001this board meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and I've asked Chuck Waldo lead us in that pledge flag United States stand thank everybody for coming out this evening it's great to see the seats full we appreciate you taking your time BR here we're going to start with a presentation by from the Fine Arts uh department and they are not here but they recorded a video because they had commitment so we'll watch that video now hi everyone we're so sorry we couldn't be there to sing to you personally this holiday season it's quite the tradition for us to sing for you and we're so happy to do so so here's a few holiday numbers to help get you in the spirit even though we couldn't with you thank you so much for all your support through
002the school year and everything you do for us many blessings upon you and your family this holiday [Music] season sheers in keeping their on a cold that was for is [Music] King they look [Music] and star shining in the be on and [Music] and PR so it for is the [Music] king let Earth receive k [Music] nature see and nature see [Music] and Jo to toong sounding Joy repeat the sounding Joy her TR and and the glor is of Anders of his and of his and of [Music] love we wish you Merry Christmas we wish you Merry Christmas we wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year good tidings we bring to you Christmas you a Merry Christmas we wish you a Merry Christmas we wish you a Merry Christmas and a year Merry
003[Applause] Christmas you know and they all look happy doing that that's that's I'm so proud of them then anyway they they are extremely good and we're honored to have them perform tours like that this evening we um I don't know where to go next uh Dr Wright do you want to give this next presentation or would you like coaches or principes whatever we could have the we could have the principls and athletic director come on up presentations that great great high school and a junior high start with high school everybody you want me to face you guys face these guys over here okay we'll look at your backs side you look at my we keep that all right well that's I don't know if that's a good thing or not but all right uh so
004uh they asked me to compile a list um of region players of the year and also honor some of our coaches too so it's pretty cool it's actually like three pages we haven't done that in a long time so that's pretty cool it's a testament to how hard we work I know um our boy soccer works for tails off our girls I don't know if they ever stop working at all they're always in the gym even now just killing it and our football team has done a really good job cross country um as well as volleyball so let me read this list without further Ado cuz it might take a minute so if you are here and you are all region at all could you guys come up here real quick come on up here
005as I read your name I don't just come on up right now if you're all region come on get come here hamlins get up here whoever else is here okay so um anyways I'm going to just start with boy soccer then we'll go into girl soccer real quick cuz looks like our girls are here it's awesome so boy soccer first team All Region Luis Travis he's the defender Joe zelic Joe around here he's the defender Adrien Diaz midfielder those are our boys first team All Region boy second team All Region soccer Chris Chavis Defender Thomas Jackson forward and Josiah spilman uh goalie second team All Region and then the honorable mention for the boys are Sterling Applegate Jared Laguna and Marvin Portillo so that's nine kids for boy soccer girls excuse me boys all conference
006which is the equivalent right Britney to All State that's all state his second team is Adrien Diaz and Luis Chavez so pretty good showing for the boys nine people on that list and girl soccer uh first team All Region we have four First Team all regions Miley Hamlin here Leilani Hamlin forward Miley you're forward too right okay Sienna gelic you are midfielder and me and McFall hubard Defender so that's our four first team our second teamers are Caitlyn Nippers she's a forward and all M mention Lexi ordinola excuse me for butchering names Morgan Eddie Amy Halls Molly Rose and pton Miller so that's 10 if I can do math I know I was a PE teacher but I think that's 10 so good job girls and all region or excuse me all state that is
007Honorable mench All State we have four of them Sienna gilic lean Hamlin uh M Miley Hamlin and me and McFall hubard so these are all All State All Region girls right here so uh if you can give these girls a hand right here I'll get into if anybody uh once I'm done with the football stuff you guys stay here let me go through this and a couple other things take a picture with these ladies that'd be awesome okay uh football All Region First Team Jose Bas defensive line Carlos Harris linebacker Aiden OE offensive line Josiah spilman he was all region in football and soccer so any soccer players want to kick for me just let me know okay so it uh so David Simmons was a punt returner first team Luke Berlin quarterback Jay Barton
008running back Tren and tricky defensive back those are the first team guys F second team All Region Sam James Anthony sites Hunter Krauss Noah Chi and offensive lineman Ronda Bernett with David Simmons being the region offensive player of the year so pretty cool and then honorable mention all regions Trevor Byer Caleb mink Angel wrangle and Logan Robinson uh so all state for football first team David Simmons First Team aen oen first team Carl Harris Tren and chicky sophomore matter of fact Carl's a sophomore too uh second team for Tren and tricky Jay sparton honorable mention Jose besas was honorable mention and then volleyball second team All Region I think she's practicing too Ashlin Smith she's The Hitter middle blocker the volleyball All Region uh for audible mention Hannah oza I and then Izzy Reid and
009then cross country ta Applegate made it to the state finals and then Spencer Brandon also made it to the state finals and so these are your All Region players right here so if you guys give him a hand it's good oh Mr webs right there so anyways you want to take a picture of these guys real quick these ladies you guys go ahead squeeze and then I'd like to recognize that that's okay some of our coaches as well our girl soccer Britney Hamlin our head coach uh this is in her second year obviously she's been coaching here at every level that we have here may rockenberger rocken buer Rachel Ellsworth and Lissa Nippers uh for our girl soccer our cross country girls Shan ainson Katie Whiting and our boy soccer Kirby Elin and Gustavo is
010it who is it Chava he didn't write any names on here for me so volleyball Ryan fergen and staff that is football is uh Alec cathc Brian White Eric Cox Luke Peters Brandon Nuka Monty Maxwell Matt MC Weston Hall Jared Hall and Daniel Rivera so those are all of our coaches Courtney I'm turning it over to you thank you [Applause] thank you I'm actually G oops I need my papers I wrote I have notes just so I don't forget anybody um so I actually I know that we have some students that are here and I am going to ask that you come up with your coaches if your coaches are here too just so you can be recognized um so I'm going to go ahead and start do I have any Junior High football players
011or coach I've got coach okay come on up coach Rivera if you could come up do I have Coach Dunsmore as he's okay he's coaching basketball okay so it looks like so we invited any and all of our players and coaches from first semester Sports so we wanted to make sure that they were recognized um and so coach Rivera U was eighth grade coach Dunsmore coached our seventh grade football um and then we also had um coach Meadows and Coach Merill I think that were volunteering as well so we appreciate them and so um we have so thank you anoir for being here and Kiren for being here as well so we've got a representative for both seventh and eighth grade football so if you can give them a round of applause thank you so
012much and then our cheer do I have Coach KY here come on up coach kley actually just started she's uh volunteered for cheer as our chair coach just last year um and was actually a Blue Ridge graduate and wanted to kind of bring back some of that cheer enthusiasm the junior high and so she's got Addie and Kyla with her um and she's got I think five to six students who are in cheer so we are super excited that we have all of our students uh we have a lot of students that are starting to get excited about that again um so thank you to our chair coach and our and our cheerleaders our spirit line right all right thank you round of applause for cheer thank you um for softball can I have coach
013coaches Whiting and Coach phrase Mr and Mrs Whiting were our seventh grade softball oh and Coach Wright Jim Wright where are you oh there he is okay so Coach Wright actually volunteered um for our s our softball teams as well and so any softball oh there's a lot there's a lot so coaches I'm going to go ahead and just let you tell us who's here really quick if you don't just tell the names and then we say your name Hannah Sophie um honor sha D Eden Paige Alani Colette Jade Michaela andriel thank you so much so softball seventh and eth grade softball we had actually a great turnout in our softball teams in seventh and eighth grade in all of our Sports what we're looking for is just we want enthusiasm um and so we
014have some amazing coaches that get the kids excited and want them they want to continue in the program and so that's what we're super excited about out with all of our players and our coaches is the enthusiasm we see as they're heading into high school so thank you you guys can go ahead and have a sa Round of Applause for softball we're getting close I don't think coach Kerr was able to make it but do I have any cross country athletes come on up gentlemen oh and thank you thank you so Mrs flake actually um came on as a um as a coach this year with she was an assistant Cross Country Coach so we appreciate her being here and we have Owen Javin and Garrett as repres representatives for cross country so we appreciate
015them and they actually boys I believe correct me if I'm wrong they won every single meet we went to the boys team one every meet so that is incredible well done and thank you for representing us well so cross country thank you so much for being here all right two more wrestling coach Brandon do I have Coach Brandon but if you're a wrestler stay put Garrett and Owen also wrestled for us um and so our wrestling t team did an amazing job this year and we have some that are going on to state in January so congratulations to them and thank you for being here last one any volleyball players or coaches come on up so coach Ashcraft is our eighth grade coach and Coach willford is our coach willford uh was our seventh grade
016coach our eighth grade uh our eighth grade team actually made it all the way to the semi finals in Snowflake that's last Saturday so we're were super proud of them for that and it looks like I've got the same ladies were all of you also in on the softball team as well excellent so we love they're participating in multiple Sports so thank you so much to them um and our coaches we appreciate [Applause] it that that's impressive I really impressive any comments from the board in regard to the spirit these kids show impr that's very impressive thank you much thank you for being here you're all welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting too it's going to be a short one right we'll make it long for you sorry okay next item on
017the agenda is um recognition of December students of the month Dr R I'm going to turn that to you Mr Webb will you introduce your student of the month followed by uh Miss hoffm and U then Mr Grace at the elementary thank you thank you Bard if I could have Leilani Hamlin come forward please all right Leilani is has been chosen as the what month or December student of month at the high school go and hang on to that your little plaque and we get a picture moment too I'm going to read something a little bit about Leilani another picture Okay so Leilani does some pretty amazing things and she was also recently recognized for a really special award um in the state of Arizona so um we'd like to congratulate Leilani Hamlin for being
018named State winner in the 2023 Heisman high school scholarship this scholarship recognizes exception ability encouraging integrity and Community responsibility in a senior student Leilani is a 4.0 student she's a three- sport athlete BL High School student body officer captain of her soccer team and has over 200 hours of community service she was honored this season with multiple player of the week Awards and was selected first team All Region forward this soccer season we wish you good luck at Nationals they I already picked the national winner but she did win at the state level so it's a great achievement um if you haven't had a chance to come out and see Leilani in soccer don't worry because the action continues in in basketball she's amazing out on the court and I know she has aspirations of
019some pretty high defensive goals within the conference and region so I think she's going to get there she works hard she works hard in everything that she does academics um on the field on the court in the classroom and also in the community and and in general just wherever where she goes she you always see this smile and she's just a pleasure to be around and to have her at her school so we're grateful for Leilani and what she contributes to the high school and very deserving of this award [Applause] congratulations you know I think uh I think it's important for kids to hear some of the five most important words we are proud of you so thank you so much leani it's Courtney off all right thank you if I could have joy Cromwell
020come up please Joy is a seventh grader at the Junior High um and she I have quite a few things actually that her teachers shared about her that I'd like to read Joy is wonderfully kind and warm student she's friendly to everyone she is hardworking and always wants to do her best she is a student you don't have to worry about when she is here or when she is absent she's responsible and respectful no matter where she is she's a delight to have in class always kind and cooperative and although she is shy she has a smile for everyone she's a very responsible student and careful to do her work correctly and completely Joy truly lives up to her name she always comes to class with a smile and is always kind and respectful she
021puts forth 100% effort every day and and um she communicates with me to be sure she stays caught up um and finally Joy is a joy joy is incredibly responsible gets her assignments done right away and always red does anything that's not exactly correct she asks questions when she has any trouble and she is always attentive has a positive attitude Cooperative with others and just an all-around amazing representative blidge so congratulations [Applause] Joy all right good Mr Grace Jael come on up our student of the month at the elementary school is jabriel Martinez he's a fifth grader he's in Miss ganon's class Miss Ganon uh nominated him to be our student of the month um she came to me and told me jabriel and it's it's something we already knew jabriel represents all the core
022values that BR students should have um he's a fellow student that everybody wants to be around he helps everyone in his class when they need help he's there to support them if they need help with their class work or if they just need someone to be around them um he's a joy to have class and he's a joy to have on campus thank you [Applause] jabriel thank you we uh proud of all of our students those are exceptional kids um Dr Wright you want to continue or who would you like to take this yes sir for the student for the teacher of the month will Mr Weber will you make that Mr Webb will make that presentation to Mr WD all right Mr wdge would you come forward Please Mr wdge is we'd like to
023recognize him for December teacher of the month um he's no stranger to the board and his presentations of Success With The Fab Lab and so we want to recognize him officially as a teacher of the month he's how how many times have we he's been forward with the Samsung Challenge and each time he's a minimum every time of a state winner and then goes on beyond that so not only are the the projects amazing for the kids those projects continue in they start in junior high they continue in high school those are things that go on the kids applications for college same thing with the NASA rover challenge we were recently see the the video of the kids at their trip this last year we haven't met they've been accepted again this year so Mr
024W has taken another team to Nationals and so we're it's it's amazing and so we want to recognize him for his dedication his hard work his en his love for this program um if you talk to him it's evident he he loves what he does with the kids and the opportunities that the kids can learn from engaging in the activities there at the fabrication lab so we want to recognize Mr Woolridge and give him this plaque and also a free cookie for Twisted sugar cookies so enjoy [Applause] congratulations Mi Mr uh Merill if I might add we had a barbecue recently and there was a one of the trucks outfitted with some solution in a large dispenser and Steve Murphy head of facilities came over and said you know what this is Dr right this
025is a solution that the Fab Lab students developed that's eco-friendly that melts ice prevents ice and they're just perfecting the formula so it's it's like uh there's always not one thing two or three or four things going on in the Fab Lab and they're all great for kids thank you Mr WD it's actually IDE maintenance and they it to Kids To Work brine instead of sprinkling salt so we're using magnesium chloride which is melting drop melting point down to preat the concrete so things don't freeze itre Environ while getting the clean F the snow everything started earlier it's an amazing system and it came for maintenance they gave it to the kids said Kevin we I'm hoping for [Laughter] snow Kevin you are amazing we are lucky to have you in the district fortunate to
026have you in the district your little speech right there you lost me at ice next up on the agenda is uh a br Star Award Kimberly you want to give that Mr dugdale oh I think it working come on up guys all right so the maintenance team is going to come up and uh that was a great segue from Dr Wright about the new and innovative ways they're trying to help us with our snow removal SLB buildup and uh Steve is very excited about this and they have been doing a great job and they have their trucks all outfitted and they are ready for winter um one of the other things that they did was uh Steve did some research I had to have my back to you guys um Steve did some research research
027on Cinders and what would be a better way or more effective way to spread Cinders and he came up with a solution um to have some Cinders mixed with some sand and that's better for our um asphalt and better for our concrete sidewalks so we're going to test that out this year as well it's just one of the many reasons why the maintenance team is getting the BR star um this uh December so these guys are the heart of Blue Ridge if something goes wrong in the middle of the night they're here if we have a water pipe break they're here they're up did you hear somebody please don't um if we have something wrong with the pump house they're here um if we need roads checked they're checking them in the middle of the
028night if we have a pipe break they're here and we have had all of th those things happen um in the last nine months um lots of pipes breaking and lots of water issues and they have been stellar and they just work until they can solve the problem and get it fixed um and no complaining no grumbling they're always happy to be here and they're always happy to help and they're always coming up with innovative solutions in ways that we can save money and ways that we can keep our school beautiful and safe um so I just want to honor them um tonight for all their hard work and I just they I know they're ready for snow and I just want to reassure you they're ready they've got their trucks ready they've showed me
029their trucks and so I think we're ready for this snow hopefully it doesn't come until Christmas Christmas that would be nice um anyway so we've got I want to introduce them though we've got Steve um our maintenance supervisor Brent Chris breed love Mike and Jared our newest member of our team and they're all doing just a fabulous great job so I want to give you this and here's your little plaque for your for your department and office and you each get one of these thank you thank you thank you you're welcome here's the extra I think a pre pre prerequisite to work in the maintenance department you have to be handsome you have to be a goodlooking guy and Steve is going to show you the back of his shirt so um uh that's looking
030at those shirts the back of the shirts Wonder we um designed that logo for their shirts yeah and it's on their hats as well I was wondering where we could buy those shirts I like them we can probably make that happen there you go no uh Mike Bosley designed it and then we had it um made uh I don't know Linda picked the vendor so I don't remember the name of the vendor but thank you guys so much we appreciate all you [Applause] do all right as we move on with the agenda I need to uh excuse thank you thank you very much I need to excuse Jennifer Brimhall is absent this evening with the family issue um next item on the agenda are items that have been donated to blidge school district Dr wri
031do you want to go through those and explain and tell us if we we sent Letters Out thanking people yet sir thank you Mary once they're approved by the board we we send out thank you letters and the donations are these Jan Weinberg donated golf clubs and supplies to the high school valued at $2,000 Mr Waldo donated a very gently used leather sofa and area rug to the high school valued at 1,500 the youth basketball booster donated $3,000 to the high school girls basketball program and Ronald Ray donated $5,000 to the Elementary grades 4 through six science department and then Derek kavie donated 77,000 excuse me $750 for athletic fees for grades 7 through 12 so these are pretty significant donations for a small community and we're very appreciative of these folks for their generosity
032thank you we'll have to vote to accept these uh donations uh any comment from the board yeah it's substantial aren't they all right can we have a motion then to accept these items as explained have a motion from Margaret a second from Diane all in favor thank you next item on the agenda is the consent agenda board after reviewing the consent agenda are there any items that you would like to remove and uh vote on independently or M Mr Merill yes I'm sorry we didn't we didn't set this up I didn't set this up well but there's one more discussion oh there sure is that's right we need to hear from the yes yes yes sir may I just set that a little bit okay what what I wanted to do is the principles have
033been working very hard on an issue that every school and school district is dealing with and that is vaping the difference with bluid is where actually we have sensors and we're holding kids accountable it's happening everywhere this is not just a bluid problem I want to commend the administration on the hard work that they have invested Mr Archer BET's not here but between Mr archet and Megan and Courtney Mr hoffmier and Mr Webb they they've done a ton work and we've had a little bit at the sixth grader not so much with Mr Grace's crew but they've put a lot of time and effort into um instructing the kids warning the kids setting up consequences for students that violate and they've been very diligent in in this problem now if you remember what I was
034worried about the first part of September is we had clouds of Vape in the bathrooms we had complaints that's no longer a problem our issue is that while the kids are continuing to vape and we're continuing to hold them accountable the current system is really not working for us in what we're trying to do and that's change behavior and so that each of the principles will speak a little bit to their their campus I just don't want to create the impression to the public or the board that we don't have a handle on it and the administration is not working on they are and we're hitting it head on and I just want to commend especially the principles and assistant principles for working so hard on this important topic and then we wanted to have
035a discussion so the board could ask questions to those closest to the work would that be acceptable to you Mr Merill yeah I just got ahead of myself thank you thank you Dr Wright should we start with uh high school maybe we can start with youngers and at the younger grade levels and then build up to the high school right now we definitely have the majority of the cases that are happening up at the high school um and they do trickle down with age I I think a preface before we get into the statistics I think the hard part the it escalated with when the state passed the marijuana legalize the recreational marijuana and so it's just so prevalent in around the students um you still have to be 21 to purchase it but they're
036finding it at home they're finding it they're finding ways to reach out to um people that are selling it when it first happened really hit us maybe four years ago and we were working with the police pretty heavy in trying to find the sellers and and figure it out it got to the point where it was so hard for the police to police it because it was just everywhere that they actually had changed what they were giving citations for and so right now A a marijuana violation is similar to what a tobacco violation used to be so that I for me I think that's the biggest challenge that we're facing is is that there's no teeth in having marijuana on campus where it hurts the parents it hurts the student with it's being criminalized and
037so we're trying to figure out how we best can manage it at the school level with still we don't want to the and and we're sending that message to the kids you if you're going to vape you're going to get caught eventually you're going to get caught and you're going to have consequences now the consequences are going to change as we go and we try and figure out how can we address this Behavior with some different things to give support to the students because it comes down there there's many different reasons I'm why a student may turn to it um kids are going through some crazy stuff right now and as we're in our conversations that we're having with the students what's what's leading you to do this why are you says like I just
038need a relief for my life I just need a break I just need that a lot of the conversation that we're getting is are those kind of conversation so trying to figure out what we can do to get them resources and help for the the things that they're really troubling them in life to where they feel like they can turn to something else rather than marijuana or um in some cases to uh to nicotine which is you know the that's the fewer of the problems that we face is is nicotine so primarily it's just the THC the marijuana Vapes that the kids are do resorting to um Elementary level yeah so at the elementary school we're dealing with pretty much the same thing just on a much much smaller scale um I think this year
039we've had two uh out of 800 Kids on Campus we we found two our biggest issue is um just how easily these things disappear from people's pockets and things like that um we have found I think last week I picked up our fourth one out of the parking lot um and these are these are parents and adults that are coming to the school and they're falling out of their vehicles or they're falling out of their pockets just how quickly they're they're misplaced doesn't help um we do come down pretty strict with the discipline of it because we want to make sure that kids know that that there are consequences as as Lauren said um as well as as we really use it as a chance to talk to parents make sure parents and students know
040that that we're here for them you know if they need help we will try to help them with everything that we can uh we get our counselors at the elementary school involved to talk to them um we also have as Dr R said we have sensors they they uh kind of move around we station people around campus to prevent um really Mischief in general uh vaping's probably at the bottom of our general Mischief that we have happened at the elementary school but it does happen um and I've talked to several of my friends that are at other elementary schools and they're seeing it as well and and we're just trying to educate people in the process especially when it comes to the lower kids before it gets too bad or or something like that it's
041we want to educate them on on the side effects of it and and the long-term causes or the long-term issues and things like that and at the junior high we're seeing I mean a lot of the same things that Mr Webb was talking about we have um so we uh had our technology um placed in the in the building in October right before break um and we've had we've seen a decrease in alerts that we've had on uh vaping um but we have I mean we had 18 alerts in October six alerts in November five alerts and those are just in the restrooms um but we've had a total of 20 students that have um had consequences at the junior high level um and it's actually very um I was amazed at the numbers four
042female four male in seventh grade six male six female in 8th grade I mean so we're seeing it's it's consistent between boys and girls um we do I mean we struggle anytime we have a report we actually have an an increase in reports from students because they're tired of it they're tired of seeing it on campus they're tired of it happening too um and so we have reports from students um when they're seeing it as well and we investigate those um so we're still you know we ask when we have it reported to us we ask students to come and visit with us I mean we do we are checking backpacks we're checking Pockets there's kind of a limit to how to what we can be checking but we inform parents that these are the
043concerns that we have and you know even if we don't find something on somebody we're calling parents and letting them know um we have the consequences for students when it's happening but the same thing I mean is true we need to help these kids because a lot of them are suffering from addiction problems um some of the ones that we've had are I mean they are it is a it is a need that they have they they have to have they have to take a hit um and so we're trying to work with those students to find ways to help we have Nexus Coalition that comes in um they are coming in and working with our kids on and some of our kids on a weekly basis on Thursdays we have a class for students
044who have been struggling with this and have had consequences for it um and we're looking to try to find some programs where we can have it on a bigger scale as far as having Nexus come in and and just provide a little bit more information um we are trying to educate the parents on it as well um you know we let them know that there are a lot of places that kids are hiding them um or they're giving them to their friends they pass them between hoodie sleeves I mean they're they're pretty um they're pretty Adept at hiding it um you know but we're still it's it's just it is a really relevant problem right now moving forward we want to focus with our efforts and and looking at our resources here locally Courtney mentioned
045Nexus Coalition we want to work with them and with the police department to see if we can somehow bring the the teeth back into it for the parents if we we had talked about the classes that the students are attending if the parent if there's a you know parent you have to attend with your child in an evening if you don't then maybe then that's that point where we look at then the police would look at doing charges for for that student for here's your chance to get out of it if you attend the class with your child so because the parents need to be involved in it as well so that's what we're trying to put in place and work on something with working with resources plus with the police department of what we
046have going on here on campus I'm curious um what the reaction is of the parents when you call them when you catch a student vaping and you notify the parents what's their reaction and obviously there's a range but there yeah there's a range from one where um the kid blamed it on the parent for putting it in their backpack and which was true and and and then the others where the parents were like totally shocked and not my kid um well it was your kid and they did admit to it so there is a range most of them on the surface are are supportive but the we continue to have you know the student students are struggling with it and so I think the parents are struggling to find out find ways to you know
047deal with their own kids is with it as well and we've seen frustration from the parents they're trying to figure out where the kids are getting it and that's the part that we I mean there are a lot of parents who will say I we don't we don't Vape they're not getting it from home um and so they're getting it somewhere um you know we're trying to you know we're really trying to heavily monitor bus um our buses and um you know where they're walking I mean just we're just trying to figure figure out where the where they're getting these from um we're just not sure that's but that that's a a big frustration for a Junior High parents and and I think the shock of it is is going down a little bit more
048as parents are realizing that this is this is becoming a a large issue um and they're realizing it's not just you know this group of kids it can be my kid it can be all kids and so at the elementary school it was it's typically shock followed by sheer disappointment um and some of it's disappointment in in themselves for not noticing or something like that but I think that that more parents are coming around to understanding their kid is is possible to be doing this you know that sort of thing I have a question um is there something we can do as a board in changing some of the regulations making putting more teeth in some of the the penalties in the handbook do we need make some revisions I feel like it's something we
049probably need to look at but at the but the the bottom line is we don't want to lose we don't want to lose our kids you know we I mean we know that we have to have consequences um but we also we just need to help these kids figure out these problem you know there's they're just they're struggling um and we we need to help them understand we just have to educate them so I think that we probably do need to look at some I mean look at our policies but really look at how we're educating the community on the dangers of it Courtney did you find any um in the in the six that you're talking about were any of them on the athletic teams um I don't believe they were on any I
050don't believe I would have to take a look again um I'm just going off of memory I don't believe I had any that were currently in an they were not on a team currently um or or any active exra activity um at the so they they I'm trying I'm just remember I mean I'm trying to think of I I want to be accurate but I to my knowledge nobody was on they were not participating anything at extracurricular at the time have we had any at the high school that you've had to pull out they they have and then according to what's written in the register my athlete the bylaws that they're signing they they have the consequences that are in their they they meet those as well so unfortunately it is it doesn't just stop
051at just kids that are struggling it's our kids that are um in extracurricular activities Sports all all that part school if I may add to our my concern was especially at the older age we're we're suspending three or four kids a day some of these kids Athletics and music it's all they have and so we're taking them out of the positive after school and we know we're putting them right back into what they're doing so what Mr web and and the other principles have have suggested I agree with we're trying to find a way to hold them accountable but also help the kid because we we could shoot I guess we've probably suspended a 100 since school started or more and we could every day suspend two or three but really what is that going
052to do and if we expel them what's that going to do to the kid and what we're dealing with is addiction for some of these kids at a very early age and so wisely the principles have said Hey in interviewing kids they're saying I need some help so we're saying what resources do we have we have a handful of counselors like any other school and we need to leverage the resources that are here I just wanted to also reiterate this is a state and a n Statewide and Nation Nationwide problem it's not a just a bluid problem it's happening in every Public School District it's happening in most of the private school districts and it's just occurring among all grades now I will say while the higher socioeconomic students are not immune and those families
053it does occur not at the same gr as it does our students that are are struggling financially too and so because of the stress blame it on covid the economy whatever we're seeing a much higher rate than we do than we did two years ago and the accessibility these kids are getting it from adults on through applications on their cell phones and so it's it's ubiquitous is the point I'm trying to make so we're saying hey let's let's get ahead of it let's see what we we can do an example might be Saturday school you get caught great you get to go to Saturday school and you get to complete this program and your parent need going to get caught again then great you have another program that you get to go through at some
054point we would have to say we've tried everything but until we get to that point we want to we feel like we need to do more and if I could add that the the if you ever if you've ever looked at the wall of of things that are built the design of a lot of these devices are very uh they're I mean they're designed for young people I mean they they look like soda pops and um Candy and I mean they they their design of them is really I mean it's really designed for young people and that's a unfortunate you know it's another unfortunate effect do they realize the addiction or do you have to point it out to them they know it they and they they're agreeing to it that yeah I I have
055to hit this or I feel like I H feel like I have to hit it throughout the day is what they're telling us so they they recognize the addiction does the parent have the parents when they come in to talk to you have they noticed the addiction no not at all because they're they're oblivious to it when I ask if the board needed to do something in the way of uh changing some of the regulations I mean do we need to make a like a Dr Wright suggested a step by step by step you do this this is the consequence do this this is the consequence instead of just throw away the child we don't want to throw away the kids we that's that's why they are in some ways where they are is because
056they've been thrown away at some point in their life and so can we do something to build them in the process yeah and that's we need to change some regulations in our handbook to do that yeah that's something we definitely can talk about we can come up with a a step process and you know for each occurrence it becomes a you know elevated type of of consequence so we definitely can look at that even though it's um prevalent like you said at all the ages there h i mean you can't treat the elementary school kids the same as the high school obviously but there has to be some consistency throughout the district so everybody knows in every school that there's going to be a consequence for that behavior right I agree especially so the other
057kids that are complaining they've had enough of it that they see that there is actually a consequence we've talked about this is where it really begins with Ryan school that's where the kids need to understand it they they have the education about it and as they get older like we already know this and so then we're just dealing with individual kids instead of like full population more of an issue and that's one of those consistent um things that you were mentioning is the education part of it um whether it's our age group or or Lauren age group or Courtney's it's we got to educate parents and student students to the dangers of it so have the parents been um involved in any of this educa have you had education programs where they had to bring
058their student in not yet we don't have that set up yet so that would be our next step to try and organize something with that where their parents are are having to be involved with it as well these kids are going to be really sick if they start this in elementary school and go all the way through that's the scary part is we just don't know all the research in it on how it will affect them years yeah they don't recover it's just something they live with so I don't know the education part of it has to be really really strong I think and maybe for all the kids because you know just because they're not doing it this year doesn't mean they're going to get not get dragged into it another time and I
059mean we really don't it's the there really aren't any surprises anymore on you know which kids are going to be caught with them because there's not it's just kind of across the board now we just we're seeing it kind of seeing it everywhere has the state come out with any education programs or do we just make up our own there are resources um Navajo County has some great resources um the Nexus Coalition has really great resources for parents uh and we're trying to push those out to parents so that they can you know they can look at them but we um I mean it it probably would would be worth having some kind of a you know a night to in you know talked about the issue is getting them here is having it attended
060maybe they just need to sit around a table different TBL so they can ask questions in a smaller right group and not have to stand in front of a big group because they don't want to admit their child is involved in this in the first place true but they still need to know why what's going on and what they're up against right and there are some states when we started looking at this there are some states that're now putting in leg legislation to to try to curb this um that are across the board with a discipline consequence that's required by by state law we don't have that yet but you know I think we all saw this coming when they came out with all the attractive colors flavors whatever you know it seemed like there
061was no vaping the next day there was vaping everywhere and for kids you know what were adults thinking it's tough but I think we need to really act on it I appreciate what you've done so far I mean it's a step in the right direction but these kids at the high school they're not going to give up they'll find it when you need changes we'll support you right I don't think I think everybody's nodding their head we'd be glad to help and support what we can do in the way of support we'll do that for you so thank you for presentation appreciate it very much any other questions comments thank you all right we'll we'll go back to the agenda as we started and I messed up so consent agenda are there any items that
062anybody would like to take out and vote on independently in the consent agenda if not can we have a motion to accept the consent agenda that's items 2.1 through item uh 2.5 do item 2.5 separately or can that be included uh it's in the consent agenda I think we can just approve that separate independently unless you want to take it out and approve it discuss it if there's none then we have a motion to accept the Kent agenda a motion from Chuck second from Margaret all in favor that would be unanimous also okay the business portion of the meeting item 3.1 one a recommendation to approve the first revision of the fiscal 2023 24 budget that was presented in a public hearing 30 minutes ago cimberly board president and governing board members I'm just asking
063that we can a recommendation that you approve the Rev revised budget as presented at the hearing are there any questions or comments about that and we I have a motion to I have a motion from Diana a second chuck all in favor thank you thank you that has to be submitted by when 15th all right so we got time all right item 3.2 recommendation to approve the board meetings dates for each month uh currently we are on the second Tuesday of every month does that fit or do we need to visit that with a different day I like the second myself let's just try to match it with his schedule schu the superintendent's schedule that fit second because we want him representing our area on these boards so for for the uh Administration side the
064second Tuesday is probably the best day all right so can we have a recommendation to approve for the upcoming year the second Tuesday of every month as the date we will do our regularly scheduled board meetings have a motion by Margaret second by Dan all in favor that two is unanimous okay item 3.3 a recommendation to approve early graduation for three high school students um Mr web they're not here we reviewed those board is there any questions or comments about those three Chuck yeah I I looked at the information I noticed that two of those students have excessive absences and a a lot of failing grades I guess I'm surprised that they have enough credits to graduate early so that's one of the um unintended consequences of of our schedule where we have 32 possible
065credits for a senior when only the state only requires the 24 credits so they they've met the minimum requirements to to have their early graduation what we're looking at we're running into some situations where students we know that they're going they're either going to move on to another school if they aren't Grant granted early graduation request here if they met the requirements and let's keep them here and get them through as many programs as we can um some of the others a couple of those were situations within their family where um they're going to be moving out of state there something was prompting the need to to request early graduation or they're getting into a program that they their academics is not their strength and you can tell that by the attendance and the grades
066but there's a one of the the gentleman was trying to be an apprentice with the HVAC company has already looked into that for January so there's the situation where we're just looking at it Case by case and uh making a determination yeah we'll go ahead and support you on this one it will be better rather than facing a Dropout to go ahead and do an early graduation to get on with his life any other comments or questions we have a motion then to accept item 3.3 for the early graduation of these three high school students I have a motion I have a secondment by Margaret all in favor at two it' be unanimous all right item 3.4 Dr Adam or Kimberly which would you like Dr would you do that sure as you know the
067last several years we've had increased inrees mandated by the state this year will be 1435 another 15 50 c increase the impact of that is less than $10,000 because of the market we don't have a lot of folks just right at minimum wage we have a few but we don't have a lot but the impact will be just under $10,000 but we need board approval in order to make that adjustment yeah that was my question what type of a adverse impact does that have on the the 10,000 can be absorbed right all right any questions about that or comments can we have a motion then to um accept item 3.4 about raising the minimum wage the amount of 50 cents a motion from Chuck a second from Margaret all in favor thank you Dr wght
068we'll turn some time over to you now thank you we have uh We've we've talked about the uh the emerging issues that we've had that are most pressing but the one thing that the team the C cabinet the leadership team has discussed is we want to create three to four strategic goals for the future for the next three to five years to help focus our investment our frankly our spending and our time and attention and we don't want those goals developed in a vacuum meaning just at that that level so we will involve in early January I believe on the 15th of January we'll have all day we'll have a a superintendent counsil kids council is part of that group we'll have a steering comme that is consisted of Staff throughout the district and administration
069and then on the following day the 16th we'll have a community Forum from about 5: to 6:30 in the evening to get as many community members to share their thoughts and ideas and then we'll take all that data and all the input and then from that set we will create three to five strategic excuse me three to four strategic goals for the board's review and possible approval that'll will guide the district the next 3 to four years what we're not looking for we already have a solid mission and vision statement we're not looking for a huge notebook and a bunch of shiny stuff over a really detailed strategic plan that gets developed over a year and put on a shelf I we're looking for a more practical approach to say these are the areas in
070which we need to focus and we want a lot of input in creating those so that's the are there any questions on that I wanted to make sure I I've got that information out of January then the 16th for a community meeting which aligns with our board schedule it shouldn't have a a conflict there the other thing is we're just very I'm proud of the the level of uh engagement of our teachers and support staff throughout this first semester they've worked very hard and we're seeing Improvement on just about every not just at every level whether you're talking about academic achievement or you're talking about uh the facility side or the operation side we're seeing Improvement and that is is a direct reflection of the leadership of the board and the hard work that the
071administrators and support staff invest every week and every day so thank you for that and I I want to again to extend gratitude for those four folks that are sitting right there and Nathan and his team and all of our departments that are doing a very good job of working together and we'll have our our Wayne announcements our winter break the last day of school be December 20th and then first day for students will be January 9th teachers will report on January 8th Courtney's my calendar right there thank you Courtney Miss hoffm are there any questions from the board like any information any of those things I covered if not looks not thank you thank you next item on the agenda would be a call to the public we'd anybody that would like to address
072the board take this time right now' like to limit your comments to about 3 minutes and not be able to seed to anyone else so if there's anybody here that would like to address the board at this time we'd be happy to hear those comments going going gone all right we have a an announcement the next Janu the next meeting of this board will be January 9th at 5:00 P pm on this in this location we now need a motion to move to executive session for some legal advice with the governing board attorney can I have a motion to have a motion from Chuck a second from Margaret all in favor that would be it okay we'd uh like to excuse the public and we as a board will meet in this can find ref
073the uh