I also want to thank Dr. Bowman and Dr. Stallbaum, who have been instrumental in making this transition one that is going to be highly successful. I have very big shoes to fill. They're also very fabulous shoes. So, I am thrilled to be working with her as we transition in this position. One of my favorite quotes from The Giving Tree says, "And the tree was happy." I think that quote quote reflects education so beautifully because the people in this profession give so much of themselves every single day for students, families, and one another. I hope to serve this district in a way that supports and values the people who give so much to others. I'm excited to learn, listen, and jump into the Columbus community. This district has an outstanding reputation as evidenced by all of the recognitions this evening. I am fortunate for this opportunity and thank you all again.
And then we have our actual setting up the timeline. And then at the bottom, you can see there's the timeline on this presentation and our notebook. And this is practically just how we measure everything and make sure everyone everything is running along schedule, which it was for the most part. Yeah. >> All right, so some research. We had to figure out if this would even be possible to make a blimp. So, we started researching envelopes and then we're like, maybe we can use a drone. So, we researched some drones, some helicopters. And then another thing we had to research was some way to dispense coupons. And so, that led us to a a money gun. We ended up finding out that probably wouldn't work, wouldn't be the safest or the best looking option, I'd say. And so, that kind of led us into this next thing.
Garrett Gurrs sub bus driver, Alexis Thuleyard part-time child care worker. And then Jason abstains from Jason Sheff abstains from the following vote. Oh, that's a separate session. I'm sorry. So, let's vote on the items above. Uh may I have a motion? I'll move. I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Passes 5-0. Moving on to the next one. Jason Sheff abstains from the following vote. Acceptance of resignation of Jason Sheff, board member. May I have a motion? I'll move. Second? I'll second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Passes 4-0. Uh we'll move on to action items. Uh Barry would you like to discuss recommendation to approve the 2027-2028 school calendar? I would. So, uh go over some brief highlights with the teachers uh association and some administrative people put together the 2027-2028 calendar. Here are some highlights. The first teacher day is August 9th. First student day is August 11th.
And then also um just want to make sure everybody knows that we have plenty of room for 2627 uh for students and we've started putting um signs in yards um of our current kindergarters and Mrs. Acre we're going to send out something this week so we can start getting pictures of them by their yard signs. So current kindergarteners and then next year's kindergarteners and then um this year's senior's class um signs start going out today as well. So um hopefully we'll get some some fun pictures but hopefully there's some uh some good word of mouth starters with neighbors or things like that. um show the good things that um kiddos are experiencing here and we'd love to have some more of them. So that's all I have items for board members no get a motion to adjurnn. >> Second move by Amy, seconded by Travis to adjourn the meeting.
The board of school trustees publicly recognizes this achievement and renders it permanently to its minutes to be preserved for public posterity dated this 18th day of May, 2026. Would you like to say a few words and then I'll pass these out? Perfect. Yep. Let's Can we have Mason Erbini come on up? >> Hi everybody. My name is Mason Erbini. Um this year when I went to nationals I ended up winning first place the national leadership conference in my event presentation individual and I was tasked with multiple students across the nation to craft a seven to 10 minute presentation um about how schools and students and parents should go forward in dealing with AI in education. Um so basically I had to do a lot of research with teachers, students. Um I even talked about magic school in my presentation and some feedback from teachers from Crown Point High School on to how we should go forward into trying to implement AI in education safely, smartly, and effectively while also minimizing the risks.
So, we went with the latter, and I think that we're still working out what the logistics of probably primarily going to be lockers or some other place that that the device will be stored and not to be used during the school day. >> Probably, I think, as important as any of it is the fact that we need to communicate this not only with the student at students at school, but with the parents and and those folks that really completely understand the where this came about and and how we're going to handle it. >> Yeah, and I know that Jason Wittenberg and his team have been developing a communication plan to ensure that and I think that that that plan will even include some updates over the summer so folks know what's coming now and are reminded of that as we get closer and closer to the next school year starting.
Any questions? >> All right. I need a motion. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. Wish you luck. >> I'll be there. I'm certain of it. >> All right. Uh, next up, the 2026 Elementary Summer School. >> Nope. You're good. I I skipped down one page. >> Yeah. So, uh we're still uh working through we still have IRA scores rolling in, but we're doing our best to uh to continue to plan for summer school beginning on 26th. And u Becky has worked with uh Britney, Brandon, and Lisa on organizing this, kind of setting the the schedule uh parameters and also working to uh select our staff members uh who will be involved um the pay, compensation, everything like that, similar as past years. Um but obviously uh you know, again, kind of continuing on the trend.
So, it is a busy couple weeks here to go. So, good luck with that. So like that. I'd just like to say welcome. Thank you. We we love to have you here. That's all. Same here. Welcome. Thank you. Welcome aboard. Also, all Do we have any seniors that are on the bubble? Right now, Sam, do you know? As far as graduating? For graduation, yeah. And we have a couple. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Um It's hard. It's it's Are you okay if I ask here? Um No no names. >> No names. No no no no names. But yeah, there we are definitely having a lot of conversations with with parents, with students, making it very individualized, with the counselors, because in fact, the one thing I said today was not graduating is not an op- is not an option. So, we're we're going to get them across the stage.
Kind of do it do it that way. So, I'm I'm A lot of places solutions to trash is to burn it. And I'm not I'm not a big fan of that, but I am interested. Does if you burn, you know, in high temperature plastics, does that go away with them or does it just spread it even more? You're really adding to a lot of issues with air pollution by doing that. You know, within Massachusetts and many states, you can't uh incinerate anymore. So, you're really really reducing >> there forever, right? I mean, you're The the plastic molecules are being broken down with high But they're you're you're releasing your your It's chemistry happening and you're releasing benzenes, toluenes, carcinogenics into the atmosphere. In the US, we have some filters for that, but we're shipping other developed countries They showed pictures of these countries. I mean, there's We've shipped our plastic and Europe has shipped their plastic to Southeast Asia and Africa and they're doing open burns.
Both of those were found uh in this corner of the building in this air sample. The other location is in this corner and that was the 1020 sample um with tetrachloroethylene which is PCP and that was found at 9.4 parts per billion and the threshold is 1.4. And TCE at 1.1 parts per billion and the threshold is 0.4. So, we note they exceed the standards. That's why we have the RAM report. That's why we have these requirements with the DEP. They oversee this. And again, Are those special gas? Uh Are those special This is air. This is air sampling. Yes, everything I'm discussing right now is air. I'm going to go through each air, water, and >> it's all gas measurements. >> This is gas measurements, right. >> Okay. Yeah, and do these imply um soil contamination that that's where the gas is coming from?
We received over 30 student essays to join the leadership programs. So we decided not to do just one, but we did quite a few leadership um parts of the school. So, we have some students who work on our recess leadership program. We have other students in school spirit or our welcoming committee. We have some fifth grade leaders working with some of our younger students at Potter. We also have a group of students working under community engagement in our community service programs and services throughout the town. And we have one group here, our lit uh leadership program around a composting uh program that is led by Mrs. Goodman, which also happens to fall under our focus area 3 of family and community engagement because we work with Black Earth composting. So, I'm going to have some of our fifth grade leaders come on up and tell you a little bit about that program.
Not everybody has the means and I understand that concept of school choice, but others do have the means and do it. But the point being in terms of they give money to MSBA to build new schools, right? They're basically saying, how about giving some money to or some incentive to the districts to close schools. That's right. And help with the closure and combining of schools in that sense. Those types of conversations obviously, right? Down the road. In that scenario. But yeah, these are kind of some of the things we're bringing before you today so that you still will have some dollars in some of these accounts do not the vacancy would be zeroed out. Because what I love about this is that we're not losing staff. We're not losing programs that we currently have. Yes, we all everybody always wants more and I'm just as guilty.
I'm really digging into the academic data and looking to see um if we can find a root cause for that or whether or not it's time to take the next step. So, I've been involved in in both capacities and I've enjoyed that. I enjoy the the troubleshooting, the the hypothesis building you know, what what's working for a child and where where can we leverage some strategies to help them to to make progress in in whatever domain they're struggling with. Okay, so I mean the the big piece of MTSS or SRBI or whatever you want to call it today um is tier one instruction that's high quality. Your background obviously is as a school psychologist. So, how do you reconcile that with talking to teachers about strategies and what high quality instruction should look like? Because if we don't have that in tier one, if we don't have those teachers diversifying, right?
Um and and that it's great when we can bring our guest speakers and bring that into our classroom and our students can make those connections. Last year, I think it was Mark Pease, also had a significant number of folks come and present to the business department. We had um It was written up in the paper. The Boost Oxygen. That was one of the >> presentation. That was That was almost That was a whole half a day. Um, the founders of Boost Oxygen who also were on Shark Tank and received capital funding from Shark Tank. They came and shared their experience um with our students and it was really kind of a nice question and answer flow. Um, that that was really great. So, we we have a lot of people um come in as guest speakers, uh but a jo- like a true true like partnership or like internships.
Brody is most proud of his improvements in sports. Samantha Meyer >> [applause] >> Samantha was on the high honor roll and will receive an academic letter. Samantha is most proud of doing well in math. Ona Peterson >> [applause] >> Ona had all A's and will receive an academic letter. She was top 5% in computer applications, pre-algebra, and also career and life planning. Ona is most proud of how far she has come in school and wrestling. LOGAN PHILLIPS >> [screaming] >> LOGAN WAS ON THE HIGH HONOR ROLL AND WILL RECEIVE AN academic letter. Logan is most proud of his long distance running improvements. J.J. Propst >> [applause] >> J.J. was on the high honor roll and will receive an academic letter. J.J. is most proud of being on the Pioneer League champs in football 2 years in a row. Trey Green >> [applause] >> Trey was on the honor roll and will receive an academic letter.
Um we're doing the best we can. I know we have an incredible veteran staff who's been hearing me say this since I got here, so I know the veteran staff understands where we are. Um and I know that when we make some of these changes moving forward to some of the placements and whatnot, they're going to do everything they can to make that work. Um because again, they're if anyone had a different solution, then, you know, I I must have missed it, but this is really it. And again, it's not just here, it's all over. It really is. Um and it's it's upsetting, so nobody wants to do this. Um this has not been forget this week. The the weekend's been incredible. And I know there's been stuff on social media here I try to I get it. I get it. It's very easy out there.
Those are your eeky guy. Eekyu is a Japanese concept meaning purpose in life. [snorts] An eeky is supposed to be something that gives you hope and motivates you. In simple terms, it's your reason for waking up each morning. It may even change daytoday. So often we are focused on attaching purpose to big things such as a career or a college major. But Eeky Guy teaches us that small things like eating lunch with friends, dressing up for football games, taking Instagram photos for prom, or listening to music each morning on the drive to school can give us hope and motivate us to continue on our paths. I know that is what my eeky guy have done for me. They have helped me realize that so many of my hopes for not just me, but all of us. I would like to take these last moments to share those.
Does it feel like something that you think falls in line here? something that you think we should do or would we want to not recommend that and like have that group of people kind of looking for other avenues to make that happen? >> Was that targeted to me, Adriana? Sorry. >> To anybody. I don't want to I don't want to type it down until I know at least three or four of us are into the idea. I mean, from my from my perspective, for what it's worth, you could even revisit that national origin policy and make it protections for national origin and, you know, gender or something like that and just add it to it. Because one of the things that's the way our new policy manual is structured is the goal is some of the policies are longer than they used to be, but the goal is to have fewer policies to make it easier for principles and assistant principles and parents to find things in it.
Okay, here we go. Um I move that the existing Board of Education policies be adopted. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Can I have a roll call, please? Hearing? I. Massa? I. Maiman? I. Burton? I. Delgado? I. Duckman? I. Garrett? I. I move that the meeting schedule of our regular Board of Education meetings be accepted as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Can I have a roll call, please? Massa? I. Maiman? I. Burton? I. Delgado? I. Duckman? I. Garrett? I. Hearing? I. Okay, so next um we do the appointment of board liaisons. Um many boards of education do committees um meaning um two or more board members meet with different cabinet members throughout the month and then they report back to the board. Um however, our board has um functioned as uh with the liaison system instead. So, one of us is um works with each cabinet member director and then they report back to us.