That's why I live here and that's why I don't know if you know this but there's countless music teachers that teach in public school that live in this town. It's a great town to live in. I love it here. My kids love it here. They go to Clar Martin and also Peter Music School. Um this auditorium is amazing. It's a beautiful space. I'm so happy that, you know, we get to use this as as, you know, families for all the concerts. It really sounds better than the auditorium at JB Stevens High School where I teach and we have a very strong music program there, too. And I will go from border town that this is the best. I mean, you have a pin. Like, this is like a legit serious like investment that a lot of high schools don't have. And I'm so thankful that we live here because of things like this.
Maybe we'll be able to do a better job getting Stone Park ready um earlier in the season when teams want to play cuz sports seem to be starting earlier and earlier these days at least from my perspective. I That was just Rebecca. I I would love to have some more of that detail um as you you know at our next meeting and I would say so Becca remind us what position you currently have with public works. >> yep, so I'm the administrative and operations manager at the DPW. Okay. So you have you have the ability to really get into the details and and give us a more detailed information. Yep, definitely. We can prepare that for the next meeting. Great. Yeah, we can do that for the next meeting and I think I also some more illustrations I think would also help kind of just show like Makita said, you know, this is what we have.
Down to third base goes Beuterman. So, they do get that run into third base. >> Yeah, you you you call it aggressive base. I call that risky base running. I Haley taking second there was a major risk because they just missed her. But again, she's on third base. Uh A's up >> as that one's fouled away. Ball two strikes >> and always a good opportunity for another RBI from Vendetti. >> It was a close play at the plate. It was definitely uh one that if you were in the MLB or uh pros, you might want to take a look at that one as that one's grounded to shortstop. The only play is first as Butman scores. Nice play from Walsh, but Ashland regains the lead. It's three to2. >> It is. It is. It is three to2. And again, I I'm going to try not to harp on the fact that uh we would have had now run it on third base with only one out in a run across for Kyra to be coming up with a runner on third and a long fly ball would be an automatic run here.
I think that's what you're kind of talking about earlier. Yeah. I don't have the data in front of me, so I can't speak to it. I didn't memorize it, but what I would suggest is certainly look at, you know, the data and if you do have any questions or suggestions, just reach out and, you know, we can always address that. Sure. But the bottom line really, the executive summary, and I didn't phrase it in this way, was that the the biggest gains, the brightest spots were in those subsections both for English and in math where um it's easier to identify discrete skills. So, one of the subsections of on the English is um expression of ideas. That's not a discrete skill. That's literacy. You know what I mean? Okay. Um and information and ideas. So, so that's that's a little bit harder to to generate jumps in scores.
We've increased substitute pay. Our district is still considered a rural district. We're allowed to deviate from what the county set to substitute. Sometimes growth valley made the drive a long ways out. If you're a southern reading, they really want to make that drive ready. We've increased the pay enough to make it beneficial for them to drive all the way out. I already mentioned coaching sites and uh upgrade to facilities with modernization deferred maintenance things wear out over time just like your house does. He has hback issues where high school 200 building hback replacement traffic high school small hback systems north high school modernization phase one with roofing siding and doors the summer west valley resurface the small gym resurface track for this is not glamorous but needed hot sewer quality the necessity. West Valley High School replace large pool. We've insulated the large gym at West Valley.
Um are there any questions from the board? Is is there a reason why it's the last time? Is this just that it's been there uh so many years that then it becomes Okay, so you're Okay. Okay, we need to open um this for uh open the public hearing and ask for public comment at this time. All right, seeing no public comment, we can close the public hearing. Is there a board member that has a motion um associated with this agenda item? I motion to approve. Okay. >> I'll second that motion. All right, we have a motion by uh Vice President Olson and a second by member um Robinson. Any further discussion? All right, let's go ahead and vote together. All those in favor, say I. I. >> I. Opposed? All right, this passes 4 to 0. Thank you. Yes. We are moving along to um 8A3.
However, so um I also run Bakan Hilltop Park in the summertime and I include students from board town to play like Leo and all the great kids that that enjoy this music program and I want to showcase their talent in on Hilltop Park. We have three concerts and I encourage you to come watch it. It's free. I'm also playing at Joseph Lawrence Park on August 15th. So, I'm very involved with music and music education in this town and um I'm concerned about several things. As a music educator myself, as a taxpayer and a resident, um advocacy is the most important angle and music and arts are under attack across the country. Uh buzzwords like tech seem to always be given by AI. All those things get priority. Over the past three years in Bordontown, several faculty members have moved on and left Bordontown for better opportunities, including someone at this high school who was an award-winning person.
This is this is what we have as of you know, this date. This is what we would have as of July 1st and maybe I think for comparison we could show you what we had 5 10 years ago and show you how staffing has not increased as we've added on more things. So that And maybe I think >> I think what would be helpful I think again would to get a little bit more detail on looking forward, right? Because conditions have changed. Looking forward what that staffing would ideally look like and so that we can understand again because I'm just thinking about also just folks watching watching this at home and trying to get their minds around like you know, exactly what Yolanda said, you know, we've we're handing over some of our fields, but we're asking for more resources. So I think that is at the That's That's and we don't have the detail available to really understand why.
Um but again, the such is life the situation. Carrick comes up with the empty bases >> as she will serve that one to second and a nice grab there from Benjer. >> And you know we talking about the stairs having all that speed but you know nothing too batter is pretty quick herself. >> Yeah Beerman's really fast. Yeah. Yeah. Haley Haley's pretty quick and you know Kyra just misses that one. Looks like she waited on an off speed pitch and and just tried to take it over the second baseman's head. Doesn't get there. And again, only putting one across in a situation with the with the top of your order up is is something that they just don't want to do. >> As we continue to get the back and forth, >> go find a rhythm. >> So will come out for the fourth inning here.
Mhm. You know what I mean? Um same with the geometry and trigonometry. That's problematic because not every child who has taken um or who is taking the PSAT or SAT has had those courses yet. Right. Okay. So, those are some of the things I guess would go into executive summary. Can I just add to that? One of the was that our students are performing better with the conceptual conceptual understanding and more problem solving and reasoning and there were more challenges with computation. We're actually seeing that as a trend frankly going from kindergarten through 12th grade. Okay. So, we we had some conversations around that as well. Okay. Right. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. We'll move on to the youth commission update. Aaron, I'm not sure if you have one but Liam did email me and said that there was supposed to be a career day presentation I believe for or career day um information.
Even though the AC was running non-stop, couldn't keep up. Insulation ceiling to help that thing we're currently doing. We're doing modernization of community school high school and North Valley. Uh new tech just got a brand new marquee from their school. Long overdue. uh North High School phase two the sewer at West Valley they run a sewer pond system with a grinder and that ball was built back 1980 or 81 need to replace it was like 1.2 million. We found a company spray in a liner, reign the ball. They guarantee it a long time. That's happening this summer. West High School gym boilers, but you don't win. And the district office around 1909 several documents are called class one documents require required to save your life. We have board from the 1920s >> and paper copy and we are scanning all those but we need storage.
This is informational only, um discussing the annual spring charter school visit report by um Heather Cifuentes. Good evening. It's my honor tonight to bring forth this informational item. We have, as the authorizer in Chico Unified, we look each year annually at each of our charters and have a site visit. We get the opportunity to learn a little bit more of what changes, what goals, what are some of the emphasis is that they're focusing on to improve and keep the momentum going on their sites. It's always really a fun for me to get to go out and visit with the amazing charter team that we have and learn a little bit more about the offerings for our community. So, uh with that, it is just informational at the charters were presented ahead of time with a report. They provide information, then we have discussion based on that and get an opportunity to see the classrooms as well.
He moved on to another place for better pay, for better support, and also here school to elementary, we lost two, not just one, but two faculty members that decided to leave because they felt overworked and they felt not supported. Uh these folks are my friends and colleagues. I see them at conferences. I work with them at all state regions. And I'm really sad to see them go because it's a big loss for our community and the other towns are getting that. Um is this the sign of a healthy music program when staff are leaving? The elementary teachers currently are teaching classes that are spread way too thin. the secondary teachers are not only teaching in the middle school, they're also teaching in the high school. How are we supposed to grow a music program or an arts program if our teachers are mult multiple places multiple times?
That's what I think this is. So we just want to get an understanding of that and make sure that that we we understand what's happening here so that we can probably ask some more questions The other part that I would like to add is you know, Michael, you keep telling us that you have a lot on your plate. You have two assistant town managers who you're trying to manage, you manage the public works department. Uh so, I'm wondering if having someone else that has to report directly to you, if that makes sense, right? Can we work with the public works director and how, you know, I just want it to be evaluated, right? Because, again, there's a lot going on in town. We're aware of that, and as town manager, we expect you to be on top of it all, but that doesn't mean the person who's doing the work needs to be reporting to you.
If you're a a manager, you know, your pitcher, you know, has given up a couple runs, she's walked a few. What's your, you know, your view? How long do you give her? You know, if if this inning's a struggle, do you do you let it ride? >> It's still a close game. It's still up a rust lead. >> It's a good pitch. >> You mentioned a couple of times that has not pitched that many innings this season, and you have another pitcher waiting. Um, if you have confidence in that ball through, >> why why not give her one more inning and uh bring the other one between the two and and hopefully maintain. You can always reenter later, but again, not speculate on that. I'm letting it ride here with Nico right now is what I'm doing. I I I think that, you know, she has shown that she can get out of spots.
They wanted to do something for career day but they weren't able to get the information for this meeting. So, Liam emailed me and asked if he can just do the he's going to keep me updated. I'll add him to the agenda. Yeah. Yeah, it's perfect. Thank you Liam if you're watching. I did jump on a quick zoom with [snorts] them. We have some students graduating, you know, so celebrating our seniors but also they are looking for members. I know Mr. Blandina said I saw parent square that today. So, we were just talking they were actually talking about you know, skill sets what they could do and then afterwards we kind of talked about what they can do. It is you know, a commission formed under the first selectman. So, I'm like you know, I really think like when they join that they should actually attend a board of finance meeting, attend a board of selectman meeting like pick you know, come to a board of that meeting, but like pick um a meeting to attend and come back because, I mean, that's why we're doing it, right?
We're working on building storage. Uh our business department fact that our teachers are very well paid now. We still have a three-year positive certification on our budget. Positive qualified and they're negative. So objective three years out thanks to the hard work of business department have strong reserves. We just reimplemented our own transportation partner 20 plus years ago. We gave it up county did it then they uh my good news we have our own department. We also brought back our own food service department. Both those services were contracted out with other districts and I'm trying to make our district strong. Um we've enhanced ASB management. You know we get audited on every little thing we do financially and reports and department has really tightness up. So I don't say that to brag. It's not me. It's my team. It's my board. Our board has done amazing things.
Are there any questions? No, just a thank you to Heather for her flexibility. Appreciate it. No problem. Any public comment? And they all showed up tonight, too. Just There is one person on our list, Devinder. For this particular item, is that person in the room? No. >> Devinder Cowart? No. All right. Thank you. Is there any other public comment aside from her? Or him? Them? Okay. This is informational only, so we don't need to um take action on this item this evening. We're going to be moving along um to business services um 8 B1. Um this is discussion along with action resolution uh - 26 declaring the futility of public bidding for change order work on the Marigold Elementary School Transitional Kindergarten Playground Accessibility Project. With Julie Kissel. That's a mouthful. Uh good evening and thank you for having me here this evening. Um this item is regarding our project at Marigold Elementary School.
There are rumors that the rehearsals will be moved to before the school day. I I can tell you as a music educator myself, when when you move rehearsals to before school or after school, that's the sign of that's a warning bell. That's something saying that music isn't important and should be in in uh before school. And that's going to be a problem for kids who can't get here that don't have the parents have to go to work. They won't be able to come to the rehearsals before after school as soon as the parents can pick them up. But you know, it's really an equity issue as well. Um I urge you as as a board of education and all of you to please please please take this all into consideration tonight especially. is so ironic. You are honoring all of these music accolades to people in this program.
Right? So, is the is the possibility that this building and grounds department could be under public works. There There are towns that have that, right? DPW director manages DPW and they remain their building and grounds. You know, sometimes it's also under the recreation department, right? The recreation director handles buildings, or they handle grounds, right? So, I just want us to go back and do a second look, especially because one of the reasons we were looking at this was because we had specific personnel that we knew we wanted to move into a position. That has changed. So, when things like that change, you have to reevaluate what you're looking to do. That's all. Yeah, and and I just I and that's a good point, Yolanda. And I think I think after this discussion, I think I can you know, I can work with back and Dan and we can come up and answer a lot of these questions.