it's not an action i know but it's saying that we still got an opportunity right to look at this to get the final approval because it's saying approved press plus and it's not an action item but it's to approve the agenda those are the items that we reviewed earlier right and i don't believe that was that was one of them if you go and look at that well there was no changes to it i mean if you want to propose a change to it in the future we can certainly bring it back and put it on the agenda again 5 10.

absolutely so first quarter's been you know uh tracking as we would hope it would um and so uh you know the expenses some of them are a little uh interesting to look at like uh uh like super dinner mentioned you know july and august we don't have a lot of people on the payroll so that that really only represents uh you know the month of september when everybody's back and and on the on the on the payroll so that the fact that our payroll is is only at 10 is is is actually what we hope it would be is is to be about that that percentage isn't as we play through the year uh it will track more to to the to the uh expected levels but you know uh we don't have and haven't had a ton of turnover in in pelham uh in our in our staff and so that helps uh our projections and our budgeting to to match up um and so i think the one thing i will note there is that our substitutes are fairly low at this point in year you know again we're taking a fairly cautious approach to how many extra people we bring into our buildings and and also just generally in the first month of school there's not a lot of absenteeism by any staff so so that's also you know it's tracking as expected and and uh hopefully we'll remain that way and folks will remain healthy and and we won't need uh to use our substitute lines uh too too much as we go through the year and and that'll help us out in other areas of our budget um as we look at the the other expense accounts uh there's really two areas that that you know sort of caught my eye administrative services and facilities management um they they often tend to be tracking uh ahead of schedule because there's some full year uh full year expenses we we sort of book at the beginning year uh you know software subscriptions uh we encumber funds for certain kinds of activities in in maintenance and facilities that that we use throughout the year so you know we we anticipate the need and and sort of uh uh secure the monies early so it looks like we're spending ahead of schedule but there there were a couple of uh a couple of bills in in those two areas that were a little higher than we expect so we'll we'll keep a close eye on those i'm not really worried about it i don't want to you know cause anybody to have any uh deep concern or panic relative to those yellow boxes on on the chart there but i but i just wanted to know to be clear that you know there are a couple expenses that have come in a little higher than what we had planned for and so that we are just going to keep a close eye on that and and look at other areas that might be coming in under budget to help um offset that a little bit but but in general uh the budget's tracking very well for the first quarter uh we're anticipating it's going to continue to track well at present and one thing that you know always helps your budget is this other bit of good news i have i'm full of good news i don't know that i'll always be able to do that but um there's a there is a grant program with the state called rural school aid and pelham tends to sit uh kind of on either side of the award non-award line so some years we get it some years we don't uh it turns out that this year we did get it and so we were notified recently of the 6 800 worth of of additional aid from the state is going to come to us uh for use in our school and that's that's really a helpful uh uh bit of income that that allows for some some supportive things that we might not be able to do otherwise or unexpected things that might crop up that that we need to uh you know take uh take care of in our budget and so that was a bit of good news i want to make sure to share it's not in this in this quarter one report but i did want to mention that that bit of good news has come along and like i said we don't always the state doesn't always fund that that program at a level that pelham you know qualifies uh we tend to sit on the bubble as as they say and and so some years we get it in some years we don't so we don't tend to budget for it um as a result of that so it's kind of found money and that's a helpful thing in any budget to to have that resource show up and be available for us um i think at this point you know like i said we're tracking well for the first quarter no real surprises there a couple areas i'm going to keep a close eye on as we move through the second quarter and and uh i have to answer any questions you all have okay thank you well i just i want you to embrace this feeling you have given this news you're super understated about it but like we're all smiling so just remember this any any questions comments for doug okay great thank you so much you're welcome thank you all okay next up is the sixth grade move to the middle school update all right go ahead sure so uh i think there's two things to share and one continued consistent recommendation that i'd make and doug you're welcome to stay on but you're also welcome to not if that works for you um so the amer school committee at the beginning of this month voted unanimously to have their sixth grade students move to the middle school pending a vote by the regional school committee in the fall of 2023 so not for the next school year but the school year after that the regional school committee had a discussion about this at their last meeting it'll be on the agenda for a potential vote um [Music] next week the vote language that was drafted not voted i want to be really clear but the vote language was drafted was not specific to amherst but was asking the region if they would ex accept sixth grade students from any member town that chose to send them um that doesn't push anybody to do anything i'll be at the leverage school committee next week and having the same conversation and frankly having the same recommendation even though they're not my it's not my school committee but they're asking me to come which is uh the small towns have very different uh incentives or disincentives about moving sixth grade in amherst two of the three critical variables don't apply uh in pelham those were a real acute space need i was on the phone with many many a couple principles this afternoon about the space needs in amherst and we don't have space for things like instrumental music we don't have space or in sufficient space you know looking at special education needs that's not the case in pelham you know frankly particularly with the additional space that's now used by art space needs aren't a concern you know for pelham the the other con other consideration in amherst is that there was a building there is a building project um there was some work done over the last three years about a compromised proposal that would have taken care of two of the buildings that were are out of date in amherst um all that's contingent on sixth grade moving to the middle school for that plan to move forward with the state with the msba that doesn't apply to pelham so my personal perspective is for pelham folks there's not the same incentive to move sixth grade to the middle school we could have a long conversation we probably should at some point about uh the the merits of that this you know larger discussion about sixth grade and about small school and if kids are in the same class for six years or seven years you know are they ready for different experiences i think there's a worthwhile conversation to have to me i don't think there's any timeline that the committee in my opinion the committee needs to to push that i do think that this is we're getting out of um the extent that we were in covet last year i don't think it's gone but it's a different world we're in and you know within a month i think um the kids in pelham with the exception of the kindergartners and maybe actually no including the kindergartners would uh potentially be have access to a vaccine so i think things are changing and we are recovering and i think our staff's doing a great job of kind of both academic and then kind of well-being and social emotional recovery that we're focused on students to me there's not the incentive or need to really push this conversation during this academic year uh particularly as the plans that are was voted by amherst aren't even happening for another year and a half so my recommendation of this committee is for me you know asking me to stay abreast and certainly sarah bess and um and margaret can can help with that but you know um as i'm on both the amherst and the regional committee i probably am the best person to to give updates um to the pelham committee you know maybe in super in the kind of category of superintendent updates i unless there's a desire for this committee to push the issue it's not an issue that i would recommend pushing you know at this point i think there's plenty of time to see what program is developed for sixth grade in the regional schools and i would actually argue that there's plenty of time even after that amherst if if the region votes to accept amherst sixth grade students even after that happens for pelham to consider it it doesn't have to be on the same timeline and and perhaps with my pelham superintendent hat on uh it gets a little confusing when i'm going back and forth in these three meetings um i might advocate or recommend advocating for your regional reps to make sure that the on-ramp if pelham was to decide you know it might be beneficial for some language and emotion to not preclude pelham's sixth grade students from joining at a later date in other words if the fall 2023 date isn't going to work for pelham fall 2025 a pelham school committee might make a different choice and you know preserving that option uh for the region to preserve that option for pelham to join later might be a good idea but i think at this point i don't see any reason to push this i don't see any reason for pelham to to unless unless the committee feels really strongly about it and i have not heard that from the committee um strong desire to send sixth grade to the middle school i'd rather focus on other things or it's our time in the school's time on other things as opposed to that point you know i think i could argue the opposite i could talk a lot about sixth grade in the middle school how common that is and the idea of a two-year middle school and some challenges that we continually experience there i just don't know that this is a time to really be pushing that um i think you have the the luxury i mean that word literally the luxury of waiting and seeing without a real external need or space facilities need to make a decision on this so i i would use the privilege you have of not needing to go quicker than you want to and and perhaps re-engaging this topic more fully next fall sorry that was long-winded but it's taken a lot of my time so i'm really focused on on this particular topic but you know certainly the committee could disagree with me we certainly can continue to engage uh and go down that road you know i've talked to principal darling about this i think uh we're in the same place that you know i think the things we're focusing on in pelham right now are the things that we should be focusing on uh in pelham right now and i think there'll be a time where a program of studies is developed uh that i think is the right time for pelham folks to to be able to consider it so i'll stop talking and see if there's comments or questions and if i'm misreading the committee please tell me i'm misreading the committee right please tell me like no we really want to push this sixth grade point and i'm actually really happy to talk about that i just for me for pelham with that superintendent out on um i i i'm not sure now is the time sarah best and then ron um so i a couple of things i love the idea of you keeping us up to date in the superintendent's report i think that would be a great way for us to keep um paying attention to what's going on in amherst i think that would be really helpful um i also like your idea of making of you know having some language at the regional level to make sure that if pelham is interested at a future date um that that is something that's already built in to the system um and i agree i think at this time i i don't think this is something that pelham um needs to focus time and energy um on at this point i think um the staff at pelham has been doing a great job helping the kids get back into their new kind of normal and routines in our post-covered or whatever this is it's not really postcode still perfect but less have to be stuck at home covered i guess i don't know so i i think pelham staff is doing a fantastic job and we should give them the space and time to do that um i think that's that's in the best interest of our kids um so yeah that's where i think that's where i'm at at this point anyway thanks there best ron i certainly don't want the committee to make a vote one way or the other right now for the last three years i've continued to say what do the parents think should we encourage the parent it's on their minds they read the newspaper uh people are talking about the moves the sixth grade to the middle school now is the time to gather a public opinion maybe we should encourage parents to send emails in the public comments section maybe we should schedule some type of open forum the way we did for the change in the sex education classes now is it's on people's minds now why not create some kind of mechanism for finding out what parents think i mean i think it's clear i've expressed my doubts and they're mainly around safety i don't think you should put a 12 year old on the same school bus as the 18 year old it's an invitation for mayhem perhaps bullying has disappeared from the school bus but i remember it did exist when i was back then um i don't somehow there should be we should gather information now from the parents if the parents want it i i have no kid in school now uh if the parents are favorite well i'll vote in favor of it but i don't know whether the parents favor it but we can't find out unless we ask them that's my position okay thank you ron brenda um i also agree that you know it makes sense for us to wait considering that we have the advantage to do so um i think it's really critical that we get parent feedback but i would caution that we want to make sure that we're really clear about the benefits of the academic program and also uh maybe the financial ramifications of doing that before we just let them jump in um and and and get their feedback now but i i do agree with ron that we have heard for some families that they think we're voting soon or they think that because of all the conversations amherst is happening we're on the same timeline and i think it'd be important to to make it clear folks that we're not on the same timeline um also i think it's a critical that um we we do try to allow them space to give their feedback before it's too late to join amherst for fall of 2023 in case there are lots of families who who are really pro moving the sixth grade to the middle school i don't know what that's a kind of a delicate timeline to trying to get the sweet spot of getting their their feedback while they have enough information to to give that kind of feedback right thank you margaret go ahead um a couple of comments um along the lines of of what you just said brenda i perhaps the timeline will become evident as we continue to get updates from mike you know that that as things develop and amherst it will become obvious maybe when we want to have a discussion in pelham the other thing as one of the regional reps to from pelham um one of the questions that seems to come up because people are reading and they think that as a regional rep we i am voting to move the sixth grade in pelham to the middle school that is not the case and we have this discussion at the region because it's a little bit confusing when you're a regional rep about where's your hat and really where the discussion led us is that as part of the region what we have to decide is is it beneficial for the seventh and eighth graders at the middle school to have the sixth graders move to the middle school has nothing to do with the sixth graders and the advantages or disadvantages for them we're simply voting for the region should we bring the sixth graders into the region and i think that's really it was confusing for me and i think it's been confusing for people in pelham when they're reading in the newspaper so that was helpful for me the discussion we had thanks margaret ron i haven't been zooming in on the regional meetings margaret say that before your vote uh at the regional school committee meeting let the public know why you're doing it oh i will be voting as a region member not as a pelham member but say that uh maybe sure oh i see so that if people from pelham are listening then sure absolutely my god i wonder if um whether it's chair hall and i or maybe miss dancer and i or some combination can put something in with ms darling's permission in the kind of pelham press just clarifying some of these points um because i think what what the common thread i heard from all the committee members who have commented today it is just around communication i'm using my words i didn't hear that explicitly that word explicitly but just that the pelham community knows you know the kind of the core things they need to know are a at this point pelham sixth grade students there are no direct plans for pelham sixth grade students to move uh b that that we will come back to that point next fall and if people have opinions on that they can share them by emailing school committee at arps.org or here's how they do public comment um and see you know we are aware of conversations going on in the you know other communities um but that you know the last point that margaret was just making with mr menino that the pelham reps in the region are making a decision only about the region that decision doesn't make doesn't have an impact on pelham sixth grade students so they seem like the three points that need to be clarified and i just wonder if if again with the permission of miss darling if we put something in the pelham press that way it gives people an opportunity to weigh in if they choose to weigh in as mr menino indicated it lets them know a timeline of when as a committee i think will come back to this point you cop topic more definitively um and also lets them know that the regional members aren't voting on pelham sixth grade because i think you're right that there's a going to be a point of confusion so i don't know if that would sort of accomplish what i what i you know i think i'm hearing from uh the committee um in terms of communication making sure everyone in the pelham school community is aware of what is happening and what's not happening because i agree with a lot of the comments that are implying that there's some confusion because i think that it's a confusing situation right the three districts thing uh there's times where it works really smoothly and then there's times where it's messy and this is a mucky one you know i didn't want to and i didn't mean to volunteer you for that sarah but i just wondered if there was some communication that that could go out um and i'm happy to to work on it but i think because it's a committee decision you know it might be good to come from the committee right no i mean i didn't feel volunteered that was actually going to be one of my comments i have been getting um emails from people in some cases with opinions on it wanting to share those and in other cases just curious you know i would say the most the category of most people is someone with a kid in like grade four or below and they're just like looking ahead just curious because they saw something in the gazette um so for sure i think um communicating widely to the school community is a great idea um i think probably mickey's newsletter has the best list of people um for that i don't so i'm not i'm not entirely sure how i feel i'm just gonna throw this out there like you know seeing doug's presentation tonight and how long our meetings have been and talking about like we're at this place where things are kind of at a low roar and we don't we don't have a controversial issue right now we don't have anything that's taking a ton of time i'm not entirely convinced that the latency approach is best i don't i mean because the bottom assuming that the region votes to accept sixth graders then it's happening right so the program is going to be like what are the mechanics what are the details i mean i can't imagine that there's gonna be like that a district would suddenly back out because i was like oh they decided not to teach math to sixth graders right like you know it will i don't know i i mean i could be convinced to start talking about it now i mean i think also people want to know there's been so much uncertainty in the lives of students and teachers and their parents i think the idea of having certainty about fall 2023 sooner rather than later might provide some level of comfort and just kind of knowing what to picture um i could be talked out of that i think i'm just i don't know we just never we never know what's going to come up and so to take advantage of times when like the budget is looking pretty good and there's nothing really big going on i'm i'm just throwing that out there wrong i agree the sooner the better a discussion takes place the better off we'll all be margaret um i guess i just have a question because right now we really know nothing about the academic program the rental you know what kind of financial agreement has to be made to rent the middle school space there's so much that's unknown i guess is why i think maybe it would be better to wait a little while because we don't really have a lot to say to them um at this point in time i guess that's how i feel thank you margaret sarah best and then ron i think um kind of piggybacking on what margaret just said um so the if amherst moves their sixth graders they're not part of the region they're still part of amherst so what happens then if say pelham 6th graders go also to the middle school then how does that work is there a separate pelham classroom that only keeps pelham kids in it so then they're still part of the pelham school district or are the amherst and pelham kids co-mingled together because there's different programming right between the different schools and and how does that work does pelham just get usurped because there are more amherst kids and then we don't know then then they're just part of that curriculum like i have concern for our pelham students um you know we've developed some great programs at pelham and being able to continue to have them benefit from those um and and there's there's just i don't i guess i don't understand how it will work if the sixth graders are not part of the region they're still part of their sending districts like whatever the the money i think will be the easier part to figure out right like you have these many kids this is how many kids it is it's whatever but as far as the educational practices how how is that gonna how how will that work out right go ahead i don't have a clean and easy answer but i do think that's probably my personal opinion is that's probably a topic that is worth talking about this year you know um i don't worth is not the right word i apologize for that i think that's a topic that's where we can talk about and we don't need more information than what we have now because i think there's a there's a number of different ways that one could approach that topic that you describe sarah best like that's not something that i think we need to wait for more programming information that's a core principle about does the pelham school district want to work with the amherst school district on a 6th grade program if so how would that be organized i mean i think if pelham 6th grade programming was literally moving i'm just going to use names because we're in pelham like margaret's class to the middle school there's not a lot of upside to that right um i would argue probably there's almost no upside to literally trans you know taking this classroom and moving it to a different space you know i think really the interesting part and perhaps the part that is worth talking about in terms of weighing cost benefits or you know positives negatives however you want to phrase it is really integrating into a larger group of students with a larger set of programming you know so even if we don't know what the programming is i do think from a process perspective the point miss kenny makes is probably one that we could and probably should have that conversation the front end even if we don't exactly know what the programming is because we have a general sense good enough where we could that that's going to be the biggest delta right is um not in a one teacher one classroom model but a model where people kids have different teachers for different subjects and that sort of thing and i'm not trying to weigh positive or negative but that's a core principle change that um probably is worth uh having discussion i think it gets to ms hall's point of not waiting too long while we do have space that's a foundational question for for pelham sixth grade that that doesn't exist in amherst right what that model is looks different but they're already changing classes in amherst sixth grade in the elementary level right that's already a con a practice that's in place right now that's not true in pelham um so i think you know my personal opinion is i think that's a good topic to dig on dig in on this year because i think it would really probably be one of multiple forks in the road for you all in your consideration yeah thanks mike ron i agree with margaret as there are details we can't share with the parents now but there'll always be details and there's no reason why we can't talk to parents now and talk to them later this can be a continuous process and if give them let's say six month updates on our plan i always assumed that the sixth grade was going to be integrated with all the other sixth grade students if we're just going to move the ms lights classroom to the middle school that that's educationally unsound as far as i'm concerned uh there are a lot of things that parents care about uh if you asked me in 1997 when this was there was talk about this in 1997.

he arrived outside new haven on a boat called the hector i didn't travel far from there born in new haven raised in hampton graduated from the university of connecticut where i met my husband liz he was raised in brookfield and when deciding where to live once married we both agreed this was the perfect town this building holds wonderful memories for us as well cara my husband graduated in 1973 one of the early classes here my twins graduated in 2003 and my goddess in 2009.

however teachers in an independent survey which had more teachers participating in our survey versus that of the district um preferred model four and their choice in preferring model four wasn't necessarily the um advocacy of a seven through twelve it was the advocacy of two high schools and so i want to clarify that too um furthermore what i would like to say is that the most important thing ford is that you're taking all of the data now all of the different pieces whether it's statistics the committee recommendation and parent meetings the comments here and making the decision of what's best for our children our community our staff every stakeholder and that all of the teachers are going to stand behind your decision whether we like it or not um and move us forward and support what decision is made because that is what's best for everyone and so i i pray for you in this decision that you're making because it's hard and i pray that you have wisdom in making this decision and that god fills you and this is me meg speaking not meg union that god fills you um with that wisdom to do you know what is best and right for everyone so thank you for the opportunity to speak and i wish you all the best of luck thank you lika do we have anybody else raising our hand on zoom we have no other hands raised at this time thank you moving on to 9.1 we have commons report by president 8.1 i'm sorry 8.1 thank you yeah we're moving on to 8.1 we have comments reports and requests by the board of education we'll go ahead and start with board member crews gonzalez thank you i'll be brief um just want to say welcome to bert hamilton i asked i asked um the student board member hannah oh when is your grandfather coming in town and she's like he's right over there so great to see great to see you here um thanks for visiting us again um um you're sorely missed but as you can see we have some really great board members here that filled your spot you've built your shoes though um i really appreciate the direction we've been going in the district um and then just one other thing i want to mention i just want to praise the district um the signs that we're putting out are so clear and easy to read you can drive by you can drive by and see if there's kindergarten enrollment or adult ed and those signs you just you can just glance and see it and you have to like to try to read it so really appreciate the whoever redesigned those and appreciate that they're up around the thing next we'll go ahead and go with board member grier no comments tonight next we'll go ahead and go with board member beau good evening i'm happy to report on our continued partnership with children's hospital los angeles um in partnership with chphla the district is hosting a blood drive on tuesday november 2nd from 9 00 a.m to 3 p.m at our former adult school site located on barranca avenue and i also want to recognize our student board members and encourage you if you haven't already done so to sign up for the student board member governance training provided by the california school boards association it'll be held virtually from three to six pm next wednesday october 27th and the district office staff can help you sign up for that thank you next we'll go ahead and move on to board member rodriguez pena yes good evening everyone first of all i want to congratulate hannah hamilton and alexandra gabriello for their hoodie ausd on the map for your ball your volleyball skills that is one of my favorite sports so congratulations um i just want to uh report that um i wasn't on a zoom on a google or this is a high school regarding tobacco and vaping in new uh in youth to educate families on dangers of vaping smoking chemicals found in tobacco different flavors gadgets that they different they come in so um and what you look for in signs of your child is vaping because that's kind of like the new thing well i don't know i don't know if it's new but i i know that more children are doing it and they need to know you know what the dangers are and the parents also so the presentation was shown i feel that the presentation should be shown in the middle schools and all the high schools um i want to thank the ncadd representatives erica gonzalez and and i'm sure maybe we can get the information from um dr gomez you know how how they got them to make that presentation because it's a really good presentation um i i also went to glaston high school lunchtime during club rush where zoos are rotary students gladstone high school advisor darla elliott and we had a table signing up students to join the interact club we signed up over 15 students and they have great clubs at glaston high school they have 19 they had 19 different tables with different clubs that i'm i was not embarrassed to say but i was not even aware that they had these clubs and a lot of energy in the air and all these kids we just had them come to our table and they started signing up so we're happy to have to to have them um and i want to thank the students in the interact club especially elizabeth and emily reese they're from azusa high school and they're almost coming out they're always there to help us they came this saturday to help us uh beautify the community by uh filling 15 free wells with mulch before they had then they had a class at nine o'clock uh apu so these these young ladies are very dedicated today i went to central middle school and to mr aidan's class in the science class they launched the rocket and the students did a fantastic job they had four rockets going up they launched over 100 feet 100 to 150 feet lucky they went straight up and came down right because last week they were going to have it but they counted because of the wind they were afraid was going to go over to a neighbor's house and we don't want to get in trouble but they did it today and it worked out well and um and i want to welcome my murray family i can't believe it all these people i mean i like work what's perfect on your cat my sister kathy diana rojas i'm like fantastic but i will leave my comments on the uh and the stores when it's time thank you very much and thank you burke i missed you he's my mentor thank you i i want to start off by by sharing that um i know that we're a few of us are are sharing um and saying uh mr burke hamilton's name and just wanted to share that when i came from mexico and didn't speak a word of english and i remember going to the playground and asking for a ball and mr burke hamilton was there and i didn't know how to say ball and he's like and so i remember he would always check the balls he was one of the teachers that would check the balls out for the students and um so i wow i think i was like five and um i watched i have watched him in this community just inspire others as he has inspired me um not only in uh my education in my family in every aspect of my life and so you truly are a hero to a lot of people here in isuzu and your family is just you know your legacy as i heard you today say that this is the last hamilton grandchild you know it it it saddens me because um you you should tell your kids to have more kids i know but not too soon um and you know what one of the things that um that even arturo how you turned to him and you said um alton park right so when you left the souza first for a little bit just for a little bit and you went to baldwin park and we quickly snagged you back and um you came back as uh as a school board member and i i've watched you and when when you left i was pretty sad but actually get to see you um all the time from time to time um when we're doing walks around the neighborhood and so it's really nice to see you in our community and um to run into you thank you so much for that i do want to share that with everyone that um he is well respected in our community moving on to something that um i would like to address and that has been on my mind you know the question was i want to address something and the question was why i was not at some past meetings and i would like to go ahead and address that and i would like to go ahead and clear the air it is unsettling to hear that a discussion occurred when i was not present at the last regular school board meeting about my two absences in two different months and they were not consecutively for the record over the previous three years i've only been absent three times so i don't understand why i was so sensitive that this issue could not be addressed in my presence when it comes to absences we need to find the reason for the individual absence before punishing or asking to take away pay from them and discuss with the board member before this issue is requested to be taken to legal counsel for the record my absences were communicated with the appropriate people and were excusable instances i did not know that my absences had become a problem to some in this room if there was some concern about me a phone call would have been just and to ask how i was doing i want to address and end the negative jabs the attacks on my image passive aggressiveness and bullying here on the diet we should be logical and responsible adults to work collaboratively as board members and should model appropriate behavior we have decisions and issues far more critical in our district at this time that need to be addressed board members cruise and solace and beau i was thick in september 2021 in october 2021 i was in the training before my new job i had to attend this mandatory mandatory job training on that day that i was unable to get out of my previous job was lost due to the interference of a board member on this diet and as a result my kids have suffered the replica of her actions i would like at this time to tell her that i forgive her for hurting my family and me as of today i release all negativity that came from that infant i offer peace and respect and i ask for the same in return so at this time i would like all of us to take our personal opinions about each other and do our job before i was on the board i saw how some of the previous board members would fight become passive aggressive and go after each other and it would carry into the diocese i'm asking that this needs to stop with us also in the past i remember board members being excused for months when they were ill when their children were sick having a baby or for work matters when board members have compassion and understanding and build collaborative relationships or agree to disagree they can concentrate on the things that need the energy and time to move this district forward we have at this time i would like our board including myself to check ourselves and set a positive example of our for all of our employees students and community thank you we'll go ahead and move on to 9.1 we have comments and reports by superintendent cabinet and student board members we'll go ahead and start with our student board members and do we have crystal flamie flamino on on zoom uh yes i'm here can you hear me okay we can hear crystal are you can you hear us yes i can hear you great you can go ahead and start um good morning good evening board members um gladstone high school is very proud of yaziri ochoa who spoke at our rooftop evening fundraiser for the western justice center on october 15 2021 she represented our school and peer mediation program with pride way to go yet siri on october 16th the gladiator alliance marching band placed first in music and second and overall scores in their division of the roland field tournament their next event will occur on october 30th at the wilson high school in hlpusd the gladstone guidance office will be hosting in-person fafsa nights on october 20th in english and october 21st in spanish at 5pm all seniors are welcome to get the help they need to complete the fafsa on october 25th 2021 cal baptist university azuza pacific laverne and grand canyon university will be doing on-the-spot admissions at the gladstone high school library for eligible seniors this is a guarantee offered of admission over hundreds over 120 gladiators have the opportunity to apply on monday go glads on october 28 2021 asb is hosting a blood drive from 8 30 a.m to 1 30 p.m in our gym students 15 and 16 year old need a permission slip students teachers and staff are all eligible to donate crystal are you done uh yes next we have annette camacho yes hello um good evening board members cabinet and superintendent superintendent ortega last week our senior class gathered together at 6am for senior sunrise with hot chocolate and pastries thursdays from 9-10 l.a county department of mental health is offering parent workshops in the sierra high school multi-purpose room the topics for this week and the next are family violence and drug and alcohol prevention on wednesday our spartan football team will be hosting a game at 9 00 a.m against arrow high school the red cross blood drive will take place in our multi-purpose room on thursday october 28th also on the 28th we're hosting our second chick-fil-a fundraiser please stop by and be sure to say you are there to support sierra high school thank you thank you crystal and next we'll have our student board member ms anna hamilton good evening board our lady aztec volleyball team is headed to the cif playoff they play this thursday at costa mesa good luck ladies you got it this thursday is our great shakeout drill we are hoping for good weather and the opportunity to learn the importance of participating in this thrill our think together program has recently implemented a gamers club photography club and culinary club our aztecs are super excited about these new opportunities congratulations to our cross country's boys team for winning their past race and for the girls team for placing second congratulations to our football team for beating our rivals gladstone this past week it was a great game and we're super proud of our players finally last week we had an amazing outdoor homecoming dance with over 300 students congratulations to our homecoming king and queen alex pena and janeli artiega thank you good evening i'd like to report that last saturday we held a covid vaccination clinic at gladstone high school and uh we had um staff and students and community members participate in getting vaccinations probably the the most exciting part of that morning was that we had 18 gladstone high school medical academy students volunteered to participate in helping out with the clinic they got there early they set up and they participated in some quick on-the-spot training so they were able to welcome patients they were able to check in patients register patients um mercy pharmacy who is our facilitates the um the clinic they they trained the students in monitoring for symptoms after the vaccinations um it was it was just truly amazing um they also as i was just observing the students they were also providing translation for the patients as well um i just i just can't say enough about the students and how proud we are of them and on that program and a shout out to their teacher jenny aguirre as well thank you good evening board of education staff and community i want to update the board of education in the community that i have been visiting uh school sites uh to visit classrooms and provide school sites with on-site hr support i also want to discuss our current substitute feature shortage by way of background this time last year we had approximately 145 active substitute teachers several weeks ago we reviewed our substitute teachers roster to determine how many are active and as at the end of last week we have 70 substitute teachers uh actively working in our district obviously we lost a very large number of substitutes from last year um some substitutes decided not to return um at all for for this school year and others have taken uh teaching positions here within our district and and outside uh we are in the process of hiring additional substitutes uh we added uh three substitutes this week and we're waiting on several uh substitute teachers to hear back from the commission on future credentialing so we look forward to be adding more substitutes to our rosters in the weeks and months ahead thank you good evening board members and fellow cabin um cabinet members um the business department has been currently continuing our efforts of improving our outside facilities for our campuses under the direction of brian allen the mot team has been working focusing on our basketball court so we have been working on either upgrading or painting our the backboard as well as providing net under the direction of shannon norris director of physical services we have been doing road shows where we have been going to the sites and working with the site administrator educating them on how to do budget transfers how to read their budget and how to properly extend their budget additionally we are getting prepared for the great fake out that will be taking place on october 21st all the schools and faculty members all the school students and faculty members will produce participate in this district-wide and then lastly we are we have taken a road show where our french french top team where we took them to a neighboring district so we can see how they operate their french job so we can be more efficient and more thank you good evening board staff and community a couple of things i was able to attend our seal training for administrators about a week ago and i am just very appreciative of this particular training for our administrators who will be the ones supporting the implementation at their sites i think that is a a great move uh and i appreciate that um i also want to thank our on track collaborative team that is working on addressing and improving our dnf rates it is it is very inspiring uh and motivating uh to be able to sit in during these meetings uh and to listen uh the uh how authentic and collaborative uh this team is is working uh on ideas and specific strategies and specific moves uh to address this and just wanted to show my appreciation for that lastly i want to take the time to formally introduce our community to our new assistant principal at center at foothill middle schools mrs donna martin and our new principal at ellington school mr adrian acosta both of these candidates started uh their their journey by being in front of students and parents to be asked questions during an interview process and kudos to the to the parents and students who did an excellent job of that uh after that round uh and surviving that uh they moved on to our round uh here at the district office that includes our labor partners and administrators and then finally getting to to cabinet all along although i didn't sit in on every single one of them i sat on number one and the first one and the last one all along uh both uh miss martin and um mr acosta um really showed um their their integrity uh their skill set their passion their desire and their breath and love for this community of azusa and uh we're we're very very very proud so at this point in time i would like to invite mrs donna martin to the podium to say a couple of words good evening board president arianes members of the school board superintendent ortega distinguished cabinet members and those in attendance on site and online first i would like to take a brief moment to acknowledge my friend long-time murray mountaineer colleague and most recently my running mate adrian acosta who is now the new principal of ellington k-8 school tonight i stand before azusa with much honor and excitement in the opportunity to be the new assistant principal at both center middle school and foothill middle school i am ready to serve our azusa community in this new capacity this 20-year journey in azusa was no small feat for my family who gave up their wife and mother to support my educational journey and our azusa students so i would like to take this time to say a big thank you to first and foremost my loving husband my best friend and cheerleader my two beautiful daughters ayanna and naila for their ongoing and continuous support in our family's educational journey thank you to my previous educational leaders and administrators dr dana mitchell dr cyto valdez dr alexis norman victoria valdez velazquez and especially miss marshmallow fontika i have watched and observed all of you from behind the scenes taking notes of the jewels of leadership and wisdom and crafting it as my own it has and will continue to be a pleasure working with and learning from you thank you kathy hendricks and anna fresquez chung my biggest azusa cheerleaders confident support system and mentors thank you so much to my magnolia family for six years it was hard to say goodbye but i know i will not stop being a magnolia mustang at heart meg zavala the aea president my azusa colleagues friends students family community and my multiple campus homes you always supported me cheered for me and encouraged me thank you for your well wishes i will make you proud now to my new middle school family cougar center cougars and educational leader anthony contreras foothill trojans and educational leader stanfordomo this begins a new chapter in all of our lives and as we work through the upcoming successes and challenges together as a team thank you for welcoming me in with open arms so i stand here and i promise that i will work hard to serve our students the faculty and our middle school community with pride humility and honor last but not least to the selection committee who saw something in me and was willing to give me the chance to allow me to evolve into this next once again thank you all for this wonderful opportunity to reserve a unified school district thank you so much miss martin at this point i'd like to call mr cosa up to the podium to say a couple of words thank you i don't know how i follow that dr martin but i'll try it for president arianes honorable members of the school board superintendent ortega distinguished cabinet members those presently in attendance here and online a good evening i humbly stand before you as the new principal of ellington k-8 this would not be possible without the help of many people so with that let me begin i would like to begin by thanking and congratulating my friend former murray colleague and new assistant principal of central middle school in foothill middle school dr donna martin to be in the company of such excellence it's truly my honor i would like to thank my murray administrators whom i served as under teacher roberta monahan corey james dr seita valdez and the man responsible for opening the door that has brought me where i am today mr burke hamilton and i have found long term my longtime boss murray principal norma camacho who taught me one day at a time one situation at a time my mentor and colleague mr ken stout who believed in me even when i didn't know how to fill out a lesson plan yes i've come a long way to my bit some interest chris medina on paula road for all of your insight your creativity and your expertise and your support to murray the former magnolia school teacher and present resource teacher at lee elementary miss stacey reed whose classroom environment became my own inspiration to make savalan aea for teaching me the importance of contract and for allowing me to serve you as a representative i would like to serve i'd like to thank my co-administrators dr tyto valdez and dr anthony contreras stanford doma for the opportunity to serve alongside you as your assistant principal know that you will truly be mad my friend and colleague yvette walker for being there through the good times the bad times and for your mentorship and to john black and blickenstaff what don't i thank you for you've been a longtime friend i call you my bff i would like to thank the center and foothill community for giving me the opportunity to serve you you will forever remain in my heart to that special person for teaching me that not everything is black and white it will be gray and yesterday as a reminder that i wore my first boot which was the color gray my friend and former colleague gianna gaithan yes you're coming with me to my ellington predecessors paula road auntie molina dr alexis norman and dr daley rustina thank you for the contribution for making ellington great place that it is my colleague and friend christina sanchez intern principal of ellington k-8 although it pains me to say goodbye to you i feel honored and blessed to call you my friend my friends and colleagues carol fieri ariyama both made the difference and lee elementary principal diana rojas who always believed in me as a teacher as an assistant principal and who always warned me with quote be careful what you wish for when i once told her if i had the opportunity to be a principal at any school it would be ellington and finally to my ellington eagle today's a great day every day from here on out will be a great day each day we will celebrate successes we will face challenges head on and we will collaborate to make ellington the great school that it is i can't promise you that i won't make a mistake because i will but i promise you that i will correct them and i will own them i can't promise you that i will fall but i do promise you that i will get up brush myself off and continue moving forward but this i do promise every single morning i will do everything in my power to serve and be the champion for the ellington student staff and the community i will love you from the moment i wake up for the moment i go to bed and this will take place each and every day with that said i'm ready ellington that forth i pass that i may follow i serve you each and every day i'd like to say a few words um i just like to congratulate um mr adrian acosta the new principal ellington k28 and miss donna martin new vice principal a center uh middle school and foothill middle school you know i'm so proud of you both um getting emotional but because um i've seen you when you're babies you're growing up you're going to school you're my grand children's teachers you know i've seen you run around with the kids and then i i started following donna everywhere because why are you following me around but she did her time she was at every school i don't know probably to the whole district before right and summer school even he was administrator for summer school so i would see her but one thing i do know that one of their i say one of the great mentors from the beginning was mr hamilton they were all born from him he was a principal of murray school i known work over 20 years and most of these people out here in the audience so i'm very proud and i'm very emotional because i think that you know you can do it you know kathy hendrick my sister there you know you guys can do it i'm proud of you they couldn't take a better pair at all congratulations to both um on your new journey with uh you're still with us but on a new journey and i i just got to say that what you guys just both said how you guys are just so dedicated i could feel it in your voice um i see it in your passion and the way that you guys deliver um just in everything that you guys do in every capacity that you've been here uh every every capacit every job that you've had in capacity that you just out out do it all the time and so i can't wait to see how you guys will flourish in your new your new role congratulations to both on with our agenda item 10.1 school reorganization thank you uh board president uh this uh this is a part of our um a process uh that we outlined uh where this where this is an an info only uh item uh for the board to discuss school reorganization and so i turn it over to to you great thank you as we are moving to 10.1 the school reorganization there there was um there's some things that the board asked um at the last regular school board meeting and previous meetings uh before that we have um everything in front of us you guys all have packets in front of in front of you guys and as we're going through through all of this um would anybody does anybody have any questions that they would like to bring forth any comments yes board member career yeah i'll just i'll say i i'm eager to examine some of the different models um and kind of taking a look at the different models in person um but to better see and and therefore envision what things can look like here in azusa um uh i i do want to just say communicate i'm still that that's what you understand that i'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the spread of uh of a 7 12.

yep okay we're ready to go okay hereby call this meeting to order roll call please mrs galbraith here dr hall here here mrs walters here brown is here vice president roof here president here please stand for the pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all and ms would you please recite the mission statement sir our mission is to empower each student to positively impact the world for a bright new future okay thank you okay first up is public comment i've got a couple to read that were emailed to us but we'll go ahead and we've got a couple in person so let's do those first uh so first up um tim peep and break topic is the dome time good evening good evening can you hear me okay yes uh my name is tim piefenbrink thanks for allowing me to come before you again tonight talk about the dome again this morning i had sent a letter and a list of names on a petition to terry ask her to distribute them to you i don't know if you've seen them or not had a chance to read them i've got copies here if you don't have one um to the board of education october 19th this is a request from residents alumni and friends of the dome our statement that we've said all along throughout this whole time is we are encouraging the school board not to demolish the dome but to include it in their building plans and or make it available to community organizations for activities and events at your uh committee the whole meeting last week there's quite a bit of discussion about the dome and president albrecht aptly said that the dome had been an ongoing concern even before he was on the board there have been lack of maintenance issues in the lower levels for many years and proper repairs were never kept up that doesn't give cause for tearing the building down the district has a responsibility of being the stewards of our property passports have not dealt with those issues either and now we find ourselves faced with losing a building that was the envy of the south suburbs not that long ago other schools in the south suburbs have been around for 75 years or more and they continue to be used bloom high school is an example and they've got a field house there that's about the same age as the dome the district may not have any future use for the dome but that doesn't mean that the community can't use it yes there are repair costs involved but they don't all have to be done at the same time or to the magnitude of replacing everything in there with new locker room showers bleachers gym floor etc we need to be realistic about the cost if the building's turned over to another civic group the plans may be much different along with using local contractors and maybe even some volunteers as a community project this dome can come back to life a perfect example of that is the creamery in monie if you're all familiar with that they've done an outstanding job bringing that building up to show place basically a good question was asked last week at your meeting what would that spot be used for if the dome was gone too similar by two of our administrators maybe an athletics facility wow that's what we've got there right now in the dome the dome is a perfect facility for indoor activities during cold weather and inclement weather and big enough for use by more than one group at a time open the building up and let people see the possibilities the dough may also qualify as a historic landmark there certainly is a way to make this happen and we have public support to do so one of the attachments that came with the email that you got this morning was the list of names on the petition that has been going on for a while as of last count an hour ago there were 1054 signers on this petition so they're looking i'm going to submit this for the record to save the dome from these petitioners if there's any doubt as to who the petitioners are or the signers are look them up there are residents alumni friends of the dome former athletes for many schools they may voice their opinions again when opportunities arise since they are interested in district affairs as a community we can work together to accomplish this so i'll submit that also uh just one other note that came up here i got a i got an email this afternoon and i'm just going to read what it says here i'm sorry to say that at this time the district is no longer opening the facility for community members to view that came from a letter i sent last week after your meeting to let the new administrator at the crete park district come in and just take a look at it so the district is no longer opening the facility for community members to view the board's not interested in selling the property so a tour would not be prudent that sounds to me like there's a foregone conclusion here what would be prudent would be to let the taxpayers have a choice and a say in a matter of this magnitude with this building so i just i just want you to be aware that that was a letter i got before tonight's vote before tonight's meeting so i don't know if that's out of order to get a letter like that ahead of time or not so anyhow that would be my comments any questions for anybody yes yes i don't want to throw anybody under the bus here it was one of the directors here sorry the superintendent said it was from her and i said i probably sent it to the board and i missed it so i apologize for asking a question because it's on me to know that she sent it okay thank you okay okay thank you very much my comments thank you i'm using this i think so okay next public comment is from billy morgan and the topic is also the dome hello how are you first off before i start talking i want to looking at this agenda i think we need to congratulate cheryl and sandy thank you so much it looks like you've been going above and beyond to try to be educating yourself as board members so congratulate you before it's time um but i i've been thinking about this dome issue for a while and i've been watching the meetings and the the thing that strikes me the most as i've been watching these is um admiration for what tim peep and brink and the supporters of the dome have been doing i uh it gets hot with this mask on i i have a lot of admiration for going out there when it's really it appears that there's a foregone conclusion and you still want to go against the board you want to talk to the board you want to understand where they're coming from and i think it takes a lot of courage to do that he presented over a thousand names for all of you to look at and no matter where they live there's something about the dome that's important to them and we might all know that this conversation is happening about the dome the people in this room our close friends the people we talk to but there's tons of people in the community that are going to if the dome gets torn down drive down sang them on drive down exchange see it gone be confused they're gonna start writing on facebook what happened where'd this happen when did this vote happen and uh i think that it would be prudent if we could try to have a little bit more community input in this decision i know that you don't have to i know you can vote on it tonight but if you could have a couple of community forums if you could talk to people have like a real conversation about what it is about the dome that's important to them talk about the numbers explain it it's really hard to go back and forth with numbers when you know you can't really respond to me when i'm giving a public comment and when you're talking i can't respond to you i think that there's something to be said for having a real dialogue with the community and listening to the people so there's something important about being willing to go out there and say this is important to me i was there for two years and i was in the new building for two years i think um there's a lot of people who are there for four years there's a lot of people who are actually athletes look at me i was not an athlete but i would just encourage the board to not go rashly into a decision because your mind is made up because the public doesn't know this is happening and they're not going to understand it so i would just encourage everybody to give the people a chance to talk about this have public forum dialogue with the people thank you very much thank you the next public comment i'll read the public comments from james young and the topic is citizen concern hello president albrecht members of school board and superintendent coglinese i would love to meet with all of you tonight at the school board meeting however prior commitments prevent me from occurring or prevent that from occurring nevertheless i am requesting that the statement be read during the public comment period of your meeting tonight it reads do not destroy the dome it's too much of a valuable piece of property to demolish instead we need to be creative and invest in it so all of our student staff and community members of the warrior nation can benefit from it respectfully submitted james w young and then the next public comment that was submitted via email is from larry crenshaw the topic is the dome i am very concerned that you're going to tear down the dome everywhere in our country the socialists are trying to get rid of our heritage they tear down great statues across the country of incredible military commanders like robert e lee and presidents like thomas jefferson and now the elected leaders of the school district are working to erase our great crete history by demolishing the dome i knew as soon as i heard about the 1619 project and the monuments of our great history being torn down that our country does not care about preserving our sacred history anymore i am so sad that this little town is going the way of socialism and canceling our proud heritage by tearing down the dome what has crete come to with the dome gone there will be nothing there just a big empty space where a piece of land we used to be proud of stood and we are paying and we are playing into the hands of those who hate america if we didn't hold on to our glorious heritage don't cancel the dome to larry crenshaw and that's it for public comment tonight next up is board updates and i'll turn it over to dr cara thank you very much it is with great pleasure that i take this opportunity to recognize and commend two of our board members that are sitting here this evening and that is mrs cheryl roop and mrs sandy walters they have worked very hard at taking the appropriate classes to learn all there is about board governance through the iasb illinois school board association and this evening i get the honor of awarding and recognizing them with the master board member so mrs roop will be getting a master board uh member level 2 status and mrs walters has earned her master board member level one status so we can go up there i'm just gonna present these to you [Applause] this would be fine so mrs roop this is for you and you're in recognition and we have a little uh package there for you to desk and this is walter this is for you thank you recognition so oh wait mask oh yeah he's false though there you go thanks ladies i would just like to say are you i'm done okay uh congratulations cheryl and cindy and i can tell you that i have not received either one of those levels yet but nobody can beat that high school diploma that i got from crete okay i just want to let you know that okay [Laughter] congratulations to both of you i'd like to say congratulations and welcome to the group i think the three ladies are all master board members now are any of the men okay okay just checking just checking yeah it's lady power tonight congratulations you guys good job bill and dr hall we got to step up our game yep oh wow [Laughter] okay congratulations thanks i'm sorry next up is administrative updates personnel and culture yes this is something else i wanted to make sure that the board saw as you know in our newsletter a few weeks ago we went out to present the excellent education awards to many of the staff members that received it in our district and again the staff members were nominated by their colleagues and peers for really outstanding service so we had gone out to the buildings that day and presented them with the awards and their recognition and i know many of you couldn't be there because of [Music] the timeliness during the day and certainly uh because of the covet protocols so we wanted to take this opportunity to share a little bit with you what that day looked like and right now i'm going to trim this over to ingrid stevens and she will take it from there ingrid thank you dr cara good evening board and good evening administration crete monte administration and our distinguished guests i'm here to talk to you this evening about how we recognize our employees we do have a recognition program here at cremoni school district and we do understand the importance of keeping our staff motivated and one of the ways that we do that is through employee recognition we do recognize our employees via recognizing their years of service there are also building oriented recognition programs but this is a new initiative when dr coghlanis joined our staff she reviewed all the initiatives that we had on on the table at the current time and one of the things that she took an interest in was how do we recognize our staff at that time we came up with this new initiative called excellence and education and actually this is our first time distributing these awards this is the first time that we've implemented this program this program gives our staff members an opportunity to nominate vote for they submit entries for um to recognize not only teachers but every staff member in our organization has an opportunity to be entered and win an award the uh review uh committee the um the recognition committee i'm sorry who administers all of our recognition activities developed this program heather godbout i don't know if you all are familiar with her but one of our long-standing teachers here at creekmoni's school district came up with this idea and the recognition committee came together and develop the criteria there is a criteria this particular program um excellence in education celebrates innovation dedication positive work ethic collaboration leadership and solid commitment to improving our students lives staff members are nominated by their colleagues that is the most important part of this program and then we have a panel of judges that consist of teachers support staff and administrators alike who evaluate the submissions and then the winners are determined from there so what i'm going to go through here is i'm going to show you real quickly here the winners of the awards for this year the categories are support staff of the year excellence in teaching student services person of the year the champion of education war award and the distinguished leadership award each winner has was nominated by a fellow colleague so for example christopher schmidt received the support staff of the year award crystal as you can see is a systems trainer in the i.t department her nomination entry read something like this crystal's work is almost completely behind the scenes but her work touches every student and staff member in the district in addition to maintaining skyward a very complex student information system she is the id department mother to us all she remembers every deadline and always provides valuable input to our projects these are the types of entries that are submitted by co-workers paraprofessional of the year lynn sawalis lynn has been working as a paraprofessional for the creedmoni early learning center for the past seven years she is a leader for our school and participates as a member of our pbis team as well as leads meetings with paraprofessionals working on the articulation strategies with the students joanna groth excellence in teaching award joanna is in her seventh year teaching early childhood special education at the creekmoney early learning center she has dedicated her tenure to providing students with skills and strategies to enhance their learning opportunities the distinguished leadership award now there are two awards in particular in this group that our team considers higher level awards a more broader skill level um is necessary to achieve this this award status and it looks at how that employee touches students and staffs across the the district again all of these awards are nominated by colleagues it's not just crete monet administration picking their favorite employees these are their staff their fellow colleagues people they work alongside of nominating them for these awards and so nancy bai who's at monique education center she received the distinguished leadership award in her entry read something like this nancy continually demonstrates outstanding leadership not only at the building level but district-wide by assisting colleagues in writing legally defensible ieps nancy's professionalism and helping her co-workers is only exceeded by the care she takes to assure that every student she assists in the iep process is getting what is in the best interests of the student food service support person of the year donna bilo donald must be truly special because she received two nominations glowing nominations i want to nominate miss donna because she does so much more at our school than is required of her she takes time to get to know each one of our students personally and has an amazing ability to remember all of their favorite items miss donna also takes time to work with students that have student government jobs during the day paraprofessional of the year now some of these categories have multiple winners so for example with paraprofessional of the year i believe we had three or four winners so some categories have three or four opportunities for recipients the distinguished leadership award and the champion of education award there's only one winner in those categories so here heather hassan who's at the moani education center she's she was she received the paraprofessional of the year award miss hassan is one is one pair of professionals call upon when a teacher is absent she is also certified as a teacher so she is professionally prepared to teach however it is her positive disposition that makes her stand out she is a true team player and never shows any hesitation or question when she is called upon christine kaluzi paraprofessional of the year christine is an excellent paraprofessional from my years of working with her i have witnessed her going far and beyond the call of duty to help students she receives she helps with kids with learning and physical disability and i have never once heard her complain we all know that teacher assistants get paid very little money for the amount of work they do but when christine does her demanding duties she does them with energy and with a positive attitude and a smile another great thing about these awards like i stated earlier is there is an opportunity for all employees across the districts and that is the one important thing about this program excellence in education so here is a great example in addition to donna bilo is renee lopez who is the head custodian at moni elementary he was nominated for support person of the year i have known renee for 13 years he he always goes far and above to keep our beautiful school clean which i love because i perform so much better in a clean healthy environment renee does more than just keep the school clean and sanitary he also makes positive connections with students there are several boys from all grade levels that volunteer to help rene do small jobs around the school these boys sometimes have behavior problems in the classroom but when they are helping renee they engage in positive thought pro thought provoking helpful behavior angel misters paraprofessional of the year mrs misters goes above and beyond to make connections with the students she is loyal and hard working she treats everyone with respects and receives respect from everyone in return nicole persic student services person of the year she is the school social worker at crete elementary not only does mrs persic demonstrate a strong commitment to the students in our school she is also committed to helping our staff i know i'm not the only staff member who has needed someone to listen to to listen or a shoulder to cry on she is always there to listen offer support and comfort us mrs persic also models exceptional professionalism professionalism no matter how stressful the situation is she remains calm and is able to take the lead even if a student is wrong she remains she advocates for all of her students in a positive learning way so the student find com the students find comfort always knowing someone is in their corner tasha williams student services person of the year she's also a social worker at the crete money middle school tasha is more than just a social worker at the middle school she goes above and beyond every day for not only the students on her caseload but any student who needs an advocate to help them succeed it is obvious from the minute you walk into her office that her main priority is to help her students in every aspect of their life tasha's office might seem cluttered and messy at first glance but when you look closer you see it is full of clothing and supply donations for her students tasha is not only a support system for her students at the middle school but she has become a support system for staff as well she is always open to discussions and ideas in order to help her students succeed in any way possible marcia krug i've known marsha for a very long time and she truly deserves this award i've been here for about 14 years now and marcia is always positive she's always helpful you can always call upon her to help you do anything and everything so i was super excited that not only did i see this in her but her colleagues saw the same thing in her as well as a support person ms krug is an integral part integral staff member to our crete money school family mrs krug has an innate caring and helpful spirit that she shares all throughout the school day mrs krug's helping spirit is rooted in her strong religious convictions she serves as the administrative assistant to our assistant principal's office she she is extremely organized and helps locate students cell phones buses she does everything from a to z very efficiently and always with a smile and a kind word jennifer sullivan the excellence in teaching award as a paraprofessional at crete crete elementary i have worked with many wonderful teachers jennifer sullivan is exceptional because she keeps her bar very high for academics as well as behavior she has the ability to get the most out of her students by being firm and compassionate at the same time she talks down to no one and is the most inclusive staff member i have ever worked with champion of education award elizabeth crawford who is now at coretta scott king miss crawford has consistently demonstrated her commitment to diversity and equity through her work both in and out of the classroom betsy strives to provide a safe supportive environment safe supportive and compassionate learning environment for her students she takes advantage of both formal and informal professional growth opportunities including participating in the race equity and leadership school conference at harvard university and being a member of the district equity team these are our rest these are our recognition committee members as you can see i think that i think that fourth one is not right [Laughter] at some point we've had people come and go but all of the names here they are they were instrumental uh when we first started out the recognition program and also dr hall [Music] and i just want to thank you for your time we will soon open up the nominations for this program to begin in january we will make announcements throughout the district that um employees will have the time to nominate and then we will do that in january so nomination time will run from january to april and then we will select the winners in may and make the announcement at the beginning of the year thank you thank you if i can just make a comment and congratulations to everyone this is a excellent recognition program people love to be recognized for the work they do so kudos to you dr coglinis and ingrid for supporting and recognizing our employees thank you yeah i act of those comments it's uh we're always amazed at the amazing people we have in this district so okay next up next administrative updates business ken thank you donna's just switching over a presentation uh one of them there we go thanks don one of the two questions that came up i believe at last the committee of the whole meeting is one what do we see as a vision for the property where the sixth grade center and the dome are located right now and two there was a question about the addition at the middle school so those two things came up and so i wanted to to share with you kind of a vision uh and this is really in the draft form of an upgrade to our athletic facilities where currently uh the football stadium is now there's some open property and also the dome and the sixth grade center so let me kind of get you an earmark here so you can see kind of grayed out here a track so this is right now where the football stadium is this area here is a blank uh you know vacant property it's just a grass area right now and over here you will see the dome here along with the sixth grade center and these are some tennis courts over here so the idea is to upgrade our football facility in order to do that we would move that over here and put a new stadium with a regulation track stands all of that next to the parking lot which would make it more convenient for parking and for fans to get to and then we would add two new baseball two new softball fields at this location right now as you all know our softball team does not compete here at the high school they have to be transported over to crete elementary right now so this would put them there we would make sort of a plaza here you know so that all the fields would be uh jointly they can be used at the same time you could probably even quite honestly in this little area here put some type of concession stand that can be used by all of the teams at one time they can also quite honestly be used by the community too and you can run community programs out of there too uh we would look at eventually or when we do this of turfing this field so it becomes not really a football stadium but an all-purpose all sports station so soccer would be able to use it all of those sports would be able to use it so this is just kind of a concept that we have put together i've asked our architect to put that together very quickly just to give an idea from a timing standpoint i kind of threw this together i think you're all familiar with this with our projects that we have our short-term projects but what i've added down here is the ability sometime around possibly summer of 23 into 24 here that you can begin looking at not only the athletic facilities but also in addition at the middle school i think that coincides with a new strategic plan and so i would tie all of that into your strategic plan and that so you have that capability you will have uh i i don't know i haven't even associated costs with any of this there it will be some borrowing capabilities in that time that you can begin doing some of this so i believe it's all within a realm of possibility for a future you know i i think as um one of the things to keep in mind is this is a marathon and not a sprint and it's just going to take time to get these things done but i think looking at it you know again this way it gives the opportunity to bring in all of your sports onto this location and that uh and making some equity in these sports both male and female when it comes to baseball and softball so i just wanted to kind of address that and address both of those uh just to give the board the idea of just kind of a vision that can be used for that property do you can do you have any rough estimate of the cost i know for the middle school edition you brought to the board considering 10 additional rooms like 6.6 million dollars yeah that was that's kind of a rough that was kind of a rough estimate i really don't on yet so there's mr brown i'd have to look at that because a lot's gonna depend on you know what what really um the scope of this is you know how many stands you put in how you know uh you know even over here um do you put in and you know we've kind of got in a drawing here kind of like uh press boxes and stuff like do you put those type of things in you know and then so you know again it's just kind of a vision but again um i will share with you that going out into 2425 the board will have some financial financing opportunities that they could finance this either through death certificates or the sale of bonds and that especially what you need to think about is when those tips roll off those large tips roll off you have that money that you could earmark some of them not all of it but some of that for some of this over a length of time in that so again um you know those are things again you know what i will what i would recommend is you know it gives you kind of a vision of things but again once you begin talking about your new strategic plan which i believe is coming up dr kara 23 23 that's where i would start looking at all of this and start deciding all of this and everything okay because this is going to have to also be coordinated at least as football ones got to be coordinated around seasons too you know it's going to have to be coordinated very well so so again uh you know we can start that process i think it's too early to kind of start the cost process of this whole thing but i will i will say that you will have those opportunities i don't i don't think it's too early to at least give us some preliminary numbers on the football field and all that i don't think that you know give us the rough numbers well when you get a chance i just it doesn't hurt i think we're biting off a pretty big chunk to accomplish what we have to do now i agree with what we want to go forward but it doesn't hurt it doesn't hurt to throw some numbers uh projections we got projections everywhere again i mean if there's a cost involved that's one thing if there's no cost involved you can well anytime i ask the architect to do something there's a cost okay but that's like okay i agree legal we're good good if there's no cost i'm fine that's so no cost i'm fine but when it's cost yeah that's that close the doors on certain things uh question for you real quick if i may question the boys baseball team both varsity and freshman sophomore those two fields are not owned by the district is that correct or no where the boys play baseball now the property is that after hall do you know i don't know is that the district i thought it was is it no no i'm talking about the guys we own that it's right now behind here okay there's one right behind here that i believe is ours and and the other one next to it the young that's we own that i believe we do i'll i can check that for sure but i believe we do own those the ones at heritage park of course we do not but yeah i believe the ones that are right behind here we do well that's the that's the two this is two there not the not the one more southern in the in the park but i uh okay i just i'm curious i heard this years ago that we did not own that property i just heard it's again you get this he said she said assumptions i just most positive yeah if you can still apply that i appreciate it oh that's what it is okay ken i want to say good job with that but i also want to say i it i think it would be a good idea to kind of get an idea of the cost um simply because it just gives you a measuring stick to see how attainable it is you have you may come up with some donors may start people may get ideas for fundraising and just to get as close as possible um you just you never know and then it gives you an idea of you know maybe what you want in it or not sure i definitely know that traditionally you would put press boxes at the varsity fields not at all four fields probably um but it definitely looks good to me i i like it and i know it kind of goes against the the dawn the domers who don't want the dong torn down i must say that i am one of those people throughout history that does not agree people and i can get beaten up for this that does not agree with tearing down all the statues because it doesn't take it doesn't mean that it never happened because you tore the statues down um it doesn't mean that it never happened because we get rid of the memories i'm also not the person that believes that we shouldn't name teams after indians because it's just part of you know that still it's like to me now you're eliminating history and then they forgot about and it never happened that's just me but i understand the sentiment of the dome but i also understand how important this is for our students and our student athletes personally i wish that we could turn the dome into maybe an indoor football facility or just indoor all-purpose facility it's like kind of like what hf has but i love this as well so can i i believe and correct me if i'm wrong i thought you had some input in when the so-called phrase the plan and that whole project i thought it included in the big scope of things a football new football field baseball fields and all of that and there was some preliminary numbers on that and i would think you had something to do with that i i did have something to do with that and are supplementary numbers and i'd have to get them updated one of the things mr brown and board i would recommend on this is and i think president albrecht brought this up i think let's get kind of through and let me get some prep work done on all of these other projects that we got coming out for summer because that's a lot of work and then i can start working and one of the things i've actually to be honest with you have had conversations with dr hall and asked him to help me because of his expertise with athletics too you know to to help me again with some vision and some design of this you know uh with his background to kind of help and so we can get some preliminary stuff so then we can start working on some numbers too so i just want to just kind of concentrate on our short term one first and then you know begin kind of looking at that so that that's kind of my thought okay okay thanks ken you're welcome okay next up is consent agenda approval um dr cara would you read off the consent agenda items before we go to a motion certainly uh under superintendent's report we have item number one approved regular meeting minutes for september 21st approved close session many meeting minutes of september 21st 2021 approved committee of the whole meeting minutes of october 12 2021 and item four approved committee of the whole closed session minutes of october 12 2021.

so okay because i looked uh i can't even get in here if you look under the policies isn't 510 showing there with no changes right this is the one with the change i just want to mention too if it's on today it's not going to come back up until it's time for reveal again right but can't you review policy i think we can short something i'm just making the board aware of that that when it's on there from press plus that's the time for their exact review and their renewal so it wouldn't come back from press plus again for i believe it's three five years somewhere different different amount of years i'm not exactly sure what is it terry it's five years unless the board chooses to bring it right so that's why i'm pointing out that's not going to come back automatically for five years you're going to have to start a conversation when you want to do that right and i haven't briefly i see i see the one change in doctor cognition we talked about it at the committee as a whole that's in here but that 510 that was one that i had a little dialogue with dr coglie's on and somehow it just kind of shot through real fast without actually having a little bit more dialogue to consider that change that i'm looking to have so 5 510.

you know when i'm go you are ready to go okay i will call this meeting to order at 6 pm and we'll start with roll call attendance ron ron present sarah best present margaret margaret present and hall present um all right first item is approval of the minutes but i dropped the ball on this we actually have some july minutes and also last month's um but they are not available so we'll we'll do that next month um i did not receive any public comment um so now we're up to you mike superintendents update sure um and i'll probably defer a lot of this to mickey who's got more to say but you know just really really pleased this year when i've been at pelham school and i was there today granted it was after the kids had left so it was parent conferences so people were on their screens um connecting with families but just um you know i think we had most kids back last year but now we have more kids not just because all kids are back there's no remote option but also because the school has more students in it because we got a lot more school choice it's incredibly calm i know that's just an anecdotal kind of phrase but it's the staff are doing a fabulous job you know with students and you know there is some movement of course to specials other areas i also have seen the art room set up and i happen to be there it's not usually a day that i'm at pelham but one day miss darling principal darling and my schedule got all mixed up and we ended up i ended up there that there was art there that day and the art teacher's really using the space really well still a lot of outdoor uh instruction going on across the board but i just thought that was you know noteworthy that you know just we're using the spaces differently and i think better the gym is more naturally a gym it's not as much a multi-use space and i think that's been a really good thing uh for our students and i think just creative uses of outdoor space you know pelham was the first goal and some of my other ones have followed suit with under the big tent moving um some of the tables that would used to be in the cafeteria outside and just really creative use of indoor and outdoor space and i think during these times of covet you know one of the you know potential silver linings is we're thinking differently about where instruction happens and how we're using space and i think the staff at polymer are doing an outstanding job of that so um that's my sort of core update but i if it's okay with the chair i'll pass it over to principal darling who can share more details about things going on in pelham um yeah any questions for mike before we move to okay mickey you're up okay um like mike said it does feel fairly calm here um within the normal range and um it's i've just really i'm really enjoying being the principal i'll be honest and walking around and spending time with the younger kids that i haven't had the opportunity in my oh i don't know how many years uh in education uh the kindergartners are so sweet they see me in the hallway and they grab me and hug me i call it a quick hug because a coveted quick and um [Music] it's just been really great and i've loved walking around the fifth graders or doing a terrarium with recycled leader bottles which is super cool so there's fish and crickets and chaos which is awesome they're learning so much just from that one little project the kindergartners are doing these identity posters in the gym so these huge sheets of paper and the kids lay down on it and somebody traces them and then they put all these other pictures that kind of they self-identify with i guess that's sort of like the general gist of it so they start to learn about themselves and their identity um i was walking around and there was a bunch of teachers working with leaves and art projects so i really encouraged our teachers to do more art and just kind of calm go outside recess to just kind of regroup because we are seeing you know a few kids that are stressed out and so we're trying to help them through the the stress um [Music] in the third grade i saw them kind of doing role plays and learning how to apologize and do a really good apology and when to do the apology um the first graders are learning spanish the sixth graders are learning about space they're creating these awesome posters so a lot of like really when you think of elementary school a lot of awesome projects happening as i walk around um we're gonna have student council we're gonna have we have elections coming up in a week and a half right around election day so the fourth through sixth graders are running for student council so that'll be fun there's an all school bulletin board to connect to our latino heritage all school read which is awesome to see and we actually had um our uh was a climate committee yesterday and we talked about keeping that all school bulletin board so that all like all the grades are kind of collaborating and doing some more cross-grade connections and next week is school spirit week crazy hair day pelham colors dress up hopefully not you know any crazy halloween costumes that aren't appropriate for school but you know a way for them to dress up still um i'm really excited about our new intervention teacher our position and we've been a lot of people have been helping um carol scottie kind of create that position she's been working with other intervention teachers in the district and we've been working with the curriculum director myself the special ed teachers and all the teachers to kind of create that position and really um give students intervention in the younger grades and she actually um has been able to work with all the way up to fifth grade the sixth graders have enough teachers that we are able to do the intervention with the special ed teacher and the para educators so it was kind of impossible to do all grades that'd be an impossible job but we're excited about that um the pto has been awesome they've been bringing in treat carts for the teachers which has really helped the teachers to feel appreciated and boost a little bit of morale as mike mentioned we've got the tent out there with the tables and the esser funds the copic grant money we purchased some more tents and um some picnic tables so kids have more seating options when they're out eating lunch um we're hoping to bring back the turkey trot so our school climate committee decided we really should bring that back so more to come on that and um the trunk or treat is coming up so that's exciting i know we had to move the dates unfortunately because it was scheduled at the same time as the pelham town meeting you live and you learn and um open house was a huge success we had a big turnout and the teachers because of all their work last year online were very savvy with their power points i got to pop into most classrooms and families they didn't really have a lot of questions they just had a lot of comments about how happy their students were and how they love certain aspects of the day so that was really nice as well any questions or comments thanks mickey go ahead ron out of curiosity who's doing your old job um so we kind of s we moved some people around and that's how we created the intervention teacher any other questions for mickey all right thank you it is it is remarkably smooth or at least it appears that way i'm not saying there's not a ton like that your feet aren't paddling crazy under the water and it's exhausting and stressful but it is remarkably smooth so keep it up yeah i mean they're kids they're acting like kids and if they were all just like sitting there with their you know we would be worried so they're doing great great thank you um okay next up school committee announcements anyone anything they want to share okay um okay so we'll go to new and continuing business the first item here is the fy21 fourth quarter budget yeah i'll pass it back to doug so just um for everyone to make sure everyone's on the same page uh we'll do the fourth quarter last year which is how the year ended up which was um a very positive way and then we'll talk about the first quarter of this year so um just the details on that of the the quarters start you know it ends at the end of the fiscal year which is june 30th so the first quarter was um july august and september and as dr slaughter will mention when we get to that part of it you know those are atypical months because most of our staff aren't here um but it's sort of how do we end up like and close out the year last year and then how did we start the year this year and so those are the first two items with that i'll pass it over to you doug thank you thank you um so uh in looking at the at the um at the fourth quarter um and mike are you able to share the the report yep i will do that in uh momentarily okay so uh as he brings that up uh i'll just say we you know we finished a very positive uh you know uh status for the end of the end of the fiscal year i think uh we had quite a bit of uh money left over for lack of a term uh you know you know there's money that we could return to the to the town of pelham um as you'll note there in the uh maybe a little hard to read but uh about two hundred and eight thousand dollars of of money under budget uh and and that's really for a few reasons and and i articulate those in the report a little bit i'll emphasize them again a couple of things you know we were very conservative with our spending throughout the year because we just didn't know uh what kind of expenses we were going to run into as we went through and and we're dealing with the pandemic it was in sort of ever-evolving uh you know worry about what we might need to be purchasing or or you know uh how what needs we need to accommodate um as a result we sort of were very cautious with our spending additionally you know we didn't have a clear picture about what kind of supports we get from the federal government we got a a fairly you know significant amount of support from the government but you know it was evolving over the course of the year and so again we took a fairly cautious approach with our spending so as to not uh put ourselves in a bind unnecessarily and then the third thing is that you know as we came back to in-person schooling we really didn't know what to expect from uh you know from the kids and and the adults as they came back in the building what kinds of things we'd need to address and so again we were anticipating some some pretty uh likely scenarios where we might have to spend a fair amount of money those didn't materialize in a significant way and so our our overall spending for the year came in quite a bit under uh what we had budgeted for the year um you know there were some things we expected you know we knew our transportation costs would be a little bit less we knew our utilities cost would be less um those kind of things you know so so those were not surprising there were some other areas where we were anticipating need and just didn't really realize that and so we have a fair amount of resources that we can return back to the town uh for their use whether with us or what the other towns needs you know the other needs of the town uh in the future additionally the other plus i would i would mention is that um because we had such a uh a you know a significant uh i don't say shortfall uh uh under use of budget we were able to to take a little different approach with our with our school choice and this is really the timing of that is really fortunate for for us uh we had originally anticipated spending about 280 000 in school choice funds and we as we spoke uh about this topic when we were building the budget for fiscal 21 we were concerned about the trajectory of the balance on our school choice funds and and you know we had had a couple of years of lower uh enrollment of school choice kids and so the amount of money we're spending from our school choice revenue to uh to support the school versus how much we were taking in was was kind of out of balance and we were worried that we wouldn't be able to sustain that for a long period of time so by by being able to limit our use of school choice in fiscal 21 to just one hundred thousand dollars we were able to put 182 000 uh back into our into our revolving fund and so what that does is it brings our balance on that school choice up to about 400 000 which is really where we like to keep it and that allows us to be uh able to have it you know take on a bad year and uh and support ourselves and not be too worried about it so that was a really really positive uh positive outcome for us um and so i think the the the other things that you know like you go into are not as as detail well or not as interesting as far as they're detailed but nonetheless uh you know that was a pretty positive outcome for our year so we were able to to get our school choice back to a balance we really uh will be able to sustain ourselves for a longer period of time so i think uh i think i'll stop there as far as fourth quarter and sort of see if anyone has any questions relative what was in the report or things i just mentioned thank you doug mike would you mind um not sharing anymore thank you all right margaret and then ron um i i you said we returned money to the town i'm sorry but i missed the amount that you said we were able to return it's gonna be about two hundred and eight thousand dollars back to the town yeah so of the amount of budget we had expected to spend we we were under budget by about 10 um so it was a pretty significant return um if we had used more school choice which would have been you know a negative effect on our school choice balance it would have been a larger number so that was a kind of trade-off of we should use some school choice to support the school budget uh but yes you know uh we had the opportunity to to use less than we would originally planned so it was good thank you yeah mike and then ron i haven't forgotten about you go ahead mike yep and i just want to add to dr slaughter's point which is just appreciation for members in the town and the finance committee of pelham who given this we usually and those who've been on the committee a while we went to them when things weren't good and they've supported us for large sums of money you know with charter school expenses that were unanticipated that were you know close to a hundred thousand dollars and they found a way mid fiscal year to do that so you know it is good to it does feel good to be supporting the town when this unusual situation has arisen i think it's also worth noting that the town easily and this would happen in many towns just say no just this was your budget and anything that you know was an overage um we'll take and the town recognized the benefit of increasing the school choice account and relieving some of the pressure that's been on the school because of the challenges with that account so i just want to share my appreciation for john tricky in the town for working collaboratively with us yet again yes i agree thank you ron go ahead you should have had a brass fanfare with those two announcements that's fantastic that's ten percent of the school budget was returned plus the school choice we've been uh worried about the school choice for three years uh disappearing that's apparently is it stabilized uh you could call the meeting off now and declare victory and uh thank you very much for the good news i will say i can't promise it'll always be this good but i i hope to but i can't always i mean you know the other thing is is that i i think that you know in years when we have kids in our buildings more often you know or all year uh you know it'll be a lot harder to be that far under budget but but nonetheless you know uh we were like i said fairly conservative in our approach just because we weren't sure what we were going to get uh it was you know it was and has been and continues to be a bit of a wild card how the pandemic plays out so we're trying to be conscientious about how we use our resources to make sure we meet the needs of the kids is there any background on why the school choice was so uh underspent i mean well you know it's a it's a we had budgeted for we had anticipated the need for you know 280 a little over 280 000 worth of use and and you know the at the end of the year you know we sort of as we're squaring up the books we sort of look at at the use of of that funding and and we were in a circumstance where we didn't need to leverage that at to that to the extent we expected to and so we were just able to use less than we had um i will say and this is sort of a prelude into quarter one but just you know from an enrollment standpoint uh last time i looked you know we had been running in the low 40s for a number of school choice students and i believe this year we boosted back to about 50 which is kind of the target number that we're looking for to sort of sustain uh the revenue that we need and the sort of support for the school we need so i think just as an you know auxiliary piece of information uh you know the enrollment of school choice kids has gone back up to a level that's uh more sustainable for us so i think we're that's that's also another piece of good news around our sort of financial future well thanks again for the great news any questions for doug yes well yes thanks doug then i do i guess i'm a little maybe i'm uh a little more cynical than ron i think that you know there i think the reason that we've been you were that you have been so cautious is that we know that it's like one small thing can really shift things dramatically in one direction or the other and we're it's great that now we're in the good direction um so i do appreciate the caution that you took because i think we've learned from the past that it really is so important so i appreciate that diligence there um okay do you want to move on to so many 22.

uh i didn't want my daughter to go to the big bad big school down the hill i wanted her to stay in the safety and comfort of a small school up the hill my daughter just agreed with me she wanted to have the sixth grade at the middle school well i for safety reasons i said no and that that's an opinion i'd like to hear from most parents whether they they're comfortable with i like the pelham school i volunteered at the pelham school for 10 years it's a family it's cozy it's comfortable and i i'd hate to lose that and i don't know how many other parents agree with me maybe they don't care but i'd like to know what they think thanks i i mean i've been i've been a one-note person on this for three years but that's my opinion thanks ron margaret did you yeah go ahead margaret yeah i guess i would just say that um mike made a very uh convincing statement about what would be good to to do this year and and i would i would agree with that okay thank you yeah i mean i think having this conversation i i guess maybe maybe what i don't love is the idea of deciding to wait until next fall maybe taking a little bit more of an incremental approach of like well here's this one kind of fundamental question that we can discuss now and bringing that up as as relevant in meetings and then maybe as we get updates if there are specific elements that we learn that it's like oh well this is something that we should either make sure that we communicate to folks or this is something that we should definitely discuss now because this will inform these other things i mean i you know i i don't want to nickel and dime this issue to death and be talking about it for hours at every single meeting um but i think sort of having this pause and being like all right we'll talk about it in september might be might also be a little too far on the other end mickey go ahead um i just want to say one thing um i think whatever we decide to talk about it i think it'd be really great just because of the uncertainty of covid and kids and stress and anxiety to um have the fifth grade parents tell their fifth graders that it's not going to happen next year like i just think that message should somehow get out as well just because they're probably hearing about it sure yeah i think that's a great point thank you yeah mike yeah i think maybe if we come back to the communication piece because i think um i think this has been really helpful conversation for me uh i do wonder i'm gonna kind of limit my number of things but maybe the thing to share with the community is to ms darling's point that there's no consideration of moving sixth grade for next year just because there is none i don't think i don't hear any interest in the community i mean in this committee and i actually don't think the region would accept that regardless i don't want to speak for that committee but i think there's been no interest in pushing that timeline quicker at the regional level i haven't heard any dialogue on that um so i think answering that one and communicating that to your point mickey i think makes a lot of sense and and i think just letting them know that you know this is going to be no decision will be made very soon but if people have feedback leaving them those avenues of school committee at arps.org or public comment maybe that's a simple enough message you know to give is that there's no consideration of moving sixth grade next year conversation will happen you know no decision will be made even for the future year in the next month or two but if people do have um comments they'd like to make they can give them that pathway i don't know how people feel about that kind of simple communication i don't think it's controversial i think it's factual um would that be something that the committee is comfortable with yes for sure yeah yeah and i think too just that you know this question of fifth grade too and i know in some of the public comment that we got that was sort of sent to all the committees wasn't really relevant to pelham you know there was some concern about like oh you're gonna tell fifth graders that year like surprise this is your last year at the school i don't know to me that's another reason i think to like know as far ahead of time as is possible if that is i don't know i just think having that certainty um would would help everyone teachers other parents kids stakeholders generally okay so next steps then sort of a factual communication to the school community so that everyone's aware of what you know next year will be status quo um and then taking up these kind of fundamental questions that we can discuss locally and then the rest of it will be like as we learn more we can re-engage in this question as it makes sense does that feel right to folks okay all right anything else on grade six after this vigorous debate okay great thank you everyone okay next up is superintendent goals they are the attachment is in the agenda yep i will try to see if i can bring that up oh okay thank you yep there we go and this is a draft i'll bring it back next month um for a vote based on any feedback i receive you can see that there's four goals i'm not going to go through every bulleted point but just continue the progress on dei and diversity equity inclusion [Music] some of these goals are consistent across all districts which was the intent and the feedback i received from multiple committees the second is um really thinking through and mickey spoke a bit about this uh the we're in year academic year three of the pandemic and just trying to think through uh collaborating with the public health folks on health and safety measures you know at some point in the future we'll probably i don't think it'll be next month but you know i imagine that at some point we're going to be talking about relaxing some of the measures we have you know i think probably at some point during this academic year we're going to have some of those conversations and so it's going to be really critically important that we'll continue to uh be having those conversations in public um you know mickey mentioned the covert relief funds um and that we are still you know fine-tuning the start time and you know while that's a regional issue with fee in theory it's had an impact on the elementary schools so when we get to the winter and early spring we want to survey all families and all students and all staff members about how they're experiencing any changes because it pelham is different right it's starting earlier it's ending earlier has functional changes in terms of when staff members meet with each other and when faculty meeting is and a whole range of factors that we want to get solicit feedback on the third goal is around budget planning and communication um and so while we are feeling great with dr slaughter's reports tonight we're still going to have a budget year and we're still going to have to make some difficult decisions um hopefully less difficult than in the past but who knows about the budget and and that never ceases to be or it's never unimportant i think in pelham and the last one is the curriculum instruction one the two areas are that we do have we have a new dyslexia screener and process that's uh via state regulation that we're implementing and we're also looking at the elementary math program so this is something that actually we've gotten some comments about over the years some some i think declining satisfaction with everyday math which is our current math program and uh from film staff as well not just pelham um families and so we are looking to complete a curricular review of that and starting that actually in uh the near future in terms of at least setting up the process where we'll get feedback from staff and families look at what's out there it's been a long time that we've been with everyday math and there's new products out there uh for consideration so those are the standards that oh i didn't include the standard for the last goal i apologize i'm looking for the next page but it doesn't exist so i can add that when we get to the final version of this document but i wanted to gather any feedback from the committee before i draft the final version all right thank you questions edits comments for my kind of schools mike could you stop sharing thank you bless you center best anything okay oh ron go ahead it seems that life goes in circles i remember when every day math was introduced this is called continuous improvement i guess you know if i could comment a bit on that i think it is we are trying to be more systemic about reviewing our curricula on a routine basis and trying to have a cycle for that um i think everyday math i think i think it's likely that we will be recommending a change to that but that's not a foregone conclusion but we haven't taken a deep look at everyday math in a couple years and for us it's just you know we're hearing some level of concerns particularly uh as the curriculum spirals and we're coming out of a pandemic that you know the people are struggling uh with the nature of a spiraling math curriculum um some people do really like it spiraling just means that you don't stay with the same topic all the time it means that it's intended to be cumulative so that you may have a topic for a certain amount of time but you're then going back to prior topics so i understand the philosophy but i think people are struggling with a less linear i think uh fair to say uh curriculum i think it was much better than what we had before so i'm not at all saying it was the wrong choice i think it's just things evolve and new products come out and new curricula come out and at this point when we you know bought into everyday math it was you know one of the two or three preeminent math curricula in the country that's no longer the case you know i had a conversation with someone actually used to work at the district but he's a math lead now at the department and he works with multiple districts and he's going to be supporting us who are going through curriculum review processes and um it was interesting here and he was part of the adoption here of everyday math which is kind of fascinating to talk to him about and at this point i'm not saying it's good bad you know no judgment about it but it's not one of the three or four curricula that districts somewhat ours are moving towards and i think we're learning more it's it's served a good purpose and it's i think just time for review so we are trying to be more systemic and more deliberate about looking at our curricula on a routine basis and seeing is it working for our students we did definitely see a saw a jump in our performance when we made that transition and it's you know i think our performance is is consistent now but it's not necessarily going up and that's what we want for our students so i think it's it's worthwhile to take the time and put the resources in for it yep run this may not be appropriate comment now but it reminded me of a newspaper article in the last couple of months where it said that the mcas scores went up during kovid was that do i recollect that correctly yeah that wasn't true for pelham so we were very consistent with the state average which saw um a modest decline in performance as would be predicted given the year we had last year so some of the other districts i work for had more atypical results i would also caution as i did at some of my other committee meetings that we had a lot of students choose not to take the test last year so okay i think the reliability of those results is questionable yeah anything else on goals okay um warrant reports okay this is me okay i've got um four tonight i authorized by my signature to payables and the amount of 40 132.70 for the warrant dated september 15 2021.

oh yeah hi good evening everybody my name is marty mcniff i am the chair of the brookfield youth commission we'd like to thank you for coming out to our youth commission candidate forum we're very happy to provide a chance for the public to hear from candidates for brookfield's board of selectmen board of finance and board of education tonight a little bit of information on tonight's event all questions come from or were prioritized by bhs students the students were given the opportunity to write questions that were important to them we will have two questions for each board that were submitted and worked on by dhs students and our student members of the brookfield youth commission no candidate had any input on the questions nor do the candidates have any advanced knowledge of the questions on a side note i'm going to take a moment to brag about our student members of our youth commission i want to say how impressed and proud i am of our student representatives their dedication time and contribution are something that communities should take note of we'd also like to extend a sincere thank you to vhs teacher senor davila for all of his help hard work and his outstanding commitment to the students thank you senator mcgillin finally a reminder that this is a public meeting primarily for brookfield's youth so the focus will be on asking candidates about questions that are important to youth we'd like to thank the audience for attending and just a reminder to be respectful to all candidates and that we do need to keep masks on for the entire event i'm going to turn it over now i'd like to introduce our vice chair liam tanya and he's going to go through how the event will run thank you everyone this is how they remember home tonight board of education and board of finance to the front of the auditorium at once each candidate uh the slavery children like trump coined charles we'll have up to three minutes to introduce themselves and they will be going in a ballot order by slave each candidate will then have up to two minutes to answer each question there are two questions for each board again they will speak more of their ballot uh and they will be after each slave speaks for each uh all the candidates for each board we'll have five minutes to allow for rebuttals if there are any between the different candidates but we hope that this would be a very civil and great event for everyone to meet we also have introduced our student members greg friedman uh issue who will be doing the time price tonight and samina and greg will be asking the questions and moderating evan so thank you all and we look forward to this being here [Applause] hi everyone at this time we would like to invite the candidates for the board of selectmen in front of the auditorium [Applause] candidates will be going first so i would like to um invite republican candidate for sponsoring tara carr to introduce herself for doing this thank you good evening brookfield good evening to um the youth commission thank you for having all of us here tonight and to marnie mcniff for her mentorship and superior coordination of the students of our fine camp also to senor de villa gracias appreciate everything that you do for everybody and um that took up a little bit of my three minutes but i have a little bit of nostalgia in this auditorium tonight the last time i was on this stage i was actually a stagehand in a production in 1993 as a freshman here at the high school um many of you i already know some of you i haven't had a chance to introduce myself to so my name is tara bona udo for those i'm sorry i made it in with juana hudo for those of you who watched the debate and my married name is carr so i am um from the area i was born in danbury raised in brookfield at st joseph school like i said i attended brookfield high school my freshman year and then i switched to new milford high school and it was at milford high school where i had an opportunity to study abroad to brazil as a rotary international exchange student and that's something i'm very proud of and it's something that i'm curious to know if brookfield will be again having their students participate in study abroad opportunity um that opportunity for me as a young as an adolescent what that what my appetite for not only world travel but any language but interesting cultures and unders a better understanding of how very large but also very small our world is that was in 1995 and then in 1996 i left for the army and i've been serving in the army for 25 years upon retirement last year i decided to move home with my four children and my husband and we decided that we could have literally thrown a dart at a map and moved anywhere but we chose to come back to brookfield to raise our family here and it was all for the same reasons that you all maybe have lived here for decades for the same reasons you've decided to raise your families here we're the reasons we chose to come home so i worked my way around the world and earned the rank of lieutenant colonel from being an enlisted private i have many many global experiences and i'm happy to share any part of my life experiences with all of you and especially with the adolescence of our town i am a huge advocate of lifelong learning i've attained two master's degrees throughout my journey and i believe that our life here is about keeping open mind open heart and continuing our journey to learn as we navigate our way through this life thank you very much thank you i would now like to invite republican candidate mr selectman perry shaker to introduce himself for three minutes i'm gonna understand that it's much better when walking it just goes back to coaching my name is harry shaker uh for the four or five in here who are not part of the candidates and don't know me um you know it's really it's really it's amazing when you think of the situation that the world is in right now this nation is when the state and the town of brookfield you know we have so many key issues and this place should be overflowing with people and it really disheartens me to think that we've got maybe 20 people here but we're not involved in the campaign we need to stop being in place and we need to get involved and get uh educated my wife and i moved here i'm born and raised in danbury we moved here in 1980 been here for 41 years three year old children we have two 12-year students went through the whole program 111 my oldest son mike went to prince of peace i am very very active with athletics again i'm probably talking about 10 people who don't know me so please bear with me for those who do uh very developed athletics uh i've coached from the f division all the way up to two terms as on the varsity basketball program coaching about three thousand kids i run a private business in campaign contracting we deal with hundreds of realtors and hundreds of hundreds of department management companies uh property managers and we really enjoyed living in brookfield i was born and raised in danbury my wife grew up on a 500 acre farm in new crescent she wanted to live up there i wanted to live in danbury we chose brookfield because it was a little bit of both it was still country we live on long metal hill road we need to change that to long enough hill road because we have no metals left but we came here because we love we love brookfield when you think about the situation i i was contemplating i was 14 years on the board of education and i uh and finished my fourth year with steve and sue and i really was thinking you know i i've got an 18 month old granddaughter uh maybe maybe i'm going to stop running i'm going to be very honest with you and sometimes i get myself in trouble by being honest but i think we as a society prove that when you know we do things the way we think we should do them we make a mess of things just look what's going on around the world that's going around on our government and i said to our children i said we need more people to think we're going to have their action feed through that and now through just thinking what they think is best and when i told them that i was thinking and not running they said well if you don't run there's going to be one lesson so that's one of the reasons but the main reason why is the girl behind the young lady and i meet jared carr i read her bio and i just really rejuvenated me it's no secret to anybody that the last three elections have been difficult uh they've been difficult for me i've never been to center caps moving forward um i think we have a bright future uh i am looking forward to working again for the people one of my keys and one of our keys is going to be the seniors especially down at the core it's appalling that they're living the conditions that they're living in right now but i thank you for your time i thank you all for coming and i wish you the best [Applause] [Music] thank you i would now like to invite the democratic candidate for first election steve dunn to introduce himself for three minutes thank you i'll do the same thing as harry i'd like to stand a little bit my name is steve dunn my family and i moved here in 1983 because i've gotten a job as a northeast regional manager for a company and my single biggest client was union carpet so we were living down in westchester and we were doing a reverse commute and we started to look for a house and we found broken we found a great house in brookfield we lived in that for 20 years it was great and then we bought another house in brookfield and two and a half years after i moved to brookfield i just finished up my mba and i got my dream job offer it was on wall street and we thought about moving out brooklyn getting closer to my job but i decided i didn't want to do that i love brookfield it was a great place to raise kids it's a great street i lived on it's a great community safe well-run we just love brookfield so same pokemon i commuted to the city for well over 30 years and i didn't mind doing that i didn't like getting up a fight early in the morning to get there to office but that's what you do so during our time in brookfield i still found time to be a leader in the boy scouts including scoutmaster for i believe four years i was in boy scouts for 22 years i coached baseball for 20 years including running every single one of the leagues in baseball and travel teams i coached an odyssey in the mine team for five or six years we won four state championships so i have been involved in the schools and in our children's lives my entire life here broken and six years ago sue and i ran through office and we all know what was going on back then we don't need to discuss it and we said we will bring a couple things back to brookfield one is civility and we've done that the board of finance the board of ed the board is selected all talk when we do budgets the board of the board of selectmen and the board of finance and the board that all sit down and go over those budgets and we have gotten to the point on the budgets and the transparency in the budgets that this year the board defense budget was so good it was passed virtually unchanged by the board of finance and let me tell you our point of view is a tough board it's republican-led it's controlled by republicans but we don't do it as a partisan means we work together to get what's right for brookfield so i want to thank you all for coming i appreciate it very much getting a little flag here my 30 seconds are up i am proud to be your first legend i am very proud to serve with sue slater and i hope you all have a good evening and learn a lot thank you thank you to invite democratic candidate for selecting seats later to introduce yourself for three minutes thank you good evening and thank you to the youth commission and to our residents that are joining us tonight either in person or online my name is sue slater and i'm honored to be nominated for a fourth term for your sport of slenderman i'm a connecticut girl austin i believe you said at the debate your family's been here 100 years about that i've got to be my first ancestor came to america in 1627.

they all held student council positions from huckleberry right through to graduation and each were presidents of their classes this stage hosted graduation speeches by my children and many school plays i'll never forget alex as connected along other roles i was always amazed and proud by their courage i could never have run for an office or been in a play at their tender age but fast forward in many years of volunteering i was the cub scout pac-5 committee chairman classroom helper at huckleberry and again at whiskey year library sunday school teacher deacon yankee fair chairman and business club president all of these positions have helped me to understand one person can make a difference but better yet a team seven years ago steve asked me to run with him the town was in need of steve's leadership finance background and management skills i said yes we can make a difference and we have we've moved the needle on getting four corners started after 20 years of stagnation after years of complaints and money thrown at hufflepury next year at this time our students are going to be in an art in a uh i'm sorry in a state-of-the-art facility even more important probably is going to return to eight to grades six through eight and no longer using the portals we look forward to that and putting much-needed ball field in this place going forward we've updated the town website to make it easier to navigate and learn what's happening in town our spotlight newsletter is sent over a thousand email addresses the code red system we implemented to keep residents aware during covid communication can still be lacking for some i propose a sign at the new school which will give our residents information on what's happening in town whether it's a football game there's an election there's something going on there's hope and shots at the town hall so please i would love to hear that if i get your vote and have another two years thank you thank you i would now like to invite third party candidate first selectman austin ontario to introduce yourself all right good evening everybody how are you doing tonight good good all right this is a good thing uh so i thank the youth commission first of all for putting this event on uh you guys are truly inspiring me i think the future of this country is gonna be better off with uh more folks like yourself getting involved in an early age i wish i did this at actually uh so with that being said we'll take a little different approach tonight i'm not going to talk about my resume or what we've done obviously i'm running as an unaffiliated candidate so i want to get into my why and why i decided to run before first celebrity i kept coming back to three goals in my mind that i that i wanted to accomplish that was of the utmost importance to me in this run the first one is to increase increased voter turnout and political awareness our debate the big news last week got 1800 views which i think is incredible for our first selectman debate in brookfield and i truly think on november 2nd we're going to have a record turnout four votes this election season which is awesome so that was my number one goal number two to redefine politics here locally to salvage democracy here locally i'm sure i know we're all here on facebook it's getting very divisive um a lot of things that aren't pushing us forward we're moving us left we're moving us right we need to move forward together right it has to stop now i could i couldn't sit around anymore and just watch and play from the sidelines we have to get involved i also want to supply our change and and these sparkles we bring more people younger people like the youth commission and people my age to get involved into politics i think we have a lot to offer we come from a totally different generation we grew up in a total different culture and mindset than our current politicians at all levels we need new voices we need a lot the same old same old just is not cutting it anymore and finally my mindset every day is to do what's right not what's easy this is the mindset that's driven me for the past 20 years during this campaign as of many things in life especially as a third party candidate people tell you you know you can't win people tell me you're splitting the votes people tell me you don't know enough people they just say you're just the gym owner they want me to be quiet they want you to be quiet they don't want change they want you to quit but if we quit when it gets hard we will have no progress and my answer to them is that it is that simple we can't make a difference and we're not stopped we're going to follow our heart we'll take action and we're going to do what's right not what's easy one click one quick platform piece like to get out there uh it's a lot of talk i'm going to be giving back the fifteen thousand dollars salary that the first election is getting is elected and we're going to give it to a scholarship for one of the brookfield high school students graduating uh starting next year if elected that'll be an every year thing we'll encounter the name with it and it's not necessarily for a four-year university it'll be for a trade school or any other kind of continuing education so we're all about the kids want to provide an opportunity for all the hard work that they do so thank you guys and uh thank you everyone for coming tonight appreciate it thank you um youth commission has come up with two questions per board that we would like the candidates to address and the first question you would like the candidates to address is what is the most important thing we can do to address the social and economic needs of the town's youth i would like to invite first block and candidate steve dunn from the democratic party to address this question for two minutes thank you thank you the board is selected and sets the goals policies and direction of the town and because of that and the work we're doing i'll give you a perfect example instead of just deciding how we're going to spend the money ourselves of the caspian harriet or selected media we formed a diverse group of 10 people to take in all the ideas of what we should do in town with advisors from the board of finance board of selectmen and board of education we try to involve as many people as possible in the process of helping our town move forward that committee is charged with coming back to us with the best ideas for what to do with the five million dollars in our money that we're getting i don't think three people should decide what to do with that money i think as many people in the town should be involved we've gotten dozens of requests and we've also gotten dozens of suggestions and a lot of them really good a couple of them were a little odd in my opinion but it shows people in this town care they really want to do what's right when uh this pandemic started the nights and the town started brookfield recovers we raised over 70 000 to help our neighbors it's all through donations from you from our residents it's not a penny from the town not a penny in grants it's all money from people in brookfield wanting to help their neighbors that's what we do in brookfield we help our neighbors we did it in the macroverse we've done it in a pandemic and we're going to continue to do it as long as you elect sue and i thank you thank you i would like to invite third party candidate austin montero to address this question for two minutes could you just ask that one more time for me question what is the most important thing the to board of social and economic needs of the town's youth so great yeah great question so i think i understand touched that in my opening with creating that scholarship program for brookfield high school graduates and again we're going to perform a committee and we'll try to find the right components to figure out who is best suited for but again it'll be a four-year school trade school or any continuing education uh to touch on what steve said the american wrestling plans funds money i'd love i brought this up during the debate to create uh some more public health here in town some real public health for the youth we need more activities for the youth i coach a lot of these kids here in town coach a few that are playing volleyball right now in the other room i find the activity and the physical exercise that they do will carry over to them being better people and being able to form better relationships and being able to just live happier healthier lives so i think that's a lacking problem i think the biggest problem in the world but that's something we need to focus on and we have five million dollars that we can do that with so again the scholarship is huge and using that money to help public health and help our youth as much as possible thank you thank you i would love to invite republican candidate in the first election tara carr to address this question for season so i'm going to stay seated i like to speak with people and not talk at people um i'm very relatable and approachable and that's something that i'd like for everybody to know so um in order to better understand the social social and economic needs to address the towns used there has to be open communication that's first and foremost if the senior leadership of the town is unaware of what those issues are we have a problem at the get-go right out of the gate so i think there is a lack of communication in town and sue elaborated on that that we could do much better in that area as far as being more transparent and having um a better understanding of what the needs of our town are so it starts with that mr dunn commented on the arc of funds um 2.5 million of which we already have in this town which hasn't been allocated they set up the ad hoc committee this money should already be distributed for those needs especially when it comes to addressing the problems that our youth are having um that payout isn't due in full to the town until 2020 so essentially it could be the 5 million dollars could be held on to for another two years which is horrifying because there are people in town who need it now regarding scholarship programs um yeah more of that would be fantastic like mr montero said but going back to my introduction i think study abroad programs for diversifying our youth and introducing more current foreign languages i don't know if you all know this about me but i speak chinese and it's very important to be able to relate to diverse cultures that occupy and live in our town we're lacking sports fields to include baseball fields mainly in part because the two fields at huckleberry were demolished a skate park was brought up and if that's a grassroots endeavor that's fantastic the greenway expansion and workout areas along that path are a fantastic idea for helping our youth and also employment postcoded if we can get our youth working and involved in our community that would be fantastic thank you [Applause] [Music] thank you uh first i want to applaud the positions that we do have available right now and that is brookfield cares uh that's been in town for many years now it's helped a lot of students as well as parents uh we also have the head of the youth commission and i want to thank liam for bringing that back to us in the last couple of years it's been a great you know mentioning coding i mean this is a real problem that we've had for our students um we know that it's been difficult for them to wear the masks it's been difficult for them to be you know learning this at home so i believe that we do need to invest in mental health for our youth that's something that has been lacking and something that's been very neat right now i do applaud the idea of a skate park i think it's a wonderful idea we don't have anything right now for youths in that age group so if we didn't put an outdoor facility for them to go out and get fresh air i think it's wonderful um this is school itself is fantastic i mean i'm the principal from landa our whole entire board of education is doing a fantastic job and i applaud them for all the work that they do and i i'm going to leave you with that thank you i would now like to ask republican candidate for selectmen harry shaker to address this question for two men socially and economically well i'll start with education i think it's no surprise to anyone that children today to me seem a bit more fragile a little bit more inhibited i think a lot of it is due to social media and different things that are going on in schools we need to make sure that our engine that they're not only educated well in the classroom i would like to see our education be more north and south rather than east and west i'm not a fan of teaching as much as we can i'd rather see them go deeper to where they are solid in their in their core horses um and as far as learning how to how to uh be successful whether it be as a parent as a brother as a sister in the work field you need to be able to have confidence and you need to be able to socialize and the extracurricular activities to me are as as important as the classroom we need to make sure that we also i when i was on board about i spent 14 years on the board of education before i was selected and one of the things i try to push is the life skills program where we teach as a core in our educational life skills uh teaching how to run a business how to run a household how to cuddle uh go out and look for work we have a full shot down below to trade so we're going to do the trades you know so many people look down on the trade too who are going to beat the tradesmen um you know they're going to move on there's tons of opportunities out there we have to get these children and kids ready to move on and again we need to go north and south as far as economically we need to make sure that grovefield is the town that they want to come back to we want to make sure that there is housing that they can go into that they will be comfortable in and that's one of the reasons why downtown four corners is such a vital project such an important product excuse me project thank you all right thank you so much i'm the second person to be speaking um so the second question we have um is going to be about sustainability now i'm on what's called the sustainability council which is a council of seniors at my high school and we specialize in well right now we're working with government documents trying to see what is our town done what is the plan to do um with mr dunn um we've met with mr w ford to work on sustainability um we wanted to do that going forward and to propose new initiatives to the school and also through the local government um this is my question um given the recent wave of new developments in brookfield how will you factor sustainability green technology and respect the environment and to your leadership decisions now i'm going to start with mr montero going first sure so the question one more time oh sure um given the recent wave of new developments um how do you factor sustainability green technology and respect for the environment into your leadership decisions sure i think it's very important especially moving forward uh you know climate change is a real thing clearly uh i'm all for green technology uh when it comes to development every every single project is different commercial real estate background and you'll learn that as you go every single project you encounter is going to be different so these things need to be taken into account on a case-by-case basis that should definitely be part of the decision-making process the green piece of it the sustainability piece of it and how it affects our environment and climate that should be a huge piece of it i am pro-development i don't want to see developments stop here in brookfield i think we have some other areas that we can develop correctly as far as the cornfield area and the berkshire corporate park i know we have 75 acres up there that we can develop i think growth is a good thing i think brookfield is going to continue to grow and i think uh that's natural that's what we want to have happen we can't go back on time like i said earlier we have to go forward in time and we have to do it the right way taking into account all these facets that were just brought up in this question thank you now we're gonna have um first election candidate for republicans um mrs [Music] respect for the environment is vital where nobody is denying that and it is obviously um a big part of the equation as your generation moves forward because all of us will be moving on and it will be in your hands youth commission and your children my children my grandchildren um as it pertains to brookfield [Music] sustainability is very important and i commend the brookfield high schoolers who are part of the initiative to work on the sustainability the name of the actual uh committee is lacking right now but um greg gambowski's the mentor of that program and i've sat at board of selectmen meetings where steve dunner has um invited them to pursue earning higher status in the town and working on their goals to make sure brookfield remains sustainable and can incorporate projects and programs i think that's an absolute fantastic program so i commend the high schoolers efforts in that regard regarding brookfield itself and green technology yes i'm a huge proponent of that i love going to the mall and seeing how they have the charging stations for electric vehicles and i understand that that's an initiative across connecticut i am a huge fan of that um i think if you go north into litchfield county we look at all the land trust they have in place and that to me is is very um important and unfortunately we're lacking that space here in brookfield while i am not anti-development i'm also very pro-good development and i think there's a fine line with what that means um for example there's a plot of land behind the new del primo shopping center if you look up back up on the ridgeline that's um could potentially be developed it's zoned for a large amount of units and that's just another plot of land as an example that will be trees will be torn down and we'll have more apartment buildings so we have to really take a look at what the balance is between protecting our environment what is sustainable and what's not another great example is candlewood lake um for those of you who don't know we're on the trajectory where the lake could be closed in seven years if we're not careful because we're ruining the environment in that regard thank you all right steve um thank you very much sustainability has been incredibly important in oakville and sue and i started in our and when we first started uh working in the town uh we created a group that worked with hrra we brought in electronics recycling we've done that twice for the last three years we brought in hazardous waste recycling in town free-for-all residents so that you can recycle just in the past six months i don't know if everybody knows this but did you know 25 of your garbage by weight is glass and that ballers pay by time so we put in a glass recycling center at town hall in the parking lot between town hall and the fire department and we can get 25 and glass is endlessly recyclable endlessly so you can take 25 of your garbage and recycle it just by bringing your glass down the town hall the hazardous waste recycling keeps these chemicals out of our storm drains out of backyards and it works really well we've finally two years ago achieved bronze level so the connected sustainability council we are now shooting for silver and i'm working on that right now and you have to do a lot of different things to get silver and gold and our ultimate goal is to become a goal we started to work with the students here at the high school who are really fired up and greg dembowski has been helping them working with the town so we have a good record of this town of people wanting to be sustainable and doing it so thank the town for doing that and i thank you and appreciate it bye um can you please have harry shaker speaker sure with all due respect to stephen so i don't want you to think that i was on sabbatical for the last few years i was part of the programs as well putting these in with recycle and the hazardous waste you know with the glass sometimes i do feel like when you read what's what's out there that i've been on sabbatical i have not if you take a look around there's more residents and there's more businesses using solar heat with the solar panels i think there's a group we have done well in uh with the glass getting the recycling another area which may not be needed as green but something that i think has a real effect it can have effect on our health and it certainly affects ecologically is the flight problem we have in town i think that we need to do a much better job in taking care of the blight we're not going to be able to remove the buildings that are vacant we can't put people in there but we can certainly make sure that properties are maintained that they're safe and they're not in danger to us uh in the middle of the winter i went around and i was able to look at a number of them and they were vacant they were broken open peter's imports every glass was broken out and uh you know i reported to grand valley and you know we have been able to get those cleaned up but there are things that we want to do and that uh terry and i have especially with the buck with blight and i think that we can control it much better as being controlled right now and uh they think that especially in that area where the uh where the uh the construction and the wood uh the street seats is going north of the four corners between four corners and the new milford line we do do a much better job on that thank you [Applause] thank you uh yes as steve mentioned sustainability has been very very important to us when we got into office we have a energy group third ad hoc group we've since raised them up and now they are a committee of many of several people in town and that's what they do is they just look at where can we improve we've changed all the lighting in our town hall libraries something about correct so we're working on that as well we also voted to become a part of the route 7 corridor well they will allow us to put in electrical systems that people can come and charge their cars so again that's something that's very important to us uh let's see we've done the glass you mentioned that um i know we've talked a lot about another thing that we'd like to do is uh bring recycling back over to where the grass cuttings are put and all that that is something that we're looking into we'd like to be able to do that and not rely on either the milford which started charging us way too much money or dan mary who i hear complaints are not very nice people down there so we'd like to bring it into our you know our own area see what we can do there we're working on that as well um [Applause] hello okay thank you so much for your answers um due to time we will not be able to do rebuttals so i would like to now invite the board of education [Applause] uh also during the time our introduction to the board of education will be limited to one minute for canada we'll start with republican candidates for the board of education um i would like to ask cheryl if she would like to introduce herself in one minute hi my name is sharon i've been an educator for at least 30 years i'm sorry sharon i'm sorry i dropped it it's going to be two minutes instead of the one i did that was a mistake okay i think the board of it is one of the most important boards in town because when schools are good your town is successful i think that we need to work on academics as well as the social issues children face even our very young children are confused with what goes on in the world they hear it they hear the news they're wearing a mask and i think that this is new to us it's new to parents it's new to teachers and it's new to the boards we have to start very early in a child's academic life to find out what their needs are and how we can go about helping them even if it means spending more time on the social issues as i said when your schools are good in any camp when your schools are good your town is successful and people want to move here and they want their schools to maintain the positive direction that they're going in thank you but thank you um i would now like to ask the public community candidates for the board of education when they're honored to introduce yourself or tune in hi my name [Music] uh my is and i have enjoyed our beautiful home here in brookfield in our beautiful community for the past 25 years our daughter son-in-law and three beautiful grandchildren live in nevada however we wish they were in the wakefield my background is in theater music and dance where i have been a performer choreographer director teacher and producer for very many years without the fine education and training i had during my school years and throughout my professional life the difficult career that i chose would not have been possible what was so very important beyond the technical scholastic and on-the-job training was the inspiration and impartation from outstanding teachers and of course my parents of a strong work ethic the love of learning and the appreciation for having the freedom to follow my dreams creating a successful life for being raised by my very special immigrant parents in a little town in ohio to the bright lights of broadway took a lot of hard work resourcefulness ingenuity and dedication beyond the arts i have become a successful real estate investor and somehow managed to balance both careers determination and hard work why money for the board of education is because of the youth i'm concerned about youth of america you must be given the support encouragement and the tools you need and it's deal with love of learning the ability to think on your own and with appreciation for freedom in order to achieve your dreams with a strong background in the arts and teaching as well as in business in the big apple and around the country i believe it's all about the youth and i'm here for you thank you i would now like to invite republican candidate for the board of education jointly designed to introduce yourself for tinder good evening my name is joy greenstein and i'm an elementary reading specialist and this is my 21st year of teaching i work with kindergarten through fourth grade students who struggle with reading and writing in addition to teaching i hold many leadership roles at work i've been assistant to the principal i've been head teacher and this is my third year being the district's english language arts curriculum coordinator through this role i write curriculum i align it to the common core state standards and benchmark assessments i provide develop professional development to the staff and i push into classrooms to model lessons and model best practices i'm the vice president of my teachers union and i'm on the negotiations team i run english language arts tutorials before school and i'm the advisor and creator of an after school book club for higher level i've been living in brookfield since 2007 with my husband matthew and our two children vanessa mason for the past 10 years i've been very active in the community doing a variety of different things i was a catechist at st joseph's church and led the children's choir i coached for the brookfield soccer club the brookfield basketball association and then lacrosse club i brought back squad patches of garden at huckleberry and we turned it into an outdoor classroom and we provided years of food for our brookfield residents i spearheaded the product of painting murals and positive themed things on the walls of huckleberry and last spring i led the charge and the spearhead of the eighth grade moving up ceremony and field trips i currently serve on the board of education after being elected in 2017 i'm the chair of facilities subcommittee i want nothing more than to continue the great work of the canada lake elementary school project the boys high school project locker room project getting rid of the portables at wisconsin improving our facilities district-wide and in addition to improving our sports facilities such as a new concession stand and bathroom facilities outside i'm a member of the cape subcommittee i'm a board of liaison of the youth commission and the brookfield education foundation i'm running for reelection because i have a vested interest in our schools and students i want to continue advocating and pushing our district forward in a positive direction i want to continue promoting providing more engaging and diversified opportunities and improving our current programs and studies at the high school we need to improve many things such as our social emotional learning program such as ruler and i believe that i i'm the right person for the job i have respect for the diverse points of view and approach each decision with an open mind i understand that anyone who comes before the board has the right to be heard not just to speak it's my job to build public understanding support and participation free of political bias i prioritize the need to be fiscally responsible while valuing the need to be competitive by hiring and retaining high quality teachers and staff most important i believe in complete transparency thank you i would like to invite democratic candidate for the board of education at the twitter to address them to introduce yourself for two minutes good evening everyone thank you to the youth commission for putting this event together for also for all of us my name is emmanuelish leader most people know me by camera i am originally from brazil i moved to the us in 2003 to improve my english skills then i met my husband and connecticut became my new home we moved to brookfield until 2016 i often say that i am out of my forever home i have three boys ages eight four and two my oldest is a third community revocabiary i studied business administration and finance however i've grown up in a family of educators my mom and aunts are retired teachers in brazil over the past couple of years i've become even more engaged in all matters that relate to children's education i have also worked in the foreign language field for 10 years and great value diversity and inclusion prior to college i've always attended public schools and i strongly believe that all children deserve to have the lasting quality public education my desire to run for the board of ed and help them keep up with the good work they've been doing not only zoom to the fact that my children will benefit from it but it also fulfills the need that i have to continue to contribute to my community in a positive way brookfield is an amazing town and i am truly excited with the opportunity to serve thank you thank you democratic candidate for board of education rosa fernandez to introduce yourself for tomorrow thank you my name is i have lived in brookfield my whole life and i'm now raising my eight-year-old daughter she's a third grader at huckleberry i'm also an adjunct professor at western connecticut state university and an entrepreneur my husband and i are in the middle of starting a company ourselves four years ago when i ran the board of ed my daughter was four and was nearing the start of her time in brookfield public schools at that time i asked myself how would we challenge students to be global thinkers and leaders or to use technology to spur innovation or natural curiosity and how would we inspire our students to be academically diverse and culturally aware how would brookfield remain an attractive place for young families now four years later i'm proud to be able to answer those questions and say that as much as anyone possibly could have done those things i have i can proudly say that i played an integral role in the creation and expansion of a stem department at the high school the addition of new technology courses several teaching positions materials that meet next generation science standards computers for every single student in the district and the broadband and technology infrastructure for our students to be the technology leaders of tomorrow in my four years two of which i have led as board chair we've added another world language to our high school offerings and a world language lab to the middle school and have begun work on a new equity and inclusion subcommittee we are a district that spearheaded social emotional learning in the state of connecticut have kept class sizes low and are for the first time ranked in u.s news and world reports among the best high schools in the nation we've researched and voted for healthy school start time and of course i mentioned the construction of a brand new elementary school i haven't mentioned covet much though those challenges have been presented they're great of course we never ignore them but our old challenges we need leaders who have the ability to keep calm and carry on with the work of governing this town and our school for anyone paying attention to brookfield's town governance it would be impossible to not notice the transparent and communicative way that i have led and represented the board of ed to other town boards we cannot allow covenant as many challenges to stop our progress or the ability to work together for brookfield we can't allow it to distract from the resourcing or change policy that permanently alters the values that we've always held four years ago i said it was becoming ever more imperative that our students not only begin to ready themselves for worldly challenges but also feel confident to meet and embrace them it is our jobs as parents as educators and as policy makers to equip even our youngest students with an educational experience that matches the professional arena in which they will one day enter i was then and still and now committed to bringing this to our schools and to our town thank you thank you are you violent to invite democratic candidate for the board of education buddy testing to introduce yourself for two minutes hi i'm bunny um i haven't lived in brookfield for very long but i have been in education for over 20 years oddly enough i feel like joy and i would have a really good conversation because it seems like our careers have crisscrossed each other um i have um taught in classes at huckleberry as a sub i have been very active on the pto and he was even pto president um i've taught every kind of learner from ninth graders with third grade reading levels all the way through to ap line composition and i've done many things with my career such as start my own school run my own staff have my own scheduling issues and situations work through curriculum development i've done a lot of things with my career that i'm very proud of this i've never done and i'm very nervous so i remember this um so my motto work for you or whatever as an educator is i always put students needs first and that's my number one focus whenever i enter into a school or education situation i like to make the statement put the students on the table and what does that mean it means put all the students on the table and assess where their needs are find where the real needs are assess those needs and then the learning comes naturally from there i really believe that if i'm elected i will do the best that i can to put students needs first to enter into a world of support for teachers whereas teachers are feeling very supported in the classroom and as a result the success in the schools comes natural thank you for your time and thank you for everyone being here tonight [Applause] thank you the first question that the commission would like the board of education candidates to address is what skills should a bhs student have after graduating and what do you believe is missing in their current education system that needs to be added um we will start with the republican candidates the board of education um administrator can address this question um for one minute yes oh my god um democratic candidate education administrator thank you so much um i think the more we can keep the kids involved after they graduate it will help them to help others i don't know if i want to focus on what's missing but i think it's adding value um so you know some and making sure they can they stay involved they they can contribute we can hear their voices um what i would like to see as well so not so much when they leave but you know starting early is for like foreign languages you know i speak portuguese to my children um i have a number of parents that i know who speak other languages as well and like to see their children speaking other languages so i think that alone would be um a bigger area of focus and uh you know could make them proud and to exercise it and you know bring that bring those ideas into play thank you um i would now like to invite democratic candidate for the board of education where the fernandez to address this question okay so um i personally think that as i was making my opening remarks um the fact that a stem technology engineering mathematics those fields are going to be critically important for our students graduating there has been a big push globally to have to have the ability to use computers and you know i know a lot of parents are not used to having their young students use computers at a very young age concerned about screen time but keep in mind that these students are going to be adults that are to improve and create brand new technology and they're going to need to know how to do that at a very young age and i'm very impressed with our students and what we've been able to accomplish so far but i do think there's more work that needs to be done we have been improving our mathematics and offering tutoring to students in the elementary level and i think that we'll also continue [Applause] thank you i would not need to ask democratic candidate for the board of education financial aid to address this question well i've always believed in the power of language and the power of being able to self-advocate so my goal for any of my graduating seniors is to be able to go out in the world and advocate for yourself and for those in need so i really believe that a graduating senior needs to be able to go out in the world and get themselves a job give themselves a situation that they're happy in and be comfortable and have a good life and one of the ways to do that is to to empower them through language teaching them the skills and the abilities to speak up for themselves and speak up for others who cannot speak up for themselves it's always been a huge belief in mine well as for what i think is missing i really don't look at it in terms of things that are missing i look at it in terms of how can we improve what is already in place i don't believe in piling things on top of things that aren't working i would rather look at the systems that we have in place and to see how to improve them or get rid of them if necessary so i don't like to look or even talk about education in terms of things that are missing i think that all the supports are there we just need to know how to access [Applause] what skills should a bhs student have after graduating and what do you believe is missing in our current education system that needs to be added they got a little old fashioned i think our students coming out of high school need to learn how to speak properly need to learn how to write properly need basic skills can you just speak into the microphone so everyone can hear it okay sorry um i found when i was teaching that we allowed children to go from grade to grade to grade who could not write a sentence i think that it makes us look bad as a country that the other countries cut students from other countries come here and they leave college or high school with the skills that are necessary to compete in the world i think i know that technology is important i understand all that but if our students can read and write and have basic skills then their success may not be as strong as others thank you [Applause] thank you i would not like to ask you candidate for the board of education in the department to address this question for one minute to me the most important thing for a student to have is the ability to think critically to think for oneself to be able to research to be able to see all sides of something and not just take anything for granted i think resourcefulness and ingenuity are most utmost important i'm an artist i have degrees in music and theater and that's been my life um and it is said that if someone knows music he is educated so i'm a big proponent of the arts because i think it builds the soul it builds the mind but the most important thing to me is the ability to learn critical thinking i don't know the school system here very well so i don't know what's lacking i hope there's theater i hope there's music i hope there's dance i will find out [Applause] i would now like to ask before we can candidate for board of education george greenstein to address this question for my life so i think one made a really good point and we spoke about this the other day that um we need to raise our students to be critical thinkers and leaders sometimes we just need to teach our students to go out and read go out and learn and do the research themselves i think that we want our students to appreciate music art literature nature they need to feel healthy in their body mind with wholesome feelings towards themselves and others they need to contribute as citizens with a sense of loyalty understanding and having an interest in their world at large one way i think that hookfield can improve this is through social emotional learning i think that um this is an area that we can focus on especially in the same day and age and in this day and age of covet we need to improve what we're providing as far as seo especially for our high school students i think that we could be better than ruler for our high school students we need to have stronger and more aggressive supports in place for our students that are crying out for help i would say that it's important as educators that we are sticking to the curriculum and teaching our students to ensure objectivity in the curriculum although teachers have the flexibility and creativity to deliver a lesson how they so choose no educators should be offering their opinion or have an agenda so teaching our students that there are multiple opinions they can have multiple opinions but both sides need to be presented and the students are encouraged to formulate their own opinions based on facts thank you thank you now um our second question for education is what types of investment would you want the board of vet to focus on that reinforces our core values and beliefs as a community now we're going to start with a republican candidate would you repeat um please sure what types of investment um you want the board of education to focus on that reinforces our core values and beliefs as a community well i have to go back to what i said before i think the most basic values are actual education but i also think today's students or young people need to be taught respect honesty all the skills and all the emotional things that we were taught as children sometimes i feel sorry for little children who are playing and they don't know how to interact with each other i think we should concentrate on teaching our young people a genuine love of education and an appreciation for all people thank you okay thank you um or yeah um all right what type of investment would you want the board event to focus on that reinforces our core values and beliefs i i would like to ask the students first of all what they think they need what they're lacking what they um are most interested in of course i go back to the arts i would want an orchestra i would want band i would want a good gymnasium um i would want proper facilities for the students be it restrooms or locker rooms or i would like to invest in in retired entrepreneurs to come in and talk to the students and teach them and inspire them to become entrepreneurs and to go on and and create their own living for themselves but most of all i would like to know from the students thank you next um yeah so just just like i said in my introduction um providing more engaging and diversified course opportunities um improving the current program of studies especially the high school like for example we discussed a course offering on drones at the high school more well-rounded and more engaging and motivating course opportunities for our youth also facilities is a huge concern district-wide so definitely funding into improving our facilities especially for our sports facilities such as a concession stand at the high school and bathroom facilities that are very much needed um in addition i'd say that um like when i spoke to it's important to find out what the youth would like and kind of working from there so that their voice is important and it's important to know what their needs are thank you very much this is a great question i hope to stay on focus um the so there are three things that i'm keeping that i have in mind one is going back to diversity including language related i think it's important to provide those tools to the students um one other thing that that comes to my mind to this who even mentioned as she was answering questions relate to mental health i think it's definitely important to support the students on any mental health struggles make sure they understand it's okay to ask for help and again provide the support of it before they ask um and the third aspect would be you know the high school i understand that um we have a great school that's being built right now but um i believe that the high school also needs some improvement so supporting that will be a major another major factor for the board of education thank you [Applause] um so i agree with many of the statements that are up here actually um i do think we need to listen to students and i think that we have a track record of doing that i have spoken to students and what i'm hearing by and large is that students want a robust academic educational experience in brookfield they want everything from languages to new sports teams we've been able to add both they want opportunities for clubs after school and we've been able to add that as well so that is certainly something that i think is their worthwhile investments and by mostly um i i will agree with the with a very clear sentiment that our facilities need a lot of attention um it's wonderful that we're getting a new school but we had a condition study that was done several years ago and it is very clear that a lot of our schools need a lot of attention and so that is going to be a very big focus in the upcoming years thank you [Applause] well it's hard to go last because everyone kind of said everything um i'm just gonna go back to my statement uh students needs come first and so i'm gonna start with the students i do like the idea of improving the facilities i want to hear from the students what are their needs there i do like the idea of adding more classes and bringing more arts and things to the curriculum and again i'm going to go back to the students what would you like to see what would you like to have happen and very much about empowering the youth and hearing what they have to say and putting a lot of investment in that thank you very much um unfortunately due to time constraints we will not have a rebuttal section um foreign [Applause] okay do you want to sit here thank you so um i'd like to start um with the democratic candidates for the board of climate um we'll have kaiser introduce yourself first for two minutes okay um then we'll have allen walsh introducing himself for two minutes good evening all and thank you for the uh for the support mission for the children i i really want to just say uh first off you know why do i want to be a member of the park field or to finance and also divide by people it's an excellent match of my skills and experience you know i think the answer to that is to really improve what i am i i only have a few minutes and you can obviously see there's no hair and a graveyard i have a much longer resume than would take the time we have but i guess while i like i've asked that question to myself for many years you know really for every decision i've made in terms of what do i do with my life and the principle has always come down to me wanting to be a part of something bigger and once making it kid and also myself better and i think the result of all this has been personal growth and a lot of experience you know i'll go back to what uh steve was talking about with his boy scout experience you know i think with them you know it's it really is you're taught to leave the campsite cleaner than you found it you know to work as a team always but also to gain your personal uh life skills and ethics on your path to uh you know to equal scouts so that you can share them with your community into adulthood the decision to go into the us navy was based on the same principle you know just to serve our country and shipmates and at the same time to grow personally you know through engineering through leadership and life skills such as listening appreciating differences in opinions cultural diversity and through travel to many countries you know service that allowed me the ability to live in four countries over many years to perform international telecommunication engineering sales management and adding valuable business and leadership skill set that included creation and management of multi-million dollar legends and i finally brought back to the us in brookfield 12 years ago we came back to family because that's where our family lives i also satisfied this enduring principle of being part of something through serving our company our community by sitting on the planning commission for almost five years and then the economic development uh commission which i'm presently as well my personal career financial services for me grew out of the strange i guess a dichotomy of engineering business people skills the engineering side of my character is meticulous it's figure based having the depth of financial knowledge and supporting licenses that include knowledge of municipal funding allows me to perform analyses and finances and the people's side of me and experience allows me to work closely with clients and really to align their plans to their goals making recommendations the board of finance is basically we're just going to ask you to wrap it up because we were at the end or two minutes yep so what a way i look at it the town is a 75 million dollar company and it requires a unique skill set which obviously doesn't include critical timekeeping aspects so thank you very much for your uh for your time and support thank you i would now like to invite democratic candidates for the board of finance marine corp yellow to introduce yourself for two minutes good evening my name is mary capiello thank you to the youth commission i'm so glad you guys are involved my husband told you i've lived in brookfield for 32 years our three children went to brookfield public schools k-12 and then on to the top universities when they were young i worked at borders i still volunteered in their classrooms led two girl scout troops and helped coach youth sports eventually my family teaching middle school math this time in ridgefield when i left school's degree in economics and math i could easily gone down to wall street but in college i found myself tutoring peers who were losing their dreams of majoring in science and business due to their weight math skills i wanted to help young people keep their options open to help them at an earlier age middle school was perfect when my children got to college i was ready for a change in the last four years i served at the library board of directors and the zoning commission among other things on the library where we help the director decide what will be included in the budget we attend board of finance meetings when the director will be presenting the proposed budget i have seen all parties work well together to look at the real needs of the town and produce responsible budgets i advise chair of his own commission we cannot and would not tell a landowner that he or she is not allowed to develop their land but we have rules to guide what type of project can go where in some respects have i was part of rewriting the zone regulations for the first time in decades it's now easier for homeowners and developers to complete their projects for example the new greg's helped us to bring the emerson grants and headquarters to town that one project alone will bring in about half a million dollars per year in capricorn i was a teacher and i understand what i of an ed budget i've seen the budget process from a department's point of view and from a tax credits program i'm fascinated by how the department sports and commissions work together to create the best work field one that offers a variety of opportunities and services for all residents with responsibly sized budgets thank you very much thank you i would like to invite democratic candidate for the board of finance island code to introduce yourself for two minutes hi my name is edwin cook i've lived in brookfield for the past 14 years with my husband and we have two kids a fifth grader and a seventh grader i have been on the board of finance now for the last four years i ran in 2017 with a strong desire to make sure that the voters had a chance to vote on projects in the previous years they had been in town a lot of things got stopped at the board of finance and i didn't believe that that's what its purpose is his purpose is to make sure that we're bringing reasonable budgets to the referendum is to make sure we're bringing viable projects that improve our town to the voters for them to decide i've stayed i'm involved in the congregational church in brookfield um i've worked with during my tenure on the board of finance i've worked with the board of education finance committee to keep that line of communication open over the past four years our communication across the boards has been very transparent it's been very constant i think we've worked well and shown respect for one another and that's something i want to bring forward for the next four years so i hope that you'll support the brokerage candidates i think you've done a great job under the leadership of steve gunn the boards have worked well together and thank you for your support thank you and now let's ask some credit candidate for the board of finance john temple to introduce himself all right good evening everyone my name is john um i very very briefly um after graduating uh college worked in investment banking for a very short period of time a lawyer by trade became a prosecutor in manhattan da's office i wound up founding and being the chief of the human trafficking unit there and now i am very proud to be leading a 75 year old organization called guideposts whose purpose is to bring hope into the world and what we do there is really focus on people's spiritual well-being and how to control that spiritual well-being we reach about 10 million people a year there we have a budget that is of similar size to the town and so i've been managing uh budgets and dividing process for my time there and certainly my time before that um however i really want to just focus for 30 seconds on how my wife and my children wound up coming to brookfield we were in westchester i was commuting to the city and we were looking for a place for our kids to go to school a place that had a lot to offer and a community that was private and we looked at a whole bunch of different places in fairfield county and southern fairfield and brookfield was the place that made the most sense it was open it was inviting we went my kids actually came up for soccer trials before we even moved here and within minutes this community that overlapped its arms around us and as i think about what makes a great community that's where i want to give of my time and talents uh to the extent that they can help i think there's been a lot of good things that have been going on in this town i want to do whatever i can i think it's it's also incredible when people want to serve uh be public servants and everyone here that has really committed to doing that so i applaud everyone who's up here tonight i look forward to if you choose to support rawai and my candidacy to be able to work with you thanks thank you i now like to invite a candidate for the board of finance ricky romney to introduce this opportunity hello i'm ricky ramos i'm a corporate tax consultant with pricewaterhousecoopers my wife cove owns a law firm in brookfield and i have two children in the brookville school system i've been on board to finance for the last four years in those four years brookfield suffered through a microburst numerous long-term power outages and epidemic it was through effective communication between the boards of finance members effective communication with the other boards that we solidify trust while maintaining a healthy level of scrutiny for the items that came before us this allowed us to collectively come up with a transparent lean budget that upholds the town and the school's services and needs with a minimum tax demand a transparent and weak budget that through the microburst and the pandemic require constant attention i've recently an appointed chair of the capital projects committee which will assist in determining priority and funding for the past capital projects and how to best work them into the town's 10-year plan my goal will be to use away from borrowing and raised threshold on paying for cash especially for assets we know will need to be funded and years to come as a board we unanimously approved bringing the candlewood lake elementary school project to referendum and as a town we voted to bring that project into fruition i'm incredibly proud of the work we've done on the bill of finance and would confidently justify all action taken in the last four years i dedicate hundreds of hours of my personal time throughout the year in order to serve as an effective board member and it would be my honor to continue to serve this town thank you we will now move on to the republican candidates finance and we'll begin with amelia to introduce yourself over to you thank you and thank you to the commission for hosting this event so my name is amelia molanovi my family have been residents of connecticut for 28 years 14 years here in brookfield so when my husband and i built our home in 2007 we have three beautiful children all grown and married with their own families and all living in connecticut we have six beautiful grandchildren two of which are right here in brookfield schools so we are very blessed my sister as well and her family and my 90-year-old dad are also residents of brookfield so we are so blessed to have four generations living here so um my experience stems from my 30-year career at one of the largest property and cavity insurance companies in the world and so in my current role as the head of the north american head of our commercial insurance portfolio i'm responsible for the profit and oversight and governance and state and regulatory requirements for a 400 million commercial insurance portfolio so i'm looking forward to using those skills and helping the community here in brookfield as part of the board of finance thank you thank you republican reporter good evening my name is andy kane i'm a republican candidate for the board of finance i grew up in connecticut i attended schools here and i've lived in brookfield with my family since 1985. my children graduated from brookfield high school i retired a few years ago after about four years with the internal revenue insurance yeah those guys now i'm an enrolled agent representing taxpayers before irs i worked in many areas when i was with irs i worked in field audit i was in management i was a headquarters staff and i also worked in the it area my career allowed me to work with individuals at all levels around the united states of america in federal state municipal private industry and law enforcement analysis defining the facts and getting to the bottom line was a part of my job every day that's what reward finance does i volunteered at my church i was a boy scout leader i'm the eagle scout myself and i was an emt in new york i was also very proud that to be part of the team that brought k paramedic service to brookfield we did that through insurance buildings brookfield ems at the time was having a lot of difficulty meeting their state obligations in terms of time response time and we were able to improve that by bringing the paid paramedic staff and paid staff in and we funded that through insurance bills i'd like to thank the brookfield youth commission for inviting me and i would especially like to thank the adult members to this program having good mentors helped me be more successful in life and i know it will help you to be successful also like many volunteers in brookfield i'm here to help and i hope i can do so on board findings i'd like to close by saying go bobcats thank you i'd now like to invite republican candidate for board finance chairman my family has been here for 30 years and my family not as long as sues has been here for 80 years and i extended him as stephen sue said they've been on the six-year journey i've been with him on that six-year journey i've been a member of the board of finance for six years and you've made great accomplishments we just announced a triple-a rating uh for the town we've done very well with our general fund we've accomplished a lot of things we've fully funded the board of education this year we've done a lot of things and remiss if i thank me ricky dan and brianna as part of the team we really have done a good job we have really got this town on a solid footing and we're very proud of that what scares me though is what's ahead of us this is where we need decision makers and good choices of voting we have a debt level ahead of us we have a need for a new police station we have a need for a library we have a need for many things ahead of us we need to be responsible to get these needs i know let's see you want to see the library center school project as well what are we going to do with the center school so we need to make good choices that's why these votes are so important who is going to do the best job for brookfield again stephen said we were bipartisan with everybody i think we need to continue to submit civility in this process and we're a good time we could be better but we're a good time so we need to face these adversities so i'm more worried about what's ahead of us making good decisions continuing experience thank you thank you i would now like to invite a republican candidate for the board of finance daniel divorce to introduce himself well as always to follow but let me do my best my name is dan uh divorce wife three children and i've been in town for 18 years uh two of my kids are members of the 13 year club at brookfield and recent for graduates so i think some of you on stage might know so if you happen to upon them on social media please don't involve them um i have had a 25-year career in finance and investing i'm currently the chief investment officer chief operating officer of horizon technology finance a public trade adventure investment firm the fun part of my job is evaluating business plans budgets making investments the not so fun part is dealing with auditors and rating agencies and regulators but all of that is directly related to the job that we do here on the board of finance i'm running for reelection before four-year term the role of the board of finance is the uh overall oversight and guidance that all financial management's found that means preparing and presenting the final budget from both sides of the town uh determining the capital overseeing the audit and all that other things that i do every day four years ago when i when i decided to run uh the town was really in a critical place we were facing a lot of critical investment decisions that glennon mentioned and quite honestly the town was not in the best place to make those decisions there was not a great long-term plan in place and there was this trust among the board and that created a wonderful environment for decision making i thought i could help add a level of financial professionalism financial accountability to the process and as the client pointed out a lot of ways uh people who've been on working on the board for the last four years have done just that i'm proud of our team and i'm proud of what we've done and so why am i running again uh it's because the jobs happened we are once again in a critical place lots of important decisions need to be made that are going to impact not only near-term budgets of long-term financial flexibility for um for the foreseeable future and i want to be able to do that while maintaining um a calm and responsible and respectful presence thank you i would now like to invite republican candidate reporter finance thomas demando to introduce yourself for two minutes can you hear me okay thank you uh youth commission for inviting us here i'm holding this my name is tom lavonzo i'm running for the brookfield finance committee my family and i live in new york towns as far as hill chapel and arma 2017 we moved to a beautiful town in portfolio connecticut do i answer your question yes i am a new york state tax refugee and i want to take this opportunity to thank you for accepting my my family and to your lovely state and your beautiful town i've been in the financial services industry since 1982 i spent most of my career on wall street as a research analyst and risk manager and during that time i've seen a lot of good bad and ugly decisions in both public and private sectors i won't go into the details here now about all the tragic results of some of those decisions but i can tell you one thing after seeing those results i thought i should stop talking take action using my experience both professionally and personally i've been very fortunate in providing people with ideas so they can make better more informed decisions and with your help and support i would like to do the same for our town as a member of the finance committee thank you the first question the commission has for the candidates on the board of finance is on the job of creating the tax budget each year what are the cornerstones of how you make financial financial decisions we will begin with the republican candidates for the board so looking at the cornerstone of how we make pilots for decisions making financial decisions so when we uh when we are looking at assessing a situation whether it's an insurance portfolio or whatever what we like to look at is the historical we look at the historical and see what we can learn from that and when we're looking to the future we have to analyze prioritize uh prioritize what's important i heard dan mentioned a few things here and glenn we've got a dead bubble ahead of us we've got a police station we need uh would be to work or to rebuild we need a library there's a lot of priorities that need to be prioritized a lot of things we want to get accomplished in the schools on behalf of the children so i think you look at all the priorities you prioritize what those are and you you look at the analytics around it what are the finances what are the expenses and make smart decisions around that and of course it does require very strong collaboration uh definitely collaboration across you know all disciplines and every all stakeholders so that's kind of what how i would approach it thank you um would candidate andrew combs please take one minute to address this question thank you i think it's important when you're making any decision to have all the facts i think the second most important thing is that everybody who's in that process will be honest with one another brookfield has experienced the 10 increase in taxes over the last three years there's a lot of needs in this town and there's a lot of watson i think the most important thing is to prioritize um you know what we really need and work together in an honest way to accomplish that i think the important thing about anything you see in physical government cases the first time you see a proposal you know generally there may they need to be cut back somewhat so i think that the process of going back and forth while it may seem controversial a lot of people don't like that or seem to avoid controversy it's actually a technique for resolving and getting to a balanced viewpoint on a dispense that everyone can live with thank you very much [Applause] [Music] um think the importance trust i don't think the board of finance is here to set policies or set budgets it's here to see what the board of education and the board of selection bring to us analyze the numbers look at the numbers and see how they fit into the big plan in the picture the future needs that we have we have a 10 year model that we follow that shows the debt that we're taking on the expenses the annual expenses that we have and we need to address everyone's needs in the budget so it's not a matter of us dictating to the two boards it's a matter of us working with the two boards to find a way forward for the best budget that the taxpayers can afford and they fit all our needs i've done it that simple it's looking at the numbers making sure they're correct making sure everybody understands what we can do and working together that's what we did this last budget i think the budget before that we did that our budget was 1.72 two years ago increased this year's 1.52 so i think we've done that thank you thank you i'd now like to ask danielle to um address this question for one month sure so thank you so financial decisions for the town need to appropriately balance the near-term needs slice wants with the long-term financial flexibility of the county and balance all that out within the construct of the financial plan that has finally been put in place recently and it's constantly being updated that's really the poor um beyond that uh my colleagues who said it is right we're not interested priorities we're here to fit those priorities into the plan and finance them appropriately and to work collaboratively i make all of my business decisions and all the decisions or recommendations for the founders upon two core philosophies they're not unique to me but are i think important um those are assumed positive intent and trust prepare those two things if i keep those in the front of my upon my brain i can work collaboratively i can assume that everybody's coming to the table with the with the right intention trusts that that what's being presented is accurate but then verify facts and fit that into the plan thank you thank you i would like to ask candidate thomas you can address this question thank you very much that's a great question financial decisions are done by my career first thing you do for me is i look at i do the research i'll do a risk assessment look at the needs versus the cost look at the budget we get the facts and the last thing we do is the planning and the execution of the actual project or or before making the decision and then you get a consensus find out all the pros and cons sometimes that can become you know have confidence in it those people have different needs and wants but we resolve that and we go forward [Applause] thank um i think the uh the decisions that we make have to be uh based on historical plan versus what you're facing today uh and i think that the board of finance has reacted very well to some of the incredibly difficult uh situations as we that we've had in the last two or three years it really is based on you know i think basically you know we provide oversight guidance and i think that the responsibility for that has to cover every request the special appropriations additional capital requirements for projects budget transfers you know so i think that it's really it's a matter of balancing and i think it's been done very well through the board i'd like to ask candidate mary caviella to address this question for one minute okay um so i would review the last budget to see how it worked out and if we could learn anything from it better all right so review the last but last year's budget to see how it worked out and what you could learn from it uh look at any contractual obligations that are changing teachers unions usually have salary increases what else went up did anything go down um did anything change so basically gather all the information um crunch the numbers of course so we get everything from the departments um see where we are upkeep of talent assets i mean capital but it's a little different i'm seeing the normal budget here pull it all together work with all the boards and departments to put forth the best budget to maintain services while respecting taxpayers and then ultimately send it to the people to have the final site [Applause] and i like to ask can eileen code with your judge's question for one minute i think in the budget process we initially you know our first selectmen um and the chairman board of ed are the key members to bring us the budgets uh to the board of finance and when we're reviewing it we need to make sure that you know if there are investments are they sustainable are they what the talent and the schools need uh we need to look at the numbers make sure that they're accurate and supported and as has been mentioned by other candidates the trust that we have with the leaders of these boards has really led us to a really smooth budget process this past year is there room for unexpected we've seen that in the past with unexpected special education budget increases with macrobursts coming through and hitting the town of the pandemic are we prepared for that and can we sustain that and lastly are we keeping the future in sight we have a 10-year capital plan we have a 10-year budget planned budget and are we keeping that in mind when we're looking at the budget we want to make sure that we're investing in the town but we want to make sure that we're providing a reasonable budget thank you i believe i'd really like to ask to address this question forward i agree with what a lot has been said on both sides tonight and so rather than repeat that the only other thing i would add is to listen we talked a little bit about continuity and making sure we're building on things that are working and as somebody who's not been on the board of finance should i be selected or elected to get on it or i wouldn't want to go in and presuppose anything i would want to listen [Applause] [Music] yeah so in march during our budget cycle we actually have nine budget meetings six of those are dedicated to conversations with all the different departments on their budget tasks through those conversations we're able to determine um certain items that you know especially for capital projects then perhaps maybe there isn't an immediate need and they agree that you know these items can be pushed off either or these are items that are absolutely must have requirements um not that it's our release to set the priorities but we need to know directly from the department themselves exactly what their needs are and just how important these budget items are to them but we also look at you know just the revenues that hasn't been talked about but you know in the last few years have a lot of one-off revenue items that help keep our taxes low we also have to you know as part of this debt bubble make sure that when these uh one-off revenue items go away and it doesn't cause a major impact to the budget so you have to really be forward-thinking as well as thinking about the president when looking at this budget thank you all right our second question for finance our final question tonight is what are your two top priorities i'm going to start with democrats with allan [Music] board of finance but i i would uh would like to ask that uh you know that we look at budgets for uh veterans uh i think that this is certainly an underserved and need uh we certainly will have you know future uh let's say we're going to have issues with finance uh budgets in the future you know i i think that we we really have a great um uh ability to finance now what would the improvement in our our ratings and so i think it really is it really is going to be reduced in terms of the issues that are going to degrade them so thank you [Applause] um i would want to continue the good fiscal policy that has brought up the triple-a rating and that had us um be able to borrow for the school at a really low rate of 1.5 percent and then 20 years instead of 30.

and at this time we'll go ahead and start our open session with our flag salute and today we have nancy sharma from dalton hi nancy hello everyone my name is nancy sharma and i'm from henry dalton elementary school today i'll be leading you in the flag salute i love it whenever you're ready put your right hand over your heart ready begin i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you nancy for joining us tonight and thank your parents for allowing you to um come on to our board meeting resume and how are you doing tonight are are you ready for the for the halloween holiday coming up yes what are you do you know what you're going to be yeah what are you going to be can you share that with us cleopatra nice nice well i look forward to um pictures from henry dalton with the cleopatra on them so good luck and have a great rest of the night and you take care thank your parents good night okay okay thank you i just i i just want to share i absolutely love having our students come and do our flex flute with us so thank you guys for that next we'll go ahead and move on to item 4.2 or roll call we'll go ahead and start with board member career board member cruz gonzalez here board member beau here board member uh rodriguez pena president i'm board member arianis myself i am here we're all present next we'll move on to item 4.3 approval of the agenda can i please get a motion to approve 4.3 second we have a first by board member career we have a second by board member rodriguez pena and just everybody joined we can go ahead and cast our vote and we have our board member janet again hannah hamilton hi preferential vote for from our students yes thank you and it passes five zero with the student preferential vote we'll move on to item 5.0 report action of closed session matters at this time we have nothing to report the next item on our agenda 6.1 asusa high volleyball player recognition do we have coach timothy on zoom yes we do coach yep i'm here oh great awesome there you go you have the floor um yes uh we were in a tournament um in carpinteria it's a tournament that we do uh every season and i'd like to thank the board for allowing us to keep um you know because we always have to send to you because outside of our distance for allowing us to go to this tournament because it lets us the girls get exposed to teams that we would not regularly see until we see them in cif and so all the teams up from santa barbara in that area and ventura and stuff like that and during our tournament this last october first second and third is when we went up there uh two of our volleyball players got picked for the all-tournament team one of them was hannah hamilton which is your student board member and the other one was alex alexandra acaba and they were both picked for all-tournament team so we wanted to recognize them because they were selected by the other coaches that we played against basically what happens is we play all the teams and all the coaches nominate players throughout the day about who they think is best for the all-tournament team from each one of the teams and uh hannah and alex were the two players that were selected by the other coaches so it's a true recognition of their talent and their skill because it was recognized by other coaches that played against them that's awesome to hear and and for you uh coach timothy berzers how long have you been coaching our our volleyball team uh well let's see i've been coaching total in total about 24 years a coaching volleyball between gladstone and azusa but i've been at azusa for the last 11 to 12 years uh running the varsity program um so um and then if anybody's free would like to come watch us play we're in the sea we're in cif playoffs this week we're playing thursday away against costa mesa um and at costa mesa high school so it's the first round of cif at uh six o'clock so more than mayor you're out there to support us and support the girls thank you thank you well the board would like to go ahead and um give recognition to both hannah hamilton and alexander caballero and we have hannah here as us our student board members so i will go ahead and read off your certificate at this time the souza unified school district certificate of recognition is proudly presented to hannah hamilton for being named to the girls volleyball all-tournament team for the mountain view league october 19 2021 congratulations we give her all about give her and alexandra is alexandra on online uh no she wasn't able to make it tonight okay we do have hannah here hannah would you like to see a few words um [Laughter] i'm really happy with what we did during that tournament especially as a team and being able to be captain on that team is very um i'm very honored to be a part of this team and i'm honored to get that type of certification and a thank you board gabriella do you want to present it to her yes i was going yes i was going to do that right now thank you though um if you can please come up to the front i'm gonna go up the front and for alexandra caballero if we can go ahead and send a certificate to the school site for her to go ahead and add up thank you before i move on to the next you know i i have to say um when we recognize students here at our board meetings um there's a special place in my heart because as a stu as a former student of this district um i i remember when you know being in this board room as a little girl or as as a young adult um coming in and and sharing this experience with other board members and so it's something that doesn't ever leave your heart and so by being able to do this kind of i hope that you understand that you know you and alexandra you shined that day and you're being recognized for all that you gave that day and you represented a souza and we're very proud of you for that so be proud with for representing your community asusa anybody else would like anything we'll go ahead and now move on to item number 7.1 public comment on agenda or non-agenda items from the public lika do we have anyone up there there right yes to start we have jennifer right i want to remind our um are individuals that are here and zoomed that there's three minutes given to to you to address the board of education and for you to go ahead and make your comments we have miss jennifer miss jennifer yes hello yes we can hear you thank you so much uh good evening board members mr ortegan cabinet my name is jennifer varone and i'm a teacher at dalton i was very proud of ms sharma for doing such a great job tonight i've been a teacher for azusa for 32 years tonight i come before you to discuss the testing mandates uh put on azusa staff some of us chose to get the vaccine and others did not i would like to speak on behalf of my co-workers who have chosen not to get the vaccine at times they're afraid to speak so tonight i will be their voice for them according to the cdc vaccine vaccinated people can get coronavirus and pass it on to others why are we only mandating testing for people without the vaccine this clearly constitutes segregation and discrimination and is in direct violation of title vii civil rights act in addition the test that is being mandated upon azusa unified staff is under eua which means emergency use authorization it means that it also comes with the right of informed consent california health and safety code 24 170 71 and 72 all state that there needs to be a choice when something is experimental such as this test we already have a shortage of substitute teachers at our sites we certainly don't want a shortage of teachers who have to either quit because of this mandate or are put on unpaid leave i kindly request that the board members look into the details of this mandate as well as the unpaid leave that is to start 10 25 monday we trust that you will protect the rights of all employees whether they're vaccinated or unvaccinated thank you for your comments miss jennifer next we have gabriela rodriguez hi can you hear me yes we can hear you you can go ahead and start okay thank you good good evening uh dear board members mr ortega and cabinet my name is gabriela rodriguez this is my fourth year with the cesa unified school district and i'd like to inform and discuss regarding this uh mandate and uh religious discrimination okay uh title seven of the u.s civil rights act prohibits religious discrimination religious creed includes my dress and my growing practices including what i put on my head or face and what i do with my body as part of my religious expression california civil code 43 states that i have the right to be free from harm participating in this or any medical experiment goes against my sincerely held religious belief it harms my soul my religious rights and my right to privacy are protected by the u.s constitution and the constitution of the state further participating in a medical experiment such as cova testing or vaccines is also a violation of my religious beliefs masks cova tests and cova vaccines have an emergency authorization by the fda not an approval therefore these are experimental treatments and i have the right to refuse consent without being discriminated against such as being required to stay home no emergency pandemic health orders executive orders policies rules regulations guidelines directives or measures suspend constitutional rights the law is on our side thank you for your comments we'll move on to melissa wils wilson perkins okay there we go unmuted good evening board superintendent and cabinet i'm a parent of two elementary students in ausd i'm calling tonight to urge you to look towards the future when considering reorganizing our school district i have a kindergartner who's just beginning his journey in azusa unified school district and high school legacy or prior honoring prior taxpayer-funded projects while important do not compare with the programs and opportunities i hope will be available to him on his path through his ausd education the reorganization committee presented model 4 not only to save money by closing some of our middle and elementary school campuses but also because the 7th and 8th graders are needed to fill in our dwindling high school cohorts we are losing or are in danger of losing high school electives clubs and sports every year this is the catch-22 of model four we don't want our middle school and high school students to mix uh however for the district to run two comprehensive high schools and keep our programs the 7th and 8th graders are needed to fill our small high school cohorts i was a parent member on the reorganization committee and i recognize how difficult and complex this issue is the version of model 3 presented to the board needs improving please improve upon it however it does have the best consolidation of our student body and our district's resources i agree with the majority of our teachers who took the reorganization survey and selecting model 3 as my preferred choice i fully recognize miss wilson perkins we cannot hear you can you hear us melissa miss melissa wilson perkins okay can you hear us i think the wi-fi is um you're you're on mute right now can you unmute yourself sorry um are you talking to me yes we we lost you for um oh no um sorry i think then i would go over time um we actually stopped the time for you you you were talking about you agree with the majority of the teachers i think that's about where you were that was at the very bottom thank you i agree with the majority of the teachers who took the reorganization survey and selecting model 3 as my preferred choice i fully recognize there are sacrifices bundled up with each of these models and i urge you to prioritize the district's present and our future students thank you for listening and your dedication to our school district thank you miss melissa wilson perkins for for your comments next we actually have someone here um in our in our audience and it is our beloved burke hamilton yes please take take the microphone at the podium i think you forgot my point of order aren't they we'll go ahead and go we'll go oh okay burke hamilton thank you it's always nice to come to a meeting when everybody can be upbeat especially the superintendent for many years i was one of his cohorts in another district and we always worried about the dodgers and we were worried tonight until the eighth inning and we got through okay the thing that i'm excited about is uh this will be the last year of 52 years since there will not be hamilton that has a grandfather or a father or a worker of the zoos unified school district here i would like to thank aziz unified school district for 52 years of supporting me my family and my grand grandchildren also and helping them through the field of education i think they've had excellent opportunities they have excellent chances to go to university they have excellent chances to excel in sports and be a part of a community and so i appreciate aziz unified for that particular thing i'm grateful i'm just going to tell you a few things i'm grateful for today i'm not going to hammer you uh i'm grateful for the fact that i can drive by gladstone high school and azusa high school and see a football spiel there they are beautiful they make me proud to be a part of azuza to know that we care as adults what happens to our children and the grandchildren and all of the people the kids students that have the opportunity of attending school here i'm grateful for the opportunity of the high school students to come and be a part of this school board and it's a great opportunity for me to have my granddaughter do that elanina and i yolanda and a few people were excited to have that happen i'd also like to recognize uh that we still have a school at slauson that might need to be moved away or taken down someday that will probably come on your agenda again and hopefully it will happen um i'm i'm um grateful tonight to be here with some friends that i've had for many years adrian acosta is someone that helped my daughter become a band member and was exceedingly uh great and his dad is a great great person and a great supporter of azus unified school district i was in a restaurant the other day and he said he was going to be recognized and didn't he of course he didn't say he's going to be recognized because he never brings the recognition out but that he was going to be a super principal here and i'm glad for that hannah rojas who is a principal uh here in the district and a great young lady and a great teacher and educator and lover of children to help and support them um a two-time teacher of the year for azusa kathy hendricks who gives nothing but 130 of everything that she has to make sure that kids are successful and happy and learning and being doing the right the right things your school board member that president that grew up uh in murray school number not everybody grows up in murray school that grew up at gladstone street school and had a great experience in elementary school and high school and throughout her college career i'm grateful for a mother who loves not only her children but every other child that ever comes to murray school in yolanda and the things that she does and represents them for the other members of the school board that dedicate a great deal of time to read think and apply the principles that come on my granddaughter says well i don't know what they do but they sure take a long time and i said well that's that's kind of what happens at a school board at a school board meeting when they're when they're there uh i hope that the closure of schools is something that we've known and as usual is going to have to happen i'm very sad to see that we don't just have hundreds of kids coming and wanting to be uh in these schools they're great schools led by great teachers led by great administrators like great pacified people and and this is the best place that a student can be they live here in azusa or in the san gabriel valley because they'll never receive the amount of love they would get uh any place and i'm just very excited and happy to be here today and i wanted to talk and of course i didn't talk about anything except things that are important to me and i appreciate the work that you're doing and that you're involved in here thank you so much for your comments mr hamilton um i want to apologize to mr nate amaya and go back to miss janae amaya on zoom renee uh are you on zoom are you oh there you are okay you can go ahead and take the floor can you guys hear me yes ma'am i'm trying to have my camera on but i don't think it lets me so i'll go ahead and just just speak but um good evening everyone my name is dania maya and i serve as a district representative for the office of assemblywoman blanca rubio tonight i would like to use this opportunity to introduce myself to our community and share information regarding our 2021-2022 young legislators program assemblyman blanca rubio represents the 48th assembly district in the california state legislature she is actively supporting legislation that empowers our youth and provides important services to help our students thrive especially during these unprecedented times the young legislators program seeks to provide high school students with the opportunity to become acquainted with the legislative process and integrate themselves within our local communities through service students will attend monthly meetings in person from january to june of next year participate in local events and learn about issues impacting the state of california this program is available at no cost for sophomores juniors and seniors attending high schools or living within the 48th assembly districts applications are now open and the deadline to apply is thursday november 4th by 5 pm for more information please visit our website at a48.asm.c.org and if you have any questions feel free to contact me at danae.amaya that is d-e-n-a-e-e dot a-m-a-y-a at asm.ca.gov or you can please feel free to call me at 626-960-4457 i really appreciate this opportunity and look forward to hearing from many of our community members thank you thank you we'll go ahead and move on to our last speaker for today we have meg savella can you hear me yes ma'am loud and clear oh okay thank you um good evening board members cabinet audience first i want to say that it's one of the greatest joys of my life to have served under brooke hamilton as my principal at murray school and so for hamilton thank you thank you for your leadership your mentorship and just being an absolutely amazing boss um i just wanted to clarify a statistic that mrs wilkins wilson perkins gave earlier and that is that the majori she said that the majority of teachers preferred um model three and actually um the majority of all staff in azusa the statistic was presented preferred model 3.

so and and as and as i continue to have conversations with with parents and other other you know members in the community i'm finding i'm finding that same thing through the case so i am i'm actively working to understand and better grasp that so any any additional contact i know we're gonna we're gonna look at some of these models but any additional context or information that anyone uh might have staff or otherwise would be helpful great thank you anybody else on the board you have a board member please gonzalez remember beau remember well i i just wanted to add also yes i i am interested in looking at what the stamina model looks like um because that was my first um choice but now that i know what the model was presented to us not what i expected so i would like to see it in another site see what the setting looks like and and um because i'm pretty much three or four or i mean i i have my own model in mind also but i will present that on the 26th because i know that you know they they gave us a three and four we don't have to go with three and four it's a recommendation we can either add or delete or make your own model i you know that's what we're here for so i i will bring that on on the 26th thank you would you do you have anything to add or the same board member mr thudo ortega right there is no discussion at this time and no additional comment we'll go ahead and move on to agenda item 11.1 approval and consent of calendar can i please get a motion to approve 11.1 board president board president yes um i'd like to pull item 11.5 for advocation of contract for legal counsel from the consent calendar um we'll go ahead and uh okay which one did you say uh poll 11.5 ratification of contract for legal counsel 11.5 moving forward with 11.1 with the exception of 11.5 now please get emotion i'm sorry we'll go ahead and again try it again 11.1 approval of consent calendar calendar without 11.5 and now please get in motion to move this i make a motion to approve 11.1 through 11.12 with the exception of 11.5 okay we have a first by board member rodriguez pena we have a second by board member rear if we can go ahead and please cast your vote and it passes 5-0 we'll go ahead and move to 12.1 the ratification approval of agreement between us is a unified school district ausd and begin friedman and fulfills llp can i please get a motion to [Music] wordpress and i have a motion um in the interest of maintaining transparency with the community and ensuring fiscal responsibility i make the motion to postpone the contract for legal services and to direct the superintendent to obtain quotes from at least four legal firms for a fixed fee contract for one two and three year terms for consideration at a future board meeting at this time um what what you are motioning is actually that was not on our agenda what you're asking is for us to to have an uh open open contract is that what you're asking i'm unclear to what your question is could you please repeat with what you just said so my motion is in the interest of making transparency with the community and ensuring fiscal responsibility i make the motion to postpone the contract for legal services and to direct the superintendent to obtain quotes from at least four legal firms for a fixed fee contract for one two and three year terms for consideration at a future board meeting can i introduce it is are you asking to table this item and then look for yes postpone that they caught the table approval of this contract as presented postpone it to a future meeting and direct the superintendent to obtain four quotes for fixed fee contracts for one two and three year term so that it can come back a little legal services contract and come back to the board at a later date right but what the first thing you wanted to be tabled you want to table with the item right this item yeah yeah okay and do you want just so i could be clear as well and you want for uh two years three years with ffb when that what that would look like are you asking for other firms i'm asking for four quotes so from four firms different firms four different firms or firm a to give us a quote for one two and three year contracts for a fixed fee and for firms b c and d to do the same and i'm presuming that began frostman would be one of those firms as they are our current legal counsel i i think that this this this right here this is not the um go ahead i i hear her making a motion so that's the motion on the floor i believe it's a matter of whether we have a second or not um there's a lot of discussion with others without us and a motion to postpone is not debatable for that is correct as we have a second we go ahead and speak about this and since i am present i'll go ahead and wait if you have some comment yeah so i'll say we um it would be helpful to hear from from staff like your your the perspective of you know the appropriate frequency of of switching out our legal council and what what that is like i know that we just went through a pretty robust process and selected um f3 was that when was was that last year it was less less clear when we did that so we just went through a very robust and sat in on interviews with multiple uh it was more than just a bid for for costs and services but evaluating what they had to offer and and and those off the congruence of those offerings with our with our district and it was a full-on process of weighted and skilled and first choices through fourth you know choices and and landed with f3 um and so i would i'm not i'm not sure that that i agree that it'd be wise to every year go through i think that it was a good process that we went through and i think that that it would make sense periodically to go through that process but because we just went through that process not that long ago i i would challenge if if there if enough time has gone by to warrant um going through that process again and just to clarify that we did look at three or four firms maybe even five were impacted quite a bit of them there was quite a bit and then we just narrowed it down so we did do a deep research on picking f3 just recently second it so arthur um this this is in terms of process why is this contract coming first now the contract was sent via email uh during the summer uh and it got it got buried and so that's why it's only coming right now so when did our previous contract fire june 30th so we've been operating with our attorney's firm since june 30th and no one has been aware of it that is correct from our side or from the attorneys from who's giving us legal accounts right i would like to go ahead and challenge that motion and return it back to 11.5 the ratification approval of agreement between the souza unified school district and and parade and culmore can i get it first board president i would like the opportunity to also participate in this session will you allow that i thought you were done i'm just waiting for my colleagues to speak and also to be recognized um the reason that i would like to send legal counsel the contract for legal counsel back to the back to the drawing board um or at least for a couple of reasons i do know that the the district and staff and the cabinet went through a rigorous process of selection in october 2020 and i appreciate that process um however it is it's concerning to me that it's gone free month with without contract renewal um and so that that gives me a little bit of a red flag in terms of who's washing the ball and if our legal team is supposed to be looking out for the district i really want them to look out for us um this is not personal but this is protecting the district and our students and our teachers and our best interests um secondly um i believe that exploring the possibility of having a fixed fee contract though in essence what that would look like would be a fixed term not an open-ended contract as as presented here but for a one two or three year term fixed fee meaning leakout dollar amount number one covers everything every phone call every consultation except litigation and that's that's a fairly common practice with with you know a variety of school districts so it's not as if we would be the only school district that adopts that practice um in the context of school organization and best allocation of resources and dollars spent i think since we're already three months into working without a contract i think we should go back to the drawing board look at how we're managing expenses and if we are going to continue our relationship if it ends up being f3 fantastic right and and we can build that relationship but i'd like us to take a deeper look and more critical eye through these lenses and that's why i made my motion thank you since everyone has been has spoken i will go ahead and i may add i think we're going to go ahead and move forward and one of the things that um i think we're just going around and one last thing i'm going to go ahead and allow but i think we're spending too much time on this go ahead so just i mean just just a point of clarification so it would be very um it would be the first time we ever had a contract with an attorney that didn't have an end date right every other chinese contract that we've ever adopted had a term whether it was one two i think normally there were three year terms that we adopted um so that would be very that's very i have not seen that in any any um contract with our attorneys that we've adopted um um there's no clear is there a clear the the piece about what we what we start what we're charged hourly rate that's also i think every other contract that i've ever seen with an attorney had a fixed rate attorney rate right where that they were laid out it wasn't you know then it was it didn't say that they were it could be changes with 30 days notice based on their rates i believe our previous contracts if you look at them had fixed rates for different types of services um so i think um i think there there's some there are some gaps in here i i you know i would personally i would i'm not sure that i'm comfortable going through a whole we it was a long process to find our new attorneys right so i'm not sure that i'm necessarily saying that we need to find bring another like do a whole process rfp across our rfp process again but i feel like there are a lot of gap in this contract seeing the way it's been um so i don't know if you go back to the drawing board with the attorneys um you know we have to we have to spend a lot of time having trust in them right instead of have to have a contract that's not really that's not complete it feels a little con i can make i'm so sorry i didn't know your perspective i started questioning your hand i'm done i'm done yes if i can make it on my first i want to take responsibility this was emailed to me while i was on vacation so it wasn't on f3 so they did send it over so i will take responsibility for that um second this is the exact same contract that was provided in the rfe they're honoring the same rates um the reason not having an end date gives us the opportunity to roll the contract over but they also have on section 9 a 10-day call so we can terminate at any time and my last plea is that we can't pay any of the current bills until we have a signed contract so right now we owe for the services that they have provided and we cannot authorize any payment until we have a contract in place so i would like to ask if we can approve the contract with understand if we still want to go out research analyze or revise but currently they've been operating under information that was on the rfp that was previously submitted and approved thank you thank you for that clarification um so one of the things that um that i i would like to go ahead and do is go ahead and motion to approve so it's a point of order but there's a motion on the floor we have to first vote on that motion and then you can do another one depending on what happens with it with the current motion on the floor if i'm going to go ahead and challenge that we still have to vote so i'm pulling i'm challenging that motion so a vote so a vote to postpone is not debatable so we actually weren't supposed to have it we're supposed to just vote on it right away so we need to vote on that you can't you cannot yeah you can't do any substitute motion with the vote to postpone our table you have to vote on let's go ahead and vote postpone i would just do a voice vote in case it doesn't you know you don't know let's go ahead and vote online let's cast our votes so can you clarify what are we voting for the first time the first time is the motion that uh board member beau put on the table which is postpone and direct four different different law firms that is for motion and it does not pass and we have two boats yes three boats no so now you're able to entertain a new merch we'll go ahead and motion i will motion to approve a 12.1 ratification approval of agreement between isuzu unified school district ausd and again and friedman and full frost llp can i please get a second i'll make a motion on um thank you any discussion yeah so is is there where is there some gray here so so again i'm i'm i vote i voted no because i don't i don't i don't i know that i don't want to the idea of going back to the rfq process is is something that again i i wouldn't want to do so soon but clearly there are still aspects of the contract that can be re-examined would there be space to maybe latasha can you can you speak to this so if there was approval tonight knowing that there's a there's a 10-day clause within uh you know section nine what what would that do if we were to approve this tonight what what room is there to make adjustments on the contract in the coming coming board meeting so we can approve the contract as is and then we can open the discussion with the current um legal firm of any modifications that we will like and then terminate this agreement within a 10-day notice or we can also explore other firms but we just have to give f3 a 10-day note there's another option as well um and again i mean just throwing things out um this contract could be amended and then an amended contract could come forward as well correct i mean that's again just throwing out all the different possibilities that's a possibility as well so if we amended this contract to this is an open-ended contract if we amended this contract to terminate at a subsequent board meeting where we would bring this back and have this and have this discussion and conversation that would allow us to that would that would ensure that the district is covered under a contract with our legal firm it would allow the district to pay out what is needed to be paid out and it would allow us to explore uh addition you know potential changes to our current contract correct but i would encourage us not to terminate until we have our decision of what we want to do so meaning if we're going to negotiate and explore the options to ensure that we have legal counsel until we come to those agreements of the terms of the new amended contract we adhere to the rates here and then we bring forth for the board the new admitted agreed upon a contract if that's the direction of the board and then at that time this contract will be terminated but otherwise from what i'm hearing lsa misunderstood we'll have a gap of time where if we terminate we will not have legal representation or contract to call on legal representation in area 9 when it says required by law upon 10 days written notice there's a law that says it has to be 10 days so that's just our decision within the contract their decision within the contract these are their terms that they have an rfe so some companies will say within a 30-day notice or 60-day notice they're only requiring a 10-day notice what what i feel comfortable is renewing this contract yes there is there is a gap and thank you so much latasha for for you know um but the integrity and sharing you know with us that it there there was a mix that they're there and you're willing to fix it and you take full responsibility for it thank you for that um i think we're so quickly to to judge um and i think we need to take a step back uh for us this this for us to go look for other other legal counsel took a long time and a lot of work and unless you go through it and go through eight different interviews and having to to to to go through it it took a lot and so i think we've already been through that so what i would like to to for us to see is to go ahead and renew the contract and to approach our um [Music] rf llp our legal counsel and you know what um and talk about those things i think that we are developing a relationship and it's a good relationship so since we've already gone through the legwork we've already gone through what we've needed to um i would like to go ahead and continue with this contract and like arthur said we can make changes and that's what i would like to see happen can we have timelines on on that if we were to but what specifics do you need from us and what kind of timeline could we have to make uh potential adjustments to this contract if i could receive clear direction of the expectation you'd like me to deliver back to the board and when you will like that then i will go backwards from there what i've heard tonight uh no open-ended so an end date uh typically that would be june 30th i've heard exploring a fixed fee concept [Music] and i've heard no malleable rates like the rates are the rates of the rate those are the three things that i have heard um that we can explore if there are others then we can we can definitely add i'm in support of um exploring an amended contract to include a specific end date so i would like to see june 30th 2022 um i would also like to see what a two and a three year contract would look like under a fixed fee so the meaning on retainer covers all the consultations all the phone calls all the workshops except for litigation of course and then having no variability in the rates no variable rate yes ma'am since there has been a first and a second and a discussion we'll go ahead and do a hand vote we'll go ahead and start with board member cruz gonzalez i will say board member career yes board member beau yes board member rodriguez pena yes and myself yes and it passes four one point of order it passes four with one abstention not four sorry yes four with one um abstaining moving on our agenda we'll go ahead and go we'll move on to 13.1 approval of change of bank for associated student body asb account for slauson middle school now please get a first move 13.1 second that we have a first by board member career we have a second by board member rodriguez pena then we can go ahead and please cast your vote i'm sorry i didn't ask um any discussions nope and i i'm sorry before we cast our vote student preferential vote yes thank you and it passes 5-0 moving on to item 13.2 approval of the elementary and second school emergency relief free expenditure plan now please get a motion to move 13.2 and take a motion to approve 13.2 can i get a second second any discussion seeing that there's none are we gonna have a presentation before we make motions and vote on things i know it's already on the floor okay because it just says action on here it didn't state so we will go ahead and go straight into the presentation at this time thank you for president board members tonight we will be presenting to you the sr3 expenditure plan this was done in collaboration between ed services and business services so here it identifies the 21.9 million dollars that we are slated to receive in sr3 funding uh 20 of the funding will be used for achieving learning loss and the remaining 80 would be used to help with the heating ventilation as well as um doors windows and shea structure you can see that we have until september 30th 2024 to expend all the funds but we have to have board action to approve the expenditure plan as we discussed in our previous board meeting these are the allowable uses for s43 funding and in the application process there are three sections of the plan that we're required to complete we have to identify the strategies for continuous and safe in-person learning as well as addressing loss of instructional time which is the allocation and then there's a category where we can use other funds for other sections like the district office that's not student based our school site related any questions so far and i'm sorry we're going to start off with the strategies for continuous safe in-person learning so to address this section we are allocating 16.1 million dollars of our sm3 funding so here we're going to start off with our heating and ventilation first i would like to start by saying you see the structure here where it has six seven schools which reflect seven elementary schools and two secondary schools and one sierra high school all of our models based on our spending plan is based on the models that's under the school reorganization based on the current two models all have seven elementary schools and both models have two secondary schools whether it's a middle school or the 7 12 model and additionally we're adding sierra high school as well so the cdc center of disease control recommends a layer approach for helping um come back over 19.

item five approved press plus issue 107 board policy updates under business approved board of education financial report under curriculum approved the amended calendar for fiscal year 22 personnel and culture is um direct superintendent to sign the moa with cme a regarding covet 19 pandemic operations and that's it and that is it so so before i get a motion does any board member have an item on the consent agenda they'd like taken off to vote on separately well at one point i was contemplating on taking out the financial report for a separate vote but after reconsidering i chose not to but i will comment on it okay all right well can i get a motion to approve the consent agenda so moved and okay i i would like to comment open for comments yeah any comments or discussion yeah we look like we are asked to approve the press plus issue 107 board policy updates and i'm all good with that just want to be able let the board be aware that i'm going to come back with policy number 510 that deals with the hiring and seeking minority personnel or people to be hired with the company that's for our policy i think we need to look at a little verbiage to add that so i just want to let you know it's coming okay i talked to dr collins on this maybe next time around when i review a couple other policies that is one that's uh just being asked to be approved tonight with no changes that's 510 policy 510 okay i have a question um when you look at that change why why not i'm at i'm just trying to get clarification why not um ask for it to be pulled out and reviewed or voted separately oh we can come back at a later date i still don't understand the verb reach the exact verbiage and i don't want to tie down the board well it's not on the agenda tonight i mean if you want to it says we're not approving it tonight well yeah you're approving i'm sorry seven you're talking about policy another policy that's not on the consent agenda tonight right it's it's it's under the consent it's not an action i know but it's saying that we still got an opportunity right to look at this to get the final approval because it's saying approved press plus and it's not an action item but it's to approve the agenda those are the items that we reviewed earlier right and i don't believe that was that was one of them if you go and look at that well there was no changes to it i mean if you want to propose a change to it in the future we can certainly bring it back and put it on the agenda again 5 10.

i i do it's in there yeah it's in there it showed all right just just said no changes that was all it had i had no change question i don't know if this is for new business or what but what what are we doing to hire and promote minorities is that i don't know i'm that that's what i'm asking i could bring that up as a maybe a new business item business yeah we've talked about it i think it'd be more of an old business but that's exactly what i'm looking to add to it because the current basically the current policy and again i'm paraphrasing the current policy said that the district will go out and seek minority people for possibly employment teachers and things of that nature but it doesn't say how it will they will convey it to the board we always have to ask so how did it go this year how did it go so i'm just looking for some very rewarding that part and let the board know what's the status okay that's what i'm not because i'm also interested not just yeah higher in both definitely yeah just not looking let us know it was it good was it not good okay this year next year was it good was it not good all right that's all i have and and for the financial report uh ken i'm i'm just a little concerned with our cash flow you know we're at 12 million dollars right now and you have it and i believe it's page 8067 and on the document that you sent us and our cash flow is showing uh steady steady going down getting better and it becomes in the black in may of 2022 and which is a good time to be in the black because we have our end of the year financial reporting june 30th right so i'm just a little concerned what's going on what's driving that and and then i looked at the working cash and i'm hoping that working cash one point we was we was trending at zero of working cash and i would assume that the working cash has been on our report that showing 16.5 million dollars right now that is 17.5 million minus the 1 million that we used to pay off the building the maintenance building is that what that 16.5 million is showing in working cash right now it is okay did transfer some more out of there into capital projects oh you did okay you did make a transfer of three million dollars okay so i'll look at that and see so yeah yeah how do we get that 16.5 okay i'm looking at that okay yeah i'll i'll look at that and i'll look at that thumbnail so the other thing i will mention on the cash flow to mr brown is that you'll see let's talk to mr albrecht about this too you'll see that on the revenue side we're short this month there's a deficiency of about 9 million that's from property taxes we haven't received however we did get another 12 million in already in october okay from which is a little bit of delay that we got uh it's just the way wool county was we will probably get another batch in in november because if you remember will county you're able to pay your taxes now in four different installments again so there's another one coming in november so after you'll see uh in at the end for the october financials uh you'll see a lot better on the cash flow side okay excellent thank you i appreciate it yes all right and i'll check on the working cash one too mr thank you sir and then just so everybody knows i had asked ken a question about i noticed that on salaries and benefits i i would expect at this point given that we are not fully staffed and that is an ongoing problem that we would have been had kind of a positive variance under um salaries and benefits actually it's a unfavorable variant so he's going to look into that and see if it's a timing issue or whatever it is so yeah get back to us at the next committee of the hole i will yeah i definitely thought that's what got me you know the unfavorable variance it was just a red red red red a lot of red there and it's kind of stuck out so thank you okay any other questions on the consent agenda okay hearing none roll call please uh brown and deny mrs galbert aye dr hall aye mr smallish aye mrs walters aye president vice president rupert aye president albert aye motion carries next up are action reports under business can i get a motion to approve a certificate of payment the amount of three hundred and eighty one thousand seven hundred fifty dollars and ninety cents to r l soho general contractor inc for the 2021 renovation work at talala elementary school in the early learning center moved second was that uh wild tourism there any questions or comments i do real quick how we doing ken with formalizing a final kind of action item leftovers you know again we said we need to put an end to where they are and the whole thing was paying this contractor off was that we got an occupancy permit but yet we got some lingering action items on and you was going to communicate with them to say hey we need to put it in i am i have a i talked to our director he said there's about 12 items left i have a construction meeting on thursday that i will convey that because i'd like to get all those things done by the end of these small departments by the end of this month yeah how much left money we owe them roughly uh i think we're holding back uh let me just see this real quick 454 000.

absolutely so first quarter's been you know uh tracking as we would hope it would um and so uh you know the expenses some of them are a little uh interesting to look at like uh uh like super dinner mentioned you know july and august we don't have a lot of people on the payroll so that that really only represents uh you know the month of september when everybody's back and and on the on the on the payroll so that the fact that our payroll is is only at 10 is is is actually what we hope it would be is is to be about that that percentage isn't as we play through the year uh it will track more to to the to the uh expected levels but you know uh we don't have and haven't had a ton of turnover in in pelham uh in our in our staff and so that helps uh our projections and our budgeting to to match up um and so i think the one thing i will note there is that our substitutes are fairly low at this point in year you know again we're taking a fairly cautious approach to how many extra people we bring into our buildings and and also just generally in the first month of school there's not a lot of absenteeism by any staff so so that's also you know it's tracking as expected and and uh hopefully we'll remain that way and folks will remain healthy and and we won't need uh to use our substitute lines uh too too much as we go through the year and and that'll help us out in other areas of our budget um as we look at the the other expense accounts uh there's really two areas that that you know sort of caught my eye administrative services and facilities management um they they often tend to be tracking uh ahead of schedule because there's some full year uh full year expenses we we sort of book at the beginning year uh you know software subscriptions uh we encumber funds for certain kinds of activities in in maintenance and facilities that that we use throughout the year so you know we we anticipate the need and and sort of uh uh secure the monies early so it looks like we're spending ahead of schedule but there there were a couple of uh a couple of bills in in those two areas that were a little higher than we expect so we'll we'll keep a close eye on those i'm not really worried about it i don't want to you know cause anybody to have any uh deep concern or panic relative to those yellow boxes on on the chart there but i but i just wanted to know to be clear that you know there are a couple expenses that have come in a little higher than what we had planned for and so that we are just going to keep a close eye on that and and look at other areas that might be coming in under budget to help um offset that a little bit but but in general uh the budget's tracking very well for the first quarter uh we're anticipating it's going to continue to track well at present and one thing that you know always helps your budget is this other bit of good news i have i'm full of good news i don't know that i'll always be able to do that but um there's a there is a grant program with the state called rural school aid and pelham tends to sit uh kind of on either side of the award non-award line so some years we get it some years we don't uh it turns out that this year we did get it and so we were notified recently of the 6 800 worth of of additional aid from the state is going to come to us uh for use in our school and that's that's really a helpful uh uh bit of income that that allows for some some supportive things that we might not be able to do otherwise or unexpected things that might crop up that that we need to uh you know take uh take care of in our budget and so that was a bit of good news i want to make sure to share it's not in this in this quarter one report but i did want to mention that that bit of good news has come along and like i said we don't always the state doesn't always fund that that program at a level that pelham you know qualifies uh we tend to sit on the bubble as as they say and and so some years we get it in some years we don't so we don't tend to budget for it um as a result of that so it's kind of found money and that's a helpful thing in any budget to to have that resource show up and be available for us um i think at this point you know like i said we're tracking well for the first quarter no real surprises there a couple areas i'm going to keep a close eye on as we move through the second quarter and and uh i have to answer any questions you all have okay thank you well i just i want you to embrace this feeling you have given this news you're super understated about it but like we're all smiling so just remember this any any questions comments for doug okay great thank you so much you're welcome thank you all okay next up is the sixth grade move to the middle school update all right go ahead sure so uh i think there's two things to share and one continued consistent recommendation that i'd make and doug you're welcome to stay on but you're also welcome to not if that works for you um so the amer school committee at the beginning of this month voted unanimously to have their sixth grade students move to the middle school pending a vote by the regional school committee in the fall of 2023 so not for the next school year but the school year after that the regional school committee had a discussion about this at their last meeting it'll be on the agenda for a potential vote um [Music] next week the vote language that was drafted not voted i want to be really clear but the vote language was drafted was not specific to amherst but was asking the region if they would ex accept sixth grade students from any member town that chose to send them um that doesn't push anybody to do anything i'll be at the leverage school committee next week and having the same conversation and frankly having the same recommendation even though they're not my it's not my school committee but they're asking me to come which is uh the small towns have very different uh incentives or disincentives about moving sixth grade in amherst two of the three critical variables don't apply uh in pelham those were a real acute space need i was on the phone with many many a couple principles this afternoon about the space needs in amherst and we don't have space for things like instrumental music we don't have space or in sufficient space you know looking at special education needs that's not the case in pelham you know frankly particularly with the additional space that's now used by art space needs aren't a concern you know for pelham the the other con other consideration in amherst is that there was a building there is a building project um there was some work done over the last three years about a compromised proposal that would have taken care of two of the buildings that were are out of date in amherst um all that's contingent on sixth grade moving to the middle school for that plan to move forward with the state with the msba that doesn't apply to pelham so my personal perspective is for pelham folks there's not the same incentive to move sixth grade to the middle school we could have a long conversation we probably should at some point about uh the the merits of that this you know larger discussion about sixth grade and about small school and if kids are in the same class for six years or seven years you know are they ready for different experiences i think there's a worthwhile conversation to have to me i don't think there's any timeline that the committee in my opinion the committee needs to to push that i do think that this is we're getting out of um the extent that we were in covet last year i don't think it's gone but it's a different world we're in and you know within a month i think um the kids in pelham with the exception of the kindergartners and maybe actually no including the kindergartners would uh potentially be have access to a vaccine so i think things are changing and we are recovering and i think our staff's doing a great job of kind of both academic and then kind of well-being and social emotional recovery that we're focused on students to me there's not the incentive or need to really push this conversation during this academic year uh particularly as the plans that are was voted by amherst aren't even happening for another year and a half so my recommendation of this committee is for me you know asking me to stay abreast and certainly sarah bess and um and margaret can can help with that but you know um as i'm on both the amherst and the regional committee i probably am the best person to to give updates um to the pelham committee you know maybe in super in the kind of category of superintendent updates i unless there's a desire for this committee to push the issue it's not an issue that i would recommend pushing you know at this point i think there's plenty of time to see what program is developed for sixth grade in the regional schools and i would actually argue that there's plenty of time even after that amherst if if the region votes to accept amherst sixth grade students even after that happens for pelham to consider it it doesn't have to be on the same timeline and and perhaps with my pelham superintendent hat on uh it gets a little confusing when i'm going back and forth in these three meetings um i might advocate or recommend advocating for your regional reps to make sure that the on-ramp if pelham was to decide you know it might be beneficial for some language and emotion to not preclude pelham's sixth grade students from joining at a later date in other words if the fall 2023 date isn't going to work for pelham fall 2025 a pelham school committee might make a different choice and you know preserving that option uh for the region to preserve that option for pelham to join later might be a good idea but i think at this point i don't see any reason to push this i don't see any reason for pelham to to unless unless the committee feels really strongly about it and i have not heard that from the committee um strong desire to send sixth grade to the middle school i'd rather focus on other things or it's our time in the school's time on other things as opposed to that point you know i think i could argue the opposite i could talk a lot about sixth grade in the middle school how common that is and the idea of a two-year middle school and some challenges that we continually experience there i just don't know that this is a time to really be pushing that um i think you have the the luxury i mean that word literally the luxury of waiting and seeing without a real external need or space facilities need to make a decision on this so i i would use the privilege you have of not needing to go quicker than you want to and and perhaps re-engaging this topic more fully next fall sorry that was long-winded but it's taken a lot of my time so i'm really focused on on this particular topic but you know certainly the committee could disagree with me we certainly can continue to engage uh and go down that road you know i've talked to principal darling about this i think uh we're in the same place that you know i think the things we're focusing on in pelham right now are the things that we should be focusing on uh in pelham right now and i think there'll be a time where a program of studies is developed uh that i think is the right time for pelham folks to to be able to consider it so i'll stop talking and see if there's comments or questions and if i'm misreading the committee please tell me i'm misreading the committee right please tell me like no we really want to push this sixth grade point and i'm actually really happy to talk about that i just for me for pelham with that superintendent out on um i i i'm not sure now is the time sarah best and then ron um so i a couple of things i love the idea of you keeping us up to date in the superintendent's report i think that would be a great way for us to keep um paying attention to what's going on in amherst i think that would be really helpful um i also like your idea of making of you know having some language at the regional level to make sure that if pelham is interested at a future date um that that is something that's already built in to the system um and i agree i think at this time i i don't think this is something that pelham um needs to focus time and energy um on at this point i think um the staff at pelham has been doing a great job helping the kids get back into their new kind of normal and routines in our post-covered or whatever this is it's not really postcode still perfect but less have to be stuck at home covered i guess i don't know so i i think pelham staff is doing a fantastic job and we should give them the space and time to do that um i think that's that's in the best interest of our kids um so yeah that's where i think that's where i'm at at this point anyway thanks there best ron i certainly don't want the committee to make a vote one way or the other right now for the last three years i've continued to say what do the parents think should we encourage the parent it's on their minds they read the newspaper uh people are talking about the moves the sixth grade to the middle school now is the time to gather a public opinion maybe we should encourage parents to send emails in the public comments section maybe we should schedule some type of open forum the way we did for the change in the sex education classes now is it's on people's minds now why not create some kind of mechanism for finding out what parents think i mean i think it's clear i've expressed my doubts and they're mainly around safety i don't think you should put a 12 year old on the same school bus as the 18 year old it's an invitation for mayhem perhaps bullying has disappeared from the school bus but i remember it did exist when i was back then um i don't somehow there should be we should gather information now from the parents if the parents want it i i have no kid in school now uh if the parents are favorite well i'll vote in favor of it but i don't know whether the parents favor it but we can't find out unless we ask them that's my position okay thank you ron brenda um i also agree that you know it makes sense for us to wait considering that we have the advantage to do so um i think it's really critical that we get parent feedback but i would caution that we want to make sure that we're really clear about the benefits of the academic program and also uh maybe the financial ramifications of doing that before we just let them jump in um and and and get their feedback now but i i do agree with ron that we have heard for some families that they think we're voting soon or they think that because of all the conversations amherst is happening we're on the same timeline and i think it'd be important to to make it clear folks that we're not on the same timeline um also i think it's a critical that um we we do try to allow them space to give their feedback before it's too late to join amherst for fall of 2023 in case there are lots of families who who are really pro moving the sixth grade to the middle school i don't know what that's a kind of a delicate timeline to trying to get the sweet spot of getting their their feedback while they have enough information to to give that kind of feedback right thank you margaret go ahead um a couple of comments um along the lines of of what you just said brenda i perhaps the timeline will become evident as we continue to get updates from mike you know that that as things develop and amherst it will become obvious maybe when we want to have a discussion in pelham the other thing as one of the regional reps to from pelham um one of the questions that seems to come up because people are reading and they think that as a regional rep we i am voting to move the sixth grade in pelham to the middle school that is not the case and we have this discussion at the region because it's a little bit confusing when you're a regional rep about where's your hat and really where the discussion led us is that as part of the region what we have to decide is is it beneficial for the seventh and eighth graders at the middle school to have the sixth graders move to the middle school has nothing to do with the sixth graders and the advantages or disadvantages for them we're simply voting for the region should we bring the sixth graders into the region and i think that's really it was confusing for me and i think it's been confusing for people in pelham when they're reading in the newspaper so that was helpful for me the discussion we had thanks margaret ron i haven't been zooming in on the regional meetings margaret say that before your vote uh at the regional school committee meeting let the public know why you're doing it oh i will be voting as a region member not as a pelham member but say that uh maybe sure oh i see so that if people from pelham are listening then sure absolutely my god i wonder if um whether it's chair hall and i or maybe miss dancer and i or some combination can put something in with ms darling's permission in the kind of pelham press just clarifying some of these points um because i think what what the common thread i heard from all the committee members who have commented today it is just around communication i'm using my words i didn't hear that explicitly that word explicitly but just that the pelham community knows you know the kind of the core things they need to know are a at this point pelham sixth grade students there are no direct plans for pelham sixth grade students to move uh b that that we will come back to that point next fall and if people have opinions on that they can share them by emailing school committee at arps.org or here's how they do public comment um and see you know we are aware of conversations going on in the you know other communities um but that you know the last point that margaret was just making with mr menino that the pelham reps in the region are making a decision only about the region that decision doesn't make doesn't have an impact on pelham sixth grade students so they seem like the three points that need to be clarified and i just wonder if if again with the permission of miss darling if we put something in the pelham press that way it gives people an opportunity to weigh in if they choose to weigh in as mr menino indicated it lets them know a timeline of when as a committee i think will come back to this point you cop topic more definitively um and also lets them know that the regional members aren't voting on pelham sixth grade because i think you're right that there's a going to be a point of confusion so i don't know if that would sort of accomplish what i what i you know i think i'm hearing from uh the committee um in terms of communication making sure everyone in the pelham school community is aware of what is happening and what's not happening because i agree with a lot of the comments that are implying that there's some confusion because i think that it's a confusing situation right the three districts thing uh there's times where it works really smoothly and then there's times where it's messy and this is a mucky one you know i didn't want to and i didn't mean to volunteer you for that sarah but i just wondered if there was some communication that that could go out um and i'm happy to to work on it but i think because it's a committee decision you know it might be good to come from the committee right no i mean i didn't feel volunteered that was actually going to be one of my comments i have been getting um emails from people in some cases with opinions on it wanting to share those and in other cases just curious you know i would say the most the category of most people is someone with a kid in like grade four or below and they're just like looking ahead just curious because they saw something in the gazette um so for sure i think um communicating widely to the school community is a great idea um i think probably mickey's newsletter has the best list of people um for that i don't so i'm not i'm not entirely sure how i feel i'm just gonna throw this out there like you know seeing doug's presentation tonight and how long our meetings have been and talking about like we're at this place where things are kind of at a low roar and we don't we don't have a controversial issue right now we don't have anything that's taking a ton of time i'm not entirely convinced that the latency approach is best i don't i mean because the bottom assuming that the region votes to accept sixth graders then it's happening right so the program is going to be like what are the mechanics what are the details i mean i can't imagine that there's gonna be like that a district would suddenly back out because i was like oh they decided not to teach math to sixth graders right like you know it will i don't know i i mean i could be convinced to start talking about it now i mean i think also people want to know there's been so much uncertainty in the lives of students and teachers and their parents i think the idea of having certainty about fall 2023 sooner rather than later might provide some level of comfort and just kind of knowing what to picture um i could be talked out of that i think i'm just i don't know we just never we never know what's going to come up and so to take advantage of times when like the budget is looking pretty good and there's nothing really big going on i'm i'm just throwing that out there wrong i agree the sooner the better a discussion takes place the better off we'll all be margaret um i guess i just have a question because right now we really know nothing about the academic program the rental you know what kind of financial agreement has to be made to rent the middle school space there's so much that's unknown i guess is why i think maybe it would be better to wait a little while because we don't really have a lot to say to them um at this point in time i guess that's how i feel thank you margaret sarah best and then ron i think um kind of piggybacking on what margaret just said um so the if amherst moves their sixth graders they're not part of the region they're still part of amherst so what happens then if say pelham 6th graders go also to the middle school then how does that work is there a separate pelham classroom that only keeps pelham kids in it so then they're still part of the pelham school district or are the amherst and pelham kids co-mingled together because there's different programming right between the different schools and and how does that work does pelham just get usurped because there are more amherst kids and then we don't know then then they're just part of that curriculum like i have concern for our pelham students um you know we've developed some great programs at pelham and being able to continue to have them benefit from those um and and there's there's just i don't i guess i don't understand how it will work if the sixth graders are not part of the region they're still part of their sending districts like whatever the the money i think will be the easier part to figure out right like you have these many kids this is how many kids it is it's whatever but as far as the educational practices how how is that gonna how how will that work out right go ahead i don't have a clean and easy answer but i do think that's probably my personal opinion is that's probably a topic that is worth talking about this year you know um i don't worth is not the right word i apologize for that i think that's a topic that's where we can talk about and we don't need more information than what we have now because i think there's a there's a number of different ways that one could approach that topic that you describe sarah best like that's not something that i think we need to wait for more programming information that's a core principle about does the pelham school district want to work with the amherst school district on a 6th grade program if so how would that be organized i mean i think if pelham 6th grade programming was literally moving i'm just going to use names because we're in pelham like margaret's class to the middle school there's not a lot of upside to that right um i would argue probably there's almost no upside to literally trans you know taking this classroom and moving it to a different space you know i think really the interesting part and perhaps the part that is worth talking about in terms of weighing cost benefits or you know positives negatives however you want to phrase it is really integrating into a larger group of students with a larger set of programming you know so even if we don't know what the programming is i do think from a process perspective the point miss kenny makes is probably one that we could and probably should have that conversation the front end even if we don't exactly know what the programming is because we have a general sense good enough where we could that that's going to be the biggest delta right is um not in a one teacher one classroom model but a model where people kids have different teachers for different subjects and that sort of thing and i'm not trying to weigh positive or negative but that's a core principle change that um probably is worth uh having discussion i think it gets to ms hall's point of not waiting too long while we do have space that's a foundational question for for pelham sixth grade that that doesn't exist in amherst right what that model is looks different but they're already changing classes in amherst sixth grade in the elementary level right that's already a con a practice that's in place right now that's not true in pelham um so i think you know my personal opinion is i think that's a good topic to dig on dig in on this year because i think it would really probably be one of multiple forks in the road for you all in your consideration yeah thanks mike ron i agree with margaret as there are details we can't share with the parents now but there'll always be details and there's no reason why we can't talk to parents now and talk to them later this can be a continuous process and if give them let's say six month updates on our plan i always assumed that the sixth grade was going to be integrated with all the other sixth grade students if we're just going to move the ms lights classroom to the middle school that that's educationally unsound as far as i'm concerned uh there are a lot of things that parents care about uh if you asked me in 1997 when this was there was talk about this in 1997.

that included general fund expenses of 586.25 revolving fund expenses of 306 dollars and five cents grant fund expenses of two thousand one hundred eighty dollars and forty one cents and sixty dollars in gifts and i signed that on the 15th of september um i authorized by my signature uh payroll in the amount of sixty two thousand one hundred eighty seven dollars and two cents that was for a warrant dated september 22nd and i signed that on september 17th i authorized by my signature to payables in the amount of forty three thousand four hundred twelve dollars and sixty six cents for the warranty to october fifth twenty twenty one that included general fund expenses of thirty seven thousand nine hundred seven dollars and twenty eight cents revolving fund expenses of 143.46 and grant fund expenses of 5244.26 um and other fund expenses of 117.66 oh sorry that was gifts that 117 escapes i signed that on october 7th last one i authored good job okay that was all the warrants uh we don't have any gifts to accept it's true i just wanted to briefly call it because i don't think it's freaking out being lost so i have a conflict on the third starting at eight o'clock which is our next meeting was scheduled for november third so um i could either meet on november 2nd which is election night but i don't think there's a huge election in pelham that i'm aware of or i could meet on the third but at about 7 45 7 50 i would probably have to depart the meeting so i don't know what works better for the committee members but um i just got received this conflict just came up last night and it's not something that i can change sure um that's did we schedule that because the other wednesdays were not good that just seems or maybe this one is just late it's just that that's so soon from now can we push it to later in november yep uh i don't have any conflicts any other wednesday in november okay i mean i wouldn't do it the night before thanksgiving because it's probably not you know not kosher with uh do you want to be anything we can make it fun i'm going nowhere so it'd be fine with me actually but uh but yeah i uh um we could certainly do it later in november um november 10th is that okay that would be my preference then okay thank you sorry about that no no that's okay all right i moved to a journal school committee meeting is there a second second all right i will take a roll call vote wrong menino brenda brenda i margaret margaret i and hawley we are adjourned thank you everyone have a good night good night everyone

he arrived outside new haven on a boat called the hector i didn't travel far from there born in new haven raised in hampton graduated from the university of connecticut where i met my husband liz he was raised in brookfield and when deciding where to live once married we both agreed this was the perfect town this building holds wonderful memories for us as well cara my husband graduated in 1973 one of the early classes here my twins graduated in 2003 and my goddess in 2009.

i think that'll save the time seven million dollars just on that one decision um that's great for the taxpayers so continue really strong fiscal policy so we can have the flexibility um because we really need to look at how to fit future capital projects in we have needs for the police department library there'll be school repairs coming down the road um and of course finish the work at the town center and schools [Applause] we know that we have the capital investment project coming down the line you know when we talked about the library four years ago we also were talking about the police department and we need to look into you know when that expansion needs to occur it's been a discussion point but i think that's a high need and as we've seen the schools appear on the facebook pages there's repairs at various schools that need to take place and we need to just keep our eyes on the budget to make sure that we're that we're keeping a budget that's in line with what our taxpayers can can manage we need to make sure that we're you know keeping up with the good investments you know with our bond rating our high bond rating we have better borrowing capabilities but we need to keep an eye on the debt level that's coming down the road so i think keeping you know investing in the town and maintaining our assets at the same time as you know keeping our taxes reasonable for our taxpayers is important [Applause] in terms of priorities have you planned for the investments that need to be made today that are going to pay dividends five ten years down the road um but yet maintain one of the great things about this town is also that it is from a tax perspective affordable to live and so how do we manage those two sometimes competing priorities in a way that gives the necessary funding to the things that really matter and helping this time thank you [Applause] um one of my main goals is to increase the cash spend on the capital and as i mentioned before when i'm speaking when we have these one-off revenues the best way to offset that without hitting the next budget is by using it increasing cash capital about project that way we know we're not going to have the recurring expense and we know we're not going to have to recurrent revenue to us we just get the benefit of the of the project and capital spending so focusing on reducing our debt by increasing the cash spend is probably my my number one priority um other than that keeping taxes leveled and maintaining services is [Applause] [Music] um sure thank you um you know as listening to all this conversation i think i think one of the most important things that i would want to get a better handle on is how can we leverage the tax revenues that we're getting from all the significant development that we've seen and how can we stay within our existing budget without raising the tax burden to our residents but that would be a big win it's going to be increasingly difficult for the community to keep up inflation's going through the roof salaries are not going up we've got to do so we've got to do it smarter we've got to do it better um the other thing is again i can always go back to prioritize so we need to prioritize what these capital projects that we have before us there's a lot of significant things that i'm hearing that we need and we just need to be smarter about approaching them [Applause] thank you the two things i'd like to take a look at is the tax abatement program one of the problems with taxpaying programs is you don't need them if your taxes are lower i think maybe other towns use economic opportunity zones i think that's something we should be taking a look at i also think that we'll be able to take a look at how those how that's going to affect other areas of broken i'd like to see brookfield draw manufacturing or visit more business to the town i think that would help us tremendously both in terms of jobs and in terms of the tax revenue in terms of the dispense side of the aisle i think that we really have got to get to maybe a little more than getting ready i know the town various town commissions and everybody else submit budgets and things like that but uh looking at the state of the world right now with you know supply chain issues inflation that's going on social security recipients are going to be getting a 529 increase because the inflation is so high it's actually much higher than that so i think we have to be very careful going forward and it's really going to be a watch your penis type of situation thank you up next is glenn rooney all right i'll go back to the debt level we need to attack that bubble without suffocating the growth of the town and not overburdening taxpayers we need to be smart about it we need to address it in multiple ways we have a great surplus this year and our management of the funding that we've had the expenses we had a million dollar surplus as well as the revenue was over by 1.8 million we have the tools to address this debt level so i think that's number one two education everybody says republicans don't want to fund education we're all for working with education and funding that's a very important prospect of our time here so we need to fund education as the second most important thing to meet the needs of our children and do it responsibly to the taxpayers thank you [Applause] next up is daniel divorces so the priorities of the board of finance are to prioritize help the board of selectmen and the board of education prioritize and finance their priorities our personal priorities should not come into play into our decision that's number one so my priorities are to expand what glenn was saying first about the debt not only do we have a debt bubble but we also have a total debt issue yes we've had a great smp report with great rating but bearing that report there's one line that needs to be focused on and that is that our overall debt is is too high and that there is not room for a lot more debt in the near term so yes we have a lot of need a lot of projects the ability to finance those is limited by the amount that we currently have so my priority is to utilize my expertise in debt and an advertising schedule and all that to help finance the firearms and the final priority is what i think is one of my core strengths and that is to maintain this ability respect and communication among all towns [Applause] one is to assist in prioritizing these first of the wants i i believe education and infrastructure are our infrastructure through the biggest needs that we need and we should continue to fund responsibly the other one was just responsible growth um you know the debt level that we're talking about needs to be addressed and i think if we're but we still want to grow so glenn said and we don't want to suffocate the uh the growth of the town at the expense of the deadline so we need to be smart but we do have to grow responsibly thank you [Applause] all right thank you candidates for the board of finance thank you to all the candidates for the different ones that we've had tonight from both parties and additional candidates and thank you for the faithful audience who came here and there's about 60 people who are watching on the live stream at home thank you everyone and especially thank you to our youth commissioners [Applause] what

however teachers in an independent survey which had more teachers participating in our survey versus that of the district um preferred model four and their choice in preferring model four wasn't necessarily the um advocacy of a seven through twelve it was the advocacy of two high schools and so i want to clarify that too um furthermore what i would like to say is that the most important thing ford is that you're taking all of the data now all of the different pieces whether it's statistics the committee recommendation and parent meetings the comments here and making the decision of what's best for our children our community our staff every stakeholder and that all of the teachers are going to stand behind your decision whether we like it or not um and move us forward and support what decision is made because that is what's best for everyone and so i i pray for you in this decision that you're making because it's hard and i pray that you have wisdom in making this decision and that god fills you and this is me meg speaking not meg union that god fills you um with that wisdom to do you know what is best and right for everyone so thank you for the opportunity to speak and i wish you all the best of luck thank you lika do we have anybody else raising our hand on zoom we have no other hands raised at this time thank you moving on to 9.1 we have commons report by president 8.1 i'm sorry 8.1 thank you yeah we're moving on to 8.1 we have comments reports and requests by the board of education we'll go ahead and start with board member crews gonzalez thank you i'll be brief um just want to say welcome to bert hamilton i asked i asked um the student board member hannah oh when is your grandfather coming in town and she's like he's right over there so great to see great to see you here um thanks for visiting us again um um you're sorely missed but as you can see we have some really great board members here that filled your spot you've built your shoes though um i really appreciate the direction we've been going in the district um and then just one other thing i want to mention i just want to praise the district um the signs that we're putting out are so clear and easy to read you can drive by you can drive by and see if there's kindergarten enrollment or adult ed and those signs you just you can just glance and see it and you have to like to try to read it so really appreciate the whoever redesigned those and appreciate that they're up around the thing next we'll go ahead and go with board member grier no comments tonight next we'll go ahead and go with board member beau good evening i'm happy to report on our continued partnership with children's hospital los angeles um in partnership with chphla the district is hosting a blood drive on tuesday november 2nd from 9 00 a.m to 3 p.m at our former adult school site located on barranca avenue and i also want to recognize our student board members and encourage you if you haven't already done so to sign up for the student board member governance training provided by the california school boards association it'll be held virtually from three to six pm next wednesday october 27th and the district office staff can help you sign up for that thank you next we'll go ahead and move on to board member rodriguez pena yes good evening everyone first of all i want to congratulate hannah hamilton and alexandra gabriello for their hoodie ausd on the map for your ball your volleyball skills that is one of my favorite sports so congratulations um i just want to uh report that um i wasn't on a zoom on a google or this is a high school regarding tobacco and vaping in new uh in youth to educate families on dangers of vaping smoking chemicals found in tobacco different flavors gadgets that they different they come in so um and what you look for in signs of your child is vaping because that's kind of like the new thing well i don't know i don't know if it's new but i i know that more children are doing it and they need to know you know what the dangers are and the parents also so the presentation was shown i feel that the presentation should be shown in the middle schools and all the high schools um i want to thank the ncadd representatives erica gonzalez and and i'm sure maybe we can get the information from um dr gomez you know how how they got them to make that presentation because it's a really good presentation um i i also went to glaston high school lunchtime during club rush where zoos are rotary students gladstone high school advisor darla elliott and we had a table signing up students to join the interact club we signed up over 15 students and they have great clubs at glaston high school they have 19 they had 19 different tables with different clubs that i'm i was not embarrassed to say but i was not even aware that they had these clubs and a lot of energy in the air and all these kids we just had them come to our table and they started signing up so we're happy to have to to have them um and i want to thank the students in the interact club especially elizabeth and emily reese they're from azusa high school and they're almost coming out they're always there to help us they came this saturday to help us uh beautify the community by uh filling 15 free wells with mulch before they had then they had a class at nine o'clock uh apu so these these young ladies are very dedicated today i went to central middle school and to mr aidan's class in the science class they launched the rocket and the students did a fantastic job they had four rockets going up they launched over 100 feet 100 to 150 feet lucky they went straight up and came down right because last week they were going to have it but they counted because of the wind they were afraid was going to go over to a neighbor's house and we don't want to get in trouble but they did it today and it worked out well and um and i want to welcome my murray family i can't believe it all these people i mean i like work what's perfect on your cat my sister kathy diana rojas i'm like fantastic but i will leave my comments on the uh and the stores when it's time thank you very much and thank you burke i missed you he's my mentor thank you i i want to start off by by sharing that um i know that we're a few of us are are sharing um and saying uh mr burke hamilton's name and just wanted to share that when i came from mexico and didn't speak a word of english and i remember going to the playground and asking for a ball and mr burke hamilton was there and i didn't know how to say ball and he's like and so i remember he would always check the balls he was one of the teachers that would check the balls out for the students and um so i wow i think i was like five and um i watched i have watched him in this community just inspire others as he has inspired me um not only in uh my education in my family in every aspect of my life and so you truly are a hero to a lot of people here in isuzu and your family is just you know your legacy as i heard you today say that this is the last hamilton grandchild you know it it it saddens me because um you you should tell your kids to have more kids i know but not too soon um and you know what one of the things that um that even arturo how you turned to him and you said um alton park right so when you left the souza first for a little bit just for a little bit and you went to baldwin park and we quickly snagged you back and um you came back as uh as a school board member and i i've watched you and when when you left i was pretty sad but actually get to see you um all the time from time to time um when we're doing walks around the neighborhood and so it's really nice to see you in our community and um to run into you thank you so much for that i do want to share that with everyone that um he is well respected in our community moving on to something that um i would like to address and that has been on my mind you know the question was i want to address something and the question was why i was not at some past meetings and i would like to go ahead and address that and i would like to go ahead and clear the air it is unsettling to hear that a discussion occurred when i was not present at the last regular school board meeting about my two absences in two different months and they were not consecutively for the record over the previous three years i've only been absent three times so i don't understand why i was so sensitive that this issue could not be addressed in my presence when it comes to absences we need to find the reason for the individual absence before punishing or asking to take away pay from them and discuss with the board member before this issue is requested to be taken to legal counsel for the record my absences were communicated with the appropriate people and were excusable instances i did not know that my absences had become a problem to some in this room if there was some concern about me a phone call would have been just and to ask how i was doing i want to address and end the negative jabs the attacks on my image passive aggressiveness and bullying here on the diet we should be logical and responsible adults to work collaboratively as board members and should model appropriate behavior we have decisions and issues far more critical in our district at this time that need to be addressed board members cruise and solace and beau i was thick in september 2021 in october 2021 i was in the training before my new job i had to attend this mandatory mandatory job training on that day that i was unable to get out of my previous job was lost due to the interference of a board member on this diet and as a result my kids have suffered the replica of her actions i would like at this time to tell her that i forgive her for hurting my family and me as of today i release all negativity that came from that infant i offer peace and respect and i ask for the same in return so at this time i would like all of us to take our personal opinions about each other and do our job before i was on the board i saw how some of the previous board members would fight become passive aggressive and go after each other and it would carry into the diocese i'm asking that this needs to stop with us also in the past i remember board members being excused for months when they were ill when their children were sick having a baby or for work matters when board members have compassion and understanding and build collaborative relationships or agree to disagree they can concentrate on the things that need the energy and time to move this district forward we have at this time i would like our board including myself to check ourselves and set a positive example of our for all of our employees students and community thank you we'll go ahead and move on to 9.1 we have comments and reports by superintendent cabinet and student board members we'll go ahead and start with our student board members and do we have crystal flamie flamino on on zoom uh yes i'm here can you hear me okay we can hear crystal are you can you hear us yes i can hear you great you can go ahead and start um good morning good evening board members um gladstone high school is very proud of yaziri ochoa who spoke at our rooftop evening fundraiser for the western justice center on october 15 2021 she represented our school and peer mediation program with pride way to go yet siri on october 16th the gladiator alliance marching band placed first in music and second and overall scores in their division of the roland field tournament their next event will occur on october 30th at the wilson high school in hlpusd the gladstone guidance office will be hosting in-person fafsa nights on october 20th in english and october 21st in spanish at 5pm all seniors are welcome to get the help they need to complete the fafsa on october 25th 2021 cal baptist university azuza pacific laverne and grand canyon university will be doing on-the-spot admissions at the gladstone high school library for eligible seniors this is a guarantee offered of admission over hundreds over 120 gladiators have the opportunity to apply on monday go glads on october 28 2021 asb is hosting a blood drive from 8 30 a.m to 1 30 p.m in our gym students 15 and 16 year old need a permission slip students teachers and staff are all eligible to donate crystal are you done uh yes next we have annette camacho yes hello um good evening board members cabinet and superintendent superintendent ortega last week our senior class gathered together at 6am for senior sunrise with hot chocolate and pastries thursdays from 9-10 l.a county department of mental health is offering parent workshops in the sierra high school multi-purpose room the topics for this week and the next are family violence and drug and alcohol prevention on wednesday our spartan football team will be hosting a game at 9 00 a.m against arrow high school the red cross blood drive will take place in our multi-purpose room on thursday october 28th also on the 28th we're hosting our second chick-fil-a fundraiser please stop by and be sure to say you are there to support sierra high school thank you thank you crystal and next we'll have our student board member ms anna hamilton good evening board our lady aztec volleyball team is headed to the cif playoff they play this thursday at costa mesa good luck ladies you got it this thursday is our great shakeout drill we are hoping for good weather and the opportunity to learn the importance of participating in this thrill our think together program has recently implemented a gamers club photography club and culinary club our aztecs are super excited about these new opportunities congratulations to our cross country's boys team for winning their past race and for the girls team for placing second congratulations to our football team for beating our rivals gladstone this past week it was a great game and we're super proud of our players finally last week we had an amazing outdoor homecoming dance with over 300 students congratulations to our homecoming king and queen alex pena and janeli artiega thank you good evening i'd like to report that last saturday we held a covid vaccination clinic at gladstone high school and uh we had um staff and students and community members participate in getting vaccinations probably the the most exciting part of that morning was that we had 18 gladstone high school medical academy students volunteered to participate in helping out with the clinic they got there early they set up and they participated in some quick on-the-spot training so they were able to welcome patients they were able to check in patients register patients um mercy pharmacy who is our facilitates the um the clinic they they trained the students in monitoring for symptoms after the vaccinations um it was it was just truly amazing um they also as i was just observing the students they were also providing translation for the patients as well um i just i just can't say enough about the students and how proud we are of them and on that program and a shout out to their teacher jenny aguirre as well thank you good evening board of education staff and community i want to update the board of education in the community that i have been visiting uh school sites uh to visit classrooms and provide school sites with on-site hr support i also want to discuss our current substitute feature shortage by way of background this time last year we had approximately 145 active substitute teachers several weeks ago we reviewed our substitute teachers roster to determine how many are active and as at the end of last week we have 70 substitute teachers uh actively working in our district obviously we lost a very large number of substitutes from last year um some substitutes decided not to return um at all for for this school year and others have taken uh teaching positions here within our district and and outside uh we are in the process of hiring additional substitutes uh we added uh three substitutes this week and we're waiting on several uh substitute teachers to hear back from the commission on future credentialing so we look forward to be adding more substitutes to our rosters in the weeks and months ahead thank you good evening board members and fellow cabin um cabinet members um the business department has been currently continuing our efforts of improving our outside facilities for our campuses under the direction of brian allen the mot team has been working focusing on our basketball court so we have been working on either upgrading or painting our the backboard as well as providing net under the direction of shannon norris director of physical services we have been doing road shows where we have been going to the sites and working with the site administrator educating them on how to do budget transfers how to read their budget and how to properly extend their budget additionally we are getting prepared for the great fake out that will be taking place on october 21st all the schools and faculty members all the school students and faculty members will produce participate in this district-wide and then lastly we are we have taken a road show where our french french top team where we took them to a neighboring district so we can see how they operate their french job so we can be more efficient and more thank you good evening board staff and community a couple of things i was able to attend our seal training for administrators about a week ago and i am just very appreciative of this particular training for our administrators who will be the ones supporting the implementation at their sites i think that is a a great move uh and i appreciate that um i also want to thank our on track collaborative team that is working on addressing and improving our dnf rates it is it is very inspiring uh and motivating uh to be able to sit in during these meetings uh and to listen uh the uh how authentic and collaborative uh this team is is working uh on ideas and specific strategies and specific moves uh to address this and just wanted to show my appreciation for that lastly i want to take the time to formally introduce our community to our new assistant principal at center at foothill middle schools mrs donna martin and our new principal at ellington school mr adrian acosta both of these candidates started uh their their journey by being in front of students and parents to be asked questions during an interview process and kudos to the to the parents and students who did an excellent job of that uh after that round uh and surviving that uh they moved on to our round uh here at the district office that includes our labor partners and administrators and then finally getting to to cabinet all along although i didn't sit in on every single one of them i sat on number one and the first one and the last one all along uh both uh miss martin and um mr acosta um really showed um their their integrity uh their skill set their passion their desire and their breath and love for this community of azusa and uh we're we're very very very proud so at this point in time i would like to invite mrs donna martin to the podium to say a couple of words good evening board president arianes members of the school board superintendent ortega distinguished cabinet members and those in attendance on site and online first i would like to take a brief moment to acknowledge my friend long-time murray mountaineer colleague and most recently my running mate adrian acosta who is now the new principal of ellington k-8 school tonight i stand before azusa with much honor and excitement in the opportunity to be the new assistant principal at both center middle school and foothill middle school i am ready to serve our azusa community in this new capacity this 20-year journey in azusa was no small feat for my family who gave up their wife and mother to support my educational journey and our azusa students so i would like to take this time to say a big thank you to first and foremost my loving husband my best friend and cheerleader my two beautiful daughters ayanna and naila for their ongoing and continuous support in our family's educational journey thank you to my previous educational leaders and administrators dr dana mitchell dr cyto valdez dr alexis norman victoria valdez velazquez and especially miss marshmallow fontika i have watched and observed all of you from behind the scenes taking notes of the jewels of leadership and wisdom and crafting it as my own it has and will continue to be a pleasure working with and learning from you thank you kathy hendricks and anna fresquez chung my biggest azusa cheerleaders confident support system and mentors thank you so much to my magnolia family for six years it was hard to say goodbye but i know i will not stop being a magnolia mustang at heart meg zavala the aea president my azusa colleagues friends students family community and my multiple campus homes you always supported me cheered for me and encouraged me thank you for your well wishes i will make you proud now to my new middle school family cougar center cougars and educational leader anthony contreras foothill trojans and educational leader stanfordomo this begins a new chapter in all of our lives and as we work through the upcoming successes and challenges together as a team thank you for welcoming me in with open arms so i stand here and i promise that i will work hard to serve our students the faculty and our middle school community with pride humility and honor last but not least to the selection committee who saw something in me and was willing to give me the chance to allow me to evolve into this next once again thank you all for this wonderful opportunity to reserve a unified school district thank you so much miss martin at this point i'd like to call mr cosa up to the podium to say a couple of words thank you i don't know how i follow that dr martin but i'll try it for president arianes honorable members of the school board superintendent ortega distinguished cabinet members those presently in attendance here and online a good evening i humbly stand before you as the new principal of ellington k-8 this would not be possible without the help of many people so with that let me begin i would like to begin by thanking and congratulating my friend former murray colleague and new assistant principal of central middle school in foothill middle school dr donna martin to be in the company of such excellence it's truly my honor i would like to thank my murray administrators whom i served as under teacher roberta monahan corey james dr seita valdez and the man responsible for opening the door that has brought me where i am today mr burke hamilton and i have found long term my longtime boss murray principal norma camacho who taught me one day at a time one situation at a time my mentor and colleague mr ken stout who believed in me even when i didn't know how to fill out a lesson plan yes i've come a long way to my bit some interest chris medina on paula road for all of your insight your creativity and your expertise and your support to murray the former magnolia school teacher and present resource teacher at lee elementary miss stacey reed whose classroom environment became my own inspiration to make savalan aea for teaching me the importance of contract and for allowing me to serve you as a representative i would like to serve i'd like to thank my co-administrators dr tyto valdez and dr anthony contreras stanford doma for the opportunity to serve alongside you as your assistant principal know that you will truly be mad my friend and colleague yvette walker for being there through the good times the bad times and for your mentorship and to john black and blickenstaff what don't i thank you for you've been a longtime friend i call you my bff i would like to thank the center and foothill community for giving me the opportunity to serve you you will forever remain in my heart to that special person for teaching me that not everything is black and white it will be gray and yesterday as a reminder that i wore my first boot which was the color gray my friend and former colleague gianna gaithan yes you're coming with me to my ellington predecessors paula road auntie molina dr alexis norman and dr daley rustina thank you for the contribution for making ellington great place that it is my colleague and friend christina sanchez intern principal of ellington k-8 although it pains me to say goodbye to you i feel honored and blessed to call you my friend my friends and colleagues carol fieri ariyama both made the difference and lee elementary principal diana rojas who always believed in me as a teacher as an assistant principal and who always warned me with quote be careful what you wish for when i once told her if i had the opportunity to be a principal at any school it would be ellington and finally to my ellington eagle today's a great day every day from here on out will be a great day each day we will celebrate successes we will face challenges head on and we will collaborate to make ellington the great school that it is i can't promise you that i won't make a mistake because i will but i promise you that i will correct them and i will own them i can't promise you that i will fall but i do promise you that i will get up brush myself off and continue moving forward but this i do promise every single morning i will do everything in my power to serve and be the champion for the ellington student staff and the community i will love you from the moment i wake up for the moment i go to bed and this will take place each and every day with that said i'm ready ellington that forth i pass that i may follow i serve you each and every day i'd like to say a few words um i just like to congratulate um mr adrian acosta the new principal ellington k28 and miss donna martin new vice principal a center uh middle school and foothill middle school you know i'm so proud of you both um getting emotional but because um i've seen you when you're babies you're growing up you're going to school you're my grand children's teachers you know i've seen you run around with the kids and then i i started following donna everywhere because why are you following me around but she did her time she was at every school i don't know probably to the whole district before right and summer school even he was administrator for summer school so i would see her but one thing i do know that one of their i say one of the great mentors from the beginning was mr hamilton they were all born from him he was a principal of murray school i known work over 20 years and most of these people out here in the audience so i'm very proud and i'm very emotional because i think that you know you can do it you know kathy hendrick my sister there you know you guys can do it i'm proud of you they couldn't take a better pair at all congratulations to both um on your new journey with uh you're still with us but on a new journey and i i just got to say that what you guys just both said how you guys are just so dedicated i could feel it in your voice um i see it in your passion and the way that you guys deliver um just in everything that you guys do in every capacity that you've been here uh every every capacit every job that you've had in capacity that you just out out do it all the time and so i can't wait to see how you guys will flourish in your new your new role congratulations to both on with our agenda item 10.1 school reorganization thank you uh board president uh this uh this is a part of our um a process uh that we outlined uh where this where this is an an info only uh item uh for the board to discuss school reorganization and so i turn it over to to you great thank you as we are moving to 10.1 the school reorganization there there was um there's some things that the board asked um at the last regular school board meeting and previous meetings uh before that we have um everything in front of us you guys all have packets in front of in front of you guys and as we're going through through all of this um would anybody does anybody have any questions that they would like to bring forth any comments yes board member career yeah i'll just i'll say i i'm eager to examine some of the different models um and kind of taking a look at the different models in person um but to better see and and therefore envision what things can look like here in azusa um uh i i do want to just say communicate i'm still that that's what you understand that i'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the spread of uh of a 7 12.

and so with this the first layer is improving the heating and ventilation system which is the hvac so we're proposing that based on the school reorganization decision we would upgrade and improve and revamp all of our hvac systems at the remaining schools that remain open and then if we do a phased out approach what we would do is we will take the hvac systems that are currently working and the schools that will be getting the new systems and repurpose those and the schools that remain open until we do the phase out if that's the direction of the board any questions here yes ma'am mr mull um mr ortega um back in february i introduced you to uh an energy firm that would have the expertise to provide technical assistance on the ab-841 ventilation and energy program um and i think the response from our side was that we were going to have our grant writing team apply for those funds um do we have an update i think it was a may 1st deadline do we have an update did we receive those funds to help mr bryant hvac um has an answer can you please walk okay here we go all right so we just applied this now called instead of baby a41 it's called i'll shape all right um so we have just applied for 1.5 million dollars [Music] monday so we're waiting on approval for that if we do get a word of that of 1.5 million at 5.7 that's thank you for that and and the ab-841 are you are you saying that we did not apply for that or this was we didn't can we have our speaker introduce himself because i i don't know who he is oh i'm sorry i'm sorry yeah my name is brian allen i'm the mo i'm so sorry that's okay it's totally everything you know it's the suit it's the singer yes yes and actually when he was introduced to us he was on zoom so yeah i know i apologize it's because he's dressed up too yeah no it's not it's the night it's in my pajamas usually but you know tonight every night so um i do have a question specifically about so like so with the most recently modernized schools when when were those hvac systems installed so the latest uh modernization where hvac business probably please 2015.

so okay because i looked uh i can't even get in here if you look under the policies isn't 510 showing there with no changes right this is the one with the change i just want to mention too if it's on today it's not going to come back up until it's time for reveal again right but can't you review policy i think we can short something i'm just making the board aware of that that when it's on there from press plus that's the time for their exact review and their renewal so it wouldn't come back from press plus again for i believe it's three five years somewhere different different amount of years i'm not exactly sure what is it terry it's five years unless the board chooses to bring it right so that's why i'm pointing out that's not going to come back automatically for five years you're going to have to start a conversation when you want to do that right and i haven't briefly i see i see the one change in doctor cognition we talked about it at the committee as a whole that's in here but that 510 that was one that i had a little dialogue with dr coglie's on and somehow it just kind of shot through real fast without actually having a little bit more dialogue to consider that change that i'm looking to have so 5 510.

okay so subject to them completing that work that would come back next month for approval to pay yes okay okay any other questions on this item not roll call please brownens and i mr wallace hi dr hall aye mrs walters aye mrs galbraith aye vice president roof aye president albert aye motion carries okay the next up um i have a little bit of a script to read on this um let me just ah this is bigger buddy just looking right here that's the same thing okay got it messing with my eyes i'm looking for a i'll get the motion in here so okay uh the next item for consideration is a resolution for the issuance of not to exceed forty five million five hundred thousand dollars in general obligation debt certificates limited tax series 2021 to be issued by the district pursuant to section 17b of the local government debt reform act and that the board of education would consider the adoption of a resolution providing for an installment purchase agreement in order to improve school sites and alter repair and equip school building facilities authorizing the issuance of said certificates evidencing the right to payment under said agreement providing for the sale of said certificates based on the advice of bond council the entire resolution does not have to be read aloud since it was posted as part of tonight's agenda in accordance with the open meetings act therefore mr brown as secretary of the board of the board of education would you read aloud the title of the resolution a resolution authorizing and providing for an installation purchase agreement for the purpose of paying the cost of purchasing real or personal property or both in and for community unit school district number 201u will county illinois and for the issue of not to exceed 45 million 500 thousand dollars general obligation debt certificates limited tax of sad school district evidency the rights to payments under said agreement writing for the security for the means of payment under said agreement of said certificates and authorizing the sale of said certificates to the purchaser thereof thank you so as a summary of the parameters included with the within the resolution the following pertinent terms are summarized the board has agreed that is in the best interest of the district to improve school facilities based on preliminary plans and cost estimates presented to the board and discussed at a public meeting the amount of money borrowed at this time is not to exceed 45 million 500 000 and authorizes the president and secretary of the board to acute and attest to the issuance the money will be paid back through installments not to exceed 20 years the following facility projects will be completed in their entirety or in part with the 45 million five hundred thousand dollars being borrowed temporary cooling rooms at balmoral elementary school crete elementary school monie education center and coretta scott king magnet school demolition of the sixth grade center demolition of the dome if approved by separate action heating ventilation and air conditioning at balmoral elementary school crete elementary school coretta scott king magnet school talala elementary school and the early learning center and electrical upgrades at the balmoral elementary school crete elementary school coretta scott king magnet school talala elementary school and the early learning center also plumbing upgrades at the balmoral elementary school creed elementary school and coretta scott king magnet school led lighting at the crete money high school in addition at crete monee high school and finally cosmetic improvements at belmont balmoral elementary school crete elementary school and coretta scott king magnet school talala elementary school and the early learning center so based on this information i'm going to ask mr cirma to give an overview of the complete financing of the short-term facility plan that will result in the district receiving 67.4 million in bond proceeds thank you president albrecht [Music] so mr robert asked me to just kind of give an overview to try and simplify this whole financing and what is going to occur so i'm going to try and do that uh to the best of my ability the first i want to start with are some type of the types of debt when it comes to school finance and some of these we've experienced before you've experienced before actually some are a little bit new to you one is work cash bonds you know these are bonds that are sold and may be used for capital projects and operating expenses currently we're able to sell our limit is 21.9 million dollars working cash bonds that's the limit we have and if you remember we sold working cash back in december to finance and pay for uh life safety projects and also to put as uh money in the bank and to hold as our fund balance okay so right now we could sell working cash bonds up to 21.9 million dollars then there's life safety bonds life safety bonds are bonds that are sold and they have to be used specifically for life safety projects as defined by the 10-year services that are happening we've talked about those that we have surveys from 2012 2013 and all that but currently the district sold bonds working cash bonds in december of 2020 to pay for life safety projects so we really don't have a need and can't use life safety bonds to do any financing because we've already earmarked money for that already and that's part of the resolution of december so so so can just real quick since you're on that so you're saying that the working cash bonds that we borrow 17.5 million dollars last year in december could you tell me again and you're this is kind of rhetorical for me but i just want to make sure i'm hearing it from you what was the purpose of that 17.5 million dollars the purpose of that were two purposes one is to complete life safety projects within the district we earmarked i believe 10.5 million dollars of that okay for that and then the other seven million dollars is put as fund balance well one million were used to of that seven one million we used to pay the building off right uh i believe you use that to play the building off i'm not i'd have to look at that for sure but i think we did mr brown but i do know that we've set aside according to that resolution money was uh allocated for life safety projects and and again i i i know i'm seen in a different way i'm going to ask you the question and either you're right and i'm wrong or i'm not seeing this right it's probably the latter oh that's all right okay so it looks like are we borrowing doing this time around here with that resolution that was just red are we borrowing any money to address life safety issues we are done i know so this time around so i don't know if i'm looking at this wrong when it comes to the renovation project sure and and things are calculated it says total cost so the project is 48 million dollars okay what exactly is that number then i'd have to look at that page let me mr brown because it's kind of correlates with what you're saying here so i just want to make sure things is right i can't i can't go further until isn't it all added up to that no okay this is separate all this adds is this okay so that's a separate thing tonight yes yes separate life savings the life safety all that's already been funded yes all the life safety has been found so there's no borrowing no borrowing whatsoever no what's being proposed is not to address life safety and again as part of the resolution that you are approving tonight yes only those projects that mr albrecht has read are involved and none of those were life safety okay being said no they were not a demolition of the dome the demolition of the sixth grade center i thought we had fun for that i think we was gonna borrow for that we were looking at any time to do that and pull the trigger we got the bid and we had money for that so why are we borrowing it now well again you can go ahead and use fund balances okay so so so that's so this i mean just give me a reason that's all i'm saying mr brown at the time we approved the demolition of the sixth grade center and we put the hold on the dome we we hadn't provided the board had not provided for the funding of that we were looking at that as part of the financing of a a future school project that got all put aside so we never we never borrowed money we didn't have money in the bank we didn't fund that project it was all to come and then put on hold good and i'm good i'm just so this is just looking for explanation though i'm looking at this you're like oh you know what dv8 and that's all right i'm looking at it sure and just just a simple explanation i'm good with that i'm not being combative i'm just trying to get an understanding sure all right thank you sir sure the third type of bond is a funding bond and a funding bond is a bond that's sold to pay off a debt that the district has an example of that is a debt certificate which is over what we're talking about tonight are debt certificates and then it's very similar in uh i'll say in your home finances if i take out a loan or a lease on a cop now i decide to get a home equity loan to pay that off and bundle that all together that's kind of what a funding bond does it pays off a debt that the district has if they don't have the capability in their operating funds to pay off and then lastly there's something called debt certificates and debt certificates are issued by a district of evidence of payment of an application or a liability an obligation of maybe building something a liability of like a lease or something like that it could be so it just gives the district the opportunity to spread these this obligation out uh instead of with one entity like one bank you can go out and do it to a lot of different banks and offer it at different levels let's say of five thousand dollars so i can really sell 45 million dollars in debt certificates at five thousand dollar increments to a whole bunch of investors that's what this allows you to do and not so it creates that liability so those are the four types now again what happens is we can't use life safety so what we're going to do is use all three of these and now the financing so the question comes up is how do i do that all right let's go through this so step one i need to create a debt to pay off using funding bonds so i'm going to sell 45.5 million dollars in debt certificates and do that in november which is next month you're voting on the resolution to start that process so the death certificate is issued by a district as evidence of payment for an obligation liability and that's what we just talked about that's what um president albrecht had talked about and as he had read our liability is the construction of these buildings that's going to happen in the future we don't have any contracts on that yet but that's going to be the future all right so i'm going to create that debt then what i'm going to do is i'm going to sell 52.4 million dollars in bonds in february 45.5 million are funding bonds to pay this off okay because remember i can use funding bonds to pay that off because i don't have enough in working cash bonds to pay at all so now i'm going to do 6.9 million dollars in working cash bonds to pay those up so that that gives us a sale of 52.4 million dollars that's going to happen in february so first we issue the death certificates and then we go ahead and pay them off and we borrow a little bit more and there's a reason why we're doing that okay and it has to do with debt limits and all of these other things that come into play step three which is going to coincide with this is i'm going to restructure our current bonds that we have right now because what i want to do and again remember we talked about this board is we want to reduce the annual debt payment that we have from 12 million to 10 million because it's going to save the taxpayer about 140 a year on their debt part of their property tax so they're going to save some money so we're going to do both of these at the same time we're going to restructure so that we can get the annual debt payment down and then we're going to sell 52.4 million the last part of this then is i'm going to sell we're going to want to sell 15 million in bonds in the spring of 23 for working cash bonds because remember i said we had 21.9 million 15 6.9 21.9 million dollars in working cash bonds and why i'm doing it now is because i don't have the debt limit to put all of this together so i've got to do two separate bond scenarios the reason i separated this out into 15 million dollars is because the board talked about making sure we go down parallel paths on our projects to make sure that if i'm going to do crete elementary i'm going to do csk and i'm going to do balmoral so what is this 15 million that up to the edition at the high school so everything will be done on a parallel bat it doesn't mean i'm not going to start this work i can start the work i can start the design and all of that stuff by 23 we've got the money coming in and all that so we'll be fine but that's why i separated this out so that there's no perceived that we're we're worried about one school over another it at least the first step two will and and step three will have enough funds to do all of the elementary school work you're right yes exactly because within these also within this amount here the 52 is also all the cosmetic improvements which we're not doing until like 23 which is we'll be open already so we'll be all right so we can use that money to fund it then we move this around and that's why again using working cash bonds is good because you've got more flexibility okay so how does the math work out here we go so we have death certificates in november 45.5 million dollars but then again i'm going to take out funding bonds in february plus a 6.9 which is 52.4 million i'm going to add in working cash bonds february of 23 of 15 million animal together 67.4 million dollars test tomorrow [Laughter] on it i know it is it is very confusing you know and uh again a lot of like craziness but again it's it's doable it's uh it's within the scope of the illinois school law and accounting okay okay and so going back to the initial borrowing of 45 million 0.4 45.5 million you're calling those funding bonds and you said that there was a period of you're going to pay off those funding bonds and you're going to doing a restructure i didn't hear the phrase refunding bonds no it's the about i see the funding but you said we was going to like refinance our own self that's what refunding bonds are like a refinancing we're refunding our current our current bonds that we have to structure them so that we lower the debt payment down to 10 million dollars okay at the same time when we do these new bonds we'll make sure they fit under the 10 million dollars also so that beginning in i believe it's 25 or 26 i'd have to look at the chart the annual debt payment goes from 10 million from 12 million dollars down to 10 million and it stays 10 million all the way up okay and i think this going back the number that you have here again that you gave us this document the cost of the project is 48 million dollars and we're going to vote on tonight the frank the funding for the demolition of the sixth grade sin and the demolition of the doll and we got 1.4 million dollars it says oh what this oh where's the new one i got two here this is what is this what you gave us last week i have two of them that's the same date maybe it's got the same date on it i'll try it too it does not let me see here look at that okay all right you don't have your question no no no i'm looking up here oh that's what i'm looking at here sorry that's what i'm looking at no the dates on top are saying because it's the same okay um that's what i was looking at let's see the revise okay here's mr brown well just one number i want to look at here and i and i want to put my guys just real quick okay so okay there's some changes okay i got it right and then so this is the one mr brown this is the 67.4 million one got it so that includes the addition it doesn't include the work done at ems at mec okay so this yeah i thought i was looking at this that's been the same book that's all right with the date all right good that's all right i won't i won't beat you up too bad you're okay okay any other questions for ken i want to clarify something that mr brown just said he said we're voting tonight on the demolition of the sixth grade center that is not a correct thing we're not voting just the downfalls the sixth grade center has already been voted upon okay just wanted to clarify that just the demolition of the dome is what we were voting on yes but we're voting on the funding of paying off the demolition of the high school center i mean high sixth grade center aren't we wasn't that yeah the demolition of the sixth grade center i know that's what we're voting this funding not right the funding funding the funding to pay to get that particular action item completed right correct if approved that's so yeah we already voted we already voted on a demolition two we already voted to enter into the contract right and we're voting tonight to pay that off got it okay any other questions so are you done yes sir okay so i are we uh still don't appear to this we don't have a motion yet okay thanks ken you're welcome okay so now formally i have a motion to approve the resolution providing for the issue of not to exceed 45.5 million dollars general obligation debt certificates limited tax for the purposes of improving school sites and altering repairing and equipping equipping school building facilities providing for the security for and means of payment for said certificates and authorizing the sales said certificates to the purchaser thereof so moved second oh sending move yes okay any other questions or discussion uh i just would like to make a statement real quick unfortunately for me i am definitely on a core with 99.9 of what we're voting on for obtaining the funds necessarily to complete so many of the tasks with the exception of the demolition of the dome so being said my vote will be indicative of that particular item only and it's unfortunate that it's tied in with this overall package to complete the work i am totally in favor of paying for air conditions and the other things again that's the one exception that i have and unfortunately i cannot vote as i really would want to vote on this that's just a comment i'd like to make okay okay um so we're voting first on number two then three then four correct that's correct okay um i guess i'll make my comment on number three when we get to number three i guess any other comments questions and and and terry i don't know if you can when i vote or something like that because i'd like to be entered it in for the record somehow written on how i vote and my reason why i did just right thank you i appreciate it okay roll call please brown is a president mrs galbraith okay i'm clarifying again we're voting on number two oh yes yes i dr hall aye mr swaalis aye mrs walters aye vice president roof aye president albert aye motion carries next up can i get a motion to approve a contract to omega-3 llc of elgin illinois and the amount of negative fifty four thousand dollars for the demolition of the dome moved second can could you explain again why this is a negative fifty four thousand dollars well not really that is that is a contractor's move like i said you know like no tomorrow well again perception is not reality here well again this is according to the documents that we have so omega-3 when when we asked them or the bid documents were sent out we asked them to give us a price on the demolition of the sixth grade center as an alternative if you were to demolish the dome at the same time what would be an additional cost omega said if you demolished at the same time the additional cost is going to be a negative 54 000 so it costs less to demolish both together than it would to do the sixth grade center yes okay and we already approved the contract for the sixth grade center alone yes so at this point we're appropriating fifty four thousand dollars less if we vote yeah affirmatively yes you are okay yeah and just just from my experience you know contractors do that and guarantee you if we go and ask this particular contract to go tear down the dome and they're going to give us 54 000 only that would not happen so you see in your cost your justification for it it says we'll do for a negative 54 000 only if you give us the 1.2 a 3 million dollar contract and then you have one contractor that was very close to them they were lower in the big part i think maybe lower a little higher then they came up with 58 000 to tear the dome down so you do that you go low here but you go higher there and then there were some contractors that was way out and you know what what i what i found ironic was the contractor that we're paying we're going to approve the certificate uh the payoff i think we already know coming up or whatever they were like five times four or five times higher they bid in on this project i don't know if you caught that they bid in on this project to tear the dome down how they were so high i know i'm mixing apples and oranges but yet they won the bid for doing the work that we're looking to pay and what they did over the summer so they was just way out there so you know i i saw that i saw that 55 4 000 and it was some talking points among the board say hey you know they're going to do this and give us 54 000 back i said oh that's just the skills of those contractors to have people talk like that so they can just bring them you know bring that issue up again and say hey this contract is not going to charge us anything they're going to give us money it's just a mental psychological thing that contractors i won't speculate what they were thinking in the bidding process i mean the reality is here we've we've already approved a higher dollar amount yeah than it will the contract demolition at the end of the day so it's really an accounting entry here then then we're not getting money back yes absolutely again on the surface when it comes down to it you know we we will not be pruned if we're just dealing with dollars or cents not to do this this is the right thing to do you know four dollars and cents and if you all agree to do it and vote this is the right thing to do with and select this contract at the end of the day is dollars and cents but i'm just telling you from my experience out there in the construction world in some capacity from my experience you know i have an mba in in project management and things like that so i see how they do things i will learn how to do things okay okay any other questions or comments on this motion dr hall sorry here we go this is probably one of my first difficult votes um and if we do and really push to do what what was presented tonight i feel comfortable the part that i don't feel comfortable with is will we actually push forward for doing that during our time or will it happen at all i understand the sentiment of the dome i do but i also understand the need to improve in a different way and move forward um i wish that we could keep the dome and still improve the athletic facilities and incorporate the dome and it somehow i don't know if that was presented or if that was looked at or or what have you but i do know that this is a difficult decision for me as a board member because of the fact that while some people may say there's only what was it five public comments in regards to versus all of the people we know that traditionally we don't get a lot of support not just not i won't say support but involvement not just here but many places when it comes to certain things school related and i know i'm rambling on but i just i don't know that i feel excited about this vote i'll say that and i apologize i think again i focus on a contractor itself but not how i really felt about the dome voting to demolish the dome i think all of you know the way that i have been been pursuing this and supporting not to demolish the don't again way back months ago it was brought to us and i believe our president said last week you know that's been on the table for quite a few years i know the plan prior to many of the board members here today that was presented to us that board back in 2016 was to build a new elementary school on the existing sixth grade center it did not include demolishing the dome and there was no issues conveyed to the board at that time about the dome then the new board came came up you know when you get new board you get new ideas and i'm cool with that and the new board said you know what we got to remove this dome and dot it out of that and that plan kind of went and fell by the wayside for various reasons then we have this board and it came up about demolition or demolishing the dome and it was basically i thought was cost justification and i do commend the board at that point with a 43 vote the table to vote table to vote to demolish the board because i had some qualms with some of the numbers and one of the big numbers was life safety we had three point two million dollars for the sixth grade center and her life safety and unbeknownst to me that that 3.2 million dollars included life safety for the dome and one of the big ticket items under the life safety for the sixth grade center was 2.34 million dollars for replacing the pipes and for some reason that 2.2 million dollars came over to the dome as being life safety issues and that was my reason say i saw an issue there's something going on and the board gave me time to look back that's the statement that bill sewallis read out for me i was out of town i was still on the meeting and can't agree there was that was not a good number for life safety for the water pipes you corrected that but you made some changes and added things on dotted and i said well this is a fight that i chose not to enter in and then the board came back and said on a meeting it was a virtual meeting the board came back and said you know what the real issue is that the board is in the footprint of the proposed new elementary school and i took a step back i said okay i'm okay with that i chose not to fight the battle and then i asked last week i said that is not an issue right now the dome is here we have no plans prior to tonight's hearing we have no plans to build anytime in the near future a elementary school on that site i believe i was the one that even recommended that site when way back to build an elementary school after we were going around around around trying to find it i said strategically that property should stay within the district so being said i hear it apply to the people me i have no sentimental values tied to the dome other than never forget who was at one time my daughter was probably one of the smartest kids here at crete bowl new at the time but she was not an athlete but she was on a basketball team and she was sent out to play on the court she stole the ball from the opposing player and she ran down and made her only two points in her career and i was in the wrong basket that's how i remember the dome and i'll never forget it okay so again i know i'm talking here i hear the plight i that's amazing tim you got one points i don't know almost 1100 signatures regardless if it's people living here in our taxing district or not but they had a tie to the dome i looked at it strictly as a financial essence and i'm gonna say this the last thing strictly and i think cost justification does not warrant to demolish that building if we don't have any good strategic reasons and plans to do so that dome has a lot of life we have buildings that's here today that we're going to invest a whole lot of money in it's a lot older than the dome and i'm going to say this i behind the scenes when i saw i said how could we and i looked at myself what's in it for me as far as if i was a business owner i had to structure what would i do with it i said i would not condemn it so i did behind the scenes that you can if you want you know two years ago i get emails and conversations i had that i talked to someone that said what would it take to move the dome 250 thousand dollars i had a site readily available for within the district 250 000 just to move the dome with a couple you know maybe sixty thousand dollars for a foundation no basement all of that but i didn't bring it to the board because i just knew it was a lot of red tape there again you know where i feel with this dome and i thank you for the chime for listening to me appreciate it board okay dr hall can i just address one thing with you um you're right there is no guarantee that that's going to happen but i came on this board in 2015 with all the the from a previous board their ideas there were many things we're still dealing with the middle school been dealing with the middle school since i came on this board we've got to fix it it was it was whatever i don't know i don't know who's i don't know the back story i don't want to know the back story but we've got to hope that we as a board are going through ken's telling us 22 23 we're going to have some funding power is that correct ken somewhere in there we could start looking at spending some money again i think you can start looking at uh some financing options beginning in 23 around and start looking at that for the future yes so this project that we're entering into now is going to take us to 23.

uh i didn't want my daughter to go to the big bad big school down the hill i wanted her to stay in the safety and comfort of a small school up the hill my daughter just agreed with me she wanted to have the sixth grade at the middle school well i for safety reasons i said no and that that's an opinion i'd like to hear from most parents whether they they're comfortable with i like the pelham school i volunteered at the pelham school for 10 years it's a family it's cozy it's comfortable and i i'd hate to lose that and i don't know how many other parents agree with me maybe they don't care but i'd like to know what they think thanks i i mean i've been i've been a one-note person on this for three years but that's my opinion thanks ron margaret did you yeah go ahead margaret yeah i guess i would just say that um mike made a very uh convincing statement about what would be good to to do this year and and i would i would agree with that okay thank you yeah i mean i think having this conversation i i guess maybe maybe what i don't love is the idea of deciding to wait until next fall maybe taking a little bit more of an incremental approach of like well here's this one kind of fundamental question that we can discuss now and bringing that up as as relevant in meetings and then maybe as we get updates if there are specific elements that we learn that it's like oh well this is something that we should either make sure that we communicate to folks or this is something that we should definitely discuss now because this will inform these other things i mean i you know i i don't want to nickel and dime this issue to death and be talking about it for hours at every single meeting um but i think sort of having this pause and being like all right we'll talk about it in september might be might also be a little too far on the other end mickey go ahead um i just want to say one thing um i think whatever we decide to talk about it i think it'd be really great just because of the uncertainty of covid and kids and stress and anxiety to um have the fifth grade parents tell their fifth graders that it's not going to happen next year like i just think that message should somehow get out as well just because they're probably hearing about it sure yeah i think that's a great point thank you yeah mike yeah i think maybe if we come back to the communication piece because i think um i think this has been really helpful conversation for me uh i do wonder i'm gonna kind of limit my number of things but maybe the thing to share with the community is to ms darling's point that there's no consideration of moving sixth grade for next year just because there is none i don't think i don't hear any interest in the community i mean in this committee and i actually don't think the region would accept that regardless i don't want to speak for that committee but i think there's been no interest in pushing that timeline quicker at the regional level i haven't heard any dialogue on that um so i think answering that one and communicating that to your point mickey i think makes a lot of sense and and i think just letting them know that you know this is going to be no decision will be made very soon but if people have feedback leaving them those avenues of school committee at arps.org or public comment maybe that's a simple enough message you know to give is that there's no consideration of moving sixth grade next year conversation will happen you know no decision will be made even for the future year in the next month or two but if people do have um comments they'd like to make they can give them that pathway i don't know how people feel about that kind of simple communication i don't think it's controversial i think it's factual um would that be something that the committee is comfortable with yes for sure yeah yeah and i think too just that you know this question of fifth grade too and i know in some of the public comment that we got that was sort of sent to all the committees wasn't really relevant to pelham you know there was some concern about like oh you're gonna tell fifth graders that year like surprise this is your last year at the school i don't know to me that's another reason i think to like know as far ahead of time as is possible if that is i don't know i just think having that certainty um would would help everyone teachers other parents kids stakeholders generally okay so next steps then sort of a factual communication to the school community so that everyone's aware of what you know next year will be status quo um and then taking up these kind of fundamental questions that we can discuss locally and then the rest of it will be like as we learn more we can re-engage in this question as it makes sense does that feel right to folks okay all right anything else on grade six after this vigorous debate okay great thank you everyone okay next up is superintendent goals they are the attachment is in the agenda yep i will try to see if i can bring that up oh okay thank you yep there we go and this is a draft i'll bring it back next month um for a vote based on any feedback i receive you can see that there's four goals i'm not going to go through every bulleted point but just continue the progress on dei and diversity equity inclusion [Music] some of these goals are consistent across all districts which was the intent and the feedback i received from multiple committees the second is um really thinking through and mickey spoke a bit about this uh the we're in year academic year three of the pandemic and just trying to think through uh collaborating with the public health folks on health and safety measures you know at some point in the future we'll probably i don't think it'll be next month but you know i imagine that at some point we're going to be talking about relaxing some of the measures we have you know i think probably at some point during this academic year we're going to have some of those conversations and so it's going to be really critically important that we'll continue to uh be having those conversations in public um you know mickey mentioned the covert relief funds um and that we are still you know fine-tuning the start time and you know while that's a regional issue with fee in theory it's had an impact on the elementary schools so when we get to the winter and early spring we want to survey all families and all students and all staff members about how they're experiencing any changes because it pelham is different right it's starting earlier it's ending earlier has functional changes in terms of when staff members meet with each other and when faculty meeting is and a whole range of factors that we want to get solicit feedback on the third goal is around budget planning and communication um and so while we are feeling great with dr slaughter's reports tonight we're still going to have a budget year and we're still going to have to make some difficult decisions um hopefully less difficult than in the past but who knows about the budget and and that never ceases to be or it's never unimportant i think in pelham and the last one is the curriculum instruction one the two areas are that we do have we have a new dyslexia screener and process that's uh via state regulation that we're implementing and we're also looking at the elementary math program so this is something that actually we've gotten some comments about over the years some some i think declining satisfaction with everyday math which is our current math program and uh from film staff as well not just pelham um families and so we are looking to complete a curricular review of that and starting that actually in uh the near future in terms of at least setting up the process where we'll get feedback from staff and families look at what's out there it's been a long time that we've been with everyday math and there's new products out there uh for consideration so those are the standards that oh i didn't include the standard for the last goal i apologize i'm looking for the next page but it doesn't exist so i can add that when we get to the final version of this document but i wanted to gather any feedback from the committee before i draft the final version all right thank you questions edits comments for my kind of schools mike could you stop sharing thank you bless you center best anything okay oh ron go ahead it seems that life goes in circles i remember when every day math was introduced this is called continuous improvement i guess you know if i could comment a bit on that i think it is we are trying to be more systemic about reviewing our curricula on a routine basis and trying to have a cycle for that um i think everyday math i think i think it's likely that we will be recommending a change to that but that's not a foregone conclusion but we haven't taken a deep look at everyday math in a couple years and for us it's just you know we're hearing some level of concerns particularly uh as the curriculum spirals and we're coming out of a pandemic that you know the people are struggling uh with the nature of a spiraling math curriculum um some people do really like it spiraling just means that you don't stay with the same topic all the time it means that it's intended to be cumulative so that you may have a topic for a certain amount of time but you're then going back to prior topics so i understand the philosophy but i think people are struggling with a less linear i think uh fair to say uh curriculum i think it was much better than what we had before so i'm not at all saying it was the wrong choice i think it's just things evolve and new products come out and new curricula come out and at this point when we you know bought into everyday math it was you know one of the two or three preeminent math curricula in the country that's no longer the case you know i had a conversation with someone actually used to work at the district but he's a math lead now at the department and he works with multiple districts and he's going to be supporting us who are going through curriculum review processes and um it was interesting here and he was part of the adoption here of everyday math which is kind of fascinating to talk to him about and at this point i'm not saying it's good bad you know no judgment about it but it's not one of the three or four curricula that districts somewhat ours are moving towards and i think we're learning more it's it's served a good purpose and it's i think just time for review so we are trying to be more systemic and more deliberate about looking at our curricula on a routine basis and seeing is it working for our students we did definitely see a saw a jump in our performance when we made that transition and it's you know i think our performance is is consistent now but it's not necessarily going up and that's what we want for our students so i think it's it's worthwhile to take the time and put the resources in for it yep run this may not be appropriate comment now but it reminded me of a newspaper article in the last couple of months where it said that the mcas scores went up during kovid was that do i recollect that correctly yeah that wasn't true for pelham so we were very consistent with the state average which saw um a modest decline in performance as would be predicted given the year we had last year so some of the other districts i work for had more atypical results i would also caution as i did at some of my other committee meetings that we had a lot of students choose not to take the test last year so okay i think the reliability of those results is questionable yeah anything else on goals okay um warrant reports okay this is me okay i've got um four tonight i authorized by my signature to payables and the amount of 40 132.70 for the warrant dated september 15 2021.