001e e e like it itate this morning yes [Music] they I just noticed that you said you're not late 602 Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all yes Andre yes Brooks re Thurman yes Ser yes I apologize I can't make out your last name Whitmer Whitmer so we are parents of kiddos of both Hing and Avon um I came with my kiddos in an untraditional way they are kiddos in care they've only ever been to Havington aam School District um they came with a lot of trauma my kids did and I guess the first thing that I want to address is how exactly are bully situations dealt with because it seems like the more people
002in our district that I talk to there's a lot of this going on to the point that one little boy is pulling his pants down to prove that a boy and not a girl we've had kids pulled behind bushes and beat up we've had um we've had profanities written on Valentine cards referring to students as gay I also have a gay daughter this frustrates me because I don't foresee anything wrong with being gay um I also my second grader I received a phone call because a classmate of his was very upset because other children in his class were trying to get him to say [ __ ] and black monkey I also have a biracial son this is not okay what exactly happens when these things are happening I had to have DCFS the DCFS educational liaison
003worker and their lawyer involved at one point I had my 8-year-old son come to me one night almost in tears because at one point him and his friend were told it was their day to die again we are 8 years old I should not as a parent of any type whether it be a biological parent an adoptive parent a foster parent or a step parent I should not ever have to worry about putting my child on a District bus to send them to school to worry about getting a phone call saying oh by the way your kid's being bullied or I'm not saying my kid is perfect because a couple of people in this classroom can attest to my child not being perfect I'm not saying that he is but what I am saying is
004when you start racist Slanders to somebody who has a black child not okay it infuriates me as a person it pisses me off as an adult and a parent it's not what do we do what do we do to make this better when my kids coming to me crying my third grader comes to me crying Mom I don't want Ben to go to school at heading why not he's two she said mom because do you know what happens at Hing there are black kids there people are making fun of them at school and nobody's doing anything about it I don't want him to go to school and have people make fun of him because of the color of his skin now I can't speak for any of you because I'm not going to lie I
005wouldn't know you if you walked up to me on the street with the exception of you because you're on our fire department but beyond that I wouldn't have a clue I don't know if you have a black child I don't know if you have black grandchildren I don't know but when I as an adult at 48 years old have to Google the term black monkey because I don't know what it means there are issues in the school that's not okay it's not okay for my children's uh G their lawyer through DCFS court system to say to me you need to file a police report and hold somebody accountable for this this again we're 8 years old this is not okay why is this happening what are we doing to prevent this to make these kids
006feel sife what do we do we actually don't you talk but we don't actually so who makes that decision you can talk give me a call we me talk I mean I even like I tried emailing superintendent I'm still waiting from the first of the year I don't have any I don't have an email from you here okay well it was the first of the year give me a call call my second we'll get together okay now as far I know there's something on theing I know there was something else if we're not like I get and I'm not asking and I I've spoke to the girls in the office and such and I'm not asking for specifics as to what happens to the kids who are saying this somebody needs to be held accountable
007if it's not going to be the kids it needs to be these parents because the last thing that I want somebody to think is that as a parent again of a biracial child with special needs the last thing I want anybody to think is that word is used around my house because with that word I would have lost my teeth that was unacceptable I don't want to have to worry about my children that's all I'm saying and it's not just me it is a number of children that go to the school I somehow just got nominated to be the big mouth um there's like there's about nine or 10 different families that are are considering homeschooling because of the situations it's we got to do something to make it better for these things absolutely where
008do I go the street right across the street call the district office okay thanks yeah she's got that talk with if I'm not there talk with Lisa the time that's convenient with you I'll be glad to sit down okay thank you you're welcome and I know there's something else that iot you can bring it up when we meet okay okay I'll take not for next time thanks for being here but uh the solar project I spoke before pass it on um when you guys get your next update plans preview I've already seen them still trying toam they still have sence a road the road be right behind the new play taking out basketball so just go through it the new one today today we just talked to him yesterday of the of this ioke on
009this there's eight different paral numbers to the school down there sure um boundary the zigzag go bad part of the solar part of it is not so I'm not going to sign a building permit for it it's not our boundaries this count might have a stronger restriction we so the whole thing will through C us just we miss something I just wanted that out there for everybody we're I know we're working with him yeah a nice guy just you know thanks for bringing that up so the new addition down there if this does go through does whatever what exactly is going to be in this new I've heard just going to be offices maybe a principal Tech Lab you know our new superintendent office you got something in the mail today on right here but
010I still can't read it the problem okay it's right okay so you have it um what will be in the new edition will be a media center which is going to be similar to this room it will have the secure entrance like the high school has and likeing has as you know when you come into Avon you come right into the school so it'll have a secure entrance it will have the counselor's office the nurse's office the principal and theine um and we're to update the music in the rooms and I know I know it doesn't sound like adding the space to have offices is necessary however my office and the me's office and the library take up three classrooms that we need the space with the addition of coming down to us so I
011guess my way of thoughts were if we're building this why are we still going to be paying around on a other building for Board office you know we folks down there come over here whatever I mean makes sense yeah I just want someity you know I've seen st stop over too and you're welcome to come through and we can I can go the best I was just curious seen us onl got I read okay very good thank you hello everyone uh for those of you that don't know me I'm Cory pitz I'm a first year high school history teacher at the high school obviously uh and I'm here to present about a program I'm doing with the Smithsonian with a group of 16 students just to share kind of about those experiences and what that
012actually looks like so my story actually starts a few years ago I was an undergraduate and I was doing some research about uh College attendance patterns of R high school students and I got to share my research at the national Forum to advance R education held that year in Chattanooga Tennessee which is where I met a gentleman named Andy mink who's the director of Ral initiatives for the entire Smithsonian Museum institution um Andy and I kept in touch he reach out to me about this opportunity called this uh smithonian democracy and dialogue virtual Exchange program in which teachers are paired up across the country with different Educators and groups of students to facilitate a exchange uh between their two communities so I just have some quick notes here that I want to run through and
013I'm happy to take any questions that you all have um so the program centralizes around a central theme which is how has your community played a central role in the 250 years of the American experiment as you probably know 2026 will Mark the 250th year of the signing of of Independence and over that time every Community has played a unique and individual role in the shaping of our United States and the central theme is democracy in dialogue democracy as we all very well know is rare and it is fragile and so celebrating that very special institution I think is very important and I'm sure we can all agree so it this program has 40 different Educators each educator has a group of at least 15 students which means there's 600 students at least involved in
014the program and with the central theme how's your community playing a role in the 250 years of the American experiment you have 600 students 40 teachers well that's at least 640 different answers to that question so every teacher is paired up with another teacher our partner here at Abington is Hillary Sinker who is a teacher over at montros Junior Senior High School which is in montros Pennsylvania which is exactly 900 miles I looked it up this morning it's exactly 900 miles um there school is about 700 stud very rural but very different in its rurality which I think is very interesting and their mascot is the meteors which I think is kind of fun that we're the tornadoes and they're the meteors there's a fun irony there um so I also want to highlight the
01516 students who are participating in the program those students are Elizabeth Ben Joselyn pamp Elias Carion Mackenzie Chase Lily cops Carly demy Max Smith Serenity G jie Gonzalez G Kendrick Haywood Colin Jennings Jaden King Zan patch Marissa pman and Lily Robinson these students are contributing time outside their regularly scheduled classes in order to participate in this program there is some writing and activities involved so if you see those students if you're familiar with them please uh recognize their effort and job what they're doing with this program uh I purposely Tred to get students involved in the program from diversity of backgrounds genders and also classes you can see there's freshman through represent in cohort um so what's actually required of the students is eight sessions total throughout the exchange four synchronous or live sessions with
016the other cohort in Pennsylvania and for asynchronous like activities or other sessions that uh the other teacher and I will be facilitating individually uh our first uh secret session happened last week on Monday before then students were asked to prepare a community map that they designed themselves include important information on it that's critical to themselves and their identity so I had a lot of students include things like well their home but also their churches the homes of their loved ones their grandparents and other family members significant others their jobs even the football field and the track field for many of our students um coming up now students are going to be tasked with coming up with this idea of what is a frontier and that takes me to what the central idea of our project
017actually is the title of our project is going to be portrait of Frontier as we all know both illino and Pennsylvania we at one point this Frontier of the United States both shaped by it but also shaped it itself a major focus is defining what a frontier is but we want to keep it very loose for the students because we want them to answer an essential question which is what is the next Frontier for our nation our community and also ourselves wanting students to look at individual development and identity for themselves to also chart their next PATH and connecting it with their specific community and history of it so you're probably wondering what the actual wrap up project is in the end students are going to be creating a 4 to five minute video in
018which they kind of summarize everything that they've learned so it's a summit of project in which they'll be creating this video that entails all the things that they've learned through this project and creating some sort of comprehensive output that will be permanently stored in the Smithsonian archives for it forever um questions field trip so I have been trying to get a field trip plan to the it's forly the James Stockdale Museum I believe they changed the name recently in gilburg uh as you all know James Stockdale graduate of AD high school and shortly a member of my moer M of college um I think that would be a really intering experience for the students I think James sill and also dun who's another Medal of Honor recipient froming get the recognition for the history that
019they deserve so I think that would be a very enriching experience for the students so in the works TVD so we be able to view these videos in the end yeah yeah absolutely public domain so yes yeah um whether the students want you to see them I don't have any but I want you to see them so absolutely of extra credit from you uh they get to put the they work with the Smithsonian on the resume that was a big selling point that I had to convince a lot of them to do it the Smithsonian name comes with a lot of you know opening of doors and so um you know also just a job well done maybe a on the back and a high five um should be extra cred but part of their
020research of farm of V terms of the and that happen yeah stud so that's not going to be specific part of it or component of it but for the final project at least the scope of it will be left very undefined on purpose for the students so if a student would like to pursue kind of that field I think that would be extremely interesting and something that I think would be very would resonate with a lot of them being from this ralun um but no not specifically I think that would be a wonderful one stud drop a history nugget from AV so the Malone are moving the train depot from the F grounds back up to the highway as permission to go through school property line but wheny Roosevelt was R for president stopped at
021Avon at the train dep and gave spee Avon [Laughter] [Music] AG Andre brick rck Thurman Jens [Music] Brook yes yes and since our last board meeting we have wrapped up our winter Sport Seasons um there's a lot to report so the girls basketball team won the sectional Championship but fell to ponica during the super sectional Championship our boys basketball team made it to the regional Camp Championship F Princeville both teams had amazing Seasons um and we are very proud of the hard work they put in to take us that far pretty amazing the both teams made it really farless year our spring Sports Seasons have started so basketball or sorry baseball softball track and trap shooting are going strong are getting ready to go if you stop by and see an event um we spent
022three days here with us at the end of February um we spent the time working on standardization of lesson plan development and extending our lessons through depth of knowledge Jess and I attended the wi career fair on Friday SE 28th we were able to make a t of contacts um we've already had some interviews from those contacts pretty awesome because we've gone to that fair and had five people I came home the stack like I bet we had 40 like it was amazing most of them Elementary but still that's still there's people going back into teaching and that's um also really exciting for me was that I had a lot of band inquire people come up now I don't need a band inquire teacher because I hired two from from wiu but they came up
023because they knew Natalie and Hannah and had Natalie Hannah talk so much about how great we are which I think is amazing so spreading the word at Wu about how awesome bu work is uh our athletes of the week for the past month there's only two and that's because we had a short month because we met late last month so Kennedy Quinn for basketball and T for for basketball Jacob Paul um was named the first team outex St the second team in record DS honorable mention for um the 2425 LTC allc Conference basketball teams Kennedy Quinn was named to the first team and Haley ring to the third team for the 2425 Illinois basketball coaches All State teams we had 10 boys and nine girls um basketball girls and boys named to the LTC academic
024PA Conference Team pretty exciting that they're maintaining their High academic standards while getting their all on the court was pretty awwesome to them uh I just want to give a shout out to thank the booster club for their support um to our student sections they were literally bribing our students to cheer which is fantastic they also paid every high school student paid for every high school student to get in to the super sectional for free to celebrate our girls and if you saw the pictures we took up the entire section it was amazing so I appreciate their support um in doing that our February teacher of the month for um the foundation was Eric brette and our March was Meg Houston congratulations of them the spring musical is this weekend they our students will be
025performing the and I say this one every time plam County Spelling what you Putman because we have those we have those kids and I'm like I remind myself it's put not notman show times are Friday and Saturday at 7 and Sunday at 2 um this is my super exciting note of the entire week we were notified last week that we had 40 students who apply to GBC for next year 40 um 29 have already been accepted into programs at GBC 11 are on the weit list and that's actually wrong 10 are on the weight list one got in yesterday um Adam CI the principal of GC has assured us that he believes the weight list to kids will make it in by Fall um Adam also stated that the program had over 900 applicants for
026their various programs this year and 40 of those were our kids that's super exciting how many do they take how many not 900 300 no he didn't give me an exact number um of how many they take they keep expanding their programs more and more um but the fact that we had 40 kids and almost all of them are going to get into programs is super exciting we also had cross Amber come and do the Acer testing for the Dual credit program and we had 21 kids take the the test to do dual credit next year does not necessarily me they're going to do the full program but at least they're going to take some of the classes I would assume if they abouted to take the test and they they scored higher than I
027think just looking at the scores higher than I've seen for most kids that take so we doing some great things with our current classes moving forward I'm pretty excited about all that we provide transportation to the GC absolutely we do the the early morning there's a there's a class that starts at 7:30 I'm not I want to say it's a help out class um and maybe a fire science class or something they have to drive themselves they they know that when they sign up for it so but we take everybody else and we bring everybody else back I did let him them drive until this year when we had some issues with safe driving habits and I said nobody get to drive anymore unless you're nearly classes so yes take that's right yep any other
028questions all right character accounts again the month is all about citizenship and how to be good citizens in our school community and in our um our homes that we live in to see theapy and they were featured yeah America's Got tal thank you so much and um the kids I don't know if they appreciated it so much but the adults that were like oh my a was amazing so I did ask fth graders like did you guys like it oh he did okay well no when I asked it they're like weird okay he lik it so thank you for sponsoring the I appreciate that um we are preparing for the I we have fifth grade science in two weeks on the 25th 26th and 27th Ela and math are in April our enrollment two from
029last month um students of the month for February were kindergarten Delila Davis first grade em Crawford second grade boier third grade Joe fourth grade Alex f grade casle and skills so we like to Cate those Kos Miss is the public schools Foundation teacher of the month for March she was really excited to to receive $100 for a classroom first teacher so she was very appreciative of that our top attendance goes to Christy Thompson's class with 98.2% for top attendance our half day that we just completed um the third fourth gr teams created math common common assessments and a writing prompt for each quarter for the 2526 school year um continued their letters training grade five visited the Avon campus completed training there our nons uh reported to here to surve right now um we're at
03086% students have Tak the survey we only need 50% so we've met that threshold teachers we're at 63% again we need 50% we that threshold um for parents we're just shy so if parents and your kids that go here make sure you take it at 19% 20% R so make sure you take and then our upcoming events for April Mr wal is meeting with all the staff April FL kindergarten registration is on the 14th from 4 to 7 we have our science fair night 5:30 to 7 bring break which everybody's excited for we'll have our second day of kindergarten registration from 11 on April 23r school for kindergart the kind teachers go through the list start in classes and then we also have bus driver Appreciation Day Secretary Appreciation Day I want to say thank
031you to the board members who came to read for Dr week I know you guys are all very busy so I appreciate that the kids really love have you guys classrooms to visit we have also started our popcorn fundraiser with popcorn um that helps try to F our filters that we take in I'm excited about our heading gr toool open house next Wednesday here from 4 to 6: p.m. I hope you guys fun is this room we we are not using this room until they have yeah they have to release the construction yes so I'm hoping after our open house uh next Wednesday that Thursday we will have kids told expect children in the library on th it is it is done here we have one TV that needs to be and we're ready to
032roll Mrs hon is excited about having kids in here I will say the kids are excited to we actually had um I had student I met them out the parking lot as they were walking in school this morning and um he said I don't want to go on field trip on Friday you go on the field trip go to the F riverr museum that's going to be exciting like I don't want to go like why CU that's our library day you're not going to you're going to open Library we're going to get to go and I'm like oh they're so excited so I'm like oh no no no no we're not opening Library till next th so you will be here and you will I did not but I can I'm at the well chrisy
033talked about the career fair we attended um lots lots of candidates coming and talking to us from previous years that we have talked to them and remembering us is to see and they want to come work for us yeah we're a good team so um I always think that's really cool because they come and they tell us oh I'm just student teaching next year and then they come back the following year and oh I'm ready for a job now it's awesome so um the professional development on March 5th Carol Kelly from ulc was here we talked about note taking and extended response training with our teachers um really hit the science and social studies teachers on how they can help the math and ELA teachers get ready for the I so there's a common misconception
034among the social studies teachers at time and the science teachers that they're not being tested so their subject isn't as important and they can't help them but Carol went through and actually went into the classrooms and Co with them gave them a social studies or science related article and taught them how they can help the students do extended response practice for the I even though it's not necessarily a social studies test um because most of the IR reading questions are the nonfiction which is a little bit harder of a level so Carol came and did that the teachers were very receptive to that and have already re like they repeated the lesson that she taught with a different Artic um our AES students participated in R Across America week last week they dressed as tourists
035wore hats mismatch clothes pajamas and they even dress as a favorite character in the book Mrs Dar serves and him like she has done the past couple years she posted a bunch of pictures um on her Facebook page and we posted those on the School site as well um you can see the kids like thumbs up if they liked it and thumbs down so they had a lot of fun with that um on this Friday the prek K and one student will be bowling at ad LS um also on Friday it is Pi Day so we are celebrating Pi Day at the middle school um several staff members volunteered for a chance to provide at an assembly um so staff members who have volunteered have their picture printed on a jar and then students are
036donating money in the top three teachers that have the most amount of money um they will be HED in front of the entire school because the elementary teachers also got in on and all the money raised is going to the family that was what the students decided they wanted to raise money for um we're in the last quarter of the school year which is so I'm working on an incentive for students for third quarter based on attendance ra discipline uh Monday 17th through the 21 are are starting our I testing and there's two ELA test and three that and then um each day students will come through and get a breakast item before they take their test teachers will turn in names at the end of testing so um see what students are doing their
037best and then they get called out at lunch and they get big Comm or some pop or flavored water and then at the end of testing they get student they get tickets the best and their teachers turn their name in and they put raffle tickets in for various prizes so some of their rewards this year Bluetooth speaker fidgets and a Wala simar to this earbuds and other things that students are interested in then this year I add congratulations to H brownon Public Schools Foundation teacher of month for March and congratulations to the seventh and eighth grade girls volleyball teams both of their Seasons ended this past weekend and the weekend the and five Essentials we have 94% of our students who taken it 55% of the staff 8% of parents so really need to get
038the parents side going but that has been last year that was the low part too so then I also included upcoming and and the elev was insed supp invol pry excited because freshman through class links correct School links School links School link got this School links which isud them they C with they can set up we met what's her name [Music] also want toate able to's [Music] OPP their [Music] doesn't but they will be able to change Poss I think it also gives them a plan like if they know they want to go into hellbach or they want to go into a nursing career they want to go into business and the ultimate goal is to get to those Carl samber classes get to those GC classes get to that higher level accounting three class
039this is what I got to do to get there and I have to start it when I'm a freshman I don't get to start it when I'm a junior I mean I can but we're going to be behind you know so I I love having that plan set for them and we can change it anytime like it's not not set in stone but it gives them a where they're going um the other thing this this whole they call this signatures they call them signatures and when I went to Maryland last year this is one of the things that they do out there they do these signatures and kids go to schools they ask you where you're going what you want to do and they start by the time you're junior the kid that I was
040there with one of the kids he was interviewing as a junior with a major company like cill it wasn't cill was a company out there because he was doing a presentation interviewing with them and they were going to pay for him to go to college who's interviewing for a scholarship to go to college as a junior and get his degree and then work for them I want to set our kids on that path I want to give them those opportunities to open those doors for them um so that they have the option I would love to bring in those outside resources we get these Pathways started and we can start building on it's also part of the new state they call the pace framework the state of Illinois do high schools have to have a
041pace framework we have to have certain Pathways in in our CTE programs already well you tell me to do one I'm going to do 50 so we're we're going to grow like I just I love this opportunity Michelle has been so supportive and helping me figure out how to make those work for our kids question in our our community is there any way to think about offering students that want to go into the sanur program for the Dual credit or the GC sometimes they have extra expenses of books that they need is there a way to provide like a like a you know what like some assistance ass so I will tell you one of the things that we have been exploring is we tried to do the whole GSW promise type concept where we
042can help our kids paid for that dual credit or those expenses um and we kind of hit a brick wall with that um found but but they're not they're not willing they're not saying no they're saying they want a different approach to it so we're working to put together inform for them so that kids can fill out basically a scholarship application and then they can choose who who needs their I have heard situations where not even just at our school but in working with other schools just the extra expenses that they kind of get forgotten that you do have to provide textbooks you know or different programs for the different classes in the college yep yeah we're we're exploring those Ops okay perfect I don't know if the grant can do that's something I can
043look into um we we were before we got the grant we were headed for the foundation but maybe the grant can help as well so School links so School links is a program that um I purchased through our CTE funds um which is what we get for all of our CT courses like we get a lotted to my money kids delar um and purchased I purchased School links because it has um it tracks all of doesn't track our kids but it does track our kids they do this information in junior high and then they have an account built up and that account shows me that Cory Anderson is excited about being a nurse she's not but anyway um so then I can then look at what we can offer her to give her a pathway
044I can set up four years worth of classes these are your four years of high school and what they will look like we can fill in with electives that you want but we recommend you take these because these are going to help you in your career um and you as parents have access to it as well they can take career exploration they can take College exploration all the scholarships that we have like the local scholarships we can put them all on there for the kids to apply on there it connects to um and I'm not going to remember the name of it colge board but it also connects to and I can't remember the name of it there's there is a there is a common app the Common App which is what most of our
045kids now for those of you that have kids in college that you fill out the Common App and then you can send the Common App to all the colleges so you don't have to fill out an app at every college so it'll have them fill out the Common App and it'll connect to those colleges so they can just shoot it off it makes the whole process so much easier allows Margie to have a way to track where kids are at fast the information all that stuff right there um transcript information and it also once our kids are in it we can follow them after they so we can reach back out to alumni we can reach back out and say what did you not get that we could have done better where did you go
046did it work out for you what colleges would you recommend like it connects us with those alumni that we don't have right now unless we go digging through files and contact I super excited um one of the things that we do with ourth grade students that are in the special ed program is they have to have trans to go to the high school having meeting after meeting with these kids and their parents and today the student want to beist so the pathways that setting up signatures and the questions they have to answer are what classes do you need in high school what do you need to do in your personal life um so bringing it to the middle school is going to make sign the school stronger because our special kids are going to be
047included in that as well thinking about graduation we want to get them thinking about that in profile graduate what are we going to graduate when are we are we going to get there we want them thinking about graduation in life after that not that they have to have a plan but at least they know that I can graduate and I can move on and I can ask justify you know what they don't really know but but they they to ask you know justif they take career they take career surveys on the schooling which we they do that anyway we did that time they take career surveys and it's more not like I want to be a farmer when I grow up it's more what are you interested in if these your interest you should look
048at this career and then you can explore those careers what are you good at well and the Roe comes in and they have like goggles that the kids put on and they like do dissections and they do like they fix Eng and it's crazy and this year they've added seven grad to that so at the end of the month the E graders are going to Welcome to the Real World which is financial literacy at Carl sber and they go do that that's when they brought the Oculus in where they can actually you know yeah you're a nurse a shot with the Oculus um they started doing that this year with seventh grade our seventh graders are going to do that April 14th um I excited to get some of those career options in for our
049kids we have seen I've seen sitting in an a classroom a kid I'm pretty sure is going the electri he is just so engaged in the circuit unit and asking questions and then the help with the construction on our campus has been amazing they took get through so they're starting to figure out what they like at the middle school level it it was by a previous person a million stand anyway so okay just just a reminder this is one uh some of these stick out to you when you're working in leadership and you get into a leadership position a lot of people will say he let's keep that status quo let's keep things in line it's never been my way never been my uh came by that honestly my father and you give a chance
050always TR to make a difference and it's our responsibility to do more always do I think these ladies have picked that up no doubt about that so that's what we're trying to um just an overview real quick uh there was some question last month you guys asked me about some of the budget reductions we did personal hiring process right in the middle of I'm just going to give you a great thing on that relationship between the school district and our communities and then the last piece I'm information right here this is a separation we cut [Music] 2,344 1877 out of our budget this year um different reasons for that um these are from the area you guys know in item three we switched over Transportation companies we cut costs there uh we think we're a
051better company we're saving little over 50 cents a gallon on gas CU we're burning regular gas and those babies started this so so far so good we'll knock on wood on that purchase Services that's a number of things that we cut out that we just found out we weren't using that been sitting there for a few years so we went ahead and cut that out Capital outl it's a little bit of what we did that is not the construction but some of the other projects we had I want to say that's a carryover from the track a little bit and some of the things that we did out there and then supplies was an area that we were extremely high on because of Esser a couple other things that were going on benefits simply was
052an area that we went down because we did reduce our Workforce by about eight positions I'm sorry patrici eight positions uh would be little aggressive probably more if you look at some over half time things that happen so probably more like six when all out um personal hiring I think I told you try to find them hire them and Rain the best person out to work with our students to we work really hard at this I think we stay aggressive we stay very aggressive looking for people we start day one when school starts if we think there's somebody out there that can help us and look ahead and try to find somebody we're going to try to go after them we're try to keep them and right now Cory is perfect example of that just
053a reminder he's a first year teacher he talks like he's done this for a while he pretty good almost as good as I anyway does a really good job so that's he's an example of us staying aggressive and get get getting in there and trying to find somebody that that's we think understand the current market like we talk about the will continue to have a short for teachers in most areas it's coming back up however don't expect it to come up quickly it doesn't work that way we talking about foure cycles of people coming through colleges are telling you that the numbers of people just going into teaching is them now there are changing alternate ways to become an educator we're trying to grow our own right here so that's that's uh we've got a
054number that repairs that amounts recruiting the stff we've done it I think I think the job fairs of wh well are who we are uh largely because of our high school and middle school principles and our swag and our swag good swag right but they remember us and they come back to us and and they they talk to us and they're excited to talk I think if you if you see the excitement that these ladies have for their work they bring that into a job fair wouldn't you want to work for them pretty exciting cuz they do what you try to be and what you try to do you try to tell who you are and be who you are everything we tell you everything we tell somebody that's who we are somebody feels differently
055may not be the place for two phases screaming app okay this is a process the reason I go over this is people think this is kind of a willy-nilly okay we just kind of take some names and then we're going to c a few people in this is the process we stream them interview them take them through an interview process we make sure we get feedback from people if it's a department if it's a different grade level try to have people get feedback and talk a lot of times we've had multiple I think we've been extremely lucky because we've had multiple candidates for most jobs and I can't say that my that's been the same at all districts um they just if you have this you're very for and I think has being around three
056different colleges right now I think that really comes to pain we've increased the number of student teachers we try to take in I think that's helped a lot because even if we don't hire them let's say they want to go back to the Chicago area Word of Mouth they're going to tell that friend you should look and work there that's a good thing interview passes I think our interviews are pretty much we get to know you and they get to know us and it's very much about us trying to sell ourselves to these folks and getting them in there I think we've done a good job of that I think we brought in some really really good people next one you know recommendations this is what it is you come down to it you talk
057down you score them you look at and we're trying to figure out who's going to be best for us here is something that does not come into play it doesn't we would love to have people from the area hire as many as we could but if that person is from the area and we don't think they fit what we're looking for we can't hire them it doesn't move them to the top of the list they still have to meet the standards that we need here nine times out I tell you they will sometimes we don't sometimes that creates hard feelings we just we didn't hire my my my niece or Happ can't say it's happened here it's just happened to me before is always the same are we looking for people or the best people
058we can find for our children and we we just said that and reiterate that over and over what would be what would be a time let's say we had two people we had one from the area and one that was from maybe the are we think they're that close we know that probably to keep the one longer that's from here we'll do that next one okay any questions on recruiting let going through that right here and I want to thank Anthony because he he he kind of gave me this idea a couple months ago when he was talking to me about he was talking in the board meeting about how if something happen to the economy we still ow on what would happen attachment so I thought about that in that a good question it's
059a really good question the largest employer in this in the two communities right now the Potter is not open it's our district 200 employees 200 people some live here some don't most they live pretty dag on clo um the district you know now what I've talked about with that is let's go into purchasing okay we' got 200 people that come here they work here the money the taxpayer money that goes into our school district pays their salaries pays their pays their hours they do a lot of purchasing uh here in the whether it's uh Hyo the restaurants uh I know for myself the other day I got my I got picked up pizza for the family fill my car up grabb the drink went across to the car was I dropped 100 bucks like it
060was nothing you know just like that that's money that's going back into your community no matter how you want to fix that uh it's money that goes back into your community it's a good reason to keep your school school district strong and and to make sure we now some of our staff that lives in gilburg they do the same thing I run into when I pick my pizza or when I go to Casey's or when I I'm stopping at Clark across the street okay keep that one up you Mar back up back up a little there okay this is where answer what happens if our school district all together is not here what happens let's say huge changes in Springfield you guys are under a thousand you've got to disperse your children in other school
061districts okay large majority of a going to go to down for 8 Miles here's the concept you're still going to play school property still going to exist doesn't matter you're not going to have to say for what it is for your kids locally plus that that money coming out that money that's leaving cuz those people that work here large for now they might be working in another District that's a possibility but that money is not going to be here so my point being is yes we we do tax tax dollars we do local tax pays for a lot but your school district between kids and local businesses and the things that we do put a lot back on various things we have a list of about a dozen different businesses that the school district on
062its own does business that wouldn't happen without the district it's not here what happens to what what are those things long story short my point being with this is that's the reason to keep your school district in As Good As shape as you can both physically and the programs that you offer that's when I tell you that your enrollment feeds a bulldog right it feeds we gain kids this year I think we'll gain more kids next year people want to to our buiness not sure why exactly yet I'm not sure if it's the things we're doing I want to believe that but here's the deal if you don't do anything with it and you just don't you sit stagnant remember my first slide it's our responsibility to do more that's what we're doing right it's
063just it doesn't it doesn't it's not good for the community and it's not good for our district for us to sit idle if we do that we become I'm overconfident in what it is we do I Know A District I went into when I when I was in worked for the AA over in Iowa one of the jobs I had as part of a regional directors I went into other regions with team and we evaluated school districts for the state went into a little District called mol ell right inside of a tun it's a district probably 400 kids at the time and we go in very friendly people just I love doing this work CU I got to do I did all rural schools went in talked to people talked about what was important just
064how much they cared about their kids sounds familiar doesn't it real similar to here right they cared so one day there's one restaurant and so we go up as a team to eat and you come in it's very busy and it gets quiet not sure what's going on lady comes up to our table and she says are you going to close our school first of all we have that I said manam what is it what is it what is he why does that word she said we will lose our town this restant won exist we won't leave anyway she was I mean and it was every person in this in this room and I'll never forget and in my lifetime in my leadership I said I never ever want to see the school district come
065to that this was a wonderful place the good news it's still open right it's still open we're not close to I'm not saying that we are but we can think that way and if you think that way that makes you more give you more of a sense of urgency of why you do the things that you do everybody can tell you we can wait till tomorrow we can do it tomorrow we can do it next year you could you could wait what would it take at this time what would just think about it I know Avon dealt with this for a while didn't they Frank same question they made a great choice right it's a great thing it's a great relationship we are eight time right it was a great relationship so when we make
066changes and we doing these things I get it some of this cost money I get it it does and it can be overwhelming at times but at the end of the day you're investing back in your toity every dollar you invest into a school you're going to get it back 10 times absolutely a lot of people never want to talk about that but it does it works that way and it's it it happens over and over and over tax dollars are important being financially responsible absolutely important but the other thing is to keep an eye on the ball because sometimes if you don't you you turn your head and something else can happen and next turn you're going hey what what happened to our what's happened to our school okay just okay please me to
067where we're at with the levy or Flyers went out yesterday I'm scheduling two q&as uh one in ad and one in uh Avon here before the end of the month trying to work around and everything those dates will be out either by Friday or no later than Monday social media we're going to continue to put information you understand we can't take a side and say you should vote for this we're not doing that we're just telling people why we're asking that's it how people votes there right I don't ask I don't it's their deal I I'm not my I I I can only tell you my reasoning and why why why we want to do this it's important to us it's important to the district it's important to to a lot of different people it's
068important to our children okay uh a lot of people you get into some things where you see some folks that'll say wellow how do we know it's you know the money's going to go towards what listed right there we don't have a choice we don't have a choice that's not money we're going to ask for and then turn around and do something else with it's not what that's about it's unethical and it's not good for us in our reputation we keep it good inreasing why look at recruiting look at the people that we want in our district look at the people we' like to have in our district all that's very important you're seeing it that's it nothing else nothing more improve our facility get Safety First to get that done down in Avon and
069then all the side projects we like to get done next one okay last one remember this regardless of the outcome we're all friends and and we neighbors and we colleagues right getting personal dous is never necessary it's never NE don't do that people don't have to do that all right it's okay I respect people's view people vote no that's their business okay You' got your reasons I've got my reasons why I do what I do all right be a be mutual respect stay same with one I go back to Western for a reason I loved it here when I was younger I met great people this is a place with great people it is it's a great place to live sometimes I think people have been here a long time forget that I've been some
070places that aren't so good to live this is these are Grassroots people so at the end of the day no matter what the outcome we're all friends and we all stay stay course us okay and it's all about helping kids and it's all about we are a town that's it not everybody loves that but I do that's it that's who we are okay that's who we any questions children child school this District about structure and I know got they said a number of what you would have to pay to bring right now $1,000 they take you to every piece ofll however the board controls that the board can do what said if you remember we were kind ofir this last they have a state limit but I'm sure their board different what's that be like
07165 it was 65 7,000 for year so we had we had open enrollment in both Iowa and Minnesota so that was a non player the other one is people don't realize even though like like my children right I I I don't live within the district how my kids go they do bring money not the direct tax dollars from you guys from local that we I don't obviously I don't but stay any type of count that you have they count so there's money that comes with them as well is it the same as the the other children that live here that family here no but it's not zero it's not zero and trust me I buy my my flowers for my daughter at Garden Gate they they're here right they TR and that's by board policy
072as well if they work here they can go to school I think that's awwesome we want comment I went to high school all2 at Valley Valley Consolidated District of 5 villes um they built their new school in 1972 when I was born6 so that all happened way before I started what happened when they Consolidated that that school there was there were schools in every little and you know that's just the way it went you know there wasn't much to be done about it at the time you know but the ands and they a shadow of their for like many little and what we've done in this District in regards to is if we hadn't done that Avon is just like so I think that needs to be said we need to understand and you know
073Avon brings a lot to our district they they bring a lot to our district in terms of tax revenue from the lake great people it a beautiful facility it's incredibly impressive and buer to the current openings I have I have a science teacher special teacher um and a i Cur all right action ite 11.1 cons appr the Rick Thurman and Brooks Jun High wrestl I guess I was ask a question so what's the schedule look like so it's kind of the same as the winter uh they're going to start like November and wrestle and tell I think it was like a week before girls Regal start I think they kind of stayed around that time they do uis kind get er on that all that stuff uh yeah I mean it's going to be intense
074like wrestling is going to be like it's going to be interesting like I think with the head like I think you put it in here it was me doing it I think here would be the place got P walls going to be like they have blood time like you get five minutes of blood time for match to stop bleeding so like it's a different sport uh awesome yes it is so yeah like I have I've got a couple days down I didn't want to do anything till I want to back I guess since we're new the schools want to SC us or I feel confident I feel confident I can I've had some people reach out to me this guy from uh from Rob reached out to meber coach had a couple other people I'll
075be honest like that's probably the main thing coach you're going to have to teach a lot of Techni that's the key get have a su successful you're going get them so like to me that's the main thing um I think start like I have to look at the dates for each one to start um probably try to wrestle High School best coach proba your high school right so you're going to want him at least getting a hold of all your a guy from yeah what already assist he's not uh he's just a teacher of Rob uh he's helped out [ __ ] there's a guy from I talked to the voice coach a couple times I know the coach uh got maybe a guy or two but you're going to have to have a couple um I
076would like to have a teacher possible but they have have wrest one of yeah I like that one of like I mean like you're really going want to somebody teach technique and understand like you're probably going to take some school like cuz I mean I don't know any kids in the district that wrest right like you know that yeah but I don't know you don't like actively wrestling like through like little kids like I don't know if anybody of our kids better like I don't you know what I me I did little bomber wrestling like you had a pretty good idea how many you're going to have you know what I mean so like that would be something that a line you can start with like I feel pretty confident you'll have enough kids to
077get it going and get a schedule now I don't think you're going to get into all the need you get want to but I feel pretty confident how bad are going to hurt the other numbers of the other programs going on at the same time you think well I don't know like girl I don't know if it's going to affect like girls basketball game you know what I mean like I think the good thing about wrestling is fastest growing girl sport St by like it's fast growing sport probably Nationwide right now which is a really good thing do both uh boys basketball I would assume it'll take a couple I mean you know what I mean like thisy I think iy had 14 guys in JB like not saying you're not play withit only five
078guys can touch touch the court so like some of those guys like when I was a sophomore I'll be honest like Sean Taylor was my high school basketb down he said seven of us down like you boys aren't going to play this year for me I don't really want to waste practice time on you guys anymore you guys need to check out wrestling or you know what I mean but like to read those guys in the resling state so you know what I mean like he was was right but like it turned out to be a good thing they were successful yes it turned out to be a really good thing for both programs to be honest with you um so I think I think it lose kids but I think I I don't think
079it'll affect a lot of our winners like compared like the fall when we have 125 kids doing stuff in 260 I think the win only around like there's kids that we're going to get more kids that aren't doing anything for sure yeah I think that'll help too you know once you get it all going everything I like to have like a a night where we bring parents in like did that it I think you're have to some Camp time summer find some more you know stuff like that um and then just space like you'll be able to host like I'm pretty sure night will come over wrest one me gr they come down so you're going to have senior night me for all that stuff I'll be honest like I'm not sure exactly how like
080the uh exhibition matches like I'm have to do a little bit reading on that and figure out all that but yeah I mean I I think it'll be successful you I mean I don't think you're going to maybe next year you don't have somebody has some success but I think start and I think I think you need to fit to like they're going the same building together you can all ride up on bus together after school and you're going to need fifth sixth grest your lower weight classes I understand like I know filling out low weight classes gr by that time too big so fifth grade would be eligible yeah I would absolutely if you got a fifth grader wants to wrestler like just be honest you had a fourth grader that was good enough
081you know what I mean like one to come and wrestle just practice well you know what I mean like get an introduction to these kids sport they never really have it's kind of like golf you know mean like golf yeah it's something it's hard you know I mean into but yeah I mean I feel Thurman yes yes Jensen yes Andre Brooks Rick yes no anybody session Brookman yes J Andre when the election on April 1 when will the new board yeah there'll be there will be an April this yeah yes you have to certify the election I got one left nobody's many all favor say same sign have a good evening put my hand back [Music] oh really [Music] WR r [Music] you [Music] ASA that's the remote right there I like put like my
082daughter aoft no idea which one the first [Music] one pist us