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Still love you. Um she did the morning announcements. I'd be at Granite and I'd share them and I'd think, "Oh, there goes Jilly." um host and spoke at all pep rallies, honors classes, and my favorite is that she survived four years of high school. I think for me the most powerful time I spent with Jill was during high school when she was a student adviser for superintendent advisory and while they'd be working on projects at tables, often I'd sit next to Jill and I would catch up on what was going on in her life. And she would always share with me, there's a lot of pathways in people's future. It's not just college, Mrs. Nelson, right? >> Yep. >> And that came out because you had some darling nails on one day. Do you remember? >> Yes, I do. >> Yeah, I do, too. And so, she shared that day that she wanted to be a cosmetologist.
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After she retired from teaching, she shared her love of art by volunteering her time and giving lessons at the cost of de Florence. She also worked at Avenue 9 Art Gallery and took part in many art shows, opened studio tours, and donated her prints to raise money for the Bedwell Mansion Restoration Project. Valerie received um many honors and awards for her artwork, but was very humble and generously passed them on to hundreds of paintings to family members, charitable fundraisers, and local Chico patrons. Valerie passed away a few years ago after extremely short battle with leukemia. Her family wanted to keep her memory alive and established a scholarship for a deserving senior. After going through hundreds of applicants among all graduating seniors in Chico, we pulled from those who showed interest in art education. But since there was no luck with art education, we broadened our search and came across an individual who shared her passion for teaching knowing she wanted to make a difference and provide high school students with a nurturing and engaging classroom experience teaching history.
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Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the law of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility, nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should consider their comments in light of legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments, and will be aware and and and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Would anyone like in this room to address the board? Oh, you do you want to do uh open? All right. Okay. Well, we'll close that in a second. Uh anybody in this in this audience, please come up, make your way to the um the chair. Good evening. Teresa Colon. I am the uh chairwoman for Clifton uh Relay For Life of Clifton and Rutherford and I am calling I am here to ask permission that we can post signs on some of the schools in Clifton.
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>> [applause] [applause] >> Congratulations, Haley. Sixth grade winner, Caitlin Masson. >> [applause] >> Congratulations. Go to the other side. There we go. Seventh grade, Victoria Vitale. >> [applause] >> Congratulations. Our eighth grade winner is Derek Bowen. >> [applause] >> Congratulations. Now we have winners by media type. Our winner for the best drawing was Valentina Ramirez Robeiro. >> [applause] >> Congratulations. All right. Next, our mixed media winner, Naya Thathancady. >> [applause] >> There we go. Congratulations. Maybe a little bit more tape on that would be good. I'll step forward tiny bit here. Next, our painting winner, Evleen Bandal. >> [applause] >> Congratulations, Evelyn. Our sculpture winner, Frederick Williams. >> [applause and cheering] >> Well done. Congratulations. Our written winner, Penrose Black. >> [applause] >> Congratulations. Okay. Do you mind here? Let me see. Do you mind taking a picture for us, Mom? Thank you so much.
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Whether it was fixing our grades before grade checks, helping us make up hours, or giving us extra credit. Thank you for having the kindness in your hearts to help us succeed. All of our memories have been together. Homecoming, sports games, float building, senior sunrise, senior assassin, prom, concessions, and senior ditch day. I want us all to take a moment and look around. Look around. These are the people you have spent most of your life with. From preK all the way to 12th grade. We grew up together. We watched each other change, struggle, succeed, and become the people we are today. We all grew to love one another. We've gone through different friendships, different sports, different problems, and different sacrifices. But somehow we all ended up in the same place, sitting here today wearing these caps and gowns. because every single one of us pushed through.
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This is Jamal now coming behind the podium. Okay. Check and make sure it's where you want it. I'm going to adjust your microphone a little higher. Watch yourself. Sorry. That's probably good. All right. Good evening. My name is Jamal Stell and I am honored to be one of the valid Victorian speakers this evening. Continue on. Um, I started at ASDB 11 years ago in the third grade. But due to limited services for the blind and visually impaired in my original school district, I was extremely behind academically. Fortunately for me, I was able to obtain the educational accommodations and specialized instruction such as braille, orientation and mobility, independent living, and so much more just to name a few. Provided by the wonderful and dedicated ASDB teachers and specialists. I went from being far behind to building a strong educational foundation and becoming valid Victorian for the class of 2026.
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They're difficult and tricky. And by the end of the hike, you're not the same as you were before it. We all imagined a perfect path when we entered high school. We thought we'd keep the same friends, be interested in the same things, but none of us realized how pivotal those years would be in shaping who we are today. Our paths are all different. Some of us had more greenery while others had rain and sharp rocks. Ultimately, all of us here in this room have reached the end of this path. Our diplomas are the same, we're wearing the same caps and gowns, and we're here in this space sharing this incredible moment together. I really am proud of everyone who pushed through this hike when your legs got tired, when you ran out of water, when it started to rain, or when the sun got too hot.
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parents, family, and guardians who sacrificed for us. Teachers who stayed after school to help, friends who encouraged us, coaches who pushed us, and classmates who made even stressful days memorable. Tonight is not only a celebration of individual accomplishment. It is a celebration of our entire community. Class of 2026, we are stepping into a world that will change us in ways we cannot predict. Some of us will succeed quickly, others will struggle. Most of us will probably do both. But if the story of the endurance teaches us anything, it is this. You do not have to control every storm to make it through one. You only need resilience to keep moving, the grit to adapt, and the courage to help others along the way. Years from now, people may not remember every award we won, every grade we earned, or every title we held. But they will remember how we treated people.
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I know that running a district is a lot like running a business and running a business is hard sometimes. And I get the struggle. Um I've had conversations with our band teachers. They are concerned because class sizes are growing. Next year's marching band is as stated going to be over 120 kids. And also interest in the program is growing, which is fantastic, but also means that they will potentially have even larger groups. Some of them are often doing uh combined classes, meaning 60 to 70 kids in an individual group is not unheard of, not unreasonable. Um we had enormous interest in the uh the middle school musical last year over with over 100 kids auditioning. Uh so. I had a good conversation with Dr. Brody a couple weeks ago. I learned a lot of things about the way that these things are done. I know budgets matter, but I also learned that that doesn't mean there can't be a conversation about this.
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Trent Morehead. Uh, Trent's here with his wife. Uh, I just read a little bit about him. He brings four years of head coaching experience from Hower High School in Hope, Indiana, where he built the program into one of the state's elite class A programs. In his time leading the Jets, he compiled an overall record of 79 and 27, including a 26 and3 mark this past season, the program's best since its 2006 state championship run. Under his leadership, Hower earned back-to-back semi-state appearances, three consecutive undefeated uh midser conference titles, two regional champ and two regional championships. He was also named the 2025 and 2026 who's your basketball coaches association district 3 coach of the year and along with being named a south team coach for the Indie Star boys all-star futures game this coming June. Uh Mr. Morhead holds a bachelor's degree in secondary mathematics education from Indiana University.
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Thank you for all of your work to allow us to add that programming. Um, welding certificates, how many welders did we award to the other day? Do you remember? I'm thinking about lining up processes. >> to hear back on the uh, certification exams, but we had nine welding two students complete their certificate through Ivy Tech, the two-year program. Um as well as our CNA students at the high school and I won't ask them to rattle off any more numbers on the spot. Um but >> [laughter] >> a lot of exciting programming that we've added and kids are taking advantage of. Those classrooms are filling and using those opportunities. And then in addition, as part of the strategic plan, we looked at how do we keep our kids engaged in wanting to come to school. And for us, a big part of that is hands-on learning, which is project-based learning PBL and STEM.
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As she'll swing at the first pitch and ground it into center field. Smoked it on the ground, and that is a first-pitch base hit. She, again, like you said, seeing beach balls at the plate. Yeah, Lorelei is seeing the ball right now better than anybody else on the team. It's not even close. She is now seven for her last uh nine, I believe. I I just feel like she's playing with such confidence at the plate right now. As Kazadian looks at ball one, that gets by Martinez, and down to second base goes Collett. So, another runner in a scoring position here for the Clockers, and we've seen quite a few passed balls to start. Just seeing a couple of our All-State runners get by us. Nice to see Bella Bella Domestico's brother uh Luca and Sophia Warneski taking a little run around the school, doing a little TBL track practice.
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Um a local celebrity, but it's actually he's national now, so I'm like fan girling, for sure. >> [laughter] >> Um so, Dr. Stolen, will you do the honors of introducing our celebrity? Sure. Um, each year the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education uh, offers districts and Boards of Education the opportunity to submit uh, for recognition. There are a variety of awards. Uh, the uh, CABE group goes through those uh, nominations and identifies districts that they felt are worthy of recognition. So, indeed our celebrity CABE representative tonight is Leonard Lockhart who has been involved with CABE for as long as I can remember. And um, we want to congratulate you on being named the National School Board Association President uh, this spring. Uh, >> [applause] >> Now, Mr. Lockhart's long been known for his uh, fierce advocacy of public schools and uh, Boards of Education uh, on the state level and I'm sure that um, has clearly resonated with your peers across the country and we're really proud to have you representing us at the national level and even more so to have you here this evening.
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I guess um I thought it was really important that teachers that were going to embrace this and talk to kids about instructional PLA um practices in the classroom needed to have some sort of base training also because we wanted both sides to be comfortable. We wanted kids to be comfortable with the questions they were being asked and we wanted teachers to be comfortable with the answers they were going to receive from these questions. So, we I'll let Jack talk a little bit about that, but we did do kind of a baseline training for um a group of teachers that worked on this, too.
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Um like I said I I'm not even sure the regulations of this body counts as that advisory but like I said I'll I'll look into that. Um that component of it. Any any other things with the turf specifically? Um So those are just the three options. We'll have to come back to the table and kind of select which one would best fit you know our needs. I think more is even more broad than that. Like if we know that like we have if we approve 475 and we know that we can make up the up to 1.9 with the the reimbursement I think that that is the kind of like the catalyst for this is what we have. This is what we want. This is the like the type that we want to have. >> I'm just looking at design you know I'm just we did a lot of things with that first field that I'd like to see mirrored in the new >> the this is not a set in stone.
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Just a second while they announce the parents. Bradley's parents are here so we would ask them to please stand to be recognized on behalf of Bradley for the class of 2026. >> [applause] [applause] >> And now it's my honor to announce the valedictorian for the class of 2026, Suchita Srinivasan. >> [cheering] [applause] >> SO CHITA'S FAMILY IS HERE AS WELL, so we ask invite them to stand so we can acknowledge them and recognize them on behalf of Chita's wonderful accomplishments. >> [applause] [applause] >> Uh if you happen to be here the other evening, we acknowledged many of the behind the scenes folks who make events like this and your upcoming graduation possible. Today we'll also recognize um two people, Mike Salmini and in AV and my assistant Lori Braun. They do a fabulous job of not only preparing for these events, but doing so with a smile and a sincerely supportive approach.
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We have grown, we have evolved, and we have changed. And yes, change can be uncomfortable. It can feel uncertain and even overwhelming, but change is also what shaped us. It built our strength and character and will build our future. So, embrace the change because it's something that is part of life you can never avoid or control, but can grow from. Quiero agradecer a todos los padres que están aquí presentes Now to the class of 2026, never give up. Remember where you come from and stay proud of your roots. I leave you with this. Live as you were to die tomorrow, learn as you were to live forever. Congratulations class of 2026. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you, Helen. Friends, Andres Andres and Helen spoke so eloquently about their journey while at Savannah High School and we are so excited for our graduates as they embark on their next journey.
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Western is often underestimated, but we know the truth. Our ASB may be small, but we dominate at camp. Our cheer team wins national championships, our band never fails to impress, our athletes go far in CIF, and this class especially has been accepted into so many incredible colleges. No matter what you are involved in here at Western, this is where we all begin. As we enter this next chapter of our lives, I hope that we all take a little bit of Western High School with us and transform it into our future. Congratulations to the class of 2026, Western. We did it. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Thank you, Jessica. I would now like to introduce our principal, Ms. Lorena Moreno. >> [screaming] [applause] >> Great job. Nice job, ladies. Friends, family, faculty, AUHSD Board of Trustees, and most importantly, to the class of 2026. This class holds a special significance for me.
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And I think the favorite thing that I can share right now beyond that is here's her why. Her future plans are cosmetology at Victor Valley College. She'd like to pursue making people feel better in themselves with a fresh cut and style. I have wanted to be a hairdresser since I was about eight and I am excited to continue with my dreams. I will always remember the people who shared with me into who I am, who shaped me into who I am. A special thanks to Miss Kelly for keeping me going and always supporting me. But here's the deal. You always make people feel important and you always make them feel special. So there is no doubt in my mind you are going to be the most phenomenal hairdresser and I hope that someday I get to sit in your chair. Thank you. >> Jill's parents are over on the side video videotaping.
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It is it is an honor to present the third annual gifts from the brush Valerie Pay Memorial Scholarship to Taylor Schulen. Taylor, it's an honor. Um we hope that you continue to find your passion and inspire and create an amazing environment for students to learn just as they wanted. Congratulations. This is just a little we have thousands of brushes. So, we're going to give you one that my mom use. So, I appreciate it. >> Hi, Linda Allen with Sir Optimist Chico. We have a couple of awards that we're giving out. Our first one that we're giving out is from Sir Optimus International. And those of you who don't know what Seroptimus is, we raise money for women and girls in the area so that they can move their education on, go to school, uh be able to really enlighten their lives in many ways. So, we do a lot for the area.
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