001We'll begin with our roll call. Miss Jenkins. Miss Richards. She's here. Miss Richards. Mr. Toller. Here. Miss Abrams here. Mr. West Morland. Present. Mr. Duncan. Mr. Anthony here. Mr. Moore here. Mr. Piaza here. Miss Dominguez. The kids not here. All right. Thank you. This time I'd ask everybody please stand with us. I would ask Mr. Moore if he would lead us in our pledge of allegiance. 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. Thank you. You may be seated. This time we consider the approval for the board minutes from June 17th, 2025. I'll entertain a motion. So moved. Motion made by Mr. Piaza. Second. Seconded by Miss Rose. Any discussion? Hearing? None. We'll
002call for a vote. Voting is open. Yes. Nothing. I can't get one. Motion carries. Thank you. We're going to table item two till the next meeting and go straight to item 3A, capital outlay of the hole for June 17th. So move. Motion made by Mr. Piaza to adopt. Second. Second by Mr. Anthony. Any discussion or public input? Hearing none. Call for a vote. Voting is open. Motion carries. Thank you. And then item 3B, the policy committee of a whole from June 17th. Do I hear a motion to approve the minutes? Motion made by Mr. Piaza. Second. Second by Mr. Westerland. Any discussion or questions or public input? Hearing none. Call for a vote. Voting is open. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 4 A, consider approval of the bid for the 2025 small cafeteria small cafeteria
003equipment. Well, good evening everyone and we have three bids we're considering tonight. The first one, as was mentioned, the small cafeteria equipment. This is an annual bid that we do for the very small equipment items. There were 124 items on the bid. It was an um item by item bid and there were a total of five biders for this particular bid and our child nutrition department did a an an excellent job of evaluating each item. It's a very timeconsuming and lengthy process, but they got it done. And the final result is that the winning bids were spread out over four vendors. And Hubert won 55 items, Singer won 49 items, economical won 19, and Sam Tail and Sun won one item. And so we're asking the board to approve this bid according to the listing
004of the winning biders on the bid tabulation. Okay. Did I hear that in form of a motion? Motion to adopt administration recommendation. Motion made by Mr. Fiaza. Second by Miss Richard. Any questions? Okay. So, is this for a particular school? This this uh it's our parish. It's parish parish wide. Parish wide. Parish wide. Okay. Yeah. Question here too. Is this is this items that we are purchasing that we need to purchase or we're just getting a price list in case we need to purchase them? We're getting a pri it's both. It's a price list and we we usually purchase the majority of them if not all of them. But we need to have a bid in place in case they're needed. So that's why we have a state contract, but it's a parish contract in
005place. So if we need to buy a small item, M. Kendrick can run out and get it and not have to come get our permission. Mr. Question, uh, not really a question, but a comment. And I I just want to say to have three vendors to to have that type of diversity there. I want to commend your team. I mean, I I don't think I've reached out to anybody in y'all's department, not got a response. Thank y'all for the tireless work y'all do. I know that's a lot that goes into this. Thank you for what you're doing cuz y'all doing a great job. Like I said, to have three vendors and spread that out instead of having like one vendor for everything, that's a lot. And I know a lot goes into that. So, thank
006y'all. And um one of the things that has changed over the years, we're starting to put our bids on the central bidding website and that goes nationwide and we're we're starting to get more responses now. Beautiful. Okay. Any other questions? If not, we'll call for a vote. Voting is open. Motion carries. All right. Item B to consider approval of the bids for milk and milk products. Okay. The milk products bid was originally opened back in April and we had three uh biders for for that particular bid and Bordon's Dairy won that bid and we had um placed it on the agenda to be approved by the board and at the last minute we received um a con contact from Klein Peter Forms challenging the bid and so we put the bid on or the bid
007award on hold until we met with them. So we did meet with Klein Peter and their um position was that they had won the award and they based their claim upon equal quantities for both cartons and bottles. And we tried to explain to them that the vast majority of the milk products that we order are the bottles and that's how the bid award was based. but they still claimed that they had won the award. So, we went to our go-to person in Baton Rouge, an attorney by the name of Jennifer Sheay, who works in the legislative auditor's office. We explained the situation to her and she advised us to reject all bids to rebid it and put in the bid specs the usage quantities for the bottles upon which the bid award would be made.
008And so that way there would be no question about how the award would be made. So we reopened the bid on June the 17th. It was the same three biders as before. It was Bordens Klein Peter and Prairie Forms. And when we opened the bids, we found that all three had lowered their prices. But Prairie Forms lowered their prices the most. They went from third place to first place and they have won this bid award and we're asking the board to approve the award to Prairie Forums. And what's interesting about this entire rebid process is that the school board is going to end up saving close to $100,000 because we got lower prices on the second bid. We should do this for all of our stuff, right? Exactly. Yeah. Perfect. Any other questions? Well, it
009says Jersey Dairy on here. Well, we got East Side Jersey Prairie. Yeah, same thing. East side Jersey. Accept the bid for East Side Jersey. Accept the bid. Second. Second, Mr. Piaza. Question. Mr. PZA. Uh, who and I think I asked this last time. I'm just curious. Who did we have last year for our milk product? Do you know? Ordinance. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I'm I'm glad to see somebody local. I mean, it's Hammond. I I like seeing local people win out a bid, especially against some big names on this list. So, hey. Yeah, we we also like to see the locals win. And we save money in the process. So, I can't no argument out of me. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Call for a vote. Is open. Motion carries. All right, moving over to item
010C. Consider approval of the bid for 2025 frozen food products. Right. The frozen food products is another annual bid that we do and we usually have just received one bid from Pond Foods each year, but this year we received two bids. One from Gold Star, which is the same as Pawn Food, and then SNW wholesale from Hammond. So Gold Star is from Ponchatula. SNWs from Hammond. And this was an all or nothing bid with close to 200 items. And the issue that we came up with here was that Gold Star did not bid on a handful of the items. There were six items where they wrote in no bid. And that created an unequal comparison between the two biders because one bidder was bidding on all the items and then Gold Star was only bidding
011on most of the items. And SNW Wholesale noticed that. And so they called us and they wanted to challenge because we were about to award that bid to Gold Star. And we when we met with them and talked it out, we saw that they had a valid point. And so again, we contacted our attorney in Baton Rouge and explained the situation to her. Again, she asked us to rebid it and put in the bid specs how we were going to handle the no bid items. And so we rewrote the requirements to uh state that the vendors had to bid on all the items or else they would be disqualified. So we reopened the bid on June the 18th. Same two biders, Gold Star and SNW. And this time they both met our requirements to bid
012on all the items. But when we added everything up, SNW wholesale was the low bidder. So, we're asking the board to award the contract to SNW. That in the form of a motion. Motion. Second. Mr. Westland. Second, Mr. Piaza. Any questions? One quick question. Um, what's the likelihood? I know on the small uh cafeteria equipment, we did choose two different purveyors um of the goods. And I do notice on here in some cases, Gold Star is not substantially cheaper, but somewhat cheaper on a big item like orange juice, which we probably go through hundreds a day. That being said, is there any likelihood that we can maybe split this up or that way we can capture some additional savings there? Yes, we've been thinking about doing that. Um, is that something you want to address,
013Kendra? Let me let me add to that point. Maybe she can answer this part B. Um, I feel like the more purveyors we have, the better. That way, if you run into a jam with somebody delivering, for example, SNW has a issue with their their warehouse and Gold Star still running, at least we'll still have that relationship with them, you know. Yes. Um, we're we're thinking about um looking at all of um the different items that we have. items that have been on the bed for years, we're trying to make sure that we take them off cuz things get discontinued every day. So, we kind of wanted to make sure that we clean the bed up um and kind of put it out there to say, "Hey, look, this is the items that we we
014need and we use most of the times to kind of go and uh you know, for our meals." Um, but we definitely want to kind of just look at it um, line by line and just kind of see whether or not it's something we can use in the future or not. Um, we've we've dealt with SNW before, so we do have a rapport with them. Um, so it's not our first time actually dealing with this vendor, but it's our first time dealing with this vendor with frozen food. So, we do have a rapport with them already. Okay. So, if if we approve Gold Star as the main frozen foods distributor today, does that mean we can no longer use Gold Star any longer to buy any frozen goods? You mean you mean our SNW? SNW.
015That's what I'm saying. I'm sorry. What? No, sir. That's not how that works. It would be just for this school year that we would be using it. and that if we decide to uh extend the contract for next year, if they do a great job and and both parties are are in agreement, then we can extend the contract. So, it just depends on how it goes this year. Are they going to have our products? Are we going to be short products? It's just going to kind of have to see how it goes for this year. But that doesn't take my question because I think I might have confused you with saying the wrong thing. So, right now it looks like we're awarding all the frozen foods to SNW. Yes, sir. Does that mean we will
016not buy any frozen goods from from Gold Star? No, sir. Not this year. I see. Not this year. All right. So, we will not buy anything from We will not. But we will have our other stuff that we have from them. Okay. Not frozen. Gotcha. Just And the reason why I'm asking, I I do not have a horse in the race. I'll say that in front of God and everybody here. But like an item like French fries, they're substantially cheaper at at at Gold Star, for example. And I know we go through a ton of those. Same thing with some juices and things like that. I'm just wondering if um and and again, no horse in the race here, but should we take some of the bigger items that we're going to be buying a
017ton of and maybe give some of that to Gold Star to maintain that relationship and to, you know, save the taxpayers a few cents here and there. The the issue is with state bid law, the way it was put out, it's an all or nothing. So, you can't you can't amend it. But we are having discussions and and what I did in my previous life uh we would have tire bids previous life. Okay. And so we would award it to all of the vendors. Okay. Because maybe ABC tire company didn't have the tire you needed when you needed to order it and then you could go to the next vendor. So that is something that we can consider and look at. I'm not familiar with food services and how deliveries having multiple vendors making mult
018deliveries could be an issue. Um, but it is good to have to award it to multiples in in the event that the primary doesn't have it in stock and you can go to your next one. But um, so we will look at that for next year. But no, but because of the way it was done and it's already been rebid once, I would encourage you to adopt it tonight. Okay, Mr. President. So I was going to say, could we make a motion to adopt the lowest bid of each other product it was? But you're saying state law says we have all or nothing. The way we did this bill, the way it was advertised was all or nothing. Oh, yes. So, we can't Okay. Right. So, this one is as is. One more. One more
019thing. I I I didn't want it to sound like at any judging your job because I am appreciative like Joey said, of how you went through all those items. So, please don't take that as an insult. It was just a question I was trying to get answered so I understood. So, thank you all very much. Just make sure you keep the pizzas with the cheese stick and the bread. That was the best part of frozen foods. Any other questions hearing? No, we'll call for a vote. Voting is open. I want my old school milk back, too. I want the bag. I want the bag milk back. That's what I want. That chocolate milk bag milk. Come on. That was the best milk on the planet, man. How do you send it back? Huh? You just
020set it on the table. No carries. Nope. Should not be in a bag. Perfect in there, man. It comes from a bag. That's the last time it's supposed to be in a bag, too. No. All right. Moving on to item D. Consider approval of the Kentwood High magnet change order number one. All right. This is a change order. uh the dollar amount doesn't require it to come to the board, but when I saw it was for 359 additional days, I thought that the board may have some questions. And so, Mr. Ryan Faulk is here to answer any questions that the board may have on this. Let's get it on the floor as a motion. Um um Mr. Richard made the motion uh seconded by Mr. Moore. Okay. Um I would be remiss Mr. Theon Page,
021our supervisor of construction is here as well. If y'all y'all can both have that and I did Ryan, I'll go ahead and give you the floor if you want. I talked to um to Yeah, Paul today, right? Talk to Paul today if I just to clarify some of the things and I do have a suggestion or amendment that I would like to see on it. But anyway, you go ahead and explain. Well, I mean in broad at a high level the the duration the the lead time for these roof tiles is what's really the majority of the days that are in there. So by the time I mean the process in order to get the selection of those tiles and order to delivery was just that duration in and of itself is over 238 days.
0226 6 months actual on a letter from the supplier from order day. I'm looking at the schedule that was change order. And this is this is where I'm coming from and my point. Notice to pro or the contract date was in September. Notice to proceed was in October. They ordered the tiles in February. They're written Yeah. February. February. I thought it was uh actually no, they ordered the tiles in January. The letter stated the order form itself, the contract summary said February, first part of February. I'm looking at the timeline that Paul gave me today. So, so the question is is 120 days for the contract original, which I'm sure we missed that just because we didn't know the lead time. They used up 120 days before they even ordered the tile. So, my thing
023is if they ordered the towel in February and the letter in there states that it's 6 months to get the towel, let's give them 180 days, which is 6 months, but not go the 359 because there's no way to justify the 359 unless we're just trying to make the date match the end of the project. Well, that's what we were trying to do and to account for the days not just for delivery because once it gets on site, they still have to do the work to install the tile which has its own duration. and to avoid coming before the board for a another liquidated damages on this h is there liquidated damages on this project? No, because there I mean the there were more there's more work in this contract than just these clay tiles.
024There was other roof work on the campus and that's been completed long for a long time now that's been completed. Why are they even asking for days if there's no damages on the Well, so they don't get into a situation where there's liquidated damages because circumstances beyond their control if they can't complete the project within that time frame, then they're hanging out for these days. But is it does the contract call I'm sorry, I know we're getting off. Does the contract call for us? Can we assess liquidated damages if the project goes over? We can. Yeah. What's the amount? Oh, I don't have that in front of me. I'm sorry. 500 or $1,000 a day. My whole thing, and I'm Look, I like roof solutions. I'm for the project, but they're asking for 359 days.
025How much a year? When it's a sixmonth order, and they've already been given some time to order it and install it, but now they're asking for twice what it took to get the product. So I think as what I would like and I would entertain a motion till we amend this to to give them the 180 days which is exactly what they're out the 6 months. Well so I think we may need to look at that again cuz if we only give them 180 days that's saying that okay the clay towels comes in on o at October 10th I think it is or something like that. So that's only giving them 180 days to receive the clay towels. That's not including demolition and installation. already got 120 days for the project already. But we can't
026we can't demo the roof prior to getting the clay towels or else we run into a whole another problem. Say that again. We cannot demo the roof prior to getting the tiles on site or we run into a whole another problem. And 180 days only gets them to That's for the receival of the clay tiles. Yeah. They don't 180 days doesn't even get them to where the tiles are going to be received per this projected schedule. What if you gave them a certain number of days after receiving the tiles? What's the expectation for that? 90 days or so. I mean, we really rely on their construction schedule to assess and say yay or nay to we cannot do. Well, I know that's why they asked for 3659. That's why they asked for 359 days because
027they're they want to make sure they give themselves plenty of time to finish this. My thing is is what's justified? what's you know there's a six-month delay in their project they already knew that they had to order tile so they knew that there was going to be procurement time to get the tile right but we so let's just say that we could get it in 30 days and it ended up taking 6 months instead of one month so really we should be adding five months you see what I'm saying well but I'm going to I'm going to have to disagree with you there Tom because notice proceed was in October there was a two or three week time proc process there where RFIs went back and forth. They requested an alternative manufacturer be considered with
028a better lead time that was sent to the construction department with some information about that. Ultimately, the tiles were not the appropriate configuration and I think there's also was a lead time on those tiles. There was a lead time on there. It wasn't nearly as long as Luigi, but it was still a long time. And the direction we got was proceed with Luigi, which is this manufacturer. Then there was a process of samples where we after that RFI process was done, they submitted the the the color charts and everything to us, we made initial selections, asked for samples, submitted that to the construction department. They construction requested additional samples beyond that for additional selections. So that process by itself with RFIs and that samples that took almost uh at least 9 weeks from start to
029finish. Now, that doesn't happen on day one in order to proceed, right? It took a couple of weeks to get that process going. So, I don't want to I don't think it's fair to penalize the contractor in their ordering sequence when that duration was there in the project. But what what you're think you do think it's and I'm going to quit after this. I got enough battles to fight in my head already. They were delayed 180 days according to the manufacturer and the supplier. So, not only we giving them 180 days, the original contract called for 120 days total. So, you take the 120 and you take the 180, now we're at 300 if we gave them everything, but now we're still giving them 359. And if you think of this as $1,000 a day,
030that's a public body giving a contractor $59,000 to say you don't owe us. And my thing is the change order should reflect exactly what they were affected. They were affected for a six-month window. If we can back up and say it took us too long to approve the tile, come up with some days in there, but it should never go above the 120 because that's what the whole project should have taken to start with and then I'm going to quit on that. We can vote however y'all want to. Yes, ma'am. My question looking at these pictures. So, the roof was ripped off. It's that's a different It's a different There's a shingle there's a shingle roof part of this project and a tile part. cuz what I was want to know what it's a single
031roof. So all the rest of the work was done well within the contract limits contract time other than this this tile. What is left on this project? Just putting the tiles on just the tie. That was my question. So So my question is is okay. It's going to take I'm sorry. In the SPS roof at the very top of that because there's a flat roof portion of that building. So that's all tied together. So they have to do that part with the tile. So what we're initially have left is demo once the tiles come in. demo and then install them, right? And they're thinking it's going to take 359 extra days to do that starting from the end where their contract time expired back in February. That's what they're projecting based on the delivery schedule
032they received for procurement of those tiles and then the in the demo and then the installation that has to happen after that. And this all again just to reiterate that way I can we have it on record. All this was because we took our sweet time in construction part of picking tiles and not necessarily because you still had the overall duration of from order to delivery for these tiles. Not just anybody can produce these tiles. So it was going to be well beyond the construction time. I mean, the information that we received early on when we put the documents out was a much shorter duration to anticipate, but we're kind of at the I'm just curious how we got to this point where we're so far off of our original number. That That's what I'm
033just trying to figure out is Would you say a lot of this is because the company did not have that particular match for the towels that this is a special order. Special this is a special order, right? Yes. So, I mean I mean they they may have they may have had to go through reconfiguration of Oh, yeah. This this is being built from scratch. It's not off the shelf. So, they they match they're matching the tiles that are that are I got you. I mean, it's a profile they manufacture, but they don't manufacture it and have it in stock all the time. They have to produce it. But you take the 120 and add the 359. That's where I get into the 4 and 80 days for the project. So, could you clarify that? So
034the project was 120 days. They want an additional this is on top of they want to add an additional 359 and not take any consideration for the 120 we gave them. But it it says add a total of 359 that's on top. That's what they're asking. So a year and a half to re-roof a bill two years to re-roof a February. Is it February of 26? That is that the date? That's the date that they're well it's actually the beginning of March is what they're projecting for completion of entire completion. So and that's specific to that portion of the main of the old building with the tiles and then that flat roof portion that's integral to that. Um as I said they finished all the other work that was part of the contract well within
035that time frame. And I mean the timeline that I have in front of me shows that roofing says that roofing solutions ordered the tiles on the at the beginning of January. So January 7th. Look at the invoice. I don't I didn't look at the bill of leading. Yeah. Look at the invoice and it shows the date. Okay. So if they if they ordered in January, what is July? Do we not have the tiles yet? Oh, no. You're not they're not projected to get the tiles per the schedule I'm looking at until that's their dates though, Ryan. If you look at what the order says is 6 months from February. So it's supposed to be here in August. Said the first week of August is delivery and then they have to then they have to install
036it. Rose the contractor is held up because the service trying to figure out when they're supposed to be here and they and they may or may not show up then. Huh. So my it may not my only concern and it and it kind of revolves with Tom if we give them too many day I I if we got to extend it we got to extend it. I mean there's no if hands or butts but you don't want to extend it too much to where they cuz I mean if all they have left is demo and and repair what if they go get another job they focus on that one and we get on the side burner for the next 6 months just because this is a small portion of a job that they got left
037to do. I mean we know that's how contractors work, right? They're going to go find where the money's at. Well, the I mean, I just want to make sure they The good ones would like to get it done and get it over and get out because they still their labor never gets any cheaper. Yeah. I just don't want to give them too many days and then they go and and do I'm just saying I cuz I I get where he's coming from on the time. I I know we have to extend it. There's no doubt about it cuz you're not going to get the job done. Number one factor you got to consider, Joey, is whether or not they can get the material. They can't install something they don't have, right? something. Look, let's we
038can move this along because this really is not what we're here to discuss or debate too long, but we can. So, in seven months, you're saying in seven months from now, it will be totally complete. That's what the that's what the schedule they had given us says that they will be complete at that time. March 3rd, I think, is what the schedule that was included with the change order. Can you tell me what can you tell me what what uh what portion of the Can you tell me what portion of the of the of these tiles on the roof we're actually replacing? Are we I believe it's the entirety of the roof replacing the there was a significant amount of damage to the to the roof. Okay. So, we're trying to go back with an
039identical match, right? So, the options right now, we either amend this and change the date or we vote up or down on the change order. But what if we vote no? Then what? I mean, no send it goes back. It goes back to Ben. Yeah. We If we vote no, we're just going to be right back here discussing the same issues. I just be honest with you with realistic numbers though. I think these are very realistic, but it's y'all do the math. I have I have one more. I'm never been this confused in my entire life. It is what it is because we need a new roof and they're doing it ordinary. But if they're getting 359 days, how are they going to be done in February? Right. You see, that's cuz they're extending their
040contract 350. They're already late. They're already late. So, this is just extending. That's what I was confused about. They they asking for they're asking for days to get them to the finish line. I understand. Okay. That that clears it all up. Okay. So, what's the wishes of the board in seven months? Can we can we discuss what what's the the date or how long we think that it would be fair to give them? Well, their order time is 180 days according to their supplier. 180 days, which was not expected. That's 6 months. Nobody expected that. Whenever we did the contract at 120 days, that was not it was unforeseen. So, there's a six-month delay regardless. Okay. But what they're saying is there's also some delay there in getting the tile corrected correctly picked out the
041right tile or whatever. But you know what about an amendment to the end of the year? That's what Yeah. Whatever days that would be just extend it to December 31st and see where we are and then come back to us. Hopefully hopefully it's done. But that would only about 56 days left of what he want. At the end of the day, it's it's it's you know, we we want contractors to do work for us and we want contractors to be responsible. Um and and Ryan knows me. I mean, the the the point that gets me is when a contractor always asks for the moon and we have to do our due diligence to make sure that what they're asking for is legitimate. And in my opinion, I think they're shooting for the moon. I think
042we should dial it back. But at the end of the day, we want a good roof on the school. Fifth. So that would be right. Yeah. So you just want to amend it by adding 320 days. Okay. Motion's been amended for the change order to read 320 days. Bring it to there. Second. We have a second. Any questions on the amendment? Then let's vote on the motion as this vote on the amendment. I'm sorry. The motion, the amendment is to change the date, the number to 320 and will this time I'm assuming I guess we go the schedule of that that's going to be from the original substance completion date or right I mean the contract completion date would have completion made the motion Mr. I did Mr. West Mr. Westland made the motion Mr.
043PZ has a second the amendment. This is the first on this new system. So bear with me. I have motion to amend the change to change the extension of days from 359 to 320. Correct. Correct. Do y'all see that on your machine? Yes. Wait a minute. It's at the bottom. Do y'all see that? Is there no? Now, I hope you all understand before you vote again, there's no extended conditions. There's no additional overhead, anything like that they're asking for. It's strictly time associated with this because they were going to remobilize to the site, right? motion carries. Okay, vote on the motion as amended. Mot question one more. Vot's been called for on the original motion as amended. So, if all the rest of the roof is finished except for the tiles, are the tiles leaking
044into the school? I mean, is this No, this is There's broken ones. Yeah. All right. Yeah, there's broken ones. They end up falling off. Make sure we're not going to end up like punched high with the leaking roof. Tell them to buy some extra in case something fall off. But you got to put the same. You got to put this in. And while we're getting this set up, any idea the age on that roof? Is that original or got to be close? I say it's got to be close. I was just curious on that. Voting is open. Adorable. Long tile. Yeah, it's heavy, too. Depending on the tile, it's a long roof, buddy. Motion carries. All right. Moving on to consider approval to name Independence High Magnet Schools football field after coach Baglio. Drop me.
045Yes. I'm going to take some quotes from uh Northshore media team. Um, one of the most successful high school football coaches in Louisiana, Charles Baglio, better known as Coach Bags, was a devout Catholic and living proof of what it takes to be successful in a game of football in life. His favorites were spending time with his family, playing golf, going to the casino, and attending sporting events. His wife of 40 years, five children, nine grandchildren, and 22 greatg grandandchildren were his pride and joy. Coach Bags was a 1967 Southeastern Louisiana University grad who spent 34 years on the sidelines at Independence High School, 22 as the head coach. His success on the sidelines earned him a place in the LHSAA and the NHSACA Halls of Fame. He co-founded the LF LFCA, played an intricral part
046in shaping the LHSCA, and served as the LHSCA president on the executive committee. In 2002, he joined the LSU football team under the coach Sabin. He served as the university's high school liaison and was part of the national championship teams under Sabin, Les Miles, and Coach Ersron. Some knew him as Charles, others knew him as Charlie. His players and his students knew him as Coach Bags, and his colleagues and other coaches knew him as Bags or Brim. We would like to make a motion at this time to name Independence High School's football field after coach Charlie Baglio. I was humbled to be the chairman of the 2024 Sicilian Festival where Mr. Coach B. Well, Coach Bags was the grand marshal. I was his former student and I can attest to the dedication he taught to
047all of us and all who interacted with him. His positive attitude and influence have had a lasting impact on my life and so many others in Tangaho Parish. I would like to make a motion that we dedicate and name Independence High School football field after coach Charlie Baglia. Motion made second by Mr. Anthony, any discussion? Good idea. Very good idea. Questions, comments, or public input. I think it's a a good good use of our time and a good use of our resources to do that. I know the family will appreciate it. So, call for a vote. Voting is open. And this does meet our current policy. Motion carries. Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Superintendent report. I think I'm just going to go down there. See the board? The big screen. Okay. You have
048that little clicker. Have you seen these? Okay. Yeah. I don't know if I can put this in this. Just bring it up and we'll advance it. Okay. You can do it. It's fine. Yep. Okay. Wait. Let me I'm sorry. Slide it over. Yeah. All right. So, you all know that this past school year, 24-25 year, um our theme was accept the challenge and we really identified three big priorities. One was attendance, student attendance, which also impacted employee attendance. Uh the second big rock was good teaching and learning with interventions for reading and math. And then the third one was positive school culture. And let me just say that our teachers and our principles and all of our schools really accepted the challenge and um I'm just very impressed with the work and the results that
049they have for this year uh in their and the students and the student results uh which we've been waiting for. And we we started off, you know, I don't know about a month or so ago with our Dibbles before school was out with our Dibbles reading assessments which was very promising. Um we surpassed the state growth on Dibbles which more kids were reading on level or higher uh what we call proficient. Um that was very encouraging to us. So we felt like we were doing the right things uh and best practices. And then last week we received the LEAP results and um I think it was on Wednesday of last week I I received a text from our state superintendent congratulating our parish on the growth and the results. Um and so I knew then
050that we were going to have some really good results. And so I want to um share that with you. You know, the goal used to be let's get try to get kids to basic, which you know, you think about average. Now, the goal is to get them to advanced or mastery because what we know is that if we can get a a student to score advanced, which is the highest level, or mastery next to that, they have a very high success rate in college if they choose to go to college. we know they can finish college and they're prepared and or if they go straight into the workforce, we know that they will do well and have a successful career. Uh so that's why we move the goal to advanced and mastery and our students
051are accepting the challenge because we have more kids scoring that. So you'll see here this was copied from the department of ed. They did a Zoom call on Friday with all the superintendents in the state and they listed here the top 10 parishes with overall in grades three through eight, we had more kids scoring advanced in mastery. So you can see here that we had a 2% increase overall, all grade levels. This is all subjects, ELA, math, science, um you know, high school subjects, um algebra 1, English one, geometry, all that. And we were, you can see here, we were uh up to points in proficiency. Uh on the next slide, you know, well, we experienced growth in all those levels. This is an important fact to know. 68% of our schools grew the percentage
052of kids proficient. That's your high two levels, advanced mastery. So 68% of our schools grew proficiency. Um we actually I'm going to show you on the next slide, but we were top 10 uh districts in proficiency and we had more proficiency growth than our neighboring parishes. I'll show you that slide uh from the state site. And we know that well I'll talk about you know why we think we're getting these results. Um but let's look at the next slide. So this one looks at um elementary. Um this is I believe 3 through eight. Yeah, 3 through eight. And on the right side you'll see algebra 1 in the high school. So focus in on the yellow column. Just zoom in on the yellow column. You'll see there that Tahoe had a 3% Well, we had
053three. What happened to that one? Go back. Yeah, there. There we are. a 3%. Wait, that's math. Go back. There should be one before that. This all. Okay, that one. I'm trying to Okay, don't touch it. All right, this is all subjects. All right, all subjects and elementary, you know, three through eight in the yellow middle yellow column and then high school on the right. But you'll see in the elementary is that's a three. So, we had a 3% gain in kids that were advanced in mastery. And look, we had um these are our neighboring districts. You know, Livingston had 1% gain, St. Helina dropped, you know, St. Tammy dropped uh and their numbers of proficient at 3 through 8. Then you go to the right hand column, you can see 001, Tangi 2, and
054then 0 0. So, that's encouraging because that tells me that we're closing the gap. We're getting we're getting closer in the race. We're we're on their heels now. Maybe not quite on their heels, but we're getting close. All right, let's look at the next slide. Is this one? This is just looking at ELA only. ELA reading in the middle 3 through eight. You see 0gative 1gative is that a negative -2? Okay. -3 3 tangenti -2 1. So when you when I look at that what I see is that our interventions that we did and we did the the challenge of the week every week and we shouted out our schools that were doing those interventions with kids is making a difference. And we have good core, which means kids are getting good instruction and reading
055period. Okay. On the far right, which is high school, that yellow box going down, you see 0 0 1. I feel like I'm doing an eye test here. -2 01. So again in our in our reg in our little area here and in our neighboring places we led the pack there on that as well. Next one is math. Next slide you'll see math. So center column. Now here uh statewide it was 2% increase. We we surpassed the state with 3% uh in proficiency. And then you can see Livingston they did the same as us 3%. And then 0 0 1 2 and then all the way to the right that's 3 through 8. These are our and high school um algebra 1 and um geometry on that side. You can see three again 3% increase
056uh in advanced mastery. All right. Next one is science. So you can see that one as well. we had a 1% where uh it looks like um city of Bugaloosa incre they actually had a two 2% increase in their overall proficiency. And then over on the right side which is uh 3 through 8 um and biology you can see there the change one 1% increase. All right. And then let's go to the next. What's next? Oh, here we go. So when you when you're looking I thought it was important to kind of look at our neighboring districts because a lot of times that's what we want to see you know compare see how we're doing there. We know we're in the top 10 in the state in terms of increasing proficiency. On this particular slide
057it's just showing on in the growth overall in ELA uh and science we saw 1% overall increase and this is districtwide. Math showed a more significant gain. You know, we did the Zern interventions which is a very powerful intervention for math and we did it well and we we actually had great increase there um with that. So in math so let's go to the next one. This is uh core content proficiency. So again this is students in grades four, five, six and eight. They achieved more than 5% increase in ELA proficiency. And in math, all grade levels three through eight showed gains ranging from a 1% increase to a four. That's pretty impressive. That goes back to good teaching and learning in the classroom and Zarn interventions. That's what made a difference there. And attendance,
058you know, if you're at school. Uh the last bullet is fifth grade students demonstrated strong growth in science with an 8% increase in proficiency. So we were impressed with our fifth graders there in science. Now, this is our eighth graders who are taking algebra 1 and al um I'm sorry, English one and algebra 1 and there's a, you know, a test they they take the leap to and they're they're in eighth grade, but they're taking the English one test or they're taking algebra 1 test. And 84% of our eighth graders who took English one in 8th grade and took the LEAP test, they took LEAP test, they scored mastery in advance, not not basic, not approaching, they're taking high school coursework and they're scoring master in advance. And then in the math piece, 92% of
059our eighth graders who took algebra 1 scored mastery in advance. So that's that's something that's great success there. Um on the next slide, we're going to get into some school levels. And I shared all the school results with you, but we wanted to share this publicly. We had seven schools in our district increase by more than 5% proficiency and three through 8th uh grade ELA. And three double-digit schools was Ame Elementary double digit and getting kids to advance in mastery. Kentwood High seventh and eighth graders um were 10% double digits getting kids to advance in mastery. And then Martha Vineyard and Punch Tula who had a new principal this year uh Dr. Hugat and um you know many times when we have a brand new principal at a school the first year they they drop
060a little. It's an adjustment. Uh but they did they they really came out very strong at Vineyard uh on their results this year. And then the next slide is in math. Uh grades 3 through 8, we had seven schools increase proficiency by 5% or more. And Sar Middle had a 7% increase in math. Vineyard had a 6%, Hammond Westside had 6%. Uh Ame Elementary 5%, Lurange Middle School 5%, DC Ree 5%, and Willen Park 5% increase. This is all math. Uh that's 5% 6% 7% whatever more proficient advanced mastery in math at these schools. The next slide is uh growth in 9th through 12th grade. Um and as a district we saw increased proficiency in all six tested high school subjects. I'm going to say that again. We saw increased proficiency in all six tested
061high school subjects. English one in high school achieved gains 5% or more. That's Jules Sumner uh had 22% gains in the number of kids scoring advance in mastery. Independence High School 9% and Kentwood High School 6%. Next slide. This is English two. We had two high schools achieve gains of 5% or more. Hammond High had 11% double digit and Lauranji High had double digit in English 2 proficiency this year. [Applause] In biology we had in high school biology we had two high schools gain 5% or more. That's Hammond High had 5% increased proficiency and Lauran High. Uh, Independence High School led the district in algebra 1 um with 8% more of their students scoring advanced and mastery. Uh, growth in n in grades 9 through 12. In geometry, we had four high schools recorded grow
062uh growth. We had lang high 5% increase proficiency. uh Hammond High six, Joel Sumner six, Kentwood High six, more ma more advanced in mastery growth in 9 through 12 for US history. Punchula High School had a 15% uh of their more of their students score advance and mastery. Uh Jules Sar High School had 10%. Kentwood High School had 7% more of their kids score advance and mastery and Amy High had 5% more of their students scoring advance and mastery. So, we're proud of our gains this year. We need to commend our staff, our teachers, our principles out in our schools for accepting the challenge, moving our students toward proficiency because that's the goal that we're trying to hit, not basic. Um, we're ready for this next year to level up and continue to accept the
063challenge is accepted. That's our theme this upcoming year. Game on. And I believe that um we know now we know uh the secret. We know what to do to move the scores. Okay. We know kids have to be at school every day. We're we're going to do a huge uh communication um campaign around attendance this year. We're going to really beef it up because our elementary, let's see if I can remember this. We're about 90% attendance rate for our elementary schools and for high school we're like 88%. 87 maybe. And so we've got to really beef up attendance. We know that's important. Number two, we know good teaching and learning in the classroom, which our teachers are working hard doing that makes a difference. But more important than that even is we know that when
064kids have interventions in reading and math, it will improve their proficiency. There's no question. So, we're going to we're not really changing a lot this year. We're staying with, you know, challenge accepted, game on, level up. We're staying with our three big rocks, attendance, instruction, and intervention, and school culture. You know, how how do I feel when I'm at school? Do I feel safe? Do I feel, you know, welcome? All that matters. Um that it contributes to student learning. We're going to continue that. Um we're going to put pair professionals in every kindergarten classroom. That's going to be new. We want a teacher and a parah in every kindergarten classroom. No, these are not new paras. A couple y'all looked up like, "Oh my gosh, more money." No, these are taking existing parish and putting
065them with our youngest children so that they can help us with reinforcing the reading because we know third grade is the key grade for being proficient in reading and being on level. So, we're going to take our pairs and put them in kindergarten. Uh, we're going to try to shift more down to first grade and second grade until we run out of pairs. Um, we know we have pairs that are child specifics already. They're going to remain that. We have pairs for medical reasons for children. We're going to keep all that just like it is. Um, but that'll that'll be something new that we're doing and we're really going to um even become more serious about supporting our schools, especially we do have some schools that had a little loss in proficiency. We know who
066they are. we're going to work with them and we're going to make sure that those kids are getting the interventions that they need every day uh during the school day so that you know those kids will be proficient this upcoming year. So this is not a one-year thing. I think we're going to continue um to see the growth uh every year. It's going to get better. We're going to continue to close the gap with our neighboring parishes. Um, and there's no reason why Tancho Parish public school system can't be a a district. There's no reason for it. And we're getting there, but you know, we're we're running. We're catching up. We're on the heels. We'll get to them. Um, and so that's the the leap update. And I want to thank the board um for
067your support of the administration when we come to you guys for recommendations and stuff because you know we really do research and think about you know what are other what are districts that are a districts what are they doing what can we do better we do that all the time and so um you know what can we add to what we're currently doing to keep getting the good results we're getting um so we appreciate your support. The the things that you guys have done around tightening up policy around uh fights at school. We you know we've reduced our fighting at school. Um all of those are positive signs. We do our surveys with students and parents and um let's see and employees, teachers to get their feedback on how we can make their school environment
068better. So we're going to continue to do all that and I want to thank y'all for your support. The second thing I want to mention on my update is we have 60 prek spots still available at Woodland Park in Hammond at Midway Elementary School in Natal Benny at Nataly's area. Nissome has prek spots and Independence Leadership Academy still has prek spots. So, help us spread the word that anyone that hadn't registered for prek and they're trying to get in, we still have 60 seats that we need to fill. We're going to be pushing this out on social media and all that because we also know that the earlier we can get kids, you know, in school in a organized classroom like that, the better prepared, the better chance they're going to have to be proficient
069in third grade uh for reading uh at the end of third grade. So, we know that as well. And any questions for me about anything about, you know, the results or the prek? I'll try to answer the pre-K stuff. No. Well, um, superintendent, I guess I'm so proud of uh our teachers and your staff and everyone cuz we I believe that we could be an A Yes. school, too. We're hoping we hit the B mark this year. Yes. you we're a C district and so a goal for us is to be B and you know the the state I forgot to say that but the state accountability the school performance scores and the uh district score will come out like in usually it's like early November maybe Octo end of October but it'll come out
070about that time and so we're hopeful that we will hit the B mark this year for a B district is a B district uh Livingston is a district So, I feel like we're we're getting there. And um anyway, we appreciate your support. Um and you know, when when people call and ask, you know, why are we doing interventions or why are we moving Paris to kindergarten? You know, it's all for a reason. Um and it's it's to improve those proficiency levels. What about Independence High? I know we were at a um a C level. How close are we to a B Independence High? Um I really I'm not sure. We we haven't we haven't done the calc so we can do mock calculations but there's some indices that we don't have u yet. So that's
071why we you know that was a question I asked Dr. Faccell a few days ago was can we do um can we try to figure our own SPS right now we we're still missing some stuff like the data. So, as soon as we get that in, which you know should be over the course of the next month, so we can kind of figure our own and then the official one from the state will come out uh in November. Usually by early November, they'll come out. But I think, you know, independent score, I mean, they were doing well on their state assessments in all those areas. Thank you. Any other questions? I have one more update. Go ahead. Miss Jenkins, would you join me? The last time I stood up here, I accepted this job. Tonight,
072after over 31 years, I'm retiring. No. Oh, yeah. Yeah. 95 years. That's good. It's been a It's been a pleasure and a challenge working with so many dedicated individuals, past and present board members and our superintendent. But um I'm grateful for all the experiences, opportunities, and friendships I've made during these 31 years. So when are you going to be leaving us? Yeah. Um I'm thinking end of August, midepptember until Miss Dilly can get somebody to take my place and they're trained. The new software was the last draw. Is that what it was? No. So Cindy, we appreciate your um you know, dedication all these years and um all that you've done. You know, you're so good at what you do. Um, but we understand, you know, your parents are getting older and you want to
073spend some time with them as well. And, um, I will be having a big I need to update the job description because it's probably, I don't know, 1997. So, Tuesday, um, at the next meeting, uh, we we'll have a personnel and we we're going to try to update, uh, the job description and bring it to y'all for approval. And then once we get it approved, we can advertise. But you're gonna be hard. Oh, no. I'm gonna teach you the person how to really boss y'all around. I don't want you to leave till I have to get off. Oh, I'm sad. Okay. Thank y'all. Thank you for sharing. We'll miss you. Anything else? All right. Start on this end. Miss Rose, I'm sad. I don't want to hurt you. I'm sorry. We've been friends since high
074school, so I've been with her this whole time. I hate it, but you've been amazing. We love you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Well said, Mr. Piaza. I'm going to echo what Miss Rose said. I don't have much to say tonight other than uh you know that I didn't get as much time as this one did with you, but the little bit of time I did get with you, Miss Cindy, you've been a a godsend. My you know, first day here, and I'm sure Trent can echo this, is it's a big learning curve to get up here and to do the things we do. And without people like you and what you've done for me to get me in my my feet wet, I can never thank you enough for that. So, thank you
075so much. I'm going to miss you. Again, I didn't get as long as Miss Rose, but the impact was there. And I know you did you didn't want to say it, but I know I drove you away. I know my my aggravation. And so, I'm so sorry for that, but I'm going to miss the heck out of you. And thank you for all that you've done for me personally in this role. So, thank you, Mr. That's That's true, Joey. I'm blaming you. I go ahead. My wife can concur, too. I'm sure. No. Um, well, you know, my sentiment, you know, it's going to it's going to match everybody else's sentiment, you know. Um, It was your hugs, huh? It was your hugs. My what? Your hugs. Yes, you did. Uh, I think that's probably what
076was kept her here for as long as I did. But anyway, uh I I I too am going to, you know, I missed your guidance and nobody's going to replace you. We're going to get somebody to come in and be Melissa secretary, but no, we're not we're not going to replace you. That's not going to happen. We can't do that. Thank you. [Music] Mr. West, congratulations to our district. uh superintendent all the way down on the uh leap results and I echo what she says there's no reason our district can't be a B and then from there just keep going so congratulations to everybody and Miss Cindy same con man you helped me many many a time and I thank you very much and we've trusted you and you've never let us down so if
077you ever need anything you know where we at and I hope you come back and visit this. She's saying no. Cindy, you know I'm the party planner, so we're going to have a big party before you leave. Get it? Okay. Special drinks, too. Okay. We're going to miss you so much. Um, I want to say congratulations to Independence High School. Um, being the first year principal, Dr. Sanders did an amazing job this year with Independence. I can't be any more proud of the the students and the faculty there. Um, also thank you guys for naming the field after coach Baglio. Um, sent his granddaughter a text and she's elated. She said it's just been very hard missing him so much and he did so much for the communities around us and everybody knows that name.
078I do want to put out there with um since everybody's I know is going to be watching this um there's been some miscommunication on um shutting schools down. Um Ameat Independence uh Kentwood um I for one will not ever vote for that. I never have any intentions although I don't have much longer on this board because as it's been announced I won't be running again. But I know a lot of people on this board have that feeling uh the same feeling. So if you are out there and you had any um inkling or you've heard anything about this, I will be voting no on anything that comes up. But that subject has not come up with this board and I don't think it'll be coming up in the near future. Not when Independence High has
079scores going up the way they did. They had 88 graduate this year. When I graduated in 1985, we only had 86. So the numbers are not going down at Independence. They're only improving. So that's I wanted that to be known that I will never vote for Independence High School to be closed. Thank you, Mr. Cindy. You just done took the win out. Girl, girl, you helped me so much. So I I couldn't have done it without you. And I just want to say thank you and I I really wish you the best. um it will affect my decisions. Um, also I I want to echo what Robin um and we we do apologize as a board that you know the miscommunication is out there cuz you know our employees, y'all worked so hard and all
080of the achievements and we have the the the scores up and you should be going now and enjoying your summer and having a good time and coming back ready for our kids not worrying about whether you're going to have a job or not. That's unfair. So, that rumor makes that really, really bad. Go celebrate. Enjoy your summer. We love you. We appreciate you and we would never do that to you. Not in an instance like that. Thank you. Thank you. Um, yeah, I just want to say congratulations to to our executive team, principals, teachers. I mean, this is this is a huge deal when you have even if it's a slight improvement. It's so much better than going the opposite direction. So, I'm just really proud of everybody. Um, and it it just it's just
081across the board, including with us sitting up here. I mean, cuz we support the executive team when they ask ask us for something, we generally speaking give it to them. And I think that's important. I feel like we have just a really good team. And um you know when I when I ran for this position, it seemed like um I mean I know the school district was in good shape and we haven't done anything incredible, but I feel like we've just all worked well together. And um I feel like again just a really solid team. Speaking of which, I don't know how we replace this teammate here because Miss Jenkins, I'm I have no means for comparison, but I'd be willing to bet that there's not another secretary or board secretary in the state of
082Louisiana as good as you, as thoughtful as you, as polite as you. So, we're definitely going to miss you. So, I wish you'd stay around just a little while longer, but if not, I understand. But thank you very much for what you've done, too. You will get to get a whole new secretary for your year. We'll get to go through the growing pains. Oh, that's and then we'll really realize what we're missing with Miss Cindy. Miss Cindy, we we do love you. We appreciate all your hard work and um we will miss you greatly. Um also congratulations on our scores. I think we're heading in the right direction with respect to that and moving in the right direction and that represents a lot of hard work from our administrators administration, our teachers and all the
083parents and everybody else that put forth the effort in this. But I would be remiss without saying this tonight and I've already spoke to Miss Stilly about this. I spoke to some of the board members or just a few. You know, to say that I'm upset would be a big understatement about the dismantling of our construction department doing away with these positions. I I like most people up here probably are aggravated and we get concerned about the speed of progress. But for me, that's the biggest thing I think are I'm I'm grateful for grades. I'm grateful for this, but without good facilities, we cannot put seats or kids in seats. We cannot feed people if we don't have the right cafeterias. And I continue to see the same facility problems over and over and over
084again. Was this the right call? Time will tell. But personally, I apologize to each and every one of those employees because we let them go in a way that is not true to our values here at this school system. In my opinion, we were not kind. We were not compassionate. We fired people by email, which really hurts my feelings as being board president to be a president of an organization that fired people on one day by email and told them to go packing and then close off their accounts immediately. That is not the school system that I want to represent as board president. If that's the direction we're going, I'm out of here, too. Just that simple. If we don't like somebody in a position or if we find that they're ineffective, hats off to
085us for replacing them. Lord knows we've not done a good job of that in the past. We've promoted people that were ineffective instead of getting rid of them. But in this situation, we just got rid of them because we think they're ineffective. You have big shoes to fill now. You're by yourself. I hope you're willing to give us your cell phone number so we can call you to get updates on projects and all the different things that are going on in the school system because just like I said earlier in the other meeting, we just put did four new job descriptions for people to help support families and schools, which are all great, but we got rid of four people. And then the trickle down effect of that is other supervisors that left because of
086that decision that we need those positions to help us move forward with facilities. We have facility problems. Time will tell whether it was an employee problem or it was a leadership problem. In my personal opinion, I don't think we led them correctly and I don't think we set them up for success. And I think that's a failure of this school system and the school board administration by not fully supporting a group of employees that had good intentions. And I'm going to leave it there. I'll have more to say. I I've asked Milly for a few questions to be answered. I've asked Mr. McNeely to provide me with a spreadsheet of some accusations. Uh I hope that I get these answers and it'll be over at that point. Anybody else want to add anything? I think
087I'm supposed to talk about the safety summit that I just attended. So, um, the National Cosmo organization, we and Mr. Jenko and his wife went as one of our administrators and myself and I think we learned we it was eyeopening the the safety measures that need to be installed in our schools and in our facilities and just even in our classrooms as far as educating on computer technology and the way things get in you know our system and we all know we've been hacked we've had other things so we I think it was to me major eye opening I really enjoyed the time with Mr. Jeno and his wife to network and and to, you know, talk about what they were telling us. So, um, you know, I don't think Mr. Jeno needs CLUs, but
088that has to be in the record for me. I know he enjoyed it and uh, so I appreciate the opportunity that we got to go. And most of y'all know that my flight got cancelled among the hund plus 100 other thousand people in the airport. I ended up having to get a train home for a 12-hour ride. And it was quite an ordeal, but I made it. And it was an experience I won't want to repeat anytime soon, but I for the grace of God, I was able to get get to the train station and catch a ride home before that last train left out. So, anyway, it was a lot of fun. So, thank you, Tom. Tom, I uh I would just like to add, you know, I match your sentiment. Um I I
089you know I thought that uh the u department that was handling our facilities was doing a great job. I I know that a lot of members were anxious about getting things done. Um, my review of of uh of the professionalism and the amount of uh um of of of time and expertise that were being put into making sure that we were getting contractors who were qualified and um I mean those things take time. You know, my experience, I know that, you know, uh, reviewing contractors, reviewing architects, reviewing other engineering personnel, it takes a certain level of expertise. And, uh, I know that that slowed the process down and we were not used to having that because we had not have had not had that. And I know it made a lot of us anxious about
090getting projects done. But um I you know I I but I I do feel that um that we had someone in place who was doing doing an excellent job and so I was very disappointed over to the decision to let them go as well. Right. With that being said, I'll entertain a motion to enter executive session to discuss. Motion made Westerland second by Mr. Piaz. Any opposition? Hearing none. Motion carries. Channel 17, proudly serving the Florida parishes. All right, meeting is called back to order. Uh, no action needed from executive session. Hearing no other business, we will adjourn the meeting.