001Let's call tonight's meeting to order. Please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Mr. Stoddard, may you please take the role. >> Angelina Barnes >> Here >> John >> here. >> We >> here I believe. >> Thank you. >> Uh do we have a motion to adopt the agenda? move to support any discussion. All those in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. We have an agenda. We will start on that agenda with a presentation by the Dwit High School peer assistance leadership and service. We are joined tonight by Christy Thailen and Joey Taylor. Thank you both for being here. >>
002We have two students with us. This is Sydney Fergus. This is part of the PAL group. Um Mrs. Taylor and I have the assistant leaders services when I was at the middle school. We did it for 17 years and the high school had it probably about five or six years ago. Um and when CO happened and we had some turnover within our counseling department, we it kind of fell apart. So, we saw a real need um especially as new students were coming to the building. The high school's pretty big building and somebody's coming from a smaller school, it's hard to find your way around, especially if it's the middle of the year. Um and so we saw that there was definitely a need for that and that was of goals, but we'll kind of talk
003about some of the other goals that PAL has over the next we're going to try to make happen over the next couple years. Um, so our students actually selected their own pals. Um, we had a survey to go out to all of our 9th through 12th graders at the time, eighth graders, and so they were selected by their peers, which is amazing. Um, as somebody that they could trust and go to and different leaders. So, Mrs. Kaylor and I have selected selected from that group four from each grade. So, we have nth, 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. Um, with the mission statement of PAL peer assistant leaders leadership and service is committed to providing students with trained peer helpers who promote a positive supportive and productive school experience for students throughout the district. Um we
004have just a bunch of different goals like Mrs. said one of the big things we had um 32 new students into the high school this year um which is quite a bit and moving into the high school um it's tough it's tough and so one of the things we did is we got a grant and we every new student got somewhat of a DIT gear so they could feel part of Dit and then um we went on to sponsor a new student lunchon that Ian will talk about. And when we have new students, one of the things they do is we had two new students last week and we if they're a junior, we put a junior pal with them. So that junior pal responsibility is to walk them to each of their classes and
005then eat lunch with them and so they have somebody to be with throughout that entire week so they're not by themselves. So that's one of the things that we do. Um, one of the things we noticed is the high school is just big enough that kids sometimes don't even realize a new student is there. they might just think that it's someone that they've never met before. Um, and I actually had that happen in my seminar class. I had a new student and one of my seminar students on like the fifth week said to me, she knew this year and I was like, "Wow, we're five weeks." I thought kids knew because they were in the same grade level, but it's just, you know, we're just big enough that kids don't always catch when it's a
006new student in their class. Um, we are starting to incorporate peer mediation and problem solving, which um, Sydney will talk about. Our kids actually got trained on this through the came to our high school and did a training with all of our pals. Um we did a thing on unity day which is national anti-bullying um prevention. We're going to have random acts of kindness um week that we're going to sponsor through February. Um and pretty much we're trying to reduce the bullying over time with some peer leaders um help new students and see fit that um Matt and Mar can also use us in the high school as well. So the first thing that we did is um once we selected all of our um our pals, we took them to an orientation at Eat
007Resa. They do a really nice job of student le programming at um trainings of all kinds. Everything is covered by a grant right down to our bus. Um the cost for the bus was covered by a grant. Um the students all went they went through several different activities. We were there with other schools. So they were kind of pushed outside of their comfort zone sitting at tables with kids that they didn't know. um and doing activities where they got up in front. We were really proud of our students. A lot of them got up in front of um their peers and from other districts and they volunteered to do like role plays and different things. So, we were excited to see our kids kind of take that um you know the opportunity to extend their
008their abilities I guess. And um mostly I think it was just a really good chance for them to see the focus of and start to like learn about how to um improve their school. It's just matter of like helping us to be more inclusive, more um welcoming and more um just aware of what the needs might be for students. Is there anything that stood out to you from that training activity you did? >> I thought just meeting all the new people and getting more comfortable kind of out of your comfort zone. >> So Cindy is going to talk about the peer mediation training that just happened last week that we had two trained um individuals the came to our high school and trained our students at >> Yeah. Um it was really fun and we
009learned um ways that we can help students resolve conflicts by themselves and help them make their own solutions and this can be really helpful with avoiding more like violent and helping them create more peaceful and more peaceful solutions. And um we've used this before called restorative justice circles. Um more so that kids and instead of adults are coming up with the solutions, the kids are coming up with their own solutions. And it's they don't give advice, but they help to navigate maybe a tough situation. It could be between an adult and a student or a student and a student. There is an adult in there with them as well. Um, but it just helps them be leaders and help their peers figure out some situations that maybe could be avoided next time. And we realize
010that sometimes students have insights that we don't have because a lot of the conflicts that our administrators actually things that happen on social media and um internet type interactions and that's sometimes I mean I'm trying to keep up but I mean I have a Snapchat and I was like can someone else Snapchat me or that is Snap but can someone else snap me so I know what it looks like when it come because I I don't even know how to use it right and so they're using it in ways that I don't even I mean there's like fake accounts and there's spam accounts and all this stuff and so sometimes when we're trying to get to the bottom of an issue we can't even get there because we know the language and so we thought
011like having students involved in some of those problem solving meetings might be really helpful. >> Yes. So we also had a student new student lunch where just all the pals that can make it and all the new students that can make it and we all kind of just sat at tables introduced ourselves and it was a good way to help the new students feel more included and feel more welcome. This was also sponsor sponsored through ENISD. They paid for all of our pizza and everything. And um our first lunch we were packed with over like 30 kids um foreign exchange students, new students. It was a chance for them to ask questions too. Maybe they don't feel comfortable asking like in a whole group setting. Um and it went better than I think we could
012have imagined both for our you know pals. They could see in somebody else's shoes um and for our new students as well. And if you have any suggestions or things that you might see deemed fit as a parent or board that you think pals could help with, we are open to um any suggestions that you would need peer leaders to help with. >> Well, Christy and Julio, I want to thank you both for your leadership in this and then I want to thank our students. I mean, just a wonderful opportunity for you to develop those leadership skills, but more importantly, be able to pass on that positiveness, your positivity Being with your heart is an important thing. So I app [applause] >> All right, we will move on to public communication for items found on
013the agenda. close this point of public communication. We will um we have a written student report tonight unfortunately because Cameron is feeling a little ill. So that is the yellow paper in front of you. Please feel free to read that when you get a chance. We will move on to our consent agenda with a recommendation by Superintendent Kevin that the board of education approve adopt accept following items for immediate implementation and appropriate action as presented. The approval of minutes for the regular meeting from October 13, 2025. Close session from October 132. Curriculum and improvement committee from October 1325. Policy committee from October 13, 2025. The treasures report bills for payment for the month of October 2025. The treasurer reviewed and confirmed the checks a debits and the purchase card for the month of October. Item
014for annual approval, summer tax resolution and professional hires of Calvin Hong, director of athletics and Smith, transportation supervisor. Do we have a motion? >> Move to support any discussion on any of these here tonight. Calvin, welcome. Glad to have you here. So, uh, thank you and congratulations. Looking forward to working with you. Appreciate it. Look forward to upholding the standards and Any further discussion on the consent agenda? All those in favor, please say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Move on to action items now. First is district copy machines lease renewal as recommendation by superintendent governor. The board of education authorizes the administration to renew the contract with Reicho for 60 months at a monthly base cost of $3,744.9 plus per image cost. Do we have a motion? [clears throat] Any discussion? All those in
015favor, please say I. Any oppos? Motion carries. Next, we move on to bond for DIT high school renovations phase two. Recommendation by superintendent Kevin Ro. award the 2021 building and site capital project to Clark construction for guaranteed maximum pricing for bid package number 16 amendment Q for D high school phase 2 renovations in the amount of 7,884,677 as presented real point and Clark construction have provided recommendation letters for board any discussion you Good. Okay. All those in favor, please say I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Move on to Bon Shady Road Elementary Projectors. The recommendation by Superintendent Kevin Rob the board approve the purchase of 30 Epson bright light 775 laser projectors in the amount of $59,677.20 as presented. Quotation from CI Computer Products is provided for motion. move in support. Any discussion? >> All
016those in favor, please say I. >> I. Any oppos? Motion carries. >> The only addition is weed for that project to wait until the construction was done. >> Excellent. Okay, that those are our action items. We will now move on to public communication for items not found on the agenda. to the superintendent. All right. Well, thank you. Tomorrow we will honor our veterans um at our 19th annual Veterans Day ceremony. I want to recognize Stephanie Perez and Cody Hispa and Jack Williams for the tremendous amount of work that they put into planning this. I also want to personally thank all of those who have served our country for their dedication, their sacrifice and service. Your commitment ensures our freedoms and we're deeply grateful for your courage and your contributions. Also this morning I attended the
017Japanese exchange um breakfast program breakfast program. Uh we had six students come over from Koka city. Uh we have 10 that are going to go into Japan later this year. Um just a wonderful opportunity. We have community leaders there. Um it's just a wonderful opportunity those students and they'll be here for the next seven or eight days enjoying the United States. So that's all I have. >> You know I don't remember it's coming soon. I in the year, but I don't remember exact questions for Kevin. >> We will move on to board member comments and announcements. >> I will just say I I attended the MASB annual conference up in Trevor City. Great opportunity. I kind of had low expectations to be honest with you, but they did a great job, great keynote speaker. Uh,
018a lot of sessions on AI. So, our policy committee, I'm sure we'll be tackling that as we evolve. But, uh, great opportunity to go if you have the opportunity. I will um I attended a webinar this weekend on the 31A funds and discussion on that but it was very I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So move. >> Okay. All those in favor please say I. I. >> We are. Thank you.