001Okay. Before we get before we get started tonight, are the mics on? We Okay. Okay. Before we get started, I'd like uh I'd also like to note that Dr. Larry Gray will be filling in for Dr. Clark tonight. Um, so in in Dr. Clark's absence, Larry Gray, welcome. >> Thank you. >> Um, Board of Education has been in closed executive session to discuss pending litigation. No action was taken during closed executive session. Would now ask everyone to join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [clears throat] >> Do we have a recommendation for tonight's agenda? >> Yes, we do. I recommend the board approves tonight's January 27th,
0022026 open board meeting agenda as presented. Can I have a motion? >> Some move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Motion's carried. Okay, we'll now move on to our district highlights and Holly Kitson from principal at Parson's Elementary School. >> All right. Hey, good evening, Dr. Gray and board of education. Thanks for letting us come and share the exciting stuff that's happening at Parsons. I'm always excited to share our data and some of the fun things that we're doing in our building. Um, going to kind of skip through. Our vision has remained the same since we merged a couple of years ago. Um, we want our kids to leave being readers and being part of our communities and responsible citizens. This is how our
003kids achieve the future. So, we're going to kind of get into some data. I always do my presentation a little bit different because I want you guys to know kind of what's happening in our building and in the reality. Um, we do have 100% of our scholars receiving 30 minutes of direct phonics instruction, which means we adopted the science of reading at Parson's about 5 years ago and implemented a direct phonics instruction um program three years ago. And you're going to hear a little bit more about that here shortly. So, one number that I'm really proud of on here is that we have an 82% staff retention. We've had up in the 80s, 80 percentile for probably the last five years. So, we've maintained a pretty good staff. We have felt the teacher shortage a
004little bit more this year than we have in the past, but we have an amazing staff that is dedicated to our kids and the work that we do every day. 100% of our staff have less than 10 absences per year and 95% of our classrooms have certified staff in them. We have one classroom staffed with a long-term sub and one specialed um crosscat teacher position with a long-term u sub who's a retired teacher. We currently have two TA vacancies, but I'm doing interviews next week. So, if you know anybody, send them our way. We continue to keep our goals and we want to move forward each year. Um, we did take a little backslide this year in the winter, but we are continuing to see growth at Parson's. This is kind of who we are.
005We have grown every year. So, we're at 526 [music] scholars currently at Parson's. Um, 212 of those scholars are returning scholars and they have been with us since September 1st of [music] 2023. Um, kind of where we're at, our classrooms are getting full. We're at capacity in first grade. We have one space in second grade. We have one space, well, we have few extra spaces in third grade because we go up to 27 [music] students. Fifth grade is at capacity and as you can see, we're kind of getting there in all of our grade levels. So, I do want to talk a little bit of our direct phonics instruction. Um, Parsons went through training. Um, when we came out of COVID, we merged two buildings. And so when we did that merger, we did science
006of reading training. And so our building has done direct phonics instruction for three years as core instruction, but for five years for like ret RTI, our interventions, they're all the same program. So our kids, no matter whether they're in special ed, gened, or getting interventions, hear the exact same language from every teacher. when with our phonics instruction [music] um we used funding from ESSA and our school improvement plan and this work is tied to our school improvement plan and we've been tracking students that's kind of where that 212 came from. We've been tracking students who have been consistently enrolled at Parson's since September 1st of 2023 when we started um this this kind of pilot program. So kind of with FastBridge, this is our 50th percentile. We are kind of up and down middle of
007the year data tracking. Um I think across the district, we took a little bit of a dip this this winter. Um but we have seen growth along the way. This is our math. Our math scores have continually kind of gone up. Um as you can see our total, we're kind of gradually going up each year. So, we are growing and I'm gonna kind of go through this quickly and I hate to go fast, but this is some interesting data. And as we talk about our continuous enrollment, we want to like our enrollment growth. Um, in 2023 we had 462 [music] students. The next year we had 483 and this year we currently have 526. So, Parsons has grown every single year since we came out of COVID and into the merger. What we can see
008is that I currently have 182 students or scholars who have been in continuous enrollment and we have been tracking. What we can see from the the CES average, our kids who have been continuously enrolled with us are scoring 10 to 16 points higher on FastBridge than our general enrollment. So that continuous imp that continuous enrollment, the continuous instruction is making a difference for our kids who are continuously enrolled with us. This is interesting because we talk a lot about national percentiles, but within our district, we're all trying to grow where our kids are. And the the 40th percentile column says that 57% of our kindergarteners are above the 40th percentile compared to all the other schools in the district. 47% of those students are above the 50th percentile for our district. And you can see
009kind of across the board that all of our students uh over 50% in all grade levels are above that 40th percentile. And in five out of the six grade levels, we have over 50% of our students above [music] the 50th percentile compared to the district. So we're we're pushing up the standards and expectations. We're not there on the national level, but we are growing at our district level. And this is this is one of my favorite things. I should have one of my teachers come up and tell about this. We do race to success medals and we celebrate growth at Parsons. Um each of those columns is by year. And this year we're going to give out um in just a couple weeks 125 bronze medals, 60 silver medals, and 22 gold medals for reading
010growth. And we're going to give out 101 um bronze medals, 58 silver medals, and 38 gold medals for math uh growth. And they have to increase by 30 points or more to get a gold medal. And we also raised our bar that our students have to meet the 40th percentile in order to qualify for for [music] medals. And now I'm going to call my teachers up here because I got a group of them here and they are going to share their celebrations. Well, this one this is a video. So I am going to share this one. We had the privilege and honor to have a historical marker placed at Parson's Elementary this year. It celebrates Judge Parsons and um black educators from Decatur Public Schools. It is on our playground and if you ever get
011out and about and get to visit it, it is a wonderful um historical marker and we our students got to be part of making history which was amazing. This is a video and we won't show it tonight but if you get a chance to watch the video um it's it's a pretty interesting and fun um exciting event that we had at Parsons in the fall. Oops. Skip over. There we go. All right. Who's doing success? [music] >> All right. One thing that we are going to talk about that we do at Parsons is our success bell. And our success bell has been rung over 800 times this year by scholars who are setting and meeting goals. So every um every other week, so kindergarten through 2 grade will go one week and then third [music]
012through sixth the following. Teachers nominate students based on goals that we set with them. And when they meet those goals, they get to go ring the bell and get their picture and they absolutely love it. So it keeps them motivated. That's one thing that we do at Parsons. >> Um, another thing that we do at Parsons is we have scholars of the month. Each classroom gets to nominate a scholar, [music] someone who is um, succeeding academically, socially, emotionally, showing great character, and they get to go to our book vending machine. they get a little gold coin and it means so much to them and I love when my students run back to the classroom to show me the book that they selected. So that means a lot to them and they get really excited about
013reading. [laughter] Another thing that we really like to celebrate is attendance. And [music] our kids get really excited on the half day Wednesdays when the woot woot cart comes around to our classrooms. And we've had visits by scholars to that perfect month. >> Oh, there's another one, but it's not working. [laughter] Yeah, it's [music] technology. Oh, there it goes. >> Oh, you get to show Wait, did I go back too far? >> Oh, there we go. >> Um, this winter was um something that we did for the first time is 100% of our scholars at Parsons got to go to see the Polar Express at the Eagle Theater. So, um, we all loaded up on buses, um, over two days and we went into the theater and had popcorn and drink and just really enjoyed
014the Polar Express. And I'm going to share this next one because we do bist at Parson's Elementary School. We have a resident author at Parson's, Andrea Hill, our fifth grade teacher who is here, but she's going to hide back there. um has written an SEAL picture book based on the BISL that you can be okay even when others are not. Um it's a great book to teach [music] kids to stop and take a breath and think about what they're doing before um they react. And so it's just um we just wanted to celebrate her as well while we were here this evening [laughter] and everybody sat down on me. So we've had some great evening events. Um, we had math we have we have mathine. We quit doing just trick-or-treating in our building and our
015kids come and do math games and scavenger hunts throughout the building and they do of course get to dress up and have treats throughout the building but um we've turned it into a big event and our kids have a blast going through the hallways with their parents and solving problems along the way. Um we partner with Thornton's [music] gas station on Mound Road and they donate king-size candy bars. So, if they finish the scavenger hunt, they earn a king-size candy bar for math. So, one of the little treats that they get. Um, we also have a wonderful winter showcase which we sp we partner with FCC and they let us use their facility. Um, 90% of our kids attend. We have packed houses for two nights and it's just a wonderful event um that our
016families get to participate in. And then we have also had family reading night the in November which we have guest readers from Vali u to Travis from the s from the sped department um trying to think our new nurse um director came and read for us. We have teachers come and read. So it's just a great event where parents and families get to get books and celebrate reading as well. Oops. Sorry. Mark our calendars. Um, we have Founders Day and Black History Assembly coming up in February. In February, we celebrate 59 years at Parson's Elementary School. Um, next year we will have a big evening event for our 60th anniversary. Um, but this year we are doing a smaller event in March. We have the [music] 80 sneaker ball for our fourth through sixth graders.
017They celebrate all around Fierce Scholar. So, they have to meet some expectations [music] to participate in that dance. And then we have STEM family science family night on April 16th with [music] our star lab. Um the new star lab is coming to our building. So the kids will get to experience [music] that at the building. So and I just added a little if you want to help us celebrate. We do lots of celebrations for our kids. So if there's community members who'd like to donate or help us out with anything, we'd always appreciate that. That's all I have. Do you guys have questions? There's a lot. I threw a lot at y'all. >> [laughter] >> Sounds like you guys are doing amazing stuff. So, keep up the good work. >> We appreciate it. Thank you.
018>> Thank you. [applause] >> Okay, we'll now move on to public participation. Uh, Miss Bradford, seeing no public participation, everybody will probably consider it a benefit to not have me go all the way through that again. So, um, we'll move on to board discussion. And at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Lawrenson to talk about our superintendent evaluation tool. >> All right. Well, we set up a Zoom call with um Aaron Wilcox from Super Eval, which is the um superintendent evaluation tool um that we learned about when we went to uh the conference up in Chicago. and um they said that they would have a Zoom call with us tonight um to just kind of go over the evaluation tool and give us a brief overview of what it is. So,
019>> she's muted. >> I will let Aaron unmute herself and uh give us her talk. We're muted too. >> I don't know. >> You're muted, Miss Wilcox. >> Hello. [laughter] >> Okay. >> Are you ready for me? >> Yes. Perfect. Okay. So, I am going to go ahead and just get started with um what I have for you tonight. To start off, my name is Aaron and I work for the Super Eval team. I specifically work with the district in the state of Illinois. Really through the whole process, whether you're want to just learn more information about Super Eval or if you are um renewing from year to year, I am your point person. So, uh, thank you so much for having me tonight at your meeting and hopefully I can answer some questions that
020you have about Super Eval. Um, before I go ahead and jump into the slides that I have for tonight, are there any initial questions or thoughts that any of you would like to share um, right off the start with me? There's a little bit of echo. I didn't hear that. >> There's none at this time. >> None. Okay. So, before I jump into I just want to say a quick thank you to everybody who helped set up this meeting tonight, too. I know it was a team effort between Matt and Karen and Melissa. So, I appreciate you all. Um just to go ahead and get started and give you a little bit of background of why Super Eval was created um was because some of the problems that our developers were hearing from different superintendent
021and school boards about the current evaluation system that they had in place. So you may or may not be able to relate to some of these problems here on the screen, but these were the most common ones that they heard over and over again. The first one being that the evaluation process from year to year either was inconsistent or that there was nothing in place. So superintendents were looking for something to actually bring into their district and the evaluation process. The second one being that they felt like if they had an evaluation in place, it was superficial. um it was based more on hearsay or opinion rather than having clear criteria to back the evaluation and superintendent didn't feel like they were able to provide evidence for how they were working towards those different areas
022of the evaluation. The third one feeling like the the different areas were disjointed between district and annual goals, national standards and superintendent evaluation when in reality it's a great time for those three worlds to come together on the evaluation process. So bringing those together was an important piece as well. And then the last one being that there are really great rubrics out there. Um, a lot of them if you use just the rubric, it's a PDF or maybe a Google sheet, a Google doc, and somebody is responsible for collecting all that information. Sometimes the board president or the administrative assistant and making sense of that data and information. And so that takes a lot of one person's time. So those problems give you a little bit of a background of why super eval was created
023to solve those and take out some of the headache with the evaluation process. Of course, super eval is not the only way to do an annual superintendent evaluation, but here's a little bit more information about what it is. It is a simple, efficient, evidence-based online evaluation system. It is cloud-based. So, anybody that has a role in the evaluation process will have their own unique login and will have that relationship with the evaluation already set up. So, the roles are already established right off the start. You can log in and start working on your piece of the evaluation. How it starts is the superintendent and the school board will go ahead and decide what is the expectations for the evaluation. What are we including? What are our goals? And once that's decided on, then the superintendent
024can go ahead and provide evidence on how they've performed in those areas. So they're not just rating themselves on a scale and moving on. They rate themselves on a scale and then they can go ahead and back it up with reflections, comments, and evidence. Then the board comes in and is able to see that self evaluation, be brought up to speed. Maybe there was things that happened behind the scenes they weren't aware of, or maybe something happened way back at the beginning of the school year that by the time the evaluation process is in place, we all totally forgot about it. So, it is a great way to open up that dialogue and that communication to get everybody on the same page. And then lastly, Super Eval takes district annual goals, national standards, evidence, and
025reflection and pulls it all together in one place. Next, I'm going to show you just a brief video that's going to give you an inside look at what the software looks like. I know I was just explaining the process, but I'm a visual learner, so I think that this will give you a good idea of what the five steps look like. >> Welcome to Super. [clears throat] >> Super Eel is a new way to conduct your annual superintendent evaluations online, saving valuable time for superintendent and school board members. Super Eval creates unique roles for superintendent, school board [music] members, and board presidents, allowing users to access only the information they need to complete evaluations based on standards of excellence. In just five easy steps, Super Eval defines a reflective and evidence-based evaluation process. The super
026eval dashboard drives the evaluation process, displaying easy access to the five essential steps, completion statuses for each step, and due dates that are defined by the leadership team. The evaluation process begins [music] with the superintendent defining annual smart goals derived from longerterm district and/or board goals. These annual superintendent goals align with the performance evaluation. Superintendent can enter custom goals or select from an example list of goals used by superintendent [music] across the state. Once goals have been populated, superintendent can mark step one complete. Step two requires superintendent to reflect on each of the 24 competencies defined by the council's superintendent model evaluation rubric. Throughout the school year, superintendent can supplement their self-reflection by adding supporting evidence to their portfolios with the drag and drop functionality. The annual goals defined in step one will autoop populate
027in the last domain. Once reflections are complete for each [music] competency and supporting evidence is attached, the superintendent digitally submits his or her self-evaluation to the school board for review, triggering an email notification to all board members. In step three, the school board [music] reviews the superintendent self-ealuation, including the reflections and evidence before conducting their own evaluations. Schoolboard [music] members have the option to start a new blank evaluation or an evaluation that is automatically prepopulated with the superintendent's rubric responses. Each of the competencies has a rubric identifying four levels of a superintendent's performance with descriptors for ineffective, developing, effective, and highly effective. Board members can also easily reference the superintendent's self-evaluation reflections and evidence. The board president can conduct his or her own evaluation as well as have a real time high-level data view of
028how the evaluation is progressing. This allows [music] the board president to lead the board through the process. Once all board evaluations have been completed, the board president can mark step three complete. Super eval automatically consolidates all of the school board's evaluation data into a single evaluation, saving time for the board president by eliminating the need to manually collect this data. The board will then [music] meet to review the consolidated evaluations, make any adjustments necessary, and prepare the final evaluation for the superintendent's [music] review. This process is closed to the superintendent. Once step four is completed [music] by the school board, it triggers an email to the superintendent permitting access to step five. Super eval compares the schoolboard and superintendent evaluation to present a data view that identifies areas of agreement and disagreement, providing an excellent
029catalyst for discussion. Superintendent have the option to add post evaluation reflections and comments. At the conclusion of these five steps, the superintendent and schoolboard president apply digital signatures to finalize the evaluation. Once the document is signed, the evaluation is finalized and Super Eval generates a foil version of the superintendent's evaluation that can be used in response to any foil request. The evaluation is then stored in a digital archive that can be accessed at any time. Get the tool [music] that's vital to maint. So that video again just gives you an inside look of really how userfriendly the software is and seamless the processes across the five steps and who is responsible for each of those. The rubric that the video was touching on is actually the superintendent model evaluation rubric and that is pulled from
030the AASA standards. You can see here I've just included a quick snapshot of what standards and competencies are included on that rubric. And this is what the majority of our superintendent go ahead and use for their annual evaluations. I also just want to point out in the video he mentioned reflecting on all 24 competencies. Although that is certainly an option, we actually recommend getting together again with the board and superintendent to discuss what are the focuses for what is the focus for the year and what areas of the rubric we want to include on the evaluation. and you can narrow down the rubric to maybe even two to three competencies per each standard. So, one, the evaluation is a little bit more focused, and two, it's a little bit more manageable as far as time
031for everybody involved, but you have complete flexibility to decide how much or how little of the rubric you would like to use. Then, you'll also see that there is the custom goals section as well. You saw in the video how the superintendent was going ahead and adding in any goals that they had for the year. So between that and choosing from the rubric, you can really make the rubric fit the needs of your evaluation. Beyond the superintendent evaluation, we certainly have other leadership rubrics as well for a variety of other positions. Some of our rubrics are going to be very positionspecific while others are going to be more universal rubrics that fit a variety of leadership positions. I know that today we're focused a little bit more on the superintendent evaluation. So, I won't go
032too in depth in that today unless we have questions on it. Um, but I thought that I would add that as well so that if down the road a lot of our districts decide to add other leadership, um, either district or school leaders to super eval, just know that that is an option if you ever decided to go that route. And then just to let you know, we are working with over 120 districts in the state and that number continues to grow um each year. And some of these districts are just superintendent evaluation only, while others choose to add upwards of over a hundred leadership um team members to super eval. So we really again can meet you where you're at with however many folks you would like to be evaluated on the software. And
033then I'm sure you're wondering if we wanted to go ahead and bring this on to our district, what does the pricing look like? So, for an annual subscription that runs from the beginning of July to the end of June, the pricing is dependent on the tier for funding that your district falls into, which I believe that your district is a tier 1, which would be the $3,6 per year. And that includes getting your district onto the platform and includes one evaluation, which is typically the superintendent evaluation with the school board to evaluate that person. Of course, if you wanted somebody else to have that license, that would be no problem. Um, but then on top of that, there's a one-time onboarding fee that just gets all of the accounts set up for the district as
034well as any Zoom trainings that are needed. Typically, we recommend onboarding sessions for anybody who's new to the software so they know all of the features and feel comfortable and confident logging in for the first time to work on their part of the process. If you wanted to give Super Eval a try for the second half of this year, so now through the end of June, we are running a 50% off discount because it's halfway through the year. So if you wanted to go ahead and try the platform for the next few months to see if it's the right fit for you, we would be able to go ahead and take 50% off that subscription price on the proposal for you. So, that wraps up the the brief slide deck that I had for you
035all today. Um, I hope that some of those slides and some of the explanations that I had for you answered maybe some questions that you had. But now, I'll go ahead and open it up to the group to see if there's any other questions or anything else I can share with you about Super Evell. Any questions? Thought >> we were bringing a new superintendent on starting probably June 1st. Is is there any efficacy to having your evaluation on someone so new? Yeah. So, a lot of our districts will go ahead and use super eval with new superintendent so that at the very beginning of that person coming into the district, the expectations are set. Everybody's on the same page. It opens up the conversation between board and superintendent. Um, so a lot of our first
036year or a lot of our districts are actually, you know, start with first or second year superintendent for that reason to go ahead and all get on the same page right out of the gate. Anything else? >> Okay, next steps. I think we have to have a conversation about it amongst ourselves and decide if we're going to go this route or not. But it sure looks interesting to me. It looks like it really pulls together the things that we're trying to evaluate and by by contract I think we have [clears throat] a set procedure for evaluation. So this would this would fit right into that very nicely. >> I think it would streamline the process quite a bit. Thanks to you all who went to that session. >> Good information. >> Thank you, Miss. >>
037Thank you so much for having me today. If there's any other questions that pop up, please do not hesitate to reach out. And like I said, we can meet you wherever you're at, whenever you're ready. Um, so just send me an email or you can call me at any time and we can discuss what you need from from me. >> Thank you. You >> have a good evening. >> Thank you. You too. Bye-bye. >> Bye-bye. >> Consensus to move forward with this. Um I I really like it and I think that it would be prudent for us to run this by our uh by it to ensure that we stick to our own internal IT policies for bringing new services on. I absolutely think the tool's great looked into it would be great but we
038just need to make sure that we comply with our own policies and uh we could do that for the next meeting between now and the next meeting. Um if uh it could take a look at it, get back to us um be ready to move forward at the next meeting. >> That's a good idea. >> Okay, very good. Anything else any board member would like to bring up tonight? >> Okay, we'll move on to reports from administration. Dr. Curry, >> good evening. Uh, as a backstory for some of our newest members, in 2022, I was tasked with procuring a demographer to produce a study of the demographics within not only our boundaries, city of Decar and, uh, some information from the county as well as relevant to Decar public schools um, for future forecasting. We
039did that. We had that data, we had that information. Um, we we engaged with um, Business Information Services LLC. [music] And then recently I was uh um given the same task and I reached back out to business information services um because the board as I understand it and the Dr. Clark wanted to have some more up-to-date relevant information before we move further along in roadmap 2030. Um business information services was more than willing to you know build on the previous um demographers report and Mr. Preston Smith, the principal owner, has came over from Kansas City to give you a presentation on the highlights of the study. So, Mr. Smith, I appreciate you having me. Um, uh, what Mike didn't mention is that about 10 years ago, we did a study out here and so it's
040our third time out and it's interesting with the trends that we saw. In fact, uh, it's been pretty consistent. U, if you don't mind, I'll just say next slide. That way, it's a little easier for me to track it. So, we can go ahead and hit the next one. That way, here's what we saw. At least your enrollment uh is like a 30 or 40 year trend. Uh, you go back uh basically the air is playing down. You had about 12,000 students in 1990 and now you're pushing below 8,000. And every trend that we see in the documents, uh, every bit of evidence that we saw and all the information we looked at is that uh that's where you're headed. And in fact, we've done about 300 of these studies in 17 states. Uh of
041all the studies we've done, uh your district is probably going to be one that has the most negative outlook. Uh it's all pointed that way there. And uh I'll explain some of the trends we see. Okay, next slide. Well, we go back a little bit there. go back that one uh wanted to point out how basically you had a decline uh every year has been a decline every segment but it's been accelerating and that's what we've noticed one of the big things that we've seen that not only has it just been consistently declining but really in the last few years it's sped up because you look at from between what we project between 26 and 35 you're looking at a decrease between seven and 9% which is right up there to what you've had but
042uh it's actually gotten worse. The what I'm trying to say is that the train is going down the hill and it's speed picking up speed as it goes. Okay. Next. And here are some of the reasons why uh you've got an aging population. Uh it's very clear. It's one of the clearest trends you've got. Uh of all the cohorts that you have that decrease. Uh the one that's flat to slightly increasing is the the elderly population. That's really the only one that's showing any kind of increase at all. Like the school age population, you see a decrease. Under five year olds, a a larger increase, a decrease. And what that impacts is that you've really got a aging population that's disconnected from your district. Uh they are going to have less uh relationship with you.
043uh what the about the only thing they're going to recognize from year to year is going to be the tax bill. They like we don't have any kids in the district. We don't have any kids ever in the district and we're still paying taxes. And that's the only recognition they have. So what your challenge is going to be is you need to figure out how to bridge that gap. Uh because otherwise they're going to be more disconnected and that's going to be a trick. Uh it's something you're going to run into when it come to bonds or levy issues. Uh, okay. Next. Your birth rates declined 17% since [music] 2020. Incredibly sharp. Uh, it's probably one of the biggest declines I've seen anywhere in the country. Uh, you got a really slow economy. And I'll
044explain how important the economy is to your enrollment. It's like a 90% predictability. That that's where you that's where your enrollment growth happens. You don't have jobs, you don't have kids. uh your housing market uh it's affordable. I mean I'll say that for it but uh here again uh your population and enrollment continues to decrease last five years almost 700 units of housing. Okay. Next again employment 81% predictability with a 90% correlation. What that means is when you have an employer comes into town there's going to be almost a direct relationship to your enrollment. But when you have an employer leaves or shuts down there, that's what's going to happen and that's what you've seen the last few years. Next, you also uh you've got a fairly strong private school enrollment since 2019. The number
045of private school students has increased by 33%. At the same time, your your enrollment is going down, theirs is going up. Uh you've got really a limited opportunity for growth because you're not seeing a whole lot of migration come in. and your births are headed down. So when you have the private school and home school taking out the rest of the share, there's nothing left for you to grow. There's nothing left at all. So it's highly [clears throat] competitive and also your neighboring districts are creates a real level of competition for you. Next slide. And here's why. You've got a couple of uh nationwide uh rating services out there. One's called School Digger and out of 812 districts they rated, they rated yours 86th. So there's only like five or six other districts lower. Uh
046the main one ranking service, the nich.com, uh they didn't rank you at all. You didn't hit their radar. So uh that's really about as bad as it can get. So if you got somebody rec wanting to move into the area, uh they literally call up these services. Okay, we have a choice where when we live around Decar, they pull these services up and uh it's what they get back. So, uh I I know school districts that literally try to figure out how to break the algorithms on these groups. They try to figure out how can we improve our rankings and clearly you you if you had a big jump uh say 100 spots, that'd be significant uh or 200 and I catch people's attention. They're doing something right there. But I know school districts that
047actually assign staff people to figure out how to get these algorithms to to bring their rankings up. Uh okay, next looking at city of Decator, you got smaller households. And one point I really want to stress here is the oneperson households. They have 38% of your households total, which is huge. School districts that are growing, they may have 20% single person households. you got like twice that. So, I can't tell you how bleak a demographic picture this really is. I mean, if I mean, it's as black as I can paint it, but the truth is you've got some demograph demographic trends that are going on here that are are totally stacked against your enrollment growing. Because if you got 38% of the households that are single, just one person living in it, you want to
048take a guess about how many households you've got that have zero kids, it may be over 80%. So if you got 80 plus percent of the households that have zero kids, uh you're dealing an incredible small number of and plus you got private school taking that bite out there. You got really a small number of people you're competing with to get enroll in your districts. So that's really a key thing I like to stress is just you got these demographic trends that have been going on since we did the first study here long before that. But we've tracked you now for over 10 years. We've seen this and our not only that our enrollment numbers have been incredibly accurate nationwide when we do our our analysis we're within 3/10en of a percent accurate every year.
049I think with you guys we're even more accurate than that because uh you're you got such a stable pattern. So you look at our numbers and he's like, "Well, how accurate can we be?" We'd be dead on. We probably miss your enrollment by 10 kids. Okay. So you got GDP even though you got some parts of the economy that's increased, it really hadn't resulted in additional students. So you're going to have to really do some soularching about uh how this is all coming into play. And I I'll explain some recommendations here at the end. Next housing overview. You got half of all the homeowners that have are mortgage free. That means they're likely older. You got an older population that's debtree. Uh you got fewer and new families moving in here. Even though you're housing
050is very affordable. You got 54% of the houses there are valued less than $100,000. It's hu I mean that's really affordable, but you just don't have a whole lot of migration in. Not and you got here here's the last one. I really want to make a point of this is your rent. 40% of your renters pay more than 30% of their income. And you also have 20% of the renters pay more than half. So the people who rent, they are under such incredible financial strain that causes instability. And that's that instability makes it difficult for the kids. They they're they're changing houses, they're changing schools, they're they're churning through the system. And that's why your renter population is really a tough one to get a handle on. And that's going to hurt you in your
051test scores. That's going to hurt you throughout the whole system. So, I'll point that out that the economics of renters here are really bad. It's tough. Next, uh we match all your students to the parcels to actually get an idea of the kind of houses the students live in. Twothirds of the students live in houses valued at less than $100,000. probably can't find anywhere else in the country today. Uh but you got virtually none of them live in newer houses and virtually hardly any new houses built around here. But only 2% of the students live in houses built within the last 40 years. So they're in older houses when they do live there. Next, we looked at your capacity your buildings. Uh you've got space right now for another 2600 students. You got a utilization
052of just 73%. the nationwide standards 85%. So districtwide, you've got space to spare. You've got a lot of space. I mean, the Parson Elementary, I don't know what I'm I can't see what my number is for that, but uh yeah, I'm showing it's overcrowded. Just like she said, it's it's but you can you can redraw your attendance bounty lines and filter this out and balance it a whole lot easier. But I'm telling you, you're thinking about building this school. The only way I'd build a new school is you close two or three of the older ones, build one nicer and bigger and I catch people's attention. Uh I mean, not that I'm in the business of building schools. Architects do that kind of stuff, but and they usually hate me because I have capacity numbers
053that get a little closer to realistic because an architect when the architect stands here and he tells you just to forewarn you, he's going to tell you numbers that'll be a third lower than what you get actually can get in the building. So he wants to sell you square footage and he wants to sell you a lot of square footage. So don't let an architect come here and and and feed you a line. Okay. All right. Next, uh by 2035, the next 10 years, under the most optimistic models we've got, uh you're going to have space for 3,200 students. So your enrollment keeps going down. You're going to have more space. So it's it's not going to get better for you. Uh now, I didn't specifically look at closing a school or moving uh boundary
054lines. That wasn't part of our project, but we could easily do that. We I'm doing it right now at a project in Georgia. Uh we're trying to we move kids all the time. So, we can help with that if you need it. All right. Next, uh you've got about 500 students who live in one attendance area and they go to school another. It's not too many. It's about 10% maybe thereabouts. So, that's not too many. So, uh, for whatever reason, they're there, but we we track to see where they live. So, that's I don't consider that really an issue, but I thought I'd go ahead and tell you next. Uh, you got a little unbalancement there. Like in Dennis and Garfield, you got 651 students and a building designed to hold 477. In Hope Academy,
055you got over 560 students in a building designed to hold 900. Franklin Grove, you got 14 students, too many in the building. Braum uh space for 67 more and muffly you got space for 88 and then we got Parson we could probably change a little bit too. So you can see a little tweak here and there you probably clean that up but if Parson says they're a little cried you could easily move a line and fix that. Next our recommendations are that you could redistrict or balance your enrollment. really strongly recommend you work with the city, develop some kind of economic plan because [music] like I said, you are totally tied to jobs that come in here to your enrollment. It's it's your lifeblood. So, you need to whatever it takes to work with the
056city in in any shape or fashion, you ought to figure out how to do it. Uh you need to improve those online rankings we talked about. uh you're going to have to adapt these demographic patterns because the these are I wouldn't say they're set in stone, but I'm saying that the the pattern is such a way that's carried on for such a long time, it's almost embedded. It's going to take a lot to reverse these trends because right now these trends have been going for a long time. And I I mean I made the same pitch 10 years ago. I mean that was the same talk. Uh and here I am again saying it again. So I don't know if I'll be doing it 10 years from now later on, but we'll see. But, uh,
057I say you need to develop a facility optimization plan to see how your buildings are being used, whether or not they need to be updated, and then you work that into your master plan to see how it needs to work. So, sorry I took a little bit long, but you have any questions? [clears throat] >> Uh, you did the 2022. Uh, >> we did that. Yep. >> I I I remember a line like page nine of your executive summary said, "This is most convoluted school district you've ever seen." Does that still stand? I'm doing one right now in Savannah, Georgia. There's 56 schools and they've got charter school, magnet school, they got K6, they got K8. So, uh, you may have been edged out just in the last month. >> Okay. [laughter] >> So, so
058you said the word bleak, so this is pretty bleak. >> Yeah. I mean, uh, like I said, the only bright spot I saw here is that your housings are affordable and the only way to go is up. >> Most affordable city in the United States right now. So, >> I'm not sure I' I'd say that, but I say it's a school district that has room for improvement. >> I mean, we we've worked uh we've worked projects all over the country. Uh, we I mean, I'm not here coming tonight telling you you need to close schools right away. If I saw a red flag there, I would tell you, but I I didn't see that. Uh I see that uh you've got some challenges here to to really catch people's attention to overcome what you you
059got a big mountain to overcome here. Uh you've got an image uh anybody moves in the neighborhood uh in the area okay choice between Decar and five other schools you you'll be the sixth school. There's no doubt you'll be on number six in that list right now. When you look at our uh chances of attracting businesses, does our tax base hurt us? >> You know, I I know a lot about tax policy. Uh I've done a lot of analysis of parcels and taxes. Your taxes not look that far out of wh uh that I try to analyze to see what your your rate was to see why it's is assessed correctly. It appeared to be correct. I didn't see a red flag with there. So, no, I think your tax policy is okay. Uh, I
060mean, I I go in some places that it's like through the sky. Do you have this idea Illinois that property taxes are high? I don't see it here. >> Well, do you do you see areas like ours that use tiffs to their advantage? >> I do. I've worked in some one school district that had over 400 parcels that were tiffed. Uh, we're talking millions of dollars. So, uh, I think the tiffs in your case were a good thing. As I drove from my hotel tonight, I thought there's there's a lot of areas that probably need tiffs. I know that tiffs to pulling off the tax ro is not a good thing for the school district. But I think as long you don't have to decide, do I want the property tax or do I want
061the students? That's going to be a trade-off. >> So, there's nothing to add to the water to increase population. >> Afraid not. Uh well, I'm let me give you a bizarro recommendation that you may want to swing a deal with the city to uh maybe even offer a subsidy for young young families that move here. Uh we're talking maybe a th000 or $2,000 subsidy. Uh and that'd be one way that uh whatever your your benefit would be from a a cost basis on a a state basis. Uh that may be money well spent as an incentive. Uh, I mean, I think it' catch attention. I think it c catch the eye. You've got affordable housing here. Uh, young people that like to come here and say, "Uh, gee, give us a couple grand to move
062to this little town. Why not?" They're doing it in Kansas to try to uh beef numbers up. Uh, and doing it in North Dakota. I I think you're to that point. >> The Alaska permanent fund dividend was a big draw for a lot of people. >> Yeah. Well, like I said, an incentive like that, you put together a fund. You may even have some businesses that would want to donate to it because they have a vested interest in this community, too. But I really think you're to that point. You need to think outside the box because whatever you're doing is not working. Okay? You're not there. >> Well, I think this fits this report fits very nicely into our roadmap 2030 planning process that we're engaged in right now. So, I think this will be
063valuable, valuable information to feed to that group of people. And I see Dr. Marino back there who's leading that effort for us. Uh, I think this will be invaluable as we move forward with trying to put together that strategic initiative uh that leads us into the next 5 to 10 years. >> Well, I'll be willing to work with you from here on out at no charge and share the data to help this group to come along because uh really, like I said, I've done three projects with you. I'd like to see to to turn this turn this around. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? >> Yes. Uh firstly, thank you for your bluntness. Uh I've been carrying this message now for like five years about population decline in the city and nobody wants to listen.
064So this is huge. And then uh I guess secondly, when we look as part of our strategic planning process, our focus should be fixing our own house before we start to bring anybody else in. Right. >> That's your call. >> Okay. that's why you guys got elected. >> I mean, uh, I've seen it work both ways. But I think if you get the right person in here with the right attitude that uh you you need somebody that really is going to shake up the apple cart. You you do not need the status quo. You need somebody that's going to to make some changes. And I've worked with some very aggressive uh innovative superintendents and I've seen them do some amazing things in school districts pretty quick. So, I don't know what your criteria would be,
065but uh you need to time for a change. >> Well, I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you for having me and please call me if you need anything. [music] >> Thank you. >> Appreciate you. Thank you. >> Okay, our next report tonight, Dr. Gray um for road MAPAP 2030. >> Sure. Uh good evening members of the board. Uh tonight I'll just provide a brief overview uh to make sure people know what sessions they can attend for road mapap 2030 move to the next slide. So we have eight meetings scheduled for um road mapap 2030. We're going to kick it off tomorrow um at MacArthur High School. Uh you see the next seven dates after that. Matt, uh first meeting is just that's Thank you, Matt. Uh the first meeting will just be the team assembling
066again. Uh so far we have um I want to say 39 members that will be joining the team. uh 67 invites was sent out. And of that 67, we had 39 that agreed to come back and be a part of it. Uh meeting number two, uh that's is going to be on February 18th. We'll go over the SWAT analysis, plan on the page, and uh create a balance scorecard. Next slide, Matt. Uh this is the first meeting that'll be open to uh district staff. will be on uh the third meeting will be March uh 4th at Eisenhower High School. That one will begin at 4:00. Uh the fourth meeting is going to be uh March the 11th is going to be uh one at MacArthur High School and one at Eisenhower High School. That's going
067to be open to the public uh for the two board members at each location. We'll be running those uh public forums that day. Uh next slide. Uh then meeting five they'll be re reviewing any of that information from the uh stakeholders input and feedback and making any adjustments. Then at meeting six they'll be uh doing some refinement and they'll have a final plan and recommendation. Next slide. uh at meeting seven they on May 13th they'll work on finalizing the presentation and then on the 27th [music] uh that's when recommendations will be made. Uh next slide. So uh they've outlined just each phase of the uh road map 2030 there. That way it gives people an overview of what's going to happen in each phase. Next slide. All right. Any questions regarding road map 2030? >>
068Go back to that last slide. >> Sure. >> All right. Thank you. >> Any other questions from board members? Okay, let's move on. Dr. Curry, first read of policies and exhibits from press. >> Yeah, it's a typical first read. You have the policies for your enjoyment over the next two weeks or even we could push it off a little bit farther um before we're kind of out of the the window to do this particular issue. Um I can take questions now. I'm not going to give any answers. I don't have them in front of me, but I can get you the answers or you can email myself and Jennifer Summer any questions you might have. Um, it's been shared with the leaders of the departments that the policies may uh impact and we we will
069be sure to ask them how it impacts, you know, their department and share that answer back with you. >> Okay, any questions for tonight? Okay, >> seeing none. >> Hey, Bill. Okay, just just one thought. And I'm sorry to go out of order here, but um not for you, Dr. Curry, just a thought. Sorry. >> Um between roadmap and superintendent search, I don't think we get another shot at this as a community. I think we have to do this right and do this above board and how we have been doing things. And I'm very appreciative for this this uh board here to get through our first round interviews and for all the hard work you all have put in. But again, I think that this is a hundred-year decision and the onus on is on
070us to get it right and we just have to get it right. And I I can't say much more than that. I just I think the gravity of the situation hit me a little harder tonight than it ever has. So, I appreciate all of your hard work and things. >> Thanks. Other thoughts? Okay, I think that ends that portion of our meeting. We'll now move on to our consent items. Does anyone have anything on consent they'd like to remove? >> Okay. >> Do we have a recommendation? >> Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the consent items as presented which includes amendments open session meeting January 13, 2026 and special close session meeting January 14th, 2026. B financial conditions report December and C treasures report December 2025. >> Have a motion. >> I'll make
071a motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Miss Bradford, >> Mr. Hail, >> hi >> Mr. Cleger. >> Hi, >> Mr. Wetszel. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Tyus. >> Hi, >> Dr. Laorenson. Hi, >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi, >> and Mr. Joiner. >> I 7 I zero. Motion carried. >> Thank you. Uh, point of information here for our listening audience and those present in the room. Um item roll call action item A consideration and action on the possible termination or possible suspension without payer termination of an SEIU custodial employee has been pulled from the January 27th agenda and will be taken up at a future meeting. Okay, we'll move on to roll call item B. Do we have recommendation for the personnel action items? Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the personnel action items listed in
072the memo from Monica Wilks, director of human resources and the human resources department as presented. Do >> I have a motion? >> Second. Any discussion? >> Miss Bradford. >> Mr. Reynolds. >> Hi. >> Mr. Hail. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Tyus. >> Hi. >> Mr. Wetzel. >> Hi. >> Mr. Cleer. Hi. >> Mr. Joiner. Hi. >> And Dr. Laorenson. >> I seven I zero nay. Motion carried. >> Thank you. We have a recommendation for the one-year contract renewal for Lamar digital billboards. >> Yes, I recommend the board of education approve the one-year contract renewal for Lamar digital billboards billboards uh communication as presented. Do >> I have a motion? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Miss Bradford. >> Dr. Laorenson. >> Hi, >> Mr. Hail. Hi, >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi, >> Mr. Joiner. Hi, >> Mr.
073Cleger. Hi, >> Mrs. Tyus. I >> and Mr. Wetszel. >> 7 I 09. Motion carried. >> Thank you. Do we have a recommendation for the community summer program scholarship agreement with Decatur Public School District 61 for fiscal year 2026? >> Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the community summer program scholarship agreement with Decar Public School District 61 for fiscal year 2026 as presented. >> Got a motion. to make a motion. >> Second >> discussion. >> Do we have a I know that we don't know how many kids are going to take partake in the summer school. Do we have an idea what the total cost range might be on this? >> What we have budgeted in our uh budget for it is 250,000. Now, we don't always use that amount. I can tell
074you what we've used over the last couple years if you'd like me to. >> Oh, that's good. I just wanted a ballpark figure. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Dr. Curry. While you're up there, in the contract, as I read through the contract, is there a methodology, and I would suggest this for my fellow board members, that we have language in that contract with our agencies that we contract with that sets out some criteria for [music] academic inclusion into the summer program. uh rather than just an issuance of a check into a program that we have some kind of academic criteria attached to that for our partner agencies. >> So in full transparency, I've not seen the contract. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh great question. One of the things that we do
075during the orientation is we ask the partners about their um academic component. We make sure that that's a requirement and that's monitored when uh Maria goes out to the site. Uh, one of the things we talked about was we use the example of uh, music. Uh, they're taking music lessons. So, learning how to read music. How do you prove that that's academical? We know if you're reading piece, if you're reading music, you're using your reading skills. So, we'll work on how do we uh, implement that with the way that we check uh, when we go out for site visits. But that's one of the requirements during the orientation that we talk about. Is there a is there a clause in that agreement we can put in there to ensure that they know specifically that that's
076going to be part we're spending quarter of a million dollars a year on our partner agencies and we want to help with the summer slide and we want to be able to ensure that we're helping with the summer slide. Does that make sense to the rest of you all? >> Yeah. Um, you know, if you look at the actual document, um, there's, you know, clause A of number two is that they will provide all necessary equipment and that they will communicate, um, when a student from the district enrolls. That's really all that it asks. So, I think that what you're asking would probably be appropriate. >> Any other thoughts on that? >> So, will we have to create program application? I mean not application for the program but programs that we're supporting. Do we need
077to know what the application of the actual program is based on what you're asking? Yeah, I'm simply asking [music] for the cont contractual agreement with the partner agencies that it have a like a one-s sentence that lets people know that there's an expectation of some kind of academic component to the program whether it's the conservation district for example with outdoor education and how math and science fits into that whether it's a music program I mean there are lots of studies out there that directly correlate music with academic achievement so just very simplistic inclusion in the contract document. So when they read it, they know that we're expecting some component in it that would help our students >> academic. >> So I understand that. Well, my question was, are you asking that their program can tell
078[music] you how they're applying it to academics? >> I think yes. >> Okay. And then yes, if we measure achievement and we find out that the data shows that whoever we're contractually with is not making an impact, we wouldn't use them again. Is that am I understanding you? >> I don't I don't know how you'd make that tie. >> Okay. >> I mean, because you don't know their attendance, per se. >> That's true. I'm just wondering if you're going to connect an an academic component to it. How does it apply? >> Yeah. What is the measurable? What is I mean >> what's what's the data you would get from it? >> My thought was we're just going to at least get our partners' agency put them on notice that that's our expectation in writing. Okay.
079So when they read the contract, review the contract, and sign the contract that they'll know there's an expectation from this organization that there needs to be a focus or some kind of focus on the academic achievement of whether that's reading program or whether that's some kind of math program or whatever that program might be. but to get our partners thinking about helping us provide that opportunity in the summer for them to at least keep those skills going a little bit in some way, shape or form. That make sense? >> Yeah. So that the the intent of the program is academic [music] as opposed to entertainment. >> Is that what you're trying to >> Good way to sum it up. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. >> So, could Luke Could you get Luke to take a look
080at that? Okay. >> And one other question. It's $200 this year, correct? >> Uh, you got to have a little skin in the game this year. So, you can actually get up to $30, but we're doing a family resource fair where you come around to different sessions and you get $50 per session. >> Okay? Okay. And then at the regular summer event where they sign up, then that's an opportunity to get another 100 at that time. >> Okay. And so the contract says 350, but that's just a scrier's there. >> No, but they'll still have an opportunity. There's one more opportunity for them to get the additional $50. >> It wasn't quite following that. So, thank you. >> Yeah. So, it's going to still be equal a total of 350, but there's things that they
081have to do. So, we're asking parents to kind of be, you know, kind of have some skin in the game. Come and participate and you'll get the 350. It's just not a blanket. We'll give it to you like we did last year. >> So, if you don't show up, I think what you get 150. >> It goes down each [music] Yeah. each time. So, if you show up for none of those workshops, you miss out on the four workshops. You you The most you can get is 150. I gotta tell you, Will, that Scrivener's error, last time I heard that was from somebody that had JD behind their name. So, you're doing well tonight, Miss Bradford. >> So, with you, I'm excuse me, we still go ahead and vote on this even though you want
082to >> I'm okay with voting on it if >> Luke can provide that that one sentence language. Are you all okay with that or you want to put it on hold? >> Well, so there's probably a couple ways the issue. One is contract language. The other would be your selection process for the community organizations you're working with. Um which which may not require as much of a contractual change. Uh we need to work with administration if certainly if we change contract language that the community organization must do X Y and Z. The question is how do you enforce that when you've already already paid them? um you know a breach of contract claim for something like this is not going to be an attractive remedy. So we'd you know if there's going to be significant
083changes to the contract I think tableabling it and bringing it back up when it's ready would probably be more appropriate. >> I'm aable to that everybody. >> That's kind of where I was going with my comment was what is the >> Yeah. >> Okay. Do I hear a motion to table? >> I make a motion. Second. >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Those opposed. >> Okay, we're tabled. >> We have recommendation for the maintenance grant. >> Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the maintenance grant as presented. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Discussion. Miss Bradford, >> Mr. Wetszel. >> Hi, >> Mr. Hail. Hi, >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi, >> Dr. Laorenson. Hi, >> Mr. Clevenger. Hi, >> Mrs. Tyus. Hi, >> and Mr. Joiner. I >> 7
084I 08. Motion carried. >> Okay. Do we have recommendation for the polling agreement between Decatur Public School District [music] 61 Board of Education and BLDD Architects, OSHA Builters, and subcontractors? >> Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the tolling agreement between Decar public schools district 61 board of education and [music] BL DD architects O'Shea builders and subcontractors as presented. Do >> have a motion. >> So move second. >> Second. >> Okay. Discussion any questions on [music] this? We have Dr. Curry. Okay. Miss Bradford, >> Mrs. Tyus, >> hi >> Mr. Wetszel. >> Hi, >> Mr. Joiner. >> Hi, >> Mr. Clevenger. >> Hi, >> Mr. Hail. >> Hi, >> Dr. Laorenson. >> Hi. >> And Mr. Reynolds, >> 7 I 08. Motion carried. >> Okay. Thank you. Upcoming dates, I believe they'll be listed
085on the screen here shortly. January 28th, we have roadmap 2030 team meeting, MacArthur High School cafeteria at 5:30. Uh the 29th special closed executive session board of education meeting 4:30 p.m. at Eisenhower High School. The 31st is our deadline to apply [music] for uh DPS magnet schools for the 2627 school year. February 6, the interim progress reports and distribution on February 13th. Uh districtwide half day on February 11. Uh, February 16th is President's Day. No school and district offices are closed. February [music] 18th, roadmap 2030, team meeting, Hope Academy, cafeterium at 5:30 p.m. The 25th, community members, business leaders, principal for a day. That's 8:30 to 11:30 throughout the district. Dr. Curry, >> I apologize. I assumed I'd be called up for questions. Uh they're currently circulating a docu sign and I would just like
086the authority to sign on your behalf because it'll be come to my email. Does anybody have an issue with signing on be your behalf as the board? >> For the tolling agreement. >> The tolling agreement. >> No concerns. >> Okay. >> Everybody okay with that? Okay. Uh public portion of the next regular board meeting board of education will be at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, February 10th, 2026, Kyle Administration Building. Have a motion to adjurnn. organization. >> What's it called? >> Yeah, it's just called the organization. And it to me bothers me. Is is there somebody local that runs this? >> It's all of the people like like >> that's the organization. No, it's going to be a bunch of those. It's whoever. >> So, there's a whole bunch of different organizations. You come to the fair
087and so it's like Rock Springs and the conservation district and their their program and the school the uh not the school district but the uh but the uh park district and like think well maker space and a whole bunch of different uh organizations in the community come forward and say hey we'd like to take part in this. They talk to uh Dr. Gray and his team and then it goes to several different organizations. So, how many organizations did you have last year? Like 15, 20, something like that? >> More than that. >> Businesses. >> Mr. Reynolds, the contract has a space on the first page where the specific organization would be filled in. And then throughout the contract, it's referred to as community organization so that the district doesn't have to have x number of
088individual contracts just by name. >> Thank you. We have a motion to adjurnn. >> Make a motion to all in favor signify by saying I.