Board of Education Meeting - March 16, 2023

001To get started this evening, I would like to request a moment of silence for a Francis Hill North student who has passed away earlier this month. And now we will call this meeting to order with the Pledge of Allegiance. I would like a motion to approve the agenda for March 16th, 2023 as presented. Mr. Lang? Ms. Stiglitz? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. Motion carries. Ms. Jules, it is now your turn. Thank you Mrs. Ling. We have three recognitions this evening. First up we'd like to recognize one of our elementary schools. I'm thrilled to announce that Independence Elementary is among 13 schools in Missouri and only six elementary schools in the state to be named a 2023 state school of character. Criteria for selection are based on character.org's 11 principal

002framework for schools. The framework includes key indicators on creating a caring school community where everyone feels they belong. providing students with opportunities to practice and reflect on their character strengths and engaging families and communities as partners in the school's character initiative. This is actually the third time Independence has earned this honor as the designation expires after five years and must be earned again. Only 73 schools in the nation earned a state school of character title this year and all are eligible to apply for the National School of Character designation. I believe Principal Pavia and her team have started that process already and we'll find out in May if Independence is selected for the national honor. Please help me recognize Miss Emily Pavia and the entire Independence Elementary School community. Congratulations. All right, next we'd like

003to highlight how the work in one of our elementary classrooms is making its way to Jefferson City. Arianna Walker is a fourth grade student at Fairmount Elementary School who recently learned that her artwork will hang in the Missouri State Capitol for a full year. Her artwork was selected by St. Charles County Senator Bill Igle to represent District 23 in the Senate art exhibit. Arianna and her art teacher, Dr. Sterk, who submitted the artwork for consideration, will attend a ceremony in the Capitol Building's Rotunda next week. This time I'd like to invite Dr. Sherry Oliver, Fairmount Elementary School principal, to the podium to tell us more about Arianna. Arianna is the quintessential perfect student, as Dr. Sterk describes her. Mr. Burroughs says the same thing. She scores perfect on her MAP test, perfect attendance, a little

004shy. but she is a dedicated and persistent student who follows through with the same integrity from start to finish. She sets a good example for other students as a role model in kindness and responsibility. Her affinity of horses comes through in many of her art pieces, and if you look closely, you can always see that little Easter egg of a horseshoe or a horse in all of her work. She's not only a talented artist, but an amazing friend, a stellar student, and one of our role models for the entire school. We're extremely fortunate that her little sister just joined us for kindergarten, so the family, I mean, they've paved the way. She's representing Fairmount not only in Jefferson City, but also Francis Howell with another project that will be on display at the Lillian Yang

005Art Gallery starting during spring break until mid-April. I'd also like to recognize Dr. Sterk and her art program. She's established an amazing program where she has been at Fairmount for several years. Arianna is her fourth student that's been honored at Jefferson City. Her first student was a kindergartner that came in second at the state. So Dr. Sterk and her amazing art program. We are very proud to have both the family and Dr. Stark as members of our Fairmount Falcon family. Congratulations, Arianna. All right and for our final recognition this evening we'd like to recognize you our Board of Education. The Missouri School Board Association has declared the entire month of March as School Board Recognition Month and so tonight we celebrate you for the time and dedication you give to our schools and community. You

006give so freely of your time and talents in a purely volunteer capacity and I know for many of you your board responsibilities often require the same time and attention as a full-time job. We've left some small tokens of appreciation at your seats this evening, and the colorful papers you see here on the front of the dais were written by Warren Elementary students, so those are going to go home with you tonight. Got some nice notes there. And then I hope you and our guests tonight also have a moment to check out the artwork hanging in the hallway just outside this room. Our students at Cosley Elementary wanted to share their own notes of appreciation with you for all you do. So let's give our Board of Education a round of applause. Our student board representative

007this month is from Francis Howe Middle School and here to introduce her is assistant principal Mrs. Kelly Longo. Aria Pelican is the perfect candidate to represent Francis Howe Middle School at tonight's board meeting. When we asked her teachers for some feedback about her, the kind words just kept coming. Aria is a mature student who takes her academics very seriously. She is kind to her classmates and unbelievably hard worker. Most of all, in class, she can listen to a variety of opinions, even those with whom she disagrees, and she still remains kind and polite, but steadfast in her own opinions. And on top of it all, is able to educate others to feel the same way as her. That is why she is the best candidate for tonight's board meeting. Welcome, Ms. Ariam. Feel free to

008comment at any time. Ms. Janet over there will help you get settled in. The only thing you're not allowed to do is vote. So welcome. All right, now I will turn it over to the district's college and career specialist, Ms. Katie Vargas, who will present our best practice session and tell you about some amazing opportunities for our high school students. Good evening. Thank you for having me. And tonight I will be sharing a bit about the programming called Gateway Global American and Youth Business Alliance Academies and a partnership we've established with them. We are very fortunate to have them in our St. Louis area. They are unique and one of a kind. You'll soon understand why. As well as I'll give a brief description of a program that a handful of our students have participated

009in and what they have gleaned from that experience. So what is Gateway Global? It is a nonprofit STEM-based workforce development organization. It is, again, literally one of the kind. It's really the only nonprofit STEM-based geo-int program that is working with high school-age students in the nation, not just the state, but in the nation. And it is right here in the backyard of St. Louis. It focuses on pathways that are related to critical infrastructure. The training reaches a variety of industries, including the Department of Defense, as well as our ag science industries, and so many more. And essentially what the program offers at the base level, which is what our students have participated in, is the science behind identifying areas and objects through satellite imaging. So to give you a... quick example of what that might

010mean in the Department of Defense area for example we have just currently was speaking with my brother-in-law who works for one of the military branches as a civilian in their meteorology department and he was on the ground not too long ago with soldiers in the Ukraine establishing what types of problems they have in the solutions that Weather can help them fix and one of them was figuring out soil the density of soil so that they can move tanks and when to know to move tanks. And our geo and specialists do that. Our students just recently finished the program now have the capability of identifying through satellite imaging not only what that land in the Ukraine would look like, but then also all of the context that they need to make sure that our military people

011are safe and doing what they need to do with the tools that they have. And so the program itself also lends itself to additional training. So it's an industry-recognized credentialing program, which basically means that students that participate in this program have the opportunity to move on to our Department of Labor-recognized apprenticeship program in this space, as well as stack credentials on top of it. You'll see on the slide here a list of the programs that this Gateway Global provides or will be providing in the near future. Our students specifically have participated in the Geospatial or GeoINT Technician Program. So why Gateway Global? Well, it is an industry that is hard hit from two different sides. We have a growing demand for geospatial intelligence capabilities and people who are skilled in that area. And it is

012a workforce that is aging. We just, our partners here in St. Louis, the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. They're knocking on Gateway Global's door to hire these technicians because the people in this industry are retiring and we don't have a labor force to replace them. So there is a demand. It also is another great opportunity that offers post-high school training and education that is... That is not a four-year degree. So it's just another great training opportunity for students who might want to pursue a more direct workforce based learning experience. We have several sponsors in our area and you can see them as well so it is a heavy Gateway Global is a heavily supported program in our area specifically and we again will continue to partner with them in growing the additional programming providing students hopefully

013creating a pipeline for them for the additional program programming they will be offering. So what is the program? What does it look like? Our students currently that have finished, I'll talk to you about them in a minute here. They, the first cohort last semester, completed within 12 weeks a small group virtual instruction opportunity. And it was two hours every evening, Monday through Friday. And through a grant provided by the state to Gateway Global, they were able to pay them an hourly wage while they were learning. to get certified in geo and technician. So paid to get certified to earn more money. I think that's a pretty good gig. They were working primarily on data mapping and 21st workforce skill development. So in addition to the actual technical skill, the program really focuses heavily on those

01421st century workforce skills. And when they complete that, credential they also have the opportunity then to stack that and become a geospatial analyst and then further on down the line they even have the option again to enter right into the Department of Defense I'm sorry the Department of Labor recognized apprenticeship program and we have four-year universities that also offer an extension if a student wanted to pursue a four-year degree Right out the gate, if a student graduated in May from our district with this credential, they could get hired the next week by, let's say, the NGA and earn a minimum of $45,000 a year. So here are some highlights of the students that completed the program last semester. So student one was from Howell Central, passed the course with flying colors and the accreditation exam,

015which I understand is extremely difficult, passed with a 70%. We have student two from Howell Central as well, who did very well, and also... Was part of the capital campaign so gateway global is going literally to Washington DC the CEO to campaign for more funds and to grow the program and he was part of that effort and Plans to intern with them this summer and then student three Savannah from Howell North Actually just finished an internship with them after her conclusion of the program And here are just some brief highlights from the students. Connor says, in college, I'd like to major in computer science, so learning about GIS was in line with my interests in technology. As a student athlete, I had to refine my time management skills by prioritizing my work to ensure I

016could make time to attend this class, get all of my homework done, and still have time to practice my sports. As a senior, I used this opportunity to learn something new and validate my future career options. Being accepted in the program was a true honor. And Savannah says the training was very enjoyable. It did a great job at not only being informative but also interesting. It answered a lot of questions that people may have but not normally find the answer to, such as how do satellites take in data? How can you differentiate the wavelength of vegetation versus water? I don't know about you, but I've always wondered that. How do pixels work? How is this technology created? How do you interpret topographic maps? The training not only answered the questions I had, but also encouraged

017me to come up with questions I didn't have before. And Savannah just, again, finished an internship with Gateway Global in partnership with Lawmire Sculpture Park right here in the area, completing a real, solving a real world problem. Savannah plans on going on to computer science herself and is uber smart in that space and hopes to combine her computer science knowledge. with her certification. A parent, I just surveyed because I wanted to know what parents thought of this. We do currently have two students in this cohort. They're both Howell High students. They're doing amazing, as you can see. And one of the parents of one of the students says that she also is very impressed with what she's hearing as she's walking past her kiddo when he's in class. So looking ahead, we just really want

018to continue with recruiting efforts. We'd love to expand the program, including high school credit articulation. That will require some funding. We will need FTEs to staff those rooms to allow students to not be taking it in the evening and earning the money, but actually taking it during the school day, if they'd wish, and earn high school credit. And it also we're hoping just we were wanting to connect participating students with the NGA specifically since it is right in our backyard and they have some exciting internship opportunities coming down the pike so we'd really like to take advantage of those. Do you have any questions? Board, any comments or questions? I have one. Yes, ma'am. What exactly does this program entail? Like, to participate in it, what do you have to do, and what does the

019course take? Yeah, that's a great question. So they participate over about a three-month time span, and these kiddos go to school all day, and they come home, and as you heard from Connor, they have to balance their workload and their... part-time jobs or their sports and they take two hours a night online real-time instruction with an instructor to learn all about satellites and data mapping and how using those skills can solve real-world problems. I just want to say anytime you're paid to learn it's a good thing. Agreed, agreed. My only question is you had mentioned that you know if you would get the partnership to have it with in the high school And we would need FTEs is there any grant money that might be available with NGA through the partnership with them to see

020if we could make that happen Yeah, there are some pretty powerful significant partnerships that are looking for these technicians So I would say it's never off the table The only concern I would have is that I wouldn't necessarily, as much as I love the NGA, I wouldn't want to be committed, if you will, to one particular industry and by promising our students to go into that industry. Because I just think ultimately that limits students. They can use what they want. They can use a technician certificate however they want in a variety of industries. You're welcome. Anything else, Lauren? Thank you. Thank you very much. Next up we have patron comments. During patron comments, residents of the district and staff members are invited to address the Board of Education on issues related to the school district.

021Speakers are called forward in the order of sign up and each speaker has three minutes to make their remarks. Please remember that only one speaker is allowed at the podium at a time and combining time or giving your time to someone else is not permitted. The board appreciates that you have taken the time to come this evening, and we value both your input and perspective. I would like to remind everyone that we expect the speakers will remain civil and respectful when giving remarks. If anyone fails to comply with board policies, regulations, and rules, we reserve the right to cut those three minutes short. For your convenience, our three-minute clock is ready, and we welcome Tom Ferry to step forward. All right, hey, good evening board and everyone in the community who is present and watching

022online. Before I get into my remarks, I really want to express my heartfelt appreciation to Directors Lange and Zegemeyer for all your dedication and service to the community. We really will miss you guys and appreciate it. Doug, we'll see you next time, that's fine. But really appreciate your dedication to our kids, to our district and to our community so thank you very much um tonight i want to re-emphasize really just how well francis howell did on the last map scores or on the map test this was highlighted a couple months ago in our board meeting and i think it really it needs to be repeated so that folks understand just how well the district is doing overall coming out of covid The district performed the best in the county in most of the subjects in

023most of the grades. I mean, that's a tremendous, tremendous feat. And we really can thank our teachers and staff for this monumental improvement. They are really nailing the basics. It's not only the basics that they're nailing, it's the extras, too. Just in my own family, with my wife being a teacher here and my kids being at Becky David, I've seen teachers subbing on their plan times, dedicating their evening to a literacy night to get kids a love of reading, making positive phone calls home after a long, long week, and getting parents and teachers excited about how well their kids are doing in class, spending time picking a perfect book to help a struggling reader. and hosting an unpaid after school clubs complete with lasagna. Our teachers are putting in their heart and soul into the

024district. I cannot adequately express my appreciation for them but they're really running on empty. Our teachers and staff have a deeply personal relationship with the district and the community. Like with any relationship, if there's mutual respect and support, the relationship will flourish. Teachers and staff are bearing an emotional burden of this relationship and doing everything they can to keep it intact. We as a community and as board members, we need to make sure we're matching their efforts and shouldering some of their emotional burden. If we don't, they will leave the relationship and in fact many already have and many continue to do so if fort zumwalt wentzville pattonville parkway they are all knocking on our doors and they are all bringing gifts in the form of much higher salary schedules looking to steal away our

025teachers and staff So how do we rebalance this relationship? I can tell you firsthand, Harry Harris, Amy Easterling, and Doug Ziegenmeier are ready and eager to step up and shoulder some of this burden. They recognize the emphasis on the basics and the need to continue with the extras. So this April, let's show teachers and staff and students how we are recommitting our support to the district and our teachers and staff. We can do this by coming together as a community and electing Harry, Amy, and Doug. Thank you. Next up we have Donnie May. Good evening, Francis Howe Board and Administration. My name is Donnie May. Unlike most of the other speakers tonight, I'm coming to you not as a board candidate or PAC, but instead as a regular district parent who wants the best for

026his children's school district. Tonight I'd like to talk about a couple of recent conversations I had with two different district teachers while canvassing for the upcoming school board election. I felt these conversations were honest, heartfelt, and very informative. I promise both teachers that we silent parents need to do a better job of being more vocal and advocating in support of the district's teachers. There was nothing groundbreaking in our conversation, and I told both teachers I would forward their concerns to the candidates. I hope if either of you are listening tonight, you understand how serious I took our conversation, and tonight I'm here to advocate for both of you. Both teachers expressed they wish they had more support from this board. Specifically, this means actual salary and benefits as opposed to social media shares. Virtue signaling,

027thanks on Thursday, Facebook posts do not pay their mortgages. I won't rehash the Prop S overruns, but Board, your lack of fiscal oversight and responsibility the past few years has greatly harmed any future school board's ability to ask the public for a future tax levy to address these salary concerns. I'm a fiscal conservative and also want the district's teachers and staff to be among the best paid in the region. This means I expect district board members to treat public tax dollars like it's their own money. The first step in this process of addressing the teacher salaries is accountability, and I'm doing my part to make sure we'll see this accountability on April the 4th. Second, I ask each and every one of you board members and future board members to visit the schools. Both teachers

028stated they desired board members to meet with the teachers on the front lines, not just school administrators or teachers union representatives. Administrators are further removed from the teaching front lines and these teachers would love the opportunity to have honest conversations and express concerns directly to the board members. To conclude, I also have one request to the upcoming new school board. I'd like to see the new school board use their position and influence to push school administrators and teachers to open up and get more parents back into the school. This increased involvement lets parents build in-person relationships with their children's teachers and school administrators. I've noticed my daughter's school has taken steps to restart parental involvement activities, but I'd like to see the district go all in on the idea, including better communication and marketing of

029these events. I would like to see schools offer more after-school parental activities so we dual-income working parents can also attend. school activities during the evening hours as most of us do not have the luxury or ability to take off time during school hours a valid concern was expressed that teachers are not compensated for these after-school activities so that would have to be addressed with any increase in after-school activities as always thank you your time is up next up it says and flood but it might be andrew Hi guys. First I'd like to start, thank Dr. Rompas for meeting with me this week. I had a great time talking about our mental health initiatives I'm trying to push. I think we had a really great and positive conversation. I feel like both sides of the aisle

030do a really good job of understanding that we need mental health and the advocacy behind making it a top-down kind of disciplinary system to tie with your mental health. Why I'm standing before you today is because I want to talk to you about a few solutions and a few proactive strategies to try and generate revenue within your district. And I'd first like to talk to Progressive because I really, really want to use the 29th to talk about how we can generate revenue for our district. And I have been a huge advocate for school choice. What it will do will bring kids to our district that will help bring taxpayer money to generate revenue. I want the after school activities. I want teachers to get increased pay, but we can't pay them with no money. And

031if you attended last month's school board meeting, we have no money. So we have to find ways to generate that. And I'm asking that you guys do. Do your research. Do a little bit of digging into what school choice is and understand that other states have combined with progressive candidates and progressive side to find middle ground within school choice to make it work. Kansas and Illinois both have school choice and they can use it and they combine to find a middle ground for what's best for schools. Because at the end of the day, that's what we need to do. We have to do what's best for our schools, our teachers, our board, and our administration. All of those have to be addressed, and we all can through school choice. On the other side of the

032room, we have to stop attacking the district. We cannot fix it with lawsuits. We cannot fix it to call for state audits that will cost the taxpayer money and drain more money from our funds. When you attack the school district, you do not bring it up. And we have to do that. We did an internal investigation with our money. Please listen to it today. And don't use your taxpayer money to waste time trying to figure out what they're going to tell you today. It's important also to realize as a Republican and any Francis Howe family person listening right now that the reason you are in this situation is because of the old predecessors in the CFO position and the superintendent position. They treated it like a business and they made cuts to it without this

033board's knowledge because they treated it like a business. And I need you all to realize if a teacher is in that position. A teacher wouldn't have made cuts to building security and after school activities. I can 100% assure you that realize who you're voting for and do your research. Your time is up. Next up, we have Grayson Joseph. Do it. I just want to give you a cookie for that. Hi, my name is Grayson Justice. My pronouns is he and she. I'm also alumni of Frenchtown School District of Frenchtown Central of 2013. I wonder if it's inappropriate if someone who supports one of the candidates for school board asks that candidate's pastor about his or her Christian beliefs. Why is that so important for someone who is running for school board? Is it because they

034really care about the community of the district? Whether they're black, white, gay, trans, straight, and yet you find their Christian beliefs questioning. It's because it's none of your business. What if someone who is Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or heck, atheist, was running for school board? Are you going to question their beliefs? School boards shouldn't be a one party or one mindset to have a same opinion. It should be a group of people with different opinions that people agree or disagree, and it should be joining a group, even though we have two board members here who already joined that light group that says they don't tack on candidates' posts, which they do constantly. They should listen to all groups. This school election should be important for anyone who wants their child to be represented from books, games,

035and plays in school musicals. Instead of being told to shut up, they should be this or that, not that, or get good grades so we can be number one. If Francis Howe wants to be number one in the county, we need to ask why the students are like this so we can care for their well-being physically and mentally. That's how we can be number one. The fact that it's more people that have been slaughtered in the name of religion than for any other single reason, that, that, my friends, that is true perversion. Harvey Milk. Thank you. Next up, we have Lee Windmiller. Good evening, all. Tonight, I would like to start with a quick story about a little girl who was once seven years old and in second grade. She has honey brown eyes, dark

036brown hair that falls to her shoulders, and olive-toned skin. Her smile was one where her eyes would light up as well. It's like they were trying to smile, too. If it were possible, she would spend her entire day in a book as long as it wasn't a math book. One day at school, this little girl and her classmates were talking about families and heritage. She proudly talked about her grandmother, who was born and raised in South Korea. Those feelings of pride quickly turned to confusion and doubt when her fellow classmates told her that she was less American due to her Korean heritage. Fast forward a few years when a pandemic rocks our world and this little girl is being, you know, in middle school and she's trying to keep up with everything middle school. You

037remember those days? You remember what it was like? Okay. Her eyes aren't as bright and a lot of days she doesn't smile. There are times at school where she hears racial slurs. She is told things like she brought the China virus to Missouri. A few months into her eighth grade year, her bedroom window is egged and her parents' cars are keyed and one has tomato sauce poured all over it. To say she has suffered emotionally during this time is a large understatement. The really sad fact is her story is not a unique one. It happens to many kids, okay? It's also important to say that... Her two white siblings have not experienced any of this. We look at the world around us, and it's no wonder why children are being bullied for their identities at

038school. Just a quick search on Facebook, and you'll see current school board candidates being harassed and bullied by a group that claim to represent families of Frances Howell. I want to know what families, because it's not mine, and it's not a lot of the ones that I've met. I have shared a glimpse of my oldest daughter's story. Lexi is now a freshman in high school with big plans to apply for her driver's permit, get a summer job, and try out for the girls' wrestling team in the fall. Her smile and the light in her eyes are slowly coming back to us. We have so many teachers and staff to thank for that. Mrs. Olfey, Ms. Williams, Ms. Harding. So many. Those are just to name a few. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

039I want to end this with a bit of urgency. Please back Harry Harris, Amy Easterling, and incumbent Doug Ziegmeyer and express their plans to keep politics out of education. They need to pass a much-needed tax levy and provide us with a rapidly growing district for all families. Thank you. Next up, we have Zoe Abraham. Thank you for letting me speak today. My name is Zoe and I'm a straight A student and senior at Francis Howell High School. I am very excited to be graduating in a few months. I also hate presenting. You ask any of my teachers from as far back as elementary school and they say things like she's a good student, but she does not talk at all. I was very scared to get up and speak today and honestly, I still am.

040However, there are some things that I feel strongly about that I want to advocate for. mainly the inclusion of black history and black literature courses offered at our district. I have taken both and have heard that there are many questions regarding what happens in these classes, and hopefully I will be able to answer some of them for you. I took black history first semester this year, and I can honestly say it's one of the most interesting history classes I've ever taken. Did you know that before Rosa Parks did her famous bus boycott, a 15-year-old girl named Claudette Colvin did the same thing? Did you know that Shanghai was one of the largest and most powerful African empires in history? Did you know that on most maps, Africa is portrayed three times smaller than it actually

041is? We learned about the protests in Selma, Alabama. We learned about Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre. We learned how African tribe leaders are forced to give up their own people to slavery under threat of being taken as slaves themselves. None of this was covered in any of my other history classes. There is strength and power in this history. There is an importance and a lesson to it that we don't get to cover in our required classes. It is heavy and emotional, but I feel that it's deserving of just as much respect and admiration as our other history courses. Right now, I'm taking black literature. It has been one of the most life-changing classes, and it really forces me to reflect on myself. The unit we're in right now discusses the concept of

042windows and mirrors. To clarify, mirror books are books that you see yourself in that reflect your own experiences, and window books are those that show you something different. The book I chose for this project is The Hate U Give. I would highly recommend reading it to anyone who hasn't yet. It has really made me reconsider what I know and helps me understand the people around me. We've also talked about word choice and the history, culture, and stigma around certain words. This class is about inclusivity. It gives students a space to come as they are and learn, to ask the hard questions and have those difficult discussions that we need to address but don't. I will stress that I have never felt uncomfortable or criticized in either of these classrooms. These are safe spaces for everyone.

043They are for the purpose of learning and understanding. I don't feel indoctrinated and I don't feel pressured. We go to school to equip ourselves with knowledge and skills to form our own opinions in the future and to give us power to understand others. To anyone who thinks the students of this district don't understand these complex issues, we do. To anyone who thinks we aren't watching the behaviors of adults in our community, we are. I will advocate for black history and black literature courses at Francis Howell and the opportunity to learn. If we want to understand and grow as people... Thank you. Your time is up. Next up, we have Beth Abraham. Good evening. Yeah, she's mine. I'm a proud parent in Francis Howell School District. Knowing that the election for the open board seats is

044just around the corner, I've been reflecting on how much impact the voices of the community at large should have on our school district. Our tax dollars help fund the school, so we definitely should have some input. However, should these stakeholders have the biggest influence on school policies and procedures? Should you as a board rely on the opinions and biases of groups and individuals within the community to make decisions? That's a tougher question. I thought about it this way. If I have a sore tooth, I may post on social media to find some information. Perhaps a local dentist, people who have had similar conditions, etc. But in the end, I am not a dentist, nor are they. I need to go to the person who is the expert, the actual dentist, for clear and accurate information.

045I encourage current and future board members, if you aren't already doing so, to put a heavier value on the inputs of the experts within Francis House School District when it comes to making decisions that impact that very group. We have an incredibly deep bench of district employees when it comes to expertise, be it in curriculum development, behavioral sciences, literary resources, you name it. Again, not that as a community member I don't want to have an opinion, but in the end that's all it is, is an opinion. I am not an expert in these areas. And even if I was, I don't see the ups and downs of students and the struggles our teachers face every day. District employees do. Let's not leave out that biggest group of stakeholders that has almost no voice, the students.

046I have with me tonight a copy of the most recent issue of Spotlight, which is the Francis Howell High newspaper. With one issue in one issue there are four separate articles addressing some of the very topics we hear covered at these board meetings. Some of the headlines include Howell continues to support diversity, don't say gay, and Missouri courts tighten women's dress codes. The last article I mentioned contains this quote. It says, legislators are supposed to enact the will of the people. We must decide what is important and what needs to change in order to ensure the safety of the public while maintaining freedom. Put in our context, board members are supposed to support the education of students. They must decide what is important and what isn't. They must ensure the development of the students into

047strong citizens while maintaining their freedoms. In the end, I ask you do as any good leader would do. Don't rely on opinion. Trust the experience of those who do the job to give you the best insight. Thank you. Next up, we have Amy Easterling. Good evening, board, staff, and patrons. My name is Amy Easterling, and I am running for a seat on the Francis Howell Board of Education. The last few months have been incredibly busy, but also incredibly rewarding. I've had many great conversations with parents and community members, and these interactions have helped me solidify my vision for this school community. First of all, we are a community. We might not agree on everything, but I wholeheartedly believe that we all love our children and our grandchildren, and that we have their best interest in

048mind. Even when we come at that in different ways, we do have common ground. My vision for this community is that we will come together for the benefit of our students. We will set aside partisan agendas and instead focus on what our students, teachers, and staff here in this district need from us. There will be a seat at our table for anyone who is ready to listen to others and work together towards a better future. I can commit to you today that as a member of your Board of Education, I will work for the benefit of all. I will recognize that we serve a diverse community of students, all of whom have value and deserve empathy, respect, safety in a rich learning environment. I will respect and trust our teachers and staff who are integral

049to creating successful outcomes for our students. I will engage the entire community through transparent communication that seeks to celebrate success and solve problems together. I will be humble, listening to and respecting the expertise of others and asking questions in the spirit of understanding. And finally, and this one's probably the most important to me, I will lead with kindness and seek to understand the diverse needs of our family, our teachers, our staff, our students, and our community. I wanna work with our community to build up the public schools in this district. I truly hope that I will have the opportunity to do all of those things and so I humbly ask for your trust and your vote on April 4th, thank you. Next up we have Kiri Zilikowski. Hello, welcome and happy School Board Appreciation Month.

050It's been awesome to be in the Francis House School District for the past. 10 years, my kids are freshmen at North, and we've had a great 10 years in Francis Howell. Thank you for all that you do for our kids. I asked my daughter, actually, she's a freshman at Howell North, to come tonight to the meeting to speak about opportunities that she's had in Francis Howell schools. And she was really excited to come share her experiences. However, it turns out that one of her many extracurriculars is keeping her busy tonight. She's at Parkway West with the FHN speech and debate team, and she's debating about whether India should join the Artemis Accords. So I'm here instead, and I had originally planned to kind of speak on the opportunities that she has, but after listening to

051Zoe a few minutes ago, I'm going to let my daughter come back another time, and I don't think I could do it justice. So I've spoken at many school board meetings this year, and there's not enough time now for me to convey how important it is for our school board and our community to support all students and their opportunities. It is unfortunate that politics, disinformation, and sometimes intolerance have been brought into this arena. Gaslighting, fear-mongering, and the like are not the way to balance the budget or solve problems. We can do better, and I'm excited that Amy, Harry, and Doug are on the ballot. Please vote April 4th. I wanted to share with you my own personal hopes and thoughts about where Frances Howell should be headed in the form of an acrostic poem that

052I wrote. It is inspired by Representative Hakeem Jeffries and his alphabet speech from earlier this year. In an acrostic poem, the first letter of each line spells out a word or phrase. I will be spelling out the words Frances Howell in my poem. So here we go. Future focused over fear. relationships over reactions, advocacy over adversaries, nuance over nonsense, the five Cs over conventions, inclusion and integrity over ignorance, supporting schools and staff over slashing the budget, hope over hostility, objectives and opportunities over opinions on social media, welcoming everyone over weakening individuals, equity and empathy over exclusion. Love is love is love over leaving learners out and leadership over loud voices. Thank you. And our last speaker will be Harry Harris. Unless you don't take all three minutes. My apologies. First of all, I want to

053say, Zoe, we are now friends. And you didn't know that, but we are. Good evening, board members. I wanted to start off first by saying thank you to those of you winding down your terms tonight. I recognize that a lot has gone into the work that you all have done, and it's not always easy. And it's not always seen or appreciated either. But tonight, I hope that we all reflect on your service and can give you a thank you before you leave. Looking ahead as a candidate for the upcoming board election, I wanted to reflect on what I've learned in these last few months of campaigning. It was reinforced to me what an incredible district we have, and I was reminded that our district played a huge role in where my family chose to purchase

054our home. I got to hear from our teachers and staff. These folks are the backbones of everything we do in this district. We literally cannot operate without this resource. They're happy to be working with their students. They appreciate the families. They like working here, and they want to stay. But they are concerned. I've talked with some who are afraid to teach because there have been so many attacks on education teaching basic facts. They're looking at peers in other districts who are or will be making more money than them. They're burned out. Burned out from not having enough colleagues, worrying about the direction of the district, worrying about how to be inclusive when some are fighting against that. But they're strong and they've been resilient. I thank them and ask them to hold on. I've seen

055students, and I've talked to students, and I see why Niche ranks us eighth in the state, because we have some incredible students. I got to meet Gavin, or talk with Gavin, the Francis Howe North student who interviewed all of us candidates and put together a great article in the North newspaper. They're invested in the future of our district, and that, I think, is wonderful. Overall, I learned that we are on the cusp of the district mapping out some important decisions for our future. We can't get bogged down in the politics or the personal agendas. We have real problems that we will come up against, and we have to come up with real answers to those problems. That will take not only strong leadership, but our district as a whole becoming laser-focused on these real problems

056and coming up with real solutions. Thank you all. I want to round up our comments. FHEA comments. ESPA. Good evening, President Lange. Board members, Dr. Rumpus, Executive Cabinet, and community members, I'm Saren Henderson, and I am the president of Francis Howell Education Support Professional Association, also known as VSPA. We would like to first thank the administration and the Board of Education member, Mr. Lang, who worked with us this past month in negotiations. We are happy to report the tentative agreed upon closure document for 2023-2024 was brought to our members and ratified. We look forward to the approval of the Board of Education and look forward to working with all of you in the future. Thank you. Next up, we have our Prop S update with Mr. Jeremy Miller. Good evening, Board. Quick update tonight, not

057too lengthy. You're going to see a lot of the same things as we've entered the part of the project where stuff keeps happening over and over, same thing every month, but it's a big building. So exterior brick veneer continues to go in. That's the red brick. We talk about veneer. It is going in on the east and west elevation specifically right now, but the weather outside is kind of good days and bad days in the springtime, so we're working when we can. um you will if you go out there right now you will see that continue to happen so steel detailing and stair installation continues um again that's a big deal for the workers on the project the more stairs we get in the more we have to don't have to use ladders and stuff

058like that so we call that steel detailing it's ongoing glass installation continues on the stairwells we saw some of that in the last update from last month the mefp work in the ceilings continues we have some good pictures of just how far along some of the systems are and some of the cooling towers which is exciting um cmu wall installation continues in the new gym um you know a lot of cmu and we talk about cmu that's concrete masonry units what that stands for but it basically means interior block so a lot of the interior block is getting close to the end but still has a little ways to go you'll see that the painting and the ceiling grid is ongoing so those are the finishes on the project We see those happening and it's

059exciting to start seeing some of our classrooms take place. And then the residence floor, so this is like an epoxy residence floor system. Basically that goes throughout the bathrooms, throughout the building. The lower level is completed and they are starting to work on the main levels. So a lot going on. We continue to have about 200 workers on site, average on daily. So a lot of things happening. Again, some pictures. So kind of exciting. start to see some of the track in the bottom right. You can start to see that actually taking place. You can start to see the prep work being done for the stabilization of the soil and dirt underneath what will become the turf field. You're also starting to see some of the parking lots take shape here along with just how

060far along some of the red brick is coming. So, you know, they are getting close. Here we actually this is the auxiliary gym. So again just a reminder everyone Francis Elnorth has two gyms We deem them the main gym and the auxiliary gym. This is the auxiliary gym getting painted You know, you'll see the ceiling painted probably by next month, but they are moving right along with this work This is the cooling towers that have actually been set on the job site. So these are some of the things that take a long time to get in the construction industry. So we're excited to see some of the big equipment arriving on site. Here we see some of the chillers set in the main mechanical room. It is interesting to see, you know, we really do

061focus on getting some of the systems in place as soon as possible because that is some of the more complicated work on the job. But you can see just how far along this room is. This room is nearly completed. not from a system perspective, but from lighting and flooring and painting and everything else. So this is one of the emphasis of construction at this point. Just we want to get those systems up and running as fast as possible. Kind of an interesting thing that SM Wilson did. They actually took a picture on the bottom left of what it looks like now and then actually did some of the architectural renderings on the upper right. So kind of an interesting perspective. I like this. This is actually the front entry to the building. There is a

062canopy that actually will jettison out in the front. You can see just above Jane's head some of the anchor bolts there that are actually for that canopy that are sitting down there. This will be what the actual, the main entry to the building on the far right. That's a big set of doors. And then what you see in the other places is doors and windows. Same thing here. This is the auxiliary gym looking outside. In the upper right, you can see the architectural renderings again, what it will look like looking the opposite way. So it's kind of 180 degrees difference. But just an interesting way to show kind of what it looks like in actuality and what it looked like in the renderings. And then now we have the YouTube video. So we're going to

063walk tonight an area on the middle level. This is actually what I would call journalism publications department. So you'll see some classrooms here. You can see they're showing it, highlighting it. Again, a lot of this is going to look similar. You can see some of the vapor barrier over the windows to keep the guys warm during the winter. Some of the window frames are actually there. The glazing has not been set yet. Here we're going into one of the studios in the journalism area. So they have different studios for sound and lighting and, you know, all the stuff that they do. I know Francistown North is famous for their journalism program. So this will be their new home. See just how far along some of the painting is getting and some of the ceilings again.

064We saw the lower level last month You know this levels a little bit behind it because this is next in line, but it's getting there a Lot of painting. This is one of the typical classrooms You know you see the walls painted the flooring is getting ready Those hangers coming down or for all the ceiling tile that'll be installed and the windows are very close to being put in You start to see some of the secondary color we call it of the paint. Here again, you have one of the studios. All the boxes you see are rough-ins for audiovisual rough-ins and power rough-ins and all the stuff that they need to make it all work. Kind of interesting. I like this idea. I hope the board likes it. We're trying to give you a perspective

065of what it looks like in there without having to walk around and slush around in the mud, as Patrick and Janet know. Allowances, this is basically the same information. I think the escalation allowance has increased slightly, but we are really out of the woods on this for the most part. You know, the escalation allowance was really reserved for items that had not been bid out that could go still up in price based on escalation costs. But for the most part, that has pretty much come to an end. So most of this money will roll probably into the contingency or roll to the bottom line of some of the money that goes back to the school district. On the right side, you'll see, as you usually do, billing complete. This is a nice, it shows how

066much SM Wilson has billed to date for the project, but it is a nice dial to show where we are in completion. So they're about at 58% completed, and that seems about right. So we're over halfway now. We're getting closer. I will, as I put in my board report, we are on schedule and making great progress towards, you know, turning over to us sometime in the summer of 24 and ready for kids by the fall of 24. So for the new school, and then once the kids move in, the demolition will happen of the existing building, and we'll build what becomes the practice field areas, and that will be ready in the spring of 25. So I would be happy to answer any questions the board has. The rooftop units, Chad? Yeah, some of them

067are. I don't know if they're all there yet, Chad, but the other day I was there about two weeks ago, and I don't think they were all in, but I believe they are arriving as we speak. The chillers are on site, but I'm not sure about the units yet. That's a great question. I'll defer that to someone else. Go ahead. Take it. He makes the big money. Well, we'll talk about this in a moment as part of the district Comprehensive facility master plan that was developed back in 2018 They began to look at Francis Allen North where there was a significant amount of renovation that was needed done That building had had multiple additions put on it over the years and there was a series of issues whether it was leaking roofs And other areas

068of the building that were having issues and so they explored several options of whether or not to Remodel the current building or build a new one and ultimately decided on building a new building Janet and I were blessed to get to go on a tour. Sorry. And I wanted to thank you. It's really a, you get a good vision of what's there. And something, Ken, it was one of those things. My children graduated from North. Why? Why? And another big piece was there was mold growing throughout the building. And there was no way to remediate that. They tried and tried and tried. It was costing a lot of money. And it's like putting a lot of money into an old car and it's still falling apart. And so we were fearful that that's what would

069happen. Janet and I got to see the large staircases mandated by new law, the large auditorium, which is, what would you call it? A storm shelter. It's huge and very expensive, but our children will be safe in that building. The huge hallways, that was something we talked a lot about, what it's a hallway, and then we got a good picture of it, and our children will not be... CLUSTERED TOO TIGHTLY. OTHER SCHOOL DISTRICTS WITHIN THE AREA HAD MUCH NARROWER HALLWAYS AND IT'S REALLY CAUSED SOME DIFFICULTY WITH PASSING THROUGHOUT THE HALLWAYS. I HIGHLY SUGGEST ADMINISTRATION AND OTHER BOARD MEMBERS GO AND VISIT BECAUSE THAT IS WONDERFUL. I APPRECIATE THAT. BUT TO GET INSIDE THE BUILDING AND ACTUALLY SEE WHAT'S GOING ON, IT'S REMARKABLE. AND THANK YOU FOR THE PRESENTATION. Thanks for the presentation. I just wanted

070to have a little bit of follow-up on last meeting you and directors. You can Meyer had a little back and forth thing Sure, I was kind of going back with my head. You can I've talked about the old number being a placeholder It seemed like you guys kind of agreed on agreed on that That was the case and it shouldn't really be used as a Road roadmap to where we are now. Am I getting that right? Yeah, I think in a minute you'll probably hear more information about that. I will say I think if I recall the question was and the answer was, was there actual drawings made for the original budget that was created for Francis L. North? I believe that was the question. I could be wrong. If I am, please say something.

071And I believe the answer at that time was no. So there was not a drawing made yet when that original budget was actually created. So I don't know if that answers your question or if I remember remembering that answer correctly, but that's how I recall. Yeah, no worries. Is it, I mean, I guess it's normal, at least in the process that we went through the start construction before we have any of the drawings, any cost data really. Say start construction or start design? Start construction. Start construction. We didn't start any construction without drawings. So every package that was awarded by the board, there was a complete set of documents for that scope of work that was awarded. Yes, correct. So when package one through four were awarded, the final documents were not said. And yes,

072that is very common in school construction. So a lot of that has to do with getting started on site work, work that has to be done. A lot of that has to do with getting steel ordered. Steel can take up to 24 months to get right now. So it is very common outside of the school district industry, but also within the school district. Is that mainly for speed purposes? It's absolutely for speed purposes, expediting the project schedule. Yeah, that is absolutely what it's for. So schools are very tricky because they have to open in the summer, and if you miss by a month, you miss by a year. if that makes sense, because they can't open mid-school year. So a lot of school districts really try to package things in different ways to get a

073head start on them. That's a very common practice. I guess, is it common then to do the CMR process for that speed aspect of it? That's one of the advantages of the CMR process, is what I would say. CMR is relatively new. It just passed. The house that you could use CMAR not too long ago. You know, other districts have used it. It's been around forever in the private sector. But, yeah, the main advantage of CMAR is the expediting the schedule. Yeah. You know, I don't think there's without question if we had used the traditional design-bid-build system at Francis Hill North, we would be talking about opening a school 26, 27, 28. Yeah. I guess maybe speculation, but you probably don't want to answer. From a bid-bid process, how do you think that costing would

074have been? Is your question, do I think CMAR is cheaper? Maybe, yeah. I don't know. I would say that CMAR is a different project delivery system, is what we call it. Design-bid-build is the traditional delivery system. CMAR has advantages and disadvantages, but the advantages are... You can award packages as you go and you get the opportunity to choose your contractor based on qualifications, not necessarily based on lowest price. That is absolutely the advantages of CMAR. The disadvantages are... Design bid build is more simple. It's much easier to understand for most people. CMAR is a partnership between the general contractor and the owner. Design bid build is much more in the line of very simple. You draw it, you bid it, you build it. So that process can be simpler at times, but it absolutely takes

075longer to do that than CMAR. Now, is it fair to say that on the... Really, the risk for the builder really isn't there until we've gone through basically the design bid bid until they have the final drawings and package and everything all together. They haven't assumed their risk at that point prior to that, but the school district assumes all that risk. Yeah, I would say that in design bid build, the school district has all the risk or the owner has all the risk up into the point of you bid it. You will never know what something costs until you bid it out. We're going to talk a lot about budgets in a minute. They're just budgets. Once things are bid out, then we know what they cost. So the risk then completely shifts to the

076contractor. So now the owner has a price of $1 million. They have to build what's according to those drawings. Now, if it's not on those drawings, the owner has to pay for change orders, which is a different process of CMAR, but it is a very clear line in design, bid, build. If it's not on the documents, it is a change order to the owner. CMAR does operate a little bit differently than that. That is how that process works. CMAR is just more of a partnership as you move forward, and the risk slowly moves. So in the beginning, it's on the owner, and the contractor, the contract construction manager, begins to take that risk on earlier in the project on behalf of the owner, which is why the GMP really means, which is guaranteed maximum price.

077So what the contractor is telling you when they issue a GMP is that if the price goes above this, they come out of pocket to pay it. If the price comes under that, you as the owner get that money back. In a design-bid-build system, that doesn't work. So I'll pick on Hoff Construction, who bid 801. They're great, by the way. But Hoff Construction built this beautiful building for us. But had they gotten the job done cheaper, they keep that money. If S.M. Wilson is more efficient and builds Francis Island North cheaper, that money comes back at a shared savings back to the district. So I don't know if that answered. I know that's a long version. No, that's great. At the same time. We had drawings and everything done when we actually got the GMP,

078right? Yeah. When you say GMP, there was five different packages that were bid. So package one was awarded for the site construction or the earthwork that was done during the summer. The architectural drawings were not done. They were somewhere between 20% to 30% completed. So it was awarded in packages as the drawings got finished. So we saved speed by taking on some risk on what the final cost would be. Yes, I think that's accurate. Yeah, that's an accurate statement. Thank you. Yeah, sure. I hope that helps. Can you talk a little bit? Since the discussion here is centered around CMAR versus design-bid-build, there's kind of one in between, which is design-build. Absolutely. Can you talk a little bit about the differences between CMAR and design-bid? Yeah, sure. So design-bid, and you have to be very

079careful when I say this, Mr. Cook, design-bid-build is the traditional way that 801 was done and the security vestibule packages and franchise. Design-build is what you're referring to. What design-build means is that the... There is one entity that not only designs the job, they build it. So you would have, if Francis Howell North was a design-build project, the architects who were in the back, those guys would not work directly for the school district. They would work for S.M. Wilson. So from a contractual perspective, you have one contract for the entire project. So the designers do not work for you. They work for the contractor. So design is even more on the extreme of you see that a lot when owners want to really go. You see that a very lot in land development and stuff

080like that. I'm not even 100% sure that's allowed by Missouri statute. It might be. I know MoDOT is starting to do some design build work, and I think having some success with it. But, yeah, that is a completely different process than CMAR. So it's kind of design-bid-build, CMAR as a hybrid, and then design-build is on the other extreme. Does that answer the question? Yes, I think so. But I guess the important distinction with design-build, you would – The owner in this case the contractors usually would be the designer Yeah, you could have a contractor working for the architect in essence. You have a single source Contract that is not only responsible for building your project. They're also responsible for designing Sure. Yeah. But yeah, it's some joint venture of a company. It's usually a joint

081venture company that's created like an LLC. That's exactly right. Right, and then they all bid on it, and then they start and do it all together. Correct, which I haven't seen yet in school construction. It might be coming, but that's extreme. It's used a lot in the private sector. Thank you. Sure. Sorry. I just have a follow-up question. I'm under the impression that some of the current construction prices Are not really expected to come down anytime soon if ever and so I didn't know if you could maybe speak to a little bit of that especially of the price per square foot if there's capital projects out there that Are like ours and where they're falling in line to price per square foot because my impression is that They're right now higher than what we're paying

082and if they're not expected to come down anytime soon I'll let you answer that first. Sure, yeah. I mean, we do track those as contractors. Everyone keeps an eye on those things. I will say for simplicity purposes, please understand, let's just say Francis Hill North was just under $400 a square foot, 390-ish. Just very simplistic explanation of a very complicated project. But generally speaking, I will tell you that, and we've shared this information with the board about a year ago, but Orchard Farm is building a new high school right now. Cost per square foot is within $15 of that. So that was actually bid out at the same time Francis Hill North was. We see projects now definitely exceeding $400 a square foot. I know there were two projects just recently bid in Kansas City

083Elementary Schools. They were about $420 to $430 a square foot. So we have seen the cost of construction go up continually each year. I would also say the Kansas City market is usually much more cheaper to build than the St. Louis market. So I would tell you the St. Louis market is probably even higher than that. Another large project that's under construction right now is the Convention Center. We see it a lot in the news, St. Louis Convention Center. That's a 100,000 square foot project, and their bid was $120 million. So in that case, you're talking about $1,200 a square foot. So, you know, not necessarily an apples to apples comparison. It's not a school. However, it still is steel and concrete and drywall and studs. So construction has absolutely increased since this project was

084bid. I think what you're really asking me, if North was bid today, what would it cost? I don't know, but it would be more. You must have a crystal ball because that was going to be the next question. Right in there. Anything else, Gordon, on this particular? Thank you. Next up we have Dr. Rupps. Good evening, board. Tonight I am here following up on our commitment to share our internal prop S review with you and with our community. While the presentation will only provide a high-level summary of our review, we'll also be posting an accompanying document which will elaborate further on some of the key points that I share tonight. As we shared at the September 2022 board meeting, our goal is to provide the Board of Education and public with an analysis of the

085policy, regulation, systems, processes, and decision-making utilized up until this point in our proposed work, focused specifically on Francis Isle North. We also shared that our plan was not to conduct a financial audit, but that if any findings indicate that is necessary, we would work closely with our auditors. These were the goals Dr. Hawk and I shared at the September meeting, and hopefully we address these tonight. Our intention is to share the existing processes and policies which were followed and worked well, any processes or policies that may not have been followed or which could be improved upon, and to identify any that were not in place which should be for any future work. We also understand the frustration and concern that PropFest has caused some members of our community. We hope that being open and transparent

086will contribute to rebuilding trust with all of our stakeholders. There are a lot of acronyms in the construction industry, several of which you just heard in these previous questions, and you'll hear me say a few of them or see them on the slides tonight. Here's what they stand for. CMAR, Construction Manager at Risk, GMP, Guaranteed Maximum Price, FF&E, Furniture, Fixtures, and Equipment, and RFQ, Request for Qualifications. I want to start by highlighting some of the key dates for context as we begin. In 2018, a comprehensive facilities master plan was completed, and as part of that document, rough cost estimates were included. During the summer of 2019, a group came together to plan for Prop S, outlining which projects would be included, benefiting every school in our district. On June 2, 2020, voters approved the $244

087million Prop S bond issue, at that time the largest for any school district in the state of Missouri. In December of 2021, the board accepted a guaranteed maximum price, or GMP, of $164.7 million on the FHN project. This was after a special board meeting with patron comments and considering the results of a community survey, which were both in response to community concern about the increase in cost to build north. A bit later, we'll discuss how the board didn't have all of the information they needed prior to that vote. In August of this school year, we hosted our first citizen round table to engage the community around Prop S and look specifically at our next steps as we move forward. And in September, administration recommended to the board that we conduct a Prop S process review

088to learn more about the key decision points and processes leading up to the GMP. There were lots of key decisions in between these dates, and we'll explore some of them in detail soon. I want to share an important message before we move forward. As you will see throughout the presentation, there are a number of things the district could have done differently in the early stages of the Francis Hollow North project. I, as superintendent, and Dr. Hawk as CFO, fully acknowledge and accept full accountability for the missteps that occurred. Our goal with this review is not to point fingers at individuals or to absolve anyone for the decisions which they may have made. I'm also not trying to rationalize any of the decision-making or deflect responsibility. We have tried to the best of our ability to

089factually explain what we believe happened. As new leaders in the district, and I say this for our entire administrative team, the responsibility lies with us, and ultimately with me. I can't change the decisions that were made previously. The only thing that we can do now is to do better, and to do that by putting structures and systems in place to prevent the same situation from ever happening again. I now want to highlight some of our key findings. We organize these findings into five categories. Scope, inaccurate cost estimates, board and public communication, board oversight, and board policy. And I'll go through each of these in a little bit more depth. The first two findings are closely related and help explain the significant increase between the initial cost estimate in 2018 to build a new north that

090was shared with the community as part of Prop S literature. and the Guaranteed Maximum Price, or GMP, presented to the Board of Education in November of 2021. 30,000 square feet were added to the Francis Howell North construction project without notice to the Board until the GMP was presented for approval. Cost estimates to construct new Francis Howell North were developed in 2018 by Hohner Associates as part of the Comprehensive Facilities Master Plan. This estimate was based on the square footage and drawings used to build Francis Howell High a decade earlier. The overall construction estimate was based on a total building size of 380,000 square feet. After the bond issue was approved by voters in 2020, the Prop S design team made the decision to increase the building size from 380,000 to 410,000 square feet to accommodate

091programmatic offerings. This slide shows there were some additional spaces newly added and some other areas expanded, which increased the FHN building scope after bond approval. Some of these are included in the table on the slide. The change in scope from 380,000 square feet to 410,000 square feet and its overall impact on the cost of construction was not brought to the Board of Education for discussion or approval by the district administration until the final GMP was presented to the board. The scope change was also not communicated with stakeholders, including taxpayers, prior to the GMP being presented to the board in November of 2021. We're going to talk more about board and public communication. Our second finding is that the district was working from inaccurate cost estimates during the conceptualization and initial design of the project. The

092inaccurate starting estimate has led to one of the primary points of contention in our community. The 90% increase from the 86.35 million estimate used in prop S materials to the GMP of 164.7 million is frequently cited and has raised concerns from any stakeholders. Let's take a closer look at these numbers, and I'll warn you, this does get a bit confusing, so I'm going to try and walk you through it. Hohner Associates' original estimate to construct a new Francis Howell North at 380,000 square feet was 93.5 million. This estimate did not include a $4 million potential third floor classroom addition that was shown on some of the documents. If that number had been included, it would have been $97.5 million. This estimate was prepared in 2018 based on an average cost per square foot and not

093site-specific drawings. Kohnert's estimate did not account for typical year-over-year inflation between 2018 when the estimate was developed and the start of construction nearly four years later. The estimate also did not include soft costs, including design fees, technology, or furniture, fixtures, and equipment. We also know now that there was unprecedented additional inflationary impacts caused by COVID-19 following that time. What you'll see on the second line of the chart is the cost estimate published in the prop-est bond materials that was communicated to voters and our community of $86,350,000. This is a difference of 7.15 million from Hohner's original estimate, and literature did not include the anticipated square footage. Based on presentations to the Facilities Committee, it is suspected that this lower estimate may have been based on an anticipated square footage of approximately 350,000 square feet, which

094is consistent with the cost per square feet using Hohner's original estimate. We also surmise from discussions that there might have been assumptions made that because Francis Howell North's enrollment was lower than Francis Howell High, the overall needed square footage may be lower. Regardless, if you move down to the next two lines in the chart, you'll see how the estimates continue to change prior to construction. Estimates for the cost of Francis Howell North in the propus literature were stated at $86,350,000. And the final GMP provided during the November 23, 2021 board meeting was $164,723,000, an approximate 90% increase. We know that the inaccurate starting estimate has led to one of the primary points, as I've already pointed out. So as part of our review, we asked ourselves, what would have been the accurate starting estimate? Kohner

095reports that the estimate for a 410,000 square foot building, which is the size of the building that is actually being constructed, in 2018 dollars would have been 104,450,000. That number is based on square footage and does not include any inflation. Factoring in typical pre-pandemic inflation of approximately 2% per year through 2021 when construction was set to begin, the estimate should have been around 108,669,000 dollars. If this cost estimate had been provided to the public as part of the ballot measure, the actual increase of 52% based on normal inflation and the subsequent pandemic impact would make more sense. I will point out that the 2% is actually conservative, and the original estimate could have been even higher, further closing that gap. However, we fully acknowledge that this wasn't the number that was used and wasn't the

096number that was provided to our community. That has created a problem for both us and our community as we've worked through Prop S. I will also acknowledge that the building was not designed on a budget, nor has that been historically how Francis Howell has designed new buildings. The team designed spaces that were believed to be best for students, staff, and the community, and the budget was then developed from there. The third finding is that insufficient communication between administration and the Board of Education is a theme found throughout this review. The Board, and by extension therefore the public, were not accurately informed nor consistently engaged by administration regarding project changes or early pandemic impacts. You'll remember this chart from a few slides ago. The earlier one ended with February 2021 and an estimate of $105 million.

097We've now added a column to the right that shows information that was not provided to the Board and also added rows that show when the bid packages were approved. This is probably the most complex part of the review and I know there's a lot of information to absorb So I'm going to walk through it line by line I'll also let you know that following the meeting these slides will be posted to board docs along with the written report and you'll be able to refer back to Insufficient communication was provided by the administration to the Board of Education based on documented communications from various vendors to the administration As early as February 2021, S.M. Wilson, builder of Francis Hill North, informed the Prop S design team that the project cost estimate was closer to $105 million

098with the additional 30,000 square feet. This information was not shared with the Board of Education by district administration. On April 15th, two months later, the board was asked to approve a grading package, or bid package one, to start the site work and did so without the knowledge that the overall cost for new construction was rising. On May 10th of 2021, S.M. Wilson provided a schematic design estimate to the Prop S design team in the amount of $116 million. Again, this information was not shared with the Board of Education by District Administration. Just over a month later, on June 17, 2021, the Board approved Bid Package 2 for concrete. S.M. Wilson reports that on August 5th, 2021, they shared a preliminary GMP budget reflecting bid amounts to date. SM Wilson's forecasted overall project estimate at that

099time was between $135 and $140 million. This information was not shared with the Board of Education by District Administration. On August 19, 2021, the Board approved Bid Package 3 for structural precast concrete, and on September 2, 2021, the Board approved Bid Package 4 for structural steel and underground plumbing and electrical work. While an informational slide addressing general pandemic impacts was added to the May 2021 construction update and August 2021 Prop S presentation, more direct and specific information should have been shared publicly with the board and district stakeholders to allow for input and feedback throughout 2021 prior to the presentation of bid packages 2, 3, 4, and the GMP. When the GMP was finally brought to the board for approval, four packages related to site development had already been approved at a total cost of approximately

100$38 million. Because of this, the board had already approved approximately 23% of the total project when the GMP was presented. With significant work already underway, the board voted to accept the GMP and proceed with construction. All of this leads us to key finding number four, and that the inconsistent communication to the board from district administration ultimately impacted board oversight. As design work on Francis Hall North began and the Propos design team received updates and made design decisions, administration was not providing regular updates to the board, ultimately contributing to a breakdown in communication and transparency between the team, district administration, the Board of Education, and ultimately our community. The Prop S design team met on a regular basis to make design decisions, discuss value engineering, and receive updates from the architect, project manager, and occasionally the

101general contractor or construction manager at risk. This same model of a dedicated design team was utilized during the implementation of Prop Howell, which included the construction of a new Francis Howell High School. In the Prop Howell process, projects came in under budget, ultimately allowing additional capital improvements to be completed at other schools with the additional funds. With that in mind, the use of a design team to make certain decisions related to a project is not inherently flawed. There are significant number of small or minor decisions necessary to keep construction moving that don't require broader input and should be made by internal leadership with the guidance of professionals with a technical skill set. With regard to Prop S, however, the Prop S design team made decisions that had a significant impact on the overall project cost,

102the primary example being the scope change of an additional 30,000 square feet. This was done without proper communication or, when necessary, approval. And as you saw on the previous slides, the Prop S design team also had the knowledge of increasing cost estimates, and that information was not shared with the board. Board of Education oversight was ultimately impacted by a lack of procedure or policy mandating that the administration provide the board with frequent prop S team updates, including programmatic changes, design changes, scope changes, and financial impact of all the recommended changes. District administration serves as the primary conduit between any internal teams or district committees and the Board of Education. Any breakdown in communication between those internal groups and the board should be attributed to the district administration. And that brings us to our final finding

103around adherence to board policy. We know now that the Prop S design team added 30,000 square feet to FHN without notice to the board until the GMP was presented for approval. Due to the CMAR delivery method being used, the change in the design occurred at a point in time when a change order wasn't necessary due to the GMP not yet being presented or approved. Because there were no change orders involved, there was not technically a violation of board policy or regulation in this situation, specifically Regulation 7210. However, Given the impact this design change had on the overall cost, the spirit of the regulation, and we would say prudent practice, would call for the board to at least be made aware of such a change. Board Regulation 7210 stipulates that the chief operating officer is authorized

104to approve individual change orders up to $25,000 and the superintendent is authorized to approve up to $50,000 unless the change order significantly alters the design or extent of facilities provided for in the original contract documents. It is our opinion as the current administration that adding 30,000 square feet to a 380,000 square foot building meets the standard for significantly altering the design and that this change should have been communicated to the board by administration and brought forward for approval before the project design progressed, whether it was required by policy or not. We also reviewed additional board policies and regulations that have to do with the construction process. Some board policies and regulations are applicable to the design-bid-build construction process and lack clarity for CMAR projects. Specific revisions to these policies and regulations, if warranted, will be

105considered by the policy committee and then the board to ensure proper financial controls are in place for future projects. Another finding identified in this review involves adherence to existing board regulation 3165, purchasing. Under General Rules No. 4, the regulation stipulates no purchase that may exceed $7,500 will be made without prior board approval unless in accordance with emergency provisions or as otherwise indicated in this regulation. On more than one occasion, purchase orders related to Prop S were executed by district administrators prior to board approval that did not meet the standard for emergency provisions as outlined in Regulation 3165. So with a more clear understanding of the available documents, watching Board of Education videos for the meetings and reviewing minutes, committee documents, and qualitative information from those involved in the PROP-S implementation, we turn our focus to

106what matters most. What is the district going to do to prevent this from happening again? How will we change our practices to make sure we are working from accurate estimates from the very beginning? What policies and procedures will we put in place to ensure the Board of Education has the information necessary to provide appropriate oversight? And how will we keep the public informed about our progress along the way to ensure the financial transparency taxpayers and stakeholders deserve? Now I want to share a list of recommendations the district administration asks the board to consider for future construction processes. We've organized the recommendations into the five categories you see on this slide. Together, these process changes and potential policy or regulation changes, if enacted, will provide the district and the public with more accurate project estimates, more

107opportunities for board review and approval, and improved financial controls to ensure taxpayer dollars are managed with the utmost fidelity. The first recommendation we are making is to formalize a clear process for future construction projects. By requiring additional updates and approvals, this process will help ensure appropriate board oversight and allow both the board and public to have a more accurate understanding of total project costs before starting construction or, at a minimum, allow for additional oversight and potential changes based on the updated costs. I'm going to use a visual to help explain the process that we are proposing. We're recommending an updated project approval process for large-scale construction projects that are managed either internally or externally. The board will ultimately need to decide how to define large scale, whether that's by overall cost or if that's by

108square footage of a project. I will highlight that this process provides the board with five opportunities to review the design and opinions of probable construction costs prior to the project going out for bid. Everywhere you see a red stop sign on there, and we'll talk through each step. The first step would be the board authorizing the district to begin preliminary work related to a potential project. As part of this, the board would approve a design allowance for architect or design fees if needed. Architects are generally paid a percentage of a project's final cost, which is unknown at the time of initial approval. If the district decides not to move forward with the projects, the architect may or may not be paid an hourly rate for their completed work. The administration would engage the services of

109an architect pursuant to policy regulation 7120. The architect presents the anticipated opinion of probable construction costs to the board, and then a contract with the architect for the specific project is established. Board approval of a contract is then required to move into the initial design development work. In design development, the architect provides general floor plans and a general idea of the scope of the project and what will work on the proposed project site. The architect makes a presentation to the board showing design intent, soft costs, architectural and engineering costs, preliminary opinion of probable construction costs, project schedule, and phasing. Board approval would be required for the architect to move on to schematic design. It is important to note that at this point in the process, any opinion of probable construction costs are only general estimates

110based on the design requests from the district and current cost per square foot for work in the region related to similar projects. Many factors will impact the cost opinion and they may continue to change until final construction drawings have gone out for bid and been approved. In the schematic design phase, rough sketches and drawings are completed to illustrate the general layout of the building, overall form, size, and orientation. Once complete, the board is updated on design, opinion of probable construction costs, and scheduling. The board has the opportunity to make adjustments to the design or cost presented in order to fit the needs of the district moving forward. At the completion of the schematic design phase, the board approves the architect moving forward into the design development phase. This may be done informally or via forward

111vote, but administration would recommend a formal vote. In the design development phase, the schematic designs are further refined to develop more detailed drawings and plans that illustrate the building's structural, mechanical, and electrical systems. 75 to 90% of the design is complete at this phase. Once complete the board is updated again on design opinion or probable construction costs and scheduling This provides the board opportunities to make adjustments to the design or cost presented in order to fit the needs of the district moving forward Or to stop the process at any point in time at the completion of the devised design development phase the board approves the architect moving forward into the construction document this may be done informally or formally via In the construction document phase, the architect uses finalized designs to create detailed construction documents,

112including technical specifications, building codes, and other details necessary for contractors to build. The board is updated at minimum at the halfway point of this process regarding the design, costs, and scheduling. The board, again, has opportunities to make adjustments to the design or cost presented in order to fit the needs of the district moving forward. Once complete, the board would approve the construction drawings and if acceptable, approves the project being sent out for bid. In step six, the administration works with the architect and legal counsel to develop bidding documents and project goes out for bidding and permitting. Once bids are received and evaluated, they are sent to the board for approval, which is the same as our current practice. The final construction contracts with the selected contractors are then presented to the board for approval. Only

113at this point would construction begin. From then forward, the administration would provide monthly updates to the Board of Education with construction and financial updates. I do want to point out that while this process is great for communication and input, and we do support this change, it does have potential negative impacts. One is that it could drastically slow down the design process. And the additional steps of having to come back to the board multiple times could also have an increased cost. However, given our past experiences, we believe that the pros outweigh the cons in this situation. In summary, this process provides multiple opportunities for the board to receive design and cost updates, allowing for changes in scope or potential cost, and ultimately the decision of whether or not to move forward with any project. There are

114several other points for consideration as part of construction projects moving forward. In the case of Francis Howell North, the district is working off inaccurate cost estimates during the conceptualization and initial design. While it is nearly impossible to predict the exact cost of a multi-million dollar construction project several years in advance, we do believe that more accurate estimates can be developed by doing the following. First, we recommend the board consider the upfront investment for drawings rather than using estimates based on other prior projects or square footage alone. We will factor in average annual inflation based on the build date. will engage our attorney in additional contract review of all contracts and include all design fees, contingencies, owner allowance and soft costs, FFE, and other costs related to the project. The district is committed to dedicating time

115and resources at the front end of future construction and renovation projects to ensure the Board of Education and the general public have a more accurate understanding of what the project will likely cost. As noted in key finding number five, to the content of some board policies and regulations or lack thereof was identified as a concern. A policy revision or new regulation that would require board approval to add square footage or significantly alter the design is recommended, even if there's no change order involved, as is the case in CMAR. The policy committee would need to be engaged to consider revisions to other construction related board policies and regulations to ensure clarity for both the design bid build and CMAR projects to incorporate these new processes and to ensure proper financial controls are in place for future

116projects. District policy regarding review of contracts should be further researched by the district leadership and a recommendation brought to the Board of Education. In addition, administration is committed to working with district employees to ensure adherence to all board policies, including those requiring board approval for purchases over $7,500. As a public tax supported institution, the district is committed to providing full transparency to taxpayers about how resources are allocated. Moving forward, the facilities and finance departments will be improving financial controls and financial reporting to provide clear and accurate information to all stakeholders on a regular basis. The written document that we will be sharing provides a longer list, but in the near future, monthly summary reports will be shared with the board and public, providing expenditures and revenue details with appropriate data validation processes. They will also

117include maintaining bond project budget details in the financial management system, while that's currently be done on spreadsheets outside of the system. The district is recommending changes to the duties and responsibilities of Prop S related committees, allowing for more stakeholder input and limiting the authority of one small team to make decisions in isolation without checks and balances. The administration recommends an updated facilities advisory committee as a board directed committee. Committee will be led by the director of facilities in collaboration with the CFO. The representation would include two Board of Education directors, administration staff, representation from FHA and FISPA, parents, and community members. We envision a larger committee with more stakeholders involved. Committee membership agendas and minutes will be publicly posted per board policy and will provide a written report or presentation to the board and general

118public a minimum of once each year or more often if significant changes are recommended. When there are active construction projects or major renovation projects underway, updates would be provided to the board on a monthly basis. The Facilities Advisory Committee will assist in prioritizing building needs and developing a multi-year facilities master plan that is reviewed on an annual basis. Specifically, a couple of the things they would look at is providing guidance on strategic facility initiatives and related district goals as tied to our strategic plan, providing representative board input into the district's facility work. Providing community perspective on strategic direction in district facility planning and reviewing replacement cycles to develop plans to gain insight into ways to improve the efficient and effective use of resources in the district. The responsibilities and scope of work of the prop

119S design team will be further reviewed by the administration board and facilities advisory committee. As I stated earlier, there are many decisions made on building projects and not every decision can or should be reviewed by the facilities advisory committee. However, there also must be oversight and internal controls reviewing the work of the design team, which ultimately serves as an extension of the district facilities team. Through a series of retirements and resignations, nearly all of the key leaders involved in the early process planning and implementation are no longer with the school district. With myself and Dr. Hawk both new to our roles this year and a new director of facilities starting this summer, the district is in a position to start fresh. Moving forward, we are committed to making good decisions aligned with board policy, engaging

120our community in tough but transparent conversations, and earning the trust of all stakeholders and doing the best we can to maximize the remaining Prop S funds. So where do we go from here? Going forward, administration will work with the board to revise certain policies and regulations that I've touched on, related specifically to construction and to implement the process recommendations presented in this report. We look forward to onboarding and working with our new director of facilities who will provide hands-on day-to-day leadership for the Prop S work moving forward. While this review focused heavily on Francis Howell North, other Prop S projects completed during the same time frame were impacted in similar ways and came in over the initial estimates. Going forward, better cost estimates will be developed prior to beginning construction or renovation. For remaining projects,

121updated cost estimates will be developed prior to seeking board approval, as the ones developed five years ago in 2018 are no longer viable. Dr. Hawk has worked with her team to analyze all Prop S funds spent to date, ensuring proper coding and spending, and preparing updated reporting to share with our community moving forward. In the coming months, administration will make a recommendation to the board on the next priority projects to complete with the remaining Prop S funds. As part of that recommendation, the district will provide an update on projects currently at various stages of exploration, including the adaptation of the former admin building on Central School Road as a centralized transportation facility and renovations to Henderson Elementary. In addition, soft costs including FF&E for Francis Hall North are being finalized and will be brought to

122the Board of Education in the near future. We are committed to staying within the $244 million Prop S budget approved by voters, plus any interest or proceeds that were earned on the sale of the bonds. This means that the district will not be able to complete the full list of projects that were originally slated for Prop S, and some projects will need to be considered for a future bond issue. It is our intent to clearly identify what projects will be completed and which projects will be removed until additional financial resources are identified. It is our hope that the results of this internal review provide clarity about the prop s work to this point including lessons learned and plans for moving forward in a positive direction We also acknowledge that we are not trained auditors and

123there are limits to our expertise in the work that we did We believe that taxpayers do deserve to know how their money is being spent across the district and as I've stated previously We remain open to a state or external financial audit in closing Let us remember just how important this new school is to the Francis Allen North community and the entire district, and how amazing it's going to be for students and staff. In just right around 18 months, we will be welcoming more than 1,600 students and 160 staff into a beautiful new Francis Allen North High School. It will be a building that everyone can be proud of, one that will provide a quality learning environment for generations to come. We hope that in the next year and a half, we're able to move

124forward with regaining the trust of our community through demonstrated fiscal responsibility and more transparent community, allowing for the opening of this building to be a celebration for the Francis House School District. I would now be happy to try and answer any questions. Thank you. Board, questions, comments? Thanks, Dr. Rumpus, for presenting that heck of a first year for you, obviously. I'm glad you're in the position that you are. Just want to kind of rearticulate and ask you a bunch of questions surrounding the report, and thank you for presenting that to us. Back in 2018, I guess prior to my tenure, so I'm going to ask this, it was my understanding that the district was well aware that the France Hall North High School was in kind of a state of disrepair. There were some issues

125that were obvious and were going on with it that it was going to be a needed, at least a renovation, if not a complete overhaul or new building. Is that correct? prior to 2018 around 2018. my understanding is that's when the comprehensive facilities master plan was developed and based on the needs of the building there were several options that included both renovation options as well as new construction So there was a the comprehensive facilities master plan was a district-wide plan with a variety of different capital projects, correct? That is correct. Hohner visited and other teams visited all of our sites, provided information around capital improvements that were necessary for long-term functionality of the building, as well as looked at every single building if they ever needed an addition based on enrollment changes, what that could

126look like and where they might be. And so that... Particular plan was in several different phases of it. I remember correctly There was phases one two three possibly a fourth one But various time frames in some long-term time frames as well, right and so Factoring in inflation on projects that you don't necessarily know when they're going to start It may not necessarily make sense to do that in that particular plan Or being very clear that that's a snapshot in time based on current values, market costs, and understanding that every year we're further away from when the plan was developed, the cost estimates might change. And then would you say that prior to the Prop S passing in 2020, that the primary capital project was Francetown North? I would say that the France style North project

127was, yes, it was the largest percentage of any capital improvements in the, in the prop S bond issue. And then the comprehensive master plan and then prop S literature also provided options for France style North, whether that was renovation or new construction. Correct. Was not a board member prior to prop s passing but is my understanding that the dollar amounts assigned in the CF MPs of comprehensive facilities master plan and then ultimately The prop s literature were general estimates and were presented the public to show intentions of the district And where the wants or needs were in the actual district is that true? I would say that's correct. I would say as we've conducted this review and we've tried to identify the literature that existed and looked at it, though, I don't know that that

128was always made clear in every piece of literature that was sent out to our families or our community. And then with Prop S, with French South North being the primary. capital project after that proposition passed in June of 2020, it would make sense in literature to probably, with prop S literature that is, to factor in inflation. Correct. Our recommendation moving forward is that for any projects that are going to be out a period of time that we should look at including inflationary impacts. Is there, I know you kind of spoke to it, is there any reason why the COO or anybody that was putting the information on the prop S literature, why they artificially reduced the square footage? And I don't know if you could speak to that. Was that board approved at that time

129to artificially reduce that? Do you have any knowledge of that? No, as I shared, we do not see a point in time when it was brought to the board to reduce the square footage. I will also say that as we work through our process review. We could not identify a person who made that decision. There were conversations with the Prop S team that helped pass this in our community that did great work. There was conversations internally with the facilities committee that did work, the Prop S design team. There are multiple presentations we've seen where these options were shared. We could not find a situation where a single person made one of those decisions. And so that literature and that reduction of square footage happened prior to the passage of Prop S. After the prop was

130passed, would you still agree that Brentsall North was the main project? So the first statement you just made, we also did not see in the literature where it shared what the square footage was. So we were able to determine based on other factors and documents we reviewed that the square footage was reduced, but I don't know that that was included there. And yes, I would say as a proportion of the overall projects, North would continue to remain the largest percentage of any work that was on the list. And then as a result after a prop has passed we were kind of faced with the decision on whether or not to have new construction or renovate the existing building and there was a Decision that had to be made And I think it was articulated before

131it was an older building multiple different additions Angled roofs that were going on to existing structures from the new addition causing water leakage from rain There was a lot of repairs that were done and then it kept on persisting the problem kept on persisting so that was an issue that was noted there was the hvac system i believe that was old at the end of its life cycle the design of the building wasn't the best as it was added on it was kind of in a hodgepodge style and so the flow or the collection of of classrooms wasn't the most efficient is my understanding as well The renovations would also have been a lot longer than new construction is my memory, and that we would start to displace kids for long periods of time because

132we'd have to shut down actual sections of the school as the renovations were happening. And then also part of the problems with renovation is sometimes you just don't know what those actual real estimates are because you don't get behind. the walls until you actually start peeling back the drywall or removing the ceiling so a lot of unknown costs that could be associated with that does that sound pretty accurate from what you remember You just said a lot sorry of stuff. Um, I will also acknowledge I'm sorry that I was not here at that time And so yes, I do know that there were a lot of identified concerns with the structure with repairs that would need to be done That's what led to a discussion of either renovation or replacement. I Were aware of a

133facilities design. Excuse me a facilities committee meeting in July of 2019 where those options were all explored. I'm not aware though of who or when the decision was made then to say no we're not going to renovate and we're going to rebuild. We couldn't find it. There's not a specific meeting where I saw or Dr. Hawken and I saw that that was vote upon or that was a decision that was made. I think it was an ongoing conversation of all of those options. So sticking with the renovation component of that, I think we can all acknowledge that SM Wilson has been doing an amazing job as far as being timely with the new construction, and the process has been very smoothly. With that in mind, I've heard from various reputable sources that... So renovation post-COVID

134has had a lot of complications, a lot of delays on material, a lot of supply and demand issues. So if you peel back a wall, you find something that you need that wasn't on the list of what you thought you needed, and now you have to go out and try to find it, causing a lot of delays. Have you heard anything that would seem untrue about that statement? Is that generally true to your knowledge? As a layperson that has nothing to do with construction, that anecdotally sounds correct. Awesome. The board ultimately decided to have that new construction of Francis Hall North, like you pointed out. We selected S.M. Wilson as the manager at risk at $91.3 million in November of 2020. And between that and February 2021, the Prop S design team made unilateral decisions

135affecting the scope of the project by 30,000 square foot. Admittedly, some of those were due to code. necessities ordinances and some of them were chosen by that team to actually as an option so in about a three month time frame we went from 91.3 million to 105 million and during that time frame is it correct that the superintendent did not talk to the board about the scope changes I'm not privy to conversations the superintendent had with the board. We did not see any board meeting where we could find documentation that any of that information was shared with the Board of Education. In April of 21, you said that there was a bid package on the agenda. I had a conversation with the former superintendent at that particular time and asked him specifically no issues or

136if everything was on track or if there were any delays of the budget. And he specifically responded that there were no issues and everything was on track and running smoothly. Given the context of that bid package and the information that we know. was the increase of scope to 105 million in February. Would you qualify that as being a misleading statement? As I said previously, I'm unaware of what the superintendent did or didn't know. Our review showed that the prop is design team was made aware of some of those changes in scope and other factors in the day. From there, it was not shared with the Board of Education. And then key findings in board policy. I'm sorry, key findings number five, you mentioned board policy 7210, which articulates the change orders that you spoke about.

137If there's not a particular policy that has a particular situation, it doesn't give the superintendent or the COO or CFO unlimited discretion on how to spend money, correct? There's still a board policy, 3165, like you mentioned, that if there's a purchase to be made, it's still limited by $7,500? That is correct. Back to the decisions made from the Prop S team. Is it true that this former CEO and superintendent and former director of facilities were the normal or usual district administrators who are part of the team? Part of the Prop S team. Design team. The Prop S team. Yes, those would have been the district employees that were part of the Prop S design team. Are any of those administrators currently employed with the district? No, as we shared many of the administrators that were

138involved in the early stages of the process are no longer with the district The only other member of the design team that was not administrator or sir or contracted service provider was a former Board of Education member, correct? That is correct. We to my understanding There's always been a board member and there's currently a board member who sits on the design team Does an individual board member have the authority to prove purchases on behalf of the board? No, does a individual board member have authority to give permission to the architects construction manager or Atlas building group? No, that would be the Board of Education as a whole Would it be fair to say that the former COO or superintendent would have ultimately given permission to architects construction managers or Atlas building group to add the

139additional square footage? Can you repeat that question again? Would it be fair to say that the former COO or superintendent would have ultimately given permission to the architect's construction manager or Atlas Building Group to add the additional square footage? I would say that moving forward, that ultimately that communication would arrest with the superintendent, and that would be based on input from after conversation or input from the Board of Education. So the architects and the construction manager and Atlas Building Group, they had to be given a direction from somebody, and it wasn't the Board of Education. Would you have an expectation of your COO or currently your CFO to bring significant changes like these to seek board approval? My expectation would be that I would bring that to the Board of Education or any one of

140our team would bring that in concert with me as the administrators presenting that to the Board of Education. A couple final questions. If the state auditor were to audit Prop S, would you expect them to find similar violations of policy? We do believe that we've identified the policy violations that we believe were potentially happened. They are trained specifically on that. I believe when an auditor comes in, they're always likely to find stuff, but we do believe we've identified the key areas where there might be any findings. Appreciate that. And then just want to kind of shift it back to the students like you did at the end of your presentation. Do the issues existing... At 2018 when we decide had the comprehensive facilities master plan when we were looking at whether or not to do

141a renovation or new construction do those same issues still exist I can't speak to that entire list, but I would say yes, being in that building, we continue to see leaks, other issues with the roof, other areas, repairs that we're having to do, ongoing issues with the HVAC system that ultimately need to be repaired. So basically nothing miraculous changed. We still need a better learning environment for our students at Francis Howe North? That is correct. One that is similar to Francis Howe Central and Francis Howe High? I would like for all of our students to have an amazing facility to learn in each and every day. And then just one final question. In between when we heard about the GMP, there was a workshop, and then when we voted on the GMP, we reached out

142to the community and did a survey, and there was a lot of feedback from the community at that point to march forward. There were limited options at that time, but the community was in full support of marching forward. I do not have that data in front of me, but that is my recollection that, yes, there was general support for moving forward with the project. That's all I have. Thank you. I actually have that data right in front of me. I can answer that one really quick for you. So we had 3,724 individuals answer that survey that went out. 2,279 said to accept a new price and forge ahead. And then 1,260 said to pause construction and rebid. And there was 185 that answered other. Thank you very much for all the hard work from you

143as well as your team on all this work. I know it wasn't easy and you guys dug a whole lot, so I really appreciate it, really taking a deep dive and looking at it. I also appreciate you kind of saying take responsibility for it, even though you weren't necessarily the person in charge then. And then ultimately, it's the Board of Education that has responsibility to the taxpayers for it, not you. I guess just a couple of conversations. We talked about the Board of Education having a representative on that design team. Is there any policies preventing that representative from talking to the rest of the board and letting them know what's going on in that design? Not at all. I don't know that that... That there's policy prohibiting it or encouraging it. I think, you know,

144we have board members that sit on all of our board-directed committees. I think we had a policy committee earlier this week. I don't know that the normal practice is always that board members report directly back to the rest of the board. But, again, there's nothing saying that they couldn't do that. Is there anything preventing them from reaching out to that member to ask questions about how things are going? No. And is there anything preventing the board from asking? Coming up here asking asking the tough questions and sometimes it's messy sometimes that doesn't come out right is there any policy? No, thank you I like to thank you for your thorough presentation here But I also want to remind everyone that it's not just Francis Howe North that the safety vestibules at most schools We gave

145our Union High School a brand new facility, admin. We were able to bring everything here. We're able to have that building, so we're saving money in all those places. So a lot more money has happened already than just Francis Hill North. So I think that's a reminder for all of us. A lot of good things did come out of that bond issue already, and it continues to happen. It's a shame that North costs so much money, and I thank you again for the presentation. Thank you for that presentation. Can you speak a little bit about where the information came from that indicated no inflation was built into the original numbers? And before you answer, I was reviewing some old tapes or board meeting videos from this particular one was from the October 2018 workshop where

146the... architects first presented the draft comprehensive facilities master plan to the board and in there there was a question by a board member whether specifically asking whether or not the costs that were being presented include or take into consideration that the projects might not be built for another 10 or 20 years and the the answer was was that they don't, but then a few minutes later, the architect said something along the lines of, we build in contingencies for unknowns and then also for price increases. Now, at that meeting, they weren't talking about Francis Howell North specifically. In that meeting, they specifically talked about just about every building except North. So I have... It leads me to believe some of the other costs in the comprehensive facilities master plan might have had some inflation built in,

147even still 5% for a project 10 or 20 years isn't quite enough. But there is a little bit of mismatch there with that, so I realize you may not know off the top of your head, but again, my question was where did that info come from that indicated no escalation was built in? And Mr. Goodyear, so I can't speak to that specific meeting off the top of my head. What I can say is a couple of the key data points that we shared tonight that we felt like the significant timeline was based on, when we reviewed those materials, we didn't see a line item that pointed that out. we didn't see an asterisk that said this number has been adjusted for inflation. And so when we think about moving forward, what we would want to

148present to you and to the public would be the initial cost estimate, then we would show the soft costs, we would show the inflation, so we'd see those numbers built out. And I think what that would allow us to do as we move forward is that if it's five years down the road, we could say, oh, well, this only included 2%. We know that based on this, it's probably closer to 5%, or that we could adjust. But I'd be happy to go back and look at that. you said October 2018 workshop specifically, we just didn't see it highlighted or delineated in that way on the documents that we had. So our review process when it came to that was looking at the publicly available materials that we could find. So whether that was board meeting

149minutes, agendas for the committees where we could find minutes and agendas and look at that information, and that's what we based that on. Okay, thank you. And then I'll give you a little bit of a cheat sheet, but it's about the one hour, 50 minute mark. So I'll save you one hour and 50 minutes of watching. Thank you. Although that section isn't that long. There was some talk about the board not being made aware of price increases after the construction manager at risk was selected and the project started moving forward in design. At some point, though, if memory serves, and perhaps this was bid package two, there was a rationale made that the board should approve bid package two because prices are going up, and same with two and three. We should start buying concrete

150and steel now to get in at these prices before they go up even more. At that point, Did the facilities committee or did you find any indication that the facilities committee throughout 2021 revisited rehabilitating Francis Howell North since the delta between the two was clearly going up? I'm not aware that we saw detailed conversations such as that. So again the minutes that we had available us to that we reviewed were not scripted discussions and so maybe that happened maybe it didn't. I'm just not aware of that. We based it on what was publicly shared back with the board of. Would I make any assumptions. I think our student board rep alluded to this a little bit earlier but. Is it safe to assume that the facilities committee made the decision to build a new high

151school instead of renovate the old since the board didn't directly make that decision? I don't want to make that assumption directly. I know that we were able to review slides from a July of 2019 facilities committee meeting where all of those options were still on the table. I believe they shared from the facilities master plan, they shared the addition options, there might have been one or two, and then there was new construction options. It was clear that discussion took place of those various options at that meeting. Beyond that, the only thing we've heard is anecdotal discussions. And so I don't want to say that it was the facilities committee or Prop S or that it was... one administrator in their office, I can't say who made that ultimate decision because there is a disconnect then

152from that to moving forward with the new building. And we couldn't clearly identify who made the decision. Just thinking about that again, is it safe to say that really the administration may make decisions among themselves, but ultimately bring a recommendation to the board and that's when the decision is made. So in this case, the decision to build a new high school. was indirectly made when they went out for RFPs for the construction manager at risk. At that point, the board was acknowledging that we aren't going to rehabilitate. We're going to explore services to build a new one. That would be correct. At that point, going out for the RFQ and RFP and those processes, it was for a new building. Think it would also be fair to say that when the prop s literature was

153provided to the voters at that time it was identified as building a new high school and so It was clearly identified at that point with the literature that we found Thank you. I do believe there was a board vote Yes, I will try and look at what one but there was there was a board vote with a recommendation from administration to build a new north i want to say the difference in um was about 30 to 35 million with the estimates we were given at that time construction remodeling would have been about 60 million and building the new north at that time was around the estimated 90 million i can find them the um the month but i know there was a vote And then lastly, you had mentioned in the slides early on that

154the cost estimate was reduced from I think 93.5 or 91 in that range to 83 and change. And you weren't able to find an exact reason why that occurred. It may be because square footage was reduced from 380,000. presumably down to 350,000. Do you think it's a fair assessment to say that the square footage increase wasn't necessarily 30,000 square feet, but 60,000 square feet from Prop S, from when it was passed? I would say that's true. We were basing that assumption when we showed that because in the... Facilities workshop discussion where they talked about the different options. There was a slide deck that showed the 380,000 square foot option and then the 350,000 square foot option. So yes, to go from the 350 up to the 410 would have been a 60,000 square foot increase.

155But what we found is when we were trying to look through the prop is literature that went out, it never included a square footage amount. And so what we don't know is that when that decision made, when it went back in, but yes. And then lastly, with respect to the pricing for the renovation, which was Plan B, or actually it was Option 1, I think, in the CFMP, but did you find any pricing discrepancies in that work? You mentioned a lot of different changes that occurred throughout the pricing of the new building. Was there any similar changes in that price that was being compared to? I'll be honest that we did not explore that closely around the renovation options. We'd be happy to look into that for the information we have available, but that wasn't

156our focus because we were focused on the cost increase of the new construction. Thanks again. Board? What are some of the other projects we're working on in Prop S? So there's actually a significant number of projects that still remain on the list. The larger projects that were next up included a consideration of some renovation or additions possibly at Henderson Elementary, the same for Fairmont Elementary. The construction of a new transportation department was on there. And then there's a longer list of potential additions at Francis Howell High School, fields at Francis Howell Central. And then you move into more capital improvement ongoing maintenance projects HVAC systems throughout the district air conditioning and heating systems at a variety of buildings throughout the district and a lot of I say little but not really little for the people

157that need them but lower cost projects but there are a lot of them on the list that we were exploring and so that's what I shared part of our next step is making a decision, we can't do them all. The reality is we do not have the funds to do them all. And I don't want to ongoing mislead people to think we might do this or this might come up in a few years. Part of that next process needs to be ultimately making a recommendation and getting approval of the board to say these are the priorities and the projects we'll do moving forward. These are projects that need to be removed from the list at this point in time until we can find other funding mechanisms in the future. Thank you. You're welcome. Mr. Cook,

158if you go back to our August 15th, 2019 meeting, you'll see the Facilities Master Planning Committee recommendations that there's a presentation that was given there. And then monthly from there out, it discusses the community input, the committees they had, et cetera, to come up with the recommendation to build a new north. So that starts August 15th, 2019. Thank you. Ms. Stiglitz? First of all, Dr. Rumpus, I just want to say a couple things. Thank you so much for your looking into this for us. I know that that wasn't an easy. Thank you for acknowledging that it ultimately was your responsibility. I agree with... Mr. Bertrand that sometimes the board should have been known, but I do want to say we didn't know what we didn't know at the time, and I think that comes to

159every single one of us. We get a lot of information, and I also want to say that I really appreciate the fact that you made note of the administrators that were all part of this are no longer here. I think that's really important to note. So thank you for your hard work on this. Thank you, Dr. Hawk, for your hard work on this. And I really do appreciate everything you guys are doing. I think this pretty much should clear up what went wrong and that we've all got to work harder to make sure it doesn't happen again. Board, any other questions or comments? I would like to thank you. And Dr. Hawken, every single individual who's put all the time and energy into this for us. And I would like to encourage our public, considering

160it's already 9 p.m., and this is a lot of information, to we will be uploading this within the next... This evening. This evening. So take a look at it. Email in any questions, et cetera. But go over all of it again. It will all be there for you to check out. Anything else, Borden? President Lange, I just want to take one second, too, to thank, you know, you just mentioned Dr. Hawk. Spent a lot of time on this. Ms. Jules, our Director of Communications, helped. I want to also acknowledge that people who are... no longer with the district were willing to talk to us and answer questions. A lot of the partners that we've had in doing this work on these projects were willing to share information with us and be open and we asked

161a lot of questions ongoing and over and over again and that people were at least cooperative with us and we appreciate that. It really took a team effort to make this happen. Yes, thank you. Do we need to take a quick five minute recess, board? Are we good to go? Superintendent needs a tiny break. we will be signing a document soon i'll have a little breather then thank you okay all right board i would like a motion to approve the consent agenda for march 16 2023 as presented second mr bertrand all those in favor say aye aye any opposed say no motion carries i would like a motion to approve the february monthly financial report as presented Ms. Stiglitz, all those in favor say aye. All those opposed say no. Board, I would like a

162motion to approve the purchases over 7,500 as presented. Second. Any discussion, board? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. Carries. Board, I would like a motion to approve the 2024-2025 calendar as presented. Mr. Lang and Ms. Stiglitz. Simpkins? Thank you. Board, I just want to just share a few things. We answered a lot of your questions already in writing, and all of those are posted on BoardDocs. But we did not have a full committee as this school year's calendar, 24-25, mirrors the calendar that the 2019 calendar committee created, just tweaking the dates to make sure that things will work out well. We do submit a survey to our staff and our community once the draft is created. 86% of our staff were very satisfied, satisfied or neutral with this calendar, and

16385% of our community responded in the same way. We addressed all of the questions that came through the survey with a few tweaks, including the change in the snow day plans. I think that is the biggest change that you'll see in the 24-25 school year calendar. Snow days one through four are built into the calendar. We have enough hours built into our calendar to meet the state guidelines and so we're able to build in those snow days so they don't have to be made up at the end of the year. Snow days five and six will be AMI days or alternative methods of instruction and we'll work with our staff to make sure we understand that fully and communicate that to our community as we get closer to the start of the school year. Snow

164days 7 and 8, if we get there, we have an average of about 6 snow days the last couple of years. If you go all the way back to 2009, it's about 3.9. So we may not get to snow days 7 and 8. If we do, those will be traditional snow days and made up at the end of the year. Just because we don't have enough hours built into the calendar to use those as AMI or as built-in snow days. 9 and 10 would be AMI. We're just kind of going back and forth there. so happy to answer any other questions that you might have about the 24 25 calendar um regarding the survey or the development of it board any questions or comments let's have one quick question hopefully um in the development of

165the snow days schedule we have like the four built-in days and then we go to ami what is what's the reasoning for for like the methodology of having the four built-in days first and then the ami and then two days am i again We did have a snow day committee come together and have some conversation and we sent a survey out to both community members and staff members and asked for their input and part of that survey we asked questions related to My days versus built-in snow days versus traditional snow days kind of what was their preference and how excited would they be about us using each of those and Then we also asked him another question where they had to rank nine different criteria as we make our decision about how to order the

166options What do you think should be our top consideration? What should we place the most emphasis on when we're making that decision? And so honestly it came from the input of those that took the survey both community and staff members ironically if you If you were to look at like the top, I think it was top four off the top of my head, responses from community and staff, not necessarily in the same order, but they both had the top four criteria that they wanted us to use. And a lot of that centered on ending the school year as close to Memorial Day as possible so that they could plan and start summer vacations. Kids could be part of summer camps, things like that. To answer your question, the reason that we started with the built-in

167snow days first was because that was a clear front runner over AMI days from both the community survey results and the staff survey results in their preferences among the three options. And then when we looked at the criteria we considered, it also is least likely to interfere with summer school. which allows us to start summer school on time and give our teachers a couple days to kind of transition between the school year and summer school, assuming that we don't have 10 snow days. Board, any other questions or comments? Just one more. I apologize. I didn't get this in earlier. So I understand if you don't have the data, I'm going to guess you don't. But given that as of, what, 2019 or shortly thereafter, we have to start school no earlier than two weeks before

168Labor Day? Is that correct? Is that right? Yeah, the legislation was July 11th of 2019, and it bars districts from setting an opening date for the school year that is more than 14 calendar days before the first Monday in September. Okay, thank you. It used to be a calendar big idea, I think is what our paperwork used to say, that we would like first semester to end by the end of the year. or presumably for student achievement, for grades. Have you noticed any decline since now students are taking finals two weeks, well, presumably two weeks after they get back from their break? And again, if you haven't analyzed that, I wish I would have thought to ask it sooner. Maybe something to look into. Nothing stands out to me, but I would want to go

169back and check that specific thing to see once we change the calendar and look at the student achievement before and after that to tell you for sure. We do get a lot of feedback from... Building leaders some staff members about ending before break some community members it comes up in the survey I will tell you some other staff members who have semester or quarterly classes They also feel like having equal number of days and semesters and quarters is important And so with the late start it's hard to end before Christmas or before winter break without Unequal is it a man? Is it a state requirement to have equal days or is that just something that's the best practice of ours? Yeah, if like in the middle school and we have the wheel if you're in

170a quarter class Our goal would be that when I'm in the art class for this quarter that Whether I take it first quarter or second quarter or third quarter or fourth quarter I have the same learning experience and so when our teachers are given curriculum or resources to use they're kind of built for Shortening it would eliminate potentially an entire unit for some kids where second semester It's a longer stretch of time Thank you. That makes perfect sense. Board, anything else? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. I'm curious. Board, I would like a motion to approve the revised 2023-24 school year calendar as presented. Ms. Lang, there is no big change to the 23-24 calendar except for implementing the snow day plans that we just talked about for 24-25. And

171so we'll implement those plans for this next school year as well. Board, any questions or comments on this one? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. Aye. Board, I would like a motion to approve the staffing changes as presented. Thanks, Ms. Lang. We presented to you a final staffing plan for the 23-24 school year back in January. And since then, we have looked at our needs for special education staffing. What we're asking is to reallocate some FTEs from the non-certified side to the certified side. We have some paraprofessional positions that are vacant and they have been tough to fill. So we'll... eliminate those vacant paraprofessional positions and add a teaching position so there will be six paraprofessional positions exchanged for two teaching positions um in that in that plan board any

172questions or comments all those in favor say aye aye any opposed say no motion carries board i would like a motion to approve the 2023 24 2024 pay increases and salary schedules as presented Simpkins? Thank you. These are the salary schedules for our nonrepresented staff. They follow closely with what is being presented to you this evening for our represented groups, but it just breaks down each individual category with some changes that we're recommending to you. So if you have any specific questions, I would be happy to answer those. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. Board, I'd like a motion to approve the extra duty recommendations as presented. I just want to say thank you to those that participated on our extra duty committee this year, whether electronically by reviewing all

173of our information or those that attended our meetings in person. This committee has not met in several years. We have not had resources available to really make significant changes to the extra duty offerings for our students. But we did feel like this year it was important for us to gather, even just to talk about reallocating some of the resources that we had to meet some of the requirements or needs of our students. So throughout the document and memo that you have, most of the requests are asking for some flexibility. We have some intramural positions at the elementary level that sometimes go unfilled, whether that's because of student interest or lack of staff interest. We have four positions at each elementary school, and it's sometimes difficult to find four staff members or enough students to fill

174four positions. So we're just asking for... some flexibility to be able to use those resources differently depending on the school so that we can continue to engage our students in different things that they might be interested in throughout the year. We're also just looking at changing some of the offerings for our student interest groups at the elementary and middle school. That is not an additional position or a change in cost, but just some different offerings, kind of updating the clubs that are available to meet students' needs and interests. this year and then we do ask for some additional positions at the high school level esports is becoming such a popular area of interest for our students that we are asking to add an assistant coach at each of our high schools the sport is such

175now that the coach has to be in the virtual room when students are participating in those games and having just one coach is difficult for scheduling and so forth so the popularity of that Sport has grown, and we'd like to add an assistant coach. And then finally, with girls wrestling, it's becoming such a popular sport, and we know our students are doing well there. Just to stay consistent with the offerings that we have for the boys program and the number of girls that are interested in that sport, we'd like to add an assistant coach at each high school as well. Coaches are required to be on the mat for those matches, and we want to be sure that we have enough coaches to... support that scheduling and support our students. Any questions or comments, board?

176All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say no. Motion carries. Board, I'd like a motion to approve the 2023-2024 Feespa closure document and salary schedule as presented. Ms. Stiglitz? Mr. Ziegmeyer? I just want to thank all of the FISPA representatives, the board members, and the administration team who participated. We really did have a lot of collaborative conversation with FISPA. Our administrative team would like our support staff in place to know how much we value the work that they do each and every day to support our students and our teachers. We know it is a difficult time as the cost of living has increased significantly. And our intention, again, here was to be as aggressive as possible. But given the financial resources available, we felt like we cannot increase salaries more than what is

177being presented at this time. But we are very committed to continuing to work with VSPA and our community to reflect the value that we feel these individuals bring to our district. Board, any questions or comments? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say no. Motion carries. We will now take a quick five-minute recess. Is everyone ready to... Hi. We're back. We're back. Are you guys ready over there? We're ready. Superintendent. Dr. Buckman. Whenever you're ready, we'll be... Nope. Take your time. Okay. Welcome back. We are now going to... That was a little bit longer than a five-minute break. I apologize. We are going to move on to our next portion of the meeting which is a presentation with our dr. Buckman Well, it's all good news and it's all happy stuff. So we'll

178start with that Tonight we're here to share a little about our annual performance report or the APR for the district In January, you might remember David Brothers, our Director of Curriculum and Assessment, and I shared the annual academic update. And typically, we share APR at the same point in time. Because the state is switching from MSIP 5 to MSIP 6, things have been a little bit different this year, we've mentioned. We saw the first glimpse of our APR around Valentine's Day, and it was embargoed until March 7th. So tonight, we'll take a look at some of the general information about APR, what's included, how Francis Howell performed, and then... I'll share a little bit about some of the calculations. In its simplest terms, APR is really the measure of progress for Missouri students, schools, and

179districts towards standards that have been set by the Missouri School Board. It's the primary factor in the classification for our schools. This is if you went to Dessie's website This would be a preview of what the actual annual performance report looks like and so we'll look at each part of this in depth I don't expect you to be able to read this I just wanted you to see it so that if you go to Dessie's website and you pull this up You'll know that this is the document that we're talking about it as we go along through the presentation tonight Before we get into the agenda or before we get into the details of our score, I want to mention that MSIP 6 marks the first time that school districts are measured on standards and

180indicators that are focused on both performance and continuous improvement efforts. Previously, the state really only focused on performance measures, which are the student outcomes. The addition of this... improvement efforts the continuous improvement score that really lets us highlight our continuous improvement efforts so we earn points for our comprehensive school improvement plan or our strategic plan among other items you'll notice that on the slide it mentions 128 points and 52 points next year those will change to 140 and 60 as some additional components are added If we look at our overall score, you'll see circled in red there that Francis Hill earned a total of 91.8% of the points possible for the 22 school year. We earned 89.4 of the points possible for performance. And then we earned 98.1 of the points possible for continuous improvement.

181This is an amazing score. It puts us in the top 5% of school districts in the state of Missouri. That's an amazing accomplishment when you consider that there are over 500 school districts in the state, and we're in the top 5%. It's important to note that there are a couple areas that weren't evaluated as part of the 22 APR. We know that they'll be measured in the future years. Academic growth in science and social studies will be added for the 23 APR. And then our response to standards will be reported out in the 24 APR. That's what'll cause the increase in points that I mentioned on the previous slide. We voluntarily participated in an M-6 pilot and because of that part of the process was to submit a response to standards as part of the

182pilot. We were scored. We earned all of our points for that already and they're going to let us hold on to that score. So we know that when that gets added to the 24 APR, we already know we're getting all of our points for that, which is a great celebration. The response to standards is really just our opportunity to tell our story in a narrative format about the internal systems and structures that we have that are tied to continuous improvement standards. So we'll get started by digging into what you see in the red box. That's the academic achievement part of our score. You'll notice that there's two components there. There's status and growth. We'll look at the status portion of achievement first. So status is how students scored on the state assessments during the 21-22

183school year. So this is kind of your cheat sheet slide. This one shows you how districts earn points for the status portion of academic achievement. There's four ratings that districts could have received in each area. You'll see those across the bottom of the slide. So floor, approaching, on track and target, those are the four areas. The scores are measured with a metric called the MPI, the Map Performance Index score. The maximum number of points the district can earn in ELA and math is 12, and then for science and social studies is four. You'll see those listed on the top chart in the top row. Districts and schools need to earn a score of 400 or above to reach target status, which is what earns you that maximum points possible for each of those categories. DESE

184calculates an MPI score for each subject area. It's basically a measurement that combines all the test scores in a subject together using a weighted average. Students scoring in the advanced range count for five points. Students who score in the proficient range earn anywhere between four and 4.99 points. Students who score in the basic range earn three to 3.99 points, and then students who score below basic We earn one to 2.99 points depending on their actual score. And then that weighted average is multiplied by 100. So an MPI score above 400 indicates that the majority of students are scoring at proficient or advanced on those assessments. So this chart shows you how Francis Howell scored on those measures for academic achievement. So you'll see the first column lists the four tested areas. For now, we're just

185talking about the all student category. We'll talk about student groups in a minute. DESE calculates the MPI for each subject area and as I mentioned that's combining all of the test scores into that weighted average. So you'll see on the kind of in the middle there the points earned that we are in 12 points for both math and ELA which was the maximum possible and then for science and social studies we earned four points which was also the maximum possible which you know if you use that chart down there at the bottom that puts us in the target designation which is the highest category available for each of those. areas and then we'll take a look at the desi cheat sheet for student groups so it's the same four classifications across the chart at the

186bottom it's still floor it's still approaching it's still on track it's still target you'll notice that the ranges are different it's not if you look at the target category it's not 400 to 500 anymore it's a little bit of a wider range As a reminder, when we talk about student groups, DESE looks at black, Hispanic, students on free reduced lunch, students with disabilities, and English learners are the five categories that they include. One other change you'll notice is that if you look up at the top, that top row, ELA and math, the maximum points we can earn would be six. And then for science and social studies, we can earn two. So it's half of what we would earn for the all student group. And so this slide shows you how we performed for our

187student groups. And so you'll see we earned all six points possible for ELA, putting us in the target range. And then you'll notice that we earned 4.5 out of 6 points for math, 1.5 out of 2 points for both science and social studies. Again, this is only looking at the data from students who are included in one of those five student groups that are previously mentioned. The far right column shows the designation category. We've got target for ELA and then on track for the other content areas when it comes to the student group performance. The chart at the bottom lets you see how close we are to earning the target designation in each of those categories. While they're strong scores, we know that we're always working to close that gap and that continues to be

188an area of focus for us. Academic achievement, that was status, so it also looks at growth. which is how much a student grew from one year to the next in a subject area that being tested. Growth scores are calculated for students in fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade who've been with our district for two full academic years. And so this chart shows how the state calculates growth. It basically looks at comparing each Francis Howell student to the average Missouri student. And then we receive a rating based on the comparison of that individual student's rate of growth compared to that of the average Missouri student's rate of growth. So for example, if you were to look at the bottom row of the top chart, you'll see that for ELA and math, we would have received

189an above average rating for 9 to 12 growth points. So that was the cheat sheet, and this is how we actually performed for our student growth. This is the clip from our APR report. You can see that Francis Howell was rated above average, which is the highest designation in all areas of growth for all student groups and also for our student groups. Growth for science and social studies weren't calculated for 21-22, and DESE has indicated that that will be part of future years when the APR is calculated. I'll also mention that high school growth hasn't been calculated yet. The state's still trying to figure out how they're going to calculate that. They're not quite sure. We're anxious to hear what they have in mind. Outside of academic achievement, the state also considers a few other

190performance indicators that you'll see on this slide here. Success ready is a metric that measures the students readiness for the next phase of their educational experience. It holds us as the district accountable for providing students with resources to ensure their success. And so within that category, you'll see we earned five out of 10 points for our college and career readiness assessments, those CCR assessments. That measures the student's performance on the CCR assessments like ACT, the ASVAB, ACT WorkKeys. We earn points not only on how students score on the assessment, but also on the percentage of students who complete one of those assessments. You probably remember in January we spent some time talking about all of our next steps tied to the work around ACT. We've also put some processes in place to make sure that

191all students have a CCR assessment by graduation. We believe all of that will have a positive impact on those points earned. We also earned 10 out of 10 points on our advanced credit measures. So that looks at student participation and performance in the AP exams. AP classes, college credit course enrollment, our project lead the way enrollment, and then those industry recognized credentials, IRCs. And then at the bottom, you'll see our graduation rate, and you'll notice that we earned 20 out of 20 points, and then our graduation follow up. where we earned four out of four points. That grad follow-up is the survey that's completed 180 days after graduation that determines what our graduates are doing once they've left us. And you probably remember back to January, we looked at all that data a little more

192in depth. And then this slide outlines the last pieces so this is our the continuous improvement standards and how Francis how performed on that side The district earned all of the points possible for our comprehensive school improvement plan as stated before our response to standards will be included in the APR in 24 We also earned all the points possible by completing our students staff and family climate surveys The next category up there is success ready students and you'll see four components in there so kea is the kindergarten entry assessment districts have to assess every kindergartner within the first six weeks of school to earn for readiness to earn full points for this measure and we earned all four out of four points on that one the next one is icap That's our individualized career and

193academic plans that our students create. So we are tasked with making sure that all of our eighth grade students have completed an ICAP to earn full points on this measure. And again, we earned all four out of four points there. The attendance measure is next. That takes a look at... The percentage of our students who are at school 90% of the time. We earned three out of four points for that area. We know coming out of COVID, we still have a little work to do on attendance. And we're in the process of meeting with all of our schools for data visits. And they are working hard on that. We continue to have conversations about what we can do to support families getting our students here. It'll continue to be a focus into next year. And

194we'll look for ways that we can partner with our families to stress the importance of having kids at school all day, every day. And then CTE expansion is the last one down there. So that gives districts some additional points if they expand their CTE programs. Lewis and Clark is who we partner with. They added a law enforcement program during the 21-22 school year. And so we earned our two additional points because of that expansion. And then the final component of the APR is making sure that all of the required documentation that DESE requires is turned in in a timely fashion. The state takes multiple data submissions into account for this indicator. And while the large majority of our submissions are done early or on time, there were two that were within a day or two

195after the deadline. And so you'll see there that we missed a couple points. Our data processing team has already had several conversations and put some measures in place to develop new systems to make sure that we're meeting all of those deadlines moving forward. So we have confidence that we'll earn all of those points next round. While not technically part of the APR, assessment participation rates are reported out on this document. And so we wanted to go ahead and take a minute and just explain that. Francis Hall is required to have at least 95% of our students complete MAP or EOC testing and, of course, exams. And then 95% of our student group population also has to participate in MAP or EOC exams. Individual schools have to meet this requirement as well. a district or a

196school that doesn't have at least 95 percent of their students assessed will not receive apr points for that subject area and the same is true for our student groups we have a very high participation rate and that really is a tribute to our site test our school test coordinators and all that they do to make sure all of our students are tested at the bottom of the slide you'll see the last four areas that are reported on the report card all of which we meet the requirements for to ensure our accreditation Based on what we understand at this point, we believe that initially we'll receive the accreditation rating of accredited with the new system. By law, districts cannot have their accreditation impacted for three years after the introduction of new standards and indicators. And so

197districts in Missouri won't receive their accreditations until the 2024 APR to allow for that three-year window. We don't have all the information yet, but based on some initial discussions and work that we're part of, we really believe that we have a strong chance at earning the accredited with distinction honor in 2024 with some continued work in that area of continuous improvement. So we are optimistic about that. And then I'll just wrap up by saying, you know, we always think about what's going well and where we have opportunities for growth. There are, I just can't stress it enough, there are so many areas to celebrate as we analyze our APR. And obviously that is a direct tribute to the hard work happening every day in our schools with our staff and our administrators supporting kids every

198day. We are a district that's always been known for high achievement and continuous improvement. And those scores show that that continues to be true in our district. As I mentioned earlier, out of 553 schools, that score of 91.8 puts us in the top 5% of all districts in the state. And that really is just an incredible achievement for our entire school community. And that's our staff, our leaders, our parents, our students. It really is everyone. that should take part of that pride. When looking at these celebrations, something else I would point out is that the state's been working through those MCIP 6 requirements for the past few years. And when our kids were assessed last spring, and honestly, even when we started this school year, we had no idea how we were going to be

199held accountable. A lot of the measures and metrics hadn't been finalized yet. And so our strong scores are really a tribute to the dedicated staff we have across the district doing the good work day in and day out. And the fact that we scored so strong out the gate without really knowing how we were going to be held accountable shows that we really do have strong processes in place. And now that we know how we'll be scored and have some feedback on those, we'll be able to continue to improve and grow to capture some of those additional points. When we think about some of those growth opportunities on the other side, we're always looking at where we can do better for our students. One area we continue to focus on is our student group population.

200Every time assessment data is generated, we're desegregating the data. We're looking for trends in student groups. Where can we make some instructional decisions that would lead to improved student success? Where can we provide some additional supports to schools? Who's seeing success? What are they doing? All of those things, conversations you would expect. We also have a plan to focus our efforts towards increasing those ACT scores as we talked about in January. In addition, as I mentioned, we're monitoring the completion of at least one of those CCR assessments, and we're confident that we'll earn more points in that area next year. And then the final area I'll highlight tonight, as I mentioned a minute ago, is just attendance. It's something that every district is struggling with post-COVID. We continue to monitor the data. We continue to

201have conversations about what's working and what needs there are. It'll continue to be a focus in the coming year as we partner with our families to just keep moving the needle a little bit in that area. So I'm a little afraid to ask if there's any questions. I think some of you may have filled your quota for the night, but I'm happy to answer any questions. And I'll also say, I should have given him a shout out in the beginning, but David Brothers, our director of curriculum and assessment, there was no eye contact. He really helped put so many of the slides together tonight, and he's the one that crunches the numbers and really helps figure out the calculations and the... He tries to explain those complex growth formulas to all of us so that

202we understand what's happening. I'll also mention that every time that handbook comes out, they let us know that it's been updated and they never tell us what has been updated. So we just have to read the entire thing and figure out what's been changed. And David really takes a lot of time to do that to make sure that we understand what's been changed each time those updates come out. So just a little shout out to him. He's here to answer any questions as well. Any comments, questions? One quick question. I am curious what what's the target? I don't think I had it on the slide. I was trying to go back real quick to check but I Can get that for you. Mr. Bertrand and follow up. Yeah Is that a number that just since

203COVID has been down or would we have been there prior to COVID and maybe because of people being more attuned to being sick and vice versa, maybe missing a few more days than they normally would? Do you contribute? I'll also mention that David's done a great job of reaching out to other districts. You know, when we look at our attendance rates and we get a little anxious often when we reach out to other districts, comparable districts to find out what theirs are. Often we really are doing better, comparable, but often better than they are. So it would lead us to believe that some of the efforts that we're putting in place, it's really the work the principals are doing in the buildings, following up, having conversations. I talked to a principal today and she said,

204I have a hard time just if they miss the bus, there's no one to bring them to school. Like I need to get on a van and go pick some kids up and that would help my attendance rate. So it's just a lot of little things that we don't always have the resources and the staff to do. So the data was embargoed for a little while, right? And is it all on DESE's website now for all the districts? So have we created a comparison chart with benchmark districts to see kind of where we are? Yeah. We haven't, and we've actually been asked not to do that by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, given that this is the first year of rolling out MSIP 6. They're really encouraging us not to use it as

205a comparison metric right now. It's only one year of available data out of three years that will be coming. We do that naturally internally because we do, but we chose not to share those charts and graphs in the way we traditionally have. We're happy to provide that to you as board members. I think that's a to acknowledge here, so appreciate it. I'm not gonna ask any questions. Apparently I reached my quota, so. I just wanted to kind of acknowledge and point out that on the 11th slide that you have there with the academic achievement, the growth component of that, and just. Say how good of a job that you guys have done because in order to achieve those possible points and the growth area when we're already a high achieving district that's Extremely difficult and

206the designation is above average. So kudos to all the students teachers and staff I just have a quick one Dr. Buckman you said this was last year's data from the stuff from M-6 it was what was in 22 so that was the first year after cold I mean after the schools had shut down when the year after that the test no no we would have yes it would have been the first full year after that We had the shutdown and then we had... We came back full with everybody and we didn't test that year, right? We tested that year and that the only part of that data that was used was as part of the growth data. So it was the following school year, last school year was when all of the data that we

207were held accountable for... That not was right so the achievement data that we looked at this the status points That was the test the kids just took in last spring last spring. Okay. Thank you Makes us even more questions or comments on Not really, though I do remember taking a long time to fill out that iCap. Like, we spent like a day or so talking about it, and then I remember waking up one day and the packet full of stuff for the iCap was across my bed because I must have fallen asleep looking at it. Because I do that when I try to memorize stuff because when you're trying to go to sleep your brain remembers information better and So I must have been looking at that Anything else board, thank you, dr. Buckman Are

208we superintendent comments? We are Several things. First, on Saturday, March 4th, the district held its annual Meet FHST recruitment event for the first time coming out of COVID, and it was a huge success. We had over 100 prospective job candidates here looking at teaching opportunities in the district, and we're excited to bring more great teachers and certified staff to work in the district. We are always proud of our students academic achievements and this year we had five students representing all three high schools who were named National Merit Scholarship finalists and we will be recognizing them at an upcoming board meeting. Tuesday evening this week, I was delighted to join our district senior pals group at their second event this year. I want to thank everyone who attended and thank them for getting involved in their

209schools. A lot of them shared some of the work that they're doing to volunteer at a lot of our different schools, and that's fantastic. It's open to any FHSD resident age 55 and older, and if you're interested in joining, just make sure you're on the district's email list, and we'll be communicating about our last event of this year at the Cupcake Wars coming up in May. We were also grateful that we got to partner. that night and attend the Spartan Community Band concert, which was an amazing event with current and former Sager, Francis Hall Central, band students, alums, parents, staff members, community members who all come together. There were over 120 musicians that performed that night, and our senior pals got to attend that concert. Back at the end of February, we were grateful that

210we had Sergeant Fagans with the St. Charles County Police Cybercrime Task Force who did a presentation for parents as part of our family learning series talking about social media and popular apps and helping us know what danger signs to look for when our children were online. Those really are great events, and we're open to how we can better communicate them and get more people there because the information that's shared is really outstanding, and we want to expand the group who is attending them. Our leadership team had the honor last week of getting to surprise both our support staff and teacher of the year. We got to recognize Olivia Howard, the choir director at Francis Hall Middle, who is our district teacher of the year, and Darlene Kruse, the BIS at Bryan Middle, who we celebrated

211as the support staff member of the year. It's a special moment to get to do that. They represent the teacher and support staff member. of all of the winners at all of our buildings throughout the district and we'll get to recognize them again at our hall of fame celebration coming up in may I'm really excited to share publicly that the St. Charles County Council has announced that they are going to continue to fully fund the SROs at our elementary schools within the county next year where we don't have other jurisdictions involved using the ARPA funds. Really, we need to thank the county executive for that as he was committed to making it happen. As I visit our elementary schools and meet the individuals who are serving in those SRO roles, we really lucked out. It's

212an amazing group of men and women who... love being in the schools. They're building relationships with the students and the community. They're in classrooms presenting lessons. And just to watch them interact with our students, it really, it's been great this year and we're thrilled that the county is helping us out next year. We still need to look at how we will fund that the following year, but that will continue for next year. I want to reiterate Dr. Buckman's celebration of our APR. One of the points of pride for me when I think about it is when you look at those student scores of the student group as well as those growth scores because it shows that in a high-achieving district, we really are working to meet the needs of all of our students wherever they

213are at and where they come to school. We always have opportunities for improvement, but it's a great reminder that there really is a lot to celebrate in this district. I also want to thank Dr. Buckman and her team. The chief academic officer position in this district has a legacy of great leadership. And Dr. Buckman, you know, is in year three of this, but coming in during COVID has really stepped up and is doing an incredible job leading that department and working with her team. They really drive the CSIP and all the school improvement efforts when it comes to academics throughout the district and support all of our principals and our buildings in that process. I'm really honored to work with such a great team as they do that. The scores, yes, they reflect great kids

214and families and the hard work of all of the teachers, administrators, and support staff in the district that allow us to be able to do this work each and every day. Last, board, I really would like to thank you in this special month. Your service and commitment to this district really is unmatched. You know, we hear somewhat frequently a misconception that people believe you are paid for this work. And we know that nothing could be farther from the truth, but we continue to hear that. You as a group of individuals spend hundreds of hours each year preparing for these meetings, attending these meetings, responding to our needs and concerns, patron needs and concerns, our staff. And it takes a lot of time. It shows a true commitment to being committed to making Francis Howell the

215best district it can possibly be. And I thank all seven of you for that commitment and also for the trust you put in me in this role. And I appreciate the support that you give our team and you challenge us to do better and make sure that we're always thinking how we can improve the district. And we do appreciate that. So thank you for everything that you do. Tomorrow is our last day of school before spring break, and I really hope that many or most of our 2,300 employees are able to find time to rest next week, at least part of it. They work incredibly hard to support our students and community every day, and this is a well-deserved break. I also hope that our students and families are able to enjoy some quality time

216together and have a safe spring break. When we come back that following week, we have two events that will be open to the public. We hope people attend. On Wednesday the 29th, our Francis Hall Central students will be hosting the Board Candidate Forum at Francis Hall Central at 7 p.m. We encourage everyone to come out. And then the following evening, we'll be back here in the boardroom to host a work session at 6.30 to talk with the board about potential recommendations for transportation next year. So we hope that as many of our community members as possible will attend both of those events. Thank you. Board any comments or questions? Comments? I just have a couple. I was at the senior panels event on Tuesday night and just want to reiterate what Dr. Rompah said to

217say. It was a great event. Got a chance to meet some really great people and who voiced some of their concerns about our district and I think afterwards we all had a better understanding of where the district was going. So I really do appreciate that and you know I want to keep those events going if we can. Also, I had the opportunity to visit Becky David on their literacy night. I know that was mentioned during patron comments. And they had 250 finger light flashlights that were gone within five minutes. So the attendance there was absolutely amazing. I want to thank Becky David's staff and teachers for putting that together. It was truly eye-opening for me. So shout out to Becky David and what a great job they did that night. Any other items, Board? Just

218say thanks to the schools and the kids who wrote these things here and the ones out in the hallways. I know that's a lot of fun for the teachers and students, but certainly appreciate it. I have a long statement. Sorry. It's a late night. I'd like to address the citizens' comments on bringing us back to the basics and for better understanding of why we have continuous training on the science of reading and for the academic concerns listed on social media. social media about the poor performance of the district. The Back to Basics movement calls for teaching of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Francis has a focus on the basics already. If you look at our kindergarten, we have 150 minutes of English language arts and 50 of math. Grades 1, 2, and 3, we have 150

219minutes of reading English language arts, sorry, and 60 minutes of math. And in grades 4 and 5, we have 130 minutes of ELA and 70 minutes of math. I looked up the nation's literacy rate, and in 1970, it was 34%. Now today our literacy rate is 79% but as I dug deeper I was appalled to see that about 50% of our population reads at the sixth grade level or below. So I said what does Francis Howe look like? I sought some information from the Fast Bridge assessment at the end of sixth grade. 83% of our students are on level. scoring 40% of higher on that test, 82% in math. We are preparing our children for the future. They're already above the national norm in reading. Why do we have the science of reading? Reading has

220changed so much. When I began teaching in 1980, we received a teaching tool. Basically, it was called a basal. Old people like me, and that's how you taught. You got a math book. You did chapter one, chapter two, chapter three. I was called to the office because I went to chapter five and skipped chapter four, and we've come a long way. Now our teachers are involved in data teams, which they look at assessments and the results of those assessments. Interventions have changed. We only had one interventionist through the 80s and 90s. Now our buildings have two to three in the elementary schools, and we have interventionists in our middle schools. We now do summative informative assessments. You hear that all the time. It is so valuable. Formative is basically for learning. We're continually assessing children

221to see what we need to do to help them achieve their goals. And the summative assessments are the summation of the unit. Have they learned all those skills to move forward? And then lately, the last 10 years, we have RTI, or response to intervention, where we make a pyramid of interventions for our children, and we're always changing that pyramid. It used to be a set pyramid. You were a guppy. You were always a guppy when I went to school. Now it's where are your strengths? Mine might need, i.e., word attack skills, or some other child might need comprehension, and we attack that. Then we worry about the performance of our district. And I'm like, hey, let's look this up. 95% of our children graduate. Within the fifth year, 97%. And you talk about the student

222subgroups, and we have 80% of our children. That's our free and reduced lunch, our typical everyday kids, whatever you want to call them, our English language learners are going on to college. They're at a two-year college, a four-year college, a technical school. 13% are in the workforce. One and a half percent joined the military. I look at school ratings. There's always more than one measure. And one measure showed us, or we're told is not as well. So I look these up. Niche just has in a top 10 schools in the state. You look up the state DESE, we're at the top 5% in the state. You look at the post-dispatch, top 5% in the state. You look at the Show Me Institute, which I was referred to, and we're still in the top 10%. But

223the Show Me Institute's claim that Francis Howell is number 52 of 516 districts in the district does not align with the data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, or DESE, as you hear it. DESE has implemented a new scoring system this year, which you have heard about, and has caused our scores to drop across the state to the rigor that's expected. The state of Missouri's testing is in the top five in the nation. When we first started giving it was called the map test That was late 90s One state had a hundred percent proficiency that tells you what their test rigor was like and so we have come a long way This ranking being in the top 5% demonstrates that Francis house one of the Missouri's highest performing district I'd like to congratulate

224the Francis House School District administrators, teachers, staffs, and families for the devotion to our students and the progress they're making. Thank you. Well said, Mr. Lane. Anything else, Bourne? I would like to thank my principal, Mrs. Longrow, for allowing me to come. All of the teachers at my middle school who voted for me to come. I would like to thank Mrs. Adams for a wonderful drama department. I would like to thank our librarians and just everyone who's made everyone's day wonderful. And I would like to thank you for joining us this evening for a long evening. Okay, board. If there's nothing else, I would like a motion to adjourn. I don't know who was even first. Everybody. Okay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed say no. Motion carries.