001I call this regular board of education meeting or to order on Monday, January 26, 2026 at 6 p.m. If we could all please stand for the pledge of allegiance. If we could take a roll call, please. >> Stacy Salt. >> Darling, >> here. >> Julie Jetty >> here. >> Katherine Powder >> here. >> Jason Jansik >> here. >> Mindy Hartman >> here. >> Bridget Sandlin here. >> Okay, next up we have the community input. Uh, first up tonight is our Briergate highlight. Mr. Nas. Good evening. First of all, I want to thank our board for allowing us the opportunity to come and share um some of the great things that are going on at Brierggate. Um I like this forum where we can spotlight uh not things that I think that are going great, but
002things that our staff and our students can talk about that are that are going uh wonderful. Kind of the layout for tonight is um I have a number of things on a PowerPoint. Please know that I'm going to try to stay to my 5 to 10 minute uh guideline. So, there's some things that are I'm going to have our students and our staff talk about and then there's a couple other slides where I'm just going to give a brief overview share out the PowerPoint with you as a board because there is a video in there too on one of the slides so that uh at your own time you can enjoy those. Um, I also want to thank our families and our students as well as our staff for uh coming, not only coming out
003tonight to talk about a couple of our initiatives and our events that we were doing within the building, but also to work with our students prior to tonight in preparation for um the presentation. So, I do want to thank our students and our staff for coming with that. Um, last year we got to spotlight some things and so I really wanted to think this year on all right, what else can I shine a light on? Um, and then unfortunately, as we all know, we have to pick and choose some things because there's so much to talk about. Um, and so I look forward to uh reflecting tonight on things that we're doing this year. Um, as well as then planning for next year's presentation as well. As I prepared tonight's, you know, I kind of
004thought about what what do I want? What's the message? What do I want to look at? And um, really what I thought about was community as well as working together. Um we don't do that just with staff and students. We do that with students and students and we do that um with staff and staff. And so you're going to see throughout tonight's uh presentation by our staff and our students as well as some other slides that I have that it really is a community approach. Um we want to have the best learning environment for our students, but we want to create the best environment for all our stakeholders when they come into our building. So without further ado, uh we are going to start with our blue crew. And so I want to invite Mrs.
005Melanie Mscato and Mrs. Laura Wrestler up to introduce blue crew. >> Good evening board. Um so Mrs. Wrestler and I are here to introduce something that we uh started at Bargate called the Blue Crew. Um it is a student leadership and peerupported initiative designed to strengthen our school community through uh connections, inclusions, and positive role modeling. Uh the program is pairing carefully selected student leaders, which is our fifth graders um with peers grades one through third grade uh to benefit from additional social, emotional, and behavioral support during the school day. So, our fifth graders um are paired up based on skills and interests and talents um with a younger student and they'll meet with them and we have a blue crew leader here to talk about what she does. But we call our fifth graders
006the blue crew leaders and our younger kids are our blue crew buddies. So, if we can have Yeah. Um, so I just kind of want to talk a little bit about where we've started and then I am going to have Clara come up and sort of share her experience. Um, so, uh, this was something that Mel kind of shared with me. I'm the tier 2 PBIS coach for our building at Briergate and we had a student that we had some pretty significant concerns about attendance and um, coming to school on time. And so through some discussions, um, Mel had come and said, "Hey, this was something we did in my old district. do we think this could be something we could do at Brierggate? Um so we worked together and we um that was sort
007of where Clara came in and so we started it with just one student and with Clara and now um this week we actually will be um pairing up additional students. So we have about 10 more students that we're going to pair up with fifth graders. Um right after winter break um Mel and myself Mel was supposed to present but she ended up with a double ear infection and strep throat. So, I presented on my own, but we presented to all of the fifth graders. And almost every single fifth grader at Briergate applied for the position, which I thought said so much in and of itself that our fifth graders really truly want to be leaders and want more of these experiences um to show that they can do that. So, I would love for you
008to hear about Clara and kind of where she started with her buddy and kind of where she'd like to go. Hello, my name is Claire Row and I am part of Blue Crew. This year, I've been working with my buddy and it's a really great experience. At the beginning of the year, we met two days a week for around 10 minutes. We were given a blue crew bin with activities, games, and coloring sheets. As I got to know my buddy better, I added things to that I thought she would enjoy. At first, I tried to help my buddy open up, but sometimes she still had a hard time coming to school and being on time to her classroom. I realized she needed a little help, so I decided I wanted to do more to help
009her feel comfortable. Now, I meet with her at the door each day to walk her to her classroom so she doesn't feel alone starting the day. I think this will make a big difference for her. If this isn't helping, I'm going to try to meet with her during snack time each day. Being a leader of on Blue Crew means being kind, showing up, and helping others, feeling included and special. I'm proud to be part of Blue Crew, and I'm thankful I get to help my buddy this year. Thank you for listening. All right, awesome job, Clara, talking about Blucer. She has done a fantastic job. She takes this very seriously. She kind of creates her own lesson plans targeted towards the student needs. So, I don't know where she's going to go in life, but
010if she's becomes a teacher, she'd be a great one. So, thank you, Clara. All right. Our second presentation is with four fourth graders. I promise I'm going to try not to steal their thunder and let them present first and then uh uh fill in the gaps potentially after. Um we do have a fourth grade teacher here, Mrs. Kick. Um this was not just a classroom uh uh project. It was a fourth grade project. Uh she was just nice enough to uh support the project, support our students, and support them here tonight. Um, and again I'll try to fill in whatever they don't fill in at the end with this inquir in inquirybased project. So if I could have Lucas, Danny, Isabelle, and Leah come on up. Students, as you come up, you're going to hold
011the handheld because if part of your presentation means that you want to go in front of your projects, you can do that. Um, if you don't, you can just stand right up here, but feel free to hold this as you go through your part of your project. All the fourth in the district read the novel Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper. It is a story about a sixth grader named Melody. Melody has cerebral pausy. She's very smart, but she cannot walk or talk. Her dream is to is to be in a regular classroom and to be included. We were assigned to research, play, and design and build a all-inclusive playground that would meet the needs of people with disabilities. As a grade level, we went to an inclusive playground in Mckenry to research the
012equipment and get ideas for our plans and designs. We worked in groups of four or five and decided on designs and equipment we were going to build. We used materials such as cardboard, tin foil, pipe cleaners, pom poms, and fabric to build our playgrounds to be accessible for all kinds of people. Our playground has the following feature. Treehouse with ramp. Storytime garden balls. Rams wheelchair swing. And so as the students are heading back um their project is up here um and it is laid out kind of talking about the ramps and the different swings they have. I did bring two other projects from two of the other classrooms. Um the wind got at them a little bit, so I apologize, but I'm just going to point out a couple of things. You know, like at
013at our at Bargate, we have what's called the Zinger where you hold on and it's kind of it's a rope swing to the other side, so to speak. Um zipline. This one, it actually has like a bench where someone could sit on and still be able to do that um zipline. And so each one of these has their own creative approach. The reason why I chose to highlight um this one this year is uh Mrs. Kick and the fourth grade team kind of enhanced it. Um if you're not aware, Mckenry just built a new all-inclusive playground. So they had a team meeting and they said, "Hey, Mr. Nas, it'd be great if we could go on a field trip to not just talk about it, but for them to experience it and see it firsthand
014from there." Then they leapt into kind of their designs. Um, and so I like how they were immersing them in uh the environment. So I do want to thank Danny, Isabelle, Leah, and Lou for coming out tonight um and talking a little bit about their project. These are a couple other pictures of students in other fourth grade classrooms that created some of their projects. And again, I want to be sensitive to time. I initially thought I'm going to have a group from every classroom present. Um, and then I thought, h that might go a little overboard, but Danny, Lucas, Leah, and Isabelle, you did a great job res representing your fourth grade team. And then Mrs. Kick, thank you for coming tonight to support them and and um encouraging them uh to think outside the
015box or as you saw in the picture outside the fishbowl. All right, with that a couple walk now a couple other things is I put up there about book buddies. I think if you think of the title book buddies, you think, oh, they have, you know, they pair up grades and they go read stories. That is only part of it. Um, and so we pair up a lot of first and fifth grade classrooms and second and fourth grade classrooms, but it's way more than that. This picture actually shows, and it's an example. I got this excerpt from a fifth grade teacher talking about first grade buddies sharing their animal research projects and how neat it was for the fifth graders that were able to make connections with them on the projects that they were researching.
016Um, and so yes, it's about connecting, reading stories, but it's about getting to know someone. So, at the beginning of the year, they do a lot of get to know you activities and those kinds of things. And then throughout the year they almost become a pal inadvertently because they look forward to seeing them at least once a month but not just through read a story but to get to know them as individuals. So that's just one but our uh first and fifth grade and our second and fourth try to pair up and do these kind of activities as well. Last year I did highlight STEM so I didn't want to highlight them again this year but I didn't want to leave out um some cool things that they did this year. As you can see,
017um, our fourth graders, uh, land forms, um, uh, earth, earth pe, present, and future. Um, they did some 3D renderings. They did their, um, landscapes, but then, uh, the teacher partnered with the art teacher, not for them to just paint the landforms, but the art teacher talked about how do you blend colors to make them look natural? how do you kind of fade those land forms in like it would naturally be from forest into more of a prairie sandy area. So he kind of not only had them paint but kind of led lessons in blending um providing more natural colors within the naturecape of things. And so I wanted to highlight that because not only are we using the 3D renderings but also how we integrating with other curricular areas. And then the last one
018was STEM. This one I'm not going to show you, but it's um about the weather and they actually um did a blue a green screen and they uh did more like weather reports. Uh so feel free to watch that on your leisure. And then finally, this was a last minute edition. Um I told the staff about it today because I thought about it literally today. Um but I I identified this. So at Briergate, uh obviously across the district and across the state, they do five essentials. We do analyze that. We do mid-year temperature checks um and we survey the staff on ways that we can get improve upon and one of the things was continuing to build that culture, build that community um and um how do how can we do that? So through the
019building leadership team we talked about what are the ways to do that because we have grade level team meetings we have department meetings we have all these how else and so one way is is I decided that we were going to um through BLT discussions let's do an all staff meeting versus a pair professional meeting and a certified meeting then we took it to well we're getting trained with Ali Hearn um circling up uh restorative chats building that community how can we model that as adults if we're expecting us to do that in classrooms and So we came up with a cute thing called BG dens where they when they go to staff meetings they sit with their group um and then each den does an ice breaker. So I used to lead the ice
020breakers um and this year I release that to our staff. So when their den is up they have to do that icebreaker. And again how do we model it but how do we also live it? Um, so you can see I have that and then in the picture, um, it's kind of hard to tell, but because we have an all staff meeting, we had to move to the gym, but they are in circle groups. And then actually, um, one of the staff members is presenting the icebreaker today for uh, the staff. And so I just wanted to add that because that's just another way. It's not just students working with students and staff working with students. It's staff working with staff. And if we expect students to build that culture with the teacher in their
021classroom, how do we build that culture and community within our staff? Um, and so those are my quick updates um after amazing presentations by Claire and the blue crew as well as our fourth grade inquirybased project. So, thank you to our students for coming out tonight and presenting to our board. Chad, before the teachers leave, I want to give a special shout out to them from the teaching and learning side of things. You took words that were put down on a curriculum, right? Such as, let's say, for example, out of my mind, it was a text that our team decided this would go well at this part in the curriculum with these particular standards. Those words are written down on paper. you lifted it up and now brought it to something concrete and something that
022is meaningful to their lives beyond just the text. You made it meaningful humanto human connection. So to the staff who is doing this across the district and specifically right now at Brierggate, thank you to our staff. We'll take a break for a second. Just let everybody unless you want to stay for this riveting meeting, you're all welcome to Okay, next up is public participation. Nobody had signed up, but did anybody in the audience want to speak? Okay, let me read my paragraph to you, Nancy. The board and administration welcome your input. When recognized by the board president, members of the public are welcome to supply information for the board's consideration or to express their opinion of district's policies. However, public debate between members of the public and the board of education members or the district
023staff will not be permitted. We ask that individuals speaking before the board identify themselves with full name and address and be brief. Comment shall be limited to three minutes. There we are. Nancy and I'm a Kerry resident. I just want to say, which I was going to do this last month, but unfortunately this meeting and one of my other meetings coincided. Congratulations on the groundbreaking over there by Aldi. I drove by one day and I was all excited. So, I just want to say, yay, we're on the way. And I know the bus drivers are ecstatic to see the groundbreaking. I know many of the people in the district may not be, but this is one that is because, you know, I've been here from the beginning for this. So, uh, congratulations on all the
024hard work and getting the people out there and seeing the frozen equipment sitting there right now, of course. But anyway, I did see some more progress over the last 30 days. So, I just wanted to say congratulations to everybody else. the board that invested time, energy, and finally surrendered to the city, which makes me sad. I guess that's all I have to say. I'll say happy new year since I haven't seen everybody since the new year. >> Thank you. Hey, next up we have open forum. Uh there were two foyer requests this month. The foyer requests are included on the agenda. Uh next up, we have board member comments. Uh Mrs. Hartman, anything tonight? >> Uh, Mr. Nas, thank you so spotlight to your school. That was a fantastic presentation. I really appreciate that you
025know who your who have come to to speak to us today. And I will be sending you an email afterward um hopefully for you to pass on to some of those parents because I think they should know how impressed we are too. >> Thank you. Um, Mr. Janzic. >> Yeah, I just want to uh echo Miss Hartman's comments. Mr. Nas, thank you for for bringing those kids. It's always great to see the energy. We hear the stories and to see it live in person is awesome. So, thank you for being a great leader and bringing the students to the forefront here. Thank you. That's it. >> Mrs. Jetty, >> I really enjoyed the uh uh buddy program. They have a very similar one like at that at the high school. And when I interviewed some
026of the high school people for um scholarship programs, um a lot of the kids that are up for scholarships are in that buddy program that they have at the high school. It's a really it's a really worthwhile program too, even at any level. I think it shows promise. I also wanted to thank um our staff um that have took part in um the interviewing process for our new superintendent position for the janitorial staff that has set up um the chorus room multiple times this week as we've been quite busy and um Mrs. Dorler for helping us a lot. Um it it's been a a long process, but um I think we're winding it down and um I guess that's about it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Potter. >> Thank you. Um I do want
027to first thank uh the Oaknull staff for their recognition of the uh board appreciation holiday. That was really nice of them. It's always nice to get a nice letter. Um, I want to thank the school bus drivers for um just their dedication and serving our students even in the worst conditions. Uh, keeping those buses warm and looking out for them um the kids. Um, and I also want to thank all the stakeholders and parents and community members and administrators who have been um giving feedback uh throughout the superintendent search process. Uh, and last thank Mr. NS for this great presentation and everything that you're doing at your school. And it's and it to the to the students who were up here. It's not easy to to be public speaking and they did such a great
028job and I I'm just so impressed with them. So, thank you for showing off everything that's going on in your build in your building. It says a lot about your staff and in your leadership as well. But, um the students are so great. I love that they're leading to that in in the fact that I mean last but the the fact that almost all the fifth graders then applied to the program. I mean that just like melts melts my heart makes me feel so warm especially when the world can feel so cold. So bless them and their parents must be so proud of them cuz I'm proud of them if they're listening. Thank you. >> Mrs. Sandlin, >> I too want to thank Principal Nass for uh highlighting your school. Uh it was awesome to
029hear of the mentor U blue crew program. I think especially now it is super important um that kids support each other as opposed to you know we know tearing each other down can happen a lot and that ramp from the treehouse down that's got to be a good ride. So thank you >> Mrs. Salt. >> Everybody said thanks a lot. So of course I say the same. I I knew some of those kids and they were so excited to come and to say with their families. So, that's exciting to see all those kids that I know and what they're achieving in school. So, thanks. >> So, we'll make it a unanimous thank you for coming and sharing your school with us. I know you take great pride in everything that goes on in that building
030and it shows. Um, thank you. Um, I'd also like to thank our all of our stakeholders in the district for coming out uh for the uh superintendent feedback and for the interview process as well as giving feedback on the AI uh use. Um that's that information is helps us as a board. Um and I do appreciate you, you know, coming out and sharing your opinions with us. All right, next up we have the superintendent update. Dr. Thomas, >> I have just a couple of things tonight. So, the first one is uh we are doing our annual 100th day food collection. It's a district-wide uh project that we do. We did do uh it it benefits the Cary Grow Food Pantry. We did do this uh back in November and we have traditionally done it in
031uh this month uh starting of February because it's a time that the food pantries uh you know at the holidays lots of people give and after the holidays things kind of fall off. So this is a district-wide sponsored um by not only our uh buildings but also both of our unions participate our parents. We're going to be sending out information tomorrow in our details newsletter about this. It will be the week of um the 2nd through the 6th. So next week we will be collecting food uh all week in all of the buildings so you can send things um with your kids to school and uh we will then be on the 6th delivering that Mr. Martin arranging that for us over to um the Kerry food pantry. So thank you for that. Um and
032then the other thing is we have at the Kerry Junior High we're inviting students, parents and community members um to help us participate in our new Kerry Junior High logo contest. So we're creating a new logo for Kerry Junior High. We're looking for original artwork that represents the traditions, pride, and values of our school community. Uh there are details that um can be gotten at the uh junior high office for anybody who is interested in that. And the contest is open until 3 p.m. on February 27th. So there's plenty of time. So anybody who is interested, and it doesn't have to be a junior high student, it can be any of our students, any of our parents, or just in the community just looking for input from everybody. So I in invite everybody to join
033us for that. And that's it. Thank you, Dr. Thomas. Uh, next up we have teaching and learning update. Miss Rivera. >> Yeah, I wanted to send a shout out and thank you to our we had about 30 families this past Wednesday that signed up and joined the first session of our parent university anxious generation book study. Um, we created a space where vulnerability happened, shared dialogue and conversations about their own childhood in comparison to their own children's childhood and the differences occurred. So, we're looking forward to our next session which will be in February. Um, information went out about that to the families that have already signed up. For anybody that didn't sign up, you're welcome to shoot me an email and I can definitely get you the information to join. We don't have any
034more books. They all went, which is a good thing. Um, so no books, but you're welcome to join the conversations if you have a book. Um, also we have testing. We are is the season now to the end of the school year. Um, so just a friendly reminder that our students are in the midst of their I Ready testing until February 6th. That last week is makeups. Uh, we try to get the first two weeks front-loaded with the actual testing and we reserve that third week for for makeups. Access testing for students who are identified as English language learners. uh they are taking their access assessments from now till March 3 and that assesses the reading, writing, listening, speaking and English language proficiency. And then we have our KOAT assessment which will be coming up
035February 2nd to February 20th and that will be where all second graders will have the opportunity to take the KOGAT um for identification of uh gifted and or enrichment um instruction for the coming third grade year. I also wanted to say thank you to D155. They invited us to their uh industry partnership breakfast. It was about two weeks ago. Uh Mr. Daroo and myself had an opportunity to go to that. Um it was over at the Hilton Holiday in. I knew it started with an H. Um it was over there and it was amazing all that they had a a handful of D1 155 students who shared their experiences um going through different internships and and it just solidified how important our partnership is with D155 having students come here and have the opportunity to
036uh observe teachers live in action here uh especially if they are in the midst of thinking that they're going to pursue a teaching certification or teaching degree. They come here to the junior high and they observe our teachers and then we set them up at the elementary school to observe our teachers there and it's part of uh their class project and to do so it just solidified the importance of bridging those connections and hearing from the students how important and valuable those moments are because they don't have classes that really give them that hands-on experience. Um so thank you to them for that. The last thing I wanted to highlight and he's hiding over there. Um, he told me not to recognize him directly, but I'm going to choose to ignore him. And so, uh,
037as you know, we have Class Link for the first time this year. And Class Link, um, monitors the implementation of its product at each of its districts. And if you are a district that um basically demonstrates consistent high daily usage because of the systems that are put in place and all that setup that went in on the back end to ensure that it can be consistently implemented, you then are awarded um there is an award of excellence uh in the outstanding implementation category. So I would like to recognize yes Mr. Andrew Fitz Simmons in addition to his team. I notice I did say in addition to the team because it is a team effort, but that team effort has to start somewhere and led by somebody. So yes, I'm going to recognize you point blank.
038Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh next up we have the committee of the whole update. Uh what was discussed um during that meeting? Uh we had a district AI plan update with presentation. Uh we reviewed the bills. There was a treasures report. We discussed policy 6235 access to electronic networks. Uh went over the school district calendars for 2026 2027 and 2027 2028. Discuss registration fees for 2026 2027 and discuss the Oaknull window abatement bid. Next up we have the consent agenda. Included are those items that are routine in nature. Should any board member wish to remove an item from the consent agenda, the item will be discussed at the end of section 8. 7.1 is open session minutes from December 18th, 2025 regular board of education meeting. 7.2 are the closed session minutes from the
039December 8th and December 18th, 2025 board meetings. 7.3 are the total bills and payroll for board approval are in the amount of $2,234,65.70. 7.4 4 the treasures report 7.5 are the resignation dismissal and retirements 7.6 is the employment 7.7 is the destruction of closed meeting audio recordings 7.8 are the disposal of assets there were none 7.9 is the school district calendars for 2026 through 2027 and 2027 through 2028 7.10 10 are the registration fees for 2026 2027 and 7.11 is the treasurer's bond. May I have a motion to approve the following? 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 7.10 10 and 7.11 >> second any discussion um yes uh I just wanted to point out in the employment that we um is the name of u our current assistant principal at the junior
040high who will be taking over the role of principal in um in July and I I think that is a wonderful um appointment and a great hire for the junior high. I think Mr. Shirley will do an excellent job. He's done a a great job as the assistant principal at the junior high and I'm really I think that's going to give a lot of stability to the to the uh district. That's all. Agreed. >> I just um I agree with Miss Jetty, but um can can I just have clarification about the calendar that um the 2728 the tentative means Will that does that does that mean it automatically goes into effect unless it requires adjustment? Just for clarification. >> Yes. So, uh, if the board approves that tonight, we would actually be able to post
041both of those calendars for the next two years up on our website. And then if there had to be a change in the future because of something unforeseen like they add election day back in or things like that, then we would have to amend that calendar. Um, we don't expect that or anticipate that. So, this should be the calendars for the next two years. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you. If there's no further discussion, if we could take a vote, please. >> Darling, >> yes. >> Julie Jetty, >> yes. >> Katherine Potter, >> yes. >> Jason Jansik, >> yes. >> Mindy Hartman, >> yes. >> Bridget Sandlin, >> yes. >> Stacy Salt, >> that motion is approved. Next up is item eight, agenda items requiring discussion for board approval. The approval of the Oaknull window
042abatement bid. Mr. Martin. Good evening everybody. So again um so it's the administration's recommendation uh based on the bid responsiveness completeness past performance the pricing again they were second lowest pricing we recommend the Oaknull Early Childhood Center asbestos abatement project to be awarded to Husar's abatement. Again, they submitted a complete and responsive bid, acknowledged all the agenda, provided all required bid documents, and received a positive letter of recommendation from integrity environmental services. That's our consult for abatement. Uh, signing satisfactory past performance, regulatory compliance, and quality of work on similar school district projects. So they requested board action is to approve the ward of the contract to HAR abatement for the asbestos abatement services at Oaknull Early Childhood Center to be reformed in June of 2026. >> May I have a motion to approve the Oaknull
043window abatement to Huzar abatement in the amount of $66,000 as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none, if we can take a vote, please. >> Julie Jetty, >> yes. >> Katherine Potter, >> yes. >> Jason Jansen, >> yes. >> Mindy Hartman, >> yes. >> Bridget Sandlin, >> yes. >> Stacy Salt, D. Darling, >> yes. That motion is approved. >> Thank you. Good night. >> Thank you, Mr. Martin. >> There are no other topics for discussion. Next up, we have close session for the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the public body 5CS120-2C1. May I have a motion to adjurnn to close session? >> So moved. >> Second. Any discussion? Hearing none, if we take a vote, please. >> Katherine Potter, >> yes. >> Jason Jansen, >>
044yes. >> Mindy Hartman, >> yes. >> Bridget Sandlin, Stacy Salt, D. Darling, >> yes. >> Julie Jetty, >> that motion is approved. Open session ends at 6:36 p.m. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you.