001Newton well to see everyone here looks like with the last board meeting with the air it was it was running a little hot everyone is dressed a little more summary everybody not today it's certainly my pleasure to turn the program over to Mr Andy Knapp who has a whole bunch of facility at base for us so Mr Knapp okay so as we go through if you guys have any questions feel free to ask as we go probably easier for me to answer them as we go um my best answer and we're missing a couple people up there right now so try to get everything as updated as I could or for 2023 facility update um on projects for the year just for some of you that don't know we we run around um somewhere between
00250 and 70 major projects a year um right now the total projects out there between 23 finishing and 24 that are either somewhere in design or committing or wherever we may be at that are approving um there's about 101 projects total out there some of those um do come up as uh you know like when we talk about our uh okay what do we have going on here [Music] look on the screen there somebody can't get to the next slide Kyle um okay so we're at um a little over 100 projects out there some of those you know we have Roofing projects going on we had five Roofing projects this summer we had playgrounds which is four or five So within that um you know we count each one of those is kind of just
003a major project even though it might have four or five different sites involved uh Coyote Ridge our newest um School up there that all you're pretty aware of right now is set for substantial completion I believe October 21st and then final completion is November 21st so take that back October 20th November 21st um it's been on schedule as we've gone through it uh early on we ran into a few supply chain delays um and some some contractor delays but they managed to keep it on schedule and and uh currently we should finish prior to Christmas with all the construction work and the final punch lists and then uh we'll go we've got FF and E which is Furniture fixtures and equipment scheduled for the second week of January right now so the as we go
004through this um some of you remember we did a presentation a while back um last spring I believe it was sort of of where we'd be as we went along um some of this is not really in my wheelhouse here in the middle but um there's our substantial completion dates uh I pulled off of our presentation we did to some of the community I assume we're still intending to hire principals and do the transition with that somewhere in January February of 24. um and then also during that timeline hiring the core team student registration and then staff will continue um the rest of the year through July is that sound right Becky yeah so they're going to come on staff at that time when you have flexible will they start right then they'll probably do
005depending on Reddit we'll have some Transit transitions are coming from a current building we'll work with getting coverage for that building to give them more release time to work on outrage and the same that's on the core team we want them to be part of that enabled culture and private development if they were new to the district and didn't have a job that they would be hired right away then right yeah okay thank you once we've had the school ready I think I would assume we'll wait a little bit closer towards the end of the school year um then we started talking about having some community and stakeholder events up there and then we'll do a grand opening with the ribbon cutting and open house probably uh in August just prior to the start of
006school starting hi there you're good so is that project still going to have a traffic light yes yes um so I'm not sure what's what's going on with the city there they were originally scheduled for this summer um I know they've had a lot of staffing change over down there um and uh and I've gone through some shortages and changes themselves so currently they're they're telling us they're scheduled for the summer of 24. I don't think that really creates any issue um because I assume it's going to be a light that is triggered as you pull out of outrage uh so it's not going to change if it's up there we talked a little bit early on about having it up there to get people used to it and get the transition in there and
007get leads to a light um I think if they make it you know a month or two ahead of time they're probably okay because of the functionality of that one so that's where we're at on that light a couple other things about Ridge before we move on that job um came in at uh we've had three change orders on the entire job and one of them was the space we we changed um a change early on for that um space Sorry life spaces we put in there so three change orders and we're about one and a half percent of the total budget on that entire project so that's been actually kind of been a little surprising because when we went into it if you guys remember we had to ask for supplemental funding from the
008state thinking we were going to be four or five million short because of covet and um we managed and I would say thanks a lot to the contractor he managed to turn a lot of that around and and buy things the right way so we came in pretty close to Budget on that I'm assuming that doesn't mean we get to use that money as another project just goes back in the block right oh it goes back yeah Central High track renovation and locker room renovation um I know we've we've had some questions about this so this was set up originally so when we went back to swimming um the girls varsity locker room is set up for the boys to be able to use and we've we've changed all the doors and locks so it's
009not accessible from either side and then the junior varsity side was accessible to the ladies um it's been shut down a couple days because of the flooring that was going in it but it is scheduled to be fully open on the 25th and if that floor which I believe was dry they stole me today they can actually use that if they're not using it it was it was a choice of either the coach or um or the principal that just wanted to going to South so I'm not sure where they're at this week on it but it is available to them or when will they be able to use pool at Central I think they can use it tomorrow if they want I was told they could use it that day answer okay yeah so
010one of the questions was okay yeah so the state um guidelines and policy we have to have boys and girls operating rooms and showers for a pool and so going into this we set it up so they could use last year they worked with nickel today to make sure they can use both locker rooms and had it right bring back into it I think just because of maybe it was just because of the maths and not wanting to deal with it they I heard and I haven't been over there but I heard they were still using cell they were yes yeah yeah yeah I don't know where it's at on the list but um sometimes when we do a half one obviously in the summer during our time frame it's whatever we can get that
011in that time frame and then a lot of times it's not showing both sides down so I don't know six years ago they weren't what they're in better shape the boys locker is nasty yeah yes it was that's what we were told because I asked the question why wouldn't you involved they said girls didn't need it yet so yeah it was not very important um playground scheduled to go in September 28th or excuse me August 28th so the point um the track and the track and the tracks going in I think they might have been striping today I didn't get out there uh maybe shaking her head so she's gonna swim by there strike again good so so they're gonna make that um we've had some questions about the colors saying it was wrong color
012but uh as they final coat it it's supposed to be closer to the color and there's only one red so it can't be the wrong color it might not look quite right but those are some of that red color that's on there is that what it's gonna be yeah I think it'll be a little darker probably than what the field is those colors are usually I mean you can kind of see some red onions oh yeah on the track yeah hopefully it looks better than that one excuse me you're saying that they're striping it today is it just need to dry and then nope I think they're setting the 24th or 5th is evolution until this week yeah they're gonna make the words football game which I think it's 25th is that right thank you
013so yeah they're supposed to have it cleaned up and be gone before that um Anderson Elementary School so we put in a secure vesicle over there and remodeled the front offices um Henderson needed a lot of work there's also an ADA ramp I think there's a good picture of it that goes out front door down this direction in the front um I do I do know this Project's been a little bit behind I think the principal moved him to her office this afternoon um and then uh is it that should wrap up within by the time we get school started at least so I think we have a substantial completion date on here of uh yeah temporary temporary Co anyway on Friday so we'll be able to use it okay that might be a little
014dangerous for our handicapped people there are so many people um it was it's it's way to installate a little bit on order I'm not sure what's holding it up but I know today we're going to put a temporary one on until it gets here that's it Andy I'm sorry did you say it would be completed Friday or it'll be completed by Friday night so they won't be using this the first few days of school um they're working with them to let them move in there and do that so the city's been over there working with them how do you let Aaron move in today in her office and they're kind of letting them they're inspecting it as they go they're trying to make right am so the kids will start in the school stay well
015on Wednesday yeah um and we'll have that secured before the kids are in there I mean it won't be open like that there's another you know we will probably have set up so they enter there okay perfect thank you um what else we got for that one I think that's about it on that one I can't tell you might hear from Karen she's been a little concerned about about getting into her office and getting the school opened up yeah um and we're looking at another I think for next summer of bathroom renovation in the same school we weren't able to get it on this year so this summer um and most of you know that there are some staff and contractor shortages out there and we've been a little short in planning as well and
016this particular contractor we have them on a continuing service contract as well and they ended up with a bid on I think three of our projects um so they as interns were behind tennis courts so those um those got about a 10-year life once we served some um you may have heard that but the gold on East when they started very slaps his life is supposed to be brown or gold yeah when the summer can go wrong he usually does but anyway they're up and running now so I think they're good to go our nutrition service is freezer um this is uh we started this actually during cobit any of you remember um an emergency we ordered semi semi loads of food because we couldn't get it and then we ended up leasing refrigerator trucks
017to bring in well in the whole process of that and getting a cooler in hope it held that up and we couldn't get the cooler or the freezer and then when it finally came it was missing um about half of the parts so they've been putting it together um I know we have to have completed this was also purchased with faster funds um it has to be completed by next month and it's scheduled right now to close out on September 22nd so we should I wish Ashley was here we finally have the chicken nugget freezer which will actually be pretty nice I don't know if any of you've been in the nutrition building over there it's pretty crowded and small and so that'll help questions what we saw there on the right side that's the
018inside of that that's the inside of the freezer yeah that's all freezer space yeah it's pretty good size if you're over there in the yard and Drive by even it's on the north end of the building there's that door being able to take pallets in feet here yeah so these are the playgrounds for this summer um obviously like outrage has been scheduled to 28th um and these are completed now these are a little bit earlier before we had all the rubber pellets in um and then most of you have heard about or seen the Jessup uh playground up there as well uh that is we're still waiting I think they said Wednesday this week we'll have an insurance adjuster here and then I assume we'll be able to replace that piece of equipment and um
019a little rubber mulch back in there but I doubt it'll be able to go in until next spring sometime probably they run about 12 weeks out anyway to order them so um and then talking about Playgrounds I guess um we've talked a little bit today I didn't get a chance to talk to Dr Newton earlier but um besides the fire and Jessa um across the board that um I was kind of hoping maybe we could get some kind of community communication going out there because we always face a little bit of vandalism in the Summers but this summer has been they've burned down just they tore the playground equipment and what else was it apart over at uh Fairview and lab part they threw it out into the streets they tore open our pellets of
020rubber mulch and threw them into the streets and on playground had to be raped up they broke all the windows out of the equipment of our contractor at lebard um so we've just had a lot of Summer vandalism going on for some reason and we've had them on the roof of a couple schools um got a break in at Johnson Junior High so I don't know um you might uh we might think about some kind of an awareness out there to try and get people just they see activity around the school especially in off hours of the school but their probably shouldn't be activity around this morning so um we've had a hard enough time getting them done once let alone getting them done two or three times is is not much easier so Angie
021all right open the playgrounds they're open to the public I mean they are apparators right right so we open them at the end of the school day um however when we put that stuff in them we we do lock them in the Summers so sometimes so is that rubber mulch on that left picture too they come it comes in more than one color no that actually I think that is but that's not um that's our old stuff I think Tim I'm sorry but it is the rubber mulch I'm not sure why not I've only ever seen the greens it comes only in green every year and I don't know why that one looks quite like it does but it's actually a good question playgrounds for next time are all the best Anderson Gilchrist Henderson and
022Pioneer Park um we've talked a little bit about uh someone who we've met and talked about a playground uh additionally adding to the playground at Eastridge there's really not any place we can put any playground equipment up there um we have some underground stuff going on that we can't place it in a few little spots we have um just talking with the principal he was pretty excited that they have the football field he's bringing in some uh well he has actually already some frisbee golf games and some volleyball and soccer nets um to put out to get them out in the grass up there and playing a little bit so I think if it works out depending on what happens with Rec Mill this year um if we aren't funding Altavista we'll pull some there's
023some new equipment over it the old art that we would pull into openness to use over their purposes there's some playground equipment East Ridge right there is yeah it's just it's pretty much full or we can have it there there are some tetherball courts that um he's going to put tetherballs back on and then as it comes around there's basketball courts and there's some playground equipment um but there's sewer lines run through the rest of the area under the underground storm sewer so they you can't really drill and set up any playground equipment there and then goes out there's some more basketball courts that are fenced and then out onto the football field so is the plan still not to use the playground backpack yes Eastside pool um don't know or are weren't aware of
024what was going on there this summer they grind it down to the final punch list um we've had them back we've had a few issues with it it's full again now they're using it um we've still got a few things to complete a little bit of paint touch up over there and um some a couple heating issues that they're working on fixing and and then hopefully we'll have that resolved well so much later so yeah they I'm sorry did they repaint the lines in the pool yeah I was told the clients were not straight I'm not aware of that I'll check on it I hope I don't know that's what I was told by 511 000 gallons so well they were thinking that that was what was happening oh apparently the children so the lines
025are not certain hiking check I'm guessing if you heard that and Jeff and Shannon were aware of it they had them re-striped okay but I don't know any chance you heard of me letting me I have not heard of that yet I am not either so sorry that was everything um related to having a drainable got done we don't have anything else there during the politics no not right now long mechanical the pool is all good everything passed and everything is working um we had some questions about the plaster finish on the inside of it but it was never determined that anything was really wrong with it um they're still looking at it and and uh kind of investigating it but they determined that it would be better off to have the pool full than
026to leave it empty so harp Elementary um so we kind of revised a little new bus lane out there this is at the old art course comes in on the east side there um Sebastian will come in there for pickup uh and then we're gonna have uh I think you guys saw the bus schedule came out here um so Adam has that worked out when we start off the school year he'll have a couple people including himself up there to monitor the drop off and pick up to make sure it's working right and follow some of the routes to make sure that everyone's getting there in a reasonable amount a reasonable amount of time um and then Stephen Lloyd the principal will also be out there to get started and he'll have staff out there
027uh continuing for well for throughout the year and then we'll have an MPV out there that we usually leave and whoever his last staff member is there brings it and brings any students that they have to bring over that might be late um we've got I think on the doctor for tonight the SRO contract for the sheriff's department is on there so for approval and that um we've talked to them about once they're back on here on contract with Us increasing the patrol out there especially during drop off and pickup times um and a little bit at night just to keep some of the vandalism down and spend our another one that's been hard to keep vandalism out of because everyone's figuring out it's empty so it's uh it's Adam Sheriff Cheryl vandals out there
028um yes um a state facilities Department I had a meeting with them this week um I just want to let you know because I know we've talked a lot about our plan moving forward with art and why we moved it so I have another one scheduled with them on the 29th um and anticipating maybe getting some traction with them and being able to get working through our plan that we had presented to him last year with immersive study so I think I think that's I'm fairly positive about it let's see how it goes you're not positive the state yeah it is hopefully we can get get somewhere though um I think they understand that we have a pretty big need I had a pretty good conversation with a couple legislators and with the state director
029and um they're actually already asking and looking um ahead to not only finishing with that request we had for him but what we need to do with that bags on Hobbs and nobody that don't know how this is prior highest ranked on that condition list and then also what we would need to do with um what initially started this which was our Mercy study on the three high schools and what we are going to be looking at um for capacity needs on the east side of Saddle Ridge dildine where we have everything is pretty pretty full right now so they were they were interested so on the 29th we're going to talk about our long-range plan and what our needs are and and that's the first time since I've been here that they've ever approached
030me so I don't know that means anything but it could so we're still full of work in the K through four schools over there that that have the five Cisco says the laundry mentioned right yes well sound Ridge mostly is where we have a real capacity issue out there and then with the growth that's going on um it just keeps filling up and they keep growing around it so we need we probably need another well we need a lot but we definitely need another Elementary somewhere over in there soon so to use that land that we purchased that's in the news Savage that would probably be my intention yeah if you already have it right because we have it makes a lot easier and quicker and and it's in a good location I I'm the
031only option would be um some of the discussion has been and recommendation is to move up more into Whitney Ranch there to the north a little bit but I don't know you know I don't know we haven't studied enough I don't have anyone right now on my staff that can help me figure that out so I did and on the other land though right we don't own any no not in that area Andy speaking of old ARP did we have a water main that broke going into the school last year what type of damage did that do it filled the crawl space um with about five feet of water but it didn't get to the boilers um or up to where it really damaged any equipment so and I don't know if they've gone back
032in they were pumping it out and dried out before they went in to make sure everything was running but Blake said it didn't get up to the equipment so I think we're fine okay thank you is if there's any doubt there are things wrong with that building here discussion so um I stopped this a little early it's about 30 minute power point but I kind of wanted to see if you had any questions about it or if you want to talk about any of the other projects going out there or I can go through the ones that are not in our point they're a little more I mean they're not as exciting of projects so those are kind of the bigger ones that are a little more public well Andy I just wanted to say
033that those are big projects and um I just want to convey my thanks for all the work that you've done and hanging in there with uh depleted staff and so just good work you know thanks we're getting there um I you know I will say that I mean we're talking right now I've been visiting with Vicki and Jed a little bit and and Dr Newton about I'm replacing some of the staff and planning um as well to get it up and going because this is a hard time of year we're we're in the process right now of our 24 projects for summer so I need to be designing them I don't want to over design for the staff I have the three people left so um and they need to finish out these projects so
034I I don't know what next year is going to look like right now we're going to try to keep the design going and get it to the point you know if we can just finish what we have and design the new stuff and be re-staffed and have them trained to bid projects out after the first of the year I don't know if we'll have 101 of them again but we'll have we'll have projects so we'll get there it's just slow um discussion on anything uh the ccrd gave us notebooks that had upcoming projects that we could look at talk about go out and see the sites Cole Elementary was on there as far as a playground but I didn't see it on your PowerPoint it could have been either added to one way or the
035other it either got added to our 24 list after that came out and we're going to put it in there or they've added it in retro to ask for it and it wasn't on the list yet okay I don't know which way but thank you that's one of the other so would that be for after it's built the new call or are we going to put something out there well so that was probably a plan they had um prior to it being fully replaced uh I will tell you that when I met with the state this year we put a new loop on Fairview and something else we did fairly big projects and I buy 550 000 and uh I went and met with them specifically for that purpose to say look we present this
036plan to you you know it goes through in three to five years we would not taught by those buildings anymore and they said all I can tell you is so they don't and they've done that to us before you know we did um I think it was well I and this was right before I got here but I know this from the stories of hair I think it was uh guns they had just put a new roof on a clear and tore it down so they don't fell apart like one whole course right but my point is like a summer or two summer before they put a half million dollars in the room knowing they had to do some with it so we generally keep our projects categorized and prioritized and we try to hit
037the top needs there's one we know is coming down like I would not do anything right now at our because I'm anticipating a change there um but short of our right now I think we just keep fixing them until we have a little better Direction so we've taken our technology out of our a lot of it yeah most of it um we took we've taken most of the furniture out technology security systems um and white boards okay pretty much about everything are the modular is gone uh they're on the list I don't think they've been taken out yet but the ones that we don't own are so well you know I'm just going to tear down is that right yeah yeah so I think um ideally I would like to get all those modulars out
038there and kind of get it cleaned up and closer maybe prevent a little bit of vandalism because we seem to get you know people can get in there and break in the modulus break the windows out and back yes uh actually had someone build a fire back there and some barrels and and stuff so I think if it was cleaned up a little better and we could get rid of sun it doesn't make it quite as attractive what about Brown's crew I've noticed in just a few pieces um just peppers on trees and Beads and things like that where are you and stacking that and bother again with everything else um last summer we didn't have any summer help which we usually have about 25 kids out this year we did hire some and we
039had ran into a little issue late in the summer that OSHA came through and said we couldn't have them operating vehicles or mowers are mowers are too high at horsepower um for them to operate unless they're 18 and so we had the basically a whole lot of them out of that crew and people visit the rest of Summer it was close to the end of the year it was maybe three or four weeks before they were stopping anyway so we had to do some cleanup stuff but that um we're kind of re-looking at for next year and trying to decide if we maybe bring in a contractor to help with certain pieces of what we did bring in a tree trimmer for the end of the year to go around and start trimming trees um
040because it's kind of hard to hire 18 and over that they're just kids for the summer job and it's hard we had um those kids even take them out you know to do anything we had to have someone driving because that 18 hours we were driving and so then it takes one of our guys off I think that's a full-time job just to drive kids around so what about the school Farm you kind of briefly mentioned this full Farm has been all cleaned up out there you know we've done some remodeling inside the main buildings that were there um we do have a design for a new Arena to go out there um and we've kind of just put that on hold till we get all this straightened out and then um while I talk
041to you guys and see if you have any desire to put that out for bid and see what the price would come in at um we can we don't have to move forward with it but we can get it out and see where it's at I think I'm anticipating it being somewhere back down now um somewhere south of 3 million and it came you know when we first kind of come up with a schematic design important five and six million earlier Arenas so I think we're back down to say a more reasonable price but probably a more reasonable price and then the long way to reduce that would be to reduce size or maybe some skull but it's pretty bare anyways it's a fair build in with a couple classrooms so can they use that
042for additional storage or storage um housing for the projects I think that's what I was hearing that they needed the most out there yeah I hadn't heard it was going to be in Arena I thought it was just going to be some additional housing for the projects there there was talk about that um this was an arena oh basically that if it was put up it would end up having they talk about putting pens on the backside restored so the other thing would be to look at um the needs of bad teachers and they prefer to just have more indoor pens for their foreign um animals we could do that too instead of an arena that's what they the one who gave us tour guide said that's what they needed just go to the junior
043high they probably don't have as many places at home to do that right they would need more space out there to be doing and I believe we're teaching some more classes out there this year is that right so probably Depends for the animals and classroom space would be might be a better use so there is any of those monsters that were taken down over there are in good enough shape to be moved out there possible space um or two used to be housing out there for somebody who stayed there or kind of monitored but that's gone away since that's part of the perks of the new superintendent well one email I read said because the her unit was built for an old for almost 17 so anything else can you talk a little bit about
044what land we have that's not used right in Arizona there's a lot of new board members that may not be aware what parts of the land we have around the city so we have um sorry for that um well something you're looking at using right now um are obviously is is a big enough sight and it's about devices we actually really need but that's a nice place to be able to put a new larger Elementary school we purchase that furniture Learning Academy so that became part of the goal um piece of land we have uh 52 Acres out next to alphaba on the west side of it and that's where we want to put the five six school um probably be simply because we have the land and and it's a big enough piece that
045we actually if we spread it apart from half a bar itself it leaves a 30 good sized piece in between that um you know we've talked about anything there's nothing particularly in a long-range plan or anything but if it needed some kind of fields you know softball soccer whatever type of fields in between there would be some space between the two schools um we have about the sustainable amount of land and uh behind Meadowlark so we own most avoidancy behind metal art to the north and east over to that Park um oh I know we have Saddle Ridge 2 that's out in uh Saddle Ridge Edition that's just east of our Saddle Ridge Elementary right now so we have a piece of land in there for another Elementary School I think that might be a
046piece of the middle of Cole's property too right now oh yeah sorry yeah when we built uh Coyote Ridge we had done some trading back and forth several times there and we still ended up with a it's not a real big site but I think it's eight acres in the middle it's good enough for anything um right now it's about minimums about seven and a half or eight on an elementary um so we might be able to we try to get to about 10 just for growth in the room so it's it's doable and it's also something we can trade at for another piece of property somewhere um you know Albany I don't know Mark Elementary that other part you talk about I mean there was actually for our other five six school right yeah
047the second advising school what if we build a bigger Elementary there we probably wouldn't have room for nothing we wouldn't and part of putting in a five six the way we were going to do it with ARP and Cole was then the Arkham call would go up to somewhere between 350 and 400 students and that would accommodate all those little schools that we needed to kind of clean up and take offline it's all the schools that were kind of in in maybe in the next 10 years are going to replace they all have enough land right now if we're going to replace the school um that's a track behind there so it doesn't has enough room to yeah hubs actually is a really good one because we intended to build it on the North side
048and then keep the school open until it was done and then turn that into the playground parking lot originally Dave talked about the fact that he didn't want to tear out the track because it's the only Elementary track we have yeah but I guess you know we have to build that's where the school would go if you're going right right and it would be a better little better location there because of drainage is something on the higher side of the lot so yep so the only one that you know obviously there's like a lot of our old schools that are not real conducive to the law would be Henderson a salary Lodge or location there to put another school on um did some of those repairs on the east side I used to be dangerous
049Hill on the east side with the repairs they've done there and the Landscaping is going to be much better yeah um Jessup is is kind of small that's a small parcel put another school on and there's not even places up there Kyle looks like when you're scared me say that but um and then of course Deming Miller are not really replaceable so we have a lot of lives of Miller right because you've got the field next there and so forth we do have a lot of land and Miller we had looked at one point at putting a new school there um so and I don't know it got shot down it did yeah that and it's probably not the best place because of the intersection in the corner there but um and the facilities and
050nutrition on the back side of it it's a great piece of property for the district though because we actually between nutrition and Facilities could use it you know for more space there they actually need another building um for facilities that we've looked at we're putting some of that equipment in that's over there in the winners keep it inside and keep it running so but there's not really room uh on the lot we're on there so people parking cell phone for story gym too yeah is Jessup on the list to be replaced at some point not very soon you know right now the biggest one other than these six we're trying um in the South try the biggest one will be Hobbs it's the highest level Deming Miller are up there and but again that's just
051different arguments so yeah we had the money to come back if they hypothetically what the state said do your 405 and Hogs because the new ARP is in Eastridge would there be room to start construction behind where mobs is and leave them in their building um yeah hops can be it can be built on the lot behind it without disrupting classroom right yeah okay okay thank you I don't know if they're going to I will say that you know whatever they come to us with and want to move forward with um I do think we probably need to address our um because of the situation we're in and also putting a five six in ahead of without them agreeing to the full package of all three schools um we'd have to rethink the plan of
052you know that puts a lot of open capacity out there right so you've all in five six kids out all those schools and now every school's at 50 percent you'd have to get the state to agree ahead of time that we're not going to look at you and say well you're only 50 capacity you don't need anything else okay so it's got to be kind of a package for you to move forward with it and then um of course just looking at which schools you know that we moved there and what we do with them so yeah thank you anything else this Transportation restroom how are they doing they're pretty much wrapping up that one got a little on hold because the contractor with Henderson is also in that so I told him to focus
053on the schools first which reminded me again four projects that he bid for it never thought he would do that plus he's our Prime material yeah um so busing someone asked about Staffing for busing out there it looks like all of our full-time drivers activity and Route drivers are full right now um that changes though weekly like just so you know see you've got a good taste of that last year that's a that's a tough job out there um but we are down um Flex drivers on-call drivers and assistants um or down 20 people with that so um but we do have all the full-time routes and activity drivers filled right now so anybody in training I don't know if he's got anyone in there right now I think he just finished the class so
054but we'll be able to pick up a few here when school starts maybe advertisements are out again yeah yeah Andy what's what's the solution for you to find people is it higher salaries is it just more advertising or is it just that you think there's no interest or is it a combination I think it's a combination I I think some higher salaries probably in some of the positions we have some positions that I think are are in my opinion or below marketing and we just don't get much interest in them and when other jobs come up that's what I've lost some people to are other ones similar that paid more so um and we're working on kind of reorganizing that right now and and uh changing the job descriptions a little bit and trying to
055get them for where they make sense and see if we can get some interest I and I think you know it's it's substantial but I think they've been low for a long time so they're probably well beyond time for an adjustment somewhere thank you yep any other questions anyone looking for a job where are all these people Saturday and pay their bills yeah sure that's the end of our reports okay so good about 15 minutes long waiting for the meeting foreign sees the order we will have the pledge of allegian State presented by the second grade class Barbara Smith from Buffalo Ridge Elementary principal Cheryl Cloud so please you can join with him or you can just listen it's always a great reminder what we're all about and what's going to be heavy in our
056schools in just two days so all right so promotion Mr chairman I moved to adopt the agenda by second okay we have motion to adapt to 10 is this all those any further discussion all those in favor say aye aye those opposed no motion passes okay so the first thing we're going to be doing is doing the the recognition for the Pledge of Allegiance Well normally we have a Western Vista Federal Credit Union here and they are our sponsor for um student of the week and for our Pledge of Allegiance award um and they are present here through our board chair Tim Bowen um who is wearing a different hat tonight but uh I will let him present the award and Western Vista is very proud to do both our student of the month and
057then the teacher that's recognized by that but also since we started doing the pledge of allegiance to get a little bit of reward for that teacher that goes through and does that wonderful presentation of the Pledge of Allegiance and we do the Pledge of Allegiance in our classrooms every day and I just thought when I took over his chair that we should see those little voices doing that so here's the uh if it's a 50 gift card so you can use that to purchase some things a great time of the year to get that I'm sure from looking at your wallet in your classroom you probably spent over the extra money thank you okay so our next award is going to be for East High School so is Mr marriage here or somebody please High
058School so first of all we're going to do the Delegate for the state of Wyoming I'll let you talk about what it is or good evening it's my pleasure again and would you please come up I don't want to be up here by myself this award's for you it's my pleasure to introduce um Dan and Prince Gannon is a senior at this year at East High School already and um he's a kind um very personable young man who treats others really well in our building just terrific with his peers um he's had to overcome many obstacles ought to get to this point and the first thing is he has two older sisters um you know getting aside Gannon was uh has had type 1 diabetes for many many years and there's an organization called the
059jdrl that advocates for students young people with diabetes and trying to help better their lives and help them as they move on through their life again and applied for a uh a congressional trip that he could go to represent uh students with type 1 diabetes there were over 700 applicants and only 165 were chosen again was one of them and he had an opportunity to go to Washington DC and he's going to tell us a little bit about his experience and what's going on his senior year and how he won't get senioritis this year and moving forward but we're just so proud again and he's just a great kid thank you um yeah so I was in DC and I got honored to speak to uh our congresswoman and the Senators and I was able
060to Advocate about um how my life is in school with type one and the challenges I face the most and I was also able to preach about the insulin affordability act and it was really awesome I got to sit through a congressional hearing so I got to see how parts of our government work and other than that I got to meet a lot of other cool kids with type 1 diabetes from all across the country and going forward I plan on continuing my advocacy through the Mountain West youth ambassador program that's also put on by JDRF okay no damaged parents are here tonight uh Jeff and Sherry would you stand please stand to be recognized thank you again and congratulations again and don't go too far because you got another national champion foreign all right
061Josh Thompson um is going to be a senior this year as well at East High School we've got a tremendous senior class and you're seeing two of the students here tonight a great student just outstanding young man and he does speech and debate and our speech and debate's pretty good and Mr money is going to tell you what Josh accomplished this summer which is really awesome hey everybody I'm Marcus viney the head coach of speech and debate at East High School I've been waiting to do this all summer I'm not kidding it's my favorite thing in the whole world to just get up and tell you about a kid like Josh so Josh this summer was the national champion and expository speaking which is a huge deal there were 466 competitors at the tournament but
062to get to the tournament you have to be the top two percent in the whole country so what he pulled off is near impossible and one of the best things about it is that he's just the most worthy and good hearted kid just about in the high school to help anybody and I'm just absolutely thrilled that he comes back this year and all the kids the ninth graders that show up in the class get to interact with them and talk with them so he's not done yet and I just can't wait to see what he can do but I just want to thank everybody uh you know just on behalf of him and team the board Dr Newton Mr Mirage everybody who pitches in uh just absolutely thrilled for him so it's a really big
063big accomplishment so thank you to everybody who chips in okay and Josh's parents are here so we gotta have them stand up and be recognized thank you did you want to say anything about it I think so we got an awarded speaking might want to all right well um I've been told by my lawyers that I'm not going to get senioritis this year so um well I guess like Gannon said um I I guess I'll just talk about Nationals a little bit um it was a really really awesome experience we got to go to uh Phoenix Arizona very hot um what it was today is pretty much how it was like 90 of the time we were there even at night um but you know it was nice uh it didn't rain at all so
064there's that um no it was it was really great and um I got to meet a lot of really cool people and um got to see a lot of great advocates for what they believe in my speech was about dad jokes um which seems kind of out there but they're actually really important and um it was just a really great experience to meet other really cool like-minded people who really care about what they're talking about and I think speech and debate is just a great activity uh in general so I'm really thankful for the opportunity to do it and I have some awesome support systems in my life one of my old Spanish teachers is back there Mr magada he was awesome when I had him Mr binding my coach obviously Mr mirror to my
065principal and my family have just been an amazing support uh these last three years and now coming up on four so thank you again everyone it's been a great help London yeah we not only have amazing students that recognize who else has an amazing static right now so I'm going to ask Jed sick really to come up right now and talk about some of our amazing staff the government thank you Mr chairman members of the board you sure have this thing on great um it's not very often that we have an opportunity to talk about some of the the great work our team does not only to support our district internally but some of the amazing work that our nutrition services folks have been able to do to support uh not only um again our
066district but also other districts across the state through nutrition services up here with me today um our our executive officers representing the Wyoming nutrition services program and Association which is comprised of about 150 different members across the state of Wyoming which advocate for Child Nutrition Services programs Provide support in the way of professional development best practices and networking opportunities for individuals within their profession I think it's a great Testament to the work that our district does in supporting again our district and others across the state in that a majority of the officers are represented by Laramie County School District One employee which is a great feat which is something that I think Ashley is excited to talk a little bit about with the group as well um joining me here are a number of our
067officers um Miss Holly and Miss Gina Blackburn and of course joining us I believe online to at least watching um is Annie Weiss our assistant nutrition services director so um with that I'll pass it off to Ashley for a few words oops I'm gonna use my cheat sheet okay so I know Jed already reiterated it but we're really proud to take such a leading role in the state school nutrition Association um I am vice president this year Holly is President and then Gina was actually last year's president and Annie wise our one who's online is Treasurer this year so we actually do get to play a really big role in the industry in this state and also nationally because of our leadership roles in this organization we get to attend leadership conferences um legislative action
068conferences national conferences and we get to bring back all kinds of best practices tips and tricks and just better ways to feed our kiddos in this community so we're really proud to be a part of the organization I'm really proud to be a part of this team yes we usually get to hear Jed talk about the budget but he does have a few other things in his wheelhouse that he has to take care of the last couple of years and nutrition services is one of those another thing I'd like to say is I believe that our students are best served by having nutrition services that we have right here in our district we can approached all the time about some of the companies that might provide lunches but I think we do a much better
069job of providing our own lunches with our staff so as long as I'm around I'm going to make sure we stayed at myself all right next thing is um having some visitors so we have a Full Slate of having some visitors that are going to speak on a topic from the agenda so our first person is Lorraine Wilcox before you start um let's do the rules here first of all states your first and last name unless you're a student I need to say that because we call students up by their initials and last time the student that came up actually gave her a name so if you're a student I don't think we have anything but if your student make sure you don't give your name out because we are broadcasting this so keep your
070comments two to three minutes so others have a chance to waste their comments keep your comments General in nature not directed as specific individual or individuals I know we have problems with that at the last time I know it frustrates some people please remember that personal issues are not an appropriate topic for a public comment make sure you use suitable language for content for K through 12th grade students and and make sure you're adding additional information and not trying to be redundant for what's already been spoken so our first person will be Lorraine Wilcox hi my name is Lorraine Waltons and I'm here to talk to you tonight about the opt-in option opt-in means nothing more than choosing to participate in something examples such as cookies on websites procedures contracts whether or not you want
071to receive emails from companies seems like a pretty simple solution I choose to participate in activities or what I will be exposed to just as I do as the parent of my minor children it does not take anybody else's rights away or show any type of discrimination well what it would involve in the current situation is transparency which seems to be the bigger issue here I hear many arguments such as if parents like myself want the opt-in option we want to ban books or or against certain groups or people and want nothing more than hate and not love yet parents are not allowed to read passages out of the same books that are in our school libraries because certain platforms may be offended I remember as a child growing up around artists such as Boy
072George George Michael Rocky picture Horror Show all artists who had a life have provided much controversy many differences were that my parents were allowed to decide whether or not I was exposed to them the other is children were never their target but these are all examples how individuals are free to express themselves you see we already know that the material being displayed is sexually explicit if any other grown individual including myself handed the same material or read the same material to children we would face criminal charges yet I have sat here for weeks lessening to others cheers parents are shut down for reading materials that is apparently inappropriate for a room full of adults should stand up and ask for the same materials to continue to be exposed to children I stand for the opt-in
073option it is my choice as a parent to decide what materials my children will be exposed to the current opt-out option requires parents to know information such as classifications and what books are there the problem lack of transparency and honesty you see this fight doesn't have to be as complicated as it is I have to sometimes wonder if as shown through history if we can keep two groups fighting over the same cause then other agendas can be slid in more easily such as sources strength or Title IX I asked for this board to pass in the opt-in option I also ask that we all understand that in the end what we need to do is stand up for every child's right not just certain children thank you thank you all right experts will be Kathy
074scagliano Kathy if you're online please raise your hand Mr chairman I do not see any hands raised or that name online hey everyone to the next one uh camera trujillon hi I'm Tamara Trujillo this is my granddaughter m-o-g I have three emojis and I have a 80 granddaughter because I want everybody here who thinks it's okay to talk to kindergarten elementary through whatever grade to talk about sex to look at my granddaughter right here stand up mommy so everybody can see you this is what your teachers are going to be talking to little kids like this if you don't stop putting this out there to kids can you imagine a grown man sitting there talking to her about her gender and her sex can you because I can't and I won't and neither well a
075bunch of other parents it's disgusting and you guys need to do your job thank you next up is George powers good afternoon I'm George powers and I'd like to talk to you about the oath of office that you all took when you assume your seats you pledge to Faithfully perform duties as required by law now as trustees you have a duty at law that is called a fiduciary duty requires you to put the benefit to put the good of your beneficiaries ahead of your personal values it also requires you to show undivided loyalty to those beneficiaries so who are the beneficiaries that you serve I would submit to you that it's not your job to try to appease a few vocal parents at the expense of the students of this District nor is it your
076job to help those who serve parental roles and dictate personal morality to an entire community and most definitely it is not your job to promote political ideological agendas of outside pressure groups which neither know this town the school or this community your beneficiaries are the students of this community it is your duty to make the promise of a public education a reality for each and every student in this District the Wyoming Constitution requires nothing less that it is not your job and it is not your place to erect ideological barriers or to place artificial limits on what students can read in an effort to placate parents or exploit some political advantage now if a parent chooses to opt out of their opportunity to use in school libraries that is their choice but the campaign that
077we have seen over the last few months is a foreign campaign that has been imported into the state and it is contrary to your duties proposals for amendments to the library policy which would vary from the current opt-out policy remove the power from parents and transfer it to others you cannot adopt a policy that would allow one parent to make decisions that impact the decisions and the than the children of other parents you should not adopt a policy that allows one parent to Simply nominate a book that they find objectionable for some personal reason and then require that book to be put on a shelf and access Limited yeah my wife and I raised three children in this District they were all very successful and I want to say I owe it debt to the
078teachers and the staff of this community of this school district please do not hobble the current staff and teachers by putting more restrictions on them let them do the difficult job that they have let them do what they did for my kids please don't sell our kids out thank you next one is Jordan Evans Mr chairman I see their name online okay it's you should be able to speak now can you hear me again go ahead wonderful thank you committee my name's uh her trustee Board of Trustees my name is Jordan Evans and I'm the chair of the Laramie County Democratic party um I spoke last time as to basically the roles of what this board is and the way that it is crafting a potential policy to Define what sexually explicit means and how
079you plan to use that in library policy and it sounds like potentially in procurement policy in addition to dealing with your current books as well as particular perhaps down the line dealing with curriculum as well as classroom policy and I just think that um putting a definition that is subjective uh is not appropriate to go along with what Mr Powers is saying it goes beyond the given duties of your elected office I think to give instruction to staff is appropriate I think to pick curriculum and help guide uh what resources are available to your staff and to your faculty is appropriate but to start micromanaging the job they do is a disservice to them and um contributes to high turnover which I know you're experiencing even at the highest levels of the school district uh
080turnover is a problem because teachers are not feeling like they have the support of their communities they're not feeling like they have the support of those that represent the communities and they're not feeling like they can do their job in a professional manner in the way that they've been trained in a way that is effective in teaching our children without every one of their actions being micromanaged um certainly I oppose a policy which was discussed amongst the board where simply if someone finds an objectionable in it quote unquote meets the definition and then it should be removed automatically without review first off I'm not sure who would review that um to determine whether or not it did meet the definition that seems like a pretty silly policy uh on its face so the current system
081works and it has worked for many years certainly I have a fourth grader I know that nobody has talked to her about sex or puberty or anything others grown men or otherwise and I certainly don't want to bring her out to parade her to look at you here today um but I'm confident that she's safe in school I'm confident that what she sees is age-appropriate and I'm also confident that the vast majority of books being discussed are only available to high schoolers and Junior High kids and if people do not want their children to see that then they can opt out and so I think the current policy is sufficient and you should shell this idea thank you thank you all right next person is Renee Tish thank you Katie rinderley's fifth grade teacher in
082Cobb County Georgia reading a gender identity book tour fifth grade class Laura Russo teacher in New York gives coveted vaccine at a personal home to her son's 17 year old friend without parents permission Stone Bridge High School Loudoun County Virginia biological teen boy wearing a skirt identifying as a female sexually assault biological teen and girl in the girls bathroom and was still able to transfer to Broad Run High School where he assaulted another female student what is the point here it started with things like the opt-out policy and progressively got worse in this policy not one of you guys can guarantee me or any parent that our children are not going to get these books if a student has a relationship with a teacher that student says my parents just wouldn't understand but I really
083need this can you help me you can see in the other circumstances the teacher obliged I'm not under the impression that the kids couldn't get these books if they really wanted but it should not be encouraged or supplied by our schools teachers or the city of Cheyenne's tax paying money what is an acceptable budget for these books zero it is a parent's job to educate their their kids on these issues if it's that important to them they could buy it themselves the book is this book is gay and my daddy's belly and the black friend on being a better white person have no business in a school especially when one of them promotes racism and the other mental illness he told one mother who read directly from one of these books that she could not
084use language like that in a meeting like this you want to expose our children to that some of society panders by using pronouns which not long ago people would have called you clinically insane if you use them like that if you use a term like they them they would be that would be an accurate assessment we have a mental health epidemic where Society panders to these delusions of sick people instead of trying to find out what the root problem is on an individual basis now I know for some of the people that call themselves doctors who are wondering what is my medical educational background common sense in 38 years 38 years of experience in this world just because you have a degree does not make you intelligent and in cases nowadays have common sense I've
085seen doctors and scientists who affirm these delusions to the very people they swore to help treat if a biological man in the dress came to me saying he was having a miscarriage I would not even consider that a possibility especially in an emergency where his life is on the line so how are we able to do that with the married children we as parents and School staff swore to protect you I promise every one of you that are trying to push this on our kids you will not be in those seats very long our children are not here for your sick perversions and you need to remember you work for us not the other way around I want to say thank you to all the board members School staff and parents that are here to
086combat this madness especially Monster Liberty God's kids are not for sale thank you next up Rachel Martinez and she's supposed to be on the zoom Rachel if you're online please raise your hand you have a hand raise can you guys hear me awesome thank you for letting me speak tonight um to start a couple of quick thoughts to share with you um as I get my points here I was raised in a house of books all of my siblings and I learned to read before kindergarten books were plentiful and trips to the library were in abundance my mom was a school librarian and cared deeply to impart a love of reading for all the kids who came through her door I spent plenty of days after school in um in that Library just helping my
087mom with bulletin boards and sorting out books every librarian I knew going through the the public schools here in Cheyenne wasn't expert someone who I could trust a carrier of Priceless and abundant information um I I've used them as resources even into my Master's level classes right Librarians rock in a time when funding to Public Schools is down to the penny and our school teachers and staff including Librarians are tasked with so many extra duties an opt-in policy would only place additional time resources and policing to those who are already being asked to take so many extra precautions we hire the best teachers and Librarians based on their years of training and expertise to focus on on providing the best learning environment for our kids why then do we think they have the time to
088force hidden agendas I know my mom definitely didn't wake up with that on her plans for the day and and you know I I hear the the other statements but we've got bigger problems if if those things are actually happening when we think about cornering kids and it's fear-mongering and threatening let's let's focus on creating an open dialogue between Educators and parents if there were ever any books I did not want my kids to read I never cared or focused about those books because there were so many more books that they could read more than they could ever read in a lifetime I'm a fan of our public education system that helped me produce three top graduating kids from this district and my son who went on to be the top male graduate of the
089University of Wyoming in 2017 and I can guarantee it was because of his access to information that led him on this path I urge you to consider keeping the policy as is not buying into a false narrative but a narrative that fits what's best for our families in this District we're well aware of of the decision that you all have to make it's going to be on Slim margins and that's for sure um but we want to continue to to not restrict parental rights but keeping the policy as is is and I believe letting our district Librarians teachers and administrators to do their jobs and I'll just leave you with this quote it's when I graduated my mom gave me this book the more that you read the more that you'll know the more things
090that you learn the more Places You'll Go thank you for your time thank you next person is Peter Howard hello I'm Peter Howard members of the board Dr Newton in the preface of vonnegut's Armageddon in retrospect it says reading and writing are in themselves subversive acts what they subvert is the notion that things have to be the way they are that you are alone that no one has ever felt the way you had what occurs to people when they read is that things are much more up for grabs than they thought they were I am a CIS head man a Cheyenne Native a former Army Sergeant and my greatest pride is being a husband and father I have never been alone and I have generally benefited from the way things are but I have read
091books about more Lonesome people in marginalized community and many books about and by LGBT people the books have not changed my identity but they have provided perspective understanding and empathy they have allowed me to appreciate and Grant the depth of humanity to people who are not like me and what possible governmental purpose is there to further restricting or putting preconditions on a student's access to empathy and understanding there is none the danger alleged in support of the opt-in policy is Fantasmic teens have ready access to all information in their pockets certainly including topics of a sexual nature last year only 18 of 6 000 District families requested requested to use the existing mapped out policy 0.3 percent the fervor is plainly not as widely shared or expressed as some would argue the outrage is a
092distraction frustratingly marked by the public reading of vulgar words that are almost never in context these passages are confusingly delivered as though there is something shocking about teens hearing profanity these public attacks and performances are Sensational illogical and atrocious they demoralize dedicated and well-meaning Educators garnish works of significant literary value and have an overt ulterior motive of sowing discontent with public schools those seeking to limit access to knowledge have never been on the right side of History the district should not Place additional barriers to kids opportunities to be curious grow empathy and perspective and develop their own agency the district should allow their faculty and staff to use their time educating children and providing opportunities to grow rather than having to exhaust themselves or responding to ignorant inquisitions many kids are from households ill-equipped to
093address sensitive topics subjectively many parents have narrow perspectives than themselves the proposed parental Challenge and opt-in policies only push kids further to seek information about sensitive topics through less reputable sources concerned parents can already opt out and I looked at the form it is efficient rather than challenge a book put it on your kids form no extensive review it's done don't tread on other people's freedom the effort to further limit access to books seems to be born in an echo chamber I would ask the board please keep the current policy they give them all right Darren Smith Who's online or should be Darren if you're online please raise your hand Mr chairman that name is not online and there's not a hand race yeah we're gonna go back to the one that wasn't there earlier
094as Kathy stigliano available at this time either online or here Kathy if you're online please raise your hand Mr chairman that name is not online there's no handwrits and one more time for Darren Smith Okay so and tipping them jobs at least there's some three slots so is there anybody here in the audience who would like to speak come on good evening uh Jen Solis my daughter Millie here we just came from our Demi Miller open house um always a wonderful night and a reminder of what a wonderful School Community we are a part of my family is in the home stretch of Elementary School experiences as a fourth grader do we only have a few more years left this evening uh as the teachers introduce themselves I was struck by the way the children
095cheered for their favorites many of these kids had known their teachers since they were babies since their older siblings were enrolled in their classes I've had multiple teachers have multiple children it's a wonderful wonderful School District um these are like rock stars these teachers are everything to our community and to see them disparaged the way they've been as of late uses political ponds in a nefarious thing that is just beyond all of us I wish we could all just take a deep breath count to ten and just think about what we're doing and what we're doing to each other because these are just such wonderful professionals who give all they can to our kids every single day and they're going to keep doing it as long as they can as long as they can stand
096and I hear from teachers every day especially after meetings like this where teachers are saying to me I don't know how I can do this much longer um and I wish you would hear that because what you're doing to them and what the community is doing to them is heartbreaking before we left Millie really really wanted to check out her new library which we of course did we have quite a quite a number of books in our home ourselves we are readers uh and we discovered that the library was exactly what I knew would be wonderful full of age-appropriate books you'll be amazed to know that there was no pornography there who could have guessed um and the reason for that is because our professional Librarians provide age-appropriate materials for our students these materials that
097the community members who get up here and rail against they are not providing these materials for young children they are providing age appropriate materials on subjects that our students need to be aware of in the world frankly I read a number of books with sexual content as a adolescent probably starting around the age of 10 11 not from my school just on my own I had parents that were paying a ton of attention um I did not grow up to be a reckless insane person uh I was not sexually promiscuous I've been married to the same man for almost 25 years uh we're doing all right um reading this information if anything help me avoid the pitfalls of some things that could have gotten me into danger and I will be forever grateful for that
098education and that experience and what books have given me and I hope that you all just remember that the teachers in this District they're incredible they deserve better thank you thank you and thank you for the kind words for some of our staff um yeah two more slots so anybody else want to speak online for Adrian if you'd like to speak Mr chairman there are no hands raised okay so we'll close out this section right now and we'll go on to forward Communications and reports so our next meeting will be August 22nd 11 A.M to that's not a meeting uh 11 A.M to 1 pm is the all staff picnic here at story gyms I hope all my colleagues can be here generally we let the professional staff hand off the real food we get
099to hand out the cookies so um coming to join us if you can give it a great chance to see the staff and to wish them well for the school year um August 23rd um it's the first day of school more important it's my birthday so but not in all of my years of teaching I only had one time when we started on my birthday so it's a very early start for the school year this year and I'm sure all the parents out there are anxious to send their kids back and all the kids are excited to be back in school um also on August 23rd we have a 1 30 to 3 30 p.m trustees executive session for personnel and on September 18th um we have a 5 PM work session followed by 6
100p.m regular award meeting and that may not be our next session we do have 9 to change our calendar so that could be changing with one emotions we have tonight okay next up we have individual um reports from the board so everybody have a report foreign so last week I had the opportunity to tour the new art Elementary School I met with Dr Newton and Andy Knapp and principal Lloyd and we looked at the playground and some of the things that they're going to be doing there like soccer nets or I'm sorry soccer goals out on the football field a portable volleyball net in one of the basketball courts painting some Four Square things on there uh looking at the possibility of putting in new playground equipment which really with the way that the drainage
101system is isn't very feasible but still a lot of opportunity for children to go outside and be active so that was a plus so then after that portion I walked through the building with principal Lloyd and met with some of the teachers and got to see just how Eastridge has really taken shape as the new art Elementary School and um I just I have a lot of positives with that they'll have a separate gymnasium and cafeteria and an auditorium but I think the biggest thing in my mind is that there won't be any more modulars everyone will be inside that that building and yes children will have to either be driven by their parents or bussed in but I'm really confident in the plan that they have moving forward that this is all going to
102work out to include I know some children will be there on buses earlier than others because they'll be coming straight from their homes versus art and so some children may have as much as 40 minutes to have their their breakfast there if they choose and to go out and play and Others May and talking to principal Lloyd take what he's calling a grab-and-go breakfast that if they're within 10 minutes of school starting that they can take into their classroom and eat but I just I see so many positives in it I feel like this is going to be a really good year for them and talk a little bit about the playground they've chosen not to use the playground equipment that's in that little corner right there just off of Persian for safety reasons so
103I think that was usually used for like kindergarten and first grade but it won't be used at all just because it's too close to Persian I think so so everybody will be in the back for their playground use other reports thank you okay then I will talk with I went to the uh August 21st um it was the first day back for all the um certificated staff and they started off the day with a meeting down at the Civic Center and it was just absolutely great to see all our staff members in one place at one time there they're a noisy bunch I almost felt like being back on the end of Junior High lunch duty all right um and they had a an a motivational speaker there and his name was Freddie I'm not
104going to say this right bandi and he was a a teacher who took a job to teach science at an inner city Phoenix High School and um he was supposed to be teaching stem and making sure to integrate all the things and so he wanted to give the kids some kind of experience where they could use all those things together so they talked discussed with the kids and I think got together a team of four students so I think some of the other students have a little bit but mainly a team of four students all of whom were undocumented students and they decided to do into in our competition for an underwater robot and not only did they deciding our competition which was a national I'm not an international competition but they decided to enter
105at the Collegiate level right in the high school level well they didn't have much money to work with they did get some donations from some of the the community around there and they they didn't really know what they were doing and so they actually did things differently because they didn't know what they were doing and they built the only robot that actually did not have the batteries upon the out of the pool the batteries they actually built right into their thing which actually made it much more maneuverable so the fact that they didn't know what they had done in the past actually helped them succeed they did win the competition and there is a movie that uh talks about that's made and he said it it's probably about 60 accurate it's called um spare parts
106and there's a documentary also called um underwater dreams so those two things if you can probably I haven't seen them yet I've got them on my list to see so those are two men it was a very inspirational speech and he talked about a lot of different things that they went through one of the things that this was a team of four young men and when they got to the competition the the last part of the competition they found out that their robot was leaking and so I'm not sure who came up with a suggestion but somebody suggested that they go and get tampons to put into the and none of these boy they had to draw straws to see who which one of these boys were gonna have to go buy tampons for the
107um or the machine so you're very ingenious on how they fix those things and it was a great speaker and I think he's gonna get our teachers motivated about to do great things with our kids this year so anybody else have a report okay so we'll go into reports from superintendent staff thank you Mr chairman uh we are certainly looking forward to our first day of school on Wednesday I'd like to express my thanks to all of our staff who've worked tirelessly uh to prepare for the big day coming up this evening we have two brief reports for you miss Paulie if you would lead us up and begin with the library policy update thank you Dr Newton uh Mr chair of Trustees um you'll recall at our last meeting we had presented a draft
108policy to to be presented to the policy Advisory Group based on your feedback from that meeting we did a couple of things one we reordered the um four options for um parental Choice when it comes to library books and remove the numberings to not imply any type of preference or or rank order and we also took out the procurement section from that to be addressed at a later date when we can get some more input and direction from the board on where you want to see the procurement process go so we took that policy and we put it out to the policy advisory committee as well as the district leadership team and we've talked about those groups before your policy advisory committee is set in your policy that who those members are district leadership is
109essentially um district-wide anybody who is in a leadership or supervisory type role there's about 114-ish 116 individuals that are part of that group um seeking feedback from trying to get you know just as wide a variety of input and um information as we could we've received about 10 um individuals which came back and let us know um you know some feedback was more extensive than others um but we're going to take probably this next week to review that internally incorporate where we need to incorporate some some were just you know did you think about this effect of of this proposed language um and the answer is no we did not think about that so there's some really good feedback in there that we need to go through um first as a staff and then we'll
110go back to the cabinet level as well as um librarian and Technology because they have a large piece in this as well with the um online registration so we anticipate that we'll be able to get that done in the next week or so um you're as the chair alluded your board meetings may change the next couple of months based on on your action tonight um so I have a tentative timeline um assuming that those dates and meetings goes through tonight um you're you're you would potentially have a meeting on September 11th um at that point I would suggest that we present the policy for your initial consideration um we'll have that of course to you ahead of time um but then you can discuss um and maybe start begin thinking about any amendments we could
111do those amendments at the next September meeting which would be uh September 25th and then put that out for the 45-day public comment period that public comment period would then run through uh November 9th your next meeting um my calendar so your next meeting would then be um November 20th which would give about 11 days um we are anticipating a lot of public comment for this particular rule just based on on the public comments that have been provided uh thus far and so I anticipate given that number we staff might need more time to go through those and to summarize and present to you so um your next your board meeting after the 20th is December 4th um which would I I would suggest would be when you would go for final adoption on that
112rule so putting that into effect that gives uh staff plenty of time to get the administrative regulation and the um online registration piece of that completed for um January when when we begin that process so that is the update that we have now if there are any questions I'm happy to answer them I'd say thanks for the timeline and we won't hold you that I know it caused some problems earlier when you made predictions so thank you for making the timeline anybody have any questions looks like that so thank you Miss Paulie um next Miss Thompson if you would uh share a brief stepping update with this good evening Mr chair trustees Dr Newton I'm Vicki Thompson Human Resources just want to give you a brief update on how we're doing the Staffing right now
113um for certified staff we have hired 55 one-year only contracts and those are um dudes they're one year only because they're either temporary funds or they're filling in for a person who's out on a leave of absence right now so um we have rehired 26 of those 55 from last year so that is um almost a 50 retention rate or um yeah retention rate um then we have the ongoing position so we've posted 142 and hired um 58 rehired from last year some of those individuals would have been in or could have been in those one-year positions from last year so again that's about a 41 return rate from staff um from last year um as you uh might have heard we had some incentives this year uh to recruit and retain our special education
114teachers um so we came up with three options working with um Mr siccarelli Miss Burkhart um and HR we have option one and this would be for a new special education teacher hired in the district or a current lcsd1 teacher who is billing a regular classroom position or another classroom position last year and they were endorsed in special ed and they went back to teaching special education so there is a five thousand dollar stipend for those individuals that money is coming from title VI money the stipend will be paid out over four installments right now we have 28 individuals that either are new hires or our current lcsd1 teachers that went into special education positions and we're still working with um special ed to um just refine and make sure those individuals qualify and they'll
115be notified here in the next few weeks if they qualify for that stipend um option two is if we have um lcsd1 licensed teachers that want to earn a master's degree in special education the district will reimburse them two-thirds of their tuition costs up to ten thousand dollars per individual they do need to enroll in a pre-approved University program and then apply to the professional Teaching Standards Board for an exception authorization there's all kinds of like small print there but they will be signing the contract and they will have to agree to teach in special education for two years once they obtain their master's degree so right now we have 27 individuals who have signed up for that option and then the third option is for our current special education teachers that might not um
116qualify for either option one or two if they want to pursue some Special Education certification programs the district will reimburse two-thirds of that tuition cost up to five thousand dollars and those credits can be earned toward moving in the salary schedule so right now we have 14 people who have submitted applications for that so we're really excited about the response to that incentive um our classified staff we have 48 new hires since um July 1st and just as a comparison last year when I was up here we had 116 new classified staff so um we'll be running some numbers to see if that means we have a lower turnover rate or um if we just did not have as many positions available this year we do still have 71 unfilled classified positions a lot of
117those are paraprofessionals custodial positions um as you heard earlier from Andy Gap we have our a lot of our transportation positions are full-time Transportation positions filled and we still are short about 20 of some of our substitute drivers um administrators we have two interim positions that we filled because of an approved leave of absence and then we filled 14 administrative positions that would be principals associate principals assistant athletic director and some director positions so there was a lot of domino effect when we went to those um some of those administrative positions we would have a associate principal for example who was hired as a principal that left the associate principal position open and you know how that kind of operates so um moving forward we do have that teacher apprenticeship program um kicking off so
118we have 11 um I call them taps or teacher apprenticeship um program apprentices um starting the school year six of them are in special education two of them are in math two are in science and one is English as a second language we are still continuing with the classified market review study we're going to be reviewing job descriptions and having a position factoring process in place that's very transparent so it's clear as to why that position is in that grade and then we're going to be working with the Cheyenne Teachers Association to review the Cheyenne teachers association's salary schedule we do have an mou on that that we will have something with ctea to present to them by October 31st again we're still reviewing administrative professional and supervisory salary schedules and cleaning up that salary
119schedule so that is what we've been doing do you have any questions for me yeah Christie Nicole um thank you uh chairman um how many teacher positions are open that Artful um Mr chair trustee Hingle um right now I think we only have maybe six or seven and those are special ed those are um we got some last minute resignations so we have reposted those thank you everybody else my other question on option two and three you're gonna have a fairly inexperienced special education teachers in those classrooms what kind of support are you projecting for those um trusteeville or chairman Boland um we do have mentors in place and we also have instructional coaches that have been um hired through the special education department who are going going to be going in and working with
120those teachers thank you any other questions thank you Miss Thompson thank you Mr chairman that is the end of the superintendent reports for this evening okay so that moves us to our consent agenda no I'm sorry I have to read something um apologize excuse me all agenda items listed with the designation of CA are considered to be routine items by the governing body and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate assessment on these items and you haven't removed from the consent agenda will be considered in a normal sequence on the agenda the zimmy board member request to remove a motion from the competitive board seeing them now we'll do emotions Mr chairman I moved to approve all motions listed as consent agenda Mr chairman I second okay all is in favor
121say aye aye those opposed note yes Mr chairman I move to approve the denial of the governmental claim filed By Dana snyberg and the amount of 4136.22 second they will motion the second to um deny a governmental Claim by Dennis nyberg any discussion yes could you please clarify for us why we would deny a governmental plan uh we divided up did you want to take that this Paulie could you help us here yeah probably better come to somebody who does a good time uh thank you Mr chair uh trustee Smith so this is a standard kind of procedure uh for the board to do um under the our governmental claims in our insurance policy um The Board needs to deny the claim and then the insurance uh will kick in and and negotiate and and
122uh go through that process thank you so it does sound kind of cruel but it's just the procedure we use any other questions okay especially okay all those in favor say aye aye aye those suppose no question yes Mr chairman I moved to approve First National Bank of Gillette as a depository of public funds in accordance with Wyoming state statutes 9-4-802 through 807 second okay then motion a second to approve another an institution from financial institution from Gillette all those in favor all right there's any discussion all those in favor say aye all right those opposed no no and you know many many years ago we probably wouldn't have been putting money in a institution so far away but now with all the electronic transfers we can do it really doesn't make some difference Mr
123chairman I moved to self-certify a micro purchase threshold of twenty five thousand dollars for expenditures of federal funds consistent with the state bidding threshold in Wyoming statute 21-3-110 A7 in accordance with two CFR .320 A3 and 4. second all right that's a fairly complicated emotion I think I'm going to ask Jed to come up and give us a Lehman's um explanation from it he did a very good job on email already today so he's ready thank you Mr chairman um members of the board Dr Newton um so the easiest way to explain um what this motion intends to do is uh we're aware that uh we have different procurement requirements for the sources of funds that we administer as a school district typically we can put those into two major buckets State funds and federal
124funds um we're pretty familiar with the state procurement requirements on when we have to have competitive bidding requirements um so members of the board will remember that um any purchases that exceed twenty five thousand dollars require an informal procurement process or bidding requirement where we can receive quotes through the internet through email kind of an informal process anything that exceeds fifty thousand dollars we have to go through uh the formal bidding process which requires um sealed bids competitive proposals through rfps Etc um on the federal side uh there is a different um uh threshold it's a little little bit the terminology is a little bit different it's called a micro purchase threshold and that's currently at ten thousand dollars um so as our our procurement team is um working with our staff to make purchases
125on the federal fund side they have to adhere to a different uh procurement requirement um what federal regulations allow is school districts that meet certain requirements uh specifically for our district we're considered a low-risk Oddity we have internal risk Assessments in place and we have a state threshold that's different than the federal requirements we're allowed to annually self-certify with the board's approval from that ten thousand dollar Mark to twenty five thousand dollar which essentially aligns the federal procurement standards with the state standards so that we can follow one set of rules when it comes to bidding whether it's from federal dollars or State dollars so Mr chairman that's kind of a a quick explanation as to the process and uh the request for that threshold thank you it was easy to understand on the motion
126anybody have any questions or comments all right all those in favor say aye all right as opposed no she passes Mr chairman I move to approve the 2023-2024 memorandum of understanding between L Triple C and lcsd1 for the concurrent and dual enrollment program and the amount not to exceed 710 000 second here in motion a second to approve an agreement between us and L Triple C to give the current dual enrollment programs and the amount of 710 000 is a little misleading because we paid that out and then we get some of it back and so the real exchange is not that amount of money so any other comments or questions all those in favor say aye all right I suppose no which passes Mr chairman I move to Grant permission to purchase two multi-purpose
127vehicles from Ken Garff Cheyenne for an amount not to exceed 108 234 dollars to declare one multi-purpose vehicle a surplus and to declare one multi-purpose vehicle as an insurance loss second here we have a motion a second to purchase two multiple multi-purpose Vehicles which are kind of like a Suburban type things will work now we're in the board version of it but any questions or concerns or comments all right all those in favor say aye aye I suppose no motion passes and we use those for a lot of different things Mr chairman I move to approve the purchase of three school buses from the state of Wyoming School Bus bid as supplied by the Wyoming Department of Education from Elder equipment leasing of Wyoming Incorporated for an amount not to exceed 491 200 and to
128declare three buses as Surplus second okay motion a second to replace school buses call any further discussion all those in favor say aye aye those opposed no smoking passes and those have been very hard to get as of late so let's see we're able to I hope we can get them once we've had breakfast Mr chairman I moved to Grant permission for art students from East High School to travel out of the United States to Italy Greece and Turkey on July 10 2024 to July 24th 2024 seconds just a second to approve I'm at a country travel for for Arts internist any further discussion discussion all those in favor say aye aye those opposed though so I'm glad to see they're going in the Summer where they won't be listening either instructed back and it
129sounds like a wonderful trip Mr chairman I moved to Grant permission to contract with Laramie County Sheriff's Department for school resource Deputy for the 2023-2024 school year second yeah motion the second to approve a sheriff's answer to become one of our school resource officers any comments on that one I would just like tell me that I'm glad we had them in our program year and a half ago they decided not to participate now they're back again I think it's a great thing the only person that I want in any of our schools with a gun is a trained law enforcement officer so all those in favor say aye aye those opposed note Mr chairman I moved to approve the denial of the governmental claim filed by Charles E Hardy and the amount of 135 thousand
130dollars second motion second to deny a governmental plan oh same kind of thing you had before all those in favor say aye aye I suppose no Russian passes Mr chairman a move to approve changes to remove the Laramie County School District number one Board of Trustees regular oh I'm sorry regular meeting scheduled September 18th October 2nd and October 16th and add board meetings on September 11th September 25th October 9th and October 23rd for the 2023-2024 school year second okay we have a motion a second to change our calendar and I think this was precipated by a almost midnight session in July which most of us were not very functional but that's how we got to that almost midnight time so Andy heard the discussion on this so we will now have two meetings you're only
131going to have one meeting in September one meeting October we'll have two meetings these those they're going to change to the second and fourth on both those months and the reason we did it for two months because we already had too many schedules of October is we didn't want the um things to end up being back to back or two weeks in a row so this way we'll be at least one week in between all those meetings all those in favor say aye aye as opposed no tests okay future business so our next regular board meeting will be Monday September 11th after we just made that motion uh 2023 at 6 PM work session will be held at 5 PM the business of the district is done so at this point um and no one
132has been signed up to speak for the Nano gem atom topics but if anybody would like to um anybody online raise your hand if you would like to speak Mr chair we do have a hand raise okay okay Kathy you should be able to unmute okay oh this is Kathy okay so you were confined up earlier okay yes sorry I came together um so I just wanted to thank the board and all of the um Pac committee members for working as hard as they do on the library policy moving forward and we look forward to seeing what that entails and to looking forward to the 45-day comment so thank you very much thank you anybody else Mr chairman there are no other hands raised Okay so we'll go to the next motion Mr chairman I
133moved to go into executive session at this time prior to adjournment for the purpose of possible student long-term suspensions and expulsions personnel and litigation second okay Revolution to go to the executive session all those in favor say hi hi motion patterns like mistakes congratulations to Dr Newton for his first time being up here as our acting Supreme