LCSD1 School Board of Trustees Work Session & Meeting - October 9, 2023

001this evening and so we'll go ahead and get started and Jed sarelli and Vicky Thompson are going to give the board an update on the um early retirement health insurance incentive so Jed I'll turn it over to you as you're running the controls very good so um Mr chairman I I'll do my best to try to um stay within the confines of the time that we have allotted so that our colleagues from the instruction office have some time to talk so um I imagine that as technical as um this this program is there might be some questions we've been through quite a history with the board over the last three or four years on this particular program so um I know there's a lot of nuances that go along with this conversation um just as

002a quick reminder um we have a um authorizing um board policy that uh grants the authority of the school board to approve um the letting of a retirement health insurance option um for employees that meet certain criteria um and I'll talk a little bit more what those criteria look like like um this is the existing language within um your current policies now keep in mind um we did have a an amendment in 2021 um that created different tiers for this particular program uh this program has been around a long time um some of the the more uh historical knowledge within our district says it's been around since the 80s so that gives you kind of an idea how long we've had this program as a district now um just as a reminder when we went

003through some pretty significant budget reductions uh for the fiscal 22e uh this was one of the programs that we did um suspend for one year um and we're able to to Garner a little more than three4 of a million dollars by suspending it for that one year um but the program that is back and um up for your consideration um in the coming board meetings and so we wanted to give a a high level overview of some of the factors that go into this program and how it's administered um so to start with um I mentioned that we have three different tiers uh within this program and I'm sorry trust if I'm in your way um starting from the lowest um which uh I would characterize as um employees who are within a a a

004categorization that does not receive the benefit of the program and this was intended to uh sunset uh the insurance U retirement incentive and so anybody who was hired after or on July 1st of 2021 uh will not qualify for the program um the people or the staff that were employed at the time or as of July um 1st 2021 were broken into two different categories um 15 years of employment or less or 15 um years or more of employment now that middle tier U is kind of a reduced uh benefit um in that uh what used to be a guaranteed subsidy for up to 10 years um towards retirees when they're um separated towards their um Insurance U was limited to five years so in effect that means that individuals who want to participate in

005that program will have to be 60 uh or older to participate and draw that um incentive um and so you'll see here based on current values of the plan uh that would be about $34,000 per employee would be kind of the cash basis if you will um of what the value of that program is at the time that individual takes the incentive um tier three is the program as it was um before that's 10 years of the subsidy um again at a single rate I'll talk about those rates here in a moment um and just shy of $68,000 is a total cash benefit um if you will for those uh individuals and how that's applied um is uh kind of outlined in the in the coming slide here so um to kind of give you

006an idea of where um our health insurance plan is structured around a single coverage um being that this supplement is applied at a single rate I've broken it down to give you a little bit of an example um a current employee right now um on a monthly basis uh their their total premium is $754 uh right now the district will pick up $60 of that or excuse me6 $94 of that the the employee picks up $60 so that's that 92 h% split for an active existing employee so um if the prog program didn't exist um we do have our negotiated agreements that kind of guide um the eligibility for uh individuals to even participate in our um health insurance program at the time of Separation so we do Grant employees the ability to um stay

007with our health insurance program um regardless and separate and distinct from the incentive program that we're talking about today so um it's it's logical to assume that if the program didn't exist and an employee wanted to stay on the program they'd be covering the full cost that's the $754 um in some instances we do have people that might not have qualified for the incentive um have opted to retire or separate um and have and continue to pay the full amount if they didn't meet those those requirements that does happen from time to time now this program um or this incentive uh will provide at at this point in time of $565 um towards that total premium amount um and you'll see if an employee was to separate now under the current um premium rates that

008means they would be responsible for $189 of that that total premium and that's where that $565 that we've um kind of mapped out as far as that 34,000 or 68,000 now um keep in mind as we all know and expect health insurance rates do increase um so as time goes on um the health insurance premium will increase the subsidy is set um it does not um increment up over those 10 years um it's it's a set flat amount um going forward um to give you a little bit of idea of of kind of the composite of our staff right now um I broke down just to give you an idea of where our staff are and I'll talk about how this program really is intended to um focus as a benefit on end of career

009staff as opposed to a beginning of career staff um right now um I'll probably just pick out um certified as an example here um the average age of a a certified individual is 43 so I think you could say midc career uh for the most part that is in line with kind of national standards you can look at a lot of information through the national Center for Education statistics we're right in line with the average age of a teacher I think it's 42 on a national level um as far as years of experience with the district certainly there can be years of experience outside of our district uh that averages about 9.4 years about nine and a half years so um a little bit shy of that 10-year Mark that we're using um to kind

010of um qualify people for these programs but uh that gives you an idea of just the the makeup of our staff uh this program is uh eligible for um any of our permanent permanent um benefited staff so you'll see that we do have um individuals that can qualify and do qualify in our classified areas or administrative areas um transportation you'll see has a a higher average age that's pretty typical of what you would see with with bus drivers who um come and work uh kind of as a retirement job sometimes for these positions so that's kind of where we are um as as our average years of this service and an age for each of our our different bargaining units now um one thing that is also an important factor is kind of where we

011are with turnover right um we know that these programs provide a benefit to the district when um the staff that are replaced are at a lower salary or benefit level than the ones that we leaving um this is a just a quick number um chart it's a lot of numbers here but similar to what we had before we have the bargaining units on the left um and just the individuals that left the district I'm going to qualify this with a big old asterisk and say um with the change over in our systems we're we're still trying to figure out how the data is stored and retained so I certainly can't attest to this being 100% accurate a good example is we may have had someone retire in 2021 or 22 they came back to the

012district maybe to be a bus driver um and it looks like we don't have that turnover number in our our figure so there's some nuances there uh but you'll see as we came through uh really the pandemic we hit um really some pretty dramatic increases in uh the turnover turnover of our staff um we've come down slightly um to the extent that uh you look back um almost a decade ago we were in the the the high 300s so there's certainly a turnover effect that we're working with um again where the district benefits from these programs is going to be at the later end of the career of individuals now um as a quick note back in 2020 um we did a pretty deep dive into this program we worked with our actuaries we did

013a lot of research um on how these programs are administered uh you've heard me before talk about how these programs are becoming less and less common um uh so much so that it was very difficult to find any districts as a kind of a an examplar of how these programs are running um in the current environment and I was able to find some information at that time like on Illinois Public Schools um their their study did find that the program um was incentivizing staff to retire roughly two years earlier than they would have so if you think about those two years of acred salaries um if you're replacing them with with lesser paid staff um there's a financial benefit now kind of Converse to that or invers that is um some studies that I just

014recently found through the Minnesota Office of the legislative affairs they had a very similar program that provided a health incentive um stien if you will or supplement to staff um and it was for local governments as well as school districts and their state agencies um so they had a lot of resources to do a pretty thorough analysis on this program so these four bullets points um here speak to a little bit about how um they glean that information into some observations uh they found that half of all early retirees would have retired anyway um so I think um arguably you can say that the the cost benefit analysis on that would be nil um there were also some um observations about uh utilizing these programs um not necessarily as a continuation um more so as

015um a less frequent less repetitive um offering in situations where there was a need for cutbacks budget reductions those type of things um their observations were that these programs are a lot more successful when they're used intermittently um to address those needs as opposed to a recurring guaranteed benefit to staff and again that's just some of the information that we were were able to research when uh we were looking at the structure of our program as it exists today now um continuing with that thought um I did want to provide a relevant example for you uh what I have here is just the count of employees that on the left you'll see about 974 of our employees are between year zero and three of service and that's not to be um you know uh any

016surprise is that a lot of our staff are going to be at the beginning of their their careers and ten years with with the school district now um as you kind of progress through these these structures and the years of service our more um seasoned and tenured staff are at the very end uh I did want to give you a breakdown um you'll notice that we have roughly 20 people um that have been at the district 30 or more years now um certainly some of those individual are past the age of Medicare um so wouldn't stand the benefit from this program but I wanted to give you kind of a a breakdown of what the cost would be if those 20 individuals Alone um had accepted this program and retired at the end of the

017year so the total salary for those 20 individuals is about $1.2 million the average salary for the administrative um people in those positions was a 92.5 th000 certified 74 and then classified 47,000 now if um these 20 individuals were separated um the cost of the program would be about 385,000 so we calculate how close those individuals are to meeting the Medicare age being 65 how much that stien is going to be so we know precisely that that cost would be $385,000 for us now the savings if we hired every one of those individuals at the lowest end of the salary schedule we would only save about $100,000 so we're upside down if you were to grab that very specific group of employees now that's not always the case uh I mentioned when 2020 when we

018did a pretty thorough analysis we looked at three years and we did find that there was a year where the district saved a considerable amount and we had a lot more people that were repl at the lower end of the spectrum maybe had um single coverage instead of family coverage we had one year where it was pretty close to a scratch and we had another year where we lost slightly with the program when you were talking about the 380,000 that was the total for the whole time they be on the program correct 100,000s per year correct yep yep so it would take some time before those those costs were were realized um and that's just to point out that there are depending on who participates in the program again the health insurance is the biggest

019piece for us um whether someone accepts it or opts into the single coverage can really um determine if the district is making money on these programs or if we're not um and that can very be very variable for us um now more to um specific costs of the program right now U we just finished the the 22 23 year that was the first year after the the one-year suspension that we brought the program back we had 45 staff that were eligible for the incentive um 17 of them participated we had one administrator 13 certified and three classified um we also had 17 people as I mentioned earlier that retired without the incentive um and so they did retain the district Insurance um and that has a real and tangible cost as well uh and I'll

020I'll mention that here in a moment now um the actual one year if you look at it just through a lens the cost to run that program last year was a little over $1.1 million so that's what we expensed um to Blue Cross bu Shield through the subsidy to support those individuals that are on the program now that could be people that took the incentive nine years ago it could be the people that took the the incentive one year ago um and anticipating the qu next question might be well how many people are on the program um right now we have about 202 people um that are on the district's uh health insurance that are retired now um some of those are through the incentive incentive and some of them are not but that at

021least gives you kind of an idea of how many people um are on the district's health insurance program as a retiree now for the upcoming year um should the board approve the offering um there would be approximately 45 um and we like to emphasize approximately as we know um we are um uh as good as the data that we have um we do not always have the information of other state agencies that somebody might have worked at um that contributes to the Y retirement system other school districts to the extent that we can but we don't necessarily maintain that within our district um Human Resources system structure so there is a responsibility for employees and as HR um does communicate out if their time um at least meeting the rule of 8 which is one

022of the criteria for this program includes years of service outside of our district it's their responsibility uh to contact us because we simply don't have that data um the potential cost if all 45 of these individuals would um enroll in the program and to Mr chairman your point earlier extrapolating that out across the entire time would be about $1.5 million and that's just a breakout of what um the cost would be to uh each of those uh differing uh bargaining unit groups now um a couple other points um and a lot of work that uh we have done with you as the board is to start funding these programs um it used to be what we call the pay you go program where um we would make the offering and we would just um kind

023of through the district's assurances say we are promising to have the money for the next 10 years for these individuals um it's a lot of money um as a matter of fact you can see that we we break it out with the actuary into two different buckets there's two real costs for having this program as well as um retirees remain on the district's health insurance program so the explicit that's the cost for just the subsidy so our actuaries who are um uh are brilliant when it comes to calculating all of this out would tell you that right now um and by the way this is preliminary information um un audited if you will uh the Actuarial liability just for that subsidy is about $9 million for the district as a whole um we have with

024the structure of our trust funds been able to pre fund that to about 70 almost eight almost 79% um and that's been um over the course course of the last five years we've been able to devote resources to to making sure that we have that liability funded so we're close to being fully funded um we've got probably a couple years to go um we're just shy of about $2 million before that program is fully funded happening with the liability explicit is it going down at this point since we have those things in place have we seen that there's two factors you're um you're correct with the restructuring um into the three tiers um we've seen a decrease in That explicit cost um and also the investment earnings as we kind of discount that liability back

025we get to use a lot higher interest rate right now um because of the districts earning more on those those reserves if you will and that makes the liability a lot smaller now the implicit piece um we do not prund um and we won't um it's difficult if not impossible to to try to structure our our plans in a way that we're we're paying for kind of a I'm going to use the word soft costs but um what this means is about 26 A5 million do is the liability that we as a district incur just to allow retirees to say on our plan um it's it's it's pretty simple and and and um intuitive when you think about the higher cost of our health insurance plans are always going to be on the higher end

026of the the age um bracket and so that cost means that um our current employees um are are subsidizing or covering that cost um so that's the the actor determined cost um that won't be prefunds um as long as we do allow retirees to stay on our program we're not required by law to have to do that we're just required by contracts Point correct um Accounting Standards or you mean as far as allowing um correct we're we're not required um as far as determining these liabilities Accounting Standards do require us to to um present these in our financials um and so Mr chairman to to to to try to wrap up to make sure our our our instructional folks have time to speak um our timeline at least over the next few weeks um should

027the the board consider the approval um that would be before you at the October 23rd board meeting um if that is approved um staff notific would would follow sometime in November um would which would also um precipitate a a deadline for staff to work with Miss Thompson and the HR office on submitting their letters of attent there's certainly um criteria over you know timelines of when they can revoke that um that acceptance of the program Etc um the staff would then be um sometime in the spring brought forward for approval for resignations uh and then as a district we uh will allocate uh Resources by the end of the fiscal year to cover that new cohort if you will um that are participating in the early retirement health and setup program uh so Mr chairman

028I was kind of a quick quick run through um hoping to leave a half hour or so for the folks to to speak I'm happy to address any questions sure miss Thompson I just like to add one more thing and that is part of the reason we have off this in the past was it allows us to get out there and start finding replacement teachers earlier than it does we wait them wait till the end of the school year or whenever the deadline is which is what April 15th they to let us know so it gives us probably a month and a half at least jump on trying to get that many more if they put in the report real early is that the primary reason that was the primary reason that I heard back

029in the 80s when this first started so I would say at this stage no because we don't start a little bit ler because we are waiting the budget final budget to get out and looking at our staffing and enrollment numbers so I I think that probably shifted a little bit was intended well I asked because I know that staffing has been an issue in the last year so nationally of course but here too and so just curious if we're still looking to have people decide to opt out early to take advantage of this it it helps I mean It prepares at a building that LE they know especially if the hard to position I think the principal is a little bit more aware and um and in some cases we have posted the pools earlier

030because we know we're losing so many special Educators or Math teachers or science teachers and trusty Claus in the past um not that this is a frequent event but the district has augmented this program uh I think in 2017 maybe 18 um there were some additional incentives um offered to staff um on top of this to retire early in an effort to try to clear out that roster on the higher end a little bit but I guess yeah that's to my point do we still need that or are we more in need of teachers at this point I think that's still out there I mean it depends on what teachers definitely special educator sure the Nath sence um I think we're we're still reviewing our staffing formulas and I don't know what gonna um happen

031with the opening of py bridge how that's going to impact um some some of those buildings my plan is to go out and start speaking with those principls this week I will staff again just to kind of reassure them the process we're going to follow but we're also facing declining enrollment so that is another factor that we have to consider and what does that look like and and Tra Clon I I would tell you that um I I think Miss Thompson would hopefully agree that I think the labor market has changed since the the 1980s I I do believe that there are programs that the district could examine um one of the things we did is we structured this this trust fund in a way that if there are Surplus revenues they have to remain

032within a program similar in nature to what we're doing here um we have seen some districts that will provide HSA contributions at the end of a um a career there might be um opportunities to move some of those resources to the front end of individual's career maybe contributions to tax shelter annuities I mean there's a lot of things in in today's labor market that can can um be a little bit more modernized could those um other options be incentives for staying for agreeing to stay for a period of time or also recruiting yeah for recr sorry I'm asking the questions but I have more so I'm G let others talk so I do have so I think I asked this the scheduled meeting but I hear what um trusty Clauson is saying and that we

033need to find be able to find teachers and not have them all leaving but we've been doing this since the 80s minus as far as I know the one year and have you know kind of made a informal agreement by by the fact that we've been doing this for a very long time and people you know the number one driver of whether people retire or not is this right and so if we continue to do it is there any way to approve it for longer than a year so people can actually plan their lives over the next five years um because it's I get questions on this all the time are we gonna have it are we GNA have it I need to know so I can retire decide whether I'm retiring or not I

034need to know because it's the it's the number one thing driving their decisions so um trust me Ashby I think um I'm going to speak from the financial lens the difficult with guaranteeing the program um even for two or three years is that um we don't know where our resources will be part of the prefunding of the the trust fund was try to alleviate that problem um making sure that we had those resources uh unfortunately uh we've been kind of in this cycle where um as Miss Thompson stated we don't even know the resources we have for the upcoming year until March or April um and so that makes it difficult to guarantee the plan um and it's not our intention to um to cause any uncertainty but um the program has always been a

035permissive program not kind of a guarantee I hear that sure and yet it has been in place sure for almost years I mean I you develop a expectation and and I don't get me wrong I think it is a horribly expensive program and I like the fact that we're phasing it out but in the meantime and and trusty ask I think um you know what also go hand goes hand inand with with with that discussion is um the district is has been working very proactively um both U Miss Thompson's division as well as mine to make sure that we're managing our our health benefits program in a way that we can control costs um this was as we mentioned just in the budget process this last year one of the first years in a long

036time where we're able to to not increase and um we would continue to hope and plan for um you know controlling those costs and I think that um that kind of coupled with where we are with the uh um the incentive as far as the the uh the supplement being um arguably no need to increase because we're having the same premium as we did the last year um is even a better benefit for staff usually that Gap widens as chairman bowling can see tell you he's seen over the years where the incentive has stayed at a certain level and that the insurance has gone up so um all valid points um I think um the guaranteeing of the program just from a fiscal standpoint is is a little more difficult to to to to support

037our board policy would prevent that um Mr say I I don't believe it does um prescribe it unless there's more but it looks like and and Mr chairman I I would also tell you um it could also go the other direction if um for some reason 15 20 years from now staff who don't meet the criteria the the board might have the discretion at that time to amend the program at that time too or if we didn't have it in board policy just like what we talked about where there was those monetary incentives for staff to separate um and that was um considered just on a a case-by case basis um something like this could probably be presented um I think what this does is allows us to to develop that funding plan um knowing

038that we have that $7.8 million in resources that we didn't have five years ago um really really I hope um at least uh alleviates any concerns from staff that we might ever have to Ren from from this guarantee so other questions it does ra I have one sorry it does raise the question though if we W to think about I mean it's very rich you've mentioned that before it's very rich and other other programs don't offer it and you started out the present by saying basically in other places they've found through research that it doesn't help with a whole host of different things that you you you hope it's going to help with so it begs the question if whether or not we should have a discussion on further discussion on the topic of should

039we amend it and not take it away but amend it where it's not quite so rich or maybe I mean others might want to take it away I I I'm just opening up the idea or question is that something you've considered is that something um that you wouldn't recommend this time um TR was that a question to St or I just wanted to clarify before yeah that's a good question I guess I'm just throwing it out there I'm just thinking because you gave a very good presentation but you sort of gave the pros and cons which I really appreciate because that helps us be more educated about the decisions we have to make um so I guess I'm masking the board is there any interest in looking at it in a you know in in

040any other format way from like a dollar amount standpoint or adjusting the years again yeah and I have no specific suggestion just do you want to open up and have a broader discussion about it or do you want to just I keep it as is I would be willing to have I don't know that I'm we're getting well into the school year for this year yeah and I would not think that doing it for this year would be good but I I'm always willing to have a conversation on it again it's quite the benefit I don't disagree on that it is did you say other school districts in Wyoming don't offer this um not consistently um there are buyout um offerings from time to time there are some that offer like a early retirement um

041incentives if you let that the know by whatever that first they'll give you $2500 it's not to this extent yeah well I'm not proposing we have a discussion to get rid of it although others might feel that way but I'd be open to having a discussion about how rich it is and maybe in for next year yeah and I think part of that discussion and I appreciate that jud's role is the money but this comes with a morale sure and and trusty Clauson if um just aligned with that question um I would tell you that um if we were not 78% funded um I I would probably have some more reservations about the program um I do think that um if if the board was to do nothing we've set that flag out um you

042know 15 20 25 years down the road where the program will automatically Sunset um so uh the we're on the downward trajectory with the program if we did nothing um and we're on the upward trajectory to to fund the program if that has any bearing with kind of that conversation I think also with one theud show you with of experience and age um actually what nine years of experience was certified that's pretty low actually so what I'm seeing is people are not staying as long anyway you've got a a group that is more um they come and go so saying will very likely have fewer and fewer people taking advantage of this yeah I I think like just said we on that downward curve and I think it's eventually going to get smaller and smaller

043and smaller can you you have something that shows what the criteria again um I didn't grab them regly trust Yes actually um believe it's um Rule Rule of 85 for both so they have to by September first of 2024 a minimum of 10 years of experience with the district yeah Contin experience we're working CH with with that line of reasing that people aren't tending to stay here as long might for those that do qualify might it be an incentive to stay with us yeah to finish out to hit the point where you're eligible and stay a little longer than the averages might suggest possibly I think we need to get to the root of why people leave I mean I think that's the the big I think that's the root of the whole why are

044people leaving and you know hopefully with this new system we've got an exit survey data that we can start implementing um and get a little bit more on top of that but I I think that's the root right there Dr Newton is why people leaving is this enough in to keep day I can tell you that there's handful of teach teachers that I've talked to in the last few years that that's exactly true they're only still here so they can meet the criteria I agree with you too but I think some of your midcareer ones yeah not so much well Jed I just wanted to commend you for for getting us to 78% solv thank you for working on that okay I watched I watched him once squeeze a nickel until a dime pop out

045of it good one thing I will add is that several times because I had proposed myself when I when I took the insurance 2009 I got $400 per month um as the incentive and I proposed a couple of price or a couple of increases that month so I got on the board because the original inent was to cover the single amount we're not covering the single amount at this point but you know anybody can propose a lower amount when we have that on the agenda next month or next at the next me so you can change the amount right there in the motion if you want to so because I know I've done this I don't think it's ever gone down but it has gone up a couple of times pay $189 for right but

046just little history there so well if everyone's okay with it Amy and Tori are going to speed talk our way through and uh if you'll note the time and make sure the board has time to use we get going so ladies it's all yours data both qualitative and quantitative data and um instead of bringing the teacher to speak we um have our community relations department interview some teachers and video some kids for you and it's ready to go okay more background reading the teacher teachers have talked about it being challenging or technology not working a lot of problem solving they are struggling just to understand the problem much approach the problem solving frustrated but it is building I think it will get better each year with the background they have with this and do better

047that they become stronger comption I think is an engage handson approach to teaching kids foundational skills with it's super handson and moves quickly they don't get for learning writing students Lar [Music] those problems are going deeper te Tas groups thinking time spe answer between the groups students take students on connection between different I see them to share what they're thinking the past and we come and we share they did seeing a lot more kids come up with different ways to get to the same answer you had that counting right down didn't you can you do it by four eight um so we are here just to answer your questions um so in the session that I sat in there was some concern about the um enhancement on either end of the spe so for kids

048that were really Advanced there felt like there's maybe some challenges getting you know enhancement there on this end where the kids that struggled it was really hard to get them an entry point what are your thoughts that um so yes those are that has come up and with teachers around the district uh so this is a a tier one uh plan a tier one curriculum and we have I've been in contact with um Shelley Courtney who is our gifted and talented facilitator on how can we use this as our tier one and then what do we need to do for those uh kids in the gifted and talented program that would be our tier two kind of students um tier two doesn't just mean that they're needing extra help but it also is how we

049would enrich them as well and so um I've met with her three times now um talking about ways that we can use this program and then we can find ways to supplement this tier one to address those concerns for those students um I've also met with um Tom I can't think of his last name who is our mtss thank you Tom Jones he's our mtss coordinator the same purpose of looking at if this is our tier one what can we do to support those students um that need that tier two kind of intervention um because they are struggling so we have been in um talks um on both ends of the spectrum to try to you know look at how we can take this tier one and and and apply it to our tier 2

050students as well thank you so in the town hall that I was in we had several teachers that said when I asked asked about prep time said it took close to an hour has anybody else said that since the town hall that I was in that it's taking them a lot of time so prep time is something that we are definitely trying to help students or to help teachers on so let me tell you kind of some of the things that we put in place um one of the things that I've developed is um a a format for them to look at the module overall and then to be looking at the lessons kind of a lesson planner kind of guide um to address that to look at um how can we plan these lessons

051more efficiently so that they're not taking that much time um we know that anytime we adopt something new it's going to take more time than than you know after you've had it under your belt for a year but even this first year we wanted to address that so that's one of the things that we've done um we're also working um with our Graphics Department to um to do some of that leg work for teachers so that if there are copies that they have to make um that that's ready for them to go and they just have a push of a button rather than having go out and look for those kinds of things something else that we're um actually we're going to be meeting with teachers Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday is we're developing what we're

052calling it tips and tricks so Amy developed a padlet um uh that teachers are going to start sharing those pieces so that um hopefully the work that they're doing will ease the work that people have to do in the future so can I ask when you asked that question was it did you get a sense of if they felt like it would get better in subsequent years yes they were hoping if they made it if we were to vote for this and went through the whole year then teachers who had piloted it could sit down and write hey if you have this problem do XYZ type stuff and I thought that was great I just wondered if any other teachers have said that and then in my town hall we talked about we had a

053sixth grade teacher that talked about how he thought it lined up with the ytop testing have any other teachers said that also we heard that from a few teachers um they they teachers that are using the digital version of the test in the older grade levels are saying it's good practice because you're seeing similar types of questions on my top drop and drag um manipulative kind of digital manipul of things um so a few teachers have said that is a normal in addition to the rigor of the questions thank you which I think is a great thing so like the program right yes sir so it's like most of what you had there was commentary from elementary teachers and have you had much from the so so my seventh and eighth grade teachers love it

054um they're very happy they think it's very well organized and as you know they've been using Eureka for the past six years this is their seventh year and um one teacher is like it's were sitting in every meeting we've had complaining about XYZ and they fixed XYZ um so there is more similar program they've been using opposed to the case it it is the exact same company um it's just the new addition with a lot of I just thought was curious was that's we only have five seven teacher five teachers in the seven so you have now more of a cohesive transition from six to 7th because I know that was a complaint yeah okay good going back to your question about the needs the special needs on both ends of the spectrum are you

055going to have to draft and write those things those enhancements or is there a product that you can buy along with it to meet those needs I don't know yet um I have reached out to um representatives from different companies and said hey what do you have um just you know the next time you're in to try to sell me something show me what you have um we have some really good kits available for intervention through um brid's intervention really nicely aligned what we're doing and our philosophy of teaching so I've been putting that out to anybody that calls and wants to you know come in and say hi to the new person of what do you have as far as enrichment kits I have put that out there um but we also have an

056authoring tool which within Eureka square that would allow us to um pull questions um and and be able to do that sort of piece um within our own district and so I imagine that that's probably where we would need to go as far as assessments go if you did have to do that would it be ready for when this launch is probably I'm not going to guarantee that we would have it 100% on all six modules but probably we could have it within like the first three modules by the beginning of the year and then work on the second half of the year at the beginning yeah okay I I have personal interest in this because I know my kids were always ahead and that was always a challenge and they were Trailblazers so yeah

057we have the seventh grade being taught in the Trailblazers we also have seventh grade Eureka Square being taught at um metalark uh at um per teach has sixth graders that go there and then at Coyote Ridge we are also um that's anticipated that whatever program we go with we would go with in seventh grade there as well we any questions thank for your presentation includes our work session topics for this evening Mr chair 14 minutes good yeah I'm not gonna do anything else I was just let you know how much time you have thank you good thing I didn't wear my black and white because she's got the skirt and how are you feeling sticker in day are you yeah I haven't like grown up yet but I'm just like constantly motion sick oh it's

058weird I'm still able to eat able to drink whereas with the boys I couldn't keep anything down so it's just different but do without nause yes 6' I call this meeting of the L County school one Board of Trustees to order um please stand and either join or listen to the second grade class of M painter from be Elementary as they lead the pledge Alle a always so cute when they're doing that although I have to say they were not as good as the kindergarten last week together on all of it last week so still it's it's a great reminder to us of what this is all about so um do we have any adjustments to the agenda Mr chair there are no adjustments to the agenda have no agenda I move to adopt the

059agenda with any adjustments I second okay we have motion to adopt the agenda without any adjustments all those in favor say I I I those oppos no motion pass and we do have the two board members that aren't with us currently right now we have uh um one who is visiting her kids that are in theem back on the east coast and is not going to be able to be here with us and then another one who's trying to get back from Denver her flight was delayed by four hours today as we all are living with that sort of thing happening so maybe she'll be here a little bit later so okay so next thing we have is our recognition for the pledge so we have principal Tiffany rine and Lisa painter come up and

060the representative from was well and I would introduce PJ Brennan he is senior Vice President of Sales at Western Vista and they are the sponsors for our Pledge of Allegiance so I'll uh give for to you good evening everybody uh once again this year Western is very honored to go ahead and support the student of student of the week initiative uh from larby County School District and with that we do have certificates of achievement for each of the students as well as a gift card uh Visa gift card and for the teachers that were nominated by the students we also have a certificate of appreciation as well as a ziggies uh gift card for you all so thank you thank you and this was for the the Pledge of Allegiance um verion of things would

061you like to say a few words we just want to thank the board for this opportunity to be up there our second grade class the time that Mrs pner sent um and all of you uh for your support so thank you wonder that was waving if the camera was interesting thank you okay next we're going to have our student of the week and we're going to start with um try High School and I will let you know that uh we had to stopped doing an old tradition a long time ago when the pandemic team that we always had people come by and shake hands after they got their presentation of their award we're going to start that again tonight so unless anybody on the board objects to that so we want to so after you're

062done um please come by the board and Shake Hands then for this part you need to stay over here so we can get a picture of you and get your Awards to you at the end so thank you all right well good evening uh tonight it is my pleasure to introduce Jaden dable Jaden's been at Triumph High School his entire High School career he is getting ready to graduate at in the middle of this year possibly however uh he's decided that he's going to take advantage of the opportunity to go to l c for dual enrollment so he's going to do that uh he's a really hard worker great student model one of the personal things that just is like wow so most of you all know what a SRI is and it it used

063to be Scholastic Reading inventory now it's just RI the reading inventory Jaden scored a 1,700 Plus on his reading inventory um that's the best you can do and so he's we put his face up all over on the on the screens and he came to me said can you just take that down I said yeah I will after next week but so Jaden's quite accomplished and he's here to tell you just a couple things about himself I like Triumph mostly because it's a small school and that gives the teachers the ability to care that much more about their students it's it's a really tightly knit Community after I graduate I plan on going to l c for a bit after working getting some money saved up eventually the main goal is to go to for

064psychology and this is Marissa Smith favorite teacher because she she she makes math fun to learn instead of having to sit there suffering in silence she she's always ready to help if you need it she's always hyper she's always positive yeah there's my mom right over there I just wanted to mention um when Jaden started at Triumph I he was I was his first math teacher and now I'm his last math teacher and it's been an honor to watch him grow into an amazing young man that he is um it's great to have in class he helps everybody he just kind of stands there and when they get confused he just kind of steps in and helps which is awesome for me because it is a bigger class so I really enjoy having him in

065class and watching him grow to be the amazing person he is and Jen math teacher for 30 years you're my the first person to talk about math as being suffering that's so I'm glad she makes it more pleasant for you all right our next person is from mccormic okay short people right so uh it is my uh pleasure to introduce the mccormic student of the week AA Cox AA is an amazing student I'm GNA let her tell you all about her accolades um but I would like to thank her mom Andre Cox her grandmother Sandra Cox and her sister I just drew a blank but they're all here thank you so much could you please stand A's gonna tell you why we think she's amazing well I I've very much enjoyed attending McCormick I've been

066in the jazz band and Science Olympiad those are the big things I mccormic as far as clubs go and then I've also been doing with Central High School I've been doing the marching band which has been very fun both summer and fall oh and I did your book last year that was pretty fun I mostly joined it to hang out with friends but I mean I did make a yearbook too so it was it was entertaining all around I I very much enjoyed all the teachers here as well okay cool I'm gonna talk about Miss metler I'm not like not 100% sure of the order here but miss mler is an amazing teacher she is my m math teacher as someone who has always struggled with math and been very anxious about it it's very

067much helped having a very calm kind person to educate me you're she's very open to questions and one-on-one help I last Thursday I'm always a perfectionist so if I don't get 100% on something it's basically the end of the world like complete freak out so I was already up I was working on this quiz and I was like I'm getting some of these questions wrong I have to have it these answered correct she was telling me you know like content understanding what you're getting wrong is what matters more than the actual grade but I did have some questions so I stayed after class and she she was very willing to help me understand what I was doing wrong so I very much appreciated that and I know she would do that for any anybody as

068for personal things we love talking and laughing we have a lot of very interesting conversations about world events and news news and I get a lot of different perspectives so I don't learn just about math but just about the world in general so it's been very fun to have Miss mler as my math teacher and I look forward to the rest of this year with you so I think you can see the confidence like this is a child who the first day of school in seventh grade walked up to me and said hey Mrs trout I have a proposal for you so um we worked that out she wanted to do do some research for her Science Olympiad science fair and so she was the only student at McCormack who was able to use her

069phone at lunch because she was actually checking decibel levels um and I think you did quite well with that project if I remember right yes she does so this is why we love her right fun okay when uh when it was our turn my colleagues and I for us to pick who we wanted to nominate for the student of the week I think it was Mr Bennett who saidwell Aah like who else would it be and the rest of us were well of course AA um and we chose her for a lot of the usual reasons um she her her schoolwork is excellent her work ethic is excellent um she's kind and considerate she is always helpful to her peers um she's involved in lots of interesting activities both inside of school and out um

070but before I came this evening I was kind of reading over the comments that the things we had written about her when we submitted her name and the thing that keeps coming up over and over about a is how genuinely she loves to learn things and it's not just her schoolwork she has this incredible curiosity and inquisitiveness about the whole world around her um and we all just find her not just to be a delightful student but really a delightful person and we're all very proud of her and very happy she's a part of our court the picture now getting the presentation for the gift cards and I have to say we've had a real streak of Math teachers being chosen as which is I've not seen that much over the years so that's great

071so s one more round of applause again thanks to Western Vista for giving me a words all right we're going to now going to recognition of oh no I'm sorry we're going to do a a resolution this so would I start I moved to I move to recognize trying to figure out how to word this I space okay I move to approve I'm what am I saying what am I saying a resolution recognition Okay I'm going to read a resolution lcsd1 Board of Trustees resolution of recognition national school lunch week October 9th through 13th 2023 whereas on October 9th 1962 Congress by joint resolution designated the week beginning the Second Sunday in October each year as national school lunch week and whereas there is evidence of continued need for children nutrition programs to nourish the

072minds and bodies of our children and whereas School Meal programs offer nutritionally balanced free breakfasts and lunches to Children each school day helping to ensure our students can focus on achieving academic Excellence now therefore be it resolved that the larmy County School District number one Board of Trustees proclaims the district will celebrate national school lunch week from October 9th through the 13th 2023 I second okay we have motion second to recognize national school lunch week any further discussion all those in favor say I I I those oppos no motion we have another one lcsd1 Board of Trustees resolution of recognition national school bus safety week October 16th through the 20th 2023 whereas the safety of our students is top priority for ly County School District number one and many of our students rely on our

073school buses to get to and from school safely as they continue their academic journey and whereas it takes a whole Community to remain diligent in ensuring proper school bus safety for many students that utilize the busting system throughout our district and whereas Community engagement in a healthy environment are key components of the district's strategic plan and we encourage community members to acknowledge our buses as they pick up transport and drop off our students now therefore be it resolved that the ly County School District number one Board of Trustees recognizes the week of October 16th through 20th to be national school bus safety week in our district a second okay a motion a second to recognized national school bus safety week all those in favor say I I hi those oose no notion yes I've always

074had a a admiration for the school bus drivers most in the old days because I I was a teacher and I was in the front I was looking at at my students they were driving a bus with their back to all their students and I realize they have a lot of Aid now with many cameras on the buses but I still have big admiration for transporting that many kids in a bus all all the same time so with something moving like that so in addition to having locked out everybody else on the road okay so now we're going to do in items from visitors so we have nobody signed up for it of visitors for the first half have do with the board ofenda items I will ask is there anybody here who would like

075to speak on an agenda item come on up and give us your name and let me give you the rules for state your first last name keep your comments two to three minutes others have time to voice their comments so we do have a timer going keep your comments General nature not directed as specific individual or individuals sub and language content for K2 grade students add additional information try not to be redundant well since you're the first you don't have to worry about that Kathy sigano um I just wanted to say it's great to hear the first resolution that you gave on National School Lunch week and what a great opportunity it would be for lcsd1 to think about possibly making sure our children are actually eating a nutritious and full lunch at lunch um

076we have a lot of kids in the district that are bringing a bag of chips and that's their lunch um or they can choose to get the shame sandwich that a lot of people talk about so I think uh this would be a great opportunity for our school board to decide whether or not we can provide a full lunch for kids whether or not they have a negative lunch thanks thank you anybody else anybody online raise your hand if you're online Mr chairman there are no hands raised okay so we'll then move on to the next part which is board Communications reports anybody have a report go ahead I do so Saturday I went to do my shopping at the Safeway on South gy and lo and behold there were on both entry exit points

077the fbl from South High was there collecting for the Friday food bags and I thought what a great Community project that they were doing so I took my paper and my daughter and granddaughter and I we went in and did our shopping and then did some shopping for this and came out and when I went in and granted it was it was early so there were just a couple of things in baskets under the table but when we came out they were overflowing and just the generosity in our community to feed our children and the service that the kids from FBLA did being out there all day electing I just think is fantastic and what a great Community we live in good uh I just want to do a shout out to South High uh

078this weekend on Saturday I got to go watch the uh UW uh Troopers marching band competition which apparently is usually at uh University of Wyoming but there was a game of some kind I don't know and so they moved it to South and South did a fantastic job in conjunction with the music department of the district hosting the band competition uh it was my first marching band competition it was great fun all three of our marching bands did an amazing job Central um did a Danny Elfman um tribute with some Batman some night before Christmas it was great um East uh really appealed my Gen X side of me uh with a little alt grunge nirvana green day um that was lovely uh and South rounded it out with a jazz um mix that was

079amazing with some fabulous solos really appreciated all of that but they competed against 17 um other uh high schools from the region both Wyoming South Dakota Nebraska and Colorado were all there um and while none of them placed um they were amazing um and because I do continue to see Wyoming is sort of one Community with very long streets uh I just wanted to give a shout out to Wheatland as well they were probably one of the smallest schools participating and they did a really really nice job told the story people they had people just entranced um and they did Place third um behind the two largest schools that participated uh so Kelly Walsh and um Rapid City uh place first and second V weand did Place third aome thank you thank you Mr chair

080I just I also want to um just note how amazing our our schools and our leaders are our teachers our principles everyone involved in the homecoming weeks um this last week the central had their homecoming and I was just impressed with the the amount of activities and the amount of extra work that's put in to make um make that week special for our students and to just allow them to have some silly fun and I think that's really great it makes them want to go to school they're excited about the activities and and um we want our schools to be fun and I just want to say thank you to all of our staff even at the junior high level they were they were um bleeding into the activities as far as dress up days

081and things and I just want to commend um all of our schools across the district for how they try to to create fun activities for our students in special times thank you anybody else I just had one thing to report Dr Shan from M triy reached out to me a couple weeks ago he wanted to make sure that with our temporary transition into uh the acting superint not Acting Superintendent the interim superintendent that that they still want to continue the work they've been doing together um with the district on several programs and in particular he talking about some programs that deal with some of our lower um economic students and our lower yeah lower economic students who probably have never had a family member go to college before and trying to get them on the

082right track and so I said certainly we want you to continue that work and so they will continue doing that together and uh so that was good that he reached out to check to make sure that was a good thing we still supposed to be doing and I think that's all that I have so we'll go on to that was individual reports I guess I didn't say our next meeting upcoming meetings are on October 23rd we have 6m regular board meeting on November 1st and you remember this month we as well as we did last month we went on second and 4th just so we can have two meetings per month November 1st at 6:30 p.m is a parent advisory meeting which is here in the boardroom and November 6th at 5:00 pm work session

083followed by 6 p.m record board meeting okay now we have requirements from superintendent thank you chairman Bolan it is certainly my pleasure to provide a few Updates this evening to begin I'd like to talk about uh the Apple distinguished schools designation this designation is wed to educational institutions that demonstrate excellence in integrating technology into their learning environments to prepare students for success in the digital age these schools showcase Innovative and effective uses of technology to enhance educational experiences for both students and teachers Apple recognizes and celebrates schools all over the world who are leaders in educational technology and successfully Implement technology to improve teaching and learning outcomes at the time of this year's nominations there were 738 schools worldwide and none in the state of Wyoming as of October 3D the last update I've received

084and maybe we'll get even an update beyond that it is my pleasure to announce that Jessup Elementary schol school has been named as the only Apple distinguished school in the state of Wyoming at this time I'd like to introduce Mr Casey Beach to make a few comments about Jess Elementry excellent thank you so much and thank you board thank you Dr Newton for this opportunity um real fast I'm a leadership executive at Apple and what that means is I get to work with some of the coolest uh and greatest schools that there are Across the Nation and I've had a a wonderful opportunity getting to know Barbara and uh her staff and so a couple of things about Apple distinguish schools that I think you need to know about uh first and foremost I think

085is what is it and so it's the idea that at Apple we really believe that um schools in particular an apple distinguished school um is a center of leadership and educational Excellence uh and that's really what we're looking for and so if we kind of put a a timeline to this a few years ago when we started going down the road of utilizing iPads we started looking I started watching and kind of paying attention to how things were being used and you know we started to say Jessup is doing amazing things and so in case you're wondering here's I what I call the checkbox items before we get to the real items as far as what makes an ads uh first of all all Apple distinguished schools do utilize Apple products I usually smile and

086say hey I work at Apple that's kind of you know step one when you move on beyond that we really start looking at how they're being utilized in the classroom because a lot of times we think of you know technology as being a a device or this thing that we look at and we use and we do um the truth of the matter is we really believe that technology should be invisible uh it should be the teachers and it should be the students and this should be nothing more than a tool that they're utilizing while they're working um that's where we start talking about Innovative uses of the platform it really is them doing amazing things uh then we start looking at leadership and you know what Barbara Lisa has done such amazing things when

087it comes to guiding her staff to become proficient not only just using um iPads and using using Max and doing all of that stuff but it's also becoming proficient and learning new ways of teaching and engaging their students in uh learning on a day day-to-day basis and then the final thing that we really look at is uh is this a is this a moment where what we call a Finish Line or is this just a mile marker along the Journey of being an educator um and what we know for a fact is education is changing every single day and we don't look at an ads or an apple distinguish school as as being an point but we really look at it as nothing more than a stop along this huge journey and so with those

088things being said uh when we look at uh Jessup Elementary School this is what we say they're doing number one they're inspiring U their staff to do great things okay we're also looking at it as they're reimagining the way education looks within their balls and finally they're really starting to impact the way teaching and learning is happening and I think you can see this in the way that that their students are performing so as Dr Newton was saying yes uh this number is an actual number at this moment it is 728 schools right now that we are calling an apple distinguished school um and everybody this is global this is worldwide this is 36 countries and when you put all of that into context the fact that Jessup Elementary is Wyoming's first and at this

089moment only Apple distinguished school this is quite an honor and this is something that they should be proud of you should be proud of and I'll be honest I'm kind of proud of it too um I'm really glad that this is uh happening this way and so with all of this being said what I would love to do is invite Barbara to come up she's gonna explain a few things right and I will press the next button on the presentation while you explain a few things do this not smart so part of the um criteria that we had to go through first of all Casey came and talked to me and asked if they could nominate us and I just I took it to the staff first of all and said I don't know what

090do you guys think and we looked at the rubric and thought well we're already doing all of this so why not and then I um when I emailed Casey and said yep the staff is in then his email bounced back he was out of um the state and not receiving emails at that time and I'm like okay you guys this is a message from God that we're not doing this right now and then he said it's okay I already nominated you okay we're in um and so we looked at the we built a team a leadership team in our school of some of the strongest innovators and then moved forward from there we had to do three videos and they could only be 90 seconds not 95 seconds not 87 seconds but 90 seconds and

091that was really difficult because we had a huge story to tell and to try to get our our story out in those three 90c videos we were like talking as fast as we could um we had no transitions it was just jump from one story to the next and we had to cut out a really lot a lot of really important stories but if we could just show the videos first our mission is to provide a safe place for all students achieve academic success and become responsible citizens this was a collaboration with South Community will work together to fost grit instill a strong work ethic and build a passion for lifelong learning worked with my Apple learning specialist to put a digital walkthrough on an iPad we can take pictures we can take videos to

092um gather evidence and it goes directly from myself the iPad to the teachers inbox I felt it was important to get my Apple teacher certification in order to model professional learning for my staff our brave and Innovative teachers are leading the way in this futuristic thinking as they provide a safe learning environment where students are not only comfortable enough to take academic risk but they're also willing to fail in order to learn students create on Minecraft a medieval manner which covers the content that we've been doing in social studies being able to actually utilize the iPad are able to really expand that and go above and beyond showing them different areas of coding to feeling we are a small school in a small part of the county in a small state but we do some

093really amazing things here that was the first video there are two additional videos I'm Annie I'm Ezra's mom Ezra had just put together a project this was a project that allowed him to share with other people what gives him joy and what barks his creativity and feeds life into him in fourth grade I did a presentation about kurtt gouty and I had to dress up like him and put a headset on and I kind of just knew like from then and researching him that is cool I started on very old iPhone this is the iPhone I used you've now been recognized at East High School you've become quite famous around our community and probably even our state and maybe beyond that so we had the third graders here at Jessup writing letters to pen pals

094in Rhode Island we got our kids on a zoom meet with their pen pals learning about culture and climate in Rhode Island and then sharing the things that they've learned about CH our amazing Jessup students are not only collaborating and learning through technology they're also using it to create and design in all of their classrooms across the building we are proud that jessup's culture is deeply focused on our students we prioritize their learning experiences and Independence Above All Else this commitment is evident in The Way We Gather and utilize data to improve our educational practices we Foster creativity and collaboration providing unique experiences both on our campus and Beyond and then our third video we have gaps in the things that we are have in our school Improvement plan then that's how we target our

095professional development for the upcoming year I've been able to help plan our professional learning and coaching cycles for the year using data we've gathered from the Apple learning technology survey there were several principles that I got a hold of me and asked if I would share my document with them and built their own walkthrough tools specific to their own School Improvement plans and it's kind of cool because it started as a grassroot oh we froze there room sorry about that I'll maybe not I'll say good job with the last video it was awesome uh before I turn it over I just want you guys to know uh number one you got to realize that during the uh the whole process that Jessup went through that they made these videos they submitted them uh to me

096and to Apple um it wasn't just you know Apple that sat down and said y they're doing a good job it really was a team of people that looked at each one of these videos they looked at the school um and and I told them today one of the things that's really special about them is on a the teams were made up of teams of five uh they received a 0 vote like immediately and it was because of the videos was because of the vision that they have so again good job and if I could just take a second to tell you a little bit about our story so Jess I've been there for like um I think this is my 11th year going into my 11th year and this was a great school long

097before I got there so if you look at um we've always done really well with our most at risk Learners and we've always done really well with proficiency but our struggle has been in the growth the area of growth because it is it is really difficult if you have kids in the 80th or the 90th percentile nationally to hit the 82nd or the 92nd or the 98th percentile so we've really worked hard at um putting solid engagement structures in high impact teaching strategies to do the best that we can but it really was an eye opener when we shut down for coid and then came back and saw that the needs of our student students were different and and um the social emotional aspects were different and therefore we needed to do something differently at

098our school and so the district is fabulous we got iPads we had access to professional development um we weren't forced to do anything but they provided it if they wanted it and our staff wanted it so our veteran teachers um I'm so thankful for our veteran teachers because they are lifelong Learners and always looking for opportunities to do what is best for students like that's what they're grounded in even if we have to learn horizontally at the same time our students are learning or if we have to learn from our students our students are phenomenal and so we jumped on that bandwagon to see if we couldn't help our our growth scores um so postco when we got our school performance report back it didn't look like this we were yellow of course we met

099expectations in equity we met expectations in proficiency but we strugg struggled in that growth area we missed it by like five students but five students is five students too many and so um we started this process of learning how to um effectively Implement you know purposefully we didn't like rewrite our lesson plans we found intentional ways to integrate technology and our Apple learning specialist and our Tiss came right in and helped us they they provided a safety net for us and like you saw Victoria wisman in there um she she along with the other young teachers that come into this District like they grew up in the digital age so they are afraid of nothing like some of us older girls or older gentlemen who struggle with some of that they are Innovative and one

100thing that I think sets Jessup apart from other schools is that we're small it was mentioned in the video and we operate much like a tightly knit family and we take pride in that we're a small school with small resources so we do what we have to do so like going through our mtss process if we find kids who have a need um whether it be enrichment or um intervention um it's all Hands-On deck and you could see that in the people who are Apple certified so not only our veteran teachers our new teachers are specialist teachers like they volunteer to do enrichments and interventions and they don't have to because policy and the negotiated agreement say on a travel day they don't have to do that but they do even I teach interventions everybody

101is busy so like our service providers are all Apple certified our nurse is Apple certified because she sometimes covers the office if the secretary is out kid comes in with a problem she wants to be able to help them our janitors are certified I mean like everybody in the building is Apple certified and everybody has kids in this District maybe not in our school but in another school so on temporary virtual learning days um they can help their own children too by gathering that knowledge so it's it's a school wide thing um our parent population you saw some of our moms talking in there they're truly invested too we have they are in our schools they are volunteering um they want their kids to do well and so they're super supportive our PTO is phenomenal

102and um that just evidence is their dedication to these kids doing well because they provide a lot of enrichment opportunities that we can't do through a building budget and then the true heroes in this story are our students um like mentioned earlier we learn from them so we have kids with Big Dreams and they're willing to do the work to reach their dreams so we have kids who want to be professional athletes of course doctors and lawyers and financial planners but we also have kids who want to be bloggers and want to be Gamers and want to be YouTubers and want to be social media influencers and back in the day it was like oh my gosh are you kidding and now we're pouring fuel on their fire because they're learning 21st century skills that

103they'll be able to take directly from our classrooms to postsecondary um to the workforce to the military um to whatever they want to be when they grow up so this is this is the story of Jessup um if you look at this and the second page if you click to the next page it shows that we are not only meting expectations but in if you look at the fed the eter ones we are exceeding expectations so I'm really proud of the work that we're doing and like Casey said this isn't something like we stried we started this to become an apple dist Engish school we started this to help our students learn and grow and be ready for success in the future and it's paying off you can shake hands if you want thank you

104so much well the one to one initiative we can thank Co for that because we wouldn't probably have that in all our district without the co funds so that may be one good thing that came out of there but this shows you Jess is one of our older buildings in the district so this shows you that with a great staff you can overcome even some challenges that are within your own building so than thank you Dr lth and the fine folks at jessip elementary um trustees on our agenda this evening you'll notice we have a motion to appoint Mrs Amanda Hall as the interim director of instruction for the remainder of the school year just uh wanted to provide a short update we will not be backfilling her position as the assistant director of instruction

105uh but rather we'll be spreading those duties among her and other members of the division and to Mr Fry and Mr Jackson and Teresa Ross um and all those who are uh stepping up to fill in that void we are uh very appreciative and we are very grateful to Mrs Hall as well for her willingness to shoulder the added responsibility in this role and we wanted to publicly thank her before the Motions this evening also in response to a request from principales our high schools will now begin honoring their athletes who have been recognized by the Wyoming High School Activities Association for good sportsmanship it was important to the schools to be able to recognize their student athletes in a setting where their family coaches and teammates and peers can actually be there with them

106as they're recognized and at the board meetings that isn't always possible additionally we've had a few questions about the process in collecting and Publishing the feedback for uh to the board for the 45-day review process for the proposed Library uh policy changes so I'd like to ask Miss paully to provide a bit of clarification on that thank you uh Dr Newton uh Mr chair um as you all know we're about almost exactly two weeks into the public comment period for chapter seven um the the proposed changes to the library policy um that public comment period is set to run through November 10th um at this point we've received about 480 comments um once we get to the end of the public comment period we uh plan to compile all of those comments um redact personally

107identifiable information from those comments um and then make those comments publicly available um one thing to keep in mind you as the board are not scheduled to vote on the policy until December 4th we built in a little cushion time in there because we anticipated that there would be a lot of public comment um that gives you about an additional two weeks um you know the 10th your next meeting would be on the 20th um so we wanted to provide plenty of time for you to fully consider uh the comments that you do receive in so that is our plan right now um with a public comment um we are um you know collecting those um for members of the of the public um you can either provide it there's a Microsoft form available on

108the district's web page or you can send your comments to uh Rebecca Gil who's a district employee um I would encourage you to utilize those two resources um if you email board members directly we rely on the board then to forward those on to us and if their emails are like my emails sometimes things can slip through the cracks so this is a way to ensure that if you intend for your public comment to be part of the official public comments uh received for the changes that those are are in fact um part of that process um Mr chair there any questions about that piece of the library policy we just want to make sure that everybody understand we're not going to publish any of them until we've got them all together um we thought

109it was important that people realize that you're commenting on the changes you're not commenting on somebody else's comments that's part of the reason we chose not to put them out there until after it was done so and there have been some people have requested that we count how many are in favor and how many are against we don't plan on doing that because with some of these are long enough you can't tell for sure where they are may start one way and turn you're done not sure where the other so we're not going to make any any judgments about whether they're for or against it um but please when you're making your comments um make them so that you're commenting on just the um the policy and the changes to the policy and why or

110why not you're in favor or against them so thank you uh Mr chair just uh briefly I also wanted to provide the board with an update um you'll recall that um when we originally had presented the draft of the of the library policy to the board we had a provision in related to procurement of library books um the board at that point um took that piece out for further refinement um we are working on that currently we um looking at a couple other districts who um have addressed procurements um related to sexually explicit materials or sexually explicit content within Library materials so we're um doing a little research now trying to find some best practices and we hope to have an update on that soon again as a reminder that will again go through um

111the policy advisory committee before it would come back to you for um a vote but we'll provide um drafts as we did with the the rest of the library policy along the way um finally um because there are more chapters than than just the one um we're looking um we're beginning to to look at chapter six which is the Personnel chapter um it's a long chapter and we've identified um as you all are aware some some potential areas that could use some clarification um some some areas that that might um be in multiple places that we can clean up and and streamline and so we're taking a look at those policies I would anticipate those next after um we finish up the library policy and the procurement P I think there were some people who

112doubted whether we could put a full-time lawyer to work in our district and we not only have her now but she has an assistant who's lawyer that that has come her with that so thank you for all you do because you're a very valuable asset so Mr chair I just have one last uh update uh a topic that's near and dear to my heart uh the unified Champion schools is a program for schools prek through the University level to provote to excuse me to promote meaningful social inclusion by bringing together students with and without intellectual disabilities to compete together as many as 19.5 million young people are taking part in incl in inclusive experiences through Special Olympics Johnson Jr High School is one of only three Wyoming schools receiving National banners of recognition for efforts

113to provide inclusive Sports and activities for students with and without intellectual disabilities they are receiving this distinguished status by meeting 10 national standards of excellence in the areas of inclusion advocacy and respect Johnson began this process in 2014 I'd like to give a shout out to Mr will Barnes and all others involved for their tireless efforts in promoting this program and I know that there are many other schools that are now taking Johnson's lead and specifically I believe East High will soon be submitting their paperwork to be recognized as the champion school as well there will be a banner hanging ceremony at Johnson sometime I believe in November and we will be sure to invite this board to that celebration and with that Mr chairman that is the end of my reports for evening thank

114you okay so that's the end of the report section so now we're going to move into the consent agenda and motions that are sub there okay all G items listed with the designation of CA are considered to be routine items by the governing body and will be enacted by one motion there will be no separate discussion on these items any it on the consent agenda will be considered in this normal sequence on the agenda does any board member request to remove a motion from the consent agenda seeing those hands raised um we'll do the bution I move to approve all motions listed as consent agenda I second have a motion a second to approve the consent agenda all in favor say I I all oppos no motion passes as you can see trusty Hinkle has

115joined us to be off a plan so TR got a little jet line going there just a four hour delay some time for rest okay so that takes us down to new business sorry I moved to Grant permission to purchase automotive equipment for South High School Automotive program from mgee company for an amount not to exceed $857 3626 second okay we have a motion as a second to through the purchase of um automotive equipment by the McGee company any further discussion all those in favor say I I those oppose no I moved to Grant permission to purchase one skid steer loader for the a farm from Bobcat of the Rockies for an amount not to exceed $ 53,723 motion passes I move to approve the additional board meetings of January 8th April 22nd and June

11624th 2024 for the for the remainder of the 2023 2024 lcsd1 school year second okay we have motion to second to approve some changes to our calendar putting some additional meetings in so that we can take care of our business without having Mee midnight and we discussed this pretty thoroughly last month so any further discussion all those in favor say I I those oppos no motion passes I think you have a new calendar there that you can print off you can have that available to you I move to approve the administrator contract on the attached list for the 2023 2024 school year and to place them on the appropriate step of the administrative salary schedule second okay so this is the one you were talking about yes okay been a motion second to approve the

117appointment of Amanda Amanda Hall in the assistant interim director of instruction thank you interim director of instruction he knows that position very well replacing him all the any further discussion all those in favor say I I those oppose no motion passes all right is Amanda here yes she is she's right back there may say she's already out performing the old guy I won't make any comment all right so our second public comment section and we do have two people signed up here our first person is maryan Yoder and rules same as I just read a few minutes ago thank you Mr chairman and good evening members of the board I'm here tonight just to speak I guess I could have spoken about uh something that was on the consent or on the main agenda I

118didn't realize the library policy was going to come up but uh really what I'm here to talk about is um board governance and I was hearten tonight when I was at your work session and watching you carefully consider the the positions and problems of your employees of whom I think you have about a few somewhat fewer than 2200 because there's quite a staff shortage at the moment but you've got 2200 employees and you've got about 13,000 100 students who are all of your beneficiaries the public itself is is your beneficiary as well both the future public and in the present public but your your immediate beneficiaries and to you as trustees are your students and I would just wish for the board to continue to operate as a board and I I think the Wyoming

119School Board Association says it best you have to uh when you took your oath of office you of course had to abide agree to abide and stand by by the rules and the laws of the of both the US and the State Constitution and here's part of the State Constitution and the US Constitution and there are many other laws that you have to abide by all the time but if you the reason you're doing that is because you are tasked by law to provide a free and appropriate public education for all your students for your future students and for your present students and you can't do that by book Banning you cannot do that by marginalizing students making them feel unwanted unnecessary undesirable you can't do that I think Wyoming School Board Association says it

120best that about what makes a good board member the best board members are those who show the ability to work as a member of a team including those who are have an open mind and an ability to ability to engage in give and take to arrive at a group consensus the willingness to spend the time required to become informed and to do the homework needed to take part in effective school board meetings a desire to serve children and the community and a strong belief in the value of the public schools so in addition to being trustees you're also nonpartisan trustees and I would urge the board to remember as you did earlier tonight when you were discussing the Vex problem of how to pay for your insurance your your health insurance going forward it's a

121big expense it's always going to be a big expense it's never going to get cheaper but you've got to provide that benefit to your teachers if you don't have teachers you're not going to have public education you're not going to be fulfilling your duties as trustees so I'm here to just implore you to work as nonpartisan members and trustees of this board you're not here on behalf of anybody but the the students and the public you're not here to represent any party any special interest group you're here for the students please remember that thank you for listening to me thank you before we go on to our second person I forgot got about one little item on our agenda here and that is uh future business and the next regular board meeting um will be

122um held on Monday October 23rd 2023 at 6m and The Business of the district is done so now we'll take our second person which is Brooke ban I come to you tonight to thank you for all the effort the board and the school district have put into developing the proposed Library policy I feel this is a fair and Equitable compromise to all sides of the issue I do have one book I would like to read to you tonight this book is found in elementary libraries within our district therefore according to the public comment rules I guess it would meet the definition of being K12 appropriate however in my own opinion I my own opinion would be that this is not K12 appropriate and people who have kiddos listening or in the audience should be advised

123I will start with the book summary that the publisher would provide to a librarian to review before selecting this book this book is called Alice on the outside by Phyllis Naylor Alice McKinley likes her life but she senses things are changing she gets a little bored by her best friends Elizabeth's and Pamela's obsession with cloes and makeup she's just not that interested and though she's very interested in her boyfriend Patrick she's not entirely sure how to keep their relationship going Alice is struggling to figure out how she feels about things and then how her feelings fit into what other people think she should be feeling getting older is even trickier than Alice thought is she ready for the challenge as Alice stumbles her way through the mindfield of early adolescence there are plenty of bumps

124giggles and surprises along the way every girl should grow up with Alice and with this irresistible new look a whole new generation will want to the publisher recommends this book for grades 5-9 and ages 10 to 14 page 24 I know what goes where I told her but how does it feel when a man's penis goes inside you well for some women it hurts a little at the first time maybe the first couple of times after that it doesn't it feels pretty good actually it's exciting to feel yourself opening up for a man and nice to have him kissing you but you spend your whole honeymoon in pain is that why people go away somewhere and lie on the beach she laughed not exactly besides so many girls use tampons now that they've already stretched

125themselves a little down there forget movies Alice they aren't much help it looks easy in the movies a man and woman climb in bed and make Wild Love and they both come at the same time and what does that mean an orgasm a climax a peak of excitement if you've ever masturbated you've already know what that feels like page 137 when a guy ejaculates how much seman comes out a cup a cup you Gods though a table maybe he grinned at me I never measured we laughed I think we've heard enough can you summarize my comments tonight on this book should be considered my formal nomination of this book to be added to the sexually explicit list again this book is found in two Elementary libraries meaning kiddos as young as five have access to

126this thank you again for the effort and the work you're putting into this it is appreciated more than you know thank you all right we have some moreart slots here so is there anybody else here who would like to speak online please raise your hand if you'd like to speak Mr chairman there there are no hands raised okay so we'll end this session and we have one more motion I move to go into executive session prior to rejoin for the purpose of possible student long-term suspensions expulsions Personnel litigation and legal advice I second okay we have motion to go to Executive session prior to adjournment all those in favor say I those oppose no motion passes we're going to go for short I say short time we're going to go to Executive SE and we

127will