001Motion >> motion by Randy second Dennis. >> Randy had the motion. >> Okay. >> Second. It's 5:18. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. 5 to zero. >> All right, we are back from recess. >> We'll turn it over to you. >> You're ready. parents, kiddos, we just want to thank you so much for coming this evening. Um, this is a huge projects that they work on in this room and I could not be any more proud of the way that they present to adults, adults they do not know. That's very important in life. It's almost like an interview like Miss Doin was was talking about earlier. It's preparing you for life and having an interview. So, I'm so proud of you. We did feed your babies. They did have Subway.
002And I will tell you, they did get a box of cookies. You did not. No one else got that. So, that was for them. But, I just wanted to let you know, you are we are getting ready to start um the LSIC program. If you want to leave, you can. I know many of you have um some things going on like softball and other stuff. So if you want to leave, you are free to do that now or you can stay. >> Before you take off, we want to thank the students for coming down and sharing their presentations and for you making it possible for them to be here. Um it's great to see their work every year and uh we get to look at the academic achievement data from the school and I'm telling
003you Vincent is really coming on strong and we're very pleased with what's happening here and your kids are a huge part of that. So, thank you for being here. And in addition to the presentations tonight, we also we also have some uh social studies fairs winners in here. >> So, I think we have three students that place first at the county social studies fair and are going to be competing at the regional fair tomorrow. >> Tomorrow. >> Okay, that's Quinn Diamond. Quinn, wave it everybody. Lamar How and Jana. >> Congratulations girls and good luck tomorrow. >> Thank you for getting everything ready. Okay. So, thank you all so much for coming. I'm going to go ahead and you have what I have on my board. This is our staff this year. We all had our
004finally our all matching shirts on. rarely happens. I'm going to say in the middle and only time he's got a t-shirt on in this building. So, we use that picture often regularly to make sure he worked the K9 what part of the staff what is >> he he's in charge of the K9 staff is our emotional support animal. >> Okay. and he is he's in charge of us. >> We make sure Will isn't here. He doesn't need >> So we have Winnie at Wayne Elementary. Um Kim, you have a community member that >> Yes, he is. Well, you may Brandon Maguire. It is his emotional support animal that um he had trained and he loans us this animal one day a week and he snacks has been with us for about two and a half
005three years now. Um huge impact on our kiddos especially when they need when they need someone to talk to and an adult may not be the person they want to talk to. So he's in Mr. K's office most of the time when he's here and kids will filter them out. Again, we want to thank Mrs. Mrs. Gibbs for your wonderful work that you do with the kiddos. It's amazing. Our presenters, they're fantastic. They're topnotch for sure. >> Okay, so we wanted to start with our chronic absentee rate and our average daily attendance. Miss um Terry Lynn sent this to me today just so I could make sure I had this up to date in our um presentation. We have made um a lot of positive progress in our chronic absentee rate um as well as
006our overall attendance rate. Um as you're going to see, we have a variety of incentives that we use uh to motivate our kiddos. Um, in my personal opinion, we made the changes partly to in part due to our amazing staff and um, as well as just the overall mindset change we had this year. Um, it's buyin. We had buyin from all of our staff. You have to have that. You have to motivate them. They're motivated to see this attendance. This was Will and I um at our principal retreat this this year at the beginning of the year. This was our number one goal. We are absolutely going to work on our attendance and and we've made some really great strides as you see. Um 2024 on this day last year our prime absentee was 29.89%.
007Um now we are 16.87 which is a change of 13%. >> Fantastic. Yeah, >> our goal our goal for the year because last year I mean it spiked up super high at the end of the year. I think we're at 38% I think >> it was like 38 at the end of the year. >> So our goal was getting below 25% and we're well on the way of that. >> Yeah, that was our goal. Um and our schoolwide goal was to maintain a third a 93% daily attendance and and we have absolutely done that. We have let me see we're at 93.6 >> today. So um phenomenal. I I would like to be around 94 94.5 something like that, but um we're working on that. So, how do we do this? We have several things
008that we do. Um, tiger tracker, strive for five weekly promotions, first to 10 wins, administrator meetings with students, teacher student connections, attendance challenges like no days November, student of the month, first semester perfect attendance fame. And I'm going to talk about those really quick right there. So, at the beginning of the year, this was our open house. Every parent, every student received a Tiger attendance tracker. I told them, "You can miss nine days. I will give you nine days to miss." And a lot of the sixth graders, well, I missed two last year. I'm not going to miss nine. But I gave them the cushion. Even our seventh and eighth graders, you know, nine days. That's going to keep you where you need to be for the for the duration of the year. Everyone has
009one of these. We keep them in our office. They track how many days they have missed on their own and and that's been something that started that seed at the beginning of the year. I can only miss nine. So they're already thinking about it. Strive for five. >> And the reason we chose nine, it's not a arbitrary number. It's >> Well, it's my lucky number. >> That's exactly my nine days is 95% attendance. >> It is. It is 95% but it's also my lucky number. So strive for five. These are some pictures of our strive for five attendance winners. Um, we started this as a weekly promotion uh to come to school. This was specifically sought out for our chronically absent kiddos. This is a way where we can promote, hey, five days a week
010you're going to get something on Friday. I'm going to call your name. I'm picking 10 students. can you be here all five days? Let's try this. So, we started with these little goals for some of these kids. Um other kids, you know, you have those kids who never miss and they have one, but it what makes a huge difference in this program with attendance is I can handpick kiddos who have never won anything in attendance in their life. >> Yeah. and they're going to get um a strive for five because that week they were there all five days and that means a lot or like last week um it was strive for 2.5 is what we called it and they still got something because those kids were here two and a half days um it's
011it's made a big difference if for some reason we are off we something has happened they will let us know that we did not do strive for five last Friday um first to 10 wins. So, we started Will and I are so smart, you know. Um we started and we said, "Let's do first to 10 wins." This is for each home room, and we just count home room. Um if your class gets 10 um uh 10 days, they don't even have to be consecutive days. They get 10 days at 95% or above. We have all these different little parties. You can pie Mr. Watkins in the face. We'll get you donuts in the morning for breakfast. We will have uh like Halloween, we had a they wanted a snack bar, so we had a snack
012bar. Okay. Well, 10 days into the school year, Miss Dylan's home room think is just like knocking it out of the park. We did go back and re-evaluate the 10 days. Um, there's a picture of the very first 10 to win up there and they won it like that. So, she received because we want everyone to try to win. Okay. Second place also gets something. the second home room to meet those 10 days at 95% for that six weeks, they're going to get something as well. But yeah, she >> usually >> we have to change it to well, we changed it to first to 12. That's why I put that up there for Miss Dylan. All right, we went up again. First to 15. And now Mrs. Dylan, they have to get 15 days, 95%
013or higher. um they have to um be in the classroom by 7:30. She's cutting it off. She would she would count it at a certain time and now she told Will and I today in an email, I'm going to cut this off at 7:30. They're not here. They don't count because she wants everybody to be able to participate. >> And last semester, we actually had the first of 20. They filled this one a couple times. >> They did. It was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. It's great group of kids. Great group of kids. So yeah, but there's their fantastic little I love it. >> We've done We did the pizza party for them. We've done donut parties for them. >> Yeah, >> we've done double inter murals for them. That's a big one. >> Oh, they love
014the double inter murals. >> So good skills. >> I forgot about that. Yes, double. We just It's a We have a lot they get to choose from. Um go back a couple. Okay, so administrator meetings with students. Mr. Watkins is superb with this. Okay, superb. Um, he started this at the end of the first six weeks. He met privately with chronically absent kiddos. Met with them. How can I get you here, buddy? What can we do to make sure that you're going to get to school? Um, are you oversleeping? Just made these connections. How How many did you start with? 17, 18 kids? >> Uh, I usually do about a dozen or so to start off with. And it's usually those bubble kids, the ones who are like 90%'s the cut off for chronically absent.
015Usually ones who are like from 86 to 90. Yeah. Those are the ones I kind of go after because our social workers and counselors do a really good job of attacking the ones who are like really really bad. >> And then the ones who are like 95 like 99% we don't have to worry about at all. Those ones are kind of in the bubble. They don't realize because being chronically absent isn't that big of a number. It's like three days to six weeks. So like one day every two weeks is chronically absent. So it's it adds up fast. So the first thing I do is I just meet with them and say, >> "Do you realize you're chically absent?" And nine times out of 10, they have no idea. >> They do not. They do
016not realize that. Oh, I need to one more day. I'd be out of that red or yellow, whatever. >> And always, well, you know, you're here 89 88% of the time. If that was over the course of a a school year, you've missed a month of school. >> Yeah. >> And then I do if you drop down to 83%, you missed the entire six term of school. that you kind of put those numbers in perspective for them, they kind of realize they just I do small things for them. Like I'll check in with them every couple weeks and if they do well, I'll give them a little treat. If they get off, they probably ask the end at the end of the six weeks, I I buy them lunch. >> Yeah. >> They enjoy it.
017They just they eat lunch. Mr. Watkins, >> do whatever we have to do. >> Pizza or I buy them Taco Bell or something. >> Yeah. I just I thought this was maybe the most one of the most important uh pictures here that we have. So, everybody loves AI. We all do our wonderful little, you know, AI stuff. I made wheels and he said I put veneers on his teeth and I did not. Like that's just it's just how it made it. But your AI will start to learn you and like the more you use it, the more it's like, oh, picking up on your little subtleties. It put BMS beat CKMS in attendance again because of my conversations that I would have and things that I would do. And I just thought that was fantastic.
018I just think that that was very very me right there. >> That is our that is our favorite part about our increased attendance. We we tell Brian that we're meeting them all the time. >> All the time. >> Oh, all the time. Yeah. That's a must. >> So teacher student connection. So let's fast forward. We were in November at our um PL day. I had teachers. I had all the entire list of chronically absent students. I had the our teachers highlight 10 of those students who were chronically absent that I felt they felt they could connect with on a personal level. Um what they did was approach them in a positive manner that upcoming week. Talk to them about, hey, I noticed that you're missing a lot of days. What can we do about this?
019How can I help you? And I had a lot, we had a lot of positive feedback from teachers for those communications. It went really well. And just them knowing who not that they're like, well, he's never here. Well, here's his percentage and how can you connect with this kid and get him here in class. So, that was big that the teacher connect. It's all about always goes back to the teacher. So, um this is our no days November. Um, they kept track. This is an individual challenge for each kid, keeping track. Every kid got this little calendar. They mark it out. Um, it was really 12 days, but we didn't say anything. And they had a huge ice cream social and we had It was packed, wasn't it? It was packed. Once this Oh my
020gosh. Ice cream. All I have to do is be here. Yes. Ice cream. And it was We had a packed house. So many made that and and it was their personal goals. I'm I can do this. So building little goals. >> Uh we also have students of the month. So this is our um I actually did two two student of the month January February because we have just missed so much and it was a little crazy. So it's usually four kids and they get a certificate. They also get um a Camden Corner voucher for a free donut. They just go down there, give them that voucher, and they get a a free whatever they want. And they also have um they love the goat medals. So, I bought a bunch of goat medals and they
021all get those and they just they just think that's cool. So, and they are they're fantastic and those are chosen by the staff and it's attendance academics all all together. Um, the first semester perfect attendance fame is what I'm calling this. If students had perfect attendance at the end of the first semester, I put their face on a billboard and >> they just thought that was the coolest thing ever. So, it was a lot of fun. They had their picture taken by Long Creative, so it was professional and it was them in this room and they felt special. Um, and parents would call, I just saw that that kid on that like kid and this was the the only place that was available is right in Cerrito there when you go from Crito all into
022Benson into West Morland. That was the only place. So, um, great location. It worked out perfect. I think last year first semester we had three total kids. >> We did. We had three. And how many and not to I love Buffalo Buffalo Middle. How many perfect did they have for first >> semester? Nine. >> Nine. So you know we having 17. That's a big deal. Like they really worked hard for that. >> Uh friendly motivation. You know we are all about even when he acts like he doesn't care he absolutely does. And but we beat them and that was a personal goal of mine. We talked about it with the kids, but you know, we beat them first semester. We had better attendance and and that's really, you know, all we can say about that.
023Enrollment numbers uh hurt my heart. So, if you're looking at these enrollment numbers, in 2023 2024, we're down to 153. That's a lot. That's a lot. And it was it I can't even really say it was a steady decline. It was kind of like 2011, 166, and then 153. So, >> scaring kids off. >> We do think it's will, but I haven't really >> I got there 200 kids. Now there's >> Yeah. Yeah. >> But at Buffalo there was 220. Now they're making 270. So >> um yeah, proficiency data over here a little bit. >> Yeah. 220. But >> um ELA we saw a small tick down. Um from 2022 to 2023 we are on the way up. We are looking at we're projecting that's this number right here is where we're at as a
024benchmark. So, we're already above where we were last year before we even get our final testing data. So, our goal was about 52 53% for our English. We're going to blow it out of the water. Um, math, we're still kind of struggling here a little bit. However, um, if you look here at our our number right now, we're at 17%. Last year, we're only at 18%. So, I still think we're at, you know, projected to >> um, to kind of crush that. Um, we are seeing some really positive signs of the future. Our sixth grade right now has the highest test scores for ELA and math in the entire county by a pretty significant margin. >> ELA numbers are good across the board for the most part. Um, as a school, >> um, as a
025school ELA, we're at about 35% proficient. That's about 13% above where the state is right now. Um, different grade levels are kind of crushing it. Like, um, sixth grade is 18% above the state. Seventh grade is 17% above the state. Eighth grade is a group just kind of struggles in general. They've always been kind of our stagnant group. They're 2% above the state right now. So, we're kind of very happy where we see right there as far as that's concerned. Um, math you see is struggling. However, we are seeing some positives there. Sixth grade, they're currently at 34%. They are crushing on the county level. They're uh they had 26% growth. They're actually 15% above uh where the state is right now as far as proficiency is concerned. Um, we are a little behind though
026in seventh and eighth graders. Those have been kind of our two strong groups. However, you look at the seventh grade, they were only at 14% proficient last year and this year they're at 11%. So, they have a pretty good chance to kind of exceed where they were last year. That eighth grade group has always been kind of our stagnant difficult group. Even with our attendance, if you look at our attendance rates right now, our sixth and seventh grade are really, really high. That eighth grade group is where a lot of our profit attendance numbers are, but we're still pretty positive that we'll make some growth there as well. Um our big areas of raising proficiency rates is one meaningful feedback through walkthroughs. Um we really try to you know we really try to increase the
027rigor and the collaboration in our classrooms. It's been emphasis has been on kind of incorporating elements of building thinking classrooms into our rooms. Um we'll do like actual model lessons in there. We'll do kind of little mini book studies. Um tomorrow we're actually collaborating. we're going to actually, you know, build actual lessons that we're going to do in our classrooms with BPC activities and board. And we've actually kind of, one of the downside, well, downside of losing enrollment is we've lost staff. Um, you know, we lost like we lost five staff members two years ago. The one positive has been that it's given us some kind of flexibility as far as layout of our school is concerned. We've actually been building collaborative classrooms throughout our school. So, each one of our math now has an
028actual room just for collaboration. because one of the one of the issues that they proposed to us is well I have I have 30 kids in my class how do I get them into groups let them move around so we made rooms just for collaboration so we actually have two we actually have three rooms in our school just for collaboration so that's one of the the benefits of you know losing staff is we have a little more flexibility as far as that >> and having an amazing I mean this building is amazing it's it was built to last forever >> you know just saying it was we can do everything in this building that we need to do. >> That's been our big push and we are seeing some growth um especially in sixth grade.
029Mr. Borger um you know he's he's always been an English teacher for us. When we we lost >> PLTW is our big strength and one of the things we were worried about when we lost so many staffers was having to cut back on PLW. Chase Border luckily told us that he was actually certified not only in English but also in math and science and theater and PE. U so he actually stepped up and took over the math program so we didn't have to actually use any sixth grade teachers to teach math. First year was a little rough for him. He's a phenomenal English teacher. English and math are very different subjects. Um so you see how the last year only fish at 14%. His kids this year are already at 32% 34% proficiency in his
030second year as a math teacher. So, we're very optimistic of seeing >> what's going to come forward. >> Discipline data. Um, this isn't probably totally accurate as far as our schoolwide discipline. We don't record everything in Weebas, like if a kid is, you know, wearing his hat in the hallway. I don't always put him in weeas for that. It's pretty reflective of our actual overall higher level offenses. Um, so about 67 actual weas writeups this year. Um, of those, uh, 20 of those were level three write-ups. We've had zero actual level fours. Level fours are your most heinous actions, like your your weapons, your drugs, your serious, like you know, violent threats. We haven't any of those. We've only had actually nine actual out of school suspensions this year. And of those, I think it's
031like six kids. >> So, we've done pretty well as far as not having those major offenses are concerned. We really really tried to be kind of creative and disciplined these last couple years because you know once again our big emphasis last couple years was attendance and we're like well what benefit doesn't serve if we're just kicking kids out of school if our attendance is bad. So um we try to do more creative things you know we try to kind of you know if a kid's doing something wrong in the cafeteria we just instead of suspending him for his behavior we just take him out of the cafeteria. Yeah, we we changed, you know, we we can't say we want them in in the building as much as possible and then turn around and suspend them
032for something that, you know, I I could have taken care of the next day in ISS. So, if if we suspend someone from this school, they there's a reason like that's that's really a last resort for us. We don't care to do that. >> Yeah. And we have one pending expulsion. I think the expulsion actually isn't actually going to technically an expulsion on our record because the child we actually we started doing all the actual safe schools paperwork he's actually a Cell County resident so we rescended his invitation to Wayne County schools. >> So tennis data I mean the discipline data is pretty promising as far as that's concerned. Very few major behavior issues this year. Well, we have snacks and he's here. He he would protect us probably. I think he changes everything. So,
033facility improvements that um I put down here. I know there's several others that Mr. Alexander will probably remember that I'm just didn't remember, but we had the new windows put uh throughout the school. Um all of the blinds were put were also given to us and they're perfect. They all match. It's a huge deal for me. Um, our HVAC systems were put in. Um, they're working right now, so we're good. We're good. Um, we have upcoming projects. The security vestibule is going to be um, I think this summer it's going to start the the room. Um, and we're waiting on our protective window film. That's going to be something that's approved and that's exciting. people can't see inside. So, that's always that's always a good thing. Um, I'm excited about the security. I think that
034will be a great addition to the school. Um, so these are just a couple of things that that we would like. We we need a a couple more water bottle fountains. Um, we would love to have one for this main hall downstairs. like we have a regular fountain, but the majority of the kids use that fountain. Um, we have one in the cafeteria, we have one upstairs, and we do only have one on each level that works. We have a couple that that are not going to >> I would say probably honestly it's one fully functioning fountain for the entire main portion of the school. >> Yeah. >> Um, one upstairs, but I don't know. We we don't know. But it's it's a it's a plumbing issue. >> It's a bad plumbing issue. >> Yeah.
035Which I'm sure could be easily remedied and this place would be like brand new. Um so I've been in communication with Bo Evans. He is from the traffic safety with the city of Huntington. So, something that has bothered me since I've been here and I had talked to um Huntington Police Department and I've talked to Dave at the Crito Fire years ago. I I couldn't figure out why they we did not have a bus loop. Like the bus loop is one road. It's on Hughes and in the mornings you have passing cars and kids get out and they just cross the street. Okay. um that over the years it's been a little scary with some of the kiddos. Um a couple of close calls. It's dark in the morning. It isn't their fault, but we've
036had a couple kids almost get hit. >> We have walkers. >> Yes, we have walkers. So, um it was really um scary when we had the ice. You know, Steve was out there who was our custodian and the kids would c would come and they were literally falling on the ice and then another car would come. It really scared him. I thought he's going to have a heart attack or something. It was So, we reached out to what can the city of Huntington do and this guy Bo Evans, I've never met him. I don't know who he is. Um he ga he came down and was able to observe our kids drop off and pick up for me. Um and I will say we have extremely observant parents. They called the office immediately. Who is
037this guy over here at the clipboard? Like they were, you know, they're on it. Um he thinks that we could, and I already emailed it to Mr. Alexander do a couple of things with the basketball parking lot to where we could still utilize that parking lot, but he thinks we could also make it a pickup loop. Pick up and drop off where they would just come in and out that side door to the bathroom. >> Um yeah, on the side they would be they would instead of coming in the cafeteria door, they would come in the side of the building and he was extremely helpful. Um he had I think maybe two schematics that he sent me in the email and it was he said you know I said well wow I get to see
038Alexander today so >> you look at that because we will need like could maintenance help us with that because I think you know we would need an in and out drive. >> It's always kind >> It was when I was down. Not hectic, but I mean it's essentially how it works now is people just line up half of them line up on the way about half park in the football parking lot and then as the kids come out and it's kind of just free >> all stuff does work out pretty well but I mean like you never some days parents are in the moods and they're you know do your buses drop off out front? >> Yes, they do. Yes. >> Okay. >> But you're having issues with >> it's just a little chaotic in
039the back. It's not probably the biggest issue we get fearful is >> but it's not because of buses. It's just because that's two separate our buses drop up in front come through and go to the cafeteria. So there's no issues with that. >> I think when this was designed as a high school they didn't really anticipate having a big line of cars dropping off in the morning because kids either drove or walked or the mornings not too bad. The evenings is what's I mean because our kids just asleep and walk and it's kind of just a bad combination of cars driving and kids walking >> and you're not sure who's walking who who is oh no she's getting in a car. Okay. It it is it's kind of a little a little crazy and you
040know apart from making that a one-way road which we don't want to do that. Um I think there's some pretty good plans in there. You can look at it and just we'll talk about it. He did say he is going to be placing some school zoning um signage that should already be there as soon as we figure out what we're doing, if we're changing anything. He said the city of Huntington is responsible for that. >> All right. >> Very good. >> Thank I want to my athletic director. I don't know. I can't remember. I do not think I was here, but this is Robbie Rash and he has been a just a huge help and motivator and getting things together and this is what I want to do and sends me a list of these
041amazing things for the gym and you know, I mean, I I have windows in my gym now that you can see out of. They're gorgeous. So, I didn't need anything else. But then he's like, "Well, why don't we get this amazing TV and I'm like, "Okay, let's do it." So, I just wanted you all to introduce. He has a couple of things that he wants to talk. It's baseball season and we need some equipment, don't we? Like, we need to move the goal post. >> Um, we uh there's a couple obviously we know that the sinkhole with a football field and the baseball field. Um it's still prevalent on the baseball field. Uh there needs to be dirt brought in. It's still It was obviously still actively leaking or actively, you know, sinking or um
042water draining through there with with watching out the uh the dirt, but we need some dirt to be brought in and we need um uh we're going to take the gold post out, which normally means a lift. Uh Matt has been a good good with us. He's he's got one on order and it's also going to be used to fix the netting and the back stop on the baseball field. Um there was a cable that was uh that was broken. We do have the stuff to fix it. We just need to get about 25 ft up in the air to do so. Um I know she mentioned stuff about some other uh some other additions. You know, my biggest things and what I've heard, you know, the LSIC meeting at Kellogg here is is all
043about the little things. Um, as an athletic director, I know that, you know, it's all about academics first, but, you know, this plays a huge role in the kids' lives and in progressing as as as human beings. Um, that being said, I want the best for everybody. Um, they've done a great job of taking care of what they have and and and progressing it along the way. We've got a gorgeous gym. Um, our football field and our baseball field is kind of lacking. Um the bleachers on the football field is is um to say it's a hazard is an understatement. Um I've this is my I started as an AD in August and I watched multiple people this fall of those winters. Um the stairs rock back and forth. We had multiple cheerleaders, multiple people
044get stung by bees. Um we had we did everything in power to to create um some sort of of of deterrent for the bees. But it's there's so much trash and so much um stuff that's being born in those bleachers year after year after year. It's just we're past the point of of of fixing them. And I know it's an expense and I know that tearing it down is a big expense, but >> my proposal would be to put them on the other side of the field. Put them on the other side of the field. Um there we would have money to uh to to give a visitor's locker room with our concession stand so they don't have to walk into the school. we could put um the concession stand in the storage unit or
045or have a new concession stand on that side. That doesn't mean that the the stands have to come down immediately, right? So, that kind of solves a problem for both sides. Uh once they do come down, um fencing is another issue. I know that Brian uh submitted a proposal last year for gating and fencing. Um and I think they also submitted a uh some budget money that as well. But once those stands come down, you're able to you're able to bring the fence in about 20 ft. Yeah. So that that's all parking. You know, one of our biggest issues is parking behind the school. So that now creates all parking that you can pull in and park. And if you want to watch a game from your car, you can. I mean, I know we
046want people to come in, but so now instead of looking at the back of stands, you're going to look at our football field, our stands. It's going to be set up a lot high school. >> So it's basically the same as you drive by. Um, you know, I did say the the netting and the sinkhole were the biggest ones. The mowers were on disarray, so we're we're trying to to get as much money as we can to furnish the mowers. Um, you know, we we share this with our youth league. So, our youth league um uses our facilities, uh, which is, you know, we try to do the best for them, but that also means wear and tear on what we have. Um, so we do have three machines right now, all need major repairs.
047Um, so we're trying to decide if it's better to um just combine and sell them and and and get something new or see what what the best is. But right now, we're have to drag the baseball field with a four-wheeler um which is somebody who's from the community um and just looking for for stuff of that. Uh with the gym, our scoreboards going out. Um we are actively and we'll say something about Coach Roden. Um uh him and I together are very aggressive in getting fundraising and stuff like that. We've secured uh money for some new uniforms next year. Uh we're going to replace our scoreboard with a video board. I know everybody's been to Wayne High School. It is the exact video board that Wayne High School has. Um so, you know, we don't
048sit on our hands here. We're very active and making the best for our our students. Um >> and have great plans. They work very well together. >> The um >> I can't wait. The one of the issues with the gym that I will say that that that's almost creates more of a health issue is is the sewer gas within the gym. I don't know if everybody knows every every office in that gym has a bathroom and a shower. Every one of them. Um the the uh and they just need caps, right? And we're we're talking about renovations down the road and and creating some other money, but they just need caps. uh the the the youth league coaches locker office I probably that bathroom probably hasn't been used in years and years and years. Um
049so the traps they get dried out sewer it they just need to go in and be capped. Um you know on top of that we're we're we're trying to do u some more things as girls don't have a locker room that no the girls have never had a locker room in that gym. So, our volleyball team or basketball team, any girl that walks in, they're our cheerleaders. They have to either go in the multi-purpose room or come dressed and it's it's absolutely unacceptable. Um, I saw last year we didn't have to have we didn't have a girls basketball team this year, but they physically had to wait before one had to leave or the other had to go in. So, you couldn't leave your stuff. If you want to leave your stuff in the locker,
050you couldn't do that, right? Um, you know, right now we like to take care of our gym. We just had the floor redone in September, October. Uh, we actually have plans to redo it in June. We're paying for that as well. Um, my son brought gym shoes to wear on our floor so we don't tear it up. Well, we're not allowed to go to our locker, right, to get our gym shoes. So, we want to put lockers downstairs to where our kids can gym shoes. So, you know, upon not wearing your boots on the floor, you know, we got to protect our money when we put in stuff. Uh, baseball field, just a couple more. I'll be quick. But um there was water leaks. So uh you know the refrigerator and concession stand um need
051some more stuff there. Uh they also use the mower and stuff like that. But basically um you know those are the big ones. Those are the big ones. There's the restroom and the the baseball field and football field constantly runs. So you know we have to turn it off. Uh but you know those are things that we're actively looking towards you know towards replacing and and repairing and and we're trying to help y'all out. you know, we don't we're I I I am the last person that's going to depend on the board of education to support vitamin D. I want to be the one that says, "Listen, I want to have all the money up front and I want to come to you all and say, listen, this is what we want to do. If
052you have any suggestions, if you could help us out some, if you would match us with money, that's what I want to do, right? So, you know, I'm I'm here to help. I'm here to make Benson Middle School a better place and get us off that list." >> Very good. >> Thank you so much, Aby. I appreciate it. It's going to be like a brand new school, Mr. Alexander, in just a few years. It's going to be brand new. Thank you all so much for coming. That was our little uh presentation for you tonight. I'm so glad you were able to see the kiddos. That was the big deal. Um tomorrow's social studies fair. U Mrs. Gibbs is an absolute superstar and I have to take a second. She so Project Lead the Way is
053is a huge deal like for us when when we were when she approached me years ago and was like, I really want to get this started. Let's get gosh, let's do it. I think that's great. Um, but she takes it to a different level. You know, it's if you ever want to stop by and watch her teach, it's exactly the kind of teaching that you would hope all of your teachers do, whether it's ELA, math, social studies, it it doesn't matter. Um, it is absolutely top tier and and that's why she gets the results that she does. It's fantastic her working with these kids. We just started participating in the social studies fair last year. Um we have had last year like last year. Um and we next year we're going to own that place.
054Like we are on a mission. These kids love these projects, but they don't just do a project and enter it because they want to be, you know, they want to win. And that comes from her making sure that they have everything that they need and they're prepared. So, bravo. Bravo. Love you. And Will's okay. >> No, Will's fantastic. He He knows that he is a huge help. Huge help to me. He knows that. >> No, thank you all. And um you know, as as I said before, you know, I know the data because we just had the data meeting not too long ago. It's the steam is uh the steam is coming out the uh engine pipe, right? >> Yes. >> Yeah. So things things are really moving moving. It's exciting. >> The six I
055think we're one of two schools that have growth in all six major areas. >> Yeah. >> Number is impressive compared to >> you know. So >> huge difference. Huge difference. Change your mindset. You you can change the outcome, right? I read that something. >> But we appreciate we appreciate your hard work. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you all, >> Christie. As always, appreciate your hard work. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. And Robbie, welcome to the family. >> Right. >> We love it. >> And please make sure you bring something. Perfect. Thank you. We we got to approve a couple purchases and then we'll move forward. >> Going back to our new business consent action items. Number one was consider for the approval of the purchase requisition order quotes in excess of $5,000 one and two. >> Motion by
056Randy. >> Second. >> I had talked to you about that we were putting these out for prices and this is the installation of eight new uh poles down at Tulsa High School. And uh this will be followed by lighting um that will uh that the uh Clay's performance will put up. We purchased the lighting separately. Um and then Clay's Performance will put those up for us and that's included in this price. So the lights price itself is not included but the uh u the um labor for it is included. And then your other uh PO is uh repairing a water line out at Spring Valley's baseball field. We've got a significant leak there in a main line and it is underground and we're just going to run a new line and and shut that line
057down. It's going to be cheaper to do it this way. And uh the uh we took prices on this and uh Clay's had the best price on it as well. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Five to zero. >> And then the only thing Miss Hurley mentioned that the window film, the security window film. So we've secured a grant to put window film in all of the schools. And we have uh we're going through the selection process now. We just met with the company. So, I'm hoping on at Tuesday's regular board meeting to have a recommendation for you so we can move forward with that project. >> Any other reports? >> That's it. >> Motion to motion by a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I carries five to zero.
058It is >> 603. All right. >> Nice. >> Very nice. Very nice. Hi. You sure you don't want to take your hand?