001e for e e e meeting to order Santa um Michael bolier Michael Sharon Joseph kti Kirsten erinson looks like she's Frozen oh Kiren you're on mute yes I'm here over Pam farington pamington Carrie F Drew Goin Drew Goin bro Gabriel marks da marks he Amy Roman Amy Roman Mar Scott soet got so hand over Heather summer Heather summer he Oliver SJ ban Banna adaku and Samantha Maxwell middle R middle school and Mike buer um is here uh please rise for the pledge I pledge allegiance flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one na God indivisible with liy and Justice all thank you so that uh will bring us to the public comment portion of the agenda kebr Andover and marbor Community engagement and attendance at the at board
002public meetings is welcom the public comment segment of the meeting agenda is set aside so the board may receive public comments procedurally public remarks will be limited to three minutes and citizens will be asked to identify themselves because the board is limited by the Freedom of Information Act to discussing only matters on the agenda the board is not permitted to engage in a discussion of the comments presented is there anyone that would like to make public comment any public comments okay uh do we have any items that we want to add or delete from the agenda all righty that will bring us to the student representative reports so February even though it is the shortest month of the year was jam-packed with activities for the ram Middle School students to start February off the middle
003school band and chorus had their Winter concert the band and CH students did a wonderful job performing their hard work and dedication certainly paid off later that week eighth grade students got TS to the high school and were able to ask any questions we had about our transition to high school before picking our classes that night students had the chance to go to the Middle School hearts and flowers dance for Valentine's Day the following Friday Ram students got to have a fun time before presentent Day weekend at a pep rally the student council organized games and activities for students to sign up for the ram Middle School concert band also turned into the pep band for a day um playing Fun recognizable Tunes throughout the peper rally some of our clubs and extracurricular act activities
004and groups had events during the month of February the math club participated in a math competition and the science and the science SCH team participated in their competition also the unified basketball season has started up finally last Thursday February 20th High School course selection opened for the eighth graders February was an exciting and busy month for the ram students uh but and the President Day weekend was well deserved thank you thank you uh as far as the junior um student representive report the um sat is coming up soon on the March 4th uh next week actually um very important very exciting uh been studying a lot of people I know been studying too um Bri has always can speak couple sorry uh sat class has been paying off um uh second um on the 14th
005uh the nahs had a event um charity event I believe or something with donating um it was just a little gathering at the flower Grill uh coloring and powdery ined and um yeah wish I had to say as much about the high school as the middle school thank you for your report um as we said president St recess was really well deserved really amazing um speaking back to the SAT it's actually just came from tutoring so that was that was interesting um so you know everybody's they're really stressed and I'm like glad that's fine can the college is now but you know you I was just like just do wait guys it's just one piece of the puzzle but they're like it's so stressful you know just like just you'll you'll you'll see it gets
006worse but you know you know we all sure be nice yeah if only I were a junior but you know anyway um our second to last math team meet is next Thursday I'm quite excited about that our oh sorry it's this Thursday my apologies and then spring sports are going each to action people are having clubs and meetings and that kind of stuff um and everything's really getting off um February at the high school was yeah pretty pretty M thank you great thank you you guys um brings to the to the board chair report um I had the pleasure of speaking at early graduation this past week so there were four students that graduated early um it was a I thought it was a really pretty good crowd it's great of folks um Drew was
007also there it was just I thought it was really you know nicely done there was Refreshments they had a lot of people celebrating them I was pleased to have been a part of it um also I cheer has competition season is well underway they have done well so far they won this past weekend um with the New England cheer competition this weekend is States I'm doing a lot of sitting on bleachers so and that so uh a lot of people have mentioned some of the things that I was was planning on talking about um you know the pep rally that happened at the middle school was great um the the the events that have been taking place for the eighth graders that are getting ready to transition in nth grade there's also a parent night
008for eth graders parents who are going into n9th grade um you know not only typically are eth grade students a little nervous about the transition into high school for those firsttime High School parents that transition can be a little nerve-wracking as well as as as M ran might remember from last year um but you know the good thing that they have look forward to is their senior year where things are nice and relaxed right Oliver yeah yeah definitely I well yeah I I just love the fact that a high school senior is being nostalgic back to Middle School just wait until you're in your midlife it gets exponentially worse when the first few steps that you take out of bed in the morning you go man I wish I had my teenage knees again it
009it is not easy I will tell you that um one of the things I wanted to just update uh you know mention is uh our our high school um our our students who are not seniors are busy in the midst of of choosing classes for next year it's an exciting time they're submitting all their information their course requests uh there's a lot of work that will need to be done once the uh those course requests are finalized and obviously your schedules are made but we're it's a movement in the right direction it's it's really hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that we are almost in March like like and I'm excited about the warm weather but it is really hard to imagine and Oliver as you get older the years go
010by faster Pastor that's just another thing that you have to look forward to um so uh I I also wanted to share that there are a number of ram high school student musicians who successfully a audition for the Connecticut all state music program and will participate as members of the All State honors Ensemble on March 27th and 28th at weather high school um those students are giovana Giovani uh assanto uh Evelyn Gutierrez Emerson mquest jasine Pendleton Lindsay Raymond Mason companik uh Caitlyn hovin and Maya stock and we certainly wish them well as they represent Ram in that uh program um and again I'll just Echo uh some of Heather's comments um the mid year graduation is obviously much smaller and it's much less formal um than our graduation ceremonies that we have in June uh
011but I gotta tell you it's a great event I think the intimacy of it is what makes it such a neat thing you really like you get to talk to the kids after they grad after they kind of go through the ceremony um and uh again just a great A great experience I I do want to make sure I I let people know that those students have are are absolutely um invited and we want them to partake in all of the senior activities that take place throughout the next few months you know with with dances and senior day and and and obviously they are uh welcomed and encouraged to come back for the graduation that we uh have in June and hopefully will set a date for uh later in our meeting um the last
012thing that I'll mention is at each board member's uh uh space and I can make sure that I get them to board members who are attending remotely is the latest edition of the Rambler which is the uh is comes from our high school journalism team um it is done completely by students and it's a great uh product I I love the fact I've said this before but I love the fact that we are still producing um paper documents right everything seems to have gone digitized but uh I remember that being one of the first uh things that I was impressed about when I came here uh three years ago was man this is great you get to physically interact with a a magazine that our kids put together and put out so uh read through
013that and enjoy um and the the last thing that I'll mention as well and and it was mentioned over here is the Unified sports uh we actually it was a great event last week it was Ram Middle School competing against ram high school so so a great event uh as as the board knows uh unified is one of my favorite activities that I get to go to uh and that concludes my superintendent report so what I really like there's a whole if you look at the Rambler there's a whole section on students staff share basic car knowledge and I just I mean I can't tell you how many rental cars I've returned and not filled with gas because I can't figure out how to open the stupid gas C is it a button is it
014a push but so I love that that's great um okay that brings us to the student program Spotlight yeah so I um you know when we were putting the agenda together for this evening's meeting I I I told Heather I have a unique uh student program Spotlight typically our Stu student program spotlights highlights students or Stu or a student or programs that we offer at the school whether it's courses whether it's clubs whether it's activities whether it's Sports whether it's chorus or or or any any other thing um this is a unique one in the sense of um it it really is a combination of work that was um initiated by the the adoption of the district's strategic plan um uh specifically related to the development of an instructional framework uh mayor rosme who is
015our director of curriculum instruction has been working really hard this past uh for six months um in in um facilitating the process of developing that strategic plan and the reason I wanted to highlight it in this particular agenda item is because it really was a a very collaborative effort that involved uh teachers in the district it involved administrators in the district it involved students as well and our three board member our Stu three student board representatives were actually involved in the development process um and so I wanted to provide an opportunity for Mary Rose and others um who were part of the group and we appreciate um Eileen and Becky being here to to be here and talk about their uh part in the process um but uh I'm going to turn it over to
016Mary Rose and she's going to talk a little bit about the work that they have been [Music] doing there is a slides presentation which will pop up shortly so um yes this was a highly collaborative and you will see I'm going to share with you not just the framework that we created but the process so that you can get a sense of how many voices went into this um this document as soon as we get that up okay is it going to go into like View mode or yeah I don't know if that's possible but slideshow yeah there we go if you go up to the yeah the top where it says slideshow is that word yeah or slides or present I think there's a present thing maybe there we go so the creation of
017the Strategic um the instructional framework was a direct response to one of the asks from the Strategic plan um which was to inspire relevant learning including knowledge skills and dispositions that Encompass our vision of a graduate by using an instructional framework in inclusive of personalization and culturally responsive practices so that was one of those goals on the Strategic plan and then there were action items action steps and the first two action steps are really what I'm going to focus on um today and that is that was to really do research explore other Frameworks see what other districts were doing and then to identify our instructional framework so what is a framework what's an instructional framework why why is it important to have one um an instructional framework is just a set of expectations and effective
018practices and they're put into place to really um ensure that all students are learning effectively and learning successfully um when we think about why we would have one we we use this analogy with our committee when if you're making a kitchen if you're designing a kitchen you don't just like put the all of the appliances in all over the place you want to make sure that your dishwasher is next to your sink and that if you open your fridge you have somewhere to put the food there's design principles that you follow um maybe you're into funu and you want there to be good flow so you utilize what you know is a proven practice in order to ensure that you are doing an effective design that you can do your best cooking in and so
019when you create an instructional framework you want to be sure that you have structures in place and that you're following really strongly research practice is to ensure that students are going to be able to learn um there are other elements that um are excellent byproducts of having something like this one is that you ensure consistency um in learning experiences um having a framework can ensure effective teaching because there are set ideas um or expectations that are out there um and then you can work to help professionally develop faculty to reach the um the a of those expectations um research has shown that having Frameworks can improve student outcomes it helps to align curriculum and goals and it encourages accountability to make sure that everybody is working um to their best effort in best practices for
020students we had a very aggressive timeline for this um we the research that we did as part of our committee work some districts took like two years to to do their um their framework but we got right to it um Colin uh ensured that we had big blocks of time with some course release for um faculty to come and work so we uh in October November we spent time exploring Frameworks um drafting it by November bringing the students in December and January we took our draft to other stakeholders um beyond the committee so that we were bringing more eyes to the document more input which and a lot of that was very affirming and then we shared it with the faculty in January and February before bringing it to you to give you an idea
021of the scope of people who were involved um that first every everybody that you see in the top columns those are all people that were part of the initial drafting of the the document um and so you have in that far left column you have the faculty um in the middle there you have committee um administrators um and if there were of course times an administrator would have to be called out to things so they'd be popping in and out and then we have this robust student input committee um three of our uh committee members here and then we took all of that information and we brought it to alumni voices we brought it to uh Department coordinators who weren't a part of the original committee we brought it to our entire School counseling staff
022and um also to the administrators that hadn't been on the original committee and then we also had an outside consultant who was the former um assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in South Windsor um I also have a friend who was principal at Ram years and years ago went on to many superintendent positions and as a friend help she took a look at it and also gave me some great feedback so this is just a quick picture of what after one of our work days with and this was the day we had our students so that was all together so in terms of the process our first Workshop I'm Eileen's just going to speak a little bit about what we did at our first Workshop okay um I was lucky to be involved I think
023you took teachers from all different disciplines and I represented CTE and in particular engineering so I kind of tried to approach it with an engineering um design concept which the first part is the question which she proposed to us right away what does good teaching look like and what does good learning look like so we bring stor that as a entire group and um from there she narrowed down oh we also researched is part of step two of the design process we also researched um what other drgs what other um dis well whatever um different districts did both in Connecticut and outside of Connecticut so um we saw some graphics which were pretty cool and some of them had four main themes some had five so we took all that information the Mary Rose um
024honed in that we needed four or five different pillars we started calling them pillars which was interesting because framework is the you know the design of where we want the pillars work we want our school to be region eight so we started talking about pillars and we uh had to decide what our four or five pillars Lear so we came up with um classroom instruction was one environment both in the class and in the community planning which was our grp that we had to come up with a design statement one um assessment assessment and curriculum yes which morphed Equity came out yeah we they they all like things Blended in Blended but we decided to go with those five and um so then we broke into smaller groups of three three teachers I guess and
025we came up with our mission statement our design for each of those five disciplines or pillars and um and that was kind of fun because it ended up being quite the word salad to get as much information packed into maybe two sentences to describe what each of those pillars were it was a lot of editing and Crossing out and we each had our paper on the wall and uh it was ring and that was our first that was our first that was our first it was about four hours it was a long yeah but it it was intense but it was incredibly PR and interesting enough those statements didn't really change yeah that the whole process so there was a lot of thought put in so that was our first really long grueling day and
026then the next oop but we lost our slideshow the the next the next Workshop day the first half of that was again that big committee coming together prior to the students arriving and um Becky you want to just talk a little bit about what we did that day it's not so we had a good little brain break in between which was good because it was a long first session um and so then in our individual committees we went back to our posters um where we outlined the title of our pillar and like her Mission and then as a group um in our individual groups we outlined what do these expectations look like for the teachers and what do these expectations look like for the students how how can we make statements um for both categories
027of learning um and teaching and so from that we brainstormed for ourselves but then afterwards we did kind of like a gallery walk style and we went to everyone else's um pillar and put um sticky note comments on all of the different statements everyone could think of how these expectations look for teaching how do these expectations look for Learning and broke them down into subcomponents so we really kind of extracted everything we could in like that pedagogical world for each of those um ideas and those pillars and then we went back to our original posters in our groups and looked at the feedback from all of the other groups and then really started to pair down we looked for commonalities in these expectations common language common vernacular um and then reinforce this with our mission
028statement for our structural framework as well as making sure we're still kind of in that realm of our strategic plan um and really aligned all of those expectations for students and for Learning and then the next part after that was the real fun we brought in that was the great incredible every this was everybody's favorite part so um we had a what happened at our first meeting as I said can you please nominate suggest a student that you think would be good to give us input and we had students grade seven to 12 kids who take AP kids who take you know kids in the shop with every we try to get every possible perspective that we could um and we had originally 25 and 21 were able to come to the workshop so I
029brought them aside I said you guys you're here go for the jugular right so you guys want to talk a little bit about um that experience who want to start with middle um so I know that I enjoyed the experience because I was really able to put an input and share my voice of how I want my learning to be and how um what I enjoy what I don't and then like I know what like what I prefer in my learnings and how my teachers teach me and it was good because I was able to hear what other people's opinions were as well and like the teachers plan of views and um just pretty much everything it was a good experience especially for the middle schoolers who have the next four years in Ram High
030School to continue to build on that uh I enjoyed my experience because um obviously I I had my perspective and I had all my peers around me they gave their perspective and um it was also very interesting to see how the teachers were actively trying to fix like the issues of like what they may have while they're teaching um uh because like when you're a student and like teacher not doing well for you all you you're just like mad so it it was nice to see like yeah like I'm trying to but so is the teacher um it was very nice give and take relationship or very you know yeah yeah yeah yeah um I think it was really interesting to see as you said um the teachers perspectives on what kids were you know
031are learning and how they are learning and what the best strategies are because it was um you know everybody has their own way of learning what they think is the best way of learning but I think um these workshops are really nice because they made a general you know idea of like okay we need to teach to kids who you know some are very visual learners but some you know don't aren't visual Learners at all and you know just you know reading they can absorb the material but how can we get all types of Learners and support all these types of Learners I think that was like really evident in every single you know um pillar you guys have it was evident that you're trying to um you know attach you know support to every
032type of student regardless you know even if they're nap or somebody who struggling a little bit more that you were able to help them that can one of you just tell us what you actually did did you sit around tables or did you go around with sticky notes and put things everywhere um if you can look on yeah I'll give you yeah go ahead you reference that if you look on both of the um like monitors you'll see that um each students we were all brought into the conference room where the teachers had uh wrote down on these big posters um what they you know they thought that this instructional framework should look like in each pillar was broken into like a different section of the room and so we got and divided ourselves into
033I think four or five groups and then went around each in our uh groups um reflecting like how you guys did it with the teachers and you did at first and then you all looked around um as you said Gallery style and went that way um and we wrote any comments that we thought both good and both bad a lot of kids were like I really like this idea and I really want to keep it but some students were also like I this idea doesn't work and you know people were like yeah I agree that like this you know might be a little too much you know from the teachers perspectives but um the students seem to give their perspectives and maybe alter a little bit to be more supportive or this or that and
034so in both these sodi you can see um Miss Vega ble and I know another brand student was up there we're giving all those sticky notes are from the students um yeah the blue I'll give you another slide that that all those blue and they were actually you guys had some other colors you ran out of blue and started going to other colors too so you can see how much input we had from the students um yeah I think like all these students but as you s see so many um like sticky notes to all of them and the ones you know even with the ones that had more it doesn't mean they were worse sometimes they were super supportive as well yeah a lot of affirmation which was really and you might notice there's
035only four pillars now yeah so you'll see how that actually that a lot of that came from the student visit um because we had curriculum as a pillar and then as the students were going then they're going well this is all here and this is here and this is here so you'll see where we landed rethinking that um so this is where we landed after that workshop and then Becky and I sat in my office and took every sticky note and created uh response comments so we knew where that feedback was and then that was the piece that we brought to the next group of stakeholders to the school counseling office my one of my favorite parts of the whole Pro I loved being with the kids but I was so Afra conf ired we
036brought all of your comments and the the few teacher comments that were from that day into the school counselors and they looked at them and said this reflects what we hear from our students so we knew that we had this wonderful group of students but it really affirmed that they were very open about saying the things that they were looking for the ways that they learn today and what we need to think about when we um develop our framework and I think you guys will hear some things that you affirmed and even added in so we did this process we brought it around to another group of stakeholders and then the draft came we brought it to the teachers um and now you get to see it tonight so um after looking at many visuals
037some that were impossible to follow they were like hives and Hunt what was crazy but this was the framework that um visual that um elen was talking about and the Very base of this is a dedicated faculty engaged in continuous learning um we know that our having a strong faculty is really um at the base of what what can happen in a school and and having this as a foundational element aligns with that strategic plan action goal identify Rams instructional framework components aligning them with educator evaluation criteria that's now the new teacher evaluation system is directly linked to faculty goals faculty growth so that they can have a strong impact on student instruction the next is rigorous and Equitable curriculum that's where curriculum landed um after we realized that it was just being repeated it
038was just repeating everything in the other four um and then parent and Community engagement and so much research tells us how important that is so those are those foundational pieces and then our framework pillars learning environment planning instruction and assessment so I'm just going to share with all of of you our We Believe statement our belief statements these are the ones that Eileen said we really crafted these that first 4-Hour Workshop by the end we had things that looked very much like this there was a little bit of word smithing at that second Workshop but by and large we were able to arrive at these so our learning environment um statement we believe if we Foster a welcoming collaborative safe and supportive student centered learning environment students will gain skills and dispositions necessary to engage
039successfully in school and Beyond um below that we have statements of teacher expectations we have statements of student expectations I'm just going to read a few from the teachers and the students uh teachers communicate consistently with students as a class and as individuals create structured systems that ensure student responsibility for learning Foster a learning environment in which students are encouraged to take risks and reflect on their learning build a classroom in school Community where students feel empowered to fully participate make classrooms safe for questioning model a growth mindset Etc students under this expectation participate as active in welcoming member of The Learning Community respect and encourage diverse perspectives demonstrate a growth mindset appropriately and respectfully collaborate with peers to deepen understanding and I think you may be hearing some of our skills and dispositions are
040worked into this document as well under planning We Believe intentional collaborative and reflective planning which incorporates established standards high yield instructional strategies and authentic assessments will result in engaging rigorous relevant and culturally responsive learning experiences for our students um and for the teacher expectations um plan with intentionality to generate student curiosity and promote critical thinking create Les lessons and activities with clear goals directions and outcomes collaborate with course like teachers to ensure consistently high expectations for all students anticipate student challenges and Associated interventions uh make connections to previous learning in between important Concepts within and across disciplines this particular one we had in there and our alumni that came back to give feedback put stars all over this one and talked about how important that is um consider the essential why of a unit or
041lesson or learning activity and then for students become active participants in identifying learning strategies and processes that best Aid their learning be aware and be able to articulate the purpose of their learning um articulate connections between learning within and across discipline so there's a lot of crossover between the expectation for the teacher and what we hope the student will be able to do as well in instruction we believe when teachers use innov ative research based and engaging instructional strategies including supporting students personalized learning objectives all students will be actively engaged in their own learning process um under this something that came up from the students and you guys this will ring for you teachers provide project-based learning and Hands-On learning opportunities that is one that the students had about 10 sticky notes on and they
042kept writing there that's so important to them encourage growth mindset through individualized feedback back articulate the why of learning and you can probably hear some of these ideas um as threads that run through utilize differentiation and multiple instructional strategies to meet learning styles um consistently use data to form multip uh from multiple sources to drive hold class and individual instruction um employ strategies and activities proven to engage students um use real world learning challenges Etc that's the instruction list is really long there students reflect on their own learning and work towards a growth mindset actively engage in productive meaningful and respectful discourse engage in Collaborative Learning interact with curriculum that includes different perspectives in addition to their own identities in their own communities self assess and reflect on achievement in order to set ambitious but
043attainable goals reach to meet high expectations so those are just a few from each and then the last is assessment we We Believe assessment should be rigorous varied authentic reflective of a learning experience and ultimately be used to promote reflection and improv student outcomes including the achievement of standards and the Mastery of skills um and for this teachers provide timely and actionable formative feedback that supports student progress towards deeper understanding and Mastery communicate clear expectations and provide supports for students success provide models that demonstrate levels of Mastery and provide rubrics to communicate expectations when appropriate acknowledge student growth as well as student mastery and then students are open to different assessment types in their purposes perform a variety of Assessments to show Mastery of a skill or attainment of a standard demonstrate resilience and engage
044in productive struggle view assessments as opportunities for growth and part of the learning process and apply teacher feedback for self-reflection and Improvement those are a few of those expectation statements so those are our four pillar statements where do we go next um looking at our strategic plan we've met those first two um action items the third is to provide professional development on the framework we've already started that because we spent time with all of our faculty in department meetings over the last few months sharing the framework giving them an opportunity to ask questions um we'll continue to do that work but we're going to continue to implement instructional practices that are consistent with the framework um across the district um develop and Revis curriculum aligned with our instructional framework provide necessary resources and ongoing support
045for implementing the framework and to review student achievement data and determine the effect of implementing the the framework um one thing about the way way that that's written in the Strategic plan we did notice as we were doing this work so much of these really wonderful practices are happening here so um there for for most people the the framework helps to solidify and affirm some of the practices that we have while giving us a challenge to reach even even further um to enhance the learning and growth of our students does anybody have any questions that's great does anybody have any comments or questions how do you know if you're making progress in these goals how how do you oh that's a great question we actually talked a little bit about this the other day you
046know we have all kinds of ways that we collect data um big data so we have our PSAT series we have esack testing from the state we have the SAT we talked a lot about um looking at teacher specific data when we look at student growth and progress by bringing some of these practices in one thing that I've noticed this year because of the new teacher evaluation system um it is really about teacher setting goals and bringing in these types of practices more vigorously into their classes and um already I'm hearing teachers and we're just past the midyear point in our midyear meetings talking about the way that doing some of these work trying to create some project I one particular teach you doing a lot of Project based learning and having the students look
047for different ways to show their understanding and Mastery and talking about the way that that's invigorating instruction so there will be lots of different ways that we can collect information about the impact of this the other thing and Mary Rose and I have had a lot of conversations about this is um establishing a practice and we're not quite sure of what moniker it's going to have or how we're GNA you know but it's basically learning walks it's it's providing opportunities for staff to get out of their classrooms and and spend time observing and seeing what other people are doing within the context of of different classrooms like the field of education is is fantastic but it also can be very isolated for teachers because they go into their classrooms they theoretic or you know literally
048or figuratively shut their door and they do their thing and they just keep doing their thing and you go to professional development opportunities which are where you learn things and you can Implement new things but one of the things that we know as Educators is you can really learn a lot by spending time seeing what your colleagues and and and and teammates are doing and um you know again we've discussed the idea of of of that as being one of the next steps as well is looking at how they're called a variety of different things in a variety of different places you know in some places they're called instructional rounds in some places they're called learning walks there's degrees of of of formality with with how they're conducted um and and but currently they're not
049being done here in the district we did about several years ago we had classroom visits where a teacher I don't know you may may remember this uh we would go and so you would see one teacher in your discipline and one teacher in another discipline teaching um it's really wonderful because you also some people would go where they knew a particular student was that they were struggling with or you know that they wanted to see how does this teacher manage this person or Inspire oh he's doing great math oh you know what can I see that you do with this student that I I could maybe do as well so there's lots of ways to utilize that practice um and so learning walks or instructional rounds is one one of them as well so we
050we're exploring that now and you know it's important for people to know they're not evaluative observations even though Administration will absolutely be a part of the the that process it's not evaluative it's non-judgmental it's hey we've talked about prioritizing these practices within the context of our district let's let's see how those are playing out and and um I've been through that process in a variety of other districts and it's a very effective one to get out and give people an opportunity to know Hey listen we we're talking about it but now we're seeing it in practice and it's a really it's a really good thing anybody else thank you very much I just want to say thank you to Mary Rose the committee Becky and E thanks so much for being here this is as
051as she said this is a this was a heavy lift and a very heavy lift in a very short period of time so great job thank you okay that brings us to the consent agenda uh so there on the consent agenda there's a number of different things there's um minutes from uh our regular board meeting our special uh board I'm sorry our special budget workshops um the and then the the other pieces on our consent agenda are the approval of policies after revision or deletions um just for for people to know um I did not receive any feedback one way or the other about necessary changes or recommended changes to any of the policies or concerns about deletions that we are recommending from the policy subcommittee so my recommendation is to approve the consent agenda
052as presented I'll make the motion Scott soet a second second g mark G marks any other discussion on that okay all in favor I I anyone opposed anyone abstain okay new and unfinished business so um I will turn it over to Eva because our first thing is our is the audit all right so Katherine patod who is a managing partner for our audit through pkf Conor Davies is online and she's going to walk us through our most recent audit of which everyone should have their audit books in front of them outside of well Gabe has his and and who brought his um the other folks who are not in I will bring them to the next board meeting so that everyone has their but uh their AUD books so Katherine welcome thank you can you
053hear me okay yes yes okay perfect aon's pulling up your presentation just so you know okay okay go ahead C all right thanks um so as Eva said I'm a partner with pkf o Conor Davies and the partner in charge of your audit um so I just wanted to go through some of the highlights of the annual financial report the highlights of the single audit um some required Communications with the board as well as some future considerations based on new gby standards that were released if you want to go to the next slide um we'll go to slide four um and we'll talk about some financial statement highlights um there is an unmodified opinion on the financial statements which is a clean opinion so what you're looking for um the Management's discussion and Analysis or
054mdna is is a good executive summary of the fiscal year operations um this gives some highlights such as governmental funds had a total ending fund balance of 5,178 th000 this was a total increase of $857,000 from the prior year you had Capital asset additions of 1.1 million this included repair of the athletic fields cafeteria equipment and computers and your long-term debt decreased by by 1, 123,000 primarily due to principal payments um on the next slide we'll look at some more detail of the governmental funds which can be found on exhibits c d and e in the financial statements the general fund had a fund balance at year end of 3, 88,000 which was an increase of 773 th000 from last year which we'll talk about shortly um when we look at the budgetary highlights the
055capital Improvement fund had a fund balance of 65,000 at year end which was a decrease of 195,000 and the capital non-recurring fund had a fund balance of 1,1 152,000 at year end which was a decrease of 89,000 both of these was primarily the difference in timing of capital expenditures versus the member Town assessments received and transfers in and then your other governmental funds which include the grants fund school lunch and school activity funds um these had an ending fund balance of $872,000 which was an increase of 368,000 um the majority of this was in the grants fund due to a 391,000 for the school air quality improvement Grant um that was expended in Prior years but received uh this year on the next slide we'll look at some of the budgetary highlights um your budgetary
056schedules can be found on RSI 1 in the audit your total revenues were below budget by 180,000 primarily the excess cost Grant which was 232,000 budget um as the related expenditures were lower than expected so you received less um you also had an appropriation of fund balance of 69,000 this was from the fiscal 23 Surplus and was transferred out to the capital non-recurring fund your to total expenditures were below budget by 1, 572,000 primarily due to Central Services being below budget by 92,000 due to Personnel savings and transportation was below budget by 231,000 um primarily due to IEP changes bus noted service this left with a fiscal 24 budget surplus of 1, 383,000 so that's the total revenues less year total expenditures um since the transfer out was from the prior year budget surplus um
057so I know Eva uh probably presented to you the 2% that can be transferred to the CNR fund uh the capital non-recurring fund which is 625,000 threshold um but you did have a state single audit where we tested the HVAC indoor air quality program and we had no findings or on that um some required Communications you should have also received a letter to those charged with governance this talks about our responsibility which is to form and express an opinion about whether the financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects um it also mentions significant estimates which includes the OPB liability the other post-employment benefits um the disclosures in the footnotes are neutral consistent and clear uh there were no uncorrected misstatements and no material corrected misstatements we've requested and received management representation letters and
058we are independent um and I think last year you may have had one recommendation from the audit this year we had none so future considerations these are just related to um new gasby standards that came out um so nothing you've done wrong just uh new things uh that will be effective um so gasby 101 will be effective for your fiscal 25 audit this one relates to compensated absences which is a liability that can be found in the government-wide financial statements on exhibit a um this new standard requires that liabilities for compensated absences be recognized for leave that has not been used and for believe that has been used but not yet paid in cash or settled through non-cash means um we did have a presentation on this a couple months ago that went out to
059all our clients I Know spoken with Eva about the things the district will be will need to do to be prepared for this um so really it's just a little bit more work on the finance department's part um to get some more information for the audit and when you see your financial statements next year most likely the compensated absences liability will have increased due to this new standard the next one that's effective for fiscal 25 is gasby 102 on certain risk disclosures um this just provides guidance on when you might need to disclose risk related to uh certain concentrations or constraints I'm not anticipating this will have any effect on your financial statements but you'll just need to take a look and see if anything um that could cause a substantial impact has happened um
060um and would need to be disclosed and then the last standard is effective for fiscal year 26 these are financial reporting model improvements um this clarifies and updates guidance for preparing the mdna um this will just improve the quality of the analysis of the changes from the prior year um you don't have any proprietary funds so that won't affect you um and the other item is the budgetary comparison information right now now the comparison data in the mdna this new standard will require those variances to be explained in the notes to RSI so it'll just be in a different place um so those are the highlights of the audit and I'm happy to answer any questions anybody have any questions yeah I have one so um I'm looking at the summary statement of net position
061which is on page seven and I'm not used to this government accounting so you have to bear with me but I'm just I'd like to get my head around the unrestricted net position thega -3.5 million um I recognize it's a balancing number relative to the net investment in capital assets and restricted funds balancing to the total net position but how come is it for it to be negative and as negative as safe roughly 10% or so of the total position I've definitely seen this be negative um most commonly in my towns and districts that have um an OPB liability and don't have a trust for OPB um just because that liability is so high it tends to make net position negative um but the liability for your opab is related to um health insurance because
062your retirees can stay on the health insurance even if they have to pay 100% of the cost there's still a liability that has to be recorded on the books so that's kind of why the unrestricted net position ends up negative so I'd say it's pretty common and it's not really something um to be concerned about and and you are just make sure I heard it right it's the OPB that's driving that in a lot of cases generally yes okay thank you very much you're welcome anybody else okay great thank you Catherine thank you very much thank you you're welcome all right um oh we have to accept sorry about that um do we have a motion to accept the Region 8 Board of Education 20 23 2024 budget audit sove Drew gin a second all
063second Gabe marks Gabe marks any other discussion on that okay all in favor I I anyone opposed anyone abstain I'm gonna abstain I just hav had time to read enough okay oh are you no I do all right um before before we move on from this can I just ask is if we have questions just direct them to you yeah s me we'll get you an yeah I just I haven't had time to read this this thing here in a while all right um that brings us to 10.3 discussion of possible action related to the 2025 2026 Region 8 Public Schools proposed administrative budget 10.2 yeah 10.2 oh I'm sorry did I skip it so yeah I I could give a quick context I apologize so um in your board packet is an enclosure 10.2
064it's a memo from even a me so um by accepting the audit there's a process that we have to go through in order to allocate 2% of last year's um total budget into our uh account which uh our Reserve account for educational expenditures which is that new account that e set up um and so there is a recommended motion so basically we by making the motion to allocate the money into the reserve expenditure U I'm sorry the reserve for educational expenditures it will enable us to utilize those funds to help offset the track project that we've been discussing this has been the plan all along to use the capital non-recurring fund to use the capital on allocated fund and then obviously add this uh $625,500 to this account which will help reduce the amount of
065money that we actually have to uh uh we're going to apply that that those funds to the track project that we're trying to accomplish um it will re it will REM uh leave a balance of the 52547 that still needs to be uh funded uh that money will remain in the capital plan the capital budget for next year as well but the motion that is in your board notes will allow us to take the 2% % and then allocate it to that uh reserve for educational expenditure account we already do this so what you have to do is you accept the audit first and then once the audit's been accepted then we have to allocate the money through a motion into that account okay so the recommended motion is to allocate the um fiscal year
0662023 2024 audited Surplus amount allowable as per state statute of 2% of total budget totaling 600 2,599 to the reserves for the education expenditure fund for projects to be determined at a later date so Gabe marks second second is Amy romanchuk any other discussion on that okay all in favor I I opposed anyone abstain obain Scott is g to obain okay now that brings us to 10.3 so um we wanted to provide uh the total board the whole board with an update on kind of where we are with the budget process um this is information that we shared uh that Eva and I met with the finance subcommittee on February 11th and shared uh this information uh with the uh Finance subcommittee at the time um the administration in an effort to reduce our budget
067increase uh that we would have for next year we're we're currently at a 4.36 and we're working to obviously reduce that increase to the extent that we're able to do so and one of the ways that we are looking to do that and recommending that being done is to reduce the budget through the Strategic use of current fiscal year funds to purchase items and equipment that are currently in next year's budget uh has been something that we've historically done in the district um when are we when we're fortunate enough to have a strong financial POS uh position uh and we we currently do have one um just for for context I should have said this there is an enclosure 10.3 in uh your board packet that provides uh some details about this um so in
068total the recommended items or equipment adds up to $443,500 clud the majority of the current capital budget items and a number of items from the operating budget as well and I can quickly go through so from the capital budget it would essentially remove all items from the capital budget with the exception of two things the track uh the the amount money that's been budgeted for the track which is that 52547 and then the other one is $40,000 for the sidewalk repairs and the reason that we are leaving that $440,000 price TX in the sidewalk I'm sorry of of the sidewalk repairs in the capital budget is because the monies that we're using are really meant to be for onetime expenses and that $40,000 is really an ongoing expense we've been budgeting that amount for a
069significant number of years um because we continue to just uh chip away at the sidewalk no pun intended um so um so so that's the reason that that is remaining in in the capital budget for next year so again uh in ality would be the stair treads the balance of the exterior window flashing the student desk and chairs for the high school the Ford F-150 replacement truck the equipment lift for the grounds equipment and the and the Kabota tractor as well um also uh there are items that fall into that onetime purchase category from the operating budget and you heard about some of these um items when our department coordinators gave their presentations uh we what and and there's a list again and that's on the um back page of that 10.3 um there are
070things like science tables uh replacements for classrooms art tables a pvt mat um uh a digital Simulator for our EMT program the virtual welders um teachers chairs uh a high jump mat vacuum stock tickers manufacturing equipment again the the list is is is on your is on the paper front of you in total um those uh single one-time purchases come out to $1 60,62 um and and again that would allow us if if if those two things combined would add up to $443,500 impact on where our increase would be any any questions about that before I I move on in order for us to do this I should say this in order for us to do this uh there is a recommended Motion in the board notes because transfers would need to be made in
071order for us to make these one-time purchases so there's and and actually it's written as it it actually needs to be two separate motions just so you know so it's recommended motion one would have to be voted upon and then recommend amended motion to so the first motion is to transfer $282,700 to reduce the proposed Capital Improvement budget for fiscal year 2025 2026 as presented on page one in enclosure 10.3 to fund the costs of identified onetime purchases we have a motion so moved Scott soet a second second Drew Goin any other discussion on that list Pam I just have a question I may have missed this so this is to reduce the our budget uh you said 4.36 what is it what would it be what would be presented well so this isn't the
072only reduction could we go through all of them Pam and then I can kind of tell you where we where I feel like we're going to land pretty close to that'd be great thank you any other questions or discussion okay all in favor I anyone opposed anyone abstain okay so then next motion is to transfer $16,669.24 a second a second Amy romanchuk any other discussion on that list okay oh Scott were you gonna say something oh all in favor anyone opposed anyone abstain okay so so I'll just continue on and talk about some of the Dynamics that have changed with regards to the budget the last time we we met um another factor that would help that's going to reduce our current budget proposal of that 436 pm. that you were asking about is the
073notification of a retirement of a high school math teacher that was provided after the budget had initially been presented and after our budget workshops uh it was collaboratively determined between the administration and the math department head uh that the high school would have adequate Staffing in the department to meet student needs without having to replace the teacher as the board knows this is the process that we've used every time we uh have a a resignation or retirement we look at whether or not those positions need to be filled in some cases they do and in some cases they don't um in this case it it appears that our staffing levels will be adequate without having to replace that teacher I I do um and and so that will that would be we we are going
074to reduce uh the budget by approximately $130,000 that's the total for salary and benefits for that one position the one thing that I always want to make make sure that I state to the board is we have been going through the process of reducing and eliminating positions as we see enrollment tick back up again just remember that I might have to come back to you all and say hey remember we got rid of that math teacher well now we need to put a math teacher back in because between the combination of the Colombia students and then our just projected aroman increases I do anticipate that conversation happening I don't have a crystal ball to say when but I think that it will happen you know sometime in the foreseeable future um any questions about the
075elimination of that of that position I just have a quick question really doesn't have to do with the elimination do you do is there a policy as to when uh retirements need to be handed in by unfortunately no okay no that's that's actually not in the contract it was something that I was trying to achieve in this latest contract negotiation but it did wasn't something that we could get in it it is definitely beneficial I'm sure that because it helps us develop the budget um but but no unfortunately there's not so there there could be other ones I will tell you that as as it stands right now the Administration has not informed me of any more anticipated uh retirements certainly you know an unexpected resignation could come along if that happens we'll go through
076that exact same process of looking at Staffing and the needs uh so and before I get to your number that you're looking for Pam um there are a few other things that we are waiting to be finalized before setting the actual percentage increase of where we're going to be uh as the board knows we are still waiting for our insurance uh uh Premium cost or I'm sorry increase to be determined that is not done in isolation by Evo or I that is a part of a an insurance Consortium at our last meeting that we had in February the decision was to maintain where we currently are budgeted at an 8% increase that could change we're scheduled to meet sometime in like around the third week of March we'll set it at that point and we're
077going to bring that revised information if there is any to the board at that point and then the last piece of that's really going to have a potential substantive impact is uh the number of ninth grade students from Colombia that decide to enroll in the high school for us for next year our current budget projection our current budget for anticipated Revenue um has uh actually 11 students from Columbia it was the 10 that we're anticipating for um to come from uh uh 8th grade into nth grade there's actually a student uh we actually have a columia student currently attending this year um on a tuition basis now and and that was that student was a a ram student there was a a change in residency and uh the I made the decision I didn't want
078to upset the continuity of this kids the students education so I said we have this partnership set up let's just get it going this year and it worked out well for us um and then we also actually currently have a student from another school district who is tuition in that that's an agreement that we came to with that other school district so those those tuition dollars are factored in as anticipated Revenue plus the 10 that we initially anticipated I will tell you right now the number that I'm hearing from Colombia although it is not set in stone is actually 12 students have indicated a desire to come to to Ram that number is going to be firmed up in I think that first week of March and so when I come to the board for
079our March meeting we're going to have a better sense of what our anticipated Reven will be at least from a base tuition perspective there is obviously some additional uh tuition c um sorry tuition Revenue that we could get if any of those students are receiving any specialized services that money would be on top of the uh the base to answer your question Pam I can't give you this I don't want to give you a hard and fast number so I want to make sure it's abundantly clear this isn't exactly where we're going to land but I anticipate at this point u based off of the information that Eva has been able to give to me that we're going to land somewhere around 2.5 five somewhere in that neighborhood um again I'll have a better sense
080of that uh with uh at our at our March meeting um so you mentioned we have another student from another non-c Columbia School correct dist how does how does that work normally it's it's not an uncommon thing for school districts to and I want to make sure that I am very conscientious about educational privacy rights when I say so so so I'm going to talk in general terms um so uh is not an uncommon scenario in any way shape or form for a superintendent to reach out to another superintendent in a in a neighboring or close by District to say would you be able to take in a tuition student for whatever the circumstances are you have a lot of dialogue about the needs and you want to make sure that you can meet the
081needs of that individual and then there are often times where we can agree to do it there there are times where we will reach out to other school districts and have that similar conversation and again it's a Litany of reasons why that type of an agreement would happen but it is not an uncommon thing and the tuition calc we we adhere to the district policy that is about outof District students it is outside of the partnership that we have with Colombia so the tuition rates that we have with Colombia do not apply in those situations so how so how do tuition it's a there's a policy that identifies what the rate is it it basically is commiserate with what the per people expenditure is from the previous school year oh okay yeah yeah interested yeah
082makes sense just before we get off this I I wanted to comment that that that report the 10.3 there the transfers is very much like what I was I was talked about last last month that doesn't come from the system yeah that's that's what wondering is is that was all a manual thing yep yeah that's too bad because that's that's that was a very readable report lot of work all right this brings us to enclosure 10.4 um discussion around the 2025 graduation yeah so in your board packet as as Heather alluded to 10.4 uh provides my recommendation for a June 13 2025 uh uh to be established as the ram High School graduation date Friday the 13th just in case anybody wants to some some little uneasiness about that but I think everything's going to
083be just fine wood um the board must take action to establish the high school graduation uh date and there is a recommended Motion in your board notes um so the motion is to approve the 2025 Ram High School graduation date of June 13 2025 soov gab marks a second a second Scott soet any discussion about the date I have a question sure if there's a snow day what happens to the date we hold the day okay yep we're hoping uh obviously that's not the case I am sick of getting up at 4:30 in the morning and being on the phone for 45 minutes but uh but yes we hold the day joy everybody likes the snow day it's not so fun when you're in my city I'm sorry just got to tell a quick story
084my father-in-law was a superintendent of school um and uh they uh graduating my my wife graduated from um from his the high school there they had a little um bit in their yearbook I want to donate I want to pass on something to so so and so and so and so there was one entry that said oh um snowblower to to the next year's class not snowboard snowmaking machines the next year's class used only once on Dr Yan's front yard yeah that's good it wouldn't be that easy anymore we have meteorologists that we work with we get reports from we have we have 445 a.m. conference calls with other superintendant well he had those too but uh not as many factors besides looking out the window not in 1984 all right so um all in
085favor anyone anyone abstain all right that brings us to the Personnel report so uh one retirement which I just alluded to um Patty Dorman High School math teacher for uh the district is going to retire effective June 30th 2025 she has been employed by the District since August 25th 2011 and we wish her the best in retirement yeah retirement's great bye guys thank you okay um and then first read ofos yeah so I'm I so I I sent a a late email to board members so board members that are online you would have gotten this but um I will just note that um the first policy that is coming to a first read is the code of conduct for board members um mistakenly a a clean copy of the policy which means um it wasn't
086a Redline version so board members couldn't note what changes were actually put into the policy so we will get that fixed but I wanted to provide a hard copy to board members and it was emailed to board members who are who are uh participating at home um the policy is largely unchanged from the previous policy the only update that was made is being recommended by our our uh our legal Council ship and a Goodwin and that is simply the procedures for censure or other disciplinary actions now obviously this is something that we don't anticipate putting into place um but considering the fact that our legal team would be the ones working with um the board in any scenario where censure or other disciplinary action would need to be taken against a member of the Board
087of Education I felt that it would uh it was prudent that we uh we modify our policy to align with their recommended process and procedures I could certainly try to take any questions if people have any about that recommended policy change not hearing any I'll just move on uh the remaining policies are simply deletions and I'll quickly give a context as to why we're recommending deletions of the following policies the next one is uh policy 1413 use of school equipment or or property essentially uh what this policy provides is um you you know allowances for groups uh to borrow equipment or materials um from the district should the need arise it does say the school principal or his or her designity shall be empowered to act within this policy on request for borrowing School equipment
088I I personally don't think that this is a a good policy to have in place the um you know the towns of of heand over Maro have created budgets they have provided which provides us funding to pay for items um and and we we wouldn't um I can tell you that in my time here we have not loaned out equipment um and and I just think that you know this is a policy that that I could say Eva is not happy about and comfortable with I could tell you that Michael schlehofer our director of facilities is not comfortable with and uh we're we're recommending that this policy um uh be be deleted uh any questions about this particular policy this was discussed in the policy committee and it's interesting things about oh well if ah
089ahm came and said they wanted you know 200 chairs for for a meeting or something we'd probably do it yes we would I'm just wondering what that means in terms of policy if we we say oh we don't have a policy that allows that or controls it so do we just assume that oh well it's it's all good faith so what I would say is it generally speaking you you can't have a policy that dictates everything but to to your point you know ahm is a is a significant partner with the district if if I went to tresa G orano the executive director of ahm and said hey tresa I need a space to have an event she would open her doors to the district and say have the space if in situations where we've
090needed staff tresa you know but this is you know it I would see what you're describing as the 200 chairs be very limited to to to a group like an ahm or potentially you know again and over Public Schools if they reached out to us and said Hey listen we need folding chairs is that a type of thing that I think we would be willing to do yes but I don't think that not having a policy specifically about that is going to prevent us from doing that nor do I think it's going to cause significant problems if an outside agency or organization comes to us and says could we borrow 200 shares I I I'd say I I can't lend you out chaires because we don't have that partnership established I I for lack of
091a better term I think that there are going to be times where you just have to use judgment and Common Sense and and to me that's that happens a lot because policy doesn't cover you can't cover everything yes absolutely uh any other questions the next one is policy 1445 this is gifts to school Personnel this is another one that was discussed at the policy committee as well um by eliminating this policy we are not saying hey it's a free-for-all if you want to give your teacher 500 bucks give your teacher 500 bucks um but I will remind the board that I think it was last spring uh we adopted a code of ethics policy for teachers and staff and within the context of that policy there is language about um accepting gifts and and appropriateness
092etc etc so this there's a bit of redundancy with regards to to this policy and my recommendation was to eliminate it any questions about that one so uh the next one is policy 61451 and and in the agenda it says eligibility for participation and RAM Middle School co-curricular sports activities I want to make sure that I point out 64 615 sorry 61451 it's a weird policy in the sense that it has a middle school implication but there's also a high school policy as well so it basically is the same language for both the middle school and the high school however um so we we're looking at eliminating this policy for both the middle school and the high school the reason that we can eliminate it is um this board uh revised policy 5132 pointa which
093is eligibility for participation in co-curricular activities and so it's in a different section but it covers the exact same thing for both middle school and high school and it spells out eligibility for participation for both middle school and high school athletes any so again we can delete this one because it is repetitive any questions about this um so the next one is 5132 student organizations and activities this is a uh a two- sentence unnecessary policy that just simply says all student organization meetings um must be and and use of school facilities must be established through the principal's office that is something that is required anyways um and then all fundraising activities must be approved in advance by the school principal and we have a separate fundraising policy as a standalone so again this is an
094unnecessary policy and and is just redundant the last one I believe yep the last one that we have is policy 9 or I'm sorry not policy it's board bylaw 9235 duties of the board clerk um this is outdated uh it it it talks about um you know duties and responsibilities of the board Clerk and essentially it is unnecessary for have this policy and again our J what we've been working to do is um uh weed out unnecessary ones uh so this is a policy that we're recommending be eliminated and it really has no uh no impact we still have Dawn who is serving in the capacity as the board clerk so I could take any questions on that if people have any not hearing any of these policies unless there's comments or concerns brought to
095my attention will come to a second read at the March meeting at this point I can turn it over to Eva for financials all right so in your packet 10.78 is um the statement of net favorable position at the end of January 31st 2025 um anticipating 1.1 mil 83,5 the majority of the proposed net projection is associated with salaries employee benefits tuition for magnet and agroscience as well as student placements please note that since you guys just voted on that that'll be reduced next month um the state the revenue for excess costs um we should be receiving it this week um and again the state is only funding us about 62.1% at this time even though that we're put into tears and we're supposed to receive 70% um the Ada baseball project we actually went
096we posted the bid documents this past Friday so we went live so we're hoping to get um interested parties who might want to come work and do the Ada project um the material containment is still um at planning and zoning and we keep following up and hopefully we will move forward on that sometime soon and again just a reminder for the in the March meeting you will not see Capital non recurring fund on the reports it'll be the new education Reserve fund that you will see are there any questions that the board may have at this time so so what's the material can we got a bunch of stuff somewhere we got Sand and Stone and other and and what's the project around it giving us permission to put it where we'd like to place
097it oh and you need it from the town so so even though would it not be on our property but you still need a well because we're we're building a so I think it was two years ago y two years ago the board approved as a part of I think was it a capital or was it capital it was a capital project to build a containment center like you know kind of like what you might see at a landscaping place where B to separate out you would think it wouldn't be that complicated right two years later we're finding out that it's in some people's eyes complicated and so we are uh continuing to wait for approval from the planning and planning and zon from Hein planning and zoning committee to approve the containing system that
098we want and did they tell you why they're sitting on their hand they're overwhelmed at the moment oh for two years they're overwhelmed yeah so we're that was snky we're we're cautiously optimistic that this is a project that we'll hopefully be able to move forward because right now are the materials still down there where they were so the materials are behind the leachers and keep running away so that solves the problem right well they're they're it I mean first and foremost they're unsightly that's why that's like that it's it's like there's big mounds in between the baseball field and the competition field there's big mounds of sand Stone and that we want to take those materials because it's just unsightly and it's not a good place to put it and move it up near the
099facilities garage and we're just waiting so well and it's always you've got kids that are climbing on them during games and things like that which you know that's a safety issue right who the heck's on the on it anybody has any some of the hebin members of the board might do just just just saying just keep reading the River East about the the plans and the dump and just water tables here and there and just it goes on and on and on yeah so we're hoping so anys I interrupt I interrupted you are they giving us any specific things to look at or are they just what so what transpired since the since we went out to with this to to complete the containment um we now have a sidewalk the sidewalk isn't pitched correctly
100unfortunately um so there's a drainage issue because of the drainage issue now where we want to put the material containment Cent is no longer advisable because they're afraid of uh having the stuff washed away and adding to the drainage issue so it's become a very big to-do we could all go make public comment one of their meetings so that that's where it is at the moment so we had a a site study completed um that's what we keep following up and waiting for to see if there's any if we've had any movement and unfortunately December 9th was the last time we reached out and there was still no movement so what it is it's ridiculous okay all right um the Food Service um is enclosure 10.7 B um as of the end of January there
101is a net loss of $61,900 for the year uh we have a new uh food service manager Kathy Anne torano she started in mid January and we are hopeful that um cat will be able to put us back on track where we are going to be writing back in the black as opposed to in the red are there any questions that the board may have at this time all right so hearing none 10.7 C is the Ram High School Middle School student activity report again we balanced with the bank which is always a good thing are there any questions that the board may have on that okay hearing none 10.7 D is the short-term investment fund we are still doing well as of January 31st 2025 we reinvested $1,984 19 does the board have any
102questions the 150,000 that we moved over where did it come from what was it before I forgot it was just in our regular bank account we put it over to okay I just couldn't remember I was looking at uh where did it come okay yep sorry you easy today I did thank you very much it's a win if I only get four commentary I got to tell you it's a good feeling it's a good feeling I was like I won oh my gosh okay so that brings gaun was thrown down you want to ask another question um that brings us to committee reports um facility safety Transportation Gabe I think you're it yeah uh yeah uh February 11th we discussed the generator project and recommended improvements to the exterior camera coverage next meeting is March
10311th Finance audit compliance and insurance we discussed the what we actually voted on today me we walked through to see what the buffer would be what future expenses are and how it actually uh lined up against the Surplus that we're currently running all made good sense for us so okay policy you see what's going on covered it you get to see it every month so there's not to many surprises there great progress though yeah and that's the big thing thing is that it's we're getting close to the end of that review aren't we we're getting close getting close that's great program and communication we have not had a reason to meet okay and um cave carries that here um brings us to the informational yeah so um you know kind of to to Oliver's point
104about the the stress of that that he's feeling um as much as I'm excited about the warm weather coming up in the springtime um the downside of warm weather means the start of uh student assessment uh period Windows of time so you have um sparter balance assessments coming up for middle school students you have ngss assessments coming up for high school students you have NWA testing um NWA is a is a not a it's a standardized assessment but it's actually not one that is reported to the state it's something that we utilize um to help make well-informed decisions about instructional uh practices and needs of students um we're fortunate uh that our sending towns of heand and Marboro provide those assessments to Rising seventh graders so when kids are coming up from sixth grade to
1057th grade they'll they'll be uh we'll have that information on them as well um the the thing that I just want to make sure I point out as far as upcoming events to the board is we do have our upcoming um drama production of Matilda and that's uh actually is inclusive of high school and middle school students uh that is going to be the 13th 14th and 15th of March um I will send out a reminder to board members about that as well it's always a great show um and I'm excited to see the play this year um let me just roll right in the I mean dis the displ report is there if people have any questions I can certainly do my best to answer them or provide information at a lb anybody have
106any questions or comments about those okay a motion to adjourn moved G marks a second second Mike bullier um any discussion on adjourning all in favor okay thank you that was