001Good evening everybody. Welcome those online six or so online. Okay. So call the meeting to order. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic. All yours like to ask for 10 item 1.03 03 approval of the regular board meeting agenda. Final recommendation of the superintendent to approve the April 6th regular board meeting agenda. >> Second. >> Any questions on tonight's agenda? Pretty full of hearing. None. All in favor? >> Any opposed? So like to ask for consent motions for item 1.04, 04 approval of the regular board meeting minutes. Final recommendation of the superintendent to approve the March 16th, 2026 regular board meeting minutes. >> Any questions on the minutes of March 16th? None. All in favor? >> Any So like to ask for consent motion for item
0021.05, 05 approval of the special board meeting minutes upon the recommendation of the superintendent to approve the March 23rd, 2026 special board meeting minutes. >> Second. >> Any questions on the minutes of hearing? None. All in favor? >> Back to you. And anybody signed in? Um, >> yes. We have Sarah Sarah and I believe Maggie and January Lane. >> I'm sorry. Maggie and >> Maggie in January Lane. >> Okay. All right. Did they sign in to speak or they just >> No. No. >> Oh, okay. >> Just sign it. Yeah. >> Welcome to speak anyway. I saw the bewildered look of Mr. All right. Okay. Well, so elementary school. So, we have an elementary report tonight. See, uh before spring break, uh grade levels wrapped up many learning units across math, reading, and writing before
003heading off. Some of the highlights included an author's celebration in kindergarten with animal research projects, third grade persuasive non-fiction letters to adults with ways to enhance our learning environments and even a foods from around the world tasting event as a culmination to fourth grade student reports as of countries around the globe. Many early attributes of the portrait of a graduate were displayed from being effective communication to creative innovation and global citizenship. We are also excited to share that we have a new student leadership team led by Officer Hopper called the Blue Devil Safety Squad. These third, fourth, and fifth graders navigated the application process, training, and are now official leaders. We support safe arrival and official procedures. Finally, we would like to give a huge shout out to our brave Spanish and bilingual club members
004who took the stage during our March to Go Blue assemblies to display their Spanish speaking skills to the audience. >> Thank you, Jonas. Any questions for the elementary update? Sorry. Sorry we missed the food from around the world. Smell good. Yeah. All right. No middle school update tonight. That one of our favorite subjects. How to see I'm sorry. Go beat. >> I'll help you out. >> There you go. All right. Um, so for those of you who don't know me, I'm Brian French. I'm one of the co-coordinators for the Odyssey Mind program for Jio. The other co-cordinator is Gillamati, who's not here tonight. don't even um so uh just give a brief uh introduction of what Odyssey mind is for those who don't know it's a worldwide uh creative problem solving competition that's broken up
005into five different problems based around a certain theme uh problem one which these guys do is the vehicle problem. It alternates between a large vehicle what you ride on and a small vehicle which was this year. Um there's a technical problem which they have to build some type of a contraption or device that performs certain tasks. Uh the classics problem is geared around either books or poems or some classics uh that they have to do something modify them to do something to do that. Uh the structure one is balsa where they have to build a structure out of balsa within certain constraints to hold as much weight as it can and then have a skit around that as well. And then the one that's probably least structured is performance. And that's kind of a free-for-all
006with the given problem. They can do pretty much whatever they want with it. You know, create songs, uh, plays or whatever, uh, for that. And then each of those problems are divided up into four, actually five divisions. There's a college division as well. Uh, but primary, which is kindergarten through 2 grade, uh, division one, which is grades 3 to five. Division two is six to eight. And division three, which these guys are 9 to 12. And then each problem is then divided up into two parts. There's the thing that they spend all most of their time on which is an eight minute presentation or skit based on a certain constraints and um that are they're given in there. Um and they have to come up with their solution without any outside assistance from parents to
007peers to coaches to teachers to friends uh AI and so on. Um and if they do get outside assistance they get penalized for that. Um uh and then there's the second problem is spontaneous. You can kind of think of improv. They get thrown into a room without any electronics or anything and then given a problem that they have a couple minutes to discuss and then anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes to come up with some type of solution for it. It could be acting out something out. It could be building a tower that uh holds, you know, a weight or something that can move something from one place to the other uh on that. And that's about a third. So the 8 minute one is about twothirds of the score and the spontaneous is about
008onethird of the score. Um and then to what they work towards is the first competition is regionals. You can kind of think of that as like the Livingston Athletic Conference kind of is that levels Boseis level uh that's held in in Mount Morris. Then if they place first there or get a Rach Fusco award or get a lottery uh slot then they can advance to states which is at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse. And then if they get first, second, third or renac there, then they go on to worlds. And then Worlds alternates between Iowa State and Michigan State. This year it's out in Iowa and hopefully there won't be a tornado warning again. Um and then yeah, twice. Um middle of the night and then during dinner. Um and then at each
009level they can earn a Renatra Fusco award which is an award for extraordinary creativity that the judges actually award them. Um and then there's also an OMR award at each level that could be uh recommended by judges, by coaches, by parents. Um and that's usually for overcome some type of adversity or do some type of extra thing. Um, a lot of them are given for like maybe they have five team members and three don't show up to competition because they're sick and the two that are left still perform. Um, or something happens during the performance and they continue. Uh, something along those lines. Um, so some of the benefits of participating in Odyssey uh big one is problem solving and they have to uh come up with the solution of the problem. They're given a
010a solution and have to do it on their own. Uh, and another one I think is really big is dealing with and learning from failure. It's a place where they can fail safely. Um where they try something for three weeks and it doesn't work. Um and then they have to rebuild, redo and go on there or sometimes even fails during performance and they have to learn how to deal with that. Um which happens quite frequently. Uh especially especially in a vehicle problem. Um teamwork. They have to work as a team and then think on your feet. If things aren't going smoothly in the performance, they have to improvise based outside their normal skit. um and kind of keep the audience and judges entertained while they're trying to complete whatever they're trying to do. Um and
011then I included three pictures here. It definitely covers all aspects of steam. Um so the bottom picture there, you have your art. Uh Abby there did she made a mask, sculpted them, and those hands were free sculpted. They weren't like from a mold or anything uh on that. Um then the the picture on the left there, upper left, is the vehicle from this year. Small one. It's got uh programming in it. So technologies involving physics has got pneumatics in it. Air pressure um uh let's see I'm trying what else in there gears gears motors gear ratios look for that and then on the right which is uh one of the things we've gotten these guys got in Racha both at regionals and states for the mask and for the um thing on the contraption on
012the right there that's a music box. Um it's got chemistry involved in there. powered by baking soda and vinegar, which turns the drum that they had to calculate the spacing on the drum to to turn some hammers that then hit bars to play Hotel California uh on there. And they had math and to determine the length of the bars to make sure they hit the right notes, everything. Then you got arts in there, too. You got music um included in there. Um it's pretty impressive on that. Um and then uh GCS has a rich tradition in Odyssey. We've had at least that I'm aware of uh six world champions and actually we've actually I found another three trophies for second place that were hidden someplace else. Um so that we actually have six that I
013again that I know six second place at worlds, one third place at worlds. We've had multiple top six but they get recognized if they're in the top six they get recognized at worlds. Um and then most of the other times we've gone we've probably been in the top 20 you know for the most part top 15 probably for the majority of the times. uh numerous state champions, numerous regional champions, we've had multiple OMR level awards at all the different competitions as well as uh red fus awards at all the different levels in there. Um this year we had five teams. We had one division three team or I'm sorry, one division one team that got third at regionals. Uh unfortunately they just missed u going to uh states. We had one division two team that
014got seconds at regionals got a lottery slot to go to states and they got 14th at states. And then we had three division three teams. Uh two that got first at regionals. Um one that got second regionals and they got a lottery to go to states. And then at states we had a first place, a fifth place and a 14th place out of those. And then these guys uh got uh nominated and awarded and Roger Fusco award both at regional states. got her fingers crossed for worlds uh for that to go for the triple crown. And also uh pretty much everybody in Odyssey, the students that we call mrs that are in there are multiport athletes. They're in drama club, band, chorus, ice, um athletics, page turners, academic challenge bowl, uh earthwise, and pretty much
015any activity at school. Some Odyssey member is involved in that activity. uh and that and the majority of them are either AP students or advanced uh studies uh as well. So we're here to ask for permission to attend worlds. Um in a minute I'm going to have them make their pitch tell a little about themselves there. But uh on average these guys have spent uh an average 13 hours a week since the end of September uh amongst all their other activities they're doing that I just mentioned. um since September till now. Uh due to that they wanted to go to worlds from the start and these guys will say a little bit more about that in a second. Um it also serves an incentive for other GCS students to maybe participate in Odyssey as well
016as other students that are already in Odyssey to want them to achieve you know they see the success of team doing that and see the experience they get and they want to do that. It also provides great visibility and representation for GCS. When we go to worlds, people know who Jio is and at states um especially these guys, we had people saying, "Oh, you got to go see Jio." So, we had people from all over the state come to watch our performance where a lot of the other teams, it's just their own supporters are watching the performance, but we have and they there and we have people coming up taking pictures of our stuff and everything. Um, and it's not just this team. In years past, it's happened too. Um, and that's it's also a
017chance to compete against owners from roughly 15 uh plus countries and over 30 US states. Uh, we're also applied to be a buddy team this year. So hopefully we get paired up with a team from another country. Uh, got our fingers crossed on that and you know we get to support them. They support us and you know again have some cultural exchange uh there. Uh, they want to continue rich tradition and it's definitely a unique and personally enriching experience for it. So, what I'd like these guys to do then is introduce themselves, tell you what grade they're in, how many years they've been doing Odyssey, maybe why they do Odyssey or what they get from Odyssey, and then why they want to go to Worlds. So, I don't know who wants to >> Well, okay.
018I'm Abby Fowler. I've been doing Odyssey for 11 years. Um, I'm a senior and I do Odyssey because um it really creates a sense of community. A lot of my fondest memories from my entire like school year from elementary to high school have been from Odyssey and it's um just really helped me to think creatively and pro help with my problem solving abilities. And I want to go to Worlds because I've gone every year since fifth grade and I really want to like be say that I've gone that many times and I also have to defend my title of being a world champion last year. >> Uh my name is Noah French. Uh I'm a senior. I've been doing Odyssey for 13 years. So since kindergarten. It's been a long journey. Uh I I really
019like uh doing Odyssey because it like Abby said is a great community, a chance to solve problems. Um I like it for the engineering and building stuff that I get to do as well. Um obviously helped me figure out that I wanted to go into engineering or study engineering at college. Um so that's an upside for it. And I want to go to worlds. Uh like Abby said, defend our world champion title um from last year. Also um every year that I've gone since fifth grade, it has been one of the best experiences of an entire year. Um if I look through things in school, things outside of school, it's really one of my favorite things just ever. Um and it's it's a great experience to meet people from everywhere. Uh >> oh, I'm Alex
020Jodm. I'm a junior. I've been doing Odyssey for nine years and I like doing Odyssey because it really helps me connect with other people and work on my like teamwork skills and my creativity as a team and with other people. Uh I've always wanted to go to Worlds. This is my first time going to Worlds. I'm not quite as experienced as these people are, but it's a real pleasure to be able to go to go with them. >> Uh I'm Joe Olivy. I'm a junior. I've been doing Odyssey for 11 years. Um, I do honestly it's I'm just going to echo what these guys said really. It's a fantastic creative experience. Gets the mind going. Um, teaches you a lot about yourself through your failures. Um, it I think it teaches you it builds a
021lot of character. Um, and I want to go to worlds because it's it's just a fantastic experience. You get to meet people you never would have met otherwise. Um, make connections with people. It's just a fantastic experience. One thing I did mention is part of meeting people that pin trading is huge. I'm out there and again your trade pins you again meet people from all over the world not just there. They come and Abby designs the pins for us every year and people like her pins. >> We're well known. >> People search us out every year. And they they also get to experience a college. So, somebody that's never been to a college or doesn't have a family member in college, they go, they live in the dorm, eat dor eat dorm food, eat college
022food, which actually Michigan State always aren't too bad compared to other colleges. Um, but they, you know, kind of gives them a flavor for if maybe college is the right thing for them or not, you know, based on on that experience, you know, maybe they want to go in the trades or something based, you know, the whatever, but it gives them that experience as well, too, which I mentioned. So, I'd like to give you guys an opportunity if anybody has any questions for these guys or I put them on the spot hopefully that they to answer any questions anybody might have. >> Have you done the You said you mentioned the buddy with another country. Have you done it before? >> We have not. >> We've had a couple teams in the past that have
023done it and actually one team they actually came and and came to the Memorial Day parade with the team that was here went to Nagara Falls and did >> I believe they were from Poland. Um, but in the past we've had I don't think we've had a lot of buddy teams, but we've had a few. >> That's great. Thanks. >> Very few. >> Most of my experience been as a coach and not as a director. So, it's not we're too in >> Yeah, I have a question. Um, so with your experience with with Odyssey, how would you like us as a district to incorporate what you do with Odyssey throughout your learning experience? >> I definitely think um at least with my experience um it's not as very well known as I'd like. Um usually
024like when we like last year when we came home with the world championship, the only really um recognition we got was like congrats from teachers. So, I'd really like to and I also especially with our number our numbers have been lower than since I started. So, I really think that we should um be more recognized because um we I want to inspire future generations >> and also show the community what we're capable of. I'd just say that in terms of the things that you get from Odyssey, it's a lot of um you're given a problem that you have to solve and there is no way around it where you can take a shortcut to figure out a solution. You're forced to plan things out, realize that the plans you made don't work. Um learn to
025deal with criticism. Um like how to uh discuss things, work as a team. I think that the things that Odyssey gives, if you were to incorporate them into the district without doing the pro the program itself, you would have to have more more problem solving with less guidance, which isn't necessarily for everyone. So, it's a little harder to um incorporate in, especially in like a district-wide thing. Um, although one other thing that I will say about Odyssey, and I'm gonna quote uh Bobby here because I heard her say it once, it's that Odyssey is great because it uh teach it shows that creativity can be taught. Um, which I think is really accurate because there's a lot of people who think just cut and dried, but Odyssey helps show that there's many different ways of
026doing it. I mean, if you're looking to expand Odyssey, I'd say having like elementary teachers like encourage kids to join it. But I would say the expansion of Odyssey would also be something I would say is really important because I found the more years I've done Odyssey, the better like person I am, the better at working with others I am because there was a point where I was not great with working with others. But I found throughout the years of doing Odyssey, I am much better at with like teamwork and camaraderie. I 100% agree with Alex there about his statements about himself. I 100 I definitely agree that um the principles that Odyssey teaches and what it teaches people about themselves is needed. Um, and I think it should be more incorporated, taught, open to
027kids in the schools. Yeah, I think just going to add on to that, the more you encourage, especially starting at a younger age, even if you know encourage them to join Odyssey, but even if you can work some of the the problem solving stuff into the classrooms, like Noah said, the unstructured pro as a college professor, the the problem solving skills that students that I get these days is like next to nothing. Um, and so, you know, something that gets them to think outside the box to solve problems on their own without having their handheld tell me, you know, step one, step two, step three. So, if you can take that aspect of the, you know, encourage people to join Odi, but if you can't, if they don't want to do that or it's not
028quite for them, at least take that aspect of it and give them a chance to fail um in a safe environment as opposed to, you know, worrying about, you know, failing a test and not getting a good grade or not making the honor roll or not, you know, whatever. you know, it's okay to to make a power that crumbles um on there >> or a vehicle where the wheel falls off in the middle of your state performance and there's nothing you can do. >> Yeah. So, it's, you know, so there's aspects I think that you can incorporate into the classroom, but I think if you can encourage more younger students, again, even if they don't continue all the way because, you know, as you saw, these guys are involved in a lot of things, which
029and is a large time commitment. So even if they don't continue all the way up there, at least they've been exposed to that and then they can hopefully take that. >> And are you all planning to go into engineering >> or what is I us two are? >> Yeah, you are. >> Abby, what do you think? >> Um design, new media design at RIT. >> Okay. She's taking the arts as >> it's very very creative focused on creativity. >> Good. >> Uh music performance and psychology. >> Excellent. All right. Good. All creative. Good. >> Oh, I see you. >> Well done. >> I just want to Sorry, you guys. >> I just want to say I am infinitely proud of you. I do remember when we were tiny and not not building the things that
030worked quite yet, but the creativity was always there. And I am with the seeing what you've done and where you are. >> I I still remember you folding a piece of paper and standing it up and showing that that is how you make a tower 11 and a half inches tall right off the bat. >> I learned that in kindergarten. Thank you, Bobby. >> Fantastic. Any other questions? >> I'm very proud of all of you. >> Yeah, thank you. >> I would I would just like to add too if I could, uh, coming from a district that didn't have Odyssey, I'm just blown away by the rich tradition here in Jio, but also like what you guys have demonstrated, the performances, but what you're able to articulate and the gains that you're getting from this
031far beyond just winning medals. You know, these are skills that are going to carry with you and help you no matter what field you go into. And it's just phenomenal and tremendous and and I couldn't agree more that it needs to be built into the everyday experience of learning in the classroom. That's what learning is all about. We're trying to prepare students for the future and the things the challenges and problems they're going to face. And you guys have a leg up on that because of all of your experiences. So, very well done. Very proud of you guys. >> Thank you. And then then once World is over. So if you've never seen an Odyssey performance, it's definitely an experience. >> Um and then but after Worlds I I'll put up I'm gonna put I'll
032put up the performance world. There's going after you. We're not supposed to do it before Worlds because then people can steal your ideas for other things. So afterwards then you can kind of see things in action. So if you've never seen it ever been there, um it'd be worth a watch. >> We've had a couple of times where the contraptions have made it here. >> Yeah. Yeah. We thought about bringing it tonight, but >> some of it's a little clunky to carry. >> And Brian, I just want to thank you and all the other coaches for for your time, dedication. >> Thank you, >> Brian. How are we doing in numbers? >> We were up a little bit this year from last year. >> Good. >> Um I I thought we were only going to
033have two division three teams this year. We ended up with three. >> Um and our division one team was full. So you can have up to seven people on a team, seven students on a team. The big problem is I think if we had again Matt asked about what can a school do if we had more um when Noah was younger um a lot of the uh the elementary teacher would say this kid's good for Odyssey he should do Odyssey um he or she should do Odyssey but um >> part of the problem is getting coaches too. So if we can get get the encouragement for the students then hopefully sometimes then the parents find out or somebody come find out what the time commitment is like ah but um but even if again even
034if they just make it to regionals it it it's worth it. So just that experience there um so I think the numbers are up a little bit from last year um not what they I think u pre-COVID it was a lot more but I think co has killed a lot of things. I mean, I'm I'm involved in scouts, the same thing. Numbers are >> Yeah. >> You know, way down. And I think that's filled in. And so, I think it starts at the elementary school. So, if we get the kindergarten teachers, the first grade teachers encouraging kids or or picking out that kid that doesn't quite fit in someplace, that's another advantage of Odyssey. Um, I think it's a good place for people who don't fit in quote unquote fit in in the traditional, you
035know, type of activities. um a place for them to be themselves and to be able to you know to be creative and think out that kind of thing. Um and and they can they can thrive there. So I think if that would help the numbers we give them more encouragement there and then um I think then that would then grow and then you know seeing the success of the older teams gives them something to shoot for whatever that would be my my recommendation there on that. >> Last question. any any uh fundraisers that you're planning or >> I don't think we have any >> not this year with with only four people in a team. >> Um it's a little hard to >> hard to do the work and fund raise and and organized fundraisers
036as yet. No, >> but that is something that you know again if if the numbers were there we would definitely have to fund raise. >> Okay. >> That'd be a good problem to have. >> Any other questions? questions, right? >> Thank you very much. We have one more. So, I'd like to like to call for consent motion for item 4.02, approve the field trip, Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. Upon the recommendation of the superintendent to approve the Odyssey of the Mind field trip May 27th through the 30th, 2026 to Iowa for the world finals. >> Second. >> Any questions? This is why I rushed so I could say >> all in favor. >> I'm not gonna ask for that. >> All right, you're on. >> Hey guys. >> All right, here we go. One,
037two, three. Take a few. There we go. Thank you so much. >> Good luck, guys. Good luck. >> Good luck, Alex. Good luck. >> Thank you. >> All right. With that, we're going to go from a really happy to one that's a bit more chill. We'll try to bring in some humor and some positives and all that, too. So, >> so Stephanie and I are here to present uh a full budget, a full draft budget to you. Uh we've done a lot of work um throughout the course Oh, yeah. You can pass those out. Yeah. We've done a lot of work throughout the course of the last couple months in preparing for uh getting this budget ready to go forward. As you know, April 20th, we're going to be bringing you a final budget for
038adoption. um each step of the way we've looked very closely at every line, every expenditure, every way we can be more efficient. And so I'm really proud of the entire administrative team and uh teaching staff for being involved as part of conversations at different times as well. Uh so tonight what we bring to you is proposed budget in draft form. And just want to start out by highlighting our goals of the 2026 27 budget. You've seen these before, but you know that our focus as we are developing is to maximize the use of every dollar spent. As I had just mentioned, looking for efficiencies as much as we possibly can. We want to maximize the ability to generate state aid for future years. Uh enhancement of our school culture and our student achievement. We have
039a lot of great tradition. We just heard uh from a presentation from some very articulate and creative students. Um these are the things that we're trying to build within our budget to continue those experiences but also enhance them as well. We want to create a continuum of special education services. There'll be some discussion about that tonight. So our transportation efficiencies were a focus as you know we've u saved some money in these areas and we're continuing to look for more savings but most importantly we want to be financially transparent and I think we've done that all along the way and we'll continue to do so. John, would you do me a favor and just click that hide there? If we get that off the screen. Thanks. Okay, so as of March 16th, these were our
040numbers. Um, you can see the revenues and the expenditures side by side. And since that time um or at that time, our gap was 1.1 or 1 uh $2 million. And so we have whittleled away. We have looked for some savings, some reductions that I'm going to highlight to you uh later in this presentation since there's had to uh had had be had to have been some adjustments um in the special education area that we'll be talking about a little bit more. And as of today and April 13th, um our numbers have slightly adjusted at one point. I'd even like to say that we were we had bal we balanced the budget at one point and so we found that there was going to need to be some additional services for some students for next
041year. So then we went back to having a bit of a deficit and so it's been a bouncing back and forth. One of the other changes since um March was that you can see our tax levy at that time was 2.78 due to some Boseies adjustment of costs in the lease of the one of the Boseies buildings or some additional exclusions which now has taken our tax levy uh tax cap to 2.8.3. Okay. So that brings our gap to right around $1 million. We'll be talking about that, breaking it down as we go along. And I'll turn it over to Stephanie to pick up on the revenue sources. Yeah. So, this is just an overview of the revenue, just over 27 million. The first thing we're going to talk about is the tax levy. As
042Mike mentioned from the previous presentation, the levy has changed a little bit. Um, our new levy is just over 13 million. The change is $264,000. Here is the calculation of all the different numbers that go into figuring out what the tax levy is going to be. You have to take out your pilots. There's capital exclusions. Just a whole bunch of different numbers that come together that bring you to the 13 million that you're allowed to do for your tax levy. The max tax cap, it's a mouthful, is 2.8. And that is the number that we are going to be going out at. The next one is our foundation and expense aids. This is all stuff that comes from the state. Fingers crossed everything goes well with the state. Maybe we might get a little more
043money that might help us a little bit. Um, but some of these are based off of student enrollment. So textbook, software, hardware, library are a certain dollar amount that's allocated per student. Next one is our local sources. So the big one here is your pilot payments. So payment in L of taxes. Um we have some Boseies refund, interest, Medicaid. There's a whole bunch of different things in this pot of money that make up our local sources. The next part we're going to talk about is just the expense part of your budget. So this is your three large budget broken up by administrative capital program. The first one we're going to talk about is the administrative budget. So, these are the costs associated with the administration of the district and each school building. I won't go
044line by line through all of these. Um, one of the ones to point out is there's only a little bit of an increase here. We're at 1.22% which is pretty good compared to how things have been going. This is also 12.6% of the total budget of that 27 million budget only 12.6 relates to the administrative portion. >> I'd like to highlight just real quick uh two years ago it was 14% and then last year was 13.07. >> Next portion of the expense budget is the capital. So this relates to your jet service, your maintenance and operation of the building. So your cleaning staff, your your heat, your electric, all of those different things. This is 16.2% of the budget. There is a substantial increase here in our debt service. This relates to adding on year
045four of five of our bus purchases. It also relates to us bonding out our last $15.5 million project versus banning it. So there is an increase here, but it all relates to those. The next is the program part of the budget. So this is your teachers, everything to do with instruction students. Um, a big portion of this budget or this part of the budget is the special ed programs. There is a pretty substantial increase here from prior years and this relates to kids that we are sending out of district for services and placements that are better suited for them than here with the district. This is 14 or 70 almost 72% of the overall budget. So it's the largest part of the expense budget. And so that kind of brings our uh three-part budget back
046together. Um you could see the administrative capital and program um all add up to an increase of 5.72%. But one of the things I really want to highlight here is the fact that many of those increases are directly related to things that are out of our control. Okay. huge healthc care increases uh 12.5% for uh our PO plan and 18.5% in our high deductible plan. Um ERS contribution rates have gone up um that are mandated. Obviously, we're all feeling the costs at the fuel pumps and that's just continuing to rise. um in the increase in utility costs, electricity rates have gone up significantly over the last couple years and the projection is that they will continue to do so. And of course, as Stephanie already pointed out, the special education services for out of district
047placements. Um you're going to see a little bit later on uh the reductions that we have made to try to counteract the fact that we have expenditures that are out of our control and our revenue is only growing at 1.9%. Right? So, it's hard to balance a budget when you only have revenue at 1.9% increase and expenditures are 5.72. But again, I'd really like to highlight the fact that uh this district has done the administrative team has done a fantastic job maintaining the programs, doing what we can do to provide the services and the experiences for students with the very little that we have coming in in additional revenues. Okay. So as I mentioned it's not growing at the same pace as the cost of operations um and and the student needs it doesn't reflect
048though that that revenue and point out does not reflect the use of fund balance or reserves. So I know you guys know that but as this is going live as a public document I want to make sure that everyone knows that as well. Uh so the reductions to date. So the current budget gap reflects many reductions. You can see the many areas that over the last couple of months we have looked at right sizing in some areas reducing in areas. We've looked for transportation efficiencies. Um, a lot of credit goes to the transportation department, uh, between Stephanie and John and Bonnie, looking for ways that we could, um, as you know, earlier in the year, we we saved some money. Uh, looking for efficiencies there, and we're going to continue to do so next year.
049Equipment in athletics, we're looking at slight reduction. Uh, Craig thinks he can finangle some things. So, from conferences to supply lines, we have a re rekeying project that's been underway over the last couple years. We're going to put a pause on that. The whole idea is to uniform to have a unified system of keying and cores across the district. Um so we're, you know, not a priority at this point. Everything's secure. It's just not unified. So we're going to put a pause on that. Uh we had a discussion about the instructional coach, which was funded in the uh general budget, the general fund, but we are getting grant money for that for the instructional coach. So that salary has moved to the grant which is a a reduction and you can see several other areas
050there as we looked line by line we've decreased instructional software Boseies uh technology repair service used to be deoseies uh John and his team feels that we can bring that back inhouse um in order to create the repairs and do the repairs on laptops and devices uh that's that's going to be a savings as well and we're looking at a reduction these numbers reflect a reduction of 0.5 in the math department due to attrition. So a total of $477,000 we have looked at reducing, right? Because we need to find ways to balance this budget and that I'm very proud to say is with no layoffs. Okay? I know there are unfortunately districts across the region where that's not the case and they're not able to do that. Uh we're able to at at least at
051this point maintain the programs without having to lay anyone off. Um and so we're very thankful for that. Uh so as we begin to close the deficit, it one of the suggestions we have already brought to you is the idea of using 700,000 from fund balance and 200,000 from the use of reserves uh which would be the retirement contribution reserve. And so if we are taking out if we are allocating that 900,000 toward the deficit, that brings us down to a remaining deficit of $139,492. Of course, we need to bring back in the conversation that we've had in the past about maintaining our programs and providing the services we need to students. So, the positions that were on the table that were discussed in the past, which would include continuing uh to build the continuum
052of our 811 program from the elementary school into the middle school, which would require a teacher. And anytime you have an 811 program with a teacher, you also need a teaching assistant. Um, and if we're bringing on that classroom, there's a need to have additional support. Even without that classroom, there's a need to have additional support as a social worker. uh with the increased needs that we're seeing, but certainly as we're providing and opening uh more slots in that classroom, that social worker would support the 811 program as one of the pime primary responsibilities. We've also talked about the need to have more support in our consultant teacher model, which at one point we would really like to have a teacher, but then we looked at can we make the adjustment knowing the dire straits
053that we're in with closing this deficit. So, we looked at the TA position. So, what I wanted to bring to you tonight is a couple of different scenarios. If we were to add just the teacher and the teaching assistant, that brings that $139,492 to $233685. And you can see from there, if we had the teacher, the TA, and the social worker, which would be more ideal, it would take our deficit to 3 roughly $16,000. and adding all the positions would be about $340,000. So just putting the numbers out there in black and white. So now we get to a point where we have a discussion about balancing this budget and the direction we want to go in and we will be relying on the board to uh make some decisions and give us the direction
054we need to go back in this uh remaining week before we make our final presentation. But I just brought that table in on the right hand side as I bring in the deficit closing options. I just want to share with you that some things that could be on the table to help us to close that deficit is the capital outlay project. It's noted on this presentation what the capital outlay project is. That's where we get 100 you put in $100,000 per year to continue safety upgrades, building security, facilities upgrades. We do receive aid back at a 71% ratio which would give us $71,000 back in state aid on the $100,000 spent. Um the early college access coser we've talked about before. This is providing tuition um and administrative costs paying for that for students who
055are taking ACE courses. And the state has opened that new early college access coaster to allow a portion a portion of a teacher salary that we're already paying out of the general fund to then be aidable based on the amount of time they're teaching ACE courses versus regular courses. Okay. So this is slated to be a revenue generator in the following year. So if we pay the the cost of the tuition upfront as well as um some of the you know the teacher salary which we would do anyway like I said we would get aid back on that and there would be a net gain in that. So it's a big ticket item at $96,000 which represents the tuition cost as well as the cost to get into the coaster but again the 96,000 would
056pay itself back plus more. Um there's a possibility of an elementary reduction through attrition uh at the elementary school in a general ed position. We've talked about the steam position at the elementary school. Uh we've looked closely with uh Megan and Craig have done a really nice job looking at our reading program. Although not an ideal decision to make u but there could be a possibility of a slight reduction in that area. We're still trying to work out what those numbers would look like um and the the amount of support services those students need, but that could range based on the amount of reduction we do from 20,000 to 355. Um we could use more reserves. Okay, not ideal. And I know our financial adviserss would uh advise against that because when you put in
057when you're using the amount of fund balance and reserves that we are in and continuing to add to that that does uh give a hit to your fiscal stress rating and you know possibly affect down the line um interest rates. So we at one point put up the additional use of fund balance. Uh this is an area where we feel very comfortable at 700,000 but we don't feel comfortable adding we adding more to that. We had a discussion about that in finance committee tonight. Um or there's always the possibility of looking at further instructional program cuts. Again uh not ideal. So what we're looking for is oh another thing I want to throw out there those high need special education placements. Anything could happen between now and the actual implementation of the budget or between
058now and the adoption of the budget or between now and the approval of the budget by the voters in the community. Anything could go up plus or minus, right? Like we could gain more students, we could lose more students. The state aid runs the balance the the government uh New York State uh budget has not been uh passed yet. So anything could change for plus or minus. So there are some variables out there, but at this time we need some direction from the board on how to proceed on what you would like us to do to close the the remaining gap there. So we we'll come back to that and have a a discussion about it. I do want to point out as I've showed in the past, this is the value of all of
059our reserves in which we stand. As Stephanie mentioned and we highlighted in here, the use of reserves that we would be um pulling from that 200,000 would come out of the retirement contribution that's currently sits at 879,000. Uh we also have a proposition for buses that Stephanie's going to talk about quickly. So the second proposition is going to be for the purchase of two school buses and two vans for our transportation. This would be year five of five for us to be on the rotation um of purchasing buses. We still have a few years left um that we can purchase diesel gas buses. So, we would really like to purchase um two more before we're mandated to buy electric buses, which are a lot more expensive than buying um diesel or gasoline buses. So, proposition
060two will be the purchase of two buses and two vans. >> Okay. And that brings us to the end. I just want to highlight obviously next week at this time, we'll be be presenting the final budget for approval. So, we have some work to do between now and then. Uh, I also want to highlight to the community especially that we have a budget hearing on May 12th that we'll be presenting uh the full budget to the community. We welcome everyone to come to the auditorium to listen to it and ask questions and also um set up another one out in the community with the help of Mike Tanellio uh at the big tree in on May 14th at Auanas. >> Okay. So at this time, >> just so you know, we're going to open that
061up to more than one. So that's Yeah. >> to the community. >> Yep. That's going to be a community presentation. >> So at this time, I'll open it up to the board for questions and comments. >> So maybe if you could do the uh >> Sure. >> finance report now. >> Yes. So during finance uh we reviewed the collateral report, the revenue report, appropriations report. Uh we spoke briefly about the upcoming long-term budget presentation. We talked about the budget newsletter and we talked about the budget presentation that provides feedback. We talked about the updated tax cap and the treasur. We had a decent discussion during finance. So, the additional use of fund balance, we're we're not going to recommend that. Stephanie's okay with the $700,000. She's not exactly pleased about it, but you know, if
062based upon where we're at and how our finances have been managed, she feels comfortable that that's an achievable number. We talked about the use of additional reserve funds and we talked about u the the two positions that are out there. We for the the capital outlay projects given the fact that we received $71,000 back and there's so much everybody's aware of the amount of work that needs to be done in the district. We didn't feel that that was appropriate to to recommend and the fact that the early college access coaster is going to be a revenue generator for the following year and we're anticipating you know budget seasons like this in the foreseeable future. So to have a category that's going to be a revenue generator we want to keep that. So we spent a
063lot of time talking about the attrition and the steam position as well as the production. So that's where we want to kind of open up or explain >> the reserves. I know what the fiscal advisors have have said. Are any of the reserves other than the one um overfunded and such that if we used more money that it would not impact credit rating or anything else? >> No. They're all at the statute limits >> if not below. Okay. Not good news. It's not good news. So, at this time, um, while it would be ideal to add the special education, uh, positions, I do want to mention that it with, you know, Sarah and the work with the team, we feel like we could get by one more year and adjust how the services are provided
064to provide the student provide the opportunity for students to stay in the district. But the again, not ideal, but we feel like there would be a plan to provide good services to the students that we need to. But next year, if we're going to keep our 811 program growing, we would absolutely need to have that position. No ifs, ands, or buts. >> Question about fund balance. So, let's talk about the fund balance. At this point, there's an anticipation that it's more than 700,000. is the expectation that that whatever the difference between 700 and the real amount would go to the Boseis program >> ideally yes that's what I would like to use it for the project >> do we know enough about that to know if there's any flexibility with some funds >> like use
065of reserves for some of that >> no use of more fund balance >> I don't feel comfortable able at this point adding more fund balance just because there's still two months left in the school year. I don't know something could pop up and >> 700,000 is where I feel comfortable. >> Okay. All right. But we may be in a position at the end of the fiscal year to replenish reserves. replenish what reserves. Yeah, >> we did talk about that in the finance >> meeting and we did talk to Stephanie about which reserve we possibly could take from >> that she would be comfortable with that and she's comfortable in any of them but >> right >> which one we could if we had to >> there there's one that you know I know it's it's
066there it just my perspective is one that I always look at we know what it's or it's uh it's a gamble. If I were to if we were going to take anything, that would be the one. >> We were looking at a different category. >> Okay. >> Thanks so we were talking about a category that's blanket funded every year for a certain dollar. >> Yeah. Okay. And so there's cushion available in that particular fund. >> Not forever but >> right. Okay. >> I think the the committee was comfortable more with taking it out of the papers and being either the um in position or at all. >> I personally agree with that and I I know we need to do something in in the in the special ed. We just can't keep picking that can
067any further. I think >> we also need to do something districtwide for state. >> Correct. We're going to have more conversation on that. Is it I guess what I'm looking to say is can we have a separate meeting with fiscal adviserss to talk through this a little deeper with the reserves? >> All right. >> I mean I'm just following up on what you were just saying. >> Yeah, we could seek that. Uh we would just need to know if that's the direction that we need to go in because we'll have to turn this over by next week. >> Yeah, I we have a meeting next week so we can make that decision, right? >> Next Monday's meeting. Is that what you want? >> Well, she needs to know the numbers in order to prevent that
068next week. I I just don't know how to do that without >> if if you give us the guidance to um you give us the guidance to use the reserves and we could connect with the fiscal advisors on which ones to pull out. >> Does anybody disagree with that? >> So you want to use an additional 160 1392. >> Yeah. 139492 is the number I'm looking at. >> So I do you mind if I >> I'm sorry. >> Do you mind if I say something? >> Yeah. >> So if you are looking at doing the 139 to cover reserves, we can look at pulling workers comp um use that reserve because that has to be tied to an expense. >> Yep. Um and then also I can look at the retirement the ERS retirement to
069preserve and try to balance that because that also has to be tied to the expense. >> Okay. >> I'm okay with that. You okay with that? Are you >> Yeah. I mean we we talked about other options too during our our preference >> was to use reserves. >> Okay. and not lose. I mean, it's it's >> I don't think we can keep cutting positions. >> No, I mean, it's bad enough if you really want to look at it. Even though we're not cutting personnel. Yeah. >> We're not cutting through not adding essential positions. >> So, the elementary attrition, the steam, and the reading reduction >> are stay >> stay >> no elimination of any of that. Okay. And your feeling was that for a year the period of plans is to support special ed based
070on the numbers that we have right now that may or may not change. Yes, Stephanie. Um, so we pulled from these reserves session. I think one slide said like $200,000 of the retirement contribution or something of that nature and then others along the way. So my my question is how do we repay that >> with your fund benefits? So at the end of the year, ideally, you'd like to replenish those reserves that you use plus more to get you to the level that you need to be at, you know, if something catastrophic were to happen. >> So Stephanie, can you just explain the process from from last the end of last fiscal year, what we were able to do? Do you remember the the >> I don't remember the exact dollars. >> Just rough call
071profits. >> They're not profits. Yeah. >> And a nonprofit, you know, through through physical management, we were able to how much money were we able to re add to the fun to the uh reserves? >> I don't know off the top of my head, but it was probably two 300 >> I think it was around 300,000 something >> plus we used banks. >> 542,000 I would say was for the school year. But next year it's going to be even more difficult. >> Yeah. Um, >> one of the things, Mike, that struck me is the the increase in energy costs. Still, >> you know, I I think at some point in time we've got to take reook at the the energy performance contract that we put in two years ago, three years ago, maybe. Three years.
072>> Yeah. A while ago, >> it was we spent $2.2 $2 million or fourth in a special proposition that I'm not seeing the return of that. >> Actually just recently got a report on um the projections of what those savings should be. Um just received that recently so I can pass that on to you. >> That'd be great. >> That u but I think more importantly, you know, that's that's a done deal. More importantly, what we need to do is look for ways to reduce our energy consumption overall in terms of our heat >> use as well as electricity. And one of the things we've been doing throughout the course of this year is slowly rolling out a plan that I have to um create a comprehensive energy management plan. And so we've started to
073to roll out some of these things without doing too much at once. And so been working with the facilities teams on, you know, we don't have a C-shift anymore. So lights aren't on 247. We have as cleaners are the Bshift cleaners are coming in at 3 3:15. Lights are being dimmed in the hallways that are not being used. Uh we're making sure we have a plan to go at the end of the night. all large spaces are shut down. So we really looked at our energy consumption even over the breaks in historically over the breaks the building was just heated normally and electricity was on 247. So, I feel like there probably is, even though we're not seeing it in dollar amounts because the costs are going up, you know, in terms of consumption, we've
074started to put a dent into that a little bit through uh, you know, heat and electricity. But I think there are more things that we can do than a plan to roll out for a full implementation next year. >> Thank you for your efforts, sir. Absolutely. >> All right. Do you have what you need for now? >> I think do we have what we need, Stephanie? >> Okay. an extra 139492 will be pulled out of reserves. I think we have an idea of where we're going to grab that. Uh so we'll come back if anything changes um in any of the three-part budget numbers between now and next Monday. We'll certainly report on that. Hopefully it doesn't, you know, go in the direction we don't want it to. Maybe we'll get some more information from
075the state or other, you know, sources. So we'll see what that looks like. But for now, we appreciate >> okay >> the direction that you're giving us. >> Thank you. >> We'll bring >> Thank you for all your everybody's efforts in this. I know it's nothing's anything else. >> I do have a superintendent report. Okay. Yep. Um, so I think most people know, if you've been out back anyway, you've seen our capital improvement project is underway. We've officially broken ground. Uh, so that started over break. Uh, in order to help with that, we put out two communication plans, one internally and one externally. Um, so the external one was I was going to send it out on Friday, but I I held off because Dan needed to do some updates to the website. So, that
076went out this afternoon. If you're on digest for Parent Square, you'll get it um probably sitting in your inbox right now. So, there's some information about that. It's going to share with the community more about the scope and the timeline and some, you know, safety procedures that we all need to be aware of as well as continued updates. We'll be sharing some pictures on our website and and ongoing updates. We're going to share through Parent Square as well as social media and our website as well. So, we'll continue with that. Um, there's also a FAQ section, frequently asked questions about CAPCO projects and those specific to ours at the end of the external communication project that went out to the community. Um, last week, I want to highlight uh Christiey's efforts and the wellness fair
077that she helped coordinate with Livingston County Health Department. I was very pleased with our turnout with the amount of vendors we had. I thought that that was absolutely fantastic. Um, it featured a number of different people. There was activities and and ways to participate and I think she said we had more guests within the first half an hour than we did last year and we had a total of over 100. So, according to what I heard, >> good turn. >> So, yeah, very good turnout. So, I'd like to recognize Christie with her coordination with that. >> Um, it's kind of, you know, been an ongoing thing with the health department. So, that's that was a great event and activity put on for the entire county. Uh the district continues to work through our DIP and
078our SEP plans the comprehensive improvement plans that we have. I'm facilitating facilitating the development of the district plan and Christiey's facility facilitating the development of the SEP plan. Although the entire administrative team are part of both of those as well as some uh teaching staff to give input and direction that will culminate in comprehensive plans that'll be done by the end of the school year and implementation into next year. Just want to mention of course you know our spring sports have kicked off. It's nice to see the warmer weather out there despite the rain. you know, if it stop raining, we get more events in. But, um, it's a great way for, you know, our athletes to go out and represent. They did, uh, they've been doing such a great job. As I've said many
079times, it's not just about the competitions and the wins and the losses, but it's the pride, how they represent Jio and, you know, the positiveness they bring to the field and the sportsmanship is uh, pretty phenomenal. As we talked about with Odyssey earlier, the skills that you gain from Odyssey carry with you. Well, I feel the same way about athletics and and what we learn on the field, on the court, and on the track, I think is just as important, too. Um, I also want to mention our baseball team traveled to Delaware, as you know, over spring break. Uh, they split, won a game, lost a game. Uh, according to Coach Miller, he said one of the best parts of the trip was they actually got to play on a field because they've been practicing.
080It's been so wet and cold here that they haven't actually had that opportunity. Uh, and I guess the boys even took the lead on cooking dinner for a couple of nights. How gourmet it was. I think it was hamburgers and hot dogs and they had a burrito night. Uh, but they took the lead on that. So, they had a great time, great experience for them. Good team, >> good uh teamwork in Botney. >> And that's it for me. >> Thank you. Matt, any anything you want to add that they haven't already said? >> No, we we covered it. Anything on policy? Just a way of meeting yesterday policies coming out section three. All good. >> Yeah. Thank you. No GC yet today. >> I on personnel section 8 like to ask for that motion for
081items 8.02 to 8.22. back up. >> I'm sorry. I know we have two retirements up here. So with that said, any I would like to say I know it's early retirement of Cheryl. Thank you. >> Yeah. So I just couldn't find a quick So certainly I know it's early but it's certainly we'll miss them at at the point that they officially retires. With that said, any other comments, questions on the first second? >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Under section 9, new business like to ask for a consent motion for 9.02 through 9.06. Second. >> Any questions on any of the officially the Boseies intermunicipal agreement? All in favor? >> Any opposed? So move under section 10 business office. I like to ask for consent motion for 10.02 through 10.0 six. Second. Any questions?
082I presume you've covered some of these in finance. >> Yes. All in favor? I. Any opposed? >> Section 11 business. I introduced the board meeting some thoughts about the future. I look forward to any inputs that you have there. Just want to mention a couple of points that I'd like to add. Um tonight, Superintendent Bosik and I have talked a lot about special education and we you know obviously we all agree and believe strongly it's in the need and the desire and the approach we're taking. I I know that the finance committee team here have worked really really hard to um to balance the budget. We ended up with another couple hundred,000 out of 11,000. That said, I spent a lot of time preparing some thoughts with Mike's help and followed up with Assemblywoman Bailey
083and Senator Helmet. Met with each one directly, talked to them. They're working on our behalf. There is some headwinds in Albany, I'll say. I'll just leave it there. I don't want to get into the political realm here, but there are some headwinds that there are answers that we can get. And one of the answers is I know they're working hard. So I in my conversations with them, I didn't want I I told them I don't want us I don't want this to appear as though we are chastising them. The aid formula has to get fixed. Our aid is 60%. Isish this just under 60%. Our needs are greater than that. So our our portion of the aid formula needs to be increased substantially. You know the target we threw at them was get it up
084over 90%. And therefore we put the money out this year and we get some portion back next year but in the meantime you see the struggles in our budget. Uh there were other things that I put on uh this. Another key one is setting up a reserve account. That was actually a bill that was put forth and then was pulled last year. So there's a variety of reasons. I won't get into them here, but I know they're working on our behalf to eventually give us the opportunity to have a a reserve account for special education. If that were to happen, then we would have some flexibility, but that's not there to them. So, from that standpoint, we'll see where it goes. There's other recommendations. I don't if you want to add anything, but that we
085put forward to them and they're working on our rehab, but right now as they come in, we have to pay for it regardless of the expense and and the range is pretty substantial for and please, this is not directed to any students. We're going to do everything we can to help them and and give them the services they need, but from a cost standpoint, it could be upwards of $175,000 a student and somewhere in that 68 range at the low end. Any efforts are underway trying to find some money for uh to help us with special education. Yeah, if I could just add to that, you know, we're not the only district in this boat. Obviously, everyone's facing that and you feel the pinch more when you're seeing increased costs in other areas, as I
086mentioned tonight, that we have no control over. And it's not just the placements themselves, but it's the lack of funding that comes based on that. You know, the cost to educate uh one child changes based on the needs of that child, right? whether they're general ed, an English language learner, special education student that is in a program here in the district versus the exorbitant cost to send them out of district to receive the services they need. Um, you know, and and one of the things that Mike's talking about is that, you know, putting out there is not just increasing based on our overall wealth ratio that we have that, you know, Kenishious Lake makes us look more wealthy than we are when we have um our poverty rate approaching 50% in this district. Um and
087then along with that again all of the needs of our students not just those who have free and reduced lunch but the ones again that receive special services is again the cost of the student is different. So what they what we're advocating they do is increase there's a multiplier effect for students that are receiving services and it's not increasing at the rate that the services are increasing. So the cost of these services are going up extremely high, but the cost per student that we're getting back and aid on that is not increasing at the same rate. Um, again, just like our revenue versus expenditure or your own household budget. Um, you know, the raises that you're getting or that we're getting are not matching the increased costs that we have across the board. So that's
088another area that we're advocating for. Okay, thank you. Um, with that, so I' I would like to have as much as we can tonight some conversation around steam. Steam as part of I think ultimately plays with and fits in the portrait of a graduate. I've spent a fair amount of time talking about schema as I sat in this seat, but what I wanted to talk about a little bit tonight was all of the if we're talking about portrait of a graduate, then look at the companies out there that are requiring specific steam related skills. I mean, we heard from Odyssey tonight. That was exceptional. But I I can go on for the next couple of hours just talking about specific companies and and what they are doing. I'm doing this this is I didn't do
089it just for the board here. I I'm doing it as part of Sunni Jio because we're building a program there as well. of many universities. RIT Dean one starts is is is launching an AI an artificial intelligence bachelor's degree in the fall of this year. Penn State and others already have them. Uh Sunni Jio a liberal arts college has a degree bachelor's degree in data and predict predictive analytics. So analytical modeling, I can go on in terms of what the demand is to be college and career ready. We need to start building that curriculum here. And I know we're doing a great job in K5. I'm hoping that continues. I think from a board's perspective, the message I would like to deliver is we have been I think loud and clear that we want to
090see a whole K12, middle school, elementary, middle, and high school curriculum that is consistent well across. That's the board statement. The I'll let the rest of the board speak. how we staff that and how the district manages it. That's the district decisions. I'll leave it there. Any other We just want to tee it up there. Anybody? >> I think when I hear curriculum, I think I still lean into the old ways of thinking about it. And I think more of steam is building a way of learning and of being challenged and of comfort with difference. Um, and any way that that can be incorporated and to start to shift those thoughts that they like your you're business world all day. nonprofits, same thing. Like they want people who can think creatively and differently. And I
091feel like some parts of education have been teach to the test. And I know Jenny was trying to get away from that. But that's where I part of my passion is the belief that um we see the accolades of the Odyssey kids. But when I worked at SPE in special ed at Jennese was the same skills. It was creativity there for everybody and steam has to be incorporated everywhere. >> That's my two cents I look at it is um we have to have a plan. We have to have a K12 plan and that starts with um possibly having some sort of a committee with great teacher leaders to embrace it, look at it, develop it. Um it's it's got to be a a committee of people that are going to buy into it. >> Agreed.
092>> But it has to start. It has to get going. And if the board wants this to happen, we have to say we want it going soon. and the administration to say let's do it. Let's get it together and move forward. There's lots of resources out there. There's I know money will be tight but maybe we we outreach to like you said might be different universities, different companies that we can help help us develop. It will take a while to do but I think we have to get it started. >> Yeah, I think that's the we're we're not expecting anything to be completed in one year. Yeah, >> you know, this is we know it's multi-year. We know it takes some time. I have given Mike and the board a long list of corporations out
093there that are prepared to step in and help, but we have to make a decision first and then we can go out to the right corporate help or university help. Yeah. I I I'm looking to be in partnership with the both the teachers and the great >> administration. >> Yeah. >> And I think it has to be all an approach. You have to have buy in from from the staff. >> You got to build it from the ground up. Yeah. >> Like you can't >> it can't be dictated. >> Okay. >> Um I know you mentioned you give us the direction to do it. We that you give us the the leeway on how it's run, right? Um but I think that collective vision of what the steam program needs to be a combination of
094all of us. So I love this conversation we're having. Um even before I knew there was a steam initiative in the district or you know knew a little bit about it you know obviously but uh that it was such a passion for Jennio to create a steam curriculum. Uh you heard me during my interview process talk about steam and STEM and that being a passion of mine. Like everything that Jonah and his classmates talked about tonight is what I deeply believe and I have put it out there and I have been shy about it from day one that education needs to change and what it looks like. That should be what education is every day in the classroom, right? Not challenges as extensive as what these guys are coming up with. Brilliant idea by the
095way is reaction to that just was much worse. Um but uh you know like it it needs to be based in problem solving. You know we've talked about future ready skills and that needs to be infused into all classrooms and that we're building that from kindergarten or soon prek here in the building all the way on up into our curriculum. Right? Whether it is it's it's steam but it's not just steam. Right? It is an overall curriculum that you're giving kids experiences that are authentic and giving them the ability to gain skills and attributes that are going to help them be successful no matter what they do when they walk through across that stage. And I'm excited that this is all kind of coming to a head together between portrait of a graduate. We know
096we're going to be building a strategic plan in the future and we know we want steam curriculum. That seems like a pretty exciting time to me. So, I'm up for the challenge. I know the team is too. And I agree that, you know, getting the the teachers on board that want to be a part of it is is going to be the driver and the catalyst for the entire thing. Um, never have I ever led from a top down way. And I think, you know, that's where you're seeing the success when we build it from the ground up with the voice of the people that are in the classroom. So, >> yeah. And just to echo Jonah and his fellow students, it's giving students a space to fail, which can be inaccurate, but the first
097attempted learning. >> Go through the redesign process to find out what didn't work, why back to the drawing board. Sorry. I look forward to a much wider and longer conversation. That's great. Anything else? Nothing. Anybody else? Thank you. Anything from here? All right. Yeah, we're all set. We're good. Um section 13 is a move to executive discussion for discussion and all that. Second. >> Okay. questions. All right, with that, all in favor? >> Any oppose? >> Okay, thank you everybody. We are now in executive session up. >> Good job. >> Yeah.