So, kudos, congratulations, good job. A lot of great things are going on at Huntington schools. So, it's I can't wait to have everyone know about it. Anything else? If not, I'm looking for a motion to adjournment. Thank you, Deb. Is there a second? I'll make that second. All in favor say I. I. Opposed same sign. We're
Any opposed? The school calendars have been approved. Thank you. 4.8, approval of the 26-27 proposed Board of Education meetings, Dr. Mulholland. I recommend the board approve the proposed Board of Education meetings calendar for the 2026-2027 year as submitted. All entertain a motion. Moved. So moved. Second. Properly moved, Ms. Puckett, and seconded, Ms. Dunn. If there are no final questions or comments, all in favor of the approval of the 26-27 proposed Board of Education meetings calendar say I. I.
And we just have to know that when we when we say we need certain things, we need them for a reason. They align to our goals, our mission, our objectives, right? And when we when we don't, it's okay. We'll make it work, but it just might not work as effectively as we'd hoped. But we'll get there. Or we'll we'll we'll we'll have to reimagine, too, and we'll do a lot of that. Um but there are certain things we can't do in-house. Um and so we will we will look carefully at that. We might be able to get that through some other grant funding. We'll we'll just look and we'll try to find and we'll try to replace, but I I just don't know. I can't guarantee that. >> Well, I agree, and I didn't mean to imply that we weren't like the outside training wasn't important.
Um similar to other districts, we have this kind of guiding document that really becomes our North Star as our buildings are working through a variety of things to support our students and our families every day. What's unique to us as we go through away is our rights and responsibilities is really all encompassing for all of our schools across the entire district. So, we don't have individual student handbooks that differ between building or level. This really becomes our guiding kind of administrative procedures, if you will, rooted in, you know, that day-to-day operations application for our buildings. So, when we talk about what that looks like, we really want to have that, you know, whole perspective from how our community interfaces with this document down to our individual students who are seeing themselves in this document. So, just to kind of highlight again, when we look at this document, it really is all encompassing of our 24 schools and programs that spans over our six different municipalities in this district.
But um they have shared with us, hey, our friend is she's upset her boyfriend broke up with her. She's she says she wants to commit suicide. Hey, so and so is mad. They're going to have a fight such and such location. So, we're able to intervene with those and and keep those from happening. Um, the other thing I didn't mention is we check everyone that comes in the front door, make sure they got their lanyard on. Um, make sure they're authorized to be here in the building. We also check and stop any adult that would come into the building. Uh, get them to the proper office that they need to be to. Um, and so that's what we we're interacting with the staff. How can we better assist you? What can we do? Uh if we have questions about a student, uh what do we need to know about uh this student?
Any opposed? Our 26-27 proposed Board of Education meetings calendar is approved. Thank you. 4.9, approval of the amendment of the cancellation of outstanding checks, Mr. Miles. Thank you, Madam President. I recommend the board approve the amended cancellation of checks as submitted. I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Second. Properly moved, Ms. Lawrence, and seconded, Ms. Puckett. If there are no final questions or comments, all in favor of the approval of the amendment of cancellation of checks outstanding say I. I.
This also speaks to the fact that like one of the biggest questions at the round table comments today, we need to make sure we're investing in not only our students, but in our educators. And if we continue to take these huge hits, that the quality of our educators, our our schools, is at some point going to teeter. So we really need to as we move into next year's budget, now that you're here for the good fight, and we as a board need to really, you know, recognize our role in making sure as we work through the strategic plan and how to make investments and really fight for those investments for next year. And that is the kind of thing where I think is going to be really key in future years to fight. >> And I think if we're we're forward-thinking as well, right? Like legislative session is still ongoing.
And that, you know, it's like that bottom column there is really powerful with the number of students and staff and families and community members um that are interfacing with this document, but remembering that at the end of the day, it comes down to that one shared purpose, which which really is our students. So, to just kind of set the stage before we start to really get into it, as uh Mr. Bell mentioned, this, you know, rights and responsibilities document that really, you know, comprehensive 70-page document that you have in front of you, you will notice um that it is definitely still in draft form. Um that's the purpose of bringing it to you all tonight. Um when you flip through that, and if you're looking at it or viewing it from home, anything that you see in red is the proposed changes um and/or room removal, excuse me, um from our building, from our families, from our students, from our administrators.
How can we better serve them? How can we we help them? Um I will tell you one thing on the lanyards that the kids, a lot of them don't like it, a lot of them do. Oh, they've already left. They were probably nervous about me coming up here and seeing them without their lanyards on. But um some of them make it a game. They want to play with us. They want to try to trick us. Make us make them think they don't have it. But we've gotten to the point where we we interact with these students in such a way where they'll come in. Student come in one day and I called her by name and I said, "Uh, where's your lanyard?" She goes, "Bruh, you know me by name. Why why do I have to put my lanyard on?" I said, "You know, we're just enforcing the rules." But, um, we have had a a great relationship with the students.
Any opposed? All right, the outstanding check cancellation has been approved. All right, 4.10, approval of the board Oh, did I jump ahead of you? No, you're good. Nope, Madam President, I move that we treat action items 4.10 and through 4.15 as consent agenda. All right, do we have a second? Second. All right, all in favor of treating action items 4 points Sorry, 10 10 to 4.15 as consent agenda. Say I. I.
There's still a few tweaks that are being had, and once that's over, we're going to be speaking about that, right? And when you think about the the career technical education pathways now and how they were being revised, and so we we take something here at the high school like our home economics program, and we really look to maybe be more future thinking and transition that to a hospitality program that's more encompassing. We would need to not only do significant upgrades to facilities piece, so that would be like a capital improvement area we have to consider, but then there's professional learning that goes along with that to help support that whole program coming to life, right? And that's just one small segment of that whole kind of career pathways that that we're starting or needing to explore. Like what do we currently have? How well is it working?
Anything that you see in kind of that purple text is a addition or recommendation or proposed edit by our legal partners. So, I just wanted to kind of set the stage. Um keep in mind as well that page numbers um may seem off. We don't change page numbers until the very, very end because some of those graphics that are embedded are, you know, on the back end in a different program. So, just keep that in mind, too. All right, just a quick overview and I'm not going to read all of these to you, but we wanted to just kind of paint the picture of of what this team, um, in collaboration with, you know, the district and the community was able to do with this document since our kind of, you know, inception of the of this team. So, thinking back to 2024-25, which was our first year really together, um, in terms of Mr.
Um, watched uh they wanted us come watch their senior projects. They show us pictures of their um prom dresses, their senior pictures and all those sorts of things. So, for me, it's an overall good experience and I hope that everyone here sees that as well. >> Thank you so much for keeping our school safe. I have also been called bruh a time or two. So, our SRO's and SSOs help keep our buildings safe and our transportation staff are also pivotal in student safety. We have 81 bus drivers at BCSSE. They serve the community community with 800 years of experience. We do have 90% retention of our bus drivers for the past three years, which is a drastic increase from previous with uh referendum funds there as well. And did Greg Lewis did you leave me? He's going to come speak about transportation. Thank you. Good evening.
Any opposed? All right. I move approval of consent agenda. Second. All right, moved by Ms. Puckett and seconded by Ms. Lawrence. All in favor of the approval of the consent agenda for 4.10 to 4.15 say I. I. I.
And what do we need more of or how do we need to maybe shift what we currently have to be more modernized and really prepare students to be able to leave workforce ready. I I don't know and those are the things we need to explore, but those are investments and yes, at times they're reallocations, but but there are investments that go along with the reallocation. It's a combination and I think we just need to start really researching that, bringing it to the table and talking about it and looking at what that's going to cost. >> And and I and I think that's fair. I mean, I I struggle a little bit with the professional development. For me it's kind of and not being in education, it's a very generalized bucket. Is it professional education in required credits, right? To continue to keep your certifications and things.
Bell and myself and some of our wonderful team members, is really taking that document and and we wanted to make sure it was user-friendly. Um, so as you flip through it, you'll see some graphics, you'll see some visuals, you'll see some different restructuring. We really wanted to make sure there was table of contents and and it was easily, um, as much as it can be when you're talking about 70, you know, pages of procedure, that it was easily, um, manipulated by our students and families and administrators and buildings and staff that are using this document. Um, some of the highlights when we think about 20 the 25-26 school year, which was last year, was once it was user-friendly, then we wanted to make sure it actually reflected our students. We wanted to show the great work that the district was doing around portrait of a learner.
Um, so yeah, I am here to speak about this essential investment in our students and our staff um and in their success and their safety. I do it with a couple of unique perspectives. One from a certified staff perspective and one from a classified staff perspective. Um, briefly on the certified staff perspective, I don't have a lot more to add after Aaron Lenot and Brad Brandham did such a good job, but I'm a 30-year I was a 30-year social studies teacher in BCSSC, 28 of those at Columbus East, 22 years as the department chair. Since retiring at the end of the 2022 school year, my department that I left is unchanged and it represents uh 118 years of experience and all but one of them have been there at least for the last nine years. So, um, and I know I could I didn't do a lot of research, but I know we have a high number of AP and dual credit courses and and I know that um the the referendum has played an important role in uh allowing that continuity and that commitment to excellence to continue and flourish in in the social studies department.
Any opposed? The consent agenda has been approved. And now we will move on. Thank you, board, to our administrator and board comments. Would somebody like to volunteer to go first tonight? I know there's been a lot going on since we last met. I'm happy to go. Uh, I'll I'll make this really brief because I know all of us want to get home. Um, but I just I had the opportunity over the weekend to attend uh, some some music competitions, and I know many of our students in performing arts have been uh, very diligent as they've gone into their ISMA season. So I just wanted to congratulate all of those individuals. I also uh, this week had the opportunity I guess last week had the opportunity to attend a Communities in Schools program at Fall Creek Valley Middle School where our site uh, leader uh, Ms.
Is it professional education in to your point creating a new strategy or a new program to move forward in the district? To me I think we need to take it a level higher. Like what's our 10,000 foot view for professional development? Where? How do we want to invest in forward looking? I think your home ec example just now was great. Like that's what I would be looking for, right? Cutting 25,000 dollars from a professional development budget seems significant, but is it retraining and courses that we've already had? Probably not. But what what what are those specific impacts? Are we giving up the ability to transform a Home Ec program to a hospitality program, for example? I know that's not the case, but that >> So yeah, that that wasn't even on the table yet, but if we got to get there. So yeah, if I could answer that, I think you're right.
We wanted to make sure that all of our student populations were represented within this document, making sure that we highlighted on some of our students that are, um, you know, in, uh, DCFS, youth in care, um, experiencing, um, the lack of, you know, consistent and stable housing. We wanted to make sure that there was relevant information in there for every single one of our students. Last year was also our first year where we did a comprehensive review with each department across the district, you know, working with diverse learners, working on our harmful language protocol, working with HR on Title IX. So, there was a lot of collective work and collective ownership across the district. That brings us to this year, um, and I'm just going to highlight, you know, high overview of of some of the the major changes, if you will, but again, as you flip through that document, you will see that there is a lot in there.