If things are going pretty smooth, nobody cares, you know, and then all of a sudden things get a little upside down and everybody cares, you know, there's been half a dozen elections and uh nobody even ran uh against anybody. And so, you know, people that were on the board were just appointed to serve again last time. I think these three individuals are on the board. Nobody ran against these guys last time. Um personally, I'm not going to run anymore. It's time to hand it over to the next generation. And I hope there's a battle for the seat I'm at. I've asked people to run and they say, "Well, it's not my time." But they have a lot of information and they have a lot of lot of data to share. It's easy to look out from the outside, look in and have a lot of lot of u uh corrections from the outside, but when you're on the inside, things look a lot different.
So, I would just challenge anybody that's here in November to take my seat. Please let let there be an election. Let somebody step up and and uh let the cream rise to the top instead of just uh having to appoint somebody because nobody wants to run for an election and because of apathy. I I hope I'm not offending, but I do think there's been a lot of apathy in the community and all of a sudden it it it heads because that apathy has just let things go to the point where uh things are out of control. And I'm not saying things got out of control. I'm just saying things have declined because of the declining membership we have in this in this community because of the demographics of this community have changed so much in the last 20 30 years. It's uh it's shocking if you look back to what the demographics used to be to what they are right now.
uh you know we got we got free basically free buses two buses because of free and reduced lunch you know that was never heard of in the past you know so um I think the difference between if you pay for your lunch right now it cost you like $310 if you're free and reduced it cost you 30 cents or 46 cents or something like that so there's there's a big difference and uh I just hope somebody in the future will step up and and uh want to be on the inside, want to take the criticism, want to help make decisions for the community because they're invested in the community. And I appreciate everything that's been said. All of it's going into his ears and into his heart. And we I can't say we we have the best superintendent in the White Mountains right now. And his willingness to dedicate his time and his knowledge and energy to make this school district the best to come.
>> Thank you. That that is a great compliment. I don't know if I've earned it yet. And I know our last speaker, I think she she walked out, but um you know, on on behalf of our district, I I want to apologize because I think we have great leaders and great people, and I'm sorry that um she said that she's had bad experiences because I I do think we have great people in our district. And I think everybody that walks through our doors, um whether it's parents, bus drivers, facilities, the the superintendent, everybody has value. you know, we're all we're all equal here. And uh I don't want anybody to be treated that way because part of being an amazing um district is is treating each other well. And I've I've had a great experience here so far with um the way people treat each other.
And I'm sorry that some of those things happen. So maybe I can apologize to her in person when I get a chance. But even something small like a microphone because I I feel like when you strive for excellence in the organization Oh, is my microphone getting cut off too? Um, when you strive for excellence in the organization, it's not just the big things, it's the small things that that bring you to that point of excellence. But come on back down, Elaine Smithson. Um, I just like would like to offer a suggestion. Um, and it's not actually from my personal point of view, but just from hearing the speakers in this room, um, a suggestion I think that should be considered as we do study sessions about the bond is to leave technology completely off of it. if that's going to deter a lot of voters and just seems like and here it doesn't sound like the community supports that.
I would suggest in the future talking about leaving that off, finding other ways to fund that through grants or something like that in hopes that that doesn't deter voters. Having technology on doesn't deter voters leave it off. So hopefully we could get the votes and fund all the other things needed. >> Sorry techn sorry tech guys. Thank you for your opinion on that and those I think are our discussions we'll be having going going forward in the future. Hey, I'm Kate Snugrass. So, I completely agree with you. Our teachers are phenomenal, but I heard that maybe 13 are not coming back. I don't know if that's true. Okay. Yeah, somewhere in that number due to re different reasons. Yeah. >> So, I'm just wondering if do we know why the teach the teachers seem unhappy and I agree with you, they're so great. So, we'd love to keep them.
>> Yeah. And I think um Miss Ford's doing exit surveys with all of our teachers, but then also we try to listen and we try to promote good two-way communication because, you know, the lifeblood of a great district is great teachers. And we have heard things like anything from salary to um you know job satisfaction to there's some people who've retired and everybody has um a different reason. Um some people you know sometimes it's not a good fit and people decide that they don't um fit well and and they're moving on. I think change is hard and having a complete new administration in our district. I can say I think we have really good people in our administrative team, but sometimes personalities don't always mesh together, but I have full confidence in in our team moving forward. And I I agree with you that looking into um each one of those employees that's leaving and it's not just the teachers, like I said, it's it's the bus drivers, too.
And um I think that also reminds us that you know when we're overstressing our employees and and we're asking we're continually asking our employees to do more with less it does lead to burnout and it does lead to frustration. And so that's one of the reasons we're coming to um uh you know ask for our community to support us in those ways because ultimately like yeah I I don't want to rehash all the points but we we do want to honor our teachers and all of our employees. So they they stay here and they enjoy. Nationwide, you don't hear it a lot, but at the past few campuses I've been at, teachers enjoy coming to work and I want Blige to be a place. And I think when we turn that corner and people start seeing the excellence come back to Blige, I think people will enjoy coming to work and feel fulfilled in their work every day and the kids will enjoy coming to school.
So I'm hoping that we can continue to grow that in our community. So thank you. >> Okay. And is it possible to fill that many positions? Like are there that many people that are going to come and fill those positions that are vacant? >> Yeah. Yeah, we we have pretty much most of our positions that have come open filled across our campuses. So, we still have a couple more positions to fill. And I'm talking about teaching positions. Once again, the bus driver positions and some of the other positions are harder to fill because, you know, if we think it's hard having 25 kids in front of us teaching, try driving a vehicle with 84 behind you. And you know, I know my dad when I was a kid, how many times he threatened to pull the car over with just my sister and I. And so if you consider 84 full of life youngsters on a bus, that that's a hard job no matter how you slice it and dice it.
And so those jobs are a little bit more difficult to fill. But most of the teaching positions have already been um offered. >> Okay. And then one question for you because I also am I'm worried about the one to one computers. Uh but when you came and presented you said we're the only district with onetoone. So is that a good thing? Is that like a cert like is that something >> that would depend on your viewpoint and even like principles and uh other educators and stuff vary in their responses to that. So yeah, I wouldn't answer that directly. Um but >> it's not like a certification or something. >> No, typically what you see too is you see like wealthy families that are opposed to 101 onetoone whereas uh the opposite end of that you see them more u wanting the computers just because they don't have those resources at home.
>> And I think too answering that like as as the research is becoming more readily available like you know once again reflecting back to my my childhood because I didn't have a cell phone when I was a kid. We had these long um spiral cords that if we wanted privacy we had to try to get around the corner and crank our necks. But you know when we were a kid it was TV time and it was still screen time. And what it is is is a passive just state where you are just you know watching and and you know our parents were really cognizant of that. And I think you know technology came out and technology was supposed to cure a lot of things and like and and and so I think that's kind of the new TV time where we got to be careful like you know what the content we're absorbing through that.
But I think the thing with technology is a lot of people have almost everybody has these now. And so, you know, in our house, we turned on the TV and everybody saw what was on the TV. This is a lot more more covert and personal on what people are doing on on their phones and so or or on their um devices. And also in that regard and and as we talk about being able to see around corners, we have this whole new revolution that's going on that all of us are aware of and it's and it's AI. And so actually last week I was at a conference about trying to view around some of those corners to see where AI is going to go and how that's going to affect learners because we have certain things in the past like TVs and now we're dealing with computers and as a school system in general it seems like we react always and so trying to see around those corners and be more visionary in the school district.
So as as AI is entering our world, we're already seeing that kids are very more savvy with it sometimes than us adults. So you know, is AI writing their paper? How do and how do we catch up with kids and get in front of certain things like that? So it's not just about the devices, it's about um societal issues such as AI and what's an appropriate way to be able to view it and integrate it. And so you're not being reactive to it and so you're trying to get out in front of it. And so now we're talking about computers, but I also want to look around the corner and and have us do that as a community. So we are taking a a sober stance of what AI is going to do to education. And I think whatever we're looking at with computers, we also have that foresight to know that AI is going to be like computers on steroids where AI is doing so many things.
And so what is that? How is that going to affect student brains? And I can predict that if we're more reliant on AI, just like we've be become more reli re reliant on computers just in general life, the the learning and the capacity for critical thinking, just like when you look at books like the anxious generation, and I'm sorry, I'm I'm kind of going over a lot of this, but I I want to kind of get the elephant out of the room where you're looking at the anxious generation. Our anxiety rate rates have increased down as low as kindergarten with kids who have devices. And it's not just at school, it's at home. And so it's a societal issue. And now that we have AI being introduced in society, this is not just going to be a school issue. This is going to be a society issue.
How we view AI and how we go into that um corner together. So I'm excited because this is going to be our next generation's challenge. Are students going to be able to critical think? Are they going to have an attention span? Are they going to have higher levels of anxiety like have come about with computers? And how do we attack that ahead of time? So, we're not just going to be talking about computer and computer usage. We need to start looking into AI, too. And so, I know Miss Hoffmire started looking at that. You know, our our technology department, I've started personally doing because I don't want to be in this place where we're 10 years behind and reactive. I want to get out in front of it and help our kids as much as possible. So, I'm sorry. >> I love hearing you talk about anxious generation and all of that.
I'm so glad that you're aware of all of that. It does feel almost like we need to protect them in the school, you know, and we almost have to cocoon them from the electronics. I think that's what all the parents are so afraid of. >> Yep. >> Um but yeah, a lot of a lot of moms and dads really interested want to be here. I can feel Tara and um and Britney's passion and it's hard to be non-emotional because it's our kids. A lot of y'all have kids. So, >> we do want to participate as much as we can. And the other thing too that I want to mention that's kind of on the opposite side of that, I'm sorry. Um, once again, looking back to our childhood, we had to solve a lot of problems because we had a lot of time quote unquote alone where we were, you know, riding our bikes and doing things that now we look back on.
And now our kids sometimes don't have those authentic experiences too where they're allowed because as parents we do. And I I'll speak from my personal that you know we do try to like resolve problems for our kids. So that's I think another thing too which is a societal issue and we want to partner is how do we allow our kids to get into that problem solving mode but when you have computers when you have AI it becomes so much easier. So that's that's one of our views. Those are some of the things as a school district that we are and a school district's a big organization with a lot of people but those are things we want to start approaching. So >> okay thank you. >> Thank you very much. more comments. Here we go. I I just have to again compliment our superintendent. I think he has a correct vision for where we are where we need to be next year and for right now and the years to come.
You know, the vision is great. Appreciate it so much. Uh anyway, I don't mean to take your time away from me. So, my name is Micaia Preswitch. I have two small children, and we talked about technology today, which is why I decided to come up here. I'm not I don't do this. Um, but we're all worried about the children and what the children are looking at on their computers, but we're not paying attention to what the teachers are doing. Because I've been in the classrooms. I've seen multiple teachers pull up like ASMR videos and just let their kids sit there in front of YouTube during their teaching time. And as a parent, I'm not I'm not a super big fan of that. Um, and I like what Britney had to say. Um, because I came from Xolo, my husband came from Blige, and we chose Blige because of the teachers and the quality and the things that were going on.
However, their discipline standards and what I've seen in the classroom has got me thinking about going to Snowflake because it has kind of sucked. Um, and so that's my one technology thing. All the kids that I've seen on the computers, they do what they're supposed to. Yeah, the games I've seen them do those, but they're multiplication things. I don't know. It's But I also haven't seen that like specific website or whatever. Um, but mine is the teachers putting on like random what was it? The hydraulic press things where they watch things smash. I don't know. That kind of thing that I've seen in the classrooms and that kind of bothers me a little bit. >> Yeah. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. And I want to I want to go back to a comment I made before. I think the best um system of quote unquote accountability is not like a punishment system.
It's when you have the great teachers who stand up and say this is who we are as a school district. And in my experience, the great teachers are willing to stand up and say, you know, we're not going to just play ASMR crane smashing videos that this because we don't want the community to think. And it's like I think sometimes, you know, like with police departments, you see the videos of the of the bad police officers. And so the narrative is is all police officers are bad where I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of police officers in my experiences are are good people who want to do the right thing and firefighters and teachers as well. And so I think in my experience and me being uh a teacher as well at heart is that I think as a good teacher you don't want the community to view you as a bad person because there's narratives out there in the media about teachers as well.