Her impact on Avon High School will carry on and we thank her for her commitment to our students. Thank you, Denise. >> [applause] >> Next up is Pamela Irick. >> [applause] >> Pam worked for Avon Schools for 12 years retiring as the front office administrative assistant at White Oak Early Learning Center. Uh Carrie Mies, the White Oak principal, shares that coming out of the executive world Pam quickly proved that she could do one of the most difficult jobs in a school. The job of secretary. She listened, learned, and developed systems that helped the Pine Tree and White Oak office run efficiently and in a welcoming manner. Carrie said she will never forget the day in her first year that Pam walked into her office, sat down, and said, "I really had no idea how insanely busy school offices are. The The interruptions are constant and this is crazy." That was 12 years ago, huh?
This week year, we reached our highest enrollment yet with 1,809 students participating in the program and 730 earning a recognition. What makes tonight especially meaningful is that these 21 students being recognized began their journey as sixth graders. Out of the 623 students enrolled during their sixth grade year, these students have now earned all three work ethic certificates in sixth grade, eighth, and now as seniors. As a symbol of this achievement, each student has received a graduation cord to wear during their commencement ceremonies. And at this time, if you are present when your name is called, please come up and forward to be be and stand over here to my right. And once students are all assembled at the front, they will be congratulated by the board and we'll take a group photo. CSA New Tech, Brailey Ernest. >> [applause] >> Columbus East High School, Natasha Armstrong.
But yeah, it's got that. It's got a conveyor system, it's got a vision system, it's got a vacuum uh suction cup system to move things around like a magnetic gripper. All kinds of end effectors to be able to pick stuff up and move stuff. It is is the nicest educational robot that you can pick up and have a desktop model of out there on the market right now. They just bought it for us. So, when you see donations to drafting, drafting is my So, I was hired way back when as a drafting teacher, board manual drafting. So, that's what I initially taught and then we've kind of come a long way since then through all of these things. And so, when you see donations to that, that's where it goes. This one was big enough that came up here, right? And it said PCA. We bought it, it's in-house, it's there.
Um I think the biggest one to highlight on the fund report is the self-insurance fund. Um that's at 761 307,000. Um that's up significantly since the last month. Don't really have details um specific details to tell you why that went up or what was the main factor of that, but it is just another, uh, lesson or case to realize that that's that's not a constant or a static fund. It it has an ebb and flow to it, so, um, that's one that we want to watch every single month to see where we're at. Looking at operations, and you can see, um, up on the screen, and I also have a printout for you, um, where we are like just as a reminder, this is, uh, April expenses out of operations fund. So, I know we're at May 18th, but these are bills that were paid from April.
And then again, the second box is the um success indicators that they can earn additional points for or additional score for um on on their overall score. So, things like college and career coursework, um CTE coursework, and Laura's done a really good job of making sure that our students have access to those courses and have a path built for those. Proficiency on the I-Learn biology test, which we had those results back and our students did really well. It won't be a growth indicator for every student, but a large number of students meeting the benchmark set by the state on the PSAT, regular school attendance, which again is the 94% attendance rate, and then additional measures for our English language learners. This is the 10th grade. So, this would actually be ninth and 10th, but again they're measured after 10th. This is the 10th grade accountability model.
Um, like field day today, we had a rain date, so we had to change the lunch menu to go along with it. Um they just create a very positive atmosphere for our kids to go into each day. And it may seem like a small thing to some people, but those details really matter to our kids. Um and Tina just genuinely cares about making Clinton Central a place that kids enjoy coming to. And beyond those logistics, Tina does an incredible job of leading her staff. She handles the hiring in the cafeteria, supports and advocates for her employees through hard situations with which we have faced this year. Um and just has such professionalism and calmness um and care. So she just takes tremendous pride in her work and I appreciate it so very much. So thank you. Please take a picture cuz my assistant's not my Thank you.
>> All right. >> Congratulations. Now, would either of you like to talk about the season and what this means for the school and and how proud you are of these students? >> So, technically, our second team tied and then they had to figure out who is really the top the top here. So, we had an excellent group of math students come through and I'm just so proud of every single one of them. And I'm proud of our whole academic team because they all worked really hard. Um, we've been getting together since December and usually at least once or twice a week and they've really everybody has put such forth effort and to see them just grow as students and become teammates through academia instead of sports is really a fun thing to watch. Why don't you slide to the middle? We'll take some pictures. If we can have the Colonel Wheeler robotics team, Please come on in all the way down if you would to the very end so we can get everybody in.
In 2019 was our first year for it and we had seven business partners and 31 students. Um now we have over 50 business partners. We had 131 so 137 students this year. Um we set up 300 chairs and we it is truly standing room only. So, this is probably a way to represent and celebrate our students and the industry partners but also the parents really enjoy this. We had a I brought just a few numbers. Um armed services, we had 23 students entering the armed services. We had 17 students entering health care. 25 students entering the skilled trades. That's our largest number to date. Um really excited about that and manufacturing had 54. And as we meet with these students, I truly go through the fact that I I practice what I preach. I have two sons. My older son went to IU. My younger son is a fourth year apprentice in the IBEW.
I'd like to um or pending any questions I'd like to um submit for approval. >> Anybody got any questions? Sorry. Motion to approve. second. >> Any discussions? >> All those in favor? >> Opposed? >> Honor reports. >> Yes. I am going to invite Bailey Boggas and Mrs. Good Pastor up. Bailey is our very first Green Castle High School student to earn the IC. So, she's going to share a little bit about um what that opportunity is going to give her next year when she goes on to Butler um because we're very excited about this and how many that we're going to have in the future. Go ahead, David. >> Yeah. So, Mr. Kendall approached me last year about the ICC and honestly, I didn't care about it. I just figured that I would take classes that I wanted to and the credits Anyway, however, at that time I was not sure that I was so unbeknownst to me recipient and so that changed everything [laughter] that's why I'm going to Butler and so the at the credit hours and core curriculum includes 27 credit hours and the but one of those.
You know, that's a every every 9 weeks uh actually, 6 weeks in it. Um where they want you to teach X amount of standards during that time. And the textbooks are starting to line up to those. Our exact path is lining up to those. Um and that has helped guide our curriculum maps. So, this is just a tool that we have to supplement our curriculum maps uh so we can guide them. Which question? Answer my question. Or is this an online book? >> It's a book. I'm sorry. Do we Do we have books? I know we went away from textbooks. We have currently have textbooks that are outdated, and now we're getting something that's better, or we just >> No. We do have workbooks. We do. We have the kids get, but we also have digital aspects to that. So, everything that we have, I can present it, and just as a teacher, we just work on exactly what we're working on, right?
At the conclusion of those two presentations at which you can ask any questions regarding those presentations, then you should open it up to the public for any public comment to be provided. At the at the conclusion of the public comment, then you'll close the public hearing and then you'll move into other uh action items on your agenda and other reports. There will be no action taken tonight on the resolution that will not take place until your June 8th meeting, which will be at 5:30 p.m. in the same uh building. So once you get through that process, then we will go through the uh financing process that's required by Indiana law and we anticipate to have all of these steps completed with at least four public hearings, public meetings of the board, uh over the next several months by the end of September. So, uh we'll be moving through this over the course of the summer and into the early fall.
Um so, smaller things slip through, so That's right. Anything less than 3 in like the little condiment like ketchup containers, they don't they're not recyclable either. They're not recycled either. Uh the other thing I wanted to mention about black plastic that many people don't know is that it is often made from recycled electronics. And if you think about putting plastic with electricity, but it's highly flammable. So, when electronics are made for your home, they add a lot of um chemicals to them in order to make them not to be flame And then those are melted down, and you really don't want your Chinese food coming home in, you know, what used to be your CD player. So, um black plastic is is a concern. It's not recyclable and and what what it's made with is concerning. Or it's special either. Yes. Yeah. Uh what I mean, Ryan says tubs and jugs are basically what gets recycled, number ones and number twos.
We're also joined on the Zoom by John Cusick from Bowler, who's our civil engineer. Uh we have Joe Lombardo from McPhail. Uh McPhail will be providing geotechnical support as well as uh LSP services. And we're also joined by Bob Sanda from Callahan Construction, who's a VP of engineering and site work. So, those gentlemen are here to also answer questions and have a ton of experience um implementing and executing um construction plans on sites similar to this, and we think their um input will be helpful to answering some of the questions and alleviating some of those concerns. So, without further ado, I'll turn it back over to Chris and we'll walk you through uh what we have tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Um Thank you. Is this showing up? Do I need I need to share here? Is that It is sharing. Okay. Okay, great.
>> Any questions for Charlotte? >> No. >> Thank you, Charlotte. >> Thank you so much. >> So, as you know, you are welcome to stay. Uh but we do recognize that you probably have other things that you need to attend to tonight. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thanks. And now for the moment we've all been waiting for. Um our spotlight on kids tonight is the George H. Potter Elementary School. We're going to ask uh Principal Melissa Mckenry to come up and um tell us about tonight's presentation. [clears throat] I didn't wear my heels tonight and that's evident. Good evening. On behalf of the Potter School, we appreciate the opportunity to share with you all of the amazing work that our students and staff are doing at Potter School. As you know, our work is grounded in the district strategic plan and our school improvement plan.
And Steven, obviously, is here to help. So, just rip the band-aid right off. So, our staff, with this budget, are they all set and secured? Yeah. Are we adding additional staff with this budget? Or this is just status quo? We still do We have those two positions, one ELL and one focus studies, still reflected in here. Okay. So, That's up for discussion. It is, so I I just asked because, I mean, we didn't see each principal or departments like wish list, I'm going to call it. I mean, we all have wish lists for what they wanted for spending, so I I know if that included like an extra IA over at Federal Street or replacing an IA that maybe got cut out of a budget line years ago based on the position being vacant that never got filled. Yes, a lot of the IAs, speaking just specifically for that, if they're I'll use the word required to be an IEP, right?
Um you guys have any questions before I kick off a little bit? No, go ahead. Sam, anything that >> you can jump in with questions if you have any, Jim. Yeah, yeah. Thank you. No, I mean, if you're going to run through I just have kind of a question on the timing of the various positions. Um cuz you stayed in Cheshire, which I find is the most diverse both your resume, but you were only there for a year. Direct to much white suburbia. Sure. So, um truth be told, the reason for that change um had to do with the the demands of being a school psychologist in three schools. And I was really looking for a comprehensive role, um and to do that in three schools at the same time was challenging. Um at the time in Manchester, school psychologists um were only evaluators. They weren't consultants, they weren't um providing counseling services.
So, music to my ears. Our students are making connections, they're understanding um content and things happening with the Federal Reserve and monetary policy uh and they understand what's happening and uh that's really great. Um we offer in the business department 18 different classes. Um these classes mirror many aspects that you will find out in the business world. In the past 5 years since our last curriculum review, um six of our classes became um became college level credit became available. So that's our two accounting classes, advanced personal finance, and introduction to business. We we are associated with Tunxis Community College, one of the state colleges. And then we also offer APEC, micro and macroeconomics, and those are connected to UConn credits. So our students could potentially come out of Cheshire High School with 18 college credits just in the business department alone. So we're very we're very proud of that.
You will try new things, meet new people, and face challenges that push you to grow. And that is where you will become the best version of yourself. Now I've been told that the class in front of me is fun, hard-working, outgoing, and very inclusive. These are great characteristics to have going into high school. So, with qualities like these, here are a few words of wisdom as you head into the next phase of your life. One, do not be afraid to get involved. Join the clubs, play a sport, and try something you've never done before. Some of the best memories I have made came from stepping outside of my comfort zone. Two, do not stress about having everything figured out right away. No one really does, so do not think you're ever alone. There will be tough days ahead of of you as you move forward.
And all those other changes that had to be made. Now, if you look back historically, I don't like looking backwards. There's that really, you know, you should learn from from the history. However, I don't know what was going on at the time. Um there were things that kind of helped get us to this point. One of the things that's very important that we can we're going to be discussing um over the next few months is what occurred during COVID, right? During COVID, there were extra money set aside by the federal government so that you can have class size reductions, smaller class sizes, and then MTSS really kind of blew up uh multi-tiered supports, which have been around for 100 years, believe it or not, um because students were going through a learning loss. And the argument was that students always go through a learning loss, right?
You have been accepted to over 121 different colleges, universities, military, and vocational schools from across the country. So far, the reported year four-year in-state scholarship total came in to just around $7.6 million with out ofstate scholarships coming in at at least $1.8 million already. This brings the grand total amount of scholarship money, including athletic scholarships for the class of 2026 to just under $10 million. [applause] Some of the scholarships and achievement highlights for this class include three National Merit finalists, four National Merit Commended students, two Dorance scholars, one Flynn semi-finalist, one NOTC scholarship recipient, 11 committed college athletes, and as we know right now, at least 18 enlisting in the military. [applause] On top of all these amazing statistics that I just shared with you, each year I asked the senior class to share some advice and some of their fondest memories as a dorado and advice for their peers.