001excited to be here for our April board meeting. It is Thursday, April 17th at 5:30 p.m. and we are gathered in the boardroom on Legacy Campus. And we will begin with roll call starting with Randall. Randall Baggley, board member. Brian Chambers, board member. Todd McKe, superintendent. Roger Pulse for board member. Terry Rhodess, board member. Kathy Christensen, board member. Alan Brunik, board member. Jared Black, business administrator. Thank you all for being here. We have a special treat this evening and uh Ashton Amit is here from Cedar Ridge Elementary to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. So all please rise for Ashton. Okay, ready, begin. I pledge alce 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.
002Please be seated. Thank you so much, Ashton. We appreciate you being here. And Brian Chambers will give us our mission statement. Our mission is to educate students for success in a changing world. Thanks, Brian. Uh, next up on our agenda, we have a recognition section, which is what probably most of you are here for. Uh first up in that recognition section is uh excellence in teaching agriculture award and uh Britney Amit from Mountainside Elementary is the national winner of the excellence in teaching about agriculture award and her award will be presented by principal Cam Amit. [Music] I promise the ammits weren't trying to hog the agenda to start the meeting. Um uh it's my honor to recognize uh Britney Ammit as the national winner for the excellence in teaching about agriculture award. Um, she will
003be recognized on a stage at the national conference in Minnesota in June, which will be exciting, but I wanted to make sure that we get to recognize her as a district as well for all of her efforts. Britney has a passion not just for teaching science, but for creating and developing scientists in her classroom. I believe currently we have a bird feeder with a camera so that the students can watch bird behavior as they're eating. We also are currently growing tomatoes that were started on the International Space Station, uh, which is kind of fun. So, and of course, Britney was the catalyst that made all of that happen. So, she has definitely got her hand um in science, and her kids love it. Uh, Britney is creative, dedicated, and passionate about the work that she
004does as a teacher. Her focus is always on doing what's best for her students and providing them with authentic learning experiences. I can't think of a teacher more deserving of being recognized as the national winner for the excellence in teaching about agriculture award. Congratulations, Britney. [Applause] Congratulations, Britney. That's awesome. Uh, next up we have uh Lindsay Black from Sunrise Elementary who will be awarded the Utah School Board of Education Teacher Science of Reading Award. And this will be presented by Julie Clark from the State Board of Education and Principal Shelley Healey. [Music] Hi, my name is Julie Clark and I am the literacy and early learning coordinator at the Utah State Board of Education. And this is kind of a surprise. I don't think she knew that we were going to do this to her
005tonight. So, um we we have um a a large bill that was passed that focused on the science of reading in the early grade classrooms that was passed in 2022. With that, we have um part of our thing is looking for teachers who are implementing the science of reading in their literacy instruction across the state. And so we have an opportunity for um districts and charters to nominate amazing teachers who are implementing and really putting into practice the things that they have learned about the science of reading to help their students achieve literacy outcomes. And so Lindsay was nominated and part of the nomination it's not something that they're just nominated and we come and give an award for. What we do after they're nominated is we come and we actually watch them teaching in
006their classroom and then we have a rubric that we fill out and if they score 100% on that rubric then they are awarded a science of reading teacher award and so today we are happy because we were able to come and Lindsay was nominated by um the literacy coach of the school and these are some of the things that were said about her. She said, "I had the opportunity to work with Lindsay as a literacy coach and she was while she was taking letters. She quickly took each practice she learned and elevated her current practices and made modifications to improve classroom instruction. She then worked with the district-wide instructional coaches to create videos sharing practices to support early readers. Lindsay is a natural leader and is on the cutting edge of supporting students. Knowing and
007working with her is a pleasure and an honor. there is much hope in education because of Lindsay. So, we want to we will agree with um everything that was said about her and she's an amazing teacher and so we are so excited to be able to award her the science of reading teacher award from the Utah State Board of Education. So, thank you. [Applause] Yes, I believe her principal wants to say some things. Um, so I kept this a secret and um I told her that she had to do a presentation on the science of reading tonight. So she's prepared a paragraph I believe. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. And those people that were here for Hurricane I know there's a lot of
008people. [Applause] We appreciate all of the all of you who came to hear Lindsay's presentation. Way to go. Congratulations, Lindsay. And sneaky sneaky principal Healey. Uh, next up we have our teacher of the year recognitions. Um, from Green Canyon High School, Jessica Mann, who teaches math, will be um awarded by Principal Jim Crosby. Well, it is my pleasure tonight to obviously present Jessica come on as our teacher of the year at Green Canyon High School. And I hope she understands my humor when I give her this. I've been sneaking around asking a few things about her from some of the students, but um I love to brag about Grand Canyon, so this is a chance for me to do it. Um we love our school and I personally love our school and it's been some
009of the best four years of my life. And part of the reason I love it so much is our faculty. Um when I came in four years ago, I was accepted with open arms and they've drugg me into their culture, which is a good thing. And she was a big part of this. And that's one of the things if you go around and you see our faculty, they help each other so much and they love each other and our kids they feel that and it makes our school great. So um some of the things I found out today from not today but just in the last week cuz I started asking was from students like tell me a little bit about Miss Bond that I could describe her and one said she's Sigma. There you
010go. I thought we throw in some of that. I thought that was a perfect one. If any of you don't know what that means, that's high school slang for she's the best. Like she's that's about as high as you can go. Another one told me she is a legit mom at the school and cares about us. And again, that word is not mine. It's the students. It's legit. So, she's legit and sigma. So, that's awesome. Um, some of the faculty members asked a couple of our newer ones today and they said her best qualities is she's always smiling. uh she's always happy and she's always approachable and they appreciate that so much because she's helped all of them. So me personally, I think the best thing I could say about her is if you meet
011her family and you meet her children, uh one of her daughters right now is on our exact council and she's awesome. She's Sigma. Can I say that? Um but if you meet her family and her kids, you can tell she comes they come from a great home and she's raised them right and that's probably the best thing I could say and she gets to do that with all of her students every day. So we love her. [Applause] You want to escape? Thanks. Congratulations, Jessica. Thanks for all you do for our district. Uh, next we have uh Jackie Bangarder who teaches sixth grade at North Park Elementary and her award will be presented by Principal Julie Payne. So I get the honor of recognizing Jackie. Jackie's been at North Park for 16 years. Uh she started
012her career in Boxelder District for one year, teaching second grade. Then she was hired in Cash County School District teaching uh fifth grade at Greenville for three years and now she's been at North Park for 16 years. I've been fortunate to work with her for the last 5 years at North Park and have so enjoyed getting to see the way she holds her students to a high expectation. Her students love her and and she expects great things from them. She has spent 19 years preparing students for middle school. Uh whether they were fifth graders headed off to sixth grade in middle school or sixth graders headed off to seventh grade in middle school and now back. So it's a little bit of a repeat for you. So um I wanted to share some of the
013things her colleagues have said about her. Uh let's see. Uh what truly sets Jackie apart is her deep care for her students as individuals. She takes the time to understand their home lives and worries about those who may be struggling. Her compassion combined with her unwavering commitment to student success makes her an outstanding educator. Jackie is a mentor to others. A great mentor. Adjectives matter. Jackie is a great mentor to other teachers. She truly cares about the people she works with and her students and not only teaches them the content, but also teaches them valuable life lessons so they can be successful in all areas of life. She is friendly and positive and lifts others up. Two more. Uh, one said she holds high expectations for all of her students, both academically and socially, and
014works tirelessly to help them succeed. And another says, "Jackie genuinely tries to help her students succeed in class, but also in life. Jackie is a vital part of North Park. Her experience is so valuable in helping her colleagues. And so, we are so fortunate to have Jackie in our school. Many teachers have benefited from her support and many many students have benefited as well. So I want to recognize Jackie. [Applause] [Music] Thank you, Jackie. We appreciate you and all of your work. Uh, last but not least, we have Avery Hatch, who is a resource teacher at Providence Elementary School, and her award will be presented by Principal Jeff Kek. Uh, it is my pleasure to present Avery tonight. Um she was she came to us four or five three four years ago. I we hired
015her midyear and uh she jumped right in and immediately changed uh the culture in our special ed department. Um has revolutionized uh the way that our special ed department interacts with our regular ed department. So it's um been awesome to have her and like principal pain. Um, I'd like to read some things that some of her colleagues have written about her. Avery dedicates herself to her students. She works hard to make sure that they meet their goals while maintaining positive relationships. She's a fantastic partner in education and is so willing to help everyone in any way she possibly can. She cares deeply about her students and her colleagues. She helps teachers to find solutions that are plausible to implement in their classrooms. And she is always willing to share her wealth of knowledge. Avery often
016deal deals with the most difficult situations in the school and does it with a smile on her face. She is always one to welcome others with a warm smile and kind words. She's always supportive, flexible, thoughtful, and efficient. Avery is an unwavering advocate for her students and colleagues. Her dedication to fostering an inclusive, and supportive environment for all students has made a profound impact on every classroom and school and the school community as a whole. She consistently goes above and beyond and is truly one of Providence's best. Um, I just want to echo that. Uh, she is an amazing amazing educator who puts her whole heart and soul into what she does and uh, she's an even better person. Salted Avery [Applause] Hatch. Thank you, Avery. We appreciate your work as well. And can I
017can we just uh as a board, we want to thank all of you who are in the fan clubs. these five great teachers because we understand that it takes a lot of support from home for these um teachers to be uh so far above others and because usually it takes extra time and we appreciate all of you being here to support them. Thank you so much. Can we have you stand if you are with if you are part of a fan club of one of these teachers? [Applause] And now we are moving on to the next section of our agenda. So if you want to escape, you're welcome to stay for the business portion, but if you want to leave, this is the best opportunity you have. [Music] Yeah. What's that? Kind of breaks your
018heart to see everybody. It's nice to have I think that's the best dress photographer anywhere. That is true. [Laughter] Okay. In this part of our agenda, we will be hearing a school report from Principal Amy Ivy about Cedar Ridge Elementary. Hey. Oh, thank you, Cinda. I'm excited actually to be able to brag about Cedar Ridge Elementary. I um have been there for 8 years now. Love the school, love the community, love my faculty. So, it's fun to be able to come and brag about Cedar Ridge. Cedar Ridge was built in 1986 and it started out as a middle school and it was a 67 center for many years. And in the meantime, the Mandarin Chinese program was developed at North Park Elementary. And in the summer of 2017, Cedar Ridge was converted into an elementary
019school when all of our elementaryaries went to a K6 model. And since then, we have had dual immersion at Cedar Ridge Elementary. Now, um this is my beautiful faculty. This is a little bit of an older picture. We still haven't gotten our picture this year yet. I don't know what's up with that. Um, demographics, we've got 722 students currently. When we opened Cedar Ridge Elementary, we started at 810. So, we kind of have an aging out population. That's what's going on here. And believe it or not, for many years, it's been pretty close to 50/50 for females and males, which is such a strange thing, but it it really truly is. And our minority population is low. We've got 10% other and 90% white and 14% are econ economically and academically disadvantaged. So we've got
020low numbers there. Here's our school data with RISE. Our ELA scores. Our school average is 65% proficient. In mathematics, it's 66% proficient. And in science, 69% proficient. With Aadian reading, students that are at or above benchmark, kindergarten is 85%, first grade 77%, second grade 87, third grade 73%, fourth grade 81%, fifth grade 81%, and sixth grade 82%. A cadence math, this is at or above benchmark, kindergarten, we've got 77% and remember this is midyear, so we don't we haven't done end of year yet. uh first grade 67%, second grade 64% and third grade 63%. So I just noted at the bottom there that what we're doing with our mathematics is we have started to have tier 2 with math aids and we've really built the plane while it's been flying and they're doing a really
021great job. um some of our students. This is crazy, but we've seen almost two years of growth with some of the kids with the interventions that we've done just this year. So, that's been super awesome. And opportunities at Cedar Ridge, there are so many. So, our community each year gets to vote on the school theme. This is our theme this year. Let the adventure begin. We have an annual school musical. And with our musical, it's ran by teachers at our school. And then every parent that has a child in the musical actually participates in some way. So they might be helping build sets, they might be um painting, they might help with costumes, they might make the flyers, but every single parent has a hand in it. And then at the top there, you can
022see that last year I got the opportunity to visit China. That was an opportunity of a lifetime for me to be able to understand um where my teachers come from, their background, and um understand what the culture and schools are like in China. And we do a a whole literacy month in the month of March. And this year we read the wild robot. So part of my trust land budget is we because we're not title one. So, I budget in the every uh family gets a book and that was a fun thing that we did this year and our PTA ties in their activities with with the whole reading month and then we have like a literacy night. Uh we have a Falcon Council service club that meets every other week with our fifth and
023sixth grade kiddos. And then we have lots of schoolwide activities, um, dress up days for day 100 and all the other things. And then we also have our annual Chinese New Year assembly which is a very big deal at Cedar Ridge. Some of the challenges that we face, we are trying to keep our numbers strong in dual language immersion. We prefer to have 28 uh students in that dual language immersion classroom. With co we took kind of a hit with language. And so what we're trying to do to address that issue is we are visiting those kindergarten classrooms. We have our older kids come in and have a big presentation for the kindergarten kids which makes them excited. They go home and talk about it. And then we also invite those parents to come in
024and observe our first grade teacher and ask any questions that they might have um advertising in other schools. And sometimes we make personal calls home to try to keep that traditional side balanced. Our other one is chronic absenteeism. Um we have 13% of the of our students that are chronically absent due to mental health issues or family vacations. And how we're addressing that is with home visits, um, educating parents while the kids are young in kindergarten, creating an engaging environment and support their community or school counseling. And this is our point of pride at Cedar Ridge. Our Mandarin Chinese program is strong and we've come a long way from when we were at North Park before. Our scores are phenomenal. In third grade, they take the apple. So Apple is stands for the assessment of
025performance toward proficiency in languages. And in third grade they do the speaking test which we have 87% of our students that are proficient in speaking in Chinese. Level five language people. This is hard. This is a very hard language. Uh in fourth grade they take three tests. The writing we have 96% of our students proficient. listening 96% proficient, reading 94% proficient. And fifth grade, they go back to just doing speaking, so we're at 98% proficient. And sixth grade, they do the three tests again, writing 98%, listening 87%, and reading 83%. And it's hard to maintain those numbers year after year, as you can imagine. And the teachers are really hard on themselves when they don't. Last year we dipped a little bit. Oh my goodness, we were like 82 or something and I thought the
026teachers were going to lose their minds. It's like, oh, it's really hard to maintain 98%. That's hard. But we are very proud of our Chinese dual immersion program. Any questions? I have one. Yes. Um, do the kids write in the Chinese uh characters? Yes, they do. They write in characters. Yes. Yeah, that's what the writing is. That's what I wondered. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Any other questions? So, the um in your demographic report, you um mentioned that the the numbers of of proficiency numbers that you showed were from midyear. So, we expect 98 to 100% at the end of the year. I wish. No, we hope to at least be at 80%. All right. Yeah, but I Yes, I would love 908%. Well, it seems like the bar is pretty high at Cedar Ridge, so I
027just kind of the expectation we work hard. We have really amazing teachers, so I feel fortunate. Great. Yeah. Anyone else have questions for Principal Ivy? How many dual uh language immersion teachers do you have? So there's there is one for each grade level except for kindergarten. And so you'll have an English traditional teacher and then you'll have the Mandarin side. Yep. Thank you so much for the work you do at Cedar Ridge. It's a good place to be. It is a good place to be. Wonderful. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Amy. Thank you, Amy. Okay. Um, moving on, we have public input and I have some uh information to read about public input for those who are interested in speaking. Um the guidelines for public input that that are that your comments are limited
028to three minutes this evening and personnel comments are prohibited and remember that your comments are recorded as part of the public record of this meeting. So please be respectful. Um first up we have Cinda Allen. And so if you'll come up to the microphone, then Jared will put your uh timer up on the board. Oh my goodness, I'm so nervous. And there's not hardly even anybody here. And you know all of us. I do. Well, most of you anyway. It shouldn't be bad at all, but All right. So, are we good? Ready to go? Ready to go. So, I saw on the agenda that you guys were going to be talking about collective bargaining in your executive board meeting tonight, and I just wanted to put my voice um for the teachers as CA president
029into your minds about collective bargaining. It is very important to us as an association to have our collective bargaining rights. We just had a referendum that we had 30 days as our unions with our other union partners because it took away from police and firemen and those others to gather 141,000 signatures. The group people thought it was impossible 30 days to gather 141,000 signatures. We gathered 320,000 signatures. So, we have a buffer in case people start taking their names off the list or other things. They woke the sleeping giant by talking about changing our collective bargaining. So, please don't change our collective bargaining here in this district. Right now, it's in our board policy that we are the group that you talk to. Let's not put the law into effect before the law is a
030law. Yesterday we had a meeting with the district um uh kind of about the things we usually talk about in our negotiation meetings and our bargaining. Um people came there was a lot of people in that room cuz it was representatives from different schools. Some people in that room were volunttoled to be there. People in the association are volunteers. They're passionate about what we do as educators. Some people that went to that meeting didn't even know why they were there. They're like, "What is this meeting for? What are we doing here?" Association members are passionate. We want to be there. We want to be at the table. I don't think there's any problem in having a other voices in the room when we're talking about maybe steering where we want to go. But I think
031when it comes down to the nittygritty negotiation parts, when we're talking about numbers and what we really want to do, that it needs to be the association. and it needs to stay how it is. Thank you. Thank you, Cinda. Appreciate you being here. Uh, next we have Ron Hill. Good afternoon, everybody. Should I wait for a timer or? No, go ahead. Awesome. Uh, my name is Ron Hill. I am the Cash Education Association representative for Cash High School, but I'm here talking to you today as one of your teachers, not an association representative. Professionals belong to professional organizations that advance the interests of their field. It's the whole reason why we have unions. It's the whole reason why we do the work. Yesterday, I was actually quite honored. Let me back up just a second.
032I love being part of Cash County School District. I absolutely love that once our collective bargaining uh rights were at risk, the first instinct of our district was how do we keep the voices of the teachers at the table? How do we bring more people in? How do we keep the conversation going with the people on the ground? That's awesome. I love it. My concern is I think we've jumped the gun a little bit. Yesterday we had more than 40 individuals in a room discussing numbers, representatives from every single one of our schools. It's too many people. We can't have effective meetings with 40 people around a table, with 40 people at every school around a table when we hear really awesome information about how much our healthcare plan is costing, about what our salaries
033are, and about what we are doing to try to close the pay gap that we have with other schools in our area. Every single one of those representatives is going back to their schools. They are passing around those numbers. Rumors are starting and it is prejuditial to the good order and discipline of our organization. it doesn't work. Please support the professionals in the district. Support our union. Support our collective bargaining. Do everything you can to support our union for as long as it can exist. And if and only if the state legislature or the federal legislature is successful in taking away our collective bargaining rights, that is the time to start in creating our own system within our district. Thank you. Thank you, Ron. appreciate you being here. Uh, next up is Kurt Benjamin. Good
034evening. I am friends. The reason why I know that because we have something really important in common and that is our love of public education and for the people who work and learn there. I think we're all agreed on that. We're on the same page. And I love what uh Mr. Hill just said. I I I want to start with that first impulse, the first instinct was to how do we keep voice in the in the conversation. That's that's admirable. I'm not sure everybody was thinking that way when this legislation was coming down the pike. And even while the legislation was being considered, uh, we had lots of expressions of support and admiration for the work that, uh, CA does. And so, I want to be the first uh, in any room to acknowledge this
035great relationship. Also, just was as a side note here really quick, I had for a moment there um three former presidents of CEA in the room here and or one current and couple of former and one vice president. Um I think Ca does a good job of being a part of the team and extending that into and into into the profession and I also want to acknowledge that I think CA contributes to that great relationship as well. I need to speak for our leaders past and present for that kind of relationship that that uh has has happened and I don't want to talk too much about the loss of collective bargaining but to at least offer a comparative advantage and as sendum noted the preliminary numbers are in 320,000 v um signatures they're not votes
036they're not they're not anything yet not until June 21st then there'll be something. There'll be a number there. But there's a pretty encouraging buffer right now. If the law is on hold right now, and it'd be on hold after uh I hope it's on hold after June 21st, obviously, and that the vote wouldn't be any sooner than this November and probably more like 2026. So collective bargaining is bargaining for the whole. It's uh trying to represent all educators interest as a whole. It puts good intentions into binding agreement. When a group is recognized the way CA has been over the decades, there's mutual investment from dues paying members and employers and it provides accountability keeping feet to fire with mutual care keeping watch. Maybe maybe it'll be better in a post bargaining way to do
037things. I don't know. I'm maybe too old and maybe grounded in this union thing. But I actually hope for a world where we work together and achieve justice, maybe without a lot of apparatus. I'm just saying that bargaining has served us well. Thank you, Kurt. Appreciate you being here. Uh last up, we have Teresa. That chair was going to bug me. I'm also much shorter than Kurt. Hi. Um, I'm Teresa Stanton. Some of you know me, I think. If you don't, hi, I'm Teresa. Um, hello over here, other friends. Hello back here, other friends. Um, we did have a lot of people here a little bit ago and a lot of them are CEA members and you've seen me here multiple times in various red outfits talking about CA things. We've also sat in lots
038of meetings talking about things that affect educators and education and the kids that we care about. Our unity of purpose is providing our students with the best possible chances of being successful in a rapidly changing world. We know that. We know that in Cash County School District, I was part of the referendum efforts and I'm here to tell you that that 320,000 people, it's 320,000 and at least two because I came screaming into the county clerk's office at like 455 with my last signature book with two more signatures in it. I think we have 322 at least thousand reasons to hold up a minute. We've done negotiations. We've done them every year for a long time. We've done them the way we've done them. They're collegiate. They're congenial. Maybe collegiate is not the right word.
039Congenial is the right word. It's late. I'm tired. I don't see any reason to try to rebuild the plane right this moment while we're flying it when no one is pushing us. I like the idea of doing things and innovating. I love some of the changes that we've made in the last few years. I like the direction we're going. You know, I do because I keep telling you every time we have a meeting, I talk to our superintendent. I say, "Hey, I love this." Like, I love that policy review committee. I think it's amazing. I was bummed I missed one of the meetings. But I also know that sometimes you have to go slow to go fast. And I know that like a lot of teachers, I love a good ven diagram. And I like
040that one that says you can have it cheap, you can have it quick, you can have it good. Can't have all three. We don't have a reason to go any faster. I say we do what we've done. We do what works. We don't change it just for the sake of changing it. We negotiate the way we've negotiated as people sitting across a table as friends with a unity of purpose and that's to help the kids in our community. If the law changes, we change with it. We don't consent in advance. This is Cash County School District. We are the top of Utah literally and figuratively for a lot of reasons. And one of those reasons is that we do things the way that we think is best. So, Cash County School Board, my kids are
041in this district. I'm in this district. I've built my career here. And if you ever want to see somebody who's deeply committed to being a voice for teachers, ask Kurt Benjamin how many times I've served. Please consider just continuing. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks, Teresa. We appreciate you being here. I'm happy to be here again. All right. Uh that is all we have uh signed up for public input in our public input section. So we will move on in our agenda to the consent agenda and I will take a motion to amend or approve that agenda. I make the motion to approve the consent agenda items. Second. Thank you. Any other discussion on that agenda? All right, it's been moved and seconded that we approve the consent agenda as printed. We'll vote
042electronically. Voting is closed and the motion to approve the consent agenda passes unanimously. Thank you, Jared. And moving on, we are to our action agenda. We have one item on the action agenda tonight to approve the school land trust plans. Um, so I will take a motion to approve those or deny those. I move that we approve the uh school land trust land plans. Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve the school land trust plans for all the schools in our district. Any discussion to those to that motion? I I just want to add for those who are watching or listening later that we have all taken some of the um trust lands and read them and taken changes to the different schools that needed to be made before this vote tonight. Thank
043you for that explanation, Kathy. Uh any other discussion? All right, we will vote electronically. Voting is closed and the motion to approve the school land trust plans for the upcoming school year passes unanimously. Thank you, Jared. And uh moving on, we will enter the reports agenda section. And uh first up is the monthly financial report by Jared. Thank you. So, um, for the school board members, I've shared, uh, our our typical financial report and and for any who are are listening or visiting, we we share with, uh, school board members, um, as they come out a list of all of the, uh, checks or warrants that are printed by the school district so that those can be reviewed by uh, school board members, as well as our month end uh, financial reconciliations and and reports
044that go along with that. Just a couple of things uh that I thought would be of interest for the school board. We we did uh yesterday have a a bid opening for our elementary school uh in Hyde Park and final numbers are still being compiled. So I I don't want to share anything uh official or in terms of an exact number yet, but the numbers do look favorable. We we were concerned with u the the tariff environment and and and such uh of that having an effect on our bid, but it looks like the bids are still coming in uh within the budget that we had allocated for that project. So, we're we're happy about that. And as we get final bids, those will be shared with the board and and we'll bring that to
045you for an official approval. Um I there are no updates on any of the state audits that we're participating in. So we just continue to to uh submit information as as it's requested. But but nothing has changed on the status of any of those audits. And uh we we have in the last month uh been receiving from uh USB our budget numbers for the upcoming year after the legislative session finishes. Uh they work furiously to to take all the bills and adjust formulas and and translate that into uh budget numbers for school districts. So we've been getting those uh primarily in the last couple of weeks. And so we're starting that process of of putting together the budget and how it looks and and and kind of moving forward in that process. And I think
046in our next meeting on May 1st, we'll we'll dedicate a good amount of time to reviewing that information because we'll have it more more solidified at that point. So that's what I wanted to share unless there are any questions. Any questions for Jared? All right. Thank you, Jared. Uh, any board member reports? Did you want us to report on the NSBA or uh the National School Board? Yes. Anyone who would like to report on their NSBA experience, that would be great. Well, I thought it was great. It's fun to go to those. Um, one of the cool things about going to these is just meeting other people from other states. There was a guy by the name of Ron Pearson from Nebraska. He'd been a He's a retired math teacher. Um, he was schoolboard president
047uh for district with third actually he was over 13 districts, 86,000 students, 5,400 staff, teachers and staff. And it felt like about two miles walking from our hotel to the conference center. So I had a long time to visit with him and just appreciated his wisdom. 40 years as a school board member, a lot of stuff that he has experienced and um I loved his focus on technology and AI. I felt like you know he he coming from a rural area like Cash County uh that was something that was super um important to him. And then I would probably say one of my favorite uh sessions was uh Ravi Huth Singh the general session on Saturday. Loved his presentation. Uh talked a lot about um being able to pivot in in education and and um
048there's just a number of things he shared. He talked a lot about uh AI and technology as well. the future of education, thinking critically, seeking diverse u interactions, um challenging assumptions. He talked about the workforce, how it's pivoting, and uh 40% of today's jobs will be replaced by AI and robotics in a few years. 65% of today's students will have jobs that don't yet exist. Education must empower students today to pivot tomorrow. um talked about schools. They must not try to to be everything to everyone but it must have something for everyone. Um future requires the ability to pivot again as I mentioned that inspire curiosity. Encourage students to keep going until they fail. Provoke critical thinking. Emphasize experiential learning. Foster communication. Create opportunities to interact with diverse people. Debate sensitive issues. And then he
049shared uh the future teacher is the facilitator of experiences. So there's just so much in his presentation I really valued. So I appreciate the opportunity. I had to go to that. Thank you. Anyone else? I actually left my notes home. Okay. So I'll do it next time. You can share it next time. Um, one of the breakout sessions that I went to was uh, board governance and it was presented by the Sun Prairie School District um, from uh, the Midwest. And um, one of the things that I thought about in there was our board handbook and how it hadn't been updated for a while. So, um, I sket when we got back, I scheduled a meeting with Kathy and Brian for us to go through the board handbook page by page and make some updates
050because we haven't done that in about 10 years. And, uh, we'll present that to the full board, our recommendations um, in May, just so you know. And then um I I too loved the um the keynote speaker Robbie who's thing and um Brian you took my favorite quote of his unfortunately. So um I could but I can say it again right? Yes. Okay. Schools cannot have everything for everyone but it must have something for everyone. And but I also loved his quote about handwriting. Handwriting is the best thing to do to slow down enough to actually think about what you're writing. And I thought that was really great. I thought maybe we should require every senior to write a business plan for their future in order to graduate. Yeah. And uh so those were a
051couple of my takeaways from uh being at that conference. And thank you uh everyone who made the effort to be there and thank you for those of you who did not because I know the things you were doing were just as important and we appreciate you all. Uh moving I went to one breakout session that was called school safety and um some interesting things that were discussed there. Lean closer to your microphone. some interesting things that were discussed there was one of the things that number one school safety was a need to have behavioral risk assessments and I don't know Todd do we do that that was the number one thing that really stood out as he made this presentation and then and part of it was protecting schools from predators and and he said
052make sure in your schools that you have no rides home teachers not giving students ride home. Any faculty not giving rides home. No gifts. A no gift policy. No one time with students uh and and school people. No texting, email, social media, third partyly, third party only, and no uninterrupted uninterrupted time. And that will help with the with the predators attacking our schools. So, I just thought those were some good good ideas and good things and and uh just wanted to bring that up. So, it was good. Thank you, Ellen. We're glad that you got to go with us and it was fun to have Merryill in too. Um, anyone else? All right, superintendent. Thank you. Uh, first and foremost, I want to thank the board uh for the time we were able to spend
053in at the National School Boards Association conference. I really enjoyed the time with you and I too came away with um a lot to think about. I was in that session on on school governance and there's some things I've been thinking about as well and love to engage with the full board in our study session on some of those ideas. Um a couple of items I I do want to share with the with the board. The legislative session has ended as everyone is aware. Um there may be more of a smile and a spring in some of our steps now that the session is over. Um I have since that time uh participated in our superintendent meetings and we we have the bill summary book and we are diligently going through that as an administrative
054staff um looking for updates and changes to policy and we'll be bringing those to the board. Um I've shared the book with you. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to any of us. Um, we want to be as helpful as we can as we're trying to unpack uh the new legislation. You mentioned, you may have heard tonight about the policy review committee. I appreciate Teresa's participation in that group. That's a new uh process that we've implemented. And to date, I believe, correct my numbers, it's either nine or 12 policies I believe we've we've reviewed to date. Um it is a committee that is made up of individuals from across the district representing nearly every um work group in our district and they are looking at our policies, our existing policies and
055providing feedback and it's been a really healthy and great conversation to have so many people getting their their hands into policy. Maybe it's my own wonkiness that makes me excited about that. Um but that's an issue I'm working on personally. Um, also I want to report on the facilities advisory committee. It met uh last night. It was its third meeting I believe. Uh, we are just now really getting into the data looking at current enrollments uh what our past trends have been and then also unpacking the projections from the demographer. We anticipate um hopefully working with that group, having them give us feedback, provide us some guidelines in terms of what the community would hope to see in boundary, any boundary change. We hope to have um some type of a draft for elementary and
056secondary uh before we get into the summer months. um once we do, we want to make sure that the community has an opportunity to weigh in and give us additional information so that we're not um blind to some needs or concerns in the community. So, we anticipate putting it out in a in survey fashion over the summer at some point uh for the community to weigh in and then as we go into the fall uh that we'll have public hearings, a couple of public hearings for again people to come in, review whatever recommendations the committee comes up with and again give us feedback. All that to say is we we want to be able to bring to the full board um recommendations from that committee by the end of the calendar year. so that you
057can consider them, consider the input from the community and finalize those boundaries going into 2026. So that's what you can anticipate is it in terms of a timeline. Todd, on that note, I thought you and Gary did a great job yesterday. Do you feel like considering the comprehensive list of things we need to cover that the pace of play is where you thought we would be or we we've tried to buffer some of that? You know, I I I referenced months, not not in general and not specific months because we're there there there may be some things that we're going to have to spend a little bit more time Mhm. with um you know, one of the big questions that we had to to overcome last night was um frankly the secondary boundaries. Is this
058something we absolutely have to deal with or not? um if it's something that we don't have to deal with, it makes our job just a little bit easier as we're just going to focus in on elementary. Um but as we looked at the data and the projections from the demographer, you know, the committee wants more information, wants to look at this more uh closely going forward and that that's going to take us a little bit more time. So I think it's more important that we're thoughtful and deliberate and that we come up with the best recommendation as opposed to rushing through. Sure. And I know that there I have heard from a couple of parents that they're more anxious about a timeline. They want to know and you know I I think they should be
059more concerned that we'd get it right. That's what I think too. I think we make sure we get it right. So yeah, we're we've built that into our our schedule. That's why um for your note I'm saying the end of the calendar year before you see something really firm. Okay. Thank you. Uh last I you know I want to speak directly to our CEA partners. Yeah. I want you to know that um you are seen, heard, and valued. From day one in the district, we've talked about everyone, and I mean everyone, being seen, heard, and valued. We're in this kind of this unique situation that we're forced into. Um, I hope that the communication up to this time up to this point has has really tried to express how much we do value you and
060we want to continue to do that. Um, you know, my ask is that we just continue the dialogue and continue to reach out to each other through this tricky moment in time. Um, and you know, there's a lot of still uncertainty with this. In the end, what I want to assure you is that you're going to be valued and we're going to do everything we can to support teachers because we know that teachers are who are making the difference in classrooms each and every day, right? And again, I I need to come back to our our guiding principle on this is everyone is seen, heard, and valued. And so that that could that recognize is going to be a little bit tricky for us going forward. But I I just want you to hear from
061me publicly how much we do value the work that you do. So thank you. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Uh next we have an executive session scheduled to move into. So we will take a vote to enter into close session and we'll move into the small room to the side of the boardroom. Um we'll uh so I'll take a motion to enter into close session. I move that we move into executive session. I second it. It's been moved and seconded we enter into close session. Anyone have discussion on that? All right. Uh please vote uh electronically. Voting is closed and the motion to enter into an executive session passes unanimously. Thank you. We'll move into the room adjacent to the boardroom for this one.