001Okay. All right. We'll call the special meeting of the Granite City uh community unit school district number nine on December 22nd, 2021 to order. Uh roll call, please. Stacy here. Vinnie here. Kenogal here. Curran here. None here. McMasters here. and woman here. We have a quorum. Excellent. Thank you, Zach. Uh, pledge of allegiance. Everyone, please stand for the pledge. We'll just I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all for that. All right. Uh a couple of items on the agenda. Uh first up, Stephanie, I think we have employment of the Gravesby Intermediate Assistant Principal. Yes, we do. Uh Mr. President, the board uh I have given you
002all um information on an email about the uh the candidate that we have chosen. uh interview committee consisted of Kristen Nvatas Caberna, David Keel, Steve Matthysse, Mickey Watkins, and myself. What did I forget anybody? No. Um for that for that uh interview process. Oh, and Jody and Jody Matson. So, we uh chose uh the interview committee is recommending from that Miss Shaina McClendon as the assistant principal at Griggsby Intermediate. move. Second. We have a motion and a second and any discussion. And if there's considerable discussion here, we can certainly take it into executive session later. Who is the second on that? I didn't catch it. Erica was okay. Thank you. She's quick. And part of that motion part of that motion that she will be hired at category 7 step one of the new Is
003that correct? The new of the administrative salary on the new administrative salary schedule. Yes. Step seven. Thank you, Tom. I didn't want you to say any any discussion. All right, we have a motion and a second. Uh, roll call, please, then. Zack Vinnie, I. Kenogal, I. Currin, I. None. I McMasters. Hi, Stacy. I uh item number four, employment of the athletic trainer for the high school and junior high school. Right. Uh Mr. President, the board, I also sent some more clarification on this as well about the certified portion of this and how TRS works with that. Mr. Parker prepared an excellent explanation of that. I hope everyone received that. If you have any questions, we could talk speak to that in executive session. The interview committee consisting of Darren Dew, Tim Moran, and John Mode
004is recommending Andrea Kabowski for the athletic trainer position and again step one step one and beginning on January 3rd I think that was Eric. I think so too. Second bill second. Have a motion and a second. What category was that? It's step one of the salary schedule. I think the trainer is got his own category. Yeah, they have their own um c own administrative or salary schedule for the trainer because they're not certified in the sense of the word as a certified public educator um a CPE or we an example is we have nurses certified nurses that are actually school nurses are on that but other ones are not. It's a TRS explanation which I sent to you on how that works. Yep. They have their own They have their own scale separate from that
005is correct. Anyone else? That is correct. Correct. That started 15 years ago. Correct. In 2010, the board of education put together a salary schedule separate for the athletic trainer. So, it' be step one on that salary schedule. Okay. Okay. I had a question that maybe should go to executive on that. I mean, I don't have anything long. Can I just Tom? Uh, is it a is it about a specific individual or just a general question about the train? Okay. General. If it's general, we can talk about it. Okay. Um, I think there was some concern about that position that it may be so low that we're going to have a rotating door of trainers. So, we only have one. We've got a lot of sports to deal with and it's only going to attract people
006you know right out of school or anything like you know who may be here for a few years and leave. Well, uh Chris Mitchell used our communications director has had a lot of experience in that. We looked at the average salary for a certified trainer right out of school and this is very comparable um even even sort of in the next five years with our raises. It it isn't low for a starting amount is what we were told. Jim, you want to answer to that a little bit? I think you just about summed it up. Uh, step one on this salary schedule for a bachelor's is 47190 and then it goes all the way to a bach or mast's 190 49830 and it is a basically a salary schedule that was built off of the
007teacher salary schedule conceptually with steps uh for each year of experience as they progress through them. just like the teacher salary schedule does um for years progressing as well as for educational advancements. So So Jim, just a question on what you said. Um if if somebody came in with experience, do they get credit for that experience in the salary scale or No, they do not. They would start on step one and then each year they would progress through each step just like the teacher salary. Yep. Like I said, this if anybody wants a little historical background on it, I'll be more than happy to give it to you. Can we do that now with names though? Yeah, just without names. Sure. Um, I can tell you previous to 2001, the hospital had a grant program
008in which case we got X amount of hours per week free from the hospital. I believe it was probably 20 hours per week and then we subcontracted for additional hours with that individual per week. I think we purchased around 350 additional hours. Then it changed the hospital backed out and they were no longer able to do that. So we purchased additional hours for our training program is answering them and it got to be where each year we were working with the individual on increasing the amount of hours then it was increasing the hourly rate. Uh so then it switched to we purchased or put this person as a full-time permanent substitute because they were able to substitute and that got them x amount of dollars substituting and then we paid for training services. Then the
009district did away with the permanent substitutes and we just purchased service additional hours. uh one point, let me see here, we were up to probably 1,500 hours per year that we were paying for as well as a few additional hours for the summer programs. And it was always going back and forth between the number of hours and the hourly rate. So then in 2010, that's when the board decided to put together an athletic training salary schedule and put this person on there full-time. So previous to that, we did not have a full-time trainer in several. So I don't know if that that helps or not, but that gives you a little background on how we got from getting free hours from the hospital to the hospital not doing it to us having a full-time trader.
010in some districts. Um, for instance, Alton shares their trainer with the hospital as well. So that that that type of arrangement still exists in other districts as well. To Eric's point and to Talon's point, what So Jim, was 2010 the last time we looked at the actual payment on the SK on the schedule itself? Well, since it is an actual salary schedule, since it was developed in 2010, as the district gave increases to the other groups on the base salary, those increases have all been applied to this salary schedule. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Because I I didn't realize it was even though it was a different salary schedule, you're saying that those increases have still been happening. Absolutely. And the four-year four and a half% that the district approved for the other bargaining groups were
011also added to the salary schedule applied there as well. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Sure. And we found comparables as well, Dennis. We went out and looked in recent numbers right now for graduates. Okay. Good question. A 10-month position or a 12? Like how do we handle summer with this? Jim, I am not sure how the high school used them during the summer to be honest with you. I just I was just curious. I just talked to John. So, it's a nine-month position like a like it would be like a teacher. I know it's not a teacher category, but um I talked to the athletic director today and he mentioned something about summer camps and that and that was additional. So, I think I'll I'll verify that though for sure. Um but I know that John
012and Darren were very happy with the with the person that they're recommending as well too. I just wanted to make sure everybody knows that because I just spoke with him about an hour ago just to make sure. What do you think peak on that salary schedule? The bottom and the and the high. We just Jimmy want to read uh 65894 to 69582 depending on education level. Okay. And I don't know if this is out of our control with TRS and everything, but is there any way to count years of experience in the future towards or because of TRS we can't um that's just something we can't do since they're classified. They're so they're not classified though. No, they're not certified. So they're not on the TRS. Uh they're IMRF. Correct. Right. Right. The board the
013board has the discretion. If they want to give people additional credit for years served in different positions, the board can do that. This that is not a TRS matter. So that is something we could look at in the future at least at some point maybe. Absolutely. If you're going to do it forensive certificate, great questions. Fantastic. Any other discussion? Tom has a point. if you're going to do it for a certificate. Okay. I think we've been talking here a while. I think we had a motion and a second. Wait, Tom. The motion was by Stacy and seconded by McMaster. Tom has a point still. If you're going to be doing it for certificated personnel, you're going to have to be sure though that you apply that policy consistently for any type of certificate. I lost
014person. Yeah, we lost it. Might be muted. Muted. We'll try again. It looks like Tom was uh muted there. Well, no, he's right here. He's going to come speak right into that. Yeah, we would have to apply it as we said. No, you can you hear me? You muted. Yeah. Can we hear me now? I'm not I'm not muted. Yeah. What I said is if you're going to consider giving extra years of service credit or or years of service credit to a certificated person who who holds a certificate, well then you're you're going to have to apply that consistently across the board to anybody that comes for employment with a certificate. So if if you're going to do it, you got to you're going to have to develop some programs as to how to apply
015it because you have to apply it consistently. Yeah. Okay. But he's classified, right? That's different. I mean, I mean, the position is classified. He's classified, but he has a certificate. Yeah. But it's not a teaching certificate, but it's not a teaching certificate. It's an athletic training certificate. And we have other people in this district that hold certificates. Yep. So, you could be having people parapros that have certificates come in and say, "I've got 10 years of parapro experience at Edo. I want to come in 10 years on the on the parro salary." Right? So you can't pick and choose. If you're going to have a policy, you're going to have to articulate that policy clearly. Yep. So in a in a non-discriminatory type manner. That's good to know. I'm just not understanding. I guess the
016question is did he have bal at the salary? He's taken he's willing to take the position, right? We haven't rotating door people leaving and coming. Why are we discussing special now? Now we're talking if we're going to talk even I don't quite get that. Okay. If we have to talk about particular individuals, we'll have to take that into executive. There's there's fine. Now the person they recommended it wants the job. So we're good. We're just talking about future, right, Zach? Future. Yes. Yeah. That that was not something I wanted to resolve this second. It was just I got it. I got that's what I thought possibly. So yeah, I understand completely. Okay. Yep. Plenty of time on that. Okay. I've got a motion and a second on this uh for the hiring of this individual
017uh the athletic trainer for the high school and Koolage Junior High. Roll call, please. Zach Kenogal. I Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters I Stacy I Vinnie I Wilms I good discussion by all. I appreciate that input. Uh item number five, brief discussion and potential vote on issuance of RFP for SM Wilson. Miss Cam. Sure. This is about trying to get um SM Wilson approved as a project management group for phase one which includes a softball field fencing lighting uh that we have for phase one. Um at this point, if we allow them to do that, then they would like to put out the RFQ for a design firm architect to begin that design process. At that point, we have more staff input and we begin including others in that. But you want to explain a
018little further, Tom? Yeah. And as part of this, I requested that SM Wilson send us the constru the documents uh for the uh construction management. These are A1A documents put out uh nationally. These are standard agreements. We are in the preconstruction phase. There is no money that SM Wilson would be entitled to at the pre-construction. And this is basically they're a good faith effort to say we want to come on board and help the school district do phase one pre-construction. Get your design groups together. Get potential uh hardc court hard bids out there, construction bids to to to determine whether or not the board would consider it a viable project and could afford it. If it turns out a year from now, six months from now after the bids are in that we don't want
019to do it because of whatever fiscal reason, cost or whatever, u then we don't have to move forward and SM Wilson and the school district would part ways and we would not owe anything to them. If if the board would undertake it, well then once we are into the construction phase, that's when uh SM Wilson would get start getting paid. we start to incur cost based on the construction. Correct. So it it really really this is just a kind of a open the book and let let's see what it's going to cost the district to see if we want to move forward. Right. And that's when we involve the So my go ahead. So my question is like we said at some point if we move forward with this SM Wilson would get paid. Um
020when we start will they be the are they the construction company or by by law by by law Eric they would be constru they the contract is for their construction management right we they are going to be out there on a daily basis making sure that projects gets done according to what the board and the administration want done out there but and as such by law they cannot have their own people working on it. It's it's a management service only. It's very similar to the uh what was Todd? Is it is it Tom Worley Dennis who was the project oversight for the solar panels? So having somebody to make sure things are going right, making maintaining it so we don't have to take in the bids. We don't have to go through them all because
021we're not qualified to go through and make sure everything. So they're working on behalf of the district to make sure. So once they find a design firm or an architect, that's when we start getting some staff input too onto, you know, here's what this looks like. like when we talked about the baseball field, you know, is there a sun angle? Is there a traffic issue? So, at this point, once we get the design firm, then we start getting more um district input as well. Stephanie and I met with SM Wilson and their people and we also included Eric Smith. The reason we included Eric to see if whether or not we could do some of this inhouse to to soften the blow on the cost, the overall project cost. And that was kind of my
022I guess that's where I was going with my question is I know Eric has uh a lot of construction expertise stuff like that. So uh that's that's kind of where I was going with that. All right. Um and then I guess another question is we say at some point I guess if we do the design we get district input. That means we would like put together a committee kind of like the interview committee to to help that or uh Yeah. SM Wilson what their role in getting a a design group they would recommend certain architect surveyors and and other people in that phase. Yes. And yeah we Eric we do have the building and grounds committee Bill and I sit on that. So we we have met with SM Wilson already. Uh but yeah to
023go through that selection process for the architect that'll be putting this together. We can talk about how that that happens as far they'll probably be making a recommendation out of that. Exactly. Okay. But yeah, we can talk about how that selection process occurs and I'll go through we have I have a checklist for selection process um that they gave me that I'll share with all of you as well. They just gave us so when we get to this point and we're ready to put it out. And what I was talking about input too like athletic director, principal, anybody like coaches so we can kind of see, you know, who's part of that. I I that's what I was getting at is I mean I I know like you said you guys are on that committee.
024Uh, I I'm a board member, too, but I'm not gonna tell you I know what to, uh, what to put out on the softball field. So, uh, that's why I was kind of getting at was here. People like, like you said, Stephanie, the athletic director, PE, people who are even the softball coach, you know, maybe they are going to be Definitely. Definitely. So, okay, that answers my question. I know it's kind of hard because it isn't until we get the design firm on board that we can actually start that input. And I I made that I thought I made that clear to to Darren and but I don't think I did or to you guys. So that's why I sent the clarification today and I apologize for not making that more more easily. No problem.
025So thanks. Y I appreciate that. Uh one clarification too. Tom Worley was with the roof, not the solar panels. Sorry. Roof. You got it right. That's right. But the same idea, right? He's the one that would uh that oversaw the work. Uh right. The roof roof work. Um and then just one quick question too on uh compensation Tom or or Stephanie on this uh group with SM Wilson. Is that based upon dollar amount associated with the project or is there an hourly rate or what's the uh what's the compensation? No, Dennis, I believe it's a percentage rate of the overall project cost. I think I think it's 4%. I think 4% 4%. 4%. Okay. Thank you. And you did bring up the solar panels, right? Oh, yeah. We just found out today ju just so
026you know Coolage is energized and and developing power. Hey Bill, you know just want to say and and so Bill that's there and and uh clean energy design group has acknowledged there is a punch list that they have to comply with in writing in writing with on all on all the sun panel solar panel projects. So so we have a punch list with pictures ready for them. So, I think one one of the nice things I had a discussion with Stephanie earlier today and because I I see all the tremendous work that Eric's been doing around the district on building in grounds. Uh we have this bold initiative here I think for our property which looks amazing. But Stephanie is also working toward a similar bold initiative that's going to amp up our educational part
027of it. Uh we don't we don't want to appear and we are not one-sided. We we always know that the education part's as important as the facilities we have. And so I think when we saw that Francis How disaster, right? Uh the idea is we're not working one-sided. Our our superintendent is very busy putting together a real initiative that's going to amp up a lot of different directions in our school district educationally to make improvements. So I I think it's important as we share that with the public, phase one, two or as we proceed that this is phase one maybe of building and grounds, but this is also phase one of an educational improvement. And and I want to commend her on that because I think it's going to be far easier for the community
028to say, "Oh, well, they're not just spending all their money on grounds, but education every bit, if not more, it's way more important." Oh, and so I like that she has that balance in mind and she'll be sharing that as a balanced approach. I think as a board we have to commend her for that. Well, I appreciate that and I know that education has to be a part of this as well. So, being able to do this, I know our athletic director expressed to me early on that softball field was something that was really important to get on uh one of his major priorities. So it kind of started with that and then we can move towards some some academic changes as far as maybe schools but that'll be so they can play softball and
029multiply. That's right. At the same time keeping score will be better. We have a motion a second on this one. We don't have that yet. Okay. So I guess we need a motion if that's okay to approve SM Wilson as project manager to send out RFQS for design firms. That's exactly what we'll move. Oh, what was the first one? So, I thought I think I think Bill McMasters moved. Eric, you want to second it? Sure. Okay. Second. Got a motion by Bill and a second by Eric. Any other discuss? I appreciate you saying that Bill McMasters made a motion, not that he moved. Quite agile here at home. Funny. Funny. You worked hard for that. On that note, on that note, Zach, would you mind would you mind taking the role, Zach? Uh, Kern, hi.
030None. I McMasters. Hi, Stacy. I Vinnie. Hi, Kenogal. I Wilms. I. And executive session was listed on the agenda. I don't know that we need that, do we? Nope. There's no there's no reason for no reason for Okay. And then we uh we'll we'll take up the minutes from the last executive session, I'm presuming at the next regular meeting. That is correct. I believe that's correct. Very good. Any other business to come before the board this evening? Can't. No, I don't think we can have any other business on a special meeting. Just saying. I'm just saying the rules. I think I think we appreciate it. Great conversation tonight. Appreciate it. Everybody good input, good questions, and thank you for tolerating my I'm glad I hope if you didn't get a chance read all the clarifications
031I sent. Jim sent a great one about the certification as well. It really helps. So, happy Christmas to everybody. Yeah. Happy holiday. Merry Christmas to you all. Merry Christmas. Thank you. I did want I did want to point one thing out. It's not to dis It has really nothing to do with decision- making here at the uh district, but uh I see Mr. Harris is on. Um uh he will be getting a new SRO at some point here because ours is leading the department. Okay. So going through that process. Yeah. So hopefully by the uh by the beginning of the year that'll be taken care of. Okay. Appreciate you letting us know that. Thank you. No problem. I I just thought I made the motion to adjourn. So we just need a second. Second. Linda
032seconded. All right. Thank you so much. Merry Christmas everybody. Everybody. All in favor? I. All in favor? I'm not supposed to say that, but Merry Christmas everyone. Merry Christmas. Thank you everyone.