Board of Education Meeting - January 2026

001of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Welcome everyone. Thanks for coming. Um, we have one new board member tonight, Nolan Stradder. So, we welcome him. And then, uh, I guess you want to do some introductions real quick so he knows who you are. Uh, is that okay? No, unless you know them all already. >> Yeah, go for it. >> Long graph, director of special education. >> Lee Baldman, high school principal. [clears throat] >> Arian Style, assistant principal, athletic director, high school. >> Great, technology director. >> Okay, you met these two gentlemen. >> Uh, Johnny may be a little late tonight and Selena is online here. So, again, welcome. So, that we will start read agenda. Is

002there any addition? Okay. Our first order action is resolution to establish the school board of school board officers. I'll move to approve the resolution to establish the election of four officers as presented. Second motion second. Any discussion? None. Submit your vote. Selena, can you vote online or >> can you submit your vote online or you want >> say she's there? just because she was check >> sitt I have to start talking. >> This is Anybody got anything? Sorry. >> Who we play? >> Yes. I just I just told my daughter and everything will be at the high school which is kind of cool because they don't have enough for a full J girls and boys. So we'll do um two of JB girls and JV boys online. Okay. >> What time do you project varsity

003girls start? have to start it. >> Okay. >> Enter your >> [clears throat] >> Three of those are >> I'm just trying to figure out what times Hopefully we will host a subset. So that'll be two weeks. Okay. Try this. Hello. I think we're just trying to go live on the phone if that's okay with you. >> All right. All right. Good enough. I will put you on speaker and uh we will go from here. Okay. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Next action item for president and vice president. >> There a motion. I'll make a motion. [laughter] I'll make a motion to elect James Siggins as president and Lucas Allen as vice president of the board of education Burlington School District number 244 for 2026. >> Yes, that means I get to second motion

004and second discussion. We have I'm sorry. All those in favor >> you can vote. Yay or nay? >> Motion carries 51. Okay. Consent agenda. I'll [clears throat] move to approve agend presented. Second motion second discussion No, we just did motion to accept. >> Thank you. >> Cool. And I would like to point out that uh we did get two donations in here. One from city of Burlington. Um that I believe that is their what they agreed to pay to help with the groundwork just south the high school. And then we also took a $1,740 donation from Forest Road Memorial to Wildcats Care. I think both of those groups, >> right? And uh the the official formal document to approve the dirt work was received on Friday that it met specifications and that allowed the city

005to the money and we thank the city for contributing to that project and we'll be talking about the land and what we need to do and moving forward to try to market that and sell that soon. >> Awesome. [snorts] student recognition. >> We have a lot of kids that did really well levels three and four on the state assessments from last year. Uh if you look at the total again 246 students it's an amazing number of students uh this is 70 about 70 more than last year which is tremendous and again credit goes out to the students staff families community uh for the work that those kids are putting in and all you know it takes a village uh to help kids be successful >> and we recognize these kids at the ball games >>

006we've done that in But now because we uh we they decided to do the recognitions in their buildings at like assemblies at elementary school, middle school, and high school. >> So they're doing their assemblies, their on-site assemblies. >> We have J You couldn't see a space from here, but voting for the election, no one was to be the president. >> Um, a couple of things sitting here. I'm not really trying to poke my finger in her eye or anything, but we do an audit every year. And I went through the minutes. I couldn't find about four or five meetings ago, we had those shares that we had get rid of because we held them for years, many years. And an audit never caught those. So we got to think about who's auditing, what they're auditing.

007If we've been holding shares for years that we shouldn't have, something slipped through the crack. And so it's worth thinking about when you bring on a make sure they are looking for things like that because that should not have happened those shares for many years. Well, so I can only explain this is that that was happened out there and we didn't know anything about it at all until they notified us and then that's when everybody got involved. So I mean we wouldn't have known. >> But if an audit of your books of where all the assets are should catch where the assets are. >> But it's year over year. >> I'm not I just it's worth paying attention. I 100% agree with you that we should challenge everything that we have in this book. >>

008Every asset has to be accounted for and we had assets that weren't being accounted for. >> So, another thing just Oh, you want to >> Oh, okay. Another thing just as I was reading through the packet for tonight, um, our 10th graders are two years away from the workforce and our 10th graders this year had a problem with the reading with understanding. And as I looked through that, I was about our workforce. There's an employer I can I talked to him in December. They're having trouble finding employees who can read instruction manuals and understand what's expected of them. Another employer I talked to back in about September, October, and their problem is they can't find employees who can read safety under instructions and comprehend what they're trying to get across. And so if we have

009sophomores who are two years away from the workforce, we need to make sure they can read with comprehension uh instructions. Now, one of our our teachers that I highly admire in our school district, uh I talked to a couple years ago, and that teacher reads material to the students because they comprehend better. Well, maybe they do, but that's not accomplishing what we're trying to accomplish. We're trying to get students who leave our school system ready to go into the workforce or the college read comprehension. So, I just think it's worth payment. >> Thank you. >> I know maybe next year you can be the person. >> Okay. Anybody else? Thank you, Jay. Anybody else? So, we have a thank you from Thank you. So that was memory. >> Yes. >> BS report. >> I don't

010have any additions at this time. You guys have any questions for me? >> Questions. Okay. Anybody have anything else for D there? Any questions? [clears throat] >> Okay, that being said, moving on to Matt Spring and he's not here. >> He is not middle school basketball tonight. So, >> so if you have any questions for him, be sure to run up to Craig or whatever high school. Good news is I don't have 30 minute spiel tonight. So if you guys don't have any questions, we can move right on. >> Okay, any questions for Lee? Okay, moving on. This is kind of quick, Lindsay. >> No major changes. We have been able to um move some people and hire a couple people here and there. Um So is looking a little bit better. We're actually going

011to meet with another person. Well, Darl's going to possibly meet with them tomorrow because I'm out of town. Um, high school, we were able to backfill one position and we are in communication with somebody else to fill there. Middle school is still looking good. South of the county is looking good. North of the county, I think, is currently um just right on the pool. So, um, little tight and we're stretched, but better than being down >> 10. How many openings do we have to? >> Well, officially we still have about four openings. Um, but like I said, we have a couple that are >> we're having conversations about >> maybe making some movement on it by the end of the week. So, >> great. Thank you. Anything else for Lindsay? >> Technology Craig doesn't want

012to talk right now. >> Anybody have any questions? How's the AI policy? Like I know you got a couple notes in here about it, but like is there something that you've seen out there that's like, "Yeah, that's where we need to go." Or is there >> Yeah, I've sorry. [clears throat] We've been uh sorry, we've uh been looking there's we've got five or six schools that have really good well-developed policies. Uh Greenbush also and uh some of the other service centers also SP which the International Society for Technology and Education. They've uh got recommendations in that as well. Uh so kind of uh putting it all together and we want something that's uh workable, >> right? >> You know, kind of lays out what is is and isn't allowed. And uh >> I mean, it's

013unique because I know that my employer encourage us to use it to be more, you know, productive and get things done and do stuff. So, we can't just say, "Hey, no AI." Because kids would they'd be behind when we got the workplace. So, the policy together that >> Exactly. >> lets them learn it but to do good. >> Yeah. A lot of a lot of the districts are using kind of a a po classroom poster with different levels and like this is a zero level assignment. You know, this needs to be all your uh creation. this is uh you know a level two or you know blue level what you know whatever but this you know you're allowed to use AI for ideas but the content needs to be you know so on >> a

014work in progress for a while >> yeah I mean I'm really hoping February March we're adopting a classroom class I did read something just today actually related to this. There was a uh teacher somewhere and they the way they handled the AI was they went to the students they said okay go have AI write a report on this for you and then review that report and tell me all the things that are wrong with it. >> So it taught them how to use the AI. It also taught them and they learned hey AI is not always right. You need to be able to do this on your own. Also thought it was kind of a creative take on [clears throat] >> anything else. [cough] Okay. Food service. >> You have some again reports from food

015service from transportation grounds and then from maintenance. If there's anything uh that you need me to relay back to Brian or Margarita, I'll be happy to do so. So you can just let me know, shoot me an email, whatever the case might be. The food service reports dated January 2025. >> Literally what I do. >> Okay. [snorts] Any other questions? Not moving on to superintendent report. Board of Education Appreciation Month is this month and again want to thank every all of you board members for the service again to the student staff and the community and it's very very much appreciated and we have some ice cream cake for everybody here tonight. Um so 18 ice cream cake. So once we finish up we'll have a little dessert. So again thank you for your community service.

016Um I'm going to kind of focus on parent and community involvement in our district uh for the USD strategic plan. Again, there's a number of bits and pieces of information. I don't read the whole thing verbatim, but we do seek out parent and community involvement and thoughts and ideas because again it's public education and the key thing here, the key word is public. So, uh we've had a lot of different advisory groups over the years. We've sought out, you know, input from from different people. We're trying to what to do with Bington Elementary School on issue. We uh you know sought out information from I say the public. We're also seeking out information on superintendent search uh from not only public but our students and staff. And so again, I I do believe you guys

017all do a very good job of listening to the public's input and views. And uh again, you are public servants uh just like I am. You want to try to listen to what people Bington and USD44 have to stay. So again, a lot of different things that we are doing um in terms of that parent community involvement um you know that aspect of our strategic plan. Um number three, I shared with you some information um in the past month or two from KASB about live streaming board meetings and KASB really discourages any type of live streaming of any type of any board meetings. Again, it's not that they say you can't do it and we're doing it. So again, it can be something that we can continue, but uh in talking with Christine and Craig

018um because it's been brought up again in terms of just whether we should continue or not. Haven't really had a I'm going to say a conversation about should we or should we not continue. And then the question becomes too in terms of do you do you do every board meeting do you do every special board meeting or every you know any type of that does the community then get to a point where they're expecting every meeting to be live streamed and so it may be something to discuss at next month's board meeting if you have some information if you want some additional information or you want to seek it out on your own that's fine again you can choose to to live stream I would say this and correct me if I'm wrong Christie and

019Craig KB suggest if you do live stream your you know one type of meeting you should be live streaming them all. Is that correct? >> Yes. Yes. >> Every special meeting even if it's a five minute um all those. Yeah. >> Save you some time. >> So so anyway it's something to at least maybe discuss and we may decide to continue doing what we're doing. We can we can do that. We can we can choose to live stream every meeting. We can live stream the the the monthly meeting the second Monday of each month only. We can it's kind of up to you. So it may be something you guys want to think about and discuss and talk about in the future. >> Craig, I will ask is the concern with it being live or

020with the idea of putting the video out for everybody to go back and look at later? >> The concern can be a variety of different things. So if you look uh if you go you know technology wise um you look at Tik Tok you look at X there are a lot of people doctoring videos that hasn't happened for us yet here in my but there are people that will videos and they will you know put out those videos with u incorrect information or uh they'll they'll they'll use it instead of getting the true the tr the truth if you will out there there will be people that will try videos to make it fit a personal agenda potentially. Uh, whatever the case might be. There there's also I said there's other concerns in terms of

021like you in board meetings there will be some people that follow Robert's rules of order or they follow parliamentary procedure to a T. We don't necessarily follow to a strict T either Robert's rules of order or parliamentary procedure. So that's another piece of the puzzle. Um, might be people that would, you know, say you should be following a certain, you know, procedure, if you will. But that's again, there's just there's just a number of different things that can, you know, can be a concern. So, um, again, something to think about over the next month. If there's some information you want me to collect for you, I can send it to you via email. If you want to do a little research on your own, you sure can. But, um, that's just the information that Christy

022Craig and I have talked a little bit about. What you decide is up to you. And again, to you know what what how we move forward. So anyway, >> do we have I probably don't have any idea how many people watch the live stream. >> We can get it for you. >> Uh we get it for you. Usually live there's about three or four and I'd say depending on the uh like there's three right now. um depending on the topic uh is whether you get additional views during the month or not. >> So anyway, something to think about and uh what we can talk about in February or March. Uh then the last item I have and I have uh Brian Fenmore here from uh Mac Gordon and Clarkson from GMC and U Architects and

023we uh have shared with you some information And there's some documents um you have them and basically over the past six months uh from when the bond issue failed you um asked us to look into getting some information on the add-on renovation to elementary school. So having said that, Darla and I have worked with Brian Clark and Mike Hatra from Mac to basically come up with some of that information for you and we shared some of that back in in December. Um we've also um done like I said done a little bit more work on this uh topic uh for you guys. Uh if you look at some of the documents that we have, the one that um again we we we did We we we kind of came up with a number. We again

024we didn't spend a lot of time on the add-on renovation piece to Burlington Elementary School because that's really we weren't hearing that's what the direction was that we needed to go back um a year or so ago. We got a little bit of information very very small amount of information just did a little bit d just a little dive into what we thought maybe Burlington Elementary School the renovation piece would cost. We came up again just getting a little information for construction company about $25 million going through the process that Darla, Brian, Clark, me and Mike have gone through. Again, I shared with you we came up with the light, the medium, and the heavy renovation pieces to Burlington Elementary School. And you see that it's a copy here. We do have some copies over

025here if anybody in the audience wants to take a peek. And basically, this is a possible flyer. Again, I want to make sure I emphasize this. This is a possible flyer of what we could look to promote a possible bond issue for Burlington Elementary School renovation and add-on. And again, that number is not 25 million. It's going to be more like 34 million. Again, because you're renovating, we they they did we did a much deeper dive, as you can tell, light, medium, heavy, the renovation pieces. This would include new parking and new drop off areas. It would also include the new potentially relocating it next to the current turf playground. It would include again about 8,000 square foot of new addition, 5,000 for an office area and 3,000 for a music room slash FEMA storm

026shelter type uh type of location. So, with that being said, um I say that this this this document right here just gives you a rough idea. We can blow this up into poster size if we are looking at getting information out to the public, whether it be community meetings, town hall meetings in February, March, whatever the case might be. Um, I'm going to stop kind of here and let Ryan or Cart chime in. And if I'm missing anything, guys, Darla as well, please chime in. >> Yes. So, um, thank you. Uh, this has been a a very collaborative exercise working together and I appreciate the time of you shared off your busy schedule as well. So, we were able to um look at pretty much every room, corridor, get all the doors unlocked when we

027needed to to see some of the inner workings of the elementary school and, you know, work through there. This is this is an initial plan. There's still a lot of work to do, but looking at it the way that we have it broken down with a a light, medium renovation or heavy renovation areas to truly figure out what is that total cost ultimately bring this facility up to the modern teaching and learning environment um similar to what you would expect in a new building. Um we're also looking at trying to alleviate some of the um pressure points that we see with the number of students that that have to go through the uh the dining and uh the cafeteria area and creatively to not just put a uh an addition on the north side of

028that elementary school, but truly size that correctly where it would enable some new space. Definitely a much needed uh office and dedicated entry into the building. Um some great uh front parking, drop off lane, try to, you know, utilize that as much as possible. Um you know, it brings in that security element that um has been expressed as the desire with all the doors around the existing facility. >> Yeah. And and one of the challenges with this building is the idea of why we want to move the office to the north is then you have sort of the the front door and the face of the facility that focuses people where to go to come visit the building and then allows you to then secure the other exits or in that during the normal operational

029hours. You know when school's going on. It's not going to just because of the way the existing planes laid out. We can't completely alleviate the security issues in the sense because we can't eliminate those exits. And that's part of the challenge is they're so spread out if something happens. That's a challenge with this building is, you know, when you have to walk go through it, how do you get from one end to the other in the proper manner? And Ron probably better on that than I can, but I'm aware of the process of how they clear a building and know that just the configuration of the quarters in this one, it's it's a that's a detriment in terms of security. Unfortunately, we can't without spending a whole lot more money, you can't fix that in

030this building. So within within that that cost of 34 million that would be the total bond cost. So to break down that number a little bit that includes just under uh 27.8 million for construction. Uh we have in there design and soft cost associated owner FF which would be new desk chairs office um materials that are needed. Um we're also uh including in there um some conting some owner contingency as well as uh not knowing exactly uh when uh this vote occurs this this year in 26 or at later days but we're including some market escalation right now. And right now we're tracking and advising all of our clients that we're a little over 1% per quarter right now is the projected escalation for so I think in terms of 4% in the year. >>

031Yeah. >> So any questions for Brian and Clark up to this point now? >> So this does not add any additional student space. No fifth grade in other words for the fifth graders. >> The one thing that and again we didn't really get into that but there is and walking through and we had some conversation. I don't know there's enough that you could have the again three to four sections of fifth grade but potentially I think if we when we really truly get in into design and how to do this and not step on toes but I think that there's an opportunity to go through this building and re-evaluate what is in what location and reassign where things are that you may be able to uncover space that could be used for something besides what

032it's currently being used for. >> But I just I just want to be clear. So I know that I know we're not even talking about fifth grade moving back down there. I think I took that off the table. >> Yes. >> So uh how many how much expansion or student increase could we have right now after this is done? How much could we have? any reconfiguration. >> Yeah. And I guess the question to answer that is is have you determined or set your limit for >> classroom because that that's what >> we're not really adding any classroom. >> Yeah, we're not and currently is it you're 20 I think was or well actually you're max I mean we don't number but like our biggest class this year I think is like 21 I think around

03320 >> but we have I mean we have had bigger classes than that >> right >> well in a lot of these rooms you could put 25 students in it but again there's tight it gets tight but it also especially at this grade level or at this age the number of students to teacher ratio has an impact on learning and so sometimes boards have a philosophical that they don't want to get over a certain number there just because of that >> and that's we haven't really got into that >> and and I know we've looked at that and I'm just I'm still of the mindset it's like it's a lot of money for a remodel that really in the end of the day it doesn't necessarily gain us any future I know everybody says well

034what about the future well we don't know about the future but uh But we need to be good stewards of the money also. So >> I think that just all needs to be kept in balance. When this building, if it if you do this full $34 million and all this renovation, is it is it will it be a 60-year building before we have to? the facility will last suic. But the thing is is you know as James is getting to though is as you're limited if your population grows then I'm not going to say you couldn't add more space to the building but it it you're going to have to start giving things up to do that I guess is the way to put it. The biggest thing >> I mean for me >> I

035mean your question is a little bit pointed because I mean yeah we're not we're not having extra class open space. I mean I will say I think if the people are I mean I'm just gonna say it like people are doing their homework our enrollment is not on the grow right now lower so there is room capacity there. I do think one benefit of this plan is like the common space like the cafeteria where it does feel like we're maxed out. I mean I think that's designed to be bigger so that would allow to hold more. Um I mean I would think um from my perspective like we're hoping I mean I think that the idea is like with the remodels our older rooms are going to look more like our first grade rooms. One

036thing that you'll notice, you guys may not notice it, but what I know from working in our days, once those rooms got remodeled, a lot of furniture went out with that because the built-ins gave us storage. And so, like if I walked into third grade or fourth grade right now, there's a lot of rolling cabinets doing a lot of storage for the teachers where so that's taking up square footage. And so, if those pieces of furniture aren't in there anymore, it would more room for children in those rooms, if that makes sense. >> I mean, I also think kind of what Clark's point was a little bit ago is if we get into this project, there would be some potential for further discussions for are there some other spaces that we could reconfigure differently in

037our school. One space that comes right to my mind is if this is what we do, the office space that we currently occupy is open, could that configured a little bit differently or used differently which would open up let's just say Rachel Belter's room maybe that becomes a little special ed area we talked about that before we talked all the other talks right and then like her room which is in that second grade hallway maybe opens up and it's maybe not big enough for a classroom but maybe it becomes a special ed room then a special room that's more regular size becomes a regular room I mean I think there are reconfigurations possible but we can't spend all of our time deciding those things right I have a couple questions. >> Sure. >> Um on

038here, [clears throat] I know we talked about building the uh addition on for the music area. I presume that means the two music rooms and the music storage room would become part of the cafeteria. >> That was kind of the intent was >> that's what I thought. It doesn't show it necessarily on here. It shows the current floor plan >> remodel, but the intent was is the idea was to get more to the cafeteria in hopes one to improve circulation but also maybe to eliminate one of the lunch periods so that you don't have to start at and run quite as long to get the kids to go through Yeah. >> I remember that discussion for the past couple years. My other question is and I'm I'm going to play the devil's advocate here. We

039got asked the question a lot. how much of what you're wanting to do is a need and how much of what you're wanting to do is a want. So, with you guys having gone through all this, um it's hard for me looking at blue, green, yellow, and red to know how that breaks down want and need. And maybe there's no correlation. But I mean, is this $34 million of stuff that if we don't have it in the next 5 to 10 years, the building's worthless? Or how much of this is want? How much is need? Well, and I'm gonna maybe address and then you guys are going over >> partly because I remember this conversation and then I think it comes from individual perspective. >> Sure. >> And and that's you're going to struggle with

040this. Uh you know, we talked about we want to put new casework in classrooms partly so that they gain efficiency. Is that a want or is that a need? To me, that's nurse perspective. It's a need because you get rid of. >> That's the perspective that I want. >> Yeah. To me, that is a need that it needs to be done. The cabinets that are in there are getting old and deteriorated. They have maintenance issues that need to be taken care of. >> So, that's part of the scope is to get those replaced to improve the efficiency of what can be stored and how they're used. So, but I I want to be careful because again, this is I won't say a bias, but I just I I very distinctly remember >> some people may

041think that's a you know, a want, not a need. So, that's the this is where when people bring that up, it's you know, one of the things is is they may say, well, you know, we're putting a new fire alarm in the building. Well, that's a want. you know, that's not a need. Well, actually, it is because the code's going to require that we do it once you start renovating. As >> soon as you touch it, the fire just >> Yeah. So, >> I understand we're not going to make everybody in town happy no matter what we do. I mean, if we did perfect, somebody would complain that the carpet was the wrong color. I I 100% get that. I'm saying from like a Craig and a Darla, you guys who have the background in

042education, >> most of this you were thinking is need, not necessarily. >> Yeah. We there really wasn't any real fluff cuz and to be honest we >> we did talk about maybe at least from my perspective and Darla and I we had talked a little bit about we move the cafeteria you know we rearrange where classrooms are at that becomes maybe more of a a want instead of a need because by moving things around which is something I still think if you do renovations we really ought to look seriously at You can pro improve how the building's organized and how things flow, but that's not necessary to be able to keep the then allow them to to continue to do what they're doing and deliver materials and education to the kids. >> Based on conversations

043we've had in the past amongst all of us in the community, it looks to me like the majority of the cost would come from moving the office, which in my opinion from a safety standpoint is a need. dealing with this lunchroom situation, which is a need. I can tell you I've eaten lunch in there more than one time, but it's definitely a need. Um, mechanical, electrical, things along those lines, those systems wear out. Those are needs. >> So, like I agree, looking at this, to me, the majority of this is needs. Could we get away with not putting a new coat of paint on something? Probably. But that's not that number is not greatly affecting the bottom line here. So I I just wanted to make sure that we talked about that because that is

044a major concern of people. >> Well, that is and one of the things and we kind of internally discussed is is there is a portion of this building with its light renovations and we talked about new paint, ceilings, floors that if we're doing things in the rest of the building and at this time it's less expensive to do it now than later. Do you want to have a building that 34 of it looks brand new and order looks like it's 15 years old. >> Well, and by the time this is done, it won't look brand new anymore >> because we'll be doing construction on site for several years. So, >> that's another timeline on this was a couple years, two or three, I don't know. >> Well, again, >> we we love to have two

045summers in the year in between. And it's what kind of square footage real estate can we take where it's not disrupting classes while it's going on but so that we're not three to four years >> and I just yeah like we're not talking like a three-month renovation >> I understand that I'm just want to say that >> this is a 2year commitment of stuff and depending upon how much square footage we can give them during the school year >> like we talked about it's going to this to get this done in two years it's going to requ that we give them some the square footage during the school year. So, it's going to be messy, noisy. It's going to be somewhat challenging. So, anyway, so having said that, that's yeah, that's a that's a good

046good point to state that that's that's the obvious. It's it's going to impact students learning, teachers teaching if we're giving them parts of the building. Now, they'll work with us like for example if we're doing state assessments in March whatever they will try to give us you know the rooms that we need for quiet testing you know if there are certain things will work together but it's going to be give and take all throughout other questions comments anything I just want to say thanks to you guys this is what we asked for I appreciate the effort you guys have put into it I I want to look at one thing unless anybody else has anything else. Selena, do you have anything? >> No, nothing really additional to what they had asked. Yeah, I just I

047mean the difference of $10 million is not worth it to not to do the remodel, disrupt learning and then not get good. I agree. >> And so, real quick, I want I want to point out just one one example. I'm not going to go through all examples. You also have charts on there for what um again uh from Piper Sandler in terms of what the bond issue, potential bond issue, if you choose to move forward with another bond issue, what it could look like. Christy has pulled this up on the screen. This is for 34 million. So again, and and and you also have the one the old one from 45 million on your computer. So if you want to, you can pull up maybe the 45 million one on your computer and look on

048the screen at the 34 million with Christie. So making sure I'm just going I'm going to do one example only. If you take that $34 million, if we were to do a bond issue and it passes and let's say we do 20 years, that's going to be a 4.5 mil increase over 20 years. And then if you go down, we'll just choose one house only, $150,000 home. It's going to be a $7763 tax hit a year to $150,000 home. So we're going to do that same exercise on that $45 million option. If we were done 20 years, same years, 20 years, 45 million, instead of 4.5 mills, it's 6 mills. And on that same $150,000 home, it's $103.50. So you're talking less than $30, 25 approximately $26 a year difference in brand new, taken care

049of, 45 million bond issue prek or I'm sorry birth to a to grade five facility. So we we we were asked to look into the renovation information piece the add-on renovation. I think the public may be really interested in getting the both both pieces of information and you know we talked about do how do we get that out there? Do we do openhouse town hall meetings again for the month of February or whatever the case might be? That's something you guys will have to decide just to give me a direction on. Do we do we make that th those those meetings occur and we show the public, listen, our presentation is going to be very minimal. We'll show them what this, you know, what this what this could look like. We could have blown up

050again poster boards of the the add-on renovation to the current facility and what the tax implications are to that and then what it could have been at 35 million. I will also say this. Do we need to look if if we are and and Selena made a really good comment in terms of don't really think you know it makes a lot of sense. Still seems to make sense to look at a new building. We've talked a little bit about this with Brian Park, Darla, me and Mike. And I think I might have even shared with with you guys this in the Friday email. Do we look at doing you know we had four sections per each for each grade. Do we look at a new building without just three? We we trim that new building

051and and we we share that with the public. We're we're adjusting a new building and this might c this might reduce the cost. We um if if if we if we want to go ahead and remove the fifth grade out of the new building, then that's going to take square footage away. That can reduce that cost. You know, those are the types of things I guess we need to find out. What is it that we truly what can we pass? What what we what we need and what we want, what we think we need and what's best. We still have to be able to pass it. So, it doesn't matter what what we really think is best. We presented that didn't work. So, now we got to figure out what what what we can pass

052and what makes sense and what's the right thing. >> I think that obviously sharing this information realizing that, oh, they were really serious about this. They're going to address the issues at the elementary school and it wasn't just someone's crying achievement and it wasn't, you know, a big dream. So, it continues the conversation of all the things that you just said. And I don't know, regardless of what social media says about things, we can at least engage people and talk about what we need to do in the future. I guess >> I agree. I understand. We have the 45 million there. I think we need to be careful about throwing that number around because that $45 million building wouldn't cost $45 million now >> because it's going up. You said a percent, >> right? So,

053we're talking at least 1% more, right? And my personal thought is with the uh growth being fairly stagnant, we haven't seen it yet. And at the other site, there would be room to expand in the future if we needed to. I would think cutting back to three sections might help reduce the cost of the increasing price since we talked about it in the first place. >> Personally to me, I what I don't want is somebody to come and say, "Well, you told us 45 and then we agreed to it, but now you're putting up for Nick Bond issue and it's 52 or whatever." So, because we had some of that thrown back around before we something it'll be around this and then when we got a better number it was well why are you raising

054it so I just want to be as open and clear about it as possible. So when we talk on the heavy renovation the new mechanical electric are going to basically replace our AC and the new building would already be newer and so we're going to gain some efficiencies at the Yeah. And part of the heavy renovations in that a lot of that is plumbing where to repair the plumbing. We're cutting floors. We're tearing into things to get to these systems that are buried. So that's what makes it cost >> that may in fact not be all of it or would it be all >> pretty much that's targeting is all the restrooms. Just some of the some of the pictures that were done in advance to show the inward that is causing some issues. >>

055It's a heck of a lot easier to put down new plumbing than it is to chop the old plumbing out of the ground and put in new plumbing. >> Well, that's put all Yes. >> I mean, I see we're going to upgrade the lights, which is today's deal with, you know, serve save you >> versus the new is already going to have the new lights in it. the and again one of the things that we do whether it's remodeled or new construction and I'm sure these guys when they build is we're going to be choosing devices and fixtures that are current and more energy efficient than those fixtures that were put in 15 to 20 or 50 >> years or 40 or 50 years ago. >> Yes. And that's just the nature of, you know,

056we, >> you know, that's just I >> I used to be that I used to really promoted green design. Well, that's just second nature to me. that. So that's just we try to be very selective in what we choose so that we're we are more energy efficient and and one of the best things is is in theory to an average building. We're hoping that we'll be 20 25% maybe less in the energy use >> than a traditional school that somebody isn't really looking at that kind of stuff. And a lot of that's choosing the right mechanical systems and the right, you know, electrical. A lot of it's light fixtures and that and of course everything's going to LEDs and LEDs are much more energy conscious in the sense that they don't [clears throat] you don't

057use as much energy and therefore reduces your overhead. >> So do we need to decide what it is we want to do next? Now, >> if it would be beneficial, we could go back and look at what some of that space reduction and look at an updated number to to share with you to share with the board if that would beful to look at >> because that you know because we were just one of the things we were just talking off the cuff and that is is you go from a four section to a three section, you're going to eliminate probably six classrooms. >> So then what does that do overall to square footage and budget and >> and then how does that when those rooms are eliminated, how much circulation space and some of

058that there's a there's an efficiency number we can just plug in and we can tell you that again because you know depending on the type of classrooms most of those classrooms that are we were figuring at 900 square ft or thousand square feet. Then, you know, if you just figure,000 square feet, you're talking about 6,000 square feet. The dollars per square foot. That's a pretty nice. Do do you do you feel like you as a board um are wanting or getting close to engaging the public in terms of discussions on these two possible options? >> I think once that they did that I would say >> thing the public last time was they wanted more information on this type of table >> on top of it than we do. So, I think if we can

059reorganize the new bill and compare it to what we brought us and then we'll have uh current numbers for a remodel and a new bill. >> Bob was saying that if the new bill that the community passes and will support is prek through fourth and no bel fifth grade, is that an avenue we need to get a number for too? new building with three section efficient smaller but you know efficient right size we ever had place for the fifth grade why do we need to move them belts are there you just remount on the building anyway that's silly >> and but have the prek in there and all that stuff so >> and and like the belt is a pretty because of how it was laid out in the plan that's a pretty good square

060footage it's easy >> to feed these guys to get a number for that should be >> so I agree with what James and Ronnie said. Obviously, those numbers would be awesome if you guys can get it for us. That being said, I don't think I need that number right now to decide that we probably need to meet with the community again. I don't need to wait a month to get a number to then make a decision to go have a conversation. >> Yeah. >> Because what else are we going to do with that number but have the conversation? >> There's a possible idea. I'll throw this out. If you have other better ideas, please share them with me and I'm happy. Do you do something? Let's just say in the month of February where you

061have an openhouse town hall typeformational show. I mean our our presentation is going to be very minimal guys going be very minimal. It's going to be just listening absorbing and getting feedback. Do you do like uh the first week in Janu or February you do a Monday meeting and the second week in February you do a Tuesday and the third week you do a Wednesday and the fourth week you do a Thursday and you're hitting four different days in four in four weeks in the month of February. And gaining that information. >> Yeah, I think we're still at the sticker shock moment, too, with 45 million and then, you know, $8,000 edition for 34 is what people are saying. So, >> so yes, getting all the information and having a discussion about you're one classroom

062might not be a million bucks over. We're have to figure out like what it costs and what what we're going to do. >> So, are you saying you're not ready to say? >> No, I'm ready to do that. I'm ready to get up and talk about it. And it's just >> so I would I think I like Craig's idea. We did hear feedback last time that different days didn't work. So if we picked four different days on four different weeks, obviously we can't please everybody. And the other thing was people said they didn't hear about it in time. I don't know if we can send out something to where every everybody in the district gets notification directly to their phone. I mean, I know Craig's had all kinds of capabilities. So I mean, as opposed

063to just on Facebook and on the website which the average parent might not go look at regularly >> you're >> what who you're not hitting are your your nonparents >> I because I mean it was on Facebook it was on the website everyone got a postcard mailer several weeks in advance of the meetings >> that was every registered voter >> okay >> um schedule in the paper. >> Yeah. You know, so I I don't I don't >> I find it hard to believe that people didn't know about the meetings. >> I guess what I guess what I'm saying is I don't know what other avenues than what was done. I I'd love to hear other ideas because we pretty much hit every >> We just shotgun approach it and >> yeah, >> are are you

064thinking you would like to try this in February because March is spring break month [clears throat] and then you're into April, guys? >> February. >> We are correct me if I'm wrong. Uh our week for interviewing superintendent applicants is the end of January. Correct. >> Correct. Okay. So, I just want to make sure we know Yeah, the next time you would probably look to do a bond issue either could be August or November because again the state has now given you three times to do a school bond issue. Month of March, first Tuesday in March, first Tuesday in August, first Tuesday in November. So your chances again of when you want to try the one running, you can't we're we're not ready to go in March obviously. We need public feedback. August possibly or November.

065November will be a general election. That's something to think about. Will be a special election. August could I don't know if they've got primaries. They might have primaries. So we may not have to pay for that in August if there's a primary being run. >> Sure. >> I only because I know it's it's hard. It's easy for us to talk over when she's on there. Does Selena have any input she wants to give? >> Yes. >> Anything else, Selena? >> No, I don't think so. Just Yeah. Um definitely want to get community involvement and input. Um and just We can better explain how the finances break down and what um you know >> the regular homeowner is left with pain versus um what is pain. >> Sure. >> And so >> and I like your

066we had to add on new construction that >> Yeah, we got some Yeah, >> I mean we don't need the map necessarily, >> but as far as the breakdown maybe. >> Okay, we'll work on this uh get our team back up together going off of you know outside of the board meeting and uh I will start working on trying to put together some meeting you know days and times again thinking about that first week as a Monday, the second week would be a Tuesday because our second week would be the first be the second Monday board meeting. We, you know, just trying to space those meetings out in different days and anybody that can make it can will be there. Of course, Brian Clark will be able to be there. Some if not all potentially

067depends on their schedule. And then we've got maybe Clayton Kelly from Piper Sandler that can come to some of those meetings as well. So anyway, and we have a pretty good idea. We've done a lot of work over the last year and a half, two years of understanding. We have a pretty good grasp on the the numbers. So, okay. I think that's all I have. Anything else from Brian? >> Brian, I just chat a little bit. We think that we can get you maybe for your Friday report by the end of the month before you get to February. He's updated. >> We're count. >> That shouldn't be any big issue as long as I don't get run overhead back to the office. An update of one of those for a new build would be a

068little bit difficult just from the standpoint of like >> more description detail of what the renderings >> but but we could I think maybe I could get a I think I've got the ability partly because it was two story but we could lay out if we go to the three section this is what disappears assign a color that these spaces would go away if belt goes away. You know, this is what would vanish. >> The last thing I think we can also mention too at those open house community type meetings is um I shared with you two letters. I haven't quite a change over in their leadership and stuff going on. But anyway, there are two entities technical college and Allen County Community College that are interested in having a presence in Coffee County if

069they have the space in place. If the elementary school all of a sudden becomes an open facility, there's the possibility that you could have technical college and Allen County classes have presence in Coffee County >> and we have letters of interest from behind the >> Yes, we have obviously not a letter of commitment, >> but something in writing that says they are interested. >> They are interested in having a presence, a foothold here in Coffee County. But again, It's not we don't have a contract saying they'll you know do this that or the other but they have a strong interest. So anyway um I will work on some information with our team outside and DAR and Park and Mike and Brian myself and I'll be sharing with you on updates and we'll put together some

070some meetings for for February. >> Thank you very much guys if you want to head on out. I know you got long drive so >> go get your Yeah, another week of doing this and then back. >> Okay, we have >> reports. Anybody have anything? want to speak to the email that Craig sent out about the legisle and likelihood that they will phone K through 12 and other electronics. >> Uh just I'm not saying it's good or bad. I'm not real fond of telling us what to do in our school district. They're also telling what we're told to do because we're not the same. Uh but just kind of wrap your head around keeping an eye on that. um ask parents questions about what they've had. I've asked some other board members and other districts

071that have um had a a ban on phones in schools. Uh the biggest push back they got was parents. They don't know how to contact their babies anymore if something's going on. >> Um and that's a real thing. Um but we need to make sure that [clears throat] if if we have to make policy, we make sure that that's been addressed and taken care of to every extent we can. >> Um the whole kid back in the day thing. My kids survived. Well, the reality is not all of them did. They're just not here to talk about it. And so I think we need to realistically make sure we answer everyone's questions about that. We have to do it. >> And it was kind of interesting as the we had the alumni discussion last month

072where some said, well, some teachers a little more relaxed on that than some others. So >> they did point out though that those of them who are taking college classes have the access I I get that, but I mean, >> but you tell somebody else that they can't have theirs because like I said, these things need we need to find what works with us and still meet. >> Yeah. >> Anybody else? >> Okay. >> Audit report. Now you're >> Hour and 10 minutes in. We have Emily Franks here from Jared Phillips. >> I'm Emily Franks Phillips. I'm hoping that you guys will have the audit packets in front of you. There are some loose reports that we will come back to at the end. They're kind of behind there, but if you would um we're

073just going to go ahead and jump to page one, which this is the independent resource. is from our office and this is our opinion on the financial statements. Um so we do issue two opinions um an adverse opinion and an unmodified opinion. The reason why we issue an adverse opinion is because you as a school district follow Kansas regulatory basis of accounting which is a modified cash basis. Um, which means you're not going to see the long-term debt on your balance sheet as you would in like a business world or your accounts receivable. Um, it's cash in, cash out. That's what's going to be audited throughout. Um, but you can see the first three paragraphs. This talks about what we audited. So the summary statement of raised for basis receipts expenditures and un unencumbered cash

074balance of unified school district 244 as of and for the year ended June 30th of 2025 as well as the related notes there with the financial statement. [snorts] Um we did issue an adverse opinion on generally accepted accounting principles but we did issue an unmodified opinion on that regulatory basis of accounting. So in layman's terms that would be considered like a clean opinion. Um but that just means that your financial statements are materially correct. Next couple paragraphs talk about the basis for the two opinions and then the bottom of the page talks about responsibilities of management over that financial statement. On page two, this is our responsibility as your auditor over the financial statement. bottom of the page talks about supplementary information. Uh you as a district did spend more than $750,000 in federal funds.

075So that requires additional testing and reporting um in order to make sure that you are in compliance. So, uh, page two, bottom paragraph, kind of talks a little bit about that schedule of expenditures as well as additional schedules that are found in here that supplement that, uh, basic financial statement. Page three, middle paragraph, this talks about where you can find the prior year audit report because we do include those numbers in here. Also list the date that that audit was issued. And then bottom paragraph talks about reporting requirements. for government auditing standards, which is because you are that single audit, so you spent more than that $750,000. If you go ahead and flip to page four and five, this is at statement one. So, this is your financial statement, um, which is it lists out

076your funds on the left hand side. Next column is going to be your beginning unovered cash. We add receipts, subtract expenditures, and then come back to your ending unovered cash. the accounts payable gets added back to get back to your actual cash balance. Um, so if you look to page five, you can see that for fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, your cash was 8,467,271 at the uh district level. Um, but cumulative cash was $8,586,87. Um there are some agency funds that are subtracted off. They're held by the district but belong to other entities, clubs, teams, and so that doesn't count towards the cash that you guys have available to spend. Okay, if you would. Page six. This is the start of the footnote. So this information supplements that basic financial statement that we just

077discussed. Um, paragraph our footnote number one. This is just summary of significant time policy. This is going to be standard amongst all of the school districts that you pick up in Kansas. Although there are some things that are specific to you like the um entities that are related entities. So you do have the rec commission that is um with the district and so that's listed here. So, that's one thing that would be different uh between you guys and other districts. But if you flip to page eight, this is going to give a little bit of information about the budget process. Um middle of the page talks about how you did hold a revenue neutral rate for this specific year. So, this would have been a couple years ago that you actually approved that budget. There

078were uh no budget amendments. However, the general fund and the supplemental general fund budget were decreased to the legal max, which is due to that final enrollment being less than what it was originally estimated to be. And then on page nine, you go to footnote number two, this is stewardship, stewardship, compliance, and accountability with the Kansas statutes. um on that statement one that we discussed, if any of those ending unovered cash balances would have been negative, then that would have been a violation by Kansas statute, which none of them were. So you guys were in compliance with that statute. And then the next big one that they look at is your compliance with the budget laws. Um so were any of your funds over budget? And for you guys, there were no budget violations for

079this fiscal year, which there's another schedule back here that I'll touch base on as we kind of go through this. So, number three talks about deposits and investments. Uh, you as a government entity are required to have all your funds secured. Um, monthly is supposed to be checked, but specifically at year end. So if you go to page 10, you can see this lists out what the total deposits of the district were and then the cash balance in the bank. Now the cash balance is what is required to be secured. But you can see that that balance was held by three banks. Uh and of that you had 1,673,000 that was covered by FDIC insurance and then the remaining amount was collateralized with securities pledged. So you guys were in compliance with that as well.

080Um, bon number four, this is finance lease obligations. Just lists out that debt and then all the future payments that you have associated with it. Budget five, your rights uh to use contract. So, this would be like your lease agreements and if there was anything that would go beyond this the end of this fiscal year that you had signed in the prior year, it would be listed out here. Page 11, this gives a little bit more information on that long-term debt. And then the next few footnotes, um, like number seven, defined benefit pension plan. Again, this is something that's coming down from the state level, but you can see on page 13, it lists out, you know, what your liability would be for your employees if papers weren't to be able to fulfill their obligation

081to your retirees. And then eight is long-term obligations for operations. This is specific for your uh compensated absences and what the district may owe to employees um for their unused vacation time. And again, this is footnoted because you are regulatory basis. So your cash basis financials. On page 15, a couple footnotes here just kind of talk about risk and then contingent liabilities. Then the bottom footnote is the transfers. It lists the funds that it went from and and then the statuto authority associated with them as well as amounts. Um and then on page 16 lists out uh if there was any such a quote which there were not. On page 17, this is the budget schedule I was making reference to. Um if any of these funds were to have a positive balance on the

082right hand side um then it would be a violation. There is one that's 29 cents but that's um immaterial to what we're doing. So, but you can see that everything else is um in compliance there. Now, page 18 through let's see well 43 those are going to be the individual fund schedules. So your general fund, supplemental fund, gapers fund, capital outlay, and it does have comparisons from the 2024 numbers to the 2025 numbers and then the funds that are required to be budgeted. You will find the budget in there as well as the variance over under the budgets for the specific funds. Page 44 starts the agency funds. This is those funds that are held for others, not money available. to the district to spend. Um, page 46, this is the activity funds. This is

083going to be your athletics. Um, and then there's some school project funds that are there as well. And then 47, this is the schedule of expenditures of federal awards. So, this lists out all of the money that the district has spent that was federal dollars. Um it's broke down by the department of the government that the money has come from and then it lists out each of the specific programs and the government does issue it's called an assistance listing number but that tells you what branch of the government it's coming from and then the specific grant that's associated with it. Um, so you can see here as a district on page 48, you did spend 1,35,712 of federal funds um during the fiscal year. Page 49, this is reports specific to um internal controls over

084financial reporting with compliance and other matters on audit, financial statement performance reports, government auditing standards. Um but these reports are specific to the financial statements. Um if there was any issues with internal controls or compliance that would be listed here and of course we did have no problems there. Um 51. This is specific to the major programs that were tested through the audit process and um compliance with the uniform guidance. So that sets out the rules as far as what we have to test and um the guidance for you guys spending the dollars. The information for that comes out of that uniform guidance. Um but again uh we did not have any issues to note and so we did issue unmodified opinion with regards to that federal compliance. And so page 54, this is like

085a onepage synopsis of what all I talked about, but you can see here we did issue adverse opinion on financial statements and then unmodified opinion on the regulatory basis. We didn't have any internal controls or material weaknesses to know there were no issues with the federal awards that we tested as our major programs. Um, and then kind of towards the bottom of the page, we do list out the major programs that we tested. Um, so we tested the title one and then we also tested the child nutrition cluster. And there's a threshold for well single audit would be the 750 but then um you as a district are not considered a lowrisk audit which what that means is there's just additional testing that has to be done because you're not a low-risisk audi. But the

086reason you're not a low-risisk audit is because you do not follow that generally accepted accounting principles. So as long as you follow the Kansas regulator basis you cannot be a lowrisisk audit. Um so and then there were no financial statement findings and no federal award findings or question costs. And then last page if there was any priority or audit findings they would be listed here but there were none. Okay. Is there any questions about that? >> Thank you very much. >> No. Okay. [snorts] Just real quick. Sorry. I know you want to hurry up. Uh there are loose reports here. This is um important information. It's specific to stay within the board and management of the district. U each of your packets does have these [snorts] as well. Hopefully they have them. Um but if

087we would have encountered >> there was a staff that had reports and a staff that was like general public ones. Okay. But you'll get them eventually. Um, but this would list out any issues if we would have had any management issues, anything we saw that rose to a level of concern. Um, we did have some journal entries that were needed to be performed in order to get the financial statements to where you see them today from where you may have previously seen them, but those are included in that packet as well. So when you get that um and then there also is a management representation letter. This is a letter from you as the board to our office. Um it would just it lists out all the things we would have discussed throughout the audit

088process. Um if there was legal issues that would have been discussed um you'll comply you know with submitting the information to the clearing house things like that. Um any question? >> Would you say that this is pretty typical of what you see throughout Kansas better than how do you how do you feel that? >> It's pretty typical, but I typically I'm I'm not the lead auditor on your school district. Um Kyle does the school district audit district audits. Um so he would be a better one to ask that question of um and I can have him get back with you. [snorts] But I specifically usually do the counties and community college audits and so but Kyle's only one person and he was already delivering two audits tonight other school districts so >> I understand but

089I'll I'll get help him get with you and answer that question >> I will share that I'll share that response >> anybody else have any questions So before she fell asleep. >> Okay. >> Well, thank you to approve the 2024 2025. >> Motion seconded. >> Any discussion? >> I just think there's a lot of there's a lot of work that goes into making all these numbers work and uh get all the money where it's supposed to go and uh So Christie, thank you very much. >> I'm going the building. It's all buildings. >> Central office staff, all buildings. It's the lot. >> Okay. Submit your vote. >> Thank you. Selena. Yeah. >> Still connected. Well, I think she's >> she did Okay. >> I'll check with her. I'm not sure. >> Motion carries. 70 >>

090results monster. [snorts] So, >> you want to talk about? >> Well, sure. Love to talk. Um so this is on our reading results report. So for each of our buildings like my buildings the Ames web the state assessments and the middle school and high school would be the fast bridge and the state assessments and then the high school would have um the ACT test also. So we talked a lot about the state assessments this year that they were cut scored. You saw the kids getting recognized tonight. I think I really my own, but um you know like when we update these slides you kind of look at like well last year and this year like as we edit those um and feel like you know the kids continue my building is is really I would

091say um consistent like in how we performed there. So I can speak to that and then I will just real quickly on the portions of the slides that are about like our benchmarking process which is kind of how we determine who needs to read interventions. I have those triangles on there and you can just see that like the groups like we we monitor and measure kids a lot and we typically see those you know like you want to see mostly green and that's what we see happening as we move throughout the year. That's >> you guys. >> Do you have questions or anything? I think like I mean I didn't look at their state assessment results but I mean like again in our building I think we're right at or a little above the state

092average. So I think anytime that you're performing at the state average or you know kudos to the people that are and the kids. Okay. Um, this was actually brought up a little bit earlier, so I'll I'll address it up here. So, it is correct that our our reading scores at the sophomore level have been on a continuous dip the past few years. Um really that's one of my biggest focuses and goals for next year is to try to get a plan in place and see how we can try to improve those. We've got a couple challenges in there. We're going to be losing two English teachers, so that's going to be a challenge in itself. Um, this past fall we did our interim practice tests for our kids in reading and there are several areas

093of deficiency. Um, one of the earliest ones we identified was just the ability to comprehend text and be able to explain back what was being read to them. So early on in the semester, the challenge for all of our teachers was to incorporate more reading for our kids in individual class and not make it about having to, hey, we're just doing this because I think it's a whole schoolwide thing we need to work on together, not just throw this on our English teachers and just this is on you guys. Um, not to make excuses or not, but reading scores in the majority of schools since have continued to go in a nonpositive direction. Not saying that that's the only reason, but that is a conversation that happens at quite a few schools. I would say

094that's that will be a huge point of emphasis going into next year after we can solidify our staff is to incorporate more of the specific areas where our kiddos are struggling. Try to focus on a couple different ones versus the whole gamut of the comprehension. So that will be definitely a goal for next year. Uh in terms of ACT scores, um those again have slowly started to trickle down in a negative light. One of the things talking with our site council when we had our two meetings early on semester, first semester was how important our test scores to our parents. And I think that's continuing to have our meetings with our site council and talk to our parents with high school kids and our teachers in [clears throat] fact is how big of a priority

095is this for everybody and if it needs to be it is really important for our our parents and our our community that putting more emphasis and effort into those would be something I would recommend moving forward. And if it's something that is We've got four or five other things that are more important and have to adjust those correctly, but reading comprehension is definitely something that's been a focus for us with our teachers during bell work and just instruction. And I think that's will be a priority next year as well after trying to hire two English teachers. Any questions on that? >> Do we have trend data going back more than five years >> uh for ACT scores? Uh No, it's just it just it calculates the last five years. >> We could probably find >>

096I asked the question because a fivepoint trend is not the most informative thing in the world. If you had a couple classes that scored extremely well and then you happen to have a couple classes after that who were a little below average, it looks like you have a major downward trend. really if you looked at 15 years worth of data, you might notice that it's all within the normal realm of flexibility. It just makes me curious and and I >> these kids that are sophomores now or what third and fourth graders when co hit. So as far as reading and English goes, you guys are the teachers, not me, but that seemed like pretty important years for reading comprehension. >> And again, I'm not trying to >> that's I'm not saying that as an excuse

097at all. I understand that it's you know, talking to other schools and talking with high school kids, what I am expressing to you is not just a Burlington concern, right? It's it's a concern in a lot of districts with a lot of high school kids. And you know, the challenge moving forward is incorporating more of specific examples like reading comprehension in text as schools continue to go more technology based. We just talked AI a little bit ago. So >> I I did not take your statement as an excuse. I took it as a concern. >> I think one thing I mean just worth noting is I mean know this as a past parent like there has been change over in the English department and that's not a finger pointer but like when Mrs. Parker worked

098there. Um, it was one of her uh I don't know what you'd call the task that she did with kids. She did a lot of ACT prep with students back then. Um, so if you even if you did a poll of went back five more years on top of this, you probably could find results reports. You probably would see a potential change in the data just because like the way business was done those years ago now is different. That was a person that worked in our district with a lot of longevity and a lot of dedication towards this. So >> it's it's just interesting to me. I'm obviously a data driven person and it's interesting when we're trying to pick out a trend when there's so many factors that come into play on it and

099>> well and even colleges now have lowered their >> ACT requirements. I mean, you can I mean, there's there's a school 45 minutes away that I mean, you can readily get available in there, but an ACT score that 20 years ago would have just there's the door over there. So, you know, schools are lowering their ACT requirements to get into schools for for a variety of reasons. So, >> and many have eliminated that as a requirement and gone back to GPA. >> So, you know, when you that score all together, how valuable is it for a large consumption of people? So, um again, that's not making blame or excuses for anything, but that is definitely a trend that was not there 10, 15 years ago. Your ACT score was very valuable in terms of scholarships

100and getting admitted into schools. There's a lot of schools now where they don't even require that. So, if it's not a college requirement, there could be There could be an opinion or a debate on how important is that score for a lot of individuals and that's not just for that's across the nation. I have a question too. So we know that information you know that information but do the students and the parents know the information of their results of what they got from taking this test? I mean we see this right and we know about it but do the kids know that this is the results from taking a test and this is what the results were then compared to the school and do the parents know what the result of their child was when

101they took the test right >> last year I got the parent teacher conferences >> at the middle school level yes I agree but I have not at the high school level we were talking ninth and 10th grade right that the results are >> not that pretty And are the kids and the parents seeing their results? Because I know at the middle school, I see my kids reports and at the elementary school when they were there at parent teacher conferences, we were getting that piece of paper of what their reports were. I don't recall if at the high school level that information is being communicated to the students and the parents to let them know what their results are because I mean if we show it up here and everybody knows about it but the people

102really needing to make the change aren't aware of their performance and how it needs to get better. >> It does seem like that went away around the time we went to the student le conferences the powerful together. I don't remember after that happened seen course I remember it before but >> that's just my personal >> that's that's good information to have >> today >> during during the assembly >> oh they got those for their ACP recognition >> so they received those >> well they received a recognition in terms of a certificate for it No, no announcement ahead and pair of teacher homes. >> Yeah. And I know that we have and I don't know uh you know a big deal for you guys. I know we have trophies everywhere. You walk in the multimedia room

103there in the commons area and then we have the small section of ACT scores, right? So I don't know if how we can throw the word out there, glamorize it, but I mean make it something that like, hey, this is where you really want to be, right? as a student is in this box right by the multimedia room where it's the ACT score plaques. Right. >> So, so for instance, today at our awards assembly, we handed out a certificate in front of our entire school for all of our kids that scored in a level above national average. >> So, that'd be a small example of that. But to answer your question on specific areas where our kids are struggling inside of English with those practice types of questions, those have not been unless they're conversing

104with their English teacher student or at parent teacher conferences. This is this is that it's not emailed home or sent home in that regard. So, I appreciate that info and that's something we'll we will do a better job of making sure that [snorts] the kids that are on there, we've given them every opportunity for the kid and the parent to recognize this is where certain kiddos are landing in this particular concerning area. >> We've discussed this before. Obviously, we're seeing the 30,000 foot view of all this and I'm just curious, do you guys when these results come back, do you guys get says, "Hey, amongst all the fourth graders or whoever that did this in English, here was one specific area that we scored significantly lower on." >> So, if you go if you go

105to the middle school report on there, it'll show that writing was actually a strength across the board in the middle school. Almost 80% uh was the average. And so, when you think about it, you you want to shoot for 80%. 80% is pretty when you talk about a pyramid of interventions and things like that, 80 you want 80% of your to be there. Overall, writing score at the middle school was very strong. Um, reading reading overall was was pretty good. Uh, fifth grade was a little bit below the state average. Last year was the first year we had a reading interventionist with Miss Bates. And one thing that we noticed with our kids, fifth and sixth grade didn't grow as much, but seventh and eighth grew quite a bit more. U, we had several kids

106that actually went from level one to a level two from the year before. I can send that specific to you. >> Does it break down specific topics though? Does >> it? So this is this is what we get here. And so if you look overall writing score was pretty strong at the middle school overall. Um and then you can see um if you look at seventh grade specifically um those are our eighth grade kids now performed pretty well on that overall also. >> Um and I think about like eighth grade language arts the last couple years has kind of been right at a little bit below the state average. Um, when I looked at the eighth grade language arts score from our fall interim, um, we were performing above the state average across the board

107except four areas. And so, as long as we continue with that trend, we're going to be fine. Um, and that that would be Miss Peterson. And so, I mean, that is that's a plus because we can go through and we can see where we're performing with the state. >> I assume this data gets back to the associated teachers so they know different areas to focus on. >> Absolutely. >> I'm just I don't doubt that you guys are doing it. I just This kind of ties back to what I do in my real job and it's just interesting to me. >> We actually have our teachers at the middle school spend time and talk as language arts teachers. Okay. What are some strengths? What are weaknesses? What can we do to get better? >> Very cool.

108Thank you. >> And like I said, the challenge for us next year is we're losing two English teachers. >> So that's that's that's the first challenge right there. >> Okay. Question. Anything else? >> Good discussion. Okay, thank you. Good work. >> Okay, >> move to accept the resulting original. Any discussion? >> Selena, are you still there? Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I'm going to have to give it I got kicked off. So, I'm Yes. Hey. Yay. [clears throat] Motion carries. Moving on. >> So, this is the first time this happened in 10 years that I've been here. We forgot to include two supplemental scenarios and we just found out about it here uh [clears throat] here. We these were items that were discussed supplemental duty committee. We didn't get them for for whatever reason.

109Kathy Freeman and I, we go over and we save initial pages for the negotiate agreement. We forgot these two. These were two items that were discussed and approved at at the supplemental duty committee meetings last year and we forgot to get them. And if I'm not mistaken, we even talked about these during negotiations, but we forgot to get them in to the actual formal agreement. So, there they are. And I've talked with Kathy and she's very understanding and very we doesn't know how we we because this is the first time we've missed something I guess in 10 years. >> 2016 motion second discussion Motion carry 70 >> seven. >> Yes. >> Sorry. >> Good check. >> Well, earlier it was six cuz Johnny wasn't here. So I had six in my head. >> You blood

110Johnny. I forgot about >> Johnny slipped in on us too. KSB. Anybody Everybody saw the update KSB policies. Have any questions on it? >> I can go over anything that you might want to look at. Um, thanks to Christie for putting together that information and getting it out to you. The red line adjustments, a lot of it is some, you know, just just some verbiage. Um, but again, if you have any questions, I'll be happy to cover there. the use of artificial intelligence policy. It's a very general policy and Craig and I have been talking about again the more specific nature of this policy. We we reviewed this Craig and I did we are in agreement with what this states. We may end up like getting some more details as we go forward with with

111an AI policy but for right now this is very acceptable. Do you have any questions? >> We pretty well follow the policies that are the polic that they update. >> If there's anything I can speak on or you need me to speak on, just ask. If you ever see one voting member okay presented motion second discussion hearing none submit your vote. Motion carry 70. >> Yes, this will be and there should be So, we need a motion to approve. Motion to approve the engagement letter with Jared Gilmore and Phillips, uh, public accountant for the 202526 financial audit in an amount not to exceed $10,600. >> Second motion second. Any discussion? Hearing none, submit your vote. Motion carry 70. You see the multi room acoustic fabric system. So this is on our capital outlay plan, our

112sevenyear capital outlay plan in the multimedia room at the high school. We're having bubbling issues where it's detaching. We're also having where it's pulling apart it seems. Um it it's something that uh again that room is used a lot. It's used a lot for a variety of different things not only school events but you know community events like uh for example example the women's health fair through the hospital and other different events um that uh they our buildings are used for. Um this is a this is a project that could be done over spring break. Um again uh it it's it's not a must. It's not like it has to be done. It's It's not going to get any better. And the price, we got a quote for it last year. I just felt like

113we wanted to wait. Last year when we were doing the Boak Shop addition renovation, just want to wait a year. Um the the the increased price is about $4,000 from one year to the next. So it's like, you know, Park and Brian mentioned, you just never know depending on materials, labor, so on so forth. So having said that, this is not a project that has to be done, but it's a very visible usable room in not only for school but also for um our community. And so if we want to do this now, we sure can. You want to hold off and do it later, you sure can. >> It's Yeah, it's a it's it's needing to be addressed in some way, shape, or form >> at some time. Questions on that? and I shared

114some pictures with you and you've been in there and you've seen it. Um, if you've been in the multimedia room in the last year or two, three years, >> how long is the uh material that's in there now lasted? >> Um, that part that building would be was that the original building to 79? >> No, it's an 96 97. >> It was would have been fall of 96. So, we got 25 30 years out. >> Got 30 years. Is there is there a warranty involved with this >> as far as is it going to peel off the wall? Not not the current for a 40-year warranty on it. But for the one that's upcoming, I assume there's some kind of if we have issues. >> I I don't know what it is, though. I'm sure

115there is though. I I just would have to check on that. >> I think it looks horrible. >> And it is a very >> in your face. I'll accept a motion. >> I'll motion to accept the bid for acoustic stretch fabric systems incorporated in 43,888 for the replacement of the Burlington High School multimedia room acoustic wall material. >> Motion second. Any discussion? Motion carries something similar. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Cool. If we can get that cool chest shed we've been talking about. So, did it get completed at all? >> It did. It did get completed and it's ready to go by. >> This is a student built check. >> Yes. >> Between the auto shop and uh the building >> on the north side. >> I'm just curious, do we know how

116much it cost us to build that thing? >> It just about breaking even. >> Okay. That's kind of what I was hoping you'd say. >> Yes. And that's what we >> move to accept Brian Shing's bid of $1,555 for the BHS shed. Second >> motion seconded discussion none vote >> new projects for the kids >> recess into executive session for 10 to discuss matters pursuant to nom personnel exemption under related to job performance and to return to open session in this room at the end of the time including Marsh. >> Second motion second discussion. >> Yes. Yeah, we'll stay on. >> I did cut some cake. If you would like it, I can bring it to you now. >> Anybody want cake? I'll get some later. >> No, you want cake. >> Do you want

117ice cream cake? delay real here to listen and take it all in. I had questions but they got asked before silent on purpose. >> You're not going to hurt anybody's feelings. That's what you want. >> I I do think on this the only thing I probably didn't say as much is this is more of a what. It's not so much of a why >> and and what you're going to gain. This is anformational not really motivational >> thing. So that's theformational >> but like if we're going to the cafeteria talk about that here we kind of Anyway, so is there room to modify this to where it says >> here's the why we're doing this and here's why now here's why it makes sense. >> So I wasn't involved in all the pre stuff. So

118I didn't want to >> I think that was kind of a starting place for us. >> I appreciate the comment because we've been >> this board's been dealing with it for a while and so to have your fresh idea of hey we need to change it. I appreciate >> I want to be motivated to do this. Well, there's a thing. Well, I got trans money. >> And that's why you heard a little bit uh tonight and you heard when we had the meetings, it wasn't a need or it wasn't a want. >> So, when we introduced those things then some of the public said, those are just wants, those are not needs. And so, we kind of wanted to try to define those a little better. I wonder if you could put like a symbol

119on there on the cafeteria on the office like a star and then >> or and make us some little notes that say this is a necessity because of this. >> Yeah. >> What issue it resolves >> without making it too clutter. >> Well, the crazy thing is I think that we wouldn't have it on there if we didn't think we needed. >> This is almost almost like I know you've got light heavy light to heavy but maybe there's a little bit of a priority this time. >> If you have some thoughts or ideas, shoot me an email and like I said, we'll we'll look to try to the comments that you just made right now. Very good. Shoot me a message if you would and we'll I said we're going to get going with that

120with with Carl, Mike, Darla, and uh Brian real quick because February will be here before we know it. >> Yeah. >> I know a guy that stood up in the back of the room at public meeting and just ask what question or what problem you trying to solve. >> And I tried to answer the best I could, but >> I might have missed the mark. So, you're absolutely right. >> Feel it out there, Jay. [laughter] >> Well, okay. >> Ready to break? >> Oh, yes. We'll do a picture right here afterwards. >> We're going to adjourn, but we'll do the picture. >> Yes, sir. >> After. So, uh, Jay, thanks for your comments. >> I can tell you more. >> I [laughter] just want more discussion. >> Jay, you are the only community member that

121regularly comes and >> reads that says stuff. So, I do appreciate it. >> Even if I don't agree with you, >> I still appreciate you coming. Not that