001We'd like to call this meeting to order and we'll begin with a pledge of allegiance. And uh Michael, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we first off would like to just excuse Margaret Gobby today. She has a family emergency that took her away. Um, we have some uh awards that we'd like to give out and uh Mr. Rolloff, I'm going to turn time to you, however you'd like to take care of these awards for the next several items. >> All right, everybody's favorite part of the board meeting. So, we will start with our elementary school student of the
002month. Come on down, Miss Butler. >> All right. Estephania is not here tonight, but just wanted to say a few words about her. Estania lights up a room. She's such a joy and such a a beautiful always has a smile on her face. She's a friend to all. She works hard. her teachers all just love having her at our school and we we just can't say enough good about Estafia introduction or just go um Brooklyn come on So, Brooklyn is very deserving of this honor um for so many reasons. She carries herself um with a maturity so far beyond her years. Um she deals with personal challenges and situations that are out of her control um in ways that is just astounding to all of the adults. Um we wish we had her maturity and
003poise sometimes. Um, and when she was mentioned as a potential Caniper student of the month, the teachers unanimously were like, "Yes, she's the one. She's she exemplifies what a Bluer Junior High student should be." Um, and I want to also add that she just recently joined the cheer team and is a leader on the cheer team on the junior high and a standout and we just think she's amazing. Can I have Evelyn Cortez come up? So, it's such an honor to get to recognize you as student of the month tonight. You're an awesome student who always does the right thing. You show great leadership and we're just proud to have you among our student body. I'd like to share a few things some of your teachers said about you. Mr. Fergen said, "Evelyn is amazing.
004She has perfect attendance, great job. She asks great questions, volunteers her time to help classmates, and is involved in extracurricular activities. She has a great smile, and is respectful to all. She is the perfect example of what we want BR students and future graduates to look like." Good job, Evelyn. Keep it up. Also, Mr. Meadows shared some thoughts. Um, he said, "Evelyn is one of my favorite students. She is kind to everyone and is respectful to other students and myself. If there is a spirit week, you can always count on her to go out all out each day above and beyond at everything she does. She is always on time and always completes her work in a timely manner. She is an example of who we want our Blige students to be. So, congratulations and
005keep up the great work. We're proud of you. Boy, you have to go over there and get your picture taken. >> Great job, student of the months. Now, we would like to welcome up coach Kloff to recognize our athlete of the month. >> Shaun Dean Ko, could you come up? Here's your plaque. One of the things that's really neat about these experiences is that when we start involving people in this process and talking to people about our students, it's amazing. I sent out this email to the to the faculty and to our coaches and we make sure when we get all the feedback, we go to the coaches and and make sure that this is appropriate information that we get. And I can tell you a lot of the emails that I got, if I
006was going to read them all, we'd be here all day because Sha Dean's just amazing. She's currently a sophomore at Blige High School. She's a three sport athlete. She's involved in sever several extracurriculars. If I could just read her level of involvement right now at the high school. Um, you know, she she does volleyball, she plays basketball, and she also participates in softball in the spring. So, she's a three sport athlete. Um, one of her teachers said she's a vocal leader, honor student, student council member, active tribal member, respected by peers, determined, energetic, and punctual. her basketball coach, uh, coach, um, Harris said, "Shanned or Shaine Ko is a varsity and JV girls basketball player who represents our program with a positive attitude and strong work ethic. She consistently shows perseverance, is coachable, and strives
007to improve both on and off the court." Sha Dean is a great example of the character and effort we value in our student athletes. And I have one more thing to present with her. We just started this new thing in January. Shine, here is a yellow jacket challenge coin, okay, that we give you as part of the athletic department. Now, this is an honorary thing that we give you and you can lose this. So, you have one week. There's a quote on here that you need to memorize and I'll personally come to you and ask for that quote. So, keep it keep it on your person all the time. This is a representation of who you are as a person, the high moral standards that you have, and the ability that you have to impact
008the students around you. We're so very grateful for you. We love you. We appreciate you. We hope that you continue to do the great things that you do at Blanchage High School. Shauna Dean Ko. All right, we actually have two um well, we're going to do the teacher of the month next. And this teacher I'm super excited to honor because this teacher is one of the hardest workers in our district. Coming up, Miss Hunt. >> We'll let you hold this. >> Okay. So, tonight we are pleased to recognize Mrs. Tasha Hunt as our teacher of the month. Mrs. Hunt is widely regarded as a team player with a positive attitude. She maintains excellent rapport with students, family, and colleagues, contributing greatly to the culture and success of our school community. Mrs. Hunt serves as a
009site coordinator for our 21st century grant where she has taken a leadership role in designing and implementing our after-school tutoring program and Saturday school supports. And that's been a lot of work and she is tackling that and doing a fantastic job with it. her her organization and oversight have ensured that students receive meaningful targeted intervention beyond the regular school day. In addition to her leadership responsibilities, Mrs. Hunt is also committed to her own professional growth. She is currently pursuing her master's degree, demonstrating her dedication to continuous improvement and lifelong learning. Also, this year marks her first year teaching an AP level course, and she is excelling in this new challenge. Her thoughtful planning, high expectations, and strong instructional practices have created an engaging and supportive environment for her students. We are proud to honor Mrs.
010Hunt for the outstanding service, professionalism, and commitment to student achievement. She is an exceptional model of the values we strive to uphold in this district. So, thank you. Yes. Thank you, Miss Hunt. Next, we would like to um bring up Dr. Johnson to recognize we have two staff employees of the month this month. So, go ahead, Dr. J. Welcome up Avery Davis. Miss Davis extraordinaire. So, Miss Davis is currently um a special ed pair professional for us at the junior high. And Miss Rollins, our junior high special ed teacher, says she's one and I and by the way, she doesn't just say this, I know too, but uh she wrote a really nice email though. She said that uh she's one of the most professional, competent, responsible, dedicated, student centered, and team oriented colleagues she
011has ever worked with. Um, and that says a lot. She's got several decades of experience all across the state. Um, so she knows what she's talking about, and I certainly agree. Um, we anticipate that, uh, Avery will be one of our newest special ed teachers soon when she receives her degree and her certification. So, we look forward to you advancing your career and doing even more great work in bigger ways. and um you really are an asset to the district and we appreciate you. >> You know, when you get um high praise from Miss Rollins, you're you're doing a good job. So, we're excited for Avery to um get her get her certification and hopefully become part of the certified staff. Now, we have Justin coming up to recognize one of the coolest cats in
012the district for sure. So, we actually had to tell him a white lie to get him here. I told him that he was coming here to help me present Bosley with an award for the green grass. So, Frank, come on up. So, he's a little mad at me right now. You got to stand right there. All right. So, today we have the privilege of recognizing someone who represents the very best that Blanch has to offer. We want to congratulate Frank Kerrian, better known as Frank 2.0. I know he's got another name, but we'll leave that. Frank is the kind of person that every school district wishes they had. He is our Route 9 bus driver. He is our Century 21 after school tutoring bus driver. He helps in maintenance. He helps in athletics. Pretty much
013anything you need him to do, he's going to jump in and help. Um, that's pretty much all I got. >> Yeah, it's all >> I I can tell you that I I absolutely love Frank. He's a awesome person to be around. He is so helpful. He's willing to jump in and help wherever we need him. He did chains all year this year for for football with the chain gang. He's driven us on trips. I've I've been on his bus. The kids absolutely love him. He's delivering mail. Whatever he can do. I I can tell you right now, he absolutely loves Blue Ridge Unified School District. He loves working in our facilities. He's so easy to work with. Um he's just a tremendous person. So, love you, Frank. Thank you. You know, and for as hard
014as teachers work with 25, 30 kids in front of him, I think it's harder to have 80 kids behind you. And Frank does it all with grace and a smile on his face. Yeah, Frank is well loved by his students and everybody. All right. Now, we have our volunteer of the month award. Who Who do we have presenting our volunt This Butler is presenting our volunteer of the award. I don't have a lot of words like Dustin. Maybe I'll I'll get that someday. But um Katherine was unable to make it tonight. She is at her son's ball game, but Katherine comes in every week to to Blige Elementary. She covers a class so that I can meet with the team every week. Um she does that consistently. She works with kids with flashcards. She works
015on math facts with them. She reads with kids. Um, she even last week we had a little ice cream reward and she stayed after her a lot of time and helped pass out ice cream and get chocolate and cherries everywhere and she she just steps in whenever we need her and she's consistent and she's happy and she she just does it with a smile. So we're grateful for Katherine Shamway there. Again, we have the finest people and the finest kids in the state working in our school district and appreciate you so much. You are the reason we are what we are and it's great. The next item on this can is a consent agenda. Next item on the agenda is the consent agenda. Board members, are are there any items or a specific item that
016you would like to take out and vote on independently kind of have a thin agenda today? Um like to hear from anybody in this or >> um I just had is the the first and the on 2.4 for the fundraisers. Is all of those things listed there for boys soccer, the first the first bullet point, the money dolly, Mexican food dinner, soccer clinic, that's all for boys soccer. Okay, that that was it's it's I'm hoping that we can do a better job to so that some of these people don't have to fund raise so much someday. spend all their time fundraising instead of coaching. Is that what you're trying to say? >> Maybe. All right. So, if there is isn't anything that you would like taken out of uh the consent agenda, we have a
017motion to u presented. >> Okay. We have a second. >> Second from Sylvian. All in favor say I. >> That appears to be unanimous. Okay. There are no business items today. Um, but we do have a superintendent here that's just dying to tell us about all the good things that are happening right now over and above the recognition that we got. >> Well, yes, a thank you. A lot of great things are happening in our district. Um, I I want to take a moment and thank everybody for all their hard work um for coming up to the work session today. There's been a lot of people put in a lot of manh hours assessing our campus and and helping us out with that. So, we want to thank them. In addition, I know last month
018we talked a little bit about RAIN uh getting the state student of the month and so I was able to attend that in person at the state board of ed. It was really cool. That was a really cool thing for Rain and her family to all be down there for that. So, that was that was a great and great representation of Blige. And then um you know, she was able to make some connections with some of the folks there who want to help her with scholarships and and help out with some other things. So, that was pretty exciting. After that, I got to go spend they had superintendence day at the capitol the next day. So, I got to go down and spend some quality time with our state legislate legislators and uh be introduced
019in the legislative session. And I got to know Representative Marshall and uh he seems really empathetic with our our cause here for public education. So, he's he's our local um uh local house of representative for area 7. So we were I was excited to make that connection. So um that was good. Um I also want to thank we had 20ome members as part of the superintendent advisory committee and some are in the audience tonight who want to know and help and give their input into components like the bond and and give us information on how they feel about our school district. So, we have students, teachers, parents, staff members, a couple um administrators, and and some community members, including people with the town. We're really excited about that group to support Blige and and help
020us move forward on a lot of great things. And so, we can keep that vision of our district of being the great district that Blige deserves to be and that the community deserves. And we know how the district goes, so goes the community in small towns. So, we want the best school district around because we feel like that's beneficial for our community. And I I just want to thank the people for all coming in and volunteering their time and and giving us input on that. Um, in addition, we have some great things happening at each site. Um, Elliot Pah, I hope I'm saying her name right, Coach Kluff Eliia, um, won sectionals for girls wrestling and she will be heading to state next weekend. So, we have a representative from Blige in the girls state
021wrestling tournament we're pretty excited about. So, congratulations to her. Um, we also had a group of our football players and all of the adults said how impressed they were um join part of the football coaching interviews and so they were very impressed with how um how mature and thoughtful our students were with that. Also, we had an elementary school dance that I heard was quite the hit. And we got Mr. Robinson here. I don't know if he wants to demonstrate any of the move. No, we can. Oh, yeah. His hips hurting, but I heard adults and students had fun alike. So, um, so we're excited that they're doing lots of fun things. In addition, they're all walking to school on Thursday for Ruby Bridges Day. They're offering that for all the students. And I think
022that's really cool symbolism that, you know, as a public school, we take everybody in our community and we teach them. You know, we don't discriminate. We don't every student that lives in our community, we love them and we teach them. And I and I love that that's a sign of that. That no matter who you are, where you're coming from, if you're in Blige, you're one of us and you deserve a topnotch education and our school is going to give that to you. And and I love the symbolism that. So, thank you elementary school for doing that. And the last thing I just want to um commend Dr. Johnson and his staff at the junior high school because they're identifying some gaps with our kids. Um and a lot of times the research shows if
023you have gaps in junior high, they go way back several years and they're they're taking data, they're looking at it with the with the teaching staff and they're providing interventions. And Dr. Johnson said, you know, he's he's shared some anecdotes that some of the kids that have been a little bit disenfranchised with learning are coming in and excited to learn about math and their intervention time because they're being taught at a level where they can be successful. So, we want to thank you for that and uh lots of good things happening in Blige. So, that's how I'll end. Anybody have any questions or comments? Thank you. Thank you for that update. It's always positive to my overall psyche to get good information. Hear a lot of bad information. We hear good information is great. Next
024item on the agenda is a call to the public. We would invite anybody that would like to come and address the board to do so at this time. We'd like you to uh tell us who you are and where you're from and what you'd like to address the board. We can't act on any of those things today. We can all just direct staff to do something in the future about that. Uh if you do have time, we ask you to keep to about three minutes. So we're not here all night listening and we have a lot of time. So anybody would like to address the board at this time, you're welcome to come do so. All right. Thank you. The next item would be uh just an announcement for when our next uh board meeting
025will be, and that will be March 17th, 5:00 at this location. We probably and we'll most likely have another open meeting about bond or override prior to that which we will get plenty of information out plenty of time in advance so people can attend that. Uh we might make that a little longer next time so we can get a little bit more accomplished. So if nothing else can we have a motion to adjurnn to >> have a motion from Michael to adjurnn. Any anybody second that motion? Have a motion. Second from Sylvian. All in favor of adjournment say I. That's unanimous. Thank you. This meeting's ajourned.