January 6, 2026 DMPS Board Meeting & Work Session

001Heat up here. I would like to call the school board meeting for Tuesday, January 6th, 2026 for the De Moines School Board to order. Miss Rios, can you please take the role? >> Yes. Miss Alonso, >> here. >> Miss Compost, >> here. >> Mr. Dixs, >> here. Miss Hopkins >> here. >> Mr. Howell >> here. >> Miss Martanrono >> here. Dr. Mayberry Barry Mays >> 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? >> Motion from Campos. >> Alonso second. And I would like to um offer a friendly amendment to the agenda. Um Ryan, you wanted to are making a recommendation to pull item >> D7 um and table it until January our January

002uh our second meeting in January January 20th. Um, so with that, uh, Miss Campos, Miss Alonzo, would you accept that friendly amendment to table item D7 to January 20th? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Um, board members, please cast your votes. Pardon me. I think we Mr. Dixs. >> Yes, >> we have approval. 7 to zero. Next on the agenda is the public forum. Dr. Mayberry Mace. 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.reiosdmchools.org. The same speaking protocols apply to all individuals who wish to address the board. Speakers will be called individually and we

003ask that they state their name and zip code prior to providing comment. Guests of the board are encouraged to speaking to speak to matters relating to the programs, services, and operations of DMPS. Please remember that Iowa law prohibits us from discussing 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 gabbled out of order and asked to excuse themselves from the premises or escorted out by district security. As a reminder to the board and public, the board will not engage in a discussion with public forum speakers as it is our obligation to discuss

004only matters posted in the public agenda for the sake of transparency and opportunity afforded to all community stakeholders. Matters requiring attention will receive appropriate staff and/or board followup at a time after the meeting. Thanks for your participation and we appreciate your feedback and input. Miss Rios, do we have any speakers for public forum? >> Yes, we do. First up, I'd like to call Michael Farley. Good evening. Thank you. My name is Michael Farley. I live in South De Moine. I am a CCI member and a part of the public school strong team. We have been showing up to school board meetings to support DMPS students, teachers, staff, and the school board since the fall of 2024. First, let me offer congratulations to your new board president, the new superintendent, and the new members of the

005school board for 2026. You were given a strong endorsement to pursue re reimagine education DSM on election day. Everyone in this room as well as those listening at home, community members, city leaders, teachers, staff, and especially parents and students, help get this proposal on the ballot and across the finish line with overwhelming support. But there are many challenges ahead. The biggest of which in my view is education funding from the Iowa legislature. There is talk that the proposal for state supplemental aid in 2026 from the leadership and the governor is 0%. Also during interim between sessions there were changes translation cuts to speech pathology services provided under the Aeas in for 2026 without much public discussion or any legislative action and in a matter of weeks you will have work sessions and budget hearings for

006next year's budget. Unfortunately, in my view, again, those discussions will focus on where to cut and what to cut. There will be questions around can we keep all the teaching positions we now have, what staff changes must be made and or what programs will have to be downsized or eliminated. CCI and public school strong and your teachers and parents are counting on you to support fully funded public schools. Despite this opposition, Public School Strong has offered a resolution for your consideration and requested a hearing and a vote on the resolution that recommends a minimum 5% state supplemental aid funding for 2026 2027 budget and beyond. and the restoration of the income ga cap for private school vouchers and the phase out of the voucher program altogether because it is unsustainable. Iowa public education cannot provide

007the education our children deserve until this proposal becomes law. We need your support. We are prepared to put this resolution into bill form and lobby the legislature for any and all of its proposals to pass this year and to back candidates who will support it in the next election if we are not successful. And we want to start now. Last fall, this resolution was discussed with the previous board. It was favorably received generally, I must admit. and we were assured that our proposals could be worked into the De Moines public school 2026 legislative priorities. I looked up your legislative priorities for 2026 on the DMPS website yesterday and I saw only support for increased funding for expanded preschool for needy children. While that is a laudable goal, it is not enough. Legislators, citizens who voted

008for re-imagine DSM, and parents and students must have your explicit support for fully pun funded public education so their voices can be heard by legislators this session. I hope you will consider my comments and I thank you for the opportunity to address you. Thank you, >> Madam Chair. Those are all the speakers I have signed up. >> Thank you. The next item on our agenda is our district recognitions. Superintendent Smith, are there any recognitions for today? >> Uh good evening everyone and happy new year. Yes, there's our there are several recognitions actually. Um we've got a lot to celebrate this week. um student recognitions and academics, performing arts, and the skilled trades. And we're also welcoming the first class of 2026. So, first we have two National Merit semi-finalists. Congratulations to Roosevelt High School and

009Central Academy seniors, Gustaf uh Gustaf Gustapalini and Joseph Zambino. The award is based on performance on the PSAT, recognizing students in the top 0.5% within each state. Six outstanding student musicians were invited to the Iowa All-State Music Festival in late November. Jose Gaan, a junior at East High School who plays the tuba. Camden Lewis, a junior at Lincoln High School who plays the flute. Molly Swagger, a senior at Roosevelt High School who plays the violin. Savannah Song, a junior at Roosevelt who plays the violin. Jane Steeler, a sophomore from Lincoln who plays the violin. Violin is on. We are crushing violin. And Adeline Sudan, a senior at Roosevelt who plays the viola. Adeline has been invited to all state all four years of her high school career. Central Campus is once again leading the way

010in reimagining education and skilled trades. Their students are shining examples of the success of career and tech technical education programs. Congratulations to six central campus students who captured the top spots in electrical and advanced welding at the Associated Builders and Contractors of Iowa School Craft Competition. In the electrical category, Aiden Chug and Nay Ray took first place. Blaine Tedman and Jaden Jensen took second place. In the advanced welding category, Max Wardell won first place and Nolan Dardis took second place. We can't wait to create more opportunities like these as we continue the reimagining education journey and bring the community's vision to life. We also have great news from Options Academy. I'm proud to share that when we will soon have 111 new graduates. They are the first class of 2026. And I encourage everyone to

011attend the Options Academy commencement ceremony next Thursday night, January 15th, in the central campus auditorium at 6 p.m. Congratulations to our students and the amazing staff, administrators, and families who pave the way for student success in and out of the classroom every single day. And if you'd like to see what our students have been up to over the past year, our communication staff published more than 7,600 photos in 2025. Our New Year's Eve day, on New Year's Eve day, they added an album of favorites to the district website at dmsschools.org. Please go visit. >> Thank you. I think all of those deserve uh their own recognitions. Can we hear for our merit national merit scholars and our six allstate musicians, our central campus electricians, and of course our new graduates. Thank you so much. While

012we were on break, everyone was keeping busy. I love it. We will move on to the consent agenda. As a reminder to the public um and board, 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 discussion, deliberation, and determinations as deemed necessary. Miss Rios, do we have any speakers? >> None. >> Dr. Mayberry Mace, I believe that you have the consent motion excluding item D7. >> Correct. I move that the board approve the consent items in accordance with the recommended action for each item on the consent agenda, including bills previously authorized, certified, and approved for payment by the board secretary in the amount of 5,831,174.78. >> We have

013a motion. Is there a second? >> Campo second. >> We have a motion by Dr. Skyler Mayberry Mazize and a second by Anna Kempos. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Okay. Board members, please cast your votes. Mr. Dixs. >> Yes. >> The consent items are approved. 720. Next, we have one public hearing item E1, public hearing for CIP260007, Roosevelt High School um natitorium upgrade. The public hearing will come to order. Is there anyone wishing to speak to this item? Hearing no one, I'll close the public hearing. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? >> I recommend the board review the proposed plans and specifications prepared by BBS Architects and Engineers for the Nitorium upgrades at Roosevelt High School. Hold a public hearing and approve the plans. >> May I have

014a motion and a second to approve this item? >> Motion from campus. >> I don't check in. I also second you. >> Yes, we have a motion by Campos and a second by Alonzo. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Board members, please cast your votes. Mr. Dixs. >> Yes. >> The vote is approved 7 to zero. Now we have our other business items. First item F1 requests to the SBRC for MAG for special education administrative costs. Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? >> I recommend the board approve the request to the school board review committee for modified allowable growth in the amount of $2,390.76 for special education administrative costs associated with River Hills Consortium Program for the 2026 2027 school year. >> May I have a motion and a

015second to approve this item? >> Second. I have a motion by Alonzo and a second by Hopkins. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Board members, please cast your votes. Dixs. >> Yes. >> Miss Hopkins. >> Sorry. >> The vote is approved. 70. Next item F2, request to the SBC for maximum funding. Um, Superintendent Smith, would you please introduce the matter? I recommend the board approve the request to the school board review committee for maximum funding of $12,88,08 for dropout prevention. >> May I have a motion and a second to approve this item? >> I have a motion Mayberry May second. >> We have a motion by Howell and a second by Mayberry Mays. Is there any discussion or does anyone have any questions? Board members, please cast your votes. Dixs, >>

016yes. The vote is approved, 7 to zero. Next, we have two information only items. G1 is the list of paid bills and G2 the list of our new hires for your review. Um, and next items of privilege. I would like to ask if our board members would like to share anything. I'll share some. Well, first I want to say welcome back to everyone who's come back to 2026. Excited for us to continue uh an exciting year, a an uplifting and very proactive year. Um but I also want to acknowledge, you know, as a higher education professional, I always have to throw out the opportunity and the reminder for our students who are anticipating what's next after high school for them. So this is a call to all of our high school seniors. I want to

017uh mention the dream to teach scholarship. It is a relationship and partnership between De Mo public schools and Grand View University. For any DMPS student or graduate, it is a full tuition scholarship if you're interested in pursuing education as a future career. So, we need educators, we need smart people, and we need people of De Moines to remain in De Moines. So, if you are interested in that, please reach out to your counselors or staff at Graham View University because we are excited to retain and to continue growing our educators in this community. Thank you. Anyone else? >> I'll go. Um, so right before um the winter break started, I was able to go to a couple of uh my schools and visit with our a couple success workers and our community school coordinators. And

018I just want to reach out to everybody and tell them that they are doing a great job supporting our families, supporting our students. And I just want to thank you guys for all that you do for our community uh and our families. It could be something simple from uh a kid with no gloves to a parent that's needing to find a job. And uh it seems like I get a lot of reports saying that you guys are doing uh going over and beyond uh your job title for helping out our community. So I just want to take thanks uh to our community school coordinators and our success workers. >> Anyone else? >> I don't think this button works. Um, but I um I just want to say that I'm really excited about the work that

019we have ahead. Um, I was thinking about the group of people that we have at the table. Um, I am truly excited. Truly, truly excited. We have a lot of work to do. Um, and Mr. Mayberry May's dream to teach. Please everyone consider it. Truly, truly. That's all. Thank you. >> Thank you. Oh. All right, Superintendent Smith, do you have a report this evening? >> Um, no report, just a couple of um, uh, reminders, I think. Actually, I just want to lift up again, uh, next Thursday night, January 15th, 6 p.m., right here at Central Campus Auditorium. We will be celebrating 111 graduates for 2026 from the Options Academy. Um, also just want to um, thank uh, the student baker staff. Uh every week on Monday mornings the executive team gets together um and we

020meet at a at another school every single week. Uh this u yesterday, I guess that was just yesterday, wasn't it? Um we met at Studio Baker Elementary School. The staff is amazing. They're doing incredible things for kids and just want to lift up uh Principal Crook and that staff and for um all that they do. Um again they generously open their doors as we come in to descend upon uh that building for two and a half hours and we discuss district and school business. We walk classrooms, we talk to staff members, talk to students um just to make sure that um the things that we're doing at the central office level are contributing to and creating those spaces and those conditions for highquality teaching and learning. And so um we want to thank the staff

021again for all the things that they're doing there. Um we really saw some amazing things. Um, and so they they're they're definitely moving in the right direction. So, thank you for that. Also, just want to lift up for the community and for the staff that next Monday, January 12th, begins the 2026 legislative session. And so, um, it stands to be an incredibly busy session. And so, there's a lot of things that we need to discuss and stay in communication and conversation and dialogue about. And so, um, that is starting next Monday. >> Thank you for joining us this evening. We greatly appreciate you all. This meeting is adjourned at 5:50 p.m. We will now transition into our work session to discuss the budget and after the budget work session, we will have a presentation from

022the executive cabinet followed by a board exempt session. Um, so let's go ahead and transition directly into our work session, please. Mr. Aurora is making his way to the podium. So, as um Shashank is getting set up, so um tonight we're discussing sort of some strategic plan alignment. Um and so some very um specific investments as it relates to pillar five, communication and collaboration identified in our strategic plan. And so, um, there are, um, without question a number of contributors, um, and folks that, um, um, whose work is represented, um, in this particular, um, um, slideshow and deck, um, Joe Sturgis, Kaylee Becker, Phil Rder, and Amanda Lewis team. Um, a number of folks, uh, Cassandra Christensen, um, a number of folks have been a part of this. And so I just want to make

023sure that while they may not be necessarily at the podium, um they're definitely here to answer any questions that might come up specifically about those investments. Um but uh Shashank, it's all yours. Good evening. Yes. Thanks for acknowledging everyone who has really done a lot of heavy workload in putting this presentation together. So we will continue with the same format that we have had for the last few meetings where we'll talk about the context, the challenge, the choices and the impact on the choices that we have made. So today we're talking about the pillar five which is community and collaboration. Jan 28th we're going to talk about transformative talent and operational effectiveness. February 3rd will be on well-being and 17th will be high quality teaching and learning. Yeah. So that is the game plan as

024far as this thing goes. So DMPS is currently in year one of our plan and as we know that the plan was rolled out mid year. We do not have anything in the budget for FI26 as part of our strategic plan. The first year of the strategic plan actually will be FI27. We have started building on what the needs and asks and prioritization process which I will go through as we move forward through this decap. So as I mentioned the plan was launched mid year and FI26 is status quo as far as activity goes. there's no costing done and we aligning our funding with strategic priorities for FI27. So as we enter year two, the district is intentionally prioritizing and allocating resources that will advance the strategic plan and the investments that will directly support

025the student outcomes. The challenge is when the team sat down and discussed what is it that we truly need to invest in FI27, the need was $13.53 million and I will explain later on how we came across that amount. It's a fairly detailed working that the team had done. However, when we had discussed, we had said that we're going to allocate $2 million towards strategic plan in year one of implementation, which is FI27. The challenge that we have is we are already on the path to reduce $13.5 million in FI27. If we in which which has got the $2 million dialed in, in case we increase from $2 million to a higher number, we'll have to red increase the reductions and costs that that are already we are planning to do. Yeah. So that is

026something that we have to weigh with the pros and cons as we move forward. Can we increase it from $2 million? Yes. But it'll come at a cost of reducing cost somewhere else. So that is why we are basically limiting ourselves to $2 million over here in FI27. So what were the total asks? So we went through the prioritization process and the highquality teaching and learning was $5 million. Well-being $2 million, transformative talent $4.5 million or 4.3 operational effectiveness 1.3 and community and collaboration $8.82 million a total of $13.5 million. So, just want to highlight um for this particular slide um and is that the $13.53 million is representative of the strategic actions articulated just in FY27. That's not the 5-year strat plan. That's just FY27 to actually um invest in financially each of those

027actions. We're we're estimating 13.5 million in all actions. And so if we were to do that, then we would need to take that $13.5 million reduction and double it. We would need to go to 27 million at that point in time. Actually, yeah, higher than that. My math just got off. >> No, you're you're right. 27 million. >> Is it 27? Yeah, my math's so good. Math and math and violin. That's where I'm at. >> So So Matt basically mentioned what was the next slide, which keeps jumping. Yep. $2 million within the $13.5 million reduction. Prioritization is critical. We can go above $2 million, but that would need additional reductions. The other challenge is we have we all know about the federal funds. Our assumption for 27 is that the current federal funding remains in

028place. And as you are well aware, there's a lot of discussions going on on federal fundings. It could be eliminated, it could be reduced, it could be redesigned, it could be shifted, could go to block grants. So there's a lot of variability. But since we don't have any concrete information, we are sticking with the assumption that there's no change in federal funds for the time being. Some of it is being driven at the federal level and some of it is actually being driven at the state level, which is the block grants. So we have to make some choices and as we were making choices we were making choices based on student centered decisions and where to invest the limited resources to have the maximum student-based outcomes. So the process that we went through was between

029October and December a group of senior leaders, directors, coordinators, everyone identified what are the actions that we need to take in year two to achieve our strategic plan and what are the related costs with those actions. We don't have to go through this fine print but this is just to give you an idea the number of potential actions that were shortlisted in those meetings were all of these and my intention is not to go through it. So it was a fairly elaborate detailed discussion which the team did. To give you an example as we were going we did this calculation of costs for each of those different actions that we had highlighted in the previous slide. So this was a fairly detailed exercise. So if you see we saw we decided what the strategic actions

030are what the action uh steps are what is the cost if any related to staff or related to implementation. So in this particular example the cost was 42,000 we don't have to go into the details of these items. This is just an example. So December 17th, the full cabinet reviewed the strategic plan and developed the priority framework. How do we decide what is important and what needs to be done now? So this was the framework that was developed that for each of those five different pillars and we said what are the priority statements for each of these pillars and I don't want to go through each and every one of them. The deck deck was shared in advance. So hopefully you have gone through it. But this is what was done as far as the

031framework goes and what are the statements for each of those pillars and Matt and team please jump in if anyone feels that I'm missing on something. So December 19th, the executive cabinet used this priority framework to decide what are the actions to be funded in FY27. So there's a fairly detailed work that was done by the team. What were the considerations for the recommended actions? Are there any staffing needs? Are there any one-time costs that are needed to launch implemented initiative? Are there recurring costs? What is the operational capacity to implement and execute the work effectively? And the federal funding which may supplement some of the local costs. So the impact that we are talking about here is funding the strategic plan supports the progress towards meeting the goals and guardrails which were done by

032the board. Each pillar will includes this connection to goals and guardrails. This was the the path forward and we needed to advance the strategic priorities but also strengthen accountability and have a student focus as we are working on each of these pillars. So the one that we worked on was community and collaboration which was pillar five which basically says families and communities are essential partners in preparing our students for the world beyond our PK PK through 12 system and this will create opportunities for our students that will prepare them for employment enrollment or enlistment. So what are the current investments that we have in commun communications and community? We have six FTEEs in the communication department and two in philanthropy and community engagement. And as far as the school-based support goes, the 28 FTEES for

033community school coordinators and 32 BFLs or bilingual family layers. Also, we get a lot of support from the community. There's United Way. There is a donation towards the Jackson Montasureri which we have launched. Prairie Meadows has given over half a million dollars. Prairie Meadows again towards the North High School. Lincoln High School has given another $900,000. Google Fiber. So in totality, the donations or support that we have received from community is in the range of 2.5 to $3 million. Please stop me if there's any questions that the board has. >> I know. Um, so I know Perry Meadows and the United Way that's pretty continuous that we get that every year. Um, the amount might different, but what about is that Google Fiber? Is that like a one time thing? >> It is a new

034thing. I don't know whether it's going to be recurring. Neil, do you know any Sorry. >> So they've given us uh two years now. Last year it's 20,000. This year it's 25,000. Last year it was for family university. This year for an AI cohort for our teachers. So hopefully we'll increase over time. >> And then um you probably can't I don't know if you can answer it, but what is the AI cohort? What >> that's Neil? >> That's why we need the team. >> It's really it's not an AI cohort per se. It's we're it's a digital learning champion initiative where we're bringing a group of teachers from all levels and different subject areas together to to look at emerging technologies like AI but help us develop sort of practical application in the classroom as

035we look at a kind of rebuilding and reconstituting our our whole digital learning curriculum. This group's going to work with us kind of being the you know the the vanguard if you will testing and uh kind of innovating with us. So what that pays for is things like some specific training, some stipens for extra time u and that kind of stuff. >> Okay, >> thanks Neil. Thanks. >> So as far as the engagement in as from the communications team goes, we have a website, we have social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Instagram is becoming very active nowadays. Reimagine Education. We are very engaged with them and as you saw the outcome, 74% vote on the election night. Parents Square 99.1% of the families are contactable through that which is a great outcome. 74% of the families

036are engaged. I'm reading some of the key ones. E letters sent to almost 33.5,000 parents. 45 editions published. So a a lot of good communication is happening with the community partnership. We are trying to basically work on strategic alignment which is they're aligned with the school identified needs and district strategic goals. And the system and structure that we are putting in place is we want to track our partner engagement as well as have a launch a new volunteer management system. As you will see later on we do engage a lot of volunteers in in our district and I think it is next meeting where there would be more discussions on community and uh philanthropy. So I'm I'm not going to get too much into details in this meeting, but I just wanted to highlight that

037the district outreach, we have 135 officially vetted community partner partners, which is a huge group that we're talking about. And this is what I was talking about volunteerism to over 2,200 approved volunteers districtwide. And we have launched a new volunteer management system which is one central platform for all the 64 schools. And this was a ask both by management and the board because it was not a very coordinated effort. This provides more consistency, streamlined coordination and it's scalable as far as the infrastructure goes. So community and schools we have 27 community school coordinators serving 40 46 schools and some of the core functions are family engagement coordinating basic family needs for students and families clothing hygiene and things like that. And if you see the impact, we have 43 food pantries with 12,400 food pantry

038visits and 3,700 need visits since July. So this is huge need. The food insecurity is fairly significant. We received $300,000 in cash and inind donations to support students and family and we've had almost 160 family engagement nights districtwide. The BFLs are the bilingual family layer zones. The 31 of them they serve 46 schools. Their core functions are basically strengthen family engagement through adult literacy classes and family learning engagements. Reduce access barriers and connect families to essential supports whether it's housing, health care or others. And also improve student outcomes by strengthening attendance and engagement. And if you see the impact of the BFL group almost 2,300 families served, 46,000 4600 students registered. You have physical physicals, immunizations, eye exams, glasses provided, all those kinds of good good stuff which has happened for our students. Again the

039challenge ask 13.5. We are limiting ourselves in FI27 to $2 million. And let's talk about how we went about the process. So, community and collaboration, they had 13 asks and the total that they wanted was $821,000 and as part of the prioritization process that I had highlighted in the earlier slides, we went through that and we said we obviously cannot fund everything. So we we based on that prioritization we said what offers high returns opportunities that can be implemented easier low cost and all those kinds of things. And so the prioritization process create we kept the focus in mind was creating equitable opportunities for our families that must drive our investments. That was one of the things that we really looked into prioritizing. We said engaging outside partnerships to increase student outcomes which is part

040of our strategic plan and which is what we want to really achieve. So, our investments must drive student outcomes. Sir, >> sorry. Do you have a I don't see on here. Do you have a list of those 13 asks? >> It's not in this deck, but we do have that. >> Is that something that you can share with us? >> Sure. >> Just in an email or whatever. I would like to see >> what they are and how they how they would impact us. >> Sure. Absolutely. So as we were prioritizing our actions for communications the capability and marketing allocation we said we have to modernize our in-house communication structures and staffing. We based on the council of great city schools are currently second from bottom as far as staffing resources goes. So this is

041definitely an area that we need to invest in and we have to develop a long-term marketing strate strategy to strengthen our visibility. The other thing that we want to do as part of community and collaboration allocations is expand partnerships that increases student access to realworld learning and mentorship. And you will see this in the in the later side slides as we go through it. So modernizing communications and expanding marketing research, what does it entail? We have to align with with what larger districts are doing nationally and higher education models. We need to address some key staffing gaps which is related to the social media managers, writers, editors and things like that. We need to upgrade some of our tools, ensure consistent districtwide messaging. The other thing that we need to keep in mind is we

042need to increase visibility for both our students and district success stories across the platform so people rec recognize what exactly is happening within our district. One of the things I want to offer up is that um I believe we've had conversations um around an RFP and an evaluation services. And so I know that's part of actually helping to identify um ongoing needs. Um, this is um a play starter, this $450,000 investment because we need to have that evaluation um service um provided to us um by uh by a third party consultant so that we know if $450,000 is actually $450,000 or does that need to be a million? Does that need to be $700,000? So, there's still some opportunity there for some fluctuations. So, I do want to make sure that as we're talking about

043some of these investment dollars, those are not um yet, you know, etched in stone yet. Those are still movable um as we talk about the highest leverage priorities for our dollars that we're going to have moving forward. Thanks, Matt. So, coming on community and collaboration, we're talking about $27,000 investment, which is to expand real world learning and career exposure. We want to take our kids to career and trade exposure trips, regional family and student job fairs, financial literacy boot camps. These are some of the areas that we're talking about where we would spend $27,000. $14,000 would be on mentorship, family engagement, and the student transition. Basically, from middle to high school student transition, we want to build on existing mentorship. and at the $9,000 on systems accountability and sustainability. So basically we want to establish

044an ongoing monitoring system to track engagement, alignment and highquality partnerships. We want to set clear guidelines and protocols for engaging community partners. Continue the development of engagement dashboards. Continued use of parent square and volunteer management platforms support multilingual and cultural culturally relevant outreach. >> Yes. >> That look like you go back. >> Sure. >> What's the support multilingual and culturally relevant outreach look like? What would that Can you give me just a brief example of what that would entail? >> Sure. Yeah. So, we've had um a funer before um fund nights and weekends um weekend mornings for families um at all of our middle schools. We did this last year um just to kind of have these small boot camps. So, registration for school, it kind of just aligns with what's going on in the

045school year for our families. Uh so that would cover um we want to feed them when they come to us. Um we want to make sure they get their transportation. Sometimes um bringing in a partner, maybe they have a fee or something along those lines. So um just kind of that relevant outreach to get that out to families as well. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. So what is the impact? Basically we want to meet the goals and guardrails through the district cross district work cross departmental work to achieve the student outcomes and identify the right priorities that we need to invest our resources in. guardrail five which basically read this the superintendent shall not allow an environment that allows families and viable community partners to be excluded uninvited and unwelcome into the district activities and

046endeavors and our goal was to increase it from 82% in fall of 23 to 87 in fall in spring of 27 that that was guardrail A for guardrail B we still don't have the base data to really quantify and that is why there are a lot of X's and Y's over there versus percentages like guardrail 5A. So the next steps we have tal we have spoken about the community and collaboration which was pillar five and today Jan 20th will be transformative talent and operational effectiveness then well-being on Feb 3rd and high quality teaching and learning on Feb 17th. So that is what we have to cover and open to any questions, thoughts, comments. >> Thank you Shashank. I really appreciate the thoughtful approach and the focus on improving student outcomes at the core of the

047the work that um the team engaged in to get us to these priorities. I'll open it up to my colleagues for questions. I did have one question. Thank you, Shashank, as well. So, uh, given the board presentation schedule after Febru February 17th, should we expect a recommendation for the $13.5 million shortfall or is that something that the board is deciding completely? So I will have to take you back to the not the last presentation but the first presentation that we did where we basically said as far as our strategic plan investing and costing we are talking about it till February 17th and then after that till midappril if I remember correctly we'll have more detailed financials we'll have the board will have to set the property tax rates which needs to be done and approve

048the overall budget So yes, those things are going to happen. This was more aligned with the strategic goal costing and things like that. Matt, >> yeah, and just to add to that, I appreciate the question, Dr. Mayberry Mazize, and um ideally we'll know um SSA um at that time. Um we haven't in the last many years. Um and so um our modeling as as as if you might recall has been around 0%, 1%, and 2%. we continue to model um that SSA um in each of our sort of slide decks and so um you know where we tend to at least over the last several years trend towards a modeling of 2% I don't know that that is the modeling that we actually need to utilize moving forward um while we're advocating for a higher

049SSA moving you know um with our legislators. So >> thanks for the reminder. >> Absolutely. Any additional questions, board members? >> Madam Chair? >> Yes. >> Um, just more of a a comment uh than a question and and it is for Matt and Shashank. What efforts have been made to uh inquire about taking some of the services that are not essential services for a school district and seeing about partnerships from the county in particular uh where we could um seek some partnerships and some funding for those where that does not hit our budget. I I am all in favor of having uh services and resources for our families and for the community, but that is not what our tax dollars are for. That is not what the school district's tax dollars are for. We do

050have a public health department to do eye exams and to do well exams, and we have uh uh you know, we have county resources that can be helpful. we have partners in the community uh that could provide food pantries and the costs for those. And so I'm just I'm just wondering what efforts have been made to um to try to save all that we can given our budget position. >> Yeah, thanks for the question, Patrick. Um, and what I guess what I would offer up is is um we're actually in the position right now as we get more refined in our um our staffing and our budgetary process to know what the ask of our community partners and and from our our local government agencies would be moving forward. So when we know where um

051we need to actually prioritize the um the limited dollars that we have and how we would actually leverage those investments to take uh to impact our student outcomes, we actually can zero in on more of the the ask of our partners of where they can might be able to pick up areas that we can no longer continue to fund. Um, so the that's a longer one that answer to your question of is we actually haven't gone down the road of making those asks yet, but we're actually growing um every day closer to being in a position to say here's actually what we're going to take our dollars and utilize them for. Here's where we need your help and these are the gaps and the services that we need to continue to provide. How can you

052help us out? >> I appreciate the comment from board member Dixs. Um, what I would also offer, last year we had a joint meeting between the De Moines School Board and De Mo City Council and I would offer that possibly that may be something we consider again in addition to the Pulk County Board of Supervisors. U not only to to try and offload things. I I don't think that's the approach necessarily, but to also learn what types of services we're currently receiving or partnering on as organizations. >> I would champion that 247. I think that's a great idea. I will go ahead and um reach out to the city council and um the Pulk County supervisors to get that ball rolling. >> Patrick, did you have any additional questions or comments? >> Uh no, that's

053it. Thank you. Okay, >> board members, anything additional questions or comments? I just had one last comment around u just some of the figures in in the the presentation. Um obviously I don't work in this space but just seeing some of the work or some of the requests that we've received from the foundation the DMPS foundation um and going through that process and looking at some of these numbers. So, for example, um for the expanding the real world learn real world learning and career exposure, there's a $27,000 investment enablement that talks about um providing three structured visits per school per year. Uh I'm just curious where some of these numbers are coming from. That seems like a really really really undervalued number um for transportation for three visits per year. And I'm not sure I

054I I want to make sure we have accurate numbers as close to possible. and I know that's coming, but before um we're committing to something or having discussion about something that is significantly off base. So, uh that that was probably the main one that stuck out to me, just the cost of transportation and seeing one field trip cost nearly half of that in other requests. Um so, I guess that's more of a comment. It's not necessarily a question. >> We can look further into the details. Absolutely. Thanks. >> Thank you, Matt and team and Shashank and team for this presentation. I encourage uh community members to send the board any questions or inquiries that you have before our next meeting and as we continue to learn uh throughout this entire budget season uh before we

055have these tough decisions to make. So please stay engaged and learn with us and inquire on on behalf of the district. >> Um if I could just thank you so much. Um and just want to again thank the team. There's a lot of um a lot of detailed right. Um and I appreciate um the comment Dr. Mayberry Maze this notion like of $27,000 like we're talking about at this table and an almost $600 million budget. Right. And so, uh, but I what I'm trying to lift up is I appreciate the opportunity to speak with granularity, um, and some very specifics because these, um, specific investment dollars add up, right? When when we begin to bring it all together, um, and we talk about what is the what is the best use of our funds, the

056highest leverage use to impact our students and their educational experience. Um, that's ultimately what we're all after and what we're trying to get to. and it takes every single dollar to make that happen. And so I just want to continue to appreciate each of you for um allowing us to get very very granular while we're talking about um um a budget that actually is significantly larger than a $27,000 sort of trip. But um we will bring back actually the um the the figures that bring us to those totals so that we can get into that even more so. So thank you for that. >> Appreciate the details. Thank you. I would like to thank the entire team which was helping put the the budget deck together. Yeah. >> Thanks. >> Absolutely. >> All right. Um

057the time is now 6:26. Let's go ahead and take a uh brief uh break before we start our next work session which is a board and executive cabinet presentation. Let's go ahead and resume at 6:35. So, do I just have to have like a fat finger? >> Heavier finger. You have a heavier finger. >> Do you remember the total for you? >> I remember And I'm pushing it really hard. So I got to push it really hard. Like All right, the time is 6:35. We're going to go ahead and reconvene with our board and executive cabinet presentation. Um and just to let everyone know um the reason for this work session and some upcoming work sessions regarding the executive cabinet updates is um the the new board wanting to engage in a bit of learning

058around each of the departments in the district. So, this is going to be a little bit of a um new board member onboarding, existing board member update um presentation from each of our our big departments um and department leads in the district. This will then um board members will hear the presentations and then com we will compile lists of questions for the presenters to um have if necessary an even more in-depth conversation with those individuals at a later date. So this is just the start of our uh deep dive into the departments and Kayle's getting set up. We should probably wait for the superintendent as well. >> Yeah. Sorry. Do I have to click through these? Oh, okay. >> Hi. >> Okay. We did this like in a smaller setting last time. So, yeah. You

059want me to just go? >> Um, yeah. So, just real quick, just a framing just for um for everybody else also. So um um this is in response to just recognizing um the need to um sort of get reccalibrated and and oriented around um the at the central office level the departmental structures um sort of roles and responsibilities and and overall sort of primary functions. Um and so um tonight and just sort of we tried to connect the budget presentation and some of the investments um with the the presentation tonight in terms of structures. And so, um, Kayleie's going to, uh, kick off this series of, um, for the next several weeks of, um, providing some information around overall function and just roles, responsibilities, impact as we look at, you know, what is the connection

060to the strat plan, what is the connecting, uh, connection to the goals and guard rails. And so, um, Kaylee, thanks for leading it. >> Yeah, I get to be the guinea pig. Um the schedule uh like Matt said, I I'm going tonight and then um you'll see that some of the other departments are broken up over the next about month and a half. Um but tonight I will discuss community engagement and my top three priorities uh that I have been focusing in on. You'll notice that I have a few different functions in my job. Uh so all of my priorities are in different areas. So one of the priorities focuses in around um community engagement, partners, volunteerism. The other priority is philanthropy and then the other priority is uh my chief of staff role as

061well. So they're broken up into different areas and kind of correlate, kind of don't. So um we'll we'll just go through them and just let me know if you have any questions but uh as Shashank mentioned earlier philanthropy and community department whatever you want to call me. Um there are two employees me and about a year ago I uh graciously was gifted a community engagement assistant um to support with the data management the administrative functions. We have 130 community partners that we go through uh an entire process with every single year. There's just a lot of administrative um duties that come along with especially philanthropy with our new donor database as well. Uh so my number one priority that I have been really working on this last year or quarter um is around community engagement.

062The objective was to really enhance districtwide systems to better connect community partners and resources with school needs. So there have really been two main focus areas that I have been working on over the last few months. Uh the first one is the district-wide volunteer system. Uh it is actually live now on the DMPS website if you go to community engagement. So, this is our first ever district-wide volunteer system. It has been really ad hoc up until this point of schools and community and school coordinators doing a wonderful job of engaging volunteers, but when you look at the data, um there are some schools that have hundreds of volunteers and some have one to five. Um, and that's not anyone's fault in our staff, but it really shows the inequity amongst um, our volunteers, mostly because

063they haven't been given the opportunity to see what different volunteer opportunities there are in other schools. That's what I believe anyway. The community just doesn't know what we need because we haven't told them what we need. So really this district-wide volunteer system um it's called Galaxy Digital. We went through an RFP process for it. Uh it really replaces kind of that like school by school process and allows for community members to actually see volunteer opportunities outright. So there if you go to the system on the left-hand side you can click any school. They're organized by specific school or district-wide program. Uh and then the schools themselves they we've already gone through kind of a process of who puts in the volunteer system or the volunteer opportunity and then um community members can actually view the

064opportunities without having an approved profile. You have to have an approved profile, go through our background check and all all of that jazz um to actually sign up for the opportunity, but you can view it um without the approval. We did this for a few reasons um because we really want community members who reach out and say, "What can we do?" We want them to go to the the site and see that they can go to an elementary school and help at the food pantry and maybe hopefully get them excited about the opportunities that we have across the district. So, um and maybe even in other schools too. So, uh >> ask where is this on the website? So under community engagement um at the top very top of DMPS website and then you scroll

065down and it says volunteer and then there there should be two links. So um view volunteer opportunities. Yep. And then if you just click in there you can go to the dashboard opportunities and then see all of the different um opportunities there are to volunteer. Yeah. Um overall this really improves the visibility of school needs out to businesses. Hopefully, I mean, you can copy paste the link, send it out to businesses. Um, I know I've talked to a few comm community and school coordinators that said they've actually had a few new volunteers show up to their school. Um, because now you can actually see the opportunities from all other schools. Um, so we've been really working on that. Um, the last few months it's been it's been a lot, but it finally is really integrated

066and hopefully helping. Um, >> something real quick. Sorry. >> Yeah. Um going on this, is this something that the schools contact your department and then they add it into the you guys add it in or the school is able to go in and say >> every school has a program manager. Okay. >> Um yes. So every school um principal, AP, um office manager, community and school coordinator, essentially pretty much their support team has access to be a program manager in the system. So they can add their own opportunities and edit as they see fit. >> Do you know what the percentage of the schools that are on their >> business? All of them. >> Yes. All of them. We have fully transitioned. Um we were using uh applicant tracking. It wasn't a volunteer system. Um

067and so we have fully transitioned out of that and we are fully into Galaxy Digital now. And then is this also I'm sorry. Is this also a way that the school could keep track of their volunteers or people that come in and help? >> Yeah. Yeah, that's um the best part about it is we can actually track hours and um volunteer recognitions and anniversaries and you can pull all sorts of reports. Um schools can see you know who comes in and who comes out. Um it is very handy and very nice and we can actually utilize this um that's kind of the plan to get this integrated and get people's muscles built around it and then um start having those recognition opportunities for our volunteers because we >> we just don't have any district-wide opportunities.

068>> And this will be a really good opportunity for our seniors wanting to get silver hours this year to >> jump on here and and do it. That's good. >> Yep. Um, another uh district-wide system that I have been working on, not alone, uh, Burg Shoemaker and Demarco Lowry have also really poured a lot of hours, um, into the community needs dashboard. Um, so what the community needs dashboard is, uh, it, and I have a few photos of it here and a few slides and I can show you. Um it is just a view of all of the specific needs of every single school um that the support teams in the schools identify. Um, so it will start actually tracking the needs in every single school and roll up data into um a district-wide dashboard

069into Tableau that we're building right now um that shows the top 10 specific needs of schools. And this is based on what the support team sees, what teachers see, and then um student support tickets that parents actually put in themselves. Okay. Um, progress on priority one. So, that's just kind of what I've been working on. Progress on priority one. So, a few things that um I have been doing uh over the priority one is schools are actively posting volunteer system uh within the system. The volunteer system office hours. Um we did hold office hours for anyone in the district to join over teams. We had multiple sessions so people um had the opportunity to join um just ask any Q&A. I mean with any new system there's going to be bumps in the road. Uh

070so those were good. We did go over a few different um questions that people had and we've really been just taking them as they come in. Um and then building staff are transitioning away from kind of that informal or siloed process and going into and adopting this new system in their schools. uh standardize volunteer workflow across schools. We've been working with the community school coordinators and um support teams to really establish uh role clarity and whose responsibility it is to input the uh opportunities um whose responsibility it is to um oversee kind of the the systems uh program at at the school. Um, and then we also knew that there were going to be bumps in the road with a new system. So, we established a volunteer email that we have on the website that

071anyone can send feedback to. Um, so that's anyone in the community using it, the volunteers that have questions, um, concerns or just general feedback if they want to send us anything that is on the website as well. So, we got that established and on there. Um, and then I already kind of went over the improved visibility into volunteer access, volunteer recognition opportunities. It's going to be so exciting that we can actually recognize anniversaries of volunteers and have districtwide volunteer um recognition opportunities. And then um right now also working on some training materials, FAQs, things like that for the new system um to put out on the the website um on De Mo public schools. Uh looking at progress on the community needs dashboard. Um this has been a huge project that has taken a lot

072of time and effort. Um we are currently really building that muscle within the support teams in the schools um to come together. So essentially the support teams come together once a month. Um they were already all actually tracking their own data of what specific needs they were meeting in their schools. This tool actually just brings it all together. Um you know BFLs had their own uh Excel doc and success had their own but nobody was actually ever putting it together. Um so that's what this tool is. So we're still building that muscle to really get them to come together. Um, and then getting those uh clear like clear guidance on how to identify and prioritize these specific needs. Like Anna said earlier, our cse and all of our support teams are wonderful and they do

073everything they possibly can to meet every need for all of our students and families. Um, I skipped over one, sorry, because it kind of didn't fit in. And then um within the specific needs of the dashboard actually uh we are working on um parent square portals. So one of the the questions that we have gotten is okay well you've identified the needs what are you going to do with them? Uh what what are you going to do with that information? Um so one of the things that we have set up is um parent square uh community portals that actually are open to the public and anyone in the community can join. So they are based on feeder pattern and um every feeder pattern will have all of their specific community partners that are in their

074feeder pattern and then again any parents any community members they can actually openly join this and we'll be posting that aggregate data of specific needs. it won't call anyone out. Um but uh it'll it'll show the specific needs of every school and then the district as well. So then we're really hoping that since that's a public um communication channel, we can invite businesses and community members to join that. Um because that's exactly how you can help the schools if they need specific donations or anything uh any specific needs that someone can help with. So >> we're working on that right now. Oh, I was just gonna ask, is it up and running? >> Yes, it is actually. Um, I just asked Amanda if Lewis if she's here. Um, she just put it on the website,

075I believe, today. >> so the how to join it is on our website currently. >> Mhm. Okay. >> There's a link and all you have to do is put your name, email, and then click which feeder pattern you'd like to join, and then you'll get notifications and just see when we post in there. So, we'll be posting once a month. >> Okay. Kayleie, are the needs like physical items? And maybe you're getting to it, so I was trying to wait patiently, but I got anxious. >> Are these like physical items like winter wear or is it needs like they need someone to help >> paint a wall or something? I mean, >> so it's it's across the board. Um, so I just changed the the slide here. This is uh a view of what a

076school or support team would see. We got a lot of feedback. We worked with the community and school coordinator leads. We've met with every support team lead um and manager to work through the specific needs and definitions um of what should be on here. Um and as I said, we're working through the kinks of it still. I'm sure we're missing something and we'll we'll have to add it in there or edit. But we do have definitions of all of these specific. So you say paint a wall, that would be under volunteers. Um, we're asking community and school coordinators and support teams to really be specific in the notes section of the specific needs of what they're really looking for. Um, but as you'll see, uh, if they do actually have that need satisfied in their

077school, we do ask them to put what community partner currently um, meets that need in their school. So, we can also start tracking kind of those evaluations on those community partners too on who's doing what. >> Can I ask a question as well? Mhm. >> So, for example, under mental health, it says, "OP therapist left in August. Uh, so and so said a new one will start in two weeks. Have not heard more or met new therapist." That doesn't feel like a need that the community can fill. Or are you asking people for financial donations to provide money to hire a new therapist >> for which one? For mental health. >> It just says under health and wellness services, education, mental health. So that is one that we would likely ask a community partner or

078a new potential new community partner to come into the specific school. Um so we >> that's where the team is looking at the needs finding a partner that could potentially support it versus a community member logging on to see that they need new winter coats. >> Yeah. >> But but they're all in this portal. >> Yep. >> Both options. >> Okay. >> Yep. They're all in this portal. >> Can I >> Yeah. Last question on u this is both portals and dashboards are awesome. They're great. Um are we building these? When you say we're building this, we're putting out is this all in house? Who's who's building this? >> Bridget Shoemaker is the best and she has built all of this. Um she's on our data team. >> Awesome. Yes. Matt. >> Good. >> He

079said no. >> Yeah. Okay. Good. Oh, that worked that time. >> So, this entire thing is for DMPS >> only. >> Yes. >> Not public. >> No. >> So, not for parents, not for families, not >> the So, the dashboard that you're looking at right now, um, this is internal. Um, so all of this information is pulled is going to be pulled into a Tableau report that is also internal for DMPS employees. So what the community will then see is the aggregate data of every school or feeder pattern that we post into parent square. But no, the community will not see this specific page. >> Okay, got it. Mhm. >> Were you asking about community members >> identifying a need? >> Yeah. >> I think the identification of is that coming from you mentioned teachers

080and administrators and >> Yeah. >> So if I were a parent and I had a need, >> am I responsible for letting the the teacher know so that it can be added to this? >> Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. I didn't understand. Um yeah, so we have student support tickets uh that every school uh utilizes that uh parents can put in. So you can put in my student needs a winter coat and that actually then routes to the support team at the school and they get that ticket. And we actually added comments in there that um you have to you know put in who who or what donation had um satisfied that specific need before you close it out. So now we actually have a paper trail of who is doing that. >> So this in

081theory sounds great to me and it's >> sounds beautiful in practice. Um I'm wondering how families how everyone every parent >> uh can understand that they can submit a ticket. >> Yeah. >> Because they have a need. How do we how have we explained that to families or how have we shared that information to families or with families? >> I believe that um I do know that the support tickets used to pop up on our website, right, Phil? >> Yeah, when you would go to our website, it would automatically actually pop up. Um, and I know all of the support teams also have it in their um, email uh, signatures for the support tickets. I think that's one thing we could be better about is we're kind of reviving the support tickets right now. Um

082they were I believe a co >> it started in CO and to your point um Miss Alonso it um this allows us to be responsive to the need because we were asked for a lot of things that we actually didn't track and follow up on at a systems level. >> This actually allows us to be accountable to and responsive to those asks um moving forward. So, um the opportunity is to advance further communication through parent square and some of our other sort of resources um to all of our families >> the process for ticket submission and who to actually connect with the school to help do that. Mhm. Yeah. I think it, you know, I think of um just understanding what a ticket is and if I were a parent >> who, you know, maybe

083was experiencing a need, >> the hope that that would bring to me, knowing that I have someone that I can talk to. >> Yeah. >> Let them know what I'm in need of and >> having someone out there that might be able to meet that need. >> Yeah. Um, so I think it would be really important for families, for parents to understand what a ticket is, how you navigate that. Um, because I I don't know that we do the best. >> Definitely. >> We don't actually I love what you're what you're lifting up because the what what the data actually allows us to know is where are the tickets coming from, which school, and if we're not seeing tickets, why not? And if we are, where are we seeing them from? >> Right? what you

084know um what are the needs right so that very specific sort of data set around saying if if this school hasn't submitted a ticket in five days >> every other school has submitted 35 like something's going on like we need to see what's happening there right so it actually allows us to target our communications moving forward with families so um thanks again for for lifting that up that's a real opportunity for us moving forward >> does it identify who's entering the ticket so if it's the parent versus the teacher seeing at recess that >> a child doesn't have the right clothing. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. There's um parent you choose you know who you are. Yeah. >> Yeah. I wonder also with the schools with the community >> the nurses or >> um the front

085office people like as a parent if I need something or if I need help or you know I go to them. Those are the first people that I see. So, I'm thinking kind of like in that for Maria, like the staff are the ones that are putting the tickets more than the parents. >> So, that is um that's one thing we've talked about with all of the support team leads is a lot of our families will trust their cse or trust their BFL more than putting in a ticket on the website. and they'll and that's where a lot of um our support teams have seen their the needs coming from is just families just approaching them outright. Uh and they've been tracking that like I said kind of in their own areas. And so the

086support tickets are just really people putting those in. Um, as long as the support teams are continuing to track those families coming to them, and then pulling it together, putting it in here, then we'll use the tickets for people just putting that putting that through. Um, if they feel comfortable doing, they have either option is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, just a roundabout way of saying it. >> One last thing. How difficult is it? >> It's a Qualrix ticket. Um, so it's qu a qualrix ticket just like a very small survey. Uh, you go in, you click um who you are, just put a description of what your specific need is and then it's I think three to four questions and then you submit it. >> I just a quick comment. I I really

087appreciate this community needs assessment and I I think it even goes to a conversation we were having earlier about the need for a conversation with our other um civic partners like the city of de west or de mo and um the pulp county supervisors because I think oftentimes people think that as a public school our only responsibility is to educate and while that is the focus there's so many other needs that are connected to that and correlated with that that it can't just be the sole focus there. There's just too many other things that are at need right now. So, I appreciate you doing that, showing that the work that's being done is beyond just the education and disseminating of knowledge in our schools. >> Yeah, I appreciate that. And that's actually how this all

088came about. Um the background is came from Community Partners. When I um when I got community partners, I recognized that we were community partners would come to us and we would just push them on to every 64 of our schools and say, "Good luck calling the principles and getting a meeting." And um I said, "Why wouldn't we do the reverse of actually seeing a need in a school and calling that community partner to meet the need?" So, we're kind of backing it up, backing up our process. Um, and this will allow us to identify huge gaps in community partner areas that we don't have right now. And we can start actively recruiting businesses and community partners to come in and fill these uh these gaps that we're seeing districtwide. Okay. Um this is just a

089snapshot of what the uh aggregate data would look like. Um I mean you can kind of play with it and I can send you the link as well. Um if yeah you all have DM schools so you can see it. Um this is just you can filter it by feeder, you can filter it by grade level, needs by category, um by fa feeder pattern, by type. Um again this is being built in a Tableau report as well. So, um we will then have that actively outside of an Excel sheet. It'll be very nice. Um moving on to priority two. Uh so I also oversee philanthropy for the district. Uh a few of the things that I have been working on in this area is establishing a donor database. Um so this has been a long

090time coming. We've been working with um Microsoft um to establish a donor database and build one out um because we have never had one. We've never actually even tracked our um donors or really recognized them at all. So, this is really going to help us identify the consistent donations that we have and steward our donors um in the future. So, right now we are actually wrapping up that project. Um, and grants are also going to be in there. We're wrapping up that project as we speak. Um, and we are connecting connecting it to Tableau. So, we can now pull reports within minutes of what a specific company has given to De Mo Public Schools, you know, in whatever filters you would like that. Um, I know that also ca kind of came from last year.

091um our grant writer spent a whole day write going through all the grants that um we had had and pulling them and creating a beautiful report and I was like why don't we just have a donor database um to actually just pull within a minute of um the requests. So we've been working on that a lot. We have weekly uh meetings with Microsoft for that. So within that donor database, it's a just a unified platform. Um you'll be able to see the donations that we receive, the inind donations we receive, and then um the fundraising opportunities that are happening within the district. So we ask schools to input their fundraising initiatives. Um, this is so we know what's happening in the district. We know what fundraisers are happening. And then eventually we're also wanting to

092put that actually um into some sort of calendar um so the community can then see all of our fundraising initiatives happening within the district. Um the other priority I've been working on within this space is um using that needs level data that we just went through to really guide that philanthropic investment area. Um, so we're really going to look and dive deep into um what specific gaps that we're seeing uh in within the community partner area, but then also how can we leverage that within the philanthropic world um for these large grants and these donors that want to give to us because a lot of people again say they they want to help us, they just don't know how to. Well, this is a ne a data um databased philanthropic investment that they can make

093into DMPS. Um >> can I ask a quick question? Yeah. >> So like on Shashank's previous slides, he talked about $900,000 from Prairie Meadows that went to pay for turfs at different schools. >> Yep. >> Do does DMPS approach them and ask for those or did they say, "Hey, we have this money. We want the turfs to be created, so this is where we're going to put it." So, we did that as a legacy grant last year. Um, so Perry Meadows is very generous to us and last year we put in a legacy grant for a million dollars um because East and Roosevelt had already um received money um through their uh volunteer organizations for their turf fields and then we had three high schools that did not have them. So, we approached Prairie Meadows.

094Yeah, we approached Prairie Meadows to kind of close the close the loop on that specific 900,000 and then three 300,000 of that went to each school. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Um and then I also help with the DMPS Foundation. So helping with uh DMPS Foundation um and partnering with them on their annual dinner which is coming up April 16th at the Iowa Event Center Junior Ballroom. Um go to dmpsfoundation.org. work to buy a table. Um we are fundraising to our $250,000 fundraising goal for the spring dinner. Last year we were around 150 150,000. So um really hoping to up the ante this year. Um, and then really been helping the DMPS Foundation and their wonderful board um, align kind of that event messaging, help them guide sponsorships and then communicate out new DMPS

095Foundation fundraising priorities which we just um, established with a consultant a few months ago. So um we've really been kind of organizing and laying the foundation of the foundation um so we can further fund raise um for DMPS. Okay. Uh progress and priority priority 2 philanthropy. So as I said Tableau reports are being built and connected um to the donor database. Uh, I believe we're actually going to wrap up hopefully next week with the building of the database because we had to add grants. It was a whole thing. Um, but now we're going to um have Tableau reports so we can then pull those and have those available for staff to be pulling um donations at their building and then obviously districtwide as well. And then DMPS Foundation Dinner uh assisting in actively fundraising for

096the dinner to meet that $250,000. And then um now that DMPS Foundation has gone through fundraising priorities um actively searching for hopefully a staff member for them as well and really helping on those different committees. Uh I just wanted to put in a few philanthropy wins. Um I've been here almost two years and um in the philanthropy uh area we have raised over $2.7 million. Um that's just some of the examples of the larger donations we have gotten with that number. Um that doesn't include the smaller ones as well. And with that, I'm not trying to brag. I'm just saying the community loves us and that means that we can do so much more than $2.7 million in two years. Um my number three priority chief of staff. So the chief of staff portion I

097really help to guide and assist executive and tactical cabinet agendas. Um so we have executive cabinet weekly and um tactical cabinet about bi-weekly twice a month. Um so I help really drive uh those meetings and agendas and groups. And then I also help in the strategic plan. um work as well. So, as Matt said earlier, Joe and I have really been helping with the budget costing. We've been putting all of that together. Um we meet with our consultants every other week um and really just going through prioritiz prioritization of the strategic plan actions um that are going into year two. So progress on that um coordination of tactical cabinets, we have to redo the tactical cabinet agendas and framework. Um after the strategic plan prioritization and budget costing um the coordinator coordination of executive cabinet,

098I assist in ensuring executive cabinet stays present in schools weekly as Matt actually said today. Um so we go to schools weekly. Um, we spend about a fourth of our time with school leaders and students visiting classrooms, um, and setting all of that up. And then obviously the cabinet agenda, follow-up, school leader action items, things like that. And then the strategic plan, um, assisting in all of it, but mostly prior prioritizing um, year two. And I really take a lot of the lead on um, priority 5 as well. Um some of the challenges we've seen in philanthropy specifically is uh shifting from that kind of ad hoc fundraising um all over the place um to really looking at making strategic asks and investments into DMPS um so we can make systemwide changes. Um, so we're

099still working on that um throughout the the district. Uh, and then balancing kind of those donor interests with school identified needs. Not everything, you know, donors want to fund. Um, so shifting around what the district funds versus what we can get get from donors. Um, has been a slight challenge as well. um looking at the chief of staff, coordinating strategic priorities across the district, um making sure that all employees across the district know um how they fit into the strategic plan and because everyone does in some way or another um and really how it affects them and their work specifically choices um transpar transparency of community needs. I'm going to be honest, I don't remember what that choice was. Um, but strategic plan priorities for year two. Um, that was a choice that we will

100make within the budget costing that we presented to you today. And then the impact, I've kind of gone over all of these. um really the volunteer system will increase access to volunteer opportunities for the community and really clear the pathway and hopefully raise our volunteer numbers in those specific schools that don't have those um th those numbers. We'd like to see in the community engagement and needs dashboard. really stronger alignment between school identified needs and community resources and hopefully really bringing more partners on board and identifying what specific gaps. um we can intent and we can intentionally go after or ask community partners to come in and help um DMPS and then chief of staff improved alignment between executive and tactical cabinet resulting in clearer priorities for the strategic plan and execution and then philanthropy

101of course um increasing our investments just overall in the DMPS foundation and of course the DMPS in general um needs from the team just really accountability measures put in place for not even just for tactical cabinet for strategic plan across the board. Um really just looking at how everyone fits into the plan and um what that means for our day-to-day work within all teams across the board. Um and then the last two really just grace as we navigate a new system. um we had some bumps within the volunteer system when it first um got implemented right before Thanksgiving, but we're we're navigating and we're getting through it. And I think we've we've really um gotten through a lot of ka or worked through through some kinks with the volunteer system, but just really grace as

102we're working through the volunteer system, but also the um community needs dashboard because we're really still building that muscle with a lot of our teams within the schools to have accurate data and get all of that in in time. >> I believe that's all I had. >> Thanks, Kaylee. Okay. Well, >> board members, additional questions. >> Um, I have more of a comment. So, I just now signed up to be a volunteer. >> Amazing. I love it. >> But I've been going through this website and I think we all should look at it cuz it's done really well. Like, it's easy to maneuver. The schools are on there with the need and you just click um looking on there. there's something that needs organization for um helping a couple schools with their uh clothing closets

103like organizing that to lunch duty to helping organize uh the libraries and um a couple different things. So, I think it's really really >> well done and easy to maneuver for everybody. Um, one thing I'm going to ask. Yeah. >> Um, and I didn't see it on here, but I wonder >> if we could possibly like change the language. >> Um, for our multi- uh language families. >> Yeah. >> Um, I don't know if that's like an extra prop or or how we like the Google Translate how it automatically does it. >> It automatically does it. Yeah. Um, >> it automatically does it for any language that's on Google Translate, I believe. >> Yeah. >> Uh, and then honestly, let's get it out to the community. We need to start talking about it. But I

104think it's really done really, really well. >> Thank you. >> I would echo those comments. I would also add, I'm surprised you didn't give yourself a shout out. you and Amanda Lewis did a really good job on the recent I don't know if it was the most recent but a recent um become Here project podcast >> um where you work you uh met with principal financial group and talked about um not only opportunities to engage in the community as a organization but also as an individual. So, for those of you who are listening today, if you are bored during lunch or you're excited while you're driving to work and you don't want to listen to a board meeting, certainly listen to the podcast where they actually talk about different ways that the community is engaging

105in our schools. So, thank you. >> Principal Financial is amazing. They go into Garten once a month and read the students. So, we need more of them. >> All right, board members, if you have additional questions, please go ahead and email. >> Hey, Kim. >> Oh, yes. >> Sorry. Sorry. Right. It's easy to forget about me. I was just waiting uh if anybody else had comments. Um Kaylee, how do we um f first of all, the work that you've done in the last couple of years on this in particular uh has just been amazing. Uh there is so much here and it is really one of the things that when we talk about a tight budget, the community showing up for us is a way for us to uh to help alleviate some of our

106resource issues uh with just people from the community. Um so thank you for that and and just letting people know where they can donate. You never know where those will come from. We have to tell them that we need it. Um and uh you never know where you'll find a a DMPS alum. How can we as a board amplify the information that you are gathering? And and I I'm I I would like to do this in a way that does not add to things for you to do, but adds to things for us to do. And so I wonder if the communications team, for instance, could put together a short deck for us to go out to breakfast clubs and retirement communities and places where we can talk about this new system and opportunities for

107people to um to volunteer. I'd be happy, and I'm sure my board colleagues would be happy to do that um when we're given the opportunity to do it. But we need the resource uh and the deck to go through to show people how uh and and to get them on uh to the system. And then maybe Matt in our in our board communications, is there a way to maybe just pull a couple of pieces of data from the volunteer um needs so that either particular board members in particular districts or the atlarge members can amplify some of those on our social media so that we can get it out to our network. What are the needs? Is there someone out there? You know, and it doesn't have to be uh fancy. it just can be

108this is a need we have and if anybody's looking for an opportunity to help here's the link to go do it. Um so I wonder if we can be an amplifier for some of the work that you're doing. It's great that our community will know about this now the broader community I think also would love to have an opportunity to um to help out. So just a couple of thoughts a great >> 100% Patrick yeah thanks I can certainly work with the team to include some of those things in your weekly updates. Great. >> That's a great idea. >> Wonderful. Love it. Thank you. >> Great job, Kaylee. Great job, Kaylee and team. Thank y'all. >> And um so what I was going to uh ask is that board members, if you have additional questions,

109please email those to Matt and your board leadership team so that we can identify if we need to have additional time with Kaylee in the future or if um this information is enough for us um for now. Okay. All right. Thank you, Kaylee. Thank you, Matt. We are going to transition into our exempt session. So, we do have to clear the room in order for the board to go into that session. It is now 7:20. Let's go ahead and start our exempt session at 7:25, please. >> This is our window to get food. >> Go get your food. >> Good. Right. >> Right.