001Okay, we'll double check that now. It's on. Good. We're good. All right. Go ahead, ma'am. Hold up. I turned it off. Borardi Edgeward School District work session um together at 504. And let me just remind everybody that this is um a work session. We'll present information about the 2526 budget process and planning and discuss proposed budget recommendations and considerations. But there is no action that will be taken at this time during the work section. Thank you, Madam President. Um, thank you for the uh school administrators that are with us and staff members. Um, I'd like to start off uh real quickly for the board and just uh um remind them the process that we started oh gosh I think it was back in in well it started months and months ago um but officially in
002March um we held our first uh budget committee meeting made up of staff members uh family members and some community members. Um again that was March 13th 2025 right towards the back end of the um legislative session. Um then as a staff we went to the um what's called the spring budget conference um that's put on uh it's a statewide conference and uh we you know have work sessions, we have breakout sessions. Um but the big the the big piece of that is um finding out legislation that um was going to be signed um whether it was going to be passed or not or or the the kind of uh feeling if legislation was going to be passed or not and then getting our new unit value um which was provided to the board. Then
003on April 22nd, we held our second um budget committee meeting um here at the district offices again with the the same um committee members invited, excuse me. During that meeting um the committee was tasked um two for with two things. Um the goals that we put out for the budget committee was participate in discussions centered around the 2526 school year um budget with strong consideration for the MESD strategic plan and then develop recommendations for the MESD school board and administration to consider um whether it was staffing or programmatic needs. Um they did a great job, the committee of um whittling down um some thoughts and some ideas with some group activities, small group, large group, having conversations and those recommendations were provided to you in um again in a format that it it makes sense
004to me in the way that we that that I put this together and then Antonet and uh the rest of the the district staff helped me put together. Um and so that's what we will be going over and having discussions about. Um several recommendations, several uh pieces of information, especially with federal funding that um is still in kind of in limbo. Um but uh during that second meeting, we we were able to to bring forward um these recommendations and considerations for our discussion tonight. Um, between April 22nd and tonight, um, there were a few, um, items that, um, I wanted to bring forward, um, just to, um, give the board some more information. So, this this print out right here is from the LES. Um, it's on their website. Um they did a really fine
005job of of of summarizing um bills that were passed um that would um you know really impact schools um school districts um private and charter schools. Um they do a bill summary. They do considerations implications for peed um and in the local the uh local um school districts. Um I have tagged here just two of the bills that that are that are really at the top of the list. One of them is House Bill 63, which is the public school funding formula change. Um, this revised the SEG or the state equalization guarantee. Um, and it um modified it and changed um some of the some of the unit values and uh some of the units that that are being considered um in our 910 B5 in particular. um the um change from the at risk
006formula that was that was in place for several years and and really um melding it into the uh family income index and changing that up. Um also um through House Bill 63 um there was some changes that were made um with um the unit value of secondary schools um that increased it. um the program units went up to 1.3 which really helps us out with our budget. Um and then it creates a standalone factor for um English learners and students who have been um reclassified as fluent um English proficient in the past uh two years. So I know you don't have this in front of you, but that House Bill 63 was very important um when they're looking at the the legislature and the LEC at uh changing and and funding schools ade adequately. And
007then the second one that I have flagged is House Bill 156. Um, and this one is pretty pretty straightforward. This is the one that increased educational salaries. And so it brought up the minimum teacher salaries by 5,000 across the board for level one, two, and three um teachers. And uh um Mrs. Young Antonet um has done a great job of already embedding that into um our budget that um in the 910 B5 that we received. Um and so the recommendations and um considerations that are on the list and we'll display it up here shortly. Um that budget and the remaining balance uh that we have to work with already has a 4% um salary uh increase as well as the benefit increases taken out of our our um budget. Um and the last thing before
008I turn it over to Miss Antonette, she stretches and gets ready. Um yesterday um over the weekend and then yesterday we really looked at it. Um there were proposals from the federal government for the upcoming budget um and specific K12 education um factors that that may impact us or we need to be again these are proposed by the federal government. So we need to keep our eye on these things. Um there's a proposal that indicates that title one funding remain intact um to not get rid of title one. Um proposal to preserve all IDEIDA grants but can um consolidate them into a single program and fund them at this year's the FY25 levels um without going backwards and and taking money. But uh um we'll we'll see when they when they give us our our
009awards. Um and then the budget proposals by the federal government um for the uh US education department um eliminate programs um specifically title three and teacher quality partnership um so that would affect us just minimally uh real minimal um it's the title one and IDA I know that we keep talking to everyone about that's uh that we again need to keep an eye on. So, um, that's a lot real quickly because I want to jump into, um, the recommendations and considerations so we can have a good discussion tonight, um, and and get your questions and have Miss Antinet, um, and the rest of us do our best to answer them or get the answers before we approve our budget. Well, I'm not kidding. No, I'm just kidding. Good evening, Madam President, members of the board.
010Um, I was asking Miss Romero to blow it up for you guys a little bit. It's kind of tiny on the screen there. Um, I did receive my 910 B5 last week, I believe it was. Um, as Mr. Bibiano told you, the unit value increased by $24760. So, our budget for FY2526 will be $33,94,416.91. Um, that was an increase of approximately $3 million from last year. Um, he has there the actual number 2,674,7748. He laughs at me because I do everything in exact pennies. Um, but that's my job. So this year, um, our salaries and benefits were approximately 87% of the operational budget. I anticipate they'll be at least that much next year, maybe a little bit more with these increases. Um, we had supplies and materials in the budget for 565,889.82. I would like
011to maintain that number if not increase it a little bit as the price of everything has gone up drastically as everybody knows. So the supplies that the schools are ordering they're also feeling that in their budgets. Um student travel has also another number that has gone up astronomically over the last few years. It's at least doubled. Um although fuel prices are still down, we've increased the pri the price the hourly rate for our drivers. So it costs more to transport those students. Um so right now we have $120,5129 is what we budgeted for this year. Um and like I said each year I've seen the the need go up a little bit more because of those things. Um we currently have after school clubs budgeted at $500,000. We have m been able to maintain that
012budget this year. Um, we did see, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, but I I noticed that we saw a decrease in the number of clubs that were offered at some of the sites this year. Um, and that's because it's on a volunteer basis. So, if we don't have teachers that volunteer to stay after school and do that extra duty, then um we can't offer that club. So, it's not anything that um the district is doing to change that. Um, but that is one of the options, one of the things that came up further down. We'll get back into that. Um, the committee did recommend that we continue that program. So, I would propose that we just keep it funded at the same amount. I don't see that we have a need to increase
013it at this time. Um, however, you guys could always choose to take that money and use it for something else also if you wanted to. Yeah. Yes. And I think it helps our families too. It does. Um especially when we strugg when we are struggling with transportation sometimes and buses get cancelled um families have other options for students after school. Um I know we're working on that every day but it's a constant battle. So title one um for SY26 some of the big things that I we have to take into consideration our title one budget got cut pretty drastically. That is one number that we have received and we are going to have to absorb approximately $450,000 worth of salaries and benefits into the operational budget. Um, idea B has been put on hold. We
014don't have any idea when we're going to get that number now. Um, Miss Romero got news uh la last week that everything's been kind of frozen with that right now. So, we're completely in limbo. Um, I looked yesterday for with Mr. Bibiano and that is about $750,000 in that budget. So, if I if I may, so going back to what I just um mentioned a few minutes ago, um, we talked last week, we got um, Mrs. Romero and we got the email about uh, it's just kind of on the on hold. Um, that came on Saturday, that information. So, it's it's at least promising that they're saying they would they would fund it at the FY25, but that's just proposals, right? Because the feds are going to be going through what we do um when
015they talk about these budgets. But yeah, so that was good news and we are optimistic that that will be funded, but at this point, we don't know. um to add an FTE for an assistant principal at MEES um I am estimating 138,98029. Now that is um if they take all the benefits I figured it at the high option that should be the highest amount that we would have to budget for that person. All those things are pretty variable whether they take medical, dental, vision, all those benefits or not. So it could be less than that. It could not it should not be more. Um to add an FTE for a um CTE career and technical education and a workbased learning coordinator would cost approximately 113,426. Again, I figured it at a level three um teacher
016with all the benefits. So, it shouldn't be more than that. Um there is a need for one more security officer at MHS to help man the ISS children students. Um so that we're thinking could be anywhere from 34 to 45,000 depending on if we got somebody with a lot of experience or not. That does not have the benefits in it. That's just salary because I don't know where they'll land. Um, if we increase the athletic coaching stipens based on what we have talked about with the budget committee, it would cost about $53,715. That does include the mandatory benefits that goes with that. To increase lunch duty stipens from $1,500 to $2,000 would be $26,281. And that does include the mandatory benefits. So, both of those stipens, um, Mr. Mr. Bibiano and I well I went
017back as far as 2012 on the coaching stipens and they have not been increased in that period of time. Mr. Bibiano went even further back on lunch duty. Um and they've been the same $1,500 for at what 15 20 years maybe at this point. I went back to when I did lunch duty stipens which was the last time was around 2005 or six and it was approximately the same. I think it was 1,200. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, is that for a year or so? A year. It's a year. [Laughter] Mr. I mean I see principal loose nodding her head and and um you know because of the it's $1,500. If we can increase it a little bit, maybe it entices some more to voluntarily give up their lunch and they get the stipen um
018they would they would receive they receive the stipen in December and June. And for some of our staff members and and and in particular, it's the teachers who do it, um it's a nice stipen going into some of the breaks for them. But if we can increase it just a little bit to help out with the recruitment, um that would that would help out tremendously. Yes. Because as you said, Mr. Young, a lot of teachers say, "I'd rather eat my lunch." So, um those are some of the options. The next option we have on the list is um as a district we can opt to pay 80% of our insurance premiums. Um we're on a three- tier system. So anybody under 50,000 right now we already pay 80% for. But if they're between 60 and
01970 we pay 70%. Um and then anybody that's above 60 we only pay 60%. So, this would impact recruitment and retention for level two and level three teachers. And then it does also help with administrators as well. It it unfortunately we're already paying the 80% for anybody under 50,000. So, it wouldn't impact every employee, but it's an option. Some things that we want you to consider though when we talk about that. Well, it could help with recruitment and retention. Mr. Adams um in our meeting was quick to point out that if we ever get in a budget bind again and we have to pull that back down to the three tier system, that could also be detrimental to morale. So, it could go either way. Another unknown is if we do this, we may have
020a lot more employees that sign up for benefits that aren't carrying them right now. So, that $225,000 estimate that I'm giving you could double. It could triple. I mean, I don't know for sure. Um, but it was something that I didn't realize until this past October that that was something we could do. So, I thought I would bring it to you guys as an option. This is this $225,000 number is based on our current employees right now who currently carry insurance. I can't anticipate what that might look like, though. Um, continue supporting the transportation budget. This is another one that we don't really have a whole lot of choice in. Uh the last this year and last year I looked back also. It's we've been supplementing them approximately $400,000. We did get the transportation budget
021this week and I was super excited to see that we got an increase of about $400,000. So that will help some, but some of that's going to get taken with the 4% raises and the insurance benefits. So it won't still won't cover the gap. Yeah, there's there's still going to be a gap. So, um, just so that you know, that's also going to have to come out of this money that we have. Um, we also found out last week, Miss Loose sent me the email from the peed, the family income index, which we have had at MEES the last two maybe three years now, is no longer. They did not fund that this year. So that is two FTE at MEES um that have been helping to support um behavior interventions and that type of
022um behavior interventions and reading reading and um reading and math interventions at that school. So with that going away, those would be two FTE that we would need to pull back into operational or over to operational. Um, we also of course would like by your board policy to maintain at least a 5% cash balance. So while we did we are seeing that 2.6 million as you can see it goes pretty quickly. Things add up really fast. Um, so we took all these these ideas and recommendations to the budget committee and then as Mr. Ribiano said they also had time to give their input and what they would like to see moving forward. And so now in this spreadsheet we move into the budget committee recommendations. Uh but I'll pause for a second if anybody has
023any questions on the top half of that spreadsheet or clar any clarification that you would like on any of that. Okay. What's going what's going on inside school that they need that extra security? So, what's happening is they found that um when we have students that are assigned in ISS, they're put in that room with the security officers. Well, one of the officers has to stay in there to watch them all the time then. So, there's not one that can be patrolling the parking lot um on the days that we have kids in ISS. So, those, you know, if there's kids hanging out in their cars, there's nobody out there to tell them to get back in go back to school, those types of situations. Um, so it's just to have that added person that
024can be assigned to that ISS room and um, you know, they can do some more programs with them. If you're in ISS because you got caught with a vape, then let's educate you on the dangers of a vape. If you're in there because of you were bullying, then let's educate you educate you on being more um, socially sensitive, you know, those types of things. how they actually not only the number of kids that we have at the high school, but the square footage of that campus is is so large. It's hard to watch all the nooks and crannies. We did add a lot of cameras this year to help them with that, but there's still places we all I mean, you guys were all in high school at one time. They're very creative. Um, and
025so having to having both of them free to be able to monitor, you know, maybe one of them monitoring cameras and somebody else patrolling the campus would help with, you know, just helping. No, I appreciate the question. That's what we're here for, for you guys to poke holes in things. Absolutely. Okay, moving on to what the budget committee recommended. So, um the one of the first things that they talked about was they'd like to continue the before and after school programs that our staff is doing for our students. Um the students are enjoying it, the families are enjoying it. Um and I think a lot of the staff are too. They're they're taking some of their hobbies and turning it into a club to teach other kids about those things. you know, if they enjoy
026photography, they might have a photography club to teach the kiddos about that. Um, we have cooking clubs going on. We have um game clubs where they just play board games. It's, you know, it's better they're playing board games than video games or those kinds of things. So, and then we do have video games, too. We have uh esports. So, whatever they prefer, whatever their preferences are. So, um the committee definitely would like to see that continue. They've heard um good things about that from families and from staff. the opportunity for even just the students to have a place to finish off homework before they got home. Yes. Tutoring, the may not get tutoring, but it may just be getting homework in a place. Um, but the other place we got tutoring going on and I
027know math has started up at the high school again and it's been it's been good for Yeah. for us. So, we have I have this here. Like I said, we already have that 500,000 in the budget. it wouldn't be additional, but like I said, you could choose to take that and use it somewhere else if we if you wanted to or we had to. Um, adding an FTE for family and consumer science that has um come up to the top of the list there. A staff member would cost us about $133,$104. That's salary and benefit again if we got a level three teacher. about $5,000 for the food that they would need and um for supplies. What we're not sure of is what equipment we'll need to get updated and cleaned and fixed and that
028kind of stuff. Um I had a little brief conversation with Mr. Richie about that. Um he thinks a couple of the kitchens are in better shape than you know another one. What I was just happened to get a catalog for family and consumer science supplies this week and there's a lot of things that I don't know if we have all the spoons and measuring cups and bowls and all that stuff still in the kitchens or if they've been run rummaged through. So that could add some additional cost. We're not really sure about that. But to give you guys some numbers to play with. Complaining, Miss Donner. It's okay. It happens. Um let's see. So what we have kind of talked about is that to start off because we have to build a program that um
029this position might be split between family and consumer science and then maybe employability skills at the high school until we build enough students to make to have a full FTE worth of family and consumer science classes. Mr. Romero, you want to your thoughts on that? Yes. Um, Madame President, members of the board, one of the ideas that we came, we had been, um, kind of playing around with the idea of family consumer science, um, as you know, for multiple years and, um, where we should start it. Should we start it at the middle school and build that build that up? Um but then as we were thinking about also the the need for and we've also been talking um kind of a um a partner conversation about the need for soft skills and that employability
030skills for students um as the graduation requirements are have changed and um we are we've moved away from the New Mexico history half credit that um is paired with driver's ed. We have some sections of driver's ed that are only a semester long, but we don't have really a semester class to put it on the backside. So, playing around the with the idea of having family consumer science. Um, we know we won't get six periods of, you know, 30 kids because u we weren't sure we were going to have it, so we didn't publicize for it with the students, but um we definitely can probably get three sections of it. Um, and so what do we do with those other three sections that that teacher might need because it's going to be easier to possibly
031get a full-time teacher than a half-time teacher. And so really, um, looking at that need for employability skills, soft skills, and there are some quality curriculums out there right now as we're moving towards work-based learning. So, um looking at the strategic go plan and um really, you know, as we have that goal for career pathways and options, um we just we thought that that would be a good partner for um family and consumer science. I got a question about like that one like they could we get them to incorporate my skills USA where they incorporate those skills get those programs out there that was valuable where I grew up my girls did growing up. Yes. Um madame president members of the board Mr. lossing. Yes, we are looking at um whether this position um but
032also possibly the the CTE coordinator, workbased learning coordinator and then along with our our CTE um teachers um we have already I've talked to one teacher specifically Mr. Andes and he is all over um either Skills USA or the other one um there's another one that is Yeah. Um but so yes we we are absolutely going to pursue that for next year. Yes sir. Yes sir. and with the option of the employability skills or soft skills, whatever we want to call it, but really giving our students um hopefully an edge um even if even if it's not a career that they're going into, but to be able to go and have an interview at a for a summer job, you know, and have that confidence and and um resume building and and just research um
033um sprinkled in with a little, you know, financial, you know, literacy curriculum. Yeah. Yeah. And then the other big part of that, Mr. Bibiano, um um where they will start in that in those types of classes are really students um participating in interest inventories. What do I like where what might be interesting for me to pursue? Um and getting their, you know, just thinking about that and what their futures could look like. Um we we really don't have the built-in time in our in our classes to do that. And so really sitting down especially at the freshman or sophomore level um and giving them some time to just really think about the potential for their futures. Yes. Um the next item that came up from the committee is student success coaches at all schools. Uh
034that would cost approximately $495,000. I don't have any more information on you on for you on that. I don't know exactly what that would look like. I don't know what that position would do exactly um or what that would look like. We've kind of talked about it and we're not really sure what they were thinking with that. Um but that is definitely um would cost about $500,000 to do that at every single school. Um there they also mentioned a truency officer. We also aren't really sure what that looks like. When we research trenyy officers, it's actually a law enforcement position that goes to people's houses and knocks on doors and says, "Hey, your kids's not been coming to school." kind of thing. We don't have jurisdiction over that. I think it's like I think they're
035wanting support with attendance, but I don't know that we have the ability to hire a truency officer and put that in place. um increase salaries for off for all office staff. So, they didn't really say how much or what this looks like. And at first, I didn't really look into it too much, but then when I did, I felt kind of bad. Um when I So, I see everybody's salaries, but I see it on an annual big picture amount. I don't think to break things down to hourly dollar amounts. So, when I broke it down to an hourly rate, um, our admin assistants, our secretaries at a school, um, are making less than our health assistants and our EAS barely, they're making less than our security officers and they're barely making more than our maintenance
036staff. So for the level of responsibility that they had um I felt really bad and the amount of work that they have on their plate. Um so I ran some numbers to get them to um just a little bit above those positions because of the level of responsibility that they carry in those positions. Um it would bring them from $18.16 an hour to about $22 an hour. um which could be life-changing for a lot of them. It would cost us about $192,000 with benefits. So then looking at I'm sorry, Mr. Ch. Nothing. I know they do take a lot of abuse, our poor secretaries. I'm not going to lie. Um then I was like, well shucks, what about our clerical staff here at central office? We have three levels. The one that's below those amounts
037as well is the level ones. Um, and so adding if we added just that level one column, it would be for for those employees that are on that, it would cost the district another $46,640. I did not look at level two or level three on the business technical salary schedule. Um, I just really wanted to make sure that we got those ones up to where they needed to be. Did he stack on a tier basis too or No, no, they were years ago, but we have found that we have tried to cross train and make sure that everybody backs everybody up so much. We got rid of kind of the head secretary yada yada yada stuff several years ago. So, um they're all required to kind of know all of the pieces so that if
038one's not there, the other one can fill in. So those two if we did both of those together it's you know around $250,000. So um we couldn't I was like racking my brain racking my brain because they really I mean that was the one that got the most dots on our chart. So I was like okay I need to look at this like what am I missing? And when I broke it down to the uh the hourly rate I was like oh geez. And I'll tell you when that happened um about I think it was three years ago that the state mandated that we had to put everybody to $15 an hour and that was such a big increase for everybody that our salary schedules got compacted and everybody was like at 15 at first
039and then with the 4% 4%. What makes it look different on my side is everybody works a different number of days. So, when I'm looking at their yearly rates, it looks like they are making more, but when I broke it down to an hourly rate, I'm like, "Oh, they're they're not." So, real quickly, um part of that compaction of the of the salary schedule because of the the $15 minimum coming up. Um that's also the same conversation um being carried especially by um Mr. John Senna from the LEC with the legislators as they as they bump up the um minimum salaries for teachers by whatever amount this year it's 5,000. Um making sure that that funding is more for us. Our unit value really is more so we can decompact up at the top as
040well because it's just it's just shrinking everything up with with the pot of money that we get. Yes. Um as going to what Mr. Mr. Bibiano saying when when they did the teacher increase the minimums the last time our teacher salary schedules also it's literally $1 per year because it cost us so much money we couldn't give extra money for for years of experience. We couldn't we can't afford it. So that's what he's speaking to, you know. So when they do these big things, yeah, it's great in ways, but then they don't give us enough funding to be able to fix those kinds of things. Um, and we end up with these situations where you're like, "Oh, shucks." Um, this maybe is not so good. Um, the next thing on the list, reading interventionists at
041all elementary and secondary levels. We have currently have reading interventionists already at two um of our schools through title one because they're title one funded. So, it's in that title one funding. um to have them at all seven would cost $732,492. Uh so that's a pretty high dollar amount. Um and then the last thing that came up, which isn't really operational, but I guess it could be if we wanted to use some of our cash carryover. They had a lot of votes on that one. Um to pave the road between Morardi High School and Morardi Middle School. So, we've had a lot of people that are not happy with that road and we've been in our defense, we have been working on it. We've been trying to work with DOT to get some um help
042paying for that because it is a pretty big price tag of $350,000. Um but if we don't if we choose not to wait, we can we could always choose to do that as well. So, they can follow. Yeah. Well, part of the problem, sir, is the potholes are really big and it I think it's because of the weight of the buses on that road all the time. They're heavy vehicles and so, you know, we keep filling the potholes, filling the potholes, but it just really needs to be taken up and redone. So, and and um year and a half ago, maybe a little bit longer, we did get a quote from the um paving company. Um but then we started looking at it a little more closely. Um and it was just to chip seal
043it basically, fill the potholes and chip seal it. So um it was it was a nice price if you want to call it that, right? It was a nice um quote. Um but then again we start I I dove into it a little deeper um when um Superintendent Salazar and and board president Arho was here working on it. Um and that's what that quote was. So, we went out to bid or not out to bid, but we um looking at another quote. Yeah. And it's and it's our road. It's our road that we take care of. Would that be from where it ends right there at the where you turn off to the maintenance department all the way to the stop sign? It's actually from Is that First Street that the high school's on? Um
044yeah, it's from that road all the way to like the end of the pavement where the or where the bus Yeah. Where are you going to the buses? Yeah. Where you're saying basically? Yeah. To the stop sign where we turn off. Yeah. So it gets it goes a little bit further west than the maintenance though. Okay. So it would start I believe it's to the side to the next street to the next street that goes to the Yeah, it's a pretty big piece. We learned that when the city repaved that road and they skipped us and we're like why did you do this piece? That's when it came to Superintendent Salazar at the time's attention that we own that piece of road. Um, and at that time it was Mayor Hart and he told us
045that because we own it, if at some point we do want to fence it off and lock it up during the school day, we can't. Um, we never got that far, but it is an option for security if we ever decide to go that route. I have a question on that. Do we know the cost to maintain it if it's paved compared to what it is now? Um, usually it lasts for quite a few years, you know. I think this is it's just been gosh probably 20 30 years since it's been there. So, I mean, it should last us. It shouldn't need any maintenance if it's done properly. And that project would be taking it all out completely. Yeah. and and building it back up with all the crusher fines and all all the compacting
046and everything, not just not just a layover, you know, of like a chip seal or something like that, right? That original quote was like 53,000 and then when we asked again, it was he was like, "No, we can't just do that. This is worse than I thought." And it's going to be about 300 300,000. So, but like like you said, if we do it right, it's better than buying asphalt every year to fill the potholes. So my question is and we discussed it at the audit thing a little bit was the working with the city a little bit because they go through there because there is there is families on both sides of that road. So then what is our legal status of being able to work with them to for them to pay part
047of that cost? We've been told it's our private property. So I don't know. Like I said they told us if we wanted to we could lock it down and not let people go through there. We don't have to let the traffic go through there. So, I don't know that we could strongarm them into paying for some of it to be honest with you. I was just thinking of the resin on both sides trying to Well, and that's why we were reaching out to DOT to see if we could get some funding for that. So, but the little bit of funding we have got already, it's like been three years and we're still not closed with that project. It is a long drawn out process. So, I don't know if we want to kick the can
048down the road that much for that much longer. So, I stand for questions on any of these items, ideas, thoughts, um direction so I can finish up the budget and bring it to you in a couple weeks. Okay. Maintaining the after school because that is huge for families. Okay. What what is a do we have student success coaches now? If we do, what does it look like? I mean, yes, please. Madame President, members of the board, um Mr. Young. Yes. So, we currently have one um student success coach who is split. Um the funding comes out of title 4 and the grant was written um as a split split position um at Morerti Middle School and Morerti High School. That position is um was created to work on um student engagement. So attendance is a
049big portion of that. um talking to students about grades and being the conduit between the teachers and the families of students that um are at risk and um improving graduation um outcomes um college career readiness. So it's a big job but it's really that um conduit when with coming between school and families at the secondary level for attendance and grades. So is that something um where trinency officers and student success coach could be maybe one in the same person? It absolutely could be in theory. In theory, right to a certain point, right, where the officer would then Yeah. I mean, you're we're not going to anybody's house. I get that. But I mean, obviously, if we're reaching out to parents and Yeah. I mean, but communication to families on attendance, continuous communication, pulling a daily
050attendance rates and communicating home. Um, those types of things absolutely could be a part of that. So, one more question. Yes. Is it moving the needle at all? I mean, is it actually making an impact? That's a question, Mr. Adams? and the um the family dynamics that sometimes are like, you know, school's not the priority all the time. Um I wouldn't say that it's a it's a overall effective use to say we're improving overall school attendance, but I mean he works with individual students constantly, but he's only at my school half a day. I don't know if that answer your question. No, it uh it does. It does. It's just it's um education's not for everybody, I guess, right? I mean, that's kind of if you're not making it a priority. Kids are aren't successful
051because of schools are successful because of what happens at home. So, I get that. But uh I mean if it's moving one kid like I mean for me that's enough, you know? I mean that's just the way it is. So I just thought if there was an option to maybe student success coach at each school would make a more a greater impact at your school and everybody else's school. I don't know how that looks at an elementary level because I can see it in middle school and high school. I don't see how it's would affect I mean what effect it would have on elementary school but um um definitely see it at secondary um being somewhat of a value and then also madam president members of the board Mr. young, you know, it's that phenomenon
052of for some reason um we communication kind of uh dissipates at secondary level starting in you know sixth seventh grade and I really do believe it has it has one of those um that that ongoing communication you know at the elementary level teachers are in in charge of their 25 students and they have those relationships they have nine months with those 25 kids and they know the family dynamic and they're talking to parents and they're available and our secondary teachers are definitely available and they're reaching out, but their case loads are now up to 160 kids. And so the time to manage 25 kids and all that communication ongoing compared to secondary 160 kids, it it's hard. So, um, yes, what you're saying is so a student success coach at the elementary might not be
053as important as at the secondary levels because teachers have a lot on their plate. [Music] So, in theory then could we adjust this to just be at the secondary schools? Mhm. Yeah, absolutely. And that's so I'm glad you said that. I mean, maybe it's a recommendation that we um we look at instead of one person split that we that we that we use um the funding and create you know what would it be? One more position, one FT two more two more. So two Oh, yes. Right. So we have one FTE for two schools. So two more. Yes. For three FTE then for one for each secondary school and get some of those what's affecting our what's affecting our things so we can look at that make sure that that's what we want. I'm sorry.
054Got it. Thank you for that recommendation. Another question for Mr. Adams, if he's listening. So, Mr. Adams, is it your opinion then that if you had someone full-time at your school that it would be beneficial? Would it move? So it would be more effective. I I couldn't tell you change overall attendance. It depends on what the model. That's really why I want to look at the overall attendance and see what our overall problem is or what's going on or what we're hearing from the kids because if they're focused on them at middle school, it's just going to cascade up into the high school hopefully and make it easier. So my question is again on the uh the not the truency but the increase for the office staff. How is it? So I agree that we
055should do it because it is super important that we keep are we having a problem retaining office staff at this point because of that and do you think our retention will be better at that point? Oh sorry it wasn't on Madame President members of the board Mr. Losing um we have had some turnover in the last few years. Um I can't speak to numbers. We had a lot of staff that were here for 25 years and then all of a sudden they all kind of turned over and since then I would say that it's kind of been a revolving door. Um I I'm looking around the room at the principles thinking of who their staff members in MEES's staff members are all both under five years. I want to say MMS's are both under five
056years. EMS's are both under five years. South Mountains are even right in there. Um they're all pretty new to us. Um and it's, you know, they're just so being able to keep them nice like that. Yeah. And you know, if we want to attract quality staff to do the level of work that we're asking of them, they have to do things for my office. They have to do things for Natalie's office. They have to do things for the nurses. They have to do things for their principles, for parents, for teachers. I mean, we're asking them to do the principles will tell you your secretaries run your school. They keep they help keep the principles, you know, juggling the balls. I mean, I go in sometimes and I see secretaries are eating lunch with kids that,
057you know, it's too stimulating for them to eat lunch in the cafeteria. So, they sit in the office and meet with the office staff. Um, there I mean, they they do it all. They really do. Um, and I feel bad when I have a secretary that I have to call and kind of get on because they made a mistake for my office and it's, you know, it could cost us money or, you know, we could get in trouble for it because I know that they have all the balls in the air and I hate to have to be like, "Hey, but you didn't do this and this is really important." And they're like, "Yeah, but this, this, and this is really important, too." So, I can't imagine trying to do my job in the environment
058that we ask them to do their jobs every day, honestly. So, when I when I saw this, I it's Yeah. Um, how are we comparing to other school districts of our size and things like that for that? Do you know? I don't know. Um, I've looked at it for some of the other positions, but again, this hadn't been on my radar till just now when the committee was so adamant about it. Um, I didn't think to I bet we could pretty quickly pull up APS's. Their salary schedules are online. Yeah, but they're bigger than Yeah, but we usually pay better than they do. Okay. Um, not to tote our own horn. Yeah, I want to look at the our own the it's not on the bottom list, but the coaching staff the stipen going up
059on that just because of the amount of work that they put in and the the amount of time that they put into everything. And even if we look at CTE paying a little bit on that, sir, I will tell you that we did look at other districts our size. We did look into the coaching really quick uh really hard. We uh Mr. Mr. Bibiano got salary schedules from other districts our size um and al and Mr. Annayia helped him with that and pulling not only and then from local you know Asansia and those kinds of places to see if we were comparable. We're never going to compete with the um Artisas of the world. Um but you know, with other districts our size, doing this would make us definitely more um competitive. And um get
060up in the morning, bring grandkids to school at 5:00 in the morning. Coaches are there. Yes, sir. So, I don't even know why we're questioning it. Yeah. I um I like this recommendation a lot as well because because of the time and effort and um living that life for a long time and and and and it's rewarding with the kids, you know. Um absolutely. But um this these increases would go from middle school all the way up to varsity coaches. Um it's smaller increments as and they get larger as you get to head coaches. Um and it it kind of puts in some differentiation also with coaching duties. um you know versus head coach versus just an assistant if they did some other duties as well. So it it differentiates it some you know when
061I go when I go to most of games doesn't matter what it is and the thing of it is that every single coach is there whether they're coaching basketball they're always there. Yeah. For the kids. Yes sir. And the and and and Mr. Last thing, if I may, just I I truly um like the recommendation also for the lunch duty stipens. It it would it would help out um tremendously. Are we making those to look at again or that's what you're asking for? Is that what you're asking for us to do is say these are the ones we want more look into? Uh these are the I'm asking you to give me direction. I would like to bring you the budget on the 21st for approval. So this is the stuff that I'm not sure
06220th sorry I'm not sure which ones you want me to prioritize. I am at this point not ready to make promises but I can at least then at least I can go okay this is what I have. This is what they said they want you know and then I can come back and say this is what I was able to do. I we have I mean I think we can accomplish several of these. We won't be able to accomplish the whole list. And that's where I just want to know. Yeah, because then I want to look at the paying for those um benefits too because that's super important because that's always a in my job that's one the first thing that comes to the table is your salary and then what we're talking about at
063benefits and what we're going to pay for for benefits. So I mean that is highly important to my career field and everything and I know it is to everybody else. So, if Natalie, if you can scroll up uh to right there just um I know we've talked about it and and and I've I've mentioned and and I really would like consideration for um the assistant principal at MEES. Um, moving on that most definitely. Um, the workbased um, learning u, CTE coordinator um, off to my side there, the little notes I put in trying to advocate for it, I guess, with um, you know, if we're going to um, really have our strategic those goals of of student engagement, career pathways, um, there there we need a coordinator to um, get get the ball rolling even
064more. So, we've laid a foundation, I believe, with um the information we've gathered on funding, on partnerships, um models of other school districts this year for CTE and work-based learning. Um but if we have a a a person, an FTE to focus um and really move on that like a uh coordinator, counselor, um school districts, that's that's what they're using right now. Sorry, I thought we already hired the or were working on getting the assistant principal. So, that was my fault. You know, I think, you know, I've looked at it and and I've seen it the last two days. I think they're all pretty good recommendations that we have here. I'm I'm seriously I'm pretty happy with what you guys are recommending. I think this would work. There's one special that's for me. is that
065size consumer. But, you know, I think that I think like like I'll back up the coaches. I'll back everybody up all the way because I know that you guys do your work. Been here a long time and seen a lot, but I think there's a good recommendations. Up to you to figure it out, but we're not going to make no decisions. Okay. Right. Um the the the big hitter on here is towards the bottom, um Mrs. Romero and it's that recommendation for reading interventionist at all elementary and secondary. Um, as much as we know reading proficiencies, um, and we talk about a student success coach or truency officer moving the needle, um, the money spent and where we have reading interventionists now, I think is is well suited to move forward with some of the
066other programs that we put in, especially secondary. um that that that model I'm not even sure um what it would be like to um if we would you know we would be changing a lot of direction um this year we can look into it for next year um if there's a reading interventionist and they're pulling certain kids out because of a uh assessment score or they're on a uh into you know a certain plan for academics. Um, do we do we we're not set up to have those conversations. I don't believe and and help me out with this guys if you push back um especially at the secondary level to take start taking away electives or making other other decisions for students um without looking into this deeper and what models look like and what
067it what what are the success rates of other schools that may have reading specialists or reading interventionists at the secondary levels. Um, you know, the elementary levels pretty much have a they're they're set. They have a good model. They they have in and out, you know, or push in to classroom or whatever the model is. Ours ours we have certain kids identified because of assessments that need help and they can revolve if after the two the the students are assessed again and if they reach a certain benchmark, then we then we switch them out. Um um but that that's a big hitter right there to go across the board without having a a backwards plan put in place um solidly. Um and that would be um that's a like Mr. Chavis said, these recommendations are
068all good. They're all they're all good for kids and the and moving the district forward um with education. But, uh, you know, um, that's one that, um, would would would eliminate some of these other ones in my mind. Um, if especially if we're looking at the having to to set up for our cash. Um, nothing against anyone who recommended it, you know, and I don't mind having those conversations. Um, but I think if we plan it out and then we present it um, in the near future um, as a as a possible recommendation, then then I would uh, I would like that. So my question is is on the reading interventionist interventionist um probably could have used some help in school um that uh we have them now in a at a couple of the
069elementary schools or all three or two of the elementary schools sir. Okay. How how what's what's the process for them getting an interventionist now versus I mean so is that something that a previous board made? Is it funded out of something else? How does that I mean how do we get there? Madame President, members of the board, Mr. Young. So, currently actually the only reading interventionist that we have in the district is um what we talked about um at MEES um um that's paid out of current family income index money. Um in the past we um three years ago we moved to from reading interventionists to reading or instructional coaches. Um nationally um the trend and research is showing us that um by tracking students um intervention um pulling kids out of the general ed
070classroom putting them in small groups and um um giving intervention reading high dosage intervention. Um it that's what we have done for many many years and that's intervention. Um it's for students that show deficits that are not in special education. Um so um research was moving towards what was more impactful was coaching staff. Um we if we don't teach at high levels um in tier one to everybody first um we're going to have an intervention problem because we have more students that need intervention. So, um the shift went to um quality professional development and teaching all of our teachers, not just relying on um intervention and one specific strategy teacher for small groups of students. So, we went to coaching and that's what the district did here. And so, we pay for two instructional coaches,
071one at Morerti Elementary and one at Route 66 out of title one. For many, many years at a title one, that was a long answer. um for but um for many years we used interventionist. Three years ago we shifted to instructional coaches and that work with strengthening teachers um has been very beneficial by um being able to practice coaching cycles. Um you have an coach go in in some cases videotape that teacher's instruction. they view it together or they talk about what the coach saw through notes and the teacher is able to make um goals for themselves based on you know the outcomes of the data from that day and those types of things. So that um effect size for growing proficiency or growth um is is wider than interventionists going to the high school
072or secondary. I will tell you that nationally that is not a trend. Secondary interventionists um again they are leaning towards and have always actually led to um leaned into coaches to strengthen instruction. Um but you get into what Mr. Babyo said, "And when does reading intervention or math intervention happen?" And you do um what results in is um a mix between ELA and reading and it does not work well or you're taking electives away from students and making them choose giving them less reason to want to go to school. Okay. Yeah. Because I'm I'm not going to lie. If you're going to take an elective away from me at 14 years old, probably gonna find something better to do. So, okay, that it's a long answer, but I get it. Yeah, thank you. And I
073don't think we're ready to move forward with that. Me personally, I mean, I guess unless we had something on how we knew this would look and some data to support it, I just I don't see um you know, I just don't see a benefit as of right now. Is there a way to maybe roll some of this into our afterchool clubs? I mean, obviously we're doing tutoring at the high school levels, but I'm guessing teachers for after school or before school would probably rather be doing something other than teaching. Yeah. Um I just I just would like to, you know, move forward with more more conversations and and and study it a little more. Is it a reading interventionist? and piggy back off of what Mrs. Romero was saying or if we're going across the
074board for every school K through 12, is it um a coaching model um versus um pull out of just small groups of kids at this time? Um so um thank you. Mrs. Young, do you have a direction? Clear as mud. Yes, sir. Yeah, we're good. I think so. All right. I think so. Madame President, any other questions or comments from board members? I have nobody else. All righty. Um on our on our um notice we had um discussion of the instructional calendar time permitting, but we also have it in our in our agenda. So, um, Madame President, I would recommend that we end our work session, uh, for a quick break and then, um, start our our special, uh, um, meeting, um, in 5 6:15. Okay. 6:15. Thank you. This concludes our work session. We'll
075take a break until 6:15 at which time we'll re regroup. All right. I will now call the regular Moriardi Edgewood School District board meeting to session at 6:16. Would you please stand and join in the pledge of allegiance? Pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right. Thank you, Madam President. Yes, sir. Moving on to adoption agenda. I recommend adoption of tonight's special board meeting. U May 6, 2025 adoption of the agenda. Superintendent Biviano is recommending that we adopt the agenda for our May 6 special board meeting. Um may I have a motion? I'll move to adopt the agenda. Is there a second? A second. All those in favor say
076I. I. All those opposed and the motion carries. So I'd like to say welcome to all of us. Thank you for coming out and um being a part of the work session and answering our questions. And um now we'll move on to a short uh business meeting. And um the next action item is item E. Madame President, I recommend approval of the draft of the regular meeting minutes from April 15, 2025. Um, I actually found a couple errors, okay, um, in there that need to be corrected. And now, what did I do with my piece of paper that I haven't written on? It was in the, um, special executive meeting. There was um, in the motion to move out and go to the meeting, um, um, member Young was listed as himself and then also
077as president. And then again as we came back in um it did the same thing where um Vice President Young voted I but then it also showed a vote of President Young as well. So that just needs to be changed from Young to Hudson. And then um under the FFA one it talked about um the uh state championship was economy and it should be aronomy right? Yeah. Okay. And I can't remember now what the third one was. And I don't find my piece of paper. Um, so I guess I'll just have to let that one go. Just trying to find that. Ma'am, which one? The FFA one. It's in the regular board minutes, right? It was 22. Oh, the other one was one of the rereads. It was 229. Um, there was something in there.
078Gosh, what was it? Oh, here it is. Okay. Then the third one was um policy 248 on page six. Uh the motion and second refers to both um Vice President Young that he made the motion and that he made the second. What number, ma'am? Uh 248 policy 248 page six. And you say what was the change? Um it said that member Young made the motion and he also seconded it. Can that be? Can you motion and second? I'm sorry. Again, what number? Policy 248. Oh, I looked at 246. Sorry. Page six. Yes, ma'am. It says Mr. Young motion second by Vice President Young. Is that okay? Yep. We will go back and change that. Okay. Okay. All right. That was it. I missed that one. Sorry. That's a lot of No, there's just a lot
079of a lot of notes. Excuse me. Thank you. Sorry. Excuse me. We get those changes. Okay. So, Madame President, uh, recommend approval of minutes with the changes uh recommended by by yourself. Okay. Uh, Superintendent Biviano has recommended that we make the changes that I noted. Um, may I have a motion to that effect? I so move. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Need to do better proof reading. I just am a proof reader. All right, Madam President. Um item number 2, a um action to remove from the table the 2025 2026 instructional calendar. Um Mrs. Romero, do you have it ready to put up by No, we can put up the surveys and then the options. Yes. So, um last board meeting
080we um it was voted to table um this action and um to move forward, we need to remove it from the table. So, I recommend removal from the table uh 2025 2026 instructional calendar vote. Superintendent Bibiano has recommended that we remove from the table the original 2025 2026 instructional calendar. May I have a motion? So move. I second it. All those in favor say I. I opposed. Okay. Okay. Motion carries. All right. So now um discussion 2025 2026. Um before we start I want to again publicly apologize for my clerical clerical error and not coloring box properly but I felt it was right to put the um uh calendar out for vote again. Um we have uh provided you I provided some hard copies and sorry they are tiny um in print. Um the first
081page is the staff instructional calendar vote. Um this was the corrected um calendar and if you see option one is in blue um received 53.2 votes and um option two the remaining votes. The next um graph is from the families um in the families option one 55.8% and the remaining votes in option two. Um you also were provided once again the um two different calendars that were voted on. Um option number one um provides a um no student day on January 5th um prior to the students coming um back to um the spring semester. It has um spring break March 30th, 31st into April 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Um and other than that um the calendars um are not much more different than um taking away on calendar number two the January 5th day which
082students would come right back and then having spring break on a March 23rd through March 27th. So the voting um leans on both of the surveys towards um calendar one. Um well, Madam President, it's open for discussion with the board members or questions. Are there any questions or comments on this calendar? Was there any feedback from just was that just a vote or could they provide any feedback on that? That's just a vote, sir. Okay. I guess my question is is it seems like we go a long time and then we get, you know, a full week off at Thanksgiving and then a, you know, a couple weeks later we get two more weeks off. Is there any consideration for maybe bridging the gap a little bit and only having say a half a week
083off for Thanksgiving or I mean obviously not this year, but I mean full week off seems like a lot when you're getting two weeks off in three weeks. So, Madame President, Vice uh President Young, um we will look at that. It does get moved um it has been moved to a full week of Thanksgiving um but last year and this year um versus only having three days off. Um but in turn it was up in October um where we expanded our fall break a little bit more. Um so yes sir, that that definitely could be a recommendation moving forward for next year. um and and looking at the calendar and and any way that we can um try to break up those long long days of instruction that you're referring to, weeks of instruction. Seems
084like you get a lot of time at the end. Yeah, you get October. They see that break coming, right? Um though it may be it may seem subtle um but when we start looking at the calendar and and it's it's what we work around now having that that um by law election day off now it starts throwing things kind of out of whack at times. Um you know do we do three three the three days in Thanksgiving? We could create a calendar most definitely that that um has your recommendation next year um that has more dates um um that are in blue per se right here. Um um that would be um quote unquote holidays or or the days off for everybody. Any other questions or comments? No. Okay. So, Madame President, if we are
085moving on with um survey votes and and the opinions um of the board, um I ask for approval of calendar option number one as our 2025 2026 instructional calendar. Uh Superintendent Fibiano is recommending that we accept calendar option number one for our 24 2526 instructional calendar. May I have a motion? A second. All those in favor say I. I opposed. Motion passed. Thank you. And again, ma'am, sorry on the delay to the staff members, the public, um, and everyone that did a few weeks later than what we wanted. Hopefully next year um because it is a 30-day session, anything that comes out that may affect our calendar, we'd be able to get the calendar out sooner than later um than late as late as we did this year. Um we will get this out to
086the public um starting tomorrow. Um moving on to business. Um, Madame President, um, members of the board, this is a purchase of a maintenance truck to replace the one that was involved in a vehicle accident um, couple months ago. Couple months ago. Yeah. Um, we have some uh, it was reported out in our last regular meeting. The insurance company did total it. Um, the vehicle that was our vehicle that was in the in the accident. And so this is a purchase of a maintenance truck with additional equipment um from Tiller's Chevrolet. The vehicle is at Tiller's um and we'd be able to move on this very quickly um if approved tonight, ma'am. So my recommendation is to approve purchase of the maintenance truck with the additional equipment with um the um toolbox that we would
087need as well as the uh Tommy lift gate. Okay. Superintendent Viviano has recommended that we moved to the purchase of a maintenance truck with the additional equipment that he mentioned. Um, are there any questions? Any more questions in regards to this? Not. May I have a motion? And I'll second. Uh, may I have a vote? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion passed. Thank you, ma'am. Moving on to approval of the RFP or request for proposal number 81-25-01 um audit services. Um Miss Junk, Madame President, members of the board um un unfortunately fortunately I guess um we only had one respondent to our RFP for audit services this year um which happens to be our current audit firm. So I am asking you to allow me to um work with them for one
088more year. Next year by law we will be required to take two years off with them. Uh you can only have them for six years and then you have to take two years off. So we did open it up to other audit firms this year. Um because if we take one year off then we can either stay with that audit firm, the new audit firm if we like them or we can go back to our old audit firm if you do it before the six-year mark. However, I did not get any other respondents. Um, I will say that I did not get the email from the state auditor's office that I was able to go out for an RFP and I finally reached out to find out what was going on. Apparently, they have a
089new system. So, I don't know if because of the new system, I just got left off of the email blast that went out. So, I think I was a little bit behind the eightball when I finally sent out the RFPs, which is unfortunate because we started the process in January. We I met with the audit committee in January. We picked which firms we wanted to send it out to. I was ready to go and then for some reason I literally didn't get the memo. So, um I think that might have been part of the issue. By the time I sent mine out, they were already bombarded with so many others that it they didn't have time. So, Mrs. How long was the RFP um advertised for? 10 days actually. Um it's right on here. I
090put it out April 17th and they had till April 29th, so 12 days to respond. So, yes. Thank you, Miss. Any questions or I will tell you that the cost was up only a few hundred more than last year. I want to say it was less than $1,000. So, thank you, Mrs. Young. You're welcome. All right, Madam President. I recommend approval of the RFP, the request for proposal number 812501 for audit services. Superintendent Vibiano is recommending that we approve the request for proposal 81-25-01 audit services. May I have a motion? I so move. Is there a second? All those in favor say I. I. Opposed motion yet. Okay. All right. Um, finishing up here, advanced planning. We have our regular school board meeting on May 20th in a couple of weeks. Um, we will be
091working on the budget and the on those recommendations and considerations. Um, you know, I didn't list everything that's coming up, but um, I will provide like I did last year on one document the dates of all the promotions. We have early childhood coming up first, I believe. Um then we start rolling along with middle school promotions, um elementary uh promotions, and then finishing off with um um graduation of our Mari High School seniors on May 23rd at 10:00 a.m. And we're still looking at outdoor graduation on the football field, right, Mr. Adams? And all that communication's been sent out. And parents know that if a few days before the weather doesn't look good, then there's a backup plan to get everybody into the gym and we will move along with that. Um what I don't
092have on here is a reminder that tomorrow is um our trade signing day at 10 o'clock um at the Kate Center. We have two students um that will be signing um um year out will be uh there as well. And we've invited um dignitaries we've invited a whole slew of people to to join us. So hopefully it's a big crowd to celebrate the success of these students. Um I think that's it for now ma'am. Um, so we will go to adjournment. I recommend adjournment of our special board meeting. Superintendent Bibiano has recommended uh adjournment of our special board meeting. Do I have a motion? I move to adjourn. I second. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Motion carries. We are adjourned. Thank you everyone for being here. Thank you for your input. Good
093job everyone. Yes. Thank you very much.