001All right. This is a regular scheduled meeting of the Girden School District Board of Directors. We'll now call the meeting to order. Uh Rob, can you establish we have a quorum present? All right. With quorum present, we'll be able to conduct our business today. Robbie, could you lead us in word prayer? Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you opportunity to come and serve this community and school district. I ask you to help us to make decisions with wisdom. All these things we ask in Jesus name. Amen. >> Amen. >> To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Any special? >> Uh, we don't have any special recognitions to do, but I going to let everybody know
002if you didn't know, we had the chamber banquet last Tuesday night and Mr. Massing was recognized as teacher of the year. So, >> he's just been he's been everywhere this year. >> Pretty amazing. We're ready to go. Uh do we have any public comments? Any signature? All right. Well, with that said, we have some personnel items. So, we will now enter in executive session. We've now been returned out of the executive session. We'll now call the meeting back into order. We need to consider our items that we discussed. I move we approve the personnel package as presented. >> Okay, we have a motion. Second. >> We have a motion and a second. All in favor of that motion say I. All >> in descent, same sign. That motion passed. Our next item is approval of
003the minutes from the previous boardman. Anybody have any questions or comments on that? I want to move to approve those. We have a motion. Second. >> We have a motion and a second. All in favor of that motion say I. All in sense, same sign. That motion pass. Next item is our financial report. Anybody have any questions right off the bat? Rhonda, is there anything special that you see in any of this? I don't >> flat, but what they do is they do all their field work and they do work and then it goes to their um to a reviewer and that's something that we've not had a final um meeting yet. Hopefully that will keep >> maybe no news is good news. Maybe >> what's going on outside. What's the plan with the destruction
004from the ice? >> Uh, we have contacted insurance and they're going to come down, send the adjuster down to look at everything and then we'll go from there because our insurance now is state captive insurance. So, everybody has to go through kind of the same process. So, we've reached out I've talked to facilities and insurance reached out today and said they would be sending someone soon to come down and check everything out and we can go from there. Some of the things Kendall and Scott, they had to go ahead and fix because the classrooms that didn't have heat because the heat exhaust vents had been pushed down, they had to go ahead and get that fixed and we've taken pictures of everything. So, anything that we've had to go ahead and fix for functional purposes,
005we've still got records of it. So, hopefully this the way they made it sound within the next week, they should be down here. Then we can start moving on the bigger things that we've got to fix. Do they ever classify that storm as a natural disaster? Do they hurt anything? >> Um, >> I don't think so. I mean, we had a state of emergency declared, but that's pretty much it. >> Would you want to move on this financial report? >> We have a motion second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor of that motion say I. >> All in descent. same time that motion passes. Next items under our business legal finance consid agenda first off our wireless policy >> and that is Victor. >> Yes. So uh basically y'all have already
006approved the internet policy but the state whenever they audit different school district they have asked for a wireless policy separately. So that we just need to have one in a policy book and that's pretty much to be compliant. But it's basically the same thing as our internet policy just separated into two different. So they're considering our internet policy for like desktops. So now we need to have a wireless policy for like Chromebooks and anything that connected to the wireless setup. >> You need a motion to >> I think I have a copy of that. >> It's in there. >> Yeah. said it should be just like the regular internet policy pretty close to it. Good. >> All right, we have >> we have a motion motion and a second. >> All in favor of that
007motion say I call them same time. That motion passed. >> All right, the next item is >> Yeah, we've got David and Barry from French that are going to just kind of >> refresh us on some things. So, we uh our schedule's running well and we're prepared to submit it to the drawings to the state agencies for review goes to the facility review and state building services health department and fire department. So, we'll get that started. Uh we are waiting on the lift station design. Soon as it's completed, we'll have those ready to go out and and go for repeat. Uh during that time we'll uh do our in in office review for quality control. We'll review it again with the school staff. Make sure they don't see anything that need to adjust. Obviously we'll
008pick up whatever that recommendations they have. Be prepared to have ready for them to do. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any questions y'all want to ask? for the lipstation uh plants. How long do you expect that to take? >> I think our last couple of weeks finish up that design and get it completed. >> That's the only thing holding it up going to the state >> because we had talked about septic versus lift station, but the proximity of the lines are making that >> just outside. Yes, I saw that dot and I was very much unimpressed with where that dot was located. >> But then if it got popped, then we'd be back to the design again. >> He actually thinks listation we're going to be more pleased >> making Daniel's recommendation and moving ahead.
009>> Yes. >> All the stuff that you sent us, that's that's all there. So the I guess I just have a couple questions maybe Mark too maybe you can answer as well because I looked at this best I could on my phone. >> Um so my my question is about I guess sidewalk placement. So there's a sidewalk that looks like that's on the west side that runs into the drive. >> Correct. Is that correct? So is that going to be like a pickup drop off areas? that is more to flow like we're putting those doors at the end for the emergency exit for fire. So that would be more for just to push that traffic out of the building when they're having a fire drill or there's a fire alarm or something like that. >>
010And so the drop off area kind of be in the corner. >> It's still going to be in front of the building like everybody else. >> They would come in the main building >> and I guess there there's a little dot here, a little circle. I'm assuming that's a drain for the water movement is right here. >> Yeah, that's Yes, that's catch basically. Correct. I think that's remedying kind of the situation as it is now. That's the solution. It's kind of working that way anyway and it kind of comes back up into our new building. So, they're just catching it, carrying it. And so is this right here are these down spouts that come like off the gutters. You can see there's gathering those up between the building. Not sure if the other side if
011he's g all those or taking those out. It looks like those naturally curious. Uh the only other question I had is in a lot of our situation with the stuff coming off the roof where the air conditioner going to be placed >> they are similar to that the condensing units are now the the the larger package unit is all the gable in so would be that it wouldn't be like that. >> I will say the only AC units well the only AC units that were not damaged are the ones at Cade. That was the only building that didn't have it come off the roof and do what it has done on the rest of these buildings. >> Your guess is as good as mine, but I whatever we do next time, I'm hoping we do
012it the same way. >> So, in in light of the fact that that ice just slides right off those buildings. Is is that a good place to put them right up underneath the the eve of the >> We can uh we don't we don't typically do ice and water dams, but we could add those in. So, uh that or we could I was just thinking about the placement. You know, everything is placed where stuff can slide off. >> We may we may push them out a little further. We It's on It's on the the highway side. So, we try to push those >> all the masonry around those units. >> Um >> uh some of them. Yes. Kendall is still assessing a lot of things because said some of them the tops were crushed in
013to where he's had to go in and at least try to beat the fan blades back to where they would spin until we can get them down here to see what needs to be replaced. It was not what we were expecting >> at all. So, do any of the buildings have dams on them? >> No. Yeah, that was >> Yeah, that was something that we were out there looking at when we were watching all of it. Yeah. standing there just watching it happen because there's not a whole lot else you can do >> like above the canopy the little connecting canopy and then above maybe not any other questions >> I guess I got one more go >> from one building to the next is just going to be a covered awning. Just cover them.
014>> That's not a whole lot of space right there between those. >> Yeah. >> Once again, >> is here hold. So, >> you have a question though. >> No, not go ahead. I just going to give once once we get bid documents buried but what we'll do in between that time I'm going to get ready our CM manual our CM manual just basically get put together what our requirements are that what we expect from potential biders if they are rewarded the job as far as uh insurance requirements that that NAV requires of of all our biders uh safety requirements on the job site especially around the school uh we'll schedule in there that gives everybody an idea of when they're going to be needed that place. sometimes play park and if it falls in line
015with whe you know they've got a lull in their schedule they may say hey this is set for um and then we also have trade packages every trade involve concrete masonry field all that I'll have a list of all that in that in that manual that gives you I try not to get too detailed because sometimes uh veterans will say well you didn't put it in the trade package so to pick it up. So, it's just it's just some overall general grade requirements. If there's something I want to make sure that they notice, um not necessarily saying it's hidden, it's just something that maybe out of the ordinary, I'll have that in there. Um when we get the documents back from the state where we can put it out for bid, we have a platform
016we use called building connected. That's where we upload all drawings, specs, any addendum, anything that that's bid related, we put it on that platform and that send out to everybody. It sends out people that are unsure if they're going to bid it, people that say yes, they're going to bid it. It'll even send the biders that say no, we're not going to because sometimes we get people that say I can't bid it because I've got three other jobs bidding. If we move the bid date, it lets them know and it may it may throw a flag saying, "Hey, we can bid this." So, >> um that's that's a whole lot simpler than indiv emails, groups of emails, different trades, and then have to follow back up. We'll just we put it all on that that
017platform. Once we get that, we'll give them a couple weeks to look over documents a little bit together from there and any questions and stuff. We'll work with David get those answers so that we participants as many biders as I can get. >> On our project, do you see any problems with our project that will make it hard for somebody to bid? >> I No, I don't. I really don't. It's just a lot of times it's just it's going to be timing. >> Um if like I said if potential biders are water if they landed a big job somewhere overload themselves. >> I don't see I don't see anybody saying oh gosh this is way too difficult. This is too much on this this be a good job for people. But >> how many biders
018do you expect to get? Well, so our our goal is to always have at least three bids per trade, >> but I I'll solicit I may solicit 15 different biders for certain trade packages and if I can get 15 different bids, I mean, that's just all >> perfect. >> I mean, that's one of the things that through building connective everybody knows, hey, I've got I'm I'm bidding against people. This this is a competition. So, we have jobs. Any other questions? >> We had an anticipated groundbreaking >> that will allow when we when we get draw back from the state as we get this in get a final price approved we then we can establish a ground break. that we still look like we're on a realistic timeline for our finish date that we hope for.
019>> Finish date from my understanding is uh December >> December January. Yeah, that's what our hope was for to be able to move in in mid year. >> Yes. I I mean I don't see any problems that weather permitting out there. Yeah, >> we we may have a a a real wet, you know, June, July. It might put a whole hurt on us, but we're going to do everything we can to to make that up. I mean, >> our our, you know, our subs know our standard is >> we work five days a week, >> if we miss a day or two, >> we'll push for Saturdays. I don't push for Sundays. I just I don't I don't like that. um if we have to we do >> but that's that's kind of a last
020resort but we'll we'll work six days a week we have to to end up you know to to meet a schedule >> but yes I don't see right now again to stay takes for you know takes too long come out of our hand but we'll do everything we can to to make that P7 January schedule >> my memory tend to this building is the safe area is the classroom. >> Yes, it's the two classrooms. It's the kindergarten rooms. >> David, this is a question back for you. uh once you get the uh stuff, how long do you expect the state to take to get you back the information you need >> or what's been really really good like under a month >> where right now it's kind of pushing like five weeks. >> Gotcha. Gotcha.
021>> So they they've uh we will have to go to the state what used to be state We'll have to go with new building >> and they've had a change in their review process. >> Hard hard to say. No, >> no, no. I understand. I understand. >> When we were first discussing this a couple months back, we were we got I got off on a tangent about windows. So, what what what's the plan on the window situation, awning? What what what what's what's what are you doing as far as what are those windows particularly >> for the well for the safe room area? >> Yeah, it's it's an actual it's designed for safe room application. >> So these are windows. >> Yes. Yes. >> How big are those windows? >> They're six foot basically six
022foot square. So >> and so they're resistant to this type of weather and so there's not >> that will attach into the steel there'll little steel frame around it. They'll attach into those and then it's a it's a thicker glass that's in there. >> So, this doesn't have any type of shade that comes down over them. >> No, it is all it's all >> those windows they attach about every six inches around the perimeter of the of the frame. This isn't really a question for you guys, but when you have a safe room, what's the criteria for putting kids in that safe room? >> Tornado warning. >> Yes, tornado warning would be like an active warning calling for in our area. Yes. >> There more questions. We we appreciate y'all. Thanks for coming. >> Thank
023you. >> Jason, you guys just in time about the money, huh? >> Yes, sir. >> I appreciate you you guys. >> Thank you. >> He's out. See you. Some of this you already have in your board packet. Mind how this works. Is that for you? >> So, in your packet tonight, you've got the resolution and the bond application. We'll go over that in a second, but I wanted you guys to be familiar just to remind you about the financing itself and kind of how this process works. So, in your packet, what you have here is this document. I'm going to take a minute and just walk you through it. On page one, as you know, as board members, your assessed value means a lot in terms of how much revenue is actually being generated. What
024I did is I went ahead and got with the county and we've gotten your 2025 preliminary, what we're calling preliminary assessment for the school district. Now, it's preliminary because it will not be certified by the department until a couple months from now. Um, but we're pretty sure it'll be pretty close to this, if not the actual number. So what you'll see though is the assessed values gone up from 2024 to 2025 about you'll see from 77 million to 81 million. Um which is a growth which is which is a good thing. You look on the next page in terms of how what is a mill and how is a mill calculated as you may recall you know you have your value it's assessed at a certain amount and then it's it's valued at a certain
025amount and then is assessed at a certain amount which is 20% under Arkansas law. So every one mill for a $100,000 property is about $20 that your patrons are paying for you guys because we did the millillage campaign a couple years ago. You have 25 M mills that are used only for maintenance and operation. And then you have a series of debt service mills which is 18 that were approved by voters a couple years ago for a total of 43 mills. The mills we're talking about tonight are going to be the 18 mills. The 25 maintenance and operation mills, they can only be used for maintenance and operation. The debt service mills is what we're actually going to talk about when we talk about using um some type of revenue source to borrow with. Okay?
026So, kind of think about it, you know, from our own personal finances. Here's how much money is coming in the door. How much can we actually send out in terms of the actual payment for you guys based on the new assessed value at 81 million at a 95% collection rate. One mill is generating approximately $77,000. Right? If you go to the next page, this is a very simple table, but it tells you a whole lot. What this shows you on page three is when you take $81 million at 18 mills at a 95% collection rate, you have revenues of approximately $1.4 million that are coming in. You have your current debt service payment there at about 780,000 for the prior bonds that we had issued. And then you can see that you have a cushion
027or a surplus amount of revenue that you can use to cover those those bonded debt service funds. Tonight for this financing, what we're going to be talking about is using part of this surplus debt service revenue to actually borrow with. Now, I'm going to call it surplus debt service revenue because that's legally what it's called. Your administration is calling that operating revenue. That's what you're using to clean the floors, right? Keep the lights on, all the things that we do. So, tonight's conversation comes down to an affordability question. How much can you as a district afford to give up of that surplus revenue because you're currently using it? What's nice, though, is because we kind of did this in tandem and kind of thought about this a couple years back. When you went to voters
028a couple years ago, you actually asked voters to do a bond issue or a loan for 35 years. You can't receive this debt service revenue for any longer than what voters authorize you to receive it for. So, normally it's a 30-year issue. Just like you'd go get a mortgage for your house, you do a 30-year issue. But we went into this thinking to ourselves, okay, we need the ability to come back and use the money that the voters have already authorized us to have, and we'd like a little bit longer repayment term. And so, you'll see here, this actually goes out 32 years rather than 30 years. And that's the reason for that. It allows us also to because we're spreading that payment over a longer period of time, you'll see that payment um on
029the next page and we'll get into that in a second. But you'll if you jump on over to page six, we're estimating the new payment to be about $150,000 $145,000 a year. You'll see that on page six taking the same information. >> So you're going to have total payments now with the total bonded debt service and the revenues etc. you'll see it's basically about two times the amount of coverage that's associated with that. This page six is what you really need to focus on and pay attention to because what you'll see here at the proposed financing total estimated project funds needed were estimated to be about 4.5 million. You'll see the contributions there of from the district as well as the bonded funds that are already outstanding plus the total project funds need of about
0302.2. the estimated cost of issuance. That seems a little bit large, but we allow the investment bank that's going to buy your bonds 2% of the FAR amount. And so what you'll see here is you basically have a borrowing a total borrowing of about $2.3 million. And you can see kind of how that plays out for you in terms of what those payments are, kind of how that is. So we're keeping that you're borrowing from that surplus revenue that you currently have available to you. And you'll see that $2.3 million. So again, we can what you have before you now is a borrowing for $2.3 million. Um, obviously if you guys wanted to tweak that a little bit or if we needed to tweak it, we could, but what you're doing tonight by adopting that
031resolution that you have before you is allowing us to move forward with uh filing an application with the Department of Education's bond and loans department for an amount not to exceed that $2300. And that's what you have before you this evening. So if you let me, I'll walk you through this resolution. Again, very, very brief, very short. Keep in mind with this resolution, if tomorrow, Miss Wolf said, "Hey, we don't want to do this anymore." You don't have to do it. There's up until the point in which we actually what we call sell the bonds to investors, we do not you could always pull the plug on it. There's no commitment here. All you're doing tonight by adopting this resolution is allowing us to file an application with the Department of Education. in that department.
032What we'll then do is put that before them, get their approvals, and we'll kind of move forward from that standpoint. At the back of that presentation that you see here, what you'll see is that you have a timeline. That timeline shows you that based on just kind of what you have to file, what you have to look at, you would have money in the bank, if you will, by the end of July. And that's just based on that timeline. So again, if we got delayed a little bit or whatever might happen, it might be a little bit longer than that. Um, but probably that's just the quickest it could happen because of the different approvals that we have to get from the department. >> So, let me stop there and see what questions you might
033have. >> A lot of this stuff doesn't make sense to me, but this coverage amount, is that is that a good place to be? >> Yeah. Yeah, what that basically tells you, you have two times the amount of revenue coming in the door than you have as it relates to the actual u bond payments. So again, yes, we if you had that one to one, if it was just a one amount of money related to the other, um then that would be a problem in the sense that if your assessed value ever decreased, you may not have enough money to cover your current. So again, in terms of that, if you look again on page, as you were already pointing out on that page six, this is what we're proposing your new situation would look
034like. We don't actually know exactly what your inventory would be. So it might be a little bit higher in terms of what your payment would be. It might be a little bit lower. What our job is at Stevens is to file this application, put you in a place to go ahead and get these bonds bid, and then the investment bank that buys the bonds will be the one that actually will give us that interest rate bid. You'll see down there at the bottom, we've assumed a flat fixed rate of a 475 that's in the notes. Um, I will tell you, I just came from Market, as you know, they did a 30-year bond issue. They got a 450 on theirs. So, again, we're being very conservative here just for planning purposes because we don't know
035obviously what will happen in the next months. Um, so that could fluctuate a little bit, but I don't right now we wouldn't anticipate any any big changes. >> Let me stop there. Do you have any questions about the resolution you have before you this evening? >> Depending on other school districts, will we be overextending oursel? Is this a >> to be honest with you, we had factored this in a couple years ago when we did the millillage campaign and part of the reason for the millillage ask at that time was taking this into account. We actually were taking into account a little bit more money at that time. Um so it's put you in a little bit better situation. It relative to other districts everybody's a little bit different so it's hard to compare district
036to district. a debt ratio we tend to look at which is where you take your total debt divided by what you currently have outstanding. You're the state average is about 9% and you guys are right in that range. So in terms of being leveraged if you will having too much debt um I would say no because you have two times the amount of revenue coming in the door as you can see on that page um as it relates to what that looks like. So if your assessed value continues to grow, more revenue would continue to come in off of the current village situation. >> Do have a question that may relate to as well. So the expected cost of the building. I know one use all the building. Correct. >> Yes. That's the whole part
037of the reason for this is so that we don't completely devastate our building fund so that if something comes up, >> we've got Yes, we've got that money still there. I do have a question. You one thing that we did when we the conception of this idea is doing something with the old school. Is that going to be in park? >> Yes. >> Okay. There there is money. >> I've worked towards that. Yes. There's there's a lot of things that have to happen with that old building, but that's already in the in the mindset there. That's right. >> And again, just not to belver the issue, but just to drive it home is that if anything changes and you're not comfortable, if you don't want to borrow it, again, you're not locked in anything particular
038here other than just going in getting all the the paperwork done. >> Rhonda, what are your thoughts? >> Well, we have we have money that is solely for construction that we have got to get used up and we It's not enough to do what we need to be done. I think we're still going to have to keep um tightening the belt, which we have been doing, and I think we'll continue to have to do that as we go along. But I think it I think it's our best option at this point. >> You're too not, but you got to do what you got to do, right? >> I'd rather not have debt at all. But unfortunately, we got we've got we've got to do something. And >> Oh, sure. And I think even the cost
039savings of maintaining that old building is nothing but a drain. There's so many issues with that. Getting everybody over here makes sense in so many ways. >> Well, and again, part of that money that we got through that last initiative, we we are on a crunch for time now to spend that. And again, all we can spend it on is that construction. So, makes sense to me. >> Go ahead, Rob. >> I was just going to ask, so this assumed uh interest rate of 4.75, um in a situation like this, you got personal finance a second ago. If interest rates were to drop, cut in half, say 2 whatever, 25, >> is there something that can be refinanced at that time? >> Great question. So you will have a blackout period with municipal bonds. You
040have what's called call protection for investors. And so you will tell investors you'll pay them principle and interest for interest for a period of time. So during that 5-year period, you would not be able to refinance. After that 5-year period though, you could come back if rates were to go down and you could refinance and you would just do just like your own personal finances. So there is a we can shorten that period. Right now, it's proposed as a five-year period because that's typically industry standard for municipal bonds, but we could do it as a two-year period, a three-year period, whatever that might look like. >> And so, who makes that determination on changing that that blackout period? >> It's it's it's really it's your decision as a board what you want to do. Typically,
041if you don't think there'd be a chance to refinance, I mean, again, 4.75 or 450 is pretty attractive rate right now. So would be that might be you wouldn't be able to do that in the future, but once that optional call comes back, then you would be able to do that. It's just if it's a shorter call period, it could result in a higher interest rate because what ends up happening is is you're you're giving up kind of if I'm an investor, I might get those bonds called away from me earlier and so I might want to get a little bit more use, if you will, up front. So that's a little bit of a tradeoff. So can can you can you give an idea of because you said fiveyear standard >> in terms of
042what the trade-off would be? >> Well, you said five years black. >> That's kind of standard. >> That's industry standard. Yeah. >> So if you were what would you expect if say you did a twoyear blackout period? >> It might be that's right around 4.75 or it's it'd be somewhere between the 450 to 475 range still. So it wouldn't be a huge difference. It's just again it's kind of >> just one of those things. >> So you're saying five year period could be a >> could be >> twoyear period could be 475 >> could be a quarter% >> yeah somewhere in that range might be a quarter might it may not have any impact. It really kind of depends on what the demand is at the time. So it kind of depends on what you
043know you guys again a lot of times what our recommendation would be you could do the shorter call period in anticipations of refinancing sometime in the future but if we can get your the lower lower cost that's what we're trying to aim for if you would. So that's kind of the thought process. >> So when you get when you get bids for investors do you get multiple bids with multiple blackout? >> No. No. We set all that ahead of time. So that's why we just make that decision with you guys and with your administration on wherever you think that would be. And I'll give you a great example. I'm working with a district right now where they're talking about doing a millage campaign in two years. They're doing a secondly now because they want to
044go ahead and get started. We did a two-year call on that with the anticipation it may cost a little bit more, but they're going to come back and basically pay off those old bonds within the millillage restructuring, if you will. And so to do that, we gave them the flexibility to do that. It's really your decision on how you want to handle it. There's no right or wrong answer per se other than just trying to manage that cost. So that's what we we've assumed the industry standard on this. >> Could we make it unattractive enough that you not get quality amount of bids on an issue like that? You could, but I mean at the end of the day, we can make that assessment at the time and say, you know, here we can go
045back and we can amend it if we find, you know, as we get closer to that period of time and it feels like, hey, there's not going to be much change in that due to market rates, we can always do a shorter call provision. >> That's right. >> Any more questions to go? >> Not for I guess this 4.5 this project Is that the new funding for the school? >> 2.3 million. >> Sorry. I just I've been pretty busy. >> And we can always once we get approved from the department, you can always issue less than the 2.3. We just can't issue more than that. That's >> That's right. It's not exceeding. >> Well, speaking of that, do you think that would suffice? Would we need to add anything to that? >> I don't want
046to add anything to that. >> Gotcha. >> Rhonda and I have talked to numbers a lot to get to where we're comfortable. So, >> we we trust y'all's expertise on that for sure. >> I don't know about expertise, but >> due diligence trust with all these people when I walk around and tell them we have a $189 and don't spend more than that. So, yeah. A$186. we had to buy paper. >> Yes. So, if you decide you want to move forward with this, you just somebody makes a recommendation to adopt this resolution and then um >> we'll have a vote count and then we'll have I've gotten the documentation to that so we can have I'll record the vote and then >> the secretary I don't she's here. She's not. >> I'll leave all the
047paperwork with you guys to get signed and taken care of. >> Sure. >> You'all want to you want to move on this? >> Where your office at? I'm curious. or >> big. >> I don't know if to sit down with you oneon one. >> Yeah. >> Well, I mean, I know we've done it for you guys in the past, but um you know, if you guys ever went through board trainings or anything like that, just let me know. I'm happy to do just kind of a finance 101 type deal because school finance is so different than >> anything else. >> You got Rhonda, she'll take you care. Any more questions you want to move to adopt or not adopt or >> make a motion to proceed with this? >> We have a motion and a
048second. All in favor of that motion say I >> desent same time. That motion passed. But now we need to do this formally on paper too. >> Yes. Yes. >> But again, Cassie has to sign off on it too and she keeps appreciate it. >> All we have left is the district data report. >> Okay. The next item is our our director for our district data update. So this is for K2 because currently that's the only data we have right now. The others will be coming. We will start with kindergarten. Um you've got math and ELA there. If you look, our goal is obviously the top two. This is level one, two, three, and four. Our goals are three and four. Twos are just that very basic knowledge. So, we really want as many on
049that side as possible. Um, and like I said, this is interim. Same with ELA. Give you a second to look at that. Move on to first grade. We do know there is a lot of level ones here. We are working to dig down into that data and see where we need to go with that. So this is first grade math and ELA. We have second grade math and ELA. So some of the big takeaways, these are preliminary results. We still have we have until February 26th to have all these students tested. So we are still pulling students to test. It takes a long time because these are basically one-on-one test. They have a microphone. They have to record the letters, the sounds. Even in the math, they have to record on their the um numbers
050and counting. So it you can't have a whole class of students in there and three students testing at the same time because it picks up everything. Um some of the considerations uh students experienced issues because we have students with accents. We have students with severe uh speech uh issues articulation and they had to read passages and they're scored by AI. So they read we had the results within minutes after after it. So if you have a student with, for example, we have one student who has um a pretty heavy accent, very good reader, very very good reader. He scored a zero on the oral reading that he had to do out loud. The teacher said, "I heard him reading it and um he scored a zero on it. We feel like it's likely due to
051his accent and the AI not recognizing what he was saying." um the testing platform and the format. U for example in kindergarten they'll put a letter up there and it's either uppercase, lowercase or sounds and it gives them three seconds to say that letter and the students are having to learn they're watching the green and if it gets to red they've already missed it and it goes on to the next one. So, we are we are working on teaching basically teaching the students how to take that test because there's some practice tests that they can do with the students and get them to say those letters and sounds quickly. And we've done oral reading fluency for a long time so that that's something they're used to. um we are using the assessments to um align
052our instruction with the standards. Even though there are some things that um may cause some issues for our for the assessment, we're still able to align our instruction uh with our standards using that. Um overall, the what we are seeing on the atlas is pretty in line with what we're seeing in the classroom. Um, so we're we're pretty pleased with the with the instructional alignment there. We're using the Atlas data and classroom assessments. That's that's what the state has asked us to do. They said, "Look at the atlas. Where's the where's the issue?" And then we use the classroom data to get down a little bit deeper and a little bit more specific to what the students need um for the targeted intervention. uh we use it to adjust our strategies and how we're instructing
053the students. And then um we're using the atlas even in K1 and two to um make decisions about retention and who needs what academic supports. Any questions? >> Can you go back to your graphs? >> Sure. Which grade? >> Uh well kind of questions kind of all of them. >> Okay. >> What I seen this is K K2 numbers. Okay. What I say looked like to me you had uh your breakdown in kindergarten and then it showed like a digression in first grade but then it's like they got back in line in second grade. Can you answer that? >> Um yes. So in the last couple of years there has been a lot of changes in our instruction. Um, and it that's really what it boils down to is what are the teachers doing in
054the classroom and how much do they align to our standards. So it has a lot to do with the class the instruction and um so for first grade um in the math there this is a fairly new curriculum. The teachers are better at it this year. Um, so while the kindergarten had this last year, it the year previous year, it was a very new curriculum. So it it's really just boils down to getting the teachers to stay with the standards and the curriculum. >> I'm trying to say that. >> Does that Does that mean >> Well, I think we're recording. And don't get me wrong, just since I've been on the school board, you know, we're always changing programs. We're always adopting new ways to reinvent the wheel, >> right? And we haven't >> Why
055do we keep doing that? You know, if it if it does seem like it causes problems, >> we haven't recently. And that's why we haven't once we our ELA curriculums we've had for K6 anyway for six, seven years. So when they changed the standards, it it really messed everything. It didn't mess everything up. The standards are better now than what they have been in the past, but it changed the way we had to teach. So for the for the comprehension, for the main curriculum that we have, um we it is very content heavy. So, second grade was talking about um uh immigration and like uh the Boston Tea Party back immigration back in Ellis Island, things like that. So, it's very content heavy. >> So, we've had to make a big change in the classrooms.
056They're great at teaching the content. they those kids knew all about the Boston Tea Party, but the standards changed so that it was so like a second grade standard might be compare two text on the same topic. So while they've done a great job teaching content, we have to switch and they have to be able to compare two text no matter what the content is. So it's a that's the big shift that we're having to do right now. While we've had the same curriculum, we've had to shift how we teach those standards. So, we're we're shifting and focusing on being able to compare two text, not just they can tell us about the Boston Tea Party because when they get to that third grade atlas, it might be two texts on Native Americans or it
057might be two texts on some other topic. So that's been a huge shift for even in the lower grades having to change that. We've kept the same curriculum but when they change the standards we have to focus more on those skills. >> I do have a question like so what was the map from last year first and second is it had it this year the same atlas >> um >> this at this point. >> So the atlas for K2 was new last year. >> It had a lot of issues. It had a lot of issues. So when they started out at the beginning, it was one format. >> We didn't take it in the middle and then the end was a just a totally brand new format. >> This is in the middle kind of
058sort of. Yes. >> So you don't really have the same marker last year. >> No, we don't. >> Because we didn't even give it >> in the middle. >> They were still developing it. >> I mean this is this is a lot of a case of they're building the plane while we're flying it. >> Yeah. So >> this year's K2 beginning, middle, and end are really going to be the baseline for moving forward. >> So what about math? I see math seems to be the bigger struggle even than the other. >> Is it because I you know is it um you were talking about on the the other like the letters pop up in three seconds. What is it with numbers and addition or subtraction at this point? what are they me what is there
059that makes that test difficult or maybe it's been a challenge for them on that atlas >> so they do they do have timed things where they have to count they have to the number pops up and they have to say the number in the younger grades the older grades are like second grade is um more um adding and subtracting It's really having to align what they're teaching. And we're getting help from uh Tori from our Dawson specialist. That's one of the especially for this grade here to look at what was missed. And so once we get down into that data with her, we'll know more about exactly where we are having what skills to focus on where >> when you dig deeper, it gives them a flesh of mind as first skill. And so where
060we want them to go is to dig deeper and see, okay, this skill, they've got it. So where do we need to put our focus on now? And that would be those with the minus. And so that's where we want to work hard with our especially that first grade group. >> Another thing that data >> think about like these tests have likely tested more skills than what they have been taught so far. >> That's a whole year test. >> Yes. >> So there may be skills that they have not been taught but will be taught next month. And so >> and we'll take the test again for real. That's when summitive. Yes. >> The goal is is to shift it. um get some level ones or no level fours. >> We want this too. You're
061also putting seven and eight year olds in front of the computer and put them on a timeline. I think there's a lot more >> do that with a 3 seconds for each one of these questions having to hit that >> focus. Yeah. Is is there a significance to that time that 3 seconds is it supposed to be >> that is so according to research if they can't name that letter within 3 seconds they're not fluent and so like if if they don't know the sound um a in 3 seconds if they're trying to decode a word with the a in it a sound they're going and they've already lost what they have up here. So that three seconds is based on research. >> Another question just to try to see what they were looking at
062>> in a K through two. Would you have like two apples minus a apple or is it actual numbers or >> both? Both. They have pictures. They have numbers. >> Uh the second grade would go up into double digits. So >> can you compare to other schools that just took this and say, "Hey, we're here." Other schools are in the same place. No, we don't have access to their interims. >> Everybody has their own interum. >> Date level. >> Yeah. >> But not breakdowns of individual >> schools. Everybody struggling. >> Well, we know when we look at those statewide scores, we can see where the statewide struggles are. >> And we see the >> it's now I mean we can see it now. I I mean the window when the window closes >> that's when
063we know everybody will have done it. Yeah. So, like if you see here, um, there were 40 ELA tests. There's still a couple more that need math. >> Yeah, we'll know after the 20 window. >> So, like for second grade with our big ones here, there's only 16 that's taken the math test yet. So, that >> So, that number can still change. >> Yes. Yes. >> So, where there's 36 that's taken the ELA, there uh I think there's only one more that needs ELA. So this could change even in the next two weeks. So and then like kindergarten 45 and 32. Sorry I should have explained that from the beginning. >> So that the like I said this is preliminary. Those numbers could shift a little bit. >> Different is the kindergarten test in first
064grade. Just difficulty >> test or different test. >> It's different. Kindergarten is more letters and sounds. They do have some reading words. Um some where they have to type words. Um first grade does not do letters and sounds, but they do a lot of reading and spelling. >> Same format, same like like the tests are the same format even if it's different questions. >> Yeah, pretty much. >> Same for the same. >> So like the reading the words are five seconds. Mhm. So if they can't read it in five seconds, then it's likely they're not fluent in their sounds. >> Kindergarteners have to type words, too. >> Yes. >> How many how many words per word? How big? >> Um, so we're not really allowed to really pay close attention to what they're doing just
065because that's a test security because they don't want us memorizing and, you know, teaching the kids what they what they're trying to test them on. But it's likely uh threeletter, four-letter words. So they use their standards in kindergarten. They are um CBC words basically like uh consonant, vowel, consonant like cat, dog, hat. So whatever the standard is, that's what they're tested on. So like it their standards have all the consonants and vowels, the diagraphs like sh. So you might have um they might have to do the word shop or something like that. >> Is that on a standard keyboard? >> They Yes. Yes. Just a Chromebook. They or well they do it on a Chrome pad which is a touch Chromebook basically. >> And how long do they have to type a fourletter word? Now
066in the typing that's not timed the decoding where they're reading and the letter sounds, letter name sounds, >> but does a student ever run out of time other not for the entire test and not be able to complete the entire test or they just run out of time for a question >> just for those individual questions. The tests are not technically timed. It's just those specific little pieces of the test that give a time on it >> because that was one of the things that was supposed to make Atlas a benefit over previous tests where they were taking the time element out of it so that they could truly measure what the kids knew without putting that time constraint on it. effort. >> Yeah. >> And I mean there are some students who are just
067slow readers, not bad readers, just they take a longer to to read, >> a little bit worse, >> but it it does affect comprehension at certain points and when especially when you get into the older grades with the larger text. So, the teachers have been very good about once like if they see a student that's low in um the oral reading fluency, they're going to give them some more assessments in the classroom. Are they missing the patterns? Are they are they missing um things from the grade before? And then they put it into their it's called an IRP, an individual reading plan. So the parents can go on and see, okay, uh Susie has goals of learning these letter patterns like a i, a y, the long a sound. Um, and so these are the
068goals that the teachers are working on. They progress monitor and then they update every two weeks whether they've met the goal or if they need to keep intervening on it. Now, you said a second ago that they don't want the teachers to see what they're being tested on so that you don't memorize what they're missing. >> So, how close to the actual test are teachers able to instruct a student? very closely because they are tested over the standards. So we our our instruction mirrors the atlas assessment. So for our phonics um we have a piece of our phonics um is called the three-part drill is just what we call it. And I mean they are flipping these sounds up a b. And if if if we're going through there and the the student says a
069different sound, the teacher will stop, correct the sound. That sound is what sound moving on. And that builds that quick fluency, that um that rapid fire. And the teachers are trained to pay attention to that. I've seen uh teachers recently um notice that a kid is missing a student is missing a particular sound she's got she'll write over here take a little note and then that goes into her her intervention later in the day. Okay, I've noticed that this student is constantly missing or mixing up the B and the D. That's typical. And um so she knows that she is going to really intervene on that. So, it's very important for the teachers to keep those notes. So, if you're ever in a classroom and you see them working with a student, they're writing on
070a clipboard, they're taking notes to say to say, "Okay, I need to work with this kid on that." So, and they do that when they have the kids do their readalouds, too. I'm spending a lot of time in elementary classrooms that I never thought I would be in. But I've watched them do their read alouds and the kids are all reading aloud and the teacher is walking around listening to each one and making notes on their clipboard about what they're saying when they're reading. >> If the teachers are teaching the standards, they are going to mirror that quick rapid response. >> Does do y'all get a tool from this? Like you're talking about if a child gets timed out like just doesn't recognize that and get timed out. Do you all get that information? Like
071how many? >> Not as specific as we'd like. Now it'll tell us like for the letter sounds in kindergarten. It'll say they got 15 out of 26 letters, >> but they won't tell you that they timed out so many of those. >> Correct. It won't tell us that these letters were the ones missed. That's where the teachers have to go in and we would our goal is for them to already know like once they take this assessment it shouldn't be a surprise if the students have missed five letters that teacher should have already been collecting data up to that test and basically know they're probably going to miss these five letters. We would hope that's our that's our goal is that the teachers and if they don't then they need to give an assessment and
072see which five letters they need to intervene on. Happy high school. We do have testing next week and move into our winter entering. So, we'll test Monday through Thursday and uh should have results back really quick from that. >> And we're looking next year. Our testing calendar is going to change next year courtesy of the state and they're going to push the tests back so that the testing window is going to be in May instead of April. Yeah. The summitative will be later >> actually do the first two ins. >> Yes. But for the secondary that's very difficult because as we know May in secondary is very very busy. So, and with secondary as well, when you have students that are in AP classes, those summitives can bump right into those AP exams as well.
073So, it's great to give them more time, but it's also Yeah, >> if a child already knows they going to graduate, they may not care. >> Well, seniors aren't, you know, they don't generally test, so they're they're not the issue. All we got >> any more questions on any of that >> future businesses or make next board meeting March 17th move to adjourn. >> All right, we have a motion. >> All right, motion and second. All in favor of that motion say I. All in same sign. Clear again.