001We're going to flip things around. Usually we start with the pledge and a moment of silence, but we've got some special guests here that we're going to recognize. So, Miss Browse, if you would come up and I want to take a second to introduce the Special Olympics, too, before Miss Brown get Sorry, Miss Mark. Okay. Um, I just want to let you know this is the first year we've come back to doing Special Olympics formally in T Ridge and we have had a wonderful year, but it could not be done without the leadership of a bunch of teachers, coaches, and I want to mention before we get started, um, this year we started with volleyball and track and then I'm going to turn over Miss Sprrow in just a second. She's going to show you
002through some highlight reels. Um, we dominated at the volleyball scene and then we took names at the track event and table. We had a great time. But it could not have been done without our fabulous Miss Mel who did all the entering and the data processing for us. Of course, Dr. Basset and her team checking her and Mel checking all the physicals and making sure I had their tees crossed and eyes dotted because they are very strict on the paperwork. Um, we had a bunch of volunteers who helped us at the day of, especially at track and field, which was a big task. We had, um, Miss Jones, Laura Jones, Casey Conor, Amanda Chapelford. Um, let me make sure I got everybody else that was there. They went and ran errands. They helped with kids.
003Of course, the fabulous pre-training was um, done by Coach Clark and Coach King. They were a tag team making sure our athletes were ready to go. Uh, Coach Yodar and her volleyball team were definitely big helps and supporters when we were doing volleyball and they came in for track and field. Um, Alex Jackson, she helped tremendously organizing the t-shirts, making sure everything was taken care of, that we had enough spirit for everybody. Um, we also had a great job. Her um, medical profession interns were able to help with a lot of the events and get us going. And a special thanks to Clovis who was our video videographer and photographer of the day. Um we also had want to give a big thanks Bright Futures has a strong partnership with Special Olympics when we used
004to host our own track and field day. Um they were a big partner and so we partnered back up and we went to our official area three games which we had a great opportunity. So they provided us t-shirts. They helped pay for our lunches both days because lunch is not provided for our athletes. And of course, the fabulous Jay Browse. She has definitely taken this under her wing, organized it, made sure all the kids were there, and without her, nobody could have gotten anything done. That's for sure. Um, but really the number one stars of the show are parents and our athletes. And so, I'm going to let Miss Browse take it over. And I know you're already seeing all the swag that medals that these kids are wearing. I'm going to let her take
005it over, show you a little bit of highlight, and then I think introduce our I think we'll do the slideshow first so that you guys can see what we've done and then we'll introduce our athletes. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes. No, he'll have to. Okay. Yeah, we're I can talk. I'll talk. You're good. So, this is our volleyball. We um we got first place. Like Miss Smartboat said, we killed it. We had a blast. And so, this was our picture with all our volleyball helpers and all of our athletes. And then we had signs um that the that the student helpers made for us to help cheer us on and they were a really big support to us. Um so, that's just a picture of them. So this is our track and field. Um we
006had to make a banner. So the theme was what time is it game time? So this is our theme and this was right before the parade and the rest are written. So all right taught her how she carry the tour. She was the last leg of the tour. She definitely ran at the fest. Didn't catch anybody unawares with that flying. No, he did fabulous. Was she your worry? do some pictures. And of course, Miss Cofflin came out with Piper. We did a picture. Um, you wanted first. So, why don't we just each So, when we do your slide, why don't you stand up? So, we have Dom and daughter. Thank you. Okay. Kayla got one and white on that softball throw before we get to the building. Brillin had some serious I mean there was
007nobody throwing it all day as far as it had the score. It was that good. That's awesome. And then we have Miss Eden from the junior high. Definitely our number one cheerleader in the um Vincent Falls. Zach Austin in the 50 meter run. Kelvin Bowers, Haven Castner, Lindley Walker in a wheelchair race. Piper Billings in the 50 m run. get snapshots from the day of our volunteers. Oh, great. It was a great day. Thank you very much. So, we had a great practice. They definitely know our motto. This is the motto of Special Olympics. So, do we want to say it together? All my athletes, can y'all stand up? You can help them. Yes, they are both together. Okay, I'll say it first and then you guys repeat after me. Remember, okay, let me win.
008But if I cannot win, let me be brave. Wayne, we Need [Music] Eden. [Music] Absolutely. All right. Know it's amazing. I love it. yourself. Congratulations everybody. That's awesome. Bye, Piper. [Music] Yes. No. Say hello, guys. Yes, it's amazing. Glad that y'all could. Yeah, it looks like a lot of fun. You're welcome. Congratulations. We're never going to be able to top that. No, I know. And I will tell you, being a spectator on that day, you hear that Disney World and Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, absolutely not. you need to go to a Special Olympics because it was fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. All right, so now that we're done with that, let's go ahead and stand and we'll do the pledge and then we'll have our moment of silence. I pledge allegiance to the flag
009of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And now a moment of silence. Amen. All right, Mr. Martin, we'll turn it over to you now. All right. First on the agenda is our consent agenda. Are there any questions on the consent agenda? Okay. With that, I'd like to make a recommendation that the consent agenda, financial report, and board minutes of the regular board meeting held on April 10, 2023, and the special hearing held on April 17th, 2023 be approved as submitted. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A motion. Motion by Adam. Do we have a second? Yeah. Second by Jessica. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Next is our
010out of state field trips. Um it's summertime, so that means basketball is our golden champs. And um coach Neil brought this to Mr. Park. is wanting to take um the basketball girls basketball program grade seventh and on May 31st grades the seventh and eighth grade teams to Castville, Missouri on June 14th. Um seventh and eighth grade again in Castville, Missouri on June 14th, 15 16 um junior junior high junior varsity and senior varsity to Pittsburgh State in Pittsburgh, Kansas. and June 2122 I'm sorry 20 2122 um to jock Missouri to I believe it's Missouri Southern State yes um for our the junior high junior varsity senior varsity girls so junior high is that eth and nth grade or is that specifically ninth grade junior high eth so both eighth and nth grade plus the JB
011and the senior varsity will be going to the June both June meets or June camp like your eighth graders There's most of them will play junior high junior varsity game, but we do like the option of an eighth grade playing flag on the junior high team. So, it is okay. Okay. These are trips that we've done in the past. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Um, for an overnight trip, I believe there's one night for the Pittsburgh Pit State. I believe it's that Friday night they plan on spending the night. Everything else is there. Okay. Any questions? Okay. With that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we approve that state travel as presented. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll motion. Motion by Sarah. Do we have a second? I'll
012second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Up next, excuse me. I did this is our salary schedules for um for that school year for our licensed and classified staff. And I'm going to share with you uh what we shared with our with our employees over the past couple of weeks. Um all this started we know the learners act and in section 35 of the learners act it requires that um it's a very good thing that the minimum teacher salary in Arkansas be raised to $50,000. Um there was also caveat in it that every teacher received at least a $2,000 raise. That means if um a teacher was making $48,1 um they were guaranteed a $2,000 raise from what they were making on September of I believe 1st or 15th of 20 of
0132022. Um this is the funding being received from learns um Pidge School District. We are the third line down. We received $751,000 $592 um to help implement the learners to bring everyone within that minimum compliance. Um that is not $751,000 to add to the salary schedule. You have to back benefits out of that. So that that means we have we have $611,000 um to add to the salary schedule because the benefits are always on the back end. Um this is our current salary schedule. Uh this year a teacher with zero years experience in a bachelor's degree was $42,300. Uh master's degree started out at 44,850 and specialist degree started out at $47,400. and our speech and occupational therapist and physical therapists. Yes. Um started out at 50 and mental health. Thank you. Started out at
01455735. Um if we implemented just the minimum requirements um for learns, that is what our salary schedule would have looked like. Um, we would have had a bachelor's degree receiving a pay freeze for 11 years, a master's degree for seven years, and a specialist degree for 3 years, I believe, with that. So, um, we knew that would not be a it's great to get a raise and everything, but you also have to have, you know, expenses come up to people's pockets and steps are are what we have traditionally done. So what our thought process is is um and Miss Brenell has worked so so hard on this is we couldn't go 11 years on the bachelor pay line without a step increase and that we didn't need to go seven years on the master. We
015also need to value our teachers experience um and setting up a salary schedule now that is structured so that we can continue to increase with staggered steps in the future. And this is a hard one for me. I have to realize that this isn't perfect and that um salary increases will not be equal across the board because um my teacher that's making $43,000 sorry 42,300 it was $7,700 you know to get them to the $50,000 and we could not give a $7,700 raise across the board. That's just not financially possible. So, um, we met with, um, we had the opportunity to meet with all licensed and classified staff, bus drivers. Had probably had about six or seven meetings total the past couple of weeks, um, with that. And this is kind of like our funding
016breakdown. Um, the 23 247 post salary expense is right at 11.1 million. It's it's a hair under that um, less the actual salaries from this year. And that gives us a new salary expense to the district of 932,000. We back out the 611 out of it that we were given by the state. That puts us at 321,000. You add the benefits to that 321,000, you get to 400 right at 400,000. And we also wanted to do classified raises. So we'll talk about that in a minute. But the cost of that is a little over $100,000. um ensuring that our teachers the one thing that we are doing with this salary schedule is going to the bachelor's master's specialist and therapist but our teachers who are currently here who are paid on the bachelor's plus 15
017the bachelor's plus 30 the masters plus 15 the mast's plus 30 is going ahead and honoring that as well um for our employees who are currently here and that's a cost of about $51,000 for the district and then the index is an extra days um at 20,000 and also working on our salary increases for nurses. Right now our nurses pay line is right under 30,000 or something for a nur for registered nurse starting out and that is just not what the market's paying. to have them an aable pay line that we could have and it comes up to about $620,000 above the learners act um for next year that we're proposing to invest. Um this is our proposed salary schedule. Um what you have here is do you want to talk about it a little
018bit increases? I'm about to call. So no, you're good. Okay. Um so what we're proposing is um for each one of the the bachelor's master specialist and therapist we're starting the bachelors at the minimum of the 50,000 that we're required to start and how it has going from 423 to the 50,000 and then on the bachelors we're doing staggered steps. So for the first five five or so years, we're starting at $200 per step all the way down to all the way to year 30 where we start at 525. So we're staggering between like 200, 250, 300, all the way to 525 for bach. The masters were starting out at 515 and having staggered steps as well for um between 220 to 460. Specialist were starting out at 53,000 and then they staggered steps starting
019at 300 going to 550. And then the therapists um were starting at um 58735 and having and we kept the steps the same at the therapist at 525. were just starting their beginning their salary um a little higher in order to meet the requirements of the learners act. Um and again we we're removing the bachelor's plus 15 bachelors plus 30 masters plus 15 masters plus 30. We're removing those lanes out of our salary schedule, but we're honoring the the the teachers and the staff that already have are already in those lanes with a stipen which is equivalent to what they're getting for that lane. Are we going to keep that stipen going forward or is it just a one year? It goes forward. Just current employees. So, and and we're giving them and because we
020have a few employees that are finishing their bachelor's plus 15 and bachelor's plus 30, we'll honor those as long as we have the information by August 1st, which is they should be able to provide us that. After August 1st, there will be no going from plus 15 plus 30. They have to go from bachelor's, masters to specialist in order to get the the buff and l Okay. [Music] Are there any questions on the teacher salary schedule before we go to the other ones? Um, our proposed administration salary schedule again because of the Learns Act, we had to do a minimum because they were all paid over 50,000, we had to do a minimum of 2,000. Um, we elected on the principles, we're raising um the principal salary schedule uh to 2500. One of the reasons
021we decided on 2500 is we are also changing the number of days on the principal contract from 240 days to 2420 days. We met with the principles and and got their feedback and this is one of the things that they wanted to go ahead and change this year. Yeah, one of the go one of the things with that is you know when you're on a 240day contract you have 10 vacation days and so it's really a reduction of 10 days but what it's going to allow us to do is to line our schedules up this these are the days that we're working so that we can be more productive here in the summertime as well and it allows them to have time off basically you know during day weeka and also taking some Fridays off
022and having four day work weeks during the summer and their feedback was positive. That's what I was They did a survey to determine how many days they wanted to work and and they knew that the vacation days would go away and there'd be set calendars and they all proposed to Is there any flexibility in the days that we're allowing them to use? So, if we're going from like the 240 to 220, we we're working with them specifically this year. Let's say that someone has a a trip already booked and everything. We'll we'll work with them with that. Okay. Absolutely. So, we're not being stern. There's going to be some flexibility with that. Yes. 220 days, right? Abs. No, I I agree. We're We're small. We don't want to pay people to not be here, but
023I just want to make sure there is a little bit of flexibility. Okay. Um the assistant principles because we lowered the principal contracts, we're lowering them from um 225 to 215. So, they'll work five less days than the principles and I believe it's towards the end of the year. Um, we're increasing the assistant principal salaries by $2,500 as well. Um, the athletic director salary is athletic director will remain 240 just because we have events going on throughout the year except for dead weeks and that salary schedule will be bumped up to $2,500 for each staff. Um we are increasing the assistant superintendent, the um specialed LEA uh 504 dyslexia supervisor, the curriculum supervisor and the district treasur district treasure and technology director salaries um by $3500 and our days will remain at 240. We do
024have the the 504 dyslexia supervisor is on a 225 day contract and um she will remain on a 225day contract. Um we uh elected to increase the assistant superintendent step. It it kind of stalled probably at step eight or nine um and we just brought it down to 15 to match all the other the assistant principal and the principal lanes as well. And um for principles, assistant principles, all the administrators, our steps are remaining the same going forward. We did not make any step changes to their salary. Are there any questions on the administrative salary in No, let's go back to the teachers though. The teachers are on 190day. Is that right? Yes, ma'am. All right. And out of that 190, they get how many vacation? They do not vacation. They get two personal days.
025and 10 10 sick days. Okay. And then how many of these out of the 190 are used for training PD like personal development days? Tell you the wrong number. Sorry. 10. 10. And two are used for parent teacher conferences. So you got 178 student teacher interaction days, 10 um professional development days, and two days of pay. your teacher conference, right? Do what was that? I'm sorry. One of the 10 is a flex day, but it's they're still receiving a professional development for that. And that's that's built into our calendar. And off the top of my head, I believe that flex day can be used in October, but I am not 100% on that. And that's out of the PD days. That's one of the PD days. That's a flex day. Okay. And then, sorry for
026all these questions. I'm just trying to make sure I understand the the salary schedules for everybody going forward. Um, out of the personal development days, if say I'm assuming there's schools that have after school meetings or before school meetings, is that time also included in No, ma'am. How do we account for that? It's just part of it's part of our policy that we have meetings after school and everything, but we keep them as minimal as possible. That's why we run our PLC's during the during the school day. everything. We do everything we can to limit the number of meetings that we have after school. Okay. Um the time a lot of our teachers have, you know, small kids and everything and need to need to care for them. Okay. So, we limit those meetings. We
027don't we don't do it necessarily weekly or monthly or anything like that. So, we're not holding them over most of our campuses have been the the day that we have the board meeting and they go to about 4:30ish. Okay. Perfect. Okay. All right. Keep going. No more questions right now. Yeah, please go. Um, your next page should be our stipens. Um, we only made very minimal changes to our stipens list. Um, originally on under high school stipens, we had um senior defensive coordinator. We actually added the title to be defensive or offensive coordinator. So that way we're equal with both positions. And that stipen remains at 3500. Um we changed the name of the master teacher stipen to instructional facilitator. It's only a title change only. Um I changed on extended contract. I changed the
028number of days for principal and assistant principal to reflect the changes in the teacher salary schedule. We added the stipens for the bachelor's plus 15 and masters plus 15, it's $850, which was the change in the salary schedule. And if they have plus 30, it'd be $1,700. And then we're adding a stipen for a communications and web master um facilitator, and that stipen will be $10,000. And here, let me talk about that a little bit. That's a big stop. But um the reason why it is that is right now we have a I'm gonna call it a third party that um manages our website, manages the content and everything. We pay a lot more than that on a yearly basis for them to do that. This person will be in charge of of helping upload
029that content and data and keeping our our web page going is Yeah. It includes like all our social media um management, user accounts like who has access to post um end user includes emergency communication, snow day or any other thing we need to get out quickly. So basically owning not just the web master piece but all of our social media outlets as well as um tackling some of the communication pieces that we're having to outsource and having to look good for the um to bring that inhouse to have it more closely connected to our work. And I mean, you know, that includes a 3:00 a.m. phone call for me saying, "We need to do this, we need to do that." So, and is that 10,000 going to be for one person or does each campus
030have their own portion of that stipen? Okay. Each person manages each campus. Yes, ma'am. Each person will help manage um each campus has their own end users. Usually the parent engagement chair, which is a stipen, manages their social media, for example. Okay. but they'll work with them to facilitate that check for quality content just you know just to make sure we're elevating just as the expectation and demand elevates that we need to elevate our our game as well. We're moving to a seamless system that should help push things out more automatically including the messaging system text some of those things. Okay. Uh, previously that was done by our technology director and just with the change in the role, we knew it was time to it would been something we've been researching for a couple of
031years. So, and how long will this stipen continue? It's annually. We've been paying someone outsource, seven, eight years. We've been outsourcing our marketing and media. So, a lot of things you see on our website now aren't designed by us and we just like we're getting big enough to take it in house. So, on the extended contracts, I know this is probably just for our use, but are we also going to change the term master teacher there? Oh, yes, ma'am. Thank you. Mhm. I was curious. I mean, this part is kind of new to me with the stipend. Is it something that's paid monthly on top of the salary or is it one just here's your stipen for the year? Okay. Yeah. I wasn't sure how that worked. Um, and a stop that is for marked
032above your right above your contract, right? You're taking on extra responsibility. So, okay. Are there any questions on the second schedule? Up next we have our our classified and when we spoke with the classified staff as you know um in the legislative session there was a lot of talk about funding for classified raises um we did not receive direct funding for that. So um what we are proposing and this is all the same slides as everything is you know we need to make sure that we value our um our classified staff as well. um the work that they do here is is just as important as as everyone everyone up here. And our proposal is for a 3% increase above the staff um for all of our classified employees and that will also some of
033Do you want to talk about elimination of a couple of pay? So on our salary on our classified salary schedule um I'll first talk about I think the next page is your nurses. Um I'll talk about your the nurse's salary. So when we were um going through the learns act and and looking at all the different acts that were coming about salaries um there was a proposed act to increase the the nursing salaries and and creating lanes for the nurses where it's not just one it's valuing their degrees and the level of nursing. We didn't realize what how many levels of nursing there was until I talked to Mrs. Litfield and she explained our levels to us. Um so we kind of took what what was prop proposed in the act which did not pass
034legislator the legislators and started with that and and then created this nursing salary schedule. So we've create created lanes for our director of nursing whether they have a mast's or bachelor's and then have lanes for our RNs depending on whether they have a master's bachelors associates and then we have a lane for an LPN. Um we kind of looked at other school districts and Mr. Randy jump in when you want. Um we looked at other school districts just to kind of see what the going rate was for nurses and to make that we were competitive and paid our nurses. Um it's equivalent to that. So um the director of nursing if they have a masters is starting at 515. If they have a bachelor's we're starting at 50,000 which mimics the teacher salary schedule if
035you look at theirs then if they have um and they're 190day contract and right now we have one director of nursing and that is Mrs. Lynch. Then if they are um an RN with a master's um RN with a bachelor's, we're taking a percentage of what the director of nursing is getting. And so that's where you're getting the uh masters we're starting them off at 44642. Bachelors we're starting at 43342. Um associates we're starting at 40,934 and an LPN we're starting at 38526. And we feel this is competitive with what other districts are doing and what they could be making um going out. Um our nurses will work 183 days. None of that has changed on our classified salary schedules. As Mr. Martin um stated, we did 3% across the board for all the other
036salary schedules. Um, we did remove and combine some lanes out of our salary schedule insteading instead of having two for aids. We have we used to have an aid/is column and then um we used to have an aid special ed. We combined those two and and made it just one instructional aid position at the higher um rate at the higher special ed rate. We have aids that sometimes go back and forth from a STE classroom to a regular classroom that could happen any time. It depends on our needs. And so we felt that um creating one column and paying the constructional a break was where we needed to go. We were removing the computer lab. We don't have computer labs. Um and again we removed the regular RN and created a whole new salary schedule
037for RNs. And I believe that is all the changes to the classified salary schedule. I did add a column for our custodial workers. Um we have the majority of our custodians are not on contracts. They're paid on an hourly rate. So I wanted to designate what their hourly rates were and they also get a step each each pay as well. An increase in their hourly rates. and our um longevity statements that we monitor with our licensed employees. They remain the same with our classified employees and all the indexments that classified employees receive the same as well. So you get So if you're here for 26 years, you'll get the 500, the 750, the,000, the 1250 and the 1500. Those who are employed at certain at a certain time get to that. So they get all
038five of those stipens. No, no, no, no, no. Every time they It goes from 550 to I'm sorry, 500 to 750. It's not. Okay. So, they don't get both. They just get the one that they're lining. Okay. Just making sure. Two or 300 bucks. Just making sure. And for like some of the coaches and some of the driver teachers that are driving as well as coaches and that so they get these other stipens on top of the stipens that they get. We have a teacher who's driving a bus who's contracted. They do it daily. They have their teaching contract and they have their classified contract as well. And then the other stipen that they get for their increase and pay with the increase if they meet that requirement. So now with the addition of the
039the shorter buses, we're paying teachers that are driving those that hourly rate. Correct. Okay. Um yeah, the reason for the purchase of those um tiny micro bus I don't know the right word. I know. That's why I didn't shorter buses. Yes. Um, for example, um, you could have cross country needing to go to an event. There's 13 kids on there. It makes so much more sense to take a 14 passenger vehicle than to take a 71 passenger bus, but we're still paying the coach to drive that. What we Yeah. What we did uh I believe last year was you know if we if a bus driver takes a team or takes a trip or an extracurricular activity or club organization we pay them from the time they leave the busy yard till the time they
040get back. Okay. So while the football games going on they're sitting watching they're getting paid. Okay. But the coach that drives their own team well they're getting paid to coach the game. So last year we created that extra extra trip schedule for coaches sponsors and it's done by mileage and location and where they're going. Okay. But they're still getting that. We're not doing I didn't see that on here. That's why I was I was like, we didn't it didn't go away. Okay. None of that has Okay. None of that has changed. And for all the things not sports related like color guard, flag line, I think that's the same thing. You'll have to forgive me. I'm old school. It used to be one thing. I think it's something else. We've got stipens for all of
041that built in. And Okay. Perfect. And there were no changes to the classified size or um the second and um we did allow we did have um our staff our faculty and staff vote on on it on our classified um it was an approval rate of 98.5%. And give me a second on our license certified which includes teachers, administrators, therapists and counselors it was 96.5% telling what was the major push backs do you know did anybody give feedback as to why they would be against it? Um everybody was wonderful about it. They know the situation that all schools all schools are in with with the learns act. Um the the questions I received was clarification on is longevity stop you know the um the pay rate for the bachelor's plus 15 bachelor's plus 30 because
042my first uh my first presentation I put all stipens and indexes stay well that I didn't have that on there and that that affects quite a few of our long-term employees. So I had a couple of questions about that. Um I had a question during the classified meeting about why are we placing all A's on one salary lane and the reason for that is um our aids their duties change at it can be daily weekly and I can literally have aids that are sometimes work with special ed students and AL in the regular classroom and there we it's just um beneficial and I think it's important to reward everyone who's working with those pair of professionals to pay them as much as we can. Okay. Those jobs are difficult. So my last question is when
043it comes to a new hire Yes ma'am. How is that going to work with them? Do they start out at the baseline of if they're have it come with the bachelors they start out the baseline? Well, yes ma'am I could. If they're a brand new teacher, bachelor's degree, zero years experience. Yes, ma'am. They start top leftand corner. If they're coming from another school district, they have a master's degree and 15 years experience, they're placed on the masters plus 15. Um, we honor all, you know, their teaching experience and the degrees when they come in. And that goes with any of our new employees with our with our teaching staff. Absolutely. It's based on degree with our classified staff. It can be based on experience within that field that they're in. If that makes sense. Yes.
044Um, uh, HVAC, you know, how many years of HVAC experience you had. Any further questions? Okay. Um, with that, I'd like to make a recommendation that we approve the 23 24 losses and classified salary schedules as presented. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A motion. Motion by Adam. Do we have a second? A second. Second by Jessica. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Up next is a new item. It's the education service cooperative represent representative resolution. Sorry. Um this is new with the learners act. It requires that the board of directors appoint someone from within the district to serve on the co-op educational co-op in Northwest in Farmington. Um it can be the superintendent, it can be a district employee, a board member, a member or
045a member of the community. Um, I would ask that you allow me to continue to be the representative. It meets monthly. Um, it's working with 16, I'm sorry, 15 other school districts. There's 16 of us total. And making decisions how we provide professional development, early childhood education programs, our cooperative, um, they provide a lot of special ed services for birth to through prek and everything. So there's a lot of decisions that are educationally related and this comes up. This is a new requirement from the learners act that y'all point someone. So I am asking that y'all point me. Anybody else? Just asking just to be well one they they can't really speak because we're we have to be held in public but we're not open to the public. So that's right. Um th this this
046law this was passed to have an intent of the transparency intent with our you know throughout the cooperatives. We have the press there to everyone. I'm willing to share all information that so this gets you those those meetings more aligned with our with our meetings because they're held in public. Yes ma'am. So I serve as the board as the board instead of as part of the board. Right. instead of down here, right? And is that pretty common that the superintendent holds that office in general? I would anticipate that all 16 will be superintendent. That's what I was thinking. Well, they know the the legal and what's going on daily. I have no doubt that Keith can't handle that. Right. Right. Honestly, it has been superintendent for the past as long as I've been on the
047board in with the new voting with some of the changes in how our board's going to be represented for how many years we can stay on here and how many just want to make sure that we're we're following in line with that as well. It's like does that have should we be voting on this? Should somebody be voting on this every year? I I don't remember there seeing anything. It's a two-year two year two years. So in two years um it's a two-year commitment and then we then we have to re revote or reelect it as to if we want Mr. Martin to continue or if we want somebody else to just All right. Do we need to read this as presented? I guess. Yes ma'am. So do I read it or you want I'll
048read it. There we go. Glad it's you. Okay. Whereas to clarify whereas the Heridge school district board of directors met in a regular open and properly convened board meeting on May 8th, 2023 in Heridge, Arkansas whereas four members were present in quorums declared by the chair and whereas Arkansas code annotated 613 107 requires the Pidge board of directors adopt a resolution to appoint an individual to serve as a representative for the board of directors. to the Northwest Arkansas Education Services Cooperative Board of Directors. And whereas the individual appointed as the board of directors, board of directors representative u must be the district superintendent, a district employee, a member of the board of directors, or a member of the community. And whereas the individual appointed as a representative for the board of directors is appointed to
049a to serve a two-year term. Be it therefore resolved the board of directors of the Peridge School District appoints Keith Martin to serve as representative of the board of directors on the Peridge Education Services Cooperative Board of Directors until June 30th, 204 and adopted in regular session by board of directors in Peridge AR in Per School District May 8, 2023. All right. So, we have a recommendation as read. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Sarah. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Up next is purchase Chromebooks. Every year at this time, um we have to replace Chromebooks that are a little old and some that are in for growth. Um this year we requested 260 Dell Chromebooks and Google licenses uh
050for in the amount of $74,880 um from CDW. And we also requested 360 um Dale Chromebook cases for the amount of $7,686.96 from CDW for a total price of $82,566.90. Um um CDW is part of cooperative purchasing so it doesn't require competitive bidding that that process has already been done for tips. Um we use we have used CDW for multiple years on that. They they have wonderful service. Um this is it's just part of life and school replacing Chromebooks. Are there any questions? And this one, it comes with a three-year warranty. Or is that three year for I believe it does come with a three they come with a three-year warranty for failure on their end. They do not come for a threeyear warranty for um damage. Yeah. So, yes, ma'am. But now I will
051tell you our we got to tour the technology center late last year and um seeing how they actually repair Chromebooks and laptops and replace screens and they do try to maximize the spend. I was I was really intrigued by that that tour. It was fabulous. Our parents we self-insure. They pay a Yep. $25 I believe um fee at you know for that. um you know in the summertime our our technology crew it it's it's mount Chromebook in every cafeteria I mean we go they go through over 3,000 devices each summer to make sure that they're they're in proper working order. So it's it's a it's a big story and they do a great job. So okay any other questions? Okay, with that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we approve the purchase of 260
052uh Dell Chromebooks and licenses and 360 Dell Chromebook cases in the amount of $82,566.90 from CDW. All right, so we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? Motion. Motion by Adam. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Jessica. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. All right. Up next is a furniture purchase. Um, this is part of our Walton grant. This does not come out of general operating. Um, do do you want to talk? Well, Miss Miss Jackson and Mr. Amy went over the bids. So, if you want to talk about the bids and I can tell about the philosophy. We we had um we reached out to three companies uh for bids. Cousins Furniture, which uh is housed out of Conway. Uh Moers here, which is in Rogers, which
053we've done business with the most over the last several years. And then uh Innovative EWA, uh Cousins had the cheapest bid of the three. Um we we had all three companies uh bid on the exact same. So comparing apples to apples as far as as what they were able to do. uh you two that innovative NWA did not did not bid, but um um you know, we we we've got a a setup and a philosophy in the quad classroom now uh with really what we're needing and and and that sort of thing. And so it comes at a good time uh with our walk and grant to kind of update some of that furniture to make the space more functional um and to be able to better utilize you know that that area those four
054classrooms that are kind of meshed as one. That's for the quad. This is for the quad had the So is this to replace damage? No. Okay. So the philosophy was when we wrote the second audiation of the college interior grant the first was the community clinic pantry and all that. The second ideation was more of a college and career readiness center. So what we've done is lived in the quad gotten used to it and now we've taken this college and career ready. Yeah. I think you've noticed the senior um roundups that we've been in. So a lot of that is coordinated with that W grant. This is to set that quad space up to be a really more mobile space for college and career readiness. So for example, if we have a Arkansas Tech is
055visiting campus, we can rearrange that room very quickly to be like stadium seating just by the size of the chairs. So making it a more flex space that can go back to four classrooms then for a big seating area you know as well as to outfit some of the seats and we you'll see a lot of little side tables and things to go with some of the furniture that we have that's existing to make it more campus friendly you know student ready and also some of this will bleed into room 119 which is that first classroom that we're you know kind of we've lived in our house for a couple years what is the need we knew we in that second grant we wrote to identify students who weren't taking advantage of college and career
056readiness opportunities. So, a lot of the community outreach and things you've been seeing this year that are extra like our rising night things program studies highlighting that the piece of it is the enrolled enlisted and get enrolled enlisted and employed ceremony we did. So, just all of that tying into that philosophy. So that's why that grant the furniture that does get moved out, we're going to repurpose down into um an area that we're going to do some things with what was known as on the plans as a sail bar and reorganize that to be more mobile class as well. So we are going to use the furniture that's already there. We're going to reuse it. We're just going to reallocate it throughout the building, but this lets that space be more mobile. Almost everything's on
057casters and just making it a more fluid space. And how much was the grant? Um the grant total was 248,000 over two years. Okay. So this will completely be covered by the grant. Okay. It's actually budgeted at $100,000. Okay. And it's pre-approved through. Okay. And how do they come back with the funding? So do we pay it at first and then they we put in our receipts and let them know or awarded the funding for the year. So it's 248,000 over two years and they gave us a portion like a majority the first year and then a second. Okay. So we've already received our portion for this year. Yes. It's a lot item within our cons. So really we're just approving where the money's being allocated. Okay. It's there purchase. It's over the $21,000 threshold.
058Got even though we're not using district funds, it requires y'all to approve it because it's over. But the money's already there for saying. Okay. And the grant we actually have have to like tell the story of what we're using the money before we spend the money. So it's something the Walton Family Foundation board of directors also approved. Okay. For like the philosophy. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. With that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we purchase furniture from Cousins in the amount of $97,8796. All right. So, we have recommendation. Do we have a motion? I'll motion. Motion by Sarah. Do we have a second? I'll second. Second by Jessica. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Up next, we have student services support. Okay. Uh food service has an ending balance for
059April of uh $515,126.7. Uh I believe it's up just over 15,000 from from last month. Um, and if you remember, we talked about May and June. We have, you know, quite a few payrolls that we run to get through the end of the year. So, that that balance will draw down just a little bit. And then we'll look at what purchases and things and equipment that our our food service department needs um throughout the summer and then we'll make some purchases and that sort of thing head into the next school year. Um, for the last several months, we've been talking about our declining free to reduce lunch balance or or percentage in our school district and that sort of thing. And so, um, we know, you know, seven years ago when I got here, we
060were up about 44 40 46% for introduced lunch as a district. This year, we're at 32%. And so, it's just steadily kind of dropped and dropped and dropped. With that, our summer lunch participation has dropped. uh during the COVID time, we had those waiverss that allowed us to continue with free meals for uh all of our students and our families in our community. All of that has come and gone. And so, um uh because of our declining free and reduced lunch, because of our low participation of summer lunches, uh it's our recommendation to suspend summer lunch for the the 23 U summer. Uh right now we have a $32,46761 uh balance of of student unpaid lunches. Remember our food service uh balance that's 515,000 cannot cover that. Our school district operating budget will have to
061we'll have to fund that number. uh when we look at uh what it will cost us to run summer lunches from labor, delivery, uh equipment, uh purchasing food, all of those things we anticipate just over those two months 20 to $25,000. And so, um uh it's just another amount of money that that we we don't feel like and that we can afford at this time. Over the past couple of years, the vast majority of our people participating in the in the summer program was for the Boys and Girls Club. Um, you know, going through um they we've already spoke with them. They'll be providing the meals themselves and everything. So, those kids Okay, that was my next question. Sorry, that was our question. Yeah, that was that. And if we took the Boys and Girls
062Club out of that, our participation for the summer was very, very, very low on a day-to-day basis. Okay. Yeah. Boys and Girls Club, they partner with PepsiCo and so PepsiCo will work and that's what they do with other districts and so they'll they'll bring their their meals in on a daily weekly basis. We were going to provide space for as said we're going to let them use our facility if need be to store stuff. Okay. What about like during summer programs like our football and our cheerleaders and anybody that we have at the facilities during the summer? What about that? Does how does that calculate into that your lunch programs at all? Do they anybody participate in those? In the past in the past we were able to and we were able to offer free
063meals. So we'd have students come over and utilize occasionally. Um when I say occasionally we're having maybe six in a day out of all those students. Sometimes sometimes some of our campuses be larger than that maybe depending on their practice times but when we when we analyze you know from June to July and what do we do how do we it it will cost us 20 to$25,000 the only way we can run a program now is we run it just like every day much where if you're if you're free it's free if you're reduced you pay the reduced rate and if it's if you're don't pay the child pays so That's I mean that is the when the um when the co funding sunset I was we told the board you know for the past
064two or three years by the skin of our teeth we we're keeping summer feeding going well but I think we're at the point where a lot of our community may not need that service as much as it did seven to eight years ago which is a good and bad thing right can you pull those numbers together um taking out the kids from Boys and Girls Club just kind of give me an idea as to how many kids we were on a regular basis. I know during basketball and track camp they would cuz the kids would go over and eat cuz then they'd go to the track. There was that one week. That's a skew. That's a skew. So take that week out of it. But just on an average how many kids we actually serviced
065outside of Boys and Girls Club? 15 to 17 a day minimal. Okay. And out of those 15 to 17, were the majority of those free and reduced? That I can't give. I can't I didn't know just off the top of your head if you knew the majority of I know you can't give me direct numbers. I don't want that. But I can't give you how many of them were free or reduced based on right. Can you say majority of the 15 to 17? I'm not asking for a direct number. No, ma'am. I'd say no ma'am to that. Okay to consider too is now that we have the pantry open in the summer that still will be running once a week. We we table it against the um mobile me like the other services in the
066churches. So that's something that will be available and those meals are something that would go over and have we worked with the churches to let them know we're not going to be able to do free and reduced lunch. Have we sent notification out to them so they can be prepared? We can. I'd be honest with you because we we work with them as a pantry so coordinate with them. That'd be great. I I kind of want clarification. So what you're saying is if we did do the program, the kids that would have to pay would have to pay for the summer lunches anyway and the percentage in our school right now that are free really is not that high. So even if we provided it, most of the kids would have to pay for a
067service and the cost benefit is really low. Yes. Is that what you're saying? What we have is we have to predict how many lunches. So, we might make it. We might be wasting food because as a parent that can afford a lunch, I'm not going to drive my kid over to pay for a lunch. So, yeah, I see what you're saying. And honestly, when we first ran the program when it was free for everyone, one of the ways that we justified making it cost neutral is like dispensing was kind enough for us to pick her up on pick her kids up on school bus and bring 35 kids in. Well, they're all, you know, and we got reimbursed for it to to fund the program, but we simply can't do that anymore. Yeah. It would
068be like it would just be paying something that really isn't Yeah. And our participation is is very very very low. Well, and I know like the football kids are so hot after running and being hot. Most of them didn't eat. They would drink chocolate milk from experience. So, even that wasn't a bad experience. It's Yeah, it's rough. So, but I'm still just worried about those few kids who do depend on that. So, that's why I'm saying if we partner with the churches and at least let make things known and also look at we we also um we have to notify everybody where they can receive free schools at Rogers and build that we don't but they they do. So, we'll be sending out alert, hey, here's where you can go. Okay. Will we also post
069that like on social media like hey if you need Okay. Absolutely. Okay. And we'll probably do that the week that school lets out because most people take a break um the week of Memorial Day and they start up June the 7th grade, whatever it is. We've we've talked about going with our pre-roduced lunch and title one and all that. We talked about going from schoolwide to targeted assist. This is kind of the first effects of that as we continue with our our, you know, numbers declining. We're going to feel it here and then we're going to feel it academically and how we service kids as we go down the right as the demographic changes with the population changing. Gotcha. Any other questions? That's all I have. Um up next we have this paper with our
070curriculum instruction. We are needing to purchase and do a lot of renewals for our lengers and everything for instructional resources. So um all of these tonight are renewals. So everything has been vetted in previous years by our teachers, our leadership teams as well as department of education. Um, and so I have them listed here in a um, memo, but the actual folks are also answering your questions. Um, we have a set of core instructional resources that we're asking for approval. Um, our illustrative math and weight and wisdom, our math and our literacy curriculums. Um, serve our students kindergarten through a trade for weight and wisdom kindergarten for illustrative math. Those are consumable materials. So there's student guide books. um it really helps with teacher prep time and copy cost uh to have those guide books.
071We also get digital teacher editions with both of those resources. Um and so those I included the um previous year's cost as well as our renewal cost. So you can see we have uh some increases due to one student growth. So we're purchasing more. Um there are increases in shipping costs on just about everything. Um and then also in the last year we had been able to roll over some uh guide books that were not used uh to do remote learning and all of that. Um and that we have we're out of that stock. Um and then also we had a partial order for illustrative math last year. We had some grade levels that had decided to go to the um student consuming. So we have some increases there. Newella and um MAP NWA both
072are also core instructional resources that are provided to our teachers. Um we use those for um student access to to text especiallyformational text. Um and then progress monitoring is our math resource as far as um that's kindergarten through 10th grade. in the oral reading fluency helps us with our required state screening um and grades kindergarten through 2 grade third grade next year um for reading that uh was provided to us from co through this school year through a state contract um they allowed us they paid for kindergarten through 8ighth grade that contract is expiring at the end of this school year and so we'll be um accountable for the full cost which is why you see an increase there um but we do see a lot of value in having that data for our students.
073Um it's the one piece of information that we can look at our students from 2020 to today. And so it's really helpful to watch growth over the school years. Is the state contract ending because other schools have walked away from it or just because of CO now everybody's provided it during uh CO to help us watch for learning loss. Okay. And uh it was up front they said we'll provide it. Actually they were only going to do it for two years but they extended it one more year. Um math is also our K2 required assessment. So it's our state assessment for kindergarten to second grade. We like to continue with that same assessment because it allows us to monitor progress for students after they leave second grade. Okay. So those are all four instructional resources.
074Yes, ma'am. Um we also have some resources that we use for targeted instruction. So, um, beyond just the day-to-day everybody, the tier one instruction, how do we get down to the individual student level, provide some intervention or some instruction, um, to fill some gaps? And we do that with um, map accelerator. That's a math resource. It's based on the students MAP score, uh, designs a learning path for them. We also use Lexia core 5 and power up for literacy and provides some intervention for math as well as social studies and science and levels. So those are um they're all online and they're all individualized for students with teacher dashboards to watch the progress and use the next one is our virtual learning. We've used egeneuity since um our remote learning year and um got some
075teacher feedback from our virtual program. The company is Imagine Learning. Um but that's our resource for our students who are learning virtually. Our numbers are at a reasonable number of virtual learners right now. Um and so our team is using that resource for our students in grades 7 through 12. We're at about 80 students and it allows for progress monitoring as well. And our last is the transfer VR, our virtual reality resource for our current technical education. This was our first year with this resource um and spent a lot of time with uh transfer the company. They're very supportive in our use. Um it provides instructional materials for our teachers especially in our college career readiness. Um student access with a teacher dashboard as well to watch that use and we get the technology and
076instructional support from transfer. So, we would like to continue um with those devices for another school year and move to a more targeted use at our upper levels. We've we've got some teachers who are ready to use it to do some um online modules for their students like uh knife safety and that kind of stuff that it's a little different when you're going virtual reality versus um hands-on in the lab. So, um that is our CTE purchase. So, all of those are listed there. Like I said, last year's cost and this year's cost um with some notes on anything that's different in cost um and the teams that work to vet those is egenuity our best thing for virtual students. Is that the best option? We uh vetted several different ones um and the state's
077given us a list of those that they vetted as well. Um and we look at it every year as as an option of of what the nice thing about egeneuity is the um the amount of instructional courses that we can choose from. We are really limited if we go outside of egeneuity in what we can offer our students and then we get to the teacher created courses which is really timeconuming and difficult. Is is virtual something that the state is now allowing long term? I know co is kind of why it came about. Is this something that eventually the state's going to be like everyone needs to be back in a classroom or We um last year actually the state uh requested that everyone who wanted to continue with their virtual program uh do a
078a program approval process with the state which we did because we knew we had some families that were still um committed to that virtual learning. And so we have a three-year program approval that will come up for renewal at that at the end of that. We're on our second year. Um and so it's a statewide thing. We were approved by the state board of education and we felt like we had planned in place to start a virtual program before co it just happened to fall to be a little bigger than what we had planned for and our numbers have shrank dramatically. Well, that's what I was wondering. If we only have 280, right? If there's only like 40 kids eventually, is that something that will continue or if it'll I mean, I know you don't
079know the future. I was just kind of wondering. I think you always have you have to evaluate it then when you get there. Please correct me if I'm wrong. We do not right now K2 we do not have virtual for K2. We would we would only offer a virtual learning option for someone who has like a critical illness or needed the opportunity like to be a children's long-term visit or something like that. Um, you know, virtual learning isn't anybody's um, way we went to school or what we believe or learn necessarily to be the very best for all students, but it is a great fit for a lot of students. So, I think it would be remiss to not consider that option all the time for us because we have families that engage in at
080a high level and are very successful. A lot of families spend that right into concurrent learning and they're prepared for that environment. So, a lot of students use that as a launch for college which a lot of students engage virtually. So, I think you want to keep it at least going consistently. Um, I don't think it will ever go away. Well, and that was competitive. I just wasn't sure like state level. You know, they dictate so much of what schools are allowed to do. So, I just didn't know if the state would say yes or no, but it sounds like you have a a whole another year before deciding what we do. And there are just like we have standards that we have to meet for facetoface instruction, there are standards we have to meet
081for virtual instruction. And so they they launched that program as well. Okay. And you know the state there are um um online learning available through the state, right? Because they have a free educational program online through the state. So I didn't know if they were going to shift like hey you have to use our program. Schools aren't allowed to continue. That was kind of my thought process. So I know you don't know the answer. I was just wondering. Okay. Gotcha. That's a rabbit trail. We'll get back to what you're talking about. I was just curious. Um, those are all the requests that I have for Are there any questions? I can ask as I went. Sorry, ma'am. I said I asked as we went. Sorry, I didn't hold my questions till the end. Um, with
082that, I'd like to make the recommendation that we um purchase the instructional resources as presented. All right. So, we have a recommendation. Do we have a motion? A motion. All right. Motion by Jessica. Do we have a second? I'll second. Any further discussion? All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Next, we have um this week's a very busy week for a lot of you. We have Mr. Ro here. He's going to talk about how we're going to celebrate our seniors this year. Sure. And you're going to let us know where we're needed, when we're needed, where we need to be. Right. Yeah. I feel like I should be asking for approval to spend money, but really just to bless you guys with our presidents and our students. Um, inside you'll kind of see inside you'll kind
083of see really the formal invitation uh but also a letter from me and also a invitation to our scholarship night um and all the events leading up to graduation. Obviously we've already had our preview ceremony. Um, we have our, uh, scholarship night coming up this Thursday at 6:00. Um, we have graduation Saturday at 2:00. Um, and you will see on the left hand side, like I said, a letter from me. On the right hand side is really just a kind of a timeline for you guys as far as when to arrive and what to expect when you arrive. Um, any questions? [Music] I serious say I'm the only one who's been through this before. So if y'all have questions, now's the time to ask. Well, I guess I do because I have kids and a
084lot of things going on in my own personal life. Are we do we have an active role in these or are we just there as like, hey, we're here or are we on this date? Like I honestly have no idea. Not in the scholarship money. Okay. But you do on graduation. Okay. So, we need to be like on this on graduation day. It would be really nice for you to be there. Yeah. We can make adjustments obviously if you have some other things going on, but um the the presentation of the fun and and the shaking hands, I know the kids really enjoy that and parents enjoy seeing you guys there. So, scholarship night, you unless you're given a scholarship, you don't need bularorate, you don't necessarily need to be there unless you want to
085attend the breakfast and all that. I never go to any of that. But on the day of graduation, we sit on the stage. We present as as the schoolboard president, I'll present unless you guys have kids that you're super close to. I know Adam, you've coached some of these kids. So, if there's people you want to give us the diploma to, you just let me know. You get a picture, shaking hand, diploma, and then after it concludes, then we we get to exit. Okay. So, what time do we need to be there for graduation and where do we need to go? At 1:00. So, if you look on the right hand side of the folder, it kind of gives you a timeline of what what to expect and when you get there. I think we'll
086have kind of some refreshments available in our hospitality room for you guys at 1:00. Um, don't wear heels cuz you have to walk down. I did that last year and I went barefoot. So, about 10 minutes before the ceremony, almost fell. We'll come on to the stage and and we'll go from there. And I'm assuming it's kind of like business casual, right? Okay. Since we're asking all the questions, I'm going to ask them all. Honestly, it's it's sick and t It's so I formal I wear like a pants suit or a dress or I I do I wear a pants suit. I I dress up as well. Okay. So look professional. Yes. I dress up for these kids cuz they've earned it. Okay. And you and pictures are flying so Oh yes. Okay. Don't look
087mad. RBF don't have it. Keep the smile there. I didn't curse. That's That's a first. So, any other questions for No, thank you for breaking this down. I appreciate it. With that, next is All right. So, I think we're going to go to executive session. It is 7:17. So, Mr. Mark, we're ready for you.