So, when we take down the scoreboard outside, the one the inside scoreboards we've kept, we're storing. We don't know if they will go back up and we'll move them when we get the new gym. The outside scoreboards, my recommendation is that we try to sell it on gov deals. Uh, so administration is recommending that the board approve the sale of the um old scoreboards. That's next. Oh, I'm so sorry. D is the ad sales for the digital. Yes, this would be the contract with digital scoreboards that's going to allow us to um the sell the ads. It's a five-year deal and it allows us to get up and running with the ad sales and the marketing aspects and then the goal would be in those end end of those five years to have our systems and structures in place where maybe we have a class that assists us in doing that as we transition.
And then anytime you see a red block, that's just teacher time. And in the past, that was our early release time on Wednesday when we would have our PLC's. What's changing is as we look at the new proposed schedule and really what we're what we're we're planning to move toward, uh you'll see five consistent blocks of time for the students now with that teacher supervision and their blue blocks of instruction. But outside of that, you'll see two mornings that start a little bit earlier. Um and that's our PLC and PD day. And we're kind of identifying the Tuesday the PLC day just so we can do some things K12. Um but that some PLC's might meet on Thursday and vice versa. that when our our teaching and learning department supporting the buildings, they're going to support them on Tuesday, which is what we kind of have now with the Wednesday early release.
That's wonderful. Is that be because um Mr. Brutus has been there? I think it's a whole lot of things um uh that um you know I first of all I think it's four or five years of us slowly building culture and and uh the word getting to the younger kids of what our expectations are going to be at junior high. I think a lot of it is consistency. Um uh and I and some of it is uh Mr. Burgess works really hard with kids to connect with them and head off problems. Um but I also think that two other factors uh changes that we made this year have impacted it greatly. One is not having backpacks and one is parking cell phones. Okay. So uh there's no one thing. I think there it's a combination of all those things that have worked well together. Okay.
Um and so the board would approve uh recommend the approval of the ad sales contract with digital scoreboards. Thank you. Questions on the agreement with digital scoreboards. My only question is on the revenue sharing. I know in here it defines what net revenue is as in it says it's the defined as the gross revenue less the direct cost of sales which includes the not limited to ads software fees sales commissions and other variable costs and expenses. But do we have any oversight as to what they're applying as far as those fees or do we have any insight to what they would consider net cost or gross costs? We can table this and I can bring those answers back next next month. Yeah. Because I mean I if we don't have insight to what they're considering as gross as contributing costs that would affect the the net calculation.
So, that's really the template we have applied. You'll see at the bottom the calculations and that 10-minute weekly reduction of time for the teacher day. Um, when we move on to middle school, it's really easy to talk a little bit about because it's almost the same as the high school except there's a slight instructional minute difference at the middle school. Um, the high than the high school. And so that gives us an opportunity for just a little more PLC, PD time or supervision. Um, and so you'll kind of see those blocks that fall a little bit different at the middle school level. Um, and again though, the overall reduction of teacher time is that 10 minutes weekly. And then when we move into the elementary, there's a new additional color block here. So we still have the base that's similar to the high school and middle.
Okay. Other questions about the existing reports? Okay. I have a whole lot of updates for you tonight. a lot of updates. So, Cass, if you would show the recruitment retention graph. Okay. So, uh if you recall, one of our goals this year was to uh rec reduce uh increase retention. And so, last year uh we had 39 positions uh uh resignations from 39 positions when we put out contracts and work agreements. And uh at this point, we have 28 for this year. uh several of those have already been filled for next year, but um that's a significant reduction um for uh for retention. So, uh that's a good thing. Um and then related to that, uh you all approved uh earlier in the year that we could start um recruiting H1B visa folks, which means that we are not just recruiting them, but we are sponsoring them, which means that we're paying some of their fees to get them to come.
I will we will table the ad sales with the digital coreboard contract and we will get those answers. All right, next item we're action. You might have a little preview of this one, the approval of the sale for the outdoor scoreboard. Remember what I just said, and I still would recommend we are getting the new scoreboards. Um, I would then recommend that we sell the old scoreboard on gov deals. With a note, also the public can bid on gov deals. So, if anybody in the Columbia area wants to have a big old schoolboard in their living room or garage or backyard or whatever, then here's your opportunity. We would post that out on social media, but So, it will already be taken down. Yes. So, they won't whoever purchases it will not be responsible for correct. It will be taken down and we will be I believe we're storing it behind the press box up on the I mean is that whoever buys it is responsible for removing it from its current location.
Um, however, we did identify and I shared that on the chart earlier that, you know, we have those two different work days for elementary versus secondary teachers. We also have heard for quite quite a long time that um elementary teachers do require a lot more prep time. They're prepping typically for four, five, even seven lessons or topics or subjects a day um if not more. Um and so what we what we chose to do in this model is actually block that time into three 25 minute chunks. Um and so you'll see that as additional prep time for teachers on the in the the green chart. Um that will be time for them to work and prepare for that school day outside of the PLC or PD time. be time to meet with their grade level colleagues or anyone else they need to to meet with in the building.
And the difference between the J1, which is a cultural exchange program, and the H1B is that H1B visa uh holders are working toward citizenship in the US. So they come and and work three years and then they there's a process that they can start working on to get a green card and then to become citizens. Uh and so that total thing is six years. So, uh, typically a J1 visa is for three years and can have a two-year extension. H1B is automatically a six-year. It also means that since we are the sponsors, if they come to us on an H1B, they cannot go to some other district. Um, because we're we paid for them to come. So, uh, this is a good way for us to, uh, recruit and retain people, uh, particularly if we can find folks in difficult to fill positions. They can't go to other districts ever or after a certain amount of time.
Right. But it's already it's already taken down. Yes. It is not currently taken down but it will be taken down when it's when we sell. Yeah. It will be sold in the down position. Uninstalled. Off. Uninstalled. Yes. Uninstalled. And then a caveat to that. We probably need to decide if we want to reserve on it or not or we just want to get rid of it. I think that they were originally talking about us paying to have it hauled away and I think it's has at least a scrap value. So, I mean I think it's I think we'd probably sell but find out but somebody interested in having a reserve or going just get rid of it. If if somebody takes it, we're a net game because we're going to pay to have it hold away. So, correct. Correct. Then why not? I'm sorry. Then why not try out of reserve?
Um we also did hear um some feedback and you saw it earlier about could they still have morning activities and we're going to offer flexibility with that prep time so that can still happen. Um again you'll see that then that's a slight increase in teacher time instead of the decrease because we did add some time on the elementary and then finally wanted to just kind of relay for our school-based support staff. So these are typically IAS pair professionals folks who work around the student day and the student day only. Um, we we kind of put together some draft schedules. This will tweak and change a little bit as the buildings discover they need few more people in the AM than the PM or vice versa. They'll communicate that directly with their um with their staff to make sure buildings are fully covered, safe, and supervised.
Probably after the six years, six years because we're paying their fees to be here. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. So, uh, we have already filled, uh, uh, from a, we already have three, uh, H1B people. Uh, one is a music teacher for next door at the middle school. And, uh, and this person and this person will also work at least one period a day at Fox Creek. And I'll explain in a little bit in another in a minute about uh, our music program, what we're working on that because I had shared with you we're trying to rebuild it and how we can do this. Um but this person has uh lots of experience and um and focuses on voice but also can do uh you know the other parts of the music program. We have replaced a special ed teacher position at Fox Creek I think Fox Creek uh and uh and then um the other position in the life academy which is uh the special ed teacher position in the life academy has been vacant this year.
Yeah. No reserve. If someone buys it for $2, we made $2. There you go. I was just trying to give something because everybody was quiet, so I just figured I appreciate Thank you. I throw words out there. Somebody broke the silence. Thank you very much. I'll make a motion. All right. Got a motion. No reserve. Motion to sell their scoreboard with no reserve. Do I have a second? I'll second. All right. Since this is asset sale, we do need a roll call, please. Kelly Moyer, yes. Greg Meyer, yes. Lisa Schumacher, yes. Tyson Search, yes. Friedrich, yes. Adam Hunin, yes. And Corey, yes. Perfect. All right. Next item is F. The approval of our social studies curricular adoption. Dr. Gayy, I bet you want to Dr. Danny on that one. Yes. Yes. Um I I am hoping that the recommendation that you found in your board packet um will be approved for the adoption of grades 2 through 12 the social studies curriculum.
Um, most of our other staff like our food service, our custodial staff, they'll just slightly shift their schedule if it does require the student day change to to shift that a little bit. Lunches will start just a little bit later every day to accommodate that later student day. Um, those are really the changes for our staff. Um, we've already communicated some of this out and we will continue to um, work with folks individually to make sure they have their child care needs covered um, and that they're ready to to meet these meet these new times next year. I think that's it. Dr. Yeah, I just want to add that I I know some people have questioned uh, the reduction in student time or the student minutes and really feel like we could be more intentional with our instruction. Well, I think with our the the collaboration time and professional development, we'll be able to provide a higher quality of instruction and I think that will offset more than offset the the reduced time.
Uh, and we have hired a a returning teacher who was here earlier on a J1 visa, has been back in the Philippines for two years and wants to come and will be coming on an H1 visa. Uh, and he will be the sped teacher uh, in the academy. I will tell you that when he was here before, he was an amazing teacher. So, we're really looking forward to having him uh, as part of the life academy program. Okay. Awesome. So, we pay the fees for the fees. we pay. Yeah. Well, there the legal fees upfront. Okay. Legal fees upfront and um and that's what we're really that's what we're doing. And then if there are there are usually for any of our visa folks, there are annual fees. Um and and once we started this process last year of looking for H1B folks and contracted with the company that we're working with that can do H1B visas, then we've started paying for the excuse me the annual fees for our existing teachers.
It will be for six years um which really truly um as I've said before the six-year period is is what normally curricular uh companies will do. Um, and then year five, we should come back together and we should start looking because a lot of times there's updated copyrights. Um, and if you want to stay with that company, then you would get a new subscription with an updated copyright and move forward. Um, this will also, and I I know I say consistency and continuity is extremely important with instruction, but this is going to also support that continuity with social studies and also help our ELA um progression as well in the district with with the reading components that that come with the social studies.
I don't know if Lynn's got anything to add. Agreed. And and being able to use the PLC time. Thank you. The PLC time and the professional development to really build the capacity of what that instruction and that curricular those curricular aims are. Again, we're building that collected teacher efficacy, which we know has that high correlation to improve student achievement. So, I'm less concerned about the the loss of those minutes as being much more intentional and purposeful with the time that we do have in front of the students. And Davin's presentation has backed up that not it's not necessarily about the amount of time that we have. It's what we're do. It's the quality and it's what we're doing during that time to improve student achievement overall. So again, I think we can build capacity by having that time and I'm excited to be able to offer some job embedded professional development that we haven't had a structure in place to do so.
We didn't feel like we could start paying for some new people to come and not support the people we already have. Um the other thing that we do, excuse me, um the visa sponsor companies, um and the whole visa process requires some certain kinds of insurance. And uh and because it's a a nationwide program, they can get medical insurance for the uh visa holders at a lot lower price than we pay for our folks. So, uh, instead of them, uh, getting our our group insurance, we pay that one. And it's it's significantly less than we pay for everybody else, but they have to have one that that includes um, uh, they call it a repatriation fee so that if they become ill and have to go return to their native country, uh, or we don't want this to happen, but if one of them passes away, the insurance has already been paid for for them to go home.
Any questions on that? We have done a lot of work um as as curriculum teams. Um, I think they're excited. I I know I am. I'm excited to to see these items be put to use in the classroom if you choose to approve. I want to thank you for bringing the display so we can take a look at actually Absolutely. And there's still documents back there. Um so feel free to take some of those QR codes if you wanted to to see a little bit more in depth of of what's back there.
Great. And even with pulling back some time, we're still ahead of what the state requires. That is correct. We're still ahead. Just uh kind of a point of order. I want to make sure everybody's clear. We took a vote um at one of our prior meetings on the student schedule changes and that was approved by the board for the recommendation of of the administration. The teacher start times isn't an issue that that the board is voting on. It's an issue that the administration has the authority and and has made a recommendation that that we do support, but we're not technically taking a vote. And I do want to thank the administration. And I want to thank the teachers and all the stakeholders that participated in this. Dr. Long talked about 17 years ago starting in on on the change in sharp start times. That was more of a flip of the high school middle flipping with the elementary.