001I'd like to call to order the Burlington Community School District meeting for Monday, November 24th, 2025. You will please stand for the pledge of allegiance and director Hopper, this is your last meeting, so will you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> Adoption of agenda. >> So move second. >> Thank you. comments or discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Any annual community Thanksgiving dinner. >> Let's see. Is there a way for us to move in the agenda that have show up? >> So we will move Thanksgiving dinner. >> Perfect. Okay, public hearing. We have
002the Greyhound Performing Arts Center. We are going to hold a public hearing on the proposed plans, specifications, form of contract, and the estimated total [clears throat] cost of construction of the proposed improvements described as a Greyhound Performing Arts Center. Anybody wanting to speak for the public hearing for the Greyhound Performing Arts Center. Seeing none, we will close public hearing. Public comments. Is there anyone wishing to address the board of directors this evening? You can come forward. You'll state your name. >> Yeah. Please have a seat. Ryan Johnson employer and I'm a parent, a wife of a deceased wife and also to start off. Thank you for this opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here again as parent of two children who have attended course early learning early learning center as a district employee and mostly importantly
003advocate for our families and our in our community. In just 5 years, the cost of child care at course for our family per child has risen from $170 a week, a small employee discount to now $265 starting December 1st. That is a staggering jump. Just for context, my son's uh one to two year old program rate starting July 1st increased $50 and then this new rate which is just being starting first is another $25. Now will become roughly around $2,900 increase without any discounts or credits being given out. It has become untangled for many of our very people in this program that it was great to support. I'm not only here for my own family. I'm here because I'm watching parents, including Bington Community School District employees, make heartbreaking decisions. I'm seeing teachers and staff
004who love this district uprooted uproot their children and to find care what they can afford. What was originally intended to be a resource for educators is now slipping out of our reach for educators themselves. We understand that rising costs and operating childcare programs is expensive, but the solutions do exist. finding funding opportunities, grants, partnerships, and creative programs, uh, programming models, and other communities are navigating this successfully. Berlin can do it. Burlington can do it, too. We owe it to our teachers, our staff, and our families. Trust me, the district affordable care, child care is not just a luxury, it's a lifeline. It keeps people in their jobs. It keeps families stable. It also keeps our district strong. I urge the board to prioritize find a sustainable path forward, one that can truly support the people
005who support our students, our teachers, our employees, and our community every single day. Thank you. >> Is there anyone else wishing to address the board of directors? Seeing none, we'll go to the consent agenda. Do I have a motion? I move to approve the consent agenda including payment of bills previously paid in the amount of $432,0004 or $432,4540. unpaid bills in the amount of 291,5346 card purchases bank in the amount of $94,379.31 and the amount of $1,95. >> Thank you. Any comments or questions? >> All those in favor say I. I >> I >> Any oppose? Any abstain? Motion passes. Student representative reports. Good evening to the three of you. You're all here tonight. It's great to have you. Last week were invited to come by >> for this week. Of course, it's Thanksgiving break
006starting Wednesday. NHS has a food drive ending tomorrow that's being dropped off at St. Vinc. Um there's a community Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday at VHS from 11 to 2. uh band is performing at the holiday parade on Saturday. >> Next week, the band's performing for women on December 4th and then basketball >> for sports. Girls basketball starts tomorrow. Uh there's a bowling tomorrow for boys and girls. two swim meets next week. Girls wrestling at home on Saturday and girls varsity wrestling December 1st and boy or boys basketball. >> Great. Thank you. >> Any comments about the musical? I mean, I was there. It was amazing. >> So, I had a solo [laughter] play. >> Yeah. Crazy. I wish it was crazier, but >> the set was amazing. >> Yes. Yeah. You all three had very
007different roles in the musical, but without you, it wouldn't have been possible. Thank you. I hope you found it fun. >> Good. >> Okay. So, the item that we moved the annual community Thanksgiving dinner. I still do not see her present. Um, I'll talk about it. >> Okay. Sounds great. All right. So, items for discussion. We have award bids for the Greyhound Performing Arts Center. >> Cindy and Will. >> No, just Cindy. >> All right, just Cindy. >> Good evening. >> So, as you know, um we had our bid opening on Tuesday last week. We had six bid packages and overall they came in under budget uh when we considered. So um at this time I would like to recommend moving forward with all six I get a lot of questions in the community because
008I see this number total package everything architect fees we're around 9 9.2 million facility. >> That's 9.1 million closer to 9 million. So just a little bit over that. [snorts] >> So how much contingency we not use Cindy? Um the big contingency was approximately $350,000,000 pretty close to spot on%. >> Yes. >> Contingency we did not use came out of the budget. >> That's great. One thing there was one bid irregularity that we had corrected that needs to be waved by the board uh before that accepted and that was in the letter. Uh there was a better status form missing in bid pack 4 from Midwest automatic sprinkler. Uh based on previous guidance from the school's attorneys, uh we did request and receive that form subsequent to the bidding and that's a a waveable irregularity.
009If the board elects to wave it, that's what we're recommending. >> Okay. I move to approve the bid package as presented with the aging by Mr. C. >> Second that. >> Any other discussion or comments? I was writing to the school board convention and uh superintendent Scott called and he said, "I've got some good news." I said, "Yay, this is so exciting to have this." >> I actually said, "Are you driving where you're not?" >> He did. You want to correlate so excited you're going to go like this? Whatever. So, that was the first thing I said. >> It was It was so lots of hard work went in by the current board. So, congratulations and thank you all for your hard work in the community to get this on our agenda this evening. >>
010I'd like to share one quick thing on that. I actually had superintendent uh was speaking to they were trying to do something with their >> Yes. And I talked them through how it really passed because our board was so involved. It was their community meetings that I went to with them, right? It was really them talking about why we needed what the experience was and that was a lot of a lot of think went to nine or 10 different groups that time it was driven that's the advice. >> All those favor for award bid package for the Greyhound Performing Arts Center. Say I >> I. >> Any oppose? Any abstain? Motion passes. That is extremely exciting. >> Picture right over your shoulder. We'll have that >> 16 to 17 months. >> Thank you so much.
011>> Is that exciting student representative? >> Yes. Right. Annual settlement of the books. >> Reynolds. Recommendation is to approve the annual set of books. >> Thank you. Any comments or questions? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose. Any abstain? Motion passes. >> Board policy 104, anti-bullying harassment policy. This is our second reading of this policy before it went to the policy committee and this is what they came up with using the primer from ISD and other language that would best fit our district. or questions. All those in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Any abstain? Motion passes. Review of election results. that was received from action received 1,300 votes received votes received votes received 1,177 votes Roberts received 1588 votes received 1,182. >> I'll make that motion. >> Thank you,
012Director B. Do I have a second? Second. Comments or questions? All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? Any abstain? Motion passes. Board communications. Director Hbert. Once again, thank you to our board members who are leading us for their commitment and hard work and welcome to our new crew and they're going to bring some renewed energy and some new problems. So excited. Thank you director. Thank you board members of your time and your energy the district families and students. Welcome your board members. be interesting. Glad you're here. Glad you want to participate in the process. >> Director Anderson, Ryan, um I've enjoyed working with you, going with you. Um thank you for supporting me as well. And say that also thank you to the members coming on board. I look forward to
013working with you guys and hearing what your kind of what you want to do as a board member as well. Also want to thank Sophie and Zach. You guys did an awesome job this last week. I went two nights. It was wonderful [cough] guys and the hard work and time that you definitely appreciate that. Um, also we um I went to the board conference this year in De Mo with fellow people as well with two new board members and um there is definitely some information there that I got that will be helpful um that I look forward to trying here and just see we can continue to improve. >> Thank you. We will go to Director Ross. >> Yeah, thank you. Um, I had an opportunity to go to the uh girls wrestling invitational on
014Saturday. There are 12 teams there. Um, actually my wife came with me. She never been to a girls wrestling meet. And uh, she said it's right up there with basketball and volleyball and she says she would have done that if she had that opportunity when she was in school. So uh, we were following three of the girls and two of them got second. There were 12 teams there. One of them got third that we were following. there was just a lot of activity. Uh really a great showing for Burlington and um just glad that we can offer that to our female athletes uh uh here at Burlington. So glad to be a part of that and then uh glad to see the the all the Leopold project moving forward. It's been a long time coming.
015A lot of lot of wishes and aspirations on that from our orchestra folks and performing arts and so so forth. So just glad to to be a part of that and uh just want to thank all of you. Um the new board that's coming in you got uh great opportunities and challenges in front of you and they've got a great team to work with there. The admin staff uh with Rob and Greg and Corey and Lacy and everybody and and uh of course all the teaching staff as well. So we have we have good schools. I think we're in a good position, but there's always things we can work on. certainly to get some of our academic achievement and graduation rates and those kinds of things up. But it's been been a pleasure to work
016with you and uh I I look forward to cheering you on from the sidelines. So, thank you. >> Thank you, >> Director Berg Hoffer. Well, it might be a little longer than theirs. Um four years seemed like it was going to be forever, but I cannot believe my is ending. Um when I decided to run, I spoke up on the importance of transparency, communication, and community community involvement. Um there were so many voices that I wanted to be sure felt heard. I wanted our students, staff, and families to feel comfortable speaking up and know that we were going to listen to them. When I first stepped into this role, I knew it would be a commitment of time and energy. But I didn't fully realize how deeply I was going to come to care about
017every single decision that we made, every student we advocated for, and every challenge we worked through together. Being a part of this board has been one of the most meaningful responsibilities I've ever taken on. My term started with a huge decision of who we were going to hire a superintendent to lead us, and I have no doubt that we made the best decision. So, I want to thank Mr. Scott for the leadership and the positive direction that you've taken our district. Um, you welcome communication, the positive and even what was difficult to hear. Um, you included stakeholders in each big decision and have brought leadership teams into the schools for students and put together a community relation committee for staff, parents, and community members to have a voice. So, thank you for your incredible ability
018to think outside of the box and problem solve so often in unique and creative ways. I want to acknowledge our administrators, teachers, and staff. You're the heartbeat of this district. Your passion, resilience, and commitment to students inspire me. I've seen firsthand how hard you work, often quietly, and behind the scenes to make sure every child has a chance to learn, to grow, and to feel supported. I hope my voice on this board has sent that message of how much I appreciate you day in and day out. To our students, you're the reason that this work matters. Watching you learn, lead, and grow gives me so much hope for our future. Never underestimate your ability to shape your own path. I'm honored to have worked on your behalf and to have also been a voice to
019the 100 plus students represented in our homeschool assistance program. I want to thank my fellow board members, especially President McB for taking so much time over the years to answer my countless questions uh for the meaningful conversations that we've had uh to do better and how we've all been able to work closely to reach our goals to better the district. We haven't always agreed, but isn't that the beauty of this work? Healthy debate, different perspectives, and shared goals have pushed us to make better, stronger decisions for our district. I appreciate the respect, collaboration, and dedication that each of you have brought to the table. And finally, I want to thank my own family for the nudge, encouragement, and support when I decided to run for this position. Thank you for those that help get my
020kids to their activities, cared for them so well so I could be at this table as much as possible. And thank you to my boys for your patience and understanding as you had weekly babysitters and I couldn't be at all your events. So, thank you for being my biggest support system. Although my time on the board is ending, my support for this district is not. I leave with gr gratitude, pride, confidence for the direction we're heading and excitement for the future of how I can be involved in our schools. So, thank you for the opportunity to serve um to be a voice on your behalf and for the impact that this experience will forever. Thank you, >> Vice President Kendall. >> Yeah. Good evening. Um, I just want to say a thank you to all
021the people uh who crossed paths with uh serving as a board member uh administrators, employees, community leaders that that I had the pleasure of of interacting with uh as a representative of the district. I am a stronger and better person for all of the experiences that I had and all the individuals that I met. And I believe that I took away a little bit of learn a little bit of something from everybody. Uh it's been a genuine pleasure. I'm thrilled to exit with the performing arts center contract done and we'll sit and watch with Mr. Ross from the sidelines as we are excited to see where this goes. For the incoming board members, I hope that you are guided by your hearts to be the best possible thing for students and staff at all times.
022Thank you all very much. >> Thank you. Well, I think everyone said everything I was going to say, but it's very exciting that we have the grand performing art. So, we finally put the stamps on that and we will celebrate here come March when we do our next photo of digging up and getting in and getting that done. Thank you to the fellow board members that have served. It has been amazing and we have done amazing work. So, thank you and congratulations to our new board members who will take a seat here shortly after we accept the adjournment. We'll take about a 10-minute recess and we'll have the new board seated. With that, I just need a motion to move. So move. >> Okay. Great coin there. >> Okay. >> All right. All those in
023favor say I. >> Any opposed? Any instain? Motion passes. We are done. Thank you. >> Thank you. Yeah.