Martin? >> I. >> Motion passes 5-0. We're very excited with this vote. We will turn to Dr. Mitchell to welcome new administrators to our district. >> Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, President Serone, Vice President Martin, and Superintendent Dr. Kilgati, and members of the Board of Education. As Dr. Kilgati mentioned, I'm excited to bring two district administrators for your approval this evening. Our first is Dr. Amelia Herrera. She is a recommended candidate for the Director of Student Services, the K-8 position. Dr. Herrera brings a depth of experience, proven leadership, and a clear commitment to student-centered learning that makes her a strong candidate for the director role. Her track record includes successful leadership as a building principal, climate and culture and SEO coach, and assistant director of pupil personnel services, where she demonstrated the ability to enhance strong, lasting educational practices for the future. Dr. Herrera's experience in coaching, mentoring, and data-informed decision-making positions positioned her to build capacity in other leaders.
Is there any discussion? All those in favor? That motion carries 5-0. Congratulations. I'll go ahead and make a quick comment on behalf of all of us. Um, congratulations on your hard work and perseverance. I know it takes a lot of practice and hard work. So, thank you for being a part of the Avon School Corporation. and I'm excited to see it continue. So, congratulations Okay. Our next item is uh recognizing the 2026 balladictorian uh from Avon High School. So Ryik, if you'd like to come forward. We were the board was able to recognize our saludiatoran last month because she was here for also another recognition. Um, but we definitely wanted to celebrate uh this young man's impressive resume and impressive accomplishments uh through his time at a Avon High School. So, Mrs. Woodward, good luck with a lengthy commendation. I've lived 60 plus years and I have never done all this in my entire life.
We went through those. Um we had we had them um sign in attendance sheets. We've got all that documentation. We will do that training at the beginning of each academic year going forward or anytime there is a new ECA treasure or a new principal or a new athletic director, we will provide those trainings within a few weeks of them starting their position. You said every year moving forward. When was the last time that training was done, do you know? When uh treasures are hired in well, as secretaries or admins at schools, they go through training with Skyward. They receive some training on ECA. This is the most detailed we've done in the 2 years I've been here. I would have to defer to Dr. Phillips to ask before that. I don't remember off the top of my head, no. Uh Mr. Shultz, I think you've got your hand raised.
So, I'm just very proud tonight to share with you their presentation that they put together to talk to you about what this council is and what they do. So, I'll let them take it away. I will be in charge of the slides for you. Hopefully, I do that well. >> Unless it's There we go. >> You can introduce yourselves by name. Avery, you want to start? Come across. >> Uh, my name's Avery Barn. It's nice to see you all here tonight. >> Uh, my name is Kayen Smothers. Again, nice to see you all here tonight. >> All right. My name is Sonia Cologne. Nice to see you guys tonight. My name is Kayla Harmon. Thank you for coming tonight. My name is Raya Martin and it's wonderful to see you guys here tonight. >> I'm Emma Brooks and I'm a junior. >> I'm a Wakeman.
Any questions or comments about the minutes so far? Need a motion to approve. I'll make a motion to approve. We have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? You all should have chance to look over the treasurer's report and claims for the April 13th meeting.
And this program really helped me do it. I'm about to finish my last credit tomorrow. So that'll be I think 25 I've gotten from this program and without this I wouldn't have been able to graduate. And without Mr. alone and box like he said, making us laugh every day and just being more than teachers. They actually like I really respect them like really. And um I think this program is very important because like they're mentioned a lot of kids have different life events that you know they can't control and this program helps them do it on their own time and like she said at your own pace too. So, I' I think it's a really good program. >> Thank you. Um, to our two students that are here tonight, uh, number one, congratulations. I I was looking more forward to tonight to hear you two uh, and Mr.
>> Thank you. Just a reminder of commitment on Sunday, May 31st. It will start at 400 pm. We've talked we've talked with our building administrators for the last few months. They've had discussions with their with their teachers about moving forward with our 101 about reducing screen time and um all indications from our building administrators will have more in-depth discussion during a admin meeting tomorrow. Uh but we will be seeing a reduction of screen time. not necessarily doing away with one-on-one, but we need to reduce that a little bit and keep an eye on how much screen time our kids are actually doing. Also reducing one to one, which kind of goes in with the screen time. We've had some discussions with our building admin uh concerning maybe moving away from one-on-one at our younger grade levels per se and having more carts available uh as opposed to the one-on-one which might in the future have an impact on our e-learning plan.
um you join us from either the junior high or the academy from eighth grade. Um they are in person at the academy um for their freshman and sophomore year and then their junior year they will be able to take classes at the career center and senior year the same. Um the difference in their curriculum is that they have that hands-on um curriculum that PEK uh we did at the high school. Now we've just shifted over to the academy. So here's some data for our current cohort of students. Um their attendance rate has gone up. This is from first semester. So I haven't pulled second semester data because we're not done yet. Um and their average GPA, you can see has um climbed and they are all on track for graduation. So that's something to be said when you have these students coming in who um might not have seen that their high school experience was going to be successful for them.
>> Uh I think I would like to talk about um well I I can grade it. I think I I will grade the town meeting. I think the organization by the town clerk's office is good. There's occasional some backups. I always get there early, so I have never personally experienced backup. So, I think I would give that a B+. The delivery of the town meeting, I think I would give a D+. uh it is not welcoming and it is and and in fact because uh that we there is a citizens petition on there a group of us I think I don't know when it was must have been no it was during co I think it was 2024 or 2023 um we created a warrant article and it was in the spring so you only need 10 people to sign it, but you want to get more like 15 and we can talk about the specifics more.
I don't think it said like it didn't come with a table of contents you shall include this. But what we found was the examples we looked at towns were very comprehensive. You could understand exactly the financial state the hiring of those towns and as someone who studies history I also think it's an amazing document for that historical. It's all in one place and these to me those reports don't seem like extra work. They seem like it's just putting together a nice little thing that work that everyone already does. >> Yeah. What I found so fascinating looked at a whole bunch of them and it was hard to find a town that didn't have one. Mhm. Except for us. Um that they had uh births and deaths and the what they talked about the town meeting but the most important thing that most all of them had was the salaries.
Okay. So, and that I wanted to talk about, it was just posted yesterday, sent to me by someone that uh the Society of Professional Journalists uh gave Massachusetts the 2026 Black Hole Award for a troubling lack of transparency for the public right to know. and um you know anyone who's following the audit and things like that uh knows there's a problem and it's also local government. We'll be weaving weaving that in. So uh [clears throat] one when I think of communications in our in this town the word contradiction comes to mind to me. I don't know what comes to mind to you. Um because I feel like we're often told something and then it gets reversed somehow and then we're like told like the opposite. And I always raise my hand or say, "But that's not what you said three years ago, 5 years ago, one year ago, one month ago." Kate, what do you think?
And yes he it's I saw it right on the website. he went to that. And I guess my question is if we're being told we don't have any money, I'm I'm confused why we would prioritize something >> adding a streaming service to your household budget when you can't afford it. Yeah. And then I also saw we they keep talking about this um staffing survey and what I see in here is two charges. One for 15,000 in 2024 and then one a couple of month a year later actually it's a year later for 52,000. That's what what's that together? 68 $67,000 for a staffing survey that we we still don't have and it seems like the selectman can't get it. So that's two examples right there. And I mean I don't know it doesn't seem like belt tightening to me. >> It doesn't seem like belt tightening and and I think there's probably some value in comparing us to other communities, but it's difficult, right?
Yeah, neither team draws blood in the first inning. Um Clockers even though there's no score, had had a did a better job in the first inning in terms of uh you know, getting some runners on base. Um so and going through a lot of the lineup. So, we'll see what happens here at the top of the second. Yeah, unfortunate that they could not put anybody across with runners on first and second and only one out. Uh but you know, that's the way it goes sometimes. Hopefully six Hopefully we we've got uh leading off seven, eight, nine coming up, but Ruby Casadean is is hitting a hot bat right now. So, she's going to lead off in the in the bottom of the second. And we will see what they can do. But right now we've got right fielder uh for the Mustangs, right fielder Hannah Grenham is leading off in the top of the first with the game tied at zero.
It's very well organized. Uh not a lot of downtime. Um for example, I went to the league track meet in Anderson County and we had a kid waiting to high jump and it was 8 8:30 to finish and had warmed up several times. So that that's a huge credit to Mr. Wilson, our coaching staff. Uh Diane helps checking in. Dian Marshall with checking in. Dan Holler announcing Rachel uh took up the concession stand. Um and then also I would say, you know, our ground standpoint was in really good shape from what it has been previous. And I think that's a huge credit to Brian and his staff there at the at the bus barn. Um again, we'll be offering summer conditioning for seventh through eighth graders. Um and then probably a proud proud moment is are the distinguished and outstanding scholastic uh awards through the through CASA.
um of the 22 seniors, I think we had 18 students participate um fill out scholarships. So, um I was I helped quite a bit with that this year to get them going. Um and it's pretty cool to see how much our community supports our students. It's pretty incredible. Um last week we had our KISSA check-in. We are on track with our goal, which was kind of exciting. Um, we did learn a little bit more about graduation requirements and post-secary success rates. Uh, she kind of cleared up a little bit on that and how they're moving forward with some things. Um, we learned a couple of surprising things on that, so it'll be beneficial to us moving forward. Today, the sixth graders came and toured the school. Um, there were lots of lots of questions today, so that was good that they're feel comfortable to ask those questions.
We just haven't gone through all their paperwork yet. So, we're going to be pushing probably close to 500 students >> with IEPs. Um and to address this we have a team leader on each campus to assist the teachers to assist admin to attend meetings things like that. Okay. So, accomplishments. Uh, accomplishment one, I would say our Ames program. We're headed in the right direction. We have had ascend uh their behavior analysts come and present beautiful presentations for our staff and our teachers and parents have learned a lot from them. Um, our co-te I'm skipping rise. Um, we have RISE, which is a school as a day program for students with autism. We've been having some of our students because we had so many students with uh severe autism come that we couldn't house them all. We couldn't there wasn't enough room. So, they have been going to RISE, which has been um a pilot out in Humboldt, and they are now partnering with us, and they will now be at Heritage Middle School.
>> Thank you. Next is a Dr. Sophia Marjanovic. >> Good evening, Superintendent, President, and Board members. I'm here as a concerned member of the community. I am uh an indigenous member indigenous to the United States and enrolled member of the Fort Peck Ocheti Sakowin tribe, otherwise known as Sioux tribes. Um I urge the Dysart Unified School District School Board to make a public statement that upholds the safety of the children within the school district. On your website, it says, {quote} "The mission of the Dysart Unified School District is to create a safe and diversified and engaging learning environment where every student attains academic excellence and is empowered to achieve lifelong success." {unquote} How will the children in the Dysart Unified School District have a {quote} "safe, diversified, and engaging learning environment" when they can see the proposed ICE facility from the Dysart High School, which is less than 1/2 of a mile from the proposed ICE facility?
It has been a privilege to work alongside so many wonderful colleagues with the same goal of helping students to learn and grow. I wanted to take a moment to express my s sincere gratitude to Bob for the support you have shown me during my time here. I'm fortunate to have worked under your leadership and glad that I'm retiring before you. Thank you for making Big Hollow a wonderful place to work. Dr. Gold challenged us often about our why. My driving motivation has always been to have a positive impact on students. I share a couple of notes from students who reminded me of why I became a teacher. To everyone, your encouragement has made all the difference in my career, helping me grow not just as an educator, but as a person. I am truly honored to have been a teacher in this wonderful big hollow community.
>> Is it okay if we watch you go [music] to class late for first hour? Okay. >> West Chicago, we found [music] the last of them. And of course, it would be the last one to find. He's out here acting a fool. It's our class clown, Tommy Weber. Tommy, what's the secret to being [music] a good class clown? >> I mean, to be honest, I don't even know like I was going to win this. So, I feel like if you're like trying to be funny, you're not actually [music] funny. Like, it just has to like come naturally. >> It's a good reminder to a lot of people. If you're trying to be funny, it's not funny. [music] You just got to be authentically funny. He's a clown unaware. Tommy Weber, ladies and gentlemen. >> Oh, here they all come for their group photo. All right, we've lost Miley cuz she's now part of the group photo, but Prove It Maestro, thank you as always for helping us crown our seniors.
She prides herself on her parent and staff relationships. Dr. Herrera exemplifies the qualities needed to lead a school community with consistency, trust, and high expectations. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Amelia Herrera to District 308. >> Thank you. >> Next this evening, we have Sarah Fischer. Sarah is the recommended candidate for the executive director of diverse learners position. It is important to note that we are consolidating two positions for this role resulting in a savings for our district. Sarah Here back there. brings a wealth of knowledge to special education. She currently serves as the director of special education, high school and non-traditional programming in the district. Previous to her current role, she served as the assistant director of special education, assistant principal of Prairie Point Elementary School and special education program administrator. Sarah has guided and supported the oversight of IDEA regulations, ISBE requirements across all programs and services, grant allocations, facilitation of therapeutic day school, EVA, and transition programmatic pathway needs.