001I'll call the special U meeting for public hearing to order. Roll call, please. Miss wear. Director Baker Curtis here. Director Dickinson here. Director Fiala here. Director Malberg here. Director Carpenter here. Director Mcnace here. Director Vanderved here. I'll acknowledge a quorum. Uh looking for a motion to for the agenda. Move to approve. Malberg second yellow. Any discussion? All those in favor approve by saying I. I post same sign. Motion carries. Moving along to new business. Public hearing A for proposed property tax levy for fiscal year 2026. A public hearing is required for the consideration of public t tax notices which will be mailed to the by the county auditor to all residents by March 20th. The public hearing will be labeled public hearing A for the district's budget process. This is the time and the place
002for the public hearing on the matter of the proposed tax levy for the 2526 fiscal year as provided in the notices mailed to taxpayers. Are there any questions, comments, or objections from those present? I believe uh Kate Bonazak has uh set up a time to speak. Is there anyone else that'd like to speak on this particular matter? Okay, Kate. Hi, I'm Kate Benaziaak. I know I've come and spoken to you guys a few times before. Um, over the last three years, we've added three administrative positions totaling roughly $400,000 plus dollars to create capacity. We've spent roughly $30,000 in an audit and growth report that gave us critical items to be aware of for the future. Stating items such as the district needs to monitor students who are going to be choosing charter schools as new
003legislation that's coming along is going to be allow public funding to be distributed to those schools. In the fall, we hired a strategic planner for roughly another $28,000, which was specifically set in February to be ready to collect feedback on a draft road map. Based on the strategic plan section of the website, this was moved to the end of March. It's still not posted. We all stood in a room together in February at the parent forum when we were told that keeping full-time core positions in each building was the district's utmost priority and why we should be okay with giving in on sections. Now, here we are. It's budget time and there's another cut to a school counselor position. So, to summarize to you, you are now going to have a building with a school
004counselor and a principal that are only part-time in it. You're going to have the inability to distribute students with unique needs across multiple classrooms. You're going to have limited flexibility for students to move up and down as grades as in their grade as it's needed. You have families that have to figure out how to provide transportation for their children every day or put them on a bus with kids that are not of their age group. I was actually recently told, don't worry, they can call in with their cell phone if there's an issue on the bus. My kid's five alongside the lowest teacher retention rate in the district because these teachers have gone three years without a plan. While I know that this has been perceived as a Dallas center city issue, I want to
005point out that the boundary line for DCE is right next to us on County Line Road. There are kids from both cities in all of our school buildings, which is no different than any of the other 5A schools that are out there. If you look at the trends of student numbers, you will also notice that you have another building that could quickly be in the same position. After the forum, we started sending creative lowcost interim solutions to you because we knew budgets and levies were coming and we also wanted to retain student choice dollars so that we could be DCG strong. You will see several of the same parents here today talking that shared that information that you have to get registered. The board was also told that this proposal that we gave to you
006is not 100% accurate. Unfortunately, no one asked the next question of what would it take to get some of these things done or how many students are we thinking we're going to lose from not doing something in the interim. If you're going to make strategic decisions, I understand not asking these because how do you fit it all in in one meeting, but we have to figure out how we get people to present this information so that everybody gets the whole story. It is a known best practice that budgets should reflect the goals and plan in place without a new operational plan being presented and finding out that we now have two elementary buildings short on critical school counselor services that are part of our SCAK goals amongst other items. I urge you and all of
007those people that are listening to start voting no for approving any other budgets until there is both an interim and a long-term strategic plan in place that's designed to directly serve the students in the buildings. That's what we're here for. It doesn't matter at this point whether the taxes are lowering or whether they're staying the same. The bottom line is the money you have is not being managed well if we don't tie what we're putting it into with expectations for results. There's no reason to spend $2 million to add another building until we know for sure that this isn't an interim blip in raised attendance. They're saying that it's down across the entire state for people having more kids. We should say no to expanding top paid administrative team in place without having me measurable
008benchmarks like the strategic plan being delivered in time for when you guys have to vote on these decisions. It's time for this board to stand up for the roughly 500 students between two buildings that are about to be impacted by this decision. It's time for our kids to get what they deserve. Miss Wear Memphis, this board secretary, have you had any questions, comments, or objections been filed in writing? None have been filed. I declare the hearing on public tax notices for the property tax levy for the 2526 fiscal year to be closed. Looking for a motion to adjurnn. Move to adjourn. Second case. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Post same sign. Motion carries. Dallas Center School Board to order. Roll call, please. Miss Wman. Director Baker Curtis, here. Director Dickinson, here.
009Director Fiala here. Director Malberg, here. Director Carpenter, here. Director Mcnise, here. Director Vanderved here. I'll acknowledge a quorum. Would everyone please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance 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, we'll move along to item three. Uh we'll receive visitors and read miscellaneous communications. Um we will now open the four floor for public comment. I think we have five people on the docket tonight. I'd like to welcome you all to the board meeting and thank you for your willingness to speak to us. Per board policy 213, citizens wishing to address the board during public comment must notify the board secretary prior to the board meeting. Public
010comment is a time set aside for community input, but the board will not discuss or take any action on any matter during public comment. Please limit your comment to five minutes so we can keep the moving the meeting moving in a timely fashion. When you do speak, we will ask you to come up to the podium, speak into the microphone so that everyone can hear you. Please begin by stating your name and city of residence. We would ask that when speakers are addressing us that everyone will maintain professional decorum, listen and refrain from any disruption. Any person who creates a disruption may be asked to leave the meeting. I want to also remind all speakers that any comments that may be made during public comment are also done at their own risk or done at
011the risk of the person making the comment and that the district will not be responsible for any defamatory or potentially defamatory comments which may be made when you're called to speak. Thank you for your support of our school district. And now we'll have Jonathan Franen. You may come to the podium. Good evening everybody. Dr. Bloom, members of the board, my name is Jonathan Franson. Um, I currently reside in West De Moines. Uh, on February 4th, I attended the parent outreach meeting similar to Kate there at Dallas Center Elementary. Dr. Bloom, at that meeting, you stated uh that most people there were dis to discuss two sections per grade level at DCE and would likely leave that meeting enter or leaving with the same mentality. Um, uh, at the presentation, I personally had a a much
012greater understanding with the initial decision that was made to move DCE to a single section of kindergarten. Now, while questions do still remain on how they handle that very large kindergarten, soon to be first grade class, um, I want to focus my time today to address another statement that you made during that meeting in regards to equity and access. Last week, the decision was announced to move the counselor at Dallas Center Elementary to a 50-50 split position between Heritage and DC. This decision directly contradicts the statement that you made towards uh towards building equity just eight weeks ago. Based on the enrollment sizes of the two schools this year, moving DCE down to a halftime counselor and Heritage up to 1.5 counselors will not add an additional counselor uh for support within the district. It
013will only shift that need that is currently at Heritage to DCE. In addition, the split position between the buildings in is in each community. So, the counselor is losing time from their schedule that could be spent with students having to travel between buildings instead. I would like to briefly outline each of these points and recommend a course of action. First, let's talk about equity and access. This was one of the very first topics you presented at the meeting on the 4th. In the presentation, you stated that every building may not have the same number of sections uh per grade based on enrollment, but every building still gets access to the following: one principal, one counselor, one instructional coach, and one and a half interventionalists. Making the move to split the the DCE counselor between two
014schools flies directly in the face of what you said the district desires for equality. It also creates a second scenario of building inequality at Dallas Center Elementary. DCE is the only elementary without a full-time principal as Deb Kale's position is split between DCE and the preschool uh that resides in the Heritage building. This also raises a concern that both the principal and counselor that support DCE may not be present in the building at the same time. This leaves DCE in a dangerous position in lacking support for students when an urgent need arises. I in no way want to downplay the need that you have identified at Heritage Elementary for an additional counselor support. Let's look back on the decision the administration made in 2023 to add an additional full-time counselor that split their time between
015the two largest elementary schools, Northridge and South Prairie. This meant a growing need within the district that has provided significantly better support for students at both of those schools. An additional halftime counselor at Heritage could very well have the same effect, but it shouldn't come at the detriment to Dallas Center Elementary. Now, let's look at the numbers. Based on the information provided on the February 4th meeting, Heritage has a K through4 enrollment this year of 322 students and uh Dallas Center has 169. Heritage has roughly twice the student enrollment of DCE today. Um, looking forward at today's agenda, I could see where uh enrollment is trending and it looks like you're about to lose 75 overall in elementary. Now, that's not a final number. Um, but that is where it's looking at. Despite that, unless
016all 75 of those students were to come out of Dallas Center Elementary, you're still looking at Heritage being only roughly double the size of DCE. Now, with the proposed 50/50 counselor split, that brings Heritage up to 1.5 counselors in DCE down to a half counselor. that effectively effectively gives Heritage three times the amount of counselor support in comparison to DCE while they only have twice the level of student enrollment. So, let's keep going with the math and add in some geography. Any position split between two physical locations is going to involve travel. Heritage Elementary and Dallas Center are 20 or 10.6 driving miles apart. It's 16 minutes of travel time. And if you in include the time it takes to pack up at one location and unpack at the destination, you're looking easily at about
01730 to 40 minutes of time spent transitioning from one building to another. If the position is split 50/50 with the expectation that the counselor is going to spend half their day in each building, you are losing a minimum of 2.5 hours of time each week that the counselor would normally be spending either with students or on student needs. That's over 5% of their work week each and every week. If the if you have to split position counselor spend entire days at one building or another, Dallas Center Elementary may be without a counselor at all for full days of each week. We have already discussed that without a full-time principal, this would leave a dangerous lack of student support at DCE. Dr. Bloom, I ask you with the assistance from the school board, take another look
018at the current decision to split the Dallas Center Elementary counselor position between Heritage and DC. There is still time to come up with a plan that both satisfies the needs for additional support at Heritage Elementary while not sacrificing the overall level of counseling support that the students at DCE receive. I fully believe this is a situation where you can find an alternative solution that will be in the best interest of the district as a whole. I urge you to go back to the involved parties, speak to both principles at each school and both counselors. Okay. Shelley Flocker. Shelley Flockard. I live in Dallas Center. All right. School board members um administration and DCG community. I thank you. In regards to the appeal of reconsideration of materials, DCG has a schoolboard policy 60501 that states controversial
019issue materials will be directed toward maintaining a balanced collection representing various views. In emails and at every meeting, I've asked to discuss the materials, not just the books alone. This has never been an attempt to ban or get rid of any book in school, but I do believe that we can do better. Since September 10th, I've shared concerns around two bias English 2 units. And in October, I filed a reconsideration of materials form regarding material in two units of English 2, the units covering American dream, racism, and social justice. I met with administration. I was assured that only one teacher was using the biased material. Concern remained about the reading level of the two books of two of the books. Mid November, I learned that other teachers were in fact using the same additional material
020and I emailed again and asked for a full review of those units. At that same time, my concern grew regarding the classroom assignments brought home. The class or the assignment in question was a commentary ladder exercise um with the claim, social and cultural expectations shape the decisions that individuals make when it comes to the American dream. The evidence provided for our analysis included the statement, quote, "Everyone in my town was brown, and I couldn't help but feel that being white made you extra special." Upon reviewing the structure and intent of the assignment, it appears that students were being guided toward a predetermined conclusion, namely, that having white skin makes you privileged. This assertion, as presented, is highly subjective and promotes a singular race-based view of success in America. While discussions about race, identity, and opportunity
021are important, framing the American dream solely through the lens of racial hierarchy oversimplifies complex social dynamics and may foster divisiveness rather than critical thinking. I'm concerned that this approach lacks balance and fails to acknowledge the numerous acknowledge numerous factors like background, personal choices, education, family support, and perseverance. They all contriute or contribute to an individual's success. I respectfully request clarification on how the curriculum ensures a compre comprehensive and unbiased discussion of these issues. It does not, the worksheet does not encourage any alternative viewpoints. This commentary ladder is compelled speech and possibly a civil rights violation. My question when I read my question to myself when I read the worksheet was, is this trying to shame my son for his skin color? Why bring up the worksheet? Well, because it shows the intent. So, back to
022the process. The December meeting was tainted when the administration sent a district-wide email stating that the reconsideration of two books instead of it was a reconsideration of two books instead of the materials. While the whole process was then the whole process was corrupted when the when a district employee committee member purposely leaked details to a hate group, the author of one of the books and the district staff and to our entire community. A new committee was then handpicked. Do you really think that any of the committee members would feel comfortable sharing an opposing view after the five month social media and character assassination that I have faced? The district limited the fe February meeting to two books ignoring the broader issues of non-compliance of our own DCG policy in regards to bias material. Um DCJ
023policy states controversial issues on materials will be directed toward maintaining a balanced collection representing various views. No one supports racism today. CRT in school condition students to focus on skin color rank, racial privilege, pit groups against each other, and foster resentment toward America. To counter that idea, what materials are we showing the students? My ask is to add equal materials to balance divi the divisive assignments, discussions, thesis statements and have a full robust discourse. My ask is for books, articles, assignments, poems and movies that foster pride in our nation and the progress that we have made. Material that instead of dividing us unites us. My ask is that the toxic teaching that skin color makes you an oppressor or oppressed ends. is you know what do we want? Thank you. So my question to the
024board Shelley time's up. Thank you. Can I have two sentences? We're done. Angie, would you please come to the podium? My name is Angie Winnell. I am a resident of Dallas Center. I'm here to address the reconsideration appeal before the board today. Uh I attended both of the reconsideration meetings and I have followed this process closely. Board policy does not have a mechanism to test if curriculum violates 603.09R1 which requires controversial issue issues to be presented by the instructor in a balanced way. The original request for reconsideration asked for a full review of the curriculum as the uh parent believed it violated schoolboard policy regarding balanced viewpoints. The process that was laid out by the administration only allowed for one or two books to be considered at a time. There is no way to test
025the balance of curriculum if all the materials cannot be included together. It was also determined that supplemental materials could not be included like excerpts from books, song lyrics, poems, worksheets um as those were not considered curriculum and not subject to reconsideration. At no point during the reconsideration was schoolboard policy read or explained by the administration to the committee. Only the only discussion the review committee had regarding balance in the curriculum was one comment made by a committee me member determining that because all student views were allowed to be expressed, the curriculum is balanced, but it isn't the job of students to ensure all viewpoints are represented. Board policy clearly states that that's the teacher's responsibility. The high school librarian Sandy Ellis explained in the reconsideration meeting why the book This Is My America was needed
026in their curriculum. As an expert in literature and an employee of the district in the building where the content is taught, I think it's fair to assume that her words represent is a representative of the district. She said, quote, "This novel illuminates the flaws in our criminal justice system, highlighting racial disparities and incarceration, the death penalty and sentencing. It offers a realistic portrayal of systemic issues." unquote. By definition, systemic societal issues is the central theme of critical race theory, a political and highly controversial ideology. I am not here to advocate for one side or the other on this matter, but to simply show the controversial nature of the content, subjecting it to the requirements of schoolboard policy, aside from a possible violation of Iowa code 802. Another district employee, Melinda Bryant, showed a tally of
027the minority groups represented in the book characters in the curriculum at the meeting as evidence of balance. But unless you assume that your skin color requires you to think a certain way, this is not evidence of diversity of thought. Since this content has serious implications for law enforcement, I asked the Dallas County Sheriff Adam and Fonte for comment. He said, quote, "I do not have firsthand knowledge of minorities being arrested at disproportionate rates in Dallas County, as this is not a statistic we actively track, nor have I sensed that. While we could analyze the data if necessary, it has not been a concern raised within our jurisdiction. In my 25 years of working here, I do not recall the sheriff's office being questioned about the racial breakdown of our arrests in regards to accusations of
028disparity. While disparities may exist in other areas, I have not personally personally observed this as an issue in our county. If I were speaking with students, I would emphasize that policing experiences vary across regions. What happens in New York City may not be ve may be very different from what happens in Dallas Center. So, it's important not to generalize or assume that all law enforcement agencies operate the same way. Just as I wouldn't claim to know how the NYPD or other major departments handle situations, I wouldn't want our agency to be judged based on their practices. Here in Dallas County, my deput deputies operate within the constitution and when situations are unclear, we emphasize reasonleness and sound judgment. We recognize that no one is perfect, but we strive to do the best we can with
029the resources and the knowledge that we have. I believe it is important that schools present a balanced perspective when discussing the justice system and law enforcement. Portraying law enforcement as inherently unjust could create unnecessary distrust and make it more difficult to build positive re relationships with young people. Our concern is is that such messaging may discourage cooperation with law enforcement, making communities less safe. So yes, it is very concerning." Sheriff Infonte offers an important and relevant perspective that is absent from the curriculum. Denying students voices like this limits context and their ability to think critically through these difficult and controversial issues. I believe the board needs to put in place an adequate check and balance to ensure schoolboard policy is being followed. one that would allow a full review of curriculum regarding a specific controversial
030issue. With regard to the current reconsideration before the board, I would recommend you consider the curriculum in full context with all the materials and not isolated decisions. Thank you, Brook Falls. I apologize in advance for our special visitor tonight. Um, good evening. My name is Brooke Fzgraph. I am a special education teacher at Dallas Center Elementary. First, I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I am here to express my strong support for keeping a full-time elementary guidance counselor at DCE. As a special education teacher, I have an instinct to advocate for children who are not yet able to be advocates for themsel. I often spend time advocating for what is best for our students and families on an individual level, but feel led to advocate for all of our students on
031this occasion. I would also like to add that my purpose here tonight is not to diminish the needs of any other school, only to advocate for the students at Dallas Center Elementary. Elementary school is not just about academics. It's where children develop socially, emotionally, and personally. Young students face challenges like anxiety, family struggles, social conflicts, and self-esteem issues. A dedicated guidance counselor is essential in helping them build the skills they need to navigate these challenges early on before they escalate into bigger problems. A full-time guidance counselor is also a critical component of our MTSS um system, a topic that has been greatly discussed this year districtwide. At tier one, counselors provide schoolwide social emotional learning lessons on self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. They help create a strong foundation for emotional well-being
032and success in the classroom. At tier 2, counselors offer targeted small groupoup interventions for students who need extra support in these social emotional learning areas. These may include groups focused on managing anxiety, improving social skills, or building self-regulation strategies. They also work closely with teachers and families to identify students who may be struggling and provide early proactive support before issues become more serious. With a full-time without a full-time counselor, our school risks falling short in providing these essential interventions, leaving teachers to manage behavioral and emotional challenges on their own. A part-time counselor simply isn't enough to meet the needs of all students and provide the level of consistency required for effective MTSS support. This is especially true for a school building that already does not have access to a full-time principal with our principal also
033serving as the preschool director. Our children need someone who is consistently available, not just when they have an appointment, but when they are struggling in the moment. A full-time counselor can build meaningful relationships with students, help prevent serious issues from developing, and create a supportive and safe environment for all. Investing in a full-time counselor isn't just about react reacting to problems. It's about preventing them. It's also about giving our students the foundation to grow into healthy, confident learners. In closing, I would like to offer one last perspective. Um, I think your reaction would be different if these staffing cuts were made to other schools in the district and 150 students and families were simply told, "You will only have access to these essential mental health resources and a mental health professional for 50% of the
034time, while the rest of the students in the district will continue to have access for 100% of the time. Students at Dallas Center Elementary will suffer from this change. Thank you for your time and please feel free to reach out with any questions or ongoing collaboration. Amy Strut. Good evening everyone. It's good to be back with you tonight. My name is Amy Strut and I'm a parent of a kindergartener and a third grader at Dallas Center Elementary. I'm also that city council person from Dallas Center. Um, and once again, I'm here as both a parent and a city representative to support Dallas Center Elementary. And as I've mentioned before, my family is part of the larger DCG community. My niece and nephew live in Grimes and they attend Oak View in the high school. And
035so my family sees firsthand how our communities and our schools are interconnected and how important it is that every school in our district remains strong. As always, first and foremost, thank you board members and administrators for your service to our students and our community. And tonight, I ask for your careful consideration as you discuss the budget and staffing and specifically the proposal that you've already heard about tonight to split the guidance counselor position between DCE and Heritage. I fully understand and support the need for more counselor time at Heritage. Let's not diminish that. But as I mentioned, the strength of all schools and students benefit us all as a community. And splitting Miss Deacy, the DCE counselor's time between the two buildings is robbing Peter to pay Paul and putting DCE at a disadvantage. If
036this change goes into effect, DCE will have the highest student to counselor ratio in the district by a significant margin. Based on estimated 2025 2026 enrollment numbers, Northridge will have 387 students with 1.5 counselors. That's 258 students per counselor. South Prairie 353 students with a counselor and a half. That's 235 students per counselor. Heritage, 329 students with a counselor and a half. That includes Miss Deacy part-time. There are 219 students per counselor. DCE 154 students with half a counselor. That's 38 students per counselor. This creates significant inequity, leaving DCE students with far less support than their peers across the district. This gives every other elementary in the district a student to counselor ratio of 219 to 258. DCE would be the highest at 308 students per counselor. If this happens, y'all, that's 50 students or
037approximately 20% more than the next highest school. and 89 students or approximately 30% different than the lowest school. DCE and South Prairie are home to the largest percent of students on free and reduced lunch in the district. At DCE, Miss Deacy is not just a counselor. She's a lifeline for our most vulnerable students. My family has experienced this firsthand. She identified a need for my daughter and with her partnership, we were able to get early intervention. Thanks to her, we have a happy and thriving young girl and my husband and I are not certain we would have identified her need on our own and we certainly would not have as quickly as M. Lacy did. We are forever grateful for her. And I know that my family is not alone. Many students rely on her
038in ways they or their parents may not even fully recognize until it's too late. Her presence isn't just a benefit, it's a necessity. Dr. Bloom, you have publicly stated multiple times that you're committed to a full-time counselor at each school. And that full-time counselor at every school has been the stated goal. and maintaining that standard at DCE aligns with the district's mission of equity and excellence. I know we're in unprecedented times. The state has not made things easy and difficult decisions must be made. I get that. We're seeing it at the city. My husband and I see it in our own personal budget. But what adjustments can we prioritize to ensure this vital service at DC is preserved? I know that many of you are persons of faith. And if you're not, I know you
039care about the well-being of the children in our community. You wouldn't be here if you didn't. So with that, I ask you consider Proverbs 3:18-9 during your discussions and decision-makings. Open your mouth for those who cannot speak and for the rights of those who are left without help. Open your mouth. Be right and fair in what you decide and stand up for the rights of those who are suffering and in need. I urge you to not just examine the spending, but to take action to ensure DCE does not lose this vital resource. Protecting a full-time counselor, it's not just about one school. It's about all schools, all children's success across the district. Thank you so much, everyone. Uh, are there any changes to the agenda? No changes. Looking for a motion. Move to approve. Lumbberg
040second. Baker Curtis. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Close. Same sign. Moving along to uh the minutes of previous meetings. There's a number of them to review. 310 224. Um looking for a motion. Move to approve Vandervald and second Dickson. Any discussion? All those in favor indicate by saying I I post oppos same sign. Motion carries. Moving along to bills. Looking for a motion. Move to approve. Maker Curtis. Second. Vanderbalden. Any discussion? All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Post. Same sign. Motion carries. Moving along to item seven, the consent agenda. Looking for a motion. Move to approve. Mullberg. Second. Viella, any discussion? I have a question about the open enrollment requests. Um, in so far as I counted, there are 26 requests for kindergarten open enrolling in. Um, just
041curious where all those kiddos entered and up. Yeah. So, we've had three uh open enroll kindergarten for Dallas Center Elementary. Okay. The one I've got, so I'm going to clip this. I had 19 total because I've got 16 that sent open enroll. So, okay, if I'm missing the other seven, I apologize, but the other day when I met with Diana, it was 19 three to DC, 16 to the other schools. What does that do for Dallas Center kindergarten? That that puts them at 26. So, what does that do for Dallas Center kindergarten? Talk about staffing sections. Okay, thank you. Any other discussion? Um, I just had a quick question about the Edenum contract and I'm just curious how many students utilize admentum each year. We have Yeah. Uh, we've had anywhere, let's see, right now
042it's at 10. Um, at times it's grown to 11. Um, but probably not more than 11. So, we have students that have a variety of different options to them. So, some could take a single course, some could take a whole year course. So, it's not ever just one set, but in looking ahead, we we know that we'll have 10 seats needed for sure for next year. Thank you. Any other discussion? All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Post same sign. Motion carries. Moving along to reports. Any questions on the written reports? Seeing none, we'll move along to building level presentations. um principles. Um Patty Morris, um sorry, Patty's here to talk to us about South Prairie kindergarten uh teachers and uh we'll talk about kickstart for the 2526 school year. Thank you. Good
043evening. Um I am Patty Morris. Like I said, good to see you again. and we told you we'd be back. So, here we are to share uh a program that we would like to pilot this fall after hearing about other communities doing something sim similar which we are calling Kickstart. So, I have brought my kindergarten team with me this year. We have five teachers and so they're all pictures are on the screen here. are behind me as well as my instructional coach, Elise Webb. And they're going to uh present to you some of the I we put a lot of of work and thought into this and so they're going to present some of their findings and sharings and what we would like to do to effect effectively meet the needs of all students. It's
044important to take the time to get to know every student. So, here's an overview of how our first week of school will look. On Monday and Tuesday, our schedule allows to stu for students to rotate between all classrooms multiple times, engaging in different activities such as readalouds at the carpet, playing with new friends, practicing their fine motor skills, adjusting to a full day school schedule, and learning daily school routines. Groups will be flexible and fluid throughout those days. On Wednesday will be a no school day for kindergarteners at South Prairie. During this time, balanced classes will be created and teachers will be assigned and communicated via parent square. Teachers will use this time to send out introduction letters to families and prep for the rest of the week, making classrooms ready and personalized for incoming
045students. Thursday, students will have their first day with their class and teacher. Parents are welcome to walk their students in, take first day pictures, and can see the classroom ready for the year. Friday will be a regular school day for all students. So, we want to talk a little bit about why are we considering this? First of all, this is an idea that we started thinking about because we heard of neighboring districts who were doing something similar. And it's something that we we talked about as an administrative uh team with other principles, too. And I did a little research. I had already done some of this, so I I already knew that our numbers were higher than the other buildings with students coming into South Prairie without any preschool prior experience. And I say that,
046however, all I have to go by is preschool at DCG. So, there are some that could have attended other preschools, but they haven't had formalized necessarily in a school setting. Um we have families that'll do daycare uh preschools or sometimes uh church preschools and different things too. But these are the percentages from the past three years. You can see that 39 38 35% of our students. So it's always over one-third of our students are entering South Prairie and they have never had kindergarten. What this has created is a very unbalanced classroom. I can I can pinpoint in the last several years where was that classroom unbalanced and um teachers we we know where that is. And so when I talk about unbalanced what's that mean? A lot of different things. Academics and social emotional readiness
047too. The instructional coaches got together recently because we're getting ready for our April parent night meeting and they put together a website of kindergarten readiness skills and so they did a great job on that. We're going to share that with parents, but it talks about all the different things. The readiness for kindergartens and when we don't see a third of over a third of the students who are not coming in, we don't know what their abilities are. We don't know what their functioning skills are. We we don't have a lot of information. So to put them in a classroom, it's can be a really big challenge to try to balance that for, you know, all those different areas that you look at. I will tell you that when we create class class lists from then
048on out, first grade, second grade, all those grades, so much time and thought is put into creating those class lists by my by each grade level teacher. These guys will start working on the first grade assignments for next year because there's so many things to look at. You want to give the each student the best experience possible when coming in and obviously starting off, we want to give them the best experience. So trying to give that makeup of a a balanced classroom is what we're looking at. And you can do the I did this comparison last year. I didn't do it for this year's students, but I'm sure it'd be very similar, but you can see in the other elementary buildings um the the percent of students and I did the same thing. I just
049looked at the enrollment. I looked at our DCG preschools and what percentage of students had been in DCG preschool prior to. So you can see where we rank compared to the other schools as far as their percentage of students coming into preschool. So that's where we're like, okay, it is it does feel heavier for us. Um because right now the other schools thought, okay, we'll let South Prairie pilot this, see how it goes. They weren't sure that they needed to do something yet. So that's what we are um wanting to do. Our team has had conversations with teachers from other districts that have had a similar program. We were able to hear many benefits and also some considerations to think about with our kickstart program. So some of the benefits include all of the teachers
050were able to connect with all students and start building relationships from day one. Students were also able to build relationshipships with each other due to the mixed classes. Classes were able to be created equitably so that teachers were most able to meet the needs of their students. Some things um to consider include infinite campus. So we will connect with AJ before and during kickstart transportation. We want to assure that teachers are proactive in planning the arrival and dismissal of students. The supplies so that have a plan in place to collect and distribute supplies for all students. Those first day hesitations. We want to ensure solid communication with all the affected parties prior to the first day. And open house. We will have one open house on the same night as the district instead of having
051a separate open house. Perfect. Thanks, Steph Web, instructional coach. Um, so after we talked to these districts, we kind of got an idea and we had a huge conversation about logistics, like how are we actually going to implement this and manage 100 kindergarteners at our feet during that day. Um, we want to build trust with our families and we want to be as transparent as possible. So, the first step we thought to accomplishing that would be to write down protocols and procedures. And these are just some that I'm going to briefly go through of what we've already pre-thought to hopefully ease some parent concerns. So, the first one is the all hands-on deck approach. We will be talking with our intervention team and our encore team to have them when they're available in their schedule
052those first few days to be available for us to use them as extra hands. Um, and that will really start on the first day for drop off. We plan to have a table where kids can enter. We'll have colored wristbands, name tags so that we can identify these kindergarteners if and when they may find themselves in the hallway transitioning. Um, we also think that with how our building is set up, we are lucky enough to have a kindergarten wing. So, all of our kindergarten classrooms, my meeting space is all located in one area. Um, and we have locker cubbies kind of at the end of that area. Um, so to eliminate the stress on a kindergartenner on how to open a locker, where your locker is going to be, how to remember how to do
053that, the easiest thing we thought of was we're going to line the hallway with backpacks. That way, we're not losing materials of students. We're keeping track of everyone and making sure it's all safe and secure. And then on the first day of school, one of the biggest tasks I have is that we have to make transportation tags for the backpacks to let the little ones know when they go out and they see another staff member, they know that, oh, this student's a walker, they go this way, this person goes this way to parent pickup. We tag all backpacks with important information. Um, so having them in the hallway, we'll be easily able to see where those students are going to be going. And then the last one was a concern that we brought up um
054from other school districts on well how do they bring their supplies from classroom to classroom during those mixed times. We've decided as a team we're just going to do community supplies based on what we already have in the building and then we'll collect and store all of those school supplies and then on the Thursday when they have their assigned teacher we will make sure those are in the appropriate classroom for those students. I know they sound very minor um but we want to ensure families that we have thought through this process really well and have those protocols in place. So it was decided to have kindergarten families still come to the district open house for South Prairie. So kindergarten families will go to the library to meet all the kindergarten teachers instead of the kindergarten
055rooms. Encore teachers and Mrs. Morris will join us to meet and greet families. This will be a place where we'll be able to talk with families, make connections, share about ourselves, and answer any questions they may have. So during open house, all the families will bring school supplies. We'll organize those supplies according to their last name, and if not already completed, parents will finalize their student transportation form and complete our parent survey that we send out each year. So, one of the things I want to share is that Elise said something about it seems minor. Nothing's minor when you're working with five-year-olds. So, um, every everything we think about, we have to think about all those little details because we want to make sure our students are taken care of and that um, we are
056prepared for those. So, we try to think through everything. Um, another thing when I was talking about the percentage of students not attending preschool too and we look at enrollment numbers, I don't really get I traditionally a lot of my students are not enrolled yet. The students that I have in this fall may not have moved to Grimes. They're they'll still come and that's year after year after year after year. So, our enrollment continues to increase over the summer because we do have many families who um have not even moved here. We'll have openings or they they haven't enrolled because maybe it's their first child and they don't really we we try to um communicate with those families and get out there. But we still have kids enrolling in the first in two weeks before
057school starts. So, we have our we used to do roundup and that helped uh but it still only had those people that were enrolled at that point in time. We did round up for new families coming to Dallas Center Grimes, but we still had a lot of families after April that were still registering and still coming. And so that wasn't really a good solution for us either. So, this is what we would propose to try so that we have hopefully the um the kids that are coming to South Prairie and we can really look at those students, see where they're at and get a better balance of classes for our students to have a more a more effective year. What questions do you have for us? Maybe not a question, but just a comment. thanks
058for trying something new and it looks like you put a ton of work into logistical pieces of it, how you're going to connect with families and still think about open house in a different way and kind of what I'm sure there's a million things that you're going to be doing in that first week that you can't necessarily take the time to talk about tonight. So, just thanks in advance for the fabulous work you've done and you will do and we'll really look forward to hearing, you know, maybe not that week but a couple of weeks later. Yeah. give us give us a little time how it all went maybe three months later or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. But thanks a lot. Other questions? Um I do have a question and I'm very biased to the South
059Curry staff because that's where my kids go and so I want to thank you all very much for the evident hard work and planning and just foresight you're putting into this. Um, being a teacher and a planner myself, I'm looking at the schedule and I'm looking at that Wednesday, August 25th date. And I'm assuming that that's an early release date. So, if we have brothers and sisters or sisters and whatever, their sibling would attend in the morning, but then the kindergartenner would not attend that morning. Am I understanding this correct? So, what sort of a plan then do we have for families that might and find themselves having to miss work because they are, let's be honest, for a lot of families, school is child care, right? Um, do we have a plan for that?
060Do we have a way we're going to communicate that? Um, we'll get that information out in advance for parents to know, but we did have um that's some of the things that we talked about with other districts and I think one district had tried to do some sort of daycare. Yeah. So, we heard some feedback from like, have you provided daycare? And they did. And they actually found out that they didn't need it. They told their families well in advance that they said we it actually wasn't utilized and wasn't the best thing for it um for their specific building. So, we thought as long as we get AG on communication and we let families know as early as possible right when they sign up that this is kind of what our schedule is, we thought
061that hopefully it would help mitigate those issues. Thank you for taking time to do the research. Um, and obviously if there were extranuating circumstances for a particular family, we would try to work with that particular family to provide tangible options for them. Right. And with anything, you have to have a plan, try it, go back, see, because there's other districts that we've talked to, they've they're making changes and I mean, they gave us their deltas and their, you know, things too. And so we had that advantage of of hearing from other teachers, hearing from another, um actually I heard from another superintendent and finding out some of those things. And so um you know, it's not we're not doing something that hasn't been tried somewhere else. And so that does give us a little bit
062of advantage. Um but like I said, we would also go back and see how did that work for South Prairie? How did that work for DCG? What do we need to do different? What feedback do we get from our parents after we do something like this? Thank you all very much. Thank you. Appreciate your time. Um, next we have Dr. Kenza to talk to us about tag. Well, good evening. I I will thank the South Prairie team because we had a really great realization. We will be getting tag shirts for all. It's not on the school dime, Michelle. Not on the school's dime, but we're going to go to the local t-shirt shop and get matching shirts. Okay, I can guarantee you that. That's our Wednesday agenda. Yeah, that's our Yeah. Wednesday. Oh, no. Okay.
063Anyway, so uh we're so uh happy to be here tonight representing the tag department. So, as you may know, uh from a district lens, I provide some oversight and support, although they don't need oversight and support. They need um just a vision and a direction and they've done very well. Um but every year we want to Oh, oh, closer to the mic. Oh, no one's ever accused me of being quiet before, so it's fine. Uh but what we want to do is every year provide an update for you on our programming. And this year, most of all, I could not be more proud of this team and their efforts um around our TAG program review. Um this is just the beginning of some really exciting improvements for our program and we have partnered with parents
064um district staff more than probably ever before but you're all three are new. Um so I'm excited to share our um work with you this year. Okay. Oops. Sorry. Uh so let's do introductions. Um would you like to introduce yourself and your building that you're at? Yes. My name is Renee Conway. I am tag teacher split between Heritage and Northridge. So K4. I'm Carrie Parkhill. I'm at South Prairie Elementary and Oakville. So K4 and 78. I am Christina Hillmer. I'm tag teacher at DCE. So K4 and then the middle school 56. Thank you. And we have uh Pamela Clund. Could not be here tonight, but she is our high school tag teacher. And I also have uh two additional photos up there. That is Kate Boonstra and Kyra Wilcox Connley both with H Heartland A.E.A.
065in Johnston. And uh I know over the past uh year we've talked about that incredible partnership we received from H Heartland. And this is a living example of just how important their support has been u for us as a district and as individuals. So a little bit of understanding of where we've been. Uh first off, we knew um after last year, about the end of last year, we had some hopes of engaging in a program review of our TAG programming. Uh just as we looked at opportunities for growth and uh the H Heartland, both Kate and Kyra actually developed what we you'll hear about is called the GAP, the gifted self audit and planner. So that's um their material and and they would work with us to work through that process. So, but it also
066starts with um a group of people that were ready and interested in getting better. Uh we had an interdisciplinary team of district staff that were um assembled together. It was three um half-day meetings uh spread amongst this school year. So, I think it was about November that we hit the ground running and it was intense those three hours. We were moving and grooving that entire time of reflecting and we'll show you some of what that process looked like. We ultimately have identified areas of strength and weakness or I don't say weakness or areas of improvement whatever you would say um for our programming and we acknowledge there are a lot of strengths there's a lot of ways that we can continue to get better partly because we have shifted a lot of staff members and
067added new to our team but also because we could look at our practices and bring them uh maybe more in line with some best practice efforts and we that was a key part was our parent um group that joined us. we could not have space. We weren't able to have space for every single uh tag parent uh to join us and we understand that. Uh but we had a good representative sample from every building um selected by the the teachers themselves and so we're very thankful. Um we also got feedback from them. The one piece that's up here that we haven't quite gotten to yet is a student surveys and we're hoping to be able to do that before the end of the year to get their feedback as well. But our our planning team
068did consist of teachers uh throughout the district and at different special programs as well because we always say you can be twice exceptional. So you have the opportunities to continue to grow. Um highlights uh that we think are worth worthy of noting this year. So we had um an individual retireer uh Patty Dgnen who offered a longtime wonderful service to our district retired at the end of last year. We also had a spot that was unfilled. They just didn't have the candidates at the time or quality candidates. So, we had a spot that was unfilled. And then Annette Thomas, who also was a wonderful contributor to their TAG program, she moved into an intervention role. So, um we in essence we added the equivalent of 1.5 um FTE teachers to the TAG department. Um so,
069we last year we had well would have been two and a half. So now we're up to um four and as part of that addition we welcomed these wonderful individuals um to our district and that has been such a great addition and I want to thank them for their time. Uh we started with the gifted self audit and planner and then um and would you like to talk about the looker studio that might be helpful and exciting. Yeah, go ahead. You go for it. So we have um the uh essentially a very uh complex and and uh fe uh I don't know how to explain it uh diversified uh excel sheet that um we call it the looker studio but it takes our students data um from multiple assessments uh fast isas kat any anything
070that the whole student population of that grade takes. Okay. So, um and it takes the last two years of that data and it puts it into um a mean. It has to um put it on the same playing field on the same level, but it we find the mean for each student and that way we can look at how many standard deviations every child is away from the mean, which is where instruction should be, right? With the MTSS model, you know, the teacher should be instructing, you know, at that 80 80% of their class, you know, should be able to have their needs met through core instruction. So, we're looking at those kids that fall way outside of that core instruction and thinking about how can we continue to serve them so their needs are
071being met as well. But the Looker Studio takes a lot of time um out of or like it saves us a lot of time. So, we're not having to crunch numbers and look up, you know, assessment scores here and then get onto this platform to look up assessment scores there. It does that all for us. Um and so, and it's also um something that can be updated when we take fast assessments again or ISAs. those new scores get put, you know, get put in and the oldest score can be let go and it changes the data and we can all so we always have current fluid data. Uh that was an improvement. I know um and feel free to step up if you want to add anything. Uh we would have done even almost a
072handwritten paper identification process. So we have sped this along after every assessment period. We just upload we or download the data and we send it and that's another key part of our partnership with A.EA is because we don't have a data person here on staff. Um we send that to Kyra. She uploads that into the looker studio. I don't know where we would be without her. She loves to do that work. So another key part of that partnership. Um this year in addition we also began identifying students previously. You had to you were qualified both in reading and math even if one of those areas wasn't one of your relative strength areas. You had to qualify in both. And now we have changed that to identifying students by strength areas either just in reading, just
073in math or it could be both. Um but that has also added students um to our rosters but also a better service model for us with working with kids. and I and I'd like you to share a little bit about what your Wednesdays look like and your flex days, but um this has probably been one of those uh just key levers for us is building capacity through regular PLCT meetings and collaboration. So, every Wednesday at 10:30, you can set your clock by it. Um they get online from a Zoom, we're going to be efficient, um work together, they have a running agenda. Um that is excellent. That's just a time that they've agreed to carve out to be able to meet and that that has been wonderful. And then also our flex days. Would you
074either like talk about what you've done there? Um yes. So our PLC meetings happen once a week like Dr. Kernzo mentioned. Um around 10:30 in the morning apparently right on the dot. Um I was 30 seconds late last time. Um just kidding. But we we do get together and this year since we are a fairly new team, it's a lot of programming. how can we make things better, what's going well, focusing on some of our GEP work as well. Um, and identifying students. We get to discuss student data, um, teacher input, parent input with each other as well. Um, and then also rely on each other as teachers. Um, so then that's also where we get to bounce ideas off of each other. This student, I need support while they're in the classroom. Um, what
075ideas do you guys have? So it's also a our community of teaching too. Um so it really covers a lot of different we cover a lot of different ground um within our time together each week. So and our flex stays have been spent meeting with our A.E.A. team um with each other and Dr. Kenza. So our entire tag team they can also be spent u meeting with teachers who are needing support. Um what else? That's a lot of it. Uh and our GSAP work. So it's very exciting. So this is an example of the GAP. So this was gosh I I wrote down the areas. We'll we'll come back to them on one of our later slides, but this is in essence just an example of what we did for I mean how many are
076there? Like I feel like I feel like there's about 70 areas that we looked at. Come on. I'm a mover. I can't stand still. people help me out. Uh so what you'll see here is we started with a description. So in this case the the area that we looked at is personnel and we looked at an ideal state would be the far left. An acceptable state or a state where we need attention. And so each you can see K4 56 78 and 912 we had representatives from every level. They self-rated themselves. There's no right or wrong answer in this case. The reason I chose this is you see where at our five six and 78 we do have probably more ideal acceptable to ideal levels of staffing, but we probably need some attention still at
077our K4 and our 912. And that doesn't mean we need more people necessarily. It might just be the work that they're doing, but we'll see. And then we answered three questions after every one of those. Uh what do we do well? What do we need to improve? and what questions or issues do we still need to explore? That's probably where the um bulk of the conversation was. Uh I want to stop for a minute because anytime you're talking about a program that you um work with or that you're a part of every day like these ladies to hear um things like what could we do better, you know, it's hard not to after how many areas that we went through to take it personal. They never took it personal. Of course, they couldn't. They were
078brand new. But everybody was also um very open to ideas and what they could what we could probably dream of for the future. Other 242 25 highlights. Uh so we studied the results and that's this part right here. So in the each of those categories so one of the areas is goals and performance. That's the purple. We looked at identification. So that's just looking at two. Then there was like three headers under goals and performance. And then we got the score. And so we will then now rank order those and decide what would be something we'll do in year one and this year is year one. So things like identification we can very quickly start to work out and do a better you know make some improvements do a better job with that. Other things
079will be year two which would be next year three through year five. So I think what's exciting is to think about a year from now when we come back to the board some of those improvements that we will have seen even with another year of work. And then um we administered I want to I do want to acknowledge um both our team for being the idea starters with looking at improving our screening process for tag. So um basically as we worked with the looker studio we realized we could collect more accurate more comprehensive data. So we shifted and gave assessments at to all second graders and fourth graders um when we used to do kind of like a basic screener at third. So, we really upended the system while we were moving in it. And
080I do want to thank Michelle and uh Dr. Michelle and Dr. Bloom because that was not originally in our budget for that, but worked through that. And to be really honest, that's been a gamecher for us. We now have a much more fluid identification process that I think is yielding better results. Yes, please. You want to hold it like I do? Yeah, you go ahead. Um the change for the Kogat to the second grade and the fourth grade from third grade. Um, coming from the district I came from, I know why they did it in second grade. It is a um, it's more pictures and so you can reach more students with their their thinking abilities and their problem solving, especially our EL population that have come into the district. Um, so we can hit
081those kids up more and see how their mind works when they can't necessarily read English. Um, and then fourth grade, doing it in fourth grade, we're getting to transition into the middle school and kind of seeing where those kids fall compared to the rest of the kids in the district coming into a hole at the middle school um level. And then we're at the reading part at that at that point as well. So that that's helping us get better accurate data. So our our parent forum was held uh gosh, I think it was February, maybe early February or late January. And this is an example. This whole wall was full of suggestions. We started out with a hey, here's where we've been. Here's what we've been doing. Here's what the GSAP is. We walked them
082through the process. This was facilitated by Kate and Kyra, both from H Heartland. Uh the teachers actually did not attend this one, not because we didn't want them, but because we wanted parents to feel comfortable being able to give suggestions. This team's been amazing. Again, they're like, "Hey, we just need good data in which to make decisions." And that's exactly what this represents. Uh Kate and Kyra have some fancy tool that takes pictures of the post-its so they don't have to rewrite each one, but you can see the areas. We looked at goals, we looked at identification and feedback there, differentiated programming in the classrooms, um personnel, budget, professional development, uh and then just other opportunities and questions that could have come up. So we got really actionable feedback from this group. So where are
083we going? There's those areas that we looked at. So that was what took us three half days was breaking down each of those indicators which comes down to the prioritization. Now we're ready to work on what are our department goals and we realized as we looked at those goals um they were very very vague. They weren't measurable. Um they didn't give us much action and direction. So the remainder of this year we'll work to finalize our department goals for next year. They're working as we speak on that identification process. We've also been working on acceleration. So, we have several students in our district that we have chosen to accelerate or have started the study of whether or not um it would be whole grade or single subject. Um they've done an excellent job um and
084we've continued to make improvements in that documentation. Uh lastly, they're going to continue to collaborate. Um they all get to attend the TAG conference uh in De Moines in the fall. uh we're going to look at it is required by Iowa code that we provide professional development in the area of talented and gifted services to all staff. That is something that we you will see specifically built into our PD calendars. Um and whether that's them leading that work or uh we maybe use some outside presenters, however that might go, I'm really looking forward to that. Um looking forward to more collaboration. Loud and clear. We heard from parents that they wanted more opportunities to learn, learn about their children, learn about what programming they're getting, learn about how they can help their children at home,
085what does it mean to raise a student who may have gifted abilities. Um so that that collaboration will be really strong for us. And then lastly, um we're excited because uh ISASP starts here. Well, it has started today. And so we'll have an additional data source then by which to put into the looker studio and be able to get informed decisions. um around student progress. Um Pamela uh for sake of time I won't show the video tonight um but there is a video just around her work with gifted uh the gifted seminar at the high school. Um but just things that you can see happening at that end. Um clustered nth grade science and English. So we know some that where students have required courses that they need to take. We've clustered TAG students together
086and Pamela's gone into those classrooms to co-e and help support um in both English one and in um physical science. She does uh co-eing in that segment. So, it's not just, hey, here's the students, let me know how I can help. She's there. Sometimes they may come back out to the TAG classroom for supports and sometimes they're getting them in the classrooms. She's of course collaborating with the teachers and that's probably been the biggest theme and feel free to speak up because of our placement now where we added those 1.5 and now we're up to four full-time teachers. Um that level of collaboration with the classroom teachers has been extraordinary and I've heard that from principles heard that from teachers. Um just had a compliment today from a principal and they're like, "Oh, we just
087love our tag teachers." So um and they say that about all of them. So that's good. and then um 10th grade advisory where she can support Tag students. Go past that. Okay, just for the sake of time. Thank you. The last part is just final thoughts. We have to recognize Hartland. We have to recognize Hartland. They've done a great job. I think I'm loud. Um Hartland has been a tremendous resource. We will continue next year as we have taken on all of the ed services and media monies and um especially we will continue to partner with Kate Boonstra. Um I want to recognize Kyra Wilcox Connley. She's retiring at the end of this year and that will be a huge loss but may have an opportunity to work with her again in our district. Um
088I want to thank as I said our district administrators u Mrs. Olsen um and all of our team have done a great job supporting TAG our TAG teachers and our building principles. They've asked wonderful questions. They've been open to improvements. The idea of accelerating a student a whole grade potentially from kindergarten to second or sixth to 8th makes anybody nervous, right? Because there's a lot of things we don't know what that what's that like, what could that be like? And our teachers model um just how important that step can be when the data is right and we know that we have the right conditions for that. Um, and lastly, I would just say thank you to you, the board. Um, because I know that you are supportive of the work. Um, I'm anxious to see
089if you have any questions, but we appreciate your, um, you know, systemic stuff of where we continue to look at our advanced population on ICASP is growing and we have to be prepared to differentiate within the classroom for all of our students. Any any questions? I'd like to say that this is really exciting as a lifelong TAG kid. Um, that was my favorite. Does high school still go orientering? Because like that was my favorite thing. Um, I guess my aside from like congratulations on doing all of this amazing work and also um earlier identification of kids that can be part of this program. Um, how many TAG kids do we have as a district? You know, I I should have looked that up. Uh, but I know that when we looked at originally the entire
090number of of students, do you guys know off the top of your head? I don't I think it's around 300. Okay. Our uh our rosters are a little larger this year because we do have because they were identified by general intellectability. Okay. We didn't we didn't like dismiss anybody from the program that was previously identified. Okay. But we added kids that were identified just by a specific aptitude like just in math or just in in reading. So our rosters are bigger than normal and we that that will take some adjustment here as we get things figured out. Um, but yeah, I mean I think when I did when I did the parent invites for the parent ceremony looking at how many there were, there was 299. Oh, okay. So, not quite 300, right? Not quite.
091Just under. We liked it. Good question. Okay. Thank you. So, you did the parent forum. Is there like a feedback loop? You guys do those Zoom meetings for parents? Is there like a monthly thing where they can kind of talk with you guys? You guys implement changes as it goes or what does that look like? Uh, from a district lens, not yet. uh we know that was part of their feedback. They want to engage with us. We want to engage with them. We have to decide what those sessions look like. Probably the best feedback loop if you have examples is what's happening down in the building level. So I wouldn't be privy to, you know, the parent conversations they have, whether it's at conferences. But I whether we would call it a parent university, a
092parent night, parent engagement, there's so many topics that um and and programs that support students that have been identified as talented and gifted that we will probably start to develop like what a parent series looks like. Awesome. And you mentioned um twice exceptional students and I want to make sure what I think of twice exceptional is what you think of twice exceptional. So would you mind defining for some of us who might have a notion in our head or the general public who may not know what do you mean by twice exceptional? Absolutely. So a child with a 504 for um being dyslexic. Uh so they have a they have be considered a disability um might uh especially now like we said we have a Kogat test that doesn't require the child to have to
093be able to read in order to show their the way they reason and their processing skills. um that if that child qualifies for gifted services and special education services or just has a 504 for a disability, that child's considered 2E or twice exceptional. And they can actually be three if they're a language learner as well. Thank you very much. Love that. Bonus points for you. I'll remember that. Any other questions? Okay, I'm going to run right over there and turn that mic on as soon as I sit down. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Um Mr. Ellingsson, I think, is going to talk to us just a little bit before we get to associate superintendent. Thank you very much. AJ, make sure you turn the mic on. [Laughter] We call this the Corenza. You just walk
094around and you kind of meet and greet everybody. Um, first of all, I think it's it's uh pretty powerful to uh have my job in this district. Um, often I'm I'm asked, "Man, you're the you're the person just goes and tells the good news." That's accurate. I am uh there's one other piece of good news I want to share tonight just as my role is we'll get to my role in a second but my role as a dad and a spouse of a teacher. My wife is having an incredible year at Oakview. My youngest daughter is in preschool at Heritage Elementary and Sydney Arm Cindy Armstrong is making an incredible impact on her life. My oldest daughter um Anna is a first grade and she's in Emma Hartman's class at Northridge Elementary and Emma Hartman
095is a perfect example of what what I want my daughter to look up to and aspire to be. So, I want to take 30 seconds just to say that the good things are happening in my life that I feel every single day with my wife and my kids. So, to them, I say thank you. Today, we're here to talk about um the the agenda, posting of agendas for school board meetings, what we've lived with, what we know now, and what my recommendation is moving forward. And right now, I want to um we're living on the board policy 2108. Um the the top paragraph is probably the most important here. The top two paragraphs um the the the tenative agenda for each regular and special meeting shall be posted on the administration office and on the
096district website at least 24 hours prior to the time of said meeting which we do currently. The agenda shall be widely distributed to staff to citizens requesting it and the news media. The rest of that I won't read to you but um that's where we kind of live in our current board policy when it comes to posting of agendas. I spent a lot of time um learning this year about what all what were we were missing and what we've heard from our our legal team and our attorneys is the guidance that all board approved committee meetings are supposed to be posted in the same format as regular schoolboard meetings that would include SIAK facility meetings reconsideration committee the ad hoc committee policy committee things along those lines also need to live on assembly they also
097need to be communicated about and we aren't we haven't been doing that uh but we have started this year and that's a change moving forward. So, I went to um when it comes to a meeting, this is this is a typical uh cadence in our office and what we do. Friday before a Monday meeting around 4:00, it goes live on assembly. That's led by a Dr. Bloom email to the board members saying that the agenda is live. Um it's live on assembly and that time Deanna at four o'clock will go and post at the two entrances here. Um I have sent the the regular schoolboard meetings are on every episode of the Mustang monthly. A parent square email goes to staff and families um right after it's gone to you maybe 15 20 minutes after
098the board has received it that goes to again the parent square accounts are um we don't send this to students but students have an account 512 um every student has two parent accounts that come with it. So um however that is set up in each family but they each have two and then all staff members at DCG also have a parent square account. So they are all receiving the email about four o'clock on Friday ahead of a Monday board meeting. And then social media, we post on Facebook, X, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Those are the four uh social media channels that I use quite regularly um when it comes to district updates. So, in the back of my mind, I I've I've always kind of thought about how to best distribute this news um in an
099effective manner, in a manner that um tells our district story, aligns with board policy, and then I kind of also want to compare to what other districts have been doing. So, here are the three things that I've noticed um in my research of what other districts are doing. In red, approach one is is is us essentially. It's very similar to us. Social media, internal communication, physical posting, simply newsletters, the Friday before the meeting. Approach two um is is very similar to that except they do theirs on the weekend, a Saturday or a Sunday or the Monday post on social media. Approach three, internal communication with physical posting on assembly on newsletters, the website. Again, Friday before the Monday morning meeting. Um, and approach three is what I'm going to talk to you tonight about us
100transitioning to. The one thing that you'll notice that is is missing from approach three to approach one is social media. Here's what we know about social media. Social media is a critical part of showcasing DCG. The social media algorithm, more so now than ever, is impacted on what people see. It's also impacted by likes, shares, and comments. The more of those things happen on a single post, the more people see it, the more eyeballs are on it. Part three is is a Dr. Bloom and I I I went to Dr. Bloom and I said, "Can I get aggressive when it comes to social media campaigns? This is putting money behind um targeted stories, targeted advertisements that is down to the county, the age, the gender of people that we want to see this post. It's
101time to get aggressive with that when it comes to enrollment. time to get aggressive when it comes to to stories. So, we will be taking an aggressive approach in a campaign campaigns um for that reason. Board meeting agendas typically fall into two categories, no traction or crazy traction. Um and both of those play key role in the algorithm of our district's channel. We need people to see DCG on Facebook, on X, on LinkedIn, on Instagram. Here's what I'm proposing to you. Friday before Monday, we keep that cadence. Post it on assembly. Post it on the admin entrance dates and Mustang monthly parent square to staff and family. And the one change that um we don't do now that I've I've started in this QR code will take you to a community group parent square page.
102This will be for anybody who wants to receive this communication that doesn't fit into our parent that's not a current parent, a staff member. um they can go there and they can receive these updates. Every time I send them out to our parents and our community, they can sign up to receive those that information. The same time everybody else is getting it. They'll get a four o'clock email, 4:15 email, whatever it happens to be that day. Um it is currently posted on the board DCG schoolboard website. There's a receive agenda notifications tab there. They can also just click on that, give me your name, your number, your name, first name, last name, cell phone number, and email address and it will go out um to you. Um, so that's surround it's grandparents surrounding community members
103from a different city, people who just want to be involved in u the communication that we receive. That's my plan that I've I've talked with our senior leadership team about um in in in the goal of being as transparent as possible because as you saw on the previous screen, I'm never going to waver from the impact that the communication timely communication means to our staff and our families and our students. Um it has to be done um it has to be done right. So I will leave it at that point. That's our strategy moving forward. This that QR code is live. Um it will go out the next time we have a board meeting um to the parents who who or community members who register um in that way. So I feel very confident in
104the ability to get anybody who wants our information. I have a board meeting agendas. Community groups will use it for bond campaigns a similar way we would for like a Mustang monthly. Instead of going it to to people's um mailboxes, it'll go to their inbox or if they give us their phone number, it'll go to their phone as well. Um, so I think it'll be a highly effective way of communicating um important agendas, stories, information to to everybody that we possibly can. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to to answer that them right now as well. This this QR code is already on our website that that QR code um is was just specific to you. That button where it says receive agenda notifications, it it didn't need a QR code because it's
105just an actual link. You do it and you sign up and you're in. Got it. So we we we can post that. I will post that QR code in the Mustang monthly just to kind of give people the ability to get that. Thanks, AJ. Yeah. Is that more than just notifications? That's pretty much all the communication that's coming. No. So, I mean, it will be a um like we I mean it'll be a board meeting. It'll be anything that we feel um needs a wider audience. They're sign we it's officially tabled like board meeting agendas and community notes or something like that. And so I do anticipate it when it comes to like election time or something like that where we might have um a need to spread a bigger audience and to people who've
106signed up for it. I anticipate using it for that as well to put on my devil's advocate hat which happens to be one of my favorite hats. Um, in the event that this could possibly maybe a little bit look like um an effort to hinder communication, right, on posts that tend to be a bit incendiary. When you're talking about the um agenda notifications, so far you've only talked about board meeting notifications. Does that also mean that you will not be sending out the agendas for reconsideration committees or SCIA committees or things like that? No, I mean they will the the ad hoc committee meeting SAK reconsideration will go to that group like it will be posted exactly like it will come to the parent square email that you get when it comes to reconsider they'll
107get that same exact email okay with the agenda it'll take a direct link to write to assembly everything will be posted the exact same and so then again devil's advocate hat um the goal then is to then pivot the algorithm into positivity and skewing the narrative in that direction instead of having open dialogue on a post that did tend to skew a bit incendiary. I think it would be uh I would say it's a way to to strategically play in the algorithm of social media. Like it is it's important to me that when when a family um when a family is deciding whether or not kindergarten at DCG is a spot for you and they type in Dallas Grimes in Facebook or it's important to me that the first thing that they see is the
108day in the life of the kindergarten kindergarten at DCG. That's I think that's beneficial to to all parties involved that that's the first thing that's available whether that's money that I've spent from my communications budget or it happens natively because people have interacted with that post. Okay. I I wouldn't come to you today if I thought this would impact the ability of people to be informed. I I I wouldn't I don't think that's fair. But but I think we found an alternative way to to make sure that happens. I appreciate all that you do to get the message out about what a great school community DCG is, and I appreciate the research you did looking at um practices done in other districts. Did you identify any other districts that um perhaps get their agendas out
109earlier than 24 hours notice? I would say I noticed more people Oh, I mean we're we're more than 24 hours. No, I No. Um I I did not notice anybody. if this helps. I didn't notice anybody that was doing it earlier than Friday of a more of a Monday meeting because when I attended IASB um the Ankeny school board president and the Ankeny superintendent presented and they started a policy there with the goal of communicating much like you've said the intentions of the district, all the great work, but getting it out um on a Thursday as opposed to a Friday knowing that we get into seasons that are heavy with sports, other commitments, activities, just allowing a little bit of extra time for folks to be able to go through extensive board agendas, all of
110the supplemental items that are attached to the agenda. And so I'm not asking us to put it out the Monday before the board meeting, but I would still like to request at some point that this board consider the possibility of a a Thursday afternoon at 4M release for some of this. I recognize that many of our administrative staff wear multiple hats. Um today's agenda is a great example of a very busy agenda with many attachments and items to it. Um, I've been asking about this, I think, since November of last year. And I just would like to encourage this board to consider the possibility of perhaps 48 hours instead of 24. I understand the sunshine laws. Um, aren't we all really busy people? I'm just as busy on a Thursday as I am on a
111Friday through a Sunday. So, I mean, it doesn't matter. Like, we have to make a priority, right? We as board members signed up to be on the board. we were elected to be on the board. We have to make it a priority in our lives whether it comes out on a Thursday or a Sunday. I think being here shows that we've all prioritized it. Well, we have to prioritize to outside of a Monday as well. Correct. Um I've had parents reach out to me as a board member asking about how do we determine those things? And I think it would behoove us as a board to discuss that. Would anybody else be interested in discussing that? Yeah, I'm open to talking about it, Nancy. I think the the question we also have to ask is
112what's it going to take for the staff to be able to produce a fully vetted board book a day earlier. So, I'm not sure I understand all of the intricacies of that, but I think it's just part of the conversation that we have to understand. Um, I think, you know, certainly the sooner we can get it out the better, but um we I think we just need to make sure we're well informed of what what we're asking for. I start fielding questions from parents at about 4:15 on Friday afternoons. People waste no time going through the agenda and saying, "Okay, I want to speak on this topic. Hey, Megan, then my whole weekend, honest to Pete, you can have my phone in every single email is I want to talk about this or what are
113your thoughts about this? Can you talk to me about the budget?" So, if I could maybe like I don't know head that off with a few more hours on a Thursday night and then I have all day Friday to field those then I wouldn't have to do it on Saturday and Sunday too. Who am I kidding? I'm just going to have more time to feel those questions. Um AJ I, you know, prior to Parent Square going out um and and you know being available in in the way that it is and that's a great tool. I mean the fact that you can communicate in the number of languages that you can That's a really effective tool that um you know I think my memory is we start I well I guess I can't maybe say
114exactly when we started to use social media as a way to communicate um some of the board meetings or the the various committee meetings of the board. I don't think it's always been in the time I've been on on the board. feels to me like it was more around pandemic time when we were trying to find ways to connect with people in in whatever way. So, you know, getting a more structured um plan around what we communicate on on what communication method I think makes a lot of sense. I think it also makes a lot of sense that, you know, um that we're smarter about how we use social media, what the content on the social media looks like, what it's aimed at, and then how that presents itself to maybe somebody that's outside of
115the district is uh a potential audience for considering is Dallas Center Grimes a place they want to send their kids. So, I know you put a lot of work into this. Thanks for that. I think it's a good idea. Just to to your point, I mean, our we are using 21 languages at Dallas Grimes this school year. Each time we send an alert out um we get a feedback form in all of the languages that we sent. So our last one was on March 5th and it went out in 21 different languages which is you know parent score has been a game changer for a lot of people. So thanks for that. Fantastic. Any other questions for AJ? Thanks AJ. Dr. Corenza. Okay. Quickly um state reporting updates. It's pretty relatively pretty quiet here in
116March. So um but I do want to highlight that first one. the DECAP, the district career and academic plan. No, I didn't say kneecap. DECAP. And so, no, no laughs. Okay. So, decap is an important plan for us. This um actually, just to tell you, it's 39 pages long. That tells you how much this team of about five or six have put into this. So, these are two counselors from Oakview. Um and then, uh Mrs. Kundiff, the principal, and this is Austin Roy, our high school assistant principal, and one of the high school counselors, and myself. And as a leadership team, we are working to identify what is being taught with regards to careers and that college and career readiness and pathways. Um right now focus 712. Um although we will have some opportunities to
117expand that as part of this work to K uh K12. So exciting things are coming. We will be back. I won't walk with the microphone next time, but we'll be back next month to present on DECAP. So be watching for that. But that was due March 28th. It now goes to the state for scoring and some peer review. Um, our ESSA work continues. So, we have Oakview and High School. They've been working on their plans for next year in terms of how they'll address their goals around ESSA. And we'll just do a touch base to make sure their planning is continuing um and if they need any assistance. And then we'll turn our attention to spring beds. So, we'll start to collect uh documents around just the educational data things um just rare data points.
118And I'll share more about that coming up. professional development. We did have a uh inclement weather day in there. So, um you can see what we've had each of our Wednesdays for PD. Um again, now we're starting to turn our attention to what's next year's schedule going to look like. And um I do want to thank all of our coaches and our principles for uh leading last Wednesday the 26th was our training where we go and give all of the test security information and our all of our staff sit through that. So, I I acknowledge the lift that that is for them and I'm thankful for their support. IsASP um the big test right has started started today. Um we had two buildings that tested, Middle School and Northridge. They all are able to do
119their own schedule as to when they test. Um I am I want to make sure I say it to all of you, those two buildings, uh and I haven't seen any of the others, they haven't started yet. those two buildings are exemplars for implementing test security and fidelity around um just making sure we're doing the test in a great way. So, thank you to those buildings and we'll continue to monitor. Uh Ed Mmentum students will come here to the central office next week to get tested as well. So, this is the test we have to test everybody. Um and so we're working to do that for 2,700 kids. Uh conditions for learning. So, you're familiar with this. You we've talked about this in prior years. The conditions for learning survey is a kind of a
120climate and culture survey that uh developed by the state. Um this year it is still um it is no longer a required survey. So in the past uh if you think back to our report card conversation, this was a required uh survey. It is no longer required, but we did build it into our district goals for this year. So we will give the student survey. All parents have to opt in. So likely you all um received some sort of survey asking you to opt in. If a student does not opt in or a parent does not opt their child in, then those students will be offered an alternative activity when the other students complete their survey. There's also a staff one and a parent one that buildings may elect to use. So that'll be coming
121out this month. That's all I've got. Questions for me about any of those topics? Do you know about how many have opted in? I don't. Agent Northridge just closed theirs because they reached 70. I would say 70% of Northridge parents oped in. I would say there are some that are probably between 40 and 50 and so we'll kind of do numbers the next because they go through April. Yes. The opt will close the end of April. So you kind of keep pushing those get up 60% but North is closed%. Okay. Thank you. Dr. Bloom. All right. Thanks, Kim. I only have one comment to the Thursday board agenda. I'm 100% open to this if that's what this team wants. I think you all probably know it's a little bit of chickens with their heads cut
122off in here. Kind of that 2 3 4:00 time on Friday. So, we'll just move it to Thursday. I would just ask for a little bit of grace early on if we have to add maybe something to the agenda. I always feel bad when I'm like, shoot, this came in after 4, we missed that. Can we add it? So, if we can just have like a this contract came at two o'clock on Friday, so I've got to put it on the agenda. But I'll I just made a note that let's let's try these Thursdays and and see where if that helps our people out then. Absolutely. So, all right. Um, we had Let me just run through my couple of stuff. Spent a little bit more time on staffing. Let me find my notes. Sorry
123gang. Building permits for the month of February. Seven single family home permits uh in the Grimes uh neck of the woods and zero permits in Dallas Center for the month of February. Enrollment. Uh there you can see some of the specifics of enrollment. So again, we're going kind of back to that October 1st, 2024. Um couple of items of note. Um, as we kind of compare to last year, or excuse me, last month, we brought in 16 students that that moved into the district, 19 students moved away this past month. I I say it every month, but we we have lots of moving and shaking. Um, and you can see um where they've moved to. Uh, other kind of metro schools, eight across Iowa, three moved out of state, one online. Uh we had a
124student move out of the country and three chose to stop attending. Um 2526 again this is as of kind of last Friday. Just want to bring our registration as we keep pumping that as much as we can. Um we are at 3513 for registered students. Uh this school year where we're at to compare we were at 3561. We are down 75 elementary students in the district. Now that 48 is including some of those open enrollment students. So 25 open enrollments in that um kindergarten and um transitional kindergarten. Meg, it just hit me. I wonder if that's part of our number. The 25 is transitional kindergarten. So I think it was 19 kindergarteners, six in that transitional kindergarten and then seven open enrollments in secondary. So down 48 but 75 in our elementaryaries which is again
125just kind of a bummer and just odd but we'll stay on it and keep keep pushing it. Um I'm going to skip staffing uh for a sec. Come right back to that reunification training. So if you remember last year um for the first time and I want to say Michelle's always going to be my historian. 10 plus years we did active intruder training across the district with all of our staff. So that was I think a overall success. you remember seeing the uh staff kind of share that they found it valuable and we'll continue that. This year for the first time in in long time if if not forever, we're doing reunification training for staff. So if we're going to have a major event that is going to have our students and staff actually need
126to evacuate a building altogether and go somewhere else to be, you know, picked up by families. We have an entire process and plan. Want to give a shout out to Deputy Walters and Deputy LZ for working so closely with our district um safety team, our law enforcement partners, our community partners because we are going to facilities in Grimes and in Dallas Center for this work. So, we will be training all buildings um the next kind of uh starting the 16th and then every other Wednesday. So, we will be doing a training with all staff members at the Oakview at Oakview and the high school together. Then, we're going to do the Grimes, three Grimes elementaryaries together in one training and then the Dallas Center schools in one training since they're kind of in they'll have
127different um reunification spots. So, um I'm I'm just excited about where we've come in the last year and a half on this. The you know, we know we're going to have a hiccup or two at training. That's why we do it. Um but we met with the district office today. So, anyone that works in this building, they will actually be our trained reunification members. If there's a situation, right, that's probably going to have some emotion to it regardless of why we're taking students and staff out of a building. So, we don't want that staff to have to feel like then all of a sudden they're they better be the workers, too. They they can be assets, but this building has some flexibility to it. So they began training today with Deputy Loudson Walters on their
128roles of hey we need to evacuate Oak View. Here's our reunification site. Here's our timeline for that. This group knows you go in advance. Everyone knows their setup responsibilities, their roles, who they'll be looking for at Oakview in terms of staffs to support them, our communication plan, all of that. So just again excited about the training to find some of our hiccups and what's really working um to that god forbid we ever need to put that in motion. We are prepared and ready to go. So um any questions on unification training that will take place again April 16th, 30th and May 14th. I just want to thank you for this. um as a parent of a child who has emerging mobility, um we have it in his IEP plan about the way he is to
129be evacuated in the event of an emergency. Um and I would just in particular given that we have a lot of construction going around in particular near South Prairie, James Street is under construction. Um, we communicate with specific families that may have those plans. Um, as we go into IEP season, um, there's not a sidewalk right now between South Prairie and the church, whereas there unification point and that could change the way some of those evacuation plans are for some of our families. But I I very much appreciate all of this work that you're doing and all of the training. Thank you. Yeah. some and thank you to everyone. Awesome team putting it together. Yeah, thanks Nancy. Okay, end of school year plans. Just a reminder, we currently are at two freebie hours. So, let's
130keep the snow and the drama away and we are good. As of today, our students are still good good to go. Their last day of school will be that Friday the 30th. Our staff does make up for their contract any missed days. So they right now are scheduled um for their final kind of checkout stuff will be that Wednesday, June 4th. So two hours to play with. So if we had a late start one more time, we're we're going to be fine. If we miss a whole day for some reason, we'll come to you with kind of what our plan is that you know making it up the full day. Is it trying to add 30 minutes for x number of day? Like we'll we'll come to you with those options. But right now, good
131to go. and we start to get those questions now about confirming makeup days and what's going on in people's lives. So May 30th, nothing has changed from the school calendar with kids stays the same and our staff knows um kind of their rough schedule for that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So any questions on last day? Okay, staffing. So there's a lot here that I'm going to share. So, I actually like typed it up so I wasn't a fumbling buffoon. Um, first and foremost, I for for all of you, I'm assuming on the board, I do apologize for any staffing questions, any feedback that you received from from staff or parents um over the weekend because I let me kind of tell you my schedule and timeline for some of the staffing work because you are getting
132questions without of having the info, right? and that's not fair to you. So, I I visited with all principles the week leading into spring break and this past week to give them updates on current staffing next steps. And I want to emphasize we're talking right now about March 28th or March 31st. Like I when I met with them, it was in that moment to be as open and transparent as possible at that at that time. Staffing right now includes the hiring of two teachers at Heritage. We're replacing one staff member that's resigning and one staff member retiring. six classroom teachers at DC Middle School. We have three retirees, one staff member going on military leave next year, one resigning, and one staff member who this year just was on a a one-year contract. We're trying
133to add one additional Spanish teacher at the high school. From our teacher quality funds, which are separate again from general fund dollars, we are replacing Adam Churchma, who's served in our curriculum facilitator position, and we are looking to add a TLC position that will focus on career and technical education throughout the district. We believe this position will be instrumental in taking our hands-on learning and CTE programs to the next level. And a reminder, you know, that includes things like computer science, industrial technology, STEM, A, engineering, culinary arts. There is no staffing request uh that there's no staff request that adds administrative positions anywhere in our district. I want to be fully transparent as possible with some of these staffing updates. So I met in person with the Dallas Center Elementary staff le last Wednesday afternoon.
134I explained to the staff there would be a reduction of one section seventh second grade, an increase in a section in either kindergarten or first grade, explain the plan to have Deb Kale, their principal in the building full-time, and discuss the additional counseling needs at Heritage Elementary. I was prepared to share all the staffing information with you, the board and our and our public at this meeting, but as we know, postings, parent feedback, emails, etc. that believe they have this information, much of it unfortunately incorrect. So, I wanted to address that this evening, but that's again why I apologize you're hearing from me after the fact. For 20 months, I've heard the Dallas elementary administration staff, amazing parents, um, for the need for a full-time principal, and some level of return of two sections into
135their building. This has been in conjunction with a consistent decrease in enrollment over the last several years. In 2022, Dallas Center Elementary had 217 students. At the parent forum held on February 4th, it was shared with families that the enrollment this current year is 169 students. Our current registration information for next school year as of today has projected students at Dallas Center at 151. These numbers do include three students that have requested open enrollment to Dallas Center. As I said, 13 students have requested open enrollment to another Grimes Elementary. So, we have added those numbers in. We are certainly hopeful that those numbers will increase, but that is a decrease of 65 students over the past three plus years in our school at Dallas Center Elementary. Thinking more long term, I am excited about the
136ad hoc committee that will meet in midappril to begin the process of thinking outside the box to support enrollment throughout our district. At the same time, I was hoping to address some of the DO center needs and wishes for this upcoming school year. Approximately four to six weeks ago, I presented a plan to Deb Kale to address the concerns around her being full-time at Dallas Elementary and our two section dilemma. For context, Deb was tasked with being the principal at DCE and the director of preschool prior to my time as superintendent. I had a way to bring Deb Kale's responsibilities to the district office so she could focus her whole day at Dallas Elementary. I told her I could also add a full-time section back at what her choice was, kindergarten, first grade, as together
137we looked at the numbers. I also wanted to be responsive to the needs of students and staff and our families at Heritage who do need uh additional counseling support because I hear from their principal, their staff members, and their family as well. Heritage has twice as many students and twice as many sections as DCE as our current projection has Heritage at about 324 students next school year. Also, for several years, Heritage operated with a less than full-time counselor. They had a counselor who began full-time or excuse me, halftime, was later moved to three4 time and is now full-time. So, again, not ideal, but they um were able to make it work with a halftime, three-4, and now full-time counselor. So, in an attempt for me to best solve these three concerns, the give, so to
138speak, my words, was to ask our current counselor at DCE to spend a portion of her day or a week or her week at Heritage assisting with the instructions of guidance classes to our kids. So, two things I want to make very clear going off script, I have never said to any person at DCE that Mallerie is 50/50. When I met with the staff, I told them they're going to have the freedom, meaning Courtney, Mallerie, Deb, and Diane, to look at their schedules, get creative, free reign is what I told them, and they're going to come kind of show me and ask for support on this is working here, not working here, but no one has said half of your day is here and half of your day is here. There is one scenario where
139Mallalerie, again, I'm telling one because what isn't finalized is anyone's schedule. This is me trying to be upfront and honest with information I knew at the time and now letting the experts to get in the room to see what is feasible and what is not. One of the items that they talked about was there are two to four sections of guidance classes every day. That's approximately one to two hours per day of guidance at Heritage. could potentially Mallerie fill the guidance role where she comes in for one to two hours per day and then returns to DCE. That's one option. Please do not hear anyone tell you this is a 50/50 or bus scenario. It's just simply not the case. Okay. Want to make sure I said that because I can't remember if it's here
140or not. Um, okay. This is a similar setup, meaning shared positions to what our two buildings do for art, music, PE, and library where they are a little more 50/50. The two principles and two counselors again have been given free reign when it comes to creating a viable schedule that meets the needs of both buildings. Both principles has assured me this can work. Now, Deb Kale ultimately has decided for next school year to remain in her current current role assisting with preschool. That was Deb's choice, not mine. Again, I was prepared to take that responsibility off her plate, bring it in-house to the district office so she could focus on DCE every day and all day, but Deb requested to stay in this role and continue to serve her preschool team. When I asked about
141the counselor piece and the potential role that would play play, Deb believed that the great majority of time she would be at DCE when the counselor was at Heritage. She's in charge of her schedule. She is able to do just that. Also, thankfully, Dallas Center Elementary does have a full-time instructional coach for their building, which is the same number that Heritage has, South Prairie, Northridge, the middle school, and Oak View, as well as 1.5 interventionists, which is also the same as Heritage and Northridge. So, there's already conversations about how to utilize existing staff members to assist in any way possible if Mallerie's out of the building. Deb has stated to me that an increase in sections at the kindergarten first grade level would be a ma major positive for the building and that she understands
142sharing a counselor, although not ideal, was the best way to make all three of those pieces work. She's been very involved every step of the way since our very first staff meeting as a team in the fall. Registration numbers for next school year currently at Northridge are 388 students. South Prairie's at 421. Both of those schools do have 1.5 counseling support, one full-time counselor and one individual that is shared who goes back and forth each day. The American School Counselors Association recommends one counselor per every 250 students. Unfortunately, the national average is closer to one counselor per every 385 students. Currently, here is our breakdown of counseling services in our buildings. Dallas Center Elementary has one counselor per 169 students. Oakview one counselor per 276. Northridge one counselor per 280. Middle school has one counselor
143per 291 students. South Prairie one counselor for 292 students. Heritage has one counselor per 332 students and the high school currently has one counselor per 358 students. So according to the American School Counselors Association recommendation today, we currently only have one school in our district which is under the recommended ratio and that is Dell Center Elementary. Now I wanted to talk about all the human and staffing pieces on purpose first before I got into where the money plays a little bit of role of this because money did not make this decision by itself. If supplemental state aid ends up between 2.0 and 2.25% 25% DCG will end up in what's called budget guarantee for the first time in decades, if ever. That is a result of being down 55 students on the October 1st, 2024
144count date. That means that DCG will receive approximately $230,000 in new money, which is additional money that we did not have this school year. To put that in perspective, just to simply take our teaching staff and move them one step down the salary schedule, DCG would spend over $330,000 or $100,000 over our new money from the state. That does not inc that does not include any increase to pay associates, bus drivers, custodians, administrative assistants, or administrators. This is why we have to think differently when utilizing our current staff to meet the needs of our kids until we hopefully return to positive student growth. I hope every individual, regardless of their position in our district that is advocating for kids and staff at DCG as they see fit, is putting the same time and effort into
145connecting with their legislators as they are sharing with their sharing their feedback with individuals in our district. whether that's in person meetings, emails, phone calls, or social media purse because our legislators do have an important role in this. There's one parent in particular posting incredibly harmful uh misinformation. One of these statements recently is quote, "There has been an increase of four administrative positions in the past three years while cutting teachers and services like this," referencing school counselors. Another post also stated, quote, "If enrollment as a district is down, it's it's time to stop spending more on upper admin and less on inschool services that directly impact our students." End quote. These statements feel deceitful or inaccurate and offend me deeply. First, in the past three years, two administrators have been added to the district. a
146director of human resources, which feels necessary in a district with approximately 3,600 students and just under 700 staff members, and an additional high school assistant principal. That brings two assistant principles to a building with just under 1,100 students. Previously, we had deans of students roles, but those positions were moved to assistant principles because of increased responsibilities, including evaluations of teaching staff required by the state. That was not an administrative ad in our personnel. That was simply a title change. We split up responsibilities in our operations department this year, giving one of our staff members more responsibilities and oversight within that department and an administrative contract. Not only was that not an addition of an administrator, it saved the district money by moving this individual to a salaried position, not an hourly position where he was
147gaining significant overtime. In that same time frame, not a single teacher has been cut or lost a job. Every year, teachers are reassigned in various buildings throughout our district, but not a single person has ever been cut. Also, in that similar time frame, we added counseling support in the district, not cut it. This includes adding a shared counseling position, our two largest elementary schools. We added a counselor at the middle school. We added a counselor this year at Oakview. And we our counselor now at the high school uh is three counselors. To iterate to reiterate, these are not replacements of people that have left. These are added counseling positions. We also continue to support all of our students, staff, and families with our EFR services, including spending more district dollars this school year to increase
148our in-person counseling services from EFR. Also, this past semester, we received a grant and have been able to partner with Classroom Clinic for additional counseling support desperately needed at Heritage. This grant unfortunately runs out at the end of the school year so we can look at other options outside of our own people. It will come at a cost. Again, statements like the ones that have been posted can be harmful to individuals that collect their information from posts like this that are not truly finding the real facts. Second, I am offended by any statement that diminishes the role of anyone in our district. To say one position is more important than another position demonstrates a lack of understanding and a lack of appreciation for what our staff members do in this building and all of our
149buildings to support our kids. Our director of transportation, who is an administrator, plays a vital role in the safety of our kids every day. Our operations team, who are administrators, are vital to a healthy learning environment for our kids. Our director of technology helps us bring access to learning to all students and in innovative ways. This position holds an administrative contract. Our director of communications is directly responsible for the great majority of effective and timely communication for our district and is also responsible for bringing parent square to all of our families which include 21 different languages. This individual is also administrator. These are just a few of the examples of the vital roles people have in our district including administrators. They pour their heart and soul into our students and staff every day, just like
150every other staff member does at DCG. To imply that any of these individuals should not be employed here because they have less of an impact on kids is out of bounds and offensive. These types of comments are disappointing and take manpower to combat from our team. There are also statements made on social media about prioritizing the building of athletic spaces over staff. I want to remind our families that I'm assuming some of these are referring to maybe the new weight room. As a reminder, we have two very different buckets of funding streams. Save dollars and general fund dollars. All of our funding rules are directed by legislative action. Construction funding and staff funding are separate on purpose. Also, simply for context, the high school renovated its choir rooms and created the best band room in
151the state prior to any athletic project being touched several years ago. Fine arts is just as important as athletics in this district and funding streams are completely different. These funding streams are completely different than paying our staff members. Over 80% of our 7th through 12th grade students are involved in fine arts and athletics. So, it's important we meet their needs as well. I cannot stress enough to our families. Please, please reach out to individuals like myself with any of your questions. We are the ones that have the answers you are seeking. Social media is not batting a very high percentage when it comes to correct information. We often talk about moving away from the belief that we are seven individual districts, but instead we are one school district. This should be demonstrated at the board
152level, the admin level, staff level, and with all of our students and families. An example of this belief is staffing. This has not always been the case. It is it was hard for me to think this way as a high school principal at times when I wanted to put my blinders on and simply focus on the high school staff and I didn't think for the district as a whole. That was not a good practice by me and this cannot be the case for any of us. There is a very good chance that Dallas Center Elementary will be down students next school year. When it comes to staffing specifically, we have to talk about what is the give from Dallas Center Elementary that honors their kids and staff but also sees itself as a puzzle piece
153to the larger DCG school district puzzle. For examples, we had a plan for Deb Kale to be full-time in that building. We had an answer to quote what I hear too much of is how can you stop the bleeding of two sections? We're bringing a section back. Heritage for years has had to give on their counseling support with twice as many students and the same amount of counseling staff. Heritage Elementary had one counselor serving at halftime and then three4s time with more students at Dallas Center Elementary and made it work. Again, far from ideal, but we do not get a lot of ideal in a public school system. We have a middle school that will sit with 26 students in every fifth grade classroom next year for all 11 sections. The board maximum is 27.
154They will sit with 25 students in every sixth grade class. The board maximum is 27. They have asked for additional fifth grade teaching teaching support as well as an assistant principal. I've had to deny those requests at this time because of the factors I have shared with you previously. We have Oakview who has not been able to offer another elective for our seventh and eighth grade students. Instead, those students are required to take study hall. I've had denied this request because of the factors I've shared previously. The high school is almost at capacity. It is the fastest growing building in our district. At this time, there will be one additional staff member. We hope a Spanish teacher because we have turned away 80 plus students from taking Spanish classes, and that would be detrimental to
155potential college admission. I have denied requests to add additional elective teaching support or additional core instruction support in attempt to bring our class sizes down because of the factors I've listed previously. This winter we have seven amazing principles and together they put down a request of adding 30 additional staff members. Today, as I stated, we will add a Spanish teacher to the high school. We will add another section of kindergarten or first grade at DCE. and we hope to add another career and technical education curriculum facilitator position whose salary will not come from the general education budget. To summarize, I have heard everyone, I assure you loud and clear, we've got to try to stop the two section bleeding. We've got to find a way to keep Deb Kale in the building full-time. Deb Kale
156has decided that she would like to finish her career as the principal and preschool director. I respect her decision a million%, but that was her decision. We are adding a section of kindergarten or first grade back. We currently have eight sections at DCE. We'll have eight sections next year. Right? A reminder that we teach guidance once every six days at our elementary schools for 30 minutes. That means at DCE they will teach guidance on average 40 minutes per day. I know Mallerie works her tail off like all other counselors do the rest of the day, but those numbers double at Heritage where they spend one to two hours per day on just guidance lessons because they have double the sections. We are looking for ways to support that so both counselors can help their families
157and kids outside of their guidance lesson responsibilities. I'm the first to say all counselors are priceless and do amazing things for all of our kids. My kids wouldn't be successful without them. Heritage simply needs to add additional support and I am confident that our two principles and our two councils will work together to think creatively to support all kids in both buildings. They have their first meeting of a four as a team tomorrow to begin this work. They will all have the attitude of business will not be as usual. Again, no one has said 50/50. The experts are getting in a room starting tomorrow and they will come with ideas, unique schedules, different ways that this may work and hopefully can work and they may come and say there's no way it can work. What
158can we do? The intent was to give up-to-date information to the Dallas Center elementary staff as soon as I have it. So they knew we were beginning this work with their teams. I want the board to know as my boss, we can absolutely commit to a full-time counselor at DCE. We just need to have the conversations of what is the we give we will give part of this conversation. Are we going to dip into that credit card a little bit more to go a little more in debt? Are we going to have to adjust staff elsewhere? Are we going to release staff, which of course is the last thing I ever want to do, or some other plan that hasn't been discussed? I am all for ideas and commitments from this board. Lastly, and sorry,
159lastly, Greg and our senior leadership team have done an incredible job of perfor of performing program reviews of special education and our EL and TAG service. You saw one of those highlighted today. These reviews have transformed our programs at DCG. We are planning the same type of program review for our counselors next school year to make these types of decisions not just about the number of students in a building like they have for many many years before but instead truly look at the variety of factors and data points that will have a much more objective rationale for staffing as a whole. Moving forward that is our plan for all positions throughout our districts. So again I hope this gives a little bit more into the timeline of why things happened the way they did. the
160rationale of decisions. This is not ideal. But when we talk fiscally, we talk about the opportunity to have a full-time principal, which was absolutely an option, who can be there when our counselor was gone for maybe one to two hours per day. I'll let the experts work on the schedule and help our friends at Heritage. That's why we are here today. And we are here today on March 31st. This is not August. There is plenty of time for things to change, but I wanted the experts to be all in the know. That's why I met with them directly face to face. What information was shared from there? So be it. Many of it inaccurate. So I hope that at least gives some context to where the truth lies and where the decisions were made. So
161with that, fire away. I just want I would want to check my understanding. I'm sorry. Did you say the the facilitator position would come from C uh TQ funds? TQ funds. Yep. Thank you. You bet. I'm sorry. TLC. Thank you. Thank you, Nancy. I said TQ TLC is what I meant. Yep. One quick question about the enrollment numbers um on what the guidance counselors and the students at each school for heritage numbers. the 324 does that um include any uh preschool kiddos or is that an addition? Okay. No, that that so we would So it's actually higher than that. We'd be just under or right a little over 500 if we included the preschool staff that she assists, but I did not count those in these numbers. Thank you. Yep. I would just like to
162encourage everybody too that um you do so much and I think you know encourage everyone to go to you for these questions or for this office because I think a lot of times it's kind of like the telephone game that we all know somebody tells somebody tells somebody else but um I've never heard anybody ever say hey I really wanted to reach out to him or really want to meet with him he didn't want to meet with me a lot of your time has been spent on this so I just I just want to say thank you and encourage everybody to continue to reach out y you'll have those conversations yep I'll meet with anybody body, email, we'll talk. I've got all the info for you and you may not all like it. That's completely
163fair. I don't like it all either, but you'll hear from me directly. So, I'd like to echo the sentiment of hard and continued work and very difficult conversations. I know that you've um shouldered a lot of weight in this and spent a lot of time. Um, and I appreciate that and I know that a lot of people do. Um, a note on preventing the telephone game. Um, and I'm not telling you how to live your life or communicate with other people, but there might be something to be said for a place for general communications to come from, right? Hey, I had this meeting. I'm answering this question 45 times. I'm going to put it on like the superintendent's thoughts of the day blurb or something, right? Like there might be room for um an increased
164level of transparency. Um, again, I'm not asking to add to your plate, but it might be something that could streamline a process and kind of prevent more telephoneoning. Um, in so far as I understood it, um, Mrs. Kale will be deciding with the staff at DCE whether it's first grade or kindergarten that is returned to second or to two sections. Yeah, I want to I want to get get her input as the expert. right now if you know if we include the three open enrollment which we have we've you know in our numbers we have not told those families where they're being placed yet on purpose but that would be 26 kindergarteners 26 first graders so I'm I' I've devoted a section there so is it kindergarten to make those lower class sizes and again
165then I would like to have the conversation about are there some free busing opportunities for families in grimes that may not be and Let's get those numbers up. Yep. Is it first grade? Because we've, you know, we we have potentially room to grow there and we can we can still say 23 and then have open enrolled students go to Grimes. We've got a a couple of different things. So that's why I'm kind of saying either or kind of waiting for the numbers to help decide, but then also Deb and her BLT team are going to start to look at what are some other unique ways we can use our own people. Do we want to talk about putting two teachers, first grade and second grade together? I mean, all of that stuff's on the table.
166So, it's one of the two, but but not finalized yet as we still kind of wait to see how that shakes out. I can promise you that we are a very grateful building for that take. So, thank you. Yeah, you bet. Um, also, hold on. I I took a lot of notes. You did a lot of talking and it was great. Um, I can just give you I can give you this, too. Thank you. Hold on. You know what? We'll circle back. I'm sorry. No, it's fine. It's fine. It'll come to me. Come back or we can chat afterward. Yep. Say was really good, too. Any other Oh, I got it. I got it. I got it. I know it happened. We love when it happens in real time. Oh, thank God. Um, not 10
167o'clock tonight. Yeah. Uh, building permits. Okay. So, there's a lot of this discussion of we are not Dallas Center and Grimes, right? But I do feel like that um there has been a lot of precedent set here and um oh in my role in the community I hear about that precedent a lot from people who are approximately 70 years old um every day. So I think that there are some moves that we could make as a district and as upper admin that we could help um start to bridge the gap between the communities and one of those things might be how we discuss building permits. So, right now, building permits are um described as this happened in Grimes and this happened in Dallas Center. Wouldn't it be cool if we knew about that by building
168boundary because like it was pointed out earlier today, DCE technically has building boundaries that way. Um so, if there are building permits Yeah. that way. Um it'd be cool to know how that breaks down by building. Yep. In addition to that as a district, not just as one town versus another town. Yeah, absolutely. And Meg, I just might point of clarification there. There's elementary school boundaries and there's voting boundaries and and we have to we're required by law to balance those those voting boundaries. I think you know a lot of folks follow that conversation. So, um those are different maps. So, I think we just need to make sure if we're looking at an elementary boundary that's going to look different than the voting uh district boundary. those used to go pretty close with uh
169the elementary school boundaries. They're somewhat different now. So, um we just want to make sure everybody uh is looking at the right information when we talk about that. Could we please have those updated maps put on a school website somewhere? Yeah, I think I think they're up there, but I will double check. The voting maps are for sure. Okay. And if you can point me in the direction of the elementary school ones, I'd be forever grateful. And Diana gets these numbers from both city officials. So I will check. I don't know if she literally gets uh to be honest. Yep. Seven Diana and zero or if they've come with addresses or what. So I'll I'll have her look into what level of detail does she actually get when she gets a permit number from the
170both cities. Thank you. You bet, Ryan. That's all I got. Thanks. Okay. All right. I'll move us along to new business. Uh, I'm sorry. I won't do that. And and we have to cover old I'm just going to skip to agenda items. Thanks, Bloom. I feel like I did that to you and I apologize. No, no, no, that would that would not be a productive conversation. And you're certainly not that. Miss, would you uh happy to if we can review the monthly budget comparison for the general fund? You'll notice we are at 62.55% of our uh appropriations in the general fund at 75% through the fiscal year. As you look at revenue, you'll also notice that we are just over 50% for property tax. Remember that April is our big month for property tax receipts.
171So, it's coming. Uh revenue is at 63.8% 8% um at this juncture which is right in line with where we have been in the last four years. Moving forward to the public budget comparison. This is a look at what you certified in the last certified budget and what our expenditures are in comparison to that. Remember when we create our certified budget, we don't know a lot of the data. We put broad uh information in and then we measure against it and amend as needed in the following fiscal year. You'll notice here that um most of the expenditures are just over 50% at 75% through the year. We will continue to monitor. It's that total support services area which which includes um operations. It includes uh guidance, nursing, support, business, all of those. And uh depending
172on the year, we might have undersshot that a little bit. We may need to amend. So stay tuned. We'll make a determination in the next month if we need an amendment. That's all I have for you in this area. Any questions for Miss Wormouth? All right, let's uh now move along to old business. Um, second reading of uh, item item A, second reading of listed policies. We've got four, five, six, and 700 uh, series policies for your review. Looking for a motion. Move to approve. Dickinson. Second. Mullenberg. Any discussion? All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Moving along to new business. Item A, consider uh the publication of certified budget 2526 public hearing notice and the Dallas County News and uh to set the public hearing
173date as of April 28th, 2025. Looking for a motion move to approve second Vanderbilt. Any discussion? All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Oppos same sign. Motion carries. Uh the teacher election list for the 26 27 contracts. 2526. What did I say? 26 27. Yeah. 2526. Thank you. Meg. Here to help. Looking for a motion. Move to approve. Dickinson. Second. Banker Curtis. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries. Item C, students graduating early. Uh we've got several uh to consider here. Looking for a motion. Move to approve. Dickinson. Second. Wberg. Any discussion? Congratulations. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I oppose. Same sign. Um moving along to item D to consider appeal of objection to instructional material decision. Dr. Bloom. Any additional information on
174this? Yes. you guys decide on whether to the board has the the decision to hear it or not. I just want to kind of maybe share what that a little bit of what that should entail. Uh the board should primarily focus on whether the committee and superintendent followed the process laid out in the policy and is the superintendent's decision reasonable in light of the information that was reviewed. that is typically what um is reviewed in a appeal, not a you know re litigation of the the facts by the committee. You're looking really at was everything followed as appropriate. So just some context for your decision. Yeah. So this one uh lays out a little different. There's really two paths the board could um uh go. One would be to uh set a meeting to consider
175the appeal. Uh I think we would um and and and it's of both appeals, both the 19th and the the uh the February the 19th and the March 11th meetings or the board could move to deny the consideration of the appeal of those same two. So these are both being brought together uh and both sample motions are written to either uh review or or not agree to review. So looking for a motion. Move to set a meeting to consider the appeal of the decisions of the reconsideration committee. Looking for a second. Second. MCN. Any discussion? So that means we're go we are saying that the superintendent and the reconsideration committee may not have followed the rules. Is that what that one is? Yep. No. Yeah. No. We're reviewing the process. Yeah. No, I think it
176um so so I think all offered um the the comment that you just read. Correct. Correct. And so it would be a review. So I think there's just a distinction to draw here. One would be a complete relitigation of of the entire content of the meeting. Right? And I think that that's not what's in scope for this. What's in scope for this is to review the process. So the to the extent that we would review that reasonably as I understand the process based on the note from Mers would be there would be time for uh the person that um brought the uh reconsideration request forward as well as the superintendent they could kind of walk us through that. we'd review that um that process and then if there was and based on that review if
177we thought that there was something uh to to look at further then we could take that up in discussion but no I don't think you would assume that there was anything wrong with the process but that would be the the focus of the meeting would be the process so the deny would just be that everything stays as is and there is no meeting to okay so make sure I understand those Yes. So hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Hold on. So the meeting to consider the appeal of the decisions of the reconsideration committee then are then to essentially retry the entire situation. No. Okay. They are to say that the reconsideration committee and the superintendent made the wrong decisions based on X, Y, and Z. Maybe correct. Got it. And do we have
178any evidence to suggest we should spend time on that? I I just think again for what it's worth, we do have this process in our board policy to allow an appeal. So your decision today is not to remove books, keep them. You are simply just are we going to you know do this last kind of appellet process. What then is that, you know, individual would be able to share what what they believe was was good and bad in the process. I of course would be able to share kind of how I ultimately came to the decision I did and share the complaint then would not be talking about the materials or anything. It would simply be talking about their process. It's our process with the entire reconsideration. So there wouldn't be anything to do with
179this packet that we were handed out. It would be here's how it went when I filed this complaint when I fi when I had this communication with the teacher and then I moved my way up through the building and then I had these committee things. So, we're not going to hear any of this. We're just going to hear about the process. I don't know that you have necessarily control over what you hear. I think what we have control over is what the board considers. And I don't know that the board would as as I've understood it, the recommendation to the board from the attorney would not be to that the scope of this would be to relit litigate necessarily the decision. It's it's looking at the process. It's it's new. It's the first time we've
180been through it. I think it would be good for the board to kind of understand how did it go, what did we learn from it, are there modifications certainly uh that we could learn from that. that's a separate conversation but nevertheless I think it's good learning for the board. Um so um but but to answer your question Meg I think you know there would based on the um arrangement that was recommended to us by allers there would be um an opportunity for the person that made uh raised the reconsideration request to present to the board if they chose and we wouldn't necessarily have control of that content. So, I don't know what that would be, but we would have control over what we'd focus on relative to the action of the board. Would this be
181an open to the public meeting? Would this be live streamed? Is this a closed session? Since this is new, and I'm y I mean, I've never done this before. I just want to make sure I understand what that looks like. We'd convene a special meeting of the board to review it. it would be an open meeting. I don't know that there would be anything there's nothing in the policy that says the board needs to be in close session or anything along those lines. Just I will I'll do all my homework with AJ because I can't remember what our special sessions are. Do we stream those? I believe I I don't believe in a special session you have open public comment. I think that would be maybe a difference from a regular board meeting. It would
182be open to stream and and for folks to sit, but there would not be the five minutes to come that typically only happens in regular meetings. Could that be something that we could amend though? Like it wouldn't have to be five full minutes. I know that the reconsideration committee allowed for public comment and that's something that they hold and it wasn't streamed. So that's something that we could consider like we could have in our back pocket as something that we could have and me I'll do some checking on because reconsideration right was obviously done a touch separately than a regular board meeting. I'll do some homework on if truly a special session in the eyes of you know kind of the governing rules of a school board if that's even something that's negotiable. Okay. Let
183me do some asking on that. That'd be great. Thank you. Any other discussion? I'll move us along to vote. All those in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. Oppos. Same sign. I I I. Motion carries. Moving along to item E, terminate open enrollment agreements. Um, an open enrollment uh agreement for RG from Walke has been absent for at least 20% of the days enrolled and is considered truent. Looking for a motion. Move to terminate. Second, Fella. Any discussion? So, this means that they're no longer Oh, they're not reenrolling at any point. Is this one of those like not for a year or not for 6 months or No, this is separate. This is a student that lives in the Walke boundaries, open enrolls here. Y, but because they've been gone 20% of the time,
184we no tell they're they're not allowed to be at DCG. So, it's not a suspension or expulsion or anything like that. This is a the new law says home district, you get them if they meet the 20% requirement. Okay. So, thank you. You bet. Moving along to Well, I better um vote. Yeah. Moving along to vote. All those in favor indicate by saying I oppose. Same sign. Motion carries. Uh item F, amendment to the T-Mobile contract for six hotspots. Looking for a motion. Move to approve. Vanderbald. Second. Wberg. Any discussion? Are these hotspots for families that lack internet access? like a little of both. Uh there's some for uh students that uh need access to adventum. Uh and there are some that are utilized for the activities department for ticket taking etc. in areas where
185there's no Wi-Fi. And then there is a uh one that stays in the technology department for use if internet is down somewhere. Okay. Thank you for clarifying any additional conversation. All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries. Moving along to item G. Uh scope of services agreement with Garland Company. I think this is to replace uh a roof on Dallas Center Elementary. Looking for a motion. Move to approve. MCD second consent. Any discussion? Is this a lump sum payout or is this like a do we pay over time? Uh so as in all construction projects they pay at intervals and when approvals are done. Okay. Cool. Any other discussion? All those in favor indicate by saying I. I oppose same sign. Motion carries. Moving along to item H, financial
186statements. Uh looking for a motion. Move to approve. Vandervalden. Second. Dickens. Any discussion? All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Motion carries. Moving along to item I. Board commendation. Um a lot of great stuff happening around the district. It's always good to have that be the last piece of new business. Looking for a motion. Move to approve. Mberg second. Viella. Any discussion? All those in favor indicate by saying I. I. Post same sign. Motion carries. Going to move on to item J. And we'll be moving the board into close session under Iowa code 21.5 I of the open meetings law. So, um, will is there a roll call vote for the move to go into close session? So, we do need, um, to have we discontinued the live stream and
187then Yeah.