It's my understanding that's a final grade cut and fill. That's not necessarily all the excavation you're going to be doing on site. Is that correct? >> [clears throat] >> No, it's not actually. It's the intent of that cut and fill images. It's a little bit different. We from our from our construction and a contractor standpoint, we look at it more from the the contractor side. So the image that you're seeing represents the the subgrade conditions of the site. So in the areas where there's pavement, what we've considered is the although there's a finished grade of the site, there's the thickness of the pavement and there's a layer of 12 inches of soil that's below that pavement. That thickness is not factored into our cut and fill um shading what you're seeing here. So, all all the shading is really um indicating the existing soil that's going to get moved around on on the site.
>> Mondays I know are a travel day for you. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> I meant for 5:30. I know you're working. I'll do my best to make it for 5:30. Yeah, >> I will. Yep. >> Okay. So, um do we have a motion for the dates and to change to 5:30 on the two summer dates? >> Second. Well, you want to >> Who was who motioned? >> I'll make the motion. >> All right. I think he motioned and made the second. I [laughter] don't know >> about that. Well, listen, that wouldn't be the worst time. >> Do we have a second? >> Sure. Yes. >> Okay.
>> that we talked about. >> you'd changed, yeah. Budget, that that one is collaborate with the building administration to manage the budget. They're They're not wholly responsible for that budget. They're going to work together with the the building administration on that. So, they'll make fiscal decisions to manage the budget. >> that it should say manage the budget. They are >> collaborate with building Well, I think of manage the budget, I think of like keeping an eye on the store or on like where Like, it's >> want to make sure we're not hemorrhaging. We can't >> sure that you have um when you're, you know, looking at Well, the tuition rate hasn't changed in how many years. You're making sure that the secretary is following up on getting the tuition payments in, right? And that secretary down there is doing And if it's not happening, then an administrator is involved.
Yeah. So, not necessarily like an I block, but something. Um so, I'm just curious about that. And then the last thing, cuz I already mentioned this to Jeff last week, but I'm going to take it a step further. Uh I had mentioned to him, asked about the possibility of uh having a tech high school here in Cheshire. And he said, you know, we've got Platt next door. It's that kind of thing. Okay, totally fine with that. But I happen to be reading an article um today that was discussing it at a national level. And I think what it said for Connecticut was it's we're at the point where only 44% of kids who want to go to technical high school get accepted. It's done on a lottery system. Do you know anything about this? It's not really your purview, but They're not They're not taken into Wilcox and Platt and those places on the >> Yeah, sorry, Wilcox.
The goal should be simple. More voters, better access, lower stand-alone election cost, and stronger public confidence in the legitimacy of our school board election. That'll be all. Are there any other comments from the board? Mr. San. I just wanted to congratulate the student of the month and uh Mr. Kovach for his service to both the city and the school. I want to congratulate e-sports on their state championship. And um thank Dr. Tomko for mentioning special ed programs several times because I think that's um it's important for the students, but it's also a major consideration in staffing and budget. As far as uh changing the date for election, I think the numbers are very concerning, but I think it would have to be next year because we've already had an election this year. But the turnout was, I agree, very poor. Mr. Tomko. Uh I just wanted to uh mention the Special Olympics piece.
But this has been year one in that updated process, and we're pleased with the with the results so far. We also have some really interesting work going on in community partnerships, and we had one of our uh key partners here today share at public comment. But we have a group of folks from across departments that's looking to revamp how we connect families with supports they need in the community. Right now, we're working on identifying major areas of need, which is represented in this graphic, and then key partners that exist or areas that we need to establish key partners to have more effective, more efficient systems. One for families in getting what they need, also for our staff members that are working with those families. And then finally, we wanted to highlight the Stronger Connections grant and just our appreciation for the Illinois State Board of Education.
And then the I know we talked about common the common areas at North not being Right? We We don't >> a there's different practices for common areas on both sides of town. So, we'll be discussing if those are the same. >> But those are going to be those are going to be our the your major PD for next year? No, I'd say major well, we can we'll come back and present on what the I'm not the person to present on that. Okay. Um I can just tell you that these concerns are being addressed through that professional development plan. Okay. And I and I I appreciate as a teacher that you have the self-directed time in there because I think it is important for teachers to be able to look at what they are doing day-to-day and be able to say, "Okay, you are going to give me x amount cuz it doesn't equal like a one-day like a 6-hour one-day type of a thing?
And be glad to answer any questions anyone may have. Board members, questions this evening? I think I saw somewhere in there something about reserves will cover the shortfalls. Do we know how long either that or I had it in my head that reserves will cover shortfalls. How long will our reserves last at the coverage rate that we're going to use them? Actually, that's going to be in my next presentation. Okay, so I'm combining the two then. >> Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Um currently, what we have set up here with the the targeted reserve levels, the 13 and 1/2 to 19% gives us that 2-month coverage should something occur where we don't receive revenues from the state or if the property tax payments are delayed, um that gives us an easy two-pay period cushion at least up to a 2-month cushion. And the only other thing, and I guess I'll tie this to the other and maybe not ask the question then, but maybe you can think about how to answer before you have to present, is uh cost-cutting measures.
>> They have it for like it's all to lead towards teacher certification. So, if we have a bachelor's if we have a current teacher who needs certification in other area, if we have a paraprofessional who has no schooling but wants to be a teacher, >> Yeah. >> or we have somebody kind of in the middle there. >> Okay. Will this be utilized for like literary endorsements? >> No. >> I do not believe so. >> So, that's that's So, are you talking full career or just >> Strictly teacher transition, teacher certification. >> Got you. >> I'm on specialty. >> Okay, motion and a second in place. All in favor, say aye, please. >> Aye. >> All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. We are down to the comment section. Do we have anybody signed up or anything? >> I think you wanted to introduce your >> Yeah.
If you've been here long enough, you understand we're moving back maybe a little bit, but we're not moving back 10 years. And we've we've had it where it's more difficult and harder on teachers and more difficult harder on administrators and um we're going to fight and continue to survive and continue to press forward. So, this is uh in an opportunity to adjust and move forward and uh we'll do that, but I just I I thought it deserved a response because I feel like some of this is, you know, we don't always talk about it and I think she she's owed a response. So, hopefully she's seeing that. That's my personal opinion and um I just wanted to chime in. So, I don't know if any of you have any additional comments. Okay. All right. Uh let's go to uh item eight, board statements of appreciation and recognition.
After the fact, we'll bring in additional clean gravel for your pavement subbase. We'll bring in additional stone that's going that's going to go under the proposed building footprint and and house the subslab venting system. Um it also does include, as you can see, the kind of uh the the red area on the top of the screen there, uh which is what John talked about, which is the stormwater detention system. So, that represents the the cut of around 8 ft, which is about that includes the the 5-ft thick chamber system as well as the soil cover that's above that. So, this this is not showing where your excavations are going to be or whatever they may be for the foundations. Is that correct? Not at this time. What we've Well, it shows that the the cut for the building footprint. But your foundations might be quite a bit deeper.
Any discussion? [clears throat] >> More discussion? >> Okay. >> All in favor? >> I I >> Thank you. >> unanimous. [laughter] Okay. Now, time for the superintendence update. >> Great. Thank you. So, we're moving into the final five weeks of the school year before our summer break. And again, as you can hear from listening and the emails that you're privy to, that there is so much happening across the schools. Um, but teaching and learning goes on because no matter what, our most important work is teaching and learning. And that's one of the things that we emphasize, I know our school leaders do, I know our teachers do, is that we have to keep the focus on teaching and learning because summer doesn't actually start this year until June 23rd. Um, but so some of what's going on here and is that we have the Amplify.
But But I'm thinking of like managing the budget from a perspective of well, 18 18 we don't have 18 teachers, but teachers are requesting we want to buy $5,000 in blocks. You're not just saying like blanketly, "Sure, go ahead." You're taking a look at All right, what's our instructional supply number for that? Let's let's talk about this and manage it in that way or, you know, not just adding paraeducators because somebody made a request one day, you know, or you know, that that sort of When I think of managing the budget, I think of taking a look at what are what is our budget, how much are we spending, are we staying within those guidelines? See, I don't think that's this person's responsibility, but I could be wrong. For that small group, yeah. >> Yeah. And we do have that with department chairs um that have teaching responsibilities um and have leadership responsibilities.
I said Platt, I apologize. >> They They are There's an application process that they need to go to go through. And that's done at the middle school. So, um representatives from those high schools that are local to us come and they do a presentation for our students. And then students have the opportunity to apply. They have the opportunity to to to visit to visit I'm not sure if they're still visiting. And then they complete the application process. They have to get letters of recommendation from teachers, from their counselors, submit their transcripts. That's the process that exists right now in our location. Are there kids who apply who I'm not sure exactly what their criteria are. I would imagine um Are there any like significant numbers of kids who apply from Dodd and don't get in? I don't have the numbers on me right, but I'm sure there are every year some students who are not accepted.
I know we were talking about that. Uh I had the opportunity to to uh hang with some incredible athletes at the Special Olympics in uh PCTI a few weeks ago. Um we talked about this when Ms. Teke was here and uh um, we were talking about expanding that program. Um, they do a they did a winter program. Uh, so we did we couldn't get into the big the bigger one in Essex County they do in Bloomfield, but uh Bergen County does one. Um, believe it or not Bergen County does one in Passaic County. It's a little odd, but uh so we were there for for the morning. I couldn't stay the whole time, but uh you know, um Ms. Mirando uh did an incredible job. Our teachers were there. Just an just an incredible incredible uh morning. Uh, we're looking to expand into bocce. I mentioned bocce.
Two years ago, we applied for and received a grant for about $220,000 to help support a lot of our work in social emotional learning, and we've been able to put that to good use of as we began to develop the models that we've talked about today. But we've also tried to use the funding so that they can continue after the grant expires. And so, one of the examples we wanted to highlight was our partnership with North Cook. So, North Cook has a program that's called the ALOP program, the Learning Opportunities Program, and it's a program that exists to serve students with a variety of needs. Uh attendance, behavior, at-risk markers of that sort. Uh we've partnered with North Cook to have three ALOP advocates, so North Cook employees working full-time in our schools right now. We have them at Algonquin, at Chippewa, and North. Year one of that is a cost-sharing model between the district and North Cook, but years two and beyond are at no cost to the district.
Like how how do you collect the time? How do you I don't know if I understand your question. So, in my district, we we take the last day of school Yeah. and we it's our self-directed time. >> Mhm. So, outside of the school, we do 6 hours of self-directed learning and then that replaces one of the days when we don't have students in front of us. >> of an in-service day? >> Instead of an in-service day. So, when So, that I guess that is where I that's So, it's their on the block days when their lunch period would roll into a full class period. So, that's a 78-minute period of time once a week. Okay. So, that resource period over the course of the month is on a rotation and one of those rotations is the personalized professional learning. That's okay. So, once a month, they get 75 minutes.
What have we done? Have we Have we cut people's hours? Have we reduced the number of people we're replacing? Like, what are we doing to find I I heard you say something about lesser cost electricity and gas. I mean, those kind of things where we can I would rather see us find ways to reduce cost on hard tangible things rather than people. And again, the target from the cabinet has has been we keep these reductions as far away from the students as possible. What we are looking at in the operations fund where we're seeing these reductions is when a position becomes open, there's a thorough review by staff to see is that a position we we must have? Is it one we need to have or is it a we want to have? And then the decision is made whether to open that position back up to be replaced.
>> Uh for the 2026-2027 school year, Brandy Walbanger and I are going to be co-presidents for PTA, so. >> Okay, very good. >> Welcome, Brandy, to the school. >> Yes. >> And I look forward to learning from Monica and working with Dr. Zukerman and the board and and doing the best I can for our teachers and our students. >> Okay. >> We appreciate the work you're going to put in. >> It's a lot of time and effort, though. >> Yeah, I think we all have a really good relationship. >> forward to that. >> You think you're having a busy year or something? >> I know. I'm like Yeah. >> It's just going to be nice to share some more >> So, we're going to work together this year and have a good time. >> And I said that I would take over the July meetings.