They do so much. It's probably one of the best groups that I've ever worked with, had the pleasure of working with. Um I've been with uh Naxspen for 9 years and I believe the everybody has around six to seven. So, we've been together for a really long time. So, it's it's almost become, you know, team {slash} family. So, you know, it's great. We get a lot done and we they learn a lot. We we all learn a lot all the time. So, I just wanted to go over a few things uh that we've done over the year. Um one of the big things that we did is the back end of the network, we redid everything. Uh new switches, new cabling, everything like that that basically provides internet data everything here that allows us to get out to any of the shares networks internet. So, we redid all that.
We need to be able to support them. They're all of our students. And then something as small as you know we had MCCAST today. Does that individual student have a dictionary you know in their language? And so I do big picture, but I also deal with the day-to-day in the classroom or if a student um if if a teacher needs to figure out how many minutes a student needs, they will message me and say, "What is your recommendation? What does the state say?" And so I'm involved in all areas of of of um MLE or ELELLL students um to be able to provide them with um the access to our curriculum, be able to provide them with um support inside and outside of school. Um we do after school um biliteracy club on Mondays at forever. >> Um and we are able to provide them with an hour of English tutoring as well as an hour in their language, their native language.
Third thing was going to be the storm water issue and the fourth thing was going to be the wetlands issue in that order. And um so we have a peer reviewer for the wetlands. We have a peer reviewer for the flood plain and the storm water. But we have to get through the contamination first. And once we get that information, we will decide whether we need a peer reviewer to review that information as well. We don't have that currently uh because we don't know what we're reviewing with regard to contamination. We we have um uh as I said, we have peer reviewers for the flood plain, the storm water, and the wetlands. Those peer reviews have not been completed yet because we haven't gotten through contamination yet. That make sense? It makes sense and also brings up the other thought was when you when this committee went [clears throat] on a site [snorts] um site trip.
Our community connections began when Miss Church reached out to the nonprofit organization Sing Me a Story in what was the beginnings of a new composition written by Wheaten College sophomore Kyle Ducharm. This piece was written um in memory of Nicholas Joseph or as we know him, Big Nick. The family was overwhelmed by the tribute and wrote the spoken words that were presented during the performance of the piece. Additionally, we featured connections to famous artist Albert Berstat from New Bedford, whose work on the uh was inspiration for O to the Plains of Wild Horses running. High school students went on a field trip to the Wayin City Museum and New Bedford Public Library to see and learn more about some of his works in person. We collaborated with the po uh with the poet >> Laurate thank you uh of New Bedford Sarah Jane Ferrer. We featured women in music and lastly brought in composer Thomas Jenkins for the world premiere of his piece titled Wales.
They had only had three attackers. As Agawam is still down a player. Great stick check by Avery Morgado. As Rozario comes up with it. Loses it. Ball's still loose. Hannah Eddy fighting for it. And good job by Hannah Eddy to come up with that ball. She takes off down the sideline. She's met by two two brownies. She gets the ball over to Veronica Burns. Burns all the way over to the other switches fields over to Mack Whitwer. And then we'll watch Mack Whitwer go through everybody. He gets the ball over the restraining line. Goes through one, goes through two, turns around, fires a shot point-blank. That's tough for any goalie to save as Mack Whitwer scores her fourth goal to put the Spartans up 8-1. Scoring that goal with a man down. Spartans up 8-1. Still 3 minutes left to play in the uh first quarter.
For this distribution, eligible teacher will receive performance pay per teacher based on approved performance criteria in compliance with state requirements. All payments are subject to proper documentation in alignment with allowable uses of classroom site fund monies. You have the uh the attachment uh right there for you to to see. This has more uh details about performance pay, positive parent contacts 50%, eligibility requirements pre-K through sixth grade, 80% of parents the homeroom class needs to be contacted, documentation supporting that. 7th through 12th grade, 80% of the parents from the designated class, special education teachers 80% of families of caseload. Um also uh the documentation can include phone, in person, email, ClassDojo. Also talks about the attempt three attempted messages. Documentation requirement also part two student grade improvement as measured by a smart goal, either by a performance matters that the quarterly assessments, DIBELS assessment, teacher created tests, and project-based learning, and um I know Ms.
That's your capital allocation. It's also paid on a a per ADM basis. Um so that 269,000 we were just $78 off in terms of our budget estimate from the adopted So that 269 217 that's what you get appropriated annually from the state in terms of capital funds. The next line is your budget balance carry forward. This is what you've been carrying over as a contingency or carry forward. Um the district did make some time investments. If you recall uh we had uh investment into um security camera system right that that's those are expended from capital funds. Um, but that is a one-time investment and that's good for about uh that's a 10-y year license on those cameras. And so it's pretty normal to see again a capital um ad and flow as you make some of these one-time uh investments. And then the add-ons, that's interest earned.
That's nobody else's bad but mine. And walking in integrity in my in my own integrity with honoring that word, right? So it goes back to what Katie said that integrity is very important but integrity in context of this is literally that >> Mr. Man. >> Yeah. Thank you President Curio. I I this has really gotten me thinking because I think about the work we do in the district and um the connection between the governing board, the governing board meetings and the you know the day-to-day work. And so, um, one of the things that this has really spurred for me is I I, you know, having been, you know, I've had Miss Miss Shapiro's chair here for almost a decade and then I've been in the superintendency now um for close to three years and working with the executive team in both of those roles. One of the things that I know that happens in an organization is in a board meeting, there's limited ability to have a conversation because you we have open meeting law.
But it was the longest. And then we had a little conclusion where we shared ideas and we shared one word that we described our experience. I'm pretty sure I used mine as a static cuz I was so excited to just be there and learn about the ideas of other people. So, we have Samira to share three new things she gained from this. >> So, um overall, this experience was really fun, like being able to communicate with other like high school students who have different opinions where you can learn from them and also share your opinions, too. And some stuff I learned was many different programs that other high schools had and it was just like internships and other subjects with like direct applications. Like something interesting was that one school had a um construction math class, so it was just where you could go to construction sites and learn how to use math and apply it in real-world applications.
It's a big Yeah. So, we have a lot to cover. Um So, that's just for your information, just kind of get a picture of what what the education fund. And then, I wanted to give you this year's numbers just so you could see, you know, by school the fall count and the spring count. And since So, the spring count it's called spring count, but it's actually in February. Beginning of February, but um So, since that count in February, we've went down 16 students. Um Do we know where where Do they home school or go to home school? >> Since February or since Since February. Mhm. When I looked on April 28th, that's those were the numbers, and that was down 16 from And And typically, what you see is it does come from the junior senior high school. So, what happens sometimes is is that you may have some dropouts, you may have some so far behind in credit recovery that they withdraw, or they go to virtual.
Are there any questions or comments? Question. In retirements, do we have have I said about the average number? We have a larger number, smaller number? >> the average over the last three or so years. Um used to be considerably higher, but we have seen a smaller amount for about the last three or four years. Thank you. Any other questions or comments?
Um the speeds are much faster now. We've actually looked at those and they're showing much faster. Uh we were able to set it up in a proper way that where we have core equipment now. So, that's a great and it's able to handle the traffic that we need to handle. Which then each building is set up as own little island. So, we know where that traffic exactly is coming from. Makes our lives a lot easier and also kind of lowers the congestion rate. So, there's not a lot of uh communication going across everything. So, that's been an awesome uh project to finish up and get that in. Um let's see. Chromebooks. As far as the Chromebooks, uh we processed uh 352 repairs to date. So, uh on top of that, we've also the help desk uh 658 tickets have been closed. And this is all since August 1st.
Um and then we are also um offering summer achievement academy for ELLL students. Um, and so we will do K to three and then we are looking at having a sum summer achievement academy at the secondary level as well because a lot of >> Yes, go ahead, Dr. Z. >> And I was going to say, how would the community, how would a parent who wants to sign their child up for that program, you know, um, sign up? Where would they get in contact with you? >> So, yeah, that's the tricky part. So, right now, we were sending out messages um, through Parent Square, and we know that not everyone is able to access that. So then on my to-do list this week and next week cuz I have some deadlines um is I'm going to be have to call the homes to be able to make sure that the families receive the message and and be able to provide that we do serve breakfast and lunch during these programs.
Mhm. Site walk. And that was not exactly successful in communications either. The The was basically if if I was told right that they they did not either show not show up or they showed up ill-prepared for what what the committee was looking for in that site brief site site review. Is that true? Well, the site We did have a site walk a number of weeks back. Um Ooh. We spoke about that at the last hearing. Um we weren't allowed to go into the building, which was disappointing to at least this commissioner. Um I can't speak for the rest of the commissioners because the building is part of the site. Uh we weren't allowed to go in there. So it was it was um less than satisfactory for some of us. And we would really we have requested to do a subsequent one. They haven't agreed to that yet.
These ties to our community were intentional, meaningful, and strongly connected through the different field trips, student kindness activities, and a classroom environment that enabled students to thrive in their roles to organize and produce this concert. We have four student speakers from the middle school to share with you their experiences preparing and participating in this event. Please let me introduce to you our first speaker, Brenda Doss Santos, followed by Kylana, Claire, and Taylor. Good evening. My name is Brenda Dos Santos. I've been playing the violin for two years and we are here to represent the I've Got Your Back concert. Through orchestra, I've learned a lot, but two main takeaways I have from the program are discipline and passion. Learning an instrument isn't easy. I face frustration multiple times, but I stay motivated by remembering why I started playing the violin. And with the support from my teachers, I'm able to acknowledge my mistakes and fix them.
Kylie Marino on a draw along with Mack Whitwer and Mary Devoy on a circle. Ball goes >> [cheering] >> up as Giovanni comes up with it, gets the ball over to Pazinski. Pazinski gets the ball back over to Giovanni. And she's looking to start up the Brownies offense. Giovanni tries to go in, tries to go by Mack Whitwer, is double-teamed by Kylie Marino. She kicked it out over to Curto. Curto over to Sharess. Sharess tries to feather in the middle to Mahoney. Ball comes dislodged. There's a penalty on Pazinski and Morgado comes up with it. Gets the ball to Gray. Gray gets it over to Burns. Burns gets one down the sideline over to Lucy Parsons. Parsons does a little hop, skip, goes through two of the Brownies, gets the ball over the restraining line. Parsons still with the ball. Gets the ball over to Peltier.
Misad phone is working with the teachers right now to make sure um all the documentation is in place and um I don't think we have those supporting documents. We don't. I don't have that? Okay. I know we uh we don't I'll make sure to put that in there, right? Classroom site fund performance pay allocation. Let me need share the video, Angelina, The the plan that you just read. What do we do? Classroom site fund, performance payout, they don't have that as an attachment. I don't Yeah, I never got anything. Okay. Let's let's We'll we'll we'll send that to you. You can get that on And you'll have that, yeah. We'll have it for you now and Wednesday. Absolutely. Is there anything else on that item? That's pretty much it. She's just getting the documentation and I'm checking everybody and she's going to go through it and then Ms.
You can you can uh recollect the budget capacity from any interest earned. So when you do have a healthy uh carry forward or contingency, you're collecting interest on that and then you get to add that back onto your budget in the capital fund. So right now you're sitting at just over a million dollars in capital funds uh in a small adjustment 47,000 from your adopted budget. Again, mostly coming from the budget balance carry forward. >> I didn't see that. And so you have a question. >> Could you just go back once late? Is that possible? So the adopted budget we we budgeted we said 1 million 56 and then in the the actual budget 1008 but the in the red said the difference is 7,000. I'm sorry I didn't see that right. I didn't see the five. I >> went 1 million. >> Yeah. Okay.
you have to be posted to have a conversation about something. And so you rarely get the full spectrum of the board's perspective or opinion on things. And while the board is five individual members, that each member technically doesn't have any authority. The board only has authority as a body. Um, it often still leaves the staff wondering like what's the board thinking like because obviously as staff members, as members of the team here, what our goal is is we want to make sure that not only are we creating conditions that um create improved outcomes for our students, but we also are here to serve a community and the board represents that community. So the challenge that I see happen sometimes is when there isn't when there isn't self-discipline around something that's maybe the interest of of one or two board members. Um and those things become these sort of larger conversations that overshadow the amount of time that we're spending on the student outcomes work.
And that seemed really a fun opportunity. And then I also learned about more like after-school prep for ACTs and APs and other classes like that. I feel like it was so interesting learning about other things that other schools does and talk about the stuff that our school does, too. And then like ACT preps that we have and AP stuff we do, like AP preps for science classes. And that was really fun being able to share my opinion as well. And going on to diverse opinions, I feel like I was able to learn about multiple perspectives on how to use AI and cell phones and that was really valuable about learning how other schools used um had different cell phone and AI policies on how to use AI in a way that can help you grow and not really stifle your creativity. And another really fun thing was learning about like belonging and how to um reduce chronic absenteeism and learn how different schools approach um creating a sense of belonging and I feel like South is one of this great school that like really shows the importance of um being a Mustang and or um being a part of like this DGS DGN community.