Uh you know, he obviously he's a cliffside guy also. And uh like I said, uh he without him uh as Mr. Rinfist can attest, we probably wouldn't have uh been able to open school. Uh so kudos to uh Mr. Riggy. And then the last couple of pages, Mr. Lombardo, we're appointing affirmative action. And we've also, which you guys were kind enough to sign, I think the only one I didn't get from was Mr. Mr. uh the uh code of ethics acknowledgement form. Um that's that resolution and that's essentially the reorganization agenda for the upcoming year 2627. Each and every one of these resolutions, using one of these vendors and contractors, we have agreements, contracts, political affidavits, uh, certificates of insurance, W9s, New Jersey business certificates, and on and on, on and on. >> Those Russian statements, >> always Russia, anything over $1,000. I actually spoke with my auditor the other day.
We we do very well. Raise your hand if you We have dual enrollment, so over the last 5 years we were also we competed in the high school division and the college division winning both state championships and national medals. So, raise your hand if you were in the college division. So, pretty pretty pretty well, but it's our last year in college, unfortunately. All right, thank you. All right, big round of applause again. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Congratulations. Well guys. Well done. You guys are good guys. Oh, thank you very much. Just like Just like we we talk about with our with our color guard and everything, let's give a shout out to our instructors. Again, Mr. Adams, Mr. McDonald, Mr. Williams, thank you. Thank you very much. All right. And our next, I'd like to recognize members of our Higley Leadership Academy. If you're a member of HLA, would you come down, please, and go ahead and line up right in the middle.
So, our focus is keeping the school open and keeping it staffed. We should also think about keeping the school open and keeping it healthy. >> And and I just want to add a few things. So, we did have a new capital um draft book that'll be finalized at some point. We'll post it on the website, but that was not something that we had previously. Um, in order for me to pull together or or to just try to find some sort of capital plan. I found some things in a Google Drive document that referred to old projects. Um, but then those projects did not align to what was actually approved. So, I had to go back and find what was actually voted and approved. And it so it's been a little bit messy. Um, and so now I've got those things in in one document in one place, a place that facilities and I both have access to and we have the capital plan moving forward.
Um so in this prior example, we would have only counted A as a student's response, not B or both. In conclusion, the most important takeaways from this survey is that most students are aware of the health risks that come with nicotine usage and think that more awareness and harder access to nicotine are the most effective ways to address nicotine usage amongst youths like ourselves. It is also important to note that the reasons why the students believe youths take nicotine include peer pressure and stress or anxiety. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you.
Zurich with the ball. Zurich goes by two. He saw defenders gets the ball over to camp. South looking to take the ball in. gets the ball back up to camp. Over to Stevens. Over to Zurich. Zurich back up to the top to camp. Over to back to Zurich. Looks like South looking to take the last shot and there's only 10 seconds left as Vaughn with the ball gets the ball back up to camp. They better hurry up or they're not going to get a shot off. And they don't. And the Spartans go into halftime with a 9-3 lead. All right, we're back with second and half action as the Spartans taking a nine-to-3 lead. Mac Whiter with three goals, Lucy Parsons with three goals, Kylie Marino with two goals, Mary Devoy with a goal, Zurich with one goal. She had the long goal for the Tigers in the second quarter and camp had two goals for the Tigers in the first.
I said, "Is this still in in effect?" He goes, "Yes." Um, but the good news with those Russia forms is if you do 20 jobs, you only need one Russia form. It's for the initial $1,000. You don't need each and every project on each and every job. But, uh, I get the same questions from the contractor says, "Why do we need to fill this out? What is this Russia Bellarus thing?" And I said, "It's just a federal mandate." Uh, it's pretty simple. You check a box, you sign, you put your FID number in, and you're done. But it's it's been in play now for about Joe four or five years, right? So yeah, so we have all those we have just about everyone you see on this document. We have pretty much all of the documentation I just mentioned. What happens in a few weeks, we open up 2627 school year with systems 3000 and we can start uh encumbering doing purchase orders.
>> [applause] >> So, the Higley Leader Leadership Academy plays a key role in Higley Unified School District's commitment to growing leadership from within. The Academy emphasizes personal growth, collaboration, and servant leadership, preparing participants to make a lasting impact across HUSD schools and the broader community. 16 past program graduates have advanced into leadership and administrative roles. This year, we had about 20 participants in the program, and I'd really like to thank them for their dedication not only to what they did outside, but to the entire learning experience going through HLA. For those of you don't know, HLA is simply a way that we in Higley can help develop leadership. It doesn't depend Doesn't matter what your role is. If you want to become a better leader, we have an opportunity to do that. Mr. Fields and Mr. Armstrong have led this group this year, and I appreciate their efforts.
So, um, the maybe somebody knew about the sprinkler thing, but we didn't know and but now we do know and we'll add it um and then and continue to monitor and then every year going forward, I anticipate we'll have this capital plan and we'll update it accordingly and and bring it forth at the budget season. >> Okay. Thank you. Makes sense. So, we have these two motions and I guess I still have the question. Do you want to pay for the abatement out of our money this year or do you want to put that into a request to the town next year? Can we do the abatement and they reimburse us? >> Pardon? >> Can we do the abatement and they reimburse us? >> Uh, what John said to me is they typically will fund these kind inspections and things that have to be done for the building.
Do you have any questions? >> Hello, my name is Lava Ganapati Subraman. I am in ninth grade and a member of the youth prevention council. Uh I'm giving a testimony on what I've observed with the surveys that we've conducted plus uh with the stamp posters that we have hung up. Many of our students know the what we need what we need to do. >> Sorry. What we need most of the students know why what nicotine is what um what it does to your body as a young teenagers but most don't know what is the next step for change. So in my um my idea is to not only instead of spreading more prevention that you can also see is to go straight to the source. So going into um places where they sell nicotine and to spread awareness to the owners and uh spreading basically um showing that nicotine is bad and giving an idea.
Second half action is about ready to start back up. Hopefully the Spartans can clean up a little bit of that sloppiness that they had. Spartans pole vault girls are walking by >> get some late practice over there or they or they just had a meet. >> So Zurich and uh Whitler on a draw. Devoy and Marino on a circle. Balls up. Whitward comes out with the ball. M. Whitward goes in through one, two, making it look easy. Takes a shot off the post and M quickly scores a goal. 15 seconds into the second half to get her fourth goal. I'm sure she did that one for her father who's laid up on the couch right now somewhere watching it. Hope you're doing good, Todd. >> She does. She gets that draw. There's not too many people that are going to stop her off that. >> Yeah.
Obviously, we can't pay contractors until July, but we can start encumbering the funds. And that's important because you want to encumber as much as the funds as you can to really understand when the school year starts how much money you actually have to play with. We encumber all our salaries, all these contractors, and you realize that 70 plus million dollars comes down to a very, very, very small number very, very, very quickly. And it g it lends itself to understanding is that much of our budget is fixed. >> Lou, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but uh I was at a housing conference for a couple of days and state health benefits were there. Uh they're looking for January of 27 possibly at 39.6%. >> Yeah, I heard the same. >> I have a couple questions. Sure. >> On the agenda. Um first, Hold on.
And really, it's it's been great to see. Um I know that your gala uh was an outstandingly attended and I want to say thank you much for all the hard work you did on the outside. Just like the kids, you're Okay, here's what you're going to do. All right, you're going to introduce yourself, the position you currently hold within Higley, and how many years you've been in Higley. Okay? Because I think what you're going to see is this is not just a a principal preparation program, but this is a way that we can grow people throughout our district for leadership. Nina, start with you. Nina Francone, Human Resources, and I've been here at 3 and 1/2 years. Nikki Shepherd, I've been I'm at um a fourth grade teacher at Higley Traditional Academy, and I've been with HTA for 5 years. Megan Rivera, I'm at Gateway Point.
So, William, >> I was just going to say I would I'm assuming this abatement cost is going to continue to rise. So, if we wait a year, it's not going to be 20,000 plus going to be the money spent. I would I would prefer to, as Dr. Z has said, do the abatement. I think that's the best thing for the kids and the health and all that. um and then see if we couldn't get reimbursed, but know that we might not get reimbursed. But I think it's the right thing to do. And I don't know if as a school committee member I would be like, "No, I think we should leave the asbestous up for the children." I I I just don't know if I would like to. Even though they're saying it's not a health risk, it feels weird to then vote to continue having it here.
And when if youngsters show up to their stores or anyone that has siblings, elder um if they have adults, they should ask like do you have any younger like eyes that uh around you? Do you like try to prevent them like to spread the idea that this is not good and it should be uh more open-minded. So what our council has been thinking is to make small group sessions within our school or to create more uh to spread awareness by doing stickers or um making small gifts and like where people can hang up in their stores to say no to nicotine. Thank you.
We're in Zurich. Back on the draw. Mac self draws it again. Mac in and out of two girls by three. Gets the ball over to Sand. Sand air mills. Lucy Parsons there. Lucy Parsons throws the ball in. Emma Crims there to pick it up. Gets the ball over to Marino. Over to Witworth. Marino with the ball. Marino goes in through one, two, three. Blows one past the goalie. That was a good goal by Kylie Marino. Kylie Marino gets herself a hat-tick. goals in each of the first three quarters puts her total up to 50 or 15. Spartans will be looking to rely heavy on Marino going into the postseason play. goals like that. She'll need to be she'll be needing to do that against Minichog and West Springfield and into the States. Keep that up, Kylie. Whitward and Zurich once again and same outcome. M Whitler comes up with it.
>> On page 11, >> the second one from the bottom, it says uh recommended to approve leasing agreement between Southside Park and Inside Investments getting cable on a monthly basis in the amount of $25,000. Is that $25,000 a month or 25,000 for the year? >> 25. So, we're paying $300,000 a year for the trailers in number three school. >> Both trailers. Okay. >> The the 12 classrooms. >> So then >> since uh 2019. >> So then I want to just look at a couple of resolutions if the board would bear with me. Um, if we look at if we look at page eight and it's the fourth one from the top, >> mobile lease modular space payable on a monthly basis for a total of $135,000. >> Yes. >> For the trailers at school five. So, at school five, we're paying $135,000 a year just to rent those trailers.
I'm a special education teacher, and this is my seventh year in Higley. Valerie Enrique, I'm a benefits specialist here at the district office, and I've been with Higley for 4 years. Heather Gossler, I'm a teacher at Williams Field High School, and this is my 13th year in Higley. Alyssa Turner, I'm an academic coach at Bridges, and it's my 13th year in Higley. Um Jessica Hoguin, and I work at the district office. I'm the senior administrative assistant for special education. I've been here 13 years. I'm Kenny de la Rosa, assistant director of student services. I've been in Higley for 2 years. Heather Lewis, I'm at Sossaman Middle School. I'm an instructional coach, and I have been with the district for 16 years. Antonio Gayedos, I'm the systems administrator here at the the district office. Nathan Cushman, I'm a IT support analyst. I've been here 8 years.
That's just me, but I'm not a construction person. So maybe people with better construction knowledge might have a different take. >> I mean, I don't do >> If only we had a construction person on the committee. >> Any other comments, Rachel? >> I I have one more question for Shannon. Um, do you have a sense of where we're going to be ending the year in terms of like are we ending the year in the red, in the green? Do you know that? Um, >> barring any wild unforeseen things. >> That's a good question. Considering the meeting before, there are some thing fees. >> Yeah. Barring that kind of stuff. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, I would have um I'm going to have a better idea in June. And the reason for that being is the all of final purchase orders are due or requisitions to be submitted are due May 15th.
Um, any questions for them from the board? >> I have a couple questions. >> Mike, >> thank you very much. That was great. Um, I don't know who wants to answer these, but I have a few. Um uh was there any and if you said this I I apologize but was there any particular nicotine product that students were particularly um they felt more strongly about than others? >> You're on the spot. >> U many of the students that we've seen have been using vapes so or ecigarettes. >> Okay. So that was that would you consider that more uh overwhelmingly dangerous? >> Yes, it's very much um widely used in our school. >> Okay. >> If they have used it, >> are they using it in school? >> Yeah, some have been used in school but not that I've encountered but many of our some of our public spaces have been shut down due to the use of it.
Mac putting on a uh draw control display today. Gets the ball up to Mary Devoy. Mary Devoy turns around, fires one into Parsons. Parsons around the cage, gets the ball into Pelier. Peltier stays with it. Good job by Jane to stay with that play. Gets the ball behind the net to Crims. Crims goes around, turns around, takes a shot. Emma Crims gets herself a nice little goal. Crims rolls around the back of the cage, puts one in the back of the net. Emma Emma Criminals getting her fifth goal of the season. >> Spartans with five different goal scorers tonight. Spartans get one more goal of the running clock. Pelgro on a draw. Pelgro flicks one over. It'll be a redraw. Pelgrino gets the ball up. Camp comes away with it. Camp gets the ball over the restraining line. Still going. She's got ahead of Steve.