Um and we also brought several new programs this year. Um Mrs. Pennetti started monthly school assemblies where students are actually the presenters at those assemblies. There's some workshops ahead of time between upper and lower grade students. So, that was really exciting. Uh we started with Blazer Bucks. We got involved with the Harlem Wizards um game with Man Spawn this year and that was very positive. Um and we tried to bring some parent education programs out. Uh we presented at BPAC. Uh we did an early literacy presentation for kindergarten parents. So, you know, we continue to try to, you know, work on this goal. And you know, the way that uh this budget allows us to continue that is we house two full-time guidance counselors here who have been really instrumental in in working with our students and the resources for the programs that we have put in place are prioritized and maintained in this budget.
Where it was crowded. They both look happy now, don't they? But just right. It was crowded, but just right. It made both of them feel better to be together. Mittens was a lot of work, but he was worth it. And so, with plenty of exercise, loads of training, Mittens sit. Good boy. Look, she's been reading books about how to take care of her pet and how to train him. So, you were right. You said earlier that you should get some training for Mittens. And lots of family outings. Hi there, Mrs. Phillips. The Rex family learned how to be great pet owner or pet owners from Mittens. And in return, Mittens learned how to be not quite as much trouble. He still get a little excited. Yes. But he was learning. He would never be an easy pet. But Penelope Rex did not love an easy pet.
>> Yeah. [laughter] I mean, back in the day, I was not old enough. >> Yeah. So, you were buying candy, [laughter] >> trying to catch them. >> Yeah. Um, do you you know then that um and I don't know Mr. Goldberg could probably share a little bit of the history of the store. I think it it would be nice for the community to hear that if you don't mind. Um talk about how many years you I think your father started that store in this community and your uncle. >> You have to step to the microphone so that way they [laughter] can hear you. This is this is historical. We need to I know you don't like to speak publicly. I know that. >> William Goldberg. Mostly my address is 197 Main Street here in Ashland. I reside in Hoffington. The history of Ashland public market is uh I'll be as brief and concise as I can [snorts] uh succinct rather is in 1917 my grandfather's brother-in-law asked him for a $2,000 loan to buy a business and a house in Ashland.
Uh so, if if people have any questions, please just raise their hand and I'll I'll pause. Um so, that is what an override is. It allows a community to go above the 2 and 1/2 percent increase um allowed under Proposition 2 and 1/2. And so, again, the number that we're using is $2,750,000 going towards the Ashland public schools. But, if you look at our budget, you'll see increases associated with other departments as well. And just to tie it back into the stabilization fund article from Article 2, when I talked about the $750,000 um that would be going towards town departments, um that's what is essentially um paying for some of the other increases that you see here. Um and I will just go over some of the larger ones. So, for example, our assessor's office is going up $57,000. Um and from a percentage basis, it's almost 20%.
Williams trying to shake the defender. Passes to Hartnett. Hartnett over to Olson. Olson back. Spalding to Schneider. Schneider over to Motley. No Lustig out in this game. Hopefully she's all right. Oh, nearly hitting the net. Got deflected somehow. Actually, is uh the warm-up music DJ today. Should have asked how she's doing, but I thought for sure she's going to be playing. >> [cough] >> Good pass in right here. And some good tunes in the warm-up music. Oh, right there. Oh my goodness, Schneider. So close. Williams now with it. Fires it over to Hartnett. Back to Motley. Motley, oh, what a goal. Motley to Williams. And Williams gets her hat trick. Wow. That's a well-earned hat trick early in the game. Yeah, all all coming in the second quarter for her. 7:20 left to go in the second. 8 to 2 right now. What is that called?
Um I'm proud to report that this year 723 students um who took our exploration seminar all attempted our careers safe times safe micro credential. Also in the second half of the year um for second semester all students who were in good standing were offered the opportunity to take a post university class and we currently have 34 first year freshman students who are taking college courses and can potentially earn three college credits at the end of this school year. So those are some of the things to highlight that we're really proud of. Moving on. Um I do feel very proud at the fact we are wrapping up year three. So this work began in the exploration academy three years ago. Those are our first year kiddos that are now juniors. Um and we have pretty much solidified and created a system where every freshman in the last three years has been exposed to these experiences.
Um suspension, again, a little more serious. You can be suspended from your board for whatever period of time they recommend, 30 days, 60 days. And then the most serious, of course, is removal. Advice of counsel defense. So, this is a little tricky. So, you may have something that you're thinking about doing and you reach out to your board attorney for advice and your board attorney says, "Yeah, hey, go ahead. Do whatever thing you wanted to do." But then somebody files a complaint and it is found to be a violation of the School Ethics Act. You can use the advice of counsel defense as long as it meets all of those four factors. And it's a very fact specific and very case specific and they'll consider it for the uh the penal- the penalty but not for whether you violated it. the code of uh Now we will get into some cases specific cases.
If we're looking at our third goal, which is our technology tools. We've done a lot of work in this area over the past few years. And this year we really took a big step by removing away from systems 3000 for HR, payroll, and budget. And we are also transitioning from Frontline to Genesis for our teacher evaluation platform. So we find Genesis is, you know, in operation in many many New Jersey school districts. And it is cost effective. So we are definitely saving money by making this transition to Genesis. I commend Ms. Quickley for going with payroll and budget in a whole new system. And our admin office staff also has been working really hard behind the scenes to make all of those changes. There's a lot that happens in order for this to go smoothly. We replaced Impero with a para, which is our system that we use to monitor student activity.
She loved Mittens. Here's is Penelope laying down and Mittens on top of her. I'm glad you're you, Mittens, and not a pony. Mhm, ponies. Here are some pictures. What did you think of Penelope Rex and the problem with cats? Kind of fun, isn't it? And you can get some other stories about Penelope and different adventures she has at your library. So, if you enjoyed reading about Penelope the Tyrannosaurus Rex, ask your mom or dad to take you to the library and get another book about her. And it's written by Ryan T. Higgins. I hope you enjoyed our stories today and remember Memorial Day is coming up and maybe you can do something. You could always write a thank you card to um some of the veterans or you could put out flags or go to a parade. So, I hope you have a wonderful day and remember to keep reading and I hope to see you again on Calling All Kids.
two years later instead of he that brother-in-law instead of paying him back suggested that John Goldberg be a partner with him. That happened in 1919. So since 1919 uh the Goldberg family has had a business in Ashland and uh it's gone through many different changes over the years and just now it's time to let someone else have a uh chance to to make it into their vision. >> Yeah, >> that's it. >> That's there's a lot of history we can't say on >> No, no, no. We we need to Yeah, we Yeah, we'll let that for another day, >> right? >> You know, >> but that's pretty much it. We've been in in town uh really since 1917. And we bought the uh my grandfather's brother-in-law bought the business from a man named Johnny Jones. >> And uh Johnny >> one day while I was in the town hall, they had the display out in the first floor and there was actually a sales receipt, >> Johnny Jones.
And that is because they're moving to a new software system that ultimately is going to be making us more efficient and will eventually save us um time and money. The police and fire department, as I mentioned, would be going up $400,000. So, $100,000 to add an additional officer and $300,000 to add an additional four five fire Excuse me, four firefighters in the fire department. Um four firefighters would allow us to put on one additional firefighter per shift. Um and we're doing that because we're seeing the increase in population. Um our firefighters are also paramedics. Um and so uh you know, their ability to manage simultaneous calls is limited based on their staffing. Um so that is why we are looking to increase that. Um veteran services, you'll see increase this $34,000. And I want to be clear, that is for direct services to our veterans.
Like a true hat trick? Uh, it's all in one quarter. Or something like Yeah, I thought it was the first period in hockey, but >> god. I wasn't sure if it was just a any single period. Maybe. Check that out. Ask ChatGPT. All right, here we go. Sachs coming down, going towards the middle. Oh my gosh. It went in. Sachs with absolutely That she did that It was magical. It's like she had a magic wand out there with a ball attached to it. She had like all the defenders all over her. And uh It looked like she was getting mean mugged and came out with with the goal. She came out miraculously found a shooting lane. Like Yeah, literally with with no light except that tiny bit and she found it. Mhm. So now it is 9 to 2 with 7 minutes left in the second half.
Um and so you have um we have our exploration seminar this year. 98% of our students took the exploration seminar in the first semester of school and so um and you students who did not are or are students who came in too late into the second semester. We have a 90% pass rate which is pretty um good in comparison to other courses offered at Danbury High School. Our freshman forum on substance abuse prevent pre prevention has been going on for years and we have a system to um continue that. Actually this year it was our student ambassadors who led the panel and and asked all the questions on that night of our freshman forum. Um we have quarterly celebrations. We continued our teaming model from the traditional freshman academy and um teams are meeting to celebrate students at the end of every quarter. really focusing on that, you know, passing our that on-track criteria that I showed you in the previous slide.
Again, if you see the C there, you can look all these up and I think when you get the PDF of this, I believe they are linked that you might be able to click on, but if not, you can look all of them up on the school ethics commission website and we give you the web address at the end of this. These are just a couple of um of examples. The bottom one I I do go and I cite a lot at board meetings because I think it's just an example of how easy it can be to violate to get a violation uh and it's parent that was involved with CPAC, which is a great organization. It's a special education parents advisory group. But they used their board email to send an email about the CPAC meeting and they found that that was, you know, giving a justifiable question that their objectivity was uh impaired.
Mr. Greenfield was instrumental in working with us on that. We've expanded the use of Parent Square as a notification system for parents. A lot of our teachers are using that on a regular basis. We are exploring the transition from LinkIt, which we use for benchmark student assessment data, also to Genesis. Genesis is coming out with its own benchmark platform. And you know, they it looks like they're going to do a very nice job for a much lower cost. So we're very interested in exploring it. And the interesting thing about this new Genesis platform is it can, you know, work with data such as like attendance data and how many minutes a kid is out of a classroom and pull in a lot of the data points that are already stored in our student information system and then tie them to benchmarks that can also be brought here.
And I I took a picture of it. Of course, I don't know where that picture is now, but uh [laughter] but that's it. That's that's the long and short of it. So, a 100redyear plus business in town. Sure. Sure. Nine. >> Yeah. Very nice. And uh I'm sure that the owners have a lot to uh be thankful for. You have you have a you have big shoes to fill >> and uh I'm sure you'll do just fine. And uh Bill, publicly, I just want to thank you and your family for the number of years that you've been very supportive over the years to all the different groups in town that have come and asked for assistance. Uh you never said no. you always said yes and it was it's always greatly appreciated. Um welld deserved rest. I hope you enjoy your time off. I hope you play golf.
Um which we actually get reimbursed from the state um a significant amount of, but it doesn't happen until the next fiscal year. Um I mentioned before the public buildings and proper in uh public buildings and grounds department. Um and s- basically standing up a um a legit department as opposed to um basically um a division within a department. Um and that would be the uh the funding for that would go towards paying for a director to provide some of the long-term strategic planning associated with things like preventive maintenance, making sure things are fixed before they get broken. It's just like with the car, you you know, you want to make sure that you maintain your car, change your oil, rotate your tires, although I never managed to rotate my tires. Um all of that stuff. Um that helps save money in the future. Right? So if you do the preventive maintenance, helps save money in the future.
Raiders starting to really take it to Ursuline. Yeah, they really just I mean started off pretty good in this second. They're just They're just really opening up the floodgates now. I feel bad for Lacey. Here's Schneider behind the net. Passes up to Hartnett. Gets it though off the bounce. Bringing it back to safety. Passing to Spalding. Spalding up to Williams. Williams trying to go in. Passes it and what a goal from Molly. Yeah, she she just was gunning for the front of the net right there. And finished the play all the way. Yeah, Molly getting her second goal. Just I mean as you see here this team's just rolling on all cylinders right now. Yeah, they're mighty impressive this season. I think it's six and two on the year so far. Yeah, it is. They just started off like on fire and haven't really stopped.
We partner with Mnt Bank and Junior Achievement and we have had a financial reality fair um for the last two years where our students come in and they're given um kind of like a mock career and budget and they go through a simulation of making financial decisions. We had our career expo for the third year where we had over 50 partners. We hosted it here at West and we were able to also um give all of our ninth graders the opportunity to tour West. We've had motivational speakers and I mean like worldrenowned motivational speakers come and speak to our freshmen this year just promoting making good choices and um you know future planning. And then we also had a big reveal day to reveal which pathway each freshman got into this year. coming to round off the end of the year. We will be taking every single freshman on a on a college field trip.