001Call us to order on this Monday, March 23rd, 2026 at 6 PM. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. This meeting has been posted in all of the regular open meeting publication places and I am looking for an approval of our agenda. >> We uh move the agenda with uh with taking out personnel actions out of the consent agenda. >> Some move in a second. Any discussion? All in favor please say I. I same sign. any of all right very good so we do not have a students showcase tonight is that correct R >> that is correct >> we do not
002uh we do have a principal's report but that'll happen in the administration >> happen in a little bit okay >> very good and then we have opportunity for community to discuss any concerns or topics raised by the board I don't see anybody speaking here I'm going to speak as a community member as you can do that we have that that portion of it so as this is my last meeting tonight I just wanted to say what a privilege it has been to serve the Merin school board It is a uh truly an honor and a privilege. The opportunity we moved here for a great school district like that's why we moved here. So the opportunity to be involved with that was something that's been near and dear to my heart. I watched my mother who
003was not involved in education go through many years of being a school board serving member and I saw this as an opportunity to serve our great community. So I appreciate that. Uh I'm hoping that so when I ran I ran as nonpartisan and there was some mocking that came with that. People said that that wasn't a thing or couldn't be done. But I think the purpose that I've been really happy to serve with our school board on is that it works quite well, right? That we don't bring another we don't bring the agenda of a national party into the room. We are part here to serve the community and we don't all have to vote for the same national political party to work well really well together as a community. So I've been really pleased
004to be able to do that with all of you here at that table and with our community members. Uh, one of the things I'm particularly proud of is that I feel like we've really brought back the norm of public deliberation. It's a really difficult thing if you're watching from the camera to sit and have conversations that other people are judging and have them with one another and have it all be videotaped. But that is part of serving in this position. And so one of the things I've been particularly proud of is that we've gone beyond just stating an opinion but showing the curiosity to one another publicly about why it is that you think that or what is informing your position because we then decide as a board. You often have had things to share
005with me that I would not have either seen in that light or was just information I didn't have. And so that has made me a better community member, community um servant. And so I appreciate that to everyone. And then I wanted to thank our administrators and our teachers and our families but especially our teachers. Teacher said to me one of the other days like it's just the grunt work said but when it comes to education right education the fundamental part of our democracy the grunt work is the work right that's the working with kids every day that's the educating our children. So I thank you from the bottom of my heart and just want to let everyone know what a privilege it has been to serve you. Thank you. Thank you, Rebecca, for three years.
006Nicole, thank you for four. Thank you very, very much. We'd really appreciate it. Really appreciate it. Thank you. >> Okay. Delegation. Do we have any delegations to be heard? That's Alson. All right. We are on to our administrator's report. >> Um, we've got consent agenda first. >> Sorry. Consent agenda >> and we got those. Uh, and then >> I feel like we do that because we did the other part. All right. Uh, I need an approval for the consent agenda items removing approval of personal actions from the consent agenda. >> I so move >> motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Second. >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. Same sign. Any abstensions? Okay. All right. Moving on to our consent agenda then for personnel actions, not consent
007agenda. Moving on to our >> personal. So, we have one letter resignation uh effective at the end of the school year. That would be Rebecca Cole, my special educator. Um, thank her for her one-year service and we wish her the best of luck in her next endeavor. So, just looking for a motion to approve the letter of resignation for Rebecca Cole as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Same sign. Stations. Thank you, Rebecca. >> Thank you. Um, we have one or we have four. Would you like I'll separate these. So, I'd like to uh recommend Carla Vanden Vandenboom for our 5K or our teacher. Uh, very excited to have her and she would be
008at 5K uh as our new section uh basically at Merin Primary School. So, just looking for a motion to approve the individual contract for Carla Vandenboom as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion and second. Any discussion? All in favor, please. >> Yep. How many sections does that take us up to in 5K? >> Five. We're still going to be at five. We had a 5K teacher move to second grade. So, that's where we had an influx based on enrollment. So, we needed a second grade teacher and uh I was part of that process. Mr. uh Blessington asks his staff who would like to throughout all the moves and gives us the staff the opportunity to kind of give some feedback on it. And Mr. uh Blessington has moved one of our 5K teachers
009to second grade. So, which opened up the 5K section. So, did you hear new section and but five? >> So, it's actually a new section at second grade. So, that would be a five section second grade. We still will have five sections of 5K. >> Okay. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Thank you for the clarification. Any other discussion? >> All in fi favor, please say I. >> I. Those same sign extensions. >> Very good. Next, please. >> So, um we have uh the individual contract recommendation for Olivia Beret to replace one of our fifth grade teachers. So just looking for a motion to approve the individual contract for Olivia Beret as presented. >> So moved. Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> All in favor please say I.
010>> I. >> Posting sign extensions one. >> Okay. Um same thing for fifth grade. Uh we have Carly Metronowski uh for our fifth grade. So just looking for a motion to approve uh Carly Matronowski's individual teacher contract as presented. >> So moved. >> Like a second. >> Motion and a second. Discussion. >> All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Same sign. And any abstensions? >> You will notice that there's only two fifth grade out of the three. We did have a movement. Um Kristen Bar is going to be moving from fourth grade to fifth grade. So that will round out our fifth grade team because we had three retirements there. And then you'll notice on weekend we do have a fourth grade physician uh posted on weekend to replace Miss Var. So we
011thank her for that as well. Uh and finally we have the uh letter of appointment for Samantha Cook as a human resource specialist. Uh and again that's a part-time position between 10 and 15 hours. And uh yeah, just looking for a motion to approve her letter of appointment as presented. >> So moved. So I move that we accept her appointment in that position. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Yes, we are very fortunate to have a disqualified candidate is what we got there. >> I agree. >> And a community member makes a very very good candidate. >> We're very excited Samantha. We're very excited for you. >> Yes. Very good candidate. Very impressive. Any other discussion? >> Have you set her hours? She going to be flexible? >> Yes. >>
012Yep. Yep. So, we've we've talked about her hours. She's going to be on campus three days a week and uh and through mornings and then some afternoons, too. Just kind of trying to catch the lunch hours as well as the before school time. And then also making it like understanding that human resources and people need contact with with her throughout the week is is setting some time up to making sure that she checks her emails electronically um offsite. So that small a very very small portion of an of a virtual time just making sure she's active um on the days where she's not in office. So yep. So >> and where will her office be? >> Her office will be right next to uh in the business office in the district office kind of right
013next to Jodie uh Trina and myself. Um and then ultimately she will in in talking to her and kind of working with our staff will have to be if a staff member wants to meet with her again in a general setting she can come to and use a conference room but then her going to them whether it be at the intermediate school or at the primary school. So >> so if they're thinking of something that's more confidential they'd like not to come to the district office she'll have opportunity to meet with them. >> Exactly. Yeah. Yep. Very very mobile throughout the district as well. We just want to make sure that people feel comfortable wherever that space is. Absolutely. Yep. But from a working standpoint, given the job description, a very close relationship with the
014business office is going to be needed. >> Good. >> So, yep. We're very excited about that. >> Other discussion, other questions? >> Thank you. >> Okay, we have a motion in a second. All in favor, please say I. I. >> I. Same sign. Any extensions? >> Very good. Thank you. >> I believe we're under our principal report. >> Delegation to be heard. Nobody there. >> Great. That's >> I think so. We're good. Okay. All right. So, I'd like to welcome up our two principles. Um, again, for our principles report, they're going to talk to you a little bit about some classroom walkthroughs that they've got a presentation for us to highlight a couple things. So, we I want you So, I want you to think about we have like three big buckets that are going
015on at both schools. We have a big implementation of reading, big implementation of math. But even if you think about our specialists at the primary or our teachers here that don't teach math and ELA, uh the big bucket around that has been around building thinking classrooms, which really is engagement strategies. So as as we continue to implement those three things, one of the things we've implemented as a administrative team is learning walks. And you can see up here, let me go to the next slide here. there these the learning blocks there's they create there there are two teams that we have Bob and I are usually on a different team and Maria's on a team we have the coaches our instructional specialists and we go we have an iPad and we have we'll we'll go
016through the process with you a little bit but want to let you know okay what is the learning walk you can see they're brief and very informal they're not evaluative u it's a collaborative effort in both both it's both teachers and school leaders so um some of the power. We'll talk about later is when we also debrief. You can see we're in classrooms for 10 or 15 minutes. Uh we like to get a snapshot. You I mean like for example uh when was the last time we did math? Like uh couple I don't know a few weeks ago. I was in a kindergarten classroom, an eighth grade classroom, a third grade classroom, a fifth grade classroom. So we see all the grade levels. Um and then what we're looking for is monitoring. Like for example
017with the math in ELA, we want to make sure you can see there the implementation is consistent. Um we want to look at it during real time and then this also gives us an opportunity to say what are some of our strengths we celebrate and he's going to talk a little bit next about our goals. Um but also that what are some things that we maybe need to do with professional learning or our coaches need to coach into. So this is what this is designed to do. So I'll let you talk a little bit about our goals next. >> Yeah. So with our our learning walks is really shifting away from there there's a purpose for eval evaluative process but a learning walk at least how we're are doing in Merton is really about um
018moving away from judging individual teacher performance. Okay there's a time and place for that. This is really working on schoolwide trends and patterns that we're noticing and also it's a it's been a great learning tool for me. It's things I've done in previous districts but to to learn right alongside our implementation. We are still in our infasy stages of ELA and math. We're only in year three of implementation with math. So, there's a lot of learning that goes on just with uh having an administrator in the classroom and really understanding maybe some of the the challenges and some of the barriers, but then some of the celebration that goes with implementation and it helps when I'm um as an administrator when I'm more in a formal observation helps me understand uh maybe some reflective questions
019and some next steps with the educator. So really we we look for bright spots and really we're the the data that we collect um is not shared at individual teacher level. It's really to help guide our professional development. Um you know we're hey boy we are a little weak in this area. We have not spent as much time like for example this year we've spent the last you know couple years spent a lot on ELA implementation for good reason. There's a lot with ELA and we realized with our our last uh math money walk that you know we're we're only in year three. So there's some things that maybe we need to brush up from a building level from a district level. I think it is really the goal is to provide like support for
020our teachers and then like improve student learning learning outcomes. I think there's a lot of other benefits with that um as well. But th that's really the goal of our our learning walks in Merton. >> This me too. >> Yeah, I'm doing this one. Yeah. Okay. Um we're doing other. >> Okay, this will work. Uh so our learning walks and I think I spoke to this really on the last uh slide but really my view and my perspectives both of those have taken place in the fall and then we just did the K Eureka math learning walks and then our last one Steve alluded to is our building thinking classroom is really really around student discourse student engagement strategy. So those are the the three that we've had planned this year. My guess we we
021haven't finalized this is the administrative team is that this is something that will continue going into next year um as well. All right. This is hard to look maybe hard to see but um the teachers have this too with it. So the very first thing the team I walk in with the specialist maybe another teacher whatever it is the group to the classroom let's we'll just I'm just going to use math in this example. You could it'll be the same type of thing for but so it makes sense. So the very first thing regardless of it, we're looking at classroom environment. We're looking do they have collaborative spaces. Do they have a vertical whiteboard where they can collaborate standing up and working on that end of it? Um do they have anchor charts that are
022co-created? Those kinds of things. We're looking at the physical environment that we think that's appropriate for learning. So that's that's the same. And then we there's like for example in math there are four different parts of the math. Like we we might we might walk in and it might be during the fluency time or we might walk in it might be the launch to learn the land and then return to that like it's a I'm going to give you one example. We turn to the fluence right and and there's a checklist of what things we should be able to look for for the fluency. You said well why would we want to do that? So I'll just give you a small example. Um, let's say so the fluency is basically it's kind of like a
023timed a time test of not just it's not just multiplication facts maybe things they're working on and it's it's a minute it's a sprint and they're going through this but they're sprinting through it and they do one and then if we watch and then they do a second one okay well the big part about implementation between if you just do one and you do two and you don't do anything in between you're probably not going to see a whole lot of gain between one and two but sometimes that can be missed in implementation what what's supposed to happen after the one is you have the students taught look for patterns you look for depending on what the what it might be and and then go through that a little bit of instruction now we do
024this second sprint and then you're after seeing those patterns you're probably going to say okay now I have a better understanding we're going to see growth and so those might be small feedback things of an example that we might find in an implementation and so uh we we Lindsy V our math coach over there is a wonderful full of spreadsheets. We get in with an iPad, we're able to see these things, record it. It's awesome because we just when we debrief afterwards, all of this is kind of laid out for us and we can see um you know some areas of strength and areas that we would need to do professional learning around. Um and that's right, I forgot that's the last slide. I thought I had one more, but I don't. >> We just
025took it off for, you know, we just took it out like five minutes ago. Like that's just too too hard to see. Um, so you can see that's what we did for this for math and eel. It's coming around in the spring with some of our engagement strategies. So just thought we'd kind of share that because there's a lot of time, energy, and effort that we put into that. We want to make sure we continually make sure the implementation's going well. What do staff need? What do we see our needs that we can obviously that drives professionally? I >> I think one of our opportunities too that we've talked about is you one of your questions might be how do we involve teachers in this process? Certainly um you know we have our guiding coalition
026with each of our school is um some of the best learning that teachers can do is get it getting inside other teachers classrooms. So that's that's something we constantly talk about and debrief like let's get let's start with a small group of teachers come come on come come along with these learning walks because that's where they're going to really get some of their big takeaways and their big aha. So I think that's part of our future future work that we hope to do as we move forward with that. And the reason we didn't start with that too is we were looking at the first time we did like the math walkthroughs we debriefed as a team and we shipped it a little the wording didn't make sense to us or like or just we thought
027it made sense but now being living it once we've changed it I think now once we have the process down and people are comfortable with what we're doing then adding teachers is the best. Any questions or >> Yeah. >> Do you find this is giving you uh a good pulse as far as like vertical integration by having uh different eyes on the different levels like you had mentioned where um you know you have seen lower levels and upper levels and I'm sure there see vice versa. Does that help you when you get together then to kind of get a pulse on where you are as far as curriculum u implementation on your vertical creation of things? >> Yes. And I also think the one I mean powerful thing I would say we have a good
028pulse too because my or like my math instructional coach is a part of the learning lot usually math my math instructional coach goes with him but so he gets it. So it's good for them to see I think like she has a really good pulse of what's happening here but I think it's really powerful to see what's like what's happening down there in the whole progression too. >> Yeah. So those those two groups that Steve talked about that's I mean the conversations and I get to spend a little bit of time with you know Andrea and Lindsay and we talk kind of talk through that and it's it's really insightful. >> What kind of feedback have you gotten from people you observe process? >> Well I think at first when you first do it they
029get a not I don't know they're always nervous right? Oh who's walking in with an iPad right that's I think the more we do it the less nervous they get. Um, and when we even share out, we're trying, we're not sharing out individually. We're just sharing out like we're we'll be sharing out at our next this guiding coalition with my math team. Um, you know, and a lot of times it's just shared out a lot. I mean, we're going to share out some pretty big celebrations at our next math one from our first one to our second one. Um, so I think they always want more feedback like because it's not they're used to them, you know, we're in the room and feedback is for them. This is more of a system feedback piece of
030how we're doing. So when they look at we share the data with them, it doesn't say this is what you you know what I mean you did. Um but I think starting to become accusto the first time we do it spring with a couple so that first time is always the the most nerve-wracking. >> Yes. >> Yeah. They were nervous. They were I hit a couple grade levels with some teams. That was really nervous. But Maria, she spent a Wednesday meeting morning meeting outlining a presentation similar which were kind of tidbits today outlining to our staff the why behind it and uh we're why we're doing it the impact that we can have across um so we tried to build the why so doesn't make it feel anyone less comfortable >> and we just didn't
031show up one day. >> No no they know this is all this isn't just like oh we're here. No. So again, we try to make that environment as comfortable as possible, but it's still it's a anxiety on that day. Yeah, >> Marie had a nice we didn't we took the video out of the presentation, too, but she had a really nice video for the um for the staff to watch to work this out. >> Are there any bright stuff right here to share that what you're trying to share with your teachers? Yeah, I mean I the u >> I know you want to say why not >> I'm really curious what he's gonna share. >> Well, you know, if we look at some of the the 68 implementation that we looked at like it comes
032out as a percentage like with classroom environment and do we see this and so we scored a perfect score for us. We got 100%. So, I was I wanted a t-shirt to say something perfect, but I didn't make one, >> maybe. So, >> but we have So, like I said, we have a lot of celebrations to share with our team. That doesn't mean there still isn't work, but a lot of I mean, but really from the what we're looking for classroom environment, what we're looking for with implementation and things we're seeing, we're seeing some great things. I think with PTO here, just want like our science just ordered, remember how we just ordered some new standing whiteboards? There's a reason behind that, too. Our science room doesn't have a very good spot for so they
033want it's a mobile one where they can up collaborate and see work the other kids can see that work. So thank you too. And this just doesn't happen overnight. A tremendous amount of work by Maria and the specialists because what you heard Steve say is is depending on when I walk into your room because we always our teachers and again being evaluated. I wish you were here 10 minutes earlier, right? or hey just wait 10 minutes and then you'll see you know what really happens regardless where you're at they were ready but just some universal things because of the consistencies Dr. the fool you're talking about is is we we are a system and we can walk in, we see where you're at. Oh, here we go. These are our look fors, but then there's
034some universal look for that just great for kids, too, as well. So, a tremendous amount of work leads up to that. Um, and that's led by >> um I want to shout out the primary. I mean we're seeing some really nice um movement of I mean really people are using our resources and material and we're seeing that how kids are coming for care you know really uh doing that and still bringing in their own teaching um when when they can. So shout out a lot of that and we saw growth on most of the educators >> we'll get some teachers firing up too. Steve has four math features. Bob has 25. So, I'm sorry, too. I'm sorry. >> Seven versus 25. Bob will let you fight that out. So, guys, thanks so much for sharing
035us. Thank you. Thanks. way to build trust between admin and staff. >> Yeah. >> Y so uh no donations this month. Um and uh open records the same normal stuff too as well. So the last thing I did want to share and again I did highlight this in my uh uh in the Sunday update. Uh our transportation has settled. I know last time we talked about this, Dr. You asked about that last month, but uh we are looking like a the same start and end times. The one piece that I did want to highlight to our families, the difference is is the buses will be coming a little bit later in the morning. So instead of an 8:30 drop, it'll be an 8:35, which for some families it'll be an adjustment because they're dropping off
036and going to work, but uh an 8:35 soft start for Merin Primary School consider compared to 8:30 right now. So um that's the impact that we were looking at from a family standpoint. So uh which means typically the buses now will pick up 5 minutes later. So corresponding bus routes from that standpoint too. Same number of buses and everything but uh bus times will be a little bit 5 minutes after the fact in the morning. So >> but it doesn't change our start time. >> Nope. Doesn't change our start times. Nope. We're super excited about that. So just wanted to follow up with everybody on that. I've seen some other communities talking about an increase of price to people who are within the two-m radius. Uh do we have any change there? >> Um we
037will if it's that always runs through our finance committee team and when we set school fees and things like that um we'll take a look at that. I don't anticipate uh what was it 450% or whatever it is. No. No. Um again the cost to transport a child is significant as you're hearing in our community right around that $750 to $800. Um the question would be is do we want to continue to offer it as a 100 but as we take a look at everything else increasing you know whether it's school fees or you know the calculator you can buy um that might be something that the board can consider if they wanted to increase it a little bit just to kind of continue to keep up with that inflationary uh things too. I don't
038want to outpric anyone to it because I think it we do generate about $18,000 in revenue to be honest with you. Um, and it's not I mean the revenue is nice, but it's also the opportunity for our families. It's really convenient for $100 or $200 both ways. It's a it's a great partnership because we want those buses full. We truly do because that's less traffic on our and on our and it's just it's better for families if that's something they choose to do. So, but uh again, that'll be I don't expect anything significant that'll get us in the newspaper or anything else like that. So, >> when when will finance be looking at that? We'll set our school fees probably right around in June. So, ready to go. Um, plenty of time for us to
039be ready for open house and stuff like that. >> So, families should be looking in June and July. >> June and July. We'll communicate that. Yep. It it has to be board approved. So, that is a student fee that will be uh board approved, go through a finance committee, and then ultimately approved at the board level here. >> Yep. >> Questions there. And so, also say child or parent of an arrowhead student, we got a long email today. I haven't even had time to read yet. Is there any impact for what Arrowhead is communicating to everyone on what will happen with Martin? >> Um, >> I haven't read it yet, so I don't know. It was very long. >> Nope. Not that I'm aware of. None of anything happening up there will not impact us.
040We don't anticipate it. Um, basically our buses are arrowhead buses now. >> So, we have eight routes. Eight of their 10 routes will be part of our tier. >> So, yep. >> Thank you. Any other transportation questions? All right. Thanks for that, Russ. >> Yep. >> We are moving to committee reports. >> Okay, we had one committee meet and that was our negotiations committee. Um, we met and again a thank you to Rebecca and Dean for that. And we've got Mr. Dusso over there. He was there as well. But what you see in the board packet is we had two proposals. Uh, both Otto and the district's proposal. Uh, we exchanged proposals. We met debriefed and ultimately what we will be uh recommending from the committee later in the meeting is a 2.63% increase to
041teacher wages spread evenly across uh an average 1.0 FTEE. So we'll get into that a little bit later but a 2.63 which is the max CPI um that was the offer that the union uh auto did ask for and that ultimately is what we agreed to. So again, we'll be acting on that a little bit later. At least that'll be the recommendation. >> Very good. Okay, we're moving on to new business. Our first is our final review of our K8 science curriculum, which is an action item. >> Yep. So, a big thank you to all of our committee members. Again, all of their names are listed in the report. Um, but this is the second review. Big thanks to Maria. Uh, has been working very diligently to get our budget numbers together. Um I was
042commenting at our instructional team meeting today that out of all of the curricular adoptions at least I've been part of the last 15 years probably the most unique one because it's an open ed resource yet we then we need to fund and find resources to support that and uh as we we are seeing there's broad ranges of uh different vendors and can do this and can do that but ultimately uh Maria has been really working down and basically setting a budget of what you'll see in the board packet of approximately $140,000. Now, that is for professional development for us to get kickstarted on materials, the whole cave. But, um, so that's kind of our budget that we're looking at. Then you also see, we just wanted to be transparent, just like our math and our
043ELA adoptions, there are some consumables that will continue to happen yearly. Um, in science, obviously, we've had consumables ever since we were in school. Schools have had to replace those. Um, we've been a workbook structure, too, from a 68 standpoint uh this last curriculum cycle. So that will just have to continue. But um there are consumables that continue to be brought each year, but $140,000 gets us going uh to where we really want to go and to pro for professional development and gets the resources that our teachers and our kids really need to. So um so what you have there is a full recommendation of the curricular review and then ultimately the budget. So the administration is looking uh for the board to make a motion to approve the new K through8 science curriculum as
044presented. Solo. >> I'll second. We have a motion in a second. Discussion. >> Maria, is this the first time you've done the open resource? >> No, actually. >> Okay, that was as well. >> So, variety of different vendors for that. It's just um many more in the world science. There's a lot of traditional web science companies. There wasn't a lot of Okay. >> Is this still a process that you liked more than let's say a package that you would buy from someone else that came all together? >> Well, isn't you know my truck? >> Well, I'm thinking I guess I'm not thinking preference. I'm thinking process. did which is which is a good process to get to the best product that is I'm really asking is this the best process we should do or do
045we need to support you in another way >> right I take a look at what are technology students what's still available for the open quite a lot and then kind of what is you know the district what they just it's kind of more competitive >> right >> okay >> which we saw the range of bids was pretty extensive >> and just and elementary is still u they just finished creating that so not all the vendors could actually you know, guarantee it would be up to >> It's good news. >> Otherwise, that's a little anxiety producing I imagine. >> No, >> other questions. Are the reoccurring costs going to stay somewhat stable or dynamic or it's 57,000 a year or so that would be their placement kit which since I've been here um a never has
046a full consumable kits so that's like extremely >> okay thank you >> I probably do it for about a half I heard that. >> It's on recording. It's on film. >> Yeah, it's on film. Yes. >> Thanks, Maria. >> Other questions? >> All right, I think we're ready to vote. All in favor of motion, please say I. >> I. Post. Same sign. Any abstensions? >> All right. Thank you, Marian. >> Okay. Thank you, Marian. your team. We got a science curriculum. There we go. All right. So, fiber optics. So, uh again, we have an opportunity here. Again, the fiber optics has been on our facility plan literally since 2016. It really has. And in working with Mr. Benny, um everything's working good. And again, this is not a all of a sudden we need to
047dig it up and go. uh the opportunity right now when we take a look at uh the opportunity here, we can fit this in our budget uh to be able to do so and uh it really would help out Merin Primary School from a standpoint of speed. It really does and it just gets us back up to and this is future looking too as well. It's uh again there's some details in there and again Jim can elaborate on that too as well. But um the opportunity for -ate and again the kind of the if if we don't do this if we don't act now we'll probably bring it back in a year uh because has to be approved by the end of March end of March. So to get access to those dollars and things
048too. So um it's just time. Uh we've got a good life out of that and it's ultimately looking forward too. So um we won't be doing this anytime soon. That's for sure as things continue to change. So, um, just looking for the board to make a motion to approve the district's fiber optics, uh, not to exceed $39,000. >> I think this I was just going to say I think this is >> discuss. We got to get a motion on it. >> Yep. >> Do a motion and a second. >> Second. >> Okay, there we go. Please go ahead. Discuss. I I think that this is an important move because anything moving forward is going to be streaming or subscription as far as like classroom technology. Um I think also any kind of things that you
049want to do as far as safety and security. Uh any kind of camera use or things like that, the amount of bandwidth that they take. I've done a lot of things with law enforcement and with um other school districts on uh cameras and the a solid uh fiber optics l um a system within your your buildings is critical to the operation of those things. I mean, whether it be um you know, a couple of cars banging uh fenders and we get an attorney that wants to subpoena um video or something like that or we have vandalism or you know, god forbid some tragedy or something. Um but I think that that can also help administration with uh student management in some cases as well. So, I think that this is a a a solid purchase
050and I would um I had a conversation with Mr. Benny about this and I think that that there's been a lot of foresight uh into how you've worked this with your buildings and grounds over the past few years to uh have something to where you're going to minimize your costs uh in being able to implement this. So, I think this is a solid purchase. >> Well, it'll be Thank you for the people who put it in though. I mean this was almost original uh when they this is almost original but they did set it up where there's already rope and I mean everything is all ready to go. >> Um so they have four even when they put it in there some bugs. >> Yep. >> I want to highlight this looks like we will
051be able to go from speeds of one gigabyte for for up to 10. Could you >> Yeah. So that's that's a minimal rate. Um, so that's what we're doing. We have one strand of fiber right now that go to each plot where I have one and one between the belts. What I'm proposing is to putting 12. Now that one strand that we use now is one gig. When we move to 12, initially we only got 10, but we have the potential to go 12 times 10. So, and you know of when I was talking to Dr. talking about, you know, why we did this, why we did that. The cost between doing one strand of fiber versus six versus 12 is a matter of 1,500 bucks. >> Oh, wow. >> So, it was like, give
052me 12. And regardless of what we do internally in our district, we would set over a minimum 30 years minimum unless somebody digs it up with that. So that's that's kind of where it came from. That's the right sign, the right place. Um cabling vendor that we've worked with for years. Um they were the ones that gave you the quote back in 2016 first time and it was updating just here we go your buildings. Let's go. what will this look like in the classroom or what kind of difference it will make? >> Um, so in essence, the way I I explained it to Dr. Ford, the way things travel from say access point to closet to internet is going to be a lot snappier. It's going to be a lot. The internet speed is going
053to be the same, but getting there is going to be a lot faster. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Thank you. >> Other questions? Thank you for your work on that. >> Thank you. Imagine that'll make a lot of people happy. Anything else? Think we're ready to vote. All in favor of this motion, please say I. >> I. >> Same sign. Extensions. >> Thank you, Jen. >> Arrowhead Transportation. So, uh, ultimately what you can, we've been talking about this for for a little bit of time now. What you have in front of you is an addendum to basically shrink the 6603 agreement with all the Arrowhead feeder schools and the and the Union high school from ending in 2030, June 30th, 2030 to be ending June 30th, 2028. So, um that gives us ultimately two years
054to kind of reassess our situation. Uh instead of being a consortium of eight, um we'll be a consortium of something smaller. We do know that we will need to work together with members of the consortium. Some members will make more sense just based on geography, but uh we will spend next year getting ready for that because we'll have to go out to RFP early in the fall of 2027 uh to be ready for this. So um but ultimately I do believe all but two feeder schools whereas us and North Lake are yet okay us and North Lake are yet to act on this too as well. So, um, the addendum just shortens the time period. That's pretty much it. So, the administration is recommending the board make a motion to approve the addendum to the
055ADTC 660301 agreement as presented. >> So, moved. >> Second. >> Have a motion in a second. Discussion. So, want to clarify that a arrowhead initiated this process. >> Arrowhead has initiated this process and then there also was discussions. It was initiated by Arrowhead but it was discussed, collaborated by and ultimately agreed upon by the majority of the school districts that thought that this was the best interest. So this is uh it was started the conversation just through the whole process but ultimately it was a group decision to uh abandon the group of eight to look at what would be best for each individual school district. And you'll have next year to work out that plan so that by next fall >> by next fall we'll have to be have something ready here. Yep. Exactly. What
056that looks like is yet to be determined. But we can't do it by ourselves. Guarantee that. And we're in a really good spot being a third tier school. >> Can you explain what that means? >> Um the best way and again from a transportation standpoint with school districts is you really want a three tier system. It maximizes your bus drivers. Obviously, it kind of puts them full-time, so it attracts talent. But ultimately, having a three tier system where they go to one school district or a school at, let's just use easy numbers, one at 7:30 or 7:30, then one at 8:15, and then one at 9:00. >> Um, and right now we're in that later segment. Um, which makes us very attractive to other school districts who are like want to partner with us. So,
057because it makes sense to as well. So um but again being very sensitive with start and end times could be an opportunity for us to reset our start and end time uh through a collaboration uh but ultimately finances will help assist that too as well and put some scenarios together. So um more to come on that. It's a pretty it's going to be an interesting process about how we go about doing that going from a group of eight to a group of one or two. >> Do you anticipate times when you'll get community feedback when this is going forward? Um, I think when we if we have opportunities that will present itself. I don't want to ask a question that I can't deliver on. >> Yep. >> For instance, do we want to start school
058at 8:00? >> I don't know if we can do that. If I have an opportunity to do so and it's a this or that. >> I was thinking about when you have choices and you have costs associated with them. >> Yep. >> That if if there are if there is more than one option, will you be getting community feedback for >> We'll have to take a look at that at the time. And again, it'll be this won't be something that all of a sudden lands up in the uh the board's the board's lab. Um because finances again, if we stay the same, you know, finances because right now we're going to be paying more for transportation than we ever have. Um just the way things shook out and yet we haven't moved at all. So,
059>> and by moving, none of our times >> none of our times have moved. None of our time moved. But the good thing though is is our primary staff did get an extra five five minutes to our primary teachers they get an extra five minutes which is 25 minutes a week which is significant when you're planning for you know 18 kids for literacy numeracy science social studies and things like that. All right. >> So, more to come on that. We'll keep the board up to date. >> Any other questions, discussion? >> Okay. All in favor of the motion, please say I. I. >> I. Post. Same. Sign. And the extensions. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. >> We are on >> I will let Arrowhead know and the consortium know that we signed it too
060as well. >> We are on to the master agreement with Arrowhead Teacher, United Teachers Union, United Teachers Organization. >> Sure. So uh through negotiations what you have in the in front of you is uh basically the legal binding agreement that would be approved by the board. Ultimately what it does for a teacher for every teacher 1.0 full-time teacher they will receive a $1,74160 raise. So we multiplied how much money the teachers were making as a whole from a year ago. Multiplied that by 2.63% 63% divided it out by how many teachers are returning that we know of and we got $1,74160 that you will see is the corresponding uh salary schedule that is in the appendex there too as well. So um pretty straightforward uh loyalty is still there as it as related to the
061addendum and ultimately what the teacher compensation system is intact to what they uh worked on about a year year and a half ago. So, uh, the negotiations committee is recommending the board approve the 2627 master agreement between the Merin Community School District and the Arrowhead UN, uh, United Teachers Organization as presented. >> So, move second. >> Motion to second discussion. >> Thank you everyone for your work on this. >> Thank you. >> All right. If no other discussion, all in favor of the motion, please say I. >> I. >> Sign. Extensions. Motion passes. Okay. >> Thank you. All right. Then we have the administrative salary. So, uh, the proposal was discussed at a close session meeting on February 24th. Um, again, what you have in front of you shows a 2.63% salary increase from last
062year's contract. So, I'll let the board decide which uh recommendation they would like to make. >> We need a motion >> because I'm included in it. Yeah, I make a recommendation on it. >> Yes, it's so we'll need to put the motion on the the uh >> approve the 2026 2027 >> administrative salaries. >> Motion. Is there a second? >> Second. >> I have a motion to second. Discussion. Second the motion and the second the question is does anybody have any points of discussion? >> All right then all in favor of the motion please say I. >> I. >> Both same sign abstensions. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you very much. Um next is we have our instructional specialist. Uh the administration is recommending the board make a motion to approve the instructional specialist salaries
063for the 2627 school years as presented. This represents a 2.63% increase. >> Move. >> Second. >> Motion. A second. Discussion. >> Hearing none. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppose. Same sign. Extensions. >> Motion approved. >> Thank you. >> There it is. So, um, next meeting, uh, we do have set for April 27th. That's when we've kind of been communicating. Again, that will be the first meeting with the new board. Um, first thing on the agenda will be to reorganize. So, and then we'll we'll move from there, too. So, >> so while Nicole and I are moving off the board until that date, if you have questions, we are still correct. We are still board members until Friday, >> April 24th at four o'clock as we're still board members. So, and then
064we do have the election coming up on that first Tuesday, >> April 7th. Um, and then we'll have a new board. So, all right. >> And we go from there. Um, and then I we probably should wait until for the May to have the new board set that that date and things like that, too. So, >> all right. >> Okay. Any other future agenda items? >> Move. >> Motion. Is there a second? >> Second. Motion second. All in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Right. We are adjourned. >> All right. Thanks everybody.