001Is there a motion to adopt the June 8, 2026 regular board meeting agenda? So moved. Motion is made by Ana and seconded by Lila. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. This is open forum. It's the time at every board meeting when members of the public may speak to the board. Please notice that a citizen must state his or her name and address for the public record and may have up to five minutes to speak. The board reserves the right to limit the time allotted to open forum for a total of 30 minutes. Has anyone signed in? Is there anyone here who wishes to speak? Emily Lewis, I live at 355 88th Street here in West Des Moines. I just wanted to talk about dual
002language coming to Crestview. So good evening members of the board and superintendency. My name is Emily Lewis and I'm here tonight speaking from a unique vantage point as an educator here in West Des Moines and a former parent. We care deeply about our Crestview community, and while I fully recognize the research benefits of the dual language program in general, the specific rollout and execution details proposed for Crestview School of Education raise serious and systemic concerns. A program of this magnitude alters the fundamental fabric of an elementary school, yet the planning process has left out key details and the stakeholders who hold the most impact. our teachers, our families, and our students. Each year of implementation will displace one of our highly qualified teachers at a grade level, systemically replacing dedicated educators who chose Crestview and
003have consistently moved student data. Despite the multiple requests, district administration has failed to define how seniority will be protected, offering only vague reassurances that displaced teachers can be relocated elsewhere. The lack of preparedness makes our teachers feel disposable. Furthermore, despite the question being asked repeatedly, we still lack transparency regarding the specific criteria to qualify or disqualify an educator as a bilingual teacher in this program, a critical detail we must get right in order to protect our instructional quality during a national teacher shortage. Our families were not invited into this conversation until late May, and the resulting data is highly misleading. A high approval percentage that is highlighted reveals a mere 20% response rate, just 179 responses out of 901. Furthermore, the survey question itself reads like an advertisement asking if parents want a program that
004can boost reading and thinking skills while completely omitting the structural trade-offs and timelines required to implement it and who would be able to access the program. Families cannot truly provide informed feedback when critical context is withheld until after their data has been collected. Crestview is a true community hub and a neighborhood school. Implementing a dual language program has left many unanswered questions regarding our students. What happens to our students when they get capped because they're opting out? What is the explicit process for deciding who stays and who goes elsewhere? How does this impact our students' access to academic interventions or special education? And what research supports the shift in instruction when our school's growth in reading is trending upward? Thank you for your time. Thank you. As a reminder, we can't comment, but we'll have
005someone follow up with you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Okay, let's move on to our consent agenda then. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? There's a motion made by Anna and seconded by Jill. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. That motion carries. Up next is our superintendent's report, and Dr. Adams is not here with us tonight, but he's asked me to kick it off, I guess, with Gianna Pugliese. We'll be presenting first, and then we'll have Natalie French up, and then finally Steve and Michelle. And I believe Dr. Jack wanted to. Hey, good evening, team. Thank you for having. So Haley Rousey and Gianna Pugliese, both of them support the adult access or adult ESOL classes. But
006more than that is, if you remember, the LSI partnership. I'm trying to bring that to West Des Moines as a resource desert and their work that they're doing. So tonight they're going to provide overview, look at some of the data and talk about the program with the hopes that it underscores the incredible work happening behind the scenes. And I do want to acknowledge the foresight of Shauna Jensen years back in terms of wanting to ensure that we have Haley's position of 25 hours a week to be able to support what we're doing. So thank you for having them. I've got to move this way down. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much for having us here tonight. If you want to go forward. We're good. There we go. The flow for our presentation is just
007introducing ourselves as the outreach team, a little bit about adult ESOL, and then a couple other outreach coordinator activities. So, like I said, my name is Gianna Pugliese, and I am the Community Outreach Coordinator here at West Des Moines Community Schools. Just a little bit of background. I have nine years in refugee, immigrant, and migrant social services that I bring to the district. And then in my previous role at Lutheran Services in Iowa, I did supervise the adult ESOL department there and oversaw their refugee education program. Hello, friends. Hello. My name is Haley. I am the adult ESOL coordinator. I have had the great joy of actually collaborating with Gianna since 2019. A majority of my experience comes from refugee resettlement. So I worked with USCRI and IRC in town, if you're familiar, and then
008also have taught English as a second language. I taught through Plymouth Renew for around five years and was on the leadership committee for that program. Thank you. Back down. Even in my heels, we got to go up and down. So just a really quick overview of the adult ESOL program and why it's so crucial and important is we are trying to help adult learners chase that American dream, right? Language is a big access point for members of our community, not only in their day-to-day lives, but then also, as we all know, research shows that adults who are interacting with their children in their education, the children do better and assisting adults in accessing that language can also help our parents help their students. in the classroom as well. And just in communicating with teachers and
009all sorts of other aspects. This is made possible through multi-departmental collaboration with the Multilingual Program Director, Community Education, Lutheran Services in Iowa, Culture and Access. It's not just one or two people. It really, it's a lot of departments that are helping make this program possible right now. And our curriculum is Literacy Minnesota. We also utilize CASA Steps and New Readers Press. And these are standards in adult education. As you'll see in one of your handouts, we do have an overview of those national standards and why we're using each of these. tools in our program and how it aligns with just national standards and also what some of the largest providers in our area are doing to make sure that we're providing quality services. And then it is also important to note that all of this
010falls under what's called CBESL. That's community-based. English as a second language or second or additional language. Because for adults, we really want to make sure that they're able to access things in the community. That is really crucial. And research on adult practices shows that. And so I'll let Haley talk about that really quickly. Yeah, it was hard for me to choose an example of why we need to use the community-based curriculum. But before we went on their two-week summer break, we spent a month talking about health care. And a big theme in the class was understanding what urgent care was, because I think that's a very underutilized resource. And West Des Moines does have several great options for that that do accept Medicaid. And so I spent a lot of time going over what is
011urgent care, where can you go? And before the meeting tonight, I had a student call me and say, teacher, I think this is something that should be seen at urgent care, not the ER. Can you send me the address? And so she went for the first time tonight. And so that is, yeah, like why we do this. We use relevant things that are going to help them in their daily life. oh yeah sorry i'm really bad at this part okay okay so um one thing Gia and i both come from grant backgrounds and so data gathering is very important to us and i also have a statistician for a partner who would be very very upset with me if i did not keep very good data so he yes so since our program launched in
012april of 2025 We have interacted with 179 adults within our district. And there's a few more that were outside the district, bringing it up to 204 adults. These individuals represent people from 28 different countries speaking 15 different languages. And we'll go into that a little more in a second. You'll see in some of the pictures, these are some of the wonderful students we teach, which all of the pictures we have here. And I think it's really important to note that 37% of our students never completed or finished high school. And so a lot of times we're interacting with also like illiteracy, not just in English, but in the home language. And so that's something we're working with and why we have created four different levels we teach so that we can really piece that out
013and address that. Oh yeah, this is me too. Okay, we're good. All right. So we do have four different, and in your data sheets. There's like a three-page one. So on the second page, it shows the different classes. It also does capture the LSI class, which we don't teach, but we host a teacher for and collaborate with. So in these classes, we have sites at Crestview, Hillside, and the Learning Resource Center. Over the summer, our Hillside class will take place at the Learning Resource Center due to construction. But since April of 2025, Our students have locked 4,151 hours in our classes. And I really also want to highlight something critical, which is the volunteerism that is critical to our program. Within adult literacy, having classroom volunteers is integral. I could not do my job without
014it. You may have four different levels, but within each, every level, there's so much difference. And you may have someone who speaks very fluently, but does not read or write. And so I utilize community volunteers, Grinnell College volunteers, which is my alma mater, go Grinnell. And also Silver Cord volunteers. We have logged in that year 490 volunteer hours, 231 of which are our Silver Cord. My Silver Cord volunteers are the heart and soul of our child care. I have some paid staff, but they fill in all the gaps. So I could not do this job without also Silver Cord. Go back. I do want to give Haley a shout out. She is really, really good at volunteer management and recruitment. One of her regular community volunteers, she recruited at a coffee shop. I did work
015at that coffee shop if that helps, but yes. Yes, that's my other job. So if you need really good coffee, baristas, bouquet, West Des Moines, just saying. Okay. All right. So something else that I think is really important to understand is we're not just doing English. We're learning how to navigate our district and to get them more involved with the district. And so in January and February of 26, we took field trips to Western Hills School Food Pantry. And every student was introduced to the food pantry. And we used interpreters to help them learn how to access it. With the loss of SNAP benefits, specifically to a lot of refugees and immigrants right now. food access is a top need in all of my classes. And so this was something we spent a lot of
016time on. I also used to do bus training as part of my past life in refugee and immigrant services. So I do also bus training. Unfortunately, with darts change and it's gonna hit the West Des Moines pretty hard, but I am still able to do bus training. I've trained six or seven and I think we have that. In here somewhere I have bus trains, six or seven different students, a lot of them from Normandy Terrace, if you're familiar on Grand and E.P. True. And I am able to obtain a free month bus pass through my partnership with DART for the students to utilize and learn. We also have toured the West Des Moines Public Library and attended like little kind of info sessions. And that's a picture of some of my wonderful students getting their
017very first library card and learning what the library and kind of how it can be helpful to them. So we try to integrate things about the district and the community they live in into their classes. Anything else about that? I would, yeah. So just again on the partnership piece of it, I think Haley's disposition and connections are also really helpful and really crucial to making sure that our students are getting what they need. And then... Bringing in, I know she had briefly mentioned the LSI partnership, and that's also more like thoroughly outlined in your other data handout. But we were able to bring in where we weren't able to like. pay a full additional person to provide the necessary pre-literate level classes. Through a partnership with Lutheran Services in Iowa, we were able to exchange
018in kind for free rental space, essentially this room, free rental space. They would then bring one of their pre-literate teachers to us to teach this class. So again, it really does take a community to make sure that all of our families are holistically. supported and we're really really grateful for that and then just a couple other ways that my position supports in the school district and some of the students or the children of some of Haley's students we go on college visits I do an eighth grade ESOL college visit to DMACC every year. And then as a part of the Refugee and Immigrant Student Embassy Rise at Valley High School, we go on to college visits. every year. And one of the really cool things about those is seeing students who never pictured themselves on
019a college campus finally saying, oh, wait, I can do this. There was a student who graduated a couple of years ago who told me that the only reason she even applied to college is because she went on one of these college visits because she didn't think it was attainable for her previously. So that that was really cool. And then. RYDES also participates in a lot of student-led projects, but one of the big ones is their annual food drive and thinking about the food insecurity that a lot of our families face. Also giving our students the leadership skills to give back to the community, especially with food security is really important right now, so we're really, really proud of them. And then I had briefly mentioned the LSI partnership and kind of how that worked and
020bringing in the Bureau of Refugee Services as well. They helped fund some of the additional RISE college visits, summer scholars that started today, and just a few other. Notable mentions, Iowa State, Pi 515, Art Force Iowa. There's just a lot of really awesome things happening in Des Moines. And it's just figuring out how can we strategically partner and bring them here so that our students also have access without having to figure out a way to go to Des Moines and access it. Thank you. That's all we have. Do you have any questions for us? Just one that I could think of. Do you have, of the total... adult participants, do you have any numbers on how many of them are not parents of students in our schools? Yes, so only about 20 of the people
021I've interacted with, and for the most part, they're referred out. We do have one class, which is a conversation intermediate advanced that they can participate in. Otherwise, I help other folks like apply to DMACC or I help try to get them into another program. So all but about 20 of all of those numbers are West Des Moines parents or at least living within the district. Okay, cool. Thank you. Good stuff. And there's more data here on this page that just kind of shows how many student hours, how much schooling they have gone through, and then how long they've been in the country. And I think this is really interesting to just note that 50% of the students I teach have been in the United States for only one to three years. So we're really capturing
022that kind of important time. Okay, now he's coming up, so I think I got to be done. Any other questions? Not a question, more of just like comments. Thank you both for all the work that you're doing above and beyond. I mean, that's what really comes to mind. I work at West Des Moines Human Services, as Gianna knows. You guys rock, by the way. Yeah, thank you. I'll relay the message to our director. So I really think it's to... to have the opportunity to engage with some of the families and to see the shift of that, of the sense of belonging and leadership. Like, it's hard as a child of an immigrant where I had to interpret for, you know, my mom growing up and having to become an adult at an earlier age, right?
023Like, adult responsibilities. Messed up liver and lung one time, you know, as, like, a volunteer. Anyway. I was just a kid. No, anyway. But either way, like, I don't think people really understand how, like, the dynamics even of a family changes when people have access and have the ability to learn and take initiative. And, I mean... the families that we have are like they're already speaking three other languages, right? And so they're really like, and so I know that we have, we're limited on how many families we serve. Some have a waiting list. So when I, when Dr. Jock mentioned that we're moving towards starting ESOL classes, I was really excited and so happy. And for you all to take it to the next level of like kind of that integration part and learning of
024like our district. That's just amazing work. So thank you so much for what you're doing. I'm so excited to see how you'll move this forward. Thank you. So I do have one question. She mentioned that they have a waiting list. And so I'm wondering, are your classes full? Do you have a waiting list? Could you do more? Sorry, if you had more. Yeah, that's a really good question. It ebbs and flows constantly. Most of my families have... more than one job. And so I do kind of, it kind of comes in and out. So I'll have a moment where it's, well, we are not full right now and I can take more people. And we actually, through collaboration with Natalie French, who is amazing by the way, we were able to hire on another teacher
025to open an additional site at Hillside to address the need. And so with that additional site and the partnership with LSI, we were able to get everyone off the wait list. If the wait list happens again though, then we're going to ask, what can we do? Can we have more classes? We don't want to have people on a wait list so not right now but but I mean if that happens more classes would mean more more cost more teacher cost but that would be a conversation for you know when we when we get to that point that last question may dovetail with what I was curious about I should preface this by don't take my question as Not seeing the value at all in the classes, but when I looked at that the and I
026know it's just 2025 and then 2026 but when I looked at the average students per class That seemed to be lower and I didn't know if that was a function was that by design by adding more classes And so the average was down just trying to help understand like the students attending one or more class seemed to be slightly lower from 25 than in 26 in the spring, and then also the average students per class. And again, just curious, was that by design? And then also, do you have a goal or what the capacity is as it relates to that? Yeah, so no, that's a great question. With adult classes, everything is... kind of, like Haley said, it ebbs and it flows. Adult learning tends to have a little bit lower enrollment, especially in the
027wintertime. A lot of our families are not used to the cold. And we saw this even when I was in my previous role, that wintertime hits and attendance just tanks and that will throw off averages. But as summer rolls around and spring and it gets warmer, then it swings the other way. So that's just kind of the natural progression of adult language services. And I've been tracking why students drop about 85% as they got another job or their job shift changed. And so that's kind of something that's always going on. And so that's why we're always looking at what is the best time for classes and always being willing to shift that if we find that, hey, these times are not the best anymore. For the board, I think when they mentioned collaboration across the
028departments, it truly is. Natalie's done a great job to support our two leaders. Brian Abling, in terms of digital literacy, wanted to do that, came to him, hey, do you have some computers we could borrow? And he was willing and gracious. Same thing with the CE team, business office as well, especially with some of the grants. The two things I would lift for y'all that I'm having a conversation with Dr. Adams is There's no reason for us not to build out an adult basic education program that is a flagship of our district. because there is a need both for enhancing the student experience, but also workforce development, as well as even internally, right? One of the conversations we're having, the HR is leading, Jackson, Anderson as well, is this idea that we have staff that
029are illiterate, right? And so you can speak English and not be literate. And so it presents different challenges for safety and other things. And so that's where we're... headed is being able to build out a flagship program that truly, truly improves adult basic education across our system. Thank you. And just to piggyback off of that, one of the reasons why Dr. Jock said it would be a flagship, there's a few different reasons, but in mine and Haley's time in refugee and immigrant social services, there used to be an ELL-friendly HiSET class through a partnership with DMACC and the Bureau of Refugee Services, and that was defunded in 2018. and it has never come back. So currently, the Des Moines metro nowhere has language learner friendly HiSET prep services, period. And as we saw, 37% of
030the adults that we've interacted with thus far in our one short year, 37% did not have the opportunity to complete high school. And are language learners. And so right now, the way the HiSET exam is written, you need at least a sixth to an eighth grade level of literacy in order to comprehend the questions as they're currently written. So I do also think that that speaks to that need as well. And then with workforce development, economic mobility, families would be able to earn more if they had that degree. You know, it's all kind of a ripple effect. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you so much for your time. That was really good. Natalie, let's hear from you. Well, you know. I'm thankful I found a board meeting to come to in June to talk
031with all of you. So here we go. You have a packet in front of you. There are three things in that. The first is the executive summary of the proposal that, was part of the TLS advisory meeting this spring and then part of this board meeting. There's also included in there a cost proposal. That was some feedback from TLS advisory. What is the cost as we onboard new dual language? Could we have some metrics around that? We know that we're watching budget closely. And then the last would be the slides that you can see. on the screen so I get the opportunity to share a proposal for informational purposes on expanding dual language programming in our district and to give you all a chance to provide feedback and questions so the comprehensive program review includes
032data for our current program as well as some feedback from our students. We engaged in circles this past winter with our students and also have our language assessment data and our screening data and just a comprehensive overview of what it's looked like as we've implemented dual language programming at Western Hills. It also includes in the third part a proposal to expand. I think from the time we started doing dual language at Western Hills, and for those of you who remember, it was a 2016 program of study proposal that brought dual language to our district with the ambitious goal of implementing in fall of 2017. I think a reality check that there is curriculum work and professional learning and onboarding that goes into that. And so it was delayed a year and our kindergarten class started.
033at Western Hills in 2018. And from there, we've added one grade every year. Next year for the 26-27 school year, we will be K-8 at Western Hills and Stilwell. We'll have social studies taught at 7th and 8th grade at Western Hills, as well as a heritage language class as an elective for our 8th graders. And then the following year would move to 9th grade. And the year after that, we would add programming to Valley High School. So we would have a K-12 program. I think a lot of the feedback from all of you along the way is this is something that's drawing people to our district we have families who want to open enroll but we don't have space for them our program at Western Hills is primarily filled by students who are boundary to
034Western Hills which makes sense but with the need and the desire from others how can we make this a way to attract students and families to our district as well as thinking about equitable access within our feeder pattern so how do we think about having an option for students at our Indian Hills feeder pattern to also access dual language programming. We know that it benefits our students. It benefits our multilingual learners. When I think about the idea of a sense of belonging for our kids to be able to be in classes where their home language is recognized and taught, I think a common question is, well, what if they can't read in Spanish yet? Well, that's the point of the program, right? We want to teach kids to be literate and to be able to
035read and write in Spanish as well as in English. So our current program then, it's that. 50-50 program model where half the day is taught in Spanish and half in English at the elementary our goal is to have at least half the class from Spanish speaking background so when I think about Crestview where we have a school where 52% of students are Spanish speaking students this is a great opportunity for them to develop those skills and we would not have any issues getting at least 50% of the class to be Spanish speakers and then When we move up to the junior high, we've got that content area that we're continuing to teach. We've been maintaining wait lists for each of our classes as we go through. So the proposal is to add a strand of
036dual language to the Indian Hills feeder pattern. Why Crestview? And I know that there are feelings because there's people attached to this, right? And we're talking about people who we work with and people we know and change is really hard. So why Crestview? Well, because over half of the students at Crestview already speak Spanish. When we look at class data across our district, if we're not going to be displacing students to bring in Spanish speaking students, Crestview is the only building where we already have students who speak Spanish at every grade level. to have at least half of one class section. And that's in the proposal. You can see the numbers for that as well. We also know that Crestview is not at capacity right now. You all know because we cut a sixth grade
037section. And so as an opportunity to not have to cut and to be able to attract more students and have students in the space where there's maybe room to allow some open enrolled students as well as supporting the students who are at our building, Crestview would be a good location for that. And it's in. Indian Hills feeder pattern. I think thinking about the logistics of it, no time would probably be enough time to feel ready. I know that. That's hard. But being thoughtful about what that looks like, the proposal would be to start with a kindergarten and first grade section in 2028-29. So that's two years out. So not next school year, not the school year after, but the school year after that, being able to start. So that gives two years to build capacity
038to partner with families to share to get their feedback as we shape what that program looks like, to get teachers in place who can teach. To teach in our program, we have outlined that. To be a dual language teacher at elementary, you have to be elementary licensed. That's a requirement from the state. And you have to have a Spanish language fluency that is high enough to teach content in it. And how do we do that? You have to be endorsed with a Spanish teaching license or a native speaker. And we assess that. we do a performance assessment that includes oral and written language skills to make sure that you have the skills needed to teach in our program. That's what we've done at Western Hills as we've rolled it out K-6. As we're adding in
039our junior high, that's what we're doing as well. And so we'll continue to make sure that we're appropriately licensed, so we're in compliance, and that we have the language skills necessary. You don't want to be in a spot where you can't do your job. So that's really important. But ultimately, by 2035-36, which is what 10 years from now we would be fully implemented k-12 at Crestview and Western Hills at both of our junior highs and at our high school so that's that's the overview it feels like a long ways away right now but it would allow for time to build one grade one teacher at a time as we go so how is this looked I I know the question has been out for a long time I can think of maybe four years ago
040doing a multilingual program update and and getting the question and when can we expand dual language? And I said, not yet. We need to get Western Hills fully implemented. Not yet, not yet. we're almost there. We're almost there through Western Hills and Stilwell. And so when that question was raised to me in September, when I shared my dual language and my multilingual program update with the board, the question came up again. And I said, OK, I'll work on that. Let me do some brainstorming and let me put something together. So I did. I initially shared that with the leadership at the schools involved. I shared that with the cabinet. We shared that with TLS advisory. And before that became public, we shared that with our current dual language team. And then we also made sure
041that Crestview got to hear about it before they saw it posted in a board announcement that this proposal was put together. I met with the Crestview staff on April 17th with Sue Lawler and Dan Stoa to share an overview of what it was and to take some initial questions. We shared this with our dual language advisory committee, which right now comprises parents and staff from Western Hills and from Stillwell. And next year, we'll expand to include Crestview within that on May 8th. I met with the Crestview staff again and we did some shared learning about the benefits for dual language to students and everyone knows it benefits students and everyone agrees. That's not the hard part, right? The hard part is the feelings and what it means for the culture we've built in our school.
042So I'm very cognizant of that. And now I get to share it with all of you. We did one of the questions we got from Crestview when we met again in May. We had a feedback form. So I have a whole list of questions that I'm working on responding so we can have an F&A. Q document for our Crestview staff as we think about what that is. But some of the questions were around families and what did they think? Because I know our multilingual families and some of them want their kids to learn English and that's it. And maybe don't recognize the benefit of also maintaining our home language while we do that. And so I did a poll through talking points to our families at Crestview and just said, you know, in the future,
043it was tricky to work because I didn't want them to think. this was happening next year. I didn't want them to think this was a sign up. I just wanted to gauge an initial interest. If we had a dual language program, would you be interested for your student? And 172 of the 180 responses said yes. Some of the responses I had a parent who said, I would like to teach that, right? They're interested in partnering and what that looks like. So I think that's exciting. As you all know, second order change is really hard. And there have already been a lot of changes at Crestview with leadership, with new tech coming and going. And so this feels like a big change. And so I think leading through that is really important. And unfortunately, I know
044that I don't get to do that. So I think that's hard, too. I see the benefit for our kids. I love being in the classrooms at Western Hills and seeing how our students are engaging. I think about the parents who are involved, especially our native language assistants at Western Hills and the care they have for the families and for the kids and for the learning that's taken place. And it really is a really cool community for our families. And so I think it's a really great opportunity. So with that, what questions and feedback do you have? Maybe just an initial question. I mean, it seems like there's demand within the community. I mean, in terms of the wait list, the survey responses, just what you're hearing. And then also, I mean, the test results, the
045research shows that there's benefits to students. So given those two things, do we really need the two years? two additional years to implement it? Or are we, and I guess the reason is, the question would be, why do we need those two years? Is it that it's really needed to implement it? Or are we kind of trying to go slower to accommodate just concerns and make sure there's awareness? Because if it's what our community wants and if it's good for kids, could we do it in a year? I think the benefit of the two years, we will be implementing new Spanish literacy resources next year at Western Hills. So I think that gives a year for that to really get in place. So it's using the Arriba la Lectura, which is the Spanish version of
046Into Reading, so that we can have tighter alignment across our literacy. I think for staffing purposes, when we think about minimizing some of the disruptions to the collaboration and learning, it's nice to have two years to get it into place. Could it be done? Yes. I think about the negative consequences of that. Yeah, what that might mean. So I think it's okay to wait. That also allows us to be fully implemented at all of our secondary buildings before adding that Crestview Strand. So that gets us to Southwoods and Valley, and then we add Crestview. So we're not also battling or working through having multiple buildings starting new because that one year with our ninth grade building is going to be a quick transition to 1012 as well. that yeah if that's a direction to like
047let's go faster um we we can think through that um i think it's okay here though to go a little bit slower so i felt like you were going to want the two years and so then my question was instead of starting with k and one could we start with k one and two yeah that could be a possibility too i think i think why we can do that at Crestview and why we couldn't at Western Hills was because we didn't have all the students there. But we already have the students at Crestview. We have students who would benefit from learning in Spanish. We could have a full class of all Spanish speakers who could learn half the day in Spanish and English. I think what do our second graders miss out on if they
048haven't been part of K-1 learning, right? Some of those foundational literacy skills that we would teach K-1 in Spanish, they would miss in second grade. So, yeah. I really just had a comment because I was thinking about now I'm not speaking for all Spanish-speaking families. But again, as a daughter of an immigrant, I don't think that my family or some of the families might understand the benefit of learning your own, not just being able to talk, but to read and write in Spanish, which I had to do in college, right, to be able to refine and learn. uh spanish differently instead of just like conversational so um i'm wondering if some conversations um might benefit some of the spanish-speaking families about like some of the benefits and the ability of kids to be able to
049pick up a language so um i again more like more education and saying that like how Kids immigrant kids have the capacity to learn two languages and maybe seeing some of the statistics might also help them understand or at least have more information around the benefits or what you've seen from from the work we're already doing so that there there is more Buy-in right because I think there is a misconception about like learning. It's more of a fear Fear based of no. I want my kid to not have an accent and and It can be done. I don't have an accent in either language. But anyway, I really think it's a great work. And I do hear from other districts about how they wish they had a dual language program. And we are the only
050public school, right, in the state that has a dual. In the metro, yeah. Or in the metro. Yeah, for a little bit. We'll see how schools are reimagined, right? Right. But I have heard it said families wanting to leave private school where they have their kids in dual language so that they can come to public school. So I think that is really, really important. Yeah, that's a good point because I think in an age of vouchers where we feel students choosing to leave us, I do have a lot of conversations with families who are looking at leaving private dual language and wanting to come to our program. I just also want to acknowledge this is you're almost wrapping up on your time with us. And I don't know if many people know that Natalie took
051this job. She's our first ESOL director. Before Natalie, we never had anybody in charge of ESOL, which was a gaping hole. And Natalie. stepped in and has filled that void very well and has really reached out and provided not just dual but so many layers of service in that role and I just I mean it's hard to be the first and you've really set the stage and put a lot of really good structures in and so I just want to say thank you thank you thank you thank you so much Natalie next up we have Mr. Shapal and Miss Lettington I feel a little disappointed that I have to follow those last two presentations. Those are some of the, yeah. I thought we were going to set the bar low for them to easily jump
052over. I didn't think the bar was going to be set so high. But in the case of all three of those individuals, they're not just great employees of West Des Moines schools and great educators, but they're really just outstanding humans. And they have such an outsized impact on all that we do. So Michelle and I are excited to talk to you about efforts of continuous improvement. We gave you a... Short super intense report at the beginning of the year is kind of my first chance to introduce myself to you all and talk about some of the collective work that we are going to do pre-K through 12 around some shared learning and how that was going to set the stage for some foundational work that we could then expand into next school year. So we're
053excited to, as Matt would say, button up the year with a short little update for you on continuous improvement. So what does our data tell us? While yes, we have things that we are really proud of, we also know that we are not where we want to be as an organization. And when you look at this conceptual map of MTSS, the green part of the triangle, so our multi-tiered systems of support, the green portion of the triangle shows you what we refer to as tier one or the universal experience that students have, whether that's academic, social, emotional, behavioral. etc. All students are afforded a tier one experience. And so research tells us tier one is the most important thing for us to be focusing on and will give us our greatest return on investment. And
054so as we've been laying that foundation, we keep reinforcing the idea that tier one is what we need to be focused on. So it's not just. having high quality materials, it's also following up with high quality instructional practices to get the most out of those materials. And so in addition to that tier one work, we know, and we've reported to you this school year, that we need to develop better systems to efficiently address when there is that unfinished learning. So then when we get into that yellow part of the triangle, which we refer to as tier two. How are we developing those systems so that students are getting the targeted in-time support they need that's a layer on top of the tier one support. It's not in replacement of, it's on top of. And then
055if it gets to become more intensive, they're getting tier one, tier two, and then that tier three support. So we've got lots of things that are headed in the right direction, but we haven't hit our stride yet. And as a result of that, we haven't gotten to the consistency and the coherence that we're striving for as a pre-K-12 system, but are confident that we will get there. And so, as you know, you charge us to follow the district's strategic directions as a teaching and learning department. While all five of those strategic directions certainly apply to us, just as the top two that we identify most with apply to other departments, we do lean more heavily into strategic direction A, improving teaching and learning, and strategic direction B, equitable structures to meet the individual needs of
056students. And Matt has specifically charged us to think about curriculum instruction and assessment, which is standard four in the Iowa School Performance Standards for administrators, building the capacity of our personnel, which is standard six, and of course, school improvement, what we strive to do every single day. And so some of our focuses, as I said, we've got to look at tier one, which is inclusive of the materials and the practices. But then an offshoot of that would also be how are we supporting our PLCs or our professional learning communities of teachers who are teaching the same content so that they can be high functioning and really get to all four things that a PLC should be doing. We know a guaranteed and viable curriculum is absolutely. critical for us to be able to get there.
057And we know particularly at the secondary level, that is an area of great need. terrible amount of attention needs to be, not terrible in a bad way, but like a very big amount, I guess is what I should say in a more eloquent way, but you'll get a very big amount tonight. A very big amount of attention needs to be spent there so that we can have the same quality of instructional materials that we see in other parts of our system. The elementary counterparts have more high quality instructional materials currently, and we're in the process of adopting new science. We have new legislation that's leading to the math, and we're continuing to refine our implementation of those materials around literacy. Steve, can I ask a question? Yeah. How are you guys measuring what's a high-functioning
058PLC? Yeah. So we have matrices that we use that we can kind of self-diagnose where we're at with our buildings. At the secondary level... We have inconsistencies in terms of the frequency that they meet, the oversight of those. And so we are instituting through our partnership with WDMEA and work with Rod PLC facilitator stipends next year so that we can do professional development. build the capacity of our teachers, have them be facilitators of the conversations around data. But a lot of that relies upon right now our building leaders to assess with their teams, our BLTs, where they're at on those matrices. I know one, the reason I'm asking is because that's up there and last year we were asked to change the elementary schedule for the need for PLCs and I'm still waiting on the
059data to come back about what was the value of creating that time for PLCs. Could you just let me know when that will be coming back? So I think, I know that the elementary team, because we pulled together twice, put together that information and data using part of that tool. and shared with Matt, so I'll follow up with him to see if that got shared out with the board. Yeah, I guess I was expecting someone to come back to the board to talk through that, like what did the teachers think about the mandate? I mean, I was just expecting a little bit more than just a superintendent's report of that, and maybe I'm the only one, but it was a big shift to change the whole elementary schedule, and so I feel like it is
060worthy of having a conversation at the board table about it. Right, but like... Sometimes it's nice not just to read it, but to get the story. I mean, hear from our leaders to come back and talk through it. Yeah. And maybe like making sure they got impact or feedback from teachers about what was the payoff for it or what were, what, you know, what did it take away from that extra time too, just so we can evaluate that whole situation and make sure, because that was a commitment we got that if we agreed to the change, we would, we would know more about that. So thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Well, I think Julie you teased out what's the difference between a PLC and a high functioning PLC a high functioning PLC a teacher doesn't
061debate the value of the time they're spending and so when we're when we're Yeah, when we're or how many times we meet right? So our best PLC's meet more than we ask them to meet because they see the value in the time The other piece though is continuing to work on culture and climate. You had a really great workshop this evening by Brother Dow. He told you some of the work that we're doing. And so it's important that we continue to push the needle on our desired daily experiences and triangulate our data so that we can work to improve all aspects of what we're doing for our students, staff, and families. He might be a little bit taller than him. I got flats on. It is a true honor to be able to work with
062our leaders alongside them day to day. We had a workshop with you all in the fall, and we shared with you our commitment to protecting time for shared learning, collaboration, calibration in classrooms, along with providing space for leadership challenges to get the perspective and insights of their colleagues. We will definitely continue that work next year. If you recall the book, The Tax-Differentiated Supervision, we really anchored into that and this framework for continuous improvement that we will continue to focus on as we think about our work and how to keep getting better and improving, especially when we're talking about core values of accountability and support. This work has led to... an impact on helping us identify areas for change as we move into next year. And so, whoops, through collaboration, not only with our leaders, but
063with our association, we are implementing an updated school improvement plan and a professional learning plan, all with narrowed focuses so that we can go deeper and implement the tracking of our actions. In addition, and again, through that collaboration with our association leaders, making a shift with our walkthroughs to better align with professional learning cycles for feedback around those evidence-based practices to reinforce, to refine, to reflect, so that we can really monitor if we're getting better with those practices. So it's been really fun thinking about how do we then enact the learning that we've done this year. So not just an improved walkthrough experience that we're able to, again, as Michelle said, work with our WDMEA on, but that was a result of not just working with them, but that was after the learning with the
064admin team. going to our district leadership team. So we had three sets of partners that we were collaborating with on that process. But the other thing that's been really cool is that we've had pockets of peer observations where teachers are going into spaces and seeing their fellow teachers. implementing strategies and learning from them and there's been an excitement and energy around that and so we're looking forward to doing even more of that next school year. As you know you supported us in realigning some positions so that we could better support teachers and really fulfill that charge that Matt has given us in terms of roadside assistance. The other thing that we're doing with our TLS team is we're restructuring our monthly meetings to have a broader focus on MTSS. So instead of looking at MTSS
065in silos, we're going to talk about those multi-tiered systems of support as an entire TLS team and make sure that we're bringing the lenses, perspectives, and gifts that so many people from across teaching and learning, regardless of grade level or content area, to be a part of what's going well. What do we need to improve? And what ideas do we have to do that? And then we're going to work as a teaching and learning system with our buildings on engaging in some deeper data literacy learning, because I think that's something that we could benefit from. I don't know if we'll get to the P value discussion for Dr. Andruski quite next year, but Dow will make sure that he's there and then we'll bring us all along at another point. And so we wanted to
066lift up that there's this continued work. I'm not going to go over all of those things again, but it can't be this thing that we do one year and then move on from, right? So we've done preliminary work on these areas, but now it's time that we deepen that work so that we can get to an ability to sustain it so it doesn't feel like the flavor of the month or, oh, here we go again with a new initiative. So we've got to stay committed to that because that commitment and that ability to sustain it is what's going to allow us to get to a point where we see consistency and coherence pre-K through 12. And tomorrow, we're having our... Building Leadership Team Day. And one of the things that we're doing is we're changing
067it to a pre-K 12 day. So instead of having elementary on one day and secondary on another day, we're bringing everybody together because the work of teaching and learning is the work of teaching and learning pre-K through 12. And we want people to understand they're a part of something bigger and to see that they're a part of something that we're building together and that every part of the teaching and learning team is dependent upon one another. So we're going to have We're going to be at Valley High School. Thanks to Dr. Christensen and team for hosting us for that day of learning and action planning. And then the buildings will get another half day this summer to continue that work that they get to schedule on their own time. The sample program for tomorrow. Steve,
068could you just talk a little bit about the value of like the real time coaching that's happening and what that's doing for our system? Because that feels different, at least from. what I've gathered. Yeah. So I think I could take that in a couple ways. So I'll take both of them. And then if I should have taken it a third, you'll let me know. So the first is with the decision to reorganize. the LRC. There's more detailed and attention being placed K-6 and 7-12 in terms of supervision of principals, which then affords the opportunity for more direct contact with building leaders. And as a result of that, more opportunities for real-time coaching, whether that's in PLC meetings with leaders, walkthroughs with leaders, or just having real conversations about... school improvement plans, data, where are we
069at, what do we need to do, and being thought partners. But the other part of the real-time coaching would be this learning that we did on differentiated supervision. We get to empower our leaders to realize you can give feedback in the moment. I think about stories that we've heard from some of our buildings where the principal will sit down with a staff member, go over some of their data, talk about some trends, and then say, would you like me to come model that for you? So the real-time coaching could be the instructional leader modeling, or it could be in the moment providing feedback for them to then revise what they're doing in real time. So it can take a lot of different ways. For that real-time feedback in the classroom to land, there's got to
070be a high degree of trust. And so that relational work, getting to know our staff. them seeing us be visible, following through on our commitments, having their back, those are what I say are all really key components. Thanks. Hey, Steve, I know we don't get a ton of viewership to these live streams, but if there are parents watching this that maybe aren't as familiar with some of the acronyms and just the profession of education, if a parent just came up to you and said, everything you just talked about, what does that do for my student that's sitting in the classroom? Can you just kind of give a short... Answer of how you'd answer a parent just asking that about what does this mean for my kid? It means that we're paying very careful attention to
071how effectively we're meeting the needs of your child and when we're missing the the mark We're providing staff feedback that they can then action to improve the experience of your child Something I would like to highlight is a celebration that Steve talked about a couple slides ago was the increase number of teachers getting in each other's classrooms even across our buildings that to me connects to a shift in culture and trust and learning from each other like you know in the past I heard like things like well I will invite the instructional coach in and I don't hear that anymore I hear I want that so it's really exciting it really is even being in other PLCs, learning from each other. I see that as a tipping point too. Thank you. Okay, thank you guys
072so much for your time. All of you. That was good. Where's, I lost what we're doing. Okay, here's what's next. Okay, up next is our committee reports, and it looks like we just have facilities and finance. Yeah, maybe the one I mean there's a few topics I mean we can add some commentary when we get to him in the agenda one item that came to F&F and and we asked that it come back at the next board meeting is the fees for the 26 27 school year and the feedback that we had at F&F was a couple things one For the most part I mean fees increased maybe five dollars ten dollars in some cases. They maybe increased a dollar or two What wasn't clear to us was necessarily I think two things one just
073the underlying rationale for some of the the changes and understanding why this one five dollars and this one ten dollars when it's a different percentage And then the other two things I'd notice that some feedback about how we communicate the fees during the registration process because we we deliberately time the collection of the fees not right at registration because if the registration and the student doesn't show up then there's Refunding the fees, but how can we communicate to a family when they're going through the registration of hey this? These are the fees that are likely going to hit you in the next month or two because I think there's probably reasonable expectation of thinking okay when I go to register my students that's when I pay the fees and then if they don't have the
074ability to plan for it in a few months when the when those fees hit and the other part was Thinking through what's our and we may not have this fully baked out for this year but getting to the point where there's Understanding at the board level about what's our guiding principles as it relates to fees like are we trying to cover X? Percentage of curriculum costs for example through the book fees do we want to be? We don't want to have more than ever have more than the 5% or 10% increase year-over-year We don't want to be the highest or we want to stay within our peer company or peer schools. Having that philosophy and we get comfortable as a board. So then it becomes more of, well, we went through this exercise and these
075are the guiding principles and this is what it led to. I just think that'd be a better, that was the feedback from FNF was that that would be a better, more sustainable practice going forward. So again, we may not have that last part fully baked. to approve the fees in 26-27 but that was the feedback of having that come back through for the next board meeting so sounds like a really good discussion okay let's hear about our april financial reports comments about the fund summary that first document here i'm sorry um Not that one sorry about that can't read it as well. It's the it's the very last one in the lower right hand Yeah, thank you Alexandra just a couple comments one on the general fund First of all, this is for April through
076April 30th. So we're 10 months through the fiscal year. But with our certified staff, we accrue, their year really starts September from a payroll perspective. And so we have two months worth of pay and benefits for July and August that. won't get recorded yet until the end of June when we start. We pay May, we'll pay June, and then the July and August gets recorded back in June. So it's reflected in the fiscal year where it's earned. And that's about $12.5 million when you look at the general fund. Right now we've spent $95 million through the April 30th. But again, there's another $12.5 million that we have to recognize that it's a timing issue with how the accounting works with payroll. And then another item I would point out in when you look a little
077bit farther up in the pebble column You can see four million dollars of revenue almost seven million dollars of expense almost all of that expense in the month of April was capital loan note debt service payments So that's why you see such a large increase in that fund in one month we're also continuing to track other funds as you look to the right especially at nutrition there's just delays in getting some of our federal dollars so the revenue there is not keeping up with what we've already recorded an expense and then finally we're just continuing to monitor and we have some more work to do with community ed and kids west kids west is part of the community education fund so any questions on any of that thank you Let's go to bills for payment.
078Is there a motion to approve a bill for payment to contemporary services? So moved. Second. Motion is made by Jill and a second by Ana. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. One abstention. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve bills for payment to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services? Second. Motion made by Ana, second by Jill. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. And one abstention. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the Drake University Continuing Education and Professional Development Contract? Motion made by Anand, a second by Lila. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. And one abstention. Correct. Is there a motion to approve the
079resolution for the former SAPCC funds? Motion made by Jeff and a second by Jill. Is there any discussion? What? Oh, sorry. A second by Anna. I have it written down, Anna. Sorry. There was a motion made by Jeff and a second by Anna. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Let's hear about our facilities and operations. I don't have a clicker, but Alexander, you can click through the slides. So this is update of our facilities bond, our facilities and bond updates, June 8th of 2026. You can go to the next slide. This was where we anchored back to this when we went to the district for, or to the community to pass a bond referendum. So this is what we're anchoring everything to. There's been
080some questions on some of the meetings we've had. about the size of the Indian Hills. There's been some questions. We've had a lot of collaboration. Obviously, when we go out to the buildings and ask what we want, what they want, what's that? Ask when we go out to the, ask what they want. then they're going to reach for the stars, and then we've got to bring them back to where we've anchored to here. Obviously, the most important part of this is the money we asked for, so we're going to do everything we can with the funds available for each project. So sometimes, like when it says the mid-sized pack of 500 seats for X amount of dollars, we're working with the architects and engineers to see and make that as big as we possibly can,
081if that makes sense. The next slide is kind of the Gantt chart. There's one thing at the top that is the monument signage. There's been some talk about rebranding the district. It wouldn't make any sense to start on monument signs and put a brand on that wouldn't be good in a year or two. So kind of got that on hold and worked with the communications department to get some details on what we have for monument signage and kind of worked with Brian on that as we move forward. One big bullet point on this or thing to look at is... in February or next next summer starting in June we'll have nine different projects going under construction that'll be bonded or bid projects and so a lot of our buildings will be in touch some of
082them are getting touched this summer but there'll be nine different projects two or three of them will be new projects the rest of them will be existing buildings so any questions on that I did have a question about the size of that of the pack at Indian Hills is it I thought that we had been talking about doing something bigger than 500. Is it going to be bigger than 500? Right now, after meeting with the architects, they believe, and Kurt, you can help me on this, they believe we can get up to 600 in that auditorium. I know when we had the initial committee, I was certainly saying, we need to be bigger than 500, please. So it was in the discussion, but where we've landed, I hadn't heard. Once we go beyond 600, it
083changes the entire footprint, and it becomes cost prohibitive. But what was planned for, budgeted, was about 600. I also just I was wondering and it's just something that occurred to me because I've been out in the space lately Putting the track redoing the track at Valley South woods. Yes. Is that gonna include an outdoor bathroom? Well, there is actually one there already. We talked about this at facilities. We can upgrade the one that's there. There's an outdoor restroom and a concession stand, a small concession area down in the building that's just to the north of the track. Oh, the other side of it. Yeah. Opposite of where the tennis courts are. We suggested maybe signage because so many of us don't even know if you're up there playing tennis. You might not even know, but
084signage would be a lot cheaper than rebuilding, but maybe renovating it. Awesome. Yeah. Good to know. Next slide. So crossroads renovation, we actually, that started, we started moving on the 3rd. There were still teachers in the building. We did a lot of moving ourselves on the 3rd. It was ready to start destructing on the 4th. They've got a lot of the ceilings down already, all the classrooms, and all the classrooms have been emptied. Hats off to the maintenance team, along with some work from some transportation drivers, bus drivers, that they went at all these. all these buildings except for hillside and got them ready for construction including some of the stuff we're spearheading as a district like finishing up the paint and carpet and crest view starting some paint and carpet and clive all buildings
085are ready to go as of the 4th for we could bring contractors in except for Fairmeadows and we'll start the carpet in Fairmeadows later in July once we get some of the summer programming out of there and we'll along with Kids West will be in there during that construction time there. The stadium video board is ready to roll. I think the contracts have been signed. We just got to get a start date on that. Also bid the pact the couple the pact theater lighting and audio-visual upgrades there that will happen this summer as well We kind of move them forward with the necessity of the outdated Technology that we had in there when they work with Amanda all of these have had user groups involved as we've moved forward with them Hey, Tim? Yeah. On
086the stadium board, it was my understanding there was going to be some improvement to the sound system as well, but I don't see that reflected here. Is that a different budget? No, it's part of that bid. It's part of that project. It should say video board and sound upgrades on there, but it's part of that budget. Okay, great. Thank you. Along with it, there's a lighting upgrade in part of that as well. playground work you if people around the community have seen some items getting dropped off at some of our playgrounds get the turf in some of some of the structures and get to one new structure at Hillside one new structure at Western Hills and a seven out of our eight elementaries will have new servicing or new structures put in on at least
087one of their structures this summer But this also leaves the ability on all of them except for Clive to have a usable playground adjacent to where we're doing the work. Clive is all on the backside, so Clive will be completely set down, but the rest of them will have a playground open near where we'll be working, and we've had communication with both the building and Kids West and the contractors on how we can put a divider fence or something in there just so there's a barrier so we know which ones we're working on and which ones that the Kids West kids can still be using. So which elementary is not getting a playground upgrade? You said seven out of eight. Crossroads Park is not, but now that we put a preschool over there, we may
088be adding a preschool playground this summer as well. So all eight of them will likely be touched. Okay. Thank you. So seven of eight are on that, and then we're working with a preschool playground at Crossroads Park as well with the engineer. John Weathers has been real busy working with some of the buildings on getting some furniture updates. Hillside in the previous few years while I was here and prior to myself being here had really hadn't had any furniture updates. So their new classroom wing will get updated with furniture this summer. Like I said earlier we're going to continue with Crestview and Western Hills. We did some carpet and paint last year. We're going to add Clive in some of the classrooms this year and we'll begin painting and flooring at one wing of Fair
089Meadows. Obviously we want to make sure the architects know what we've done as a district over the last three years so we're not doubling up on some of the work. And so those will, when we get into those classrooms during the remodels, we'll be just doing casework and some lighting and some ceiling work, but the carpet will remain. We're not, we're really just focused on the regular gen ed classrooms in those buildings because we obviously know that as we go forward, when we make some smaller learning communities, those classrooms we shouldn't be putting carpet and paint in right now. We're working as we move Walnut Creek over to the over the valley. I'm working to remodel the wood shop and the old welding lab to make a new CNA space over there. It's going to
090be a two-year project but we will be able to teach out of it this fall where the CNA lab will move to down towards the auto shop. I'm adding a, there's a real need for athletic laundry equipment at Valley. So we're adding that down by where, down by the weight room area. We also have the roof project underway at Valley Southwoods. And I have the additional playground. I didn't put it on here, but obviously Lisa was reading my mind and she added that additional playground across the park. I can't take credit for it. Yeah, and for the board, the feedback we gave Tim at FNF was that this level of detail seemed to be. perfect for just to have visibility as board members then also for community members of understanding what projects so to the
091extent there's other detail just either let us know now or if there's things you want us to flush out at FNF we certainly can but so I appreciate you putting the slides together it's helpful just to have that visibility I like how with every project you're saying where the money is coming from too that's super helpful Any questions? Yeah, I think that's great. So just so we're clear all of this that is in this slide deck is happening this summer Yes. Right? Yes. And with the goal of everything being ready to roll when school starts, right? Yep, that's the goal. Okay. The goal is at Crossroads Park and Hillside, everything we touch this summer will be ready for students on the first day of school, and then we'll finish those projects next summer. They've been
092told that there's some long lead time on some items that... Put it on the shelf until next summer. That's the beauty of having one bid project over two summers so we can navigate through that But we know we're gonna inconvenience some Principals we know you're in a convenience some staff members if we do our job right will inconvenience every teacher in the district over the next five years But they're gonna get they're gonna get a nice product at the end of the day Reality is reality. So some teachers in the past have been able to come in in July, won't be able to come in in July when I say we inconvenience them. With that, I'd entertain any more questions. No, thank you so much for your time. Yeah. Okay, let's move on to contracts.
093First up, we have the Valley High School Homecoming DJ contract. Is there a motion to approve the 2026 VHS Homecoming DJ contract? Second. The motion is made by Lila and a second by Ana. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. That motion carries. Is there a motion to approve the 2026 VHS homecoming venue contract? Motion made by Ana and a second by Lila. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. That motion carries. Is there a motion to approve the 2027 VHS prom DJ contract? The motion is made by Lila and a second by Jeff. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Is there a motion to approve the 2027
094Prom Venue Contract? Motion is made by Lila and is seconded by Jeff. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. The motion carries. Is there a motion to approve the Data Sharing Agreement? A motion was made by Jill and a second by Ana. Is there any discussion? We did talk at FNF just about looking into, even though it's like we're not reporting specific student information, just to make sure that we might want to. let parents know that we are sharing it as a courtesy and I think Mike was gonna check into what language we might need to on that and so I would expect that he could follow up or Matt could follow up with that at some point if anybody's taking notes for him just to make
095sure that even though it's not specific we still have a right to notify parents that we will be doing some data sharing thank you all those in favor say aye all opposed same sign That motion carries Is there a motion to approve the amendment with vivid clear Rx Inc? Motion is made by Anna and a second by Lila. Is there any discussion? We had a lengthy conversation at F&F About what was our long-term plan? And so you'll see in the narrative Curt expanded like we just didn't want to approve a lot of one-offs without knowing if there is a broader vision For how we might support people in our district in ways that maybe we haven't in the past around health care needs and so this is the first of a couple steps in Kurt's
096vision to provide some expanded service in some high need areas, which will ultimately meet the needs of our employees, but also could reduce our insurance since we're self-insured, our payouts for that. So I assume this will be the first and we'll see others within the larger vision of insurance, ways to better meet the needs of our employees to keep them healthy and safe. Thank you. All those in favor, say aye. All opposed, same sign. That motion carries. Is there a motion to approve the Heartland AEA transfer of state special education funds? The motion is made by Lila and a second by Jill. Is there any discussion? This is just changing the frequency of our payouts. We used to do it monthly, but now we're doing it quarterly, which is how we get paid from the
097state. So it just is in alignment with keeping those consistent. Oh, I'm so sorry. Thank you. Okay. Rod, we have something to tell you. I'm sorry. That was just my mistake. OK, so there's a motion made by Lila and a second by Jill for the transfer of state special education funds. All those in favor say aye. All opposed, same sign. That motion carries. OK, let's go back up. Is there a motion to approve the employee and family resources contract? Thank you. There's a motion made by Jeff and a second by Lila. Is there any discussion? I just did have a little discussion at FNF about how this is kind of like a stopgap type in emergency situations, but Part of Kurt's vision is could we look at mental health services and other ways to provide
098ongoing support for? Employees around that so we had a little conversation. This also is a reduction of services. We're no longer Contracting to do the small groups at high school like we had in the past They weren't well attended and we just didn't feel like it was a good return on the investment. So that's the change from last year Okay, all those in favor say aye all opposed same sign Motion carries. Is there a motion to approve the online learning license and services agreement? A motion was made by Jeff and a second by Anna. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say aye. All opposed, same sign. That motion carries. Would a member like to make a motion? I move that we hold a closed session as authorized by section 21.51A of the open
099meetings law to review or discuss records which are required or authorized to be kept confidential. a motion is made by jeff and a second by jill and this recalls a rope or this recalls requires a roll call vote those in favor yes yes okay the board is now going into closed session and we'll move to go