001All right. So, at 6 o'clock, we're going to begin our October board meeting. So, we're going to call it to order. Um, let's start with the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge algiance 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. All right, let's follow that with a moment of silence. [Music] Amen. All right, Mr. Martin, I'll turn it over to you. All right, welcome to the October board meeting. Um, first on the agenda is our consent agenda. Are there any questions on the consent agenda? With that, I'd like to make the recommendation that the consent agenda, financial report, and board minutes of the regular board meeting held on September 12th, 2022 be approved as submitted.
002All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A motion. All right. Adam with the motion. Do we have a second? I'll second. Jessica with the second. All right. Any further discussion? All in favor? Okay. Um, next, um, I would like to go out of order a little bit and pull down from business and finance. Um, we have Mr. Neil from Harvest Bank. I believe we're all familiar with him. Um, talking about the possibility of us being able to use a Treasury ladder. Since I am out, since we got out of order, I need to get my packet out a little bit. And this all comes with, you know, our interest rates across the country going up. And that's not good for a lot of reasons. But there are some instances where
003it can benefit our school district. And um Mr. Neil came to us um with opportunity to in through our bank to invest in US Treasury bonds, you know, to generate a little bit of additional revenue for our district. These bonds are fully insured and provide no financial risk to the district. Um with a treasury ladder um bond portfolio um we invest at different step like every three months so that everything's not invested in one bond. Um we currently receive.1% interest on our account. Um moving to this treasury ladder investment will allow the district to take advantage of rates for around 3% after we pay the the the charge from from the bank for doing that. and we would only invest our reserve fund or our building fund in that which will be around $2 million
004after tonight and they can be accessed at any time in your packet. There's kind of an overview of what that kind of looks like from fix from from our guest bank from Mr. Gaff and not Aaron Gap again his brother. Um and um what it is is you have the YTW the yield to worst and the coupon rate. So the interest rate is basically the yield to worst minus the coupon rate. So right now it' be right above 3% and this was about a week old. They'll be when we do this it'll be on the current market rate. So, but hopefully it'll be around 3%. Mr. Neil, did you have anything? Just a a small clarification. It's not treasury bonds, it's treasury bills. Oh, sorry. Because it's those are shorter terms. So, that allows the
005school to to get access to the funds. I I don't want to say immediately 24 to 72 hours. Is that depending on what it's invested in? Uh, no. It's it's these are these are US Treasury bills. So that's it's not out on the market or anything. Okay. Is the interest rate set or does it fluctuate? No, it's set at the time of closing. It can't go up, it can't go down. Okay. So if we continue to be in this great environment now, keep in mind that this rate environment is kind of weird, right? Um, but it's it's pushing the short-term bills uh higher than some of your long-term investments. For example, a treasury. And are there any cost whenever having to cash in some of those bills or trend? No, the cost is upfront. It's
006a flat fee upfront. And uh the the total cost is about well, not about it's $4,000. And that that is what it costs to buy and sell these on the market. And that's a onetime fee. That's correct. It's set aside up front and you get paid you get paid about 2 and 12% or 2 and 1/4% interest on that as it's sitting in there. So you don't use it up use it over the course of the 12 or 18 months depending on what direction you decide to go. And are you recommending a a time frame tonight? 12 18 months. Is that something that you recommend or is that I talked to Mel and we would like to do recommend a 12 month just so that we it's not held for so long. Okay. And then
007it would be re-evaluated and next year after 12 months and then decision made on what to do again. Uh yes when they mature. Okay. Now some of them will mature later than 12 months. will not purchase. You will not purchase all of them right now. Does that make sense? Okay. And we don't currently have any construction bills or anything that's coming out right now that No. And if we did, we would have access to the money within a day or two. And when we get invoiced for bills, they're usually a 30 or 45 day pay window. I'd hate to break up try to say we're over to pay this bill and break it up. Yes. M. So, Miss Bernell, will there be a line as far as like interest um incurred or interest on on
008the P&L going forward? I can I can create something and put it in the board packets letting you know how much interest we generate every month. That would be great. That'd be great. Okay. The interest that's earned, where would it would it just go into a general fund after tour? What would it be used for? I mean, it's a good thing, but it would stay in the building fund itself for that that fund itself. Gotcha. And repeat again, this is about 3% versus what are we currently earning? 0.1 0.1. Okay. Any further questions? Is this a practice that a lot of school district I'm not familiar with is a lot of school districts are moving to this kind of the availability of the interest rate that's there. Okay. Gotcha. And they're and they're doing the
009same thing that we are. They're putting the reserve funds in. It's hard for school districts, municipalities to earn a to earn a direct return on their money because the bank has to set aside for every dollar the school district puts in the bank, the bank has to set aside a dollar because it's a public entity. So, we can't we can't invest that money, if you will, you know, through loans or investments or whatever. So, okay. Any further questions? All right, Mr. I think we'd recommend or entertain a recommendation. With that, I'd like to make the recommendation to approve the transfer of reserve funds into a treasury letter portfolio with Arcus Bank. All right. So, we have a a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. John with the motion. Do we have
010a second? I'll second that. All right. Any further questions? All right. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Um, up next, we had to have Mr. Neil, thanks for coming. We appreciate it. Thank you, sir. [Music] Um, up next, I made an addition to the board agenda. I forgot to place our second grade field trip to Extra, Missouri on there. And any field trip or any school vehicle that crosses state line has to have school board approval. Um, they are wanting to go on October the 28th to Exor Missouri. All school rules will be followed and everything. We're excited to let them go um if approved. And are there any questions? I I had a question. So why exit versus our own pumpkin patch here? Is that it? So this year they kind of rotate
011whoseever job it is to plan their field trips and they've done Macar now for years and they love it. Our other two are going to Macar, but they wanted to since they have done it for the last two years and Kim ran first, they just kind of want to give them a different experience this year and just try something new. Okay. It really is a great maze. I've seen pictures online. It's really awesome. Not nothing against our our but it is kind of scary, too. So, [Music] all right. And all the parents have the opportunity to go if they want to. Yes. M. We're actually excited that, you know, we're short on bus drivers and everything. This falls on a day that we know that we can get them bus there and back. Yay. Okay.
012Awesome. All right. Any other questions? Right. Okay. With that, I'd like to make the recommendation to approve the second grade out of state field trip to Extter, Missouri on October 28th, 2022. I'll motion by Jessica. Do we have a second? Second. All right. Sarah with the second. Any other questions or comments? All right. All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Yes, ma'am. Just going to say that make sure those kids have some extra money and water. Okay. Up next, we have our student services report, Mr. Rain. Okay. Food service. Uh, as of September, uh, ending balance of [Music] $452,535.7. And so, um, uh, as we state, you know, almost monthly, we continue to have a really healthy balance. And, uh, Miss Ferguson does a really good job of of watching our finances and trying to
013keep our costs as minimal as as we can. And so, uh, we appreciate her and the job that she's doing. Uh, you can see we're serving, um, about 1,800 uh, meals a day um, you know, that are divided up amongst breakfast and lunch and stuff. And so, uh, uh, we're pleased, uh, that we're seeing, uh, you know, students utilize our cafeteria and that sort of thing. You know, we're back to to paid meals and those things now. And so, uh, uh, you know, we're always concerned about how many meals are we providing daily and that sort of thing, but we're we're we're serving our students, which is a good deal. Um, we have our October one initial numbers uh that we have sent to the the state and so they're going to be re reviewed
014by the Department of Education and Child Nutrition. Uh, you can see as a district uh we turned in were 31.7% for free and reduced lunch. Uh, which continues to fall. Uh, the 1920 school year we were 38%. The 2021 school year we were 35%. 2122 34% and now 31.7. So we continue to see our free and reduced uh numbers decrease which is a trend that we've seen over the last uh seven or eight years and with the you know the houses that we continue to see uh going up and those kinds of things as new families move into our school district. They're not qualifying for free and reduced lunch. And so uh uh we'll see the impact that that has on our uh title one funding uh that we move from schoolwide to to uh
015targeted assistance and that sort of thing. Uh and we'll work with the state on on kind of where we fall. You also can see a breakdown by building uh on your on your report with uh uh the primary being the high at 36% and the high school being the low at 24% and then all other schools kind of falling uh in their in between. And that's not uh that's not unusual. Um it's much harder to get forms back at high school level and uh and so uh um it's hard to to kind of to get all those turned back into it. So, it's it's not unusual to see them being a little bit lower than the rest. Uh, but those are our numbers. They'll be reviewed and then they'll be finalized um uh here over
016the next few weeks. Um, we do have an update on on transportation since this report was written. I talked with uh Midwest Sales and Van Beern today. Uh, we have two buses that are in Van Beern. Uh, they're currently getting their lettering and they're getting their camera systems installed. Um, we kind of have a target date hopefully that they'll be on on campus Friday, but we're not crossing our fingers. Um, I would expect it to be delayed like it everything else has been. Uh, but we did talk with them uh today. Our our special education bus that we ordered a year ago has not arrived yet. It's still uh delayed because of of specs and needs on end. So uh and I asked ETA and we don't have one. Uh but we do have two
017out of the three. So, uh, hopefully we will see it maybe in the next week or so. They're going to deliver it to us and we'll Maryan will go over and inspect the bus and make sure everything's uh accurate and then we'll we'll accept them and move on from there. But we are looking forward to to getting those things. Um, we're continuing with our our ESG project. I think we've got a final walk through scheduled for uh next Tuesday. And so they're continuing to do some startups and some some punch list items and then we'll we'll do our walk through with them and hopefully be able to wrap up and finalize that project. It's been uh forever. Uh but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and so uh hopefully soon
018it will be complete. We have had uh you know some some error messages and things and and anytime we we've turned those over immediately and ESG and Milton they've been on site and and addressed them and we'll continue to work through uh some of those things. Uh we also have an update on our quad uh classroom. We received u a release from the insurance company today. U the cost to repair the quad classroom came in just over $113,000. Um, and so, uh, uh, we're reviewing we're reviewing the release. Uh, we'll go through it in detail to make sure that everything is correct and accurate. CR Crawford is also doing the same thing. Um, and then, uh, if it's if it's accurate and everything looks looks good, we'll get it signed and we'll get moving forward
019with with finalizing renovations and timetables and all that stuff. So, do we have an estimate time as to how long it's going to take to get the quad fixed once we get everything signed off on? We we don't yet. We don't yet. We'll get we'll get hopefully get this signed off this week and then we'll work with CR Crawford on it when that's going to take place. So hopefully next in November we'll have an estimate. Okay. You know, originally way back in August, we're hoping it'd be done by now. Right. And right here we are. So yeah. Um I'm waiting on Mr. Nye to review the document before I sign the release. Absolutely. Um that's that's kind of where I'm at. That when he's good with it, I'll be good with it because when we
020sign that release, that's all the money that that they're responsible. It's no different than a car insurance. Once you make that claim and you sign the release, there's no more there. I want to make sure that we're we're fully covered. Okay. And then Mr. Martin, you and I messaged um I got the privilege of helping over at the primary during homecoming and one of the doors. Sure. This was right after we went to that training. So, I was like messaging Mr. Did we get that fixed? Okay, perfect. Yay. Just wanted to double check. Absolutely. Kevin, going back to food services, did we get the reimbursements from July and August from the state? Uh, I believe we got July and we're waiting on August. I think they're going to release August at the end of this
021week. I think it's the email that we got. I'm trying to remember. I mean, you know, from Friday and uh but I believe I believe it's coming in this week and there was some hold up by not oursel District, but others because everybody in the state has to submit their stuff before they start releasing. So, uh, and then today we did a claim for about 40,000 that'll come in next month. So, okay, we just we just continue working. So, right now, are we still benefiting the um free like the reimbursements? Are we the 452,000? Is this when when are we going to stop reaping those benefits as far as the reimbursements from the state for the summer? Because July you said we just got we got we'll get August and then we'll get September, but
022we get monthly reimbursements, right? But those are based on our numbers that we did. So come November, is that when it's going to start the state reimbursement's going down because we're not going to get reimbured? We just moved from seamless summer to regular. Uh okay. The way it's always we've always had state reimbursement. Um free um free and reduced and you get you get money on paid as well, but you get um with free you get more money than on reduced and of course state reimbursement is less for paid. Um, and it's not uncommon for us to be 2 and 3 months behind on getting reimbursements from, but we're going to see that drastically decrease because not every When will we see the dra the drastic decrease in the amount of money? The next couple
023the next couple months. So, you will also have revenue generated from family income before families pay. So, we don't anticipate there being any kind of a drop because you got to remember the food costs are continuing to rise with transportation and everything else. That's right. But that was considered in the food budget that was submitted. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Yeah, we had a I think it it was over a 50% increase in food cost. Um we can only go up on paid lunch. I'm sorry, paid lunch equity um calculator. We only go up 10 cents a year on the cost for the you know for that we each each meal. And so the 10 cents did not offset the cost of the food increase. And we know that. Okay. We need to help our families out
024this No, I agree. And I I think what you might be referring to, but the whole harmless period for our families, we're free and reduced. It's come and gone. And so they're starting to receive those phone calls and letters and Okay. things that they're Yeah. It's either they've got to fill out a new form. Okay. Because the grace period's gone or That's what I was referring to. Yes. I couldn't think of holdless. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Okay. And we have we made that convenient for the parents to be able to pay accounts online without having to Hey Jessica, you're gonna have to speak up. Oh, is it a convenience website? Yes, ma'am. Okay. Go to the the nutrition page. You can get nutrition page. Okay. Thank you very much. Any other comments or questions? Okay.
025All right. Up next, we have reports to public and Miss Taber is going to take care of that for us. Stand up if you want. My voice is not protected very well. Um, each year around this time we give our annual report to the public. This information um is from the previous school year though. So you'll see some data that looks a little old and in some cases I tried to provide our current numbers when we had them just to give you some perspective. Throughout the school year, uh, we monitor our accreditation status with this dashboard and we have to watch all six areas. By May, we have to be green in all of them. And for each of the six, there are about 15 to 16 indicators under each one that all relate back
026to some kind of state code that we have to meet. And so, we finished the school year in all green, which is always down to the last day. Um, it's everything from making sure our background checks for our new employees are clearing to our teacher loads are not over 150. All of those kind of things. In the 2122 school year, we had 138 certified classroom teachers with an average years of experience of 8.33. The degree um breakdown is there. That advanced degree is something like a specialist degree. So, between a bachelor, sorry, between a master's and a doctorate degree. Um, and we had one teacher on an alternative license licensing plan last year, uh, which means that they were a licensed teacher, uh, but teaching out of area, but we had a plan with the
027state that we were getting that teacher training to get certified in that area, which is pretty common, especially in our high need areas. Um, and so we've been working with that teacher. We have three years um, in that position to do that. our enrollment and the the years at the bottom are relating to the ending school year. So where you see 2022 at the bottom, that's for the 2122 school year. And these numbers are reported in October. So our cycle 2 report. Um so you can see how our enrollment has changed since 2018. I also included uh where we ended the school year last year, May 2022. We ended um almost at 2400. We started the school year September with 2442 and as of today we're at 2456. Our enrollment changes every day. Uh so
028it's hard to say exactly what it is on a consistent basis, but that just kind of shows you we ended the school year or sorry in October of last year we were at 2321 and today we're at 2456. So, our enrollment by building. Um, we included September and May for the last school year, so where we started and where we ended. And then in September of this school year, we also included the capacity for each building to show you we have room for growth in every building with reconfiguration. Uh, we removed a grade level essentially from each building other than the primary. Um, so we have the square footage we need for some growth. Um we've just our our issue right now is just keeping up with the staffing. Um and then as the space
029is needed sometimes reconfiguring the space and looking at it differently. Um but that shows you we are we have room uh for all of our students square footage wise for a while. Our virtual enrollment um is something that we've been watching since 2020. Um, and this shows you in October 2022, 475 of our students uh were learning virtually. This was our fall coming out of um the closures of of March 2020. Um in August, we were we hovered around 100 all summer until school started and we jumped way up. So, we had to monitor and adjust. Um by the end of that school year, we were down 100 students to 375. We've stayed fairly consistent last year, but we had a shift from the elementary to the secondary level. So, our students that were coming
030back on site from the elementary, we had some older students who were choosing to learn virtually. And then we see a pretty uh significant drop in enrollment this fall uh with two students in grades kindergarten through sixth grade. We have one third grader, one sixth grader. Um and then 72 students at 712 for a total of 74 students. And so we've adjusted our staffing um throughout that time. Our demographics are here um showing the breakdown of our students, 86.1% um white, our next largest subop and 84, sorry, 8.4% of our students Hispanic. our five-year comparison. Um, in these figures here, Miss Pernell shared with us our per pupil expenditure in our last board meeting and how that has changed in the last few years. It is not yet recorded for the previous school year um
031on our public site. All of this information that we're looking at tonight is publicly available on my school info. Um, our school choice enrollment has increased from 156 in 2018 to 275 last year. We're a little bit over that this year. Our graduation rate um is posted there. It's not yet reported for last year. And this is lagging data on the graduation rate. Um we have a four-year cohort and a 5-year cohort. So, we're that information is always a little bit behind, but you can see um in 2022, we did have a drop. Um and some of that had to do with CO. Uh we were able to um recover some of them in the next school year. our English learners, our ESL program, our ESOL program um has stayed fairly consistent around 3% but
032our um our change there is coming in the English language proficiency of our students. We're receiving more students who we consider to be newcomers or firsttime in public schools. Um and so our instruction and and our supports are are shifting for that. special special education has increased um over the last few years. You know, we've talked Dr. Basset and Miss Pernell over funding in our last meeting. Gifted talented education is there. Um and it does look like we have decreased and we have in some sense um but part of that 6.03% for 2022 our screening we do it in second grade and fourth grade now um so that we can get students at two different places and that's a universal screening. So, all students in second grade and then again all students in fourth grade,
033trying to make sure that we're um getting them early. And then each school year, our GT coordinator also looks at ACT Aspire results, looking for students that might have been missed or might have come to us after the universal screening. Um, and we've also added a staff member to better serve our students at GT. Um, so we have our our staff member who works throughout the day in five buildings. And so we were able to add a halftime GT teacher this year um to try to show more growth for our GT students, but also looking for more referrals and screening more students. Free reduced lunch is there. Mr. Amy just shared we were at 33.78% last year down to 31.7 this year. Our attendance, it's a little hard to get there. um our attendance is
034a little deceiving because the state reported attendance does not include quarantine and COVID 19. Um and so because those students were learning remotely. So it's a little deceiving when we think about that. We know what we felt in the buildings. Uh the dotted line is the state and we are the red bar graph. And so uh 2022 has not yet reported some of that data. There's final certifications of it. Uh we know that we we saw more absences last year, but again, most of them were CO 19 and quarantine. Um and so we're hoping to improve on that this school year. And now for student achievement. Um we worked really hard in the last two years with MAP growth uh to monitor our students progress. MAP stands for measures of academic performance and we really
035are looking at growth over time for students and so we give this assessment three times a year. We choose in P Ridge to do that from kindergarten through 10th grade. Um so that we have student data and we can monitor that growth definitely over time not just in a one-year snapshot. Um and so this shows you uh the colors if you track them are cohorts. Uh so if you see our um for example our second grade cohort in the fall 2020 they came to us at um 47 that's the achievement percentile. 37 is where they ended the year. That was our first full COVID year. And so when we talk about learning loss that's what we're seeing. Students are not in school on a on a consistent basis and we're struggling. Um and so that
036that cohort like many of the others we saw some learning loss and so last year um our teachers our principles worked really hard and we saw a lot of that learning loss regained. Um and so that same cohort um they came to us and by the fall assessment and that is in midepptember we got them we were at 55 uh in the achievement percentile again a rough year at 51 percentile but it was better than what they left that school year with. Uh we saw some some definite gains on that sixth grade cohort um going from 39 to 45. Um the eighth grade cohort going from 40 to 61. So we're looking here at making sure are we achieving on a daily basis in the grade level content, but are we growing them as well?
037Our K2 student achievement. This is our state accountability assessment with map growth. This is showing you 20 uh the previous school year 2021 to 2022 um and the gains that we made when it comes to the students meeting expected growth. So what you looked at before was achievement. Where are they? Um but then how far much further did we get them? And so um you can see by the red bar graph that in kindergarten first and second we definitely gained some ground with our students in reading. No, I I had a question. So that is kindergarten would be kindergarten of 2021 versus kindergarten of 2022, right? That's not kindergarten and first grade. This isn't going to work confusing. Just making sure. This is for math. Definitely some um distinct changes going on um with math
038at all three grade levels. went from 56% in kindergarten, uh, meeting their expected growth to 74%. 43 in second grade to 69%. Um, I know Miss Bennett can tell you they they felt that hard work, but they they did a great job. For uh, grades 3 through 10, our state accountability assessment is the ACT Aspire. And so you see here our scores um the percent who were re ready or exceeding in each of those areas and this is 21 compared to the spring of 22. Um you're going to notice that we stayed fairly consistent. Um and that was through two years of a lot of quarantining and remote learning. Um and so we we hovered right there. Um reading we did show some improvement and in math English and science we stayed around the same
039uh but that math change from 43.57% to 47.65% was pretty significant for us across the district. This shows you what the state saw. Um and you'll notice that there is no 2020. Um that is the spring that the assessment was cancelled because we were all at home. Um, and so this kind of shows you what that did to our district scores, but also to the state. Uh, the state is the dotted line and the diamond. So, in 2019 in reading across the district, um, 43.15% of our students were ready or exceeding in reading. We did take a dip in 2021. Um, but we got closer to our 2019 scores with 41.29 29 in um spring of 22. And what I think is important to note is that we we did gain more ground and get
040closer to our precoid scores than what you see with the state average. Um part of that is, you know, we were able to stay open all of our buildings while we had a lot of students out who were here. Um and so we were able to maintain some of that. In math, we actually went from 46.4% 4% uh meeting the benchmark in math before co and we managed to come um and to exceed that in 2022 with 47.65% of our students and this I have to say it shows the work of our teachers and the use of that guaranteed and viable curriculum. We're about 5 years in to illustrative math using that at every grade level six and up. um we added that K5 piece as it came became available. Um and so you know
041seeing that our students are experiencing multiple years of that and the teachers are supported with those resources. We're seeing some growth there for uh science. We're getting closer. We're not quite back to where we were in 2019 with 40% of our students. Um but we are gaining ground faster than the state average. And um the same holds to true in English with 68.49% of our students ready or exceeding. In English, the scores are typically higher that assessment. Um the questions are lower level than what you're going to see on the math or the reading assessment. And so typically scores are higher in those areas. This shows you um ACSPIRE the state comparison last year to our scores. we are the red um bar and the gray bar is the state. So you can see that
042we exceeded the state average in all of our assessments last school year. Our students in 11th grade take the ACT and this is our state accountability measure um for our 11th grade. This shows you um precoid 2019 the ACT uh we were not able to give in 2020. So we have 2021 and 2022 scores. You can see uh there was a dip in our scores coming back that first year from co uh we have regained them uh with that ground or come close um in each of our assessments. In reading we went from 26% precoid um and we are now at 33%. English is the same on ACT is as it is apired. Typically those scores aren't higher. Math we're getting closer. Um and in science we went from 23% pre-COVID and we're at 24%.
043This is not a cohort though. This is the 11th grade each of those years. This shows you our ACT ACT student achievement um as compared to the state last year. We exceeded the state average in reading. We met the state average in science and we have some work to do in English and math. That is the last slide. Will you go back to the cohort one? Sure. Is it here? Yes. Okay. So, every single grade if you look like kindergarten, the only one that did not beat is kindergarten. Correct. Is that corre? Am I reading that correctly? I don't know. Say that again. The only one from fall of 2020 to spring uh to fall of 2021 or spring of 2022. That that line I'm I'm trying to make sure I'm looking at it right.
044Kindergarten for for fall was 94 and then 91. But then when they went to first grade for fall of 2021, they dropped to 81 and spring 84. So if I'm reading this correctly, every single one of our grade levels showed improvement except for kindergarten. Well, in math, but when you look at that that initial kindergarten test, we haven't had them yet. No, no, no. I get it. I'm just making sure I'm reading. It's not a point. It's Please, it's not a knock at any of our teachers. It's not a knock at kindergarten or first grade. I'm trying to make sure that I'm reading this correctly. And it was the first line, so it was the easiest to look at. And that and that is at grade level expectations. So, okay, we see some growth. We
045didn't backtrack on the grade level. Okay. Yes, that that's true in math. Um we had one that stayed around the same um as far as maintaining their percentile but on the next grade level. Okay. Mark. So they grew just at the same rate as the grade level as the grade level. Okay. Yeah. When I when I see this I can't tell you how proud I am of our faculty and absolutely over the past two to three years. Yeah. It's been we're on our third year now since since um co um we have in the work that they have done the care for our kids keeping our buildings open coming to work going through all the the procedures the contact tracing um and thanking we need I need to thank our parents for that as well
046the past few years have been they've been rough um but our our faculty and staff they have been here every day coming up here. Um, you know, we implemented guaranteed Bible curriculum, splitting, wisdom and literacy, um, illustrative or illustrative mathematics, whatever you want to call that. And the, um, for math, um, implemented the PLC process, then we are now seeing the benefits of implementing that guaranteed viable curriculum and the PLC process. And that's all due to the hard work of our principles, our teachers, and um our central office staff all working together to make sure that that we're doing the very best for our kids. Absolutely. Teamwork making the dream work. Yeah. I think it's exciting to see the resiliency because I think going into co nobody knew how anyone would come out or if
047the kids would catch up. So to see the numbers I think is really I mean that's a good thing. you know, keeping the buildings open last year. I felt it was so important. Um, there were multiple days our faculty and staff did more than their job to ensure that we stayed open. Um, we were a skeleton crew a lot of days, but we made sure that we were here for our kids. And the one thing that the pandemic has shown is that there is no better place for our kids to be inside the brick and mortar classrooms within our state and within our district. And we make sure that happened. And that that is not the work of me. That's the work of all 300 I think six of us um right now making sure
048that we're here for our kids. Absolutely. Guys, make sure you pass that on to your teachers. Congratulations and thank them for all their hard work. That's This is tremendous numbers right here. Yeah. Again, I want to point out and go public. I was not knocking kindergarten train. I was making sure I was reading this correctly. Oh, no. I get into the different colors and then all Yeah. Because we went from cohort here to year over year. So, I just want to make sure I'm reading that correctly. So, again, Miss Bennett, please make sure that they know if they if there's any negative comments. It was not that. I love them. Okay. I did want to ask what was it for parents who maybe couldn't come tonight. What is the website if they want to go
049and look I know you said it but it's called my school info. My school info. Okay. If you literally Google My School Info Arkansas, it's the first Okay. It's the first address and then you just click P Ridge and it'll you can search by district or by school. Okay. Miss Taber, thank you very much. That was great. Any other questions before we move on? All right. Up next, well, you get a double dose of Miss Favor cuz she's going to take care of our grant update and we are so excited about this. Miss Markfield couldn't be here today. Um she's with her daughter, but we are excited about this. The district recently um we were notified that we received two grants and so we wanted to update you tonight on those. The first one um
050being the American Rescue Plan Act Child Care Supply Building Grant. And Miss Roser and Miss Ryan worked really hard on this grant. We received an amount of $60,000 for our prek program to be spent uh this school year. And we're able to use that to um do some renovations to provide some classroom supplies, some curriculum um and also do some professional development for our staff, which is really important. And so that's from the Department of Human Services and we should be I'm sure they've started spending that already this Mel. Um but they're they're really excited about that. This is the second year that they've received a grant to to work on building up the prek program. Um the second grant is the Walton Family Foundation, the home region grant, and this is our second Walton
051family grant. That's pretty substantial. This was in the amount of um 400 441 441. There we go. $441,000. Um and that is over two years. So in our first year we'll receive 248,000 and in the second year 193,000. Um we are the plans for this grant is we're focused on college and career readiness. Um and so they have already started with events. You probably saw the senior roundup. Um that was part of this grant was promoting those monthly events for our students to make sure that all of them have access to college career resources. Um and so those outputs there. We'll track the enrollment of our students going into college and their certifications that they leave us with so that we can better support and better provide those things. Uh really focused on making sure
052that all families have access to the information and to the support to get that done. We just had our fast night that was really well attended. Um, and we're also looking at increasing the number of our students who are in those career pathways and finishing with certifications. So, we're really excited about that and the work that Miss Jackson and Miss on that grant. So, can that grant also be utilized for not just college but the career part of it. So, for like the welding and all that stuff. Absolutely. Okay. Um it's you know the one thing we did last year at the um oh at the end of the year we did the enrolled enlisted or employed well it's about the kids who are it's this is for the kids who are employed whether it's
053through the healthc care pathway through the business through uh Miss Young's or um okay agriculture whatever it it's it's to help them um move forward and to improve those programs within our district. It's very exciting the work we're doing. Awesome. and the work that has gone into making sure that we're able to secure this funding. So, it it's it's amazing things for Peter School District. I love it. Great. Thank you very much. I had a question on that. So, when the Walton Foundation gives the money, do they just give it to the college and career and they determine which programs or like that they use it for or how how is it implemented that way? I was just curious. So, in submitting, sorry, in submitting the grant proposal, um, Miss Jackson and Miss Martfeld are
054really the coordinators of that grant for the district. And so, they'll work closely with the Walton Foundation, but they they also the the money is funneled through the district to make sure that the plan's cohesive. So, it's not just given to individual programs, but to the district as a whole. So, it's kind of a team effort together. Gotcha. Okay. Anything else? All right, thank you. That happened a few weeks ago. It's a great week when you get a half a million dollars in grants. I know. That's awesome. It's a good week. Thank you guys for all your hard work. Um up next we have we've already got the treasury ladder. We have um our retention and recruitment proposal for y'all to look at. Um, in July or August of this year, uh, the Arkansas Legislative
055Committee, um, they put out the recommendation that we use ESER funding to give bonuses for teachers and for classified staff. The recommendation was for 5,000 for licensed staff and 2500 for um for classified staff. We did not receive enough funding to do that. I believe we were the seventh or eighth lowest funded per student district in the state. Um, but what we are able to do, and this is matching a lot of what Northwest Arkansas is doing because we're all in that that bottom tier, um, we're coming to bring you a recommendation to do a $2,000 um, bonus or incentive for our licensed employees and $1,000 for our classified employees. Our goal is to pay this out the week of Thanksgiving. The Yes, thank you. the week of Thanksgiving. I was going to say Christmas,
056and I knew that wasn't right. um the week of Thanksgiving. Um you know, inflation has hit everyone. Everything's more money. Um I think this is a wonderful opportunity since we are now allowed to use this money for um incentives for our employees to do this. It will cost around um 300 I'm sorry, I wish it was 360 $630,000. In our SR2 supplemental funds, we received 725,000. So, it will take up the majority of those of that pot of money, but I can't think of a better way um to spend that money than to um help our faculty and staff out. So, just for clarification of what you're saying, you're most of the schools in the state will have the state pay the bonuses, but because we're in a different bracket. Okay. No, ma'am. They um
057they made the recommendation that all school districts use their err funds to Okay. Got the bonuses. Uhhuh. um school districts received. It was a varying amount across the state based on your title allocation of how much you received. I believe our grand total of complete esser funds was around 583 a student something for ARP funds and there are quite a few districts that got the five67 $7,000 a student. Those are two complete different numbers. So, um, while we did not receive the the average of the state, we were far below that, I still think we should be a we should use this funding to help help our faculty and staff out and provide this onetime incentive recruitment and retention incentive for our staff. So, every school district didn't get the same amount. It was based
058on the title, your income. Yeah. So because we have a wealthier district really is what I'm just trying to use common language so people that maybe are wanting to understand but I want to reduce percentage discount. Okay, right. Yeah. Just to understand cuz sometimes when you're using all these like school terms you're like what does that really mean? I'm a walking acronym. That's what I do every day. Yeah, but um I can't um we specifically did not budget the ARP, I'm sorry, the SR2 funds in case we were able to do this and this will give us opportunity to help our faculty and staff out. Yeah. No, absolutely. I just wish we could do more is what I'd say. Not absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And that to do more that is where everyone needs to contact
059their state legislature legislators about the upcoming general session that will happen this spring teacher salaries what we have yes or teacher salaries are supposed to be well and that's what I was getting at is that it should be equal based on teachers need not on the income base of families in the district but that's a whole another topic we don't have to go there. Yes or no? And yes, I could go on and on. We don't have to talk about that. Okay, that's a different round. Yeah, that's a different I'm not trying to get off topic. I'm just trying to get to what's going on exactly. So, your recommendation is what? My recommendation is to approve a onetime incentive in the amount of $2,000 for each contracted license staff member and a onetime $1,000 incentive
060to all contracted classified staff members and custodians employed as of November 1, 2022. One side question. So right now there the incentive was to be 5,000 but we don't have the coverage. Will we ever be able to cover that extra little bit or not? Unless there will be funding coming. Unless it comes from somewhere else from people emailing the state and they even then it would be more like a salary. It would be something but not this. Yes. The what we've been told will be addressed in the legislative session. It's not a bonus. It is they will address teacher salary and teacher salary is an ongoing increase in their pay. A bonus is a one a one time event. And while I'm ecstatic that we're able to do this onetime event um to to truly
061help the teachers and staff in Arkansas, it's about a a continuous increase in monthly income. Gotcha. Okay. But another thing to re fill our our banks on this S or ESS or SR funding, is that going to be reimbured back to us from anything or is that just it's just basically being being well spent? But I mean um this funds these funds are not in our accounts right now. Um we have to submit u Miss Kaufman the I'm sorry desi not ad desi if they have approved approved this purchase. So we will um cut the checks so so to speak and then they will reimburse us. If if you remember when they first gave us ESR funds they gave us a list and said you could spend it on these things. Yes. Then they came
062back and revised it when we got into the big debate down at the state level on teacher salaries and all those things and they said, "No, now you can use extra funds for retention and recruitment." And so we had to submit our plan uh saying we couldn't do what they wanted us to because we didn't receive enough money. And so they froze up everybody's funds. We submitted our plans, they approved our plans, and now we are able to give a portion. We just can't beat the recommendation because we don't have enough. Exactly. But it's going to be reimbursed eventually. It's going to be reimbursed back to us. So we'll spend the money just like federal any federal fund. We have to spend the money first and then the state will reimburse us. Exactly. And so
063my question is why can we not reuse the reimbursement? Yes. Because because the reimbursement is paying us back for what we So we're spending we're spending our current cash flow that we have and then they'll give us the money. So Esther money was never given to us upfront. It's always been reimbured and it's an allotted amount. It's already your market. It zeros out. It zeros out. We spend it. They reimburse us. It zeros out. It's not additional money that we're going to get. I think is what that's where it's a one time money that comes to just making sure like I just want it all. Yeah. All right. So you want to reread your recommendation and transportation. They're added into that. Ma'am, transportation. Yes. They are a full-time employee. Yes, ma'am. Um, the state was
064gracious enough to move them back to full-time status two or three years ago so that we could provide full benefits. They were always entitled to they used to be entitled to health insurance and retirement. Well, about 8 10 years ago, it just went to um retirement. And with the bus shortage a couple years ago, they allowed us to do consider them full-time employees for insurance purposes as well. So, what are we doing with those people who have stepped up and are driving buses for us? Are they getting both or they just get one? Um, they get one. They get one. Okay. But we also compensate employees for driving. No, that's fine. I was just making sure that they're see if they were getting both or one. Okay. Awesome. You want to reread your recommendation? Uh,
065my recommendation is to approve a onetime incentive in the amount of $2,000 for each contracted licensed staff member and a one-time $1,000 incentive to all contracted classified staff members and custodians employed as of November 1, 2022. All right, so we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? Motion. All right. Motion by Adam. Do we have a second? Second. Second by John. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? All right. All right. Up next, we have um transfer of funds to building funds. Every year we do this. Um Mr. Bernell, would you like to take this? Sure. Okay. Um every year um when we were originally talking about the budget, we talked about that we don't budget our student loans money. It's just an unknown type at the time. And so, um, every year
066we transfer some excess operating funds into our building fund to allow us to have those that money set aside for any major construction projects in the future or many any major issues that we might have that we need to take care of. So, this year or this year, we're going to [Music] recommend 450. Sorry, my numbers change frequently. This year we're going to recommend 450,000 to be transferred out of our operating fund into our building fund for future projects. Yeah. And that is what we were talking about earlier um with Mr. Neil. That money will be part of the um treasury ladder where we're able to earn a little bit more interest on. That was going to be my question. Oh. Yep. Reserve funds. It's code word for building fund. Sure. Okay. Any other questions?
067Okay. With that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we transfer $450,000 from operating to our building fund. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Okay. I'll second it. All right. Sarah seconds. All right. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? All right. Up next, we got to approve the purchase of floor scrubbers and air purifi air purifiers. Um this is um talking about er funds, we were given a line item through our through our cooperative in Farmington for about $60,000 and it was very limited on what we could spend it on. Um, what we're proposing is to buy two new floor scrubbers because they're expensive and we need them and to also some air purifiers for some a couple of our athletic offices and
068our locker rooms. Um, over the past couple years we put dedicated fresh air systems into the the middle school and the primary already had them. um where we aren't recycling the air um within the within the classroom like it's your home, you know, it goes into your into your return and comes out um and it just recycles the air. Well, at our middle school, I'm sorry, at our junior high or intermediate school, that's what that HVAC project was, was a dedicated outdoor air source. Um these air purifiers will help clean the air in our locker rooms. and y'all have all been in a locker room that is not the nicest smelling especially well specifically right now the boys football locker room. So what it will do is it will help clear that clean the air
069um cut down on bacteria in the air and things like that and just make it a safer environment and with that comes smelling better and everything. So, we are able to, this is not paid with district funds. Um, we will be reimbursed through the Arkansas Department of Health grant for the epidemiology and laboratory capacity for the reopening of the school for COVID 19 supplies. You didn't remember that? No, I um but um you know, floor scrubbers are expensive. They're right at $17,695 a piece. That That's expensive. and the air purifiers total will be about $20,000. Um we will also be want what we're bringing to you is also through cooperative purchasing. I know a few of y'all are new to the board and that is where we utilize state um state bids that they have
070already um garnered for schools municip municipalities sorry that we're not having to go through the full bid process and they do it for us. We do this um school buses, the computer bid in just a second is that as well. So, we're able to have a um a larger buying power to get a a to get a a better discount. Um our past, I think four or five floor machines have came through Hillyard as well. So, it will keep us with the same brand that we currently have and we're Mr. Reeves and them that it's easier for us to maintain the equipment when it's the same equipment, the same parts, the same. And so with that, um, are there any questions? And Hillyard is the one that's recommended by the co-op. Is that what you
071said? No, they are part of cooperative purchasing. Okay. U, they are they are they're approved vendor through the tips program. Okay. And so this price is a big price. It's for the whole state of Arkansas. Okay. We got a pretty extensive relationship with them like the floor issues we've had. Yes. Yes, sir. Um, we use a lot of the cleaning products, scrubbers, equipment, and everything. So Yes, sir. But in the past when we had what I a hard bid, they've won the bid as well with that. Okay. [Music] All right. Any other questions? Okay. Um, with that, I'd like to recommen make the recommendation that we uh approve the purchase of floor scrubbers and air purifiers through Hillyard in the amount of [Music] 62,594 9. Uh, what's the eight each for the battery? That's just
072a battery. Uh, yes, ma'am. Those are the batteries for the floor scrubbers themselves. Um they um you have to choose which battery pack that you put in there. Okay. Because I was going to say there's no cost out there. So we were just choosing which one we wanted. Yes. Okay. Just making sure that wasn't an error. What we use is we use a seal battery pack. It's safer. The battery acid can't leak out. Um you can even go down to the option where the only way I know to describe it. My dad's a trolling motor battery where you could like pop the the things off and pour the water in. Yeah. But not those. I just want to make sure it wasn't an error with no cost out there. So, all right. Go ahead. Sorry.
073So, we have the recommendation. Do we have a motion? Motion. All right. Motion by Adam. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Sarah. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Okay. Up next, we have approved purchase for CPD startup grant, some laptops. Um we have been approved for a startup grant. Um and with that was also purchasing 25 computers. Um again this is not coming out of district funds. This is coming out of the CTE grant. Um we are using the same purchase purchasing um mentality of using um cooperative purchasing through tips um to make that purchase. And um are there any questions? It's basically 25 laptops um warranty and and everything. They're 975 a piece. Who are the laptops for? Our uh digital marketing and advanced graphic design programs each
074got CT startup grants in the spring. And so these are our devices that go with the Okay. Yeah. And the devices meet the specs that the classes need to That was my next question. Does it does it meet the requirements that the class needs to do marketing do the work? Okay. All right. Any questions? Okay. With that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we uh purchase from Bites Speed 25 um Chrome, not Chromebooks, laptops in the amount of $24,375. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A motion. Jessica with the motion. Do we have a second? I'll second item with the second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Up next is personnel. All right. So, it is 7:01 and we are going to go into close
075session. [Music]