001if I can get everybody's attention please we'll call this meeting to order for March the 18th we'll start with a roll call Miss Jenkins Abrams here M Richards Mr Moore here Mr Toller Mr Anthony here Mr pza here M Dominguez Mr West Morland Mr Duncan he's here right outside Mr Anthony you want to introduce all right uh first we're going to invite in the Puna Junior High Civil Air Patrol they're going to present the colors for us all right I'm going to call up as the guys come in to present the colors Mr Tyreek Jordan he's going to come to recite the pledge for us and of course we'll recite it along with him Mr Jordan a 16-year-old sophomore at puncha high school his teacher wrote some really nice things about him they said he
002is very kind respectful and a super hard worker and they um she mentioned we need to congratulate him because he just competed in the parish bowling tournament and he got second [Applause] place alance 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 we have Mr car with the p tool Junior High School band director he's got some his select band members here for the national an [Music] the la [Music] [Applause] you guys may be seated thank you thank you for that and Van did a great job thank you all right Adam D consider approval of the board minutes from March the 11th 2025 do I hear a motion motion made by Mr Westland second by Mr
003pza any discussion hearing none we'll call for a vote voting is open yes yes voting is closed motion passes unanimously all right out of me consider approval of the DRC appeal from the board minutes of March 11th of this year motion made by m Dominguez second by Mr Westland any discussion hearing n call for a vote voting is open voting is closed motion passes unanimously thank you item 2A Rec the 2024 and 25 lmea all state music students Dr Lisa fael if you would come up good evening uh I am immediately turning this over to the experts Mr James square and Miss Stephanie Robertson who are going to talk to you about the competition and recognize our students all right well thank you uh thank you for doing this first of all and for recognizing
004our students it is a lot of work that they do to be selected to this honor Ensemble uh for those who do not know me I am the choir director at pona high school I also serve as the District 9 District director for lmea where I oversee the band and choir programs and events for tant Parish St Tam Parish uh Washington and St elen Parish are also in there and so um this is a big deal these students who are selected to All State go through an audition process it's actually two levels of a recorded audition and then they are selected it's the top the cream of the crop from across the state uh and the event happened in January in New Orleans this year so so we have several students this year which is
005exciting from Tang poo Parish uh across our school system so we are excited to recognize them tonight I'm James Square uh it's kind of like being back home I've been across the parish in different capacities at this time my my my job and it's really not a job it's a joy to do it I'm the music resource teacher for our Parish so I travel from north to south east to west try to hit all of our schools and give actual onsight support for our music teachers and it's a thrill to see that we have so many of our students that have accomplished this high level of of achievement making the Allstate band being a former allor myself I can attest that there is a lot of Home practice parents hear the same udes and scales
006over and over and over again and each time we we hope that they see some improvement or hear that Improvement and the number of students that we have representing canall Parish really speaks to the work that our teachers do that parents and communities do in support of our students but mostly what they do in going home and practicing 20 minutes a day at least so they can achieve this I'm going to turn it back over to Stephanie and thank you Stephanie for the good work that you do for our four parishes in our region uh part of my other um responsibility statement why is uh I am the chairman of our diversity inclusion and Equity committee and it is because our members showed up uh at an lmea actually lmea came to the School Board
007Association uh convention a few years ago to talk about what we could do in underserved areas like ourselves and music so thank you all for all of your support and expanding all of our music programs and thank you so much for what you do in supporting all of our students [Applause] okay so when I call your name if you can just come forward yeah just come come around and hey so from patula high school all state Jazz Ensemble Braden Owens uh from pona high school all state symphonic band Abigail Mars from ponchatula high school all state symphonic band Zachary [Applause] Lobel from ponchatula high school all state concert band Alex Rodriguez from punch High School All State concert band Marlon [Applause] bagnet from Pula High School All State concert band Tommy krier from ponchatula high
008school all state mixed choir Leah [Applause] Lopez uh from pona high school all state mixed choir Remy dubre he's unable to make it tonight he's actually in a play at the Columbia theater this weekend and so he's at rehearsal uh from pona high school all state mixed choir Luke rishu uh from puncha high school all state treble choir Sydney Madden and she is not here tonight she has a uh music audition she's auditioning for music school um from puncha Junior High School all state junior high band Samuel Mars from Hammond High Magnet School we have all state trouble choir Piper Adams and from Hammond High Magnet School All State trouble choir Michael soy and then we have one more recognition so this is the All State um you know High state level but we also
009have um honor ensembles at our district level like I said I am District nine so of the students who are standing up here how many of you participated in the district honor ensembles raise your hand honor band Honor Choir we also have three students from the junior high band back here that we'd like to recognize as well who were in the Middle School honor band and that is Jimma Hill on the flute can you stand if you here Jimma yeah Samuel Mars on the Claret who's up here and lean sharp on the French horn yes so thank you once again and I have to brag she's one of mine uh but miss Leah Lopez here is leaving tomorrow for Dallas Texas she will be representing Tano parish and her other ensembles that she's in at
010the National acda Conference and the honor ensembles in Dallas Texas so thank you if you're if you have family members or your school if you want to stand because as Mr Square said you listen to a lot of practice so families please stand Mr Square if you'll come back for a photo while Mr Square is coming forward I just want to thank the board because we they made a commitment it's one of Miss til's goals when we passed the half cent tax and the board and along with Miss Tilly have really expanded our music programs to where all of our schools have some sort of music program even our elementary schools thank you all right now from singing to dancing so we have some national champions here with this item B recognize of ponchatula high
011school wets for winning the American Allstar national dance team comp championship in hipop pop division Mr Anthony Rose and I are going to split this one up that's okay absolutely I do want to thank you guys for being here and Miss Katie wrote paragraph to kind of describe what went down when you guys competed so I'm GNA kind of read that for you guys um since this team is the first to compete nationally in punch Tula High School history so congrats on that they are a backtack overall Gul coach Regional winners competing in the game day hip hop and the pal category they are the reigning 2025 hip hop national champions but no one should overlook the amazing accomplishment of ranking nationally in every single category they won a bronze medal in the B division
012they ranked fourth overall in Dame day which was the biggest division with some steep competition they brought a little bit of PHS and squad on Friday night to Disney World they Pride themselves in supporting everything s in fact she said you guys are headed to a game right after this to support the baseball team and uh from The Amazing athletic teams to our academic success in everything that leads green and white whether they're on the field court in a parade or throughout other community events they strive to always carry themselves and representing their team school and Community with the utmost professionalism and spirit while having a ton of fun along the way this team worked incredibly hard to build this program and pushed themselves to places no one believe they could be a special thank
013to the thanks to the seniors who led the charge three years ago and finally saw all their hopes dreams and hard work come to fruition the seniors raise their hand for us they led the team to truly accept every challenge that came their way to be successful both in the classroom and on the competition dance floor so I want to say on of Parish School Board we thank yall very much we're very proud of you and I'm going to let Rose speak because Rose former way and I think that's by the way they've been fighting over this all yes welcome girls we're really proud of you and as you said I was a former way at a really long time ago actually 50 years ago I graduated so a really long time ago but uh
014one of the things that they've been doing the last several years that is above and beyond a they had a lumni night where they taught us old people how to do their dance which was extremely difficult and extremely hard and several Sundays in a row we we went and practiced and there wasn't a lot of people show up but they were there and I'm so grateful for y'all for doing that for us we had a blast and you've done it for several years and course looking forward to it next year I think I was the oldest one out there this year but I'm going to I'm going to try to do it again next year but uh it was wonderful and we thank you we're so proud of you and uh as he said Miss
015Katie Katie tyy for the ones who don't know is my niece and I'm so proud of her that she took this wette group over a few years ago and she has done excellent things with it and she brought it back to the stamina and the the style that we had years ago and so all of us old WS are really proud of y'all and proud of what you've accomplished we're proud to see you at all of the competition things now well you know no one has done that before and we're also so happy when we go to events and you're there cheering along with the cheerleaders at almost everything and so we really we really want to recognize you so I think we're going to let y'all come up now and we'll get a big
016picture in the front and if y'all will stick around after for a few minutes we're going to recognize your strawberry and by the way I love the shoes they're Shin right in my face watch all these wires I'm falling I'm calling Mr West Mr Donan how you do come man get back here there we go wait wait wait we have another picture one more y'all move too fast congratulations congratulations thank God for coming it really is incredible we have two nationally we have two nationally ranked teams now in our school system with Thea and punch Tula so that is absolutely incredible that we've had such good success out of that so yes sir item C recognized the 25 strawberry able royalty Mr minguez okay you know I'm I was needing to wear green and red
017tonight but I I picked red because you know I'm strawberry through and through and um not that I wasn't a wette through and through but uh I still am so proud that I served you know a good 10 years on the Strawberry Festival board and I'm very proud of the accomplishments we made over the years and how they've continued to improve and do things and so I invite them back every year just to you know have a little showcase about the royalty and what they do and how important the Strawberry Festival is to our our neighbors our area our Farmers you know our nonprofits couldn't survive without the Strawberry Festival every year so I try to like feature that I I was the chairman in 2004 when we actually built that Strawberry Festival building so
018I'm really proud of that and that's my logo in the middle of the floor for you royalty who may not know that and so when I go in there I'm always happy to see that and of course my daughter was strawberry Queen in 2008 so I've I've kind of what they say bleed red strawberry so um with that I would like to introduce the royalty if y'all would just go ahead and come up and stand up front with us miss um Shelly is me is their royalty coordinator and she is going to introduce each one and then they're going to say a little bit about what part they take in the process of the Strawberry Festival thank you so much for having us here tonight um I'd like to introduce yall to a the royalty
019that's going to be raining over a little Festival that we're going to have in 23 days in this town so we're going to start with our Queen and I'm GNA let them introduce ourselves so here we go hey everyone um my name is Alexis Lee and I'm going to start off by saying thank you to having us here tonight thank you for having us here tonight um a little bit about my reign so far my job as the Louisiana Strawberry Queen is to travel around the state promote voting not only our amazing Festival but people like Mr Daryl and Miss Chris right here who make it happen every year they make those strawberries grow and um you know it's it's an honor to be able to promote the strawberry industry and of course the community
020of ponchatula um it's been the honor of my life so far and um I just want to thank all of y'all the community of ponchatula for allowing me this title um with that being said I guess I'll say my little jingle um I I invite you the second weekend in April to come experience a true ponchatula staple proudly representing the hardworking strawberry farmer Statewide and the largest Festival in Louisiana I am Louisiana Strawberry Queen 53 Alexis [Applause] Lee good evening every good evening everyone I'm darl Poe the 2025 53rd annual much to Strawberry Festival King as Alexis announced that um as you see I don't speak very well but my wife and I own Landry poet forms in Springfield um most people I see here I've met at my forum and I appreciate it just
021want to let everyone know that berries are looking good and I believe you know everyone's been calling about all the cold weather that we've been getting and stuff and actually I believe pretty much all of the forers that I've talked to came through it very well um we're looking forward to the festival as of every year we um thank everybody on the festival board for recognizing us as being able to produce our state fruit um I would like to thank everyone here for inviting us tonight and everyone would thank y'all Miss Chris Freon me a little cheat so I'm Chris threaten I'm going to be your 2025 fun TOA strawberry Blossom um I'm married into the strawberry farm and I'm married to Lenny threaten weown threaten Farms Springfield and like Daryl said our berries were
022slow the weather stopped Us big time but this past two weeks they've really picked up and we're fighting to try and pick them all now um I would also like to invite you this Saturday to the Julian dwesh strawberry day in the park we will have an auction the strawberry um farmers will each put a flight in there they'll be judged and then they'll be auctioned off and the farmers really enjoy doing that and 100% of the proceeds go back to the farmer so um just look forward to participating in the Strawberry Festival and hope to see y'all there thank you so hello everyone my name is Ronda Sheridan I think I know just about everybody up here um I'm your 2025 Grand Marshall for the Strawberry Festival I'm also the City and judicial administrator
023for the city of ponchatula been doing that for 18 years and I manage our downtown ponchatula revitalization program as well so um just on behalf of everyone we want to invite you to our parade everyone knows our Festival is April 11th 12th and 13th but our parade will be on Saturday the 12th at 9:30 as we know it's one of the biggest parades that we have in the parish and it we're looking forward to that and I'm excited and honored and just can't wait I think it'll be a lot of fun um on a serious note um I wore green because I am a punch Tula graduate I had to wear my alamada clothes tonight so proudly I rep and I actually graduated here in this school before it moved out to the east side
024of town so um just honored to be beside these people um it's just a wonderful group the strawberry board I've been working with them for the 18 years that I've been with the city but until you're actually feets on the ground and you know hands on everything you don't realize how much work goes into this and um ponchatula is just blessed because the economics that it brings into our parish and into our city it's amazing that our numbers grow so you'll see 300 to 400,000 people in our city um just that Festival weekend and it's just amazing to see all the things that go into it and make it happen and it's just such a an economic you know Robbie's GNA make I'm not looking at him because we always talking economic development but um
025it just brings in a lot of business for not only the nonprofits that are on the ground but for the businesses and the merchants and the restaurants they look so forward to it and they really work hard but especially our nonprofits that are our churches and our schools that are on the grounds which probably many of you participate in at some point so we just want to welcome you to our festival and welcome you to the parade on Saturday at 9:30 and that's April 12th and thank you for having us thank you m how y'all doing thank y'all for having us tonight I am Tristan Miller the uh 2025 chairman of the Strawberry Festival I'm going to keep this short and sweet just ask y'all please come out Saturday to our strawberry day in the
026park there will be a wing cook off the strawberry auction as was mentioned um a bake off and a car show all of the proceeds from every event is going to a charity in the parish and then please come out April 12 13th and 14th for the festival thank you okay uh thank you we're going to take a picture so don't leave um Shelley did you want to say something else we oh okay Joey wants to speak to so I just want to say I was a little boy my mom and my grandmother and my aunt painted faces at the Strawberry Festival from the moment I could walk I was selling water or helping face paint or I grew up on a strawberry farm my grandmother Drew strawberries and my grandpa and and uncles all
027grew strawberries to to say that I respect the Strawberry Festival it doesn't even do it justice as a business owner y'all do so much for our business y'all do so much for our community I worked with Kanas who also got to work Hands-On with the Strawberry Festival board the amount of time that these people spend to put together that festival and to make it a success there's only one other person that would know that and that's going to be Miss uh Robin down there because Independence is pretty close when it comes to time commitment but these guys do a wonderful job the queen my my wife was a the Tangy hair Queen I had to pack her stuff around forever the amount of time it takes to do what she does and go to events
028across the the the whole state it it it takes a lot of time so to say that y'all have a piece of my heart is an understatement I want to thank all of y'all for what y'all do when I made my logo and I came back to punch a Tula I made sure to put a strawberry right here because y'all are the heart and soul of this city and I want to thank y'all for what y'all do so thank y'all Mr President real quick if I may um I just wanted to say uh we need to let the W vets out of here I promise Katie I'm had I have them up by 6:30 so as they come up to take the picture y'all can make your exit if you'd like to of course you're
029welcome to stay if you want to as well yeah I have to say a few things too even though I'm from Independence um roses daughter crowned my daughter as Louisiana Strawberry Queen 38 so uh the Strawberry Festival holds a very dear place in our heart because she held every title from baby all the way up to the miss queen and uh it was a very much of an honor to have that not only is it an honor this year for us as well Alexis was our Sicilian Queen back in 2020 along with Ron jeno who is our assistant superintendent as our King so we we love Alexis she has held three different titles across the Paris she has done an amazing job with every title she has held and you have gone beyond your Call
030of Duty this year and we're so proud of you oh and also it didn't get mentioned she got second runner up at laugh which is out of 5860 girls that competed and she got second runner off out of all those girls so congratulations want to get a picture yeah go ahead and take your picture come on up I'll give you okay come on up come on in come on in come on now come on now come on now I can see you yeah thank you thank you thank you so thank you I all right item 38 update on the year-to-date budget report Mr mcney the hard act to follow grab both microphones you're going to need microphone both of them this one good yeah all right from all that booring stuff now we're going to
031get to budgets you like that we should have put first um so I I do want to say with a lot of hard work with the business services department uh Deborah Anderson her team uh as promised you now have an all funds by Department as well um not going to go through those tonight I emailed them to you you should have gotten them so you can now see each department um for 2023 audited 2024 audited the current year budget uh as well as the the team has made a commitment to make sure that you have financials for the prior month by the second meeting so these are through February the 28th so they're about as current of information as you can get uh and you can see what our general funds spending is as well
032as the all funds and I'll tell the biggest difference with the all fund is it brings in all of the federal program money as well so if you look at the general fund you see Child Nutrition may be 30 or $40,000 then you add in the federal money and it's 12 or 13 million so that's the uh the biggest difference in those as you'll see the federal money um and the state state money as well um if you don't have any questions we'll keep keep the program rolling thank all right thank you item 4 a pres presentation by our Tang Parish government and none other than our Parish president Mr Robbie Miller thank you and first lady and Miss Donna thank you I was I was going much better half absolutely no doubt about it
033um I was going to say to of the three groups that came up here and recognized earli the only one that I can participate in is eating strawberries singing dancing that's not and playing music's not going to work um thank you'all for letting me be here first I want to thank you for the job that you do uh there's no doubt over the last several years our school system is moving in the right direction uh in from a parish perspective and specifically Economic Development perspective that that's big uh I don't believe that the the uh questions are so much there's always a question about what what your school systems like the concern is not what it used to be they're much happier about it they're more uh content with the answers they're getting and the
034the research they've done to see that we're moving in the right direction so thank you for the job that you doing to do that I'm here today about Economic Development so uh a project came to the parish two years ago it's a solar form a meet solar it's owned by a company called nextera nextera is a gigantic multi uh or all power type company all Energy company wind solar oil oil and gas um I think they even might even have a nuclear plant somewhere but they do all energy and they came to us to do a new uh excuse me a solar project in the North End of the parish and they asked for a pilot a pilot is a a program uh the Constitution allows an industrial development board to do a pilot payment
035in lie of taxes so instead of them having a tax you know an ongoing tax base they do an agreement to come here and we negotiate a payment it's done through the Industrial Development board which we have it's a five member board appointed by the Paris Council and they negotiate that deal um with some input from Parish government maybe some of the Parish government leaders have some input in what they what they work on so with that the the first the two 2024 investment that they made attributed to a pilot payment to the school board because we made sure the Industrial Development board made make sure that the school board received their dollars instead of uh their tax dollars being diverted somewhere else which I will tell you the Industrial Development board has that capability
036under our Administration we push very hard for that board to pay the other agencies at least you know their percentage of it or their dollars so this is a um an industrial development board agreed to send your dollars to you and this check for the 2024 expenditures is 1,100 $ 786847 so I want to present that to you and it's it's a real check it's not one of those big fake ones it's a real one you can deposit I don't know if you want to give it to Mr mcne because he's going end up with it eventually I figured I figured I can I might need to negotiate which one of y'all I can hand it to act like we have it before Jeff gets it yeah let's step down here thank you so much
037wow wow thank thank you very much yeah okay thank you Robbie thank you very much that's right that's right rosand Elementary will be very happy all right what' you say m p all right item 5A Capital outlay committee do I hear a motion to accept that committee report as for March 11 Mr P you need both mic like to hold a make a motion to amend tonight's agenda and I'm going to need to do that vote before we add it I want to add the capit outl meeting tonight's minutes on this agenda for tonight as well so we can go ahead and move them off so wave the rules have a motion to wave the rules to add tonight's scap outlay meeting to tonight's agenda have a second any discussion any questions this has to
038be a unanimous vote [Music] call for a vote or we have question okay well you can vote no not weave the rules we call for a vote vote has to be unanimous to add it to the agenda excuse me who made the second Mr Toller Mr Anthony P has made the motion voting is open oh thank you change my okay okay you got to get out of that where's the vote where' you vote okay okay let's you want to change your vote Mr Moore to what voting oops okay motion fails okay moving on to item 5A Capital outlay committee we hear a motion that we accept that report motion made by Mr pza second by Mr Westland do hear any questions any comments no public inut we'll call for a vote voting is open there
039it goes voting is closed motion passes unanimously motion carries let me get to these okay um before I lose my finance and audit committee from March 11 to hear motion to accept that report so motion made by Mr pza second by Miss Janice Robin I'm Sorry Miss Robins yall look alike any other questions any comments hearing none call for a vote voting is open voting is closed motion passes you unanimously okay item C report from the Personnel committee for March 11 motion made by Mr Piaza seconded by Miss Dominguez he no comments or questions no public input we'll call for a vote voting is open question voting is closed motion passes unanimously okay and last item D the policy Committee of the whole from March 11 do I hear a motion to accept that report
040so Move Motion made Mr P second by Mr westerland any questions comments public input hearing none we'll call for a vote voting is open try one more voting is closed motion passes unanimously okay Mr P all right I'm G try this one more time oh I need that mic too I'm sorry so the whole goal let me make sure to make this clear is parin has been waiting a long time for this roof we have a we're going to it's going to be a while before our next meeting so I'm going to ask again to wave the rule to add an item to the agenda I will pull individually item a from this this past out Capital outlay to be placed on the agenda for tonight okay a is the par and roof and Par
041and roof only since that way there's an issue with other ones M Jenkins are you following that good job we have a motion to wave the rules with a second to pull out item a from the tonight's Capital outlay committee meeting to accept that as read we've been waiting four years so the motion is to wave the rules any questions hearing none we'll call for a vote Mr T second um Mr voting is open voting is closed motion passes unanimously all right so we have an item e then to accept the capital outlay committee report item a only from tonight to accept that report do I hear that in form of a motion motion made by Mr Dominguez second by Mr pza thank you any questions comments or public input thank you board members hearing
042none we'll call for a vote Terry I think they want to see roofers this week yeah M Miss Dominguez Joey no no no I'm sorry excuse me m Dominguez made the motion oh M Dominguez made it and Mr Pasa second it thank you voting is open voting is closed motion passes unanimously all right thank you item 6A consider approval to enter into a contract with ASAP team Mr Anthony you guys remember we brought this proposal to the board uh a few months ago and we finally have everything worked out to where we have a contract that's been reviewed by the attorneys uh we just tonight passed the policy adjustment that allows for third party uh representatives to perform these searches so today we are asking for approval of the um for this independent contractor agreement
043for the k9's that will ENT through into our schools um as a reminder or let me let me say this instead what we've negotiated is uh 24 visits at $1,100 the visits will last all day so more than one school could be visited at a time we will have 20 random setup visits and four alternate dates kind of paraphrasing this entire contract for you guys total cost is26 four we do have the opportunity of course it would have to come back in front of us if we decide we need to have more visits or fewer visits we can we can look at this every year but for this year uh it'll go April 1st to April 1st be 24 visits again 20 random and then four alternate dates in other words if we hear that
044for example somebody may have brought an explosive device or a firearm campus we can employ this team up to four times a year and then additionally if needed going forward so I do ask for approval for this motion what um I will work on with Administration is to get this schedule again it will be random um however the principles at the individual sites will know ahead of time that the K9 team is coming and therefore we'll be prepared but otherwise I think it's pretty runof-the-mill you guys need to have a couple minutes to review it just let us know otherwise we'll ask for a approve add attorney Andre kudan reviewed the contract for us um and made some suggestions for changes which we did take those in account okay you making that formable motion TR
045uh yes I'll make a motion that we accept the contract Mr Anthony has made it form of a motion really confusing a simple-minded okay so we have a motion and then Mr pazza seconded um one question on this is this starting in next school year the contract or mid year this year or how are we doing the start April to April yeah so April to April I'm hoping to start at ASAP like tomorrow okay start ASAP ASAP ASAP ASAP I I have one question all right one question and I'm sure it's in here I just can't find it if if a member of the ASAP team finds let's say a illegal substance what where does that process go does it go directly to our Administration team or to the Sheriff's Office it's it's the our
046Administration team and the SRO on campus okay thank you Mr dunan and y'all forgive us for all the microphone stuff but it's important to do these school board meetings out at our schools so we can put up with a little bit of aggravation for one night I said one thing while the mics are here miss you said that the Mr F had already he's reviewed it and it's included in this one this yes this is the final uhhuh Trent could you just mention the the substances or the the types of Contraband that these dogs are trained to uh to find in their searches um it's not specifically mentioned in the contract but I know You' been oh so these dogs are trained um for any kind of any kind of drug to my understanding so
047um I'm not going to get into what I feel like we have the biggest problem with on campus but they can any kind of uh drug related activity they can sniff out now a different set of dogs will be used for firearm and explosives so ultimately um I think and look the board can have some input on this in fact I'll probably get a little team together when we choose the dates but ultimately I think we're going to employ the drug searching dogs more frequently however it may come it may come to pass that we need the firearms and explosive dogs more frequently and that's perfectly fine they have two sets of dogs that are capable of providing either type of search okay so we have I don't need a mic I got so we
048have a motion a second one Flo any other discussion any public input hearing none call for a vote voting is open voting is closed motion passes unanimously all right Item B consider approval to sell parcel number 1.1 1-1 and 2-1 for the roundabout at pona high school on Highway 22 in the amount of $137,500 this uh information has come from DOD it is an offer for purchase of RightWay uh Mr Aaron Woods from DOD is here uh if you have any questions um we we do have a question about the Eastern Drive that may be affected by one a barricade preventing people that are heading west turning left um so if if you do adopt tonight I would ask that you would authorize the administration to negotiate this uh and then sign it um the
049the land numbers I think we're okay with it's just we want to make sure uh that we take care of traffic uh and egress and on that campus so Mr Woods if let me get on the floor as a motion first Mo motion made by Mr Duncan second by Mr Westland um first question I have how much I know it's talking about Parcels but what is the actual amount of land we talking about uh let's see the size first of all I'm Aon woods with DD I work in the Hammond district office under uh Mr D Williams he's our administrator um already met with otillia ear this week she thought be a good idea if I came out tonight feel questions okay uh there are two Parcels parcel one- one and 2-2 um parcel one
050uh in square feet 10,448 square ft and parcel 2 is 5,654 square ft okay quar acre e of an acre uh to give you perspective on that a full acre is 43,560 ft so parcel one is about double the size of parcel two okay any questions from the board Mr Woods first of all thank you for coming and we always as always we want to participate and help infrastructure I can just I can give you some general information about the project um we're trying to get the right away uh certified by early June and the leting date for this project is October I think 8 on that date the department will let the project for bid and all of the contractors that are interested in bidding for the project they'll do so and I think
051it takes about 45 days for that process to begin and end and I'm thinking it'll probably get started maybe December January um honestly I I I don't I don't know it an exact time frame but um this is a state project it won't take as long as some of the other projects that have been done around Parish hopefully a year okay Mr Duncan has a question just what um the the proposal or or the the the thing that y'all sent us does mention that you know to the extent that we have driveways on that property that attach to our campuses or fencing um that that y'all's commitment and I guess the standard practice in y'all's Department that that once the improvements are made that y'all will put those back in place for us is that
052is that pretty much how that works am I understanding that right uh generally we replace whatever driveway dist but however on this on this project um I think the eastern most driveway will will not be available following the pro due to its proximity to the roundabout uh but the westernmost driveway and then the think it's a secondary driveway on fora Eastern end the campus those were remain out and to clarify the one that he's talking about is a gravel that the buses used to use we've already blocked that one off we don't we don't use it now glad I think Mr would be very no he wouldn't no he wouldn't want a red light as far as I know throughout the duration of the project U Passage through that intersection open I don't think there's
053any detour have a detour situation it's my suggestion that we take the proceeds and let the South End have it since we're going to take the proceeds from the north end I think it's completely I believe this completely fair and Equitable that's all right any other questions that's not part of my motion all right hear no other questions we'll call for a vote I have one more item I should proba a brand new sign that's going to be impacted um we generally give the ownership the option to sell Us sell the sign to the department or to keep it uh for a reduced amount so that's another consideration I think you all should look at like a monument sign that we have it's a punch to a high school they put a digital sign it's
054not digital but it's llit up at night that's the part talking about one the corner the one on the corner that that shows everyone where the stadium I like that idea yeah we'll see about moving it anything else Mr I think you said removing it reduces price of no all right any other questions is that it Mr Woods all right we'll call for a vote voting is open I will I will add that Mr Woods is from punch Tula I'm said perfect we'll be at punch J high can we combine that's what I was wondering now that we've authorized a sale of it now we're going to authorize her to do it oh can I make the motion that we we vote on B and C oh Qui voting is closed motion passes [Laughter] unanimously
055all right Adam C consider approval of the resolu ution granting the authority of superintendent to execute the sale of parcels 1-1 and 2-2 for the round about on Highway 22 motion made by Mr Duncan seconded by Mr pza any questions so I think all along our whole thing was that we did not want to we didn't have the money to do this but now that the state's going to buy our property we're not having to lose our property and that we also got a grant to move all the that was that was our two things that we wanted and that was our concern and we're happy that Mr McNeely you worked a miracle magic with whoever you know because I kept aggravating you about it and so thank you for doing that and thank you
056Robie [Applause] Miller okay we have a motion and a second on the floor any other questions call for a vote voting is open this is a good example of agencies working together from Fair State School Board you know one of the biggest arguments we had from the beginning was our driveway and we were able to make that work so um a lot of good things came out there let me close it and the sewer system this is actually the design on the project initially I think the first um design uh had a outlay that was a little bit further west yes yes and it was going to impact the car poool line right I for one was glad to see that get resoled without that that car poool line it's it's not the same situation
057we need a roundabout for our carpol line only thank you Mr Woods thank you Mr Woods yeah thank you motion passes unanimous all right thank you we put that to rest in superintendent reports all right Mr President uh item 7A is uh I'd like the board to consider approval do I need this consider approval to refer policy um GB Ria personal leave to the policy committee okay do I hear the inform of motion motion to refer motion to refer by Mr Westland seconded by Miss Janice all right any questions hearing none call for a vote voting is open voting is closed osed motion passes unanimously item 7B uh I'd like to update the board on the impact of the additional $100 for bus drivers who assist with picking up an additional route uh to transport
058students to school so several meetings ago you all approved um upon Mr Moore's recommendation to um pay our bus drivers who are willing to go pick up an additional route for someone that we could not get a substitute for are um and that has been um more effective we were getting more and more kids to school uh and so I want to just update that it's not perfect yet but it is um more effective than it was before and getting kids of school and uh bus drivers are assisting us uh with going and doing an additional route so for so thanks for that but item 7 C uh we have another um I guess gu strategy we want to bring to the board tonight and that is to consider approval to begin a bus driver
059Apprentice program so to retain future bus drivers so the problem that we're trying to solve for here is that when bus when potential bus drivers finish the uh bus driver training class and they get their they take the test and they get their CDL uh license there's a period of up to about two months in which for them to get their bus endorsement which is another additional endorsement that they need to be able to drive a school bus and there's no pay in there so what's happening is you know they finish the driving class they have a CDL which is a marketable skill and license they go to work driving a truck or something like that because it's money coming into the house uh and and so then once we lose them during that period
060we typically won't get them back for that bus endorsement so what we're proposing for the board to consider is to um once they finish the driver's class and they get their CDL license we hire them on as an apprentice uh for two months they get bus driver pay at you know step one the first level and they ride the bus with a uh experienced school bus driver so that they can learn um all the things that that bus drivers learn um you know how to manage the students you know how to uh communicate with parents um all those things uh for several months before they get their bus driver endorsement and then at that time we put them on a bus uh driving their their own route every day so we feel like that this
061um strategy might be helpful and uh retaining them and keeping them on until we can put them on their own bus um during you know after the two months that they get their bus um their bus certification so we're asking you to consider allowing us to do that right essentially kind of like a bus monitor also double yeah so they would be on the bus they it' be a second adult on the bus Not only would they be helping to monitor students but there would be learning from an experienced driver and there's lots of things you pick up on and that you will learn from those bus drivers just being on the bus with them um do I hear a motion to accept the administration's recommendations motion May Mr pza second by Mr Janice any
062other questions that's okay oh yeah any other questions comments and having no public input we'll call for a vote voting is open voting is closed motion passes unanimously motion carries unanimous thank you very much all right board member comments we will start over here miss Abrams M no mik want to thank um Mr Joseph for having us here at Poncha Junior High it's always nice to come to this end of the parish and congratulations to all of our students in the music program that received Awards to our the wets and of course to um the Strawberry Festival wishing them a great successful Festival as well as all of our festivals in t foro Parish um think that's it though oh if you had get to see coffee talk make sure you go watch it with
063the the three Divas today yeah that's Janus Robin and Melissa we're going to take our show on the road I think I don't know uh I just want to say thank you for allowing us to come and we enjoy coming out to our schools because there are often times that we don't even get to see the other schools because you're so busy in in your District so this this allows us to come and we just want to thank you for hosting uh so tonight I'm just going to do a shout out to the teachers I know we're getting towards the end of the school year and our kids getting restless but I'm uh I'm going to encourage you guys and pray for you to just hang in there now this will all be over you'll
064be on summer vacation in just a minute Mr Duncan Mr Westland just like to thank Mr Joseph for your hospitality tonight did a great job setting us up here appreciate that and congratulations to all the winners we made a lot of progress here tonight a lot of things that was lingering like the Caren Ruth and roundabout we made good progress tonight I'm glad to see all that happen I'm going to repeat that ditto on that thank You' all for indulging me on recognizing our Strawberry Festival board and of course the way vets 're real proud of them and our all of our musical students were wonderful tonight thank you Mr Joseph for getting this all set up it's been this was great whoever did this like I know you probably didn't do it by yourself
065so please share that to whoever set all this up because it made it really nicer and easier for us to to to get around in a cafeteria so thank you for that we appreciate your hospitality and I'm going to say this I'm a little biased I think this is the best place on the planet seeing as I you know used to teach here my wife currently teaches here so punch Junior I always does a great job job when it comes to welcoming guests and everything so thank you again to you and your staff uh thank you Mr Robbie Miller for coming and your wife for coming and and and talking with us tonight we thank you for coming to the meeting uh congratulations to all the Champions and our band people and all of those
066Great accomplishments guys we got some amazing people in our Parish uh the teachers and the parents that put in that work with those students to just put that progress to let us have these achievements as a school system it's just it's it's amazing um I also want to say tonight also was the first pitch back in ponchatula High Stadium over here in downtown ponchatula uh it was tonight we finally got back into that stadium so punch High baseball is back in downtown ponchatula after a long awaited time after Ida so I want to thank the mayor and everybody that that put in working into that program we wish him luck tonight and look guys we're doing some great things here in tanbo as Mr Robbie always says this is the best Parish in the entire
067State all right thank you Mr Joseph I wanted to make a a quick point something out real quick there's u a lot of people in this room that have something in common so you got myself Mr Cardella was the band director tonight for the Junior High School Mr Joseph our assistant superintendent and Robin what do we all have in Comm independent so look I'm I'm a proud representative of punch Tula now but I'm also a proud Independence High School tiger so I wanted to point that out real quick um and again I mean the parish we have a great Parish be anywhere in this parish and and and still have you know be very successful in whatever it is that you choose to do um also wanted to thank the young man that came and
068did the Pledge for us uh Ty Eric Jordan actually um Daniel has come and done the pledge for us before I don't know you guys know Daniel Clark but he came and did the Pledge for us before he makes the pen so I actually called his teacher and he was unavailable he's out of town so uh Mr Jordan came and I think he did a phenomenal job so if his mom's watching I really appreciated her she brought all her children here for them to uh witness that and again thank you to Mr Cardella uh congratulations again to the wets and then I understand uh Dr camita is now a state semifinalist for the principal of the year so she's here local incredible yes I heard that earlier and um so I'm really hopeful that she
069gets that and um you know I kind of started the same Time Dr Cita did and I've just been really impressed by her she's tough tough tough on discipline and she runs a tight ship the same time she's got a be high school over there with 2200 kids so it's really impressive to me so and thank you guys for being here as well miss dly first I know Brett will not brag on his son but I will Cameron is a new Eagle Scout uh that is an incredible accomplishment Cameron kind of you know this board kind of owns Cameron as well because he's been around for a long time but I'm telling him congratulations for us we look forward to the chance to say it in person also the way vets and the music students
070tonight glad to have them represent us as well as well as Robbie and Donna thank you'all for coming thank you for the big check um with that being said though it it reminds me the the roundabout reminds me all the inter agency agreements that we have and what we do working together this weekend unfortunately there was terrible tornado that came through the Kentwood area you look up and Robbie's there the sheriff is there the state police is there I mean the state workers the dot is there you know everybody working together to solve problems and and that's what this is all about and it's not until we get in these positions that we see all of that cooperation it hasn't always been like that so I appreciate that and I appreciate the help from everybody
071and my prayers go out to the the victims in fact I just got a text from a friend of mine who has been out in East Fork helping other people and he just sent me a picture of his land on the river that he had not even been to yet to find trees just laid down everywhere and just he hadn't bothered to go check his own place and it just kind of shows you what people do in our area and I know Dr fael can attested that as well and Mr Joseph last but not least thank you thank you for opening up your home to us allowing us to come into your school if you ever need us please reach out to us we're here to support you even those of us on the North
072End we care about the south end too so uh it's good to see you as well so anything else be brought before the board if not I'll entertain a motion to enter into executive session oh do we have one I'm sorry I mean you can skip me if you'd like no some reason I thought we were already down to there this is not public input this is litigation update so I am on the clock for this sorry D good not good that you're on the clock but good I do feel like the kid that asked the question at the end of class whenever everyone's ready to go so I'm going to try to make this as quick as possible this is just a quick update on the desegregation case as y'all know my name is
073indigo Kate dman I'm one of your attorneys for the desegregation case for those I'm saying that for those who are listening and may not know who I am I last gave you an update in December of 2024 so this is an about a three-month update since then we' got some exciting little developments um first I'll start with facilities as the board knows before tbsb can construct a new school change the capacity of any school or spend anything on facilities that is over $125,000 they must have PT approval in the past three months we have received PT approval for several important projects that includes the electrical work in aming Westside it includes the DC Reeves kitchen transition from gas to electric and it includes a new boiler for pona high school which is way more expensive
074than you would think it was on another positive note the court compliance officer released his annual report this year and it had some really generous things to say about Tanga some really glowing comments specifically he wanted to congratulate y'all on not only your ability to retain sorry not only your ability to recruit but also your ability to retain effective and certified teachers and then apply them at schools that are High need his next comment was that he saw a rise in the ldoe grade scale which has to do with teachers right we have filed a report thanking Mr Massie the CCO for the positive comments as well as clarifying just a few positions finally as you know and since my last report in May of 2024 Tango Parish School Board filed what's called a motion
075for unitary status in the areas of student assignment and employment practice that motion asserts effectively that tangoa has reached the legal requirements that is has effectively and to its best ability eliminated the vestages of a segregated policy in which a court could release them from this case in just those two areas previously there was a hearing set and the court ordered for the parties to participate in mediation in good faith we have diligently pursued those mediations and contined to to do so we are currently continuing to do so while also preparing for an evidentiary hearing set for May 14th of 2025 that's this year so those are all my updates if the board has any questions I'm happy to answer so long as it doesn't stray into strategy or specifics on mediation which are client
076communication and should be Sav for executive s thank you for theate thank you all right so I'll enter ex session any I have a motion a second any objection all right Channel 17 proudly serving the Florida parishes call our meeting back to order and I will entertain a motion to accept council's recommendation I'll make a motion motion's made on the Sharon Walker yes there's no no action on the other so we have a motion second by Mr Anthony any questions hearing none we'll call for a vote or any objection no objections motion carries having no other business we will adjourn