001All right, it's 7 o'clock. Late arriving crowd, but we'll start anyway. Ms. Bernardi can lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. All right, I need a motion and a second to approve the agenda for tonight's meeting as presented. So moved. Second. All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. All those opposed. 3.03, public comments. We have a total of two commenters, and they appear to be veterans, so I won't repeat the rules. familiar three minute period and we'll start with Amy Barker. You can do them together for three minutes or separate, or you wanna do them, go ahead. Okay, so I am Amy Barker. And I am Cindy Kaler. And we are the co-presidents of KNEA. This will be our second year, we were re-elected. I know, I know. So we
002first wanted to thank HR because they sent us those required videos early. Some years we don't get them until August in that blood borne pathogens video. You need time to really let that information process and sink in. So we wanted to say thank you for that so that teachers can really watch those in a way that will be meaningful. Yeah, I would say that has been universally well received. So thank you for that. Absolutely. And we also are eager to get more information about our collective bargaining election. We did have 192 staff who voted to have KNEA as the bargaining representatives, and 60 who wanted a different group. And we heard there were some objections, but we haven't heard any more information about that for a couple weeks, so we are very eager. to hear
003about that so we can clear all that up and hopefully take the next steps in representing the staff because i think our original impression was we were coming here tonight to have that election certified and be done with it but these objections have been raised that we are still not still still not clear on it so the sooner we could move forward on that i think the better for all of us absolutely absolutely yes okay thank you very much Moving on to 4.01 the equity policy on it Thank you very much as the board knows I believe it was in February We brought we brought the RFP for the services to conduct an equity audit this has been something that is Needed to be moved forward on for a while now, so I commend the
004doctor map and his work to get this started But as I don't want to steal any of this thunder he'll talk a little bit about why we are being deliberate in our timeline But the board can expect Action steps and we'll see some very specific dates on follow-up in Dr. Matt's presentation. So I'm excited for the board to hear this information. Dr. Matt? All right, well thank you Dr. Ulrich and thank you Mr. President, Vice President Boyko. Excited to walk you all through a little bit of what I know you already have information but wanna highlight some of the things that you've seen in our policy audit that we were able to get from Beloved Community. So I'll start with our mission and our vision of our district. Again, our landing point for any work
005that we do, the fact that we are here to equip students with the skills, knowledge, and understanding to be empathetic, successful, and value all people. And so through this work, we look to make sure that that comes out in the work that we continue to do for our students. So we worked with the Beloved Community, which is a nonprofit consulting firm focused on implementing regional sustainable solutions for diversity, equity, and inclusion. And what they did is they looked at our student J policies. and provided some feedback for us on our next steps and how we shall move forward. I want to highlight this is not a legal review. And so from their work, we now take it to our community, to our constituents, and we look at the things that they recommend and we figure
006out how it works within our space, right? This is our community. It's not Beloved's community. And so how do we work with our community to make sure that we are... being responsive to our needs and so that's where our next steps continue to go and that will include then looking at it through the lens of what is that legal ramifications and how does it fit with the missouri school boards all those types of things that we want to always be in compliance with Looking at the policies, 38% of the policies that they reviewed, our student J policies, they saw no red flags. There weren't things that they said, hey, this is a major, this is something that you need to be really paying attention to. And so from the rest of that would be where
007they had recommendations. And so you've seen a lot of that. We'll talk through a little bit of that. But 38% of our policies, they held up and said that they are in really good shape, and that's a really great thing. The one that I want to walk us through a little bit, and I'm not going to go step by step, but I highlight and bring to your attention our bullying policy. This was revised in 2017, and it is the policy that Beloved held up as a policy that we have that looks really good. that looks at all of those things that they look at in terms of equity, and this policy seems to hold a lot of that within it. And so as we as a team talk through and thought about where we go
008forward with things, we are reminded that this policy took time. We are reminded that this policy took constituents coming together and agreeing two steps as to how we should address issues of bullying within our district. And so with that... is how we want to continue to start our conversation and thinking about how we move forward from here. Yes, we have an audit. Yes, it tells us a number of things that we can pay attention to. The things and steps that we take next are things that should take time. They should work in conjunction with one another to make sure that we are able to address those things as a group that is, again, thinking about what's best for our students and for our staff and our community as we move forward. So again, I'm not
009going to get into the specifics of all this but I did want to put it in the report so that the community can see what that policy is and see all the things that are a part of it that really make it the policy that we uphold as really one of our best exemplars if you will is how they described it. And so as we move forward I did provide you all with a copy of this slide here because it is really the guiding document through the rest of our presentation and that is that they gave these four areas of focus for us audits and access language shared voice, shared power, and belonging as areas in which they see us being able to really make an impact if we so choose to move some things
010forward in their recommendations as far as policy. And you can see some guiding questions there. And so I gave that to you so that you all can see those guiding questions as we go through some of the specific pieces that they had. And so we'll start with audits and access and so they say to what extent has your organization established internal audits to make sure that we are responsive to the things that our data tells us, right? And so a big part of what they suggest is identifying and adopting policy language that allows us to be able to outline specific data tracking and analysis to look for transparency, equity, and inclusion. and so that would look like us being able to say that we're looking at how the data comes out and if there's impacting
011certain demographics of students if we have information that tells us that we are noticing that there's a need for us to look at how different things impact a group versus one group versus another these are some ways in which we can be able to address that and that is some of the things that they have outlined here on these slides again specific policies where they give us. And so you'll notice things that are underlined, and that's places where they recommend that we give more specificity. Perhaps we give more opportunity for some type of data tool to be used to really highlight if there is disparate impact in how these things are coming about through our policies and how they're coming about through infractions, for example, against our policies. And so I won't spend a lot
012of time going through these pieces. I will skip to the next piece, which is language. And so looking at the involvement and engagement of students, families, guardians, and community members, it's pivotal to achieving our mission and vision. And so really being very mindful of how language is welcome within our community and how it's welcome within the work that we do within our policies. And so you'll see specific things, again, outlined here specific to notifications home, making sure that things are in home languages. making sure we have certified translators available, and finally making sure that we have protection for families and individuals who might be from marginalized identities. One big thing that I want to also highlight is that there may be times where there's something here and you think, well, we have that. We do
013something with that. Beloved is not, I mean, yes, they worked with us intently, but they did not necessarily see all of our intricacies of things that we have in place. And so their recommendations that they have that we might say, yeah, we actually already have some things in place for that. doesn't mean that we don't it just means that that's not something that they were able to specifically highlight in their work and so i will talk through a little bit of the language pieces again things underlined places where we can be able to maybe specify things around policy for language and really make sure that we are being as inclusive as we can and making sure that we are welcoming different languages and opportunities for language to be understood and families to be understood without
014needing to only have english or to have someone there that can help to to translate when necessary one that i wanted to really bring attention to is one that we can pretty specifically handle pretty directly very similarly to how we have already talked about and had the first reading around language within our policy for staff this is an opportunity for us to have some more language clarity in terms of bullying and student discipline and so you'll see they are specific to can we give opportunities for family for our policy to really be specific around around identifying race gender as being protected things within our policy and so really being specific allows for us to be able to say These are things that are not acceptable in our schools, they're not acceptable in our community, and
015our policy is going to reflect that. And this will be a very good opportunity for us to be able to do that. The next piece would be over shared voice and shared power. really encouraging and allowing our students, our families to be able to bring ideas and bring their voice, their experience to the table to truly be represented in the work that we do. And so you'll see again specifically here policy around student conduct on school buses, A plus program and student dress code. Again, places where we can have students be able to give input. One specific way and piece that we have is the Superintendent Student Advisory Committee. And so that meets throughout the year up at the high school. And it's an opportunity where we can have students, again, very specifically look at
016policy and support what are some recommendations that they have specifically for dress code, what are recommendations that they might have specifically for student conduct on transportation and for student discipline. Bringing in that shared voice and bringing in the opportunity for students to feel that empowerment. And then finally, the area of belonging. Students need to feel heard. They need to be able to have an opportunity to have authentic self-expression. They need to feel like they are welcomed and supported regardless of their choices. And so really being intentional about making sure that our language around belonging is language that is inclusive of all students. You know, when we have... different the pieces of the dress code that allows for perhaps a person's opinion to be more important than the child or the student or whomever it is
017dehumanizing and doesn't bring about that sense of belonging and so we have to be really mindful of how we make sure that that comes at the forefront and specifically in terms of our policy this the idea that one of the things that we had in our final call with beloved you know we talked about move things moving at the speed of trust And so we have to be really mindful of and make sure that we are promoting an opportunity for people to see that transparency, for trust to be developed, and for that to be the driving force of us moving forward. And so we really look for opportunities to connect with our community to help make sure that we can be inclusive in the work as we continue to move forward. And so what you'll
018see is that we have opportunities for our superintendent student advisory council. We have two meetings already scheduled, one in September and one in November, where we can get their feedback. The Education Equity Task Force, there are two meetings that are already scheduled that we will be able to use as opportunities for that group to be able to give feedback. And then also for the monthly board policy meetings that you all have to look at our policies throughout the district and throughout the school board. This, again, it takes time. It is something that we have to be able to give time to develop. And so we would allow opportunities for Dr. Ulrich to give updates in his weekly updates with you all so that you'll know based on the policy meetings, based on those opportunities at
019task force meetings and the student advisory council, how and when we continue to see things come about. And then a formal update we would have as available at the end of the year at the December 18th board meeting an actual more presentation like this. So that's kind of what we envision moving forward and how we plan to make sure that you as the board and our community stays abreast of what we're doing. And really, again, moving at that speed of trust and making sure that we develop that within our community as we move forward to adjust policy. With that, I will turn it back over to, I think Dr. Albrecht may have a few comments, and then... Vice President Boyko would not. Dr. Allrich, do you have anything you'd like to add? Yes, thank you
020very much. Thank you, Dr. Mapp. I will tell you that the board might imagine that this work will be reflected in the 23-24 Strategic Annual Plan with our goals for including or increasing our sense of belonging for our families, for our staff, and for our students. And you can see, like I said, this is very, very tightly aligned to our strategic plan priority goal area two, equity, diversity. inclusion so I thank you dr. map for for your work that you've done on this mr. Boyko any questions from the board and starting with thank you thanks dr. ma'am I guess my question is that they said that bullying policy was one that they commended us on and I believe that's part of our discipline policy work and as you said it takes a lot of time
021we engage with the community and we did a lot of work to make that a model policy. And I'm glad to hear that they thought we did a good job. As it says here, it wasn't a legal review. but because the policies the board were responsible for are to comply with the law. But there's also procedures and regulations that are mentioned as well, and I guess I wanted to ask you about that. Is that included in the audit as well? They were, and so that said that 38%, that includes policies, those administrative procedures that you talked about, and regulations, they are all part of what they audited. Those that were within the student policies, yes. So if there is a regulation, for example, that falls under AC or the med-sager procedure, that was not addressed.
022But the ones under student policies, they were addressed, yes. So we'll have to make a timeline and then which ones are most important to begin with because it's a lot of work. They've identified a lot of things. Okay, thank you. Yeah, real quick, I was just curious where, so 38% were in good shape. Did they give any comparison to other districts? I'm really just curious how we stood in comparison. Very good question. Not one that I personally directly asked them, but they did. I mean, that was the number that they did give us. And I think that, honestly, in my conversations, we seem to fare pretty well, honestly. But I can't give a specific comparison to other districts, though. Okay. Thank you. Anything? Quick question. Thanks, Dr. Mapp. Is there an opportunity in the next
023five months for families to give input? So you laid out students, but is that part of the process? I mean certainly the equity task force piece would be a part where we want to incorporate any voices of families that are part of that but I think and that was one of the things that we definitely we've talked about how to incorporate more voice from families of any community particularly especially of our marginalized communities so while it is not something that I outlined here definitely something that we can make sure that we incorporate in our work moving forward Okay, I think it would be really good to also intentionally do that. And my second part of that was, you know, if there's an opportunity to work with any of the building equity-related groups, they're already established,
024right? They already have, you know, a lot of trust and a lot of really good conversations going on. So any way to work with them might be a really good first step. So just a thought. I appreciate that. Thank you. Ms. Andrews? So just to kind of follow up on what Ms. Pangborn said, I think when it comes to the discipline or the bullying policy, you know, we have several families that have experienced bullying and have given feedback on bullying. And so I would just encourage you that you're specifically reaching out to those individuals. You know because they've kind of dealt with the policy in terms of their child and so kind of you're having their voice at the table and then also I just encourage you to maybe even broaden it be on the
025equity task force And then I have a few questions some of which overlap with questions president Sharon sent me earlier today. So One question deals with First of all in terms of the pacing I know it says here we've got to move at the speed of trust Sort of what is the Is that what's sort of making this take a full semester to update our policies in ways that the audit recognizes Yes, I think you know we took really all of last year to even get to a point where we actually finally got the audit and I think it sounds like I mean I was not here that whole time but prior to that even time that we were spending getting the audit so I I think that certainly it's good to know that we
026have an issue To actually address the issue then is going to take time to address it appropriately right and to make sure that it will be a sustained impact And so that's what my thought process is and making sure that we again include those stakeholders And we don't just say this is what we should do and we make that decision without including people would be my thought and then in terms of tangible outcomes from the audit is it just limited to revisions of policy and procedure or Steps that are part of the scope of this. Yeah, I mean they look specifically at our policies our regulations and our administrative procedures And so that's what they gave feedback on and what those would be the pieces that we would be acting on based on their feedback.
027Yes And so just to add to that, thank you, Mr. Boyko, just to add to that, I will tell you that as the board well knows that our procedures and our handbooks, our staff handbook, our parent handbooks, and our student handbooks, that flows from policy. And so as we change our policies, it will, by necessity, will need to make sure and change our processes and procedures in our buildings. I'll give an example for board members that were a part of the Encompass Resolution Report. We made tangible changes and followed up with those changes based on that report. So while I certainly can't point to anything specific at this point, the board can expect that from our policy will flow through and dictate the steps that will be seen tangible, I believe was the word that
028Ms. Shearn used. those tangible things that the board can expect to see will flow from the changes in policy. And President Stern and I share the concern of... You know what we have in policy is obviously very important, but it's words on a page and if you're talking about you know for example the bullying policy The third grader who's bullying another third grader? Hasn't read our policies and hasn't read the procedures and probably hasn't read a student handbook or had it read to them before bed or something like that so You know make turning that into actual outcomes is obviously critical otherwise it's words on the page and you know I know you know that I just want to keep our focus on even it requires us to walk and chew gum at the same
029time while we're talking about policies and procedures we're also doing all we can in the in the classroom and in the community too Absolutely. I think to Dr. Ulrich's point, those are the pieces where we work with principals and we work to make sure that whatever happens in policy, then again, make sure it translates to how our kids be able to receive that information as well. I think that's important. Ms. Andrews, you had another question? So just to kind of go along with that, I think what maybe would be helpful for us is you have the policy, but we need to see how it's going to be put into practice. So like how is this policy going to be? How is it going to look in the day to day that's going to then? Make
030the impacts that we want. So I think that that mr. Boyko is is what maybe we're talking about. Yeah, so I think what I would say is dr Oreck mentioned this work continuing and we want to be clear that this work is not specific to just policy and even procedure revision but this work more globally in terms of The sorts of things that these policies are meant to address and just making sure that we're holding people accountable for the practice of the policy. Just one more thing. I just want to say that through that discipline policy, we have a philosophy now of student discipline, and it's at the beginning of our policy. So much like the board approved that policy, it was the work, the administrative procedures and regulations were the work of the larger
031committee that was outreach to all kinds of people. And it took some time, and it took some months, but it is a good model policy for our board to make sure that the... the fundamentals we cover in the policy, but then the details are worked out with engagement of everyone else. All right, moving on then to 4.02. This is the class size report. I guess, Dr. Fields, you're not dismissed quite yet, I guess. So the board's aware we budgeted just five minutes for this as it's just an interval monthly update. All right, while Dr. Fields is coming up, I want to make sure that for the board and certainly for our public that we're very purposeful in our language. This is a class-sized report. It is not an enrollment report. Dr. Fields does a handoff
032to Dr. Bailey in the fall as we move into the season of measuring our enrollment. There are many factors that affect the... The work that we do, I know Dr. Fields is gonna give a couple of tangible examples from his presentation, but I was in conversation, actually after the last board meeting, I was in conversation and somebody had used the term enrollment report when they were referring to this class size report. And again, Dr. Fields will have a couple of specific examples that will show where the difference is and why we make that distinction. Dr. Fields? So you said five or 50? I just wanna make sure I have it. We're at 0.5. Good evening, Board of Education, community, and colleagues. As Dr. Ulrich alluded to, as well as Vice President Boyko, today will be
033more so an update as opposed to a report. There are a few areas I do wanna make sure I bring to your attention. The first of which has to do with when do we pull the data. These data that you will see tonight will be from Infinite Campus as of June the 15th. Even though I have some updated information in front of me, what you and what the community will see is based on data from June the 15th. The other area before I dive into some of the numbers has to do with the elementary staffing guidelines. These guidelines have been in place since I've been here over the last three years. And they're important because as we have difficult conversations and engage in some problem solving, we still have to adhere to these staffing guidelines.
034And we have done so and we plan to continue to do so. What you have in front of you is Kaiser followed by North Glendale. Robinson Tillman as well as Westchester this next slide will provide a snapshot for all of the schools what I try to look at is any of the sections that you will see three or more in red we are paying a close amount of attention to it now again you are seeing the numbers per section but we have to look at that cumulative total for that entire grade level that will let us know if it is time to have discussions about opening up another section As a reminder, anything you see in green is just a comparison from last year. And so those class sections were not present in that same
035grade level as of last year. Per the board, you wanted to see some of the comparative data. So we've always looked at comparative data with regards to the previous week. And you will see from our elementary schools, we are up 78 when we compare it to this time last month. But then we take a snapshot into last school year and you will see all of the various grade levels as well as the elementary schools and you will see that we are up 37 students at the elementary level when we compare it to this time or roughly this time last year. We now dive into the secondary schools. We have NYFER followed by North Kirkwood Middle as well as Kirkwood High School. Same holds true as it relates to us comparing the enrollment numbers with regards
036to last month. You will see from June the 15th until May the 9th, and we're down the 12 students. And then you will see the comparative piece from our June 2022 in comparison to June 2023. If you're doing the quick math, overall when we compare both elementary as well as secondary, we are down 25 students when we compare our numbers from 2023 of June and compare them to 2022 of June. What I had a chance to do was go and look at this report that we've been comparing year to year for about a year or so, and thankful enough, we do have some additional data as it relates to comparing. our June the 21st, 2022 numbers, to our June the 22nd, 2021 numbers, and we were down 30 students at that time. So comparatively speaking,
037we're certainly gonna look at the July numbers to see where we are, but trend data, for the most part, depending upon how you look at it, we are seeing the impact of sometimes what's called a bubble in these various grade levels, as well as an influx or less kindergarten students. The last few slides that I will bring your attention to, one of which is, as I have already alluded to with regards to the class size guidelines, we are close to opening up another section in the schools as well as the grade levels that you see in front of you. When I had a chance to go back and look at the comparison data, sometimes we get there and frequently we don't. And so there's no science or anything like that, but we can. agree that
038we're gonna continue to look at those numbers and I have been in conversation with those respective building principals. At the same time, sometimes those same guidelines, particularly for the elementary schools, we are a few students away from having to collapse a section, and that information is shared in front of you, and as I stated previously, I have already been in talks with those principals. The last thing I'll say before I turn it back over to Dr. Ulrich to yield any questions, I had a chance to run the data from Infinite Campus today. And while there may be some slight adjustments, nothing that would have opened or closed the section. With that, I appreciate your time and I'll turn it over to Dr. Olward to facilitate any questions. All right, so before we turn it back
039over, Mr. Boyko, I'd invite the board to take a look at the slide for the elementary schools that is June 15th, 2023 to June 21st, 2022, that comparison. One of the examples that we had talked about to make the distinction between a class size versus an enrollment report, if you take a look at Westchester. The second grade at Westchester did not lose 32 students from going from first grade to second grade. That is a measure of the second grade from last year to the second grade this year. You'll recall that's a big bubble. In fact, if you notice and look one column to the right, That's that big bubble. We didn't add 47 students, the new enrollees to the district. That's just how big that class is. And so you will notice that that will
040bubble through. Another one that I would point out at the high school, if you look at the June 15th, 2023 to June 21st, 2022, and if you look at that number in that 10th grade minus 46, if you go back a year ago today for this enrollment, It was minus 46 when they went to ninth grade. Right and so what that means is is the cohort in front of them is bigger than the cohort that they're in so again Well, we're always looking to make this a good report and make this as valuable as possible for the board But it was a real aha moment for me when I was having that conversation and somebody used the term enrollment I was like, oh no. No, that's not that's not last year's second graders to this
041year's third graders that no We would that's a panic number. You know if you're looking at adding 47 and minus 32 This will track, this is a class size report. It will track where we need staffing. And so again, as we do the warm handoff into the fall and we get into the official enrollment report, that's when the board will begin to see some of the comparisons that we can make to our projections and the other work that we do to help us project out into the future. Mr. Boyko? All right, I'll turn it over for questions. We're at eight minutes at the moment, but starting with this, Murray. Those were not my three. I just have a quick question about the kindergarten numbers. Just to clarify, on the first one, it says how many
042sections, so you have in blue the projection, and then you have the actual number of kindergarten students, and then beneath you have six kindergartens, and then proposed four. So it looks like we won't have as many kindergarten sections for your staffing in the upcoming year, if this holds true for each school. Is that correct? That's how I looked at it. If I hear your question correctly, we are not at the conference numbers as of right now. That is something that we looked at. Having said that, the staffing that we are using is based off the guidelines as well as how many have officially enrolled inside of Infinite Campus. And so you mentioned the blue numbers which represent Coughran, that's just a projection. Those are not the numbers that we actually have, and so we're not
043staffing for the projections, we're staffing for the current enrollment. But beneath you had four, you have six sections from last year and then proposed there will be four sections of kindergarten. Correct, that's a comparison. Yes, I've been using that since the first. so you can see the comparison pieces, but for Kaiser as an example, if that's the number that you're referring to, yes, last year they had six actual sections in kindergarten. Now they have four, but if they continue to grow, then it will subsequently, of course, go on to five sections, et cetera. So in your updated elementary enrollment slide, the overall slide, there are Xs, there's seven Xs, so those are sections that we had last year that right now we won't have this year. Is that correct? For so I'm gonna look at
044this one right here and I want to make sure I hear your question correctly as we look at kindergarten Yes, we have two sections at Kaiser. We have one section at North Glendale. That's three We have the two at Robinson That's the five and then it looks like we have six not seven that it would be the Tillman who has X as well I will because I'm bringing up Tillman Tillman will essentially once we have the The registration complete they're actually gonna open up another section if that's 64 holds straight so it will actually be five sections less compared to last year as opposed to the seven that you had mentioned Okay, and there's some other X's in third grade and second grade. Is that what that means as well? Yes, anytime you see an
045X that represents a section that was there or a section that was present for the 22-23 school year that is not present now. And any time you see a green, you will see a section that was not there, but it's in addition to last year, if that makes sense. Right, okay, great, thank you. Absolutely. So one question, you know, I know the blue number is the Cochran Projections, and right now they're a little behind. What were they last year? I mean... Were they behind last year? Did they ultimately catch up or surpass the projections? My favorite response is it depends. It depends on the school and it depends on the month of the actual report. What I can do is go back and look at the report for the month of June to see what
046were the coffer numbers and if they were higher or lower. but for right now it would depend some schools they were relatively less that's typically the case when you're looking at a robinson into a degree of tillman but it's not uncommon to have a section that's over the coffer numbers namely that may be a kaiser or north glendale i'll have to go and look at the actual numbers thanks absolutely good yeah i think that um one of the things that has always been hard is when when you have to collapse a section um i think that That has always been hard for parents. And so I don't know if there's something that we can do to help parents kind of navigate through that or kind of understand, you know, I don't know. Do you have
047any thoughts on, I know that we've gotten some emails with regards to that. Yeah, so with respect to historically over the last few years, I am aware of one section for the most part. We had the collapse, and lucky enough, it was over the summer. Typically, it's the other way around where we have to open a section. Any time, whether it's opening or collapsing a section, it's a conversation with the principal, and what we try to do is mitigate whatever disruption we would have in the school. In some cases, we can accomplish that. by having a TA, in some cases we do have the spacing, but unfortunately we also have some instances where we may not have the spacing or we are trying to wait to see if someone completes registration. That's another thing, someone
048can register, something happens and then they never actually meet the threshold that we need. It's a very difficult conversation, however, with principals and having that level of understanding and frequently following up, we try to make a decision that best we can, also understanding that we can't have sections where we only have 10, 11, or even 12 students in the class, because that becomes the reaction of overstaffing some of our sections in classrooms. Yeah, I think that that... You know it is something that that is tricky, but you do have to follow the guidelines and I Think that it's just important that we ensure parents that you know These are the guidelines and that we do everything to meet kids needs whether we have to collapse the section And that's part of the reason why I
049tried I know it's redundant at this point But I if you recall I always try to show those guidelines to try to reiterate in addition to that the slide that you have in front of you those are the three sections that we look at in terms of if we were to collapse the Fortunate thing for myself in the district right now. We're still looking at three to four students So it's not like we're down to one student and if this one student leaves we're gonna be in trouble now We still have August we also have July, August, and September, and things can happen before Labor Day, as we've seen. Having said that, we are still three to four students away before we have to make that decision, and again, those principles I've already had conversations
050with. And so is there a date that we need to have to determine, like, okay, if we don't have the enrollment by this date, we're going to... I think my job would be a lot easier if we did because frankly we would have that cut off but unfortunately there's nothing as of up to this point that we're saying based off this date now that's in writing from an informal standpoint Fortunately, once schools start to collapse, the section will be highly problematic and that would be another conversation. Fortunately enough, we haven't had to have that level of conversation and typically with the increases that occur in both July and especially August. Hopefully knock on wood that won't have to be a conversation we'll have. Okay, so if there's stuff that you you know need from us
051in terms of like if it would be helpful to have That kind of date or that kind of thing. I think it's just something that you and dr All right need to work together and come to us on that's a very valid point Thank you for that. Now. I have conversations with dr. Over All right. Thank you. That feels moving on to 4.03 the boundary updates and before we budgeted 10 minutes, so hopefully we don't triple that Well at first let me apologize dr Bailey when I informed the board that dr Bailey would be here to give that update as per our usual he did remind me that he and Elizabeth Locke and Tennille Davis are traveling this evening to a conference and so You will have to do with a poor second for me
052to give you this update As always, I want to make sure and take the opportunity first, we have made a commitment to this Board of Education and to our community that every time we come together we will talk about boundaries, even if we don't have much more to share. The reason being, and I always want to make sure that I take the opportunity to say this, this is a big step for our community. This is not something our community has done in a long, long time. We are being very deliberate. We are creating many pathways for feedback because of that and because we know the impact that we have. We know how much our parents and our students identify specifically and especially with our elementary schools. And so we are moving through this process with
053due diligence and wanna make sure. that at every opportunity we have, that I have, I should say, I reinforce that message. We understand that this will cause students and families to be in different boundary areas than when they moved there. And in some cases, parents have been very open and eloquent about the fact that that may be why they moved to that particular neighborhood. So having said that. Since we last met, as you know, we had a second listening session held at Turner. I just realized we have nobody listening anymore. I have that effect on people apparently. Since we met, we did have a second listening session at Turner to provide additional opportunities for feedback, specifically for our Meacham Park residents. We had a good turnout. According to Dr. Bailey, there were about approximately 30
054people there. But again, I want to make sure that I reiterate, there was no obvious consensus has emerged with regard to how many and what schools that Meacham Park students would attend. As a reminder, our current boundaries have Meacham Park residents and students attending three of our elementary schools, Robinson, Westchester, and North Glendale. Our six scenarios that we originally published, none of them have students zoned to three elementary schools. The one consensus we could reach was that Westchester was very far and did, provided there were some barriers in terms of families and parents being able to travel that far. And so that was reflected in the initial six scenarios. And so the next steps, I have asked our demographer, Dr. Charles Coffin, to provide a proposal to ensure we have the most up-to-date estimates for
055our KSD enrollment. Dr. Coffin will generate estimates of students attending by school and by attendance area. And this information and the major themes and priority areas that emerged from the work that we did in gathering feedback and getting feedback from this board, that will be shared with collective strategies to help inform the next iteration of our boundary maps. So we are on schedule to bring revised scenarios to the board on Monday, the 24th of July. Throughout the back-to-school season, I will go back to a year ago, a suggestion from this Board of Education, Ms. Motik, I believe it was you, that talked about moving that from August to September. We are doing that to allow us to conduct another series of listening events to gather feedback. We will bring a final recommendation to the board
056at the 18th of September board meeting just as an FYI We're kind of closing this portion of the process And so the let's talk boundary channel has been turned off at this time We will turn it back on on on the 24th of July when we have the board meeting and the new and the new scenarios are Presented to are presented to the Board of Education and are made Public so mr. Boyko I'll turn it over to you for any questions that I am able to answer if I've any of the team members out here Are able to answer we'll do our best to do that and if that answer lies with dr Bailey he knows that I'll be in communication with him for follow-up on those questions I appreciate the update and the expectation
057of a larger crowd on July 24th and September 18th Miss Andrews any questions Yeah. Dr. Albrecht, what was it that you're asking Dr. Coffin for? What we're asking him to do is to give us the most up-to-date information that he can specifically around using the geocode data. I'm gonna use language here that's not my expertise, but using that to capture, I wanna make sure I get this, use the 22, this is what I have down, use the 2022 percentages that will be used to generate the estimates for 2023 and the students attending school by attendance area. is what the information that he is proposing to put together for us and share with Collective Strategies. So correct me if I'm wrong. So he's just going to use, we're just going to provide them with the information
058we already have from Cochran. No, he is going to take information from the first half of 2023, information that's updated. He'll update the information that he gave to us last October, if that makes sense. I guess one of the things that when we have, and Ms. Bernardi can probably speak to this more, but I believe we do Dr. Coffin in October for a specific reason with. regards to the enrollment and that kind of thing. And so I guess I'm just kind of confused on what it is that Dr. Coffran can provide that... if we don't have the enrollment. Yeah, and I think that Mr. Romay, if you don't mind, Mr. Boyko, can I call Mr. Romay? I know that he has been in communication with Dr. Coffrin, and he can share a little bit. Again,
059that's vocabulary that's a little bit beyond my expertise, so I want to acknowledge that. But at the same time, Mr. Romay, I know you've been in communication, you and Dr. Bailey have been in communication with Dr. Coffrin specifically about what would be new and different. about the information he shared with us can you give us a i know i'm kind of ambushing here can you give us a little detail so um the report from last i think it was actually given to the board in november it included the september official enrollment that's usually why we wait until after that date so we won't have the official enrollment for next school year now of course But what's new is the live birth data that he should be able to get for all of 2022. So what
060he had to use last year for 2022 was part of 2022, the first six months. So have that information. But also what's new is he's getting the... S3ESRI, I forget exactly what that stands for. Yeah, so he's getting information about demographic information about Kirkwood. He's using that information plus the by our block data for the district and also by age to help refine those projections. Can I add on, Dave? Mike, is he comparing what he projected to what actually happened so that we can overlay that data in the different block groups? Yeah, he's using a calculation based on what he had projected to that S3 data to determine what a more accurate projection would be for 2023 as we're projecting forward. and then applying it to our school district and our block data. So he's
061taking, here's what I projected, here's what actually happened, to refine that percentage, and then taking that refined percentage to apply it moving forward so we can make a more accurate decision based on. And there's information in ESRI, in the block data, and census data that all gets pulled into ESRI. Okay, so then mr. Romay will he still do whatever he does then with our enrollment in the fall in the fall yes we would still have them update the typical enrollment study that we normally do okay and then i i just think that it's important um because i along with other board members were at um the second medium park um you know um conversation and and one of the things that that i kind of heard consistently in board members who were there i know
062um mrs motika was there and mr kathy and mrs bernardi and mrs schirn um i heard pretty consistently that that a lot of people wanted to keep it keep meacham park as it was with with keeping three schools um and so I just think that it's important to kind of say that because that is definitely something that I consistently heard that evening. Spangler? Yeah, I just want to reiterate about using a predictive model and using statistics and it sounds like dr Coffman is going to begin to do that To get better results for us and our forecasting, but there are many ways to do it So thank you for taking this step with him and doing more measures Because as we can all see his projections is here are very far off. So we're not
063making those projections right now. So I'm sure we can get a better number as we look at other statistical methods. So I appreciate you taking that step and doing that. Yeah, look forward to the progress that's being made and the important work that's being done to resolve the priorities that we've established for this process. Moving on to 5.01, consent agenda. I need a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda 5.02 through 5.19 as presented. So moved. Second. All those in favor, raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Passes. 6.01, approval of policy BDDH and KC. I need a motion and a second first to... Approve the community engagement policies B DDH and KC as presented so moved No, I appreciate the board's attention to this and the community's
064engagement with regard to this We did have some engagement through let's talk So I do believe not only that the we met the letter of the law We've met the spirit of the law as well And so while miss Dietrich does not have anything new or different to present I did invite her up in case there are any there are any questions want to thank her and the work that she has done To make sure that we meet this statutory deadline. I think that As I have communicated with the board, there's one question about the policy in its current form. You'll notice as it is presented, it does include five minutes for our community members to address the Board of Education. Again, if you'll recall, that process will, to steal a little bit of Ms.
065Dietrich's language, it'll look a lot like a testimony in the Senate or the House of Representatives where the person can present during their time the board may ask questions of the resident however the resident resident may not ask questions of board members and those questions that are asked we're very clear those questions that may be asked by board members do not count towards the five and or three minutes whatever the board decides just so the board is aware as it is presented it does have five minutes for uh for residents to speak but i know that there was um uh there was some i know there was some desire to have a discussion about that uh prior to approval but uh again i want to say thank you to miss dietrich and the attention that
066she has paid to this as i do believe it is a a model policy modeled after the legislation mr boyko yeah so this time the board members can ask any questions they'd like or if they want to state A preference in the form of motion to amend to three minutes. That's that would obviously be welcome as well To be voted on but as it stands now, it's it's five minutes. I think that Is a period that was subject to discussion, but probably makes sense and if we can I'll open it up now. I guess we started down there this time. So we'll move over to Ms. Varad. Can I ask you a quick question for clarification? Sure. It's written in here as three, and you're saying it's five. Oh, I think I can clarify that
067if it's all right, with your permission. So there's two policies. So one is for public comment. So we always allow three minutes for public comment. So that's why it's a little confusing. And then the one that relates to having community members put things on the agenda. They must meet with the superintendent first, and then after meeting with the superintendent, this policy states that they would have five minutes rather than three minutes to present their issue as an agenda item. So as it is written, it started this way, and that was the question. So if the board is in agreement to leave three minutes for public comment, five minutes for an agenda item discussion, then... It is written that way. If you would like to change it to be consistently three minutes, the difference is that
068if they take the time to speak with the superintendent, they would get two more minutes to talk about it. So it's two different policies. And just to remind everyone, it's got to be approved before July 1st as per Missouri law. And I want to thank Steph Dietrich also for her work on the community engagement as well. all right any questions uh any questions no miss bengborn um i i don't agree with five minutes so i was one of the board members that when talking to dr ulrich i think it is a little confusing to have a three minute Time for a public comment and then five minutes for this. My preference would be three minutes for both. That way if somebody's giving a public comment or if they are preparing for this, there's a consistent
069time. But that's my preference. Ms. Andrews? So just so I'm clear, like this isn't going to be something that happens every meeting because there are multiple steps that like the individual has to go through. Like they wouldn't, if someone has a grievance, they're not going to go directly to Dr. Ulrich. Dr. Ulrich would send them to the appropriate level. Right. And so then if it's not solved at the appropriate at the lowest level, then it would go up to then, you know, say if it were a student issue, it would go up to correct me if I'm wrong. Dr. Dr. Ulrich will go to Dr. Bailey. And then if they're still not happy, it's going to go to then Dr. Ulrich. And so then if they're still not happy, then they could meet or do
070this thing. But it would be like a separate, like they would, it would have to be part of our agenda meeting. Correct? To get on the agenda. Yes, I would. Yes. So it's not like, that's why I think that it. the three minutes versus the five minutes, this is nothing like a public comment. This is a very like, I mean, we hope we never get to this, right? So I would just like to keep it at five so then there's not confusion about, oh, well, public comments, three, this is, you know, so. Just for clarification my understanding of the policy as written is that an individual could begin the process of wanting to put something on the agenda by coming to the superintendent initially and say I want to put something on the agenda that's
071something that could happen from the start if they come to the superintendent with that at the beginning so What you were talking about miss Andrews if someone is already going through a process of working through our protocol and communication They could certainly get to the point with the superintendent where they say, you know what? I want this on the agenda But the policy does provide the opportunity for someone to kind of start there Should they be aware of the policy and yeah, I think I might be able to provide some clarification here is it really and again kind of stealing Dr. Fields when he says it depends It really depends on the issue. Think of the really tough issues we've tackled over the last, well, really three years, but over the last year in particular.
072If it's a governance issue, the resident would still be required to meet with me. But I'll give an example. I know last summer we were talking about sexual health and the curriculum that was surrounding that. If a resident had come to us, there's really nobody for me to... There's not that many people in the organization that I would somehow designate that conversation with because it's a governance question. And so there are some times when there would be far fewer, frankly, far fewer layers and steps that I would expect a parent or a resident to go through. But you are correct. There are certainly... Public comment is somebody could come in here and fill out the card versus to get on the agenda, they would have had to have gone through what you see here as
073the new policy. That is an accurate comment. Okay, but I guess we, as the superintendent, right, if they're coming to you, I mean, you're still going to try to problem solve this. Absolutely. And so. It could be that they come to Dr. Ulrich, right, and say that I want this on the agenda. But then Dr. Ulrich says, I understand that you want this on the agenda, but we're going to, but as the leader of the district, I would like to do this, this, and this, correct? That is correct. However, what I will say is if they are not satisfied with that, there's not a pathway for me to dismiss it. I don't have a right of refusal. Exactly. Exactly. But you do have, I guess I just want to make sure that the community understands
074and that you understand that you still have the ability to problem solve this. And that would be our hope and our goal. Right. Absolutely. That will, that will, that part will not change. Okay. The only other point in clarification would bring out is going back to When you were talking about agenda setting the policy gives a five-day The individual has to say that they want the item on the agenda five days prior to the meeting So there is the potential that an agenda setting meeting could have already taken place But then something would need to be added to the agenda wait, and it has to be added They would need to be included on the next regularly scheduled board meetings agenda There are some rules that are specific. So if the resident The board can
075move the agenda to a different meeting item with the consent of the resident So if they said okay, well our next meeting is such-and-such. It's in five days We've got a pretty busy Agenda and we feel that the board might not be able to give their full attention Would you be willing to move to the following that's certainly conversation that they could have with the resident but The policy does and is that by the five days? It was the recommendation of MSBA based on the law Okay. So that means that Dr. Ulrich then only has five days to problem solve with this individual. I'm sorry, Ms. Andrews. I think I'm being confusing. There's a 20-day period. So the resident reaches out says I have an issue I'd like to resolve dr Ulrich has 20 days
076in order to have a meeting That meeting can take place anytime within the next 20 days. So it could happen the next day a couple weeks Then the resident can meet with dr. Ulrich Dr. Ulrich has the opportunity like you said to problem-solve with that resident if the resident feel still feels that their issue is not resolved That's when they would submit in writing Which we had a question about email. I do think that email would qualify as in writing So the resident would say I don't feel like my issue has been resolved in my meeting and I would like to put this on the agenda That needs to happen at least five days ahead of the next scheduling scheduled meeting in order for it to be on that agenda And the only other piece
077that I think is important is that I think that we need, as a board, to make sure that the community and students feel as though we are here to listen and to problem-solve with them. And so if we're giving them the three minutes, and the same as public comment, It feels like it's the same and so All right, so we have the motion and second for the policy as written Ready proceed to a vote all those in favor raise our right hand and say aye. All right opposed Moving on to 7.01 And we're not doing very well with our time, but I might have started enforcing some we allotted ten minutes to discuss the increase in school lunch prices. Or increase your time. By 10 cents for, and breakfast prices for 10 cents for the
078upcoming school year as presented. Need a motion and a second. So moved. Second. This was moved off the consent agenda at the request of a board member. Dr. Ulrich, first, did you have anything you wanted to say? I shared the information that we gathered with the entire board, specifically with regard to the financial implications if we were to move to a different format, specifically making our meals free for all students. And certainly want to make sure that I honor that request, honor the spirit of that request, which is ensuring that we are treating our students equitably. and are not engaging even, certainly not purposefully, but even inadvertently in food shaming. And so I want to make sure that in conversation with the board, that the board knows that I have heard a very clear message
079that we need to look at ways to ensure that we're meeting the needs of all of our families, specifically with regard to food security and breakfast and lunch at our schools. So that work will continue. The board can expect to see that as part of our strategic plan work with regard to making sure that we're treating everybody with equity. And we will work to determine what pathways that we do have to make sure, A, that our families are accessing our free and reduced lunch at the rate that we would hope and expect. And then also looking at other pathways, I believe, Ms. Andrews, you've mentioned pathways in the past for almost different lanes, maybe additional lanes besides free and reduced. Are there some other ways that we could do that? Mr. Romay, in our conversation
080just today, has made a commitment to ensure that we do look at alternatives and investigate what those alternatives might be. So we have brought this for you. This is my recommendation for approval for the Board of Education, but I wanted to make sure to say very publicly that we have heard you and that we will work to seek what alternatives that might be out there. Mr. Boyko. Thank you, Dr. Ulrich. And a 10% increase is about a 3% increase in the lunch price. Is that right? Yes, that's correct. Any questions? I'll start with Ms. Bernardi. Yes, one comment. So thanks. Dr. Alrick. That was my question and I requested that to be pulled out just because I did hear from families that you know that you know, they felt the food shame so I appreciate
081anything that we can do to really make sure that our students and families can come here and Feel that they belong here and that that is not something they have to worry about or a barrier So I really appreciate hearing an update from you over the next coming months of what? programs we can be doing so thank you for pulling that out and acknowledging that. Ms. Andrews? All right, very good. All right, so we have a motion and a second. All those in favor raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, very good. 7.02 approval of rental rates for the upcoming year I need a motion and a second to approve maintaining the current facility rental rates for the 2023-2024 school year as presented so moved second Dr. Ulrich anything to
082say on these No, I think that obviously the rental rates will be related. I'm sure there'll be some questions specifically about How they relate to the approval of the security requirements and our rental activities But I do know that I I did a field some questions and some ideas from Board of Education members specifically around the rental rates If you'll recall we have one rental rate that I asked the board to approve each year We have had one situation where we asked for and the board approved a reduced rate, if you'll recall. That was for Webster Groves to use our football facility while they are building their facility, they are going to use ours. And so the board was very gracious and approved a reduced rate for that. So I think that's where I will
083leave it. The recommendation as it stands is our recommendation for our facility rates moving forward, but wanted to give the opportunity for board members to share their ideas. Starting with Ms. Andrews. Ms. Coffey. So my comments, and I know we bounced some ideas off each other, is more just related to process. So as I understand it, the rates are the same from the previous year, which I know is not always potentially going to be the case, but I'm sure that will be appreciated. It's really, as it stands right now, the process is there's no route for priority for Kirkwood community residents. And I think that's something that I'd like to see us talk more about. I think it's something that would be relatively easy to draft up and then implement. We've got very desirable facilities.
084We're investing a lot in them. They're centrally located. And I just want to make sure that we preserve an opportunity for them to be used by Kirkwood residents because there's nothing better than... walking by the high school on a Sunday and seeing it completely packed and I want to make sure that at least our residents and children of the district have an opportunity to access them first. I think about the young mom who's trying to start a third grade soccer team and just making sure she understands she's got a path at least first to have access because there'd be nothing better than that. So I think that's something we can take away. We can do that. Ms. Moriarty? Think we offer resident rates, but we don't offer resident priority that is that correct? We have
085one rate that we charge Yeah, we have three different rates, but so there's a student rate a community rate and then an outside group rate But right there's no Designated time that allows only residents to reserve their Fields or gyms or whatever it is prior to an outside group Have we ever offered a staff rate No, not a staff rate. We we had reduced rates for some teams that were Kirkwood sponsored teams before You know one of the things that I think is important is you know, we want As Ben said, we want our community to use this, but we also want to give our staff the opportunity to use our facilities. And so would that be something that we could consider a staff rate? When you say staff, are you talking about a staff
086member who's a coach of a team? Yeah, I mean I think that would be the most likely usage but also it could be a staff member who wants to have a club or a staff member who wants to you know drawing a blank on what a staff member could. Yeah, we could certainly look at examples for that. The one thing, like you used a club example, obviously if it's school sponsored, we wouldn't charge them, but I think I know what you mean is if we have a staff member that, let's say, wants to engage in our students in maybe something that isn't directly school sponsored, would they have a pathway and would they, because we do, we would expect in a situation like that for them to go through our process and sign up and
087pay the rates. I think what I hear you saying is. almost in a way to encourage our folks to maybe become involved. Could we have a staff rate, maybe a staff rate that could be equal to one of the rates that we're asking the board to approve? We can certainly look into that, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, because I think at the end of the day, that benefits our students, it benefits our staff, it benefits our community. So I think that, you know, if we could. And also I think that when you look at kind of workplace happiness, could this be something that is something kind of not a perk, but a benefit, another benefit of working for the Kirkwood School District. If the staff want to have a staff on staff lacrosse game, I will
088make sure that money is not the obstacle on that one. All right, so we have the motion second to approve rental rates. So just so I'm understanding. would you bring that back? Like we're approving this, but like how is that going to work? Absolutely. We'll look into that and see what pathway there is along with the idea of prioritization. We can have those things work in tandem. And so we'll ask the board to approve these rental rates now. And then any changes, much like we brought the Webster Groves to the board, it would just be an addendum to this. We could add it. Thanks, Dr. Oliver. And Mr. Romney. All right, all those in favor of approving the rental rates as proposed, please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Great. On
089to 7.03, approval of security requirements for rental activities. Dr. Ulrich? All right, thank you once again. And as has been the case, Mike will stay here. I'll invite. Oh, sure. Okay, we'll do it. So moved. Second. All right. We good? Great. Now we'll go ahead and do this and so this is related We've we've had this for a year We've had this in place for a year now for so board members will remember that we talked about this requirement I'll invite Martis to join a mic if there are any questions. He doesn't have a formal presentation for this evening But I do know that mr. Romay has done Has done a little bit of work based on some questions that board members have had so with With your permission, Mr. Boyko, I'll kind of set
090up a couple of those questions that we've had and give Mr. Omei the opportunity to report out on things like did we ever cancel events if we couldn't find some type of security? What was our activity like this year versus years previous? I know we got that question. And then how often did we have situations where we didn't and we weren't able because we won't cancel. when we weren't able to provide security at events. I know you have some of that information, and I'll just ask you to kind of extemporaneously share it. Yes, thanks. It was pretty rare that we didn't have security when security was required. So for the most part, any time we had an event that falls under these guidelines, we provided this security some exceptions would be as if we got
091notice last minute and there were some sometimes like that where somebody rented something the day of or the day before and then we may not have gotten security but we never canceled any events if we couldn't get the security for it in terms of the revenue collected that included the security fees We didn't see a drop off in revenue. It's consistent with what we received last year and the years prior to COVID. So the revenue was relatively the same, in some cases higher. And we're not aware of any teams that canceled out on us. We know there was one group early on last August that was a little upset, but they still rented from us. So we're not aware of any teams or groups that didn't rent our facilities due to the security. Any questions?
092Do you feel like all of the different groups? Follow the rule to have security. Well, I hope so They had to fill out an application they had to indicate what the type of event was And then that from there that determined whether or not we needed security so if it was a competition or not Also, they had to indicate the number of spectators So certainly there could have been instances where people did not correctly fill out the application. I just also want to give a shout out to our safety and security and our Kirkwood Police Department for stepping up to this. I know that we're so lucky to have the SROs that we have and Mr. Scott. And this was a big ask, and we appreciate it. Yeah, so... You know, unfortunately, my understanding is
093this is a precaution that is taken because of combative spectators. It's just the reality of it. I've seen it myself, so I understand that. That's real. What's also real is climbing costs that are associated. And we want to make sure that we keep an eye on the exact thing that you reported on, which I'm glad you brought to this, about usage and making sure that we get feedback from groups that have historically used our facilities to see if this is becoming a barrier. if they're having to go to other locations so that they can keep the Average cost that they're passing on to their families in check I know many people can attest to the fact that these costs are skyrocketing want to make sure that we're not throwing up a barrier So, you know
094full-day rental costs dependent on on spectator, you know volume can approach a few hundred dollars tacked on top of the rental rate and that's going to be directly passed on to families and based on my previous statements we hope that that's Kirkwood families so just want to make sure that we continue to keep an eye on that solicit feedback to see if this is becoming any kind of barrier whatsoever would be my feedback okay thank you thanks Mr. Bernardi okay yeah now I'll echo that you know we we are I think as a board certainly myself concerned about Putting obstacles in the way and obviously we understand and I You know personally, I think most of probably all of us here understand from from youth sporting events the need for it And we want to
095just make sure that we are satisfying the need but doing so in a way that is as much as possible allowing our our students, our student athletes, our community to feel like they belong and they should be here on Kirkwood property where we like to keep them. Thank you for that. Now on to the, we got the motion second, so all those in favor raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, 7.03 passes. On to 7.04, financial reports. You know it's good because it's Mr. Romay alone. I need a motion and a second to approve the financial statements for May 2023 as presented. So moved. Dr. Ulrich? I don't have anything to add. This is a routine matter, and certainly Mr. Romay has earned our confidence with regard to these reports.
096So I'll turn it right over to him. Thank you our revenues in May were operating revenues were 3.2 million the biggest revenue source was state revenue 2.2 million and that included 1.8 million and early childhood special ed grant funds and 400,000 and basic formula funds We spent roughly $7.9 million in the month of May from our operating fund. That included $849,000 for the turf project. The turf project is part of the 23-24 budget, so what we will do is in July, I'll bring a recommendation to the board to actually reduce next year's budget for that amount that we paid out of this fiscal year. And if there's any payments in the month of June, we'll add to that. Interactivity accounts fund, we spent $300,000 for the turf project. Again, that was funds that were donated
097specifically for this purpose. And then in our construction fund, we spent $4.4 million on prop R projects. Any questions from the board, starting with Ms. Bernardi? Ms. Andrews? No. All right. All those in favor of approving the financial statements for May 2023 as presented, please raise your right hand and say aye. Aye. Those opposed? All right. Motion passes. 7.05 approval of the fiscal year 24 budget. I need a motion and a second to adopt the 23-24 budget as presented. So moved. Second. Dr. Ulrich? Yes, I always want to take the opportunity when the board is given the... the opportunity to approve the fiscal year budget. I wanna make sure that I always take the time to say that we really do take the responsibility of using our community's resources in an efficient and effective way.
098I think that there are plenty of opportunities, or I should say plenty of examples, where we can show that we are providing world-class education for our students and doing that in a fiscally responsible way. That includes the teachers that we're able to put in front of our students, that includes the resources that we're able to provide for those teachers and our staff. It includes the facilities from the classrooms to the fields to the courts that we're able to provide for our staff. And we're able to do that in a fiscally responsible way. I never want that to be thought to be taken for granted. I want our community to know that I can say that I can tell you that our board does not take that for granted. This is multi-millions of dollars that we
099spend and the attention that Mike and Mr. Romay and his team pay and as I mentioned earlier, the trust that he has earned over his time as CFO. Always also want to take the opportunity to say thank you to him and pass that on to your team as well. This is a document that I am certainly proud of and proud to bring to the Board of Education. for approval as I do believe it is aligned to our strategic plan goals and is moving us towards reaching those goals on an annual basis. So Mr. Boyko, with your permission, I'll turn it over to Mr. Romano. Thank you. The budget was originally presented to the board on May 15th, and then we discussed it on June 5th during the work session. We haven't made any changes to
100the revenue or expenditures in the budget, so that's the exact same budget that was presented to the board. I would like to thank our Budget and Finance Committee for all their help and guidance with preparing the budget. And so I'm recommending that the board adopt the 23-24 budget as presented. Any questions from the board? Start with Ms. Bernardi. Thank you, Mr. Romay. As usual, excellent report and budget. And thank you also. I know you're heading up the enrollment study, and so there might be some modifications later, but I always appreciate the excellent work you and the committee do. Thank you. No questions. Just thank you. I know it's a lot of work for everyone. So thank you. Thank you Mr. May I've heard a higher percentage of folks that are going to appeal their property
101taxes this year Did you you made sure that you went back reviewed that feel comfortable with you know, your assumptions there and everything I feel comfortable with the assumptions. I think that's My guess is that commercial properties there we significant number of commercial properties appeal just because the assessed value increased almost 50% so that we know that number is going to come down but the Revenue that's projected in the budget is that the max that is allowed which is 5% so even at that Commercial property values come down significantly. It should still be above that 5% which is what was used for the budget So I know one of the things during part of this process is that you talk to the building leaders and ask their needs. And I think at some point I
102ask for that. I would just, in the future, as we're going along, maybe if we could kind of incorporate... hearing from those leaders and what they need and seeing how it's represented in the budget a little bit more. Does that make sense? And then I just always want to focus on, I know I'm like a broken record, but the interventionist. I just want to ensure that... If a child needs an intervention, that we have the manpower to provide that intervention. And I think that it's really difficult to determine if we have enough because, I mean, I know from being a teacher, you know, all of a sudden if there isn't room, then that child just doesn't. we do something else for them. And so I just want a way to make sure that we are
103providing that. And then the last thing that I would just challenge you is a lot of kids with dyslexia are... struggling in our district. And so is there something, you know, and that's tricky because I believe that they don't qualify for an IEP. And so do we need to look at the services and the training? And I know that our staff is trained. But I know a number of families who have left our district to go to a church hill or that kind of thing. And so I just really want to look at if we need to do something to meet the needs of that population and really honestly maybe to understand how big that population is in our school. Yeah, and Ms. Andrews, I understand the nature of that question. And normally I would
104look to a Dr. Bailey, but as I said, that group that would speak to that is off to their conference. However, what I can do is certainly commit to getting a little bit of a deeper dive from that team. Yep. um with regard to that what i will say is they are out this week so please as a board please don't expect that this week yeah certainly before our next board meeting the board can expect an update on that with very a specific deep dive and including our students who are dyslexic yeah and i i want to be sure that you know we are we do have training and as dr oliver said we you know have a program that specialized for children with dyslexia I just you know want to make sure that we're
105looking into that so thank you dr. Olwork appreciate that and I'll take the opportunity to to thank that to thank you and to thank the Budget Committee since I've gotten on the board the budget has been in a better position the district as a whole has and I think dr. Olwork is right to to point out the successes that we've had particularly in this area and I think that Miss Andrews is perfectly right to also raise that the board is Not seeing as much of sort of what's being left off or what are the What are the assets that are being made that never raise to being something that we hear is even being denied? And I would hate to think that there's a teacher or principal out there that says, oh, we could serve
106this child or this dozen kids so much better if we just had X. And as long as X is something that could potentially be reasonable, there may be reasons to say no, of course. There probably are, but there may also be reasons that the board should at least be aware that those sorts of decisions are being made as we... Work to approve a budget. Thank you. Okay all right, so we have a motion in a second those in favor of approving the Adoption of the 2023 2024 budget as presented. Please raise your right hand and say aye. All right, any opposed No, thank you. Thank you All right on to 8.01 which is future events Independence Day is coming up on July 4th Our next board meeting will be on July 24th. It is scheduled
107for 630. So I guess the sun is setting earlier. So we're moving it up to 630. And it will be here at Robinson Elementary School. August 7th will also be at 630. There will be a board work session. And the first day of school is coming up faster than my children would like on August 22nd. And then we meet. to talk about boundary lines, I suppose, on August 28th, also at 6.30. And with that, having no further business, I will adjourn the meeting. Thank you.