001All right, we'll call the meeting to order of December 13, 2022 of the Granite City Community Unit School District number nine. That's very formal and official, isn't it? No, it is. It sounds very Okay. Board of Education meeting. Um, roll call, please. Zach Stacy absent. Vinnie are here. Canal absent. Curran absent. None here. Brian here. Wilms here. Vinegar here. We do have a quorum tonight. I apologize for several absences. uh it is that time of the year when when people do uh tend to have family functions and other things going on. So uh but we do have a quorum tonight and we will continue on as charged by the public. Um we'll stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by an invocation by Pastor Stacy Wilson with GC First Baptist Church. I pledge algiance to
002the 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. Lord, we thank you for this evening and thank you for each and every one of the men and women who serve our community and our school district. Lord, I pray that you would um be a part of this meeting that you would lead, guide, and direct every aspect and that the students and families of our community would be the forefront of every decision that is made. Give wisdom and direction. We trust you and we thank you. Amen. Thank you. Thank you so much. She's well done. Well done. Thank you. All right. Um, public comment tonight. Do we have any members of the public here for to give any
003public comment? Hearing none. Uh, Miss K, I'll turn it over to you. Okay. Presentation. Okay. Okay. We are here tonight. I think we're missing our our uh person of honor. But we still have another person of honor as well too. So Miss Am Michelski, you want to come up? She's the art teacher at Koolage, one of them. And we're really thrilled to have her this year. And she's been doing some great community work as well. So if you want to introduce the student and this is we can talk about Linda if you wanted to. Yeah. Is it okay if she holds it? Yeah, that would be great. This is Gabrielle Hunia. One of her art pieces are at the Red Tree or I always say that wrong. Apple Tree Family Restaurant in Granite City. And
004Linda Shaholi, she has owned that restaurant for 21 years. And when I first approached her in the summertime, she was very enthused about becoming a partner in education with us. And I was very excited. And when I went to give her the artwork, she wanted to hang it up forever and ever. And so I was like, "Well, how about we do a rotating um show every year?" So she agreed on that. And of course they have apples in it. It's Paul Savan Still Life. And um Linda enjoys supporting her community and is proud to recognize our eighth grade art students for their creative endeavors. And we truly appreciate her and her time and this lovely artist work. And if you have a chance to go into the Apple Tree Family Restaurant to see the artwork,
005that would be wonderful. And we're sad that Mr. Holy couldn't be with us tonight, but we'll make sure she gets the plaque as well. And great job [Applause] I'm going to go in and see the work. We'll make sure one way or the other. Thank you very much. Well done. We appreciate you. Uh item five, uh minutes, approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of the board of education held on November 15th. So move. Second. Motion second. All those in favor say I. I. I. Those opposed? No. The eyes have it. And the minutes of the special meeting of the board of education held on November 21st. So move. Second. You're all got to be faster now. snappy tonight. Uh, all those in favor say I. I. Those opposed, no. The eyes have it.
006Very good. Consent agenda item six. We have a couple of items on there. The bill list uh and gifts. Say anything about the gift. Yes. The Mason's uh triple J35. They are incredibly uh generous with our early childhood program. They routinely donate money and items to uh prek program. U Marcy Dods, our director there, does a great job. So, we're really thrilled that they continue to donate and help our community and our school district. So, thank you very much. We appreciate that. Anybody want anything special on on the consent agenda? Otherwise, I will accept a motion for approval of the consent agenda as presented. So, move second. Motion a second. All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed, no. Very good. Item 8A. Um, we're already to eight. We sure are. Uh, rescend retirements
007and resignations. It is recommended that the following retirements and resignations be rescended. Cynthia Desper, special ed teacher, GCHS, end of 2526. Chair Whitaker, special ed teacher. Proh, resend 53124. So, second roll call, please. None. I Brian I Vinnie I and item 8 B retirements and resignations. It is recommended the following retirements and resignations be accepted. Cynthia Desper special ed teacher GCHS end of 2627 school year. Marvin Pelazari custodian Prather retiring 1222. Cheryl Whitaker special ed teacher Frohart end of 2223. Scott Harris custodian Nickersby effective 1216222. and Gloria Kei, third grade teacher at Prohark. The end of the 2425 school all retirements except for one resignation. So move. Thank you. Second. Motion to second. Roll call, please. Bryant. I. Vinnie. I. None. I item 8 C requests for leaves of absence. It is recommended the following
008leaves of absence be approved. Bonita McIntyre, cafeteria coolage, effective 11122 to 2323. William Carpenter, monitor GCHS, effective 11:1522 to 2723. Cheryl Clark, Secretary Admin office, 112822 to 22023. Deian Seville, teacher at Briggsby, effective 12122 to 3623. And Mike Murphy, maintenance warehouse, effective 113022 to 22223. So move a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Vinnie, I. None. I, Brian, I. Item 8 D, requests for extension to leaves of absence. It is recommend the following request for extensions to leave of absence be approved. Renee Weedner, uh, position par profofessional at Prather effective 91422 acquired 1623. So move. Thank you. Second. Roll call, please. None. I. Bryant. I. Vinnie. Hi. I. Item 8E. Extracurricular resignation. Detailed information about this item is below. The administration is prepared to make recommendations or hope for discussion in executive session. The GCSE
009administration is recommending the following extracurricular resignation for the 2223 school year be accepted. Miss Claire Marian second quarter lunch duty at Prohart. So move motion second. You guys are catching up. I'm just trying to give them a chance call please. Bryant. Penny. Penny. Oh, I'm I see again for being one I item 8F and there are a lot of uh just the GCSD9 administration is recommending that the following extracurricular recommendations for the 2223 school year be approved they are listed before you and there are many so if you have any questions please let me know second motion second roll call please I none I Bryant I item 8G. You received information below about this item. The administration is prepared to make recommendations or hope for discussion in executive session. If not, the GCSD9 administration is
010recommending the following extracurricular volunteers for the 2223 school year be approved. Emma Lorton, girls basketball coach, GCHS, and Ada Moore, girls basketball coach, GCHS. So move second. Motion on a second and we appreciate the extracurricular volunteers as always. We appreciate it. They're already doing that. Roll call please. None. I Brian I Vinnie Im. And item 8H certified and classified substitutes. Always a good one. Always. Always. You received information below. Administration is prepared to make recommendations or hold for discussion. It is recommended the following applicants to the board be approved as substitutes for the 22 23 school year. Certified Mr. Don K. Harris, Miss Martha Richie, Mr. Mark Low, Miss Ashley Warren, Mr. Kylie McFarland, and Miss Grace McCormack. Classified, Miss Ashley Dunn and Miss Karen Tester. So move second. Motion second. Any discussion? Roll call,
011please. Bryant, I. Vinnie, I. None. I I. And moving on to employments under item eight. I you have received detailed information about this item. Administration is prepared to make recommendations or hold for discussion in executive session. The interview uh committee consisting of Miss Christine Nashes Kaberna, executive director of curriculum and development, Brad Irv, director of student services, Maryville principal Dr. Liz Neport, ESL department chair Stacy Swingler, and ESL bilingual GCHS teacher Hannah Bush and myself are recommending Andrea Meyer is our bilingual parent leaison for the 2223 school year. Approval is recommended pending the proper paperwork submission. So move second. Motion second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Vinnie, I. None. I Bryant. I and item 8 I right. Think I missed a page here. Employment of the bilingual pair of professionals. Um detailed information about this
012item is provided below. We are prepared to make recommendations or hold for discussion in executive session. If not, the interview committee consisting of Christa, um Mr. Brady, uh Dr. Liz Nebert, Stacy Swingler, and teacher Hannah Bush and myself are recommending the following candidates as bilingual pair professionals. Miss Monica Munz, and Miss Tracy Herrera. Approval is recommended pending proper paperwork submission, which is in process. So move Second. Any discussion? Just a point of information. How many bilingual parents do we have? None. We did two. So, what determines like do you have a sense of where each of them are going to be placed? Yes. Can you tell me a little bit about that, please? Sure. So, um with your permission higher and pending paperwork, um the plan is parent leaison will service here and also split
013time with servicing the high school with our newcomers because we have a large population there. Then the two bilingual um Harris that will be hires this evening. Um in the morning one of them will service Mville and then travel to Bricksby for the PM and do cushion with newcomers and then the other one will service newcomers because there's a need there. Okay. So, and then our bilingual teachers will um service the others the other schools. So, every school will have a professional be it a teacher or a pair of professional. We're thrilled because we don't generally have and our parent one will be taking the bronzes. Yeah. What you described as I remember that I think we're really fortunate really well. Correct. Very fortunate. Thank you. These are some good interviews. Great. Thank you. And
014not to put you on the spot here, what percent of the students in the district you think have bilingual or Spanish speaking parents. Um maybe yeah I would say maybe 27 to 30 and trending upward trending upward. Yes risky actually. So we really need more and we're making more changes to have everything in Spanish. Anything else we put out we do that now but with our curriculum we always have as well too. So always make sure that we have companion for that. Thank you. Appreciate that. I think we had a motion on the second. Okay. Roll call, please. None. I Brian I. Vinnie. I. Item 8 I3 employment of title one pair of professional. Detailed information about this item is below. Administration is prepared to make recommendations or hold discussion in executive session. If not,
015the interview committee consisting of Miss Kristen Nasis Caberna, Miss Nikki Watkins, um, principal Jason Baker, and myself are recommending Caitlyn Fleer as the title one parent professional at the Wilson one two attendance center approval is recommended pending proper paperwork submission. So motion second. Any discussion? Just happy. Roll call, please. Brian, I. Vinnie. Hi. None. I woman I and item 8 I4 employment of Granite City High School registar secretary. Detailed information about this item is below. The administration is prepared to make recommendations or to hold a discussion in executive session. If not, the interview committee consisting of Miss Christian Navas Kaberna, Miss Vikrillo, and Miss Cina Christina Smith respectfully request the board approval for the following applicant to serve as the Granite City High School register secretary for the 2223 school year. Um, approval is recommended
016to employ Roy Rose Wolf as the Granite City High School register secretary for the 2223 school year. I apologize for my So motion a second. Any discussion? Just a question. Was this a retirement or We had hired um a candidate that everyone really liked, but she received a job offer that paid significantly more. Um she didn't really want to leave, but it was sort of a couldn't pass it up. So we have roll call, please. Denny. I none I Brian I I item nine old business we don't have any old business on the agenda item 10A under new business consideration of tax levy resolution and truth and taxation hearing I believe Mr. would love to come forward. Yes. So I think I need first a motion. Correct me if I'm wrong temporarily adjourn board of
017education meeting. So moved. So thank you. Second. Motion a second. All those in favor. I. Those opposed? No. Very good. So we have temporarily adjourned the board of education meeting. And at this time we'll open the public hearing um and ask for public comment. And I think we might have Mr. Siri start out. That would be perfect. Nice little presentation all about numbers and taxes and everything else that everybody is thrilled to hear about super loud. They can hear me in another state. In another state, trust me, it's about to be Christmas dinner, too. I mean, and the whole family is loud. Makes you want to visit. It's awesome. Well, maybe There you go. Swap displays. Flip over. There we go. iPhone requisition some money here. Okay. So this is the 2223 tax levy presentation.
018Um in it we will cover some historical info um very briefly uh 2022 tax levy and com and and the comparison to last year and our remaining debt schedule and then some examples of how to figure in a hypothetical situation. So outline we're going to do some tax levy terms. We're going to cover some historical charts. 22 tax levy collected in 2023 comparison to 2122 tax levies debt scheduled and then estimated 2022 tax rate paid in 2023. So terms the levy that is what we're asking for. It's not what we're going to get. It's just what we're asking for. Um extension that is what we get after limiting rates are applied. the tax rate, how your property taxes are calculated. EAV is a equalized assessed evaluation. It is the total of all property value in
019the Grand City School District. Limiting rates, those are certain rates in the tax rate that cannot exceed a certain amount. For instance, the ED fund is locked in at 255. It cannot exceed 255 of the tax rate no matter what. Here is the equalized assessed valuation EAV history for from 2011 to 2022 including our estimate for 2022. Um we did see a spike in the number we got from the county as an estimate. So we bumped our levy up in order to capture all those funds. And the important thing to remember as EAV goes up your tax rate goes down. It's an inverse it creates an inverse relationship. So if EAV went down, then the tax rate would go up based upon EAV. This is our GCSD9 total levy/extension history. The blue line underneath is
020what we have at or the blue line underneath is what we have got that has been the extension. The blue line on top is what we have asked for um historically. So, we will see. You can see that the the final one is for this year has no blue light blue line. That is because we do not know what we're getting yet. GCSD9 tax rate history. This is the tax rate from 2010 to 2022. You can see that we did we shot up in 2015 and above $5 and we've been on a steady decline ever since. Although last year EAV did not quite go up as much as we had planned and it ticked up 1 cent on me. So we went from 428 to 429. That rate should come down slightly this year. We're
021hopeful. Historical new property again nothing more than just a a simple graph. As you can see in 2020 we did get a spike in new property almost almost 30 million of new property. It has historically been right around five million as a pretty good average. It has kind of jumped all over the place a little bit. Uh June 30 fund balances. These are the fund balances of each of our funds. The operating funds 10 20 40 and 70 are there. And then the other is fund 30, fund 50, fund 60, fund 80 and fund 90. um those the 30, 50, 60, 80, and 90 are specific. They cannot really be moved from those funds. 10, 20, 40, and 70 are kind of maneuverable a little bit. So, they kind of all work together, and I
022will explain that in just a second. The state of Illinois on their financial profile score breaks down whether it's financial watch, early warning, financial review or finan financial recognition. We have been stuck in the financial review which is the third bar there, the orange bar for quite a while. Basically the entire time I've been here. Um, but we have bumped up. So this is what portion of our operating fund balance is consisting of those funds. So you can see that even though some of those balances look a lot healthier than they have in a long time, that is simply because we had been so cashstrapped for a lot of years for us to remain in the financial recognition, which we should have a 4.0 financial profile score this year. We only had about $2 million
023of fund balance that was boosting us up into that. That is the total amount is figured by days cash on hand. If you're above 180 days cash on hand, then you're considered financially in the financial recognition. This is our first year that we've been there. This is a levy comparison from 21 to 22 of what we asked for. You can see we increased we asked for quite a bit more in the ed fund, a little bit more in special ed. That is to that is to handle the rate to get 255 out of our rate. If EAV is $734 million, it will we may not get what we asked for it, but wherever EAV is, they take that times the limiting rate and calculate our amount. The one thing uh we did increase $25,000 of
024levy that I know we will get in IMRF. That is one of the uncapped funds. um that is just to handle and inch our way up on some of the raises and uh contract negotiations and collective bargain agreements that we know are happening and also with some of the increased sub costs. I wanted to make sure we had plenty of IMRF, social security and those things to handle those and also to keep the tax rate kind of balanced to where we didn't have a big jump one year. 22 rate scenarios based upon EAV. You can see if it's 734 million, you're looking at about a $4.14 rate, which is down from $4.29 last year. If it's 500, if it stays relatively the same at 595 million, you're looking at up one about 1 cent from
025last year for 430. Mr. Siri, before you go on on that particular one, you might talk about the $734 million and the 595 million. Where did you get those numbers from a is kind of the perspective? So I estimated a 15% increase in EAV along with 50 million a new property because of some warehouses out in Pontoon. Um and I believe there's a tiff that came off. I wanted to make sure I captured all of that to keep the rate as low as possible. Um so that is my estimate of where I thought it could be on the high side. And then this is about where we are this year. The 595 is about where we are this year. So I always just say if nothing changes, what are we at? The current debt schedule
026for fund 30. You can see in levy year 2022, we will levy 1.9 million for debt service. And in 2023 for the next next year will be our last year uh of having a debt service levy. Um at a co at 500 million of EAV it's about 39 cents and 32 cents of the levy. We are very very low on bond and indebtedness compared to most school districts which is good. all these highs numbers and low numbers. Want to clarify the folks know that's Yeah, it's good. Um, so how do I calculate my taxes? So I used my example and it's on the past seven presentations and this is using last year's rate but fair market value $75,000. You multiply that by 1/3, which would be $25,000 for value. You take that times the tax
027rate, and you could see your school taxes on a $75,000 house would be about $1,774.95. Um, if you're looking on your tax bill, you want to look at the taxable value, and that would be that number right there, which would allow you to calculate How does the 2022 levy affect my taxes? You can see the 20 with the 2021 rate, you'd have been about $1,70. If uh it stays at 595 million for EAV, you'd be about $1,76. And if it goes to 735 million, it's about $1,035. Uh disclaimer, this is just a general example. There are many different scenarios that can affect your property taxes, exemptions, uh senior citizens, there's a lot of things that could affect your property taxes. This is just a very generic example. So, what if my house value goes up?
028So, if your home value increases from $75,000 to $80,000 and you take your assessed valuation at 1/3, it'd be 26,660. And you multiply through at the tax rates, you would be at about instead of 174, you'd be at about 148, $1,148 or $1,14. And that's a 6% in 6.6% 6% increase in assessed value in your home value. This is the compar comparable tax rates in Madison County for 2021. You can see every school district in Madison County. You can see we are the second lowest in the county um right right underneath Collinsville and right above Roxanna. Just remember there are many factors that can determine how your property taxes are figured. These examples provided represent the most basic calculations of just the school district tax rate. Not the city, not the library district or anyone
029else. The end. Thank you. [Applause] Chris a second to get everything set back up here. While he's doing that, are there any questions for Mr. Siri? You did a great job explaining all that. It's a lot of numbers. It's it's difficult I think for people to figure out their taxes and and their tax rate what and just so many factors. I will tell you the one uh which is probably the last slide on there which shows Granite City's rate tax rate for the school district being the second lowest in our entire area is just just phenomenal. It really is. We all complain about high taxes and yes taxes are high all across the board but uh just fantastic job of the district for keeping that tax rate as low as possible. We appreciate that. Just
030to bring up one thing president uh and that's why you'll hear me report periodically about tax objections being uh the attorney school being school attorney for the school district. Anytime the school district gets notice of a commercial industry or business wanting a decrease in their EAV of $100,000 more, that's $300,000 of market value. That's when the taxing districts can go in and object. And again, whenever we get those and we go to the border review in Edwardsville and protest those, we're doing that because if a commercial industry gets that, that the amount of levy doesn't go down. the amount that they are that those big commercial businesses are don't pay that is spread out through the remaining taxpayers. So that's another reason why taxes your personal property taxes can go on. So that's why it's
031important that we do get appraisals for the warehouses out in Palton because a lot of that's where a lot of the EAV increases coming from that out there. But it's also I mean we're we're seeing all sorts of businesses that we didn't see in the past asking for reductions and those are big hits that cause the individual homeowners taxes to go up as well. School has been incredibly diligent in making sure that we're on that. It really saves the school district a lot. So we really really fortunate school district and the taxpayers taxpayers. I'm sorry. So we appreciate that Mr. school. Thank you. appreciate that comment and and I guess I just encourage uh I think we had a good discussion the other day Mr. Suri and Miss K and I um about all these
032and kind of went through that whole presentation but couple things that just change the whole dynamics and that is that EAB that that is the biggest factor it's that equalize assess valuation and so it is those uh it's new development it's new construction it's all those things and I encourage you know Granite City is a phenomenal market yet we we think sometimes that we're uh just not doing as well as other communities. We've got a great tax base. We've got an opportunity to make it it better. And I just encourage people with the population that we have here, still one of the biggest communities in in the southwestern Illinois area, a lot of opportunities for new construction, new development, new businesses starting that growth and expansion, and that's what helps to keep that tax rate
033low. So, just a kind of a plug there for commercial development. Um, any other questions or comments from the board? All right. Uh, with that I will, uh, thank you again, Mr. Shuri, for the presentation. I appreciate that. Um, we'll close the public hearing. I would ask for a motion to reconvene the regular board meeting. Senate and a second. Second. Second by Miss Benny. All those in favor say I. I. I. Very good. And we are back in the uh regular board meeting. And at this time I will accept a motion to adopt the resolution and the district 9 tax levy as presented. So moved. Second. Motion in a second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. None. I. Bryant. I. Vinnie. I. Wire. I. Very good. Thank you so much. Um, item 10B, evening academy assignments.
034Permission is requested to approve the following evening academy assignments for Granite City High School to meet the fall semester needs. Should that be spring semester, Mr. That's why it should be spring semester needs, right? Yes. Okay. Um, so they're listed here with their siphons and the positions, but due to holidays, there are more Tuesdays and Thursdays in the semester than Mondays and Wednesdays. That's why some teachers teaching one class may have a different stipen amount than others. So that's to explain that. So approval is recommended that change. Second motion second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Brian, I Vinnie I. None. Immer. was approved. Item 10 C, Brandon City High School Foods Lab bid. We're very excited that this went through. We had a little bit of some issues the first time around, but we are
035the administration requesting approval of the bid for the GCHS foods lab requirement. It's not just foods, it's a what else? It's an independent living independent living skills. It's a really it's a really wonderful opportunity for our students. Um requirements have been included in mandatory walk through prior to the of a bid. Only one company participated in the walkthrough for St. Louis. The bid um for the above work is $24,56.90. Funding for this project will be through the IDA ARPM step fund. So it's all grant funded. Um approval is recommended. If you have any questions, I'm sure Miss Watkins would be happy. But we are thrilled. Move to approve. Second. Motion second. Any discussion other to say again great job getting this grant funded that's awes I forget like how long do they expect Um they're
036anticipate that they can be done. I I gave them a deadline by the 1 of June. Okay. So that way we have a little extended time to have it completed by June. And when's the last time do I recall that the renovation there hasn't been anything in a lot of people who I'm looking around the room and collectively nobody's remembering when they they last staff who work here have indicated that they attended class in there and they think maybe some of their other family members may have as well. Darren Mr. is very old and I'm sure he but he wouldn't Oh, that's why he went to [Music] North was unqualified, but I couldn't help myself. He is retiring this year. I feel like every once in a while, but this facility actually is not just
037going to have foods and is going to have washer and dryers and a lot of uh life skills and things that these students need when they graduate. So, it really is going to be an amazing addition to the high school. Sorry about that, Mr. You're older than I am. I know you deserve this. You do because he's retiring. I know, right? In a second, I believe. Roll call, please. Vinnie, I none. I Brian. I item 10D, creation of full-time occupational therapist position. There's been an increase in student for occupational therapy. We are requesting that a full-time occupational therapist position be created. the number of students on our current um OT case load is expanding. Really, it is already expanded beyond her physical ability to provide the amount of time and services for these students. Uh
038the second position has been contracted out for several years, but as everything else, we are currently unable to obtain the contracted therapist to provide the services. We are hoping that we will be able to obtain the occupational therapist for this position. Um this is a region one cost that will be build to all the member districts. So um approval is recommended necessary. Second motion in a second. And I guess uh talk if you would just a little bit about the building to other districts. So do you want to talk about cost for a part-time is paid by us but but fulltime by others or how does that work? Well we have region one in place and we have granite city in place. So the occupational therapist would be considered through region one. So region one
039is the co-op that Granite City, Madison, and Venice belong to as a cooperative for special education. So um all of the costs that are incurred through region one are build to all three member districts. But granite city does have the lion share though because of the larger number of students and we expect then I think part of the reason for doing this is we can't it's we're having a hard time getting a part-time person to do this or a contract contracting and we have contracted this position I think for four years now. So the need is there and it's been consistent over time. Um, so it's time. So the current OT is contracted out. We have one OT, the second position that has been contracted out, but a lot of those facilities don't even have
040anyone available to contract that since the need has been consistent over the last seven years. I think it's time that we post for this. I think Mr. And and do we know the additional cost that that will be on to the grant school? It would start at the um first step on the pay scale I believe. Um however, I don't have that number in front of me, but Granite City typically takes about don't hold me to the exact percentage, but I think about 90% of the costs. They're in a different um salary schedule than the teachers. So, step one, which is the same as No, it's completely different. They have Oh, they have their own entire each and that has their own and this individual that we employ will serve our students. They will also
041serve students throughout. Excellent. Thank you. We do have a motion and a second. Roll call, please. None. I Brian, I. Vinnie, I. Item 10E was taken off the agenda. Item 10F, board of education committee appointments. Um, and this really wasn't for voting necessarily, but we did um we did have the one resignation from our board member with Miss Bryant being appointed. Um, and we have made some adjustment of committee assignments. Um, and I actually have those here somewhere. So, Thank you. Appreciate that. Um so we will have um Miss Bryant serve as the alternate and I'm not going to go through every one of these because a lot of these were done last year. Uh but just fill out the the unacquired term of our previous board member. We'll have Miss Bryant serve as the
042alternate for the attendance centers evaluation committee. Um as the alternate for the construction committee with Talon moving to the delegate for that committee. So he would be involved in those uh discussions. Uh she would also be the uh delegate for the employee evaluation committee and the delegate for the negotiations classified committee as well as the policy committee. She'd be sitting on that. Um and then alternates for the school improvement plans and school program committee and the special education board. I think I got effective till May. Correct. Uh I'm sorry. Yes. until May of 2023 when the new assignments would be brought forth after the after the election. Excellent. Um item 11, reports and other communications a instructional technology report. We are very excited about this. So we're going to hand this over to Jen Smith
043and Miss This is going to be fun. She even brought a little you want to turn. We're very excited. Mitchell, do you want to turn? We have a gift for you tonight. I'm gonna let Jennifer speak. This is a program that we started with the help of the board. So, this is a little token of our appreciation. It's a blue back. It's just a Bluetooth version of it. Smile. Thanks. I'm Jennifer Smith, the instructional technology coach, and Dr. Neert and I had an opportunity to go into Wilson Elementary and teach a robots and writing lessons at um in first grade. So, we went in and we took the robots and we talked to them a whole lot about how it's not going to go right the first time. And they did a couple activities with
044the robots and I will pass one around so you guys can take a look at it. But they light up and make noise. And you just you if you want it to go forward, you press forward forward to the right and then go. And it'll drive whatever you program it. Um, but I'll pass it down so you guys can take a look. Um I am happy to go over our whole kind of plan and program um and show it to you at another time and bring in the rest of our fun things to share. But the book um has talks about they ask the students. Do you want to tell them what you asked the students to write? Sure. Writing. So they um just sitting right here. It's not they did a couple different activities.
045They tried to get from one shape to the other shape and they did it backwards and they were giving each other points and having a great time. Um they did the hoke pokey, made them dance in and out. And then we had the kids um they were more excited about the picture than the writing. So they had to do a sentence before they did their picture and they were telling the funniest things that they loved the most. A whole lot of them were about doing the hoke pokey. Is that cute? This is pictures of their writing and the kids um doing the activities. One of them I like to play hoke pokey with the robot. Yes. Um I love because um the robot did the poke pokey. I mean these are adorable. So they drew
046pictures and such so can hold up some pictures and things like this have a ton of uses like even for just like killing and drilling math facts and inside words and just you know very simple things but cat you could do with different Well, and they love the hands-on stuff. So, anytime they get to play with something, they think it's playing, you could trick them into learning. So, I mean, yes. And as we got ready to leave, they were so excited to tell their teacher, there were two little boys, especially, one of them said, "She told me that I could program computers when I get older." Yeah. And another one, I can make robots. And I'm like, they were excited. So, Miss Keith will be happy. Yes. Get them trained well. Yes. So, it was
047wonderful um seeing the pictures and and putting the the writing with that. Like Miss Benny just said, there's so many opportunities to do crosscurricular things with STEM. It's just the beginning. You take us around to some other first grade classes at an idea for really. They really enjoyed the picture. That's great. Did you were these done in house? Did you send these out? Snapfish. Yeah. Just a program that's out there. Yeah, we just love it's great. I love it. Fun. Great job. Yeah, it's fantastic. And I and I think the writing piece to me is just journalism and just the words and putting them on paper and that sort of thing. Just trying to get to that point. So, I love the book idea as well. Anything there you can incorporate them. And these are
048first first grade. Yes. Yes. So, it's pretty amazing. The kids were super excited to get to see their work in a book. We put it on a PowerPoint so they could watch it. We should hold up in case anybody's watching as families. You should hold some pictures up. I believe Chris put it on Facebook, too. Oh, that's right. Didn't you put it on their Facebook? The hokeie poke was the big thing. Audience. Forgive me if I you asked this already. Like I saw kids and robots. I was like captivated. But um how many of these do we have in the district? Not my phone. The the the robot. Yeah. Do you know? We have a lot of things and I mean I would love to share the whole they have that presentation. We have 18
049of this robot of that. We also have I believe 14 sets of the codeand go mice that we've used in second grade. Um we have maybe nine sets of dash and dot and we have the Q robots and we just got with the grant money. you exceeded my expectations. I just wanted to know like do we just have like a class set of these or you know the No, we also um Oh, I can't remember the name because they're all granted. We bought some some robots that I think as well. Yeah, we have I believe 14 of that is what I thought. And then we have a set of programmable drones that they're using at Coolage. Great. Oh, we also got Sparrows. They're really cool, too. I said it's just the beginning. It is. There's
050lots of a trailer we can take around eventually for the like a bookmo kind of but for location on location I do believe one of our board administrators said it was a good idea. I like that too. Not the Have we done anything and I with like Lego and like program with Lego and engineering and things like that for older elementary or middle school? So um Carol the teacher at Griggsby has a set of Lego boost. Yeah. And so I don't remember if it's our fifth grade or sixth grade, but one of the grades does Lego boost as well. Are we trying to move into the STEM classes at our next We have some things going at Coolage right now. Um the drones and then the sparrows. And then we're hoping to kind of plan
051to align it all the way to high school so that we're feeding and all. We're lucky to have two new STEM teachers at Coolage, too, which has been great for students here. So Can this be programmed to chase my cat? So, it can also be connected to an iPad through Bluetooth and you can control it from the iPad. So, you could chase your cat all day. [Music] You better watch that. That was wonderful. So, okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. [Applause] Some of that was title funds, correct? A lot of the came from title funds and much other some other grants that they did. So, it's just really nice that we've been able to do these things for grants and no extra cost the district we have. So, that's it's
052an extra one. Well done. Thank you so much. Item 10B, uh, Freedom of Information Act requests. Thank you. Sorry. We received one request under the Freedom Information Act during the period of November 15th, December 6th. It was for Do we have to go? Do we have to read this? It was It was complied with it was complied with. It was just for some information on student referrals, which we don't actually have. I think it's through law enforcement. So, uh, the request was handled by administration um and satisfied the request. I know. That's for report only. And item 10, I'm sorry, 11 C, uh, disciplinary. We're going to hold for executive session. Executive session. Okay. Uh, so that takes us to executive session item 12. And, uh, we will be entering executive session tonight under exceptions
0532C9, student disciplinary matters, and 2C5 and six, which is the purchase or lease of real property for use by the public body or setting the price thereof. I'll be Happy to there's no other business uh at this time in open session. I'll be happy to entertain a motion to go into executive session briefly. A motion by Eric by Mr. None. All those in favor say I. I oppose. No. Very good. We're in executive session. Time ends 65.