001Heat up here. Hello. I would like to call the school board meeting for Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 for the De Moines Public Schools to order. Miss Rios, would you please take the role? >> Yes. Miss Alonso, >> here. >> Miss Compos, >> present. >> Mr. Dixs, >> here. >> Miss Hopkins, >> here. Mr. Howell >> present. >> Miss Marrono >> here. Dr. Mayberry Mace >> here. >> We have quorum. Thank you. The first item of business is approval of the agenda. May I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda? >> Dick. So moved. >> Campo. Second. >> We have a motion by Dixs and a second by Campos. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? >> Board members, please cast your votes. Alonso. Alo yeses. >> Mayberry maze. Yes.
002>> Thank you. The vote is approved 7 to zero. >> Next on the agenda is the public forum. We provide speakers at the forum an opportunity to address the board for up to three minutes regarding items that are not on the board agenda and up to five minutes for an agenda item. If anyone wishes to speak during any portion of the business meeting, please email rosa.riosdmsschools.org. org. The same speaking protocols apply to all individuals who wish to address the board. Speakers will be called individually and we ask that they state their name and zip code prior to providing comments. Students and minors do not have to provide their address. Guests of the board are encouraged to speak to matters relating to programs, services, and operations of DMPS. Please remember that Iowa law prohibits us from
003discussing specific employees or their job performance. We ask all speakers to avoid references to personalities or character attacks as those types of comments do not contribute to the purpose for which this public forum exists. The use of inappropriate language will not be tolerated and individuals choosing to do so will be gled out of order and asked to excuse themselves from the premises or escorted out by district security. As a reminder to the board and the public, the board will not engage in a discussion with public forum speakers as it is our obligation to discuss only matters posted in the public agenda for the sake of transparency and the opportunity afforded to all community stakeholders. Matters requiring attention will receive appropriate staff and or board follow-up at a time after the meeting. Thank you for your
004participation as always and we appreciate your feedback and your input. Miss Rios, do we have any speakers? Uh, yes we do. First up, I'd like to call Hannah Tomlinson. Yep. The podium. You can adjust it up or down as needed. Awesome. My name is Hannah Tomlinson and my zip code is 50317. Thank you, first board members, for your time. I'm here as a very concerned parent and angry parent of a student at Hoy Middle School to formally demand an immediate and strict revision of the district and Hoy Middle School cell phone policies. Specifically, in my case, my child has been subjected to both a video taken of him while he was at the urinal and pictures of him while he was in a stall using the restroom. Both times these pornographic images were sent to
005other students at Hoy Middle School. Both times I've been assured that the school that they've taken care of the situation, but I do not feel enough is being done. The De Mo public school code of conduct for middle school specifically states that all middle school leaders will implement a cell phone free policy for the duration of the school day where cell phones must be kept in students lockers, backpacks, or other designated areas. Hoitz states that cell phones may not be used during instructional hours and cell phones must be kept out of sight during the school day and cell phones use in the restrooms is always prohibited to ensure safety and privacy of all students. This current policy is not being adhered to and I was advised by the principal that there's not enough assistance to
006ensure that the zero cell phone policy can be enforced. This policy is failing to prevent these devices from being used as tools for harassment and potential criminal activity. I'm asking the board today to review and implement a more aggressive policy to provide our students with an environment of learning instead of selfies. The following measures should be reviewed. If a student is going to carry their cell phone, I believe that parents and the student should sign a document at the beginning of the year that states the student will not utilize a cell phone inappropriately and will follow De Mo public school guidelines. If they do not, then stricter penalties should be enforced. They if they use a voice the device to record a student or take pictures without their knowledge, the parents, students, and school should
007hold a meeting to discuss next steps. Secure storage. There are several schools around here that do this. the requirement for all personal devices to be turned off and stored in lockers or secure pouches for the first spell to the last bell and stricter disciplinary consequences. Clear non-negotiable penalties for any student caught filing, filming, or photographing others in private spaces, including mandatory reporting to law enforcement when applicable. Our schools must be a place where children can focus on learning without the fear of their most private moments being captured and shared online. Thank you for your time and I look forward to discussing this matter with you further to come to a resolution that will empower our children instead of making them fearful. >> Thank you. >> Next speaker I have is Michael Damas. >> Uh thank
008you uh school board for allowing me the opportunity to come this evening uh to speak. I uh wanted to speak about something. I my name is Michael Damastus 50315. Sorry about that. uh both of my sons uh who now have given me grandchildren. Um they're grown up. Uh they were here at this school. They both of them became battalion commander. Uh both of them did at uh JROTC. And so um I also am coming as a pastor speaking to you as a pastor on the south side. I've been at my congregation. I'm in my 28th year at the church. And um I want to speak about the commencement calendar. you have consistently now for the past several years scheduled commencement ceremonies on Sunday. And so uh there are within the de mo public school district
009over 700 churches. The vast majority of churches not only in the district but in the United States are churches of under 200. That comprises our congregation. That comprises most of congregations. In fact about 90% of the congregations in the United States are under 200. Uh there are churches that are larger that can offer multiple services and offer options, but a government entity should not force a an individual, especially a student, to have a conflict with the violating their faith or attending a commencement ceremony, i.e. The Abraham Lincoln High School's commencement graduation ceremony is scheduled for Sunday morning at Drake Nap Center this year on uh at 9:00 a.m. Our church service is at 9:30 a.m. I have two students that attend Lincoln and they will be graduating. They are also very faithful attenders and very
010involved in our church and they're going to be forced, do I go to graduation or do I not go to church? And many people would say, "Well, it's just a Sunday. You just missed Sunday." It's not your job to force a person to violate their conscience. I'm not talking about something that is a mere inconvenience. I'm talking about First Amendment freedoms that are to be protected unless there literally, the Constitution says, unless there's a compelling reason to not have somebody be able to express their religious practices, um, which I don't believe a commencement ceremony can. I I believe that my my solution or or suggestion would simply be let's work out a calendar that works better scheduling on Sunday. Um and and you got to dock it on Sunday. There's a whole bunch of graduation
011ceremonies that are happening. I think there's three maybe or two at least uh on that Sunday. >> 30 seconds remaining. >> Yeah. Let's let's figure out something that works and accommodates better for especially for people of faith. over 700 churches. That comprises a lot of people that go to De Moines public schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next speaker, Ashley Crawford. Hello, Ashley Crawford, 50315. I'm not going to be as eloquent as them. I don't have anything planned. Um, basically, I'm a community member, a nurse. My child's gone to South Union now for a few years. I'm very happy with the Scholastic situation and everything that's going on with the school. However, I do want to speak on the school grounds and some of the issues that we're having with um not necessarily the
012play equipment, but like all the equipment all across the board. Um thankfully today uh the buddy bench was just fixed today after 3 or 4 months of dealing with that situation. However, Lovejoys Elementary School is what I want to talk about today. Even though my student doesn't go there, I drive by it every day. It's a very busy area actually in the back of that side of the school because we have a lot of businesses and it's an easy route to get to easy uh Southeast 14th Street. Um, for 2 years now, not just this year, but the last year and the year before, I have been continuously calling and dealing with the principal as well as administration, Michael Lords, to find out what we can do to get those uh, football fields fixed because
013they have four goalposts right now for soccer that are completely inusable. Two of them have no nets. One has a giant hole in it. Thank goodness it has the building to back off to have any balls to back um bounce off from it. But the other one that's directly by a street which I have pictures to back up all of these years of it's not just been one season of a harsh winter. The students and the community members have actually strung up volleyball nets and just about anything that they can find. It is disgusting. It is a sore it's a a sore site. And most importantly, these kids aren't going to a school where they can have like a usable soccer field. Um, we want them to get their wiggles out on the in their
014recess time and yet we're giving them 50% of a field they can't even use. Not to mention, this is seeming a little racist because a lot of our community almost 50% of it is Hispanic and football is a very big part of their culture and we're just denying them. We're going to say, "Hey, here's these two football fields, but we're not going to put any effort into them." And I mean, I've been continuously told, "Yeah, something will be done." These soccer nets cost a hundred bucks on Amazon. I've looked them up. If you want them, I will get them to you. And you don't have the operations management to just throw them up. I realize it's been the winter time for a few months now, but this has been years going and this is this
015is a really mundane topic. We should be able to get this stuff done. So, that's it. Thanks. >> Thank you. Next speaker is Katie Hansen. >> Good evening. My name is Katie Hansen, 50237. Um, I would first like to say that I truly believe that everyone at De Mo Public Schools is earnestly working to uh make our mission real and that is our pursuit of excellence for each student recognizes the multiple pathways available for students to cultivate their own success with the support and partnership from our community. But this evening, I feel compelled to uh bring to light and dissuade our uh district leaders from combining our district-wide special education programs into one building and one program. Um our district-wide special education programs are Focus All Points Academy here at central campus and Jesse Franklin
016Taylor Academy. Um they all serve students with IEPs with our highest need. Um they are all referred out from their comprehensive buildings. Um however, it does seem as though some of our decision makers believe that our students are interchangeable. Um so let me shed a little bit of light on that for you all here tonight. Um focus for example is a 40 plus year old uh program in partnership with broadlons medical center. It is a day treatment program. Um we serve students with IEPs in grades 3 through age 21. We have a team of educators, licensed therapists, social workers, support staff. We provide a highly collaborative therapeutic school uh program environment and we operate under a medical supervision of a psychiatrist. And what a wonderful thing that De Moines public schools has, especially in the
017age where not a lot of us agree on a lot of things, but almost everyone can agree that our students mental health is of the utmost importance. Um many of the students at Focus are students who either received or go into receive residential treatment placement. Um they are at that level of acuity. They are at a level of needing um just under residential treatment supports and they get to stay in their homes and their communities while receiving that support and being de mo public school students. 30 seconds remaining. >> I just want to emphasize that uh our programs being put into one building has been done before and yet it doesn't seem that anyone has looked at our previous data of what happened during that time. Um how did the um how were decisions being
018made? Um, and are these decisions the best interest of our students? Um, what will the cost be for staff burnout? Um, these students desperately need us to get this right. and um our programs wonderful outcomes should be possible for every student but uh we just don't see that that will happen in a blurred catchall facility where specialized programs like focus like JFA and APA are uh blurred in their identity and um students with IEPs need to be provided with more choices not fewer um and we need to protect protect our community partnership um that we have and remember our mission. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Next speaker is Ann Cross. Good evening. Anne Cross, President of the De Mo Education Association, zip code 50310. Dear Superintendent and DMPS board of directors, on
019behalf of the De Mo Education Association Executive Board, I am speaking to strongly encourage the district to pause any proposed changes to employee health benefits at this time. Health benefits are a vital recruitment and retention tool for the district. As we continue to face challenges filling positions, particularly among associates, bus drivers, teachers, and other hard to replace roles, changes to benefits, risk further impacting staffing when there are not enough available employees to step in. Entering this process, I was under the impression that no changes would be made to health benefits for the coming year. Given that understanding and in a year when the district made significant cuts to achieve a projected balanced budget, I believe it would be prudent to hold these proposals and reserve them for discussion in future years and budget shortfalls require
020additional consideration. It is also important that the health benefits advisory committee be involved per the negotiated agreement in this process and that we take additional time to gather meaningful input from staff and all members. At present, there has not been significant opportunity for board feedback, for broad feedback, and the potential savings, particularly related to the proposed spousal charge, and they do not appear substantial enough to offset the harm and concern they would create for employees and their families. This year has already brought significant change with new leadership, new initiatives, and multiple adjustments across the district. Adding health benefit changes on top of these risks on top of these risks overwhelming staff further and straining morale. Holding off at this time would provide needed stability. Rather than implementing benefit changes, DMEA would welcome collaboration on alternative
021approaches such as sharing monthly insurance usage tips through Healthy U, providing guidance on pharmacy options, appropriate use of urgent care versus emergency rooms, and other cost-saving practices that could manage expenses without reducing benefits. DMEA values our partnership with the district and remains committed to working collaboratively towards solutions that support both fiscal responsibility and the well-being of our employees. We respectfully ask that the district delay any changes to health benefits to allow for further discussion, input, and consideration. Thank you for your time. I'm happy to discuss this further at your convenience. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next speaker is Donna Wallace. Hi, my name is Donna Wallace 50316. I'm a proud member of Iowa CCI and Public School Strong. I live in the Union Park neighborhood. I am a longtime substitute teacher with DMPS and the
022proud m mother of a 2018 North High School graduate. DMPS gave my daughter opportunities to excel through the gifted and talented programs and through opportunities to attend central academy where they took advanced courses and travel to China. I believe public schools work. Public school strong resolution which demands a 5% increase in p in public school funding for all of Iowa is gaining traction. 10 Iowa school districts so far have already adopted the resolution and de mo public schools should join them. Clearly, the 1.75% SSA will not meet our the need of our schools as it was spelled out so clearly at the last school board meeting in January. Beyond being an inadequate solution, this is actually insulting to the students and staff who work every day to make this community better. There is no clear
023evidence, no clearer evidence than this, that they plan to starve our public schools in order to feed the private schools that are yet unaccountable for the services they provide. We need your strong voice on this issue. One thing I have learned from my students as a substitute teacher is if you want people to do something, you have to ask them to do it. letting the process play out somehow believing that Iowa lawmakers will somehow see the light and do the right thing has failed. It is time to do something different. We are looking to you as a united school board to speak for our children now. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Sean Fusha. Hello, good evening. I'm Sean Bochelle, zip code 50310. Uh just here to echo uh
024what my colleague with public school strong uh Donna just shared with you. Uh and uh I really couldn't say it better myself. Uh so just here to kind of echo what she had to say and also uh just to share my uh specific uh concern that business as usual has gotten us exactly where we are in this situation. And I know I don't have to uh lecture anybody about their commitment to public education. and anybody who's in this room, you're here because you're committed to public education. I just feel that uh it's time for us as a district and you as our representatives to to step forward and u uh go in a different direction, reject business as usual and uh say in a loud unified voice that uh we are done being insulted with
025uh our school funding proposal. proposals and uh also would like to emphasize that uh the fact that 10 school boards have in fact approved this resolution and uh including boards as varied as Belmont Clemy and Cedar Rapids, you know, small school districts, the second largest district in the state and everybody in between Cedar Falls, Dora, Washington. uh those boards have all seen fit to uh adopt our resolution and so we strongly encourage you to join them. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next speaker is Betsy Stutler. >> Good evening. My name is Betsy Stalter. I'm 50311. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the board and all the community members here and at home watching as well. My name is Betsy Stalter. I'm a music teacher and proud at King Elementary School here in DMPS. I
026have come to comment on the change in staffing for extended core classes slated to begin next fall. I was here a couple meetings ago and heard many valid arguments regarding the staffing move and I was inspired and hope that my perspective can also offer food for thought in opposition to this decision. My first point this evening is about staffing and how it affects teacher and student relationships. Modern educator pedagogy, especially at the elementary level and classroom management strategies rely heavily on teachers having the ability to make strong relationships with students. Some of our extended core teachers having known students over the years make some of the strongest relationships with these students in our schools. This ability is severely curtailed when teachers are teaching up to 700 students on their weekly roster. At this capacity, learning
027names alone is very difficult and not to mention forming relationships with those students, as I'm sure you can all imagine. I want to acknowledge here that there are already some extended core teachers in the district teaching students at this capacity. My concern with the extended core staffing model planned for next year is that instead of writing this inequity by creating a work environment for teachers and a learning environment for students that is more achievable. A decision has been made to go the other way. With these new plans, students at 8 to 10 more elementary schools will have less music art and PE which are some of our students favorite classes and they would have less strong relationships with some of their teachers. I am aware of how difficult this is because during my student teaching
028in Bellingham, Washington, I was responsible for teaching 750 students at three different schools as a music teacher. It was horrible. And it was partially this experience that drove me away from my country to work internationally where I'd been for the last 20 years before I came to DMPS. This brings me to my second point that I'd like to explore this evening. and that's that when I came back in 2022 to De Moine, I was thrilled and proud to find that De Mo public schools was treating their extended core teachers such as myself as members of school communities and providing De Moines students with ample time in these subjects which I believe are so important and I think a lot of our people in our community agree with me. I believe that the plan staffing change
029will have the same effect on our current de moend extended core staff that it had on me in 2006 when I left the country. Indeed, I already know teachers who have chosen to leave the district because of these changes. We will also be losing students, parents that want more competitive programs for music and sports will go where those subjects are more valued in other surrounding school districts. And it may not seem important to cut PE art and music at the elementary level. But on the contrary, this is where we build our basic skills, which later translate to performance in related activities in middle and high school. This will serve to compound our loss of students and staff from our school district. It certainly won't be bringing anyone else in. It is disappointing to see the
030district choosing short-term monetary savings of lowhanging fruit like our extended core over long-term gains for our students and district. Thank you all so much for hearing my perspective this evening, and I hope that it has given food for thought and that we can work together in the future to restrengthen our extended core programs in DMPS elementary schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next speaker is Dartanian Brown. Okay. Good evening all. Dartanian Brown's my name. Proud uh class of 1967 Northey graduate, member of Iowa CCI and a public school strong member. Also, I live in area code 50313. I'm speaking today in support of Superintendent Smith and board member Kim Moano. I was present at the February 4th House Education Committee hearing at the capital where our superintendent and the board member were called to testify
031on key details concerning the ill- fated term of former superintendent uh Roberts. Considering all of the decidedly negative attention this case brought upon the school district, the DMPS community should know that our officials answered questions with honesty. Dr. Smith put forward a cleareyed commitment to carry out the reimagine plan and key elements of those were actually gathering steam well before Dr. Roberts uh got here. Uh former superintendent Roberts, I should say. As a former Doran Register reporter, I learned to separate testimonial wheat from chaff. Dr. Smith and board member Moderano fielded legislators understandably pointed questions with patience, owning their challenges while not allowing themselves to be a punching bag for issues over which they had limited or no responsibility. even as it was obvious that some of the people on that committee were seeking to
032extract confessions rather than offering partnerships in guiding De Moines or guiding Iowa's largest and most diverse school district. Not much else to say. I left that hearing though reassured that DMPS is led by a superintendent and a school board with both the courage to defend the core mission of our public schools and the wisdom to navigate the sometimes rough political waters. For those who missed the hearing and want to hear it yourself, you can go to my Substack channel, dartion.substack.com, and you'll be able to hear it. Stay the course, y'all. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next speaker is Stacy Schmidt. Stacy Schmidt, zip code 50310. As many of you know, I am a teacher and instructional coach in the district. I've been here for eight years. And in that time, I've worked
033at Scavo High School, the alternative school, Merryill Middle School, and currently am at Lincoln High School. Go Rails. One thing I noticed immediately when I came to work for DMPS after working in three other districts was the positive relationship between the De Moines Education Association and the De Mo Public School District. As an active member of DMEA, I truly value the very colleial and positive working relationship between my union and my employer. It's not to say we haven't had our disagreements or that we don't still have some disagreements, but even when we've disagreed, there has always been a very tangible tone of mutual respect among us. We all understand that budgeting during years of chronic underfunding from the state requires challenging conversations and difficult decisions. As the board discusses the budget in tonight's work session,
034I ask that you take the time to consult with and work with longstanding partners before taking any actions or making final decisions that will impact hundreds of people. Thank you. >> And last speaker I have signed up is Peter Leo. Good evening. Uh my name is Peter Leo. My zip code is 50266. Yes, that's not in the district, but I'm one of your teachers. I am uh here tonight totally coincidentally. Didn't realize my union representation would make my point so eloquently, but I thank them for that. I want to put a human face on the discussion of health insurance. I came here, this is my first year from Storm Lake. Teaching is a second career for me. I was an attorney for 10 years before that. My 13-year-old son has Crohn's disease. The difference between
035being a DMPS employee with the health insurance plan I have right now and being a Storm Lake High School employee with what was on offer there for my family can be measured in the tens of thousands of dollars on an annual basis. I know I'm not the only one who finds themsself in this position. Day after day, we teachers, we work so hard to inspire, to push our students to be the warm demanders that we're trained to be. Often times, we go home feeling like we didn't we couldn't possibly have made any difference today. And the one thing I knew I had always in my back pocket when I got home at night was I have the peace of mind knowing that I don't have to wonder how I'm going to pay for my son's
036care because I know my salary may never match that of the suburban districts, but my school board, my administration values my work. They see me. They know how hard I'm working to push our students and to be the teacher I want to be. The reason I switched careers. This may seem like such a small change, but I promise you it will have tremendous impact on the families of your employees, myself included. And so I just wanted to echo the call to please hold off on this change. Consider me appearing here in my personal capacity as the proverbial canary in the coal mine folks because I had other options and I came here because of this one. It made coming to DMPS no comparison. So please take that into account as you make your decisions about
037the benefits package for your teachers going forward. We are with you. We are on your side. Um, I understand the challenges that the folks at the state house are constantly placing upon you and I empathize. I do. You have tough decisions to make and limited options, but please don't balance the budget on the district or the backs of your employees. I be I beg you. It's a it's a my life is organized around this benefit and the impact on me and my family would be tremendous. THANK YOU. MADAM CHAIR, THOSE ARE ALL THE SPEAKERS. Thank you. Thank you everyone. The next item on our agenda is district recognitions. Superintendent Smith, are there any recognitions for today? >> Uh yes, we have two this evening. Um uh share a little bit about student athletes in De
038Mo public schools. First, these young women will be our guests at our next board meeting, but I cannot wait to share this news. Last week, the Lincoln High School girls bowling team brought home a state championship trophy. Go Rails. The Rails were the top ranked team much of this season and they provided and they showed why by earning this state title. Not only did they win as a team, four of their members also qualified as individuals and Lincoln's Michelle Wilson was the state runner up in that same competition. We look forward to hearing more from coach Felton and the team at our next meeting, but the rails certainly deserve a shout out tonight. Also, the state wrestling championship gets underway tomorrow at the Casey Center here in De Moine. And we have five grapplers uh
039from East and Roosevelt representing De Mo public schools. I don't know if grapplers is an official wrestling term. Is that a is that a Okay, there's Sorry, I just got railroaded there. There's There's no wrestling from Texas. No, Texas doesn't have wrestling. So, um, I'm still kind of confused by this after 15 years. Um, but I will tell you that for the Scarlet, uh, Julian Dvala at 113 lbs, Emperor Lewis at 126 lb, and Lance Williams at 285 lbs will be competing. And for the Rough Riders, Jame Jordan at 138 lbs, and Marcelo Riaz Martinez at 150 lbs will be competing for state honors. We wish them all good luck and look forward to following the results this week. That concludes tonight's uh um what are we talking recognition >> recognitions. Thank you, Superintendent Smith.
040>> We will move on to the consent agenda. As a reminder to the board and public, the board will not engage in discussion or deliberation with a speaker regarding comments made to agenda items. Discussion and deliberation will remain among board members at the board table with speakers comments informing the board's decision, deliberation, and determinations as deemed necessary. Miss Rios, do we have any speakers? >> None. >> Mr. predicts. >> I move the board approve the consent items in accordance with the recommended action for each item on the cons consent agenda, including bills previously authorized, certified, and approved for payment by the board secretary in the amount of 6,918,794.93 and procurement card transactions in the amount of $351,15659. >> Is there a second? I'll second. >> We have a motion by Dixs and a second by
041Howell. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Board members, please cast your votes. >> I also say yes. >> Maybe remains. Yes. >> The consent items are approved. 7 to zero. Next, we have one public hearing. The item is E1 public hearing for CIP 3638 Samuelson Elementary main entrance Improvements. The public hearing will come to order. Is there anyone wishing to speak to this item? Hearing no one, I will close the public hearing. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? >> I recommend the board review the proposed plans and specifications prepared by RMH Architects for main entrance improvements at Samuelson Elementary. hold a public hearing and approve the plans. >> May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? >> Dick. So moved. >> Campo second. >> We
042have a motion by Dixs and a second by Campos. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Board members, please cast your votes. >> Alone say yes. >> Mayberry remains yes. >> The vote is approved seven to zero. Now we have our other business items. First item, F1, personnel recommendations. Receive, receive, file, and take action. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? >> I recommend the board receive, file, and take action on the notice for terminate the continuing teaching contracts effective immediately for reasons stated within. >> May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? >> Dixoot. >> Campo. Second. >> We have a motion by Dixs and a second by Campos. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Board members, please cast your votes. >>
043I also say yes. >> Mayberry remains yes. >> The vote is approved 7 to zero. Next item is F2, approval of at risk and dropout plan. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? >> I recommend the board approve the at risk dropout plan for the 2026 2027 school year. >> May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? I'll move a second. >> Yeah, thank >> we have a motion by Howell and a second by Alonzo. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Okay, board members, please cast your votes. >> Alonzo, yes. >> Mayberry May, yes. >> The vote is approved seven to zero. Next item is F3, request for budget adjustment guarantee resolution. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? >> I recommend the board approve
044the resolution for the budget adjustment guarantee. >> May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? >> Dick. So moved. >> Hopkins. Second. >> We have a motion by Dixs and a second by Hopkins. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Board members, please cast your votes. >> Hello, sir. Yes. >> Mayberry remains. Yes. >> The vote is approved 7 to zero. Next item is F4, resolution authorizing the issuance of bonds. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? >> This one's personal for me. >> I recommend the board adopt a resolution authorizing the issuance of approximately 100 million general obligation school bonds and levying a tax for the payment thereof. >> May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? >> Dick. So moved. I'll
045second. >> Hello. Second. >> We have a motion by Dix and a second by Howell. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? >> Just a comment, Madam Chair. Uh big moment for the district to get this started and it's just it's paperwork at this point. Um and we had the vote. Uh, but it is another step along the way and and I think just another opportunity to reflect on what a big project we have ahead of us, but what we've already done in gaining support for reimagining education in our district. >> I echo your comments and and want to thank the 74% of our community members who believed in this um proposal and this project and we appreciate your support along the way. Thank you. Board members, please cast your votes. >>
046Say yes. May Barry May. >> The vote is approved 7 to zero. >> Next item is F5, resolution to set a public hearing for the sale of a property. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? I recommend the board set a public hearing on the conveyance of the described property for March 10th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. in the multi-purpose room of Central Campus located at 1800 Grand Avenue, De Mo, Iowa 50321. >> May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? >> Dick. So moved. >> Campo second. >> We have a motion by Dixs and a second by Campos. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Board members, please cast your votes. >> Say yes. >> Maybe yes. >> The vote is approved. Seven to zero. We now
047have information items. G1 is a list of new hires. Uh next on the agenda, we have items of privilege. I would like to ask if our board members would like to share anything. Just a thank you to um the staff at um uh Hyatt Middle School for uh hosting Sarah and I uh just for a conversation and uh we're trying to get around to as many schools as we can uh as at large members and um it's always great to hear from folks who are actually doing the job on the ground um what they need and I think most importantly from our junior high standpoint they're really going to be a key part of reimagining education uh and improving our our district experience for our students. Uh so really important to hear from uh from
048our middle schools. Um and uh then the only other one I would say is just a shout out to our JOTC rifle team who qualified for the nationals for the or the all armed services uh rifle competition coming up in a couple of months uh with a great performance out in Salt Lake City. Uh they placed seventh. There were seven qualifiers that move on and I think we had a individual place seventh. Um and so they as always do a great job representing the district. >> Thank you. Got one recognition to build on Patrick's. I'd like to shout out to our staff at uh King, at Ruby, at um Oak Park, and at East High who uh all welcome me in the last two weeks to visit and encourage all of our public uh everyone
049to get into our schools. Every time you step foot in our schools and and interact with our our staff and our students, you walk away inspired and you come away with a very different perception than what maybe you've been told about that school. So, I encourage everyone listening uh and watching to get involved in your school. And I'll shout out that I've been talking to all these folks about our volunteer system that's now on the uh DMPS website. Uh go and go and look at it. Get involved in your school. There are a lot of great opportunities to read, to garden, to do all these things and the schools are are ready to receive you. So, thanks for all the great work in those schools and thanks for having me. >> Reading and gardening, >>
050you can do all the above. >> All right. >> Yeah. >> Miss Alonzo, do you have anything this evening? >> I uh really don't. I think um actually uh reimagining education um just really excited about that. So I am really looking forward to to all that's going to be happening. >> Thank you Dr. Mayberry Mazize. >> Yes. Thanks Madam Chair. As always, I wanted to offer a reminder to our community and particularly our high school seniors that are looking to go into college um for the fall semester that many of the hometown type scholarships are actually open right now. So, if you're still looking for ways to fund maybe your college experience, uh there are certainly some scholarships open and I encourage I would encourage you to maybe take some time over these next few
051weeks to get those filled out. And even those students who have decided that maybe college is not the next step for them and they decide to go directly into workforce, there are still scholarships available for uh industry verified credentials and different workplace opportunities to gain those experiences to better prepare you to go directly into the workforce. So, as you're thinking about what's next, or maybe you're not thinking about what's next and sometimes things just happen, certainly be encouraged around this time that there are financial resources available and that sometimes it's just as simple as writing an essay and expressing interest in what life looks like after high school. So, thank you. >> Thank you for that reminder. >> I have two things, Madam Chair. Uh the first item is uh for my Eastsiders or anybody
052else in the community, um East High's going to do their East Side uh community night March 10th uh 5 to 7. Um, and this is a great event that our Scarlet community started a few years back and it just brings our community together and lets everybody know that um the East Side is strong and we love our community. They will have bouncy houses for um our families, our our kiddos. um a lot of community partners are getting together and helping out with organizing and food trucks. So um it is a awesome event to go to. Uh and then the second thing is last week uh central campus did a um event with their seniors and uh I was able to participate doing mock interviews and I want to thank community members and people out in
053the community that took time on their lunch break to come in and interview uh these students. I had so much fun doing these mock interviews. Um, and we got a lot of good feedback from the kiddos and you know they are excited to jump into the world with all the ideas and all the tips that we gave him gave them during that mock interviews. So thank you so much for the community members that were able to participate uh in that and then hope to see you next year. Thank you. I would like to invite everyone back here to central campus Thursday morning at 8 a.m. Do uh Superintendent Smith and I will be hosting the state of the schools where you will um have the amazing opportunity to hear about all of the wonderful things
054happening here at De Mo Public Schools and um our current status with reimagining education. So, please join us Thursday at 8:00 a.m. um here at C Central Campus in the auditorium. Superintendent Smith, your report. >> Uh, just a couple things I want to lift up again. Uh, Ruby Van Meter, the executive team and I got a chance to um hold our our Monday meeting. Um, we we we hit a different school every single week and we were able to spend time with the Ruby Van Meter students and staff there on Monday, uh, which I guess was just yesterday. And, um, so it was always an amazing experience. every time we're uh we're in a school together and we get a chance to um talk to staff, talk to students, talk about the decisions that we're
055making and how that actually has is impacting their lives um positively or negatively, right? And and it's important just to know that information um so that we can do better um the very next day um and as we move forward. So that staff is really really incredible. Um I can't say enough about them. Uh Principal Laurel and Vice Principal, associate principal Joanie uh just continue to do an amazing job with those teachers and uh the staff is just absolutely incredible. Um, also, um, just want to lift up, um, and echo, um, one of the comments tonight, um, that Stacy made regarding the incredible partnership with the unions. Um, I cannot double down and underscore that enough that our conversations and our partnerships um, are long-standing and they continue to grow stronger. Um, again, both with
056ASKME and with the MEA. And so, um, we're really, really excited to continue that. um these uh these leaders um they care about children and they care about staff and they care about our community. And so we have that in common and so that brings us together um as we share ideas and opportunities on how we can move this district forward and create the spaces that our students want to learn in and our teachers want to teach in. So again, just want to continue to offer my thank you. >> Thank you everyone for joining us this evening. We greatly appreciate you all. This meeting is adjourned at 6:21 p.m. We will take a brief break and then transition to our work session as we discuss budget. Thank you everyone. Board members, let's return at uh
0576:30, please. One minute warning friends. One minute warning. And the void goes bigger. >> Take a hit, guys. Mhm. >> All right. Welcome to our work session regarding the budget. Superintendent Smith, I will turn it over to you. >> Yeah. So, good evening. So, tonight is our um sort of wrap-up, if you will, of a series of board presentations regarding strategic investments. And so, as you know, we've been um focusing on priorities uh and how we're investing those in priorities moving into FY27 and of course uh FY28 and beyond. So, tonight we've got a stellar team lined up um and uh it's going to be led by Shashank Aurora, our CFO. But we're going to jump right in. So just for everybody watching, we do have a um strategic budget investment sort of presentation to
058walk through with the board as again it's part of a series of presentations and then after that we're going to jump into a few slides around setting the tax rate uh for our district and then we'll talk about healthcare. Um and so um we are going to work to keep this slide deck down to about I think we're looking at that 25 minute to 30 minute mark. Um but of course we want to make sure that we do do um do justice to talking about how we're investing in high quality teaching and learning to better serve our kids. >> Shashan. >> Wonderful. So first of all I want to acknowledge my team Tasha Kelly and Christian. >> They have played a critical role in the preparation of this deck. Yeah. So thank you team. So,
059as Matt mentioned, we're going to be talking about our high quality teaching and learning and then we'll grab move towards what are the proposed property taxes and I'll call Kathy to talk about the healthcare. Just a reminder what exactly is the budget adoption and certification requirements. I'm now going to repeat this slide. We're going to follow the same process that we have followed so far. basically laying out what the context is, what are the challenges, what choices we are making and what the impact of that would be. So as the board has seen so far that we have had a two we have decid we have earmarked $2 million thank you $2 million towards our strategic investment for the plan. We already have made decisions for $1.04 04 million, half a million dollars for organizational
060effectiveness, half a million dollars for community and collaboration, and 400 $40,000 for well-being. Yeah, high quality teaching and learning. So, with that, I'm going to turn it over, Kelly. >> So, one of our um top priorities is high quality teaching and learning. Um we want to ensure that um our students leave us with the skills to excel in college careers or the military wherever they choose to be. Our current investments. So these are uh uh actions and strategies that we are currently uh investing in and will continue to invest in is that highquality uh curriculum and instruction. So the implementation of our gleam framework, adoption of high-quality curriculums and the implementation of those curriculums and then that's ongoing support that that implementation needs in the in different areas and that is prek um 12. Uh
061we also have literacy, numeracy and academic support. So that's the intervention uh the tiered support the early and adolescent literacy work that we do student support and well-being which includes our social emotional work but also uh language strategies that support our students in ELLL programming and those other supports to um to uh to support different um student groups and then a professional capacity professional learning and development comes out of our department. um also our preschool investment and then this past year was our sixth grade model. The sixth grade model in middle school was an investment for us and our ninth grade on track work and we will continue to invest in those initiatives. One of the larger investments is and we've talked about this at the board table a couple of times is to catch
062up on our adopted curriculum. Um we have many of our curriculums that are out ofd especially in and um and don't have curriculums in our CTE areas in our and especially around high school and our um uh advanced coursework. So we have a five-year plan here to uh and we've paced out those curriculums. We have a five-year adoption plan um to to try to get right sided with that. So this investment is just over $9 million but this is not part of the 2 million cost for the plan that we are sharing. This is base groundwork that we have to do to take us to the next level. >> Yeah. And just to explain that Shashan because I think it gets confusing when you say we're going to invest $2 million and then we're going
063to invest nine >> and the that math I'm not good at math but that math doesn't work for me. So that $2 million which Patrick we were talking about on this particular slide does not include the investment which is related to the curriculum adoption. This is outside. So it's $2 million plus this $9 million and this has been dialed into the five-year plan. >> Okay. I'm still not I'm I'm not sure that I still am following that. And so like so that I could easily say to someone we are investing X amount of dollars in highquality teaching and learning this year above what we did last year. Are we doing more than we did last year or are we doing Yeah. So >> we are >> you know the total number yes but what are
064we doing more than we did last year? >> You know the math on top of your head. >> So we have not been investing much into our curriculum in the last few years. And this was the ask which came out from the teaching and learning group >> that if we want to remain current because our material is really dated and they should have been upgraded quite a few years back. This was the ask. So this is the bare minimum and then we went back to the teams to talk about that outside of this we have earmarked $2 million for our strategic plan. So we'll be investing this $9 million for curriculum adoption. The 1.04 that I shared with you and the delta between $2 million and 1.04 will further be invested in curriculum or highquality
065teaching and learning. So the investment in highquality teaching and learning if we take this curriculum adoption into account is going to be in excess of $10 million. And I would look forward to any one of you to jump in and >> Yeah. So I just want to point out that that's a 5year investment. Correct. Right. So when we're talking about 9 million, it's you can see it through the years. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. >> All right. >> Does that help? >> It helps. >> Perfect. >> So as you know that we had worked with the tactical cabinet and we had $13.5 million what was what the ask was and $5.1 million was for highquality teaching and learning. But as I had mentioned, we set aside $2 million over there. There were 36 tasks which were which
066were identified as we went through this process. And just to highlight the $5.1 million that we have are not being the entire request is not from general fund. So these two items that I mentioned over here which is almost $1.3 million is outside of general fund and they're coming from either title or gear up grants or and things like that. Kelly. >> Okay. So, um, with that budget, um, and constraints around the budget, we had to work together to prioritize some areas that we were going to spend that, um, additional funds on. And we prioritized district-wide MTSS, preschool, diploma plus pathways, reimagine learning, all the things that go with those diploma plus and the pathways. um and then building sustainability around the research around the science of reading and how we are implementing that across
067all areas of prek12. So those are our four main priorities uh to look at with um spending those funds and then you're going to my friends are going to talk a little bit about two of the top priorities. >> Can you go back one slide? Mhm. >> Um some actions are not feasible for timing, capacity or resource constraints. Can you give us an example of what we are leaving out? >> So like I had mentioned on this slide Patrick that we had 36 tasks that were identified >> and to accomplish all of that $5.1 million was needed 1.3 being out of title. So that's further leaves out $3.8 million. we don't have the resources to invest. So that is what we're leaving. >> Can you give us an example of something that was left out?
068>> Universal preschool all the way around. >> Okay. Y >> So we we're expanding preschool in areas that we can and targeted areas but we can't do it across the board. >> Okay. >> Yeah. There were some things around um the nth grade on track that we would like to do but >> we weren't able to do. So >> So building on that, so when we look at the slide with the four items, are we just doing number one? on that is that why it's highlighted or bolded at the top and the other ones we're not getting to or we're doing pieces of the other three. >> We're doing all of these things in different ways. Yes. Not >> we just use preschool fully as an example of something we're not going to get to
069and then it's number two. So I'm trying to >> Well, we can't do it fully. We can't do it at every school access across the board. >> Okay. >> We can continue to do it. It's just not going to be fully funded. >> Okay. So each of these is maybe how should we think about these three these four things are not fully being funded but they're we're trying to get some portion of them funded. >> Yeah. Prioritizing MTSS um as a need to make sure that we've got um unified coordinated systems for both instruction and behavioral frameworks across our district which includes training which includes staffing and includes a lot of infrastructure to make sure that we are consistent. Um we heard a comment about that tonight. And so we want to make sure that
070we're consistent from school to school and from level to level >> and some of these decisions, you know, we are looking at the um programs we're already funding and then maybe shifting our focus for some of those to to cover some of these areas and then some of them would be covered by the additional funds. So there's a variety of things happening to ensure that we um that these are priorities and that we work at that five-year plan to make them priorities. Thanks. >> Okay. Um, so the two areas um that we're going to talk about, I'll just obviously talk about preschool. So, um, excuse me, I'm getting over a cold in my voice. Um, so just for those that that don't know, um, currently in the state of Iowa, we get 50% of per
071pupil funding for four-year-olds. Um, so that just provides halfday programming. Um we have a lot of various funding streams um between Head Start, multiple grants to try to support full day programming. Um the last three years we have received ARPA funding from the city of De Moine to provide full day free uh preschool at 8 um in eight classrooms. So that funding will be over and gone um after this year. And so this investment would help us maintain those eight free uh classrooms at those locations. Um Capitol View, Carver, Madison, um Garden, and Greenwood and Jackson. You want to go to the next slide? So I also want to put in the caveat that we have also applied for a shared visions grant that we will not know the outcome of that for at least
072another month and a half. preschool enrollment opens um in less than a month and so we have to be able to ade adequately plan for that. So um we applied for six full day free classrooms with that funding three of those classrooms would impact these eight classrooms. So historically the shared visions is a five-year grant and so we just reapplied um this this year. Historically, we only had three classrooms funded. Um, so we're doubling and hoping that they're feeling generous um to get some additional dollars um because we know these classrooms are the classrooms that fill first. Um it's a need for our families. Again, speaks to why our legislative priority is funding for full day preschool. Um and the outcomes of our students that attend these is just phenomenal. Um we're seeing the impact
073and we have the data. K um kindergarten through 7th grade now literacy and math. Um and so the investment we're doing at the early ages is making a big impact in later grades. >> Can you just help put in perspective the eight classrooms that we're able to fund and we're going to continue funding for these various sources. Can you put in context who's who's being left out or where what the need is that if we had unlimited funds, how many more classrooms we would be be adding, how many more students would be added? >> We're currently uh serving about 50% a little over 50% of our students in preschool that attend with us in kindergarten. So, we're still missing a lot of kids. Um and when we think about equitable access, um it's a struggle.
074Um the half day is a struggle. We're exploring adding before and after school care at our preschool centers going into next year to try to remove that barrier for families. Um, but again, it's just that full day programming, high quality instruction is really where we see the biggest impact. >> Rough numbers about a thousandish, right? Students, >> correct? At half. >> Yeah, >> half's about a thousand. Is that about right? >> 12 or 1300. Yeah, around there. What's the number that would get you to? Again, if resources were unlimited, >> I'm asking this question from the standpoint of priorities. Uh, if we were to choose to recommend a different priority and fully fund this, how much are we talking about? >> Off the top of my head, the math we did last year, I believe
075it's 9 million. >> Okay? Because when you take into consideration the revenue we still get for the half day um and I pay for the teacher salary and benefits out of that funding that does not come out of general fund. >> Okay. >> But in this case these eight >> um >> general fund >> would. >> Okay. >> Thank you. All right. So, uh, we have had lots of robust conversations around prioritization, um, as related to the strategic plan, um, and I appreciated the the process that we actually went through, um, within our our district to to have the just the rich conversations, really understand um, each other's work. look at the strategic plan, look future forward with reimagining ed. Um, and we can't expand CTE programming in access, um, or really our promise of
076diploma plus to all students without a significant investment. Um, one of the things that has been very helpful for funding in the arena of career and teched and that's also historically where a lot of post-secary readiness work has lived and now it's it's going to be um and is everybody's, you know, work and and Northstar is that we've had Perkins federal Perkins dollars and we have regional planning partnership funds through Hartland um Aeas and um just know that Perkins Perkins funding is not available to for middle school students. It's also tied to district enrollment. And so as we've experienced enrollment costs, we've also lost hundreds of thousand dollars in annual revenue um to fund our current and existing career and tech education programs and we know the magnitude that we have here. Um it's unlike
077most places in the country. Uh and yet our funding streams for how we've been able to sustain that. Again, not general funds necessarily for um a lot of things. Uh those those pots are are getting smaller and and then just with where we're at with regional planning partnerships. We know we do have those funds for this year, but every year it becomes a question mark. So, um, in taking a look at this, what we're really saying is that we actually need to have a career and tech education parent fund, if you will, in the curriculum department. We haven't had that. Um, so there's lots of department funds, uh, you know, for language arts and science and things of that nature. Career and teched has not been part of that because we've been able to rely
078on state and federal dollars for that. And honestly, we haven't had a lot of CTE programming in our middle schools and so we haven't needed um there. But with future pathways, with us looking at changing the middle school experience, which is a key priority for reimagining ed um and building out these new spaces, we need to be able to to make those investments similar to other disciplines um in the teaching and learning department. So that's why you're going to see things like addressing curriculum adoptions, making sure that courses have dedicated funds and materials. The cost of lumber and food is increasing. And so when we're offering um 10 to 12 sections of foods classes in our home high schools, uh that gets very expensive and right now that is coming out of building budgets to
079do that. Um I very much see that as just like a science laboratory. there's consumables and CTE has a lot of consumables with increasing costs. Um, and so we're really just looking to make sure that we're also supporting the building budgets by having what we see as curriculum resources and supports uh for career and teched in this proposed plan. Um, that would specifically focus on materials for the sewing, foods, constructions, and woods and metals courses that are happening in our home high schools. Uh we want to make sure that we also have that district-wide delivery of high quality career and tech education programming. We are always under the microscope for the very best reasons here in De Moine public schools. And we need to make sure that um with lots of other schools jumping on
080the CTE wagon that we remain in our top position not only in the state of Iowa but in the country around this work. Um and so uh having some investments and making sure that we are moving into that uh high quality um curriculum is just really really important and making sure that we're also able to align that with the everchanging industry standards that makes career and teched curriculum a little bit different. Uh we uh are very excited about middle school upgrades. This makes me so excited um to look at the future of what middle school students are going to be getting um in in lots of areas. Um currently we do have a future pathways course that all sixth, seventh, and eighth graders have access to. That's a vertically articulated curriculum in conjunction with our
081counselors across the district. And that's where a lot of our post-secary readiness standards and some of our SEAL work, financial literacy, a little bit of computer um work as well lives in those courses. But that's where students really get to think through the different focuses of career and understanding, you know, what does it mean to enroll, enlist or employ, and how do I access all of these things? Um, and we need to have a budget to continue to sustain that and make sure that our teachers are well supported um through the resources they have access to. Um, I included things that you might see later on around just our overall district marketing strategy. I didn't change the language and I didn't change the bullet points, but I want to be really, really, really clear that
082we need help with marketing. Um, there are still families right here in our own district that know nothing about this building and I can't change it fast enough. Um, my phenomenal building administrators can't, but we have a million bajillion things to do and marketing is not one of my um strengths or skill sets. Um, but we desperately need to take a look at how how do we make sure um that every family not only knows about the opportunities they have in career and tech education, but all of our phenomenal programs across the district. And so, you know, just taking a an investment in this uh from a lens of diploma plus and making sure that every single student regardless of their neighborhood, the region they live in, anything um gets the same information about what
083is available and accessible to them. And I'm just going to keep beating that drum because I'm super duper passionate about it. um but we need uh time and talent in that arena. We need some help with that. So, we really want to make sure that we're part of that marketing campaign across that um I'll add PK-12 landscape and in in just looking at the great stories that we're sharing. We have students doing apprenticeships, internships. We have um students getting accepted into military distinguished militarymies and um our communications team does a phenomenal job of capturing all of our successes. Um and I think we can still find um more just efficient ways of um getting our success stories out there about the real opportunities that are happening for our students now. Um so uh and then
084the last thing on there is just to build that sustainable model to support enrollment and stability and public trust. Uh because that is the part with the reimagining ed plan we have to get right is that equity of access pillar. We need to make sure that diploma plus lives in every single building regardless of a student's pathway. Um and that's the promise that we've made to the community and I know that we can deliver on that. uh but it is essential that we get the enrollment aspects of that right and if our families don't have the information to make the decisions we want to empower them to make um then I think that we are being very shortsighted in our vision and mission so that's all I got thank you >> um just a couple
085of questions if it's okay um just it's only one data point and it was only one conversation but it seems that there is still some distance in understanding especially at the middle school level something like a maker space and what that will look like and how teachers can start thinking about how are we communicating with our teachers in order to start getting them excited about what does that mean for them and how can they give input in how those spaces are built so that in a building it's used in conjunction with quality curriculum and teaching. >> Yeah, thank you for that question. So we do have a timeline of working groups that have been formed and um middle school CTE specifically is is a working group. And so what we are doing right now is
086we are nailing down more programmatic details in relation to the construction details so that we can have everything in one spot on paper for that stakeholder engagement of saying here you go respond to this. and we are right on the cusp of of moving that specific area of middle school CTE spaces forward. Um, but we do have a few more pieces that uh we need to just make sure that the package is accessible to everybody. Um, and so we want to be really clear on that. But making sure that people understand not only what it is, but that feedback loop of how do we make sure that um it is something that is usable and accessible and that everybody can be excited about um is going to be really important and is important. >> And
087Matt, do you have anything to add with the reimagining? Okay. I would only add, you know, just making sure that the building leaders are included in those conversations and that they can articulate if somebody walks into their building, what's a maker space, it'll be this, this, this, and this for um and then the only other thing that I had a question on was the marketing. Um I just I can't emphasize enough the aggressive amount of storytelling. If anybody's watched their social media feeds lately and the amount of aggressive storytelling that's being done about other schools that are just popping up that are making really wild promises about the experience of a student when we know for a fact that many of the experiences we can offer at De Moines Public Schools are much richer than
088they can get in an upstart school uh because they're coming to us asking for those experiences for their students. And so I think it's important that we get very aggressive about the storytelling because it is the highlight of this is the highlight of what reimagining is all about. So >> thank you. >> Just a clarifying question regarding those the middle school upgrades. You say 6 through 8, but then you say middle school. So as as many of our sixth graders have transitioned to elementary schools. Is that is it six through eight or is it middle school or is it both? >> Middle school. >> It is middle school. >> Sixth grade students that are in the elementary are considered elementary students. So they they don't have the same necessar they have the same curriculum. They
089have the same standards. They have that that they won't have all the same experiences that a middle school would have. >> Thank you for that clarification. I will add that that is an action step in planning for is taking a look at how we do support at least the ex like the career exploration expectation that is statemandated for grades six, seven, and eight. And um not just cuz it's mandated, but again, we don't want we want to try to eliminate the transition of a student in sixth grade going to a middle school and then possibly choosing a 7 through 12 program option. And so we are taking a look at um again future forward planning >> and and what do we do with fifth and sixth graders to make sure that that on-ramp is established
090for students and families. >> Great. Thank you. And then just uh I know that this is very specific, but any of our courses that have those consumables, have we ever historically um applied course fees or anything like that for woods or ceramics or is that something that we've ever done here? I'm not >> not that I'm aware of. >> Okay. >> Not that I'm aware of either. >> Thank you. >> We can look into it. Just one comment. Just want to thank you for keeping that marketing like I don't know if marketing is the right word, but the communication about making sure that all our students >> know about these opportunities as we build them out and like the fact that you guys are putting that top of mind. Just encourage you to keep doing
091that. Thank you for raising that. >> Thank you. I do need to add one more point because it's on the slide and I didn't say it and it actually is pretty significant and that's the industry recognized credentials. I got ahead of myself, got real excited about curriculum. Um, sitting next to Kelly will do that to you. Um, so, uh, college and career readiness definition and how we're being measured at the state level has changed and I actually love it and think it's beautiful. So, instead of looking at uh a college and career readiness indicator on an ACT or an SAT score to determine if a kid's college ready, it's actually measured in how many dual credit opportunities are our students in high schools accessing and completing? How many work-based learning opportunities are they accessing and
092completing? And the same goes for industry recognized credentials. right now, majority of those opportunities live almost exclusively at central campus and central academy and um that's not okay. We need all of our students in every single building to have access to those opportunities and that really is the backbone of the work behind both reimagining education but diploma plus towards our goal three majors and those things cost money as well. Um, I love the fact that our students don't have to pay for uniforms to be in our nursing program. They don't have to pay for their state exams. That is something that we can provide um as our post-secondary readiness support. Um but as we look to increase industry recognized credential access um you know there are going to be fees and if you think of
093it as the same of assessment costs if you will um that we will need to plan for not only for industry recognized credentials but things like increasing dual credit opportunities and also making sure that we do have people to support getting students access to work-based learning in our home high schools which um currently uh is is a challenge that we're navig navigating now I'm really done I promise >> so basic impact of this all the actions that we have discussed is for us to achieve our goals and guardrails so I'm not going to read through that any any questions any things that we have so this is the other thing I wanted to talk to you about today was of today is February 17th and we are going to be having a discussion on what
094the property tax are and the the the budget guarantee is something which the board has already approved and if there is any uh questions which any member of the board may have on budget guarantee I'm happy to ex uh talk about that and we can then transition to the proposed property taxes >> I think you guys >> um I have just one request and it's kind of been theme throughout and we've just as we've discussed um the different pillars uh throughout the budget process is the what are we leaving on the table. I know that all of the teams have been very very thoughtful and um have been data driven around the prioritization of of the items that are going to get us to reaching our strategic plan and our our deliverables. Um, but I
095think understanding what didn't get prioritized will help the board um better understand what's coming and and perhaps the why. Um, so I don't know if that's possible to gather all of that from each of the working teams. I think the board would would like to see that. >> You bet. if only sometimes to advertise. There may be organizations out there who would say, "Gosh, we're looking for a funding um opportunity to partner with someone in the community." And if we can find a sustainable funding model over a 5 or 10 year period, that feels like an opportunity that we could at least put out there and let people know what we need. >> And before you leave, I do want to make sure that Miss Alonzo and Dr. Mayberry May have an opportunity to ask
096questions if there are any. Thanks, Madam Chair. This is Mayberry Mazize. I just wanted to say thank you for the presentation to the team. Um, I probably geek out a little bit more than I need to when we talk about career and technical education. Um, specifically those industry recognized credentials and uh, industry verified credentials because I do recognize that students are evolving and um, school districts historically have done a disservice to students who have not had a desire to go directly into college. So this providing alternative pathways for those students who then become u strong citizens uh and a strong workforce for our community is it really is essential. So I'm really excited to see that um continue to be re-emphasized and continue to be talked about. Uh Tasha, I appreciate you bringing it up.
097The fact that even the way in which we're evaluated um by a state now looks different with workbased learning and um some of those alternatives. So, um, I I would just say we have to continue to talk about this because I do think it's somewhat somewhat of a foreign concept still to some populations and that does certainly go back to the communications and the marketing, but also just our role as board members and being supportive of it. So, thank you. >> No questions here. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good job. >> Thank you. Appreciate it, guys. Okay. A stat requirement of property taxes. Property taxes. >> The really fun stuff to talk about. So there has been a new code that was implemented a couple of years back which is the house file 718.
098And basically it says that at a later date the board needs to have a separate standalone meeting to approve the property taxes. And on the next slide I'll show that to you. That meeting could be in a regular board meeting but you start the meeting discuss this thing close the meeting and then transition to the next meeting. And this is for the benefit of the new board members. The board members who've been there before have seen us go through that process. This is a compliance requirement and it's not optional. We don't have we don't have any choices. So having said that today we're basically talking to the board about the the property taxes. On March 5th we are supposed to send it to the department of management. This is the place from where the counties
099are going to pull from the DOM and start sending out the notices to the residents. And we have seen when when we the notices go out, it's kind of confusing at times. We got a lot of questions. Uh on March 10th, we're going to publish it in the register. Once it is published, we cannot change the property tax rate. We can reduce it, but we can't increase it. And March 24th is going to be the special board meeting in which the property tax rate would be finalized. So what is it that we are proposing for FI26? So as you would see we had last year in FI26 a property tax rate of 14.61 and the change big change is the debt service which was voted by a community by an overwhelming support of 74%. That
100increase that that amount alone should have got us $1.99 $1.99. If you see the increase from 14.61 61 to 16.41 it is 1.80. So the full 1.99 impact is not being transferred to the residents. The other thing I would like to highlight that in the general which is 10.55 and it's remaining flat as 10.55 this has budget guarantee into it which is around 35 to 36 cents. So if our enrollment had not declined that budget guarantee would not have kicked in there. So that increase would not have been 1.80 but it would have been 1.44. So I wanted to highlight that yes there is an increase in rate but that increase of rate of 1.99 which the community had supported us is being offset by other reasons as well. And this is assuming the 1.75
101SSA rate. We have heard 1.75. We have heard two 2.25. The interesting thing which I would like to highlight about here over here is budget guarantee and I'm going to speak briefly about it is basically the state saying that you would get 1% more than what you received last year in general fund because of declining enrollment and the SSA we were not getting that 1% increase. This is where once the board has approved it today, we can file it with the DE and we'll get additional dollars because of that. Our break even point where we do not get any SSA is around 3.3 3.4%. We know that's not going to happen. in the absence of 3.34 the way the math works the lower I mean the the the higher no lower the SSA rate the
102higher the property tax rate so 1.75 gives us a higher property tax rate if it is 2.25 25 the property tax rate will come down because you'll be getting more state aid and less budget guarantee and budget guarantee is paid from general fund. >> So, so that is something I definitely wanted to explain. >> So, I just want to clarify that so that everybody who's listening at home can understand that. So when lawmakers at the state house vote for a 1.75 increase in SSA, they are actually responsible for raising property taxes in the city of De Moine >> from an education standpoint. >> I just want to I just want to I just want to make sure there's been a lot of talk about property tax and so I just want to make sure everybody's
103clear that that action raises property taxes instead of lowering property taxes for the biggest city in the state. And Patrick, that's a valid point. I don't have the exact numbers, but I think out of the 327 school districts that we have in the state, 200 plus would be going for budget guarantees. 200 plus. So for all those different communities, the property tax rate would be going up there. Now for us, it is 3.3%. It would be a different percentage for someone else, some other district. But you're absolutely right, sir. >> But is that the taxes going up or the tax rate? >> Rate. The rate >> the rate is going up. So the rate is going >> along with the value. >> Correct. >> So >> it's a double whammy. >> Yeah. So to your
104point there has been a significant increase in property values from last year to this year and that is a reason why even though the budget guarantee is 35 cents your general fund levy is remaining the same. If there had not been appreciation in property values, it would have been 10.55 plus 35 cents which is almost 10.80. So the rate would have been a lot higher than what it is. This is another slide I wanted to highlight. For years we had a rate of 18 and over. Then we started bringing it down gradually and now because of the geo bond it is coming up. But like I said, it's not the full amount of 1.99. >> The increase that you see here, the little hockey stick effect, again, for those at home, >> that little effect
105is what you voted for correct in November. That is not an increase. That is >> we're doing on top of that. Correct. >> That's what you voted for. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Any questions? That's all that I have on property taxes. Well, >> this is our last >> it's the it's the total rate, right? So, it's also the guarantee going up, too. So, it's it's it's the bond vote plus what you just described as far as the state shifting from SSA to guarantee that increases our general rate. Correct. Correct. >> Correct. Okay. >> It's a combination of both there. Any other questions? And if not, I'm going to request Kathy and we have team from Wellmark to talk about the healthcare proposal. So, as Kathy and the team from Wellmark are making their way over here,
106just to sort of frame this a little bit, um there's no decisions tonight. Um tonight is um just a conversation. Um, we want to present the information, talk a little bit about um, uh, what a change uh, in health care costs um, could look like um, and how it could um, uh, impact our overall fiscal sustainability, not only just going into FY27, but also beyond. >> Um, and so, um, just want to again thank Kathy and team and our team from Wellmark to be here. Um, just want to highlight one more time, nothing's being approved or decided tonight. We're talking about it. Um, and so we want to make sure that we're talking about it in a very public way, in a very transparent way. Um, and we know the full implications um, if this
107is something that we decide to take um, to move forward. >> That being said, Kathy. >> All right. Thank you. Um, I just want to take an opportunity first to thank you for listening um, and hearing this proposal. want to introduce um our representatives here from Wilmark. We have Lisa and Brandon available for questions. Also, so this is a topic that's pretty near and dear to several people's hearts. As you've heard from some of the speakers tonight, health insurance has always been something that De Mo schools has prided itself in. We don't want that to change um in a drastic way. We still want to maintain the benefits that we have today offered to our staff at a very competitive rate. The reason that we're addressing this is that health care costs and expenditures over
108time have risen and to continue with long-term sustainability, we need to make some changes. We worked in collaboration with a healthcare work group, which was a small task force that had representation of different employee groups and came up with some recommendations. Um >> Kathy, can I interrupt real quick? Um sorry, interject. Um it's also important to note um the the task force gave um thoughts and ideas. It's not a full recommendation from this full um committee. And so I think that's important to note that's it. There's been some confusion about that and I want to make sure that we're clear on that. This is not a full committee recommendation that we're talking about tonight. Thank you. Um we there are several options that you will see presented today. They range from very modest um plan
109adjustments to more um significant or more different cost sharing type of mechanisms. Just for a little review for this group, we currently have two plans that are offered through De Mo Public Schools. One is our Blue Access HMO product and we also have an Alliance Select PO product. I will not read these slides to you. Um it there are differences between the two plans. If you take a look, there are very competitive co-pays, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums on both plans. The main difference between the two plans is that under the HMO product, it is a limited network, and under the PO product, it is an open network, meaning you can go to um whatever doctors you select. >> Kathy, can I ask just >> Yes. >> tee up the question and then this isn't in
110your slides. I don't see it in your slides, so you may not have this at hand and maybe circle back. So, don't feel like you got to make up a number, but we've been talking about percentages, SSA. We know what we're getting is not going to be sufficient to meet our needs uh this year or likely in the immediate coming years. Can you help us frame this in context as far as percentage year-over-year? Like our health care and costs as a district, what they've been increasing at? >> Our average health care cost increase over the past five years has been, I just wrote it down, 6.8% 8% over the past the average >> on average over the last 5 years. Okay. Is that trending a certain flat or up or >> it's been fairly fairly
111stable. Um our renewal for this year would be less due to some healthc care um changes that we put into place under the prescription drug program. We did some changes that afforded us some cost savings, but pretty much it's been the 6 to 8% range. >> Thank you. our current premium structure. So when people say we have a nocost health insurance plan to them, I do want to point out that currently if someone calls and asks our benefits department what is the premium for health insurance, we will tell them it's $50 a month except for um our ask me group which is um $400 a year versus the 600 for all other groups. That is the premium that you pay if you do not participate in our wellness program. If you choose to fully participate
112in our wellness program, you can buy that credit down to essentially zero. So there are six different activities that are required under the wellness program. If you participate in all of those, then you would earn that credit. With that, I want to touch a little bit on the wellness program. We currently have a wellness program. We've had it for several years. Um there's two main reasons that we look to and two main goals that we have with our wellness program. The first is to support employee well-being and engagement for staff and the second is to influence healthcare plan outcomes. We have shifted a little bit the focus of our plan, our wellness plan over the years. Um and it's a little bit more heavily focused in the supporting the employee well-being and less less focused
113on the influencing plan outcomes. and we'd like to maybe get a little bit more of a shift regarding that so we can again look at those health care outcomes and make a difference with our actions. How much that wellness cost currently that wellness plan currently costs the district? It's estimated right now at $2.28 million a year. You will notice on this slide that the main driver of that cost is that healthcare premium credit. So those employees are doing those activities in order to get that healthcare credit and that's about $2 million of the overall cost. So how many people are actually doing those activities? We have about um 3586 employees actually completed at least one activity. So they touched the wellness program. They may have not may not have done all six but they at
114least touched the wellness program in one one way, shape or form. 43% of askme covered employees participated and 89% of other covered employees participated. So this uh chart tier one tier 2 is that the >> wellness activities >> the activities. So it's not really a a tier of participation. It is they're not engaging in different tiers of participation. It's either you participate in six and you get the credit or nothing or >> do they get a different level of >> correct? Okay. >> If you do if you do one activity, you get a small portion of that $600 and it it tears up to get the full. >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> So again, our goal is to continue the wellness program and continue the premium incentives. however, to put more intentional efforts into
115what those activities are to make sure they correlate with health plan outcomes. >> Can you give us an example of what a more intentional um activity would be or trigger would be that would actually impact the health of our our employees? >> Certainly, one would be to require um the biometric screening, so the blood screening as a required activity in order to get those credits. Those biometric screenings historically have proven to be very beneficial to our staff. I years ago, a few years ago, we had an a wellness program for the board that we put on a presentation and we had employees come and talk about the impact of that blood screen and what they found. And I I will remember this forever. We had a gentleman come and talk about he did the screening,
116he found cancer because of that screening and was able to get those treatments. And so it's a really important thing that helps our staff. Another thing would be that we would require perhaps uh an annual physical. Those are other important things that can help drive. There's things like health risk assessments that they can answer questions and we can start to tailor some of the results of those things toward programming. >> That is not required today. >> No. So other thing I would add over here Patrick for your question is and Wilmar can keep me honest but 7 to 10 years back we had such a good robust wellness program that our person used to actually go to wellmark conferences to present and share what we did. Unfortunately it got diluted over a period of time.
117Okay. >> And we can get back to that plan again. Okay. Thank you. >> So, I've laid out where we are with our current premium structure of the $50. If you don't do any wellness programming, if you do wellness program, it can be zero. We often get the question then of how do we compare with with our neighbors. So, this slide lays out for single coverage, employee plus one coverage, and family coverage. How we compare with our neighbors. You will see single we're competitive. employee plus one there starts to be more of a variance and family we are definitely behind as far as employee contributions. Uh our current state is 50. If they do wellness it's zero and you'll see the next closest is $400 a month and the highest is 1300 a month. >>
118Go ahead. I was just going to say can you clarify employee plus one the distinction between employee plus one plus versus family. Employee plus one would be the employee plus one other person. It could be a spouse or it could be a child. >> It's a twoerson coverage. And then family is anything over two people. >> Yeah. >> So even the employee plus three children would be family. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> And this is per month, right? >> Correct. And this is a dollar amount. >> Correct. >> And zero is the de mo >> because I don't see our >> 50. Yeah. It's 50 or zero if they don't >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And do we know our our fellow um metro districts, do they have similar programs to the healthy you or
119the wellness program? >> I think some of them have wellness programs. I'm not sure that all of them listed here do, but I know that some of them do. And they're um some of them have are tailored more um toward the requirements of a biometric screening and a physical have a little bit more stringent requirements than ours has. This may not be a relevant question and I'm not sure whether this is going to be too convoluted but these are pre-tax dollars right so somebody gets these out of so somebody who is paying this in Norwok for instance that is coming out of their salary but it's also coming out of their taxable income has anybody ever done any analysis about what that looks like what the the it's not a benefit you're still paying for
120your healthare but there is an offset there because you're not getting taxed for that portion of you your salary. >> Correct. And I don't have the exact dollar amounts of what that could do. It would depend on that person's income level. >> Income level also. Yeah. Sure. Income level. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> But it is it would be pre-tax. >> Yeah. For further comparison, um, based upon the 2025 employer health benefits survey published by Kaiser Family Foundation, De Moines Public Schools ranks in the top 1% overall of employer sponsored health plans in the United States. I think that's pretty incredible. And I think that you'll see throughout this presentation that the changes that we're proposing will keep us still ranked within that top 1%. So the path forward um we've talked a little bit
121about that we had some committee work we've done a lot of reflection on do we need to change creating some awareness around why we could potentially change listened to a lot of different opinions went through a lot of growth and discovery options and that's where we are today so our starting point in all of this work was to research and evaluate different plan designs. So, what's out there? You know, we we currently have the HMO and the PO product, but what else is out there for us? You'll hear talk about highdeductible health plans and HSAs, which are health savings accounts. We have explored these options. Um, I've listed here a little bit about high deductible plans. They typically have lower premiums. You pay your expenses upfront. You essentially have to meet a deductible first. So
122your normal office visits that our employees are used to going to the office and paying a $10 co-pay or $15 co-pay would now be they would be responsible for the full cost of that visit until they reach their deductible. Preventative care is covered first dollar. What makes these generally enticing to staff is that coupled with a highdeductible health plan is a health savings account. A health savings account is where money can be put into that account for you to pay those deductible expenses and those first dollar expenses that are not covered under the high deductible health plan. What makes it further enticing to his employees is when employers fund the health savings account. for us to fund that health savings and account in a way that would be um meaningful to the employees right now.
123Uh we're not seeing the premium reductions to a level that right now we think is beneficial. Not saying that that won't be something that we can pursue in the future. It's just right now it's a too big of a a learning curve and step for >> define meaningful. What would the contribution from De Mo public schools be to be meaningful to a >> if you have a $1,600 deductible as as listed here? We would need something that would make you feel that you can't that's enough to make a difference for you to be able to go to those appointments. And I think right now if you would do this and you would have staff say I have to pay for my my office visit, we'd have staff that wouldn't go to the doctor. And I'm
124not sure that that's unless there was money in the health savings account. It's it's a big shift in paradigm for us. >> Feels like an education opportunity though, too, because >> you're already paying for this, >> right? >> Your your your money as a teacher or as a staff member in DMPS is going to this already and you're leaving it on the table. Most years if you don't go to the doctor, if you have a healthy year, we all hope you do, that money just gets left on the table instead of being put in a health savings account that could gain money for you over time. >> Correct. It is. It is definitely an educational opportunity for us. Um, it's something that I think is a multi-year approach to get to there. >> Does it
125counterdict what we're trying to do with the wellness program? >> In what way? I'm not sure. Um if if we think that the result is is individuals not going to the doctor because they're paying out of pocket essentially or out of this account and the wellness program is to encourage some of that preventative care. Does it is it contradictory of that point? >> So under the high deductible health plan the preventative care would be covered but it would be those things like I I'm going for an ear infection. I'm going because I have you know some other condition. Those would not be those would be subject to deductible. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> Somebody who had a chronic disease like Crohn's, that would be a tough, you know, like that would that coverage would
126be very difficult under a high deductible. >> Just out of curiosity, is it all or nothing? Can you offer the high deductible HSA for some employees if they want it or is it we have to do >> We could offer multiple plans and that could be a plan option. >> But maybe this is for the Wellmark folks. Does that take healthy people out of your pool or do they still do we still act as a pool? >> You're one you're you're large enough. You're one >> uh the risk within the MPS is it's it's one and you're fully >> credible. That's interesting. >> Quick question. So with the HA HSA um if an employee wouldn't use that entire amount whatever it is that they set aside um at the end of that year would that
127carry over or would they lose that that carries over? >> Can you can you explain that? >> Does it matter the amount? Like that's a really important part of this >> and then that I for like I understand >> does it does it matter the amount that um they wouldn't use. >> Yeah. No, >> it follows you to your next employer. >> So it'll follow you throughout. >> It's it's it's portable to your point. So you leave one employer, go to another employer, it is very much portable. >> And just to clarify, these are the options. So, as you've been researching different plans that are available, this is just a result of the various different plans or options that are available. Correct. >> Correct. Okay. Thank you. >> And again, for the Wellmark folks, can
128you explain what the benefit of holding that money is? Like, let's say you have a very healthy year as a family. De Moines puts, let's say we put $1,000 aside for a family and they didn't use any of that to go to the doctor. They just did their wellness visits and they were a healthy family. where does that $1,000 go and what can you do with it over time? >> Yeah, absolutely. There um the money is yours. So the the second that the money uh would be deposited into an employees bank account into their health savings account, it's theirs. So that is one thing to think about too, which is a little bit different than like a a flexible spending account. It's if they were to go to one of the, you know, the next
129year to one of the other metro schools, they take that money with them. it is their money. It grows. It can grow. It's interest bearing. Um all sorts of financial institutions would be more than welcome or more than happy to help you guys, I'm sure. Um and and it's it's tax-free when you use it for health care. So it goes in pre-tax and it comes out taxree. It is the most favorable look at our the CFO the most favorable tax environment uh that that exists. The key being uh to to her point is early on if I don't have all the funds there to cover my deductible, how am I am I am I able to can I afford getting care? >> Um there's there's that early on kind of >> and I'm sorry to
130belabor the point, but you already are paying in. Like let's just be clear like you're already paying in. Every teacher is already paying part of their compensation goes to their premiums. We're paying it for you, but it's yours and we are we are paying it on your behalf, right? I mean, is that is that a fair characterization of how we do health insurance right now? >> It's that it's part of your total compensation. >> It's part of the total compensation. Absolutely. Without a doubt. Without a doubt. And the other interesting thing about the HSA is you don't have to use it only when you're employed. Once you retire, >> you can use it to pay your Medicare part A, part B, part A is free. So B and D and whatever it is, it can
131be used post retirement as well. >> Yes, >> you use it to buy a boat if you want. >> Correct. You can >> if you hold your if you hold your receipts from your healthcare over your years, you can buy whatever you want with it. >> Correct. >> Great. Let's move on. >> The next plan um design option is a point of service. The acronym you will see is POSOS and I did not make up that acronym. That is the acronym. Um, a point of service plan blends the features of an HMO and a PO. It has a lower cost structure due to stronger network discounts and care coordination. It has the continued flexibility that our current PO plan would have. And by flexibility, I mean the ability to see physicians both in and out
132of network. and then reduced premiums and claim volatility over a period of time which would allow the district for better budget projections. So in this um presentation the recommendation is structured in three different tiers and tier our tier one recommendation would be to replace our current alliance select PO product with the point of service plan and that plan um the current PO plan would be maintained only for individuals who have an out of who are an outofstate contract holder primarily that's going to be our retirees our disability people and some of of our COBRA participants. The structure of the point of service plan mirrors our current structure of our alliance select plan, meaning it has the same deductibles, the same out-of- pocket maxes, the same co-pay structure, all of those things mirror the current plan.
133The main difference that you will see as a point of service participant over um our current PO plan is that if you go out of network to a doctor's visit, it will be subject to deductible and co- insurance. Today, if you go out of network to a doctor's visit on the PO plan, it is a co-pay. So, it is currently not subject to deductible and co insurance. Do you have a sense of how many of our employees choose for their primary care for instance to go to an out of network doctor? Do we have any idea what that looks like? >> Have that number? >> I don't have that number. We can certainly get it to you. Um I would my my guess would be a very small number that >> if we're asking what
134the impact of this would be that would be my concern is that we have a lot of folks who are using out of network. Yeah. We >> have to change doctors. >> Special like a a chronic illness like Crohn's disease. Yep. Do doctors exist within network? >> My mic's broken. >> Can you hear me now? Okay. So, for something like Crohn's disease, >> do doctors for specialty diseases like that exist within network? >> Absolutely. >> Okay. >> So, the the in the state of Iowa and here in the middle, we're as insulated as as anywhere we could be in the state. the alliance or the PO and the point of service HMO networks match up nearly identically 99 high 99 percentile where the difference is it's chiropractors candidly so that your specialists your all of
135your hospitals in the state of Iowa um primary care physicians they're both they're in both networks in Iowa the PO and the point of service >> so chiropractors and then if you travel out of state and you get sick in Florida Yeah, >> that would be subject to deductible >> potentially. Uh the like emergency care is paid wherever you are in the world as if it's Thank you for that clarification. >> If it's if it's an ear infection. >> Yeah, there's a there's a distinction there. >> Yeah, >> this slide just lays out the cost of tier one and the impact to the employees. Uh the first line is if they choose blue access and no wellness participation, they pay $50 a month. If they do wellness, it's the same as it is today. It
136they can buy it down to zero. So there's no um participation from an employee standpoint on tier one that's different than than it is today. Tier one has an estimated budget savings of $3.8 million. Um, and you'll see in parenthesis here, pending finalization of rates, but that is where it's projected to come in based on our our rates. >> And I'll ask our wellmark folks again, just because we've got you here, how much might that fluctuate? >> It absolutely could. Um, I' it's it's a it's a I'd call it an estimate based on our book of business. everybody that we cover um moving from Alliance Select to or PO to point of service. Where that number could get smaller is if people were to self like to select to go out of state and get
137their care outside of the the the Iowa network that I'm talking about, the point of service network. So the the more people that would you know stay local you know doctor local um will get clo that's we'll get closer and maybe even beat that number. >> So it's a fair assumption. I mean like this is it would be outside of normal behavior to do that. >> It is absolutely it's actuarial uh actuarily credible. That's where we that's where we got the numbers from our actuaries. >> Um very realistic. >> Okay. >> But that this is annualized. So it we would not realize that or know whether that plane landed till a year from now when we're when we're making budget decisions and setting property tax rates now. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> So that's tier
138one. >> Tier Whoops. >> Sorry, one more question. So 3.8 is the estimate. What is the low end of that? I was I I think it was right around two just below two was the low end. >> So still a very significant savings. >> Is that does that seem pretty close? >> Mhm. >> Moving forward, tier 2 builds on tier one. So um it's to implement a spousal search charge in addition to the tier one changes. Tier 2 um introducing a $100 per month spousal search charge for employees for who are covering a spouse that meet all three of the criteria listed here. They have access to employer health care through their own employer. They decline that coverage and three they enroll in our coverage. So an example, I have a spouse that works at
139Wells Fargo. They have coverage available to them. They choose not to enroll in that coverage and enroll in De Moines schools coverage. That's where the spousal search charge would apply. And again, it's a choice that they chose to enroll in De Moines Public Schools healthcare. There would be some exceptions to that searchcharge. So, a spouse that is not employed or is not in a benefits eligible position, they would not be subject to that searchcharge. spouses who have spouses who work in the De Moine public schools. We have several um spouses that both work here and we're not going to charge one of them as her charge. We're glad that they're both here and we're thankful for that. Spouses who elect their employers coverage and then enroll in DMPS as secondary would not be subject to
140the search charge. And then the final one is retirees. And just as a point, um, retirees currently pay the full premium for health care. >> Kathy, can you maybe expand on the spouses who elect their employers coverage? Um maybe give some examples or can you give an example of that or how that would look because they've decided that $100 a month is more would cost them more than just going with their employer's coverage. It's it's $50 a month for the Wells Fargo coverage. So for for an example in the Wells Fargo example I gave um say my spouse works at Wells Fargo and enrolls in Wells Fargo's plan and then chooses to enroll in ours also. Wells Fargo would be picking up their first level of coverage, we would be coordinating benefits with them and
141so our expense for them would be much less and therefore there would not be that spousal search charge for them. >> And I think there were some questions. I know we got some emails and there's some speakers here. So, I just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly for everybody. So, it's one charge per family if the spouse has coverage available to them at a different employer and that that would still allow for the family to have coverage and have a coordinated coverage if that spouse took their employer's coverage. they would still be able to have their children and the rest of the family all coordinated through the DMPS health care plan. >> Correct. Okay. >> I I I want to clarify that if that spouse is taking the coverage through their their employer, they
142can still be on our plan. they would. So, if you have a um me, my spouse, and three children, >> we can either have no spousal search charge if my spouse enrolls in Wells Fargo's plan or their employer's plan and doesn't come on ours. If they enroll in Wells Fargo's plan and they come on our plan, there's no spousal search charge because we are secondary to them. If they choose not to enroll in that Wells Fargo or whatever employer's plan, then they would have the spousal search charge and that's the only time they would have that spousal search charge. >> So again, it's driven by their choice of enrollment. >> Thank you. >> So you might ask, how are we going to know if that spouse is enrolled in somebody else's health plan? There will
143be employment verification questions when you are doing enroll enrollment. Those questions will be Will you cover your spouse under the plan? If you answer no, you're done. You don't have to answer anymore. Yes. Is your spouse employed outside De Mo public schools? If they're employed outside of De Mo public schools, is your spouse offered medical insurance through their employer? And then the final question, is your spouse enrolled in their employer's medical coverage? Those questions would be asked of every employee who is enrolling a spouse during the enrollment process. >> I also >> so we will change from passive medical health enrollment to an active health enrollment. >> Mhm. >> So for if if a staff member does not sign up, the only thing they have to do is to sign up for the flex. Otherwise,
144they get the same coverage they had last year. Going forward, this will require active enrollment. >> It would also be the employees ongoing responsibility to notice notify us if there's a change in spousal employment and they can do um changes on our benefit focus portal within 30 days of those changes. So if their spouse lost coverage, they can change it. If their spouse gained coverage, they can change etc. So those um would be available to them. Another point is we get the question of well what if somebody wasn't honest when they filled out those four questions. Well we hope that everybody is. Um there will be a statement there um an attestation that you're attesting to these four questions. If it's found that you have falsified that you can be subject to discipline up to
145and including termination. So we just want to make sure that everybody is aware of the importance of answering those questions truthfully. So, I've kind of laid out this slide similar to the last one that you saw in tier one of what your cost would be. Um, I've laid it out for blue access with no wellness participation. Under the employee plus one, I have the $100 sir charge added plus the $50 that would be if you don't do wellness. I do want to point out that that is assuming that your plus one is a spouse. is if your plus one there is not a spouse, if it's a child, that does not apply to you. Just want to point that out. Um and then the family would be $150 a month. Again, that's assuming you do
146no wellness. The lighter line below is um if you do the wellness, it would bring your cost down to $100 a month. And that's the same for the point of service plan. >> Maybe one observation. I'm glad you clarified that Kathy, I think there's confusion on that, too. like the single parent scenario, which I think is common. I think it might be helpful when we're discussing this and sharing information and updating this to maybe even add a column or a clarification there because you look at this and it's it can be overwhelming uh right >> to weed through this. I think that's a really important call out. >> Thank you. >> And we'll try to provide as many examples as we can for staff as well. >> Thank you. >> Hi, this is Skyler. Can
147I ask a really quick question on the previous slide >> just for clarification for the last column of family um that $100 I heard you reference it for the employee plus one with a uh a DMPS employee and their spouse um but that would not apply if it's a DMPS employee and their child. Is that the same situation with the family? If the family composition is a DMPS employee and two children, um, being three, would that be a zero charge because they're both two children? That's also assuming it's a spouse plus a child. >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Correct. Yes. And we can put some clarification around that that this I mean a spousal search charge only applies if you're insuring a spouse. If it's an employee plus one and that's a child
148or if it's a family and there is no spouse, the spousal search charge does not apply. This is Maria. Can we go back just maybe a couple of um slides uh back to let me see I have PowerPoint back. Oh no, it's just one one slide. So the ongoing responsibility um where it says if the spouse of employment or insurance status changes um after open enrollment employees must update. So what happens if the employee fails to notify the employer? What did you say would happen? So, if they failed to notify, so if my spouse lost employment and you failed to not notify um to come onto our plan, if you missed that 30-day window, then you would need to wait till the open enrollment period to do that. And the same would be if they
149gained if they gained employment um then then the search charge would be applicable when they gain that employment >> and the open enrollment would be once a year. >> Correct? to open enrollment occurs in May each year and is effective July 1. >> Seems stupid, but another life event could also trigger you coming on to like if you had a life event. >> Mhm. >> Correct. So, the tier 2 is estimated um to have $1.5 million in revenue. And that estimate is based on us assuming that 50% of current spouses covered would be assessed that search charge. That's probably a conservative estimate, but I I don't know for sure. >> If the number of spouses covered goes up, do we get more savings or do we get less? If the number of spouses covered that
150have access to healthcare goes up, then we get greater savings. >> Got it? >> That's tier two. Moving on to tier three. Tier three builds on tier 1 and two. It's an introduction of employee premium contributions to health insurance. Again, we want to introduce health healthc care sharing, but we want to still have an option for our staff for our single staff blue access at no cost to them, provided they participate in the wellness program. Introducing the employee cost share in the ways of premium moves us toward long-term financial sustainability. It encourages individuals to look at the plan options and make a decision based on what's best for them for their ve based on value and their personal need. It reduces the expenditure growth over time without reducing the access to care. We're still maintaining
151um very rich coverage and it shifts DMPS to a more competitive position while preserving the high quality coverage. This slide is a is a little busy. Uh it's tier three with the employee premiums and you'll notice the second column is the premium amounts for monthly contributions. So blue access single coverage would be zero. This is all net of wellness participation. I just want to make that clear. Blue access employee plus one would be $25 a month. Family 50. The point of service would be $10 a month for single coverage. $50 for employee plus one and 100 for family. The reason that we have a $10 for single point of service is we would like to shift and direct people a little bit towards encouraging them to be on the blue access plan because that is
152the plan that's more beneficial for us um as a district from a financial perspective and it still provides very great rich coverage in the state of Iowa. Just to tie this back to your other slide, the closest, if I'm reading the slide correctly, the closest would be four times that. Even if we went to this, >> the closest district in in uh you would still be paying four times that amount for your family in that in that plan if those numbers are correct. >> Correct. And you I'll have another comparison slide here in just a second. >> Sorry. Sorry, didn't mean to get >> um this is just again a comparison at each level. If you have a spousal search charge, if you participate in wellness, what what your costs could be. Draw your attention
153more to the lighter shaded boxes. Those are if you participate in wellness, what your costs would be with the search charge and the premium. And that's with the the full amounts. So, if you are a person who has a spousal search charge and you're taking family blue access coverage, it could be 150 a month. Here is your comparison slide. um with those um premiums in place for tier three and with the spousal charge for tier 2 um these are this is where we would compare based on our our most and this assumes both wellness and non non-wellness participation. So you'll see if you go all the way to the family with no wellness participation, you could be paying $200 a month. That's for blue access family coverage. And the next closest one to us would
154be 400 a month. And is this assuming that the wellness plan goes back to how it was several years ago with a little bit stricter guidelines? This is assuming we keep the current um premium credit structure of that $50 a month. And then again, we would like to introduce more stringent things to earn that $50 a month. So, a summary of the fully implemented plan would be tier one point of service plan with an estimated savings of $3.8 million. Tier 2, the spousal search charge with an estimated savings of $1.5 million, and tier three, the contributions with an estimated savings of 2.2. 2 for a total of $7.5 million. So, moving from that, there was some further considerations after we had um laid out those dollar amounts and and those considerations. Again, our budget reality,
155thinking about how this change impacts staff across all levels. So, how does it impact um our most entry level employee? How does it impact our single parent families? How does it impact everybody across the district? And then what would it look like if we chose to do more of a phased implementation of this plan? So with that um our we were looking at a recommendation of tier one implementing that point of service plan and we talked about what if year one rather than do the full spousal search charge we looked at half so $50 spousal search charge year one and then year two move to that $100 and in year one for the employee contribution levels we implement half of what we was in the proposal um earlier slides and year two do the full
156implementation. Kind of some of the reasoning behind that is looking at potential salary increases to staff. If if we do potential salary um projections, what would that mean for our lowest paid employees? How much of a raise would they get and how much of this would be taken um would take from that raise? So, we were trying to get it so it would be basically a break even point for that that lowest paid employee if they would take the blue access plan. >> Can you give us a ballpark for that salary amount? >> So, about a $900 salary increase. >> I'm sorry. Total salary for the year. What is at the low end? And just ballpark. It doesn't have to be a specific job or salary. What is a ballpark for one of our employees
157who is at the lowest level? I'm trying to think >> who accesses this care like this is I'm trying to get a context of who we're talking about here. >> Josie, >> this would be our associates. >> Correct. Correct. And I don't have >> associates might be a good Right. Yeah. Associates. >> Could you look that up, Josie? Thank you. >> But maybe to just to build on that, I I think some real concrete examples like looking at what our population of staff I'm thinking of a vend diagram. We know there there's a lot of folks and you had it in some of these slides, right? Like how many single we have and how many we have employee plus one right now and how many we have in the family and maybe break those down
158across some of our pay grades uh across salary and give an example like real clear examples because this is it's a lot of information to consume. I really appreciate you guys all putting this together, but I think it'd be really helpful based on the the the feedback we've already received and and folks trying to consume this is to build those examples of what a specific staff member looks like. So everybody could maybe find themselves in here and say, "Oh, this is what this actually means to me. I don't have to do any calculation. I don't have to find myself in here." Like they put it together. I think that would be really helpful based on the initial reactions we received >> that entry level wage. Right. right at about 24,000. >> That was where I
159was guessing, but >> and we do I do have that information. I I don't have it with me today, but I do have it all broken down by employee group and by plan, what plan they're in. So I, for an example, it would show associates, how many are in blue access single, employee plus one, family, how many are currently in alliance select in those in those breakdowns. So, I do have all of that information. >> Y, >> this is that same chart that you've seen multiple times throughout this presentation um to show what it would be if we reduced tier two and tier three for a phased implementation. So you'll see that first lighter line under option number one would be blue access. If you did full wellness participation and had an spousal searchcharge, you
160pay 6250 a month for employee plus one and $75 a month for family. With no spousal search charge, that would drop down to $1250 a month for employee plus one and $25 a month for family. So if I was a firstear associate and had a spouse and a child, >> would my potential 1.75 SSA, let's I'm I'm talking in >> generally >> lots of whatifs, but >> is it a true statement that I would be taking a pay cut. If I were on blue access and full wellness participation and had family coverage >> next year, I would take a pay cut. So, our estimate >> proposal. >> So, so I think you you are mixing two things. 1.75% is SSA. That is not going to be the increase in salary. The increase in salary that
161we are talking is a different percentage. I understand that. >> She's trying to avoid that. >> Um but I also understand um the reality of >> that salary and let's let's even call it 5%. >> Yeah. >> Um a 5% salary increase. >> If I'm a firstyear associate Yep. with a spouse and a child on a family plan. I I will take a pay cut. >> I don't think so. >> 100 bucks. >> Yeah, >> it'll be really close if you have the spousal search. If you have the so spousal searchcharge, we've estimated it to be about a break even. Um but again, we don't know where we're going to settle with those groups. So, I can't really speak as to what it would be exactly today. >> Be real close. >> Okay. >> Yeah.
162Yeah. >> And maybe on what you're talking about. >> Yeah. Thank you for I do appreciate you looking into um all of those considerations. I think on the previous slide you had mentioned the current budget reality, the our employees and the various different salary ranges that they're in. Um I I think that's that's one of the biggest questions in my in my head is um are our employees that are employees that are earning a a salary um and even with their raise may not cover cover these additional costs. and the number of employees that work for us who also send their children uh to our buildings to learn every day. Um so um just a lot going through my head right now. So thank you for taking that into consideration. >> So here is the
163summary of the phased implementation. You will see the same $3.8 million savings for tier one. Tier two um in the first year it would be point 75 million for tier two for and then in tier three for the first year 1.1 million for a total in the first year of $5.6 6 million savings and then year 27.5 million. >> And just to clarify and add some more think behind it, the tier 2 $4.5 million is close to 50 FTEEs and that $5.6 million is over 60 FTEEs. That is a cost of 60 FTEES >> full-time employees. Um, and when you when you say a full-time employee, are you using a teacher salary at >> Mhm. >> to make that calculation? Okay. Yes. Thank you. >> Yes. So the recommendation that we're um moving forward is
164to implement tiers tier one a phased implementmentation for tiers 2 and three effective in FY27 which would be July 1 of 2026 with an estimated savings of $5.6 $6 million in in addition to that to the continuation of the wellness program with an increased focus on health care outcomes and then full implementation of tiers 2 and three in fiscal year 28. >> A question for our Wellmark folks again. Do we have any expectation just based off of Wellmark's experience that a a better wellness program would reduce our costs potentially over time? And I know you can't promise it because the people have to participate, but what has the experience been on average? >> Yeah, that that's the theory honestly that it's supposed to work. Um there's all sorts of studies that give different um ROI
165results. Um from yes, it's working to no, it's not. Um, but I am I'm very confident that um it's a step in the direction of having it work where where they're going has a much better potential ROI. >> Okay. >> Um than than than not going in that direction. >> Okay. Next. >> Next is yesterday. >> Finally, in this communication of any change is super important and we know that the communication um really dictates the success of change. So we would have a very targeted communication plan, have a district announcement um of any changes that would be emailed to all staff that would lay out what next steps are. Wellmark will be conducting sessions for us that will be uh online sessions for people to attend live to hear the information about the point of
166service plan to make sure that they have full understanding of what that plan means to them if they choose to change to a point the point of service plan and not stay on an HMO product. Um those sessions would be held at multiple times of the day so we can reach the most staff that that we can and also recorded so people can um view it at their leisure with their spouses or how however that works best for them. We'd also have a centralized information and FAQ similar to what has been set up for the reimagine for budget for those types of things. So we will have a centralized point to be able to respond to employee questions and for people to be able to come and look at a list of FAQs. And then
167most importantly to me is that we will have open enrollment support for individuals because we would be moving to an active open enrollment. That's a change for our staff. And so there are staff that there might be language barriers, there might be technology barriers, there might just be um barriers period that they don't um understand the process or aren't familiar with the process. We will have staff available to sit down with employees and go through and help them enroll >> and you want this one. >> So so what is the impact? I think this is a slide which I have presented in earlier budget sessions. a five-year plan basically saying the gap that we have in FI27 is $16.2 million and it's pretty much north of $20 million in the in the last four years.
168>> Uh so just to highlight real quick before you move to that this assumes 1.75% SSA and 1% thereafter >> correct >> those are important assumptions. >> Very true. Very true. So closing the gap and my slides over here got messed up but basically over over here we as you know for FI27 we've been working to close the gap the gap has come from $16.2 million to 1.6 6 and over the future years again we are showing what the gaps are for each of the years. There are some uh savings that we are doing in FI27 which will have an ongoing impact throughout the 5year plan and then we have some additional savings happening in FI30 whether it's retirement of a facility and then 31 which is the impact of retirement of facility and then
169another facility that we are retiring. So that is the gap that we have for the next 5 years. Bless you. >> Okay. So, what I'm trying to show over here is the gap that we have which you just saw on this slide over here uh the last uh row and the top thing over there. What does it do to our UAB? The current unauthorized spend budget. Okay. Uh so we the board had set a target 2017 2018 yeah around that time frame that we need to maintain a 15% UAB across the period. Yeah. So if we do not implement the health plan >> I'm so sorry. Can you explain what UAB is? >> Absolutely. So every year we get revenue from the state from property taxes from grants, federal funds, everything. So that is a
170revenue portion there. Then we have expenses against it there. Our expenses should not exceed the revenue. If they exceed the revenue, it's a negative UAB. Now having said that, you can carry forward this from one year to the next year. So if in a year you have spent less, you can carry forward into next year. >> So what's important there is if we exceed our spending authority, that is illegal in the state of Iowa. We cannot do that. Um and that's when state shows up um and it's happened before um in another school district. >> Not here in another school district. So, but it's important to note that um when when our UAB drops down into that zero range, we're exceeding our spending authority and at that point we are not operating within code. >>
171And just to clarify because it's a new concept, S is I will compare this to your bank balance and credit card. That's a very common example we give. Your credit card limit is $10,000. you have $25,000 in your bank account. What you can spend through your credit card is $10,000 even though do you have cash. The district so far does have cash. So that is not a challenge, but our limit is $10,000 in this example and that is what is UAB. So we have to always maintain and yes to Matt's point, it's it's it's not allowed by the state code. We he and me would have to go and come up with a plan. How do you bring it to positive? So if you don't do anything, I I would say coming below 10%. I
172would be extremely uncomfortable. This is my personal opinion. Extremely uncomfortable. So if you see in the first one, you're basically going down in FI27 from 14 12% to under 1%. Now if we implement tier 1 that becomes $15.1 million and by the end of 5year plan it is 4.2%. If you do tier 1 and tier 2 that trend from 15.2 is 5.3. Even in tier 3 1 2 and three if you implement we are definitely good but FI 31 starts looking little dicey >> in the in tier 1 and two I would say 30 and 31 is looking a little dicey and same thing in tier 1 30 31 is a little dicey >> and so for that sorry for that UAB for that unspent authorized budget getting below zero against code best practice is
173actually 5 to 15% for many years it was 10 to 15% is what a lot of folks would say from um our our financial organizations misfits things like that recently they started looking at it through a 5 to 10% um and most of that is due to the fact that there's over 7,000 fewer students in the state of Iowa going to public schools and so they're giving us a little bit more authority to spend some of those dollars >> and previously this board would not let the district go below 15% >> right and we've had to adjust um in the last several years. >> This is why this five-year projection is such a big deal. I mean, it's such a big deal. >> This is this is a significant slide um not only for the
174UAB projections but also for the remaining gap projections. >> Can you tell me what this is projecting for enrollment? >> So, throughout the 5-year plan, we are projecting a drop of 550 students year-over-year. >> Yeah, it is. So safe to say if our enrollment increases >> year after year, >> this gets better. >> All of this gets better. >> So two things should definitely be focusing on increased enrollment. >> Without a doubt. >> Yes. >> So two things are needed to your point. One is you're absolutely right enrollment which is a very very big driver. >> The other driver is SSA on which we hardly have any control. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Mr. Shank, can you say again what the projected drop you had uh mentioned in enrollment? >> So year after year >> 550
175>> drop in enrollment >> 500 >> 550 students year after year. >> Okay. >> So that that assumption is what we've been utilizing um since October. We're just projecting out, you know, 550 >> 2600 2700 students, >> right? Over time >> 5 years, >> right? Again, that's not what we're after, >> right? Right. >> We're going to reverse that. Um worse. That's right. That is right. >> Increasing. It's going to happen. >> So, we're actually going to have 550 students enroll every year rather than drop out. >> I missed what she said. >> I I I we missed it. >> Yes. We are going to increase enrollment by 550 students. >> Yes. That's what we're doing. >> Yes. >> That that'll be wonderful. >> Right. Right. >> Yeah. So so so that is what we
176have to present today. Any questions? >> Yeah. Board members. This is a lot of information. Um we've already heard from uh community members as well as employee groups. Um now is our chance to inquire. And I know that we have a an FAQ document that has been not only provided to us but also district employees. Can you speak to the communication that's already occurred um to >> I sure can. Yes. Um and before I do that, I just want to point out on that slide while it's still show I think it's showing on the screen. Can we still um I just want to note that when you look at FY27 um the current gap for FY27 and our our strategic um uh reductions is still 1.6 that we need to account for. This assumes 1.75%
177SSA for FY27. So I want to make sure that that's clear. Um if we implement um just tier one, that's a $3.8 $8 million savings that actually exceeds that 1.6 budget >> and actually puts us to the good, if you will. >> Um, I think that's important to note. So, if we work our way to the right along that that row in FY28 next year, again, assumptions 1% SSA losing 550 students, we would be back to a $6 million gap from the start of the school year. Yeah. >> If that's what happens, right? And so if those assumptions hold true, we're back to another 6 million, then seven, and then down to 2.7. If you go to the health insurance tier 1 and two, start at FY27 again, we're to the good again in FY27.
178If we do both tiers, 2.9 and then 4.4, before you I just the reason why I'm pointing that out is if you work your way to tier three um and you move from FY27 FY28 our savings is considerable when you look at our long-term financial viability as an organization right and so I can't not underscore our original plan when we started talking about budget in October amongst all the other things was to create a five-year viable sustainable multi-year budget plan. This does allow us to get significantly further down that road. It doesn't mean that there's not challenges with it. It doesn't mean that there's not um things to talk about, things to discuss. All of those things are true. And at the same time, we are working to deliver on a a stable budget environment
179where we don't have the volatility of reducing 10 to 12 to 14 million every single year. That has been what we've been doing for the last many years. And so we are working tirelessly to get to a point in collaboration with folks like there's lots of folks that are not just in this room but beyond this room that are working to make that happen in partnership. Um I just want to make sure that we stay on this slide for a second because it is important not just for next year, it is important for the next five years moving forward. That being said, I think the question was around communication. So, um, sorry I got off a little bit there. We met, um, today's Tuesday. We met last week with, um, our full cabinet um to
180walk through this um, tiered presentation with them um, a bit um, just so the our full cabinet being um, directors, executive directors, chief officers, things like that above. Um just this morning we met with all uh what we know refer to as management matters all school leaders um APS um principles things like that to walk through this and then also sent out thereafter an all staff communication about tonight's uh board conversation u that we're just going to be discussing it tonight and also provided an FAQ um that answered many of the questions that were actually lifted up again tonight in in addition to that. So there is a u an FAQ that's out there. There's also an established um um website that um will if folks click on it, it will bring them up and
181we can talk um they can submit questions that they've got about um the recommendation and we will respond to that um um to get that in front of folks um so that we'll continue to update the FAQ. >> Wonderful. Um, I'm going to go to our board colleagues that are online first for questions. Uh, Shashank, the um, UAB percentage. Oh, sorry. I I I half heard you because I was reading something. So, I'm I'm sorry, Skyler and Maria being so honest. >> Uh, that I but I had this and I just didn't want to lose this question in my head. your UAB percentage assumption. Do we gain money in that based off of how that's invested and how much might that percentage change? So, it's not our savings account, but it kind of is. It's
182our cash on hand. And so, like what are you making very conservative assumptions there over five years of how that money may grow? Uh because you don't want to overpromise. So you're talking about the interest income on our side. >> Is our 15% going to become 16? I mean is is 12 really going to be 14 by the time we get two years down the road or three or four years down the road? >> So in the last 3 years on an average we have got the district $14 million as interest income. Not chump change. >> No >> huge amounts. Now if tomorrow the interest rates plummet, >> yeah, >> it'll be difficult to get 14, but we'll definitely get the best that we can. Now that 14 becomes part of spending authority, >> right?
183>> It's part of your miscellaneous income. It is treated the same way that you get state aid or you would get federal grants or anything like that. But important for us at the board table to understand as we if we use the lever of our unspent dollars that goes down the next year and gives you less of an ability to make money off that as well. And so leaving it alone uh gives us the ability to sit and then multiply that number over a couple of years rather than um rather than spending it. So it's an easy lever to pull but there's a real big cost to pulling it is I guess >> the big challenge which is happening is since you raised this point is our special education deficit is increasing significantly from 24
184to 25 it increased from $16 million to $25 million. Now we do get the spending authority for that but we do not get the cash from the state for that. >> So that reduces the investable funds not the spending authority. Yeah. >> Y >> bless you. >> Sorry. Go ahead >> madam chair. Would you like for those of us online to speak now? >> Sorry Patrick. >> Thank you. >> No problem. In Patrick's defense, it took me a while to gather my thoughts on this paper. Uh, >> yeah, I was just helping out. >> So, yeah, exactly. All right. So, uh, I I don't have questions. I wanted to make a few comments, though. Um, in response to the presentation first, thanks to the team for putting this together. It was very comprehensive and informative.
185Um, I certainly appreciated it and gave me some things to think about as well in how we make our decisions. Um, there were a few things I kind of went into this conversation thinking and being mindful of and some of it was informed certainly by comments during public forum, comments just from having um being in spaces with teachers and staff members and and then also just the state of health care and our health in general as a country and particularly in the state of Iowa. So, I kind of went into it with those things in mind. Um, a few things that I heard that I did appreciate throughout the presentation. Uh the first one was from my understanding it appears as if there really isn't a coverage that is changing necessarily for those dependent and
186unique um healthc care situations for our families and for those DMPS employees. So I think about those situations where um we may have unique situations where the staff member or their spouse or their family members have unique healthcare needs. And I was afraid that going into this conversation possibly that one of the recommendations would be to rid of that kind of coverage um going forward. But what I heard and what I was affirmed was that that is not the case. it may just look different in the way it's packaged. So, I appreciated that. The second thing I often think about is the recruitment and the retention and the attraction as a district. And often hearing teachers, um, our human resources partners, other organizations talk about how our healthcare really is a competitive advantage to attracting
187a population of um, professionals within the district and also helping to recruit them. Um, what I really enjoyed in comparison to that comment was the comparative chart that showed how we are doing even with the proposed changes or recommendations in comparison to our neighboring districts. Um and not once did we there was maybe one situation I think um if you look at some of the details where we were charging significantly more or something hopefully that was unbearable to um to still be competitive. So I really appreciated the lens of um still being able to use that as a compar a competitive advantage. Uh, now I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge maybe my first 10 years of my career before going into um education where I I was able to serve as an underwriter in
188the insurance field. And one thing that we often would talk about and be trained on as insurance underwriters was the importance of mitigating being adversely selected as a carrier. And I often think about that um with with our district as well. When I look at that comparison chart, regardless of which tier it was, I can absolutely see how we as a district may be adversely selected um because of how lucrative and robust and comprehensive our coverages are. That doesn't mean that it's not right, but I do think there's it's worth conversation that we're having now to at least say how can we still be supportive? How can we still retain? How can we still do what's right and make sure that we're being mindful and respons responsible physically while doing that? So, um I do
189I'll I'll close by saying um I think with anything when you introduce new ideas, even with reimagining education, there will always be an education gap that exists because for the last however long um DMPS has done things somewhat similarly and familiar. So um I think going into this recognizing there will be an education gap. Giving practical examples and saying things like for a parent and a child this is what you can expect for a for this and this composition this is what you can expect will certainly help with um help with a better understanding of how some of these decisions may actually be in benefit of some of the people that we serve in the district. So I will that's that's the end of my comments. Thank you. >> Thank you Miss Alonzo. you know,
190um retention, uh recruitment is so important and um I know that this is something that obviously it impacts, right, our our ability to to continue to be attractive um to to new um employees and students. Um I'm wondering you know how is it that with this new plan um how attractive do we do we remain are we attractive and um comparing ourselves to neighboring districts are we still a good place right are we are we still a a district that is far better than than others. I have been thinking of the gentleman that spoke earlier and the reason that he came to de mo instead of staying in for Dutch. Are we attractive to a family like that and clearly um teachers are employees are doing so much for students in our district. How can
191we not let people down? Um, but at the same time be realistic and work with what we have. I am just thinking out loud. I'm not asking questions. >> Thank you, Maria. >> Mhm. Um, I just wanted to thank you guys for this presentation and I really for the amount of emails that we've gotten and the conversations. Um, I hope this really helps our community or our staff to understand kind of where we're at. Uh just clarification just as a for instance a single mom with a single employee mom employee with two kids. Uh what was that looking like? >> Okay. >> Was that the $100 or was it still zero? >> Zero. So on this one, if a single person um with two children, it would be number two. So the second dark shaded
192line there would be no spousal search charge would be $75 a month. If they do no wellness activities, if they do wellness activities, it would be $25 a month. >> So it'd be $25 a month versus at um our competitors that would be a little bit more higher. nor $1,000 a month. >> Yeah. >> And that's tier three. >> I think we need to like kind of put that out. I think Skyler kind of mentioned that. >> Um because we do have that dynamic of employees that are single parents. Um and just showing that versus kind of bringing out that spousal. Um and then even with the spousal insurance kind of breaking that down and have them have that conversation with their employer um on how that works. And so I think the education of
193our um with our staff in the next couple once we decide our when we go forward. Uh and especially having Walmart there. I know you um had that communication and then having our employees just go on to that website that we have and ask those questions because I think it's all about the education of how we're explaining it. >> Shashank, this is for you. >> Sure. And in all your spare time, which I know you do not have, would you maybe be willing to put together this same UAB last slide chart >> based on not losing 500 students a year? >> Sure. >> Based on gaining >> a 100red students a year. >> Just to see if we if we gained a 100 students a year, if our goal was to gain a 100 students,
194what would that look like? >> Sure. I we can do that. Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Echo the thanks. Uh and I just want to acknowledge, you know, the anxiety and the stress of our, you know, community and our staff that hears about these things and they they're processing all this. So all the additional asks that we're making um of you guys is to help ease that and address that so that it's not as stressful and so they have accurate information to understand what potential changes we're looking at. Uh, and to follow up on something Patrick said at the beginning, you know, to the extent we can, and I know this is asking a lot, but I think the more information and even if it's pulling out three of our most common
195scenarios for our staff, if we can give more of that pre-tax kind of analysis about how how these pre how these uh healthcare costs would come out and how they would roll forward. And then the additional like ideal ask would be, you know, we've received messages about comparing our salaries to neighboring salaries. And if there's a way, and I I'm not going to be the guy who's going to be able to tell you how to visually represent that or compare that, but if there's a way to do that in a couple of those scenarios, I think that would be very helpful because that's that's the anxiety that we're going to be dealing with. And folks want to make we want our we want our teachers and our staff to have the ability to make really
196informed decisions and reactions to this. And I don't want them to be um reacting and feeling that anxiety based on not having all that information. So that whatever we can give them I think would be really important for everyone to understand what this looks like and it also be helpful to us as we're making these decisions to see what that looks like. to build on Kim's comment about, you know, is this going to impact our uh different tier of our employees with proposed or potential uh increases into their salary? Like we I think that'd be really helpful for us to understand that because that's the anxiety that we're we are all very aware of and so we appreciate you guys pulling that together and helping us analyze that. >> Absolutely. echo the thanks and just
197a couple of comments. And my first would be that um and and I'm just going to speak for myself. My board colleagues can say what they want to, but I'll say um if you're looking for somebody, we we've received some communications from some of our employees that, you know, Matt Smith made this plan. Matt and his staff have presented the board what they have asked for. And so if you want to look at somebody and say who's asking for this or who is asking for an accelerated timeline on this, I I'll raise my hand and say I am. Um because I think we have to I think we have to ask ourselves harder questions about how we're spending our money um and what what that looks like. Uh the second thing I'll say is this
198is not the only lever that this board is talking about pulling. This isn't some easy button where we're like, well, we can just charge the teachers. Um, I think we are struggling with trying to find big pieces, big chunks of money and unfortunately your biggest chunk of money is always going to be your employees. It's just in any business and your your benefits for your employees are are always going to be the biggest. So I I think those are just some realities that that we are looking at. Um, but if you want to for me anyway, I would feel like I have asked for this I feel like for two years this is a great presentation. I think it lays it out really well. The 5-year projection helps. You don't tr don't trust my math,
199but if I'm doing the math right, the average for other districts and what they charge for a family is about 7,500 bucks a year is what you're going to pay. So, it and I've I've heard from some folks who work for us, I would lose about 75, you know, if I go to another district, I could make $7,500 more. It's not always going to be exactly a wash, but it makes it it takes away a benefit that we have the a recruiting benefit. And it um if we go to tier three, and I think that's the last thing I would say is uh to my board colleagues is I think and you all can make your own decisions and talk to Matt and the staff about, but I don't think this has to be implemented
200right away based off of the numbers that we're seeing. I don't think we have to go to tier three right away. And I like the measured approach. some form of the measured approach so that our employees can take time over the next two or three years to look at their total comp. Um, and and then I guess just the last thing I will say is it w it is no surprise to anyone who's been around here for two years that I I am just incredibly disappointed. I think about the money that we have left on the table for our teachers over the last 10 years and how much of that could be in a a savings account earning money in the market for you and how much wealth that could have built with our teachers
201if we had earlier tackled some of these questions and gone to um a high deductible plan. I was always told that our high deductible plan would ruin our our our pool and apparently not. we could still offer, you know, some of those benefits and and get creative with it, I guess, is my point. I struggle with the idea of paying the amount, the tens of thousands of dollars that we pay for benefits um to ensure our folks and protect them when if they don't use that service, that is simply money that they are leaving on the table. And so I that's that's where just to be transparent, that's where I'm thinking and I I think a a phased in approach to this is reasonable, especially the tier one doesn't really change anything for anybody except
202the out of network. Um, and as a a steward of taxpayer dollars, it's really hard for me to look at another taxpayer and say, "We are going to fund the health insurance fully of a um employee of a company that's making $und00 million a year." And so, if we could recover some of that money, uh, I think that that's a that's a prudent step for us to to do. But I think we should do it in a tiered way so that our employees have time to make plans um and that the impact is as little as it possibly can be. >> Thank you. Um one thing that I want to caution not only my board colleagues about but everyone listening is you we are being presented with one piece of the puzzle. um we're looking
203at at health insurance costs and I appreciate the comparison slide when we're looking just at health insurance costs. Um it it's a dangerous path to go down to start talking about comparisons of an entire package when it comes to compensation for any employee group to our fellow um neighboring metro districts. Um this is a very siloed look at an entire compensation package. Um it's also a siloed look just to look at a salary and the starting wages um for salary. So that's just a caution I want to put out there um when it comes to talking about health care and salary, two pieces of an entire compensation package. Um I appreciate the opportunity to look at a five-year plan. I also want to uh lift up that we are making assumptions based on where we're
204at right now and based on trends and a previous year's trend line. That doesn't mean that next year if trends change that we can't be agile. Is that a correct statement? So, we are going to revisit this 5-year plan annually as a board. And um you know, if we were to implement various tiers of this plan this year and our enrollment changes and our SSA changes and our our current trend line changes, then it would behoove the board to revisit the tiers that we're at and um look at at this all over again. So, I just wanted to put that out there as well. Um, can you tell me what this looks like moving forward from the standpoint of you've presented this to us as an option? What are the coming weeks um and decision
205points? I know that we have budget decisions to make. >> Can you Yeah, sure. >> into our budget conversation. >> A couple things I guess I want to highlight. Um, and some of them I've already been highlighted, but I would be remiss if I did not. Um, one is to your most recent comment regarding an entire compensation package. It is not every district puts out on their website their packages and how we can compare apples to apples. And so ascertaining that information sometimes proves to be incredibly difficult and challenging. And so we get the best comps that we can to give everybody a clear and transparent understanding of what we're um how we're competing and and how we're delivering on that. And so I want to continue to lift that up and make that note.
206Um, additionally, we're speaking right now about health insurance because it's one of many levers. Um, it's not lost on me that we're also closing a school this year. Um, we're scheduled to close another school in FY31. We're scheduling to close another school in FY32. We're selling part we actually just were sold um the annex um based on that property of of the administrative building um tonight. Um the other main part of the building is actually for sale right now. And so we are um pulling on multiple levers, early retirement um incentives offering folks um an opportunity there um to recoup savings. We are pulling on a number of levers with a five-year multi-year budget forecast and sustainability goal so that we are not if you go to that last slide, is it still up? Okay,
207I think it is. so that we are not going into FY28 if you can look at that that very top row with another $10 million gap y >> that we have to meet and then after that an 11.4 million gap so this year based on 1.75% assumption of SSA right now it's a 16.16.2 $2 million gap. If we do nothing, if we keep our current um reduction strategies, selling buildings, closing schools, if we continue down that road, we are still going to have a $10 million gap next year. We're going to have an 11.4 million gap the following year. That's after trying to get a $16.2 million gap solved this fiscal year. So in in FY27, so it's it's not lost on me what we're asking. A statement was said to me that please don't
208make reductions off the backs of staff. I promise you that's not what's happening. Um there there's I understand that sentiment. I really do. And I am more than proud and confident to stand in this space and take the responsibility for what I am recommending to this board tonight. If if someone would like to have a conversation about it, I'd be happy to do that if you want to. If we can talk about what this looks like, this is actually about people. It's not about doing things to certain groups of people. It's actually about keeping the people that we have in a long-term sustainable model. The the the resource that we have that is most cherished um most cherished with our kids are the people. We're going to build amazing facilities with this geobond. It's going
209to be absolutely incredible. Our kids are going to have immersive experiences. They're going to get access to programming that many of them have never had access to. And it's going to be amazing. It still fails and pales in comparison to the people that we put in front of them every single day. This is actually about keeping people. If we don't do something significant moving forward with a multi-year budget in mind, that $10 million is 80 staff members. that $11 million is 85 staff members ballparkish. Um and so but that's what that equates to. And so those are significant. And yes, we have to right now plan on worst case scenario. Um and that's unfortunate, but it it's it's it's the way it works right now because our trend has been that we've lost students every
210year. The trend has been that supplemental state aid has not surpassed 2% in the last decade. we have to continue to operate off those assumptions to make this forecast. So um I really appreciate Patrick your comments. Um and um please know that I um I am absolutely taking full responsibility for this recommendation as the interim superintendent and um and I'm proud of the of the the work that the team has done um in partnership with many others to pull this information together and we will continue to listen and provide additional information. And so what is expected moving forward is to have informational conversations with our staff, to have our partners at Walmart provide some of these um um Q&A sessions with folks. Um we will have opportunities for staff to submit questions as we continue
211to analyze the data. And again, maybe next week we know if it's 1.75 or if it's 2%, right? Maybe it um you know, the Lord willing, we'll get 2.1 uh moving forward. maybe that's an opportunity for us. So, we will continue to look at those things as the days and the weeks go by and we are also at some point going to need to advance a decision. Um, and so one of the questions I have and I'm going to gently lean into this and I I have heard support from the board tonight that this conversation is the right conversation to be having. What I'm going to lean in on that a little bit and ask is um is the board supportive of just tier one advancing? Is the board supportive of just tier two advancing?
212Is the board supportive of all three tiers? And maybe we learn more about hey, maybe it's maybe it's not this amount in in in a two-year phased approach. Maybe it's a three-year phased approach. But so what I am looking for is some direction because if the board for example were to decide tonight um or at least there's not a universal support for a tier three that changes the conversation that we have with staff that changes how we actually go about this. It changes um how we prepare for this moving forward. And so um I don't I'm not asking you for a decision. I'm just asking you for where are you feeling right now? Um that you could give us some direction that you can give me and the team some direction so we know how
213to advance this conversation moving forward. >> I if that's a fair ask >> I'll answer quick. I would be in favor of implementing tier one and some form of tier 2 this year and maybe holding steady the following year but for FY29 looking at some form of tier three. So a phased in approach would be what I would I would be strongly in favor of and would strongly encourage my board colleagues to >> that level of clarity is super helpful for me and the team. >> Yeah. >> I am with that too. The only thing I ask is the communication with our employees and breaking it down and educating them um and having them know that we are thinking about them. >> Sure. Um but the education and the communication on this needs to go
214out to them um and explain the different scenarios. >> Sure. I'm sorry, Anna. Are you what rec what are you okay with? Tier one, two, and a phase three or what the recommendation that's being brought to us is? >> Yes. The um tier one, tier two, and then phasing three. >> Okay. >> Yeah. I tier one seems obvious. I don't I don't I don't know why we would not implement that. uh regarding tier 2 and tier three, I'm very supportive of the framework that we've I think the concepts that we've outlined here as far as the phasing and the amounts I feel like there's we've heard some some variability and some wiggle room there, but the concept of both of them and the framework that you've presented and brought to us, I think are both
215very reasonable things that we need to be continuing to look at. Maybe that's over a longer period and maybe the mounts change, but I think the concept needs to continue to be explored. >> Yeah, thank you. I echo everything that said. Um, I do think, and maybe this is too complicated, but I do think having the ability to offer some type of a high deductible HSA plan could actually be really beneficial for people and could um make it make it better for them. Obviously, there's a long there's a learning curve involved with that and maybe that's 5 years down the road. I don't know. But I think just being open to that idea. Um, and then also as we discussed, kind of getting a real life scenario of what that looks like for all the
216different levels of staff once we get to tier three so that we can know the full scope of how that impacts everybody. But overall, yes, I'm I'm very supportive of it. Unfortunately, we have to make we have to make the changes. Skyler. >> Yes. Thank you. Uh I I think my comments probably echo many of what I I've heard from board colleagues. Tier one I would be um certainly in favor of. Um I'd like to I'd like to take a a little bit of time. Quite frankly, I I don't think we've given enough time to community to adequately respond. And I do want to make sure that I'm hearing the voices. I do not work in this space professionally. And I'd be remiss if I made a decision without learning a little bit more that
217is not coming from the perspective of us as a district. Um, but for the most part, initial thoughts, tier one I feel good about. Tier two, I also feel good about with the same contingencies as one. Tier, uh, to Sarah's point, I would like to see, um, some kind of exploration around a high deductible HSA plan. Um, I do think that it could be compet a very competitive tool as well for entry- level employees, particularly those who are um not not that do not have families and are considered fairly healthy. Um, and so so I would like to see something at least proposed for that. I don't know how many health plans a district can have, but if it doesn't cost anything more to offer something like that, I think it's worth exploring. uh tier
218three. I will share that I at this point I'd probably say I am leaning not towards tier three. >> Um and I think this was in response to maybe a comment I heard um in reference to some of our lower paid employees. I would need to better understand that if if if the cost of tier 3 will exceed the um will exceed the salary increase of tier three. And I know we haven't made any decisions with that yet, but if that were the case, I would not be in favor of tier three. And quite frankly, even if it was a break even, I probably would still not be in favor of tier three given that direction. >> I would support uh tier one uh being implemented and I don't know to what extent tier 2
219can be implemented. I know that Patrick um mentioned that he would be interested in seeing part of it um being implemented. Definitely for me, tier one, I don't know how I feel about tier three yet for the same reason that Skyler has mentioned. Um I feel like I personally need to go back and look at material um uh that was presented tonight. It was a great presentation. uh good to understand a lot of things, but I personally need to be able to take more time and then um also just hear concerns um in um how it it would impact particularly those that um work in the district that are that make obviously less money. So um for sure tier one >> Kim just one >> I really sorry >> I I also want to say
220that um you know whatever decision we make and I know that we have already discussed this and um people have made comments about communication and um sometimes I think that we we have um a different perception of what good communic communication is to employees. And I would just encourage um people reading this to be very intentional um and to um disseminate in in information in ways that people truly feel they are making very clearly informed decisions. >> Patrick, you wanted to add something? I just wanted to ask the question and I know I think we've explored this question before but I also would be in favor of at least exploring the idea of our directors and above going to a tier three first and then if we were going to do it. So like if
221there was a way for our highest paid employees to contribute a little and what we're talking about with tier 3 is a very little when you're talking about health insurance but at the highest level I think it has just it just has a different impact than it does for an associate working here. I think one of the things that that would do is just signal look everybody's in this and it and we understand it impacts people in different ways. Um it might be helpful from just a perspective. It might not save us all that much money, but I simply think from a um a way we communicate this that might be a way to communicate this to say everybody is trying to help. >> Thanks, Patrick. >> Um I am in support of um the
222recommendation regarding tier one and tier 2 um and uh a phased a phased approach for tier three and um I would say much longer runway um for tier three. Um I too would like to you we've request requested some of those scenarios and the different salary ranges. So I don't feel 100% confident >> uh saying this without some of that additional information, but I think that you have >> what you need at this point. >> Okay. Quick question and maybe this is not relevant but is it possible that tier 3 is a percentage instead of a flat fee each month? >> Could be. >> So that it >> still provides savings. >> Y sure >> in a in a meaningful way but doesn't impact >> people the same way. >> Yep. It could be. >>
223Okay. >> Anything additional, Mr. Smith >> salary. >> The only other thing I I don't know if I >> you're going to base it on salary >> if I stated it or not. I think like we stated a lot today. um is that um just want to thank the team again today and this was again the the genesis right there's been some focus groups conversations about this but the entire committee did not weigh in on this and so I want to make that clear because I think that there was some maybe some frustration on on some folks part that there was this notion that we're bringing something to the table to discuss that the committee recommended that's actually not the case and um I just want to take uh responsibility for that and own the
224fact that that did not happen and we're talking about it now as a genesis to this conversation knowing that we've got to advance some of this work um moving forward um to keep the amazing employees that we've got um and so this is a this is a journey um it's not a it's not a sprint right now but uh I know sometimes it feels that way but we've got a long way to go um in serving our kids and we've got an amazing 5-year reimagine education plan that is going to change the world for thousands and thousands of students and we've got the right staff to do that um we just got to all be here. We all got to be here and we all got to be um um committed to serving one another
225and supporting one another in the toughest times, right? So, we talk about this notion of we've got to hold each other to the highest standards um in the good times and support each other in our lowest moments and the bad times. And so, um we're kind of in some of that uh valley right now. And this is an opportunity for us to rally together, to listen to one another, to treat each other like human beings, to talk about the stories that folks are experiencing, and to continue to be the model that we know that we can be for our kids and for our families. So, I really appreciate the conversation tonight. I know it's challenging and difficult. Um, but I uh I couldn't thank you enough. >> Thank you, everyone. exp.