001okay at this time I would like to call to order the February 25th 2025 meeting of the Harford joint one School District Board of Education if we could have a roll call please here present I'm here thank you this is a meeting of the Board of Education in public for the purpose of conducting the district's business and it is not to be considered a public community meeting there is a time for public participation during the meeting as indicated in the agenda any District res or parent of a currently enrolled student wishing to speak should have filled out a card located on the signning table and given to our board secretary are there any of those tonight okay thank you our next item is the Pledge of Allegiance so Mr hanin if you would please introduce
002your students who are going to lead us in the Pledge yes this evening we had a couple of students who were not able to join us so we had Tak care pled this evening wner is here as well L GR but evening un 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 can come up and Shake all our hands [Music] down that was excellent thank you very much our next item is to consider approval of the agenda the agenda notes in our the agenda notes the board's mission of we will support our community who dedicated governance leadership and stewardship so that our students achieve it also States our values and expectations of the
003board in governing our meetings the purpose of the agenda approval is twofold the first reason is to verify that public notice has been given according to State Statute 1984 Mrs Hoffman has the meeting been properly notied thank you the second reason uh for approval of the agenda is to consider tabling an item or to rearrange the order of events was there anything that a board member wanted to rearrange yeah um for the policy Stone here for 22 64 and 2266 number three under District business yep I would like to vote on those separately okay there can you make a motion that that pleas oh yeah I will make a motion to vote on 2264 and separately is there a second Don has seconded all is it a roll call or figer roll call vote please
004Barb hi Don hi Arin n Lise n so it is tied at 22 which means that the motion as presented did not carry is there an alternative motion that is being that anyone would like to offer to move forward if I could think of one I would say it but I don't know of one so all right well then at this time we're gonna I'm looking for a motion and to approve the agenda as it stands make a motion to approve the agenda as it stands you have a second I'll second all in favor I I motion car any opposed motion carries the next item on our agenda is the presentation of student Excellence which will be here given to us tonight by Lincoln Elementary School so again I'm going to pass it back over
005to Mr hon thank very much yes stoud students uh and presenting some' my name's Cooper Braun good evening school board members and Harford joint one administrators tonight fifth graders of Lincoln are here to share about a writing project we all did this past fall my name is Cooper Bron and I enjoyed doing the dark and stormy nightbooks because we got to follow along with mystery writing it led us through a step-by-step process that made my story so much better I also enjoyed doing the Dark and Stormy Night books because I got to write a completely fictional story that used my imagination my final reason that I enjoyed the dark and stormy night book books was because it made me such a better writer by helping me helping to make my stories longer and teaching me
006that even when I'm done I can still add detail my final draft was so good that I decided to submit my book to the drg state writing competition that is why I enjoyed the Dark and Stormy Night books here's how Miss Benson's class book turned out you want to hear part of my story yes maybe this isn't such a good idea Jake said no we have to said Mike strongly as he picked up a flashlight and flicked it on fine replied Jake blooming let's keep going once Jake and Mike reached the door Mike put his hand on the door knob and said you ready to find out who this is yes replied Jake eagerly okay said Mike as he twisted the door knob and it was a pizza man both Mike and Jake felt a
007sense of relief when they saw that it was just a pizza guy hi my name is Maddie but and I will be talking about the fifth grade dark and stormy night bre writing project our dark and stormy night project was a narrative writing assignment it started by us being asked to draw what we thought of when we heard dark and stormy night then once we were finished with our drawings we were told to write a flash draft about the things in the drawing which is just a quick writing to get the ideas flowing after that we turned the flash draft into a fifth grade level Story the next thing we did was edit the story during the process we checked our spelling grammar and punctuation after that it was time to start the publishing process
008the publishing process had two steps typing and drawing the typing was just putting our stories on the computer so that our teacher could send it to the publisher but the next part was different we only had one try because there was only so much of the special printing paper lastly after that we sent everything to the publisher hello and good evening my name is Evelyn rumler I'm from Miss foz's class I'm here to talk about our dork and stormy nightbooks and the process in making it so it all started out with a drawing in art we all had to draw a picture of what a dark and stormy night would look like to us I drew an old house with two awake and frightened girls fast asleep parents and many ghosts then in writing we
009all wrote about our main character and what he or she would look like like dislike and what would be in their bag then we planned out our story on a story map and when we were done we wrote a rough drafts it took about a week and finally when we were finished we wrote our final copies I loved writing my story and how we all put the stories together to make our own book plus I drew the cover page on the book I do it again in a heart feet here is the book now that you've heard the process I'm going to read you a little bit of my story she stealthly stepped into the H into the Hall as she turned the corner she nearly jumped out of her skin Ella why are there
010GS all around the house Ella's sister Jenny asked shaking it's okay Jenny Ella said reassuringly I'm going to stop them I even have a plan but I need your help so come here and I'll tell you my plan as Jenny came over Ella bent down and whispered her plan into Jenny's ear hello I'm Elliot and I'm a fifth grader at lincol Elementary in Miss Green's class earlier in the school year Miss green told us that we would be writing short stories but the writing pred a dark and stormy night it all started with us finding the problem solution and the main character's details of the story once we were finished with that it was time for us to start writing our first drafts it took many drafts to accomplish the story we wanted once we
011were finished with the writing process it was time for us to create an illustration that would bring our stories to left once the illustrations and writing was finished it was time for Miss green to send our writing to the publisher two months later we received our we received our book back it was amazing to see our story in a published book one thing that made it even more interesting was the fact that even though we all had the same prompt each story was different between me and my classmates not only did this project have us work on our writing skills but also gave us the opportunity to be creative I feel that this was a great opportunity for me and my classmates to express our feelings through writing and through drawing I hope that I
012will get to publish a book again in the future now I will be sharing a small portion of my very own story after several minutes of looking around and using Radars we finally spotted it I grabbed out my Kera because after looking at how powerful the winds were we knew that it was going to be a big storm oh no the winds are getting a little strong I mentioned until I actually looked away from my camera the tornado was probably 300 to 350 yards away guys whatever you do don't look up and just go right to the truck as fast as you can I screamed what do you mean they all said nervously the tornado I said in a scared tone I watched them as they look up and both Josh and Blake bolted to
013the truck Emma and I just stood there I didn't know if it was from being scared or from being amazed we look we looked at the tornado it must have been only 240 ft away then we ran as fast as we could to get by a by a ditch we all started freaking out we didn't know what was going to happen next you you we any questions for the students before we shake hands I don't have questions I just have a comment obviously with my daughter going through it last year I love the book I think it's so awesome that you guys will have a memory that you will have for your lifetime and it's it's okay good your so parents um you are allowed to stay for as much of the board meeting as
014you would like typically families do leave after this um however we do have a special recognition coming up in just a little bit and so we would love it if you would stay as we honor one of our board members um before you leave and of course the board meeting is open so you can remain the whole time but we also know it's a school night thank you um there is no citizens delegation to be heard tonight so we're skipping number five and that brings it to um my report for the evening and tonight I really just want to focus on one thing which is recognizing someone who has given years of service to this District um both is an employee of the district for I'm not going to remember how many years more than
01530 years and more than 40 Years thank you and then has served the board here with us for the last four so the majority of the time I have been on the board I've been had the honor to serve with Mr Ed Banky who um through a move will not no longer be able to be on our board um but he has come with a history of perspective and experience in this District that is hard to find his shoes are ginormous to fill and he will be greatly missed by me personally and here sitting on this board so I just want to congratulate Ed and wish him all the best in his next endeavors good job gure before we do the picture can we can we present Ed with some things yeah some goodies um
016so first Erin has the WB certificate of recognition recognizing you for your years of service on the school board and we have um an award in here for you along with your name badge in case you still want to pretend like you're something this month we are celebrating fabulous February doing different fun things for our staff teams throughout the month and so we have a little goodie bag for you it spells out our theme for the year which is light um as a school district our goal is to illuminate the path and ignite the future for our students and our staff are doing that so we have that for you along with some cards okay so I I won't make you hold them right now and then to celebrate we also have cake so um
017we wanted to make sure that were as Awkward on video as possible so we do have cake for everyone board members there's cake for you too but if we could take a brief intermission to grab some cake and celebrate Ed if we' like to shake any other hands and then we'll commence the rest of the board meeting and I'll put these over got aesome for EX start for can you explain a little bit more of the handing like yes how long yeah I can think we're on feed right now so I'll explain it after abely here we go lots of frosting t-shirt t-shirt I feel like you're going to be cool did it go off more than you I should probably delay my yeah I don't know what they're ition all right before we jump
018back into business I just wanted one more more time say thank you to Ed for his many years of service to this district and um we support you we thank you very much Ed thank you you haven't got cake that means you have to have two pieces before you go so that's what's happen Okay um the next item on our agenda here is the District Administrative report so I'm G to pass it over to Dr Vos for that okay thank you Miss will uh the very first thing actually relates to our recognition of Ed and his service obviously his departure creates a board vacancy um the timing is a little confusing because we are so close to being adjacent to the current election that's going on but the timeline is a little bit different so
019according to policy 01 142.5 um we do have 60 days to find a new board member at that point in time if the school board has not made a decision on who the next board member will be then it is determined by the SCH SCH board president however um Ed and I have been in communication we have a school board posting uh ready to go um Miss Hoffman has included that in your packet so you can see that um we did not want you to see it in the newspaper first we wanted you to hear about it from us so that will be sent to the newspaper tomorrow and my guess is that it will be published by the end of the week we will also have it on our website and we will be
020accepting applications for prospective board members through March 20th the reason that we set that date is that statutorily there is no timeline for a situation like this except that it's within the 60 days so we have it set to the Thursday before spring break so that way we have uh we're certain to have people on staff here in the office to support any potential candidates answer any questions and then when we return from break we will have candidate interviews and uh a potential action by the current school board on making a decision on who that fifth board member will be and that will be on April 7th so March 20th for applications April 7th for the candidate interviews and um that is the vacancy created by Ed um the other uh timeline that we have
021is the regular school board election where we have two candidates running for a single seat we will have a forum for that and that is on March 11th at 700 pm at Central Middle School um then the actual election is on April 1st I'm very excited because much like last year we have our graduates assisting us with the Forum and so we have three graduates of Harford joint one who are current high school students that I will be meeting with on Friday to review the candidate forum and what uh their roles will be so excited about that uh the other thing that I wanted to share um was a couple of weeks ago now already miss lender and I were able to attend the legisl ative breakfast in cesa 6 and we were able to
022communicate with some legislators um while we were up there we were talking about four specific bills one is on the school report cart and the standards that go along with that one is on devices one um and when I say devices that cell phones or lack thereof in schools another one is a cursive Bill and then the last one is actually um Bill 2025 uh I'm sorry it's a different name but it is about spending 70% of our budget specifically towards stacking so those are four bills that are out early right now they are making their way through the assembly so I just wanted you to be aware that we're monitoring these and the administrative team and I have been talking about them uh moving on to District updates very excited uh since the board
023had adopted moving 4K back to our own buildings for next year um we have a a beautiful enrollment poster for our 4K students with huge posters or postings at each of our buildings so I've included that information for you and then I also included information on our Friday membership report for 2 January so I just wanted to make sure that you saw that uh the last thing that I wanted to share as part of my report is last week Wednesday we had our continuous Improvement session with Damen lroy and we had um about 60-ish people total some of that included staff members some of that included board members and then the rest were um constituents and so Damian has crafted a summary document for us and then today we met with the staff to repeat
024the same activities so Damian and I will be meeting next week or so to review that and then I'll bring an update to the board uh but we got a lot of Fe feedback from the first session a lot of feedback from today and I'm looking forward to bringing that back to the school board and then to the administrative team and then to the staff so that way we can help develop those new school board goals that will guide the school district for the next set of years along with the key performance indicators that underly those goals so with that I'll turn it back to miss wil for our discussion items perfect thank you sorry can I just bring up one thing um along with that is board members you guys should know but you
025should be getting um things from wasby and the one thing that they are doing right now because of um what's going on at the state is there is capital chats every Friday um on wsab it you don't have to have an account to watch it or learn about it but when you click on them every Friday they give updates on what's going on in the legislation right now conf so they'll be doing that until the budget's approved so that's really um good information um just yeah just wanted you guys to know that that's available for you thank you um okay that brings us to the the discussion portion of our meeting um the first item is just something I wanted to present to the board it's an idea that kind of came up in a
026conversation Dr vas and I were having which was um currently the presentation of student Excellence happens at the very beginning of our meeting and the thought I had was should it get moved uh to a little bit later in the meeting so that Dr Vias could give her report first the reason or the thinking behind it was that the parents who were all here listening um now have left and didn't get to hear any of the great things I mean last month we talked about the really great things that she reported back on and brought to us and um I fully understand as a parent that you might not want to stay for all the action and the whole meeting but I was curious as to maybe they would want to say to hear a
027little bit about the president's report The District administr Administrative support just so we could share more of the good news out so it's an idea it's not something that is urgent by any means it was just a way to have our community members and parents hear a little bit more about what's going on in the district while they're here within our within our little Community here um if there's thoughts we could certainly chat for a minute if not you can think about it and we can talk about it later the other thing I would add is that if it were to be part of the discussion moving forward whether that means this school year or next school year often times the school board members will have questions for the students who've just presented and it
028becomes more of a discussion than a presentation so moving it to discussion could make more sense doesn't always happen but it's a possibility the next item up here is our Spotlight on learning with Daniel dicki the district has been working with Dr Dicky since April of 2024 he specifically has been working with Central Middle School on literacy and vocabulary Concepts and the Middle School team had an opportunity to work with him virtually and on site in both large group and lab classroom settings and so we have the Central Middle School leadership team to share some highlights of their work together and what the next STS are so Dr Rota I pass it over to you thank you I'm joined here by Amber Elliot who's a seventh grade ELA teacher at Central and am Amber too
029and Amanda Christopherson who is a seventh grade special ed teacher so they're gonna share some exciting things and do a little demonstration in seconds after a quick little overview oh there we go okay um so Dr Dicky we started working with him in April of last year which gave us a nice Head Start for this year um he has four high impact instructional practices the first one is performance-based objectives um the second one is really bringing students up to the text and working on vocabulary the third one is gradual release of responsibility so we've done the first three already and then in March we'll work on uh practice four which is writing essentially um what it has looked like in our building is that we've done some work with him as a whole group we've
030also done content specific sections with him so like just for ELA people just for math just for AFA um he's into the building and done model lessons uh he's going to come in again he was going to come in when we had that big snowstorm so his plane couldn't get here so he'll be back in April for another one um and he's also done classroom visits to give teachers feedback and to give us a overall view of how he feels like we're implementing things which is really awesome um twice a month I meet with all of our teams to dive a little bit deeper into the work that he's doing with us I've given teachers feedback on their Performance Based of IES Mike Flynn our instructional coach has been working with people on implementing some
031of his strategies and the special live team along with Alex and I have been going to season six to do some structured literacy PD and it's totally aligned with the work that we're doing with Dr Dicky so we've been bringing that back to staff too just been a really nice culmination of getting everything really aligned and really digging into literacy practices um one of our our most favorite parts right Mrs brand is um working on universal literacy um having definitions so we do flash cards every time we work together as a staff on having the same definitions for Universal literacy terms like this one summarized which is a brief statement so everybody has the same definition that they're using with students um and then what this looks like in the classroom if you've been around
032central recently you've seeing a bunch of posters in every single classroom um so when I say we're doing this as a school like every single person that's doing this we've also worked with support staff on doing some of the strategies the students that they're working with as well um and every kid has their own copies of these several copies depending on what classes they're in um you will see different things around the building where people are really digging into this one happens to be in a science classroom they're doing it again in every single cont content area really helping kids dig into reading and understanding The Words um and again understanding and having the same definitions this is also in a science classroom but you'll see they're using words like claim evaluate key details everyone's
033using the same definitions and now I'm going to turn it over to demonstration lesson thank you so as Dr agasa said we um the first thing with Dr Dicky was the pbos which are performance-based objectives they're very similar to learning targets app a more common term that most of us have heard so I'm going to run the board through what we normally do with students so they're getting a sheet that kind of has um three columns so it's word first thoughts and the definition so up here is this a PBO that I just put together really quickly for this presentation so students will be able to identify academic vocabulary in order to determine meaning of text now all of the pbos and all the classrooms that you see start with students will be able to
034if you come around essential you'll notice um s swt or swbat um we abbreviate that just to kind of take out some of the words and then it also has the in order to which you might see it's iot so every single one of the pbos and all the classrooms start with this so about depending on the unit I would say two to three times per unit we have a new PBO and we go through it with students every single time and making sure that they are understanding what they're going to be doing coming up so what I start with is I put it up there just like this and I say are there any words up there that either you might struggle with or do you think a classmate might struggle with and by
035adding the classmate part it kind of takes a lot way a lot of the stress you get a lot more volunteers because they're not like well I don't know this word is they can be like well my classmates probably don't know this word is so are there any words up there that you think yourself might struggle with or a classmate might struggle with this is the participation part maybe academic might be challenging for some people okay academic any other ones identify identify determine determine so I would say those are prob the three top ones maybe vocabulary that we've probably heard of before so the first one that we actually have is identify so you can write that down in your first word box on the top left and then next in that second column and
036have you write down what you think identify means when I first say identify what do you think that means what is identify what's the definition that first comes to your mind so I'll give you about 30 seconds for this I'll try and make this fast not too take too long would anyone like to share what they think identify might mean share I wrote down name the thing okay yeah yeah any other thoughts and what identify might mean say what it is saying what it is sure any other thoughts point out point out point out perfect so what the definition that we have for this academic vocabulary is no it's not working whoops too far oops oh I gave away our Second word to recognize a name so that is the definition that we use across
037all of our classrooms for identify is their recognizing and naming which is very similar to what you guys said just in a little different words point out sorry what did you say again name thing name the thing so you're pointing out your recognizing it and you're naming it so that's our first word that we have our second word we have up there is determine so I'll have you jot down determine in your second box and again I'll give you about 30 seconds to write down what you think determine might mean now this one might be a little bit trickier to really put a definition to determine because you probably think well you're just determining something so any thoughts what determine might mean well I have deduce but then some people will say what does that
038mean yeah sure deduce that's what you know it means that's but helps P to you any other thoughts find out find out perfect inv investigate so determine oh sorry go ahead choose choose perfect so determine is to figure out out again that is the definition looks like some of our ladies over here may have figured that out determine is the word that we or the definition we use um to figure out across our build or across all of our classrooms so this is just a quick little example of what we do I try to pick some of our shorter academic vocabulary some of them do get really involved like the one on my board right now is synthesize and that's a very difficult one for anybody but especially middle schoolers and seventh graders so we're
039really digging into what does it mean we kind of go back to the um post that Dr agatka showed us with the root words um prefixes and suffixes and really breaking down these words for students and they're able to apply that um and this is just a picture that I have of my um vocabulary we go through every day so all of the pink is out it's just the brown or black Parts when we first start and the students look up all of the words um for our vocabulary and we break it down we break it down by syllables break it down into prefixes suffixes and root wordss we kind of think about what we think it might mean we get an actual definition we also look for synonyms and we talk about how synonyms
040can often help us with the definition sometimes definition can be a little difficult to figure out as well we put the word into a sentence and we also identify part of speech um up here is just an example of something I've done with students we've created a sheet so every time that we do a new book in our small group I have them go through and find a word that they might not know how to say or Define um and then they're looking at the words to see if there's any prefixes or suffixes in that word um then I have them look up the definition and see if it makes sense in that book so just kind of taking what they're doing in every single class and applying it to my small group as well
041it's kind of hard to read that writing but the kids see it in every classroom and they're really making the connections with the posters and what we're having them do so it's been really nice to see it across the universal setting for them any question questions so I I didn't think it would be used in science it make total sense that is there's probably a lot of words many fixes and suffixes in science is it also in math are we using this in we're using it every single classroom arted everything yeah and even going back to original sheet um I have students who we've been doing the vocab for three months now and just the both yesterday and today I have a student who's like well I think this might be a prefix or a
042root word and he looks it up on his own it's not on this list this is not an all-encompassing list but they're starting to like recognize and notice like this is something I see over and over and over again and I can kind of pick out that I think this might be something even though it's not on the sheet that's provided to me this is a fun little exercise are there any other questions comments I just wanted to share one thank you because I love seeing this actually be in action um two you asked who is using this and our teched teacher came up to me a couple of months ago to talk about how he was using it with his students so it truly is something that Dr Raska and her team have embedded
043within the culture over at Central so I would have to say it's getting back to the basics thank you so much thank you so much thank you very much like the audience should had to do that as father just for fun especially if you didn't eat case I'm just kidding um item number three in our discussion is the achievement Gap reduction or AGR midyear report the achievement growth reduction Grant uses data to determine the progress in reading and math of kindergarten through third grade students this is reported at the mid and end of the year is that going be you or Miss maler I'm going to be turning it over to miss maler the floor is yours thank you so just as a reminder this report really serves as a snapshot of student performance in
044both math and read um and certainly provides us with some valuable information yet as We Know the only indicator of the success and opportunities but it does give us nice snapshot um the particular snap that in front of you shows student performance in map according to number Corner um and reading according to two assessments The Benchmark level assessment and The Benchmark sub test um in your board packet you'll see Lincoln Elementary School is highlighted in blue Rosman is in red but I'm going to speak to purle today um and we'll start with math um for the math assessment um it's important to note that the assessment is measuring current standards taught so it's not directly correlated to the Baseline and so I gave that reminder last year at this time it's best not to compare
045the two but instead to look at the percentage as an indicator of student mastery of the currently taught standards from that one assessment so you kindergarten You'll See kindergarten students who met grade level expectations or standards according to that assessment 52% which is an increase from where we were last year in first grade 58% also an increase second grade 67% also an increase and third grade 63% um something else that is important to know the number Corner um assessment really serves or not the assessment but number corner itself as a component component in mathematics has multi-purposes to it so it does provide a spir REV viiew giving students an opportunity to practice those Concepts if they haven't mastered it yet at this point as well as frontload for future um skills that are going to
046be taught during mathematics um so you'll see that um we're excited to continue to monitor those assessments you'll hear back from um in May with the end of your report um which will give us some more comparative data with corner for reading a few items to consider when viewing that data we are looking at the percent of students who have met end of year expectations so that's different from how you do the mathematics so these sub tests are the same assessment taught in Fall as well as mid year unlike the math so they can they are similar in nature and they can certainly be give you a better perspective of the RO let's dig in kindergarten you take a look at kindergarten kindergarten reading according to the Benchmark Bic subtest you'll see an increase in
047student proficiency from Baseline to mid year on all four sub tests that includes rhyme awareness beginning sound awareness blending and segmenting your board packet shows you the specific percentages R awareness 64 beginning sound 63 blending 78 and segmenting 72 so really exciting um although thep or The Benchmark level assessment is not assessed at start of kindergarten you'll see that 15% of students have shown end of your proficiency so far and they will again be assessed in Spring and that was increase um in first grade from 5 to 21% the subtest in first grade also an increase with deleting sounds take a look at that one actually showing you 85% of students master that skill which is the written goal that they have um so you can see that um confidently at year is very exciting
048in second grade again an increase when you look at the sub tests in all five areas as well as the f&p Benchmark that includes a really exciting jump on added sounds as well from 55% in Fall to 7 in third grade also shows you a very exciting jump in adding sounds from 76 to 89 and in third grade all also increase and four of five of those sub tests are showing us percentile for the end of year goal which is a huge celebration um The Benchmark level assessment in third grade um was an increase from 22% to 39% and you can see just from this snapshot some really incredible wind and some progress with read specific mention at the start this is really a snapshat but it is helpful for our strategic planning it's helpful
049um as we continue to reflect as we Cate and get Monitor and get prepared for for our spring ass sometime wonderful any questions from miss m thank you very much our next item here uh for discussion is policy administrative guidelines um the guidelines have been updated to reflect the change in policies do you have anything else to add to yes I do so this is listed both here in our discussion and as well as being listed as an action item and so I wanted to clarify why that is the case so policies must be approved by the school board so policy 2264 and 2266 must be vot voted on by the board however these are the administrative guidelines that correspond it's essentially the how-to or the Playbook and so those do not need to be
050approved by the board they simply be need to be reported to the board so I'm here today uh to inform everyone much like in the summer when we voted on these two policies previously and I talked about endorsing or supporting the law for our own School Board laws um that now we are seeing a different change of events or turn of events so the US uh Department of Ed issued a dear colleague letter very recently and what that did was it indicated that OCR which is the office of civil rights would now be enforcing Title Nine under the provision of the 2020 Title 9 regulations and rules rather than the 2024 rules and regulations which were approved um last summer and so what that means for us is that we should should be reverting our
051policies to what they were pre August 1st which for us was being voted on in July um that's when I brought it to you so according to this um I will be resending the guideline that supports policy 2264 because I'm recommending to you later this evening to resend policy 2264 and then I'm also planning on recommending that you revert to policy 2266 which was our previously existing title 9 policy it's the non-discrimination policy um with the only change being that it reverts to the language prior to you made the change in July last school year uh which goes back to the 2020 adoption when it was first implemented and so what that does is it removes the date that refers to things occurring either before August 1 2024 or after August 1st 2024 so if
052you have any questions I'm happy to answer those uh either now if it relates to the guidelines or later on if it relates to the policies or either time if it's a general question about title 9ine or a non-discrimination we will have time to discuss of them as well yes yeah um item number five is the administrative report building in Brown update Mr Carol would you provide a brief overview of updates for us well normally at this time of the year I'm Gathering prices and set schedules to uh complete all the summer projects that we do but because of the referendum and so of these guys are doing that pro project list is pretty small one of the projects that we are still doing is uh we St bleachers at Rosman School uh they're set
053to be removed the middle of July with the installation the last week of August so it'll get done just before school starts it'll be a little juggly and d and I have talked about how we're going to handle some of the stuff that would normally happen in the gym but we think we can work um another item is summer cleaning group that's going to come before you I appreciate your support that because without the summer fing crew very difficult C our buildings um so we'll be setting up schedule going to be little different this year we have a fairly young crew um a lot of the kids I call it aged out they're getting to be sophomores Juniors and seniors in college and they're looking for their LIF onong uh job not summer job so
054we do have a quite quite a few younger kids um so we're we're uh working on getting schedules getting so we have things done for these guys to come in and uh we're prepared for the referendum projects um been spending a lot of time preparing for that project a lot of meetings making decisions um sometimes head scratching things but we're getting through them and we're get a lot of things answered these guys will present tonight on that last thing is uh this fall you approved the US using socks for some snow removal um it's something that we haven't done before and we used them on two occasions uh the snowfall was in excess of 5 in and they came in and and removed the snow Parts it worked very well one of the timing was
055was a great timing snowfall because it was snowed Friday night Saturday and in the Saturday night we had all day Sunday to remove sow snow was probably the best snowfall you can have don't have the pressure of of getting things done in an overnight so that that's worked well um would like to probably continue that next year just because it has worked well and used them hopefully we don't use them anymore this year but never know so um and that's all I got for for an update for me do you have any questions I just knocked on wood for you so beautiful we like that thank you um just remind me within um the summer program they have to be 14 correct what what was that age yes we hire 14y old okay yes yes
056we do okay do till June because I wanted to submit them it's not my f it's not my favorit again because of the fact that we're dealing with chemicals and we're dealing with just things and and we want our students to be safe um again not my favorite thing to do iile full through old yeah we'll make it work thank you done thank you all right item number six these guys have been very patient and have't had any cas we're on to our we're on to our facilities project planning update we have representatives from myON and PR to present and review the current construction planning bidding process website recommendations all that good stuff so if I if I can quick turn it over um Andre Lorenzen is already up at the podium he also has
057Bridget Joyce from my myin and then from P we have Scott Justice and Tim vwa thank you all for your patience here well thank you for having us uh glad to be here my and PR so give you a brief update on what we've been kind of accomplished and what we're doing and give you a kind of a schedule update kind of where we're sitting on our activities so I want to introduce the myON team um Bridget's here with us she's going to be talking about communication uh I again I primarily worked through preconstruction on this process but uh Rebecca Christensen she's been the one that's been uh at the Forefront with all the budget estimates and working with us the pr team and the district uh Megan preach she was with us when we
058were doing the pre-referendum work with Bridget as well and a couple new faces that you probably haven't seen before but Dakota Cole she's going to be the project manager for these projects so you'll see her around here more coming up this spring and in the summer and Garrett roie he's going to be the project superintendent kind of running all three projects with various F around here so a couple new faces for you to see here so if you can remember when we presented pre-referendum we showed you this funnel and had the master planning Arrow saying we are here uh now we've progressed all the way down to the bottom we're in construction documents so that means all that hard work and the meetings with the faculty and the district uh kind of honing in on
059the scope and and refining the drawings uh we're right down here to the CDs and we're going to put this out to bid so this is the next step before we actually hit that Target for construction so this is a milestone schedule that we used and worked uh with p on it tracked all the iterations of the drawings for the projects through the process but also attract our budget updates so we can give that in a timely manner so a lot of these were hit on right on time and we're we're definitely on schedule so a lot of cool tools that we use in preconstruction this level one schedule again shows a different View and a different map of what the bidding looks like in the drawing iterations uh and then kind of put some
060highlights and Milestones so you see at the bottom I'm sure everybody's you know want to know what's the construction duration so you can see the three in the bottom might be hard to read uh it's uh Central I'm sorry Lincoln Central and then Rosman um you do see some green that's far to the right that's the generators you know the lead time on generators are about a year so after we bid this it's probably going to be one year before we actually put the generators in so uh we'll see what we can do any better but I think that's just we're going to plan for it right now so again like we did in our uh previous referendum projects I'm going to work with the district to find local participation and get local contractors and
061people to participate in this project um I think we're looking to go out with Central and Rosman here in a couple weeks to put out to bid so we'll work with um Doug and Adam and identify anybody that we want to use on this project and kind of get that encouragement so definitely like to have District Partners on on your projects so this is one thing too when we go to competitively bid this is a scope of bid sheet so you can kind of see up there at the top says contract for masery what we want to do is we map out what we want those contractors to bid pretty specific you know uh referencing the drawings and specifications but we want to make that that road map for their success to bid it so
062we don't have scope overlap or we have scope po so this is a great way that you'll see in the specifications that's for each school that tells them exactly how we want them to bid it and what they should include so it kind of works out really well it's definitely informative it's like doing your homework first we want them to do their homework and read this specification get better bids with that we going to turn over to Scott principal Senor project manager pointed rch Architects um we are the design partner with to deliver the the referend projects um similarly I'd like to share some of our day-to-day team members here that are really working diligently dealt with this together um de as you know help guide us through the ref process um I am going
063to help guide us through the design and construction process and then as you see we have S Mills um our project architect Tim Bart who's here as our project specialist who's doing a lot of the heavy lifting and Megan um she is our education planner in interior I'd also like to the the rest of the team that we don't have on here which is important as well as our engineering Consultants do we have electrical engineering IAL Plumbing structural civil Food Service all these different disciplines and Engineering teams that we coordinate to get their systems integrated with our design so that's part of the day-to-day process that this team is working on um process is going well to what might at so um as everyone's aware the primary primary scope is mediate compliance so we have
064everything from handrails to um door tunan to stall wh to toilet fs and all that kind of stuff that we're doing and right now we're tracking very well with the um main list that we put together as part of pro process um so what I'm going to do is I'm not going to bore everyone with that kind of stuff I'm just going to highlight some of the feature design elements that we have first starting with um so as everyone's aware if you look at the top right slide there you know there's the existing canopies there at the front and that back entrance that are that are seen that have seen better days they're on the way out water drains through the columns etc etc so those are being removed as part of this process um
065what we are doing is we are putting a canopy back in front that main entrance so this is I think this is it's a nice um efficient and contemporary design that plays off the architecture of the building you know so it's going to do a good job it's going to provide shelter and clate weather and um it it actually enhances and identifies the entrance so nice nice little ad there it's going to be a a bit of a centerpiece for us um moving on to Central again at Central lots of AD upgrades are going on Doors door clearance door wh Hardware Etc but one of the again one of the feature design elements is going to be at the entrance so the front doors here if you look at the top left slide those front
066doors need to be updated for 88 compliance as well so as we step through those doors you know that whole vesu starts to take on a a refreshed look you know so also then as part of that inclement you can see that we've enlarged that window we've added a pass through window again looking at the top left slide and then we have our secure entrance there so someone that's inside in the office area has the ability to monitor people from outside that first set of doors and then control access from inside the office through that secure entrance um going to the next the top Center slide it's kind of a peak into the office so we'll just drop down to that bottom side the larger one you can see what we've done there is we've
067been able to take in some integrate some brand new elements you know from the school that I think really gives space a nice touch it gives it it gives it a a professional look but still gives it a a kind of a nice educational feel to it and then we have some additional shots there for the for the desing and the finishes that are going to be provideed that space we get the link in and I'm going to focus the focus on the exterior and then just touch a little bit on the music classroom music and art classrooms excuse me so if you look at that upper right slide it's a little bit hard to tell but the green outline that's around the building is the extent of the exterior mediation that we're doing um
068that is that in those areas we have that that's red right to the CMU is failing that needs to be replaced so um those areas what I've done is I I've grabbed a couple screenshots of some of the modeling that we've done and put that adjacent to existing conditions just for a comparison so if you look at the top there that's the entrance and you can see what we're doing there excuse me that that entire facade is going to be replaced it's going to get reclad there's going to be the um an airspace um rigid insulation and then on there so the walls going to perform better it's going to be um better from mechan for a mechanical standpoint but also gives us opportunity to enhance the aesthetic so what we're doing is we're we're
069bringing in the brick and we're thinking about what can we do with the brick you know obviously we want to remain consistent because there's a good portion of the building that's not being done you know so again we're sticking with that same color but again we want to um enhance and identify the entrance so that's where we're integrating the um the blue right so right there where you see the logo that stuff is going to be that brick is going to be rotated vertically so that's what's called a soldier course so it's going to be a little bit different than the than the regular horizont to bom that you see off the left and the rest of the building to again you know draw attention to that entrance and what we've done is we've taken
070that blue brick and we've added some accent along that that that um that facade there then if you go way to the left there you can see those existing windows so that's going to be the blue brick beneath them then yellow blue metal panel above it again to keep with that exting GL that is integrated throughout the teristic building um as we come down to that next one that's just a quick shot that's the fourth and fifth grade Wing there so you can see what those windows are looking like there with that old aish metal panel again that needs to be mediated that wall system there and with that you know we're integrating the bread with diving or revealing there so it's a sub reveal you know it's not something obuse obtrusive you know but
071it's going to create a nice shadow line and then we're bringing in the the um bre down below the windows and the metal panel above the windows and off to the um the K side of the kitchen and the gym so you can see that again the left side of this slide um there is the existing condition down there in the midle picture you can see the the box truck is there that makes deliveries that exterior FL there so part of the scope of this project is getting provide an addition there so we are we are moving that that freezer inside you know we're creating a space for new walk-in freezer and new walk-in um refrigerator and then we're providing the addition that you see there in the upper slide we're kind of picking up
072that canopy line with the bottom of those windows and again following through with the same brick and that blue detail to tie everything together then just moving to the to the right um what you see there is I'll kind of combine both those images the top right and the lower right um so what we have is the music classroom these These are actually the old locks okay where where where the floor is all cut up and there's really nothing in there right now what we're doing is we're we're taking this we're thoughtfully designing it for a music classroom and an art classroom on the other side so what you see is is new finishes new casework new ceiling new LED lighting and and the Bron circles that you're seeing they actually they're called solar tubes
073so what they do is they bring in natural light so that's not that's not intended light know looks like in these images and then you come down to the lower right again that's that's part of the the art classroom so we provide additional sinks there with solid surface at the far right you can see again accessible access for the sinks and then the lower left are um just two other shots within those classrooms um we are there is additional scope in the building but we don't have that right anything Especial class St facy space space as well um things are moving well and with that I'll turn back over to my department um familiar faces great to see you all again but just wanted to pop in and say congratulations again on passing the referendum
074and to update you a little bit on what we're doing with the communication and of things so it's been a little quiet and short everyone's kind of you know excited to hear what's going on the referendum um there is information coming so we have first and foremost updated our referendo so that brand name that we created through the entire referendum information process we're going to carry that through now through the design and construction process so that people are still recognizing in the community that we're still talking about the design conru process the referend projects um and they're aware that this information is relative to our passage of our referend um so that one is there on the screen right under the communications title um essentially the same bring changed to the ref the the heart
075for joint One logo um to your right you're seeing a large image which is actually the first draft of our project updates so these will be coming out probably quarterly um sometimes you know month because we're really going through the the stronger phases of construction and we can work simply as a PDF version that will may be posted the website just for community members who are really interested in learning more um and it's also something that um Dr vbl can share with District bu the building principles maybe share with your staff so that they're knowing what's going on um but it's just an electronic PR deliverable that I'll create for you guys that just kind of keeps everybody in the loop on what's going on construction wise so look for those coming um and actually
076Dr Vos has some copies of our first version so those will be shared after after this board meeting um which is pretty exciting and then throughout um the construction process as you see the bullet points up there we'll continue to engage with your community members your staff your students um some fun ways to integrate the construction process into your classroom so as gett Roy and the rest of our project team are going into construction they'll start talking to your building principles a little bit as to how we can integrate and use the lessons that are going on as a live instruction site with your kiddos um and maybe teach them lessons or show them things that are kind of fun to to learn as as they're seeing a lot of people in construction paths hanging
077out so um yeah that's kind of it other than that we will also be working on some Community Milestones so ground breakings Dedication that kind of thing so I'll work with our court team on that um those will be off coming soon but yeah just know that we're here we're communicating and we'll continue to engage those stakeholders throughout the entire process question on anation and that's actually our last slide so are there any other questions at all that you guys have otherwise thank you very much for having us and letting us update you on what's going on I just have one question on Lincoln on the fourth and fifth grade wing with that metal and everything that's being projected is it because I know we're not changing the grading right because the big issue is
078the water pools there and we're not obviously we're not demolishing fourth and fifth grade Wing like we wanted so is that going to help with the metal on the roof and everything to try and allow not so much retention on that side a little bit gra brick so we'll that a little bit okay be excavated Al going to be a fer that a brick ledge put in and then point it's going to be recreated when that f is put back okay so there will be perfect thank you the the blue line on the top what you see there in the bottom left picture I mean one of the reasons why we have the problem that we have is that um that kind of metal cap and flashing hasn't worked so well and as water gets
079again in between the brick layer and the concrete block layer that's where we're finding a bunch of this problem so again as that gets remediated that the that top kind of cap thing will be REM remediated as well so again trying to keep the water out right from the spots it's not supposed to be thank you it looks great to see the pictures thank you guys very much thank you now you can have cake take without take one for thank you very much nice to meet okay that brings us to the action items of our meeting tonight so action item number one board member appointment of Treasurer the Board needs to fill this officer role Ed was serving as Treasurer and now we need to replace that we can't go without treasure so I'm looking
080for a nomination any Treasurer I'll nominate Barb Linder for the office of Treasurer are there any other nominations I do have to ask this question three times are there any other nominations and are there any other nominations is there a mo uh is there a motion first do you accept yes okay thank you thank you m and then I need a motion two of it says right here yep I will motion to close nominations for Treasure of the Board of Education pass a unanimous ballot for Barb Linder with the Minal duties of treasur delegated to the business services director do I have a second all in favor I any opposed motion carees Barb thank you appreciate it item number two um we need to appoint a new clerk Duty we need to reappoint the clerk
081dut duties for the 2025 election so with Miss trunk our current clerk on the ballot another board member should be assigned the clerk duties for the April election so is there a motion I make a motion to nominate Barb Linder for the clerk duties for the um April election you do I have a second second all in favor car don't to you accept it thank you all in favor I I any opposed motion comes thank you again item number three is policy revisions 2264 non-discrimination on the basis of sex and education programs or activities which we would like to resend and then item or number 2266 non-discrimination on the basis of sex and education programs or activities is what we would put in place uh the policies are updated currently to be compliant with the
082call with the law is there a motion I make a motion to approve policy revisions for 2264 non-discrimination on the basis of sex and education programs or activities resin and 2266 non-discrimination on the basis of sex and education programs or activities do we have a second second is there any discussion thank you D I just want to reiterate one more time that 2264 was the policy that was adopted in July of 2024 and now based on the executive order and the dear colleague letter I am recommending that the board resend this policy and put back into place policy 2266 um with the caveat that that policy be revised to eliminate the statement regarding August 1st and July 31st any other discussion well I know that uh it's the dates here that were talking about but
083I did want to just bring up here about under introduction here board does not discriminate on the basis of sex including sexual orientation or gender identity which I which I did want to get rid of but seeing as I was outvoted I just wanted to say that um I think it it is it parents and us should support uh students who don't are what what what's the word that I want that aren't under this gender identity category somebody H this terara says that she's uh obligated to protect them but I think that we are obligated to protect the other students too and according to the Wisconsin Liberty Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty they have many gray areas this is many moving parts so um that that's just what I that was my comment apprciate
084comments about it um any other comments if I can State and I don't recall if I said this um when we did our pre meeting um we have had Title 9 cases under our previous policy however since the new policy was adopted back in July we've had zero Title Nine um complaints filed so this is hopefully a trend that will continue where you know we it's not something that our district has to deal with um but when we do we certainly will so I I know that um I wanted to make sure people know that this is not something that's called upon frequently with that there's yes sorry I just was place um then I'll take all in favor I I I any opposed motion carries item number four is the custodial Services contract for
0852025 through 2027 a partnership with task has provided part-time custodial services for the district since 2015 this has been successfully and drastically reduced time and money spent on recruiting training and employing parttime custodians task pays the salaries benefits and uniform costs this contract does include an 8% increase in the hourly rate for 2526 fiscal year um is there a motion I motion to approve the 202527 custodial Contract Services with task second any discussion friendly Amendment um are you comfortable 25 26 oh I'm sorry 25 through 27 but I do have a question about that because it says it's an 8% increase and there were two difference there is an increase for 2526 and then there is an increase in the contract for 2627 correct is the 8% between now and 27 or is it 8%
086this first year and then an additional percentage the next year eight both she just in the note in this commentary they pointed out the first year this current year that's coming up just to point that out to you but yes both years have an 8% increase so it's 16% total correct I mean keep in mind that again part of that component is going to be salary increase but there's also a benefit increase and as you know if with a our operations and US dealing with benefits and that five to 10% is considered a good increase in terms of health insurance the alternative is again bring these bring these employees on to the district paying wrs paying our health insurance um Staffing it supervising it so um again even at the even at the rates of
087pay that you're talking about in terms of the Tob these um contracted employees I think it saves us a lot of time and a lot of headache in the long run I I I know you're the expert on this so I just have one other question sure um just to make you feel a little more comfortable even with our current new insurance plans we did where we're sayfe we're not in that common % increase for insurance plans do you still think that after 27 if they continue on this road of 8% increases every year is there a point at which it would be worth wide evaluated bringing those employees we I talked to Tony um quite a bit I Doug talks to um Mr Good Enough also quite a bit during the year between um
088kind of staffing needs that we have during the year for example we have a task person on at Lincoln during the daytime right now um because of the timing where um the previous employee um resigned in January and trying to find somebody that would be qualified in things um task was able to bring somebody in I think it's a good opportunity to see what that person provides in terms of service we've been happy with um that I wouldn't normally necessarily suggest long term that our daytime custodian staff is staff that way but um a advises time from from a situation that was somewhat unexpected in terms of her quitting um and gives us some time to kind of work through a good candidate um I'll be honest I would look at the potential taskers as
089potentially if they're interested coming here they pointed out that they do have interest in potentially working directly for the district that's something that obviously Tony from task and I am going to have to hammer out I don't want to be seen as poaching his employees yeah at the same time if we put make a posting and he likes it here and has gotten used to the work and wants to work here as an internal employee and we'd give him that opportunity just like you'll have to apply of course and we'll go through the application process but you know that would would be one fix to that um so again we talk about what wages are doing they provide um Staffing and custodial services for Slinger they they do services for Harford Union um and so
090we they have probably about 10 districts they're doing work with and the fact that matter is especially in our instance with nighttime custodians um people want to work during the day so even in our old handbook or our current handbook if we were going to hire those positions for nighttime we're going to pay a premium to have them come here because nobody wants to work second shift and I do appreciate that they' they've been contracted the best for some time and they've done a a good job um I was just curious that with the changes we've made to help save the district money if at some point it's to be to reeval not at this time and I I think what Mr Majerus would summarize would be that we we're always continuing to reevaluate our
091relationships and our Partnerships with vendors and with other um people who provide services so that way we can continue to be phisically responsible yeah the good thing is that task only cleans on school days so again they're not cleaning on other days where our full-time custodians again are 260-day employees they're doing lots of other cleaning and things that we need done um summer projects and things like that but in their specific instance when the work is done they're done and that's another thing we don't have to deal with so and we're paying for 175 days worth of cleaning instead of 260 days worth of Staffing and again finding things for them to do and the costs related to having them as full-time employees so again a let's just say $30 an hour for argument sake
092again it's costing us 45,000 for person perhaps versus I'm paying wages anywhere from The High Teens to the mid 20s and then again Family Insurance almost $30,000 when you take the the whole kind of situation into account you got wrs you got payroll taxes so you got a $80,000 person before you blink perfect thank you you're welcome any other questions or discussion roll call vote please Barb hi Aaron hi Don hi I say I motion Carri item number five is the summer work through hire positions for 2025 seasonal workers are hired annually to help with cleaning painting Landscaping Remodeling and clerical work a substantial amount of this basic work is completed during the summer and saves the district tremendous dollars given a summer crew rate of pay versus paying overtime to our staff um is
093there a motion I motion to approve the 2025 summer work crew hires a second any discussion and I have a Ru please Barb I Aaron I don and I say I motion item number six Chrome Brook purchases for the 2025 26 school year the district purchase purchases student Chromebooks every year for sixth grade students that are used throughout their middle school career this is a separate action item from the full technology package which will be coming in the march meeing to lock in pricing the cost of $33 per unit includes the device a four-year protection plan unlimited damage claims theft loss replacement charger warranty and replacement program required Google license and inventory management first is there a motion I'll make a motion to approve the purchase of 176 Chromebooks at a cost not to exceed
094$ 53,3 128 second any discussion or questions I just have one Adam I talked about this um last week just we were in a school thing and I just had a question about the prome books I know that there are some kids that obviously have accidental issues but then there are some that are a little bit um consistent in their damage to Chromebooks when you say four-year protection plan and unlimited claims like really I mean like they could destroy it 10 times and the company will cover I mean there's got to be some some cut off in this I'm just curious yeah so the way the the way the protection plans work again there there's going to be normal wear and tear of certain things that happen um again uh we're able to do some
095work um you know if a key pops off we can put keys back on I wouldn't say that we've had instances where students peel a bunch of keys off and we'll send the machine in and have them replace that if they break a screen for example again we've seen lots of screens get broken for a lot of different reasons um again we do have protection coverage to some degree if it's the to be normal wear and tear so Mr rlog and his staff are trained in terms of what they would consider to be normal wear and tear and part of it is the talking through the with the students at Administration try to figure out what happened in the particular instance and so again in situations where it is normal kind of stuff that just
096accidentally happens those get covered again the things that we experience are there is intentional damage going on as well and how do we deal with that scenario so um yeah people people do have to reimburse the district if it's a situation where it's intentional damage it's not covered by warranty I would just say kudos to having us vote on this at this meeting to get this cost savings because it is a substantial savings even compared to last year's yeah I mean one one of the things we're the provider is particularly worried about um again with things happening uh outside of our control in terms of um legislation and governance um dealing with tariffs and things they are very concerned that their inventory that they currently have is going to get sold out the new shipment
097is going to have tariffs on them and you'll get the newer model but you'll also get the associated costs with it so they have um when Mr asot called they have 11,000 units in stock um but this is the time of year if you saw the high schools meeting last night that they approved their purchase of Chromebooks too I don't know what vendor they use but again everybody's starting to plan ahead for that summertime and so we do like this company that Ryan's found um again those inventory perks they'll label them for us they'll label the Chargers for us so it saves us a lot of time too having to touch all these machines they'll bulk package them them so when we take them out they're kind of ready to go versus us having to
098unbox 176 individual boxes and have the garbage and fool around so um yeah it's it's pretty slick actually did these include the cases too that the kids get or is that separate the cases would normally be separate we actually have a supply of cases right now so you're not approving a case purchase right now because we have some perfect thank bar I Aon I don I I say I motion carries item number seven is the photography contract for the 2526 school year the recommendation is to contract with school and sports pick for photography in the 2526 school year the contract has no cost to the district is there a motion motion to approve the photography contract in school sports second all in favor I I I anyos motion carried yes item number eight is the
099consent agenda the consent agenda includes approval of minutes bills treasur report and Personnel recommendations is there any request to pull an item from the consent agenda seeing none is there a motion I make a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll second uh can I please harb I Aaron I don I I say I motion carries I n is the board meeting reflection and feedback so there was feedback from the last meeting included in the board packet and I would ask all of us to fill out the feedback form from tonight and with that would I have a motion to adjourn I move to adjourn so don second it because he said motion the same time is Barb so Barb and Don all in favor I any oppos motion cared at 7:31 thank