001apologize and they offered to come and entertain you guys in June. Uh that's Aaron Shaw and Trevor Lynn. And uh as you can tell, they've they've grown up to be wonderful young men and uh good members of our community. Um stats for this year, which I know Joe's just waiting for. That's exactly right. We had 18 graduates for the year 2025, which is awesome. We have eight of those students that are collegebound, have already been accepted, have already taken entrance exams. We have two that are going into military, leaning towards the Air Force. We have eight that already have excellent jobs lined up and they are stepping right into uh the workforce. In our program this year, we had one young gentleman that received a bass fishing scholarship and he also won the national bass
002tournament. We have Kobe Baker. He is one of our students at Adams and so he'll be going to W Bash College. We had another young lady that took her entrance exams over at John A. Logan and they were floored by how high her exams were. Uh she actually preempted out of most of beginning level classes and so Johnny Logan gave her a scholarship for that. So she's planning on majoring in science and she's going to go two years to Logan and then on to a 4-year university. So very very proud of it. Uh, I know I've got a new board member that probably doesn't know a lot about the program, so I never pass up an opportunity to talk about the program. I had somebody from ask me the other day, "What criteria does it
003take to get into the extension center?" I sit there for a minute, talk to my teachers, I talk to some of the students. There isn't a list. I don't have a magic list of box ABCDE E that you have to check because every one of our students are unique. Every one of their situations are unique. Uh whether it's the anxiety, a lot of students suffer from anxiety. They have social and economic issues that face them. Uh the number of homeless children that we have in our district is is mindboggling. Um and the number of students we have I have several in my building that have lost parents due to terminal illness and even two that have lost uh children of their own. So we are just very unique and we go through a process and
004then parents come in and the student comes in and they sit down with the group of teachers and we talk about what's the issue and then we determine I think this round peg is going to fit in the square hole. Not going to fit there. So we kind of carve out that square hole and make it round for those students. so they can succeed. And we've been doing it since 2003. And it's program that's very near and dear to my heart. And this year, Mr. Pogandoff, can you please come up? Mr. Pogandoff, this is his first year being our English teacher at the extension center. The kids loved it. I didn't think anybody would ever love English, but they do. He had is it creative writing? Yes, ma'am. It was creative writing and I am
005going to turn it over because he has something that he would like to read to you. Thank you. Hello everyone. My name is Steve Pogorf as I was introduced. Um yeah, I teach the English classes at the extension center. It's my first year. Um I love it. Thank you all so much for the opportunity. Um it's been a great experience so far. So, creative writing, um, that's a way that they can recover some, um, you know, English credit that they've missed for various reasons. Um, a little different from like English two or English three or English four. Those are very straightforward kind of, you know, curriculum based. But creative writing is open to just whatever they're inspired to write about. So, I always try to give them like a little idea. So maybe we do
006a film review. Maybe we'd review restaurants in the area or maybe for this particular assignment that I wanted to share. I wanted to challenge them to write a song um about whatever they wanted, which was really scary. When I first dropped that, I was like, "Oh, this is going to be these are not going to be sharable with anyone except for us." Um but we had a couple young men, um Caleb Upton and Troy Griffith, who they were going to come and then they had stuff going on. One of them just took a new job and the other one is busy with whatever young people are busy with. So, I just wanted to share the lyrics. Um, but they actually played this song. Like Troy sang it and played acoustic guitar. Caleb brought in his
007bass and played it as a song they wrote from scratch. Um, so here are some lyrics. Are you going to sing it or? Uh, no sir. That that would not go so well. So, you're just going to have to imagine some young creative kiddos singing this. But here it brought tears to the teachers. Here you go. Let's see if we can bring some tears. Right. I go, it's called I go to Adams by Caleb Upton and Troy Griffith. I go to Adams, the place of second chances. They saw something in me that I couldn't see. I was failing. I couldn't breathe. I needed help. So, they rescued me. Uh, it's not the end. Don't give up. There's still hope for you and me. So, let's say thank you to our heroes, Mr. P and Mr.
008B, Miss LS and Miss Sterns. Don't forget Miss Burns and Miss Wallace, too. They pulled us through. So, a little name dropping there of the folks. Yeah. Yeah. It was really awesome. Um it's not what I expected, you know, when I when I kind of put that assignment together, but it was um I'm glad that you asked me to kind of come and read that because it reminds me of like why I'm there, why I'm teaching, what the point of all it is, but also um hopefully it shows the value of the program. So, I was happy to share that with you all. Yeah. Thank you. And Troy was a is he on the varsity varsity football team? He was a senior this year. junior this year. So, he'll be back for next year. Okay.
009At this time, that's the extension center. Anybody have any questions? I just want to say what you do is truly special. Thank you. It changes the trajectory of students lives and it gets them to their potential. And just I applaud you and your entire staff. I mean, what you guys do is exceptional. Thank you. We love it. And and I've seen I've seen talked to I mean you meticulously go through every single one of those students portfolios. Do you know what I mean? Like you meticulously try to find those those students. And so Miss Sterns who could not be here tonight and Mrs. LS they actually go through and evaluate every every transcript for Marian High School. Uh, I would love to come up with some way to get our program out there a little
010bit more because a lot of the students that they've called that we've noticed that are behind in credits weren't even aware of the program. So, that's one thing we're hoping to work on this year is kind of get it out there a little bit. I mean, the program's not for everyone. I mean, it it you have to meet certain criteria. I just can't tell you what that criteria is. But we als it's one thing like we always say this every year just so people maybe not aware of this program we've had forever 2003 Joe not forever but u it's not a disciplinary place only it's only for kids that are maybe going to miss a few credits to recover them to get kind of get back on track graduate with their class. Yeah, absolutely. There
011is zero discipline. In fact, when we look at accepting new students, that's the first thing I look at. I realize and my staff realize everybody makes a mistake. But when you have mistakes that are five or six pages long, I've got babies in my building. I have prek. I have three and four year olds. So, there is no discipline problem. Miss always talk about every year. call it extension center. Some people might think well and we're we're trying to move that to the credit recovery program. I think that the extension center has a bad connotation with it. If we can change the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, why can't Hey, make that happen. Recovery Credit Center. Make it happen. So declared [Music] put that on the agenda. There we go. With that being
012said, we do have a wonderful program that we have between our eighth grade students and our kindergarten. And at this time, I would like to call Kelly Simmerman up here. Is those doors bothering you? I mean, [Laughter] yes, they bother me. Oh, okay. I don't know. Looks like that table's pushed closer to the doors tonight, but that's even better. Good evening. Microphones kind of scare me, so I hope I'm okay. Um, I uh teach sixth through 8th grade English language arts um at Adam's School and Mrs. Martinez, who I wish could be here tonight, um is not able and she did want me to give you I have her consent to share that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer and that she had a leptomy last week surgery and she's at home and she's
013healing and resting. But I do miss her because I wanted her by my side here. um she's the one who had the vision for this um that what what we're doing is having junior high students interact with kindergarten students. Um this is our second year to do it and it's been a big success. The junior high kids are always very excited to go down and help with the kindergarteners. The kindergarteners are always happy to see them when they come in. We take lots of photos and we put it on our class dojo, Mrs. Martinez and myself and let the parents see what we're doing. And we've shared some of the photos with these students. Um, and they have made a slideshow that we would like to uh share with you of what we've been doing
014this year. And I'd like to introduce Oh, you know what? I get nervous up here. I also am supposed to share something else. Hold on just a second, boys. I'm sorry. Um, today uh, Deita sent me a text and was wishing me luck to present tonight and she said, "And if you want to share my text, feel free to do so." So, I said, "Okay, I'm going to." So, let me find it. Patty, why is she here to give it herself? Did you not hear? She just had surgery last week. Yes. She's She's had a lumpctomy and she's at home healing. Yes. Oh my goodness. Okay. I'm sorry. So it says good luck tonight. I am sure you all will represent Adam school very well. The bond junior high and kindergarten has is very special
015and full of love and kindness. In our world today we do not always get to see such love and kindness and we are very blessed and fortunate at Adams to be able to have this experience. So, it has been a wonderful experience for the teachers, for the students, and uh I'm going to let them show you. We moved this over, so we hope it works. If not, we're going to move it back over that way. But this is Gavin Blue and Paxton Westberry. Morning. Are you gentlemen? Okay. So, today we have Adam School Kindergarten Memories from 2024 and 20 2025 by Gavin Blue and Paxton Westberry. Our picks are provided by our wonderful teachers, Mrs. Zimmerman and Mrs. Martinez. Can I move it up a It's a medical alarm. I'm so sorry. I'm okay, though.
016Don't worry. It just can't be silenced. My phone is silenced. Every year, our teacher, Miss Simmerman, brings us downstairs to help and do activities with kindergarten. From playing games to doing art and different activities, we have always enjoyed every second of it. And now we would like to share some of that with you share with you some of the things we have. Oh my gosh, that's a complete horrible typo. I think you get it. Yeah, we have photos from our seventh graders and our eighth graders. In In these photos, we are playing some board games with our kindergarteners. Here, we're having a dance party. Here, the seventh grade is making snowmen. and Christmas trees. Here we are making Christmas tree ornaments for our Christmas tree. And here is the Christmas tree. Here we are reading
017Christmas books. And again, here we are reading a gingerbread man story and making American flags. Here we are designing stuff with scraps. And finally, we have a video from kindergarten. [Music] I [Music] love I like That's so good. Thank you. So, we have Well, we might have some questions. So, thank you for coming because I know this is an intimidating group. So, you guys did great. Thank you. Um, uh, I heard a message once that said, "Live your life like those behind you are watching because they are." And they are. What does it mean to you to be a role model for these kids? That's a big question. I know there's no wrong answer. I like I like I like inspiring them to do what they want to do. Showing kindness, like modeling that behavior
018for them is so important. Gavin had a very special time this year because he's in his little brother. Very good job. Very good. So, like they said, this is our second year doing it and we plan on growing this more and more. And Dita's vision is to do challenge coins. So hopefully next year during our eighth grade graduation, our eighth graders will hand off a challenge coin to our kindergarten students to help them meet and live up to all their potential. So good. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Um, now it's time for audience to visitors. Um, do we have anyone? Oh, the door open. [Laughter] Great job. Yeah, absolutely. Sorry, I wasn't I wasn't planning to do this. Um, my name's Heath Blumentock. I teach down at Adams in the extension center and I have
019kids that go to Adams, one of them being a kindergartener. So, I just wanted to say how awesome that program is. My little boy tells me every day about his interactions with some of my eighth grade students that I have. So, it's really kind of neat. So, it's a good deal. Just good job. Thank you. Thank you. People won't think we're everybody out. Uh, next up is Marian Education Association. We have anybody in here? Uh, next is the consent agenda. Uh, may I have a recommendation for that? Madam Secretary, I mad I make the recommendation to approve the consent agenda as presented. Minutes the minutes from the April 15, 2025 regular meeting and the May 6, 2025 special close session meeting is presented. Bills, the April supplementary bills and the May bills for payment is
020presented and donations will let the superintendent go through those. We have readers link to elementary libraries books valued at $2,196. Beth Wilson with Wilson realy to fifth grade field day team flags valued at $50. Tyler Young with the print shop to fifth grade field day team flags valued at $50. Spree family foundation to MHS Wildcat Runway donation valued at $500. Sue Rin to Jefferson PTO for candy bingo valued at $500. El Ranchito to Jefferson School lunch for teachers and staff valued at $400. Lavish Bath Box to Jefferson PTO for candy bingo raffle baskets valued at $100. Fowler Heating and Cooling to Jefferson PTO candy bingo raffle baskets valued at $100. The estate of Sharon Wilson to Lincoln Elementary School at Baldwin Piano. Pepsi to Jefferson PTO for candy bingo. Drinks valued at $100. Second. Any
021discussion? Okay. Would you please call Lawler? Yes. White? Yes. Bund? Yes. Garrison? Yes. Wesley? Yes. Yes. Moore? Yes. Miss, would you make a recommendation for the fundraisers? Madam President, I make a recommendation to approve the 2025 2026 fundraisers. May I have a second? Second. They present it to us. It was in the packet. Uh Whiteford, yes. Yes. Garrison, yes. Wesley, yes. Wire, yes. Waller, yes. Moore, yes. Okay, we have new business. Madam, go ahead. Madam President, I'd like to make the recommendation to approve the following personnel recommendations as presented. employment Marian High School uh summer school teachers Lucas Lions Cody Pauls Jenna Gilispy Carrie Martin Katie Evans Dean Schulmeister Jason Dunning Marty Cameron Trevor Hill Eli Baker Michelle Tate and Britney Willis non-certified Chelsea Napier secretary assigned to Washington effective for the 2025 2026 school
022year Alexander Wagner custodian second shift assigned to Washington effective April April 22nd, 2025. Travis Waltney, custodian, second ship, assigned to be determined, effective April 22nd, 2025. Jesse Hines, hall monitor, assigned to Maran High School, effective May 21st, 2025. Resignations. Carrie Pedigrew, elementary instructional assistant, assigned to Washington, effective May 26, 2025. Courtney String, elementary instructional assistant, assigned to Washington, effective May 5th, 2025. Brett Leaper, maintenance, assigned to Marian High School. Marian Community Unit School District number two, effective May 30th, 2025. Randy Barton, custodian, assigned to Lincoln effective May 30th, 2025. Leave of absence. Kaylee Evans, third grade teacher assigned to Adams a maternity leave of absence beginning approximately August 11, 2025 with a tenative return date of September 22nd, 2025 using accumulated sick leave. And Doc Dave, Brandy Stanley, float nurse assigned to Maryland Community School
023District number two, a medical leave of absence beginning May 6, 2025 for the remainder of the school year using Doc Day. Sarah Allen, first grade teacher assigned to Adams, a maternity leave of absence approximately August 13, 2025 with tenative return return date of September 29th, 2025 using accumulated sick leave retirement. Do you want to leave that one? Sorry that one separate. Go ahead. Retirements. John Fletcher, principal assigned to Lincoln effective July 30th, 2025. Brad Seager, fifth grade teacher assigned to Lincoln effective at the end of 2028 2029 school. Second. Okay. Please call. Oh, any any discussion? Would you please call Yes. Garrison? Yes. Wesley? Yes. Wire? Yes. Waller? Yes. White? Yes. Moore? Yes. Madam President President move to approve the natural gas contract with Century Energy LLC Manfield Power and Gas for 36 months. per
024term for time period of August 1st, 2025 to July 31st, 2028. Thank you. Do we have a discussion? Uh Garrison, yes. Wesley, yes. Yes. Waller, yes. Yes. Thunder. Yes. Moore, yes. Okay. Madam President, we move to approve board the bid for property general liability and all bill insurance county risk management trust. Second okay discussion please Wesley yes yes Waller yes yes yes yes more yes madame president I'd like to make the recommendation to approve the intergovernmental agreement Marian Community Unit School District number two in the city of Marian is presented. Second. Would you like to I can I can. Yes. So, um I learned a couple months ago meeting with Chief Fitz um at Marian Police Department that we had a couple of issues with our junior high and high school that um SSOs and
025and police officers were not able to communicate very well. Sometimes would depend. it was kind of 50-50 chance of whether they could call out on the radios or call in for some assistance if needed. And so in order to um make it to where all of the calls go through all of the time, we need to upgrade the repeaters that are on top of the rooftops. And so that's at the junior high and the high school. And we are splitting the cost with the city of Marian. And so the city of Marian approved it at their board meeting uh city council meeting last month or this month earlier this month. And so if you approve it then we will uh be in an agreement to pay for half. So we will buy one and they
026will buy one and then everything will work properly and we suspect that that will be done. Um I spoke to Chief Fitz earlier today and he thinks it will be installed uh probably later this summer. It will all be official. So any questions or discussion? Yes. Wallard. Yes. Yes. Yes. Garrison. Yes. Wesley. Yes. More. Yes. Okay. Reports. Mr. Jerry of technology. Okay. Uh Mr. I'm just gonna say Aaron. Uh do you have any updates on Jefferson? or not. Yeah. Washington and Jefferson HVAC. Washington's back. Okay. Okay. So, I spoke with the process right now. Finally came in graduation day. So, there's 22 of them that'll eventually be put in. That should Okay, great. When you say the wrong one, the wrong it was they didn't work right or they we didn't put in the right
027type or did the right type. The rooftop unit that one no longer exists. So, they kind of rolled the dice with it to see if it would work, but the units are so old that they, you know, they tried to do what they could and it just didn't work out. So, we put many splits in but kept the one on the and the children on the roof. Well, the one on the roof was replaced back last year. Okay. That's not working right. Or it's not working right now. So, it's it's the right one, but the one we put on there is just not working right. No, the one that's Well, I mean, it makes I'm just trying to figure this out. You said we put in one last year. Is it not working right? Is
028it broken or was it the wrong type to put in? I guess. It's the wrong type that got put in. So, okay. We were told that it was going to match with the internal unit. It doesn't. I had another company come out and look at they said this is why it's not working. So, one company installed said this would work. Another company came in said this is the problem. This would never work. So, I'm not H tech. Is that what basing out? This isn't the big This is just like a resial unit. It's just a small unit. So, something that you put in a house. So, nothing, you know, it's just $3,000. Welcome to Erin's life. Yeah. Okay, Miss Superintendants. Um, so I just wanted to say um with the devastation of the recent tornado
029that um we tried we you know we put something out earlier this week um to try to raise some funds for the we have over 50 families that are directly affected families and of staff and students. Um some of them are a total loss. Some of them um are just displaced maybe temporarily but have a lot of rebuilding to do. um if you've seen it firsthand, pictures can't put it into word. I mean, you can't describe it, you can't put it into words, and uh pictures certainly don't do it justice. So, I just wanted to say thank you to our community because everyone has been wrapping their arms around um our students and these families. And we've been getting lots of donations. Uh we set up an account at People's National Bank um where we
030are making deposits daily that we get in and we're also collecting gift cards. Um just to help us with essential items of what those families might need. And uh People's National Bank is also helping us out by taking donations um at their locations in Marian Bittton and Harrisburg. Um, and then I as soon as I sent that letter out, had Jerry put it on Facebook, um, I immediately started getting emails of what, you know, where where can I write my check to and, um, I, you know, I business in Murphy'sboro who's just helping us collect donations and then they're going to bring them over to us. So, um, just the outpouring of the community support and anyway, just thoughts and prayers with those families. Yes. And I want to thank Ms. just how quick you
031were and your ad um administration team for identifying those families and getting that information quickly and just loving on them. And then I want to say a special thank you to all of the students that we have in Miran unit 2 that have gone out and helped um those in need. I've saw different student organizations, the football team. So um it's not just the adults that students are helping and their boots on the ground too um assisting. And so, um, thank you to all the secretaries, too, who are taking, uh, donations and coordinating that and getting it over here to the unit office. So, thank you. Um, you know, I'll just second just some of the things that Becky said, but I know yesterday when I talked to building principles, they just talked about it's
032just such a sombering time. And so, um, you know, there were a lot of tired adults in buildings yesterday. a lot of tired kids in buildings yesterday. And um at the same time, it's the end of the year and we're celebrating a lot of accomplishments and success. And I do want to do a quick shout out to all of our teachers and and staff in every capacity for making it such a successful school year. I know it's not easy. I know everyone's really tired. Um but thank you for a great 2425 school year, Miss April 30th, 2025, we ended the month with a total of 34 349,32363. of that 25974,966 is our operating funds and transportation. Uh we're 83.33% through our fiscal year. Our revenue is at 95.47% of budget. We're above that mark. Our
033expenses are at 74.4% once. increase right now. Nope. Thank you for all of your hard work. Okay. Um any other discussion? Uh, I want to um just agree with um Mrs. Watts. Just thank all of the teachers this year for a great school year. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication. And uh I was talking with Miss Moss earlier today about how um our motto this year was family. And this is community Marian Community Unit School District 2 is not place where people work. It is not just a place where students go to school. This is a family and we really have rallied around one another with this tragedy as we do any other time. And I'm just so proud to be a part of this this family. So, uh, anything else?
034Um, there's no need for close session. So, would someone like to make Joe's join adjourn? Ajourn second. Second, would you please roll? Yes. White, yes. Yes. Garrison, yes. Wesley, yes. Yes, ma'am. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.