Uh Dr. McMillan was there um in green with with all the other folks and and a lot of uh folks from the mayor's office and so on and so forth. But, uh, the really cool part for me is seeing our kids work in the event as, as volunteers, um, and really seeing how they engage with the community was was kind of a nice side benefit. But raising lots of money for for kids in our community was was was even um was was the best part. So, just wanted to highlight those little unique events that occurred in the last couple weeks. >> All right.
It needs to improve in some way, right? Um yellow is 15, right? And red is is five. I want to put this in perspective. Um, our two schools have uh 14 to 18% uh of our students are special education um every year and so they'd be in that red tip and the model calls for 5%. But we're at 14 to 18%. And so, uh, when I when I break down, uh, middle school, 18% of our sixth graders, 16% of our seventh graders, and 15% of our eighth graders are in special education. And so, what that tells me is when I look at that yellow box, the the tier two, these intense uh, groups, these targeted small groups, we need we need more work in that area. Um, We use this model to kind of help us gauge and zero in on the different levels of instruction.
You may come and say look given what we learned on diesel, >> we have to cut this thing that we proposed in January because we know we need more a higher budget for gasoline. >> Yeah. And what we would try and do because there's higher volatility in diesel fuel than there are in some other things that we would have to make a decision at that point about well how wildly far off are we? What's the probability that comes back to earth? Um you know so maybe we wouldn't make an adjustment May 1, but be poised to have to make an adjustment January 1 if necessary. Um, and that's why, you know, we have to adjust uh lines throughout the year on a fairly regular basis because things, you know, evolve. But we at the end of the year, actually on June 30th at 7:30 in the morning, we have a board meeting to say, "All right, here's where everything shook out." Our bottom line is we just have to balance it.
All these the companies we work with and we um uh you know are acceptable products. They all have their baseline of products but then they all have something unique at least one thing you know that makes them different that makes them special something they patent. Um, so if that was, you know, a big desire to get, you know, we want the field the Dallas Cowboys have or, you know, we want this field, but only one company can make that product, you can go cooperative purchasing um in Connecticut where you solicit quotes for construction and materials from the preferred vendor. Uh, and it's they're using state negotiated prices. So, this is going through like CRE or Sourcewell. Um, not sure what else who else practices in state. This is just becoming newer, but it gives you control to get exactly what you want. Um, and um, that goes for track and turf and it speeds up the process a little bit.
Any questions? Okay. Um, next Voya'sformational and then we have board comments. Member Kelly. >> Um I just have compliments. They're just u just impressed with all the work that's going on this this month. Um shout out to Katie McMillan again about having all those conversations to assemble resources for people looking to teach Arabic and um just there's so many amazing we just saw so many amazing students tonight. Um it's just impressive. So thank you Dr. Noling and the team. Um you guys are just doing an awesome job. Thank you member Dton. >> I would just also like to take this moment to thank our administration and the various roles they've been playing um in this year. We're cons, you know, when you get to March, you really start seeing how the lift has um supported our students and and moving us forward. So, I just want to thank you.
>> How does that compare with special? >> Quite honestly, it's um I'm seeing the state having between 10 and 14% so of special education in the red tip rate. Um we most often we'll use that just to make sure tier one instruction is good and then our our tier two targeted interventions. It's another way for us to model just kind of schoolwide systemic. >> The other piece there, Rob, I think that's important is that from a special education perspective and all of the data that they collect, there is a they track that data in a very intentional way. And if some of those percentages um get to a point that especially with subgroups of students that seem to be out of alignment, the Department of Education communicates directly with Kristen in this case to say, "Hey, it's looking like you're you're disproportionate." Right? So whether that be um Africanamean males or um female, whatever that subgroup is, they they send us out information and calculations and say, "Hey, hey, this looks like you're disproportionate." And if we are found to be disproportionate, then we go through a review and and then there can be further steps beyond that.
And so on June 30th, we'll say, "All right, we're moving X dollars from this account to that account. this account to that account and the board reviews all that and then adopts it. >> Tim, >> thank you uh for the explanation. One point that I don't think you mentioned that is I feel important to include is the what you refer to as the discretionary spending, >> instructional supplies, capital equipment, all those things. And so during every meeting, we're basically just giving an update. I'm just connecting the dots because you're new. just in case it hadn't in case you hadn't thought about it but that discretionary expend spending it starts what 30% in September October is it 60% now I don't recall if you said it but it it >> it basically increases and that's his cushion there for the reforcasting I think at least part of a at least one cushion that he's got >> 75 60 >> the there's a cap at 60% >> yeah and several of the school I mean most of the schools are well below that at this point um it's a small lever but it's one that we're we we use is putting an expenditure cap in place.
Um, you know, usually our bidding window, four weeks to bid it, uh, where you're having a pre- bid meeting, we're issuing agenda, responding to questions, then it you review all the bids, make a recommendation, award it. With the procurement, if there's one specific thing, they send you a quote. There's really no negotiating. You just make sure it has everything you want, sign it, you're done. So, that price, the one thing is with the the traditional bid, um, you're putting contractors or vendors against each other, so they're sharpening their pencils most likely. You hope the cooperative is a set price. >> Thank you. >> So, you don't know if you're getting their best price or it's just that's the price. But that that's you know obviously we have to have a project we have to get out into multiple phases of design. Um so just a thought.
It's always great to have our our students out here. um they make us so proud in so many ways from our athletics to our arts to our community service and um and so I just thank you for your part in providing those opportunities to our students. Thank you. >> Member Danla. >> Yeah, I'd just like to give a shout out. I know we we've had a lot of um great fundraising events lately. Um, one I was a part of last weekend again was the annual uh Guns and Hoses versus 230 hockey club match. And if you've never been to this before, and I really I apologize uh in hindsight here, I should have let you guys know. I decided to go last second, but but what a great uh time that is in the community. They raised nearly $15,000 for Special Olympics. Um, so it's our Orland fire, our Orland policemen take on our 230 hockey club in the charity match and it was at Art Arctic Ice Arena.
So even though the numbers seem high and they're comparable to what we see across the state, we have been through a review to ensure that our processes for identifying students for special education services that eligibility piece are very solid. So that is an ongoing >> and this will help us continue to monitor those and make sure that we're implementing all those processes across both schools. We think sometimes we may overidentify and and if we fix tier two that may help us with with not overidentifying kids that that may not qualify for special ed or or something else. But but we've got to fix tier two before we know whether we're overidentifying kids or not. There are areas that I think we're high. I know Jason was probably trying to look >> six to 14. >> Yeah. particularly at the elementary level because that's a lot of times that eligibility orification comes into play.
>> Yeah. >> So, my question for Emily is, did Vin leave you his crystal ball? >> He didn't, but I sure wish it was available this year more than any. >> Yeah. >> Other questions? >> Any other items? Um, well, I'm going on to the medical benefits report, which is, you know, I'm going to end on a high note. Um, so for our medical benefits, >> our claims for the month of February were about $1.1 million. Um, we have two claim months in reserve, which is, um, I'm I should go back to my written report. Uh, so our claims represented a 17% increase compared to February 2025. Claims last year were only $942,000. Um, but our claim months in reserve were 1.71 in February 2025 and they're 2.0 in February 2026. That again is, you know, even though the costs were increasing, we increase the amount um going into our claim reserve every month.
>> So I'm sure I mentioned this before but when we did the field down there we higher level product same company put a field in at Cheshure Academy. Same year we replaced ours at the academy four years ago. We're in year four on that field and you know they went in at the same time. >> Yes. >> So I know thank you Kevin for joining us. I know we've got a board meeting to make at 7:30 but you know if we have questions for him um I can make sure to get them >> to you all. >> The office is right up the road. So, I know you're you're kind of finalizing some some items, but I think especially if there are questions about specific components of this plan that we want adjusted. Like I said, I put a placeholder of 1.5 million. What Kevin has shared today is a little bit north of that, >> but again, that hasn't been revisited in two years, and it it will be broken down in much more detail than we did at master plan level.
Um, always a great time. Split the pot, chuck a puck, all that fun stuff. And our own uh, former RSO Sanberg Officer Walsh. >> Special shout out to him for coaching this year for the Guns and Hoses team. They lost, so you know, hopefully maybe he'll end up on the ice again next year, but um, but it it was a great turnout. a lot of people from the community and thanks you know there were so many people who volunteered and to be out there on the ice to do that to raise money and it was just a great show. So thank you guys. That was cool. >> Member Kazer. >> Um I would also like to um compliment Dr. Huffman on her presentation and everything we're doing for the Arabic foreign language that we had last month. I know that that was a uh the culmination of a lot of work and um you know thank you doc uh Dr.
So with the new universal screeners both literacy and math it's just something we've got to keep our eyes on and make sure that we're working through that that tier one and tier two are solid um so that we aren't overidentifying or identifying students because that we don't tend to remove that identification. That's very rare. But it's rare. >> Speech is most common. >> Yeah. >> To be removed. >> Yes. >> And we do remove some occasionally, but it's not >> it's rare. >> Yeah. It's not often. >> So most of the other slides are all stayed the same that we talked about. I wanted to go to next steps and then kind of like how we will measure success because I think that goes to a couple of questions that that you've had. Um if that's okay. We're trying to wrap up by 5:45. questions because then we have to go to our executive session.
So, we accounted for that and that has been working for us. So, we are in a good spot with our medical claims. Um, and you know, this is also reflected in how much we've budgeted next year, just south of 7%. There are a lot of districts who are seeing staggering and almost incomprehensible medical benefits increases. And we had good claims this year, and that's that's reflected in our budget, which is which is really good for us because it's a pretty big line item.
>> Yep. >> You know, I mean, costs have gone up though, haven't costs gone up, too. And we we track that all the time. I'm, you know, I started a project last week. I was on the phone with track surfacing guys, got the quote, you know, what it was last week. >> Yeah. >> And we put escalation and inflation, all that stuff into a >> We don't usually share the detailed breakdowns. We usually do a summary just to keep it a little bigger picture. >> Right. >> So, what's next then? >> So, what's next is um I'm going to share this. I've shared the presentation with you. I need to share all the capital plans so you have them. um we'll plan to meet next month um to talk about the capital plan but also the turf again. So I think in the interim getting questions to Kevin um as he's going through we can kind of make a final plan for what we you know the number that will go in the capital plan and when we meet next we'll kind of try to finalize what's in year one for the capital plan.
Dr. McMillan for um you know reaching out to some of those candidates that reach for us. Um I I think that you know sometimes unfortunately people think that they're qualified for something because they've done something at a community center things like that but they don't really have the certification. So um you know but for that program to be successful it's taken a lot of people from Dr. Nolton on down. So thank you all for the work you've done in that. Um I just also want to uh thank all the parents that participated in the uh craft fair last week. Um I know that on Friday afternoon when I was there running extension cords um there were dozens of parents running around and I know that um that continued throughout the weekend. Uh you know as a parent as somebody who's in the music program I appreciate everything those parents do to raise that money and for all of the Sanberg staff that was there to help too.
Um, we talked a little bit, you've seen all those the percentages and everything, but um, this is kind of our next steps where we think we need to go from from here. >> Yeah. So, we're going to continue to work with our uh, teachers to um, refine these systems and um, identify and make sure that everyone understands clearly what these frameworks are and and how to implement them. Um when we look at our MTSS framework, we're going to execute that with fidelity. Um we're going to need to um work with our teachers to find the most valid assessment tools that will help us do, you know, three benchmarks a year, progress monitoring every two weeks, and um overall being able to evaluate what we're what we're doing. Um, we're going to make sure that that we're going to apply those interventions with integrity and be able to share strategies across buildings because the system is very much the same.
So, With that, any questions about the medical benefits report? >> We'll take those. We'll take those small. I think that's it. Thank you, Em. Any other items for finance besides? >> No, I think that wraps it all up nicely. Thank you, Emily. >> Um, on to personnel committee. Miss Colin. >> Yep. The um board of education personnel committee was held virtually on March 4th, 2026. It was called to or order at 70:06. The committee met in executive session to discuss the superintendent's evaluation and um the committee came out of executive session and the meeting was adjourned at 8:25 p.m. >> Just for clarification though, this was um a scheduled midyear check-in so to speak on updates and progress. Thank you.
>> Okay. Is there a deadline you'd like to meet? I guess my followup question >> to have the capital plan good to go and and recommended by the planning committee. I I would like it by end of April. We could do that so that we can present it to the board of ed in May. Um and then it's kind of good to go >> for June or July, whenever it gets sound. >> Yes. >> Um so I'm gonna jump back to the parking lot and loading dock. I personally would like to see those two different numbers if you have an estimate for it. >> Okay. >> Um because I it's like I was saying before just as I'm thinking about it more sitting here uh I think doing the parking lot based on what you'd said and the pictures that you're going to share it may very well make sense.