001I'm not going to snoop, but I'm really excited. Mrs. Harris, would you call roll? Here. Yes. Here. 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. Second. Yes. Item number three, audience community comments. Any I'm sorry. Okay, it's okay. I know you're I know you're not allowed to talk. Okay. Okay, we'll move right into administrative reports. 4A of 48 5, Mr. Bauer. Hello everybody. Morning. Uh there's a decent amount going on, actually. So state state testing has been going on at pretty sure all three single school, I know at the high school for sure, but I'd say that they've been a hectic rush to get those. There's two things going on this Friday alone. There's the
002Huron track invite, which is usually a pretty big event at the football field, and then Woodland is also hosting a dance here for I believe it's kindergarten through Fifth grade? Okay. Um Other than that, there's been much May 16th, well, obviously it'll be before our next meeting, so that's prom for the high school for juniors and seniors. And then student council just made an event on May 21st, it's an alumni dodgeball game. So, community is invited to come and watch alumni face students. They they face off in dodgeball, which we think will be pretty exciting. And it's just a little night uh get the community all together. And that's all I have. Okay. What's the date for that again? May 21st. And where will that be? It'll be at at the high school gym at
0036:00 p.m. No, 5:00. Are you in, Mr. Hammond? Uh, I I got fresh cup of my dodgeball shoes. Alternate they can take you. Yeah, I'll take it. All right. Moral of the story. Although, I really like the movie. I don't want to go any further than that. Great. Thank you all. Um All right. Next we have Dr. McDonald for administrative updates. Thank you. All right. So, I'm presenting on the highlights of two of our awardees that we are fortunate to have hosted over at the Erie County Community Foundation. Our first awardee is Aaron Chandler. And then actually we have our educators that are awardees in the audience tonight that will be part of this presentation. Just to give a little bit of back history though, Erie County Community Foundation is celebrating their 30th anniversary this
004year, of which the Huron Tiger Grant Tiger Foundation has has been a part of for the last 28. We have been awarding grants out of this fund for This is our 25th anniversary. So, um the when the fund was created um between them and I was talking to the director this morning, $72,000 has been donated by the community to that fund. And as you can see in that 20 years just shy of $28,000 has been paid out to educators for the purpose of instructional practices, management things, anything in the classroom that would impact instruction, teachers can write grants for. And so, because of that awesome giving the current balance right now sits at sits at just a little over $162,000 as of December payment fund. So, typically in a typical year since I've been here
005in the last 8 years, we give about $5,000 away each year give or take depending on what's being done. And it's all towards that innovative local instruction in the classroom. Rather new to us is a partnership with the Sidney Frohman Foundation. That foundation started in 1952 by Sidney Frohman. He was the president and CEO of Pioneer Asphalt and Paving. They were in the paper for the paving district. You know that local history. And so, 3 years ago two of their trustees, Dawson Foster and Andy Andrews Johnson said, "I would have to imagine you have mental health needs in your district. How can we help?" And so, through that partnership they have given us $14,000 over the last 3 years which we're very grateful for. So, I'd like to turn it over to these wonderful women
006representing McCormick. McCormick was Oh, they get they won an award this year for the Tiger Grant. So, go McCormick. Um Mr. Dawson. So, Leah Watts and Kayla Watts will start us off. Come on up. All right. So, what Leah and came up together for our tiger grant is a mobile make maker space cart. So it has a bunch of different building supplies. Just seeing the need for like we're lucky we have a lot of STEM supplies already, but other science math teachers and science teachers in the building wanted to use just different building materials. So some of those are like safe building materials like a maker fair make-do like screws, safe saws, and then just other stereo technologies, and then the beaver bots at the bottom which is pretty cool. Press the nose to turn
007it on. Um it's fun. And then it also holds just different technologies cuz with another grant that we got at the beginning or halfway through the year, it's about $10,000 worth of robots. So we're able to store them safely and lock. And then it just gives kids more opportunities to then just use their hands and actually build things. So some kids using the micro:bit This one of our students just using the micro:bit. Um and then this just helps the little ones not just do simple little building projects, but there's there's so many things that other teachers can do cuz the building materials and even things like cardboard are things are hard to get. So just giving more opportunities for this classes. And then uh I did an independent grant looking at putting some play into
008physics instruction. And um so while the materials are toys, the curriculum is, you know, designed from the state. Um so using things like air hockey tables and pool tables to explore physics, um roller coaster sets to have them build and explore physics, and then gear bots. So looking at uh like Lego type projects. Okay. Yes! See the kid's arm on the side? I posted that on social media, so I didn't want to put his face in there, but that's the reaction like all day long. It's like, "Yes, I got it to work." So, looking at that those learning moments, and then a lot of it's just slowing it down for kids. So, like using a pool table to look at action and reaction. And having our iPads to take slow motion video capture, and then
009annotate over top of. And then former tiger grants, like I have some kids from the years before using scaffoldings to build long tracks for looking at the Olympics. We just did a big Olympics lesson. So, current tiger grants, former tiger grants kind of all gather together. Kids learn best when they're enjoying what they're learning and having fun. So, the toys in the classroom are exactly that, just to keep them engaged and explore some tough concepts but in ways that keep them, you know, having fun. We have today the Fajita. So, the mini grant that I was awarded was the school kindness wall, which is through the U of M program. We are about a month into implementation, but it's been a joy to see how it's affected the climate of the school and seeing the
010positive peer interactions within our students, too. So, I'll back up. In the student resource app in their Chromebooks, they have a link that will take them to not only the slideshow the kindness wall, but if you scroll down, you can submit your own posts. You can also submit post images if you like, but they go through Mark. Doughty and I We approve them. Um And then they're basically posted up. So, that is Yeah. Okay. Here are some examples of what we have from students. So, we had one for Mrs. LaCross, Mr. Happening on for Steam Club, and even Mr. Self for learning how to play an instrument. So, it's been great to see um just the positivity that's flowing through. And this is located in the cafeteria, which is nice. So, when they're, you know,
011at lunch, they can kind of review the positivity um and then also see what their talents are too. The grant also helped us purchase 20 board games. So, we acknowledge that the lunch room can be an over stimulating or overwhelming place for students. So, giving them the option um with good behavior to be in another classroom where they can kind of socialize or work quietly. But, because this is now up and running, we're excited to see how it can be, I guess, implemented into the next year and how we can move forward with it. And last is playing outside. Okay, so, um as you are aware, a couple years ago when sixth grade came to Jackson Intermediate, we lost our library so Mrs. Miller could have a room. So, part of that um is that
012we were missing out on books. And I know we're potentially or originally there was hoping to be better connection with the school with the public library. Um half of our kids just don't have library cards and these types of things. So, one of the things that the eighth grade team wanted to do was go back to silent reading. Just with kids being on computers and social media, just a silent sustained activity to help them stay focused. So, with the grant we were able to purchase over 75 new books and I worked with our contact with um Barnes & Noble at Concord and looking at contemporary artists. I had students give me lists as well. And so, it's various genres of local fiction, sports, some of the series of authors that they like, and some of
013their favorite authors. Um being able to have these books in the classroom has provided more opportunities for them, broaden their collections, and discover some new genres and authors. And I have two students who have read several books out of that list that we just got these in February. So, they're fairly recent. And um Hadley, who is one of my students, had submitted this email to me, "Can having the extra books make it easier on students to have them in the classroom? Um some kids don't get to go to the library, don't have time to get the opportunity to read what they want to read. Having more options gives them new books, discovering what you like to read, whether it's fantasy or history. And it also makes it easier for them not being in accessible libraries
014in the schools so we can do book reports or journal reading." Um filling that library with different types of books can be a way for students to explore new cultures, ideas, and learn about historical events. And I would say the book that she read for her book report, which was our project for year four, she now is reading another book by that author. And so, it's just, you know, um it's spurred a lot of discussion. Um another genre class student was He um read a book that I had When I purchased it, I told him I was like, "Hey, I think you might like this book." So, he read that and now he's picked up another book in the series of in that same kind of genre of inspiring types of books. And we were
015working on a book there. And so, we did um using Book Creator, which is one of the apps that Mr. Cross showed me a couple years ago, we have been able to do some projects this year. So again, not showing students pictures or anything, but when we do these projects, this is for a Holocaust book project that we just finished in April. Or March, we did it for spring break. They each read different books. And so rather than standing up and my book report was about, um, each student I purchased headphones for them and they bounced around the room and sat on kind of these little chairs and were able to get through between eight and 10 other projects. And so with these, they had a component of they had to basically retell the book
016and pull out what they thought was important. So if you look here at this one in particular, um, they had to include voice projects with it, at least five voice clips. They wrote summaries, they had to include videos and of course some of the books this one is based on, it's historical fiction based on her the author's grandmother. But they did a really nice job and they could share and learn from each other because it's such a vast topic as she said earlier. We're getting ready to do some group projects and so that was and then I had them for the last page, they all shared what they learned and what how they can prevent these types of things or how they feel this relates to them. And so they did they did a nice
017job with these. Okay. So I want you to all look at them for a second. No, that's fine. I'll just show you. So they did a nice job with these. And this was another student too. Another one of the new books that we purchased and she has picked up several more books from the shelves as well. So, they're not all Holocaust, but this happens to be one of the books we saved out of the library and then added a few of those and then for their last project for the year, they're going to be able to work in groups and pick a book that there's multiple copies of and they will create activities for the class. So, this is about a true even though this course and this is her with camping with her colleagues
018with her things that experiments under uh Dr. Mengele that she So, they I feel like it was very beneficial to them. Most of the students, even if they don't have they don't have to grab a book. They have a program that I use for them to sign out books and we can keep track of those to make sure that they keep them as well. So, I appreciate the committee for the committee's sake and it's something that should be good for many years to come. So, thank you. So, one nice thing on the intent of the Tiger Grant is to allow our staff to pursue interests and purposes that they're really passionate about and pilot them out. So, over the course of the 12 years, some of the stuff that we see in classrooms now actually
019came from ideas that started with the Tiger Grants. E-boards for instance, the first go around was one or two boards to try it out, see how they liked it. Um another conversation that came out of the Tiger Grant is we were seeing applications for different seating in classrooms and I was like, "Why? Why are we doing that?" So, between James and Mike, we had this conversation of um let's move those requests out of Tiger Grant into capital outlay those kind of accounts for permanent seating if we have a need for those. So, um it's provided a great conversation from them submitting applications to us having conversation and whatnot. The second grant um the reset fund through the City of Groman Foundation, so this can operate a little bit differently. So, on the last 30 years,
020the trustees have reached out and said, "What do you need?" And the first year, I think we had an hour, hour and a half interview with Mr. Foster who talked with us and I said, "These are all the things that um we want to do, like to do, have to do, whatever. There's different funding sources. So, if we can take care of some of the low-hanging fruit that allows you to do other kinds of other things, that would be wonderful." And so, um out of that we got our initial funding for Rocks Rolling Our Experiences that covered training materials and fees. It's not a cheap program to start um and keep going. Um with that also, um knowing we wanted a similar experience for our young men came the creation of Guys with Ties. Um
021we also did our initial suicide prevention training that was needed in the state through that um fund. Um we um the fourth source of the strength, going back to that, um we had mental health ambassadors students in the high school and provided materials and training for their um activities. And we're also able to um purchase emergency gift cards that we just had. Um if there was some sort of emergency need in the district, we didn't get the family kids back in school but by providing that gift card for things that they needed to attend school. And then, um as we switched over to Sources of Strength, they did help and provide funding for that training and materials. So, um very grateful for both of these grants with much gratitude for our staff who loves to
022take ideas and run with them. It's really fun to be able to say yes in education. Like, here's some money. Yes, go do the things. So, I do appreciate you guys coming tonight. I told them I was supposed to it's going to go because it is as confusing as all the things, right? So, I do appreciate their time tonight. Do you have any questions? Well, I have a couple of things. One, STEM is one for How do we integrate STEM into the classroom itself? Is it something that we do on a regular basis or is it a technology resource room? How does that work? I You know, you have a question schedule. We have that as a special that every student gets a quarter of STEM automatically. Um but then staff, if they would like
023to incorporate it into their classrooms especially core incorporates really well into the science classroom. And And Mr. Frost is very good about hands-on learning and getting kids engaged. And also at Windham, Taylor is also here with our fourth and fifth grade. She comes on site every part of the special education as well. And then going into the high school, and these are more direct things. So, in the high school, we do have the STEM classroom with Badger and Kathy Ryan. Indirectly, I think a lot of teachers incorporate it without realizing that they they don't call it out. Like, "Hey, this is a STEM practice, right?" So, you can incorporate things like that, problem-solving, and even the soft skills of working in collaborative groups, right? Talking to people that you don't talk to. Yes. So, both
024indirectly and directly. And I'm always looking for ways to improve it and bring in more. Yeah, that's a great goal thing to work on. Some implementation of that. I just wanted to pause there for a second. Delivering the special education as you go through the education plan Going down the line of apology and immigration bringing more cultural awareness to the students particularly at the middle school level Um I know it's a tough subject. But these guys do very well at and I think the more the kids learn the more the facts and understand our history the better they're going to be as adults as they grow up. Whether they're going to be well or whether they're going to have success, so I applaud you for that as well. And thank you very much for all
025your hard work. Just want to thank the foundation for the foundations but also the community donors who made these grants possible. And then a special thank you as Executive Director said for all of you not only doing what you do day in and day out for the students but taking that extra time to think of a special project and how you can kind of, you know, bubble up um and provide something extra for the students. So thank you very much for taking your time out this evening to attend. Okay, uh Board of Trustees report. Yes. Um we are three quarters of the way through the school year. Um we are currently uh we did a large number of disbursements to the government so you'll see that on the next coming up uh I saw that
026on the uh the uh as well. Um donations we we did $750 in donations and most of them went up to the United Nations International School in Brasilia. Uh and then the key all I have for that I have a then and now an invoice from November and then a lot um there there was a PO in place but it wasn't very um so we're going to get that now. Um other than that uh I forwarded you a website. I haven't actually dove into this website yet but a lot of us are going to uh Protect Public Services of the uh freshman Yeah, not so much on that so if I haven't to do it and I don't know a lot for you but I figured I would pass it along. April 1st we cut
027off purchase orders so we kind of ramped up to close out the fiscal year. Every department is getting like open purchase order lists and then you can go through that and edit and see what can be closed. So we've kind of already started that process for the fiscal year ending June 30. I didn't have any That's pretty much all I have for you tonight but if you guys have any questions All right. Any questions for All right. Move on to 4D. So we're going to 4.1 [clears throat] again. Good evening everybody. Just reviewing agenda items. The first is policy review and this is the second reading so no action on that. This ballot moves and then entrance age for kindergarten. So we're aligning with the Iowa Code. The second one is Union County Department of
028Health for school nursing services. We've used them for a long time. Great provider and they have the support back at home base from the Department of Health. So we'll continue that next school year. The Wellman Coop provides us our technology support staff and so we're doing those contracts. This will be our third year with them. Very well with services and on it Johnny on the spot ball all things. Even nice and neat. That's excellent. >> [clears throat] >> The Paton Positive Education Program. We have some students who need specialized programming and they provide it. They receive a few bucks back. So that is the service contract for that. 7E is pay to participate. So last year this month the board approved a suspension of pay to participate for this school year. So this item is
029uh continuing that suspension for next school year. I think it's a good reminder to all of us in the community at large that we did have those participation fees and suspended them and ideally we continue to keep that suspension in place. Certified personnel items, it's the month where we renew the majority of staff's contracts. So we have some staff moving to their first continuing contract, the limited contract staff. We have some who will have a second year of retirement and higher and then one employee who went on uh um leave that was technically approved but extended beyond the paid For classified, same idea, approving majority of staff. So with with staff with classified staff, they get a limited one-year contract. Then they get a two-year contract, second two-year contract, third two-year contract, then they go
030to a continuing. So uh that law changed two years ago but we're still working through that as far as people in their renewal processes. Um so those are listed there. And then we also have um employment of a new head custodian here for Woodlands. Mark is in the audience. Um you might recognize Mark if you've been in Woodlands cuz he works as an educational aid in our program in uh Woodlands. So it's going to be great having a new employee but also very familiar with the staff in the building and and all the operations. So um looking forward to having Mark officially approved there. Oh and then the last item is summer casual labor workers. So this is something we started last year to help offset our regular staff to get the buildings turned around
031so they're ready for the next school year. Uh by doing by having this staff, it helps ensure um like I said, the buildings are ready. Last year it was close to uh if not just a little bit after August 1st that the buildings really were ready to be used and that was great because our staff coming in um late July, early August and they want to get their classroom and start setting things up and doing that. So, having the space is ready and we don't have to work around each other on South Florida and then then August our regular staff can continue to work on other projects beyond this on the board. Supplemental, so these are some of the final adjustments for spring sports and supplementals as far as for track and then for baseball
032volunteers. Next month is the big one where we recommend renewal or award of contracts for the next school year. So, year-long, fall and winter. We will do spring ones in October and November. Um it's hard for people to commit when you're still doing the previous season. So, um so that's that and then stipend uh just a few additional um ticket takers for work mostly the track events. Track's a long event and so some of our typical uh Friday night ticket workers are early. They hit spring and I'm flying there. So, we we're fortunate we have some few members of staff that want to do those services. Any questions about the consent agenda items? All right [clears throat] and then um with our last board meeting really just three school weeks ago cuz it's spring break
033in there, too. Not too many other items to talk about except we continue to have uh kindergarten enrollment open, accepting enrollments. Uh if your child is going to be five by the age of five August 24th, then they're eligible for kindergarten. Parents can elect to wait a year so that they're getting a little bit older. Those late summer birthdays sometimes they wait. Uh but we're welcoming the class of 2039. So, the week before spring break and break happened, uh we put out yard signs welcoming all of those who have submitted registration for kindergarten. Um so we hope we're hoping that will attract some others and say, "Hey, wait. I can play together. I don't I didn't do the yard sign." So right now we're sitting at um 57 resident registered students for the next coming
034kindergarten year. Five non-resident open enrollment applicants, which is 62. So right now if kindergarten were to start today for next school year, with 62 having three teachers and three classrooms, we're having it adequately staffed. So that will continue to be monitored. I can pull that number weekly um cuz if we start getting close to that 70 number, then we're going to talk about having to open a fourth classroom. So structurally, um you have 25 in class. Um if you've ever been in a kindergarten class, but 25 little is a lot. So uh we don't want to hit that max, um but uh we also want appropriate class sizes across the board. So any questions about the hearing? Is there a assessment process? Yes. So the last two school days uh kindergarteners don't report current kindergarteners
035don't report, and parents come with their future future kindergarteners staff run them through kindergarten screening. From that, uh they do uh identify kids who would benefit from like a pre- like a summer boot camp that kids are learning on today. So in August, it's like a 5-day little boot camp for kids uh just to help them get school ready so they come in a little more ready for kindergarten. But yeah, that happens in June. Makes sense. I have a Okay. All right. Um item eight is a motion for approval of action set agenda items five through seven, which include the approval of the minutes from both the 23rd regular meeting, March 27th special meeting, treasurer recommendations, and the superintendent recommendations. Is there a for approval. Second. Mr. Burkins? Mr. Hammond? Yes. Mrs. Sanders? Yes. Mr.
036Ryder? Yes. Mrs. Harkins? Yes. Okay, item >> [clears throat] >> Okay, item number nine for discussion action new business. I'll just share. I can pass it around. We have a letter addressed to the Board of Education from the LEGO Club. And the LEGO Club was started by one of our teachers, Karen Mrs. Karen Lamb. Dear members of the Board of Education, thank you for allowing us to start the LEGO Club at Woodlands Elementary. The students and I are very excited to get started and begin building, creating, and learning together. Your support has made this opportunity possible, and it already has students buzzing with enthusiasm. If you're available, we invite you to join us at the Woodlands Library any day. And she has the meeting day and time in here along our students students to build,
037and that they would love to see us. And then it is signed by not all the students, because how many did she have sign up? Yeah, so this is one of those new supplemental went through the approval process. And she was hoping to have 20, maybe 30 kids. She ended up with 90. So, she hosts them in cycles of three. So, every third week the kids get to participate. So, she has 30 at a time. Um she has 90, and because she groups them like that, she has enough LEGOs. Um but it really came together great, and she was going to limit it, and then there were all these kids racing down the hall to get their forms turned in. So, she make it available to all. Is that open to all grades? Uh yeah,
038my understanding is it's open to all grades, yeah. Karen Lamb. Yep. Awesome. Any other items for business? Just a comment I'd like to make is um Um I had the I thought it was a long day. Um we drove out to Mr. Harper Road taking 18 freshmen down to Wallace for a very long Saturday. I think uh the bus time was probably 3:00 a.m. Is that the history competition? Yes, yeah. And it was cool to see You don't get to watch the kids do their presentation. But um But it was cool to see two of the students There's the one group with two two girls um got recommended for um honorable mention. And yeah, it was kind of cool. It was quite a day. Yeah, I can't talk about it. They all went out and
039said that was like a long day of traveling. My only comment I don't want to I'm going to not but um talked about it in the previous meeting about having more sports sessions in front of the facilities. Having the facilities committee just update you where it should be a discussion for me. It's a learning process right now. Get the opportunity to talk to the vice superintendent. He's been part of the community. The community to a I just I know the next meeting's on May 18th. It's a short window to do something between now and then. Or maybe after the May meeting. Trying to get a work session done maybe after school. It's almost half a January sounds like it works for me. Um our June meeting is super late. So putting off this meeting and
040do that. So, between May 18th and May I might find that calendar to put together and Do you think it's a work session? Do you think it's I mean like tonight like we're pretty much wrapping up with regular business and then we have an executive session, but if we have a Well, I guess we should have a work as a committee on the May 18th meeting and I think that would be something that I would work towards as we look at it today. Yeah, we should be able to do that. Okay. Even if we had a discussion for >> [clears throat] >> 20-30 minutes about it? Okay. I mean just for 30 minutes and if if you're if you're up for it. Yeah, I I I have no problem I just want to make sure
041that we make progress with one of our biggest challenges. Sure. Sure. Obviously it is. Where we're having communication or our job where do we need to go from here? Yeah, I think that's good if uh So, we can plan for a little bit longer discussion on the evening. Okay. And then if it gets too long, we can always then finish it to a June uh follow up. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thanks for considering that. Okay. Uh any other items? No. Okay, we do have an executive session this evening for purposes of preparing for conducting or reviewing negotiations with public employees regarding concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment. Any motion to go to executive session? Second. Second. Uh Mr. Burgan? Mr. Hammond? Yes. Mrs. Sanders? Yes. Mr. Brager? Yes. Mrs. Harvey? Yes.
042And we do not expect any business afterwards, right? No. Thank you. Oh, I'll see you tomorrow, then. Yeah, we'll meet at the >> Congratulations. See you. It's great to see your new company. They're good. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think congratulations. I'm so excited and happy for you. Yeah. It's a new building. Okay. We can get it done in an hour. All right. Okay. I'm just for sure. No. Okay. Yeah. And it's the leadership which is pretty much just be what Tim wrote. Okay. I don't want to say happy directly work for more, but No, right. I mean, okay, so the district is covering it for more than half star. You have me. I had three and a half, but I could have had four if we had the uh the the kids were
043out here. Yeah, that's right. But I mean, right, right. So we're going to fix that. Right. Cuz I mean, why? I hate cuz in time the junior high reports, like I could go there and there used to be a report I could go and show you who took the task and then also maybe a list of kids so that I can Yeah. That's gone. It's different now. It is different. Okay. Remind me to turn on all of them out. So um But it's and you also had a count now for accelerating testing in ELA like like sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, or something. Which is kind of cool. But I don't see anybody nobody shows up for algebra or computer science, geometry. So I can I mean, here and that's for Okay. But let's
044Let's look So again, four call my house. >> Mhm. >> Someone Second. Mr. Rager? Yes. Mr. Hammond? Yes. Mr. Merkins? I Mrs. Peters? Yes. Mrs. Harvey? Yes. Mr. Jordan? Yes.