We don't have enough signs for all of the schools, but we have gotten permission previously and the last time uh we did post signs, they were taken down by uh school members and thrown out. So, before we, you know, post our signs and that they get thrown out, I would like to get permission to hopefully post some signs. Mainly, we're looking at the high school and the middle schools. Our event is going to be on June 6th this year. Miss Colon, uh we have a board policy that permits it um upon my approval. If you could just simply send me an email, um I will approve it and I'll make sure the schools that you're going to put the signs at are aware that it's been approved so that doesn't happen. Okay. I would greatly appreciate it that. No, no, it's fine. It's fine, but, you know, we just we don't want them thrown out again.
Thank you. Let's give a ro- Sorry. What Let me get the parents' pictures here. Good? Any more? Moms? Good. I'm sorry. Okay. Great. All right, let's give one round of applause. Congratulations to all of our winners. Thank you. Let's see who they're going to athlete next. Athlete of the year. >> It was too bad. Uh it is um elementary school is great. Yeah, Demarco. That's good. Do you mind calling her up? No, no, no. Glad to do that. Yeah, when she comes back. Oh, that was me. Latoya? I didn't personally Did she forget her? Uh eyes on her. That was the fancy ones. Oh, eyes on art? Yeah, the fancy ones. Yeah, yeah, that was on Yeah, Danny's Okay, okay. We'll do it again. Okay, all right. All right, so moving on from first-time contest to a long-established math league contest. Uh this is we're going to announce winners from various schools and grades.
Sometimes you never truly realize how strong you are until you look back and see everything you survived. We have spent years dreaming of leaving high school, but now that we're here, I want to go back. I want to relive those beautiful memories we shared. We all wanted to grow up and become independent people, but we forgot that we were living moments that we would one day miss. People say one of the saddest parts of graduation is realizing that we that we may never all be together again. But I don't want to believe that completely. I believe many of us will stay in touch, stay friends, and continue being part of each other's stories. We have grown from babies into young adults standing at the beginning of our new chapter in our lives. To our underassmen, I know that at least one graduate sitting here has helped you or impacted you in some way.
There is an African proverb that says, "It takes a village to raise a child." It implies that children are better supported uh when they have extended family, neighbors, and community members supporting and mentoring them. I would like to use this platform to talk about my village. The people who have helped me over these years to make me who I am today. The The ASDB athletic program has played a huge role in my high school career. And my participation in these extracurricular activities was not only fun, but also contributed to the development of my character, self-esteem, and sense of confidence and independence. It has been an honor to compete in flag football, cross country, goalball, and track and field. Although I may not have been the best on the team, I was privileged to have the opportunity to play sports despite my vision loss. And to be supported by my amazing coaches, Gerald Brown, Esther Mary Hillman, I read that wrong.
Your hard work and perseverance got you to this point, and it is your privilege to feel emotions and hardships because it means you're alive, and it means that you got through hard things and still reached the top. Some don't. Not all hikers stay the course. Not all students graduate. Some get tired halfway through. Some stop to care for others. Some aren't fortunate enough to get the resources they need. And some never get the chance to finish. There have been 1,680 school shootings just in the past 5 years. Children who cannot comprehend such violence are taught how to hide along the wall away from doors and windows until it's automatic. Parents worried if their kids will come home from school every day put bulletproof linings in their backpacks. Teachers decide in life or death situations to give their lives for your children, leaving behind their own family and future.
They will remember whether we showed kindness during difficult times. They will remember whether we gave up or just kept going. So, as we leave here tonight, I hope we choose to be people who endure, people who lead with compassion, people who remain hopeful and uncertainty, people who keep going even when the ice closes in. Congratulations, class of 2026. We made it. Thank you. I would now like to welcome our valadictorian, Leah Heinman. Thank you, Donnie, for that introduction as well as for showing us all what it looks like to successfully use chat GPT to write an essay for you. That was good. >> I'm just kidding. We recently lived through something historic, the Artemis 2 space mission. You may have seen videos of the four astronauts circling the moon and taking pictures of the Earth from afar. But before Artemis 2, there was Apollo 13.
So, I I hope that uh that that's possible. And earlier this week, I had a conversation with uh with my high school drum line instructor actually. Uh And he's he's worked as a music teacher himself. Uh he's also worked in music programs his entire career. And uh he talked to me at some length about both uh the challenges of of what it is to be a music teacher and to work in a school district, but also he talked to me about some of the really incredible successes that he's had with his students over the years. Um the effects that learning about discipline, teamwork that comes from a marching band program, or comes from a music program that students get, those are skills that have a massive impact on their lives. He's had so many kids over his career who came into his programs maybe on not such a good trajectory, and then were able to learn the ability to really focus and work hard at a thing and be truly excellent at it.
Sorry for you Purdue board members. Um but yay for us uh hooers. Uh but I think interesting enough that uh Trent comes from a one of Indiana's most storied coaching families. He's the grandson of Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame coach Gus Morehead and the son of former South Dearborn head coach Rob Morehead who happens to be with us tonight as well making him a third generation basketball coach in the state. And his brother is also a basketball coach at South Dearbornne. So, uh, Trent and his wife Bri have a seven-month old daughter, Juliet, and they're also here with us tonight. But Mr. Morehead, you want to stand up? Do you want anything say anything? >> No, I appreciate that. Thank you. Uh, just and I and Juliet are thrilled to be joining the Centerrove family. Uh, just from a, you know, stand back perspective, obviously familiar with just the the success in athletics, but being here tonight, just a great reminder, the success and excellence and everything Senator has to offer.
And we have had four schools go through the rigorous, very rigorous outside people come in and certify um schools and have achieved STEM certification. We have two more that are still in that process and working through it. Very proud of the work in STEM that we're doing locally. We have one of the only um Cummins Design Innovation Studios in this region of the state that we were selected for. Um we've increased advanced coursework and prior to ninth grade students next year and eighth grade will all be taking two advanced courses. Indiana College Core, we can offer it here locally. A lot of other schools, they have online courses, they have to travel. We offer Indiana College Core locally. Um and then eSports, we've added eSports, which for the first time, I don't know if you saw it in the paper, we had kids get scholarships for eSports for college.
Those two are two of the top runners in the state, so hoping and wishing them well as they enter the postseason for track. Yeah, [crying] I wouldn't want to race against them, I'd have to say. And that one is upstairs, so it is a three-ball, no-strike count here to Kazadian. I'm interested to see if they give Ruby the green light. Ruby has a lot of power here. Might might want to take a risk here and just just see if she can take a load on one that comes right across the plate for. It's a swing and a miss, so she did have the green light. And it is a three-ball, one-strike count. I don't mind that right there, giving Ruby the green light on that 3-0 with runner in scoring position and two outs. Uh we do need to get this runner across, so if giving Ruby the opportunity makes sense.
So, welcome Mr. Lockhart. Very humbling. Thank you very much, Superintendent Stolen. Um, it's good to be home. Um, I just want people before I present in the state of Connecticut to understand that we have issues within our state and we embrace them. But when you go to other people's gardens and look to see what they have to deal with and how they deal with it and then you come back to Connecticut, we're we're quite fortunate, which is humbling and scary at the same time. So, we got to make sure we keep all all Americans, all children, all Board of Ed Association members in prayer, and all taxing communities because everyone is under stress and strain to try to do the right thing. So, thank you for everything that you do. So, I'm humbled to present this award to you. This was one of my final acts coming out as president of CAPE back in November.
>> Good evening everyone. So, the goal of this group was to look at from the students perspective, how do we continue to improve the classroom experience to give all students the opportunity to be able to learn as best as they can. And so some of the things that we were looking at were um through the lens of instruction, curriculum, the environment. Um so we wanted to really get their perspective like Dr. Reid was saying. So in terms of um the training that we did, so we had a 2hour PD session made up um of about 14 teachers from across all departments. Um and the focus of that session was to like the last group think about what are the assumptions and biases that we may have about how students experience their education. Um and then to develop questions for the focus groups that we would have um that would be open-ended questions, inquiry based questions.
This is just like to give us some order of magnitude of of costs with with everything. Got you. Um So some other year one projects you have like the little one pager. Um some things just to note here is in that campus column, um any new project I highlighted in yellow. So, you'll see that there is uh four five six new projects. Every other project has been asked for before and been deferred. Right. So, there's 27 year one projects. So, okay. Uh I was just I'm looking at the fine print that I couldn't see on my phone earlier. Mhm. The placeholder for the Yes. >> uh storage at at Barham. Yes. >> Cuz I'm like I thought they were going to take care of that. And that's just >> [laughter] >> that's still in the works. What I will say what came off here is the power equipment.
So I'd like to acknowledge them, please give them a round of applause. >> [applause] >> All of us here at CHS as well as your parents and guardians and family congratulate each and every one of you on the awards you received today. These cords and certificates serve as one acknowledgement of the investment you have made in your education here at CHS and well beforehand and we are all extremely proud of you. Uh thank you again for being here this morning. We have wonderful coffee and refreshments provided by the CHS culinary class in the commons. Your seniors can help make your way up there. We'd love to acknowledge and go and celebrate and go and see you up in the commons. Have a great day everybody and I'm sure we will see you soon. >> [applause]
I want to share with everyone that Savannah High School is truly an amazing, one-of-a-kind school because of our committed and caring teachers and staff members. At this time, I would like to recognize and acknowledge the Savannah faculty and staff for their dedication in preparing these students for the last four years. Let's give them a round of applause. >> And now Dr. Perez will provide some special student recognition. Please join me in honoring all the graduating seniors who have made many great contributions to Savannah High School. I would like to recognize some extraordinary student groups. Graduates, when your group is called, please rise to be recognized. Career Technical Education CTE Pathways, please rise. You may be seated. Dual Enrollment You may be seated. ASB student leadership. You may be seated. Global language and leadership academy. Please stand if you have been in any type of dual language academy since kindergarten.
4 years ago, as you walked through these doors as freshmen, I was beginning my own journey here as a new principal of Western High School. We started this chapter together, learning and growing side by side, and it is my honor to finish it with you today. Look around. Take a second to really see the people sitting next to you. For years, you've shared hallways, late night study sessions, and many fun events. You have grown up together, and today you prepare to grow apart. Not in spirit, but in your journeys. To know where you come from isn't just about a hometown or a zip code. It's about the people who stayed up late helping you with math problems you didn't understand. It's about the teachers who saw potential when you perhaps doubted yourself. It's about the culture, the struggles, and the triumphs of those who walked before us.
And because I met Jill at at um first grade, I also got to meet her parents at first grade because they were part of my project that year and I really appreciate them as well. Thank you. One, two, three. >> Let's let the >> Yeah, go ahead and sit down and let the high school students transition to the next um person that will be speaking to you next year. as I break the mic. All right, we're going to move on to the introduction of the 2026 27 student representatives. So for High Desert Premier Academy, um Jaden Oligi, you're up. Good evening, President Buchanan, esteemed board members, superintendent Nelson, executive cabinet, oh, Apple Valley Unified staff and educational partners. We had our grad night at Disneyland California Adventure on May 8th. I had the best time. But let me tell you, my feet were killing me after that.
Our first award is through Seroptimus International and our winner locally is Emily Rodriguez. Our second award is a local award called the Bev Rosen Doll Award and it's for um high school seniors that want to move on and either become a teacher or uh do you know something hopefully locally in the area. And this woman was pretty amazing with her letter that she wrote. We were quite impressed. She may be winning a couple awards here, but our award that we're giving is going to Campbell Woods. My name is Jacob Christian and I am pleased to represent the Sierra Pacific Foundation. The foundation supports youth and community based programs in the areas where we operate facilities. The foundation scholarship program is offered to the students of Sierra Pacific employees going to trade schools, community colleges, four-year universities, and vocational training programs. For the 2026 and 27 school year, over $746,000 have been awarded to over 239 students.
I'm just sorry Yeah. Thank you. Would your assistant like to speak? Daniel, would you like to speak? You sure? You're here. All right. Great hat. >> your school? No. No. Thank you. Oh, there's 15. School 15, yeah. Uh Maple Grove. >> He actually is excited. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. Do I need I need to sign, right? If you like. >> Yes, please. Okay. Thank you so much. Have a good evening. Thank you very much. Anyone else like to um push Absolutely.