LCSD1 School Board of Trustees Work Session & Meeting - February 5, 2024

001over to Dr thank you chairman ban tonight we have a prek update and Amanda Hall and we'll be leading to see that so without further Ado let her get going before we get started I did give you a few resources um this is just an FAQ that we use for prek so it's just a nice little quickie resource and then there also is um a note tap a not catcher for you just on the S so um in addition to that I did just send an email that you should just SC for you don't need it right now but for future reference that has the Wyoming early literacy stand or early childhood standards along with our prek guide book today we'll go over some of the like overview of standards and assessments but that will

002have the full comprehensive it's like 80 pages so I didn't want to print that for everyone save some trees but that also is in your inbox thank you do we want to I think they're still good okay they're gonna get some all so so tonight we are going to talk about our prek programming that we have in lcc1 um some mention of play based learning and so there is a a portion I'll get into this later in the presentation to explain exactly what play based learning is it's not just sitting around playing there it's very intentional with how do we support what we are doing with the standards through a different format that's not paper pencil and worksheets but but is through that experience so we will we will cover that a little bit later

003on um this is just this is an overview I'm going to cover today with us so we'll go go through each of these little areas and talk about the programming and then if you have any questions please feel free to jump in and ask as well so to get started we are going to look at just the school Basics so our pre programs follow our district calendar so they are on the same calendar as all of lcc1 in addition to that they also follow the building site calendar so as far as Bell schedules start and stop times lunches all of those pieces they do get to access all of our Core Curriculum areas so literacy masth social studies and they are able to access our specials as well which um isn't always something that's offer

004but that was something that we felt was so they do also have access to breakfast lunch and we provide snack for our programs for foury olds that's a pretty long day so we do feed them a few times um and they have access to our cafeteria just as a the other student in our district I have a question is it four day or five day five day thank you yeah um the next area that I wanted to highlight rly is our partnership that we have with stride so stride has had a long-term relationship with our with our district they are who we use to come in and provide services for our students that are on an IEP to ensure that their needs are getting met through those IEP services so we do a lot of

005work with them as far as making sure we're transitioning students both in prek and in kindergarten Grant young works for he's a retired principal in her district and he works in this role as the transition specialist for these early areas and does a wonderful job of making those connections and making sure that we are providing um the resources and support that parents need when they're bringing four and 5-year-olds into our district that can be an extremely um stressful event especially for firsttime parents and so Brent sets up different trainings and opportunities for parents in that way um in addition to that he works with stride every year and we do Transition meetings um have been doing those for kindergarten for years next year we are looking at transitioning in our our prek students that are

006coming from stri on an IEP so we do have students that access stri at three years old if they are transitioning to us at four we are going to be um having a little more of a structure Ed procedure for that as well coming in the following years some more work that Brent does just with that transition piece like we just worked with Fe Warren we're going out and providing a training on base right before registration or during registration to make sure parents know how to complete the full process we know we get people from all over the place so ensuring that they have what they need to to be successful in our district as well so Brent does an amazing job of helping with that piece of that in stride is a great partner

007for us um with coming in and providing those services um our student adult ratio is a little different than we would have in a typical classroom even in a kindergarten classroom we do follow the Department of Health guidelines for a 12:1 ratio for students to teacher so each classroom has a paraa that is hired um in the in the classroom it's extremely helpful not just for the during the class time but also you know we have a lot of extra bathroom breaks and things like that especially at the beginning of the year so um that per helps provide that support and also attends specials with the teachers to ensure that um those specialist teachers are getting support sometimes 18 four-year-olds running around can become a little intense so um that person is there to help

008with that as well we do cap our classrooms at 18 students right now all of our programs are full and most of them have well several of them have a weight list so um we definitely have the need for additional programming and continuing to expand and we just continue to balance that with with the Financial site of of providing that resource and Jed is going to jump in and get into a little more of the financials in a little bit and so we can talk about how we're currently funding our programs and what we're trying to do to be able to continue to expand those programs so one better right now on having space um we have space it's we don't receive any funding for pre so yeah we do have the space available we

009get to the cost portion of the presentation that might make a little more sense what's the limiting factor probably especially with the opening of K Ridge I wouldn't say space is such a limiting factor it's more at one point was it was AB absolutely and even last year when we added the um the tuition program finding that additional space was a little more challenging even last year you know looking at we looked at a few different options like Davis and a few others that were full I think we will have some additional available the PLC so last year um we kind of ran into a good Pro problem um as we continue to expand programming you often sometimes find the holes in what you're currently doing and and the need for making sure you go

010back through and and do kind of an internal audit so um when I jumped in last year we I gathered a group of principles and teachers current PR teachers to look at our current programming the standards and everything were really developed with a team about seven years ago and so we went back in and made sure everything was still aligned with Wyoming early learning standards and then also looked at are we addressing this in a way that is going to meet the needs of our students um through that that's part the work that Cara was doing with the group so I kind of helped get them started and then she did really all the Dirty Work behind that and going through the report card going through the cfas the standards looking at the priorities like

011and we did make some adjustments um not huge adjustments it wasn't that our programming was bad before by any means but just moving forward and thinking about how we're meeting the needs of our students and making sure that they really are ready for kindergarten um in addition to that we have been working with I work with wde I've made several connections with the state just try to help them they're really advocating for getting some funding around prek so we've shared a lot of our resources and documents um I've also collaborated with lots of different Mi around the state as they're looking at starting programming or or kind of continuing what that could look like so we have developed some good Partnerships with wde and we're looking at some different options trying to get really creative

012with different funding options that could possibly open up this spring through tanif funds and a few other options so um so we are continually like I'm kind of the annoying like I'll keep knocking on your door until we figure this out because I do think this is such a critical intervention for kids to have it at for um so our the teachers do meet with Cara she meets with them monthly they rotate buildings so they have an opportunity to see the different classroom environments and they do a lot of work around the standards the assessments kind of checking in seeing where they're at and then also just talking about Good instructional strategies like hey I tried this and it went amazing so they have that opportunity at PLC they're often Singletons in their schools and

013so they do collaborate with their kindergarten teams as well to make sure that alignment is there but they need to have time with their peers so we've made that really a priority this year and making sure that that's a good productive amount of time they do it outside of their contract time um but they all choose to come because it is such a valuable time so you paid for that time no it's just volunteers so it's optional and they kind of because their PLC can't happen during the school day they're like this is important to us and we want to do it so we've been fortunate that they are definitely dedicated to making sure this program is successful these or something yes yes yes these are our current locations that we are at right now

014um we do have two programs at bags that is our only title in school that has two programs it was actually used as a space holder this year we added the second program this year weren't sure if we going to be able to fill it it's full and she hasn't till um we were looking at possibly sunrise for that additional location but at that time they did not have space and so so this is our current program and we are not looking at expanding programing next year and you'll understand a little bit more of that after we talk about the financial side of it so Sunrise doers yeah and last year they were only partially titled so their funding was a little little different um the title one programs are funded through Title One funding

015so those are specific to the kids in those neighborhoods and then the tuition are to um as far as I know they still do not have space I guess going back to your space question there are still some space issues but we do have some opportunity to expand throughout the district just there are a few schools that are pretty tight can we give preference to the kids from that school then even though they may not be located there we could definitely look at that this year it was kind of an open you know whoever can fill it and so once and once they're full have a lot of options so um registration this year will happen at the same time as all P2 registration so it will open on Wednesday they all are first come

016first serve programs so it is um it's a pretty high demand program and they fill up pretty quickly like I would assume in a month I will be able to report back that we're pretty much full um we do not accept boundary waivers in prek mainly because you have to live in the title one area to access the title one programming because of that that funding source um and for the tuition based programs you can live anywhere in lcsd1 so there's no need to have a waiver for that program there was some confusion in the past with waivers you know we would try to accommodate them and at the end of the day we we wouldn't look at them until school had started to make sure all the neighborhood kids got in and it caused

017lot of frustration for families and so in working with Mr Fry and um just the team it was almost an unfair for parents those were not fun calls to make in the fall when they're like oh my gosh I've been counting on this and now I don't have an option for my child so we want to make sure people have appropriate notice to get to that um the registration is not complete for pre until they come in and verify the birth certificate so Pre-K is only available to four yearolds so they have to be four honor before August 1st if they are five and their kindergarten eligible they have the opportunity to to register for kindergarten or if they don't feel like they're ready for kindergarten they can choose an outside Source but they cannot

018qualify for our in District prek programming um and we do not do any early entry into pre either the reason for both of those ins on prek and why it's a little more strict than some of our other grade levels is because if they are three and we early entry them into prek they still will not qualify for kindergarten the next year and so then we have a weird Gap here where they have nothing that we can offer them and on the other side of it if they are five we have we've had situations where we collaborate with the prek teacher and the kindergarten teacher like if it's a student that you know is strugling a little bit in Kinder sometimes will help them with some intervention at the prek level but we really want

019to make sure that their grade level you know age appropriately placed so that I mean partly it's a funding issue because then we are receiving funding for that student and also just looking at the you know when they're in 12th grade we don't want them aging out at a different level just because of that early intervention so we access it just in a different way at that point um potty training I the reason I brought this up I know in the past we did have some restrictions around potty training those restrictions are no longer there we do highly recommend that students that at the age of four are at least working their way toward potty training um but we do work with our school nurse and we create a plan we need to put something

020in place to help with that typically once we get them in routine and we have built-in potty braks it doesn't take very long for that to become a routine and that's not be a problem and then I'm going to hand these next two sles over to Jed so he can get into the money talk with you so do we have to expect the restrooms because some of them are not um we so we' we've developed a Health Plan like that would have a bathroom plan which usually would require two adults to be there um depending on the extent you know if we haven't had diaper like full diaper where you're in a changing situation that would have its own requirements typically it's like a pullup or it's just more prone to accidents so so we

021really safeguard that with two adults and other than that we we start building in a lot of poty braks and just training them to get there so we have bathrooms that are made for little kids already right we do and um I know you know one of our programs this year we did need we had to purchase a step stool it was kind of a special situation so it's a little bit situation they're not in the giant adult bathrooms usually that that does cause some issues a lot of our programs were lucky have bathrooms built into them they were originally kindergarten classrooms or something like that where it's a smaller po but those potties are tiny I don't if youve ever seen the little it's not easy to get back up anybody else got any

022questions before we go J par we'll come back to the teaching y I'll get back into academics one out of your so Mr chairman um nearly two years ago when the district started um kind of the feasibility watching the tuition based program um there were two big factors when it came to the finance piece the first was um we wanted the program to be as close as possible to being self-sufficient um and the second was to make sure that the tuition cost was um something that a family could afford and navigate the costs associated with the program so we did develop a um a sliding fee schedule to address some level of tuition assistance now um currently uh families are paying on a full price side about $700 a month um for the tuition programs

023of the three schools Miss Hall mentioned a moment ago um and then that tuition scale uh sliding scale is based on um the uh um income eligibility Provisions published by the federal government of each year now um we have modified that since the first year of the pilot program um when we assess the first um year of operations and if Miss Hall doesn't mind just jumping into the next slide here real quick um the program deficit was a little over $200,000 for the first year um there were two main factors on that um admittedly uh we didn't quite know what to expect um with not only the enrolling enrollments but also just setting that tuition level um so we developed a tuition cost that first that was intended to cover those operating costs and accounting

024for some level of tuition assistance um we found out pretty quickly after that first year um that our pricing needed to be adjusted and so we brought that more in line um with affordable level that I just mentioned a moment ago we are on track um to show a revenue of of roughly $220,000 for this year um that might seem um insufficient to be self-sustaining I will tell you last last year we only brought in $28,000 into the program as a whole um so we we've taken some pretty good strides to um moving towards that that self-sufficient goal um our expenses are still outpacing our Revenue um and that's to be expected as long as we do have some type of tuition assistance programing know you lost how did you why was there only $288,000

025the first year was um a majority of our students met the eligibility criteria for either reduce or free and so um sir go ahead we had also had a lot of MP seeds just because it the tuition was about $900 a month and so that price point was not super appealing to a lot of So currently um for the tuition based program um Miss Hall kind of walked through the Staffing levels and so we do budget one certified one classified physician for each of those tuition schools and then we do um provide a um a non-personnel supplies if you will budget um pretty small um few thousand for each of the schools to be able to um to acquire the instruction materials and the other supplies that they'll need um it's important that we have

026those funds um represented in a separate account that's why when you look at your board reports every month you'll see that that tuition PK excuse me fund is a separate um presentation we're on track to have a deficit of about $126,000 for the current year um what happens when we have a deficit is uh we are required to make that that fun um so those resources will come from the general fund to offset whatever that deficit will be at the end of the year um significantly less than last year certainly um uh we're not quite there to that brief even Point um and as Miss Hall mentioned earlier um that's one of the reasons we haven't expanded the tuition program um at this point um we need to um take some strides and move a

027little closer to that break even Point um before we're prepared to to expand the program any further than it currently is um that Mr chairman happy to address any questions on the financial piece so this is only tuition the three tuition program so the title one programs are all covered by Title One funds yeah I um we get our Title One allocation and we take certain off the top money and that includes paying through all the the at the building level it's taken off before the building gets their allocation so maybe this is in a further slide but is there recommendations on how you're getting closer to getting rid of 126000 sure um trusty ask we one step we are um recommending is a is an increase to the tuition um we anticipate about a

02870% increase to the suu cost for the upcoming year so that would bring the paid amount to about well it would be $750 and then the tiers would structure down um that'll bring us a little closer um I anticipate that'll bring a few maybe1 to $20,000 more um certainly not to the point that we're covering that whole desk deficit um the the biggest Factor on the expense Side Of The Ledger if you will is going to be the Personnel cost and um candidly it's going to depend on if those individuals elect the coverage with health insurance they deny that or choose not to participate in the district's health insurance program is really where that that differential is we have a program that has a deficit and you just said if we increase in tuition we

029can't increase it too much or we price out our families but because of the Staffing and health insurance which is always our issue right um that we are buing up three tuition schools and running a deficit that's good business I assume we're going to talk about eventually yes so we're saving money in the long run these kids better prepare kindergarten can you say that again I said she's gonna talk about success for the program because I was hearing at back today that they had only one person that did not wasn't ready for kindergarten that was in the prek program so we're saving money on the district because we're getting these kids better prepared for kindergarten we don't have to do as as many remediations and so forth when we spent this money treson I might

030add that um this has already reached out to the Department of Education for opportunities for additional Federal funding grants that might help us bridge that Gap um we continue to explore options whether it be tan or other areas that we might be able to access some additional dollars to help fill that Gap too apprciate that you're searching that out money just I wonder if we're premature I just would like to ask a clarifying question um with that deficit that represents 3K for 54 students is that right it's three classrooms total that's correct I find it so that families are priced out by $900 a month because anywhere else they're going fulltime they're paying at least a thousand and probably not getting to preschool they're probably just daycare one of the things I think that we

031found is because we don't offer before and after school care a lot of families still didn't have to pay for an additional after school and so for families where that's you know a little different of a situation that is something that factored in as well when we were running at $900 a month um that would only for two programs with that deficit so we added a program and still reduced it this year um but we had so many empty seats like I think last year at p park we ran with 11 kids the whole year and we were like begging and and then they start then people from title one that were on the wait list started to realize they could still qualify for tuition assistance in the other programs and so then we were

032ending up doing scholarship anyway for a lot of the students that were coming and Anderson I think last year sat at nine but they were both very like we couldn't fill the programs and so but I we did get some feedback and we tried to offer after school we actually piloted it at p park last year but that was an additional cost and we ended up with like one or kids and it was kind of like oh one day they might show up and the next day they don't so then you're paying some to stay after over time and all those things for just an additional there as well so we did try to kind of play around with it a little bit finding that sweet spot is definitely Mr German I might just maybe

033a little bit of a silver lining um when we look at those three three schools um there is one of the programs that is breaking even um partially with the with the addition of Deming it was um kind of later in the year um so we we took a little bit of time to to to fill out the program but um certainly income is never going to be a factor in determining who's enrolled in the programs um and so these could these could change but um we're also working with our partners at Stride um to uh address any additional costs that might be associated with their programs that um we feel that there might be some benefit to next year of having some additional Revenue flow into those programs as well so all there other

034pre programs in the state yes in the districts yes in the district and are they were they before ours after ours do you know um a combination like I know Jackson was looking in starting last year Casper has had a pretty sustainable program they have a donor that gives them a lot of money so they have a private donor that feeding most of their um tuition the Tana funds so those weren't available last year to apply for um but they are this year so I've been in contact with Amy Reas at the state to make sure you know we're in that deadline and so that is really kind of a few districts have accessed that for some of the um cost for staff and things like that as well so we're hoping if we can

035get a hold of some of those funding sources that would help offet I'm just wondering if you gather all that information because our numbers wouldn't be enough to kind of get a great idea but if you gathered enough of that information if you could show the academic benefit you know of these for these kids if that might help the legislature be and the and the and the Department of Education be more uh readily influenced into pay for the program absolutely and I've had some meetings with Head Start and stride and lle c and the base those are some of our probably main kind of bigger programs along with WD just about how do we like how do we support each other how do we continue to because one of the problems in our in our

036community is we have a lot of Need for Early Childhood for especially for pre kindergarten um almost everywhere that you go has a weight list so like on the base they'll have a weight list of 60 kids that it's like we're you know booked out for eight months and you can't get in um so it definitely is kind of an interesting you know how Balancing Act of how do we get this intervention to our kids because know that it is successful and how do we help with that I have provided them also with with information that they've taken to legislation um just to help you know when we can say we had 175 out of 179 kids that were pre- kinderg or that were kindergart ready after going through our programming that they like well

037but yeah any ideas on other people to reach out to or a lot of people reach out to us as uh Hey how do we get started because people want to start it especially some of the S funds when they have some additional funding those two questions that's okay the Tana funds if if you are successful in in securing those is that something you'll have to do every year or is that one time and it's going to cover us for five years I believe it's every year last year they ran it in a two-year scent that's why we couldn't apply last spring um but it sounded like that was more of a leftover Coy type of of situation believe it isn't every year typically and then my other question is primarily with with the three

038where there it's tuition based um have we gotten any Kickback from the private sector about competing with them for PR school education I'm not aware of that we work with them still a lot because they're providing after school care often and so a lot of the program and that we have provided I think I'm not I I have not gotten that feedback from my end I don't know if you guys have heard it at the other level I know we try to do like last year we did a lot of market analysis like I said the need is so high in our community that I don't think people have we've been pretty welcomed in all the conversations I've been in so even like I got invited on to the base to come look at all

039their programming and figure out how we can you know work with them and so I don't I haven't felt that but that doesn't mean it's not out there so so our goal would not be to take away from no sometimes perceptions ask one more question um so and I I I should know this and I don't but is this all the title in school that have preschool or do we have locations where we could more prepaid classes so sunr just became fully titled so that would be an option Henderson is still partial so I'm not sure with the funding that gets a little more complicated when it's a not a full title SCH um and other than that we have yeah it's those are the only two schools title schools where we don't have programs

040and I think you know part of being a targeted assistant school is you can only use the funds on kids who are in poverty schoolwide you can use it on all kids and so it U between space and some of those um limitations and quite honestly Henderson has been just on the Razor's Edge of not even qualifying for title anymore and so we were a little hesitant to jump into that into the pool if they lose all of their title funds anyway um because they would lose not only that program but all title support and that may be a reality this year for Henderson we're still waiting to see and and I also would just caution that um the title one bunded schools um the bunding comes from the title one pot and so for

041everyone we open all of the title schools get proportionally less money to run their title the title programs in their schools um it's not an extra pot of money for title one prek it's off the top money and so if we take even more off the top money that would be less trickling through each of the is there concerned that with the existing preit programs at those tit to one schools that taking some of that money this would have an effect on the older students that are there well I think you know it's a great question but it's a complicated one because we spend so much of our title $1 dollars on personnel and there's like threshold amounts to where you can afford a teacher right so say if that magic number with salary and

042benefits is 100,000 well if you just have barely 100,000 and we take 3,000 away you now don't have enough for a full person even though you're very very close so it's not just as easy to say oh we just took 3,000 um I'd have to do the math but you know if we think about um salary and benefits for both adults one's a certified teacher and one's a parah um if we open two more programs you know that would be what 250,000 maybe almost $300,000 more off the top which I think would be a pretty SI ible uh impact between the 13th school I mean I I could easily imagine them losing 10 12,000 a piece in order to to fund that and of course the ones with bigger populations would lose more because it's

043a proportional allocation and uh but then the smaller ones have less legal room to absorb a cut so think what I'm asking it's in the title one schools that currently have prek if we didn't have that amount do you say per teacher and right if we weren't using those title funds on the prek program could they be redirected to better serve the k6 for students that are in those schools it certainly would be redirected back to those schools I don't mean to speak for the principles but I might guess that their response would be the fact that those kids come into their schools more kindergarten ready means they're not then behind in first grade and second grade having to do a lot of remediation and so they might have a different answer than that but

044it's a solution for their own problem they have fewer kids coming in behind and um and so I might I might not think that they would rather see it go elsewhere because it's such a preventative measure for themselves well can I just add to that just a little when we first started the programming go goens was one of the first um schools to jump on with with this programming there were few schools that have had it forever um Cole and heird had prek programming in a little different format than what we're currently doing and I begged like I was like can I please add this to my school so like and I know several other principles you know just being part of it and once you see that benefit of having those Pace Setters in

045your kindergarten because you still have you know you have 18 kids that go into your kindergarten you still have 40 kids that possibly aren't ready or they're on a very different level of kind and Readiness and those kids just pay SE for like you can do things that that you cann't do so the the benefit I think is is definitely worth it I'd be surprised if you found something that was like I want to get rid of my prek program I get bed all the time to add one so I don't know that helps a little bit if you are finished thank you do we have any issues finding certified teachers to teach prek because isn't that a different certificate or childhood it is different um so we can do a provisional licensing so as

046long as they have their Elementary aded they can do a provisional licensing add that certification so um originally we had actually looked at trying to take over some of the spsite of that as well so there's an early child education um here it's a the word thank you an endorsement um and then there's an early childhood special education endorsement as well we do not have I think we have two people in our whole District that have the special education site of being able to do fouryear olds because typically it's a 5 through 18 um but as far as the early childhood the teach I mean I had it go I teachers begging to teach the program so they're like I don't care I'll go get my endorsement and they have two years to finish it

047and it's pretty I think it's just an additional 18 credits so it's not it's not too but yes there is additional license and then I have another question so each class can hold 18 and it's just the first 18 parents to sign their child up it's not there's no testing or who's the most no yeah right now it is just first come first serve and all them yeah once we hit a weight list then it goes into a lottery process okay so thank you people camping out ready at 7:30 on the first day of registration thanks n thanks J all right so I'm gonna jump us into the academics item um and I think I'm G to go a little fast but if you need me to clarify just so that we're open of time

048um so we do offer this is a overview of what the content or the instructional Menace could look like during a day in prease so if you see like there's literacy math social studies Behavior where we're teaching academic behaviors Discovery Centers play based learning and then the special lunch recess is all built in um so all the kids get to go through all this it looks a little different we put some flexibility so if it's you know 60 Minutes is too much time they break it up and make it appropriate for four-year-olds we do have access to foundations hegerty Bridges math and then we use some second step for some of that Behavior Support so they are using true academic programs that are designed for four-year olds um this is all in that packet in

049the email too if you want to look further into it later so in in addition to that we've gone through just like we would for any other grade level we have the standards identified along with the priority standards for math um writing reading and so the priority standards are highlighted in yellow those are assessed through we have a district assessment that they report quarterly to us to show or how are we getting so like this first one is rot count to 20 so we took what Wyoming said as the early learning standards they're pretty broad when you look at that document you'll see like this is this is a pretty broad concept along with what we expect for Kinder and tried to balance that out and say okay we don't want to get too far

050into kindergarten curriculum because the the way this program goes we sometimes do surpass some of the kindergarten expectations um but for that here's kind of the Baseline so these are just some examples of what those look like um so using combination of drawing and dictating to write and compose we start doing letter strings we start doing just some of those academic pieces we also have a scope and sequence for all of the content areas so this shows you know here are the priority standards that we're offering and here's kind of your pacing on when to get those through just to help like I said as we expanded programming we realized we need to make sure that we onboard new teachers that they have the right resources to support and then this is just a quick

051video this is um the teacher at webart so this is Jenny Brown Lin um she is going to just walk us through as two minutes what play based learning looks like and some of this from teacher perspective as the student is in the center what that is looking like so they have they have academic content time where they're teaching the standard but when they go to actually apply it and practice it we do that a lot through those Center through through the play based learning because getting a four-year-old to sit down with you know manipulatives or or worksheet is not super successful so we'll take a minute here just so you can see what some of these look like maybe you tell me the volume was oh oh there you go pretending to be a

052teacher so they're kind of like working through is basically when children choose the activities they go to and um gain access through the to the content through those PL cent in my classroom are dramatic plate which is driven into a full today there's a lot of negotiating going on a lots of pretending to be a teacher so they're kind of like working through their experiences a doll house with another they're kind of playing they're pretending they're building comprehension they're building language another they were and like a really big one of math of imaginative play there was counting going on because they pretended they construction superheroes another big one and superheroes where they work out you know good and fast um they're kind of making connection super kind put stickers starting to write strings of letters

053the other a few that can spell a few simple words and mostly they're kind of working on their name games are really good for our little help them to take turns um there's some social emotional things what you do when you Mo with accounting games so there can't Fus is academics we have letters and sounds numbers shapes colors like patterning and some basic M and then most our I would say is like a social emotional Mone like can you get along with your friends can you negotiate a problem do you listen to do you use your hands and your body and do you have like positive interactions with adults like when something doesn't go your way do you throw yourself down and have a big thing or canate your what I know you show me

054this okay um he's fixing me um so as you can see there's a lot built into it and a lot of times the teacher checklist they're going around looking for specific skills as the students are in their Center time so that's just a portion of their day but I know oftentimes like I said you hear play based learning you're like so we're paying for all these play all day so it really is structured all right so the next section is just looking at a so part of making sure we have successful programming is always evaluating whether or not we're seeing success so we have different levels of assessments we have cfas that are used and those are reported up to the district office so I just am getting the quarter two in right now where

055we can start looking at our kids making the growth that we want to see we have a very detailed report card and then we also have the kindergarten screening that we use so this is an example of the CFA um it has directions so that we have um some consistency in how it's administered and then each quarter you're keeping track of okay is the student doing this you know can they hold the book the right way and are they looking at it just some of those basic skills that when they go into K it's helpful to have and it had a lot more detail this is also in that packet that you have in your email this is the report card the first page of it so once again extremely detailed so some of it

056looks like it's very simple but these are Concepts that we have to make sure the kids know in order to be um successful when they go into kindergarten so a lot of it is letters um starting to identify their name writing their name so we really do get into some of those kindergarten skills as well and then our kindergarten assessment screen this is probably one of our bigger indicators right now of whether or not our program is successful so in the spring so this April I think April 8th is when we will start doing all of our kindergarten screen for any incoming kindergartener for next year um it's a pretty extensive assessment that we give it's about 30 minutes they come in they get it oneon-one with the teacher um and so during this screening

057you guys have the actual screener in your email as well um it really gives us an idea of our kids coming in like can they hold scissors can they start to identify the letters and their names just some of those pieces we use that information to qualify students for our jump start so if students are showing that they need a little additional support then we do recommendation that they they attend jump start before kinderart in that year um this is where we have pretty big celebration data as far as our programming so last year we had 179 students that were in our programs and 175 of them were kindergarten ready so that's students on IEPs that's student I mean every one of our students so really the programming is preparing them so that they can

058walk in and be kindergarten ready screener successful many kids yeah I couldn't find an exact number of um how many kids get referred that register for kindergarten based off of the screener but you know with running summer school the summer like all of our Jump Start programs were full so and thinking back to when I was trying to look today really quick to see if I could find that comparative data of you know just the kids that are registering that did not attend prek versus the ones that did um it's a little bit um um I don't have you know beges the question well our most kids just kindergarten ready either way and the Very fact that we run the summer school jump start for those who should be in kindergarten but clearly aren't ready

059um that that I think been responsive to the fact that 175 kids are ready ready it's not as if we tend to see kids in Cheyenne that are ready either way I mean we had programs at all of our summer school sites for elementary and they all were full so I and I was trying to think back just being the principal at go for so many years I we would always have I don't know probably about half of our kids that would come in and register were would qualify for that jump start so so it's a pretty significant amount so to see data like that is is pretty impressive we like I said some of our prees are actually Sometimes outscoring some of our kindergarteners by the end of the year just because they just

060grab it who does kindergarten screening in our district the teachers do it each school so how does theen teacher find time to do that and teacher so we offer some different ways that they can do that some of them do it during the day and we pay for a sub for them so they can complete that and then some we pay a stien after night after school so it's like a they get that $35 an hour if they choose to do it after hours and usually it's a little bit of a combination of both to accommodate parents and I went through that very fast because um little time so any questions for me thank you thank you if you look through the other information have any questions Mr chair would you like us to introduce

061our guests this evening yes we have guests that are here from pistan um they're all elected um National elected leaders we have two senators we have three on deputies which would be kind of like what our house of representatives are um up here up here I'll have each one of us introduce ourselves we have seven of our board members up here and that's how many we have on our board we're all elected officials um every two years we have an election goes along with the election for the other people and it's a nonpartisan thing which means we don't have we don't affiliate with the party and we're elected for four years and three of us are elected in one cycle four are elected in another cycle the cycle is coming up there'll be three of

062to Beed my name is Tim B and I'm the chairing as the chair right now for the school board and this is my third term which means this is now my 12th year beh School my name is Susan ederton I'm the South Triad trustee and I'm also the assistant Treasurer first welcome my name is Tristy Bon I'm the Vice chairman of the board I've been on the board for five years and I represent our Central Triad my name's Brook humy serving my first term ass Alicia Smith year on the board my name is Britney Ashby I am the treasur on the board this is my first full term and I served a partial term prior to that I'm Renee hle um it's my first term it's my just ended my first year on the board

063and I'm a trustee one of ke information is we're elected officials but we serve volunteer which means there's no pay involved we're not paid at all for being on position and yet we have anywhere from 12 to 15 people runting for three or four positions every time so and somebody from back there can do your introductions for your group thank you very much my name is of chairman of foreign Committee of this actually Senator because I was eled at theat Region but I elected as a local Deputy in my to that's why everything this is very know very pleased to meet you all I'm M of the chamber of the parliament I work with Democratic institutions ngos and and citizen self-governance Committee Member I'm a and I'm auty chair of the committee so posession was

064wonderful really glad we Callum I am a member of the legislative chamber I'm a member of the committee on law enforcement and anti-corruption I'm very pleased to meet you allum there are several in and I'm a member of the trade industry and and and construction committee I'm very pleased to have met you all and wish you good luck in your uh hello my name is B I speak English I learned English and I taught at school English so really Keen in what your what you've been discussing uh pre previous year and this year and we today we had a chance to see it Elementary School uh in in in cheyen and we saw how the school is doing way we saw some school children kids so excited to be here learning educ American ation Center

065inle of state so we wish you good luck in your Noble job job doing great and wish good Lu thank you I'm a member of the committee at the parliament for Higher Education Health career in sports at this time I am uh what's called a regional Senator and along with that I'm a principal myself I'm very pleased to have seen your presentation today and I'm extremely excited about the cooperation that I'm going looking forward to thank you very much thank you and what just witnessed is what we call a work session where we get information given to us by the administrators of the district so we can help make our decisions in the long run you're about to go into the next room over there where we have our formal meeting we have two of

066those per month and it would be much more formal than it's me our [Music] also in starting here we had a group businesss from Bean who visited BS elementary school earlier in the day and they're elected government officials from their Senate and what would be our Congress par representatives and they're here to learn about our government and particular today they were learning about how our schools work here so but they were a little too tired right now after a long day not only they they're not going to join us for the regular meeting today but they were there for our the recession everyone ready to go Kyle is wonderful [Laughter] working schol District number one word for order please join as the HS Elementary than and our Mr chairman I'd like to add item d3.1

067approval of School District number one superintendent scho City agenda I second okay so I move to adopt the agenda with AGA okay second to approve the the agenda with the one change one addition discussion all those who in favor say I iose no be the SE available here that's right it's very lonely up here um good evening my name is Mary qu I'm the community relations director here at lman County School District number one and uh first and foremost we wanted to uh bring our Hobs Elementary principal Ronda lados and teacher Kristen green up front to receive recognition for that a video and along with that I will introduce Hanner Temple he is from Western Vista Federal Credit Union um he is the director of indirect sales um at the credit union and they sponsor

068our pledge of allegiance videos along with um the Teacher of the Year just wanted to present thank you so much for your class prer is a little gift certificate so they can purchase some of the supplies that I know elementary teachers you're in elementary school today and their classrooms are much more colorful and de than mine ever was being high school I always had to cheer my classroom I my classroom School very okay now we're going to do student week and first of all going to have and trustees it's my pleasure to introduce Susanna Scranton Susanna is an eighth grader mccormic and she was chosen as student of the week for January 22nd um Susanna you will hear all about it she has many amazing qualities this is why we chose her she's an outstanding

069student she's involved in so much at school she is a true leader and a fierce friend so um Susanna and Miss LC her favorite teacher will have words but before that I'd like to say thank you to her mom Alexandra and Dad Todd yes if you two will please see well I chose uh Miss lauderbach to be with me here tonight because she's an amazing teacher and C in general she makes um challenging but not impossible projects and assignments that they're really interesting and fun and she's very nice and always willing to talk and she starts every class with an attendance question which is a fun way to start the class and to get to know something random about my um her class is always great I'm glad I could talk M's we are very

070very lucky to have Susanna in our core emic foric this year in preparation for tonight I went and talked to fellow colleagues and he and asked them if they knew suanna and half of them said yes I love her because they had her as a student last year and the other half said yes I know her I love her just because she's involved in just about everything at our school um she is very very curious and excited to learn which as teachers we hope to instill some of that in a student and with Susanna we really really didn't have to try um and it's been really inspiring to see a student who just loves learning as much as sus do we have these tyes good evening I'm excited to announce um Jamie Meritt our student

071of the week last week at East High School Janie's a senior at East High School and she was chosen because she's been so committed and dedicated to our IB program at East while being involved in so many other activities committed and dedicated to those and keeping an extreme balance in our building um she'd been a leader really since the minute she entered our building and I can tell you she'd been very kind personable to everybody in our building and I can say that from the very first day you know why GNA ask I don't know if remember or not but remember the days when I had to stand at the front door and three different on hand for remember now yeah seemed like a lifetime ago it wasn't it was only four years ago but

072Jamie and her sister would come through the front door and she was always so kind to the principal and I appreciated that she a neat neat young lady I'm going to let her tell you something about herself and also why she chose the teacher she chose which is Mr Lashley he couldn't be with us here tonight though because his wife just gave birth to a a baby daughter two days ago so as previously mentioned I'm Jannie Merritt I'm a senior at East High School in the I diploma and if you guys don't know what that is basically I have to take all IV classes which can be pretty intimidating if you think about it but it's kind of fun you know kind of challenging um I play volleyball at East High School and have Leed

073for the past three years I um got all state All County the past two years and I'm in NHS for having a 3.75 or higher and um as previously stated Mr Lashley could not be here tonight which sad but also happy for him uh he is my math teacher at his high school and he is seriously one of the best teachers he's very inspiring he's always upbeat always tells me exactly how it is and he is very helpful and he just kind of makes math fun which I know kind of hard to believe but he makes it very fun um I am planning to go to Tennessee Wesley University to play volleyball and to be a nurse and that's pretty much it Steve and Chris you please stand up thank you for being here another

074Mathew you're chosen more fun than I thought good all right our next is from Johnson good evening I'm Michaela Bradshaw lead ler at Johnson Jun High School it is my pleasure to introduce Gia Mall Dia just like Savannah is in everything you can think of and imagine as a seventh grader at Johnson we are so proud last Thursday we had our recognition night for our first semester GPA and our fall season part two for sports lettering we had to split up the night because not enough room in there for everybody to be there which is an awesome problem to half however that meant Gia had to stay for an extra long amount of time to get everything that she needed to Beed with in she is super smiley she um when I was asking around

075with some of the teachers I remember her computer science teacher literally opening my door and like yeah um for someone to be that excited uh just from a quarter in a class of computer science and then um she couldn't be here today but Mrs primer her favorite teacher intro to life science teacher she just got me to practice so she's really buuny can make it the same thing she's always helping when there's a sub she steps in and helps out when she notices a friend in need doesn't matter if it's academically or emotionally she is there always there on the court um she's so fun to watch play and I'm just so proud of her if I could have me and Justin and then we have a future Firebird also little sister could stand up

076we can give you just say a little bit about Miss Cramer since she cannot be here so misser I chose to be my favorite teacher because she teaches science and I really enjoy science but she not only helped us through all the work but she presented us to do our best work and she never lets us get off with just doing like half of it she makes us do all of it and makes us do it all the way through and make sure that we had have everything that we need congratulations to our students and I'll bring camera back up here and then we'll take a photo perfect good evening trustees J B Dr newon uh some of you guys don't know me some of you that do uh putting me in front of a

077mic is plum danger I'm here representing Western V and I am fortunate enough to uh look at these three young ladies over here and how amazing they are um and who they're surrounded by whether it be parents Guardians teachers principles um it is an absolute honor to be able to present some uh certificates and some card uh for all the hard work so thank you guys very much for allowing to do that not only does we get something for the students the favorite teacher also gets a a gift card for coffee which I'm sure great con we're going to have recognition for the L County science fair good evening my name is Julie Caulkins and I am the K12 science and computer computer science coordinator for the ly County School District number one good evening

078chairman Bolan Board of Trustees and Dr Newton it is with great pleasure and honor that I present the best of show winners from the 50th laramy County Science Fair held Saturday January 27th at Triumph high school as I call your name would you please come up and stand next to me at the front of the room from Pioneer Park Ivy Olsen from Hobs Elementary School Thomas lofin our Junior division winner could not be with us this evening and that was aah Cox eighth grader at McCormick these young people earn the best what best of show means is that in fourth grade Ivy's project was chosen by the judges to be the top fourth grade project Thomas's project out of all of the fifth grade projects that we had were chose was chosen to be the

079top fifth grade project not only that but a brand new sponsor this year um Y2 um Consulting chose uh Thomas's uh project as the best engineering physics chemistry project in awarded him a $50 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble so he can continue His science reading um right now is H Mr Nash here that we can stand and recognize you for um is Leslie Beacon here this evening no okay and is uh Sarah Fanning here this evening no all right if we could then honor the principles Miss burningham are you here of here would you please stand I know that trusty ederson probably really curious what these projects are and that you want to hear all about them you're welcome here you go iy wanted to tell us all about your project um well I

080I um interview different kids of different ages and put them into D and then put what they said in the data charts and what I asked them was um if they I had a whole bunch of everyday items and um uh five items that were a need and five items that be considered one and then I asked all of them all of the kids it was 5 to 16 different um I think it was like five different age groups and um all and I asked them if they thought it was need or want and then I asked them the price what they thought the price of it was and my hypothesis was my um title was cing the cough with TOs and teams and um my hypothesis was that um younger kids would have left

081up an idea which items we need and which items for once and give an idea of how much it would cost and the older kids would have a better idea so um mine was about a car of um how it would like move around with a balloon like balloon straw water bottle bottle cap CDs and uh another and more straws so um uh it goes with Newton's Third Law of a motion and uh where it things can adding energy into it that sort of makes it go and uh hypothesis was that it would go through the balloon and then it would shoot out the other end just like's third B and um uh um that that exact same thing so then my hypothesis was correct as you can see they they're out standing young people

082and they had great projects and the judges just really enjoyed taking a look at them have you already got our pict okay group shop okay we're GNA take a quick group shop and then if you'll indulge me I have the uh our award winners from the Southeastern Wyoming Regional science fair who will be going to State science fair take thank you well at the Southeastern Wyoming Regional Science Fair held at lple C on Thursday February 6th we have Abdula con a sophomore at Central High School is going for his project um looking at Ai and how we can use it to predict leveraging Ensemble learning for breast carcinoma outcome prediction and that can we teach AI to find uh carcinoma and breast cancer patients faster than we could in any other way um Shelby hubbler

083a junior at East High School for her project variability of soil R RNA patterns of bacteria and ARCA in distributed riparian area I haven't spoken to her about it so that's still kind of goobly to me too um Daniel Khan a sixth grader at Hobs elementary school will be going for his project called called int intruder alert Ethan frint a sixth grader in Pioneer Park he will be going for his project I Can Go the Distance Le uh Leora Stevens a sixth grader at gilchrest elementary will be going for her project turning milk into plastic and then aah Cox a eighth grader at McCormick for her project earthworm effects on soil organic matter and plant growth they will be competing at the University of Wyoming sometime the first week of March and is as soon

084as we hear how they do I will inform you as well thank you is they just want make presentation so Jennifer P so I am a mathematics teacher at East High School and I have been the school coordinator for the Wilding W conference for the past five years and that's when we really got our school and it has grown every single year and um that really is only possible because of the support that I've received from building level administrators um the Department of Transportation um the administration building Dr and dcky um and of course parents right the parents that are supporting their students going um this year we registered 53 girls to go which that previously was only like 40 girls and if we didn't have a registration deadline we would probably have cten more

085and more girls um the other huge thing that was different this year was that we were able to get two buses and when you're taking students from all three Triads you know six different schools we did s through 123 um having two buses is a a a huge deal in makes a big difference for us and our girls um you know they they are able to go to the campus University of Wyoming and get that college exposure connect with um over 300 other Latinos in the state and then really meet mentors that identify with them and I think that that has been really crucial so I have two students with me that would like to just kind of discuss their experience with the Latin youth conference because we think it's important to share that with

086you guys so Mia and notal guys want to come on up and then talk a little bit about your for years now and I it [Music] colle my name is Natalie F and closer microphone we are broadcasting my name is Natalie FIA it's my second year going to Thea youth conference and every time I go I only get I enjoy meeting other girls from around the state and it's eye opening to see that we have more opportunities than it seems at Value and just learning about those and learning about how we can take up the opportunities it really helps not really as as okay now we have read Mr chairman I move to approve a resolution of recognition for National School counseling leek February 5th through 9th 2024 whereas National School counseling leek was created

087by the school counselor Association to highlight the tremendous impact school counselors can have on help in helping students achieve School Success and plan for a career and whereas school counselors provide critical service in the the livelihoods of students by providing mental and emotional support to students from it is needed most and where as school counselors also offer career Readiness and postgraduation guidance to students ensuring that they enter their adult lives both informed and prepared to be successful and whereas laramy County School District One honors and appreciates the vital role that school counselors play in the continued support of our students and staff now therefore be it resolved that the lar County School District one Board of Trustees recognizes the week of February 5th through 9th as national school council Mr chairman I second that we

088have a motion to second to recogniz resolution resolution recognition for National School counseling week important comp our school any further discussion all those in favor say I I those oppose no Mr chairman I move to approve a resolution recognition for random acts of kindness week February 11 through 17 2024 whereas random acts of kindness week was created by the random acts of kindness Foundation to Showcase how kindness in our schools and Community can improve mental health Foster Community connections provide opportunities for service and create a sense of belonging and whereas kindness has been shown to increase enery and lifespans while reducing stress pain and anxiety and whereas Lar County School District One seeks to Foster and grow the positive impacts that come as a result of kindness in our schools now therefore be it resolve

089that the laramy County School District 1 Board of Trustees recognizes the week of February 11th through 17th as random acts of kindness I second motion second to have resolution recognition for the random acts of kindness Le and I certainly hope that we can do those random coming throughout the year but this is the time when we want to recognize that any further discussion all those in favor say I I [Music] no so now is our time for it visit have nobody signed UPA it to anybody online like to speak the agenda okay one more opportunity later on to speak on any anything that you would [Music] like be board communication upcoming meetings February 7th 6:30 pm advisor meeting in the boardroom February 19 2024 there's no board meeting that's pres Day holiday February 22nd through

090the 25th is the C by annual conference in Dallas there are a couple of us who are going to be attending that and March 4th 2024 5: PM work session followed by 6 p.m. okay now we're going to do individual board Communications and reports time the last few weeks cting that okay already mentioned we have the visitors today and that was great they really appre about schol okay now we're coming to report superintend staff thank you chairman ban just a couple of quick updates um since the adoption of the library policy in December I'm pleased to announce that uh not only have we written all of the administrative regulations and created all the exhibits that families need in order to um choose their options or nominate books um but we also have the process well

091underway at this time we have 442 volunteers um which includes 384 parents and Guardians and 58 Educators willing to serve on those committees uh 10 books have been completed that have been nominated by committees um another four have been sent to and uh committees that have been formed but we just uh that should been very recently so we not exactly sure on their projected time back and another nine books have are in the very initial process where we're using the random name generator in order to choose the Committees and get the paperwork in order so uh the process is well underway I would remind our families that um all of the information is uh for all the forms that anyone might want to look at or um or choose are on our district homepage and

092uh there's a button called the library access Hub where all those materials can be found uh including lists of nominated books that are updated um just as often as uh we get new ones submitted um we will see I'm sure um As registration begins on Wednesday and that choice is a required screen where we will see our families uh make their um option selection going forward um but that's um just wanted the the board to know that the process uh with the policy contemplated is well underway and all of those um forms admin rags and Exhibits are either board dos in the policy side or on the library um through the library access Hub and with that I also wanted Miss Paulie to provide an update on the procurement policy thank you Mr chair Dr

093Newton trustees you'll recall that when you originally um had the your library um selection policy in front of you we had a section in there that related to procurement of Library materials um prior to that going out for 45 day that piece of it was removed for further work um I believe Mr mckenny is going to pull up hopefully thank you Mr mckenny the uh new proposed draft language that we have for your consideration tonight so at this point in the process this has um been drafted um we would appreciate any um kind of informal feedback you might have on this before it goes to the policy advisory committee um for there review and feedback as well um It's relatively short um which I think is a welcome Break um the district will develop administrative

094regulations to develop procedure for selecting new library materials um we differentiate between selection of the library materials at the elementary level um where those materials will not contain um materials that the definition seually EXP it um the materials at the secondary level um um Librarians will endeavor to collect materials that do not contain that material um and then um to ensure that transparency that has kind of been kind one of the driving forces Behind these changes to the policy uh the district will have an ongoing list of all materials that are procured um and that will be part of the district website within that Library Hub um piece that will be updated at the point at least once a month um if you have any questions comments concerns happy to answer anything feed back Mr

095chair thank you um I was looking at this earlier today and got sorry I left my notes at home so I got a picture of them but um I think what I noticed is that in the paragraph related to Elementary level um procurement there's no language about the district librarian process but in the in the third paragraph where it starts out col an of Library material um at the junior high and high school level shall be made by District Librarians based on their expertise REM standard professional tools we can reviews to guide their selections I'm assuming we do that in the elementary level too and it seems like that little pause at the end starting with bason um might be better to just put in the the regulatory process that they follow I'm but place

096to it um EXC me Mr chair uh TR be Clon that's a that's a great Point um and certainly all Library SED materials whether at the elementary or the secondary levels we follow that process and you'll recall that currently there is an administrative regulation that guides um procurement um of Library materials which is that kind of language is part of that so it certainly could be taken out of that secondary piece so that just kind of streamlined and put that into the administ appreciate that that's POS and and Miss paie thank you and Miss PA would you explain a little bit of why um related to the elementary paragraph it says we not contain you know the materials procured will not contain sexually explicit content just flat out whereas in the secondary um it's written

097a little different do you want to explain that um sure Mr chair trusty Clon you'll recall that your library policy um as was recently adopted in December makes a dis between elementary schools and the secondary Junior High and high school library um there is um essentially a statement by the board where um materials that would contained sexually exposed content um are effectively being AG inappropriate for those lower levels so um at that level we're saying no no sexually exp with the materials and if if they if there are SE excuse me if there are materials within the library currently that um contain um sexually flipid content those are moved up to the junior high level so that's where we can we can say at the elementary level we we will not um have materials that

098can seually with with the contest when you look at the definition of sexually explicit content that you've adopted in policy um it's it's a pretty I would say a low threshold for what that would be um if um you know the definition itself goes into quite a lot of detail but it's a description or depiction of sexual content um that meanss those definitions so that's it's it's um a somewhat lower bar than what might come out in a n a book review um or any of the Professional Resources that a librarian might consult might not have um an alert that that this particular Library material contains seually material um so what we've done is is to strive to Endeavor to not include that um but recognizing that because of the definition that you you put

099into policy that's that's a difficult task to guarantee that that will not be in that secondary level and again based on your policy that you adopted in December those materials are being removed from the school library those are being placed on the list of materials that contain sexually exposit content um allowing parents to make the decision whether they um don't want their child to have access to those material um so it it I think captures um the intent of the the previous policy that you've already adopted and just continues that in [Music] the thank you miss one more thank you um related to that third paragraph that starts with collection and acquisition of Library materials at the junior high and high school level the second sentence says when considering procurement of Library materials at the

100junior high high school level Librarians will endeavor to select materials EXC me weather for your purchase that do not inally withl the content and um I was just because the intent is to try to be as clear as possible I would recommend and from my feedback is I would recommend that we maybe strengthen the word endeavor to make it clear maybe take steps to avoid or their best ability I like take steps to avoid so I'll just propose that and that's those are my only thank you trusty I on the same sentence there and struggle with that or trusty's strengthening of it I think we've had this conversation over and over again there is nothing other you that's why we went this nomination process is there is not something that flat out says that these

101are meeting our definition and we've seen that there are lots of um award-winning books uh educational books that have some of that material in them and still do not meet the definition that looks it below the materials that meet state or federal legal definitions vicinity and I'm afraid we're setting up our teachers again fail or Librarians by saying that they're going to do something that they don't have I you know I think part of the reason we did the nomination process is if it goes on the list and somebody identifies something that they with they can put it on the list worry about that I do chairman um I agree um with uh what trusty a said and I would go a little bit further to say that even if you did not strengthen that

102sentence just saying in there that they would Endeavor to select materials that are not that do not contain sexually deficit materials that will limit um a large number of of award-winning books for high school students um because um all of the national reviews consider these students to be able to have bad words and to have ideas um about sex in them as uh they go through life and they are exposed to that by this time so um and they go through puberty and there are words and books about puberty that would meet your definition currently at the school at the district um and so that would limit quite a bit many of the books that are available to these uh kids that are award-winning that um address subjects that are necessary for people to learn

103about empathy um and uh help students in many different ways um that we've heard from uh our citizens um for months about um when we were talking about the other policies so in essence by saying they would Endeavor you are putting these Librarians at a huge disadvantage and they will feel the need to not have those books and that actually is H Banning books from the kids so that actually is limiting their ability to access these materials um there has been a huge push for um everyone that supported uh the library book policy to say that they are not Banning books this actually would ban books and so I disagree with it in in in all the department thank you chair chusty can you please just one more time go over your change in I

104can hear one [Music] more Mr chairman I had just proposed that we maybe look at language to make the word endeavor a little clear um and maybe suggest something like take steps to try to avoid uh selecting materials whether pre or purchase that contains SE I'm not whated that someone else ever I just was thinking it's a little clear any other policy we say and we have a phrase to the best of their ability would it perhaps be more agreable to everyone if we repeat that language here Librarians will to the best of their ability s [Music] do I think it helps yes in preventing to some degree potential Flowback or something shows up my preference would be that if we take that sentence out all together and that your preferences back to the library

105Coles there will be a list of books that can if parents feel like it meets the definition they can nominate it and goes back to the Poli or the procedure we decided policy thank you Smith I like how you made that change I think that there will still be books just because to websites where they're looking we not have the description that we're looking for and books will still possibly slip through the cracks and I wouldn't want a librarian to get penalized or what I'm looking for but I just I just want to safeguard them I feel like they are going to do their their best but just all the resources that they have may not be what we're looking for just address concerned that if we if we take out I mean if we

106were to just remove that second sentence of that paragraph about selection and acquisition at the secondary level then there's really no need for a procurement part of this policy all I mean that that sense right there process secondary misunderstanding what said that that they will use you leave the first acquisitional Library go to Junior High and high school be made still identifying how those those tools are being made or those decisions are being made and then I would suggest um that last sentence maybe we move that up um and then it references then then there's something that references back to the origal policy it says to the policy that we just passed I apologize I don't remember what title um so we're still saying this is that they are This Is How They are choosing

107so I don't understand different other than not setting them up I would take out when considering the end of that paragraph and then take that last sentence to ensure transparency with the stakeholders and move that up um to say you know this is what happen they all on the list they can be nominated parent tell me why in the second paragraph from the end it says will not be including District Library since this that they will not be purchased for District Library um yeah Mr sh that's a good [Music] clarification there a lot of difference between what we talked about here with the federal state federal I real have a state definition at this point but Federal definitions that are different than the one that we have yes very so um Mr shair the the

108bar I would say for obscenity or pornography is quite High um and that's where you get into ideas of taking the material a whole it appears or it appeals um to the Cent interest of the re re and essentially has no redeeming um artistic or or other quality um which would get you to the definition ofinity um pornography would would be even more graphic than that and that's where you come into the famous quote that I know what might Bey there's not a clear definition that um but that SS you know again your your definition your policy um is a lower threshold um and because it's identifying materials that can sexually explicit material or excuse me yes contain sexually explicit content um you're not removing those materials you're just um putting them on the list

109for parents make an informed decision about whether they want their child to have access to material um ofcity um pornography um are are much more graphic and have noing quality but that would outweigh the it's a pretty big J to get to thank you uh chairman Bolan uh Tristy Smith I think that's the point I don't think we need u a policy uh for the junior high and High School uh to limit sexual U explicit content as explained by this board in the previous um policy because a large number of um books for the senior high students a large number of young adult book will have some sexual content in it it doesn't mean that the book has um goes to the pur interest of it doesn't mean that it is there to cause people

110to be excited about you know for SE in a sexual way but it talks about life and life for these kids involved sex um and um it just does I mean I don't know that I don't think you agree with that but for the vast majority of kids in high school they think about sex and so their books that are written for that level um many times contain um what the definition by this board um call sexual content will have it in there you know whether it talking about a book for um people who are escaping from places where rape and incest and that things happen to them and they're explaining why they're leaving that country um or to something like the book um Monday's not coming that made it onto our list if you

111were to actually read that book yes there are a few references to sex and yes there are a few bad words in there but if you read the entire book it makes sense they're talking about kids from from a a u a place where they see those things daily and and so it is explaining the life of these kids but it is an incredibly good book and it talks about some incredibly good um ideas that are that our kids need to be exposed to and and so to tell the Librarians not to use their education and not to use um you know all of the lists of awardwinning books because they might have more than a passing reference to a sexual act um would limit strongly a lot of books um also in the discussion

112about the library policy um you took out the part that said that if it wasn't for artistic value so then they're not going to be buying books about art that have naked pictures in them you know a lot of art across the world has naked people in them and they're going to limit that because they don't want to get in trouble with the administration so you're really taking away all of um the ability for a librarian to use the national uh awardwinning books to use art books that may contain things you know they they will not want to get fired for showing a picture of David like the people like the principal in uh Florida did I mean those are the things that you're inviting by saying this and so you will lose Librarians our

113Librarians will feel very unsupported they will feel like they're not able to use their their education and um their their the work but they won't be able to use their education in order to procure the books that they feel are the best for the students of the district and then lastly you know we heard during the public uh review process of the library policy that the majority of people who commented did not like the idea of getting rid of sexually exposive books and even though a majority of the people on the board that that is their you know their fight for this this District a majority of the people who were interested in this did not feel that way and so I think we're going against the uh the the ideas of the majority of

114citizens in this District if we limit School yes thank you Mr chair I just want to clarify I me there's too many things to clarify but I'll I'll mention a few um we're not talking about a passing reference not at all and and the trusty that this F knows that it's not in the definition the statue of David is a historical document um hisorical art piece and we were very careful to um not include things like that in the definition and uh I seem to recall the room was packed as well as the lobby in the gym area um with people that were in support of us passing the policy the night we passed it so there's just a lot of um disagreement I would say and I would even I would even suggest misinformation

115being put for but all you have to do is read our policy to see what it does and uh it sounds like on Wednesday those parent will be reg registering their students stting wday will get to um use the policy change and they'll see exactly what they're dealing with and and hopefully realize that um there's just been a lot of misinformation continually um mentioned and spewed from this di which is unfortunate I was just curious as you look at pres and rept cases regarding B is the decision not to purchase a book considered a book ban censorship um Mr Shar Smith so generally speaking um the board has has much more Authority in in determining what books make it onto a library shelf and what books come off from the library shelf that makes sense

116so once the book is on a library shelf once it's part of the collection um there is um you know a an opportunity or um the potential to to engage in book if you're removing books from the Shelf if could you disagree with the ideas if you're not looking at the book um as a whole and um considering the the entire work rather than phrases or or pages in isolation um if you have a policy um I if you had a policy that was discriminatory on its space and said we will not be buying books um by any um authors of color that would be essentially above B and and discriminatory in nature um but again there is greater flexibility to forward and determining more books go on to the J and making that determination

117because there's always that determination right um when you're making any type of purchase you're purchasing one book over another um and figuring out the motivations behind that is a much more difficult um process and just you can book off them up again it's discriminatory on a space where it has a discriminatory effect in practice um I hope that kind of answers that question a little it's it's it's definitely um less likely to result in a finding of violation of first rights if the decision is about putting books on the C versus taking them off thank you um I I guess I want to just clarify why I'm being so quiet because I feel like we have a policy in place that gives parents the freedom to choose whether or not they want their kid to

118have access to sexually explicit content so I'm kind of just wrapping my head around what the procurement side looks like and what really needs to be in policy for procurement so um that's that's kind of all I have thank you for your work com an idea it sounds like we maybe want to give rid that part that talks about how they do it based on where starts with based on there I I would not want that sence no I think talking about relying on professional expertise ring on standard professional tools we keep needs go up the top because it applies to both of these things or we can just eliminate because I'm sure that's probably taken care of in our regulations so you can probably shorten that paragraph a little bit by doing that um

119I think I've also heard from a number of people that they would like to make sure that Librarians are not going to be viable for choosing which if it happens to if it does happen intended to so I think maybe changing those two things and when it come down have to take a vote on whether that I would just maybe put it in as a vote whether that last part about the J selection take V whether that's included or not when we get there um Mr just a point of clarification so generally at this point in the policy um development we would um take their comments and feedback and and put it out to policy advisory committee for their input as well um I I you know I think I've got a clear Sense on

120on the one sentence um I think it does make it easier to take out that language um because it's already part of the selection process for librarians um I think um that might be the one piece where I I think that there's kind of been a consensus um about how to handle that that last kind of procurement at the secondary level of um would you like us to take another go and come back and um or do you want us to put this out to policy advisory for their input before we bring it back to you for your considerations um and then we can make a determination of whether you out for 45 day review and either this form or some other form I personally think like to send it out before we change it

121so not change anything except taking that one that any other questions for me yeah J I just have one um brief update uh based on some extensive feedback from concerned citizens and and our own staff members um we have charged the Department of Safety in security with putting together a volunteer crossing guard program for the district we've surveyed the School principles to see what their current efforts are and their current needs are in trying to help make our streets uh getting kids into and out of their schools just as safe as possible so after we collect some of that we will be um sending out um um some information to our public on the procedures they would need to follow to volunteer for this um is U very very worthwhile cost and so more to

122come in the future but you have a really good start on a volunteer cross progr I would suggest is we have all the propit equipment for those those little green signs that they put in Mobile Street you know to admit State about having stop are very very important and a fairly large stop sign for the person to have another important consideration so this probably personal home input that give to me Mr chair yes I do know that the survey that went out to principes asked what kind of equipment they either had or they would need in order for those volunteers to be able to do the job well and with that Mr that is the end of my go to the all it listed with the ca rou for the governing body will beaed by

123one motion there will be no separate discussion on these items any item remove from the consent agenda will be considered as normal sequence on the agenda do any board member request to remove a motion from which it's on agenda Mr chairman I move to approve our motions to this consent agenda Mr Cameron I second okay Mo second to approve all allv say I Mr chairman I move to approve the laramy County School District number one superintendent of schools Dr a second a motion second as our permanent superintendent of school having and just clarify you will continue on the interm basis until the end of that contract and then on July 1 take anybody have comments on our process or anything I think as we promised we had a lot of public gway probably not as

124much as we've had in the past but very good input we as board members we had looked at all the input and we spent hours and hours looking at that input and uh we came to our decision so any further discussion yes I just um I think we' be remiss to not um recognize the amount of time and effort and thought that went into to from members of our district the different forums and meetings that they have with the candidates the students meet with the candidates um really just a very best of public and a very bested School community um I know that I personally was super grateful for that and for the feedback we from our school communities um and I'm sure that board members up here would agree with me but um great

125press we had awesome candidates but anyway thank you I would say all three candidates students did a fantastic job and answering asking very tough question so probably agree to that sir and I'm not sure that's included in every District when they do that I think it's important comments All D say I your chairman I moveed to approve modifying the Hobs Elementary and Coyote Ridge Elementary attendance areas beginning with the 2024 2025 school year to include the area identified in the attached map exhibit and more particularly described as that area encompass from powderhouse road on the west beginning North at story Boulevard continuing South past Del Range Boulevard to the northern property line of the cion regional airport and extending East to conver Avenue second motion the second um I'm gonna ask and talk about why

126we're doing this [Music] that Mr chairman members of the board Dr Newton first i' like to say congratulations um then I will uh speak to this boundary change what it is is there was an unassigned uh section of land in the area where we just completed Coyote Ridge Elementary School so that area um fell between what was designated to go to Hobs Elementary and Anderson Elementary um and had not been assigned and is currently now starting to be developed um so we we needed to assign that area and to clean that boundary up a little bit um the boundaries been extended down um story Boulevard South to the airport uh property line and then East to converse and back up um Converse to story Boulevard again so what that does is it assigns the unassigned

127areas and then it encompasses a section there to clean that boundary up a little bit um and for future growth that is coming into that area should relieve some capacity issues for uh the East Triad um including Anderson metalark and up through car Junior High and East High School hey is there several families that are going to be affected by this and what do we do for those families uh there's a approximately 20 families um and that that's K through 12 um not not a lot of families Dr Newton has reached out to them already um and the principles as well uh to let them know that it's not going to affect them if they're already in a in a school um they'll be grandfathered into there um and be able to complete that thank

128you if a student at Anderson currently and grandfather and they're about to stay once they complete fourth grade at Anderson would they then move to the central Tri 5 school or would they be able to continue on the metal AR for their class Mr chairman trusty Smith um we would prefer that they um started if they've started at Anderson um when they make the transition that they transition in however um there's obviously boundary waiver um options out there as well um and I do know uh and I did not speak to this particular parent but Dr Newton I think did um that we had one one student at uh Carri Junior High that had already registered for their classes at high school and we wouldn't um Force those changes and visual we have in the

129boundary everything if you have a sibling at a school you can go to that School cor yes Mr chairman question we really trying to be proactive as we see that gigantic Department that's being built in an unassigned area to make sure that we had that I think cleaning up the boundaries was good idea just kind of un that these not only do they have to change elementary schools but it's actually a Triad change as well I think it's a it's a good thing for the future so any further comments questions thank you all Mr chairman I move to approve a contract with star playground for playground equipment at Al Vista Al Vista Anderson claw Cole Henderson and Jessup in the amount of $865,000 okay Anderson Henderson and Clon playgrounds will be paid with major maintenance

130funding in the amount of$ 357,96 Al Cole and Jess will be paid out of special building funding in the amount of 5739 sorry fall surface and install for Anderson Henderson and Clon will be paid out of major maintenance in the amount of $372,580 $149,200 total for playground and FAL service installed not to exceed 1, 12886 plus a 10% contingency Mr chairman a second have a motion to Second Mr come up and talk about first of all our normal thing to is the rec money while we're doing Mr chairman members of the board um so this this set seems a little bit confusing however um what's happening there is playgrounds that are existing that were either replacing um that we're you know replacing with new equipment or or repairing uh those are major maintenance the ones

131that are um being added um such as alavista and coal that's wck Mill because it's a new playground equipment um Jessup in there that's an insurance claim from the fire l last year and then when you get down into the fall surfaces that's split up as well because some of those hebd and coal for example um still have wood chips for fall surface so we can't replace them with rubber mulge so Rec um special Belling finder re Mill would buy new rubber mulch we'd be able to replace them the labor of taking them out and putting it in with major maintenance so as whatever we're replacing um or repairing uh is is coming out of major maintenance if it's anything we're adding new is is why it's being split um into wck Mill and of

132course the insurance claim but when it comes out of specials when it says special building funding that actually is re that's just the way that we I believe the way this is worded and and Mr Sing correct me if I'm wrong but I think um he's paying for that out of there and it's being reimbursed by re Mill and that's just the way they have okay and then also see Insurance coming out of that part too yes okay I think all the on first job fire we had over there any further discussion all okay business the next regular board meeting will be held on Monday March 4 2024 at 6m a work session will be begin at 5: p.m. and we do that to check this who would like to join me for the agenda

133February 20 we change the time on that we did change the time we need I need a token and one so thing is district is done now we have another time fores or online anybody want Mr I move to go executive session at this time prior to thepose possible long suspension and Personnel leg advice ex say'll be