I started my teaching career with Sharon in the primary together. She's always been with the little kiddos as far as I've been around her. Um, and just very very grateful for the way that she's always approached her job every day, smile on her face, meets the kids where they're at, helpful with the teachers, and very thankful that she is going to continue on as a bus driver for us as well. Um, I will share this out of her letter. One of the things that she says is it has been an honor to be a part of the Bari family. And I think that speaks volumes for the family that we do have here. And again, from my seat, it has been an honor to have um her as a part of our team. And then also we have Mark Yoder. And Mark is retiring with 31 years of service here at Bar.
Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Item F is the consent agenda. That is items F1 through F5. This includes our board minutes, financial report, claims, personnel, and field trips. I'll entertain a motion. I'll make a motion. I'll second. I have a motion and a second.
Yep, it's a tough one. >> so She's a righty, so she should try to go by the goalie. She should fake up and then go low. She goes up over the goalie and so the McKechnie gets gets a goal. She's up on the board to put the Spartans up five to two. Last time McKechnie played against Minnechaug, she had five goals. Mac Whitworth had six goals. Emma Crimmins had one and Jane Pelletier had one. Yeah, McKechnie and Whitworth the brunt of the offense, so definitely like to see them keep going in, getting those 8-meter calls because like you said it seems like they give them up a lot, so definitely got to take advantage of that. >> Yeah, if they if you can start having those your your speedsters can get Lucy Parsons to drive in or Kylie Marino Pellegrino did it earlier, put the Spartans up on the board first and all those little things that everybody else starts putting some points up on the board it'll uh really change up Minnechaug's uh game plan.
Um, I have my kids design and make and custom CNC machining and it took us pretty much all year and we came down to the wire and we have a whole bunch of extras left. So, we decided that we would bring some for the school committee. >> Why don't you have Max pass those out? Donnie. >> Yeah. >> Don, I just want to congratulate you, too. >> Thank you very much. you brought this project to [applause] >> I will I will definitely say this is a lot of work from my whole department. Uh my whole department's been behind this since day one. Um and it's really turned into a a great thing. So we're we're very proud and we're just going to keep moving forward. >> So thank you. >> I got to be honest with you. I really never realized how desperate uh NASA is for the custom pots that we make.
We thought we could possibly do that stuff with some local contractors and managing it internally and we went to the building department and the building department didn't want to sign off on any permits because technically if you're going to go ADA compliant and for the city buildings I believe you really should get an engineer to design it and come up with that. So we got some pricing to have an engineer come in and do that and I believe Karen Patnow at the time was setting aside I think around $30,000 to have somebody come in and do an engineer study and come up with the best way to make that compliant. And I don't know where it went from there. So the study still needs to be done with an engineer or recommendation with an engineer and then it would have to go out to bid.
I would like to see the elimination of Chromebooks from children in kindergarten through eighth grade. I don't believe it's helping their education. I believe it's harming their education. That's a conversation for another time. Uh for this purpose though, it would reduce our technology cost significantly. It would help eliminate some subscriptions, licensing fees, repair and replacement costs, and potentially uh give us savings in IT. I understand we have seven IT staff um for our schools. There's other areas I would consider um also. I would look to the $20,000 Partners for Educational Leadership Consultant we use, which I had asked about in during the budget process and was told that that was optional. It's not a requirement to obtain grant money. Um I would look at reductions in professional development, and I would look to um memberships if we need to. I don't know if you'll need to go beyond that for $375, but obviously, and I've said it before, I think we should look to administration and central office if that's the case.
We'd like to dedicate a person who has striven to exemplify innovation in technology. Our team chose a person that exemplified this criteria and hands down across the board, everyone thought this gentleman was a phenomenal standout in the classroom and all around great person. They have an incredible attention to detail. They're always looking to improve their skills and help those around them. He has mastered many components of technology and always put forth that mindset to seek new information, to always learn, to never stop learning. Even with mastery, there's always a chance of looking at something differently. We hope that he takes his education beyond to next year and supports the rest of his class. We are honored for the time he's put into the Chester public schools as a junior and hope to see even more from him next year. And for that, we'd like to recognize this year's Xerox Innovation and Technology recipient, David Chen.
In general, the board does not answer questions or engage in dialogue during public comment. This is not me our comments seriously. Uh the board values active community participation in the district's endeavors and encourages people to engage in district using appropriate channels and systems designed with your input in mind. Board members are not involved in the day-to-day operations of the district and cannot engage in district business individually. If you have specific questions or would like to further engage with the district, you may submit your questions using the website and the appropriate staff member will communicate with you. Holly, would you please start us off? Absolutely. Thank you, President Meadows. Speakers will be called up in order of form submission. The first form received is the first person invited to speak. When your name is called, please come to the podium so that you can be heard.
Kind of, you know. I mean, are we going to um have a lot of, you know, people leave or angry workers or you know, it's hard to please people or and ask them to for patience or, you know, So, I I That's kind of just kind of some of the Yeah, I completely understand that and I think, you know, the one thing that in schools we always say is go back to the data to go back to the data, but we're not even giving data to go back to or to create a plan from. So, that would be my concern is um we can do some things very short-term, but they are very short-term and, you know, we've been for years and years all about the long-term plan and and what we can do and this gives us an opportunity where we've got the employee groups, the larger employee groups, which are the ones in the union, we know exactly what to expect for the next several years from them, so we can work on the rest of the group in light of all of what's happening uh with the known contract amounts.
And so again, he speaks about the good relationships and the wonderful time that he's had working here. and he is going to miss this place dearly, but also he's looking forward to the next steps for him. So, I would just like to thank both of them for their time and their service to Reef. So, I present to you the retirement resignations. >> We should had him come in here when he came here with >> We should have I didn't even think about it.
Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Motion passes. Item G is donation. Donations, we we've had just another banner month of receiving funds from our community organizations, individuals. Um Country Meadow received large donations from the United Way and Noble County Farm and Fleet for their fourth grade field trip. We had a donation of three AEDs, automated external defibrillators, from the DeKalb County Health Department. Jennifer Hegar, our district nurse and nurse at Waterman Elementary, uh helped to solidify that along with Austin Harrison, our director of safety. We're certainly appreciative appreciative of that. Approximately a $5,000 value. AEDs are not are not cheap. So, we appreciate just so when we can get them donated to us, we greatly appreciate that. Um the high school had numerous donations coming in benefiting the drum line, girls tennis, FFA, choir, band. And we had two athletic memorials contributed to our athletic department in the memory of Rick Lovett and and Mark Biel.
Whitwer up on the draw against Taylor. Ball goes into the middle. Kylie Marino there. McKegney there to pick the ball up. Yeah, it's just McKegney and Kozub. McKegney goes by her. Gets the ball over the restraining line. See how Kozub does that? That's really tough when you have those attackers really really making you work every single inch to do that. Like to see more of the Spartans do that on an offense. McKegney over to Parsons. Parsons behind the net to Crimmins. Crimmins over to Pellegrino. Pellegrino finds the wide-open Mac Whitwer. And Mac Whitwer behind the X. I like this movement I'm seeing at offense here a little bit. >> Yes. Yep. Sending a lot of those cutters, turn around and make the defenders really look which way they're going. Let Mac do her thing. Mac goes in. There we go. Mac turns around and takes a left-handed shot.
Um it really is kind of mindboggling because I'm they're NASA, >> you know, and and and they're just uh they're just so excited about how things are working out and so we're we're yeah, we're just going to keep going. And it was uh like I said, to say that there's four people working for NASA, two in Alabama and two right here at Great Lawrence, it's pretty exciting. Very exciting. So, we're looking forward to it. We'll keep you posted. Thank you all very >> Max. We look forward to seeing you in the future. >> Thank you, Don. >> Thank you. [applause] >> I just I just want to say this is just a small example of the quality of instruction and and learning that goes on in uh advanced manufacturing for years. They have uh had great success. We put almost every student to work every year.
So when you do that process with the engineer and then going out to bid and not using a local contractor and going probably with state bid um you know you're talking probably $100,000 for the project. Uh so that's where we hit a speed bump because of the cost. Um so I don't think it's gone any farther than that. Um the state's been working with us on it but it definitely needs to uh be done eventually to be compliant. Thank you. Yeah that makes me makes me wonder if there are any pockets of state money or if we could maybe collaboratively work on an earmark or something to help us at least maybe cover the design cost. Um Yeah there's probably definitely some grants out there and stuff but we are our original plan was trying to do it uh with local and internally type stuff.
Um I think the building and grounds department uh position that could have possibly been done by um putting more responsibility on existing janitorial staff or maybe adding to the janitorial staff rather than an administrative position. Um that's just a thought. I would have I would like to also strongly encourage this board and district to do a better job pursuing grants. Earlier this year, um I think it was in February, I submitted a FOIA request to the state of Connecticut to see what grants that have have been applied for on behalf of the Canton Public Schools. And in fact, I thought I was going to get a lot of material because um you know, I said I didn't need copies. I didn't want to have to pay for all of the materials they were going to send me. Today I got the response to my FOIA request um just this afternoon, and I was shocked.
[applause] [applause] Finally, on behalf of our yearbook adviser, Mr. Varsquez, I'd like to present the CHS yearbook award. The yearbook is a timestamp for all the seniors to recognize their time here at CHS. It's a part of our community. It's a part of the history here. It's a part of a snapshot from all the events that you guys experienced from September through June. There's a lot of work that goes into that. There's a lot of focus and attention and energy. Throughout this past year, the student receiving this award has demonstrated exceptional leadership and dedication. They quietly behind the scenes guided their class. They guided their teacher. They guided the production of something that's going to be lasting for the test of time for Trish public schools. They also had that ability to lead without a change in their character. Whether it was a small error or a big error, a great pat on the back or great thanks across the board, this student leader handled each task with both grace and determination.
All individuals speaking will be limited to 3 minutes. A 3-minute timer will be started once you are settled at the podium. At any time during this meeting, written comments may be submitted to Cindy Rodriguez to my right. Speakers should conduct themselves with civility and respect toward others. Our first speaker is Megan Kuba. Hi, my name is Megan Cuba. I'm the parent of a third grader at Louise White. And I'm here to speak about Chromebook use in the district. I've asked multiple people that work in the school and the administration exactly how much time our kids spend on their Chromebooks each day. And so far, no one has been able to answer that question. If we don't know how much time is being spent, how do we know if it's developmentally appropriate for their age? There are reports that Chromebooks are allowed during lunch in some schools.
So, I I just think the time is actually perfect now. It seems like why would we do it now? We don't have to worry about negotiations and stuff for a while, but we've got some other employee groups that um we're seeing a lot of turnover that we're trying to also stop. Um and I think, again, the plan is whatever the plan is will be a multi-year, it's not a one-time easy fix, so I think the more lead time the district has, the better off we're going to be. President. >> Thoughts? Yes. I originally shared the same concern. And then I shared >> [clears throat] >> the concern that, well, if we do this study and it's public, everyone's just going to look at us and piggyback. But, what got me kind of bought into this the need for this is defining that they're going to be helping our district look over, my understanding is, look over job descriptions, um be uh helping define the roles.
>> Any questions regarding sharing remarks, resignations? >> Just appreciate both of their contributions. They've both done tremendous >> in a long time. [clears throat] >> So, no other questions or comments. I'll entertain a motion to accept Sharon and Mark's both both their resignations. >> Second that. All in favor say I. >> I on to the employee or employment recommendations. Mhm. We can do these together as well. And so as we see one door closing for some, we see new doors opening for others, which is always exciting as well. With some shuffling around, um we do have a math teacher position available this year. You remember Anita Hart is retiring from English and we're moving Megan Miller from math over to English. And so that's why we have the math position open. And so the recommendation is for Jennifer Schwarz and Trooper, a 2022 graduate of Barie.
So, we're certainly appreciative of folks thinking about um the athletic department and two individuals that had a lot to do with Barbs athletics over the years. Um lastly, the Kerry Waisath um has a donation from the DeKalb Central Foundation. That's great to hear. Uh of over $1,800 to help uh pay for a field trip uh to help defray some of that cost to our families. So, great to see uh the DeKalb Central Foundation contributing uh helping our families out for our there and something thoughtful for our students. Okay. Thank you, Steve. And you are up next, Brother Cornett, Mr. Superintendent. >> [clears throat] >> All right. Um first item is a ongoing topic. Um certainly as the board is aware, DeKalb Central initiated a process following approval from a letter of intent to withdraw from the Northeast Indiana Special Education Cooperative, otherwise known as the co-op.