##VIDEO ID:4qmbYoAJlHo## think I was loud enough I like to call to order the regular meeting of the bota board of education for Tuesday August 27 2024 please stand for the flag to flag the United States of America to the stands the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the bagota board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and ples thereof posted in the bagoda Burl Hall communicated by letter to the record file with the clerk of the buau of bod and posted on the Boda Board of Education website her Mrs alal Mrs alare present Mr olare absent Mr Chavez present Mrs Cruz present Mr Navaro present Mrs olivo present M Ruck present Mr Miranda presented we have the cor also present superintendent Damien Kennedy board attorney Thomas cin School business administrator um board secretary moneyman fono assistant board secretary Elizabeth Ruiz and we have no student representative huh oh that's right because we have no students at school and I'm sure they're not running for this either right I'd like to open the floor on citizens and agenda items only do I have a motion to Move Motion Chavez do I have a second or Leo any board discussion all in favor any opposed any member of the public uh that would like to address agenda items only please state your name we have any member of the public anyone online I'm moving can I move to close the citizen ad Heering of the citizen agenda items only motion Chavez do I have a second second Mrs rucket any board discussion all in favor any opposed moving on to agenda uh 31 superintendent report first good evening just uh couple updates first tonight we have to give our testing presentation for the uh NJ GPA uh by code they have to be done within 60 days after they're release they decide to release it at the end of June so we have to do it at this meeting I even talked to the county super about moving it next month he just advise doing it tonight because you have a meeting so uh we will be doing a quick presentation Staffing update we are looking very good we're about 99.2% filled at all positions we have a few few eight positions that need to be filled um but we are interviewing now as we speak summer projects Bixby and the high school bathrooms Bixby is just about all the way done uh those were the bathrooms at and then the classrooms high school bathrooms seven bathrooms were uh gutted and uh remodeled they are at the tail end they went through the punch list for The Architects uh but they have final inspection at the end of the week so they will be available and ready for the students uh when we start which we were happy about Fields as everyone can see it's been a long process with d uh all paperwork and permits have been filed and approved and construction is in post swing so I believe they were even working this Saturday so I think we're going to see them down there six days a week as long as the weather cooperates CTE building all permits uh have been uh applied for and have been granted they will be in full swing in September with our September of 25 opening for that building so that's good news summer cleaning is going to be finishing up especially in Bixby and the high school because we couldn't do those floors until the construction was done in those bathrooms but we've been slowly been able to get to them there'll be a deep cleaning we'll be ready for our staff and students um next week uh also we'll be sending out an email we got to schedule the groundbreaking we got to um celebrate these two big uh milestones for the district so I'll be working with President Miranda to uh schedule some dates that works for everyone we would like to have the full board there uh for those events uh welcome back breakfast is scheduled for Tuesday after Labor Day everyone is invited here uh it's the one time that we try to get the whole District together all staff custodians secretaries AIDS uh we like to have breakfast at 8:00 am come together for a half an hour I give a little spiel about what's been going on what's good and what we're plan on doing for the year we are also planning the 100e celebration of this building uh so more information we're looking to get dates that work for everyone and then real quick I would just like to go through our testing presentation it's only on the one test so it it's not a ton of information but if you just bear with me for a second I got to start sharing I want to share everyone has a copy in front of them um all right so this is the NJ GPA which was administered in March of 2024 uh so this is a State graduation assessment for or for all 11th graders um this is based off of ela 10 standards and Algebra 1 and geometry standards so it is a little backwards in a way because they take it their junior year of March and 95% of our students are not in either of these classes anymore uh but that's what it's based off of uh this is the primary graduation Pathways again there are many different Pathways that a student can graduate with uh including SATs PSATs as vot test so some of our students take this test knowing already that they have passed a graduate assessment and that is one of the things that we deal with this year the cut off score was 725 so they're considered graduation ready at 725 participation we had 993 participation in ela and math this is including added District students that do not sit for the test with us they count against us as well though because they're tied to us so even though those students are not in our building we do not teach them because they live in bota and we send them out of District they count towards our account so this year graduation ready in ela we were 81% right the state was 81.6 we're right on par with the state now this was last year we were at 90% which was a really big number and if we can stay above 80% that is a great thing for our district right we like 90% but if we're staying at 80% there's not much to complain about there because when you're dealing with 88 kids we're talking one or two kids are moving those numbers a lot uh math what we were very happy with last year we were at 43.5% passing this year we were at 5 5.3% which is almost a 12% increase if we continue that Trend then we're going to be exactly where we want to be if you look here and just so we have toal total transparency in 2022 the cut off was 750 so that's why the numbers were lower in the State uh and in bota but then you can see that the cut off score went to 725 in 2023 that's when we were 90% so we we were 9% over the state number this year we're right at it at 82% this is Ela in math if you look 36% in 2022 44% in 2023 55% in 2024 but we've always been 11 percentage points behind the state this year we caught up and actually beat them by a small few percentages all right we have to also show the breakdown because these are small numbers if there's not 10 or more students in a specific um e ethn this is the erase we cannot show that because those students can easily be identified but what I want to do point out is and you don't see this in a lot of districts but our economic disadvantage right so those students that are considered free and reduced 80% past Ela compared to free and reduced right 83% so actually our free and reduced kids did better than our non-free and reduced students which is you don't see that in many places to be honest with you I I I think we do a really good job when you look at our ethnicity and our economic disadvantage numbers I would say we are up there in the top 10 in the state I would say that and I would and I asked Mr Chang to look for those numbers they're not out yet but uh they haven't released the to the public all of the uh District's information only the state averages but when we did it last year we were there as well math as we said continues to grow um 58% Hispanics pass 60% white people and then again non-free was 58% free and reduced was 53% students with IEPs is something that we are working on is 14% students without I is 69% so again we have 11 students out of District that are Pro that our special ed those count against us as not passive so our Ela analysis we're on par average uh every year with the state right we did see a little bit of a dip this year but at 90% the year before to maintain that as very uh tough numbers but that's what we strive to do we're going to continue to provide structure writing instruction and opportunities to students continue to provide after school tutoring and summer instruction first struggling students look to improve rigor and support for special education students continue to reinforce strong instructional routines and continue to support our ELA teachers in their instructions in math positive trend in math over three years 36% again with that 750 cut off 44% and 55% right so we are above the state average this year for the first time in math in a long time so what we're going to do is continue to focus on algebra and geometry Readiness stricter Algebra 1 curriculum pacing to ensure all standards are taught pacing guides created admin checkins increased Algebra 1 instruction time in eth and nth grade is what we started doing last year we're now using Norm benchmarks three times a year to determine at risk students and then we are working with those students the same way we work with them in ela which star Renaissance what we're going to do next year in Algebra 2 right is we're going to do a little te more test prep as we get closer to the njtpa and reinforce Algebra 1 and geometry the other thing is we're trying to sell our students that it's important for them to try their best on the test because it is what we are based off of it is what our houses are assessed at our test schools and we try to explain to the students that and they're starting to get a little bit more we provide after school tutoring and we're still support special education students in math prep the other test that we just have to report on is the access for and this is for elll or MLL Learners multilanguage Learners right so again this is for all our students in MLL right it is a tool to measure multilanguage Learners Proficiency in English language students assess in for domain speaking listening reading and writing this is for all students in K through 12 they take the access for Al 2.0 proficiency level is 4.5 or higher before exiting these are our languages right now and you can see uh Spanish is is the dominant uh District native language at 87% so just to give you an idea of where we are at the high school uh each year so what we can see is positive Trends in the high school that continue to go up and these are our numbers right here and participation again if you look here you compare in 20 3 to 24 listening went up about .1% we continue to show growth across the district ml population Remains the Same for the past two years so we did have a big explosion uh but right now we actually have less students than we had in 2023 we're at 107 we're at 95 some of the cases that the kids after they passed this test they are now out of uh ml classes scores with so our Trends our scores within all domains are steadily increasing due to data analysis and targeted instruction to address student needs uh districtwide focus on infusing speaking activities to increase confidence and Proficiency in ml students the other big thing that we started last year is we providing the op uh mentorship opportunities for check and connect for older newly immigrated students where what we're trying to do is match them up with a teacher that speaks Spanish or their native language to help work with them to help them through the process to help their parents understand what's going on uh and this is part of our check and connect that we have the data analysis to see that when we tie a teacher to a kid as part of this program their attendance their grades their overhaul Behavior improves dramatically within a few short months so we're going to continue looking to expand upon that we brought it down to the middle school we even have now uh some students in the elementaries that we're recognizing in fourth and fifth grade that need that little extra push and someone checking in on them and that concludes my report if there are any questions feel free from the board right now to ask Mr Kennedy good job with that presentation um there's a lot has been happening uh there's a lot of progress we're making and there's definitely a lot of effort and planning to advance in the areas that we have been stagnant which are very very very few of them and anywhere we find it or we deem it um not as fast as we wanted to grow I think this board has a a desire to SC things up quite often it rattles a lot of cages through our Community but when you're so far behind you can only look forward and it often comes with uh the speed of light the the I I do want to have a moment of silence but before I go there um I just want to point out that you're looking at our parks and it's happening it's happening we said it was going to happen it's happening um honestly speaking I'll take it the way it is it looks beautiful it looks safe uh that's just a statement a personal statement but it does look like something is happening and outside of the fences around the entire park when you see the fence come down that division went away we are looking like a Grand julu Park I like it I can't wait to see what's going to happen um we have almost concluded 25% of what we were set out to do board so give yourself a round of applause um I personally tackle things is like what comes first what comes next and how they divides in percentages just because I'm a percentage kind of brain so I have 25% was the bathrooms only because I knew that was coming first then 25% was the fields and then 25% was the completion of the CTE building and the other 25% is the Bigby gym and the auditorium right so that's how am I missing something okay some of the art rules that's all part of that Auditorium and then the Bixby gym so so I have it broken down in segments in my mind so as I see I'm like okay 25% took off and we're 5% you know into it it's really how I think so so it's a good thing we're we're making a lot a lot of progress um one of the other thing is that uh I think we all know we we we made some money in our interest so we're financially trying to balance this entire thing to not to be below or over uh by doing so we also went after the re-registration I'll take it a p in the chest here for all of us that a lot of people ask for trying to find kids or people who attended the school district that might not have belonged here or maybe did belong at one point and and this is something very interesting um I think there was a Fear Factor about how the residents of Bot or the non-residents of Boda would react to the board well we proceeded with a schoolwide reg ation effort and it it I don't want to point out anything but 60s plus children probably moved I guess that's the nicest way to say it the item didn't belong or whatever but it really saves several hundred thousand closer to a million dollars when you start looking on the staging the fees but interesting enough this is not about catching it's not like ha I caught you it's about observing the way our growth is occurring and the space with that funny thing being said I'm over here saying Kennedy a fun 60s something kids you know B go to Residence and Ken said and we had 27 just enroll in our school district so so so you know at first I could sit here and say harah we caught you but I think it was really more about preserving as many years as we can people do leave town people do come back into town um and we have a phenomenal thing that not many people can applaud is that and I know we're not prived as information so I won't even bother to ask but we know we have a prek program that is flourishing that a lot of towns look at I've heard people from Maywood said I wish I had that you know they're looking at it and maybe they look for apartment so they decide to buy homes in pretty old bod because we have a lot of little benefits and this one is a big one that helps parents and young parents so yes we got 60 something that that I don't know what happened they just didn't comply with the rules and regulations to be in this District but we also had 27 come right back in that did comply with the rules and regulations so just know that one of the things we've put in is we've um this board U worked on a program that we purchase that is now going to stay on top of because often people it's hilarious often residents say how did you let it get that far well this has been for a long time coming first say how did you have the guts to do it right I'll rather take that but second is we've put something in place that was better than what we had right that will now identify when leases are expired when things are expired any immediately react and alert the administration because too often people forget that this Administration is teaching kids they're looking for programs they're mentors they're psychologists they're psychiatrists they're their parents to our children and a lot things can't slip in a crack when you have 1,400 Kids versus maybe 1300 1300 27 kids versus you know um 100 administrators right it's it's a it doesn't weigh the balances so so I often want to make sure that the staff knows I appreciate them that the teachers in combination with us know that we support them and and that you guys have cherished and and I thank the board for doing this all together thank you it's a lot coming but 25% is on the way of our project our referendum we're doing it we're doing it we're doing it pat yourself on the back and then I want to take a moment of silent because what I have known the world's best Yankee fan a true bagoan um someone that you know if you think about Vinnie I didn't know him for so many years but I known him for about 12 living here Vinnie was a special person when I first met Vinnie I would uh I would probably you know in New York City you're used to when someone approaches you so aggressively you kind of backpedal really fast and you're concerned Vinnie was a kid who grew up in mot went to schools in mot and then he he befriended Dr Fitzgerald and a lot of other people who taught Vinnie how to live his day-to-day lives and I say this because today this board put into action with this Administration an 18 to 21 program a steps program which by the way I was at Big spe and I had a parent speak volumes on this because there's a child in our district District that's also attending the steps program at a younger age and we're teaching them about haircuts and washing your clothes and shopping and this Vinnie didn't have that Vinnie had a bagota community of kids who were big Sports guys and big this and taught Vinnie how to live his life and Vinnie passed Vinnie passed and it was a hard it's a hard thing because anyone who sat with Vinnie he had a Yankee hat he had a Yankee shirt he had had a Yankee sweater he had a Yankee jacket and he probably had Yankee sers and if there's something that Vinnie knew is Yankee statistics and if Yankees were out of the end game Vinnie didn't watch baseball anymore the way it should be he was a true Yankee fan and I'm a true Yankee fan so this guy walked his dog around town he often walked around town and said Frank Frank did you see the game did you see the numbers and and he had judge in his mind all the time and there was another one he had and he was just a true yanki he was like a real bosan and he was what often we forget between the political infighting and all the nonsense that does happen in the exterior of Bot he was what bota is he found a group of individuals who have been lifelong families with lot of big Brotherhood who taught V how to move on and live his life and it hurt me because I just saw him you know few months back and then he was I guess he was back and forth between some personal homes and things like that and I would often get Dr fitzgeral I would see him and he would tell me vin he's doing this and and you know and man Dr Fitzgerald is an amazing individual guys he's a chiropractor suppor his business he he's just different he's just different his whole family is different and he fixes our backs but I will tell you this Dr fizgerald would often tell me how Vinnie's doing and and You' be amazed of what you learned and how a community comes together and they help this one individual and that's what we kind of do and now we have a steps program and we have people doing that so in memory of Vinnie and true bod I want to take a moment of Sil and if we could rise and stand we just take a moment aside [Music] thank you and Vin thank you thank you because you're an example you you walked around town he didn't drive he was everywhere um and I think he got to meet a lot of people and I saw something go up and you'd be amazed how many people met one time and they were like Vinnie was lovely and everyone knows he was a Yankee fan so thank you Vinnie thank you bod thank you Dr fizgerald and all your friends if I knew all of them I would say thank you because my child was in that position and myself landed in that position I would only hope we have friends and people residents in bota that that can help us all right so we're moving on to uh resolution 4.3 which is the approval of agenda items for for June 18th of the open regular meeting and July 30th 20 24 special minute minute meetings is there a motion to move 4 three motion Mrs rucket do I have a secondo Mrs olivo any board discussion roll call Aran Mrs alal yes Mrs Sol yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes yes uh Mrs solivo yes Mrs ret yes Mr Miranda yes motion carried moving on to 53 the policy section which is a group of agenda of it items 51 through 52 you have a motion to move 53 motion Mr Chavis do I have a second Miss alal I'll take that one any board discussion roll call or Mrs alal yes Mrs Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs olivo yes Mrs record yes Mr Miranda yes motion carried moving on to resolution 625 in the education section of the agenda which approves items 61 through 624 you have a motion to move 625 moo Mrs olivo do I have a second second Mrs Ruck and any board disc discussion oron Mrs alal yes Mrs alare yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs olivo yes Mrs ret yes Mr Miranda yes motion carried moving on to section 624 Personnel section which approves item 71 through 723 you have a motion to move 724 motion Naro Mr Naro do I have a second was Chavez correct yes any board discussion roll Callan Mr salal yes Mr solarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs olivo yes Mrs ret yes Mr Manda yes motion carried moving on to 821 resolution section and finance section of the agenda which is approval of agenda items 81 through 820 you have a motion to move 820 motion Mr Chavez do I have a second second Mrs rucket any board discussion Heron Mr alal yes Mrs alare yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs Oliva yes Mrs ret yes Mr Miranda yes motion carried moving on to resolution 97 in the buildings and ground section of the agenda which is approval of items 91 through 96 do I have a motion motion Mrs alcal do I have a second second Mrs rucket any board discussion Eran Mrs salal yes Mrs Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs olivo yes Mrs record yes Mr Miranda yes motion Carri moving on to section 101 of the committee reports does anyone have any committee reports well I have one uh real brief there's been a back and forth uh H I want to use that there was a an opportunity to elaborate upon contract of the sleo read and our police department and maybe what we could have or could have not been doing um I will tell you that the burough administrator as well as uh councilwoman Lisa Co and even Danielle FEI attended uh mayor Danielle feedi mayor Fe sorry uh we attended a meeting of a previous meeting that might have been uh maybe our request wasn't as granted I will say that the second meeting which we had after much back and forth and enjoying my vacation your vacation we recently had a meeting where our safety uh will be enhanced um our working together to create safer areas for our schools will take place part of what we're intending to do and I'm bringing it to the board there's an idea of and a lot of it is different schools but the current situation is steam we know steam just is in a very little area with high traffic um and the drop off situation which by way of this board and taking action improved dramatically we remember we voted on cols and we had a drop off section improved we still have some parents or I want to say highes or employees that drop off children because you can't believe you don't know who's dropping off the children that don't necessarily comply with the letter of law the rules the traffic rules and they disobey and create a bit of congestion that causes a hazardous environment it also causes opportunity which I've seen close call the children parents to get hit some parents Park their cars in the middle of the street and leave and you're there for 10 minutes screaming move your car because there's a whole traffic behind so we have try the administration the more to like ask for traffic offic and and and and things like that which they could not necessarily comply with however I think they've been very proactive in going out to obtain a uh I think the council's working on that now an Outsource for um school crossing guards those school crossing guards the best thing is you're now working with a pool fish not fish guards where where we just had five or six and if one was sick we were do or the cop a cop had to work on that Crossing which didn't help the burrow or any opportunity for someone sneak in on the townwide uh situation so they have been proactive in themselves in finding an Outsourcing company that would immediately um sent somebody to the crossing station which is is Kudos so then beneficial to us what we think and I think we have to sit down right but I want the public to know that this is what we're working on what we need to work on that's what building of grounds and we'll come up with our safety and referendum is to try to create a corner cutout for Main Street so cars can actually slow down and not just fly through our crossing guards who are like this close to getting hit and do certain things that other preppy towns have you know I got to tell you sometimes just going to these preppy towns you think it's all about the money it's about little changes I call them that but listen better Town Better Tax bases do little things that you think are beautiful and it's really just an opportunity to try something and it creates little safety NS for our children for our residents um we're going to be working on some aluminated signs that you can like crossing guards can hit a button or or an officer which was blinking and basically getting cars I think you've seen them all right you're about to cross street and it starts really blinking cars are actually slowing down so so we're looking at those opportunities um for the public we didn't mention it I think there may be some construction on a grant or something that came through around Ste around bxby in September we're begging that they move into another month because it's like the start of school uh but I will tell you that our safety the safety measures that were taking are going to be much better with our SS and everything else but what I the reason I'm bringing this up is residents and parents of bod and this is something that came from the police department need to understand and maybe one of any board member may not agree with this and you have every right to speak up that we fully support the police department to counteract the behavior that's transpiring in and around our schools and what I mean is those traffic concerns are serious they're stopping the cars I see them they're blocking I mean there's cone and at the very last portion of the cone in Ste and big anywhere where you're supposed to have the only space to pull out they leave their car like this so you can't pull out and they leave that's and I've had people I've you know I'm one of those guys that be like you gota be kidding me we I've actually said Bo have done all this to make it safe for you and you just and you got to wait and then you know because there's some things about signing in your young kids they have to go down they refused to park anywhere else they refused and you know and when you ask the Police Department please do more please do more they counter with or your parents are not listening we tell them and they say you know go where the sun sh and that is true because I was present at a situation where the captain Kennedy myself and the so now he's the lieutenant but sergeant lady Parks the sign clearly says don't stand here with all the bling blings but don't stand here and I said can you and I knew he said watch he went up there you can't stand here man this you can't and in front of us as we're measuring the sidewalks and coming up with this trying to figure out she says I don't care I said please don't do that that she's like give me a ticket so I looked at him I said you got to do what you got to do I mean we're all witness that you politely did this went to school says I'll be right back anyway it was 15 minutes later I was on clock and he issues her the summons and she went night and it was like where's the rationale in this I think we told you please so if they're doing that in the middle of all of us that tells you what they do the one stand alone police officer I think we have to say if this is going to continue to happen give him the ticket give him the ticket exactly you know I think I think we have to say because I think often I had another situation you need to tell the police officers to back off I got that recently because they're giving a lot of tickets and it's funny because I know they're not what they were given is that one person ticket because we're not getting enough we're we're noticing people are not waking up they're not moving their cars they're not doing anything so we came up with some IDE is to permanently put possibly put some when that comes around we'll have to vote on it but so that you know there's these little ho things you put on the STW walk and you and you can put these metal cols like put them in temporarily so traffic can flow the thing is that Mrs Cole and mayor said we're gon to work we're gonna do it we go we gotta work safy in and out our schools aren work we need that down here too y I know I know what we I'm so tired of people making left that poor that poor woman almost gets hit all the time she looks like she's about to have a heart attack sometimes so what I what I'm asking is I'm just standing alone here I think that often we have to be vocal I'm asking the attorney if there's a way that we could send a pretty comprehensive notice to the resident say please be cooperative because action is going to be taken because it's never a problem until a child is hurt and we're sitting up here with newspapers lawyers say or at least give them a warning that's what I'm saying we need to be proactive our town is so small our streets are too tight and we just have no other or we're going to spend millions of dollars cutting curves so people come in and out of school I don't think that's that's viable so just bringing it up and I'm also letting you know that the police department has asked of us to be more a little more proactive vocally in saying we are going to support tickets that are merited we're going to support it and and and we have cameras and if you lie the cameras are there I don't know what that opens I'm not saying that all I'm saying is our principles need to be respected our administrators need our parents need to be respected as long as you're not breaking rules that cause a Nuance for our kids split seconds can make differen and change a life MH all right so that was me um there's no other committee reports okay moving on to Old business there any old business 111 of the section the agenda moving on to oh let's open the floor open the floor hearing of the public on absolutely anything besides my jacket I'm joking is there a motion to open up the floor motion Cruz okay that was a Chavez and the second was Mrs Cruz any board discussion all in favor any opposed okay okay any member of the public please say your name hello it's me again Sarah the director of the bota public library um nice jacket um I uh I also want to thank you for your kind words about Vincent he was a big Library staple and um we're pretty devastated over at the library we're going to miss him a lot um we were another home for him um which leads me to my next point is we are also another home for your students who come after school sometimes so I just wanted to go over some uh policies that we have in anticipation of the school year starting um any child uh under the age of 12 cannot be in the Library without a parent or um at least an older sibling who is at least the age of 16 I just want to make that clear you know in case anything happens it's just good to have uh one of their grown-ups around um also any any child any student who wants to use our public computers must have their library card with them um they can't get a guest pass um that's just to ensure that parents know they're going on our computers um and also to make sure that everyone's taking their turns and you know we can find out if anybody is doing anything not so great on the computer um so I wanted to go over those two things I also just wanted to welcome all the students after school um we're going to try to have some more programs for them um to participate in we're also trying to get the teens back so if you have any teen students who are interested in programming please send them over to me um and that's basically it I also just wanted to reiterate that the public library as always is going to be uh looking to work with the schools a little bit more make sure we have all the resources that your students need here at the public library um well also either me Mr Tommy or I will be at the back to school nights uh to meet with parents individually and um parents do have the opportunity I know it's hard for parents to get to the library sometimes so they do have the opportunity to sign their child up for a library card uh electronically that will be back up on our website next week um so if you do want to make sure your child has a card so they can get on our computers should they need to um you can go ahead and do that and then we uh send their library cards right to their classrooms so thank you so much and have a good rest of your night thank you thank you thank you you guys doing an awesome job down there I I would say this as well too if you send me anything policies that you want me to send out to all the students that's probably the best way for them to get their eyes on it because so anything you send me I could send it out from the public library I'll send it to you and also it is on our website botu library.org as well thanks thank you any hands okay moving on to CL oh let me close hearing of the Deus demra Miss demitrus oh Demetrius I'm sorry I missread that keep on mute you're on mute mes are you are you asking to speak you're on mute Maybe a mistake he almost went off view are you intending to speak can of is typing something just all right wait because um Susan Harper said I'm online I don't know if she wants to speak Susan Harper are you trying to speak you ask I made heril okay it came up can you hear me yes thank you very much um so a couple things first I want to commend uh the teachers and the superintendent for your early report and uh the check and connect program I think it's a fabulous program I think it's really wonderful and it's really I'm sure is going to make a huge difference in many individuals life um a couple of things um I know that um Mr Miranda had mentioned that uh the board had made over a million dollars in high interest savings account and that we have saved some money with respect to um non-resident students what are we doing with the money and can some of this money be used for supplies for teachers I have you know I heard today I saw online that uh teachers who are requesting wish lists and like sort of made me pause thinking about the fact that we probably have you know a million plus or 1.5 million potentially available and it may not be available may be already earmarked the other thing is that um obviously you know with the digging that's happening outside there's an enormous amount of digging and I'm sure you guys are driving by to see it but of course we live behind it this debris makes it obviously very uncomfortable for us to sit in our backyard Ys and we're also dealing with the re the repaving of River Road at the same time um what is the anticipated uh finish state of the fields um and with all this digging taking place has any sort of soil samples been taken uh given the historic use of the fields as well as the fact that many of those uh the trees were were rendered um dead um I wish we just curious on that too as well thank you well we're talking about so it's accumulating right now um there's certain uh rules for after if we have to pay any arbit or things like that whatever money is left is about the board discretion that whether it's going to be used to pay off the debt or it's going to transfer to the general fund but we're not there yet the the uh projects are not finished yet maybe we will need them to finish those projects either uh we don't know at this point but that amount of money is in in our financial statements uh you can see that under the f30 whatever is accumulated a little portion uh like around $18 $80,000 transferred in the this year uh just to avoid the tax impact to the tax payers for the 2425 school year thank you eron and the schedule right now on on the the Barrow side is to complete that first with the idea that we can plant the side at the end of October so that it can settle and be ready for the spring so that side of the field is a priority right now so that should be moving over the next two months um uh and for min understanding uh soil samples do not need to be taken because we're not moving any dirt so that's where we yeah just just to clarify uh this is our fourth year third year with a 0% tax increase third fourth three out of four uh partially That's How We Do It um the other thing I would say to Mrs Harper is I don't want to give anybody a a hard date as you all know that's risky you bring it back um to answer your question we're tackling that side uh because as you probably know very well and most people know there's a there was a concern about an endangered species which is based on the governor's recent report is coming off that report and we had from August 1st to January 1 try to complete this task or most of the task before we have to wait due to this endangered species if this endangered species is removed then we keep moving forward but it is fully the board's intention and and the administration to move this project forward and complete it as fast as we can um soil testing only is required when you remove soil from its premises from one project as you have been explained to in the council meetings you've asked the same question that's not the case in this scenario so we don't know how fast it will be finished but you need you should know that we want it to finish properly as diligently as possible to get our children and our residents and our residents and our seniors back on the field back in the park work so that should answer all your questions so Frank so miss Miranda you anticipate then I guess after the sod is put down that the park would be open again in the late fall in the winter I don't use the word anticipation because people hold accountable and and simply don't understand what anticipation means you're hope all I'm telling you is that you've seen the transformation that Park and it's behold in your eyes and many people doubted it and it's happening so all I can promise you is that we are working diligently we're following up everybody here is on top of a schedule and we're following and we're pushing to make it happen as quick as possible to alleviate any burden that single residents may have to in order to give a larger residential population in Vota the freedom and the opportunity to play on new parks that's all Mrs Harper anyone else this dimitriadis this dimitriades I hope I'm saying that right oh yes you are I'm sorry I had setting issues um so um great job everybody with um the TRU Andy issue and the um upgrades to our Parks our kids really need that um especially the truin it just issues um I feel like the resources should be used for our children of theoda and um I'm happy to see that you guys carry through the that and I'm hoping that it happens like at least once a year or every other year I don't know what the plan is for the future but definitely should continue um also all the upgrades I'm looking forward to all of it making the high school better and the field for the children um I just wanted to make sure that for the school year that um you know the board and the principles of each school um make themselves like their presence felt during the after care and before care um just working together like the teachers and the after care programs to help our children and also to see if there's any barriers I know last year there were like a lot a ton of issues um be it with the homework and I know that the Board of Ed has a contract with them so I do hope that there's like presence there like that after care and before care you know um honors what's in the contract um and then also another thing that I wanted to touch on that last year um steam school I know that they've been having like an issue with playground and basically it being very crowded so some of our children have to stay indoors at certain times on beautiful days um I feel all kids should be outside I understand the safety issue but maybe if we could work on something during this school year where all children go outside on beautiful days or even on days where that the weather allows them to be outside thank you so I can answer a couple of those things first um we have processes in place now that in the past when someone would register in District when their lease was up we you know we wouldn't we wouldn't be on top of that so now um they will be flagged in our system that they will have to present a new lease uh each year though we do have a um a residency officer and you know a lot of people don't know this cuz we don't you know make it public knowledge but you know we do residency checks all the time we have someone that's if we have a reason to believe that you don't leave in Boda you know we have someone checking in on that um and we would probably lose between five and 10 kids a year um that would move out because we found that they weren't living in bota this the steam lunch problem we did address uh we're actually making it a little bit longer lunch for them because I think they're close to 350 students right now and that's with the sixth grade not in that building we are capacity in that building we just opened up another kindergarten in that building so we are looking at ways to make sure the kids do get outside but it is uh there's not enough space for 100 200 kids to be running around at once outside so they're looking to stagger the recess times that's good thank you Kennedy um I I did want to say something it came up a few days ago I just happen to have the opportunity to go to Mak me and me a lot of um I want to welcome and congratulate uh help me Miss Ortiz Miss Ortiz oh what a beautiful person and and and the kids and she definitely likes kids I can see and a lot of people are wondering or they ask um whether we are really doing the redistricting we are next year we just thought that this was a bit too much for people to you know take in Fields the bathrooms the reason for the bathrooms and the renovations and the addition is because we are going to redistrict the children all right so if you can remind everybody the grades Ste will be right now uh big spe will be preschool through second grade Ste is third and fifth grade um The Hope was to get the eighth grade out of the H school but with our numbers right now there just no way there's no room this is the biggest building in the whole District so we're going to re-evaluate after this uh redistricting but like like I said right now between Bixby and stea I'm close to 650 fits that's an alltime high and that's with two 200 kids in the middle school and then another 400 up here so we're at capacity this is our biggest building so to take those kids out would be unless we we get lucky and we find somewhere else to put the prek that would open up some more classrooms but the idea is we're not we're trying to keep some of our prek in our buildings par we ever thought we'll talk about that but so so there's a lot of things being done and now you know that it's concrete it has to happen there was a purpose for this whole referendum and it was to try to alleviate but as you can tell even then you know two years forward and things change but redistricting will happen a lot of people thought that because we did away we did this year they would just say oh and I just want to say because a lot of people also complain do I really have to walk to Ste I was in newer the other day and I did not realize because most people who don't live newer is not if you 1.9 miles the kids are walking they walk they walk to the elementaries into the high school so they could do it we're so smaller town we're not even a mile no matter which way Direction you go it could be done right so we just got to work together and enjoy M Goa it's a really nice little town and it's going to look better um but that's all we have a motion to close not yet um everyone needs to be reminded to go ahead and fill out their lunch forms everyone's getting the text messages and and the the um mail sent home but I know in the beginning it is always was always like a stop a moment of of of stop okay we didn't do this part please please please whatever documentation was sent to you or is on your parent portal go ahead and fill out those documents and do your lunch forms so now so that it's already in the system and ready and you don't get those emails or your kid comes home and says they said I don't have they I don't have an account take care of that now yeah I'm sending out a beginning of the uh school year newsletter that has all that reminder information that'll probably go out on Friday to everyone so me one more time after every day the other [Laughter] and then the other thing that and this is going to be a newsletter too we have our website's been updated uh Mr KERO and his team has done a wonderful job in Our IT department but also we have this a great app now and the app you can sign up for push notifications and now it's a lot easier to get those messages right on your phone so be on the lookout for that again the newsletter has all that explained and simple QR code to scan and get the app but the app is is is looks good on the eyes it has a lot of information there it's easy for us to update our calendars now because it's tied to our Google Calendars that we've always use uh it's easy for us to share things on social media with another app now that ties it in to Facebook Twitter our website and notifications to you that we send something out so just be on the lookout for that Mr cero thank you I remember complaining about a website and he said you didn't know oh and he pulls out all these things he had a whole website going and kened was like oh he got you there right he's so proactive it was a great investment I don't know if that's you know than you for staying with Goa and giving us your expertise and I'll tell you one of the reasons for that is how they work together and we had like old it people not to discredit that but we had what I mean by old is we had companies and partners that have been here forever and like everything when you stay forever you stay to the same thing but you bring younger vibrancy new he started bringing in new it ideas part of these applications and and we're seeing a major transformation he's you know he's working with some of our kids to help him and I just learned something in the day that if a kid is able to hack his system he brings him in as a consultant that sounds like the FB in makot so who who know to you it's a lovely thing because hopefully one day they come work in makota and bring us and bring us more ideas so do I have a motion to close motion second so that was Mrs rucket M Miss Ms I like to go by Ms and do I have a motion toj moot and and there is no Mr alal yeah and there's no Mr alal I'm a feminist I didn't change my last name okay my husband's oh okay yeah I know I know it's true