“Jingle Bells,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” were the songs performed by Robbie Raso, Josh Battaglia, Derrick Skinger, Zack Malinak and Nathan James from Freedom’s Barbershop chorus to open the board meeting on Thursday, Dec. 6, bringing a Christmas feeling to the atmosphere. The singing was followed up by the presentation of the district’s Christmas card designed by Junior Niki Vargo. The card will go out to local committees, other districts and teachers. Mr. Timothy Dadich later congratulated the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) team stating that, "Not only did they do well, they destroyed the other competition." Mrs. Maureen Hawk spoke to the board about the issue with Mr. JC Summers and some of the bad publicity the district received over the last few weeks. In response to the event, Dr. Jeffrey Fuller said that the board will be working with the local law enforcement agencies to show the Freedom students and faculty the K9 units that can be used to find drugs and discuss the consequences of drug use. He also said the K9 units will perform random drug searches in lockers in the near future. Athletics were also discussed at the meeting. The board accepted Mr. Frank Hernandez’s resignation as Freedom’s head football coach. “It was a lot of different things [that helped him decide to resign from the position].” He wants to be able to focus on other things in his life such as his new position as assistant principal, his new baby and his continuation of getting his doctorate degree. It was also brought to the board’s attention that there were about a dozen high school girls interested in having a tennis team. Mr. John Rosa will be investigating the possibility of the team becoming a reality. Dan Engen of VEBH Architects reinforced what he said at the last meeting; VEBH wants to hire engineers for land surveying. There will be a public meeting for the community Jan. 15, 2013 at 7 p.m. in the Middle School auditorium about the proposed layout; the community is not only welcomed but encouraged to go to ask any questions they have about the layout proposal.