001[Music] The meeting in order. >> Roll call. >> Mr. Brad Uptogrove >> here. >> Mr. Mr. Roger Upgrow >> here. >> Mr. Zelada >> here. >> Mr. Brophy >> here. >> Miss Dro, >> Mrs. Kraz, >> Miss Nyman >> here, >> Mrs. Scott >> here, >> Mr. Penerella. >> Stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. A moment of silence to the flag of the United States of America. to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The board had uh three meetings since the last um executive meetings. July 29th uh was 210 minutes. It was personnel. Uh August 5th was 150 minutes and also personnel. and tonight uh about 30 minutes. Again, legal information and that was approximately 30 minutes. Okay, that takes us to our
002discussion and information section of the evening. I am going to invite um Mr. Stout, our assistant superintendent, and our director of OTL, Mrs. Stephanie Petri to um introduce and present Magazic School AI. And um later this evening, the board will be considering a motion of its approval as a possible program here in the district. >> Thank you so much, Dr. David Heiser. Uh what Mrs. Petri is handing out to you right now is um just a preview of a document that we have created. Um it is absolutely I can't emphasize enough in draft form uh to help support our uh moving forward with uh the uh use of uh artificial intelligence within the Bertown Area School District. Uh the first page of this document is really focused on policy 815.1. uh back in the springtime,
003you remember we went through and had our AI policy approved. This is a nice little general overview of what the uh like purpose and scope AI literacy and training prohibited uses and and so on. Um I won't uh bore you with all the information that's on this. It is um repetitive for our uh policy. But if you turn it over to the um to the second side, uh this is uh a tool that we are uh taking into consideration when we think about uh having our teachers have AI as a resource in their classroom and really thinking about how they can benefit from utilizing uh artificial intelligence. Uh those first three questions are really uh thoughts that every instructor in our district should be thinking about. Um and I I love the first one. What
004do you want your students to do and be able to do as a result of this learning experience? And I think that's critical as you think about what your instructional purpose and your instructional objective is. And if you think about the intent of what you're trying to teach and the tools that will ultimately get to you uh to have students achieve that goal, uh it'll help you be a a very effective teacher. So, one of the very quick resources that we are are looking to implement for this upcoming school year is really a stoplight kind of process. Uh, there is there isn't an orange color in the stoplight. It's four colors. It's so it's there's there's a little extra, but there's a nice little stoplight at the bottom. But if you think of this from
005the elementary perspective all the way up to the senior high, uh, and thinking about how you could benefit or how you would allow the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom, this is a really nice tool. So, if you are a classroom instructor who wants to give students the opportunity to use artificial intelligence in the classroom to its fullest capacity, and by the way, the next part of our presentation is going to talk about a framework and tools that we will uh hopefully with your approval provide for our our classrooms and students for the upcoming school year. Uh it's a green light. You have the ability to do that. You have ability to utilize the resources that are available to you that are approved resources for the district. Yellow is kind of a mix. you
006have the opportunity to utilize AI resources. Um, and as you move down to actual red, that's when we shut down the AI resources and you are um asked to perform in a way that does not have that resource available to you. Um, I'll say to you like I would think of red as um our state assessments that when we have our students take state assessments, we really have to lock everything down and students do not have access to be able to do that. That's a very extreme case. So, as we think about moving forward with our supports for our teachers for the upcoming school year, this is um kind of an example of a of a preliminary uh procedure process that we want to move forward with. Um we are going to bring this to
007our artificial intelligence committee for discussion as we move uh into the school year. So, we wanted to present this to you today as a precursor to presenting magic school to you. So with that being said, I think we're going to switch over and we are going to give you information on a tool that we have researched. Uh we have spent a uh a lot of time. We've given some uh some key uh teachers within our district the opportunity. Um for those of you that don't know, when you get to to play as as a student, um you often will play in a sandbox and you get to play in the sandbox. when you get to use uh technological tools that give you sandbox accessibility. So uh we had approximately 10 to 15 teachers uh administrators
008have access to magic magic school over the uh course of the summer and really have full access to what the the power of the tool can actually do. I will start off by saying the awesome opportunity for Magic School and what it provides for us to do is really control the environment as much as we possibly can at this particular time that give students access to artificial intelligence rather than students having the ability to go out find their own artificial intelligence resources that are vetted not vetted uh that get through our filters that don't get through our filters. This is a controlled environment that teachers give students the access to the tools that are available. And by the way, it gives teachers a very large toolbox to really support uh embedding artificial intelligence in their
009instruction. So our goal tonight is really to go over a few items. Uh and um we would like to ask for your approval later in the meeting. Um I will say to all of you um apologies for typically this would be a uh presentation that we would give to you in this meeting and then look to the next meeting at the end of August, August 26th I believe to approve the tool but we are moving forward um a little quicker than we we typically would because we would love to have this in place to start with our teachers when they come back to us next week. Uh we have some preliminary plans to potentially provide professional learning for our teachers to be able to do that. So that is why um we wanted it takes
010the the maximum amount of time during the course of the summer to give our student our teachers res the resource to to play in that sandbox to really vet it to uh make the determination if in fact this is a tool that could very much benefit our uh teachers and staff. So, you're going to learn about what Magic School AI is, why would we potentially use Magic School AI, helping students and teachers, uh the safety that's behind and the the regulations that support Magic School AI, the pilot that I just discussed a little bit, uh that happened over the summer, and also uh we're going to talk about Magic School AI certifications. There's actually small courses that our teachers can take as well as our students to understand what uh artificial intelligence is and how
011this tool can benefit them. And finally, the cost. What is this uh going to cost as we move forward. So um going to start off by a quick overview of what Magic School AI is. It's an education focused artificial intelligence platform designed to support both teachers and students in meaningful and time-saving ways. And that's super critical. It is for both teachers and students to be supported. Uh teachers have the ability to utilize the tool as much as they possibly feel comfortable and then move forward as appropriate giving their students it as a resource should they um feel that's where they are in their particular instruction. In for educators there are a lot of different types of scenarios here that educators can benefit. They can do lesson planning. They can differentiate their instruction. When we talk
012about meeting the needs of individual students within our classrooms, the word differentiate is a key school term. And when you different differentiate, you're meeting the needs of your multiple students in your classroom. It helps to generate assessments, provide feedback to students that's aligned with the standards and best practices. Our students have access to Magic School as a learning support tool, helping them with writing, research, understanding, and complex topics that are age appropriate um through teacher guided prompts uh and um you know the important components of what instruction looks like. So I'm going to show you um a brief video that is going to show magic school in action and then uh Mrs. Petri is going to kind of give you an overview that really discusses the items that are in the video. uh more specifically
013about you know what it actually uh means to be uh in place in a classroom. So uh this video is pretty brief and and gives you a nice little overview. So here you go. Hi, my name is Andrew Davies and I am the community and social media manager here at Magic School. And I am so excited to give you a quick walkthrough of all the things that Magic School has to offer both your teachers and your students. So first of all, what is Magic School? Magic School is a vast array of AI tools created for educators. We are about 75 to 80% former educators. Every tool that you see here is designed from a teachers perspective. Now, with that in mind, let's dive in so you can see kind of what these tools look like
014and what they can do for teachers. Now, the first tool that I looked at when I first looked at Magic School about 2 years ago was the rubric generator. So, when you first open the tool, what you'll first see are several places where you can put in information or parameters. All of our tools look very similar. I'm going to go ahead and select fifth grade. I'm going to do a fivepoint scale. Now here I can choose the standard or objective. This is really cool. If you are in the state of South Carolina for example, I could look up the standards of South Carolina. I could download the PDF. I could upload them here straight to the tool. So that way when the rubric is created, it is referencing those standards. For now, I'm going to
015keep it very simple. I'm just going to say writing. >> Just just for clarity sake, um I wanted to make sure everybody understood what a rubric is. Uh a rubric would be something that would be a tool that a teacher could utilize that would support whatever that writing process might be in their classroom. So it would create the specific criteria that this the teachers would use to assess their students in that writing process. So when they say create the rubric, this would take the concept that they want to do for the writing process and then it break it down into the different look fors that would happen in that uh that writing process. So, I just wanted to make sure everybody understood the the uh educational jargon that goes along with that >> argument of
016essay in South Carolina. Now, assignment descriptions is exactly as it sounds. I'm just going to tell the AI exactly what the students are being expected to do. So, I said students are writing an argumentative essay about whether or not they should be able to bring cell phones to school. And then additional customizations. I'm going to leave this blank for now just so I can kind of show you what this can do without those customizations. I'm going to hit generate. So, here it is creating that rubric for me. a starting point. So from here, a teacher can continue to make edits within our built-in editor if they'd like to. They can also export this rubric to Google Docs or Microsoft Word. They can have it printed, copy and pasteed if they need to. You'll also notice
017that all of our tools have the ability to have it read aloud, and teachers can also save these resources. Now, one of my favorite features of Magic School is down here at the bottom. This chat bar allows the teacher to continue the conversation with the AI making adjustments on the fly. So here I want to add a column for teacher comments. Just like that, the rubric was recreated with that column for teacher comments. Maybe I want to change the language of the rubric. So that way it's more of a self-reflection piece for the student. And instantly I can have that done ready to go to give to my students. So now I have my teacher rubric. I have one for the students. And let's just say that this fifth grader is actually reading at a
018third grade level. I can have the actual text dropped on anything that I create in Magic School in Last but not least over here on the >> So, just to give you another connection to something I made reference to earlier, when you think about differentiating to meet the individual needs of students, this is an example of a fifth grade rubric that would be for a fifth grade writing prompt. But let's just say we have a struggling learner who might be on a third grade level. Just with a click of a button, it automatically takes that information and converts it to a third grade level. takes the same concept that goes along that. So from an educational perspective, we would call that differentiating to meet the individual needs of students in our classroom. On the left,
019we have these action buttons. I can click the action button and I can have this translated immediately. Just like that, it's translated right here in the same interface and I can get this to my student who needs it. Every tool works the same way. You can have these same customizations in every tool. Now, I told you we have over 80 different tools available to teachers. Now, you may have also noticed on my screen that there are different tools that say custom next to them. This is a new feature that we recently launched where you can actually create your own custom tool. I won't go too far into detail into what this can do, but it's important for you to understand how powerful this can be for your district. If I go to create a custom
020tool, I can select the lesson plan generator. So, I can make this a fifth grade South Carolina lesson plan tool and I can make it based on my district. Here on the custom instructions, I can actually give it any type of instruction that I want. If I want every lesson plan to follow a certain format that our district is requiring, I can add that to the instructions. I can even upload an example of that format. Now, another amazing piece of Magic School is Raina. Raina is our chatbot. Raina is our chat BT designed to be an instructional coach. You can ask Raina almost anything educator related and Raina will guide you. What are some ways to include technology into a lesson about sedimentary rock? Well, not the most interesting thing in the world, but maybe
021we can make it better with technology. So, right here, Rain is giving me suggestions on how I could incorporate technology into that lesson. Okay, so I spent a lot of time on what the teachers can do with Magic School. We also have a studentf facing version as well. The studentf facing version is identical to the teacher facing that makes it really easy when the teacher is ready to introduce students to AI they can easily move and transition from. >> So I just want to point out the wording he just used is when the teacher is ready. So being able the this is designed that our staff if they are not ready yet to roll this out with students their learning or their understanding of how the tool works is not at the level that they're
022ready to share it out with students. they can control that piece so that when they are ready to share out with students, it's not available all the time. They can control how much the access that their classroom has to magic school. So, I think that's a pretty cool feature um that we can enable in the classroom or disable if necessary. >> Um going from their platform to the student, this is what the teacher can see. Now, if you'll notice that one Andrew here has some flags next to their name. I can click here and I can see the entire output history for Andrew and what type of conversation he was having with the AI. This student said, "This is dumb and you suck." And this was flagged as harassment. Now, if you ran into that
023issue with a student, the teacher has the ability to pause or lock the student's interactions with the chat bots or you can remove the student from the room. Now, let me show you what it looks like from the students view. So, the students view, you can see that they just put in their first name. So, here these are all the tools that I gave these students access to. So, as a student, I can only use these tools because Mr. Davies gave them to me. One thing to keep in mind is the teacher is still in control here. You can decide what tools to give students and for what purpose. Now, that's pretty much an overview of what Magic School has to offer. Thanks for watching. I hope this was helpful. I was an educator. I
024was a teacher and a principal. Um, and I for my entire career I founded a public high school here in >> thought my voice got a little bit lower there for a little bit. >> Apologize. >> I do have one question. >> Yeah. And we do we have a couple more slides that we might answer your question, but if you want to ask it now. >> Um, now this is completely customizable, correct? The teacher customizes everything. >> Yes. >> So, what would be considered a review process on these individual plans? Like, how are they reviewed? What are they reviewed by? So, once the teacher puts that, it goes directly to the student and there's no review process. I'm just curious as to how that's handled. Yeah. So that's a great question and um you know
025in the platform um administrative rights have the ability to see what teachers are working on on the back side. So, um, as we look through how we're going to be using Magic School AI, um, if it's approved tonight, there's going to be a lot of learning along the way, a lot of structure and guidance to how staff should be using it in order to enhance their instruction. And also looking at how can we use those tools that one teacher may find to collaborate and use that resource in multiple classrooms. >> So everything is archived then. So it's archived and reviewable. >> Yes. Yes. We can see on the administrative side, we can see the history of use. Yep. And that was a question um that had come up that uh our the the team at
026Magic School AI is very responsive. So when there is something that comes up that we're not sure about, we have questions, they have been very very responsive to help us understand what the the tools are and how to best use them. >> I'm just now looking for a free-for-all. >> Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. Yep. Oh, I thought of Alison was controlling. Okay, so um just moving forward and looking at an overview. So the 80 plus easytouse things that are already prepopulated. Um one of the things I want to point out from the video is they had mentioned the customized tools. So, some of our teachers who have had the the access to Magic School AI over the summer have played around with some of the customized tools and tailored it to our specific pacing guides, learning
027targets, and the things that we are designing within our curriculum. So, that kind of answers your question a little bit as well is that as curriculum teams get together, they can utilize this resource to customize what we're doing um in all classrooms and share that information. So once a customized tool is developed, it can then be shared to all, let's say, third grade, they can all share that resource together. And as you can look up, and I know it's a little small to see, but those are just some examples of the icons that was shared in the video as well, um, of some of those 80 tools. So thinking about, um, some of the the reasons why we would want to use Magic School AI is thinking about, um, time to save. So when you
028look at that rubric generator example, um you know, it gave a structure for the the rubric, but then the teacher can look at that, evaluate it. Is that rubric assessing or telling me what I want my students to know and be able to do? And if if the answer is yes, then I can say, all right, let's now put this in different reading levels or maybe I need to extend to something more challenging, but allows that work to happen. So the teacher has um can focus on what does that feedback look like for those students? um and really empowers our educators to create that safe, responsible AI experience. So, you know, one of the things that we've talked about with our team is we don't want our students just going out on any AI platform
029and just kind of playing around without any security around it. So, this allows that safe, secure environment for us to teach students the ethical and responsible use of AI along with our um educators. And it's very easy to use. It's very userfriendly. Um, I was fortunate to have one of the the sandbox accounts this summer and um, you could spend hours um, once you start going and then you get excited about something that you find in a resource and thinking about how you could use it with students um, it really is very empowering to see all the different ideas and resources that are provided. So again, thinking about how we can help our staff of looking at those rubric generators, that collaboration then between colleagues to share those ideas. And um the really powerful thing
030about having some of these common rubrics then is then it also is consistency as we talk between classrooms and grade levels and are we are we using similar assessments. So it gives us a tool to be able to have some of those um additional conversations. The differentiation is a huge piece. Um, you know, our English language learner numbers are increasing within the district and that key feature to be able to ask it to translate into another language is really powerful so that we can make sure all of our learners are accessing the content u if it's in, you know, potentially a native language that they need some support with. Um, there's also some newsletter generators. So, another way to to be communicating with our families um and and then also being able to, you know,
031generate that original content that is specific to our district and align to what we want to do along with our strategic plan and our mission and vision. So, during the pilot, some of the things that we really felt um were really important to point out and and where we feel strongly that this is a really good tool that we would like to pursue is really around safety. So AI is built with SA this is this particular AI is built with safety in mind and privacy. So it complies with furpa and copra and it does not collect our students data and use that for using along around the worldwide web. So in other AI programs when you input a question or an information it starts to use your thinking to help generate other answers for other
032people. So this stays housed within Magic School AI. So it protects our students thoughts and ideas, our teachers thoughts and ideas. Um so it really allows us to keep that in a secure environment. Um this summer we did have a limited pilot with a handful of teachers, instructional coaches and administrators um along you know and most of them are part of our AI policy committee and that is a diverse group of um interests related to AI. some some individuals who weren't as familiar to others who were really excited about it because we wanted to make sure we had that that varied opinion and the resources. Um we met with the team just to see get some feedback and it was overwhelmingly positive. They really were very excited about the resource and the things that they
033discovered over the summer when they had some time to play around with the tools. So the other thing that we're really excited about are these certifications. So there are um level certifications that teachers can take um that we would like to embed within our professional learning as we look at the course of the school year and really this is developing that understanding and it moves on through the different levels so our staff would feel comfortable with using the tools and looking at the varied resources that are available. So um it goes up to um four levels and then the image generator and so all of these levels all these courses take about 15 to 30 minutes depending on the individual's understanding and comfort level of using AI. So they would have within you know three
034and a half hours they would have the possibility of being able to get all of this learning obviously spread out over some time with time to practice the skills embedded in each certification course. The other piece are there's two final courses that are um that need to be completed before the teachers then turn over the the pieces to the students. So these two certifications are helping staff understand how to maximize the students experience on their end. Um and then there is a student level certification course as well. So the educational piece built into the program is really powerful. Um, I was talking with one of our instructional coaches today and she's gone through all of the courses and said, um, you know, it really was very well done and, um, user friendly and really empowered
035her ability to be able to maneuver around, uh, the platform. So, looking at the cost, um, obviously that's a big piece. Um, so thinking about what resources do we currently have and use that we have budgeted in our OTL budget. Um, reading a Toz is a program that we use at the elementary level to create what's called decodables. Um, where students are using that to decode words and decode books. And as they're developing those um those reading skills um in the customizable tools, one of our coaches was able to create a customized tool that um develops those decodables within Magic School AI, which would allow us not to have to purchase reading a TOZ, which is the program that we have used in the past, and we'd be able to do that with Magic School.
036Um the ad reading a Toz is a $22,000 cost per the year. Um, Magic School AI is a $34,000 cost. So, obviously there's a $12,000 difference. Um, but this also is a program for K to2. So, every single teacher K to 12 would have access to this platform, whereas reading a TOZ is a much smaller audience that has that access to that resource. So, when we're looking at being able to maximize our our resources, um, we're really spreading that out across all of our staff. Um the other piece is as we explore the tool over the course of the year um that is a one-year subscription. So that would give us a year to really discuss explore and determine is this something that we want to continue to use. Do we find that is it
037has been what we think it will be and how are we seeing an impact on our students and and their ability to access the the curriculum. Um throughout the year we'll also be looking at other tools that we have that maybe potentially could be used in the magic school platform rather than another resource. Um but at this time we just felt reading a toz was one that we knew we could make that change with um and we felt that magic school would offer more to the greater masses. Um within that um the remaining $12,000 um within the OTL budget, there are pieces that um we do feel like we can absorb that um related to resources for curriculum and instruction that that would align to our our goal of what we want to do with
038our students and staff. Are there any questions related to Magic School? Yes. >> So I think Mr. Brophie was maybe kind of going down this road as well, but I am a little worried about consistencies. You know, if you can customize it so easily, before you know it, a teacher at Earl is way off on a different lesson plan than what a teacher at New Handover is doing, right? And we're and we're speaking about always making sure that it's going to be a little bit more equity with learning and all the teachers are doing the same thing. So this I think this is amazing that even the little demonstration I saw I like it but I could see it going off the road very quickly with teachers doing different things. Some teachers not even using
039it, other teachers using it all the time. So >> great question. Um so part of our professional learning plan if this is approved is that this will be embedded with our learning experiences all year long. So part of our curriculum time will be the access to Magic School AI and collaboration and sharing about what resources are being used and how it's impacting our individual students. So one thing that's not going away are our pacing guides. So we have curriculum pacing guides, expectations of what students and should be achieving throughout the school year, what they should know and be able to do over the course of the year. That won't change. Um, but maybe what might happen is a teacher may discover I have a student that needs to be pushed in this certain area. Let
040me see if I can find a tool within magic school to do that. And then our hope and our our goal would be that then during a collaborative time during professional learning, they could say, "Oh, I have a similar student. I was able to use this tool." And then be able to share those pieces. So, we don't want anyone really working in an island. We know that, you know, you're not together all day every day, but the the goal is that these tools as we learn about them and we use them would be then shared out with colleagues that they're not just kept to to themselves. >> And then something else real quick then too with um >> would we be getting updates on any other resources that could be replaced with this or what
041we're looking at or >> Yep. Okay. >> Yes. Yep. basically how how many how many classes does this really apply to you know is this something >> so I think it could be used in any class so I'm going to give an example um so and this was not magic school but it's an AI tool um and this is an example from Gilbert'sville um you know one my PE teacher did a field day theme related to superheroes and she used AI to generate um characters, themes, and traits and games that were related to the theme of the field day event. So, it saved her hours of time of creating all those individuals on her own, but then she could focus on what the games looked like, the equipment that she would need, how would she
042be teaching those skills to the students, but the creative piece of it, she got support from the AI generator of that tool that she used. So, Magic School really could be used in all content areas. Um, an example from one of our social studies teachers um that did the pilot and I I don't remember the exact um time frame that he used, but he used the Magic School AI to take a piece of text written in um let's say the 1800s and asked Magic School AI to write it in current lingo for the students to compare and contrast and then did vice versa. took a current text and asked it to write in 1800's lingo and had the students compare and contrast the understanding. So I think there's applications in every content area. I I
043really think K to2 all teachers would use aspects of it for sure. >> Yeah. So, and we talked about this earlier, but can you explain what um we use Google Classroom in some areas and now this is something that will replace that? You're going to do away with that, correct? Is that my understanding? >> No. So, Google Classroom is a platform for um students like teachers to house like posting assignments. So what might happen in this in magic school a AI they may say this student needs this text read at a different reading level. I'm going to generate that and then I'm going to send that to that child in their Google classroom so they have access to the content at their own reading level. So it's not going to replace Google Classroom but it's
044going to enhance it and be able to provide more supports into that environment. So they can push out content or an assignment that's generated in magic school into directly into the Google classroom from that platform. So they really work well together. Okay. So the magic school though has the parameters that the teacher sets. But the Google classroom really doesn't have that as far as Okay. So the the there's an assignment and the student goes to chat or Google to AI to get some information and then they put it back in to their classroom to give to the teacher. How how will we then detect if that student has used AI to write that whole assignment? Are we still going to be able to do that through Magic School or is that a separate issue? >>
045Yeah, that's a separate um concern. So, magic school AI, so I want to be clear, is not a an AI detector. Um, so that one example that they did share was it gives alerts to the teacher if there's something a little fishy or suspicious about the student's work. It'll give like an alert and that is good instruction, right? So, that that says, "Hey, I need to touch base with that student and make sure they're understanding what the task is or what the assignment is, but it's not going to it's not going to do like an AI detection." um you know that that is a current evolving science that um that at this time you know and we and we had asked Magic School AI about that and they at this time they do not feel
046confident with the the detectors to say yes or no. Um but our goal with Magic School AI is really to teach the appropriate use of AI, how to use it to enhance what we're doing and not to just not think. So, it's just a it's a an an idea generator, a a collaboration tool, but it doesn't take away from that that opportunity for a teacher and a student to sit down and discuss those ideas and have that conversation to make sure that students know what we want them to know and that they're able to do. >> Okay. Did that answer your question? >> Well, I'm just a little concerned because who's checking the facts? We know that AI doesn't always deliver the facts correctly. Sometimes it's great, other times it's not. So, who's responsible for
047checking them? Is that a student issue? Is that a teacher issue? Is it both? Um, how I know the teacher herself is going or himself are going to have to check the information that they get. So, is that part of the training of all of this with our students? I think that's the big thing. Are we going to be training them that look, >> you're going to get this information from AI, but you there are some you're going to have to get a few sources as well, not just the one. Yeah, and I think that's an important lesson for all all pieces, right? So when we see anything online, we see something on the TV, whatever it may be, wherever that resource is, we want to triangulate that information. Are there other sources that are
048affirming that or or not? Then you have to question, is it accurate or not? You know, and that's the piece where um it that learning can occur. So if a teacher sees something that doesn't appear to be accurate, they can have that conversation. they can confer with that student and talk about where did you find this information? What other sources did you have and where did that come from to to determine maybe we need to redo something here because something doesn't seem right. Um but they certainly might check see something that might turn up as a red flag and be able to have that conversation. But yes, in any research classes our teachers are asking students to make sure they have more than one source to support the findings that they're they're doing. >> And
049I think Mrs. got to your point. This doesn't not remove the writing process. Right. Right. The traditional writing process that our teachers take our students through that development of a thesis statement, whether you're developing a five paragraph essay and what the steps are and the revolving feedback that happens constantly in that whole writing process. So, you know, I AI can be it's a retrieval tool for the most part into which they're it's gaining information worldwide from everything that's out there to be able to help with efficiencies, to help with some creative starters and things of that nature. The problem that we've we've we've heard and and the Mrs. Petri and Mr. out with the detectors and speaking to some school districts with with regard to that and some of the manufacturers is that the accuracy
050of that is is is somewhat is in question a lot of times. Um I don't think we're we're in a space any longer that AI is excluded from anything we do. Right? There's an essence of it. It's in our adult lives, let alone our our our students lives. And we're now trying to train students and educate them how to use it effectively, use it with value and how it can work to your advantage in some areas of efficiency and idea creation. But the work and the process of teaching the skills necessary for writing, for reading, things of that nature are still true to what we we still do. Many of those processes when I was going to school way back in the day are probably still relevant to those some of those processes that we
051we we take today. We just now have advanced tools of how to accur accurately work with it. >> If I may, I'm not an expert on this, but um I read enough about this issue. Actually in the absence of magic school currently any student can utilize AI at home through an app to you know plagiarize a paper. Actually what magic school does is that the teacher can control the data sources that the student is using. So instead of all of the world's data in AI, Magic School restricts the data. I was talking to Dr. Stout about this or Mr. Stout about this before um uh the meeting. Um I call it like it's like an electronic geoence of uh data that is a subset of all the data. So there's a much more controlled data
052source which makes it easier for the teacher in the absence even of a detection system to figure out if there was AI used because if there was data sources and other information that was not included in the offered data set that will make it easier to manage. So I think something like this and I think that if am I uh uh speaking correctly it it actually enables the teacher to control >> what information far better than would be the case if we didn't have it. >> Okay. Uh kind of piggybacking off of Mr. interrupter Grove and what I said to you guys earlier, I still have a concern cuz we're supposed to be teaching our children the same thing throughout our school district. And you had specifically said at that meeting today that some of
053the teachers may not choose to start doing this yet. And that is a big concern of mine because we're not going to be teaching our children all the same thing. And that's that's important to me. the content that's expected in each grade level would be the same. How it's delivered may look a little bit different and that's going to be based upon oftentimes the expertise of the teacher and the techniques that a teacher might use. So if you walked into 500 teachers across our district, they all have their own flare and how they teach students in their own way. So um this is a tool that just helps to support that. We don't want to put a mandate out there to start that you have to use use this, but we want to set the
054parameters around what it looks like to use this and how to maximize the use of it as a as an instructional tool to support them. >> But you also said at the meeting that they could go the whole year without any of this. And >> they will have they will have professional learning for the course of the year and they will be able to pick and use opportunities as they feel comfortable to do that. We will we will reinforce as we move forward. But as we discussed today, this is going to be an evolution. AI is in front of us and we can't deny it's there. This is a way to what Mr. Sultanic said creates parameters around us helping to control the use of it in a way that um is equitable across the
055district that provides our teachers the same opportunities. How they choose to you use it is going to be an evolution based upon professional learning they'll be given this year. But I want to make sure all of our students are getting to use this. Not just just say one one one grade out of one school is not getting it. That's that's not fair and I want to make sure we're fair to all of them. So that's one thing I'm I'm still concerned about that. Um, another question is at a parent teacher conference when a parent comes in for their child, will they be able to look at any of this and see how their child has been using it? or seeing what their child is doing with it. >> Yeah, I I would think that would
056be a typical part of any kind of um um information that would be shared at a parent teacher conference, whether it's student work, anecdotal evidence of what had taken place as far as during the course of the school year. So, um I I wouldn't see this as any different than any other tool that a teacher might be using. >> Okay. Um, and are we looking at uh a program for AI detection other than with magic school so that the teachers have something um to help them because this is going to be a big thing for them if we are. What programs are we looking at and what costs are we looking at for them? >> Yeah, we don't have any. There's a couple tools that are out there. or turn it in is one that
057I think of that um we've utilized over the years here in the district. Uh we are not looking to put something globally in as our district, but it is something that the AI committee will be taking into consideration as we move forward. I would think that Magic School would also be kind of on the the cutting edge of potentially providing a tool should something become more reliable and supportive of what the need would be, but at this particular time, we are not thinking of putting one in place that's going to have a cost with it. um but be monitoring the situation very carefully and talking to colleagues across the county and the state to see uh what's working in various school districts if if anything. >> Okay. Thank you. >> How many people used that
058this summer? How many teachers? >> I think we had about 10 teachers. I think >> four or five administrators >> and four or five administrators. Yeah. >> Of of varying levels. >> Yeah. So we had representatives from um elementary through the high school using it >> and subjects >> and and uh coaches. >> Okay. Is there any grants out there >> there? I mean there's there's grants out there for numerous things but at this particular time we have not looked to uh specifically target a grant for this process. Um we we we had the opportunity to have a a little bit of a discount if we committed to a three-year contract. We were very very reluctant to do that just to kind of see what this first year is going to be like, but as
059we move forward, we can always explore some of the opportunities to uh see if there's funding out there to support. >> Thank you. >> Okay. I'm intrigued. Uh this is a this is a really new program for us, which is pretty obvious what you're saying. It's it's a really new program a lot of places. >> What's your plan to monitor and measure success for this program? like how do you how are you going to how are you going to monitor how it's going and how are you going to measure and come back to us and say this program is great the kids are doing good we we recommend to keep going or this isn't doing exactly what we wanted we may need to modify or we may need to cut it so what's what's your
060plan on doing that >> that's a great question so I think um the the big piece about um looking at the resources and tools will fall along with how are we enhancing our current pacing guides, our current curriculums that we're doing. So, what pieces um looking at the the rubric generators or the assessment gener generators that can be consistent that we can create across all buildings that we can see that progress and have those comparisons of growth um related to our instruction. So, um, as we are diving into it, um, we don't like really have a baseline yet to know of what the capabilities are of the program, but those are the things that we're going to looking at are how is it enhancing what our our our students are doing instructionally and how are
061we able to assess those things that are they making the strides. So, you know, I think about also as we roll out the the MTSS supports around the district, we're going to be looking for ways to meet students in various ways. And I see Magic School AI really allowing us to differentiate how we will support students based on individual specific needs. So um to answer your question is I I don't think I can have a solid like percentage from now to then. Um but I think as we utilize the program throughout the year and see how it's enhancing our our curriculum resources, our common assessments, um we'll be able to better say as we move forward, these are the things that we see the capa the cap capacity of this program to do for us.
062>> And I would say Mr. Brophy too, the uh you know from a qualitative perspective as we work with our teachers during the course of this year for professional learning, the feedback that they provide from their instructional expertise will give us feedback. This is awesome. this this isn't as good as we thought it would be. And secondly, you know, the goal all the time is to increase student achievement, which is very quantifiable. So just thinking about that piece of it is going to be super important as well to um you know, kind of put those parameters around success. >> Yeah. Uh because what I'm thinking is the easy answer is we looked at grades and did the grades go up, right? >> I don't think that's the right answer. I think there's many more facets
063that have to be looked at on this beyond just grades. >> There are. And from an instructional practice perspective, if I visit a classroom and I see students more heavily engaged in a lesson and have that opportunity to be um the differentiation I keep dropping this paper clip um the differentiation to meet the individual needs of the students in the classroom. I will be able to see that from an administrator visiting the classroom. So some of those pieces are those those very strong impact skills that happen that are what good instruction is about. uh which in turn will have stronger student engagement which again students should do uh be more efficient in what they do in the classrooms. >> Yeah. I'm looking for a global explanation of how how it's moving not just one pinpointed
064thing. >> Y thank you. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> I think what we need to look at um and we discussed this in a couple of the meetings. This is like when we first got computers, first got cell phones. Everything changed right away. as soon as you bought a a computer, it was outdated. This is so new and we did research and a lot of people went out and checked these other programs and this is the one that kept coming back positive and ultimately, I mean, we're not looking like we're going to replace everybody's um computer. We're adding a program. um at if you look at 6,000 students, $30,000 doesn't sound a lot, but um you know, in 6 months, we'll probably if we vote on it tonight, it's already outdated. But hopefully the teachers
065stay involved and we keep going with it. But it's you can look at as a book, an additional book that we added to a class. But I think the heart of the administration and leadership pushes the teachers to use it. I think ultimately, you know, like Mr. Broofphy had said and Mrs. Nyman about how do we make >> and I think once they see how much it'll help them um I think you're going to be seeing used a lot. But you know doing this now what we had five meetings so far. We started with students, parents, teachers, and we had advanced students in there. And I know the one was afraid to use AI because he didn't think he he didn't want he was afraid he was cheating instead of using it as a resource
066to help him learn more about it. So, this will help teach the students to where it can be necessary and help them. And and don't forget a mere handful of months ago, we didn't have a policy around it and how quickly we generated a policy that hopefully helps to support the process moving forward, which I think is a very important tool that the the school board, you know, helped to facilitate through that AI committee. >> Mr. Stout, Mr. Petri, to to Miss Nyman's point, the one thing I would ask the committee to consider is possibly running a pilot at the various levels this year to see if we might be able to get some free access and run some pilots to get some feedback on the detector. I think there's a lot of people on
067both sides of of the fence with regard to what what a detector can bring, can it can it not? And I think we need some data back from our own people to suggest some things because I think some of the the responses would probably be pretty varied based on possibly even the level. Maybe it's not an appropriate tool to be using down at the elementary. We don't need that detection. Possibly maybe it's more relevant at the at only a a high school level. Um and maybe it's only relevant in certain courses. um to see you know we can different as we differentiate a lot of other things we can seek to differentiate some of the the pieces to that. So I know that's been a discussion point among the committee. I would really encourage you
068know a a pilot run at some point doesn't have to run the whole year but it might run a course or it might run a semester or something like that and vary it that way to get us some feedback on maybe get us to the point of let's let's solve the the the question of detector. we're either going to jump on and we're going to jump on with this or or we're not going to or it may look a little bit different throughout the district. Thanks. >> Thank you everyone and I do appreciate uh the consideration. And I believe Mr. Stout, you're going to just remain there at the podium for your next brief. I know the the board has been um informed on some of this information, but if you just want to share
069out loud a little bit of some of the specifics related to thisou and again this will be something that we would ask for uh your consideration motion later in this meeting. So, um I'm going to start off by saying this is not nearly as highly complex as artificial intelligence in our 500 classrooms and uh impacting our 600 students across the district. But, um this is a document, a memorandum of understanding that uh was in place last year at Washington Elementary School. We had the opportunity to add a little bit of time onto a few of our special area teachers, uh specifically library, art, and physical education. Um and why, might you ask? uh they're not full-time teachers, so they're only 0.5 teachers, which means they only have a halftime schedule. So, we had the ability
070last year to add a little bit of time onto their schedule to be able to um give our prek students some special time uh specifically to library, art, and physical education. So, uh we are recommending to the board uh to move forward with the uh ability to add a little more time onto their schedule that has zero budgetary impact for the general budget. The funding for this extra support comes from our prek budget which is a a grant that comes from the state. So um it does not have any impact with that. So um we it worked very well last year and was a big benefit and we want to continue the same practice for this year. So we'll be looking for the approval of thisou um in this meeting. Any questions? Thank you. takes
071us to item C, the 2526 O Valley School District and Buertown School District agricultural program student agreements. We have two students with agreements. There's an agricultural program that runs out of the Oolie Valley School District and we've had this cooperative program with them in the past. Um so we are seeking your approval this evening for uh these two student agreements and allowing um that program to be shared with them. And our last item up uh for of information is our August donation list. We do have uh two uh separate donations. One through Shutterfly and monies that were um issued on behalf of Life Touches Spring Program for Boyertown Elementary School. And this monies um is dedicated toward their um vending machine and new books to be placed inside of their book vending machine. And then
072we also have the PTO of Washington Elementary who really run a grant program inside their own school school itself and teachers are able to apply for necessary items for their uh classroom. A lot of specific things that we use in some of our verely specialized rooms. Um you can see a list of the various things that are utilized and which teachers can apply toward. Um and there is $7,000 being donated um through this month with regard to various teachers um K through 5. So the donation list would u be asking for your approval at the uh the next legislative meeting. So it does take us down to Mr. Five. >> Mr. Robco, do you have a report? >> All right. Um, for the first public comment, nobody signed up, so we're looking for a motion
073to approve the minutes of the July 22nd, 2025 legislative meeting. >> My motion, >> Mr. Brad Uptogrove. >> Yes. >> Mr. Roger Upgrowth. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Zada, >> yes. >> Mr. Brophie, >> yes. >> Miss Diroff, >> no. >> Miss Nyman, >> no. >> Mrs. Scott, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Okay, takes us down to the item eight, superintendent's consent agenda. And again, this is the 2025 Holy Valley School District and Bertown Area School District agricultural student agreements. And the administration is recommending approval of those two student agreements. >> Mr. Brad Upgrove. >> Yes. >> Mr. Roger Upgrowth. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zawatada. >> Yes. >> Mr. Broofphy. >> Yes. >> Miss Derroof. >> Yes. >> Miss Diamond. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Scott. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. Item nine, the superintendent's
074itemized agenda. We do have a few um items for your consideration. The first is ED EDM Financial LLC agreement. And again, this is uh the board has been uh informed of and shared information regarding uh this contract for financial services. uh upon the departure of uh Miss Denola and a transition of the interim service for our needs here within the school district. Um aligned with our business office um we are seeking approval of the EDM financial agreement which um we have received some feedback from Mr. Sultanic's office and we are still finalizing a couple of items but in general this is a an agreement that um we are asking for your approval of this evening >> moves >> a second. >> Are we going to see the agreement when it's finalized because if we're approving
075it I I'd like to see it. >> Yeah, absolutely. It is some very very it's pending pending solicitor's final review. That's why we have that inside the motion. >> Pending board comments after that. >> Absolutely. >> Mr. Brad Upgrove. >> Yes. >> Mr. Roger Upgrove. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zawada. >> Yes. >> Mr. Brophie. >> Yes. >> Miss Droof. >> No. >> Miss Nyman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Scott. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. Item B takes us to Magic School AI and uh your consideration of the Magic School AI program as was presented earlier this evening from Mr. Stout and Mrs. Petri. >> I'll second >> Mr. Brad Upgrowth. >> Yes. >> Mr. Roger Uprove. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zawada. >> Yes. >> Mr. Broofphy. Yes, >> Miss Diroff. >> Yes, >> Miss Nyman. >>
076Yes, >> Mrs. Scott. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. takes item C and the administration is requesting approval of the continuation of the health and welfare plan applicable applicable to supervisory support employees of BASD which expired on June 30th on a status quo basis to a new successor health and welfare plan um for the supervisory support employees is developed and approved by the board. >> Zada moves. >> I'll second. >> Now, we're still going to be waiting for or we're going to put the committee together. Um I've already gotten two responses from board members to get this done as ASAP, right? >> Yes. Uh just as a reminder to the board, your approval of um this motion this evening allows for uh the required nature of these employees, their employment and its compensation while the board
077at the same time can then continue u any changes um necessary in a new uh supervisory support health and welfare plan. Mr. Brad Uptogrove. >> Yes. >> Mr. Roger Upgro. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zawatada. >> Yes. >> Mr. Broofphy. >> Yes. >> Miss Diroff. >> Yes. >> Miss Nyman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Scott. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Takes us to item D. Um and again we are as Mr. Stout had shared requesting the approval of theou for the Washington elementary school.5 teachers as presented nine seconds I mean zero >> what would happen if we would not get funding for this >> I mean with everything we don't know what's >> right so it's a good question the the right now the funding um is um to our best of knowledge is to be
078coming. So without that funding we would be having to fund that through our general fund budget as well um until such time that we receive the federal funds >> and we still take this approach. >> Yes, I would have said yes. Yes. >> Thank you >> Mr. Mr. Brad Upgrove. >> Yes. >> Mr. Roger Upgrove. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zawatada. >> Yes. >> Mr. Brophie. >> Yes. >> Miss Derroof. >> Yes. >> Miss Nyman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Scott. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> And under item E, personnel. The administration is recommending approval of the personnel agenda as listed. >> So, move. I'll second. Any question on this? Okay, we're Okay. Inside the inside of this is a pretty pretty important move. I mean, we're it's a it's it's it's a pretty important position.
079We're moving Mr. Bergie from assistant principal to principal at Gilbertville Elementary. I don't know if we want to have that inside this or this should be a separate issue that we because it's a very important position. I think that's something we have to bring out highlight a little bit more than than putting in the middle of 50 approvals just that's just my thought and it's something we consider if if Mr. Han can weigh in on that. Um it has been traditional that these uh all positions placed inside this personnel agenda. After um your consideration, if upon approval, we are going to make some commentary tonight about a couple of things. Um but that would be something that if the board so chooses wants to change >> the formatting. >> Yeah. Because in effect, I've heard
080nothing about this at all. So I' I have a couple, you know, questions that I'd like to ask. like uh one would be, you know, how many people were interviewed for the position? And this is nothing about Mr. Berg. This is some questions for me that I'd like to >> Well, we've been updating the board in the weeklys um with regard to candidates. Mr. Hans's been doing that inside his section and giving the board the update on candidates and processes that we've been going through with regard to this. >> Yeah. But what was the overall how many how many candidates did you actually have? So for this role we had over 30 candidates apply. We interviewed for first round interview seven individuals and four individuals were brought back for second round interviews in front of
081a panel of probably uh about 10 to 12 including classroom teachers um administration and board members. >> Okay. So going along with that what I'm trying to do is I want to show that we're doing our due diligence for these type positions to the public and so we need to let them know a little bit more about how we're doing this like so who who was on the committee was administration and were some board members on the committee who who were the board members on the committee >> uh Mrs. Kratz and Mr. >> You weren't on that one. You weren't on that one. Mr. Cra uh Mrs. Kratz was on that. >> You You couldn't be there. It was Mrs. Kratz was on that. Okay. That's part of the education services committee. >> Okay. So,
082I can't ask her any questions. So, I'm going to defer to you. >> Well, I can answer as much as I can. And again, we are dealing with personnel. >> No, this this is this is a pretty generalized question. Like you had 30 candidates, you brought them back. What What made Mr. Bergie stand out? Why did you decide that he was the person for that? But let's brag a little bit on why we decided this is what this >> Well, we were going to do that after with hopeful uh resolution of your approval this evening. But um >> I'm going to do it now is I'm going to I'm going to vote for him now. >> Certainly because of you know his resume itself um alone his work um as an elementary teacher um what
083we see as leadership skills, his his ability, what we believe as being able to deliver leadership when it comes to the teaching and learning environment and his management. um the efforts that we've seen thus far here in the district. He has been an employee over the past five years here in the district and has been highly successful in many different roles as it relates to that. So, he rose to the top of our list um going through an extensive um search for um as you saw um many many applicants uh a lot of different processes, many rounds um of what we went through and uh performance tasks alike. So, it was a what we believe a very very thorough and landed on uh what we believe is a candidate is going to be very highly
084successful at Gilbert'sville and ultimately highly successful for for the district in general. >> So, he stood out in those areas. That's what >> Absolutely. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Mr. Brophie, um, real quick, uh, is this something maybe what you said we should maybe disting set a, um, a level of setting a distinguished type position that we would announce separately of our personnel. >> I'm just think I'm just thinking that we're looking at executive executive type p positions like this is it's a very important not that not that our positions aren't important. >> I happen to agree with you, >> but yeah, this is a this is a a standout position. has a a large effect on a lot of students in the district. So, I think we owe to
085the to the people in the district on how did we come about to put this individual in in this spot. I know we h you have your reasons and they're good ones, but I think we need to share that out there and say this is how we're doing our due diligence. This is how we're moving forward and getting better in our in our district. Pretty much what I'm looking for. >> Good. Thank you. Mr. Brad Upgrove. >> Yes. >> Mr. Roger Uptogrove. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zawada. >> Yes. >> Mr. Broofphy. >> Yes. >> Miss Dro. >> I'm going to have to vote no. And it's not because of the gentleman that was selected. It's because I'm saying that he's the best candidate when I have not even had the opportunity to see a one
086application accept his. >> Miss Nyman. Oh, sorry. >> That's all right. And so I I just I'm going to stop doing this because he's get pushed down my throat and unless I can see the things now so I can say he's the best. I believe he probably is. He has the knowledge. But I haven't seen any of the applicants. So I'm I'm very sorry. It has nothing to do with you, sir. Mr. Burton. >> Thank you. >> Miss Diamond. >> I will do a yes, but I kind of agree. We need to see what we've been interviewing so we know what's going on. Not that you know you're not picking the right ones, but it would be nice to see what is out there. >> Mrs. Scott, >> yes. Motion carries. >> So, I would
087like to just make a couple comments. Uh, most especially, I would encourage our board members to um uh participate and and be part of committees in the future. As you know, committees um are are are part uh committee members we utilize as part of the interview process rather than the entire board as we do have other nearly a dozen other folks that are part of that. So I would encourage those members that would like to be part of committees that could be also be part of those interviews. Um secondarily, I'd like to certainly uh welcome Dr. Bergie to his new position. Dr. Bergie is here with us in attendance this evening. Congratulations. As Mr. Brophie said, you were you were selected among many many strong candidates and we do applaud your efforts and and recognize
088your abilities in moving into the position. You're filling some large shoes from the person sitting next to you. Uh although your name is not Stephanie, there has been a long lineage of Stephanie's um at Gilbertsville. Uh so congratulations to you and we look forward to working with you in the role there. Uh the other uh certainly uh wanted to make comment tonight would be on this um personnel agenda. You did approve the uh end date for uh Mrs. Dennacola, our CFO here in the district. And I do want to thank Mrs. Danakola for her financial leadership certainly in in my short time here, but across her five years of assisting the board and the district and putting them in a good financial position. Um, and I do want to wish her well in her in
089her next steps. Um, and we will we will keep tabs on that other district that uh and how well they're doing and and such uh in their financial uh realm along the way. But we do uh we do thank Mrs. Denol for her time here and the efforts that she's um put forth. So, thank you and and we do wish you best of luck. Okay. Um, for a second public comment period, Mr. Savage is going to discuss advocating for state funding at Binary School District. >> Thank you. So, as you all are probably very aware, the state budget is now six weeks overdue and no state funding can be distributed to public schools until this it is passed. So, this impacts us directly. Uh we also know that what they're fighting about some of the
090things that they can't agree on is adequately funding public education. So I wanted to refer you to your policy of principles for governance and leadership policy 00011 and the very first point on there is to advocate earnestly and that includes champion championing public education by engaging members of local, state and federal legislative bodies. So, you can raise your hand now if you've been contacting our state legislators to demand adequate funding and charter school funding reform because the only thing I've seen so far is Mr. Zawatada defending our legislators for not supporting it. Thank you very much. This time at board comments, Mr. Grove, >> Miss Nyman. >> Yes. Um, since we basically have new supervisors in the facilities department, I would like to recommend we do an audit or assessment of the condition of all
091of our buildings. By doing this, we will know what and how soon it concern need to be addressed in our 5 to 10year plan. I think that could be very important. Um, basically we have no knowledge up there anymore as to what's going on with our buildings and that that's a major concern to me because if we don't have buildings, we don't have place for our students. So, I think we should be that should be something that goes out for bid to check our buildings. >> So, uh, I did charge Mr. Bramble with um doing an internal audit like you're suggesting. I met with him in the first week he was on board. Uh first of all focusing al safety issues related to all of our buildings was especially prior to the start of the
092school year and come back with recommendations. Um, on top of that, I did ask him to uh take a deep dive and look at the settings themselves and our our buildings themselves and make any recommendations on things that he feels based on some rubrics um that he would use in the field to make those determinations as to what should come back. So, I'm expecting those. I asked the safety uh conditions could be back in three weeks from the time we last spoke. So, we're about a week out from those and we should be getting some of the other results probably soon after school starts so that we can measure. >> You should have a professional come in. >> Well, that would be something that the board would have to we'd have to go on an
093RFP for a full district feasibility study to to look at the and target what what it is you want to look at. >> I think we need to have all of our buildings looked at. Nobody here knows what's going on with them. Is there u school A that should be renovated in some way? >> Yeah. I mean, none of us have an idea. >> Well, we we do based on our capital plan in which we we evaluate some of the larger components when it comes to our mechanical systems and our roof systems, and we've been staying attuned to those. You've been approving some of those through the budgetary process. So, if you wanted to get deeper into the weeds with some of that, we could have that done. It is a fairly costly endeavor to
094to take on and the proposals will probably have a pretty significant price tag based on the size of district we have. But we could do that. I'd be happy to um work on putting together with Mr. Bramble an RFP to bring back to the board for your consideration if that's something that that the full board would like us to do. >> I don't think any of us are qualified to go and look at these buildings. >> No, no, no. I don't think any of us or anybody that we have here is qualified to look at the buildings and say, "Oh, this needs to be done here or that needs to be done there." So, I think we need a professional to come in here and look at that. >> Well, I think we do have
095professionals inside of our our um with with certifications and certainly Mr. Bramble is credentialed to do those types of things. He is um certified in those areas to be able to have those evaluations done. So, I would consider looking first at some of the evaluations that come back from him and then make a decision whether or not you want more extensiveness in terms of that and then we could look at putting together an RFP and and have a have proposals um you know brought back to the board to see exactly what it is the cost would be in doing some of those types of things. What positions are open in our facil facilities department and how many? >> Well, we have our director and our supervisor. I'd have to go back and look at um
096our Skyward offhand. I can't tell you from a facilities perspective. Um we have the only one that I know that's open um that's directly related to facilities is our electrician and uh Mr. Bramble held two interviews. I updated Dr. David Heiser this afternoon on that. Um Mr. Bramble held two interviews yesterday for electricians. So, I'm waiting to hear some feedback in regards to if those individuals are going to be brought back for a second round interview, but that's the only position that I can recall that is embedded within facilities that's vacant. >> What about custodial? >> I'd have to check the list. I don't know how many offhand we we have. I mean, we have at least a dozen subcustodians that are filling any positions that are currently vacant while they interview for custodian. I
097can provide once I go through Skyward and look at what's actually vacant at each building, I can provide you with a number um based on location. But we're our custodial staff, we're I don't want to say that we're almost full, but we're not in any position where we're lacking more than one at each building. We just had on this agenda, we hired a lead custodian and a head custodian um >> And we lost a custodian. Correct. So I can provide you with data and and numbers to let you know exactly. >> See that? >> Sure. >> Um, with all of that being said, how is our new facilities manager supervisor doing? >> Well, from a subjective evaluation, I would say fine. We've I've met with him on two different occasions, been responsive to the questions
098I've had and have asked him to do a multitude of things to which um he's addressed. So, um, you know, he will be in our first cabinet meeting together tomorrow morning and, um, so I think, you know, being here for two and a half weeks, I believe it has been so far, things are going, uh, fine. Okay. >> Uh, I was out and about over the weekend and, uh, I was approached by somebody and they said there's a rumor going around that someone was caught sleeping on the job. Is that just a rumor or is that factual? >> So, there was a an inquiry that I conducted that Dr. David Heiser was aware of um a few weeks ago and my notes again it's it's personnel in in in nature. Um the items were corrected
099and addressed at the time and we will continue to um monitor that situation. I just want to say thank you, Mrs. Danakola, for your leadership, for providing a steady hand in getting our finances in order, for making it possible for the taxpayer money that we appreciate uh going towards these major projects that we've had with our facilities. not having to borrow money, but handling the money in a way and not a reckless way, but in a careful way that we sit in a good position to continue uh upgrading our facilities and putting things back in order. So, thank you so much for that. >> Thank you, Mr. >> M. Dur. I want to thank you very much, Mr. Nicole, for all your help for the past five years. We're sure going to miss you. I
100can tell you that. And we're going to say, "Where's our money?" That's number one. Number two, uh Dr. Davidiser, I have been asking to go on committees and I have been refused. So, it's not that I don't want to be on committees. That's what angers me. I could contribute a lot. I've been here a long time. Thank you. >> Good luck, Patty down there. That's Is that a shorter drive or the same drive or >> same drive? Oh, you didn't get any You didn't get anything on that then. >> Easier, though. How's the traffic? How's the traffic? >> Good. >> Better better. No. No mountain roads, no back roads. You get highways. Okay. Good. Good luck to you down there. >> Thank you. >> Financial challenges. >> I'm up for that. >> Mr. Denol, good
101luck and you will be missed. >> Mr. Bergie, welcome aboard. Look forward to you continuing to do the great job that you do. Uh, Miss Denola, Patty, we've known each other. Um, you've taught me a lot. Um, you've showed me a lot of things. I think anybody on this board that you've asked that's had an a question asked of it, you've been able to fulfill it. And I hope the new school district that you're going to appreciates how good you really are. So, best of luck. >> Just a few announcements. That takes us uh to item 12. Um August 26, we will host a legis legislative meeting here. Uh we do have uh we will be starting committee meetings starting in September. Our September 9th finance committee meeting will commence at 6:00 p.m. here in
102the same room followed by our committee of the whole meeting um with the legislative meeting later um in the month of September. So we are looking forward. We've had um new teachers in the past 2 days here. We've had approximately 36 new teachers on site for their um induction and um things have gone well. Thank you to Mr. Stout, Mrs. Petri, and all of our curriculum supervisors and principles who've been contributing to um the onboarding and the induction of of all those new folks. Uh distribution of all the technology. Um it's been kind of all hands- on deck with such a large group and we'll continue that through Thursday. Our full staff will be reporting um next Tuesday, the 19th. So we'll have an opening uh ceremony on the uh on the 19th. I welcome
103any board member that would like to come. Um that first hour is kind of an opening ceremony where you'll hear from a number of speakers um including myself and some other administrators. We will have the the uh the bass show choir singing the national anthem and the alma mater um as well as um hearing from some of the BAEA representatives, some videos that we have embedded um and working through uh with the introduction of all of our new staff. So, it should be a really nice morning next Tuesday and then we really kick things off with more curriculum development through the the balance of the week with students starting the following uh following Monday. So, here it comes. Where did summer go? Right. So, well, I thank everybody for this evening. >> I want to
104say real quick, Mr. Stout, uh, what blew me away again, meeting the teachers today, was the amount of teachers that were Boytown grads that are coming back. So, we are doing something right. Uh motion to join journal. [Music] [Applause] [Music]