Social Mobile has offered me great opportunities to prepare just for that and such as the education pathway. I grew up wanting to help people wanting to make a difference. I never knew sure I never was sure how but I went through so many ideas and hobbies thinking that was just it. Unfortunately I got lost. I wasn't not who I was what I wanted to do, who I was going to become. Then I walked into the education pathway class. I had no clue what it was what the class was what it was to be or what it was supposed to teach me. I had no clue what I was walking into. After that time I went to the elementary for the first time. I really connected with the teachers and the kids. Specifically um Mandy Mandy um I realized this is what I wanted. This is what has pushed me and challenged me, shown me what it means to be a teacher.
I've been teach- I'm in my 22nd year of teaching all at Central Noble. Um I've been very lucky to be here as well to be here. Um in my career I have moved classrooms or grade levels seven times. Uh six of those were physical moves from one classroom to another and it is never fun. It's never easy. Um however, last year in May the move that I told I was going to be making wasn't really difficult to take when I found unexpectedly that I would be moving from an elementary setting to a junior high setting. And I'm going to be honest with you, it was uh it was difficult. Um we didn't have much time, but uh because it was the end of the school year. But we made the move and the three of us together decided we were going to do the best we could to make it the best school for our students.
So, awesome deal. But, one thing also I think that I think that also really helps with this, not only are you doing so well in all of your classes, he's an incredible athlete. When I saw you at the wrestling matches for junior high this year, you were outstanding in your division. Practically, at least ones I came to, looked unstoppable. Mr. Faulkner, am I right about that? He's got some talent. Yeah. So, that's something that's really cool. Everything that you're involved with here at Clinton Central, you do a good job at. Your teachers also said they really value your personality. You're always trying your best. You're always trying to be positive, and you're just an all-around good kid that people enjoy being around. That says a lot about your character, which I think is really, really cool. One thing I want to add, today when I came and told him that he was chosen, I've never had a student do that.
And she will be recognized at the May 7th annual conference in French Lick, but I know Dr. Underwood speaks so highly of her and she has been a great addition to the EVSC and nice to see her recognized um by the Association of uh School Business Officials. Um and then let me take you through this briefly. I'm going to do um um uh just kind of talk to you as we show this drone footage of a couple of key projects that are taking place. Uh Reverend Gamblin, hold on. This first one I know you're going to like. You're looking at, of course, the historic Wright Bowl. Just incredible progress on that project. If you see there, what you're looking at is the portions that are mostly completed, and then this is in action. But, recovering of those seat seating surface areas with aluminum aluminum and new seating areas.
So, we then when we fill those buses, there's there's Yeah, we can't get the seventh a seventh bus, for example. In this case, it would be a seventh bus. So, um we can only fill the six that we have. So, then it becomes waiting to see if there are any kiddos that have to drop out, which normally there are a few here and there, but um it's a wonderful trip. We've been working with Nations Classroom for many, many years. Um and I I do think that there were more kids than usual who missed that deadline this year, families I should say, who missed the deadline. So, we're working on making sure that that's a little bit more clearly articulated in some better ways of making sure our seventh grade parents this year know about when and how quick that deadline comes up this fall, like like early winter.
So I don't think there's a need for me to provide testimony on this. So aloha for your time. Well, thank you. Appreciate your support of the original measure that we supported. Thank you. Mahalo. Mahalo. Charmaine Duran. In support, Susan. She's here, Susan Piccola Davis. Aloha. Thank you so much for your opening sentences because I'm learning more as I come here more. So some of my testimony was already submitted before I got educated. So I do support this bill with comments. And my thought processes, but I don't know if this is appropriate, is that if I read 302A I would add, if you could, authority create temporary positions, the Department may create temporary positions as it deems necessary provided that the temporary positions meet the following criteria. One stays the same. Two, I rewrote it as the term of each position shall shall not exceed one year and refrain from renewing those positions in one year increments.
Um, I'm going to show you my intro into my Meet Me Monday is a little bit long. So, I was like, let me show you some two fun photos. Uh, these two fun photos. Drum roll, please. Okay. Uh, yeah. So, my intro is a little long. There's me on the right side and on the left side. So that's me when I was a kid. Um I did have eyebrows. You just can't see them because they were the same color as me. Um so they are there though. Um and then the photo on the left that happened this Friday. Uh I am the one in the blue dress. Yes. Uh this happened for Yeah, that is me. Yeah, I'm wearing a wig as well. That happened for Senior Showdown. So the my group did a Hamilton performance. Personally never watched it, but you know, I was happy to participate in it.
Um, thank you very much for giving us the time. My name is Mark Infonte. became the principal of Cameron Elementary School. >> And my name is Tina Mazonei, the assistant principal. >> All right. So, I'm going to start uh to be able to share about our progress on the uh strategic plan goal one, student achievement. Um so, at Cumberland and at all D62 schools, professional learning communities focus on um are identifying student progress with reference to um grade level standards. our teams get together. They get together weekly um and whether the conversations are in the classroom, um in the hallways at at conference rooms. So getting together all the time and really with a focus of reeing intervention, um enrichment, meanwhile fostering that collaborative spirit with amongst our staff. Um our professional learning um has really focused on emphasizing literacy this year and I'm sure you're going to hear that later on today as well.
Looking back at myself freshman year has made me realize how much I've grown as an athlete, student, gymnast, and person. My coaches and teammates have taught me everything I do know about gymnastics, and I'm so fortunate to have finished my high school career alongside this team. Hi, I'm Kayn. Um, I would like to thank our coaches for pushing us to be our best this season. Uh, Campos, Coach Kylie, and Coach Bill had an everlasting confidence in us, not only as athletes, but as a team. Being able to have go just to talk to and guide us through our battles and triumphs really made this team a family. The love me and my teammates have for each other has grown immensely over the season. Watching our three freshman Avery, Hannah, and Stella thrive. Being part of a team reminded me how special the Downers Grove gymnastics family is.
So, I just want to take a minute to highlight how you did compared to what you talked about during the referendum. Maybe Mr. Shepherd can help clarify this in my head, too. So, when we get our tax bill, do we see a category for bond and interest on the tax bill? No, you do not. No. Okay. So, um and that when we approve the the budgets, okay, and the and the levy, and we we ask for like $32 million, okay, does that include bond and interest? So, when you approve, you approve uh the uh portion of levy that we control, right? Our operating funds. Uh we do include the bond fund. We have an estimate of what that impact is going to be based on our payment schedule, which is pretty close. Uh so, we do include that in the overall total, but the board uh approves the operating fund levy, not necessarily the bond and interest levy.
Is this farm lease going to cost our taxpayers more money? Um you know, like if there's any cuz I saw that there's no lease for the FFA FFA and I'm sure you're charging the farmer something if there's a farmer. Um and I know FFA is absolutely wonderful. I don't want to discount them at all. Um they have ways to acquire funding for what they want to do cuz I saw something in there about seed and it was unclear to me whether the school was going to be paying for that or or what. So that's where I'm unclear about my with [clears throat] my accuracy here. Um students with other areas of study have to pay their way for certain programs. Um Yeah, cuz I'm kind of looking out for myself as a taxpayer and possibly others that, you know, um think they're getting overcharged. Um that we don't really want to see another uh I forget what it's called, the tax levy where you have to ask for more money or you just actually just tell us where you're going to take it.
Well, it's the season of testing. Um [clears throat] although now it seems like there's many seasons of testing. The NWEA um those scores and results from our year of work will come available um the 1st of June, where we'll be able to look at the beginning of year, middle of year, end of year. And then the I-Learn results will be available in-house in July, just tentative scores, um but those won't be finalized until September because they are actually um making some adjustments, and so due to those adjustments that they're making at the state, they won't be available in a finalized form for parents and for us to um communicate until September. The multilingual, the WIDA testing scores will become available April 27th, and after that time, uh Kim Fitch and I will work to um with the EL coordinators to make sure that if we do have a student that is close to proficiency, that they can exit the program.
She has helped me to find who I am, who I want to become. The education pathway has changed everything for me. It opened so many doors and opportunities for me outside of the classroom. The field trips and hands-on experiences made learning feel real. Whether it was visiting colleges, exploring career opportunities, or participating in activities. That really connected with my peers. I've been fortunate enough to know a wonderful um I forgot what the word was. So I kind of scratched it out. um community It was a great experience and CN has taught me a lot and that is due to the teachers that truly care about their kids and their interests. Success does not come easy and failure is not something you avoid. CN has taught me just that. Thank you for the opportunities and experiences. Thank you. >> [applause] [snorts] >> Uh my name is Connor Fish.
Um we've had wonderful support from our administrators. They're supportive, flexible. They let us try things. Um and change is never easy. It's it's it's hard, but we've done the best we could to make it a good situation. I can honestly say now you know, it's almost a year later that I feel like we're doing the best we've ever done with the kids. It it was hard going from an elementary setting to junior high. We're still making adjustments. It's not perfect. We're still learning. We're we're looking at changing things for next year. Um but we just wanted the community to know that we put the kids first and what we think is best for them and we keep learning and growing in the whole process. Um just to add to that, like she said, it's kind of when you take a teaching position, it's kind of understood that you might move classrooms.
He started jumping up and down in the hallway. It's so great to see somebody be that excited. So, I was so happy to be able to be able to tell you this and to be able to present this to you. It's well deserved and very happy for you and very proud of you. Congratulations. Thank you. All right, that's all right. Alex I think that's all you back there. So, our senior high student of the month is Alex Shoemaker. So, Alex is involved in so many things I had to have him email me all the activities he's involved in. So, he's National Honor Society vice president. He's in band, pep band, varsity swimming. He's a track manager, coach for kids mentor. Uh he's in student council, Youth Rise, and he's on the prom committee. And works doing catering for Angry Donkey. And he also volunteers at the community Thanksgiving dinner every year.
Everything ADA compliant. If you've ever walked up and down those steps in the past, you knew they were not standard. There weren't handrails. Now, they're all standard. They all meet compliance. You see that flat area at the top and bottom that is wheelchair accessible. Um so, individuals in wheelchairs can certainly enjoy every single activity going on there. Um but, you know, an incredibly historic venue we're so lucky to have. Speaking of historic venues, we'll move over to Ingold Stadium at Bossy High School. Keep in mind, this project started about 6 weeks after the Bowl project. Uh same thing, recoding. That's getting ready to start any day now with aluminum on those seating areas, and then new seating will be put in place. As you can see, that flat part at the bottom will be uh wheelchair accessible and platforms for wheelchairs uh to be uh individuals in wheelchairs to be, so they can too enjoy any type of activity going on at Ingold Stadium.
But we're really excited. You're also stopping at Gettysburg. Did you say that? >> yeah, said that. Yeah. Day one. Yeah, it'll be really it's very really exciting. >> That's a new addition I think it is. It's a new addition that's been added under your tenure, which I think is wonderful. Well, we were trying to think outside the box. Well, that day one is, you know, it's a long long ride, long day. So, this will break it up um and and give us some real rich experience, you know, before putting them to bed, which is, you know, what we've been doing is, you know, driving all day long, stopping for lunch, stopping for dinner, not a lot of richness in that first day and then, you know, getting them into checked into the hotel. So, this should I think really um add a nice touch, but we'll see.
Thank you very much. >> Okay, very good. Good suggestions. Thank you. See, we have 1 2 3 4 others, five others in support and anyone else here wishing to testify on this measure.
And me and my other two guy friends, we were the Skyler sisters. So I was Eliza and I wore a dress. So that was exciting. Um, the whole reason I have me up there is because I am going to put you guys by you guys I mean this no in the shoes of me. Okay. So a lot of things that I'm doing in public speaking, I'm in public speaking right now. They they teach me how to keep something interactive. You know, I don't want to talk for just 10 minutes. So now I'm going to kind of pose the question over to you, Miss No. I'm going to put you in the shoes of someone I'm interviewing. Okay? So, you're going to imagine you're, you know, just obviously answer as you would answer, not as you think a student would, but I'm just going to ask you questions and we'll we'll see kind of where this goes.
But um really just focusing on our primary grades uh the foundational skills of literacy as well as our grades four and five really focusing on explicit teaching of vocabulary. And um I want to thank also our third grade team that's pictured here on the slide um who piloted our literacy um uh pilots for this year and the work that they did um planning getting new curriculum um having feedback having those constructive conversations and we focused that um throughout the time and you can see the four questions there. We focused on those questions throughout our PLC's to really drive our our meetings. In the middle there, you'll see that not only do we focus on academics, but also our SEAL. And so you'll see in the in the center one of our dashboards there and decision ed where we can see a lot of that data to have those rich conversations.