Board Report - March 10, 2025

 

Board Reports

Board Approves School Calendar For 2025-2026

The Union Board of Education on second and final reading approved the calendar for the 2025-2026 school year. The Board first considered approval during last month’s regular meeting.

The calendar, which closely mirrors this year’s, calls for the first day of school to start August 14 with the last day tentatively set for May 27, 2026, with five snow days built into the calendar. There are also two virtual days – one on October 15 and another on April 2, 2026 – where students will complete assignments at home while teachers are involved in collaboration and training. If no snow days are used, the last day of school would be May 19.

Early Release Fridays will also continue under the calendar for next year. View calendar.

Darnaby Ranger Robotics Win Big At State

Darnaby’s robotics teams made a special presentation to Union’s Board of Education in celebration of their recent wins at the VEX IQ State Competition, winning two of the highest honors. Team Wall-E took home 1st place in the Robot Skills Challenge, proving their mastery in both driving skills and autonomous coding. Team Roz placed 2^nd in the Skills category and went on to win the most prestigious award of the tournament, the Excellence Award, for best overall performance across all categories.

They will participate in the 2025 VEX Robotics World Championship in May in Dallas against competitors from across the world. Last year’s big winners came from Shanghai and Beijing, so competition is expected to be stiff.

Darnaby students who participated include: Team Roz (Excellence Award): Gabri Bedford, Atlas Florie, Zander Bohlken and Jacob Thankachan; Team Wall-E (Robot Skills Award): Evan Blodgett, Declan Keister, Ian Montalvo-Mayo, Cooper Barnett and Evie Hartwig; and alternates: Jax Baite, Keaton Gray and Manveer Shah.

Board Members Approve Early Retirement Incentive Program

The Board of Education approved the Early Retirement Incentive program for employees, which will help the district save more than $232,426.

Whereas the ERI program is designed for savings over a two-year period, the cost to fund the 2024-2025 program for certified personnel is $274,337.

As of this writing, 10 certified teachers and two administrators have signed up for the incentive. One 34-year employee was added to the list with Dr. Federline’s approval.

In other action, the Board:

• Approved capacity levels and open transfer capacity amounts as recommended.
• Approved the issuance of $37.5 million in general obligation bonds to UBS Financial at an interest rate of 3.08%, as part of the five-year bond project approved by voters in February 2023. “Seven bidders participated in the closed bid process that took place today,” said Jericah Dawson of Municipal Finance Services, who helps the district with the bid process and calculating the true interest cost. “This is not unusual for Union. The district has good financial performance with a AA+ bond rating, which is reflective of the bid we received today.”
• Approved the purchase of new Startech laptop docks for teachers $107,152.
•  Renewed Union’s agreement with Lightstream to provide wide area network (WAN) for 23 locations within Union for $315,480.
• Approved the purchase of 1,200 student laptops and accessories from Trafera for $730,800. “After this purchase, we have been told the prices will likely go up 25 percent due to the recent tariffs,” said Todd Borland, Executive Director of Information Technology.

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