001Good evening. I'd like to call this um meeting to order the region 15 board of education for Monday, June 8th. Can we please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> The mission of region 15, a collaborative community committed to excellence, is to educate every student to be productive, ethical, and engaged in a global society through proven and innovative learning experiences supported by a strong community whose decision- making is based in the best interests of all students. We'll start with our student representative, Miss Liza Murphy. So, at Memorial Middle School, they've had some exciting moments over the past couple weeks. Um, they held their field day last week
002and their eighth grade graduation trip and they're preparing for their upcoming commencement ceremony. And at Mbury Elementary School, they held their field day and they had over 60 parents participating. And their eighth graders celebrated um at Edwood last week and they are planning a sensory station in the shooting live day. >> Thank you. Any questions? >> Where are you going to school? >> I'm a junior. >> Any other questions for Miss >> Yeah. Don't go anywhere just yet. >> Oh, okay. I made you just stay just like five minutes. Um, we have student recognition. Um, Superintendent Smith or you want me to start off? >> Um, why don't you start? We'll do the other staff. >> Okay. Got it. All right. So, Liza, the reason I asked you to stay is that we wanted the
003board of ed wanted to say thank you um for all your work this year um giving us students report. We have also um you know stuff for uh Victoria, but she's not here tonight, so we'll get that to her. Um, but very much appreciate all your time and effort coming to board meetings. I know um it's probably not the easiest thing to come here and um be in front of cameras and give reports and stuff, but you've done a tremendous job. Um I I think you've always had a lot of confidence coming here. Um but I it's interesting to see like how your notes have gotten smaller and smaller. You're just kind of talking um more which is I always think it's a great sign of prog progress. So thank you so much for all
004your effort. >> Thank you. to the board and hopefully we'll see you again. Thank you so much. You can go right. So, next are the halo. >> Yes. So, Sorry, that was pretty short there. I'm going to call up Mr. Nelson to start. Lot of uh lot of events going on this time of year. So, we appreciate that able to join us because poor students could not make it. >> So, I'm just going to recognize them. You don't even have to come up. >> Um, so we just still want to recognize the we had um the Halo Competition, which is a competition for dramas and musicals and theatrical productions here in the state of Connecticut. I'm going to look behind me a couple times. One student was in if they show up. Make sure to
005call them up. They um uh so our top theater company does get recognized every year and they they have a long-standing tradition of of doing excellence awards. Um it's held at the uh 7 theater in Waterberry. Uh we were nominated for 16 awards this year which is quite uh quite unique but they um they won for four of our students won for three different categories. So we want to make sure to recognize them. Izzy Wer for student direction of the Greek which was our um theatrical performance of the fall. Addie Evans and Sarah Gilchrist won for best choreographer of Freaky Friday which was the musical we did this spring and Xavier Chu for a leading bell role in a contemporary play also in the Greek. So they did a great job. So I congratulate all
006the members of the theater company. Thank you. So now we're going to recognize the all state calling up. >> There you go. It's all yours. >> Um, so we do have some sport spring sports that haven't completed their all state meetings yet. So there might be some student athletes who end up achieving this recognition who we were unable to acknowledge at this time. But of the spring sports who've had their all state meetings, we have two first teams um recipients that we want to acknowledge. And the first is from our baseball team and that is Noah Payne. >> Noah is continuing on with his baseball career. >> Congratulations Thank you so much. >> And our second recipient is for a spring sport that's still playing and they're playing in the state semifinals for class S
007actually tomorrow. Um for the fourth time they'll be taking on Joel Barlo High School. The last time of which we beat them for the SWC finals which was a a super great amazing game. And this student athlete is a lot of the reason why. And that is Ryland Brennan. our screen. Now, I'd like to take a minute and Each year selects both teacher of the year and of the year. Uh and this year I have the pleasure of this poll. So, I can tell you that u [laughter] uh Sue was first hired here in region 15 in 1976. She was four at the time. Uh she taught in second grade teacher until 1980 and then took some time away u and then came back in and she's been with us since then. Sue has done
008a lot of things in her career, but right now she is interventionist and uh we're so happy to have Sue's work our district and have her represent uh the teachers here as she enters now state selection process not a small process. tell them that after um we announce them. Uh but our district is stronger today represents a body of work in this transformed over the last few years. Our parent of the year wasn't able to make it tonight, but it's Lisa Ross. She's been here since March of 22. Um, Our parent educator do tremendous work in the district and appreciate the work does every day care and the passion she exhibits for children in our school she could be here tonight but we did recognize her at a couple weeks Um the other thing we'll
009recognize tonight is region 15 has u a remarkable group of retirees. It's a busy time of year. So only a few of them were able to join us tonight. But um I'm going to actually put their names up so it record 15 will lose 247 years of educational service at the commencement this school year. Uh those educators represent the care, dedication and expertise that have contributed who we are as a school district. Uh in addition to our teachers, our staff members and other capacities that help to make the school district what we are each and every day. uh trying to keep a list of who I know that is here and who that is not here. Um so apologies if I got you. So first on my list is Barb Massie. Unique in region 15
010in that while she's only been with us here in region 15, Barb and I a career path that extends to multiple districts. And so, uh, I was appreciative of our coming for the last few years being a resident, uh, and contributing to the school district here. So, So, it is my honor to speak on behalf of this tonight. This is announced after 29 years in education, eight of which were in administration. This is has been with us at Memorial for the past three years and in that short time Mrs. Manassi has made a tremendous impact on her students and our school community as a whole. Mrs. Nat's classroom is a place where our Memorial Middle School community is at its best. Year after year, she has created a warm and welcoming environment in which all
011students can learn and grow. Most importantly, Mrs. Massie believes in her student success and in her ability to do hard things in math. When I first observed Miss's teaching, it was during her demonstration lesson as part of our hiring process. I was immediately impressed by her ability to enable student discourse around math. Her lesson was on the Pythagorean theorem and from the student conversations I knew we had someone extraordinarily special in front of us and that we needed to invite Mrs. part of our team. As Mrs. Manassi encourages her students to be lifelong learners, she herself is also a lifelong learner. Mrs. Manassi has been our earliest adopter of classroom methodologies and is our most frequent and ardent collaborator with our math coach. to her team, colleagues, and our students. She continues to be an
012inspiration, a source of wisdom, and natural leader. For all these reasons and more, I admire greatly. Thank you for all that you have done and given to our school community and our memorial. Next, I'll call Mr. Warman. Uh Christina for 25 years. Uh she first started with us as a tutor in 2001. And you may remember that she was our teacher of the year not too long ago. Christina O'Neal is the kind of educator who makes everyone around her better without ever asking for credit. For well over 20 years, she has been the heart of our school. And I mean that literally because our library media center is where the community gathers for faculty meetings, open house, story hours, and celebrations. But beyond just being a welcoming space, Christina has made our library a place
013where students discover a love of reading through programs like March Book a day, where they learn to be digital citizens, where they dive into STEM, and where they've had the privilege of connecting with the board and authors. She has quietly and tired of being driven technology initiatives across our school and across the district. So much of what we collectively do well and so much of what our students carry with them traces back to you, Christine, and the world that you have built inside our wonderful, ever growing library. We are a better school because of you, and you will be a legacy that will be held long after. Thank you. Finally, can I thank my notes are correct. Deb has been a parent educator at Long Meadow since um 2001 school 25 years educator as I
014talked about before we just appreciate the work educators have done the transition that gol there are some people in a school building whose work happens quiet often oneonone and away from the spotlight and yet the impact that they have on a child's life is immeasurable. Deb Kala is one of those people. As a special education para educator, Deb has spent her career doing some of the most important and demanding work in education. Meeting students exactly where they are and then patiently, persistently helping them to get where they need to be socially, academically, and as members of our school community. Anyone who knows death knows she leads with her heart and sometimes with a little bit of tough love because she believes in her students enough to hold them to that high standard. We are grateful
015for everything you have given to our students and to the school. Thank you. and to the um by the way just want to say there are the red cookies and lemon squares that are here for you guys too to enjoy. So please um partake um apparently they're the winners of a contest that happened in culinary but thank you everyone for your all your work for region 15 and all your years of dedicated service. Thank you so much. We're going to continue on um with a uh preliminary discussion of board of education goals for next year. Um I'm gonna I'm putting this here tonight at the request of a board member who was repeatedly insistent that we try to do something in June. Um, and I I appreciate um you wanting to do that, Steve. Um,
016and I agree with you. Um, and I think that we could have at least a preliminary discussion. And I thought we could um I want to try to limit this to 20 minutes. Um, my in hope is that we can continue this discussion in August. So, we're going to be sending out a doodle poll for an August retreat um hopefully some evening in August. We're going to talk about goals again, perhaps do a self-reflection, and perhaps do a data dive. Um, and then in September, I'm shooting to do important professional development. So, um, going to all lot 20 minutes here um, for a discussion about where we might want to go for goals, board of ed goals for next year. So, I'm gonna turn it over to you, Steve. I'm sorry to put you on
017the spotlight on the spot like that, but like what do you what do you want to do? >> Thank you. >> I I just think there should be 20 minutes that long. >> We have the what I call those pie goals, right? Pie >> I know we have action. I know um have our mission statement up here you read. If you were to ask me what those things were like the pie pieces I think I'd say help transparency or I think I might be able to name one of the theories of action off the top of my head. So I um and given uh the recent um talk about test scores, I just feel like some need some specific board goals or district goals, but just goals for all of us member all the way
018down to to schools and teachers and students for measuring growth specifically. We can point to test scores, but I think but I think it could be um it doesn't have to be test scores like there could be a lot of things that the board could set as goals um and then measure at this time next year. So it could be it could be the test scores and how many people are proficient. It could be growth as determined by Sback or NextG. I mean um it could be how effectively Is the data warehouse being used in terms of I think a lot of room to look at growth I'm sorry goals there like how consistent is the data entered across all schools how consistent is the data used uh do we track how how are we
019tracking how that data is is filtering its way into the classrooms to improve instruction and ultimately improve Uh do we track um as a metric, could it be cohort growth from, you know, fifth grade this year to fourth grade this year to fifth grade next year? Do we specifically track something like a middle school that we talk about, right? So if it's, you know, it's sixth grade and there's a drop, what what are the metrics that we're looking at there um that we can measure as well? So, I mean, I think there's there's a lot of different things that um we could be tracking as a as a board to show that we are serious about monitoring how districts. >> Thank you. Um like so right now like we have the pie chart and it's
020got rows and it's got like facilities but I think it would be nice to have sentences right that's not um so we're going to kind of move from some pie chart to some kind of sentence statement of a board >> something measure. Thank you. Any anyone else want to Heather and then Tom. >> Um I I've been thinking a lot about like specific things that we can track um based on a lot of conversations we had last few months. Um and I I have a list um but as a board goal um you know as I was thinking about as a a board communicate to the superintendent to inform his schools and we communicate it to the school administrators to inform their schools. Um I am thinking that you know in our in our minds
021you know there are things that we'd like to track but I'm thinking that it's kind of you know triple ground that way um that can be somewhat specific but it also has to be a message that can like that. Um, and so I know we have already a round student grow um that I was thinking about um maybe keeping that but also maybe a goal around data and it's kind of my two cents about that. The other thing that I was thinking about and again we have something stewardship along those lines but we are about to embark on quite a few large scale projects and I do think that center as well in terms of you know effectively managing these these large scale projects don't know exactly what language you know I'm around that but
022I Yeah, I think broadly just moving more students into that budget emergency state standard. It's a pretty simple way to look at. So, you know, we are not charging for limitation or solving that at the board level, but we can certainly support activities that would help us achieve that goal. And I think the other piece of this is, you know, Jeff mentioned something four years ago when we did the repair. We had an update every meeting like that kind of showed the importance of that but was also objective. So I think there's a a hint of of accountability that whether that is, you know, takes the form of annual report that shows just kind of stacks up or that is Not newsletters, but is that a parent square newsletter? Is that the where the board
023of ed newsletter goes? Um, but I think listen and find it online. But I think acknowledging that the board, you know, is aware and is working on it and is willing to report on progress as a way of holding ourselves accountable, keeping us in focus. Um looking around and I know sports very important there are very specific reach profic I don't love it personally Um, but I just would be a very I think scores facilities are great. >> I have one thought. Um, I think about say what do we want this district to be? We want it to be a desirable destination. Full stop. Right. is we want to be premier district in the state and the region where in order to do that I've broken into four categories they don't have to be these
024categories in order to be a desirable destination district you have to have successful student outcomes there's your scores find out some measurable in that we see that people are look at the district and say well all the students in that district are doing well I want my kid to go there second thing is you need to have successful teacher outcomes you're not rolling over teachers all the time have good teacher retention because that feeds into the student retention or maybe there's different metric to that something along that. The third thing is a safe, clean and provisioned environment. That's your capex, that's your future spending, that's all the stuff that we do. You don't go into a into a district and say, "Well, the students are great, teachers are great, but everything else is done." Right?
025Just kind of all has to come together. And then the fourth one I put was strategic minded, which is future planning. the the demography stuff we've been talking about for the last couple years keeps me up at night because there's a lot of change there bound to continue happening in this area and we can't be prepared for all of them. But the fact that you guys have been touching on them and thinking about them and putting them in front of us prepares us more than just being blindsided. So I think about you summarize it as a destination desirable district. What are those categories of that? And then we can measure one of each of those. And it's not trying to make it overly complicated. But I do fear that if we get too in the
026weeds on very myopic topics without drawing it back up to the top might lose ourselves. I think there's some work to do like when we used to see it's kind of therapy presentations for administrators that would always talk about theories of actions like we went with Jeff was saying like that should be front and center and do our agendas and everything we discuss align we have time for spending with whatever it is we've all agreed >> I mean the only thing I would add is we should have some sort of self-development goal like I do think there's work to be done on how we work together how we move past things so we're not all always going to be at the same page but then things specifically come back up like leadership, any board that
027I sit on that I'm on, right? But no one's ever going to all be on the same page, but I do think that we need to work on that because I do think that we're not hopefully that will help before we move on. like a lot of the stuff that I I'm hearing um Josh and I have been talking a lot the last two weeks um on on boards and um you know student achievement and all that kind of stuff and I think Josh is um has come up with he has an idea that I think it's worthwhile if you don't mind sharing for um that might also help um a possible board. So turn that you've got five minutes. [laughter] >> Great. So we listen and we try to reflect on questions before asks.
028Um so this is a proof of concept that we're kind of working on. Uh it became more clear this year that comparison to the group really important but also proofless. Um unfortunately there's no state data on that. So we started building a dashboard uh that kind of has that quadrant uh structure uh and that's performance versus the room. Um so this is last year's data uh you can get more specifically described grade four math and PLA. The blue dots are our third the red dot where we sit collectively as a district. The yellow dots I do think one of the conversations we've been having aggregate recreate data all together kind of match some of the growth conversation. So, how do we have this is where we are, this is how we talk about what's working,
029and this is how we talk about growth. Um, and I don't yet have a plan to solve for like over time and tracking this with a nice graphic that would then kind of fade from year to year, but that is at least a thought model. Um, but we could build at least this by grade where you can start to see the story behind some of the work happening at local time. Uh the blue top represent the whole district going by school by district. It's really messy but uh this clears out all the noise just on our so again it's proof of concept. This isn't production ready yet, but just trying to think about questions that you're asking and how we'll have conversation that doesn't talk about all the time conversation specific. So, I'm getting any
030quick questions clarifications on that. All right. So let's go ahead Tom. >> So you know I think this is a great start work from a concept like this but I think that is so where we want and that's okay. I guess our thinking is you're there you want to stay there and if you're out there what's the work happening against you know not every grade is going to be there every year but we should be at least bouncing around that space and if we're not there should be collect so yeah without saying I don't know I'm not a big fan of fourth grade talking about children a lot of organic pieces to But to say to where as a destination school district 4 is where you want to want to be out there why are
031we not there >> so you've got a couple months to think about it marinate in this um and this conversation will be continued in August and to be done for the administrators So we have something done prior to their retreat. That sound good to everyone? Thank you. Um all right. Next we have approval of minutes. Um May I have a motion for approval of the May 18th uh special meeting of the board of education? >> Thank you Heather. >> Second by Steve. Any discussion? Any questions? All right. All those in favor? >> I. Any or extensions? Okay. Thanks. Big one. May I have a motion for approval of the May 26, 2026 regular meeting minutes? >> All right. Thank you, Heather. Second. Second by Heather. Um, any discussion or questions? So there this is the
032big one right here. And I don't you're okay with it? I'm okay with it. There's no I thought there was when we had to show that >> page. Yes. Oh, this this what you're sending off to this. >> So, we are sending individual pages. >> Yes. >> Every motion >> including approving the bids for the May 11th meeting and the last motion to executive session. >> Right. Any other questions or comments? All right. All those in favor? Any days any Shannon is abating and Sally is obaining. All right. Thank you. All right. Next we have information and proposals policy and curriculum committee. Miss Heather policy curriculum last time school year. Um you revisit topic disability. policy. So stay tuned. We did actually two based policies. One is more of a community policy. One is more
033of a policy topics. Um we also had a discussion about some work that is up revisiting in the new year. We also talked about um some agenda planning for the next school year. talked a lot about policy and curriculum this year about balancing our duties um with policy as well as curriculum and so we kind of took a holistic picture of what kinds of meetings we want to have next year and good work session all right next we have finance committee about the finance committee will meet this Thursday, June 11 at 6 p.m. Okay. Virtual >> central office. So is that central office >> anyway people want to call in public office >> right any questions for >> so a couple of us won't be able to make that time perfectly but I think there's
034only three committee members what's on the agenda that special. >> So it is our regular monthly meeting. So it's our May >> and May financials some projects that we need to become. >> No, it's it's in a sense the capital projects that were already approved in next year's budget has a few repair items. It's not a somewhat comp not. >> All right. Um, next we have pension committee Mr. Steve Serani. >> So pension committee actually met in May. It was a review of first the Q1 results for that quarter. the uh was down4% for fiscal year to date 7.6% to positive and for one year look back 16.2% % positive. Those were basically in line with policy benchmarks. Um if you're interested, the report that the advisor produces has a governance calendar on it governance
035calendar involved in investment review which I just told you about. It involved an investment policy review which talks about like how much how many which invest how much of the investments are stocks or bonds or international or etc. And then it um we also have have fiduciary training which is basically provided by the um advisor and it talks about um he had five core fiduciary duties. Um I will I won't read them all but um the committee I'll just say the committee fulfills these duties through regular review of the investment results periodic review of our governance policies reliance on qualified professional advisors ongoing and adherence to established governance processes. >> Any questions for Steve? >> All right. Um, next we have the ESGs building committee update. Um, that's me. Um, you >> I'm sorry. I'm
036so sorry. I checked you off already. I'm so sorry. >> This whole calendar year happened on June 4th. Um, a big thank you to PTO and all the work that they do, which I think is significant. A significant portion of the conversation was related to the APS and there was also a convers that I'm very much looking forward to as we approach the fall and that was related to the three-year calendar today. So, >> I'm so excited. I do want to be on that. >> Me as well. So, um and so that I think it sums up the conversation. Anything that you'd like to add? We got a letter from >> Was there feeling? What was their feeling? >> So full disclosure, I had so but based off of my past participation in the ongoing
037conversation, I think that there is still a high desire to have discussed finance um to see how it potentially balance what region 15 is doing relative to other districts and the impact it has on families to be able to watch their children play when they're also doing so I think that the optics on fact that we've kind of been talking about it but hasn't landed in a a meeting I think it's important to show that you can get it on the meeting. And I think that what I saw from the last came through is also relative to when you have to register for the fall sports and the the summer clinic that they're doing just starts in July. the timing of any action or activities associated with the becomes critically more important because I think
038they want transparency on what potentially happen the fact that they kind of register soon conversation still kind of looming out there. Yeah, but I mean the PTO's general thinking is that to increase pay to play fees at the high school to offset the gate fees >> which way they >> right that that not not touching middle school pay for play but they're thinking is increasing slightly the high school pay for play fee and then parents don't have to pay the fees >> but I also think that middle school isn't necessarily off the table I think has to be because there was also feedback throughout this year that some of that didn't seem what people were paying middle school versus high school. So I think we need to look at it collectively and just come out
039with a position either way and make sure that you agree to and I know you are. >> So I have a question if it's on the agenda for Thursday and some of us can't make it meeting that means you're just discussing it and then it's going to it's budget neutral. I don't think it does a fee schedule that's we talked about last time finance. >> Yeah. I would think that I feel like we've discussed fees before at the board level. Is that because it had a budgetary impact? >> Yes. >> How would it not budgetary? >> Yeah. >> Well, I think that the thought process wasn't what parents are looking for and what we agreed to ourselves when we set this budget and we were going to come back. We said as long as it
040was budget neutral. >> Has it been budget neutral for everything else that we've done? Was it budget neutral to eliminate these budget control or was there >> rental right now shortly? But I don't want to double check >> if it comes before approval. I still would like to go to board discuss. >> Yeah, I think I might this as a recommendation and that we because it's such a big issue. Um, but again, I'm curious what the policy says that it's a short being short-handed in finance. It would be hard to just move forward. >> Listen, we've been talking about these for three years, right? So, like from my perspective, like I would have moved this forward three years ago. This is why it never moves. That's fine, but we're going to miss the parent deadline,
041right? So, I have >> Well, but that's not a real, >> right? So, I think >> is that I mean, I have to register my son tomorrow. >> I think more reasonable expectation is we're not going to make progress for all sports. I mean, this is our last meeting here. I don't think we're scheduling additional meetings over the summer to talk about. I'd be surprised. >> We are. We are probably going to have meetings over the summer. I don't know if we're going to talk about fees or not, but Just heads up everyone, there be meetings over the summer um related to the construction project, but you could always add stuff. >> Yeah, I would add that. >> Yeah, you know, >> but um I I don't want to digress too much and this is
042a PTO advisory committee report. Um everyone's positions are noted and we will um figure out what the answer to that >> position. >> I think we're in the process of hiring a director. >> Yeah. >> And I that someone should have perspective in charge and depending on the candidate like they may have this previous. So again I don't want this board this board makes mistakes sometimes feel like pressure rush things. So I would sh I' like to stop talking about it but I think you get there by doing it correctly first. So I think we have information All right. >> Everything stays as it is right now and then change it. >> I think you're have a lot of people upset if you do a a retroactive. By the way, you owe us. >> No,
043no, not just saying go forward. Yeah. October >> do a lot of different things. >> Yeah. But as it is right now, it is it is what it is. Everything's status quo. until we make a change. All right. All right. So, next we have the PS um building committee. Um so, um so every like there's a couple board members that wanted um a better idea of the time commitment involved the building committee. Um and we received a communication through Joshu this weekend that had um information tech that Josh asked them to put together as the time commitment that's involved and it was pretty extensive. Um I think it's safe to say that you know you're looking at one to three times a month um for a time commitment. Um right now we have three board
044members um who have expressed interest Shannon Kavalo, Heather Rogers, John Jenny Situs um that are willing to know serve on the committee. Um if any other board members are interested in serving on the bill committee, you could let me know by the end of this week. Um that would be great. Um and the reason why is because we want to start filling out the rest of Um, and I don't necessarily want to do that until I know exactly how many board members would like to be on that committee. So, here's where my thinking is. Right now, we have resumes that are coming in. So, people have submitted some resumes. Um, you know, we're looking particularly for people who have some background that can contribute to that whole building process. Um, some board members have um
045had people submit a resume. Um, I've also reached out to a local engineer or two um to try to see if they'd be interested or if they know anyone who might be interested. A number of people are conflicted out um because they're going to be bidding on the project. So, that kind of prevents them from being on the building committee. Um but I just want to put out there if any again any board members have um any knowledge of someone who has a particular skill set that would work for the building committee. Um Josh and I are looking at resumes. Um hopefully that they're not going to be bidding on the project. Um and um looking to have around 10 people or so on the building committee. I hear that's like a good number because
046you don't you want to have enough um just to always have forum, but you don't want to have too much that makes it too cumbersome of a committee. Um, and where I um I I've been talking to a lot of um board chairs like this, you know, reading up a lot on what other Connecticut districts have done in school construction and we're a unique district obviously because we're regional. So, a lot of the stuff that other town school districts have done is not really applicable to us. Um, I think one of the best conversations I had was with the region 13 board of ed chair. um they just broke ground at a new school a couple weeks ago. Um so they've been going through this over a year. Um and he said that the way
047they did it was that the um way that they figured out the composition of the building committee was that the chair and the superintendent um selected people from submitted resumes um and then the board of ed would approve or not um whoever the chair and the superintendent we would have resumes for you guys to review. All of this is in a public session and there's no executive session privilege for any of this discussion. Um, so I kind of like how they did that. Um, and the other thing that they did which I also liked is that the board of ed selected their architect in region 13 to do the construction project um, and came up with a basic design which I I kind of like that idea. um because particularly for our board who I
048think is likes to be involved. Um I think that would be a good chunk of involvement um and perhaps um let's um you know then you might want to leave the wiring decisions um and other kind of minutia to the building committee. That's what you wanted to have like some kind of involvement in the process but not the full-time commitment um that the building committee would require. Um, and then you know the construction company would be decided upon by the building committee who has hopefully more construction experience. Um, so that's where I am. If anyone disagrees, please let me know. We can talk about Go ahead, John. >> We're gonna need some guidance from say tech or something to say, yeah, these are good architects, these are bad architects. Are we get that kind of
049input? So tech be to be architect, right? I mean I I don't know. I'm assuming they might need >> Well, I mean >> we're going to need help. We have >> we're going to need help, >> but luckily we've been through this process with the feasibility study committee too, right? Um that was very beneficial for us to do. >> Um and board members are able to sit through that too. Um but the architect is going to be an important decision. >> So the only thing the only thing that I had a question on is you said that if you select everyone and bring to the board that has to be a public y or public >> I don't know how else to do that unless you want to way around it would just be to
050have the the chair select everything and I'm not I'm not really sure you guys would be comfortable with that either. So you know like I >> think as a slate, >> right? Oh, >> right. Okay. >> Yeah. I just was a little bit uncomfortable about the season, >> right? You know, as a package, we present a package to the board. >> Board members are not going to need to submit a resume. Just FYI. I mean we have to talk like we might have to disclose just building out state. So like people >> hold on one second I can't disclose or step out like of some of them subcontracts so we subcontract. >> So there might be some conflict pieces there conflict that I said on this board anyway but like other people right like I
051know we subcontract but tecton contracts to us that wouldn't be something >> right I think that would be good to have the lawyer involved to like So understand there could be some interesting >> things. Any other questions or comments on that? [clears throat] >> No, I'm sorry. >> All right. I'm sorry. It makes me think form because when I comment such as Shannon makes me feel that disclosure of any interest prior to committee even being created because it would result I mean I think from a transparency perspective of any that's an important factor so will disclosure be taken into consideration how we do that So have a talk with the lawyer before the building committee is is >> well I mean the building for everybody should but it should be for everybody everybody who's on
052the building committee if they have any financial interest any interest I would think that that needs to be full evaluated and either cast a weighing in vote or not or your own committee or not but when I hear what I just heard it just makes me feel from transparency perspective that's really hurtful. So just take that out. That would be great. Just don't want it to come back. >> No, no. And it's something that happens, right? Like when we do packages on the other side, right? Like all of that's disclosed, right? And I'm registered at the state for that now. >> So, >> but I think it's beyond you and everyone. Good point. >> Any other comments? All right. Um, next we have board member comments. Any board member comments? Um, I just, you know,
053I I didn't mention the last meeting um that I had been to the um adaptive field and I just wanted to mention that was uh so and just seeing all of um you know, our special education teachers and pair of professionals and our PE staff and um you know, just so many administrators, just everybody coming together and making that happen here at high school. I just feel like it was so special. Um and and I hope it's something that continues. Um you know, a lot of children who are in adaptive programs, they you know, they're kind of in a different environment for much of the day. and um unfortunately been like really good friend over the course of the year years and then they'll go to middle school never get to see them again um
054just because the way that you know timing works out so I just thought it was so lovely to go and see kids meet old friends and have a day that was built around you know their uh their ability to participate and All right, we have comments from citizens. There is literally no one here. Jessica Clark, anything? Um, next we have regular business requiring board action. Um, may I have a motion for approval of the 2026 2027 tuition rates? >> Move that the board of education upon recommendation from the finance committee approve the 2026 2027 tuition rates as you sh >> um standard rates we do every year goes up to 5%. Um this is only for obviously out of town students are placed here or we have at build back another district >> we don't
055take prek and I assume that's >> prek is on a separate sheet that we actually did in December January do a little earlier so we can adjust that we accept prek from another district another >> not typically we Sorry. Any other questions? All those in favor? >> Any nays? >> Any abstensions? Carries. Um, next may I have a motion for approval of the 2026 2027 lunch prices? Move that the board of education upon recommendation from the finance committee approve the 2026 2027 lunch price increase of 25 cents as presented. It's approximately $68,000 increase the program and it covers obviously a lot higher on that 25. >> Any questions or comments? >> Breakfast is now free. So there's the state free. There's no >> question. >> No, that's that's in the legislation. It's just >> for
056this year it is or is not >> it is coming current year it is >> breakfast is paid next year. Okay. >> So we don't have to take action on the breakfast prices because they're really hard. All votes in favor. >> Any nays? Any abstensions? It carries. Next, may I have a motion for approval of the technology lease? >> Move that the board of education upon recommendation from the finance committee approve the technology lease for $350,000. >> Second by Steve. >> This is our Chromebook and laptop lease. It's a four-year lease payment as part of our operating budget was approved by Ford Motors last year equipment in place for the start approximately 810 by >> any questions or all those in favor? >> Any naysay? Um, next we have a motion for approval of the
0572026 2027 staff rates for use of school facilities. Move that the board of education upon recommendation from the finance committee approved the 2026 2027 staff rates for facility use as presented. >> Second 30% increase in staff rates uh going forward. Those are the rates we build back when they use outside custodians. These are what they pay us now. >> Correct. Yeah. There's there's there's an additional like almost like administrative fee that sits on top. >> Any other questions? Right. All those in favor? Any nays? Any extensions? Um, next may I have a motion for approval of the auditorium HVAC unit at HS? move that the board of education upon recommendation from the finance committee approve the auditorium HVAC unit at Pump Rock High School for $788,000 from the repair bond. >> Thank you. >> Um
058Joe, can you talk about >> Sure can. So this this goes back actually a couple years now. This is part of the state HVAC grant dollars. Original cost estimate on the auditorium was $550,000 50% which is state reinforcement. Um we did a redesign original direct replacement of that unit. And in working with the architects, we did we convert our steam system to a hot water system with a locally fired boiler. We did go out to bid for this trailing wage project. Uh so we did a vary from 788,000 all the way up to about 9 $920,000. We did vet out this this vendor as the whole bid. Um and we we are looking to make an award of this. The the interesting part of this unit is it's kind of strange. The unit that sits
059next to it is having issues, but we're actually going to be able to take parts out of the old unit to put into the new unit for now. The second unit we did bid out was 525,000. That's not state reimburseable. We're still kind of deal. This is the biggest of the >> This one's live. This one's good. I mean, just it's it's long past it useful to life. Um it is um and it was the way we applied to the state grant. It's based on BTUs. So, I can't really switch the units around, but I submitted a grant for us. So, I'd like to replace the unit next to it, but that's kind of >> the second. Yeah, we are going to take parts out of the out of the auditorium to get direct. >>
060The one that we replace, take parts out of that. >> Yes. >> What's the reimbursement? >> 50% 48.9. >> We have to prove the whole thing. >> Yes. >> And then you say it went up for the original estimate because of the redesign. >> 550 was the original cost estimate which was at this point two to three years old. They've switched now R410A to R454. It's all Yeah, but the new unit is is a much more high efficiency boiler. It's it's locally fired. We're trying to take highqual steam. It's going to be probably a 10 year journey together. Um but the idea is to call something high. >> So we reimbured on the 78 550. >> So it's really not a 48. >> No, it's not a full 48. It's 550 is 48%. And there
061is dollars inside 1.3 million sitt all those in favor. >> Any nays? Any abstensions? Right. Thank you. Um next may I have a motion to move into executive sessions for the purpose of discussing the EA contract? move that the board of education break into executive session for the purpose of discussing the PA contract possible action and to advise superintendent Mr. Martino have a second all those in favor >> we're in executive session so yes There's two. So, we're gonna then we'll come out and then go to the second one >> and then do the action at the end. >> And I also budget too. >> Yeah. >> Perfect. No, I'll take a second. >> Yeah.